> The Chase
>  by kudzuhaiku
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky Bitters ran for his life, pursued by the stuff of nightmares. His barrel heaved, his lungs burned, and his legs felt wobbly and weak, and still he ran, his pursuer hot on his heels. Bucky leaped over a fence, barely clearing the top rail with his barrel, scraping a rear knee over the rail as his front hooves drove down towards the earth. He could hear some ponies encouraging him to run faster, other ponies were telling him to stop running and face the music. 

Bucky Bitters would not stop running. 

No way. 

He was young and had his whole life before him. 

If he stopped running, life as he knew it would end. 

So he ran, digging deep, trying to find the strength to keep going. 

As he ran, part of his brain pondered the events leading up to this terrible mess, this confusing jumble of events that made no sense. It had been an accident, a chance encounter, nothing more, something that could have happened to anypony. 

He had stopped by work to pick up his weekly pay, not actually on the clock today, with the hopes that he could spend his bits purchasing what he needed for his real passion, brewing beer. He had bloomed late in life, his cutie mark not appearing until he was an adult, taking his first sip of fine well brewed beer and falling in love, hops appearing on his backside mere moments after that first sip. So he had gone to purchase supplies, little things he needed, he had made some idle chit chat in the supply store, and then he had been on his way, eager to get a start on his hobby. 

Only things had not gone as planned. 

He came out of the supply store, his saddlebags now full of supplies, turned to the left, not paying attention to where he was going, and then he had bumped into her. His dogged pursuer. They had bumped snoots together rather forcefully, coming together with a thud, both of them toppling over and landing on their backsides with a thump. He had worried for a moment that he had hurt her quite severely, and it took him several moments to remember that her eyes were always like that. The two had sat for several minutes looking at one another, at least, he thought she was looking at him, and Bucky, being the gentle sort that he was, had reached out and gently touched her cheek and inquired if she was okay. 

But when he had touched her, her cheeks had ignited with a fiery red glow, her eyes grew glassy and bright, her ears swiveled forward, and she let out a strange giggling moan, a sound that haunted Bucky even now, as he was running for his life. 

The chase had started several seconds later, moments after Bucky had wormed free of the pegasus’ powerful embrace. 

Pegasi were brutes, Bucky Bitters knew this, and they did not willingly let go of their prizes or their fancies, and Bucky knew now that she fancied him. He knew it as he struggled free of her giggling love drunk embrace in front of the store, not long after they had bumped into one another. 

For some ponies, all it took was a simple bump of noses or just the meeting of the eyes, and then, life was over. Biological imperatives took over. Bucky’s nose had told him that the mare had more than a passing interest in him. Pheromones were terrible things, and Bucky hated them. They denied reason, ignored logic, and were filled with base biological prompts that made keeping your intellectual senses difficult. 

Which was exactly why the grey mailmare was chasing the tan unicorn through Ponyville, giggling madly, pleading with him to stop so they could talk, begging him to snoot-bump with her one more time. She was clearly a slave to her brutish biology. 

“Oh please stop!” pleaded Derpy, her wings flapping, trying to catch the fleeing unicorn. 

Bucky Bitters did not reply. He couldn’t spare the breath. He turned sharply, regained his balance, and then leaped over the flower stall of a mare named Roseluck. 

“Buy some roses for your love?” shouted Roseluck hopefully, watching the hunted unicorn running away, Derpy in hot pursuit. 

“Yeah, buy me some roses!” begged Derpy, nearly colliding into a building as she flew after Bucky, her forelegs wrapped around her own barrel and hugging herself tightly, her tail swishing from side to side as she flew. 

Other pegasi were joining the chase now, cheering and laughing, encouraging Derpy to fly faster, swooping down over Bucky and taunting him mercilessly. The brutish pegasi had mobbed together to bully him into submission, all of them working together to harass him as he tried to escape Derpy’s clutches. 

Pegasi really were brutes. 

Bucky ran even faster, his fear flogging his limbs into previously unknown levels of performance. Love between unicorns was simple and easy. A little intellectual conversation, a mention of your reading list, perhaps some talk of magical theory, and life was good. Pheromones be damned. There were magical spells that could rid you of such distractions, allowing you to keep your senses and behave like a well-bred and proper pony, not some sex starved brute. 

Love between pegasi involved bruises, or so Bucky had heard. 

Derpy had caught him once during their chase already, sweeping him into a near bone shattering hug, squeezing him tightly, trying to whisper sweet words into his ear in between her heaving giggles, her forelegs compressing his ribs almost to the point of breaking. He had squirmed free by sheer luck, falling almost ten feet, and had hit the ground running, thankfully not breaking anything. 

Bucky knew that if she caught him again, she would fly away with him, and he would let her, not wanting to plunge to his own death if dropped from a great height.

Pegasi were brutes like that, snatching you up in their clutches, and taking your life hostage to their mercy as they flew away. 



 

Derpy Hooves flew determinedly towards the fleeing unicorn. He was fast, but Derpy had the advantage with her wings. The unicorn would tire eventually, and then they could talk. And maybe snoot-bump. Playing hard to get was clearly an invitation, so the unicorn must want to be caught. Derpy obliged, it had been a long while since she had played this game. 

She had bumped into him accidentally, enjoying her day off, out doing a little shopping, hoping to find a birthday gift for Dinky, and the best big sister for Dinky ever gift for Sparkler. And then, as life would have it, she had bumped snoot first into the tan unicorn she was now pursuing, just wanting to talk to him. 

He had looked at her so tenderly after bumping into her, his face apologetic and sweet. Most ponies didn’t look at her in a nice way at all, and very few of them ever looked her directly in the eye. And she knew why. 

But the unicorn had looked her in the eye for just a moment, his face full of worry, and she saw something in his eyes, and then felt something stir within her heart that hadn’t been there in a long, long time. For a brief moment, his face had been so full of concern. And a brief moment was all any pegasi needed to absorb the information all around them in their surroundings. Even with Derpy’s vision impairment, she could rapidly take in details that earth ponies and unicorns usually missed. She felt bad for earth ponies and unicorns, and their near blindness to life around them, which is why she was so fiercely protective of her own unicorn offspring. They were helpless to the constant threats of the world around them, and it caused Derpy no end of worry. 

She had tried to be friendly, in the traditional manner of the pegasi, reaching out and giving a hug in apology, as pegasi approached everything in a physical fashion. And she had hugged him really hard too, trying to express just how sorry she was, trying to communicate her deep feeling of regret through the application of pressure in her embrace. She may have added a bit of extra squeeze to her hug, trying to express her physical attraction as well. 

But the unicorn had squirmed free and then ran off. 

Because unicorns were snobs. 

But Derpy was determined that she wasn’t going to let a little thing like that get in the way. She would just have to try harder, but to be honest, she didn’t know how to communicate with the fleeing unicorn. Her usual approaches had failed. She was able to communicate with Dinky and Sparkler just fine though, they understood what extra squeezy hugs meant and gave them in return. For some reason, Dinky and Sparkler didn’t get along with other unicorns, and this made Derpy sad. But she was determined to love them even more because of this. 

She had caught him briefly, giving him an extra lovey pegasus hug, the sort of hug that pegasi reserve for special moments, moments of extreme gratitude, apologies, wanting to express physical affection, wanting to express friendship, all of those things that pegasi could only express in a hug. She had even lifted him off of the ground, holding him tightly and closely, trying to let him know that he could trust her with his life, that she would hold on to him, keep him safe, keep him from harm, and never let him go. It was the sort of comforting hug she gave her own foals every day, and they reciprocated her affection. If they didn’t get their daily dose of affection, they became moody and even a little bratty. 

But the squirmy unicorn had broke free and had nearly broken his legs. Silly unicorn.

Because unicorns were snobs and he had spurned her intimate and tender hearted display of affection. Derpy was willing to forgive though. She had seen what the unicorn could be, briefly, when he had gazed into her eyes. 

Other pegasi were around her now, cheering her on, none of them louder than Rainbow Dash, who hovered overhead and was pumping her forehoof into the air, hooting wildly. 

Pegasi did almost everything as a flock. It was a deeply ingrained part of their being, a practical means of survival throughout the ages, living in a world hostile to the highly edible pony, who was little more than a walking selection of choice cuts, four drumsticks, and a pile of steaks. Pegasi stuck together, raised their young together in rookeries, and took the first step in creating those young in highly developed social rituals, public displays, letting every pegasus in the flock know that the desired target was now off the market, please do not mess with the future potential mate, thank you very much. 

Derpy’s fellow pegasi acknowledged Derpy’s display of intention and celebrated her public announcement of a desire for courtship, trying to let the lucky unicorn know that he was such a lucky stallion and that he had been selected for potential courtship. 

But the fleeing unicorn had rejected their affection and goodwill…

Because unicorns were snobs. 

Derpy, tiring of the chase, believing that she had given enough time for the public announcement of her intentions to settle in to her fellow pegasi, poured on the speed and increased her efforts to hunt down her target. 



 

Bucky was tiring, his breath going in and out in ragged heaves, his throat burning, and his sides felt like they would tear open at any moment. He was too tired to even try winking, he doubted he could summon his magic anyway, and his saddlebags thumped painfully against his sides. His hooves thudded in the dirt, his pelt worked into a fine sweaty lather, white foam now visible on his sides and his back. 

Just as he thought he couldn’t run for another second, the chase ended as abruptly as it had begun, with the grey mare ramming into his side in a flying tackle, sending him tumbling in the dirt. 

Bucky lay on his back, unmoving, hearing the grey mare approach. 

And then, she was there, looking down at him, smiling broadly, her eyes merry and pointing in two different directions. 

“I give up,” muttered Bucky. 

“Aw, I was enjoying the chase,” replied Derpy. 

Derpy gently snoot-bumped the unicorn laying in the dirt, gently this time, trying to send a clear signal that she really was friendly, trying to make clear her intentions. 

Bucky lay as still as possible, hoping that the pegasus mare would not break every bone in his body, also trying to make clear his intentions, his intentions being that he had given up completely and was submitting to her. 

As they studied one another, both of them were thinking similar thoughts. 

Pegasi are brutes.

Unicorns are snobs.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	 
	
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky looked up at the mare looking down at him, looking her right in the eye. Her ears had flopped down over her face as she was looking down at him. For a brief moment, Bucky found this attractive, there was no denying that. Something about a mare’s face over your body, looking down at you, her ears and her mane framing her face… 

“You chased me,” accused Bucky. 

“You ran,” replied Derpy. 

“You tried to crush me!” grunted Bucky. 

“I was trying to thank you,” explained Derpy. 

“You nearly broke my bones!” Bucky shouted. 

“I was trying to show you my appreciation!” Derpy shouted back. 

“By breaking my bones?” Bucky replied. 

“No, not that,” said Derpy in wounded tones. “A hug is only as good as the pressure applied. I really wanted to say thank you for being kind,” explained Derpy. 

Bucky lay there for a few minutes, looking very confused. 

“I’m sorry if I hurt you, I’m really strong. I just wanted to say thank you,” said Derpy sadly, her features now downcast. 

“You could have just said so,” muttered Bucky. 

“But I did say so!” replied Derpy, now looking like she was on the verge of tears. 

“A few words would do,” snarked Bucky. 

“We pegasi think words are meaningless and we rely on physical action,” explained Derpy, one tear sliding down her muzzle and then landing on Bucky’s muzzle. 

As the tear splashed on his muzzle, two things happened. Bucky suffered a painful epiphany, and he suddenly felt like a wagon full of horseapples. 

“I didn’t know,” said Bucky softly. “Look, please don’t cry. Usually, when I say thank you, I just use words. We unicorns pride ourselves on our ability to converse. Physicality is shunned in favour of intellectual pursuits. I didn’t know how you communicated or that you used physical expression in place of verbal. I guess we had a moment as a unicorn and a pegasus,” explained Bucky. He reached up gently and wiped Derpy’s face with a fetlock. 

And then, Derpy saw it again, the look she had seen earlier in Bucky’s eyes. She sniffled, feeling his fetlock on her muzzle, her eyes still stinging with tears. The long winded unicorn seemed genuinely sorry, and Derpy felt confused and unsettled by all of the words. Words seemed awkward, and she really didn’t understand what was being said. 

Bucky suffered a second painful epiphany as he stared up at the grey mare. She was confused, hurt, and suffering, having open her heart up to him, explaining to him exactly how she communicated and how she felt, and Bucky had ignored all of it. Instead, he had gone off on a long winded explanation of his actions, using words, leaving the poor mare even more confused and hurt. 

Bucky suddenly had a flash of memory from when he was in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and had pulled on a filly’s mane, and Celestia had personally raked him over the coals. He could almost hear her voice lecturing him right now. He winced, embarrassed from the painful memory and his current situation. There was only one thing he could do. He took a deep breath, and tried to prepare himself for what had to happen. 

He grappled Derpy around her barrel, pulling in her in for a hug, squeezing as hard as his fatigued legs would allow, and then finding it within himself to squeeze just a little more. He saw Derpy’s eyes close and her muzzle scrunched. 

He couldn’t help but notice how soft and warm she was against him. Pegasi pelts were different, thicker, made for insulation at high altitudes and water resistance. 

“That’s as hard as I can squeeze, I’m sorry,” said Bucky, apologising. 

Bucky’s breath shot out of his body with a whistling wheeze as suddenly he was squeezed back, he could hear his bones creaking and popping. 

“I accept,” said Derpy, her eyes still closed, smooshing the unicorn beneath her. After a few moments, she let go and got back up on her hooves. 

“How can I make it up to you?” asked Bucky. 

“You just did,” replied Derpy. 

“A hug makes it better?” asked Bucky. 

“Well, yeah,” answered Derpy. “You hugged me and you meant it, right?” she added. 

“Yes, but usually there is some kind of required gesture to go along with an apology,” explained Bucky, still laying on his back in the dirt. 

“There is?” asked Derpy. 

“Yes. Usually, some action is taken, some thoughtful and considerate action, showing that you actually feel bad about what you have done and have a desire to recompense for your actions,” offered Bucky. 

“A hug does that without all of the silly words,” Derpy retorted. “Simpler too. Everything you said sounds complicated.” 

“I suppose it does,” conceded Bucky. 

Derpy smiled. “You’re a nice pony,” said Derpy. 

Bucky slowly got up on his hooves, dusting himself off. Derpy helped him, brushing him with her wing. Her ticklish touch caused him to shiver strangely. 

“Will you allow me to still try to make this up to you?” asked Bucky. 

“Okay,” agreed Derpy, now smiling. “So what do we do?” she asked. 

“I, uh, don’t know,” admitted Bucky, still trying to orient himself. “It occurs to me that a lot of our problems happen because the tribes still don’t know to talk to one another,” said Bucky, thinking out loud. 

Derpy looked thoughtful, her muzzle scrunched, chewing on her own lip. 

“I thought you were hunting me,” Bucky confessed. 

“I was hunting you, but I thought you wanted to be hunted,” replied Derpy. “We pegasi chase one another. You gave all of the signs,” Derpy added. 

“I did?” asked Bucky, genuinely puzzled. 

“You touched my cheek, gave me a sweet look, and then you ran. You touched me… You touched me and I thought that meant you liked me, I thought it was an invitation, I was a little confused,” Derpy explained. “And you looked me right in the eye, hardly anypony ever looks me in the eye anymore. So when you ran, I wasn’t sure if you were being snobby or if you actually wanted me to chase you, so I chased you,” Derpy finished. 

“You lifted me into the air, it scared me, I thought you were going to fly away with me so I couldn’t escape. I am actually curious to understand what you meant by that,” said Bucky. 

“Carrying somepony in flight is how we build trust, I wanted to show you that I liked you, that you could trust me. I had you safe and secure and I would have never dropped you or allowed harm to come to you,” explained Derpy. 

Bucky slumped. “I, uh, thought it meant something else, I thought that you were… you know what, never mind what I thought, I was flat out wrong. And all of these words just feel stupid now,” grumbled Bucky. 

Derpy smiled and snoot-bumped Bucky gently. 

“I was probably wrong about a lot of things,” confessed Bucky. 

“So when are you two going to do something? All of this talking is boring!” cried Rainbow Dash, sitting on a low hanging cloud and looking impatient. “There should be a chase or something, somepony needs to be chasing somepony else. All of this sappy stuff is painful to look at and listen to!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. 

Derpy gently reached up and touched Bucky’s face, rubbing her fetlock against his cheek. “This is a pegasus invitation,” she explained, and then she turned tail and ran away, her wings folded securely against her body. 

Bucky stood there, still fatigued, his muscles sore, watching Derpy sprint away. 

“Don’t just stand there stupid, it’s rude to leave her hanging!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, waving her foreleg excitedly. 

Bucky realised that the flock of pegasi were all looking at him expectantly, waiting, some of them wide eyed, many of them confused. 

Bucky heaved a sigh and trotted after Derpy, his sides still aching from his long run and being squeezed nearly to death. As he began to run, the pegasi took wing and began to follow, urging him on and giving him firm shoves to get him moving. 

“Get moving groundpounder!” urged Rainbow Dash, swatting his backside. 



 

Bucky was almost certain he was going to die at any moment. He lay on the grass, gasping for air, Derpy standing nearby, she was preening her wings and not the least bit winded. The flock of pegasi were gone, giving them some privacy. 

Bucky knew it had to be the oxygen deprivation, but for a moment, Derpy looked exceptionally beautiful, standing in profile, one long primary feather slowly sliding through her lips, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Oxygen deprivation and pheromones. Biology conspired mercilessly against poor Bucky. 

“Nopony has chased me in a long time,” Derpy confessed, letting go of her wingfeathers as she spoke. “It feels nice being chased,” she added. 

Derpy slowly walked over to Bucky, who was laying on his side, smiling at him shyly. 

“I really hope we can chase one another again,” said Derpy in quiet but hopeful voice. 

Bucky nodded, unable to speak. 

“You’re not in very good shape,” Derpy remarked. 

Bucky shook his head no. 

“I can help you exercise!” exclaimed Derpy. “We can keep chasing each other!” 

The thought pained Bucky to no end, but he said nothing, having already done enough harm to the poor mare. 

“I was in love with a unicorn once,” Derpy said sadly. “He gave me what I thought were all the right signs. I thought he loved me. He wined me and dined me and said such sweet unicorn words to me. He wrote me poetry that I didn’t understand. But what got me going was that he touched me in all the right ways. He knew how to speak pegasus.” 

Bucky felt a sharp stabbing pain in his barrel, he couldn’t tell if it was from running or Derpy’s words. 

“He left me high and dry, and all I have of him is Dinky,” Derpy finished, now looking at Bucky, one eye closed so she could study him with one good focused eye. “I saw something in your eyes that made me like you,” she confessed. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” wheezed Bucky. 

“I know, that makes this a little easier, knowing you don’t speak pegasus,” answered Derpy, now moving closer to Bucky. 

“Do you want to have dinner?” Bucky asked, bluntly. 

“My foals will be out of school soon, I need to be home with them,” replied Derpy. 

“Another time then? Please let me make this up to you. No strings attached, I just want to do something nice,” Bucky offered. 

“It doesn’t bother you that I have foals?” Derpy asked.

“It doesn’t bother you that I am a jerk?” Bucky replied. 

“There was a misunderstanding,” said Derpy patiently. 

“So then I have a chance to make it up to you?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe, but if you want me, you are going to have to chase me a bit more,” Derpy giggled, spreading her wings, and then flying away. 

Bucky waved as she left, and then he lay there upon the ground, feeling thoughtful. 

She was giving him a chance to make things up, which was really very surprising in light of the revelation that she had been hurt before. Bucky felt a pang of worry, suddenly even more guilty about hurting her, she seemed so sweet and harmless now that he understood her intentions. 

She didn’t seem very brutish at all. In fact, if anything, she seemed fragile. 

The thought scared Bucky, filling his mind with worry. Now, he felt like the brute. He had been careless and acted thoughtlessly, seeing the world only through unicorn eyes, forgetting that he was also a pony. 

Nothing made sense. This bothered Bucky, things had to make sense or else the world fell apart. Unicorns had an innate need to understand everything. 

The wall eyed mare had turned the entire world upside down. 



 

As Derpy flew home, she felt conflicted, torn between fear and hope. She hated to admit it, but she was lonely. While some of the pegasi were friendly enough towards her, nopony wanted to chase her in some sort of meaningful way. Her eyes made her an undesirable target as a mate. Pegasi needed good eyes. Derpy understood their reservations, but resented their rejection. Things had started out rough with Bucky, but she held on to her observation, what she had seen several times now, flashed in his eyes, and the way he had behaved after some level of understanding had been achieved. 

Most of all, he had looked her in the eyes several times, and hadn’t turned away. It made her heart race just thinking about it. Even Dinky’s father had trouble meeting her gaze, but used it as a chance to apologise and say pretty words, trying to soothe her injured feelings. 

Derpy felt confused and unsure. What she needed was some extra-squeezy hugs from her foals and some time spent in a bubble bath so she could think about everything she had observed. Maybe even some time in the bubble bath with Dinky and a rubber ducky. 

One thing was clear in all of this muddled mess, the invitation to chase had been accepted. 
	
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Are you ready to admit what you have done wrong?” 

Dinky Hooves carefully considered Miss Cheerilee’s words. Dinky was frustrated, angry, and very confused. Dinky understood that there was a problem, but Dinky did not know what she had done wrong. 

“No? Perhaps five more minutes after school will allow you to think about what you have done,” announced Cheerilee. 

Dinky felt the hot sting of tears in the corners of her eyes and the burning pain of anger on her neck. 

This was not fair. 

Dinky thought back carefully on the events of the day, trying to see where she had gone wrong. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who were older and much larger, had been teasing the smaller foals of the class, including Dinky. They had mean words to say to everypony, as usual. It was a common day to day occurrence, and Dinky took refuge in her flock of friends, just as her mother had taught her to do. Dinky had been content to leave things be and just ignore the bullying, the one thing that truly infuriated Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, being ignored. 

It was then that Diamond Tiara had shoved Piña Colada and knocked her down from the swing. Messing with a flock member was unacceptable, and Dinky made it clear by delivering a swift swat to the tender snoot of Diamond Tiara, making her yelp and panic. It was something Dinky had done so many times among the pegasi foals within her mother’s flock, the flock that Dinky had been raised in. The blow really wasn’t enough to hurt, it hurt pride more than anything else; pegasi had tender prides and were especially sensitive to having their pride tweaked. 

But Diamond Tiara had collapsed completely, falling down on the ground when Cheerilee had come over, sobbing and crying about being punched in the muzzle. 

Dinky really resented Diamond Tiara right now. Diamond Tiara had shoved a friend and a flock member, she had been mean as well as abusive, she had pretended to actually be hurt, and she had lied. Dinky hadn’t punched her. Dinky was far too gentle to punch anypony. It had been a simple swat, nothing more, a snoot-tweak meant to communicate a warning. 

And now, Dinky was sitting after school, well past the fifteen minute mark, rapidly nearing the twenty minute mark. Each minute passing by was awful to endure. Dinky squirmed in her wooden desk, trying to figure out what she had done that was so terrible that she deserved this. Dinky slumped down in her desk, the first few tears now sliding down her cheeks. 

Cheerilee, watching Dinky, saw the tears and believed them to be tears of guilt, not knowing they were tears of confusion and frustration. 

“Dinky, I know that you know what you did was wrong, are you ready to talk about it?” asked Cheerilee, her voice careful and patient. 

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” sniffled Dinky, more tears coming to replace those tears fallen, her tiny little barrel now hitching from anger as well. 

“Dinky Hooves, you punched Diamond Tiara in the muzzle-” 

“I did not!” interrupted Dinky

“Let me finish!” said Cheerilee in an angry but controlled voice. “You punched her in the muzzle hard enough to make her cry. That is unacceptable. You cannot go around punching other ponies in the muzzle, or anywhere else for that matter,” explained Cheerilee. 

“But I didn’t punch her in the muzzle,” protested Dinky. 

“Enough!” snapped Cheerilee. “I do not want to hear it,” she finished. 

Dinky felt quite infuriated, her own pride now terribly tweaked. Dinky couldn’t even explain what had happened, that it wasn’t a punch in the muzzle, it was a swat, and that there was a big difference between the two. Dinky swatted her big sister too, and there was never any hard feelings between the two of them. 

Dinky glared defiantly at Cheerilee through her tears, nursing her injured pride. 



 

Piña Colada sat outside the schoolhouse, waiting on Dinky, determined to wait for however long it took. Dinky had been a real friend, a good friend, and when trouble had happened, Dinky had been there. It had been immensely satisfying to watch Dinky deliver a well-placed punch in the muzzle on Diamond Tiara. 

Dinky was always looking out for her friends. Dinky kept the group together, never allowing anypony to stray too far, always reminding them that they were safer in a group, which Piña Colada knew and understood on some deep level, being an earth pony, with no magic or wings, all earth ponies had for defense was strength in numbers, and the protection of the herd. 

Dinky, even though she was a unicorn, clearly understood the value of being in a herd, which made her both a good friend and a good unicorn. Dinky clearly wasn’t a snob. Dinky was practically an earth pony, at least Piña Colada thought so. 

Piña Colada felt a twang of frustration and anger when she heard Dinky’s cries from inside the schoolhouse. A herd member was in trouble, and alone. Piña Colada struggled with the instinctual urges welling up inside of her, not even knowing they were instinctual urges, all Piña Colada understood was that she had very strong feelings to go to her suffering friend and stand together. Almost anything in life could be endured if you stood together in a herd, and you placed the weakest members in the middle. 

Piña Colada began to dance nervously on her hooves, feeling dangerously close to tears herself, the terrible feeling of being very little and young, and being completely powerless to do anything about the awful things that went on around you. 

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were the worst sorts of bullies, being earth ponies, they threatened herd stability and caused the herd to break apart, exposing them to untold danger. 

Piña Colada actually burst into tears when she saw Derpy, Dinky’s mother, landing somewhat clumsily a few paces away, wobbling on her hooves and trying to carefully fold in her wings. Piña Colada ran to Derpy, throwing her forelegs around Derpy’s foreleg, hugging her tightly, seeking comfort, and feeling comfort when Derpy hugged her back, Piña Colada felt a wing wrap around her and then she was crushed against Derpy’s warm barrel. Piña Colada didn’t understand why Derpy’s hugs were so fierce, so crushing, but Piña Colada liked them, she felt warm, secure, and safe. 

Piña Colada had no way of knowing that earth ponies had a deep instinctual need to rely upon the pegasi for protection, fierce airborne protectors of the herd. All Piña Colada knew was that she felt extra safe in the downy fortress of being wrapped in pegasi wings. 



 

Derpy could not help but feel that it was one of those days. 

She felt frustrated, a little angry, and a little happy, all at once, and it was confusing to say the least. After hearing about what had happened with little Dinky, Derpy had tried to explain to Cheerilee a different perspective on what had happened, but Cheerilee was not interested. She had no desire to understand the difference between a swat and a punch. Both of them were hitting, and hitting was unacceptable. 

Earth ponies were numbskulls. 

Swatting and punching were two very different things. Swatting was a gentle sociable nudge to let somepony else know that their behaviour was uncouth, punching was violence, plain and simple. Dinky and Sparkler swatted one another all the time, and Derpy never felt concern. Derpy would feel concern if the two never swatted another, it would mean that they didn’t care enough about each other to correct each other’s social blunders. But if either of them actually punched one another, Derpy would have to step in and deliver some serious punishment. 

Derpy had never once had to deliver serious punishment to her foals. Both of them were even keeled and well adjusted, good mannered, and equipped with proper social graces. 

This was all just another case of misunderstanding between the tribes, just like what had happened earlier, when she had snoot-bumped into Bucky. 

Handsome Bucky, with his fine tan coat and black mane. Derpy felt a distracting hot flush. 

Bucky seemed genuine in his efforts to overcome the misunderstanding, Cheerilee refused to acknowledge that there was a misunderstanding. 

Numbskulls just didn’t want to listen to reason. At least snobs could be reasoned with, provided you could get their attention and that you were worth noticing. 

Derpy had given up and was simply nodding where it seemed appropriate. Cheerilee was entirely unreasonable. Derpy would have to pull poor Dinky aside later and praise her for doing the right thing. 

Derpy did feel a bit angry about Dinky crying however. 





Dinky looked at the clock, it was now a little past the thirty minute marker. She clung to her mother and Piña Colada, wiping her tears on her mother’s foreleg, feeling hot bubbly anger causing her ears to burn. 

Dinky took comfort in knowing that her mother would understand. 

Dinky felt a tiny hoof press against her back, rubbing her gently. It was comforting, physical touch was something that Dinky understood. All of the words in the world couldn’t match one gentle stroke or a hug for comfort. 

Dinky felt herself being lifted on her mother’s back, and then she felt Piña Colada sliding up behind her. Dinky buried her face into her mother’s mane, ignoring Cheerilee’s parting words, not wanting to hear Cheerilee anymore. She felt her mother walking from the schoolhouse, her steps slow and careful. 

“Thanks for being my friend.” 

Dinky heard Piña Colada’s words and felt a bit of comfort. She felt Piña Colada’s nose pressing into her own mane, and the painful frustration of the after school detention began to melt away as Dinky felt Piña Colada breathing against her. 

“I’m sorry mommy,” mumbled Dinky. 

“Shush Dinky Doo Hooves, we’ll talk when we get home. You’re not in trouble,” replied Derpy in soothing tones. “Today has been full of misunderstandings,” she added. 

“It sure has,” Dinky said, sniffling. 

“I have a funny story to tell you Dinky," said Derpy. 

Dinky did not reply, she just sighed and snuggled deeper into her mother’s neck. 

“Thank you Dinky,” Piña Colada said, wrapping her forelegs around Dinky and squeezing tightly, feeling a warm rush of gratitude for her friend. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Life was all about chasing something worth having.

These words summed up her mother’s philosophy and Sparkler reflected upon them, not sure what to chase or what was worth chasing. Sparkler couldn’t make sense of her life right now. Nothing seemed to fit. Nothing seemed to make sense. Sparkler was certain it was mostly because she was a moody teenaged filly, but there were other little niggling thoughts that wormed through her brain. 

She thought about her real mother, an earth pony, who had been an older friend of Derpy’s, and who had seen Derpy through tough times. Tough times being Derpy becoming pregnant, a teenaged filly herself at the time, and all of the trouble that goes along with being in that position. Sparkler could remember Dinky being born. She remembered being Dinky’s foalsitter. She remembered Derpy being part of the family. 

She remembered her mother trying to come home in time for Hearth’s Warming and she remembered the terrible news of the train derailment. Sparkler remembered Derpy’s struggle to keep the family together, getting a job as a mailmare, and keeping them all together, if only just barely. She remembered everything that made her who she was, and while she knew who she was, she felt like she really didn’t fit with anypony in particular. It was tough being gifted with introspection, it made being young much, much harder than it needed to be, and caused no end of problems for Sparkler’s social life. 

It was tough being a unicorn that didn’t get along with other unicorns, she didn’t feel like she fit in with the earth ponies which she had been raised with, and she felt like an outsider with the flock of pegasi that tried to make her feel welcome. 

The only real anchor point Sparkler felt she had in her life was being Dinky’s sister and best friend. It defined her. 

It was a good day to be walking, and Sparkler thought about all of these things as she walked. She walked alone, her head high, proud in a way that only gawky socially awkward outcasts could be proud, pondering what it meant to chase something, what to chase, all of these things that defined her and how they would fit in to her pursuit of life. 

Entirely by accident, Sparkler thought of Rising Star, a unicorn colt about a year younger than herself. 

There’s something worth chasing her hormone flooded teenaged brain suggested. 

Sparkler swiftly kicked that thought from her mind. No colts. Sparkler remembered all too well what Derpy had gone through. Rising Star, the affable slam poet. Rising Star, who even now, was causing Sparkler’s cheeks to blush, a fact that completely skipped Sparkler’s mind. Rising Star, who had once slipped a poem about pretty purple unicorns into one of her schoolbooks, Rising Star, who had once called Sparkler his muse. 

Rising Star, who was currently sitting on a chair, seated at a table, drinking a soda and getting friendly with Apple Cobbler…

Sparkler felt a white hot rage boil up inside of her and she began to grind her teeth. She snorted a few times, pawing at the earth with her hoof, her tail swishing from side to side angrily. 

Rising Star, who even now, was looking at her with a dawning sense of horror, worry, and concern. The young colt slowly eased out of his chair, never once breaking eye contact with the snorting filly who stood pawing the earth. 



 

Rising Star bolted ahead at a full gallop, his hooves pounding the road, his breath hot in his nostrils. Sparkler really was being unreasonable. She had made it rather clear that she wasn’t interested in colts, and, by extension, not interested in him. So he had moved on. 

It was a mistake he now regretted. 

The snorting screaming filly wasn’t acting anything at all like a unicorn, and his attempts to reason with her had gone terribly wrong. Trying to soothe her with gentle words had only seemed to further infuriate her. Too late, Rising Star learned a valuable lesson that sometimes, fillies and mares said one thing but meant another. 

While she had said she wasn’t interested in colts, clearly this wasn’t the case, and held some lingering interest in at least one colt. And Rising Star wished that it wasn’t him. 

Oh, she had interested him, she was different. She was mysterious and truly unique, not something easily understood. Her perceptions and perspectives were entirely different and frequently odd… and Rising Star had drawn a great deal of inspiration from her. She had influenced his poetry a great deal. Out of her mouth came wise things, meaningful things, she asked beautiful questions about the nature of life. 

Except that right now, what came out of her mouth wasn’t beautiful, but Rising Star was certain some of the things she screamed might have been questions. 

Pegasi were swooping down now, harassing and jeering at Rising Star, and he cursed himself for ever taking interest in a unicorn that was part of a flock of pegasi. 

“I’d run faster if I was you,” a pegasi said helpfully. 

“Yeah, the faster you run, the better the chase is,” said another. 

“Nothing else turns you on quite like a good chase does,” added another with a saucy wink, rolling through the air as she did so. 

Rising Star panicked. Something was dreadfully wrong with pegasi he concluded. He struggled to pick up the pace, the pegasi all around him laughing and carrying on. 

“Second chase today, spring is wonderful!” exclaimed a pegasus swooping lazily through the air. 

The Cutie Mark Crusaders came parading out of Sugarcube Corner, muzzles sticky with sweets, and Rising Star swerved to avoid them. Doing so, he lost his footage, slipping and skidding, his hind hooves sliding out from underneath him, causing him to tumble down in a heap. 





The angry purple unicorn known as Sparkler placed her hoof down on Rising Star’s barrel and began to apply pressure, scowling angrily as she did so. 

“I don’t understand why you are angry!” shouted Rising Star. “You told me you weren’t interested,” he added. 

“I thought I wasn’t,” confessed Sparkler. 

“So I moved on and started saying hello to other fillies, I am allowed to do that,” Rising Star said, his breath heavy with panic. 

“Not any more you’re not!” Sparkler growled. 

“I’m very confused!” shouted Rising Star, the pressure from Sparkler’s hoof becoming somewhat uncomfortable. 

“So am I!” replied Sparkler. 

“Atta girl Sparky, show him who is in charge!” shouted Raindrops, a pegasus Sparkler knew well. “If you stand on his tail, he will not be able to get away again if he shoves you off!” Raindrops shouted helpfully. 

Sparkler placed a hind hoof down on Rising Star’s tail and her scowl intensified. 

“Aww, young love is so adorable!” shouted Rainbowshine. 

Sparkler felt her cheeks begin to burn fiercely. Is that what this was? She felt horrified for a brief moment, not sure about the source of her behaviour. 

A crowd had gathered, all of them watching with a great deal of interest. Including Apple Cobbler, who had finally caught up and was now watching the scene unfold. 

“Don’t just lay there!” shouted Rainbowshine helpfully. “Shove her off, give her a tumble, wait for her to get up, and then chase her back you dimwit!” she added, making wild gestures with her front hooves. 

Confusion settled over Sparkler, pressing down on her shoulders like a physical weight. Poor Rising Star wasn’t faring much better, his eyes were wide with panic and his nostrils flared with fear. 

“We’ll talk later when I can see only one of you,” hissed Sparkler, pushing herself away from Rising Star and running away. 

Rising Star did not give chase. He lay there, in the road, still trying to catch his breath, feeling very confused, a little afraid, and a renewed sense of attraction for Sparkler. This was poetic. This was something to write about. He had discovered his muse was an Angry Goddess, and she was a Jealous Goddess. His brain flooded with all kinds of poetic inspiration, words, imagery, feelings, things that would turn into art if given enough time to incubate. He vowed silently to create something worthy of his muse. 



 

The schoolmarm Cheerilee sighed as she began to clean up the schoolhouse, the day finally over. It had been a long trying day. She loved little fillies and colts a great deal, and tried to be a good teacher, but the job was difficult and full of pitfalls. Managing the three tribes all under one roof was a tricky task, which is why so many schools in bigger cities were still segregated, pegasi foals attending one school, earth ponies attending another, and unicorns usually going to some magical academy of some sort. Ponyville was too small for that though. So the three tribes were thrown together. It was wonderful sometimes, seeing the tribes together, working with one another in understanding, and it was a total nightmare at other times. And poor Cheerilee was caught in the middle of all of it. Tribal politics played out here every day, different ponies wanting different concessions made for their foals, because their foals were pegasi, or earth ponies, or unicorns. All of them had special needs and certain behaviours should be overlooked simply because of this reason or that reason. Only Cheerilee refused to overlook bad behaviour or give concessions for tribal identity. In her classroom, a pony was a pony, and nothing else. Nopony got special treatment for any reason. 

It hadn’t been easy trying to explain to Derpy that it didn’t matter why Dinky had hit somepony, or how Dinky had hit somepony, what was important was, Dinky had hit somepony. And that just wasn’t allowed. At all. For any reason. It was frustrating trying to get the grey mare to see reason, that hitting in any form was wrong and would not be tolerated in school. Cheerilee understood that different ponies had different ways, but this was her schoolhouse, and ponies were all expected to stick to a single model of behaviour. Her own. Swatting, punching, hitting, slapping, it was all the same and it all carried the same penalty. There was no distinguishing between different types of hitting, all of it was forbidden. 

Even more of a concern was Diamond Tiara, who was facing her third school suspension this semester, the third strike meaning that a meeting had to take place with the school board and Diamond Tiara’s parents. 

A very stressful meeting that was certain not to go well. 

Last year Diamond Tiara had reached five suspensions before being forcibly removed from school, and her parents required to hire a private tutor. Almost all of those suspensions had involved Diamond Tiara teasing other foals, usually the Cutie Mark Crusaders. 

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been getting wise though, and had banded together, ignoring Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, which drove the two troublemakers crazy. This year, they had begun picking on the little foals, the youngest and the smallest, those in the lower grades, and it was infuriating. 

Cheerilee herself wanted to slap the wretched little monsters, it was something she daydreamed about and had once even received a visit from Princess Luna about, in the form of a very troubling dream that had almost caused her to quit her job as a school teacher. 

It was troubling to feel like a hypocrite, trying to explain why hitting in any form was wrong, when what you really wanted more than anything else was to bring back paddling and deliver a good old fashioned front of the classroom paddling for the source of almost all of the misery in your life. Cheerilee was just old enough to remember how things used to be, and felt ashamed that she desired a return to those times, at least for two little fillies that had become her bane, a painful thorn in her frog. 

Frustration overwhelmed poor Cheerilee as she sat down at her desk and she began to cry, finally alone, free to vent her feelings. 

Tomorrow she would have to face this all over again. 



 

The kitchen was beginning to fill with delightful aromas when Derpy heard the front door open and then close, indicating that Sparkler was home. Dinky fled the kitchen immediately, squealing with excitement, eager to see her big sister. 

“Mother, before you hear any gossip, I want you to know that today I chased a colt and nearly gave him a good thumping,” said Sparkler, sticking her head into the kitchen door, Dinky securely attached to her foreleg as she walked. 

“Heh, I had myself a chase today as well,” replied Derpy, laughing. 

“I swatted Diamond Tiara in the snotlocker and got in trouble,” quipped Dinky. 

“Why would you get in trouble for that?” asked Sparkler, looking down at the foal clinging to her foreleg. “And Dinky, snotlocker, really? I thought we called noses the booger bunker,” Sparkler finished. 

Dinky shrugged and began to rub her muzzle against her sister’s shoulder. 

“Set the table Sparkler, have a seat, and we’ll all sit down and talk over dinner,” said Derpy, stirring a pot with a spoon held in her wing. 

The unicorn filly did as she was bid, Dinky still clinging to her leg like a parasitic growth, an adorable and insufferably cute parasitic growth. 
	
	
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Above the center of the town of Ponyville, there was a cloud. And from the side of this cloud dangled a tail. A rainbow coloured tail. The tail was attached to a napping blue pegasus. The napping blue pegasus was nestled into the cloud, snoring peacefully, having a late nap as the afternoon now transitioned into evening. 

Pegasi, always above everything and everypony, always looking down on everypony below them. The napping blue pegasus was the embodiment with everything that one pony believed was wrong with the pegasus tribe.

And that pony’s name was Filthy Rich.

Pegasi are brutes. Lazy brutes who contribute nothing to society and who once stole food from us hard working earth ponies. How hard could it be to manage the weather? They do so little and take so much. My taxes pay for the weather team and all they ever do is nap. 

Filthy Rich fumed as he stared upward at the rainbow coloured tail, and he internally debated with himself about lecturing the lazy layabout pegasus. Against his own better judgment, he bit his tongue and went home, making plans to tell his filly Diamond Tiara in great detail everything that was wrong in the world, hoping to make her see just how important it was for her to stand up for herself and never once give in to the world that was going to try and shake her down for everything she was worth. 





The exhausted Rainbow Dash was taking a well-deserved nap on a cloud, having just finished mapping the area for the upcoming scheduled rainstorm. She had to take note of the dry patches of soil, the moist patches of soil, and the so so patches of earth and soil, observe for flags left out by hopeful farmers needing rain, and check the levels of various ponds and places where runoff went. 

All of this mapping culminated with a trip to the upper level atmosphere, an extremely high altitude, which took a great deal of effort, and Rainbow Dash had to do it almost daily, to monitor everything in a wide radius around Ponyville. 

The flight was exhausting, as Rainbow Dash had short wings. She had to actually fly up to where she needed to be, she couldn’t glide up there on updrafts and rising currents, conserving energy. No, it was all active effort, and it required thousands and thousands of calories every day to keep her body fueled. It was also tiring. 

And that was only one of her dozens of duties as the weather captain. Rainbow Dash frequently spent her days in a state of near exhaustion, sometimes struggling to keep her eyes open through her many daily tasks. 

The occasional nap kept her safe and allowed her to do her job, which was unbelievably complex. And then ponies like Filthy Rich had the audacity to lecture her on occasion for napping on a cloud. 

Those groundpounding numbskulls had no idea how good they had it, their lives were unbelievably easy. They didn’t have to have to work all that hard at anything, and were kept safe by the pegasi watching over them. A little gratitude once in a while might be nice. 





Sweet potatoes were perhaps Dinky’s most favouritest food ever. She was already feeling kinda full, but she managed to spoon in a few more bites of the buttery sweet potato on her plate. While butterscotch pudding was a tempting dessert, sweet potatoes were the greatest thing ever. 

The little unicorn foal felt like she was going to pop at any moment. 

Feeling very satisfied, Dinky rubbed her belly and let out a small belch. 

“Dinky Doo Hooves!” Where are your manners?” Derpy demanded. 

Dinky hung her head guiltily, still rubbing her belly, now feeling very, very ashamed of herself. She was almost certain that she didn’t need to wonder if she had room for dessert. Her mother was glaring at her fiercely, one eye narrowed and focused; the other eye winked shut so Derpy could get her good eye to see clearly. 

Dinky took a deep breath, and then another, feeling all of the pressure of the day, and everything that had happened, and felt the dreadful urge to cry again. She struggled, knowing that she had to make this right somehow, her mother was really angry right now. 

“BRRRRRRRAAAAAAURGURGLEGRAAAAAAAAAP!” 

Dinky Doo Hooves had to reach in deep and really go for the gusto to make up for her earlier blunder. She had opened her mouth wide, as wide as possible, and even allowed her tongue to dangle out as she belched. The noise was extra resonant and gurgly, and her artistic resonations and the subtle rise and fall in pitch showed that she really appreciated her mother’s efforts. 

Sparkler giggled behind her hoof.

“Apology accepted,” Derpy acquiesced, not certain that Dinky had really made her best effort. She had heard better from Dinky. It was a constant struggle, trying to get Dinky to learn good table manners. The little unicorn foal kept letting out the most half-hearted burps and farts, and Derpy quietly wondered if Dinky was reaching some stage of rebellion common during foal hood and the early stages of growth and development. 

Her adopted daughter Sparkler on the other hoof, was no slouch. She had been raised by earth ponies. And while earth ponies had different table manners than pegasi, they found humour in bodily functions, and appreciated a good belch or a ripping bit of flatulence. For Sparkler, the transition in table manners had been stunningly easy. Sparkler’s earlier belch was almost deafening. 

“Mother,” said Sparkler, pushing her plate away and looking her mother in the eye. “I am a very confused filly right now. I chased a colt today. I saw him with Apple Cobbler and sort of freaked out. I told him that I wasn’t interested in him but seeing him with her made me go nuts. And I really don’t want to get involved with a colt because of what happened to you,” explained Sparkler. 

“I regret nothing,” reassured Derpy. “I have Dinky. Times were tough, but we got through them. You shouldn’t let what happened hold you back. You should feel free to love if you want to. Just learn from what happened and don’t let yourself get sweet talked into something you are not ready for,” the grey mare finished. 

“I don’t know what I am doing,” Sparkler confessed. “I really don’t fit in with other ponies, I am not even sure how I work, and I don’t know if I can figure out how dating a colt works,” continued Sparkler. 

“You are my Sparkler. I love you, and your mother loved you. You just need to figure out who and what you are my silly filly,” Derpy said lovingly. 

“You’re my sister, no need to be anything else,” Dinky offered. “I don’t want you dating. I want you all for myself,” confessed Dinky. 

“I chased a stallion today,” Derpy said. “We snoot-bumped. By accident. And I saw something in his eyes. He’s special. There was a bit of a misunderstanding though. Well, a big misunderstanding really. But he was really nice about everything and tried so hard to make it up to me,” the pegasus mare added as she began to fluff out her feathers and waggle her ears. “Sometimes I just don’t know what goes wrong…” Derpy added, trailing off. 

“I still don’t understand the chase thing,” Sparkler said. 

“Pegasus tradition,” replied Derpy. 

“What do unicorns do?” asked Sparkler. 

“Get chased apparently,” replied Derpy, now shaking with laughter. 

Sparkler giggled and felt better. Her mother had a simple approach to everything. 

“Colts have cooties,” Dinky said in embarrassed tones. 

“So do little fillies,” replied Sparkler, smiling at her sister. 

“No really, colts are gross. And one came into the little fillies room the other day and scared us all!” Dinky exclaimed. “Rumble really had to go and the colt’s room was full so he came right in and did his business. It was gross!” Dinky said, waving her hooves alarmingly. 

“Aw, come on Dinky, not all colts are bad. One day you are going to grow up and think one of them is worth chasing,” teased Derpy, her tone gentle. 

“Nuh-huh!” Dinky retorted. “Piña Colada and I have promised to protect each other from colts because they’re icky,” the unicorn filly added. 

“You and Piña Colada seem to be really good friends,” Sparkler said. 

“Berry Punch and I are good friends,” mentioned Derpy. “Makes sense with how much time Dinky and Piña Colada spend together because of Berry and I,” added Derpy. 

“Berry Punch and my mother were good friends. I get confused sometimes. I don’t know if I love Berry Punch because of who she is or because of the memories of my mother that she holds,” said Sparkler, suddenly looking a little sad. 

“You are confusing the two,” Derpy answered. “Berry Punch is who she is because she holds your mother’s memories. They were very, very close. Losing your mother made life very difficult for Berry,” Derpy explained. 

“I once wondered if I loved you because you were my best friend or because you were my big sister,” Dinky said. “And it took me a while to figure out that it didn’t matter,” she finished. 

Derpy felt a fierce sense of pride as she watched her foals. 



 

A lone unicorn was feeling oddly lonesome. It was a strange feeling, one he hadn’t really felt before. Unicorns were well suited to solitary living, given over to intellectual pursuits, their studies, and their hobbies. Neurosis was actually encouraged among their kind. They had it pounded into their little horned heads from an early age that individuality, a rejection of their base instincts, and rejecting the herd mentality is what set them apart (and perhaps even above) their fellow ponies in other tribes. 

Sure, unicorns had families, even loving families, but they made sure to enforce the notion that they were different from other ponies and their families. A foal or two to satisfy the status quo, but never more than a foal or two, otherwise, somepony might begin to think you were one of those sex crazed earth ponies who had more foals than common sense. Foals were also conveniently sent off to boarding schools and private universities so they wouldn’t be in the way. Unicorns had been very careful to create social institutions that would do all of the messy foal rearing for them, so their private lives wouldn’t be terribly interrupted by the intrusive new life-form. Single mothers were common, and homosexuality was actually seen as a solution for couplehood without the pesky obligations or the messy accident of an unexpected foal. 

Like Bucky had been. One of his earliest memories was being sent off on a train to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. He occasionally went home for visits, but it was awkward, because his parents were strangers and he really didn’t know them. And the feeling was mutual. Time spent with his parents was awkward and painful, and he had finally given up. He had settled in Ponyville, having come here several times during his week-long breaks from school, when he had decided to stop going home. His parents were stuffy, uptight, repressed, and resented him deeply for forcing himself, unannounced, into their lives. And they had told him so, right in front of the family therapist. It had been a major part of the decision to never go home again. 

And now, Bucky was feeling an increasing sense of agitation welling up inside of him, his solitary pursuits now interrupted by a strange need, a weird unfamiliar feeling of longing for something. He couldn’t concentrate. He couldn’t read. He couldn’t sit still and listen to a record. He didn’t feel like eating anything, even though he was hungry. He felt scared, a little lonely, a little agitated, and mostly, he just felt angry. Really angry. None of his usual methods for dealing with life seemed to be working. 

Finally, he could stand it no longer, and he fled from his apartment, now chased by the pain of his past. It was something he was unable to outrun. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The grey mailmare was always a welcome sight. This is what Filthy Rich liked to see. The mailmare was dutiful, hard working, and as long as Filthy Rich could remember, had never failed in her job. Rain, sleet, ice, snow, hail, the mail ran. It was delivered in a timely fashion. This is why he payed taxes. Here was a service provided by the crown that was worth paying for. 

And the mailmare was a fine example of what a pegasus could be as well, unlike that layabout weather captain that was his bane. This mailmare was a fine example that hard work was rewarded. The entire town knew her story… Single teenaged filly mother, left high and dry by the father of her foal. Rather than sit back and collect the dole from the crown or give up custody of her foal, the mare had taken on a job and adopted a much older foal whose mother had died, showing a gritty sense of determination that Filthy Rich truly appreciated. The grey mailmare was an example that the system worked and that everything that Filthy Rich believed in was true and good. He smiled at her broadly as she fluttered up the lane, standing near his mailbox, glancing at his pocket watch. She was early today, and her bag seemed extra heavy, hanging from her body and pulling down harshly upon her as she flew. 

Yep, hard work. An overstuffed mailbag and she was still somehow early. This was a fine example of those brutes putting their strength to good use and being productive members of society. 

Filthy Rich only believed in what he could see, and he liked what he saw of the mailmare Derpy Hooves. Derpy projected an image that society needed to see. She was always a welcome sight and was almost certainly a way to brighten up his day. Filthy Rich thought about his hard working great great grandfather, Dirt Poor, and how hard Dirt Poor had worked, almost right to the end of his life. Dirt Poor would certainly approve of this mailmare as well, and Dirt Poor had had a poor opinion of almost anypony. Dirt Poor only respected one thing, and one thing only. Hard work. 

It was difficult at times, but Filthy Rich worked very hard to live by Dirt Poor’s example. 



 

Ugh, thought Derpy Hooves to herself, he was out waiting for her again. There he was, at his mailbox, looking at his pocket watch, checking it to see if she was delivering at a reasonable time. She struggled with her excessively heavy bag and tried to remain airborne as she traveled down the lane, carefully placing mail into mailboxes. 

He was watching her, with his big fake smile, checking his watch, and was probably going to be extra smug today because of what had happened with Diamond Tiara yesterday. Derpy hated delivering mail along this route, she always felt a little soiled after her encounters with Filthy Rich and his smug and insincere compliments, congratulating her on being a single mother and making things “work.” 

It was infuriating to no end. 

Out of every earth pony that Derpy knew, Filthy Rich was probably the worst numbskull there was. He spoke of hard work but did nothing himself, living the high life in the nicest neighborhood in Ponyville, and he had plenty of free time as evidenced by his daily wait by the mailbox to greet her. It was always hard work this, and hard work that, but Filthy Rich didn’t actually work. He made other ponies do his work for him while he reaped all of the rewards. Filthy Rich was also painfully stupid and dull, dreadfully out of touch with the real world and practical considerations, asking silly questions like “where do you vacation?” and “how do you afford a nanny on your salary?” questions that infuriated Derpy to no end. 

And then there was his filly, Diamond Tiara… Derpy really didn’t want to think about that spoiled rotten little brat and all of the misery she and Silver Spoon caused poor Dinky and everypony else. She forced it from her mind. 

With a smile forcibly plastered over her face, she continued up the lane, placing mail in the mailboxes, reminding herself why she did this with every flap of her fatigued and tired wings, this was all for Dinky and Sparkler…



 

This was certainly awkward, Bucky Bitters thought to himself. 

It had been a trying day. He had spent his second day off taking a train to Canterlot, which was troubling enough, and then he had waited for much of the day sitting in a waiting room, hoping to see Celestia. He was that desperate. It was the privilege of every student that had graduated from her school to seek audience with her and speak with her privately. 

He and Celestia hadn’t always gotten along. She was always talking about his potential and his gifts, and how disappointed she was that he squandered those gifts, and Bucky, for his part, had spent his entire time in school trying to escape notice, when he wasn’t getting in trouble for causing mischief. 

Thankfully, he had grown out of his mischievous stage, something many unicorns went through as they tried to adjust to being unicorns. 

And now, he was sitting in a chair, the chair he had sat in entirely too many times during his time as a student, with Celestia staring at him the way that she had always stared at him, with her piercing headmistress eyes. She was always overly harsh and critical, always finding his weaknesses, always finding some new way to dig in and tear him a new one. Like she was doing right now, silently judging him with her wide almost unblinking eyes, her ethereal mane drifting aimlessly around her head, her face blank and expressionless as she was no doubt mentally preparing to verbally squash him into jelly. 

This had been a terrible idea, coming here to try and find answers to his problems. Bucky couldn’t figure out what he had been thinking. But Celestia did seem to know him better than he knew himself, and right now, things were hurt and confused inside, and she was the only pony Bucky could think of to turn to. Celestia was practically his mother. She was practically the mother of every unicorn that attended her school. 

And she was looking especially motherly today. Bucky waited for the stern lecture he knew was coming. 



 

Celestia had made it a point to allow her students to see her after their graduation. Just because a student had graduated didn’t mean that Celestia was finished working on them. It simply meant that the nature of the relationship had changed, and now, if they needed help, they had to come to her, a sign that they wanted to get better, to make improvements, a sign that all of Celestia and her carefully selected instructors hard work had paid off and they had fixed something that had been broken by society, or at least had undone some of the damage.  

What very few ponies understood was that Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns wasn’t just to teach unicorns magic, it was a place of therapy and reconstruction, as potentially the most gifted members of society were also the most damaged, the most hurt, and the most in need of help. Failure to reach them and help them meant that magically gifted unicorns may very well fall into darkness, unable to be reached. High magic unicorns were also high strung. Celestia’s halls were filled with all kinds of flawed unicorns. Unicorns that spoke of themselves in the third pony, unicorns that were prone to mental breakdowns, the ever present neurosis, anxiety and stress found everywhere and in every student. 

Celestia eyed her beloved student, a pony that she loved dearly and she had such high hopes for. Buckminster Bitters wasn’t a model student, he wasn’t the most gifted student, he had been a terrible troublemaker during his time of mischief, but all of that could be forgiven. Bucky had something that many unicorns seemed to lose during their lives. 

A deeply ingrained passion and a genuine sense of kindness, something Celestia was seeing in fewer and fewer unicorns these days. Unicorns, with their self-imposed neurosis and therapy, slowly chiseling away at what made them ponies, each generation becoming a little more cold and distant, these things worried Celestia a great deal. There were plenty of good unicorns in the world, but the unicorns attending her school where the highest calibre magicians that unicorndom had to offer, the most magically gifted, and many of them were also the most deeply flawed individuals that Celestia knew. 

Bucky had come from two of Celestia’s former students, both of whom had terrible personal flaws, and the damage they had done to Bucky had been profound. Celestia had undone as much of the damage as she could, but so much more hurt had remained, hurt that Celestia had trouble reaching, the sort of hurt that when you went to dig for it, it hurt the pony that you were trying to help. It was like ripping away a scab to allow the infection to seep out. 

And she had certainly hurt poor Bucky, probably too many times to count, trying to pull him free from everything that held him back. She felt awful about it at times, but she loved him, as she loved every single one of her students, and she had a grim sense of resolve that she would help them out somehow, no matter how much it might hurt her. 

She had already seen one gifted individual with deep character flaws fall into darkness, and she would never allow that to happen ever again, if there was something she could do to help them, she would. 

Celestia would never allow the mistakes of her sister to happen again. 

Truth be told, Celestia was very surprised to see Bucky, sitting in the chair that he had sat in so many times before, where Celestia had tried to repair all of the cruelty done to him by his parents. She took this as good sign though, at some point, Bucky had learned to trust her, and Celestia felt blessed to know that somehow, even if it didn’t feel like it sometimes, she had actually reached the poor troubled unicorn and touched him. 

He told a strange tale, a very confusing tale, of being chased by a pegasus mare and learning a very confusing lesson in perspectives and biases. It was a troubling tale. It was a quiet subtle reminder that the tribes were not as together as they thought they might be, with vast fundamental differences between the pegasi, the earth ponies, and the unicorns. Celestia was delighted to hear that he had learned something, and that he had returned the chase as a gesture of goodwill, Celestia felt troubled as Bucky explained his unease and suddenly feeling lonesome sitting in his apartment in Ponyville. 

Bucky had finally felt a connection to his fellow ponies. 

Celestia internally heaved a massive sigh of relief. Externally, she was as calm and emotionless as ever. Celestia had so many doubts on if this day would ever come. 

Celestia took a deep breath and prepared to try and help her student recover and strengthen his connection to his fellow ponies, quietly thankful that she had reclaimed another soul from the darkness. 
	
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Tell me, during all of your time spent living in Ponyville, have you met my student Twilight Sparkle? How much do you know about her friendship studies?” questioned Celestia, leaning on her desk, her forelegs crossed politely in front of her on the desk. 

Bucky squirmed in his chair, looking up at Celestia. “I’ve never actually had the chance to meet her,” he replied. “And I’ve never bothered to learn anything about her friendship studies,” he added, feeling a dreadful sinking feeling as he saw a single ear twitch from Celestia. Bucky’s neurotic mind interpreted Celestia’s movement as being critical, a sure sign of her displeasure.  

He had no idea that Celestia’s ear itched and she was having a mighty struggle not to scratch it, forcing her forelegs to remain folded on the desk before her. 

“Buckminster- Bucky, please, there is nothing to be guilty about, listen to me my little pony,” said Celestia. She took a deep breath and smiled at her student, trying to calm him before she spoke again; “I want you to look into her friendship studies, and, more importantly, I want you to begin your own.” 

“WHAT?” exclaimed Bucky. “I came to you for help and you are giving me homework?” 

“Yes,” replied Celestia, smiling gently, her eyes warm and bright. “And I know that you will do this, not for my benefit, but for your own. You were always such a good little pony once you were past your mischievous stage and began to settle down.”

Bucky blinked. Several times. He sat there in stunned silence, not quite believing what he had just heard. He certainly hadn’t expected to hear that. He had come away with the understanding that he was a bad little pony. Sure, he was no Sunset Shimmer, the whole school spoke of her legendary downfall, but Bucky had spent an awful lot of time in this chair being taken to task by Celestia personally. He had been left with the impression that he was an awful pony and at best, a lukewarm student. His parents had certainly made the fact known, telling him endlessly about how disappointed they were by his school progress reports and how little his instructors thought about him. 

“You seem confused,” mused Celestia. 

“I am,” replied Bucky, feeling the first painful twinge of panic now blossoming in his barrel, a painful thudding ache that felt like it was squeezing his heart. 

“May I be frank with you Bucky?” asked Celestia. 

“I cannot stop you,” said Bucky, not able to meet his teacher’s gaze, the painful squeeze around his heart now reaching an alarming level of intensity. 

“Bucky, look at me, you can stop me. All you have to do is let me know you are not comfortable with this and walk out that door. I cannot and will not stop you,” Celestia explained, now looking worried, which Bucky did not see, because he did not look up. “But I may plead with you to give me another chance to help,” she added. 

Bucky slumped in his chair, too confused and feeling his panic attack starting to bounce around through his brain after escaping his barrel. 

“Bucky dear, remember to breathe Bucky,” soothed Celestia, sensing something wrong. She saw the panic, it had its claws deep in Bucky, as it always had. 

Bucky took a deep breath, then another, and finally, one heaving shuddering breath. 

“Better?” questioned Celestia, still worried, knowing how bad panic attacks could be. She had seen so many, been witness to so much pain, grief, and worry. 

Bucky nodded, and then looked his teacher in the eye. “I was always under the impression that I was a terrible student. I spent so much time in this office. I felt like I was always in trouble,” he said, now looking Celestia in the eye, his breathing still heavy. 

“Just like you thought that nice pegasus mare was going to do something awful?” asked Celestia, smiling a gentle smile, a merry twinkle in her eye. 

“Wait, woah, uh, what- This has been another misunderstanding of perspectives hasn’t it?” asked Bucky, one eye beginning to twitch alarmingly. The panic gave him another squeeze, letting him know that it was still there, waiting to pounce. 

Celestia beamed and nodded. 

“Oh bother,” muttered Bucky, his gaze falling down to the floor again. “I feel like such a stupid pony.”

“Bucky,” Celestia said sternly, her gaze now piercing, “you must never say that again in my presence.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Bucky said, slumping, now feeling some shame and fear along with his panic, all of them swirling and promising to overwhelm him if they had the chance. 

“I want you to commit yourself to your own friendship studies. Spend some time with other ponies. And other types of ponies. Spend some time with the nice pegasus mare. Find more friends. Try to understand them, and, more importantly, try to understand their points of view. If you are having trouble, just ask them to explain. The ponies that are willing to explain their points of view are the sorts of ponies you want to make friends with. Stop isolating yourself,” said Celestia, her tone firm, motherly, and gentle. 

“Yes ma’am,” repeated Bucky, taking a deep breath, pressing his swirling emotions down, trying to repress them, stuff them down, make them go away. 

“And if you need help, come to me at once and I will do anything I can to help you,” promised Celestia. 

“I don’t know how to talk to her,” Bucky blurted suddenly, opening himself up. “I’m wordy. And being wordy makes her uncomfortable. Somepony hurt her… And words had a part of it. It is like she speaks a completely different language. She lifted me into the air and I thought she was trying to kill me, she was actually trying to gain my trust. Nothing makes sense. Nothing!”

Celestia looked at Bucky, whose heavy breathing had returned. His eyes were wide and one ear made a circular twitch. She waited patiently, allowing Bucky to have a moment, and then she took a deep breath and spoke; “Bucky, the most important thing to do may be to listen, not speak. And when you do speak, ask questions. Be gentle. Be warm. Be the pony I know you to be on the inside.” 

Bucky blushed, his face feeling heated, and he shyly raised his gaze to meet Celestia’s. He forced himself to look into her eyes for several minutes, silently, trying to will away his fear. 

“Pegasi and earth ponies are very, very different than unicorns,” began Celestia. “Pegasi and earth ponies are very similar in many ways. The pegasi call their herd a flock, the earth ponies still use the term herd. Both have a strong focus on family, social groups, and maintaining societal bonds. Pegasi approach everything with the notion that the best defense is a good offense, while earth ponies believe the opposite is true, that when trouble comes it is best to stick with those you know and protect the weak by presenting a united front. Pegasi approach trouble with surgical precision, making carefully coordinated strikes to weaken and cripple their enemies. Earth ponies approach conflict in the same way they approach hard work, by throwing numbers at it and overwhelming whatever it might be that threatens them. In times of trouble, the pegasi and the earth ponies have almost always managed to come together. Now, this is only a condensed and brief explanation, but it should be enough to get you started. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is this as follows… both of them take a very physical approach to life. There are two little ponies that I have the privilege of knowing. One is named Applejack, and she is the Element of Honesty. The other is Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. One is an earth pony, the other is a pegasus. Both are remarkably similar, but also very different. They are fierce competitors. They share a good natured rivalry and are always challenging one another. And even with all of their faults and squabbles, they are near perfect examples of their respective tribes and their ability to co-exist,” said Celestia, finishing her long explanation. 

“And nothing about unicorns in any of that,” said Bucky sadly. “And I know why. I think I am starting to see the bigger picture,” he finished, heaving a sigh. 

“It is never too late to join in,” said Celestia in a hushed voice. “All you have to do is open the door, go outside, and invite a pegasus to chase you. If you will allow them to get to know you, I know the flock will show you how to fit in. It will very likely assault your senses and leave you confused. They will razz you, they will harass you, they will establish their pecking order, and when everything is said and done, you couldn’t ask for better friends. They will show you the way.”

“What about earth ponies?” asked Bucky. 

“It isn’t that different. If you find yourself in the company of good kind earth ponies, don’t be afraid to show your weakness. You will find yourself surrounded and protected by stout friends until you can figure out your way,” answered Celestia. 

“I still feel confused,” Bucky admitted. 

“And that is to be expected. It isn’t easy to rediscover what it means to be a pony. Allow the herd to pull you in. Stop using magic to block pheromones…” Celestia raised her eyebrow as she spoke, her smile broadening. “Allow yourself to be taken. Just let go for a while and trust in your fellow ponies if you can. I have never been wrong in trusting the good that my little ponies are capable of. Just like you. I’ve always had high hopes for you,” she said, now smiling broadly. 

Bucky looked at Celestia, seeing her now as a friend, not a teacher. His mind buzzed with a million questions. 



 

There had been a lot of thinking on the train ride home. The afternoon was slowly changing into evening, the skies filled with the oranges and purples that hinted at the sun settling down on the horizon, and the train was nearly empty as it ran its course back to Ponyville. 

Bucky began to realise the damage done to him, worried if he had the strength to change. Celestia seemed confident that he did, and had told him so, and her words had made his shaky confidence soar. 

Twilight Sparkle had been, and, to some extent, still was, a neurotic mess and she had been alright. Bucky flipped the page of the book he had been given, reading about Twilight’s troubles, having only two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and six friends. It was a messy and confusing situation. 

As he read, Bucky realised he would have failed under pressure. At some point, he would have simply melted down and gave up. It seemed like too much effort to try and deal with all of this headache, trying to juggle all of these different needs. 

As he thought about this, he had a thought, a profound thought, he thought about Twilight Sparkle and he realised that at some point, she had probably given up as well. And it had probably been her friends that had pulled her along. Friends looked after each other’s needs. 

Celestia had looked after his needs. 

His parents had never looked after his needs. They had allowed that task to fall upon others, leaving him to be looked after by strangers, his parents never giving him the one thing he needed most. 

Bucky quietly resolved that he would begin his own studies by looking after the needs of Miss Hooves, it seemed to be as good of a place to start as any. He could start by listening to her perhaps, she probably needed somepony to listen to her. He would start now, tonight, figuring out where she lived, saying hello, and announcing his intentions. 

He would be home soon. He forced his mind into silence and turned his attention to his book, reading about the friendship studies of Twilight Sparkle. 
	
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun had not yet set. Shadows were long and distorted on the streets of Ponyville. A very determined unicorn strode through the town, with very little sense of distraction that seemed common to his kind. Every step seemed purposeful, his eyes scanning to and fro, occasionally glancing upward, as though he was looking for something. 

“You there,” cried Bucky, calling out to a pegasus reclining lazily on a cloud. 

“Me?” replied the pegasus, sounding a bit tired. 

“Yeah, you, are you part of Derpy’s flock?” asked Bucky. 

The pegasus stared down at Bucky, now fully awake, aware, and alert. 

“Yeah, I remember you, you buzzed me and harassed me along with a bunch of other pegasi,” commented Bucky. “Where does Miss Derpy Hooves live? I really need to talk to her. It is really very important.” explained Bucky. 

“Hmm, I dunno if I should tell you,” the pegasus said slowly. 

“Hey, look here featherbrain, Derpy chased me first,” Bucky snapped. That certainly seemed to get the pegasus’ attention. It glared down at him, eyes wide. 

Thunderlane rolled off of his cloud and glided down to the ground, staring at the unicorn during his entire descent. When Thunderlane landed, he spoke; “You’re braver than I thought you’d be. You have a lot of nerve calling me featherbrain. I like that. Derpy deserves somepony brave to look after her.”

Bucky heaved a sigh of relief. 

“Come on you uptight screwhead, follow me,” invited Thunderlane, taking off at a brisk trot, laughing and chuckling as he did so. 



 

“You be nice to her. If you hurt her, you will answer to all of us. We see all,” Thunderlane said, looking Bucky in the eye. “You hurt her foals, and you are hurting our foals. We look after our own,” Thunderlane added. 

“I know, I get it, I understand,” said Bucky, nervously dancing on his hooves. 

“And good luck. I think I might see why Derpy chased you,” Thunderlane said, smiling. He spread his wings wide, reared up on his hind legs, and then took off, kicking himself up into the air, his broad wings flapping quickly. 

Bucky stared at the door. He saw lights on inside. The house was on the smaller side, but well cared for, the thatched roof in good repair, the walls had fresh whitewash, and the windows had curtains. 

It certainly looked cozy and inviting. Bucky wasn’t sure what he was expecting. 

Bucky swallowed a few times, took a deep breath, told his always lurking panic to take a flying buck at a rolling donut, and knocked upon the door. 

After a few moments of waiting, she answered. 

Bucky stood there stupidly, Derpy seemed very surprised to see him. Behind her, a purple unicorn filly stared at him wide eyed, a smile slowly spreading over her face. 

“Oh hi,” gasped Derpy in surprise. “I uh, I wasn’t expecting you,” she added. 

“I, uh, had to drop by and say hello. I went through a lot of trouble to arrive on your doorstep. Is now a good time to talk for a few minutes?” asked Bucky. 

“Er, well, I have to give Dinky a bath and it is getting that time of night for little foals to be prepared for be- woah, wait, Sparkler what are you doing?” Derpy cried in surprise as the unicorn filly had planted both front hooves on her mother’s backside and was shoving her out the front door. Derpy was deposited outside, looking very surprised and confused. The door slammed shut. 

“I’ll look after Dinky,” Sparkler offered, her tone almost teasing, from the other side of the door, a faint trace of a giggle in words. 

“Sparkler, I am going to show somepony the photo album of foal pictures…” Derpy said, making a threat that only a mother could make. 

“YOU WOULDN’T DARE!” cried Sparkler from indoors. There was a click as the door locked. 

Derpy sighed, fluffed her wings, and then looked at Bucky. “The upstairs window is open to allow the evening breeze in,” said Derpy, looking sheepish and embarrassed. “I am actually a very good mother, most of the time my foals don’t get the drop on me, shove me outside, and lock the door behind me,” she added, grinning and pushing her mane out of her eyes with her extended wing. 

Bucky stood there, not quite sure what to do next. He became painfully aware of two sets of eyes staring at him through a window. He felt his mouth go dry. 

Derpy stared at him awkwardly, now also aware of two sets of eyes, having turned to look at whatever Bucky seemed to be staring at. “Really, I am a much better mother than however this might look right now,” she repeated, sounding worried. 

“I am sure that you are a fine mother,” replied Bucky. “I mean, your daughter feels safe enough to shove you out the door, so it seems logical that you are kind and good to them,” explained Bucky. 

Derpy began to make little embarrassed meeping sounds, her cheeks now as red as apples, her eyes scrunched closed, and her muzzle scrunched up as she chewed on her lip. 

“I wanted to formally ask you out sometime. I am aware of your duties as a mother, and I refuse to allow that to become a problem. I’d like to be your friend, and maybe something more,” said Bucky, his voice cracking several times, and becoming a little high pitched at the end. 

“D’aw,” gasped Derpy, now rubbing one foreleg against the other, kicking the dirt with her raised hoof. She shyly batted her eyes at Bucky, they were moistened slightly, glossy with dampness. 

“Well?” asked Bucky expectantly. 

“Dinky is having a birthday party this weekend, there is going to be a small celebration, Dinky doesn’t like big crowds, so there is only going to be a few ponies there. I’d like to have you there if you could make it,” Derpy said in flustered tones, her wings now fluttering excitedly as she squirmed. 

Bucky glanced at the two sets of eyes staring at him. Dinky, who owned one of those pairs of eyes, was smiling at him. Both of Derpy’s foals were smiling at him. It made him feel nervous. Not only was he thinking about dating a mare, he was thinking about dating a mare with foals. 

Panic sank in its fierce claws as he realised he had to win the approval of three hearts. 

“I can be there,” replied Bucky, wheezing slightly. 

“You alright?” Derpy asked, noticing the change almost immediately, her shy demeanor now gone, replaced by one of concern. 

“Just a little panic. A personal problem. I have it under control, don’t worry,” explained Bucky, driving everything inward. 

“A little panic?” asked Derpy, sounding concerned. 

“Who wouldn’t panic dating such a beautiful mare?” returned Bucky, willing his breathing to return to normal. 

“D’aw, you’re so sweet,” said Derpy bashfully, her blush returning. “So, Saturday?” asked Derpy, making little hoofy kicks with one foreleg. 

“I work on Saturday but I get off at noon. Will that work?” replied Bucky, feeling a sudden fascination with Derpy’s hoofy kicks. 

“That’d be fine,” answered Derpy, “what sort of work do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?” questioned Derpy. 

“I work as an accountant for Mister Rich,” Bucky replied, “but I don’t plan on doing that forever.” 

“Filthy Rich?” replied Derpy in surprise, her eyes opening wide, her ears perking up, her mane falling into her eyes as her ears shifted position. 

“Yeah, that Mister Rich,” Bucky said, suddenly feeling very intrigued by Derpy’s mane covered eyes. Her wheat coloured mane framed her grey face beautifully. Somehow, her eyes didn’t seem like much of an issue, there were just too many other parts of her that were too distracting. Like all of her. 

Bucky sighed, inhaling deeply. He hadn’t cast a spell to block out pheromones in hours. Hours. And now, the onslaught seemed almost overwhelming. He wasn’t used to dealing with this sort of distraction. He didn’t have a coping mechanism. 

His panic growled fiercely, realising it was no longer the dominant mental force in his brain, and it kicked and screamed inside of his mind, wanting a return to the top of the heap.

Bucky was able to mostly ignore it, enjoying the moment. 

“I deliver his mail,” said Derpy, who couldn’t help but notice that Bucky was staring at her, practically devouring her with his eyes. It was confusing. On one hoof, it was nice to know that she still had the goods. On the other hoof… Derpy suddenly realised she didn’t give a plucked feather about whatever was on the other hoof. Nopony had ever looked at her like this before. Not even Dinky’s father. It was intoxicating. Flattering. Derpy had to resist the urge to fan out her plumage and strut. 

She wondered briefly if the unicorn would even react to various plumage displays. She made a mental note to find out someday, hopefully someday soon. Derpy had never really been in a position to display her plumage for somepony that truly appreciated it, not since Dinky’s dad. She hadn’t bothered trying for the pegasi she knew, not since she was younger and more brazen. Her male flock mates had made it clear; they loved her, but they did not love her. And she knew why, she understood all too well the practical concerns. 

Poor distracted Bucky seemed far past the point of caring about practical concerns. Derpy felt his eyes staring at her and suddenly seemed very exposed and vulnerable. And she liked it. 

“Mister Rich is an awful pony,” said Bucky offhoofedly. “He treats all of his employees like dirt. We’re not even ponies to him. We’re resources. Just a set of numbers to be accounted for.” 

Derpy scowled. “That’s awful,” she muttered, distracted, thinking about her plumage and how badly her wings needed preening. She really hadn’t been taking care of herself as much as she could. She sighed internally, realising that she may have given up on life a little prematurely. 

Bucky couldn’t help but notice the little beautiful details in Derpy’s wings. Each feather started out slightly darker in the middle, fading out to a lighter shade of grey along the edges of each feather. Her wings were all of the subtle colours of a stormcloud. 

And they were beautiful. 

Bucky was fascinated by storms. They represented release. Bucky didn’t share the common fear of thunder and lightning that so many ground dwelling ponies had. Storms were wild chaotic release, something that Bucky deeply desired within himself. 

I am falling in love with a stormcloud, he thought to himself. Something unpredictable and dangerous. He had been struck by lightning, and this pegasus mare was responsible. 

“One day, I am going to quit working for Mister Rich and work for myself. I want to brew beer. Start my own business. Working for Mister Rich is a good way to get skills in running a business,” said Bucky, painfully distracted. 

“I have a friend named Berry Punch and she has a distillery,” Derpy mentioned upon hearing Bucky’s words. “Berry will be at the party on Saturday with Piña Colada, Dinky’s best friend and Berry Punch’s little sister. You should talk to her. I bet that she would hire you if you talked to her. It is rare to find a pony with hooch related talents.” 

Bucky had to replay Derpy’s words several times in his head. He could have sworn he had heard the words “smooch related talents.” He inhaled deeply, feeling as though he needed air, taking in another dose of pheromones. 

Derpy’s wings continued to flutter, with Derpy feeling hot and a little sweaty. Derpy had no idea that her wing fluttering was dispersing her elevated pheromone laden scent into the air and driving poor Bucky to distraction. Derpy had no notion whatsoever that there were major scent glands located in her wing joints, where her wings connected to her barrel, the hot and sweaty places that Derpy was currently feeling an itch in. Sweat flooded into her underwings, feeling hot, sticky, and itchy. Each flutter was causing little microscopic droplets to be dispersed into the air, to be inhaled by nearby ponies. Most of whom had been exposed to pheromones their whole lives and could selectively ignore the distracting scent unless choosing to focus their desire. 

Poor Bucky had no such tolerances to the airborne assault. He had not spent his whole life working up a resistance. He had simply isolated himself from the problem. And now, it was a problem. 

Biology was a harsh mistress, and she demanded compensation for being ignored so long. Punishment where punishment was due. 

Bucky turned once again to the two faces peering at him through the window. “I look forward to meeting your girls on Saturday Miss Hooves. I shall see you then. I have had a very long day, and I need to be heading home.” 

“Goodnight Bucky, I am looking forward to Saturday,” Derpy said, her voice a little husky. “I’ll show you the photo album full of Sparkler’s foal pictures,” she added in a loud voice. 

There was a loud scream from within the house and Bucky could see Sparkler’s mouth opened wide in an “O” of terror as she screamed. 

Bucky laughed. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		


For my teacher, Princess Celestia, whom I do not know how to address in a casual letter. 


I have done as you have asked. I have already read the book, several times now, and tried to take in all of the lessons to be found therein. It is a lot to take in at once. I had no idea what Twilight Sparkle had gone through to get where she is. I shall make some effort to go and speak to her when I have time. 

After our meeting, after traveling home by train, I went to visit Miss Hooves as the evening settled upon the town of Ponyville. We spoke. I tried my best to not be so verbose. I kept my words to a minimum. Miss Hooves was very distracting. At some point, I believe that I began to suffer from sensory overload. 

I have arrived at the fear inducing conclusion that I have three hearts to win over, and I am very afraid. She has two foals. One is small, one is large enough to shove her mother out the door to force her mother to talk to me. 

I am almost certain that I have missed some vital part of communication due to not speaking pegasus. She kept fluffing and fidgeting, which I am almost positive means something, but I am completely clueless as to what it might be. 

I have been invited to a birthday party for one Dinky Doo Hooves. I have reached a crisis point because I have no idea what to bring as a gift. I also have no clue as to the level of formality of said party. It is to be held in the backyard garden of Miss Hooves. I do not think I have ever attended a social function of this sort before. 

This is why I never go out any more. Life is entirely too confusing.

Buckminster Bitters, Esquire, Armiger of House Bitter, Scion of the Platinum Lineage. 





The train rocked back and forth as it chugged up the incline towards Canterlot. Bucky swayed in his seat, feeling almost drowsy, but also feeling agitated and panicked. It was afternoon, and Bucky had not eaten. There had not been time. He had been released from work and had gone shopping, looking for a gift, but the toy stores in Ponyville seemed lacking. There were a lot of Princess Twilight Sparkle dolls. There were a few common toys, simple toys, toys that Dinky may have already had, or might be getting for her birthday. 

It was a conundrum that had caused poor him to nearly have a full blown panic attack. There were so few toy shops in Ponyville and such a limited selection. It was almost certain that he would bring a duplicate or something unwanted. 

And that would cause a bad impression. 

Upsetting her foal would not endear him to Derpy. 

So Bucky had done the only thing he could do. He hopped the first train to Canterlot and hoped to make it there before the toy stores closed. Surely there would be something unique and worthwhile in Canterlot. Something not found in the common provincial town of Ponyville. 

And then once he had found what he was looking for, catch another train, ride to Ponyville, walk home, take care of his various needs, go to bed, wake up, and then go to work. Tomorrow would be Friday. After that, Saturday. 

Bucky took a deep breath and let it all out. He looked around him, studying his surroundings, and realised that he was alone in a crowd of ponies. There were a few unicorns in the car, no other pony types, not in this car at least, and none of the unicorns seemed to have any interest in one another. All of them were busy with something solitary. Reading books, newspapers, or a magazine. One seemed to be going through important paperwork, probably something business related. One was frantically carving at a block of wood with a magical chisel, his smile bordering on a manic grin. One mare plinked away on a small portable typewriter that was magically silenced. 

Bucky leaned his head against the window and heaved another sigh, causing the typing mare to raise an eyebrow and glare at him. He squirmed uncomfortably under her harsh glare, suddenly wishing he was elsewhere, anywhere but this train car. 

Bucky came to the painful conclusion that right now, he found his own kind unbearable. 

It was an unsettling conclusion, unpleasant and bitter.

He stared out the window, alone with his thoughts, his mind drifting to the subtle colour variations on the feathers of Miss Hooves’ wings and the way her wheat coloured mane spilled around her face. 

He sighed contentedly, drawing another harsh stare from the mare with the typewriter. 



 

The perfect gift had to be found here. It was the largest toy store in Canterlot, a massive showroom store, and it had a train that was large enough for foals to ride winding through the display areas. Surprisingly, there were very few foals in the store, but plenty of adults, peering at various toys, looking around, generally confused, very much like himself. 

“Sir?” inquired a voice. 

Bucky turned to speak to the pony addressing him, seeing a salesfilly, who couldn’t be much older than Sparkler. She was frighteningly pink with an orange and yellow mane, and she wore thick glasses with rose coloured frames. “I need a toy. I don’t know what to get. Foal. Young. Small. Unicorn.” 

“Every foal I know loves Daring Do,” the salesfilly replied. 

“I see,” said Bucky, looking thoughtful. 

“We have the deluxe Daring Do doll, it comes with a pith helmet made from real pith and a safari shirt. It costs fifty one bits and it is sure to please,” the salesfilly pitched. 

“I dunno, I am not sure if that is what I am looking for, the doll seems nice enough, but… I just don’t know,” replied Bucky, noncommittally. 

“The deluxe Daring Do doll also comes with a cloche hat and shawl, as well as a fedora and rugged adventurers jacket so you can dress her up in all of her secret identities. It also comes with a super-secret club membership so the lucky foal will occasionally get written letters from the author of Daring Do herself,” the salesfilly explained in patient detail. 

“Sold!” said Bucky, thinking that a foal would go nuts to get a written letter from Daring Do’s author. “Wait, how many letters do you get with the purchase?” asked Bucky shrewdly. 

“A minimum of two a year for five years. Most fans usually receive between three and seven, and there is a guaranteed response for two letters mailed in, meaning you will get two personalised letters in return,” the salesfilly answered. 

“Hmm, sold. Definitely sold,” replied Bucky. 

“Sir, we have a special available with the doll, you can get the entire paperback collection of Daring Do books at a special price of one hundred and ninety nine bits with the purchase of the deluxe Daring Do doll, that is over forty novels at an unbelievably low price,” said the salesfilly. 

“I’ll take those as well. Do you take Equestrian Hexspress?” asked Bucky. 

“We accept all major credit cards,” replied the sales filly, smiling broadly. 

“Think this is a good birthday present?” inquired Bucky, looking pensive. 

“I think it is a modest birthday present,” the salesfilly admitted, looking hopeful. 

“Hmm, that’ll have to do. I am not sure what else to get and I doubt I could lug half of the store back to Ponyville,” said Bucky, thinking out loud, watching a giggling old mare go riding by on the store’s train. 

“Here is a card you can fill out for the letters,” said the salesfilly, handing Bucky a piece of paper with a broad smile, preparing to ring him up. 



 

Rising Star pondered the invitation he had received from Miss Hooves to attend Dinky’s party. The real reason to go of course would be Sparkler. 

His muse. His Goddess. She of the confusing come hither stare and she of the stay away from me scowl. Sparkler, the purple pink filly that inspired his prose. 

His parents would certainly be glad to have him out of the house. He was a lone poet among a family of astronomers. Truth be told, he would likely be an astronomer as well, or perhaps a cosmologist, but poetry was really groovy and made him appear deep. 

What troubled him was, sometimes Sparkler’s verbal outbursts made him think actual deep thoughts, thoughts that scared him. Thoughts about life, the meaning of life, and the purpose of his own life. 

And that made Rising Star nervous. The poetry had all started as an act, to attract fillies… In particular, Sparkler. And now, he was trapped in it. There was in fact something poetic down deep in his soul and he felt it sometimes when he looked at her. 

The act had become reality at some point. And that made life confusing, and was a pretty deep thought all by itself. 

Apple Cobbler was nice, well, Apple Cobbler was fantastic, she was really good looking, but she had all of the depth of a teaspoon. She was good looking, athletic, and always wanted to talk about apples. Apple growing season, apple dishes, types of apples, apples, apples, apples. 

Truth be told, they really didn’t have much to talk about between one another. She was an earth pony with earth pony interests, and he was a unicorn, with a slight case of neurosis, nagging deep thoughts, and a burning desire to compose something meaningful. 

Poetry about apples had not been meaningful. 



 

Ponyville was unique, as far as cities and towns go. It was not a pegasus city, it was not a unicorn city, and it was not an earth pony city. It was a city of ponies. It was by far the most integrated city in all of Equestria, and one of the most tolerant, not only of different tribes, but of alternative lifestyles. It was a shining beacon, an example of what a city could be. 

Ponies came from far and wide to live here, and yet Ponyville was not a large town. It was a small town, full of small town charm, warm friendly inhabitants, and inviting pre-industrial architecture. 

It existed in the shadow of Canterlot, the city of unicorns, the seat of the empire. 

And it was something that Celestia was fiercely proud of. Ponyville was her crown jewel, her greatest piece of work, her strongest social experiment ever. And there had been many, some of them failures. 

Through careful trial and error, Celestia had worked to secure a guardian for her crown jewel. There had been many attempts. Many students. Sunset Shimmer had seemed like such a sure bet. But Sunset Shimmer had fallen into the pitfall that so many unicorns fell prey to. 

And then there had been Twilight Sparkle. Twilight rose to the challenge, became the town librarian, found friends, secured the element of magic, and was now the guardian of Celestia’s most prized accomplishment. It had taken almost a thousand years, but the dreams of the Founders were now showing real fruition in the town of Ponyville. And those dreams had to be protected. They were so fragile. So frail. There was still so much misunderstanding, as evidenced by Bucky’s tale. 

It worried Celestia, but it also gave her hope. A little strife was necessary for growth and development. Mistakes had to be made or learning became impossible. She had to allow flaws into her construction, or else it would crumble, a lesson she had once learned the hard way. That had been painful. 

She stood on her balcony, looking down, far off into the distance, seeing her crown jewel, and wondering how she could make improvements. Gently nudging Bucky into the path of friendship studies had been a good start. He was hesitant but willing, he had the right stuff, the right raw potential; he just needed friends to make that potential bloom. 

She had hemmed and hawed a bit, wondering if she was going too far, but she had finally broken down and sent a private missive to the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, asking her to keep an eye on Bucky and Derpy Hooves, keeping her informed of their progress. She also sent a copy of the same missive to Twilight Sparkle, knowing that Twilight Sparkle would want to take an active interest in this as well. 

It was like using a river to create the perfect canyon, but Celestia was determined to see the Founders’ dreams come true, no matter how much time or effort that it took. 

She had all the time in the world. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	


Dearest Bucky


Titles are completely unnecessary between friends. 

Eagerly awaiting your reports. 

Your friend, Celestia. 

 

The brightly wrapped box was large, heavy, and ungainly. It hovered in the air effortlessly, carried along in a dazzling blue-green glow emanating from a tan unicorn that trotted through the streets of Ponyville, his head held high and a broad smile on his face. Bucky was concerned, but it did not diminish his smile. The gift was a last minute purchase, but it would have to do. It was a token gesture, at least Bucky believed so, 

Perspectives were fragile and made to be broken. 

As Bucky trotted through town, several pegasi watched him curiously, their observance unnoticed. They peered out of windows, watched from half opened eyes as they napped on clouds, and at least two sets of eyes watched him with a great deal of interest. Those eyes belonged to a pegasus the colour of a sunny blue sky day and one lavender coloured alicorn, both on a cloud, peering down together, exchanging glances and a bit of a giggle with one another. 

It was always fun to go pony watching. 

Upon reaching Derpy’s house, Bucky peered down the walkway that existed between the two houses that were close together, leading to the backyard. He heard the sounds of ponies back there. Taking a deep breath, he screwed his courage to the sticking place and began to walk down the breezeway. 





“Oof!” 

Bucky was completely unprepared for the grey mare’s tackle. In seconds, she had snatched him, and he found himself airborne, being squeezed until he saw white spots in his eyes. He felt her muzzle pressing into his neck, down below his ear, rubbing back and forth enthusiastically. 

“You came!” cried Derpy. 

A fierce blast of heat boiled forth from Bucky as he thought about Derpy’s words. He was still prisoner in her grasp, hovering several feet above the ground. He allowed himself to be held. 

That smell... 

Inhaling deeply, Bucky felt a rush that made him feel lightheaded. Was she wearing perfume? Bucky didn’t know and couldn’t tell. It was taking all of his effort to keep his package aloft. Not knowing what else to do, he pressed his snoot against Derpy and brushed against her cheek. 

She pulled away with an embarrassed grin and a blush, pulling her head back and smiling broadly, her eyes twinkling with merry delight. Heaving a sigh, Derpy gently placed Bucky down upon the ground. “You feel awfully warm,” observed Derpy with a saucy wink. 

And then Bucky found himself face to face with Dinky. 

“Hi,” said Dinky, looking a little bashful. 

“Hello,” replied Bucky, sitting down upon his haunches and studying the little unicorn foal, he couldn’t help but notice that Dinky was remarkably like her mother. Dinky’s mane fell into her eyes and Dinky brushed it away with a casual swipe of her hoof. 

“You’ll have to forgive Sparkler, she’s indoors panicking. She found that her colt friend is coming over, and she wasn’t expecting him. She’s locked herself into her room to panic,” said Derpy, giggling and covering her mouth with her hoof as she hovered. 

“That’s an awfully big box,” commented Dinky, her eyes wide, staring at the brightly wrapped package. 

“It sure is Dinky,” Derpy agreed, now carefully trying to look at the box. 

“Where do I put this?” asked Bucky, 

“On the table,” replied Derpy, looking very very surprised. “Bucky, what did you do?” 

“What do you mean?” Bucky inquired, settling the box gently upon the brightly decorated table, now noticing for the first time how small the other boxes were. He felt the first stab of panic this day. It was sharp and piercing. He winced, his nostrils flaring, and began to curse himself for this obvious social blunder. And this whole time, he had worried he hadn’t done enough. 

The differences of social class reared its ugly head and made itself known. 

Bucky’s gift, a token gesture by his own standards, completely dwarfed the other gifts on the table. And there were precious few gifts on the table. Nothing at all like the birthdays he had attended on occasion within his own social peerage. He began to intently study his surroundings. 

At least he hadn’t dressed up. 

“Oh my Bucky, what did you do?” Derpy repeated. 

“Just a little something nice,” replied Bucky sheepishly. 

“I’ll say!” 

Bucky regarded the earth pony addressing him. 

“Oops, Bucky, this is Berry Punch. My best friend. And that is Piña Colada, her younger sister.” Derpy said, looking embarrassed. She hovered in the air, rubbing her forehooves together. 

“Charmed,” said Berry, grinning rakishly. “Always a pleasure to meet a stallion with such a large… package.” 

Bucky gulped. 

“Berry!” Derpy giggled nervously. Derpy began to titter, turning redder, her ears taking on a pink tinge. “Berry Punch, I don’t know what to do with you sometimes,” Derpy admitted with a nervous chortle. 

“You’re handsome,” said Piña Colada, looking Bucky in the eye. 

“It runs in the family,” said Berry, looking down at her sister and winking. 

“Piña!” cried Dinky, running forward and tackling her friend. After a brief struggle, Dinky had Piña Colada in a headlock and was giving her a hoof noogie. 

The social interaction was fascinating for Bucky. In all of his life, nopony had ever acted this way in a social gathering that he had attended. Bucky had only heard stories of pegasi and earth ponies acting like uncouth barbarians during social events, and now he was witnessing it firsthoof. And it was strangely appealing. He felt like a social ponyologist studying remote tribes that lived just outside the university walls. 

“Beg for mercy sassy plot!” Dinky cried, applying pressure and making Piña Colada’s eyes bulge as Dinky’s foreleg tightened around her neck. 

“Never!” Piña Colada replied, her voice strained, kicking her hindhooves and trying to wiggle free. 

Derpy grinned in embarrassment and Berry Punch grinned for the sake of grinning. 

Neither one of the mothers seemed overly concerned about the two foals locked in mortal combat Bucky noticed. Piña Colada had managed to get on her hooves, and was now running around in circles, trying to buck Dinky off, and Dinky had doubled down on her grip. 

The two foals were ruthless in their combat. 

And having fun Bucky noted mentally. 

“That’s enough you two,” Berry said, observing Bucky observing the foals. The two foals let go of one another immediately, looked at one another with a smile, hugged one another briefly, and then sat down in the grass to watch the adults. 

“More guests will be arriving soon,” Derpy announced. She landed, fidgeting nervously, and began to preen a wing while casting a nervous glance at Bucky, who did not notice. 

Berry Punch noticed though, first looking at her friend Derpy, and then turning to study Bucky, who had settled himself into the grass and was clearly using his best manners. He was sitting, rigid, unmoving, still as a statue, the epitome of upper class social grace. 

Berry Punch felt a twinge of agitation as she noticed the disappointed look on Derpy’s face when Derpy realised her preening had gone unnoticed. Berry shook her head gently, feeling bad for her friend, but also feeling bad for Bucky. 

Bucky was a spring too tightly wound. 

Sparkler emerged from the back door, freezing halfway down the steps, pausing to look at Bucky, her mother, and Berry Punch. 

“Oh hi,” she said sheepishly as she resumed her movement, walking through the backyard to go and sit with Dinky and Piña Colada. 

“Hello,” greeted Bucky, still unmoving. 

Derpy unfurled her wings and began to work on them in earnest, ruffling them loudly, shaking them, and making very pronounced gestures as she drug her primaries through her lips, leaving behind an oily sheen on her feathers that made them glisten and have a faint rainbow reflection in direct sunlight. 

Pegasi had special salivary glands that set them apart from the other tribes. These glands produced a waxy oily saliva that made their wings shed water, and kept the feathers well oiled, smooth, and clean. It also made their saliva have an odd but pleasant flavour, with most ponies agreeing that excited drooling pegasi were great kissers. 

Much to Berry Punch’s dismay, Bucky remained oblivious, now watching Sparkler playing with the foals. Berry heaved a sigh of mild frustration. Poor Derpy deserved better. 

Derpy was now tugging on her feathers with an almost frantic frustration, flicking her tail, and standing in such a way that one of her shapely legs was being extended briefly, her features pronounced. She shifted and extended out another leg in an exaggerated display of balance as she worked on a wing. 

Derpy’s display succeeded in arousing at least one pony. 

Berry Punch blinked, now seeing her friend in an entirely new way. The stout stocky muscular pegasus was certainly attractive. Berry Punch had never been attracted to a mare before. She felt a hot tingle along her spine and began to squirm. Derpy was no earth pony, but she was broad shouldered and had the sort of wide hips well suited for heavy loads… And plowing. No no no, pulling a plow, Berry Punch mentally corrected. 

Bucky remained oblivious, still on his best behaviour, now watching a butterfly that fluttered around Piña Colada’s nose. Pigeons could roost on Bucky, Berry Punch noted. Berry Punch allowed her eyes to go back to watching Derpy’s awkward display. 



 

A small herd of foals frolicked and gamboled in the grass, playing tag. Several more gifts had been brought and were piled in the table. Rising Star and Sparkler sat near the table, with Rising Star occasionally glancing at Sparkler, who sat ignoring him, except for when he was looking away, she would sneak a glance and smile. 

Poor Derpy had given up in frustration and was now sitting in the shade, Berry Punch sitting beside her, and Bucky sitting nearby. 

“I’m gonna talk, and both of you are gonna listen,” Berry Punch announced in a low quiet voice, turning her gaze first to Derpy, and then to Bucky. “Both of you were putting on quite a display a while ago, and neither one of you saw what the other was doing.” 

Derpy peered at Berry Punch through narrowed eyes and Bucky’s face took on a startled appearance as he too, turned to look at Berry Punch. 

“Sit next to me,” Berry commanded, patting the ground with her hoof and gesturing Bucky over with a head tilt. 

Bucky scooted over, cautiously, looking a little nervous, licking his lips and flaring his nostrils, his ears twitching with high strung nervousness. 

Berry wrapped one foreleg around Bucky, and then placed the other around Derpy, pulling them both in close, rubbing both of their shoulders, bring the three of them almost muzzle to muzzle. It made Bucky more than a little panicky. 

“Both of you put on an impressive display. Derpy, your little plumage display may have just made me bi-sexual. I have never, ever been attracted to a mare until now,” said Berry in a hushed whisper. “And you, Bucky, you sat stone still, never noticing that Derpy was trying to display for you, you were the very model of social grace and good manners, for a snob. I am almost certain that if I was a unicorn, I would have been impressed with your total lack of reaction to anything and would have been turned on in some vast unexplainable sort of way, while never once showing outward expression,” said Berry, now smiling, pulling them both even closer, their muzzles almost brushing together now. “What you both need is a translator… And you both have something I think I might want a part of as well,” teased Berry. 

There was a loud gulp from Bucky and Derpy gave a nervous titter.

“I made you bi-sexual?” Derpy said in a hushed giggle. 

“Derpy... that display was hot,” whispered Berry into her friend’s ear, causing it to flicker wildly. “So how about we all get to know one another and be friends… Really friendly friends.” 

Bucky gulped again. He could feel Berry Punch’s body pressing up against him. Her coat felt different than Derpy’s. One ear flickered up against his, causing his whole body to jerk with panic and alarm. 

“I dunno about this Berry, Bucky looks awfully distressed right now,” Derpy said in a low voice full of concern.

“I know,” replied Berry. “But just think, I could pin him down while you tickle him,” Berry said in vaguely threatening tones, causing Derpy to fiendishly giggle. 

Bucky squirmed, Berry Punch’s foreleg felt impossibly strong around his shoulders. She was strong, every bit as strong as Derpy almost. 

Certainly stronger than Bucky was. 

“Bucky, can you say something?” begged Derpy, who was now peering at Bucky with her one good eye, the other now closed, her ears folded back against her head. 

“Something,” mumbled Bucky. 

“Bucky?” said Derpy, her voice now a bit more concerned. 

“Celestia told me to make friends…” Bucky said slowly, his nostrils flaring, his brain being slowly overwhelmed with pheromones. 

“Mmm, friends,” agreed Berry, pressing her snoot against Derpy’s for a moment, her face looking hopeful. 

“I, uh, oh…” Derpy said as Berry snoot-bumped her, “I have to confess, I’ve checked you out a few times Berry. We’ve been so close. And nopony has touched me in so long. I think I might be bi-desperate.” 

Berry Punch giggled and relaxed her grasp on the two ponies she was holding. As Bucky pulled away, Berry Punch tilted her head and drove her muzzle into Bucky’s neck, nuzzling him briefly. 

Three very flustered ponies sat together, catching their breath, all of them smiling. 

“Time to open some presents!” Derpy said, her body shivering and wings shaking as she made her announcement, causing the foals in the yard to squeal. 





“Oh my gosh, look at them,” Sparkler said in a hushed whisper, grabbing Rising Star and turning his head towards the three adults in the shade, forcibly grabbing him with two hooves. 

Rising Star looked and saw three ponies practically sitting muzzle to muzzle, the pony in the middle squeezing them all together. 

“My mother’s best friend is hitting on my mother,” gasped Sparkler. 

“I dunno… maybe?” Rising Star replied in doubtful tones. He watched them for a few more moments, his jaw slowly falling open. “Oh, wait, I was wrong, oh my gosh what am I seeing?” he asked, leaning towards Sparkler. 

“Ooh eew, unf, yuck, aw, that’s kinda sweet,” Sparkler said in a confused whisper. 

“Your mother looks stupidly happy right now, having her best friend and that unicorn both being sweet on her,” Rising Star agreed, leaning even closer to Sparkler. 

“I had no idea that Berry Punch was such a brazen hussy… go Berry!” Sparkler said in a hushed cheer. 

“Wait, you are okay with this?” asked Rising Star. 

“Don’t you get no ideas Rising Star, I have no interest in Apple Cobbler,” Sparkler snarked, paying too much attention to her mother’s current situation to notice her own. Rising Star was edging ever closer, slowly and timidly. “Besides, my mother’s been so miserable that she deserves whatever happiness comes her way.” 

Rising Star paused in his advances, watching the three adults pull even closer, their lips moving, things were clearly being said. Ears flickered and bodies squirmed. When Berry Punch nuzzled Bucky, Rising Star used Sparkler’s distraction to lean in and plant a kiss on her cheek. 

And everything went horribly wrong. 

Sparkler turned her head to say something to Rising Star, her mouth slightly opened, just as he made his final approach to sneak a peck on her cheek. 

He planted his kiss on her lower lip instead, and Sparkler sat there in surprise, allowing him to kiss her for a moment, Rising Star even going as far to bravely nibble on her lip briefly since her mouth had been opened, until Sparkler’s brain finally began to work again. She shoved him away roughly, causing him to fall over and sprawl in the grass. 

Sparkler stared down at Rising Star in complete confusion, her mouth opening and closing, her ears waggling around wildly. She glared at him fiercely, feeling shock and surprise. Rising Star looked a little afraid. And maybe just a little pleased with himself as he grinned back up at Sparkler. 

“Time to open some presents!” Derpy said, snapping Sparkler out of her confusion. 



 

Dinky tore through her presents rapidly, saving the big one for last. There were pens, markers, two boxes of crayons; which had caused Bucky to privately cringe, because he had considered a box of crayons briefly when he had browsed the stores of Ponyville, some watercolour paints, and a few paint brushes. 

Dinky was especially pleased with the paints. She liked painting. Derpy and Sparkler usually joined her for a quiet time of painting and they all painted together. Dinky took a great deal of satisfaction in knowing she was a better painter than her sister Sparkler. Dinky never had to be reminded that ponies only had four legs. 

One of the larger boxes was a massive puzzle, far too big to go on the kitchen table. It would have to be put together on the floor. It was a picture of Ponyville’s historic clock and bell tower. 

As Dinky unwrapped her presents, Bucky began to realise there was an unusual number of clouds overhead. The skies were clear over most of Ponyville, but overhead it had become quite a cloudy day. On the clouds were pegasi, he could see them peering down, peeking over the edge of their clouds, watching Dinky with great interest. 

And Bucky supposed they were keeping an eye on him as well. Thunderlane’s words had been quite clear. Pegasi see all. 

Bucky realised that had he not been paying attention, had he not looked up, he would have missed something very important. The flock truly looked after their own. While Dinky might have been a little shy and didn’t like crowds, it didn’t mean that the flock wasn’t there, celebrating another year of Dinky’s life. They were above, watching patiently, taking in as much of the celebration below as they could. 

And Dinky was a unicorn. Not a pegasi. And yet right up above Derpy’s yard, a troop of pegasi stood watch over one of their own.

Derpy was quite aware of this as well, occasionally looking upward, gratitude visible on her happy face, beaming at her watchful feathered brethren. 

Dinky squealed as she opened a box that contained a book, Dinky loved books. This was a fresh copy of “A Filly’s Guide to Growing Up,” a booklet that many fillies received, a little primer on good manners and good graces common to all of the tribes, as well as practical life advice. Sparkler had once received a copy as well, and it was now dog eared and tattered, but still a treasured possession. 

It had taught Sparkler how to talk to colts and take confidence in herself, quite possibly the most important lessons in her life. The little social primer had convinced her that she was beautiful just the way she was. It was Sparkler’s saviour when Derpy just couldn’t seem to reach her no matter what Derpy had said, and a something Sparkler constantly turned to for advice about embarrassing subjects. 

The book was a gift from Berry Punch, just as Sparkler’s had been. 

Berry Punch sat back, looking very pleased with herself as Dinky came to the realisation that this was a book for growing fillies, and that Dinky was in fact, growing up. A few tears began to roll down Dinky’s cheeks, and she ran to Berry Punch and squeezed her tightly, as tight as her little forelegs would allow. Berry Punch squeezed back, also crying just a little bit, just as she had cried a little bit when Sparkler had hugged her, just like this, not all that long ago. 

And when Piña Colada’s birthday rolled around, Derpy already had a copy of the same book for her, tucked away in a high shelf inside the closet. 

Derpy squeezed the stuffing out of Berry Punch and Dinky, and, after letting them go, wiped away a few tears from both of them with her wingtips. It was a small quiet private family moment. 

And it was entirely unlike anything Bucky had ever witnessed. So far, this whole day had been completely beyond his ability to ken. He was very confused. His own family events had never been like this. There had never been this much warmth or affection. There had been gifts, sure, Bucky had once received a train set for Hearth’s Warming that he had never really had a chance to play with because he was never home. But it had been an impressive display of generousity on his parents part, and they had assembled it and had it running around the tree, and had made sure to show it off to all of their friends along with all of the other conspicuous consumption to be found in their home during the holidays. 

They had also sent him a photo of it so he could enjoy it too, as he was spending his holiday at school. He had not been invited home that year. 

Bucky shooed away his distractions and focused on the moment, watching the family bonding and realised that he was very, very lonely. He closed his eyes and tried to forcibly squash down these annoying and distracting emotions, determined to not let them bother him, not today. Today was too nice to focus upon the past. 

Bucky opened his eyes as he felt a large warm body pressing up against his side, realising that Derpy was settling in close to him. A second later, Berry Punch was pressing in on the other side, and both mares were leaning on him. 

“Stop looking sad,” whispered Derpy. “Or I will squeeze the sadness right out of you.” 

“Whatever is bothering you, think about something else,” Berry Punch said helpfully. “Like being a sandwich right now.” 

“Dinky is about to open your gift,” Derpy said excitedly. 

The box was nearly as large as Dinky was and covered in bright shiny paper. The foal ignored the paper, tearing it to shreds, using her teeth to savage the ribbon and tear free all of the paper, revealing the box inside. She had to tear tape off from the box, and then opened up the two flaps, standing up on her hind legs, resting her forelegs on the edge of the box, and peeked inside. 

Dinky nearly fainted, falling face first into the box, her hind legs sticking up into the air. Sparkler gently fished her out, her mouth falling open when she looked into the box. 

“Is that…” Sparkler began. 

“How many…” Dinky said, her voice trailing off. 

Piña Colada carefully stood up and peered into the box, her face going slack with surprise. “That’s the entire Daring Do series I think,” she whispered. 

Dinky fell over backward onto the lawn, never once even noticing that there was a doll in the box as well. She lay there, staring upward, her eyes blinking rapidly, unable to process what she had just seen, her little barrel heaving. 

“What did you do?” questioned Derpy. 

“Well you can’t read just one,” explained Bucky in embarrassed tones. 

“Dinky Doo, say something,” begged Sparkler, now worried. 

“Bucky, what did you do?” repeated Derpy. 

“I bought a few books,” Bucky said, now worrying that perhaps he had done something wrong, feeling a painful twinge of panic stab into his heart. “And a doll too,” he added sheepishly. 

Berry Punch walked over to peer into the box and whistled loudly as she took a gander at the box’s contents. “You are going to need a new bookshelf,” Berry announced matter of factly. “And every single one of Dinky’s friends are going to want to come over and read.” 

Dinky’s friends were now peering into the box themselves, all of them looking very surprised, little faces full of wonder. 

Dinky rolled over onto her hooves and ran to Bucky, leaping up into the air, grabbing his neck and squeezing tight enough to nearly cut off his air supply. After a moment of stunned surprise, Bucky wrapped a foreleg around Dinky and squeezed back as hard as he dared, feeling the foal wiggling against him and crying “thank you” over and over. 

“I am confused,” Bucky admitted, his voice wavering. “Even the salesfilly said this was a modest gift. I feel very awkward. I started to suspect something was wrong earlier.” 

“Bucky,” Berry replied, “this was a very generous gift by any reasonable standard.” 

A second later, all of the air in Bucky’s body was gone as Derpy squeezed him hard enough to make his bones bend in unnatural ways, pressing her face into his neck, her wings also wrapped around him, Dinky still hanging from his neck. He struggled to draw breath, unable to expand his barrel to draw any air in. 

He suffocated for several pained seconds before Derpy finally eased off her grasp. 



 

Far above them, two friends sat on a cloud, watching the events below, smiling at one another, sharing the same cloud, pressed together in a familiar way. 

“Oh my gosh that’s unbelievably sappy,” said Rainbow Dash. 

“Yeah it is,” Twilight Sparkle agreed, wiping her eyes with a wing tip. “And there is too much pollen or something in the air.” 

“I cannot believe he did that!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “He doesn’t even know how generous that was…” 

“Just like Rarity when she goes off on one of her generousity sprees. She doesn’t even know she’s doing it,” Twilight Sparkle mumbled, still wiping her eyes and sniffling. 

“Celestia is going to want to know about this,” Rainbow Dash stated, peering downward. 

“I think this qualifies as the necessary generousity.  Now we’ll have to wait and see how he does with kindness, loyalty, honesty, and laughter,” said Twilight. 

“What do you think he’ll pull off next?” Rainbow asked, her voice extra raspy from the excessive pollen that seemed to be in the air. 

“I have no idea,” replied Twilight, shrugging, and then leaning over to hug her friend, pulling her close and squeezing the stuffing out of her, speaking a language that Rainbow Dash understood. 

“I feel like a spy,” Rainbow Dash mumbled. 

“We’re not spying,” reasoned Twilight. “I am working in my capacity as a Princess and you… you… right now you are my loyal pegasus guard,” explained Twilight Sparkle. “Totally not spying.” 

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash agreed. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun was just starting to settle over the horizon, the sky now shades of purple, orange, and blue, and two little sleepy foals were upstairs, in a bathtub full of bubbles, under the attentive care of Sparkler, who loved them both. Dinky and Piña Colada could barely keep their eyes open and the hot bathwater did nothing to help. 

Downstairs, a plum coloured earth pony, a tan unicorn, and a grey pegasus were sitting around a slightly battered kitchen table, drinking beverages of a slightly more adult nature, taking drinks, talking, and enjoying the remains of the day. 

“I wanted to thank you for inviting me,” Bucky stated, staring down at the bottle caps on the table. “I had a grand time.” 

“I think everypony had a grand time,” Berry Punch added, smiling, and taking a long pull from her bottle. “You know Bucky, this ain’t bad. I’m glad you went home and fetched a sample.” 

“I like it,” Derpy agreed. 

“It was one of my better attempts at a Hoofeweizen,” Bucky admitted. 

“Attempt nothing, this is good, even if it is oddly coloured. I’d like to know what you did to it though,” Berry said, after swallowing the liquid she was swishing in her mouth. “You know, my mother would have loved this. She was more of a beer drinker.” 

“Would is never a good word,” replied Bucky. “Past tense.” 

“My mother, Pinot Noir, was standing a bit too close to a still when it decided to let go of a little pressure. The copper line busted. She didn’t feel a thing,” explained Berry. “Same still claimed daddy too. I had the whole thing scrapped and melted down. Upgraded to slightly more modern equipment with the life insurance money. Feel a lot safer.” 

“Ugh,” grunted Bucky. 

“So what is that unusual flavour and makes it as pink as a blushing filly?” Berry asked. 

“Raspberry essence,” replied Bucky. “I decided to go with raspberry essence on a whim with this batch. The usual Hoofeweizen flavours, a bit of banana and some citrusy lemon, and healthy dollop of raspberry.” 

“It’s good,” Derpy said, licking her lips and setting down her now empty bottle. With a well-practiced gesture, she cracked off a cap from another bottle. “Banana nut muffin beer,” she said, reading the scrawl on the label, winking one eye closed and staring at it with her good eye. “Oh, I like this one already,” she said excitedly.

“More banana than nut,” Bucky commented and then he took a swig. 

“Not a problem for most mares,” Berry deadpanned. 

Bucky nearly spewed beer all over the table and struggled to keep everything in. 

“Berry, you are something else,” giggled Derpy. 

“I am not the one who did a full blown preening display in front of her foals,” replied Berry, causing Derpy’s mouth to drop open in horror. 

“Oh… I did that, didn’t I?” Derpy asked quietly. 

Berry Punch nodded, taking another swig, and swishing it around her mouth. 

Derpy slumped down in her chair, her ears drooping, one foreleg resting on the table. The grey mare took a deep breath, held it in for a few moments, and then blew it out with a loud raspberry noise as her lips flapped together. 

“Don’t worry Derpy, you’re still a good mother,” Berry Punch said in soothing tones. 

“And Bucky didn’t even notice it,” Derpy said sadly, taking a long pull from her bottle when she was done speaking. 

“But I sure did,” Berry said, raising an eyebrow. 

“I wouldn’t mind seeing it,” Bucky said in a hushed voice. 

“So about us, what are we going to do about us?” Derpy asked, blushing slightly. 

“We become drinking buddies and do whatever comes unnaturally,” replied Berry, her smile wide and rather lewd. “And you, you and I need to talk about a little partnership,” she added, looking at Bucky. 

“Friends?” asked Bucky, looking at the two mares. 

“Yeah,” replied Derpy. 

“Ayup,” agreed Berry. 

“Seriously though Bucky, you and I really do need to talk about becoming partners. I have equipment. Stills. A brewery. You have a talent that I want to exploit,” chuckled Berry. 

“So are we chasing one another?” asked Derpy, her eyes darting to her two companions. 

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t,” replied Berry. 

“I need to try new things,” nodded Bucky. 

“If you want me to chase you though, I demand another plumage display,” said Berry, taking a long drink and killing off the contents of her bottle. She belched loudly, causing Bucky to flinch in disgust. 

“Excuse me,” mumbled Berry, suddenly remembering unicorn sensibilities. 

“I have to know, how does an earth pony know so much about unicorns and pegasi?” Bucky said, setting his bottle down and turning his gaze upon Berry Punch, causing her to blush slightly as she realised she was being studied. 

“Well, funny that,” Berry began, “my mother was a unicorn, my father was a pegasus, my twin sister Berry Shine is a pegasus, and my whole family is mixed up as a cocktail. Beer goggles does a pony good. We all get sloshed off our plots and breed with anything we can catch, or that catches us,” she explained. “And in a family that is as mixed as we are, communication is very important. Clan Pickled can’t brag about much, but we make darn fine diplomats and consummate gamblers if the situation demands.” 

“I can’t beat her when we play cards,” Derpy said sourly. 

“You have too many tells,” replied Berry. 

“I remember Clan Pickled from my heraldry classes,” Bucky mentioned. “Unicorns, at least to start, real rough sorts, exiled out to Shetland Isles up off the east coast in the north. Because of breeding practices.” 

“Ayup,” agreed Berry. “Some unicorn thought it would be a great idea to marry an earth pony. Love story of its age.” 

“What happened?” asked Derpy, looking interested. 

“Set off a bloody civil war, caused thousands to die. The survivors and the still married couple were exiled to the islands. All we had were peat bogs. We used those to make booze,” exclaimed Berry. 

“You know Berry, we can’t be friends…” Bucky deadpanned. 

“Why not?” replied Berry, looking concerned. 

“I am a Scion of the Platinum Lineage,” replied Bucky casually, staring at Berry. 

Berry blanched and her ears drooped. She began to look very worried. 

“Gotcha,” Bucky said, raising his bottle in salute, smiling, and trying to look friendly again, briefly feeling bad for making Berry worry. 

“I don’t understand,” said Derpy, looking worried. 

Berry heaved a sigh of relief, casting a cautious glance at Bucky. 

“Clan Pickled went to war against the House of Avarice during that little civil war. House Avarice being the royal family of Princess Platinum,” Berry explained, raising a bottle and looking at Bucky. “No hard feelings?” Berry said, looking Bucky in the eye. 

“None at all. I don’t care what was done back then. That’s silly,” replied Bucky, crinkling his nose. “Lots of silly ponies that would though,” he muttered. “Like my parents.” 

“Ouch,” Berry grunted, taking a long drink. 

“My family doesn’t talk to me anymore, not after what happened with Dinky,” Derpy said, looking incredibly sad for a moment, and taking a long drink. 

“Pegasi and their military codes and their love of lineage, almost as bad as unicorns. Too many pegasi try and show a bloodline back to Hurricane and Pansy,” Berry said in disgust. 

“For some, lineage is all that matters. My parents tried to arrange a marriage for me. I told them no. Things deteriorated rapidly between us. I was still a colt when they sent me a letter while I was still in school, informing me that they had found the filly that I was going to marry,” Bucky said, clutching his bottle between his hooves and looking pensive. “One of the many reasons why my parents and I no longer acknowledge one another.  She had good breeding and a fantastic bloodline. My parents were furious when I told them no.” 

“I don’t understand how unicorns do that,” Derpy said. “I could never force Sparkler to marry somepony. That would be wrong,” Derpy looked upset, her eyes darkening, her ears drooping. She scowled, her nostrils flaring deeply, and her wings fluttered in an agitated manner. 

“Woah mama bird,” Berry said, her eyes wide. “Now Bucky, did you see that? That was a pegasi responding badly and gearing up to kick plot. You will notice that there are no enemies in the room, but her body was preparing to kick somepony anyway. You don’t mess with a mama bird’s chicks.”

Bucky nodded, taking note of the display. 

“Most of a pegasus’ communication is nonverbal,” Berry said, belching lightly into her hoof, her own ears folding back. “Body language is everything.” 

“What was that plumage display from earlier saying?” Bucky asked, his eyes widening. 

“That she’d make it real easy for you to catch her if you chased her,” Berry said with a wicked grin. 

Derpy blushed fiercely, biting down on her bottom lip and closing her eyes. “Yeah,” she admitted, letting go of her own lip. 

“So what do earth ponies do to communicate those kinds of thoughts?” Bucky asked, figuring the direct approach wouldn’t hurt. 

“Well, depends on the earth pony, but for most of us, we take the simple and direct approach of lifting our tails and extending a verbal invitation of some sort, except there isn’t much running or chasing involved. Pegasi value speed more than we do.” 

“Oh gross! Oh gross gross gross!” 

Berry Punch turned to look at Sparkler, who stood in the kitchen doorway. 

“Little Dinky and Piña are in bed together, sound asleep,” Sparkler said sheepishly, still looking disgusted. She shuddered, causing her mane to whip around. “I totally didn’t need to hear that coming into the kitchen to get a rootbeer.” 

“I need to say that I am sorry Sparkler,” said Derpy. 

“For what?” Sparkler said, kissing her mother as she passed and taking a moment to press her muzzle into her mother’s mane. 

“About my display earlier today. My plumage display,” Derpy said sheepishly. “I wasn’t paying attention. I uh, was strutting my stuff.” 

“Oh, that?” Sparkler said, getting a cold bottle of rootbeer out of the icebox. “Mom, you have a right to strut your stuff. And trust me, you have stuff to strut.” Sparkler said, shuddering once again. “I can’t believe I just said that to make my mother feel better,” she murmured. 

Derpy turned a dark shade of purple, her ears falling down to the sides of her face, her muzzle once again scrunching up, and finally she hid her face behind her wings. 

Sparkler sat down at the table and cracked open her rootbeer, looking at Bucky directly. “Next time my mother puts on a display, you’d better pay attention,” she demanded, and then took a long drink from her bottle. 

Sparkler let go a thunderous belch, her mouth opening wide to get maximum resonance. Her lips flapped from the force of her gastric utterance and her tongue lolled out of her mouth. “I’m hawt,” she muttered, giggling faintly. 

Berry tittered when she saw Bucky cringe, his face crinkled with disgust. 

“Bucky my uptight friend,” quipped Berry, looking at the still disgusted unicorn, “what do you know about pegasi table manners?” 

“Nothing, why?” replied Bucky, looking confused. 

“Oh my, are we in for some fun,” replied Berry, looking around the table at Derpy and Sparkler, her grin going wide. 

Derpy’s eyes went wide and she looked mortified. 

Bucky, seeing Derpy’s reaction, looked very confused. 

Berry, seeing both of their reactions, looked very amused. 

Sparkler took another long drink and belched again, this time crossing her eyes and pronouncing all known vowel sounds as she burped. 

Bucky looked at Sparkler, now confused and disgusted. 

Derpy looked at Bucky, horrified and distraught. 

Berry looked at everypony and threw her head back and laughed. 

“What?” asked Sparkler, finally sensing there was something wrong, her eyes traveling around the table. 

Berry Punch fell from her chair, clutching her sides and laughing. She landed on the floor with a thump and a loud snort. 

Derpy gave an embarrassed grin. “Sparkler honey, I think you might be disturbing our guest,” said Derpy in low worried tones. 

“But mom, my manners are perfect.” Sparkler whined, looking a little confused. 

“I think I understand,” Bucky said in a low embarrassed voice. “When in Pegasopolis, do as the pegasi.” Bucky threw his head back, cleared his throat, and let out a tiny halfhearted belch, looking completely mortified the moment he did so. He slumped in his chair, looking defeated. 

“Needs work,” Sparkler grunted. “I could give you lessons like I do for Dinky.” 

“Okay.” Bucky replied, unable to meet Sparkler’s gaze, his ears completely flat against the sides of his face. 

Berry Punch was howling now, rolling back and forth on the floor, clutching her barrel. 

“Bucky, you are so very sweet. I don’t know what to do with you,” said Derpy, rubbing her hooves together nervously. 

“So,” said Sparkler, looking around the room, “when are you kids going to go on your first date? I can look after Dinky and Piña, those little brutes aren’t too much trouble.” 

Berry suddenly fell silent and went still, Derpy froze, unmoving, also silent, and Bucky seemed to check out. 

“Whatta bunch of foals,” replied Sparkler, throwing back her head and belching again, causing the bottle caps on the table to rattle and clatter. 
	
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A lone earth pony pulled a heavy wagon, loaded down with dry goods and supplies. In the wagon was an assortment of goods. Bags of sugar, crates of brewer’s yeast, cracked corn, and molasses aplenty. 

The earth pony pulling the wagon was named Berry Punch, and she enjoyed her task. Pulling the wagon allowed her to sweat out her alcohol based indulgences. Also, being an earth pony, pulling a wagon allowed her to think. Berry Punch believed that between her hard work and drinking, that she was something of a philosopher. 

It was an odd quirk of earth pony physiology, their minds seldom working to true capacity unless the body was physically stimulated. And while Berry Punch came from mixed tribal ancestry, she was an earth pony in every way that mattered. Berry Punch was fiercely proud of her ancestors, being able to trace a bloodline all the way back to Smart Cookie. 

Berry Punch also liked to joke that she was a draught (as in beer!) pony going a long way back. 

The wagon wheels creaked and squeaked, the axle needing to be greased. 

Berry Punch thought about her current state of affairs, her newfound attraction to her best friend and her budding interest in her best friend’s new friend. Her mind did its best to wrap around this new situation. She had never been interested in a mare before, and yet something in her brain burned brightly for Derpy Hooves after her searingly hot plumage display. Berry tried to puzzle it out, why this had happened, and she thought about the fact that she could “speak pegasus” and wondered if she would feel the same if she did not understand what was being said. 

And then there was Bucky. Bucky who was handsome, no doubt about that, but Berry had never been particularly picky in that area, beer goggles being what they were. No, Bucky had something else, something Berry craved. Bucky was an excellent intellectual foil. Bucky had the potential to scratch an itch that hadn’t been scratched in a while, and Berry Punch really needed to get laid intellectually. 

Berry Punch was a slave to her physiology, shackled to a need for physical stimulation in order for her mind to function at peak ability. Derpy certainly had the physical end covered. Her end was fantastic. And Bucky had the potential to meet her intellectual needs. 

What Berry Punch did not know, could not know, could not even begin to understand, was that biology was now working against her, conspiring for the greater good of ponykind. 

Pheromones. Dreaded pheromones and their inevitable interaction with hormones. 

Derpy’s preening display had released a flood of chemicals into the air, a last ditch effort to create the perfect breeding environment. Biology had sensed that conditions were near perfect, just the right ponies were present. Pheromones had battered down poor Bucky’s defenses, fooling him into thinking he was smelling some sweet perfume on the day of the birthday party, teasing and titillating his brain, and working him over. The pheromones had also worked a number on Berry Punch, battering down her psychological barriers, assaulting her brain, rewiring her thinking, and making her feel a powerful sense of attraction for her best friend, releasing what can be scientifically described as a metric ton of dopamines and oxytocin, along with subtle amounts of norepinephrine and serotonin, along with a near overdose of vasopressin that spiked her need to pair bond to new and previously unexperienced levels for Berry Punch. The vasopressin alone was enough to cause Berry Punch to pair bond with a statue, which is fortunate really, as unicorns tended to become statuesque as part of their mating ritual displays. Bucky had certainly been stony enough to allow pigeons to roost. Pheromones, and the hormones affected by pheromones, had had their say.

Biology was ruthless and played to win. It had delivered a master stroke in the case of Bucky, Derpy, and Berry Punch, finding what it believed to be a herd within a herd, an ideal family unit for the creation and raising of foals. Bucky had strong intellectual needs, Derpy had strong physical needs, and Berry Punch, being an earth pony, had dual conflicting needs that could not be satisfied unless both were satisfied. 

To drive home its point, biology cruelly spiked poor Berry’s brain once again with a healthy dose of the chemicals responsible for love and pair bonding, causing her to stop pulling her wagon, wipe her brow, and grumble about how hot the day seemed to be getting. 

Berry Punch paused, feeling a hot flash burn through her body, causing to break out in beads of sweat, making her plum coloured coat shine with a shimmering sheen in the sun, and made her raspberry coloured mane cling to her neck. She wiped her brow, took a deep breath, and then grumbled a bit about the hot sun and how it hated hard working earth ponies. 

Suddenly, for reasons she could not explain, she really wanted to be talking to Bucky and sitting close to her friend Derpy Hooves. She shrugged off the thought and resumed her task, pulling the wagon loaded down with goods. 



 

The pony in the mirror wasn’t exactly who Sparkler wanted to be. While she was confident in herself, or tried to be, and while she believed that she was pretty, or tried to be, Sparkler had one little issue that drove her to distraction. 

She really wanted wings for her own plumage display. She didn’t mind having a horn, but she would trade it in a hot second to have wings. Sparkler really wanted to emulate her mother. Derpy was the ideal figure of what a mare should be for Sparkler, the example that she tried to live by. And Derpy had wings. 

It caused a tiny bit of trouble for poor Sparkler, who did not have wings and could not engage in plumage displays. Not that she would engage in plumage displays. And she certainly wouldn’t give Rising Star the satisfaction of a good show. 

She stared at herself in the mirror, feeling flustered and a bit bothered. The creep had kissed her, he had even had the nerve to nibble on her lip. It had been her first kiss. She was angry, she was more than a little resentful, and she privately treasured the moment even though she would never confess this to anypony, certainly not Rising Star. 

Sparkler felt a bit angry and a bit frustrated with herself because of her attraction. She didn’t want to end up as a teenaged filly single mom… she had seen the consequences of that up close and personal and taking care of Dinky every day was all the reminder she needed to behave herself. 

And yet, in spite of her efforts, she felt a powerful attraction to Rising Star, which scared her something awful. He had already kissed her. And while Sparkler knew that kisses were harmless, you couldn’t have a foal just from just a kiss, something she had been foolish enough to believe in when she was younger, kissing led to other things, things Sparkler wanted no part of. 

The pony in the mirror stared back at her, a strange horn sprouting from its forehead, a horn that didn’t belong there. It should have been wings. Sparkler sighed, thinking that she would be just perfect if she had wings, but she could settle for being above average and having a horn. 

“I’m hawt,” Sparkler reminded herself, trying to convince the pony in the mirror that this was true. She was almost the total package, a good body, excellent table manners, she was almost the perfect pegasus. She just needed wings. 





Diamond Tiara surveyed the playground, ruler of her domain. For a variety of reasons that she had very little knowledge of, or even understood, she was keenly aware of the herd dynamic. It was her place to rule, to guide the herd as she saw fit. 

Diamond Tiara had no concept that her herding instincts had been perverted and corrupted by her father’s careless nurturing of all the wrong traits. 

Rather than draw in the weak to protect them, surrounding them with the strong, Diamond Tiara drove the weak out, pushing them to the outer edges of the herd, leaving the strongest in the middle, allowing the weak to be picked off by the various factors of life, leaving the strong to prosper in the wake of intentionally sacrificing the weak. Her behaviours mirrored behaviours of those who had come before her, a long terrible lineage, the anomaly in the herd dynamic that created the strength needed for the herd to survive in a hostile world. The weak had been sacrificed, and undesirable traits had been weeded out. 

Now, society had changed, and the weak continued to thrive, passing on undesirable traits to undesirable offspring, and the anomaly that existed within the herd dynamic was unable to be rid of such weakness, causing no end of grief to the biological relic of an earlier time when such an anomaly was necessary. 

Diamond Tiara understood none of this, she simply behaved as her biology demanded, she continued to try and cull the herd for the sake of survival, forcing the weak away from the center so that the strong could thrive and leave behind viable offspring. 

Her behaviour, once a valued asset to evolutionary biology, was now a social nuisance that caused her and all around her to suffer needlessly. 

Diamond Tiara scanned the playground, her eyes carefully gazing over all she saw, determining who was fit for survival and who wasn’t, her mind instantly taking in complex levels of social hierarchy, group interaction dynamics, and then performing the complex algebra of survival based on the factors she took in as input. 

Not seeing any lone stragglers she could drive away, she turned her attention to her fellow anomaly Silver Spoon and felt a biologically driven sense of revulsion that caused her to feel intense hatred for her so called friend, something that Diamond Tiara repressed, causing untold psychological harm. Silver Spoon was the only other creature quite like her in her peer group, and both were locked into a paradoxical bond of attraction based on their mutual revulsion of one another, each one driven to drive the other out. 

On some level, biology understood that sometimes anomalies became undesirable traits that needed to be culled. 



 

A tan unicorn ran, his hooves thudding through the dirt, a plum coloured earth pony running close beside him, her eyes wide with excitement and her mane streaming out behind her, both of them being chased by a grinning grey pegasus mare that flew after them, all of them enjoying the chase. 

Each of them had performed their tasks for the day and were enjoying a little time together, content to chase one another and put on a good show. The ponies watching this show all saw different things, each according to their conditioning and perspectives. 

For the ponies chasing one another, the worry about what other ponies thought was temporarily gone, the only thing that mattered was the chase. They laughed together, sides heaving, lost in the moment, simply doing what felt good to them. 

Bucky delighted in new friends, feeling something different for each of them, strong feelings that he didn’t understand. He simply allowed the moment to happen, feeling an indescribable joy, finally feeling like a pony, running within a herd. 

As the group tore through town, a purple pink filly joined them, finding a place between Bucky and Berry Punch, Sparkler joined into the chase, feeling a need to belong, but not understanding why. Chemicals rushed through her brain, rewarding her for her actions, making her feel good, giving her a rush of self-worth, driving her onward to continue in the chase. 

Berry nosed Sparkler gently as they ran, the nose touch a simple gesture of affection, but a complex agent of biology, the momentary contact causing a complex mixture of chemical signals direct access to the brain through the nostrils, making Berry Punch feel even closer to Sparkler, causing their bond to strengthen. A nuzzle, a nosing, a snoot-bump, a kiss, all of these simple gestures of affection, all them complex agents of biology. 

Above them, pegasi circled and lounged on clouds, watching over their ground bound flock members, watching the social display, observing the still forming herd developing beneath them. 

Derpy swooped down, snatching up Sparkler, holding her close and squeezing the stuffing out of her, pressing her own muzzle into Sparkler, and planting a kiss on her head just between her ears, just behind her horn. Derpy flew with Sparkler for several minutes, squeezing her fiercely, and then gently set her down on the ground, allowing her to run free. 

It was a lovely Monday afternoon, the perfect day to chase. 
	
	
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A headache was a terrible thing to labour under. Bucky was already terribly distracted, thinking about his coming date with Miss Derpy Hooves. Miss Berry Punch would be there as well, as both a friend and a translator. Panic was gnawing away at Bucky’s insides, making his mouth dry and his head throb even harder. 

He was having a great deal of trouble studying the accounting ledger on the desk in front of him, between his headache, the thoughts of two mares that intrigued him, and his current thoughts about writing a resignation letter. 

It went against everything he believed in. It was a rash spontaneous action, something he would never even consider under normal circumstances. And yet here he was, thinking about it. Berry’s offer had been a little too tempting. Cutie marks were all about destiny, and his destiny was a future in brewing. Not accounting. 

But accounting paid the bills. 

And Bucky had bills. 

Having been disinherited from his family, he had no real finances available other than what he made himself, and he was barely keeping his head above water. The train rides and the charges on his credit card were going to damage his remaining available funds. 

Despite the high cost of living, life remained popular. 

He stared at the ledger, looking at the numbers, checking the receipts, checking over every jot and tittle. He blinked several times, realising he saw a huge oversight, an error that was costing Mister Rich a considerable amount of money. 

“Mister Rich?” Bucky called out, looking at the stallion himself through the open door to his office. 

Filthy Rich got up out his chair, left his office, and stood before Bucky’s desk. He stared at Bucky patiently, smiling slightly, Filthy Rich liked Buckminster. “Something you need?” asked Filthy Rich. 

“Sir, I’ve spotted a place where we are bleeding money and I have a solution that will stop the hemorrhaging and save a lot of money I think,” Bucky replied, licking his lips out of nervousness. 

“Tell me,” commanded Filthy Rich, now looking very concerned about the news, a little angry about the situation, and slightly pleased with Buckminster, one of his most faithful accountants, somehow able to express all of these emotions all at once. Buckminster had the most wonderful case of obsessive compulsive disorder according to the employee file, and an eye for detail that nopony that Filthy Rich employed could ever hope to match. Ponies with obsessive compulsive disorder made magnificent company assets. 

“The train situation when we send our agents to Canterlot for business transactions. They hop a train, go to Canterlot, and then come home again. And a day or two later, they do it again. We’re losing so much money on this. What we need to do is reschedule everything to one single day of the week, take a three AM train to Canterlot for the ten percent discount, arrive in Canterlot bright and early, attend to meetings, get everything done in one day, and then catch a post commuter ride home with a discounted fare. It would be a very long work day to be sure, but you could allow a day off or two for the business agents willing to follow the more efficient scheduling, something I am sure most of them would be willing to do to spend more time with their families,” explained Bucky. 

“Hmm,” replied Filthy Rich, now looking pensive yet quite pleased. 

“With the money we save on train fare, you could spend a small fraction of it on employee meal perks, offering to secure them breakfast, lunch, and dinner, preferably within the establishments of your business contacts at a steep discount because you would buy in bulk, and you could look very generous. With the show of generousity, many agents would agree to the long day, expenses would go down, and productivity would probably go up considerably,” Bucky patiently continued. 

“That’s brilliant,” Filthy Rich said in a low voice. “I could endear myself to my employees and probably increase employee loyalty as well. That damnable Fancy Pants would have a much harder time stealing away valuable company assets.” 

Bucky nodded, knowing that the time for words was done, and it was time to allow Filthy Rich time to catch up, take everything in, and then find a way to take credit somehow for the idea. 

The front door to the office banged open suddenly and one of Mister Rich’s runners came running inside the office, panting, and looking panicked. 

“There’s been an incident at the school!” he exclaimed, his breathing ragged, “You need to go right away! Diamond Tiara has been assaulted!” 

Filthy Rich didn’t bother replying other than a startled grunt, he simply took off out the door, running, his tie flapping in the breeze. 

Bucky felt a surprisingly strong twinge of panic and then followed Filthy Rich out the door, feeling a terrible sense of worry. 



 

Dinky Doo emerged from the schoolhouse, out into the playground, blinking her eyes as the sun blinded her. She had gone back inside to use the little fillies’ room, and now that her business had concluded, she was going back outside to play with Piña. She trotted along the side of the building, heading to the back, heading back to the seesaw where she had left Piña, hoping to enjoy the rest of recess. 

As she came around the corner, she saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon backing Piña up against the slide, Piña looking quite panicked and afraid. 

Something inside of Dinky boiled. Her horn felt itchy, something that had never happened before. Her legs stiffened and she puffed out her barrel, trying to make herself look larger, a characteristic she had learned from her mother, without actually knowing that she had learned it. She began to stride forward, in stiff legged walk that belonged to a pegasus, not a unicorn. 

But Dinky was a unicorn. 

Silver Spoon raised her hoof and gave Piña a shove, knocking her backwards into the metal ladder, Piña let out a pained cry, panicked and now hurt, and Diamond Tiara moved in swiftly sensing weakness, her lip curled into a sneer. 

Dinky tried to speak, but no words came. Her throat felt hot and dry. 

Piña let out another pained yelp as she was shoved again, and foals all over the playground were now watching, waiting to see what would happen next. 

Cheerilee was inside, grading papers. 

Diamond Tiara turned and glared at Dinky Doo. “Get out of here you retard spawn,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes and lashing out with a swift kick using her hind leg, driving it into Pina’s ribs, sending Piña sprawling. 

Dinky felt an odd hot sensation, followed by a weird thrum coming from her horn. And then, the world went white. 



 

Diamond Tiara froze, watching Dinky as Dinky rose up into the air, her horn glowing purple fire, her eyes now white. White and purple bolts of energy crackled up and down Dinky’s body, and she heard a whimper of panic coming from Silver Spoon. 

Dinky hovered, held aloft by invisible forces. 

The air smelled like a thunderstorm, and energy crackled and popped. Diamond Tiara felt a painful crushing sensation in her bladder, and very nearly lost control of herself. The air was filled with an odd thrumming sound, it made everything vibrate painfully, and produced an odd sensation in the soft tissues of her eyes. It made the fillings in her teeth vibrate painfully. She could feel her horseshoes begin to tingle. Her tiara vibrated off of her head and fell into the dirt. 

And then, the air was filled with an angry buzzing roar. 

The sky above Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon went dark with a swirling seething mass, it made an odd vibrating roar as it moved, darting back and forth as one buzzing mass. 

It was a cloud of bees. 

Thousands of bees. They dove, as a single unified mass, swooping down towards Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. And they did the only thing two foals could do when confronted by an angry swarm of bees. They ran. 

Diamond Tiara let out a pitiful cry as the first bee stung her, her bladder finally letting go, causing her to stream urine behind her as she ran, now braying pitifully like a donkey, running from the angry swarm, Silver Spoon right behind her. 

Bees swarmed everywhere, and they were angry!

No other foals were stung, the swarm focused entirely on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who ran, running, trying to find someplace safe to run. There was no safe place, and the bees kept stinging. 

Eventually, Silver Spoon was overcome, and she lay on the ground and covered her eyes with her forelegs, screaming madly for help, which did not come. 

Cheerilee stood in the door, her mouth open wide in horror, unable to do anything. Several adult ponies from the surrounding town of Ponyville also stood around, panicking, dancing in place on their hooves, knowing that nothing could be done. 

Finally, Diamond Tiara fell. She too, covered her face, trying to keep the angry bees from stinging her eyes. She bawled with terror, still sounding a bit like a donkey, her eyes covered and she rolled on the ground, trying to make the bees stop stinging. 

But the bees did not stop stinging. 

When Diamond Tiara rolled over, they began to sting her tender exposed belly and her now exposed delicate places, plunging their stingers into her soft unprotected flesh. They swarmed inside of her mouth as she howled, stinging her tongue and the inside of her cheeks. 

Eventually, Diamond Tiara’s howls ceased and became frantic whimpers, and then nothing at all. Silver Spoon suffered the same fate, stung into unconsciousness by the writhing mass of bees, who stung once and then vanished, popping out of existence. 

Eventually, the bees ceased their relentless assault and the remainder blinked out of existence, leaving behind a schoolyard full of stunned foals and one very terrified teacher who stood frozen, still unable to move. 

It was during this moment of shocked paralysis that two ponies arrived upon the scene. 



 

Bucky, following Filthy Rich, arrived at the schoolyard just in time to see Dinky falling to the earth, released from invisible bonds, falling down with a thump and slumping over motionless. Filthy Rich ran to the side of his foal, bellowing wordlessly in panic, while Bucky went to Dinky. 

Reacting swiftly, Bucky, rolled Dinky over and checked for breathing, placing his ear upon her barrel. It was difficult to hear over his own thudding heart beat and the sudden ringing in his ears. It took a moment, but Bucky finally heard faint sounds of breathing. 

Other ponies began to arrive on the scene, Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart showing up, their hooves pounding the earth as they ran to the schoolhouse from the hospital. After assessing the situation, Nurse Redheart began to gently try and lead Filthy Rich away from his foal, to give Dr. Stable room to work. 

Many little fillies and colts had formed a circle around the two fallen bullies, all of them looking worried and solemn. Not a sound was made. Cheerilee began to pace back and forth, looking quite frantic. 

Piña, terrified and unable to find comfort, had collapsed and curled into a fetal position, and was now crying hysterically. 

Bucky settled back on his haunches and gently began to rub Dinky’s barrel, trying to get a response from the now comatose foal. Magic surges were unpredictable and could cause any number of physical problems, and Bucky was terrified. 

Panic had found its perfect moment, a weak place appearing in Bucky’s defenses. Something inside of his chest seized, forcing all of the wind out of his lungs, leaving him gasping. 

“You little monster, what did you do?” Filthy Rich growled, now advancing on Bucky and Dinky, spittle flying from his lips, his eyes bloodshot with rage. 

“Mister Rich, back off, now is not a good time, go calm down, this was an accident,” wheezed Bucky, feeling even more panic flooding in, trying to shore up his mental defenses, attempting to repair the levees before everything gave way completely. 

Pegasi were landing now, many of them pegasi Bucky recognised. Some of them began to try and lead the terrified foals away. 

“That little monster almost killed my foal,” Filthy Rich snarled, still advancing, now entirely too close to Bucky. 

Another crack appeared in the levees, and the first trickle of failure began to manifest. 

“STAY BACK!” Bucky commanded, reaching out with a tiny fraction of the force he was capable of and sending Filthy Rich flying backwards, tumbling through the air like a rag doll. 

A large piece of the levees gave way, causing something truly awful to rush forth. 

Knowing it was too late to hold back and bottle it up, Bucky reached out and extended his will, wrapping his magic around the slide. With a single jerk, he tore it free from the earth, ripping it free of its concrete anchors, holding it aloft in the air, and then struck it with several tons worth of force. A metallic screech echoed through Ponyville, causing quite a bit of alarm. Bucky struck it again, warping and bending the metal, causing it to become white hot from the applied force. And then, in a moment of rage, he applied multiple tons of crushing pressure from all sides, causing the whole slide to be compressed into a white hot glowing ball of metal not much larger than a foal’s ball. With a toss of his head, he sent it soaring into the lake quite some distance away, causing a pillar of steam to rise out of the lake and a torrent of bubbles.  

“I TOLD YOU TO STAY BACK!” Bucky screamed, his voice ragged with panic. 

A charcoal grey pegasus stallion landed nearby, slowly and cautiously approached. 

Bucky turned and glared at Thunderlane, his barrel heaving, one eye twitching in an alarming fashion. 

“Come on Bucky, let us take Dinky and go,” said Thunderlane in a calm soothing voice. “We need to go,” he repeated, his tone gentle and enticing. 

Filthy Rich was now getting up on his hooves, cursing and spitting, quite irate. 

“Bucky, I don’t mean to pressure you, but really, right now, we need to go,” begged Thunderlane, still speaking in a low soothing voice. 

Bucky nodded slowly, almost mechanically, forcing his legs to work. His movements were jerky and spastic. He let out a startled cry of alarm as two legs wrapped gently around his barrel and he found himself lifted into the air and being carried away by an unknown pegasus. Thunderlane had gently collected Dinky and was now airborne, trying to whisper soothing words into Dinky’s ear. Piña was gently taken into the air by a third pegasus, and the group departed, fleeing the scene. 

A large crowd had gathered, and Bucky could see it now from his airborne perspective. He felt his panic threatening to overwhelm him, promising torment if Bucky kept resisting. Bucky struggled to hold back, his horn now hot and itching, the air filled with the stench of ozone. 

Halfway to Derpy’s home, Derpy had intercepted the group, looking terrified, Berry Punch running along on the ground behind her, looking very worried. Dinky had been gently transferred to Derpy, and now the group continued their retreat to Derpy’s home, Berry Punch being snatched into the air by yet another helpful pegasus, one of the many now circling overhead. 

Berry Punch was dropped by the front door, and she opened it immediately, allowing Derpy to fly inside. Dinky was gently settled into an overstuffed chair, and Derpy landed, her wings still flapping with nervous energy. 

Bucky found himself dropped at the door, and then shoved inside by Berry Punch, who grunted and swore loudly, saying words that no foal should hear, causing many adult ears to flicker and twitch with alarm from the blue streak inducing words streaming from her mouth. 

Several steps into the room, Bucky collapsed, falling over to the hardwood floors with a loud “thud.” The panic had him completely now, and he began his slow downward spiral into being consumed by panic. 

“I don’t know what is going on!” shouted Derpy, now in a state of panic herself. 

“Panic attack most likely,” replied Berry, who was looking down at Bucky. “He’s too high strung and this has been too much,” she explained, now looking at Dinky. 

“No no no no no!” cried Derpy, running around in circles, not knowing what to do, fear beginning to gnaw her insides. 

“He’s seizing,” Thunderlane cautioned, gesturing at Bucky, who began to twitch frightfully, a line of white foam coming from his muzzle. 

“Oh pony farts!” swore Berry, stomping her hoof into the floor. 

Derpy, who could not think of anything better to do, pulled Bucky into her forelegs and began to hold him still as he twitched, his horn glowing with terrifying luminescence. She gently folded his forelegs over his barrel, wrestling them into place, and then began to squeeze gently, murmuring soothing sounds. 

“Bad idea Derpy, he’s gonna blow, we should get him outside before something happens,” Berry warned, looking scared. 

“No!” refused Derpy, holding ever tighter. “He’s scared. He’s still in there, he needs to know that everything is okay!” she said. 

Bucky began to flail, more foam dribbling out, his eyes rolled back completely into his head. Berry Punch watched this for a moment, and then lunged forward, grabbing Derpy and Bucky both, squeezing them tightly, pressing against Bucky. 

“A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens,” Berry Punch whispered, remembering something her mother had always said to comfort her, not really understanding what it meant, but knowing it was a quote from Smart Cookie. It comforted Berry a great deal to say it, and she pulled even tighter, leaving Bucky quite unable to thrash in between them. 

“I have Dinky,” announced Thunderlane, “just keep doing what you are doing, it seems to be working.” 

The last parts of Bucky’s brain that still contained Bucky felt a soothing warmth coming from all sides, a gentle pressure, like being back in the womb. For a brief second, he felt safe, secure, a profound feeling that he did not have time to enjoy as the last string of consciousness snapped and his mind tore free from reality. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke, feeling something cold and damp laying over his face, a cool moistened cloth had been placed over his forehead and his eyes. There was a dull thudding ache from the marrow inside of his horn, and a pounding throbbing inferno in his brain. 

He could hear voices, speaking in low tones, some of them frantic, all of them familiar, and he took comfort in hearing the voices of those he knew. His lip had a ragged gash in it and he supposed that at some point, he had bitten down upon it. He couldn’t remember doing it. 

“He is moving,” a voice said. A familiar voice, but Bucky could not place it, his mind too groggy to think. “Buckminster, can you hear me?” the voice asked, the tone soothing and gentle, piercing the fog of his mind. 

His heart thudded dully in his barrel, keeping time with the thudding in his head.

“Oh Bucky please say something,” said another voice. Bucky recognised this one. It was Derpy. He struggled to talk, his lips moving, causing the tear in his lip to open. He tasted blood and gagged. 

Something pulled his lower lip away and something cool and damp was applied to the ragged gash. He felt the tingling warmth of magic tugging at his lip, pulling gently, applying pressure with the damp cloth. 

“Dinky is fine,” Derpy said. “But I am worried about you.” 

“Buckminster, I know you can hear me, now please, just lay still. Maybe talking is not a good idea, just try to remain calm,” the voice said, filling him with an odd sense of calm. 

“Princess, is he going to be alright?” a voice said. The voice belonged to Berry Punch and Bucky realised why the calming voice seemed so familiar. 

“Nuh!” Bucky mumbled, his lip still held in the grasp of magic and the cloth applied to stop the flow of blood. He had tried to say no, but he found it was quite impossible. 

He felt the hold on his lip released and Bucky felt once again the claws of panic slashing at his heart. His breathing began to increase. “No, you can’t take her,” gurgled Bucky, his mouth a bit full of blood. “Accident, accident, accident!” he repeated in panic, causing blood to dribble as he spoke. He felt something wipe his mouth carefully, cleaning the blood away. 

“I know,” replied Celestia sadly. “It was a tragic accident. Now calm down Buckminster, while we have discussed options, nothing has been decided yet.” 

Bucky whipped his head around, flinging the damp cloth from his eyes. He looked up, seeing Celestia looking down at him. He looked at her pleadingly and shook his head no. 

Bucky struggled to sit up, squirming, and Berry Punch pulled him up into a sitting position with one tug of her foreleg. She sat down beside him and gave him something to lean on, wrapping her foreleg around his shoulders. Bucky stared at Celestia. 

“I don’t want her to go,” confessed Derpy, looking sad and climbing up on the couch to sit beside Bucky, sandwiching him in. 

“We will need to figure something out. Dinky Doo has powerful magic. She conjured a physical swarm of bees,” replied Celestia. “And she is going to have to learn control somehow, for the good of everypony.” 

Derpy began dabbing at Bucky’s lip, having taken the cloth in hoof and gently wiping the blood away, which had slowed to a faint trickle. 

Bucky gently pushed Derpy’s hoof away, and said; “Don’t tear Dinky away from her mother, there has to be another way.” 

“Dinky manifested bees, that is not simple magic that can easily be held back. She is going to have to learn strict control measures,” replied Celestia, looking sad. 

“And Dinky hasn’t had a lifetime of learning how to repress and hold back,” commented Bucky, slumping, realising the enormity of the situation. “She’s been raised as a pegasus foal might be raised.”

Derpy looked very confused and a little sad. 

“Yes, and that complicates things,” agreed Celestia, now studying the three ponies on the couch. She stood in the center of the room, her wings folded to her sides, her head held high. She seemed regal, even standing in the small living room of one Derpy Doo Hooves. 

“Manifesting of physical objects, that’s a class three level of magic,” Bucky said, now looking defeated. He wrapped a leg around Derpy and pulled her closer. 

“I don’t understand,” said Berry, leaning on Bucky. 

“Magical classifications,” replied Celestia. “There are different levels of ability for unicorns. Most unicorns are type ones. They have a little magic, usually related to their talent or ability. Some unicorns are type twos. They can perform two or more actions at once with their manipulation, like painting with two brushes at once. They have a little more magic than type ones, but not much. Rare unicorns are type threes, like Bucky here, Uncommon levels of magic, and the ability to cast a plethora of spells and call objects into reality, conjuring something from nothing. Skilled magicians. Commonly called wizards. Type fours are like Twilight Sparkle, Star Swirl the Bearded, and Clover the Clever. Archmage level abilities. And then there is alicorn class magic. Type five,” explained Celestia. 

“So Dinky is gifted?” asked Derpy. 

“Very much so,” mumbled Bucky in reply. 

“We need to figure out what is best for Dinky Doo and the other ponies around her,” said Celestia, turning to one side and starting to pace in the limited space. “These magical outbursts are going to continue and potentially get worse if not controlled.” 

“Maybe it would be best for Dinky to go to school,” Derpy admitted sadly, her ears drooping down to the sides of her face. 

“Ponyville is ill equipped to deal with this type of magical education,” Celestia said, sighing as she did so. “I have tried several times to start a school of magic here, but nopony wants to move here to teach and the city residents do not want potentially dangerous students in the town.” 

“I’ll do it,” grumbled Bucky, wincing as he spoke, his head throbbing painfully. 

“Are you qualified?” asked Berry, turning her head and looking at Bucky, and then seeing how much pain he was in. She pursed her lips and rubbed his shoulders with her foreleg. “Aw, poor Bucky, you must be miserable.” 

“Bucky, this is a very serious matter,” Celestia said, still pacing, taking a few steps in one direction and then turning to take a few steps in the other direction. 

“I know, I know, I’m qualified right? I mean, that is what I was told when I graduated, you told me to look into teaching,” asked Bucky, his eyes still shut, an alarming ringing in his ears. 

“I did,” replied Celestia, “but you are one pony and Dinky would need supervision during her waking hours. And if her problem becomes bad enough, her sleeping hours as well. That makes for a very long day.” 

“Hurts too much to be pulled away from parents, even bad ones,” Bucky retorted. 

“The hurt is sometimes necessary,” Celestia admitted. 

“Bucky, I can’t ask you to do this,” Derpy said. “And I can’t pay you to do this either,” she added, a tear finally rolling down her cheek, the situation settling in and pressing on her motherly heart, wounding her emotions. 

Bucky laughed, a manic laugh that threatened to cause his head to explode. “I bet I lost my job,” he chucked, his head falling forwards and his chin pressing against his chest. “I am going to have so much free time now.” 

“How dedicated to this course of action would you be Buckminster?” Celestia asked solemnly, her pacing had stopped and she now stood still. 

Bucky opened his eyes, causing searing pain to stab through his head, and lifted his head to look at Celestia. “You once called me a stubborn little pain in the plot your Majesty, and you said that I could give an earth pony a run for their bits on being steadfast. I remember it because you said “plot” and I couldn’t stop giggling, being the obnoxious little colt that I was. You said my dedication to mayhem was second to none.” 

“I did say those things,” confessed Celestia, smiling faintly. “But this is a very serious issue. This is going to be a lot of work.” 

“I can teach her control and focus. Today I compressed a playground slide into a glowing white orb and not a single soul was injured because of my own magic surge,” replied Bucky, leaning his head on Derpy and closing his eyes again, his head still thudding. 

“I know what you did today Buckminster, I’ve spoken to several witnesses already. You also showed a remarkable level of restraint when dealing with Mister Rich. I’ve already informed him how lucky he was that you did not turn him into a pony boullion cube,” Celestia returned. “Twilight Sparkle might be able to help you at times, but she has many duties. This will devour all of your time if you agree to do this,” she added. 

Derpy lifted a forehoof and gently rubbed the side of Bucky’s head, causing him to melt slightly into her side, a low moan escaping his mouth. 

“His head must really be hurting,” Berry said, mostly to herself, looking concerned. 

“He can’t,” Derpy said, looking up at Celestia, cradling Bucky’s head carefully. “If he spends all day with Dinky how will he support himself?” 

“I intend to pay him a teacher’s salary with a potential bonus based on levels of performance,” Celestia explained, her lips pursing together after she spoke. 

“You would do that?” Derpy said in disbelief, her eyes wide and full of tears. “Why? Why do that just for Dinky?” 

“I do not like breaking up families unless absolutely necessary,” replied Celestia, her face overcome with sorrow. “I regret that sometimes, it is necessary. Here I see a chance that I am willing to take. If this fails, we will discuss other options. Buckminster has remarkable abilities for control, but he is terrible about repressing things, furthering the need for more control. He needs to find a good healthy outlet for stress and his own emotions. Perhaps serving and helping another will be a good learning experience for our Buckminster.” 

“And what if Dinky has another surge?” Derpy asked, her brow furrowed in concern. 

“Buckminster should be able to handle almost anything that happens. Bucky, what will you do if there is another cloud of bees?” Celestia asked, her eyes focused on Bucky. 

“Cast cloud of ice, freeze bees, and then dispose of them in whatever convenient method presents itself,” replied Bucky, with no hint of concern in his voice. “I could do that right now if I had to, even with my headache.” 

Berry Punch leaned on Bucky a little more, her face creased with worry. 

Celestia could not help but notice all of these little signs and took copious amounts of mental notes to review later. The three ponies on the couch seemed awfully friendly. 

“What are the chances of another swarm of bees?” Bucky asked. “I mean, this was a random occurrence. A surge.” 

“Dinky Doo has a new cutie mark.” Derpy admitted. 

“Three little bumblebees,” finished Berry Punch. 

“Aw nuts,” replied Bucky, opening his eyes in alarm. “I hate bees. Where is Dinky now?” 

“Upstairs, in bed, with Piña Colada. Sparkler is up there too, watching over them,” Derpy answered, turning her head towards the stairs and then back towards Bucky. 

“I must have been out for hours,” Bucky said, voicing his thoughts. 

“You were,” replied Berry Punch. “Is your head getting any better?” she asked. 

“Not really,” groaned Bucky. “I need a drink.” 

“I think we all do,” agreed Berry. 

“Thank you,” Derpy said, her eyes wide and glistening with moisture, “for looking after my foal today and for helping us.” Derpy leaned in and pressed her lips against Bucky’s cheek, leaving them there for several moments, closing her eyes and squeezing a bit more. 

“I like this job already,” Bucky quipped. “Nice benefits.” 

“We shall communicate soon, I need to be going,” Celestia announced. “Good luck tomorrow. Try not to worry. I will try to find more help if it is needed. Do not give up.” 

The three ponies on the couch all nodded, looking at Celestia, watching her turn and go, exiting out the front door, the guard visible as the front door hung open. 

“Well bother... Bucky, if you are going to teach Dinky the finer points of control, I am going to teach you how to let go a bit,” Berry said, looking very concerned, “you are a bit too tightly wound.” 

Derpy nodded in agreement as the three ponies sat on the couch together, a strange new bond steadily forming. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Two little foals snuggled together in a bed. One of them awake, the other still asleep in the pre-dawn, birds beginning to chirp outside, the sky visible through the window a delightful shade of faint pink tinted with orange. Dinky was awake, and clung to her best friend, Piña Colada. Dinky was frightened, worried, still scared. She had awoke this way. She still had no memory of what had taken place yesterday, she just remembered Piña crying and then everything went white. But she had done something awful yesterday, something so bad that Princess Celestia herself had come to Ponyville, and Dinky lay terrified, worried, worried that she would be sent away and she would lose her mommy. 

Dinky buried her face against Piña and tried not to cry, determined to be brave and face this with all of the courage her pegasus mother had taught her. 

Dinky’s bad behaviour had hurt a lot of ponies, and she knew this. Bucky had fallen ill, she understood that she had hurt Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon quite badly, and poor Dinky realised that her mother was probably sick with worry. 

As she lay there, feeling all of these conflicting emotions, her horn began to tingle strangely and she could feel an odd vibration along the front of her skull. 



 

Filthy Rich paced the floor of the hospital room. It had been a long night. The dawn approached. He was exhausted, physically and mentally, drained from his bedside vigil. 

At some point during his long night, an unsettling truth settled into his mind, an unpleasant truth that he did not wish to acknowledge, yet it had settled there and stayed, an unwelcome visitor, a guest that would not leave. 

His filly was a monster. 

For the longest time, he had convinced himself that it was merely sour grapes, talk, gossip, common ponies trying to drag his filly down, all of this talk of her being bad, being a bully, all of this troubling talk from Cheerilee about how his filly was heading down a bad path and needed help. 

And he had been told the same thing by Princess Celestia herself, and Celestia’s words had been blunt and brutal. Celestia had spared no comfort and had not minced words. She offered nothing candy coated, only the bitter medicine of truth. 

This had happened yesterday, and nopony had stepped in to make it stop. Nopony had tried to save her. Filthy Rich suffered a painful realisation that he had failed. He hadn’t tried to save her either. Had he listened, had he done something rather than refuse to believe there was a problem, this whole incident might not have happened.

He took a deep breath and sighed. In an agonising moment of clarity, he resolved to make this situation right somehow, but he had no idea what to do or how to do it. He supposed that he needed a lesson in humility just as much as Diamond Tiara did. 

His brain full of thoughts impossible to ignore, Filthy Rich settled into a chair and watched the coming dawn, thinking of Celestia’s harsh words. He felt a faint rush of hope, hearing the song of the morning birds, and took a brief moment of solace in knowing that things could still be made right somehow. 



 

“Thunderlane, I need to know what happened, I’ve heard some disturbing things!” 

Thunderlane focused his eyes on Rainbow Dash, establishing eye contact. She stood on a cloud before him, looking agitated, her wings halfway unfurled in the cool rosy light of dawn. Cloudbusting had begun early today. 

“Disturbing things took place,” confessed Thunderlane, sitting back upon his haunches, settling in and awaiting what may come from his flockmate. All around them birds were chirping, the dawn brigade had worked up an impressive number this morning. It was a hopeful sound. After the events of yesterday, Ponyville needed hope. The pegasi responsible for the orchestration of dawn had certainly done their best this morning. How ponies woke up shaped the sort of day they had, and all aspects of life had to be managed. The dawn was especially important, and getting the birds to sing just the right songs could make or break a day. It was a solemn duty that the pegasi took very seriously, and Fluttershy had outdone herself this morning, getting the birds to announce that it was a fresh new day, full of hope. There were many ponies that needed hope this morning, Thunderlane among them. 

“You were there, I want you to tell me what happened,” commanded Rainbow Dash, her tail twitching from agitation, her ears pointed forward aggressively, her body posture one of dominance. 

She was much higher up in the pecking order than Thunderlane, and she was taking every opportunity to rub that in, much to Thunderlane’s annoyance. She was a strutting bird out on a fabulous display, and Thunderlane was surprised that she had not yet begun to preen. 

“It started off like it usually does. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were being bullies,” started Thunderlane, his lip curled back in annoyance as Rainbow Dash continued to diminish him. “Only things went badly for them. Dinky Doo started floating and the air filled with electricity, and I’ve seen just enough magic to know a wild surge when I see one,” he continued. He spread his own wings a bit, just enough to tweak Rainbow Dash’s nose, letting her know that he wasn’t going to take this lying down. He flared a nostril defiantly at her display, causing her to snort in annoyance. “When I saw Dinky rising up into the air, I sent a nearby pegasus off to find one of Filthy Rich’s runners and tell him that Diamond Tiara had been hurt in school. I sent another pegasus off to the hospital to fetch help, and I told both of them to hurry, spare no speed, priority dispatch.” 

“Okay, so far, so good, so you mobilised help before it started then,” said Rainbow, summarising everything, trying to make sense of the events. “And then what happened?” 

“I sat back, I waited, and I watched,” Thunderlane replied. 

There was a blinding flash of blue followed by a sharp pain in Thunderlane’s nose. He blinked several times in surprise, his ears falling back against his skull. There was another blurry flash of blue and another blow landed on his tender snoot. 

“You dunderhead, you sat back and did nothing? How could you?” demanded Rainbow Dash, her hoof still raised to deliver more blows. 

Thunderlane felt mildly annoyed by the swats. They stung, but he supposed that he might deserve them. He knew consequences were coming. He glared at Rainbow Dash defiantly. “When the bees came exploding out I did not feel a pressing need to rescue those spoiled brats. While I don’t know anything about magic, I do know about Dinky, and I didn’t think that Dinky would kill them. So I sat back and watched, waiting, knowing that help would arrive soon,” he said. 

There was a flurry of blows rained down upon his face, knocking him backwards, many of them borderlining between a swat and a punch, causing Thunderlane to cry out in surprise. 

“YOU MORON!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Dinky had a wild surge. She didn’t have any control! This could have been fatal! Fatal!” 

“Those brats needed a comeuppance,” muttered Thunderlane, rubbing his muzzle. “I figured that Dinky was still in there somewhere. Dinky is a good foal…” 

Rainbow Dash launched one punch, which connected solidly with Thunderlane’s cheek, knocking him sideways and leaving him lying prone on the cloud, his words knocked out of his mouth. “Our job is to keep the peace, not make moral judgments!” she shouted, standing over Thunderlane as he rubbed his cheek, his face already beginning to swell. “The flock looks after its own! You’ve screwed Dinky over! She’s probably going to be taken from Derpy because of this! Do you know what that will do?” Rainbow screamed, leaning down snoot to snoot with Thunderlane. “Do you know what that will do to our flockmate? And Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, while they are horrible little snots, nopony deserved what happened to them. I’ve heard stories Thunderlane, really bad stories!” 

Thunderlane nodded, his eyes wide with fear, knowing that he deserved whatever was coming, however bad it might be. “Celestia said there would be consequences for me after I gave her my report!” he blurted. “She was angry too, but she said we would talk again once the situation cooled off…” 

Thunderlane could feel a molar had been worked loose, it wiggled slightly. He’d need to see a dentist. He poked at it with his tongue, causing his cheek to bulge. 

“You… you… you dimwitted featherbrained nincompoop!” Rainbow sputtered, grabbing Thunderlane and squeezing him violently to let him know that they were still flockmates. After a moment, Thunderlane squeezed back, feeling a conflicting flood of emotions, glad to still have a friend. “You ever pull anything like this ever again and I will break your jaw,” promised Rainbow, still squeezing, the time for punishment over and the time for reestablishing trust beginning. 

“I never claimed I was smart,” Thunderlane mumbled, glad this dressing down was over. 

“Whatever Celestia decides to do to you, we’ll be there with you,” promised Rainbow, slowly letting go and looking Thunderlane in the eye. “The flock looks after its own.” 



 

Derpy awoke to birdsong, as she usually did, feeling oddly hopeful. Her bed was warm and full of Berry Punch, as it had often been in the past. It was difficult to deal with loneliness and it was nice having a close friend. Derpy’s thoughts turned to Bucky, whom she had carried home last night, as he was in no condition to walk. Berry had stayed because Piña had stayed, and neither Derpy nor Berry had the heart to pull Piña away from the distraught Dinky Doo. 

As Derpy yawned, she realised there was another occupant in the bed. Sparkler. She didn’t remember Sparkler crawling into the bed last night, but she had, poor Sparkler was taking all of this terribly. Sometimes, all you could do was form a pony pile with those you love and wait the bad times out. 

Derpy realised with the knowledge that she had learned yesterday that Sparkler was a type two. It was a strange unsettling thought, almost an unwelcome knowledge. She would be a lot more comfortable if her foals had no magic at all. She felt a pang of confusion and resentment, followed by a rush of gratitude. Bucky would help. And would probably be here soon. Derpy felt a brief moment of joy knowing that she would see him before going to work. 

Derpy raised her head, only to see that Berry had her forelegs around Sparkler and was holding her close, Berry’s face blissful and lost in sleep. Berry and Sparkler had been close for a long, long time and it warmed her heart to see them like this. 

The dawn brigade certainly seemed busy this morning… 

Derpy slid out of bed to go take a shower and get cleaned up, knowing that she had to make breakfast soon. She stumbled through the room, her legs not yet awake, opened the door, stumbled out into the hall, and saw Dinky, standing there, looking at her. 

“Hiya Dinks,” Derpy said, yawning. 

“Can I ever go back to school?” Dinky asked in a hushed whisper. 

Derpy deflated, her wings sagging. “Uh, I don’t know Dinky. We’re still trying to sort everything out. Bucky is going to be by soon, he is going to become your tutor and help you become a good student,” explained Derpy. She snatched her foal up in a hug and made it extra squeezy, causing Dinky to squeal. “And you are going to listen to every word that Bucky says and you are going to try extra hard to do your best, right?” asked Derpy, still squeezing. 

Dinky nodded silently, her cheek rubbing against her mother’s. 

“Your friends from school can still stop by,” Derpy said, her voice full of warmth. “You are not in trouble.” 

Dinky began to cry in relief, she had been waiting since she had woken up to hear those words, and the wait had been impossibly long and painful. 

“Come on Dinks, we’ll go take a shower together and get the hot water before anypony else does, like your sister, the shower stealer,” Derpy invited, setting Dinky down and scooting her along the hallway. 
	
	
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing a knock upon the door, Derpy opened it up and saw Bucky. He looked a little bleary and his eyes were still bloodshot, but he looked much better than he had the night before. She leaned forward and shyly kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush. 

“Hello handsome,” Derpy said, causing Bucky to sputter. “Berry is going to be here all day with Piña, she is keeping her out of school for a day or two. So you will have some help with Dinky today. I think we are all still a little worn out from yesterday. Let Berry help you or else I’ll hear about it when I come home. And I will be coming home as soon as I am done with my deliveries,” she added, smiling, enjoying that she could make Bucky so flustered so easily. “And I want you to take regular breaks too. Or else. Don’t make Berry and I gang up on you.” 

Bucky nodded and stumbled inside. 

Once indoors, he was shoved into a chair and Berry Punch gave him a comically oversized cup that was full of coffee, cream, and sugar, which he gratefully accepted as he settled into the chair. He took a sip and sighed, settling into the chair and getting comfortable. 

Piña Colada climbed up into Bucky’s chair and settled in beside him. “It is awfully nice of you to help my friend Dinky,” she said bashfully, leaning into Bucky and smiling sweetly up at him, and then pressing her head into his side. 

Dinky, being tiny, and determined to get in on valuable snuggle time, also climbed up into the chair, squeezing and stuffing herself in between Bucky and the arm of the chair, sitting opposite of Piña. 

Bucky was somewhat squished in the chair, and found that he did not mind. He continued to sip his coffee, which was strong and quite good. 

“I have a geology exam today. I didn’t study last night,” said Sparkler, panicking as she came down the stairs. “Oh hi Bucky,” she said, seeing him in the chair. “Somepony needs to take a picture of that.” 

“Already on it Sparkler,” replied Derpy, stepping out the kitchen and snapping a photo of the three ponies stuffed into a chair. “Aw, that’s adorable.” She disappeared back into the kitchen to put the camera away. 

“Sparkler, geology is your talent honey, just don’t panic, listen to your gut instincts, and you will be just fine,” Berry said dismissively, settling down upon the couch. 

“Still scared,” Sparkler said. “Talent or no, this test is going to be tough. And I am so distracted because of everything that happened.” 

“Geology?” asked Bucky. 

“Yeah, my diamonds showed up when I cracked open my secondary school geology textbook and read the introduction,” explained Sparkler. 

“A study of pressure,” commented Bucky. 

“Oh my gosh, I’ve never thought of it that way,” replied Sparkler, looking surprised. “Which explains why I feel metamorphic.” 

“What an igneous line of thinking,” Bucky agreed. 

“Geologists do it to get stoned,” Sparkler said, smiling, causing Berry and Derpy to cringe. 

“You monster!” exclaimed Derpy. “Stop!” 

Sparkler trotted into the kitchen, disappearing through the doorway. After a few moments, there was grunting and stomping. 

“Pegasi and their need to put peanut butter jar lids on so darn tight!” cursed Sparkler from inside the kitchen, causing Derpy to blush. 

“You know, you could call the test for type two unicorns the peanut butter test,” Berry said, thinking out loud. “They have to turn the jar one direction and the lid in a different direction. I don’t think a type one unicorn could do that.” 

“Nope,” replied Bucky, sipping coffee and resigning himself to being squeezed by Piña and Dinky, who were both squeezing him tightly now. “My horn hasn’t hurt this bad since I affixed Celestia’s desk in the headmistress’ office to the ceiling along with everything else in the room, turning everything upside down. Even the big decorative water clock was dripping upwards and keeping perfect time.” 

“What happened?” asked Berry, giggling. 

“I was called into Celestia’s office, and she was sitting at her desk. On the ceiling. She told me to take a seat in the chair, which I could not do, because it was upside down. I was in the throes of my mischievous stage,” Bucky explained with a chuckle. 

“Bad pony!” Piña scolded, pulling away from Bucky and waving a hoof. 

“You have no idea,” Bucky said, smiling down at her. 

“I bet she looked funny sitting upside down,” Derpy said, smiling broadly. 

“She was furious with me for rearranging her office. And popping a well-protected magical lock. And forever causing her water clock to drip upwards, no matter what anypony did with it. It’s broke,” Bucky replied, wrapping a foreleg around Piña absentmindedly and squeezing her close, not really thinking about what it was he was doing. 

“If you can do that, why work as an accountant?” Berry asked. 

“I like keeping order,” Bucky answered. “I don’t know. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and my cutie mark didn’t show up until only recently. I was directionless.” 

“Can you show me how to stick things to the ceiling?” asked Dinky Doo, looking up at Bucky with big innocent eyes. 

Bucky looked down at Dinky and then at Derpy, and the look on Derpy’s face was one that promised pain. As in a detailed explanation as to the reasons and specifics that pegasi are brutes kind of pain. “Probably not,” replied Bucky, looking down at Dinky and then back at Derpy, who was still glaring at him, as if just daring him to do it while she was away from home. 

“I don’t think I need to translate that,” Berry said, yawning. 

“I gotta go!” Sparkler shouted, tearing through the living room, snatching up her schoolbag, kissing her mother, and then flying out the door. She came back in a moment later, skittering through the living room, kissed Dinky, kissed Piña, poked Bucky playfully with her hoof, and then blew a raspberry on Berry Punch’s neck, causing Berry Punch to collapse with laughter on the couch. 

And then, she was gone, leaving Derpy to close the door that had been left open. 

“Teenage fillies,” Derpy muttered, shaking her head. 

“So, uh, about our date tonight…” asked Berry. “How is that going to work if Bucky needs to keep an eye on Dinky?” 

“I have no idea,” Bucky admitted, finishing off his coffee. 

“I suppose leaving her with Sparkler is no longer a good option,” Derpy said. 

“It might be okay if Dinky is kept calm and quiet. Once the magic manifests and starts, it tends to come out in spurts. Happens in early foal hood too,” Bucky said. 

“Dinky put me through some trying times when she was very little,” Derpy admitted. “She once sprouted wings.” 

“Oh my…” Bucky gasped, his mouth left hanging open. 

“She flew out the window,” Berry said. 

Derpy nodded and gave Dinky the stinkeye. “You scared mommy so badly.” 

Dinky buried her face into Bucky’s side, hiding from her mother’s gaze. 

“Come here Dinky, hug me, I have to go,” begged Derpy, unable to bear the sight of Dinky hiding, holding out her forelegs as she balanced on her haunches. 

Dinky burst free from the chair, along with Piña, both of them running for a hug, squeezing madly, Derpy squishing them both back, wrapping them in her wings. “I should be home sometime after noon if all goes well,” Derpy said. “Bucky, Berry, we might have to settle for a nice meal around the table together, foals and all.” 

“I like the sound of that,” Berry said. “I’ll even get off my lazy plot and cook.” 

“Uh, I think I might prefer that actually. I really don’t like going into places crowded with strange ponies. Sometimes I get a bit panicky,” Bucky said slowly and carefully, aware of the fact that Derpy and Berry had both been witnesses to his panic attacks. 

“I gotta go,” Derpy said, tugging herself free from the embrace of two foals. She smiled at everypony in the room and then was gone, out the door. 

“We are going to get started very soon,” promised Bucky, looking at Dinky. “Are you ready to learn a bit of magic?” 

Dinky nodded. “My horn has been tingling and feeling funny,” the foal confessed. 

“That’s normal,” Bucky explained in a careful friendly and warm voice. “Once you have your first big surge, and I mean your first real grown up surge, it is like taking a cap off of a soda bottle. You cannot put the cap back on very well and soda just keeps leaking out. Do you understand?” he asked, saying each word slowly and carefully, 

Dinky nodded again. “I think so. So the magic is going to keep coming?” she asked, her head tilting to the side, and looking very curious. 

“Yes Dinky Doo. The magic must be released or the pressure will build up and eventually, you will have a magical accident. But you don’t want the magic to keep leaking either. You have to hold it in until it is safe to release it in a big burst,” Bucky explained, making gestures with his hooves and smiling. 

“So it is like potty training.” Dinky said, her muzzle scrunching. “Mama said I caught on to potty training real quick,” the adorable little foal said, scratching her chin with a hoof. “Will it feel good if I hold it in a while and let it out in a big flood?” she asked, causing Berry Punch to explode with laughter. 

“Uh, um, yeah, actually. It will feel really good. The body has a way to reward you for careful control and release,” Bucky replied in very embarrassed tones. “Holding back a lot of magic and letting it go can be a very pleasant experience.” 

Berry Punch stopped laughing, stared at Bucky, and then at Dinky. She had a very confused look on her face. She returned her gaze to Bucky, her eyes piercing. 

Bucky nodded faintly at Berry Punch, saying nothing. 

“Oh,” gasped Berry Punch. “I suppose Derpy will needing to have a chat with our wee Dinky Doo at some point about being a big grown up filly… And that book is going to come in real handy sooner than we thought. Come on Piña, we need to let these two go to work. I’ll read you some Daring Do or something.” 



 

Popcorn. The table was covered in tiny golden brown popcorn kernels. A few had been placed in various spots around the table, and a jar full of popcorn kernels stood at the other end of the table. 

“Popcorn?” asked Dinky. “I can have popcorn?” she asked, excitedly. “I love popcorn!” 

“Yes, but you first must pop the popcorn. This is a proud unicorn tradition that any unicorn can do. Are you ready to learn the ancient art of unicorn popcorn popping?” Bucky asked, a slight smile on his face. 

“Am I ever!” Dinky replied, bouncing up and down in her chair. 

“Alright then Dinky, I need you to calm down, begin taking deep breaths. and then I want you to picture in your mind reaching out and touching he popcorn kernel with an invisible touch. Imagine a big invisible hoof coming down and touching it, lightly, and then think about warm thoughts. Just a little bit of warm, not too much. Got that?” Bucky explained. 

Dinky nodded. “But keep ‘splainin’ I learn better when somepony repeats stuff,” she asked. 

“Alright then Dinky. Deep breaths, and then imagine reaching out and touching them with something invisible. It can be a hoof… Or a feather, if you want to pretend you are a pegasus and you have wings. Just reach out, gently prod the popcorn, and think warm thoughts. This is called extending your will, and learning how to do this will allow you to do anything you set your mind to doing. We aren’t type fours, but our types once raised the sun together,” Bucky said, talking slowly and trying to make sure he could see Dinky’s face lighting up with some degree of understanding. 

“Can Sparkler do this?” asked Dinky. 

“Any unicorn should be able to do this,” Bucky answered. “And if you’d like, I will sit down with you and we will teach Sparkler together how to make popcorn, but only after you show that you can.” 

Dinky began to concentrate, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, her eyes narrowing, her horn began to glow with purple light. 

It was a good sign. Near instant horn ignition was always a good sign, except when it was a bad sign. Bucky could feel raw magic building in the air, and he sat ready to react at a moment’s notice. The air began to thrum slightly. 

A single popcorn kernel began to wobble back and forth, rolling around slightly on the table. But nothing else happened. 

“My horn feels itchy and hot,” complained Dinky, pressing her hooves against the table. 

“You are doing fine, keep focus Dinky,” urged Bucky, now leaning against the table and wanting Dinky to succeed. 

A new chase had begun. 

For a moment, Dinky felt real power, and control, which she had not felt yesterday. 

The popcorn kernel made an odd sound, rocking back forth on the table, and then, suddenly, there was a POP! 

Bucky caught the popcorn before it could fly across the room and set it down gently on the table. “Lesson two. You must now levitate the popcorn to your mouth if you want to eat it. No hooves,” he said in a commanding but gentle voice. “And, eventually, you will learn to catch the popcorn before it takes off.” 

“I can float one of mama’s feathers,” Dinky said, looking at the popcorn greedily. 

“Then this will be a piece of cake,” Bucky said. 

With a crow of triumph, Dinky levitated the popcorn into the air, made it zig zag a few times, and then gobbled it. She beamed, looking very pleased with herself. “My horn feels better,” she mentioned, reaching up and rubbing at the side of her head. 

“Very good, now try again,” Bucky urged, wanting to strike while the iron was hot. 

Dinky focused, staring at a kernel, which popped almost instantly. She caught it too, before Bucky had a chance to grab it, pulling it in to gobble it down. “This is easy!” she cried as she chewed. “I’ll never go hungry ever, I can make popcorn!” 

Dinky focused on another kernel without being told, popped it, snatched it, and ate it, all in a smooth sequence. 

As Dinky focused on another kernel, purple sparks flew from her horn. “Ow ow ow!” Dinky cried, holding her head in her hooves. Her horn glowed brightly, more sparks spilling forth. 

The jar full of popcorn exploded, Bucky seizing the glass as it detonated, but the kernels were not contained. The kitchen filled with a cacophony of pops, and was filled with popcorn, which covered the table in a deep pile, and the floor around the table was completely covered. 

“Berry, bring Piña quick! There’s popcorn!” Bucky cried, fusing the glass jar back together and helping himself to the fresh hot popcorn,

Berry burst into the kitchen a moment later, her little sister Piña hot on her heels, and Berry’s eyes went wide with the sight of all the popcorn. 

“Nummy!” Piña shouted, climbing up into a chair at the table. 

“Dinky Doo, what did you do?” Berry asked. 

“I made popcorn!” Dinky said, beaming proudly. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a knock upon the door. It was nearly noon, and the knock was a sturdy and commanding knock. Berry Punch stood near the door, nervous. Bucky glanced at out the window, and saw the one pony he didn’t want to see right now. 

His magic ready, he pulled open the door and stared at Filthy Rich. 

The two of them stared at one another for a while, Filthy Rich looking absolutely awful. He clearly had not slept. Bucky had a few odd bits of popcorn in his mane. There was a difficult silence that had built between them. 

“Look, I wanted to say a few things, please, let me speak before you magic me away or slam the door,” asked Filthy Rich. 

“I can be reasonable,” Bucky replied, his horn glowing, saying everything that really needed to be said. Bucky didn’t need to make threats. He merely needed to apply several thousand tons of force to a small singular area or fuse a couple of hydrogen atoms in the general vicinity of something he didn’t like. 

“I am really sorry about yesterday, I said things, I said bad things, things I am not proud of right now, things that are keeping me from sleeping along with all of my other worries. I want to know, is Dinky okay? I don’t really know about magic, but I do know that surges can hurt…” Filthy Rich trailed off, not knowing what else to say. 

“Dinky is fine,” replied Bucky. 

“You don’t need to quit your job, but I understand if you do,” mumbled Filthy Rich, his exhaustion garbling his words. 

“I have agreed to become Dinky’s tutor, to teach her control, to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, because it seems that there are some ponies around that like to antagonise other ponies, causing them to have severe magical-emotional outbursts,” Bucky replied. 

Filthy Rich trembled for a moment, shook his head to clear it, and then looked at Bucky. “How are you going to pay your bills?” he asked, real concern on his face. 

“I am being paid by the Crown to be a tutor so this foal doesn’t have to be forcibly taken from her mother,” Bucky replied, taking some private satisfaction in watching Filthy Rich flinch. 

Filthy Rich licked his dry lips nervously, his ears drooping downwards, his back slumping, and his head dropped a bit. He no longer looked so proud. “Whatever the crown is paying you, I will pay for half of it. I will speak to Princess Celestia the first chance I get and try to make arrangements. Amends need to be made on my end. This should have never have happened. I, I don’t know what else to say, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking several times from nervousness. 

Bucky nodded, and slowly extended a hoof, looking Filthy Rich directly in the eye. 

Filthy Rich looked down at Bucky’s hoof, staring at it for a moment, considering the gesture being made, and relief flooded over his contorted and stressed out features. He slowly raised his own hoof and knocked it against Bucky’s. 

“And if there is anything you need for her studies, anything at all, don’t take the long trip into Canterlot, it is time consuming and expensive. Come and talk to me, I will have my agents procure anything you need at no expense to yourself. Please, keep her safe and at home with her mother. I’ve seen what losing a mother has done to Diamond Tiara, nopony deserves that,” Filthy Rich said, no longer able to meet Bucky’s gaze, his voice full of shame.  

“I will take that into consideration,” Bucky said, nodding slightly. 

“I must be going,” Filthy Rich said, unable to raise his eyes from the ground, turning tail, and then leaving in a slow exhausted shuffle. 

“I was not expecting that,” Berry said in a tone thick with disbelief. 

“Neither was I,” replied Bucky, shutting the door. 



 

“Sparkler, I heard what happened with Dinky, is there anything I can do to help?” 

Sparkler heaved what she felt was an obligatory groan and hung her head, doing her best not to look at Rising Star. She was feeling particularly emotionally vulnerable, and she might be tempted to allow him to comfort her.

“Sparkler, really, I just want to talk to you, I want to help. Look, I know all about your fear about being a single mom… your mother told me a few things and a gang of pegasi hung around to give me meaningful looks and I, uh, well, I’d like to keep living with all of my limbs still connected to my body, and, uh…” 

“Ooh I cannot believe she would do that!” Sparkler interrupted. 

“Look your mother really loves you and…” 

“Ugh, I could die from embarrassment right now,” she said, cutting Rising Star off again. 

“Sparkler Doo Hooves, will you please let me talk to you!” Rising Star snapped. 

Sparkler froze, silent, now looking up at Rising Star, who was wearing dark glasses. His black mane stood out in all directions, completely mussed up from the wind. She sat down, meekly, completely cowed, her entirely carefully constructed facade completely dismantled. Rising Star was looking at her, his blue eyes barely visible over the top edges of his dark glasses, his face composed and serious. 

“Look, I made one mistake already, and I learned from it, and I’ve learned that you are the most amazing filly ever and that you are somepony worth knowing, and I am not going to screw that up. I want to get to know what is behind your horn and in between your ears. I am worried about your younger sister. My parents are worried sick about your younger sister, and all three of us are willing to help. We’re not particularly magical, but we’ve learned something living here in Ponyville and that is to be good neighbors. I am also worried about you and I know I am a bit of a creep for sneaking up on you and kissing you, and I would tell you I am sorry but I wouldn’t mean it, and gosh… Sparkler, are you alright? I know everybody is worried about Dinky, but how are you holding together? Somepony has to worry about you, you do all of the worrying for everypony else, looking after your sister, helping your mother, looking after Piña, and helping Berry pull wagons…” Rising Star said, a long string of words pouring out of his mouth, his nerves causing his ears to flicker wildly. 

Sparkler continued to sit in stunned silence, her eyes blinking rapidly, her ears perked straight up. 

“You’re like the only pony around my age that thinks at my level. Apple Cobbler was a vacuous airhead. You are way out of my league, but I am stupid enough to keep trying anyway,” Rising Star added, his glasses slipping further down his nose. 

“Don’t stop trying,” gasped Sparkler, just barely able to get the words out. She could hear Rising Star’s gulp after she spoke. She felt uncomfortably hot and her frogs felt sweaty. 

“I came to the conclusion that you and I don’t speak the same language,” confessed Rising Star. “I had to really think about our differences. I’m a colt, you’re a filly, I am a unicorn raised by unicorns, and you are a unicorn that acts just like a pegasus because you were raised by one. And we have communication issues. I aim to remedy that,” he added, his voice suffering from adolescent pitch changes and cracks. 

Sparkler nodded. 

Rising Star took one hesitant step closer to Sparkler, his movements slow and jerky, his lower lip quivering. He took another step and froze, looking terrified. He hiked his glasses up his nose with his magic, pressed his lips together, and then took another step. 

Closing his eyes behind his glasses, he leaned forward and snoot-bumped Sparkler, he then raised one trembling foreleg, rubbed his fetlock against her cheek, and, without saying a word, he took off running. 

Sparkler sat there in stunned silence. 

“Don’t just sit there you eggheaded dweeb!” Rainbow Dash called down from her cloud. “Go after him! Are you stupid?” 

Sparkler took a moment to process the events taking place, and then took off running once again after Rising Star, this time not angry, but something else… 

Something pleasant. 

Sparkler was chasing something worth having. 

As she took off running, for a brief moment, Sparkler felt comfortable in her own skin, an odd sensation that she couldn’t make sense of. 

What she did not know was that Rising Star’s words about wanting to get to know what was behind her horn and between her ears had resonated deep within her psyche, cutting past all of the body image issues that she had, a burden that so many teenage fillies had to bear, but was particularly bad for Sparkler because she had a hard time accepting her tribal identity. Her mind had taken hold of the notion that somepony was willing to look past what she felt was a flaw and it filled her with hope. 

There was also the double whammy that Rising Star had just spoken pegasi to her, and it had inflamed her inner being that knew perfectly well what it was, even if the outside body didn’t agree with it, and her conscious mind sometimes doubted it. 

She was a pegasus with earth pony sensibilities, trapped in the body of a unicorn, and her name was Sparkler Doo Hooves. 





Berry Punch watched her sister Piña Colada use rubber mucilage to stick bits of macaroni to paper, sprawled out on the floor, bits of macaroni everywhere. Piña was having a quiet reflective moment, being a good earth pony, keeping her legs and body busy so her mind could do some serious thinking. 

Berry Punch could read all of the signs. 

In her many long musings, sometimes a bit pickled, Berry Punch had come to a conclusion about earth ponies. Not only did they have a connection to the earth, which she knew she had, quite a few had much higher senses of situational awareness, because reading other ponies really wasn’t all that different than reading seasons and the signs of nature. The pegasi had lost this ability for deep subconscious understanding at some point, after they had wings and flew away, sundering their connection to the earth, and they had created a highly physical language to replace it. Nonverbal communication was just a part of nature, something that Berry was deeply in touch with, a vital part of her pony essence, something she valued to no end. She was perfectly happy being an earth pony and she treasured her connection to the earth. Sensing the subtle communications within the herd was just as easy as always knowing which was north for her, something Berry treasured, knowing that no matter how confused or befuddled she might become while on a philosophical bender assisted by Liquid Learning, she could never become lost, being a living, walking compass. 

She could feel the subtle vibrations that moved through a herd just as easily as she could feel the subtle vibrations of the earth communicating with her through her hooves. 

Berry’s thoughts were interrupted by Dinky Doo letting out an exclamation of surprise. After smiling for a moment, she resumed her knitting, allowing her body to put forth effort so her brain could concentrate. One of Berry’s wisest decisions was making friends with Fluttershy and learning how to knit from the shy buttery yellow pegasus. 

She thought once again of her words yesterday, the Founder’s Prayer. A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens.

She nearly dropped her knitting needles as she pondered these words, thinking about Bucky in the kitchen, lighting the way for Dinky Doo, her own efforts at trying to shoulder all of this and help Derpy carry this burden, and Derpy herself, watching over all of them, messed up eyes or no. 

The words took on strange new meanings as she pondered them. She began to knit fiercely, getting her forelegs working, her tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth and curling upward, her brows furrowing and her ears falling forward and covering her eyes like a visor. 

Perhaps ponies were incomplete when separated into tribes. One third of a solid whole. It was an intriguing thought for Berry. Earth ponies were the solid muscle and earthy wisdom of the whole pony, the natural go between for the staunch unicorns and the flighty pegasi. Unicorns could perhaps be compared to the mind of the whole pony, while pegasi were the sensory organs. 

Which made earth ponies what exactly? thought Berry to herself. The central nervous system? 

Her needles clicked and tinked purposefully, a long mass of knitted yellow yarn now extending from her needles. She understood that her analogy needed work, but the nebulous concept was forming in her mind, taking root, and finding substance. 

As Berry savagely subdued her enemy yarn, she pondered the forming bond between Bucky, Derpy, and herself. 
	
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A troubled mind lay dreaming. 

It did not matter that it was the day, and that she was asleep. Luna’s mind eagerly seized upon this opportunity as this was a mind she had been working on wearing down for a long, long while. Luna could sense his troubled thoughts slowly drifting into her dreamscape, slowly settling into the realm that was her domain, she could sense his worries, his fears, and his weakness. 

Princess Luna had been chasing this one for a very long time, slowly wearing down his strong will, his stubborn earth pony nature, and his unflappable sense that he was always correct, a feeling that Luna herself was a bit too familiar with and sometimes had some occasional troubles with. Luna was also a little bit earth pony, and she understood his stubborn nature. 

Only now, she sensed something had broken in his will. She also sensed regret and a freshly created sense of humility. She sensed a powerful desire to restore his place within the herd, his understanding and his belief in the greater herd structure badly damaged, weakened, perhaps believing himself now outside the herd, alone, vulnerable, and exposed. 

No matter, the hunt was on. And her prey was weakened.  He was alone, vulnerable, and exposed, and Luna was the consummate hunter that was about to pick him off from the fringes of the herd. It was time to educate him on why you did not stray from the herd as a group. Luna, being the loving benevolent pony herd-keeper that she was, intended to make sure he never strayed from the herd again, for his own good. 

Filthy Rich had fallen into Luna’s clutches, and Luna favoured a tough love approach. 



 

Filthy Rich found himself in the Ponyville schoolyard. The sky was grey and the air felt hot and strange. Swings creaked in the breeze, the chains needing oiling, the seesaw sat unmoving, and he realised that he was utterly alone. There was nopony around at all. Being alone was a terrible thing for a pony. Alone meant no herd.

The playground was empty. And more than a little creepy. 

Filthy Rich moved quickly, moving at a brisk trot, running to the schoolhouse. He tried the door, but it was locked. He checked the window, and saw that there was nopony inside. Nopony at all. As his gaze lingered in the window, he saw the blackboard indoors, and upon it, written in chalk, was the word “failure.” Seeing the word filled him with dread. Is that what he was? 

Filthy Rich gulped, and pulled his gaze away from the window, not wanting to look inside any longer. He turned and instead continued to study the empty yard. 

He was alone. He had no helpers, no assistants, no secretaries, he had no assets. 

Filthy Rich was a pony whose entire life was built around exploiting said assets and suddenly having none to fall back upon was quite unnerving. The herd was an extension of himself, and, with no herd present, a large part of what he was was now gone, leaving behind an empty void that could not be filled. He was a pony without power. 

Filthy Rich had a terrible fear of being alone, ever since his wife had left him all those years ago, a fear that his daughter Diamond Tiara ruthlessly exploited to always make sure she had her way, bullying her father into doing her whims. 

And right now, that fear was gnawing away at Filthy Rich’s mind. 

“Hello?” he cried, hoping for some sort of answer, a voice, any voice would do. 

There was no answer. No voice. There was nothing. Nothing had answered Filthy Rich, and nothing made terrible company. 

The nothing was replaced by a distant hum. A faint humming noise filled the air, a vibration more than anything, and Filthy Rich could sense it in his hooves, being an earth pony. Something felt off… something felt wrong. 

Suddenly, nothing seemed to be much better company than something. Filthy Rich wished for nothing’s return. 

The nameless dread now called something intensified, and a low terrified moan struggled its way free from Filthy Rich’s throat. Filthy Rich suddenly had the most peculiar want, a strange desire, a powerful aching need that manifested into one tangible thought. 

He suddenly wished that he had a pegasus and a unicorn with him right now, powerful protectors that could guard him against the seen and the unseen. It was a strange thought that lingered in his rapidly flooding with terror brain, a strong notion that a herd was not complete without his fellow tribesponies. Terror flowed like water, and Filthy Rich felt as though his thoughts would drown him. He could feel his consciousness being swept away by the raging torrent that cascaded through his mind. 

Filthy Rich’s brain flooded with a confusing jumble of images, six ponies trapped in a cave, the entrance blocked with ice, some of them had already succumbed to the cold, the rest grouped together in terror, terror very much like he was feeling right now, threatened by the Unknown Something that lurked within the shadows. 

An earth pony lay on the floor, falling prey to the freezing cold and the Unknown Something. A pegasus stood over the earth pony, wings flared, teeth bared, a long string of slavering drool dangling down from pulled back lips, nostrils flaring, a protective stance, not able to see what was threatening all of them, but ready to fight to the death anyway, because that is what pegasi do. Even at the end of its life, the pegasus would follow its instincts, blindly going from this life into whatever lie ahead in the great beyond, fighting every step of the way, because that is what pegasi were made to do. Beside the pegasus, standing under its wing stood a unicorn, horn igniting with much welcomed luminescence. Light brought understanding. Light drove back the darkness. 

The unicorn snorted defiantly, every bit as protective as the pegasus, ears splayed out sideways away from its ignited horn, teeth also bared, it whinnied and nickered at the Unknown Something, able to sense and detect what the pegasus could not. 

And then, the unicorn’s horn flared brightly, covering the three of them in burning pink fire, driving back the cold and the darkness, sending the Unknown Something back into the shadows, the earth pony slowly struggling to rise up to its hooves, standing under the other wing of the pegasus, a united tribe, burning with protective fire. The earth pony, now standing, leaned up against the pegasus’ side, filling the empty space left under the protective wing. Together, they were an unstoppable force, something to be reckoned with. 

And then, Filthy Rich’s mind went blank. He blinked, now only having memories of the confusing and jumbled images. He was still alone on the playground, and the air was filled with a terrible sound. He turned… 

And saw the sky was filled with a swarm of bees, bearing down upon him with alarming speed. He ran, really the only thing a lone earth pony can do to save themselves, He ran, knowing full well that running was not enough, there was no cover, and the schoolhouse door was locked. 

He ran, knowing that the inevitable outcome would happen anyway, he ran, knowing that there was no pegasus or unicorn to save him, he ran, because he had seen a glimpse of what the bees were. 

Little Diamond Tiaras, flying on gossamer wings, tails replaced with stingers, little queen bees coming to bully him and sting him into submission. 

The first few stings weakened him considerably, making his legs feel numb and strangely long, unable to function right. He slowed, and more stings lanced into his flesh, Diamond Tiara’s cruel words ringing and echoing into his ears, saying such unspeakable things, blaming him for her mother leaving, accusing him of not loving her, all of the terrible and hurtful things she knew all of the right words to say to make it hurt the most. 

His legs collapsed underneath him and he tumbled down into the dirt, slamming his chin into the hard ground with a grunt. More stings came, the little queen bees now swarming all over his body. Filthy Rich’s flesh burned with white hot lancets of pain. 

He begged for them to stop, but they did not listen. Diamond Tiara never listened. 



 

“Good job Dinky, try to stay inside the lines,” praised Bucky. 

Dinky concentrated, her horn glowing with faint purple light, the tip of her tongue sticking out from between her pursed lips as she concentrated on moving the crayon inside of the picture she was trying to colour. 

The kitchen was still filled with popcorn, most of it now on the floor, a few pieces stuck to the ceiling, spelling out the words “I luv u mommy” in oddly shapen letters. 

“This is a lot like kindergarten,” Dinky said, still concentrating, the crayon still moving carefully. “All we’ve done today is fun stuff.”

“Well, Dinky, in a way, this is kindergarten... magical kindergarten. You are learning control and a few basic magical principles in a way that is enjoyable and fun,” Bucky answered, studying Dinky’s efforts with a careful eye. “Today I wanted to find out what you are capable of, so I can see what we need to work on. Tomorrow, we will work on other things. In time, I am going to teach you how to write using your magic, how to use silverware, and, I think at some point, we’ll pull out your Daring Do doll and I’ll have you change her clothing so you can learn magical dexterity and manipulation.” 

“That sounds like fun!” cried Dinky. 

“Make no mistake little Dinky, there will be a lot of hard work,” Bucky said with a smile, looking down at his student. Bucky realised that while his cutie mark may indeed be a hops plant, he was getting an immense amount of satisfaction from his task. 

“So I get to make art?” Dinky asked.

“Yes,” replied Bucky. “Dinky, it is very important that you take up a hobby… a practice. Something that you do that uses your magic regularly, something creative. Unicorns have much to contribute to society. Someday, maybe someday soon, I will take you to Canterlot, the city of unicorns, and I will show you what you are capable of, what great gifts you have to contribute, the great things you can offer society if you can learn control and focus your magic into a steady stable output of creativity and production. Not only will staying creative and productive keep you happy and healthy, but what you create will make other ponies happy… this is our task, this is our duty as unicorns. We must not use our great powers for destruction but for creation, for the benefit of ponykind,” explained Bucky, speaking very slowly and carefully. 

“I… I don’t know what to say,” replied Dinky, her eyes wide, still managing to colour. “So I have a duty to make art? To make the world pretty? To make other ponies happy?” she asked, her brow furrowing, her ears falling to the sides of her head. 

“Just think about it now and then,” Bucky answered, smiling. “The magic has to go somewhere. If channeled into creation, it makes other ponies happy. Otherwise, bees.” 

“I don’t want more bees!” Dinky cried. 

“I know Dinky, which is why I am trying to help you,” soothed Bucky. 

“I’m getting tired and my horn kinda aches,” Dinky said, still trying to colour with her crayon held aloft in a purple aura. “Why does a unicorn’s horn feel things?” 

“The horn is hollow, filled with many nerves, and marrow. The casing is flexible so it doesn’t break if something bumps it. It is connected directly to the brain. It focuses thoughts and will, condensing them into magical energy. Make sense?” asked Bucky. 

“No,” replied Dinky, shaking her head. 

“Sometime soon, I will draw you a diagram of your standard issue magic zapper and try to explain it better,” Bucky offered. 

The crayon fell, Dinky cried out, and then began to rub her head. “I need a break,” she said, her eyes closing and her muzzle scrunching up. 

“We’ll take a break for a while. Go play with Piña and have some fun,” Bucky said, gently patting Dinky’s shoulders. 

Dinky fled the table, stumbled through the kitchen door, and escaped into the living room. 

As Bucky sat at the table, he had a profound realisation. All of his usual sense of agitation that he had felt lately was gone. He felt strangely calm. Fulfilled. A strange sense of peace had settled into his mind. The painful ache of loneliness that he had fallen prey to recently seemed to have vanished. 

Panic, his ever present companion, gave him a violent mental prodding to remind him of its presence, and, as the panic made its presence known, Bucky thought of Derpy and Berry both squeezing him. It was a faint memory, almost dreamlike, but it rose up in his mind like an invisible shield, reminding Bucky’s panic who was really in control here. 

A pegasus now patrolled and panic was not a welcome visitor. 

Panic had become a threat, and pegasi had only one singular response to threats. 
	
	
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Home. Home again. Another day full of deliveries. Derpy stood at her own door, taking a deep breath, thankful to be home. She gently hoofed the latch, pushing the door open, and then peered inside, winking one eye shut so her good eye could see. 

Derpy saw what could only be described as the aftermath. 

On the couch, Bucky was sprawled out asleep, laying on his belly, his head squashed against the arm of the couch. On his back Dinky had sprawled out, laying on her back, her forelegs folded over her barrel, her mouth open, her barrel rising and falling with her breathing. Derpy took a step inside, and macaroni crunched underhoof. She looked down. There was macaroni and popcorn all over the floor. 

Standing inside the door, she turned and saw Berry Punch, sprawled out in the chair, a tangle of yarn beside her on the floor in a basket, and two knitting needles sticking out of a yarn ball. Piña was stuffed in beside Berry in the chair, both were sound asleep, Berry Punch snoring faintly, drooling slightly. 

Derpy followed the trail of popcorn into the kitchen, and stood aghast at what she saw when she went through the kitchen door. Popcorn. Everywhere. Some still remained on the table, quite a bit was on the floor, crayons and papers cluttered the table. There was popcorn on the ceiling, it formed words, a message letting her know that she was loved. 

She was going to have to kill Bucky for teaching Dinky how to stick things on the ceiling, but she was also fiercely proud that Dinky could stick things on the ceiling. She backed out of the kitchen, stepping on popcorn and macaroni noodles, and looked at the sleeping ponies in her living room. 

It was almost too adorable to stand. 

Stepping quietly, Derpy went back into the kitchen, fetching the camera from the cupboard over the root vegetable bin, and then returned to the living room holding the camera in her wingtips. She snapped a picture of the two sleeping ponies on the couch, the click and the flash from the camera causing everypony to awaken with a snort or a twitch. She returned the camera to the kitchen, popcorn and macaroni still crunching underhoof, and then went back into the living room to confront Bucky about the popcorn on the ceiling. 

“There is popcorn on my ceiling,” Derpy said, tapping her hoof and giving the stinkeye to the tan unicorn still sprawled on the couch, Dinky still lying on his back. 

Bucky grinned sheepishly, his eyes still half open, his ears limp and hanging downward, framing his face. 

“Popcorn. On my ceiling,” Derpy repeated. “I don’t know how to begin,” she finished, still tapping her hoof. 

“Uh oh,” groaned Berry, rubbing her eyes. 

“Dinky learned the minor sticky cantrip, she can’t stick things like couches or tables on the ceiling,” explained Bucky, his voice containing faint laughter, Dinky now giggling on his back, covering her mouth with her hooves. 

“Yet,” added Berry Punch, grinning wickedly. 

“Oh you are so not helping Berry,” Bucky said, covering his eyes with his ears as he did so. “It is an important spell for unicorns. It allows us to stick things to walls, like notes, maps, flow charts, graphs, papers, posters, small things with very little weight,” Bucky explained slowly, not liking the last look he had seen from Derpy before he had covered his eyes and tried to look as pathetic as possible. 

“Dinky can pop popcorn,” Piña said helpfully, smiling the innocent smile of a foal that doesn’t know trouble when they see it. 

“I can see that,” Derpy said patiently to Piña, still tapping her hoof. Her wings fluttered slightly and her breathing quickened. 

“Derpy Doo, all of this mess can be cleaned up, we were tired, don’t be angry,” Berry said soothingly. Derpy’s body language said many things, none of it appropriate for translation before foals. 

“Ceiling!” Derpy said slowly. 

“Look, we know you made your feelings clear, but it is harmless, really,” Berry said. 

Derpy’s scowl melted a bit. “Dinky learned that on her first day…” she said slowly. 

“I made him teach me, I used the big sad eyes on him mommy,” Dinky confessed, rolling over on her side, looking at her mother, using the said sad eyes to full effect.

“It was well managed mischief,” Bucky said slowly. “All little unicorns, no matter what type go through a mischievous stage. It is better to focus it into funny little pranks than to wait for big troublesome outbursts,” he stated, still hiding his eyes behind his ears, and trying not to laugh and send the wrong message about his feelings as Dinky squirmed on his back. Dinky tickled something awful. 

“I see,” said the grey pegasus mare, her hoof no longer tapping. Derpy opened both of her eyes and banished her scowl. “Been a long day. I had to deal with giant spiders when I was out delivering mail to Zecora.” 

“And this is why they hire pegasi at the post office and frown upon earth pony applicants,” Berry Punch said with a chuckle. 

“What?” Bucky said with more than a hint of worry, lifting his ears away from his eyes and looking at Derpy with a great deal of concern. 

“Spiders. Big ones. Potentially pony eating spiders. Not an uncommon hazard when delivering the mail,” she answered, moving forward towards Bucky. After several steps, she reached the couch. She lowered her head and snoot-bumped Bucky, touching nose tips briefly, and then turned towards the chair where Berry sat. “It isn’t easy delivering the mail,” Derpy said as she moved towards Berry, crossing the room in a moment, and then snoot-bumping her friend. Berry leaned into it with a smile. Derpy backed away from the chair and sat down on her haunches, waiting patiently. 

It wasn’t long until she was mobbed by two foals. She allowed herself to be bowled over and wrestled down to the floor, engaging in a snuggle-huggle-fight-fest. 

Bucky decided in a single hot second that a mare being wrestled by foals was rather attractive. He swallowed, and his neurotic mind told him that his swallow was loud enough to be heard by everypony in the room. His mind’s accusations were confirmed when Berry Punch shot him a knowing smirk. 

Feeling guilty, Bucky continued to feel attracted to this display of motherhood. He watched intently, making no effort to hide it. His own mother had never done anything like this, rolling around on the floor being playful. 

He became aware that Berry was staring at him intently, in much the same way he had been staring at Derpy intently. There was something vaguely predatory about Berry’s gaze. She blinked once, then twice, and then she blinked and left her eyes half closed, gazing at him warmly, looking at him with an almost drowsy looking stare of arousal. Ardrowsal? The sort of look a mare might give when she is thinking about going to bed, but not sleeping. 

There was a painful spike of attraction at that moment for Berry. 

The room suddenly felt rather warm. 

“So about our date tonight,” Bucky said slowly, “or am I in trouble for the popcorn on the ceiling?”

“Oh, we are doing something tonight,” Derpy answered, having her ear tugged on by an aggressive Dinky, who had her mother’s ear in her teeth, and her mother’s head in her forelegs. Derpy had Piña squished to her barrel in one foreleg, and the grey mare was on her back, her wings spread slightly on the floor. 

“I could fix us a meal,” Berry offered, repeating her offer from earlier. “Or we could go out maybe. Take the foals with us. I know a place that has bean curd curry that is as hot as the blazes.” 

“Mmm,” said Derpy, licking her lips as Piña was drumming away on her barrel, causing Derpy’s “mmm” to sound a little funny. 

“I like curry,” Bucky confessed. “It is so delicious it is almost worth the embarrassing social consequences.”

“Embarrassing?” Berry asked. 

“Yeah, embarrassing,” Bucky stated. 

“More like fun,” Berry retorted, leaning over in her chair and farting loudly, getting near perfect resonance and vibration amplification from the cushion, the entire chair working to amplify the sound. 

Derpy and the two foals collapsed into peals of laughter, while Bucky just sat there, eyes wide in shock, blinking several times, trying to take in what he had just seen and heard. 

“How about curry and then we come home, wait for the foals to go to bed, and then we have a few drinks and play Twister together?” Berry asked. 

“Twister and embarrassing social consequences,” Bucky replied, his nose crinkling. 

“Oh don’t be such a snob. Someday, when we’re very close friends, I’ll show you a neat trick I know that you’ll like where I make my plot vibrate,” Berry promised. 

Derpy guffawed with laughter as the two foals giggled, not understanding the joke, but Derpy laughing was pretty funny on its own. 

Bucky found he could not reply. His mouth opened and closed a few times, and nothing came out. Nothing at all. The worst thing was, he was intrigued. He would never admit it, but Berry’s offer had him curious. He quickly shoved the thought away from his mind, feeling somewhat sullied and still strangely attracted to Berry Punch. 

Derpy now had Piña and Dinky pinned, and was using her wings to extract terrible revenge on the foals, tickling them mercilessly and causing them to squeal and kick, pleading for mercy. 

Pegasi weren’t known for mercy. 

Berry Punch moved out of her chair and seized upon the golden opportunity to get some revenge of her own, planting her muzzle into Piña’s belly and blowing a loud raspberry that filled the living room with embarrassing flatulent noises. 

Bucky rubbed his head with his hoof. These displays of affection were embarrassing. 

Berry, noticing Bucky’s apparent distress, leaned over and whispered something in her friend’s ear, which Bucky did not notice, because his eyes were closed and he was rubbing his head with his hoof. 

He did not see the pegasus moving quickly to her hooves or the wily earth pony tensing up. He didn’t pay attention to the sounds of little hooves moving clear of the coming carnage. Bucky made a lot of mistakes in a span of just a few moments. 

Bucky suffered a very pronounced feeling of total confusion as he was pulled from the couch and pinned to the floor, completely overpowered by the much stronger mares. A giggling shriek escaped his lips, something he immediately regretted, knowing that he would privately reflect and cringe in embarrassment about it for days, focusing upon the event, driving himself to distraction. He felt his forelegs and hindlegs being pinned. 

Somepony, who could not tell who, pressed her muzzle into his barrel and blew a very loud, very wet, and very ticklish raspberry, something which worried Bucky a great deal, as he was suddenly feeling more than a little arousal. He became painfully aware that in this position, parts of him were exposed and visible. 

Embarrassingly visible. 

Another muzzle pressed in, inhaled sharply, and then blew outwards, making wet sloppy flatulent noises against his pelt. Bucky gasped, his breath now gone, he could no longer laugh, squirming in their grasp. 

And then, two muzzles pressed in together, working in unison, mark ludicrous fart sounds in harmonised stereo. Bucky heard a loud squeal and realised that it was him, and he heard two foals giggling madly. 

And then, he was let go of, and he quickly rolled over, trying to regain his composure, worried that he was going to make a public display at any moment. 

He looked up at the two mares staring at him, both smiling, and felt a strange feeling. A warm feeling. A pleasantly warm feeling. And part of him wished that they hadn’t stopped. 

What he had just experienced was entirely unlike anything else he had experienced in his whole life. A total loss of control. And it was strangely enjoyable. 

His eyes locked for a moment with Derpy’s, her amber orbs straight for a moment, just long enough to meet his gaze. Her wings were half unfurled, quivering slightly. 

She stood over him, her head lowering, her face inches from his own, Berry Punch beside her, who even now, was smiling a secret smile, her eyes flashing with unspoken mayhem, filled with terrible promises of things to come, and Bucky’s vision was suddenly overtaken by a grey mare with a wheat coloured mane, her nose inches from his own. 

Bucky felt his heart seizing, but not from panic. Not the usual type of panic anyway. 

He was against the couch, no room to retreat, nowhere to run. 

There was no room to have a chase, and Bucky wasn’t sure if he wanted to run from the pegasus right now anyway. She looked predatory. Running would certainly have consequences at this point.

Their snoots bumped, and Bucky felt his head pushed backwards against the couch, and he could feel hot breath against his lips. All he could see was grey now, and a few wheat coloured strands… Derpy’s eyes were closed. He could see her eyelashes. And a tiny scar just below one eye. Her every detail stood out in high contrast. She was astoundingly beautiful. 

There was pair of giggles from somewhere that distracted him for a fraction of a second as Derpy continued to press her advantage and her snoot against his. 

And then, with his head pinned to the couch, Bucky felt two lips press against his, gentle at first, and then with frightful savage intensity, suction increasing to violent levels, almost painful, Bucky’s mind recalled stories of tough pegasi that could crack nuts with their lips alone, you needed tough strong lips to fly at high speeds and not have them torn off from flapping in the wind. 

Bucky could not breathe. At all. His nostrils were closed off from the crushing snoot to snoot contact, and his lips were thoroughly locked onto those of another. He became light headed, and then dizzy, and then he felt his body going limp. 

Just when he thought his head was going to explode, Derpy pulled away with a gasp. 

“Oh wow, it’s been years since I’ve been kissed like that," Derpy said, gasping, her sides heaving. “I feel like a mare again.” She fluttered her wings a bit, her tail twitching, her ears reorienting rapidly as she backed away. Her barrel expanded and contracted greatly. She licked her lips and heaved a sigh of satisfaction. 

Bucky struggled to breathe, sucking in big gulps of air, his own barrel heaving, a really weird prickling feeling in his horn that had never felt before in his life, his head thunking to the floor limply as he no longer had the strength to hold it up. 

“Ew, mommy has colt cooties,” Dinky said in disgust, running from the room, still giggling, Piña chasing after her. 

“Gross!” Piña cried as she fled the room with Dinky.

Bucky’s lips were covered in a waxy oily residue, Derpy’s saliva thick upon them. 

Derpy wobbled towards the stairs. “I need a bath. It’s been a long day. I need bubbles and hot water,” she said as she mounted the first few stairs. She turned and gave a final glance at Berry Punch and Bucky. “He’s weak and exposed Berry, you’re not going to get a better chance.” 

Bucky struggled and wiggled, trying to will his limbs to work, to no avail. Berry planted one hoof on his barrel, pressed down to make him lie still, and then gently planted a soft kiss on his lips, smacking lightly as she pulled away. 

“Just so we can get acquainted,” she explained as she pulled away. “You don’t mind do you?” 

Bucky shook his head, looking up at Berry, who was looking down at him. 

“Derpy really needed that, thanks for making it easy for her,” Berry said, smiling. 

Bucky nodded, his head still on the floor. 

“Just so we are all on the same page, you do realise that Derpy is the alpha in our little budding relationship, right? Or will I need to explain this to you?” Berry asked, her face now serious and full of concern. 

“I- I don’t understand,” Bucky admitted. 

“You like Derpy. I like Derpy. I’ve been her friend for a very, very long time. What you and I have in common is that we both like Derpy. And that she likes us. She’s kissed you, she’s dictated the terms of our slowly forming relationship, I’ve kissed you to get to know you a little better, and, after you and I have chatted a bit, I am going to go upstairs and go smooch her while she is in the bath. If this has any chance of working, we need to communicate. I understand Derpy, I understand you, I doubt that you understand either one of us though, am I right?” Berry said in a slow careful explanation followed by a question. 

Bucky nodded. “I am having some trouble keeping up,” he confessed. 

“Well then, you and I will keep talking as time goes on. And I am going to teach you a few things. Like how to relax. How to enjoy wine. How to speak pegasus. I am going to unwind you if is the last thing I do. And we are all going to take this slowly and carefully and see where this goes and nopony is going to do anything that hurts anypony else. If you are really uncomfortable with this arrangement and you do not want me sticking my muzzle into this any further, you need to tell me now so I can figure out what to do about the situation we are currently in,” Berry replied. 

Bucky was silent for a moment, which made Berry Punch look a little worried. He gazed up at her. She was pretty, in a very different way than Derpy. 

Bucky pressed his nose against Berry Punch’s leg, inhaling deeply, taking in her scent. Also different from Derpy. There was something appealing about her though. He made a gesture, beckoning her down to him, and she lowered her head, coming almost nose to nose with Bucky. 

“I am a very repressed and uptight unicorn. I need somepony to show me how to have a good time,” he whispered. 

Berry snoot-bumped him in reply, and then kissed him a second time, another quick peck, smiling down at him. “I can show you how to have a good time if you’ll let me,” she said, her smile warm and inviting. “And right now, I am going to go steal me a kiss from a hot… wet… soapy mare in a bathtub,’ she added, taking a great deal of pleasure in watching Bucky squirm as she placed emphasis on each word in her description. “Tonight, we’re going to have a nice meal. I’m paying. Don’t make a scene or you and I will have some hoof-fu fighting between us. Let us take care of you while you take care of Dinky. Now, keep an eye on Dinky and Piña while I go upstairs. The little rascals are in the kitchen and there is no telling what they are up to.” 

Bucky nodded, reached up, and gently stroked Berry’s face. “Can things actually work out between the three of us? Herds were abolished because of the disharmony and the fighting they caused.” Bucky queried. 

For a moment, Berry Punch looked very serious. “That might be jumping ahead a little in our relationship, but yes, there are still herds even if the Crown doesn’t recognise them as legally binding marriages. And they do work sometimes, but they take a lot of effort, work, and communication. There is bound to be squabbling. And you have to take steps to correct the problems that happen when they are little and easily managed, and you can’t let them spiral out of control. Derpy trusts you with her foal and I trust you with my little sister, who is, for all intents and purposes, my foal. So I’d say we are off to a good start. You just keep looking after Dinky, we’ll look after you, and no doubt that Sparkler will look after all of us because that is what Sparkler does.” 

Bucky nodded. 

There was a crash from the kitchen. 
	
> Chapter 20 (with zesty sauciness)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How do I know that he actually likes me, I mean, he’s different, how can I tell that he really likes me?” Derpy asked, staring at Berry Punch who reclined at the other end of the tub, her eyes almost closed, her head resting on the tub’s edge. 

This was not the first bath they had taken together, but this was the first bath they had taken together after one very sultry kiss that left them both a little steamy. 

“Derpy… you know what, fine. Since you seem so insecure, I’ll help you rather than tease you. If you want to see if somepony really likes you, if they are really attracted to you, do something that makes them laugh or do something that might be embarrassing to yourself. If they maintain eye contact, then they like you. And are attracted to you. If you are ever in a crowd of ponies, make them laugh and carefully watch who keeps eye contact if you ever want to find out who likes you,” Berry explained. “In the event of embarrassment, ponies that look away will feel mutual embarrassment, those who keep eye contact will do so out of deep concern for your well-being, ignoring the socially awkward moment out of a desire to know you are okay.’ 

“How do you know this stuff?” Derpy asked. 

“It is an earth pony thing,” Berry said, explaining nothing. 

“But I know lots of earth ponies, and not all of them know stuff like you do,” Derpy protested, wiggling a bit as she felt Berry’s hoof teasing her thigh. Berry never broke eye contact as Derpy squirmed. 

“Oh, they know it, even if they can’t express it. I can express it because I went to university and took classes in psychology while I was learning about brewing and distilling. I have the vocabulary to give words to what I already know,” Berry said, enjoying Derpy’s squirming as she teased Derpy’s thigh and gently moved her hoof up just a smidge higher.  

“You’re smart,” Derpy said, feeling the hoof traveling up her thigh slowly, curious about its destination. 

“I’m a philosopher. Or at least I sometimes try to drink like one,” Berry giggled. “And Derpy, you are no mental slouch. Consider this a pre-emptive strike against your coming self-depreciation.” Berry wiggled her hoof slightly. 

“D’aw,” Derpy sighed, blushing, feeling a wiggle along her inner thigh, a very sensitive place that hadn’t been played with in a long while. 

“So what do we do about Bucky?” Berry asked, retracting her hoof, having gone far enough. For now. 

“So we have reached the stage of the relationship where we plot against him?” Derpy replied, rubbing her belly with a hoof, working the soapy water into her pelt, which was made to repel water.

“Well, we did just pin him down and violate his sensibilities quite thoroughly. He’s going to be brooding over that for days. We’ve taken away his fine unicorn sense of control and now he is probably feeling a bit of a complex because he likes it, and he is going to feel bad about liking it, so we are going to have to plot against him and keep doing little things because he likes it but would never admit to it and never wants to engage us to satisfy his own desires, because admission that he likes it and he wants us to keep doing it would be painfully uncomfortable for him. So we have no choice to plot against him,” Berry patiently explained, rubbing a soapy hoof against her neck. “You know, when I offered to show him my plot vibrating trick, he never broke eye contact with me. He was interested. Curious. He was shocked and embarrassed, but he wanted to know more.” 

Derpy giggled girlishly, making a few snorts as she did so. 

“Come here, turn around, I’ll scrub your back if you scrub mine. Having a friend means never having to scrub your own back,” Berry said, pulling herself up and sitting upright. 

Derpy rose, wiggling and turning around in the enormous claw footed tub. She leaned back into Berry, feeling the warm wet mare against her. “I wish we had done this sooner. Moving past just being friends I mean,” Derpy said quietly. 

“Wasn’t the right time,” Berry replied, wrapping her forelegs around Derpy, squeezing her tightly, and kissing the top of Derpy’s head. “I remember Amethyst Star, Sparkler’s mother, tossing us in the tub together and scrubbing us. We used to be embarrassed about it.” 

“Yeah,” Derpy admitted, leaning even more into Berry. 

“We’ve had some very intimate moments together as friends,” Berry said. “Stuff that regular friends don’t usually do.” 

“I know,” the grey mare said, rubbing her fetlock on Berry’s foreleg. 

“I held you and comforted you when you gave birth to Dinky,” Berry recalled, her voice now raspy with emotion. “I helped Star clean you up. Star had to show me how to massage you to help get your milk started, those were rough times. You were so young then.” 

Derpy did not reply, she merely hugged Berry’s foreleg to her barrel. 

“And I suppose at some point in the future, we are going to have another very intimate moment together,” Berry said in a hushed whisper. 

“What do you mean?” Derpy asked, her voice low and soft, her breathing somewhat heavy, her emotions flooding through her body. 

“At some point, you and I are going to have to figure out how we share Bucky, if we go at it apart, or together, what our boundaries are with each other,” Berry replied, her lips brushing up against Derpy’s ear, causing it to wiggle, making Derpy squirm a bit in Berry’s embrace. 

“Oh… yeah,” Derpy said, feeling Berry breathing on the back of her head and making an ear tickle. “You are talking about a threesome, right?” 

“Yes you silly mare,” Berry answered, tittering. 

“I haven’t thought about it. Well, I did think about it once, when I was laying in bed, but I thought that maybe we’d just share one another and take turns with each other,” Derpy confessed. 

Berry gently pushed Derpy away and began to scrub her back, rubbing slowly in between Derpy’s wings, where the muscles were always sore after a day of delivering the mail. The muscles, as always, were knotted heavily. “While taking turns with each other is fine and good, somepony is always left out when you take turns,” Berry said, voicing her concerns. “Even if it is good fun to watch two ponies canoodling one another.” 

Derpy moaned as Berry’s hoof slowly worked out the many knots in between her wing joints, rubbing in a small circular motion. “I’ve only ever been with one pony,” she confessed, her voice embarrassed. 

“I know,” said Berry, “Dinky’s father. And then after that, you were hurt, and you climbed up on your cloud and refused to let anypony else share that cloud with you. The hurt caused you so much pain that you flew from anything that might hurt you. And then, without meaning to, you hurt yourself, because you believed that hurting yourself was a wise reminder of what lay in store for you if you ever allowed another pony to share your cloud.” As Berry spoke, she squeezed, prodded, nudged, nosed, and nuzzled, emphasising her words with appropriate punctuation, making sure the pegasus understood what was really being said. As a final gesture, Berry reached around Derpy and gently ran a hoof along Derpy’s jawline, gently drawing upwards towards a grey ear, a powerfully affectionate gesture that Berry knew would reach Derpy’s mind. 

“I’m scared,” the mare being prodded by Berry’s hooves confessed. 

“I know,” Berry said soothingly. “But you chased Bucky.” 

“I know,” Derpy said, slightly panicked. “I saw something so kind in his eyes. He was lonesome just like me. I think I saw that too… or maybe I wanted to see it.” 

“And then all of this happened,” Berry finished, referring to the recent events. 

“Yeah. All of this. And I really want to love him so much and you too, but I am still thinking about how much it hurt,” Derpy admitted, now starting to cry just a little bit, her waterlogged wings hitching slightly. “I am so tired of being alone and keeping ponies at a distance.” 

“Then let us in,” Berry soothed, once again pulling her friend to her and squeezing. “I am strong enough to carry both of you, let me be the earth pony that shoulders your heavy burdens,” Berry offered. 

“That is part of what you said when Bucky had his panic attack,” Derpy said, her face scrunching up in memory, her eyes still wet with tears. “Does this mean I get to watch over you?” 

“Yes Derpy, if you are willing. Now we just need to figure out how to make Bucky shine. He’s just as hurt as you are I think,” Berry whispered, clinging to her friend. 

“Bucky confuses me badly,” Derpy admitted. 

“I know. Bucky keeps himself confused so he has an excuse not to deal with the world at large. Easier to hold that much magic in I suppose if things aren’t constantly distracting you and engaging your emotions. Must be hard to hold that much magic back,” Berry said, thinking out loud. 

“We pegasi had have to be mindful of our emotions too,” Derpy said. “Otherwise, our moods affect the clouds which causes the weather go all crazy and then it causes all kinds of problems.” 

“Huh,” Berry Punch mumbled, learning something new and taking note of it. “So is this why it always rains at funerals?” she asked. 

“Maybe,” Derpy confessed, looking thoughtful. 

“You know Derpy, this house is a little small. I’m thinking that I need to spend a little bit of the leftover insurance money and fix up the family farmhouse. There is a much bigger bathtub there,” Berry said, her voice wistful. “I’ve let the place get run down. I guess I’m hurt too. After everypony died in some way or another, it has never felt like home. And that’s just wrong for an earth pony. It would be like the Apple family walking away from Sweet Apple Acres. I’ve walked off from the place and rented a house in town. I’m a disgrace. I’m a numbskull.” 

“Aw, don’t say that Berry. All of our families are broken up in some way or another,” Derpy admitted. “I never see mine, I don’t think Bucky sees much of his, and yours is mostly gone. What if something happens to me? Who looks after Dinky?” 

“Sparkler would. I would,” Berry said. “Now, enough of that sniffling. We have to get pretty for our date tonight.” 



 

With a simple mental gesture, Bucky cleared away all of the popcorn and macaroni bits, placing them into the trashcan. He cleaned the kitchen and the living room effortlessly, both foals clapping their hooves together as they watched. 

He lifted the couch, holding it aloft, checking underneath it for debris, and then he lifted the chair. He completely untangled Berry’s yarn, re-rolling it into a ball, doing everything slowly and deliberately so that Dinky could watch and see the potential for what she was capable of. 

“See Dinky, when you learn control, you can help out your mommy and make her life easier. She’ll have more time to play with you if she doesn’t have to clean house. And look how easy it is,” Bucky said, realising that this was an important lesson for little Dinky. 

“Sometimes I want magic and sometimes I don’t,” confessed Piña. 

“Why is that Piña?” Bucky asked the pale pink little foal. 

“Seems like a lot of grown up worries and chores,” she answered, hugging Dinky. 

“Yes, there is much responsibility to be taken and much work to be done,” Bucky answered, eyeing Dinky’s response to all of this. The little pale purple-grey foal was being squeezed mercilessly by Piña. Dinky’s eyes were wide. 

Bucky gently set the couch with the two foals sitting on it back down on the floor where it belonged. They let go of one another and took deep breaths. 

“You made everything in the living room float,” Piña said breathlessly. 

“Can I do that?” Dinky asked, blinking, her voice wavering slightly. 

Bucky nodded. “With time you will be able to, if you work hard and pay attention. This will be easy for you to do Dinky. Now pay attention, if you ever let your emotions get away from you, you could just as easily lift everything, all of these heavy things, and throw them at somepony that is hurting you or making you angry.” 

Dinky’s eyes closed and she buried her face into Piña’s neck, letting out a terrified cry. She trembled for several minutes, and Bucky said nothing, letting the lesson settle in. After a few minutes, Bucky went over to the couch and sat down, where he was immediately mobbed by two foals. He held them both, enjoying their warmth and their affection, feeling two little snoots nuzzling him. 

It was oddly calming. 

As he was sitting there on the couch with the foals, the door opened and in walked Sparkler, who giggled when she saw the scene on the couch. 

“Sparkler!” Dinky cried, letting go of Bucky and running to her sister, Piña also disengaging and moving to mob Sparkler. 

The two foals tackled her, and she allowed herself to be taken down, in much the same way Derpy had. They rolled and wrestled on the floor, exchanging hoof noogies and odd gestures of affection that Bucky simply did not understand. 

“I think we’re going out to dinner,” Bucky announced to Sparkler. 

“Cool,” Sparkler said. “Any idea what?” 

“Spicy bean curd,” Bucky said. 

“Oh, that place,” Sparkler said, her head being hammered on by Dinky. “Be ready to sit in a bucket of water!” 

Bucky gulped, realising there might be trouble later. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was something very different about the two mares that came down the stairs. They moved together, or at least that is how it appeared to Bucky and Sparkler both, both of whom observed the changes in the two mares. 

And, they were beautiful. 

Derpy’s mane had been carefully combed, and it spilled all around her ears, framing her face beautifully. Berry Punch’s mane seemed to have some extra bounce, and her eyes peeked out from carefully combed bangs. 

Every feather on Derpy’s wings stood out in high detail. 

“Go mom!” Sparkler said. She turned towards Bucky. “You realise you don’t have a chance, right? I mean, you have to know by now. My mom is hawt. I mean she is hawt.”  

Bucky nodded, unable to respond verbally. 

Derpy stumbled slightly on the last stair, landing roughly on her hooves. She had her good eye on Bucky as she did so, and with a great deal of personal satisfaction, she noticed that he never took his eyes off of her as she stumbled and nearly suffered a pratfall. The stumble was intentional. 

“Hello handsome,” Berry said, looking at the slack jawed unicorn sitting on the couch, batting her eyelashes. 

“See something you like?” Derpy asked, her voice a low growl that only a pegasus could make. 

“So have you two been making out?” Sparkler asked, tilting to her head to the side and staring at the two maternal forces in her life. “Because I really hope so. Otherwise, dinner is going to be awkward after what I heard mom saying in her sleep last night.” 

“Sparkler!” Derpy cried, her eyes going wide. Berry Punch giggled and winked at Sparkler, then walked through the room and planted a kiss on the head of Piña, her younger sister. 

“Eew, something is going on…” Dinky stated, looking disgusted. 

“Yeah, gross!” Piña Colada agreed, having just been kissed. “My sister’s lips are waxy and oily just like Derpy’s.” 

“Ooooh, you had to help mom preen her wings… she had to swap some spit with you so you could do the job right,” Sparkler said, her eyes wide glittering with mirth. She bounced up on her hooves and began to dance around excitedly. 

“GROSS!” Dinky cried. 

“Gross!” Piña echoed. 

Bucky smacked his lips, they were still oddly flavoured and somewhat waxy. 

“Sparkler, do you mind washing those two?” Derpy asked. 

“Can do mom,” Sparkler agreed. 

“And Bucky, if you want a shower, you can take one here or go home for a quick refresher. I think we’ll be alright. Just hurry back, I’m hungry,” Berry Punch said, watching Sparkler dance in place. 

Dinky raced Piña up the stairs, glad to be away from the icky adults and all of the random exchanges of cooties that seemed to be rampant today. 

“I’ll be back soonish,” Bucky said, nodding his head and stepping out the front door. 

Berry and Derpy stood alone in the living room of Derpy Doo Hooves. 



 

Twilight Sparkle sat looking at the plaster casts of former students on a shelf in Celestia’s quarters. She remembered making her own cast as she gazed upon it, filling a pie pan with a little bit of plaster, stomping a hoof down inside of the plaster, waiting a moment for the plaster to set just a tiny bit, and then pulling a hoof free leaving the plaster to harden. A note secured to the casting read the words “Smarty Pants Incident” in bold letters. Twilight blushed at the memory. She was such a late bloomer that even her mischievous stage had lingered until much later in life, manifesting, coming and going, constantly coming back after a long absence. 

The wall was full of Celestia’s personal hoof picked students and the students she considered ‘special’ in some way. Sunset Shimmer was there, Trixie Lulamoon, Raven, Lyra Heartstrings, and off to one side, in the corner, Buckminster Bitters. A note stuck to the bottom of his plaster hoof print said “Water Clock” and nothing else. 

“Celestia, what does “Water Clock” mean?” asked Twilight, a bit confused. 

“Buckminster broke my water clock. The clock that was created by Star Swirl. Now, no matter which way it is orientated, it drips forever upwards, the water completely ignores gravity,” Celestia explained, smiling faintly. 

“That’s awful! Star Swirl made that for you!” Twilight protested. 

“The grouchy old bearded weirdo would truly appreciate the work of art the clock has become. It keeps perfect time and will always let you know which way is up,” Celestia responded, laughing warmly. 

“Up is just a vector without force,” Twilight said, looking very confused, clearly not understanding what was so funny. “You wanted to talk to me?” 

“Yes I did Twilight. About the Ponyville Project,” Celestia said. 

Twilight immediately focused her attention, turning away from the plaster castings and turning to look at Celestia instead. Twilight’s eyes went wide, became focused, and she was ready to report on almost anything Celestia required. 

“Before we begin, any reports on the Crusader Project?” Celestia said, settling into her wide bowl shaped chair and getting comfortable, her large body spilling from one side of the bowl shaped chair to the other. 

“Not much to report Princess, the Crusaders continue to have a strong friendship, they arrive for ‘Twilight Time’ and perform admirably, and they continue to learn together quite readily. No signs of odd magic or unusual abilities manifesting from them and all of the time they spend together,” Twilight reported, causing Celestia to look disappointed. Twilight slumped slightly from seeing Celestia’s let down appearance. 

“I have such high hopes. Luna does as well, she continues to guide them in dreams, keeping them together and pushing them towards greater things,” Celestia confided. “And then there is the matter of Bucky and his own friendship studies. Twilight, tell me, what do you know about the various herds in Ponyville?” 

“Well, there are two major pegasi flocks, a whole host of earth pony clans, and…” 

“No, Twilight, not the greater herd structures. Herds. Plural marriage. Polyamory,” Celestia interrupted. 

Twilight blushed, a conflagration upon her cheeks. “Oh no Princess, I don’t swing that way, and no matter what the rumours are, my friends and I aren’t, well, doing unseemly things to one another,” Twilight assured Celestia, her eyes darting back and forth, her hooves prancing in place, her wings fluttering. 

“Twilight, I am not worried about what you might do with your friends. I want to know more about the herd structures in Ponyville. See what you can dig up. I’ve seen things… signs from our mutual interest Buckminster Bitters and his emerging friendships with one Berry Punch and one Derpy Doo Hooves. I saw them on the couch together, and they were very friendly with one another if you understand my meaning. I saw signs that trouble me somewhat,” Celestia admitted. “I personally abolished herds a long time ago because of the disharmony they caused, the fighting, and sometimes I wonder if I have made a mistake. Anyway,” said Celestia distractedly, “I started thinking about the Crusader Project. I cannot help but notice that Buckminster, Derpy Doo, and Berry Punch are a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony. And they are becoming very, very friendly with one another. I think our plans may have changed,” Celestia finished. 

“Okay Celestia,” Twilight huffed, feeling very squirmy and uncomfortable. 

“I want to talk with Princess Cadance about her feelings about herd structures, and then we are going to follow the Friendship Project through, only as a potentially emerging family structure, as I strongly suspect it will be. Buckminster made the most noble gesture to tutor Dinky Doo after the incident at the Ponyville primary school,” Celestia explained. 

“What are you saying?” asked Twilight, her face beet red, beads of sweat pouring from her brow, and the corner of her eye twitching. 

“I may consider officially sanctioning herd marriage again in Ponyville depending on how this study turns out. I want them watched as much as possible, observed in public as much as possible, without interrupting their privacy too much. Enlist as many pegasi as you need, get your friends, and keep a weather eye open for changes or warning signs,” Celestia commanded. “I want public courtship documented. I want behaviours studied. I want details. I want to understand the process. And I want you to study the other herds that I know are in Ponyville as well. Thunderlane and those two sisters, Flitter and Cloudchaser. Now, I know that the two sisters aren’t engaging each other in anything unseemly, Luna keeps an eye on that in dreams, but they are sharing Thunderlane. I want you to use his recent spot of trouble as leverage to get him to spill information, details, specifics, and to enlist his help in watching over Buckminster and his two mares. Is all of this clear?” Celestia asked. “This emerging relationship is a unification of the three tribes. I want to see some kind of results after one thousand years of studying Clover’s notes. You finished up Star Swirl’s work beautifully, just as I had hoped you would. Clover was certain that something would come about if the tribes united and bonded together. There has been hopeful signs, but that isn’t enough to satisfy me.” 

Twilight stood agape under the onslaught of Celestia’s words. 

“And keep watching the Crusaders. I still have hope for them,” Celestia added. 

Twilight nodded, still standing in stunned silence. One ear twitched fitfully. 

“Come here Twilight, you look disturbed, climb up into my chair and sit with me until you feel better, like you did when you were little. I still worry that you are in the throes of some kind of alicorn mischievous stage and seeing you like that frightens me so,” Celestia said, her voice full of worry. She patted the chair with her wing. 

Saying nothing, Twilight crawled up into the chair with Celestia and snuggled against her side, Celestia wrapping her wing around the smaller alicorn. 



 

“I’ve never had anything quite like this before,” Bucky admitted, looking over the menu. They had arrived early, before the evening rush, and the restaurant was surprisingly empty. 

“You like spicy food?” Berry asked, sitting on one side of Bucky. 

“Are you brave Mister Bitters?” Derpy teased, sitting on the other side. 

“I don’t need bravery, I have fusion. And sometimes I eat some spicy things, but I do not have a lot of experience with them,” Bucky answered. 

“What is fusion?” Derpy asked. 

“Unicorn bravery,” Berry replied. 

Derpy rolled her good eye, her bad eye continued to disobey as it always had. 

“I’m brave,” Dinky reassured her mother, her eyes wide and bright. 

“I know Dinks,” Derpy replied, looking at Dinky sitting on the other side of the table on one side of Sparkler, Piña sitting on the other side. 

“I’m brave too,” Berry said, licking her teeth and smiling broadly, only one hoof visible above the table. The other was exploring below the table. 

Bucky squirmed, shifting in his seat, Berry Punch’s hoof rubbing a circle just above his knee. He gulped. 

“Something wrong Bucky?” Derpy asked, turning towards him and smiling broadly, one eyebrow raised. 

“Oh, nothing,” Bucky squeaked, as Berry’s hoof traveled halfway up his leg. “Nothing at all!” he repeated. Bucky floundered, not sure of the proper rules to this social interaction. But he was not about be shown up by a numbskull. First, he cast a spell to dim his horn, a spell he had learned from Luna herself, when Luna had acted as a substitute teacher one day and taught practical subversion magicks. The spell made his horn flash for only a brief second. And then, Bucky focused his will, shoving the distracting thoughts of Berry and her frisky hoof out of his mind. He waited, his telekinesis ready. 

Bucky sat quietly, perfectly composed, both hooves folded politely before him on the table, one fetlock resting over another. 

Berry, not getting any satisfaction, boldly moved her hoof up to the webbing of his inner thigh, where it connected with his torso. That almost broke his concentration completely. He turned and smiled at Derpy, ignoring the lewd and lascivious equine next to him. “You look lovely tonight Derpy,” he stated, his tone gracious and warm, causing Derpy to melt slightly, her cheeks blushing brightly through her grey pelt. 

There was a loud squeak from Berry Punch a moment later as she almost leapt out of her seat, giggling loudly, both hooves now under the table, trying to make the invisible force tickling her navel go away. 

“Berry?” Sparkler said in alarm, looking worried. 

“Nothing… HRRK! Sparkler honey, I’m okay, I- I, uh, oh OH heh hah HOO!” Berry stammered, squirming, giggling, and sometimes snorting. 

Berry wickered as she threw her head back and writhed. 

Derpy began to chortle faintly. “Bucky, are you doing something unseemly?” 

“No,” Bucky replied innocently. “Do you see my horn glowing?” 

Derpy peered up at his horn with her one good eye. “Berry, stop being a spaz,” she said, now laughing. 

“Bucky!” Berry begged breathlessly. “Clan Pickled surrenders!” 

Bucky ceased his assault, at least for now, struggling not to laugh. It was quite difficult. Sparkler was looking directly at him, her lips pressed together. 

“I know you did something somehow,” Sparkler said, “You can’t fool me!” 

“You alright Berry?” Piña asked. 

“Oh, I was just getting what I deserved,” Berry said breathlessly, her barrel heaving, both hooves now on the table. “And somepony will get what they deserve later I am sure,” she added. 

Berry squealed loudly as there was a pinch along the graceful curve of her backside, a squeezing of her cheeks. 

“Bucky!” Derpy said, poking him with her hoof. “I want to know what is going on!” she demanded. 

Bucky obliged the only way he knew how, thinking about the raspberry assault earlier, a faint smile upon his lips, his hooves never moving. He turned the vibrating assault upon Derpy, moving along her navel. 

“Berry! Help me!” Derpy said, her hooves sliding down rapidly to her belly. 

Dinky looked at her mother curiously, the grey mare was acting silly. She turned at looked at Piña. “Adults are weird,” mumbled Dinky. 

Berry, seeing her friend in dire trouble, and knowing how ticklish Derpy could be, did the only thing she could do. She took Bucky’s head in her two hooves and planted a wet kiss on his lips, tickling his lips with her tongue. 

Bucky’s ability to cast spells died and his horn made an audible fizzle. 

Berry Punch pulled away as both Piña and Dinky were making “eew” noises and protesting the display of adult affection. 

“Bucky, I am going to destroy you when we get home!” Derpy promised. “Destroy!” 

Bucky sat there, trapped between two mares, breathless, and having the time of his life. He smiled at Sparkler, who was smiling at him. 

“You did something pervy to my mother,” Sparkler accused. “Good job!” 

A unicorn waiter stood near the table, gently clearing his throat and waiting to take an order. He smiled a warm smile, glad to see the group having a good time. His bright blue mane was impeccably styled and he wore glasses perched on his muzzle. 

“The sautéed sprout assortment for all, with spicy bean curd. Tens for Derpy, Sparkler and I, and fives for the foals and Bucky here, he’s a foal too,” Berry said to the waiter, smiling a crazy smile. “And I’ll take a bottle of Clan Pickled red, whatever vintage you might have. Fruit punch sodas for everybody as well.” 

“We have a few bottles left of a lovely ten year old red that was quite sweet and fragrant,” the waiter offered. 

“Yeah, that. Two bottles,” Berry requested, determined to have a good time. 

The waiter nodded, and then moved off swiftly to the kitchens. 

“I bet I could take a ten,” Dinky pouted. 

“The five is fine,” Piña mentioned, looking a little worried already. She looked up at her big sister, her eyes wide. 

“Piña, if you have trouble, don’t worry, we’ll take you somewhere and get you full on ice cream so you can cool off,” Berry promised. 

Piña heaved a sigh of relief and leaned into Sparkler’s side, and Sparkler, being a good filly, wrapped a leg around Piña and pulled her closer. After a moment, she reached out and grabbed Dinky Doo as well, keeping them both close. She smiled a knowing smile at the adults on the other side of the table. 

The waiter returned with drinks, gently floating the glasses to the table. “The wine will be out shortly ma’am,” he promised. He then departed, still smiling. 

Derpy, seeing the two foals, followed their example and leaned on Bucky. Bucky couldn’t help but notice that Derpy was very, very warm, and she smelled strongly of perfume. 

And something else.

Bucky couldn’t put a hoof on what he was smelling, but it made him feel heady and relaxed. Berry was wearing it too. They must have put it on one another when they were getting ready earlier. 

It was almost a little too pleasant. It made him feel kinda sleepy. 

Berry leaned in as well, propping up Bucky from the other side. Bucky took another deep breath, taking in the most wonderful smell through his nose. 

Pheromones? he thought to himself. No, this was a different smell entirely. Musky. Pleasant. Must be perfume. 

“The three of you look really happy,” Sparkler observed. 

“I am,” Derpy answered. 

“So am I,” Berry said. 

Bucky said nothing, he sat there breathing through his nose and smiling. 

“I think he’s happy,” Berry guessed. 

“He looks drunk,” Sparkler announced. 

“He’s probably a little worn out,” Derpy said, wrapping a foreleg around Bucky’s withers and giving a gentle squeeze. “Been some rough days,” she added. 

“I hope all three of you stay happy,” Sparkler said, her face suddenly very serious. 

“Thank you Sparkler,” Derpy said. 

The group of ponies sat together, exchanging glances. The foals were aware something was up, something was happening. Something had changed. Sparkler was aware of things happening as well, and was old enough to understand what they were. She wanted her mother happy, and she wanted Berry happy, and she wanted them both happy together. It was something she had wished for, for a very long time, practically since she had come into Derpy’s care. Berry was almost a mother to her already, the vessel of her real mother’s memories. Berry belonged in this family, however weird it might be. This family was a collection of cast offs, discards, and throw aways, a collection of strays. 

The adults of the group also understood on some deep level that something important had happened, causing change. An acknowledgement had been made, and the first few brave steps forward had been taken. 

The first date together had been done so as a whole family, an unusual step at best during these troubled and trying times. 
	
> Chapter 22
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The couch was surprisingly comfortable all things considered. Bucky awoke, his mind full of the hazy recollections of the night before. The bean curd and spout dinner had been spicy, but he had enjoyed himself, social consequences and all. The wine had been fantastic, even though he had always been a beer drinker, more or less. 

He had stayed late, having a wonderful time, and Derpy and Berry had invited him to stay. Derpy had reasoned that they could all sleep in the same bed without any funny business, but Bucky had balked at the idea. Berry had been drinking, and was full of funny business. 

The simple truth was, Bucky had never been with a mare. Or a filly when he had been a colt. Or anypony for that matter. There had been a few awkward kisses at various social mixers and dances and that was it. Derpy was a mother, which means she had been with at least one pony. Bucky had no doubts about Berry’s status. He lived with a real fear of disappointing both of them. This was troubling, as he didn’t really have anypony he could talk to, and he certainly wasn’t about to go to Celestia about this. 

Not unless he absolutely had to. 

The very thought of him doing so caused Bucky to cringe, feeling horrible pangs of embarrassment, playing the scenario out in his brain. Celestia and that knowing smile of hers, looking at him, patiently explaining the birds and bees. Nope. He knew about birds, he knew about bees, he had an understanding about how it worked, he just didn’t have it in him to face up to the painful shame and humiliation of that bound to be awkward first time. 

The dawn brought a distinct feeling of calm, the birdsong happy and soothing. 

There was a rapping at the door and female voice shouting “hello” could be heard as the knocking continued. Bucky heard thumps upstairs. Ponies were waking. 

Bucky rolled from the couch, landed on his hooves, and moved to answer the door. Somepony was certainly knocking at an early hour. Bucky crossed the immaculately clean living room, stood at the door, and opened it slowly, ready for anything. 

Cheerilee stood at the door, peering at Bucky with a faint smile, her eyes wide and bright. “Hi there,” she greeted. “I wanted to come by before school starts. I needed to speak to you and Miss Hooves. I know she heads off to work early.” 

“Me?” asked Bucky, blinking a few times, still trying to clear the sleepy from his head. Cheerilee was a morning pony. Bucky didn’t much care for morning ponies. 

“Yes, you,” answered Cheerilee, “I wanted to thank you for the other day. Keeping Dinky safe.”

“I destroyed the slide,” Bucky said sheepishly. 

“I know, that’s alright, we’ll be getting a new one,” Cheerilee said cheerfully. “And Celestia plans to deduct the cost of the slide from your salary.”

“Wait, how do you know about that?” Bucky demanded, concern creeping into his voice. Derpy had come down the stairs, and now stood beside him, he felt her snoot pressing into his side briefly. 

“I’ve had some messages delivered explaining the situation and I’ve been in contact with Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle. We’ve discussed the situation, we all want Dinky back in school as soon as you both feel comfortable with allowing her return, on the condition that Bucky attends the school as well, to both monitor Dinky and to possibly assist with a little magical instruction for the other little unicorn foals in class,” Cheerilee said, still smiling, still impossibly cheerful for this hour of the morning. “Princess Celestia agrees with my assertions that you deserve a higher pay grade, being an educator of any stripe is tough, but she wants greater returns for her financial investment. Also, Mister Rich is matching her bit for bit. He also expresses an interest in magical education.”

“Dinky can go back to school?” Derpy said, blinking her eyes slowly, still only half awake. She smacked her lips a few times, obviously a bit hung over. 

“As long as the conditions are met, yes,” Cheerilee replied. 

“I want Dinky to have a normal foalhood… Bucky, I really, really want this, but I don’t want you to feel obligated. You can continue to tutor Dinky at home,” Derpy said. 

Bucky felt Derpy pressing up against him, leaning on him, her wing now resting on his withers. She was warm and soft, her pelt and mane still messed up from being in bed. She still had lingering traces of the perfume from the night before. It fogged his mind, leaving him feeling a bit confused and light headed, making it a little hard to think. 

“I suppose we can try it and see how it goes,” Bucky said. “However, a one room schoolhouse is not the place for real magical instruction. There can be accidents. Problems. The other students might be at risk.” 

“Oh, I know, trust me,” Cheerilee said exuberantly. “We’re working on a solution,” she added. 

“Oh?” questioned Bucky, raising an eyebrow. 

“Nothing confirmed yet, but great minds are meeting together and one investor is willing to throw money at the problem until it is no longer a problem,” Cheerilee chirped, grating on Bucky’s troubled morning nerves. 

“I suppose I can teach a few minor cantrips and mostly just stick to basic magical theory, which is all lecture and no spellcraft,” Bucky said, thinking his thoughts out loud. “I take it Mister Rich is that investor?”

Cheerilee nodded, bouncing in place, looking very pleased with herself. 

“Miss Cheerilee, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but there are things to do this morning, especially if I am going to send Dinky off to school,” Derpy said, her voice wavering with unbridled happiness and an odd heavy breathing. 

The smell of perfume was almost cloying in the air. 

“I understand, and I must also prepare for the day,” replied Cheerilee, turning to leave, her smile broad and bright. 

Derpy, unable to contain herself any longer, pulled Bucky in and slammed the door. 

A second later, Bucky found himself thrown to the floor and pinned by the much stronger pegasus. “You keep looking after my foal,” she said breathlessly, planting a wet smooch on his lips. “You just keep doing all of the right things,” she murmured, now kissing him with more traditional pegasi violence, forcing his lips open and invading with her tongue, the tip of it briefly flicking over the roof of his mouth. 

Bucky squirmed, his own breath completely stolen away, and he found he was quite powerless to resist the pegasus’ affections. His head slammed painfully into the floor as she pressed her advantage for another kiss, her forelegs wrapped painfully tight around his body, pinning his own forelegs to his sides, the joints crackling and popping. 

For a brief moment, Bucky wondered if he could physically survive the overly affectionate pegasus, as his head was being ground into the floor as she kissed him, her powerful suction actually forcing his tongue from his own mouth, and he had no idea what was going on in the complicated oral interactions taking place. 

But he liked it. 

After several minutes of abusing the poor defenseless unicorn, Derpy rose to her hooves, wobbling unsteadily, her wings half flared, and she staggered off towards the stairs. “Whew!” she shouted, fanning herself with a somewhat stiffened wing. “I am going to go tell Dinky the good news,” she said, now going up the stairs. 

Battered Bucky continued to lay on the floor, his barrel heaving, fearing for his life. He didn’t speak pegasus, but it wasn’t hard to figure out the meaning of what Derpy was communicating. 

A terrifying thought occurred to Bucky. There was two of them. Both of them a great deal stronger than he was. He sniffed, sniffed again, and then noticed that Derpy’s perfume had been left behind all over his pelt. His lips felt waxy and oily, and his tongue felt numb and peculiar. 

“Ow,” Bucky groaned, trying to get up on his hooves, his whole body aching. “Oh bother,” he hissed, his shoulder popping painfully as he placed weight on his front leg. 

He needed a shower. He peered at the stairs, knowing that he was welcomed to shower here if he needed one. He took a deep shuddering breath, feeling more than a little aroused, and silently made note to continue to look after Derpy and Berry’s foals. He took a few cautious steps towards the stairs, his mind flashing memories of the torrid tongue probing kiss. 



 

The shower was hot and soothed his battered body. Bucky stood under the shower head, his eyes closed, his mind wandering. He didn’t mind following Dinky to school. Bucky took a deep breath and inhaled the steam. The shower was in the second bathroom upstairs, the other had a tub. 

Bucky’s shower was suddenly interrupted by a plum coloured mare shoving her way into the now crowded shower stall, pressing up against him, smiling broadly. 

“Hi Bucky, howdja sleep?” Berry asked. 

“Berry!” Bucky shouted. 

“Not so loud,” Berry said, leaning up against him and rubbing, causing suds to lather from Bucky’s soapy hide. 

“Privacy?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh come on, we don’t wear any clothes, not like minotaurs do. How is this any different than standing outside together in a rainstorm?” Berry replied with her own question. 

“I uh, well, this is awkward, and uh…” he trailed off, his voice dying. 

“I needed a quick shower, I woke up feeling a little… sticky thinking about you tickling me last night, and wondering what other things you might be able to do with your magic,” Berry confessed, causing Bucky to stammer and splutter as he stood beside her under the shower head. “And then Derpy told me about Cheerilee’s visit and how sweet you were,” Berry continued. “And you really need to relax Bucky. This isn’t that awkward, but I could make it awkward if you would like,” Berry offered. 

“More awkward?” Bucky replied in a terrified voice. 

“Well, there would be a lot more room in here if we were stacked atop one another,” Berry explained, yawning. 

“No no no,” Bucky said, trying to get away and finding no room. Berry was blocking the exit. Bucky considered a quick wink, teleporting would fix this problem, 

“Bucky, look, I know you’ve never been with a mare before. So stop worrying so much. Just allow these little interactions to happen. Derpy and I aren’t going to molest you too much, but we are going to batter down your defenses slowly until you trust us. And then we are going to molest you. A lot,” Berry said, having turned around awkwardly and was now rubbing her other side up against Bucky to get it soapy. 

Bucky froze. Any magic he was about to summon was now completely gone. 

Berry nuzzled his neck gently, her body wet and warm against his. “It breaks my heart that you’ve been so neglected,” she said, all traces of her teasing tones gone. “You shy away from contact, you flinch when touched, you cringe sometimes when you see other ponies touching, and you live under constant fear of embarrassment. Even if it isn’t intimate sexy type contact, just simple pony on pony contact, you hold back. It hurts me to watch it. Herd interactions require regular contact. We were never meant to be individuals dear Bucky. We are a social animal.” 

Bucky swallowed, gritted his teeth, and lifted the bottle of liquid soap slowly with his magic, straining to perform the simple act of levitation. He tilted the bottle over Berry’s back, squeezed, and then cringed painfully as the bottle made a terrible flatulent sound that echoed in the shower stall as it was squeezed. 

“Ooh that’s cold!” Berry gasped, arching her back and prancing in place, her hooves clattering on the tile. “Cold cold cold! Cold soap!” 

“I don’t always know how to act around other ponies,” Bucky confessed, using his magic to lift up a scrub brush. He went to work scrubbing, almost feeling as though he was going to throw up at any moment. 

“Rough being a type three, I guess,” Berry said. 

“That’s part of it. Magic is so strongly tied to emotion,” Bucky admitted. 

“So I guess it is easier to deal with objects that have no emotions, like telescopes and books,” Berry answered. 

“Yeah,” Bucky said, still scrubbing. 

“Speaking as a numbskull to a snob, you have to know something important. I am stubborn, and you can’t out stubborn an earth pony. I am going to make you feel emotion even if it kills us both. I am going to wear you down, batter down your defenses, and I will get to know you, the you deep down inside, the one you keep hidden away, safe and secure in your little mental fortress,” Berry turned to look at Bucky as she spoke, her eyes wide, her mane wet and clinging to her shapely neck. “I will drag you back into the herd kicking and screaming if I have to, and I have help. I understand the need for caution, I understand that you must remain ever vigilant to hold back what could harm us all, but you don’t have to do it alone. It isn’t fair to you.” 

Bucky nodded, now moving invisible forces to scrub Berry’s neck. She raised her neck, tilting her head, her eyes wide with pleasure as something she could not see washed her mane. 

“Oh that has to be the best feeling ever,” she gasped, her eyes now closing. “Channel your magic doing this all day, I’ll sacrifice myself for the greater good,” Berry offered. 

Bucky laughed, a nervous laugh. 

His laughter was cut short by another pair of lips pressing into his own, the hot water running rivulets around two mouths pressed together. Berry nibbled on his lip, biting down and pulling away his lower lip away from his teeth, stretching it out before letting it go, opening her eyes and looking into his as she did so. 

“See, just a friendly shower, nothing to worry about,” she said in reassuring tones. 

“So, uh, after I went to bed on the couch last night, did uh, you and Derpy, well, you know, get to know one another?” Bucky asked. 

“No, well, there was a little kissing, and maybe bit a more spooning than usual, but she and I agreed that nopony is doing anything to anypony until we are all in a place we can take that first big step in our relationship together. Just come to us when you are ready Bucky. It really is that simple,” Berry said, punctuating her words with a gentle peck on the cheek. 

Both of them stood, allowing the water to rinse soap from their coats. Berry resumed her teasing mood, picking up the shower brush in hoof and giving more delicate parts of her anatomy a good scrubbing. 

“I suppose it would be too much to ask for you to scrub these hard to reach places,” she said, sticking her tongue out. 
	
	
> Chapter 23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The road out of town was long and dusty. Little puffs of dust rose up off the earth as Berry Punch walked out towards the ancestral farmhouse. The farmhouse was run down, dilapidated, and in desperate need of attention. There was a vineyard that had overgrown a long, long time ago, a now wild strawberry patch, and various berry thickets, both raspberry and blackberry. 

There was also the old distillery, a massive brick structure that was in dire need of repair. The brick walls were still as sturdy as ever, but the windows were gone and the roof had long since crumbled. 

As she walked, she thought of dinner the night before, laying in bed with her friend long into the night, spooning and discussing the future, and the rather steamy shower she had shared with Bucky. 

The memory of the shower made her breath quicken. 

Dinner had been an event. Bucky was a slow and careful eater, well mannered, even by unicorn standards. He stopped to wipe his mouth after almost every bite, dirty or not, ate tiny bites with silverware, and never spoke with his mouth full. 

Eating dinner at a table with Derpy and family had nearly destroyed him. It had not been anything like the birthday party, where they had eaten a few sandwiches, cake, and icecream in a very casual setting. 

Sparkler, true to form, had displayed her best table manners, being in a public space, and Bucky had nearly expired from mortification. Sparkler’s roaring belch had managed to rouse the chef from the kitchen, who had come out to personally thank her for her compliments. The chef was, of course, a pegasus, which had caused Bucky some alarm. Bucky had been expecting a unicorn for some odd reason. 

Derpy and family were boisterous eaters, there was great deal of slurping, chop licking, mutual face licking to clean each other’s faces, and poor Bucky was at a total loss to understand just what was going on. 

Ahead, the farmhouse began to rise up into view. 

Bucky had dealt well enough with the heat from the spicy food, but began to become quite distressed when his nose had begun to dribble near the end of the meal. He had hidden himself behind his napkin, carefully wiping his nose. 

Dinky had innocently asked if magic could be used to pull boogers out of her booger bunker, which made Sparkler nearly choke on her food with laughter. Bucky had been completely unable to reply, merely displaying the proper technique with a napkin. 

Berry Punch giggled to herself when she thought about her wandering hooves and Bucky’s clever response. She took a secret satisfaction in knowing that Bucky could be provoked into response, that the repressed and stuffy unicorn still had an impressive mischievous streak. 

There was a warm and somewhat damp feminine physiological response when thinking about the mischievous streak and the air took on a smell that Bucky would easily confuse for perfume, had he been here to smell the now heavily scented air. 

The only sounds were a heaving contented sigh and hoofbeats tapping upon the dirt road. Berry walked in silence, her tail waving from side to side, moving air over her overly warm and somewhat damp nethers, cooling off her body as she walked, fanning what one very confused unicorn would mistake for perfume. 

Berry Punch stood at the entrance to the homestead, looking at the old farmhouse, and then her gaze fell upon the massive brick distillery. She stared at it for several minutes, blinking as she did so, taking note of the size and solidity of the structure. She had moved everything into Ponyville, getting thoroughly modern equipment and a matching workspace. But this structure, this structure was still useful, and Berry had the most wonderful idea. 

This would be an ideal space for Dinky and other foals to learn magic. 



 

The mailbag was especially heavy today, full of mail and several smaller packages. The larger packages required a different delivery service. With every flap of her wings, with every tug of the strap, Derpy quietly reminded herself of why she did what she did. Her foals. She had taken this job, and many other odd jobs when the situation presented itself, all in an attempt to keep her family together, fed, and happy. And no effort was too great. Family was the only thing that mattered. The flock helped, offering assistance, food, even bits sometimes, but Derpy was fiercely proud and resisted help. She had made her way on her own for the most part. All that mattered was Dinky and Sparker’s happiness, and she placed her own needs second. 

And Dinky in particular certainly seemed happy with Bucky. 

There was a hot warm flash in Derpy’s navel, the warmth spreading and blossoming through her hips as she flew. The day seemed entirely too warm suddenly, and the air became perfumed. 

Sparkler was also quite taken with Bucky, and had given her approval. Not that Derpy needed Sparkler’s approval, but it was nice. Sparkler and Bucky were total opposites as far as unicorns go, and Derpy had witnessed that during last night’s dinner.

Dinner had been a bit confusing for the grey mailmare. Her children had been on their best manners, and, well, Derpy couldn’t understand Bucky’s manners. By pegasus standards, Bucky’s manners were appalling. Not once did he stop to help lick her face clean. She had been a little tearful about it later to Berry, when they were both lying in the bed, and Berry had consoled her, reminding her that Bucky simply did not know any better. Unicorns had magic and napkins, and no longer needed a friendly helpful lick to keep their muzzles immaculately clean. Unicorns and their magic removed a lot of the social interactions that kept a herd together, the common societal bonds of equine interaction. 

Derpy steeled her resolve to teach Bucky better table manners. His were downright embarrassing and shameful, and had left behind some hurt feelings. Berry was right of course, it wasn’t Bucky’s fault, but it was never too late to learn better manners. A few meals at home perhaps, with Bucky firmly planted between her and Sparkler, and maybe a few quick swats to straighten him out should set everything straight. 

Derpy had a very real fear that Dinky would pick up on Bucky’s manners, and that caused no end of stress and worry. This was a situation that needed correcting and soon, before it became a problem. Derpy did not want Dinky’s connections to the flock severed. Dinky was already ground bound, and that was trying enough. Bad manners would have Dinky shunned. 

The mailmare had worked herself into a frightful state of worry as she traveled up the lane, gently placing mail into boxes, and occasionally leaving small packages on porches, stoops, and stairs. 

The grey mare had strong feeling of affection for the now tutor of her foal, but he was going to be a work in progress for a very long time. 



 

The classroom was filled with constant whispering and giggling, causing Cheerilee to turn around constantly and give a reproachful glare. Bucky sat in the corner, sitting in a chair, reading a book, occasionally looking up to watch Dinky. 

And Dinky was miserable. 

The class would not stop talking about what had happened, teasing about the situation with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to no end, and celebrating what Dinky had done. It was causing Dinky no end of emotional distress. Dinky had held it in though, even though she was on the verge of tears, and had been for almost an hour. 

“I heard that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are still lumpier than my mother’s oatmeal,” a young earth pony colt whispered to a young pegasus filly. 

Dinky felt something boil up inside of her, and finally, the tears begin to spill. “STOP IT!” Dinky shrieked. “STOP MAKING FUN OF THEM! IT’S WRONG! JUST LIKE MAKING FUN OF MY MOMMY IS WRONG! STOP STOP STOP!” Dinky cried, sparks now spurting from her horn alarmingly. 

Bucky looked up with some concern. “Come here Dinky,” Bucky beckoned, his tone commanding but gentle. 

Dinky fled crying from her seat and ran to Bucky, leaping up into his forelegs and hugging him around his neck. He squeezed her back, trying to soothe her, the worrying sparks increasing in size and intensity. 

Cheerilee looked very concerned. “Class, I want this talk to stop. Everypony can stay after school and think about Dinky’s example, feeling compassion for those who have wronged you,” Cheerilee said, her eyes narrowed with discontent. 

“I wanna go!” Dinky wailed, her voice a high pitched screech.  

“Alright Dinks, we’ll be going, just try to calm down. You must calm down,” Bucky said, still hugging the little foal and stroking her back. 

“I’m coming too!” cried Piña, looking at her classmates on either side of her. “You’re both mean. Shame on you!” 

“Can Piña be excused with us Miss Cheerilee?” Bucky asked. “I think Piña will help Dinky calm down once we are out of here,” he added. 

Cheerilee nodded, saying nothing. She continued to glare at her class. 

Bucky gently set Dinky down, still sobbing, patting her one last time, and then began to herd the two small foals out the door, whispering soothing words to Dinky the whole time, his head low, his mouth inches from Dinky’s ear. 

“All of you should be ashamed,” Cheerilee said. “You put her through this after she had endured such a traumatic event.”

Dinky dragged her hooves as she walked, leaning on Piña for comfort, tears flooding down her cheeks as she exited the door. 

Bucky turned and gave one final icy glare to the classroom, raising his eyebrow and pointing his ears forward. Many foals flinched, and Cheerilee took note of the withering gaze and the devastating effect it had upon the foals. 

She saw a pony who had all the makings of being a fine teacher. 



 

“Dinky Doo Hooves, are you going to be alright?” Bucky asked, as they walked down the road together, not really knowing where they were going, just walking. 

The foal did not respond, still walking with her face buried in Piña’s shoulder. 

“Dinky Doofus, please say something…” Piña begged. 

Dinky stopped suddenly, pulling her face away and lifting her head. “I want to go see them,” she sniffed, her barrel still hitching. 

“Oh no, that’s a bad idea,” Bucky said, his eyes going wide with concern. 

“I need to see them, I need to say I am sorry,” Dinky said. “If I don’t, I’m gonna burst and make a mess.” 

“This is a bad idea Dinks,” Bucky said, shaking his head. 

“I’ll be good. I’ll behave. But I need to make this right,” Dinky begged. 

Bucky rubbed his face with a fetlock and puffed out his cheeks, taking a deep breath. He muttered quietly to himself. This was a terrible idea. 

“It is better if I do this with you, if you don’t take me, I’ll ask mommy, and I know she’ll take me,” Dinky said. 

Bucky groaned. He stood there, his mind coming up with all kinds of nightmarish scenarios, including a hospital full of bees. This was terrible idea, and he was a terrible pony for even considering it. 

“Please?” Piña begged, speaking up in support of Dinky. 

“Alright. One very short visit. But if I say we need to leave, we leave. No arguing. My word is final,” Bucky explained, his worry and his panic increasing even as he spoke. Even though he felt this was a terrible idea, he felt a fierce sense of pride knowing Dinky. Derpy had raised a good foal. 

Dinky said nothing in reply, but merely sniffled. Piña threw a leg over Dinky’s withers and hugged. The two were clearly as close as sisters. 

Bucky took off at a trot, the foals moving quickly to keep up. 

“The hospital is back that way!’ Piña cried. 

“But the flower stands are over this way,” Bucky argued good naturedly. 

“Ooh, you're so sweet,” Piña said, “this is why my sister keeps talking about you.” 

Bucky felt a hot blush sear his cheeks at the foal’s words. “We’ll grab a bite to eat, get some flowers, and then we will stop in and see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon if we are allowed to visit them,” Bucky explained. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“To be honest, you are the last ponies I expected to see here,” said Filthy Rich, his eyes bleary and bloodshot. Filthy Rich looked like he had aged several years in the span of a few days, his lips were cracked and dry, and there were crusts in the corners of his eyes. 

“Dinky wanted to make things right, I thought this was a bad idea,” Bucky said, looking down at Dinky, his face concerned, and then he brought his gaze back up to Filthy Rich, who now looked old. “Silver Spoon is apparently not taking visitors,” Bucky added. 

“To be perfectly honest, nopony has been by to visit other than Cheerilee. Not one of Diamond Tiara’s classmates have been by to see her or comfort her. Silver Spoon’s parents stopped by to see me earlier today. They’re moving. Tea Spoon said, well, never mind what she said, what she said was wrong, I will not repeat her horrid words. But they are all moving as soon as Silver Spoon gets better,” Filthy Rich explained. 

Dinky quietly began to sniffle, wrapping one foreleg around Bucky’s own foreleg, rubbing her face just below his knee. Piña, good little Piña, the earth pony that carried Dinky’s burdens, pressed her muzzle into Dinky’s neck, just behind Dinky’s ear and gave a gentle snort of affection. 

“Does Dinky have your permission to visit Mister Rich?” Bucky asked, his voice low and soft, and very very full of worry. 

“I want things to get better,” Filthy Rich said, looking down at Dinky. “Dinky, I said terrible things about you… I- I was wrong. You are a very good pony and you are very brave to come here,” he said, his eyes going misty, the crusts in the corners softening from moisture. 

“Don’t cry Mister Rich, I can’t look when adults cry,” begged Dinky, looking upward once and then hiding her face again. With a gasp, Dinky pulled away from Bucky and Piña and went to Filthy Rich, throwing her forelegs around one of his forelegs and hugging tightly. “You need a hug,” she sobbed. 

Filthy Rich froze. 

He did not move, could not move, his face frozen in shock, his body as still as a statue.

Bucky felt incredibly awkward, but he also felt a fierce pride for a foal not his own. He made a mental note to pull Dinky aside privately and praise her, letting her know that she was a good foal and that she had her head screwed on right. 

Filthy Rich seemed to thaw a bit, lifting up one foreleg not being hugged to gently rub Dinky on her side, his eyes rapidly flooding. “I don’t know how Diamond Tiara will feel about you being here, “ Filthy Rich said. “Come on, her room is down the hall.” 

Filthy Rich was forced to walk with Dinky clinging to his leg, which he didn’t seem to mind. Bucky sensed the confusion coming from the earth pony, Diamond Tiara probably wasn’t very affectionate he guessed. 

“I’m sad and I don’t know what to do,” Piña said, looking up at Bucky, who looked back down at her. “Everything is confusing. I really wanted to hate Diamond Tiara. Nothing makes sense,” the foal sniffled, lisping slightly from the nervousness that was making her lips quiver. 

Bucky quietly resolved to spend more time with Piña, helping shape her moral compass, sensing a noble spirit. He said nothing, instead, he lowered his head and nuzzled her, causing himself a strange sensation as he did so. It was not the first time he had done this, but something about this particular time was different. Something felt different. 

Filthy Rich carefully pushed open the door. “Diamond Tiara, you have visitors,” he said, stepping through the doorway, pulling Dinky along. 

Bucky saw for the first time up close the extent of the damage. He could not recognise the foal in the bed. Her eyes were barely able to open, her face was lumpy and deformed. Her mouth could not close due to the swelling and deformation of her lips. Her ears looked like potatoes because they were so swollen. 

And then, she began to squeal with alarm when she saw Dinky. 

“Diamond Tiara, calm down, it is okay, she came here to apologise, to talk to you,” Filthy Rich said in a calming voice. 

Diamond Tiara continued to squeal in panic, causing a nurse to come over and check on them all. The nurse stood watching, waiting, assessing the situation. She finally gave a nod, and then walked away, Diamond Tiara still squealing in panic. 

Dinky slowly pulled away from Filthy Rich, approaching the bedside, Diamond Tiara falling silent, her barrel heaving with fear, the blanket covering her rising and falling rapidly. 

Dinky stood, tears streaming, splashing on the floor in large flooding drops, looking pitiful in ways that only foals can look pitiful. 

Bucky gently lifted the pink and yellow carnations out of his saddle bag and moved them to a vase sitting on the window sill. It remained empty. Nopony had brought flowers. Diamond Tiara’s eyes momentarily left Dinky and watched the flowers as they floated past. Bucky then filled the vase with water from a pitcher left sitting on the counter, carefully moving the flowers aside as he poured in the water. 

“I’m so sorry,” Dinky said, her voice cracking with emotion, the last word coming out in a squeaky squeal.

The room remained silent, nopony spoke, nopony moved. Diamond Tiara lay silent. 

The resiliency of herds and foals are funny things. Both can take a lot of injury and then recover, given the right circumstances. Diamond Tiara had recently had plenty of time to think about life, not having anything else to do, and she had noticed that nopony had come to see her other than Cheerilee, and she had not expected Cheerilee to come and comfort her. And she certainly hadn’t expected Dinky and Piña to arrive. 

She lay there, still, quiet, even now trying to figure out why Dinky and Piña had come, feeling a peculiar sensation amidst all of her pain in her body. 

She did not understand that these were ponies that cared about her well-being, that these were herd mates that were concerned about her and were desperately trying to reestablish a broken connection. She could not comprehend any of these things, her mind lacked the knowledge of what was taking place. 

All she felt was a profound sense of relief that somepony cared enough about her to stop and offer comfort. Something inside broke, a perilously fragile barrier that could no longer hold. She began to sob, making great sucking snorting sounds through badly swollen nostrils that allowed her little air. 

Dinky moved slowly to the bed, Piña now right behind her, both of them also crying, leaving a trail of droplets behind them as they moved together, until Dinky reached the bedside of Diamond Tiara. Dinky Doo carefully stood up on her hindhooves, balancing on the bed, and rested her forelegs on the bed for support. Knowing that Diamond Tiara was far too tender to touch, she shyly extended one hoof outwards towards Diamond Tiara, who turned away from her and buried her face into the pillow, still bawling. The hoof remained extended but moved no further. 

Bucky felt himself growing a bit teary eyed, and wished Derpy and Berry were here to see this. The pegasus would be proud, and so would Berry. 

Filthy Rich could no longer bear to watch and fled the room, making terrible whimpering sounds as he did so, Bucky watched him leave, wondering if it was grief or trust that moved him from his filly’s bedside. 

Bucky hoped it was trust. 

Two foals now stood at Diamond Tiara’s bedside, Piña Colada following Dinky Doo’s example, rising up and standing, allowing Dinky to lean on her slightly. 

With agonising slowness, Diamond Tiara raised her hoof, the only thing not covered in stings, and extended it towards Dinky, never lifting her face from her pillow, still hiding, still sobbing, her hitching body making the entire bed shake. 

Dinky moved her hoof, carefully touching the hoof extended to her, and Piña followed Dinky’s example, also gently touching the extended hoof, taking part in a moment that was clearly creating some kind of bond. 

Bucky patiently waited, not daring to say anything, giving the foals the time they needed for this situation to correct itself and the forming bond to establish itself. 

The herd had its own way of making repairs. It was a powerful force of nature that always managed to re-assert itself in some way. Even now, it worked to fix the broken bonds between the foals, it worked to fix the broken bonds that Bucky had, it was a relentless force that allowed equines to become one of the dominant life forms on a planet also inhabited by dragons. It guided family structures that created foals fit for survival, pushing the equine race ever forward. 

Bucky watched the act of forgiveness he was witnessing, thankful to be witnessing it. 

Forgiveness was a powerful act, and it made Bucky think about his parents. 



 

Berry Punch had returned to Ponyville, leaving a perfumed wake behind her, her head high, her mane streaming out behind her, her tail billowing in the breeze as she cantered forward. She had had the most wonderful idea and she felt like a million bits. She turned an eye skyward, looking for a grey mare, wanting to tell somepony about her brilliant idea. 

Not only was she going to fix up the farmhouse, she was going to see if she could get help fixing up the old distillery and turn it into a school. Sure, it was a mess now, but it could be fixed. And, if things continued to go well, a certain pair of special someponies could potentially live in the house, one could maybe teach a bit of magic, and help Berry brew her lovely elixirs of happiness, and life would be perfect. Derpy could quit her job as a mailmare, and chase her own destiny, bubble baths. Preferably bubble baths with two other ponies as often as the situation allowed. Berry had carefully ventured into the old farmhouse, nearly falling through the floor in one spot, cursing in a crazy language no foal should hear.  The tub was still in remarkably good condition, it needed a scrubbing more than anything, and it was large enough to fit four ponies. The wood burning water heater in the bathroom probably needed to be replaced with something a bit more modern. 

Berry was quite shocked to see Thunderlane suddenly landing before her, his face stern. “Berry Punch, Bucky has taken Dinky Doo and Piña Colada to the hospital,” he said. 

Berry did not give Thunderlane time to explain anything else in further detail as she took off at a full gallop for the hospital. Thunderlane spread his wings, taking off after her, hoping to find his flockmate Derpy Doo Hooves along the way. Flitter and Cloudchaser fell into formation with him, one on each wing. Berry was fast for an earth pony, athletic and in near perfect physical condition from all the wagon pulling she did. He flew, chasing after Berry Punch. 

Berry raced onwards, her heart in her throat, terror welling up inside her. 



 

A lone unicorn stood vigil in the doorway, solemnly standing watch over three foals, witnessing a new bond being formed, a bond formed in mutual grief and sorrow, forged through the understanding of pain, and the desire to no longer be alone. 

Behind him, he heard a clatter of many hooves striking tile, but doing so quietly, or at least trying to do so. 

He turned, seeing a sizable herd of his fellow equines approaching. Filthy Rich led the way, still looking profoundly sad, Thunderlane walking at his side looking serious and stern. Behind them, four mares walked. Derpy and Berry Punch, and two pegasus mares that Bucky did not know, but knew that he was about to meet. Derpy and Berry Punch both broke away from the group and hurried forward. Derpy still had her mailbag. 

They joined Bucky, one standing on each side, still silent, looking through the door, their breathing heavy. Bucky looked at each of them, nodding slightly as he did so, and then turned his attention back to the foals. He heard faint sobbing coming from each side of him, and then two muzzles pressed into his neck, one on each side, he could feel two wet faces pressing against his pelt. 

Behind him, he heard a voice. 

“Thunderlane, you’re a chowderhead for telling her that her foal was taken to the hospital, you never tell a mother something like that, not in that context you big dummy.” 
	
> Chapter 25
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



 


To my friend, Celestia,


Today, I witnessed a powerful act of forgiveness and it has left me humbled. I am still in awe of what I have witnessed, I will try to write more about it later when I get the chance. Against my own better judgment, I took Dinky Doo to the hospital to visit Diamond Tiara. I worried a great deal over what might happen, I never expected the outcome I witnessed. 

I am humbled by my student.

Dinky and Piña both forgave Diamond Tiara, and then spent some time comforting her. When we left the hospital today, Dinky and Piña both promised to return and visit. I think I witnessed the first moments of a new friendship. 

I am more than willing to pay for the slide, Miss Cheerilee told me about the salary deduction, I suppose I should be responsible. I am willing to teach a little magic to Dinky’s fellow students, but not inside of the schoolhouse, for reasons I am sure you know. 

I wish I could write more, but I am jotting this down as I am walking with Berry to her brewery. This afternoon, I am going to help her brew beer and get to know her better. Dinky is coming with us, I think I might have a chance to give Dinky a practical lesson about the use of magic in day to day tasks. 

Berry wants to talk to you about opening a magic school in Ponyville, you should listen to her. Oh look, a mailbox!

Your friend, Buckminster. 







 

The brewery smelled fantastic. After the emotional events at the hospital, it was good to have a release. Derpy sat with the two foals as Berry showed Bucky what to do with everything on a large scale. 

Ahead of them lay alchemy; barley, malt, water, yeast, and hops. A little molasses, some honey, and a few other extracts also lay ready. Bucky tensed, feeling excited, feeling an odd tingle in his backside where his cutie marks were. 

“Okay, the water is hot, those ingredients on the table in the burlap bags all need to go into the mash tun, a little at a time, while the mash tun is stirred ever so often, it is a slow careful process that takes a lot of work!” Berry shouted over the roar of the flames heating the water tank. 

The mash tun was enormous. The size of a small swimming pool. A flight of stairs stood beside it. Berry stood at the table, and began to pull a bag upon her back, struggling to pull the corner edge of the bag with her teeth. The bag weighed forty pounds, and there were many bags. 

Bucky laughed, Berry was doing this the hard way. 

Grinning a manic grin, Bucky extended his will, pulling the bag free from Berry, who looked quite surprised. He lifted the other bags on the table, hoisting all of them effortlessly, he also began to power the large wooden paddle that stirred the grains and ingredients going into the mash tun. With a toss of his head, he threw open the spigot, sending boiling water into the mash tun. 

Berry began to head for the stairs, she had one hoof placed on the bottom stair when Bucky lifted her as well, sending her flying through the air, giving her an airborne view so she could supervise. 

“Bucky! I am an earth pony! Put me down this instant, my hooves belong on the gro-oh oh OH NO NO NO HAHAHAHAH! STOP TICKLING ME YOU HORSESHOE HEAD!” Berry cried as she whirled through the air with everything else, held aloft in swirling vortex. 

Piña Colada clapped her hooves as she watched her sister flying through the room, Berry guffawing riotously. Dinky sat in awe, understanding that she could probably do this someday. Derpy sat back and enjoyed the show. Berry had it coming. She was a tickle tease. 

Bucky also began to rise as gravity’s hold upon the room relaxed just a little, he hovered, now focused in the center of everything, in the calm of the swirling magic storm, ripping open the bags and floating each grain individually, making them dance and form shapes, each grain flowing through the air like liquid. 

“We need to create the cereal mash!” Berry cried, still giggling, rubbing her forehooves over her body, trying to be rid of the invisible forces tickling her as she flew. Invisible feathers were creeping up her inner thighs, working into very intimate places. Bucky was so going to pay for this later. Even worse, the invisible feathers stopped at a certain point, leaving Berry horribly frustrated and teased. She resolved to have a word with Derpy about revenge as a team effort. 

“I wanna see!” Dinky cried, moving forward from her mother. 

With a careful jerk, Dinky Doo rose up into the air as well, now joining the swirling masses, her eyes wide as her mane and tail streamed out behind her as she soared through the air. “I’m flying!” she cried. 

“Not me!” Piña cried, pressing herself into Derpy. “Nuh-huh!”

The barley began to slowly stream into the mash tun, being stirred, more boiling water being added, everything meeting Berry Punch’s approval as she circled over the steaming vat. “This has to soak for about thirty to fifty hours!” she cried as she whirled through the air. Bucky had done in just a few minutes what would have taken her hours to do alone or even with some help from her fellow earth ponies or Derpy. Berry was impressed. 

And flustered. All the tickling filled the air with fragrant perfume that blended with the scents of malt barley and burning wood, filling the room with a scent that Bucky found most pleasing. 

“After this has cooked, we do the lautering process, and then it goes into the big copper kettle so the wort can boil, we add the molasses, honey, and a few other ingredients, secret stuff,” Berry said as she flew around the room, watching everything slowly go into the mash tun and become blended with near perfection. “And hops!” she added, breathless, and feeling like she needed to pee. 

“No more!” she begged. “I need to go to the little filly’s room!” 

Bucky gently set her down with a final tickle just above her dock, which made her hind legs wobble. Berry bleated, making an almost sheep-like noise, and then took off running for the little filly’s room. 

“This is neat!” Dinky cried, still floating. 

“All this work done in minutes,” Derpy said in awe, her eyes wide and her face full of wonder. “I’ve helped Berry do this before, flying bags up to her at the top of the stairs while she pours them in. It is exhausting work. 

“I’ve probably burned thousands and thousands of mana-calories doing this, if I don’t eat a big meal soonish, I’m going to have some problems. It takes a lot of food to power a unicorn for even a small amount of time,” Bucky said, looking at Dinky meaningfully as he did so, gently lowering them both to the ground. “Magic comes at the cost of burning up energy reserves in the body. Higher functioning unicorns, type twos and higher, have to eat a lot of food to keep their magic going, we require a lot of starches, grains, sugars, and carbohydrates to keep functioning. We can out-eat hungry earth ponies and pegasi after an intense bit of spell casting. As we eat food, energies channeled by our horns convert the food in our stomachs into magical energies to replenish our reserves, before our bodies have a chance to digest it into fuel for the body. So after intense spell casting, we have to keep eating and eating, waiting for the feeling of food actually staying in our bellies. Otherwise, we can starve to death even with what seems to be plentiful food. Some unicorns have even taken to eating during intense spell casting, but that can break our concentration. Remember this Dinky, or else you could get very sick. This little display lasting only a few minutes is going to require me to eat for hours.” Bucky explained, saying each word carefully and looking Dinky directly in the eyes. “Do you understand?” Bucky asked, looking concerned. 

“I think so,” Dinky said, nodding. “Magic makes the food go away before it gets turned into poop.” 

“Yeah,” Bucky replied, grinning sheepishly. 

“Oh my,” Derpy said. “I guess I’ll have to do more grocery shopping, I didn’t know anything about this. Explains Sparkler’s appetite. Is this part of the reason you passed out that night?” Derpy asked. 

“I’m sure it contributed,” Bucky replied. “I went home and devoured most of the contents of my pantry.” 

“Is this why I ate so much popcorn?” Dinky asked, recalling that she ate more popcorn than she had ever done so before. 

Bucky nodded, pleased to see Dinky catching on. 

“We’ll then, I’ll fix my famous vegetable stew and dumplings tonight, I can make a few gallons of soup, it is the least I can do,” Berry said, coming through the door and entering the room, her eyes flashing with promised mischief for all the tickling. “The dumplings are starchy and there are lots of potatoes,” she mentioned, her eyebrows raising and her mouth forming a wide grin. 

“That sounds really good,” Bucky said, licking his lips and feeling the first stabs of hunger. He felt a little light headed suddenly, a pleasant rush of warmth flowing through his body and making his horn feel tingly. 

“Well, this explains why unicorns don’t rule the world just yet, takes a lot of food to fuel magical efforts. Explains Barley O’Blivion’s ability to win eating and drinking contests,” Berry said, looking thoughtful. 

“Barley O’Blivion?” Derpy asked. 

“My uncle. He’s the old fart that used to get Dinky to pull his hoof,” Berry replied. 

“Oh… oh him! The obnoxious old unicorn stinker that always made me bean and barley soup when I was nursing Dinky, he said it was good for my milk,” Derpy said, recalling a pleasant memory. “How is he?” Derpy asked. 

“Coming to town,” Berry replied, heaving a lusty sigh as she looked at Bucky, her eyes sparkling with attraction. “He’s sick of Vanhoover, he’s coming back to Ponyville, says there is not enough Clan Pickled left in Ponyville after the string of tragedies.” She turned her gaze to Derpy, licking her teeth seductively, and gave the grey mare a wink. 

“I wanna see Barley,” Piña said. “I miss him.” 

“So do I,” Dinky said. “I barely remember him, but he was funny.” 

“I barely remember him. He looked after you sometimes Dinky, when mommy had to work. Will be nice to see him again I suppose,” Derpy said absentmindedly. 

“Derpy, we might need to discuss living arrangements, I was planning on letting him stay in my place,” Berry said. 

“Of course,” The grey mare replied, looking pleased. “I want you with me, I’ve tried to get you to move in for a long time.” 

“So we just walk away and let this boil?” Bucky asked. 

“We’ll, I have to come back ever so often and make sure there is fuel for the fire under the mash tun,” Berry replied. “I’d like to upgrade to a gas line, but that’s really expensive.” 

“Once I get the hang of things, what if we doubled or tripled our output? Could you afford it then?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe,” Berry said, shrugging. “I might even be able to afford it now, I just keep expenses down so I can live comfortably and not have to dip into the life insurance money I have in the bank.” 

“I see,” Bucky said, rubbing his chin. “You know, the gas line might not be needed, if I could get my hooves on the materials and took some time to study, I might be able to make a sunstone. I’ve never done it before, and they are fiendishly complicated to create, but they generate a lot of heat, and, well, actually, for a vat this size it might take several sunstones to make enough heat to make everything boil. They do have to be recharged in sunlight though.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but I am curious about the idea. We’ll talk about it later. Let’s go home and get to fixing food,” Berry suggested. 



 

Berry put Bucky to work again, chopping vegetables for stew while she went to work making dough for dumplings. Bucky could have just as easily done both, but Berry insisted on making the dough herself, claiming it was therapeutic. Dinky sat alone with a small knife and a carrot, trying to make slices while Bucky gently offered words of encouragement. 

Piña, content to watch everything, sat at the kitchen table sipping juice from a small glass through a straw, doing what Piña was exceptionally good at, looking adorable and trying to stay out of the way. 

Derpy had sprawled on the couch in the living room, her body aching from her deliveries. She stretched out one wing, and then the other, slowly flexing them and rotating them in their sockets, groaning as she did so. She was starting to get carriers’ wing in both sockets, from carrying heavy loads in her bag that always pulled on one side of her body or another, causing one wing to work harder than the other to compensate. She switched sides regularly, which seemed to have caused the problem to spread to both joints equally. She needed time in a tub to soak and relieve the swelling. She watched Bucky sitting at the kitchen table with the two foals, peering through the kitchen doorway, feeling a heightened sense of arousal as she observed him interacting with Dinky and Piña. 

Biology worked overtime to reward her for finding a potential mate. 

On the stove, a massive stockpot stood ready, vegetable bouillon cubes tossed into the water, the veggies and the potatoes would all be seared and sauteed lightly in big cast iron skillet (this step would have to be repeated a few times for gallons of soup) and then deposited into the stockpot. Then, when the time was right, the dough would be rolled out like a long snake and then sections of it would be cut off and tossed into the pot and allowed to cook until fluffy. 

Bucky, seeing Derpy trying to stretch out and get comfortable on the couch, gently reached out and began kneading her flesh around and along her wings invisibly, which was a terrible, horrible, no good, awful mistake. 

The grey mare made orgasmic moans that filled the house with sound and fury. 

The two foals froze, eyes wide, mouths open, not sure what to say or do. Berry stood frozen by the stove, looking awfully aroused. Bucky sat in his chair, not sure what he had just done wrong exactly. He knew very little about pegasus anatomy and had merely tried to be helpful. Instead, he had caused the grey pegasus mare’s eyes to roll back into her head and her ears to droop, completely limp, as she squirmed on the couch with her orange tongue hanging out, panting and moaning, her back arched, her backside raised up into the air invitingly, trying to get the maximum effect from the invisible forces at work on her wing joints and her wings. 

“Oh- ooh- ooooh… OOH!” the mare on the couch began, punctuating her pleading cries with loud snorts and whickers. 

Berry’s jaw dropped open, not believing what she was hearing. 

Bucky’s magic died completely, the knife he was chopping with clattering to the table. 

“OH IT STOPPED! WHY?” Derpy demanded, still squirming, one hind leg twitching, her eyes rolling around in her head crazily. She blinked a few times, and then began to look around sheepishly, seeing the two stunned foals through the kitchen door and one very embarrassed looking Bucky. “Mommy was getting the nicest back rub,” Derpy explained in a shuddering voice, completely unable to meet the gaze of the two foals who stared at her. 

“I think Derpy was having a snoregasm or something like that,” Piña said in a hushed and very embarrassed whisper. “I’ve heard my sister Berry talking with Derpy about how she wants to see Bucky’s face when he has one,” she added. “It isn’t easy being Berry’s little sister.” 

Berry facehoofed, and then fled from the kitchen, running out the door giggling fiendishly, trailing flour behind her as she ran. 

Repression is the better part of valour Bucky thought to himself as he heard Berry’s hooves on the stairs, the mare laughing insanely as soon as she cleared the kitchen door. She was heading upstairs for whatever reason. He calmed his emotions, took a deep breath, smiled gamely at the two foals, and then resumed chopping the vegetables. 

“You did something to mommy,” Dinky accused. “Made her snoregasm.” 

The knife clattered to the table once again, and Bucky took a deep breath, saying absolutely nothing. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. 

“That was awkward,” Piña said, unable to look at Bucky any longer, her eyes staring down at her juice glass. Dinky nodded, her cheeks pink. 

“I am not mad or anything,” Derpy said, “Well, actually I am mad to be honest,” she quipped. “It stopped.” 

Bucky snerked loudly, making a nasal grunt through his muzzle. Note to self, do detailed study of pegasus wing anatomy before attempting to be friendly.

Berry’s fit of laughter could be heard upstairs and there was thumping on the floor. 

“You shouldn’t be all ‘barrassed about making mommy feel good, she’s a good mommy, and she needs to feel good sometimes,” Dinky said slowly, her voice raspy and halting, trying her very best to be grown up about what had just taken place. Her cheeks blazed crimson after she spoke, and her ears folded down against her skull. 

“Mommy needs a cold shower,” Derpy said, rising up off the couch, her legs unsteady. “Whew!” she gasped, staggering around the living room. 

And it was during this moment that Sparkler walked through the front door with Rising Star, seeing her mother in an obvious state of arousal, feeling embarrassed, and then shrieking loudly as she looked at her coltfriend standing beside her, noticing that he had noticed. 

“Mommy had a snoregasm,” Dinky said helpfully, hearing her sister in the living room. “Bucky used magic on her wings.” 

Derpy fled up the stairs, her wings rather stiff and unmoving, muttering wordlessly and giggling uncontrollably, leaving poor Sparkler to expire from embarrassment. 

“Why does everything have to be so weird!” Sparkler screamed, stomping her hoof and snorting loudly. 

“Should I come back at another time?” Rising Star said sheepishly. “I think I should come back at another time,” he repeated nervously. 

“I have no idea what I just walked in on,” Sparkler said, suffering every teenaged filly’s nightmare. “And you, you are not going anywhere, you want me, you get my family as well. All of us. Even my crazy mother running around with a half-stiffy wingboner,” she said to Rising Star, who said nothing in reply. 

Rising Star thoughtfully shut the front door. 

Bucky made another loud snerking sound, nearly choking, now thumping his own barrel with a forehoof trying to gain control over himself. 

“Dinky, you ever get the feeling that you and I are going to need therapy?” Piña asked. 

Dinky said nothing in reply, but nodded vigorously. 

“See what cooties do? They make you craaaay-zeee,” Piña said in a conspiratorial whisper. “This is why I don’t play with colts.” 

With a supreme act of will, Bucky summoned his magic and began to chop vegetables again, slowly and methodically, each stroke offering some small comfort to his frazzled and overloaded mind, thinking that he was going to need some therapy before this was over. 

There were hooves on the stairs as Berry Punch returned. She kissed Sparkler on the cheek as she passed, nodded at Rising Star, and kept moving through the living room. She strolled through the kitchen door, it was clear she had been crying, but not from being sad. She was still giggling and could not directly look at anypony, least of all Piña. 

“Are you going to make my big sister snoregasm?” Piña asked, turning and looking sternly at Bucky, who dropped the knife yet again, this time with a pained groan. 

Berry sniggered as she resumed making the dough, and in the living room, Sparkler let out a pained cry of teenaged angst. 

“Piña, the word is ‘orgasm’ -OW-” Rising Star tried to say helpfully, cut off by a cuff on the shoulder by Sparkler. 

“No no no!” Sparkler scolded, delivering another swat. “We just started going out, don’t make me end you!” Sparkler threatened. 

Rising Star fell silent, worried about what it was he was getting into. 

“I don’t even know what it is but it must be really bad,” Dinky said, looking around and seeing the chaos. 

“I cannot chop these veggies under these conditions,” Bucky protested, his breathing laboured, the corners of his mouth still twitching. “Berry, I am so totally going to get even with you if it is the last thing I ever do…” 

“I hope so,” Berry said breathlessly, “and soon.” 



 

The small herd of ponies gathered around the table, ready for a meal, all of them still having some small trouble looking one another in the eye without getting a case of the giggles. There were mismatched bowls of veggies and dumpling soup, bread, and glasses of soft cider to drink. 

And Bucky noted that no silverware had been set on the table. He turned and looked at Sparkler. “You forgot something,” he said to her, not able to meet her eyes directly, just glancing in her general direction. 

“No I didn’t, mom said no silverware tonight,” Sparkler returned. 

Derpy nudged Bucky, smiling sweetly at him, and then shot a knowing glance at Sparkler, who in turn, shot a glance at Rising Star, who also seemed concerned about the silverware. There were also an alarming lack of napkins the two unicorns noticed. 

“Uh, alright then, I can use my magic to mimic a spoon,” Bucky said slowly. 

“No, no magic, not tonight. You eat like us,” Derpy said, poking Bucky roughly with a hoof, rocking him in his chair. “Dig in!” The mare commanded, and then stuck her own muzzle down into soup carefully, as it was still warm. 

Bucky realised he had been taken for a ride. No napkins, no silverware, and the thoughts of last night’s meal fresh in his memory. He whimpered. 

“Oh, just do it and get it over with,” Berry said in consolation before plunging her own muzzle into the bowl of soup and slurping in a dumpling loudly. 

“I’m cool with this,” Rising Star said, shrugging, and stuffing his snoot into his soup, trying to fish out an oversized carrot slice that Dinky recognised as one of her own efforts. 

One very stuffy unicorn struggled with the concept of sticking his face into his soup. Bucky lowered his head, and then tried to scoop up a potato with his tongue. He failed. He tried again, and the potato frustratingly slid out of reach, sinking down into his soup bowl, hiding under a dumping. Finally, in frustration, he slurped up the dumpling, covering his face in soup. He sat up, feeling sullied and embarrassed, his muzzle covered in thick broth. 

“Let me get that for you,” Derpy offered, wrapping a foreleg around his neck and pulling him in, licking his muzzle with her tongue. Bucky squirmed, trying to get away, but to no avail. Derpy was much, much stronger than he was. 

“You missed something,” Berry said, moving in from the other side and giving a helpful lick, for a moment, Bucky could feel her hot breath on his ear. He shivered. 

Derpy and Berry went back to eating their soup, and Bucky watched as Piña and Dinky cleaned one another’s faces. Between the foals, it seemed innocent. Berry and Derpy were certainly up to mayhem. Or were they? He didn’t know. He resumed eating his soup, trying to not get his muzzle dirty. 

Sparkler had already finished most of her first bowl, and had raised her head up. She curled back her lips, took a deep breath, and then let fly with a horrendous belch, the sort of belch that would make a dragon hang their head in shame had they witnessed it coming from such a tiny herbivorous animal.  Sparkler looked extremely pleased with herself, and Rising Star sat there, slack jawed, dribbling soup. 

“That’s kinda attractive,” Rising Star said slowly, raising an eyebrow. 

“I have something on my muzzle,” Sparkler said, leaning over towards Rising Star. 

Rising Star shot a glance at Derpy, then Bucky, and then Berry, not knowing what to do. Finally, he screwed his courage to the sticking place, leaned over, and gave a tentative lick to Sparkler’s muzzle, and then another, and then finally relaxed and went with the flow of things. “You had a bit of parsnip on your face Sparkler,” Rising Star said, chewing on said parsnip. 

“This is madness,” Bucky confessed, pressing his snoot into his soup and hunting down the elusive potato in the depths. 

“When in Pegasopolis, do as the pegasi,” Rising Star said, plunging his face down into his bowl. 

“Oh look, I dribbled soup all the way down my barrel and then some,” Berry said, grinning evilly. 

Bucky whimpered as Berry nudged, him, knowing that she had done this on purpose. 

It was going to be a long meal, as Bucky had to do a lot of eating to make up for the magic cast earlier. He settled in, hoping to endure. 
	
> Chapter 26
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A group of sociable equines, plus one not so sociable but getting better, sat within the cozy confines of a small living room, Rising Star sitting in the overstuffed chair, Bucky sprawled out on the couch, sitting back into the cushion and leaning on the arm, Berry Punch beside him, reclining on her side, her head inches from Bucky’s cutie mark, and Sparkler, sprawled on the floor, laying splay legged on her belly. 

They were all drinking, a highly sociable activity, something Bucky hadn’t expected. Among his social peer groups, drinking was done by adults. In this peer group, drinking was done by those responsible, and Rising Star and Sparkler both were sipping wine made by Berry from jelly jars used as glasses. 

It was another social barrier eroded away for Bucky. 

Derpy was upstairs, reading a book to Dinky and Piña, putting them to bed. Reading was a very difficult activity for the mare, but she loved to do it, even if she made silly faces closing one eye so her good eye could read. When two little heads finally gave up the struggle and nodded off, Derpy kissed them both gently, turned off the light, and carefully came down the stairs to join the others. 

“So… what is earth pony courtship like?” Rising Star asked, the sort of question a young unicorn in the throes of first love might ask, his question gently drifting through the room towards the reclining Berry Punch, who lifted her head for a moment and took a drink of wine from a large mason jar, which she sat back down upon the floor and then rested her head again near Bucky. 

“Depends on the earth ponies,” Berry said, belching lightly. “Sometimes, the two clans go to war or have themselves a scuffle, sometimes no. But between the couple themselves, usually they see if they can work together. Stuff like pulling a wagon in tandem, carrying a heavy load on their backs together, and in the latter parts of the courtship, a really lucky mare has a stallion willing to play “hunt the radish” before marriage, so she knows what she is getting.” 

“Hunt the radish?” asked Rising Star, looking confused. Sparkler began to titter as Derpy stepped over her and claimed a spot on the couch, gently squashing Berry Punch, using Berry’s backside as a pillow to prop up her barrel. 

“Well, down yonder south on a mare, or a responsibly aged filly, there is a patch of fertile earth a brave colt or stallion can go exploring, gently taking his snoot and searching for himself a little radish to nibble on, it is a proud earth pony tradition, we don’t have magic to make a mare feel good, we have to work hard at it like everything else,” Berry said, grinning wickedly, not needing to look at Bucky to know that he was under serious distress. Sparkler’s face was extra purple pink, Derpy was giggling… 

And Rising Star looked quite thoughtful, making mental notes. “I see,” he said, looking thoughtful. “And what about pegasi?” 

“We chase one another to declare intentions,” Derpy answered, giving a sideways glance at Bucky with her good eye. “And then we go through a period where we get to know one another. A brief period. Just like earth ponies, we pegasi don’t waste a lot of time in courtship. The signs of compatibility show up pretty early on and we go by instinct.” 

“Brief?” Bucky inquired, looking very nervous. “How brief is brief?” 

“Well,” Berry Punch replied, “my uncle Wild Oats met and married a pegasus mare named Golden Showers in the span of three days. She chased him, he chased her, he found her radish several times, wearing down her will, and Golden Showers found that she rather liked living on the ground, just so long as she could keep drinking his oatmeal porter and getting her radish hunted on a daily basis.”  

“Whaaaat?” Bucky asked, taking a long drink of wine from his mason jar glass. 

“Three days,” Berry said, sniffing, lifting up her head, taking another drink, and setting her drink back down upon the floor. 

“Uh, well, among the more gifted of the Canterlot unicorns, we still practice arranged marriage. We have long courtships, usually involving meeting each other’s therapists, going to couple’s counseling, settling any old claims or title disputes that might exist between two families, and a year of courtship is considered ‘rushing it’ among most of us,” Bucky explained. 

“No way am I waiting for a year!” Derpy cried. “I could be eaten by a mailpony eating spider and die having never been laid a second time.” 

Sparkler took a sip and nodded, enjoying her wine. She didn’t get a chance to have it often, and she liked the tart sweetness. She seemed unembarrassed about what her mother had just said. Instead, she gazed at Bucky pointedly, and he turned away from her stare. 

“Thunderlane courted for a whole month and ponies accused him of being a coward,” Derpy said. “To be fair, he had cold hooves and a little brother to worry about.” 

“Thunderlane is married?” Bucky asked. 

“Sort of,” Derpy replied, suddenly going silent. 

“Sort of?” asked Rising Star, looking curious, looking directly at Derpy. “Being married is like being on fire. You either are or you are not.” 

“Thunderlane married two sisters, just like they did way back in the old days, and no, those two sisters don’t fool around with one another, not every mare in a herd fools around with one another,” Derpy replied, stealing Berry’s mason jar of wine from the floor and gulping it down. Berry raised an eyebrow, glaring at the pegasus mare. No one stole drink from Clan Pickled and Berry made plans to exact revenge later. “But the Crown no longer recognises herd marriage,” Derpy added, looking disappointed. 

“My mother came from a herd marriage,” Rising Star said. 

“Your mother came from a blessing of unicorns?” Bucky asked, looking very surprised. 

“Yeah, rare as hen’s teeth, I know,” Rising Star said. “Mom’s family is a little weird going all the way back to olden days.” 

“A blessing?” asked Sparkler. 

“A herd of unicorns, or more commonly, a married group of unicorns,” Rising Star explained, looking thoughtful. 

“Clan Pickled still engages in herd marriage. We’ve never fully accepted the rule of the Crown, being the anarchists that we are, living up in the Shetland Isles. My mother, bless her Pickled heart, wanted to see me married proper, finding me a stallion and a group of fellow mares to help raise my foals. It was damn near her only dream,” Berry said, looking sad. “And she got killed by that damnable still, that horrible dream wrecking still.” 

Derpy got up to fetch Berry some wine, the least she could do after stealing Berry’s final swallows. 

“And look what happened to her, she married a single stallion, trying to fit in and be good a member of the herd, and they both died, leaving me behind to raise Piña because nopony else was responsible enough, damn them all,” Berry growled. 

Bucky, seeing Berry in actual pain, didn’t know what to do, but he reached down and stroked her ears gently with a fetlock.

“If mom had just followed the rules of Clan Pickled, there’d be other mares to help raise Piña. But I am stuck all alone, and my own rotten siblings abandoned me so they could go off and have a good time. Good thing I love Piña as much as I do,” Berry said angrily. The mare calmed slightly as Bucky stroked her ears. “I love that little foal to death.” 

Derpy returned with more wine, the jar balanced on her nose as she carefully stepped through the living room, nudging the jar with a wingtip for balance as she stepped over Sparkler. Berry took the mason jar full of wine gratefully, and drank down almost half of it, then belched, not quietly, her lips extending to get proper resonance. She squirmed into a sitting up position, and then leaned on Bucky, looking sad. “It is irresponsible and stupid to get married and not make sure to provide for your foals. Look at the Apple family and all the heartache to be found there. What bloody good did Celestia’s little decree do for the Apple clan? That alicorn is a homewrecking busibody that doesn’t understand how hard life is for us little ponies.” 

Rising Star blinked several times upon hearing Berry’s words, Sparkler laid her head down upon the floor, looking thoughtful, Derpy nodded slightly, and then leaned on Berry, who was leaning on Bucky, and poor Bucky was completely squished by the weight of two mares leaning on him and pressing him into the arm of the couch. 

“Our entire social structure is built around a herd dynamic, I learned that in university. We were meant to exist in herds. It is part of our foundational psychology. And Celestia undoes countless generations of social and biological evolution with the stroke of a quill, thinking that it would fix the ills of society. All I see as a legacy of that event are entire generations of orphans, broken families, single mothers, and messed up societal values as we go against our own inner natures and try to follow this unnatural state of monogamy,” Berry said bitterly. “I had to spend money on lawyers to keep Piña, because of Clan Pickled’s history with herds, and we’re seen as unsuitable members of society to raise foals. I had to fight tooth and hoof to keep that filly out of the tender mercies of the government foal services system who had the nerve to tell me that we have a history of being unfit parents. Never once was our drinking brought up as a reason, just our marriage practices. Bastards!” Berry finished off her glass with a single swallow, and then set the jar on the floor. “And that’s enough ghost of the grape for me tonight, it’s making me angry,” she muttered, rubbing her head against Bucky. 

“You gonna be okay Berry? Derpy asked, looking concerned. “I know all about foal services.” 

“I know you do Derpy, I was there,” Berry said, looking distraught. 

“I’ve never heard this side of the argument,” Bucky said thoughtfully. “I suppose I’ve taken a unicorn-centric view on the issue, knowing how much we Canterlot unicorns have to reduce stress and emotional triggers in our lives. Seems wise for us, not having to fight and fuss among one another, but it seems extraordinarily bad for the other tribes.”

“My family fled Canterlot because most of the unicorns there are really messed up,” Rising Star said. 

“Rising, that’s awful!” Sparkler snapped.

“But Sparkler, it’s true. We are messed up. We are all a bunch of walking disasters and accidents happen all the time. Those of us with high magic, almost all of us have very messed up lives,” Bucky replied to Sparkler, looking pensive and worried. 

“One of my uncles was a really powerful unicorn, attended Celestia’s school,” Rising Star said, taking a sip from his jelly jar. “Real gifted. Powerful. Remarkably stable for being so gifted, or everybody said so. Snapped one day. Went completely barmy. Right off the deep end. Embarrassed my mother’s side of the family something terrible. He started skinning foals and other ponies and making leather from their hides. Investigators found his journals. Turns out he wrote about something from Tartarus whispering to him constantly and visiting his dreams, offering him even greater power, and he took interest.” 

“Oh my gosh, that’s horrible,” gasped Sparkler. 

“Happens quite a bit,” Bucky said, staring into his own drink. “Our neurosis helps to act as a defense against such intrusions sometimes. Sometimes not so much,” he added . 

“Damn,” Berry muttered. 

“You ever hear voices?” Sparkler asked Bucky, looking at him thoughtfully. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “No I haven’t. And if I ever did, they would find me a pathetically boring host to inhabit. I’m boring and repressed.” 

“I hope Dinky never hears those things,” whispered Derpy, shivering as she did so. 

“I’m really glad I don’t have more magic. I don’t know how I could live with that on my shoulders, knowing that there are things out there wanting to exploit me,” Sparkler said. “Rising Star, it is getting late and it is a school night. Want me to walk you home?” 

Rising Star nodded. “Yeah, I don’t feel like being alone right now,” he admitted. 

“I should be going as well,” Bucky said. 

“Aw, don’t go. Stay with us,” Berry begged. 

“I, uh, need to get rested for tomorrow so I can teach Dinky things she needs to know,” Bucky replied. 

Derpy and Berry both sat up, allowing Bucky to wiggle free. 

“Stay here on the couch again then,” Derpy said pleadingly. “I mean, we might tease you in the bed, but I promise, if you aren’t ready, we will leave you alone. Sooner or later, you are going to have to join us though. I am not about to go through a unicorn courtship.” The grey mare scowled at the notion of waiting a year. 

“I make no such promises of good behaviour,” Berry said. 

“So Sparkler, when you do you want to come by and have dinner with my parents?” Rising Star asked. “I can’t wait to show them the amazing filly I’ve found!”  
	
> Chapter 27
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A patient plum coloured mare sat on the couch, holding a very frightened stallion’s head in her forelegs. She made soothing sounds, not words, just sounds, waiting for the whimpers to reside. Nearby, a grey mare stood, a small foal on either side of her, looking concerned. Sitting in the overstuffed chair sat a purple pink unicorn, looking quite frightened. 

Bucky’s screams had filled the house and it had been Berry that had reached him first, waking him with a rough prod and freeing him from whatever horror he had witnessed. Still unable to speak, she held him, waiting for the worst to pass. 

“I thought only foals had nightmares,” Dinky said softly, her voice velvety with concern, stepping closer to her mother. 

“No Dinks, anypony can have bad dreams. I have bad dreams all the time of losing you,” Derpy replied, fluffing her wings and trying to calm her thudding heart. She had come downstairs ready to fight, adrenaline pumping, and now she was trying to calm her body. Something had upset her flock and disturbed their sleep, and it had frazzled the poor mare. 

A low gibbering cry came from Bucky’s lips, thoroughly unnerving Sparkler, whose horn glowed even brighter, the only light in the room. 

“Another panic attack?” Derpy asked. 

“Damn near,” Berry said, looking closely at Bucky. “Something scared him bad in his sleep.” Berry gently stroked Bucky’s ears, in much the same way he had stroked hers earlier. “Can you talk to me Bucky?” she asked, looking down into his eyes, trying to determine if he was alright. 

“I’m scared,” Piña whimpered. “If something scares adults it must be really bad.” 

“Come on Dinky, Piña, I want both of you to go back to bed,” Derpy said, heading for the stairs. “Now,” Derpy commanded, her tone unusually brisk. 

The foals obeyed, sensing that now was not a good time to argue, heading up the stairs after the overly protective and riled pegasus. 

“I’m not going back to bed, not yet,” Sparkler said. “I want to know what’s spooked him. He’s all sweaty and his eyes are pinpricks. He doesn’t look well.” 

“I know Sparkler,” Berry said. “I’m worried.” 

“B-b-b-bees in the hospital,” Bucky stammered, finally able to speak. 

“What?” Berry asked. 

“B-b-b-bees in the hospital. Everything went wrong,” Bucky stuttered, teeth chattering, shivering now,  air evaporating the sweat from his pelt and causing his body to cool rapidly. 

“Slow down Bucky, no bees are in the hospital,” Berry said soothingly. 

“No, dream, day went different, bees, so many bees, Celestia took Dinky away,” Bucky said, his nostrils flaring, his eyelids now fluttering rapidly. 

“It didn’t happen,” Berry whispered, leaning her head down and touching snoots. 

Bucky calmed slightly at the contact, but his breathing remained heavy, his limbs still convulsing slightly, his body now shivering violently. 

Derpy came down the stairs, looking concerned, a little frightened herself. 

“Bucky dreamed about things going wrong in the hospital today,” explained Berry, “bees happened, and then Celestia took Dinky away.” 

“Come on Bucky,” Derpy said, rising into a hover. “You need help, and you are in no position to help yourself,” the mare stated. She scooped him up off of the couch, flying slowly, trying to not bump her head on the ceiling. She began the slow flight up the stairs, holding him securely, his hooves occasionally bumping a stair as they went up. “Berry, help me, run a really hot bath,” Derpy ordered, her tone still one of authority. 

Berry was up on her hooves in a moment, heading up the stairs after the pair, waiting to pass when Derpy had Bucky in the upstairs hall. She squeezed past them both, ducking into the bathroom, and then kicked the bathtub levers to make the water run. 

“Help me Berry, I can’t fly through the doors,” Derpy said. 

Berry went into the hall, standing there, not sure what to do, when Derpy laid Bucky out over Berry’s back. 

“Well, when I finally had you on my back, I didn’t think you’d be so limp,” Berry said, causing Derpy to scowl. Berry trotted through the bathroom door with her cargo, who squirmed and protested. She stood alongside the tub and after a moment of waiting, Derpy gently shoved Bucky into the partially filled bathtub. He landed with a thud, a splash, and a groan. 

“Now isn’t the time for jokes,” Derpy said. 

“I disagree,” Berry retorted.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Derpy said, turning her attention back to Bucky, who was sprawled in the tub, muttering about something she couldn’t make out. 

The two mares stood waiting patiently for the tub to finish filling with water, and, when it did, Berry turned it off, giving the levers an extra nudge to make sure they didn’t leak. 

Berry pulled up a chair, causing it scrape over the tile floor, and then sat down next to the bathtub, resting her hindhooves on the edge of the tub. “I showered with him already. If you want to crawl in there, I won’t stop you,” Berry said. 

“Naw, leave him in there as he is, he’s stressed enough, look at him,” Derpy said, standing beside the tub. “Tempting though.” 

The pegasus continued to stand guard, showing all of the signs of being an aggressive protector, Berry taking note of Derpy’s posture and mannerisms. Derpy’s humour would return when she calmed down. 

“No bees,” Derpy murmured soothingly. 

Bucky made a strange gurgle and nodded. 

Both mares heard Sparkler pass by in the hall, her horn causing ghostly light to flicker as she passed, heading off to bed. 

“G’night, Sparkler,” Derpy called. 

“Sleep well you foghorn!” Berry called. 

There was a faint titter from the hall as Sparkler continued to her room. “Goodnight, and look after Bucky,” she called, disappearing into her room. 

“Bucky, I’ve said it before, but you are too tightly wound,” Berry said. 

“I know,” Bucky replied in a strained whisper. 

“Your brain is torturing you over something that didn’t happen,” Berry said. 

The stallion in the tub did not reply. He was rapidly regaining his senses, and was now keenly aware that he was prone, naked, and in a bathtub, with two mares staring at him, stuck supine on his back. 

“Stop being neurotic!” Berry barked angrily. “I can see you getting yourself all worked up even now you anal retentive empty headed numpty! Yeah, you're vulnerable right now, and you can’t take care of yourself, and you are currently stuck relying on two other ponies who are worried sick about you looking after your needs, so shut up, calm down, and don’t make me drown you!” 

Bucky whimpered, flinching, cringing away from Berry’s verbose reproach. 

Derpy, outside of Bucky’s current field of view, looked at Berry and nodded slightly. Seeing Derpy’s approval, Berry took a deep breath and prepared to continue. 

“Just stop overthinking everything and stop worrying about how we see you,” Berry demanded. “At some point, all three of us are going to be in a hot sweaty pile and if you can’t stand up to us looking at you now, then you don’t have a hope of surviving that when it happens you uptight repressed snob!” 

Bucky slumped down deeper into the water, only his muzzle above the surface. Berry leaned over the tub and glared down at him. “Now you just lay there and try to calm down. Get warmed. Relax. And stop being an uptight numpty!” 

The two mares exchanged a glance briefly, and then Derpy sat down upon the chilly tile floor, fidgeting as the cold tiles touched and titillated delicate places. 

For a moment, Bucky thought about calling Berry a numbskull, but on some level, he knew he had the tongue lashing coming. His stomach roiled from jittery nerves. 

Oh no… 

Some things do no good to restrain. In Bucky’s case, clenching his pucker was a terrible idea, reducing the size of the pressure release nozzle his body had so helpfully provided as standard equipment, causing any escaping pressure to become concentrated and increased as it was forced to escape from a much smaller opening. 

“FRRRRBLRURBLURBLURBLURBLUBBLE!” The pressure from Bucky’s pucker announced, a cry of freedom as it escaped the confining compressing colonic prison. There was a massive stream of bubbles that made the water appear to boil. 

Bucky let out a whimpering cry and submerged in the water, attempting to drown himself, no longer wanting to live. 

Berry stared downward, wide eyed, her face full of shock. “Well, I’ll be damned, you are a flesh and blood pony after all,” she said, grinning. 

Derpy chortled, finally relaxing her guard a bit. And then she flapped her wings, trying to fan away the offensive odour. 

“And here I thought that unicorn’s dung don’t stink, but their farts sure do,” Berry grunted, lacking opposable digits to pinch her nose shut and regretting her unfortunate evolutionary course. 

Bucky stuck his snoot back above the water with a gasp, not liking his own brand as he drew breath. Not at all. Smelled like shame and failure. It was a reminder he couldn’t control everything. 

“Excuse me,” Bucky said in a guilty voice. 

“No way,” Berry said. “What you did constitutes an act of war, and I reserve the privilege of returning shots fired you filthy son of House Avarice.” 

“And this is why unicorns clear these little disputes during the legal proceedings during the trial phase of our courtship,” Bucky said in a weak voice. “Lawyers are so helpful,” he added. 

“Feel better?” Berry asked, still looking very concerned. 

Bucky nodded, which made Derpy take a deep breath and heave a sigh of relief. 

Berry leaned back in her chair, her hindhooves still on the edge of the tub, folding her forelegs over her barrel. She closed her eyes for a moment, and after being quiet for several minutes, began to sing in a fine Shetland Isles lilt. 



“I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home 
And if you don't like me, well, leave me alone 
I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry 
And if the moonshine don't kill me, I'll live til I die 

I've been a moonshiner for many a year 
I've spent all my fortune on whiskey and beer 
I'll go to some hollow, I'll set up my still 
And make you a gallon for ten bits I will

I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home 
And if you don't like me, well, leave me alone 
I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry 
And if the moonshine don't kill me, I'll live til I die 

I'll go to some hollow in this dry county
Ten gallons of wash I can go on a spree 
No herd to follow, the world is all mine 
I love none so well as I love the moonshine 

I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home 
And if you don't like me, well, leave me alone 
I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry 
And if the moonshine don't kill me, I'll live til I die 

Oh, moonshine, dear moonshine, oh, how I love thee 
You killed me old father, but I dare you to try me 
Now bless all moonshiners and bless all moonshine 
Their breath smells as sweet as the dew on the vine 

I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home 
And if you don't like me, well, leave me alone 
I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry 
And if the moonshine don't kill me, I'll live til I die” 


Berry Punch opened her eyes, looking down at her two dear friends. The pegasus had tears in her eyes, wiping them way fiercely with her wingtips. Bucky was staring up at her, looking relaxed, sleepy, much of the worry now gone from his face. Berry reached down and stroked his face gently, getting a hoof wet. 

“I bet your mother never sang to you,” Berry said sadly, her voice still thick with her familial accent, tears in her own eyes now forming. “No wonder you stay spooked. My mom used to sing to us to keep the banshees away and the pookas and all the other things that gobbled foals up in the night.” 

“Come on Berry, let’s get him out and dried off. Bucky, you’re coming to bed with us. If you argue, I am going to smack the fire out of you, do you understand me? Berry, no funny business, he’s had a bad night. Everypony is going to behave and be respectful. We all need sleep,” Derpy said. 

“I’ll be good,” Berry promised. “But I demand that the conditions of the truce allow spooning and or cuddling of at least one pony in the bed with me. I’m missing my mama.” 

Berry kicked the lever that opened the drain with her hoof, thinking about her mother, the fine unicorn that she was, and how much she had loved her foals. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 28
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the early morning, just moments after dawn, a flock of pegasi and one alicorn gathered, settling into a fluffy cloud bank that glowed pink and purple from the dawn. Twilight Sparkle looked at the gathered pegasi and studied each one in turn. Rainbow Dash, her trusted and loyal friend, Thunderlane, now paying off his penance, and then Flitter and Cloudchaser, who were oddly eager to help out, and who stood, even now, anxious to give a report. 

“It is my belief that yesterday an act of kindness was witnessed,” Thunderlane said, his head bowed. “It was a humbling experience for me,” he finished, Flitter touching him briefly as he did so, gently pressing her muzzle unto Thunderlane’s shoulder. 

“And chowderhead here told Berry Punch that her foal was in the hospital,” Cloudchaser added. “No brains at all.” 

“You thought Berry Punch was Piña’s mother,” Thunderlane retorted. 

“She might as well be, you don’t tell a big sister that sort of thing either you big dunce!” Flitter exclaimed, glancing at Cloudchaser, who gave Thunderlane a swift kick in the fetlock. 

“Dinky Doo Hooves and Piña Colada went to the hospital and visited Diamond Tiara. There was a mutual exchange of forgiveness between all parties. It was an act of kindness that brought all parties involved together and I do believe that it created a new friendship,” Cloudchaser reported, retracting her hoof.  

Twilight Sparkle nodded.

“Good work you three,” Rainbow Dash complimented. “Continue to keep Chowderhead here in line you two, I am surprised  that both of you fell in to this task so easily.” 

“We want our marriage recognised and out in the open. We will do anything to that end,” Flitter answered, her ears perking forward. She reached out a wing, touching her sister briefly, and then rubbed a foreleg against Thunderlane. 

“We just want what everypony else wants," Cloudchaser said, rubbing her side against Thunderlane’s and rubbing an ear against his neck. 

“Well, I think you should have it,” Twilight Sparkle announced. “I’m talking with Cadance soon. Pony to pony. Something has to be worked out.” 

“I want to be able to acknowledge Rumble for what he really is, and not have ponies judge us or have foal services breathing down my neck,” Flitter whispered. “It hurts.” 

Thunderlane gently wrapped one wing over Flitter and made soothing sounds in her ear. 

“Wait, you mean, Rumble?” Twilight asked, looking baffled, pulling her head back and her eyes going wide in disbelief. 

Thunderlane glared at Twilight pointedly, suddenly becoming a very different pony. Gone was his apparent buffoonery and incompetence. His nostrils flared and his ears splayed out sideways from his head. The cloud beneath his hooves began to turn grey. 

“Flitter shouldn’t have said that. If it goes beyond this cloud, there will be consequences,” Cloudchaser said, now bristling. 

“Slow down girls, you know I’m alright with it,” Rainbow Dash said. 

“And I have no intentions of damaging a perfectly good family structure,” Twilight Sparkle reassured, still looking surprised. “I was just caught off guard, that’s all.” 

Thunderlane calmed visibly. 

“We had to go to Cloudsdale and talk to the wrong sorts of ponies,” Flitter confessed. “We have to be so careful. That’s why we came here, Ponyville is so much more tolerant than some other places.” 

“Fillydelphia,” Cloudchaser growled. 

“What about Fillydelphia?” asked Twilight, her voice filled with apprehension. 

“Nothing,” muttered Thunderlane,  slouching. 

“Just an unpleasant place,” Flitter said. “That’s all.” 

The two mares were practically snorting now, standing on either side of Thunderlane, showing visible signs of distress. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the two sisters and Thunderlane behaved very much like one body, moving together, constantly touching, reassuring and comforting one another almost reflexively. She made mental notes to tell Celestia about this behavior. The cloud continued to darken. 

But Twilight knew that she would not tell Celestia about Rumble. It didn’t feel right. The wings she had now had changed her profoundly, and she had strange new feelings to go with them. One of them being a pressure to conform to the flock, something that conflicted mightily with her unicorn individuality. 

“I just want to know, Rumble is…” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice. 

“Flitter’s,” Thunderlane replied, looking Rainbow Dash directly in the eye and flaring his wings slightly. 

Rainbow Dash moved forward, her head high, and gently bumped snoots with Thunderlane. She stood there, looking up at him, looking him directly in the eye. “The flock looks after its own. Rumble is one of mine as well. You have my word as your flockmate,” she said solemnly. 

“So then, we potentially have kindness covered,” Twilight said, gently restoring the conversation back to task. 

“I think so,” Rainbow Dash agreed. 

“Good. You three, keep watching. And thank you so very much for agreeing to help,” Twilight said with a smile. 

“Thank you for being merciful on Thunderlane. He’s a good pony, just a little thick headed,” Cloudchaser replied. 

The three pegasi took wing and flew off, off to face the day together, leaving two friends standing on a cloud together. Twilight looked agitated and flustered. 

“Dash, I’m going to be gone again, I’m going to Fillydelphia. I don’t know what is going on, but I know a mother’s broken heart when I see one. Keep an eye on things. Spike can help you reach either Celestia or I. I might be gone a while. I know I can count on you,” Twilight said. 

“Of course, because I’m awesome,” Rainbow Dash replied with a cocky head toss. 

Twilight rolled her eyes, hugged her friend briefly, and then took off at an unsteady high speed, a lavender contrail streaming out behind her. 

“This herd discrimination needs to stop,” a lone pegasus mumbled to herself. “I’m too awesome to marry just one pony,” she said to nopony in particular. 



 

Another herd of ponies lay together in a bed. Two were cuddled together, spooning, while one lay on the edge of the bed, as far apart from the others as possible, alone. 

The lone pony awoke, confused and disoriented, hearing birdsong and feeling a keen sense of loneliness. He glanced over at his two bedmates, wishing he could throw himself among them, but instead steeled his resolve and remained where he was, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the air temperature. There were just too many concerns about sleeping in a bed with other ponies, the primary concern of course being the embarrassing and uncontrollable factor of morning wood. There mere thought of waking up with something embarrassingly poking into either Berry or Derpy was enough to cause Bucky to have a painful spasm of panic in his barrel, and made his breath quicken. And then he would have to spend the rest of the day, trying to avoid eye contact, thinking about the awful thing he had done, constantly remembering it in his mind, playing on an endless cringe inducing loop, spending the next few days distracted by a painful memory that just would not go away. 

It was enough to drive a pony mad. 

The lone pony slipped quietly from the bed,  crept out the door, down the hall, and into the bathroom, where he shut the door and took care of morning necessities, gritting and grinding his teeth together when the stream of urine hit the water, making a sound that Bucky was certain would wake up everypony, a very painful and embarrassing sound that had been made in a house full of females. 

Bucky cursed himself for forgetting to cast a sound muffling spell before relieving himself, the sound of streaming urine roaring in his ears, the sort of sound that was certain to give a foal a complex. Bucky felt his throat closing from panic. The urine flow stopped abruptly, and Bucky was most grateful. He cast a quick muffling spell, waited, tried to calm, and eventually the flow resumed again, this time in near silence. The panic did not leave however. It had found him last night, had its way with him, and was now an unwelcome morning visitor, every bit as stiff and rigid as morning wood, but not at all pleasurable to wake up to. 

His breathing increased to painful levels, his throat felt seared. Bucky tried to hold the panic back, determined not to give in. It was just a break in routine, a little slip up, from waking up in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable place. Slowly, he willed his breathing down, brought his heart rate down, and finished relieving his bladder. He drove everything down, cramming it inward, letting nothing get the best of him and escaping. 

He would hold everything back, because that is what unicorns did. 

He opened the door, peered out into the hallway, looking left, then right, seeing nopony, and then began to slink down the stairs, doing so as quietly as possible. 

Once into the kitchen, he began to fix breakfast  in large quantities, fixing oatmeal, scrambling some eggs, and pulling frozen fruit chunks out of the freezer. He did all of this effortlessly, sitting in a chair, not even looking at the controlled chaos behind him, yawning and rubbing at his eyes as he began to also set the table. 

He heard sounds upstairs. Bucky started the coffee. He had always been more of a tea drinker, tea had ritual, ritual brought calm, calm quieted the inner turmoil, a careful chain of events that allowed Bucky some small peace in his life. 

But he was trying new things. And so coffee it was. 

He took the eggs off of the burner before they were done cooking, knowing that they would finish cooking and be perfect from the residual heat of the cast iron skillet. Butter was pulled from the fridge, brown sugar came out from the pantry, hot sauce for the eggs, knowing that Berry was sure to appreciate it, everything coming into place, Bucky never leaving his chair. 

Derpy poked her head into the kitchen, one eye closed, peering around, just as the cast iron skillet was being set on top of a pad and placed on the kitchen table. 

“Usually we have granola and milk,” the grey mare murmured. “All of this takes time and work.” She licked her lips hungrily. 

“I wasn’t in the mood for granola this morning,” Bucky muttered, craning his head from one side to another, causing his neck to crackle. 

“I think I’m in the mood for you this morning,” Derpy confessed, causing Bucky’s eyes to open wide. “You just keep looking after my foals.” 

Bucky said nothing, but waited for the coffee to finish. Derpy took a seat at the table, watching everything flying around her. Sparkler came into the kitchen next, leading two foals who watched with wide eyes. Berry stumbled in last, not batting an eye at the impressive magical display. 

“I need to go check on the fuel supply,” Berry mumbled as she filled her bowl with oatmeal and scooped out some scrambled eggs. She saw the hot sauce, smiled, and then proceeded to pour an obscene amount of liquid fire on her eggs. 

The foals began to devour the frozen fruit chunks, ignoring everything else. 

Coffee was floated to the table, and Sparkler was the first to pour a cup, adding milk and sugar in vast quantities. Berry, stuffing food into her mouth with a spoon in one hoof, poured herself some coffee with the other, making pleased sounding “om nom nom nom” noises as she gobbled. Derpy was fixing her oatmeal, piling on cubes of butter and clumps of hardened brown sugar, freshly broken from the densely packed package. When the opportunity presented itself, she poured herself a cup of coffee and Bucky one as well. 

“All this breakfast needs to be perfect is a tin of beans, straight from the icebox, spread over toast,” Berry said groggily. 

“Noted,” Bucky said. “Beans on toast.” 

“You feeling alright from last night?” Sparkler asked, looking worried. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied. 

“Mmm pineapple,” Piña Colada said with a mouthful of pineapple, juice running down her chin. “My favourite food I think.” 

“It is almost the only thing mom could eat when she was carrying you Piña, you were a bratty little foal. If she ate anything but pineapple and coconut, you’d make her get sick,” Berry said teasingly to her sister. Piña stuck out her tongue in reply but said nothing. 

“I had a thing for waffles when I was carrying Dinky,” Derpy said, shoveling in oatmeal with a spoon, eating in a hurry. “No syrup though. Had to be jam of some kind. Mmm jam.” 

“Funny, I love waffles,” Dinky replied. 

“And I had a bit of a muffin kick while pregnant too, ponies teased me all the time for eating them by the dozen,” Derpy confessed, looking a little sheepish as she shoveled in some scrambled eggs. “And now, when I see muffins, I think of Dinky. Waffles too I guess.” 

“Somehow, I’ve never been pregnant, not sure how that’s happened, by all rights I should have been a few times now,” Berry said, guzzling down hot coffee when she was done speaking. “But I look forward to it,” she added, pointing a lewd stare at Bucky. 

Bucky froze mid gulp, his brain shutting down all unnecessary functions as panic settled in. Not his usual panic, but a special guest panic, that he was utterly unfamiliar with. He set down his coffee cup before his magic fizzled. One eye twitched alarmingly. 

“Oh come on Bucky, she’s an earth pony and I bet her biological clock is raging at her age,” Sparkler said, giggling as she did so. 

“My age?” Berry asked. 

“Well, you are a little older than mom,” Sparkler retorted. 

“Your mother,” Berry replied, looking first at Sparkler and then at Derpy, and then taking a deep breath, “only just reached the legal drinking age imposed by the out of touch with reality monarchy just this year. I am not that old.” 

“Relax Berry, you’re still young enough to be cool,” Sparkler said. 

Berry Punch exploded with laughter, throwing her head back and guffawing, nearly falling from her chair. She banged on the table, making things clatter, causing Bucky to start several times. She chortled and snorted until tears came from her eyes, sucking in great gasps of air, only to let them back out again as she bellowed with laughter. 

“Is she always like this?” Bucky asked. 

“Pretty much,” Sparkler said, shrugging. 

“Morning ponies,” Bucky muttered. 

“I’ll show you morning pony you stuck up snob!” Berry said, her laughter dying. She pounced from her chair and dethroned Bucky, pinning him to the floor. “Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis!” she cried. After that she then plunged her muzzle forward into Bucky’s, kissing him violently and biting his lip as she pulled away, making Bucky cry out. “Anarchy!” Berry crowed in triumph, reminding Bucky that her family were anarchs, and Bucky had peerage. 

Derpy watched the two ponies on the floor and chuckled. Berry was always good for a laugh. “Sparkler honey, take note, this is how you deal with a colt or a stallion who is a grump,” Derpy said patiently, instructing her daughter, pointing out valuable life lessons. 

The obnoxious plum coloured mare pressed her advantage, straddling Bucky’s prone form. She looked down at him, now smiling broadly, and gently booped his nose. She looked up at Dinky, then Piña, over at Derpy, and then her gaze rested upon Sparkler, exchanging a knowing glance. She looked back down at Bucky, and then something in her face changed, a profound change, her smile melting away. She continued to stare for a few moments, and then, without a word, she rose up on to her hooves, and helped Bucky get up with one extended foreleg. 

Still not saying anything, Berry helped Bucky into his chair, and then sat down in her own, and doing so silently. Derpy scowled, sensing something had changed, and Sparkler’s brow wrinkled in concern. 

“Berry?” Derpy posed the question slowly, her voice full of concern. 

“I don’t know how to talk about it,” Berry said, blushing furiously. 

“Talk about what?” Sparkler asked, getting more eggs. 

“I- I… I looked into his eyes and I knew,” Berry replied, sounding flustered. 

“Knew what?” Dinky asked around a mouthful of frozen banana. 

“That I loved him,” Berry replied, very quietly, unable to meet anypony’s gaze. Bucky choked as he heard the words, and Derpy nodded her head slowly. “It’s been fun and games up to this point, but something changed just a moment ago,” Berry explained in a low whisper.

Derpy looked pointedly at Bucky, one eye closed, her good eye focused on his face, trying to read him. He was sitting, silently, looking down at his plate, sitting very very still, totally silent and not even attempting to say anything. “You broke my Berry best friend,” Derpy said, “you made her go all serious and now I’m the one trying to make ponies smile.” 

The foals giggled, Sparkler laughed, but the adults made no such sounds of happiness. 

“Well, that is both of you then, I heard mom talking in her sleep,” Sparkler said, a faint smile on her lips. “And what about you Buckminster?” 

Bucky looked up at Sparkler, his eyes narrowed and full of concern. “Words seem so worthless and petty right now to express how I feel,” he muttered, his eyes falling back down to his plate, and his shoulders slumping. 

“Well then, show it,” Sparkler suggested just before she let go a huge belch that made the objects on the table rattle frightfully. 

“So my best friend is broken and moody and I have a sad lovesick unicorn in my kitchen,” Derpy summarised. “Life has certainly been interesting.” 

“I’ll clean up and make sure Dinky and Piña get to school,” Bucky said, still staring at his plate, slowly lifting up his coffee cup to take a sip. 

“I need to go and check on the fire,” Berry said. She raised her eyes, her usual fire returning, and turned to look at Bucky. “Don’t keep us waiting,” she said, prodding him roughly, rocking him in his chair. She then shoveled the rest of her breakfast into her mouth, chewing noisily, swallowing a few times as chewed food became swallowable, cleared her mouth, and belched a bassoon note of thanks. 

“I have to go. Please look after my foals,” Derpy said, looking at Bucky, biting her lip after a moment of gazing at him. “And please stop being so sad.’ 



 

Bucky had stopped by his apartment on the way to school, picking up his spellbook, wanting to give a simple display in practical magic in school today, determined to get Dinky through the day, keeping her in school along with Piña. 

His saddlebags also contained a few other common elements for teaching magic, popcorn chief among them. They bounced at his sides as he walked. Dinky and Piña followed closely alongside of him, chatting and giggling together, being foals. 

Bucky was horribly distracted as he walked, thinking about the events of the morning, starting with waking up, which was awkward, his bathroom visit, which was painful, and then breakfast, which was troubling. 

So very troubling. 

He couldn’t deny it. Not any longer. He felt something, even if he wasn’t totally sure what it was. He felt very different things about both of them, but needed both of them in some odd way that bothered him a great deal. Bucky didn’t like being dependant on anypony but himself. 

As the trio walked, Bucky thought about being packed up and sent off on the train ride, his family living in Baltimare at the time. He had been sent off alone, his bags packed, and he wasn’t much older than Dinky, who was almost helpless without an adult. And Bucky realised he had been much the same way. During his time at school, his parents had moved back into the old ancestral home they had in Canterlot, living there sometimes and living out in the sprawling estate in Baltimare at other times. There were several large homes his family owned. All of them empty and loveless. Derpy’s tiny house, only three bedrooms and a few rooms on the ground floor, was full of love and life, and felt more like home. Her home had warmth. Her home had sounds other than the sounds of pages being turned and the stuffy butler clearing his throat. 

And Bucky wanted to be part of that home very badly. Any home really. He had become acutely aware of his own loneliness as of just recently. 

Berry had straddled his chest his morning. Very intimate parts of her anatomy had been in contact with his body… And she hadn’t even paid it a single second thought Bucky realised. She had simply been playful, and obviously didn’t have his hang-ups. But the very idea of such close contact burned Bucky’s mind, and would not leave him alone. He had felt her and now, the knowledge would not leave his mind. A powerful sense of shame burned through him, and he hated himself for his physical desires. He should be above these needs. 

But he was not. 

He could not push the thought out of his mind. The brief contact had been somewhat humid and damp, and Berry’s perfume had left a lingering trace on him. He could feel her moving and shifting against his body as she had straddled him, it lingered like a white hot coal trapped in between his ears. 

It was then that Bucky made a terrible conclusion. 

It wasn’t perfume. 

The thought struck him like a slap in the face and he was suddenly ablaze with shame and embarrassment, a physical sensation of self-revulsion. He felt painfully stupid. He had stopped casting the pheromone blocking spell quite some time ago. The spell never made you fully immune to their effects, there was always a lingering faint effect that was easily squashed down, but it also blocked out certain scents. He recalled smelling it even on the day of the birthday party, not all that long ago actually. 

He nearly had a panic attack on the spot realising he was walking two foals to school while reeking of freshly applied mare musk, courtesy of Berry Punch and her careless scent marking of him, pressing her female anatomy up against his barrel and rubbing vigorously… 

The flustered unicorn tossed his head around crazily and gritted his teeth, holding back the panic, holding back everything. He exerted an enormous force of will and crushed it all down, compressing it into his psyche. 

And this was why unicorns repressed everything. So you didn’t carelessly scent mark some poor pony and cause them to have a nervous breakdown walking some foals to school. 

He subdued the terrible beast that dwelt in the basement of his mind, whipping it down and forcing it to submit. It did so, but promised retribution later as it sank back into the unknown darkness of Bucky’s mind. 

The schoolhouse loomed ahead, and the day was bright and promising. 



 

The morning had gone by mostly uneventful, the class behaving themselves a little better today. Not one foal wanted to meet Bucky’s gaze, and he had sat in his chair in the corner, reading a book and looking up occasionally. He had helped Cheerilee with a practical demonstration how an eclipse worked, levitating a tiny sun, a moon, and a planet. 

And now, Bucky sat outside with a few unicorn foals, popping popcorn, having fun, and explaining simple magical principles. The gathered foals oohed and aahed when he pulled out his spell book and opened it, opening to a page in a beginning. 

“Okay. I am going to teach you the Blink spell. Any unicorn can cast this spell, and it is a spell every unicorn foal should know. Blink will allow you to call for help. Any pegasus that has been to flight camp will immediately move to investigate a Blink spell if they see one,” Bucky patiently explained as many foals munched on popcorn. 

Setting down his book on the blanket he was sitting on, he lifted up his head, cleared his throat, and smiled, trying to show the foals that magic was not scary or dark or spooky. At least, not this spell. 



”Whenever I am all alone 
And I’m too scared to think
Whenever I need some help
I flash my light and blink!” 
 

Bucky spoke the words carefully, pronouncing each syllable just so, demonstrating how to chant the verse to summon the magic it had been tied to. As he spoke, a blinking light shot from his horn and rose up into the sky. 

Almost like magic, two pegasi appeared a moment later, circling, swooping, and finally landing, looking around, both very concerned looking. 

“Somepony called?” Flitter asked. 

“Is there trouble?” Cloudchaser added. 

“Just a practical demonstration of the Blink spell, I am really glad you two answered. Shows the foals that it works,” Bucky answered, grinning nervously. 

“Of course it works. You foals pay attention. This might save your life someday. While we are here watching, let’s see how many of you can cast it,” Cloudchaser commanded in a gentle voice, her wings fluttering slightly, still in a somewhat aggressive posture that Bucky was now able to recognise. 

“This is an easy spell that any unicorn can cast. Just light your horn and say the magic words. That’s it. You don’t even have to concentrate much, other than lighting your horn. You should practice this spell indoors until you can cast it in seconds without thinking. As you can see, pegasi, whom you should be most thankful for, watch over us all and keep us safe,” Bucky explained to his students. 

More pegasi were landing now, quite a few, and Flitter made a few silent gestures that put them at ease. They watched as the first blinking light from a foal shot upwards, flashing green. Another blinking light rose, flashing yellow. 

“That’s it, just say the words, see, it is so very easy, and you are casting spells just like a proper unicorn should,” Bucky praised. 

An enormous purple globe of strobing light exploded from Dinky’s horn and shot upwards, making Dinky gasp in delight. Even the pegasi seemed impressed. You could see Dinky’s globe from a long ways away. 

Everything that type threes did was pure spectacle and bound to attract attention. 

Even Snips and Snails were able to send blinking orbs of light rocketing skyward, which boosted their self-esteem greatly. 

“The fireworks class spells are an upgraded version of Blink. They can be very simple and very complicated. Even type ones can cast simple versions of the various fireworks spells, like Rocket Pop,” Bucky said. “Rocket Pop is basically Blink with a whistling sound as it rises and an explosion at its apex.” Bucky cast one, sending it skyward, whistling as it went, making the foals gasp in delight. 

“Keep practicing your Blink spells,” Cloudchaser asked. Bucky looked at her, and she looked at him, giving him a faint nod of approval. Bucky felt a powerful emotion of something he could not describe flood through him. 

The foals kept casting and eating popcorn, sending balls of blinking lights skyward, and occasionally a new pegasus would arrive to see what the hubbub was. 

“This is a lot better than learning about weather patterns and crop rotation,” a foal commented, causing the others to agree, little heads and horns bobbing. 

It ended up being a very pleasant afternoon. 



 

It felt good to be home after a long day. Bucky had taken the foals by the hospital for a short visit, Dinky complained of being hungry even after all of the popcorn, so Bucky had also purchased the foals a snack, and now, they were home. 

And Bucky felt like he was home. 

It wasn’t the house so much, as it was the foals with him in the house. The empty house he realised. There was a note on the table beside the overstuffed chair that explained that Derpy and Berry had gone off to the Riverside Farmer’s Market to get some groceries. Bucky blinked a few times after reading, realising he was going to be alone with the foals for a little longer. He lifted away his saddlebags with his magic, setting them gently on the couch, and looked at Piña who was heading up the stairs, singing a song about her need to pee. 

Bucky blushed and realised he needed to go as well. He too went up the stairs, not singing, to use the second bathroom. 

Dinky, alone, realised this was her perfect opportunity to have a look at Bucky’s spellbook. She pulled it from his saddlebags, touching the wooden cover, it felt warm and it tingled slightly. It hummed, and Dinky could feel it in her horn. 

She sat down and opened the book, but not the front half.  The front half she reasoned, was full of basic spells , beginner spells. Foal spells. Like Blink. 

“Double - yoo,” Dinky muttered to herself, now in the back of the book, where the good spells were. She was on a page were every spell started with ‘W’ and there were quite a number of spells. 

“Want it need it,” pronounced Dinky carefully, reading the spell description, not understanding what she was reading. “I want a daddy, I need a daddy,” Dinky murmured to herself. “Mommy needs Bucky,” Dinky reasoned. “If Bucky wanted me, he could be my daddy, and mommy could be happy,” the foal said in perfect foal logic. 

She read through the tricky words several times, carefully pronouncing each word, feeling an odd tingle in her horn as she did so. 




 

Bucky came down the stairs and saw Dinky looking through his spell book. He panicked, but before he had a chance to say anything, he felt a powerful attraction for Dinky. A maddening feeling of lust and infatuation. Unnatural lust and infatuation followed by a powerful sense of arousal. 

Bucky knew right away that something was terribly wrong. 

His brain flooded with terrible images of all the things he suddenly wanted to do with Dinky. He cried out, shaking his head, repressing everything and shoving it down. He knew magical compulsion when he felt it, and this was powerful. 

A tiny fragile part of his mind cried that he really didn’t want to engage in unnatural acts of love with a foal, pleading for him to hold on. 

And Bucky dug in and got his grip. Repression was finely tuned in his mind, and he summoned up every ounce of his will he had. He struggled, his brain flashing with terrible images that fanned his lust. He shoved them back. He loved Dinky, real love that existed outside of magical compulsion, and he would never allow himself to bring harm. It was a powerful revelation that rooted his sanity and gave him strength to fight. 

But the compulsion was overwhelming. Dinky was the most desirable female he had ever seen. She was beautiful. Perfect. 

Bucky slammed his head into the wall, dazing himself, and leaving behind a bright smear of blood that trickled down the wall. He did it again, making his ears ring painfully, shoving down every unwanted emotion he was feeling. 

He heard hoofsteps on the stairs behind him, and then Piña was running for Dinky, saying things Piña should never be saying. Bucky bit down on his own tongue, nearly splitting off the tip, holding back a scream, and then hoisted Piña and Dinky up in his magic, keeping them apart. Touching Dinky with his magic was a bad idea. It filled him with burning desire for the foal, flooding his body with unnatural lust, fueling his arousal. 

Bucky slammed his head once more into the wall for good measure. One ear was already beginning to swell alarmingly. 

Twilight can fix this he thought to himself and he willed himself towards the door. 

Crushing everything down, he pushed the door open. 

And realised he had made a terrible mistake. 

The moment he was outside, ponies turned towards Dinky, held aloft in his magic, and were immediately overtaken by unnatural arousal, the same arousal that had nearly overtaken Bucky. Profanity spewed from Bucky’s mouth, a steady torrent that would make Berry Punch faint if she heard it. 

Ponies began to bolt towards him. Bucky lashed out with his magic, not wanting to do any harm, but not wanting Dinky to get hurt. He slammed the incoming crowd with a wave of telekinetic force, bowling them backwards. 

Bucky ran. 

And most of Ponyville began to give chase. 

Holding Dinky and Piña aloft, he ran as fast as he could, trying to slam ponies that drew too close away with magical slaps, hoping that he wasn’t hurting them. 

And he wanted to hurt them. They wanted Dinky. His Dinky, Dinky who he wanted all for himself, to satisfy his aching needs. He hated them all, and dark thoughts of killing the interlopers invaded his mind unwillingly. He crammed those thoughts down deep inside as well. REPRESS EVERYTHING! he screamed inside of his own head. 

Neurosis became a powerful ally, and Bucky’s neurosis was a multi-generational gift that was rapidly becoming an evolutionary advantage among his kind. 

Pegasi were swooping down now. Bucky cast a cloud of cold, freezing their wings with thick crusts of solid ice that made them crash into the ground. He had to fend off several waves of incoming pegasi, while still holding back incoming ponies charging from the ground. 

He sent out a massive telekinetic ripple that sent hundreds of ponies flying backwards, spilling over one another. This bought Bucky time. Bucky tapped into his own desperation, reaching deep, and doing the unthinkable. 

A roiling black flame rose from his horn, his eyes turned green, and a purple mist drifted from his eyes as well as from the black flames around his horn. Dark magic. Bucky had learned a spell called “Horror” from a book in the Forbidden section of the library, and he had used it once, to scare a fellow student on Nightmare Night. Nopony ever knew about him popping the lock and sneaking in. 

And it certainly worked now. About one third of the ponies bearing back down upon him suddenly turned tail and ran, screaming in terror, Bucky having become the image of their worst nightmare. The dark magic spell only worked on those of weaker minds. 

Bucky ran, and kept running, his barrel heaving, real terror welling up in his own mind, knowing that his head was going to roll later for this, and, the terrible knowledge of what would be done to Dinky by hundreds, if not thousands of ponies if he failed. 

The assault from such a mob would be fatal, Dinky would die from such a mob committing sexual assault. 

His own need for Dinky was growing almost unbearable. It was all he could think about. It was battering down his barriers, eroding his defenses, and wearing down his will. 

All he could think about was sexual release. 

NO NO NO NO he shouted inside of his own head. 

He sent out another telekinetic ripple, sending the pressing horde of ponies sprawling backwards and away from him. His energy was getting weaker now. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to cast at all, and  that would be it for Dinky. 

The library was in sight, he bolted for the door, shoving ponies aside with powerful telekinetic blasts and freezing pegasi to knock them from the air. 

He pounded on the door, which was opened by a small dragon, who stood staring wide eyed at the chaos all around him. 

“TWILIGHT!” Bucky screamed raggedly. 

“She’s not here, she’s gone, I’ll call Celestia at once!” Spike cried in panic, slamming the door and locking it. “Run, get out of town, try to survive until she gets here!” 

Bucky, having no choice, ran. 



 

Discord strolled up the lane, having had a very pleasant visit with his dearest friend, Fluttershy. He whistled as he strolled, feeling marvelous, when he began to notice a bit of a commotion ahead of him. 

No, that is quite a commotion up ahead he thought to himself. A lone pony ran, holding two foals aloft in magic, and behind him was most of the population of Ponyville. 

Several red bricks dropped from Discord’s backside as he stood in the lane, slack-jawed by what he saw. “What in Tartarus?” The Herald of Chaos uttered, totally flummoxed. 

He stood, waiting, as the unicorn approached, sensing a most dreadful spell centered on the foal. An awful spell. While Discord personally liked this spell, he had been the one who taught it to ponies in the first place after all, the notion of it being cast on a foal appalled him. While there was many terrible things Discord would do, this was not one of them. 

He snapped his fingers, breaking the dreadful spell and then striding quickly forward, fanned the dark magic away from the unicorn’s smoking horn. He patted the unicorn gently on the head for a job well done, looked at the foal, saw it was no worse for wear, and then, the world suddenly exploded. 

Darn Celestia and her dramatic entrances! 





Bucky lay on the ground heaving, Celestia standing over him, Discord standing nearby, holding two foals in his forelegs, looking oddly concerned and talking to them both. 

“Bucky? Can you speak to me?” Celestia asked, looking concerned. She looked out at the enormous crowd of confused ponies, all staring at her, all of them quite confused looking, all of them wanting answers. 

Bucky could not reply, everything was finally crumbling away, and Celestia saw the signs. She cried out in her own panic as Bucky began to seize, his body going into convulsions as a terrible panic attack finally worked its way free. Spittle and foam flew from his lips as he sank into whatever black realm claimed him. Celestia took him in her magic and tried to keep him safe, holding his body and trying to prevent him from self-harm. 

Inside of his own head, Bucky sank into the black abyss laughing, knowing that he had not given in. He had proven to be the stronger pony, and took comfort in this as the blackness swallowed him whole. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 29
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Something beeping made Bucky’s head throb painfully with each beep, and his muzzle was on fire. He opened his eyes and tried to squirm, tried to get the pain in his nose to go away. He had trouble raising his foreleg, the weight of the blanket over him almost impossible to lift. 

“Be still Buckminster,” Celestia soothed. “There is a feeding tube inserted in your nose. Your horn is cracked, but will mend. Dinky and Piña Colada are both fine, I have smoothed over their minds and removed the burden of memory from them. They will remember a magical mishap, but nothing more. Nothing specific. Piña in particular should not have to live with the troubling memories that she would have had. You did a commendable job in keeping them both safe.  Nopony was seriously harmed this day.” 

“We’re here Bucky,” Derpy said, her voice faint and soft. “We’re in a room not too far from Diamond Tiara.” 

“I am troubled by your use of dark magic, but I understand its necessity. You did not use it for personal gain or to hold power over another, you used it in an entirely defensive manner. I am impressed. Very few can summon such energies without fueling it with selfish and dark desires. Your control is impeccable Buckminster,” Celestia spoke, her voice low and calm. “But it also raises troubling questions about how you came by such knowledge. I shall require a full confession from you at some point, but you are not in trouble.” 

“Who would have thought Discord would save the day?” Berry asked in a confused voice. 

“I was certainly surprised,” Celestia confessed. “Seems he has developed a soft spot for foals at some point. Perhaps Fluttershy has been more successful than anypony realises.” 

“Dinky,” Bucky said in a low mumble, the tape holding the tube up his nostril binding his muzzle and making it difficult to talk, his voice raspy. 

“Is in another room, sleeping, and Luna is working to further smooth over her mind, along with Piña’s,” Celestia answered. “We cannot have Dinky Doo casting that spell again, we have already witnessed the results. She cast a corrupted version of the spell. She did not pronounce certain words right. She made herself the object of desire and affection. It is all very troubling. I do not know how you resisted Buckminster, but I am impressed that you did. I took the liberty of explaining just what happened to Miss Hooves and Miss Berry Punch, letting them know exactly what you have endured. They were quite distraught.” 

“You just keep looking after my foal,” Derpy cried, bursting into sobs, and clinging to Berry for comfort and support. “Even if it means hurting yourself!” she moaned, sounding as though she was in pain. 

“Calm down bubble butt,” Berry said, pulling Derpy’s head to her neck and squeezing, trying to calm the blubbering pegasus. “I… I would trust Piña’s life with you Bucky,” said Berry to Bucky, her voice becoming raspy after the third word. 

“Today also brings into light some new concerns Bucky. You. What you did today was extraordinary magic. I am no longer sure you were classified correctly. You are either a high functioning three or a low functioning four, however, either way, the line has been blurred. You have held up remarkably well to the pressures. Your force of will and your constant state of mental precaution paid off this day,” Celestia said, giving voice to her concerns. “Another concern is your horn, which is now cracked from channeling magical energies far beyond what your physiology is normally capable of. No magic for a while. Which means Dinky Doo is going to need another tutor, at least temporarily, somepony who can help keep an eye on her. And you for that matter. You have done some minor damage to your nervous system, you have a concussion from what appears to be blunt force trauma to your skull, and your stomach is going to remain emptied out for days after what you have done. When you do get out of the hospital, you are going under strict bed-rest.” 

“And if you even try to get out of the bed for any reason, I am breaking your legs,” Berry promised. “Derpy and I have already agreed to be your caretakers. We have permission to do whatever is necessary to look after your needs.” 

“They do,” Celestia replied, her voice firm. 

Bucky groaned, a faint sound that could barely be heard. The full implications of what that entailed began to press in on his mind. This was bound to be embarrassing and demeaning. 

“Lyra Heartstrings has agreed to help. I trust her, you should as well,” Celestia announced. “It is almost dawn. Time to raise the sun soon. You two should get some sleep. Bucky will be released into your care once his period of observation is over. Your foals are safe and are being tended to. It has been a sleepless night for both of you, I know. Miss Hooves, I will make sure that your place of employment understands that you need some time off.” 

Bucky felt two lips gently kiss him, and realised with a start that it was Celestia. 

“With greater power comes greater demands and responsibilities Buckminster, continue looking after my little ponies when you are better. For now though, sleep,” Celestia cooed, her voice soft, impossible to ignore, filling the room with comfort and warmth. 

Bucky slipped away once again. 



 

The hospital room was flooded with sunlight that made Bucky’s head hurt. He had hazy recollections of yesterday, but had trouble recalling specifics. Dinky had cast a spell… 

Yes, Dinky had cast a spell that made everypony want to be her friend. A want it need it spell that would have made everypony trample her if she wasn’t kept safe. 

And Bucky had kept her safe. He recalled that, but it seemed vague and distant. The details seemed hazy and jumbled. Probably because he had a concussion. He sort of recalled Celestia mentioning he had a concussion. 

He had gone through extraordinary means to keep Dinky Doo safe from the ponies who could not resist her charms and would have crushed her underhoof had they caught her. Dinky really was that adorable. He felt a warm sense of pride, something he wasn’t entirely used to. 

His stomach growled with emptiness and the air moving through the crack in his horn made it ache like cold water being poured over a rotten tooth. He hurt all over. 

He heard hooves clattering on tile and saw a familiar plum colour flash in his blurry vision. 

“You’re awake. Derpy is with the foals. They’re fine. Thank you for keeping Piña from being trampled along with Dinky,” Berry said cheerfully, moving to Bucky’s bedside and leaning over him. “Doctors plan on releasing you this afternoon perhaps, after another examination. I brought my wagon to haul you home in, and we’ve filled it with cushions.” 

“Thirsty,” Bucky croaked. 

Berry stood on her hindhooves, leaning one forehoof on the bed for balance, and lifted a small plastic cup with a straw to Bucky’s lips. He took slow careful sips, it was difficult to swallow with the tube going down his throat. 

“I love you, you big dope,” Berry said while holding the glass. 

“I’m having trouble remembering everything,” Bucky grunted in a strained voice. 

“You hit your head really hard. We saw the bloodstain on the wall. What happened?” Berry asked, looking concerned. 

“I don’t remember,” Bucky groaned. 

“Piña could tell you more, she has a good memory of the event. Everypony really wanted to hug Dinky Doo. Maybe you tripped coming down the stairs? I mean, the bloodstain is right there at the foot of the stairs. Maybe you saw her and stumbled?” Berry reasoned. 

“That seems likely. If I hit my head that hard, no wonder I can’t remember it. Everything on the left side of my face is numb and feels funny,” Bucky said, still straining to talk. 

“You did some nerve damage when you conked your noggin. Doctors say it might heal, might not. It is minor, shouldn’t bother you to much,” Berry replied. “Now stop talking. You sound terrible.” 

The water glass was finished off with a few more sips through the straw and then set down. 

Berry stood, still on hindhooves, checking over Bucky now that he was awake. One ear was still swollen, the left side of face lumpy and misshapen, there was a line of stitches that ran from his ear to his neck, and his horn had a noticeable crack in it. His horn was not the same tan colour as the rest of his hide, but red and inflamed looking , and the tissues around its base were swollen and lumpy. She peered at the crack, looking at it from one angle, and then another, and then peered into Bucky’s eyes, not breaking eye contact, practically nose to nose. 

“I am forever indebted to you for keeping Piña safe and keeping her secure until the spell was broken. Celestia explained in great detail what you went through, wanting to cuddle and love poor Dinky Doo and snuggle her adorable little huggable body along with everypony else,” Berry said solemnly. “And I imagine it was hard on Piña being in that situation. You did good. Being an uptight snob allowed you to resist Dinky’s magical adorableness.”  

Bucky stared up into Berry’s eyes, and felt a strange unknown emotion welling up inside of him. He tried to lift a hoof and couldn’t. Suddenly, he really wanted to be held by both Derpy and Berry. 

“I need you,” his lips moved, but no words came out. 

“I know, “ she said, understanding what was said anyway. 

“Help me get better,” he said wordlessly, no sound from his lips. 

“I will,” she promised, not needing to hear. 

“Up here,” he explained, his lips moving, soundless, knowing and trusting she would understand, feeling a powerful connection growing as she peered into his eyes. 

“I knew that already,” she answered, gently stroking the good side of his face. 

“I want to want you and not feel bad about it,” he mouthed, making only a faint sound as dry lips brushed together. 

“We’ll help you,” she comforted, still stroking his face. 



 

The late afternoon sun felt warm and soothing on Bucky’s side as the wagon rolled home. The feeding tube was still up his nose, and would stay there for now, requiring constant feeding was only one of Bucky’s many needs. 

In the wagon were two foals, clinging to one another, still afraid, still worried, pained to see their rescuer in the condition he was in. There were also two mares. One was Lyra Heartstrings,  student of Celestia, sometimes musician, and full time philosopher. Next to her sat Bon Bon, who watched the foals with great interest, smiling occasionally, and sometimes nudging Lyra with her nose. Derpy walked next to Berry, who was pulling the wagon. 

“When we came back into town last night from Canterlot, everything was such a mess, looks like they’ve been cleaning everything up,” Lyra said. “Princess Celestia sure was worried. I haven’t seen her like that since Twilight cast the want it need it spell on her doll.” 

“Buckminster, I am looking forward to getting to know you better,” Bon Bon said. “Celestia asked me to help you. She seems to think that since I fixed Lyra, I can help fix you as well. I don’t know if I can, but I am willing to try,” Bon Bon said, reaching out and gently stroking Bucky on his barrel. 

“I was once a very messed up unicorn. I’m a type three as well. We went to school together, you and I, even though we never interacted, I remember you a bit. I was just like you. We both spent a lot of time avoiding other unicorns and playing terrible pranks to keep other unicorns from coming near us. You turned Celestia’s office upside down,” Lyra said with a laugh. “I enchanted the rug in front of her office to make whoopie cushion sounds when somepony walked on it. Celestia came out of her office when she heard the horrible sounds being made, and then became quite irate when she made those sounds with every step,” she added, still laughing. “She told me she still has that rug. She keeps it rolled up, but sometimes breaks it out when the new school year starts and little foals have to visit her office.” 

There was a faint giggle from Dinky, who perked up a bit from hearing Lyra’s story. Piña also giggled and tittered, somehow looking miserable and amused at the same time. 

“Lyra, if you teach Dinky that spell, I will crown you with a cast iron frying pan,” Bon Bon promised, gently wrapping a foreleg around Lyra as she spoke. 

Lyra blinked a few times. “I’ve always wanted to be a Princess,” she replied, earning a poke from Bon Bon. 

The wagon rolled slowly home as Lyra and Bon Bon continued to exchange witty banter. 
	
> Chapter 30
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The bloodstain had been cleaned from the wall. Bucky had noticed it as he had been moved up the stairs, carried in Lyra’s magic, carried down the hall, and left in a large bed with fresh smelling sheets. Berry had been waiting with a canister of concentrated food paste, calorie dense, nutrient dense, connecting it to the tube and releasing the valve. 

No matter how much he took in, Bucky continued to feel empty as his horn attempted to heal and his body tried to compensate for his extreme magical output. 

After dropping him in the bed, Lyra vanished, along with Bon Bon, leaving Bucky alone with Berry and Derpy in the bedroom. Berry settled into a battered old loveseat in the corner, located next to a large wooden cabinet. Derpy stood, her wings looking ruffled, her ears perked forward. She continued to stand until Berry cleared her throat, after which Derpy crawled into the bed and gently settled in next to Bucky, making odd grunting sounds and snorts that Bucky hadn’t heard before, and covering him with a wing before settling into place. 

“She’s nesting,” Berry said, her voice thoughtful and gentle. “Mama bird has an injured bird in the nest, she’s going to be restless and aggressive until you get better.” 

There was a single tap on the door, and then Sparkler entered. She crossed the room quietly, minding her hooves, and settled on the loveseat with Berry. 

“I cleaned the blood off the wall. There was large puddle on the floor too,” Sparkler said, looking distressed. “Look, I need to know something before I get any further in my emotional involvement here. Where are we going from here? Are we going to be a family? I need to know, so I can make some decisions, I feel that I am owed at least that.” 

Berry looked Sparkler in the eye and nodded, but said nothing. Sparkler, seeing Berry’s nod, sighed heavily and looked relieved.

“Then I am in this for the long haul then,” Sparkler said. “I’m sorry, I just needed to know, it is difficult for me to get close to other ponies sometimes because of things that have happened. I found myself getting uncomfortably close, and then this happened, and it scared me.” 

Berry leaned over and hugged Sparkler, quietly, no words spoken. 

“Lyra is reading the foals a Daring Do novel,” Sparkler said. “I saw them getting settled downstairs when I came up here.” 

“How are we going to afford this?” Berry asked, giving voice to her thoughts. 

“Princess Celestia said she is paying for all of this, Bucky was hurt doing his job,” Derpy said, carefully squirming closer to the injured pony in her bed. 

“But you’re not working, and you don’t get paid unless you work. Sure, it was nice of them to give you some time off, but I know there are bills. Can I help?” Berry asked. 

“I have a little money from foal sitting,” Sparkler said. “Not much, maybe a hundred bits it has taken me almost a year to save.” 

“Hold on to that,” Derpy said. “For a rainy day. Berry, yes you can help. I’m not too proud to ask now that you are with us. We’ll manage. We’ve always managed. The flock looks after its own.” 

“I can let go of my apartment,” Bucky whispered softly. “I trust you both to look after me and I know you’ll care for me. I don’t need it.” 

“So how long is Bucky going to be down?” Sparkler said. 

“Doctors say a few weeks,” Berry said. “Damaged horns are crippling.” 

“Bucky, should we try to contact your parents?” Derpy asked. 

“No, they wouldn’t care. I’ve been disinherited,” Bucky groaned, raising a fetlock and gently touching his snoot. “All I have is my name and few meaningless titles.” 

Berry grunted a few times, saying nothing, making an odd hitching sound her barrel. She squirmed on the couch a bit, and then hugged Sparkler fiercely. “Don’t say that!” Berry shouted, squeezing Sparkler tightly. “Titles don’t set you above other ponies unless you let them, they are a reminder of who and what you are, the responsibilities you have, and the obligations you have in life.” 

“That is why I took on ‘Doo Hooves’ and acknowledged myself as Dinky’s sister. I suppose I’ll be Piña’s sister… er, actually  I don’t know what I’d be and I don’t give a damn either,” Sparkler said. 

“Doo Hooves is a title of shame,” Derpy said, hiding her face under a wing, her voice tight and gritty.

“What?” Berry asked in astonishment. 

“I made it my own,” Derpy said, still hiding under her wing. 

“I’ve never heard of this before,” Berry said, her tone incredulous. 

“It means a pony that walks in horseapples. Ground bound. My parents said it to me when they threw me out and disowned me,” Derpy’s tone was one of complete misery. “Very old pegasus slang. And I do mean old.” The miserable mare shoved her face into Bucky’s back and lay still. 

“Well damn,” Berry grumbled. 

“I didn’t want their last name any more and there are worse things to step in,” the sorrowful pegasus said. 

“I don’t care what it means,” Sparkler said defiantly. “Call me whatever, just don’t call me late for dinner.” 

Berry planted a loud wet kiss on Sparkler’s cheek. “I’d be proud to call you family.” 

“I gotta go,” Bucky said. 

“Oh no, you ain’t leaving,” Berry retorted. 

“No, I gotta go...” Bucky replied, his words full of urgency. 

“Oh. Oh! That’s why we bought a bedpan. I was going to use it as helmet, but I suppose you can use it for more mundane purposes,” Berry said. 

Bucky groaned, fearing the coming embarrassment, but unable to do anything about it. This was going to be painfully exposing and a test of his mental endurance. For some reason, he was far more afraid of the coming bedpan experience than he was facing the rampaging mobs that had chased him and the foals.  The thought struck him as being particularly weird. 

“I’ll make this easier. I’m gone for now. I’ll be back for bedpan disposal duty. Somehow, I think it is better if I carry it,” Sparkler said. She cleared out of the room in a hurry. 

“Want me to pre-warm this for you?” Berry said, reaching under the loveseat. 



 

Twilight Sparkle flew towards home, her flight slow and careful. Her wings were tired. She might have pegasus wings now, but she did not have pegasus endurance. And she was carrying a load. 

Secured to her back was a foal, close to Rumble’s age, a distinctive charcoal grey filly with stark blue-white hair named Cloudstreaker. As she flew, Twilight Sparkle rehearsed scenarios in her mind, of all the different ways she planned to rake Celestia over the coals. Sure, Celestia wasn’t directly responsible for this, but her government agents were, and their personal biases had broken up a family. 

Twilight Sparkle intended to make Celestia responsible.

The foal had become sick, as foals tended to do at times. It was a common enough problem. The problem came when Cloudchaser couldn’t prove her marriage, and her sister and Thunderlane had tried to come to her defense. An obnoxious group of biased social workers cried neglectful parenting and made a move, citing a number of reasons why Cloudchaser was unfit as mother, none of them particularly valid in Twilight Sparkle’s opinion. Everything was jumbled and confusing, and actual details seemed scarce, other than the whole thing being a railroad job. 

Twilight had very nearly leveled  the entire building out of sheer anger, becoming righteously indignant and finally using her Princess status for what she felt was a darn good reason. Social justice. 

Unicorns! Twilight groused to herself. Sometimes, she really hated unicorns. 

The fact that she had been a unicorn did not escape her. 

Cloudstreaker had been left in one of Fillydelphia’s many orphanariums, unloved and unwanted, one of the many countless foals within the local government’s care. It had taken Twilight forever to find her after she had been shuffled around so many times. 

Twilight streaked through the night, righteous anger fueling her flight. 



 

“I am not sure that I did the right thing sister,” Celestia said, up late, pacing back and forth over the rug, not wearing her shoes, her regalia, or her crown. Her face was creased with worry. 

“Technically, I was the one who selectively edited all of the problematic memories,” Luna said, trying to calm her sister. 

“But I allowed it!” Celestia retorted, stopping in mid step. 

“If left unchecked the results would have been disastrous I am sure,” Luna said, justifying her actions. 

“I hate doing it. So does Twilight,” Celestia retorted. She resumed her pacing, her ears back, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. 

“It is an unpleasant task, of that there can be no doubt, but we cannot allow an entire town to become polluted by such thoughts. And so many other foals as well. Who knows what strange hungers might have incubated in such an environment,” Luna argued, settling into a lounge sofa. 

“Seems like a violation of trust,” Celestia returned, closing her eyes. 

“Maybe, but you do not see dreams like I do, or the perverse hungers that already exist. We’ve saved many, and we will live with the burden of our guilt. We are immortal. It is our duty to carry this burden,” Luna postulated. “Do you really want to scrap your Ponyville Project and start again elsewhere? Another Fillydelphia perhaps? How did the city of lesbian unity work out? All those mares that might have been absorbed into a herd marriage had to go somewhere... the city of sour grapes. Or Las Pegasus, where the government that governs least, governs best?”

“Stop!” Celestia cried, her ears dropping down beside her face. 

“Sister, it is not my intent to anger you or hurt you, but you have been chasing these ideas of yours since before I was banished, creating cities and trying to cultivate their growth. The Ponyville Project has been your only true success so far, allowing it to go to ruin because of one mischievous foal would be folly,” Luna explained. 

“You are right of course, but the long term has to reconcile with the short term sometimes,” Celestia said, looking painfully guilty. 

“Cadance is coming soon, she will make you feel better,” Luna assured. 

“Buckminster and his friends show hopeful progress. The elements of a great friendship keep manifesting. Generousity, kindness, and I think we saw loyalty during the incident in Ponyville. When I touched his mind, the repressed sense of devotion was so strong already. If only we could get him to let go,” Celestia said, changing the subject. 

“For me, loyalty is divided into three equal parts. Duty, devotion, and dedication,” Luna replied, looking interested, nodding her head slightly as she spoke. “I also take the antiquated stance that there is no loyalty to objects or notions, or even nations, only friends, family, and like-minded compatriots.”

Celestia stopped pacing and looked thoughtful, staring at a lit candelabra in Luna’s chambers. Luna detested electric lights. 

“I owe no loyalty to Ponyville as a place or an object, “ Luna said thoughtfully, “however I do owe the citizenry for their loyalty to me. Hence I protect them, even through complicated moral issues, doing what is best for them, even if I have some moral quandary or disagree with the course of action on a personal level, because of loyalty I can rise above my personal objections and do what is needed for the greater good. Much like you did about a thousand or so years ago. And you were right for doing that. I can overcome my personal objections about that event because of my loyalty to you.” 

Celestia looked very startled and surprised for a moment. “Thank you Luna, I do not not know how to reply,” Celestia said in an unsettled tone. 

“Enough, this talk bores me. How about we organise an army of my guard, scout carefully through uncharted territory, after which we then ransack and plunder the kitchen for brownies or other mood altering delectables?” Luna asked. 

“Summon your captain.” Celestia commanded, smiling. 
	
> Chapter 31
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Berry, can you tell me a story?” Bucky asked as a new canister was secured to his feeding tube. “I’m feeling jittery and out of sorts,” he added, his voice dry and wavery. 

“I can do that,” Berry said, settling back into the loveseat, a glass of soft cider close by. “What did you want to hear a story about?” the earth pony mare asked, having just returned not too long ago from attending to the beer brewing. 

Derpy shifted her weight slightly, moving somewhat to a new position, keeping Bucky covered with a wing and a protective leg. She was yawning and sleepy, and hadn’t slept well, torn between a need for sleep and being protective. 

Instincts were still hard on equines. 

“Well, considering us, I wanted to hear more about herds, and what happened,” Bucky answered, feeling quite warm and secure, partially covered by an over protective pegasus mare who wanted to sit on him like he was an egg, and she had said so on more than one occasion. 

“I’m gonna go get Dinky and Piña for this,” Sparkler said, leaving the room suddenly. 

Berry waited, taking sip of cider, looking thoughtful and rather melancholy. She thought about dark times and dark days, when society had nearly come apart. 

Sparkler returned with two foals, and two adult mares, who all barged into the bedroom, making Derpy snort loudly and fluff out her feathers, making the mare look larger than she really was. 

Sparkler settled carefully on the bed, laying on the corner, legs folded beneath her belly. The two foals climbed into the loveseat with Berry. Lyra and Bon Bon grabbed large cushions from a pile in the corner and then sat on the floor, near the large wooden cabinet, Lyra looking eager. 

Derpy, still feeling flustered somewhat by outsiders in her nest, close to her injured flockmate, continued to make a few snorting sounds as she moved to cover Bucky a little more, and a faint growl could be heard. 

Nopony took offense, there was a moment of inter-tribal understanding, Derpy was just doing what she had to in order to feel comfortable. 

“Well,” said Berry, settling in, and clearing her throat a little, “a long time ago, there were herds. But we already knew that. And problems arose. The problems mostly came, at least as I understand it, from the unicorns in the upper levels of society, and the troubles trickled down to other levels of society, in particular it hit the pegasi clans hard.” Berry took a deep breath, rubbed her barrel with a hoof, and then pulled Piña close for a hug. “Marriage and war have a lot in common. You move to declare your intentions, you establish the rules of engagement, you set some standards that both sides try to follow. There are proclamations to be made, and there are some things you just don’t do, in love or war. At one point, love and war broke down in our society,” Berry said, now hugging Dinky as well. 

“After Luna was gone, the greater houses became power hungry and dangerous, Celestia being alone, her power and influence weakened. There was lots of squabbling, but not outright war, there had not been war for a while, and everypony wanted to keep that. But there was a war happening, a dirty war, undeclared with no terms, no rules of engagement. Within the herds of the greater houses, the mares, all of which came from different houses, began to squabble and fight among one another as the political games began to intensify. At first, it was just squabbling. Lo and behold, the real trouble started when mares began to die from mysterious illnesses. Many suspected magic, poison, dirty underhoofed dealings. A new form of war was happening, and it was the worst sort of war,” Berry explained.

Berry looked sad for a moment, raising her eyes to the ceiling, pulling the two foals she loved closer. “Eventually, some pony did the unthinkable, and some mare poisoned the foals of another mare, a fellow wife mare, within the sacred herd structure. Hard to say who did it first, history being what it is, but after that, it was open season. There was a black and dirty war going on inside the houses themselves, with no rules, no terms of engagement, no means to cry truce or sue for peace. Mare killing mare, mare killing foal, and in many instances, siblings killing siblings. The nobles, never ones to do their dirty work for themselves, enlisted their trusted pegasi guards to protect them… And maybe do a little skullduggery for them. Soon enough, the pegasi herds suffered the same problem, and the inviolate trust of the herd structure and the ability to trust other mares, your fellow wives, with your own foals was gone. Society fell apart, griffons began to encroach, the borders shrank, the houses were all too busy dealing with inside the house warfare to band together and deal with threats to Equestria. It all came to a gristly conclusion when the Matron Mare of House Avarice magically compelled her husband to kill all of his other wives and his own foals he had had with them. She used an obedience spell, and he was powerless to resist her. Celestia was forced to lop his head off for his crimes, and the Matron’s head as well. Word has it she didn’t want to lop his head off, but had her hoof forced if she wanted to have any sort of standing army left to protect her remaining loyal subjects,” Berry spoke, her voice strong and melodical somehow, Berry feeling very much like the bards in her long family history. 

“After that, Celestia wrote a new law. No more marriages with mixed houses. If a herd was to be established, it was to be done with sisters. A stallion was free to marry all the sisters he wanted. Celestia figured that sisters would look after one another. She created the “Sisterhooves Social” to help foster a feeling of unity and stem the bloody warfare going on behind closed doors. It seemed to help for a while, but it really became a case of ponies learning how to hide their violence better and new ways to dispose of bodies, like using transmutation spells to turn them into candy and feeding them to orphans, if the stories are to be believed,” Berry said, holding Dinky and Piña as they shuddered from her story, clinging ever tighter to Berry. “Important to note, most of the earth ponies took no part in this, they were working too hard to engage in this bloody business and trying not to starve or get eaten by griffons. The various clan structures used this as an argument saying it was time for the noble houses to go, especially the greater houses. The entire nation moved ever closer to actual war, right out in the streets. War, like marriage, must be declared, and ponies were gearing up for a big ol’ party to that end. The war between the Royal Pony Sisters had spread, infecting both wives and sisters of noble houses, spreading strife and dissension. Finally, in one heated quill stroke, Celestia signed a divorce treaty for all the noble houses, dissolving all marriages in the upper through lower nobility, and got rid of herd marriage all together, trying to keep the country from being torn apart. She declared a state of monogamy, insisting that it was the only way to stop all the horrible fighting and treachery.” 

“Wow,” Lyra said. 

“It stabilised the upper levels of society, but it completely destroyed the earth pony way of life,” Bon Bon said, her voice soft and thoughtful. “Farms needed large families, numbers, to throw at a task or a problem and wear it down.” 

“So why not just outlaw herd marriages among unicorns?” Sparkler asked. 

“Because that would be a horribly tribalist thing to do Sparkler,” Lyra said patiently. “Telling one tribe no but allowing the other two tribes to continue.” 

“I guess you’re right Lyra, still feels wrong somehow,” Sparkler said. 

“Yeah it does,” Lyra agreed. 

“No easy answers I suppose,” Bon Bon said, looking pensive and sad. 

“It gets worse,” Berry continued. 

“How does it get worse?” Sparkler asked. 

“A large army of jilted mares realised the odds were against them ever finding a decent marriage. Just too many mares, not enough stallions. They formed a coalition. That coalition eventually became an army. That army threatened war. It all came to a big head, popping like some stinky boil. To stave off war, Celestia was forced to break off a part of her own kingdom, and she gave a patch of land to the jilted mares, who formed the city of Fillydelphia, which was more than just a clever play on words for a name. It was literally the city of fillies, young females mostly who had no chance of ever finding a mate. They became their own city state, a republic allowed to exist on the Equestrian borders,” Berry answered, looking at Sparkler, and then taking a long drink of cider. 

“How does a city survive without new foals for the population?” Sparkler asked, looking concerned. 

“Fillydelphia became a community of foalnappers. They moved into surrounding territories, snatching up and stealing foals, they sent out agents into the world at large, gathering up orphans, the unloved, and the unwatched from the unwary. They had a manic need to get as many foals as possible. Because they took in and cared for so many orphans, Celestia was forced to turn a blind eye to the other foalnappings that took place. She was far too weak and powerless at that point, and something had to be done with the orphans left behind by all the interfamilial warfare and killings. Some say that the tradition continues to this day and they point to Fillydelphia’s many orphanariums and how full they stay. Many a mother has claimed to lost their foal to Fillydelphia’s overzealous foal protective services for no reason at all, and many of Equestria’s orphans find their way to Fillydelphia, in one way or another,” Berry replied, looking agitated. “The old wounds still hurt. Marriage of all sorts is hated in Fillydelphia, and it is a city that is still mostly made up of mares. The offspring of the jilted mares remain jilted, hating stallions, hating marriage, hating traditional family structures. I feel bad for them.” 

“Awful,” Bon Bon said. 

“I mean, I personally am not into stallions, I think everypony knows which way I swing, but I don’t go around hating them or trying to tear down families. Sweet Cheeks and I are family and we want family… stuff,” Lyra said, shrugging, not sure how to end her statement. 

“I guess at some point, Fillydelphia was absorbed by Equestria again,” Sparkler said. 

“Which leaves us and what we're edging into,” Derpy said, her head now resting on Bucky’s shoulder, rising and falling with his breathing. 

“Yeah, us,” Berry agreed. “And our little forming herd. And the terrible mess it is bound to cause.” 

“It's tragic and funny that Lyra and I can have our marriage recognised and accepted but herd marriage remains a social taboo. But I can remember when our marriage would have been a social taboo,” Bon Bon said, casting her eyes downward. 

“Herd marriage became synonymous with ‘foal murdering’ and other fun words of that nature,” Lyra said, scowling. “You say it now, and it still makes ponies cringe. Well, sometimes. Things are getting better I suppose.” 

“I just want mommy to be happy. And I want a daddy,” Dinky said, snuggling into Berry. “Another mommy might be nice too, I don’t think you can have too many of those,” she added, her voice muffled from her speaking into Berry’s pelt. 

Berry visibly melted, her ears sagging downwards, her face going soft and drooping, and she squeezed the two foals in her grasp. 

“I’ll share,” Piña said, pulling Dinky closer. 

“Huh. Well. I can’t look at that,” Lyra announced. “Sweet Cheeks, my eyes are going to melt out of my skull in a minute, be a dear and fetch a bucket.” 

“There’s a bedpan,” Berry replied helpfully. 

“Shh, my egg is sleeping,” Derpy said in a hushed whisper, her head still on his shoulder, her wing wrapped over his body, and her ears remained perked. 
	
> Chapter 32
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	One very frustrated and over emotional alicorn allowed the door to shut behind her as she departed. What was now going on behind the closed door was deeply personal and private, a moment for family members to treasure. And Twilight was not in the mood for socialisation. 

She was furious. Red eyed, bleary, fatigued, and furious. 

Cloudstreaker was returned home, to a family she had some trouble remembering, but it was a bond that could be fixed in time. Twilight Sparkle was grateful she had a chance to help restore a family. 

Exhausted, tired, but seething with rage, Twilight Sparkle spread her wings and took off for Canterlot, leaving a wake of stunned pegasi behind her, all of whom saw the alicorn in new light. A single blue streak trailed behind her, leaving behind a rainbow coloured contrail as it flew to catch up. 





There were no mothers quite like pegasus mothers. 

Nature had to work overtime to create the pegasus female. Pegasi, living among the clouds and the high mountain peaks, had to share territory with dragons, griffons, drakes, wyverns, and all manner or monstrous hordes, all of which considered pegasi young to be delicious snacks, a highly desirable meal that was a lot like certain types of potato chips. You couldn’t eat just one. Pegasi rookeries were heavily defended, well protected, and pegasi mothers were dangerous. For a long time, it was a dragon rite of passage that a juvenile dragon had to go and snatch a pegasus foal and return home with it, something many dragons perished doing. 

Pegasi protectiveness extended far beyond their young, if given the right circumstances. They were loyal friends, staunch companions, and faithful mates if their instincts were tapped. 

So it was no surprise that one grey pegasus mare hadn’t done much to leave the bed, guarding her fallen flockmate. Her mane was dirty and disheveled, she only took food that was brought to her, and only got up to relieve herself when she absolutely had to. Instincts were powerful things. 

And Berry Punch was feeling a little peeved at a moment. Derpy was running herself ragged, and Berry didn’t want to have two ponies to look after. 

“Lyra is off with the foals, visiting Diamond Tiara in the hospital. Derpy, you need a bath. This room stinks of hot sweaty pony. Both of you need a bath actually. I know you can’t get your horn wet, but I think we can get you into the bath and keep your horn dry. Just keep your head out of the water,” Berry said, looking stern. “And Derpy, you’re going into the tub with him. To hold him up. He’s weak as a kitten.’ 

Derpy grumbled but did not reply. She sullenly rose up out of the bed as Berry carefully disconnected the feeding tube from the now empty canister, and closed off the valve. And then, she stood by the bed and waited, gesturing with her eyes that Bucky should be placed on her back again. 

Derpy rose into a hover, bumped her head on the ceiling, she growled, staring up at the ceiling, which wouldn’t last long in a fight with a pegasus. 

Especially a nesting pegasus with a lot of pent up frustration. 

The broody mare gently lifted the limp unicorn and carefully arranged him on Berry’s back, making sure his legs were comfortably situated, his hooves nearly dragging on the ground. Bucky grunted a bit as Berry shifted his weight around, and then she slowly took off to the bathroom. 

In the bathroom, after the tub had filled a bit, Derpy took Bucky into a hover and then gently lowered herself and Bucky into the hot water. Bucky hissed as the hot water hit his backside, squirming, the pegasus gently easing them both into the water. 

“I’m going to go feed myself,” Berry announced, departing. 

Derpy eased back into the tub, pulling Bucky up to her barrel, leaning him back with her. Bucky tensed, at much as his frail body would allow, suddenly aware of a number of very concerning issues. 

First and foremost, two small somethings pressed into his lower back, near his hips, standing out in sharp relief, two sharp little pebbles protruding from two small pillowy mounds of flesh. And below that… There was something that was even hotter than the water pressing up against his flesh. It moved as he squirmed, making the mare move with it. He felt two forelegs around him, pulling him closer, shifting his body and his weight around, trying to make him comfortable. 

As Bucky flailed feebly, panic rising up in his barrel, two lips brushed up against the good side of his face, from behind, a gentle kiss, and two legs pulled tighter. 

Very much to his surprise, Bucky found himself relaxing, feeling oddly secure, even with the embarrassing knowledge that the mare had her squishy bits pressed up against his back. He could feel her squirm as well, shifting her hips, her whole body tensing and relaxing, her hot breath on his cheek. 

“I can feel your filly bits,” Bucky confessed in a shuddering whisper. 

“And my teats too, probably,” the broody mare replied. 

“Oh yes, there are those,” replied Bucky, his voice wavering. 

“Fair is fair,” Derpy replied, moving a hoof downward, brushing over a very personal location on Bucky’s anatomy. 

“Oh hoo hoo…” Bucky breathed, squirming in the broody mare’s now amorous embrace. She scrubbed gently with her hooves, using the hot water, rubbing the crusty sweat out of his thin pelt. 

Something as warm as the sun pressed up against Bucky’s spine, grinding gently against him as he was scrubbed, the vigorous motion causing him to rub up against the hidden warmth. Two little hard points pressed into his flesh, poking through his pelt, rubbing up against his skin directly. 

“This isn’t so bad, is it?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky could not make a coherent reply, he had gone completely limp in the mare’s embrace, his head resting on her angled neck and shoulder, his body completely draped over her body, locked  in her embrace. 

“When two ponies are close, things are bound to touch. It happens. Some touches are just a touch and should be ignored, other touches have meaning,” the amorous mare said, her hoof suddenly plunging deep into the water, stroking Bucky’s thigh, and then it slip upward, and she began to stroke something down there below his sheath and near his thighs. 

“Oohumum,” Bucky murmured, his eyes closing, feeling a strange feeling, the pegasus’s breathing was strangely hypnotic. 

“Dinky Doo needs a sibling or six and I’ve found someone I want to make a nest with. Do not disappoint me, my heart is fragile and I am so afraid right now,” Derpy whispered. “You and Berry and I are going to have lots of little foals for me to protect,” she murmured, her voice almost a mewling cry of pleasure. “I’ve seen how you are with foals, it makes me want to jump your bones and make you mine,” Derpy explained, her voice nearly panting, making her intentions very clear by stroking Bucky’s water softened pouch of flesh where Derpy’s real interests were hidden and carefully stored. 

“Oh my goodness, I’m gonna have to go rub one out,” Berry said, standing in the door, her eyes wide, the bathroom filling with the scent of heady perfume. 

Derpy smiled at Berry, still stroking and squeezing. “You were right Berry,” Derpy announced in sultry tones. 

“Right?” asked Bucky in a whisper, his breath coming in slow gasps. 

“I figured this was our best chance to break you down and try to make you whole again. You’re like an infant right now, you have to rely on us for everything. We’re slamming through your barriers, your shame, your guilt, and your repression with every change of the bedpan, every touch, every caress. And your brain is receptive right now because of your physical and emotional state,” Berry explained. 

“Celestia said something about busting down your barriers and that you’d be ‘imprintable’ for a few weeks, whatever that means,” Derpy said. 

“You suffered a mental break Bucky, at least that is what was explained to us. I only understand it a little bit, but you were faced with a situation so disturbing that it broke your mind a bit. Mental trauma. I’m not sure what was so traumatic about Dinky being adorable, but it broke you in a few places,” Berry explained. “Celestia said you would be impressionable and imprintable for a while, and to use this time well.” 

Derpy squeezed gently, nuzzling her nose along Bucky’s good ear, her breath making his ear quiver. She was glad the words were being handled by Berry, Derpy had more effective ways of leaving an impression. The tip of her tongue traveled along the edge of Bucky’s ear, causing his whole body to tense and wiggle. She withdrew, tasting salt, feeling very pleased with herself as she continued to gently rub two objects of great interest to her with the soft edge of her fetlock. 

“And Bon Bon can help you, apparently. Bon Bon helped Lyra after Lyra suffered a bad mental break. Celestia seems to think she can help, even though she’s not a psychologist, but she is an earth pony, and we have special feelings about herds and ponies. Certain senses, even if we can’t always describe them,” Berry added. “Bon Bon is probably gifted with a strong herd sense, just like I am.” 

“Why her and not you?” Bucky asked, his brain struggling to reason as his senses were overcome. He felt a powerful sense of security and safety, but he also felt afraid and confused. 

“I’m involved, and she has an outside view?” Berry replied, her reply more of a question as her tone was quizzical. “Whatever happened, it did more damage to the inside of your mind than the outside of your body.” 

“Wha-hey!” Bucky gasped, feeling something soft brushing up against his dock. 

Berry dragged the chair over the floor and sat down, resting her hind hooves on the side of the tub, just as she had done not that long ago. “Bucky, you need to let go. Right now, you are safe, and you are not doing anything that you need to feel guilty or ashamed of. This isn’t something to be embarrassed over. Have you ever even looked a mare? I mean looked, really looked, like when a mare is displaying to you?” Berry asked. 

Bucky shook his head no. 

“So all those times I’ve lifted my tail and gave it a swish, you’ve turned away rather than catch a brief peek at what I’ve had to offer?” Berry questioned. 

Bucky nodded. 

“That’s awful, because I checked you out the first day I met you, at the birthday party. I found it irresistible because you kept trying to hide it.” Berry confessed. 

Bucky whimpered, a faint sound, and Derpy ground her filly bits against his spine. 

“This is why so many unicorns wear clothes and have created a fashion industry. Just more unicorn neurosis trying to prove somehow that society needs to change its values to accommodate it,” Berry huffed. She turned in her chair, pivoting her body, leaning back in the chair, making herself comfortable. 

She was also totally exposed, sitting with her legs sprawled wide open, both hind hooves resting on the edge of the bathtub, instead of sitting with her legs pressed together like she usually did. 

Bucky jerked his head away and closed his eyes. 

“Meh, I’ve seen it before,” Derpy said, her tongue briefly licking her lips. 

Berry stretched, raising her forelegs up over her head, extending her spine, leaning backwards, and kicking her hind legs outwards and apart. 

“Berry, when the time comes, I am going to make you my saltlick,” Derpy growled. 

“Intriguing,” Berry responded, raising an eyebrow. “Now why would you be so ashamed to look at this if I want you to look at this?” she asked Bucky. “This is an invitation, you shouldn’t feel bad for looking if a mare wants you looking. Besides, we’re naked, stuff peeks out. Stallions unsheath sometimes, mares wink out, stuff happens, and you just tune it out and ignore it, but you don’t take what is beautiful and make it dirty and unclean.” 

Derpy shifted and Bucky felt the two pebbly protrusions travel along his skin.

“This,” Berry said, pointing down at her exposed and winking inner flesh, “is not dirty. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Foal batter goes in, foals come squirting out, and this is a vital part of being a pony, making other ponies.”

“Plus, it is salty, and ponies like to lick salt,” Derpy added in husky voice. 

“I watched Dinky go squirting out of Derpy and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Berry said, nodding her head at Derpy, who was looking up at her. “Ever watch a foal being born?” 

Bucky shook his head no and grunted. 

“Would you like to see a foal come squirting out?” Berry asked. “Because I’d like for you to be there when I have mine. After all, you are going to help me make them.” 

Bucky squirmed and gave a faint cry. He opened up his eyes, shot a brief glance at Berry’s exposed filly bits, and then looked her in the eyes. 

“Hey, you, my filly bits are down there, stop looking at me in the eye when I’m talking to you, you big dumb numpty,” Berry huffed. “This is difficult to wrap my brain around. I can’t imagine a colt and a filly not being curious at all. I was just hitting my double digit ages when a colt nosed me for the first time and I nosed him, and we spent some time checking each other out, figuring out what made us different, even doing a little touchy feely but nothing to serious. Colts look funny back there, all dangly and hangs down like a church bell.” 

“I think I was about the same age. I pinned down a pegasus colt on a cloud and gave him the once over. I was curious,” Derpy confessed. “He tried to resist and I had to swat him down a few times. Even back then, my eyes made me an outsider.” 

“I like your eyes,” Bucky whispered. “I like flawed things that I cannot fix or control. I like watching things I have no control over. Like lava lamps. I become fixated over things I have no control over. And Berry is wild and unpredictable and I never know what she is going to do next.” 

“Aw,” Derpy said, in a sweet syrupy voice. 

“Finally, some open honesty,” Berry said in a relieved tone. 

“When I would be open and honest in therapy with my mother and father, they would use what I said to hurt me later,” Bucky mumbled, closing his eyes once again. “Always hurting!” Bucky spat, his body jerking slightly. 

Derpy squeezed and pressed her muzzle against Bucky’s face, just below his ear. 

“Finally I stopped talking,” Bucky confessed. 

“You talk plenty, you stopped being open,” Berry corrected, her tone gentle. “I need you to be open. Like my legs.” 

“There is a little radish in there someplace that I need to find,” Derpy said. 

“Bucky, you are being obstinate. Stop that. Just open your eyes and have a look, I promise it doesn’t have teeth and it will not bite you,” Berry said affectionately. 

“You’re not all that pink down there Berry, more of a red wine colour,” Derpy observed, causing Bucky to twitch slightly. 

“Look Bucky, don’t make me point out the obvious here,” Berry threatened good naturedly. “Come on, just have a peek.” 

Bucky squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.

“Fine. You leave me no choice. Just think Bucky, at some point in your life, you’ve had your mother’s vagina wrapped around your neck and your dangly little colt bits have brushed up against her filly bits. Just think about that for few minutes!” Berry exclaimed. 
	
> Chapter 33
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mama Bird, I was wondering if I could come in and borrow Bucky, there is a lesson I am trying to teach Dinky,” Lyra asked. 

“Sure,” Derpy said, her head resting on Bucky’s withers, her ears perked for trouble. Not that there was any trouble. Bucky had fainted in the bathtub after Berry’s troubling remark, and was still somewhat addled. 

Dinky followed Lyra in, and Lyra gestured to Dinky to get up on the bed. Dinky did so, slowly and carefully, and then walked over to Bucky’s side, prodding him with a hoof gently, followed by a nuzzle that touched her mother and Bucky at the same time. 

“Dinky is going to have a close look at your horn,” Lyra explained. “This is a rare chance for her, because it is cracked.” 

Dinky gently stepped up to where Bucky’s head lay on a pillow, and peered down at his horn, looking thoroughly disgusted. 

“If you look at the crack, you can see the inside of the horn. It is full of marrow, a channel of nerves, and a few glands near the base. You can see the marrow, or what is sometimes called the ‘quick’ through the crack in the casing. The casing is made of hair actually, well, sort of. Just like horns on certain other animals. It is flexible and can be made to wiggle if touched,” Lyra explained. “The horn isn’t the only thing that makes a unicorn a unicorn.” 

“What else is there?” Dinky asked. “I don’t see anything else.” 

“Well, inside, there are glands, like under the horn. Unicorns also have several glands called the thaumaturgical glands and a special series of connected systems called the thaumaturgical system. It is a series of glands and special nerves, as well as a connecting series of vessels that carry a liquid called mana though the body. Sort of like blood vessels that allow blood to travel though the body. Right now, with a cracked horn, Bucky has no mana, or very little, and everything his body is doing right now is going towards repairing his horn. A long time ago, most unicorns died from this condition, not being able to eat enough food. Food gets converted into mana through a special process, refilling the various glands, bladders, and vessels that make up the thaumaturgical system,” Lyra explained in slow carefully pronounced words as Dinky stared at Bucky’s horn and occasionally poked Bucky on his shoulder. 

“So unicorns are different than other ponies,” Dinky said, her brow furrowed in deep concentration and her ears twitching. 

“All of the tribes have physiological differences,” Lyra replied. 

“Big word,” Dinky said, frowning. 

“I’m sorry, I-”

“I know what it means, you just keep tossing it around,” Dinky interrupted, causing Bucky to give a weak chuckle. “I get read to a lot and I ask what words mean. But I do appreciate keeping it simple.” 

“Of course,” Lyra replied, smirking slightly. 

Derpy reached out with her wing and stroked Dinky, looking at her and feeling thankful for such a good foal. Dinky folded her legs and gently settled against Bucky’s side. 

“Pegasi have special salivary glands in their mouths that allow them to preen their wings, coating them with a waxy oily substance that protects them from water, and keeps the feathers healthy and shiny. Pegasi also have modified adrenaline glands, these glands emit a chemical that is faintly magical in nature that allows the skin and soft tissues to harden, allowing pegasi to survive high speed flight and high g-force maneuvers. Inside of their ears, pegasi have special inner ear organs that help them keep balance and direction while in flight,” Lyra said, sitting down beside the bed on the floor. 

“What about earth ponies?” Dinky quipped. 

“Earth ponies are amazing and mysterious creatures, and there is a lot about them we still don’t know,” Lyra said. 

“We don’t?” Dinky asked. 

“Nope,” replied Lyra. “In their frogs, earth ponies have special glands, and nopony knows what they do exactly. It is a mystery. They’ve been studied now for hundreds of years and they remain mysterious. Earth pony females had odd reproductive cycles that affect other females from other tribes. Earth pony females come into estrus four times a year and release two eggs when they do so. Now, both eggs are not always fertilised, but there are double the chances for a pregnancy. Being in close proximity to an earth pony female can cause females from other tribes to synch up their cycles, also causing other females from other tribes to experience estrus four times a year. Having an earth pony female around is good for any female that is having trouble becoming pregnant,” Lyra explained, grinning sheepishly. 

“What about stallions?” Dinky asked, looking curious. 

“Earth pony stallions have a special gift. With, uh, prolonged contact during certain activities, earth pony males can make a female come into estrus at any time, during any season, just by repeatedly trying to make foals over and over,” Lyra said, grinning sheepishly and blushing. “This is why there are so many earth ponies. They’re gifted at making foals.” 

“Will Berry Punch help mommy make a foal?” Dinky asked, looking very serious and thoughtful. 

“I would say it is very likely,” Lyra replied. 

“So Piña has funny glands in her frogs. She’s ticklish in her frogs,” Dinky announced, her attention drifting someplace else. “That thing that makes pegasi have hard skin, is that why mommy doesn’t get hurt much when she crashes?” she asked, her attention drifting off to other places. 

“It helps. When pegasi sense a crash coming, those modified glands flood the body with the chemical it secretes to help pegasi brace for impact. 

“Neat,” Dinky replied. 



 

Bon Bon settled on the bed, laying close to Bucky, and touched him gently with her hoof. It had been difficult for Berry to lure Derpy out of the room, but Bon Bon wanted to work alone. Bucky seemed fairly lucid, was propped up on pillows, had a drink with a straw, and a fresh canister hooked to his feeding tube. 

“I want to talk with you, and I need you to be open with me,” Bon Bon said. “And you can call me Bonnie if you want,” she added. 

Bucky nodded. 

“Now, I don’t know why Princess Celestia seems to think I can help you, but she seemed very confident about it. I helped Lyra, I’m not sure how I helped Lyra, but Lyra was a very broken pony when I met her,” Bon Bon said as she settled in and got comfortable, within touching distance of Bucky. 

“What happened to Lyra?” Bucky asked. 

Bon Bon sighed. She knew she had Lyra’s permission to talk about anything, but it didn’t make it any easier. It made Bon Bon sad to think about Lyra’s broken days. 

“Lyra suffered a mental break. Nopony knows exactly what caused Lyra to suffer the mental break, but she arrived in Ponyville by train one day, and she was a very broken unicorn. She kept hearing sounds. Bells. Noises. She ranted and muttered to herself. And ponies avoided her and kept their distance. Seeing that she was alone and suffering, I went to help her,” Bon Bon said. 

“Why would you do that?” Bucky asked. “When nopony else did?” 

“We earth ponies have strong herd instincts. She was alone. Outside of the herd. She was vulnerable. And I couldn’t believe nopony had gone to help her. I took Lyra to the hospital, got her checked in, and Princess Celestia showed up not long after. She thanked me for finding her student, and was quite worried. She tried to help Lyra, and couldn’t do very much to fix what was wrong. But Lyra was broken and needed somepony to care for her, and Celestia asked me if I would be willing to help a fellow pony. I said that I would. Celestia asked me to write her letters about Lyra’s progress and about our friendship if we started to develop one,” Bon Bon said, smiling faintly, her eyes misting over. “I didn’t know that Lyra was going to become my best friend and the love of my life back then, she was so hurt. So broken. Celestia explained to me that Lyra had some issues, even back when she was a student.” 

“Celestia wants me to write letters as well about my emerging relationship with Derpy and Berry,” Bucky replied. “How odd. Celestia must like letters.” 

“Princess Celestia probably just wants to know that the ponies she loves are okay,” Bon Bon returned. 

“Of course,” Bucky answered, “do continue.” 

“Lyra was pretty messed up when I found her,” Bon Bon said, looking troubled. “She’d scream if you touched her. She’d cut herself sometimes. Nothing too bad, just bad enough to snap her out of these fugue like states. I didn’t give up though, I kept being nice to her and trying to touch her and let her know that a pony cared for her.” 

“I understand that actually, a little too well,” Bucky replied. 

“Celestia said you suffered a mental break. A bad one. And that you need ponies to love you and look after you, just like Lyra did if you want to get better. Do you want to get better?” Bon Bon asked. “I asked Lyra this a long time ago, back when she could barely talk. She broke down and cried and started begging ‘yes’ over and over.” 

“Yes, I am miserable the way I am,” Bucky admitted, finding it oddly easy to open up to Bon Bon. 

“Good, I want you to get better,” Bon Bon said, gently touching him with a hoof. 

“How do I change for the better and still hold back all this magic I have? How does Lyra do it? I don’t understand. Lyra seems almost normal now.” 

“Lyra practices regular magic use, keeps to her hobbies, and keeps me as the central focus in her life, pushing everything else to the side. She trusts me and talks to me. She tells me everything. Everything, even the really troubling things that scare me sometimes. And I never stop being her friend. I never judge her. I make sure that Lyra knows that she can tell me anything at all. It is a troubling relationship though. Lyra doesn’t function well on her own and needs me around a lot of the time. Lyra says she cannot really connect to the herd around her unless I am there with her,” Bon Bon said. 

“Wait, you are not with her now,” Bucky said, somewhat worried. 

“Only for a short time. She’ll be alright. She knows her limits and will come running to me if there is a problem or if she feels panicked.” Bon Bon replied. 

“What did you mean exactly by Lyra cannot connect to the herd without you?” Bucky asked, taking a sip of ice water after he spoke. 

“It is strange… but Lyra depends on me like a blind pony depends on a trusted friend. Lyra cannot connect to other ponies very well, and she cannot connect to the herd around her, but she can connect to me. So she depends on me to have that connection for her. It is tricky to explain,” Bon Bon said, her muzzle scrunching. 

“Actually, I think I understand,” Bucky sighed. “I’m blind too.” 

“Oh,” Bon Bon answered. 

“It’s funny, but without Berry Punch, I cannot seem to connect to anything. And now that you mention your situation with Lyra, I find this all very puzzling but familiar,” Bucky commented, sounding more than a little confused. 

“Do you love Derpy?” Bon Bon asked, her brow creasing. 

“Yes,” Bucky sighed. “I have so much trouble telling her that though. Or even getting myself to admit it… wait, why am I telling you this? I barely know you!” 

Bon Bon shrugged and soothed Bucky’s nerves with a gentle touch from her hoof, rubbing his ribs softly. 

“Same thing happens with Berry Punch, I just start blurting out stuff,” Bucky said, setting his head down upon his pillows and looking puzzled. 

Bon Bon gently laid a hoof on Bucky’s shoulder. “Maybe Berry Punch is your seeing eye pony, just like I am for Lyra,” she suggested. 

Bucky raised his head weakly and looked at Bon Bon, a thousand questions on his face, after a moment, he allowed his head to sink down to the pillows. 

“Do you love them both?” Bon Bon asked, her hoof still on Bucky’s shoulder. 

“So much so that I cannot express it,” Bucky confessed. “But for very different reasons between the two of them.” 

“That seems reasonable,” Bon Bon replied. “Tell me about it,” she asked. 

“I feel safe around Derpy. I don’t feel safe around Berry though. Berry scares me. She’s wild and unpredictable. But I think I like her because of that. When Derpy is around I don’t feel so cut off and threatened. I can relax my guard a little bit because I know she’s there watching over me. I find myself talking to Berry, saying things. Things I normally wouldn’t say. Berry says the most horrible things though, she actually made me faint earlier,” Bucky explained, looking pensive. 

“But you feel connected to Berry and understand Derpy better when Berry is around?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Yeah. Funny, when I met her, Berry offered to be a translator between Derpy and I. And she is.” Bucky admitted. 

“So the two of them are the dual contrasts you need?” Bon Bon asked. 

“What do you mean?” Bucky replied. 

“Chocolates taste a whole lot better sometimes with a big juicy sweet tart cherry inside of it. Contrasts. By themselves, they are nice, but together, something magical happens. You need something different that, by themselves, neither one could truly provide, but together, all of you form a satisfying whole,” Bon Bon said. 

“That seems reasonable,” Bucky stated. “So Berry allows me to connect to other ponies and Derpy allows me to feel safe around other ponies?” 

“Perhaps,” Bon Bon said, now smiling. “You've been hurt. Injured. Those parts of you that allow you to connect to other ponies might be broken. Or damaged. Just like it is for Lyra. But Lyra gets to reconnect to the herd through me. Takes a lot of work and effort on her part though. It requires constant communication with me, and the ability to be open.” 

“Berry says everything I wish I could say, but I am too afraid to do so,” Bucky confessed. “Just once, I wish I could be her and just let go just like she does. She’s fearless. And Derpy, she just grabs ponies and squeezes the horseapples out of them. She crushes them. She is so open with her affection, in ways I wish I could be. She’s so warm and the way that so many look to her for comfort. She’s needed… I want to be needed.” 

“So what is stopping you?” Bon Bon asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Me,” Bucky replied. “And everything that has made me what I am.”

“Not for much longer, those mares are going to rip you apart. You are getting involved with a Shetland Isles pony and a pegasus. Both of which are dangerous cantankerous critters when faced alone. But together? Lyra and I might as well go ahead and throw you a wake right now in fine Shetland tradition,” Bon Bon said, laughing loudly, a painfully familiar lilt coming to her voice as she spoke. 
	
> Chapter 34
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I have done as you have asked sister,” Luna said, staring off into the setting sun, preparing for her task. “I have looked after your troubled student and current project.” 

“And how is he?” Celestia replied, lowering the sun, yielding for Luna’s night. “Has the process gone well? Is there hope of recovery? Will he be happy?” 

“Which each sleep cycle, I break him a little bit more, slowly and carefully as you have asked. Each break so far has been clean and does not create schisms,” Luna answered, feeling the call of night taking ahold of her flesh. 

“Do you think he will heal? He is in near ideal conditions to do so, near as I can tell,” Celestia queried, her tone worried. “He is fortunate to have found ponies who are willing to carry him through this.” 

“Each break sees progress. The initial break during his encounter with Dinky Doo Hooves was quite traumatic, but opened the way, each break after has been much easier on his mind. He will get better, and we will restore him to those who care for him if I have my way,” Luna returned. “Still, the break he suffered protecting the foal, I worry that may never be fully healed, the best we can hope for is that he learns to draw strength from those around him.” 

“So, are you going to leave me to my fate with Twilight Sparkle? No doubt, she will wake soon. She was exhausted,” Celestia said. 

“Time for you to face the music sister, there is much for you to explain,” Luna said with a musical laugh. 

“Not soon, now!” 

“Twilight!” Celestia said in surprise, turning around and seeing Twilight in the door. Twilight had a terrible case of bedhead, she hadn’t bathed in a long while, and her eyes were still completely bloodshot. Twilight Sparkle looked awful. 

“You! I have words to say to you!” Twilight snarled. 

Celestia lowered her head, trying to reduce her posture to allow Twilight to calm. 

She was quite surprised when Twilight slapped her across the muzzle, once, then twice, and finally a third time, the third time knocking her crown from her head. Luna caught it before it hit the ground, but did not place it back on Celestia’s head. 

Celestia threw her head back, but said nothing, looking down, quite in shock. 

“You struck my sister,” Luna accused, her voice a monotone. 

“No, I swatted your sister, I corrected her, because I love her! I’ve been spending a little time with the pegasi!” Twilight growled. 

“I already know,” Celestia said. 

Twilight looked shocked for a moment and then deflated. Her back slumped, her wings sank down, and her head dropped. A low moan trembled in her throat. 

“Fillydelphia,” Celestia said, her tone low and full of sadness. 

Twilight nodded, looking quite disturbed, her lips moving but no words came forth. 

“It is a very long and complicated story Twilight, and the beginnings of it go back over one thousand years ago,” Celestia announced, looking sad and frustrated. 

“We are trying to fix that problem, but it is a complex problem to correct. It is getting better, but problems keep occurring and more corrections must be gently applied,” Luna said, staring at Twilight with wide eyes and a look of understanding upon her face. 

“A mother lost her foal!” Twilight cried. “That’s more than a problem!” 

“We agree. Which is why we are trying to fix it,” Luna replied. “But first, you should know how the problem started and why the problem still exists.” 

The two sisters carefully began to weave a sordid tale, explaining how Princess Luna’s banishment led up to the problems that Fillydelphia was having currently in the modern day. They spoke of Luna’s desire to take orphans from the many wars that founded Equestria and start a new colony, Luna’s fall, they spoke of war, of curses, of black magic left behind by Nightmare Moon, a shadow government that had endured for almost one thousand years that held loyalty to Nightmare Moon and awaited her return, influencing things in the background and working against Celestia, and with each word they spoke, everything Twilight Sparkle thought she knew about Equestria died just a little bit more as the bigger picture began to be revealed.

At the end of it all, Celestia, also part pegasus, gently booped Twilight on the nose, once, twice, three times, to gently correct the troubled alicorn now that she had seen the unpleasant truth. 



 

Bucky awoke, hearing birds, realising dawn was taking place. He was squished between two ponies, feeling very warm and secure. His stomach rumbled painfully. His mind was teased with hint of troubled dreams, but he couldn’t remember what they were. He tried to recall them, some vague sense of horror and panic about something unknown. 

He gently prodded Berry Punch, who woke slightly, took one look at him, and then rolled over to connect a fresh canister to his feeding tube. After she was done, she rolled back over and pressed her nose up against him, going back to a drowsing state of bliss. 

With a bothersome sense of discomfort, Bucky realised his neck was wet, sticky, oily, and waxy with pegasus drool. 

Derpy began to stir next to him, squirming a bit, rolling over, kicking her legs out over the edge of the bed, and stretching, arching her back and producing an alarming number of crackles. She farted loudly from the strain, which caused her to giggle. Her tail twitched and swished, the dock hidden within the hairs thudding on the mattress. 

“Guh!” Bucky gasped, catching a whiff of the pegasus, who had just fanned everything around. 

“I got brownies in the oven, I gotta go,” Derpy announced, struggling to get out of bed, the strain causing a tuba like blast as she worked to get on her hooves. “Oh goodness!” 

“Mmm, just imagine the feeling of that razzing over your tongue,” Berry said, only half awake, causing Bucky to gag. 

Bucky was not sure what to do with Berry Punch. 

“If you ever go into the Backdoor Brownie Bakery never use pegasus spit for lube,” Berry warned, her eyes closed, her words slurred as she was still only half awake. “Trust me, I know, it is designed to stick to feathers and shed moisture.” 

“Hrrk!” Bucky horked, coughed, and felt a painful constriction in his barrel. 

A powerful blast echoed in the next room over. 

“Derpy is bowl busting the thundermug,” Berry mumbled, pressing her face into Bucky and smacking her lips from morning mouth. 

“Hnng!” Bucky groaned, just knowing that Derpy had left him in the bed all alone with Berry on purpose. 

Berry rolled over on her back, rubbing her back on the sheets, wiggling around, and then she reached down between her legs and started to scratch. “I has me a bad case of morning knob,” she muttered. Her scratching filled the room with odd noises, somewhat arousing noises, not that Bucky would ever admit that. He was shocked that he was thinking about it so openly though. 

Berry pulled both of her hind legs up to her chest, displaying her flexibility, causing her backside to take on the most pleasant curved appearance. She hugged her hind legs to her barrel, making her hips pop loudly. 

After her stretching, Berry sat up and studied Bucky’s horn. She made concerned sounds, vocalisations in her throat, looking this way and that, using her “Berry-Serious” face as she studied him. 

“The crack is noticeably smaller. Wow,” the concerned mare said. “I bet you need to go, let’s take care of that, shall we?” 



 

The door opened with a click of the latch and a single push. Berry did not know what to expect. Bucky’s apartment was… something. There were things inside, and these things suggested life, but nothing actually looked like somepony lived here. The inside was cold and sterile. She pushed her way inside, stood in the center, and looked around. 

There were some records sitting on a rack, all of them old looking, and one sitting on the hi-fi phonograph. Using her hoof, Berry cranked the phonograph, turning the handle several times, and then allowed the record to play. 

Berry was actually surprised to hear the sort of music she did. It was something mournful and sad, full of emotion, she couldn’t quite make out what it was, but there was a banjo, a violin, and a trumpet or something. The music was strange but somehow appropriate for Bucky. It added a surprising new level of depth for his character. 

There were no words in the song being played. 

Of course not Berry thought to herself. Hearing another voice would indicate need. 

On the counter, there was exactly one bowl, one plate, one fork, a spoon, a glass, and a teacup. Nothing at all to indicate a way to serve guests. 

Berry felt a profound sense of sadness welling up within herself. 

She moved nearer to the bookshelf, most of the books were of the self-help variety, Dull stuffy sorts of books. Even the books were lifeless and were far too painful of a reflection of Bucky’s inner nature. 

“Cultivating Solitude, a Unicorn’s Guide to the Problems of Society,” the lone mare read to herself, her voice reaching nopony in particular. “Hmmph,” she huffed. She pulled the book free from the shelf, looking at the cover, scowling a horrible scowl. “Now with bonus content on the earth pony dilemma,” she muttered to herself. “Well damnit, this book did him no good,” she groused. She stuffed the book back into the shelf and moved on, her eyes darting around the room. 

She moved over to the bed in the corner, and there was a small bedside table with a drawer. Not feeling at all guilty, she pulled the drawer open and looked inside, not sure what she would find. She knew one thing she wouldn’t find… Condoms. 

“Yep, none of those,” she agreed, rummaging around inside. Just an address book. She flipped that open and began to look, noting that only two pages were in use, and on each page there was one entry. One was for Bucky’s parents. On the other page, the next page over, sitting side by side with the first page, were the words “you can’t go home again,” 

A quiet seething rage slowly overtook the plum coloured earth pony, she began to tremble and an unusual red haze filled her vision. This entire apartment represented everything wrong with the pony that she loved, and she was looking at the home addresses of those most responsible for doing him the most harm. 

Berry did not repress her rage, instead, she focused it into motivation, carefully she began to pack things up and place them into boxes she had brought. 

On a shelf on the wall, in a small frame, she saw a photograph of a young colt. She realised it was Bucky. It was a school photo, it had to be, he was standing by a stone wall, looking well groomed, caught from an off angle, and he looked rather self-conscious about having his picture taken. There was another photo of a train set and a Hearth’s Warming tree. It seemed odd. There were no foals in the picture. 

The pantry was sparse, with little left inside, lots of bland lifeless food that was eaten for sustenance, but not for living. The only thing that showed any pleasure taken in life was a container of black licorice drops, and those were just nasty Berry concluded, after trying one. Even his candy was full of self-torture and self-loathing. 

Berry moved swiftly around the room, finding a number of things already packed, and she realised that Bucky had never fully unpacked on moving in. The boxes were covered in dust. She moved them to the center of the room, where a stack was forming, pressing them along using her head. 

Berry wanted very much to be out of this place, she did not like it here. It was dull and lifeless, and something oppressive hung in the air. As she continued her task, a plan began to form in the back of her mind. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 35
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ponyville, city of disasters. Not too long ago, a magically enchanted foal had nearly caused the town to come apart, causing a massive stampede, forcing one unicorn to go to extraordinary measures to keep a foal safe. It had been, for all intents and purposes, a disaster by any measurable scale. 

And the inhabitants seemed completely unphased by it now a few days later. Already, the herd was correcting, making adjustments, individual ponies acting in unison as one larger organism. Ponyville had an unusual herd structure, having all three tribes living together in close proximity, and it made them unusually resilient. 

It was through this town that Berry Punch walked, her head held high. She loved this community, and all that came with it. Anypony or anyone could be accepted here, if they were open and decent. They even allowed Shetland Isles ponies to settle here, something most communities were hesitant to do. 

“Ma’am!” a pony cried, moving in closer to her, his pace somewhere between a trot and a canter. “Message for you from Mister Rich,” he panted. 

Berry stopped and turned towards the messenger pony, smiling at him, trying to push aside all of her harsh feelings from earlier, when she had been in Bucky’s apartment. 

“Ma’am, Mister Rich has considered your proposal, he has personally been out to examine the site, and he has agreed to your proposal with a few caveats,” the runner announced. 

“And those are?” Berry asked, her mood now greatly improving. 

“Mister Rich wants some assurance that Buckminster Bitters will keep teaching. Mister Rich and his investors are very impressed with Mister Bitters recent activities in keeping a foal from harm, and want somepony with that kind of dedication heading the school. Mister Rich has already sent proposals to the Crown. Mister Rich also wants access to top students, the cream of the crop so to speak, for upcoming projects involving community improvement and development of Ponyville. Mister Rich has a vision to make Ponyville a place of learning and education for all ponies, earning Ponyville a place on the map,” the runner answered, somewhat breathlessly. 

“I’ll need to talk to Bucky of course, but I cannot imagine any reason why he would disagree to this proposal. I’ll be in touch with a reply soonish,” Berry responded, feeling a warm blossom of pride blooming in her barrel. 

“I’ve never seen Mister Rich this tenacious about anything,” the runner said, panting slightly. “He barely sleeps now. He is working through the day and most the night. He’s become a very different pony as of late.” 

“I think a number of ponies have been changed recently,” Berry replied, nodding her head in agreement. 

“But when I say Mister Rich has changed, I mean Mister Rich has changed. He is no longer the pony who hired me. He’s going out of his way to be nice to other ponies. He’s raised my pay. He actually spends time with us now, getting to know us. He’s weird,” the runner confessed, looking around him as he spoke. 

Berry nodded and laughed, thinking to herself about another pony who was changing slowly. And a certain grey mare, who was also going through profound changes. 

Berry of course, knew that she was as constant and unchanging as the stones and the soil that she walked on. 

“I have to be going!” the runner exclaimed, taking off at a run. 

Berry resumed her walk and headed off to her place of business, with a mind for a new product name. “Farting Filly Ale.” 





Derpy sat in a warm patch of grass, watching her foals play. Sparkler was currently buried under Dinky and Piña’s assaults, pinned to the grass, laughing and promising revenge. Not too far away from Derpy sat Rising Star, who watched the action taking place with a subdued smile. 

Lyra sat nearby, strumming a melody from her lyre, something that seemed sad and happy at the same time. Lyra was alone, Bon Bon was upstairs once again with Bucky. 

Even with her reduced visual acuity, Derpy could not help but notice the glances being exchanged between Sparkler and Rising Star. Sparkler kept looking at the colt, and then immediately looking away when she saw him watching her. 

The mother mare rose, took a few steps, and then sat down beside Rising Star, wrapping a wing around him and leaning in close. “You really like her, don’t you?” the pegasus mare asked. 

“Very much so,” Rising Star admitted. 

“I am about to talk to you as her mother,” Derpy warned. “And I am not one for lots of words.” 

Rising Star gulped and he felt the wing around him squeeze tighter. 

“If you treat her well, I will treat you as family. You will be loved and accepted and the flock will call you its own,” Derpy said in a soft whisper. “But if you make her cry, if you break her heart, or if you take from her her dream of going to university, I will drop you from the stratosphere and then follow you down so I can lecture you about how to treat a filly before you die. That’s about forty miles straight up. We’ll have time for me to have my say.” 

Rising Star nodded, his eyes as wide as dinner plates, his ears hanging down alongside his face. His heart thudded as Derpy gently kissed him on the cheek, and gave him one final squeeze with her wing. 

And then, she let go and scooted away, giving Rising Star some much needed breathing space. As Rising Star sat there, trying to compose himself, he thought about the name of his next poem. ”Stratospheric Plunge” seemed really edgy and deep. Just like the crater he would make if he upset the mother pegasus. And then there was the unicorn upstairs, who no doubt would be a bit peeved if the pegasus became upset. Rising Star shuddered. Ponyville just had a recent display of a type three really letting go, and there was no way that Rising Star wanted that kind of fury turned on him. Peeved type threes were bad news. Rising Star wondered what he was getting himself into. 

Derpy studied the thoughtful looking unicorn, watching him carefully. She doubted she would ever have to drop him from the stratosphere. Rising Star seemed like a good sort. 

Dinky’s father had also seemed like a good sort as well Derpy recalled. 



 

Celestia carefully considered her ponies. Most were good, some were very good, and a small minority were not quite as good as they could be. She had hope in the good ones, placed her faith in the very good ones, and worked to help the ones who were not living up to their potential. Celestia had a hard time believing there were truly bad ponies. There were just ponies who needed a little help to see their potential and get better. But she knew that she couldn’t save them all. 

It had been a relief to tell Twilight more of the whole truth, but she had not revealed all of the truth. There were still parts that even Celestia did not know, and some things Celestia still kept to herself. 

Thankfully, the worst was over and Equestria now saw peace. All of the horrible strife that had nearly torn the country apart from within was now ever, hopefully gone forever, wars between houses were now history lessons of the past. 

Celestia wondered briefly about why so many of her students found themselves in Ponyville. Coincidence? Sheer luck? She did not know, but it intrigued her. Lyra had appeared there after vanishing, broken and unwell. Buckminster had moved there after graduation. Trixie Lulamoon had been there a few times and had caused some mischief. There were many others, but it was the problematic unicorns that Celestia had the most concern over. Like Trixie.

Trixie was a unicorn in need of help, and Celestia hoped that somepony would help her. Trixie needed to settle in Ponyville. 

Even Discord, the Herald of Chaos, had been reformed in Ponyville. 

Celestia felt anxious, hoping that the first reports from Lyra and Bon Bon would arrive soon, agents of observation to help her assess the herd status that seemed to be rapidly forming. 

Celestia felt an odd mix of apprehension and hope. As each day passed, she became a little more open minded about the restoration of herd marriage. Cadance would arrive soon, and Celestia was eager for her arrival. There was a lot to talk about with Cadance. 



 

“I still don’t know why I am telling you these things,” Bucky said, his head on a pile of pillows, his eyes half closed. 

Bon Bon gently reached over and stroked his ribs with a hoof. “Because you want to get better dear,” she explained. 

As she touched him, the glands in her frogs released a chemical that reacted with Bucky’s skin, causing him to release a flood of chemicals in his brain that made him feel better, a careful blend of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, a flood of endorphins, and finally, what can only be scientifically measured as a bucketful of prolactin, which counteracts the sexual stimulation caused by dopamine, and leaves behind the powerful feeling of euphoria usually felt after sexual intercourse. With every touch, Bon Bon was drugging Bucky into a stronger and greater state of trust and relaxation, flooding his brain with bonding chemicals that made him trust her, and calming his anxiety. Bon Bon did not know that she was at the evolutionary peak of what her kind was capable of. She did not know that she was a super producer, a walking pharmaceutical factory that took the form of a pony. An earth pony. Others of her kind also had this effect, but it was greatly reduced. 

Bon Bon had no idea that Lyra was addicted to her and could not function without regular re-applications of chemicals that Lyra needed to balance out, be happy, and survive. Bon Bon had no idea that the candies that she so carefully created, many mixed with her own hooves were also agents of powerful altered states that calmed and soothed so many of the ponies all around her, in much the same way that Berry Punch had accidentally dosed everypony around her with hoof pressed dumpling dough. Berry Punch was also a powerful producer, though not at Bon Bon’s level of output. Pinkie Pie, another super producer, was also responsible for keeping most of Ponyville on even keel after leaving behind traces of various triggering chemicals in her many treats and goodies. Aloe and Lotus, the ponies who owned the spa, were also powerful producers who did their part to keep the town happy. 

The trace amounts were enough to help stabilise mood, but direct contact was enough to powerfully affect even the most muddled ponies, like Bucky or Lyra, or any number of other troubled minds. 

The other two tribes had no idea that they owed their survival to the earth ponies, or what the earth ponies did for them through contact with their food and day to day gentle touching. 

“I do want to get better,” Bucky agreed, feeling strangely calm. 

“So then, back to the subject at hoof, what is it that you find attractive about those two mares? You need to tell them someday, you might as well practice with me,” Bon Bon said in soothing tones. 

“This is very embarrassing,” Bucky admitted, “I’m supposed to be above noticing physical details.” 

“Pish posh,” Bon Bon retorted. “You’re a stallion. You are allowed to have needs. It isn’t that embarrassing.” As she spoke, Bon Bon, being the gentle sort she was, gave him a reassuring rub. 

“With Derpy, it is everything. She’s like a stormcloud. She’s beautiful to look at. Her wings. I like her wings. Her grey with a faint hint of blue colour. And I love the colour of her mane. Or the way her nostrils flare when she’s excited. The way her muscles move under her well-toned pelt. And I love her eyes. I don’t care what other ponies think,” Bucky confessed, his tone almost drowsy. “And the way her hips sway when she walks… Part of me just wants to bury myself in her and make foals,” Bucky said, closing his eyes and cringing, not believing the words that had just come out of his mouth. He could not believe he was admitting such a base bestial need. 

“Good, good,” Bon Bon said, blushing only slightly. “What about Berry?” 

“I don’t know that I find Berry all that physically attractive,” Bucky admitted. 

“Surely you must find something that is appealing about her body,” Bon Bon said incredulously. 

“Oh, she’s pretty, no doubt, but she is my nemesis. My foil. She is my mental counter. I hate to admit it, but I think Berry might be smarter than I am. That bothers me. Frustrates me. And I think it turns me on,” Bucky said, completely in awe that these words were coming out of his mouth. “I want to slip her the pony making bone for very different reasons…” Bucky whimpered when he heard the words escaping his lips and immediately wanted to die. 

Bon Bon blushed, turning a wonderful shade of mauve. “Oh my, pony making bone, I haven’t heard that one before. So… you want to, uh, have you way with Berry to establish some dominance perhaps? Tame the wild Shetland Isles pony?” 

“Maybe,” Bucky admitted. “Maybe I just want to reduce us both to the levels of dumb beasts where we have dirty animal rutting and there is no talking, no intellectual discourse, and I am finally on even hoofing with her.” Bucky gasped as he spoke, his own honesty completely flummoxing him. 

Bon Bon burst into laughter and gave Bucky a gentle prod. “Good luck with that, Berry will always have something to say, especially if she has a pony making bone being rammed into her plot.” 
	
> Chapter 36
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Several days had passed, and many things were getting better. Bucky’s horn was mending quickly, the crack nearly sealed now. Food was actually staying in his stomach for a while, and his near starvation seemed at an end. 

The sessions with Bon Bon seemed to be having a noticeable effect, but nopony knew the whole truth, that it was the sessions with Bon Bon and the carefully introduced mental breaks being caused by Luna on a nightly basis. Bucky was being rebuilt brick by brick. Luna believed that her breaks were perfect, successful in every way, but Luna had no idea that her breaks were being chemically assisted by Bon Bon’s careful touch. 

And so it happened that on one bright and promising morning, Derpy Doo Hooves woke up with an interesting visitor in the bed, poking her tail, and prodding her dock. She wiggled and moved her backside, intrigued by what she felt, and then, it moved. 

Bucky awoke quite suddenly, feeling something silky soft and inviting rubbing up against something. Only partially awake, and thinking he was dreaming, he gave an experimental prod. 

“My brownie oven!” Derpy cried, leaping very suddenly out of the bed. 

Bucky awoke, realising suddenly what had just taken place. There hadn’t been actual penetration, but there had been a friendly knock at the backdoor. He kept his eyes closed, now squeezed shut, and cringed. 

“What?” Berry snorted, now awake, sitting up, looking alarmed. 

Derpy stood beside the bed, her wings fluffed out and a crazed look on her face. “I finally felt a friendly poke back there and it scared me, it has been so long,” she said, laughing. 

Bucky did not reply, but groaned. 

Berry, scowled. “I didn’t get poked.” Berry, never one to leave anything alone, rolled Bucky over onto his back, easily overpowering him. 

She whistled. 

“Would you look at that,” she said, still groggy from waking up. “He’s hung like a barrel. Not much length, but my goodness Derpy, would you look at that girth!” 

Derpy turned and cocked her good eye on the squirming and exposed Bucky. “Oh… Ooooh!” 

Sparkler came crashing into the room a moment later. “I heard a cry… OH EGADS, I AM BLIND!” she cried as she backed out of the room and slammed the door. 

“I want to die,” Bucky announced in a firm monotone. 

“No,” Berry said. “I am Berry needful.” 

After having a good laugh at Sparkler’s expense, Derpy had crawled up in the bed and was examining the prone and supine unicorn. “That’s a little big to be stuffing into the ol’ brownie oven,” Derpy remarked. “You should always warn a mare before dropping into the bakery unannounced. I darn near dropped some brownies bedside.” 

“I cannot believe this is happening,” Bucky whimpered. 

“Well, I showed you mine, it is only fair,” Berry said, looking down her muzzle at Bucky, grinning groggily. 

“And here is mine!” Derpy said, standing up and turning around on the bed. She flipped up her tail, splayed out her legs a bit, and presented. 

That is an unusual shade of blue Bucky thought to himself, and then his brain revolted and tried to shut down everything. 

“You don’t see a shade of blue like that often,” Berry commented, screwing on a fresh canister to the feeding tube and flipping the valve. “Kind of a blue purple grey. Like a sunset behind thunderclouds.” 

Very much against his will, Bucky found himself nodding. 

“Dinky squirted out of there, so you should be okay stuffing your caber into that,” Berry said, her eyes darting first from Bucky and then to Derpy. 

Derpy turned around and eased herself down on the bed, smiling. She didn’t stay long. After a moment, she took off to use the bathroom. 

“What a shame, look, the wee beastie is going back into his cave,” Berry said, using her “Berry-Disappointed” face and prodding Bucky’s side with a hoof. 

Very much against his will, Bucky laughed, a nervous laugh that came out hesitantly and unsteadily. 

Berry stared down at the unicorn that she felt such strong feelings for. “You know Buckminster,” Berry said, using his full name, “it is difficult to imagine life without those you love, this is why ponies tend to forgive certain ponies that make mistakes so easily. If I ever make a mistake, or do something foolish, I really hope that you will forgive me.” 

“After everything you have done for me, how could I not?” Bucky asked. 

“It isn’t a matter of obligation dear Bucky, you don’t owe me. I chose to do this,” Berry said, leaning down and giving a soft kiss on the good side of Bucky’s face. “You make my best friend happy and you look after Piña, you wouldn’t believe how often Piña is a deal breaker for a lot of my potential dates. It is why I stopped having meaningless nookie when I was out on a date… I wanted to see who was actually interested in me. It has been darn near a year since I’ve had my itch scratched. Once I stopped giving it away, and started looking for something serious, the long line of those interested dried right up. I am in an unnatural state of celibacy and it must end soon.” 

Bucky nodded, saying nothing, but he did look Berry directly in the eye. 

“Let’s take care of your needs, and then I need to go downstairs and help out a bit,” Berry said, smiling warmly. 



 

Berry had gone to take the foals to school. Sparkler had left the house as well, off to school, completely mortified. 

Bucky and Derpy were alone, Lyra and Bon Bon had gone to school with the foals. The unicorn and the pegasus were having a long conversation, but no words were being spoken. There was a great deal being said, with lots of nuzzling, stroking, gentle caresses, and soft squeezes. 

The pegasus was quite beside herself, not knowing how to act. She was behaving like a school filly almost. She made little happy nickers, wickers, and the occasional whinny. She made no attempt to deny that she was a happy animal, and she made happy animal noises. 

Which really inflamed Bucky’s passion, much to his surprise. 

While he was in no state to actually do much of anything, and his morning wood had been only partially hard at best, he found that he took a perverse delight in seeing what made the pegasus squeal with gentle prodding of his hooves. 

It was a not so innocent exploration of each other’s bodies and finding out what made each of them react. Bucky was hesitant and shy, but he was slowly overcoming his own reluctance. 

More importantly, the mare was learning to trust again after being hurt so badly. Desperate for affection, needing physical contact, and finally getting it from somepony she truly trusted. While Berry had been ‘Berry affectionate’, Derpy wanted foals… and desired contact from somepony that could provide them. 

It was in this environment that the timid pegasus mare finally opened her heart and took wing in a metaphorical sense. 

“Bucky?” Derpy said, breaking the long wordless silence. 

“Yes?” Bucky replied, his mind racing and his body feeling fatigue. 

“I want to ask you a question,” the mare asked, suddenly very afraid. 

“Go right ahead,” Bucky replied, wondering what was on the mare’s mind. 

“Do you want to be a father?” the concerned mare inquired, her heart now beating in her throat, and her eyes now close as she rested her head on Bucky’s neck, her wings suddenly very still. 

“I don’t know how, but I’d like to learn,” Bucky replied, suddenly very afraid. 

“Well, you start by loving a pair of mares and earning their trust,” she began. “The next part is pretty easy. You let the mares have their way with you, they’ll know what to do. After that, you wait,” she continued. “After waiting almost a year or so, you’ll be a father. The only thing to remember at that point is make sure one end is fed and the other end is wiped regularly. That’s it. Everything else you learn along the way,” she finished. 

“Seems like there should be more to it than that,” Bucky answered, looking thoughtful and rubbing the mare next to him. 

“Oh, there is. But that is why you keep having them until you learn all there is to know,” Derpy explained, her tone patient. 

“I see. Fascinating,” Bucky replied. 

“I learned some very important lessons with Dinky,” Derpy quipped. 

“Like what?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, important lessons! Like never feed a baby foal seven bean chili, no matter how much they might like it. That’s a bad idea. If a foal drinks bubble bath, it won’t kill them, but you might wish that you were dead. Never, under any circumstances, do you allow Berry to give a foal coffee to ‘warm them up’ no matter how cold it might be. She can be Berry bad sometimes, that Berry Punch. The numbers on the packages of diapers indicates the baby’s weight, not how many pounds of poop a diaper might hold. I learned that the hard way. Never try to hold and comfort a foal that has the combined symptoms of diarrhoea, sneezing, and cough,” Derpy said, going through the list of things she had learned. 

“Oh dear,” Bucky whispered. 

“Oh, and foals get runny noses a lot. They wipe their noses on you. I think it means they like you,” Derpy added. 

“A rational part of my mind says that I should be screaming in terror,” Bucky deadpanned. “But my rationality took grievous injury that day that most of the city of Ponyville decided to chase me. I hope that nopony was declaring intentions, otherwise I’ll have the largest herd in history.” 

Derpy giggled and pressed her nose against Bucky’s neck affectionately. “Can I ask you a very personal question?” she queried, nosing him gently as she did so. 

“I suppose,” Bucky answered. 

“I know you haven’t been with a mare, but have you ever, well, you know, got off somehow?” the curious pegasus asked. 

“No,” replied the very embarrassed unicorn. 

“Never?” Derpy said. 

“Not once. I thought about it once. It made me hyperventilate,” Bucky confessed in a low whisper. 

“I don’t get too many moments alone, but when I do, usually in the tub, I try to rub one out. I can’t imagine living without some kind of release,” Derpy said, her voice nearly overtaken by giggles. “I’m still very young, and I have needs.” 

“I…” Bucky started, and then failed. 

“Sparkler caught me doing it one time when she barged into the bathroom. She was really nice about it, gave me tips. We talked about being mares,” Derpy said, reminiscing. “She was right about one thing, sticking your filly bits directly under the water faucet and letting hot water run on them feels really good.” 

“You…” gasped Bucky, and then he fell silent. 

“I once rubbed one out while thinking about Berry Punch, just to get an idea of what it might be like. I’ve never told her. I think I will though. She isn’t the only one who can be Berry naughty,” Derpy admitted. 

“She….” Bucky mumbled, his words trailing off. 

“Sometimes, even though it makes my wings really messy, I like to tickle my jelly bean with my feather tips. Causes the nicest shudders,” Derpy said, her words open and honest and exposing her deepest secrets. 


“Jelly bean….” Bucky repeated, still befuddled. 

“I have a really big jelly bean actually. I’m kind of self-conscious about it. It peeks out a bit down there sometimes when I am excited and my tail hairs brush up against it and it has almost caused me to crash a few times,” Derpy remarked after hearing Bucky say “jelly bean.” 

“Peeks out…” Bucky said with a gasp and then struggling to breathe. 

“Yeah, it does. It is a very big jelly bean and really easy to find. It is really awkward. I also have a big plot for a pegasus, it makes me feel funny when I compare myself to others. My hips got spread out so wide when I was young so I could give birth and now I have these wide hips and a big plot,” Derpy said, sounding very timid and afraid, her voice filled with real worry. 

“I… I, uh, oh damnit, I really like your big backside!” Bucky blurted, struggling to get the words out. 

“What?” Derpy said in a tiny whisper. 

“I like your big backside. You have no idea what I want to do with it,” Bucky admitted, his own voice becoming very quiet. 

“Oh,” the grey mare replied, still sounding a little insecure. 

“I can’t believe you’d think you’re not pretty, I mean, you’re beautiful,” Bucky whispered. “And I feel really funny saying that knowing you’ve heard it before from another that hurt you and I am so afraid of hurting you so I am too afraid to say it knowing that you might take it wrong or it might bring up bad memories and I just don’t know what to do!” 

“I need to be held,” the pegasus begged, sniffling, and falling silent. 

Unable to to do much else, Bucky allowed the mare to cling to him. 
	
> Chapter 37
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A plum coloured earth pony sat at the train station, waiting. Barley O’Blivion was due on the next train in. The cantankerous old unicorn would be good to see again. Berry truly missed him and his wisdom. Truth be told, Berry wanted him around as she began her family. Foals always needed a history lesson or two that was worth listening to. 

He was obnoxious, he always had a hoof for some foal to pull, and he was family. You did anything for family. Barley had been there when Dinky had been born, and had helped out quite a bit. Barley had been there each time when Berry’s parents had died. And now, he was coming back to Ponyville to stay, to spend his final years in the place that he loved. 

He claimed that the damp of Vanhoover made his gnarled old bones ache. 

A faint whistle indicated the train was coming, and Berry waited, prancing around on her hooves impatiently. She was behaving almost like a filly, wanting to see her dear uncle, take him home, and introduce him to Bucky… because really, she wanted his approval. Not that she needed it, she just wanted to follow family tradition. Something her siblings had broken away from. 

There was also the fact that Barley was a hoot. A real hoot. Berry needed a companion with a mind for mayhem. 

At last, the train pulled into the station, steam rising from the engine, the smell of burning coal leaving a tang in Berry’s nose. 

She didn’t have to wait long. Being somewhat elderly, he was one of the first off of the train, and he came down the stairs slowly but with grace and dignity. He was older than Berry remembered, his once white pelt now yellowed into ivory colour with age, and his once fiery orange mane and tail was now an iron shade of grey. He moved towards her, picking up his pace a little, until Berry could take it no longer and ran forward to hug him, nearly crushing him, causing his spine to crackle. 

He was quite grateful for the spinal crackle, it worked loose a few bad kinks from sitting on the train. 

“You look well lass,” Barley said, looking Berry up and down. “Now, tell me you’ve had some foals. A mare your age, there should be foals. This is shameful behaviour. And foals are so much fun to make.” 

“Funny you should mention that. No foals yet, but I’ve met their father,” Berry confessed, blushing. 

“Oh, have you now?” Barley said, raising an eyebrow. 

“Yes. I have. I have found a nice fella to settle down with, and Derpy and I are forming a nice little herd,” Berry said, blushing even more and giggling. She had gone from being a mature mare to a secondary school filly. Or maybe even a primary school filly. 

“Oh… you were always the good one Berry, respecting the old ways, listening to your history, doing what is right,” Barley praised. “How is Piña? I’ve missed that filly. How is Miss Hooves? How is wee Dinky?” 

“Fine, fine, where is your stuff?” Berry asked, looking around. 

“I have nothing. What few things I had left, I gave away. I can’t take stuff with me when I go. And I don’t plan to go for a while, but I didn’t see a need to haul a trunk cross country at my age.” Barley said, coughing slightly. 

“Well then, let’s go home,” Berry said. “We’ll talk. Up for the walk?” 

“Yeah,” Barley said. 

Berry began to walk home to Derpy’s house, leading the old unicorn along behind her. He fell in step, still spry even with knobby knees, looking around and seeing how Ponyville had changed. 

“Before we get home, there is something you need to know,” Berry said, in her Berry worried voice. 

“Eh, what’s that?” Barley asked. 

“The stallion I’ve found, the unicorn that I love, he is a son of House Avarice,” Berry said, cringing and biting her lip after saying it. 

“Oh damnit Berry, what are you thinking you empty headed numpty!” Barley snapped, suddenly sounding very grouchy. 

“He’s a good find, trust me, I give you my word. He’s a little broken right now, but I love him and that’s final, and I don’t give two horseapples and a tinker’s damn what you think!” Berry retorted. Except, she did care about what her uncle thought. 

As they walked home, Berry told her uncle everything that had happened recently, leading up to Bucky keeping Dinky safe and his recovery. 



 

Alone in the bed, Bucky lay listening to the voices downstairs. Joyous shouts, the sounds of ponies talking, Derpy and Berry both laughing. The foals were still in school. Some pony had come to visit. After a while, he heard hooves on the stairs, many hooves, Derpy and Berry were coming upstairs and were bringing the visitor. 

The door slowly pushed open and Bucky saw an older unicorn, ivory coloured, studying him with piercing eyes. Derpy shoved her way into the room, jumped up into the bed, and lay down beside him, her head on his withers. 

Always protective. 

“I done heard about what you did laddie,” the old unicorn said. “I’m Barley O’Blivion and I hear you’re courting my beautiful wee Berry.” 

Bucky nodded, not sure what to say. 

“I also hear you’re a son of House Avarice. I suppose that can be forgiven, Berry seems awfully insistent and sweet on ya, and I never could tell her no. What is a sorry sot like you courting two mares like these? Are ye daft?” as the old unicorn spoke, a familiar lilt crept into his voice. “I want enough foals to surround my bedside so I can die proper, stop wasting time fiddling around ye lump.” 

Bucky groaned. There were now two of them. 

“I understand that you need your rest. I’ll leave you in the care of yon pegasus mare. I love her a great deal, she’ll treat you well if you treat her well. We’ll talk more later,” Barley said, bowing his head slightly and exiting the room. 

Berry looked almost beside herself, prancing around and acting like a filly. She crossed the room in a bound, jumping onto the bed, planted wet sloppy kiss on Derpy’s lips, and then planted a wet oily waxy kiss on Bucky’s. 

After staring at them both for a moment, she lept from the bed and was out the door again, giggling like a school filly. 

“She is going to be totally unbearable,” Bucky said in a panicked whisper. 

“Aw, she’s sweet. And she slipped me the tongue,” Derpy said, licking her lips and making a happy sounding grunt. 

“Me too,” Bucky said, heaving a contented sigh.



 

“Berry, my dear sweet little filly Berry, have you actually thought this through?” Barley asked. 

“I thought you were alright with this?” Berry said, taken aback and slightly angry, taking a big breath and getting ready to tell her uncle off. 

“I’m alright with him,” Barley said, cutting her off. Berry deflated visibly. “What of the foals ye daft lass? What if the foals are wee little unicorns and House Avarice sets its greedy eyes on them and does their dirty little tricks to try and claim them? What if they’re powerful wee little unicorns… you think those plotholes will ignore those potential assets? I’ve seen it happen lass, those Canterlot unicorns make the damn laws, and they take whatever they damn well feel like,” Barley said, looking quite angry and a tremor had taken over one leg. 

“But,” Berry said, looking confused and angry. 

“But nothing lass, you look at what they did to their own son, lying upstairs in yon bed. You said with your own lips they broke him. You want that shadow looming over your own foals? What sorta horrible parents does what was done to that poor soul up there? His eyes look bloody haunted! And all of the things you’ve told me, which I am sure isn’t everything. Protect what you claim Berry Punch, daughter of Clan Pickled,” Barley said. 

“I had planned on paying them a visit actually, his parents. To clear the air and give them a piece of my mind,” Berry whispered in low tones, not wanting anypony else to hear. 

“You give them a bloody message that Clan Pickled sends their regards and to keep their bloody hooves off of our foals! Those smarmy bastards TOOK OUR FOALS!” the old stallion growled. “After that little misunderstanding that had our home taken and saw us banished to that forsaken rock in the ocean, they came and stole what was rightfully ours. Never relax your guard, oh ye daughter of Shetland.” 

Berry nodded respectfully to her uncle, bowing her head slightly. 

“Now you be a good wife for him and you do what is right for your foals. I know you’re one of those fancy feminists and you got those uppity values in university. You put those to work lass. You are obligated to protect both of them ponies upstairs. Never forget who and what you are lass,” Barley said. 

“I remember who I am, why do you think I am committing to this?” Berry said in strangled voice. 

“Good lass,” Barley said. “I meant what I said, I want enough foals to surround my bed so I can die proper.” 

“Yes uncle, of course,” Berry said, nodding, her eyes somewhat teary. 

“And one of those foals is to take on my name. I don’t care which little type you squirt out, unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony, one of them is to have one of my names,” Barley said gently, wrapping a foreleg around Berry’s neck and hugging her. 

“Barley Bitters is a good name for a foal I think,” Berry said, sniffling, her face pressed into her uncle’s neck. 

“Aye lass,” Barley agreed, his own eyes misty. “We look after our own...” 

“Come what may…” Berry continued. 

“We anarchs only have one another,” Barley finished. “You go to Canterlot and give that coont a piece of your mind,” he added, his accent now thick. 



 

“They’re plotting against me,” Bucky whispered. “I just know it.” 

“Maybe,” Derpy admitted, her ears perked and trying to listen.

“See, I knew it,” Bucky said in a low moan. 

“You are silly,” Derpy said, closing one eye and peering at his stitches carefully. “Think about my plot and you’ll feel better.” 

Images suddenly came to Bucky’s mind, making his thoughts a distinct shade of blue. He did indeed feel better. 

“You look better,” Derpy said, still peering from one eye. “I can barely see a crack in your horn now. Is your face still numb on this side?” 

Bucky nodded, saying nothing, thinking blue thoughts. And red wine coloured thoughts. Thoughts about plots. As he started thinking about this he knew he should be embarrassed about. And he was. And that made him feel dirty. Bucky discovered he liked feeling dirty. He raised the eyebrow on the good side of his face. 

“What?” Derpy said. 

“I can’t stop thinking about your backside,” Bucky confessed, remembering Bon Bon’s lessons about honesty. 

“Oh! Want to spend some time looking at it?” Derpy asked. 

“No,” replied Bucky, nodding his head yes. 



 

Later that day, Dinky Doo and Piña Colada came home to a very big surprise. Entering into the house with Lyra and Bon Bon, they were greeted by an old unicorn, a distant memory from early foalhood. 

But that didn’t matter. They were swept up anyway, the old stallion falling down upon the floor to be with them. Berry Punch watched this display, sitting quietly, and Lyra had an odd almost emotional reaction as Bon Bon gently stroked her. 

Old bonds were almost instantly revitalised by touch and smell, triggering powerful herding instincts. What was once lost was quickly reclaimed, powerful feelings of affection and bonding were induced. Piña in particular cried happy tears, unable to speak, only able to express her affection by hugging, touching, and rubbing her hooves over her uncle and Dinky as they shared an emotional moment with one another. 

Finally overcome, Lyra began to cry, leaning into Bon Bon and no longer caring what ponies watching her might think. 

Finally, Berry Punch joined the pony pile on the floor, hugging the foals and sharing a bonding moment with her old uncle, her body engaged in various acts of affection, her mind off someplace else, someplace distant. 
	
	
> Chapter 38
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






 To my friend, Celestia, 
 

I may have done something rash and foolish. I am a pony madly in love. You told me to try new things and I have. I am crazily in love with two mares, as I am sure you have figured out by now. I cannot express the words. By myself I am a broken pony, but with both of them I am made whole. There is no way I could function without them both. I know these things are forbidden, but I have asked both of them to form a herd with me. I hope you will understand. I hope you will forgive me. I hope you will allow this, as there is no way I will ever be able to have some semblance of a normal life without them both. I have had a lot of time to think during my convalescence and Bon Bon has opened my eyes. I do not understand how or why Bon Bon is able to do what she does, but she has a knack for fixing broken unicorns, Lyra Heartstrings and I are evidence of her talent. 

I am begging you to reconsider your stance on herd marriage. I understand there are herds here in Ponyville. They need to be recognised. They deserve to be recognised. I am aware of the complications of such arrangements, I know there has been trouble in the past, and to that end, Derpy, Berry Punch, and I are all working out rules of engagement for one another. We want this to work. I need this to work. I want to be whole again. I want to feel better. I want to have foals and be able to love them. I want to feel something other than a hollowed out sense of emptiness. 

I think I had an epiphany about your school and my time there. You were trying to help me, help my kind, help all of us there, am I right? To that end, I accept the proposal being offered, if you will grace me with the privilege, I will head a school here in Ponyville, I have no idea what I am doing, but I trust that you will guide me. This seems to be a good place for unicorns to heal. Perhaps the ley lines are funny here. I know they cross here. I think I tapped into two of them that day I had to keep Dinky safe. I’m not quite sure what happened there. 

I trust you. Bon Bon wanted me to say that, so I have. 

Trust is a funny thing. I trust Derpy and Berry to carry me where my heart and mind would choose not to go. I have had to let go completely and allow them to do what is best for me. And I trust them to know what is best for me. In spite of my own best efforts, I think I am getting better. 

I really don’t want to write this next part, but Bon Bon insists that total honesty and full disclosure is the only way for me to get better, so here goes. 

When I was a colt, in school, just before the Summer Sun Celebration, I accidentally caught a glimpse of your backside when your tail was no longer strategically covering various places of interest. It caused me to have troublesome thoughts about you for almost three months, and this is why I went through that phase where I could not look you in the eye no matter how many times you told me to do so. I was not trying to be disrespectful, I was just a very confused and damaged colt that couldn’t deal with what I saw. 

And I saw everything. 

Recalling this memory has been problematic, confessing this is causing me great strain. Do not be surprised if I cannot make eye contact when next we meet again. (The rhyme is accidental I assure you) I am certainly not trying to think of you in that way. Oh no, Bon Bon is giving me the stinkeye right now for slipping into neurosis, Berry is about to die from laughter, and Derpy is giving me a one eyed stare that I cannot make out. I cannot repeat what Lyra is saying without completely destroying decorum, but it is causing Berry to laugh Berry hard. 

What have I done… 

Bucky. 


 



 

The rules of engagement. 

Berry Punch pondered the meaning of these words. Yesterday, there had been an actual engagement, a formal official engagement. Bucky was out of the bed now. He was slow, and he was wobbly, and he needed help to get around the house, but he was upright.  Enough time had passed that the crack in his horn had mended, he had a little more strength, and, during a quiet moment with all three of them together in the bed, there had been an arrangement of engagement, and the rules of engagement had been discussed. 

Marriage. 

And the agreed upon foundation rules of their forming herd. Simple things really, to make sure they all stayed civil and loving towards one another. There was only one issue that had really stood out enough that Derpy had insisted on, and it was something they had all agreed was vital. 

No sex with one another without the other knowing about it. No hiding. No withholding. Ideally, it was to be treated as a group activity, but needs were needs, and they couldn’t always be together. 

The train to Canterlot rocked back and forth on the tracks and Berry thought about other rules of engagement, not in love or marriage, but in war. She knew what needed to be done and she was on her way to do it now. She was surprisingly calm, given what was about to take place. 

She was a pony in love, on the cusp of being both a wife and hopefully a mother, and she was not about to take chances. She hadn’t been drinking, not lately, she was doing this stone cold sober, which made it worse somehow.

The only pony that knew what she was doing was Barley, and he had given his blessing. He was at home now, with the two ponies that Berry loved, Bon Bon and Lyra, who were becoming fast friends, Sparkler, and the foals. 

Berry sat in silence as the train rolled on towards Canterlot. 



 

Twilight Sparkle sat in her library, silent, reflective, a book open in front of her that she was not actually reading. Everything Celestia had said to her was settling in and reshaping her jumbled thoughts into something a bit more coherent. 

She listened to Spike arguing with Owlowiscious about something, or specifically somepony, because Owlowiscious kept saying “who.” Poor Spike was sounding frustrated. 

Twilight Sparkle, the trick to good leadership is to get all of the ponies in the herd all running in the same direction. To do this, you must give them something to chase. We are creatures born to run, we need something to follow. 

The words repeated over and over again in Twilight’s mind. 

It was in the middle of Twilight’s reflections that the door burst open and Rainbow Dash came bursting in, running up to Twilight and shoving her book to the floor. 

“We gotta go Twilight, Berry Punch hopped a train to Canterlot. We have to go keep an eye on her!” Rainbow Dash said. 

“Can’t you just go look after her?” Twilight said sullenly. 

“Well, yeah, I could, but I don’t want to be alone. Besides, we know there was an engagement yesterday, it is all the flock can talk about, I bet Berry is going to go look at wedding dresses or find somepony to help plan a wedding or find a nice place to get hitched… or something. Come on Twi’ this will be fun!” Rainbow Dash said, leaning in nose to nose with Twilight Sparkle. 

Twilight sighed and allowed Rainbow Dash to drag her towards the door. 

The last thing she heard as she was leaving was Owlowiscious asking “what?” which left Twilight feeling a little troubled as she was hauled out the door. 



 

Bucky’s nerves were frazzled. He was trying to have a nice time, but it was becoming more and more difficult. Barley and Sparkler were in a heated battle for dominance, and it had left Bucky’s poor sensibilities quite sullied. 

The sound Bucky thought to himself, mentally cringing. He had to make it stop somehow. 

He winced as Sparkler let go another foul blast, filling the whole house with a resonating gurgling belch that must have lasted for all of thirty seconds or so, causing the old unicorn’s bushy eyebrows to almost meet his ears. 

The old unicorn wasn’t going to take this affront any longer it seemed, and began to mutter about putting the upstart filly in her place. He took a long pull from his beer, took a deep breath, swallowed some air a few times, and then let go with a foul sounding belch that was equally as nasty as Sparkler’s. 

Something had to be done. 

The foals were rolling on the floor with laughter, Bon Bon had a broad grin, Lyra looked sheepish but was trying to have a good time, and Derpy was laughing so hard that she was crying. 

Bucky was clearly the only pony not having a good time, and that bothered him on some level. He was clearly not moving with the herd. He had a strange longing for Berry to touch him. Or Bon Bon. A hug might be nice. He shook his head, not believing that he had just thought that. 

Another thunderous belch was heard, this one from Sparkler. Her eyes bulged halfway out of her skull as she let go and her mouth was opened so wide that you could see her uvula flapping in the breeze. 

It is interesting to note that certain unicorns have a biological quirk that connects their thaumaturgical system to their vocal cords, providing magical amplification for anything going through their throats. This particular genetic quirk exists among the “noble” unicorns and those with high magic. The condition is called “the Canterlot Voice” and it gives immense vocal power to any unicorn in possession of it. 

And, disinherited or not, Bucky was a noble unicorn, coming from a long bloodline that could be traced back to the noble families of the Old World before the Long Walk. 

Bucky’s thaumaturgical system was coming back online, bigger, better, and stronger than before, his extreme use of magic completely frying his old system and forcing new connections of thaumaturgical neurons to be created. New jumpy neurons that were still very spastic and in the process of creating stable new connections. 

Celestia had been mistaken. Bucky had been a type three, and would have continued being a type three, had not he magically fried himself into being a faulty and badly wired problematic type four susceptible to surges as his body was forced to create new thaumaturgical connections to allow for magical discharge to keep his beloved Dinky Doo and Piña safe from harm. Much like stories of mothers lifting heavy things to save their foals, Bucky’s body had responded to the emergency the only way it could. More magic. 

It was under these completely unknown revelations that Bucky sat, guzzling a rootbeer, after already downing one, determined to join in on the fun and make himself try something new. 

Having listened (with no small degree of horror) to Sparkler’s lessons to Dinky and Piña about how to swallow air and make yourself belch, Bucky pulled in a considerable mass of air to mix with his rootbeer. 

The initial blast actually struck Barley and Sparkler before the sound could be heard, blowing them from their chairs. The kitchen table slid for several feet over the floor, and one of the chairs tipped over. The kitchen window shattered. 

The actual sound itself was deafening in the small room, filling the kitchen with a dreadful sound that no words could describe. It came along a mere moment after the blast hit, leveling all those trapped in close quarters. 

The Royal Canterlot Belch spread through Ponyville, causing birds to take wing and leave behind fresh deposits of bird droppings as they flew for their lives. Startled pegasi, never calm creatures to begin with, also caused a number of cries of alarm and panic as ponies below were treated to objects falling from clouds.  Those objects were not meteorological precipitation, but were the evidence of long evolved reflexes of pegasi whose bodies shed all possible extra weight before taking wing when in panic mode.

“Aye, damn yer eyes laddie, ye best make sure ye pass on the gift of yon Voice to Berry’s foals, or I’ll ne’er forgive ye, ye great lout!” Barley said, rubbing his head and struggling to sit up. 

“What hit me?” Sparkler asked, dazed, and sprawled on the floor. She blinked several times. “It was like hearing a train coming.” 

“My jelly bean feels like it has a heartbeat!” Derpy announced, her wings sticking out ramrod straight. 

“I beg everypony’s pardon, I don’t know what happened,” Bucky said, looking sheepish and rubbing his barrel. 

Thunderlane poked his head through the kitchen window, looking around inside. “What in Tartarus was that?” he asked, his face full of terror. 

“Sparkler’s lessons in table manners paid off,” Derpy announced, looking proud. 
	
> Chapter 39
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“There are no shops out this way, all of this area is the wealthiest district in Canterlot,” Twilight Sparkle said as she flew beside Rainbow Dash. “The nobles live here. My family lives right over there.” 

“I wonder what she’s up to,” Rainbow Dash replied, looking puzzled. 

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, sounding confused. 

The two figures flew overhead, unnoticed, flying from cloudbank to cloudbank, swooping over palatial homes, homes with walls, fortifications, and even towers. Impressive homes made from old wealth, some of these homes were almost one thousand years old. Twilight Sparkle could actually see her home from here, a sprawling structure that did in fact have its own tower, because when it was constructed, towers were very fashionable and everypony had to have a taller tower than their neighbor. 

The pair watched as Berry Punch approached a home that was shaped like a five sided star with a very tall tower rising up out of the center. 



 

Berry Punch approached the door of the vast estate home of Bucky’s family. It was star shaped, sort of, or so she thought, with five wings protruding from a central tower in the middle. She trotted up the steps, took a deep breath, and then pulled the corded rope to ring the bell. She waited, and, after some time, the door opened. 

“Madam?” a stately somewhat older stallion inquired. 

“I have come with a message,” Berry Punch replied. “Buckminster Bitters has been injured and has been recovering. I come with news of his condition,” Berry said, not technically lying. 

“One moment madam,” the butler said, excusing himself and closing the door. 

The strangely calm earth pony stood waiting, breathing deeply, knowing full well what she must do. Old business had to be finished. What was once started had been put on hold, and the business had never been concluded. And it was time for this business to end. Berry Punch was a mare in love, and love made almost anything seem reasonable due to the drug like effects of various chemical agents flooding the brains of ponies in love. 

The door finally opened and a very stern looking unicorn mare with her grey hair drawn into a bun emerged out onto the landing. She looked at Berry Punch, puzzled. “You have news of Buckminster?” she asked. The butler stood just behind her, looking thoroughly disgusted that there was an earth pony standing on the landing. 

“Yeah, I have news of Buckminster,” Berry said, her voice becoming a heated growl. 

The stuffy old unicorn looked even more confused. 

“CLAN PICKLED CLAIMS HIM AS THEIR OWN!” Berry roared, rearing up on her hind legs and lashing out with a vicious slap that sent the unicorn mare sprawling backwards. Moving with impossible speed and grace, she landed on her front hooves, swiveled her body around, and kicked out with her hind hooves, sending the butler flying into the doorframe. He fell to the ground and did not move. 

“Clan Pickled sends their regards. Consider that friendly slap across the cheek my invitation to war you heartless bitch,” Berry cried, her body still moving rapidly. She sent out another kick with her forelegs that sent Bucky’s mother skidding over the landing. 

The older unicorn spat out several teeth as she lay on the ground, groaning. 

Berry sent another punch downward and the splintering of bone could be heard as Berry drove her hoof into the unicorn’s leg. 

“You, you broke the sacred trust that exists between a mother and her foals. OUR SACRED DUTY! OUR RIGHT! OUR PRIVILEGE! WHAT YOU DID WAS UNTHINKABLE! CURSE YOUR WOMB AND DAMN YOUR EYES!” Berry cried as she stood over the prone mare on the stoop. “You took a beautiful mind, a wonderful soul, and you left him twisted and broken. I should kill you for what you’ve done. You are a shame to mothers everywhere. What I am going to do is even worse though. You are going to live. Clan Pickled has taken what you have so carelessly destroyed and thrown away. Consider the peace broken!” Berry growled, gritting her teeth after she spoke. 

Berry Punch moved around the prone mare, walking towards her back end. Looking over her shoulder, Berry carefully lined up her kick. She was no Apple, but she had earned her red ribbons for being a kicker. She raised up one rear hoof, tensed her considerable bunched up muscles, and lashed out with every ounce of her fury, connecting with the unicorn’s filly bits. 

The older mare went skidding over the landing with a high pitched shrill scream, her guts on fire, her filly bits crushed under an earth pony’s brutally strong kick. Blood began to seep from her feminine places, pooling over the landing and covering her tail. 

“I doubt you will ever have foals ever again, but I had to make sure,” Berry spat, turning around to look at the fallen mare clutching her groin. “This is war. Come near me, my family, or my foals, I WILL KILL YOU!” Berry promised. She spat on the prone mare and then took off, galloping away as fast as her legs would carry her. 





A pair of ponies resting on a cloud, sat watching the scene below them. Berry Punch stood on the landing, waiting at the door. Somepony had answered and gone inside. Twilight Sparkle exchanged a glance with Rainbow Dash, Rainbow looking a bit confused. 

A moment later, an older unicorn mare came out onto the landing at the top of the stairs, and exchanged a few words with Berry Punch, or so it seemed from their aerial vantage point. Then, there was a loud scream, and things happened. 

The pair of ponies watched as Berry Punch moved with blinding speed, flooring the unicorn mare and subduing the butler. Twilight was so much in shock that she couldn’t even move to stop the events she watched playing out below. Rainbow Dash was clinging to her, trembling, the blue pegasus clearly troubled by these events. 

They watched as Berry Punch savagely broke the unicorn’s leg, the shattered limb visible from their elevated view, and there was shouting about cursed wombs and damned eyes. It was difficult to make out. 

Rainbow Dash let out a piercing scream when she saw the womb destroying kick delivered to the unicorn. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t scream. All she could do was shake violently and cling to Rainbow Dash, unsure of what she was looking at, the horrible display of pony on pony violence below her completely unnerving her. One pony was savagely attacking another pony, creating disharmony within the much larger herd structure. And Twilight Sparkle was flummoxed. 

“That’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Discord playing with himself,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, one hoof clutching down between her own legs, her hind legs clenched around her hoof.  

“I think… I think that was Buckminster’s mother,” Twilight Sparkle said, her own hind legs clenched tightly together. “I can’t be sure, but I cannot imagine Berry Punch doing that to anypony else. I can’t imagine Berry Punch doing this at all. She’s a good pony and a pillar of our community.” 

“We should go help,” Rainbow Dash said. 

“Ponies already are,” Twilight responded, pointing downward. “We should go see Celestia,” she added. “Celestia needs to know what is going on.” 

“Let’s go Twi’,” Rainbow Dash said, still clutching her filly bits. 



 

It was done. She had done it. She had actually followed through with it. Berry Punch sat on the train in silence, the car was filled with other ponies, mostly pegasi and earth ponies, many of them females, all of them sitting around and talking gregariously with one another. 

She took a deep breath and saw her reflection in the window. The mare staring back at her seemed to approve of her actions. Berry sighed, taking in and letting out one deep breath, trying to relax her quivering muscles. 

Her kicking leg was still tense and just aching for more kicking. 

When the first tear rolled down her cheek, Berry found herself in the company of strangers, a pegasus mare taking a seat beside her and offering a friendly hug, which Berry gratefully accepted. Another mare sat on the other side of her, an earth pony, and she too, offered up a hug to make Berry feel better. 

Berry Punch quietly reflected that this is the way that it should be, but her eyes had been opened and she had seen for herself that some ponies had been broken, and this bond of herdship had been taken from them. Like Bucky. She resolved to hug the stuffing out of Bucky when she got home. She’d need Derpy to help. Because Berry also needed to be hugged. She lived in terrible fear for her future foals, haunted by stories from the past. Terrible stories of the clearances in the Shetland Isles. 

The pegasus mare said nothing as Berry cried upon her shoulder, and the earth pony mare ran her hoof in a small circle over Berry’s back, making Berry feel just a little better. 

“What’s wrong dear?” the earth pony asked. 

“I am going to be married soon. I plan to be a mother,” Berry said, just blurting everything out without thinking about it. 

“That’s an emotional place to be,” the earth pony agreed. 

“I’m worried about my future foals,” Berry admitted. 

“I just got married and I am worried about my future foals too. The world is a dangerous place. The best thing we can do is be empowered mares and take a strong stance on defending our young, as is our right,” the pegasus said, giving Berry a friendly squeeze. 

“A mother should have a right to do anything she wants to protect her foals,” the earth pony agreed. “I am not sure about this new feminism talk going around, but I do agree that mares should have a right to protect their foals by any means necessary. It is what we do as mothers. Ponyville doesn’t even have a standing guard constabulary that we can call for help if something happens,” the earth pony added. 

“We know how to raise our foals better than the Crown does,” the pegasus commented. “I think the new feminist ideals are valid. A mother’s rights are inviolate, provided the foal does not come to harm. But no good mother would harm her foal. I should have the right to kill somepony that might try to harm or otherwise molest my foals,” the pegasus stated. 

“I dunno about killing, but beating them to within an inch of their life is fine with me, and I am a feminist,” Berry confessed. “A mare should have the right to determine how their foal is raised, and the government needs to keep their snoots out of our families, as long as nopony is being hurt. Like herd marriage. I should have the right to assemble with other like-minded mares and present a united front to raise my foals together with them, dividing the labour and making sure my foals are provided for at all hours of the day, and provided for if something ever happens to me,” Berry explained. 

“And that is the feminist argument?” the earth pony asked. 

“In a nutshell,” Berry replied. 

“That seems reasonable,” the earth pony said thoughtfully. 

“A herd would make foal care much easier. You could take shifts. Somepony could watch over them during the night while you slept. All of the hard work would be spread out over multiple mares. You could wake up refreshed and well rested and actually be a better mother,” the pegasus said, giving voice to her thoughts. 

“Wait, why did we give that up?” the earth pony asked. 

“Long story,” Berry replied. “There are plenty of books though.” 

“I think I’ll do some reading,” the earth pony mare said, smiling broadly. 

“A mare should have the right to assemble with like-minded mares and form a herd. Present a united front. Engage in collective bargaining. Have the right to assemble. We deserve the power of committee. We deserve to be able to divide our labour and lighten our loads. We have a right to have motherhood as a unified group effort because it takes a herd to raise a foal. We have a right to collect and assemble mares from different backgrounds together so our foals will grow up with the broadest possible knowledge base to work with. What I know is limited, what another mare knows might also be limited, but together, we can teach all of what we know to our foals and have them prosper, and then when they have foals, that collection of knowledge can be passed on to their foals, each generation starting off a little better than the one before. I have a right to be a good mother, and share my motherhood experience with my best friends, those I love, and my fellow herdmates within marriage. And nopony has the right to take that from me. Motherhood is sacred. It is the foundation of our society and the privilege of every mare to do her part, and she shouldn’t be forced to endure this task alone, bearing the heavy brunt of all this labour on her shoulders. We deserve to be empowered!” Berry ranted, feeling Berry empowered herself, having just delivered a good old fashioned Shetland Isles’ plot whipping. 

“Yeah!” another earth pony agreed, listening to Berry’s impassioned pleas. 

“Tell it sister!” a pegasus shouted, sitting several seats away. 

“And when foals need to be punished, and some little foals do, it is better to be done by a calm mare who loves the foal, not the angry mare whom the foal is in trouble with. Punishment could be delivered swiftly and fairly, without anger, as it should be,” an older earth pony mare said, nodding her head as she spoke. 

“Yeah!” Berry agreed. 

“Yeah!” several ponies said in unison.



 

The door opened with a faint squeal, the hinges needing to be oiled. Berry Punch saw Bucky on the couch, sitting with Derpy, and Lyra was reading a book to everypony. Lyra fell silent when she saw Berry in the doorway. 

Berry moved swiftly, crossing the room in a bound, and tackled Bucky and Derpy on the couch, savagely assaulting them both. She pulled them both in, nearly crushing poor Bucky, and went to work trying to encourage a three way kiss. 

Sparkler covered two pairs of little eyes with her fetlocks, pulling Dinky and Piña close as there was a very passionate three way kiss being exchanged on the couch. 

Barley, sitting in the overstuffed chair, raised an eyebrow and said nothing, patiently waiting for the passionate three way embrace to come to an end. 

Berry finally pulled away and sat, her legs still around the pair of ponies that she loved, watching them both, her barrel heaving. “I might need for you to forgive me,” Berry said breathlessly, licking waxy residue from her lips. 

“I would forgive you anything,” Bucky replied, adoration easily visible in his eyes, his face looking red and flustered as he realised everypony was staring at his embarrassing display of three way affection. 

“Good, because I just gave your mother a piece of my mind and I started a war,” Berry replied, turning to look at Barley. 

“Oh,” replied Bucky, strangely calm. “Oh my.” 

“Aye, that’s my filly,” Barley said approvingly. 
	
	
> Chapter 40
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The pearlescent white alicorn stood locked in concentration. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had both willingly offered up their memories of the event, and Celestia had pulled everything she needed from them. Before Celestia, a large projected screen slowly formed, the picture grey and void, nothing yet to see. 

Everything in the room vibrated with the intense magical energies being summoned. This was top tier magic, a magic exclusive to type fives, and a skill that Twilight Sparkle was still practicing. 

She carefully studied Celestia hoping to perform the spell better herself. 

Eventually, images began to form on the projected screen, showing images of what had taken place. The image zoomed in, showing everything in perfect detail, and sounds became easy to hear. 

The image played backwards, to the beginning. The image began to move forward at normal speed, and the doorbell was rung. A few moments later… 

“CLAN PICKLED CLAIMS HIM AS THEIR OWN!”

“Oh dear,” Celestia gasped, hearing these words. 

“Clan Pickled sends their regards. Consider that friendly slap across the cheek my invitation to war you heartless bitch.”

“OH NO!” cried Celestia, now in total panic, her wings fully extended and flapping in alarm, and she began to dance around on her hooves. 

The sounds of splintering bone thundered through the room and all three ponies winced together, sensing pain. 

“You, you broke the sacred trust that exists between a mother and her foals. OUR SACRED DUTY! OUR RIGHT! OUR PRIVILEGE! WHAT YOU DID WAS UNTHINKABLE! CURSE YOUR WOMB AND DAMN YOUR EYES!”

Celestia began to sob, Twilight sat silently, and Rainbow Dash growled. 

“But Berry is right!” Rainbow Dash insisted. There was no reply. 

“You took a beautiful mind, a wonderful soul, and you left him twisted and broken. I should kill you for what you’ve done. You are a shame to mothers everywhere. What I am going to do is even worse though. You are going to live. Clan Pickled has taken what you have so carelessly destroyed and thrown away. Consider the peace broken!”

Celestia stumbled and fell to the floor, horrible sounding shuddering sobs now coming from mouth, her long neck and throat giving them unusual resonance. 

Twilight tried to comfort her fallen mentor, gently placing a foreleg around Celestia’s neck and stroking her gently. 

“But she did do that!” Rainbow Dash said angrily. “Berry is just being honest!” 

After a few moments of the image playing, there was an awful meaty sounding “thwump!” and an accompanying image that made Celestia roll over on her side and clutch her groin with her forehooves, nearly crushing Twilight Sparkle, who cried out in alarm, trying not to be squashed under the much larger alicorn. 

Even Rainbow Dash cringed again. 

“I doubt you will ever have foals ever again, but I had to make sure,” 

Silence. 

“This is war. Come near me, my family, or my foals, I WILL KILL YOU!”

“I ain't saying that Berry is right, but I understand what she did! This was a moment of brutal honesty! I might have done the same!” Rainbow Dash said, now clutching her groin again. 

“How is this an act of honesty?” Twilight snapped, squirming uncomfortably and clenching her hind legs together, or trying to as she stood. 

“Berry Punch told the truth! She said what was in her heart and she didn’t hold back! I might have done the same. Some stuff just makes my pegasus blood boil. If somepony was to ever touch one feather on your wings Twilight, I probably would kill them…” Rainbow Dash confessed. “She made an honest mistake, but I might have done the same.” 

Twilight Sparkle lept over Celestia and tackled Rainbow Dash, hugging her tightly, overcome with emotion and crying. 

“My Ponyville Project,” Celestia mumbled, still sobbing. 

Twilight Sparkle, still hugging Rainbow Dash, turned to look at her fallen mentor and felt a painful stab of resentment and more than a little anger. The tiny spark of anger ignited a furious blaze, which quickly became a burning conflagration, and then a blistering inferno of seething rage. And the resentment, forged in the fires of rage, became a tiny shard of hatred that pierced her heart painfully, making it bleed. 

Twilight Sparkle gnashed her teeth, she then closed her eyes, and then she teleported away without a single word of parting, leaving Celestia all alone, sobbing on the floor and utterly alone in her moment of pain. 



 

Later that afternoon in Ponyville… 

Princess Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of the living room of one Derpy Doo Hooves, looking angry, confused, and a little bewildered. 

Before her sat three ponies. One looked sad, one looked confused, and one looked defiant. Bucky looked confused, deep conflict on his face, Derpy looked sad, and Berry remained defiant. 

“Look, I cannot agree with what you have done, but I do have some understanding of why you did it. You were a lone earth pony taking on two unicorns. That explains the initial assault for incapacitation. I don’t fully understand the follow through assault,” Twilight Sparkle said. 

“I do,” Rainbow Dash quipped, her voice unusually low. “Tradition from the old days, punishment for a mother that brought harm to her foal, or to another foal. Back when everypony went nuts and mothers were poisoning and killing each other’s foals. The black days, when so many pegasi were exiled from Cloudsdale. They talk about this in a Daring Do book. Well, sort of. The days I mean. And some of the punishments.”

Twilight rubbed her face with her fetlock. 

“My mother will be fine. She has access to the best care available, an endless supply of bits and the best unicorn doctors that Canterlot has to offer. I bet she’ll be out of the bed faster than I was,” Bucky said, giving Berry a squeeze. “I doubt there will be any lasting damage. There isn’t much the unicorn doctors in Canterlot cannot heal if you have the bits and the right name. My mother has both.” 

“Look, Princess, here is the bottom line. In a declared state of war, I have a lot more options to protect my foals than I do otherwise. You cannot look me straight in the eye and say that the Canterlot unicorns do not abuse the law. You do know about the clearances, right?”

“Yes, yes I do, which is why I am here trying to be a good Princess and sort this out. For now, you are to remain here, in your home, with your family, until such a time that I can figure out what is to be done with you. I know that you will do what I ask because you want me to help you, right?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

Berry Punch nodded slowly. 

“Confinement in your home is only the beginning. I do not know what is going to be done with you, but I will try to make sure that it is fair. What you did was wrong, and I do not agree with it, but I have some understanding as to why now, not that this makes anything easier to accept,” Twilight said, her breathing somewhat laboured. Her mind was racing and she was having trouble holding everything together. Fillydelphia weighed heavily on her thoughts. Celestia’s visions danced through her mind. 

“Look, what happened a long time ago is horrible, and to be honest, I cannot say that it won’t happen again, because it is still happening in some ways,” Twilight said, looking pensive. “I really wish I could reassure you and say that you had nothing to worry about. I cannot honestly do that however. I know that even now, they still sometimes sweep foals from the Shetlands and raise them in mainland orphanages because of what happened and the public outcry over the barbaric practices of herd marriage that take place in the Shetlands,” Twilight muttered, rubbing her head and trying to keep her eye from twitching. 

“That needs to stop,” Derpy protested, her voice cracking with sadness. 

“Yeah it does,” Twilight agreed. “And somepony needs to make it stop.” 

“Word is going to spread about this. Ponies will not be able to ignore this any longer,” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing Twilight on the shoulder. “War means serious business. This will be in the papers. It will get ponies talking. Maybe something good will come out of all of this. At least, I hope so. Derpy, the flock has your back. Berry Punch, you are a numbskull and I am really really angry with you right now, but the flock has your back as well. All of you. We’ll sort this out. Berry, I need your word that you are willing to make compensation for this.” 

“I am willing to make this right, but I want this oppression to stop first. When that happens, I’ll do whatever it takes,” Berry promised.

“Then I need to make this oppression stop so you can hold yourself accountable and this can be dealt with,” Twilight said. “I need your word as well.” 

“You have my word, I give you my word that I will do whatever is necessary to make amends and see this through,” Berry assured. 

“Good. Then I give you my word that I am going to make this oppression stop, one way or another. We need this settled,” Twilight agreed. 





Princess Luna trotted down the long hall towards Celestia’s quarters, feeling flustered and confused. The sun was up late. It should have settled down and gone to other parts of the world almost nine minutes ago. Princess Luna had been forced to do it herself and now she was on her way to discover why her sister had been so lax in her duties. 

When she reached the door, she didn’t bother knocking, she shoved past the guards and kicked the door open, looking around the room. What she saw alarmed her. The entire room had been completely trashed. The mirror was broken. Things had been thrown. And there was an enormous lump in the middle of the bed, hidden under a blanket. 

Princess Luna jerked the blankets from the bed and saw her sister curled into a fetal position, softly sobbing, not saying anything. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Luna demanded. “You have failed in your duties.” 

“We are at war sister, there is war between houses once again,” Celestia mumbled, almost incoherently. 

“I’ve heard some talk, but I see no signs of war,” Luna stated matter of factly. 

“A member of House Avarice came to the palace earlier this day and asked to buy the services of the guards as mercenaries. They also inquired as to where to buy mercenaries,” Celestia whimpered. 

“So they have no army?” Luna asked. 

“No,” Celestia admitted. 

“Is the mare in any danger of dying?” Luna questioned. 

“No. She is fine. She is getting the best treatment that bits can buy, the best care  that is available to ponies of her social class. She’s going to make a full recovery in a day or two,” Celestia said hollowly. 

“I do not see the problem,” Luna said, scowling. “Stop being neurotic! You are no better than the unicorns you look after!” 

“Ponyville has a standing army,” Celestia said, collapsing into fresh sobs. “The two pegasi flocks have united into one unified body. They have banners Luna, banners!” 

“And where is Twilight Sparkle, why has she not restored order?” Luna said, puzzled, and looking rather miffed. 

Celestia did not reply, she merely pointed to a scroll on the bedside table. 

Luna began to read, her face becoming more and more confused as she did so. Her jaw hung open, her eyes went wide, and finally, she spoke: “The flock looks after its own.” 

“Twilight Sparkle has turned Ponyville into an independent republic. She has taken Ponyville away from me...” Celestia said, her voice failing due to her uncontrolled sobbing. 

“This is indeed, surprising,” Luna admitted. 

“I sent messengers,” Celestia said, her voice hitching and hiccuping. “I sent a dozen of the royal guard to arrest Berry Punch for assault and have her brought in for questioning. To arrange some kind of agreement. To put an end to this. And only one guard returned, bearing that note. The others have been taken prisoner and are currently under the custody of Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said miserably. 

“I see,” Luna said, looking very surprised. “Prisoners already. We’re up to that now. Well, that is almost a war. So, one mare about to make a full recovery, I take it Ponyville is going to be used as a bargaining chip for something that Twilight wants, and I have a few guesses as to what her desires might be, and eleven royal guard ponies taken as prisoner so Twilight can make some weak show of force, letting us know that she means business. With her banners and weather pegasi protecting her republic. Sister, I shall make plans at once to hide under the covers with you,” Luna said in teasing tones. 

Celestia buried her head under her pillows, refusing to look at her haughty sister. 

“Well, at least Cadance is dropping by in a few days. Perhaps we can engage her services as a neutral party and make her an ambassador,” Luna said. 

There was a loud groan from under the pillows. 

Luna crawled into the bed and lie down next to her sister. “Look, I know this is rough on you. Ponyville is still under Twilight’s protection. This changes nothing. She is not going to allow harm to come to it. I say we allow her to have her moment, make her gambit, and then try to reason this out. No doubt that she already has Berry Punch properly secured somehow. For the record, I sympathise with that mare. I saw this coming. I figured this would come to a head sooner or later. The Shetland Isles ponies have wounded hearts and they live under desperation because of what you allow to continue to happen, all in the name of keeping the public peace and stable public opinion. Well, that and those old treaties that are still legally binding, but those are broken now. Actually sister, this might be a good thing. Real peace can finally be settled. Perhaps we can let the Shetland Isles go their own way, free of our influence. It isn’t right to have a repurposed penal colony in this day and age and I feel sympathy for them being trapped on a desolate pile of rocks. I’ve been there,” Luna rambled. 

“You are right Luna. The treaties ARE broken now!” Celestia said, her head emerging from under the pillows. “Do you believe a fresh start is possible if we can just end this somehow?” 

“Anything is possible sister. We are together once again,” Luna said, snuggling up beside her sister. 

“As bad as this is, maybe this needed to happen. Maybe we can finally smooth things over in a way that both sides find some measure of peace and everypony can be happy,” Celestia said, cuddling closer to her sister. 

“We need to trust that Twilight Sparkle is going to do something to hold Berry Punch accountable. I believe she has something to answer for, but if her crimes allow all of this to finally be settled in some fair fashion, a little leniency could be allowed,” Luna said, rubbing her sister’s neck with her snoot. 

“Stay with me tonight sister, I am scared,” Celestia said, her voice flooded with uncertainty. “There hasn’t been an internal war in so long. I do not want any more little ponies getting hurt. Twilight has betrayed me…” 

“Oh hush,” Luna interrupted. “Twilight Sparkle would never betray you. She has done something, yes, but we should give things time and see what she does. Perhaps this is a matter of perspectives and she knows something we do not. Twilight is a good pony, and I would trust her implicitly.” 

“Ponyville,” Celestia protested. 

“Yes, there is another foal in your sandbox sister, playing with your sand. Look, take some deep breaths, calm down, and remember, you invited Twilight Sparkle into your sandbox,” Luna snarked. She made a very pegasus like gesture of affection, pressing her snoot into her sister’s cheek and snorting forcefully. 

Luna was true to her word, guarding Celestia until the morning. When Luna raised the sun, Celestia was still sleeping, looking troubled. Luna stared at her crown and regalia, sitting on the bedside table. She made no move to put them on. Instead, she strode for the balcony, spread her wings, and took flight for Ponyville. 



 

Luna landed in the early morning hours, and was immediately surrounded by pegasi on all sides. She studied them, and determined that they did indeed, mean business. 

“Do you intend to stop me?” Luna asked. “Do you think that  you can stop me?” 

“No,” Thunderlane replied. “But we can make you kill us. That will not go well for you,” he added. Flitter and Cloudchaser stood directly behind him, along with a few dozen other pegasi. 

“I have no desire to fight you. I did not come as your Princess. I surrender and wish to see Princess Twilight Sparkle at once,” Luna offered. 

“Very well,” Thunderlane said, stepping aside and gesturing at the library door. “Be respectful of Chancellor Twilight Sparkle,” he warned. 

The door opened and Luna peered inside. She saw Twilight. And then she saw the others. Rainbow Dash, who was peering back at her. Pinkie Pie, who was laughing. Rarity turned her eye upon Luna and nodded politely. Fluttershy sat, looking dreadfully afraid, and Spike was trying to comfort her. Applejack sat with Pinkie Pie. 

“Why are you here?” Twilight demanded. 

“I came to offer myself in exchange for the prisoners,” Luna replied. 

“Oh,” Twilight returned, looking a little surprised. “That isn’t happening. But you are free to see them and make sure they are treated well. Just because we are at war doesn’t mean we cannot be civilised,” Twilight reassured. 

“We are at war?” Luna said in surprised. 

“We are in control of Ponyville now. All of us,” Twilight said, gesturing to her friends. “And a threat has been made against one of our own. We will punish her as we see fit, but we will no longer be dictated to.” 

“I see,” Luna said. “I wish to see the prisoners at once.” 

“Of course. I will go with you,” Twilight offered. 

The two alicorns walked through the town together, pegasi circling overhead. There were indeed banners, just as Celestia had feared. They didn’t walk very far. A large vacant shop had been commandeered and the prisoners were housed inside. 

Luna was quite shocked upon entering. The guards all froze, looking at her, most of them rather guiltily. They had been drinking. There were bottles on the floor. Beds had been moved in. Some were still eating breakfast. Some were still sleeping. 

“Do we have to go?” a guard asked, looking guilty. 

“I don’t want to go back, I like being a prisoner. Yesterday, two ponies named Aloe and Lotus interrogated us. I swear, all I did was give them my name, rank, and number,” he muttered, his eyes downcast to the floor. 

“The food is a lot better,” one guard confessed, not daring to look Luna in the eye. 

“And the beer was fantastic,” one guard said sleepily, hiding his face under a blanket. “We are willing to make this sacrifice for Equestria. Don’t forget about us.” 

“What is going on here?” Luna asked, clearly puzzled. 

“We are civilised. This war doesn’t have to be bloody or brutal. We can work something out. If you send more guards, we will capture them as well. The only guard that protested his capture completely folded when Aloe offered him a backrub in exchange for his surrender,” Twilight said smugly. 

“And they drew lots on who had to be the chump that had to take the note back to Celestia,” Applejack added. 

“And what of Berry Punch, the cause of this all?” Luna asked. 

“She is currently confined at home until I can figure out what to do with her,” Twilight answered. 

“Wanna be our prisoner? Pinkie quipped. 

“Very well, I surrender,” Luna announced. 

“That was much easier than expected,” Rarity confessed in surprise. 

“I cannot leave my sister’s guards,” Luna explained. 

“So just like that, you are willing to surrender?” Rainbow Dash asked. 

“Well, you are being very reasonable about all of this, and I would like to establish communications. No better way to do that than to surrender myself and show you all that I trust you with my well-being,” Luna explained. “I do request to be allowed to see the pony responsible for all of this."

“That seems reasonable,” Twilight agreed, sighing with relief. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 41
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Two unicorns sat in a small fenced in backyard, sitting in the early morning sun, looking around and occasionally looking deeply into each other’s eyes. Pegasi circled overhead and the world continued to move on, not caring that some imaginary lines that separated the land masses seemed to have shifted a bit. 

“It is all so crazy Sparkler. Last night, we had a message arrive by magic that we are all to arrive in Canterlot and swear an oath of loyalty to House Avarice. They’re calling your whole family ‘war criminals’ and say this attack was completely unprovoked. Nothing makes sense anymore,” Rising Star said, his ears splayed out sideways. 

“Berry had her reasons. I cannot say she was right, but I understand them. And House Avarice, they are the war criminals. Foalnapping war criminals. That’s crazy,” Sparkler retorted. “Are you going to go?” Sparkler asked hesitantly. 

“Of course not, I am casting in my lot with you,” Rising Star said, leaning in and kissing Sparkler on the cheek briefly. Sparkler, inflamed by this show of loyalty and a brief peck on the cheek, wrapped a foreleg around the colt and hauled him in for a long wet kiss on the lips, complete with a long awaited lip nibble, as he had once done to her. Afterwards, the two gazed into each other’s eyes for a while. Sparkler was definitely feeling her inner pegasus right about now. She could almost feel her wings. Loyalty went a long way for her, and a flood of emotions coursed through her body. 

“What about your parents?” Sparkler asked. 

“Both of them plan to stay loyal to Ponyville,” Rising Star confessed. “We are aware of the consequences. We talked about it last night when everything went wrong all at once. Twilight Sparkle was very brave doing what she did,” Rising Star said. “Failing to answer the summons could have us all in some very big trouble,” he added, looking very worried. 

“Berry is in some Berry big trouble,” Sparkler said, causing Rising Star to wince. “I’m standing by her now. Sometime soon, she will be my mother, and I am proud of what she did, even if I don’t agree completely with her doing it.” 

“So… does me rebelling against authority make me more attractive?” Rising Star asked, prodding Sparkler with a folded fetlock. 

Sparkler rolled her eyes and shoved him, causing him to fall over. 

“I really hope that Twilight Sparkle doesn’t end up at war with her own parents,” Rising Star said, voicing his fear. 

Sparkler’s eyes went wide for a moment, taking in the entirety of Rising Star’s words, feeling an awful chill creeping down her spine. That would be the most horrible thing ever… 

“I want to be a parent someday,” Rising Star said. “With a nice mare. University educated. Maybe some sort of geologist,” he added absentmindedly. 

Sparkler pressed her lips into a flat line and regarded the subtle hint with narrowed eyes, staring down at Rising Star, who was sprawled in the grass. 

“But if a certain unicorn filly was to not attend university, or not finish university, well, I don’t think she would be as attractive. I need a perfect mare for my foals. And she needs to be smart,” Rising Star said, now resting his head on the grass. 

“Your foals?” Sparkler asked. 

“I think I’d like a few, but not right away. Being a unicorn, I have high standards. I cannot have just anypony mothering my foals. I dunno, I might even want to start a herd if I found the right like minded mares. I am all for mare empowerment,” Rising Star said. 

“Is that so?” Sparkler asked. 

“I’d need a mother that would be willing to go to war for her foals. Now that I’ve seen that take place, I don’t think I could settle for anything less,” Rising Star commented. “And I  think I would want a pegasus grandmare to look after my foals, and maybe an earth pony grandmare as well, because I would want them well rounded with educated with different points of view, so they could be open minded to other ponies.” 

“Wow, you do have standards,” Sparkler said, nodding. 

“And she needs impeccable table manners,” Rising Star quipped, nodding enthusiastically as he lay in the grass. “Somepony has to teach the little unicorn foals courtly manners. Unicorns have such high societal demands, and good manners are of vital importance.” 

“Good luck finding such a perfect creature,” Sparkler said. 

“I know, it is the impossible dream,” Rising Star said. 



 

Princess Luna, now a prisoner, settled into the overstuffed chair in Derpy’s living room, as so many other ponies had done before her. The chair was old, and had a long history. It had been returned to a second hoof shop so many times, and had seen so many owners. While it looked a little ratty, it is still supremely comfortable, and Luna would have gladly considered it her throne. It became a perfect place to sit when two small foals squeezed into the chair on each side of her, snuggling up against her. 

She turned and studied the three ponies on the couch, all of them looking a little worried. They sat huddled together, and it was obvious to any observer that they all loved one another a great deal. Luna resolved to make sure this love endured. She then turned to her gaze to Twilight Sparkle, who sat on a large cushion on the floor, also studying the three ponies on the couch, looking just a little confused. 

“I think,” Luna began, “that we should dispense with all formality and simply speak to one another as ponies. There has been enough protocol as of late.” 

“I agree,” Twilight replied. 

The three ponies on the couch nodded. 

“Berry Punch, why did you do this?” Luna asked, straight forward and blunt. 

“For my foa-”

“No,” interrupted Luna, “any answer but that one. That is the easy answer. Just like I turned into Nightmare Moon because I was jealous of my sister’s day.” 

Berry Punch glared at Luna, looking her in the eye quite fearlessly. Luna did not seem the slightest bit bothered by this. Rather, she looked rather amused and maybe a bit grateful, a faint smile on her lips and her eyes bright and merry. 

“I wanted her to pay for what she’s done. I want all of them to pay for what they’ve done. But that mare, she failed in her duty, and she damn near ruined something beautiful,” Berry grunted, her gaze never leaving Luna’s. 

“That’s better,” Luna said, nodding slightly. She cast her gaze upon Twilight, and saw Twilight was gazing at her curiously, her head tilted to the side. 

“Buckminster, how do you feel about what has taken place?” Luna asked. 

“I have conflicting emotions,” Bucky confessed. “I suppose part of me wants to see my mother suffer because of what she did. Part of me is flattered that Berry is placing me on a pedestal. I’ve never had anypony do that for me before. I’ve never been that important. I don’t know how to feel about it. It is causing me a great deal of emotional distress. Having a mare declare her love for you and then go off and declare war for you kind of makes you feel good,” Bucky admitted, leaning closer to Berry Punch as he did so. 

“Bucky deserves better,” Derpy said, closing one eye and staring at Luna with her one good orb. “I keep going back and forth. Part of me wishes I had been there with Berry, kicking the stuffing out of her,” Derpy added, casting a one eyed glance at Twilight.

“Assault is wrong Miss Hooves,” Twilight admonished. 

“Now wait Twilight, let us establish a few facts here. Berry, did you appropriately deliver the declaration of war?” Luna asked, her brows furrowing. 

“With a slap over the chops and the verbal declaration required,” Berry Punch answered with a faint nod. 

“Alright then. At that point, under Equestrian law, Berry was free to kill that mare without consequence. The butler, well, that is just dirty pool to kill the hired help. But Buckminster’s mother, Berry would have been within her every right to kill her, so let us all acknowledge Berry’s restraint in dealing with her,” Luna announced, her eyes meeting briefly with every eye in the room. She gave a soft squeeze to the two foals in the chair with her, feeling them squirm against her sides. 

Twilight Sparkle visibly deflated, her head dropping low and her wings drooping. 

“We cannot punish Berry for the assault, as heinous as it might have been. She should instead be commended on her mercy,” Luna said, her words slow and careful. “What Berry Punch needs to answer for, is starting a war. And this is a far more serious issue. We cannot determine the penalties for this action now. That can only be done at the end, when both sides sit down and peace is declared. So long as nopony actually dies from this, I would highly recommend leniency Twilight Sparkle, when you determine the punishment for what has taken place. Berry Punch, if I were you, I would pray that nopony dies. The punishment for brokering a war that causes death are harsh indeed,” Luna said, now staring directly at Berry Punch. 

“Thank you Luna, for some perspective,” Twilight Sparkle said, taking a deep breath and sighing with relief. Twilight was secretly grateful that Luna was stepping in and restoring some sense of order, some sense of right and wrong. All of this was a lot to take in all at once. And Luna seemed to be able to do it with such grace and aplomb. Twilight Sparkle made mental notes to review Luna’s behaviours and actions. 

“I don’t want my sister in trouble,” Piña said sadly. 

“Do not worry dear heart, I think this will be alright,” Luna said, comforting the small foal. “This needed to happen. The old treaties are now destroyed and new treaties can now be created. Ones that are fair to all sides. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle could broker some meaningful settlement of peace between both parties. Would be a worthwhile display of her leadership now that she is Chancellor,” Luna said, giving Twilight a pointed look. 

“It is indeed very flattering to become the spoils of war, a trophy,” Bucky muttered, mostly to himself when the room fell silent. 

Derpy poked him with a hoof and shot him a dirty one eyed glare. “This is your fault,” she sneered at Berry Punch. “You and your feminism and all those big words. Now Bucky has a big head,” the grey mare grumbled.

“If I may say so, I do not agree with my sister’s stance on herd marriage. I wish all three of you the best of luck, and you have my blessing, for whatever it is worth. My views are about one thousand years old and outdated though, so take everything I say with a grain of salt,” Luna said with a soft chuckle. 

“Thank you,” three ponies said in unison, words that sounded well practiced together. 

“You have mine as well,” Twilight Sparkle added, feeling the need to match Luna’s graciousness. 

“Twilight Sparkle, if I may suggest a course of action,” Luna asked. 

“Of course Luna, you’ve been very reasonable,” Twilight responded. 

“Might I recommend that you use your new authority and require Berry Punch to marry. Soon. I do believe that placing her into a position of real responsibility for her fellow herdmates may level out some of her more wild behaviours. Make her obligated. Craft a shackle for her, as it were,” Luna explained. 

“I will take that into consideration,” Twilight said, nodding as she did so. 

“And Derpy, keep your flock safe. Keep Berry safe from herself. Do not allow her to do any further foolish action,” Luna advised. 

“Okay,” Derpy agreed. “I plan to be in charge anyway.” 

Berry grunted a non verbal agreement and said nothing. 

“Berry?” Luna asked, her eyes narrowing and her ears folding back against her skull. 

“What?” Berry asked, reluctantly receiving Derpy’s hoofs on physical affection after Derpy’s announcement of being in charge. 

“I find it interesting that modern feminism is more or less a rehash of the militant culture of warmongering mares from one thousand years ago,” Luna stated, looking very thoughtful. “Right down to worthy stallions becoming a cause for war.” 

Berry turned away from Luna’s gaze finally, unable to meet her eye. 

“Oh, do not mistake my words, perhaps warmongering stings a little bit right now, but I was quite shocked to discover that I was already a feminist in these modern times,” Luna explained patiently, her words trying to restore Berry’s gaze to her .

Berry Punch turned and looked slowly at Luna, their eyes meeting once again. 

“A good father is more valuable than all of the wealth I own in Canterlot. Worth more than the entire contents of my treasury. It isn’t selfish to want these things. A good father worthy of fathering foals is hard to find. And he should be sheltered, treasured, and protected. Fatherhood, just as motherhood, is a sacred institution. Even with the current trouble, you did right in laying a solid claim to Buckminster and then moving to protect him. Herds were made to protect a good stallion. Even after all this time, we are still slaves to certain instincts, certain animal urges. This was a mistake worth making. Somehow, we will move past all of this and this will become a marvelous footnote in Equestrian history. I suppose I shall have to endeavor to spend a bit more time writing our history,” Luna said, squeezing the foals at her sides and trying to reassure everypony in the room. 

“I suddenly want to talk to my father,” Twilight said, sniffling. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 42
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I want her head!” 

Princess Celestia leveled her gaze at the mare sitting opposite of her at the table. Buckminster’s mother, Primrose Propers. An absolutely awful example of what a unicorn could be. Unicorns like her were the reason why Princess Celestia had to create her school in the first place. 

“Your Ladyship, may I remind you, it was your family that created those laws that allow the declaration of war and the freedom from consequences afterwards. May I also remind you that your family used that law to kill quite a number of rivals and then immediately sued for peace afterwards, allowing you to indiscriminately kill your foes and then pay a pittance to remove yourself from any responsibility,” Princess Celestia said in frigid tones to the hated mare across the table. 

“How dare you say such things!” Primrose reprimanded. “May I remind you that you would not even have your tacky crown and the throne of Equestria without my family! Princess Platinum backed your gambit because she trusted you as a neutral party among the noble  unicorns, the servile  pegasi, and those filthy mud ponies.” 

“Yes, a family that you married into, so not your family at all. I remember when your ancestors scrubbed my chamber pots,” Princess Celestia snapped. 

Primrose looked mortified for a moment and then regained her composure. “That mare came to my home and viciously assaulted me for no reason at all! I demand that you do something at once, you, you, you pretender to the throne!” Primrose shrieked. 

“And you do not seem any worse for wear,” Princess Celestia retorted. 

“That is not the point! I am not obligated to suffer like those lower class wretches! I demand you do something at once or I will make it my life’s mission to see that the political power that House Avarice affords you dries up!” Primrose threatened. 

For a brief moment, Princess Celestia entertained the notion of declaring war upon House Avarice and obliterating the obnoxious noblemare. It was certainly tempting. A little too tempting. Princess Celestia decided it was time to end the meeting. 

“Begone, I have heard your pleas, you have no grounds. This meeting is over. Threaten the Crown again and it will mean war,” Princess Celestia said to the now staggered mare who had her mouth hanging open. 

After speaking her piece, Princess Celestia simply blinked away.



 

In her private quarters, Celestia looked over her pile of messages. There were guards volunteering to go take Ponyville. Guards who probably intended to surrender the moment they arrived. Word had spread fast. At least the war with Ponyville was nothing to worry about. The other war was far more worrisome. 

There was a message from Luna describing her views on the current crisis, including multiple mentions not to worry, a stack of messages from various Canterlot nobles demanding action be taken and for the Crown to actually do something for once, rather than sit back and grow fat from taxes. 

The final message proved to be the most interesting. It had the noble seal of Clan Pickled and it was a message from Keg Smasher, High Laird of the Isles. 

Celestia sighed. Under the current political conditions, the Crown was forced  not to acknowledge any title greater than Laird, or landowner among Clan Pickled. The simple truth was, Keg Smasher would make for a fine High Chief. Or even a Prince. Celestia liked the rowdy pegasus a great deal. She cracked open the seal and unrolled the scroll, seeing that Keg Smasher had written this himself in his funny scrawling script. Celestia felt warmed by the gesture and appreciated it. Keg Smasher could have had a scribe write it for him in fine perfect script, but he had instead done it himself, pen in mouth. 

As Celestia read the letter, she laughed a little, then cried a little, and then, after a long time of simply reading, she heaved a sigh of relief. The rowdy pegasus had sent a little hope in Celestia’s direction, and she felt most grateful. 



 

“Are you sure you aren’t angry with me?” 

Bucky considered the words carefully, exchanging a glance with Derpy as he did so. He felt Derpy’s feathers brush against him slightly. 

“I am not angry with you,” Bucky said. “All of this is a mess, but we will move through this together.” 

“I’m a little angry with you,” Derpy confessed. “The more I think about it, the more I realise I should have been there with you, you stupid numbskull. You left me behind. You took away my choice of going with you as a friend and a soon to be fellow-wife.” 

“I’m sorry,” Berry Punch apologised, no traces of mirth in her voice. 

“What you did was stupid! What if you had been hurt!” Derpy growled, reaching out and delivering a powerful swat to Berry Punch’s muzzle. 

Berry sat in shock from the blow, blinking and looking surprised. “I love you too, I’ll try not to let you down again. I really am sorry,” she said, unable to meet Derpy’s gaze, and not because of Derpy’s eyes. “Bucky, if you want a free shot, here is your chance. I have it coming,” Berry invited. 

Bucky reached up with one foreleg, extended it, and gently brushed the side of Berry’s face where Derpy had swatted her. “You crazy crazy mare. I don’t know what I am going to do with you,” Bucky admitted. 

“Nopony else would have her at this point,” Derpy snarked. “We’re stuck with this numbskull.” 

“So, one somewhat broken snob, one numbskull, and one very patient pegasus who watches over us both,” Bucky said, taking everything into account. 

“I’m not perfect,” Derpy confessed. 

“Oh yes you are,” Bucky said, grabbing her suddenly and pulling her close. “I am a high society snob. I might be broken, but I do not accept anything less than perfection.” 

Derpy’s face  turned a deep shade of purple and she began to stammer wordlessly as Bucky developed a case of wandering hooves. She waggled her eyebrows seductively. 

“Explain me then,” Berry challenged, raising her gaze to meet Bucky’s. 

“Still perfect,” Bucky admitted. 

“I’m not sure I deserve that,” Berry said, sounding uncertain. 

“Hush numbskull,” Bucky ordered. 

“Make me…” Berry said with a bit of a challenge. 

A second later, the earth pony was being subdued by the pegasus while the unicorn silenced the earth pony the only way he could, with a passionate kiss on the lips. The pegasus had a terrible case of exploratory wingtips, allowing her feathers to travel everywhere as she held the earth pony and kept her pinned. The earth pony struggled to laugh because her mouth was a little busy. 

“UGH!” Sparkler said. “Get a room if you are going to do that!” She stood on the stairs, watching the adults on the living room floor. “Seriously, just go get a room, shag one another, get it out of your systems.” 

“We’ve waited this long, we’re going to wait until marriage,” Derpy said, still pinning the squirming giggling earth pony mare. “I want to be a good example for you,” Derpy explained, smiling at Sparkler. 

“Yeah, but I am going to go blind if this keeps up. Or develop a complex. Or become afraid to leave my room,” Sparkler protested. 

Bucky ceased his assault and let go of Berry. He focused on Derpy instead, taking the mare by surprise. Berry scrambled away, crawling on her belly, giggling like mad. 

“Aw, mom is happy,” Sparkler said, watching her mother pin Bucky to the floor and take control of the situation. She slammed him down a few times to establish dominance and Sparkler took notes. Sparkler took note of her mother’s heavy grunting and snorting and felt a little alarmed. She felt a brief moment of pity for Bucky. 

“I want little brothers, dad,” Sparkler requested. 

Bucky froze completely, which caused Derpy to pull away in alarm. Bucky lay on the floor, completely non-responsive. 

“Bucky?” Derpy said, poking him with a hoof. 

The prone unicorn did not reply. 

Berry crawled back over, still on her belly, and prodded Bucky with her hoof, and no reply. Bucky usually responded to Berry’s hoof prods… everypony had noticed that. 

“Bucky, say something, are you having a panic attack?” Berry asked, shoving him roughly with her hoof. 

“No, I’m fine,” Bucky said in a low strained voice. “Maybe not fine.” He lay on the floor unmoving, staring up at the ceiling. One side of his face twitched, the paralysed side of his face stayed still. 

“I’m sorry, I thought it would be alright to call you that,” Sparkler said, finally understanding what had happened. 

“I’m glad you did,” Bucky said, still staring upward. “Just caught me off guard. I guess Dinky will call me that now.” 

“Dinky keeps asking me about it,” Sparkler said. “Piña too, but that gets a little complicated because she is Berry’s little sister.” 

“I guess we need to talk about this,” Bucky admitted. 

“More words,” Derpy said, sighing. “What is there to talk about? Dinky is going to have a daddy, Piña might as well be Berry’s foal, and both of them love you to pieces. Just let things happen,” Derpy said, pressing her wingtip down on Bucky’s lips. 

“It wouldn’t bother me if Piña called you daddy,” Berry said, collapsing down on top of Bucky’s barrel and crushing him. She lay there, sprawled over Bucky, looking thoughtful. 

Sparkler came over and tackled her mother, crushing the pegasus down to the floor. She pressed her face into her mother’s neck and inhaled deeply, smelling her mother’s scent. “Thank you for everything you have given me,” Sparkler whispered. “You gave me a life, and I cannot thank you enough.” 

Derpy began to snuffle, wiping at her eyes with a fetlock. “Stop it Sparky,” she murmured. “I’m really emotional lately.” 

Dinky came trotting down the stairs, Piña just behind her, yawning and now awake from her nap. She wasted no time in joining the pony pile, vigourously rubbing against her mother, and Piña piled in on top of her sister, who was still sprawled over Bucky. 

“Dinky, you have a daddy,” Sparkler said, grabbing her little sister and squeezing her tightly. Derpy squirmed around until she could get her forelegs around both of her foals, and she began to squish them in the most motherly way possible. 

“What about me?” Piña asked, raising her head. 

“You can call Bucky whatever you are comfortable with,” Berry said. “Forget all about the complicated stuff for now.” 

“Bucky, are you crying?” Sparkler asked. 

Bucky made no reply as his eyes flooded with tears. 

Derpy, hearing Sparkler’s words, moved to comfort the now emotionally fragile unicorn, his moods as variable as a leaf on the breeze as of late. 

Pony pile dynamics caused a major shift of distributed pony mass, with Derpy’s pony pile merging with Berry’s pony pile, and suddenly, Bucky found himself buried under a writhing mass of ponies. Dinky claimed the top of the pile, and began to pull Piña up there with her, sitting on top of Sparkler, who was piled on top of Derpy, who was sprawled over Berry and Bucky. 

Not all that long ago, such an act would have caused outright panic. 

Now, the panic was only a mild panic, and Bucky was able to cope with it. He lay pinned, pressed under a ponderous mass of ponies, feeling a whole lot better about life.

Derpy’s navel was pressed tightly against the side of Bucky’s face, so he turned his head, wedging his muzzle into a very delicate area on the grey mare. 

Derpy wiggled, threatening the pony pile dynamic of stability, which was tenuous at best, and haphazard at worst. The pile was structurally unsound. Unicorns did not make good foundations for anything. Society, empires, pony piles… 

Bucky blew a long raspberry, which completely wrecked Derpy’s ability to provide stability for her distributed load bearing mass she provided for the ponies above her. The raspberry vibrated the poor mare in the space just below her navel, and Bucky could feel her belly button on his chin. 

Derpy had an outie, but he already knew that. 

The pony pile suffered catastrophic collapse, and Dinky and Piña tumbled to the floor. Sparkler almost squished Dinky as she slid off, letting out a giggling cry as she went. 

“Some jerk blew a raspberry right  in between my te-” 

Derpy was cut off by Berry’s hoof pressing into her mouth, Berry giggling madly. 

“Mommy had a raspberry where?” Dinky asked, blinking, rubbing her bumblebee cutie mark, which she had landed on. 

“In a very ticklish place,” Sparkler said. 

“I know where,” Piña said, blushing, turning even pinker than she was. Her ears drooped in embarrassment. 

“Piña, shush!” Berry said, still giggling. 

“Adult areas. Where the snorgasm happens,” Piña announced. 

“Oh my,” Sparkler said, turning purple-pinker and beginning to giggle. “Poor mom. She’s already so frustrated.” 

Derpy pushed Berry’s hoof away. “Bucky, I am going to wreck you, just so you know. No more nice mare,” Derpy threatened. “You just wait.” 

Derpy rose up onto her hooves unsteadily, her wings half flared. She shuddered, giving herself a good shake. She felt warm and flustered. 

It is interesting to note that pegasi physiology was geared towards turning their body into one big heat sink, and pegasi were prone to overheating from physical exertion. Their wings were filled with spongy tissues that could be flooded with blood, allowing for increased airflow over a large amount of surface area, rapidly cooling their body. In order to maximise the amount of surface area, the wings were capable of extending forcefully outward to their full length, each feather lifting away and extending outward away from the skin, allowing for the maximum amount of airflow to cool the overheated pegasus in a most efficient manner. 

Pegasi called this much needed survival adaptation ‘the wing boner’ and every pegasus had stories of it happening at the most embarrassing times. 

Her flared wings were not enough to cool her rapidly overheating body and Derpy’s brain released a flood of chemicals to trigger emergency heat dumping as the pegasus mare thought about taking something from Bucky that he could only give away once. She wanted it more than anything else in the whole wide world. 

The crack her wings made as they ejected outwards was almost supersonic, very much like the crack of a whip, and it sent the foals scattering, another useful biological adaptation, creating privacy for more foal making. 

The extended wings also created the most useful hoof holds, allowing for the violent and athletic sex that the pegasi were known for. 

Sexual arousal also triggered the magically charged pegasus adrenal glands, which made their skin harden, which in turn caused their entire body to suffer a rock hard state, which is part of the reason why pegasi were known as brutes. They suffered full body erections during the height of arousal. 

Only the very brave, the very durable, or the very stupid took pegasi as mates if they were not pegasi themselves. 

Bucky was not very brave and he certainly was not very durable, but he had one thing in spades. 

Derpy stood over Bucky and Berry, her wings spread wide, smiling a very violent and predatory smile as she stared down at the unicorn and the earth pony she had claimed as her own. 
	
	
> Chapter 43
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The royal train car was well appointed. Full of comfortable seats, a few small day beds for reclining equine forms, and all manner of delicious snacks, it was truly a small palace on rails. The car itself was packed with royalty and nobles, a delegation headed to the independent republic of Ponyville, now an enclave within Equestria. 

Now that the shock had worn off, Celestia was actually proud of Twilight Sparkle, and intended to tell her so. Twilight Sparkle had not moved against her, or at least that is what Celestia had believed, Twilight Sparkle had moved to protect Ponyville. And Celestia hoped that her hunch was right. Celestia refused to believe that her student, her pupil, her most trusted friend, would ever actually move against her. She had to believe it or else the foundation of long standing trust would now be gone. 

And there were others who shared Celestia’s belief. Night Light, Twilight Sparkle’s father, Twilight Velvet, her mother, Shining Armor, her brother, and Cadance, her sister in law, who had done much to comfort Celestia and help Celestia see reason. All of whom were currently in the train car. All of whom were fiercely proud of her for doing what she did. And Celestia had been moved into a position of agreement. Twilight Sparkle had done the right thing. Twilight Sparkle had almost always done the right thing. 

It was Celestia who currently wondered if she herself had done the right thing. 

“Cadance, are you sure this is going to be a good course of action?” Celestia asked, seeking reassurance from the bright pink alicorn currently curled up against her. 

“Auntie, I assure you, it was love that brought us to this state of affairs, and love will get us out. This is a little hiccup, just a little rough spot. I believe this can be smoothed over,” Cadance reassured, giving Celestia a nuzzle. Cadance had always been more pegasus in her means of communication, having once been a pegasus herself. 

“But bringing back herd marriage. Officially sanctioned herd marriage. After all of the trouble it caused. It had to go,” Celestia said, comforted somewhat by Cadance’s nuzzle. Cadance was well suited to being the Princess of Love, Celestia reflected, being such a physically oriented creature derived from pegasus stock. Pegasi were always hooves on in everything they did, and Cadance was no different. The pink alicorn now began to rub the side of her face against Celestia’s long neck, causing Celestia to relax considerably. 

“And now it has to come back,” Cadance replied, feeling a warm happy sensation from feeling Celestia’s soft pelt against her cheek. “At least in Ponyville. Restrict it to one city only. Have Twilight Sparkle pass a law allowing it, and when Twilight Sparkle inevitably hands Ponyville back to you once her conditions are met, keep the law on the books in the name of ‘fairness’, that way, everypony gets what they want. And you can save face by being the fair and just ruler. You do not get blamed for changing the law empire wide, and they cannot fault you for being a gracious ruler when you settle this dispute and sue for peace.”

“That is brilliant Cadance,” Celestia said. “This is why I moved you to the Crystal Empire,” Celestia remarked. 

“Which still technically has herd marriage on the books and is currently being ignored I might add,” replied Cadance. 

Celestia pursed her lips together and looked thoughtful. Cadance was telling the truth. Technically, the Crystal Empire was outside of Equestria, so it should not matter. “What is your own opinion on this manner? Would you share Shining Armor with another mare?” Celestia asked in a low voice. 

“The right mares, certainly,” Cadance replied. 

Celestia sat, genuinely shocked. 

“How could I be selfish and keep him all to myself? He is going to make a wonderful father once I can get him to relax and lighten up a bit. Love is love is love. Our family could only be improved by making it larger. I would get to watch Shining Armor be a father and interact with other mares, I would get a chance to see him as he really is, from an outside perspective other than my own exclusive perspective. I would get a chance to open my heart to my fellow-wives, to test myself, to see if my values are as strong as I claim they are. Adversity brings growth and chances for improvement. I would get a chance to see if friendship really was magic, and if it could survive at the next level of social operation, that of applying those values in a family setting, to see if sharing, caring, loyalty, honesty, and all those other values can hold true under a real test of fire, because marriage is the ultimate testbed of one’s values. When Shining Armor and I had our first fight, I thought my world was ending, my confidence completely shattered, and I didn’t feel worthy of being the Princess of Love. I had failed in my duty. It was a reality check on everything I believed in and Shining helped me put all of the pieces back together. He was terrified that I did not love him anymore. We were both very vulnerable and exposed after that squabble. We both grew a great deal. Now, add a couple of mares that were my most trusted and loyal friends and add them to this situation, and I would welcome the chances for growth, opportunity, and self improvement,” Cadance said in one very long winded bit of exposition. 

“When you put it that way, it seems reasonable,” Celestia replied. 

“I wonder what this lack of growth has robbed society of,” Cadance said, looking thoughtful, now covering her auntie with a wing and going for a full body rub. 

“That is not fair Cadance,” Celestia grumped, feeling a bit miffed with her niece.

“You do not deny that it is true though,” Cadance acknowledged, attempting to merge with her aunt. Celestia had the most wonderful pelt. 

Cadance’s physical affections were creating floods of oxytocin between the two mares, bringing them ever closer. Bonds that lasted centuries took effort to develop. 

“Berry Punch brought us to war,” Celestia said distractedly, enjoying Cadance’s affections. It seemed as though all of her worries were being soothed away. 

“I would go to war for Shining Armor,” Cadance confessed. “I would have to make a grand gesture worthy of his love though, like razing a city or sacking a county.” 

“That is not funny Cadance,” Celestia admonished, trying to not crack a smile. 

“I’m not laughing,” Cadance said. 

Celestia suffered a painful start as she realised that Cadance was not joking, what she had said was not said in jest. She turned to look at her niece, another alicorn that she trusted implicitly. For a brief moment, Celestia wondered if love might be a threat to the empire, a source of destabilization. Cadance was, in her heart, a hot blooded bad tempered pegasus held back by a thin alicorn veneer. 

Berry Punch had offered up a few injuries to express her ire. Celestia realised that Cadance would have leveled the house to a pile of rubble or worse. It was a sobering thought. Cadance was the alicorn of love, love had passion, emotion, love was raw. Love was possessive and protective. 

Love had always been the cause of so many wars, and Celestia now saw Cadance in an entirely new light. Cadance made grand gestures of her love and affection. Her gestures of war would be epic. It made Celestia squirm. 

“What would you have done in Berry Punch’s position?" Celestia asked bluntly, needing to know, dreading the answer. “If somepony had left the love of your life broken, damaged, and badly hurt?” 

“I certainly would not show her level of restraint. You were lucky auntie, that it was only an earth pony that had started the war,” Cadance said grimly. “I would have brought a flock and the war would have began in earnest immediately after the declaration.” 

Celestia cringed at hearing the words. 

“That house, not one stone would be left standing. I would leave behind a smoking crater. I would run them down in the street and trample them under my hooves. I would-” 

“Cadance! Enough, stop being a pegasus, I cannot bear it,” Celestia said, her eyes clenching shut. 

Cadance blinked, snapping out of her momentary angry spell. “I’m sorry auntie, I do not know what came over me. Just the thought of somebody hurting Shining. I thought about Chrysalis for a moment and everything began to flood out, forgive me,” Cadance begged. Cadance’s distress was visible, and Celestia tried to calm her niece. Pegasi were such flighty creatures, and so much of Cadance’s pegasus nature dominated her new form. Much like Twilight Sparkle still retained so many unicorn traits. 

These faults were their strengths, Celestia knew this and celebrated it. 



 

The train pulled into the station in a cloud of steam and smoke. A crowd had gathered. Banners were displayed proudly in such a location that it would be the first thing a pony saw upon stepping off the train. 

Princess Luna was nowhere to be seen. 

Twilight Sparkle waited, surrounded by her trusted friends. The truce was a chance for her to display her sense of civility. She looked forward to showing Celestia just what she was capable of, that she too could run an empire, only without all the ugly bits. 

The doors opened and the first pony off of the train was Celestia, who was not wearing her crown or regalia, just as Luna had not worn hers. The crowd cheered a little bit, some of them confused, unsure of how they should greet the now foreign dignitary. Cadance came next and Twilight Sparkle could feel her heart jump up into her throat. 

What she saw next broke her completely. 

When her parents and Shining Armor stepped down off of the train, Twilight Sparkle became a foal again. All thoughts of public decorum died. She began to bawl from her raw emotions and ran forward to embrace her parents, sobbing pitifully. 

There was a very touching moment in the family that the public realised that they were intruding upon. Many turned or looked away out of respect. Quite a few turned to their own families and had a moment of warm affection. 

Twilight Sparkle’s sobs could be heard all over the trainyard, and Celestia had a powerful reminder that, even if still flawed, not all Canterlot unicorns were bad sorts. 



 

Leaving Twilight with her family, Celestia followed a charcoal coloured pegasus named Thunderlane, hoping to see Luna, her sister, who was not there to greet her at the train station. 

“Ma’am, the prisoners are all secured in here. Well, they live in here. They are actually free to roam the town. Seems cruel to keep them locked up,” Thunderlane said. “We are many things, but we are not cruel.” 

“Thank you for your graciousness and your kindness towards my loyal guard,” Celestia said, thanking the pegasus.

She pushed open the door and peered inside. She was immediately hit with the smell of urine, which shocked her. Her nose crinkled. It was dark inside. It reeked of alcohol. There were bodies all over the floor, along with dozens of bottles of all kinds, beer, wine, and cider. She could see Luna sprawled on a couch, still drinking, currently chugging down a bottle of wine as Celestia had opened the door. 

Thunderlane, sensing trouble, took off. 

Luna’s only greeting was a thunderous belch. 

Beside Luna sat an older ivory-coloured unicorn stallion that Celestia did not know or recognise, and he was cuddled against Luna in a most infuriatingly familiar fashion. 

Both of them were deep into their cups, as drunk as lords. 

They had completely obliterated the guard and were the last two ponies still conscious. The urine smell came from puddles pooled around sprawled out backsides. 

Celestia’s thoughts of disgust were interrupted by Luna farting a trumpeting blast and giggle-snorting repeatedly. 

“Aye lass, yer a wee pretty maid,” the unknown stallion confessed drunkenly. 

Luna began to giggle even more, leaning on the stallion and taking another long pull from her bottle. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Celestia demanded. A stallion on the floor, passed out, farted loudly, practically beneath Celestia’s hooves. 

“I was appointed to keep up the morale of these fine service ponies. We had ourselves a party,” the stallion slurred. 

“I had to lea-hiccup-lead by example,” Luna explained, hiccupping as she did so. “We’ve been up all ni-hiccup-ight. They all fell on du-hiccup-ty and somepony had to keep watch-hiccup-”

“Luna, what are you doing?” Celestia said. “And who is that on the couch with you?” 

“This is Bar-hiccup-ley O’Blivion, and last night, some time after mid-hiccup-night, he felt me up a bit and I -hiccup- ran away and he chased me, and then after that -hiccup- I chased him, and then af-hiccup-ter that, we drank a whole lot, and then, -hiccup- we shagged and oh boy, it has been a long time since I’ve had a good and proper sha-hiccup-gging,” Luna explained, completely and utterly sloshed. 

Celestia stepped away, backing out of the building. She took one deep breath and slammed the door. 

“It isn’t any-hiccup-thing serious!” Luna hollered from inside. “Just a little chase and some frien-hiccup-dly shagging!” 

Thoroughly disgusted with everything in life, Celestia strode away from the building and went off to collect her thoughts. 
	
	
> Chapter 44
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle sat in her library, surrounded by her family. It was a private family moment, with her mother, her father, Spike, her brother, and Cadance. All of them sat looking at her, all with very different expressions on their faces. Her mother looked happy to see her. Her father looked proud, as he had always looked proud. Spike looked confused, but the recent events had left him very confused. Cadance looked calm and supportive. 

Shining Armor looked angry. 

“Twilight dear, I am sure you had very good reasons for doing what you did. But I am very curious as to why you did them,” Twilight Velvet said to her daughter while leaning on her husband. 

“I had a number of reasons mother,” Twilight answered. “I needed to make sure that Berry Punch was safe. I didn’t want members of House Avarice coming here and harming her, or killing her. Declaring independence for Ponyville allowed me to protect her. House Avarice doesn’t want to start a war with me. I’ve already been sent communications stating that they recognise my authority for the time being. So I have Berry Punch secured. Also, I intend to force Celestia’s hoof on a few issues. I will give Ponyville back when certain glaring issues have been addressed and a fair resolution is offered to all parties.”

“That seems reasonable,” Night Light said, looking at his daughter and considering her many words carefully. “And what do you intend to do with Berry Punch?”

“I don’t know yet,” Twilight admitted. 

“She should be pardoned,” Shining Armor said. 

“What?” Cadance gasped. 

“You heard me. Pardoned,” Shining Armor insisted. 

“How can you say that Shiny dear,” Twilight Velvet asked. 

“Easy,” Shining replied. “Sure, the war looks bad, but it will allow Twily to fix things and it will allow both sides to talk and maybe sort things out fairly for both parties. None of this could be fixed without a state of war first. This is a war in name only. Berry Punch should be declared a national hero and offered a full pardon for what will eventually restore real peace. It is what I would do if I had it in my power. And now that the war is back on, I would use the current laws, created by House Avarice I might add, to try House Avarice for war crimes retroactively. The new state of war would allow for that to happen if a brave soul went forward to press charges when peace is sued for. I would strip them of their wealth, wreck their houses, and make them pay one thousand years of restitution to Clan Pickled for their horrible atrocities. And I would hold OUR family responsible as well. We had a part in all of this.” 

“Shining, son, have I have ever told you how proud I am of you?” Night Light asked. “I cannot help but feel you are right. We in this room may not have actually had a hoof in what happened in the past, but we continue to profit from all the horrible things done.” The older stallion sounded terribly sad, Shining’s words settling in uncomfortably into his mind. There was a lot to answer for. 

“Yes we do,” Twilight Velvet said despondently. “Every year we collect our tribute payment from House Avarice as part of the bleedingly cruel tax that is levied over the Shetland Isles. I just found out where that money came from when I refused to answer the summons and they sent the papers saying that we had violated the pact of mutual defense that existed between our houses. Shining Armor told me where that money came from. It made me sick. Actually sick.” 

“Blood money,” Shining Armor spat. 

“We are all war criminals,” Twilight Velvet said, the shock still slowly settling in. The sheer enormity of the situation finally resting on her shoulders. “We’ve been profiting from the blood money for almost a thousand years. There is no way we could pay it all back and absolve ourselves of wrongdoing. Shining Armor is right. We will have to pay our dues or become hypocrites.” 

“This is becoming complicated,” Twilight said sadly. 

“This is really confusing,” Spike agreed. 

“Well then, we as a family need to do the right thing now. As a family. All of us. As soon as possible, we begin the legal proceedings to strip ourselves of our titles and our lands. We give up our wealth and any claims to what House Avarice collects. We quietly accept our lots with all the dignity we can muster and we become paupers,” Night Light said, his voice cracking with grief. “And when this ends, we be the brave souls that seek prosecution for the war crimes that have taken place, and throw in our lots with those to be punished. The courts will be merciful if we begin to make amends now.” 

“Shining, you know more about all of this, is this the right thing to do?” Twilight Velvet asked her son, her eyes now teary. 

“I don’t know,” Shining Armor admitted. “But it would be a good start.” 

“So that’s it then. House Evening Star is no more,” Night Light said. “We begin again and do the right thing. We become the examples that we want to see in the world. I worked very hard to teach my foals these values and I will not be made a hypocrite. My only regret is not knowing sooner. I wonder how many other houses continue to make profit.” 

“We cannot go home,” Twilight Velvet said, the truth of the situation settling in. 

“Stay in Ponyville, the flock looks after their own,” Twilight Sparkle said, the real meaning of those words continuing to grow each day she heard them. 

“Celestia is here in Ponyville and even though she is not here in full official capacity, we can begin by telling her,” Shining Armor said solemnly.

“I will begin to study and try to find a solution that is fair for all of us. To be honest, I do not fully understand what is going on,” Twilight Sparkle said to her family.

“House Avarice planned this well,” Shining Armor said. “I’ve been doing a little study myself. Twily isn’t the only scholar. This could potentially collapse most of the noble houses,” Shining Armor said. 

“Suddenly I don’t feel right trying to punish Berry Punch,” Twilight Sparkle tearfully confessed. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Cadance said. “I don’t think she should be pardoned. I think she needs some kind of punishment for what she has done, but it should be very lenient and more of a token gesture than anything else.”

“How can you say that Cadance? She’s the victim!” Shining Armor argued. 

“Are we fighting?” Cadance asked, alarmed. 

“No,” Shining said. “Look, I’m sorry, but all of this has my blood boiling and the more I learn about this, the worse it gets. I’ll try to not be so imposing of my opinion on others. I really am sorry. To all of you.” 

“Twilight dear,” Twilight Velvet said to her daughter, “please do try to be merciful in whatever you choose to do. This whole situation is only going to become more and more complicated as past sins are compiled and old debts are called in. Now, more than ever, it is time for a gentle touch. That mare, Berry Punch, she did what she believed was right. She had no way of knowing just how much damage was actually being done. She started a war, she ended the peace, and as awful this is going to be, it needed to happen. Do not punish her for her courage.” 

Twilight nodded and went to her mother, and, upon reaching her, began to hug her fiercely. The two mares shared a tearful moment together, bonding only as a mother and daughter could. 

Spike, needing to hug somepony, and seeing Twilight was busy, ran to Night Light and began to squeeze Twilight Sparkle’s father. “I have a few gems that could help out,” Spike offered, causing Night Light to begin to sniffle. 

Shining, seeing his family hugging, turned to Cadance and tackled her, kissing her neck noisily while he squeezed, feeling so many conflicting emotions as he did so. 



 

A small flock of pegasi studied Celestia. Flitter and Cloudchaser watched her, while Rumble and Cloudstreaker hid behind their parents. Celestia watched the foals peering at her shyly, and she smiled at them. Thunderlane pranced on his hooves and looked at her sheepishly, with his head down low in supplication. 

“Look, I had no idea what was going on in there,” Thunderlane apologised again. Flitter whacked him a good one upside the back of his head and Thunderlane groaned. 

“So all of you are a herd,” Celestia stated, speaking exactly what was on her mind. 

“Yes,” Thunderlane replied, rubbing the back of his head with a foreleg. 

“Would you care to tell me more? It might be helpful. I would really like to know your perspectives,” Celestia said invitingly. “It might help me make things right.” 

“What do you want to know?” Flitter asked. 

“Everything,” Celestia said. 

“We just want to raise our foals and have a large happy family,” Cloudchaser said. 

“Who is in charge?” Celestia asked. 

“Nopony really. We don’t have an alpha. We try to vote,” Thunderlane said. “It was my idea,” he added, looking very proud with himself.

“And this is why we love Thunderlane. He does so many stupid things that when he finally has a good idea, he comes across as being utterly brilliant by comparison,” Flitter giggled, her wings fluttering and her tail swishing. 

“Well, speak for yourself sister, I love him because even though he is a total chowderhead, he is a wonderful father and a kind and attentive husband that does everything he can to keep me happy,” Cloudchaser said, causing Thunderlane to blush. “Being a good father will allow me to forgive almost anything. How could I not share with my sister such a good father? That would be selfish. My sister deserves to have a good father for her foals just as much as I do.” 

“Interesting,” Celestia replied, now looking thoughtful. 

“I came up with a rule that one of us cannot take sides in an argument. So if something happens, I can’t get somepony to side with me or they cannot get somepony to side with one of them, one of us always obligated to be the neutral party and make sure that that the two of us that are bickering stay nice to one another, and then kiss and apologise,” Thunderlane announced, looking very pleased with himself. He raised his head high and took on a very dashing stance, very nearly preening himself with pride.

“He did,” both Flitter and Cloudchaser said together. 

“May I ask a personal question?” Celestia asked. 

Cloudchaser looked annoyed and Flitter glared at her sister. 

“If we can answer and it will help our cause, I will answer almost anything,” Flitter offered, smacking her sister with her wing as Cloudchaser made an annoyed snort. 

“I am curious about your sleeping habits,” Celestia admitted, blushing faintly. 

“Everypony has to ask that,” Cloudchaser grumbled. 

“We all sleep in the big bed together,” Flitter replied, “even the foals. We believe that sleeping as a family creates strong bonds. It has certainly helped Cloudstreaker readjust back into family life. We will keep them with us until such a time they are ready to claim their own beds or we will kick them out. For other things…” Flitter said, her words trailing off as she tried to think of a nice way to put this while foals were present. 

“We have a separate room and a smaller bed,” Cloudchaser continued. “A pair of us will go there for quiet time alone. My sister and I do not under any circumstances engage with one another or share Thunderlane together. We respect each others privacy and need for alone time. I get him one day, she gets him the next day, and if one of us is feeling extra spry, we have the option to ask one another for his company. Usually, we agree.” 

“Yeah,” Thunderlane acknowledged, grinning. “They’re sweet with one another like that, offering to cook dinner in exchange for having some time with me. Makes me feel good knowing I am worth bargaining for.” 

Both sisters rolled their eyes at once, a gesture that seemed that it happened quite a bit, given that Thunderlane was in fact, an actual chowderhead. 

“You all seem to be very happy with one another,” Celestia observed. 

“We are,” Flitter answered. 

“I am extremely happy, I mean, look at these two,” Thunderlane said. 

“I couldn’t be happier,” Cloudchaser replied. 

As Celestia continued to talk to the trio, she thought about another trio of ponies that she desperately wanted to talk to. She hoped that she would be welcomed. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 45
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I suppose you want to talk to me about what I did.” 

The large white alicorn settled into the overstuffed chair and looked at the mare addressing her. “No actually,” Celestia replied. “I have no desire to talk about that. I came here for personal reasons. I received your letter Buckminster,” the alicorn mare stated. 

Bucky, sitting on the floor, fell to the hardwood floorboards with a thump, looking very embarrassed. He had nearly forgotten about that during the recent events. 

“I must say, I am very very flattered that somepony found me attractive,” Celestia admitted, causing Bucky to ignite. His blush intensified to the point where smoke began to waft away from his horn. “Do not look so surprised. Every mare wants to know that she is desirable and attractive. And I am still a mare, in spite of all I have become,” Celestia stated. 

“I, uh, er, well…” Bucky trailed off. 

“You are pretty,” Piña said, looking up at Celestia. She climbed up and straddled Bucky’s withers, rested one foreleg on the back of his head, and then she fanned his smoking horn with the other. 

“Why thank you Piña,” Celestia said graciously. “I have been in contact with Keg Smasher,” she said to Berry Punch. “He should be contacting you soon.” 

“Oh dear,” Berry Punch said. 

“Try not to worry about too much for now,” Celestia soothed. “There are other issues to discuss.” 

“I thought you didn’t want to discuss the whole war debacle,” Berry replied, looking somewhat confused. 

“No, I do not, but I did come to discuss politics,” Celestia admitted. She watched Dinky crawl up on Bucky’s back and begin trying to shove Piña off. The two struggled while Bucky lay sprawled upon the floor. 

“Politics,” Derpy mumbled. “Ugh.” 

“Actually, I came about marriage. Which in your case, is going to be very political,” Celestia revealed, looking at the the ponies in the room with her. “Twilight Sparkle of course wants Berry bound to some position of social responsibility, and I agree that it would be for the best. I cannot perform the actual wedding, Twilight Sparkle is hesitant to do so, however…” Celestia fell silent and looked around the room. “Cadance is a foreign dignitary and she has the authority to do so. She is also the Princess of Love, and she wants a hoof in this. And I agree. We have discussed this, all of us, except for Luna and I.” 

“Why haven’t you talked with Luna about this?” Bucky asked. 

“I do not want to talk about it,” Celestia replied, shaking her head and snorting with disgust. “I cannot even begin to figure out where to start regarding the Luna situation.” 

“There is a Luna situation?” Berry asked, looking Berry curious. 

“Forget about it. You should be prepared for a wedding. It will be soon. Details will be incoming. Keg Smasher specifically asked for me to allow this, stating that he will help end the war at his end if I do. So I am going to acquiesce to his requests. I am unsure as to why he would request this as a condition for his agreement to sue for peace, but I do trust his judgment. He has been nothing but a good and fair ruler, working very hard to manage with what little bit he has,” Celestia explained. 

Piña gave a cry and tumbled backwards after a particularly strong push from Dinky. She lost her balance and fell. She never hit the floor. Piña hovered, an inch above the floor. Celestia hadn’t done it, and Bucky’s horn was still smouldering but not lit. 

Dinky’s horn was glowing brightly. 

“Sorry,” Dinky apologised, hooking fetlocks with Piña and pulling her back up. The two foals hugged one another tightly, sitting on Bucky’s back. 

It was an impressive display of magic and control, and Dinky had no idea that Celestia was intently studying her. Dinky was already powerful enough to lift another foal in her magic and had the mental fortitude to summon the will required. 

“You seem to be doing very well Dinky,” Celestia praised. 

“Bucky and Lyra keep teaching me stuff,” Dinky replied, blushing. “Lyra teaches me lots about magic theory and Bucky teaches me about force of will, focus, and control. I can drive a nail into the wall now just by thinking about it,” 

“That is impressive for a foal your age. You have been blessed with very good teachers Dinky,” Celestia said, smiling at the foal. 

“I can summon fire, but I know better than to actually do it. I can make liquids boil or become very cold. Berry gets me to reheat her coffee,” Dinky admitted, trying to not sound like she was bragging, even though she was clearly proud of what she could do. 

“Tell her about the bread,” Piña giggled, which caused Dinky to giggle. 

“No,” Berry said, shaking her head. 

“Dinky is a bit of a prankster,” Derpy warned. 

“She had Berry pretty good,” Bucky added. 

“I enchanted a loaf of bread,” Dinky boasted. “I placed a sound spell on it.” 

“Why place a sound spell on a loaf of bread?” Celestia asked, puzzled. 

“When Berry went to cut the bread for breakfast, every time she sawed on the bread with the knife, it made rude farty noises,” Dinky confessed, giggling. Piña collapsed into Dinky’s embrace with the giggle-snorts. 

Celestia covered her mouth with her fetlock and struggled not  to laugh. She coughed instead, and had to keep coughing. Quite without meaning to, she tittered. She could not believe she was laughing at this. 

“It was awful,” Bucky recalled. “I almost died from mortification. Berry would go to cut off a slice and the rude noises would fill the kitchen.” 

The alicorn made a very unladylike snort. 

“Troublesome little unicorn,” Derpy said, shaking her head. 

“Well, I told you, little unicorns do that,” Bucky said. 

“Little unicorns would not do that if big unicorns didn’t teach them prank magic,” Derpy retorted, glaring at Bucky, trying not to smile. 

“Even worse, she enchanted Barley’s shoes,” Berry said, sighing. “Barley took the opportunity to dance a jig,” Berry said, her face breaking into a wide grin. 

Celestia found herself laughing, quite against her will. And then she realised who Luna had been with. She choked on her own laughter and struggled to breathe for a moment. 

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Berry said. 

“Maybe I have,” Celestia wheezed. 



 

Two ponies staggered through town, completely sloshed. They would stop occasionally, leaning upon one another, trying to steady themselves. Several bottles and a keg floated behind them, held in a bright blue aura. 

“Kiss me, I’m shitefaced,” one said, puckering up and making kissy kissy noises. 

“Yeah, I am -hiccup- sorry about that, I shar-hiccup-ted when you were kissing me back there,” the other replied. 

“It happens lass, it happens. Ye know, I think I pissed meself,” the stallion said to the mare. He looked down between his front legs, peering at his hind hooves, wobbling unsteadily. “I did, I did.” 

The mare laughed, and then took a long pull from the bottle. “I think -hiccup- I am in the mood for your luc-hiccup-ky charms again,” she said suggestively, one wing flapping wildly as she struggled to keep her balance. “You are such a gen-hiccup-tlepony. Everypony else is -hiccup- so afraid of me,” the mare confessed. “I get so -hiccup- lonely.” 

“Aye, I wants me a strong able bodied mare… I needs me a good mare that can put me in me place,” the stallion replied, nearly falling over, his front hooves splaying outwards. “Look at me, I’m a sot,” he chuckled. 

The mare stood, staring at the stallion, licking her lips with unabashed lust. 

“I’m prood of me wee dainty Berry,” the stallion said, his lilt fueled by alcohol. “All o’ her siblings ain’t worth a tinker’s damn, ‘cept wee Piña. I loves me that wee filly.” 

“You -hiccup- have a good fam-hiccup-ily,” the mare agreed, dropping an empty bottle and heaving a sigh. “Another fine soldier has fallen,” she said sadly. 

“Aye, he was a good lad,” the stallion slurred. “I want to go home, I dinnae think I can take another moment without me wee Berry,” the stallion blurted. 

“I will walk -hiccup- you home,” the mare offered. She paused and took a long drink from the keg directly. 

The residents of Ponyville watched in abstract horror as Luna, Keeper of the Moon, chugged directly from a keg and then staggered off with the old stallion by her side. 



 

Celestia was drinking the fireball whiskey directly from the bottle now. She had polished most of it off. While she was nowhere near drunk, the alicorn was becoming relaxed. She had dropped her guard and become quite sociable. 

“I really want all of you to be happy,” Celestia said, looking at Bucky, Derpy, and Berry Punch. “So much has been done to you Bucky, you deserve to be happy. And if it takes two mares to do that, then you should have two mares.” 

Derpy looked at Berry and raised an eyebrow. Berry looked at Derpy and returned the eyebrow raise. Both mares nodded slightly. Bucky, now so much more aware of the silent communications between the two mares, felt afraid. 

“I have a lovely bottle of red in the kitchen, in the fridge, getting cold. Let me know when you finish the whiskey,” Berry said invitingly. 

“That’s so nice,” Celestia said, her cheeks turning pink. “Ponies never want to do pony things with me, like somehow I am above having a good time. I am a mare too. I want what mares want. I am still a pony. I just want to let my mane down sometimes and have a nice time, but no, manners this, and decorum that, and mind what you do lest you cause a scandal. Did I just use a run on sentence?” 

Bucky nodded faintly. Dinky and Piña giggled and Dinky whispered something into Piña’s flickering ear. 

Celestia guzzled down the remainder of the bottle and set it down upon the small table next to the chair. 

Berry bounced into the kitchen, and sounds could be heard. Derpy dismounted from the couch and flopped down on the floor next to Bucky, rolling up against his side. Piña gleefully began to climb over Derpy and find a nice place to lay down, her body resting in the crevice formed between Derpy’s and Bucky’s bodies. 

Berry returned a moment later, walking on three legs, her foreleg holding a tall mason jar full of wine in her hoof, for Celestia, who took it gratefully. She bounded back into the kitchen again. 

“I’ve been under so much stress lately. The noble houses have been squabbling. If I could, I would get rid of them all. We’d be better off without them,” Celestia confessed. 

Berry returned, walking a three legged gait, bearing a glass of wine for Derpy. She set it down on the floor in front of the grey mare with a smile and then vanished into the kitchen once again. 

“Ponies do not realise how little power I have sometimes about the day to day matters of the empire. The noble houses have to vote and agree on things, and if they do not agree, stuff does not get done,” Celestia explained. She took a long drink. “Oh, that is quite good. We keep Clan Pickled wines in the royal cellars.” 

Berry returned with a glass of wine for Bucky, grinning hugely as she bounded into the room and set the glass down. Bucky picked up his glass right away and took a long drink, closing his eyes as he tipped his head back. Berry departed, seeking wine for herself. 

Derpy drank slowly, smacking her lips as she pulled them away from the jar. The red wine turned her grey lips a purple blue colour, which Bucky might notice matched another pair of lips, had he been looking. 

“You two look so adorable together, all covered in foals,” Celestia said, her regal tones melting away into something warm, friendly, and full of emotion. 

Berry returned, set down her glass, and flopped down on the floor with Bucky and Derpy, scooting in beside them. She emptied half of her glass with a swallow. 

“I remember how it used to be,” Celestia said, reminiscing. “Pansy had over a dozen fellow-wives and Hurricane was a very happy stallion. Three seems like so small a number for a family.” She took a long drink from her glass and belched lightly. “I have to know, who is the head in this herd?” 

“I am,” Derpy replied, blushing a bit. She took a sip and then giggled. 

“I would challenge her position but she can kiss me so hard that I have to pull my tail out of my backside when it gets sucked in,” Berry replied. 

Celestia snorted, horked, and then guffawed. 

“I am content to remain on my pedestal,” Bucky replied. He was feeling warm from his wine. Not drunk in the slightest, but he was relaxing a bit. 

“I get to call him daddy,” Piña announced to Celestia. “So does Dinky. That makes us sisters. Sort of. Stuff is complicated.” 

“Aw, I had always hoped that Buckminster would get to be a father, I have such high hopes for you Buckminster. Once we move past this unpleasantness, I’d like to see you do great things,” Celestia said to Bucky. She took a long drink and completely killed off her drink. She stared down into the jar, peering at the drops remaining. She flicked out her incredibly long tongue and lapped up the last remaining drops after stuffing her muzzle into the jar opening. “I feel so much better,” Celestia confessed.

“There is beer in the fridge,” Bucky said. 

“Do not bother getting up, I’ll get it,” Celestia said. Her horn glowed and several bottles poofed into existence on the table beside the chair. Her horn still glowing, she cracked off a cap and began to drink, making happy murmuring sounds in her throat. 

“This is a side of you I never thought existed,” Berry said in a low voice, exchanging a glance with Bucky. 

“I’m just like you,” Celestia sniffed. “You should have seen Luna.” 

“I should have seen Luna?” Bucky asked. 

“Nothing!” Celestia said, draining her bottle and cracking open another one. “You know Bucky, you aren’t the only one afraid of having a nice time,” she added. She began to guzzle another bottle. 

“This is going to be glorious,” Berry whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

Bucky heartily disagreed. This was going to be disastrous. He wasn’t even sure if alicorns could even get drunk. “Berry, what were you thinking?” Bucky whispered back into Berry’s ear, causing Berry to giggle as his breath tickled her ear. 

“She’s having a rough time, she is our guest, we have obligations to be hospitable,” Berry replied, whispering into Bucky’s ear. 

“Ponies always forget about alicorns and our superiour hearing,” Celestia said, punctuating her words with a loud belch. It wasn’t quite Sparkler grade, but it was close. “I know what you are doing, and I thank you.” 

The ponies remained drinking for a while, talking, laughing, the foals occasionally mentioning things they learned in school. A very relaxed atmosphere took over the room, and Celestia began to act more and more like a pony, and less and less like a regal figure. 

The festive mood was interrupted by a knock upon the door. One knock at first, followed by a flood of instant knocking. 

Berry Punch scrambled to her hooves and then opened the front door. 

Beyond the door was quite a sight. 

“I believe this is yours!” Cadance grunted at Berry Punch, using her magic to toss a ivory stallion indoors. He landed on the floor with a grunt. 

Twilight Sparkle stared at Celestia, looked around the room, and looked quite in shock. “And this is yours!” she exclaimed. Using her magic, she tossed Luna into the room. Luna tumbled to the floor with a drunken roar of laughter. 

“Hey, Twilight, can I -hiccup- have that stick?” Luna asked. 

“What stick? What are you talking about?” Twilight demanded, clearly running out of patience, a scowl plastered on her muzzle. 

“The -hiccup- stick you keep up your plot!” Luna roared, collapsing with laughter. 

“Berry, wee Berry, you are going to hear some stories,” Barley slurred. “And they’re all true. Especially all the parts with Luna.” 

Berry’s mouth fell open as Cadance and Twilight Sparkle shoved their way inside. 
	
	
> Chapter 46
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were four alicorns in the living room. Derpy’s home, small and cramped by Bucky’s standards, large and spacious by Ponyville standards, had become one of the rare locations to host all of Equestria’s alicorns under one roof. It was a momentous occasion, and two alicorns were already celebrating and in surprisingly good moods given everything that was going on. 

Two were not. 

Two alicorns were not in good moods. One of them felt quite snippy seeing both of her aunts in a very relaxed state of decorum. That same alicorn was also grieving the loss that her husband was going to have to endure. She was not in the best of moods at all. The other had similar worries, having lived to see the end of a noble house that was there when Equestria had been founded. And then to see her teacher, her mentor, the very example that Twilight Sparkle had modeled her entire life after, sitting in a chair drinking and becoming quite relaxed, it caused quite a bit of mental turmoil. 

Luna, laying on the floor, cocked up one leg and farted. It was a loud wet sounding squealer, and it filled the room with an appalling stench. Barley and Celestia both laughed at it, as did the foals, everypony else was in too much of a state of shock to react. 

“The stench… -hiccup- will last… forever!” Luna said with drunken theatrics, paraphrasing her own infamous words. Celestia, upon hearing this, broke down completely, bellowing with laughter until tears came out of her eyes. 

Cadance stood, crinkling her nose, unable to take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out in her usual manner of stress relief. 

“Oh my gosh, that is worse than Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack all put together, and those three once wrecked the Grand Galloping Gala,” Twilight Sparkle muttered. “Even worse than Fluttershy’s silent but deadly creepers.” 

“I was there at the Gala,” Celestia quipped. “The after party at Donut Joe’s was so much better. I cannot stand the high society unicorns sometimes.” 

“At least the two sisters are able to laugh at past hurts together,” Berry remarked. 

Berry’s words had a profound effect on Cadance and Twilight Sparkle, both of whom looked a little less angry. Cadance watched both of her aunts, both of them still laughing, and felt a little ashamed for judging them. She knew the burdens they both bore upon their shoulders. Twilight internally began to hope that the two sisters would keep having a nice time together. Perhaps, this is what they needed. 

“Heck, you put me and my sister Berry Shine into a room together and somepony is walking away with a black eye,” Berry said. She punctuated her words with a long drink. 

“I don’t have any siblings,” Bucky muttered, also taking a drink. 

Derpy said nothing. 

Berry, noticing Derpy’s silence, began to crawl over Bucky, displacing Dinky, squashing Piña beneath her, until she was laying on top of both Bucky and Derpy, and she planted a gentle kiss on Derpy’s head, right between her ears. 

Luna, seeing this display of affection, felt very touched. She immediately scrambled upwards to her hooves, staggered through the room, and then climbed into the chair with her sister, clinging to Celestia’s neck, trying to not fall out of the chair. Luna kissed her sister a few times, reeking of whiskey, wine, beer, and gin, and Celestia did not seem to mind, embracing her sister affectionately and holding her close in the chair, which was not large enough for two alicorns. 

Cadance, the alicorn of love, felt a truly humbling amount of love in the room, and Shining Armor was not here to share it with her. She kissed Twilight on the cheek instead, which instantly destroyed what was left of Twilight’s bad mood. “This is a powerful moment,” Cadance whispered in Twilight’s ear. “I wish you could feel what I am feeling.” 

Cadance wrapped a foreleg around Twilight’s neck, pulling her sister in law close. “Love bears all things. Politics, disputes, sisterly squabbles, acts of war, love can survive all of these things,” Cadance whispered.

“Or bring them about,” Twilight replied. 

“Sunshine sunshine…” 

“Ladybugs awake…” 

“Clap your hooves…”

“And do a little shake…” 

The final line was spoken together in one voice by two very close ponies who loved one another, and Cadance’s hug became an almost unbearable crushing force as her inner pegasus nature took over her drive to give affection, and Twilight’s inner unicorn felt an odd sensation of comfort. 

Dinky, overcome with emotions and feeling a need to do something, enchanted everypony’s shoes, her brief moment of magic completely unnoticed by anypony in the room. 



 

Back in her library, later that day, a somewhat annoyed Twilight Sparkle was handed a package by Spike. Spike struggled to keep a straight face, chewing on his lip, his eyes watering with tears. With Twilight’s every step, the dragon shuddered, hugging himself, almost unable to contain his mirth. 

“It isn’t funny Spike. Trying to dispell it only makes it louder,” Twilight grumped. Troublesome meddlesome little unicorns she thought to herself. 

Heaving a sigh of frustration, she pulled the paper off of the package. She didn’t know where her parents were, or Shining for that matter, she supposed they were out seeing Ponyville. Under the paper was a box. A wooden box. Inside the wooden box was a ledger. A ledger bearing the royal seal of Princess Platinum. 

Settling down upon the floor and setting the book before her, Twilight Sparkle began to read, something she was very good at. This book was written in fine script, by somepony with exquisite magical control. 

The ink was fine ink too, the very best sort of ink that bits could buy. Twilight knew this because she used the same ink. It flowed beautifully and produced beautiful text. It wasn’t dribbly or splotchy, dried quickly, and did not smear easily.

The paper of the ledger was beautiful ivory white, heavy stock, made for absorbing perfect ink. It was the right blend of perfectly smooth, to allow the quill to travel without snagging, and faint roughness, to catch the flowing ink and allow it to seep in. This was a ledger from somepony that loved paper and ink just as much as Twilight Sparkle did. 

The beauty of the ledger and the ink though stood out in contrast to the horror story inside. Twilight flipped through page after page of detailed notes about penalty taxes, tributes, payments that had to be made to keep the peace, restitution for so called crimes, payments made for killing certain noble members of House Avarice from over nine hundred years ago, and the penalties were still in effect, each year a payment was due. House Avarice sat at the top of the heap, and it was easy to see why. House Evening Star even had debts, as Twilight found, large debts to House Avarice, and those debts were subtracted from the payment due to House Evening Star for its allegiance. It became easier to understand how House Evening Star had fallen under House Avarice’s control, even if she didn’t see the explicit reasons why. Just that payments were due. House Evening Star would be bankrupted in no time at all if it wasn’t getting a portion of the penalty tax from the Shetland Isles. That portion was paying off House Evening Star’s debts and then some, giving them a sizeable chunk of wealth each year to add to the family coffers. 

And every house owed something to House Avarice in some form or another. Some received payments enough to cover their debts and make them quite wealthy, much like House Evening Star. Others had backed the wrong gambit and now had to pay yearly. 

And every year without fail, there was a hefty payment from House Two Lights, a name that very few knew about. Twilight Sparkle sat in total shock, unable to comprehend what it was she was reading. These were just the markers for the debts, not the histories of the debts themselves, but this was amazing information. She saw other tabs protruding from other parts of the ledger, and opened to one listed as ‘resources’. 

Twilight realised with dawning horror that she was reading about the foal sweeps of the Shetland Isles, the foals were marked as resources. Every few years, a regular sweep was conducted and most, though not all, of the foals were taken from the Isles under the excuse of doing what was ‘right’ for the foals and the betterment of society. Most of the foals ended up in Fillydelphia, and the various noble houses that profited greatly from Fillydelphia were paying tribute to House Avarice for services provided and resources offered. Fillydelphia continued to grow by leaps and bounds, and, even though it was a city populated mostly by mares, the population continued to grow with explosive growth. Fillydelphia payed taxes to both the Crown and to several noble houses, and those noble houses made a fortune off of the ever growing population of Fillydelphia. Tribute was then offered to House Avarice. House Avarice was making a fortune off of sweeping foals and essentially selling them to Fillydelphia, fueling the population boom, greatly increasing the number of ponies who paid taxes. And everything was indexed back to income listings in other parts of the ledger. 

It was all a very complex money making scheme that was completely heartless, cruel, and ruthlessly exploited ponies. 

At some point during her reading, Twilight Sparkle broke down, wondering if her trust in her fellow ponies and her belief that ponies were inherently good could survive this. She began to sob, and, hearing her cry, Spike came along to try and comfort her. She hugged him tightly to her, rocking back and forth and she wept, unable to say why she was crying. Spike, unable to do anything else, did the only thing he could do. 

He was there for her, just as she had always been there for him. 



 

“So, marriage,” Bucky said. “Tomorrow.” 

Berry Punch pressed a shoe down upon the floor and it made a disgusting sound. She nodded slowly, and then looked at her soon to be fellow-wife and smiled. “Marriage is fine and good, but I am far more interested in what comes after,” she said in a smokingly sultry voice. 

Both mares looked at Bucky, who began to look a little panicked. 

“You should show Bucky your walnut trick,” Berry said. 

Derpy began to laugh riotously. “I could, the foals are out with Lyra and Bon Bon,” Derpy replied. 

“Walnut trick?” Bucky asked. 

Saying nothing, Derpy went into the kitchen, each step producing horrid flatulent noises along the way. She returned a moment later with a walnut held in her teeth. 

She gently set the walnut down on the floor directly in front of Bucky, and then smiled at him, giving him a seductive glare. 

“Berry, I need to be kinda excited for this trick. I’m thinking sexy thoughts but I nee-” Derpy was cut off as Berry went in for the kill, planting a devastatingly deep kiss on Derpy’s lips. When she pulled away a moment later, Derpy's wings were half sprung. 

“We’ve all heard stories of pegasi cracking nuts with their lips, well, Derpy can too, and not just her kisser lips,” Berry said, slurring slightly. 

A new horror crept into Bucky’s mind and threatened his fragile sanity. 

Derpy sat down on the walnut, made a face, stuck out her tongue, and then stood up. The walnut was missing. Her ears twitched in concentration, she closed her eyes, flexed her buttocks together, twitched her tail, and there was a loud “CRACK!” from her backside. 

A moment later, she grunted and a cracked walnut in several pieces fell to the floor. 

Bucky whimpered in panic, fearing for his sanity and now his life. 

“Neat trick, eh? Derpy read about it in a book about old pegasi military traditions. Pansy could do it,” Berry said, smiling. She also picked apart the walnut from the shell and ate it too, smiling broadly as she did so. 

“How…” Bucky whimpered. 

“Easy,” Derpy said, grinning. “I just flex back there a little. I’m strong! Maybe too strong for my own good. I once destroyed part of the town hall by accident,” she admitted, blushing as she did so. “Some pegasi are fast, others are strong.” 

Bucky gibbered in fear. 

“Now, Bucky, if you and I know what is good for us, we’ll just go along quietly and allow her to have her way. I wouldn’t trigger any of her aggressive qualities, or you don’t want to know what she might do to both of us,” Berry Punch warned. “Derpy and I talked, and I suggested that she be the one to get rid of your pesky virgin status. She’s pent up and needs a chance to let go. After that, all bets are off and it is every pony for themselves. I’ve had a dry spell for a while myself and I have itches that need scratching.” 

Bucky huddled into a ball on the couch, a wordless cry escaping his lips. 

“I’ll try to be gentle, but I make no promises. I have needs,” the pegasus promised. 

“I make no promises to be gentle. I never do anything, or anypony for that matter, halfway,” Berry chuckled. 

“In that case Berry, I have no plans to be gentle with you, I think you’ll be strong enough to take it,” Derpy said, prodding Berry with a hoof. 

“Do yer worst!” exclaimed Berry, her accent coming in strong. 
	
> Chapter 47 (wedding)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Two mares stood together. They had been friends for most of each other’s lives, lovers for quite a while, and were soon to be fellow-wives with one another. The change was profound. Going from friend, to trusted friend, and now a bond that rivaled sisterhood,  making them family. They looked at one another in the full length mirror, admiring each other’s physical forms, and feeling beautiful. Today was their day. 

They were perfect. Every inch of their pelts had been carefully brushed to a fine sheen, their manes were carefully combed as was their tails, and Derpy’s wings had been carefully preened. None of these things actually mattered though, they already knew they were beautiful to the one pony for whom it mattered. 

Derpy Doo Hooves turned and went to the large wooden cabinet in her room. Opening the door, she began to dig around, pushing things around with her hoof. She found a small wooden box. With a forceful shove, she cleared all of the clutter off of the top of it, and then carefully opened the lid. Using her wing tips, she rummaged around inside, producing a black eyepatch. She slipped this over her head and returned to looking in the mirror. 

“Eyepatch?” Berry Punch questioned. 

“I hate it, but today I want to see. Saves me from squinting my bad eye shut,” Derpy explained, turning her head from one side to the other and checking herself out. 

“I dunno, I think it makes you look kinda sexy,” Berry admitted in a low voice, no trace of her usual teasing tones. 

“Really?” Derpy asked. 

“Yeah, makes you look kinda dangerous,” Berry replied. 

“Poor Bucky. He didn’t want to be snatched away by Thunderlane. He wanted to stay and watch us make ourselves pretty,” Derpy said, still studying herself in the mirror. 

“I’m telling ya, sexy,” Berry reassured. “And Bucky will be fine. He’s finally becoming the stallion he was always intended to be. He’ll manage. Thunderlane and Celestia won’t be too hard on poor Bucky,” she finished. 

“You don’t think we scared him too badly with the walnut trick do you?” Derpy asked, striking a rakish pose, her head high, wings flared slightly, and one foreleg raised. 

“Naw, he’ll be fine. Little pushes out of his comfort zone so he can build his coping skills,” Berry explained. “He’s getting better, he keeps playing pranks on us and teaching Dinky those horrible spells. He is getting bold enough to defy you.” 

“He’s changed,” Derpy said. “He holds his head up high now, and not in a snobby way. He has actual pride in himself. Especially when he is with us. He’s gone from being cold and distant to warm and loving, and he is still getting better. Look how he is with Dinky and Piña.”

“We just need to keep nipping at his heels until he nips back,” Berry acknowledged. “And then try to survive said nipping. He nearly killed me with those tickles that day in the brewery. I mean, I was asking for it, obviously, but he was tickling my cork. And I don’t think he even realised it. When I made it into the bathroom I had the most powerful orgasm I’ve ever had in my life. I almost went off right there in the brewery.”

“I thought you had to pee,” Derpy asked. 

“I thought I had to pee as well,” Berry admitted. “But then when I got to the little fillies room, something else happened. Something not pee.” 

“Oh my,” Derpy giggled. 

“I bleated like a darn sheep Derpy,” Berry reminded. “I only make sheep noises when I am about to have an orgasm. They call it the Curse of the Isles.” 

“Well that explains a few things,” Derpy said, now laughing. “Tonight, Bucky and I are going to bed with ewe.” 

Berry glared at her soon to be fellow-wife. “That was awful,” she scolded. 

“I know,” Derpy replied, hanging her head in shame. 

“Are we ready for this?” Berry asked suddenly, her eyes wide, all traces of her happy-go-lucky self now gone. Her ears drooped slightly and she stared at herself in the mirror. “Not like I have a whole lotta choice here, with four princesses breathing down my neck to take some responsibility for what I have done.” 

Derpy gently kissed Berry Punch on the cheek and wrapped a wing over her. She too, looked into the mirror and looked at the two mares standing together. Derpy was the slightly larger of the two, and she held her head high. “You can still say no,” she said into Berry Punch’s ear, her voice low and soft. “But I doubt they will be as lenient.” 

“I don’t want to say no,” Berry said, taking a deep breath. “I just don’t know if I am ready to face everything that comes after today.” 

“Oh,” Derpy replied. “I see.” 

Berry turned her head to the side and wished her mane was straight like Derpy’s, instead of twisty curly. She stole a quick nuzzle from the grey mare at her side. 

“We’ll be fine if we all face this together,” Derpy said. 

“I just want to be the mare that Bucky deserves,” Berry admitted, her voice a bit scratchy. She was unable to look her reflection in the eye and turned away. 

“We are,” Derpy reassured. “I have no doubts.” 



 

“Are you sure you are ready for this?” 

Buckminster Bitters pondered the white alicorn’s words. He nodded, took a deep breath, and then nodded again. He was shaking badly, and his panic had him. He was determined to not give in though. Today was his day, and he was determined to have a good time. 

“You look a little nervous,” Celestia said, gently stroking Bucky’s face with her primary feathers. 

“I am marrying the pony that started Equestria's first inter-house war in centuries and a pegasus mare that can crack walnuts with her…” Bucky trailed off, horrified by what he almost said to Celestia. Of all the ponies he could make this sort of faux pas. 

“Filly bits?” Celestia finished. 

The unicorn stallion swooned and very nearly fainted. His ears burned, and he could not believe that Celestia had just said that. 

“Look, no mincing words. I know for certain that your mother never once sat down at had the sort of talk that a mare needs to have with her son. And I cannot in good conscience allow you to walk into a situation with two mares like that without having you properly prepared,” Celestia said sternly. 

“No no no! I know all about how little foals are made, I don’t need this talk coming from you!” Bucky begged, shaking his head ‘no’ repeatedly. 

“This isn’t about foals. This is about mares. You are marrying two able-bodied mares, and they are going to love you. I mean, they are going to love you. And they are going to want to be physically satisfied by you. And you do not have any experience, do you?” Celestia asked in her most authoritative voice. 

“No,” Bucky whimpered, knowing that he was about to get the mother of all sex talks from the mother of all ponies. 

“To start with, be careful. Nothing kills the mood faster than getting a little too hasty and just jamming yourself right in. Dangerous for you, and dangerous for the mare. If you aren’t careful, you will bend in impossibly painful ways, and you could end up with a penile fracture,” Celestia warned. 

Bucky clenched his whole body and shuddered. 

“Take your time. Make sure everything is nice and slick before you try anything. Too much friction is not your friend. Getting blisters on your colt bits or a mare getting blisters on her filly bits is not a good time,” Celestia explained. 

Bucky fell back in his chair and covered his face with his forehooves. Death was preferable to what he was enduring right now. This was awful. 

“Do not just focus on your own needs and then roll over and go to sleep. That is wrong, and had I the power, I would make laws prohibiting this behaviour,” Celestia said forcefully, her tone imperious. 

All the unicorn could do is whimper in reply. 

“Clitoris,” said Celestia, looking regal. “You should spend lots of time getting to know all about this part of your mates. It will help with the lubrication issues, and making sure their needs are satisfied. Be gentle. Do not bite, chew, or visit any sort of violence upon it. Ever. Do not be afraid to talk about whatever it might be you are doing at the moment. Ask questions. Communications will go a long way towards making everypony happy in your newly formed herd. Experiment. Talk. And then experiment a little more before talking again. Do you understand?” 

Bucky nodded, and struggled not to faint. 

“Make them feel loved and appreciated. Be kind to them. Be gentle. Be the good stallion that I know you can be,” Celestia commanded. 

“Yes ma’am,” Bucky stammered in reply. 

“And there is one more thing,” Celestia announced. 

Bucky could not look the alicorn in the eye. 

“I am going to give you a spellbook. Inside are powerful spells of erotic magic. You are but one unicorn among an earth pony and a pegasus, and this will give you even standing with them. Study it well and never do ANYTHING without their consent, or I will smite your ruin upon Canterhorn Peak. Do you understand me?” Celestia demanded. 

“Yes ma’am,” Bucky replied, nodding his head enthusiastically. 

“Any questions?” Celestia asked. 

“Yes, actually,” Bucky replied in a tiny squeaky voice. 

“I am listening,” Celestia answered, her tone now soft, gentle, and inviting. 

“What do I do if I disappoint them? What if I make a mistake? What if something happens too soon? What if I let them down? What if I am no good?” Bucky questioned, his breathing nearly a wheeze. 

“None of that matters,” Celestia reassured. 

“But it does matter,” Bucky retorted. 

“No, it does not,” Celestia replied, her tone soothing. “Nopony knows what they are doing their first time. But this is why we hold to love and trust. Mistakes will be made. Sometimes embarrassing mistakes. But those that love you will see you past those mistakes, and I am sure you will get a lot of practice. And with practice, you will become better with time,” Celestia promised. 

Bucky’s breathing slowed slightly, his heaving barrel calming somewhat. 

“I promise you, I will always be here to talk to you if you need to talk. Your mother is a horrible mare. We both know this. And you are going to need a mare you can discuss issues with along the long journey of your marriage. I know you will have Bon Bon as well. Just take it slow, focus on being happy, and allow them to keep carrying you until you can move along on your own,” Celestia said, her tone warm and motherly. 

“Thank you,” Bucky replied, his eyes watering. He wiped them with a fetlock and took a deep breath. 

“No more tears, we need to get you cleaned back up, it is almost time,” Celestia announced, her tone now joyous. 



 

The small backyard. The place where the three of them had unknowingly began their journey together. It was crowded with ponies now, nearly filling the yard. Sparkler and Rising Star were there together, exchanging secret glances when they thought nopony was looking. Dinky Doo and Piña were sitting in a corner, where the short stone fence and the rear of the house met together, sitting with Lyra and Bon Bon, who would be foal sitting them overnight. Four alicorns gathered, the major powers, and one of them had even brought a date, much to her sister’s dismay. Barley O’Blivion and Luna sat together on the grass, now sober, but looking rather rough. The old stallion had been crying, and every now and then, the tears would begin flowing again. Luna, now his friend, tried to comfort the old pony with the occasional nuzzle or prod. Celestia and Twilight Sparkle sat together, talking softly with one another, reassuring one another of their friendship. Shining Armor sat by himself, watching Cadance, who was watching everypony and feeling the love all around her. 

On either side of Cadance sat Berry and Derpy, who were waiting patiently. 

Above them, on a collection of clouds, there was a massive flock of pegasi, looking down, smiling, and occasionally giving out a hoot or a shout. 

Thunderlane stood with Bucky at the front of the house, looking down the breezeway, where Bucky had once walked to attend a birthday party that had changed his life forever. The pegasus prodded Bucky, urging him forward. 

“Come on, you can do it,” Thunderlane urged. 

“I don’t know that I can,” Bucky whimpered, trembling with fear. 

“Do you want me to carry you?” Thunderlane said, his voice full of gentle sincerity. 

“I dunno,” Bucky wheezed. 

“Bucky, don’t. Those mares are counting on you. If you have one of your attacks, right now, on today of all days, it would destroy them,” Thunderlane said, placing a wing around Bucky’s neck. 

Bucky’s breathing eased upon hearing Thunderlane’s words. He placed one trembling hoof forward and began to walk down the breezeway. With each step, he took a deep breath, and Thunderlane matched Bucky step for step, and breath for breath. 

“So far, I haven’t screwed this up yet, and I aim to have a featherbrain free day,” Thunderlane said with a smile. “Even the ritual snatching went well. I thought I was going to drop you for a moment.” 

“You did,” Bucky said, his voice wavering. 

“But I caught you,” Thunderlane replied. 

“Yeah, you did,” Bucky admitted. 

Bucky took the final step around the back corner of the house and froze. 

They were beautiful. 

His breath caught in his throat and he couldn’t breathe. He stood frozen, his face darkening, his barrel showing no signs of respiration. The crowd looked at him, several with growing alarm. 

Thunderlane gave Bucky a good whack in the side. 

“OOF!” Bucky wheezed, now breathing again. 

He took the final steps slowly, Thunderlane giving him the occasional supportive shove when he needed one. Bucky noticed Derpy’s eyepatch and missed seeing both of her eyes. He loved her eyes. Being the quick mind that he was, he immediately understood why she had the eyepatch though. Berry Punch was strikingly beautiful, and she smiled at him. More than anything, he wanted to feel Berry Punch touch him and tell him everything was going to be alright. 

“You did good Bucky, now look after my flockmate, I’m trusting you with her care,” Thunderlane whispered. “I know you’ll keep her safe, you kept Dinky safe.” 

Finally, Bucky stood before Cadance and his two soon-to-be wives. He swallowed, trying to quell his terror, and raised his gaze to look all three of them in the eye. He looked at Derpy first, then Berry, and finally, Cadance. 

“So glad you could join us,” Cadance said sweetly, a faint hint of laughter in her voice as she addressed Bucky. “These two were getting impatient.” 

“All of this is really unnecessary,” Derpy said nervously. “Just saying our vows is enough for me,” she added, her one visible eye darting around. 

“This is history in the making,” Cadance said regally, her head held high. Her horn was shining, shining almost as bright as the sun. Her wings spread suddenly, covering Berry Punch and Derpy Doo Hooves in their shadow. 

Buckminster Bitters nearly fainted. He felt lightheaded. Strange magic was at work. He could feel it, it vibrated inside of his own horn. It made his teeth buzz and tingle. Cadance’s horn grew ever brighter. Bucky could feel gravity relaxing its hold upon his body, and his heart thumped in his chest. 

Cadance rose into the air, her wings not flapping. She pushed away from the ground through force of will alone, and three ponies rose up together with her, all suspended in a hazy pink aura. It was getting difficult for the crowd to look directly at them. 

“Do you have your vows?” Cadance rumbled. Her voice could be felt more than heard, a low sonorous rumble full of power. The sound of her voice was truly intimidating, she was the Princess of Love, and she was in the thick of what fueled her power.

Cadance felt that right now, she could crack the planet in half if she so desired. 

“Yes I do,” Derpy answered, her own wings spread outward, her forelegs folded over her barrel as though she was hugging herself. “I, Derpy Doo Hooves, do so vow to be a good mother, to give of myself whatever is necessary for all of the foals of my herd, and to be a fierce and loyal protector to all I am duty bound to watch over.” 

“I, Berry Punch of Clan Pickled, vow to be of service to all of my herdmates, to be a willing friend, a constant companion, and a never ending source of love and affection. I pledge to be a good drinking companion, a shoulder to cry on, and a provider for all of the foals within my herd. In war or peace, I will remain true,” Berry Punch vowed. 

“Buckminster, are you prepared to bind them?” Cadance asked, her voice now otherworldly. Her eyes were white with raw magic. “Only you can finish what has been started. Speak whatever words you have in your heart and bind your herd together.” 

“I am Buckminster, and I have no House. But I do have family. I vow to spend the rest of my days attempting to be worthy of the friendship, trust, devotion, adoration, and love that you have for me. I vow to devote all of my energies to being a good husband, a worthy father, and to make sure that no past mistakes are repeated with any unicorn foals of my own, including Dinky,” Buckminster promised, bowing his head. 

“With those words all of you are now bound,” Cadance uttered in a divine rumble. “Break these ties that bind at your own peril. Love one another and do what is right.” 

With her last word, Cadance’s horn flashed with a pure white light, blinding most of the crowd for several moments. The four suspended ponies slowly sank back down to the earth, all of them silent, all of them deep in the throes of Cadance’s magic. 

When every hoof was back down on the ground, the trio, Bucky, Derpy, and Berry, came together in a three way embrace and kissed one another, a searingly passionate three way kiss that made the crowd gasp. For a moment, it seemed as though something else was about to happen, so taken the three were in their passion, but they finally pulled apart, all breathless, and the pegasus was a little slobbery. 

Cadance slowly returned to her normal self, and made her way to Shining Armor. She made no attempt to preserve decorum, tackling him on the spot, and releasing her pent up frustrations with a smouldering kiss. 

Flashbulbs went off as pictures were taken. 

The vows made, the binding ceremony over, it was now possible for the party get into full swing. It started with Barley O’Blivion planting a long wet smooch on Luna’s lips, and then uncorking a bottle of wine. A massive celebration began to take place. 



 

Hours later 

“Cadance?” 

“Yes auntie Celestia?” 

“I have to ask, what did you do today? That spell, what was it?” 

“My wedding gift for them.” 

“What did you do?” 

“Well, when the sun finally sets, both mares are going into go into heat.”

“Cadance!” 

“What auntie?”

“How could you? Poor Buckminster!”

“Oh, I am positive he is going to love his wedding gift.” 

“We have to lure the guests away from the party before the sun sets!” 

“I know.” 

“Naughty Cadance, what have I told you?” 

“Oh, I will be getting my punishment as well.” 

“How so?”

“When I cast the spell it had an effect on me as well.” 

“OH NO! SHINING ARMOR!” 

“He had to strategically use his shield spell to survive contact the last time.” 

“Cadance, I cannot believe you have done this.” 

“I kept the spell contained inside of a carefully placed barrier.” 

“Well, that is good. I would hate to see Luna in heat again.” 

“I would kind of like to see that actually.” 

“CADANCE!” 

“Well, she has found a nice stallion.” 

“CADANCE! NO!” 
	
	
> Chapter 48 (Warning! May contain equine erotica!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I guess everything changes now,” Derpy said, looking at her mates, her face solemn. They stood in the living room, eyeing one another, eyeing the stairs, all of them a little nervous. 

“Yes, it does,” Bucky said, taking both of his mares and holding them aloft in his magic. It was simple and effortless on Bucky’s part. Berry Punch gave a nervous giggle and Derpy Hooves let out a low cry of alarm. Bucky moved towards the stairs, the mares in tow, held in his magic aura. 

He climbed the stairs slowly, making sure not to bump those he held dear into the walls or the ceiling. He walked slowly and calmly, a stallion that had accepted his fate. 

He knew that these mares were going to destroy him. He faced what was ahead with grim determination. He had a terrible shuddering thought about walnuts. 

“You know, the alpha usually carries the stallion to the bed,” Berry said. 

“I don’t give a damn about traditions,” Bucky said. “Besides, both of you have carried me many times, I feel like I owe you.” He pushed open the bedroom door and stepped inside. Standing by the bed, he gently lowered both mares and waited, not knowing what to do next. 

“You’re probably really scared… you should know that neither one of us has plans to actually hurt you. Celestia wanted us to tease you a bit and push you out of your comfort zone. We’ve done that. But I don’t want to actually hurt you,” Derpy confessed. 

“Nor I,” Berry Punch added. 

“I suppose I needed a good shove,” Bucky confessed. “What now?” 

“I dunno, I am really scared actually,” Derpy admitted. “I mean, I haven’t done this since Dinky’s father. I am so worried that I am going to disappoint you, and that you’ll hate me…” the grey mare trailed off, her breathing heavy. “Berry is so experienced and I am so scared that she is going to please you better than I ever could.” 

“I have the same fears, I was worried that I would let you down,” Bucky admitted. 

“Oh,” Derpy mumbled. 

“Alright, enough of that, both of you, we are going to operate as though this is the first time for both of you and I am going to help you both. Bucky, you get on the bed with us and lay down,” Berry instructed. 

Bucky did as he was bid, moving slowly. Berry shoved him down and rolled him over, planting a gentle kiss on his lips as she did so. 

“I’ve never done anything with a mare before, so this is a first time experience for all of us,” Berry announced. 

Derpy took a bit of initiative and straddled Bucky, sitting on his belly. Taking a deep breath, she leaned down and kissed him. It was a slow smouldering kiss, full of all the sensuality that only a pegasus could muster, Derpy’s pegasus salivary glands producing lots of extra oily waxy saliva with its oddly sweet taste. Derpy was getting into the kiss, her body now grinding up against Bucky’s. Berry gently coaxed them on, rubbing them with her hooves, releasing a flood of feel good hormones into both of them from the glands deep within her hooves. 

The pegasus mare, who had been so aggressive before, kissing sometimes with bruising intensity, was now shockingly gentle, and the contrast inflamed Bucky’s mind. This was the mare he had chosen to be the mother of his foals… and right now, he wanted foals more than anything. 

The air was filled with the heady scent of sweet perfume. It was stronger now than it had ever been. Something began to peek out of its sheath, the tip tickling Derpy’s velvety belly. The mare giggled, her wings becoming slightly sprung, and she hiked her backside up into the air, her hind legs now straight, her front legs folded, her barrel still pressed against Bucky’s. 

Berry, seeing Derpy’s backside up in the air in the “come mount me” position, took advantage of the situation. With a hoof, she brushed aside Derpy’s tail, causing the grey mare to squeal with alarm, her cry muffled as she maintained her liplock with Bucky. Never being the one to be cautious or go halfway, Berry Punch thrust her muzzle forward and plunged her tongue in the swollen blue grey lips of her fellow-wife. 

The flavour was not quite what Berry expected. More tart than anything, with a vaguely wine-like flavour that she could not place. 

Derpy, feeling a tongue suddenly invading a very intimate area, pulled away from the kiss and gasped, her ears folding back against her skull. The tongue continued its probing, prodding every crevice it could find. 

Craning his head, Bucky could not believe what he was seeing. His brain responded the in the only way it could. It sent a signal through Bucky’s body that brought him to near total hardness in seconds. 

Berry hooked her forelegs around Derpy’s hindlegs and plunged even deeper, Berry’s infamous bottle licking tongue now finding a new purpose for its extraordinary length and dexterity. 

Derpy began to moan wildly and wiggle her backside, her back arched, her tail now lifted high. Overcome with pleasure, she resumed her slobbery makeout session with Bucky, kissing him passionately, never once bothered by the fact that he had no idea what he was doing and that he was a clumsy kisser. He had passion and that is all that mattered to the mare right now. 

Berry Punch, always brave, always adventurous, withdrew her tongue and placed a slow wet lick over Derpy’s blue-grey pucker, causing the mare to shriek with her mouth full of Bucky’s tongue. Berry licked her lips, pondering the odd flavour. Salty, sweaty, with a rubbery texture. She licked again, this time with real force, dragging her tongue over the pucker, using her head for leverage, the friction causing quite a bit of tugging on Derpy’s plothole. Derpy gave an almost orgasmic cry and a dribble of clear liquid trailed from her gaping filly bits, her swollen oversized clitoris very visible now. 

Berry Punch dragged her tongue over Derpy’s dark purple-blue-grey jelly bean and made the mare scream. Derpy pulled away from her kiss with Bucky and tossed her head around wildly as she cried out several times. 

“I… I need you right now,” Derpy said breathlessly to Bucky. She eased her backside down onto Bucky’s stomach, feeling something prodding at her now slick marehood. 

“Easy there,” Berry coaxed, nudging Derpy’s backside with one hoof and lining up Bucky’s cock with the other. “He’s hung like a barrel, so go slowly,” Berry warned. 

Derpy eased herself backwards, feeling something prodding at her entrance. It was big. Something wide awaited her. It took some effort for it to finally penetrate, and she gasped. She wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s barrel and held on. 

“It almost feels like giving birth again,” the pegasus grunted as she pressed down, her clitoris trailing over Bucky’s pelt, making her shudder. It wasn’t even that far in yet and an orgasm threatened to take over the mare. 

Berry eased both of them together, and when the chance presented itself, she bent down and gave a lick to the tightly stretched lips wrapped around the girthy cock that Bucky was gifted with. Bucky, feeling the lick, became startled and jumped, driving himself into Derpy several whole inches at once, causing Derpy to let go of him and sit up, which caused her to completely hilt Bucky. 

Derpy screamed an equine nicker of lust and began to grind on Bucky’s short but girthy length now completely secured inside of her, her oversized jelly bean pressing into Bucky’s belly as she ground her hips. 

Berry maneuvered around behind Derpy, placed both hooves on Derpy’s wing joints, and then pressed down on the mare, driving Bucky in even deeper somehow, and causing Derpy’s love button to get even more friction over the now slick pelt of Bucky’s belly. 

Lewd squelching could be heard with every thrust. 

Derpy leaned back into Berry, trusting the earth pony to hold up her body, and began to let go, feeling an explosive orgasm coming. She tossed her head back, her tongue hanging from her mouth, and both of her ears splayed out sideways. 

Finally, she could not take any more, and Derpy screamed as the first waves of violent full body spasms crashed over her like an avalanche. 

“Unngph I made you go off before I did!” Bucky grunted and gasped, looking pleased, his face contorted with effort, save for the small area where he was paralysed. He thrust his hips upward just as Berry Punch was jamming Derpy downward, and something gave way. 

Bucky had his first orgasm and it blew his mind. He lay there, now limp, violent spasms forcibly injecting semen deep into Derpy, who was still grinding away on top of him. She let out another yelp as she orgasmed again, and let out breathless panting cries as she felt her body wrack and shudder, while Bucky lay below her, feeling the mare clech violently around his cock. 

Derpy’s whole body was hard as she went into the final throes of her second orgasm, and she collapsed backwards into Berry Punch, panting and mewling with pleasure. 

Berry gently eased Derpy down on to her side, and Bucky slipped free from Derpy’s clenching marehood with a sloppy wet pop. Derpy lay down, trying to catch her breath, feeling light headed. 

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Berry Punch confided. She leaned down and gave Bucky’s half hard cock a lick, slurping up a bit of semen that was dribbling down the shaft. Bucky twitched at her touch. Seeing him twitch, Berry gave another lick with her curious tongue.

“Oh, too sensitive…” Bucky warned. 

Berry licked the tip, her tongue circling the opening for a moment, causing Bucky to squirt forth a final small spurt, which nearly went up Berry Punch’s nose. She licked her lips and gave a happy grunt. She crawled over Bucky and threw herself on top of Derpy, kissing the grey pegasus wildly, wiggling her rump around and trying to give Bucky a good show. 

Spreading her legs, Berry began to grind her filly bits against Derpy’s exposed and winking clitoris, making the grey mare whimper and beg for another release. 

And Bucky had a great view of what was going on back there from his vantage point. He could hear the wet slick sounds of the two marehoods being rubbed together, and he felt his partially erect cock starting to throb again. 

Berry was growing more and more bold, grinding violently against Derpy, and Bucky recalled a word he had once read. 

Tribadism. 

Bucky felt a powerful need to penetrate something when he saw Derpy’s oversized clitoris vanish inside of Berry Punch’s damp wine coloured folds. 

Slurp! 

Berry had just sucked it right inside and was now squeezing Derpy between her lips, grinding her hips to create friction. 

Bucky nearly blew his second load right then and there. 

Derpy, unable to take any more stimulation, tossed Berry Punch off of her, and then rolled away, shuddering and seizing, clenching and contorting, her body lost in another full body orgasm. 

Berry, determined to not let her prize get away, went after the mare, intent to drive her over the edge once more, but something grabbed her hind leg and hauled her back across the bed on her belly. 

Bucky was on her back a moment later, one foreleg wrapped around her barrel, the other hooked over her chest. Berry wiggled her tail aside, and seconds after doing so, felt something pressing against her entrance. 

“I’m a tough mare, but but careful, I’ve never taken anything so wide,” Berry cautioned, arching her back and thrusting her hips upwards. 

Bucky gave a gentle thrust and Berry hissed in pain. 

“Oh THAT STINGS!” Berry cried, feeling herself already stretched out to the point of pain from just the tip. Bucky pulled out. “I dinnae say to stop ye numpty!” Berry said, slipping into her lilt. 

Bucky tried again, gently inserting the tip and then giving a bit of a push. It felt so tight. So warm. There was so much friction. 

Berry shot out from beneath him with a cry of painful alarm, scooting over the bed, and falling over the edge, rubbing her backside as she escaped. 

“I am so sorry, what happened?” Bucky cried, now frozen in terror. 

“Wrong… hole…” Berry grunted in pain. “You son of a bitch, you gave me a fudge turnover from behind!” 

“UGH! I am a bad husband, I am so sorry, I won’t tou-” 

Bucky’s apology was cut off when Berry tackled him violently and kissed him. Derpy watched the two ponies going at it. She wasn’t sure if this was love or not, but it was…hawt. 

Berry was in control now, pinning Bucky down and kissing him, grinding her mareflesh against Bucky’s cock for more lubrication. 

The tables turned suddenly when Berry was lifted high into the air and then slammed down on the bed. Bucky crawled over her belly and dropped himself down on top of her, one foreleg around her barrel, another wrapping around behind her neck and pulling her close. 

Derpy felt incredibly aroused again. 

“Pin her down,” Derpy shouted. 

Bucky had done exactly that, using his magic and his body to keep Berry still, but also making sure to do nothing that would actually hurt her. He still felt pretty bad about invading her brownie bakery  and made sure not to make the same mistake twice. 

“Sit back on your haunches Bucky, and line yourself up,” Derpy suggested. 

Bucky sat back, Berry still pinned in place with magic. She was licking her lips now, and lust burned in her eyes. She looked at Derpy with a touch of fear and anticipation. 

“Ease it in slowly, she’s never had a foal, so she is going to be tight,” Derpy said, worried about her herd mate. 

Bucky poked in the tip, which caused Berry to squirm. 

“Now slowly, just a tiny bit at a time,” Derpy instructed. 

Bucky did as he was told. 

Berry writhed as inch after stinging inch slowly stretched her out. She moaned and kicked her hind legs out as wide as possible. 

Derpy straddled Berry’s barrel, and then slid herself backwards a bit, lifting her tail and presenting herself to Berry, who was trapped beneath her. She was facing Bucky, and she leaned forward to kiss him. 

Bucky almost went off, the feeling of slow penetration and now the sound of Berry Punch’s furious wet sloppy lapping filling his ears. Derpy gave a moan and a grunt, grinding and shifting her hips as Berry Punch worked over her already oversensitive marehood. She leaned into her kiss with Bucky and wrapped her forelegs around him. 

Derpy began to feel Berry Punch rocking back and forth beneath her, as Bucky continued to penetrate the overly tight snatch of Berry Punch. Derpy broke away from her kiss with Bucky and looked down, seeing Bucky half in Berry Punch’s now swollen and red lips, which were stretched out tightly around Bucky’s wonderful girth. Derpy could feel Berry’s moans and whimpers travel through her probing tongue as it circled Derpy’s flexing outer lips and occasionally lapped over Derpy’s nubbin, causing Derpy to shudder. 

“Now,” Derpy said breathlessly, “just push the rest of it in in one slow go. Don’t stop unless I tell you.” 

Bucky leaned into it and gave it all he had, finally pushing his ring in, and then slowly easing in his remaining inches, causing Berry Punch to kick and whimper, but she never cried stop. 

Finally, Bucky was hilted, balls deep, and he could feel Berry’s abused and flamingly hot pucker against his scrotum. 

Derpy pulled away from Bucky, scooted her hips back a bit more, and then lowered herself down to Berry’s tightly stretched marehood. She gave an experimental lick to Berry’s exposed clitoris, with caused Berry to squeal. She licked again, causing another squeal. Finally, she pulled Berry’s button inside of her mouth and began to suckle as Bucky pulled out to his ring and then carefully slid back in. 

Berry Punch let out a few muffled screams of pleasure and returned the favour, sucking on Derpy’s oversized jelly bean. 

Bucky, feeling a bit more confident, pulled out again to his ring and then jammed his way in rapidly, causing Berry to wrap her hind legs around his middle and squeeze him violently. He could feel contractions deep inside of her. He pulled out and then rammed his way inside again, working up to a rhythm. 

With Bucky’s each thrust, Berry lashed her tongue against Derpy’s nubbin, which made Derpy squeeze Berry’s cork between her lips with a shivery pleasurable sensation for both mares. 

Bucky was watching the two mares perform sloppy oral sex on one another while he banged away. He wrapped his forelegs around Berry’s hips and began to thrust harder, which made Berry cry out with each thrust. 

“Don’t stop!” Berry begged, tilting her head back for a moment to speak and catch her breath. She latched back on to Derpy’s button and began to suckle wildly, as she felt her orgasm approach. 

Bucky angled his hips and now, his tip pressed along the soft spongy tissues of Berry’s g-spot. Bucky had no idea what he was doing, but he knew it felt good pressing his tip into the hot inviting flesh. 

When Berry finally orgasmed, Derpy seized down on her cork and gave her a strong suckle, overwhelming poor Berry Punch who began to bleat like a sheep. 

Thrust. 

“BA-AH-AH-AH!” 

Thrust. 

“BA-AH-AH-AH!” 

Thrust. 

“BA-AH-AH-AH!”

Finally, Bucky couldn’t take it anymore and rammed it in as deep as he could, coming explosively as he sank himself in balls deep into the plum coloured mare. 

Hearing her mates in the throes of orgasms sent Derpy over the edge, and a hot sticky flood of fluid spurted from her nethers, soaking Berry Punch’s face. 

After a few more thrusts, grunts, and licks, the three ponies finally collapsed into an exhausted pile. 

“I am only catching my breath, I ain’t done,” Derpy panted. 

“I can’t believe Bucky tapped my bung,” Berry gasped, her entire backside on fire. 

“I can’t believe I just had a threesome,” Bucky said. “I love you both more than words can possibly express right now.” 





“Does anypony feel left out?” Bucky asked, laying on his back, panting somewhat. 

“I’m good,” Derpy groaned. 

“My bunghole is sore,” Berry complained. 

The three ponies lay sprawled out in the destroyed bed. The sheets were damp with… something All three of them were soaked with sweat and who knows what else. The room stank of hot sweaty pony sex, oversexed mares, and spunk. Lots of spunk. 

“That smell, it is driving me crazy,” Bucky said, feeling himself already beginning to harden. He rolled over on his back and there was a disgusting wet “splorch” sound as he rolled into a puddle comprised of questionable liquids. 

“I cannae take another shaggin',” Berry said, admitting defeat. 

“I can take another go, but I might get a little screamy, I am really sensitive,” Derpy said, reaching down and absentmindedly scratching at a sex-goo encrusted teat. “We’ve been going at it for hours now, I wonder if we can make it till dawn.” 

“I don’t know, but I can’t stop getting hard. I think Cadance did something. I felt odd magic,” Bucky moaned. 

“I want you to take me like a mare,” Derpy said, rolling over on her belly and wiggling her hips. “But I don’t think I could stand up right now if my life depended on it.” 

“That is one position you and I haven’t tried,” Bucky replied, getting an eyeful of winking pink from Berry Punch who was laying with her legs spread and fanning her filly bits with a hoof. 

“I feel like somepony crammed a beer keg up me arse,” Berry grumbled. 

“It’s bigger than some ponies’ legs,” Derpy giggled, waving her spunk encrusted tail invitingly at Bucky, who was struggling to roll over. 

Bucky finally rolled over. He then crawled over the bed, his throbbing drooling cock snagging the sheets somewhat as he pulled himself along. He paused along his journey to stick his snoot into Derpy’s slick, swollen folds and give her a loving lick. He wasn’t sure what he was tasting, nor did he care. The smell caused his brain to fuzz over and his vision went blurry. He licked again, then again, and, feeling a little brave and adventurous after watching Berry Punch try it, he pressed his tongue against Derpy’s slippery pucker and gave a very enthusiastic lick. 

Derpy cried out, moaning loudly as Bucky’s tongue actually slipped inside of her for a moment, the sensation of his rough and bumpy tongue slipping in between the wet and satiny wrinkles of her pucker. She cried out again, grabbing a pillow and hugging it in her forelegs as the tongue circled and then penetrated once more. Another exploratory lick caused Derpy to heave a shuddering cry and clench up tightly around Bucky’s tongue, actually trapping him in place for a moment. 

“Oh that feels so good,” Derpy whined as she panted, her tongue lolling out. 

Derpy shivered as she felt Bucky climbing up on her back, sliding into place, his pelt rubbing up against hers as he maneuvered his way into a good position. She raised her wings and rubbed them along Bucky’s ribs, making herself shudder yet again. 

“No,” Derpy murmured, feeling the tip of a wide cock penetrating her. “Not there, try the other one, I think I can take it,” Derpy invited. 

“Have you lost your mind?” Berry asked. 

“But the tongue felt so good. It is like scratching an itch. Everything is so crusty back there,” Derpy replied. She wiggled and rocked her hips, feeling Bucky’s spunk dispenser rub over her pucker. 

“Just be careful,” Berry warned. 

“I am not sure about this,” Bucky said, feeling worried. 

“Just go slow, I really want this… I like taking long poops with lots of straining, it feels good,” Derpy confessed. 

“Ugh,” Berry grunted. 

“Well then,” Bucky quipped. 

Derpy felt Bucky’s snoot press into the back of her neck, his hot breath blowing through her mane. He hooked one foreleg over wing joint, and positioned himself for attempting penetration. He wrapped his other foreleg around her chest and then begin to slide forward on her back, pressing and applying pressure against her pucker. 

Derpy mewled with painful pleasure, throwing her head back a bit, her mouth opened wide. She kicked her hind legs out wide, and rolled her hips a bit, increasing the pressure on her well moistened anus. 

Berry began to crawl around on the bed, moving slowly, until she reached Derpy’s front end. She pulled away the pillow and situated her backside near Derpy’s chest. She kicked out her hind legs and splayed them out on either side of Derpy. 

Derpy, seeing Berry’s glistening lips presented, reached down and gave them a loving slow lick. First one, then another, and then another. 

As Derpy was licking, Bucky applied enough pressure to achieve penetration, which caused Derpy to push forward and go muzzle deep into Berry Punch, causing Berry to moan loudly, while Derpy’s moans were muffled inside of Berry’s now wrecked snatch. 

Bucky halted all progress after gaining the initial inch or so he needed for entry. 

Derpy lifted her head high and took several deep breaths, her eyes closed, her nostrils flaring. She focused on relaxing, and, after several moments of concentration, was able to relax enough for Bucky to ease in a little more. 

Derpy heaved a shuddering gasp and then plunged her muzzle back into Berry Punch, licking everything but Berry’s cork. Berry was far too sensitive for her nubbin to be directly stimulated anymore. Berry whimpered and made tiny feminine wails as the pegasus went to work. 

Bucky pulled out slightly, and then pushed in, feeling the tight wrinkled flesh of Derpy’s pucker strangling his shaft. With each careful thrust he forced Derpy’s muzzle into Berry’s abused folds, Derpy’s hot breath and lips sending a storm of stimulation though the plum coloured mare’s most hidden places. Bucky held to a slow and steady pace. The frantic pounding from earlier had given away to fatigued and lazy prodding. 

“Hunf, hunf, hunf, it is like pinching off the most satisfying loaf ever,” Derpy grunted, raising her head to catch her breath. Licking her lips noisily, she went back to work on giving Berry Punch a case of the shivers. 

Bucky enjoyed the new sensation of a different part of Derpy wrapped around him. It was slick enough to slide, but still gripped him tightly, offering a unique feeling of tension of friction. He dared not go in more than a few inches, and he couldn’t even slide in as far as his ring… he was simply too wide at that point. While he wanted nothing more to hilt himself in the delightfully grippy entrance, the thought of actually hurting Derpy caused him to banish those urges from his mind. He continued with his slow gentle pace, never thrusting more than the first few inches in. 

Berry Punch began to make fervent bleating noises now, rapidly approaching another orgasm. She reached down and began to stroke Derpy’s ears with her fetlocks. 

Derpy could feel the folds of her marehood tugging over her protruding nubbin, each one of Bucky’s careful thrusts pulling and stretching her pucker upwards towards her dock and causing her velvet recesses to slide back and forth over her winking button. The sensation was causing her to build up to a slow crescendo of an orgasm, she could feel it coming, slowly and steadily, and she was afraid of it. 

Bucky actually slowed down his pace slightly, realising he was in no big hurry. He was tired, his joints ached, and he could feel a yawn building. Ever so carefully, he slowly pushed in an extra inch or so, increasing the stretching of Derpy’s pucker. 

The increased stretching stung a bit, but made Derpy’s silky soaked folds flap and slap against her clit, the sudden change of sensation pushing her over the edge. She buried her muzzle into Berry Punch and screamed a muffled scream, her hindlegs kicking a bit, which caused her hips to roll. 

Her rolling hips caused Bucky to slide in further, and, the moment he felt Derpy’s stranglehold around his ring, he suffered his most violent orgasm of the night. 

It was downright painful, and load after load of cock-snot went rocketing up the screaming pegasus’ poop-chute. Bucky felt like his balls were on fire. He tried to pull out, to pull free of the pegasus’ plot, but he found he could not. She had a vice like grip on his pecker, squeezing him, and holding him in place as she drifted through her own powerful orgasm. 

Berry Punch, feeling Derpy muzzle deep inside of her, each one of Bucky’s thrusts pushing Derpy’s snoot right into her pelvic wall, was finally violently thrown into  wracking orgasm. She snatched up a pillow and screamed a sheep like bleating howl into it as Derpy continued to scream into her, and Bucky finished off his final few thrusts. 

Finally, the pegasus relaxed enough to let go, and Bucky pulled free with the sound of a cork being pulled from a wine bottle. He remained on Derpy’s back, completely collapsed, his head resting on the back of her neck. He could feel a runny gush of liquids spewing from Derpy’s still clenching anus and dribbling down his cock, which was now rapidly becoming flaccid. His hips gave one last involuntarily thrust forward, one more reflexive hump, and his flaring still spurting tip rammed into Derpy’s exposed clitoris, causing the mare’s body to tense up yet again and have another mind blowing orgasm that made many of her joints pop audibly from the force of her muscle spasms. 

Derpy’s reflexive reaction caused her to lift her head sharply, which made her lips brush directly over Berry’s purple-pink pebble, which made Berry once again shriek into her pillow, sounding like lambs being devoured by some horrible gobbling monster. 

After taking a moment to scream and recover, Berry scrambled away, still in the throes of another orgasm, her own hips giving a few involuntary humps at the air. 

Derpy crawled out from under Bucky, found her own spot on the now spunk drenched bed, and rolled over onto her back,  relishing the feeling of the cool air over her inflamed filly bits and well pounded and puffy pucker. 

Bucky lay where he fell, rolling over onto his side but not having the strength to do anything else. His cock was on fire from the friction and the exquisite tightness of the pegasus’ plot pucker. 

Berry Punch let out a soft shuddering orgasmic snore as she drifted off, the side of her face resting in a puddle of unknown sticky liquid. Her barrel rose and fell, her legs all out at odd angles. 

Derpy reached down and pulled herself apart gently, letting some much needed cool air inside of her flaming filly bits, her breathing ragged and heavy. She heard a snoring snort from Bucky and smiled even as she panted. 

The pegasus mare was finally happy, her dry spell was over. She blew one trumpeting blast from her queef canyon and then began to drift off to sleep, a fine coating of sexual fluids forming a shell over her wings that was going to be difficult to clean later. 
	
	
> Chapter 49
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy awoke. She struggled into wakefulness. She was sore all over. Her wings were crusted over with something that had formed what resembled a glaze. She was sore down there. She was also stuck to the bed. As she tried to roll over, she could feel a patch of her pelt being pulled out, each little hair of her pelt stung as it was pulled free. With a jerk, she freed herself from the sticky spot that cemented her into place. 

“Ow,” the grey mare whimpered, rubbing the patch where she had just lost some hair. “Oh my, what did we do?” she asked, looking around. These sheets needed to be burned. 

Berry Punch awoke with a snort and raised her head. One ear was plastered to the side of her face, glued in place with something. She had fallen asleep in a puddle and now, her ear was glossy with some kind of dried fluid of some sort. 

She too was stuck to the bed, and whimpered as she pulled herself free, leaving behind a bit of plum coloured hairs on the sheet she had been stuck to. 

“My plot hurts,” Berry mumbled. 

“Mine too,” Derpy grumbled. The gray mare lifted her leg and let go with her usual morning flatulence. This morning’s stench was truly awful, smelling feculent and spunky, an odd aroma of eggs and mushroom soup. 

“I’m stuck,” Bucky muttered. 

“We all woke up stuck,” Derpy said, grunting and farting again. Something runny dribbled out as she did so. 

“Bleh, pegasus farts!” Bucky complained. 

“You certainly enjoyed the source of the stink last night,” Berry quipped. 

“Yeah I did,” Bucky replied in a small voice, blushing furiously. He sat up suddenly, tearing himself free of the sheet. “Ooooow,” he hissed, leaving behind a patch of back hair from his pelt. 

“My ear is stuck to my face,” Berry said. “Ugh.” 

“That crusty puddle looks a bit like milk chocolate,” Derpy reflected, scratching her filthy filly bits.

Berry Punch became rather green looking and covered her mouth with one crusty filthy fetlock. She pulled her foreleg away and looked at it in horror. “What did we do?” she asked, looking horrified. 

“Each other,” Bucky replied, not thinking about his words. 

Both mares stared at him wide eyed. At one point, Bucky would never have been able to say that. And now, he was yawning, barely aware of his own words. 

“Bath,” Bucky grumbled. He effortlessly hoisted both mares in his magic, scooted off the bed, stumbled towards the door, crashed through the door, slammed into the hallway wall, and then ricocheted into the bathroom door. He stumbled though, his mares in tow, flipped the levers to get the water running, and then dropped both mares into the tub. He added copious amount of bubble bath and then squeezed in himself as the tub was filling. 

Derpy sat at the end, with Berry leaning against her belly, and Bucky sat at the other end, facing both mares. 

“Bath,” Bucky said again, yawning after he spoke. 

“I am actually crusted shut down there,” Berry confessed, feeling the water loosening the hardened crust. 

“We need to clean up,” Derpy rasped, wrapping her forelegs around Berry Punch and holding her close. “The bed is…” 

“Destroyed?” Berry finished. 

Bucky nodded. “I’ll do the laundry,” he offered. 

“So sweet, I hate laundry,” Derpy said, her breath tickling the back of Berry’s head. 

“My ear is stuck,” Berry complained, her ear still plastered to the side of her face. 

The tub full, Bucky flicked the levers and turned off the water. The three ponies soaked in the hot bath full of bubbles, the mares and the stallion exchanging glances from one end of the tub to the other. 

“This doesn’t seem like the romantic morning after that it should be,” Berry said, thinking out loud. 

“No, it doesn’t,” Derpy said, rolling her hips and scraping her filly bits against Berry’s spine, trying to work loose the sticky feeling. Water began to flood in and it felt so good. Derpy gasped. 

“I bet both of you are pleased with yourselves, pinning me down several times and having your way with me,” Berry said with a grin, feeling the pegasus grinding up against her spine. She shivered, causing Derpy to gasp. “Turnabout is fair play,” Berry threatened good naturedly. 

“Alpha privilege,” Derpy replied. 

“Some alpha, I do believe that Bucky had us both completely under his control,” Berry snorted. 

Bucky said nothing, but sat blushing and  looking a bit smug. 

“That doesn’t bother me. It was nice to see him take charge a bit,” Derpy said, rubbing her hooves over Berry’s barrel. 

“Well, I will keep that in mind when we plot against you and pin you down,” Berry growled as the pegasus squeezed her lovingly. 

“Any time you think you can take me,” Derpy said, pushing Berry Punch down into the water and dunking her. 

She popped up a moment later, gasping, her ear no longer stuck. After catching her breath, she giggled. “Might be more fun to try and pin him down,” Berry suggested with a wicked grin. 

“We can take turns pinning each other down,” Derpy said, scooching herself down into the water and giving her wings a good soak. “But last night, you had to be tamed, you troublemaker you.” 

“Aw, you say such sweet things,” Berry said, blinking her eyelashes several times. 



 

The house was filled with the scent of delicious food when they emerged from the bathroom. It seemed they had a helpful guest. Somepony was singing some lewd sea shanty down in the kitchen, a song about buggering some filly who ran away from home. 

“Barley,” the three of them all said together. 

They went down the stairs together, the smell of food getting stronger, trampled through the living room, and stormed the kitchen, taking seats at the table. 

“Aye, this house reeeeeeeeks of sin and buggery,” Barley quipped, placing a carton of orange juice on the table as he did so. “Not that I’m complaining. How goes the foal making?” 

The two mares began to blush and Bucky squirmed. 

“Really though, we need to crack open every window before the foals come home. The neighbors will all smell what has been going on though. Be prood lasses, be prood. The neighbors all got a good earful last night,” Barley praised as he set a bowl of cracked wheat porridge on the table. 

“Oh… gosh,” Derpy said, turning a lovely shade of puce. 

“Luna and I heard everything going on in the town square. We went a frolickin’ in the town fountain last night. Had ourselves a nice time. She’s a nice mare. Old fashioned. I like her values,” Barley huffed as he settled into a kitchen chair. 

Bucky sank down into his chair. “You could hear us?” 

“Berry has the Curse o’ the Isles, sounded like sheep buggery all over town,” Barley quipped as he helped himself to the porridge. 

“Oh damnit,” Berry swore as she poured a glass of orange juice. 

“What were ye doin’ to me sweet little Berry to make her bleat all the bloody night?” Barley asked Bucky. 

“I, uh, may have had a hoof in that,” Derpy said guiltily. 

“I bet you had yer hoof in sumptin!” Barley roared, clapping Berry on the back. 

“Yeah,” Berry Punch replied, feeling Berry sheepish. 

“So, I expect foals in a about a year, I’ve marked me bloody calendar,” the old stallion said with his mouth full of porridge and dried fruit. “‘Cause the stank of mare in heat is waftin’ from every wall of this house.” 

“Heat? No… it isn’t time. I am not in my cycle. I should be soonish, which is why I was in a hurry to settle down,” Berry retorted. 

“I am a summer mare, I get the horrible summer heat,” Derpy said, lifting her glass of orange juice. She drank, belched loudly, and then drank again. When she finished drinking, she spoke: “I think I’d know if I was in heat.” 

Barley said nothing, but shot a knowing glance at Bucky, who was busy stuffing his face and guzzling orange juice between bites. 

“I feel like I should be at work. I’ve taken an extended leave. I don’t know what to do. Everything went out of control for a while,” Derpy said, her face furrowed in thought. 

“Quit yer job,” Barley said. “Yer done.” 

“What?” Derpy exclaimed in shock. 

“You are done my pretty lass. No more work for you. From now on, you are a full time mother. I’ve been talking with the Apple family and Mr. Rich, and I am going to be making some big batches of apple whiskey, apple cider, as well as me own batches of sweet nectar. Berry can help me once all of this blows over. Well, Bucky too I reckon, he’s got that mark for it. We’re set for money. I’m old, but I am an old unicorn, and my horn still works even though my body has gone to shite in so many ways,” Barley explained. 

The grey mare sat in shock, not moving, not saying anything, and then, quite suddenly, she began to cry. 

“You can work, you can work, please, no crying, that’s blackmail,” Barley begged. 

“No…” sobbed Derpy. “I’m happy,” she sniffled. 

Barley took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks in relief. He cast his glance at niece, who gave a nod, and then at Bucky, who stared at him blankly. 

“Laddie, I don’t mean to invite my sorry old self, but I’d like to be a part of this herd. I want to offer my support, and be here for the foals. I’m old, and I’d like to spend my last years in a big family, offering up my wisdom to the next generation,” the old unicorn asked the much younger unicorn. 

Berry stared at Bucky intently, waiting.

“Why ask me? I don’t understand what is going on here, I thought Derpy was the alpha,” Bucky questioned. 

“Derpy is the alpha for the female decisions of the herd,” Berry answered. “You make the male decisions. Barley wants in as a loving and devoted uncle. Only you have that right Bucky.” 

“Oh,” Bucky said, dropping his spoon into his bowl. “I don’t know about these rules,” Bucky muttered. 

“That is why we are teaching you as we go,” Berry replied, smiling slightly. “You have to decide what is best for all of us sometimes, and you manage the male end of the family. Barley is another male, and he seeks shelter under our roof, so to speak,” Berry added. 

“I’d be stupid to say no,” Bucky said. “So yes.” 

Barley took another deep breath and bowed his head. “You have my thanks,” he said in gratitude. “Whatever life I have left in me, I intend to be a provider for my wee sweet Berry and her family, as compensation for being able to die proper, foals around my bed as it should be.” 

“Thank you,” Derpy said, wiping her eyes with her fetlock. “Can I work in the brewery though? I like saying I have a job,” Derpy asked. 

“Family business, so of course,” Barley answered. 

“I like the idea of a family business,” Bucky quipped. 

“Our type of business should be a family affair,” Berry Punch agreed. 

“No more stupid mailbag,” Derpy sighed, flexing her wings. 

“And one of or two of us will always be able to be home with the foals,” Barley said, grinning with an almost manic pride. “Cause really, that is all it boils down to, making foals and keeping them safe.” 

“I’ve been offered my own position but I can do both,” Bucky said thoughtfully. 

“I do believe we are going to have more bits than we know what to do with,” Barley said with a certain sense of self assurance. 

“Time to fix up the old family farmhouse,” Berry sighed. 

“Already on that lass,” Barley said. “My name is still on the deed it seems.” 

“Oh,” Berry said. “I didn’t know.” 

“I should be getting the first big advance from the Crown in a couple of weeks,” Barley cackled. “I’ll be using that to help fix up the house.” 

“Crown?” Bucky asked. 

“Luna is paying me to make whiskey, high test whiskey, she wants a few barrels of moonshine for the royal cellars. I’ve taken the job. The coin was too good to refuse,” Barley explained, refilling everybody’s glasses with orange juice as he did so. “The barrels on me arse was all she needed to know that I was good for my word.” 

“And the fact that you shagged her has nothing to do with it, I am sure,” Berry laughed. 

“Eh, I told her that the only thing I do better than shagging is making whiskey and beer,” Barley confessed. “And she hired me on the spot.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 50
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Shining Armor stared at the ledger that his sister had presented to him earlier. It was full of damning evidence. He struggled to take in what little bit he had read, an overwhelming feeling of panic beginning to overtake him. He felt his sister hug him, trying to comfort him, but she said no words, and she was every bit as distraught at her brother. 

Celestia had seen the ledger as well, and now sat watching the two siblings trying to comfort one another. Spike sat beside her on her pillow, sharing it with her, leaning on her and looking glum.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light leaned on one another, unable to offer any words. 

“The whole truth… the entire truth coming out like this, it is going to destroy everything we know, isn’t it?” Twilight Velvet asked, finally breaking the long silence, trying to understand the circumstances she had never been prepared to face. 

“Yes mother,” Shining Armor replied. 

“Does this mean the end of the noble houses?” Night Light asked. 

“Once this war has been settled and if ponies want to do the right thing, then yes, this means the end of everything we know,” Shining Armor replied. “We must first settle the war, and then, I don’t even know. The noble houses are the court system. How do we try the courts? What court do we appeal to?” Shining Armor asked. 

“We never made a provision for this,” Celestia admitted. “I had some small knowledge of some of these things, I mean, I understood that there were a few questionable things going on, but I had no idea of the scope or the true level of corruption. I have failed. I did nothing in order to preserve the long standing peace and to keep what I had been led to believe was stability.”

“You didn’t fail Princess Celestia, we all failed. The noble houses I mean. We let House Avarice gain entirely too much power over all of us, and even your house, the House of Two Lights, has fallen into debt and therefore under control of House Avarice. You were used,” Night Light said, expressing his opinion of the situation. 

“I let myself be used believing I could rise above it,” Celestia admitted gloomily. “I knew that when I made that deal with Princess Platinum that there would be long term consequences. I had no idea that House Avarice had this much control going on the background. I thought the houses that strained against one another would balance one another out, but I was wrong, and many lives have been affected.” 

“House Avarice has political power, but not martial power. They really do not even have that many powerful wizards to be honest. They have the raw ability, but a vast majority of House Avarice spent their lives studying politics and law, not magic and practical spell casting. They are dangerous political foes, but that is being undone slowly. They have no standing army. There is little they can do as far as actual warfare goes,” Shining Armor explained. “Buckminster is probably the most dangerous spell caster they had, and he is no longer loyal to them. He never took to politics from what I have gathered.” 

“No, Buckminster never held any interest in politics. His love was study of magic and magical application, just like another little pony I know,” Celestia said. “And yes, the other members of House Avarice that have attended my school never bothered learning magic beyond the very basics, focusing instead on the social arts, political arts, and legal studies.” 

“So House Avarice has diminishing political power, no standing army, a pile of coins they think they can control the world with, and no real means to back up their threats?” Twilight Velvet asked. 

“Correct,” Celestia answered. “Clan Pickled has a standing army of over one thousand troops, well seasoned, well trained, who deal with monsters and other hazards on a regular basis, and could call up another few thousand conscripts. Keg Smasher very politely informed me of this, but made it clear that he did not intend it as a threat. He wanted House Avarice to stay away from the Isles, or there would be trouble if they came looking for it. He did offer to lend me his troops to use if order fell apart in Canterlot, he told me they were well trained and disciplined, and could be relied upon to restore and keep order if the situation demanded.” 

“Well, that was pleasant of him,” Shining Armor said. “We may need those troops. We have the guard, but let’s face it, most of the guard is not seasoned,” Shining said shamefully. 

“Celestia, if things fall apart, if things go badly I want you to know that the flock looks after its own. If you need Ponyville, we will be here for you, declared state of war or no,” Twilight offered. “But I do ask that the noble houses be dissolved. It is time for the old ways to be set aside and new ways to be discovered.” 

Celestia’s eyes watered, and she began to sniffle. She tried to speak, stammered, stuttered, and then said nothing, but nodded her appreciation. 

“You know Twilight, you never did properly declare a state of war,” Shining said in a low voice. “You seized control of Ponyville and raised an army, but you haven’t actually declared a state of war, at least not in the current legal sense.” 

Twilight’s gaze dropped to the floor. Her barrel heaved as she took a deep breath. Her breathing ragged, she rose to all fours and crossed the room, stiff legged. She stood before Celestia and raised her hoof. “I am sorry, but this must happen for all of these changes to take place,” Twilight apologised. 

Celestia, her gaze darting to Twilight’s raised hoof, nodded faintly. 

Twilight brought her hoof to Celestia’s cheek and stroked gently with her fetlock, wiping away a tear that was rolling down. “When this ends, let us not be enemies,” Twilight offered, looking Celestia in the eye. “I believe this settles the requirement of “a hoof across the muzzle” for me to properly declare?” Twilight asked. 

Shining Armor said nothing, but nodded, and Twilight Sparkle’s parents sat there, looking proud, all of them leaking liquid pride. 

Celestia reached out with one foreleg and pulled Twilight in for a hug, crushing the smaller alicorn to her barrel. “I am proud of you,” whispered Celestia, her voice husky with emotion. Spike clung to them both, sobbing a bit himself. 





Derpy sat on the couch, surrounded by her foals, Piña Colada now among their number in a very real sense. Berry Punch sat on a cushion on a floor, sitting near the couch, and Bucky reclined in the overstuffed chair, watching his mares play with his foals, even Sparkler now among their number. 

Bucky found that he suddenly felt very possessive of his herd. It was all he had. All that mattered. His new emotions were overwhelming and overpowering. If his old family tried anything foolish, Bucky no longer had any doubts. He would obliterate them and leave his foalhood home a smoking ruin. He knew he had that power within him. He could feel it now. 

He twitched slightly, feeling angry, and a curl of smoke rolled up and away from his horn, unnoticed by the other ponies in the room. His emotions were raw, unchecked, and powerful. Love was powerful and dangerous, unpredictable, and gave strength.

Bucky watched as Sparkler hugged Berry Punch and whispered something in her ear, which caused Berry’s ear to twitch in the most appealing way. Bucky felt a stirring, not in his loins, but in his heart, watching Berry’s ear twitch. 

“Father? Are you alright?” 

Bucky did not respond, still not conditioned to those words. He continued to stare blankly ahead, watching everything he loved and held dear. 

“Father?” Sparkler repeated, louder this time. 

Bucky started, his body twitching as he snapped out of his stupor. “What? I’m sorry, I was thinking, I guess I am still not used to that word just yet,” Bucky explained, feeling slightly guilty. He rubbed his head, his fetlock traveling over the dead area that he no longer had any feeling in. 

“You looked a little troubled,” Sparkler said. 

“I was just thinking,” Bucky replied. “I was a little troubled I guess. I am having very odd feelings about wanting to protect all of you.” 

“Love makes us realise what is important in life,” Berry said absentmindedly. 

“Each day I understand a little more about why you did what you did,” Bucky said in a low voice. “These new feelings, I must be honest, I am not sure if I can deal with them.” 

“Then don’t try to deal with them by yourself, trust us with them, remember what Bon Bon said. Be open, be honest, and hold nothing back no matter how worried you might be about how we might feel about what you said,” Berry reminded. 

“We love you, you can tell us anything,” Derpy offered.

“I was just thinking about how easy it would be to scatter the molecules of my family members into the wind if they harmed any of you,” Bucky confessed. “It would be just like teleporting something, only I wouldn’t put it back together after I zapped it.” 

The room fell silent, and Bucky began to worry if perhaps he had made a mistake in being honest. He could feel the tension building. 

“You can do that?” Berry asked. 

“I can do that,” Bucky answered. 

“If we are ever in a situation where I cannot keep us safe, you do that and you don’t hesitate,” Derpy instructed. 

“I’ve been learning a few defensive and offensive spells from the library,” Sparkler announced. “I can’t channel a lot of raw energy, but I seem to have a knack for summoning electricity. We were sparring a bit and I gave Rising Star quite a zap. He had to lay down and think about how much he appreciated me as a filly.” 

Derpy sniggered and covered her muzzle with a fetlock. 

“I can teach you how to focus what energy you do have into a well focused blast of raw telekinetic force. Several hundred pounds of force focused into an area the size of a bit is more than enough to blow a hole through most ponies,” Bucky said, his eyes going from Derpy to Berry to gauge their reactions to his words. “I can summon several thousand pounds of force, but you don’t need to summon that much. Even a hundred pounds of force focused into a spot the size of a cookie is all you need.” 

Dinky had gone completely still and was now paying rapt attention. 

“You listen carefully Dinky,” Derpy said slowly. 

“One of the first spells a unicorn learns is how to boil water. If you are ever in a crisis, remember this one thing. A pony’s body is mostly made of water,” Bucky instructed. “And it will boil if you concentrate hard enough.” 

Berry Punch gulped audibly. Sparkler gave a slow nod of understanding, looking slightly horrified. Derpy’s face remained expressionless. Dinky hugged Piña, who hugged back. All of them stared wide eyed at the unicorn in the overstuffed chair. 

“If somepony ever comes and tries to make you go with them against your will, you fight back. I am going to trust that you are good ponies, and I am going to teach you things. Terrible things. And you are never going to use this knowledge unless it is absolutely necessary, do you understand?” Bucky said, finishing his words with a question. 

“Yes father,” Sparkler answered. 

“Yes daddy, “ Dinky replied with a nod. 

“Most importantly, allow me to keep you safe. I’d rather not have you have to live with the memories of hurting somepony. I’d rather it be me,” Bucky said. 

“Can Rising learn a few spells?”  Sparkler asked, blushing. “He has this foolish notion of wanting to protect me.’

“I can teach if he is willing to learn,” Bucky offered. “We live in strange times. A little self defense is prudent.” 

The conversation was interrupted by a rapping on the door. 
	
	
> Chapter 51
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a pegasus at the door, bearing the insignia of a royal courier. He stood politely waiting after asking for Berry Punch, passed her a scroll casing when she arrived at the door, and then flew away. 

The door was shut and the trio stood inside, Berry Punch holding the scroll case in her teeth. She took it to the kitchen, set it down upon the table, took a seat in a chair, opened it, and then unrolled the scroll. 

She sat reading for several moments, set the scroll down, and looked sad. 

“What is it?” Derpy asked. 

“I am being summoned back to the Isles by order of Keg Smasher, High Laird of the Isles. Legal summons,” Berry Punch said, looking very troubled. 

“We’ll go with you,” Bucky said. 

“Yeah,” the pegasus agreed. 

“Somepony needs to say here and watch the foals,” Berry replied. 

“They can come as well. A trip would do us all good,” Bucky said. 

“Legal summons,” Berry repeated. “This might not be a fun trip.” 

“So we face it together,” Derpy said. “We knew there would be consequences when we bonded together. So shut up, you numbskull.” 

Berry Punch slumped in her chair and fell silent as Bucky read the scroll. 

“This doesn’t seem so bad. Keg Smasher wants to discuss his terms of surrender with you, the one who started this war, he probably has some provisions or demands to make of you. Perhaps demanding that you make a formal apology before he will consent to any plans to make peace,” Bucky said as he read. “We have to leave tomorrow,” he muttered. “Early morning train to Manehatten, and then a boat northward.” 

“I always wanted to go on vacation,” Derpy said thoughtfully. 

“I’ve always wanted to see something other than Ponyville,” Sparkler said. 

“You’ve been to Canterlot,” Derpy reminded. 

“I was little and Canterlot was boring,” Sparkler retorted. 

“Trains make me wanna hurl,” Piña protested. 

“Boats probably aren’t your thing either Piña,” Berry warned. 

“I get to get out of school!” Dinky shouted. 

“I’ll keep you both doing your schoolwork,” Bucky promised. 

“D’aw,” both foals said together in crushing disappointment. 

“I wouldn’t be a very good father if I let you two slack off,” Bucky stated calmly. 

“Yes you would,” Dinky retorted. 

“Yeah, I’d be fine with that,” Piña added. “Totally fine.” 

“Well I wouldn’t,” Bucky said sternly. 

“Don’t sass your dad,” Derpy warned. 

“Aw, this isn’t fun at all now,” Piña whined. 

“Hush Piña, mama is giving us ‘the scowl’ and I want to keep living without her finishing breaking the crack that is already in my plot,” Dinky warned. 

“You only have one eye open,” Piña observed as she looked at Derpy, her voice a little nervous. The young earth pony foal began to realise that all of the adults were looking directly at her. “Having three parents isn’t as fun as I thought,” she whined. 

Berry fell apart first, snerking into her fetlock as she covered her mouth, Derpy finally broke down and giggled, and Bucky held out the longest before cracking his brand new smile, which was slightly lopsided from his facial paralysis along his temple. 

Sparkler, at that odd transition between being a foal and an adult, laughed with the adults, realising just how foalish Piña’s behaviour was. 





Meanwhile, off in Canterlot, in a small study with fine mahogany walls, a broad desk made from matching wood, and paintings of old nobles covering the walls, an old stallion sat in a finely upholstered chair, staring up at a painted portrait of Princess Platinum. He was drinking, slugging down large gulps of brandy from a snifter. He stared at the painting, casting accusing glances at it sometimes, hateful glances at other times, and sorrowful glances after a particularly large gulp of brandy. 

He refilled his snifter and continued staring. 

“You never wanted this,” the old stallion said, gesturing around him, indicating the world at large. 

He took another long drink, cringed at the sour burning belch that blossomed in his throat, and pounded on his own barrel, trying to get the wretched taste out of his mouth. 

“You, you had friends. You never wanted to actually hurt your friends… you loved them. I’ve read the words you wrote down yourself. You… you just wanted to make sure your lineage was looked after… you stupid idiot… your lineage wrecked your good intentions and abused that little bit of leverage you left in place, and look what we’ve done. We’ve wrecked everything!” the old stallion said to the painting. 

The painting stared back wordlessly at the old stallion. The mare in the painting was silver, her pelt seemingly metallic. She wore a small crown studded with dainty jewels. 

“We’re at war… somepony was finally brave enough to call us out on what we’ve done. And I’ve done something terrible,” the stallion confessed, finishing off a nearly full glass in one gulp. He poured another snifter of brandy from the decanter and continued to stare at the painting, which stared back at him. 

“Shut UP! Stop scolding me. SHUT UP!” the old pony shouted, cringing and closing his eyes. “I’ve done as you have asked! What more do you want from me?” 

The painting gave no reply, but the eyes made from so many careful brushstrokes continued to stare, unblinking. 

“I’ve condemned us all,” the old unicorn grumbled before he took a drink. “STOP GIVING ME THAT LOOK!” he roared at the painting. 

The old unicorn looked away from the painting and his eyes settled upon a carved bust of Princess Platinum on his desk. He looked away from that too. She was all over this study, her image looking down at him from all directions. 

“I sent the ledger, please, stop torturing me, I can’t sleep anymore, I just want some sleep. I want a quiet rest without guilt!” the old stallion begged. 

“Stop shouting at me all at once, all of you, I cannot make out what you are saying!” the old unicorn said, pressing one hoof to his ear and grimacing. “SILENCE!” he shouted. 



 

“Look, the three of us need to talk.” 

“Stop being the insufferable big sister,” Luna demanded. 

“I agreed that we would no longer engage in marriages, it is too political and it always does harm,” Celestia said patiently. 

“You agreed! I was away when that decision was made!” Luna snapped. 

“You cannot actually be serious,” Celestia said, staring aghast at her sister. 

“I have thought about it, nothing more.” Luna said. “It was more than just a fling. He is… he is… he appreciates me and my values! I do not scare him or intimidate him! He appreciates my militance! He tells me I do not need to change, that I am fine the way I am, and that the world needs to change to go back to how it was.” 

Celestia sighed and turned away. 

“I do not care that he is old or that our time is short. That doesn’t matter. Our time is short anyway, no matter his age. What little time we have is precious, and I would not wish to squander it,” Luna explained. “And his age isn’t an issue. He’s aged like fine wine. Or whiskey. Time has only been kind to him.” 

“I understand sister,” Celestia said, slumping in defeat.

The two sisters stood in what was jokingly being referred to as the “royal suite” which was the largest room available at the Ponyville Inn and Boarding House. Luna was still staying with the guard, mostly, not that they needed their spirits lifted. 

“I cannot say what we will do, but we will continue to be friends for the time being,” Luna said. 

“And I will not tell you what to do sister. It was a mistake to do so in the first place,” Celestia admitted. 

“Thank you,” Luna said gratefully. 

“Let us not be enemies,” Celestia said, repeating Twilight’s words. 





It had been a long day, full of various tasks. Derpy had made the rounds, informing others of their trip, saying goodbye, letting ponies know that they would be gone for a while. At home, Bucky and Berry made sure that everything was in good order to leave, cleaning out the fridge of anything that might spoil, and allowing Piña, Dinky, and Sparkler to gobble down as much ice cream as they could stomach. During the later afternoon, Sparkler had gone to tell Rising Star of her departure, and the two had shared a quiet moment together. The house was cleaned, left spotless, a mostly effortless task done by Bucky, who did it while he was busy doing other things, like eating ice cream. 

And so the afternoon had wound down into evening, and evening transitioned into bedtime, at least for the foals anyway, and the family had come together for one moment of bonding before the big events of tomorrow, all piled into the big bed together. It was a very crowded bed, packed full of ponies, and it was clean and had fresh sheets. 

In the center of it all lay Bucky, head raised, somehow looking more like a lion among its pride than a pony, with Derpy on one side and Berry on the other, Sparkler lay beside Berry, and the foals were busy crawling all over everypony. 

The change was not unnoticed by the two mares. Bucky had gone through some sort of metamorphosis during his convalescence, he had gone in weak, and re-emerged as something else entirely. He was still sweet, he was still kind, he was still everything that both of them had fallen in love with, but he was also different. 

His expressed emotions were largely unfiltered now. He said things. He felt things. Very little was held back anymore, and the new path of total honesty as suggested by Bon Bon led to some troubling moments, but they were moments that the two mares were glad to share, happy to have a whole pony between themselves. 

“Papa?” 

The word hung in the air as a question, Dinky Doo still trying different words to see which one fit the best, leaving Bucky occasionally confused as he was still adjusting to responding to being called father, no matter which title was used.

“Yes Dinks?” Bucky replied as Piña kept rubbing the area on his head where the stitching had been, the soft bump of her fetlock making tiny circles. 

“I understand how important my schoolwork is, and I want to keep doing it, but there is something I want to do more,” Dinky said, reclining on her mother’s back. 

“And that is?” Bucky answered. 

“Well, I know my cutie mark is only three bumbly-wumbly bees, but can I still be a powerful wizard even though I don’t have a magical cutie mark?” Dinky asked, her face scrunched in concentration as she stumbled through a difficult concept. 

“Dinky, my cutie mark is a hops plant. Has it slowed down my magic use?” Bucky returned, answering a question with a question. 

“No, I guess it hasn’t,” Dinky said thoughtfully. 

“All you need to become a powerful wizard is ambition, dedication, and drive. You have the raw magical ability. What you do with it is entirely up to you,” Bucky explained patiently. “This means a lifetime of dedication. It means reading books and studying when other foals are out playing. It means a life of careful control, a sacrifice of self, and a strong measure of self wisdom to understand what true power is.” 

“What is true power?” Sparkler asked, suddenly very interested. 

“Having the means to inflict great harm and then never once having to use it. Understanding what you could do, and then holding it back when the time actually comes for you to use it,” Bucky explained, his voice very soft, and each word carefully chosen. 

“So like what you did to fend off Ponyville,” Dinky said, her face becoming thoughtful. “You could have smashed them, broken their legs, made them all boil, winked away a leg or even their head, or done all kinds of terrible things like setting them on fire or crushing them all into jelly.” 

“Yes, I could have done all of those things,” Bucky confessed. “I could have killed every pony that had threatened us. Instead, I chose to hold back the full measure of my power, choosing instead to use only as much force was needed to try and hold back the rampaging mob.” 

“I understand,” Dinky said in a small voice. “At least, I think I do. I hope I do. This is why you keep talking about the need for control, right? If you had become too angry during that time, you might have accidentally hurt somepony seriously or even killed them. You had to hold everything back, even your really mad angry feelings, to keep everypony safe, me, Piña, them, you, nopony got seriously hurt because you understand true power.” 

“Piña and I,” Sparkler corrected. 

“Yes, Dinks, something like that,” Bucky replied, feeling a strong rush of pride in knowing that Dinky was catching on quickly, and was understanding advanced concepts of morality and ethics that many students never fully cottoned onto. 

“I want true power then. I want that kind of control and understanding,” Dinky said, looking unusually solemn for her a foal her age. “I never want to be responsible for seriously hurting anypony ever again. What happened to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon was a very hard lesson for me to learn, and I only want to learn it once.” 

“Good Dinky,” Derpy said, to the foal sprawled over her back. 

“Yes, you are a very good Dinky,” Berry Punch agreed. 

“A lot of ponies never learn this lesson,” Bucky said, expressing his sorrow in his words. “They don’t learn it until it is too late, and then they are not in a position to get a second chance.” 

“So if Dinky is going to be a wizard, can I be her assistant?” Piña asked. 

“Yes, a wizard needs an assistant. A flunky!” Dinky cried. 

“No flunkies,” Derpy quipped, causing Dinky to groan. 

“Aw, nuts,” Piña muttered. “I wanted to grow a nice hunch, maybe develop a limp, and become Dinky’s faithful flunky, like the flunky for the Mad Doctor Scratch ‘n’ Sniff in that Daring Do novel.” 

Berry Punch rolled her eyes and facehoofed. 

“What? I have a palm tree for a cutie mark. I don’t even know what that means. What does one do with a palm tree?” Piña asked. 

“Go coconuts,” Bucky said dryly. 

“No,” Derpy said. “No puns.” 

“You make puns,” Berry retorted.

“Only sometimes, when they are tasteful,” Derpy admitted, causing Berry Punch to snort in reply. 

“So assistant, with the option for promotion to flunky when we’re older and the adults can’t boss us around so much,” Dinky said in summary. 

“Yay!” Piña cried. 

“I need a flunky,” Bucky said. 

Derpy sighed in frustration. 

“Berry, you do stupid things, you up for it?” Bucky asked. 

Berry Punch could not reply, all she could do is lay there with her mouth wide open, her eyes wide with shock. Derpy chuckled, Sparkler giggled, and the two foals were overcome with laughter. 

Bucky took the opportunity to plant a wet kiss on Berry’s lips, a short brief kiss, which made the foal’s laughter dissolve into groans of disgust. 

“Gah, gross,” Piña exclaimed, not actually turning away this time, her voice disgusted but her face happy. 

Bucky turned his head and managed to catch Derpy by surprise, causing the pegasus to give off one of her squeals that Bucky was beginning to adore. When he pulled way, the pegasus whickered in pleasure and blushed. 

“We’ll face tomorrow together,” Bucky said, surrounded by his family. 
	
> Chapter 52 (The Goodbye - also the place to stop reading if you want to avoid the Isles Arc, darkness lies ahead)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The railway station was crowded. There were four alicorns present, the Elements of Harmony stood by, and a massive flock of pegasi, now one unified flock, had turned out. So had most of Ponyville. Something almost like a parade had formed as Bucky and his herd had moved through the town, during the hours just after dawn. It was strangely quiet, oddly dignified, and the long procession of ponies had moved towards the station. 

And now, they stood among the throng, Bucky looking rather uncomfortable. 

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat, which somehow caused the crowd to quiet down. Spreading her wings to look a bit more regal, just as she had seen Celestia and Luna do so many times, she took a deep breath and spoke: “Know this, whoever goes to the Isles may never be allowed to return. Much will depend on Berry Punch and the conditions placed upon her. This may very well be a one way trip for any who goes.” 

Berry, hearing those words, panicked. “All of you need to stay. Bucky, I want you here with Derpy and the foals. Look after Piña. I’m going alone,” Berry demanded in her state of sudden alarm. 

“No,” Derpy said. “Bucky, go with her. She is going to need you. I need to know that Berry is safe. I will stay here and look after the foals. Barley will be here to help me, and I still have the flock.” 

“No, Derpy, I cannot allow that. Bucky, you stay here. With her. She’s tough on the outside, but I am her best friend, and I know how soft she is on the inside,” Berry said. 

“Berry, stop being so damn prideful, he is going with you and that is the final word. As the head mare, I get to make this decision,” Derpy growled. “We both love him, and I love you, you stupid bleating numbskull! I need to know you are looked after!” 

“SILENCE!” Bucky cried, using the Voice. The force of his utterance caused the glass of several street lamps around the station to shatter. 

Celestia and Luna, unaware that Bucky had the Voice, both looked a little alarmed and surprised, but said nothing. Both made plans to say something later however. 

“Both of you will be SILENT!” Bucky’s voice carried with it magical compulsion and a puff of smoke drifted from his horn. Everypony’s ears rang and many ponies recalled Luna’s return on Nightmare Night. Several bowed, overwhelmed by a strange magical compulsion that jolted through their bones. The noble Voice was a powerful thing. 

“Both of you, come here, at my side, this instant,” Bucky commanded. Heads low, both mares followed his command, not quite daring to look him in the eye. 

“We are going together, and that is final. There will be no arguments. Sparkler, you are free to make your own choices. You are old enough that you can. Personally, I would like for you to stay, keep in school, and focus on getting into university. Barley will look after you. Piña, Dinky, come here,” Bucky said, his tone now gentle. The foals moved quickly, not wanting another shouted command. 

Sparkler looked at Rising Star, who stood close by with his parents, and then at her own family, and then at Barley, who stood looking glum. 

“I am coming with you, the flock stays together,” Sparkler said, her eyes flooding with tears as she spoke. She moved to be with her family. 

“Sparkler!” Rising Star cried, prancing in place, looking frantic. He turned and looked at his mother and father, his face contorted with pain. 

“You will only meet a filly like that once in your life my colt,” Shining Star said, looking her son in the eye. Rising Star threw a leg around his mother’s neck and hugged her tightly, and his father embraced both of them. Finally, they separated and pulled away. 

Looking one last time at his parents, Rising Star moved to stand beside Sparkler, never once asking if he could come along. 

“I am proud of you,” Galaxy Guide said to his colt. “Go and do us proud. You take care of her, do you hear me? She is a rare creature, just like your mother.” 

Rising Star nodded, suddenly looking very grown up and mature. 

A flashbulb went off, and Barley stood, holding the camera in his magic, worried if he would ever see Berry again. He quietly decided to keep working under the assumption that his niece would be coming back again soon. 

Cadance felt a silent sense of satisfaction, this was the best example of what a herd marriage could be. A powerful and inspirational force of love. Both mares had only wanted the other to be happy, never once thinking of themselves. If there was any fear of jealousy or selfishness regarding this union, it died upon seeing the selfless display. 

There was suddenly a bit of a commotion as a foal went running through the crowd, bawling and crying as she darted forward. 

It was Diamond Tiara, and Filthy Rich was right behind her, trying to catch her. She had healed well, and was looking much better, though not quite her usual self. The slightly larger foal tackled Dinky, she squeezed, howling pitifully, and Piña moved to embrace the two. 

The foals had spent a lot of time together, and were currently Diamond Tiara’s only friends. Mister Rich stood nearby, now still, watching the display. 

Bucky looked Mister Rich in the eye and nodded. 

“Buckminster, I wish you the best of luck. Return to us soon if you can,” Mister Rich said. “Look after your mares and your foals. Family is all we have in this world. Nothing else matters. Not money, not wealth, nor power. Just family.” 

Bucky nodded solemnly. 

Two mares pushed through the crowd and drew close. 

“Please, both of you, look after Bucky together, I still worry about him so much,” Bon Bon said. “Bucky, you let them look after you, or else. I know you will all be coming back. I have to believe that.” 

“Stay close to those you love. It is the only way for our kind to stay sane,” Lyra said. 

Berry and Derpy both looked at the mares and then at Bucky. 

“I know this is the worst time to ask about it, but it might be the last time we speak, even though I refuse to believe that,” Bon Bon said, looking at Lyra, who gave her a faint nod. “But we both wanted to ask you at some point if we could bond with your herd. We don’t want in on your inner herd, but we do want a hoof in raising the foals and being part of your family. We can’t have foals of our own, but we would like to share yours. We wish only to remain exclusive to one another, but we want to be a part of something greater,” Bon Bon said tearfully. 

“We hope you will give it some thought while you are gone,” Lyra said, looking terribly strained. “And I need to get away from this crowd. This is turning into a bad scene for me. Goodbye, all of you. Keep one another safe and love one another.” 

“The three of us will talk about it while we are away, and when we return, we shall all discuss it,” Bucky replied. 

Bon Bon nodded. “Thank you. I am going to get Lyra away from here before something bad happens. Be safe, and keep each other sheltered in love.” 

The two mares gave a final nod of goodbye, and then departed, Bon Bon clearing a way through the crowd for Lyra. Bucky watched them go, already missing them both, already wondering what Derpy and Berry might have to say about this. 

Derpy gently rubbed Diamond Tiara with a folded fetlock and watched her foals, feeling proud. Before her was all the proof she needed in knowing that she had raised Dinky right, and Piña as well. 

Celestia approached, the crowd parting for her. She wore no crown, no regalia, no symbols of office, but her nobility did not need useless symbolism. She moved with quiet grace and dignity until she stood before  Bucky’s herd. 

She kissed Bucky first, gently on his cheek, then Derpy, and finally, Berry. She gazed down upon them, lovingly, feeling very proud of all of them. “Our Founders would be very proud of you, seeing you like this,” Celestia said in a voice thick with emotion, a voice that hinted that tears were coming. “This is what they wanted.” 

“A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens,” Berry Punch said in a low raspy voice. 

“Yes,” Celestia said, nodding, the first tear finally falling. “Buckminster, I am proud of you. I had always hoped that you would break free. And now look at you. Derpy, watch over them both. I cannot guide you during what comes next. Berry Punch… You are going to be held accountable for your actions. Keg Smasher is willing to discuss peace, but he has a condition that he is going to place upon you. I cannot say more.”

“Thank you,” Derpy said, blushing, unsure how to react to this situation. 

In the distance, a train whistle blew. 

“Last chance for goodbyes,” Twilight Sparkle called. 

“Bucky, look after my niece, she’s a foul tempered hot headed little cuss,” Barley said, looking heart broken. 

“I married her because of that,” Bucky said. 

“Good lad,” Barley replied, his voice hitching. 

Thunderlane and his family stood close by, wings closest to the heart raised in salute. Other pegasi followed his lead, and soon, every wing was raised on every pegasus in the crowd. 

“I am trusting you with the life of my flockmate Derpy,” Thunderlane said, his voice stern and serious. “Bring her back to us,” Thunderlane begged. 

“Please,” Flitter added. 

“Return her to us, all of you, come home soon,” Cloudchaser requested. 

“This isn’t goodbye,” Mister Rich said. “You are going to have a school to run. The community here needs you. I shall expect your return. Even if it might take awhile.” 

“Coming home doesn’t sound too difficult, it sounds like all you have to do is agree to Keg Smasher’s demands,” Thunderlane said to Berry Punch. “So do it, and come home.” 

The train rolled into the station, belching smoke and steam. It only had two cars, a tender, and an engine. It carried no passengers, other than a small compliment of pegasi and unicorn guards. 

While Celestia had worries, she knew that Buckminster was more than enough defense all alone. She pitied anypony that might foolishly choose to attack the train. She hoped that nopony was that foolish. 

Recent events had shown though, some ponies were foolish. The Monarch of the Sun mused on recent events as the crowd began to shuffle all around her. Berry Punch had little say in her actions, she was merely a player in this game of fate and destiny. What had started off as a rather simple declaration of war had set off a vast series of events, many changes that could have only taken place if Berry Punch had done what she was clearly meant to do. 

It was a troubling line of thought, one that had once troubled Star Swirl as well. How does one punish a pony for doing what fate created them to do?

Mister Rich quietly pulled Diamond Tiara away from her friends, holding her close, and Diamond Tiara let her father hold her close. She was clearly a very different little filly now, and she turned to her father for comfort. 

Galaxy Guide and Shining Star watched their colt, pride on their faces, and tears in their eyes. Rising Star and Sparkler were clinging to one another, clearly terrified, and they clung to one another as if they were the only ponies in existence. They held one another, unable to keep looking, but unable to turn away. 

Twilight Sparkle found herself pressed in from all sides, both her friends and her family pressed tightly all around her, not actually wanting to send the family away, but knowing that hard choices had to be made. She now had a greater understanding of Celestia’s impossible decisions. She had no way of knowing if she was making the right decision now, only history would be able to confirm if she had been wrong or right. 

Twilight Sparkle desperately wanted to be right, she had to be right, because this pain was terrible and the idea of being wrong and enduring all of this horrified her. Celestia’s decisions suddenly seemed so much clearer and Twilight resolved to spend more time listening to Celestia in the future, and less time being angry and judgmental. 

Luna had moved to Barley’s side, and was now standing with him, the old stallion leaning on her side, occasionally swiping at his eyes. She leaned her head against his, saying nothing, no words actually needed to be said between the two, and Luna stood in support of her friend. There would be lots of drinking later, and words, what few were needed, could be said then. 

When the door opened, Bucky quietly summoned up all of his noble dignity and led the way, his head high, he made his way to the train and started up the stairs, Berry Punch following on his heels. Derpy herded the foals along, turned to look at the crowd one last time, choked, and then turned away, resuming her task of nosing the foals along. Rising Star and Sparkler walked side by side, touching, their necks pressed together, neither one of them able to turn and give a final glance. They were the last ones up the stairs. 

And then, all of them were gone. The door closed. No faces peered from the windows, the blinds were drawn, the occupants not visible. A dreadful silence fell upon the crowd. 

Far away from the crowd, sitting on a roof, a unicorn and an earth pony clung to one another and wept, quite overtaken with emotion.

“We made a terrible mistake,” Lyra said. “We should have gone with them.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 53
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The train ride was mostly silent. It was a well appointed car, not a common commuter car. There were berths for sleeping in, large comfortable seats, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette area well stocked with snacks and food. 

The atmosphere was quiet and subdued. Dinky and Piña were both quietly reading to themselves, piled against one another on a small sofa, Derpy and Berry sat piled on one another on another sofa, sometimes talking quietly and still apologising to one another for the heated moment back at the train station. Bucky sat reading a thick tome about the lost history of herd marriage and common practices of various members within a herd, trying to understand where he fit into all of this. 

Sparkler and Rising Star sat at a chessboard, the game had started, but no pieces had been moved in a while. They were silent, and mostly looked at one another, realising that something profound had changed between them. This wasn’t playful courting, or some secondary school crush… something more committed and mature had taken hold and both of them struggled to understand the change that had taken place. 

Moments gave way to minutes, minutes gave way to hours, and the hours gave way to an entire day, the sun eventually setting. Most of the trip had been spent in silence, each pony reflecting on everything that had happened, what was happening now, and what might come. And after the sun had gone down, sleepy little foals had been tucked into a berth and kissed goodnight by all those that loved them, while the older members of the family remained awake for a while longer. There would be a layover to take on water and coal around midnight, and they would arrive in Manehatten around dawn if all went well. 

Eventually, Sparkler crawled into a berth and Rising Star crawled into the one beneath her, Sparkler looking down from her berth at the colt below her and smiling at him one last time. 

Derpy was not pleased with the berth situation. They were really only large enough for one pony each, unless you were a foal. And she didn’t want to sleep alone. She glared grumpily at the berths and remained on her couch, her forelegs crossed over her barrel. 

After the train had taken on fresh water and coal, three ponies settled onto one couch in what appeared to be a stacked pile that could not possibly be comfortable for any pony involved. Love made all things bearable, even odd sleeping conditions, and the trio slept, pressed against one another, seeking love and warmth. 



 

The dawn was grey and chilly. They were farther north now, and they sky was overcast, full of fog and threatening rain as a storm blew in from the ocean. 

It seemed as though all of Manehatten had turned out to greet them at the train station. It was a city whose population was a majority of earth ponies, all of whom seemed to see what Berry Punch had done as some heroic act. A band played music. Confetti filled the air. The guard were nervous and agitated. Ponyville was a city of thousands. Manehatten was a city of hundreds of thousands. 

There were banners hung from the lamp posts along the route taking them to the harbour. Dinky and Piña huddled close to Derpy, the roar of the crowd frightening them both quite badly. The guard formed a protective phalanx around the family, keeping them securely in the middle. 

“This is insane,” Bucky whispered, his words lost to the loud cheers of the sea of ponies all around him. He moved forward slowly, his horn ignited out of a near state of panic, unsure what to make of the pandemonium all around him. 

Flashbulbs kept going off, too many flashes to count, each flash almost causing Bucky to release some spell, increasing his panic. The flashes panicked the guard too. It would be nearly impossible to tell if there was incoming hostile spells under these conditions. Bucky levitated both Piña and Dinky onto Derpy’s back, knowing she would understand the meaning. If something happened, Derpy had wings and the foals would be safe once she flew away. 

Berry Punch didn’t seem the least bit afraid. She was enjoying every moment of this, reveling in her moment of fame and glory, lifting her head high and smiling for the cameras. She had become a champion of earth pony justice, sticking up for earth ponies everywhere, and become something of a national symbol for earth pony equality. 

The full madness of the situation began to sink into Bucky’s mind. 

This was the worst sort of crazy because it made so much sense. 

The walk to the harbour was the most difficult walk of Bucky’s life. Several times he had nearly succumbed to the panic rising up within him. The sound, the sights, the smell of thousands and thousands of ponies all around him. The whole situation had become overly political. Some of the crowd carried signs promoting earth pony equality while others held signs proclaiming rights for herd marriage. It was almost impossible to think. 

The sound was deafening. 

The grey pegasus mare was a nervous wreck, her wings twitching, her steps jerky and halting as she continued forward. Sparkler stood beside her, pressing her body against her mother’s side, trying to soothe her and comfort her. Derpy kept pushing her away so she could keep her wings ready for sudden take off.

There was a collective sigh of relief from everypony in the phalanx as the harbour came into view and the family finally traversed the gangplank. The crowd behind them cheered, shouting and yelling “goodbye” and cameras still flashed. 

Berry Punch turned around and waved a final goodbye, blowing kisses at the crowd and smiling broadly at them. Her final wave incited the crowd into a frenzy, and the roar became painful as the crowd cheered their own final goodbye. 

Bucky and his family were quickly escorted to their quarters. 



 

“I am glad that is over,” Derpy said, the pegasus still looking quite frantic. She paced about their stateroom. There were two rooms. One for Bucky, Derpy, and Berry, and then one for the foals, with Sparkler and Rising Star sharing the foal’s room. 

“That was wonderful,” Berry said, bouncing in place with excitement. 

“I feel sick,” Bucky muttered. “Not seasickness. I thought I was going to have a panic attack during that long walk.”

Quite without warning, Berry Punch pounced upon the pacing pegasus, planting a pair of puckered lips upon the pegasus’ lips. She bore Derpy to the floor, working out Derpy’s frustration the only way she knew how. Derpy resisted only for a moment before giving in and kissing back. 

Bucky watched the mares wrestling on the floor with growing interest, distracted from his own problems. Berry was doing quite a number on the grey mare pinned beneath her, and Derpy struggled to re-assert her dominance. 

This was a wonderful distraction.

Finally, Berry pulled away, breathing hard. She wiped her mouth with one foreleg and rolled away from Derpy. She lay on her back, her barrel heaving, staring up at the ceiling. Derpy also lay on her back, her wings fluttering faintly. 

“It was just getting interesting,” Bucky lamented. 

“I feel better,” Derpy admitted. 

“I figured you would,” Berry said smugly. “All a pegasus needs to set them straight is a good snuggle.” 

“Think the foals are alright?” Bucky asked nervously. 

“They have Sparkler and Rising Star, I am sure they are fine. In a little while, I am going to go out and look at the ocean,” Derpy said. “I’ll take the foals with me.” 

“It isn’t even mid-morning and I already feel exhausted,” Bucky admitted. 

“And here I was hoping for a chance to wear you out,” Berry simpered suggestively. “Big crowds always leave me feeling empowered. Strong.” 

“I hate crowds,” Derpy muttered, her muzzle scrunching from dislike. 

“Not fond of them either,” Bucky confessed. 

“I can’t believe we have this ship to ourselves,” Berry said. “No lines in the cafeteria.” 

“Food sounds good,” Bucky said. “I wonder if there is anything to eat.”

“There is a mini-fridge in the corner,” Berry said. 

“Oh!” Bucky exclaimed, rising from his chair and checking out the mini-fridge. He pulled the door open, peered around, and then pulled out an entire pecan pie. He grabbed a small plastic spoon from a container above the fridge and retired back to his chair, digging into the pie with abandon. 

“You going to eat all of that?” Derpy asked. 

“Hyeash,” Bucky replied, his mouth full. 

“But I like pecan pie,” the pegasus pouted. 

“Ifsh yoush shqueesh insho frish shair wifsh me, I’llsh share shome wifsh yoush,” Bucky invited. 

Derpy did not need a second invitation. She piled into the chair and straddled Bucky, licking a bit of pie from his nose. 

“You two are adorable. I wonder what else is in the fridge? You two just hang out and make one another feel better,” Berry said, getting up from the floor to check out the fridge. She rummaged around inside of there, moving things around, making Berry happy grunts as she plundered. 

After a moment, she pulled out a bottle of pomegranate soda held in her teeth and placed it upon a small table near the fridge, and then returned to grab a container of eclairs. “Wonderful,” she said, drooling. “I bet the foals are plundering their fridge as well.” She then grabbed a tub of baked beans in molasses and returned to the table with her prize. She cursed, realising she had no spoon, and returned to the fridge to collect one. She then returned to the table and began to tuck in, tearing into the beans hungrily. 

Bucky, using his magic, fed Derpy and himself bites of pecan pie, alternating bites between one another. He was all too aware of various parts of Derpy brushing up against him as she straddled him, and he could feel the pegasus’ excited response to being close to him and receiving affection. She licked off every crumb that fell and made happy pegasus noises as she began to settle into her element. 

Berry watched them both, taking comfort in knowing that they were feeling comforted by one another. She would join them soon enough, but the pair of introverts needed some down time. She took a bite of beans and chewed, enjoying the cold sweet baked beans thoroughly. There were little bits of pineapple and dried apple bits that were no longer dried, but had soaked up the sweet sauce and rehydrated a bit. She noshed into an eclair and watched her mates continue with their pie sharing. Derpy wanting to send Bucky with her made Berry Punch feel a swelling surge of love for the pegasus. 



 

Dinky and Piña Colada ravenously stuffed cookies into their mouths, gobbling enthusiastically, and occasionally guzzled some milk from little paper cartons. They had already eaten a small carrot cake between the two of them, and their faces were still splotched with sour cream frosting. 

Sparkler had a tub of macaroni salad that she was devouring, washing it down with a bottle of cherry-lime soda. There was also a sweet potato pie on the table she intended to devour with Rising Star, who was eating a tub of baked beans in molasses with little bits of pineapple and apple. 

Sparkler, full of macaroni salad and most of a bottle of cherry-lime soda, belched horrifically and blew Rising Star’s mane out of his eyes, nearly making Piña choke as she began to giggle. 

“How soon do you think I am going to have little sisters and brothers?” Dinky asked, her question happening out of the blue. She spoke with a mouthful of cookie and crumbs flew everywhere. 

Rising Star paused his eating and set his spoon down in the tub of beans. 

“Dinky, I am sure you will have some little siblings soon enough,” Sparkler said with a smile. “They were just married.” 

“Think Bucky makes mommy moan like she did that day on the couch? She sounded really happy… I want her to be happy,” Dinky said, looking very thoughtful. “And Berry too, even though I am not quite sure how that works between mommy and Berry just yet,” the little unicorn added. 

“Oh, uh, well… Dinky I had no idea,” Rising Star stammered. 

“I’m not stupid,” Dinky said. “I know how little foals get made. Sort of. I snuck off and looked through a few books in the library when Miss Cheerilee took the class there one day.” 

“Never once thought you were stupid Dinky,” Rising Star said, now blushing. 

“And I don’t want Bucky sticking himself inside mommy’s backside just for foal making… I want her to feel good and be happy,” Dinky said, and then crammed a whole cookie into her mouth. “Sex needs to be for more than foal making.” 

“GROSS!” Piña protested. “I’m eating here!” 

“He’s sticking himself into your sister’s backside too,” Dinky retorted around a mouthful of cookie. 

Sparkler sat, silent and in shock. 

“I know that,” Piña squeaked. “I mean, sorta, I don’t know as much as you I don’t think,” the pink earth pony foal confessed. 

“Look Dinky, I am sure they are all very happy trying to make foals… and trust me, I know that mom feels pretty good about it,” Sparkler said with shudder as she recalled several memories. “Berry too,” Sparkler added, speaking to Piña. 

“I had no idea,” Rising Star said. 

“Dinky’s smart,” Sparkler said.  “And magically gifted as well.” 

“Are you two going to have sex?” Dinky said bluntly to her big sister. 

“Dinky!” Sparkler protested. 

Rising Star wisely remained silent, knowing there was nowhere to run on a boat and Sparkler would catch him eventually. 

“Well?” Dinky asked. “You love one another, right? Just like in a story book, he is leaving home to be with you.” 

“Yes Dinky, we love one another,” Sparkler admitted to her younger sister, making Rising Star smile and blush. “But for right now, we are not adult enough to do what our mothers and father are doing,” she explained delicately. 

“Oh. So it is  like waiting for Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Dinky said thoughtfully. 

“Yes Dinky, just like that,” Rising Star agreed, earning him a look of approval from Sparkler, which made him feel good all over. 

“I want to be a big sister, just like you Sparkler,” Dinky admitted. 

“Aw, Dinky…” Sparkler gasped, her eyes beginning to tear over. “I love you, you little prankster you.” 
	
> Chapter 54 (Warning! May contain nuts!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy had gone to take the foals on deck, so they could all look at the ocean together, leaving Bucky and Berry in the stateroom together, and she had left with a knowing wink. 

“Later, I’ll get mine,” she had said as she left, shutting the door behind her. 

Berry looked pointedly at Bucky, licking her lips in a seductive manner and narrowing her eyes. “Very clever that mare, luring the foals away so we have some private time together, you and I,” she said in a husky voice. 

Bucky fanned himself with a hoof, it suddenly felt a bit warm in the room. 

“I haven’t bathed for awhile. I’m taking a shower, and then I’ll be back to deal with you. Just hang out, relax, and wait for me. I need to make certain parts of me lickable,” Berry said in a Berry seductive voice. She vanished into the bathroom and Bucky heard the water run. 

Sitting in his chair, he suddenly felt very flustered. Derpy straddling him and then Berry being Berry had left him in quite some mood. A brave mood. Berry had once ambushed him in the shower, and turnabout was fair play, or so Berry always said. 

He spilled out of his chair and moved as stealthily as possible, creeping his way into the bathroom and towards the shower. He pulled open the door and stuck his head in. The shower was small. Not large enough for two ponies. 

Berry turned and shot him a glance over her shoulder, watching Bucky stare at her wet backside. “Well, I honestly did not expect you to follow me into the shower,” she admitted. She whipped her tail over Bucky’s muzzle, a slightly stinging slap. “This shower is very small however.” 

Not bothering to wait for an invitation, Bucky planted his snoot directly into Berry’s hot wet snatch, blowing a raspberry and making Berry laugh riotously. He plunged his tongue into her dark plum folds, feeling her clench around him as she laughed. Her laughter quickly faded into a long shuddering moan. 

“Hold on sweet thing,” Berry said, wiggling free of his ministrations. She stood on her forelegs and with a quick well balanced movement, wrapped her hindlegs around Bucky’s head. 

This was intriguing. 

Directly below his muzzle like a feedbag waiting to be devoured was the object of his desire. He was now half in and half out of the shower, the front half of his body now soaking wet, the water running down his face and running rivulets into Berry’s glistening glossy gash. 

“You’re amazing,” Bucky said breathlessly, his breath blowing hotly over Berry’s exposed berry. He punctuated his words with a lick directly to to Berry’s berry, making the mare wobble on her forelegs. 

“Don’t let me fall,” she said in a pleading voice. 

Bucky could feel her hindlegs squeezing the sides of his head, her muscles quivering, her legs scissoring slightly and rubbing the muscles along the top of his neck. He blew on her button, his breath blowing over her wet winking sex, causing Berry to wobble once again on her forelegs. 

Once again, Bucky plunged his tongue down deep into her moistened mare flesh, tasting her tartness, and slowly probing the whole cunny crevasse, feeling around to see if anything made her react. 

Berry gasped, feeling the hot snorts from Bucky’s nostrils blowing over her pucker, the heat causing the sensitive flesh just under her dock to clench violently, causing her twat to tighten. She felt his tongue making slow clockwise probings, going round and round inside of her in a slow lazy circuit. Then she felt the direction reverse, now going counter clockwise. 

“Ummmmph,” she mewled. “You have no idea how good that feels,” she murmured. Berry whimpered a few times, trying brace her front legs and push her backside higher, so Bucky’s tongue would plunge deeper. “You are... becoming really... good at that...” she gasped, making little feminine cries between her words. “If you keep... that up... I am going to go off…” 

Bucky replied by dragging his tongue over Berry’s cork, sliding the entire length directly over the protruding knob of flesh. It caused Berry to begin making bleating sounds down below him, inciting him to continue licking her nubbin directly. 

Not intending to do so so quickly, Berry climaxed. It started off with a faint quivering shiver that ricocheted through her filly bits, and then became a violent spasm that made her spine contort. Her legs gave way, and for one terrifying moment, she thought she was going to crash face first into shower floor, but then she felt the warm tingle of magic surrounding her body and pulling her back up, and the tongue lashing continued. 

The tongue flailing almost became violent, a frenzied frenetic fantasy of foreplay. Each loving lick caused Berry to bleat, her forelegs now pulled up and she hugged her own barrel, squeezing herself, her eyes closed, water running down her body, along her face, and dripping from her nose. She ground her hips and clenched her hind legs, trusting completely in Bucky’s magic to hold her aloft. 

The orgasmic tongue tickling continued for several minutes, until Berry couldn’t take it anymore. She was biting down on her own lip now, wanting to beg  for it to stop, but not wanting for it to end. 

“Bucky... mount me... right here in the shower... take me... just be... gentle and give... me time... to take you in,” Berry panted and begged. 

She was gently lowered to her forehooves, which wobbled, and then her hindhooves hit the ground. She stood on all four legs, trembling. 

“This shower is too small, the only way we’ll both fit in here is if we are stacked,” Bucky said breathlessly, recalling words Berry had once said to him when she had invaded his shower. 

He shoved her roughly into the shower and then mounted her. This was his first time standing up. He placed his forelegs along her barrel, adjusting himself and pulling himself forward. She wiggled and bucked a bit beneath him, trying to scoot him into position. He wrapped a foreleg around the front of her chest and pulled the rest of the way forward, sliding along her slippery soaked pelt. He could feel her heat near his tip, a beacon to guide him in. 

Berry was still orgasming beneath him, Bucky could feel her spine arching, her muscles contracting, and her muscular haunches flexing. He pressed against her entrance and began to apply pressure. 

At first, nothing happened, and then with a wet squelching sound, he achieved penetration, which caused Berry to throw back her head and let go with a shrill scream. “Don’t stop,” she commanded, her voice ragged. “That first plunge always stings a bit.” 

Berry splayed out her hind legs slightly and rolled her hips upward, trying to spread out as much as possible to take him in. 

Bucky continued his slow relentless penetration, pushing in deeper and deeper, never letting up for even a second, pressing himself in inch by tantalising inch. His girth was widest around his penile ring, and when he pressed that part in, he felt Berry begin to buck and squirm with vigour. 

“That all you got?” Berry challenged, baring her teeth, trying to wiggle away from him, her ears splayed out sideways from her head. 

Bucky, using the foreleg he had wrapped around her chest, pushed her backwards and thrust his hips forward, making Berry growl. She began actively trying to shake him off and Bucky froze, confused. 

“Want me to stop?” he asked, worried that he was hurting her. 

“NO YOU DIMWIT, I WANT TO MAKE ME YOUR MARE!” Berry snarled, angry that the rutting had stopped. 

“You want this rough?” Bucky asked, not moving, slightly confused. 

Berry’s reply was to bring her head down sharply and bite down savagely on Bucky’s leg wrapped around her chest. His sudden jerk caused him to plunge deeply into her, making Berry moan. 

“You told me to be gentle,” Bucky growled, feeling a bit peeved that Berry had bitten him. He squeezed her tightly and gave her a solid thrust, almost driving himself balls deep. 

“Only at first,” she growled in reply, feeling him deep within her. She began tossing her head around. Berry went crazy, her hind legs jumping in little mini-bucks, causing Bucky to slide forward along her back and achieve deeper penetration. 

Bucky, not knowing what else to do, gave Berry exactly what she seemed to want. He pulled out most of the way and then hilted himself with one violent thrust, his balls slapping so hard against her that they began to ache. Berry threw her head back and howled, clenching tightly around him. He did it again a moment later, and then again, using his forelegs for leverage, trying to pull himself forward, trying to shove her backwards under him, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth, the hot water from the shower head beating down upon his body. 

There were no longer any words, only fierce grunting, both of them slipping into dirty animal rutting, Bucky slipping it to her as hard and as violently as he dared, and Berry reciprocated by bleating like the filthy little hard screwed ewe that she was. 

With a finale plunge that caused his tip to ram into her cervical wall, Bucky blew his load, a violent spastic orgasm that caused him to collapse limply on Berry’s back, his hips still making a few instinctual humps as he continued to try and pump his seed deep within her. They remained in the shower like this, Bucky draped over Berry’s back, his hips occasionally twitching and causing another spurt to be released. 

Finally, Berry gave way and both of them lie in a heap at the bottom of the shower, letting the hot water beat down upon them both.

“Next time, pull my mane or something,” Berry invited, kissing Bucky passionately after she spoke. She pulled away after several minutes. “I am going to get cleaned up, you are going to rest, and then I am going to watch the foals while Derpy gets to have her way with you.” 

Bucky nodded. With a grunt, he pulled himself free from Berry’s still grasping gash with a wet sucking slurp, causing Berry to have one final lip biting case of the shudders, her final orgasm causing semen to gush forth from her stretched out snatch and go circling down the drain. 

He kissed her again, thrashing his tongue against hers, keeping lip locked until dizziness threatened to overtake him. He pulled away breathlessly. “You’re crazy,” Bucky quipped. 

“You have no idea,” Berry said, giving him a loving nuzzle, her face drenched with water, rubbing her head along his jawline. “I am going to do terrible things to you someday. Things with riding crops. And maybe a bit of rope. I have all kinds of kinky fantasies that I’ve never trusted anypony enough to try before.” 



 

Bucky had drawn a hot bath and was soaking in it when Derpy came through the door. She had a crazed manic grin on her face. 

“Berry told me some saucy things,” the grey mare whispered in excited tones. She slipped into the hot bath, submerged for a moment, and the came up out of the water, soaked, her mane clinging to her face. “I am going to rut your face until you can’t feel your smile,” Derpy promised in an aroused announcement.

“I married two very forward mares,” Bucky groaned. 

“Yes you did,” Derpy agreed, nodding as she did so. She rose out of the water, standing up in the tub. She kissed Bucky passionately, pressing up against him, applying her weight down on top of him, He leaned back, allowing the pegasus to press her advantage upon him. Bucky reclined against the back end of the tub, and wrapped his forelegs around Derpy’s neck, pulling her in closer. She resisted, pulling back. Finally, she broke her powerful suction and pulled away. She turned around in the tub, careful not to step on him, and then backed her plot into his face. She was already swollen with desire, her lips puffy and inviting. “Berry told me you made the beast with six legs,” Derpy said breathlessly. 

“Yeah, we did, in the shower,” Bucky admitted. 

“Well, I want you against my back again too,” Derpy said, pushing herself backwards into Bucky’s muzzle, the time for small talk over. The pegasus was not one for talking, pegasi were creatures of action. 

Bucky was nearly suffocated as his muzzle was plunged into slick blue grey folds. He pushed her forward a bit and began to slowly lick around her outer lips, his edges of his tongue trailing over the protruding edges of her lovely labia. Already, her nubbin was beginning to bulge, slipping out from under her clitoral hood. It glistened at him invitingly.

Squalane began to bead up around Derpy’s blossoming mare-flower, looking like morning dew on blue-grey petals. The liquid was both sweet and somewhat sour, and it was quite salty. As more of it began to condense, Bucky licked it off as it formed droplets. 

With a suddenness that made Derpy's wings flap, Bucky plunged his tongue inwards, drinking deeply like a hummingbird at a rare nectar rich blossom. Derpy began to get wet, a line of drool beginning to dangle down from her nubbin as more and more liquid began to ooze from her mare-maw. 

Bucky slurped the dangling strand of liquid love from Derpy’s oversized button, running his tongue over it slowly, teasing, knowing that Derpy liked her lovemaking a little more loving and gentle. 

Derpy hiked her tail even higher, trying to expose as much flesh as possible, trying to give Bucky a hint that there were other things that needed licking. Bucky obliged, starting down low with a lick that ran her entire length, ending with his tongue lapping over her flexing pucker. 

“Oh… I like that,” Derpy said breathlessly, her ears now limp and hanging on each side of her face. “More of that would be nice,” Derpy suggested. 

Bucky gave another slow loving lick that trailed over her clitoris, up her moistened minge, and then lingered over her protruding pucker. It winked briefly, and Bucky could see pink for a moment, framed on all sides by blue grey wrinkled flesh. Knowing that he had once been in there, that he had been invited in there, welcomed, it excited him and he started another lick at Derpy’s jelly bean and slowly trailed his way upwards, this time teasing her anus with the tip of his tongue and poking in gently, causing the mare to squeal with fillyish delight. 

“You really like pucker play,” Bucky said.

“I do,” Derpy admitted. “Nothing feels better than taking a big dump and feeling all the pressure come out. That feeling as everything stretches and pulls back there. For a long time, it was the only thing I really had that felt like something going in or out of me,” she confessed, baring her soul. “I used to get excited when I knew there was a big one coming… ooh oooh ooh ooooh MMMPH!” she cried, feeling a tongue split her pucker and probe just inside her entrance. “You don’t know how relieved I am that you don’t mind doing this… I was so afraid that you would think I wa- oooh oooh uuugh unf unf unf MMM MMM MMM!” she whimpered, letting out adorable little wails of ecstasy. “I can’t believe how lucky I am that you like- Oh my gosh… ooh oooh ooooh HMMMmmmmmuuumph!” she moaned, feeling Bucky’s tongue sliding in and out, in and out, she could feel the edges of his tongue, all the little bumps scraping along the tight confines of her clenching pucker. 

“I need you inside of me,” Derpy begged, pulling away sitting down in the water, the hot sting of her pucker making her quiver. She felt herself being grabbed from behind, and pulled to Bucky’s barrel. He was gentle and slow. She reclined, leaning back into him. She could feel his legs wrapping around her barrel and lifting her, sliding her up along his body. She could feel something hard probing around her entrance. After a moment of inexperienced fumbling, she felt him slide in, and he began to lower her down upon his girthy cock. Her wings flared, slinging water everywhere. 

Derpy reclined against Bucky’s barrel, feeling full inside off her. He lifted her again, sliding her up along his length, and then slowly pushed her down, working his way in a little deeper. Derpy moaned, leaning her head back against his neck, melting in his embrace. 

“How much do you love me?” the mare asked. 

Bucky did not reply. Not with words. He knew better. 

Instead, he reached down under the water with one foreleg, and, using his folded fetlock, began to rub in slow lazy circles over Derpy’s nipples, causing the mare to wiggle in his embrace. He lifted her again, using one foreleg, drawing her up until only the tip remained inside, and then slowly brought her down. 

This was a different sort of love making for a different sort of mare. This wasn’t frantic rutting. It was slow and lazy, and more about holding one another, with actual rutting added mostly as an after thought. He moved his fetlock over her nipples, teasing her teats, making the pegasus writhe in his embrace. 

He lifted, held her up for a moment, teasing her with the tip, and then slowly brought her down, filling her up, and hilting himself inside of her, easing her down oh so slowly. This time, she shivered, and he could feel her clenching around him. 

His exploring fetlock dropped lower and he felt her nubbin against his joint. He opened his fetlock slightly, closed it around the swollen knob, pinched it lightly, and then gave it a gentle tug. 

Derpy’s whole body braced against him, her spine arching, her teeth gritting together, both ears standing erect, each wing quivering with delicious tension. “Harder,” she whimpered. 

He grabbed her again, pinching her in his fetlock, lifting her up, and then he slid her down as he gave a gentle tug, plunging his way in deep as he squeezed and pulled on her distended tumescent clitoris. She tensed again, kicking out her hind legs. 

Bucky took both of her hind legs and gathered them up, pulling them to her barrel, folding her in half, making her backside well rounded and inviting. He lifted her up and lowered her slowly, sliding in deeper than ever. 

He hugged her hindlegs into her barrel even tighter, her hind hooves up near her neck, and then he gently slid her along his barrel, now kissing her neck, before gently shoving her downward and plunging in to the point of bottoming out inside of her. He wasn’t the longest stallion in the world, but he understood leverage, and he was dedicated to making his mares happy. 

Derpy began to make plaintive squeals of joy as the lazy lovemaking continued, the pace slow. She wiggled her hips and arched her back, trying to pull Bucky in as deep as possible, and the clenching of her own legs squeezed her clitoris tightly. 

This continued for nearly a half an hour, one slow lazy thrust every few moments. 

“You need release,” Derpy said. 

“Where?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, right where you are. I’ve gotten my rocks off a few times, let yourself go,” Derpy said breathlessly. 

Bucky picked up the pace, sliding her up and down rapidly on his pecker, He set to his task with vigour and candour, picking up speed as he went along. 

Derpy found herself going off yet again, the hot bath water stinging slightly around her taught well stretched spasm chasm. She could feel Bucky’s grunting laboured breathing on her ears, his barrel heaving against her spine, his ribs rubbing against her sensitive wings and causing her all kinds of paroxysms of pleasure. Bucky was huffing and puffing now, drilling away at her like a steam piston. She could feel her pucker sliding up at down along the tip edge of his cock because of the angle of penetration. It began to get very warm from friction. 

Finally, she could feel him, his body shuddering, his thrusting needy and wanting, and he buried himself in her, fractically twitching as he rammed home an explosive hot load deep inside of her, the first hard spurt slamming into her cervical sphincter and making her whole body violently seize. They trembled against one another, breathless, greedy for more, Bucky still buried deep within her, flooding her with seed. He held her like this for several minutes, she could feel several more spurts happen, and then he let go of her. She kicked out her now freed hind legs and collapsed against her love, soaking in the tub, unable to believe just how well she had just been rutted. 

No words were said as the two lay there together soaking. Derpy felt Bucky going flaccid against her spine. 

She twisted her head around and kissed him, biting on his lip gently and giving a tug to say she loved him.

Bucky wrapped his forelegs back around her and held her close, his hot breath blowing into her soaked mane and tickling her ears. 
	
	
> Chapter 55 (warning, some mature subject matter) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Buckminster Bitters stood with his family, watching as the sun set off the left side of the ship. They were heading northward, more or less, and according to the captain, making good time. Both of his mares kept giving him suggestive glances, both of them looking quite pleased. 

Sparkler stood with Rising Star, both of them quiet, looking ahead, and not at the sunset off to the side. 

The wind whipped at everypony’s manes and tails. 

Dinner in the ship’s cafeteria had been pleasant. They were the only passengers, and there was about two dozen crew members, some of whom also ate dinner in the cafeteria. It was odd being on an almost empty ship. 

There was a fully stocked bar on board. Once the foals were in bed with Sparkler and Rising Star to watch them, Bucky, Derpy and Berry had plans to get completely plastered. 

Piña was doing surprisingly well, she had endured the train ride and was now managing to survive the voyage on board the ship. She stood near her sister, leaning on Berry’s leg, afraid to stand too close to the railing. 

Dinky didn’t mind the railing and looked overboard every chance she got, watching the white waves wash up against the sides of the ship. 

“I need to talk to you all,” Berry said, her voice grim. 

Every ear perked, every head turned, and every pony present paid attention. 

“There are some things you should know before we get the Shetland Isles,” Berry said in a slow hesitant voice. “This is not going to be a pleasant trip most likely. Well, I mean we can have a nice time, but things are going to be different.” 

“Different?” Bucky asked. 

“The Isles are a bit backwards. You are not going to find any grocery stores. There is no electricity. There are no refrigerators, but there are iceboxes, and unicorns that make ice for ponies to use. Indoor plumbing really doesn’t exist. There are no toilets. If you want water, you have to pump it yourself. Some of the isles don’t even have fresh water. The ponies that live on those isles have to depend on pegasi bringing them fresh water from the other isles. Ponies still live here though, even with all of these troubles, because they want to be free,” Berry explained. 

“Oh my,” Derpy said, spreading her wings slightly to catch a cooling breeze. 

“I can conjure water if there is any close by, I have magic to preserve food, or to make ice, and I suppose I can learn to live without the other things. And I thought adjusting to life in Ponyville was difficult,” Bucky said. 

“Life on the Isles is different and difficult, and that is why some ponies from there ditch the old ways and move to the mainland. I came to the mainland hoping for a better life. Ponyville has always been an odd place. And there are a few herds there, hidden in plain sight. Hopefully, we can take care of whatever needs to be dealt with and go home,” Berry said, her mane whipping in the wind. 

“There is always the option that I take us home and then dare other ponies to stop me,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“There is that, but that won’t win us very many friends I don’t think,” Derpy acknowledged in a low voice. 

“Bucky, you would have to sleep sometime,” Berry said. 

“You are right of course. Both of you. I’ll shut up now,” Bucky replied. 

“Did you try to make foals with my mother earlier?” 

Derpy went as still as a statue at the sound of Dinky’s voice, her mane blowing and tangling around her ears. Her mouth moved once to make a reply, and then moved no more. She stood, staring at her foal. 

Bucky, also taken off guard, froze in panic, unsure how to respond to this question. He stood, blinking rapidly, Dinky’s words echoing in his ears. 

“Dinks darling, what do you know about making foals?” Berry Punch asked, sitting down upon her haunches and pulling Dinky close. 

“Well, everything. I know a stallion sticks his woo woo into a mare’s hoo hoo and there is something called ‘semen’ that squirts out after a lot of hugging,” Dinky whispered, her cheeks turning apple red. 

“Yes Dinky, that about covers it. Yes. Bucky has been sticking his woo woo into our hoo hoos and we’ve been hoping to make foals. And there has been a lot of hugging and love between all of us,” Berry explained patiently. “Does this bother you? Are you upset that your mother is doing this? Do you feel angry or sad?”

“Well, it bothers me a little, because it sounds gross, but I want a little brother or a little sister or both… and I want mommy…” Dinky paused, her muzzle getting a thoughtful set of wrinkles. “I want my mother to be happy and I want to make sure she is getting the love she deserves. My… I don’t know what to call him because he isn’t my daddy, he did bad things to my mother and now I want good things to happen to her,” Dinky explained, trying to sound grown up. 

Berry gently wrapped a foreleg around Dinky and pulled her close. “So Bucky is your daddy now? For realsies?” 

Dinky nodded shyly, stealing one glance up at Bucky. 

“And you are okay with him sticking his woo woo into her hoo hoo? If you feel jealous about him getting some of your mother’s affection, that is normal and it isn’t anything to be ashamed of... or if you feel uncomfortable with him doing things with your mother,” Berry said in unexpectedly Berry mother-ish tones. 

“Really, I don’t mind him sticking his woo woo into my mommy’s hoo hoo,” Dinky admitted. “And I am not jealous. I promise. If there is somebody sticking their woo woo into my mommy’s hoo hoo, I am glad it is him. He’s doing the right thing and being a daddy after he does it.” 

“Yes, yes he is Dinky. And a lot of stallions wouldn’t so readily take in a foal not their own,” Berry said gently, her foreleg still around Dinky’s withers. 

“I know. I hear about it from other foals in school,” Dinky replied in a low voice. “Makes me sad. I don’t know how I got so lucky.” 

“Well, your mother had to be very brave and run Bucky down first, and then she had to be patient and draw out the good pony she saw in his eyes when she first met him. And here we are. And we owe it all to your mother being a brave pony,” Berry said in sage tones. “I would trust my life to your mother’s instincts.” 

“Mommy was a very lonesome pony Dinky, and she needed her hoo hoo looked after by somepony that really loved her and that she could trust,” Derpy explained in a wavering embarrassed voice. “And I love you so much right now for being such a big filly about all of this.” 

“Do you have any more questions?” asked Berry Punch. 

“No, I think I’m good for now,” Dinky quipped, her ears drooping down to the sides of her face.

“I have a question,” Piña squeaked hesitantly. 

“Yes little sister?” Berry replied, waiting patiently, still being Berry motherly. 

“How do two hoo hoos work together?” Piña asked, her pink pelt turning pinker.

There was a faint embarrassed titter from Sparkler and a groan from Rising Star. 

“Piña, honey, what kind of answer do you want? An answer that will make you feel better about what you don’t know, or an honest answer?” Berry asked, answering Piña’s question with a question of her own. 

“Ummm,” Piña replied nervously. “As an earth pony we are meant to be honest,” she stated nervously, unable to look up and meet her sister’s gaze. 

Bucky shifted nervously. This was a side of Berry Punch that he had not seen, and he felt intrigued. Brash Berry Punch, the Warmonger of Ponyville, had the makings to be an excellent mother, just like Derpy did. His reaction to her display of motherhood was rather odd. He really wanted to stuff something into her hoo hoo and love her gently. Not that she would enjoy that probably, but the thought crossed his mind and lingered. 

“When two mares enjoy each others company they can kiss each other on the filly bits. They can also rub against one another, using different parts of their bodies, and it is possible for two mares to make each other happy in the same way that a mare and a stallion can make each other happy. Stallions and stallions can also make one another happy. And Piña, you must never be a bigot about such things, telling other ponies what is right or what is wrong about how they find happiness with other ponies. A lot of ponies think that what we are doing is wrong,” Berry explained patiently. “Do you need to know more?” 

“No, not at the moment, I am good,” Piña gulped, her eyes closed. “And being a family isn’t wrong. Stallions and stallions, mares and mares, a herd, it is all family. And family is all that matters. You taught me that.”  

Derpy snatched Piña with a wing, pulled her in, and began to squeeze, making the foal groan from the crushing force. 

“I have good foals,” said Bucky, “I have me some wonderful foals already. I don’t know what to say. I have three wonderful foals already. By sheer luck. My foals.” 

“Oh, you included me,” Sparkler quipped, sounding emotional. 

“Of course I included you. Look at you. You are here. With us. Even after I gave you my opinion on what I wanted from you, you chose family. And you did right,” Bucky praised, his tone sincere, warm, and honest. 

“Oh bother, I don’t want to cry right now,” Sparkler said, rubbing her eyes with a fetlock, but unable to stop the tears. 



 

Three ponies were sprawled around a table, looking comfortable, and were laughing with one another. Two little foals and two responsible someday soon to be adults watched over them,  down in a darkened stateroom. 

The three ponies around the table had been drinking quite a bit. 

“That was something else earlier today,” Bucky said, his words only faintly slurred. 

“Good foals,” Derpy agreed. “And Berry was sexy.” 

“I know. I thought about wanting to stick my woo woo into her hoo hoo when she was being a good mother,” Bucky confessed somewhat drunkenly. 

“I am Berry ruttable,” Berry spoke, and then lifted a pitcher of sloe gin fizz and drank from it greedily. 

“Is it getting any easier for you two?” Derpy asked. 

“It still feels like somepony is sticking their whole hoof and part of their leg up my backside,” Berry said, wiping her mouth with her foreleg after she was done speaking. 

“All this talk makes me feel entirely too good about myself,” Bucky blurbed. “You know, you two never took a turn with one another today.” 

“We all took a nap instead, and that was nice,” Derpy said. 

“At that point, I was exhausted,” Berry admitted. “And my plot was sore. Well, still is actually. Hurts to sit down.” 

“Well, you wanted it rough,” Bucky muttered. 

“Yeah I did,” Berry replied, lifting her pitcher of sloe gin fizz in salute. She downed a dozen or so swallows and then belched a belch that would make Sparkler jealous. 

Derpy knocked back a glass of whiskey, grimaced, shuddered, and poured another glass. “I am one happily married mare,” she announced, the whiskey burn in her throat making her voice husky. “I honestly believed that this would never happen.” 

“I never thought I’d be one for marriage and family,” Bucky confessed, and then tossed back the remainder of his glass of rum. He set the glass down and went to work on the bottle directly.

“I wanted a family more than anything,” Berry said. “But both of you knew that.” 

“You had a good chance at getting a family… look at me… I just got lucky,” Derpy said morosely. 

“You… shut up,” Bucky ordered, his words a bit more slurry than before. 

“But it is true though. With my eyes-” 

“Berry, shut her up,” Bucky interrupted with his command, making a gesture as he spoke. 

Berry lunged at the pegasus and tackled her, planting a Berry drunken and Berry affectionate kiss on the grey mare’s lips. The two mares began to make out, hooves rubbing wildly as they groped one another. 

Bucky watched the mares making out with a great deal of inebriated interest. He took a long pull of the golden coloured rum from the bottle, belched, and tasted apricots as an aftertaste. The two mares continued to roll and writhe, rubbing and grinding against one another, and Bucky took another long drink. 

“I love every hairy inch of you, from your eyes to your trumpeting plothole,” Bucky stated, causing the two mares to pause their making out. “So don’t ever put yourself down ever again,” he commanded. 

Derpy nodded, still pinned beneath Berry, her eyes glittering with her heated feelings of love and arousal. 

“I am getting as drunk as a lord,” Bucky announced, closing one eye and staring down the neck of his bottle. “Almost gone. Horrible.” 

Berry pulled herself free from her entanglement with pegasus and reached for her pitcher of sloe gin fizz so she could get a drink. 

“I love you both so much,” Derpy said, speaking from her heart. 
	
	
> Chapter 56
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next few days onboard the ship were days of quiet reflection and loving bonding, as well as one day completely lost to a hangover, where the most exciting thing done was crawling out of bed to reach the toilet. The aftermath of the epic bender did have one comedic consequence though. Berry Punch had awoken the next afternoon staring a cyclopean entity right in the eye, and it had been Berry happy to see her. 

When land had been spotted, it had been Sparkler that had given a cheer, Eventually, they docked, disembarked, and then stood trying to take it all in. The family and their few possessions were loaded into a waiting wagon pulled by two big earth ponies, and then carried through a large city built around the harbour. 

The city was the first sign of something being terribly wrong. The city was filthy. The ponies were dirty. Dung lay in the gutters of the street. The air reeked of urine and worse. There were surprisingly few foals running around. Coal dust and soot covered everything, leaving it dingy black and grey. Not many of the buildings had glass. The stench was eye watering and made the nostrils burn. 

Derpy’s only reaction to the absolute destitution and poverty all around her was to begin weeping and clutch all of her foals close. Bucky and Berry both tried to console her, but the grey mare would not be comforted. The reality of the possibility of spending the rest of their lives here began to sink in. 

Near the edge of town where the cobblestones ended, the roads turned into cesspits of filth, runoff from the town, deep feculent muck that squelched and slurped rudely at the legs of the earth ponies and the wagon wheels. Their progress became tedious and slow as the two ponies struggled to pull the wagon free of the filth and reach the soft dirt country lanes that lay outside the city. 

None of Berry Punch’s words had properly prepared them for their experience. It was simply unbelievable until it was seen, and then it became something you wished you didn’t know. 

Eventually, they reached the soft dusty roads outside of the city, and their pace picked up. The city and its stench faded behind them. Dinky and Piña sat in quiet shock. Up to this point in their lives, they had believed the world to be a good and happy place. That illusion was now gone, and they were forced to deal with the reality that the world had some very unhappy places. More than anything, both of them wanted to go home now, back to Ponyville, back to someplace clean and wholesome. 

Alas, it was not meant to be. 

The wagon rolled through pastoral farmland, rolling green fields, and the sight was a balm to the eyes after the horror of the city. Little stone cottages with sod roofs dotted the landscape. Tall oak trees stood in rows, some of them containing giant gourds nestled in the stouch branches, tucked away into solid sturdy crotches and forks. 

The giant gourds were very much like birdhouses, except that the occasional pegasus flew out of them, off to do errands or somesuch. Some of the pegasi population hung out in trees, watching over the earth ponies and their stone cottages below, wary weathered eyes watching for any sign of danger. 

As they continued down the dirt lane, they passed a funeral, a group of ponies getting ready to bury the departed, something small that was wrapped in a bloodied blanket. 

“These lands ain’t safe,” one earth pony wagon puller said to the other in a thick accent, shaking his head and flicking his tail. 

“Wonder if it was those thrice cursed wolves,” the other replied, watching the funeral as he pulled past. 

“Not much left to bury by the looks of it. Something ate the poor thing,” the first said in reply, a hint of anger in his voice. 

Dinky began to sniffle upon hearing the words and hid her head under her mother’s wing, she was shaking and quite afraid. 

“Be warned, you lot, terrible wee beasties roam these islands. Foul things. They look like wolves. Howl like wolves. They ain’t exactly wolves though. More shadow than anything. They feed on fear as well as flesh. They’ll snatch any foal left unattended after the sun sets. You’ll be safe in the castle, but always make sure to be indoors and off of the moors before the sun goes down. These beasties ain’t natural,” the second pony warned. 

“There are also giant eagles. Always keep an eye pointed upwards during the day. Usually, they stick to the coastlands, but occasionally, the sea does not provide and they go looking for pony flesh. Be warned,” the first pony added. 

“Thank you,” Bucky replied, now looking upwards.  

Piña had joined Dinky, her head now hidden under Derpy’s other wing, trembling, and quite afraid. Berry Punch looked sullen and worried. She gently stroked her sibling, trying to comfort her and soothe away her fear. 

After what felt like hours, a lake came into view, a vast wood, and beside the lake a large fortress-like castle stood guard over the surrounding countryside. Tall towers, thick walls, solidly built and well defended no doubt. A small village lay sprawled around the castle. The air stank of smoke and worse. 

As they neared the outskirts of the village around the castle, they saw another funeral. Two larger bodies covered in shrouds were being committed to the earth. A group of mares stood crying nearby, and a small herd of foals huddled beneath their legs. There was no stallion among their number any longer. 

“More wolves?” Bucky asked. 

Neither pony pulling the wagon replied, but one had nodded and the wagon continued ever onwards. They moved through the village and the sour smell of dirty ponies and sewage assailed their nostrils. 



 

The courtyard was large and full of soldiers. They stood at attention, and it was obvious they were on display for guests. Their armor shone with a mirror finish, their coats were glossy, and the soldiers consisted of all three tribes. Every single one of them looked hard boiled and ready for violence. Some had missing eyes. Some had missing ears. One pegasus was missing a wing. 

Berry Punch rose solemnly when the wagon halted and saluted them, which the soldiers returned, honest looks of appreciation upon their faces. They had a thankless job, and at least one pony had showed them the proper respect  they were due. 

“Keg Smasher approaches!” somepony shouted. 

Bucky and his herd, now on the ground and out of the wagon, gathered together, turned, and watched as the largest pegasus they had ever seen approached. Tall, hard looking, his barrel as broad as a wine cask, legs like tree trunks, Keg Smasher was intimidating. He was grinning hugely, revealing several missing teeth, and there was a near manic gleam in his eyes. 

“Welcome to my humble home,” he greeted, only the faintest hint of an accent in his voice. “I’ve heard so much about you all from the big dame Celestia.” 

“Thank you for having us,” Bucky said, easily slipping into courtly manners. “We are most appreciative of you having us as guests in your home directly and for the trust you have placed upon us.” 

“Aye… Lord  Buckminster,” Keg Smasher replied, raising an eyebrow and perking his ears forward. His wings fluffed slightly and his head was raised as high as possible.  

“The title is completely unnecessary. I’ve- Look, I let that part of me go. The only title I crave any longer is ‘father’ and nothing else,” Bucky answered. 

“Good lad,” Keg Smasher grunted, his posture relaxing. His head dropped a bit, his wings settled, and he seemed more relaxed somehow. “I like being a father too. I have me a dozen wives. And a whole bunch of little foals I love to roll around on the floor with.” 

On the outside, Bucky did not react. He remained as impassive as a statue. On the inside however, he recoiled, his mind having trouble the notion of a dozen mares. He had trouble keeping up with Derpy and Berry Punch. 

“Look, I want to get right to the point. What is it that you want from Berry Punch and by extension, us? I’d like to know. Right now if possible. The sooner we know what we are dealing with, the sooner we can sort this out and we can go home,” Bucky insisted. 

“A bit hasty you are there lad,” Keg Smasher replied. “I was going to give you a few days to get settled in before dropping that on you.” 

“Now is good. I am pleased with now. I am settled,” Bucky stated in a very authoritative voice that made Keg Smasher scowl. 

Berry Punch tensed. This was not the meeting between Bucky and the Laird that she wanted. While Bucky had eschewed the title of Lord, he was still acting very much as though he was in charge, and challenging Keg Smasher’s authority. She cast her eyes to Derpy, who also looked a little flustered, the mare had her feathers puffed out, trying to look much larger than she really was. Berry flinched internally as she realised that Derpy had slipped into a challenge posture, legs stiff, head high, wings fluffed, and her teeth slightly bared. Berry hoped that this did not end in violence, but it certainly seemed possible. Keg Smasher challenging Derpy’s mate had set the grey pegasus mare off, and she was ready to try and give a good thrashing. Her tail twitched aggressively and she made little grunts as she breathed. Berry began to worry. 

“Go fetch my sweet wee Thistle, and no damn lollygagging!” Keg Smasher barked. 

Bucky felt his muscles tense and something nagged at the back of his mind. Why would Keg Smasher be fetching a pony?

“What I want is simple. I am more than willing to sit down and attend the peace talk, and sign my name for a fair treaty this time, but I want something in return. I want you to take one more pony into your herd. I want Berry Punch to look after her,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“What?” Berry Punch asked. 

“Huh?” Derpy harrumphed. A low growl slipped from deep in her throat afterwards. 

“I beg your pardon?” Bucky said, moving to a much more defensive posture. 

“I want you to take another mare into your herd. I need her looked after,” Keg Smasher said, all traces of his smile gone. 

“Why?” Bucky inquired. 

“Because she is special to me, and I need her protected,” Keg Smasher answered without explaining anything. 

“Is that her?” Derpy gasped, looking at a filly being led to them. She was a pale blue colour, and her mane and tail looked like seaweed. Not hair, but actual strands of seaweed, broad flat strands of what appeared to be green living plants. “That is no mare!” 

“Yes she is,” Keg Smasher insisted, now sounding annoyed. “And yes, that is her.” 

“No! She’s Sparkler’s age! She is as young as I was when I had Dinky,” Derpy gasped in astonishment. “No!” 

“Old enough to breed makes you a mare,” Keg Smasher replied, looking somewhat angry now, his face was as dark as a stormcloud. 

“She is my age,” Sparkler said in hurt tones. 

“She is with foal,” Keg Smasher growled. 

Silence fell upon the group, nopony saying anything anymore. Thistle stared at them curiously, still looking hopeful. Keg Smasher looked annoyed and angry. Berry Punch looked confused. Derpy was angry and continued to become more so. Dinky and Piña huddled under Derpy’s legs, worried about everything around them. Bucky looked thoughtful. Sparkler leaned against Rising Star and looked frightened. Rising Star looked shocked and his mouth hung open. 

“Why us? Why is this so important? Explain why we are necessary. Perhaps if we know more, we will be receptive as to why this needs to take place,” Bucky said. 

“You can’t be serious,” Derpy hissed. 

“Be calm my little storm cloud,” Bucky soothed. 

“No!” the grey mare growled, all of the short little hairs along her back rising. “I have no intention of being calm!” 

Keg Smasher looked at Thistle, who nodded slightly. 

“Well, you see, Thistle isn’t a pony. Well, not exactly. She is, but she isn’t. She is a kelpie. On land, she is a pony, but in fresh water she grows a tail and swims. And her kind are almost gone. She is a rare prize of mine, something I treasure a great deal. Something very dear to my heart. The little rabble rouser you see over there, she snuck off to the mainland and got herself in trouble. She was taken advantage of. Once she became of breeding age, she’s made it her mission to try get fat with foal, so she skedaddled off to the mainland, got sweet talked into thinking she was married, taken advantage of, and then abandoned,” Keg Smasher explained. He took a deep breath. “And then came home heart broken and begging my forgiveness. She wants to leave these isles and live on the mainland more than anything. So, I need a group that can help her raise her foals, I need her to have a good husband and a fine group of fellow-wives that will look after her, and keep her safe. She is darn near the last of her kind. The mainland isn’t known for being to welcoming of herds, but here you are. A herd. With a powerful and dangerous unicorn, a hard assed pegasus that clearly wants to murder me in front of my own troops, and Berry Punch, the Warmonger of Ponyville.” 

“I see,” Bucky said. “And what if we refused?” 

“Well then, the war goes on, and you lot get to live here forever,” Keg Smasher replied with a huff that made his cheeks bulge out. 

“Look, you must understand, she is very, very young,” Bucky said, trying to appeal to Keg Smasher’s reason. “There is no way Princess Celestia would agree to this sort of marriage back on the mainland. There are laws… look, fillies do get pregnant, but to openly marry one, I would be committing a crime…” 

“Princess Celestia knows and approves. So does Princess Twilight Sparkle, one Princess Luna, who thinks this is a marvelous idea, and one Princess Cadance, who believes that this wee treasure of mine could be loved and cherished by all of you and know a happiness like no other,” Keg Smasher replied in a smug overbearing voice. 

Bucky sighed. 

“All you gotta do to go home is marry my little wee pretty thing. And you can leave at any time,” Keg Smasher said enticingly. 

“So you would let this war continue if we said no?” Berry said snidely. 

“Forever!” Keg Smasher shouted. “I’m tired of having my hoof forced into giving away everything I have at somepony else’s whim! This time, by damn, I will have something in return for what I have to offer!” 

“I understand,” Bucky replied, causing the entire group to fall silent. 

“You can’t be serious!” Derpy said after a few moments. She reached out and gave Bucky a painful pinching nip with her teeth, causing him to yelp. 

“Look, I am just saying I understand his position, I am not agreeing to anything, not yet,” Bucky explained. 

“Not ever!” Derpy growled. She reached out and nipped Bucky again, and this time he cried out in pain.

“Look, I know you are upset, but biting the dung out of me isn’t helping!” Bucky scolded, glaring at his mate. 

Derpy hung her head in shame, but continued to bare her teeth. 

“Look, pretty pegasus mare, try to see it my way. Thistle is nearly extinct as a species. There are no male kelpies. Only females. She needs to have a lot of foals to even have a small chance of having another kelpie. Only female foals have a chance of being a kelpie, and there is only a small chance of having all of the ideal conditions met. I need her protected. And before me, I have a unicorn that held off an entire damn town of ponies to keep two foals safe, a half crazed warmongering mare that set off this conflict as a mad display of love and affection, and then there is you, you angry little thundercloud, who is already trying to protect her from all harm and you don’t even know her,” Keg Smasher said in a gentle soft voice. “And lass, please stop biting him. I can see those welts from here. You’re going to feel bad about those later.”

Derpy’s anger changed to confusion. “What you say does make a little sense, but I am too flustered to understand a lot of words right now,” she admitted. “And Bucky is a good husband and a father… but she is too young. Too young. She is Sparkler’s age.” 

“What if Rising Star and I were married and took her in?” Sparkler asked. 

“No!” Derpy said, her wings flaring out and her legs twitching. “Sparkler, no! I forbid it!” Derpy protested, her tail swishing. Sparkler hurried away from her mother, out of nipping range. She had never seen her mother quite like this before. 

“No lass, I am sorry, but I don’t know much about you or your lad. While I am sure you are both fine ponies, and you are probably a damn good pony considering your mother, I just don’t think you can protect what I value most. No offense, sweet lass, but you are very kind to offer,” Keg Smasher replied graciously. 

“I understand,” Sparkler said. “You must love her a great deal. Are you her father?” 

“No, but I am her caretaker. I promised her mother I would see her married,” Keg Smasher answered. 

“What happened to her mother?” Rising Star asked.

Keg Smasher drooped, his proud stance completely gone. With a loud thud, his backside hit the cobblestones in the courtyard. “Unpleasant business that. When the sweeps took place, Thistle’s mother took Thistle and hid themselves in the bottom of the loch. All of her other foals were rounded up and taken. She had to make an impossible decision. She chose to save Thistle and keep her in the one place where they could not be found. After the unpleasant business was over and she found out that every single of one of her foals had been taken, she was never the same. About a year later, she threw herself into the sea. Salt water is lethal to kelpies,” Keg Smasher explained, looking grief stricken and sad. 

“Bastards,” Berry hissed. 

“Come here,” Bucky said to Thistle. 

“What are you doing?” Derpy demanded, baring her teeth. 

“Look, please, be calm,” Bucky said, nuzzling the aggravated snorting pegasus, hoping she would not bite him again. 

Thistle approached the group, her head low, casting nervous glances at Derpy, worried about the agressive mare. 

“I make no promises about marriage, but I will give you a fair chance to get to know us, to speak with us, to spend time with us. I do not agree with this. You are young… and I don’t know how to deal with that,” Bucky said, looking Thistle in the eye. 

“I’m not that young!” Thistle snapped. “I’m having a foal, which means I am no longer a foal!” The flustered filly calmed slightly. “Do you think I’m pretty?” she asked, batting her eyelashes. 

Bucky backed away, caught completely off guard. Thistle stepped forward. “I am very direct in what I want. Does that bother you? I have obligations. I am almost the last of my kind. I need to get started as young as possible and have as many foals as possible so that there is some chance of keeping what I am alive for just a little longer. I don’t care how it happens, or what I have to endure, or that it might hurt me, or any of those things. All I care about is that somepony ruts me every chance I have so that I can squirt out a foal, and hope that the foal is female, and a kelpie. I will be your slave. I will look after all of your other foals. I will be your housemaid. I will do anything you ask of me and more. All I ask in return is that you rut me regularly and keep me fat with foal,” Thistle offered.

Bucky could see her teeth. The kelpie had fangs. It unnerved him and made him shudder. Her breath reeked of fish. Her mane did in fact look like weeds. She didn’t have hair at all, but actual plants. He spotted a budding bloom in her tangle of weeds just behind her ear, the faint pink of the bloom just beginning to show through the green casing. 

“This is crazy,” Berry Punch muttered. 

“This can’t be happening.” Derpy whimpered. “I need to have a quiet place to settle down  before something bad happens. I keep biting my husband.” 

“I can show you to your quarters. I am keeping you in the castle where it is safe,” Keg Smasher said. “Follow me.” 



 

There was a large room. And that was it. There was a pile of hay in the corner, fresh hay. There was a fireplace that burned bales of compressed peat. And nothing else. 

“Where will be my foals be staying?” Derpy asked, her breathing heavy and uneven. 

“Why, here of course, with you,” Keg Smasher said, looking confused. 

“What about privacy?” Derpy asked. 

Keg Smasher looked terribly confused for a moment and then broke into a grin. “You don’t rut in front of your foals!” he bellowed. “Hah! How is a foal supposed to know what is important in life if you don’t let them watch how you live yours? My foals, all of the wee little buggers, sleep in a pile with my wives and I. Most of them don’t even wake up when the activities commence. Little fillies learn what is important from watching, little colts learn what is expected of them, and everypony understands where they come from and the essence of what is important in life. Making more ponies!” 

“UGH!” Derpy grunted, closing her eyes. She pushed past Keg Smasher looking disgusted and quite angry. She stomped into the room, settled into the hay, pulled Dinky and Piny closer to her, covered them with her wings, and settled in. 

“I wouldn’t bother her any further. She’s nesting,” Bucky whispered. 

“I see that lad, and something about her scares the piss outta me,” Keg Smasher breathed in a low voice. “There are pegasi, and then there are pegasi,” he added. “Oh, speaking of pegasi…” 

Keg Smasher gave a loud whistle that echoed down the hallway and then stood patiently waiting. 

“Pegasi?” Bucky asked. 

“I am assigning you an errand colt,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“Errand colt?” Bucky asked. “What is his name?” 

“Oh, he doesn’t have a name. Just say ‘lad.’ That is what that word is for after all. All the nameless ones.” 

“No name?” Berry asked. 

“Well, he is an orphan. He earns his keep running messages, doing errands, fetching things, grabbing buckets of water, all that stuff. He is being groomed for good manners. He would probably have been taken in the next sweep, but now, thanks to you Berry Punch, there are no more sweeps. So I don’t know what else to do with him,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“No more sweeps,” Berry muttered, her tone one of relief. “No more sweeps?”

“No. Celestia said no more sweeps. The treaty is broken. The sweeps are over. Never again,” Keg Smasher replied, sounding pleased. 

Berry Punch stood in shock for a moment, silent, and then exploded into tears. She stood, looking very confused, looking around, sobbing and bawling, and then she ran into the room, piled into the hay with Derpy, and continued to cry her eyes out. 

“A lot of us had the same reaction,” Keg Smasher whispered quietly. “Myself included. Damnable treaty is no more. No more sweeps, no more penalty taxes, no more interfering. When we sign the new peace treaty, there will be no concessions offered. Just a signature of peace.” 

Bucky nodded, peering through the door at his mares, both of whom were now crying. He felt awful.

“Ah, here he is. He stays a little sleepy during the day, but he’s a good lad. Earnest. Hard worker,” Keg Smasher said. 

“That’s a lunar pegasus!” Bucky exclaimed. 

“Yeah, we have a few. His mother was solar and his father was lunar. Both died fighting those damnable wolves,” Keg Smasher grumbled. 

“You called?” the colt asked. 

The lunar pegasus colt was a few years older than Dinky and considerably larger. His pelt was sooty dirty brown, and his wings were a dark dusky blue. His mane and tail was the colour of old rust, a dark dingy reddish brown. 

“You are to look after these ponies. Run their errands, fetch them whatever they ask for, look after their littlest foals, and make yourself useful. Can I trust you to do that?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“Yes sir. Of course sir. Anything you ask of me sir. I am eager to serve,” the colt replied, bowing slightly. 

“Good lad,” Keg Smasher praised. “I’ll leave you two to get to know one another,” he said to Bucky, turning to leave. “Dinner is in a few hours. I’ll be sending somepony to collect you.” 

And with that, Keg Smasher was gone, spreading his massive wings and taking off, flying down the wide hallway. 

“Hello,” Bucky said to the colt. “I don’t know what to call you.” 

“Well, I will answer to most anything. Most just say ‘lad’ or ‘laddie’ but some say ‘you there’ or ‘fang face’ so… really, anything,” the colt responded. 

“Well, I can’t have you going around unnamed,” Bucky said. 

The colt shrugged. 

“Are you supposed to stay with me?” Bucky asked. 

The colt nodded. 

“I guess that makes it easier to give you errands or give you messages to take,” Bucky reasoned. “Look, I have no plans to treat you badly or anything. I’d imagine you are a bit scared right now.” 

The colt heaved a sigh of relief and sat down, looking up at Bucky with wide yellow slitted eyes, his ears folded back against his skull. 

“I’ve never seen a lunar pegasus up close before,” Sparkler said slowly. 

“Thank you,” the colt said. 

“For what?” Sparkler asked. 

“For not calling me a bat pony. It is disrespectful,” the colt answered. 

Sparkler nodded and looked at Rising Star, who was also studying the colt. 

The colt yawned, exposing a mouth full of sharp teeth and long fangs. 

“Would you like a nap?” Bucky asked. 

“No sir,” the colt replied, “I am on duty. I await your orders.” 

“Well, I am going to into my room, I am going to settle into that pile of hay, and then I am going to get some rest before the big dinner that is planned for later. Come settle in with us,” Bucky invited. 

“Yes sir,” the colt responded. 

Bucky sighed. Some serious adjustments were going to have to be made to adapt to life here on the Isles. He had no idea what to do about Thistle. Or the nameless colt. Derpy was an emotional mess. Berry wasn’t much better at the moment. Sparkler and Rising Star both looked like they were in shock. 

Bucky realised that he was the only one holding all of the pieces together, and that scared him more than just a little bit. 

Sparkler and Rising Star moved into the room, the colt followed, and Bucky trailed along after them, closing the door behind him. 

Derpy was settled in the hay with Berry, their necks entwined, they were laying chest to chest, necks wrapped around, heads resting on each other’s withers. The foals were under Derpy’s wings. Sparkler lay down close to Derpy, and Rising Star settled in a short distance away, looking quite shocked about sleeping in hay. The unnamed colt stood, unsure and a little afraid, looking at the group. Bucky planted a hoof on the colt’s backside and shoved him closer to Berry Punch, where he settled in and layed down, not too far away from the plum coloured mare. 

Bucky went to the window and looked out, staring out at the village below, the woods nearby, and the rolling green fields. He turned and faced his family, and his errand colt. “One moment,” he said, his voice low. His horn flashed and he easily levitated the lot of them. The hay was compressed into a ball, and the ball flashed, becoming a large wide mattress. It was thin, and not very fancy, but the simple transmutation spell had done its job. Turning a rock into a tuxedo was not very practical, but rearranging the molecules in a pile of hay into a mattress was useful. He gently lowered the ponies back down to the mattress and stood gazing at them, all of them now quite wide eyed and stunned. 

“I’ll make a better one later when I have more to work with,” Bucky promised, rubbing his head, which now hurt. His horn smoked and felt hot. He noticed the smoke coming from his horn and felt mildly concerned. “Sorry there are no sheets,” he added. 

“That was amazing,” the colt gasped, his bat like wings flaring outwards slightly. 

“That was something,” Piña agreed. 

“That was deep magic,” Dinky said. “I could feel it. Made my teeth tingle.” 

“Yes Dinky, that was deep magic. You'll be able to do this someday if you study hard and dedicate yourself,” Bucky replied to his foal. “Now settle in, and have a nap.” 

Bucky settled himself in next to Derpy and Berry, easing himself down on to the mattress, and then he planted a kiss on each of his mares. “We will endure this,” he promised. 

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to calm himself. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 57
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Buckminster awoke, and began to look around through bleary eyes. The pile had shifted somehow while he had slept. Sparkler and Berry Punch were curled together, Rising Star was off by himself, and the lunar pegasus was nowhere to be seen. 

He looked at Derpy and blinked. He blinked again several times. She was dozing lightly, Dinky and Piña both under one wing, and under her other wing was the lunar pegasus colt, looking at him with wide pleading eyes. 

Bucky felt a chuckle escape him. “Just humour her, okay?” he asked in a faint voice. 

“She dragged me in sir, by the nape of my neck, and would not let me get away,” the colt whispered. “She growled terribly and then sat on me to subdue me.” 

“Is it that bad?” Bucky whispered back. 

The colt shook his head “no” and then went still, fearing further reprisal if he woke the mare. 

The deep magic he had cast earlier left Bucky feeling starved. His stomach rumbled and gurgled to let him know that he needed food. Another soft laugh spilled out, Bucky feeling some sympathy for the colt’s plight. 

“Where is the bathroom?” Bucky asked. 

“Bathroom?” the colt replied. “What is that?” 

“The place where one relieves themselves?” Bucky asked. 

“There is a bucket in the corner,” the colt whispered helpfully. “Somepony will be along to empty it or you can just pour it out the window yourself.” 

Bucky recoiled in horror at the colt’s words, and could not suppress the shudder of disgust that took over his whole body. 

“A lot of ponies just piss in the hall and leave the maids to scrub it up,” the colt added, still trying to be helpful. “They get upset if somepony craps on the floor though,” he warned. 

Bucky arose, stretched, which caused his back to crackle and pop, yawned, and then moved over to the bucket. It was filthy. He felt a terrible feeling of apprehension. He still didn’t even like the idea of somepony hearing him use the bathroom, which set off fits of neurosis. He glanced at the ponies on the mattress, and then back down on the bucket. 

He peered out the window in disgust, looking down, and saw a copse of trees not all that far away. “Look after them,” he commanded to the colt. And then, Bucky vanished in a bright flash of light. 

He returned several minutes later in another bright flash of light, looking much better. “I’m going to need to eat entire pounds of starches because of that,” he muttered to himself. He had a worrying thought. How much food was available here? He felt a miserable ache inside of his barrel, and his mind began to twist into knots of worry. 

Derpy snorted herself awake and began to look around, smacking her lips. She lifted her tail, farted loudly, and then giggled from the tickle just under her dock.  

The colt also giggled, and then his nostrils crinkled in disgust. 

“I’m not sorry,” Derpy whispered into the colt’s ear, causing him to giggle again. 

Bucky felt his heart warm slightly. As bad as it might be, he could count on Derpy being a good mother. She looked much better now, although Bucky wondered how long it would last given the conditions, and what might set her off next. 

Berry woke with a grunt, catching a whiff of something horrible. “Argh, what died?” she groaned, shaking her head with disgust. “It is a little chilly in here,” Berry announced. 

Bucky realised the room was a bit chilly. He looked at the pile of compressed peat bales and the fireplace. Seemed easy enough. He levitated a bale into the fireplace and then with a flicker of magic, set it ablaze. That should begin warming the room for the soon to arrive night he thought to himself. A second later, he regretted his actions. The burning peat bale smelled worse than pegasus flatulence. And pegasus flatulence smelled bad. 

Piña awoke with a yawn, and Dinky wiggled free from between Piña and her mother. She stood and stretched her legs, and then wiggled her backside around. 

“What is that stench?” Sparkler asked sleepily. 

“That is no way to talk about your mother Sparkler,” Berry teased. 

“You’ll all be heading off to the dining hall soon,” the colt announced. 

“What about you?” Bucky asked. 

“I’ll get fed leftovers when everypony else is done,” the colt replied. 

Bucky didn’t like the sounds of that. And by the looks of it, neither did Derpy. She scowled and a low growl could be heard in her throat. 

“You’re coming with us,” Berry insisted. 

“I can’t,” the colt protested. “I’ll get punished if I go in there.” 

“Nuh uh,” Derpy protested. “If somepony punishes you I’ll kick them.” 

“She will,” Berry agreed. “Probably right in the potato sack. She’s that kind of pony. Did anypony happen to notice that Keg Smasher is afraid of our little grey mare?” 

Bucky winced at Berry’s words and nodded. Keg Smasher was indeed afraid of his little grey mare, and he had said so. 

“I need to pee,” Piña whined. 

“Yeah,” Dinky added, now squirming. 

“Let’s figure this out,” Bucky said. “Sooner the better.” 

The first thing done was Bucky herding all of the males out of the room to give the females some privacy. and they stood around the hall waiting. When the door was finally opened, the females moved out into the hall and stood with Bucky, while Rising Star and the lunar pegasus colt went into the room to attend to their business. 

The bucket was emptied out the window several times, mostly by Sparkler, and once by Rising Star. 

After everything was attended to, the ponies shuffled back into the room and waited for somepony to come and collect them. 

The night drew closer. 



 

The dining hall was large and open. There were several long tables. There were no chairs. No cushions. Just the stone floor. Bucky and his herd stood in the wide doorway, taking it all in, not sure what to think. The colt stood trembling, not wanting to enter, looking very afraid. 

Derpy shoved him through the doors and hurried Piña and Dinky along. Standing in doors was rude, and blocked traffic. Derpy wanted to leave something of a good impression. 

The colt protested several times, and finally Derpy slapped him in the rump with her wing, silencing him and making him slump in defeat. Bucky walked along behind them, Berry at his side, and Sparkler and Rising Star were just behind them. 

There was no silverware. Bucky had a troubling thought. There was probably very few manipulation shoes here on the Isles, the special magical shoes that had a seed of magic inside of them that allowed for near field manipulation that allowed earth ponies and pegasi a degree of freedom and modern living without unicorns. The thought was depressing. 

“Aye, welcome,” Keg Smasher greeted. “I see you brought a guest.” 

“I did. And if you punish him, I will break your legs,” Derpy threatened. 

“Oh my, she’s feisty, ain’t she? You had to find you one of them motherly pegasus types,” Keg Smasher said, looking genuinely worried. 

“I want my foals looked after,” Bucky stated dismissively, feeling genuinely uncomfortable with everything around him right now. 

“You got lucky lad,” Keg Smasher said to the colt. “You be extra good to her, do you hear me?” he commanded, gesturing to Derpy. 

“Yes sir,” the colt replied, nodding his head. 

Bucky and his herd settled in at the table with Keg Smasher, and began to look around. There were surprisingly few ponies at the table. 

“Where are your wives?” Bucky asked, unable to contain his curiousity. 

“They’re working. Marrying me doesn’t mean a life of cushy relaxation. I expect servitude from my wives in exchange for the privileges afforded to them. Most of them right now are working as nurses in the humble little hospital we have, looking after the sick and the injured. Some are in outlying villages working as midwives. I don’t lord over my ponies, I serve them. I work hard to try and make their lives better. I bust my arse every day trying to improve this sump-hole of an island,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“And he leads us into battle against our many threats,” a pony cried from another table. “He’s a damn good Laird.” 

“Aye, I do that,” Keg Smasher admitted in humble tones. “Ain’t right to ask my soldiers to possibly die for me and not go out there with them. Just ain’t right.” 

“I have always felt that is how it should be,” Bucky replied, his voice low and quiet. “It was an opinion that put me at odds with my family.” 

“I’d imagine it would, Son of Avarice!” Keg Smasher bellowed. 

“Never call me that,” Bucky hissed. 

“Aye lad, sorry, I meant nothing by it. Merely wanted to point out the contrast. You’re a good sort, I can tell,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“I claimed you as one of our own,” Berry interjected. 

“I’d be glad to have you as a fellow Pickle,” Keg Smasher offered. 

“And I think I would feel much better being one,” Bucky agreed. 

“That settles it then. Everypony in this room bear witness, Buckminster Bitters now exists in my house. He is a Pickle in all ways that matter by right of my might, and let no pony argue, unless it is by combat. Does any protest?” Keg Smasher announced. 

The room fell silent. Heads lowered and ears dropped. Nopony dared make a challenge. Keg Smasher ruled in the only way that mattered. Absolute force. 

“And by the rule of my house, he retains his position of armiger. Piss him off at your own risk. Mess with him and his family at your own risk,” Keg Smasher decreed. 

Dinky looked very confused, but remained silent. Piña however, did not. 

“What is an armiger?” Piña asked. 

“A pony at arms. A weapons bearer,” Bucky explained, not saying more. 

“A pony that can be trusted to kill other ponies for the right reasons and is immune to retribution,” Keg Smasher added. 

“A position that is all too often abused,” Bucky protested. “I shouldn’t be trusted just because of my birth or my bloodlines. Birth does not make me noble. Was a hard lesson for me to learn.” 

“Noble words… spoken by a noble,” Keg Smasher replied, raising his eyebrow. ‘You and I are a different breed.” 

“No, I am not,” Bucky protested. “I was just born lucky. Doesn’t make me special.” 

“Yes you are!” Keg Smasher bellowed. “I’ve heard about you and what you’ve done. Celestia speaks highly of you. You are as noble as they come by word and deed, and I don’t give two shites and a tinker’s damn about noble birth. I was born to a common prostitute! I rule by right of might. I came home, back to these wretched Isles, and I killed the previous Laird for being a selfish tyrant and then I claimed my position. I slew him, I slew his treacherous wives, and I killed most of his court for the horrible things they did to their own ponies. Sickens me what they did. When I got done this fortress flooded with blood and ran down the halls and formed pools in the low places. Don’t talk to me about nobility Buckminster Bitters, you have it in you to do much the same.” 

Bucky sat in silent shock, his mouth hanging open. Derpy’s eyes were wide, and she stared at Keg Smasher. Berry’s gaze dropped down to the table. Rising Star sat and shook his head, unable to take in everything he had just heard. Sparker leaned on Rising Star and looked troubled. 

Dinky and Piña clung to one another. 

Earth ponies began hauling in carts of food and unicorns began to pile platters from the carts upon the tables. The food smelled delicious after not eating all day. 

“Where is Thistle?” Berry asked. 

“In the lake,” Keg Smasher replied. “Feeling broken hearted and rejected.” 

Derpy made a choking sound and covered her mouth with her fetlock. 

“She’s nice. She brings me fresh fish,” the colt stated. 

“You eat fish?” Piña asked. 

“Fish?” Dinky repeated. 

“Yeah,” the colt replied. “And sometimes mice and rats if I catch them.” 

“Oh gross…” Piña moaned. 

“Yuck!” Dinky gasped. 

“Something has to get rid of the rats, otherwise we’d be overrun,” Keg Smasher said in the colt’s defense. 

“I’m scared of rats,” Piña confessed. 

“I’ll protect you,” the colt offered. 

“See? He’s a good lad,” Keg Smasher announced. 

Bucky eyed an enormous bowl of hot buttery peas. His mouth watered. Not sure what the proper manners were, he took the bowl in his magic, poured some out on his plate, put the giant serving bowl down, and then stuffed his muzzle into his plate and began to gobble. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others around him doing the same. 

After making his peas disappear, he looked around for other things he liked. There was vegetable stew, gratin potatoes, mashed turnips, fried parsnips, bread, there was a surprising amount of food and variety. 

“Neeps and tatties!” Berry punch exclaimed happily, stuffing her face down into her plate and scarfing down a large pile of whatever neeps and tatties were. Bucky had no idea. But it looked good. 

“Mead is what we need,” Keg Smasher said, glad to see the serving maids bringing drink. “Over here lasses, do hurry!” 

Derpy noticed that one of the serving maids left a small white flower next to the Laird’s plate before she departed. She took it to be a sweet gesture and nothing more. 

The hall was filled with the sounds of ponies eating and celebrating, making merry. The sweeps were over, and the oppressive penalty taxes were no more. There was a lot to celebrate, and many toasts were lifted to Berry Punch. 

In the middle of all, a long wailing howl drifted through the hall, causing the room to fall silent, except for Piña, who shrieked shrilly and jumped upwards, landing on and clinging to Bucky’s neck. He braced a foreleg under backside to support her weight and realised she felt wet back there. There was a patch of wetness on the stone floor. The foal began to sob with fear, shame, and embarrassment, burying her face in Bucky’s neck.

“I have you Piña, you’re safe,” Bucky soothed. “Don’t worry, nothing can hurt you when I am around. I will keep you safe.” 

“Damnable wolves,” Keg Smasher growled. 

Berry fretted over her sister, but did not want to pull her away from Bucky. Not knowing what else to do, she continued eating, but kept glancing at Piña Colada and feeling worried. 

The foal clung to Bucky, still sobbing, her little forelegs wrapped tightly around his neck. Dinky, worried about Piña, began to sniffle a bit, but she maintained her composure, knowing how important control was. She sat up a little straighter and her horn flared with light. “I’ll keep you safe Piña,” Dinky offered. 

“I can watch over you all night if you ask me to do so,” the colt offered. 

Piña did not reply, but continued to cry, the emotions of the day now slipping out in one teary flood. 

Dinky quietly made the puddle left behind by Piña evapourate, knowing how embarrassing it was to have an accident. 

There was another long howl. 

“Damnit, the foals will be in a state tonight,” Keg Smasher swore angrily. 

“Piña, love, try to calm down, these wolves, they feed on fear,” Bucky whispered to the foal he held in his embrace. 

Bucky looked over and saw that Derpy was in quite a state. Her wings were flared. Her muscles quivered. The emotions of the day had been hard on her as well. And now, her foals were threatened. He barely recognised Rising Star, who seemed like a completely different unicorn. Rising Star looked aggressive and not his usual happy go lucky self. 

“I might be able to help you with the wolves,” Bucky offered. 

“NO!” Derpy cried. 

“Derpy, be still,” Bucky said gently. “Keg Smasher, I have powerful magic as I am sure you know. I might be able to help you. What are these shadow wolves and what can I do to help you?” 

“They’re terrible foes. Shadow and flesh. They tend to become insubstantial when you attack them, making them very hard to kill. They feed on flesh and fear. They became a real problem under the last Laird, and I just cannot seem to stem the tide of these horrible monsters,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“Give me time to settle in, collect my wits, and draw my strength. I can help you,” Bucky offered. 

“I am not comfortable with this,” Derpy growled. 

“Would you have me do nothing to protect the foals here?” Bucky retorted. 

Derpy squirmed uncomfortably, a grimace upon her face. “No, because you probably can help them,” she muttered. “You are going to get an earful about this later though,” Derpy promised. 

Bucky continued to hold Piña, and wrapped his other foreleg around her withers. She was slowly calming, but the sobs were still wracking her tiny body. She hiccuped from fear and was content to be held. 

“Derpy and I will keep our foals comforted and safe. Just don’t do anything rash or stupid when and if you go out hunting,” Berry stated in low tones. 

“I told you that you were noble,” Keg Smasher said to Bucky, grinning, lifting his mug using his wing. He drained it in one long gulp. 

Bucky ate, using his magic, still holding Piña, not letting her go. She had calmed a bit more, and he fed her a bit now and then we she pulled her face away from his neck. She was still damp back there, and would need a bath or at least a washing. Bucky realised he would as well. 

“I think I understand Derpy’s attraction towards you now,” Berry said to Bucky in a low voice. “Seeing you comfort Piña is making me feel some very strong feelings towards you. Right now, I really want to reward you for being a good daddy,” she said in very low whisper. 

“You and me both,” Derpy whispered. “Still angry with him though.” 

“Aw, don’t be angry. He just wants to keep other foals safe,” Berry replied to her fellow-wife. 

“I don’t want to lose him,” Derpy said in a choked reply. The grey mare grabbed her tankard with her wing, lifted it, and then guzzled her mead. She belched ferociously and slammed it down upon the table. 

“Your wife has excellent manners,” Keg Smasher quipped. 

“She’s damn near perfect,” Bucky agreed. 

“What about me?” Berry questioned, glaring at Bucky. 

“You are also everything I would ever want in a wife,” Bucky admitted. 

“Good answer lad,” Keg Smasher chuckled. 

Berry relaxed her posture and resumed eating. 

Bucky tried to relax and enjoy himself, glad to have a moment to bond so closely with his precious little Piña. 
	
	
> Chapter 58
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morning was bitterly cold. As cold as any day of midwinter in Ponyville. And this was indoors, in a room, with the fire burning a compressed peat bale. Any sense of privacy or personal space had been abandoned at some point during the night, and everypony had moved into one big pile, pressed against one another out of sheer necessity. There were not even any blankets. 

Bucky resolved to make a few changes this day. It was time haul back a few rocks, make a few sofas and couches, some blankets, a better mattress or two, and a few simple creature comforts. 

The damp condensation on the walls had frozen into patches of ice. 

There was a low growl from within the pile that was unmistakably Derpy’s. No doubt she had just noticed what Bucky had noticed, and that was that Sparkler was entwined with Rising Star in quite an intimate embrace. Bucky really hoped that Derpy didn’t move suddenly. His potato sack was pressed against her delightfully warm wings, and they were the only thing keeping his most delicate area from the bitter biting cold. 

It was at some point during his bleary examination of the grim morning situation that he noticed the figure by the window. 

“Have you been there all night?” Bucky asked the colt. 

“I promised wee Piña that I would keep watch over her while she slept and keep the wolves away,” the colt replied, his teeth chattering faintly. “I have kept to my oath.” 

“You… you there, look, just get over here with us and get warmed!” Bucky insisted, his voice full of exasperation. He hadn’t been aware that somepony had slipped away from the pile during the night. “At least stand by the fire!” 

“The fire offers little warmth,” the colt replied. 

“Look, just get over here, now!” Bucky commanded angrily, rapidly losing his patience with this whole situation. 

The colt walked over, stiff legged, but not out of a sense of challenge. It simply had trouble moving. Berry reached out and pulled him into an embrace, and she began to shiver when the colt’s cold body pressed against her own. 

“You don’t have any feathers for insulation,” Berry muttered, sounding Berry miserable about everything. 

“You stood watch all night over my foals?” Bucky asked incredulously.

“It was the right thing to do. I was being groomed for good manners and compliancy, so when the sweeps happened, I might be able to grow up and guard Princess Luna. Many of us do. I wanted to see what I was made of,” the colt said, now shivering violently as the warmth from Berry’s embrace began to seep into his body. 

“You’ll make a fine sentinel someday, but for now, you are a colt. You pull a stunt like this again and I will work your backside over,” Berry threatened. “I mean it. No sitting for a week!” 

“Yes ma’am,” the colt replied through now chattering teeth. 

“You watched my foals,” Derpy said as she yawned. 

“Sentinel,” Bucky stated. “If ever a name has been earned, it would be that one.” 

“What?” Berry asked. 

“I am calling him Sentinel,” Bucky replied. 

The colt did not reply, but buried his head against Berry Punch and made odd grunting gasps. 

“It suits him,” Derpy agreed. 

“I think he’s crying,” Berry said, her face pinched with concern. 

“Damnit, it is cold in here!” Sparkler hissed. 

“Sparkler!” Derpy scolded.

“Colder than a windigo’s teat,” Rising Star stated poetically. 

“It sure is,” Bucky agreed. “And your grave is going to be even colder if you keep spooning belly to belly with my Sparkler. Do I make myself clear?” 

“As sheet ice,” Rising Star returned, rolling over and curling into a miserable ball. 

“I have an overprotective daddy,” Sparkler announced in a matter-of-fact voice. “This is awesome. I don’t know how to react.” 

“There are no words for how much I love you right now Bucky,” Derpy mumbled dreamily. She raised her tail and farted, once, twice, and then thrice. And nopony seemed to mind. It was warm. 

“Is my pee gonna freeze?” 

Piña’s voice came from somewhere beneath Derpy, it was muffled and somewhat smothered. It was the sort of innocent question that only a foal could ask. 

“That is a very good question.” 

Dinky’s voice also emerged from under her mother, and both of the foals were extremely grateful for the broody nesting pegasus for once, even if it meant being squished under the over-motherly mare. 

“I understand now why herds developed,” Bucky grumbled.

“And that is?” asked Berry.

“To stay warm,” Bucky returned. 

“At this point, Thistle would be welcomed as another warm body,” Berry quipped. 

“Berry… you… me… later… scuffle,” Derpy huffed. “I can’t feel my ears.” 

“This is Equestria without the Princesses,” Bucky stated. “This is life outside of Equestria, and for many of the ponies all around the world.” 

“This might be bad for you, but this is normal for me,” the colt, now named Sentinel, muttered as he huddled against Berry for warmth. 

“I wonder what is for breakfast,” Berry said and then yawned. 

“Probably oatmeal or pease-porridge. I might even get some that is hot today,” Sentinel said hopefully. “Thank you by the way.” 

“For what?” Berry asked. 

“Being kind to me. Giving me a name. Taking me in. Keg Smasher has been very generous to me, I cannot fault him. I cannot understand why strangers would be so good to me,” Sentinel said. 

“Bucky is a good pony, and so are all of the rest of us,” Sparkler said. 

“I need a squire,” Bucky mused to himself. 

“What?” Berry asked. “Are you serious?” 

“Sentinel is already assigned as my errand runner, which is part of a squire’s many tasks. I need somepony to help me with my day to day affairs here, keep an eye on my family, and to assist me with whatever Keg Smasher is bound to ask of me eventually,” Bucky explained. 

“You are serious,” Berry said. 

“Sentinel, can you read or write?” Bucky asked. 

“Only a little,” Sentinel confessed. 

“I can’t have an illiterate squire. That will not do,” Bucky said. “Sparkler, Rising Star, I have a task for you. Help Sentinel become literate.” 

“How? Rising Star asked. “With what? Do you see any books? Paper? Pens?” 

Bucky sighed in exasperation. “Use sticks in the dirt. Use charcoal on flat stone. I will make some ink and paper if necessary. I am sure there are books somewhere around here, and I know we brought a few. They’re in the trunk.” 

“It will give us something to do,” Sparkler said to Rising Star. 

“We are going to be here for a while,” Bucky said. “The issues with Thistle are not going to be resolved overnight. We are all going to do our part to help out around here. These ponies need us.” 

“I am low born, I-” 

“Sentinel, Keg Smasher was born of a prostitute. I descend from the blood of ancient royalty. These things do not matter,” Bucky interrupted. “You stood watch all night because you made a promise to a foal. You took that seriously. I meant what I said. I will need a squire.” 

“I will serve,” Sentinel said, pulling his head away from Berry and looking directly at Bucky. 

“So the new Armiger of Clan Pickled takes a squire,” Berry said, giving the colt a squeeze. “Derpy, you had better get used to being called a Dame.” 

“What’s a dame? I always thought it was a harassing word for a lady pony,” Derpy uttered in confusion. 

“Well, with Sir Buckminster here taking his job seriously, we are probably going to be called ‘Dame’ or ‘Lady’ by folk around here,” Berry explained. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow and glared at Berry Punch. 

“Look, I wasn’t trying to tease for once. I didn’t call you Lord Buckminster because I know you hate that. Give me a little bit of credit,” Berry responded. “And this might be very hard for both of you to understand, but these little titles can give ponies hope. They want to believe that somepony is out there, championing their cause for justice. Keg Smasher seems well loved, even if he did end the previous Laird’s rule with a bloodbath. I don’t like it at all, but pomp and circumstance has its place.” 

“You just continue to keep surprising me Berry Punch,” Bucky said, completely flabberghasted. 

“I worked very hard to improve myself and make myself a worthy wife for some lucky pony,” Berry said in a small voice. 

“I am a lucky pony,” Bucky replied. 

The peat bale in the fireplace burned low, and the sun began to shine through the window. There was no warmth yet, but there was the promise of warmth. 

“Let us take care of the biology goes into the bucket shuffle and start the day,” Bucky announced. 



 

Breakfast was pease-porridge, which was every bit as awful as it sounded. Some of the ponies called it brosemeal, or peasemeal brose. The only thing to go on it was butter. Dried carlin peas, ground into a fine meal, and then boiled to a pasty consistency. 

The only pony that seemed to enjoy it was Sentinel, who was quite thrilled simply because it was hot. 

Warm food was nice. The entire castle was cold and damp. 

There was no coffee. There was no tea. There was no orange juice, or apple juice, or grape juice. There was no white sugar, nor was there brown sugar. There was no maple syrup. 

Bucky suffered a painful reminder of how his life was, back when he had eaten for sustenance and little else. Out of all of his family, he was the most prepared for this. Dinky and Piña were taking it hard, Piña actually crying a bit as she ate, while Dinky dutifully shoveled it in and stared blankly ahead. 

Moving the rocks proved to be a far more difficult task when the time finally came. Bucky’s horn smoked and fizzled, sending off showers of sparks. Things that took considerable magical effort caused the alarming reaction. 

Moving the rocks themselves caused many ponies to gasp. Strong unicorns were rare on the Isles. Most unicorns were taken during the sweeps, usually only leaving behind the type ones and occasionally a type two, usually because they were well hidden. 

The rocks provided the raw molecular mass needed to transmute them into useful things. A pair of wide ugly grey sofas. A large thick mattress, complete with sheets and blankets. Bucky had considered a second mattress, but it was just too cold to break everypony up into two piles. A privacy barrier had been transmuted and stood near the bucket. Several cushions had been transmuted. The first mattress Bucky had made was turned into a pile of pillows. A low table was transmuted, because tables were useful for all sorts of things. 

By noon, Bucky was ready to collapse from exhaustion. His horn was slightly charred, covered in black soot. It arced and made sizzling noises periodically, even though he was done casting. 

A crowd of curious ponies stood outside their door, trying to peer inside whenever the door opened, hoping to catch a glimpse of the display of finery. 

Berry felt guilty about having it when she knew that the others did not, but she said nothing. 

Derpy had to sling Bucky over Berry Punch’s back to haul him to the dining hall for lunch. Both mares worried. Bucky’s magic wasn’t acting right, and he had completely depleted himself to make his family a bit more comfortable. 

Lunch was leftover pease-porridge and fried corn and oat cakes. Derpy actually had to feed Bucky, as he had become so unresponsive. After a large meal, he had perked up considerably, but had a headache. 

Sentinel took every chance he could get to let the ponies around him know that he had a name. 

Keg Smasher had stopped by in the afternoon to look at the remodeled room. He seemed impressed, more so about Bucky’s magic than the actual furnishings. Keg Smasher took the announcement about Sentinel’s squirehood very seriously, patted the colt on the head with a wing, and addressed him by name. Before departing, he gave one very serious salute and expected one in return. 

Sentinel became aware that his world has just changed considerably, and now he had a very unfamiliar social circle to adjust to. Where before he was an orphan that had made himself useful, now he not only had a name, but a title, and he had been drawn into a very mature position that adults around him were going to expect a great deal more from him because of his status change. Sentinel realised that he had respect now, a tentative social agreement that he had no idea how to cultivate or maintain. The colt was terrified and quite unsettled, and it had been Keg Smasher’s salute that had pushed him over into fear and uncertainty. 

All of this because of a promise to a foal he barely knew, he had only desired to bring a little comfort and security, something he often wished for his own situation. His mind was troubled as he slipped into a deep dark sleep, finally shutting out the daylight which had always bothered him. 

After a bit of a nap, Bucky announced that he intended to to go the lake (or the loch in the local parlance) to visit Thistle, which completely destroyed the peaceful afternoon. 
	
	
> Chapter 59 (warning: delicate subject matter) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy Doo Hooves refused to leave the room. She chose to stay behind and look after the foals, including Sentinel who was sound asleep, as well as Sparkler and Rising Star who both felt awkward trying to wander around the castle. 

Bucky and Berry Punch had gone off for the lake. Derpy, even in her foul mood, had kissed them both before they left, and had urged them to come back soon as well as stay safe. Upset or not, the pegasus still loved her mates. 

The walk to the lake was pleasant, not too long, and they passed many ponies along the way. They passed an enormous distillery along the way, several gardens, and the more well to do houses existed as one drew closer to the lake. 

Bucky was watchful and protective, and Berry stayed close. Close enough to steal a kiss several times. Berry Punch seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself. She beamed as she walked, obviously feeling self confident and quite good about herself. 

As they walked, Bucky wondered about what was the worst that could happen if he simply placed his hoof down and agreed to marry Thistle. He wanted to go home, but he wasn’t sure if he was that desperate. He did not know how to resolve this. 

Eventually, they reached the lake. There was a dock, several boats, and a few ponies managing a large catch of fish, which baffled Bucky when he saw them. 

“What is with all the fish? Are there that many lunar pegasi around?” Bucky asked the fisher ponies. 

“Naw,” one replied in a thick accent. “The soil is poor and growing season is short. Even the earth ponies have a tough time with this soil. We catch the fish, grind them up, and use them as fertiliser to bring some life to the ground,” the pegasus fisher pony explained. 

“Well, that makes sense. You learn something new each day,” Bucky said. 

“Does your Lordship need anything?” the pegasus asked. 

Bucky squirmed uncomfortably, unsure of what to say or how to protest politely. This had suddenly become awkward and uncomfortable, and he wanted to simply slip away and avoid any confrontation. “Um, yes actually my good sir. I am looking for Thistle.” 

“Over there,” the pegasus pointed with one gnarled looking hoof at a cluster of rocks. “She’s a bit distraught about things.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said graciously, heading off towards the cluster of rocks some distance away, Berry Punch right beside him. 

He moved through the tall grass, feeling the damp fronds tickle his sides, and he saw her. She was leaning against a rock, sitting in the water, and she looked… different. A long tail was visible in the shallow water and the broad fin at the end splashed occasionally. 

He moved closer, and Thistle had not noticed him. He felt Berry nose him gently along his shoulder, and then the entire side of her warm body pressed against his. He took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. 

“Thistle?” Bucky inquired. 

The filly had been crying. It was plain to see. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her eyes were bloodshot. She froze, looking terrified and embarrassed. 

“Please don’t swim away. We came to talk,” Bucky said in a gentle voice. 

“Have you come to make me your wife? Otherwise, there isn’t much to talk about,” Thistle replied in wounded tones. 

“Thistle, we need to talk about that,” Bucky stated gently, sitting down at the water’s edge. 

Berry sat down beside him and smiled a friendly smile. 

“I don’t understand what there is to talk about,” Thistle muttered, a pout upon her face, her eyes threatening more tears. 

“Well, if this is going to happen, we need to get to know you first,” Bucky said in a patient voice. “I love both of my wives a great deal, and I try very hard to get to know them and understand them. They are more than just a warm body for me.” 

Thistle turned and looked Bucky in the eye, looking hopeful. 

“We know nothing about you,” Berry said. “Everything starts with friendship, if it starts at all.” 

“So courtship is required,” Thistle huffed. 

“Well, yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Not needed. If you were to ask, I’d lift my tail for you right now,” Thistle said suggestively. “Well, I’d need to take on pony form first.” 

Berry covered her face with a folded fetlock and sighed. 

“And I would refuse you,” Bucky returned, shaking his head slowly. “I cannot love somepony that is not my friend.” 

“I don’t understand you,” Thistle replied, her voice flooded with confusion. “If I was to offer myself to you right now, you would refuse it? What if she wasn’t here? Would your answer be the same? Or would you be on my back, grunting and huffing and puffing away?” 

“I am simply not like that,” Bucky stated. 

“I don’t believe that for a moment,” Thistle retorted angrily. “I bet if she wasn’t here making you mind your manners, you’d already have me pinned face down in the grass pounding away on my backside-”

“Coming here was a mistake. I think I will be going. I thought I could deal with you as a somewhat mature young adult. I see now that I am dealing with a foal. This marriage is not going to work out,” Bucky interrupted  as he rose, turned, and then began to walk away. 

Berry rose to her hooves and began to follow her husband, looking back sadly one last time at Thistle and shaking her head. 

“Don’t go! I am sorry… look, I am a bit of a foal, alright?” Thistle called. 

“And now, you are just telling me what I want to hear. Good bye Thistle.” Bucky replied as he continued to depart. 

“How do I fix this?” Thistle cried in panic. 

Bucky halted so abruptly that Berry Punch bumped into his backside. “Why do you want to fix this exactly?” Bucky asked in a slow voice. 

“No, no… no please don’t do that. I already know that any answer I give will probably be wrong because I tend to stick my hoof in my mouth. I just know that this needs to be fixed, please don’t make me give reasons,” Thistle begged. 

Bucky resumed his retreat, looking straight ahead. 

“This needs to be fixed because I am the one with the problem!” Thistle cried, pulling herself out of the water and shifting form. “Oh feck, I’ve stepped in the shite now, I’ve gone and offended what might actually be a nice stallion,” she said in a hitching voice that was dangerously close to becoming sobs. 

Bucky halted, and this time Berry Punch did not bump into him. He remained pointing ahead, while Berry turned and regarded Thistle. 

“This needs to be fixed because I wanted to keep my expectations low so I wouldn’t be hurt again. I don’t want to be hurt again,” Thistle begged and confessed. “If I don’t expect anything from you then it won’t hurt as much when I get nothing from you! I am a stupid filly and I had a bad experience and I still feel really ashamed about everything and it makes me feel better to simply say that stallions are the problem rather than admit my own faults.” 

Bucky turned and looked at Thistle. 

“Please give me a chance to fix this!” Thistle begged. 

“I am here and I am listening,” Bucky replied. 

Thistle collapsed into the grass and began to sob. Berry, casting a glance at Bucky as she did so, went over to comfort the fallen filly. She sat down near her and began to stroke her gently with a hoof. 

“Was that necessary?” Berry asked Bucky. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. “I thought it was.” 

“Look Thistle, just let it out, alright?” Berry said, still stroking the filly. She shot another glance at Bucky, raising her eyebrow. 

Watching Thistle, Bucky moved closer and sat down. 

The filly cried in the tall grass for quite some time, a combination of shame, raw emotions, and hormones all forming a perfect cocktail to cause a breakdown. Her belly was already showing and it was easy to see on her slender frame. 

The mare and the filly had a bonding moment, both of them sharing something in common, even though the mare didn’t know it at this particular moment. 

“How many months?” Berry asked, hoping to distract the filly from her grief. 

“I am about five months along,” Thistle mumbled as she sniffled. 

“You are awfully small for five months, you are such a little thing,” Berry soothed, her hoof still rubbing Thistle’s side. She moved her hoof downward and stroked Thistle’s belly. “Where is your father? Don’t you have a herd parent around?” 

“My mother never wed. She had several stallions she had foals with though, trying to increase the odds of another kelpie. There were some upset wives, but all was forgiven in time,” Thistle replied. “I am not sure who my father is,” she squeaked embarrassedly. 

“If you join us, you must never be unfaithful. If you are, if you break his heart, I will end you, next to last kelpie or not, do we have an understanding between one another as mares?” Berry asked. “And you would want me to end you, because I would be merciful about it. You don’t want to know what Derpy might do. I don’t want to know what Derpy might do, but seeing as how she is a pegasus. I suspect she would give you flying lessons.” 

Thistle nodded, her eyes wide. “He must be really good to you for you to love him so,” Thistle commented in a hitching series of gasps. 

“Good. We understand one another now,” Berry said. 

“Was that really necessary?” Bucky asked. 

Berry shot him a glance. “Mare business. Between mares.” 

“You’ve scared her to death,” Bucky said, actually feeling sorry for Thistle. 

“And she was right to do so,” Thistle said. “You are a good sort, and she just proved it.” 

“I don’t understand what just happened,” Bucky sighed. 

“Mare business. Between mares,” Berry repeated. 

“Stop saying that!” Bucky snapped, now slightly annoyed. 

The unicorn sat and and the mares laid together in the tall grass, a bewildering amount of confusion going on. One male trying to understand the opposite sex, two adults trying to understand a filly in the throes of understanding her new sexuality, a filly who was trying to understand the foreign points of view of two mainlanders with very different ways, and one very confused and terrified earthworm that believed that if it bored through the ceiling, it would drop and fall away from the earth forever, falling into endless sky. 

It was a bit more sentient than the average earthworm, as could happen from time to time in this amazing world full of magic and wonder. 

“Thistle, I am going to ask you some very blunt and awkward questions,” Berry stated, her tone settling into a nearly flat monotone. 

“Alright,” Thistle agreed. 

“You are still rather small. Does rutting hurt you?” Berry asked. 

Thistle blushed, her face now a searing pink. “Yes. It did. There was some trouble. But I managed as you can see.” 

“Thistle, I am a grown mare, and it still stings quite a bit when he takes me,” Berry confessed. “So I can’t imagine what it might do to you.” 

Bucky felt his ears catch on fire and his face felt uncomfortably hot. 

“Oh…” Thistle gasped, her eyes wide. 

“It isn’t so much the length, it is more about the width. I have some serious concerns, and I’d imagine that Derpy does as well. You are still very small and petite,” Berry explained. “Neither one of us wants to see you hurt. Also, no matter what you do, Derpy is going to continue to see you as a filly and she is going to treat you like she is your mother. That is what she does.” 

“I am not some little filly though. I am going to be a mother myself,” Thistle retorted. “And I don’t want to be treated like a foal!” 

“I know, which is why I am trying to talk to you like an adult and give you the respect you deserve,” Berry replied. 

Thistle calmed and a few fresh new tears rolled from her eyes. “Thank you, I guess. I didn’t mean to be angry.” 

“Your little foalish mood swings and behaviour are going to trigger Derpy’s motherly instincts,” Berry warned. 

Thistle started to spit out an angry retort but caught it at the last moment, biting down upon her lip and squirming in the grass.

“That’s better,” Berry praised, still stroking Thistle’s belly. 

“That was hard,” Thistle confessed. 

“Do you have any interest in mares?” Berry asked. “Derpy and I also take an interest in one another. All three of us engage in physical love with each other. It isn’t exactly traditional, but if you want to be a part of this, you need to understand what you are being drawn into, if it happens.” 

“I don’t know anything about mares. I’ve only been with a stallion a few times, and it was the same stallion, and to be honest, I am not sure what the big deal is about rutting because it hurt a fair bit and it was over in just a few moments,” Thistle admitted. 

Berry smiled gently but said nothing. Bucky’s ears folded down against his skull and he found something interesting to stare at out on the lake, watching the sun sparkle on the water. 

“Have you ever orgasmed?” Berry asked bluntly. 

Bucky choked, he was certain that at any moment his lungs were going to be coughed out, he could feel them in his throat. There was a painful feeling of constriction as he attempted to hack out his own lungs. 

“What’s that?” Thistle asked. 

“After rutting feels good for a while, you get tense, and then it feels really good, you shudder, you shiver, and you shake. And you want it to last forever,” Berry patiently explained. 

“No, nothing like that happened. I just wanted it to be over because he kept drooling on my back and hurting me,” Thistle replied, closing her eyes, unable to look at Berry Punch. 

Berry Punch sighed heavily and said nothing in reply. 

“It actually hurt quite a bit. The skin caught and pulled. Everything felt really dry and rough. I endured it because it needed to be done. He said it was a mainland custom that if we shared drinks together, we’d be married,” Thistle whispered, her voice full of shame. “The first time tore me open a bit, and there was bleeding. The second time really hurt, but in some ways it was a little easier. After that, it just hurt a lot so I just thought about having foals and I managed.” 

“You know Bucky, I say we go looking for this arse pimple once all of this is over,” Berry growled. 

“Already thinking about it, having some very unpleasant thoughts that I am ashamed to admit that I am enjoying immensely,’ Bucky said, keeping in mind what Bon Bon had said about honesty. “Really terrible thoughts they are too. Thoughts involving hot lead and a funnel with a very narrow tip that can be inserted into a very tiny hole.” 

Thistle looked horrified. 

Berry pulled Thistle up into a hug and squeezed her tightly, her eyes shut tight. “And that is why I love him more than life itself. I love his light, but I appreciate his darkness. It is well directed. He draws strength from his darkness, not weakness.” 

“That’s horrible…” Thistle gasped. 

“So is what was done to you,” Berry said, still squeezing the filly. 

“You would do that for me?” Thistle asked. 

“I’d imagine he would. He’s very protective. Sometime, I will tell you a story about what he did to rescue two foals. Before anything can happen between us, you need to understand why we love him,” Berry replied. 

“I don’t understand,” Thistle said, fresh tears beading up in the corners of her eyes. “Mares are for chores and breeding. You are very strange Bucky. I don’t understand you at all.” 

“I don’t understand myself half of the time,” Bucky replied, looking down at Thistle who was held in Berry’s forelegs. For a brief moment, he felt a stirring of emotion looking at her, mostly pity. But there was something else as well, and he didn’t know what it was. It felt awkward feeling it though, and he was forced to turn away. 

“Where do you stay?” Berry asked. 

“In the lake,” Thistle replied. “Sometimes I stay in the castle with Keg Smasher and he lets me sleep in a pile with his foals.” 

“Isn’t it cold?” Berry asked. 

“Cold water doesn’t bother me. The cold up here on dry land does though,” Thistle answered. “I don’t like the cold. Which is why I stay in the lake.” 

“Well, one night soon, I want you to come out of your lake, and join us for a meal. And don’t worry, I will make the pegasus behave,” Berry Punch invited and ended with a promise. 

“We should be heading back Berry. Derpy will be worrying by now. Her nerves aren’t well. Thistle, stay safe,” Bucky said. 

“I agree, Derpy is frazzled already. Thistle, it was nice to meet you and get to know you a little better,” Berry added. 

“It was nice to get to know both of you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to walk back with you so we can talk just a little more,” Thistle replied. 

“I think that we’d like that,” Bucky said, looking down at the two mares in the grass. “At least you and Berry seem to be getting along. I don’t know what to do with Mama Bird.” 
	
	
> Chapter 60
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A very nervous unicorn took a deep breath, and then opened the door. Inside, a pegasus instantly took notice of three ponies standing in the doorway and raised her head, her ears perked as her body went through the process of threat assessment. 

A plum coloured earth pony blocked the retreat of a pale blue pony and herded her into the room, very much against her will, and the grey pegasus mare protested, shrill winnies and nickers filled the room. 

The unicorn shut the door the behind him and magically secured it, looking very grim as he did so. This was perhaps, extreme measures, but this whole situation was nothing but extreme measures, and these were extreme measures of his choosing. 

“Hello,” Sparkler greeted, nodding her head slightly to Thistle. 

“Hello again,” Rising Star added, joining Sparkler in greeting. 

“Bucky, unlock the door,” Derpy demanded. 

“No,” Bucky retorted. 

Derpy glared angrily at her mate, first one, and then the other. 

“Hello,” Thistle said nervously, her hooves clattering skittishly on the stones. 

“Thistle, this is Sparkler, that is Rising Star, Dinky, Piña Colada, Derpy, and you know Berry and I. He’s hard to see, but Sentinel is over there,” Bucky said, pointing as he spoke each name. 

Dinky wormed free of her mother, slid off of the mattress, and slowly crossed the floor to meet the kelpie. Dinky stood before Thistle, looking up, while Thistle looked down. The two ponies regarded one another. 

“You’re cute as a button,” Thistle said, leaning down and briefly touching noses. 

Bucky watched, his lips pressed together in a flat line as Derpy visibly relaxed just a tiny bit from watching the display. He said nothing, but shot a glance at Berry Punch, who gave him a faint nod and an ear twitch in recognition. 

“You have fangs. Like Sentinel,” Dinky observed. 

“We both eat fish,” Thistle said, plopping her plot down upon the stone floor and continuing to look at Dinky. 

Piña broke free from Derpy, bounded off of the bed, and joined Dinky. 

“You have plants growing off of you,” Piña stated, her eyes wide as she studied Thistle up close. 

“I am part plant,” Thistle said. “My presence cleans the water and makes it fit for life. Just like how pegasi manage the weather and earth ponies manage the land.” 

“So where did all of your kind all go?” Dinky asked, her brow furrowed with curiousity. 

“I don’t know,” Thistle replied. “My mother told me stories that at one time, there were many of us. And then, something changed. The waters which had always been our home began to kill us, and none of us knew why. Eventually, we became what we are now. Few in number.” 

“That is very sad,” Piña said. “The lake in Ponyville became polluted when a bunch of junk and trash was thrown into it. It had to be cleaned up and now it is clean water again.”

Thistle looked very thoughtful at the foal’s words. “Clean water is a precious gift.” 

Bucky, feeling a bit more at ease, went over to a sofa and settled in, flopping out and getting comfortable on his side, his head resting on the arm of the sofa. The fabric was weird and somewhat scratchy. He still felt pleased with his efforts. 

Berry climbed onto the sofa with Bucky, reclining over his back half and making herself comfortable. She sighed. This was turning out much better than she had hoped. Bucky’s idea had seemed solid. Derpy was attracted to those who were good with her foals, and Thistle, unaware of what had been planned, had been performing nicely. 

The pegasus mare seemed a little more relaxed now, watching the kelpie and her foals. She shifted her weight, Sentinel’s head was still under one of her wings, and the lunar pegasus was sound asleep. 

“I bet pollution had something to do with why all the kelpies vanished,” Sparkler said. “Most ponies have no idea how much influence they have on the environment. Or how easy it is to contaminate the water. I’ve been studying natural water filtration in some of my geology university prep classes.” 

There was a click from the door as Bucky released his magic from it. Thistle eyed the door, eyed Derpy, and did not move. 

“Please stay,” Derpy invited. “Just for a little while.” 

“Do stay,” Piña begged.

“Please?” Dinky asked. 

“You’re fascinating,” Rising Star observed. “You are part pony, part plant, and a shapeshifter that lives on both land and water. A holdover from the old days when ponies adapted to deal with the land, the weather, and even the water, trying to bring harmony back to the world when it was full of chaos.” 

Sparkler looked at Rising Star who was sitting on the sofa beside her, raising her eyebrow. “You keep surprising me,” she muttered. 

Rising Star blushed and fell silent. 

“How do you cook the fish when you catch them?” Dinky asked. 

“I don’t,” Thistle replied. 

“Oh yuck,” Piña gasped. 

Thistle threw back her head and laughed. “Yon lunar pegasus loves raw fish. Don’t hurt the poor lad’s feelings,” Thistle responded after she had a good laugh. 

“How did you get your name?” Piña asked. 

“I earned it not too long before I left to the mainland. I killed one of the shadow wolves,” Thistle replied. “A thistle is a pretty plant but they can hurt you. Keg Smasher named me himself after the fight with the wolf. I heard it creeping into a fisherpony’s cabin near the loch.” 

“You could have been killed,” Derpy said in a worried voice. “One less kelpie in the world. Why take so much risk?” 

“Foals,” Thistle replied. “All we have of value in this world.” 

Derpy nodded slowly. One eye was closed and she studied the kelpie carefully with her one good eye. 

“So most foals don’t have names until they are older?” Rising Star asked. 

“Much easier to accept the passing or the loss of something with no name,” Thistle replied. “Sweeps, the plague, death, many are taken for whatever reason. Those that survive earn a name eventually.” 

“That’s awful,” Derpy murmured sadly. 

“That’s life,” Thistle stated, a hard edge present in her voice. 

“Come over here. Sit with me,” Derpy said. “Please?” 

Thistle did as she bid, nervously approaching the bed. She stood at the edge, not sure what to do, and finally climbed up and settled in a short distance from the grey mare. She seemed surprised by the comfort of the mattress, and bounced slightly upon its surface. 

Bucky watched the two carefully, his muscles tensing. Derpy’s moods were surprisingly mercurial lately. If Derpy became a bit too motherly, Thistle might take offense about being treated as a foal. Berry, still sprawled on his side, was rubbing his ribs with her forehooves, trying to make him relax. He could feel her teats pressing against the flesh near his cutie mark. It was a sensation that would have caused him to panic long ago, but now, it was oddly comforting somehow, even if Bucky could not explain why. Just the feeling of being so intimately close with somepony he loved dearly. 

There was an almost painful silence in the room as everypony watched the two mares. Rising Star and Sparkler had scooted closer to one another and were watching intently, Dinky and Piña sat on the floor together, Piña’s foreleg thrown over Dinky’s withers, and both foals watched the two mares on the bed with growing interest. 

Bucky had a strange distracting thought of needing a bath. 

Berry watched the two mares. Both were remarkably similar. Both were fiercely protective of foals, capable defenders, and had powerful maternal instincts that made them both exceedingly dangerous. They were both the prime examples of how ponies had survived in a world full of predators. Both had bodies remarkably well suited for violence, Derpy having hooves, powerful muscles, and flight. Thistle had a mouthful of needles and a wellspring of maternal ferocity that was probably endless. 

Berry exchanged a glance with Bucky. If only they could get the two mares to see what they had in common. She felt very aware of the warmth of his body seeping into her soft feminine places as she sprawled atop him and continued to stroke and rub his side. She felt a powerful ache, a need for hearth and home, and it shuddered through her bones. 

The silence became almost deafening, the room was flooded with it. 

“Come here,” Derpy said, her words firm, the silence finally broken. 

Thistle crawled forward on the bed, her ears drooped downwards. She looked very submissive as she wiggled along her belly. She came close to Derpy and then froze, looking expectantly at the grey mare. 

“How long?” Derpy asked. 

“About five months,” Thistle answered. 

Bucky could hear the sounds of Derpy swallowing from across the room. 

“Teats sore?” 

“Some days.” 

“Any cravings?” 

“Fish roe.” 

“Ugh. Any kicking yet?” 

“Some.” 

“I don’t hate you or anything. I want you to know that.” 

“Oh.”

“I bear you no real resentment at all. I just can’t stand the thought of you going through this. I went through this when I had Dinky. I remember how hard it was on me and what it did to my body.” 

“What happened?” 

The voice was timid and afraid, and it caused the silence to return to the room. Dinky and Piña abandoned their spot on the floor and climbed up onto the sofa with Sparkler and Rising Star, scooching their way in between the colt and the filly. 

Berry tensed, and Bucky could feel the soft velvet hairs of her belly move as her stomach clenched. Bucky watched as Berry’s eyes closed for a moment, and her facial expression became one of extreme pain. 

“It was very hard on me. I had a very rough pregnancy. I was bedridden near the end of it, and Berry Punch and Amethyst Star had to nurse me along. I was completely unable to care for myself.” 

“That sounds bad.” 

“It was. And it got worse. When I finally gave birth to Dinky, I couldn’t get her out. She was small, but my pelvis just wouldn’t allow it. There was nothing to kill the pain. They had to smash my pelvis and break it so I could give birth to Dinky. What was that called again Berry?” 

“Symphysiotomy. There wasn’t time to do it the usual way either, they had to smash and go. Usually, they cut through a lump of cartilage and spread the pelvis that way. With Dinky so close to dying and Derpy as well, they had to take something blunt and crack her open to allow Dinky to slide out.” 

Dinky curled against her sister and began to cry softly, burying her face into Sparkler’s side as she did so. 

“I wanted to die. You could hear Derpy screaming all over the hospital. It sounded like they were butchering her,” Berry said in a low pain filled voice as she shuddered from the memories. “You could hear every blow as they tried to crack her open and it took several.” 

Derpy flinched, her ears splaying out sideways as Berry spoke, the memory clearly too much to bear. 

“Mares die in childbirth all the time here,” Thistle announced in a hushed whisper, fear thick in her utterance. “Many die from a lodged foal. I don’t want to die. I need to live,” she whimpered. 

“We need to get you away from here and to a place that has a good hospital,” Derpy said solemnly. 

“I can’t pay for something like that,” Thistle stated. 

“We can pay for something like that,” Derpy said. “Somehow.” 

“But you don’t want me joining you,” Thistle returned. 

“I am willing to look after you, but I cannot allow you to join us, not in that way,” Derpy retorted.

“I am not willing to be looked after! I’ve already done been diddled, you can’t undo that. And I’ll not go with you so you can just treat me as a foal. I’d rather take my chances here on the Isle than to be looked at as some kind of pitiful orphan!” Thistle shouted. 

Sentinel awoke with a snort and pulled his head out from under Derpy’s wing. He looked around, blinking, trying to make sense of what was going on. 

“You are still a foal! You are just a little filly! Just like I was! You need somepony to look after you just like I did, you have no idea what you are in for!” Derpy shouted, her temper finally breaking. 

“I’ve watched so called fillies even younger than I am bear foals and raise families! So called foals still in their single digit ages! You’re an outsider, you have no idea what life is like here! The moment you have your first heat you are just another mouth to feed and it becomes time to marry you off!” Thistle snapped. 

Derpy jerked her head back, her eyes wide with horror and shock. 

“My heat came later than most. Do you know how worried I was, when I reached the age I did and no heat came like the other so called foals as you call them? Little mares all around me, my own age, starting families and mine came late! The panic I felt! It was horrible! I cried every night thinking I was broken!” Thistle exclaimed. 

Thistle thrashed on the bed and began to make her escape. Derpy lunged, tackling her, catching the filly in her forelegs, mindful of Thistle’s swollen belly.

“NO!” Derpy commanded, pinning Thistle down. Thistle kicked and screamed, struggling against the much larger mare, but Derpy was much stronger. She let the filly kick and scream against her, until finally her rage was spent and the filly submitted to being held. She bawled while holding still, and Derpy wrapped he wings around her. 

“Leave us,” Derpy said. 

Nopony moved, still in shock at the whole scene. 

“GET OUT!” Derpy bellowed. “RIGHT NOW!” 

Sparkler was the first on her hooves and pulled Dinky with her, Rising Star tugged gently on Piña, and then the four of them shuffled for the door. 

Sentinel sprinted after Sparkler and her group. 

Berry slid off of Bucky and made for the door, and Bucky followed after her as a moment later, casting a final glance at Derpy. 

“Derpy, please, love, be gentle,” Bucky said. 

“We need to reach an understanding as mares,” Derpy grunted. “NOW GET OUT!” 

Bucky left, the last one to leave the room. He closed the door behind him. 
	
	
> Chapter 61
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The herd of ponies evicted from the room found themselves in the dining hall for lack of any better place to go. They sat around a table, looking at one another, still in shock over what had taken place. 

Nopony quite knew what to say about what had taken place, and nopony was quite sure what was taking place in the room right now between Derpy and Thistle. It was a matter between mares and potential future fellow-wives. 

Dinky and Piña both were sniffling a bit and on the verge of tears, the conversation and the sudden eviction piling on to the emotional overload currently in progress. Sparkler and Rising Star both did an admirable job of trying to comfort the foals, something Bucky noticed and was pleased about. 

And it was during this moment that a young colt came up to Bucky and informed him that he was wanted in Keg Smasher’s throne room. Bucky was hesitant to leave his herd behind, but did so at Berry Punch’s reassurance that everything would be fine. 

And so Bucky left, his squire right behind him. 



 

Keg Smasher’s throne room was sparse. There was a large stone throne at one end, the back of the throne broken off and left laying on the ground behind the throne. Keg Smasher sat on the floor beside his throne, and beckoned to Bucky to sit beside him on the other side of the throne. 

Bucky did as he was bid, and Sentinel sat beside him, looking very nervous. He had never been allowed in here before. The young colt trembled from jittery nerves. 

“I could use your help,” Keg Smasher requested. “This part of the job is as boring as shite, but it must be done. I am going to open the court for the afternoon. I need my new armiger and his noble squire.” 

Hearing Keg Smasher’s words, Sentinel nearly fainted. 

“Alright, let us get this bloody business over with!” Keg Smasher shouted. 

The door opened and the first group came forward, bearing a bundle wrapped in grey cloth upon their shoulders. Keg Smasher groaned when he saw it, and his wings fluttered fitfully. 

“Oh gobshite,” the giant pegasus grumbled. 

The group came forward, near the raised dais where the throne was, stopped, placed the bundle on the ground, and then unwrapped it. 

At one point, it had been a foal. The front half was almost intact, but the soft flesh of the belly had been opened, the insides had been torn out, and the soft flesh around the haunches had been devoured. The hind legs were missing completely. All of the colour was gone from the foal. It was grey, as though all colour and life had been sucked from it. 

Sentinel heaved, but to his credit, he did not throw up. 

Bucky looked down upon the bloodied mess, his emotions seething, knowing that could be one of his foals. A long wisp of smoke trailed from his horn. 

“Something must be done about the wolves.” 

The earth pony speaking looked frightened and angry, and looked up at Keg Smasher hopefully. He gestured at the remains. 

“I know you are doing all you can, but more needs to be done. We thank you for doing what you have, but this is the fifth foal in as many nights. A pegasus found his remains for us after he had been dragged away. Alive.” 

“I am doing all I can do,” Keg Smasher admitted. “Trouble is everywhere. I have every patrol out and guards are posted everywhere. There just isn’t enough to go around.” 

Bucky winced, realising that Keg Smasher had offered an army to Celestia had she needed it. An army that his own ponies desperately needed. An army offered as a gesture of goodwill and good faith. 

“Are there any unicorns out assisting?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Keg Smasher replied. “We lost a fair number. Afterwards, the decision was made to keep what few unicorns we have safe within the castle walls. They are too precious and too needed to allow them to potentially be killed.” 

“I understand,” Bucky said, his gaze falling once again upon the foal’s remains. 

“What do we do?” the earth pony demanded. 

“I don’t know!” Keg Smasher bellowed. 

“I will go out tonight,” Bucky offered. “I will need a contingent of brave ponies who are not skittish or spell-shy about combat magic. I don’t mean the common zap spell either. I don’t know if it will do much good, but it is a start. Maybe we will be able to kill a few.” 

The earth pony looked at Keg Smasher and then at Bucky, warm gratitude visible on his face. “Thank you, good sirs, we thank you,” the earth pony said, bowing. 

“Yon scary pegasus mare of yours is going to kick the shite out of you,” Keg Smasher grumbled to Bucky. “In my entire life, I have never met a mare I was afraid of. I don’t know how you live with her. She’s gonna geld you for this.” 

“Probably,” Bucky agreed, as the ponies gently rolled the remains back up in the cloth and exited the chambers. 

“Ugly business, I’m getting tired of seeing all these dead. Next!” Keg Smasher shouted. 

A single pegasus came forward. He was missing an eye. 

“We need more workers,” the pegasus requested. 

“Ugh, here we go,” Keg Smasher grumbled, rolling his eyes. 

“The construction of the guard tower is going badly. We’ve had accidents. Some of the workers have been injured and killed. The tower itself is in danger of collapse, before it is even finished,” the pegasus reported. 

“Oh shite,” Keg Smasher swore. “I’ll see what I can do. Ponies are scared to leave home right now and go and work because the wolves.” 

“The tower should help with the wolves. You need to order ponies to go to work. Even if they don’t want to,” the pegasus stated. “Harder measures may be required.” 

“I don’t want to do that,” Keg Smasher said. “I’ll try offering higher wages and I’ll see what that’ll do.” 

“Thank you sir,” the pegasus said, bowing as he spoke. He turned tail and left. 

“Oh shite and buggery, this whole damn Isle is a shitepile, and I have to fix it somehow. I made promises to these ponies,” Keg Smasher moaned. 

Another group of ponies entered, led by a stout earth pony stallion. He slowly approached Keg Smasher and bowed his head low in respect. 

“We have communications from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire. She desires to take advantage of the current turmoil and get in the ground floor of a new trading venture,” the earth pony announced. 

Bucky’s ears perked. This was interesting. 

“Let’s hear it,” Keg Smasher said. 

“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire, as a currently neutral party, wishes to secure our means to produce fine liquors and begin trade with the Crystal Empire, before Princess Celestia of the House of Two Lights secures our entire production. She is concerned that Princess Celestia will take everything we have to offer once it becomes available,” the earth pony explained. 

Keg Smasher guffawed for several minutes, until tears finally began to stream from his eyes. He wiped his face with his wing and scratched his barrel with a forehoof. 

“She is offering one million gold bits as an incentive to merely think about her offer, no strings attached. More bits forthcoming once we begin production,” the earth pony said in a flat voice. 

Keg Smasher stopped laughing. “Feck my arsehole, what?” he asked in disbelief. 

“One million gold bits sir. As a good faith gesture, so that we might consider her favourably and deal with her in the future. No strings attached,’ the earth pony stated. “The bits will be arriving with a contingent of armed guards, via chariot airlift.” 

“Oh shite, I feel lightheaded,” Keg Smasher muttered. 

“Princess Cadance really wants a chance at the booze before her aunt gets it all and doesn’t share,” Bucky said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Princess Celestia is going to have fits if she doesn’t get the ground floor deal.” 

“Send communications to the Empress of the Crystal Empire immediately. We accept,” Keg Smasher instructed. “Use the bits wisely of course, but begin constructions of more distilleries right away. Send communications to Princess Celestia that once this war is concluded, we can match whatever we send to Princess Cadance barrel for barrel.” 

“Are you sure we can do that sir?” the earth pony asked. 

“We need to make it happen, we have to survive. The only thing we have of value is our ability to make the best liquors in the world. Our good name and fine liquor is all we have to offer, and this shiteheap of an Isle needs to be modernised. If we don’t make this happen, we’re buggered,” Keg Smasher replied. “So make it happen!” 

"Yes sir, I will work to that end sir,” the earth pony said. 

“Oh, and Sodbuster, do something for me,” Keg Smasher requested. 

“What is that sir?” Sodbuster answered. 

“Give yourself a fancy title of some kind. Prime Minister of Liquor Exports or some such shite,” Keg Smasher instructed. 

“Yes your Lordship, I shall come up with something clever sir,” Sodbuster replied. 

The earth pony and his group retreated. 

“You know Keg Smasher, a thought occurs to me,” Bucky said, thinking out loud. 

“What’s that?”Keg Smasher asked. 

“You no longer have to be Laird. I do believe a fancier title is in order. Something more befitting your new status. These Isles are yours now. Free and clear,” Bucky said. 

Keg Smasher did not reply. He leaned on the broken remains of the stone throne, his face pinched with extreme worry and stress. “I don’t want these Isles to be mine,” Keg Smasher confessed now that the throne room was empty.

“What?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t want them. I want to fix them, but once this war is over, I intend to petition Princess Celestia to become a province of Equestria. I intend to keep ruling, to see my dream played out, but I want these ponies to have a better life than I could ever hope to give them. Princess Celestia will heal this place. She will make it a good place to live. I merely want the privilege of being her servant,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“I see,” Bucky said. “So then, we need this war to end to make all of this misery stop and to allow for reconstruction to take place.” 

“Don’t even try it, I am not backing away from my position about Thistle. I have you where I want you. As my armiger, if I can’t end this war, then I use you to clean up these Isles. You will spend the rest of your life here, serving these ponies, and trying to give them a fraction of the life they could have if Princess Celestia set about trying to fix this place,” Keg Smasher said shrewdly. 

“Fair enough,” Bucky answered. “I will work to help you while I am here.” 

“So, any idea for a title friend?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“Duke is appropriate and well suited,” Bucky replied. “If you intend to serve under Celestia’s rule. A Duke would exist just below her authority.” 

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Keg Smasher said. 

“I would back you in the court of peerage,” Bucky stated. 

“You could do that?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“I was born with that right. Never saw fit to use it, never studied to use it, never saw much need for politics or getting involved in the political wrangling like my family did. I studied magic. I know what my rights are, or at least have a very general sense of what they are. I have these rights and privileges and mostly, I don’t give a damn about them,” Bucky answered. “I would help you though. You seem fair enough.” 

“You wouldn’t say that if you really knew me,” Keg Smasher said sadly. “Someday, I’ll tell you a story that will make you hate me,” he promised. 

“These are trying circumstances. I doubt I would hate you for anything you have done.” Bucky said. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” 

“We shall see. Squire Sentinel, you lucked out and found yourself a good noble to serve. Never take it for granted,” Keg Smasher said. 

“Yes sir,” Sentinel replied, holding his head a little higher. 

“Are you learning anything here Sentinel?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes sir, I am sir. I have learned that these ponies need hope. And you and Keg Smasher together are in a position to give them what they need,” Sentinel replied. 

“Smart lad,” Keg Smasher quipped. “Send in the next supplicant!” 
	
	
> Chapter 62 (warning: unpleasant and unsettling) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When the afternoon of politics was finally over, Bucky did not find his herd where he left them. He trotted back to the room where they were staying, hopeful to catch a nap so he would be fit to serve this evening. Sentinel was beside him, his head held high as he went down the halls. 

“Sentinel, I want you to look after my foals while I am way this night,” Bucky said. 

“Shouldn’t I be with you, sir?” the colt replied. 

“No. I need to have somepony I can trust looking after my foals if I am going to leave tonight. And I know you will keep to your word,” Bucky answered. 

“Yes sir, of course sir. I will keep them safe and comfort them to the best of my ability. What do I do about the grey mare sir?” Sentinel asked. 

“Derpy? Humour her. Keep a brave face on and allow yourself to fall prey to her maternal whims. I am sure it isn’t so bad,” Bucky replied. 

“It is very nice actually sir,” Sentinel said with a yawn. “But she needs to understand that I am your squire and not your foal,” he added. 

The unicorn smiled broadly but said nothing. 

“This is what I wanted. A life with meaning and purpose. I had hoped to become a member of Luna’s guard, but this is better. Serving a knight and being a squire. That is a lot better than just being a guard and standing around doing nothing. For my kind, this is a high honour. Well, what little bit I know about my kind. Honour is all we have really, my kind, or at least that is what I know from speaking with others like me that live here on these Isles. I am content to spend the rest of my life serving you and watching over everything you hold valuable,” Sentinel said, his voice wavering with barely contained emotion. 

Bucky’s smile died and he stopped mid-stride. 

“Do you mean that?” Bucky asked, looking down at the lunar pegasus colt. 

“Yes sir, I wouldn’t say it unless I meant it. I am not thick headed and stupid. I am already aware that the grey mare that heads your herd wishes to keep me as her foal. And while that would make me very happy, I am not content to simply be her foal. Like all of my kind, I desire meaningful service. I am defined by my function and my ability to serve,” Sentinel replied. 

“I understand, Squire Sentinel,” Bucky replied, looking the colt in the eye. “I accept your service. In a meaningful way. One that does not simply humour you. I took you as my squire with the intention that I would claim you as my own once we left these Isles. I did not understand the importance of this to you. I ask that you forgive me. Now, I shall accept you as my squire and I shall keep you as my squire, and give you all of the respect due for your service.” 

“Sir, thank you, sir,” Sentinel answered solemnly. “It is all I have ever wanted, sir. We live to serve.” 

Bucky once again took off at a trot, Sentinel at his side. 



 


He pushed open the door and peered inside. There was no sign of Thistle. Several ponies peered at him curiously as he stood in the door. It was silent. Uncomfortably silent. Bucky was getting sick of uncomfortable silence. 

“Damn these uncomfortable silences,” said Bucky while stomping his hoof. 

Berry Punch began to giggle. 

“Where is Thistle?” Bucky asked. 

“We reached an understanding. And she left,” Derpy replied. 

“Well?” Bucky asked. 

“Well what?” Derpy answered. 

“What is the understanding?” Bucky queried. 

“None of your beeswax,” Derpy said dismissively. 

Bucky heaved a sigh. 

“She didn’t tell me either, and I am a mare. You’d think I’d be privy to mares only business,” Berry interjected, looking Berry annoyed. 

“Look, I need a nap. I am going on patrol tonight to do something about the wolves. I don’t want to be lectured. I don’t want protests. Not one word. Not after what I saw today. One word, and I do mean one word of protest, and I will drag the lot of you to a funeral so you can see why I am doing this. Do I make myself clear?” Bucky stated, looking around the room. 

There were several nods, except from Derpy. 

“Come over here and lay with me, so I can hold you,” Derpy invited. “I need you.” 

Bucky, saying nothing, walked over to the bed and flopped out beside the grey pegasus mare, who promptly began to snuggle him, rubbing her face up and down the side of his neck. A moment later, Berry was on the bed with both of them, holding them both close. 

Soon, Bucky was completely buried under a pile. He felt warm and smothered. He realised that he would have to leave all of these ponies that he loved later, and he hoped that he would be able return to them by morning. It was a thought that frightened him as he slipped off into slumber, Pina’s nose pressed tightly against his own. 



 

Buckminster Bitters prepared himself for his grim task. He had eaten as much food as he could during dinner, trying to make sure he had the raw energy reserves he would need for long night full of the potential for spell casting. 

He had kissed his family goodbye, each and every one of them, and had left final orders for Squire Sentinel that Dinky and Piña were to remain within wing-reach at all times during his absence. 

He now sat in the gatehouse, waiting on the others who would be in the patrol this evening. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. The memory of the partially devoured foal was still fresh in his mind, and Bucky wondered what had caused the body to turn grey. 

In the distance, a wolf howled. 

Bucky had never fought shadow creatures. He knew only a little bit about them. He was well versed in magical theory, and creative applications of magical force, but actual combat magic, while he knew it in theory, was not something he was particularly skilled at. He hoped that what he did know would be of use. 

More importantly, he hoped that he did not die. 

He worried faintly about his problem with his horn, the smoking and arcing was a bad sign, he was channeling far too much power when he had to bring his full strength to bear. He didn’t know what was wrong, but it worried him to no end. Having a split or cracked horn here on the Isles would be fatal, and he knew it. 

He took another deep breath and heard the sound of a large group of ponies approaching. He looked up and saw Keg Smasher and ten other ponies, all pegasi. 

“Och, damnit, shown up by my own armiger, who just had to be here early. You’re a right bastard you filthy git,” Keg Smasher grumbled. 

Bucky raised an eyebrow and stared at Keg Smasher. 

“I have some of my best ponies here with me. All of them hard. All tried and true veterans, and not at all spell shy. Every one of them has a least a dozen kills owed to their name. Wolves, wyverns, those hideous things that crawl out of bogs and devour flesh, these ponies have faced it all, you can trust them Buckminster,” Keg Smasher promised. 

“Just keep in mind that I can’t fly,” said Bucky, looking around at the battle hardened pegasi. “I know a wing spell, but I don’t have much practice with it.” 

“We need to get you practiced then your Lordship,” one of the pegasi replied. 

Bucky winced. 

“Alright lads, we move. Stay together, we’ll make a long patrol around the loch, around the distant farms and fisherpony cabins where most of the trouble seems to be taking place. We need to help those that feel the most threatened and neglected,” Keg Smasher instructed. “Keep a tight formation around Buckminster. We keep him alive, and I think he’ll keep us alive.” 

“WE SERVE!” the patrol pegasi shouted in unison. 



 

All around them was howling. 

The patrol has moved together in formation around the loch and had encountered nothing. Farmers and fishers peeked out their doors at the passing patrol, looking relieved. Some saluted. It was just as important to be visible as it was to keep the wolves away. Ponies had to see that something was being done. 

The pegasi moved with a pace that Bucky was unaccustomed to and he struggled to keep up. Keg Smasher seemed tireless, the giant pegasus moving ever forward and bellowing in his loud baritone voice, announcing their presence. Keg Smasher had no visible signs of fear. He walked with his head high, his wings folded confidently to his sides, and his ears straight up and erect. 

The night was full of howling. All around them it could be heard, a terrible cry that carried with it magical fear that worked best upon the weak willed and simple minded. Bucky could feel the magical compulsion from each howl.

The wolves were feeding even now, gaining strength as they fed upon the fear all around them. Bucky thought of Piña, the feeling of her wet backside, and a low boiling rage filled his barrel. The idea of something feeding off of or feeding on one of his foals made him murderous. 

“We’ll be back to the castle by midnight,” Keg Smasher announced. “And when we do, we will begin again on this route for another patrol. Double duty this night.” 



 

All around them, the night was alive with sounds. Growls could be heard. Howls. Low cries. The patrol had halted and stood in formation, looking for black shadows against the dark of night, eyes straining and peering. 

Bucky had his horn ignited, but the light seemed dim somehow. It illuminated only a scant circle all around him and little else. He could feel the fear within him, panic, terrible panic, was back again. He struggled to deal with the surge of emotions. 

Now was not a good time for a panic attack. 

Keg Smasher growled, it was a terrible sound that would make Cerberus, the Guardian of the Gates of Tartarus, tuck his tails between his legs and cower. 

Bucky struggled to make more light. Shadows needed darkness to be strong. 

There was a gurgling cry as one of the pegasi suddenly had his throat torn open by a swift moving shadow, a dark nightmarish blur that seemed more shadow than substance. Keg Smasher gave a cry and the patrol braced for combat. 

The wolves came in large numbers. 

They were only vulnerable for a brief moment as they became solid enough to do physical harm and then slipped back into shadow as they retreated. 

Much to Bucky’s horror, his first volley of spellfire shot right through the shadowy shapes and did nothing. The wolves, sensing a much greater threat, moved to eliminate it, winking in and out of the darkness, slipping past the protective circle of pegasi all around Bucky. 

When savage teeth clamped down upon Bucky’s haunches just below his cutie mark, he could feel the life being drained from him, and his light began to falter. Much to his horror, Bucky now understood why the foal had turned grey. 

A pegasus stomped Bucky’s attacker, causing a large chunk of flesh to be torn free as the wolf was ripped violently away. Bucky staggered and tried to summon more light, a cry of pain escaping his lips. 

“Damn you all!” Keg Smasher growled, locked in combat with several wolves, hammering them while they gnawed upon his flesh. 

Another set of teeth locked onto Bucky’s other hind leg, and then a set of jaws clamped down on one of his forelegs. He could feel himself being pulled down. He angled his head and shot a fiery blast downward. The wolf winked out and was gone, only to reappear a moment later and deliver another savage bite. 

Another set of jaws locked onto the tender flesh just past his ribs on his left side. 

Bucky felt himself being pulled down. He kicked and struggled, refusing to go down, and then the side of his face exploded with pain as a wolf clamped down upon his skull. 

The fangs tore through his flesh and into his right eye, blinding him. Bucky felt the flesh being torn away from his skull as the wolf worried him, shaking him back and forth, trying to break Bucky’s neck. 

Very much against his will, Bucky felt himself being pulled down. More jaws clamped down into his flesh. Each of his legs were being pulled in a different direction. All around him was the sound of terrible violence. 

The wolves were many and had been prepared. 

Bucky realised in some part of his fading mind that something was chewing on him, not even waiting for him to die. He felt something on his hind leg being torn free. Something was eating him. Bucky realised that a part of his body was now inside of another creature, lost forever. It was a terrible realisation that he had no means to deal with, no method to cope with. 

Something deep inside of him broke. 

There are light spells, and then there are the light spells cast by surging type four unicorns with faulty wiring. A massive burst of ultraviolet radiation exploded from Bucky’s horn, turning the night as bright as day, instantly giving every pony around him a terrible sunburn under their thick shaggy pelts, including Bucky’s own skin, and causing many of the wolves to burst into flames, light being their only real weakness. 

Bucky stood on wobbling legs, his own blood pooling beneath him, his horn now a small miniature sun. All around him, wolves burned. Some ran. Others writhed. Some tried to escape. 

They were not allowed to escape. 

Bucky snatched them in his levitation, pulling them back. Some, he grabbed by each end and pulled until they were physically torn in half. Others, he simply crushed with unimaginable amounts of force. 

The pegasi around him, those still living, went to work killing those that Bucky had not dealt with. 

Yelps and whimpers filled the night, the sounds of lupine pain. 

Dozens of dead wolves lay all around them, and of the ten ponies that had gone on patrol, three remained, looking battered and battle weary. 

Finally, Bucky collapsed, his light fading. 

“We need to get back!” Keg Smasher said. “Before more come!” 

Spreading his bloody and tattered wings, he took to the air, hovered, snatched up Bucky’s fallen body, and took off for home. 



 

“Get some irons in the fire!” Keg Smasher shouted as he dropped Bucky’s body onto a long wooden table in the dining room. “Damnit, somepony do something! Get bandages!” 

Bucky lay on the table, unable to see anything from the right side. He was only vaguely aware that Keg Smasher was standing on the table above him. He could feel his own life ebbing out as his blood poured over the table and puddled onto the floor. 

“Get those irons HOT!” Keg Smasher barked. “And find something clean to scoop the remains of his eye out with!” 

Bucky groaned. More than anything, he wanted to see his family one last time. 

“Lad, this is gonna hurt something awful,” Keg Smasher whispered into Bucky’s twitching ear. “I won’t lie, this is going to be worse than the wolves. This is gonna be the worst moments in your entire life, but if we can stop the blood gushing out you will probably live. Think of your foals lad. Think of your mares.” 

Bucky nodded. He wanted to live. 

“Get rope!” Keg Smasher shouted. 

Bucky drifted in and out of reality, hearing shouts and cries all around him. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, or why rope was needed, he wasn’t sure of anything really. He mostly felt sleepy. 

He felt something rough brush up against him and a tight painful tugging. It hurt. Bucky just wanted the pain to stop. 

“Feck us all if he decides to kill us for what we are about to do. I hope he’s out of magic,” Keg Smasher warned. 

Bucky came to the groggy conclusion that he was being tied down to the table. He couldn’t figure out why. Nothing made sense right now. He tried to vomit, and found that he couldn’t. His ripped open side spasmed painfully as his belly contracted.

“Whashappening?” Bucky mumbled. 

“Shush lad, this will be all over soon enough. Bite down on this,” Keg Smasher said, jamming the frayed end of a rope into Bucky’s mouth. 

Bucky gagged and tried to spit the rope out. He couldn’t. He felt his whole body tense when he saw Keg Smasher holding a white hot length of iron with his wing which was getting closer to his face. Bucky tried to shake his head no, tried to scream, tried to squirm away, a surprising amount of vitality suddenly coming back into his body. 

And then, Keg Smasher vanished into Bucky’s blind spot. 

A second later there was exquisite agony in the side of Bucky’s face as the white hot iron was pressed into the ragged gash, cauterising the wound and searing his flesh. Bucky felt himself gag once again, which caused a terrible pain in his side. A moment later the iron was pressed into his neck, sending another jolting pain throughout his whole body. He kicked and squirmed against the ropes to no avail. He tried to summon his magic and failed. 

The smell of burning flesh and hair filled the room. Screams filled the dining hall. Not just from Bucky, but from others with extensive injuries as well. 

Bucky kicked and struggled against his bonds as he felt something pressing into his eye socket and begin to extract the remains of his eye. A gagging cry exited from around the rope. He could feel the hot irons being pressed into his legs again and again. 

The hot iron being pressed into his side, just behind his ribs, was the worst of them all. The pain was too much and finally, Bucky slipped into a peaceful void, his torment over. Each bite was carefully cauterised, to end the bleeding and to prevent infection. 

Keg Smasher’s torment was only beginning. He was still bloodied from hoof to ear, his own wounds needing to be attended to, many of them needing to be burned shut as well, and he had the grim task ahead of letting Bucky’s family know what had taken place. 

Keg Smasher felt as though he would rather face the wolves once again, genuinely afraid of the pegasus mare’s wrath. While the wolves had not killed him, there was a chance that the stormy little pegasus might. 

“Feck me!” he cried in frustration, hating how everything had gone wrong. 
	
> Chapter 63
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke and immediately wished that he hadn’t. Without meaning to, he cried out and woke the others around him. He was wrapped in a bandages and a blanket, and there was warm bodies all around him. The room didn’t feel nearly as cold as it had the first morning. The blankets and the thick mattress made a difference. 

“Say something Buckminster,” Berry said in a groggy whisper. 

“Shite,” Bucky mumbled. 

“You gave us all quite a scare,” Berry whispered.

“I need to go,” Bucky said. 

“I’ll help you,” Berry said. 

Bucky felt the blanket being pulled away. His skin felt sunburned, and every inch of his body was feeling some kind of pain. He also couldn’t see out of his right side. A hazy memory slowly crawled into his brain settled in. 

“My eye,” Bucky whined. 

“You and Derpy share something in common now," Berry said. 

“Can you get up?” Derpy asked. 

“I don’t know, just don’t touch me, please, everything…” the effort of speaking wore Bucky out and his words faltered. 

“Sparkler, we can do this,” Rising Star said, sliding out from under a blanket he was sharing with Sentinel. 

Sparkler rolled out of the bed and landed on her hooves, her teeth almost instantly chattering from the sudden cold. 

For Bucky, the cold felt kind of good against his fevered skin. 

Bucky felt himself lifted up gently from the bed and set down carefully on his legs. Even in his addled state, he was impressed. Sparkler and Rising Star worked together perfectly. And didn’t do anything bad like pulling him in half. Their magic held him steady while he tested his ability to stand. 

He took a shaky step and then another, everything aching and throbbing. On the third step he cried out and nearly fell, the only thing keeping him aloft was Rising Star and Sparkler, who stood on either side of him, horns glowing. 

“Want us to carry you?” Rising Star asked. 

“No,” Bucky muttered. 

Berry gave him a once over. His bandages were surprisingly blood free. There was only a bit of spotting here and there. She didn’t want to see what was under the bandages though. Keg Smasher explained what had been done. It made Berry feel sick. 

“You did a brave thing. That is why I married you.” 

Derpy’s voice was low but steady. It was filled with sadness, but also pride. The mare looked miserable, her ears drooping, one eye closed so she could get a good look at her mate. “I am not upset with you,” Derpy mentioned. “Don’t get me wrong. I am upset. Just not with you.” 

Bucky made his way behind the privacy barrier and stood over the bucket, Rising Star and Sparkler on the other side. There was a distinctive sound of urination and a long low moan. 

Nopony said anything. 

Bucky quietly shuffled back towards the bed, Rising Star and Sparkler keeping him steadied and some of the weight off of his hooves. 

As Bucky was lifted and eased into the bed, there was a knock at the door. Berry went to answer, wondering who it could be. She trotted to the door and pulled it open, and Thistle came pushing past her. 

Thistle froze. 

“What happened?” she demanded. 

“Bucky went wolf hunting last night with Keg Smasher,” Berry explained. “Why are you here?” 

“That is between Derpy and I,” Thistle said trotting to a sofa and flopping down. “This is a comfortable place to rest me arse.” 

“Don’t ask. Mare business,” Derpy said.

“Are you going to be okay? Is he going to be alright?” Thistle asked. 

“Keg Smasher said he should be fine. His eye is gone,” Berry answered. 

Thistle hissed in sympathetic pain. 

“I am in pain, but to be honest, I think I felt worse when my horn was cracked,” Bucky admitted. “I will survive this. I will endure and be made stronger. The loss of my eye bothers me though.” 

“Lots of ponies around here missing eyes,” Thistle said. “Just look around.” She rolled over on her back, getting comfortable on the sofa, and began to rub her belly. 

Piña cautiously crept out from under Derpy’s wing and approached Bucky. She did not touch him, but lay down close beside him, shivering in the cold. A moment later Dinky abandoned her warm place and joined Piña and the two huddled together, both of them looking at their father with wide sad eyes. 

Sentinel moved forward on the bed and quietly pulled Dinky and Piña to him. He wrapped a leathery wing around each one and hugged them close. “I did as you asked. I watched over them. When Piña cried last night, I was there to comfort her,” Sentinel reported. 

“Thank you,” Bucky said, falling over and resting his head on Derpy’s back. 

“I didn’t cry much,” Piña protested. 

“No, you didn’t,” Sentinel confirmed. 

“I am going to need help after breakfast. I want to take Dinky outside. There is going to be a magic lesson today,” Bucky said. 

“No,” Derpy said. 

“Don’t tell me no,” Bucky grumbled. “I can lay in the grass on a blanket and be comfortable, and still teach Dinky. But I am going to need another strong unicorn’s help, and Dinky is the only one.” 

Derpy grumbled wordlessly. 

“Nothing that will put Dinky in danger,” Bucky promised. 

“Fine,” Derpy grumbled. “But I am coming with you. We do this together or it doesn’t get done at all.” 

“Fair enough,” Bucky groaned. “I wonder what is for breakfast.” 



 

The sun was warm upon the ponies laying on the blanket in the grass. Bucky was made comfortable, a few pillows had been brought along, and he lay looking at Dinky with his remaining eye. Rising Star and Sparkler sat together, looking attentive, hoping to learn something. Derpy sat with Piña, and Thistle sat close to Derpy. Berry had wedged herself by Derpy’s side. Sentinel stood nearby flapping his wings for strength. 

“I made a terrible mistake last night Dinky. Do you want to know what I did wrong?” Bucky asked. 

Dinky nodded slowly. 

“I allowed fear and doubt to get the better of me. I lost control. I let emotion hamper my ability to keep myself and others safe. I failed as a unicorn,” confessed Bucky, his voice filled with pain and anguish, both physical and mental. 

Dinky blinked a few times and and let her father’s words sink in. 

“I failed to live up to my own teachings,” Bucky admitted. “I did not keep myself grounded and under full control. I allowed fear to get the better of me. Now do you understand the importance of keeping your resolve?” groaned Bucky, his words having a dire effect upon their intended listener.  

“We can’t always be perfect,” Dinky replied in a small voice. 

“No, Dinks, we cannot. But when we slip up, sometimes there are consequences. I was weak and bad things happened. Now I get to suffer and deal with the cost of my failure,” Bucky explained in an agony filled voice. 

“I understand,” Dinky said. “Even if I don’t mean to do it, if I make a mistake as a unicorn, and fail at my task, I can be hurt or others can be hurt.” 

“Yes Dinky. I used to be a lot less emotional. I was cold inside before I met your mother. Now, things have changed. But I want to feel things now. I need to find a balance between the two,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes daddy, I understand,” Dinky said, nodding her head. 

“I am going to test your emotions Dinky,” Bucky announced. 

“How?” Dinky asked. 

“I want you to summon some bees for me Dinky,’ Bucky replied. 

“NO!” Dinky replied, her eyes immediately flooding with tears. 

“Dinky, my foal, please, be calm. See, this is what I mean. I will make sure that everything is fine. I am almost certain that they will not attack anyone. You are not angry at anyone. Just restore yourself to calmness, take some deep breaths, and summon me up a few bees,” Bucky instructed. 

“No, I don’t want to, the bees are bad,” Dinky whined. 

“No Dinky, the bees are not bad. Not if you can control them,” Bucky said in a dry raspy voice. 

Berry grimaced at the sound of Bucky’s voice. “I’ll be back,” she announced, getting up and trotting off towards the castle. For a moment, Bucky turned his head so he could see her out of his left eye and watch her go. 

“Squire Sentinel, go with her,” Bucky said. 

Sentinel took off, flapping after Berry without protest. 

“Now Dinky, summon me a few bees,” Bucky instructed. 

“You can do it Dinky,” Sparkler encouraged. 

“To bee or not to bee, that is the question…” Dinky announced. 

Thistle lifted her head and watched the foal with great interest, her bright eyes focused on Dinky, her ears perked forward. Derpy turned and watched Thistle’s reaction, keenly aware of Thistle’s interest in her foal. 

Dinky closed her eyes and her horn ignited. She took a few deep breaths, her barrel rising and falling, and the air filled with the distinctive smell of a type three charging up their magic, the air reeking with ozone. 

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Dinky warned, her voice wavering. 

Derpy tensed, wondering if Bucky could react in time. His body was currently in bad shape, but he still had powerful magic. 

A single bee popped into existence and then lazily buzzed off to a nearby patch of clover, zigzagging through the air. 

“I don’t understand,” Dinky gasped. “That doesn’t feel like last time, this felt all wrong,” she said in a confused whine. 

“Last time, you surged. This time, you had control,” said Bucky, turning his head so he could look Dinky in the eye. 

Dinky closed her eyes again, and took a few deep breaths. Another bee popped into existence. “I can’t believe I was afraid of that,” she muttered. 

“Can you do anything with the bees?” Bucky asked. 

“Like what? Tell them what to do?” Dinky asked. 

“Maybe try seeing through their eyes?” asked Bucky in return. 

“Ooooh!” Dinky gasped. “I don’t know, how do I do that?” 

“Lots of concentration,” Bucky replied. 

“That’s awesome,”  said Sparkler, “Dinky can have spies.”

“Yeah, I can spy on you and catch you and Rising Star when you two are all smoochy smoochy!” teased Dinky, goading her sister on. 

“Why you little monster!’ Sparkler said, lunging for Dinky. 

Dinky took off through the grass with her sister right behind her, and Piña broke away to join the chase. The adults watched the fillies gamboling in the grass. Dinky’s bees popped out of existence. Bucky thought about calling Dinky back, but decided to let her play for a while. 

He was content to rest his head and watch his foals. He was dizzy with pain. 

Thistle took off, trotting after the foals, giggling as she went. 

“What went on between you and Thistle?” Bucky asked. 

“An agreement,” said Derpy cryptically. 

“Ugh, you are impossible,” groaned Bucky with a sigh of pain. 

“So are you,” Derpy retorted. “How are you holding up? Don’t lie to me!” 

“I am in pain of course. Everything hurts. I feel a surprising amount of clarity though. I don’t know why. My mind, even though it is foggy with pain, it is like my thinking is really clear,” Bucky explained. 

“Being near death can do that,” Derpy said. “I had a spell when Dinky was born. My body was near useless, and pain made my mind a bit funny, but I had some very clear thoughts. I thought about motherhood and the sort of mother I wanted to be.” 

“You may be a good mother, but you are a better wife,” Bucky said, complimenting the grey mare. 

“I know,” Derpy said in a matter-of-fact tone. 

“And so modest,” added Bucky with a grumble. 

“Berry is coming back. Looks like she has a jug perched on her back. And Sentinel has a pitcher I think,” Derpy announced, peering with her one good eye. “I am going to chase my foals,” she announced, and then bolted suddenly, giving hoot and a holler. 

Bucky couldn’t help but notice that one of the ponies Derpy was chasing was Thistle. He realised he was probably making more out of it than there really was, but he still couldn’t unthink the thought once it popped into his head. Derpy was beautiful when she ran, her wheat coloured mane and tail streaming into the breeze as she bounded. He continued to stare at the group for a long while. 

“I am back and I have brought mead. Sentinel has brought water. Bucky, drink some mead to dull the pain and drink lots of water. Sentinel can get more, he doesn’t mind,” Berry said. She studied Bucky in the sunlight, looking him over.

She sat down on the blanket, unstoppered the mead jug, and poured the frothy golden liquid into a battered metal cup she had brought with her. “Drink,” she commanded, hoofing the cup over to Bucky, who took it with his magic. 

The first sip made his head swim. 

“Sentinel, go play with the others, I’ll keep an eye on Bucky,” Berry said. 

“Yes ma’am,” Sentinel replied, bounding off to chase the others after he set the water pitcher down.

Bucky emptied his mead cup in one long pull, and started to feel a little better. Once Dinky had a good run to get her excess energy out of her system, he planned to continue to the magic lesson. For now, it was pleasant to watch his family play. 
	
> Chapter 64
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy did not understand what was going on. What she did understand was that powerful magic was taking place. She could feel it thrumming in her bones and coursing over every hair on her body. She felt a mild bit of concern for her foals and Rising Star, all of whom who were held aloft in her husband’s magic. He was doing something to them, something called communing. Bucky’s horn arced and smoked as he held several unicorns aloft in the air. For a moment, Sparkler opened her eyes. They were blank and white. Bucky had explained that rather than explain he was going to allow them all direct access to his thoughts. 

Derpy had trouble understanding the magic taking place or the dangers involved, but she did trust in her husband implicitly. Whatever it was he was doing, he had felt it was necessary and that the risks were worth it. As she watched, a shower of sparks poured from Dinky’s horn and the filly’s mane stood on end. Dinky’s lips were moving and unheard words were being murmured as Dinky endured whatever it was she was experiencing.

The earth all around them vibrated with raw unbridled power. Sparkler gave a faint cry and Derpy’s heart lept into her throat. Her breathing increased rapidly. But when she saw Sparkler, she calmed. Sparkler looked overwhelmed with joyful emotion, hugging her own barrel and her hind legs kicking the empty air as her horn glowed brightly. 

“... ley lines… of course… I bet if I go where the ley lines cross…” 

The words were cryptic and held no meaning for Derpy. She scowled. She didn’t like not knowing things. It was hard to watch over and protect from things she did not know. This is one aspect of being married to Bucky that bothered her. Her husband had mysterious moments where she felt completely shut out and she knew that no amount of explaining would ever make her understand what was going on here. 

Derpy turned her gaze over to Thistle and Piña, watching and studying their interaction. Thistle seemed to genuinely enjoy foals and didn’t mind that there was an overly curious earth pony filly foal pressed against her belly. Derpy felt her muscles tense briefly as Thistle gently took Piña’s head and guided it to a different place on her stomach. Piña’s face was full of wonder, and the foal had completely forgot the magical spectacle going on right behind her. Derpy felt Berry nudge her and the two fellow-wives shared a glance with one another. It seemed Berry was also watching the interaction between Thistle and her sister. 

A stream of bees shot out of Dinky’s horn and began to dance and form strange shapes and symbols in the air, things that almost looked like letters. Dinky wiggled and kicked as though she was being tickled, and the foal began to giggle while suspended mid-air. Something was clearly happening. 

Sparkler’s horn flared, a painful flash of piercing near blinding light, and a shower of gemstones shot from her horn. Berry moved to scoop them up, the earth pony very concerned and curious. Type twos were not supposed to be able to manifest physical objects and this was puzzling. Over a dozen gems of different sorts littered the ground and Berry carefully collected them all. 

Somehow, Sentinel napped through the entire thing, snoring away with his head turned and tucked under one wing. 

“... making sunstones…” Bucky muttered cryptically. “... she could be a type three if I could just make her channel more magic…” 

Rising Star let out a surprised cry and fiery globes shot from his horn. They flew through the air, tiny burning meteors, shooting stars, and landed in the grass some distance away, exploding on impact with a dull thud and an orange gout of flame. 

“... if I could figure out how to change it… I wonder if I can fix it…” 

Derpy shot a worried glance at Berry Punch. 

“... I could fix what is wrong with me… what is holding me back…” 

There was no way for Derpy to know that Bucky had tapped into a nearby ley line directly, something only a type four could do, and that the universe was speaking to him directly, filling his mind with infinite possibilities and whispers of all things probable. 

Type threes occasionally tapped into ley lines and went stark raving mad on first contact with the higher planes of energy in the universe. It was a constant worrying problem and something all type threes were warned about in school. The average mortal mind had trouble seeing forever, understanding infinite possibilities and infinite probabilities. 

“... this is what Princess Celestia did with Twilight Sparkle… removed the blockage and allowed her mind to expand to full potential…” 

“He’s off somewhere, probably somewhere reserved for alicorns or something,” Berry Punch muttered in a Berry alarmed voice. “What is happening to our husband?”

“I don’t know, but it is starting to scare me. I want to slap him out of it, but I am scared what it might to do him and my foals,” Derpy admitted. 

“... ascension…”

There was another ejaculation of gems from Sparkler and Berry rushed to pick those up as well. The whole area thrummed with magic. It made the eyes water and made every hair on the body stand out. 

Dinky’s bees continued to form strange sigils and symbols, things almost like letters. Spiral shapes. Crosses. A sideways number eight. Dinky’s lips were moving rapidly now, she was babbling unheard words to herself. The bees suddenly vanished.

And then, it was over. The magic ceased. Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star tumbled to the ground, all of them blinking rapidly and trying to recover their senses while Bucky went limp on the blanket. 

“Bucky?” inquired Derpy in a worried whisper. 

The stallion was asleep, his breathing deep and steady. 

“What happened?” Derpy asked. 

“I don’t know, my mind is fuzzy and my horn feels itchy,” Sparkler replied. 

“My brain feels like it is full of cotton and my horn feels hot,” Rising Star muttered. 

“I feel fine, like I am being tickled all over,” Dinky reported, running over to Piña and joining her. “Hi Thistle,” Dinky said, leaning on Thistle’s belly with Piña.

“Nuts,” Derpy swore. 

“You summoned a fortune in gems,” Berry said to Sparkler. 

“Sunstones,” Sparkler said, rubbing her head. “Sunstones,” she repeated. “We need to hold on to those. Father needs them. I don’t understand how I summoned those. Father needs sunstones.” 

“Berry, are you sure that mead was a good idea?” Derpy asked. 

“Mead is ALWAYS a good idea,” Berry answered. “Besides, look at him now, he is comfortable and not in pain. Something happened.” 

“My head is full of fuzzy thoughts that I can’t quite remember, like a dream or something,” Rising Star said, collapsing into the grass and rubbing his head with both front fetlocks. He rolled in the grass, feeling the cool fronds against his pelt. 

“Bees know how to find and follow ley lines,” Dinky said. “I don’t know what it means, but I can remember daddy’s voice inside of my mind sorta. He was talking to us. We were all talking together inside of each other’s heads.” 

“Yeah,” Sparkler agreed. 

“I’m hungry. I hope lunch is soon,” Rising Star muttered. “Even if it is an awful lunch. I am too hungry to care. Food is food and a unicorn has gotta eat.” 

“I hope Bucky is alright,” said Derpy, the worry in her mind making her scowl unpleasantly as she spoke. Derpy felt annoyed because she didn’t have a foal handy to mother. Both of them were with Thistle, trying to feel when her belly moved. 





Lunch had left Bucky feeling uncomfortably full. His skin felt tight and feverish. He knew that he was rapidly approaching a deep state of intoxication as Berry Punch continued to bring him wine as well as mead to drink, and he didn’t care. His earlier magical efforts had purged most of the alcohol from his body. 

It had almost ended. Last night, everything had almost ended. If he and Keg Smasher had died, it would have been all over. Keg Smasher was needed for these Isles. Bucky understood that. Bucky was also deeply concerned that his family might have lost him. He sighed and took another drink, the strong wine dulling his pain. The idea that everything had almost ended remained lodged in his brain. 

His skin was too soft. He was going to need tougher skin. A plan was already forming, but he wasn’t sure that he had the raw skill or ability to pull it off just yet. He was going to need to find a way to protect himself from shadow creatures. He glanced at Sentinel, who lay napping, curled into a leathery cocoon made of his own wings on the corner of the bed. He was going to need some of Sentinel’s shadow essence somehow. He had the theory, just not the practice. 

And then there was his assistants. He was going to need them. He wondered about the ethical and moral entanglements involved in elevating type twos into full fledged type threes. It seemed possible, in theory. He had made the leap from a type three, and a hazy understanding that he was truly a type four began to settle into his mind. He had tapped into the ley line and survived, which was all the proof he required.

What was holding him back was his horn. That needed to change somehow, but he did not know the means to do so. It was possible. Supposedly Sombra has ascended from humble beginnings and seized power the old fashioned way, through self experimentation and genius creativity that bordered on madness. He had destroyed his natural horn and replaced it with a focusing crystal. 

It was a foolhardy thing to think about, and the thought would not go away. Even one simple error would be fatal in such an experiment. He would only get one try if he could even figure out how it could be done in the first place. Failure would mean his death, and his entire family would suffer for his mistake. 

It bothered Bucky that the thought did not discourage him from his plans. 

He heard a wet smack. He had to crane his head around to see, aiming his left eye to see what he had just heard. Berry and Derpy were kissing one another, more than just a friendly peck. Turning his head was agonising and caused the skin on his neck to pull painfully. 

That was distracting. 

Rising Star and Sparkler were gone, outside, exploring a little around the castle grounds while the sun still shone. Bucky trusted Sparkler’s safety with Rising Star. He was a good colt. 

Thistle was in the room with them, talking to Dinky and Piña, answering a million questions as the foals continued to ask them. Thistle seemed good with foals, and that pleased Bucky. Derpy had warmed to him because he was good with foals. 

It had to be the alcohol, but Bucky found Thistle attractive. He tried to push it from his mind, telling himself that she was far too young, but the thought persisted. Her wide pregnant belly confused him, sending messages to his brain about her status in his mind as an adult. Physically, he found her appealing and more than a little pretty. Mentally, he was repulsed by his own thoughts, desiring a filly Sparkler’s age was not within his acceptable morals. He cursed the wine he was drinking for weakening his resolve.  

He took a long drink from his cup and let loose a thunderous belch that startled everypony in the room, every eye turning to look at him. He belched again to give them all a good show, poured more wine, and kept drinking. 

Sentinel kicked and whimpered in his sleep, but did not wake. 

The gemstones would be useful for creating sunstones. He had no intention of using them to power beer brewing. He was going to need a means to produce powerful light. Bucky took the loss of his eye personally and he was going to reclaim his pound of flesh from the creatures that had maimed him. 

Off to his right, he heard the sounds of Derpy and Berry kissing again. Injured or not, in pain or not, there was a part of him that wanted to celebrate this new sensation of life with a good shagging. He knew he wasn’t physically up for it and tried to dismiss the thought from his mind. 

An odd struggle between elation and melancholy took place in his mind. On one hoof, he was glad to be alive. On the other hoof, he was missing  an eye and was now probably hideously scarred from his injuries and the branding. 

Everything hurt. He was covered in what felt like a sunburn over most of the top of his body, and his cauterised wounds had shrunk from the burning, so everything was pinched and pulled tight all over. He wondered how long it would be before his skin stretched back out and he would feel normal again. The cauterised places felt like hard knots where the flesh had simply melted together in lumps. 

Tapping the ley line inspired Bucky’s sense of potential. He had to see what he was capable of, fizzling horn or not. 

“Sentinel!” Bucky shouted, causing the colt to awake with a snort. 

“Mmm?” the colt mumbled sleepily, lifting his head. 

“Go find Keg Smasher. Give him a message from me. I am going to help him with that tower construction project that there are some problems with,” Bucky said with a faint drunken slur. “I am going to need help getting there though. Tell him I will be up for it tomorrow. I’ll need to be well fed.” 

“Yes sir, right away sir,” Sentinel replied, leaping from the bed and dashing out the door, his hooves clattering over the stones. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Derpy asked. 

“My body is a bit messed up, but my magic is fine, and my thinking feels so clear right now, even if my mind feels a bit fuzzy from the pain. And the booze. You can come along and keep an eye on me though,” Bucky replied. He slugged down more wine. 

“So we are having a family outing,” said Berry after she licked away some waxy drool from her lip. 

“Dinky needs a practical display of what real magic is capable of and how unicorns can better assist the world provided they hold to perfect control,” Bucky stated.

“So you are going to build a tower? That’s better than taking on wolves, I can’t really find any fault in that,” Derpy said. “You should be able to do that laying down.” 

“I can’t wait to see this,” Thistle announced. 

“I plan to give quite a show. It is time for those ponies to have hope again. The fear is making the wolves too strong. We need to limit their food source,” Bucky explained. 
	
	
> Chapter 65
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The wagon was full of straw, a few ponies, and a very large lunch had been packed. The morning sun was warm and soothing. Bucky was already drinking, which dulled his pain. He would burn away the mind numbing effects of the alcohol soon enough. Dinky and Piña were in the wagon with him, and everypony else was walking. The wagon was being pulled by Berry Punch, who didn’t mind a little hard work. As she plodded along, she was having herself a good think. 

Without a word, Derpy took to the air, soaring and circling overhead. Sentinel also took wing, flapped a few times, managed to stay airborne for several minutes, and then came in for a stumbling landing. He looked up, frustrated, and resumed his walk by the wagon, grumbling all the while. 

Thistle walked beside the wagon, occasionally giving a worried glance at Bucky, concern and worry was clear upon her face. The flower bud in her mane had bloomed, revealing a beautiful pink blossom, which smelled quite fragrant. 

The scent was distracting and intoxicating for Bucky. 

Rising Star walked with Berry Punch, looking sour, casting a backwards glance over his shoulder at Sparkler, who was walking and talking with a pegasus filly they had met yesterday when they were out exploring the grounds. Both of the fillies were giggling and glancing at one another, occasionally looking ahead. 

The pegasus was named Loch Skimmer and she was the filly of a large family of fisherponies. She was charcoal grey and her mane and tail were the colour of straw. She seemed to be about Sparkler’s age, and both fillies behaved as though they had been friends forever. 

The proposed site of the guard tower was only an hour or so walk from the castle, in a tiny hamlet whose main function was to grind grain. A windmill was located there, a collection of cottages, an inn, and two main roads crossed there. The area had been hard hit by wolves, and the population of millers had suffered tragic losses. 

As she walked, Berry questioned the purpose of the guard tower. The shadow wolves, being shadow, could phase right through walls. They could teleport through solid objects. She wasn’t sure how defensible a tower would be, other than to serve as a barracks for resting soldiers. She supposed if it was kept well lit on the inside that it would be defensible. 

The earth pony crested the faint rise and the hamlet was before them, the windmill visible, and a collection of small cottages and buildings. The tower could be seen from the rise as well, and even from here, Berry could see that it was crooked. She sighed. It was like everything else on this Princess forsaken isle. 

The plum coloured mare looked up at the grey mare circling overhead. There was something comforting about having a pegasus watching over you. Derpy was a much better flier than ponies gave her credit for, at least in open spaces. Her lack of depth perception was what made it difficult to fly in crowded spaces. 

Sentinel took another attempt at flight, getting aloft, gaining some altitude, and then gliding for a spell. As he neared the ground, Derpy swooped down, grabbed him, flew him to a much higher altitude, and then let go. The colt was able to glide for a considerable distance, Derpy staying close in case something went catastrophically wrong. 

Lunar pegasi took to flight much later than solar pegasi did, relying upon a different means of flight. Lunar pegasi, while not as fast as solar pegasi in general, were far more agile fliers in the air, able to change direction on a whim, due to adapting for flight in tight tunnels and caves, the dark places in which lunar pegasi tended to live. 

As they traveled, Bucky thought about his plan. Today would be a good first step to see how much magic could safely be channeled though Sparkler and Rising Star. He was going to have to talk to them about what may happen in the future. Rising Star was level headed and well motivated, Sparkler was strong willed and well focused. Both would make good type threes, though Bucky did have some concerns about the increased levels of neurosis they were sure to have. It would be a long talk, of that there could be no doubt, and much of his future plan rested upon their shoulders. He wouldn’t force them, but he did plan to be persuasive. 

He wondered how Celestia would react to what he was planning. 

“Fixing” Dinky to draw her up to the next tier didn’t seem possible. He had deduced that. Not with her physiology. For most, it seemed that a type three was the natural pinnacle of what the common unicorn was capable of. Rising Star and Sparkler could be “fixed” though. It was a matter of forcing the growth of a massive number of thaumaturgical neurons by carefully inducing a repeated series of controlled surges. Type ones probably didn’t have a good physiological base for the “fix” having underdeveloped glands and systems, but type twos had all the right stuff, just not enough of it. Tapping his mind into the ley line had shown him so much, and Bucky now had a powerful understanding of magical theory. 

He thought about the school Celestia asked him to head. He could do more than teach magic there… he could take unicorns with worthy gifts and develop them. If something could be done about the inherent neurosis issue, the type twos so common outside of Canterlot could be developed, greatly benefitting Equestrian society a great deal. Rising Star seemed so much more leveled out as a type two than a type two found in Canterlot. What was needed was a generation of unicorns with different perspectives and cultural outlooks. He hoped he could convince Sparkler and Rising Star to be the first. 

Typically, the only ones who changed the world where the ones crazy enough to believe that they could, and the recent attack by the wolves as well as tapping into the ley line had driven Bucky slightly mad. 

Dinky and Piña remained silent, watching Bucky, realising their father was deep in thought, and not wanting to disturb him. They watched the pastoral countryside roll by as the wagon moved down the lane. Dinky watched her mother fly overhead, occasionally swooping down to grab Sentinel and give him a lift. Piña occasionally watched Thistle, fascinated by the kelpie, mostly by the living plants that were part of her body. Piña didn’t understand how a pony could be part plant, but it fascinated her. 

It wouldn’t be long until they reached the hamlet. 



 

“Sparkler, Rising Star, Dinky, are you ready? We are going to commune again, and I am going to channel magic through you. Are you prepared?” Bucky asked. 

The trio nodded in agreement, Rising Star looking serious, Dinky looking eager, and Sparkler curious. 

“Make sure everypony stays back,” Bucky warned. 

The tower was partially built, and badly done. There was a rickety wooden scaffold around it, and the large stones had been lifted into place using block and tackle, strong earth ponies pulling on heavy ropes that were run through pulleys. 

The entire structure was a death trap, and Bucky intended to knock it all down. 

“We are NOT to be disturbed, no matter what. Make sure of that,” Bucky announced. “Come close and you WILL die,” he warned. 

There was a large crowd of ponies who had gathered to watch, all of them at what Bucky hoped was a safe distance. There was the tower, the scaffold, and the enormous pile of stone blocks, far more than what was needed to build a small squat tower. No doubt they would be used for town projects later. Bucky had other plans though. 

Bucky took a deep breath, feeling slightly intoxicated, his body numbed from his alcohol intake. His faint state of drunkenness would be gone, burned away soon enough. He worried about his horn, but that was a distraction he couldn’t afford. He shoved it from his mind. 

He took another deep breath and looked at his family. Derpy and Berry Punch sat a safe distance away, Piña and Sentinel in between them. Thistle, not family, not yet, sat beside Derpy. Sparkler’s friend sat near Berry. 

Drawing his third deep breath, he summoned the vast magic he held within, the sort of magic he had tapped into the day he had fended off most of the city of Ponyville. His horn ignited, burning bright, and smoke rose from the tip. He extended his will, reaching out and touching Dinky. In a moment, he had her mind connected to his own, and thoughts began to spill between the two of them. He could feel Dinky’s love for him and it humbled him, even in this state of focus. Dinky was his ground and kept his mind leveled. She was the only one strong enough to counterbalance. 

He tapped into Sparkler next, and the sudden intrusion of her thoughts pressing into Bucky’s mind was jarring at first, but smoothed out. Sparkler had a natural affinity for rock, and he was going to need that. For Sparkler, the rocks would answer, and the ground would do her bidding. Sparkler was a born geomancer, she just didn’t realise her full potential just yet, Bucky hoped to one day open the door for her. 

Rising Star was last, drawn in carefully. Rising Star brought calm and serenity, allowing the four connected minds to function together in something resembling harmony. Rising Star had an affinity for fire, fire that could mimic the blazing atomic furnaces of the stars. Rising Star was pyromantic, something that was held in check by being a type two. One day, Bucky hoped to free the fires within and allow Rising Star to experience his full potential. 

As the crowd watched, the communing unicorn’s eyes all went white, and the deep magic began to happen. Gravity relaxed its hold upon the four of them, and they rose up from the ground. Bucky remained locked in the center, Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star moving in orbit around him, drifting slowly through the air. 

Bucky tapped into the ley line once again, feeling it surge through him, speaking to him, whispering about all things probable. He began to channel the raw energy into the others, doling it out carefully, tapping into their inner potentials and drawing their strength into their own. He clung tightly to Dinky’s feeling of love. It balanced everything out, and kept him from the siren’s call of becoming one with the ley line. Dinky’s voice was much louder and far more appealing. Dinky was far more important than any promise of absolute power. 

Bucky reached out with his will and with an explosive roar, the tower toppled. There was a gasp from the spectators, watching all of their hard work being undone in seconds. The stones collapsed into a heap. 

Rising Star’s horn ignited and a stream of raw magic lanced forward. Sparkler’s horn blazed to life and also emitted a stream of raw magic, joining Rising Star’s in a common focal point. And finally, Dinky also contributed a stream of magic that joined the others, forming what appeared to be a small blazing sun, which Bucky contained in his own magic. 

The heat was immense, and it was only through Bucky’s magic that the group did not combust and be incinerated. Many ponies in the gathered crowd began to back even further away, no one able to look at the nexus of magical fire directly. 

Bucky lifted two stones in his magic, feeling their heft and their weight. It would take a half a dozen earth ponies to haul these on a sledge. He took up two more and they began to orbit around the magical nexus, gaining speed rapidly. 

With an explosive thud, two of the stone blocks smashed together, instantly turned to dust from the force of the collision. Then, the other two were crushed together, the dust coalescing into a glowing cloud around the magical nexus. Bucky lifted four more stones and smashed them together, and the dust cloud grew brighter and hotter. 

More stone blocks were crushed, and the dust cloud became a ball of liquid rock after a while, a tiny planet orbiting an artificial star, arcs of raw magic occasionally striking the ball of molten rock. Bucky kept adding more stones to the orbit, and eventually, he didn’t have to smash them together. He smashed them into the blob of magma he had created and they melted, slowly absorbed into the bubbling mass. 

Soon, he has a massive mass of roiling magma. He drew some of it away, holding it in a powerful telekinetic field. He shaped it into a ring, a massive stone ring that would form the foundation for the tower. 

Bucky brought his own element into play, cold. He had a natural affinity for cold that was rare among unicorns, and he had always been able to cast cold spells better than anypony else he knew. A common cloud of cold would not do here. He summoned raw elemental cold and began to cool the stone ring carefully. 

He set the stone ring down upon the earth and added more stone blocks to the magma orb. He crushed the orb with immense pressure, keeping it boiling. More stones were added, and then a few more. 

Again, he drew some of the mass out, this time forming a flat disc, several feet thick, and the same size as the stone foundation ring. He blasted it with cold, cooling the seething mass, which smoked, sizzled, and popped as it cooled. 

He laid the disk down upon the stone ring and added more stones to the writhing red and white mass of magma, increasing the levitating lump of liquid rock’s mass so he could create the raw material needed for construction. 

Sparkler was writhing and moaning in mid air, a look of indescribable pleasure upon her face. She was a unicorn in throes of magical bliss, channeling her talent, and fulfilling her purpose. To those who didn’t know, her writhing seemed sexual, but the truth was far more meaningful. Sparkler was experiencing something deeply spiritual that would profoundly impact her being and change her life. 

Rising Star was doing much the same, his mane and tail were now gone, replaced with burning fire that did not consume him. Bright pink flames blazed from his white blank eyes and sparks shot from his hooves. 

Dinky looked happy, holding herself and hugging her own barrel, raw magic coursing through her. She giggled occasionally, and make pleasurable little moans like she did when she was eating ice cream. 

More stone blocks were added to the ball of magma to continue the process of building the tower, which was growing steady. 

The next stone ring was almost ‘C’ shaped, open at one end for a door, it was cooled slightly, and then dropped upon the base. Another took shape, and then another, Bucky adding stones even as he shaped the sections, 

The sections cooled into one another, forming a solid mass of stone, the tower already taking shape, the walls were several feet thick and smooth. There was no weakness in the construction, no imperfect stone blocks that brought about instability. The base of the tower was still terrifyingly hot. 

The crowd could only gasp in awe as the unicorns did in an hour what would have taken months of work. The tower, only half formed, was perfectly straight and tall, seemed impregnable in its construction, and was an impressive looking structure already. 

And it continued to grow, more stone rings being added, solid stone rings now that the door had been added. Stone stairs had been molded and fused into the structure. Narrow windows had been added near the higher levels of the structure. A solid stone disc had been added to form a second floor, the walls were built, and then another stone floor was added, the stairs snaking up along the walls, and small access points had been left in the stone discs forming the floors. 

This was how much of Canterlot had been constructed, not so much stacked stone construction, but construction made by shaping the living rock and molding it like clay. Everypony in the crowd bore witness to the true might of unicorns. The tower would be completed before noon, even though it would take several days of cooling before it would be safe for a pony to enter. 

Not content to merely build a tower, Bucky used the extra stones to build a large square stone building adjacent to the tower, a communal hall large enough for the entire hamlet to take refuge in if need be. He shaped several fireplaces, added chimneys to both structures, and left two partially finished buildings that would only need to have doors and glass windows added to complete them, as well as any furnishings that might be added. 

Exhausted, he shaped the final remaining mass of magma into a statue resembling Keg Smasher and placed it upon the roof of the communal hall. 

Bucky could endure no more. His horn was charred black and thick black smoke rose from it. He lowered himself gently to the earth and the others in his thrall as well. He released them, letting go of their minds, and released his connection to the ley line. 

The last thing he saw before slipping into unconsciousness was Dinky looking down at him, her face furrowed with a mix of elation and concern. Before slipping away completely, Bucky was able to smile to let the foal know it was okay. 
	
> Chapter 66
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The time following the tower construction were ones of recovery for Bucky and rambunctious elation for the others. Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star could barely contain themselves, barely sit still, it was as though they had all eaten too much sugar. They ate, and kept eating, occasionally looking at what they had done. Even from some distance away, it felt like standing next to a hot oven. 

The residents of the hamlet celebrated, and with good reason. Hope had ignited their passions, much like a spark does tinder. Genuine smiles were on their faces. For once, the future seemed to contain more than hard work, drudgery, and living in constant fear. 

While Derpy was eating a cold fried oatcake, a young earth pony mare came up beside Derpy and dropped off a small pink wildflower. Derpy stared down at it for a moment, realised what it was and what it meant, and then she stared at the mare, the mare waiting in expectation. Derpy swallowed, looking around, smiled again, and not knowing what else to do, said “thank you,” for the flower. 

The mare retreated, looking disappointed. Derpy realised there were others. 

“We seem to have become a desirable family,” Berry mused, sounding Berry intrigued by the proposal. “Derpy, just accept it and be gracious about it. Consider their point of view about the whole thing. Think about what we just watched. I don’t know about you, but I have a raging filly boner right now, I want Bucky to father my foals, and I am already married to him. They see a chance at a better life and there is going to be offers,” explained Berry as she shifted her sitting position, her filly boner throbbing like a second heartbeat. 

The grey mare slumped in defeat. She couldn’t fault somepony for wanting a good family, seeing as how that was all she wanted herself. Word was going to spread about what had taken place here, and would spread quickly if the landing pegasi guards were any indication. The soldiers viewed the tower and the communal hall from a safe distance, looks of awe upon their faces as they took everything in. 



 

“What is the mainland like?” 

Sparkler turned to look at Loch Skimmer. 

“I want off of these Isles. The only thing that kept me here was the freedom to have to raise a family properly. And now a herd has come from the mainland to save us,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“A herd? To save you? I am not sure I understand. Bucky is the one doing the heavy lifting, we’re only helping him,” Sparkler said to her new friend. 

“Herds are one singular entity. The members draw strength from one another. Your father, look at his strength. Where do you think he gets it from? He is as only as strong as the friendships and love within his herd,” Lock Skimmer explained. “At least, that is how I see it. My dad says I am too smart for my own good and I think too much. Says I’ll be an unhappy mare when I get married.” 

“My father wants me educated. He wants me to go to university. He expects for me to be smart. Bucky has been very very good to me and my mother,” Sparkler said. 

“I wish my dad was like that. He just wants me to have as many foals as possible now that the sweeps are over. He told me he is going to fix me up in a nice marriage, but I don’t know with who,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“I think I know who I am going to marry,” Sparkler said in a low whisper. 

“Is he nice? I mean, he seems decent enough,” Loch Skimmer said, casting a quick glance at Rising Star. 

“He followed me here. He didn’t have to follow me. He could have stayed home, stayed safe and comfortable, but he came here. I love him,” Sparkler said. “I plan to start a herd. I know what I want to do with my life. Well, I thought I did. For a while I thought I wanted to be a geologist. And maybe I still do, but my goal has changed. When I get back to the mainland, I am going back to school, and then I think I will help my father start his new school for magic when that happens, if he will let me. And then, I plan to settle in, gather up a few trusted mares, and begin my own family.”

“That sounds like a good life. I’d love to go to school. My dad says schooling is foolishness that mares have no need of. We just need to be able to have foals and that’s it,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Want to learn how to read?” Sparkler asked. 

“Is it hard?” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“You seem smart, it shouldn’t be too hard. Rising Star and I need to teach Sentinel, you could join us,” Sparkler invited. 

“You would do that for me? I’m practically a stranger…” the pegasus filly asked. 

“You’re my friend, and I could use the teaching practice,” Sparkler replied. 

“Could you teach my sister? She’s a year younger than me. We’re the only fillies in our whole family… I want to do what is right for both us. There used to be more… but the sweeps happened,” Loch Skimmer said bitterly. 

“Just bring her,” Sparkler said. 

“Her name is Ripple and she’s smart. She comes from a different mother, but we’re close,” Loch Skimmer explained. “I intend to take her with me when I leave this place. Can I tell you a secret?” 

“Only if you feel that you can trust me,” Sparkler said. 

“I do, I don’t know why we say that whole can I tell you a secret line… I suppose it is just something we say… Ripple doesn’t like colts. She’s into fillies. And she’s going to be expected to leave home and start a family soon. And whoever marries her isn’t going to care that she isn’t into males. I don’t want to see that happen to her. Being forced I mean. I’ve heard about it happening to other mares around here. The stallions call it “breaking her in” or “taming” and it worries me,” Loch Skimmer said. “Foals are so important here that mares don’t get much in the way of personal freedom. Only one thing is expected from us, and if we don’t provide it willingly, we are made to do it. I understand the reasons, and I suppose I can endure it for myself, but I can’t bear thinking about it happening to Ripple.” 

“That’s horrible,” Sparkler said. “My mothers, I know they enjoy each other’s company and do things with one another. I don’t think I swing that way. I mean, I don’t know, I’ve never tried it, it doesn’t interest me… I couldn’t imagine being forced.” 

“Your mothers have a go at one another and are married to your father? There are ponies that go both ways?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Well, yeah. I mean, they all love one another,” Sparkler replied. 

“Never heard of such a thing. Maybe it happens around here, but I don’t know anything about it. Usually the mares just share the stallion and ignore one another,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Those three love one another madly,” Sparkler said. “It is the kind of love that fills me with hope. It is why I want to start a herd, even if I don’t think I am into mares. I want the sort of love that is bigger than just two ponies.” 

The two fillies lapsed into silence, occasionally looking at one another. 

“You have all this freedom,” Loch Skimmer said, breaking the silence. “I envy you. You are going to have this wonderful life and you are probably going to get everything you want.” 

Sparkler did not reply, but chewed thoughtfully on an oatcake. 

“Even Thistle is going to get a chance to be happy. I think your family will do the right thing in time and take her in. Thistle is a good pony, even if she is a little odd sometimes. She saved one of my mothers from drowning after she accidentally got tangled up in a net and pulled under. There was somepony learning how to fish that day and he messed up his hold on the net. She’s saved a lot of ponies from drowning,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“You could be happy,” Sparkler said. After speaking, she wiped the crumbs from her muzzle with a foreleg. 

“I have big dreams, but they won’t mean much if I am ran down and forced to marry. I am at that age and I hear about it every day,” Loch Skimmer said. “For all I know I might be getting introduced to my future husband and maybe even fellow-wives tomorrow. It is bound to happen sooner or later.” 

“You would be forced?” Sparkler asked. 

“Yes,” Loch Skimmer returned. “The fellow-wives are there to do the forcing. I’ve seen it happen. A chase happens, a herd of mares run the new mare down, catch her, then they start beating her into submission, and then the herd’s stallion takes the new mare and breaks her in if she keeps resisting. It is much easier on you if you just go along quietly and do as you are told.” 

“That’s horrible,” Sparkler hissed. “My mother chased Bucky, but there was no violence involved. All three of them chased one another, and nopony was hurt. I can’t imagine a chase ending in violence. That’s awful…” 

“There are not a lot of options here, which is why I want to leave. Before something happens. I want a family, don’t get me wrong, but I want it on my terms, with the ponies of my choosing,” Loch Skimmer stated. 

Sparkler said nothing, but her mind whirled with thoughts. There was so much she had taken for granted in her own life, as hard as it had been, it could have been harder. She wrapped a foreleg around her new friend and hugged her, wishing she had some kind of meaningful words to say. 



 

“Look at them,” Berry said in a quiet whisper. 

Derpy closed one eye and squinted at Sparkler. 

“Sparkler has a friend,” Berry said. 

“She sure does,” Derpy said. 

“I remember becoming your friend. We had humble beginnings,” Berry said in a low voice. “And now, I love you.” 

“Friendship is a funny thing. I don’t think I would have made it without you,” Derpy admitted. “I would have gave up. Might have given up Dinky and Sparkler and just tried to start over.” 

“But we stuck together. Now we’re a family. We have Bucky. I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend,” Berry stated. 

“Stop, you’re gonna make me misty,” Derpy warned. 

“If you give me a chance, I could make you wet instead,” Berry teased. 

Derpy tittered. 

“No, really, I need to blow off some stress,” Berry whispered. “Bucky isn’t well enough to handle that. You and I need to slip off someplace and work each other over.” 

“I’m filthy. I haven’t bathed in a while. Yuck, no,” Derpy protested. 

“A bath might be nice. I suppose we’ll have to go to the lake,” Berry admitted. “And then we can blow off steam.” 

“Maybe,” Derpy said. 



 

Bucky reveled in his new sense of power. His plans were indeed possible. He could see that now. The tower was only the beginning. There were other things to do. Important things. He was going to have to figure out the next step. Talking with Sparkler and Rising Star would be a required step, and soon, and then the difficulty of figuring out the complex magics he would need to see his plan to fruition. 

He needed to clear his head. It was time to brew some beer perhaps. Indulge in what he was meant to do, clear the cobwebs out of his mind, and take plenty of time to gain much needed perspective before taking the next step. 

The tower was only the first step. Here, with protective sunstones, spells could be tested. Sparkler and Rising Star could be safe while raining down destructive magics upon the wolves. Luring them in might be difficult, but that could be figured out in time. Getting Derpy to agree to allow Sparkler to help was going to be far more difficult than fighting the wolves. 

He would need Dinky to help him find where two strong ley lines crossed. That might require a bit of exploring. Dinky’s bees were going to be immensely useful and powerful. Dinky’s talent might just be one of the most powerful talents Bucky had ever encountered. It was a talent limited only by imagination, and Bucky was determined to make sure that Dinky was able to exploit her talent completely. 

He also planned to use Dinky’s bees to track the wolves during the daylight hours, to find out where they hid. He was going to have to teach Dinky to tap into the vision of her bees. Once found, Bucky hoped to sting the wolves and swarm them, weakening their physical bodies. 

Bucky was expanding into his new type four physiology, and he felt a mischievous streak coming on. 
	
> Chapter 67
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The past few days had been a blur. Bucky kept drinking to dull the pain, and then relied upon communing with his fellow unicorns to remove the adverse effects of the alcohol. Communing was rapidly becoming his favourite way of teaching. He could share his thoughts directly, his feelings, show his experiences. Dinky was already learning a level of mastery far beyond what any filly her age should be capable of. Sparker and Rising Star were already exploring the limits of what type twos were capable of, and were hungry for more. 

Which is what Bucky wanted. He had the means to offer more, and would do so in time, when he felt that they were the most open and receptive to what he had planned. 

His empty eye socket felt dry and itchy behind his bandages. 

The maimed stallion watched his family playing in the cold water of the loch with his remaining eye. They were bathing, or trying to, braving the cold water just to feel clean again. Thistle was in mer-pony form, swimming around them, and keeping the foals to the shallows. The water became deep quite suddenly past a certain point. 

More than anything. Bucky wanted revenge. It was a petty feeling, something that should have been beneath him, but his eye was gone forever, and the memory of having something chewing on him was a nightmare that haunted his waking mind. The knowledge that something had torn a bite free from him and swallowed a part of him incensed the unicorn and stoked the fires of his hatred.  The emotion was raw and unpleasant, and it made him shudder as he took a drink of wine. 

Another memory tugged at Bucky’s mind. The corpses of the wolves. Horrible things that had been dragged back to the castle, hung on hooks in the central courtyard, and left on display. Some of them had been torn in half, ripped to pieces. Others were burnt to a crisp. There were dozens of bodies that had been brought back, and Bucky had carefully studied them all. 

The corpses that were not burnt were grey and unnatural looking, drained of colour, and even the internal flesh was almost colourless. Magic lingered about them, unnatural magic that had warped them and made them what they were. Bucky had determined that after several moments of careful study. Dark magic. 

It had been much to Bucky’s surprise that he had found a book about creatures corrupted with dark magic tucked into the trunk they had brought. A book he had not placed there, meaning that somepony had tucked it into the trunk, which was an intriguing thought. Somepony must have known about what he would face upon the Isles and had tried to prepare him. Bucky had several guesses, but his primary suspect was a large white alicorn. 

The pegasi were out over the deep part of the loch, using nets to pull fish out of the water, flying in a carefully orchestrated dance. Bucky watched Sparkler, who was watching the group with a look of concern upon her face. Sparkler’s friend Loch Skimmer was out there with the group of fishers. 

Derpy looked oddly swanlike in the water, or perhaps a duck. All four legs were below the waterline, leaving only her body above it. She swam in little circles, her tail streaming out behind her.  Derpy was far more graceful in the water than she as in the air, and Bucky wondered if it had something to do with her cutie mark. Water droplets on her wings glistened like diamonds in the sun and Bucky felt a lustful longing as he watched her.

But the same could be said for both of his wives. His gaze fell upon Berry. She was busy scrubbing Piña, using her hoof to try and scrape away filth. As she scrubbed, her muscles rippled and moved under her taut pelt, and the water churned around her as she moved. 

The water looked cool and inviting. 

Bucky could take it no more. He knew he needed to keep his head out of the water due to his eye socket still healing, but the rest of him needed a bath. Using his magic, he ripped away the many bandages all around his body as he rose, and then he wobbled down to the water on trembling legs. 

Piña shrieked a cry of alarm and then buried her face into Berry’s ribs. Sparkler choked, but did not cry out. Rising Star’s teeth were gritted together. Dinky burst into tears but said nothing. Berry sat down in the water with a splash, and clung to her sister, her eyes wide with horror. Sentinel looked pained but said nothing.

“Just be careful, let me help you.” 

The words came from Derpy, her eyes glistening with tears, but the grey pegasus contained her emotions. She splashed through the water, moving towards Bucky, trying to not look at him directly. 

Thistle remained silent, not knowing what to say. She swam closer to Berry Punch and wrapped a foreleg over Berry’s withers. 

Bucky turned his head and looked over the left side of his body. His cauterised wounds looked pretty bad, but did seem to be healing well. He couldn’t see what the other side of his body looked like, he couldn’t turn his head well enough. 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky apologised. “I didn’t mean to upset the foals,” he added. 

“They’re strong foals,” Derpy said, meeting her husband at the water’s edge. “Careful now, you aren’t used to not having depth perception. Feel your way down with your hoof, and I will catch you if you stumble, but it might hurt if I do.” 

Derpy stood, her wings extended, ready and waiting to catch Bucky if he stumbled. He took a cautious step downward, stumbled only slightly, found his footing, and then eased himself into the cold water. 

Bucky sighed as the water cooled and soothed the hot feverish places where he had been sealed shut by burning hot iron. He pushed himself out to deeper water, standing shoulder deep, and then simply stood there, not moving, and keeping his head held up out of the water. 

“That looks pretty awful,” Berry said softly. “But I don’t love you any less. I don’t care what you look like.” Berry paused for a moment. “Piña, please don’t cry. Sometimes bad things happen to good ponies,” Berry said, trying to sooth her sister. 

“You were lucky,” Thistle said. “Scars are attractive on a mate. At least, I believe so. There is something appealing about a pony that you know can keep you safe, a fighter, not a talker.” 

“I have to agree with Thistle,” Derpy agreed. 

“It is one thing to hear a pony talk about keeping foals and other ponies safe, it is a different matter entirely to see the evidence of it,” Berry explained. “I find it desirable as well.” 

“It is healing well,” Derpy said, gently planting a kiss on an area that wasn’t covered in seared scar tissue. She touched Bucky with her wing, drizzling water over his back, dipped her wing in the water again, and then dribbled even more water over her mate. She continued her action of trickling water over Bucky’s back, soaking him down thoroughly, and Bucky moaned as the cool water soaked into his pelt and cooled his still burning skin. 

“May I help you?” Thistle asked Derpy, not wanting to intrude upon what appeared to be a very intimate moment. 

“How can you help?” Derpy asked. 

“Can I show you?” Thistle replied. 

The grey pegasus mare nodded and Thistle moved swiftly through the shallows. She floated near Bucky, her fish tail swishing in the water, and she began to move her forehooves in a circle, her eyes closed and a look of concentration upon her face. 

The water around her began to move, and then a round pillar of water began to rise from the surface. It moved slowly, causing every pony who observed it to gasp, and Thistle delighted in her water-shaping. She moved the mass of water near Bucky, where it loomed over his barrel, and then the tension holding the water broke, spilling a sizable mass of water over his back, causing Bucky to gasp. Bucky was thoroughly drenched now.

“That’s amazing,” Berry Punch breathed. “Kelpie magic.” 

“Oh please do that again,” Bucky begged. 

Thistle did not reply, but another mass of water began to rise. It took the shape of Thistle, resembling her head and neck, and it moved with beauty and grace. It loomed over Bucky for a moment, and then the water lost its shape, spilling out over Bucky’s back once again, the cold water washing over his skin and sluicing away dirt and grime. 

“Thank you Thistle,” Derpy said. 

The two ponies locked eyes for a moment, Derpy closing one eye to look at Thistle directly, and there seemed to be some unspoken communication between them. Thistle looked very serious and solemn, and after a moment, she nodded slightly. 

“It is my place to look after the one that will look after my needs someday. How could I do any less?” Thistle asked. 

Bucky’s quick mind caught the implication of Thistle’s words. The one that will look after… he repeated in his mind. He cast a glance at Derpy. 

“Shut up. Not one word. Mare business,” Derpy stated. “Not stallion business. I wouldn’t be so rude to stick my snoot into any private arrangements between you and Barley,” the mare announced, cutting Bucky’s words off. 

Bucky remained silent. He moved himself to shallower water, circled around a few times, he then folded his legs, easing himself down into the rocky shallows and laying down in the water. He sighed with contentment as he settled in and tried to get comfortable. 

Dinky approached slowly, looking apprehensive, and when she was near, sat down in the shallows near her father, looking concerned. “I know it hurts… how bad is it?” she asked. 

“Bad enough to motivate me,” Bucky replied. 

Dinky looked confused. “I don’t understand.” 

“I am going to exterminate every wolf on these isles,” Bucky explained. 

“How?” asked Dinky as Piña settled in beside her and leaned on her. 

“I am forming a plan Dinks. A big plan. As you already know just a little tiny bit about,” Bucky answered. 

“They hurt you so badly, if this happened to me, I would be too afraid to fight back,” Dinky admitted. 

“Don’t say that Dinky. You have real strength. You are still a foal, so these things are bound to be scary, but do not underestimate what you are capable of,” Bucky instructed, leaning his head down a bit and planting a kiss on Dinky’s nose. He then kissed Piña, who whimpered at his touch. 

“Piña, don’t be troubled,” Bucky soothed. 

“Pina’s heart is far too gentle for these wretched isles,” Berry muttered. “I worry her heart will harden during our stay here.” 

Rising Star settled into deeper water until only his nose, his eyes, and his horn was visible. He let out a contented sigh and watched Sparkler. 

Derpy resumed her swimming, keeping an eye on her foals, and enjoying her time in the water. It wasn’t a bubble bath, but it would have to do until they were home. She watched Sentinel, who was out in the deep water, feeling mildly concerned. He kept diving under the water and re-emerging several minutes later, and Derpy did not understand what he was doing. 

“I want to go home,” Piña whined. 

“I know Piña,” Bucky replied. “But even if we could leave right now, I wouldn’t leave because I have unfinished business here.” Bucky planted another kiss on Piña, kissing her cheek this time. “I hope you can understand, but I am committed to a task here. I have ponies to protect. For the first time in my life, my title as an armiger means something. Back home, being born a knight is entirely meaningless, but here, here I get to make it mean whatever I want it to mean. Do you understand?” 

Piña nodded. “I think I do. A knight needs monsters if he is going to be a knight. Just don’t get hurt any more. Doesn’t a knight need shining armor?” asked Piña, wiping her nose with her foreleg. 

“Yes my foal, a knight needs armor,” Bucky answered, a faint smile on his lips. 

“Are you going to make some armor?” Piña asked. 

“That is my plan,” Bucky admitted. 

“So no more getting hurt?” Piña questioned. 

“If my plan works,” Bucky replied. 

“You are going to do WHAT?” Berry gasped in astonishment. 

“Bucky, what are you planning?” Derpy demanded. 

“I plan to show these wolves what a small group of dedicated and well educated unicorns can do. I am going to show these ponies that somepony cares about their troubles,” Bucky announced. 

“But the wolves can pass through solid objects. How would armor help?” Berry queried, her tone Berry panicked. “I am not insulting your intelligence, but I do hope you have a plan to deal with that fact.” 

“I do,” said Bucky, turning his left eye to stare Berry, but not not elaborating. 

“You… you… I love you in ways that there are no words to express,” gasped Berry as she shook her head. “You are utterly mad. You BELONG in the pickle barrel with the rest of us,” she insisted. “If I wasn’t already having your foals, I’d want to have them right now.” 

Bucky managed to give a weak chuckle. 

“I don’t know if I want you doing this,” Derpy interjected. “I can’t bear to see you get hurt any more.” 

“This time I plan to use my head before doing anything. I don’t intend to get hurt again,” Bucky replied. “I don’t plan on giving them a chance to hurt me.” 

“I guess I have to trust you,” said Derpy with a tremor in her voice. 

“No more carelessness. I do things my way now. Slow and cautious. Methodical,” Bucky stated. “I want to watch Dinky and Piña grow up.” 

There was a cry from out on the water and everypony turned their heads. Sentinel had a long fish flapping in his mouth, and he was swimming back to shore with his catch. 

“Yuck!” Piña cried. “He’s gonna eat that.” 



 

Bucky looked around the room. It was mostly empty, only a few things had been stored in here. It would have to do for a workshop and a laboratory. There was a squeak from somewhere as Bucky’s horn light flared, and Sentinel took off hunting. 

The room was dusty and full of cobwebs. 

Sentinel growled, spread his wings, pounced, and there was a shrill squeal of rodent terror. A second later, the lunar pegasus colt was slurping a tail through his lips while looking very pleased with himself. 

“Good work Squire Sentinel,” Bucky praised. 

“This one was juicy,” Sentinel announced. 

“I am sure it was,” replied Bucky in dry tones. “We are going to do great things here,” he added. “Meaningful things. This room is as good as any other. It was nice of Keg Smasher to provide it.” 

“Plus, there are snacks,” Sentinel mentioned as his ears perked, hoping for more squeaking or scurrying sounds. 

“Sentinel, do you trust me?” Bucky asked. 

“Of course sir, with my life,” Sentinel answered. 

“Because I am going to need something from you… but I will not take it unless you give it freely,” Bucky stated. 

“What is it that you need sir?” Sentinel asked nervously. 

“Some of your shadow essence. You can shadow dive, like all of your kind can, correct?” Bucky responded. 

“Yes sir, I can… will this hurt sir?” Sentinel asked. 

“No, I promise you, I will do nothing that will cause serious harm to you,” Bucky returned. 

“I see… what do you need my shadow essence for, and will it weaken me?” Sentinel questioned. 

“I am going to need to infuse a number of things with raw shadow essence so that the shadow wolves can’t phase through them. Make a solid barrier against shadow. And no, it shouldn’t weaken you. You draw strength from the dark. You might feel a little fatigue maybe, but time spent in a dark room will restore your essence. I understand that this is an extreme request,” Bucky explained. 

“These are extreme times,” Sentinel replied. “I will do whatever I can to contribute. I am your squire, and you work for the good of these ponies. I would be a terrible squire if I was remiss in my duties.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said.

“Don’t mention it,” Sentinel returned. 

“And everything I plan to do begins here, in this room,” the unicorn announced. “The war begins here. Once we clear it out and turn it into a proper place for magical research and experimentation, we take the first few cautious steps towards reclaiming the Isles. And I can’t do this without you.” 

“I am honoured sir,” Sentinel responded. 

The colt’s ears perked and his head jerked sharply off to one side. He sprang away, landed with a clatter behind a stack of wooden crates, and there was another scream of rodent agony, followed by the crunching of bones. 

There was a loud belch from behind the crates. 

“It is going to be dinner time soon,” Bucky announced. “I hope you didn’t spoil your appetite. You’ve been quite the hunter today.” 

“I was very lucky today,” Sentinel agreed. “The fish earlier, one small rat, one giant rat, actually, I am not sure if I am going to have room for dinner,” Sentinel admitted. 

“Just try not to eat rats in front of Derpy. She… she would take it badly,” Bucky stated. “She is starting to become very attached to you Sentinel, and watching you eat rats would trigger her need to mother you and do what is best for you. I suspect that in her mind, eating rats would be bad for you.” 

“I understand sir,” Sentinel replied. 

Bucky backed out the room slowly, the pain in his legs making him wince with each step. Sentinel followed. After the colt was in the hall with him, Bucky closed the door and magically locked it. 
	
> Chapter 68
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“There is no news of home… I feel so cut off here,” Derpy mentioned as she settled into bed. She snuggled under the covers and did her best to ignore the sounds of the wolves. The horrible wolves that had maimed her husband. Carefully, she approached Bucky’s blind side and surprised him with a kiss, her questing tongue probing between his lips and working its way around inside of his mouth. She felt funny, kissing him so intimately while her foals watched, but she needed this moment. She leaned into him, her lips pinching and giving a gentle tug to Bucky’s bottom lip. She finally pulled away with a wet sounding smack. 

“How come you never kiss me like that?” Rising Star asked Sparkler. He froze, realising his mistake a moment too late. Five adult eyes focused on him. Two were Berry’s, two were Derpy’s, and one was Bucky’s. Out of them all, Bucky’s was the worst. Once, he had been afraid of Derpy, afraid of flight lessons, afraid that the pegasus might kill him. Now, now he was afraid of what he might live through with Bucky. 

“I smell aggression,” Sentinel warned in a low whisper to his bedmate, the two colts wrapped together under the same blanket. “Watch out for the alpha.” 

“Look… I love Sparkler and recent events have educated me that loving somepony is pretty much all that matters because you never know when they might be taken away from you without a single moment of notice. Of course, we’re kissing when you are not looking. It is what we do at our age. Stop looking at me like that…” Rising Star’s brief moment of courage melted away under Bucky’s terrible one eyed stare. 

“Oh stop that! You’re threatening your own future son in law,” Sparkler scolded. She poked Berry Punch, who was beside her. “Someday, we’re going to be married, and one day there is going to be a lot more than just kissing going on. He’s gonna be shagging my purple pink backside and I am going to be enjoying it... but he’s right. What if father hadn’t come back that night? Would both of you truly be content with just your last kiss? Makes the ones you get now feel all the sweeter by comparison, don’t they?” 

Berry’s gaze dropped, her eyes cast downward, looking at the sheet beneath her. She heaved a sigh, taking Sparkler’s words into consideration. Without meaning for it to happen, a single tear beaded in the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek, leaving a dark spot on the sheet beneath her muzzle. 

Derpy closed her eyes and nodded, licking her lips briefly, thinking of the kiss she just had. She felt an uncomfortable tightness in her throat. She felt a burning sense of shame creeping up her neck. 

“Marriage?” Bucky asked after licking away the waxy slobber on his bottom lip. “Sparkler, what about school?” 

“You know, I can be married and still go to school. I can use birth control. Barley and Princess Luna showed Rising Star and I a spell. We’re not doing anything, not yet, he’s too scared and I’m too nervous and I don’t plan on trying anything until I am mature enough to think about it and not feel ashamed and start giggling,” Sparkler answered. “Plus, we’ve already been in a position where I had a lapse of judgement and it was Rising Star who preserved my virginity, so take that into account before you start doing the whole overprotective parent thing again.” 

“When?” Derpy asked. 

“The other day. When we left to explore the grounds. We found a secluded place and I did my damndest to seduce him. He shoved me away and told me ‘no’ and I was really angry with him for a while and we went and had a walk, and then we met Loch Skimmer,” Sparkler replied. “I was conflicted. Father had almost died. It was all I could think about. What if Rising Star died out here in this horrible place and I never got a chance to express how I felt... I cried at him, I begged him, I used all of my feminine wiles, and Rising Star turned me down each time.” 

Bucky settled his gaze upon Sparkler, an unknown emotion buzzing between his ears. He suddenly loved this filly a great deal. He had loved her for quite some time actually, but now, the feeling blossomed into something greater. Her honesty stoked something burning inside of him. She stared back at him, her gaze dropping away for an instant before she steeled her nerve and resumed staring back. 

“All of this talk about sex makes me feel squirmy,” Piña politely interjected from beneath Derpy’s wing. She scootched and snuggled, feeling the firm flesh over Derpy’s ribs and taking comfort against the growing cold in the room. It was dark under the blanket, and only a faint light peeped in from where Derpy had her head raised, the blanket lifting as it wrapped over Derpy’s withers and crest. She felt Dinky snuggling in just beside her, both of them cuddling under Derpy’s wing together. She felt safe squished between Derpy and Dinky, the horrible howling outside didn’t bother her nearly as much. Piña meeped when a wolf howl sounded just a little too close to the castle for comfort.

“I am going to kill them all,” Bucky hissed, breaking a dozen chains of thought those around him as he did so. His remaining eye narrowed. He started to say something else, but Berry’s lips suddenly pressed against his, and her long orange tongue darted and flicked in and out of his mouth, distracting him from his vengeful thoughts. She moaned into his mouth as she angled her head for better suction. Bucky felt feverish… not just in his burnt skin, but beneath it, heat rising to the surface from deep within. 

Berry pulled away, leaving behind a thin strand of drool as she did so. She heaved a deep breath, rolled her eyes for a moment, and then shot a look at her fellow-wife. She felt Sparker give her a gentle nudge. The string of drool broke and two droplets fell to the bed below.

“Each kiss could be your last,” Rising Star said sadly. “There are no guarantees of any future. There is only what we have now, in this moment, at this time. And at this moment, we have each other. It is all we have. It is the only measurable thing of value, the only thing that any of us treasure, the thing all of us are fighting for, striving for, hoping to preserve, We are made stronger because of the different connections of love that form the ties between the ponies in this room.”

“He’s a poet,” Sparkler whispered, her skin shivering from Rising Star’s well said words. She leaned over on to Berry Punch, feeling a close moment of love and kinship, the feeling that Berry was her mother stronger than ever. 

“Well, at least my future son in law is well spoken,” Bucky grumbled. 

Derpy nodded. Her head then fell and rested upon her forelegs, her eyes closed, and one ear twitched as the compacted peat bale in the fireplace crackled and popped. Her breathing deepened. She had two foals under her wing, her husband near her side, a husband she wished she could press up against but didn’t want to hurt him, and the events of the day were heavy upon her mind. As she began to drift away, she thought of Thistle, alone in her lake, all by herself in the darkness. For a brief second she wished that Thistle was here with them, perhaps curled up with Sparkler to keep warm, to be kept safe and secure. It was a passing thought, and Derpy slipped into slumber with a snort and a fart as her body relaxed. 

Bucky listened as Derpy slipped into sleep. With his left eye, he gazed at Berry, who looked back at him. He felt Berry’s soft fetlock brush his face just below his left eye and he leaned into her touch. “I love you,” he whispered. He lowered his own head down upon a pillow, closed his remaining eye, and waited for sleep to take him. 



 

The brewery was large and filled with archaic equipment. Berry was right at home, but Bucky had no clue what was what. Bucky and Berry were alone together in the building, the rest of the herd back in the dining hall, Sparkler and Rising Star setting up a lesson in literacy. Before leaving, the pair had seen quite a few foals being brought to attend Sparkler and Rising Star’s impromptu class. Derpy was there with them, more than content to look after as many foals as she could. Thistle had opted to stay with the group and maybe even try learning something. 

The smell of grain and beer clung cloyingly to the nostrils, a scent that made Bucky relax and feel calm. He could feel his own purpose all around him, and he looked forward to a little downtime. 

First things first though. He snatched Berry in his magic and pulled her to him, her hooves skidding over the floor. He kissed her deeply, the movement making the seared gash on the side of his face ache, and after several moments of drinking Berry Punch in, he released her, leaving her feeling Berry frustrated. 

He strode off slowly, stiff legged, his skin still feeling entirely too tight, looking at the equipment all around him. It was well cared for, well polished, and clearly the pride of this community. He heard Berry’s heavy breathing behind him. 

“That isn’t nice to leave a mare flustered like that,” Berry admonished. 

“I gave up on being a nice pony,” Bucky replied as he continued to explore the brewery. “Look where it got me. Now… now the time of being a nice pony is over, and I get to be a bad pony for a while. I finally have a chance to let go. Release a little death magic. Perform spells that would get me locked away on the mainland. I am finally in a place to fully explore the depth of my abilities without fear or repercussions. Plus, I can do it and be a hero, rather than being called some crackpot hedge wizard. I can do very bad things and justify them by bringing about good ends.” 

The earth pony mare did not reply. She paced behind her mate, watching him, feeling Berry attracted to him. Good Bucky was sexy. Bad Bucky was pure intoxicating lust. She walked just behind him, leaving a wake of well perfumed air, her tail swishing from side to side. 

“Don’t get me wrong… the only thing that truly matters to me in the long run is family. That will never change. But a little mad experimentation and the means to do so without boundaries, that’s tempting. It is like you wanting to tie me up and have a little fun with me. I understand that Berry… who can resist the siren call of being naughty once in a while?” Bucky turned his head so his left eye could take everything in as he spoke. “I don’t think I could tell Derpy this without feeling very uncomfortable, but you, I can tell you Berry.” 

“A wife for every need,” Berry replied. “I like the darkness you have. It completes you. It makes you a well rounded pony. I hope you never feel the need to hide it from me. I hope our foals have some of your darkness. It will make them better ponies I believe, provided they are balanced out by some of your light.” 

The unicorn inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the brewery and the tangy whiff of Berry’s perfumed mare vapours. He paused, turned, walked around Berry, pushed her tail aside with his nose, and inhaled deeply, the rush of air causing Berry to hiss as it tickled over delicate places. Bucky pressed his nose gently into the gentle curvature of Berry’s haunches, planted a gentle kiss, and then he walked away, walking down the corridor between the giant vats. 

Berry stood in place for a moment, shuddered, shivered, and then trotted after her mate. “I’ve been meaning to ask,” she stated, trying to distract herself from her powerful sense of need. “Why can’t unicorns just transmute rocks into beer? I know they can turn rocks into objects and even food… but why not beer?” 

“Complexity. I probably could turn rocks into beer, but it would be undrinkable. Think about the sofas I made. The plain scratchy material of the fabric. The dull grey colour. I could change that, sure, but that would be a cosmetic change. It doesn’t change the fact that the sofas are very crude and simple things. Bread made from rocks is hard, flavourless, and almost nutritionally worthless. Beer would be almost undrinkable,” Bucky explained. 

“So why not take the raw ingredients and zap them with magic, and just brew beer that way?” Berry asked. 

“Well, I… uh, I have thought about that actually. I was going to experiment. I meant to experiment a few months ago. And then this really sweet grey pegasus mare chased me, a flock of pegasi harassed me, she introduced me to her best friend, both of them plotted against me, I had my horn cracked, fell in love completely, a war got started, I got married, and I just recently lost an eye,” Bucky responded. 

“Bah, minor distractions,” Berry replied. “Stop making excuses,” she deadpanned. 

“But both of you are so very distracting,” Bucky protested. “Like right now, I would be shagging you until you bleated like the filthy little ewe that are you are if I knew it wouldn’t hurt me so badly and we had told Derpy what we were up to before we left.” 

Berry smiled warmly. “You’re getting better. Be patient. Keg Smasher did a really good job cauterising your wounds. I spoke with him briefly. He has had a lot of practice. Apparently the trick isn’t to just press the iron in, but to roll it back and forth over the flesh to make a good seal.” 

Bucky winced, recalling a painful memory. 

“Sorry love… I didn’t mean to make you hurt more,” Berry apologised. 

“No worries,” Bucky replied. “You know, figuring out how to brew beer with magic would probably help me with figuring out how to assemble raw materials and help me with what I have planned…” Bucky thought out loud. 

“In the old days, they called a group of rogue unicorns a coven. Is that what you, Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star are going to become? Look, I am not stupid, I know you are planning something much bigger than some suit of armor. All of this talk about experimental magic and doing questionable things that would get you in trouble on the mainland. You are planning something, something I probably can’t comprehend, aren’t you?” Berry questioned. 

Bucky sighed and thought about total honesty. “I think I have a way to turn Sparkler and Rising Star into full fledged type threes. Sort of a smaller step of ascension. I am going to need them at peak power if I am going to accomplish what I have planned. Look, I am confident that it wouldn’t hurt them. I am not going to rush into anything. I’ve already channeled immense amounts of magic through them and I know that they are physically capable. I am going to channel Sentinel’s shadow essence into objects that I craft, infusing them with shadow. It will not hurt him. None of these things will do any harm, but on the mainland, they would be morally reprehensible and I would face serious consequences if I did them there,” Bucky confessed. 

“Will it help you destroy the wolves?” Berry asked, her tone grave, all trace of merriment and arousal now gone. Her eyes glittered with unspoken rage. “Will it destroy the wolves that took your perfect eye and maimed your body, which I love?” 

“Yes,” answered Bucky, the word an exhaled whisper. 

“Then do what needs to be done, just like I did. I enjoyed kicking the crap out of your mother. Bad things happened, but good things are coming because I did it. Throw caution to the wind Buckminster… these are reckless times, and bold moves might be our best option. The greatest risks bring the greatest rewards. Look, I love you more than any words can explain, and with that love comes trust. I understand that sometimes, you gotta walk through a mile of shite before you can reach your goals. Life is about getting dirty. And I chose to get dirty with you,” Berry stated while looking Bucky in his remaining eye. She leaned forward and planted a gentle peck on the left corner of Bucky’s mouth. “And while you are doing the mad scientist thing, replace your eye somehow. Even if you can’t see with whatever you replace it with, just make something functional and practical.” 

“That’s actually a very good idea,” Bucky murmured in reply. 

“Now, let’s see if we can’t figure out how to brew beer using nothing but your magic. We will figure out how to do this together. You are going to need me,” Berry announced. 

“I will always need you,” Bucky admitted. 



 

The noon hour approached. Bucky and Berry were still gone. All around her were foals, and Derpy was truly in her element. Much of the castle staff had dropped off their foals for the lessons, and Derpy was foal sitting the littlest foals that were too little for school, but had been brought anyway by hopeful parents. 

The foals were fine, but Derpy was worried by the growing collection of flowers, which she had taken to eating. They were sweet and delicate, and the mare had a strong craving for fresh greens. The worst had been three mares, the youngest even younger than Sparkler, probably still in a single digit age range, all of them leading small foals and offering flowers. The youngest had stated that their husband was gone. All of them were sisters. 

It had left Derpy heartbroken and confused. Part of her wanted to take them in, but not as fellow-wives. It was getting harder and harder to deal with the endless offers of flowers. There were foals having foals here. Thistle was actually a bit older than quite a few mothers Derpy had seen. Derpy settled into a soft pile of straw, tiny foals all around her in a pile. She covered as many as she could with her wings, and relished the broody feeling that permeated her down to the core of her being. She was warm and surrounded by little helpless bodies, little helpless bodies that needed her. The straw formed a comfortable nest. Derpy felt her hide being soaked by drool from little heads that rested upon her, and she didn’t mind. Some of the foals were sprawled over her back, several of them in a pile with one another, and she could feel somepony breathing in her mane, slow steady tiny inhales and exhales which were warm, a constant repetition of breathing and the confirmation of life. 

The broody pegasus desperately wanted to have another foal of her own. She did not know that even now, the beginnings of life were taking place deep inside of her, and that two new ponies would grace her world in little less than a years time. One foal was of the winds, the other graced with magic. Powerful hormonal changes were taking place within the pegasus, altering her moods, changing her behaviours, preparing her for the many changes that were to come. 

Sparkler and Rising Star worked well together as teachers, complimenting each other nicely. Derpy’s sharp ears picked up their voices well, their gentle instruction, Sparkler’s endless patience that she had learned from looking after Dinky and Piña, and Rising Star’s enduring creativity, even in the swirling chaos of a mess of foals all wanting to get his attention. 

Ponies were beginning to enter the hall to wait for lunch, which would be very soon. Some of them watched the lesson taking place, others watched Derpy and her careful mothering of a whole mess of foals, which were somehow quiet and well behaved for her. 

Keg Smasher entered the hall, froze, and then tried to understand what he was seeing. He saw the improvised classroom. He saw the broody pegasus. He saw other ponies waiting for lunch and watching everything that he was trying to take in. Keg Smasher was covered with dozens of seared patches over his flesh and he was limping badly. He moved slowly towards the nesting pegasus, not wanting to do anything stupid, like spook her or invoke her sense of territory. 

“Hello there stormy mare,” he greeted. 

Derpy looked up at him, closing one eye to study the giant pegasus that was cautiously approaching her. “Feeling better?” Derpy asked. 

“A little. How is Buckminster?” Keg Smasher replied. He eased himself down to the floor and scooted a little closer to the foal pile and the grey mare. 

“Bucky is getting better, you did a really good job of closing his wounds. I can’t thank you enough,” Derpy said, real gratitude in her voice. “You brought me back my husband… what was left of him.” 

“I know it’s rough. I want to thank you as well,” Keg Smasher stated. 

“What for?” Derpy inquired. 

“Right now, you’re sitting on the most valuable bit of treasure I have in my keep. The only thing I have of any real value. Without those, my ponies have no future,” Keg Smasher explained in reply. 

Derpy blushed and looked down at a foal cradled in her forelegs. 

“Would you mind doing this every day? I hate to ask, but we all have to do our part around here. And ponies will work harder if they don’t have to look after their own foals, or don’t have to worry about their own foals being safe. I’d imagine you foal sitting has raised the productivity around here just a little bit. The school here is a good idea. We have nannies and nursemaids, but they are few in number. One more such as yourself would be a powerful asset,” Keg Smasher said as he reached out and touched a foal with one wing, giving it a tickle. The foal hiccuped and rolled away, trying to avoid the irritating feathers. 

“Doing this makes me happy,” Derpy confessed. “This is the only thing that makes sense in the world.” 

“Well, sitting on them and making them are my two favourite activities,” Keg Smasher admitted. “No more sweeps. We get to keep each and every one of these.” 

“Does it bother you that we intend to keep Sentinel? Do you feel we are taking one of your foals?” Derpy asked, raising her gaze towards Keg Smasher, closing one eye, and studying him. 

“No. He is getting a good home. That makes me happy. It isn’t the same at all. And the fact that you worried enough about it to bring it up, I don’t have the words,” Keg Smasher replied. He returned Derpy’s gaze, looking into her amber eye. He watched the other eye open and easily saw why Bucky loved this mare so much. She was the embodiment of what Keg Smasher and Bucky both valued, a motherly queen nestled upon a throne of foals. Looking past the eyes, she looked regal, purposeful, a strong foundational cornerstone to build a herd upon. 

“You keep staring at me,” Derpy stated. 

“Just seeing what Buckminster sees. I made the right choice and I know it now,” Keg Smasher returned. 

“What do you mean?” Derpy asked. “Right choice?” 

“About Thistle. I look at you and I know I made the right choice. Don’t get me wrong, Thistle is going to make a great mother, but I know her type. She is always going to be playful and foalish. She is going to want to be friends with her foals, rather than the much harder requirement of being a mother. She is going to make a great mother figure in any herd she is a part of, but she is going to need a real mother figure to be there and put her hoof down. Damn near a perfect herd structure. A strong mother, a playful mother, and an educator, which is what I am guessing that Berry is good at, based on what little I’ve gleaned about her,” Keg Smasher explained. “A small but very functional herd ideal for raising foals.” 

“You surprise me Keg Smasher,” Derpy admitted. “You are not the pegasus I thought you were.” 

“I surprise a lot of ponies,” Keg Smasher responded. “It is how I deposed the previous laird. I had myself and a few hard cases loyal to me smuggled into the castle here in giant kegs. We popped out and had us a party. He was a right bastard.” 

“Do you think you can fix this place?” Derpy asked. 

“I hope so lass, I hope so,” Keg Smasher replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 69
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lunch was a simple affair. Mostly the leftovers from breakfast, some fried oatcakes, and there was some delicious bean and barley soup which caused Derpy to recall fond memories from when Dinky had been an infant. After lunch, the herd had split up, with Bucky no longer able to remain upright and needing to lay down. Berry, Derpy, and even Thistle had gone to join him, and they had taken the foals, Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel. 

This left Rising Star and Sparkler by themselves, now free for the afternoon. 

Early afternoon. 

Sparkler giggled as she felt Rising Star’s lips moving up her neck. She leaned into him, feeling his warmth, not even minding that he was something of a stinky pony. Never mind the fact that she was probably a stinky pony as well. Mutual stinkiness was no match for love. 

The pair stood in a small alcove off of the main courtyard, a tiny nook just large enough for several ponies to duck inside and get out of the rain if need be. At one point, there had been a tiny market tucked away in here, but it was long gone, now only a memory to the oldest of those on the isle. 

Sparkler teasingly blew into his ear, which caused the colt’s body to stiffen and one of his hind legs kick the stone floor. “Bad filly,” he scolded breathlessly. “Does the bad filly want to go for a walk with me?” he asked. 

“Yes, the bad filly would love for a chance to stretch her legs,” Sparkler replied. “The bad filly loves you a great deal, and hopes you understand just how much she loves you,” she breathed teasingly into Rising Star’s ear. 

“I would do anything for you,” Rising Star promised. 

“Anything?” Sparker replied, licking her teeth seductively. 

“Yes, anything,” Rising Star answered. “You have but to ask.” 

“Then love me, that is all I ask for… for now,” Sparkler stated. 

Rising Star planted a firm kiss on her cheek, and Sparkler craned her head to press her cheek into his lips. The pair stood there for a moment, very close to one another, standing chest to chest, their forehooves touching. 

“No more lapses in judgment,” Rising Star whispered. 

“No, no more lapses in judgment. We both have big plans for the future,” Sparker agreed. The filly pulled away first, turning and heading out for the courtyard, leading the way. She flicked Rising Star with her tail as she departed. 

Rising Star caught a whiff of something that made him feel excited from the tail flicking, and he moved to follow Sparkler, moving to take his place at her side. He brushed up against her briefly, and then flicked her with his tail, which had not been trimmed in a while and was getting long. 

The pair moved through the courtyard together, their hooves clattering over the cobblestones, ponies nodding and even bowing to towards them as they passed. Sparkler gave it no thought and bowed her head slightly in return, not understanding the effect she had when she did so. She did not understand her social status as Bucky’s daughter, and the effects that it had upon the ponies around her. She did not understand that she was just as much as a symbol of hope as her father was, as word had spread about her role in the raising of the new tower. 

Rising Star was also equally clueless to the level of respect being offered him. 

The pair passed through the gate, turned, and began to walk along the outer wall, away from the actual wall, and keeping an eye on anything being poured out over the wall. An emptied chamberpot respected nopony and the rain fell on both the just and the wicked. 

Sparkler broke into a run and Rising Star took off after her, both of them laughing as they ran at a full gallop, their hooves thudding upon the earth as they bolted. The field was full of tall grass and wildflowers. Not too far off, the first of the farmers fields began, and the one closest to the castle looked like oats. 

Spring had faded and now it was summer, and the sun was very warm. It contrasted sharply with the nights, which were bitterly cold, but the summer nights were warmer than the winter nights, which were brutal.

All of Sparkler’s old insecurities were gone. She no longer wished she was a pegasus, or lamented that she didn’t have wings, she was finally comfortable in her own skin, and she reveled in being who she was as she tore through the field at top speed, with Rising Star in hot pursuit. Today was the perfect day for a chase. Not that one was needed. Rising Star had already caught Sparkler in the most meaningful way possible. She was his by word, if not yet by deed. It had been his love that had made her finally feel comfortable in her skin, and Sparkler had grown as a pony because of his words and gentle affection. 

There were other ponies out running through the fields enjoying the summer sun, the ones lucky enough to not have to toil all day. The clouds drifted by overhead, the local pegasi doing very little to control the weather here. There were just too many other things that needed to be done. 



 

Later that afternoon.

“I must confess, I feel myself growing very attached to all of you,” Thistle said in a hushed voice. “I was very scared when Keg Smasher said I had to marry into your herd. I  sort of figured I’d be a broodmare or a servant and nothing more. I didn’t know that all of you would be so kind.” 

The two mares and the filly exchanged glances with one another. Bucky was asleep, worn out from the long morning and some magical experimentation in the brewery, and the foals were napping near him. Berry and Derpy sat on one sofa while Thistle sat on the other. 

“I’ve figured out that part of both of your agreement was for Thistle to come and spend the day with us every single day,” Berry quipped in a low voice, trying not to wake the sleepers. 

“Yes,” Derpy agreed, shifting in her seat and then leaning on Berry. She wrapped her forelegs around her fellow wife and pulled Berry close. She breathed in Berry’s scent, catching a faint whiff of arousal. “Bucky got you flustered, didn’t he?” Derpy asked in a very low whisper. 

Berry nodded in reply. “Somepony is watching us,” Berry coyly announced. 

“Like what you see Thistle?” Derpy asked. 

“Actually, yes,” Thistle whispered in reply. “I had always seen rutting as a means to an end… I wasn’t aware of… this.” 

“Curious about being with a mare?” Berry asked. 

“Well, uh-” Thistle began. 

“Sure she is,” Derpy interrupted. 

Berry raised her eyebrow quizzically at Derpy . This wasn’t like Derpy. 

Thistle squirmed, looking flustered and embarrassed. “I am open to the idea of being with a mare,” she admitted. 

“Well that’s good, hey, is there something I’m missing?” Berry asked, getting a peculiar feeling. 

Derpy suddenly squeezed the earth pony hard enough to squish the air out of her, and Berry gasped. As Berry panted for air, Derpy moved in and planted a kiss with powerful levels of suction upon Berry’s lips, destroying Berry’s ability to ask further questions. Derpy pushed Berry down upon the sofa and settled her weight upon her, grinding her barrel against Berry’s. Derpy carefully brought a leg into play, sliding her hind leg along Berry’s lower belly, trailing over every delicate place below Berry’s navel, making the plum coloured mare hiss with delight. 

Thistle squirmed in her seat and licked her lips, feeling an odd moist sensation deep within her nethers. A fire ignited in her loins and warmth spread through her belly. She watched as Derpy continued to dominate Berry, and with each moment began to realise that there was more to sex than just making foals. It excited her. She had only been kissed a few times, it more or less as an afterthought, but she had never been kissed like the two mares were kissing one another, and she felt strangely empty upon having that realisation. 

Her entire sense of sexual culture was being torn down and rebuilt brick by brick, and Thistle was eager and willing to learn more. 

Without meaning to, a faint lustful cry escaped Thistle lips, which caused Berry and Derpy to stop making out, both mares pausing to look at Thistle. 

“Go to her,” Derpy whispered in Berry’s ear. “Just a kiss, nothing more, think you can handle that?” she asked in a very quiet whisper. 

“I thought you felt she was too young,” Berry replied in a soft whisper. 

“Play between mares is different than between mares and stallions,” Derpy explained in hushed tones. “This can’t hurt her.” 

“Good point,” Berry said, squirming free of Derpy’s embrace. She flopped off the sofa, crossed the room to Thistle, and then climbed onto the sofa next to Thistle. “Are you comfortable with this?” Berry asked. 

Thistle licked her lips, looking around nervously. She nodded briefly, looking scared. She opened her mouth to say something- 

And Berry never gave her a chance. In a second, she was on Thistle, her muzzle pressed against Thistle’s muzzle, her forelegs around Thistle. The smaller filly was easy prey for Berry, who pushed her over and pinned her. One hoof slipped free from around Thistle’s neck and slid down her neck, over her barrel, and finally she rubbed her hoof in a slow lazy circle over Thistles’ rounded belly. Thistle mewled with pleasure under Berry’s affectionate kiss, and one hind leg began to twitch. 

Finally, Berry pulled away and both the mare and the filly were left gasping. 

Thistle fanned herself with her hoof, and then used her other hoof to fan an entirely different set of lips. “Confound it I am hot all over,” she muttered. 

“What about now Thistle, do you think you will be able to hold to our agreement?” Derpy asked. 

“Oh yes,” Thistle heaved. 

“So what is this agreement?” Berry whined. 

“Our business, for now,” Derpy replied. “Sorry.” 

“Thistle, don’t make me torture the answer out of you,” Berry warned. 

“Don’t you dare,” Derpy warned in a loud whisper. 

“Oh please torture the answer out of me,” Thistle giggled quietly and coquettishly. She wiggled against Berry in what she hoped was a seductive manner. 

Berry planted a soft gentle kiss on Thistle’s cheek and patted her belly. “One day you will find out what a kiss feels like in other places,” Berry whispered hotly. 

Thistle gasped and felt a tight pull in her nethers. 

“Derpy, I think I did my job too well, she’s dribbling,” Berry reported in a low voice, hoping that the sleepers would not awaken. 

“Get over here Berry, let’s leave her with something to think about,” Derpy instructed. 

Berry did as she was bid and retreated, leaving Thistle alone and flustered, Thistle’s cheeks as red as apples. Berry climbed up into the sofa and was immediately pounced upon by Derpy, who pulled their bodies tightly together and then lay still. “I love you,” Berry whispered into the pegasus’ ear. “But I would love you more if you would just tell me what the agreement is.” 



 

Even later that afternoon. 

“Loch Skimmer, slow down, stop crying, take a deep breath, and try to tell me what is wrong.” Sparkler instructed, gently stroking her friend. She wrapped a foreleg around Loch Skimmer’s neck and hugged her. 

Rising Star glanced around nervously, a very distraught pegasus filly named Ripple clinging to his leg, bawling her eyes out, her condition even worse than her older sister’s. 

“Loch?” Sparkler soothed. “Talk to me Loch,” Sparkler coaxed. 

“M-m-m-marriage,” Loch Skimmer stammered. 

Sparkler felt her heart sinking. 

“For Ripple too… I can’t think about what is going to be done to her,” Loch Skimmer wailed. “We’re being traded for food. The farmer is really cruel, he whips his mares and makes them pull plows.” 

Sparkler felt sick suddenly, a hot wave of nausea washing over her. She pushed herself away from Loch Skimmer and a moment later, she was throwing up in the grass and gagging, her legs wobbling and threatening to give way beneath her.

Rising Star was at her side in a moment, giving her something to lean on, Ripple still clinging to his leg. 

Sparkler gagged again, heaved, and then spewed out the rest of her lunch, vomit shooting from her mouth and her nostrils. She shook her head, strangling, trying to breath, her airways gunked up with hot chunks. Finally, she snorted and cleared her nose, then drew a shuddering breath. 

“You gonna be okay Sparky?” Rising Star asked in a very worried tone. He was so scared that he sounded almost foalish again, every bit of maturity gone from his voice. 

“Rape,” Sparkler gasped. “Ripple is a foal.” 

Ripple did not reply, but continued to bawl, never once letting go of Rising Star, her face buried into his leg. 

Sparkler made a loud “HURK!” sound and then dry heaved for a while, her eyes bloodshot and her legs trembling. 

“Please be okay Sparkler, I am so sorry for bringing this up, but I had to tell you. I won’t be coming to school anymore,” Loch Skimmer said, her voice hitching somewhat and her tears still falling. 

Sparkler raised her head, anger clouding her features. For a moment, she looked very much like her adopted mother, a storm passing over her face. She coughed and spat out the remains of the vomit in her throat and then took a deep breath. 

“Rising Star, you said you would do anything for me,” Sparkler said. “Did you mean that?” 

“Of course Sparkler, I wouldn’t have said it otherwise,” Rising Star said. 

“Good, we’re forming a herd,” Sparkler said. 

Ripple let go in a hurry and stumbled away. “I don’t wanna!” she bawled. 

Loch Skimmer tackled her sister and pinned her down. “No, you listen to me Ripple, stop, stop… STOP!” she cried as she pinned down the screaming filly. “He won’t hurt you, he’s not that type, look how sweet he was with Sparkler.” Loch Skimmer paused and looked up at Rising Star. “Look, you can do whatever you want with me and I will not stop you, but you PROMISE ME that you will not touch my sister, and I will agree to this,” Loch Skimmer offered. 

“But I don’t want to touch you either, I really don’t know you!” Rising Star retorted. 

Ripple began to calm slowly, her face pressed into Loch Skimmer’s neck. 

Sparkler gagged again, her stomach still roiling with worry. 

“Look, I’ll do this because it is the right thing to do and I couldn’t live with myself if I had a chance to stop a filly from being… being…” Rising Star began to gag himself, feeling quite sick with revulsion. He staggered away from Sparkler and heaved a few times, almost vomiting but managing to hold it together. “By the stars I hate this place,” he cried after a long painful heave. 

Sparkler composed herself, her rage making her spine stiff, once again looking very much like her adoptive mother. She stared down at the two pegasi in the grass, feeling an odd sense of responsibility for both of them, and wondered if this is what her mother felt about Berry. And maybe Thistle. 

“Ripple, you are under my protection,” Sparkler said. “I will not allow harm to come to you.” Sparkler’s mind underwent a subtle shift, acknowledging her own authority, cementing her position as the alpha female. She stood protectively over both of the pegasi, her horn glowing. “Anything I can’t deal with, my father will deal with,” Sparkler stated. 

“So how are we getting married?” Rising Star huffed. 

“Keg Smasher,” Sparkler said. “Come on, we’re going.” 

“What if he says no?” Rising Star asked. 

“Then I grab a wing and begin twisting until he agrees,” Sparkler said forcefully, gritting her teeth, now sounding very much like her mother, her voice one of command. 

“Come on, both of you, Ripple, you can ride on my back if you would like. You don’t look well,” Rising Star offered. 

Ripple smiled faintly, her face soaked with tears, her eyes puffy and also bloodshot. She nodded, unable to reply with words, and her big sister Loch Skimmer eased Ripple onto Rising Star’s back, where the filly straddled him and wrapped her forelegs around his neck, holding on so she wouldn’t fall off. 

Sparkler stood silent, trying to take everything in, understanding on some level that the ponies here believed Ripple to be adult enough for marriage because she had experienced estrus. But Ripple was small and delicate, and very much underdeveloped, likely due to malnutrition. 

“I have my own conditions,” Sparkler announced. 

“Those are?” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“Both of you are to continue school. I will not have illiterate herdmates. There will be no foals, not for quite some time. Ripple is to be treated as a foal, not a fellow-wife. She will not have a say in herd issues, and will be subject to our authority. She is to be loved, protected, and respected as a foal would be,” Sparkler instructed. 

“Agreed,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Okay,” Ripple whispered, hiding her face in Rising Star’s mane. 

“We will sort out all of the other details between ourselves,” Sparkler said. “Now let’s go,” she instructed. 



 

Very late in the afternoon 

“Fecking aye, you want me to do what?” the giant pegasus asked. 

“You heard me,” Sparkler replied. 

“Och, your mother is gonna-” 

“My mother is the least of your worries, you should worry about what I am going to to do to you… and before you think about threatening me, remember who my father is… you have no options. I will tear the wings off of you like a fly if you don’t give me what I want, and you are in no position to say no,” Sparkler threatened, completely unconcerned that she was one third of the size of Keg Smasher. 

“Damnit lass, this is why I am afraid of your mother, I’d expect this sort of outburst from her!” the pegasus roared. 

“Look, I know I can’t fix everything here,” Sparkler snapped, “but I do know that I can prevent at least one foal from being raped and maybe sleep a little better at night!” 

Keg Smasher rubbed his head with his wings, his eyes were closed and he looked troubled. “Look lass, life here is different and hard. I am working on changing things, but change is slow and things are the way they are,” Keg Smasher said, trying to diffuse some anger from the situation. 

“Wait… how young is your youngest wife?” Sparkler demanded, stomping up and getting into Keg Smasher’s face. She stood nose to nose with the giant pegasus, looking up at him, completely fearless, and her horn glowed with alarming intensity. 

“Woah, now you stay out of my business or I will risk your father’s wrath and give you a good thumping,” Keg Smasher retorted, now beginning to bristle with anger. 

“Do it,” Rising Star said, his horn glowing. “I’ll teleport away your filly wrecking pecker,” he threatened. “It’ll be real messy too, I’ll take it balls and all!” 

“SHITE!” Keg Smasher swore, backing down. “Look, I’ve taken a few young wives but I’ve never touched them until they were older… can we stop threatening to tear off wings or geld somepony please and be reasonable?” 

“I’M DONE BEING REASONABLE! THESE ISLANDS ARE INSANE!” Rising Star screamed. 

“I KNOW THEY ARE, THAT’S WHY I AM FIGHTING TO FIX THEM YOU BIG DAMN NUMPTY!” Keg Smasher bellowed. 

Several guards moved around the throne room, unsure of what to do. A fight between the armiger’s daughter and the Laird left no easy side to pick. It was safer to stand around and look like you were doing something. 

“Give us what we want, and we can all walk away from this happy,” Sparkler said. 

Keg Smasher groaned and pranced around on his hooves. “Ripple, do you feel safe with these ponies?” he asked, his anger gone and his tone surprisingly gentle. “Do you think you can trust them?” 

Ripple nodded. 

“No lass, I want to hear you to say it,” Keg Smasher instructed. “Now come on, be a good wee filly,” he said in a soothing voice. 

Ripple whined and buried her face into Rising Star’s mane. 

“Look lass, I have a filly about your age, and somepony doing something with her scares me something awful,” Keg Smasher confided. “So this is for my own peace of mind. Do you feel safe with these ponies?” 

“Yes sir,” Ripple said in a very small voice.

“Fine then,” Keg Smasher announced. “You’re all married.” 

“That’s it?” Rising Star asked.

“My word is law,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“We accept,” Sparkler said after drawing a deep breath. “We’ll have another ceremony when we get back to the mainland. My mother is going to want to make sure I have a proper wedding.” 

“YOU BE GOOD TO HER!” Keg Smasher snarled with bellicose fury at Rising Star, trying to reclaim some of his lost sense of authority. He did not make clear which filly to be good to. 

“Thank you,” Loch Skimmer said timidly. 

“Lass, you look after your sister. See that she is happy,” Keg Smasher instructed. 

“I will sir,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“We’ll, don’t just stand there like a bunch of slack jawed nitwits, you have to kiss another. And I hate to bring it up, in fact I feel like a real shite about bringing it up, but you are going to need to think about consummating this marriage. If their father challenges this union, it will be your only recourse,” Keg Smasher said in a very low voice. “I’ll give my word about Ripple being bred, but the rest of you have to go about it honest. You’ll need to sort that out.” 

“How will they know?” Sparkler asked. 

“I have you locked in a room overnight and the next morning some very skilled midwives have a look at your dainties to see if you show signs of being bred the night before… they’re damn good at what they do,” Keg Smasher replied. 

Sparkler blushed, Loch Skimmer suddenly found her front hooves quite fascinating, and Rising Star found something very interesting on the ceiling. Ripple was still hiding her face in Rising Star’s mane. 

Rising Star, realising he had a task ahead of him, maneuvered around and kissed Sparkler, a quick nervous kiss on the lips. He turned to Loch Skimmer, smiled, and then planted a swift peck on her cheek, making her blush almost invisibly under her dark grey pelt. “Look, we’ll sort this out,” he whispered to Lock Skimmer. “But please don’t feel threatened by me.” 

“I love you Rising Star,” Sparkler whispered in a low voice. “And yes, we will sort this out.” 



 

Early that evening 

Sparkler paced about the room, nervous, unable to sit still, feeling frightened. Loch Skimmer and Ripple had gone home to say goodbye to their parents, and had insisted on going by themselves. Now, sundown was approaching and her herd was not together. Tears welled in her eyes, and she felt like she had failed. 

She still had not told her parents. 

She glanced at Rising Star, who was sitting by the fire, jerking whenever there was a noise. She looked at the window, and the shadows were getting longer. 

“Father, I need your help,” Sparkler said, her emotions finally cracking.

“Sparkler?” Bucky asked. 

"Sparkler, what is wrong?” Derpy questioned. 

“What happened Sparky? Berry queried.

“Look, I don’t have a lot of time to explain, but there are some ponies I need to collect and make sure they are safe and secure before the sun goes down. My herdmates,” Sparkler replied.

“WHAT?” Derpy screamed, leaping on Sparkler and driving her to the floor. She stood over her daughter, one eye closed, the other focused on Sparkler. 

“Look, mother, I am sorry, but they were being traded for food and Ripple is even younger than Thistle and bad things were going to be done to them, they were going to be traded to a mean farmer that whips his mares and makes them pull plows, and Rising Star and I were married with Loch Skimmer and Ripple because we didn’t want them getting raped,” Sparkler babbled in fear. 

Derpy began to slap Sparkler with her wings, spitting out wordless mutterings, her face purple with rage. She slapped and slapped, each slap a stinging reprimand on Sparkler’s hide. 

“Mother don’t be angry with me for getting married,” Sparkler begged. 

“I AM NOT ANGRY WITH YOU FOR GETTING MARRIED! I AM PISSED WITH YOU FOR NOT COMING TO ME! IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME EVERYTHING I WOULD HAVE HELPED YOU! I AM FURIOUS WITH YOU FOR NOT TRUSTING ME!” Derpy shrieked. She collapsed on Sparkler and squeezed her, the punishment over. Both mother and daughter clung to one another, sobbing. 

Rising Star watched them but said nothing. His eyes glanced at Bucky. 

“Derpy, that’s enough. Time is of the essence. Sparkler, we need to bring our herd together before the sun sets. Derpy, Berry, stay here with the foals. Sentinel, watch my little ones. Rising Star, Sparkler, we are leaving. NOW,” Bucky ordered. 

Derpy gave one last squeeze to Sparkler and then let her go. “Bring our family back,” Derpy said tearfully. 

“I am sorry, you are right, I should have trusted you,” Sparkler apologised while her mother wiped away her tears with her wings. “Please forgive me mother,” Sparkler begged. 

“Already forgiven, now you need to go,” Derpy said, now scrubbing at her own eyes with her foreleg. “Bring back your herdmates so I can protect them.” 

“We are going,” Bucky commanded, heading for the door with his stiff legged gait. “Our herd sleeps together or we don’t sleep at all,” he barked. 

Sparkler kissed her mother one last time, kissed Berry, waved at the others, and left to follow her father. Rising Star scooted after his wife, aware that Berry and Derpy were staring at him.

“We’ll be back soon,” Rising Star promised. 

He shut the door behind him. 



 

Just a little later that evening. 

Bucky approached the door of the stone cottage where Loch Skimmer’s family lived, two of Keg Smasher’s guards following behind him. The big burly pegasi were in a bad mood. Earlier, they had watched Bucky’s daughter in a shouting match with the laird. Now, they were helping her. 

It was never easy being a guard. 

Bucky did not knock, he simply battered the door open with a magical blast, nearly tearing it from the hinges as he did so. He was greeted with screams and a bellow as he entered the door. 

“WHERE ARE THEY?” Bucky demanded, using the royal Voice. 

A group of mares were clustered in the corner, a few small foals peeping out, all of them piled on straw. 

“I gave my word,” a pegasus growled. “I gave my word and my bitch daughter made me break my word.” 

“WHERE ARE THEY?” Bucky demanded again, still using the voice. A foal squealed in terror. 

Loch Skimmer pulled free from the pile of mares, Ripple following behind her. One of Loch Skimmer’s eyes was swollen shut and she limped on three legs. “I tried to come to you,” she whimpered to Sparkler.

“What did you do?” Bucky asked the pegasus, his quiet voice now far more terrifying than the royal Voice he had used previously. 

“Oh shite, somepony has set off the armiger,” one of the guards muttered. 

“Come here,” Bucky said to Loch Skimmer. 

Loch Skimmer meekly complied. Bucky lifted her face up with one foreleg, looking at her carefully, observing the quarter moon shaped gash under her eye. 

“You bucked her in the face. That curve would match the curve on your hind hoof I think,” Bucky said in a small quiet voice that tremored faintly. 

“His other hoof got me in the foreleg,” Loch Skimmer murmured, swooning with pain. 

“Come here,” Bucky commanded, not waiting for the stallion to comply. He pulled the stallion forward by an ear, making the pegasus cry out in pain. “How could you harm your own flesh and blood like this? Is this what you think your word is worth? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn you into an ash pile right now.” 

Bucky struggled to control his rage. He thought of Dinky, and of a lesson not long ago about about power. Real power was the ability to do something and then not do it. Bucky gritted his teeth. 

“Fair is fair,” Bucky growled. His horn flashed. 

The stallion went flying across the room, slammed into a wall with a violent thud, and then slid to the floor. He writhed, squealing with pain, clutching his face with his forelegs as his hindlegs kicked in the air. 

“I hit you with about as much force as you struck your own flesh and blood with,” Bucky hissed. “You did this to her… how do you like it? I am not going to kill you… but I won’t stop my daughter or my son from doing it.” Bucky turned and stormed out of the cottage. 

The pegasus writhed and flopped around on the floor, braying and yelping with pain, still clutching his face. 

“I should kill you,” Rising Star spat. “You struck my wife… but my father left me a good example.” With a flare of his horn, he gathered up Ripple and placed her on his back. “Sparkler, help Loch Skimmer, one of the guards can carry her, I am sure they won’t mind.” 

“Be glad to sir,” one volunteered. 

Sparkler helped Loch Skimmer onto the guard’s back using her magic, and then turned and faced the pegasus still on the floor. “I love my father a great deal, but I also respect the lessons my mother taught me,” she snarled. She crossed the room, her legs stiff, her horn flaring with an eye burning light. She whirled around once she reached the pegasus, she hiked up one hind leg, and then brought it back sharply in the stallion’s groin. 

A high pitched keening whine filled the cottage. 

“Touch my herdmates again and my mothers and I will stomp your bones into jelly,” Sparkler warned. She spat on the stallion and stomped off, glaring at the mares in the corner. “Shame on you all. Mares are supposed to look after one another,” Sparkler scolded. She stormed out the door and slammed it shut behind her. 

The sun would be setting soon. There was still enough time to get back to the castle if they hurried. The group moved as fast as Bucky could walk, and Bucky cursed every step of the way, feeling horribly conflicted about what he had and had not done. As they walked, Bucky tried to comfort Ripple, even though he did not know her. She was just a year or two younger than Sparkler, but small and delicate. 

Ripple took well to Bucky’s kindness and felt comforted riding on Rising Star’s back. She heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that her nightmare was over. 
	
	
> Chapter 70
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The doors of the dining hall slammed open and Bucky entered, leading a small group of ponies behind him. The room was full of ponies expecting to eat dinner, almost all of which looked very alarmed when the doors burst open. 

“Keg Smasher, we have a broken leg here!” Bucky exclaimed. He glared at the occupants of a table and they all skedaddled in a big hurry. It was obvious the pony at arms was in a bad mood and it would be insanity to provoke him further. 

Cautiously and carefully, Loch Skimmer was lowered to the table and laid upon it, on her side, the side with the bad leg facing upwards. She whimpered, now full of fear. The dining hall around them began to bustle with activity. 

Ripple slid from Rising Star’s back and stood near her sister, silent, panicked, and confused. 

“Get rope!” Keg Smasher bellowed. “And fetch Wildflower!” 

“What happened?” Derpy asked, catching Bucky by surprise when she approached on his blind side. 

“Rising Star, comfort your mare,” Bucky instructed, ignoring Derpy’s question for now. A pegasus had flown back into the hall with rope. “Derpy, I need you to go, take the foals and go,” Bucky pleaded. 

“No,” Derpy retorted. 

“Look, please don’t argue, this isn’t going to be pretty,” Bucky begged. 

“No, we stay together,’ Berry argued. “The foals need to know how the world can be, it will be awful, but it will be better for them in the long run.” 

“What she said,” Derpy added. 

“What do I do?” Rising Star asked.

Loch Skimmer began to panic and squirm when she saw the rope, and little whimpers of fear spilled from her throat. She kicked a bit, and then shrieked when the rope was set down on the table next to her. 

“No!” she cried.

“Just comfort her,” Bucky instructed. 

“Tie her down,” Keg Smasher commanded. 

Bucky took the rope in his magic and as gently as possible, began securing Loch Skimmer to the table. He secured her three good legs, and then her body.

Rising Star had moved to the head of the table and stood with his nose inches away from Loch Skimmer’s. He stared into her wide panicked eyes. “This will be over in a just a little while, be strong,” he soothed. 

“No, please no,” she begged, struggling with her binds. 

“This is all my fault,” Sparkler cried. “If I had trusted my mother, my parents, I get the feeling that my mother would have never allowed Loch Skimmer and Ripple to leave. How could I be so stupid?” Sparkler burst into tears, watching her new fellow-wife being tied to a table with the promise of terrible things to come. 

Derpy pulled Sparkler in with her wings and hugged her, trying to calm the now sobbing filly. Another body pressed between them, and Sparkler realised it was Ripple. The three held one another, trying to deal with this troubling moment. 

Rising Star continued to gaze into Loch Skimmer’s and talking in a low voice to her as the commotion continued all around them. 

Berry Punch sat on her haunches a short distance away, Piña one side and Dinky on the other. Sentinel sat with a wing wrapped protectively around Piña. 

“Looks like a fairly clean break. See, look, you can see the lumpy area where the break is,” Keg Smasher explained, pointing with a wing as Bucky watched. “Think you can use your magic to pull her leg straight?” 

“Magic?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, the alternative is we get a section of rope, tie it tight around her fetlock, and give it a good yank,” Keg Smasher replied. 

Upon hearing Keg Smasher’s words Loch Skimmer began to wordlessly scream, her panic peaking. She struggled against her bonds, and urine trickled off of the edge of the table. 

“Poor lass,” Keg Smasher muttered. 

“Her own father did this,” Bucky snarled. 

“Is he still alive?” Keg Smasher inquired. 

“Yes,” Bucky hissed. 

“You let that piece of shite live?” Keg Smasher said, shaking his head. 

“Yes,” Bucky growled. “I’m not proud of it.” 

“We’ll deal with your failure later,” Keg Smasher grumbled. 

Bucky did not reply, but did wonder if he had made a mistake. 

“You can feel things with your magic, right?” Keg Smasher asked. “Like touching?” 

“Correct,” Bucky replied. 

“Good, feel around, press on her skin, see if there feels like any broken off shards of bone. It looks clean but we need to check,” Keg Smasher instructed. 

“But that will be agonising,” Bucky protested. 

“Aye, it will. She’ll feel it,” Keg Smasher admitted. The pegasus took the end of a rope in his feather tips and gently placed it in Loch Skimmer’s mouth. “Bite down lass,” he said in a shockingly gentle tone, his angry bellowing now replaced with the voice of a concerned father. 

Loch Skimmer squealed around the rope and stared into Rising Star’s eyes. 

At that moment, both of them experienced the creation of a bond that would endure for the rest of their lives. They did not know it, or understand it, but it was a bond forged in the fires of fear and pain. It was the sort of bond that endured, as Loch Skimmer could clearly see Rising Star’s own pain from watching her. It was a powerful subtle moment, the sort of moment where life changes. 

And then, when Bucky applied a little pressure to feel with his magic, the bonding moment was gone and replaced with a different moment. 

Loch Skimmer’s howls filled the dining hall. 

Bucky probed, trying to feel for splinters or broken off bits. He didn’t feel anything, but he could feel the sharp edges of broken bone just under the skin. He took her whole leg in his magic, applied a gentle pressure, and pulled until the leg was straight. Loch Skimmer’s frantic gagged screams pierced his ears, and he too, without realising it, had a bonding moment, one that would alter his relationship forever with Loch Skimmer, and he had no way of knowing that one day she would treasure him as her father and trust him completely. 

For now, in this moment, there was only screaming. 

Rising Star gently pressed his snoot against Loch Skimmer’s and murmured words of comfort that could not be heard over the commotion. 

Other foals in the room were crying now, and so were many adults. Pain such as this was entirely too common and even with all of the sufferings, there were still so many tender hearts that were so easily wounded. 

Bucky carefully twisted the leg until it looked straight, hearing a terrible grinding sound over the screaming as he did so. He felt sick, but dared not allow himself to lose control. Panic rose in his mind, and he crushed it down with his recently found sense of iron will. 

“Ah, Wildflower,” Keg Smasher announced. 

Bucky turned his head, focusing his left eye on the new arrival. There was a very old unicorn, her mane mostly gone, and patches of her pelt were missing. She had one white milky eye. She had a pony femur as a cutie mark. She teetered along slowly, and it was obvious she was nearly blind as one of the guards led her along. 

“Poor dear,” Wildflower said. “I can feel so much pain right now… and from you too… whoever you are.” 

Bucky didn’t care about his own pain for a moment. 

The old unicorn sat down on her haunches, her spine crackling as she did so, and began to pull stuff out of a battered bag. A large bowl, a metal container, and rolls of gauze. 

Water was brought to her, which she placed in the bowl, and she dumped in some white powder. She hummed to herself as she worked, which had an amazing calming effect upon all those around her, and she stirred and mixed the pasty white mixture in the bowl. 

She touched Loch Skimmer with her magic, feeling her way around the broken leg, and gently lifted it and held it up in the air. 

Loch Skimmer was still bawling with pain. 

She dipped the gauzy cloth into the white paste, pushed it around, nodded to herself contentedly, and then began to wrap the white pasty cloth around Loch Skimmer’s leg. She moved quickly, adding more strips of cloth to the bowl, soaking them, and then applying them, and a simple white cast quickly began to form around Loch Skimmer’s leg. 

Bucky watched, committing every little detail to his memory, believing this would be a good skill to have. 

Eventually, the old mare was done, and the cast was drying. 

“I want to go now, I don’t like crowds,” Wildflower announced. “Take me back to my room,” she instructed. She began to pack things back into her bag, leaving the bowl out. It was encrusted with the old plaster of countless casts, and the current damp layer would dry and form another layer of history for the bowl. 

Eventually, the elderly mare teetered off with a guard. 

Loch Skimmer’s cries were beginning to subside a little, and Bucky loosened the ropes. Rising Star sat down on the floor, leaned on the table, and took Loch Skimmer’s head gently into his forelegs. He kissed her softly just between her ears, and cooed at her that she had done well. A moment later he was joined by Sparkler, and then by Ripple, and the group had an intimate moment of bonding together. 

“Come morning, I want her father brought here, to me,” Keg Smasher instructed to one of his guard. “No more of this shite, time for a change,” the big burly pegasus growled. He stomped off to his usual spot at his usual table, sat down, and waited for food. 

“We’ll need to construct a sling,” Bucky announced. “Meanwhile, Sparkler, Rising Star, carry her whenever she needs to be moved. Rising Star, you did good.” 

The colt straightened from the unexpected praise. “Really? I felt so powerless,” Rising Star confessed. 

“You were there for your mare, that is all that matters,” Bucky stated. 

Loch Skimmer was panting now, free from the rope, and she laid on the table, not moving much. 

“Is she going to be okay?” Derpy asked. 

“I think so,” Bucky replied. “How are the foals Berry?” he questioned. 

“A little emotional, but they are managing,” Berry reported. 

“Good, let’s eat,” Bucky said. “All of us, together. Rising Star, Sparkler, grab Loch Skimmer, let’s go over with Keg Smasher, and you two prop her up. Ripple?” 

Ripple looked up at the unicorn addressing her.

“Are you going to be okay?” Bucky asked, reaching out and gently stroking the young filly’s cheek with his fetlock. 

“I think so sir,” she sniffled in reply. 

Bucky wiped away a few tears and a dribble of snot. At one point in his life, such an act would have sent him into paroxysms of neurosis, but now, he barely paid it any mind. “Squire Sentinel, make sure this one is looked after. She’s been traumatised badly. Make sure she stays comforted,” Bucky instructed. 

“Yes sir,” Sentinel replied, snapping out a leathery wing in salute. 

“Ripple, you are nothing but bones, when was the last time you’ve eaten?” Bucky asked. 

“I had some grass earlier, I ate when I was walking home from here, just before we found out about the trade,” Ripple replied. 

“When have you had a meal?” Bucky inquired. 

“Been a while,” the filly replied, turning her gaze down to the floor. 

The one-eyed unicorn heaved a sigh. “I want you to eat as much as you can tonight, do you understand me?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes sir,” Ripple replied meekly. 

Bucky watched as his herd gathered around Keg Smasher’s table. It had grown. There were a lot of lives that he was responsible for now, lives he had to protect. Lives he had to live for. Lives he had to improve. Derpy. Berry. Dinky. Piña. Sparkler. Rising Star. Loch Skimmer. Ripple. Sentinel. And probably Thistle at some point. It was a lot to live for. 

“Our herd has grown,” Bucky said to Derpy, who was beside him. 

“It has,” Derpy agreed. 

“How are you taking this?” Bucky whispered. 

“Hard,” Derpy admitted. 

“Going to be okay?” Bucky queried. 

“Eventually,” Derpy answered. 

“Berry?” Bucky asked to the mare on his other side. 

“What?” Berry replied, watching as food was being brought out. 

“How are you holding up?” Bucky asked. 

“I am fine,” Berry said. “A little shook up maybe,” she mentioned. 

“Berry, they are going to need your help,” Bucky stated. 

“I know,” Berry answered. “I’ll sit down with them and help them hammer out some ground rules for making it work. Personally, I think this worked out for the best.” 

“How so?” Bucky asked. 

“Sparkler wanted a herd. She formed one with members who are going to be very appreciative of being rescued from a bad situation. Going to be a powerful bond there, might even rival ours,” Berry said with a forced sounding chuckle. 

Derpy’s ears perked. 

“So how does this work?” Bucky asked. “Are we two herds or one herd?” 

“One,” Berry replied. “One herd with extended family. One day, they might leave us, but for now, we are one herd.” 

“I see,” Bucky quipped. 

“The bed is going to be crowded,” Derpy announced. 

Bucky nodded and eyed the food being set out upon the table. Tonight was sure to prove interesting. 
	
	
> Chapter 71
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Father?” 

Bucky awoke somewhat, aware of Sparkler’s voice. It was bitterly cold in the room, and Sparkler was sitting near his head, shivering. He looked up at her with his left eye, and saw her horn was faintly lit. 

“Sparky?” he replied groggily. 

“I was having a nightmare, it scared me,” the filly said, leaning down and speaking softly into Bucky’s ear. 

Even with his sleep addled mind, Bucky came to the realisation that Sparkler had come to him, and not to Derpy. It was a thought that bothered him faintly. 

“He was beating her, and I couldn’t make it stop,” Sparkler whimpered. “And then other things happened. Bad things, and I was forced to watch.”

Bucky peered around, looking at the piles of ponies around him. Berry was on his left side, Derpy was on his right, he knew the foals were with Derpy, and Sparkler’s herd had their own pile under their own blanket. 

“Come here Sparky,” Berry said groggily, she stood up, letting a flood of freezing cold air under the blanket. She pulled Sparkler under her, and then laid down on top of her, squashing her into the bed. Sparkler did not protest as Berry squeezed her. 

“I didn’t mean to wake everypony up,” Sparkler whispered. 

“I think it is just us,” Bucky replied quietly. 

Sparkler shivered under Berry, grateful to be comforted by the mare she loved. She cried softly, the tears finally coming, and she pressed her face into Berry’s foreleg. “I hate this place,” Sparkler sobbed. 

“Then make it better,” Berry whispered into Sparkler’s ear. 

“I failed them, I should have trusted in my family, and I didn’t. And somepony got hurt. I am a terrible alpha,” Sparkler cried softly. “I failed to keep them safe… my herdmate has a broken leg and it is my fault… mine… how do I keep them safe father?” 

“You focus on building a bond with them, and I will focus on keeping you safe,” Bucky whispered as he leaned down and kissed the wounded filly that he called his own. “And don’t make the same mistake twice.” 

“I feel so ashamed, I can’t bear to be in my own skin right now,” Sparkler confessed. 

“I am not ashamed of you Sparkler. You did something very brave, you took a leap of faith. So what if you stumbled a bit, the point is, you took that leap,” Berry whispered into Sparkler’s ear. She kissed the ear that she spoke into and then gave a loving nuzzle to the filly’s cheek, wiping away tears with her snoot. “Our failures are what make us great, not our successes. When we get things right on the first try, we learn nothing of value. It is only when we screw up repeatedly that we learn stuff. Trust me, I know, I’ve spent my whole life learning things the hard way.” 

“And Rising Star must love you a great deal to agree to this, so look at the good to be found,” Bucky encouraged. He suffered a sharp stabbing pain in his eye socket and his head felt swimmy. The cold was biting into the dried out and taut flesh inside of his eye socket. His head wobbled on his neck and he saw Berry shoot him a worried glance. “Just hurts sometimes,” he whimpered, laying his head down and waiting for the pain to pass. 

Sparkler continued to sob quietly as the ponies around her continued to slumber. Berry’s forelegs were soon completely soaked, but Berry did not mind. “Keg Smasher said her father might challenge the marriage if we don’t consummate it… I don’t want Loch Skimmer to be traumatised any more than she already is, she and Rising Star barely know one another,” Sparkler said in a sobbing heaving whisper. 

“If he challenges it I will freeze him solid and kick him into shattered chunks,” Bucky replied in a wavering pain filled whisper. “Nopony threatens what is mine. Make no mistake, Loch Skimmer and Ripple are now mine.” 

“That makes me feel better,” Sparkler murmured from beneath Berry. 

“Nothing threatens my fillies or my colts,” Bucky muttered, still sounding woozy from pain. 

“Killing him wouldn’t solve much, but it would make me feel better,” Berry admitted. 

“I kicked him in the potato sack,” Sparkler sniffled. 

“Good girl,” Berry whispered. 

“Father unloaded several hundred pounds of force onto his face and sent him flying,” the still sniffling filly added. “He cried like a foal.” 

“I matched the amount of force used to wound Loch Skimmer,” Bucky explained in an unsteady whisper. 

Berry nodded in dark and then resumed her nuzzling, trying to comfort Sparkler. She could feel Sparkler’s barrel beneath her, still hitching and expanding greatly as she heaved deep breaths as her emotions flooded out from her eyes. 


“I see the moon, the moon sees me
shining through the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.

Over the mountain, over the sea,
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.

I hear the lark, the lark hears me
singing from the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love,

Over the mountains, over the sea
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love.” 


Berry’s voice was gentle and melodic, and halfway through her song Bucky fell into slumber with a soft snort. She felt Sparkler going limp beneath her as she sang faintly into Sparkler’s ear, her gentle song lulling the troubled filly into sleep. 

Finally, everypony around her was asleep, and Berry drifted off into slumber as well, still piled atop Sparkler, feeling warm, safe, and secure. Even the wolves howling outside couldn’t bother her as she drifted off into a contented sleep, surrounded by those she loved, and those she would soon learn to love. 





The skies were grey and threatened rain, a wild natural storm blowing in off the sea. The morning was cold and bleak, unusually chilly feeling for a summer morning, unless you were an inhabitant of the isles, and then it still felt pretty warm. As with everything else, it was all about perspectives. 

The crowd in the courtyard was immense, and it was packed wall to wall with ponies. Everypony had been gathered. The ones that didn’t fit in the courtyard stood on the ramparts and the walls. Others stood on top of roofs. Still more were packed all inside the gate entrance, and every face looked curious about what was about to happen. 

The Laird was about to make an announcement. 

Bucky sat on the raised platform reserved for the local nobles, of which there were a few, all of them looking very much like soldiers, ponies that had earned their place and position. All of them were covered in scars, and many were missing bits and pieces of their bodies. It was disturbing to Derpy just how well Bucky fit in with his new peers. All of them looked grim and hard faced, the ones that still had whole faces. There were a few that were only a mass of scars, including Bucky, who had one half of his face mutilated, still hidden under bandages. 

Nothing was given on the isles, everything was earned. 

At the other end of the platform, Loch Skimmer’s father was chained to a post, blindfolded and bound. 

Keg Smasher stood nearby, his breath visible in the cold. In the grey light, he was an imposing figure, impossibly large by pony standards, even larger than many lunar pegasi, who were considered huge. Even the second largest pegasi in attendance was only half of Keg Smasher’s immense bulk. Keg Smasher began to pace over the platform, walking to and fro, flexing his albatross like wingspan as he did so. He was still covered in fresh cauterisation marks and part of his sunburned skin had began to peel. 

“Things must change,” Keg Smasher bellowed over the sound of the crowd. “The old ways need to go… we live in a different time now. We have a future we need to make. We have an impossible task ahead of us, and we need every able bodied pony we have to do it. To this end…” 

Keg Smasher paused and looked out over the crowd, meeting the eyes of several ponies. He then turned his head and looked at his collection of nobles. 

“To this end we can no longer afford to lose able bodied ponies to needless cruelty. I ain’t saying you can’t set your foals straight, but there is a big difference between a stinging slap and breaking a leg. To this end, injuring a foal, or family member, be that a mare or a stallion, will be met with harsh punishment. This sort of shite ends today,” Keg Smasher announced. 

There was a loud rush of sound from the crowd, astonished cries, and a few angry protests. 

“SHUT YOUR HOLES!” Keg Smasher commanded in a loud shout. 

The crowd quieted somewhat, now a low dull roar. 

“Today, an example is going to be made. Yes, I understand that what I am about to do is going to cause grievous injury and will go against my own goals, but the example must be made,” as he spoke, he pulled a long cat o’ nine tails out from a chest sitting on the raised platform and held it in his wing. The ends fell to the ground with a collection of thumps. 

“For the crime of permanently scarring such a beautiful face with a mark that will never go away, two lashes,” Keg Smasher bellowed. 

“NO!” Loch Skimmer begged. “NO! PLEASE!” She was sitting between Sparkler and Rising Star, her front leg in a sling tied around her neck. Tears were falling down her face now, and she shot a glance to her mothers who were sitting in the front, near the raised platform, all of them looking terrified. 

“You wretched piece of shite, how it must shame you to hear your own filly beg for mercy on your behalf after what you did to her,” Keg Smasher snarled. “For the crime of breaking her leg, five lashes!” 

The crowd fell dreadfully silent and guards moved to take position on the front of the raised platform. A silent crowd was never good. 

“Buckminster!” Keg Smasher shouted. “I want you over here!” 

Bucky rose. “What do you want?” he asked. 

“For your failure to adequately punish this filly beater for harming one of your herd members, you are to deliver the punishment,” Keg Smasher demanded. 

“No,” Bucky stated flatly.

“No?” Keg Smasher asked. “That wasn’t a question. That was an ORDER! If you don’t punish him, then I crush his head under my hoof.” 

“I can stop you,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“You could lad. You could kill me. But who will look after these ponies? Because if you try to stop me, I will make you kill me,” Keg Smasher announced. “This is for the good of everypony. Nothing here will change unless brute force is applied. You know it too, which is why you are scowling right now. In the future, we can enact gentle measures, once there is a new generation born to appreciate them. But for now, we have to speak a language these ponies of this generation will understand.” 

Bucky snarled wordlessly. 

“Bucky, my love, listen to me,” Berry begged. “I know this will be awful, but this needs to be done… not for vengeance, but to give ponies something to be afraid of so they don’t do this again. Keg Smasher is right, an example needs to be made.” 

“Derpy?” Bucky asked, turning to somepony else he loved and trusted. 

Derpy dropped her gaze to the platform and her ears drooped to the sides of her face. “He harmed a foal. A foal. And a lesson must be taught that this is not alright. I don’t like the punishment, but I agree that it needs to be done. It is going to be awful, but if one pony has to take a flogging to prevent other ponies from being beaten or seriously hurt, that seems like a fair exchange,” Derpy said. 

“Thistle?” Bucky asked, looking at the kelpie. 

“You are asking me?” she replied. 

“Yes,” Bucky answered. “If you are to be a part of this herd, I want to see if you are mature enough to be a worthy member.” 

Thistle was silent for a moment before answering, her face thoughtful. “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good,” she said softly. “I understand this better than most ponies. I know what I have had to endure for a cause greater than my own life.” 

“I am sure you do understand Thistle, thank you,” Bucky acknowledged. He turned his head to Sparkler. “Sparkler?” he asked. 

“If I was asked I would do it myself,” Sparkler spat, fresh tears now running down her face. 

“Rising Star?” Bucky asked, turning his left eye upon the colt. 

“I hope it kills him,” Rising Star growled. “What I saw in Loch Skimmer’s eyes last night when she was tied down to the table haunts me. Tying down a pegasus… I don’t know what hurt her worse,” He gently wrapped a leg around Loch Skimmer’s withers and glared at the pegasus chained to the post. 

“Loch Skimmer?” Bucky asked finally, looking into the filly’s eyes. 

She said nothing, but leaned on Rising Star while she wept. She closed her eyes and Sparkler gently leaned up against her. After a long painful moment, the filly nodded her head but said nothing. Ripple buried her face unto Sparkler’s side and howled. 

Bucky heaved a sigh of resignation and looked at the crowd, who was staring at him expectantly, and still frighteningly quiet. He turned to look at Keg Smasher, who was waiting patiently. The chained pegasus wasn’t going anywhere, and Keg Smasher was in no big hurry. 

Bucky walked forward, stiff legged, his head held high. He snatched the whip from Keg Smasher and recoiled in horror as he took it into his magic. It was leather, made from the skin of some creature. It felt wrong in his magical grip. 

He realised that Sentinel was standing beside him, looking solemn and serious. “Go sit with the others,” Bucky instructed. 

“No sir, I cannot,” Sentinel replied. “I am to remain at your side during times of trouble, and this is trouble.” 

Bucky heaved another sigh and nodded his head slightly in acceptance. He hefted the whip in his magic, getting a feel for it. It was leather, long, and had nine ends, each end having a tiny lead ball at the end. There was dried blood on the braided leather, it flaked, crackled free, and then drifted to the platform below. 

“I personally do not agree with this, but I accept that it is necessary,” Bucky announced. “Prepare yourself you wretch. I hope all of you watch this and understand your fate if you abuse your foals. Or use them as trade goods. As a father, I cannot imagine doing something to harm my own foals. Or my mares. I would never in good conscience harm one hair on their bodies. They are my everything. My reason for living. The reason I draw breath. I worship them and would die for them without question or hesitation.”

There was a hushed murmur in the crowd. 

Bucky swished the whip in the air a few times, getting a feel for it. He took an experimental lash in a direction where nopony was standing, and there was a supersonic crack that made the chained pegasus cry in alarm. 

He stood in silence, dreading what he must do next. 

Swiftly and suddenly, he lashed the cat o’ nine tails forward and it connected with the chained pegasus. There was a gibbering cry of pain and the bound pegasus thrashed against his bonds, trying to be free. Several feathers fell to the platform and several drops of blood trickled down. 

One. 

He hurled the whip again, and it thundercracked against the stallion, splitting flesh and opening fresh wounds over the pegasus’ back. One wing now hung at an odd angle. 

Two. 

The whip sprang forward once again, several of the ends wrapping around the stallion’s hind legs and biting deep. The pony threw himself weakly against his bonds and howled for mercy, his voice a ragged scream. 

Three. 

This time some of the tails landed on his withers and wrapped around the base of his neck and his chest. The pegasus went limp in his bonds, whimpering now, and unable to speak. 

Four. 

Some of the heads came down upon the stallion’s spine, and more feathers were torn from the bound wings as the other heads tore deep into the flesh of the pegasus’ wings. 

Five. 

The crowd cried out as the whip connected upon the stallion’s croup and some of the heads tore into the side of the hip, ripping away some of the stallion’s mark. 

Six. 

The crowd had turned away now from the bloody mess, and even Bucky could no longer look at what he was doing. When he brought down the lash this time, it sent spatters of blood flying all the way out to the wall as it traveled through the air. It connected with a terrifying “CRACK!”and Bucky winced, unable to look at the damage done. 

Seven.

Bucky tossed the bloody scourge down upon  the platform and looked at Keg Smasher. “Has justice been properly applied?” he asked. 

“Aye, I think it has,” Keg Smasher agreed. “And to everypony present, this could be you. Don’t think I won't do it!” 

Bucky strode towards his family, feeling strangely numb, unable to comprehend what he had just done. It was an unimaginable act of cruelty, and even as he walked, he could feel it changing him profoundly. “Never again,” he muttered to himself. “Never again… I will not bring harm to my fellow ponies ever again,” he swore. This one act of violence was rippling through his brain, and his entire psychology shifted as he tried to take in exactly what he had done. 

“Keg Smasher, never ask me to do that again, or else I will take my family and we will go… I do not care about the long term consequences. If Equestria will not take us, we will go to other lands and this war can rage forever for all I care. I swear upon my mares and my foals that I will never harm one of my fellow ponies ever again. Do I make myself clear?” Bucky said as he stormed across the platform. 

“As the waters in the loch,” Keg Smasher replied. “And I will do as you ask, since you have done as I have asked. I will never ask you to do this again and no conditions or threats of coercion will be applied.” 

Bucky looked at his foals, the little ones, Dinky and Piña had their faces buried under Derpy’s wings. They trembled and there was a wet puddle under Piña that made Bucky feel ashamed of what he had done. 

“Take up Loch Skimmer and the little ones. We are leaving,” Bucky announced. “Let us be away from this horrible place.” 
	
	
> Chapter 72
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky was almost back to his room when the tears started. It was a few at first, and then a chuffing sob, and then he very nearly collapsed upon the floor. Rising Star and Sparkler were busy carrying Loch Skimmer, and it was very difficult to get everypony safely into their quarters. 

Derpy and Berry both had seen their husband cry before, but never like this. He cried like a kicked foal, deep horrible sobs that were utterly incapacitating. Berry had the presence of mind to understand that this was healthy on some level, his pain hadn’t manifested as a panic attack or a total shut down, but knowing it and seeing it were two indispensably different things. 

Bucky curled into a fetal position on the bed and continued to wail pitifully, and Berry gently tried to comfort him with a soft touch, trying to touch the places that were the least injured.

“Watch him,” Derpy commanded. “I have to go take care of something.”

“You are leaving?” Berry asked. 

“Just for a moment,” Derpy replied, and then she was gone, flying out the door, one eye closed so she could see properly. 

The grey mare flew down the hall with astounding speed, down some stairs, down the length of hall leading to the dining hall. She peered around and found nothing. She went careening down the hall at breakneck pace, went through the doors, and peered out into the courtyard. Still full of ponies, but not her target. She turned and headed back inside, her wings beating frantically, and she cracked her fetlocks in a most disturbing way. 

She burst through the throne room doors a few moments later, a grey blur, and without a single word of warning, flew at her target like a dart. She connected solidly with one front hoof, sending Keg Smasher flying backwards, flipping over, and landing on his back. 

“Och, stay back!” the prone stallion commanded to his guard as he tried to shield his face with his forelegs. 

“You son of a bitch,” Derpy growled. She unleashed a flurry of blows, some of which Keg Smasher blocked, others connected solidly with his jaw. “My husband has done nothing but help you, and this is the thanks you give him? You broke him!” One particularly hard punch landed solidly and there was a sickening crunch. 

“YOU COWARD!” Derpy screamed. “You know you have to stay here and rule. So you made Bucky bear the horror of your terrible act, knowing that he would leave someday and take the fear of what was done with him! 

Derpy’s hoof slipped past Keg Smasher’s defenses and connected solidly with his snoot. There was another terrible cracking sound as the ridge of his nose broke. 

“YOU HURT HIM! INSIDE! YOU BROKE THINGS! NOW TAKE YOUR OWN PUNISHMENT!” Derpy hollered. One hoof moved, it was blindingly fast, as only a pegasus hopped up on magically charged adrenaline could be. It connected with the side of Keg Smasher’s jaw with a crack that echoed through the throne room. “BECAUSE OF YOU HE IS DISFIGURED ON THE OUTSIDE AND ON THE INSIDE!”

Derpy rose into the air, her forehooves bloody. She glared down at the pegasus below her, and in the ultimate of all pegasus specific insults, pissed on him to establish her own dominance. It was a crude and terrible act, usually reserved for the worst of foes. Stories say that Commander Hurricane pissed on several dragons he had vanquished, and more than a few griffons. Pissing on your enemy, while alive or dead, was considered just about the worst thing any pegasus could do. 

Finished, Derpy landed, extended both wings, and then presented her middle central primary feathers in the second worst of all pegasi insults. The guards were standing in wide eyed shock, completely unable to take in what they had just witnessed. The mare had just shot their Laird a double birdie after laying him low. 

Keg Smasher lay on the ground groaning. He turned his head to one side, spat out a tooth, hawked in the back of his throat, and then spat out a large gout of blood and several more teeth. “Aye, I suppose I deserved that,” he grumbled. 

Derpy stomped stiff legged towards the door, lifted her tail, farted, and then stormed out of the room, leaving behind one battered pegasus with a broken nose and several missing molars, a group of shocked guards, and a large puddle of piss. 

Past the doors, she took wing and then flew off to be with her family, feeling much better now that she established a new pecking order of the flock on this island. 



 

Sparkler looked down at her mother and her mother’s bloody hooves. She didn’t know what had taken place, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what had taken place. Her mother was broody and was hugging Piña and Dinky fiercely, something that made both of the foals feel better and calmed the outraged pegasus. 

“We need to get ready,” Rising Star announced quietly. 

“Ready for what?” Sparkler inquired. 

“School,” Rising Star stated. 

“After everything that just happened? I don’t think anypony is up for it,” Sparkler said flatly. 

“But it needs to be done. Especially after what took place. So pack up, grab our materials, and let’s head for the dining hall,” Rising Star said patiently. 

“I don’t know if this this a good idea,” Sparkler protested. 

“Look, we owe it to those foals to make a difference, and our time here is limited. We must make every day count, even the bad days. Now come on, I am not asking, I am telling, so grab our stuff, grab Loch Skimmer, get Ripple, get Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel, and we will head to the dining hall. And ponies will bring their foals, even with everything that has taken place this morning, and we salvage what is left of the day. Am I understood?” Rising Star announced. 

Sparkler did not reply. She glanced briefly at her parents. Berry was still comforting Bucky. Bucky was still curled up and crying. Derpy was trying to comfort herself by comforting others. Sparkler stomped a hoof and lunged forward, kissing Rising Star passionately, leaning in and giving him the sort of affection she felt he deserved. 

“You’re right,” she agreed after pulling away from the kiss. 

“I am not sure I am up for school today,” Loch Skimmer said weakly. 

“Tough,” Rising Star retorted abruptly. “You were just going to lay in the bed anyway, might as well be learning something.” 

Loch Skimmer scowled, but then her face softened. “The distraction would be nice,” she admitted. 

Thistle did not comment, but pranced in place nervously. 

“I will come with you,” Derpy said. “Berry, try to get him out and about. Even if it means being a little rough with him. Don’t let him sit in here and stew.” 

“Good idea,” Berry said as she gently trailed a hoof over Bucky’s belly where he wasn’t sunburned or horribly chewed on and then burnt. Her touch was having its usual effect on Bucky. 

“What is it with earth ponies?” Derpy asked. “You and Bon Bon both. Ever notice that?” 

“You’re right. I wonder what it is?” Berry asked. 

Piña broke free from Derpy, squirmed over to Bucky, and gently placed her hooves on a spot on his barrel where she wouldn’t hurt him. “Feel better,” she soothed. “We need you.” 

The unicorn did not reply. His remaining eye was shut and he continued to cry miserably. 

“Let it out,” Berry said. “Just get it all out, better than how you used to hold it all in,” she whispered into Bucky’s ear. “This is a good moment for you, you finally have let yourself show a little real weakness around us.” 

“I cry all the time,” Piña sniffled. “It feels good to let it out.”

“Come on, hurry up, quit dragging your hooves,” Derpy said. 

Piña reluctantly shuffled off towards the door, Dinky following after her, and Sentinel marching behind them both. Ripple strode beside Sentinel, trying to mimic his unusual walk, holding her head high. Her face was still stained with tears, but she was determined to establish herself within her new herd. The slight looking filly was also charcoal grey like her older sister, but had a light blue mane and tail instead of straw coloured. 

Derpy leaned down over her husband. “Spend some time with Berry. Maybe spend some time in the brewery. Or just some time together. I love both of you,” Derpy said as she planted a kiss on her fellow-wife and then her husband. 

Loch Skimmer watched the display of affection. “My father and my mothers never behaved like that,” she commented in a low voice. 

“Learn from our example,” Derpy stated. “Be good and gentle to your husband. He is a good colt.” 

“She’s right,” Berry replied. “Behind every good stallion there is a good mare or a herd of good mares. Well, in a family sense. You get the idea.” She planted a kiss on Bucky’s twitching ear and continued to rub his belly. 

Berry watched as the crowd cleared from the room, leaving her alone with Bucky. She listened as their hoofbeats echoed down the hall, and eventually the room was silent. She let Bucky continue to cry, content to be a good wife and soothe her husband. 



 

The sky still threatened rain as Berry led Bucky gently along, occasionally nosing him. He still hadn’t spoken a single word, and his remaining eye was dull and glassy. He was dull and listless as he moved slowly through the grass, the cool air soothing on his fevered skin, but painful on his eye socket. 

The stallion seemed inconsolable and Berry wasn’t sure what to do. 

“Bucky, maybe we should consider accepting Thistle into our herd. I know we could talk Derpy into it. And then maybe we should go. This place is getting to us all. Even me,” Berry stated. 

There was no reply. Bucky continued to move mindlessly through the grass, wobbling about unsteadily, still looking vacant. 

“This is an awful place. It does bad things to ponies,” Berry commented. 

Bucky continued to be near catatonic, and he stumbled through the grass, his face strangely blank. He was walking in wide disoriented circles, kept moving only by Berry’s nudges. 

“Bucky, damnit, say something to me!” Berry shouted. 

The stallion fell over into the grass and began to sob again. Berry eased herself down beside him and rubbed him gently along his lower barrel. Berry felt Bucky’s snoot press into her neck and she could feel his hot heaving breath as he wept. 

“Feck everything… I hate this place,” Berry muttered. “Just let it out. Let everything out. Don’t let it poison you,” the mare cooed as though she was talking to a foal. The grass was damp all around them and there was no sun. The skies were grey and full of clouds which were turning darker and darker. The air reeked of ozone and not from unicorn magic. A wild storm was brewing, like the ones that occasionally blew out from the Everfree and it promised to be interesting. The air was also filled with the smell of moist earth, old rotten fish, sewage from the castle, and the sweetness of the grass. The wind whipped Bucky’s jet black mane and tail all around them, and Berry’s own raspberry coloured mane also rippled in the breeze, not having been styled or cared for in quite a while. 

“Do you need me Bucky? Derpy told us to spend time together… I know you are in a fragile state right now, but I am sure we can find a way for you to have a release,” Berry offered. 

There was no reply, Bucky just continued to lay there, unresponsive and weeping. Berry did feel his leg brush up against her briefly though. She rolled him on his back and began to rub his belly and his barrel, avoiding any places with cauterised bites. The grieving stallion responded somewhat, looking up at her briefly, before closing his remaining eye and succumbing to his sorrow once again. 

“It is everything hitting you all at once, isn’t it? In such a short time, you were married, your life changed, you came here, lost your eye, and now I don’t even know what it is that you’ve lost, but it was something important to you… and everything is coming apart right now, isn’t it?” Berry asked as she rubbed her hooves in slow lazy circles along his flesh. “Try not to think about what you’ve lost. Think about what you have gained. You have two mares that love you, and there will probably be a third soon. You have two little fillies that adore you, you are everything to them, you have a young colt that sees you as a father even if he doesn’t want to say it and would rather remain your squire… and then there are Sparkler and Rising Star. Sparkler came to you last night for a reason. You don’t know it but Rising Star watches everything you do and listens to every word you say. Loch Skimmer and Ripple both seem comfortable around you and trust you… even after the events of this morning. Surely you can take some comfort what you have gained,” Berry said as she leaned down and kissed Bucky on the underside of his jaw and then planted a few more for good measure. 

The first raindrop splashed down, cold and wet. Then a second one struck Bucky on his navel. And then, the torrent opened and the storm began to rage, instantly drenching the pair. The rain was cold and soothing, and washed away much of the unicorn’s hurt, both inside and out. He looked up at Berry, whose mane was plastered over her eyes. 

“Never again,” he whispered as lightning crackled overhead. 
	
	
> Chapter 73
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Change is a funny thing and perhaps the only constant thing that exists in the universe that continues to happen with any regularity. Everything continues to change, shaped in part by the changes that take place around it and the environment in which those changes happen.

There was once a unicorn, born to the worst of unicorns, the son of a long line of terrible unicorns, all of whom were born under a dark cloud that shadowed their destinies. Any of these promising sons that showed potential lived interesting lives, lives full of tragic circumstances that drove them towards their destiny, creating within them the opportunity for change. 

And without fail, every one of these promising sons fell into darkness, broken by the times they lived in, taken down by the inherited destiny that they carried upon their shoulders. It was a series of changes that broke them, a perfect chain of events that struck upon their every weakness, shattered their resolve, and then it was a terrible change that brought them to their ruin. 

And surprisingly enough, many met their ruin upon the Isles, drawn by simple twists of fate to the wretched land they were responsible for creating. It was a place that broke ponies, crushed their spirits, and ground even the strongest wills down into broken states of total failure. 

This unicorn, born to the worst of unicorns, found himself in the lands his forefathers had created, like many of his own forefathers before him, and he had been drawn to the very edge of what he could endure. What remained was a broken heap, a collection of ragged tatters, chewed flesh, and a soul on the verge of breaking, a thin fragile connection remained that kept this unicorn from falling so completely  into darkness. 

This son, much like his forefathers, found himself unable to pull himself back from the brink, slowly sliding into his dark fate, but that thin connection was surprisingly strong, and it connected to not one, but two mares of surprisingly hardy stock, both born survivors and fighters, both also products of change. One was earthen, a product of these cursed lands herself, stubborn, resistant yet open to change, fierce, gentle, and very much in love with the unicorn sliding into darkness. The other was wind personified, also a creature born of change, and the embodiment of what she represented. She was change, a relentless wind that one had to be flexible to endure or else face breakage as the raging storm swirled all around. She was also a fierce protector, possessive, and had the stubbornness to match her earthen counterpart. She too loved the unicorn, and tried to keep him within the calm eye of her storm. She was not content to let him go; and, to keep the one she loved, she offered him her life, a home, and foals, powerful incentives that gave the unicorn something to strive for.  

It was here that this son, born to the worst of unicorns, succeeded where his forefathers had failed. He had created bonds with those who would not let go of him, and during the moment where he had failed completely, when he hit the broken place like so many of his ancestors, he had the strength of others to fall back upon. When he could go no further and do nothing to save himself, he had others willing to shoulder the terrible burden he carried, to try and save him from his fate, not knowing what awaited him or what they were saving him from. 

And so, the terrible repetition of destiny suffered change for the first time. 



 

Over a week had passed since the flogging. Each had dealt with the awful event in their own way. Bucky remained in a state of near silence, saying very little, trying to deal with everything that had happened in such a short period of time. Berry focused on being a good wife, understanding there was something about her touch that kept Bucky going. Derpy focused on the new herd members, bringing them in and making them feel welcomed. Thistle had turned into one of Bucky’s constant companions, something that the grey mare had noticed and approved of. 

Rising Star was experiencing a major shift in his personality. In some ways, he became even more poetic in his nature, but also more serious. It settled upon his shoulders that he was no longer a colt, not in the sense that he had a been a colt, a rollicking free spirit with no real responsibilities. Now, he was a husband and one of the two heads within a herd. He approached his new role cautiously and openly sought advice from Berry, and he was resolved not to fail those whom he was responsible for. 

Sparkler focused on her new role, also seeking advice from Berry, and sometimes talking with her mother, trying to make amends for her mistake. While Derpy had forgiven her, Sparkler was having a great deal of trouble forgiving herself. Her mistake had brought terrible consequence, and Sparkler was determined to make restitution for what she had done. As a result, her friendship with Loch Skimmer had grown a great deal in a short time. 

Loch Skimmer focused on her place within her new herd, as a fellow-wife, an older sister, and now a daughter to parents that she had trouble comprehending. The open affection was disarming, and there had been several instances where she had trouble adjusting to her new life. There was a time when Bucky had kissed her affectionately on her cheek and she had frozen, perhaps expecting something else, not sure what had gone through her own mind exactly. Up to this point in her short life, Loch Skimmer’s experiences with males had all been relationships based on fear. 

Ripple fared a little better, openly welcoming her new herd-parent's affections, forming a strong bond with Derpy almost right away, and much to everypony’s surprise, a fast friendship with Sentinel. The two had quickly become an inseparable pair, with Ripple rapidly sliding into the role of a big sister to the younger lunar pegasus. Ripple also quickly took to Dinky and Piña, glad to watch over them and spend time with them. 

Sentinel poured himself into his schoolwork, and had shown much improvement in just a few days. He was bright, attentive, and motivated far beyond the usual standards of most colts his age. He had aspirations and dreams, and they required literacy and education. He had begun saluting more, giving Bucky and others the respect that he felt they deserved. He had sworn yet another oath, this time to Ripple, to keep her safe from the rats that terrified her. It was a service with its own reward. 

Dinky was content that something resembling school had returned into her life, giving her the sense of routine that she needed. More than anything though, she desperately wanted to commune again, to tap into magical forces and gain new understanding. The communing had taken away the itching need for mischievous pranks. Dinky was enthralled by the idea of power; not raw magical power, but the knowledge of how to use power, to bend it to her will, to shape the world around her and to have some sense of control over life. Her pranks had been lighthearted and had provided a few laughs, which were much needed right now. 

Out of all of them, Piña had been the one most affected by the flogging, second only to Bucky. While she loved Derpy and her sister Berry a great deal, and had always gone to them for comfort, lately she had been spending more time with Bucky, quietly curled up with him, neither one of them talking very much or needing to talk, but simply content to spend time with one another in silence. Their relationship had shifted, and even though the words had never been said, Bucky felt that out of all of his herdmates, Piña alone truly understood what he felt about what he had done. Piña had a strong sense of right and wrong, a truly prodigious sense of right and wrong, and she knew what it was like to punish one’s self for being bad. 



 

It was a quiet afternoon of rest. School was over, lunch was done, and the entire herd was gathered in their quarters, enjoying a bit of quiet time with one another. Sparkler and Rising Star were playing chess against one another, the chessboard and pieces constructed by Sparkler. It was crude but serviceable. Sentinel was napping, Ripple curled up against his side, her head resting on his withers as she dozed as well. Dinky had conjured up a tiny raincloud and was making it rain into a large clean bucket for drinking water. She was struggling to keep the cloud together with her magic, and Derpy was providing some gentle advice as well as giving an occasional nudge to the cloud to make it behave. The last cloud Dinky had summoned had been a little stormy and had zapped Dinky on the nose for meddling with nature. Piña was curled up in between Bucky’s forelegs, and was currently a pillow for Bucky’s head, which rested on her back. She was watching Berry and Thistle as they talked about something boring. 

Berry and Thistle discussed foal rearing techniques and practical approaches to presenting a united front to a small army of foals that was sure to happen in the near future. Berry and Thistle both felt this was important, as both understood that foal armies were vicious little tyrannical mobs that had to be carefully dealt with. Berry had some practical hoofs on experience with her own siblings, mainly Piña, and Thistle had some small amount of experience through her own siblings and observations. 

Loch Skimmer was on the bed, sprawled out, her broken leg propped up on a pillow, watching the different ponies in the room do different things. She occasionally wiggled a little closer to Bucky, who was also on the bed, completely unaware that she was doing so. 

Bucky snored, having consumed a vast quantity of wine and some mead, and was now blissfully unaware of his own pain. His horn poofed out a ring of smoke occasionally in his sleep and, according to Berry’s observations, looked a bit like a dragon protecting its hoard as he slumbered. 

Time passed, and things changed very little. 

Dinky was still managing her raincloud, listening to her mother’s patient advice about dealing with nature and raw elemental forces, and the importance of having some respect for lightning. 

Rising Star had lost yet another game of chess to Sparkler. 

Thistle and Berry’s conversation had shifted towards the finer points of give and take within a herd and Berry’s observations on her admittedly short marriage. 

Piña had fallen asleep in between Bucky’s forelegs, feeling safe and secure in the daylight where there were no wolves howling. 

Loch Skimmer was now very nearly touching Bucky’s side, laying close to him and drowsing slightly, also feeling very safe and secure. 

Ripple and Sentinel had shifted positions slightly, and now, Sentinel’s wings were wrapped around his head in a cocoon to block out the light. Ripple had mimicked his actions with her own wings to a small degree, and her head was covered by her feathers. The malnourished pegasus farted with every shift of her body, her innards still adjusting to eating something other than grass, and her belly was still swollen from lunch, where she had gorged on leftover pease porridge and fried oatcakes.

It was during this moment of relative peace and calm that there was a faint rapping upon the door. Sparkler rose from her game and approached, unlocking the door and cautiously pulled it open. A pegasus guard stood outside the door, and he bowed his head low when he saw Sparkler. 

“Ma’am, you have visitors,” the guard said and stepped aside. 

Sparkler gasped when she saw the two ponies who stepped into the doorway. 

Bon Bon and Lyra were filthy, covered in mud and worse, and both looked very tired. Sparkler didn’t care about the mud, she threw herself at them, a cry in her throat that woke everypony in the room. 

A lot of things happened all at once, a very confusing series of events that had a final result of Lyra and Bon Bon being buried under a mass of ponies. After several minutes, the unicorn and the earth pony were pulled into the room and the door was closed, Sparkler thanking the guard before locking the door once again. 

Bon Bon, already emotional, lost it completely when she saw Bucky, she stumbled and fell upon Lyra who tried to catch her. Nopony said anything while the pair clung to one another and sobbed for a time, but Berry did go to them and wrap her forelegs around them both. 

Derpy sat nearby, unsure of what to say or do, Dinky and Piña both clinging to her forelegs. 

Finally, Sparkler could take it no longer. “Why are you here? How did you get here?” she asked, still in shock from seeing the pair. 

“What happened to Bucky?” Lyra asked with a pained sniffle, completely ignoring Sparkler’s question. “He looks awful! What did that to him?” she asked while pointing to Bucky who was still on the bed. 

“Bucky was savaged by the shadow wolves,” Berry stated softly. “He’s lost his eye and his wounds had to be cauterised shut to stop the bleeding.” 

“Oh that’s awful,” Bon Bon whispered. “So many ponies I don’t know.”

“I don’t care how you got here, I am really glad you are here, we need you both,” Derpy said, her wings fluttering from barely contained emotion. 

“Before anything else is said, we beg your forgiveness,” Bon Bon said in a choked whisper. “We made a terrible mistake and we hope that you will forgive us.” 

“Mistake? Forgiveness? For what?” Berry asked. 

“We wanted to be a part of your herd… we wanted a part of what you had, your happiness, and then we let you go off and face this wretched place all alone. We wanted to share your happiness, but we didn’t join you in your suffering. I feel terrible!” Lyra confessed, her tone heartbroken. 

Derpy came forward, gently pushing Dinky and Piña aside, she closed the distance between her and Lyra. She leaned out and gently kissed Lyra on her cheek, and then leaned over and kissed Bon Bon. 

“We felt awful,” Bon Bon continued. “We let our best friends go off without us, our friends that we wanted to be herdmates with. We were so foolish,” Bon Bon admitted. “Can you forgive us?” she begged. 

“There is nothing to forgive,” Derpy soothed. “But we do need to get you two cleaned up a bit.” 

“I can’t believe you are here!” Sparkler cried. 

“We missed you Sparky,” Lyra replied. “We missed all of you.” 

“We left just a few days after you did, and we went through a lot of trouble to get here,” Bon Bon stated. 

“Tell us later, let’s get you two cleaned up and settled in,” said Derpy as her nose crinkled. She remembered what the wagon had to roll through to get out of the harbour city. The pair were muddy up to their hocks and beyond. Only Derpy knew it wasn’t just mud. And some of it was now on her own grey pelt. She eyed Dinky’s raincloud and had an idea. 



 

The damp group of ponies were nearly dried from Dinky’s magic. It was a good lesson in fine control. The conjured raincloud had been used for showering. It had been a bit hesitant about giving up the goods at first, but a good scowl from Derpy had set it straight and made the cloud let go. 

Or made the cloud widdle as Piña delicately put it. 

Introductions had been made, and Bon Bon and Lyra were shocked by the size of the herd and how much they had missed. They were surprised by Sparkler’s marriage. The amount to take in was overwhelming. 

“So… how did you get here?” asked Bucky, who was still reclining on the bed. His voice was different now, it was resonant. Commanding. Something had changed him. Where once his voice usually wavered a bit from continual nervousness, now his voice had settled, becoming sonorous, and it had smoothed out into something that was truly pleasing to the ears in a quiet and dignified sort of way. His reedy baritone had become a low rumbling baritone that came from deep within his barrel, it was the sort of voice any patrician would make deals with the dark denizens of Tartarus for. 

Bon Bon was quite taken by the change in Bucky’s voice and apparent temperament. She didn’t know everything that had taken place, but Bucky had changed and Bon Bon couldn’t help but think that it was for the better somehow, something akin to a gut instinct that resonated deep within her. 

“We left just a few days after you did,” Lyra said as she settled onto a sofa. 

“We figured out we made a mistake… we couldn’t sleep. We couldn’t eat. We let our friends that we loved dearly go off to some horrible place. I haven’t been here since I was taken in a sweep a long time ago, but I have memories,” Bon Bon added as she clambered up onto the sofa next to Lyra and began to stroke Lyra’s side. 

“We were halfway to Baltimare when a pegasus told us that Baltimare would be the last stop. He intercepted the train to tell all of the passengers. Baltimare and Fillydelphia both had suffered total collapse. There were riots. There was a bunch of stuff in the newspapers about corruption and it apparently set everypony off. Princess Celestia gave orders that all of the train service was being cut off. Baltimare was a scary place. You could see the city was on fire, and there was smoke rising up into the sky. We never did go into the city proper. We got off at the train station in a little farming community just outside the city,” Lyra explained. 

“We stayed the night with a very kind farmer that lived near the train station that let the passengers use his barn to sleep in. The next morning we saw a newspaper… it said that Princess Celestia had closed all of the harbours and ports. Nothing was going in or out. I thought our journey was done, and we should try to get back to Ponyville somehow, but Lyra said no, we had to go onward,” Bon Bon continued. 

“I led us to the coast. With the harbour closed, there wasn’t a lot of boats. I found a group of griffon fishers that were heading northward towards Manehatten and I talked them into giving us a ride,” Lyra said, relaxing into Bon Bon’s embrace. 

“And by talk, she means used mind control magic to make them agree,” Bon Bon said sourly. “I still feel badly about it. We made it to Manehatten. I wish we hadn’t,” the mare said sadly. 

“Total breakdown,” Lyra announced. 

“There were some ships anchored off of the coast trying to figure out what to do next,” Bon Bon explained. “They couldn’t drop their goods off in Manehatten with the harbour closed. Lyra sweet talked one of the captains into bringing us here,” she continued. 

“And now, we are here,” Lyra said. 

“And this place is even worse than I remember,” Bon Bon stated as she cringed. “I came from Isle Fishhead. This is Isle o’ Groats. I’ve never been to this isle until just today. Lyra cried when she saw the harbour city.” 

Lyra gave a haunted nod but said nothing. 

“I can’t imagine somepony going through so much trouble for other ponies,” Loch Skimmer said in a soft quavering voice. 

“They are our friends, we love them, and we hope they will be family,” Bon Bon replied nervously. “Although I am not sure we deserve it. I feel awful abandoning you. We should have boarded the train with you.” 

“Oh stop!” Derpy snapped. “I am not angry. You shouldn’t feel bad about it,” the grey mare said in a more soothing tone. 

“They are here now, we need to decide what to do with them,” Berry said. “It is my opinion that by coming to us, they have proven their worth. I know I am not an alpha, but I want my opinion known,” Berry announced, nudging Derpy softly and then gesturing at Sparkler. 

“Oh, yes, that’s important,” Derpy said, cottoning on quickly. “Herd communication. Well…” the mare paused and licked her lips nervously after she spoke. “After hearing Berry’s opinion, and carefully considering it, I find I am in a place to agree,” Derpy announced. 

Bon Bon and Lyra both heaved a sigh of relief. 

“I have a condition,” Bucky stated. 

“What?” Derpy questioned. “This is mare business. They are not coming in as fellow-wives, but as extended family.”

“I still have a condition… more of a request really,” Bucky explained. 

Derpy scowled, put on the spot by her husband. She wondered what he was up to. “This is mare business and my decision,” she stated. “But I will take your request into consideration,” the mare added, shooting a quick one eyed glance at Sparkler. 

“If they are going to be in the herd, fellow-wives or not, the price of admission is having one of my foals,” Bucky said with a certain sound of finality. 

“What?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Huh?” Lyra grunted. 

“WHAT?” Derpy demanded. 

Berry wisely chose to stay silent and give Bucky the benefit of the doubt. 

“Look Bucky, in case you missed it, they aren’t interested in stallions,” Derpy said protectively, her wings flaring out slightly. One eye was closed as she glared at her husband fiercely. 

“And I would never force myself upon them, you should know me better. But there is artificial insemination. I am not asking both of them to do so, only one of them, and it is a very simple request,” Bucky explained. “Well, simple request with some long term complications.” 

Derpy’s ruffled feathers smoothed out a bit but she still looked a little uncomfortable and flustered. 

“Actually, Lyra and I have talked about insemination or adoption for a while, we couldn’t find a worthy donor and I have problems with orphanages because I want to take all of them home with me,” Bon Bon replied. 

“This doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me,” Lyra said. 

“But why Bucky?” Derpy asked. 

“Because recent events have taught me to revere life,” Bucky answered. “It is fragile and precious, and I want as much of it as possible,” he explained. “Would you deny me that?” 

“Well, no… no I wouldn’t do that, but if they are bearing one of your foals, which would make it one of my foals, then I want them married in as wives, not just as extended family,” Derpy argued gently. “We are all trustworthy adults, and I think we can reach an agreement where they can be privately left alone to love one another and still be wives.” 

“I am fine by that,” Bucky said, turning his head and focusing his left eye on the pair of ponies clutching one another. 

“If we are going to be wives, then we want access to Bucky for the purpose of fathering more foals if we should so desire,” Bon Bon stated boldly. 

Derpy’s muzzle scrunched and she looked thoughtful. 

“I understand I haven’t secured my place in this herd as of yet,” Thistle said in a soft timid voice full of fear. “But I would like to say I support their right to have foals and request to have a good father that will provide for them. They are going to share the workload in raising your foals, correct?” 

Berry nodded.

“So this arrangement isn’t about rutting, but what is best for any foals that come along because of this agreement. If I was a member of this herd, my own needs and feelings would be secondary to the needs of potential foals. Foals are all that matter,” Thistle stated timidly. 

Bucky nodded and looked at Thistle appreciatively. 

Derpy stared at Thistle for a long silent moment, the only sounds to be heard was the breathing of many ponies packed into a room. The mare and the filly regarded one another, Thistle constantly averting her gaze and staring down at her hooves as Derpy studied her. 

“Come here Thistle,” Derpy commanded. 

Thistle did as she was bid, her steps were shy and nervous, and she fearfully approached Derpy on the sofa. Derpy leaned forward and pulled the pregnant pony up onto the couch with her and cuddled her closely, wrapping her forelegs around Thistle. 

“We understand one another,” Derpy whispered into Thistle’s ear. “That is the most grown up thing you have said so far. You are getting very close,” Derpy said sweetly as she smoothed away Thistle’s concerns. 

Berry raised her eyebrow at Derpy’s words but said nothing. 

“Do we have any say in this?” Dinky asked. 

“I want a say in this,” Piña requested. She poked Sentinel. “Say something,” she whispered. 

“What? What do I say? I serve, I don’t make demands, what is there to say?” he asked the earth pony foal poking him. 

Piña rolled her eyes and gave up, hugging Sentinel instead. “My brother is a dope,” she muttered. 

“I am not,” Sentinel protested, wrapping a wing around Piña. 

“I am all for anything that would give me more mothers,” Dinky stated when nopony replied to her question. “And Lyra makes all kinds of silly voices for characters when she is reading to me.” 

“Yeah, that’s important,” Piña chimed in. “Plus, Bon Bon makes candies.” 

“Chocolate candies,” Dinky added. “Which are really good for pregnant ponies,” she pointed out with a hoof gesture. 

Bon Bon giggled and her ears splayed out sideways. 

“It would be really good for Ripple to have to mature role models,” Sparkler said, her voice cutting through the giggles. “Ripple doesn’t know much, but she knows that she likes looking at fillies more than colts,” Sparkler announced. 

Ripple blushed under her dark pelt and covered her face with her wings. 

“I want Ripple to see that it is perfectly okay and natural for her to feel this way. She is still young enough I think to develop a healthy outlook on her sexuality. This horrible place hasn’t yet broken her spirit completely. I want what is best for her, and having Bon Bon and Lyra around would give her somepony to talk to and go to for advice. I know she could go to Derpy or Berry, but my mothers swing both ways, while Lyra and Bon Bon only go one way. Ripple could get better perspectives from them I feel,” Sparkler explained. “As alpha of my own herd, and the daughter of this herd, this is my opinion.” 

Rising Star looked at his wife thoughtfully, his eyebrow raised. He said nothing but nodded in agreement. 

“I am having trouble taking this in,” Loch Skimmer said. “To take in two mares and then not rut them… I never never heard of such a thing,” she stated in strained voice. 

“Even more of a reason then,” Sparkler announced. “To show Loch Skimmer what family can be, to give her a better example than what she has seen so far.” 

“And we just wanted candy,” Piña whined, looking dejected. She leaned into Sentinel’s embrace and began to sniffle. 

“And this is how a herd should function,” Berry quipped. 

Derpy realised everypony was now looking at her intently. She could feel their eyes, all of them waiting on her decision, her choice, her words as alpha. 

“I will agree to all of this, with one additional condition. Sparkler brings up a very good point. Bon Bon, Lyra, I want both of you to be Ripple’s caretakers. She might be Rising Star’s wife, but she isn’t ready for that now, and won’t be for a long time, and she could learn from our arrangement how to be a good fellow wife even if she only likes mares. Agree to this task and you are in. We will have a proper ceremony when we get back to the mainland,” Derpy announced. 

“Agreed,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Totally agreed,” Lyra answered.

“Welcome to the family,” Derpy stated. 

“So what about Thistle?” Berry asked. 

“What about Thistle?” Derpy repeated in reply. 

“Well? Can we take her in?” Berry questioned. 

“We shall see,” Derpy said, squeezing Thistle in a gentle embrace. She kissed Thistle gently on the cheek and Thistle blushed. “You did good,” Derpy whispered. 

Berry glanced over at Bucky to check his expression. He seemed pleased with everything that had happened, and looked happier than he had been for a while. Her eyes traveled over the faces of everypony in the room, trying to find any hidden unhappiness with the recent arrangement. She found nothing. 

Things were beginning to look up, or so Berry thought, feeling Berry confident about the future. 

Feeling better about everything, she took advantage of the fact that Thistle was currently pinned in Derpy’s embrace. Raising an eyebrow that she hoped that Derpy would notice, she leaned in and planted a slow smouldering kiss on Thistle’s lips that made the filly squeal and stiffen in Derpy’s forelegs. 

Berry pulled away after a very torrid moment and shot Thistle a come hither look. “Just to keep you motivated in your agreement that you have with Derpy,” Berry explained as Thistle fanned herself, her face now as red as an apple. 

Derpy slowly ran her forelegs over Thistle, feeling around, stroking her soft pelt, until her legs were wrapped around Thistle’s belly. She gave a gentle loving squeeze. “I know you want what is best for this foal,” Derpy said in a low voice. “You really did impress me today. You deserve to be rewarded, as we agreed upon. You can go over there and try to kiss Bucky if you would like, if he will let you,” Derpy consented. 

Thistle slid down eagerly from the sofa, paused for a moment, slowed down, tried to hide her fillyish glee, and then slowly crossed the room, trying to move as slowly and carefully as possible. Every eye in the room was watching her, and Thistle felt rather nervous all of a sudden. 

She cautiously approached the bed, her breathing heavy, watching as Bucky cast his one eyed gaze upon her. She kneeled down, planting her front half on the bed, and moved her head in close to the unicorn that made her feel butterflies in her stomach. She licked her lips faintly, and then realised that she was completely terrified. She very nearly bolted right then and there, and she knew that Bucky had seen it in her eyes. She trembled, having suddenly lost her nerve. A moment ago she could barely contain herself after she had slipped off the couch, and now she wasn’t sure if she could go through with it. 

On the other side of the room, Loch Skimmer watched everything that was happening with wide eyed concern, knowing that a similar task awaited her. She worried that Sparkler would feel jealous. She worried that Sparkler would hate her. Her own mouth felt incredibly dry. She cast a nervous sideways glance and looked at Rising Star, who was watching Thistle intently and her interaction with Bucky. 

Derpy watched as Thistle froze, and she felt a pang of worry. Sex and love were two very different things. Thistle had been bred, but she had not been loved. She reached out and grabbed the nearest thing she could, needing to be physical right now, and what she grabbed was Berry Punch, who fell into her embrace without protest. Derpy squeezed the solid earth pony and practically held her breath, hoping that Thistle would pass this little test. She hoped her husband would reciprocate. 

Dinky, tired of waiting, took matters into her own hooves, and began to march forward quickly. She moved with the sort of speed only a foal on a mission seems to have, and her mission was to get this awkward moment over with as quickly as possible. 

“No Dinky!” Derpy cried, realising Dinky was up to no good. 

Too late, Dinky had reached Thistle. Reaching up, Dinky gave Thistle a good shove on her backside, causing her to pitch forward onto the bed. 

Thistle’s lips smooshed into Bucky’s lips for a moment, and Bucky gave a faint cry of surprise. Thistle smooshed her lips around a bit, not sure what to do, not sure what she could get away with, and then melted when she felt Bucky kissing her back. He knew what to do Thistle thought to herself as she felt the warmth spreading through her muzzle. 

Finally, out of breath, and not thinking of breathing through her nose, Thistle pulled away, hearing a giggle from behind her. She stood there panting, feeling warm and flustered. 

Dinky bounded up onto the bed and flopped down near Bucky, beaming a broad smile and looking very pleased with herself. 

“Thank you Thistle,” Bucky said, looking Thistle in the eye. “Dinky, you messed up,” Bucky informed the foal. 

“I did?” Dinky replied, her smile fading. She didn’t want to be scolded. 

“Magic would have served your purpose much better and you could have attacked without warning,” Bucky instructed. 

“Oh,” Dinky answered, her smile returning. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” the foal promised. 

“You do that,” Bucky said as he chuckled. “Or there will be consequences.” 
	
> Chapter 74
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The nighttime brought the horrible howling. It was present through dinner, lingered through the late evening hours, and as it grew darker, the howling grew worse and worse. Watching the effect upon the herd she was now a member of drove Lyra Heartstrings to distraction. She was silent through dinner, irritated afterwards, in a foul mood as evening turned to night until she finally lost it. 

“Bucky!” Lyra barked. 

Bucky looked up from the book about shadowy creatures he was studying and regarded his fellow unicorn and now fellow-wife. 

“That damnable howling! How have you lived with it?” Lyra questioned, trembling and looking quite distressed. 

“I’ve tried soundproofing. Nothing blocks it,” Bucky said patiently, aware that Lyra’s distress was causing distress in others around the room. 

“Soundproofing won’t block that,” Lyra commented. “But I can block that. I think… you have to fight sound magic with sound magic. A pony named Vinyl Scratch taught me that when we were in Celestia’s school together,” Lyra added. 

“The howling causes a terrible fear, and the wolves feed on the fear. It is wearing all of us down I think,” Bucky explained. 

“It’s awful,” Piña agreed. “I’ve had accidents because of it,” she whispered in a small voice full of shame. 

“Not your fault,” Lyra reassured. “It is the magic having an effect on you.” 

“That makes me feel better… accidents are embarrassing and I’ve been feeling so ashamed,” Piña confided. 

Lyra had a grim and determined look on her face. “This reminds me of something that I can’t remember,” she said cryptically, looking very puzzled and confused. “Shadows. Darkness…” Lyra muttered. Lyra closed to her eyes and began to concentrate, and her horn glowed gold. 

Above her, a phantom lyre appeared, it was shining bright and golden, it radiated what felt like sunshine and filled the room with faint magical warmth. It began to make music, sweet beautiful music. The mint coloured unicorn scrunched up her face, looking irritated, and she began to mutter to herself. 

“No, that’s not doing it, not even close,” Lyra mumbled to herself. 

The music shifted, it was still beautiful, but now it was poignant and sad, and it made everypony in the room think of loved ones and lost ones. Lyra waited, still feeling the faint nagging magical compulsion brought about by the howling, and she shook her head in irritation. 

The music changed dramatically, becoming a vaguely militaristic melody, something stirring that inspired courage and made the heart soar. Lyra felt a little better, and she studied the faces of those around her, all of whom were listening to her music and watching her. 

Finally the music became almost like a lullaby, sweet and soothing, bringing with it a sense of relaxation brought about by magic. Lyra felt it. It vibrated through her being like a harp string. It was the perfect counter to the current magical spell. 

The effect upon the ponies around the room was immediate and noticeable. 

“I am really tired, I can’t keep this up all night, but I can give us a little rest,” Lyra offered. “Once I get rested and settle in, I can stay up all night and keep this going to protect us from the fear.” 

“That’s weird,” Derpy announced. 

“What’s weird,” Bucky replied. 

“The heat from the fire,” Derpy said. 

“What about it?” Bucky inquired. 

“I can feel it. It is always so cold in here at night, you can stand next to the fire and still freeze, but I can feel the heat of the flames right now,” Derpy observed. 

Bucky paused, learning a long time ago to trust in pegasus observations. He carefully considered everything his wife had just said. The room was always cold at night, and then warmed up rapidly during the day. He realised he could feel the heat from the fire. The room was warm. Cozy. Snug even. 

“Lyra, stop the music,” Bucky commanded. 

Lyra did as she was bid, tilting her head to the side and watching Bucky’s reaction. She too noticed a chill settling over the room. 

“I don’t feel the hot heat of the fire anymore,” Derpy announced. “Now it only feels like faint faraway warmth," the grey mare reported. 

“I’ll be damned,” Bucky spat. “Lyra, a little music if you please.” 

Lyra brought her lyre back to life, filling the room with life affirming sound, and, after a few moments, with the sound came warmth. 

“The cold is magical in nature,” Lyra gasped. “I’ve never heard of a magic that not only brought fear, but leached heat from the air as well. The howling is what is bringing about this unnatural cold.” 

“Yes it is,” Bucky confirmed. “Dinky!” 

“What daddy?” Dinky replied sweetly. 

“Summon some bees… I have an idea,” Bucky instructed. He shuddered. He still didn’t like bees, but he had an idea. 

Dinky did as she was instructed, bringing the bees into existence with ease. A small swarm moved above her, changing shape and mass as they moved about. 

“Dinky… make the bees buzz with Lyra’s music. Make them sing!” Bucky instructed. 

“Ooooooh that’s a good idea,” Dinky agreed as she set herself to her task. The little unicorn went to work, trying to will what she wanted to the bees, and the bees responded. 

At first, there was no effect, but eventually the buzzing became almost kazoo like, a faint thrumming sound. Dinky was lost in her magic, conducting to her chorus of bees, one foreleg raised and moving as a guide. 

“Wait… wait, I’m feeling something,” Lyra announced. “Keep doing whatever it is you are doing Dinky, music is a special magic all of its own… I am going to have to teach you some music theory.” 

“Sing your bumblebye,” Dinky demanded of her bees. 

Bucky could feel something happening all around him. Not one, but two sources of music working in harmony. Harmonious magic working together with another harmonious magic was a mysterious subject and there was still much that wasn’t known. 

The fire released a roaring heat now, the compressed peat bale in the fireplace radiating so much heat that it made sweat bead up on the pelts of several ponies that were too close. 

Bucky felt elated, feeling a distinct sense of triumph. There was a weapon now against the wolves. A feeling of hope flooded through the room, washing away fear and doubt. Muscles relaxed. Tension fell away. Bucky realised that Lyra couldn’t keep it up all night, but the reprieve, however brief, renewed strength. He felt the pain in his body subsiding a bit, and his head didn’t feel so swimmy. 

“My Lyra’s beautiful music is a weapon,” Bon Bon quipped, feeling a fierce sense of pride for her mate. 

“The fear is what kept me from having total control over my magic on the night I went out,” said Bucky as a pained expression settled over the visible part of his face. “I couldn’t keep my light spell going properly. The fear gnawed at me like a living thing,” he confessed. 

“It is meant to,” Lyra answered. “I find it amazing that you could use magic at all… the willpower needed to focus even just a little under direct exposure of this spell is unimaginable.” 

Bucky took solace in his fellow unicorn’s words. He laid his head down upon the bed, feeling the soothing warmth of the fire, and oddly enough, missing the cool air upon his many seared places. The warmth felt good to his injured muscles, but the cool felt good to his still too tight skin and the many cauterised places, which were healing nicely. He would remain hideously scarred, just like Keg Smasher and so many others all around them, but he was starting to become proud of his marks. He had survived, and the scars were undeniable proof of being a hard case. 

“I feel warm again,” Piña announced. 

“I’ve never seen such magic,” Ripple said, entranced. She came over to sit down near Lyra, and then she looked up at the magical lyre plinking away overhead. “So beautiful,” Ripple breathed. 

One by one, Dinky’s bees blinked out and Dinky heaved a disappointed sigh. “I can’t keep going, this is very tiring,” the little unicorn foal complained. 

“I can keep this up for a while longer, but I am exhausted,” Lyra said to reassure everypony. The mint unicorn smiled at her herdmates, feeling a new sense of empowerment, knowing that she was needed, that she had a place in this herd. A meaningful place. It moved something deep within her equine being, and soothed her troubled mind slightly. 

Loch Skimmer felt inspired by the music, and courage flooded her pegasus heart. She looked at Rising Star, her husband, and felt a longing deep within her, a need to show her appreciation and her growing affection. She hadn’t kissed him properly since their marriage. Oh, there had been little pecks on the cheek and chaste kisses he had planted on her. 

She moved swiftly and without warning, the music flooding her body with courage. Her wings snapped out, wrapped around Rising Star’s head, and dragged him in for a brief kiss… Loch Skimmer’s first real kiss, and she didn’t know what she was doing. 

The colt froze for a moment, not fully registering what was happening, but then rapidly took control once he felt Loch Skimmer’s lips against his own. He gave her a nibble, the same way he nibbled Sparkler’s lips, as though he was pulling in a sugar cube or something sweet with his lips, and the tilted his head to the side to achieve a proper seal for better suction. 

Finally, after one very long and sloppy inexperienced kiss, Loch Skimmer pulled away with a breathless gasp, fanning her flushed face with her wing. Her backside fell to the floor and she sat there panting, her eyes closed in from the sort of bliss brought about by one’s first real kiss. 

“Aw, that was sweet,” Sparkler said as her thoughts raced. At first, she worried that she would feel jealous when this happened, and her thoughts turned to Apple Cobbler, the earth pony filly back in Ponyville that had set her off. But there was no jealousy. There was a genuine feeling of joy that her fellow-wife felt loved and secure in her relationship. There was relief that the kiss had finally happened, finally revealing the true nature of Sparkler’s feelings for her herdmate. 

“And you are getting better at hopping around on three legs,” Rising Star commented, which made Loch Skimmer blush. 

“About time that happened,” Berry observed. She leaned back on the sofa and realised that for the first time since coming to the Isles, this room finally felt like home. It was full of warmth finally, and life. The bed was going to be horribly crowded, the room was beginning to feel crowded, at least to Berry… she was aware that families much larger stayed in little stone cottages and cabins much smaller. This room felt like a sanctuary, a place where the horrible world outside couldn’t reach her, at least at the moment. She missed Thistle, who had returned to her watery home. 

It was in this moment of peace and comfort that Berry felt a strange feeling, something nagging at her earth pony sense, the odd psychic nudges that all earth ponies had to some degree. Berry struggled to make sense of her feelings, brought about by an odd mixture of magic and biology. She had a vibrating feeling deep within her frogs, and she did not know it, but special hormones were flooding through her body. She had a powerful urge to run her hooves all over her husband’s body and to draw him close. Berry realised it wasn’t so much a sexual urge, but it was a very powerful compulsion. She abandoned her sofa, crossed the room, mounted the bed, and gently laid a hoof on a spot that wasn’t cauterised. The dreadful sunburn had faded, but his skin was still sensitive. She pushed him down and began to rub him along his spine, her hooves kneading deep into his flesh, and Berry noticed that her frogs felt oddly sweaty. 

Bucky melted under Berry’s touch, some of his pain fading away as she rubbed his back. He felt a flood of emotions. There was the need to protect, but it felt stronger. He was filled with a sense of love for her, for all of his herdmates at the moment actually, and he felt strangely drunk even though he hadn’t been drinking for hours. 

Bucky had no idea that he was being doped to prepare him for fatherhood, all he knew was, what Berry was doing felt really good. He heaved a sigh of contentment, feeling very much in love with Berry right now. 

Derpy watched the interaction with interest, and her instincts, her powerful instincts that governed so much of her life, told her that what was happening was vitally necessary. She shifted her position, trying to get comfortable. Her teats had been a bit sore lately, and she attributed it to not being able to stay as clean as she liked. The dirty pelt of her legs rubbed and chaffed  everything that was delicate. 

Derpy was desperate for soap, so desperate that her cutie mark itched. 

“I want to go to bed while the music is still playing,” Piña begged while giving Derpy a prod with her small hoof. Derpy reached down and pulled Piña up into her forelegs, cradling the foal. 

“I think we can do that,” Derpy crooned. She cuddled Piña for a while, kissing her on her head and squeezing her, offering comfort for the foal who had been so troubled lately. She rose into a hover, carrying Piña with her, and carefully crossed the room to the bed. She eased herself down, settling into her spot, and kissed Piña once more for good measure. 

Dinky bounded to the bed, jumped over Bucky and Berry with one spectacular leap, and landed next to her mother and Piña. She squeezed Piña violently, as sisters tended to do, and Piña squeezed back, briefly engaging in a contest of wills, and finally they both let go after Dinky farted, Piña proudly flashing a victory grin. 

Bon Bon, yawning, approached the bed sadly, not sure where her spot was. Derpy patted the bed next to her, on the other side of the foals, and Bon Bon quickly settled in. There would be just enough space for Lyra if the unicorn was extra snuggly between Bon Bon and the edge of the bed. 

Bucky crawled along to his spot next to Derpy, settling in beside the grey mare, and then he felt Berry sprawling out next to him. Sentinel, who tended to go to whatever spot he was welcomed, was pulled in by Berry who claimed him for the night. He squirmed a bit as Berry smooched him, but did not protest. 

Lyra continued to play, but settled in next to Bon Bon, and a blanket was settled over the ponies on one half of the bed, held in the blue-green glow of Bucky’s magic. 

On the other side, Sparkler settled into her spot, Rising Star beside her, and then Loch Skimmer settled in next to Rising Star, moving gingerly because of her cast, and this night there was no hesitation to curl up against him. Ripple eased in next to her sister, and flopping her body down caused her to poot noisily, which made several foals hidden under a blanket giggle. Loch Skimmer used her sister as a prop for her bad leg, and Ripple did not mind. Rising Star pulled a blanket over his herd, and there was much squirming as the edges were tucked under different bodies to keep out the cold. 

One by one, they drifted off to sleep, and Lyra waited as long as she could, fighting off the need to nod off, keeping her lyre going for as long as she could to provide comfort for the herd as it drifted off into sleep. The unicorn felt a grim sense of resolve, and she would reclaim the night from the wolves, no matter what it took to do so.



 

The morning was one of failure, but that was okay. Bucky expected failures. He had been in the brewery again, trying to perform complex molecular assembly from raw materials, trying to brew beer from the raw materials needed without equipment. 

It had been Star Swirl and some other unicorn that Bucky could never seem to remember that had created most of the transmutation spells and passed them along. Creating an entirely new transmutation spell was rare, but sometimes new ones did appear due to accident or chance. Star Swirl was a unicorn that would not be denied his creature comforts, and had left behind an entire library of transmutation spells. 

So Bucky didn’t feel too bad about what it was that he was doing. His cutie mark had itched promisingly today, and he had produced something that was almost something that might resemble beer as it might be served in Tartarus and even had a noticeable twang of alcohol… but it tasted indescribably awful. 

He swam through the water, he and his herd now in the loch, Derpy trying to do everything she could to get clean. Bucky paddled through the water, moving slowly, out past the shallow edge of the water. Thistle was swimming nearby, ready to snatch anypony that went under suddenly. 

She was beautiful in her mer-pony form, half pony, half fish, and her scales were mirror-like. They shimmered like diamonds when she surfaced. Bucky could no longer deny feeling an attraction for her, especially now that Derpy had sent a subtle indicator that it was okay for him to do so. She was delicate and graceful moving through the water, and there was a noticeable bulge around her middle, a bulge that Bucky found himself distinctly attracted to and protective of. 

Off in the distance, there was fierce muffled cry of accomplishment from Sentinel. He was lugging back a monstrous trout, a catch that would have to have been seen to believed, and it was slapping him in the face as he brought it to shore. He emerged from the loch, shook his shaggy coat free of excess water, and then proceeded to beat the fish to death against a rock for nearly slapping him senseless. He let out a small roar of triumph and then savaged his prize, ripping into it as it still wiggled somewhat. 

The roar was an indicator of what he was and what he would be. It wasn’t so scary now, but when he was older and had gained several hundred pounds of solid muscle, it would be a sound that would even make a manticore think twice before doing anything stupid. 

Bucky was counting on the roar being well developed by the time Dinky and Piña reached the age where they took an interest in dating. 

“Look,” Piña said from the shallows, pointing up on shore at Sentinel. 

Bucky craned his head, trying to see what Piña was pointing at. The others were looking as well. Derpy was out of the water, shaking herself much as Sentinel had done, and was peering at the lunar pegasus with one eye. 

“Sentinel,” Derpy announced in a proud sounding voice, still shaking water from her wings. “Sentinel, there is something different about you." 

Sentinel paused and lifted his head from his yard long catch. He was chewing fish flesh, bones and all, and his tufted ears perked at Derpy’s voice. His slitted eyes were wide with excitement. 

“That’s a brown trout,” Thistle observed, gesturing at Sentinel. 

Sentinel looked down at his catch, froze, and then slowly turned his head to look at his own rump when he registered that everypony was staring at him. His tail twitched once as he turned, and then he saw the mirror image of the fish he had just caught mirrored on his backside, a brown trout. 

“You have your mark,” Thistle congratulated. “A worthy reminder of such a memorable catch. To drag in such a monster… so succulent looking…” Thistle licked her lips. 

Sentinel beamed. “Do you want some?” he asked Thistle. “I ate lunch in the castle, I could eat all of this but I would be miserable,” Sentinel explained. 

Thistle was on dry land in a moment, joining Sentinel in his catch, and Sentinel oh so sweetly offered her the head, which she gobbled down in apparent ecstasy, keeping her eyes on the ponies in the lake as she chewed. 

Derpy watched as the pair ate, and realised that Thistle was needed in this herd for other reasons. Eating was a social activity, and a meal like that would be a lonesome activity for Sentinel. She sighed as she took another step closer toward Thistle’s acceptance. She was also immensely proud of Sentinel’s cutie mark. 

Bon Bon floated on her back, drifting in the water, and Lyra was sitting in the shallows, watching the fisherponies work their nets way off in the distance. The pair were quiet, still settling in, and where clearly relieved to be among their friends once again. 

“I think I will be heading back to the castle for a nap,” Lyra announced, breaking her silence. “I plan to pull an all nighter,” she added. 

“I’ll come with you,” Bon Bon offered, paddling around, still on her back. 

Sentinel gulped down a large bite of fish. “I’ll come with… I’ll stay up all night and keep you company,” he said after his mouth was emptied. “Here Thistle, finish this, I gotta go keep Lyra and Bon Bon safe,” he added, offering the remains of his catch to Thistle. 

Derpy felt a smile creep across her face as she heard the colt’s words. 

Thistle kissed Sentinel on the cheek in thanks, and then tore into the fish in such a way that only a pregnant carnivore could tear into such a meal, devouring it with much slurping and gnawing. 

Lyra and Bon Bon emerged from the loch, together, and then they shook the excess water in their pelts out. Lyra surprised her mate with a kiss, leaving poor Bon Bon gasping, and the unicorn trotted off along the trail that led to the castle. 

“It is like he barely even noticed,” said Bucky to Derpy as he approached her side. “He earned his mark and then went about his business, I don’t understand.” 

“He already knows his purpose,” Berry replied in a thoughtful tone. “His talent in to catch fish. Really big fish. That fish was longer than he was. His purpose is something else entirely, something of his choosing.” 

“Shouldn’t we be celebrating?” asked Bucky, cocking his head to one side so he could see Berry better.

“Maybe, but I get the feeling they don’t celebrate that here. Haven’t you noticed that most of these ponies don’t even have marks?” Derpy said with a deep sigh. “I am very happy that he has it though.”

“We never did get around to celebrating Dinky’s,” Berry quipped. 

“At the time, I didn’t want to celebrate mine,” Dinky replied in a soft sad sounding voice. 

“But you like your cutie mark now, right Dinkeridoo?” Piña asked. 

“I’ve learned to like it, daddy has shown me I can do good things with it,” Dinky replied as she scrubbed a sticky spot on her barrel with a hoof. 

“This is a land where few ponies realise their great potential,” Bucky said philosophically. 

“Think I’ll ever get a mark?” Ripple asked. 

“Sure you will,” Sparkler replied in a gentle encouraging voice. “Just be brave enough to dream a little… try new things. You never know when it will just pop up. Mine showed up when I was reading my geology textbook.” 

“I don’t remember getting mine. I woke up in Las Pegasus and there it was,” Berry muttered. 

“Sometimes a mark is just a mark and nothing more I guess,” Rising Star said as he drew near the group at the water’s edge. 

“What do you mean?” Sparkler asked. 

“Look at Bucky’s mark. To look at him you’d think he was a unicorn with a knack for brewing perhaps,” Rising Star stated. “But if you assumed that, you’d be wrong. Look at what he has done. What he has taught us. He’s a devoted father, a husband, our teacher, but what does any of that have to do with hops?” 

“Or bubbles… everypony knows my mother’s talent is putting the mother back into smother,” Sparkler added. 

“Oh hush Sparky,” Derpy tittered in embarrassment. 

“Sometimes a cutie mark isn’t the final destination of your journey, it is merely a sign post… a landmark to help you find your way as you travel towards your destiny. At least, that is what I believe,” Rising Star stated as he waxed philosophical. “Once, I wanted to be famous. Now, I don’t know. I have three stars on my backside that are supposed to be meaningful. Recently, I realised I have three wives… my bright shining stars. Three lights to guide my way. The meaning I’ve been looking for in my life. I want to be a good husband. I can make three lives better… I hope,” he finished. 

“I think you already have,” Sparkler said, a tear forming in the corner of one eye as she spoke. 

“I feel like I should say something but I don’t know what to say,” Ripple admitted, swirling a hoof in the water and looking down at the ripples. 

“Don’t feel bad,” Piña said as she stroked Ripple. “I feel like that all the time. Sometimes there are no words… there are only things like hugs and kisses the little things that say everything that words can’t,” Piña explained. 

“While we still have plenty of daylight, I want us to spend some time communing,” Bucky announced as he pulled himself out of the water. “There is much I want to teach you, and I have a special lesson planned for today. Piña’s words have given me a bit of inspiration.” 

Bucky gingerly shook the last of the water from his hide and prepared to teach what he hoped would be a valuable lesson. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 75
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 	 	
Bucky held his fellow unicorns in his thrall. This was rapidly becoming his preferred way of teaching. Words were inconsistent and could only convey so much. Direct mind linkage was efficient, and there was a certain clarity that was only available by giving his students access to his thoughts. He was not aware that the ability to commune and link minds was a rare gift. He had experienced it in school with an elderly mare who had been one of his favourite teachers, and the encounter had left a lasting effect upon him.

And now, as a teacher, Bucky used his rare gift to provide his fellow unicorns with a lifetime's worth of experience in moments, allowing all those connected to his mind to rapidly gain information. Bucky's own wealth of knowledge passed easily to Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star. Dinky was already far advanced for her own age, having a depth of magical theory that should have been impossible for a foal her age. Where foals Dinky's age struggled with learning the basics, Dinky was struggling with advanced concepts like remote viewing and the application of willpower to increase spell output, something she would have not learned until she was practically an adult.

The group was in the grass, under the protection of the other herd members. Their eyes were closed, and each one of their horns pulsated in synchronisation with one another.

“Today, I am going to offer you something special,” Bucky said in a low voice, speaking so the others around him could hear his words. “Piña was very wise to bring up that words can't always say what you feel... at times they fail to express the true depth of your emotions. To that end, there is something I want you to experience with me. I am trusting you to venture into my most private thoughts, the inner recesses of my mind,” Bucky explained.

The unicorn extended his will, grabbed both Derpy and Berry, and then using his magic, he pulled them close to him, close enough to reach out to touch them. He sat back on his haunches and touched both of them briefly, resting his hooves upon them, feeling them both. He took a deep breath and flexed his will once again.

“This is my love,” he said softly. “This is my strength, this is what sustains me, this is why I have endured. This is the essence of what I am, the foundation of my being,” he explained. He snatched up Piña and drew her near. “And this is pretty special as well,” he added. “I don't think I'd get by without this one.”

Piña giggled as she felt the warm tingle of Bucky's magic. She reached out and clung to her sister, delighted that she was the center of attention for a moment.

Bucky opened his mind, hiding nothing, offering unfettered access to those he loved and trusted. His emotions spilled into their minds, raw, almost overpowering, and there were little gasps and murmurs from the other unicorns he was linked to.

Derpy watched her mate, trying to understand exactly what was going on. She touched him gently on a place where it was safe, stroking him gently with a fetlock, understanding that something of serious importance was going on. She turned to Berry for a moment, winked, and then she surprised Bucky with a soft gentle kiss on the lips.

The unicorn trembled slightly from the kiss and those connected to him mirrored his reaction, the strongest reaction coming from Dinky, who let out a surprised cry.

It was a profound moment of realisation for Dinky. Bucky's strong emotion for her mother nearly caused her mind to overload, and in this moment of exchange she also felt Bucky's love for her. With the exchange came the knowledge that these feelings were powerful assets. It was almost too much to take in all at once. Her mind reeled as she tried to understand the depth of what was being shown to her. She felt small and humbled, but she also felt the siren song of power... Bucky had tapped into a powerful resource, something potentially even stronger than the ley lines he had been channeling. The feeling brought stability, something that unicorns needed. Dinky realised this was the magic of friendship, taken to its logical extreme. A part of her own mind focused on Piña, her constant companion, her best friend, and now a sibling of sorts.

Bucky's realisations also had a profound impact on Sparkler and Rising Star, both of them understanding now just how much potential power they could draw from one another, how much strength, and the much needed element of stability. Peering into Bucky's mind was eye opening in more ways than one, and it allowed both Sparkler and Rising Star to learn from his mistakes, his many mistakes, and a chance to look directly into the center of Bucky's own weaknesses.

Bucky's solution for his own neurosis was total surrender of self to his mates and a state of dependence upon them, the realisation that he was not a whole creature, and the acceptance that he needed his mates along with what they offered to complete him as a whole pony.

It was a powerful revelation to the three unicorns connected to Bucky, something potentially life changing. All three of them considered Bucky their strength, but to sense his weakness, to feel it, for him to bare himself so completely to them, it brought the understanding that their real strength lay with their love for one another.

Bucky's magic suddenly fizzled and a column of black smoke rose from his horn. He blinked several times, shaking his head, and then focused on the world around him. “That was intense... sorry about the overload. Is everypony okay?” he asked in concern.

“I'm fine. I feel really dizzy and lightheaded, but I am fine,” Sparkler replied.

“I'm good,” Rising Star reported. “Feel like I gotta sneeze though, which is weird.”

“My ears are ringing, but I am alright,” Dinky announced.

“Maybe I shouldn't have kissed you,” Derpy said, her tone one of concern. She touched Bucky's face with her wing, stroking the good side.

“No, actually, I am glad you did. They got a chance to feel what I feel about you...” Bucky replied. “Twilight has proven that friendship is magic... and magic is fine and good. Love is power though. I really began to realise that when Cadance had us all in her spell when we were married. Cadance is a creature of immense power and it isn't because she is an alicorn. I used to hunger for understanding, and I suppose that I still do... but now, I hunger for power as well, now that I understand where I can draw from a nearly infinite wellspring of raw primal power. All of you are my strength. This is why I requested a foal as the cost of entry from Bon Bon and Lyra. I must confess, the feeling of power is intoxicating.”

“The feeling of love is intoxicating you mean,” Berry quipped.

“The two are indistinguishable for me,” Bucky replied.

“I see,” Berry said.

“I think I understand,” Derpy said slowly. “You draw your power from us, so increasing your family size-”

“So much more than that though,” Sparkler interrupted. “I get it now... it isn't just power, it is stability as well. Father is at his peak power when he is stable, and he has been drawing in all of the things he is missing as a pony from all of us... we are his stability as well as his source of empowerment. It is so difficult to put into words, but I felt it and now I want it for myself,” the filly admitted.

“I too, think I finally understand what it is I want from life,” Rising Star muttered, rubbing his head. He fell over into the grass with a groan.

“This is going to be very important for both of you,” Bucky said to Sparkler and Rising Star. “I have a plan, and it involves both of you. I believe I can jump both of you to type threes.”

“What?” Sparkler asked.

“Will it hurt them?” Derpy asked in concern.

“How?” Rising Star asked.

“I will explain how later, no my love, it will not hurt them, but it will cause them some issues... dealing with that much power can be tricky and it requires a very focused mind. Which is why I wanted them to see where I draw power from now, and how I am learning to stay focused and bear the mental load I have to carry,” Bucky explained. “I will not force you, this is your choice, but I know that I can unlock your full potential. Sparkler, as a type three, you would be able to summon gems, as you have seen when I channeled strong magic through you. Rising Star, you... you might actually lose a little magic stepping up to a full blown type three.”

“What? How?” Rising Star said, lifting his head and blinking at Bucky in confusion.

“You have an inherent pyromantic nature. Your current magic limits what your pyromantic nature can channel, so it manifests as common magic as an outlet. A jump to a type three would free your magical focus, so more of your magic would focus into pyromancy, which might actually weaken some of your abilities. I think. Think of it as diverting power from one area and refocusing it to another,” Bucky explained.

“Would it be like adding more light bulbs to a circuit and then the light bulbs would grow dim?” Rising Star asked.

“Something like that, I think. I am not sure I fully understand what will happen. Pyromancy is different that harmony magic. It is chaotic... primal. A raw base element. Celestia would know more, she is the alicorn of pyromancy. She has both types of magic available to her,” Bucky replied.

“So I would have harmony magic and pyromancy?” Rising Star asked.

“Well, you have it now, but it is nearly dormant, you lack the physiology to channel it fully,” Bucky answered.

“I see,” Rising Star said. “Well, that settles it, I'm in,” he announced.

Sparkler looked apprehensive. “I won't tell you what to do, but I plan to think about it a bit,” Sparkler said, her ears folded back against her skull. “I will probably do it, as I understand that it needs to be done, but I want to make sure I am doing this for the right reasons and I understand fully what it is I am getting into.”

“That seems wise,” Bucky stated, giving Sparkler a nod.

“I am not making this decision lightly,” Rising Star said, feeling a need to defend his choice. “I understand what we are up against here. I have three wives to worry about. My own concerns are small, weak, and meaningless compared to what it is I need to do to provide for all of you. Pyromantic magic would probably be very useful for dealing with the damnable wolves. There are far too many other ponies that could benefit from what I have to offer, so for me it becomes the needs of the many outweighing the needs of just one. All I have to offer right now is myself, it is all I have to give, so I offer of myself freely.”

Sparkler sighed but did not reply.

“I think I understand,” Ripple said, cautiously approaching Rising Star. “You are doing what needs to be done now, and you will deal with the consequences later.”

Rising Star nodded.

“I understand that all too well,” Thistle quipped.

“I suppose you would Thistle,” Rising Star said to the kelpie.

“When the time comes I would like to follow my husband's example,” Ripple said in a small voice full of resolve. “If there is something I can do, I will. I am small and weak, but I am determined to help.”

Loch Skimmer shot Sparkler a concerned look and the two fillies exchanged a glance. Nothing was said between the two, but Ripple asserting herself into the herd had been noted.

“What will Princess Celestia say about all of this? Bucky, I am almost certain that she is not going to be too pleased about you bypassing biological restrictions and jumping your fellow unicorns into something far more powerful... I will support you with whatever you do, just as you have supported me, but by the time this whole awful mess is over, most of this herd is going to be in hot water with the crown,” Berry said.

“You did the right thing Berry, and I am confident that I am doing the right thing as well, when and if it happens. We do not have the luxury of second guessing ourselves right now,” Bucky replied. “All bets are off. I lost my eye and bits and pieces of my body. These wolves are a menace to these ponies. These are extreme times... and I plan to use extreme measures. If Celestia wants to fault me for what I am going to do, let her. In the end, I don't answer to her, I answer to my mares.”

“Well, I trust you to do the right thing,” Derpy stated. She leaned over and planted a soft peck on Bucky's cheek.

Berry nodded and heaved a sigh. “All is fair in love and war,” she muttered. 
	
> Chapter 76
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dining hall was packed with ponies as the group entered, and Bucky was immediately approached by Keg Smasher. The room was filled with the sounds of happiness and laughter echoed up to the rafters. 

“What is going on?” Bucky asked, looking at Keg Smasher, and still feeling more than a little resentment. 

“New foal has been born. Unicorn. The family is being moved to the castle to keep them safe. That night when the wolves attacked us, the way they went after you… I am worried they will go after the foal. I’ve been on patrol several times since that night and nary a peep from those damnable monstrosities. They avoid us,” Keg Smasher explained. 

Derpy was already gone to look at the new foal, taking the others with her. She and Keg Smasher were not on speaking terms, and the grey mare made it known that she generally despised the pegasus laird. This left Bucky by himself with Keg Smasher. 

“So the wolves go after unicorns you think,” Bucky asked. 

“Seems that way. It is what my gut tells me… look, I wanna talk to you for a moment, I have something that needs saying,” Keg Smasher said to Bucky as he reached out a wing and rubbed an ear. 

“I’m listening,” Bucky answered, assuming a defensive posture that was almost pegasus-like, a near copy of how Derpy might of reacted. All he lacked were the wings. 

“I want to apologise… really, I did a bad thing and I see that now,” Keg Smasher confessed. 

“Look, I know what my wife did, and if you are trying to humour me, Princess Celestia help you because she will thrash you again if you upset me,” Bucky warned. 

“I ain’t trying to humour you,” Keg Smasher returned. “I really do feel bad. Yon grey mare was right. I wanted all those who saw what happened to be afraid of you… they’re already afraid of me and I didn’t want to make it worse. I didn’t want to deal with the fallout from the lashing myself, because I have plenty of other things to answer for. I heard about what it did to you, and I was wrong to force your hoof on the issue. I made an error in judgment. I screwed up. I stepped in the horseapples,” he explained. 

“I accept your apology,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

The big and burly pegasus heaved a sigh of relief and looked down at the floor. “I wonder sometimes if I am fit to lead now… things are changing. We need to do more than just survive, we need to move into the future. So much needs to change. Sometimes I ain’t sure if I am the one to do it. Making the mistake like I made with you doesn’t sit well with me. Fills me with doubt. I understand that a message had to be delivered, but I chose the wrong messenger, and that reflects poorly on me,” Keg Smasher confessed as he kicked at a bit of straw on the grey stone floor. 

“I forgive you,” Bucky stated as he sat down on the stone tile. 

“Thank you… I mean it, coming from you that means something,” Keg Smasher replied as he took a seat himself. 

“So you think the wolves are targeting unicorns?” Bucky asked. 

“I do. That night went we went out, the wolves came at us and they came at us hard. They wanted you. I’ve never seen anything like that. Usually, the wolves avoid the patrols, but sometimes we catch them out in the open and get a good fight started. We kill a few. Mostly, the wolves avoid the patrol though. It bothers me how canny they were that night. Too damn smart for rough beasts. What they did was outside the normal scope of intelligence for their kind, whatever in Tartarus they are, ye ken?” Keg Smasher said in a low voice, speaking to Bucky and trying not to disrupt the ponies celebrating in the room. 

“So what are you saying? Are you saying that something is controlling them Keg Smasher?” Bucky questioned, his tone quizzical. 

“Aye, you believe me, I can hear it in your voice. Most of my advisors think I’ve gone barmy and paranoid,” Keg Smasher replied in relief. “I am a lot of things, and I might be a little bit crazy, but I have lived as long as I have for a reason.” 

“I am inclined to agree with you. I shall have to spend some time assessing this idea,” Bucky said to the pegasus. “Also, I have a new weapon in the war on the wolves. Lyra Heartstrings. She can make music that counters the fear effect. It also counters the heat leaching. The terrible cold at night is caused by the wolves howling. That’s why the fires give no heat,” Bucky explained. 

Keg Smasher grunted. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that, seems so obvious now,” the pegasus growled. 

“Keeping everypony in a state of fear, wearing down their minds, their will, keeping them from a good rest, I think some of the ponies behave the way they do because of the effects of the fear spell and all that goes with it,” Bucky explained. 

“That makes some sense,” Keg Smasher admitted. 

“Lyra is an extremely clever pony… who is also now one of my wives,” Bucky mentioned as he shook his head. “She and Bon Bon came so far just to be with my family.” 

“A stallion is only as good as the wives he has supporting him,” Keg Smasher said sagely. “At least that is what I believe. Most round here only see mares as a source of extra labour or a resource.” 

“That needs to change,” Bucky quipped. 

“Aye,” Keg Smasher replied. “You have a small army of mares now, ye mind me asking how it feels? Celestia told me a bit about you, and how you used to be, seems to me you’ve changed.” 

“I have,” Bucky confessed. “I draw my strength from them. All of them. All of them have something I am missing, something I need. All of them are somepony I can go to for different things. All of them want different things from me. All of me is appreciated, if not by one, then by another.” 

“As it should be,” Keg Smasher agreed. “I need to go… do me a favour, when you get back to the mainland, do what you can to restore herds. Equestria is going to need them.” The pegasus rose, bowed his head slightly, and then departed out the door, several of his guard following him. 

Bucky sat in silence, pondering the pegasus’ words. 





The room was warm. Almost too warm. The ponies in the bed sleeping had no blankets and had sprawled out comfortably in peaceful slumber. The howling could not be heard at all, and Lyra was enjoying her victory against the wolves immensely. 

The same could not be said about her chess game with Bon Bon. The unicorn could not bear another loss. She stared down the board and scratched the back of her head with her forehoof. 

“How?” Lyra protested in a whisper. 

Bon Bon did not reply but gave Lyra a smug look. 

Sentinel studied the board, still trying to learn the game. His head was cocked to the side, and his wide eyes reflected the firelight. His thinking was interrupted when Bon Bon snatched him up suddenly to snuggle him. 

“Urf!” Sentinel gasped as the earth pony squeezed him. 

“You’re so squeezable,” Bon Bon whispered. “Your coat is so long and soft and shaggy… it isn’t like ours at all. And you are so warm,” Bon Bon gushed. 

“Glad to be of service milady,” Sentinel said as he struggled to breathe. “I am glad I have the privilege of protecting you from the cold.” 

“And so polite, nopony has ever called me ‘milady’ before,” Bon Bon said as she rubbed her cheek up against Sentinel’s tufted ear. 

“I am Buckminster’s squire, a failure in my social graces would reflect poorly upon him and I would be shamed,” Sentinel explained as he was being snuggled to within an inch of his life by an overly affectionate earth pony. 

“Oh I am going to like having you as a son,” Bon Bon admitted in a low squeak. The mare lifted her head away for a moment, looked down at the colt foal in her forelegs, and then kissed him in between his ears. 

Lyra watched her long time mate squeeze the foal and felt a stirring in her heart. They had long discussed having foals but nothing had ever come from it. Now, they were the mothers of several foals, and Lyra felt a strange feeling of contentedness that she had never felt before. Seeing Bon Bon happy made Lyra happy in a way she had never experienced. 

“Bonnie?” Lyra asked. 

“Yes Lyra?” Bon Bon replied, still snuggling Sentinel. 

“Who gets to be first?” Lyra asked. 

“What do you mean?” Bon Bon replied in a confused whisper. 

“To be pregnant. When we have foals. Because I think I’ve changed my mind. I think I’d like to see what it is like,” Lyra explained in a low voice. “I am still scared about what pregnancy might do to my mental state, but I am surrounded by family now, so no matter what happens, I know I will be looked after. I think I feel safe.” 

Sentinel felt something wet splash on his ears. He angled his head upwards, saw Bon Bon’s eyes glistening in the firelight, then, even as he watched, a tear formed, rolled down her cheek, and then splashed on his snoot. He reached up slowly and wiped Bon Bon’s face with the side of his fetlock. A second later, all of the air whooshed out of his lungs as the mare squeezed him in thanks for the touching gesture.

“There is no reason why we can’t do it together,” Bon Bon whispered. “Like we’ve done everything else. We started this journey together, we’ll do this together, everything will be okay,” Bon Bon promised. 

“Who will take care of us?” Lyra asked. “If were both pregnant, how will we take care of one another?” 

“We’ll have to depend on others to look after us if it comes to that Lyra,” Bon Bon replied. 

“I will aid you, you need not even ask,” Sentinel offered. 

“See Lyra? We have this adorable colt to look after us,” Bon Bon declared in a soft whisper. The peat bale in the fireplace popped and crackled and Bon Bon rocked Sentinel back and forth in her forelegs. “How late do you think it is?” the mare asked. 

“I’d say about three o’clock or so. Look at them, slumbering so peacefully,” Lyra answered. “It feels good to be useful,” the unicorn added. 

“It sure does,” Sentinel agreed, resting his head against Bon Bon’s neck. 

“I guess we’ll wait for breakfast and then go to bed for a while. Wake up, have lunch, spend a little family time if possible, and then get more sleep so we can pull an all nighter again?” Bon Bon asked. 

“That is the plan Bonnie,” Lyra replied. “I am taking back the night.”

“I will stay with you,” Sentinel offered. 

“What if Bucky needs you during the day?” Bon Bon queried. 

“Then I will do my duties as expected before returning to bed,” Sentinel replied, still content to be held by the earth pony. 

“Such a serious young colt,” Lyra stated. 

“And adorable! Look at those tufted ears,” Bon Bon said in a rather loud whisper which earned her a scowl from Lyra. The mare quieted but shuddered from her barely contained emotions and feelings of adoration. 

Sentinel sighed, resigning himself to be treated like a foal. Derpy did it too. So did Berry on occasion. He hoped that at some point, these mares would understand that he wasn’t adorable, he was scary. But for now, he supposed he had to be patient. He was a horrifying terror in the night, a fearsome predatory beast, and a squire to a proud and noble knight. He really hoped that someday, hopefully someday soon, these mares would stop nattering on about his tufted ears and how snuggly he was. It did feel nice to be cradled in the mare’s forelegs though, to be warm, sheltered, and secure.

“It is funny Bonnie, as miserable as this place is, this is the happiest I’ve been in quite some time. Our journey, joining the herd, finding purpose. I am finally doing something that matters Bonnie. I don’t know how to feel and it scares me,” Lyra admitted, the firelight reflecting in her golden eyes and making them glitter.  

“Lyra Heartstrings, everypony needs purpose. Bucky had to learn that lesson and it seems you do as well,” Bon Bon replied. 

“You are Bucky’s bard,” Sentinel quipped. “He has a faithful squire, but a knight needs a devoted bard,” the lunar pegasus foal explained. 

“I can be a bard,” Lyra announced. “I like the sounds of that,” she added. 

“He is going to need more than a bard,” Bon Bon said. “I suspect that the time is coming where Bucky is going to go to battle for us, he is going to need you Lyra, he is going to need your strength.” 

“I have no strength without you,” Lyra admitted, following Bon Bon’s policy of total honesty. 

“Oh, I intend to be there with you,” Bon Bon said. “I am a cuss headed lass and I am spoiling for a good fight.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 77
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch awoke, feeling more refreshed than she had for a long, long time. She yawned, licked her lips, and then kissed Bucky lightly on the corner of his mouth. There was no blanket over her and the room was very warm. She heard the faint sounds of Lyra's lyre still playing. The early morning sun was streaming through the window. She looked around her and saw the bed was already partially emptied, Sparkler and Rising Star were already awake. Loch Skimmer and Ripple were still asleep. Berry crawled forward on her belly to Ripple, planted a soft kiss on the filly's cheek, and the did the same with Loch Skimmer. She then rolled on her side, stretched out her legs, and then the earth pony farted, which caused Bucky to snort, but he did not awaken.

Still feeling affectionate, the mare crawled back towards Derpy, planted her lips on the pegasus' lips, and then woke the grey mare with a probing kiss that made the other mare awaken with a low squeal of glee. Berry felt Derpy kissing back after she became aware of what was going on, and then finally, Derpy pulled away gasping and needing air.

“Good morning,” Berry said with a seductive lift of her eyebrow to the grey mare.

Berry watched as Derpy looked at Bucky, checking on him, and then she watched as the grey mare kissed her still sleeping mate. The earth pony mare's nose crinkled as Derpy released her usual morning blast, a blaring trumpet of malodorous feculent fury.

Dinky awoke with a soft cry of alarm, blinking her eyes and trying to gather her senses.  

Beside Dinky, Piña awoke with a whine of protest, after which she buried her face into Dinky's side, mumbling about how it wasn't time to wake up yet. The two filly foals had their own wake up routine, and Berry found it Berry enjoyable to watch them as they tried to clear the sleepy from their heads.

Bucky continued to snooze, his withers rising and falling with each breath, and Berry took the opportunity to look over his wounds closely.

“I need a snob over here,” Berry said, smacking her lips slightly, feeling a little thirsty from being in such a warm room.

“Who you calling a snob you numbskull?” Sparkler replied as she came over to the bed.

“I need a light,” requested Berry, speaking to the filly she now called her own.

“Sure, I can do that,” Sparkler offered, her horn now flaring to life.

The earth pony mare peered at Bucky's wounds, noticing that the cauterised places were healing nicely. The skin was still red and tight, some of it was still quite gnarled and puckered, but it was healing. New skin was growing. She gently rolled the stallion on his side and checked the wound just past his ribs, clucked her tongue, and then she smiled warmly. “Thank you Sparky,” Berry said just before she kissed the unicorn filly to thank her for her assistance.

“He's looking better. The missing chunk out of his leg still looks pretty bad though. Part of the muscle looks like it is gone. Every time I see him limping a bit it makes my heart hurt,” Sparkler stated as she peered over Bucky's body herself.

“He's still alive though, that's all that matters to me, call me selfish, but I want to keep him,” Berry admitted in a soft whisper.

“I feel -urp- nauseous,” Derpy announced. The grey mare's ears drooped down to the sides of her face. “I really don't feel good.”

“I don't either,” Berry agreed. “I woke up feeling a little weird. Really thirsty. I think it is because the room stayed so warm all night,” Berry speculated.

Derpy arose, stumbled off of the bed, nearly falling on her face had Sparkler not caught her with her magic, and then she hurried off behind the privacy barrier to the bucket. In a moment, there was retching and gagging from behind the barrier.

“Maybe she ate something that doesn't agree with her?” Rising Star said with some concern. “Mom?” he asked.

“I'm -urp- fine,” Derpy replied, her breath heaving.

There was more retching from behind the barrier.

“I hate -urp- the dry heaves,” the pegasus protested.

The earth pony felt a brief twinge of panic but could not figure out why or what was causing it, but she felt something deep inside of her trying to give voice to something, something that was a fundamental part of her earth pony nature. She tried to listen to her body, tried to fathom the message she was being sent from deep within her inner self, and failed.

All Berry knew was that she was Berry Berry horny and felt the need to make more ponies. Like right now. This moment. Ponies watching or not. Although the ideas of ponies watching sort of titillated the mare, but not the foals. She was capable of sinking low, but she had a few precious standards to which she held true.

Also, her teats were sore. But she figured that was because they had been rubbing on the rough sheets all night long because she had slept sprawled out on her belly.

Thistle emerged into the room, she had stopped knocking some time ago, and the kelpie paused as she felt the radiant warmth of the room. She couldn't say anything because there was a large fish her in mouth, a gift for Sentinel. She laid it on the floor and raised her head. “I brought breakfast for my colt,” she offered.

“Oh thank you!” Sentinel said, squirming off of the couch where he had been sitting with Lyra and practically running over to the fish.

“All yours, I had a huge breakfast,” Thistle stated. “It is really warm in here, I am glad I came. It is cold outside. There is frost on the ground.”

“It is summer,” Rising Star said, looking confused. “This will kill the crops if this continues,” he  added in a tone of alarm.

“The earth ponies here will be able to revive the plants just so long as it doesn't get too bad,” Bon Bon said reassuringly as she watched Sentinel eating his fish. “Ugh, he's swallowing it whole, he just jammed the head down his throat and now he is sliding the entire fish down his gullet... you can see the tail sliding into his mouth... argh,” she commented as she watched the gut churning sight.

There was a yawn from the bed as Ripple awoke. She peered around, looking a little bleary, kissed her sister affectionately, which was becoming a new habit she was developing as she watched the others, it was not something she had done in what she called her old life, and then she stretched her wings out. Barely awake, she was promptly snoot-bumped by Dinky, and then by Piña, both of whom were becoming very close to the pegasus filly.

Loch Skimmer awoke to the sounds of three fillies giggling with one another, and she came to her waking state with a snug feeling of security knowing that her sister was safe as well as happy. She closed her eyes to yawn and felt somepony snoot-bump her. She opened her eyes and saw Ripple, their snoots still touching. Ripple was cross eyed and waggling her ears. Loch Skimmer giggled once her yawn ended and then she was assaulted by Dinky and Piña, who awoke in affectionate moods.

During all of this commotion, Bucky awoke. The moment he lifted his head, before he even had a chance to awaken fully, he was beset by three giggling fillies, Dinky, Piña, and Ripple, who kissed him all over the good side of his face. And then they were gone, off to mob somepony else. Bucky slowly opened his eye and peered around, craning his head to get a good view. As soon as his head turned, he was kissed again, and based upon the wiggling tongue invading between his lips, he knew it had to be Berry Punch.

After several increasingly hot moments, the mare pulled away and allowed the now flustered stallion to catch his breath. Bucky blinked several times, craned his head to one side and then the other to stretch the stiffness out of his neck, and then he heard the sounds of retching from behind the privacy barrier.

“Derpy?” Bucky inquired, his ears splaying out sideways.

“She's fine,” Berry replied reassuringly to her mate. “You look much better after a good night's rest,” she commented.

“I feel better,” Bucky admitted. “My head feels clearer than it usually does,” he continued in a low voice. He yawned again, started to rise, and was caught off guard by another kiss from Berry Punch.

“I don't know what's come over me,” Berry stated after she broke away from the kiss. “I am in one of those moods today,” she added, her voice a low seductive whisper.

“And I am in the mood for breakfast,” Loch Skimmer said as she wiped her eyes with her wings. She then slid off of the bed and wobbled around on three legs.

“I am in the mood to be breakfast,” Berry mentioned in a very low whisper to Bucky. Her low whisper was not nearly quiet enough though, and several ponies turned to stare at her. “What?” she said defensively. “I woke up with needs... surely some of you can understand that. Poor Bucky's been out of commission, Derpy has been busy, and we haven't haven't had any private time alone with one another... I just got married not all that long ago. I should be getting shagged regularly like a proper newlywed... instead I am so flustered that I just about can't stand myself right now,” explained Berry in an exasperated voice of frustration.

There was no reply, just many wide staring eyes blinking at the plum coloured earth pony mare, and many ears were perked forward. Dinky and Piña turned to look at one another, and then at Berry Punch, afterwards, they both fell into a fit of the giggles.

“Well, other than poor Berry, her needs, and my mother feeling queasy, how is everypony else feeling this morning? Because I feel wonderful. Lyra's music made all of the difference last night. I woke up and I feel rested. Renewed. I feel like I could do anything right now. I am going to be the best school teacher ever today. Thank you Lyra,” Sparkler said sheepishly, trying to change the awkward subject to something else.

“Don't mention it,” Lyra replied, and after she finished speaking she punctuated her words with a huge gaping yawn that ended with a slight squeak.

“Other than the queasiness I do feel well rested,” Derpy said as she emerged from behind the privacy barrier. “I do believe that the worst is over,” she added as she wiped her mouth with her foreleg, muffling some of her own words.

As the ponies all around him continued to chatter loquaciously, Bucky gathered his thoughts for the day. He was unsure of what the afternoon would bring, but he was looking forward to another morning in the brewery, getting himself immersed in trying to brew beer. Today, he planned to tweak the time fluctuations inside of the spell bubble, allowing for greater time to pass inside of the spell compared to outside of the spell. The complexity involved was immense, but he felt confident in his abilities, doubly so now that he felt so clear headed after sleeping so well. After figuring out the magical riddle of brewing beer in a self contained spell field, he could move on to other things of similar complexity.

At some point in the very near future, he needed Dinky and her bees to find where the ley lines intersected. He knew it had to be near, he could feel both of the lines, and he was going to need that intersection and its associated nexus for his plans.

It was already taking too long Bucky felt, more had died and he had done nothing, and a nagging feeling of guilt lingered in his mind. Progress needed to be made. He had no intention of leaving this wretched place until all of the wolves had been eradicated. He felt confident about Thistle earning her place within the herd. When that finally happens, they would be free to go, but Bucky had no intention of leaving, not until certain bloody revenge had taken place and the ponies here made safe.

Princess Celestia had clearly known of the problems here, of that Bucky had no doubt. The book about shadow creatures slipped into the trunk was proof of this. He was one of Celestia's students, he had graduated from her school, and a part of him felt flattered that she believed in him enough to deal with the situation.

Some of his self confidence flagged though knowing that he was almost killed on his first encounter with the wolves. He had nearly made his mates widows, and the thought weighed heavily upon his mind during his moments of reflection. He hoped that he would never have a close call like that ever again. He was going to have to apply his cautious methodical nature to the problem.

“Bucky?”

The unicorn looked at the grey mare who had just pulled him from his state of reflection. She was gazing at him intently, lovingly, and he felt feathers caressing the side of his neck.

“You looked kinda lost in the moment,” Derpy commented as she stared at her mate. The pegasus looked concerned. “You looked angry for a moment there,” she mentioned.

“I was thinking about how I almost made you a widow...” Bucky half explained.

“Things happen,” Derpy said gently. “Sometimes bad things. But you are still with us, you shouldn't be angry about that. Nopony could have known what was going to happen that night.”

“You said it yourself, the fear messed with your magic... but you still managed to save yourself and probably Keg Smasher and the others as well, even with the fear holding you back. You are looking at this all wrong,” Berry chided.

“What she said,” Derpy added.

“I do not intend to make the same mistake twice. I finally have what I want in life... something I didn't even know I wanted. All of this... all of you...” Bucky said, his voice low and soft.

“This will all be over, we just have to endure this trying time and stay close to one another. And then, when this is over, we can go home, have foals, and grow old together,” Berry stated.

“As bad as this has been, we are all stronger for it,” Derpy said. “I don't know about the rest of you, but I have learned a lot about myself here. I will never take my life for granted ever again or how good I had it. I remember struggling as a single mother... the money troubles... everything. I thought I had it so bad. By comparison, that was nothing. But here, I have learned what sort of pony I am. I am a wife and a mother. I am the matriarch of this newly founded clan.” The pegasus mare paused, struggling to find a way to put her thoughts to into words, something that had always eluded her to some degree. “I have discovered my strength... who and what I am as a pegasus. I feel a lot better about myself.”

“I think by the time we leave here, we will all understand ourselves far better than most ponies back home,” Rising Star said, his voice raised to be heard over the sounds in the room. “This awful place is acting like a crucible for us, and right now we are melting away the dross... when we finally do get out of here, the full depth of our characters will be fully tested. I know I have been made wiser than most colts my age. I've learned about duty, about obligation, I have learned about devotion, love, and respect. I have learned about dedication. I have learned that I had a lot of growing up to do, and I still do. But most importantly, I have learned that I am capable of so much more. Right now, I am learning that love is a choice, it is something you have to make happen, while you can fall into it, you can also build it up like a fire, carefully applying a spark and nurturing the precious little flame when it happens. It's funny... I have known Loch Skimmer and Ripple for only a short time, but already I would do anything for them. Choosing to make love happen is hard work... and I don't know where I am going with this and everypony is staring at me... oh my,” Rising Star said. He slowly met the gaze of everypony in the room, all of whom were staring at him.

With the room now totally silent, Ripple slowly walked to Rising Star. Upon reaching him, she shyly raised her head, kissed him on the cheek, nuzzled his neck, and then sat down beside him, saying nothing.

“And this is why we came here,” Bon Bon said, breaking the silence. “To be a part of this. Some ponies are destined for greatness... and that is fine and good. But a family destined for greatness, that is something I want to be a part of. Even if it means just growing old together and raising foals.”

“Some of us are still learning what family means,” Sentinel said, looking at Ripple and Loch Skimmer. “And we are truly blessed to have been welcomed into a family that loves us and accepts us,” he added, his tufted ears folded back against his skull and his gaze cast downwards. “It is very humbling when I think about it,” the colt confessed.
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 78
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was another day in the brewery, almost like any other. Bucky was driven by a desire to understand something he could barely even put into words, and as of late it had bordered on mania. Today, Bucky’s mind felt much clearer. Lyra’s vigil through the night had allowed him to get the deep restful sleep he had so desperately needed. 

He discarded the dregs of another failure and heaved a sigh. He felt a nudge from Berry, her hoof rubbing a spot that wasn’t covered in burned over scar tissue. The faint bit of irritation he was starting to feel dissolved with her touch, as it always did. It was something Bucky intended to study later, when life settled down a bit, the touch of earth ponies and their seemingly calming effect upon other ponies. The effect that Bon Bon and Berry Punch had on him couldn’t be mere coincidence. 

“Look, that batch was drinkable, it really wasn’t bad, you are getting closer,” Berry encouraged. “Care to tell me more about what you are trying to accomplish here, other than creating beer using nothing but raw ingredients and magic?” 

“Molecular assembly,” Bucky muttered. 

“I know that you big snob,” Berry quipped. “You’ve mentioned wanting to create steel. Look, if I can’t get you inside of me, then I want to be inside of you. Let me inside of your head. I am a big filly, and I am capable of understanding all those big brainy concepts you have floating around between your ears.” 

Bucky smiled faintly. “I worry sometimes that you might actually be smarter than I am,” Bucky admitted. 

“Oh, I don’t worry about that at all,” Berry retorted. “I already know I am smarter than you are. Which is why you should talk to me. I might not know magic, but I might be able to help you.” 

Bucky chuckled, his mood improving. “If I can manage to work through the complexity of beer brewing, I should be able to understand the theory of how to make other complex items. In particular, steel. The iron here on the island is both soft and brittle. It is unsuitable for my purposes. I am going to need to refine it into steel. And there is no foundry. There is no ironworks here capable of such a thing. I am hoping that by learning to manipulate pressure, time, heat, cold, all of these things in one contained sphere, I will be able to work molten iron, add charcoal for carbon, remove the slag and the impurities, and then form the basic components into carbon steel. Something light, strong, and sturdy.” 

“And with this steel… you intend to protect your precious skin,” Berry stated, her words slow and carefully spoken. 

“Correct,” answered Bucky as he looked into the eyes of the earth pony mare he so loved. 

“And the wolves won’t be able to phase through the metal because you intend to imbue it magically somehow,” Berry said thoughtfully. “You’re a clever pony.” 

“I try to be,” Bucky acknowledged. 

“So you protect your skin, you eradicate the wolves, remove the threat they pose, Derpy seals whatever deal she has with Thistle, and we can go home, right?” Berry questioned. 

“That is the general idea,” Bucky replied, now eyeing the beer in the crude glass he had created. “This batch turned out a toasty red colour,” he commented. 

“You know, you can’t do this alone Bucky,” Berry warned in a soft voice. “As much as I know you want to, there is still the matter of the magical fear the wolves generate. What if your spells fail again? What if the wolves still have some magical trick you are not aware of?”

“I have been giving that a lot of thought. To be honest, I am not sure of the solution. I refuse to put anypony else at risk, but I do acknowledge that I will probably need the help. I just haven’t figured out a way to keep my helpers out of harm’s way just yet,” Bucky admitted. 

“Helpers?” Berry asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling that Derpy is going to be giving you a thrashing when she finds out about this?” 

Bucky grimaced at Berry’s words and his remaining eye squeezed shut. 

“Oh, you are planning exactly what I think you are planning… you do intend to bring Sparkler and Rising Star along don’t you?” Berry questioned. She reached out and carefully stroked the good side of Bucky’s face. 

“Yes, if I can figure out a way to keep them safe and out of harms way somehow. Lyra too now that she is here. Putting them all in armor seems like one solution, but I am not sure that it is a good solution. I have been wracking my way trying to find some means of keeping them safe, it is driving me crazy,” Bucky confessed.

The earth pony mare heaved a sigh. “It was really nice having you as husband. You are awesome at sex. Derpy is going to kill you. I mean she is probably going to actually kill you if you spring this on her,” Berry quipped. 

Bucky looked up at Berry and focused his remaining eye on her. 

“She’s been so stressed out over everything. She almost lost you. Sparkler went off and got married. She worries for Thistle and if Thistle and the foal are healthy. She worries about you constantly. She worries that Sentinel hasn’t had time to be a foal and he acts entirely too grown up and it bothers her a great deal. If you break this to her, she might just go berserk. A pegasus will do that you know. You know what she did to Keg Smasher. Derpy is still having trouble accepting that Sparkler is growing up. She doesn’t say anything of course, but I know my best friend. But to put Sparkler in harms way?” said Berry as she shook her head. 

“I know,” Bucky replied in a weak doubt filled voice, a voice that sounded more like his old wavering and worry filled voice, his deep confident baritone now gone. “But I can’t do this alone… and I have to do this. It is more than just revenge, although I will admit that revenge is my motivation. I want to hurt them for what they did to me,” Bucky confessed. “And I will. But I can’t do this alone.” 

“So what we need is a means to keep the others out of reach,” Berry said, using her gift to state the obvious. 

The unicorn gave a hesitant nod. 

“I have an idea,” Berry whispered, her eyes widening as her mind raced. 

“Well, don’t keep me waiting,” Bucky grumbled. 

“We put them where the wolves can’t reach them,” Berry announced. 

Bucky gave a frustrated snort and said nothing in reply. 

“What we need is an airship,” Berry quipped. “A small one. A floating platform held aloft by a gasbag. I know the wolves can teleport and shadow wink, I have been reading that book as well. But if the platform is well lit the wolves will have no power if they manage to make it up there. Lyra can be up there, and so can Rising Star and Sparkler. We probably don’t have the time or the resources to make arcano-tech engines for mobility, but thankfully we have a few pegasi in our herd. We can use them to maneuver the craft around,” Berry explained. 

“You are beautiful and clever,” Bucky gasped. 

“I know,” Berry replied nonchalantly. “Derpy and I are the best things that has ever happened to you.” 

“No, really, you are a rare prize among mares… there are times I feel so undeserving of you and Derpy,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh shut up you loon,” Berry growled. “Enough with the neurosis, it no longer suits you.” 

“I could act as bait and they could rain down death from above,” Bucky said, thinking out loud, Berry’s idea filling his brain with creative inspiration. 

“The term is ‘carpet bombing’ and unicorn airships did it during our last war with the griffons. I learned about it in history class in university,” Berry explained. 

“I love you to death and I want to have foals with you,” Bucky whispered. 

“Aw, you’re so sweet sometimes, telling a mare just what she wants to hear,” Berry replied, her words ending with a coy giggle. 

“So a floating weapons platform. It would also allow us to go from island to island in our hunt for the wolves. It could be used to rapidly deploy me to an area, I could drop down from there, draw in the wolves, and then we can collectively blast them into smithereens. I can keep them busy on the ground, cluster them up into tight groups, and then death and fire could be rained down upon them from above,” Bucky said, his eye going wide with excitement. 

“Plus, I think Derpy would let you live,” Berry added. “Which is a good thing, because I really want to have some foals with you.” 

“I could enchant my armor to protect me from all kinds of spells and I can magically shield myself. Those above could rain down destruction with impunity,” Bucky said, his ears quivering with barely contained excitement. 

“And then we can go home,” Berry sighed. “I really hope that Derpy allows Thistle to come home with us.” 

“I take it you and Thistle are becoming close?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes, I’ll admit, I like her. I think she will be a good addition to our herd,” Berry answered. 

“I will admit, I find myself with a troubling attraction to her,” Bucky confessed. 

“She’s pretty,” Berry agreed. “If I might ask, what do you find attractive about her?” asked Berry in a quizzical tone. 

Bucky felt heat bloom through his face and in his ears. “Oh, it is silly… I don’t know if I can talk about it,” he said sheepishly. 

“Look, I have ways of making you talk,” Berry threatened as she sat down beside Bucky, tired of standing on her hooves. 

“It is her belly,” Bucky admitted, his voice barely a whisper. “There is something about pregnancy that I find-” 

“You have a pregnancy fetish,” Berry interrupted. 

“I dunno, maybe?” Bucky sighed. 

“Imagine Derpy and I all fat with your foals,” Berry said seductively. “Our bellies all huge and round, our teats swollen-” 

“Stop! Oh please, this is torture!” Bucky pleaded. 

Berry guffawed, her whole body shaking with laughter. 

“I didn’t even know this was a thing,” Bucky confessed. “I suppose it is.” 

“Yes, it is. So we have finally found your special kink. Mine is rope, yours is pregnancy, we still need to discover Derpy’s I think,” Berry announced. 

“And Thistle’s as well if she is to be a part of our herd,” Bucky stated. 

“I suppose so,” Berry agreed. “You know, this is a good thing.” 

“It is?” Bucky asked. 

“Most mares get a little emotional during their pregnancy. They feel fat and unattractive. It has been my experience that a mare really needs to be feel sexy and good looking to her mate during those moments, and having a pregnancy fetish is bound to make things better for all of us,” Berry explained. 

“It is my fondest wish that you and Derpy become pregnant,” Bucky said, baring his soul. “I want to be a father and do all of the things my father never did. Dinky and Piña are wonderful, and Sentinel is great, but I want more foals than I know what to do with,” Bucky confessed. 

“You and Barley both,” Berry acknowledged. “We should call it quits. Today, you came closer than any of your previous attempts. Let’s head back and check out how they are doing with their school. Derpy’s probably got a pile of foals and I really need to cuddle something before I lose my mind. I don’t know what has come over me lately. I think all of this hardship has me wanting to reaffirm life.” 

“Actually, I think we got a lot accomplished here today. I have the missing piece in my plan,” Bucky stated. “And that’s important. I am going to need your help getting Derpy to agree with this.” 

“I will help you. I understand the necessity of why you need Rising Star and Sparkler,” Berry offered in reply. 

“Berry, look out the window… do you see what I see?” Bucky said, craning his head. 

Berry looked out the window and saw the sky was filled with pegasi pulling chariots and sky wagons. Her mouth dropped open. 

“We need to get back to the castle immediately, come on, let’s go,” Bucky urged. 

The earth pony mare said nothing in reply but rose to her hooves and took off in a hurry, eager to return home. 

Cadance’s convoy had arrived. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 79
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The field was full of chariots and sky wagons. Bucky walked slowly through them, looking around at the crystal pegasi, Berry following along close behind him. Some were still landing, circling overhead until a suitable landing location had been found. There were crates and boxes of all kinds secured to the vehicles. 

And then, he saw her. A powerful jolt went through Bucky’s body, it was almost painful. Every muscle spasmed and seized and there was an odd thought that rushed through his mind that concerned him greatly. Destroy her, destroy the usurper who has taken what is yours some voice within his mind commanded. Bucky blamed it on his latent neurosis and shoved the unwanted thought away. 

As he drove the unwanted thoughts out of his mind, something else settled in to take their place, and he felt a strong sense of love for the pony he was looking at, and who was currently looking at him, her eyes wide in shock and horror, tears already welling in the corners. 

“Buckminster?” Cadance whispered hoarsely. 

“Princess Cadance, it is good to see you,” Bucky greeted, bowing his head slightly. He saw her wing extend and then he felt feathers brush the side of his neck, a gesture that he understood now as pegasus affection, something only done for those who were truly close. He felt confused, as he barely knew Princess Cadance, and struggled to understand why she would be so affectionate. 

“Buckminster, what has happened to you? Your face…” Cadance murmured in shock. 

“He was mauled by the damnable shadow wolves that haunt these isles,” Berry explained, now standing beside Bucky, looking at Cadance. 

Shining Armor, who stood beside Cadance, gave his wife a glance and then continued to study Bucky. 

There was a commotion in the crowd and a large burly pegasus was approaching the group. Keg Smasher parted the growing crowd all around him as he pressed forward, and, as he approached the group, he raised his wing in salute. 

“Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor, welcome to Isle o’ Groats,” Keg Smasher greeted. 

“Greetings Laird Keg Smasher,” Cadance returned. 

“Glad to have finally met you,” Shining Armor replied. 

“I am surprised to see you here, I understood you were sending payment, but this was unexpected,” Keg Smasher said. 

“I came at my aunt’s request,” Cadance said, her voice easily carrying over the growing noise of the crowd. “Celestia wanted me to check up on the state of things here and to check on Buckminster here and see how he and his family are doing.” 

Keg Smasher started to say something, his mouth opening, but then he fell silent. One wing twitched a bit, one ear quivered, and he flicked his tail nervously. 

“The state of things here is intolerable,” Bucky said flatly.

Keg Smasher gave a grunt but remained silent. 

“How could the princesses allow things to get so bad here?” Berry demanded, never one to hold her tongue. 

Cadance said nothing, and Shining Armor looked down at his own hooves, his face contorted in what appeared to be shame. There were several grunts from the guard surrounding them. 

“Look, I understand that Celestia can’t set a hoof on this isle because of whatever cockamamie reasons cooked up by the treaty, but how could she let things become so bad here?” Berry demanded. 

“In time, there will be answers for that, but not now,” Cadance replied in a flat monotone. 

“No time like the present. Somepony needs to be held accountable,” Berry insisted, her voice raising to a level that the sizable crowd could easily hear her. 

“The time of accountability is already at hoof,” Shining said in a choked voice as he raised his head high. “You have no idea what is taking place.” 

Bucky was startled as Ripple landed suddenly beside him on his blind side, and he had to crane his head to see her. He felt her nuzzle him briefly, and he began to feel a little calmer. 

“Out of the way!” Sentinel’s voice demanded. The lunar pegasus foal was pushing his way through the crowd, a group of ponies behind him. “Make way for my master’s family,” he growled as he flapped his wings and tried to look very intimidating. 

Cadance looked very confused for a moment, seeing the large group of ponies approaching. Clearly, a lot had taken place. 

“Seems there is going to be a lot of explaining to do all around,” Keg Smasher commented. 

Bucky felt his family members begin to crowd around him. All of them. He could see the startled look of surprise in Cadance’s eyes and took a secret glee in seeing her shock. 

“Now, before anypony says anything and this all becomes confusing, we should give Cadance and Shining Armor some time to settle in and get some rest. There will be time for explanations later,” Keg Smasher stated, knowing a tense situation when he saw one. 

Cadance nodded but said nothing in reply. 

Berry grunted, realising that no answers seemed to be forthcoming. 



 

“Did you have a nice meeting with Keg Smasher?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes,” Cadance replied, sounding tired. 

“So, any good reasons as to why the Princesses left these isles to rot?” Berry asked acerbically. 

The afternoon sun was warm and shone upon all the ponies sitting in the meadow. Cadance and Shining Armor were sitting on a blanket together, and neither one replied to Berry. The group was surrounded by pegasus guards. 

“There are reasons,” Cadance replied, her voice somewhat halting. “More will be made clear in time,” Cadance promised. 

“I suppose I’ll have to be content with getting the runaround,” Berry snarked sourly, rubbing along Bucky’s spine with one hoof. 

“An explanation would be nice,” Bucky added politely. 

“Celestia was not made fully aware of just how bad things had become here until just recently,” Shining Armor stated. “She was lied to about a great many things. There are other factors as well. Trying to keep the peace. Political stability.”

Lyra Heartstrings gave a snort but said nothing. 

“Before we left, there was no political stability,” Bon Bon muttered. 

“How are things?” Bucky asked diplomatically, trying his best to not sound cynical and bitter. He felt that Cadance deserved that at least.

“Things are bad,” Cadance replied. 

“There is currently no government,” Shining Armor added. 

“Equestria’s financial system is in ruins. House Avarice was pretty much the governmental treasury and the bank of Equestria. The courts no longer exist. The accusations of scandal and corruption have made everything boil over. The truth about this place, and everything that has taken place here, it has all came out. House Avarice has holed up inside their most fortified compound in Canterlot, and they are currently under siege from several other houses. They are well defended, the compound was protected by some very powerful spells from the ancient days. They are waiting for what they call the ‘peasant revolt’ to be over,” Cadance explained. 

“Most of the Canterlot unicorns are more about politics than practical spell casting. The siege hasn’t gone well,” Shining Armor mentioned. “There is a stalemate. Basically, House Avarice has become prisoners in their compound. Nopony can root them out, and they lack the means to break the siege.”

“Ponyville is pretty much the only place of peace and safety. The guard who were taken prisoner there have been training the local militia and turning them into a formidable fighting force. They keep the peace and keep Ponyville well defended. Luna is there as well, and she has become something of a symbol of hope. She finally has what she has always wanted, the love, respect, and admiration of her fellow ponies. Luna’s Marauders bring food, water, and supplies to the surrounding refugee camps that have formed outside of Ponyville. They also keep order. Desperate ponies sometimes do foolish things,” Cadance said as she tried to meet the eyes of all the ponies currently looking at her. 

“Barley O’Blivion has become the representative of the refugees, he goes around to the various camps speaking to the leaders of the camps, and he acts as a liaison to my sister Twilight and Luna, things would have fallen apart a long time go without him I think. He is an amazing individual. He’s used his friendship with Luna as leverage to get ponies to behave themselves and listen to him, and to talk to him as well. He makes sure that things get done,” Shining Armor stated. 

“Celestia hasn’t even been in Canterlot for a while now, she has been in Fillydelphia trying to restore order. The charges of scandal and corruption have hit there there hardest. Some of the better citizens have seized control of the government offices and are trying to save as much of the paperwork and documentation as possible before it was destroyed. Even with everything going wrong, really good ponies have been coming forward to do the right thing, it has been amazing and inspiring to watch as everything unfolds. Mister Rich has been feeding the refugees for example, using what remains of his wealth and resources after the financial collapse. It hit him pretty hard, but he took it all in stride,” Shining Armor continued to explain. 

Bucky heaved a sigh and looked at his foals. Dinky, Piña, and Ripple were all in a pile together. Dinky and Piña both looked quite distressed, and Ripple was trying to comfort them. Sentinel sat a short distance away, watching Princess Cadance with some kind of moonstruck wonder, his eyes wide his face full of awe. 

“I hope we have a home to return to,” Derpy said in a small voice. “But no matter what, we have each other, remember that,” she added, her voice becoming firm. 

“So much more has happened,” Cadance continued. “But you will find out more when you come home. It seems a lot has happened for you as well. I feel so much love coming from all of you. Your family has grown! I cannot believe how many of you there are.” 

“They are my strength,” Bucky stated. 

“Sparkler got married. There were some troubling circumstances and she wanted to save her friend,” Berry stated, offering a half hearted explanation, still miffed that her concerns were not properly addressed to her satisfaction. 

“Lyra and Bon Bon joined us after a long adventure to get here,” Derpy said. 

“I am Buckminster’s squire,” Sentinel explained. 

“And this is Thistle, whom I know you know about,” Bucky said, nodding his head in Thistle’s direction. 

“This is Loch Skimmer and Ripple, my wives,” Rising Star said to the royal couple. “You already know Sparkler,” he mentioned. 

“You are blessed with an extended family,” Cadance said, a broad but tired looking smile spreading across her features. 

“We’re very sorry, but we need to go. Lyra and I need our sleep,” Bon Bon stated to the group. 

“I am coming with you!” Sentinel quipped. “Once again I will guard you through the night.” 

Cadance watched as the trio departed.

“Lyra’s music counteracts the magical fear and cold from the wolves,” Bucky explained. 

“I know a little about the wolves,” Cadance said. “Look, I cannot tell you everything, but you are here for a reason Buckminster. You have a formidable task ahead of you. Our time is short here, and we must leave before the sun sets. I have aid for you… I have brought books. Spellbooks. Other books about what you face here. There is a trunk full of comfort from home. Foodstuffs and things you are probably missing. I wish I could tell you more, but Bucky, as a scion of of the Platinum bloodline, you… you are the only one who can put an end to what is happening here.” 

“What?” Bucky gasped. 

“Look, I can’t tell you much. There is a book in the trunk you need to read. More will be revealed in time. Celestia has faith that you will succeed where so many others have failed. You have always shown so much promise she said,” Cadance said to Bucky. 

“Are you saying that Bucky was fated to come here?” Berry asked in a tone of disbelief. 

“And probably to marry you as well,” Cadance replied. “You are just as much a part of this as he is.” 

“What in Tartarus is going on?” Berry demanded. 

“I honestly do not know,” Cadance confessed. “I only know a little. Celestia was tight lipped.” 

Berry Punch grunted but said nothing in return. 

“Bucky, you have something that others in your position did not have,” Cadance stated. “A family that truly loves you. Look around you. Celestia is confident that you will succeed. And when you have, Celestia promises to explain everything to all of you.” 

“So Celestia knew that eventually all of this would land on my shoulders and I’d be here?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes, and she tried to prepare you,” Cadance replied. “She had an inkling at first, and then knew for certain when you fended off all of Ponyville and cracked your horn. There is a lot of that in your bloodline.” 

“Are you saying this is a curse?” Bucky queried. 

“Yes, you could call it that,” Cadance answered. 

“So she placed Bucky in our care hoping that we would bond?” Derpy asked, her muzzle scrunching in confusion. 

“She was indeed hoping for that,” Cadance admitted. 

“So I am cursed,” Bucky stated, still trying to grasp the situation. 

“Or you could say you are destined for greatness,” Shining Armor offered. 

Bucky did not reply. 

“Stupid curse can’t have him,” Derpy growled. “He’s mine.” 

“And mine,” Berry quipped. 

“Ours,” Derpy corrected. 

“And my foal needs a father,” Thistle added. 

“Yeah it does,” Derpy added without thinking, causing Thistle to have a very hopeful look spread over her features. 

“We look after our own,” Sparkler insisted. 

“So fate has brought us together,” Bucky said thoughtfully. 

“Twilight believes that fate is what brought her and her friends together, and she usually doesn’t believe in intangible things that she can’t see, feel, measure, or study,” Shining Armor said. “So take hope Buckminster. I personally do not feel that fate would bring all of you together only to have you fail.” 

Bucky did not reply. The recent events all seemed so confusing, and everything felt jumbled. He tried to focus his mind, and then he thought about total honesty. He remembered his first reaction to seeing Cadance, and a question formed in his mind. 

“Are you tied to this curse as well Cadance?” Bucky asked. 

Cadance looked startled and her wings flapped. “How? How did you know?” Cadance asked. 

“When I first saw you earlier I had thoughts in my head to destroy you. Something in my mind called you an usurper, that you took what is rightfully mine,” Bucky admitted. “I attributed it to my neurosis.” 

“I am part of this indirectly,” Cadance confessed. “Our fates are linked.” 

“This is distressing,” Berry said, her voice full of worry. 

“What do you have that is mine?” Bucky asked. 

Cadance squirmed and looked very uncomfortable. 

“Look, some things can’t be answered right now, but answers are coming,” Shining Armor interjected. 

“Stay strong in your love for one another,” Cadance insisted. “Our time grows ever shorter.” Cadance smiled sweetly, looking at both Derpy and Berry. “Besides Buckminster, I know another good reason why you must endure,” Cadance said in a faint teasing tone. 

“And that is?” Bucky replied. 

“You are going to be a father,” Cadance answered.
	
> Chapter 80
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky remained silent and in shock. Cadance’s revelations had left him disturbed and unsettled. She and Shining Armor were already gone, offering a tearful farewell before departing. The sun would be setting soon. He sat on a couch, reclining against the arm, watching his family plunder the trunk and pulling out various goods. 

It was Derpy who noticed that he was not with them, and, seeing him alone on the sofa by his lonesome, had come to join him. She eased herself onto the sofa beside him, carefully wrapped her forelegs around him, and pulled him close. 

Bucky allowed her to squeeze him. It hurt a bit, but he was far too distracted by everything else to notice. He moved swiftly and suddenly, locking his own forelegs around her to return her embrace, holding her as close as possible, his breath catching in his throat. 

“I’m scared,” he whispered to the grey mare holding him. 

“I know,” she answered, also in a whisper. 

Berry turned to watch the pair, and then her thoughts turned to the foal in her belly. More than anything, she wanted to be away from this horrible place and to be home. She became distracted by happy squeals from Sparkler. 

“Cookies!” Piña cried happily. 

“I’ve never had a cookie,” Ripple admitted. “But I have heard ponies that have been to the mainland talk about them.” 

“You must have a cookie then,” Piña suggested. “These are fudge dipped shortbread. And those are ginger snaps! I love ginger snaps!” 

“There is all kinds of junk food in here,” Rising Star announced. “Loch, you are going to love some of this stuff,” he quipped. 

“More books,” Dinky mentioned as she peered over the edge. She leaned too far over and fell in. “Nopony saw anything,” she grumbled from inside the trunk. 

“I saw everything Bumblebutt,” Piña teased. 

“Oh shut it,” Dinky retorted and she blew a raspberry at Piña after getting herself upright once again. 

From on the sofa, Derpy watched her brood rummaging through the trunk and continued to comfort Bucky. “You are going to be daddy… well, you have a few foals already but you know what I mean,” Derpy whispered. 

“I know,” Bucky breathed in return. “I am actually very happy, I am just having a hard time taking everything in. I am worried about what I must do and what will happen if I fail. Failure scares me now more than ever,” he confessed. 

“I get to be a mommy again. Dinky has grown up so much. I miss when she was so small and so needy of me. I want that again,” Derpy whispered into Bucky’s ear. She planted a kiss just behind the dead spot on the left side of his face, just below his ear. 

Bucky shivered from her touch and felt an electric tingling in his dock. His mind thought of earlier and the idea that he had a pregnancy fetish. He felt the first hot flash of arousal and suddenly he wanted to do a whole lot more than just hold Derpy. 

“Chocolate covered cherries!” Bon Bon cried. 

Bucky turned to look at his grey mare and he struggled to raise his eyebrow. “The trunk certainly has raised spirits,” he quipped. 

“Sure has,” she replied. 

“It almost feels like Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Bucky commented. 

“Yeah, sorta,” Derpy agreed.

“Too bad I already came down your chimney and left you a gift,” Bucky whispered suggestively. 

Derpy tittered loudly and several eyes turned to look at her and Bucky. 

“You two sure look cozy,” Sparkler announced. “And mom is blushing.” The filly paid little mind to the two adults and went back to pillaging the trunk. 

“You don’t say dirty stuff often enough,” Derpy murmured softly into Bucky’s ear. “I like it when you get flirty,” she admitted. 

“Neonatal vitamins!” Berry crowed. “Somepony really was thinking about us!” 

“There are some letters here,” Dinky said from inside the trunk. “In envelopes. All tied together with a ribbon.” She lifted them out using her magic and set them carefully on top of a pile of books. 

“Dehydrated fruit… whole compressed bricks of the stuff. And pineapple too!” Piña Colada cried in a shrill overly excited voice. 

“Soap!” Berry announced. 

“SOAP!” Derpy shouted in reply, startling poor Bucky when she did so in his ear. He tried to squirm free of her grasp but she held him and refused to let go. “Sorry about that,” she whispered. “But soap is big deal for me. I like to be clean… soap soap soap,” she muttered, mostly to herself. 

“I don’t feel right about this,” Dinky announced, the happiness in her voice gone. “No, this is wrong.” 

“Dinks, what is wrong exactly?” Berry asked. 

“We have all of this… ponies like Loch and Ripple and Sentinel have never had any of this stuff… cookies and jelly beans and all of these candies. It feels wrong to have all of this knowing that there are foals all around me that don’t have anything. Or have to eat grass to get full,” Dinky answered, a tear beginning to well in the corner of her eye. “I don’t think I want any of it.” 

“Dinky, come here,” Derpy said, gesturing at her foal. 

Dinky crawled out of the trunk, crossed the room, and climbed onto the sofa with Bucky and Derpy. She curled into her mother’s side and sat silently. 

“We’ll share some of this stuff with the foals when he teaches school. It will make them work harder,” Derpy said as she rubbed Dinky with her foreleg. “And you are a very good foal for thinking of others. I am proud of you.” 

“And so am I,” Bucky said to the troubled foal who sat sniffling at her mother’s side, a few tears now beginning to fall.

“I don’t want any either,” Piña grumbled as she sat down on the floor, her face pulled into a pout. “Dinky is right. I feel awful,” she admitted. 

“We can wait until to tomorrow to have some,” Sparkler suggested. “When we can share it.” 

“That seems wise,” Rising Star agreed. 

“I concur,” Lyra quipped. 

“I’m with Lyra,” Bon Bon announced. 

“We’ve gone so long without, I suppose it really doesn’t matter,” Berry stated. 

“So when am I going to have a little brother or a little sister?” Dinky asked as she poked her mother’s belly with her forehoof. 

“Probably next spring,” Derpy replied, her features breaking into a smile. 

“Well, we made them together, here is to hoping we’ll have them together,” said Berry as she crossed the room to join the others on the sofa. 

“That would be nice,” Derpy agreed as Berry took a seat beside her. 

“Feels strange not having Thistle here,” Bucky announced. “She is alone, off in her lake. We just had this moment of family bonding and she wasn’t here. I understand she isn’t family yet, but let’s face it, she will be. I mean, I just got done mentioning how this felt like Hearth’s Warming Eve. That is a time when family should be together.” 

Derpy heaved a sigh but said nothing. 

“Bucky is right. She belongs with us,” Berry stated. 

“I like Thistle,” Dinky said to Derpy, looking up into her mother’s eyes. 

“I like the plants that grow out of her. Makes my earth pony sense tingle,” Piña admitted. 

“You have an earth pony sense?” Dinky asked. 

“Sure do,” Piña replied. 

“Care to explain?” Dinky inquired. 

“I dunno how to explain. I just touch certain plants and I get tingly all over,” Piña answered with a shrug. 

“Neat,” Dinky quipped. 

“Maybe it will prove useful,” Berry said with earnest seriousness to her little sister. “Maybe you have a special gift to develop.” 

On the bed, Lyra yawned and lifted her head, watching the commotion as the trunk was fully explored. Bon Bon, beside her, continued to rest her head on Sentinel, using him as a pillow. Sentinel was awake but had his eyes closed. It took him a while to adjust to the light after waking up. 

“There is a lot of mail here,” Sparkler announced. “Bucky, you have letters from Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Cadance left you a note as well. A lot of important ponies seem to want to communicate with you,” Sparkler quipped. “Berry, mom, there is a letter here from Barley to both of you,” Sparkler continued. “Piña, Dinky, there is a letter here from Diamond Tiara for the two of you, and Lyra, there is a letter here from Princess Celestia for you… I don’t know how she knew you were here,” Sparkler finished. 

“I’ll look at it later,” Lyra replied nervously. 

“I don’t think I can deal with anything else today,” Bucky said in reply. “I’ll look at the letters tomorrow.” 

“They’ll be there waiting,” Derpy said soothingly. “You just take your time. You look frazzled,” the mare stated. To help him relax, she began to plant little kisses along Bucky’s neck, which made him shake in her embrace. 

Dinky looked up at her mother and her father, watching the affection taking place between them, and then settled once again against her mother’s side, feeling that everything was alright with the world. 

“I wonder what Princess Cadance and Keg Smasher talked about,” Rising Star said, his eyes lingering on the wealth of goods contained in the trunk. 

“I’d be curious to find out about that myself,” Berry replied. “I wonder if she told Keg Smasher anything about what is going on here,” the mare continued. 

“It is becoming more and more obvious that there are forces at work bringing us together… usually Bonnie dismisses my hunches as paranoia, and most of the time Bonnie is right for doing so, but this can’t be mere coincidence, I mean, my talent, my ability, my music being able to hold back the fear magic of the wolves. All of us are meant to be here, all of this is happening for a reason,” Lyra explained. 

“I think you are right Lyra,” Bon Bon agreed. 

“And Berry was meant to kick the horseapples out of Bucky’s mother,” Derpy murmured as she continued to cuddle with Bucky on the couch. 

Berry, sitting next to Derpy, with Dinky squished between them, nodded. “Somepony had to kick the snot out of her,” Berry agreed. 

“But that’s over,” Derpy said soothingly. “Our job now is to be good wives and mothers. To raise foals,” the grey mare whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

“Oh, I’ll be happy to help you all be good mothers,” Bucky returned. “Just let me know when you need my help,” he offered. 

“Thistle is going to make a good mother, and she is going to need a good husband,” Derpy stated. “How do you feel about that Bucky?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky heaved a sigh. “I have some mixed feelings,” he answered. 

“I know,” Derpy replied to his soft words. 

“Are you finally going to tell us about your agreement with Thistle?” Berry asked, sounding Berry hopeful. 

“Nope,” Derpy answered. 

“Bugger,” Berry swore, causing Dinky’s eyes to go wide and a faint pink blush to appear on the filly’s cheeks. 

“I’ve said it before, I am willing to take her in,” Bucky stated. “Now more than ever though. The events of this damnable place are always going to haunt me I fear. I will never be able to get the image out of my mind of Keg Smasher approaching me with that glowing hot iron as I was tied down… as it got closer and closer to my face and I could feel the heat coming off of it and I couldn’t get away. And that is just one of many memories I wish I didn’t have. But once I leave this place, I would like to have the reminders of something good from here. Sentinel of course… I suppose I would endure being burned with hot irons to have Sentinel, and Thistle too I reckon. I’d like to show them a good life. Ripple and Loch Skimmer as well. Sentinel, Ripple, and Loch, I cannot help but feel that they are just as much my foals as Dinky, Piña, and Sparkler. And I can’t forget Rising Star, who has found his way into my heart,” Bucky explained. “And I guess coming here was worth it for the sense of family that has been created. That reason alone makes it all worth it,” the unicorn finished.

“As important as all of that is, I want to hear from you directly how you feel about Thistle,” Derpy insisted. “I don’t want to be distracted by pretty words.” 

“Sorry,” Bucky grumbled. “Look, I find myself becoming very fond of Thistle. I could see myself loving her just as much as I love the rest of you. Even if it is a little weird right now, she will grow up. I think it would be better for her to grow up with us, knowing that there is a place for her and her foals in our herd. And here is the weird part, it almost sounds like parenting or something… ugh,” Bucky said with a shudder. “She will grow up knowing exactly what is expected from her and more responsibilities can be given to her as she is ready for them,” Bucky finished. 

“Like me,” Ripple stated. She shot her sister a glare that silenced Loch Skimmer before anything could be said. “Look, like it or not, I am married into this herd as well. Thistle and I have a lot in common and we’ve talked,” Ripple admitted. “And I don’t want to reveal Thistle’s secrets so I am going to shut up now,” Ripple added. 

Derpy’s brows furrowed and a faint noise of indescribable concern resonated in her throat. 

“Sometimes a filly or a colt has to grow up before they are ready,” Bucky said trying to sooth Derpy’s ruffled feathers. “I know this for myself. I was about Sparkler’s age when my parents and I were at the therapist’s office that fateful day… and I was told by my parents that they resented me for being born and disrupting their lives. After that, well… I do believe the bonds of family were broken at that point. We drifted apart. I stayed at Celestia’s school. And I had to grow up and take care of myself because, well, I didn’t have anypony else. Or so I thought. I was so hurt and confused. I didn’t realise at the time that Celestia and my teachers were trying to look after me. I pushed them all away. I became a very grown up little colt and I made my way into the world. The world as it once was, ponies like Sparkler and Rising Star are ready to begin a family… like it or not, they are old enough. At least in a sense. As a society, we’ve extended foalhood greatly, trying to protect them from the world as long as possible. Look around you at all of the herds here. Maturity comes early to many, at least here it does. Maturity came to me early. I had no choice but to grow up and take care of myself. Sparkler is more level headed than most adults I know. Sure, she makes mistakes, but Sparkler learns from her mistakes, which is more than I can say for a lot of adults I know who keep making the same mistakes over and over. Thistle is a little naive but she is ready and eager to be a parent and take responsibility for not only her life and her foal, but for the lives of our foals as well. Think about how intimidating that must be for her, to be in her position, to be a mother as young as she is, and to not only embrace the idea of motherhood as much as she has, but to be willing to take on all of the extra work of looking after Dinky and Piña as well,” Bucky said, his many words all coming slowly and carefully. “Now tell me my little storm cloud, when you were her age, as scared as you were back then, would you have been so willing to take on all of this responsibility and hard work or was Dinky enough?” Bucky asked, putting Derpy on the spot. 

Derpy squirmed 

“Bucky brings up a very good point,” Berry said as she brushed a fetlock against Derpy’s wing and smoothed out her feathers. 

“I don’t think I would have taken on the challenge of having a whole family,” Derpy admitted, shame readily apparent in her voice. “I would have ran away. Dinky was all I could deal with. I lost almost all of my friends. Dinky consumed so much of my life. I gave everything I had to look after her. I never thought of it this way,” Derpy confessed. “I need to talk with Thistle tomorrow.” 

“When you put it like that, it does give a very different view of Thistle,” Rising Star mumbled, speaking mostly to himself. “Here I’ve been scared of just being married and being responsible for a few wives… I never thought about Thistle’s view of having to be married and deal with what is sure to be a small army of foals,” he continued. 

“Makes my own concerns feel kinda trivial,” Sparkler admitted. 

“And mine,” Loch Skimmer agreed. 

“I was already aware of this because I’ve been talking to Thistle,” Ripple said, looking around the room as she did so. “And while I will not betray her trust, none of you have any idea of what this is doing to her. She might be a ‘filly’ to most of you, and you might not see her as an adult, but she knows exactly what she is getting into and we both talk about these things together when we get the chance.” Ripple paused, her muzzle scrunching in concentration as she wracked her brain for the right words. “Bucky is a very good pony for trying to see Thistle’s point of view. I am glad to have him as my father,” Ripple said with a sniffle, her eyes beginning to mist over. She scrubbed at her eyes with her foreleg and gave a grunt, refusing to allow her emotions to get the best of her. 

“I just realised, I used to see the world only through my own point of view. And then, I met the most wonderful pegasus ever, and there was a very comical misunderstanding between the two of us. And then I met an earth pony mare that completely baffled me. Between the two of them, I had to work so very hard to understand what was going on,” Bucky stated. 

“You know,” Rising Star interjected. “I really lucked out with Ripple. She’s amazing.” 

“Aw, thanks,” Ripple replied shyly. 

“I am the one who lucked out,” Bucky stated. “I have all of you.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 81
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The compressed peat bale in the fire popped and crackled, causing Bucky to lift his head. Most of his family was in the bed, sleeping peacefully, warm, content, and secure. Lyra’s spell kept the effects of the horrible howling away. 

It was an odd arrangement, having both Bon Bon and Lyra as wives, but not as lovers. Still, Bucky didn’t mind. He loved them both, a conclusion he reached after a great deal of inner reflection. There were different types of love, and Bucky was open to experiencing them all. 

The firelight twinkled in his remaining eye as he took his letters into his magic and pulled them closer. One ear twitched slightly as he heard Bon Bon and Sentinel talking very quietly to one another. Lyra giggled softly at something Sentinel said, but Bucky didn’t quite catch what was spoken. 

Bucky drew forth a letter and saw that it was from Princess Luna. It had a wax seal upon it, the parchment was ivory coloured and it was written in indigo ink. He carefully opened the folded paper. 



 

Dearest Buckminster,


I know what you fight. I wish there was more that I could do to help you, but I have only recently became aware of the shadow wolves. Powerful magics have been placed to block my perceptions and prevent scrying. I hope you will believe me when I tell you that my sister and I had no idea just what was going on out there on the isles. 

I wish I could come to help you, however, I have come to the same understanding as my sister, and that is that you must face this with your herdmates. Keep your wits about you. I have sent several books to help you, and I am trusting you with powerful spells that very few are trusted with. 

Do not disappoint me.

Princess Luna. 



Bucky sighed and read the letter again. Luna clearly wasn’t one for mincing words. He heaved another sigh and set the letter down on the sofa beside him. 

“You look and sound tired, you should get some sleep,” Bon Bon coaxed. “Look over there on the bed, there is a spot for you right there between Berry and Derpy, doesn’t that look inviting?” she inquired. 

“My mind is full of thoughts,” Bucky admitted. 

“I could imagine,” Bon Bon whispered in reply. 

“There seems to be more at stake than I am aware of,” Bucky stated. “What if I fail?” he asked in a soft wavering whisper. “What dreadful consequences await us all? Failure is bad enough when it is just me experiencing it, but I am afraid that if I fail now, all of us will suffer the consequences in some way… part of me wishes that I had simply stayed alone and not brought anypony into my apparently screwed up destiny,” Bucky explained. 

“Shut… up!” Lyra snapped in angry quiet voice. 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon hissed. 

“You… moron!” Lyra began. “Don’t you understand, if you had been alone, if you had stayed alone, that would have been failure… don’t you get it?” 

“Lyra, you have no right to talk to him like that,” Bon Bon chided. 

“She has every right, leave her be Bonnie,” Bucky interjected. 

“But…” Bon Bon said in a faltering voice. 

“But nothing, I value Lyra’s honesty and straightforwardness. Just like I appreciate Berry giving me a kick to get me moving in the right direction,” Bucky stated. “And  you are right Lyra. Still, I don’t like the idea that all of you are probably going to suffer for this somehow if I fail.” 

“So then we suffer,” Lyra said, blinking her eyes slowly as she did so, her golden eyes reflecting in the firelight. “But remember, all of us chose this life. We chose to be with you, every single one of us. Sometimes having an extraordinary mate means having to endure some extraordinary circumstances, isn’t that right Bonnie?”

Bon Bon nodded, thinking back to the broken state in which she had found Lyra. She felt the hot sting of tears working their way to her eyes, but she held them back with a repressed shudder. 

Sentinel removed himself from the sofa with Lyra and Bon Bon, crossed the small gap between sofas, and settled in next to Bucky, sitting close but not touching. He said nothing, but silently stared at Bucky, his eyes wide and his slitted pupils narrowed from the flickering firelight. 

“Well, this has become somewhat awkward. I am going to go back to reading my mail,” Bucky whispered. 

“Do not dismiss us or the effort we have expended in being here for you,” Lyra insisted, a faint hint of anger still in her voice. 

“Look, Lyra, you are right. Absolutely right. Can you forgive me?” Bucky begged. 

“That depends,” Lyra replied. 

“Lyra, what has gotten into you?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Alright, what do I need to do to be forgiven?” Bucky inquired. 

“Stop being a dunderhead,” Lyra demanded. 

“But I am a dunderhead Lyra,” Bucky said in his own defense. “For all of my own cleverness, I am a  few slices short of a pie.” 

Lyra cracked a wry smile. 

“Look, I say really stupid stuff all the time. I do really stupid things. This is why I need all of you. For a pony who is supposedly intelligent, I do some really stupid things. I always have, and I probably always will,” Bucky explained. 

“Then I guess I will have to forgive you because you are feeble minded,” Lyra acquiesced. 

Bucky snorted and gave a soft chuckle as he lifted the next letter, this one from Celestia. He set it down and lifted Twilight’s letter instead. 

Bon Bon looked confused and bewildered, this was a side of Lyra that she really hadn’t seen before. She looked at Bucky, who was opening his mail, and then looked at Lyra who was looking back at her. 

“What?” Lyra asked.

“Parts of you remain a mystery to me,” Bon Bon admitted. 

“And I remain a mystery to myself,” Lyra returned. 

Bucky noticed that Sentinel was even closer to him on the sofa now, peering up at him, looking at him and his mail curiously.

“You are enamoured by royalty and nobility, aren’t you?” Bucky asked of his squire in soft voice. 

“Yes sir, I am sir,” Sentinel replied. “Meeting Princess Cadance today will likely become one of my fondest memories.” 

“You will be seeing her again,” Bucky said to Sentinel, his words soft and kind. “And before all of this is over, you will probably meet all of the other princesses as well.” 

“I would like that very much,” Sentinel admitted. 

“The idea of service really is deeply ingrained in you, isn’t it?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes sir, it is,” Sentinel answered. “For my kind, what little I know of my kind, service is our highest honour. It is what we do. We were made to serve. To have honour. I wish I knew more about my kind. I feel like I know so little. But the things I do know I hold to very closely, because it is all that I have that makes me what I am.” 

“You are well spoken,” Bucky stated. 

“I was being groomed for service sir, so when I was taken I would have a good chance of being taken on as a guard,” Sentinel replied. 

“I know that,” Bucky returned. “But all of the grooming in the world doesn’t help a pony that isn’t meant to be well spoken.” Bucky paused for a moment, cocked his head to one side, and focused his gaze upon Sentinel. “You were clearly meant for better things. It seems to me that everypony in this herd was meant for better things,” Bucky stated in a matter of fact sort of voice. 

“I think I understand sir,” Sentinel answered. “I have always hoped I was destined for better things. I want to leave these isles. I want a life of meaning and of service. Keg Smasher once told me that he got to where he was because he serves others.” 

“There is some truth to that,” Bucky agreed. “Keg Smasher took it upon himself to return home to his roots and take on an impossible task that offers little thanks in return and leaves a lot of ponies upset with him. We have our differences he and I, but I do respect him a great deal. We understand one another.” 

“When you and I return to the mainland, will you help me find others of my kind so that I might learn from them? I know there are others like me here, on the isles, most of them are on Crescent Isle, but I worry that we might not be as well connected to our history here. There are so few of us, most of us leave. Very few of stay to continue our practice of herding. The lure of the mainland and the call of service is so strong,” Sentinel said in a quiet whisper filled with regret. 

“Yes, I will help you Sentinel. You have done so much and have asked for so little in return,” Bucky responded. “How are you doing in school?” 

“I am doing fine. I can write my name even better than before, I can read entire sentences, I can write entire sentences but I am slow at it, and Sparkler even has me helping her teach the other foals. Mostly I show them how to write the alphabet,” Sentinel replied. 

“Very good… as my squire, it will be one of your duties to help me with my correspondence,” Bucky said with a faint smile.

“That would be a privilege sir,” Sentinel replied, a soft eagerness creeping into his voice. 

“Like these letters here,” Bucky said, nodding his head at the letters on the sofa beside him. “Do you think you could read my mail to me?” Bucky asked. 

“You want me to read letters written to you by the princesses?” Sentinel asked, his voice a faint whisper full of awe.

“Do you think you can read that well? This is a very important task,” Bucky replied. “This is why it is so important to pay attention in school. I might even ask you to compose a letter for me… important correspondence to the princesses. And then ask you to deliver them for me personally to make sure my messages are safe and securely delivered,” he added. 

Sentinel’s eyes went wide and the colt remained completely silent, unable to reply. He trembled, and his ears fell down to the sides of his face. 

“Flying from Ponyville to Canterlot might take you a few hours. You would have to be swift and strong. And when you get there, Celestia might be a very busy pony… you might be requested to take a letter for her as well,” Bucky explained. “She might also want you to read it. And you wouldn’t want to screw up in front of her would you?” 

Sentinel slowly shook his head no, a look of sheer terror spreading over his features, his ears bobbing slightly as his head shook from side to side. 

“Just think about how embarrassing it would be to flub something in front of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna,” Bucky mentioned. 

Sentinel gulped loudly, his eyes somehow went even wider. 

“And then there is Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Books. She is the librarian of Ponyville, where you will be living. So you had better be paying attention in school,” Bucky added. 

Sentinel nodded slowly and licked his lips nervously. 

“Care to try and read Twilight’s letter to me?” Bucky inquired. 

Sentinel emitted a high pitched squeak of fear and could not make a verbal reply. His wings fluttered at his sides and his forelegs trembled. 

“Now now Sentinel, I have faith in you. Please read this for me?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes sir, I will do as you bid sir,” Sentinel replied in a nervous whisper. The colt extended his wing and grasped the letter between his central knuckle and his opposable digit. He lifted the letter up, peered at the paper, and then cleared his throat.

“To Buckminster,” Sentinel began. “Hey, this isn’t so hard,” he said, interrupting himself, and causing Bucky to smile faintly in the firelight. “I know what is like to have des-des,” Sentinel paused and stared at the page, trying to sound out the word to himself. “Destiny,” he continued. “I know what it is like to have destiny thrust upon you. You and I do not know each other very well, but that will probably change when you come home. I wanted to take this op-op-op,” Sentinel stammered, and looked visibly frustrated. “I am sorry, I have failed. I cannot read this,” Sentinel admitted. 

“Opportunity?” Bucky guessed. 

“O-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y,” Sentinel said, spelling out the letters. 

“That is opportunity,” Bucky replied. 

Sentinel made a few mental notes and then plowed onwards. “I wanted to take this opportunity to offer my friendship to you. When you return I get the feeling that you and I will be getting to know one another better. Princess Celestia has big plans for you when you return home vic-vic,” Sentinel paused, stymied by a large word. 

“Break it down into smaller words,” Bucky said helpfully. 

“Vic-tor- victorious?” Sentinel said slowly. 

“Sounds right,” Bucky replied. 

“When you return home victorious. There is a pleasant surprise waiting for you. Even with all of the trouble happening at home, we have managed to get a lot done. Please, stay safe. I have in-in-included some books for you to read. I think they will help you. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle,” Sentinel finished. 

“You did very well,” Bucky praised. 

“I made mistakes,” Sentinel protested. 

“So what, you did well. And you handled your mistakes well,” Bucky said. 

“Thank you sir,” Sentinel said, setting the letter down.

“There is still the letter I have from Celestia,” Bucky said, casting his gaze downward at the other letter.

Sentinel heaved a nervous sigh. “I feel very ashamed of the mistakes I made sir. I said that I was doing well in school and now I fear it looks like I have lied,” the colt said in a fearful voice. 

“Sentinel, do not be like that,” Bucky soothed. “You did fine, you make a few mistakes. So what? I still stumble over words when I read outloud.” 

“You do? But you… but… but you are educated sir,” Sentinel stammered. 

“Doesn’t mean nearly as much as you think,” Bucky answered. 

“But sir-” 

“Hush Sentinel,” Bucky interrupted.

The colt fell silent and looked rather dejected. 

“You did fine. And you will continue to do better with practice. Speaking of practice, how is your flying?” Bucky asked, changing the subject. 

“I am getting better. Derpy is a very patient teacher. She’s given me a few lessons. We have different wings, and that makes things tricky,” Sentinel replied. 

“You don’t start off as a perfect flier, and you will not start off as a perfect reader. Both things take practice. Just allow them to happen and don’t be so upset if you make a mistake. I was ribbing you just a little bit earlier about flubbing a word in front of the princesses to make you want to take your schooling a little more serious. You are to make your education your top priority,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes sir,” Sentinel replied. “I will dedicate myself to education. And not to argue with you sir, but my first priority is Dinky and Piña’s safety and well being. But don’t worry, I have it within me to perform both duties,” Sentinel continued. 

Bucky looked up at Bon Bon and Lyra sitting on the other sofa. Both were reading. He gestured at them. “They are bound to be lonely during their nighttime vigil. I know it is a lot to ask of you, but I want you to keep an eye on them as well. They are special and very dear to me. And I’d imagine that you are going to be a little sleepy in school during the day. So what I want you to do is to ask Lyra and Bonnie to help you at night when you are awake and aware. Lyra is a very good teacher and she enjoys teaching. You are to make your nights productive, do you understand me?” Bucky asked. 

Sentinel nodded. “Yes sir. Very wise sir. With me being the only foal awake at night, Lyra will be able to give me one on one lessons.” 

“Yes she will. And I will speak to her about this as well. But I know you will make her very happy if you ask her about lessons to help you fill the night,” Bucky whispered in a low voice. “Now, about this letter,” he added. Bucky cracked the seal using his magic and handed the letter to Sentinel, who took it slowly from Bucky. 

The colt raised the letter so he could see it, peered at the fine print, and then looked at Bucky. “It is very short,” Sentinel said. 

“Oh?” Bucky replied. “Read it.” 

“Dearest Buckminster,” Sentinel started. “I have faith in you. You are one of my best students. I know things are very hard for you right now, but I know that you will not fail. Re-re-mem-ber what your new family means to you. I will tell you everything when you come home. I have sent as much aid as I could offer. Love, Celestia,” said Sentinel, who shrugged after reading it. 

“That was short,” Bucky agreed. “I suppose it is the thought that counts,” he muttered quietly, a faint hint of annoyance in his voice. 

“She was your teacher and she is a princess… how does she find the time?” Sentinel  asked. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky replied. “She had Twilight as her personal student. I suppose she just made time. She also gave me some private instruction.” 

“What was that like?” Sentinel asked. 

“Oh, it was silly actually,” Bucky replied. “I was a foal. I was just starting to learn about my elemental connection to cold. I’d sneeze and it would start snowing in the room. I’d accidentally freeze liquids all around me. My instructors all tried to help me get control, and none of it helped. I don’t actually remember what Celestia did to bring me under control. She told me she used hypnosis. I can’t remember our sessions as at all. She did make the fear go away though, I guess that helped.” 

“The fear?” Sentinel asked. 

“I can barely even remember it,” Bucky replied. “When I came to the school, I had terrible nightmares. Really bad nightmares. One night, at school, I had a dream about the boogeypony. I really don’t remember it very well. A black and shadowy figure. Burning red eyes. And green. The whites of his eyes were green and sickly looking. And he had a big red horn,” Bucky struggled to recall old memories, and they seemed elusive and out of reach in his mind. “I can hardly even remember,” he admitted. “But the boogeypony scared me. One night, he scared me so badly that I encased my entire room in ice, and my roommates were all frozen. Celestia had to come and thaw them out using very powerful magic. I had nearly killed them. My instructors realised they couldn’t help me, and Celestia went into my mind. She made the boogeypony go away.” 

“The boogeypony is a unicorn?” Sentinel asked. 

“I suppose he was. At least for me. Doesn’t really matter, the boogeypony isn’t real. Just a figment of my imagination. And nothing to be afraid of. Celestia helped me to get rid of my fear and gain control. I will admit though, he used to scare me so bad that there were a few times that I thought I was going to wet the bed. Seems so silly now, being afraid of something that doesn’t exist.” 

“A lot of ponies think my kind are boogeyponies,” Sentinel whispered. “I guess it is because we look scary and eat meat,” he added. 

“Aw, you’re still a pony. And so is Thistle. Our differences make us special, but we are all fundamentally the same,” Bucky replied. 

“Even if the boogeypony isn’t real, there are plenty of other terrors in the night. I hope that one day, I will get a chance to fight them. Buckminster, will you make sure I get combat training?” Sentinel inquired. 

“You keep up with your schooling and I will make sure you get combat training,” Bucky promised. 

“Thank you,” Sentinel replied. 

“I am going to go to bed. You do as I have asked and talk to those two,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes sir, I will,” Sentinel replied. “Sleep well sir.” 

“Have a nice night,” Bucky said as he slid from the couch and made his way to the bed. As he crawled into bed, he shuddered for a moment, having only the vaguest memory of how much the boogeypony used to scare him as a foal. Most of the memories were gone, faded away with time, but the fear still lived on. Bucky understood the true terrors in the night, but he supposed the imaginary terrors were still somehow scarier. He smiled as he settled in between Derpy and Berry, glad that his foalhood fears were no longer anything to worry about. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 82
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morning had nearly been perfect, and the afternoon was shaping up to be even better. School had been surprisingly pleasant, with treats for everypony who attended. Dinky prowled the halls of the castle, exploring the enormous building, finally free of adult supervision. With her were Piña, and Ripple. Dinky was determined to explore every nook and cranny after she was finally free to do so. It had taken an endless amount of pleading to be allowed to go off and explore. 

They saw maids cleaning, some of the nobles had gathered in one room and were discussing really boring adult stuff, and then there was Keg Smasher in his throne room, holding court. 

Dinky wasn’t too fond of Keg Smasher. 

“This place is huge,” Piña quipped. 

“So, I have been meaning to ask, what is a Piña Colada exactly?” asked Ripple as they trotted down the hall together. 

“It was my mother’s favourite drink,” Piña replied. “It has booze in it.” 

“Oh,” Ripple replied. 

“And Dinky is called Dinky because she was so big when she was born that her mama couldn’t squirt her out,” Piña explained, offering information nopony asked for. 

“Piña!” Dinky exclaimed. 

“What noodlehead?” Piña returned. 

“I don’t think many ponies come here to this part of the castle. Look how dusty everything is,” Ripple commented, cutting off Dinky’s snarky reply. “Cobwebs.” 

“I hope there isn’t any spiders,” Piña whimpered. 

“Don’t worry Piña, I will keep you safe from spiders,” Ripple offered. 

Dinky pushed open a set of double doors and entered into a large room. There was a ruined looking tile floor, set with black and grey tiles in a checkerboard pattern. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The walls were lined with bookshelves, but there were no books. 

“The bookshelves are burnt looking,” Piña commented. 

“Yeah they are,” Dinky said as she ignited her horn and peered up at the empty shelves. “Everything is all sooty and black.” 

“Looks like a fire happened here,” Ripple announced. 

“Libraries with no books makes me kinda sad,” Dinky said as she looked around. 

“Let’s keep exploring someplace else, this place is creepy,” Piña whispered fearfully.

“Piña, you have the right idea,” Dinky agreed and she led the trio back down the hallway.



 

Bucky flipped the page in one of his new books about shadow creatures, taking in a wealth of new information. Curled up near him where Lyra, Bon Bon, and Sentinel, all sleeping the afternoon away, and the room was quiet, which allowed Bucky to study. He lay in the bed, the book opened before him, and he enjoyed the peace and quiet. 

Lyra whimpered in her sleep, looked frightened for a moment, and then Bon Bon shifted in her sleep, brushing up against Lyra, who quieted. Bucky watched as this happened and felt a pang of sympathy for Lyra. 

He flipped another page and found a long well written note, the note mentioned a spellbook and several page numbers, and it was signed by Twilight Sparkle. Much to his surprise, Twilight’s note mentioned that the wolves could be hurt by cold, his specialised element, but one would have to be a master to cut through the shadow creature’s innate cold resistance. They were much more susceptible to fire based attacks, telekinetic blasts, kinetic pulses, and for very powerful unicorns, being physically crushed or torn apart. And then there were light based attacks, which the shadows could actually resist from weaker unicorns. 

Bucky remembered tearing a few apart, ripping them asunder in his fury after they had nearly brought him down. 

The most interesting fact mentioned in the note was that the wolves could not be natural, they had to be created. They were regular wolves, or had been at some point, and something had been done to forever alter them into the monstrous abominations that they now were. Twilight cited a passage in the book he currently had open. 

Bucky sighed. Somepony was creating the wolves. Which meant that somepony was hiding on this island somehow. He thought about Luna’s letter and the difficulty she mentioned in scrying. Could another pony be hiding here? Bucky felt a nagging suspicion that he was going to run into a member of his family here. He didn’t know how he knew, but it was more than mere intuition.

Several questions formed in his mind. How were they remaining hidden? What were they eating? If another pony was here, causing all of this, using this much magic, they would need a prodigious amount of food. 

There was a small chance that the pony responsible was still on the mainland, but hiding that much magic directly under the princesses’ noses seemed almost impossible. Plus, magic grew weaker over distance. No, Bucky thought to himself, the signs indicated the pony responsible was here. 

Perhaps the wolves’ den was also the location of the hidden provocateur. Bucky scowled, realising how absurd that was, but he supposed it could be a reasonable assumption. If they were creating and controlling the wolves, they would be in no danger from them. 

Still, there was the issue of staying hidden for so long and not being found. The need for food. Water. Sustenance. 

Sentinel made a faint whimper in his sleep. He was currently being held in Bon Bon’s forelegs, and his tufted ears twitched in time to Bon Bon’s inhalations and exhalations. Bucky smiled to himself, glad to see Sentinel looking content. 

The door opened and Bucky looked up. Sparkler stood in the doorway, looking at him intently. She said nothing, but made a gesture for Bucky to follow her. 



 

Berry Punch watched Derpy and Thistle, who were sitting in the meadow some distance away, talking privately amongst themselves. Berry couldn’t really hear them, and she was tempted to eavesdrop being the overly curious mare that she was. The foals were exploring the castle, Bucky was studying, Sparkler had left for some reason, and Berry was bored, which was a terrible state of affairs for Berry Punch, who did not like boredom.

She turned and watched Rising Star and Loch Skimmer, who laying close to one another in the grass, giggling about something. They were getting closer, and Berry was pleased to see them bonding. 

Berry rolled over on her back, exposing her belly to the sun, and she rubbed her belly with her forehooves. She lay on her back, sprawled open and exposed, not caring who saw her at this point. She was bored. She was feeling peckish, even though she had just eaten lunch not that long ago. She was horny, and there were itches that needed scratching. 

The sun was warm and soothing on her belly, and the warmth permeated into her hips as she lay supine. 

Berry realised in a perfect moment of clarity that her own earth pony sense had been trying to tell her that she was pregnant. The need to bond with Bucky. The need to be with her mates. Whatever it was that made her an earth pony was aware of the life that was growing in her belly. She hummed to herself, and continued to rub her stomach. Her stomach was flat, still taut, smooth, and covered in only a thin layer of velvety hairs. She lifted her head and looked down there. She wasn’t showing, not even in the slightest, but she wished that she was, mostly because she knew that Bucky had something of a pregnancy fetish going on. 

Some ponies put on clothing to be sexy, others used bondage gear like ropes and bridles, but Berry took a small amount of satisfaction in knowing that all she had to do to get Bucky’s attention was to be pregnant. Which of course took getting Bucky’s attention, but that wasn’t a difficult thing to do. At least not anymore. She thought about a very sick Bucky lying in the bathtub in Derpy’s embrace, and how she had tried to get him to look at her exposed filly bits, and how he had resisted. Now, she noticed that he took every opportunity to have himself a peek, and she gave him plenty of chances. 

She rolled and wiggled in the grass, trying to get rid of an itchy spot on her back, and she snorted and grunted in frustration. She had itchy places everywhere, and the worst itch was one that she just couldn’t scratch. At least not alone. 

She turned her head and looked at Derpy. Derpy’s morning sickness had been pretty bad this morning, and the poor mare hadn’t eaten much for lunch. Berry watched as Derpy gently kissed Thistle on the cheek, and then nuzzled the filly. Berry silently wished that it would just be over with and Thistle would just be accepted into the herd. She understood though that Derpy had her reasons and wanted the best for Thistle. 

Bucky was what was best for Thistle though, and Berry had reached that conclusion on her own some time ago. 

Berry wiggled, dragging her croup over the ground, trying to get an itch worked out at the base of her spine, just above her dock. What she needed back there was Bucky’s belly, rubbing and grinding away on that particular portion of her anatomy. There was nothing quite like a stallion’s weight applying delightful pressure on your croup and sliding back and forth, building up friction on that particular patch of skin. 



 

“What is she doing?” asked Loch Skimmer, eyeing Berry Punch as she spoke. 

“No idea,” Rising Star replied. 

“She looks very silly,” Loch Skimmer murmured. 

“Well, that’s Berry for you. She frequently looks silly,” Rising Star explained in return. “How is your leg? Are you in much pain?” Rising Star asked.

“It hurts a bit, I won’t lie,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

Rising Star frowned. “I’m sorry, I wish there was something I could do for you,” he offered, his tone sincere. 

“You’ve done plenty,” Loch Skimmer said reassuringly. 

“I have?” he said in reply. 

“You’ve been a very good husband,” Loch Skimmer said, a faint hint of the ghost of a giggle in her voice. “Tell me, do you find me attractive?” the filly asked. 

“Oh great. Another insecure teenaged filly wondering if I find them pretty,” Rising Star grumbled. 

“That was not an answer,” Loch Skimmer said, now pouting somewhat. 

“And if I tell you that I find you pretty, you will accuse me of saying only what you want to hear, I know how this game works. So here is what I will do. I will explain my position. I am a teenaged colt. If the breeze blows just the right way, I become aroused. I find every filly attractive. It is due to my raging hormones and horny colt biology. You could do pretty much anything, anything at all, and I will find you irresistible. My brain is hardwired to find something that I like about you. So get back to me in about ten years or so when I am hopefully a bit matured, and I am no longer brain damaged by my biology, and I will tell you how pretty I find you, and I will be able to say it honestly. I hope,” Rising Star replied. 

“Fair enough,” Loch Skimmer answered. “So… I was wondering…” she said, her words trailing off. 

“What?” Rising Star asked. 

“When the time comes, since we haven’t done anything, uh, how are we going to handle this?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

Rising Star stared at the filly blankly. 

“You know, marriage. And that thing that we need to do. Together. How are we going to handle it. Who goes first? Do we do it all together or apart? Do you deal with us one at a time? Sparkler and I have talked a bit, and I am not sure if I am interested in fillies like my sister is… and talking about this makes me feel really weird,” Loch Skimmer blurted out. 

“Oh…” Rising Star exhaled as he took in Loch Skimmer’s words. “Oh yeah, that. I don’t know,” he replied. 

“Sparkler isn’t here, so maybe this isn’t the best time to talk about it,” Loch Skimmer admitted. 

“I really need to talk to Bucky about all of this before I do something stupid,” Rising Star mumbled to himself. 



 

“So am I in?” Thistle asked directly, no longer mincing words. 

“Yes, but we are not going to announce it for a while,” Derpy replied. 

“Thank you for talking to me so openly,” Thistle said. “And why aren’t we going to tell them?” she questioned. 

“I want Bucky to continue to try and earn your trust and affection,” Derpy answered. “You deserve to have him try and woo you a bit. I’ll let him know it is okay to try and romance you,” Derpy explained. “He is very sweet. And I know he will be very gentle with you.” 

“Oh, that actually makes sense,” Thistle said thoughtfully. 

Derpy looked at the young filly. There had been a long talk between the two of them, and the grey mare had struggled at many points to find the right words. It hadn’t been easy, but Ripple and Bucky had exposed the situation for what it was, and Derpy was grateful. “So are you comfortable with our agreement?” Derpy asked in a soft whisper. 

“Yes, I am agreeable to our agreement,” Thistle replied. “What is Berry doing?” 

“Being Berry Punch,” Derpy said as she watched Berry rolling in the grass. 

“She’s funny,” Thistle quipped. “You know, I feel very happy knowing… thank you by the way. So are you going to have Berry to try and romance me as well?” Thistle asked. 

“I think she already has been trying,” Derpy replied. “But yes, I will make it clear to both of them that it is safe to try and win your affections.” 

“Will you ever tell them about the nature of our agreement?” Thistle asked. 

“No,” Derpy answered. “But they will know in time.” 

“Yeah, I suppose they will,” Thistle agreed. 

“Are you clear about what is expected of you?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes, I am,” Thistle answered. “I need to thank Ripple,” she remarked. 

“You and Ripple seem to be very close,” Derpy commented. 

“We have a lot in common,” Thistle stated. “Ripple is a clever filly.” 

“She is,” Derpy said in agreement, nodding her head somewhat as she did so. 

The mare and the filly fell silent for a moment, and Thistle cuddled closer to Derpy’s side. Derpy gave the filly a nuzzle along the side of her neck, and enjoyed the warmth of her body. 

“I am so scared,” Thistle said, finally breaking the silence after several minutes. 

“I know,” Derpy whispered soothingly into the filly’s ear. 

“What if something goes wrong?” Thistle whimpered. “My life has barely started, I don’t want to die or anything,” she said in a wavering voice, her mood shifting completely. 

“I think we’ll be away from here soon,” Derpy soothed. “But I don’t know that the mainland will be any better. Everything sounds pretty bad there right now. But we will all take care of you. If something goes wrong, we will find a way to get through it.” 

“You are supposed to tell me that nothing will go wrong and everything will be fine,” Thistle said as she sniffled and snuffled a bit. 

“That would be lying, and that would hurt you,” Derpy replied. 

Thistle quieted and tears continued to roll down her cheeks. 

“Bucky is going to love you, and you are going to know what it feels like to be loved,” Derpy said, continuing to try and sooth the upset filly. “And not just in a physical sense. Once Bucky warms up, he is very affectionate in his own way, and he is very attentive to the needs of others.” 

“I don’t just want his love,” Thistle mumbled. 

“I know,” Derpy whispered into the filly’s ear. “You are ours now. You will be loved.” 

Thistle drew in a deep shuddering breath but said nothing in reply. 



 

Bucky stood in the room that was to be his makeshift laboratory, watching Sparkler as she paced back and forth. It was the only place he could think of for total privacy, which is what Sparkler wanted. 

“I don’t know how to talk about this,” Sparkler began, shaking her head and her brows furrowed with worry. 

“Look, if you don’t want to do this, I will not force you or try to make you feel guilty,” Bucky stated. 

“But I do want to do this,” Sparkler admitted. “I am just very concerned about the consequences. And what it will do to me.” 

“I think things will be a little different for you. You are not a Canterlot unicorn… we always seem a little worse. That said, there are bound to be some trying moments. Being a type three is a difficult thing,” Bucky stated. 

“I’ve watched how Dinky has changed. Sometimes, she is still the same, but there are other moments where… where… where she is no longer the innocent foal that she used to be and you can just see the weight crushing down on her shoulders when she realises how responsible she has to be,” Sparkler said. “She’s become twitchy and a bit jumpy.” 

“But Dinky is also very well rounded. At her age, I was impossibly screwed up. I think having a family around has made the difference. At her age, I had family, but I was alone. Utterly alone. I had to face it all alone. I had to carry the weight all by myself. Dinky has ponies she can turn to for support,” Bucky said in return. “To be honest, I thought Dinky would turn out much worse, but she is thriving for being a type three.”

“I think the communing helps,” Sparkler stated. 

“I think so too,” Bucky agreed. “Dinky is learning both emotional control and how to turn to her fellow ponies for support. Everything for Canterlot unicorns is all about control, and isolation.” 

“So then you don’t actually know what this will be like for me or Rising Star?” Sparkler asked. 

Bucky shook his head. “No. No I don’t. Everything I thought I knew has been torn apart and I am not sure what I know anymore,” he admitted. 

“So I get jumped into being a type three, and then I have to find out what works for me, to keep me leveled off and not be overwhelmed,” Sparkler summarised. 

“But not alone,” Bucky pointed out. 

“Yes, there is that,” Sparkler acknowledged.

“Everything has changed. I feel remarkably stable for being what I am. There is no doubt any more, I am a type four… and I feel more secure in myself now than I ever was as a type three. Sure, there are some mental snags, and the pressure is still there, no doubt about that… but your mother and everypony else keeps me leveled out. I think the trick was to admit that I couldn’t do it on my own and to surrender myself to them. I want to talk to Twilight Sparkle when we get home and ask her if she has discovered something similar. Surely her friends are the ones that keep her even keeled,” Bucky theorised. 

“But there are still dangers to being a type three,” Sparkler stated.

“Yes,” Bucky admitted. “But there are also better ways of dealing with those issues now I think. We are in uncharted territory here… we are making up a new way of life and abandoning the old ways that have got us this far, but I feel have ultimately failed.” 

“So when you become the headmaster at this new magic school, you are going to apply everything you’ve learned right? Create an entirely new way to live? How to deal with being a type three and finding a unicorn support group?” Sparkler questioned. 

“Yes,” Bucky answered without hesitation. 

“I am a wife now, an alpha no less, and someday, I will be a mother and I will be giving you grandfoals… and there is a lot on my shoulders already, and I have been very worried about adding further trouble by being turned into a type three,” Sparkler confessed. 

“Woah there sweetheart, I am way too young to be a grandfather at the moment,” Bucky protested. 

“I didn’t say it would happen right away, but it is bound to happen,” Sparkler said gently. “I intend to finish school.” Sparkler paused for a moment, looking at Bucky, staring at him with a focused look. “Look, there is a condition for my consent,” Sparkler announced. 

“And that is?” Bucky asked. 

“Rising Star and I have been talking about this, whenever we have a private moment,” Sparkler stated. “If you are going to jump us up to type threes, than we both want something from you in return,” she added.

“Yes, we have established that,” Bucky replied. 

“We like being teachers,” Sparkler admitted. “And we are going to finish school. And after we finish school, we want to be teachers. Now, I know there is a heap of trouble on the mainland, but that trouble can’t last forever. Things will settle down, and life will continue. And when we’ve completed our schooling, we both want positions in your school. Look, I know you will have it eventually, even if the current troubles cause a bit of a delay.” 

“I find your terms agreeable,” Bucky stated. “But I have caveats,” he added. 

“Careful with your caveats,” Sparkler warned. “I will add my own.” 

Bucky smiled. “Mine are not onerous,” he said with a chuckle. 

“Fine. Let’s hear what you got,” Sparkler said with one raised eyebrow. 

“I intend to be family focused. My plans are still pretty half baked, but I want my teachers to showcase life… and family. In the classroom,” Bucky said. 

“I am confuzzled,” Sparkler replied. 

“If I have a mare as a teacher, and she has a foal, then I don’t want her leaving the foal at home while it is young… I want her to bring to school with her. I want my students to be able to observe the bonds of family in action. And for this, I want very loving and devoted parents. I suspect that many of my students will be Canterlot unicorns, and I don’t want to just tell them the importance of family bonds, I want to show them,” Bucky explained. 

“I think I understand. You want them to see how other ponies live. How we are. You want them to see the love and affection they might not be getting at home,” Sparkler summarised. 

“Yes. And I don’t intend for this school to just be for unicorns. I think that is the problem. I think the separation is a bad idea,” Bucky said. 

“Separation, more like segregation,” Sparkler interjected. 

“Yes, and it is a problem,” Bucky replied. “I think magic instruction should take place in a classroom, and that young unicorns should begin their long journey of magic with their friends. It might be a little dangerous, but I think continuing the current methods are even more dangerous in the long run.” 

Sparkler nodded. “Well, I want in on it. Just let me know when you are ready to attempt this,” the filly stated. 

“Soonish,” Bucky replied. “I am going to need your help for what I have planned.” 



 

“This castle is boring,” Piña complained. 

“Yeah, you always hear about how exciting and wonderful castles are in storybooks,” Dinky quipped. “But this castle is a snorefest.” 

“The top of the tower was nice, there was quite a view,” Ripple said to the two fillies that were her companions. 

“No no no,” Piña protested. “I don’t think I like heights.” 

“That’s because you are a scaredy pony,” Dinky teased. 

“Am not!” Piña retorted as she trotted down the hall. 

“It is okay to be afraid of things,” Ripple stated. “I am afraid of wide open spaces. I always feel exposed and vulnerable. Well, on the ground anyway.” 

“That’s because there are things that will gobble us right up,” Piña acknowledged. “That isn’t something to be scared of, that’s just smart.” 

“If something tries to gobble either one of you I’ll make them pay,” Dinky said, and there was no hint of playfulness in her voice. The corner of her eye twitched slightly and one ear quivered. 

“Dinky, calm down,” Piña said soothingly, spotting the warning signs that Dinky was having a unicorn moment. 

Dinky visibly calmed at the earth pony’s words. The little unicorn filly took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes for a moment. 

“You alright Dinks?” Piña asked. 

“I don’t know what came over me for a moment there,” Dinky replied. “I thought about something hurting you… and then I wanted to do bad things. I wanted to smash things. Crush things. Set things on fire. I wanted to make everything around me afraid of me so they would be to afraid to hurt you… I don’t know what just went through my mind.” 

Piña leaned over and kissed Dinky on the cheek. She peered at her best friend, trying to determine if Dinky was okay. “You know, when you don’t have adults around, you become a very different filly,” Piña observed. 

“How so?” Dinky asked. 

“I think having Bucky or Berry or Derpy around allows you to feel safe,” Piña said carefully. “And when they aren’t around, you get weird.” 

“Weird?” Dinky repeated. 

“You know, like how Bucky was weird,” Piña replied. 

“Oh,” Dinky answered. “The unicorn thing. I suppose that is the reason why they didn’t want to let us go off alone and explore,” the filly concluded. 

“The day you had your magic surge, I was hurt by Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara,” Piña mentioned softly. “You know, I am bound to get hurt again. Life happens Dinky. I am going to grow up, and there are going to be bad moments, and there are bound to be things that are going to hurt me, and you can’t just set things on fire or smoosh things to keep me safe,” Piña continued. 

“I know,” Dinky said with a nod. “You don’t know what it is like though Piña, to have all of this power… and the need to let it out. I want so badly to keep you safe from the things that scare you.” 

“And what if it is you that is scaring me?” Piña asked bluntly. 

Dinky’s eyes instantly clouded over with tears. 

“Look, you don’t scare me Dinky, I just wanted you to think about it,” Piña said soothingly to her best friend. 

Ripple watched the exchange and thought of her own sister, and how close they were. Loch Skimmer had always been there to look after her. “You two are sisters in every way that matters,” Ripple observed. 

“I know,” Piña answered. 

“Yeah, we are,” Dinky said in a quavering voice. She wiped her nose with her foreleg and sniffled a few times. 

“You two are very lucky to have one another. Just like I am really lucky to have my sister,” Ripple stated. 

“Want to join our secret sisterhood?” Piña offered. “Dinky and I would kinda like Sentinel to join, but he’s a colt. You could join us though. We need a pegasus of some kind to round out our group.” 

Ripple laughed and it echoed through the halls as the group continued back towards the dining hall. 

“A unicorn, an earth pony, and a pegasus. That is is what you need to form a good group,” Piña insisted. “Back home, there are a group of fillies called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Bloom is an earth pony, Sweetie Belle is a unicorn, and Scootaloo is a pegasus. They have adventures and do crazy stuff together.” 

Dinky nodded. 

“I would be glad to join both of you to have adventures. Somepony is going to have to show me how to live on the mainland,” Ripple replied. 

“But no acting like an adult just because you are older,” Dinky quipped. 

“I like playing… I never had much of a chance to do that,” Ripple said. 

“That’s awful,” Piña replied. “This island is messed up. No toys, hardly anything fun to do, this whole place is just terrible.” 

“Yes it is Piña,” Ripple agreed. 

“When we get home, once things settle down I guess, we’ll have to show you how we have fun. Like take you to a movie,” Dinky offered. 

“Just don’t go to a movie with Derpy and Berry together. They like kissie kissie smoochy smoochy movies,” Piña quipped. 

“Ugh, gross…” Dinky groaned. 

“So, are you ever going to try kissing Rising Star?” asked Piña who said it rather bluntly. 

“I suppose at some point. Kissing him couldn’t hurt. But I am not into colts. Still, he is my husband now, and he has been very kind to me,” Ripple replied. 

“You could try smooching Sparkler,” Dinky said wickedly, a nearly maniacal cackle punctuating her words. 

Ripple blushed enough that it was visible through her dark grey pelt. 

“Do you think Sparkler is pretty? I think you do,” Piña teased. 

“Sparkler is pretty… but I don’t know if she is into fillies. And even if she was, I am not sure I am ready for smooching just yet,” Ripple admitted. 

“Must be strange to be married at your age,” Piña commented. 

“It isn’t so bad,” Ripple replied. “At least this marriage is nice. There was the alternative.” The filly shuddered silently as she continued down the hall. 

“If you could have your first real kiss with Sparkler that would be pretty romantic,” Dinky said as she turned to look at Ripple. “We could help you,” she offered. 

“When you are older of course,” Piña added. 

“Yeah, older. For now, we’ll just focus on having fun together,” Dinky stated.

“And we should bring Sentinel with us on our adventures. He’s a colt, but he is a good colt,” Ripple replied. 

“You really like him, don’t you?” Piña asked. 

“Yes I do. I don’t know why. I suppose it is because he was so kind to me when I first came to be with all of you. He let me cry and get snot all over him and he never complained,” Ripple explained. 

“He’s a good colt. I like him. I have grown very fond of him actually,” Piña admitted. “I like having him as a brother.”

“He is also very well behaved,” Ripple stated. 

“Well of course he is,” Dinky replied. 

“No… I mean…” Ripple stammered, her words faltering as she tried to speak. 

“What?” Piña asked, halting in place, no longer trotting forward, which caused everypony else to stop. 

”Sentinel is non threatening,” Ripple murmured. 

“I don’t understand,” Piña said in return. 

“Look, you little fillies, you need to be very careful going off by yourselves around here. In the castle, I think we’ll be fine, but I know from experience that some of the colts around here are… well…” Ripple’s words died in her throat. 

“What?” Dinky asked, her voice held a tremour of fear as she spoke. 

“Some of the colts around here, even the younger ones, the ones you would think were innocent, they want to prove how tough they are and how grown up they are,” Ripple said slowly, trying to choose her words carefully. 

“Uh…” Piña said, her eyes wide, and her breathing becoming somewhat panicked. 

Ripple swallowed, a hard gulp that could be heard quite clearly in the hall. “Some of the colts are very eager to prove themselves. Which is why you two need to mind your parents and stay inside the castle unless you are with them. I had a group of colts chase me, run me down, and then one tried to mount me. He didn’t know what he was doing, but that didn’t stop him from trying. And I wasn’t much older than either of you when this happened. I snuck away from my mother and put off doing my work for the day… and if Loch Skimmer hadn’t of found me when she did, something very bad would have happened,” Ripple explained. 

“What did Loch do?” Piña asked in a trembling voice. 

“She beat the stuffing out of all of them and then held me while I cried,” Ripple replied. 

Dinky shook her head. “I don’t like it here,” she muttered. 

“I don’t think Sentinel would ever do something like that,” Piña commented. 

“No, no he wouldn’t, which is why I like him. A filly needs to know that she can trust a colt, or so my sister says,” Ripple said. 

“When he wakes up, I am going to hug him to death,” Piña said. 

“I’ll help,” Dinky offered. “If he gets squirmy, it’ll take two of us to hold on.” 

Ripple heaved a sigh of relief, feeling better about sharing her secret with the two fillies. “Please, don’t tell anypony what happened,” she begged. “I don’t want anypony else knowing.” 

“Sisters keep secrets,” Dinky replied as she resumed her trot back to the dining hall. 

“Well, there are exceptions, like Cheerilee said. Never keep a secret that might hurt somepony,” Piña said. “But we'll keep your secret.” She took off after Dinky, moving swiftly to keep up. 

“Thank you,” Ripple said in return to the two fillies as she followed after them. 
	
> Chapter 83
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How do I do it?” 

Bucky studied Rising Star carefully, focusing his remaining eye upon the colt. Rising Star had come to him not too long after he had returned to his room to study, wanting to talk to him. Now, once again, Bucky found himself in what was going to be his makeshift laboratory, talking to a pony. 

“I mean, how do I make each one of them feel loved? I am scared out of my mind Bucky… I don’t want one to feel more loved than the other. I don’t want to feel like I am playing favourites. I want all three of them to be happy. This pressure is driving me crazy. I am so worried that Loch Skimmer is jealous of Sparkler and I because Sparkler and I know each other better and we are closer, and I really have been trying to get to know Loch better and Ripple is off limits, but I still try to make her feel special, and I am so afraid that I am going to screw up and all three of them are going to hate me,” Rising Star said, his last few sentences practically panted out as he slipped into a panic. 

Bucky eased his backside down to the floor and sat on his haunches and the cool stone felt pleasantly soothing to his many mangled and disfigured places. 

“How do you do it? I mean, you seem so close to Berry and Derpy? How do you divide yourself between the two of them? And now there is Lyra and Bon Bon. And Thistle. I don’t understand how you can take all of this on and not fall apart like I am about to do,” Rising Star continued, becoming more and more frantic with each word. 

“Calm down Rising Star,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

Rising Star took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself, but the young colt remained frazzled. “I don’t want to fail them… I barely know Loch and Ripple, but I find myself loving them, I really do. I love them enough to know that I don’t want to hurt them,” Rising Star said, now trying to speak slowly and carefully. 

“Derpy and Berry both have very different needs. I try to fulfill those needs. You can’t worry about dividing yourself among them, I worried about the same thing, really I did, and then I realised that they didn’t want half of me between the two of them, they wanted all of me. The trick to keeping them both happy was to give myself over to them completely, and then find what makes each one of them happy. Berry and I engage in more intellectual pursuits. She’ll talk my ear off if I let her, and I will do the same to her. With Derpy and I, talking isn’t as important. Derpy has more physical needs, and I am not talking about sex either. With Berry, a conversation keeps her happy. With Derpy, it is a nuzzle or touch. Also, to keep Derpy happy, I have to look after her foals… that is probably the single most important part of my end of our relationship, being good to the foals,” Bucky explained carefully and patiently. 

“I bet this is really hard on Derpy right now. You being all covered in burns and being injured. No wonder she seems stressed,” Rising Star said thoughtfully. 

“So you do understand,” Bucky replied with a slow nod of his head. 

“So this is why she snatches any foal within reach and tries to cuddle them. I am guessing that she really wants to hold you,” Rising Star stated, one eyebrow now raised as he struck a thoughtful pose. 

“Yes,” Bucky agreed. “Her needs are remarkably simple. Berry’s needs are a bit more complex. Lyra and Bon Bon, well, in time, I will find ways to make them happy and I will do what I can to make them feel wanted and needed in our herd. And Thistle… well, I still don’t know how Derpy feels about Thistle, but I hope she relents and allows Thistle to join us. I think she will. And in time, I will figure out her needs and what I need to do to provide for them.” 

“Loch is a bit more physical than Sparkler I think,” Rising Star said in a low voice. “There has been some really awkward moments where she presses up against me and I feel panicky… I want to be close to her, I want to get to know her, but when those moments happen, I tense up and I panic, and I don’t know how to act. I am not even sure why I react the way I do. I keep thinking it is because I haven’t known her long enough. This is really difficult to talk about,” Rising Star muttered. The frustrated colt puffed out his cheeks and took a few deep breaths. “Part of it is… well, you know, after this talk, I am worried that things will not be the same between you and I, and I am scared out of my mind right now, but here goes. With Sparkler, I can be close to Sparkler. We cuddle together and we’ve spooned a bit, and I have mostly behaved myself. There have a been a few moments of arousal if you know what I mean, but I am comfortable with Sparkler. With Loch on the other hand, when she rubs up against me, with the way she moves… how she moves, the way she walks, I have a very hard time being a good colt when she flops out against me… uncontrollable boners… I mean, there is something about her that… that… something about her that just makes me so very aroused, but I am not comfortable being so aroused around her, I don’t want her thinking I am a horny bastard that just wants her around for sex, but it is so very hard to control myself when she comes near, and I am worried that she feels I am pushing her away. I mean, I am in a really tight spot. On one hoof, she really turns me on, on the other hoof, I don’t want her to think poorly of me. Yet I am pushing her away from me, and I know I am doing it, and I keep constructing all of this horrible scenarios in my mind of all the horrible things she must think of me, and I don’t know how to talk to her about-”

“Rising Star… stop,” Bucky interrupted. 

Rising Star fell silent and took a few deep inhales and exhales. 

“Tell Loch the truth. Just tell her everything you just told me, but try to trim back the words a bit. Let her know that there is something about her that really turns you on, explain to her that you aren’t trying to be a pervy bastard, and then the two of you will be on even footing. Let her know that you find her desirable, but that she means more to you than just a sexual object. Just be your poetic self. Let her know that you find her beautiful and that she has this effect on you… she will appreciate the fact that you find her desirable and that she has the power to give you ‘uncontrollable boners’ that makes you feel awkward,” Bucky explained. 

“I am worried that Sparkler will be jealous though. I can mostly behave myself around Sparkler. There has been a few, uh, incidents between us, but I have been able to control myself mostly. Loch on the other hoof, hot damn,” Rising Star muttered. 

“So have a talk with Loch and make sure Sparkler is present. Explain yourself to both of them. Make sure you let Sparkler know that you don’t want her to be jealous. Just be honest. Let them know that you respond to both of them in different ways,” Bucky stated. 

“So you want me to have both of them present and then tell them that one of them gives me uncontrollable boners… but the other doesn’t?” Rising Star asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

“And what do I do when they kill me?” Rising Star questioned. 

“If they kill you, then they obviously didn’t love you as much as you thought,” Bucky replied in sage tones. 

“And there is the question of what we are going to do to uh, well, you know, consummate our marriage. Who goes first and all that. I am so scared that one will resent the other and I don’t know what to do about this whole mess,” Rising Star blurted out in a nervous high pitched voice that cracked several times in an adolescent squeak. 

“If you are careful and patient, and if you keep in mind that each of you are supposed to love one another, all of these things will sort themselves out. After we were married, it was Derpy who took my virginity. Berry was with us and eased us both through those first awkward moments. Afterwards, things just happened. We are so focused on making each other happy that we don’t really keep score on who is doing who and how many times. We don’t hide sex from one another, and make sure that the third always knows that the other two are getting busy. We’ve all been together as a threesome and I have also had private time with each of them. We’ve managed to sort everything out. Jealousy is not an issue for us. I will admit, I am worried about adding Thistle into the mix. We’ll have to establish boundaries and explain our expectations to one another,” Bucky explained, trying to smooth over the colt’s frazzled nerves. 

“I am not ready to be an adult yet,” Rising Star confessed. “I thought I was. A few months ago, I would have told you that I was. I would have told you how mature I was, how suave I was, how sophisticated I was. I thought I was so grown up. Now, I wake up and I am afraid. I wake up and there are three lives that I am responsible for. I was barely responsible for my own life… my mother cleaned my room. She fixed my meals. My mother looked after all of my needs. But now… now there are three lives that require that I be responsible. When I get home, I am going to have to find some way of feeding them. Keeping a roof over their heads. And school. I have no idea how I am going to manage all of this,” Rising Star mumbled as his eyes began to water. 

“Rising Star, you don’t need to worry about all of that,” Bucky soothed. 

“YES I DO!” Rising Star snapped. 

“No, you don’t. When we get home, we, as in Derpy, Berry, and I, we are going to talk to your parents. And then you and your herd are going to stay with us. And you are going to continue school, and there will be food, and a roof over your heads so you don’t need to worry so much,” Bucky explained patiently. 

Rising Star broke down completely and the tears finally came. He cried, heaving loud sobs wracking his body, and Bucky sat silently watching him, saying nothing, and allowed the colt to let it all out. After several minutes, Bucky rose from where he was sitting, took a few small steps, sat down beside Rising Star close enough to be touching, and wrapped a foreleg over Rising Star’s withers. 

“Look, Sparkler told me about your plans to be a teacher,” Bucky whispered. “And it is a good plan. And I am going to make sure that it happens for you. You have my word.” 

“You shouldn’t have to be responsible for us,” Rising Star said between sobs. 

“Well, I am. You did a brave thing Rising Star. You didn’t have to be responsible for Loch Skimmer and Ripple. But you made that choice. And now, I am choosing to be responsible for you. And you are going to be okay. There is going to be some rough moments, but you will get through this. You will be a good husband. One day, you will probably be a good father, but that is a long way off. But for now, be a colt. Love them. Be with them. Don’t worry about all of those things you’ve been worrying about, just enjoy your time with them. Enjoy your youth together. Make sure you use some means of birth control when you finally take your relationship to the next level,” Bucky said as he continued to try to make Rising Star feel better. “Spend some time laughing about those uncontrollable boners together,” he added teasingly. 

Rising Star chuckled, cutting off his own sobs. He wiped his eyes with his foreleg and offered a weak smile. 

“You know, there was a time in my life when I couldn’t even say the word ‘boner’ without having a total neurotic breakdown,” Bucky quipped. 

“Does it feel funny offering sex advice to the colt that is married to the filly that you consider your daughter?” Rising Star asked.

“Oh yes indeedy,” Bucky answered right away. “But thankfully that colt I also consider my son.” 

Rising Star sniffled a bit before replying. “Thank you,” he murmured in a low whisper. 
	
	
> Chapter 84
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky had spent almost a week in study as well as his usual attempts at brewing. There had been no eureka moments, but there had been steady improvement, and Bucky felt that he was ready enough to move on. It was time to get started. Bucky felt well prepared and the seething fires that were his desire for vengeance had settled into hot coals of inspiration. 

It was the perfect day for a walk, and Bucky enjoyed the sun as he trotted through the rolling meadows with several foals following after him. Today, they were looking for where the ley lines crossed, and Dinky’s bees were showing the way. Dinky was thrilled to be doing something productive. Piña had followed along, glad to be spending a bit of time with Bucky. Ripple had come along as well, now an almost constant companion to the two younger fillies, something which Bucky was grateful for. Having a pegasus protector had done a great deal to soothe Derpy’s frazzled nerves.

Butterflies attended the wildflowers they encountered, wild bees buzzed all around them, and the day was very nearly perfect. Honey was a valuable commodity for the isles, but it was a treat rarely enjoyed by most of the locals. It was used for mead making, something Bucky was interested in attempting to brew someday. 

There was an annoying itch in his eye socket, something Bucky was still having some trouble adjusting to. The bandages were gone and he now had simple bit of grey cloth tied around his head, covering his eye and the horrible gash. 

Dinky had commented that it made him look like a pirate, something that had left her mother totally agast and rather upset, but Bucky had laughed and then tried to smooth over the grey mare’s ruffled feathers. Poor Derpy couldn’t find any jokes about Bucky’s missing eye funny. 

“These are different butterflies than the ones we have at home,” Piña observed. 

“They’re a bit smaller and they have blue wings,” Dinky quipped. 

“And orange,” Piña commented. “The orange ones are pretty.” 

“There are yellow ones too,” Ripple added. “Sometimes I would chase after the butterflies when I was little.” 

“I don’t see any yellow ones,” Dinky said as she looked around. 

“They’re rare, which is why they are special,” Ripple explained. 

Bucky listened to the banter of his foals as the group continued to follow Dinky’s bees, his thoughts occasionally drifting to other things. There was a lot to do. There was a very long list of things that needed to be done, but Bucky wasn’t worried. He had helpers, and he didn’t need to do all of this alone. 

Some of what he was planning would be faced alone though. 

“Dinky?” Bucky asked, his sonorous voice cutting through the foal’s chatter with one another. 

“Yes daddy?” replied Dinky, suddenly attentive and focused.

“How is your reading about creative applications for magic?” Bucky asked as the group continued to follow the bees. 

“I am having some trouble with the bigger words,” Dinky admitted.

“Aside from that, how are you doing?” Bucky questioned.

“I think I get most of it… I liked the chapter on how to find things,” Dinky answered. 

“Explain,” instructed Bucky, his voice one of gentle command. 

“Well, the chapter talks about how to find things that do not want to be found. Like if somepony uses spells to hide something. And then if they cast the right spells, they can make it very difficult to scry and find whatever is hidden,” Dinky explained. 

“So, if something wants to remain hidden, how would you find it?” Bucky asked. 

“I think I wouldn’t actually look for whatever is hidden,” Dinky replied. “Instead, I think would focus my efforts of divination upon detecting the spells cast in an area rather than try to find whatever is hidden. If I cast that spell that allows me to detect magical residue, I could find traces of magic that was cast in an area, even if I couldn’t find what was hidden because of illusion and other magical deterrents.” 

“Very clever Dinks,” Bucky praised. 

Dinky beamed. “It took me a long time to think about that,” she admitted. 

“I was almost twice your age when I figured that out,” Bucky confessed. “But yes. You can cast spells which will allow you to see if magic has been used in a general area, and with careful scrying, you can figure out what sort of spells were cast. With time and effort, you can begin to dispel those spells, which may be a bit puzzling, and then you can find whatever is hidden.” 

Dinky no longer trotted but strutted, a broad smile plastered over her face, and she looked very pleased with herself. Her mane bobbed around her face as she followed at her father’s heels and she seemed to radiate a sense of pure joy. 

“A clever unicorn can hide things in plain sight. You can look right at them and not see them. There are many spells that allow for things to be hidden, usually right in plain view. They can still be found, usually by a unicorn that is far more clever… like you are turning out to be Dinky,” Bucky said. 

“I can’t take all of the credit for being clever,” Dinky announced. “Piña helped me. We talked about it for a long time,” Dinky admitted. 

“Is that so?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes it is,” Dinky said, casting a glance at Piña. 

“A very clever unicorn turns to their friends for help,” Bucky stated. “Piña, I am proud of you as well. Why didn’t you say something when Dinky was being praised for being clever?” 

“I wanted her to have a moment to feel good about what she had done,” Piña replied. “And I knew that sooner or later Dinky would say that I helped her.” 

“And there is a lot of things I help Piña with that I never get credit for,” Dinky added. “It is just something we do for one another,” she explained. 

“Piña, how well do you think you understand magical theory?” Bucky asked. 

“I probably know as much as Dinky,” Piña said bashfully. “I guess it seems silly for an earth pony to know about magic,” she muttered. 

“Not at all. I want you to keep studying with Dinky. In fact, I might even test you like I do her, so apply yourself and study hard,” Bucky commanded.

“When I get stuck on the really big words it usually takes both of us to puzzle it out,” Dinky said as she cast a glance up at Bucky. “Piña is better at stuff like that than I am.” 

“Piña, have you ever had your IQ tested?” Bucky asked. 

“They don’t test earth pony IQs in school,” Piña replied. 

“What?” Bucky asked, stopping suddenly and standing in place. “Say again?” 

“They don’t test earth pony IQs. They test the unicorns and only test some of the pegasi if they show promise because the pegasi have to be really good at math to do weather work,” Piña explained. 

“And earth ponies don’t get tested at all,” Dinky added. 

Bucky sat down in the grass and shook his head, unable to comprehend what he had just heard. His thoughts briefly reminded him on how much he had changed, it wouldn’t have been all that long ago that he would have believed that earth ponies were simply dumb farmers, and he felt a faint twinge of shame. 

“You alright Bucky?” Ripple asked. 

“I am just a bit stunned, that’s all,” Bucky replied. 

The bees circled and swished through the air impatiently, and Bucky rose to his hooves. He felt a painful tug in his rear legs as he stood, and cried out slightly, which caused Piña to yelp in concern. 

“I’m fine,” he said soothingly. “The muscles back there are still tight, they just need to be stretched, that’s all.” He stretched out one hind leg, and then the other, feeling a painful tightness in both of them. Some days, he didn’t know which leg was worse. One had been gnawed on from hoof to hip and the other had a large chunk chewed out of it. 

“I think we are getting close,” Dinky said. “My bees feel agitated,” she added. 



 

Keg Smasher was very surprised to see Derpy. A pony had requested an audience with him and he had agreed, and now he was feeling a slight bit of concern. He had nothing but respect for the grey mare, but they didn’t get along very well. 

“Keg Smasher,” Derpy greeted, her tone rather harsh sounding. 

“Madam,” Keg Smasher greeted in return, raising a wing in a salute. 

“We are going to talk,” Derpy stated bluntly, seeing no point in mincing words. 

“Alright, let us talk,” Keg Smasher agreed cautiously. 

Derpy stared at the pegasus with one eye closed, trying to read him and his posture. She was pleased to note that he was completely submissive, which she hoped would help her cause. 

Keg Smasher, for his part, realised that the grey mare was studying him, and tried to look as meek as possible, hoping that things could be patched up a bit between them. Having this unpleasantness between him and his armiger’s matriarch was counterproductive. 

“About Thistle,” Derpy began.

Keg Smasher heaved a sigh of relief. This was a subject he could deal with. Immediately, he settled in a comfortable diplomatic mood. 

“If I allow her in, I understand there are probably going to be some conditions of consummation,” Derpy said. The grey mare had of course already allowed Thistle in, but Keg Smasher didn’t need to know that. Not yet. 

“Yes,” Keg Smasher said slowly. “Celestia made it very clear that I am to make sure that she is integrated into your herd after we spoke and reached our agreement. She doesn’t want you just adopting her and then letting her go later… and I don’t want that either.” 

“I understand,” Derpy replied. “I suppose both of you think that if Bucky ruts her, he will feel the need to look after her because of how young she is. Nothing makes you feel obligated like guilt. And maybe shame.” 

Keg Smasher cringed visibly at the pegasus mare’s words. 

“Which brings me to my point. About the consummation… if she is married into our herd…” Derpy’s words trailed off and the mare fell silent. 

“What?” Keg Smasher asked. “Look, it is in my best interest to help you. I am glad you are at least considering this. Just say whatever it is that you have got to say.” 

“Does it matter who sleeps with her on that first night… what if it wasn’t Bucky?” Derpy asked. 

Keg Smasher looked at Derpy shrewdly and realised he was dealing with a very clever mare. He remained silent for the moment, knowing that if he waited, she would say more. She was trying to draw him out, or so he believed. Guilt, shame, and obligation indeed, Keg Smasher thought to himself. He felt guilty, he felt ashamed, and he felt obligated. 

“We have a very open relationship with one another,” Derpy explained. “I have spoken to Thistle a bit, and she is open to the idea of being bedded by a mare after the marriage, if it happens.” 

“I see,” Keg Smasher replied.

“I want some kind of an answer,” Derpy demanded, not willing to further explain her position. 

“So in your herd, some of the mares take an interest in one another as well as Bucky,” Keg Smasher stated. “And wee Thistle would be marrying into this herd and their rather open sexual practices, which will probably include a lot of rutting of all kinds that has nothing to do with making more foals, am I right?” 

Derpy nodded and felt a hot angry flush rising through her neck. 

“Look, so long as she goes to bed that night and comes out walking funny the next morning, I don’t give two shites and a tinker pony’s damn about who screws her, so long as she is looked after, cared for, and happy,” Keg Smasher said. He smiled somewhat, hoping his answer might help repair the relationship between him and Bucky’s matriarch. 

Derpy relaxed visibly and her some of her ruffled feathers settled into a less agitated looking state. 

“If fact, I think this would be a good for her… introduce her to your ways. See if she can adapt. See if she is happy with something a bit different. I take it that you would be the one to bed her?” Keg Smasher asked. 

The flustered pegasus mare found herself blushing as she nodded. “Yes… that was what I had in mind,” she replied. 

“I think more matriarchs should do what you are doing,” Keg Smasher said diplomatically. “More of a gentle introduction to marriage. A little education of sorts.” The big burly pegasus hoped that a few flattering words might help the situation, and it looked like he was getting some results. The much smaller pegasus mare before him was smiling a bit and didn’t look so hostile. 

“And there is one more thing,” Derpy mentioned. “I want a private room. I will not do this with my whole family watching.” 

“I can manage that I think… but I am going to have to ask that Bucky spend the night with you two when and if this happens. Might look funny, two mares going off after a marriage with no stallion,” Keg Smasher said in reply. 

Derpy scowled, her smile vanishing. 

“Look, he doesn’t need to actually do anything, but it wouldn’t hurt Thistle to have him watch. Plus, it keeps up appearances. I have to look like I am going my job and holding up my end of the deal,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“I guess that seems reasonable,” Derpy agreed.

“Done!” Keg Smasher shouted. “You will have your private room, Thistle will have a herd to look after her needs, Thistle will also have a really nice night most likely, and Bucky gets to watch a nice show, because hey, what stallion doesn’t want to watch two of his mares fooling around.” 

The pegasus mare blushed purple and her wings fluttered. 

“And all I need now is your agreement to take Thistle in,” Keg Smasher requested.

“A little more time is needed,” Derpy replied. “You will have your answer soon though, I promise.” 

Keg Smasher heaved another sigh of relief. He felt that he had come out ahead in this exchange. The grey mare actually seemed happy, which made him happy. 



 

The convergence point of the two ley lines was marked by a pile of stones, which surprised Bucky slightly. The bees swirled in a chaotic vortex overhead and Bucky could hear buzzing both inside and outside of his head. He sat down, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. 

“You alright?” Ripple asked as she watched Bucky trembling. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied. “I just feel a little weird.” 

“You’re sweating,” Piña observed. “And shaking.” 

“I’m fine,” Bucky insisted. 

“I can feel it too,” Dinky said. “My hooves feel tingly like I am standing on something that is vibrating.” 

Bucky could feel the power all around him. The ley lines could give him the strength he needed for what was ahead. From here, he could draw upon the power he needed to defeat the wolves. He felt his stomach churn and a violent sense of nausea overtook him. His vision blurred over and the buzzing in his ears was replaced by the ringing of bells. He saw the ground rushing up to greet him and he could hear Pina’s frantic cry as blackness crept into his vision. 

The three fillies all cried out when they saw Bucky slump and then fall over to the ground. Piña began to cry in panic, unable to deal with the situation at all. Dinky held herself together fought back against the rising panic, knowing just how dangerous it was to panic. 

Dinky understood control now… and she held everything in. It was a monumental struggle for her, and she gritted her teeth. She could feel the magic surge building along with her emotions. She bit down savagely on her own lip, drawing blood. The pain made her nearly swoon, but it cleared her head. 

“Ripple, can you fly?” Dinky asked.

“When I was little I could fly a bit. And then I got sick and scrawny and I couldn’t fly anymore,” Ripple answered as she pranced around on her hooves in panic. 

“No excuses Ripple. Father needs you to fly. You will fly to save him. You’ve been getting better since we’ve taken you in,” Dinky commanded, her blood trickling down her chin as she did so. 

Ripple spread her wings, flapped a few times, and then took off at a run, flapping as hard as she could as she did so. She became airborne for a moment, came down hard, nearly stumbled, and then somehow managed to keep on her hooves as she continued to run forward. She tried again, and this time she took off into an unsteady flight. 

“I’ll return with help,” she promised. “I don’t know if I should leave you two alone!” she shouted in fear, her voice high pitched with panic. 

“I will protect Piña,” Dinky replied. “Go!” 

Ripple did not have to be told twice. She struggled to remain airborne but took off in the direction of the castle, flying as fast as she could. Her muscles ached already, and her tendons creaked painfully, but she continued with grim determination towards her destination. 

“Piña, we will be fine,” Dinky said reassuringly. “And he will be okay, I am sure of it.” 

“I hope so,” Piña said. “He’s breathing, so that’s a good sign.” 

Dinky bit down on her lip again, holding back the caged beast of panic. She hoped that help would come soon. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep everything held in. 



 

Bucky found himself in an endless grey expanse that seemed to stretch in all directions. He looked all around him, trying to figure out where he was, and saw two figures approaching. He did not recognise them. One was a stallion. Large. Grey. Black maned. The other was a mare. Smaller. Delicate. She was a pearlescent white and her mane looked as though it was made from pure silver. It shone with a metallic sheen that was nearly blinding. The two figures drew closer and Bucky couldn’t help but notice how much he looked like the grey stallion. He was a bit smaller, and he was tan, but the physical similarities were strong. 

“What is this place?” Bucky asked. “And who are you?” 

“This is my prison, and I am your ancestor… do you not know me? Surely you have had dreams… visions… I know you must know of the defeat of my shadow by Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance,” the stallion replied. 

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t know you. But you seem familiar. Who are you?” 

“In life, I was called Sombra,” the stallion replied. 

“I am confused. Why am I here? This is a prison? And who is she?” Bucky questioned. 

“There is little time. You are here because the master of this realm has agreed to allow me to give you a boon. I have been here for a thousand years, waiting for one of my descendents to free me-” 

“Oh no, if this is a prison, I am not freeing you,” Bucky interrupted. 

“There is much you do not understand,” the mare stated. “In life, I was called Princess Platinum. I was Sombra’s first wife. In death, I have waited here with him, in this dreadful expanse, waiting for him to be freed so we can continue through the gate together.” 

“The gate?” Bucky asked in confusion. 

“I cannot pass into Elysium until one of my heirs is able to do what I could not,” Sombra replied. “Please, listen, time is very short.” 

“Speak then, I am listening,” Bucky answered. 

“In life, Sombra started off as a very good pony… he defended the empire of the Royal Pony Sisters. He battled Discord. He kept many safe and secured against the forces of chaos. He was a guardian. Celestia made him regent over the north. He was a pony that I was proud to call my husband,” Princess Platinum explained. 

“What happened? And why don’t I know this? I paid attention in history class,” Bucky interjected. 

“Celestia blocked me out of your mind… and she was right to do so. My shadow sought to taint you,” Sombra replied. 

“So what happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Sombra was the love of my life. He was my everything. My reason for living. I loved him in ways I cannot describe. And he loved me. We were happy. Life was good. And then, not long after foal birth, I became sick. And then I died. And poor Sombra didn’t do well without me,” Princess Platinum said. 

“I couldn’t bear her loss. But I had duties. I had no time to grieve. I was a king… there were griffons to fight. Dragons to subdue. I had to keep my ponies safe. I became obsessed with keeping them safe,” Sombra said regretfully. 

“Sombra sent his foals away to live with Celestia and Luna. He was alone. And it destroyed his mind,” Princess Platinum said sadly. “He tried to keep everypony safe. He locked them away, trying to secure them away from harm.” 

“I went mad and became a tyrant,” Sombra admitted. “I turned to dark magic hoping that it would give me the power I needed to fend off entire armies of griffons and dragons and everything else that threatened the north at that time.” 

“The Princesses used the Elements of Harmony on him. It caused Sombra to split in two. The good in him came here, to this place, this grey purgatory in Tartarus, and his darkness tore free. It spirited away his entire empire for a thousand years,” Princess Platinum explained. 

“So you love him enough to share in this torment of waiting until somepony frees him,” Bucky stated. 

Princess Platinum nodded. 

“So what do I do to fix this?” Bucky asked. 

“I do not know,” Sombra replied. “You must do what I could not. I was meant to be a protector.” 

“So this is my curse?” Bucky asked. 

“Something like that, yes,” Princess Platinum agreed. “There have been many who have tread in Sombra’s steps. Power comes to them. All of my foal’s foals have been afflicted. But power comes to them and then it corrupts them. Eventually, their horns crack or shatter completely. And then, they die. And the hope of being free dies with them.” 

“So what do I do?” Bucky asked. 

“You have already done so much… we have hope again because of you. You have power now, real power, but you acknowledge in your heart that it pales in comparison to the power of your family. You survived your horn cracking because you had those that loved you and they were willing to care for you,” Princess Platinum said. 

“Eventually, your horn will try to fail again… you must remedy that. I know you have been planning it. Tap into the ley lines Buckminster. Every spell ever cast by unicorns still resides in the lines. They are the spellbook of the ages. You will remember none of this once you have awakened, but part of your mind will retain this knowledge. You must do what I could not. Take up my mantle. Be a guardian. Protect those you love and those who love you. Protect your fellow ponies,” Sombra commanded. 

“Each of my sons who has came before you has had different task that fate seems to dole out for them. You must face the wolves. If you face them alone, you will fail,” Princess Platinum warned. 

“So I must allow those I love to face the risks with me and not lose my mind I suppose,” Bucky said in a soft whisper. 

“Yes,” Sombra replied. “I sent my foals away and faced the darkness alone. It destroyed me.” 

“So I destroy the wolves and the curse ends,” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Sombra replied. 

“No?” Bucky inquired. 

“Defeating the wolves is not enough. You must also take up my mantle. You must accept your role as a guardian,” Sombra explained. 

“I am not sure I understand the difference,” Bucky retorted. 

“You must become what you were meant to be. Defeating the wolves is only a first step. A test,” Sombra said. 

“Oh,” Bucky replied. 

“My foals have become horrible monsters. Hold them accountable Buckminster. Restore our good name. Our bloodline is tainted and full of shame. I know it is a lot to ask of you, but please, restore my bloodline,” Princess Platinum begged. 

“Our time grows shorter,” Sombra said as he made a gesture towards Bucky. 

Bucky looked down at himself, and saw that he could see through his body. He was fading, transparent, and his substance grew thinner and thinner. 

“How do I fix my horn? I have some ideas, but there is so much I don’t know,” Bucky said. 

“Commune with the ley lines. Star Swirl remains within them, he will help you. Part of me does as well. Clover the Clever also has a shred of memory in the lines. You will find aid if you seek it,” Sombra said.

“Will I ever remember you?” Bucky asked. 

“When the time is right, I am certain that Celestia will restore your memory and allow you to remember me. To remember everything. When you are ready to become a guardian, when it is time to take up my mantle,” Sombra replied. 

“I will do my best to free you if I can, even if I don’t remember this. You are loved as I am loved… she is willing to wait for you, and while it sounds terribly selfish, I hope my wives would do the same for me.” Bucky said as he watched himself continue to fade away. “Love is the only thing I truly believe, and for this reason alone I will help you if I can.” 

“Do it to help yourself,” Sombra corrected. “If you do right, then hopefully this dreadful confinement will end. If you fail, the consequences to yourself will be dire.” 

“I understand,” Bucky said in return. 

“Good luck,” Princess Platinum said as Bucky approached nothingness. 

“Wait, what about your shadow? What do I do about that?” Bucky asked as he continued to fade. 

And then, he was gone and the two figures were alone once again. 
	
> Chapter 85
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky slowly came to awareness and heard the sounds of somepony crying. He could feel the rough wood of a table beneath him pressing into his flesh and there was hot breath near his face. Before he could even open his eye, he knew that it was Derpy near him, he could smell her. His eye opened slowly and white spots danced in his vision. 

“Who is crying?” he mumbled, his voice dry and raspy. 

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Derpy whispered in reply. 

“Who is crying?” Bucky insisted. 

“Ripple,” Berry Punch answered from somewhere nearby in Bucky’s blindspot. 

“Ripple isn’t used to flying and her wings hurt,” Sparkler explained. 

“What happened?” asked Derpy in a gentle and motherly voice. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky answered. “But I feel alright. I am just a bit light headed. In fact, I feel better than I have in a while,” he said, noticing that he did indeed, feel pretty good. His eye wasn’t itching as bad as it was and much of the pain in his body was greatly reduced. Still there, but barely noticeable after living in such constant pain for so long. 

Derpy mounted the table and stood over Bucky, looking down at him, one eye closed so she could focus on her husband. She saw him peering up at her and she felt a rush of heat through her body. “Your scars look different Bucky,” Derpy observed. “Not so red looking. Something has changed you. This has me worried,” the grey mare stated. 

Bucky didn’t feel worried… he felt something else entirely. He reached up with his forelegs and with a fluid motion, brought the pegasus down on top of him, pulling her close. He found her lips with his own and kissed her, his forelegs now pulling her as close as he could. One leg wrapped up over her withers while the other snaked its way past her wings and over her croup, and Bucky could feel her belly grinding against his own. There were gasps from around the room that Bucky assumed was the dining hall. 

Derpy resisted his affections only for a moment out of concern for his well being, but then she could resist no longer. She needed this sort of affection. As a pegasus and a mare, this is what she understood as love. She kissed back and ground her hips into Bucky, completely lost in the moment, not for one moment remembering that there were other ponies standing around, including her own foals. For a moment, she and Bucky were the only two ponies in existence. 

And then, as suddenly as it had started, the kiss ended as Derpy pulled away, panting for breath. 

“You seem okay,” she panted. 

“Did the ley line do something to you?” Berry asked, still concerned. Burning thoughts tickled through the back of her mind. The kiss was sizzling hot… and Berry desperately wanted one herself. She could wait through, knowing that her moment would come. Derpy had been frazzled for quite a while and Berry was relieved to see some of the mare’s frustration eased. 

“It looks like he has had several months of healing,” Sparkler observed. “Look, he even has some hair growing back now in his bald spots,” she stated, pointing at the large gnarled scar on his side. 

“So he is okay?” Dinky asked. 

“I think so Dinks,” Berry replied. 

“Ripple, are you going to be okay?” Bucky asked, still laying on his back on the table. 

“I can fly again,” Ripple replied as she continued to let out shuddering sobs of pain. 

Bucky rolled over and eased himself off of the table and back onto his hooves. His hind legs still felt stiff, but not nearly as bad as they had been. He felt a sense of growing bewilderment, he couldn’t explain what had happened. He had never heard of ley lines healing a pony before. Then again, there were many mysteries left in the world. It had only been recently been discovered that friendship held a magic all its own. He felt an overwhelming compulsion to continue to study the ley lines, to plumb the depths of its secrets. Not for power, but for curiousity’s sake. 

Bucky was barely steady on his hooves when he saw a flash of plum in his vision and then suddenly he was locked into another kiss, and giving the teasing probing of the tongue involved, he knew it was Berry. He lifted one foreleg, wrapped it around her neck, and pulled in her closer, making the mare whimper with need. Her tail flicked from side to side as the kiss intensified. Finally, she pulled away, gasping for air as she did so. 

The overwhelmed stallion felt dizzy now, but remained on his hooves. 

“I feel a little better in some ways, and a little worse in others,” Berry huffed. 

“I know what you mean,” Derpy mentioned in reply to Berry’s words, her eyebrow raised suggestively as she spoke. 

“Uh, I don’t mean to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I don’t think Bucky is done yet,” Rising Star said, gesturing at Thistle as he did so. 

She stood close by, looking hopeful and afraid at the same time. She almost seemed bashful, one front hoof kicking at the stone floor as she looked on hopefully. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping for a kiss,” she admitted. “But I understand if- oooof!” she grunted as she was pulled forward suddenly by an unseen force, her hooves dragging over the floor. 

Thistle closed her eyes and allowed the moment to happen. The kiss wasn’t quite as forceful as the other two had been, it was gentle and soft, and she felt her breath catching in her throat. She leaned into the kiss, angling her head to the side to allow for an easier connection between her and Bucky. She could feel his hot breath in her mouth. She parted her lips, unsure of what would happen, and then the kiss went to places that she was not prepared to go. A terrible fear flooded through her body and she began to tremble. She squeaked as Bucky pulled away. 

“Thistle?” Bucky asked, looking at her in concern. 

“I’m fine… I just got scared for a moment, I don’t know why,” Thistle said, averting her gaze down to her own hooves. 

“Thistle, there is a big difference between sex and intimacy,” Berry said reassuringly, shooting a meaningful glance at Sparkler, Rising Star, and Loch Skimmer as she did so. 

“I didn’t mean to get scared and ruin it,” Thistle murmured, now sounding panicked. 

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Bucky said soothingly. 

“But I’ve been kissed before… by all of you… I don’t know what happened,” Thistle said as she squirmed uncomfortably. 

“Just take things slowly,” Derpy said to the filly in a soft and reassuring voice.

Thistle continued to tremble, standing there surrounded by ponies who all looked at her curiously. She nearly jumped out of her skin as Bucky eased up against her side. 

“I am sorry Thistle, perhaps I became a little too forward,” Bucky apologised. 

“No, you didn’t, I wanted it, I don’t know what happened,” Thistle whimpered. 

“Maybe it is mommy hormones,” Berry suggested.

“I am going to take Ripple back to our room so she can lay down and maybe get a nap,” Loch Skimmer said. “Don’t worry, I will not disturb the sleepers,” she promised. 

Bucky watched as the two departed through the large double doors and then turned his focus back to Thistle. “I need some fresh air. This room is stuffy. I am going outside. Walk with me Thistle,” Bucky said as he moved slowly towards the doors. 

There was a clatter of hooves as everypony moved to follow him. Thistle remained close to his side, and he could hear Derpy and Berry just behind him. 



 

The sun was warm and soothing on his tan coloured pelt, and the heat sank down into his bones. The grass tickled his sides. Thistle was beside him, and he could feel the warmth of her body against his own. He could hear Dinky and Piña playing a short distance away, running away from Derpy, who was chasing them. Berry was sprawled out in the grass nearby, lying supine with her belly exposed to the sun. Bucky couldn’t help himself. He looked at her and felt a twinge of need that made his whole body tense. 

Sparkler was off some distance away with Rising Star and Loch Skimmer, and Bucky could hear them all giggling and laughing together.

“Thistle?” Bucky asked the filly beside him. 

“Yes?” Thistle replied. 

“Do you want to be my wife?” Bucky asked. 

“More than anything,” Thistle replied. 

“No,” Bucky said in a low voice. “No, let me ask you this again in a different way. If Keg Smasher hadn’t arranged this for you, and if you weren’t pregnant, and you were under no obligation of any sort to be married, if you could be free and enjoy your youth, would you still want to be my wife?” 

Thistle did not reply right away and she fell silent. Berry took notice, rolling over on her side to look at Bucky and Thistle. The kelpie realised that this was probably some sort of test of her character, something Derpy had done on several occasions. She tried to think of a careful reply that would make her sound mature, but no good answer seemed forthcoming. She felt another jolt of fear spike through her, and she realised that Bucky had felt it as well, because he looked at her when she had tensed up for a moment. 

“There are no wrong answers,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

Thistle took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks, looking adorable as she tried to think of a good reply. “Having seen what a bad husband could be like, I think that trading some of my youth for a good husband is good idea,” said Thistle carefully as she rubbed her head up against Bucky’s jaw. “I can still be young and be with you.”

“Yes, but what if you didn’t have to be married? What if you weren’t one of the last kelpies in existence and could just be a normal filly?” Bucky asked. 

“But I am not a normal filly. And I am one of the last kelpies that exist. It is all I can think about. It is all I know. The need to continue my kind is my entire life and I don’t know anything else. I can’t imagine anything else,” Thistle replied. 

Bucky heaved a sigh and kissed Thistle gently on her nose. 

“You can only be young once, and then it is gone. I get that. I do. I understand that youth is fleeting. I’d rather spend my youth with you. All of you. I’ve had a taste of what life could have been like for me, and that would have been far worse than anything you might have planned for me,” Thistle said. 

“She’s right Bucky,” Berry quipped. “With us, she’ll still have a bit of time to enjoy being young. Sure, she will be a mother with a foal to look after-” 

“What about Derpy? When she was Thistle’s age and she had Dinky, she had help. She had you and Sparkler’s mother. And look how much she suffered. She had to grow up right away and do the right thing,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Yes, she did, but things will be different. We’re a proper herd. We have you. I know you Bucky, you will look after her. You will be there as she grows up and matures into a proper mare, and you will help her every step of the way. She needs a stable male influence in her life. There are also other mares in our herd that I know for certain that will be more than willing to look after Thistle’s foal and allow her a bit of time to enjoy what bit of youth she has left. She’ll even have some ponies her own age to hang out with, even if it seems a bit awkward that she might be one of Sparkler’s mothers in the future. But she will be able to do fun stuff with Sparkler, Rising Star, Loch, and Ripple,” Berry explained patiently. 

Bucky scowled. “This is getting weird… I don’t know what I can be both a husband and a father figure. I mean, the age difference isn’t enormous, but it already feels strange sometimes,” Bucky said. 

“And, as a practical matter, she will have a healthy sexual outlet if she has you… if she has us. Cause let’s face it, with the exception of a few uptight unicorns, most teenagers have lots of careless sex that usually leads to foals… which leads to situations like the one that Derpy ended up in. At least if she is married, she can go to you to get that horny teenage itch scratched and not have to worry about being in a bad situation. Plus, she will have somepony she can love and trust to scratch those itches. Somepony who will actually be there for her, rather than a lot of empty promises made by some horny colt that does entirely too much thinking with his dick rather than what is between his ears,” Berry said.

Thistle blushed and made a soft “meep” sound in the back of her throat. 

“Oh look, she’s still kinda innocent after everything that has happened,” Berry said teasingly, causing Thistle to scowl at her.

“I’m not innocent,” Thistle grumbled. 

“The dick goes in the foal hole,” Berry announced. 

Thistle made an odd choking sound and her face turned into a shade of puce as she tried to stammer out a reply. Thistle became even more flustered when she heard Berry chuckling.

“Berry, don’t tease,” Bucky scolded after Thistle spent several moments sputtering. 

“But look at her, she is adorable. She’s gonna be a lot of fun to play with when the time comes. Thistle sweetie, sex isn’t something you endure. And it is a lot more than just a dick going in the foal hole. There is licking, and tickling, and kissing, and there is grinding… oh I could use a good grinding right about now,” Berry said as she rolled her eyes. “And there are all kinds of sounds too… squelching. Squealing. Heavy breathing. Grunting. Squishy noises. And it isn’t over in just a few minutes either, not if you are doing it right. And all kinds of things can go into a foal hole. A twat. A spasm chasm-” 

“Enough!” Bucky interjected. “Thistle, take a deep breath. Remember to breathe Thistle, you are purple,” Bucky said in alarm. 

Thistle took a deep breath, let it out, and then took several more. 

Bucky glared at Berry, who seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. “Happy now?” he asked. 

“I just wanted to prove a point,” Berry replied. 

“Was it worth it?” Bucky growled. 

“She’s right though,” Thistle interrupted. “There is a lot I don’t know.” 

“Are you coming to Berry’s defense after what she did?” Bucky asked incredulously. 

“I suppose I am,” Thistle replied in a frightened voice. 

“Unbelieveable,” Bucky muttered. “Don’t be scared Thistle, I am not mad at you. I am mildly annoyed with Berry though,” Bucky explained. “Look, being embarrassed by those words doesn’t make you any less mature. Not everypony can be as open as Berry Punch. She’s special," Bucky snarked. 

“And Bucky proves my point that I made earlier,” Berry quipped. 

“What?” asked Bucky, a look of confusion on his face. 

“Think about what you just did,” Berry said.

“Huh?” Bucky grunted. 

“A colt her age wouldn’t have swooped in to rescue her, he wouldn’t have reassured her, he wouldn’t have tried to comfort her. Instead, he probably would have joined in with me to tease her mercilessly or would have brayed like a donkey as he laughed at everything I said,” Berry explained. “I am sorry Thistle… I was trying to make a point to Bucky here, and I used you to do it. I hope you will let me make it up to you,” Berry said in apologetic tones. “See Thistle, you will be able to go to Bucky about anything and he will play the role of the gallant knight for you. He just can’t help himself. So you can have it all if you want it Thistle. You can be young and silly but still be married and happy. As you grow up and mature, Bucky will be able to adapt to any needs that you might have. Lover, friend, a moral guide, which I think sounds a bit better than ‘father figure’ which I will admit seems a bit creepy in this context.” 

“Wait, did I just get manipulated into helping you prove a point?” Bucky said slowly. 

“Yes you did,” replied Berry in smug tones. 

“What?” Bucky grunted yet again, looking utterly confused. 

Thistle let out a nervous giggle and kissed Bucky on the cheek. 

“I’ll teach you how to wrangle Bucky,” Berry offered. “To make up for teasing you.” 

“Wait, no,” Bucky stammered, still confused. “Why did I have to marry a mare that was smarter than I am?” he asked himself. “No no no, I am not to be wrangled,” he protested. 

“Also,” Berry said, returning to her point. “You can clearly see that Bucky isn’t some young dumb and full of cum horny colt that thinks only with his dick Thistle. If he didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t have come to your defense, going back to what I said earlier about colts your own age. Rising Star is the exception of course. I wouldn’t want to insult him and all the good he does. Bucky’s love for you isn’t going to be a bunch of empty promises and meaningless words to try and bed you. He is going to do what is right for you, he will be responsible for you, and when he says that he loves you, you will have something that most fillies your age do not have, which is the truth. When Bucky tells you that he loves you, you will know that he means it, because you can see how he really feels by his actions. Remember this Thistle. Remember how he came to your defense because he respects you and wants what is best for you. He stood up to one of his own wives to try and protect you. Think about that Thistle.”  

Thistle nodded and she felt her heart flutter within her chest. She did not reply, overwhelmed and overtaken by everything that had been said. 

“You sneaky minx,” Bucky said to Berry. 

“I am a clever pony,” Berry bragged. 

Bucky let Berry bask in her moment of glory, knowing full well that she deserved it. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 86
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know, life is a funny thing,” Sparkler began, talking to Rising Star and Loch Skimmer. “You can go through life and you meet hundreds of ponies. You meet them and nothing changes. Life simply goes on as it always does,” Sparkler paused briefly in the middle of her spoken thoughts and tried to choose her next words carefully. “But then you meet just one pony, just one, and life changes forever. You meet all of these ponies throughout life, and none of them really mean anything to you in the bigger picture, so you meet them and you sort of forget them, and life goes on. But then you meet one pony and everything changes. You can’t live without them. And everything in your life changes because of them,” she finished. 

Sparkler looked at Loch Skimmer, who was looking at her quizzically, her head cocked slightly to the side in the typical pegasus “I don’t understand” look and Loch Skimmer’s wings fluttered slightly. 

Sparkler gestured over at Bucky who was with Thistle and Berry in the tall grass nearby. “My mother goes out one day and bumps into him. Just one little bump. She comes home and acts like a spooked teenage filly… you should have seen her. And then he came to see her and I had to do something so I shoved mom outside and locked the door behind her so they could talk. So she met him, and by extension I met him, and then life became a whirlwind of changes for all of us. Mom fell in love. Berry fell in love. Dinky started to hope that she would have a father… I fell in love. I guess I had to see my mother fall in love to know what was right. But I discovered that what I needed was right under my nose. And then all of this happened. And I met you,” Sparkler stopped speaking and looked directly at Loch Skimmer. “You were one of those sorts ponies that changed everything when I met you. It felt like I had known you all my life.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Loch Skimmer said in a subdued voice. 

“Sometimes nothing can be said about life, it can only be experienced,” Rising Star stated. 

“So now, here we are. A herd. Short one member because she is tuckered out and sore,” Loch Skimmer summarised. “I never thought my life would be like this. I actually feel excited about the future,” she admitted. 

“So do I,” Rising Star agreed. “I have two really hot mares to sleep with me,” he teased. 

Loch Skimmer narrowed her eyes at Rising Star but said nothing. Her lips were pressed together and her ears folded back against her skull. Her tail swished from side to side for a moment, and her wing feathers became a bit ruffled. 

“You still have some trouble being told you are attractive, don’t you?” Sparkler asked. 

Loch Skimmer looked down at the cast on her front leg and her posture became submissive. “Those things were never of much importance before,” she said in a low voice. “It was more important that I had a strong back and wide hips” 

“Oh, it is still very important that you have wide hips,” Rising Star admitted. 

“Rising!” Sparkler chided, her scolding tone interrupted by an ill timed case of the giggles. 

“What? It is…so very important for her to have big wide foal bearing hips. Because I have plans for you Loch Skimmer,” Rising Star said teasingly. 

Loch Skimmer’s eyes went wide and she let out a nervous giggle. 

“Rising Star, be careful,” Sparkler warned. “She’s laughing, but she’s still a bit spooked.” 

“She should be spooked. Because I have plans. Plans I say,” Rising Star said with a chuckle ending his words. “Dastardly plans that involve me being a father. Someday. When I am grown up and move past my dastardly plan phase.” 

Loch Skimmer’s nervous giggles turned into guffaws of laughter and Sparkler relaxed as she too fell apart with riotous laughter. 

“I have plans for both of you,” Rising Star confessed. “As soon as I can figure out this dreadful conundrum of how to bed both of you without the other feeling left out or jealous I plan to set my plan in motion. The plan is foolproof, which is good really, because I am a fool. Thankfully, this is a fool’s venture. All I have to do is what fools have been doing since time beg-” 

Rising Star was cut off as a pair of lips pressed into his and kissed him deeply. He hadn’t been expecting it at all. The kiss was slightly waxy and oily and he knew that it had to be Loch Skimmer. All of his words left in his mind departed, every witty phrase now gone. All he knew was that right now, he wanted the plan to move ahead a bit, and more than anything he wanted to give Loch Skimmer a roll in the grass. Finally, the kiss ended with Loch Skimmer pulled away breathlessly. 

“I am going to make my own plans,” Loch Skimmer whispered breathlessly. 

Rising Star nodded, too flustered to say anything in return. 

“That was kinda hawt,” Sparkler said. “I have to admit, it sort of turns me on to watch you two.”

“I am going to make this easy,” Loch Skimmer offered. “When the time comes, you and Sparkler are going to have a go at one another first, because you and her were together before I came along and you had to save me. I am not going to be upset about it. I am sorry Sparkler, but I don’t think I am into doing things with you. But I want to watch,” the filly said nervously.

“Alright, but I get to watch when you and Rising Star get together. I am open to trying things but I understand if you aren’t Loch… after watching my mother be so happy with Berry and Bucky I am sort of hoping I will find a bit of that myself,” Sparkler replied. 

“So you are into other mares?” Loch whispered, her voice suddenly becoming hushed. 

“Well, I am curious. You and I have kissed a few times and I liked it,” Sparkler confessed. 

“Left me feeling a little weird but I didn’t want to complain or say anything because of all of the kindness you have shown me,” Loch Skimmer said in reply. 

“You need to always always always be honest and upfront if something makes you feel a little weird,” Rising Star instructed.

“You’re right, if we are going to make this work, I do need to be honest,” Loch Skimmer agreed. “You know Sparkler, there is my sister. When she gets older,” Loch Skimmer suggested. “I think I would feel comfortable with her being involved with you, if she was agreeable to it of course. I would never want her forced. Things are going to be complicated if she isn’t interested in you Sparkler or if you find that you are not interested in her. She is going to want to fall in love with somepony and we are going to have to look after her needs.” 

“All of that will be dealt with later. For now, can’t we just enjoy this happy moment?” Rising Star asked in return. 

“This is a happy moment,” Loch Skimmer agreed.

“Even with all of this trouble and the fight that I know is coming, I do feel happy,” Sparkler confessed. 

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Loch Skimmer begged. “I know the fight is coming, but I can’t bear to talk about it.” 

“We don’t need to talk about it, what we need to talk about are these uncontrollable boners that Loch Skimmer causes me to have,” Rising Star interjected. 



 

As the midnight hour approached, Bucky found that he could not sleep. He felt energised. Awake. Alive. His muscles twitched and his horn had an odd tingle that he had never experienced before. His whole body felt strange and unfamiliar sensations traveled through his flesh. 

That, and he was horny as all get out. 

He looked up from the book he was attempting to study and focused his remaining eye on the two mares sleeping in the bed with one another. He heaved a sigh and snorted. Lyra was going over a lesson with Sentinel and Ripple. Ripple’s long afternoon nap had left her unable to sleep once the night had fallen. Bon Bon was organising a future lesson.

And all he could think about was his own terrible need. 

He didn’t need to be reading, he needed to be doing something. If not one of his mares, then a more physical task. “I am stepping out for a bit,” he announced in a soft whisper. “I will be downstairs in the lab working on some stuff.” 

“Want me to join you?” Lyra asked. “Bonnie could take over for me.” 

“No Lyra, but thank you. You, uh, would be distracting at the moment,” Bucky replied. 

“Distracting?” Lyra asked. 

Bucky sighed and thought about total honesty. “Right now I am the horniest unicorn that has ever existed. Period. I am going to go distract myself and try some experiments,” he said. 

Lyra giggled. “I couldn’t help you with that,” she said teased. 

Bon Bon looked up from her book and tittered. “Poor thing,” she murmured. 

Bucky quietly slipped off of the couch, crossed the room, and exited the door, taking with him a stack of several books. It was time to do more than just plan. 



 

The laboratory had been stocked over time. There were candles now, some lanterns that burned bog oil, fine sand had been brought from the glassworks at Bucky’s request, and a large wooden table had been placed in the center of the room. 

The barrels of sand were recent and most welcomed. Bucky pried off the lid and examined it. All of the glassware on the isles came from the fine white sand found on the beaches. The Shetland Isles produced glassware that was almost as famous as its liquor. Glass beads, glass bottles, drinking glasses, Bucky had been given quite the rundown when he had requested some sand. Far more information than he needed to know. 

He planned to make spell jars, something he had never attempted before but was confident he could do. Small glass globes, carefully created with a stasis bubble infused into the glass, and magic permeable from the outside. The magically infused glass would allow a unicorn’s horn to phase through it, a spell could be cast, the spell would be contained inside of the globe, and then released at a later time. 

Bucky had first encountered them in Celestia’s school. Certain spells were contained within the jars but were not labeled. Students had to take readings of the magic and try to figure out what sort of spell was contained in the jar. It was also in Celestia’s school that he had seen what would happen if a jar was shattered. A student, angry over failure, had hurled a spell jar at a wall after being told that she had failed in her task. Thankfully, the spell was harmless, but the memory now gave Bucky ideas. 

Nothing like a few fireballs or a shock orb contained in a jar and lobbed about a battlefield Bucky reckoned. He would need to make sure that he protected himself from the destructive blasts, but the wolves would have no such defenses. They would be blown to meaty chunks all around him. 

He pulled up a small measure of sand, willed his magic to come forth, and began his first attempt to create a spell jar. The sand melted readily, and he applied his magic to make the now liquid glass to form a bubble. He infused it with magic, creating a temporal stasis bubble, and wove the magic into the glass. The hot molten glass orb was directly in front of his face, and he felt a moment of distraction as he thought of Keg Smasher coming near with the hot iron. He pushed the distraction from his mind and continued his task. There was too much to do and too much at stake to allow for such petty distractions to become a problem. Instead, he thought of the foals that he had already had, the foals that he would have, and how he was going to provide for them. The thoughts smoothed out his mind and leveled out the nervous undercurrents of his psyche. 

He would need to be careful and methodical to get through this. Not reckless and brash. He had been reckless and brash when he had gone out to face the wolves on that fateful night, and now he was missing an eye. 

Smoke poured from his horn as he worked, shaping the glass bubble, trying to get a feel for just the right thickness. It needed to be solid enough that it could be transported without too much trouble, but fragile enough to break when hurled. There was a faint smell of burning hair in the laboratory. 

Sweat poured from Bucky’s body as he continued to exert effort. The laboratory was bone chillingly cold, but Bucky found that he did not mind. He welcomed the cold. 

After much effort, Bucky eyed the fruits of his magical labours. He leached the heat from it carefully so it wouldn’t shatter. He had done a good job, or so he felt. The glass was mostly clear, only a bit cloudy, and it practically thrummed with magic, which was a good sign. He remembered that the spell jars vibrated somewhat. He levitated it over to a waiting box that was lined with straw and placed the now cooled glass orb into the box. He would have to test the magical permeance later, once the magic had settled and become stable, a process called curing. 

Bucky hesitated, unsure of what to do next. Making more spell jars was a bad idea, not until he could determine if the first would work properly. 

He focused instead on the gemstones collected from Sparkler. He selected one and examined it. He would need to modify the sunstone spell. He needed a light source that produced powerful light, but not heat. He thought about the intensity of light needed and figured that he would err on the side of overkill. Two hundred million candlepower should suffice he reasoned. Maybe two hundred and fifty million just to make sure. He wanted the wolves to combust when the light hit them. He would also need to build reflector dishes so he could construct a spotlight. That would require some metal work. Metal work would have to come later. 

Bucky carefully studied the orange gemstone by hornlight and began his long night of hard work. 



 

Derpy awoke and realised that something was missing. Her husband. A faint grey light shone through the window, and she knew that dawn was breaking. The room was almost too warm once again. She nosed Dinky and then Piña, kissed Berry just behind her ear, and then looked around blearily, trying to find Bucky. She closed her bad eye, peered around some more just to make sure, and then realised he was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where is Bucky?” she asked in alarm, her loud voice waking the rest of the sleepers. “He didn’t do something stupid like go out and face the wolves again did he? Where is he?” she cried. 

“He went downstairs to the lab. He’s fine. It’s okay. He just couldn’t sleep, that’s all,” Bon Bon said soothingly. 

Derpy grumbled wordlessly in reply as her fear slowly flowed out of her. 

“He’s been up all night?” Berry muttered, her eyes still closed. 

“He said he was the horniest unicorn in existence and then left to get some work done,” Lyra said. 

Derpy started to say something in reply but was tackled by Ripple, the pegasus filly’s forelegs tight around her neck. The mare enjoyed the enthusiastic affection of another pegasus and the last of her irritation was smoothed away. 

“I was up all night too,” Ripple said. “And it was a wonderful night,” she mentioned. “Lyra and Bon Bon are the nicest ponies.” 

“They talked about girly stuff all night,” Sentinel complained. “Well, after our lessons were completed.” 

Berry groaned. There was entirely too much activity already for such an early hour. Ripple squashed up against her as the filly continued to hug Derpy and more than anything, Berry wanted Ripple to stop bouncing up and down so she could go back to sleep. She was forced to take matters into her own hooves. She rolled on her side, snatched Ripple in her forelegs, which made the filly squeal in alarm, and then pulled her close, crushing her against her barrel. Berry yawned and then tried slip into a half awake half asleep snooze that always felt so good early in the mornings. 

Ripple grunted and then realised she had no chance of breaking free of her prison. Berry’s embrace was as solid as iron. She sighed and settled against the earth pony, resigned to her fate. Ripple, feeling Berry’s warm body against her, began to hear the siren’s song of sleep and yawned, the long night finally over and a need for slumber finally overtook the filly. 

Berry settled her snoot into the filly’s mane, breathing in her scent, and enjoying the growing bond that was forming between the two of them. She drifted into that half awake and half asleep phase that she so loved. 

Derpy meanwhile was overcome by nausea and quickly fled the bed. 
	
> Chapter 87
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky reveled in his sense of accomplishment as he eased himself into the bed with a tired groan. He had figured out how to make a heatless sunstone on the fourth attempt, which he felt was reasonable. He had eaten breakfast in near silence, his exhaustion making him less than perfect company. 

Lyra and Bon Bon had already settled into the bed with Sentinel, and he settled in close to them. As his remaining eye closed, he felt three warm bodies work their way against him. He smiled to himself, his eye still closed, and it was nice to have somepony to share the bed with as the others began their day. Usually, the three of them went to bed after lunch, and Bucky suspected they had gone to bed early to be with him. 

As he drifted off, he heard the door open and another pony entered the room. He then heard them crawling on the bed. It was Ripple, who had nodded off several times during breakfast, and was clearly in no position to stay awake through school. 

Bucky heard Sentinel say something, but he couldn’t make out what it was as sleep finally overtook him. He drifted off feeling warm and secure, surrounded by those he loved. 



 

The world around him was dead. Bucky shivered as an icy wind pierced his pelt and blew through his mane. There was no grass, no greenery, only sand and rocks. Bucky stood and looked around him, in the distance he saw a pile of white stones. He moved towards them to investigate them, and upon reaching them, realised they were not stones at all, but skulls. 

Pony skulls. 

He shivered again and wondered what he was doing here. He looked all around him and realised that he had both eyes once again. He experienced a moment of exquisite pain mixed with happiness, glad to have both eyes but knowing that one no longer belonged. 

“Greetings Buckminster,” a voice said. 

Bucky whirled, feeling quite startled, for all that he was, he was still a pony and as such, he was subject to being spooked as much as any equine. He saw a blue alicorn approaching him and he took a deep breath of relief. 

“You seem well. Must have been a long night for you to slumber so soundly during the day,” Luna said pleasantly as she drew near. 

“What is this place?” Bucky asked, all sense of formality gone from the shock he was experiencing. 

“This is Ponyville. Or it was. And over there, that is what remains of Canterhorn Peak. And Canterlot,” Luna replied. 

Bucky looked off in the distance, not recognising what he saw. If it was Canterhorn Peak as Luna claimed, then half of the mountain was gone. And Canterlot with it. There was a large pile of rubble at one side of the sheared off mountain. As Bucky stared at it, a cold jolt traveled through his spine. “What did this?” Bucky inquired, a tremour in his voice. 

“You were always so bright and inquisitive Buckminster. My sister placed so much well deserved faith in you. Care to venture a guess?” Luna answered, asking him a question in return. 

“No,” Bucky stated in a frightened whisper. 

“The question isn’t so much what did this, but who,” Luna said, her teal eyes now locked on Bucky’s eyes. “And why,” she added. 

Bucky looked around him, taking it all in. The sky was a dull rust colour, and the sun was a frightful red. The air was acrid and stung his nostrils. His mind raced with implications. 

“Bucky, what do you know of other worlds?” Luna asked, breaking Bucky’s train of thought as she did so. 

“I know there are mirrors. Arches. Gateways. I know there is one in the Crystal Empire,” Bucky replied, his internal scholar taking over and forcing his mouth to speak. 

“This is one of those worlds,” Luna stated. “In this world, you rejected the advances of one grey pegasus mare. You did much more than that actually. You resented her intrusion into your life.” 

“No,” Bucky whimpered as his knees began to wobble. 

“You spurned her advances and you began to hate your fellow ponies. Your destiny, your curse if you choose to call it that, finally caught up to you. And you had nopony to save you. My sister tried of course, but you never returned to her, you never made the choice to trust her. You never went back to her as a confused young stallion in the throes of first love and you never let her into your heart,” Luna explained. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked, his words more a frightened gargle than actual speech. 

“You as many of your bloodline before you discovered your true nature and the unusual power that flows through your entire bloodline. As most do, you discovered it by accident. Do you know what it is?” Luna asked. 

Bucky was too stunned to even began to guess. He shook his head. 

“The ability to tap into the ley lines directly,” Luna answered. “To channel them in much the same way that an alicorn would. Absolute power as one might call it.” Luna paused and waited for some kind of response from Bucky. When she saw that no response was coming, she continued. 

“Unlike the others in your bloodline, you were careful and meticulous when you discovered your power. And you craved more. You didn’t make grab for power right away. You hid yourself away and studied in secret. You never revealed yourself. My sister never thought of you as a threat. She only saw you as a sad befuddled creature, one more failed unicorn in a long line of failed unicorns. She pitied you,” Luna said. Luna took a deep breath and shook her head sadly. “But the call of power gave you strength. Made you bold. Eventually, you revealed yourself and you attempted to dethrone my sister and I. There was quite a battle. Eventually, your horn failed you, as it has always failed your kind. My sister was merciful… a terrible mistake on her part. She had you healed, nursed back to health. You were placed on trial. And then, you were banished. Sent far away into the hinterlands on the other side of the world. A savage place of no law,” Luna explained. 

“I can’t bear hearing this,” Bucky said, speaking when Luna had paused to choose her words. 

“You survived there. You thrived there. You fixed your malfunctioning horn. You connected to the ley lines and tested the very limits of the magic you were able to channel. You found no limits. There was nothing to hold you back,” Luna said, her voice sad. 

“So I did this?” Bucky asked. 

“You did not come back like some mindless villain and announce your triumphant return. You struck swiftly and without mercy. You bound my sister into the sun and before I could even figure out what was going on, I was back in my lunar prison. In this reality, you slew Twilight Sparkle when she came after you, her need for revenge her own undoing. And then, you dealt with Cadance and Shining Armor, killing her and her unborn foal,” Luna said, her voice filled with more than a little anger. “You smote Canterlot and blew it right off of the mountain. You obliterated Ponyville. And then, you burned the world. This entire planet looks like what you see now,” Luna explained. 

“What purpose would that serve?” Bucky asked. “And what of myself? How could I survive here?” 

“You don’t stay here Buckminster,” Luna answered. “You figure out how to make your own gateways. You leave. You tap into the ley lines of reality itself, the magical fabric of the very universe.” 

“How do you know all of this? Isn’t this just a dream? I can’t bear to think of myself doing this,” Bucky whined, his voice breaking from the overflow of emotion. 

“I had Discord show me other futures. Other whens and wheres. I had to see what you were capable of. I had to know what I was dealing with. I remember Sombra all too well and how close he came to creating the future that you see now,” Luna said. She extended a wing and gently wiped away the tears from Bucky’s eyes. “Even if you can’t remember it directly, I know that you know now.” 

“Yes, I know. I know what I am. But I don’t want to believe that I am capable of this… all of this horror all around me,” Bucky whimpered in reply. “So why show me this? Why torment me? Haven’t I changed all of this? I have hope in my heart. I love… I am loved… why do this?” he asked in a tormented voice. 

“Because this could still happen,” Luna said in a flat emotionless monotone. 

“I won’t let it,” Bucky said defiantly. 

“And I would like to believe that. Which is why I am here. I would rather be your friend than your enemy Buckminster. And I would like to help you. I would like for you to know that you are trusted and loved. I would like for you to know that when you stood on the brink of real power, you were not held back, but coaxed forward and assisted, trusted and loved enough to be helped so you would be successful,” Luna explained. 

“My horn,” Bucky said, a faint glimmer of understanding forming in his thoughts. 

“Yes,” Luna said. “I can help you with that. I intend to give you the knowledge of how Sombra saved himself.” 

“I saw Sombra… he’s in Tartarus,” Bucky said in a soft whisper.

“I know,” Luna replied. “Celestia and I have spoken to him on occasion,” Luna stated. 

“What happened? Why did he do what he did?” Bucky asked. 

Luna sighed. She knew that the question was coming, but she was still not fully prepared to answer it. “Sombra loved. He was good pony. But he could not deal with grief. And when he discovered the true nature of his gift, the ability to tap into a ley line directly, the power overcame him. He had nothing to hold him back. There was only a world full of danger and ponies that he had sworn to protect. He felt that my sister and I were the biggest threat to ponies…” Luna’s words faltered. “He was right too. I fell. I tried to make the night last forever. Sombra was completely mad when he made his move against my sister and I, but he was correct about one thing. If one of us stumbled, if one of us fell, we were the greatest threat to Ponykind. He attempted to bind us into the sun and the moon, knowing that if we were locked away, the sun and the moon would operate on their own and that we would not be needed to make them function,” Luna explained. 

Bucky sat down in the sand and was unable to reply. His mouth moved several times, but no words came out. Finally, he gave up and remained silent. 

“Sombra really was a good pony. He was my friend. He loved my sister and I… he was our most faithful guardian. Star Swirl was the scholar, Sombra was the warrior. There would not be an Equestria without them. Star Swirl discovered the location of the Elements of Harmony after Discord had hid them away, and it was Sombra that led an army into Tartarus to recover them. Both of them were immensely powerful unicorns, and both were deeply flawed, as your bloodline tends to be-”

“Wait, are you saying…” Bucky interrupted. 

“Yes Buckminster, they were brothers. They were both so strong, but so flawed. Star Swirl had trouble making friends. He guarded his heart and lived a life of isolation. Sombra did much the same after he lost Platinum. He hardened his heart and his loneliness devoured him from the inside,” Luna said. “The brothers were as different as night and day. Star Swirl was gentle and bookish while Sombra was combative and brash. Star Swirl found ways to battle Discord and hamper Discord’s efforts through mischief, while Sombra raised an army with Commander Hurricane and went to battle against Discord and his legions directly.” Luna stopped speaking and let out a chuckle. 

“What is so funny?” Bucky asked. 

“The company you find yourself in,” Luna replied. “Funny how fate tends to tie ponies together.” 

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked. 

“Certain bloodlines seem to weave together over time and become something of a tapestry. Certain fates always seem bound together. Much like Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Those bloodlines have always come together time and time again. And much the same has happened with you as well,” Luna answered. 

“That tells me nothing,” Bucky said with mild annoyance. 

“Commander Hurricane fell in love with a mare named Pansy. She was his first wife and became his matriarch. I remember her quite fondly,” Luna said, a faint smile now upon her lips. 

“And what does that have to do with anything?” Bucky demanded. His emotions were stretched to the very limits of what he could endure, and he desperately wanted things to make sense again. 

“Pansy was the most distinctive shade of bluish grey. And she had the most marvelous wheat coloured mane. But Hurricane fell in love with her because of her eyes… they were a very unique shade of amber,” Luna said, closing her eyes and reminiscing. 

“Wait, are you saying what I think you are saying?” Bucky asked. 

Luna nodded and continued to smile. 

“So-” 

“Oh, Pansy’s eyes worked perfectly. That particular problem came along later. But Pansy’s descendents are very distinct and quite easy to spot in a crowd. At the time, the colour of her pelt and the colour of her eyes were quite unique. She was a rare beauty. Commander Hurricane had to turn to Sombra to find out how to win Pansy’s heart because Pansy found Hurricane to be an oaf. She loathed him,” Luna said, recalling fond memories. 

“So do you think fate brought us together?” Bucky asked. 

“For all of the Founder’s foals to come back together yet again… of course,” Luna replied. “Berry Punch descends from Smart Cookie, one of the smartest ponies that has ever lived. When Equestria falls into interesting times, much like we are in right now, the foals of the Founders are usually involved somehow.

“So how do I avoid this fate? How do I save myself? How do I save my horn?” Bucky inquired. 

“Do not be troubled about your horn. Even as you sleep, I am giving you the knowledge of what to do. I do not know if you will be successful, that much is up to you. As for your fate, continue on as you have done so far. Continue to love others and do not isolate yourself. Have lots of foals. Keep them close to you. I feel that was truly Sombra’s failing in my own opinion,” Luna answered. 

“How?” Bucky asked. “I mean, can you explain what you mean?” he questioned. 

“Sombra sent his foals to stay with Celestia and I before he began his slow descent into madness. Before he thought that we were potential threats. Tell me Buckminster, if you did something bad, do you think you could look Piña Colada or Dinky in the eye and feel good about yourself? Do you think you could explain to them or justify why you just did something awful?” Luna replied, asking her own questions in return. “Or honour bound little Sentinel for that matter.” 

“Well, no… I think about everything I do and how it might affect them. After I was forced to do something terrible, it tore apart my insides thinking about how awful I must have looked to Piña and Dinky,” Bucky replied. 

“The flogging,” Luna mused. 

“How do you know all of this?” Bucky asked. 

“I see into your mind Buckminster. I see your dreams. I must keep Equestria safe,” Luna replied. 

“So if Sombra had kept his foals around and they had made him feel guilty about what he was doing, things might have turned out differently?” Bucky inquired. 

“Perhaps. Celestia and I hope that it will work for you,” Luna answered as she made a gesture to the dead landscape all around her with her wing. 

“Making foals and raising foals is certainly preferable to this,” Bucky said as he looked all around him. Bucky inhaled slowly and then exhaled in a huff. He struggled to collect his thoughts. 

“Sombra turned away from his other wives. He abandoned them. He placed his sense of duty to others above his sense of duty to his family. He could not deal with the loneliness. The war with the griffons took a lot of out of him. All of the violence did terrible things to his mind. All of the horrible things he had to do, all of the nightmarish combat he had to endure. He was never the same pony. He jumped at the slightest sound. He flew into fits of rage over the smallest and most trivial things. Now they call it post traumatic stress disorder. Back then, we called it unslakable bloodlust. Sombra was no longer content to remain in a defensive position, and he went into a constant state of war. He didn’t know how to make the war end. Even after the griffons were driven from the north, Sombra turned to other threats and unleashed his fury upon them. He made bold moves against dragons and drove them from the icy reaches. He went to war against the shadowy forces of the night, knowing that they fed upon his ponies. And with each battle, he slipped a little farther into madness. Finally, he turned on us, swearing that he had to keep Equestria safe from all threats. He said he had peered into the flow of time using spells his brother had created. Sombra believed that we had to be bound. The war was terrible. So many died. So many lives were lost. Sombra created an army of golems… an army that would have no casualties. The ponies under Sombra’s rule, the crystal ponies of the north, he had them bound to the city in which they lived, unable to leave. He had to keep them safe, even if it meant keeping them safe from themselves. The entire city was enslaved. Those that resisted were bound in shackles for their own good. The entire time, Sombra truly believed that he was doing the right thing, that he was in the right, and that he was just the good defender that he had always been,” Luna explained. 

“Poor Sombra,” Bucky said when Luna had paused for a moment. 

“It broke my heart having to take down my dear and beloved friend. I think that it might be part of the reason I did what I did later. I do not know,” Luna admitted in a sad voice. “It had to be done though. Sombra was pulling the souls of ponies out of their bodies and placing them into crystals. He did it to keep them safe. If they weren’t in bodies of flesh and bone, then they could no longer be harmed. They would never know hunger, they would never know old age, they would live forever, bound in a crystal prison. What Sombra did was monstrous. Celestia and I… we had… we had to destroy those crystals to free the souls trapped within… it was one of the moments in my long life that I truly wish had never happened, right up there with turning on my sister,” Luna said, her gaze dropping down to the sand around her hooves. 

“So eventually, life would end if Sombra had been successful,” Bucky said, picking up where Luna had left off. “He would have protected his ponies, all of them bound in crystal, he would have burned away all of the threats in the world, and then he would have stood a silent vigil protecting the crystals. And the world might look a lot like this one.” 

Luna nodded but said nothing. 

“That’s awful,” Bucky breathed, his words not even a whisper. 

“And he would have endured his loneliness out of a sense of obligation and duty,” Luna added. 

“Being trapped in crystal, while it might be a place of safety, it is not living,” Bucky said. 

“It makes me feel better to hear you say that,” Luna confessed. 

“If you ever believe that I have become a credible threat, if you think that I have slipped into the darkness, I want you to destroy me. No mercy, no trying to coax me back into the light, no trying to remind me what I am giving up, the family I am betraying, I want you to watch my dreams and my inner workings… and if you even suspect that I am a danger to those I love, I want you to obliterate me. No warning,” Bucky insisted. 

“I…”

“Promise me,” Bucky demanded. “No excuses. No talk of how I might be saved. If the shadows begin to overtake me, cut me down before I can bring harm to those I love,” Bucky begged. 

“I cannot do that,” Luna said. “My sister would never allow it. We do not slay our enemies, or we try not to. Even Discord, as terrible as he was, he was given a second chance.” 

“So it is worth risking all of this?” Bucky asked, looking around him at the barren dead earth. 

“The moment you were born this was at the risk of happening. Should Celestia have dealt with you then? Or just cut off your bloodline and offer no chance of redemption? Should all of the foals that Sombra and Platinum had together been rounded up and put to death to avoid the thousand years of tragedy they have created? It was Star Swirl and one of his attempts at his destiny spell that cursed all of Sombra’s bloodline. Or laid the foundations for redemption if one chooses to look at it that way. Star Swirl tried to pull his brother back from the darkness that had consumed him. He tried to change Sombra’s destiny. The spell failed, but the magic lingered. Even now, Star Swirl’s magic is still attempting to correct a broken destiny, and it flows all around you,” Luna replied. 

“But I don’t want this!” Bucky cried as he lifted his hoof and pointed at the ruins of Canterhorn Peak. “I swore an oath that I would never bring harm to another pony… and you tell me about Sombra and his crystal prisons. Did Sombra also swear an oath? Will I destroy myself and everything I love with good intentions?” 

“You might. It could still happen. I am hoping that it will not. Mostly, that depends on you and the choices you make,” Luna said soothingly. 

Bucky screamed in frustration, his emotion finally boiling outward. His wordless cry echoed through the emptiness, a long tormented cry that only ended when his voice broke from the strain, his cry becoming more of a phlegmy gargle. 

“When you wake, you will remember little of this. But certain knowledge will remain in your mind. In time, should you prevail, you will remember all of this. You will remember everything. You will know who you are, who you are meant to be, and you will remember what you are capable of. We all hope that it is enough to hold you back and prevent you from destroying everything that you hold dear,” Luna said in a calm voice. “Hold fast and true to those you love. The grey mare has the strength you need,” Luna stated. 

“And Berry is my intellect?” Bucky asked, breaking in on Luna’s exposition.

“Something like that,” Luna replied. 

“What of Thistle?” Bucky asked. “Is she tied into this or is this random chance?” 

“All of those drawn to you have something that you need that you lack on your own,” Luna stated. 

“Even Bon Bon and Lyra?” Bucky asked. 

“Especially Bon Bon and Lyra,” Luna replied. 

“So what about Thistle? What does she have that I need? I don’t understand. I feel so confused around her. I feel so unsettled and I don’t know how I should feel about her,” Bucky admitted. 

“You will figure this out in time Buckminster,” Luna said.

“But this seems important… what if I don’t?” Bucky retorted. 

“Then you will continue to get what you need without knowing how or why,” Luna answered. 

“But she is young… maybe too young, it feels wrong to desire her the way I do,” Bucky confessed. 

Luna blinked at Bucky a few times but said nothing in return. 

“Is it right or wrong? I am having trouble knowing. I want to do what is right for her. I want to protect her. I want to give her what she needs,” Bucky said in a pleading voice. “Please, if you can just tell me a little,” he begged. 

“Perhaps a bit more honesty is required on your part,” Luna replied. “You want to give her what she needs. And while that much is true, there is something else you want to give her. Which is what is causing you so much conflict,” Luna continued. 

Bucky’s ears drooped and his whole body slumped into a slouch. 

“I wasn’t even referring to sexual matters, but your reaction, your guilt and your shame is quite telling. If you are not careful, this will harm you. If it is any consolation to you, it is not immoral to desire her. She is indeed at an age appropriate for foal bearing, even if society might disagree. She is healthy and capable. Her body is developed enough that she is not in any real danger from it. Disentangle yourself from all of the physical distractions due to your sexual attraction, and focus instead on what you want to give her. Search your heart Buckminster, as corny as that might sound,” Luna said in an authoritative tone. 

Bucky looked up at Luna, raising his head slowly. “So with Thistle, it is different than it is with Berry and Derpy, with those two, it is something they can offer me. With Thistle, is it something I can offer her? Something she needs from me?” Bucky asked. 

Luna nodded but said nothing in reply. 

“But I am still getting something in return from her through what I have to offer?” Bucky inquired. 

Luna nodded again. 

“This is confusing,” Bucky complained.

Luna leaned forward and kissed Bucky upon his cheek. “I will return to check on you as I am able. We will talk again. You will remember only a few hazy details of all of this. My sister sends her love and wishes that she could do more to aid you, but if she became involved too much it would be detrimental to your efforts,” Luna said as she pulled away. 

“Thank you,” Bucky said gratefully to the alicorn as she gazed at him. 

“Love without guilt,” Luna said as the dreamscape around them began to dissolve. “Give Thistle what she needs without reservation. Be good to your mares. Be a father to your foals,” Luna commanded as the world around them faded away. 

Bucky tried to reply but no words came from his mouth as he tumbled into a black void. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 88
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke with several needs, all of them pressing in on his mind all at once. He addressed the most pressing one first, relieving himself. After a very satisfying bit of time spent with a bucket, he returned to bed to collect his thoughts. 

He had the most marvelous idea of how to fix his horn. The idea had been in his head for a while, different means, different methods, a slew of ideas, all of which he had reflected upon a great deal during quiet moments. Now he knew for certain what he needed to do. There was an almost overwhelming compulsion to begin now. 

He was going to need Sentinel. He looked at the colt. Sentinel was still sleeping, sandwiched between Lyra and Bon Bon. His gaze shifted to Lyra. He needed immense amounts of electrical currents. While he could cast electrical spells, he wasn’t all that good with them, and he was going to need his magic for other things. 

He needed fulgurite. Petrified lightning. It was the missing piece in the puzzle that was replacing his horn. When lightning struck sand it created a special material prized by unicorns for magical work. Mineraloid in nature, it was perfect for channeling energy and could be used as a sort of magical prism. It was one of the many things that could be used to create focusing devices and magical reflectors. While he could have used crystals to achieve much of the same effect, fulgurite would be much better for his purposes due to the nature of how it could be infused with multiple types of magic. 

One golden eye opened and he saw Lyra looking at him. She yawned, her orange tongue visible, and then her other eye opened. She stared at Bucky. 

“You are up to mischief. What are you planning?” Lyra asked bluntly. 

“Care to join me in some forbidden magic?” Bucky asked in reply. 

“I thought you’d never ask,” Lyra replied sleepily and then yawned again when she was done speaking. 

Bon Bon awoke with a snort. “Forbidden magic?” she mumbled. “No! Bad ponies! Bad! For shame! Lyra, what have I told you about wanting to experiment with necromancy!” 

Bucky froze and looked at Lyra. Lyra squirmed under his gaze, her eyes now narrowed. “Look, I just said I’d like to study it, not actually practice it Bonnie… it isn’t fair that you keep bringing that up. It is only idle curiousity, nothing more. And I don’t think Bucky had necromancy in mind,” Lyra said in her own defense. 

Bon Bon scowled at Bucky first, and then at Lyra, having woke up in quite a grumpy mood. 

“I need Lyra and her elemental knack for lightning. I need to create fulgurites, a special type of glass created by lightning strikes. I intend to infuse it with raw magic,” Bucky explained. 

“And then what?” Bon Bon growled. 

Bucky squirmed uncomfortably under Bon Bon’s gaze. She was the one who had made him follow a strict policy of total honesty. 

“And then what? Tell me… now,” Bon Bon repeated in an insistent tone. 

“Oooh Bonnie woke up crabby,” Lyra muttered. 

“Shush Lyra,” Bon Bon commanded. 

Lyra dropped her head and covered her face with her forelegs.

“What is going on?” Ripple asked, not opening her eyes but perking up her ears. 

“That is what I am trying to find out,” Bon Bon replied. 

“I need to replace my horn. It keeps fizzling. I know how to do it now. I know how to make it work. If I don’t, I know it is going to fail me again, and if that happens while I am fighting the wolves, it will mean my death,” Bucky blurted out. 

Bon Bon scowled and a low growl lingered in her throat. 

Bucky felt an odd sensation. Fear. Bon Bon’s potential disapproval actually frightened him. Bucky had lived most of his life with his mother’s disapproval. This felt similar, but different at the same time. He discovered that deep inside, he didn’t want Bon Bon disappointed with him. It was something of an epiphany to Bucky. This was a mare that he cared deeply about and he valued what she thought as well as what she felt. And her critical gaze upon him right now wasn’t out being done out of spite or resentment, but love. Bucky felt a faint tingle of regret and shame and he dropped his gaze, unable to look Bon Bon in the eye any longer. 

“Are you confident that you can do this and be successful?” asked Bon Bon in a low whisper. “I am assuming that if you fail, this will mean your death as well.” 

Bucky’s stomach tied into knots. His first attempt to speak came out as a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I am confident that I can do this. But I can’t do it alone,” he replied. 

“And this is forbidden magic… not something a law abiding unicorn would do. This is a violation of the natural order,” Bon Bon stated. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. “But I need to magically alter myself if I am to avoid my fate. I will also need to draw off some of Sentinel’s essence to make this work. Some of his shadow magic. I promise it won’t hurt him, and Sentinel and I have already talked about-”

“Hush,” Bon Bon commanded, interrupting Bucky’s nervous explanation. 

Bucky fell silent and raised his gaze. Ripple and Sentinel were awake now, and every eye in the room was looking at him. 

“We can’t have your horn failing. I never thought I would ever have a husband. But now that I have one, I have no interest in losing him. Are you sure that you can survive this?” Bon Bon asked, her brows furrowed intensely as she stared at Bucky. 

“Well, I mean, there is a chance that it could fail. A chance… but my horn will fail. So I take the chance now and potentially survive, or I do nothing and at some point, this will mean my death,” Bucky answered. 

“We can’t have that,” Bon Bon stated. “I already know that Lyra is more than willing to help.” 

“Yeah I am. Regular magic is humdrum and boring. Mundane. I want to explore the fringes of what is possible,” Lyra said. 

Bon Bon nodded knowingly. “So what needs to be done?” she asked. 

“I need to take Sentinel to a dark place, like the laboratory downstairs. I need to draw off his shadow essence and place it in a magical containment. Then I need to head back out to where the ley lines cross. I’ll need to commune with Lyra, and then focus an immense amount of power through her. Once she is juiced up with an indescribable amount of power, I’ll need her to cast lighting into a pile of sand to create fulgurites. I’ll then take these fulgurites, shape them magically, infuse them, and then through a very complicated process, I will fuse them to my own body, replacing my horn,” Bucky explained. 

“Won’t they be fragile? Won’t they just break? I thought glass was fragile,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Not magically infused fulgurites,” Lyra said in return. “This is actually a good idea I think. It will constantly draw a faint trickle of magic from Bucky which will make it very nearly unbreakable. I mean, it could be broken, but you’d need some kind of impossible circumstance to make it happen. So long as Bucky had magic, his horn would be more durable than his body would be.” 

“I am coming with you,” Bon Bon said. “And you are going to tell the others. No trying to hide this,” the mare insisted. 

Bucky felt a strange joy in knowing that Bon Bon was not displeased with him. He closed his eye and sighed in relief. He felt two lips press up against his in a quick peck, and he opened his eye in surprise. 

“Bonnie!” Lyra exclaimed. 

“What?” Bon Bon replied. “He’s our husband. I am allowed to kiss him. I am not asking him to rut me and no offense to you Bucky, but I have no interest in what you have to offer me. But I see no problem with giving you a kiss now and then.” 

Lyra nodded thoughtfully at Bon Bon’s words. “I suppose you are right. It just sent a weird feeling through me seeing you do that,” Lyra admitted. 

“I don’t want you to ever do anything you are uncomfortable with,” Bucky said. 

“You were honest with me over a very difficult subject and I appreciate that a great deal,” Bon Bon replied. “I felt that you deserved to be rewarded.” 

“Well then, I shall treasure your kisses all the more knowing that I have to work to earn them,” Bucky said. 

Bon Bon tittered and her face broke into a wide grin. 

“She makes me earn them too sometimes,” Lyra said to Bucky. “I have to be a good pony. No necromancy studies.” 



 

Sentinel watched as Bucky did what needed to be done to prepare. The colt was frightened, even though he would never admit it or show it, not so much of having some of his shadow essence drained, but by the idea of Bucky failing. Sentinel didn’t want Bucky to die. 

Explaining everything to the others had gone much better than expected and now, the group was divided. Derpy, Berry, and Thistle were off with the foals and the others, while the unicorns had gathered together along with Bon Bon, minus Dinky who was staying with her mother. 

Fear rippled through both groups, and Sentinel could sense it. Being a creature of shadow, fear was something that gave Sentinel strength under normal circumstances. But feeling the fear of those he loved unnerved him. 

“Ready?” Bucky asked. “I need you to shadow dive if you can. The room is very dim, it shouldn’t be too hard,” he instructed. 

Sentinel nodded. He could shadow dive. He closed his eyes and concentrated on becoming one with the darkness. He stood in deep shadow and allowed the darkness to seep into him. He felt a tingle in his flesh. And then, his physical form slipped away and he became shadow. He could see all around him in all directions, something that always puzzled him. He felt the cool darkness. He felt strong. He felt an odd tickle as though something was pulling on him. A moment later, his hooves thudded onto the stone floor and he stood with his breath heaving in and out of his lungs, completely exhausted from his shadow dive. 

“Perfect,” Bucky said. “I was able to draw off what I needed. Living shadow,” he added. 

Sentinel looked and saw what appeared to be a black liquid swirling inside of a globe of blue-green magic that hovered over Bucky’s head. 

“We'll need to do this again when I create my armor,” Bucky said. “See how easy it is? It didn’t hurt you, did it Sentinel?” 

“No sir. I felt a tickle or something. No pain at all sir,” the colt replied.

Sentinel heard Bon Bon heave a sigh of relief and he turned to look at the earth pony. “I am fine ma’am,” he insisted. 

“Daylight is burning. We don’t know how long this will take. We had better get moving,” Rising Star urged. “Do we have everything?” he asked. 

“We have the sand. We have the sunstone that Bucky requested, but I am not sure why we need it. We have a coven of unicorns and we have two ley lines. I think we’re good,” Sparkler said in reply. 

“The sunstone is beautiful. Why did you cast it inside of the green one Bucky?” Lyra asked. 

“Well, I was experimenting. The others were all failures. I just happened to pull a green one out of the pile without looking at it,” Bucky answered. 

“Painful to look at,” Rising Star said. “That emerald gives off a lot of light.” 

“Well it is a sunstone, duh,” Sparkler replied snarkily. 

“I am going to wait with the others,” Sentinel said. 

“Okay Sentinel,” Bucky replied. 

“I will keep your foals safe,” Sentinel promised. 

“Thank you Sentinel,” Bucky said. 

When he reached the stairs, safely away from the others, the first few tears fell and Sentinel allowed himself a private moment. Terror overtook him. He wept and hoped that Bucky would survive what came next. 



 

“Are we ready to begin?” Rising Star asked. He looked at Bucky. The stallion was sitting on his haunches in the grass, looking very calm, his remaining eye closed. 

“I think we are,” Lyra replied. 

“I still don’t understand how father will graft this onto his head,” Sparkler said in bewildered confusion. 

“I will teleport,” Bucky stated. “And while I am teleporting, I will draw myself together with my new horn into the same location so that we overlap. As I reassemble from the teleportation, it should molecularly fuse with me,” he explained. 

“That makes sense,” Sparkler said in a voice full of worry. “Also sounds like it leaves a lot to chance,” she added. 

“It does,” Bucky admitted. 

“So if you fail on the first attempt…” Rising Star said, his voice trailing off. 

“It will kill me, yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Is there nothing we can do to save you?” Rising Star asked. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “If the casing around my horn is breached at such a time, I will probably combust from all the raw magic being focused.” 

“Oh,” Rising Star murmured. 

“We don’t want that,” Lyra said. “Let’s not talk about that,” she insisted. 

“So what is the sunstone for?” Bon Bon asked. 

“I intend to replace my eye while I do this,” Bucky answered. “When I teleport I plan to use some of the same material that I will replace my horn with and fuse it into my eye socket. I will embed the sunstone in my eye socket and fuse it to my thaumaturgical nerves.” 

“So built in spotlight?” Lyra asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Will you be able to turn it off?" Lyra inquired. 

“I think so,” Bucky answered. 

“Seems practical,” Bon Bon stated in a calm voice. 

“Before we start, I want to say, Bucky, I love you. I couldn’t ask for a better father. I had a good feeling about you when I shoved my mother out the door to talk you. You’ve been so good to her, giving her the love she needs. You’ve been good to Dinky and I. You let us all into your heart. I know that it isn’t easy to love a mare that has foals and to take her foals in,” Sparkler said. 

Bucky blushed and struggled to reply, but no words came out. 

“My life is better for having known you,” Rising Star said, settling in close to Sparkler. “Good luck,” he offered. 

“Yes Bucky, good luck. Lyra and I would like foals, and we want them to be yours,” Bon Bon said. 

Lyra said nothing, but gave a nod. 

Bucky took a deep breath. Derpy was probably scared out of her mind right now he realised. Berry seemed confident, but was probably frightened as well. Thistle had cried a bit, but Derpy had comforted her and wiped away her tears. He took another deep breath. “We begin,” he commanded, his horn igniting in a fierce glow. 



 

Bucky could feel the ley lines coursing through him. He hovered directly above the intersection of the two lines, channeling them directly, and forwarding their power through his fellow unicorns as he communed with them. He could feel Lyra summoning up a massive electrical blast. He could feel Sparkler and her magical connection to the sand. Rising Star was connected simply for the experience and he could feel the sense of wonder and awe in the colt’s mind. 

He fused the raw magical essence he was summoning with the shadow essence contained within the sphere of magic. The sand was directly above him, contained in its own magical bubble. He merged the two bubbles together and as he did so, he felt Lyra let go. 

For Lyra, it was practically a sexual release. She cried out as she channeled more magic than she had ever brought to bear in her whole life. A bolt of purple-blue lightning streamed from her horn and into the sphere over Bucky’s head. 

Sparkler felt herself drawn into the sweet release of magic as well as she focused her will on the sphere, and she could feel Bucky in her mind, guiding her thoughts as she fused her magic into the sand, binding it with the elements being focused upon it. She gave the melting sand shape and form. 

Bucky merged the magics together, Sentinel’s shadow essence blending into the writhing mass of magically infused sand as the magical lightning changed its nature. Bucky bled raw magic directly into the containment sphere, drawing directly from the ley line. 

Lyra’s lightning finally ceased and the unicorn mare continued to let out heaving cries of pleasure, her hind legs kicking wildly as she floated, suspended in midair. 

Sparkler exerted even more of her will and focused some of her own life force into the mass that was slowly taking shape in sphere. She did not know how she was doing this, but somehow she knew it needed to be done. Bucky was not guiding her. Something else lingered at the edge of her mind. Something primal and powerful. 

The writhing mass in the sphere was a living thing now, infused with magical life. It became visible in between flashes. It looked like it was obsidian, black volcanic glass, long, jagged looking, and very very black. It was gnarled all along the surface, the lightning making it bubble as it had formed. A second mass was also briefly visible, small black, and the shape almost impossible to describe. Bucky levitated the sunstone into the middle of the second mass and merged them together. 

Bucky used his own magic to cool both of the objects within the sphere, leeching the heat away from them. Soon, they were cooled, and Bucky knew that his time drew near. 

He reached out and touched the minds of each unicorn connected to him, trying to broadcast his feelings of love and appreciation to each of them. Touching Lyra’s mind was awkward and weird, as she was still in the throes of what could only be described as a magical orgasm. 

And then, he broke the connection. He didn’t want them feeling what came next should something go wrong. It would break them. He focused his will and steeled himself for what was coming. Before he teleported, his final thought was the soft and velvety feeling of Derpy’s snoot when they had bumped into one another on that fateful day. 

There was a violent thunderclap of sound as Bucky blinked and snow drifted through the air. The temperature dropped instantly and several inches of snow settled to the ground. A moment later, Bucky blinked back into existence, and he immediately wished he hadn’t. 

He could feel the magical glass fusing with his skull as his body merged with his new horn and the sunstone mount in his eye socket. The worst pain he had ever experienced tore through his body. He could feel the marrow of his horn being compressed into the new casing. The nerves fused with the new material, making new connections. Cold, freezing burning cold spread from the base of his horn into his skull and into his brain. He could feel himself screaming but could not hear it over the roar of the magic crackling all around him. He could feel ice forming all around him, crushing him, burning his skin as more of it formed. 

The ice shell exploded and terrible pain ricocheted through his entire body. Cold traveled through every nerve. He could feel the tears freezing on his remaining eye. He felt the blood freeze within his heart, or so he thought, and terrible pain spiked through his barrel. 

Bucky’s final thoughts were that he had made a mistake, and this was death. He felt his magic bleeding out of him. The magical glass grew roots and he felt them burrowing into his brain. 

He felt his body crash into the earth and he waited for death to take him. 
	
> Chapter 89
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Father!” Sparkler cried in alarm as she ran to Bucky’s fallen body lying in the snow. She stood next to Lyra who was kneeling down at his side, fear and panic coursing through her body. “Is he…” she said in a strangled voice. 

“He’s alive!” Lyra announced. “He said if this failed, it would kill him. He’s breathing!” 

“Where did this sudden blizzard come from?” Bon Bon asked, bracing herself against the freezing wind and squinting into the blinding snow. 

“Bucky,” Sparkler replied. “Bucky caused this somehow.” 

“We’ll worry about that later, we need to get back to the castle,” Lyra interjected. 

“How do we get back to the castle?” Rising Star shouted over the wind as it began to howl. 

“I have a perfect sense of direction!” Lyra hollered in reply. 

“Lots of ponies claim that ability,” Rising Star said in reply. 

“No, Lyra really does have perfect direction,” Bon Bon said. “She can get us back to the castle. I can’t see anything!” 

The ponies felt a strong sense of group panic as the storm continued to grow in intensity. Sparkler was right next to Lyra yet could barely see her. Cold slashed through their pelts. Steam was coming up off of Bucky. A lurid green glow came from the emerald in his eye socket. It was not the bright light that it had been before. It flickered faintly and the snow falling around her took on a greenish tinge. 

Lyra lifted Bucky with her magic and draped him over Bon Bon’s back. Bon Bon grunted and tried to shift under the load to get Bucky into a more comfortable position for her. 

“First you kissed him, now you have him on your back Bonnie,” Lyra quipped. 

“Now is not the time for jokes Lyra,” Bon Bon scolded. 

“Everybody grab a tail. I am getting us home. Don’t let go and we will all be fine,” Lyra commanded. “And it is always a good time for a joke,” Lyra added in her own defense. 

The ponies lined up, tails in teeth, and Lyra leaned forward into the wind. Already the snow was up to her fetlocks, several inches of snow having fallen in just a few minutes. She began the long walk home and hoped that her perfect sense of direction still functioned. 





Keg Smasher stared out at the raging blizzard and felt his body shudder. As a pegasus, he was sensitive to unnatural weather, and this was unnatural. A raging blizzard in the middle of summer that had come out of nowhere. 

“They’re out there.” 

He turned towards the panicked sounding voice and saw Derpy. She looked frantic. 

“I have to go find them!” she shouted. 

“No,” Keg Smasher said gently. “You go out there and you will probably get lost and die.” 

“But they are out there!” Derpy protested. 

“Yes they are,” Keg Smasher agreed. “And hopefully they will find a way to return. They are unicorns. Be patient pretty mare,” he said soothingly. 

“I can’t stay,” Derpy whined. “I gotta go,” she insisted as she danced around on her hooves. 

“I doubt any pegasus could fly in these winds. It is like a hurricane. Stay here lass. I know it is hard, but you need to be here for when they will return,” Keg Smasher said in gentle tones. 

Berry threw a leg over Derpy’s withers and nuzzled the troubled pegasus’ neck. The two mares stood together silently and said nothing. Thistle joined them and pressed up against Derpy’s side. Worry was etched on all three faces. 

Dinky and Piña exchanged a glance with one another and leaned up against Sentinel who was sitting between them. He wrapped a wing around both of them protectively and sat up a little straighter. Ripple sat down beside Piña and stared out the window. 

“My husband is out there too. And Sparkler,” Loch Skimmer said. She moved closer to Derpy, unsure of her place in the herd. She looked at the younger group, and then at the other mares. She saw Berry make a gesture and she came over to Berry’s side. She leaned against Berry and took a deep breath. 

“I wonder what caused this,” Keg Smasher said. 

“Could the wolves do something like this?” Berry asked. 

“I don’t know,” Keg Smasher replied, worried that Berry’s hunch might be the reason. 



 

Lyra walked along the wall of the castle, working her way to the gate. It was difficult to move forward. The storm was savage, unrelenting, and without mercy. The snow was already up to her knees. Her pelt was iced over and she couldn’t feel her ears any longer. She couldn’t even feel her own muzzle any longer. Her sense of direction had proven true and she had brought them back safely. 

Finally the group reached the gate and filed through. Afterwards, Lyra led them through the courtyard, which was now empty. Eventually Lyra found the large wooden double doors that led to the entrance hall. She banged on the doors with her hoof and one opened. Lyra felt herself being pulled inside, a group of guard pegasi surrounding the group and ushering them in. 

Bon Bon stumbled as she felt Bucky’s weight being pulled from her back. She was caught by a guard and she found herself being slung over a pony’s back. She was too cold to protest and huddled against the warm body she was draped over. 





“Bucky, come back to me,” Derpy whispered. She was piled in the bed with the rest of her herd and a fire roared in the fireplace, flooding the room with warmth. Bucky was limp beside her, his breathing shallow and faint.

“He’ll be fine,” Berry said reassuringly. “He’s the most durable pony I know. Look what he has survived so far.” 

Derpy nodded in agreement and then she laid her head down upon Bucky’s barrel. 

“His horn looks terrifying,” Berry whispered as she stared at the jagged black spike growing from Bucky’s head. It was blade like and much longer than his natural horn. She peered at the angry red skin around the horn. It was blistered and burnt. “Do you really think Bucky caused this storm?” Berry asked as she studied Bucky’s new horn. 

“I saw him cocooned in ice. Cold radiated off of him,” Sparkler replied in a weak voice. 

“He was completely encased in ice,” Rising Star added. 

Lyra’s teeth clattered together as she began to warm. She remained silent and buried her face against Sentinel’s neck. The colt shivered from the cold snoot pressed against him, but he did not complain. Lyra looked into Bon Bon’s eyes and smiled weakly. 

“You did good Lyra,” Bon Bon praised in a weak and wavering voice. 

“You brought our husband back,” Berry said. 

“Thank you,” Derpy said as she wrapped her wings around Bucky. 

“It was so cold that I thought my teats were going to fall off,” Sparkler mumbled. 

“Sparkler!” Derpy cried. 

“I can’t even feel my teats! It is like they aren’t even there,” Sparkler protested. “If Rising Star wasn’t an ice cube I’d ask him to rub some warmth into them,” she muttered.

“You don’t even want to know what I can’t feel,” Rising Star complained. 

“As awkward as it might be, I am a warm body,” Loch Skimmer said.

As the final word left her mouth she found herself sandwiched between Rising Star and Sparkler and she could feel very delicate places pressed against her on each side. 

Berry raised her eyebrow and looked at Derpy, and Derpy responded by shifting her hind legs and wrapping around Bucky’s backside. 

“We have to keep what is important to us safe and warm,” Derpy whispered as she glanced at Berry. 

Berry nodded and pulled herself closer to Bucky. As she did so, she was stepped on by Thistle, who piled in on top of them all. 

“Big warm pregnant pony coming through,” she said as she tumbled down on top of the two mares and Bucky. She could feel his chilled skin against her belly. She rubbed herself up against his body and she felt herself warm as she touched him. 

“He’s going to be okay,” Dinky said as she snuggled up against Bucky’s neck and against her mother. The filly’s words were confident and there was no fear in her voice. She wrapped her forelegs around Piña and pulled her close. 

Piña said nothing, content to be held. She could feel the cold skin of Bucky’s face up against her side. The green gemstone in his eye was dark now, but it flickered occasionally with a dull green glow. She could feel Thistle’s breath blowing on her. 

“Well, I can feel somepony is thawing out,” Loch Skimmer announced. 

There was a groan from Rising Star and a giggle from Sparkler. The other ponies turned to look at the trio. Loch Skimmer’s eyes were locked on Rising Star, they were wide and glittered in the firelight. Rising Star squirmed under Loch Skimmer’s gaze. 

“I can’t help these uncontrollable boners,” Rising Star whined. “You’re just so warm and soft.” 



 

Derpy awoke and peered at the window. It was difficult to tell if it was night or day. The room was still warm and Lyra did not have her harp out, so the grey mare assumed it must still be daytime. She shifted against Bucky and felt his warmth. She took comfort in the soft warmth of his balls pressed up against the curve of her upper leg. Thistle was still sprawled out over the top of him and the faint sounds of  her breathing could be heard near Derpy’s ear. 

The pegasus mare closed one eye and took a closer look at the skin around Bucky’s horn. His mane had burned away from around the area and much of the hair on his pelt was gone as well. The skin was bubbled and blistered. As she watched, a bit of energy crackled along the jagged black edge of his horn and a whiff of ozone filled the air. She took a deep breath and sighed. 

“You scared me,” Derpy whispered into Bucky’s ear. “You scared me and I am so angry with you,” she continued. “But I am also glad you are still with me,” she finished in a soft whisper so none of the sleepers would be disturbed. 

“I am sorry,” Bucky whispered back. 

“You’re awake?” Derpy breathed into Bucky’s ear. 

“Yes, but I wish I wasn’t,” Bucky said in reply. “Why are you angry with me?” 

“Because you scared me!” Derpy said in an angry whisper. “Does your head hurt?” she asked, her tone now gentle. 

Bucky nodded slightly, trying not to disturb Piña who was curled up against the side of his face. 

“You need to stop scaring me,” Derpy demanded. “I don’t think I can take much more.” 

“I am sorry,” Bucky apologised. 

“I really love you. But you keep scaring me. Panic attacks. Cracked horn. Getting mauled by wolves. I can’t take it anymore,” Derpy whispered. 

Bucky groaned and squirmed, the pain of knowing that he made Derpy feel awful somehow worse than the pain in his head. “Don’t worry, you will pay me back, of this I am certain,” Bucky mumbled.

“How so?” Derpy responded in a low voice. 

“Pregnancy. Foal birth. Hearing you scream is probably going to kill me,” Bucky confessed. 

“I’ll make sure to scream at the top of my lungs then,” Derpy promised. She snuggled up against his side and kissed him just behind his ear. 

“Other than my head hurting, I really don’t feel too bad,” Bucky whispered. “I can feel Thistle’s teats on my back. Is it wrong that I am feeling turned on by this?” he asked. 

Derpy sighed. “No, it isn’t wrong that you are turned on by that,” she responded in a gentle voice. “Do you want her in our herd?” 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Well then you need to do more to make her feel welcomed. Spend a little time making her feel special,” Derpy murmured into Bucky’s flickering ear. 

“Are you alright with this?” he asked. 

“If she agrees to your advances, you and I will talk more about it,” Derpy answered. 

“My head feels like it is going to split open,” Bucky said. “I could feel the glass rooting itself into my brain.” 

Derpy winced and her lips pulled back from her teeth. “Ouch,” she said. 

“I think that was the worst pain in my life. Hurt even more than having hot irons pressed against my flesh. Hurt more than being savaged by wolves,” Bucky confessed. “I can only think of one thing that might hurt more,” he added. 

“And that is?” Derpy asked. 

“Losing you,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 90
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a day spent recovering, Bucky felt the overwhelming compulsion to get back to work. The snows were melting. The cold had been somewhat problematic to the crops of the isles, but the snow had brought much needed water to the somewhat parched ground. There had been rain, but there hadn’t been enough rain. Now, much of the ground was a sodden mess and everything was muddy. 

Bucky needed a boat. Keg Smasher had told him of several hulks left aground in the harbour city, which was perfect because Bucky didn’t need the boat to float. Not on water anyway. It was his intention to walk to the harbour and return with what he needed. 

The need to get things done was overwhelming. There was so much to do. Construct an airship. Forge armor. Turn Rising Star and Sparkler into type threes. Create more spell jars and fill them with spells. Prepare for war. Protect ponies. 

And finding some time to win Thistle’s heart had to be squeezed into all of this as well. 

For some ponies, their work never ended. Bucky sighed and resigned himself to his lot in life. He packed his saddlebags with a few treats from the trunk, a few cold fried oatcakes, a few gourds full of water, and he thought about bringing a book to read while he walked. 

“Can I come with you?” 

Bucky turned and saw Piña looking up at him with big pleading eyes. Her ears were back against her head and she was working him over with everything she had. “Shouldn’t you be in school right now?” he asked. 

“I got permission to go and pee,” Piña admitted. “And I knew you were here, getting ready to go. I overheard you talking earlier… I just want some time with you.” 

“I have a very long walk ahead of me. I have to walk to the harbour city and then walk back to the castle,” Bucky stated. 

“I am a big filly. I can walk that far,” Piña insisted. “I just want you all to myself for a while,” she whined. 

Bucky sighed and looked down at Piña, who was looking up at him with big blue eyes. He felt a twinge of pain in his barrel. It was almost too much to bear. “Okay, you can come. But we are going to tell the others so they will not worry about you,” Bucky said in defeat. 

“But if we tell the others, Dinky will want to come too… and while I love Dinky very much and I don’t want to be a selfish brat, I want some time with you,” Piña complained. 

“Piña, if Dinky asks, I will let her down gently and explain that we are going to have some personal time together today. Dinky will understand,” Bucky said to the foal that was still working him over. “Piña darling, I have a lot of mares and fillies that need my time. If you are ever feeling left out, you need to tell me. Just tell me and I will make some time for you. You are so quiet and well behaved that sometimes it is easy to overlook you. You need to speak up and make some noise sometimes,” Bucky prompted. 

Piña nodded. “I can do that,” she said in reply. 

Bucky packed a few more treats into his saddlebags and decided that a book wasn’t necessary to fill the time. Piña was already bouncing around and being boisterous. A stabbing pain shot through his skull and he winced. The glass was still fusing with his skull. He could hear it crackling and popping as it worked its way deeper. He could hear it inside of his head. 

Using his magic usually caused these moments of fusion, like right now as he used his telekinesis to move objects to his bag. His magic came easily to him now. Effortless. All he had to do was think and the reaction was near instant. No summoning of the will and trying to direct energies through his horn. Magic flowed out of him and the focusing effect of his fulgurite horn was noticeable. 

Bucky suspected that there were no limits to what he could do now, and today was going to be a good test of his abilities. 



 

“My legs are getting tired,” Piña panted. 

Bucky smiled but said nothing. The foal was working hard to keep up but she was starting to lag behind. He scooped her up in his magic and placed her on his back. She wiggled around, trying to get comfortable, and finally sat up. She scooted herself forward and rested her chin on the back of Bucky’s head as he walked. 

“I am a big filly,” Piña stated. “I could have kept going,” she insisted. 

“It is okay Piña, I don’t mind. I like having you close to me,” Bucky said to the foal as she cuddled against his neck and the back of his head. 

“Does it hurt?” Piña asked as she got an up close look at Bucky’s new horn. “It looks like it hurts.” 

“It hurts Piña,” Bucky admitted. “But it needed to be done. It will get better in time.” 

“I guess being adult means having to do things that hurt you?” Piña asked. 

Bucky took a deep breath. A book certainly wouldn’t be needed. “Sometimes Piña. I guess that is true. It certainly is for mares,” Bucky replied. 

“Can you ‘splain that to me?” Piña questioned. 

“Well, having a foal hurts. But if mares didn’t have foals, there would be no more ponies. Sometimes, we have to do something and it hurts us. In the case of becoming pregnant and having a foal, you get rewarded for having to endure the pain,” Bucky explained. 

“And making them is fun. My sister said that,” Piña said. 

Bucky felt a hot flush travel up his neck and through his face. “Yes Piña, making them is very rewarding,” Bucky answered. 

“I overhead Berry saying that you were pretty good at it. She and Derpy were talking. Dinky and I were eavesdropping,” Piña admitted. “And now my sister is pregnant and I wish that she was actually my mother but she is going to have foals and everything is going to become even more complicated because I want them to be my brothers and sisters but instead I guess I will be an aunt or something and it is all really very frustrating. Dinky and I talk about it sometimes.” 

“Piña, if you want to call them your brothers and sisters, there is nothing stopping you,” Bucky said as he walked, his hooves squelching in the mud. 

“I don’t remember my real dad. I can’t even remember my mother. All I can remember is Berry taking care of me,” Piña said. 

Bucky did not reply. He could feel Piña’s breathing quicken, her breath warm upon his ears. 

“And you are the only father I know. But you are my sister’s husband, which I guess would make you my uncle,” Piña said. 

“Piña honey, you are making this far too complicated,” Bucky insisted. 

“We earth ponies try to keep track of our families. It is what we do. And my family tree is all weird now,” Piña replied. 

“You are my filly. That is all that matters to me. You are mine. You might not be my flesh and blood, but you are one of the foals of my heart, which is just as important. I choose to love you. I have claimed you as my own. Just like I have claimed Dinky and Sentinel,” Bucky explained. 

“And when Berry gives you foals that are your flesh and blood, will you still love us just as much?” Piña asked. 

Bucky heaved an exasperated sigh. “Piña, are you actually worried about that?” 

“Yes!” Piña cried in a wavering voice. “Which is why I wanted to spend time with you today so I could endear myself to you before it is too late,” Piña confessed. 

“Piña, I don’t even know how to begin. You are one of my foals. Mine. I treasure you. And when Berry has foals, you will still be loved and you will still be mine,” Bucky said. 

“Are you sure?” Piña asked in a worried voice.

“Look, Piña… I am married to several mares. Do you think one is loved less than the others?” Bucky asked in a soothing gentle tone. 

Piña did not reply right away. She sat on Bucky’s withers, her chin still resting on the back of Bucky’s head, and thought about what Bucky had said. Her muzzle scrunched as she tried to think about deep thoughts, the sort of thoughts that pushed the very limits of her maturity. “So you really love them all equally?” she asked in a soft voice filled with uncertainty. 

“Yes Piña. But I do love them in different ways. I love you and Dinky in different ways, but I still love you both. And I don’t love either one of you any more or any less than the other,” Bucky explained. 

Piña sighed with relief and reached up to stroke one of Bucky’s ears with her fetlock. “I have some very troubling thoughts sometimes,” Piña confessed. 

“It is difficult being smart,” Bucky replied. “Berry Punch is smarter than I am.” 

“Maybe. You are pretty smart though,” Piña answered. 

“Piña darling, as you grow up, you are going to discover that it can be very difficult to find happiness as a smart pony. Ignorance really is bliss. Fools flounder in continual happiness, but smart ponies… idealist ponies, they have the least amount of happiness. Those that hold themselves to standards and make sure they hold themselves accountable for what they do,” Bucky explained. 

“Sort of like how I can’t seem to have fun when I know what I am doing is wrong. Some of the other foals I know actually have fun getting into trouble. I act like I am having fun, but usually when I get up to no good, I feel miserable. I just want to tell somepony what I did and get it over with rather than worry about getting caught,” Piña said as she stroked the side of Bucky’s neck. 

Bucky smiled. “It only gets worse as you get older. Well, if you keep your sense of goodness. Sometimes smart ponies lose that sense of goodness. They’re smart enough to justify what they are doing, they can make excuses to make it seem okay,” Bucky said in reply. “Do you understand what I am saying? he asked.

“Yes I do,” Piña said in return. “I’ve done it,” she admitted in a sad voice. 

“What did you do?” Bucky asked. 

“I stole a few bits from my sister so I could get ice cream. I told myself it was okay, because I had been such a good foal for quite a while and I deserved a reward because my sister was busy working and she had sort of ignored me and I was feeling kinda resentful. But after I took them, I realised that taking them made me a bad foal and I didn’t deserve ice cream. I never made it to Sugarcube Corner,” Piña replied. 

“What happened?” Bucky inquired. 

“I turned around, went home, and told Berry what I had done,” Piña answered. “She took me out for ice cream even though I kept telling her I didn’t deserve it,” she continued. “Taking those bits… I couldn’t justify what I had done. If I was a good foal like I thought I was, I would never took those bits in the first place,” she finished. 

“But you did do the right thing,” Bucky said reassuringly. “And that is what matters.” 

“I still think about it, what I did and why I did it. Usually when I get to thinking that I deserve something,” Piña confessed. “Hey, I just thought of something,” Piña announced. 

“Hmm?” Bucky asked. 

“How are you going to haul the boat back?” Piña asked. 

“I plan to carry it with my magic,” Bucky replied with a chuckle. 



 

Bucky didn’t venture into the harbour city, remembering how it had been flooded with sewage. Instead, he had veered over to the beach and had approached several hulks, beached vessels that were no longer seaworthy. 

Most of them had holes in their hulls and it looked as though they had slammed into rocks. One was quite large, at one time it had been a cargo ship, a large wooden frigate. Too big. There were several smaller craft which Bucky felt were too small. Piña followed along beside him as he climbed over the wrecks and trotted through the sand. Some of the ships had been scavenged for wood or parts. 

One vessel stood out. It looked to be a caravel, or something like that, Bucky had only a small knowledge of sea vessels. It had a gaping hole in the hull near the front of the ship. It was about thirty or forty feet in length and had a cabin in the rear. Part of the deck was also missing, revealing a decent sized space below the deck. Bucky knew that he could fix all of these things and wasn’t concerned about the damage. 

“You know Piña, not only would this once proud vessel serve my purposes as a warship, but I think it could be used to get us home as well,” Bucky announced. The cabin in the back might be slightly cramped quarters, but it wouldn’t be any worse than the room that they all shared now. Provisions could be placed below the deck. The cabin could be secured against the wolves by keeping it well lit. Even if the wolves did manage to shadow wink onto the deck, they would be rendered helpless by the lights that Bucky planned to install. The foals could be safely secured in the cabin, away from danger. 

“How are you going to get this home?” Piña gasped. 

“I told you, I plan to carry it,” Bucky said with a manic grin, pleased to have found something so perfect. “And once we get it airborne, we have pegasi to pull it,” Bucky said. 

“Nope,” Piña said. “Derpy is a strong pony, but even she can’t pull this. Too big,” the foal protested. 

“Piña darling, you are forgetting something,” Bucky said. 

“I am?” Piña asked.

“Piña, how do you think pegasi pull chariots and sky wagons through the sky?” Bucky asked. 

“I dunno,” Piña replied. 

“Unicorn magic,” Bucky answered. “This craft probably weighs 40 tons or more. But using magic, I can make it weigh less than you do,” Bucky explained. 

Piña’s eyes went wide as she looked at Bucky and then at the ship. She looked back at Bucky again. “So why don’t we get that really big ship over there?” she asked. 

“This one is stylish. It is smaller and will be easier to enchant. Easier to manage too. Besides, we don’t want to look pretentious,” Bucky replied. “This one will serve our needs just fine.” 

“So you will destroy the wolves and we will finally be able to go home?” Piña questioned. 

“Yes, I think so Piña. And with the troubles in the mainland, we will not need to have Celestia figure out a way to fetch us. We can return to her. Maybe even take Keg Smasher with us so he can sign this treaty that seems so important,” Bucky answered. 

“When we get home, can we keep this boat?” Piña asked. 

“I suppose we could. Might come in handy. Would seem like such a shame to spend time restoring it and then just be rid of it when we no longer need it,” Bucky replied. 

“My sister tells me stories of family members who were sky pirates,” Piña said. “Clan Pickled became the terror of the skies for a while.” 

Bucky laughed. “Nothing about Clan Pickled surprises me anymore,” he said. There was a crackle and a hiss from the base of his horn and Bucky winced. 

“You alright?” Piña inquired. 

“I am fine, just a bit of pain, that’s all Piña. It comes and it goes. Honestly, even with this pain, I feel better than I have in a long time. And there is so much to do. I don’t have time to stop just because of a little pain,” Bucky replied. “We should have lunch here. Together. On the beach. Are you enjoying our date?” he asked. 

“This is a date?” Piña questioned. 

“Fathers take their daughters on dates… or so I have heard,” Bucky explained. 

“Oh…” gasped Piña. “I see. I have had a lovely day,” she stated. “Can we have a tea party sometime?” the foal asked. 

“I don’t see why not,” Bucky answered as he began to unpack his saddlebag. 

“Real tea. Not just water in a plastic cup. And tea cakes. In the Ponyville tea room,” Piña said. 

Bucky focused his remaining eye on the foal. “I see. That kind of tea party,” he said in return. “Piña darling, that is for more of a genteel crowd. They might take issue with how I look.” 

“What is wrong with how you look?” Piña asked innocently. 

Bucky squirmed, not sure how to answer. 

“Are you worried that some ponies might tease you because of how you look? I get teased for being so pink,” Piña said. 

“No Piña, I am not worried about teasing. Piña, honey, I look kinda rough. The way I look might scare other ponies,” Bucky explained. 

“So you can’t take me to the tea room?” the filly said. 

“I could take you…” Bucky replied hesitantly. “But they might not let me in because I might make the other customers lose their appetites. I might cause other ponies looking at me some distress.” 

“Well if they are going to be snobby about how you look they can take their teapots and stuff them up their too tight plothole,” Piña huffed. “And the crumpets too.” 

Bucky’s jaw fell open and he stared at Piña. He sat in silence, totally agast, flummoxed by the foal’s words. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard coming out of the foal’s mouth. 

“You look the way you do because you tried to help other ponies. You got chewed on because you wanted to help. You can’t help how you look,” Piña muttered angrily. She settled back on her haunches and folded her forelegs over her barrel, looking very cross. Her lower lip protruded in a pout. 

For a moment Piña Colada looked exactly like her older sister and Bucky was reminded why he loved earth ponies as solid and steadfast companions. He had seen the same look on Bon Bon. 

“We will have our tea party,” Bucky promised. “Either we will go to the tea room together or we will have it at home. Do you want to invite anypony?” he asked. 

“Dinky would love to attend. I wonder if we can get Sentinel to come. And Ripple. And maybe Diamond Tiara. I wonder how she is doing. She doesn’t have any other friends. Or she didn’t when we left. I feel bad for her,” Piña said. “It would be ponies that are like how Diamond Tiara used to be that wouldn’t want you in the tea room, right?” she asked. 

“Yes Piña. But even regular ponies, ponies who were not cruel but simply delicate in nature, they might be upset if they saw me,” Bucky replied as he set out a few oatcakes on the sides of his saddlebags. He had set his bags on the sand. 

“It was very hard to look at you after you got mauled,” Piña said guiltily. “But I look past it now, there is only a pony that I love a whole bunch.” 

“Thank you Piña,” Bucky replied. 

“No, thank you for spending a bit of time with me,” Piña said in return. “A filly needs to know that her father loves her,” she said as she tore into an oatcake. “Berry said you need to set my standards really high about stallions. What did she mean by that? She wouldn’t tell me,” the foal said with her mouth full. 

Bucky snorted, laughed, and then tried to figure out the best way to answer Piña’s question. 
	
> Chapter 91
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A crowd of ponies had come out to stare. It wasn’t every day that you saw a unicorn walking along with a forty foot long ship hovering over his head. Stallions, mares, and foals all gaped at what they saw. It was the late afternoon and the summer sun was warm. Most of the snow had melted, but remnants remained in the shadows. 

Bucky set the ship down in the meadow just outside the castle gate. He levitated several boulders over, balanced the boat upon its keel, and placed the boulders under the sides to keep the boat upright and leveled off. It took several. 

The magical exertion from earlier was good for his new horn and the connections it was making. The new connections were painful, some of the pops and crackles also brought with them wisps of smoke, but they were becoming fewer and fewer. Bucky reveled in his new sense of power. 

“I thought you were getting… I don’t know, a rowboat or a little fishing boat or something,” Berry Punch exclaimed. 

“This boat will see us home when I am finished,” Bucky replied to the mare now staring at him. 

“Piña did you have a nice time?” Berry asked her sister. 

“I had a lovely time,” Piña said contentedly as she slid off of Bucky’s withers and landed on all four of her hooves with a splat. The ground was still wet and muddy. 

“How?” Derpy asked. 

“It weighs less than I do,” Piña boasted. 

“What?” Derpy asked, now flabbergasted. 

“I placed a featherweight spell on it. I plan to make it permanent later. Chariots and sky wagons use those spells as well. Casting the featherweight spell on it was quite a challenge. I’ve never cast that spell on anything so large and so heavy,” Bucky admitted. “Still, carrying it home was awkward. Not heavy at all, but balancing such a large object was tiresome.” 

“And your horn seems to be working okay?” Berry inquired. 

“Fine. Better than fine. The magic flows now. Everything feels smooth. Normal. I can’t wai-hmmmmph!” Bucky was cut off by two lips pressing into his own. His remaining eye went wide at first and then closed as he leaned into the kiss that Derpy was giving him. There was a wet popping sound as the mare pulled away. 

“I want to go home,” Derpy said breathlessly. “When your work is done here of course,” she added. 

“I think she needs to build a nest or something. She’s been acting weird all day,” Berry quipped. 

“Shut up Berry!” Derpy grunted. 

“She is in the terrible throes of pegasus mommy hormones I think,” Berry continued with a merry twinkle in her eyes. 

“Berry, shut it!” Derpy snapped. “I might be feeling the need to secure a place for my young. I can’t help it,” the mare muttered. 

“I can’t help teasing you just a little,” Berry said to her fellow-wife. “Please don’t be angry.” 

Derpy blushed and looked at Berry. “Do you remember how I got when I was carrying Dinky?” the pegasus asked. 

“I do… and I do not look forward to a return of those days,” Berry replied. 

“What have I done?” Bucky asked as he realised that he was surrounded by pregnant mares. 



 

Derpy carefully walked along the wooden deck. The ship quivered beneath her. It needed a bit more reinforcement to make it steady, the boulders alone were not enough. Her wings were out and ready to lift her skyward at a moment’s notice if something went wrong. 

Bucky could not help but notice how beautiful and graceful she was during moments like these. Yes, she could be clumsy at times, but there were also moments like these that made his heart leap into his throat with desire. He stood upon the deck above the cabin of the ship. A full inspection revealed that the craft was in surprisingly good shape, minus the damage to the front half of the ship. There was even a galley in the rear. 

“I want us to move into here once it is liveable,” Bucky stated. “I want all of us to think of this as our home. And we will defend it as our home.” 

“That makes sense,” Derpy agreed. “But before we do that, maybe we could have some private time here away from the foals…” 

“That would be nice,” Bucky said in agreement. 

“Not nice, necessary,” Derpy said. “Bucky, I need to know something.” 

“What?” Bucky asked in reply. 

“Will my foals be safe? Can you keep the cabin secure? The wolves get into ponies homes and kill them,” Derpy said, her voice full of worry. 

“I plan to secure the cabin. There will be wards. I also plan to have bright lights installed all over. The wolves might make it to the deck, but they will be powerless and quite weak if they do. Those on the deck might get hurt. I will admit that there is a chance of that happening,” Bucky replied. “But the cabin will be a fortress.” 

Derpy closed her eyes and nodded. “Then we do this together. As a family. I never thought I’d be going into battle. Into war,” the pegasus said in a soft voice. “This is more than just a little scuffle, isn’t it?” 

“Yes my love,” Bucky answered. “Somepony… something is controlling these wolves. That much is obvious. And when we strike, we might draw whoever… whatever is controlling them out of hiding.” 

“And then we might have a real fight to deal with,” Derpy said, as she opened one eye and looked up at Bucky. “I understand. If we are dealing with another pony…” she said, her voice trailing off. 

“We will have to subdue them,” Bucky said. 

“No,” Derpy said defiantly. “Look, I know you swore that you would never bring harm to another pony as long as you lived, but I am under no such oath. If we are dealing with another pony, I am going to save you from breaking your oath and I am going to kill them,” the mare insisted. 

Bucky heaved a sad sigh. “I can’t stop you I suppose, but I wish you would reconsider,” Bucky replied. 

“No Bucky, you need to reconsider. Think of the misery they have caused. The death. What they did to you. And countless others. The dark magic at work here. No, there will be no keeping them alive,” Derpy said bluntly. 

“Derpy it really bothers me to hear you talking this way,” Bucky admitted. 

“Too bad!” the mare shouted in reply. “It really bothered me seeing you returned to me all burnt and bloody! It tore my heart open! I have nightmares Bucky, nightmares! I keep seeing you die in a thousand horrible ways! It tore apart my guts listening to my foals cry after they saw you!” 

Bucky hung his head and something stabbed at his heart. 

“I am sorry I shouted. I shouldn’t have shouted at you,” Derpy said, her voice now full of shame. “We should only shout at one another if the house is on fire,” she muttered. 

“Not everypony can share in my ideology, I understand that,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh please, no big words. Not right now,” Derpy snapped. Her expression softened. “I understand your commitment to life now. It is one of the things I love about you. But I need you to understand me right now. As a pegasus. And a mare. Foals Bucky. You know where it begins and ends with me.” 

Bucky nodded. “I do,” he admitted. “I guess this is our first fight,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“Not much of a fight really,” Derpy said, now looking down at her own hooves. 

“We just see things in very different ways. As we always have. And always will,” Bucky stated. 

“It really wasn’t much of a fight. It was just a bit of shouting. I mean, there was no slapping or anything,” Derpy said. “We just disagreed.” Derpy felt the tingle of magic all around her and suddenly she was standing next to Bucky. She blinked. “You just pulled me closer,” she said. 

“I needed to look into your eyes,” Bucky said. 

“Why?" Derpy asked shyly as she looked Bucky in the eye. Her ears splayed out sideways and a nervous half smile split her face. 

“To be reminded of why I fell in love with you,” Bucky replied. 

“This is a lot better than disagreeing,” Derpy said breathlessly. “And this isn’t our first fight. All those times I nipped you when we first came here, each one of those nips was me disagreeing with you. I guess unicorns and pegasi bicker differently.” 

“But we can make up like ponies… surely we can find something in common there,” Bucky said as he leaned in closer. 

“Oh, when a pegasus apologises, we don’t use words. A pony can say anything. We have to show that we mean that we are sorry, like this,” Derpy said as she lunged forwards. She had her forelegs around Bucky’s neck in an instant and kissed him savagely. 



 

Rising Star wiped the sweat from his face with his foreleg. He ceased the flow of magic and dropped a large log on the ground. A few months ago, there was no way that he could have lifted something so large and so heavy in his magic. And in the back of his mind, he knew that even more power was coming. Real power. The thought was alluring to him. 

There were still a few more hours of sunlight left and he was making the most of them, securing the wood that Bucky had said he needed. 

“There is something about you when you are all hot and sweaty looking.” 

Rising Star grinned as he turned to look at Sparkler. 

“Really. You look really hawt when you are all disheveled. When your mane is a mess. I like it,” Sparkler admitted.

“There is something about you when you are hot and sweaty too,” Rising Star said in reply. 

Sparkler bit her lip and her eyes narrowed. “We just keep torturing ourselves,” she said in a low voice. “We have the means to prevent accidents and we are married but we haven’t done anything to one another,” the purple pink filly muttered. 

“I think that we are just grown up enough to realise just how big of a step that is,” Rising Star said as he looked at Sparkler with appreciative eyes. “And we are still trying to sort everything out.” 

Sparkler gave a distracted nod. 

“And I know that if we did do something, I wouldn’t have to worry about Bucky, Berry, or Derpy killing me. Bucky’s committed to life now and says he is never going to bring harm to another pony, Berry keeps giving me embarrassing suggestions on how to make mares moan, and your mother isn’t threatening to drop me from the stratosphere anymore,” Rising Star said. The colt shook himself and swished his tail. He felt hot and sticky in more ways than one. “I am going to the lake to take a dip,” he announced. 

“I am coming with you,” Sparkler said.

“It scares Loch something awful,” Rising Star said. 

“I know,” Sparkler said in a trembling voice. 

“I mean, she said she wants to watch us, and I think that will be good for her,” Rising Star said. 

Sparkler nodded at her husband. “Rising, I feel funny telling you this, because she hasn’t told you this, but she watched her father do things to her mothers. Unpleasant things. Even if they weren’t in the mood. Sex was never a pleasant thing when she witnessed it. It was always brutal and degrading. And it has left her skittish. She wants to believe that it will be different between us, but it scares her,” Sparkler whispered. 

Rising Star choked and coughed. His good mood died and his ears drooped to the sides of his face. 

“So when we go at it during our first time and she is watching, I need for you to be extra gentle and loving with me. We need to show her that it isn’t something to be afraid of. She’s coming around. She’s been watching how Bucky, Berry, and my mother all act towards one another. It has given her some hope. Rising, Loch is a pegasus, and she is a lot like my mother. Words aren’t going to convince her of much. We can talk to her and reassure her all we want, but if we want to reach her, we need to show her. She needs to observe us. A pegasus watches, a unicorn explains, and an earth pony does, at least that is what Berry said to me a few nights ago,” Sparkler explained. 

“I understand,” Rising Star replied. “We need Berry to teach Loch about feminism.” 

“Actually Rising… that is a very good idea. Let’s go to the lake,” Sparkler said as she took off and led the way. She gave a come hither glance over her shoulder and flicked her tail at Rising Star. 

Rising Star felt some of his good mood restored as he followed after Sparkler. While walking beside her was nice, walking behind her was even better. He grinned and took off in a slow trot, determined to allow Sparkler to lead. 



 

“Did you have a nice time?” Berry asked her sister, asking her again now that they were alone. 

“I had a lovely time,” Piña replied. “There was a picnic on the beach, father and I talked…” the foal’s words trailed off as she spoke. 

“Still having some trouble with that?” Berry asked. 

Piña nodded but said nothing. 

“Look Piña, you place too much value on placing labels on everything. Just call him your father and be happy,” Berry suggested. 

Piña blinked. “Okay I’ll try. But labels tell us what goes where. I have a label but I don’t know what it means. I don’t understand my place… and everything always seems so confusing,” she whined. She was tired and cranky and probably needed a nap, even though she would not admit it at the moment. 

Berry took a deep breath and tried to focus her mind. Understanding her sister at times was difficult. It required patience and love. “Are you complaining about your cutie mark again?” she asked. 

Piña nodded. 

The elder sibling looked down at her younger sibling and felt a twinge of irritation. She made no sign of showing it, knowing how much it would hurt Piña. “Piña Colada, I swear, sometimes I think you are a unicorn trapped inside of an earth pony. No wonder you and Bucky get along so well. You’re both neurotic,” Berry said. She took another deep breath, held it, and then let it out slowly. “Piña, you are my foal. You have always been my foal. While I loved our mother a great deal and I hate saying anything bad about her, I was the one that raised you. I was still mostly a foal myself but I was the one that cared for you while our mother went about her life. After having so many foals I think mom just got tired once you came along. I was the one that fed you. I wiped your backside. I bathed you. You followed me around. When you were about six months old you called me “momma” and it made our mother go berserk. After that, well, the rift between you and our mom went wide. I was the one that taught you how to talk. I was the one that showed you how to live. And then when mother died, I was the one that didn’t kill you because you didn’t stop crying until you passed out from exhaustion and then when you woke up, you started crying again, and this lasted for a whole month. Nopony else could take care of you. I was the one that held you and tried to comfort you as you cried and cried and cried. You made everypony else barmy with your wailing. But I loved you so much. The crying didn’t matter to me. All I could think about was how much you were hurting,” Berry said. 

Piña looked up at her sister and sniffled. Tears stung at her eyes. 

“Only your mother could love you that much!” Berry exclaimed in exasperation. 

Piña threw her forelegs around her sister’s neck and pulled herself upwards. She clung to Berry, saying nothing. Berry wrapped a foreleg around her sister and crushed her close. 

“You were such a booger,” Berry said, her emotions now flooding her voice. “And you still are.” 
	
	
> Chapter 92
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The summer day was warm and bright. There was a sense of hope in the air, which along with the warmth, had done much to thaw the ponies of the isles hearts. Life went on in much the same way that it usually did, but a few ponies had gathered to sit and watch the renovations being done upon the ship now sitting drydocked at the castle. 

Bucky had secured the ship with more boulders jammed underneath it and it was now quite steady. He and his herd were hard at work with the restoration of the ship. The holes were being repaired. The cabin was being turned into a home. He had made new glass windowpanes for the windows and they were being installed. Wooden steps were being built to allow access below decks. 

The past few days had been quite busy. 

The stallion looked all around him. Derpy was busy hauling various items up from the ground and placing them in the cabin. Rising Star and Sparkler were placing the new windows into frames. And Berry was banging away with a hammer working on the new stairs. 

Berry in particular was intriguing and very distracting. She was standing on the decks at the moment, leaning down into the stairwell, her backside high up in the air. Bucky looked around, first one side, and then the other, trying to check his blind spot. Nopony was looking. 

His horn flashed a blue green light and there was a smirk of mischief upon his face. His hooves became completely silent upon the wooden deck. He crept up on the raised and exposed backside. He moved slowly and cautiously. He paused and glanced around once again. Still nopony looking. 

For everything that he had endured, for everything that he had become, Bucky was still an equine, something he finally embraced after so many years of repression. And right now he was doing something that was quite an equine thing to do. He jammed his snoot into a very delicate section of Berry Punch’s exposed backside and snorted, causing the mare to start and squeal in alarm.

Berry lept several feet straight into the air. She landed and whirled around, trying to discover her brazen assailant. She saw Bucky and a truly wicked grin spread over her face. 

Bucky was already beating a hasty retreat. Berry moved to pursue. 

Bucky realised that he was out of places to run already and winked down to the ground. His teleportation was different now. As he winked, he left behind a thick layer of frost in the place he departed and exploded into a cloud of snowflakes upon his reappearance. Using magic was cheating, but he had to escape. 

Above him, he saw Berry leap over the edge. His heart lept into his throat. It had to be a good twenty foot drop from the deck to the ground. He thought he was going to have to catch Berry to keep her from getting hurt. But then he realised that she wouldn’t have made the jump if she wasn’t capable of the landing. He watched her soar through the air. She was beautiful. Not only was she intelligent, but her physical abilities were impressive. 

She landed with a thud, and, conserving her momentum, bounced forward and continued for Bucky. The landing didn’t even slow her down for a moment. 

Bucky turned to run. Even though his encounter with the ley line had done much to heal his body, his hind legs were still stiff and the damaged muscles didn’t want to work right. He winced, then grimaced, the pain shooting up both of his hind legs as he tried to run, and managed to get himself into a sort of limping gait that almost resembled a run. 

The incensed mare was gaining and it was then that Bucky realised that she wasn’t running at full speed. She was letting him go. He knew that she was much faster. He cursed his now crippled legs but was determined to have a good time and make the most of the chase. 

“Do you even know what part of me you snorted against?” Berry demanded as she ran Bucky down. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied as he ran. “And it was intentional! I regret nothing!” He licked his lips to further taunt Berry. 

“What is going on out here?” Derpy cried as she saw Berry running off in hot persuit of Bucky. She launched herself from the deck and took wing. She took off after the pair. 

Sparkler and Rising Star appeared on the edge of the deck peering down over the ruined railing. The pair watched as their parent trio abandoned all pretense of work. Sparkler raised her eyebrow and looked at Rising Star. 

“I don’t know what gets into them sometimes,” she muttered. 

Bucky ran in a shambling gait. He ignored the pain and tightness in his hind legs. He could feel his heart thudding and he took deep gulping breaths. Berry was pacing him. She could overtake him at any moment that she chose. And he knew that Derpy was in the air. He was being hunted once again. 

Thistle watched from where she sat, wishing that she could join in the chase as well, but there was no way that she could run in the condition she was in. She saw a shadow looming over her on the ground and as she tried to turn around to see what it was, she found herself airborne. She panicked and kicked a bit. 

“Thistle, stop, I love you far too much to drop you,” Derpy whispered into Thistle’s ear. 

Thistle ceased her struggle and she felt Derpy’s forelegs wrap even tighter around her. One was under her barrel, just behind her forelegs. The other was tucked under the curve of her belly, and she could feel something soft and warm brush up against her teats. She shivered. A little farther back and that soft and warm something would be brushing up against something else entirely. Thistle was terrified of being lifted up off the ground. She watched the earth drop away from her as they gained altitude and speed. 

And then she realised, she was now a part of the chase. She let out a fillyish squeal of glee as she realised that Derpy was hauling her through the air and chasing after Bucky with her. 

Bucky realised that there were a fair number of ponies watching him being chased. Fellow herdmates and islanders. He smiled and continued his run. 

“He’s getting away,” Thistle shouted. 

“Oh no he isn’t,” Derpy replied as she flapped her wings. Thistle, for all of her pregnant bulk, was still small and slight. Derpy’s mailbag weighed more than Thistle did. “Just like you aren’t getting away,” Derpy said in a low voice in Thistle’s ear. 

Thistle felt a searing flash of arousal spike through her body at the mare’s words. Derpy was embracing her right now in much the same way that a stallion might, touching many of the same places. Thistle could feel the muscular pegasus mare pressed tightly against her back. 

Thistle did not know that she associated intimacy with safety now. After her traumatic first experience with a stallion and the first few bumbling experiences of actual intimacy with Derpy, Berry, and Bucky, she experienced a bit of conditioning that shaped her budding sexuality. The fear melted away from her. She was afraid of heights, as most ground bound ponies were, but she felt completely safe in Derpy’s embrace. Her body associated the feeling of safety as pure arousal. She felt her teats go tight and hard from a combination of her own emotional reaction and the frantic movements of Derpy’s grip as the mare tore through the air. Her nethers felt like a fiery furnace. A rising tension began to build through her stomach muscles as her teats continued to be stimulated from all of the movement. 

There were few places safer than the embrace of a pegasus. 

“You might as well stop running and take what is coming to you,” Berry shouted. 

“What are you planning?” Bucky asked in reply, his words panted out breathlessly. 

“Stop and find out!” Berry hollered. She looked up and saw Derpy and Thistle. She almost did a double take. Thistle’s face looked… almost orgasmic. Berry nearly stumbled as she took in what she saw. She wondered where Derpy’s other hoof was and if Derpy realised that her flapping was probably shaking Thistle back and forth in her grip.

Berry’s smile broadened. Somepony was certainly enjoying the chase. She couldn’t wait to see Thistle in the throes of orgasm. For a moment, her mind wandered to the arrangement that Derpy had made with Thistle and she wondered if Thistle would actually be a part of this herd. Berry hoped so. She wanted quite badly to sample Thistle’s youthful enthusiasm and endurance. 

The hot and tawdry thoughts spurred her onwards. Now she had even more reason to catch Bucky. Even if this chase led nowhere and they all went back to work, all Berry needed was a quick intimate moment with her mate. A chance to bond. Her mind flooded with thoughts of motherhood. Her earth pony nature was taking over. Her body was doing something physical, and now her mind was free to function, free to think big thoughts. 

There were mixed reactions from the ponies watching these events. A few laughed, but for many, there was only a sense of confusion. As was local tradition and custom, usually stallions chased mares, or mares chased mares to run them down for a stallion. And chasing was done for very specific reasons with very a specific end in mind. More than a few watchers couldn’t understand what they were seeing, chasing recreationally, as though the adults running after one another were foals once again and learning about what would come later in life by imitating adult behaviours. 

It was yet another moment of culture clash. 

And as was so often the case of new culture being introduced, the new behaviour led to social contagion, spreading infectiously through the locals. A young cream coloured pegasus filly gave a young brown earth pony colt she had her eye on a predatory glare. Fearing for his life as most creatures tend to do when a pegasus gives them the look the colt took off at a run. The filly was on his heels in a moment. She clumsily took wing and doggedly pursued her prey. 

What no pony understood as they watched the world shift and change around them was that they were witnessing a fundamental change in their way of life. The pegasus filly and the earth pony colt had just exchanged social roles, and the process of acculturation was taking hold as they absorbed some of the outside culture brought to the isles by Bucky’s herd. 

The worst thing that any creature could do was run from a pegasus. It triggered the instinctual need that all pegasi had to dominate and subjugate, being the warlike and hostile creatures that they were. The earth pony colt did exactly as his biology told him to do when faced with an airborne predator. Run. 

And now, a new social dynamic took fragile root as the two creatures followed through with their biological programming. The earth pony ran and the pegasus pursued. 

And all of this took place by accident, a chance incident as was so often the cause when social paradigm shifts began their radical changes. 

These same instincts were what drove Derpy Doo Hooves to be what she was. She held Thistle close to her and continued after Berry Punch and Bucky. Derpy did nothing to hold back her instinctual needs. She was fiercely protective but gentle, aggressive but loving, and even now as she flew, was fulfilling the role that nature had always intended for her. Her herd moved before her and she was their airborne guardian. She was short a few members, and on some deep level, it bothered her, but she was caught up in the chase. 

Finally, Bucky could run no more. His hind legs burned as though they were on fire. He stumbled and took a tumble into the grass. He lay there gasping and he could feel his hind legs seizing. 

Berry stopped and was at his side in an instant. “Bucky?” she said gently. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky reassured. 

Derpy gently set Thistle down and then landed near her husband. She felt a pang of regret. The wolves had taken something from her. She watched as Bucky writhed in the grass, his hind legs twitching and kicking uncontrollably. Hot fierce anger began to boil through her veins. 

“I saw you limping, I shouldn’t have chased you, I feel awful,” Berry said in a low voice. 

“But I wanted to be chased,” Bucky replied. “It was fun,” he mentioned. 

“But now you are hurting,” Berry protested. 

“So what,” Bucky said dismissively. 

Thistle eased herself down into the grass at Bucky’s side. She didn’t say anything, but nuzzled the side of Bucky’s neck with her cheek. She pressed her side against Bucky’s spine as he lay on his side. 

“If he runs, we chase him. That is how it is. We’ll deal with what comes after,” Derpy stated. 

Berry turned to look at her fellow-wife. “I suppose you are right. Life goes on and all of that,” Berry sighed. 

“Come Berry. Let’s leave those two to have a moment together,” the pegasus instructed. 

Berry looked at Derpy and then over at Bucky and Thistle. The filly was trying to comfort Bucky, who was trying to act as though nothing was seriously wrong. She turned her gaze back to the grey mare. 

“What?” Derpy asked, seeing the thoughtful expression on Berry’s face. 

“I don’t know, I guess I am having a wife moment. I feel a lot of conflicting emotions. Not about Thistle… I just feel angry. Cheated. Those damn wolves took something from me. Seeing Bucky limp as he tried to run. And seeing him now,” Berry said. She fell silent and her ears swiveled forward aggressively. 

Derpy nodded. “Our time is coming. We must continue to trust in whatever Bucky is planning. And when the time is right, we will have our own revenge,” the mare said in a low voice so she wouldn’t disturb Thistle and Bucky. 

“I am going to carve a name into that ship,” Berry stated in a low grumble.

Derpy raised an eyebrow quizzically at Berry. 

“The Scorned Mare,” Berry growled. 

“The Scorned Mare?” Derpy asked, trying to understand Berry’s reasoning. 

“Tartarus has no fury like that of a mare scorned,” Berry replied. 

Derpy nodded in agreement and approval. She was the alpha of a whole group of scorned mares. A pegasus had a few strong deeply ingrained needs. A need for a flock, a need for family, and a need for battle. Derpy’s emotions were running at an all time high. For the first time in her life, she finally felt as though she had achieved some great pegasus ideal that had always been out of reach before. She had always been excluded because of her eyes. Now, not only did she have a flock of her own, she was the protective alpha, a matriarch among mares. She was pregnant and it flooded her body with hormones of all kinds. And she was preparing for war. She was a pegasus now truly within her element. 

“Berry, I do believe it is high time that you and I got in touch with our inner bitch,” Derpy stated. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 93
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rising Star took himself a bit of break. He had been working all morning, stopping only when Bucky had goosed Berry Punch and then had led her on a merry chase. He stared down over the rail and looked at Loch Skimmer. 

She was preening her wings as she lay in the grass, something he enjoyed watching. It was something she did more frequently now, she had become far more mindful of her appearance. Rising Star couldn’t help but feel a bit closer to Bucky. There was something certainly intriguing about a preening pegasus. 

“Enjoying the show?” 

Rising Star nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Berry Punch’s voice. 

“She’s a pretty little filly, isn’t she?” Berry asked. 

Rising Star nodded and gave a sheepish grin.

“Pegasi are different than you and I,” Berry stated. “They have wings, but it is more than that. Scent glands Rising Star. They have special scent glands under their wings. So when they go off and do one of their plumage displays, they know how to get the attention of everypony around them. Derpy did it to me by accident. She has Bucky completely under her control because of it. And Loch Skimmer spends so much time rubbing her wings all over you and Sparkler.” 

“It might explain a few things,” Rising Star replied. 

Berry chuckled. The earth pony mare was in an odd mood. She couldn’t quite make out what it was that she was feeling, other than the odd need to bond with all of her herdmates. She supposed it was the need to strengthen family ties. It was a powerful compulsion and Berry was more than content to simply go along with her instincts. 

“About what you and I talked about a while back,” Rising Star said as he continued to watch Loch Skimmer preen her feathers. 

“What about it?” Berry asked. 

“I am still scared,” Rising Star admitted. “I really want to keep them happy. Every day I am afraid that jealousy will creep into what we have. I don’t want to fail. I don’t know what I am doing. I am still young. And stupid. What if I make a mistake and ruin everything?” 

Berry pursed her lips in a straight line and looked Berry serious. “Do you think Derpy is jealous that Bucky goosed me today instead of her?” the mare asked. 

“I don’t know,” Rising Star replied. 

“Stuff just happens in the heat of the moment. Bucky saw an opportunity and Founders bless him, he took it. Then, a bunch of stuff happened and now he is spending a bit of quiet time with Thistle, who isn’t even a member of our herd yet. Do you think I feel jealous?” Berry inquired. 

Rising Star squirmed and his ears drooped down near his face. “Do you?” he asked. 

“No,” Berry replied honestly. “As pent up and frustrated as I might be, I understand I am not the only one in this relationship. We chose this. And now, it is looking like Derpy might relent and allow Thistle in, and soon there will be one more pony vying for Bucky’s attentions and affections. And I am okay with that. Because it isn’t just Bucky I should paying attention to. If I can’t get his attention, I can always go to Derpy, and soon, I think I will be able to go to Thistle. Or I can spend time with Bon Bon and Lyra. I have options. The point is, I have ponies I can go to. If I feel jealous it is because I am excluding the others and not reaching out to them. It is my own failing. It isn’t about just Bucky and I,” Berry explained. 

Rising Star struggled to understand the mare’s words. 

“If Sparkler and Loch Skimmer are spending some time together, it isn’t a time that you should feel excluded or left out. It is an opportunity for you to spend some time with Ripple and get to know her. And you need to spend some time with Ripple. I don’t know if you realise it, but that poor frustrated filly has been trying to get your attention. I know it is bound to be complicated with her, with her being young and you being a colt and she’s a filly, and there is all of the usual mess that goes along with that, but she wants your attention. She wants to know that she pleases you. She wants your approval. Look at her. Even now, she is aware that you are watching her sister and she is trying to preen her own feathers to get your attention,” Berry said to Rising Star and informing him of what he was missing. 

“Everything is so complicated with Ripple,” Rising Star admitted. “I don’t know how to deal with her. Loch wants her treated as a foal, but Ripple doesn’t want to act like a foal.” 

“Rising Star, that poor confused filly is still trying to sort out her sexuality. You could do her a world of good if you just let her know that you love her and that you think she is pretty. Even if you two never do anything, it doesn’t stop you from being good to her and letting her know that you find her attractive. Look at Bucky and how he is with Bon Bon and Lyra,” Berry said as she watched Ripple preening. 

“That whole situation confuses me,” Rising Star stated. 

“Bucky understands that he will never be rutting Bon Bon or Lyra, but that doesn’t stop him from being intimate with them. I’ve been watching him with them. And talking to Bon Bon. Lyra is rapidly becoming Bucky’s indispensable lab assistant. She’s been helping him with those spell jars and whatever else he’s been working on down there in the dark. Each of us has a purpose, a need that Bucky requires from us. And your mares will all have different needs that they will require from you Rising Star,” Berry said to the colt as he now watched Ripple. 

“There is more to life than sex, I get that,” Rising Star said as his cheeks turned red. “There are other rewards to be had for spending time with my wives.” He cleared his throat. “It is probably going to make Loch a bit nervous, but she is just going to have to trust me. I am going to invite Ripple on a walk. Just us. So we can talk,” Rising Star stated. “Actually, to put Loch’s mind at ease, do you think you could come with us?” 

“I’d be happy to,” Berry replied. “I’d love to spend more time with my foals.” 



 

Derpy arched her back and stretched. She flexed her wings and kicked out her legs. It has been a long and productive morning, even with the little interruption. She glanced around. Berry was gone and so was Rising Star. Sparkler was still busy. Dinky and Piña were with Loch Skimmer who couldn’t do much because of her leg. Bucky was still off with Thistle. 

She took to the air and gained altitude rapidly, closed one eye, and peered around her. All seemed well and she felt content. She soared, tucked in her wings, swooped, rolled, and at the last moment unfurled and caught an updraft. 

She circled overhead and looked down. She could see Bucky and Thistle if she squinted. She spotted Berry Punch. She was with Ripple and Rising Star, and seemed to be off walking together. She could see a squad of pegasi training off in the distance. 

With a flick of her tail, she took off, becoming a grey blur. 

She landed on the wall and carefully folded her wings. She sat down upon the grey stone and peered down at the pegasi performing their combat drills. Several of them stopped and looked up at her. After a general cry of alarm, all of them stopped and saluted, which made Derpy feel a little bit weird, but also made her feel good. She understood why they were saluting. She was Bucky’s matriarch. Everywhere she went she was acknowledged, saluted, and appreciated. Nopony dared say anything about her eyes. She was given something she had always wanted from her fellow ponies. 

Respect. 

Here, Derpy’s nurturing sense of motherhood was respected, even revered. There were countless hopeful offers and proposals of marriage. Fathers came to her and asked her to consider allowing their fillies into her herd. She was always given flowers by hopeful young fillies and mares. Concerned mothers even tried to arrange a deal, hoping that Derpy would allow one of their fillies into her herd so they could leave the isles. 

All in all, it was overwhelming for Derpy. 

To go from the bottom of the social ladder and rise so quickly to the top. In Ponyville, she was a mare with bad eyes that her fellow pegasi pitied but tolerated. Derpy understood that she was loved, but there had been no proposals of marriage. Her inclusion was due to the fact that the flock looked after its own. 

But to suddenly be so wanted. So desirable. It was almost intoxicating for the grey pegasus mare. It was also embarrassing. But Derpy enjoyed it. And she felt sad knowing that when she left the isles, she would be returning to how life was. 

She smiled broadly down at the pegasi below her, beaming at them. Many smiled back. All of them looked young.  She peered at them carefully with one eye. Many of them looked a bit rough already. She saw scars. Missing eyes. Missing ears. These were not like the pegasi back home. Even at their young age, most of them looked like hardened killers. 

She watched as they formed pairs and began sparring with one another. There were no punches pulled and no holding back during kicks. She saw one bloody nose and the combat had only just begun. 

“Greetings madam.” 

Derpy turned to look at pegasus approaching her. He was grizzled, missing an eye, missing a wing, and missing a leg. He walked slowly and purposefully on his three remaining legs. It took him a few moments, but he finally drew near. 

“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked. 

“Be my guest,” Derpy said politely, nodding her head at the wreck of a pegasus who sat down beside her. 

“I am Lord Wrecker,” he said, introducing himself. “And you are Lady Derpy, Lord Buckminster’s matriarch.” 

“Is this going to be about another marriage proposal?” Derpy asked, getting right to the point. She smiled sweetly, trying not to be rude, as Lord Wrecker did seem to be awfully nice. And she felt bad for him. 

Wrecker chuckled. “Nothing of the sort madam,” he replied charmingly. “Though I would be open to such acts of diplomacy. I have a filly Sentinel’s age.” 

Derpy raised an eyebrow. That was a new approach. Not marriage into her herd directly, but an offer of arranged marriage for one of her foals. She scowled and Lord Wrecker cringed at her expression. She listened as he cleared his throat and her scowl relaxed into something a bit friendlier. 

“My good lady, I understand that Lord Buckminster is planning to exterminate the wolves. I have seen the ship outside the castle. I understand what he plans to do with it.” The old stallion gestured down into the courtyard at the training pegasi. “You will need a crew. I wanted to make sure that you knew that there was aid to be had should you need it,” he offered. 

“Thank you,” Derpy said graciously. “I shall tell my husband.” 

“Your husband is a damn good pony if you don’t mind me being blunt,” Wrecker stated. 

Derpy blushed and felt awkward. She had some trouble trying to reply, but never got the chance. 

“Ponies are starting to hope again. To see him recover after what happened. And we’ve seen him and his new horn. There’s been talk. We know he was the source of the blizzard a few days back. And now, there is a ship being restored just outside the castle. Ponies are starting to believe that Lord Buckminster is actually here to save them. And belief is an important thing my good lady… it has given them hope once again. They are starting to believe that anything is possible,” Wrecker explained. 

Derpy focused her one good eye on Wrecker and studied him. 

“There have been other unicorns that have come to these isles. Some good, some bad. I’ve seen both. There is strange magic here. Some come here to make a name for themselves. They hear stories and come here for adventure. To test their mettle. And the isles chew them up and spit them out. Most die. A few live and go limping away with their tail between their legs. A couple have simply vanished. Probably eaten by the wolves. There is strange magic here. Strange creatures. Pookas. Kelpies. Banshees,” Wrecker said. “But Buckminster came here, got chewed up, and now he is stronger for it. Now there is a unicorn that knows which way his horn points,” Wrecker stated. 

Derpy was surprised to learn that other unicorns came here for the sake of adventure. A meaningful thought slowly filtered through her mind. “Do unicorns from House Avarice come here?” she asked. 

“All the time. During the sweeps. They led the government agents. Found hiding places. Used their magic to locate and find foals. But if you are asking if any of them stayed after the sweeps were finished, then yes. Some stayed behind, drawn by the lure of the strange and powerful magic here. The locals hated them of course, there is nothing like your most hated enemy living among you. Something bad always seemed to happen to them, and I don’t mean that in the sense that the locals killed them,” Wrecker replied. 

“What happened?” Derpy asked. “If you don’t mind telling me,” she added. 

“Well, the last incident was just a few years ago. Not too long ago. Almost a decade maybe. Some fellow came out here. Said he was looking for something, but he wouldn’t say what. He started off okay. He was sane when he came here. But he went downhill rapidly. Stayed here as Keg Smasher’s guest. He actually tried to help us. He had some small success against the wolves. But he deteriorated. Starting raving. Talked of bad dreams. Of a shadow with burning eyes that followed him. His magic started getting weird and he complained that his horn wasn’t working right. Keg Smasher arranged for a transport so the unicorn could go home. He never made it home. He vanished from his room in the castle. We found him about a week later up in the Hydra Teeth. He was completely drained of colour. Dried blood was all around his ears. A banshee got him. There were no worms, no maggots, and nothing at all disturbed the body or ate it after it had laid there so long. Still no clue how he vanished from out of the castle. His horn was also broken,” Wrecker said, explaining everything in detail. 

Derpy felt cold chills creep through her flesh. She knew that the battered pegasus wasn’t lying to her and this wasn’t some sort of ghost story. 

“And before him there was another unicorn. A few years back before this happened. Also had a broken horn. He died in the castle dining hall as we all watched helplessly. Funny how that seems to keep happening. My father told me lots of stories about how it seems to keep happening. Funny thing about us pegasi and how we notice details,” Wrecker commented. 

Derpy nodded and felt a lump in her throat. 

“And then there is Buckminster. And his new horn. We pegasi have noticed that little detail as well. And now we gather as we realise that something has changed. Something is about to happen. Please don’t look so distressed my good lady, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Wrecker said, ending his words with an apology. 

“I… I am okay,” Derpy stammered. 

“Well, we need you to be okay,” Wrecker said supportively. “You are Lord Buckminster’s matriarch. If there is anything you need, anything at all, ask for me by name. Troops. Supplies. Advice. We live to serve. We are yours to command my good lady,” Wrecker offered. 

“Thank you,” Derpy said weakly, feeling stunned from everything she had just heard. 

“No, thank you. You’ve given us our hope back,” Wrecker replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 94
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Derpy returned to the group there seemed to be a bit of a commotion. She circled overhead and saw that Bucky and Thistle had returned and were sitting with Loch Skimmer and the foals. She heard laughter. She dropped to her hooves and stumbled a bit on the landing, her lack of depth perception working against her. 

“Thistle got her cutie mark!” Piña exclaimed as Derpy drew near. 

“She did?” asked Derpy as she looked at Thistle. 

“Oh this is so embarrassing,” Thistle muttered.

“Why is this embarrassing?” Derpy inquired. 

“Thistle’s cutie mark is… I can’t even say,” Loch Skimmer said and then collapsed into a fit of giggles. 

Derpy drew up alongside Thistle and looked at the filly’s rear. She closed one eye and looked. There was a small red heart with a puckered pink lip print. The grey pegasus mare inhaled sharply and turned her stare towards Bucky. 

“I didn’t even know that us kelpies could get cutie marks. My mother never had one. Never talked about one,” Thistle said as she craned her head around to look at her own backside. 

“How did this happen?” Derpy questioned. 

“Exactly like you would think it happened,” Bucky confessed. 

“Well, Bucky and I, we were talking, and I was telling him how I feel about things, and he told me how he felt about things… and then I sort of told him how scared I was. After that, I sort of kissed him and-” 

“But you have kissed him before. You’ve kissed Berry and I before,” Derpy interrupted, still looking at Thistle in shock. 

“Yeah but this time when I kissed him I wasn’t afraid. I was a bit nervous, but I wasn’t afraid. I felt safe and I let go, I mean I really let go and then my emotions overcame me and I started crying a bit as I was kissing him and then I felt a weird tingle,” Thistle explained excitedly. 

“Thistle got a cutie mark in making out,” Sparkler said. “Or maybe even-” 

“SPARKY!” Derpy cried out, cutting Sparkler off. 

Sparkler giggled and stared at her mother. She bounced in place for a moment and then took off to bounce around in a circle around the group, her happiness overwhelming her. She finally felt good about life again and it showed as she gamboled about. 

Derpy smiled and looked Thistle in the eye. “You’ve finally grown up a bit. You’ve matured even in the short time that we’ve known you Thistle. And this is the sort of proof I’ve been waiting for,” Derpy said in a loud clear voice so that all those around her could hear her. She looked around. Rising Star, Berry, and Ripple were missing. They would have to be told later. “Would you like to join our herd?” 

Thistle gasped. She already knew that she was in, but she wasn’t expecting the public announcement just yet. She felt her heart flutter in her barrel. She tried to talk but no words came out, only a nervous squeal. After a moment, she nodded. 

“And you,” Derpy said to Bucky. “You did good Bucky. You took a scared filly and made her feel safe and secure. That makes me proud,” the grey mare said as she peered at her husband. 

Bucky struggled to come up with a reply. He wasn’t used to being told that somepony was proud of him. He stammered a few times and then fell silent. 

“Because she was able to feel safe and secure with you, she was able to discover her purpose,” Sparkler said in a singsong voice as she continued to bounce around. “And I’m thinking that her cutie mark will help her make lots of foals!” 

Derpy rolled her eyes and sighed. “Sparkler, what has gotten into you?” she asked. 

“I don’t know, I’m just happy,” Sparkler replied. “This has been one of those really good days. And it feels even better after all of the really awful days we’ve gone through.” 

“I wonder if I will get a mark,” Loch said as she looked up Thistle. 

“I am sure you will,” Derpy said reassuringly. 

“I didn’t even know you could get cutie marks for kissing,” Piña quipped. 

“I am not sure that her mark is just about kissing,” Bucky interjected in a soft voice. He looked embarrassed. 

Thistle kicked the ground with one forehoof and her tail swished. “What do you think it means?” she asked coquettishly. 

“What you are doing right now,” Bucky said slowly. “Sex appeal,” he whispered in a low voice. 

“Uuuuuugh!” Dinky said as she shook her head. “You don’t get cutie marks for that,” she groaned. 

“Who said?” Piña argued. 

Dinky said nothing but glared at Piña. Finding nothing good to reply with, Dinky resorted to tackling Piña instead and the two rolled around in the grass trying to pin one another into submission. 

“Well it is certainly an interesting cutie mark,” Derpy admitted. “Whatever it means. Berry is going to have something to say about this,” the mare huffed. 

“Oh gosh Berry Punch is going to tease you something awful,” Sparkler said. “And test it out,” she added. 

“Oh, testing it out seems like a good idea,” Derpy agreed. 

“Mom!” Sparkler exclaimed. 

“What?” Derpy replied. 

“Oh… never mind. Just be happy,” Sparkler said as she looked at Thistle. 

“I plan on it,” Derpy answered. 

“Wait,” Thistle said, looking at the ponies all around her. “I know I have Derpy’s acceptance into the herd, but I want to hear Bucky say it,” Thistle said in a small nervous voice. 

Derpy brushed her snoot against Bucky’s neck and then leaned up against him. “Do you have anything to say Bucky?” she asked.

“I know I am young and that has made some things awkward and that I have perhaps done some things that have made me a bit less than mature and I would like to hear what he has to say about me joining the herd. If he will have me,” Thistle said. 

Derpy beamed. The filly really was growing up. She reached out a wing, placed it over Thistle’s withers, and pulled her close. She planted a kiss on the filly’s cheek and smiled at her. 

“Of course I want you with us Thistle. I’ve grown very fond of you. You’ve been with me every day through some bad times. Come be with us Thistle and once this messy business has been dealt with, we will all return home together,” Bucky said in a warm gentle voice. 

“Bucky, you and I need to talk later,” Derpy said in a low voice to Bucky as she stood near him. “And you too Thistle. Just the three of us,” she added. “Nothing to worry about,” the mare said soothingly when she saw Thistle look a bit concerned. 

Bucky looked at Thistle and saw she was crying. He said nothing but nudged Derpy, who was pressed between them. He saw Derpy as she turned and squinted. It didn’t take the mare long to cotton on to what was wrong. 

“I hope those are happy tears,” Derpy said. 

“Oh, they are,” Thistle replied. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me, I just seem to cry so easily lately,” she said, trying to explain her behaviour. 

Sparkler came to Thistle’s side and pressed against her, squashing her against Derpy. The two fillies stood together in a moment bonding. “You might be getting married to them, but they’re old. If things ever get to be too much to bear, you can come and have fun with us,” Sparkler offered. 

Thistle sniffled and smiled. “Thank you,” she said to Sparkler. 

Derpy shot her daughter a wry look but said nothing. 

“I’m not old,” Bucky protested. 

Sparkler turned to Bucky and raised her eyebrow. 

“I am only about a decade older than you young lady,” Bucky grumped. 

“See Thistle, like I said, old,” Sparkler said teasingly. 

“Why you little…” Derpy growled. 

Sparkler realised she had gone too far and took off, and her mother bolted after her in hot pursuit. Sparkler blew a raspberry at her mother as she ran and Derpy flapped her wings as she ran along after the purple pink filly that had crossed the line. 

Bucky watched them go. “I am not old,” he repeated. 

“No, you are not,” Thistle said as she leaned on Bucky. 

“I don’t know what it is, but I do feel different. Something about this day,” Loch said as she watched her fellow-wife being chased by her mother. 

“I think Lyra’s spell keeping the fear away and all of us getting a restful sleep has had a profound impact on all of us,” Bucky said. “Those two are finally acting how they usually act. Sparkler has been so withdrawn and serious lately,” Bucky explained. 

“I really am happy for both of you,” Loch said. “Well, all of you. You know what I mean,” the filly corrected. “And Sparkler was right Thistle. We might be your foals now which feels really weird to say, but you have a place with us if you need to cut loose and have fun.” 

Bucky watched as Derpy tackled Sparkler and he saw a wing come slashing in. A second later he could hear Sparkler squealing and shrieking. “Sparkler is very, very ticklish,” he explained to Loch. “Something to remember Loch. Feathers.” He smiled at the pegasus sprawled in the grass. He stepped away from Thistle and kneeled down into the grass with Loch Skimmer. He sprawled out on his belly and made himself comfortable. 

He hooked a fetlock under her chin and pulled her face around, getting a good look at where she was kicked. He smiled. “It looks like it is healing well,” he said gently. “How is your leg Loch?”

“Still pains me but I don’t complain. Not after what I’ve watched you go through,” Loch admitted. The filly turned her head as Thistle laid down beside her. 

“A few more weeks and that cast will come off,” Bucky said as he settled even more into the grass and moved closer to Loch Skimmer. “Are you happy with us Loch?” he asked. 

“Yes sir,” Loch Skimmer replied nervously. 

“Why are you nervous?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t know,” Loch replied. “I just am. You and your family are all so affectionate. It can be difficult at times,” she admitted. “My family didn’t have much of that.” 

“I used to have a lot of problems with affection,” Bucky said in a gentle voice. “Derpy and Berry had to teach me how to be affectionate. How to let go. How to allow myself to be touched and experience life.” 

“I know,” Loch said. “Berry told me. We had a long talk. She told me that you were abused too, just in a different way than I was. My father was cruel. I saw him the other day. He just glared at me stupidly. Rising Star and Sparkler saw him too. And Ripple. I thought Sparkler was going to kill him,” Loch said in a low pained voice. 

“How is he?” asked Bucky, his voice filled with genuine concern. 

“Healing. One wing will probably stay crippled. He looked like a mess,” Loch replied. “No, Bucky, please, don’t look pained, now I wish I hadn’t said anything,” Loch said fretfully. 

Thistle pressed her cheek against Loch Skimmer’s and tried to comfort the sad filly. 

“I still don’t know how I feel about that,” Bucky confessed. “I don’t know how I should feel about that.” 

“It made me sick to watch you do what you were made to do, but I am glad you did it,” Loch hissed. “Between what he did to all of us and something that happened to Ripple when she was little it is no wonder she turned out the way she did. She’s probably terrified of males just like I am.” 

Bucky did not press issue about what happened to Ripple. He figured that he would learn in time. 

“But you are different. I’ve seen how you are with your wives. And Rising Star… he’s been so good to me and I’ve been running hot and cold towards him. He just patiently waits me out and keeps being nice,” Loch said. 

“I am glad you are able to tell me this,” Bucky said. 

“Oh there are a bunch of things that Bon Bon wants me to tell you,” Loch replied. 

“Don’t worry about them now,” Bucky said gently. “There is time to tell me later. It is good you are talking to Bon Bon. She can help you.”

The trio watched as Sparkler was completely subdued by her mother. Derpy found herself under attack a moment later when Dinky and Piña pounced upon her. The mare fell over as the two foals went to work on her. 

“She is so gentle with her foals,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“And that’s the sort of mother I want to be,” Thistle commented. 

“That mare is perhaps the most dedicated mother I know. My own mother was absolutely rotten. Seeing her… Derpy, the way she is, it changed me,” Bucky said. 

“I think it has had an affect on me,” Loch admitted. 

“And me,” Thistle quipped. 

“I hope I am patient enough,” Loch said. 

“Loch, you are a pegasus. You’ll be a good mother,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“My mothers were pegasi,” Loch retorted. “They did nothing to protect me from my father’s fury.” 

Bucky sighed and realised that he might have made a mistake. “Loch, you will be a good mother because you are a good pony. Look, you have a good example now. If you watch her and learn from her, I don’t think you can go wrong,” Bucky said, correcting his earlier statement. 

“You can also learn from my mistakes,” Thistle offered. “I mean, I am bound to make a few, right?” 

Derpy’s laughter could be heard from quite some distance away. It was a distinctive sound and something that Bucky truly loved about the mare. He felt his heart melt. “That is the sound that lets me know that something is right in the world,” he said. 

“What?” Thistle asked. 

“Her laughter,” Bucky answered. 

“I wish Rising Star was back,” Loch Skimmer said nervously. “It drives me crazy when he is gone. I can’t stand how much I miss him when he isn’t here,” she admitted. 

“I feel that way every night when I go home and sleep all alone in the water,” Thistle replied. “I think about all of you. And I miss you. Every one of you.” 

“So stay with us at night Thistle,” Bucky offered. “I am sure we can make room in the bed for one more.” 

“I think that tonight I will,” Thistle said. 

“You can take Bucky’s spot. He’ll probably be up most of the night again,” Loch said as she rolled her eyes. 

“There is so much to do,” Bucky said in his own defense. “Plus I want to spend time with Bon Bon, Sentinel, and Lyra.” 

“Oh, there he is,” Loch said as she rose up on three legs and began to wobble off. “Excuse me, I have to go,” she said as she hurried away as fast as her three legs would take her. 

“Prepare yourself Thistle, Berry Punch is going to go nuts when she finds out about your cutie mark,” Bucky warned.

Thistle gave Bucky a seductive look. “I hope so. And I hope you are watching,” she said alluringly. 

Bucky swallowed and he suddenly felt warm. He looked at Thistle and saw her wink at him. He pressed against her side and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re mine now,” he whispered. “And I protect what is mine.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 95
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were thirty six new spell jars and Bucky was pleased. There were sixty four filled spell jars. Each night, the process became easier and easier, and more and more of the globes were produced. After curing for a night, they were filled with spells. The ones filled with spells were carefully marked. Some were filled with fire. Others with lightning. Several were filled with strobing light spells. One was filled with what Lyra called her stormfront spell, which would release multiple streams of chain lightning once it broke. 

Bucky was careful to document each spell type. He was going to need to protect himself from all types of magic later. Grounding spells. Spells that would protect him from fire. He made careful notes in a transmuted ledger that he had created. 

Once again, Bucky was an accountant, just like he had been in his old life. There were numbers to keep, checks and balances to maintain, as well as making sure there were enough resources to keep his venture going. 

Lyra worked with manic effort. It was almost as though this was some sort of lifelong fantasy of hers, to dabble in reckless and dangerous magic and to venture to the fringes of what was acceptable and what was forbidden. 

As she worked, she kept her spell going, her magical lyre remained summoned back in their room, protecting the sleepers. She had learned to expand the spell, and now a sizable portion of the castle was covered as well. 

Lyra paid the price for her continued efforts with a state of total exhaustion. She didn’t mind. It was a small price to pay for magical freedom and the ability to experiment without hinderance. 

As Bucky and Lyra worked together, Bon Bon worked with Sentinel, tutoring him through the long hours of the night. He was needed occasionally, and his shadow essence was drawn off and placed into a waiting spell jar. Sentinel thrived under Bon Bon’s instruction. Always eager to please, Sentinel had become especially close to Bon Bon, calling her and Lyra his night mothers. 



 

“You know Bucky, I think I figured out why we make such a good team. Why we are such good laboratory partners. Why we can get so much done,” Lyra stated as she studied a spell suspended in a spell jar. 

“And why is that Lyra?” Bucky replied as he carefully marked down the spell type of the spell jar Lyra was holding in her magic. 

“Well, I am a mare and you are a stallion and we are very close. We trust one another. We can work so well together because you respect me for what I am and do not expect anything from me except for my help. Things like sex and desire don’t get in the way and we can focus on work and getting stuff done,” Lyra explained. 

Bon Bon raised her head from her book and peered at the pair with a smirk on her face. She pulled Sentinel closer and wrapped her forelegs around his ears. Sentinel squirmed and protested, but Bon Bon was an earth pony that took no guff and was, for the time being, much stronger than the colt. 

“But that is where you are wrong Lyra,” Bucky replied as he moved forward suddenly. 

Lyra found herself snoot to snoot with Bucky. Her golden eyes went wide and she carefully set the spell jar down into a rack. “Wha-wha-wha- Bucky…” she stammered. She was nearly crosseyed trying to look into Bucky’s remaining eye. 

Bon Bon said nothing but sighed and shook her head. 

“I find you very desirable,” Bucky breathed. “You have that whole mad hedge wizard thing going on. Your mane is all messy.” 

Bon Bon rolled her eyes but said nothing. 

“Bu-bu-bu- but Bucky I’m not into stallions… I-I-I- I mean you are kinda cute and all and I don’t mind cuddling with you while you are sleeping and I think that I really am starting to love you in real I am actually in love with you sort of way, but-” 

“Lyra,” Bucky interrupted, gently bumping his snoot against hers. “I was teasing you. I would never force you to compromise your own values,” he said in a soothing voice. 

“Buckminster Bitters, you are a bad pony,” Bon Bon scolded. “Teasing poor Lyra. For shame!” 

Bucky lowered his head and peered back at Bon Bon. She was smirking at him. His ears perked as he realised that she was teasing him as well. He took a deep breath and sighed. 

Lyra took a deep breath, held it, puffed out her cheeks, closed her eyes, and then finally exhaled in a huff. “Do you actually find me attractive?” Lyra asked in a wavering voice. 

Bon Bon went rigid. So much so that Sentinel panicked a bit when he felt her tense. The colt struggled against her embrace, suddenly afraid because she was afraid. 

Bucky took a deep breath of his own and peered into Lyra’s golden eyes. Suddenly, she was entirely too close and he felt that he had made a mistake. What was intended to be a joke suddenly became far too serious. 

“I have some very distressing thoughts,” Lyra confessed before Bucky could say anything. “I really do love you. Every day it grows a bit more. And I don’t know how to express it. With Bon Bon, love is easy to express. I know how to please her. I know what to do with her. I don’t know how to please you. Or what to do with you. I don’t know how to love without sex and I don’t know how to feel about you. Or how you feel about me. I want so very badly for you to be happy with me. I want to know that I please you. And I’ve been very worried about it and it has been making me a bit neurotic actually,” Lyra explained, letting everything out, following Bon Bon’s policy of total honesty. 

Bucky leaned forward and kissed Lyra on her nasal bridge, just above her snoot and just below her eyes. “There is more to love than sex,” Bucky said in a calming voice. “I am learning that. I had to learn that after what happened to me. And I do love you Lyra Heartstrings. And I don’t expect anything from you other than what you’ve been doing so far.” 

“Learning how to love Bon Bon was very difficult for me. Learning how to love you is somehow even harder,” Lyra admitted. “I only know of one way to express love. I thought I was above such silly things, but I really do want to know that I am a good wife.” 

“You are,” Bucky whispered. “I couldn’t do this without you. Either of you. I am learning that each and every one of you fulfills a different need and I am discovering all of the different ways that I can love a pony. Love is really just the next level of friendship.” 

Lyra trembled and continued to look Bucky in his remaining eye. Her mane slipped down from her ear and tumbled into her eyes. She blinked a few times. 

Bon Bon felt her heart warm. She eased her grip on Sentinel and uncovered his ears, hugging him close instead. He squirmed in token protest, but knew that he was powerless. He continued to watch the two unicorns in silence. 

“Look Sentinel,” Bon Bon whispered. “Lyra is finally learning to open her heart and be vulnerable to other ponies.” 

Sentinel did not reply but turned his head so he could look at Bon Bon. As he did so, he felt her lips brush up against his cheek. 

“One day, you will understand just how important this moment was,” Bon Bon whispered into Sentinel’s tufted ear, causing it to flicker. 

Bucky finally backed away from Lyra, giving them both some much needed breathing room. Both unicorns were taking deep breaths. Bucky finally managed a nervous laugh. 

“I really want to be a mother,” Lyra blurted out. “And it causes me no end of confusion.” 

Bon Bon took a deep breath. It seemed the floodgates had opened. 

“I mean I really want to be a mother and all that goes with it. And now I have a husband. So I want to be a mother and a wife. And I want both of these things and I feel very conflicted because I have no interest at all in, uh, the usual way of going about making foals. It feels weird to want something from you that you can offer me and not go about it in the usual way,” Lyra admitted in a trembling whisper. 

Sentinel’s brow furrowed and he could feel Bon Bon’s breathing quicken. He worked a wing free and wrapped it around the emotional earth pony. 

“I will give you whatever you ask of me,” Bucky offered. 

“But I feel like I am giving you nothing in return and that makes me feel kinda guilty,” Lyra replied. “And I wasn’t being completely honest when I spoke earlier, when I said what I said about being good lab partners. I guess I said that because it was what I wanted to be true. And then you invaded my space and said what you said and suddenly I felt like a lovesick filly having her first crush and all of my thoughts went crazy because there was a part of me that felt so happy that you found me sexy, and then I felt a bit disappointed when I found out that you were teasing me and now I just feel confused,” Lyra explained, saying exactly how she felt. 

“Oh, I wasn’t kidding about that,” Bucky interjected. “I do find you attractive. I just try to not get worked up over you because of how you are. I understand that you are off limits.” 

“And now that you two have finally cleared the air I feel a lot better about our relationship,” Bon Bon said, finally speaking up. “Unicorns,” the mare muttered in exasperation. 

“Adults,” Sentinel grumbled in an uncharacteristic reply. 

“Oh shush cuddlebug,” Bon Bon said with a squeeze, causing Sentinel to roll his eyes and squirm uncomfortably. 

“I think we’re done for the night. We should wrap up. It has been a long day for me, I am going to bed,” Bucky announced. 

“You go ahead and go, I’ll finish up here,” Lyra replied. As Bucky started to turn towards the door, Lyra darted forward and kissed him on the cheek. “You had me going Bucky,” Lyra said shyly. 

“Go to bed Bucky. You’ll be of no use to anypony if you wear yourself out,” Bon Bon said. “Sentinel, say goodnight,” the mare instructed. 

“Goodnight,” Sentinel said, doing as he was bid. 

“G’night,” Bucky said. He exited through the door with a yawn. 



 

Thistle was sleeping in his usual spot, right between Derpy and Berry. He wasn’t sure where to sleep. He yawned again. He saw Berry’s eyes flutter and he felt a twinge of guilt for waking the sleeping ponies. 

“Been waiting for you,” Berry grumbled, only half awake. She prodded Thistle, who woke with a snort. 

Thistle blinked and looked around. Upon seeing Bucky, her face lit up with a sleepy half smile. She rose carefully and moved away from Bucky’s spot, trying not to step on anypony. 

“Where will you go?” Bucky whispered. 

“I’ll find a spot,” Thistle replied sleepily. 

Bucky settled into his usual spot. As his weight settled against Derpy, the mare farted loudly. She did not wake but one wing partially extended and flapped a bit. His nose crinkled. At least pegasi had the means to fan away the malodorous fumes. He settled himself into the bed and then looked up at Thistle. 

The filly eased herself down beside Berry Punch and snuggled against Berry’s side. She gave a final glance at Bucky, wishing that she could be closer to him. It was something that would have to be worked out later. She was content to simply be here for now. As she drifted off back to sleep, Thistle realised that this was exactly what she wanted from life and the loneliness of sleeping in the depths of the lake was her last waking thought. 



 

Sparkler stretched her legs and paced around the room. She had awoken before anypony else and was now being watched by Bon Bon, Lyra, and Sentinel as she walked in a circle around the room. 

It was her intention to speak with Rising Star and then to Bucky when he finally awoke. Today, she hoped that before the sun settled on the horizon that she would be a type three. She had been mentally preparing for it for quite a while. She had driven the fear from her mind. 

She recalled the feeling of ecstasy she had experienced the day that Bucky had channeled magic through her and she had summoned gemstones. Or the day that the tower had been constructed. He had assured her that there would be no pain and she believed him. Channeling deep magic wasn’t painful, but pleasurable. 

But she was still scared. 

The fear didn’t stop her from experiencing the alluring call of power. She was going to provide a good life for Loch Skimmer and Ripple. She was going to devote herself to study. She was going to be a teacher. And it would all begin with what she hoped would be done today. 

“Sparkler honey, you look nervous,” Bon Bon said in a low voice as Sparkler continued to pace back and forth. 

“I am,” Sparkler admitted. 

Lyra yawned and watched the purple pink filly as she went back and forth. 

Sparkler looked over at the bed. Thistle was with them now. The filly, so near Sparkler’s own age, was wrapped in Berry Punch’s forelegs. Sparkler felt happy for Thistle and thought about when they had first come here. She thought about how her mother had nipped her father for even thinking about Thistle being in the herd. 

And here she was. 

Sparkler looked at Thistle’s round belly and felt something deep within her. Sparkler realised that she wanted her own foals as she watched Thistle’s barrel rise and fall from her breathing. Her own foals would have to come later, when she was better prepared to provide for them. For now, she was content with looking after Dinky and Piña. She looked over at Sentinel, who tended to look after himself. He was sitting with Lyra and was half asleep, tuckered out after a long night. She watched his head nod as sleep threatened to overtake him. 

Sparkler suffered something of an epiphany and she froze in place. She wasn’t just ready to embrace being a type three. She was ready to grow up and take responsibility for her own life and this was the transition point. She felt a twinge of sadness as this realisation settled into her brain. After having this thought, Sparkler realised that her foalhood was definitely over. Done. Gone. Now that she had experienced this realisation, there was no turning back. Awareness made it impossible for her to go back to how things were. 

You cannot unring a bell Sparkler thought to herself. 
	
	
> Chapter 96
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The early morning had gone by in a blur for Sparkler, less so for Rising Star. She had pulled Rising Star aside and spoken to him about her intentions, and then she had approached Bucky and told him that she was ready. 

And Bucky had agreed. 

Now, Sparkler simply waited. Bucky would get around to doing what needed to be done on his own time. There was a lot to do, and Sparkler understood that. As she performed her role as a teacher, her mind was in other places. Distant places. 

The bell could not be unrung. 

Distracting thoughts filled her mind. What if the Royal Pony Sisters decreed that what had been done to her was an abomination? A gross violation of the natural order? What would happen to her? Sparkler tried to quell these things, trying to reassure herself that the Princesses were reasonable rulers. As a unicorn, she had heard stories of asylums where they sent unicorns who had gone bad. 

Sparkler didn’t feel she was going bad. She wasn’t sure what she felt or how to justify it. She simply felt that she was securing the power she needed to provide a better future for the ponies around her. Sure, she would also benefit from the change, but Sparkler felt that she was doing this for the right reasons. 

She thought about Loch Skimmer and Ripple, especially Ripple. She felt a surge of protectiveness spiked with worry. How could she protect them if she fell into trouble for what she was about to do? 

And what of Bucky… She wondered what might be done to him. Her muscles tensed with worry. She wasn’t even a type three yet and already the mental strain was alarming she realised. The burden of responsibility. 

What if she did this, helped to eradicate the wolves, and then went home and faced some unimaginable punishment for her actions? Sparkler paced around the dining hall, occasionally looking down at student projects, horribly distracted from her work. Her brow furrowed. 

There is the option of not going home she thought to herself. 

The foals working around her, seeing her scowl, worked even harder, worried that she was scowling at them, not knowing just how distracted the filly was. Ripple, knowing just how much was riding on her own back, doubled down and struggled to write out her test sentence flawlessly, worried that Sparkler would be cross with her. 

As with so many other things in life, it was simple misunderstanding. To see one thing and make assumptions based upon your own perceptions. 

She moved closer to Loch Skimmer, hoping to draw some comfort from being close to her mate, but Loch Skimmer seemed nervous and distracted about something. The filly was hunched over the table with a crude pencil held in her mouth, scribbling away on a crude sheet of transmuted paper that Bucky had made.

Loch Skimmer was terrified that Sparkler would see her work and be disappointed. She scratched away with her pencil, trying to rewrite her sentence, seeing several errors. Having Sparkler hovering so near made her nervous. And Sparkler looked kinda grumpy, so today was not a good day for slacking off and going only halfway on schoolwork. 

Sparkler drifted away, unable to find comfort, her general feeling of worry increasing. All around her she could hear the scratching of pencils, a sound that Sparkler now associated with things being right in the world. It was rather soothing. 



 

Bucky took a long pull from the jug of blackberry wine and then smacked his lips. He belched loudly, something his previous self would have died from embarrassment from, wiped his mouth, and then looked around him. 

He was sitting upon the top deck of the ship that was now called The Scorned Mare and watching the world around him. The hull was now completely repaired. Bucky had created sections of wood to fill the holes and then he had fused them into place, simple common unicorn repair magic. It was something that almost any unicorn could do with enough time and practice. 

As he drank and watched the world, he tried to control the gemstone in his eye socket. He could make it flicker now, and light up, but controlling the intensity of the glow was going to take a bit more work. And he had other ideas that would come later he supposed. Now that the gem was there, embedded in a casing of fulgurite glass and connected to his thaumaturgical nerves, the possibilities were endless. He might even be able to see again. But that would be forbidden magic… much like what he planned to do with Sparkler and Rising Star later. 

Radical self modification with magic was right out, and for good reason. There were all kinds of stories of unicorns who had pushed the barriers of what they could be, found themselves lacking, and then found a way to shore up their weaknesses. There were always crackpot hedge wizards looking for some way to get a leg up. 

And then there were the celebrated crackpots who were actually remembered, if not by name, then by what they had done, like the unicorn that had made himself an alicorn of sorts, giving himself a pair of mechanical wings powered by arcano-tech. He had fused the mechanical wings directly into his own body and then exposed himself to the world, calling himself prince something or other. 

Bucky took another long drink and didn’t bother to try and remember that particular unicorn’s name. There was no good reason to do so. Every foal in school had heard about what that unicorn had done though. 

As Bucky watched ponies go by, he came to something of a realisation. He could no longer technically be called a crackpot hedge wizard. Not any longer. There was no doubt, he was an archmage now, if he was anything at all, and he had doubts about that as well. The notion lingered in his mind that if he submerged himself into the depths of the ley lines, he could be anything he wanted to be. An alicorn even. A wellspring of infinite potential. 

He didn’t want that though. He just wanted the means to keep his fellow ponies safe. Even now, he could feel the energy of the ley lines coursing through him, filling his head with knowledge. Ever since his new horn had taken root, he had been feeling this strange new sensation. The ley lines were a spellbook. Perhaps the spellbook. Every spell ever cast by a unicorn could be found in the collective memories contained in the ley lines. 

This was the key to Twilight Sparkle’s power as the Element of Magic, or so Bucky reasoned. The reason why she knew so many spells. He suspected that she too could tap into the ley line, even if she didn’t realise she was doing it. 

As he took another drink from his jug, he had himself a curious thought. What if they both could tap into ley lines because of something they had in common? He wracked his brain, trying to come up with something reasonable that he and Twilight Sparkle might share. He could think of nothing. Perhaps it was coincidence. Or a fluke. 

As the Element of Magic, Twilight essentially had an infinite number of spells at her disposal, the talent of every unicorn that had ever existed. He thought about Twilight’s musings on being able to cast the gem finding spell of her friend Rarity. 

To have access to the spells that made unicorns unique and special. Now that was a talent. Bucky belched again. He cursed his tolerance for alcohol that he had developed. Most of the jug was gone and he was only lightly buzzed. Enough to be thoughtful and creative, but not enough to truly comfortable. His legs were bothering him after yesterday. 

He reached down and rapped on the deck of The Scorned Mare and then looked down at the now shiny wood. “I have yet another mare in my life. Will you keep my foals safe and secure?” he asked of the ship. 

There was no answer of course, but Bucky was confident that she would provide. He had a knack for finding mares. His slightly buzzed brain began to drift into more abstract thoughts. 

Mares are a bit like hops he thought to himself. You have to blend them to get the best results. He scowled. His analogies needed work he realised, feeling a bit disappointed with himself. The idea held promise though. He had a fine blend of mares. Including the one he was sitting on currently. 

He leaned over a bit, farted, and hoped that the mare he was sitting on wouldn’t mind. He smiled for a bit, and then he chuckled faintly simply because he could. He certainly wasn’t the pony that he was long ago. Or the unicorn for that matter. He patted the deck again in apology for his crass actions and peered out over the meadows. 

He watched as ponies chased one another. The young and even some of the somewhat older ponies were out. Something seemed to be happening down below him and all around him. While there were a few colts chasing fillies, the reverse seemed to be more common. Fillies were out running down colts. He blinked his remaining eye a few times. Already, things seemed to be changing around him. Something was in the air. Something wonderful. 

Keg Smasher’s proclamations seemed to be having an effect. No more forced marriages. No more trading mares as goods. Arranged marriages were fine, but all parties involved had to agree. 

And now it seemed, nature was correcting the situation. The shoe was on the other hoof. The now freed fillies and mares were out finding their own mates. And with the sweeps done and over with, there was a powerful need to make foals. The height of summer was approaching and Bucky realised that for many mares, they would have their heat during that time. Come spring, there would be a lot of new foals. With all of the earth ponies around, a mare could potentially become pregnant during any time of the year, but heats caused an almost unstoppable sexual desire that ensured that the equine race would continue, a period of super-fertility.

Bucky froze up for a moment, shuddered, and felt a twinge of absolute terror. At some point, he was going to be surrounded by mares in heat. He took a long drink from his jug, felt a cold chill run down his spine, and took another drink. 

He remembered Celestia’s warning just before he was married about what his mares would do to him. He still had that book. He had even studied it a bit when he had the time. He smiled a self satisfied smile and some of his fear subsided. 

“Poor Rising Star,” Bucky muttered to himself. “He doesn’t even know what he is in for,” he continued with a chuckle. 

Of course, Bucky didn’t know what he was in for either. 



 

The morning was gone and now the afternoon stretched before them. Rising Star felt a twinge of nervousness. Sparkler had been distracted all morning, leaving him to do most of the work teaching in their improvised school. He didn’t mind. He would do whatever was required of him without complaint. 

He walked alone, needing to stretch his legs and clear his mind. He thought of the time he had spent with Berry and Ripple. A much needed talk had taken place. 

The meadows around the castle were filled with ponies, but Rising Star ignored them, lost in his own thoughts. He was so focused inwards that he was oblivious to all of the sparks of first time infatuation all around him. 

More than anything, Rising Star simply felt confused. While he had some worry for what would take place later, it was not his primary concern. He couldn’t even figure out what his primary concern was anymore. There was simply too much of everything. 

He was a married colt that was somehow maintaining his virginity, a thought that confused him a great deal. It was okay to do things now, but none of them had actually tried anything. It was frustrating and Rising Star actually felt as though he was somehow less than what he should be for remaining what he was. 

Sparkler could be had at any time. She was willing, she was ready, and had stated as much. Loch Skimmer would be far more difficult after everything that had happened to her. Things with Loch were complicated. Loch had moments where she thawed out and opened up to him, and then moments where she iced over and pushed him away. 

More than anything, he wanted to know how to reach her. 

He paused mid stride and kicked the grass. He snorted loudly and resumed his walk. He was determined not to touch either of them until both were ready and he cursed himself for making things more complicated than they needed to be.

His hormone flooded brain tried to let him know that the rest of him had needs and that he needed to do something about those needs. 

And then there was the matter of his own self worth. Bucky, his example, had proven himself time and time again. Bucky stoically continued onward. Rising Star wanted some kind of meaning in his own life. Some sort of greatness. Not fame, not fortune, none of those fleeting things, but greatness. He wanted to make a difference. He looked towards the ship in the distance. There is greatness he thought to himself. If faced with the wolves, Rising Star realised he would have collapsed completely. He probably would have died. But Bucky had somehow survived and was now gearing up for all out war. He was making bombs late at night. Bucky had a plan. 

And Rising Star couldn’t even figure out his own marriage or his place in the world. 

He hoped that what took place later would give him what he so desperately wanted. The power to make things change. Like Bucky, he wanted to keep other ponies safe. Unlike Bucky, he had no idea how to begin. Bucky had everything figured out and he never seemed to doubt what he was doing. 

Bucky had everything sorted out and understands his place in the world he thought to himself. 

Which wasn’t true at all, but Rising Star believed that it was. 

He turned his head to look back at the castle. Keg Smasher, as rough as his life was, also had things figured out. Keg Smasher had simply gone and seized what he wanted from life, forcibly taking it and now he was Laird of the Isles. That was something. It certainly had more meaning than something like Rising Star, The Beat Poet. Everything he used to dream of now seemed so empty and meaningless. 

Squire Sentinel, servant to Buckminster, the knight. 

Rising Star ground his teeth together in frustration. He was only Rising Star and nothing more. His name implied some sort of greatness. He wanted his mares to be proud of him. To adore him. To look at him and worry and fuss over him. He wanted his life to have meaning that they would approve of and would fawn over him for. 

The power to make things change was very alluring. 

Rising Star turned around and headed back to the castle, He was ready for this to end. The future loomed before him and he was ready to make something of himself. 



 

“Every great thing we do we do as a family,” Berry Punch announced. She looked at her fellow herdmates. Everypony was there, even Bon Bon, Lyra, and Sentinel were up and about. “We are one. We are different sorts of ponies, but in this herd, we are one and we must stick together,” she continued. 

Berry held her head high as she looked upon her herdmates. Everypony was looking at her and Berry, being an extravert, was in her element. “We are earth ponies, we are pegasi, we are unicorns, and one of us is even a kelpie, but we are our own tribe,” Berry stated. “And we are here together for two of our own as they undergo a profound change.” 

Rising Star and Sparkler sat together, Loch Skimmer and Ripple sitting a short distance away from them. Sparkler squirmed as she realised that everypony was looking at her and Rising Star right now. 

“If there are consequences for this act, we will face them together. We will not abandon those we hold dear in times of trouble,” Berry said. 

“If you mess with one of us you pick a fight with all of us,” Ripple shouted. 

“The wolves messed with one of us,” Berry said in reply to the filly’s words. “And now to fight them we have to resort to extreme measures.” 

Derpy sat up straighter, her spine stiffening, and her ears perked forward. Her wings fluttered slightly, and her tail swished behind her. Her lips were pressed tightly together into a straight line. She looked fierce. 

“Things are only forbidden or wrong if somepony can hold you accountable,” Lyra quipped. Much to Lyra’s surprise, she saw Bon Bon nodding at her words. 

“We are going to war together and we must be prepared. We are all probably going to give something up before this is over. Sparkler and Rising Star have offered up their very bodies for the cause, and potentially their futures back home. I want everypony here to remember what these two have done for us and be grateful for what they have to offer,” Bucky said, finally speaking up. His voice was a low throaty rumble. His emerald eye flickered a faint green light as he spoke. 

“What can we do?” Piña asked. “We’re too little to fight,” she added. 

“Be there to comfort those that do fight,” Bon Bon replied. “By the time all of this is over, those who have fought are bound to be troubled Piña. Be there to comfort them.” 

Piña nodded solemnly after hearing Bon Bon’s words. “I will do my part,” she promised. 

“I will fight,” Sentinel stated. 

“No Sentinel, you will not,” Bucky replied. “You are a shadow creature. It will be dark when we are fighting. You will be just as vulnerable as the wolves. Some of our spells will hurt you just as much as they will hurt the wolves.” 

Sentinel slumped, looking completely crushed at Bucky’s words. Tears welled in his eyes. 

“Sentinel, we will need you with us,” Piña said to her sibling. “The adults are going to be fighting, we are going to need somepony to make us feel safe,” Piña said soothingly. 

Sentinel sniffled a bit and nodded. “Of course. I will keep my master’s foals safe,” he murmured in a pained voice. “I am trusted to protect that which he holds most dear.” 

“Sentinel, your time will come,” Bon Bon said to the troubled pegasus. “Be patient my foal,” the earth pony added. 

“I intend to stay with the foals,” Thistle said. “I have faith in Bucky’s defenses, but if something does happen somehow, I have sharp teeth and the will to use them. Sentinel will need help in that situation. Should the worst happen somehow, we will be the last line of defense.” 

“I’m still crippled, so I guess I am with the foals,” Loch Skimmer huffed in irritation. “I’d rather fight.” 

“I will serve in your stead sister,” Ripple announced. 

“Oh no you will not,” Loch Skimmer snapped. “You are staying with us, safe and secure.” 

“No,” Ripple retorted. “No I will not. My entire life you have fought to defend me and I have always been the filly in need of rescue. No longer,” Ripple protested. 

“Ripple, you listen to me you little-” 

“That’s enough!” Derpy interrupted. 

“Ripple, you will stay with Rising Star and I,” Sparkler interjected. “You will remain glued to our sides. If for whatever reason Rising Star and I are not present on deck, you will go to Berry Punch and she will keep you safe.” 

Loch Skimmer looked angry but remained silent. 

“Thank you. All I want is a chance to prove myself,” Ripple said, casting a glance at her sister. “I want to be a fighter like she is.” 

Loch Skimmer’s eyes narrowed and she cast a glance at her sister. Her expression softened and her rigid posture relaxed a bit. 

“There will be others to help us,” Derpy announced. “Lord Wrecker has promised troops. The deck will be well defended. If the wolves make it up there, they will be hammered into submission.” 

“I’m fighting,” Dinky announced. 

“No!” Derpy cried. 

Dinky turned and glared at her mother, standing in a stiff legged posture of challenge that any pegasus would recognise. “I am fighting,” Dinky insisted. “You are half blind,” she said to her mother. “I will stay on your back and watch your blind spot.” 

Derpy scowled. She closed one eye and the other narrowed. She peered at her filly, fuming with anger. “No,” Derpy growled. 

“Don’t make me prove what I can do,” Dinky threatened. 

“Dinky, that is enough,” Bucky commanded.

“I might be little, but my magic isn’t,” Dinky argued. 

“Dinky, enough,” Bucky repeated. 

“Dinky you listen to your father,” Derpy insisted, trying to control her anger. The challenge to her authority had left her riled and the pegasus was now sorely out of sorts. 

“Dinky should be able to fight,” Piña said in a small frightened voice. She sat with her eyes closed, unable to look at any of the adults around her. “She has so much strength. You keep telling her what a great gift she has and you are even making Rising Star and Sparkler to be like her and not letting her fight is like telling her that she isn’t worthy of having her gift,” Piña reasoned. She trembled in fear, afraid of repercussions from her outburst. She grabbed Sentinel and clung to him, burying her face into his neck. She felt his wings wrap around her and the foal felt a little a better. 

“Dinky…“ Derpy began. The mare took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, and then let it out in a huff. “You are to stay with me at all times. If you slip away, so help me, you will not be able to sit down for a month because I will whip those bumblebees right off of your backside,” Derpy said. 

Dinky cautiously approached her mother, her head down low now, her stiff legged stance now gone. She sat down at her mother’s front hooves and pressed her cheek against her mother’s leg submissively. 

“Dinky is with us,” Bucky stated, settling the issue. 

“Bon Bon, when trouble comes, will you be my noble steed?” Lyra asked, hoping her humour would defuse the tension that was thick in the air. “I can ride you into battle and we can make a good accounting of ourselves.” 

Bon Bon rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh of exasperation. 

Lyra let out a grunt of vindication as Bucky began to chortle, struggling to hold back his laughter. 

“Lyra-” 

“Now is not the time for jokes,” Lyra finished before Bon Bon could say it. 

“That wasn’t what I was going to say actually,” Bon Bon said. 

“What then? Refined your lecture?” Lyra asked. 

“Lyra, after being together for as long as we have, you should know your place by now. I ride you,” Bon Bon said as she leaned over and glared at Lyra. 

Rising Star sniggered but tried to hold back his laughter. Sparkler fell apart completely, guffawing with laughter. Berry Punch collapsed and made no effort hold back her mirth. Derpy, still upset, managed a half hearted chuckle and her aggressive stance softened. Sentinel blinked as he held Piña, privy to entirely too much information about adult activities. His face remained blank and expressionless. Thistle tittered and her cheeks turned a vivid pink. Loch Skimmer made a choking sound and covered her face with her wing. Ripple stared at the two mares with wide shocked eyes. 

Bucky heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that the tense moment was over. He laughed and couldn’t help but feel a bit intrigued by Bon Bon’s words. 

“Bonnie,” Lyra finally gasped. 



 

The late afternoon sun hung in the sky and clouds drifted by overhead. Bucky was sitting with his coven of unicorns and the rest of the herd sat a short distance away. It was the final moment of quiet reflection before they all began. He had his eye closed and he settled his mind. He could feel Dinky clinging to his leg. Her breathing was slow and measured. 

“Are we ready?” asked Bucky in a low whisper. 

“Good to go,” Lyra replied. 

“Ready,” Rising Star answered. 

“I’m set,” Sparkler announced. 

“Any time,” Dinky quipped. 

Bucky’s new horn ignited effortlessly and a faint chill filled the air. He extended his will, reaching out and touching the minds of his fellow unicorns. He touched Lyra first, pulling her in. He heard her gasp as the magic overtook her and suddenly she was inside of his mind. He drew in Dinky next, feeling Dinky’s complex mix of emotions after what had taken place earlier when she had challenged her mother. He drew in Sparkler and he could feel her eagerness as he touched her mind. Finally, he he touched Rising Star and felt a confusing jumble of conflicting emotions. Under them was a strong desire for change. Rising Star wanted the change badly and Bucky could feel some of Rising Star’s many different emotions. 

“We are one,” Bucky said out loud, his words also inside of his fellow unicorns’ minds. He tapped into the ley line. Knowledge and power flowed through him. He wasn’t the first unicorn to do this. Others had done this, and the knowledge had been lost to time. A vision of a white unicorn wearing a hat covered in bells flickered inside of Bucky’s mind. This was knowledge that had probably never been written down because of the very nature of what it is, a sort of accession to a higher level of power. It was the definition of what constituted forbidden magic and why some magic was taboo.

Bucky carefully controlled the flow of magic going into Rising Star and Sparkler, slowly increasing the amount being channeled. He intended to cause several small surges followed by a couple of massive surges. To keep everypony safe, he was channeling the excess magic back into the ley line, forming a loop. He was confident his plan would work, because the ley line had shown him that it would work. 

That and so much more that was possible. 



 

A short distance away, the herd watched as the unicorns communed. The air thrummed all around him and crackled with raw energy. 

They watched as Bucky rose into the air, the others circling around him in orbit. There was a bright flash of light, it was almost blinding, and there was a thunderclap that followed. 

“It is snowing,” Piña announced as she pointed.

Snowflakes could be seen around Bucky, just a few, and they swirled around him. The air took on a chill that deepened as the feeling of power filled the air. 

“Lyra looks so happy,” Bon Bon said in a strained voice. “All I want is for Lyra to be happy,” the mare whispered. “And Bucky can make her happy.” 

Berry Punch threw a foreleg over Bon Bon’s withers. “She does look happy,” Berry agreed. “I wonder what she is feeling…”

“Bucky always looks happy during these moments,” Derpy said, peering at the hovering unicorns with her one good eye. “He makes the same face that he makes when he…” Derpy giggled and her words trailed off. 

“More gems to collect. Wow, Sparkler is shooting out quite a few,” Berry announced as she watched. 

“And Rising Star is probably going to be burst into flames at some point. Don’t be scared girls,” Bon Bon said soothingly to Loch Skimmer and Ripple. “Bucky warned us, so don’t be alarmed.” 

The two sisters clung to one another and watched as Sparkler and Rising Star continued to go through the change. 

More snow filled the air now, falling around the group as they watched the unicorns. It melted as it touched the grass. Piña tried to catch the flakes on her tongue. 

“It isn’t hurting them at all,” Bon Bon said reassuringly to everypony. 

There was a rumble that came from the earth followed by a deafening roar of thunder. Globes of light swirled around the group of unicorns. All of them were surrounded in rainbow auras of light, but Sparkler and Rising Star weren’t as bright as the others. Bucky’s light was piercing and almost impossible to look at, while Dinky and Lyra shone with a steady intensity. 

As the group watched, the auras around Sparkler and Rising Star grew brighter and brighter, beginning to match those of Dinky and Lyra. 

“We can see the change as it happens,” Berry said, making the connection of what she saw. 

“So beautiful,” Derpy said, tears now streaming down her cheeks. “I feel tingly all over my wings,” the mare stated. 

“I feel it in my hooves,” Berry said. 

“I can feel it inside of my belly,” Thistle said. 

“Hooves,” Bon Bon breathed, her word barely heard by others. 

There was a painfully bright flash of light and the group was forced to shield their eyes. It was now impossible to look at the unicorns. 

Berry blinked a few times, seeing white spots in her vision. Finally, when she could see again, she peered in the general direction of the unicorns, trying to see what was going on. The light was gone and she could see limp bodies in the grass. 

Derpy took wing to be at her husband’s side, the others right behind her, rushing to check on their loved ones. 

Another bell had been rung. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 97
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy inhaled sharply when she saw Sparkler’s body twitch. The ground was covered in snow that was already melting and her breath was visible. Relief flooded through the pegasus. She turned towards Rising Star, who was also starting to move. 

“I- I don’t feel any different,” Sparkler murmured as she slowly sat up. 

“I feel dizzy,” Rising Star muttered. He made no effort to sit up, and remained sprawled in the grass. 

“I feel different,” Lyra muttered. “When can we do that again?” she asked. 

“Lyra has music inside of her head,” Dinky announced as she rolled over onto her belly and lifted her head. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to make her head stop spinning. “That was different than the last few times we’ve communed,” she added. 

“I didn’t hear any music,” Bucky replied. He remained sprawled on his back and his eye was still closed. He felt a warm body press down on top of him and knew right away that it was a certain grey pegasus. 

“You alright?” Derpy asked, her breath warm on Bucky’s ear. 

“I feel fine,” Bucky answered, trying to reassure the worried pegasus. 

“We could see the change,” Thistle said. “You were all surrounded by rainbows.” 

“I don’t feel any different,” Sparkler insisted. “I don’t know what I was expecting. I still feel like me,” she announced. “No, wait, I feel something!” she cried. She leaned over, her lip curled up in a scowl of concentration, and the purple pink filly farted loudly. “Nope, just gas, stupid dried peas are killing me.” 

“Oh thank goodness I still have my Sparkler,” Derpy said as she continued to lounge on Bucky. 

“There is absolutely nothing different about Sparkler,” Loch Skimmer said in relief. 

“Rising, can you get up?” Ripple asked, a trace of worry in her voice as she kneeled down next to the prone unicorn. 

“I could but I don’t wanna,” he answered. 

“Everypony seems fine. I suppose we will see the results of the change in time,” Berry said as she looked around. 

“Once everypony is sorted out, feel free to go about your day. Lyra, Bon Bon, Sentinel, the three of you are probably wanting to go back to bed to rest up for tonight. The rest of you, do whatever. Dinky, you are to stay here with me. You and I are going to spend some time together,” Bucky said. 

Dinky’s face creased with worry. “Is this about me being a bad foal earlier?” she asked. 

“No Dinks,” Bucky replied. “I just want to spend some time with you. You and I are going to do something special.” 

Dinky huffed in relief and flopped back over on her back. 

Derpy leaned her head down and kissed Bucky and then carefully removed herself from him without stepping on him. “Magic lesson?” she asked. 

“Something like that,” Bucky said as he looked up. 

“Don’t overwork yourself. Or Dinky. She’s a foal,” Derpy said to Bucky. 

“I feel fine mom,” Dinky said, overhearing her mother’s words. 

“If it is all the same, would you mind if I stayed here with you and Dinky? I’ll be quiet, I promise,” Thistle begged. 

Bucky became aware that Derpy was looking at him and awaiting his reply. He looked up at the grey mare, trying to gauge what she wanted in this situation and then looked at Thistle, who was looking at him pleadingly. 

“If there is going to be a magic lesson then I want Piña here with me,” Dinky stated. “Piña helps me stay focused.” 

“Fine,” Bucky said. “Piña and Thistle can stay. But I was hoping for some time alone with Dinky,” Bucky admitted. “I spent time alone with Piña and I don’t want Dinky to feel too left out.” 

“I don’t feel left out,” Dinky said. “And really, if there is going to be a magic lesson, I need Piña,” she insisted. 

Piña threw herself onto Dinky and began to squeeze the unicorn as hard as she possibly could, making Dinky grunt and groan. 

“We should be going,” Berry said. “Still so much to do. We’ll leave you alone so you can get started.” 



 

Thistle watched in fascination as Piña and Dinky leaned on one another as they sat in the grass. Dinky’s face was contorted in concentration and the foal’s eyes were closed. Thistle was curious about magic in general. She had her own magic as a shapeshifter, but this was different. Thistle gave a sudden cry of alarm as she felt herself lifted and moved. She soared through the air for a bit of a ways and then found herself gently set down next to Bucky. She could feel his warmth against her side. She quieted and hoped that she hadn’t broken anypony’s concentration too badly with her outburst. Saying nothing else, she leaned against Bucky and continued to watch.

There was a single bee flying in a circle over Dinky’s head, surrounded in a nimbus of magic, and Thistle watched as the bee buzzed around Dinky’s horn. 

“Anything yet Dinky?” Bucky asked gently. 

“Nothing yet,” Dinky replied. 

“Keep trying. Just focus on the bee’s mind Dinks. You can do it. Try to see what the bee is seeing,” Bucky said soothingly. 

“I haven’t given up,” Dinky answered in a determined voice. 

Piña wrapped her forelegs around Dinky and one hoof rubbed Dinky’s shoulder. “I know you can do it,” Piña whispered encouragingly. 

“I feel really weird,” Dinky stated. “Really really weird. I can hear buzzing inside of my head.” 

As Thistle watched, Dinky’s horn flared brighter and brighter and the nimbus around the bee took on a fierce glow. There was a hum in the air that Thistle could feel inside of her teeth and behind her eyes. 

“I can see,” Dinky announced with her eyes closed. “But everything looks weird. I don’t know what I am seeing.” Dinky’s eyes flew open and she cried out. She clutched her head with her forelegs and the bee vanished in a magical burst. “OW OW OW OW!” Dinky shouted. She howled in pain and kicked her hind legs. 

Bucky lifted both foals to him and dropped them between his forelegs. “Dinky?” he asked in a gentle whisper. 

“Feels like brainfreeze!” Dinky shouted. “Like when you drink a milkshake too fast!” 

“You going to be okay?” Piña asked. 

“No, I have brainfreeze,” Dinky snapped. The unicorn foal shook her head and writhed as Piña held on to her. “Stupid magic!” Dinky snarled. “I have all of this power and all I get are headaches,” Dinky growled. 

“Dinky, I still get headaches sometimes,” Bucky said reassuringly. “It is the price we pay.” 

A single tear rolled down Dinky’s cheek and Piña was the one that wiped it away. Piña continued to hold Dinky in her forelegs and both foals rested against Bucky’s chest as he laid on the ground. 

“Felt any connections to any particular element yet Dinky?” Bucky questioned. 

“Nothing yet,” Dinky replied, her eyes still squeezed shut. The filly let out a shuddering gasp. “It is finally easing off,” she muttered. 

“Want to try and conjure some elements?” Bucky asked as Dinky continued to recover. 

“Yeah,” Dinky answered. Her eyes opened and there was a determined look on her face. 

“Give me some fire Dinky,” Bucky commanded in a low and gentle voice. 

“Can do,” the unicorn filly replied. She grunted and her horn flared. There was a whooshing sound and a wisp of flame appeared in the air before them. It died out almost instantly as there was no fuel to keep it burning. “Fire comes pretty easy now,” Dinky announced. 

“Remember what I told you Dinky. Most foals your age would never learn these sorts of spells. You must be careful. I am trusting you with something volatile and dangerous. Do not make me regret teaching you,” Bucky said in an authoritative tone. 

“The only thing that will feel regret about you teaching me this will be the wolves if I see one. I bet I could set one on fire,” Dinky said aggressively. “If one comes near my mother or any of my family I will burn them alive,” she threatened. 

“Electricity Dinky,” Bucky instructed. 

Dinky grimaced. Electricity was tougher. All that was needed for fire was a bit of anger. Dinky had anger. Electricity needed focus and deep concentration. She bit down on her lip and dug deep. A crackling blue ball of energy formed a few feet away. She held it for several moments and she could feel her mane crackling as every hair stood on end. 

Everypony around her suffered the same fate. 

“Lyra gave me a few tips,” Dinky said as the orb collapsed with a loud pop. Dinky panted and felt like her lungs were on fire, it felt as though she had ran a great distance. 

“Very good Dinky,” Bucky praised. “You actually listened to Lyra, I can tell,” he said. 

Dinky beamed with fierce pride. 

“Cold Dinky. Do it now,” Bucky commanded. 

Dinky scowled. Out of the three major elements, cold was the most difficult. You needed anger for fire, focus and concentration for electricity, and for cold you needed raw force of will. “You know, foals aren’t known for their willpower,” Dinky muttered. She took a deep breath, held it, let it out, and then took another. 

“Dinky, listen to me,” Bucky instructed. “Just gather your will. It isn’t too different from getting your mind prepared for summoning shock. Just force the heat to go away all around you. Just push. Cold just takes a strong belief in yourself,” he explained. 

“I do believe in me,” Dinky snarled. She placed her forehooves on either side of her head and gritted her teeth. “Why is this so hard?” she growled. A surge of magical sparks shot from her horn and a small ball of magical ice appeared midair a few feet away. It dropped to the grass and Dinky collapsed, going completely limp in Piña’s embrace. 

“Impressive,” Bucky praised. 

Dinky made no reply. Her barrel heaved and her face looked as though she was in pain. She remained quiet for several long moments. “You make it look so easy. Sometimes I hate you for it,” Dinky said, finally speaking, her eyes still closed and her body still limp. “And now you seem to be doing it without even thinking about it, and it makes me so angry,” she added in brutal foalish honesty.

“I’ve always been connected to cold,” replied Bucky patiently. “But lately it does seem to be happening with no effort. Like when I wink or even perform a spell that has nothing to do with cold.” 

“Your telekinesis sometimes leaves frost on metal objects,” Dinky muttered. 

“I noticed that too,” Bucky acknowledged. “Been experimenting to keep away the mischief Dinky?” he asked. 

“I figured out how to magnetise metal,” Dinky said as she opened her eyes. They were bloodshot and irritated looking. 

“Oh very good Dinky,” Bucky said.

“Daddy, I have a question,” Dinky asked, some of her anger now gone and sounding a bit more like a foal again. 

“And that is?” Bucky replied. 

“You know how two magnets if you place them the right way push away from one another,” Dinky said in return. “Well I was wondering, what if I did that to a metal object? Put those two fields together?” she asked. 

“It would rip itself in half if you made the fields strong enough,” Bucky answered. 

“So I could cause metal to rip in half?” Dinky queried. 

“If you applied enough force of will and made the fields strong enough,” Bucky replied. “But there are easier ways of doing it, like simply teleporting a piece of it away,” he explained.

“Would be hard to teleport away something like a half a skyscraper,” Dinky muttered. 

“What are you planning?” Piña asked in alarm. 

“Was just thinking,” Dinky replied. 

“Dinky is just exploring theory,” Bucky interjected. “At least I hope,” he added with a wry smile. 

“I just want to know what is possible, that’s all,” Dinky stated, trying to soothe Piña’s fears. 

“That’s terrifying,” Thistle whispered, breaking her silence. 

“Father is the scary one. I’ve been inside of his head. He knows what he is capable of. I’m still trying to figure out what is possible,” Dinky admitted. “Will you ever show me how to summon dark magic?” the foal asked.

Bucky scowled, unsure of how he felt about Dinky’s request. He had trusted her with so much already. He knew how to do it and he couldn’t figure out how to say no without sounding like a hypocrite, which bothered him a great deal. “I will show you someday Dinky, once you’ve proven yourself a bit more. I will trust you with the knowledge once you’ve earned it,” Bucky said slowly. 

“I don’t mind working for it,” Dinky replied, snuggling against her father’s chest. “I’m hungry. And sleepy,” she said in a foalish voice. 

“I am feeling a bit peckish myself,” Bucky answered. “I guess we will head back and find a bite to eat. You did well Dinky.” 

“You’ve taught her such dangerous things,” Thistle said in an astonished voice. “Why? I want to understand.” 

“She is my daughter as well as my student. I have to know that I can trust her. She is gifted. She is bound to come into the knowledge in one way or the other. With the dangerous things, I’d rather she learn them from me so she can be safe, rather than learn them haphazardly on her own and get hurt. And I will continue to teach her whatever I can… unless she gives me a reason not to trust her,” Bucky said. 

“And that would be stupid of me,” Dinky mentioned. “If I act like a bonehead then I don’t deserve his trust.” 

“But you have given her knowledge that she could use to kill things. Even other ponies,” Thistle said. “Dangerous knowledge.” 

“Yes I have,” Bucky said, not denying it. “I am also teaching her sense of values so that she doesn’t hurt her fellow ponies. I trust Dinky to be a good filly.” 

Thistle looked at Dinky, then at Piña, and finally at Bucky. “I am having some trouble understanding,” she admitted. 

“Do you trust me?” Bucky asked. 

Thistle blinked a few times as she was put on the spot. Her ears splayed out sideways and her tail swished erratically as she took in the question. “I trust you. With my life. And my foal when it comes,” she finally said after several moments of contemplation. 

“I trust Dinky,” Bucky said. “I understand that it is unorthodox to teach a foal these sorts of things. The thing is, most of the time, they wind up learning them anyway. Well, some do. Dinky is driven.” 

“I sure am,” Dinky quipped. 

“And I trust Dinky to do the right thing,” Bucky stated. “Just like I trust Rising Star and Sparkler with the power that I have given them. There are a lot of type threes that do not deserve their power, but those two, they deserve the gift given to them and the power that comes with it.” 

Thistle gave a nod, but she did not fully understand. 

“It isn’t like I want to be the Dark Lady Dinky Doo Hooves,” Dinky announced. “I just want ponies to shiver a bit when they say my name,” she said with a smile. 

“You’ve been listening to Lyra too much,” Piña grumbled as she rolled her eyes. 

“I was only kidding. I don’t want anypony afraid of me,” Dinky said. “I’d rather have them come to me for help if they need it.” 

“And this is why I trust Dinky the way I do,” Bucky said as a smile cracked upon his face. 
	
> Chapter 98
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy watched her foals carefully, looking for some sign of something wrong. Sparkler and Rising Star seemed okay. They had recovered quickly and seemed perfectly normal on the walk back to the castle. Rising Star had even hoisted Loch Skimmer onto his back and carried her, saving her from stumbling around on three legs. 

Lyra was especially animated on the way back, far more than her usual self. She practically bounced and not her usual mostly calm self. The unicorn surprised Bon Bon with a very affectionate kiss that had actually taken the usually sturdy earth pony right down to the ground where Lyra continued to have her way with Bon Bon. 

The good mood was infectious. 

Derpy could feel it as well. She had been feeling it for several days. And now, her good mood manifested as a hot itch in her backside just below her dock that would not go away. Walking certainly did not help, all that did was make things rub together back there. 

“Berry,” Derpy said in a frantic whisper to the mare beside her. 

“Hmm?” Berry replied, turning her head to look at Derpy as they walked. 

“We need to capture Bucky and find a place to have our way with him,” Derpy said in a very low whisper. 

Berry nodded as she turned to look ahead. 

“No rough stuff though. He still winces when he is touched sometimes,” Derpy whispered cautiously. “And his legs worry me.” 

“I worry about how he plans to run around in a suit of armor with his legs being the way they are,” Berry said in a normal voice. “I trust in his plan, I am sure that he has given thought to the issue.” 

“I need to know that you will be gentle,” Derpy said in a voice full of worry.

Berry stopped and turned to look at the grey mare. “I love him too. I would never want to hurt him. There is a time to be rough and a time to be tender and I know full well that he is not capable of the rough stuff,” said Berry. After she finished speaking, she leaned over and kissed the pegasus on the lips gently. “I can be just as gentle as you are with foals,” she stated. 

“I’m sorry… I just worry,” Derpy admitted, her ears folding back against her head. 

“I know,” Berry said. “I myself have been Berry Berry worried,” she said with a half smile. 

Derpy took a deep shuddering breath and leaned on Berry as they walked. “Have I told you that you are my best friend lately?” she said. 

“Not in words, no,” Berry said. “But I already knew. We got married. We share a husband. We share our foals.” 

“Are you okay with sharing all of that with Thistle?” asked Derpy, slipping a wing over Berry Punch as she spoke. 

Berry did not answer right away. The two mares walked together, so in tune with one another that their hooves moved in sync. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I have grown very attached to Thistle,” Berry admitted. “I do have some moments where I wonder how I will feel about her being in our inner circle. So far, I’ve enjoyed seeing her with Bucky. I do have my moments though where I wonder and I worry if I might suddenly feel jealous or upset. I haven’t yet, but I worry that I will. I am very, very possessive as I am sure you know, being my best friend and all.” 

“Do you feel possessive of Thistle?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes,” Berry said right away. “Strongly.” 

The grey mare did not reply but walked in silence with the plum coloured mare. Derpy could see that Berry was mentally chewing on the issue and trying to sort out her thoughts. She stroked Berry’s crest and withers with her wing as they walked. 

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think it will be a problem. I can’t feel possessive of Bucky and Thistle and keep them apart from one another. I would want them both to be happy. I am reminded of what happened at the train station when I told Bucky to stay with you,” Berry said in a strained voice. 

Derpy pressed her face against Berry’s muscular neck and nuzzled behind the mare’s ear. “And I was willing to do the same for you,” she whispered. 

“Thistle will be the good that we take home from this place. We have a husband that has been disfigured and crippled. We’ve lived in terror of the night and for our husband’s life. We are all going to go home scarred from this. But we get to keep Thistle,” Berry mused. 

Derpy nodded. 

“Thistle, who is always trying to make others happy. Always so eager to please. Thistle, who has a talent of a sexual nature,” Berry said thoughtfully. 

“I have grown to love her,” Derpy said. “I want to see her happy.” 

“All four of us need to sit down and have a long talk,” Berry stated. “Revising the rules of engagement. When she finally marries in, what are we going to do about what comes after?” 

“I’ve already thought about that,” Derpy replied. 

“Your agreement with Thistle,” Berry quipped. 

“Yes,” Derpy answered. “And you are right. All four of us need to talk. We can’t have Bucky boning the poor girl. He’s…” 

“Hung like a barrel,” Berry interrupted as Derpy paused. 

“Yes. And we don’t want Thistle hurt. To consummate the marriage, I plan to give Thistle a good case of the shudders and make her feel loved,” Derpy explained. “But I need to figure out how to break it to Bucky that she is off limits for a while.” 

“Just be blunt and tell him. He would never want to hurt her,” Berry said. “Are you actually worried about how he will react to being told “no” about this?” 

“A little,” Derpy admitted. 

“Why?” Berry inquired. 

“I don’t know, I just am, I guess it is silly,” Derpy responded in a huff. 

“Just let him know that he can do anything he wants with her except that one single act and we can be there to provide for that. Let them both have fun. Let Bucky make her feel good,” Berry suggested. 

“That’s the thing, I worry about drawing the line. She’s young. It makes me nervous. I am still young really, and I know how  worked up I can get when I want something. Anything. It isn’t fair to leave her flustered,” Derpy whispered in a low voice, looking around her at the other ponies walking with them. 

“So then we allow them to have a bit of fun together and when they get really worked up and get to that point of need, we pull them apart. One of us will work over Thistle and scratch her itch and the other will relieve Bucky of his frustrations and we all get to be happy,” Berry replied. 

Derpy groaned and her brows furrowed in worry. 

“What has you so worked up?” Berry inquired. 

“I don’t want Thistle hating me or feeling unhappy… I don’t want her feeling that I am controlling her unfairly. It worries me Berry… I worry about it a lot. I know I need to do what is right for her, but if I say this the wrong way or do this the wrong way, I am going to sound more like her mother than her fellow-wife and she is going to hate me,” Derpy blurted out in unhappy voice. 

“Look here Bubblebutt, there are times you act like you are my mother. It is what you do. Thistle needs to grow up and understand that things are the way they are sometimes. As they say in the local parlance, you are the matriarch of our little herd. The alpha. I accepted that as the price of admission. And she is going to have to do that as well. If she doesn’t like it she can lump it. You can’t help yourself. You mother everything you come into contact with. Look what you did to Sentinel not long after meeting him. You nearly suffocated the poor colt. There are plenty of times that you mother Bucky… and by damn, there are times that he needs it. I’ve even seen you mother Lyra. The only mare in our group you don’t do that to is Bonnie, and that is because Bonnie is a lot like you. You two are the herd mothers. The big mares. If something was to ever happen to you, Bon Bon would step into your place and keep us all in line,” Berry explained in a long winded fashion. 

“Somepony needs to keep you in line,” Derpy said good naturedly in reply. 

“So I will help you out. I’ll be the one to tell Thistle and Bucky how it is going to be. And then we’ll shag the little minx until she can’t see or walk straight. If we keep that itch well scratched, she won’t feel such a pressing need to turn to Bucky,” Berry stated. 

Derpy nodded in agreement and began to feel a little better. 

“I couldn’t help but overhear everything both of you have been saying.” 

Derpy’s eyes flew open wide and Berry Punch cringed. Her ears drooped down to the sides of her face and she inhaled sharply. Both of their faces distorted in panic as they realised that Ripple was just behind them and listening. 

“It is good that both of you want Thistle to be happy and that you want to keep her safe,” Ripple said as she drew up alongside Derpy. She touched the grey mare with her wing and fell in step with the two adults. “Thistle doesn’t deserve to be hurt again,” Ripple continued, her face now creased with worry. “Thistle and I talked about what it is like. Rutting. Having a stallion mount you. You know, filly talk… even though we’re both considered adult enough by most other ponies around us,” she finished. 

Derpy extended her other wing and placed it over Ripple, drawing the pegasus filly close to her. 

“Both of you are actually worried about Thistle and that makes me feel happy and safe. I have seen the opposite, where mares give no thought at all to what a stallion might do to a female of smaller stature,” Ripple said. “I’ve watched it happen,” she said in a pained voice. “Seen the blood,” she whispered. She shook her head forcefully, causing her mane to whip about. 

Berry looked over at the pegasus filly and felt deep concern. Ripple showed signs of being more than a little troubled sometimes. She felt a pang in her heart. 

“I remember when I met my new mother, the last mare my father married. My other mothers pinned her down and twisted her wings to make her submissive so my father could force his way into her as she screamed,” Ripple said as her teeth clenched together. “She and Loch Skimmer were about the same age. Loch and I watched. There wasn’t much we could do. Moon Mirror was her name. Before she was married, she liked to fly at night. After she was married, she bled for days. She got infected. She got a fever. She never flew again. Because she died,” Ripple said in a heartbroken voice. “I am telling you this because I want you to know that I am sincere about what I said. It is better that you do what is right for Thistle and maybe have her a bit angry with you than allow her to get hurt.” Ripple fell silent and said nothing else. She leaned on the larger grey pegasus and pressed her face against Derpy’s neck. 

The three of them walked together in silence. Derpy and Berry recoiled from the new perspective they now had. Ripple felt better, some of the pain she carried with her now lessened, knowing that there were ponies who truly cared. Derpy held the filly close, her wing wrapped tightly around her, not knowing any other way to comfort her other than the way that pegasi had always comforted one another. 



 

“And there he is,” Derpy said, her wings fluttering. “Come on Berry. While there is still some sunlight left, we’re going to snatch him away and spend time telling him how grateful we are for him.” 

“And talk about Thistle I guess,” Berry said in reply. 

“That too,” Derpy said. “Bon Bon and Lyra are going to stay awake and watch over the foals and Sparkler and Rising Star. I talked to them. I feel selfish but I need some time with Bucky. We both do.” 

Berry nodded, looking unusually subdued. “We really lucked out,” Berry said in an emotional whisper. “I really lucked out. What if I had been raised here?” 

Derpy kissed her mate softly and then reached up to stroke Berry’s ears. “Thistle was born and raised here. And she lucked out too,” the pegasus said comfortingly. 

Her words had a profound effect on Berry, who gasped and then trembled. “We need to give her a good life,” Berry said. “Ripple and Loch too,” she added. “Any one of them could have been me.” 

“I know how to make you feel better,” Derpy said with gentle seductiveness. “Let’s go get Bucky.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 99 (Warning! Contains hot and sweaty equines!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The two mares watched as Bucky ate, the sounds of their heavy breathing an indicator of their impatience. It had become obvious as to why the pair were impatient, and just what was about to take place. Every action they took part in affected the herd as a whole somehow. Every act of affection, every act of communication, everything was watched and affected somepony in some fashion. 

Ripple and Loch Skimmer noted the eagerness of the two mares and the total lack of fear. This wasn’t something that the mares were dreading, it was clearly a happy occasion. This gave them hope. For Dinky and Piña, this was more of an indicator that things were returning back to normal, even as things grew stranger and stranger as the chaos increased. For Thistle it was anticipation, knowing that soon, she too would be a part of this, and that she would finally have what she wanted, which was a secured place within the herd. For Sparkler and Rising Star, they took comfort in the fact that two of their herdmates finally saw the goodness that could be found in the act, and Sparkler was joyful that her parents could finally have a moment alone together. Even Sentinel felt better… he understood that ponies were supposed to spend lots of time engaging in the act that created more ponies, and that hadn’t been happening at all since he had met them. And for Lyra and Bon Bon, both of them wanted Bucky happy and looked after. 

Bucky ate in silence, well aware of every eye that was staring at him for whatever reason. He finished the last of his cold fried oatcakes, something they always kept a platter of around in their room for moments just like these, licked his lips, and then looked at Sentinel. “Take note Sentinel, never keep a mare waiting for too long, or you will regret it,” Bucky warned. He rose to his hooves, eased himself off of the sofa, and then walked slowly to the door. Derpy and Berry fell into pace behind him, and the trio departed out the door. 



 

“I understand,” Bucky acknowledged. He was sprawled out in the grass, Derpy on one side of him and Berry on the other. “I don’t see why you were so worried my stormy little pegasus. I would never want to hurt her. I’ll hold off on that until you feel that it is safe to try it.” 

“After she has her foal and has had time to recover,” Derpy said in a calm voice. 

“You made too much of a big deal over it,” Berry said. “Now… while we still have daylight, how about less talk and more boning?” she suggested. 

“How are we doing this? I don’t think Bucky can make the beast with six legs anymore,” Derpy said regretfully. 

“Well, we could always go heads or tails,” Berry replied.

“Heads or tails?” Derpy asked. 

“Well, between you and I, we figure out who gets which end. One gets a little pony ride while the other sits on his face and then you and I can make out while we straddle him,” Berry explained. 

“Who gets which end?” the pegasus inquired. 

“I’ll sit on his face. Really, I don’t care just so long as I get to go off,” Berry purred.

“Uh, ladies,” Bucky said shyly, some of his old nervousness coming back. “I know a spell… from that spellbook that Celestia gave me. It is called the “Mirrored Mare” and it is for occasions like these,” Bucky offered. 

“What does it do?” Berry inquired. 

“Well, from the notes, which, uh, seem to be written by Celestia herself, it allows a group of mares to all feel what the others are feeling. I mean, a stallion can only penetrate one mare at a time, but this allows a group of mares to all feel the penetration. And other things. And it works both ways, the mares will share in each other’s pleasure. So, uh, if I understand the notes correctly, if I am nibbling on Berry, Derpy, you should be able to feel it while you are being rutted. And Berry should be able to feel what Derpy is feeling,” Bucky explained. 

“That sounds… nice,” Derpy said slowly, one eyebrow raising as she spoke. 

“I just need permission from both of you. Celestia said to get consent and do nothing unless I asked first,” Bucky stated. 

“You’ve been out here performing forbidden magic, you’ve violated the natural order, and now you are worried about Celestia taking you to task for a bit of erotic magic?” Berry asked incredulously. 

“Yes… yes I am. You weren’t there that day that Princess Celestia gave me a sex talk. She might forgive me for everything I’ve done, she might not, but if I was to ever use my magic to harm or coerce either one of you in some way, I suspect I would be taking a lunar vacation,” Bucky said fearfully. 

Berry Punch nodded and rolled her eyes. “How could I say no?” she asked. 

“I’ll try it, I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to be Berry,” Derpy asked. 

“This might be a way for Thistle to enjoy what Bucky has to offer,” Berry said. 

Derpy blinked a few times and nodded. “That’s a good idea,” Derpy said. 

“Yeah it is,” Bucky said. “We can make her feel loved.” 

“And no stinging backside,” Berry said. 

“So…” Derpy said impatiently. 

Bucky closed his eye, concentrated, and his horn flared in a soft blue green light. His lips moved slightly and the air was filled with warmth. “That should do it,” he announced. 

“Shouldn’t we feel something?” Berry asked. 

Derpy rolled over on to her hooves, rose, stepped over Bucky, and dropped down between Berry’s legs. In true pegasus fashion, she gave no thoughts to the consequences and blindly charged on ahead. She ran the length of the edge of her tongue over one of Berry’s overly sensitive teats. 

And she could feel the sensation as it traveled over one of her own. The grey mare squealed and jerked her head back, panting and now breathing heavily. “So sensitive,” she gasped. 

Berry’s eyes rolled back into her head and she wrapped her hind legs around Derpy’s neck. “My teats,” she moaned. “Why are they so sensitive so early?” she asked, not really expecting an answer at this moment. 

Bucky rolled over onto his side to watch the two mares. This was exciting. As he watched, Derpy’s head dropped down and she gave an experimental lick to something else on Berry, causing both of them to shudder. 

“It is like licking myself,” Derpy said breathlessly. “I could feel my tongue sliding over my own slit,” she announced. 

That got Bucky’s attention. He felt the first real powerful feeling of need in his loins as he watched Derpy trying to figure out the nature of the spell. 

“Oooh I know what I like,” Derpy whispered seductively. Her head dropped and she went exploring just below Berry’s dock with her tongue. The grey mare could feel the hot slippery feeling of something applying pressure on her own pucker, and Berry moaned as her whole body tensed. Not only was the feeling of the tongue pleasing, but Berry could feel Derpy’s sensations of pleasure. 

As the two mares went about exploring one another enthusiastically, Bucky felt himself growing hard. Derpy was relentless in her explorations. As he watched, the pegasus’ tongue pushed Berry’s now slick folds apart and plunged deep, causing both mares to clench and whimper with need. 

“This might be the greatest thing ever,” Berry breathed. “No no, down a bit, that little wrinkly place just below my berry… UM YEAH RIGHT THERE!” Berry Punch’s teeth ground together and she pounded her forehooves against the earth. Derpy reacted as well, her whole body freezing in place and tensing up. 

“This is hard,” Derpy huffed. “Berry loses control, and then I lose control, and then the sensation sort of slips away,” she explained. 

“Yeah,” Berry agreed. “I could see how it would be easy to be overcome.” 

“We need Bucky… and then we can just ride out what we feel,” Derpy whispered. 

Berry looked over at Bucky. “I think he is enjoying the show,” she stated. 

Derpy nodded and then wrapped her lips around Berry’s nubbin, applying gentle suction that she felt in her own now dripping snatch. Berry was hot and warm beneath her, and Derpy could feel every quiver of every muscle in Berry’s powerful form. The grey mare plowed onwards out of sheer force of will, trying to endure the powerful sensations shooting through her own nethers. 

“If… he… screwed… one of us… the right way… all of us would be… satisfied,” Berry said between heaving breaths. 

Bucky rose and circled the mares a few times, moving around them slowly, watching them as Derpy tried to work out her own frustrations by trying to relieve Berry’s needs. This was quite possibly the most erotic thing he had ever witnessed. 

“I had no idea that Berry had that little ticklish spot right there,” Derpy said, pressing her damp muzzle between Berry’s teats and chuffing, blowing hot air over Berry’s overly sensitive flesh. Both mares jerked from the stimulation. 

“The level of… trust needed… for this,” Berry moaned in between heaves. Her mind raced as she engaged in physical activity. She was keenly aware of what Derpy was feeling. 

This is sexual communion Berry realised. 

Bucky moved behind Derpy and eased his haunches to the ground, sitting down and making himself comfortable. He saw Derpy’s backside rise on wobbling legs, and then it dropped. He gently lifted her haunches in his magic and lifted her tail off to one side, revealing her hidden places to himself. 

He looked at her bubbles, the mark of her destiny, and he reached out and gently touched them with his fetlock. She tensed at his touch. He looked at her, studying her, now able to look without shame, and he thought about a day that seemed so long ago when Berry had tried to get him to look at her. 

He leaned in closer to the glistening folds and saw a rivulet of moisture sliding down one swollen edge. Before him was life, the source of all life. Something precious and sacred to him. Perhaps the only thing he held sacred anymore. He had broken his oaths as Celestia’s student, dabbled in forbidden magic, violated the natural order, and contemplated death on a massive scale. But before him was the only thing that really mattered. Bucky realised it wasn’t so much about sex as he tenderly kissed the engorged flesh. He heard both Derpy and Berry hiss and moan. Foals would be coming out of here. His foals. This is what he fought for. What he was protecting. Bucky reveled in his state of philosophical arousal. This wasn’t just some hole for him to rut mindlessly, as it might be to other stallions. This was a sacred place. A place of worship. If he left an offering, it would give him something in return, something he valued. 

He pressed his snoot against the feverish flesh and his own orange tongue darted out, flicking at the rolling bead of moisture that was slowly running down the outer edge. The rough edge of his tongue lingered against the flesh that burned as though it was a furnace. Derpy squealed at his touch and her head lifted away from Berry, and Berry whimpered and writhed in the grass. 

His tongue teased at the blue grey folds, probing around the edges, and then as the grey pegasus panted, he finally eased his tongue into the searing hot folds of flesh. Derpy’s hind legs kicked gently, a frantic twitching, and her hooves did not touch the ground. Berry’s legs let go of the grey pegasus and kicked outward, spreading wide. 

He moved around the outer edges, teasing just under the surface, working his way downward slowly, his goal a purple-blue-grey knob of flesh that was winking out from blood engorged and clenching flesh. Celestia had been the one to tell him about this tiny button of flesh on a mare, and he understood its value. His tongue lingered tantalisingly close to it, and his own hot breath teased it. 

As his tongue lightly trailed over the quivering clitoris, Berry bleated several times and Derpy clenched. The grey mare wasn’t feeling her own orgasm, which hadn’t happened yet, but she could feel Berry’s, and it was a strange and alien feeling to her. Berry’s orgasm was very different from her own, and the realisation was powerful. Derpy was sharing something intimate and private, something that had been up to this point, something Berry could have never shared, no matter how descriptive her words. The two mares were completely locked into the shared sensation and Bucky eased off. 

Berry lay in the grass panting. She could feel every probing lick of Bucky’s tongue. Derpy’s marehood was so different than her own, yet so similar. Places where Berry felt very little were so sensitive on the pegasus and Berry experienced all kinds of new first time sensations. Derpy’s larger clitoris rubbed against the thicker and far more muscular lips as it winked, something Berry enjoyed a great deal as she felt it. Berry realised that Derpy could get off by indirect stimulation, just so long as her folds were being tugged and pulled the right way, her large protruding nub would get all the stimulation it needed. Berry on the other hoof required a lot more direct stimulation, having a very small and somewhat shy little button that took a lot of coaxing to get it to come out and play. She could feel Derpy’s head resting on her navel. The pegasus mare was no longer lapping away at Berry’s folds. 

Bucky carefully wrapped his lips around the salty bulb of flesh and suckled as Berry continued bleating. He noticed with a feeling of satisfaction that Derpy’s hind legs were going stiff. She was getting close. He increased suction and teased with the tip of his tongue. He could see her folds twitch and spasm. He pulled away, the button of flesh slipping from his lips with a wet pop. Derpy’s wings were fully extended now, stiff as boards. 

Both mares moaned as Derpy lingered near the edge. 

Bucky gave another teasing lick and then waited. He blew his breath over it, and then took it into his mouth again. The pegasus gave a savage growl that resonated from deep within her barrel and Berry let out a whine of need as she wiggled and twisted in the grass. 

Bucky realised that both mares were lost to him at this moment, lost in the throes of Derpy’s orgasm. He eased away and gently lowered the pegasus’ haunches down to the grass. She twitched and kicked, laying on her belly, and after several minutes of grunting, finally lay still. 

“Pegasi and earth ponies don’t have the same orgasms,” Berry whispered breathlessly.

Derpy made no reply. She lay in the grass, her barrel heaving, occasionally shuddering. 

“One of us needs to look after Bucky,” Berry mentioned. “You alright Derpy?” she asked. 

“I could feel you going off,” Derpy replied after several moments of heaving. “I’m overwhelmed. Bucky was working me over and I could feel everything you were feeling Berry and I know that you were feeling what I was feeling and all of it… everything…” 

Berry looked over at the pegasus and smiled. “Bucky, I think we finally found a way to wear the pegasus out,” she said triumphantly. 

“I’m down, not out,” Derpy protested. 

“Look, boners being what they are, we need to strike while the iron is hot. I want to know what it feels like when Bucky bones you,” Berry announced. She rose to her hooves and approached Bucky. 

Berry eased the unicorn over into the grass and straddled him, facing towards his twitching erection. She lifted her tail to give him a view and she ground herself against his breastbone. 

Derpy snorted and twitched. “Berry has a deep itch,” she muttered. Finally, the pegasus roused herself and approached the pair. She eased her way down onto Bucky and into Berry’s waiting forelegs. Berry pulled the mare close and kissed her. 

Bucky looked up at the two mares making out on top of him. He could feel Derpy sliding backwards, easing herself back. He felt himself throb painfully. He wasn’t sure how long he was going to last.

“I can feel it poking at the entrance,” Berry murmured after she tore her lips away from Derpy’s. She gasped and continued to grind away on Bucky. 

Bucky grabbed Berry by her cutie marks and pulled her backwards towards his eager lips. He probed her with his tongue, causing both mares to cling to one another and cry out. Berry’s folds were slick and waxy with pegasus slobber. As Bucky wiggled his tongue in, he felt himself slip into grippy folds of the pegasus. He decided to let Derpy do the work and he focused instead on Berry’s quivering snatch. Using his lips, he nibbled along the edges of her entrance, working his way up and down along the sides. 

As he felt himself sliding in and out of the eager pegasus, he could hear the wet squelching sounds of the two mares as they continued to kiss passionately. He once again slipped his tongue into Berry and he realised that her marehood was flexing in the same way as it would if she was being penetrated. 

“Can you feel that Berry?” Bucky asked. 

Berry Punch pulled away from the amorous pegasus. “Yes!” she panted. “I can feel it as Derpy slides it in and out. Feels so good. And it doesn’t feel like I am about to be split open,” Berry explained. 

Derpy pulled the earth pony back into a passionate lip lock to shut her up. There were better things that Berry could be doing with her lips. The shared sensation of the kiss between two mares was almost too much for the pegasus to bear. The pegasus was light headed and felt drunk. 

And it was then that she had an idea. She pulled away from Berry for a moment and licked the slobber from her lips. “I am going to tap your bung,” Derpy whispered seductively. 

“What?” Berry said, her eyes flying open wide. She wiggled in the pegasus' iron grip. 

Bucky felt sudden cold as Derpy pulled off of him. A breeze trailed over his now wet and exposed skin. He could feel the pegasus squirming above him, shifting and moving around. 

Derpy held the squirming earth pony in one foreleg as she reached down with the other to guide Bucky into a different entrance. He was good and slick, and so was Derpy. The pegasus mare was gentle, knowing that if she pushed down too hard, she could bend poor Bucky in half and hurt him. And she didn’t want to hurt herself. Derpy closed one eye and watched with her good eye as Berry reacted to the feeling of a girthy cock knocking at the back door. 

Bucky had slipped it into Berry’s bung quite by accident on their wedding night and it had left the poor mare absolutely terrified of something coming anywhere near her pucker. He had only gone in an inch or so, but was enough to leave a lasting impression. 

Berry’s eyes went wide at the sensation of penetration. She squirmed and moaned, tense in Derpy’s embrace. She could feel Bucky’s tongue darting away, poking deep inside of her sticky snatch. She could have said no and she knew that Derpy would have stopped, but Berry liked the feeling of being pinned in and held down. She wondered what this would be like if she was tied up and forced to trust in Derpy’s and Bucky’s goodness. 

Bucky felt Derpy easing herself down upon him. She moved up and down, scratching her own peculiar itch. The pegasus pucker was a much tighter entrance. He took a deep shuddering breath and focused on getting Berry off, knowing that he was bound to go off sooner rather than later with the tight feeling of grippy flesh wrapped around his pecker. 

Berry Punch let out a moan as she felt Bucky’s cock slipping up her ass. He wasn’t actually in her ass, but she could feel everything Derpy was feeling. And Derpy was right. It was almost like taking a dump in reverse, and there was the same sort of odd sensation of relief as Derpy wiggled around and caused Bucky’s cock to slide in and out. She wrapped her forelegs around Derpy and doubled down on her grip on the mare, lost in a completely new sensation. It stung a bit, but no more so than it did when Bucky eased his way into her marehood. She rolled her hips around and could feel Bucky’s tongue working its way under her clitoral hood and digging into the little hidden scratchy place she had underneath there. She could feel his tongue sliding over her nubbin as he did so. 

Derpy worked Bucky’s cock deeper and deeper into her pucker. She was keenly aware of what Berry was feeling and Derpy took a secret satisfaction in knowing that she was somehow drilling into Berry’s plot. She was in control of what the earth pony felt. She was quite literally making Berry Punch her mare, and Derpy was quite infatuated with the notion that she could screw Berry Punch and make her moan. She could also feel Bucky’s tongue working Berry over and the feeling of something in both her marehood and her pucker was almost too much. She felt another orgasm coming, and this was one was going to be a doozer. 

She hoped it would be… she wanted Berry to feel it too. It was a new dynamic at work, and it appealed to Derpy’s pegasus nature. Combat by orgasm. She wanted the earth pony submissive. Derpy felt confident that she could survive the explosive outcome she and Berry were racing towards. The pegasus reveled in her competitive nature and worked to take in more of what Bucky had to offer. 

Berry Punch stubbornly refused to give in. She could make this stop at any time… but she didn’t want to. She was determined to ride this out. She could feel the perverse pleasure the pegasus was feeling… it was a competitive feeling. Somehow, this had become a contest of wills Berry realised. She was having trouble breathing. She felt hot, too hot, and she realised she could feel Derpy on the verge of overheating. 

Berry cried out as she felt more girthy cock sliding up her backside. Derpy was enjoying it a great deal, and that was causing Berry all kinds of new pleasurable feelings. It was strange to feel something that wasn’t actually there. Berry gnashed her teeth and struggled to hold back her own powerful building orgasm. She was determined to let Derpy have it. She dug deep into her earth pony strength, hoping to endure. She was all too aware that Derpy was now screwing her by proxy, and Berry Punch’s nearly delirious brain wondered where she might find an extra large strap on once she finally got home. 

Bucky was completely unaware that his body was a battlefield. He was having some of the best loving in his life. He felt himself sliding in and out of Derpy. She was edging him, halting when she sensed that he was close to going off. He wanted to get off, he needed to get off, but he understood that Derpy was pent up so he allowed it continue and tried to endure the now almost painful need to blow his load. He focused most of his efforts on trying new things on Berry’s foal hole, trying to show it the love and affection it deserved for the gifts it would soon offer him. He had found a spot that when licked, caused Berry to clench tightly and wiggle. He had no idea that he was contributing to some mighty struggle, fueling the ancient conflict that existed between earth ponies and pegasi, the never ending struggle of proving dominance over one another. 

Bucky had unwittingly created yet another bomb, and this one was armed. There would be no survivors in close quarters once it finally went off. 

Derpy’s endurance was nearly spent. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up. She held everything back, hoping that Berry would go off first so that Derpy could let go and slam the earth pony with a double whammy. Berry showed distressing signs of holding on though, even with Bucky’s tongue and that spot that he kept licking. It was driving Derpy crazy. She needed to gain the upper hoof and pulled Berry Punch back in for a kiss. 

Just when Derpy was certain that she would be the last mare standing, so to speak, Bucky was their mutual undoing. Derpy had failed to pay attention to Bucky and now she realised, he was at critical mass. She felt the building pressure. And with a loud groan, Bucky blew his load. Derpy felt her body seize as she felt him cum inside of her. As this happened, Bucky, in the throes of his own orgasm, had his head jerk back, ramming his chin sharply upwards, directly into Berry’s cork. Berry Punch screamed as she felt Bucky’s chin drag over her clitoris and every ounce of control she had slipped away from her. She was no longer able to hold back her orgasm. Just as Derpy was unable to hold back hers. 

Berry Punch pulled away from Derpy’s kiss and bleated loudly. 

The two orgasms were like locomotives on a train track racing toward one another. Both mares realised just a second too late that they had made a terrible mistake. Their eyes locked together, both of them looking at one another for few precious seconds they had before everything exploded. 

Bucky didn’t know what was happening, but Derpy’s body suddenly went rock hard. It was as if she was turned to stone. She clenched down on him tightly. He could feel his cock being squeezed between her cheeks. The sudden clenching caused a him to blow another load, his whole body spasmed from the feeling of of tight hot flesh crushing his cock. Bucky could hear Berry’s spine crackling and popping as the earth pony was suddenly squeezed. A moment later, a flood of liquid rushed from Berry’s slit and nearly drowned him. He coughed and spluttered, trying desperately to get air into his lungs. Berry’s legs clenched and Bucky felt his barrel compress, which didn’t help with his lack of air. 

Bucky had no idea what happened next, but a lot of things happened at once. 

Derpy was off to one side, he wasn’t sure how she had ended up there. Berry was a few feet away in a different direction. Both mares were panting and whimpering. Nopony could actually move. 

“Derpy? Berry?” Bucky asked in a heaving whisper. 

There was no reply, just more panting and the occasional cry. 

Bucky pulled himself together, the first to recover. He wasn’t sure what just happened, but the spell was broken. A concerned look settled on his face as he looked at his mares. 

Berry was on her back, her eyes rolled back into her head. Her tongue was lolled out and she clutched between her legs with her hoof. She looked drunk. 

Derpy was on her belly, not moving. Her wings were still sprung. She snorted every so often and made the occasional pained whimper. 

His concern faded as he realised that both of them looked quite satisfied. Bucky smiled, feeling good about a job well done, not having any idea of what the two mares had done to one another. He peered skyward. There was plenty of sun left for a quick dip in the lake. He scooped up both mares in his magic and headed off for the lake at a slow trot. 
	
	
	
	
	
	

> Chapter 100
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch sat in the shallow lake water. She felt like she had been hit by a runaway wagon. Every muscle ached. She also felt pretty good all things considered. She leered at the pegasus bathing a short distance away. Once again, Berry had been dominated by the pegasus. And once again, Berry found that she didn’t mind. 

Derpy was aware that she was being oogled by the earth pony and gave her something to look at, flicking her tail off to the side. She was recovering slowly. If she could ever perform a rainboom, this is what she imagined it might feel like afterwards. Everything was sore. She shook water from her wings and flapped a bit as she stood in the shallows. She was going to need to preen her wings. Some of her feathers were a bit ruffled and she was approaching what appeared to be a summer molt, which would be miserable. 

Sitting silently in the water, Bucky watched the two mares as they bathed. Bucky felt fantastic. Today had been a wonderful day from start to end. The water was cool and felt pleasant against his skin. The sun was warm and soothing as it seeped into his bones. 

“You know Bucky, your mane is starting to grow down the sides of your face. You are developing sideburns,” Derpy said as she squatted down in the water and wiggled her backside. 

“I wonder if you will grow a beard,” Berry added. 

Bucky shrugged but said nothing. He looked down into his reflection. He was indeed growing sideburns. His forelock was gone, burned away from around his horn, but it was growing back rapidly. His mane was long now, far longer than it had ever been. It flowed from his neck and spilled around his shoulders. The right side of his face was still hideous, he doubted that would ever change. The long gashes where the wolf’s teeth had scraped over his skull were still visible, and the spot where a chunk of skin had been torn away had left a concavity in his face. He craned his neck and looked at the scar below his jaw. Just a few inches over and his windpipe could have been torn open. 

“Are you feeling sorry for yourself?” Berry inquired as she watched Bucky. 

“Trying not to be,” Bucky answered with total honesty. 

“You just had your brains screwed out and you are worried that you are ugly?” Berry asked, her tone slightly angry. 

Bucky lifted his gaze and peered at her with one narrowed eye. 

“Don’t test me Bucky. I’ll screw the self pity right out of you,” Berry threatened. 

The stallion’s gaze softened and he slumped as he sat in the water. “I don’t recognise myself anymore. The inside and the outside are so different now,” he said in a low voice. “I haven’t even lived a quarter century yet and I can see grey hairs forming in my mane.” 

“Those are silver, and they make you look distinguished,” Derpy interjected. “One day I am going to get some grey hairs. Will I still be pretty when I do?” she asked. 

“Of course you will. I will always find you beautiful,” Bucky replied. 

“And do you think that we somehow find you repulsive?” Berry asked. 

“Well, no… but I know what I look like,” Bucky argued. 

“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE!” Berry shouted, her sudden outburst startling Derpy. Berry’s lip curled back into a snarl. “You look like the sort of pony that would protect my foals,” Berry growled. 

Derpy nodded and began to draw her primary feathers through her lips. 

Bucky looked down into the water at his reflection again. The face staring back at him was his own, like it or not. He sighed. “What if I scare my own foals?” he asked. 

“Are you actually worried about that?” Berry replied in a gentle voice, her anger now gone. 

“Yes,” Bucky said truthfully. “I don’t want to be the boogeypony.” He shuddered as he spoke, remembering the boogeypony in his own imagination. 

“Foals are resilient. They will grow up knowing your face. You will comfort them. You will protect them. You will be a good father to them. I promise you, they will not see the face that you see looking back at you,” Berry patiently explained. 

“We should be getting back,” Derpy said after she smoothed out a few more feathers. “Look, Bucky, I am more worried about how you hurt on the inside. I don’t care what your face looks like. If you can love my eyes, I can love your face,” the mare said. 

“Technically, I loved his face earlier,” Berry quipped. “You loved the other end.” 



 

The sun began to settle on the horizon and the sky began to turn purple and all of the shades of twilight. Dinner would be served soon and ponies were gathering in the dining hall. Bucky and his family were already gathered around a table, seated in their usual spots. 

“Did you have a nice time?” Thistle asked. She was sitting next to Berry Punch. 

“Yes Thistle, we did,” Berry replied. “I kinda wished that you were there with us.” 

Thistle blushed at Berry’s words and then looked down at the table. The kelpie filly took a deep breath and then another. She smiled warmly and finally let out a nervous giggle. She didn’t say anything else and fell silent. 

Bucky looked around him and watched his herd members interact. Piña and Dinky were busy talking about something, Sentinel was chatting away with Ripple, and Lyra conversed in a low voice with Loch Skimmer. Bon Bon and Derpy were busy discussing something between one another. Sparkler was talking to a noble that Bucky recognised, but could not remember his name. Rising Star was quietly watching other ponies and looked thoughtful. 

Bucky felt a tap from behind him. He turned and saw nopony. 

“Hi.” 

He lowered his gaze and saw a tiny yellow yearling pegasus with a curly brown and pink mane. The foal was looking up at him intently. “Who are you little one?” Bucky asked as he turned around to face her.

“I’m Wheatberry,” the foal replied. She stood up on her hind legs and balanced with her hooves on one of Bucky’s front legs. “Hold me?” she asked. 

Bucky glanced around, looking for a worried parent. He scooped the foal up in his front forelegs and cradled her, raising his eyebrow in worry. 

“You’re my daddy’s knight,” Wheatberry announced in a tiny squeaky voice. 

Bucky looked down at the foal. “Who is your father?” he asked. He had a good guess already, but wanted to make sure. 

“Eggy,” Wheatberry replied. 

“Eggy?” Bucky inquired, feeling slightly confused but still fairly confident that he knew the answer. 

“Eggy,” Wheatberry answered as she nodded. 

“And where is Eggy?” Bucky answered. “Should you have slipped away from him?” 

“Daddy told me to find you and wait for him,” the foal replied. “I’m a big filly.” 

“You sure are,” Bucky agreed. He felt eyes watching him. He heard a snigger from beside him. He sighed and began to rock the foal back and forth gently. The little pegasus was looking up at him, and Bucky felt an odd sense of relief that his face didn’t seem to be scaring her. Of course, if she was anything like her father, he doubted that she would be afraid of much.

The foal squirmed in his embrace, kicking out her stubby little legs and trying to get comfortable. Finally, she was sprawled out and ceased to wiggle so much. She continued to look up at Bucky and watched him as he looked down at her. “You are Broody’s mate,” Wheatberry said. 

“Broody?” Bucky asked. 

Wheatberry pointed at Derpy. “Stormy. Sometimes Broody,” she quipped. 

Derpy had stopped talking to Bon Bon and was now squinting at Bucky and the foal in his forelegs. “You found a new friend,” Derpy said in a teasing tone of voice. 

Bucky nodded but did not reply. Wheatberry was looking up at him with absolute adoration. 

“Daddy talks about you,” Wheatberry said. 

“Does he?” Bucky asked. 

“Daddy worries about you. He says you are going to be the one though,” the foal replied. 

“The one?” Bucky inquired. 

“The one that finally saves us from the wolves,” Wheatberry squeaked. There was some fear in her voice now. She squirmed a bit and rubbed the side of her face against Bucky’s neck. 

Keg Smasher finally entered the hall and stood in the doorway. 

“Eggy!” Wheatberry cried when she saw her daddy. She pointed excitedly. 

The big pegasus moved through the hall, studying the mood of his subjects. He seemed pleased as he crossed the room, and his hooves thudded on the stone floor with each step. He moved to the head of the table and sat down. 

“I do believe I have something of yours,” Bucky said as he turned himself around.

“I see that,” Keg Smasher replied. “She wanted to meet you,” the big pegasus stated. 

The foal in Bucky’s embrace made no move to leave, no attempt to squirm free, and seemed content to be held. She giggled as she looked at the big proud pegasus that was her father. 

“She came home with me. Her mother lives on another isle. Winter Wheat is in charge there. Her mother is worried about the wolves,” Keg Smasher said in a low strained voice. “Winter is too dedicated to her job to leave her post. She is very protective of her ponies. So Wheatberry is going to be spending time with her daddy.”

“I’m a yearling,” Wheatberry bragged. 

“I can see that,” Bucky responded in a soft friendly voice. 

“My mommy is an earth pony,” Wheatberry announced. 

“Do you look like your mama?” Bucky asked. 

Wheatberry nodded. 

“Winter Wheat is everything an earth pony should be. As solid and reliable as a stone. Resolute,” Keg Smasher quipped. 

“And she can make beautiful foals,” Thistle said, her compliment causing Keg Smasher to look flustered. Thistle watched Bucky as he held the foal and she was aware that Berry, who was sitting beside her, was also watching. She gave Berry a nudge. 

“Doing well Thistle?” Keg Smasher inquired, his voice now serious. “Are you happy lass? Your mother wanted you happy. I worry about you like you were one of my own… you know that right? I love you as much as I love my little Wheatberry there,” the pegasus confessed. 

Thistle blushed and looked down at the table. Several times she started to say something, stammered, and then fell silent. 

“We’ve accepted Thistle into our herd,” Bucky announced to Keg Smasher. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. Things keep happening. And you’ve been in and out.” 

Keg Smasher grinned broadly. “I guess you’ll be needing me to marry the lot of you,” Keg Smasher offered. 

Derpy swiveled her head around sharply and stared at Keg Smasher. 

“She looks like a hoot owl when she does that,” Keg Smasher observed. 

“She is in but we need to wait a bit for the marriage,” Derpy said in neutral tones. 

“Why the wait?” Keg Smasher asked. 

Thistle glanced around in worry but said nothing. 

“Because. We want the cabin on the ship finished. I want Thistle to be taken to a place we can actually call home on her wedding night,” Derpy explained. 

Thistle heaved a sigh of relief and leaned on Berry. 

“You’re going to spoil my kelpie,” Keg Smasher said in a low voice. 

“I intend to spoil my kelpie until she is absolutely rotten,” Derpy replied. 

“I’m spoilt,” Wheatberry quipped. 

“I bet you are,” Bucky replied. “And Thistle is my kelpie,” he commented. 

“Meh, what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine,” Derpy said with a shrug. 

“Thistle honey, I do believe that you are going to be fine. I hope you understand just how lucky you are,” Keg Smasher said solemnly. “That’s a load off my shoulders. Can I have my foal back?” 

Bucky lifted the foal in his magic, causing the foal to begin giggling as she felt the tingles coursing through her body. He deposited Wheatberry into Keg Smasher’s embrace. The big pegasus hugged the foal for a moment and then gently sat her down on the table beside him. 

“How long?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“Hmm?” Bucky replied. 

“How long till yon ship is fit to be a home?” Keg Smasher asked.

“I should have it airborn in a week,” Bucky said. “Hopefully the cabin will be done by then. By the way, I am going to need a lot of pegasi. I am going to need clouds. Lots of clouds. And I will need them all super compressed into the gasbag.” 

“I will see that it gets done,” Keg Smasher answered. “And then I can finally put my head to rest about Thistle.” 

“You really love Thistle,” Bucky stated rather bluntly. 

“What gave you that idea?” Keg Smasher replied with heavy sarcasm. 

Thistle blushed even deeper as the two stallions talked. She wrapped one foreleg around the curve of her belly and rubbed in a circle. She looked up and and over at Bucky with a shy expression upon her face and felt something deep within her barrel. Her gaze shifted to Keg Smasher. The two males were eyeing one another and the filly supposed that there was a lot of unspoken communication between the two. She felt a foreleg wrap around her withers and she rubbed herself against Berry Punch, who was holding her. 

“I will see that she is loved,” Bucky said. 

“Good, because I don’t just want her looked after,” Keg Smasher said as he wrapped a foreleg around Wheatberry and pulled her close. The tiny foal squeaked in alarm as she was squeezed. “Why is dinner taking so long?” he bellowed. He banged a hoof down on the table, causing Wheatberry to meep with fear. 

Berry, still holding Thistle, looked over at Bucky. “That foal absolutely adored you,” Berry stated. “Do you actually think you need to worry about your face?” 

Bucky slumped. There it was. Berry Punch’s final parting shot on the issue. He raised his foreleg and rested it on the table and sighed in defeat. The earth pony always had to get in the final word. She was always nipping at his heels. She was always pushing him forward. And he was thankful. 

Finally, the doors opened at the first carts full of food were rolled into the dining hall. 



 

Bucky yawned. Today had been a very long day by any standards. There was a bale of compressed peat crackling in the fire. He yawned again. He wasn’t going to get much done tonight. He was already in the bed, and had laid down before the others. Lyra’s lyre was soothing and smoothed out the unsettled thoughts of his mind. He was going to bed early. 

In the corner, Dinky and Piña were huddled together, and Dinky had a bee summoned. He wasn’t sure what Dinky was doing, but he was proud to see her working independently. Dinky was the sort of foal who treasured self study. She was motivated. She had drive. He watched as she yawned. The yawn was contagious and Bucky felt himself yawn again. 

Sparkler and Rising Star seemed no different, but Bucky knew that they had been changed. He wondered how long it would take before the noticeable changes might manifest. The pair were on a sofa with Loch Skimmer sandwiched between them, trying to get the pegasus to smile. 

Lyra looked a bit tired but Bucky knew she would keep watch through the night. She had a brush and was trying to work out the tangles from Sentinel’s mane. The colt have given up protesting and now endured in the most stoic manner he could muster, glowering silently as he sat still for Lyra. 

Derpy approached the bed and then vanished into his blind side. He didn’t need to turn his head to see her. Bucky knew that she was going to lay down by his side, right in the spot she had claimed as her own. He felt her warm soft body eased up against him and he relaxed a bit. 

“I love you… and thank you for the nice time earlier,” Derpy whispered into his ear. 

He felt the mare cuddle against his side and then he felt the reassuring weight of her head coming to rest upon his withers. It was an almost perfect end to a perfect day. 

Berry approached the bed next. Eased onto the bed carefully and took her usual spot, pressing into Bucky’s other side. She folded her legs beneath her and pressed her head against Bucky’s neck. 

“Where do I go?” Thistle asked. 

Bucky turned his head to look at her. 

“We might not be married just yet, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting my fair share of you,” Thistle stated in a small voice that was filled with just a hint of fear. 

Bucky nodded. 

Thistle squeaked as she was lifted into the air and dropped onto the bed before Bucky. She was sprawled out lengthwise in front of the three ponies. Thistle tried to get herself situated, pulling her legs under her and trying to shift her body into a position where her back didn’t hurt. She felt a weight resting upon the small of her back. She turned her head and saw that Bucky was using her as a pillow. 

“There, now you have a spot,” Derpy murmured. 

Thistle could feel Bucky’s neck against the curve of her expanded sides and along the swell of her belly. A moment later, she felt another weight upon her withers and realised that Berry was also using her as a pillow. 

“Mmm, so soft,” Berry muttered before letting out yawn. 

Thistle settled into her spot and realised that she could get used to this. It was comforting. She felt almost a little too warm and it made her feel sleepy. “Thank you,” she said in a small voice. 

“For what?” Berry asked. 

“For this. For taking me in. For making sure I have my own little part of Bucky,” Thistle said.

“What about me?” Berry replied. “Don’t you want a little part of me? My little parts are fun to play with,” Berry teased in a sleepy voice. 

Thistle felt a hot flash travel through her body and a fire ignited between her hind legs. It burned with a low steady heat. She squirmed, rather enjoying the sensation. She heard a sniff from Bucky and felt him shift slightly. 

“Mmm, perfume,” Bucky breathed in a drowsy voice. It was the last thing he said as he drifted off to sleep at the end of a perfect day. 



 

A blizzard swirled all around him. Bucky had trouble remembering how he had gotten here. He vaguely remembered a long walk. He looked behind him and could see hoofprints in the snow, hoofprints that were already vanishing. He could barely see, but there was light ahead, something large and well lit loomed in the distance. 

It must have been his destination. The cold must be getting to him. Surely it was his destination. He could see the trail behind him. He felt disoriented and confused. He leaned into the wind and pressed onwards, heading toward the light in the distance.

After what felt like a small eternity of walking, fighting for each step as he walked into the gale force winds, he reached a large gate. It was a city, and the gate was made of crystal. In the distance, he could see a tall tower. All around the tower was the city, full of short buildings. Nothing was tall enough to even begin to threaten the supremacy of the tower. 

Snow swirled all around him as he worked his way down the snow covered streets between the buildings. The tower seemed to grow larger and larger as he drew closer. There were no ponies to be found. Nopony came out to greet him, or to welcome him. He crossed through another gate and reached the large double doors at the base of the tower. 

The doors opened and a blast of heat flooded outwards, and the sudden rush of heat made Bucky’s legs wobble. He began to sweat almost immediately. 

He went through the massive doorway and the doors shut behind him. He was in a hall made of crystal. Magical lamps shone brightly. There was only one direction to go and Bucky trotted down the hallway, his hooves causing the crystal floor to ring out with each step. 

There were tall crystals along the sides of the hall and he paused to look at one as he passed. It flickered with an unearthly light. Bucky studied the structure, and, as he watched, he could see a face on the inside of the crystal. A ghostly form was inside. It was a pony, a pegasus pony. Bucky could still see her wings. Her eyes were large and pleading. Bucky touched the crystal with his hoof and the apparition inside the crystal touched the inside of the crystal, trying to touch his hoof. He felt pained when he realised he could do nothing to help her, nothing to free her. He backed away from the crystal in horror. She didn’t even have a body anymore. She was a ghost of what she once was, preserved in crystal.

And the long hall was full of crystals. Bucky recoiled in mortal terror. 

He forced his legs to work, trying to reach the double doors at the end of the hall. Even with the heat, Bucky felt a cold chill in the air. Now that he was aware of them, he could not stop looking at them. He saw faces in crystals peering out at him. 

Finally, he reached the double doors and they opened. 

Bucky’s heart sank when he saw what was on the other side of the doors. A black and shadowy figure sat upon a throne. He had a red crystalline horn. He was wearing armor of ancient make. To his left, chained to his throne, was Princess Luna and strange black crystals grew from her horn. To his right was Princess Celestia and she too had black crystals growing from her horn. Twilight Sparkle was chained to the floor directly before him and she had been incapacitated as well. All three of them looked bloodied and beaten, but not broken. Each of them looked defiant. Angry. 

“At last, my heir returns,” the shadowy figure announced.

Bucky was not in the mood for pleasantries. He curled back his lips, bared his teeth, and snarled. It was the only appropriate response he could think of. 

“You do not even have your proper teeth yet,” the figure said with a chuckle. “But you have been busy. You have survived and reclaimed your horn. You have kept your magic.” 

“Where is Cadance?” Bucky growled. 

“I am so glad you asked,” the figure replied. 

A door off to the side opened and a golem emerged. It was a large bipedal figure and it dragged the chained pink alicorn behind it. 

“Do you know who I am?” the figure asked. “This one,” he said, pointing at Celestia. “This one tried to rob you of your destiny. She meddled with your mind. She held you back, tried to prevent you from becoming what you were meant to be. She kept you from remembering me.” 

Bucky’s mind flooded with images. Nightmarish images. He recalled everything all at once. The bad dreams. The magic surges with cold. Celestia entering his mind, filling it with warm soothing light, and making all of the bad dreams go away. He recalled the rush of gratitude that he had felt. He had begged her to make the nightmares go away, the shadow that lurked in the dark. 

The boogeypony.

More importantly, Bucky remembered meeting the real Sombra down in Tartarus. 

“You are a fragment of what you once hoped to be and you aren’t even worth remembering,” Bucky said defiantly. 

Shadow Sombra snarled and leapt down from his throne. He landed with the clank of armor and glared at his heir. The air around them crackled with energy. 

“You are a failure!” Bucky shouted. 

“So are you!” Shadow Sombra retorted. He began to laugh maniacally. “You have already embraced the darkness. You are becoming what you were always meant to be. Look at yourself,” the fell pony hissed. 

“Let them go,” Bucky demanded. 

“No,” Shadow Sombra said. “After all, this is what you wanted. What you see here is what your heart truly desires. This is a world of your making.” 

Bucky felt the cold tingles of confusion linger in his spine. “I do not want this,” he growled.

Shadow Sombra pulled Cadance to him with his magic. Cadance cried out in fear and then summoned her courage. After her brief lapse into fear, she restored her fighting spirit. She kicked and pulled against her bonds. 

Bucky realised that she was pregnant. He could feel it. He didn’t know how he knew, but he could feel the life within her. 

He saw her lifted and then hurled across the room. She was impaled on a spire of crystal. Bucky felt his heart leap into his throat. Rage boiled inside of him. Blood began to pool at the base of the crystal and Cadance writhed uselessly. 

Before Bucky could even release his magic, he was blasted with a black blast of dark energy, and it sent him sprawling to the floor. He struggled to move and found that he could not. Pain wracked his body. The pain was terrible, but he had endured far worse, and he found that he could deal with the pain. 

“Agonising, isn’t it?” Shadow Sombra asked. 

Bucky gave Shadow Sombra what he wanted. He groaned in agony and Shadow Sombra looked pleased. Bucky struggled to restore control to his body. He summoned his force of will, which was his strength. He could hear Cadance’s dying gurgles and it stoked the fires of his rage. 

“You have done everything you were intended to do,” Shadow Sombra said. “You have survived to this point. You are worthy as my heir.” Shadow Sombra pulled out a spellbook from behind his throne and Bucky recognised the sigil of Star Swirl the Bearded. The fell unicorn began to read to himself and the remaining three alicorns struggled against their bonds. 

Bucky writhed in pain. Real pain. He wasn’t acting, hoping to buy himself an advantage against Shadow Sombra. Something was happening and he didn’t know what. 

“You have nothing left to fight for. Even now, you are killing those you love, removing the last vestiges of your weakness. The chains that this one manipulated you into wearing are breaking one by one,” Shadow Sombra said, pointing at Celestia as he spoke. There was a flash from the red horn. 

It was as though something had been torn from Bucky’s soul. He screamed in agony. 

“Look, even now, the change takes hold,” Shadow Sombra said. 

Bucky felt his head being forcibly turned by magic and he was forced to look at his own haunches. His cutie mark was gone, replaced by a spire of crystal. There was pain in his mouth followed by a strange numbness. Something sharp dragged over his tongue. 

“You took shadow essence from that pathetic mewling wretch you call your son,” Shadow Sombra whispered as he loomed over Bucky. “Do you even understand what you have done? What you have done to yourself? The change you have brought about in your own body? You infused it into your horn, just as I hoped that you would do and you left the door open for me. You were so easy to manipulate. In your fear and desperation you foolishly turned to magic that you did not even understand. And now, as I have you in my thrall, you are destroying everything you hold dear as I claim your body.” 

Bucky raised his head defiantly. He glared at Shadow Sombra balefully. Magic surged through his body. His remaining eye turned red, and the white of his eye turned a sickly green. A hazy purple aura drifted from his eye, and black flames wreathed his fulgurite horn. The dark magic came easy for Bucky now, there was nothing left but pain and rage. It flowed from him like a river. Bucky saw a glint of surprise and fear in Shadow Sombra’s eyes. 

He unloaded everything he had on Shadow Sombra and sent the fell unicorn flying. The throne room shattered all around him and reality fell apart. 

And Bucky fell into blackness in more ways than one. 



 

The bed was cold. There was no fire in the fireplace and the room was dark. The air was frigid and stung his skin. Bucky realised with growing horror that Thistle’s body was cold. He raised his head and prodded her with his snoot. There was no warmth in her body. She was stiff and lifeless. 

Bucky wanted to feel something, but felt only emptiness. He could feel other cold bodies pressing up against his sides. He was in a bed full of dead ponies. He did not shout, he did not scream, he did not want to disturb the dead. He ignited his horn. A short distance away, he saw Lyra and Bon Bon slumped over on the sofa. Sentinel was with them. The room was covered in ice. 

He had done this. His control had slipped. He lifted himself out of bed, the horror of the situation settling into his bones. He heard the howling of the wolves. He stumbled through the room in shock, unable to deal with what he had done. All that remained of Bucky’s equinity was a fragile spark and it flickered as it neared extinguishment. He made his way to the door. He pulled the door open and realised the wolves were in the castle. 

The hallway was dark and cold. The walls were coated in ice. In the distance, there was a dead pegasus. Bucky stumbled forward, hoping to find the wolves. He intended to let them finish what they had started. 

There was no point anymore. No reason to continue. No reason to push forward through the pain. It was over. There was no point to anything. Bucky felt dead inside, and his heart felt as cold as the ice coating everything around him. He turned his head and looked back at his haunches, and saw that his mark had indeed changed, the hops plant now gone and replaced by crystal shards. 

His mouth felt funny and he ran his tongue over his teeth. He had fangs now. Much to his dismay, he had become what he was meant to be. He turned towards the door of the room that he had called home during his stay here. There were only dead things in there now, including Bucky. He realised that the room was his grave. Whatever he was, it had died in there. 

He turned again and then stumbled away. 

The wolves winked around him but made no move to attack. They bowed to him and Bucky realised that he was their master now. There would be no escaping by throwing himself into their jaws. There was no end. 

He could still take his own life. He contemplated the act. He wondered how, which way would be easiest. A shard of glass over this throat would be easy. Self immolation. He committed himself to this course of action and then once again, turned back towards the room he had left. 

He chose to die with those he loved. 

He returned to the room, his steps heavy and his hooves dragging. He stepped through the door slowly, and his horn flared brighter. He made himself look at what he had done. They all appeared to have died in their sleep, except for Bon Bon, Lyra, and Sentinel, who had died huddled together. Reaching out with his magic, he closed Lyra’s eyes. He couldn’t bear her looking at him. 

He approached the bed, torturing himself, wanting to suffer for what he had done. Derpy’s wing was askew, not quite folded in as it should be. He must have disturbed it when he had fled from the bed. Using his magic, he tenderly tried to put it back the way that it should be. It was stiff and lifeless. He reached out and gently stroked her tail, wanting to feel it for one last time. He touched Berry apologetically, wishing that the earth pony was still alive to put him in his place. 

“No sense putting this off,” Bucky said to himself. He turned towards the window and prepared himself for what came next. 

“Father?” 

Bucky froze. He could actually feel his blood chill and he lost control of his bladder. His good eye clenched shut. Now he was being tormented for what he had done. His sanity wavered, a fragile thread that could break at any moment. 

He heard the door slam shut. “I had to sneak past the wolves and oh shite…” 

The voice trailed off and Bucky heard a gagging sound. He forced his eye open. Sentinel stood at the door, blinking in horror at the bodies around him. Bucky gibbered wordlessly in fear and panic. 

“This is a dream,” Sentinel explained in a frightened voice. 

“How are you here? You're dead!” Bucky said accusingly. “How do I know if you are real?” 

“I am dream walking… I didn’t know I could do it. You started thrashing in the bed. You kicked Berry. The room got cold. Real cold. And then Lyra started shouting about dark magic and there were black flames coming off of your horn and it was Lyra who realised that something was trying to take your mind. You blasted a big chunk out of the ceiling. Right now Lyra is containing your magic while the others have you pinned. Bon Bon told me to get inside your head and save you or I was going to be in a world of pony shite and I don’t want to be in a world of pony shite with Bon Bon and she looked really angry like she meant business and-” 

“Sentinel, is that really you?” Bucky interrupted.

“I really hope that you are you. I ran into another pony I thought was you. It was dark. He had a red horn. He’s running around inside of your mind. He hurt me… I had to run away,” Sentinel replied. The colt looked terrified. “You don’t look right…” 

“How did you get your name?” 

Sentinel blinked. He looked up at Bucky. “I watched over your foals and-” 

“I made you my squire, Sentinel,” Bucky sobbed, his emotions finally breaking down. His hind legs gave way and he sat down on the cold floor with a thud. 

Sentinel hurried forward. He plowed into Bucky and wrapped his forelegs around Bucky’s neck, squeezing tightly. “We need to get out of here. We need to break the spell.” 

“How?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t know, I didn’t even know I could dream walk, the gift is rare among my kind,” Sentinel replied. “So many bodies…” the colt said fearfully. 

“I thought I had killed you all,” Bucky said. “I love you so much Sentinel, I never want to lose you.” Bucky wrapped one foreleg around the colt and held him close. 

“We need to wake you up,” Sentinel said. 

“I thought I already woke up,” Bucky replied. “I woke from another dream and saw all of this.” 

“Trickery and treachery,” Sentinel explained. “All of this shadow. Bad shadow. I’m scared.” 

“And you are hurt,” Bucky said, noticing the singed hair and burned skin. 

“The other pony hurt me,” Sentinel said, repeating what he had said previously. 

“None of this is real,” Bucky said, mostly to himself. 

“I have an idea,” Sentinel said. 

“What is it?” Bucky asked. 

“I need your forgiveness sir, for what I am about to do,” Sentinel begged in a pleading voice. 

“Forgiveness? For wha- DAMN!” 

As Bucky spoke, Sentinel clamped down on Bucky’s leg, sinking his teeth down until he felt them strike bone. Realising it was not enough, Sentinel gnawed. He felt sicked and ashamed for what he was doing as Bucky’s screams filled the room. Sentinel let go of Bucky’s leg, spitting out blood and hair as he did so. 

And then, reality fell away from both of them. 

“Forgive me,” Sentinel cried as the blackness rushed to claim both of them. 
	
	
> Chapter 101
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy held tight to Bucky as he struggled and kicked above her. She was beneath him, her belly pressed against his back, her hind legs wrapped around his middle, one front leg around his barrel, and the other front leg around his throat. She applied gentle pressure, restricting his breathing enough to take some of the fight out of him. Berry was pressing down from above, and Bon Bon was stroking him and whispering soothing things into his ear. 

A glowing white orb of magic was inches away from her face and Derpy was afraid. Lyra’s magic was faltering. The panicked unicorn had frantically explained that she had no hope of holding back a unicorn as strong as Bucky for very long. 

In the middle of the chaos, a small pink form slipped into the fray. Derpy’s fear turned to outright panic. “Piña, stay away!” Derpy shouted. 

Sparkler scrambled to pull Piña away, too frazzled to use her magic. Piña eluded Sparkler’s attempt to catch her and she made a frantic rush to Bucky’s side. She reached his face and touched it, stroking him just below his remaining eye. 

“You promised me a tea party,” she said soothingly. “Come back to me,” she begged. 

Derpy felt Bucky’s whole body tense. 

Sparkler grabbed Piña and dragged her away. Piña kicked and screamed in protest. Not knowing what else to do, she chomped down on Sparkler’s leg, causing Sparkler to drop her. Sparkler let out a stream of profanity that made Piña’s ears burn. She evaded the swinging cuff that came from Bon Bon, and returned to Bucky’s face. She touched him again. 

A stream of black shadowy smoke dribbled from Bucky’s ear and a second later Sentinel exploded into existence with a pained cry. He landed on top of Piña and the earth pony clutched her sibling. The lunar pegasus let out a squealing screech, a sound made by his echolocation system. 

Derpy felt Bucky go limp and his magic ceased. She heard Lyra gasp in relief. She did not relax her grip however. She kept one leg firmly locked around Bucky’s neck, ready to bear down if need be to subdue him. She kissed the back of his head and hoped that he was aware enough to feel it. 

Sentinel did not stop screeching. The colt was making the most horrible sound. Ripple bounded across the room, her wings flapping crazily, lept, and landed near Sentinel and Piña, She wrapped her forelegs around both of them protectively and tried to figure out what was wrong with Sentinel. 

Rising Star stared at Ripple from some distance away, worried that she might get hurt. He pranced in place, frantic with worry, fearing that he was going to lose his mind from fear. 

There was a banging from the locked door, which only added to the chaos. All of the screaming could probably be heard all over the castle. 

“He’s choking… he’s bleeding from somewhere,” Thistle cried. She was standing near the bed. 

Derpy could hear a wet gurgle from Bucky. “We need to get him on his stomach,” she barked. 

Berry and Bon Bon pulled away and Derpy used her strength to roll her body and Bucky’s dead weight over. She remained locked on to him, but she relaxed her hold around his neck. Bon Bon resumed stroking him. 

Dinky, unable to listen to Sentinel screeching any longer, came charging in from the corner where she had been told to stay. Several feet away from the bed she lept, and she soared through the air and over several ponies in her way. She landed with a meaty thump on Ripple, causing the pegasus to grunt. Ripple moved swiftly in reply, and Dinky found herself locked in with the others in Ripple’s forelegs. She wrapped herself around Sentinel and tried to comfort him. 

A second later, the door was torn open and was nearly ripped from its hinges. Keg Smasher burst into the room and his wings flared out wide. “Where are the damn wolves?” he bellowed. “I’LL KILL THEM ALL!” 



 

Bucky came to awareness, overcome with too many things all at once to take them in. He could taste his own blood. He was being crushed under a considerable amount of force. He coughed and sputtered. 

“He’s coming around,” a voice said. 

Bucky struggled and squirmed. He could hear a pitiful screeching sound. Something had him pinned down. He couldn’t see. 

“He is definitely coming around.” 

The voice belonged to Bon Bon. Bucky could feel her touch. He knew her touch. Her touch was unique, and it cut through the chaos. Bucky felt himself go limp. 

“Bucky?” 

Bon Bon’s voice was full of concern and it settled into his mind. It was soothing and calming. She was rubbing little circles against his side, just as she had done when he was healing from his cracked horn. 

Bucky tried to reply but only gurgle. 

“Looks like you bit your tongue or something.” 

That was Derpy’s voice. He realised she was on top of him, pinning him down. 

He felt the pegasus’ grip on him relax. She was holding him now, not pinning him down. Bucky remembered his dream and Derpy’s cold body. He could feel her warmth. Unable to do anything else, Bucky broke down into sobs. As he wept, he felt something sharp scrape over his tongue. He panicked, his body tensing up once again. Fangs. 

He squirmed, trying to work his way free. Much to his dismay, he could not squirm free. “My mark,” he rasped. “My mark!” 

“Mark? He’s asking about his mark,” Bon Bon stated. 

“What is it?” Bucky gasped. 

“The hops plant… same as it ever was. Bucky, what happened?” Bon Bon said gently. 

Bucky went limp with relief. He took a few deep shuddering breaths. 

“Berry?” he asked. “I don’t hear Berry,” he murmured. 

“She’s fine. She has a fat lip and a headache,” Bon Bon said soothingly. 

“I’m fine,” Berry called from the couch.

“I need my foals,” he whispered in desperation. “Need them. Foals. Must have them. Foals. Foals now,” he said in manic whisper. 

Derpy looked down at her husband curiously and then at the mass of bodies wrapped around Sentinel. She nodded at Ripple, and the pegasus filly pushed all three of the foals secured in her grasp forwards to Bucky. 

Bucky lifted his head weakly and extended his forelegs. He pulled them close. Ripple squirmed a bit but allowed herself to be held as well. 

“Sentinel?” Bucky asked. 

There was no reply. Sentinel continued to screech and wail. 

“Sentinel?” Bucky asked again, his voice much louder and stronger. 

“Burns,” Sentinel cried. “Hurts!” 

Bucky response was immediate. He lifted his head and tried to get a good look at Sentinel, remembering that he had been hurt in the dream. Strength flooded through his body as his concern increased. “Let go of him,” Bucky commanded. “I need to see.” 

Dinky and Piña reluctantly let go of Sentinel and clung to Bucky’s neck instead. He felt stronger from their embrace. 

Sentinel was burned. His withers and crest were blackened. His wings were blistered near the joints. Patches of hair were discoloured. 

“You didn’t seem this bad in the dream,” Bucky whispered. “I don’t understand…” He cradled Sentinel in his forelegs gently, trying to not touch the burned places. “He burned my foal,” Bucky growled. 

“Who? What happened?” Derpy asked. 

“Bucky, what is wrong with your teeth?” Bon Bon asked, recoiling in fear. 

Derpy closed on eye, reached down with her hoof, and pulled away the corner of Bucky’s mouth. Cold fear flooded through her body when she saw what Bon Bon had seen. She pulled away her hoof and Bucky grunted. 

Bucky shook his head, trying to hold back his rising rage and panic. 

“We’re overwhelming him,” Bon Bon said authoritatively. She took charge. “Keg Smasher, thank you for checking on us. We appreciate you and your guard coming to our aid. But we need quiet family time. I think everything is going to be okay now,” she said in a loud clear voice to the worried group of pegasi still in the room. “Everypony else, quiet. Bucky will tell us what happened when he is capable. For now, let us just give him what he seems to need, which is a quiet moment with his foals.” 

Keg Smasher made a gesture with his wing and the pegasi began to file out. “If you could tell me what happened at some point, I would appreciate it,” he said in a low concerned voice. He departed, saying nothing else.



 

Bucky reveled in the touch of his foals. He pressed his face into Dinky and Piña, cherishing their warmth. He continued to hold Sentinel, who had quieted. The colt’s breathing was laboured and shallow. Bon Bon was still rubbing Bucky’s back. Derpy was on the sofa with Berry and Thistle. 

Much to his surprise, Loch Skimmer had moved to his side and was pressed against him. She said nothing, but her eyes stayed wide with concern. Sparkler and Rising Star were close by on the bed. 

And Bucky continued to hold that which he held most valuable. 

“I thought I had lost you,” the distraught unicorn whispered, still unable to explain what had happened. 

The bed shifted as Lyra crawled near and touched Bon Bon. She settled down, pressing herself up against the stocky earth pony. 

“When everypony was scared I knew that you wouldn’t hurt me,” Piña said gently into Bucky’s ear. 

Bucky trembled, worried about what might have happened. He felt Piña kiss him and for a moment, his heart was in his throat. The memory of how they had been was still too fresh and too real in his mind. “You can do that all you want Piña,” Bucky whispered. 

Derpy, unable to take it anymore, slipped from the sofa, climbed onto the bed, and piled on Loch Skimmer, squashing her against Bucky, careful not to disturb the filly’s leg. Derpy pressed her snoot against Bucky’s shoulder and remained silent. 

Bucky took a deep breath and steeled his nerves. He cleared his throat, closed his eye, and then told them all everything he could remember in the dream, starting with seeing Sombra, what he was, what Sombra had done, the change in his mark, and then finally waking up and finding them all dead. He held nothing back, telling them how he he planned to kill himself. And then he told them of Sentinel. 

And when he was done, the room remained silent for quite some time. 

Finally, Bon Bon reached down and touched Sentinel gingerly upon his haunches. “Sentinel, I know you are suffering greatly right now, but I need to know something,” she said. 

Sentinel raised his head. His eyes were glassy and unfocused. He peered at Bon Bon. 

“We can keep Bucky safe here,” Bon Bon began. “But you are the only one who can reach him wherever it is that dreams take place. I know it is a lot to ask of you, but can you keep Bucky safe? If this happens again, can we depend on you to bring him back to us?” 

“Of course,” Sentinel replied in a wavering voice. “I am going to kill that shadow pony,” the colt hissed. His head sank back down onto Bucky’s foreleg. 

Berry slipped from the couch, walked over to where the trunks were stashed, and retrieved a brown crockery jug in her teeth. She carried it to the bed, hopping up onto the bed carefully. She set the jug down and sat down near Bucky and Sentinel. 

“When a colt does something particularly brave, he earns the right to have a drink with his father,” she said in a low whisper. “You did something brave. Tonight, you took your first big step towards being the stallion that I know you can be,” Berry solemnly. She reached down with her head and pulled the cork from the jug. She sniffed carefully, not sure what Bucky had left in this particular jug. 

Whiskey. 

Berry made a gesture with her forehoof to Bucky and he lifted Sentinel in his magic, raising him to a sitting position. Sentinel’s head wobbled on his neck and Bucky steadied him. A patch of burned and blackened hair fell off, revealing charred and blistered skin beneath. 

There was a pained gasp from Dinky and the filly squeezed her eyes shut, unable to look. 

Sitting on her haunches, Berry lifted the jug in her forelegs and brought it up to Sentinel’s lips. “This is going to burn like liquid fire, but I think you are brave enough to handle it. You’ve shown that you can fight like a stallion, now I need to see that you can drink like one,” Berry coaxed in a soothing voice. 

She pressed the jug to Sentinel’s lips and gave it a well practiced tilt. 

Sentinel’s eyes went wide and he coughed and sputtered. A pained wheeze escaped his lungs. To his credit, he did not spit the whiskey out. The colt banged on the side of the jug with his forehoof. 

“I can do better,” he gasped. 

Berry raised the jug again and gave him another swallow. Sentinel growled and shuddered after he swallowed and Bucky eased him down to the bed, where he lay limply. 

Bucky took the jug in his magic and guzzled down a few swallows, which caused Berry to raise her eyebrow in appreciation. “Not many ponies can chug whiskey like that,” she quipped. 

Sentinel belched loudly and flicked his tail. 

Bucky placed the cork back into the jug and then set it next to the edge of the bed. He looked down in concern at Sentinel. The whiskey made the gash in his tongue burn but he didn’t care. He was fiercely proud of Sentinel at this moment. 

“Ish feelsh bletters,” Sentinel announced after several minutes of silence. 

Berry sighed deeply and then she stroked Sentinel’s ears. 

“Will it ever be safe for Bucky to sleep again?” Derpy asked. 

The question caused a flood of equine sounds of concern from around the room.

“A shade without a body only has so much power. There might be another attempt, but after tonight, I am fairly certain that whatever it is that attacked Bucky has been drained. If there is another attempt, Sentinel can interrupt it. And whatever attacked Bucky has to know that Sentinel is now a credible threat. So it is going to bide its time and recharge its power. Meanwhile, we need to figure out how to train Sentinel,” Lyra explained. 

“Lyra, you’ve been reading about necromancy again, I just know it,” Bon Bon grumbled. “How do we do that? How do we train Sentinel?” Bon Bon asked in a low voice. “We’re not lunar pegasi.” 

“No, but we are dreamers. We let Sentinel climb inside our heads while we sleep. We talk with him. We let him play around in the sandbox of our dreams,” Lyra suggested. 

“This seems reckless and dangerous,” Bon Bon said. 

“I agree,” Derpy replied. “But so is almost everything else that has been done lately.” 

Bon Bon nodded but looked reluctant. “You know Lyra, you don’t need to look so pleased about all of this reckless experimentation,” Bon Bon chided, causing the unicorn to slump. 

“I will let him inside of my head,” whispered Ripple, her hushed voice clearly frightened. 

“Thank you Ripple,” Derpy acknowledged. 

Piña looked at Dinky and the two fillies nodded. “We’re in,” she said sleepily.

“I am not sure if Sentinel should see what I have been dreaming about lately,” Loch Skimmer said in a nervous voice. 

Rising Star raised an eyebrow and nodded and his gaze lingered on Loch Skimmer, who was still squished between Bucky and Derpy. “I agree. There are, uh, things in my dreams that would be bad for him to see.” 

“So we keep him in the foal’s heads for a while because they are innocent,” Lyra stated. “And Bucky’s because we need a strong connection between the two,” she added thoughtfully. 

“I never would have thought that Lyra’s dabblings into questionable magics would be so useful,” Bon Bon admitted. “Lyra?” 

“Yes Bonnie?” 

“Your mind control spells that you know… if something like this happens again, can you seize Bucky’s mind take control of it?” 

Lyra’s lips pressed together nervously. “I probably could. Bucky has an iron will. It wouldn’t be easy. I don’t know actually. I think I could. But it would be pretty damn hard,” Lyra replied. 

“Lyra, what if you and I spent some time communing and you had time to learn my mind,” Bucky suggested. 

“That is an awful lot of trust,” Berry interjected as she continued to stroke Sentinel’s head. 

“Yeah Bucky, you would be handing me the keys to the kingdom so speak,” Lyra said with a nod. 

“I trust you Lyra… I would rather you have my mind. You would keep me safe,” Bucky replied. “The alternative would be to allow him to have it,” he hissed. 

“Shumblitch!” Sentinel shouted suddenly, raising his head and then snarling. One ear was pointing upwards and the other had fallen down to the side of his face. His lips curled back, revealing sharp serrated teeth and fangs. He calmed under Berry’s touch and lowered his head. 

“First wolves, now this,” Rising Star muttered. His horn flared and he pulled the whiskey jug to himself. He popped the cork and took a swallow. He gasped and struggled to breathe. His tongue hung from his mouth and he fanned himself with his hoof. He re-corked the whiskey and carefully set the jug down. He shuddered violently and blinked the tears away from his eyes. 

“Why didn’t Luna come to your aid?” Berry asked. “I mean, if some old dead shade is trying to take over your mind and could potentially wreck Equestria, you’d think that she would be here to stop it from happening. She should have been prowling around in your dream looking out for you.” 

Bucky nodded in agreement. Something felt off. “I do not know the reason, but I do not believe that Luna or the rest of the princesses would abandon me to such a fate. Something must be wrong,” Bucky said, expressing his realisation. 

“I lovesh mysh shishtersh,” Sentinel mumbled. 

“If that is the case, then we are truly cut off. We only have ourselves to rely upon. We need to make plans to be self sufficient and keep each other safe,” Bon Bon stated in a commanding tone. She cast a worried glance at the now inebriated lunar pegasus foal and hoped that the pain had subsided. 

“I uh, kinda sorta know a few necromantic wards, “Lyra confessed. “They, uh, well, they can help keep dead things away from the living,” she explained. 

“Will it help keep Sombra’s shade away from Bucky?” Bon Bon demanded. 

“Maybe?” Lyra replied. “It couldn’t hurt. Every little bit helps.” 

“Then I want this room warded. And the cabin on the ship as well. Anywhere Bucky sleeps, it is to be warded,” Bon Bon commanded. 

“Bonnie, this is dark magic… like Bucky was casting earlier. Black flames. Red eyes,” Lyra explained. 

Bon Bon glared at Lyra, her face stern. “Do it,” Bon Bon growled.

Lyra nodded, feeling slightly confused and a bit aroused that Bon Bon had just given her approval to practice a bit of necromancy. 

“If something is so wrong that Luna couldn’t come to Bucky’s aid, then I really hope that Barley is okay. I’m worried. We have one more herd member and he isn’t with us,” Berry said. “What if everything has fallen apart? I mean really fallen apart?” 

“Barley is a very canny unicorn. I am sure that he is okay, no matter what might or might not be happening. No matter what is actually happening, I am confident that Luna is looking after him,” Bucky said, finally speaking. “But I am sure that everything is fine.” 

“I hope so,” Berry said, looking distressed as she continued to stroke Sentinel. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 102
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy stretched her wings and her back, feeling her spine crackle. Sunlight streamed through the window and into the room, filling it with a golden light. With the coming of the sun, the terror of the night seemed to fade. She had not slept well after everything that had happened. And now, she was awake and aware. Bucky and Sentinel were sleeping together. Dinky and Piña were also up against his side.

“He’s going to be okay,” Bon Bon said soothingly to the grey pegasus. 

“Where is Berry?” Derpy asked. 

“Berry went off to talk to Keg Smasher as soon as the sun rose. She’s fine. All of your ponies are fine,” Bon Bon said reassuringly. 

“Our colt is burnt,” Derpy replied with a hint of anger in her voice. The grey pegasus’ legs went stiff. “I wish I wasn’t a solar pegasus. I’d give up my ability to walk on clouds and manipulate the weather to go pick a fight with whatever remains of Sombra,” the mare growled. “I wanted to thank you… for last night,” she added. 

“Think nothing of it,” Bon Bon replied. “If Sentinel wakes up, see that he gets a few more sips of whiskey. Not too much, but enough for him to dull the pain,” Bon Bon requested. “Berry Punch was a berry clever pony last night getting him to drink that.” 

“Ugh, more puns,” Derpy grumbled, unable to rouse her sense of humour. She yawned and then disappeared behind the privacy barrier. 



 

Bucky poked at his pease porridge and could not bring himself to eat it. He had learned to tolerate the bland dish and prefered fried oat cakes for breakfast. He actually liked those. 

Except that this morning, they didn’t taste right either. 

He leaned against the table and pushed his bowl away from him, which earned him the stinkeye from Derpy and Berry. His ears dropped and he cringed. 

“After your magical outburst last night, you had better eat Bucky,” Berry demanded. 

“I can’t,” Bucky protested. 

“Feeling sick?” Derpy asked. 

“No,” the stallion replied as he stared down at the table. 

“Mouth hurting?” Berry inquired. 

“A little, but that isn’t why I am not hungry,” Bucky answered. “Doesn’t taste right,” he muttered. 

“Tastes like it always tastes. Horrible,” Berry grumbled. 

“Neither one of you can figure it out, can you?” Thistle said. She wasn’t eating either. She could eat pease porridge, but it caused a great deal of distress in her stomach. 

“What?” Berry replied. 

Derpy looked at Thistle curiously but said nothing. 

“Different teeth, different digestion,” Thistle said, baring her own fangs to try and make her point. 

Bucky gagged and turned away from the table. The idea of eating flesh turned his stomach. He shuddered in equine revulsion and felt his mouth go dry. “I can’t even bear to think about it,” he muttered in disgust. 

“Buckminster Bitters, don’t be a pig headed lout,” Thistle scolded. “You pull yourself together this instant. You and I are going to the lake and I am going to get you a fish for breakfast,” the kelpie commanded. 

Bucky stared at Thistle in shock and surprise. 

“And Sentinel is coming with us,’ Thistle said. 

“Give us a chance to finish up, we’re coming as well,” Berry said. 

Sentinel yawned and turned his head after hearing his name. “Fish?” he asked sleepily. 

“I will get you both a fish,” Thistle promised. 





Thistle stood at the water's edge and cast a glance back at the ponies in the grass. Bucky was sitting and watching her, which made her feel a faint rush of heat in delicate places. Derpy was laying in the grass and Sentinel was sprawled out over her back half asleep. Berry Punch was sunning her belly and rubbing herself. 

She stepped into the shallows, walked to deeper water, and felt her magic take hold. There was a tingle in her belly and her hips and she could feel her hind legs merge into a tail. Long fins formed on her front legs. The living plants of her mane flowed out into the water behind her and she could feel the sunshine flowing into her through her mane. Gills formed just behind her jaw line. She swam through the water in the same way that a pegasus soared through the air, with speed and grace. 

Her ears changed as she submerged, now used more for feeling vibrations in the water and not so much for hearing. Even with her large pregnant belly, she was swift and graceful in the water. On land, she was becoming a bit slow and wobbly. 

It didn’t take long. She caught the first fish she needed and headed back to the shoreline. She pulled herself into the shallows, still in mer-pony form, and tossed the fish ashore. She watched as Sentinel slowly rose and stumbled after the fish, his movements stiff and jerky from being in pain. As soon as she saw that he had his breakfast secured, she pulled herself back to the deep water using her front legs and dragging her tail over the rocks. 

She dove deep, looking for the bigger fish, the sort of fish that ate the other smaller fish. She was the biggest fish in this loch and this was her domain. Soon, she found her prey. She sank her teeth into it and battered it with her front legs until it was subdued. She returned to shore, pulling the fish with her. She eased into the shallows, willed her body to change, and then strode onto land on four legs. 

Bucky was watching her curiously.

She dropped the fish at his front hooves, placed her own hoof on it, sank her teeth into its fleshy sides, and tore away a strip of still wiggling flesh. She chewed and swallowed. She was starving this morning. Keeping four legs for so long had taken a lot out of her body. She tore out another strip and presented it to Bucky, holding it out to him. 



 

Bucky felt a strange mix of revulsion and desire upon seeing the fish. His mouth watered even as part of him gagged. He felt his gorge rising when he heard Thistle tearing off a bite and chewing it. And then she tore off a second strip and offered it to him. 

Much to his shock, his body betrayed him and he felt himself moving forward. His lips parted. And then the flesh hit his curious and still injured tongue. The response was electric, and he felt hungry. It was an odd hunger, and it coursed through his body and pulsated in his horn. He took the strip of fish flesh from Thistle and his lips brushed up against hers. The taste of the fish and the pleasurable sensation of Thistle’s lips silenced the screaming equine in his brain that protested the madness taking place. 



 

Berry Punch watched as Bucky took his first bite of flesh and she felt something in her heart ache as he eagerly chewed it and then swallowed it. She had endured watching him make many changes, but this one bothered her on some level. Something had been taken from the pony that she loved. Something had forcibly changed him. 

She felt angry and possessive. 

As she stewed, Derpy eased herself down beside her and rested her head upon her belly. 

“He is still Bucky,” Derpy said as she settled her head on Berry’s navel. “We have other herdmates who are flesh eaters,” the mare said soothingly, aware that Berry was hurting. 

“They were born that way, it is natural for them… Bucky was… he was… he was violated and changed against his will,” Berry snarled in a low voice. “I’ve dealt with everything else. The loss of his eye. His horn. His breakdown where he fell silent so long. At least he came out of that with a powerful respect for life. Now he has to take life for food.” 



 

Thistle felt a raging fire down below her navel as once again, Bucky’s lips brushed up against her lips as she fed him a bite of fish. Feeling brave, she brazenly flicked her tongue over one of his long curved fangs. His teeth were bladed along one edge and rounded on the other side. 

She tore free a bite for herself and chewed it slowly, gazing up at Bucky, and trying to deal with the strange new sensation she was feeling. She was nervous and every muscle twitched under her still damp hide. She swallowed and licked her lips. 

The kelpie lowered her head, pressed hoof down upon the fish carcass, and tore away another strip. She raised her head slowly and extended her neck. This time, when Bucky took the morsel, she did not let go. She gave a bit of a tug on the strip of flesh, and it caused Bucky’s eye to open wide with surprise. 

Much to Thistle’s relief, he tugged back gently, understanding that she was being playful. Bucky was a quick learner to the ways of being a predator. 



 

“Look at them Berry,” Derpy said as she peered at the couple. “Look how happy they are… see, something good is coming out of it,” the pegasus said as her head continued to rest upon the earth pony’s navel. Inches away from Derpy’s snoot was a taut teat. It took all of her willpower to not extend her tongue and give Berry a lick. It wasn’t so much about sex, but about trying to make Berry feel better. Derpy wasn’t sure how Berry would deal with such an act right now. 

Derpy lifted her head when she felt a body press up against hers. Sentinel had finished his own fish and was now curling up against her. 

“Are you in much pain?” Derpy asked her colt. “Don’t lie to me Sentinel. Squires should be honest.” 

“I am in a lot of pain,” Sentinel confessed in a voice that sounded like it was full of shame. 

“In a little while, we will take you home and you and Bucky will have another drink together. And then maybe you can go to sleep with Bon Bon and Lyra,” Derpy said to Sentinel. 

“I will have to teach father how to fish,” Sentinel said as he buried his face against Berry’s side and snuggled his backside against Derpy. 

“I would be very proud of you if you did that,” Derpy whispered to the sleepy colt. 





Bucky gave a half smile to the playful kelpie as she tugged on the tidbit of food. He pulled the fish into his mouth with his lips and worked his way closer to Thistle’s lips. Finally, his lips grazed hers and she let go of the bite of fish. He barely even chewed, but swallowed. He could feel Thistle’s warmth. He could smell her, the smell of wet pony. And something else. 

He saw Thistle tremble and he loomed over her. She did not appear to be afraid, but she was shaking. He pressed his muzzle to hers and licked away a scrap of fish flesh that clung to her lips, giving Thistle an introduction to pegasus manners. 

He saw her front legs wobble and she looked as though she was going to fall over at any time, sitting down on her haunches or no. 

He reached out his foreleg, wrapped it around her neck, and pulled her to him, pressing his muzzle against hers. She stiffened for a moment and then relaxed into the kiss. He could feel her warmth and it stood out in sharp contrast against the memory of her cold dead body. 

He needed to feel her warmth. 

He grasped her with both forelegs and fell over backwards, pulling her down on top of him. She squealed in alarm and squirmed in his grasp. His body warmed as she felt her soft pelt against his. She was warm all over, except in a few places that pressed up against him that were searingly hot. He rubbed his forelegs over her crest, down to her withers, and finally slid a leg down to her croup and pulled her hips down even tighter against his navel. 



 

“Things just got a bit hotter,” Berry announced. 

“They sure did,” Derpy said. 

“Oddly enough, Bucky doesn’t seem all around aroused. I mean, if he was, certain things would be a lot more visible,” Berry quipped. She paused and remembered that Sentinel was snuggling against her side. 

Derpy eyed the two teats poking upwards inches away from her snoot. She was feeling a bit more aroused herself. She sighed and allowed herself to be content with simply spending a close moment with Berry. 

“I am still a bit bothered by everything, but Bucky seems happy at the moment,” 

“You’re so warm.”

Both mares ears perked at Bucky’s sonorous rumble. 

“He keeps talking about how warm we are… or how he needs his foals. Or how warm his foals are… he was so frantic last night when he asked for his foals. He wasn’t at all like his usual self,” Berry mused. 

“I saw the bodies… I saw all of you… you were all dead. Cold. Perished. Father was all alone in a room full of cold dead ponies and he believed with all of his heart that it was his fault because that damnable shadow pony made him believe it was true… I could feel his pain,” Sentinel said. The colt shuddered. “I’m gonna kill him somehow,” the lunar pegasus growled. “I could feel all of father’s pain. ALL OF IT!” 

Derpy lifted her head and planted a kiss on an a spot that wasn’t too burnt. “Be calm,” she said soothingly. She could feel Sentinel’s body shaking and she realised the colt was sobbing and trying to hide it. “I am going to take you back. I’ll have a drink with you I think,” Derpy offered. “Get on my back, I’ll carry you.” 

Sentinel climbed on to the pegasus’ back without protest, and Derpy realised that something was seriously wrong. The colt should be complaining, protesting that he could do this on his own. This wasn’t like Sentinel at all, the stoic who endured affection silently and under protest.  She felt a pang in her heart. She could feel him bury his face into her mane and she felt his hot breath as he sniffled and sobbed. 

Sometimes being a mother meant getting foal snot in your mane. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 103
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sentinel?” 

The foal did not respond. Instead, he squeezed a little tighter, clinging to Derpy’s neck, his face buried in her now soaked mane. She was warm against him, and much like the pony that he called his father, he needed warmth as well. 

“Sentinel, you do know that I love you, right?” 

Derpy waited for a response, and none seemed forthcoming. 

“Sentinel, you and I, we don’t talk as much as we should. And I don’t mean to just each other. We’re pegasi. We might have different wings, but we are still pegasi,” Derpy said in motherly tones. “When I first met Bucky… we didn’t understand one another very well. There was a bit of a misunderstanding between us. I had trouble expressing myself… I… this is very difficult for me Sentinel, I’m sorry.” 

Derpy paused and took a deep breath. 

“As a pegasus I relied on how we usually do things. I told Bucky that a hug would do and words weren’t needed. That was only half true. It was my way of protecting myself from other ponies laughing at me… making fun of me. There are lots of very expressive pegasi, even book writers, but actually talking to other ponies meant putting myself into a position where I might get laughed at, so… I… just sort of gave up. And now words don’t come easy for me and I miss out on what ponies are really saying because words have so many meanings and I still want to go back to the way things were but I can’t,” she said. 

Derpy felt Sentinel’s foreleg stroking the side of her neck. 

“And while a hug might do, I have learned that it is very important to actually try and say something to somepony… even when I barely knew you, I welcomed you into my heart. And then I got to know you. And while I loved you, I don’t think I ever spent as much time as I should have talking to you or telling you that I loved you. I still have trouble,” Derpy said as she continued to walk back to the castle. 

“I do not want to be hurt again,” Sentinel whispered, his warm breath on the back of Derpy’s neck caused the mare’s ears to twitch. “When you hug me… when the others hold me… all I can think of is the pain of being alone. Being an orphan. I worry that I will be alone again. The pain defines me and makes me…” his words trailed off as he was speaking and the colt fell silent. 

“Makes you what?” Derpy asked. 

“Distant,” Sentinel answered. 

“You and Bucky are so much alike,” Derpy said as she walked. 

“I learned that last night,” Sentinel replied. “We have the same fear.” 

“Being alone?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes,” Sentinel said, not feeling the need for further words. 

“I was very lonely. Even with Dinky, Sparkler, Berry and Piña,” Derpy confessed. “I still feel alone sometimes. Berry says it is because I am an introvert. We can be alone in a crowd.” 

“I saw myself… I was dead,” Sentinel said with a shudder. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back tears but they came anyway. “I could feel everything that he was feeling. I knew his thoughts. I could feel his reaction as he touched you… he stroked your tail. He…” the words faded and the colt wept bitterly, clinging to his mother. 

Derpy felt a lump in her throat and it made it difficult to breathe. She felt the sting of tears in her own eyes. She stood still, no longer walking, and closed her eyes for a moment. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and resumed walking. 

“I am glad we talked,” Derpy said as she continued to make her way home. 



 

The sun was only beginning its afternoon decline. Dinky sat on the deck of the ship and watched as the adults were working. She could hear hammering and sawing. The air was filled with the smell of lumber and summer. 

“Piña, I need your help,” Dinky requested. 

Piña looked up from the book she was reading and glanced at Dinky. 

“I need you to steady me… you know, the way you do,” Dinky explained. 

Piña nodded. Dinky settled in beside her and the two foals snuggled together. Piña was laying on her stomach, her legs folded beneath her, except for one that she kept extended for turning pages. Dinky was propped up against her side, sitting up on her haunches, her forelegs folded over her barrel. As Piña watched, Dinky closed her eyes and her horn flared. 

Piña returned to her book. Starjammer’s Guide to Practical Sorcery. Between the two of them, Piña had a better understanding of the concepts in the book and the ability to break them down and explain them to Dinky. 

“You know, we could be playing,” Piña commented. 

“Playtime is over,” Dinky said. “Piña, do you think things will ever be normal again?” 

“What is normal?” Piña asked. 

“I dunno,” Dinky replied. Her eyes were still closed and she slowed her breathing. 

“It says here that you have to let go. If you try to force your mind to make sense of what you are seeing, the spell will fail. You have to let it happen and relax your will in this instance, and things will come into focus,” Piña explained. 

“So instead of gathering my will, I need to let go once I connect,” Dinky summarised. 

“I think so,” Piña said. “Has to do with perspectives. You are an equine. When you go into the mind of another animal or an insect, if you try to force an equine perspective, all you will get is a headache. I think. This is really complicated Dinky. Maybe we should ask for an explanation,” she suggested. 

“Trial and error Piña, trial and error. Lyra says I need to make mistakes. Failure is the best teacher she said,” Dinky replied. 

Piña flipped back a page, read, flipped forward, and read some more. “Starjammer was a lousy writer,” she quipped. “He spent all of this time ranting about the equine perspective and how it taints our perceptions when performing mental magic when all he really needed to say was “try to imagine yourself as a bee” or whatever it is that your mind is touching,” the filly groused. 

“How does a bee think?” Dinky asked. 

Piña shrugged. “How would I know? Buzz buzz, I have a big butt sword and I stab ponies in the snoot with my butt sword for smelling flowers, buzz buzz.” 

Dinky’s concentration broke and she exploded with the giggles. “You have never forgiven that bee for stinging you,” she giggled. 

“Why should I? All I did was sniff that flower, I didn’t know that the bee was in there working… it hurt Dinky,” Piña said in annoyance. 

Dinky calmed herself and resumed her concentration. She felt Pina’s soft pelt against her back. She called forth her magic, something that came to her much easier now, and she pushed everything out of her mind. The world fell away from her and there was only Piña and herself. There was a faint pressure behind her eyes and her brain vibrated with power. She could feel the root of her horn and the pulse of magic. This was power. This wasn’t popping popcorn kernels or creating a little flare of light. Dinky built her reserves and she could feel the thrum pressing outwards against her eyes and the insides of her ears. 

A gasp escaped the foal’s lips. When she opened her eyes, they were white, the thaumaturgical nerves flooding her eyes with raw mana. A single bee popped into existence, surrounded by a nimbus of magic. “Obey me,” Dinky murmured. 

Piña looked up from her book and glanced at Dinky. Raw energy crackled along her horn. Piña could feel an odd pulsating vibration in her own hooves, and a strange throbbing through her tail. As Piña watched, the bee moved in very specific patterns as Dinky extended her influence and control. 

Dinky’s mind filled with a confusing jumble of images. Rather than try to make them make sense or bring them into focus, she let go. A part of her brain realised that bees had different eyes, and this was how the bee saw the world. She continued to allow the bee to see the world as it had always seen the world, and gave up trying to make the bee’s alien eyes focus. 

And then, the world began to slide back into focus as the magical connection between them began to make corrections in the information being transferred between their minds. The bee was still a bee and Dinky was a blank slate ready to take in whatever the bee had to offer. 

Dinky realised that she was seeing through the bee’s eyes and not her own. The bee buzzed over the deck, and Dinky saw Berry Punch hard at work. She saw other pegasi and earth ponies holding crude brushes in their mouths and they were brushing some kind of goop over the wood, making the wood look shiny and new. She looked everywhere, but could not find her mother and her father. She found Thistle, the kelpie was with Ripple and both of them were busy trying to read something off of a page. They were studying, and that was boring, so Dinky buzzed off, looking elsewhere. 

Beneath the ship, Sparkler was applying goop to the wood with a brush. She wasn’t paying attention to her work though. No, she was watching Rising Star and Loch Skimmer as they engaged in a very sloppy kiss, both of them covered in the goop they had been painting onto the wood. Not wanting to watch something so icky, Dinky buzzed away. 

She buzzed over the deck of the ship again and flew through an open window into the cabin. She immediately wished that she hadn’t. Dinky let out a cry and her connection to the bee was broken. 

“What happened?” Piña asked as she watched Dinky rubbing her head. 

Dinky shivered and shuddered. She blinked a few times and grimaced in disgust. “Ugh,” Dinky grunted. Dinky rubbed her eyes and turned to look Piña in the eye as the earth pony stared back at her. 

“What happened?” Piña repeated, her voice now filled with concern. 

“I saw… I…” Dinky fell silent and shook her head as her body trembled. 

“What did you see?” Piña inquired. 

“I saw mommy and daddy kissing,” Dinky said as she slipped into foalish speech, hoping to salvage her innocence after what she had seen. 

“That’s not so bad,” Piña muttered. “You’re a silly pony.” 

“I am not,” Dinky retorted. 

“Look, kissing is gross, but even I can deal with watching them kiss each other,” Piña said, returning to her book after rolling her eyes. 

“He was kissing her down there and she was moaning and kicking,” Dinky whispered. 

“Ooooh…. eeeeeeeew,” Piña groaned. 

“My foalhood is ruined,” Dinky muttered. “I can’t unsee it.” 

“Yuck… why would anypony want to kiss that?” Piña uttered in a tone of shock and revulsion. She stuck out her tongue and gagged. 

“My mother was making silly faces,” Dinky cried. “I can still see her,” she added as she clenched her eyes shut. 

“He… he wasn’t gobbling her up was he?” Piña asked in a nervous whisper. 

“What are you talking about Piña?” Dinky replied in confusion. 

“His teeth… those fangs… You don’t think he was actually biting her down there do you?” Piña questioned. 

Dinky’s eyes flew open wide and she looked at Piña. “He would never eat our mama,” Dinky insisted. “He was just kissing her or maybe just a nibble… I don’t want to talk about this Piña,” the unicorn foal insisted. 

“I am going to ask him about it later,” Piña said, steeling her resolve. 

“NO!” Dinky protested. 



 

Derpy winked at Berry Punch as the two mares passed one another. Derpy was leaving the cabin, and Berry was entering. The pegasus planted a kiss on Berry’s cheek and stroked her with her wing. 

Derpy looked out over the deck as the door shut behind her. Her legs still felt wobbly and she felt sticky. She was thankful that her tail was long and full. She spread her wings out wide and took to the air, going to the lake for a bit of a dip. 

Below her, she saw Dinky and Piña, and she waved to them as she departed. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 104
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trying to connect with multiple bees was difficult, and Dinky found that she could not see through the eyes of multiple bees, she could only see what one bee was seeing. It frustrated her and she gritted her teeth together. Beside her, Piña looked up from her book when she heard the sound. 

“Give it time Dinks, you only just figured out how to do this today,” Piña said as she returned to reading. Starjammer might be a lousy writer, but his work was interesting. “Whatever it is you are frustrated about, it can’t help you to be upset about it,” the earth pony added. 

Dinky relaxed a bit, realising that Piña was right. Instead, she focused on range, sending a bee out as a scout. It zoomed off at an alarming speed and Dinky felt dizzy seeing just how fast the landscape was moving all around her. 

Piña flipped the page. “You know Dinky, if you can connect with bees, there is probably nothing stopping you from connecting to other bugs. Maybe even spiders,” Piña said with a shiver. “There are bugs everywhere Dinky. You could probably see anywhere you wanted to just by tuning into the bugs in the area,” Piña suggested. 

Dinky’s mind began to race with the possibilities of what Piña was saying. It was almost too much to bear, and she felt her concentration waver for a moment. She refocused her will and held everything together. 

“I bet there are even bugs in the palace. I remember a picture of the royal gardens… there were butterflies everywhere. I bet if you wanted to, you could even spy on the princesses, once we get home,” Piña said, thinking out loud. “Distance might be a problem, but you are a type three… you should be good for hundreds of miles once you learn how to focus,” Piña said informatively. 

Once again, Dinky felt her concentration waver. She would never have these sorts of good ideas by herself. 

“Spying on the princesses would be wrong though. We would get in trouble,” Piña muttered. 

“Piña, how hard would it be find out where the wolves are hiding? Think I could get the bees to find them?” Dinky asked in a low voice. 

“Doubtful,” Piña replied. 

“Why doubtful?” Dinky questioned. 

“Bees don’t normally go where the wolves are. You’d summon a bee and then just fly around randomly looking for wolf dens,” Piña answered with a thoughtful look upon her face. 

“That might take a while,” Dinky grumbled, hating that Piña was right. 

“I’d try to reach out and touch minds with flies,” Piña suggested. 

“Why flies?” Dinky returned. 

“Wolf poop. Surely there are flies buzzing around it. Of course, you might get flies buzzing around pony poop. Or other types of poop. But where there is poop, there are living things making the poop, and sooner or later you would find wolf poop,” Piña explained as she failed to contain her giggles. 

“Poop!” Dinky repeated, her concentration wavering as she giggled.

“Poop,” both fillies said together. 

“Once I know where some wolves are, I can prank them,” Dinky said. 

“Prank them?” Piña asked doubtfully. 

“I think a thousand bees stinging them would be pretty funny,” Dinky said coldly. 

Piña did not reply but turned her head to look at Dinky. 

“Make them hurt. Make them afraid. Make them suffer,” Dinky hissed. 

“Dinky Doo Hooves,” Piña scolded. “Stop scaring me,” she insisted. 

“Sorry Piña… I don’t know what comes over me sometimes,” Dinky apologised. “My bee has reached the ocean. I can see water,” she announced. 



 

“Last night has me thinking,” Rising Star said in a low voice. 

“I think it has all of us thinking,” Ripple replied. 

“I know, it has been on my mind all day,” Loch Skimmer admitted. 

“I’d say kissing has been on your mind all day,” Sparkler quipped. 

“Why do you think I’ve been, well, kissy… I don’t know what to say. I have all of these feelings and I don’t know how to express them but I thought a kiss would be good way to show them and the idea of losing all of you makes me want to cry and kissing Rising Star has kept the tears bottled up,” Loch blurted out. 

“I was teasing you just a bit Loch,” Sparkler said, looking at her herdmate as she did so. 

“If I didn’t have a broken leg I would hug you to death Sparkler,” Loch said. 

“I still can’t get over Sentinel screaming. I mean, he’s a tough little pegasus. That screeching sound… I couldn’t comfort him,” Ripple said, looking down at the ground. 

“You really love him don’t you Ripple?” Loch asked. 

“More than anything,” Ripple admitted in a small voice. “And Bucky,” she whispered in a very tiny voice. Ripple’s wings fluttered and her head darted down to preen her feathers. 

“It is good that you love them Ripple… after how things have been for us,” Loch said to her sister, her voice wavering with concern. 

“We’re his foals now,” Ripple whispered after she smoothed out a feather. “We might be grown up, but we are his foals. He loves us,” she insisted. “I saw the look in his eye… the way he looked at me. There was so much concern and fear.” 

“I must admit, I felt safe pressed between him and Derpy,” Loch said. She stretched out her neck and nibbled on a bit of clover. She chewed thoughtfully before she continued. “Piña trusted him. Even in that moment where he wasn’t himself, she truly believed that he would not hurt her… I wish I had the trust that she does.” 

“We could have that for ourselves,” Rising Star said, looking around at the three fillies around him. 

“I want that,” Loch admitted. “I want it more than anything. I think I am ready for us to be a family now,” she said in a trembling voice. “I mean, I know we are together, I… but we haven’t actually… there is going to be a fight soon… everything is so tense. Look, whatever lies ahead, I want to face it together knowing that I can trust in my family. It is time for us to come together and it is time for me to grow up and stop allowing my past to rob me of my future.” 

“So the three of us are going to need some time together,” Sparkler said. 

“Before you three have your time together, there is something I want,” Ripple asked. 

“What is that?” Loch asked her sister. 

Ripple did not reply. She rose to four legs and slowly approached Sparkler, her ears folded back against her skull and her head low in the submissive posture common to pegasi. She didn’t look at Sparkler as she approached. With a sudden movement, she raised her head and caught Sparkler by surprise, pressing her lips against the startled unicorn’s muzzle. 

It was a brief but passionate kiss and Ripple pulled away breathlessly. “When my time comes, I am yours if you will have me,” Ripple offered in a timid voice. She stepped away from Sparkler, backing away slowly, and then approached Rising Star cautiously. She kissed him on the cheek. “I still don’t know what to make of you yet, but you no longer scare me,” Ripple said to the colt before her. “I will be your wife. We will work something out between us,” she promised. She retreated from Rising Star and then sat down in the grass near her sister with a contented half smile. 

“Okay, that left me kind of flustered,” Sparkler admitted. 

“Good,” Ripple said with a smirk. “Bon Bon and I have been talking.” 

Sparkler’s face turned to one of tender concern. “Have Lyra and Bon Bon been helping you sort things out?” Sparkler asked. 

“Well, our time to talk has been limited, but I don’t feel so confused or wrong about what I am. And I do not doubt what I am,” Ripple replied. She took a deep breath. “Rising, even if I don’t find you attractive doesn’t mean I can’t love you. Just has to be a different kind of love. Bon Bon wanted me to say that to you and I have been waiting for a good time,” the filly stated. “And I do love you. That day we went for a walk with Berry… I felt it then.” 

“So now we move forward,” Rising Star said. 



 

Keg Smasher landed upon the deck with a thud, the enormous heavy pegasus dropping out of the air and coming down hard. His wingspan was like that of an albatross and he could be best described as a flying brick. Not that anypony would ever dare say anything like that to his face. 

He grinned sheepishly as several startled ponies turned to look at him. “Sorry,” he apologised.

He strode purposefully ahead, seeing the pony that he hoped to talk to. He climbed the steps to deck above the cabin and approached Bucky slowly. Keg Smasher couldn’t help but notice how small and frail looking Bucky seemed, but believing that Bucky was actually frail was a terrible mistake. The little unicorn was unassuming and looked like a stiff wind would blow him over. 

But Bucky was made of iron, Keg Smasher had concluded. 

“You okay?” Keg Smasher asked, his voice thick with concern. 

“I had a bad night,” Bucky replied. “Had a much better morning. I feel fine.” 

“I heard about what happened. Berry Punch told me everything. I suppose by now that you’ve figured out that I know more than I’ve let on… and I am sorry about it but Celestia made me promise not to say anything until you came to this conclusion on your own,” Keg Smasher said as he sat down on his haunches.

Bucky nodded. “I have indeed been wondering about it. I was going to wait a while and collect my thoughts. And then I was going to come to you,” the unicorn admitted. 

“I don’t actually know that much,” Keg Smasher confessed. “And that’s the truth. But there have been others who have come here. And they have met messy ends. Lord Wrecker knows more about this than I do… he and I have been talking a great deal.” 

“So what is this place?” Bucky asked. 

“I asked the same thing… Celestia told me it isn’t just this place. There are others. Fate brought you here. After the peace was broken, I sent her a message and we began to communicate-” 

“You have a means to communicate with Princess Celestia?” Bucky interrupted. 

“I have a dragonfire candle,” Keg Smasher answered. “Well, I had a few, but I am down to one and they only get a few uses,” he explained. 

“Sorry, do continue,” Bucky said politely. 

“After I sent her a message, Celestia realised that fate would bring you here. We talked a bit. There is a lot I don’t know, and I feel bad for leaving you in the dark, but I had to play ignorant. Celestia told me to tell you that she did everything in her power to help you. I guess she has rigged the game in your favour. She said she can’t see here. Something blocks her vision. And she can’t interfere here because of the treaty. She wasn’t allowed to come here. Well, the treaty is over now… I guess she could come here now, but things have been bad for her,” Keg Smasher explained. 

“Other places,” Bucky said, mostly to himself. He sighed, reached up with one hoof, and then he scratched his barrel. 

“I hope you will understand…” Keg Smasher said in a voice filled with uncertainty. 

“Puts a new perspective on things,” Bucky stated. “So when you had me flog Loch Skimmer and Ripple’s father, you wanted the fear placed on my shoulders… but you weren’t exactly expecting me to go home at that time were you?” 

“I don’t know lad,” Keg Smasher said. “To be honest, after you lived through the wolves mauling you, I wasn’t sure what I believed in. You’re a little hard arse. I mean, you’re just a wee unicorn. I’ve seen much bigger unicorns than you, big solid types brought down and laid low. No offense, but you’re not even enough for a decent meal.” 

Bucky threw back his head and laughed riotously and Keg Smasher couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. The laughter sounded a little… mad. 

The big pegasus looked around and realised that ponies were staring at them. And Bucky was still guffawing. Keg Smasher grinned a nervous sheepish grin and turned a worried gaze upon Bucky. 

Bucky’s laughter died abruptly. “I hope I make my enemies choke to death,” he said vehemently. 

Keg Smasher felt his blood run cold. The unicorn’s demeanor had changed. Something gleamed in his remaining eye and it spooked Keg Smasher. The giant pegasus had lived for a long time because of a well developed sense of knowing when something was dangerous. 

“And when they do I will pull myself from their fetid ruined corpses and I will string their festering guts along the rails of this ship. I will festoon the prow of this craft with their severed heads,” Bucky snarled as he raised his eyebrow over his remaining eye. “I will skin my fallen foes and wear their pelts as a cloak.” 

Keg Smasher shivered and wrapped his wings around himself. The air was cold, every bit as cold as his blood and his spine. 

“Afraid?” Bucky asked. 

“Y-y-yes,” Keg Smasher stammered. 

“You wanted your subjects to feel this way about me,” Bucky said flatly. His voice was soft now and it brought both calm and comfort. “I will subdue my enemies. I will keep this craft as a home fit for foals. And I don’t want their filthy skins anywhere near me. I have embraced my darkness. But I am not a monster.” 

Keg Smasher took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You had me go-” 

“I am tired of being toyed with,” Bucky interrupted. “And you took part in it. I forgive you for it, I understand that you didn’t have much choice, just like the others caught up in this have had little choice. And right now, I am going to give you the option of telling me everything you know, withholding nothing. I have sworn to never bring harm to one of my fellow ponies ever again, so I am asking you to do this out of common decency. Should you continue to withhold information, mark my words; after I eradicate these wolves and go home, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you are no longer in charge here.” 

“Aye lad, I’ll tell you everything I know, which honestly isn’t much. And I’ll tell Lord Wrecker to come and have a talk with ya,” Keg Smasher promised. 

The big pegasus took a deep breath, and then proceeded to tell Bucky everything he knew. 
	
	
> Chapter 105
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mama, I was hoping I could talk to you.” 

Derpy raised her head. She had been preening her wings. Her feathers were a bit ruffled after getting a private moment with Bucky a while ago. All he had wanted was to feel her warm living body and the pegasus mare could not say no. Sparkler stood beside her, speaking like a foal, something she had not done in quite a while. 

“Something wrong Sparky?” Derpy asked. 

Sparkler nervously kicked her own hooves and squirmed. She knew that she could come to her mother about anything. She had learned that lesson the hard way after her marriage, when her mother had slapped some much needed sense into her. Sparkler remembered every stinging blow and the terrible feeling of failure, a feeling she still felt sometimes when she reflected back upon those events. She moved forward and laid down at her mother’s hooves and pressed the side of her face against her mother’s leg. 

Derpy had not seen Sparkler act so foalish in quite some time. It made her remember simpler times and more innocent days. She bent her knees and settled into the grass beside Sparkler, wrapping a wing around the filly and kissing her cheek.

“We’re going to start our family mama,” Sparkler said in an almost unheard voice. 

Derpy inhaled sharply, her breath catching her in throat. She felt Sparkler pressed up against her, trembling, awaiting some kind of reaction. The filly was also terrified. Derpy continued to stroke Sparkler with her wing and pressed close against her. 

“We all talked. We felt that it was time. I am not going to be a filly for much longer. I am going to have to grow up and stop being a foal,” Sparkler said in a frightened voice. “Please say something, I’m scared, and I want to know I am doing the right thing… I need your approval,” Sparkler begged. 

“Of course you have my approval,” Derpy replied in a choked voice. “And you shouldn’t be scared. I am happy for you… I thought I’d have a few more years of having you as my filly, but I guess it is time to let go,” the pegasus said with a sniffle. 

“No, don’t let go, I can’t do this alone,” Sparkler whimpered. 

“It is an expression, I will never actually let go of you,” Derpy whispered soothingly.

“What will it be like?” Sparkler asked. 

“What will what be like?” Derpy inquired in reply. 

“You know…” Sparkler whispered in strained utterance. 

“I don’t know,” Derpy said, now baffled. 

“My first time,” Sparkler squeaked in a nervous and embarrassed voice. “I’ve heard a few things. Will it hurt?” she asked, panic lingering in every word she spoke. 

“Oh,” Derpy gasped. Heat raced through her body. “Sparkler, we’ve talked about this. Sort of,” Derpy said in a low worried voice. 

“We’ve talked about the act, but not in detail. I’m scared mama,” Sparkler said as she pushed her face into her mother’s neck. 

“It might hurt a little. Or even a lot,” Derpy said in blunt honesty. “Berry has had a few partners and it still hurts her when Bucky takes her. But he is gentle and careful and the pain goes away after a while,” the mare said soothingly, struggling to say each word to her daughter. This was not an easy conversation. “And no, it doesn’t hurt me.” 

“Because you had Dinky,” Sparkler stated. 

“That might be the reason. Might be because we just fit together better. Not every mare is the same down there. Just like with stallions, some are larger, some are smaller. Berry is smaller,” Derpy explained in a nervous wavering voice. “Sparkler, honey, um, do you know you work down there? I mean, I know that you know how foals are made, but do you understand what makes you feel good?” 

Sparkler worried that her cheeks might burst into flames. Her ears were searingly hot. She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed, realising this was a nightmare of her own making. 

“Love is more than just foal making, and you need to know what makes you feel good so you can tell Rising about what he needs to do…” 

“Look, mom,” Sparkler interrupted. She grunted and stuck her resolve to the sticking place. “I discovered my little button down there when I was a filly and I have been playing with it in the shower ever since. Why do you think I take so long?” Sparkler felt like she was going to swallow her own tongue, and her mouth was now painfully dry. 

“That’s a good thing,” Derpy croaked, her voice cracking from emotion. “I do a lot of that too, or did. Perfectly normal and natural, and nothing to be ashamed of, and never let anypony tell you different.” 

Sparkler’s ears drooped to the sides of her face and she kept her eyes closed. 

“I prefer the bathtub. With lots of bubbles. That way when you or Dinky would come bursting in, I could hide what I was doing,” Derpy admitted. 

Sparkler was all too aware of the furnace like heat radiating from her mother’s body. “I guess we took you for granted. We never respected your privacy,” Sparkler confessed. 

“This is really hard for me,” Derpy said. “You’re my filly… I love you like my own flesh and blood. And now when I look at Rising Star, I am going to know that he is doing things to you. I am going to have to adjust and remember that he is my son now. I still don’t know how to sort this out. I guess this is a mother’s burden. You know, you should bring Loch to me so she and I can talk,” Derpy suggested. 

“Actually, I convinced Loch Skimmer to go to Berry Punch,” Sparkler replied. 

Derpy’s eyes went wide and she felt a panicked moment of alarm. 



 

Berry Punch studied the pegasus filly that was looking at her expectantly. The question that had just been asked lingered in the air like a pegasus fart. Loch looked terrified, as though she hadn’t wanted to ask the question at all. 

“The others put you up to this, didn’t they?” Berry asked. 

Loch started to speak, squeaked, and then fell silent. She nodded. 

Berry rolled her eyes and groaned. “Always leave it to the earth ponies to do the heavy lifting,” she muttered. “How much do you know about yourself?” Berry inquired bluntly. 

“What do you mean?” Loch asked in a frightened whisper. 

“I know that you have to know how this works on some level, because I know you have watched it happen. But knowing that a penis goes in and a foal squirts out is not enough,” Berry insisted. “That’s foal making, not love.” 

Loch Skimmer turned crimson under her charcoal grey pelt. 

“Do you know anything about how you are back there?” Berry asked. 

Loch Skimmer shook her head no. 

Berry rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Ugh. You and I are going to the lake. Come on. Don’t argue,” Berry commanded. 

“But my leg,” Loch protested. 

“Keep it out of the water,” Berry retorted. 



 

“I think the summer is getting to everypony,” Piña announced. 

“Hmm?” Dinky inquired non-verbally. 

“My earth pony sense feels funny… I don’t know how to explain it. But I can feel something odd. And look all around us. Ponies are falling in love. Chasing one another. Ponies working on the boat keep taking off to run around after one another and they look really happy. And I can feel something all around me. If you listen, you can hear them talking. They’re hopeful. They want to make foals,” Piña explained. 

Dinky nodded and looked all around her. 

“Ripple says things are different. She says the ponies here aren’t usually like this,” Piña continued. 

“I think it is because they are free now and they know that the wolves are going to go away,” Dinky said as she watched a filly flick a colt with her tail as she passed him. 

“They’re not getting married because they have to, but because they want to.”

Both fillies turned and looked at Ripple, who was smiling broadly. They had not heard her land. Ripple was stealthy and quiet when she wanted to be. 

“You look really happy,” Piña quipped. 

“I am really happy,” Ripple replied. 

“Good. You spend too much time frowning,” Dinky complained. 

“I do not,” Ripple protested. 

“Yes you do,” Piña said gently. “You frown with your whole body, even when you can’t see it on your face,” the earth pony foal explained. 

Ripple slumped and her ears drooped, but her smile did not break. “Bucky been feeling okay? He’s disappeared a few times. I was worried,” Ripple remarked. 

Dinky and Piña both blushed and looked down at the wooden deck. 

“Did something happen?” Ripple asked. 

Piña swallowed, gulping hard, and found that she could say nothing in reply. 

“Oh, daddy is fine… we think. At least he seems to be feeling much better,” Dinky mumbled. 

“Is there something you aren’t telling me?” Ripple asked. “I thought we were close… we can tell each other anything, right?” 

Piña nodded in reply but still said nothing. 

“I figured out remote viewing through a bee,” Dinky said in a hushed conspiratorial whisper. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Ripple asked. “Why are you acting so funny all of a sudden?” the pegasus filly inquired, peering down at Dinky. 

“He had his muzzle poked into the place where foals come out,” Piña said bluntly. “Dinky saw it.” 

Ripple’s eyes went wide, then narrowed, and then went wide again. She blew her mane out of her eyes and her wings fluttered a bit. Finally, the filly extended a wing and wiped her forehead with it. 

“She was really happy, or sounded that way, and she was making silly faces. I can still see them. Up here. In my mind,” Dinky said in monotone. 



 

Berry Punch stood in the shallows next to Loch Skimmer. She took a deep breath and turned to face the filly. “The water is nice and reflective,” Berry said. 

“Yes it is,” Loch replied, unsure of what that had to do with anything. 

“I want you to kick your hind legs out and hunker down a bit over the water,” Berry instructed. “Be mindful of your broken leg, we don’t want your cast getting wet.” 

“What are you going to do to me?” Loch Skimmer asked in a panic, her eyes darting around and her wings snapping out to make ready her escape. 

“I am not going to do anything to you, and don’t you dare fly away,” Berry said, her voice now soft and soothing. “You are going to look at yourself and we are going to talk.” 

“Look at myself?” Loch asked. “Why would I want to do that? It is… yucky back there.” she added in a hushed whisper. 

Berry swatted the pegasus on the shoulder and Loch cringed. “Don’t you ever say that again,” Berry scolded in an angry hiss. 

“I’m sorry,” Loch whined as she shied away from the irate earth pony. 

“Stop being sorry and squat,” Berry demanded harshly. 

Trembling, Loch spread out her hind legs a bit and squatted down. She started to look down into the water and found that she couldn’t. Her balance on three legs wavered a bit. 

Heaving a frustrated sigh, Berry’s hard expression softened and the earth pony looked sad. 

“I was always told that I was a warm body fit for making foals and little else by my mothers,” Loch whispered. “And I have always hated everything back there,” Loch admitted in a pained voice. 

“Why hate it?” Berry asked. 

“I wanted to be free… I wanted to go to the mainland. But I am a female and I had an obligation to make foals. And my ability to make foals was more important than anything I wanted as a pony,” Loch explained. 

“I think I understand,” Berry said as she gently stroked Loch with a wet fetlock. “But you need to stop hating your own flesh,” Berry urged. “Now come on, I want you to look at yourself,” Berry coaxed. 

Loch Skimmer looked down into the water and saw her own belly in reflected back up at her. She craned her head and kept looking, her gaze working back. She could see her own small teats, and then she saw herself. A small delicate and mostly hidden place that remained out of sight under her tail or secured from view and hidden between her legs. With her legs open, it was little more than a fleshy looking wrinkle, something that occasionally came into view by accident. Loch felt her cheeks burning. 

“I wanted to be more than what is between my legs made me,” Loch Skimmer cried. She felt hot tears beginning to burn in the corners of her eyes. 

“What is between your legs makes you special. Having foals is our sacred duty. But on our terms. When we decide it is right. We are the gates of creation, and as females, we are trusted with this sacred obligation. Because let’s face it. If males had what we had, they would just play with it all day,” Berry said. 

Loch snorted as a giggle escaped her lips. Tears still fell, but now she found herself giggling uncontrollably. 

“Ever touched yourself?” Berry asked in a low gentle voice. 

“No,” Loch said. “I can’t. I don’t even want to look at it, much less touch it,” she admitted. 

“I want you to touch yourself. Reach back there with a wing or a hoof and gently touch yourself. Maybe pull yourself open a bit and have a look. See what you look like. See how beautiful it is,” Berry instructed. 

“I don’t think it is beautiful,” Loch retorted. 

“Don’t make me swat you again filly,” Berry warned. 

Loch cringed and looked up at Berry Punch, who was staring at her intently. 

“What you have is beautiful and desirable. Rising Star is going to want to touch it. Play with it. He is going to want to be inside of it, and at some point, he will be. If he is brave, he is going to want to kiss it and do all manner of things and right now what I am saying probably makes you feel disgusted. Am I right?” Berry inquired. 

Loch nodded but said nothing. She looked queasy. 

“What you have gives you power. You are in control of your own body now. Nopony can force you into anything. You get to decide what is done with your body. If somepony was to ever try anything funny with you, Rising Star would wreck them. Or I would. Or your herdmates. You have something that Rising Star is going to want. You should never withhold it from him, because that would be wrong, but there is nothing wrong with making him tell you how much he appreciates you or making him work to please you. You have a right to be happy and you have the right to enjoy your own body. If you are ashamed of what you are, Rising Star is going to pick up on that and it is going to spoil all of your fun,” Berry explained. “Love is a mutual exchange. Rising Star gives you love and satisfaction, and you give him foals. On your own terms. He doesn’t take from you and you don’t take from him.” 

Loch Skimmer peered at Berry Punch, her ears back, and her posture submissive. 

“Sex, love, it is an exchange, and orgasms are the currency. When you and Rising Star finally get together, you tell him to get down there between your legs and get to work. And you are going to hang from his face like a feedbag,” Berry stated matter of factly. “You tell him to lick you. And when he licks something that feels good, you tell him. And you let him keep licking until something happens. You will know it when you feel it. It will feel good. But you make him keep licking. This is important Loch. This is your first time. And you are going to be afraid. That is going to make it hard to perform. You might be a little dry down there. And dry is bad. It will make everything hurt. So you encourage him to keep licking until you feel good and wet down there, and you have your first orgasm. You should orgasm at some point, if everything goes right. Afterwards, you’ll be properly slicked up down there and what comes next will be a little easier. It still might hurt, but you tell him when it hurts. You tell him to go slowly. You tell him to be careful. I know that Rising Star will be careful and attentive, he’s a good colt, but you still need to say it. It is very important to tell him about what you feel. Like I said, this is an exchange,” Berry explained. 

Loch Skimmer looked down into the water, saw her reflection, and peered backwards. She kept her leg in its sling and reached back with a wing. When she felt her feathers brush over her sensitive flesh, she giggled nervously and her body quivered. “I can’t,” she said in a low voice. “I mean, I can’t do as you asked. It tickles when I touch it with my wing and I don’t want to try using my broken leg.” 

Berry sighed. 

“The tickle felt good though,” Loch admitted nervously. 

“Do you want me to help you?” Berry asked. “I don’t mean touching you before you say anything. You can stand on your hind legs and balance against me. I’ll be right behind you. And you can feel around with your good leg and have a look.” 

“That seems reasonable,” Loch said skittishly. 





“So you and father just…” 

Derpy nodded. 

“I mean, you just slipped away for a few minutes and um,” Sparkler said. The purple-pink filly’s face was far more purple than pink at the moment. 

Derpy kept nodding and as a mother, couldn’t help but notice how adorable Sparkler looked at the moment. Somehow, it made the conversation bearable. 

“And then you slipped off to the lake, gave yourself a bit of a scrub, and now you are snuggling with me,” Sparkler said in a slightly distressed tone. 

“Sparky honey, why does that bother you?” Derpy asked in gentle motherly tones. 

“I dunno,” Sparkler said with a shrug. “I understand that it happens, but the idea that you just did it, in broad daylight, with all those other ponies around, I dunno, it just makes me feel funny. And now you are sitting here with me talking about the deed,” Sparkler explained. 

“When the mood strikes, it can happen night or day. You scratch the itch and then you go about your day. And why does it bother you that I am cuddling with you afterwards?” Derpy gently inquired. “Bucky and I sleep together and you and I still touch one another in the morning.” 

“I dunno mom, it just feels funny, being pressed up against you and knowing that just a little while ago, he was… he was… well, doing things to you,” Sparkler said as she cringed. 

“I’m clean. I gave myself a quick scrub. I don’t understand the big deal,” Derpy said. 

“Sleeping together is different. I mean actual sleeping. When I hug you in the mornings I know that you’ve just been sleeping. Right now, I can’t stop thinking that you were covered in Bucky slobber and… and…” Sparkler fell silent. 

“Stallion spunk?” Derpy suggested with a bit of a titter.

Sparkler closed her eyes and nodded. 

“So how long does it take after the act until I am “mom” again and you feel safe to hug me? When do the cooties wear off?” Derpy said teasingly. 

Sparkler opened her eyes and rolled them. “Mom,” she cried in exasperation. 

“You sound like Dinky and Piña, trying to say that your father has cooties,” Derpy said with a giggle as she squeezed Sparkler with her wing. 



 

The three fillies all shifted around uncomfortably, unable to look one another in the eye. There was an unspoken sense of mutual shared embarrassment that hung in the air, something only sisters or ponies who were very, very close could share with one another. 

“So, um, stuff,” Piña said as she intently studied the whorls in the wooden decking. 

“I kissed Sparkler,” Ripple announced in a small voice. 

“Did she kiss you back?” Dinky said, her brows furrowed with concern. 

“Yes,” Ripple breathed, wrapping her wings around her body and closing her eyes. 

“Oh this is good,” Piña squeaked. 

Dinky leaned into Ripple’s side and Ripple wrapped a wing around the unicorn foal. “I feel better knowing that Sparky is happy,” Dinky admitted. “Things have been so hard lately. I hate this place,” Dinky fumed. 

“Even when we go home, we will never truly leave this place,” Piña said sagely. “We can’t go back to the way things were. We are always going to remember what happened here. All of the bad things,” she mused. 

“And good things, we can’t forget about those,” Ripple commented. 

“There has been a few good things,” Dinky admitted. 

“Yeah, there are good things here too, we will remember those,” Piña replied. “Hey Dinks, do you remember grocery stores? The smell… the smell of of all that different food in one place. You’d walk in, and the smell would hit your nose. The cool air that would rush out and blow through your mane when the door opened. Or the smell of Sugarcube Corner.” 

“I can remember those things Piña,” Dinky answered. 

“I am starting to forget them Dinky,” Piña admitted. “I am starting to forget them and it scares me. What if I never get to smell those things again?” 

Ripple, feeling a lump in her throat, pulled the morose earth pony close and hugged her to her barrel. “When we go home, you will have to show me all of these wonderful things,” Ripple whispered into Piña’s ear, trying to comfort the despondent foal. 

“I want to go home,” Piña moaned. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t even escape now when I sleep. I keep having bad dreams.” 

“Maybe Sentinel can help you,” Dinky suggested. 





“I’m blue… and there are pink spots.” 

Berry felt a twinge of worry as Loch Skimmer wobbled a bit. The filly was balanced on two legs and staring at her reflection in the water. Loch’s wings flapped a bit as the filly struggled to maintain her balance. 

“Why am I blue inside?” Loch inquired. 

“Different mares have different colours,” Berry replied. “Derpy is bluish,” she added, trying to inspire some confidence in Loch by sharing something intimate. Berry felt the filly tense as she continued to explore herself. 

“Touching it makes me feel funny,” Loch said in a low whisper. “I hope nopony sees me.” 

Berry took a deep breath. “You should see some folds of flesh. There is an opening. I don’t mean the outer opening, but an inner opening. You might still have a filly ribbon, which will be covering that opening. Near the top there is a little nub of flesh. That is your clitoris, it is sensitive.” Berry explained. 

“I think I found it,” Loch said as she shivered. 

Berry felt the filly take a deep shuddering breath. “That is the secret to happiness. The reward button for making foals. I know you have some trouble believing this, but making foals can be very enjoyable and fun. And many ponies engage in the activity any time they get the chance. Bucky and I had a private moment together earlier. He spent some time worshipping my happy button and I spent some time making sure that he felt loved and appreciated. You were exposed to the bad side of things… but you need to let go if you can. Try to let yourself enjoy it,” Berry explained. 

“I am so afraid,” Loch said. 

“So is Rising Star,” Berry replied. 

“Why would he be afraid?” Loch answered in surprise. 

“Haven’t you been paying attention? He knows how skittish you are. He’s scared of hurting you or setting you off. He desperately wants your approval and your affection, just as much as he wants Sparkler’s. And if you don’t show him that you appreciate him and his concerns, you are going to break his heart,” Berry warned.

“I don’t want to do that,” Loch whispered, fear now in her voice. She looked down into the water and studied herself. She dug in with the edge of her hoof and applied tension to the skin, spreading herself, all too aware of Berry Punch pressed up against her as she continued to explore herself. 

“Look, you need to get it through your head that Rising Star cares about what you feel. He isn’t going to mount you, give you a few humps, blow his load of foal batter into you, and then go wander off. This isn’t going to be like what you are expecting. He is going to love you and he is going to have fits of worry and panic about if you enjoyed it or not and if he made you happy,” Berry stated bluntly. 

Loch Skimmer worried that her ears were going to catch on fire. 

“That’s all you’ve seen, isn’t it? Rape isn’t sex. And it certainly isn’t love. And even if it was consensual, a stallion mounting a mare and tending to his own satisfaction isn’t love. Love is going at it hot and heavy, belly to back or belly to belly, or even freakier positions, it is hot, sweaty, and sticky. You hope you get to go off soon but at the same time you hope that it never ends. You rub and grind away, touching everything, and you just let go while holding on tight. Nothing is embarrassing. You make stupid faces at one another. You worry more about who you are screwing than you do about yourself. You want to hold back and make them go off before you do. You get a little competitive. There are wet sounds, slurping sounds, disgusting noises, things are squelching like a pony stepping in the mud, and you don’t care. Things are messy and afterwards, you hold on to one another and it doesn’t bother you that you are drenched and disgusting, you just don’t care. You just want to feel them against you while you catch your breath. And then you’ll want to go again,” Berry explained in graphic detail. 

Loch dropped down to three legs and felt her heart racing. Her wings were painfully stiff and she was unable to fold them to her sides. Her whole body felt stiff and her dock felt tight. And all she could think about was Rising Star. 

“And any time you need advice, you come to me. A daughter should always be able to come to her mother. For anything,” Berry said. 

Loch turned to look at Berry Punch and she felt her eyes watering. “Thanks… mama,” she whispered gratefully. 



 

“I feel better about the coming fight now that I have my family sorted out,’ Sparkler admitted. 

“I don’t know how I feel about the coming fight,” Derpy replied. 

“We’ll be together, and I don’t mean just my herd, I mean you and I,” Sparkler said to her mother. 

“It scares me, the idea of you fighting. If something hurts you… I might just have to change my name from “Doo Hooves” to “Wolf Kicking Hooves” just so other ponies will understand how I feel about the issue,” Derpy stated. 

“This fight, it is going to be ugly, isn’t it?” Sparkler asked in a low voice. 

“I intend to make it as ugly as possible,” Derpy growled in reply. 



 

Rising Star swallowed a few times and cleared his throat, trying to get Bucky’s attention. Keg Smasher had spread his wings and flown away, and now Bucky was alone. 

“Rising Star?” Bucky asked. 

The nervous colt approached Bucky and sat down. “Do you have a minute?” 

“Yes,” Bucky said. 

“We… my herd and I, we, us… we’ve been talking. And we’ve decided that we are ready to start our family now. Before the trouble starts. Sparkler went to talk to her mother, she convinced Loch Skimmer to go to Berry Punch, and Sparkler wanted me to go to you… so we can talk,” Rising Star explained. Rising Star felt his muscles relax a bit when he saw Bucky’s ears splay out sideways and a faint grin on his gnarled face. 

“You know you already have my approval right?” Bucky asked. 

“That isn’t why I am here,” replied Rising Star, his words practically panted out due to his nervous breathing. “I have far more practical concerns.” 

“Such as?” Bucky inquired, raising an eyebrow at the colt. 

“I want to make them happy on our first time. I’m scared out of my mind Bucky,” Rising Star confessed. 

Bucky chuckled. “I was terrified before I was married,” Bucky replied reassuringly. “Derpy showed me that she could crack walnuts with her lips.” 

Rising Star’s ears went limp and fell to the sides of his face. 

“You married a pegasus. My advice, hold on and try to survive,” Bucky suggested. 

“H-h-h-how?” Rising Star stammered. 

“Well,” Bucky started. “It helps if you wear them out with lots of oral sex before engaging them directly,” he suggested. 

Rising Star stared at Bucky, trying to determine if the stallion was being serious. It was hard to tell. Bucky had a quirky sense of humour and it could be rather dry. 

“Planning on some means of protection?” Bucky asked. 

Rising Star nodded. “Sparkler and I know spells,” he said. 

“Good. But if something does happen, I wouldn’t be terribly upset if there was a foal,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh we’re not ready for foals,” Rising Star squeaked out nervously. His mouth was dry and his lips felt too tight. Rising Star couldn’t tell for certain, but for a moment he thought he saw a look of disappointment flash through Bucky’s remaining eye. 

“Foals are all we have Rising,” Bucky stated in a wavering voice. “You are my foal now Rising Star. I will always provide for you. Look after my girls. Keep them happy and safe.” 

“I need advice Bucky. I don’t know what to do. I want to keep them happy. Can you help me? I don’t know what I am doing,” Rising asked. 

“I will help you in any way that I can,” Bucky promised in reply. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 106
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky winked away in a burst of cold and teleported himself down to the ground. He reappeared in a burst of snowflakes, a side effect to his spell that he had no control over. Around him, several ponies shivered and then smiled at him. The hull was almost finished, covered in resin to revitalise the wood. He glanced upwards at The Scorned Mare and felt a strong sense of appreciation. Soon, it would be time to construct the gasbag. 

He moved through the crowd. Some were helpers who were resting, while others were simply observers. Ponies bowed their heads as he passed, and he felt a moment of annoyance each time. 

He felt that his long conversation with Rising Star had gone well. He reflected as he walked, realising that there was a time in his life that he could never have had the conversation he had just had. 

But things had changed. 

Well, some things had changed. Bucky was every bit as insecure as he was before, and in light of recent revelations, he was once again forced to self evaluate what he was and try and make sense of all the broken pieces. And there were many broken pieces. He was all too aware now just what his weak points were after last night. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the ship behind him. He would not repeat Sombra’s mistake. He would keep his family close and keep them as safe as they could be given the situation. 

His legs stopped working as he suffered a flash of memory and he froze in place. He wasn’t just gaining back his memories, he was gaining Sombra’s memories. Whatever the fell shadow had done to him was now merging the remains of Sombra’s mind into his own, but Bucky took consolation in the fact that his mark had remained unchanged. He was still himself. Once again, he had endured, and he was stronger for it. He reminded himself that at one point, Sombra had been a good pony. A powerful defender. A guardian. If he was to continue Sombra’s legacy, if he was to be Sombra’s heir, he would follow in Sombra’s stead, continuing the good that Sombra had done and not repeating Sombra’s mistakes. 

And his mind was filling with Sombra’s many mistakes. 

Bucky rarely made the same mistake twice, and always took time to learn from his errors. And now he had the rare opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge from somepony else’s mistakes. 

Bucky willed his legs to begin working again and he took off limping. 

He pushed the troubling thoughts from his mind and other thoughts rushed in to take their place. He was imbued with shadow essence now, which is how the fell shadow had worked its way into his mind. Sombra had done much the same a long time ago, infusing shadow essence into his horn when he created his replacement. 

A whole new realm of magic now stretched before him. He had infused his horn with shadow to make his spells more effective against the wolves, not fully understanding what would happen when he did. Bucky was going to have to spend time with Sentinel and attempt to study shadow magic so that he could find out what he was now capable of. Shadow diving was certainly possible. Dream magic? He had taken Sentinel’s shadow essence, and he theorised that he should be capable of anything that Sentinel was capable of. 

His mind raced with ideas and new possibilities. New magic. New discoveries awaited. New power. Harmony magic, dark magic, and now shadow magic. Sombra had learned much about shadow, and ideas trickled through Bucky’s mind as Sombra’s memories slowly surfaced in his consciousness. 

In his mind, there was one major difference between him and Sombra’s fallen shadow. The shadow wanted to continue Sombra’s worst work, preserving the pony race in crystal. It was all the fell shadow could think about. It as an obsession. Crystals was the only thing the fell shadow could think about. Bucky shared no such desire. No, he wanted foals. The word had branded itself into his brain. It was all he could think about. Not just his foals, or making foals, but all foals. He would keep them safe. He would treasure them. He would see them safely into adulthood. He would protect his species as Sombra had once done. 

The unicorn shivered as he walked, a strange mania settling into his brain. Celestia had wanted him to teach. She had said that he would make a good teacher. It was Celestia who had made him Dinky’s tutor. She had set him on the path. How much did she know? 

She had said the same words to Sombra, begging him to call off his war, to settle down, and become a teacher. 

Bucky gritted his teeth. When this was over, he would let go and let the war end. He would teach. He would settle into a quiet life with his family, head a school, be a father, and brew beer. And he would let the war end. 

He cringed, feeling another mental barrier break. He felt the corner of his remaining eye twitching. More memories flooded into his mind as they had been doing all day. He had kept himself contained somehow, functioning even as he was breaking down. 

Memories of being a foal and having bad dreams about two red glowing eyes, two glowing coals in a bed of sickly green and a glowing hazy purple aura. A black shadow with a red horn. It had showed him things. Bad things. The awful nightmares. 

Bucky staggered, his legs failing him once again. Ponies were looking at him now. He stood on wobbling legs, trying to reassert control. 

Celestia had shone her light into his mind and had banished the shadow. She had blocked out other things as well. So many other things. A small part of his mind wanted to hate her for it, but that was a dark corner that hated the light. 

Bucky struggled, trying to force his legs to work. He heard himself cry out even though he was not directly aware of doing so. He could feel his new fangs pressing into his lips, he opened and closed his mouth, mindful of his new teeth, and sheathed them behind his lips, carefully hiding them. He could feel the points of his upper fangs peeking out. 

Bucky nearly fell, one front leg buckling. Several pegasi guards emerged from the gatehouse and drew near. 

“Lord Bitters?” one asked. 

Bucky struggled to reply. More things began to break down. It was like a dam springing a small leak and then the water pressure slowly building to make the break larger and larger. He felt a piece of himself break away. 

He had a terrible memory of desiring Dinky and the terrible truth of that fateful day settled into his mind, overwhelming him. He painfully recalled smashing his head into a wall repeatedly to assert his will. The overpowering need he had felt for Dinky. It was also when he had realised how much he loved her. He had held off most of the city of Ponyville that day. He had cracked his horn… the first major event in a long string of events involving his destiny occurred that day. He had used dark magic. 

His legs finally gave way and he fell to the ground. Pegasi were all around him now. “My room,” Bucky croaked. He had been going to see Sentinel and check on his colt, but now he realised that he needed Bon Bon. He felt himself being lifted and he felt dizzy. His vision faded in and out and he saw faces creased with concern. 

“Go find his matriarch,” one pegasi commanded. 

Bucky heard the flapping of wings as he was carried away.



 

Bon Bon frowned with worry as she rubbed Bucky. He had been carried back to the room in quite a state, and now he was slowly calming down under her touch. Lyra was dribbling cool water over his head and Sentinel watched with silent concern from nearby on the bed. 

She couldn’t even tell if Bucky knew she was there. He was muttering about protecting Dinky and his remaining eye rolled around crazily in its socket as his eyelids fluttered. 

“At least he isn’t dangerous,” Lyra whispered. “I do believe he is suffering some after-effects though,” she added with a concerned frown. Her horn flared with golden light and her magical lyre appeared. It began to play a soft tune and Bucky calmed slightly. 

“Good thinking Lyra,” Bon Bon praised. 

Lyra gave the earth pony a half smile and looked down at Bucky. 

His eye closed and his twitching ceased. 

“I’m putting him under,” Lyra announced. “Poor fella needs sleep. He’s been working too hard and then last night happened. Don’t worry Bonnie, I am confident that it is safe for him to sleep,” the unicorn whispered reassuringly. 

Bon Bon leaned down and kissed Bucky behind his ear, which caused his body to start slightly and his ear flickered. “Sleep,” she whispered into his ear. “Your slumber is guarded by those that love you,” she breathed into his ear as she continued to knead his taut muscles along his spine. She felt his body relaxing and felt relieved. 

Bon Bon and Lyra sat in silence and Sentinel quietly watched his father sleep. He crawled forward on his belly over the bed and settled in by Bucky’s side. 

“Are you suffering Sentinel?” Bon Bon inquired in a soft voice after several minutes. 

Sentinel did not reply right away, but after sitting in silence, he finally nodded slightly. 

Lyra retrieved the small drinking glass she had been dribbling water over Bucky’s head with, uncorked the whiskey jug, and poured a jigger into the glass. “I feel funny giving him such strong drink,” Lyra admitted in a soft whisper. 

“We have nothing else,” Bon Bon whispered in reply. “Sentinel, baby, you need to drink some water too, okay?” the earth pony urged. 

Lyra extended her magic and held the glass out to Sentinel’s lips. The colt swallowed the jigger of whiskey in one gulp and grimaced, his body shuddering as he swallowed. 

Lyra conjured up some water in the glass and was getting ready to give it to Sentinel when the door opened. She turned her head and saw a flash of grey. 

“Is he okay?” Derpy said in a quiet voice as she entered. 

“He’s sleeping. I don’t know what happened,” Bon Bon replied. “Lyra put him under.” 

“Good, he needs rest,” the grey pegasus agreed. “How is my colt?” she asked, reaching the bed and touching Sentinel on the nose with her wing. 

“We just gave him some more whiskey,” Lyra replied. 

Derpy’s face remained impassive as she looked down at Sentinel. “We can’t have him suffering,” she stated. 

“Dinky,” Bucky muttered in his sleep. “Safe.” 

Derpy raised her eyebrow. 

“Must keep all foals safe,” Bucky grumbled. 

“When he was brought in he was muttering about foals,” Lyra said to Derpy. “And I remember last night…” the unicorn’s words faded out as she spoke. 

“He’s dreaming already, how odd,” Lyra commented. “Usually when you go to sleep it takes a while to dream. Look, you can see his eye moving just behind his eyelid,” Lyra observed. 

“He’s smiling,” Derpy said, obvious relief in her voice. 

“He does look happy at the moment,” Bon Bon agreed in a low voice. 

Lyra held the glass full of water to Sentinel’s lips and the colt drank greedily. She refilled the glass and Sentinel guzzled the second glass without protest. Afterwards, he laid his head down. In moments, his ears drooped, and not long after, he too went under, blissfully slipping away from his pain. 

Derpy leaned down and kissed the now slumbering colt between his ears. 

“He’s different,” Bon Bon whispered. “He’s clung to Lyra and I all day today while we slept. Usually, he’s squirmy and we have to smoosh him for his own good.” 

“I woke up and he was crying his eyes out,” Lyra said in a low voice.

“He and I talked this morning,” Derpy said to the two mares. 

“He told us,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Called us both mama,” Lyra said. “My heart felt squishy.” 

Bon Bon rolled her eyes at Lyra’s words but said nothing. 

“Before the sun sets, I am going to cast one of those wards here in our room. It is going to take a lot out of me. I am going to need time to recover and I might need somepony to carry me to dinner. Last time I used dark magic I also sneezed for hours. I hope that doesn’t happen again,” Lyra announced.

Derpy closed one eye and focused on Lyra. “I don’t care what you have to do or what kind of magic you resort to. You keep him safe,” Derpy instructed. 

“Got it,” Lyra replied. Her eyes narrowed. “I protect what is mine,” the unicorn said in a forceful whisper. One ear flickered and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. She looked down at Bucky and then her gaze shifted to Sentinel. Her eyes lingered on the colt. And then she brought her gaze up to Derpy. “I want to be a mother,” Lyra whispered. 
	
> Chapter 107
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky slowly awoke, aware somehow that the sun had fallen and that it was dark outside. He could feel it. His first thoughts upon thinking about this peculiar sensation was to wonder if Sentinel felt the same thing. He could hear Lyra’s lyre. There were soft voices. The room was full of ponies. 

He had been having a dream, some pleasant dream, but he could not remember what it was. A warm body at his side moved slightly and Bucky turned his head. Sentinel was beside him, his eyes half open. He turned his head back around and became aware that many eyes were staring at him, all of them filled with concern. 

“On top of the trunk there is a platter of food, we saved you some dinner,” Sparkler said in a low voice. “It is cold, but it is easily heated. I could do it for you if you would like,” she offered. 

“Maybe in a bit,” Bucky replied. “Did Sentinel eat?” he asked. 

“Yes, he ate a little,” Lyra answered. 

Bucky yawned and rubbed his eye with his fetlock. He eased himself away from Sentinel carefully, spilled out of the bed, and disappeared behind the privacy barrier. After several minutes he stepped back out, looked around nervously, still feeling funny about this whole business, and returned to the bed, where he settled down next to Sentinel. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky said to nopony in particular. “Really, I feel okay. I don’t know what happened earlier but I feel fine now,” he said reassuringly. The room was now entirely too quiet. “Somepony say something… all of this awkward silence is unnerving.” 

“Sparkler learned something new,” Loch Skimmer said in a low voice. 

“Did she?” Bucky replied, all too aware of all the concerned eyes focused on him. “What did she learn?” he inquired. 

“She turned to stone,” Loch Skimmer answered. 

“She what?” Bucky questioned with stunned disbelief. 

“I don’t know what happened, Loch Skimmer was tickling me with her wing, I thought I was either going to die from laughter or pee and then suddenly I was stone and we planned to tell you but not like this and I don’t know why Loch Skimmer had to bring this up right now of all times,” Sparkler explained as she glared at her herdmate. 

“She was petrified?” Bucky asked, trying to flog his brain into working. 

“She was stone, but she could move,” Rising Star explained. 

Bucky closed his eye and tried to gather his thoughts. Petrification was a difficult magic and there was still a lot about it that was unknown. Only he wasn’t sure if Sparkler was petrified. He opened his eye and looked at the purple-pink filly intently. “Show me,” he asked in gentle tones filled with curiousity. 

“I don’t know that I can,” Sparkler said. 

Bucky rubbed his head. This was completely new to him. In all of his long studies, he had never heard of a pony turning themselves to stone before. Much less releasing themselves from petrification. 

“Derpy,” Bucky said in a loving voice. “Tickle her. No mercy,” he commanded. 

Derpy raised her eyebrow. She looked at Bucky and then slowly turned her head to Sparkler. “This will be loud and cause a lot of noise,” Derpy said. 

“I’m fine. And Sentinel I think will be okay with it,” Bucky insisted. 

Derpy’s eyes narrowed and she slid from the couch with a wicked looking grin. Her wings spread and her ears perked forward. 

“Mom, no!” Sparkler begged, backing away after slipping over the arm of the sofa. “You are a free mare and you don’t have to do everything your husband says! You have options! Rights!” 

“This is for saying your father has cooties earlier,” Derpy said as she advanced. 

Bucky felt a brief moment of confusion. Cooties? 

The pegasus pounced and tackled the unicorn, bearing her down to the floor. Her wings went slashing in and in moments, Sparkler was subdued and crying out with laughter, pleading for her mother to stop. There were a few laughs from the concerned ponies around the room, which is what Bucky had hoped for. 

He also hoped for other results. 

“I’m gonna pee!” Sparkler cried out breathlessly as she tried to crawl away from her mother. Derpy pulled the filly back and worked with both wings. 

“I like a more direct approach to magical experimentation,” Lyra quipped as she watched with pitched interest. She brushed her mane from her eyes and poked Bon Bon. “Her horn is igniting,” Lyra observed. 

There was a flash of light and a strange crackle. 

And Sparkler looked a bit grey. Derpy ceased her tickle assault and Sparkler rose to her hooves with the scraping sounds of stone. 

“I’m a rock,” Sparkler muttered in a gravelly voice. 

“Extraordinary,” Bucky breathed. Sparkler was living moving stone. “She’s solid,” he stated. “Come here, let me have a better look at you,” Bucky asked. 

As Sparkler moved to Bucky’s side, Derpy whacked her filly on the backside with a hoof. “Ow,” Derpy said, jerking her hoof back. “She really is stone.” 

Bucky grinned a smug looking grin as Sparkler approached. “I knew that it worked,” he said in a low voice. “You don’t get this sort of magical manifestation from type twos,” he muttered. There was a gleam in his eye, a sort of manic fire and the unicorn looked very pleased with himself. 

Sparkler reached Bucky’s side and stood still at the edge of the bed. Each step had been a stony stomp and Bucky had been able to determine that Sparkler’s mass had also increased. Already, the spell was wearing off and bits of purple-pink were beginning to show as the stone faded into flesh.

“If something was to try and bite her while she was in her stony state, it would shatter their teeth,” Bucky stated as he peered at the remaining stony patches. A troubled look appeared on Bucky’s face. “You should be careful tickling Rising Star. He’s a pyromancer. No telling what he might do if he feels like he is in danger,” Bucky quipped. 

“I am well aware of the fact that I could burst into flames,” Rising Star muttered. 

“I learned some new magic today,” Dinky said. She looked nervous after speaking. “Nothing special like Sparkler though,” she added, now staring down at the sofa where she was sitting. 

Bucky reached out with his magic, gently took up Dinky, and then grabbed Piña for good measure. He levitated them to the bed and set them down before him. 

“New magic?” he asked. 

The two foals looked nervous and neither would look him in the eye. Ripple made a choking sound and covered her face with her wings. 

“Dinky, did you do something mischievous? It is okay if you did, these things happen. Just so long as nopony gets hurt,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

Dinky wanted more than anything to melt into a puddle and disappear. There were entirely too many adult eyes now staring at her. She swallowed, looked at Piña, and wished she had kept her mouth shut. 

“Dinky figured out how to see through her bees,” Piña blurted out. 

“Good job Dinks,” Bucky said as he leaned forward. He kissed Dinky on the cheek and Dinky froze. She closed her eyes. Bucky felt puzzled at the odd response. Usually Dinky was far more affectionate. 

“Dinky saw you and her,” Piña said as she pointed at Derpy. “She could see both of you through her bee,” Piña continued. 

Ripple fell apart with nervous giggles on the sofa and buried her face into Bon Bon’s side, unable to contain herself. 

Bucky felt confused. Dinky was now blushing purple. 

“You had your muzzle in the place where foals come out,” Piña said bluntly, unable to contain herself any longer. 

Dinky fell over limply on the bed, Ripple continued to chortle, and Piña looked Bucky directly in his eye. 

“I am sure you had a very good reason,” Piña stated. 

“I was saying thank you to her for bearing my foals. I was making her feel good,” Bucky answered with soft honesty. 

“Did you say thank you to my sister-mama?” Piña asked, figuring that now was as good of a time as any to try her new word. 

“Yes, I said thank you to Berry,” Bucky replied with a half smile. 

Piña’s eyes narrowed and she looked over at Berry, who was sitting on the sofa and struggling to keep a straight face. “Adults are weird,” she commented. 

“So you figured out remote viewing?” Bucky said as he pulled Dinky to him. Dinky squirmed in his grasp but he continued to hold her with his foreleg. He endured a powerful flash of memory of the day that Dinky had cast the “want it need it” spell. He pushed it from his mind and instead focused on the revelation that he actually loved her. 

Dinky settled against him and looked up at him with her mother’s amber eyes. “This is awkward,” she whispered. 

Bucky kissed her softly, causing her to squirm. 

“I was able to link my mind to a bee,” Dinky reported. 

Bucky nodded and looked pleased. Around him, he could hear the soft sounds of conversations, murmurings, as the other ponies in the room slowly went back to doing other things. 

“Dinky could probably touch minds with other bugs. We can use her bugs to find wolf dens,” Piña announced. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow. “I have such clever fillies,” he praised. 

“Piña said I would need to touch minds with flies, because flies would be around poop, and poop is found wherever things are living, like ponies and wolves. Piña doesn’t think that bees would be good for finding a wolf den and I think she’s right,” Dinky explained. 

Piña maneuvered herself around on the bed and resituated herself near Sentinel. She lifted his head and cradled it in her forelegs. The lunar pegasus foal let out a muffled sounding sigh and did not squirm away from Piña’s gentle embrace. 

“I can spy on everything,” Dinky said. 

Piña nodded and continued to hold Sentinel. 

“And I could send bees to sting the wolves when I find them,” Dinky announced. “Maybe make them run into the sunlight.” 

“That would kill them,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“Why does the sun kill the wolves but not Sentinel?” Piña inquired. 

“The wolves are corrupted and unnatural. Princess Celestia’s sun is an anathema to them-”

“What’s an anathema?” Dinky asked, interrupting her father mid sentence. 

“It means a curse… a bane, a punishing force,” Piña replied. 

“Piña, how?” Bucky asked, feeling more than a little stupefied. 

Piña shrugged. “I like reading,” she muttered. 

“Princess Celestia works magic through her sun and she cleanses the earth of dangerous things. Well, some dangerous things. Other things, very powerful forces of darkness, can protect themselves from her sun for short periods of time or learn how to avoid it completely, slipping from shadow to shadow. The corrupted wolves can’t bear to be in its light. It burns them,” Bucky explained. “Sentinel is a shadow creature, but he isn’t an abomination. He’s a pony, just like us,” Bucky said as his mind began to fill with new information, Sombra’s memories rushing in like a flood. 

Bucky gasped as what felt like an entire library filled his head all at once. The effect was physically and mentally painful. He struggled to keep his mind focused as new knowledge flooded in.

“The lunar pegasi started out as corrupted versions of the solar pegasi. They were warped, twisted, and changed. They lost their ability to walk on clouds and work with the weather. They gained the ability to slip into shadow, to dabble in dreams, and become at one with the night. They were changed forever. They became terrors to other ponies. They ate meat. Princess Luna restored their equinity, as she had dominion over all creatures of the night and creatures of shadow. And the lunar pegasi became our night time protectors, keeping us safe from fell shadows and the terrors of the night. And to this day, the lunar pegasi revere Princess Luna for restoring their equinity and driving away their dark taint,” Bucky said. 

Sentinel’s ears were perked and his eyes were now fully opened. He said nothing, but his face was expressive. 

“A unicorn named Sombra led them against a powerful undead dragon, the Scourge of the North,” Bucky continued. “Many of them died. It was a costly battle. But the lunar pegasi proved their worth and the solar ponies of the day began to trust them. It was a hard battle for Sombra,” Bucky said in a wavering voice. “In the end, after everything he had sacrificed, he felt that it was worth it to have restored the faith of the solar ponies in their nighttime kin.” 

Piña stroked Sentinel gently and kissed his ear. She then looked up at Bucky. “But they still tell scary stories about lunar pegasi,” she said sadly. 

“Some ponies are more open minded than others,” Bucky replied. “And ponies are always afraid of what they don’t know. Plus, some ponies hold to certain preconceived notions because it helps them make sense of the world. Unicorns are snobs. Pegasi are brutes. Earth ponies are numbskulls.” 

Piña nodded slowly, trying to understand. 

“Is Lyra a snob?” Bucky asked. In the background, he heard Lyra’s voice go silent. 

“No, Lyra likes making farty noises and telling gross jokes,” Dinky answered. 

Bucky heard a chortle from the sofa and felt himself smile. 

“Am I a snob?” he asked. 

“You used to be,” Piña replied bluntly. “But you are getting better.” 

“Thank you Piña,” Bucky said graciously. “Is Derpy a brute? What about Loch Skimmer or Ripple for that matter?” 

“My mama is the most gentle pony I know,” Dinky said defensively. 

“Ripple made us feel better when we were scared last night. She was very careful with us,” Piña said. She looked up and over at Ripple, aware that she was being watched. “And Loch is too timid to hurt anything. She’s like me,” the foal added. 

“Is Berry Punch a numbskull?” Bucky asked in serious tones. He heard loud snort from across the room. 

“Well, sometimes,” Piña replied. 

“Piña!” Berry cried from the sofa. “You little booger face!” 

“Berry Punch and Piña are smart,” Dinky said. “Piña knows what the word ‘anathema’ means,” she offered as evidence. 

“So is Sentinel a scary pony eating terror of the night?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Piña said with a frown. “And if somepony called him that I would… I would…” the foal stammered as she tried to express her anger. “I would black their eye,” she said in a small frightened voice. She hugged Sentinel’s head to her barrel, causing the colt to grunt.

“Sometimes ponies stick to things they think they know because it is easier to live with assumptions than it is to do the work needed to understand something or try something new,” Bucky said to his foals. “As a species, we don’t always embrace new things or different things. Like Ponyville when Zecora came to town,” he explained. 

“So what is Thistle?” Dinky asked. “We have snobs, brutes, numbskulls, and pony eating terrors… what is she?” 

Thistle fell silent at Dinky’s words. She slipped from the sofa, came over to the bed, and eased herself down beside Bucky. 

“I don’t know yet, I’d need to think about it,” Bucky said as he felt Thistle’s tail flick his backside. 

“Will Ponyville accept her?” Piña asked, her voice full of foalish concern. “I mean, ponies there still have trouble with Zecora.” 

“I hope so,” Bucky said, closing his eye. 

“You need to eat,” Dinky said, poking her father in the snoot with her hoof. “As for Thistle, she’ll have us to look after her.” Dinky smiled as she saw her father open his eye.

Bucky pulled the platter to himself with his magic and stared down at his food. 

“I’m sleepy,” Piña announced. She yawned, setting off a flurry of yawns all around the room. She kissed Sentinel’s head once again and then gently lowered his head down to the bed. She lay down beside him and carefully curled up at his side, mindful not to bump him too much or touch his wounded places. 

“There is so much to do,” Bucky said as he began to tuck into his food. It was going to be a long night. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 108
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Most of his herd was sleeping, and Bucky took comfort in seeing them at peace. One by one they had dozed off, Derpy being the last of them, and he watched them as they all settled in. There were two distinct piles on the bed. Two groups that existed as one herd. 

Lyra and Bon Bon were on the sofa beside him, talking in low voices to one another as Bucky stared into the flames of the fire. His remaining eye glittered in the firelight, and his face was pensive. 

“Bucky?” Bon Bon said, interrupting his thoughts. 

“Yes Bonnie?” he replied. 

“I am to send you to bed the moment you begin to look tired. And no working in the lab tonight. Derpy and Berry Punch both made me promise,” Bon Bon said. 

Bucky groaned. He had made plans. His ears splayed out sideways as he grumbled wordlessly and Bon Bon gently prodded him in the side. 

“No grumbling,” Bon Bon insisted. 

He gave the mare a reproachful look and slumped over in a pout. 

“Lyra, he is just as bad as you are,” Bon Bon huffed as Bucky gave her the stinkeye. 

“So I can’t go to the lab and work, I can’t sleep because I’ve already snoozed through most of the afternoon, and all I can do is sit here and think about how badly I want to screw somepony,” Bucky muttered. 

Bon Bon closed her eyes and shook her head. Lyra realised that Bon Bon was silently counting to ten just like she usually did when Lyra had done something to upset her. Lyra tensed, and waited for the scolding that was sure to come. 

“Bucky, what has gotten into you? You… you… there was time when you would have been mortified at the very idea of saying such a crass and vulgar statement,” Bon Bon said in a low voice. 

Lyra slumped. So much for the scolding. It just wasn’t fair. Bon Bon was going entirely too easy on Bucky, and Lyra could not help but feel a little miffed at how everything was playing out. 

“I’ve changed,” Bucky whispered. “I’ve realised what is important in life. Two of them are are on the sofa here with me, and the rest of them are piled in the bed over there.” 

Bon Bon felt herself blushing as she thought about Bucky’s words. “I am very flattered Bucky,” she whispered. 

“He sent them away Bon Bon,” Bucky murmured. 

“Who sent what away?” Bon Bon inquired, her eyes narrowing in concern. She reached out and touched Bucky gently, stroking him softly. 

“Sombra. He sent away his foals. He sent away his family. He wanted to keep them safe. But they weren’t there to keep him safe. And there was nopony left that he trusted enough to screw,” Bucky replied. 

Bon Bon bit her lip and tried to calm herself, telling herself that Bucky just wasn’t himself at the moment. She reached up with her foreleg and brushed her mane away from her face, the fire made her feel warm. At least, she hoped it was the fire. 

“Screwing is very important,” Bucky continued in a low whisper. “It makes foals. It reaffirms our love for one another. It builds trust.” 

“And it feels good,” Lyra quipped. 

Bon Bon glared at one unicorn and then the other. 

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed. “It feels good too,” he added.

“Bucky, I am slightly worried about you,” Bon Bon whispered as she lightly leaned on Bucky. 

“We unicorns isolate ourselves too much from life. We don’t act like ponies. We hold back too much. We send our foals away. And we go mad. We go mad because we lose touch with being an equine,” Bucky stated. “We forget how to laugh,” he grumbled. 

“Well, some unicorns,” Bon Bon interjected. 

“Sombra forgot what life felt like and the killing couldn’t be stopped. Perhaps things would have been different if he had somepony to screw. Somepony to distract him,” Bucky’s eye fell on the pile of mares in the bed. “Someponies,” he corrected. 

“Stop using the word ‘screw’ Bucky!” Bon Bon chided in a soft voice. 

“We have to release somehow,” Bucky continued. “Lots of screwing keeps us busy. Gives us release. If not screwing, then killing. An endless state of war and constant magical release. Still results in madness, but it is a lucid madness. You’re just kill crazy. But no screwing and no endless state of war?” Bucky asked of nopony in particular. “You are forced to just hold it all in. Everything. All of this magic and no way to let it go, and it poisons your mind. It makes you crazy.” 

“Bucky, stop, you’re scaring me because you are ranting and making sense,” Lyra pleaded. 

“The unicorns in Canterlot, they’ve stopped screwing. And there is no endless state of war to give them release. So they sit in their towers trying to hold everything back. We’ve turned to art and music as a substitute for creation. We focus on holding everything in and letting it out in regularly scheduled releases, careful releases, but we were never meant to work that way… we’re equines,” Bucky said with a maniacal cackle that punctuated his words. 

“Bucky,” Bon Bon said soothingly. 

“We’re meant to laugh and play. Do things on a whim. Be spontaneous. Do things when the mood strikes us,” Bucky said. 

“Bucky, please, you are ran-” 

Bon Bon’s words were cut off as Bucky’s lips closed over her own. Bon Bon felt herself go limp in his grasp. The kiss was warm, loving, but also seemed to have some boundaries because there was no tongue. Bucky pulled away with a wet smack. 

“Love you Bonnie,” Bucky whispered breathlessly. 

Bon Bon struggled to sit up on her own and fell over on Lyra as she pushed herself away from Bucky. She fanned herself with her hoof, feeling rather hot and flustered. 

“How long has it been since you two have been muzzle deep in one another? I know that getting some privacy around here must be tricky. So how about you take Lyra down to the lab and make her scream your name over and over?” Bucky suggested. “I’ve soundproofed the whole thing.” 

Bon Bon lifted her head and looked at Lyra, who was looking back at her with a needy look. She then struggled to sit upright and tried to compose herself. She leaned over and kissed Bucky lightly on the corner of his mouth, stroked his face tenderly, and then gave Lyra a meaningful prod. 

Bucky watched as the two mares slipped away, going out the door, and then he was by himself. He felt extremely pleased with himself. He wanted them to be happy and they needed time with one another, time he suspected that they had not had in a while. 

He sat in the silence, pondering the changes in his mind. The peat bale in the fireplace crackled and popped and the firelight created flickering shadows on the wall. He heard a rustling sound as something moved in the bed. 

He saw Sentinel extract himself from the pony pile. The colt moved stiffly, trying to flex his wings without stretching out the burned skin. He disappeared behind the privacy barrier and Bucky found himself looking away. He gazed into the fireplace, watching the flames. 

Several minutes later, Sentinel crawled up onto the sofa and sprawled out. 

“Hurting much?” Bucky asked in a low whisper. 

“It hurts a lot,” Sentinel admitted. “But I can’t sleep anymore. I want to be awake for a while. Please don’t make me drink,” the colt requested. 

“Sit with me for a while Sentinel,” Bucky said. 

“I saw everything,” Sentinel said in a haunted whisper. “Even as I prowled around the castle trying to avoid the wolves, it was like I could see through your eyes as well,” he explained. “I felt everything too,” he added. 

“I am sorry Sentinel,” Bucky whispered soothingly. 

“He said I wasn’t fit to be your son,” Sentinel whimpered as he began to snuffle. “That hurt more than when he cast spells at me,” the colt stated.

Bucky tried to swallow the painful lump in his throat. He lifted Sentinel carefully in his magic and then eased the colt into his careful embrace, trying to not touch him along his withers. He placed one foreleg under Sentinel’s backside and the other around the back of Sentinel’s neck, above the burn, and held Sentinel to his barrel, while Bucky rested his back against the sofa. He could feel Sentinel’s tears on his shoulder. 

“That isn’t true Sentinel. Don’t you believe that for a second,” Bucky whispered. 

“He said I have the bloodline of a common cur,” Sentinel sobbed. 

Bucky closed his eye and tried to hold back a moment of rage. He could feel it in his horn, manifesting as magical pressure. 

“That doesn’t matter Sentinel, now hush,” Bucky whispered. He could feel the colt sobbing. He sat there with his eye closed, feeling an odd mixture of rage, pity, love, and sorrow. 

He felt a bit startled when he felt another warm body ease in next to him on the sofa. He opened his eye and turned his head to see into his blind spot. 

“Sorry if I scared you,” Derpy apologised. 

“I’m sorry if we woke you,” Bucky whispered. 

“A mother tends to wake up when she hears her foal crying,” Derpy said as she leaned on Bucky and carefully touched Sentinel with her snoot. She reached out carefully with her wing and wiped the wetness away from Bucky’s cheek. “Where are Lyra and Bon Bon?” she asked. 

“They’re having a private moment with one another in the lab,” Bucky replied. 

“Oh good,” Derpy said as she continued to try and comfort Sentinel, who seemed inconsolable. The pegasus made made soft cooing sounds into Sentinel’s ear, causing the tufted ear to flicker and twitch. 

“You are my son and my squire. In that order. You are my son first and foremost. And you are to never forget that,” Bucky whispered. 

The colt made no reply, but buried his face into the crook of Bucky’s shoulder and neck. 

“Lots of ponies will say that words can’t hurt you, but they can,” Derpy whispered to the colt. “I heard what you said. Those words were heartless and I know they hurt you.” 

Sentinel lifted his face away from Bucky and peeked at Derpy with one eye. 

“Ponies tease me about my eyes and because I am clumsy. And when I feel hurt about it, there are ponies who say even worse things like “words can’t hurt you” and that I am stupid because I can’t ignore what other ponies say about me,” Derpy whispered tenderly.

Bucky leaned over and planted a kiss on the grey mare’s cheek. 

“Those words really hurt me more than anypony will ever realise, because I believed what ponies said about me, and I kept everypony away from me, and I hurt myself,” Derpy admitted. “When I met Bucky, I didn’t think anypony would ever love a clumsy oaf like me. But there he was,” the mare stated in a soft voice. 

Sentinel squirmed in Bucky’s grasp, wiggled around, cried out from the skin on his back stretching, and then he  wrapped his forelegs around Derpy’s neck. He squeezed. 

“Make no mistake, you are our son. Every mare in this herd is your mother and we all love you. Bucky is your father, now and forever, and nothing anypony says will ever change that. And I know that he will do anything for you,” Derpy said into the colt’s ear. “Anything… because he would do the same for Dinky or Piña.” 

Sentinel quieted in the embrace of his parents, the occasional shuddering snuffle escaping him as he nestled into their bodies. 

“I am done being the big tough colt for a while,” Sentinel whispered. “This feels nice,” he admitted with a sigh. 

“I never thought I’d be doing this,” Bucky confessed. 

“Doing what?” Derpy asked in a low silky voice. She sounded pleased. 

“Being a father. And this is planting me right in the thick of it. Usually, you become a father, you have a little foal, and you get to learn about being a parent as a foal grows up. You start off with little things, like feeding one end and wiping the other end and move on to more difficult things,” Bucky whispered. 

Derpy smiled and stroked Sentinel over his cutie mark. 

“But I got plunged right into the hard stuff right away and I am so worried that I am going to mess up,” Bucky confessed in a low strained whisper. “The girls. And now Sentinel. And seeing Sentinel like this has me confused,” Bucky said. 

“Let me guess, you thought that little colts were somehow tougher than little fillies?” Derpy asked in gentle tones. 

“Yes,” Bucky confessed. “Sentinel seemed so durable.” 

“All foals have fragile hearts. Even you,” Derpy said. 

“Me?” Bucky questioned. 

“You are a big foal,” Derpy insisted. 

Bucky scowled. “Maybe I am,” he acquiesced. He leaned over and pressed his snoot into Derpy’s ear. “This foal needs more time with your teats,” he whispered salaciously. 

“I heard that,” Sentinel grumbled. 

“Sorry Sentinel, like I said, Bucky is a foal,” Derpy said apologetically. 

The trio lapsed into silence and after a long while of just enjoying their closeness, Bucky realised that Derpy had fallen asleep. He could feel Sentinel’s warm body against his and the soft inhalations and exhalations the colt made. 

After sitting in the dark for what felt like hours, with Derpy and Sentinel pressed against him sleeping, the door finally opened. Lyra and Bon Bon returned, both of them grinning ear to ear. 

“Have a good screw?” Bucky whispered. 
		
	
> Chapter 109
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sleepiness finally overtook Bucky. He carried himself and those he loved back to the bed. He carefully settled both himself as well as Derpy and Sentinel into the bed, easing in gently so he wouldn’t disturb anypony. He reveled in their warmth and the sounds of their breathing. 

As Bucky drifted off to sleep, his mind reflected upon all of the changes that he had endured, and it occurred to him that with his coming struggle against the wolves, protecting his skin with a suit of armor would not have been enough. 

He needed Sombra’s sense of steely resolve, a means to armor his insides. For all of the terror he had endured, the fear of losing himself, the fear of losing his family, he had gained something he needed. Something he was lacking. He had come away from the nightmarish experience a greater pony. 

He could feel the steady rise and fall of Thistle’s warm body beneath his head as sleep came to claim him and pull him into the slumbering realms. He felt Berry shift and push herself against his side. He could hear the voices of Bon Bon and Lyra, and they sounded distant. He could hear their happiness. Even amidst all the darkness, they were happy. 

The last sensation he felt was a rush of gratitude, thankful to no end that the bodies around him were warm and breathing. 



 

An all too familiar expanse of grey stretched out all around him and Bucky knew right away where he was. Tartarus, on Sombra’s purgatory plane. An odd sense of calm settled over him as he peered around, looking for two figures that would be wanting to see him. 

He didn’t have to wait for very long. He could see them in the distance, drawing closer. He thought briefly about a thousand years trapped in this place, with nothing to do but walk around and talk. He wondered if they had ran out of things to talk about long ago. 

He also thought about the love that must sustain them. 

He trotted off in their direction, eager to meet them, to talk to them, a hopeful feeling permeating through his bones. These were his grandparents. His family. And family was all one really had in the world along with friends, who were really just the family members that you chose to have, rather than the ones given to you by blood. 

“Are you free yet?” Bucky asked as they drew close. 

“Not yet,” Sombra replied. 

“We are hopeful though,” Platinum stated in a musical sounding voice. 

Bucky’s ears dropped. “I kind of knew the answer, but I was hoping that with the recent nightmarish sequence of events that something might have changed,” he said disappointedly. 

“Nopony has ever come this far. Most have slipped into darkness long before reaching this point,” Sombra said as he raised his head proudly. 

“I fell into darkness as well,” Bucky said in shame. 

“You used dark magic… you tapped your inner darkness. But you have not failed. Not yet,” Platinum said encouragingly. 

“We saw everything. Just as we have always seen everything. Forced to watch as soul after soul falls away into darkness. It has been difficult to endure,” Sombra explained in a pained voice. 

“I need to know, what would have happened if I had killed myself in the dream?” Bucky inquired in a low strained voice. “I need to know, please tell me,” he pleaded. 

Platinum made a pained groan in the base of her throat and squirmed. Her eyes closed and she struggled with some great internal conflict. She reached out with a foreleg, wrapped it around Bucky’s neck, and pulled him close. She held her distant grandfoal for several minutes, saying nothing, wrestling with some great inner pain. 

“Had you killed yourself in the dream,” Sombra began. 

“Sombra’s shadow would have claimed your body. That was his plan. What made you what you are, what made you you would have died and he would have seized your body. And when your body woke, it would have been his body. And he would have been free to continue his rampage,” Platinum continued. 

Bucky reeled from the revelation and felt his hind legs give way. His backside hit the grey expanse and he felt Platinum holding him ever tighter. She was sitting now as well, and she pulled him closer. 

“I miss holding my foals. I loved them dearly. I was such a spoiled little princess… I was a terrible noble. My foals taught me so much and made me a better pony,” Platinum said with a sniffle. 

“You were unbearably stuck up,” Sombra agreed. 

Platinum turned her head and shot her husband a dirty look. “You do not need to agree so readily,” she snapped. 

“Sentinel saved us all,” Bucky murmured, ignoring the banter between the couple. “He might have saved all life in Equestria.” 

“Hmm?” Platinum inquired. 

“Sentinel. He saved us all, didn’t he? When he came into my head and pulled me out? If I would have killed myself and that fell entity would have taken my body, he… he would have killed them all upon waking, wouldn’t he?” Bucky asked in a trembling voice that dripped with fear. 

Sombra and Platinum both looked terribly sad, their momentary squabble forgotten. Platinum nodded slowly, and then she pressed the side of her face against Bucky’s. 

“He had one chance at taking you over, and now it is gone,” Sombra said. 

“So he can’t try again?” Bucky asked as he leaned into his grandmare’s embrace. 

“I do not think so,” Sombra said. “You know too much now, and your mind is far too aware. To try and take you now would be foolish, and would only be done out of desperation. You would be far too difficult to take now,” Sombra explained. 

Bucky took comfort in the words spoken by Sombra as Platinum continued to squeeze him. She was humming something, and it sounded like a lullabye of some sort. It was soothing and it settled his mind. 

“I have so many questions now that I am aware of so much more,” Bucky said. 

“Like what?” Sombra asked. 

“Do they actually love me?” Bucky inquired. 

“I am not sure what you mean,” Sombra replied as he sat down next to Platinum. 

“My wives… do they love me because they want to love me or do they love me because Celestia manipulated them into loving me?” Bucky asked in a strangled voice. “She crafted so many chains to bind me… he showed me everything.” 

Sombra sighed and leaned on Platinum. “Lies can be found in truth and truth can be found in lies. Love does not work that way. You cannot create something from nothing, you will end up with poison that will rot the soul,” he answered. “Celestia had to have something to work with. The seeds were already planted. She simply cultivated them… she created the perfect opportunities for growth. And Cadance fertilised the soil, so to speak. It has been difficult on Celestia, watching so many fall into darkness. This time, she listened to my advice, and played to win. She may have cheated a bit, but can you fault her?” Sombra asked. 

“It is only cheating if you get caught,” Platinum muttered. “I much prefer to call it “unicorn cleverness” because cheating is such an ugly word,” she added distastefully. 

“What of Thistle? Celestia has had no influence upon her, and she loves you a great deal. Do you doubt that?” Sombra inquired patiently. 

“I’ve figured out how to communicate with the living through paintings made of me, and that isn’t cheating, I am merely bending the rules just a little bit,” Platinum grumbled. 

Sombra rolled his eyes and wrapped a foreleg around Bucky. “What of Sentinel, who loved you enough to brave the darkness of your mind and endures such agony even now? He is completely free of Celestia’s influence. He did what he did of his own volition,” Sombra stated. 

“Sentinel is far more worthy as my heir than those sniveling little snots calling themselves my foals,” Platinum muttered in disgust. “I plan to tell Celestia that too,” she groused. 

Bucky took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“You are loved because you are worthy of being loved,” Sombra insisted. 

“So what do I do now?” Bucky asked. 

“Continue on as you have been doing. Play with your foals. Drink strong drink. Indulge yourself in hot wet mareflesh every chance you get and - OW!” Sombra recoiled mid-sentence as Platinum whacked him over his head with her hoof. “Learn to evade,” Sombra suggested. “I swear, you hit like a pegasus, where did you learn how to do that?” 

“Pansy, you nitwit, or have you forgotten all the times she had to set you straight?” Platinum replied. She glared at Sombra fiercely. “You unleashed that oaf Hurricane on her and he read to her the most horrible poetry to try and win her affections. You deserved every lump she put on your skull!” 

Sombra slumped in shame. 

Platinum cleared her throat and continued. “Deal with the wolves Buckminster. Smite them. Destroy them. Free the isles. Keep to your oath… do not bring harm to another equine. Be the guardian you were meant to be. Go home and aid Celestia. Serve the empire,” she commanded.

“You said that Celestia would restore my memory in time, when I was ready… but I have my memories now. I have them but I am not ready for them, am I?" Bucky inquired. 

Sombra shook his head sadly. “It was a cunning blow to attempt to undermine your strength. You have endured somehow,” the elder stallion stated. 

“Unicorn cleverness,” Bucky muttered, causing Platinum to give him a sour look. 

“No dear, that was cheating,” she corrected. “Dirty fighting. The act of a coward,” she said with a haughty sniff. 

“It isn’t cheating when we do it?” Bucky asked, his head cocked to the side quizzically. 

“Well of course not. When we do it, it is unicorn cleverness,” Platinum said dismissively. She rolled her eyes and gave Bucky a squeeze. “How did you make it as far as you have? You are so thick headed,” she said in a lovingly worried voice. 

Bucky blinked a few times. “I am too stupid to quit?” he offered. 

“Perhaps,” Platinum replied. She kissed Bucky on his cheek and stroked his face with her fetlock. “You just continue being stupid and I think you will be fine. It softens a mare’s heart knowing she has to look after a soft headed nitwit,” she said as she cast a meaningful glance at Sombra. 

“Seeing both of you like this…” Bucky said, not knowing what else to say. 

“Celestia wanted you to see how we were in life. Previously we were on our best behaviour. We do not get visitors very often,” Sombra explained. 

“Celestia was bound in chains… he said that what I saw in the dream is what I wanted. Is that true?” Bucky inquired, knowing that he was heading into dangerous territory. 

“There may be a grain of truth there. The part of your mind that carries the dark taint certainly feels that way. You can free yourself of that however,” Sombra replied. 

Bucky struggled to internalise the thought. Three princesses in chains and Cadance dead. He felt a now familiar lump rise up into this throat. “I do not want that,” he whispered in a strained voice. 

“Then do not allow it to happen,” Platinum said soothingly into Bucky’s ear. 

“I would rather be Celestia and Luna’s servant, a worthy protector to Cadance’s foal, and a guardian to Twilight the Scholar,” Bucky stated. “Cadance is pregnant, isn’t she?” 

“I do not know,” Platinum answered as Sombra shrugged. 

“How much does Twilight know about this?” Bucky inquired. “And if Star Swirl had trouble with friends, how did he have foals?” 

“Twilight has restored her half of Star Swirl’s corrupted destiny spell and is even now as we speak further enduring her trials and tribulations. She is slowly learning her role in all of this. She is atoning for Star Swirl’s many failings. She will reclaim Star Swirl’s mantle of Scholar, just as we are feeling confident that you will inherit Sombra’s mantle of Guardian,” Platinum explained. 

“But if Star Swirl was such a stick in the mud…” Bucky said, referring to his earlier question. 

“My brother had wives. Several. He met with them once a year during their heat, got roaring drunk, indulged them, and then secured himself back in his tower,” Sombra answered. 

Bucky cringed. “That’s awful,” he muttered. “So I guess I got the short end of the stick when it came to fate… when destiny decided my role in the universe,” Bucky said, changing the subject. 

“What do you mean?” Platinum inquired. 

“Twilight gets to be Princess Celestia’s personal student, is fated to secure herself in a library living a mostly comfortable life, but I get to go out to some wretched isles, get chewed on by wolves, branded with white hot irons, and I am haunted by my long dead however-many greats grandfather’s shadow. She gets sunshine, rainbows, and friendship, and I get darkness and pain,” Bucky complained. 

“Very different things are expected from a warrior,” Sombra said solemnly. 

“You got to keep both of your eyes!” Bucky snapped. 

Sombra’s expression became pained and he squeezed Bucky close for a moment. 

“I had something chewing on my face! CHEWING! And on my legs. It tore a chunk out of my side. And I can remember all too well the feeling of something scraping around the inside of my eye socket as they fished out the remains of my ruined eye when Keg Smasher tried to save what was left of my body. Those wolves didn’t wait for me to die before they started eating me. They drained my life,” Bucky snarled. 

“And Twilight remains whole of body, secured in her library…” Platinum whispered, trying to calm her grandfoal’s nerves. 

Bucky nodded. 

“She has suffered as well. In a different way perhaps, but she has known suffering. Perhaps once all of this over, you two should sit down and have a long talk. It would be a wise thing to do, seeing as how both of you are meant to restore the balance. The scales must be corrected,” Platinum continued. 

“The symbol of House Avarice is a set of scales,” Bucky commented, his flash of anger now cooling off. 

“Yes it is. Perhaps it is time for them to take on a new meaning,” Sombra suggested. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “When I go home, I am dismantling House Avarice. I will live to see their end. I do not plan to hurt them, but they cannot be allowed to continue to exist,” Bucky stated forcefully. 

“Be careful,” Sombra warned. “This is how it starts. First the wolves. Then House Avarice. When does the war end Bucky?” the elder stallion asked bluntly. 

Bucky flinched. “But I am meant to be a guardian,” he said in reply. 

“And as guardian, is it now your place to dismantle your former house?” Platinum inquired as she lovingly stroked Bucky’s chest. She kissed him softly on his cheek and looked at him sadly. 

“They are a threat to Equestria,” Bucky retorted halfheartedly. 

“More than you know,” Platinum said. 

“How am I to be a guardian if I don’t go out and battle Equestria’s foes?” Bucky asked in confusion, unable to process the seemingly conflicting ideals. 

“If we are to ever be free of this place, you must figure that out,” Sombra said. “I have no answers for you. I failed,” he stated in a voice that trembled with raw emotion. 

“I wasn’t there to place much needed lumps on his head,” Platinum said sadly. 

“Oh little miss high and mighty… Princess of Perfection. Like your life was free of mistakes,” Sombra grumbled as he rolled his eyes. “Buckminster, unlike you, I had no choice in the matter. I had to marry her.” 

“Ooooh you… thug!” Platinum squealed. “I was the best thing that ever happened to you! How could you?” she squeaked. 

“You didn’t want to marry me, you had to be tied up in rope, drugged to stop your magic, and then brought to the marriage,” Sombra muttered. 

“Pansy, Clover, and Smart Cookie did what was best for me,” Platinum retorted. “I learned to love you… I did love you! I still love you! I am here with you now you cretinous pudding snooted oaf!” 

Bucky raised his eyebrow and looked at his ancestors. 

“I even forgave you for our wedding night you creep!” Platinum shouted. 

“Woah, wait, wedding night?” Bucky said, attempting to pull away from Sombra. 

“I am sorry dear, it is not what it sounds like,” Platinum said, her tone softening. 

“Funny story actually,” Sombra said, not relaxing his hold on Bucky. 

“He never did anything untoward towards me,” Platinum explained. 

“And it made her angry,” Sombra stated. 

“Well of course it did! I was in bed with you, tied up, drugged so I could not use my magic, and you rolled over and tried to go to sleep you inconsiderate pile of dragon droppings!” Platinum shrieked. 

Sombra slumped and looked guilty. 

“I thought I was not worthy for him. There I was, tied up, helpless, probably the most desirable mare of the age, and he rolled over and tried to sleep. I had never felt more insulted in my whole life,” Platinum fumed as her voice softened. 

“You begged me to not have my way with you,” Sombra grumbled. 

“Well, I did, that is true, but then you just rolled over and ignored me,” Platinum said with a sniffle. 

“I am very confused,” Bucky admitted. 

“So was I,” Sombra announced. 

“Did you want him to ra-hhmmmph!” Bucky’s words were cut off as a pearlescent white hoof was forcefully jammed into his mouth. 

“Tut tut, no using such foul language around a lady and your grandmare,” Platinum scolded. She looked at Bucky, her eyes full of blazing intensity. “I was already his by marriage,  I figured I would make the most of it, and I expected him to at least attempt to woo me, or at least offer me some kind words and reassurance before he took me, but no, he had to roll over and try to go to sleep,” she explained. “So insulting,” she murmured, her hoof still planted in Bucky’s mouth. She pulled her hoof free, shook the slobber from it, and still feeling damp, wiped it on Sombra. 

“She was inconsolable, and she bawled hysterically, making it almost impossible to sleep. So I untied her and then tried to roll back over and go to sleep, thinking she would escape out the door. At this point, I was ready to let her go… I could always hunt her down later, or so I figured,” Sombra said, smiling as he told the story. He seemed unphased by the slobbery hoof wiped over his chest. 

“So very rude,” Platinum quipped, rolling her eyes. 

“So she curls up against my back, sobbing, and asking me why I did not find her desirable. And she just would not stop. At some point, I felt sorry for her, even though I was rather irritated because I really wanted to sleep. So I rolled over and held her and tried to make her feel better,” Sombra said as he pulled Platinum a little closer and squeezed Bucky as well. 

“At some point during all of this, I fell in love with the oaf,” Platinum interjected. “He was just holding me, nothing more, not taking liberties with my body, or anything untoward. He could have. It was his right to do so.” 

“This is really awkward,” Bucky stated, feeling himself being pressed between the two. “Parents and grandparents should not talk about their wedding night with their offspring. Nope.” 

“He waited for me until I was ready, he was patient with me. He told me I was worth waiting for, though he might have only said that to comfort me… and now I wait for him, here, in this place,” Platinum continued. 

His grandmare’s words slammed into Bucky like a wagon full of bricks. He felt his mind reeling and his thoughts felt jumbled. 

“Remember me for the good I have done,” Sombra rumbled into Bucky’s ear. “You draw near the conclusion of all of this. Return to Celestia in triumph. You have my memories, both good and bad. Do not repeat my mistakes! Eventually, all of my memories will come to you.” 

“Tell my grandfoals that I love them,” Platinum said, tears springing to her eyes. “Oh to hold a foal again,” she whispered. “Tell Sentinel he is worthy,” she instructed. 

“Will we talk again?” Bucky asked, realising that he was fading. 

“I hope so,” Sombra said. 

“But if we do not, it is because we have gone through the gate,” Platinum said. “So be happy for us!” 

“I will,” Bucky promised as he continued to fade. 

“Good luck,” Sombra said in parting as Bucky blinked out of existence. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 110
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morning sun was warm and bright, and it held the promise of a day with heat. Even in the far northern climes there were hot summer days on occasion. This was a day pregnant with promise, and would be filled with the promise of pregnancies. Now, in the height of summer, Celestia worked her magic into the sun and granted a boon to mares everywhere. 

For most mares in more civilised places, this was not too much of an issue. Plans were made to deal with sudden biological need. There were medications to alleviate the symptoms. Unicorns had spells to nullify the effects. 

The isles had no such luxury. 

Come next spring, there would be a flood of foals to many grateful parents. 



 

Bucky followed after Thistle who walked slowly. On his back was Sentinel, who clung to his neck. Bucky could feel the colt’s stomach growling, and Bucky’s stomach was growling back in reply. 

Feeling mischievous, Bucky leaned forward and goosed Thistle in a delicate place. She squealed in alarm and flicked her tail in a reflexive response. He smiled when he saw her look back at him over her shoulder. Bucky could find no fault in a bit of goosing and the blush on Thistle’s cheeks made his heart thud crazily. 

She picked up her pace a bit, her walk more of a waddle. She had grown larger since Bucky had first met her, and he now worried constantly about her development. She was having some trouble getting around now due to her mass. 

“Sentinel, when we get to the lake, try to take a dip in the water. Just be careful. The cold water will feel really good on your skin, trust me, I know from experience,” Bucky said. He felt Sentinel’s legs around his neck squeeze him in reply. 

“I saw my grandparents last night Sentinel,” Bucky said in a low voice. “My ancient ancestors. We talked a great deal. And we did some talking about you,” he explained briefly. “Do you know who Princess Platinum is Sentinel?” 

“Yes sir,” Sentinel said in a weak voice. “Sparkler and Rising Star have been teaching us about the Founders so that when we go back to the mainland, we can do well in school. It is very important to know our history,” he continued. 

“She is my grandmare,” Bucky stated. “There are probably a few greats that need to be tossed in there, but you get the idea,” he added. 

“Yes sir, I understand,” Sentinel said as the trio continued onwards to the lake. 

“They are proud of you for what you did and say that you are worthy to be their heir. For what you have done, when we get home, I am going to make sure that you are legally recognised as my first born son, with all of the peerage that comes with it. I know that Celestia will do as I ask,” Bucky said, his voice full of pride. 

“What did I do?” Sentinel asked groggily. 

Bucky paused mentally and struggled to put his thoughts into words. “Sentinel, you have no idea what you have done or the evil that you have stopped,” Bucky began. “When you came to me in the dream, I was going to kill myself,” Bucky continued. 

“I know sir,” Sentinel replied. 

“If I would have done that, I would have lost myself to the fell shadow. He would have claimed my body. And he would have killed everypony around him when he woke up in my body. And that would have only been the start of a whole lot of killing. You saved an uncountable number of lives,” Bucky explained.

Sentinel did not reply. The colt was silent. 

“Sentinel, you alright?” Bucky inquired. Ahead of him, Thistle slowed down and was watching the two of them with concern, her eyes wide. 

“Sir, I must make a request,” Sentinel whispered. 

“Anything Sentinel,” Bucky replied. 

“I ask that we keep this between us,” Sentinel requested. 

“What? Why? You did something good Sentinel!” Bucky exclaimed in utter confusion. 

“I did what what was necessary, it does not need to be known or celebrated. I am content to be your foal,” Sentinel answered. 

Bucky felt crestfallen and a low sigh slipped from his lips. 

“It pleases me a great deal that I am seen as worthy heir. It removes some worry from my mind. That is enough for me,” Sentinel explained. 

“Sentinel, sometimes, I am not sure I understand you,” Bucky said in bluntly. 

“I am not sure I understand myself,” Sentinel offered in reply. 

“I will need to tell Celestia when I plead your case,” Bucky said. “There has to be reasons, something that proves you worthy of peerage.” 

“Then tell her,” Sentinel said. “But that was far too dark a time for me to ever celebrate it,” he stated in a morose voice. “I do not wish to be reminded of it when somepony recounts the deeds that I have done.” 

“I think I understand Sentinel,” Bucky replied. 

“Well, I am proud of what you have done Sentinel,” Thistle said. “Sentinel, when you feel better, you and I have a task ahead of us,” the kelpie said as she attempted to change the subject. 

“We do?” Sentinel asked in a groggy by attentive voice. 

“We have to teach Bucky here how to fish,” Thistle said to Sentinel. “While I am content to bring him a fish,” she said as she turned to look at Bucky. “I will require that he returns the favour,” she said teasingly. 

“Eh, I can use my magic,” Bucky said. 

“No!” Sentinel protested. 

“That would be wrong,” Thistle said testily. 

“I don’t get it, why would it be wrong?” Bucky said. “I don’t understand.” 

“If you want to eat them, you should catch them,” Thistle explained. 

“But the pegasi, they use nets to pull the fish out,” Bucky protested. 

“Doesn’t make it right,” Thistle said grumpily. 

“The grass eaters don’t understand,” Sentinel muttered. 

“Oh, grass eaters,” Bucky said. “Well, that explains everything. Snobs. Brutes. Numbskulls. Grass eaters."

Thistle gave Bucky a sour look. “You are one of us now,” she said in a low voice. “Show some respect. Do you have any idea how difficult it will be for you to live now among your own kind? The fear they will have of you? The difficulty of eating flesh among those who view it as being somehow wrong… immoral…” the kelpie filly’s words trailed off. 

“We have to eat,” Sentinel said. “We have to kill. We have to take life to sustain our own. But we have to do what is right as well. We don’t eat things with a voice. We don’t eat things that can plead or protest. And we show respect for the lives we do take,” he explained. 

Bucky felt a stab of guilt. “I am sorry. I was not aware of this,” he said. 

“Which is why I am offering to teach you how to fish, and all that goes along with it,” Thistle replied. “This is why I asked the others to stay behind and to give us some private time alone.” 

“We fight and struggle for our kills. We kill them as nature intended. I have teeth, and I kill with my teeth,” Sentinel explained. 

The full ramifications of just how much his life had changed now settled on Bucky’s shoulders. He was completely ignorant about this aspect of pony culture. The ponies who had to eat flesh had their own societal mores, and he had no understanding of them. 

“We do not bite other ponies with our teeth, even in play,” Thistle stated. “We do not nip. We do not press the tips of our teeth against another pony’s flesh,” she added. 

“Treat your teeth as you would your magic,” Sentinel suggested. 

The lake was in view now, the shore a short walk away. As he approached the water, Bucky wondered how well he would be able to fish on his own. 

“When you father my foals, I will expect you to do your part in teaching them how to fish and how to live among the grass eaters peacefully,” Thistle stated. “I would have been the one to teach them this, but now that you have those bladed fangs, I have some expectations of you.” 

“That seems fair,” Bucky replied, which earned him a beaming glance from Thistle. 

“And Sentinel, being their older sibling, and being the duty bound little colt that you are, I know I need not even ask,” Thistle stated. 

“I will do what is needed,” Sentinel replied. 

“We exist as herd within a herd,” Thistle said softly. “We are the same, but different. We must never give the others reasons to fear us. I know I have already said it, but we must never use our teeth to harm another pony. No nipping. No love bites. No nibbling on the ear. If you ever draw blood on one of your herdmates Bucky, I will be very disappointed in you. Accidents are a different issue before you even say anything,” she explained. 

“Never put myself into a position where I might increase the chance of an accident, I get it,” Bucky answered. 

“Some ponies have wings or a horn, and that makes them different. We have sharp teeth. My mother was relentless about making sure I understood how important all of this is,” Thistle said. “I got sick of hearing it, but I am so glad that she loved me enough to tell me.” 

The kelpie reached the water and went splashing in. Bucky watched her change. She was a beautiful creature both in and out of the water, but she was especially beautiful in the water. 

Bucky waded through the shallows and out to the deeper water. Sentinel slid from his back and Bucky heard a series of clicks, pops, and squeals as Sentinel made noises with his echolocation. 

“You alright?” Bucky inquired of his colt. 

“It feels unbelievably good,” Sentinel said as he floated in the water. 

“It felt so good when Thistle ran all of that water over my back and over my burned places,” Bucky stated. 

Bucky went out into deeper water and submerged. Sentinel had echolocation to help him find fish, and Bucky reasoned that Thistle had some means of finding fish, but he couldn’t see anything past a certain amount of depth. He resurfaced and floated, keeping an eye on Sentinel. He felt Thistle swim past him. 

The stallion plunged again, and this time, he flooded his sunstone eye with mana. A bright green light illuminated the water and Bucky found that he could see quite well. But he still saw no fish. 

He broke the surface, now gasping after having been under for a few moments. Bucky realised that he had little experience in holding his breath and this was going to be a problem. 

He also saw Thistle heading for the shore with a big fish held in her muzzle. There was a moment of revulsion followed by a feeling of hunger and his mouth watering. As he watched, Thistle coaxed Sentinel out of the water, changed, and then gave the fish to him. She returned to the water, changed again, and came out to the depths beside Bucky. 

“Thistle, I am kind of curious, but in this form, can you…” Bucky’s words faded into nothingness as he spoke. 

Thistle winked and swam close. She wrapped her long body around Bucky and her tail curled around one of his legs. “I bet you’d like to find out,” she said teasingly. 

Bucky nodded and as he did so, Thistle kissed him. He felt himself pulled beneath the water and he struggled, feeling a moment of panic. But Thistle pulled him ever deeper, gripping him tightly with her forelegs. Fear seized Bucky’s body and he worried about breathing. 

And then, he realised, he was breathing. Thistle’s kiss was giving him all the air he needed. He felt himself being pulled back up to the surface, and, after his head broke the water, Thistle pulled away from him and swam away, leaving him floating by himself. 

Bucky was glad that he was in deep water, and he decided to spend some time floating out there. His fish would have to wait until his arousal subsided. As he floated, he tried to not think of Thistle’s wet, supple, and flexible form, but instead focused on trying to figure out how Thistle had been able to give him air. 

The kelpie broke the surface a short distance away and Bucky watched her intently. She was looking at him, her eyes wide, and her mane of living plants flowed out into the water behind her. 

“Thistle, can little kelpies swim on their own?” Bucky asked. 

Thistle nodded. “They can swim right after birth. They can’t drown, so you don’t need to worry,” she explained.

“How do kelpie mothers feed their young in the water?” Bucky asked. 

The kelpie blushed. “I still have teats in this form,” she said in a husky whisper. 

“Intriguing,” Bucky replied as his ears splayed out sideways. “It must be difficult to be a kelpie mother and have foals that cannot join you in the water.” 

For a moment, Thistle looked incredibly sad and Bucky suddenly remembered all of Thistle’s siblings and her mother. She quickly returned to her usual self, but Bucky had seen the pain. 

“Thistle, I am sorry, I was trying to understand your kind, I was careless when I said what I said, please forgive me,” Bucky pleaded.

“It is okay, I know you didn’t mean anything bad,” Thistle said as the sadness crept back into her face. “You were probably just trying to think of the foals I will have,” she added. 

Bucky nodded and swam towards Thistle. His arousal was completely forgotten as he took her into his embrace and held her close. He kissed her gently upon the cheek and then again upon her ear. And then he let her go slowly, not wanting to let her go at all. 

“I feel so stupid,” Bucky muttered. 

“Things happen,” Thistle said gently, her cheeks flushing red. 

“And I just did something else that was incredibly stupid, didn’t I?” he asked. 

Thistle nodded and her blush intensified. 

“I am having one of those sorts of days,” Bucky grumbled. “Look, I am sorry for that too, I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable,” he apologised. He turned his eyes away and looked at Sentinel, who was eating on the shore. 

“Oh, I didn’t mind,” Thistle said with a shrill giggle. “I am going to get us some fish.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 111
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Rising Star, do behave yourself this instant,” Sparkler insisted as she tried to stifle a giggle. Her tail flicked and the filly felt entirely too warm. She watched and waited rather impatiently as Lyra tried to recall a spell that would fix a certain problem. 

Bon Bon was exhausted after a long night, but was far too awake and aware to go to sleep. A pressing need had arrived with the rising of the sun. She recalled feeling overheated after Bucky had kissed her, and how she had dismissed it as the room being too warm from the roaring fire. 

Ripple fanned herself with her wing, she could feel a fine sheen of sweat building up over her pelt. She watched with silent amusement as her sister Loch Skimmer was giving Rising Star a nearly predatory gaze. 

“How could you forget the words of a spell so simple yet so important?” Bon Bon demanded as she squirmed, kicking out one hind leg and hoping to get some air moving over certain places that felt as though they were on fire. The mare gnawed on her lip in frustration. 

“Do you think Bucky would know?” Sparkler asked. “As embarrassing as it might be, we might have to go to him.” 

“No,” Bon Bon protested. “If I came anywhere near Bucky right now, I would… I would…” 

“You would have to wait your turn Bonnie,” Lyra interjected with a raised eyebrow. 

“What makes you think you’d be first?” Bon Bon snapped. 

“Because I can teleport faster than you can run,” Lyra muttered. 

“Oooh you…” Bon Bon whined. 

“Just calm down,” Berry Punch said in a soothing voice. 

“Easy for you to say Berry, you’re already pregnant, your filly bits aren’t on fire right now,” Bon Bon whimpered. 

Rising Star wiped his nose with his foreleg, shook his now overgrown mane from his eyes, and then planted a brief kiss on Sparkler. “I am going to show myself out,” he whispered in a strained voice. He backed out of the room, his gaze never leaving three fillies that he called his own. 

“This one is a bad one, I am pregnant and even I can feel it,” Berry said. “I can’t help but wonder if this is how Celestia plans to combat the social instability in Equestria. Hard to riot or protest when you’re rutting,” she explained. 

“Berry, how do you think of this stuff?” Lyra said as she turned her bleary golden eyes on the earth pony. 

“Well, it just makes sense, think about it. After a mare gets knocked up, is she in the mood to fight? No, she wants to make a home. Especially pegasi. Look at Derpy and all of her nesting that she does right now. Family minded ponies will want to keep the peace, settle down, and focus on making a safe place for foaling,” Berry answered. 

Lyra’s horn glowed and the unicorn murmured a few words. The effect was almost instant and a pleasant cooling sensation settled over the many female bodies. There were gasps of relief. 

“Now I feel sleepy,” Sparkler said. 

“Sorry love, side effect of the spell,” Lyra said with a yawn. The unicorn stumbled off to the bed, fell onto the bed, and did nothing to make herself comfortable. She fell asleep where she had fallen. 

Bon Bon made her way to the bed, settled in beside Lyra, pulled the unicorn close, and, in moments, was also asleep as well. 

“They’re so adorable together,” Derpy said as she approached the bed. She reached out and gently stroked her herdmates with her wing. She carefully lifted Lyra’s leg, which was hanging off of the edge of the mattress, and settled it on to the bed with a loving pat. 

“That feels so much better,” Loch Skimmer murmured. 

“No school today,” Sparkler said. “Today is going to be spent slacking off or soaking in the lake.” 

“Ooh, perfect,” Dinky said excitedly. “Piña, grab our books.” 

“Oh goody,” Piña replied in happy tones. 

“Shouldn’t you be playing?” Berry said to the two filly foals. 

Dinky looked up at Berry and conflicted eyes. “Magic is more interesting?” she said in a half-statement half-question. 

“And reading about how to focus will has me wondering if I can make my earth pony senses do stuff,” Piña explained. 

Berry sat down and gave Piña a puzzled glance. 

Piña avoided her sister’s curious gaze. “Look, it is just an idea, I don’t know if it will work yet. Unicorns have horns, pegasi have wings and hooves, and we have hooves. There is magic in them,” Piña explained in an uncertain voice. “Pegasi can focus the magic through their wings and they can fly at great speed. Their hooves allow them to walk on clouds. Unicorns can actively channel magic through their horns. It stands to reason that earth ponies must have a means to actively channel magic somehow like the other two tribes, we just haven’t figured out how to do it yet,” the earth pony foal said nervously. 

“But Piña believes a lot of earth ponies do it passively, not knowing that they are doing it,” Dinky said as she wrapped a foreleg around Piña. “It isn’t a crazy idea.” 

“Piña, I want you to keep working on this,” Berry said in an encouraging voice. “And I want you to go to Bucky for help. You tell him everything you just told me,” Berry instructed as she looked intently at her sibling. Her concentration was interrupted as a flock of pegasi pushed their way out the door, led by Derpy. Berry looked at Sparkler and saw that the unicorn was now alone. 

Sparkler, seeing that Berry was looking at her, smiled. “Mom is going to give some flying lessons to Loch and Ripple. I think I am going to find some quiet place where I will not be disturbed, and I am going to figure out how my stone form works,” Sparkler announced. 

As Berry watched, Sparkler slipped out the door, leaving Berry with the two foals. “Okay you two, I don’t care if you are studying, I am going to spend some time with you,” Berry said to both of them. 



 

Bucky could feel the subtle undercurrent of magic in the sun as it shone upon his horn. At first, he wondered if it was because of his new shadow nature that he still did not understand, but then he was able to discern the true nature of the magic that he could sense. 

There was going to be a lot of new foals come spring. 

He was not a mare, but the magic had an effect upon him all the same. The knowledge that it was there and the understanding of what it was doing filled his mind with countless thoughts. 

Sentinel was with Berry Punch, Dinky, and Piña. Thistle had gone off to talk to Keg Smasher. And Bucky was by himself. His belly was full of fish and he felt strangely energised. Flesh gave a much higher return of energy for his magic, or so he was beginning to understand. 

He set to work gathering up boulders for transmutation. The cabin on the The Scorned Mare needed creature comforts. There was a small private cabin for the adults, and several smaller cubbies for the foals. Below the cabin, a few more rooms had been added, all of them secure and soon to be well protected. 

In no time at all there were several new mattresses, crude things, lumpy things, but they had done the job so far, covered in simple slip sheets. He teleported himself on board and set about placing the mattresses into the simple wooden bedframes. There was a larger one in the main room for him and his mares, one was placed in the room he intended for Rising Star and his herd, and several more were placed in the other rooms. While he had provided rooms for the foals to sleep in, he was certain that they would end up in the bed with the adults, and even if they didn’t, he was almost positive that Sentinel would leave the cubby intended for him and find his way into his sisters’ room. 

If Keg Smasher and a group of his guard were going to make the long journey home, they would need a place to bunk and Bucky was already eyeing space belowdecks. 

Before he made his armor, he planned to make a few metal objects. A stove would be needed on the ship. And some means of heat. He wasn’t certain how to heat the individual cubbies and rooms, but he planned to at least heat the common area of the cabin. 

He transmuted several new sofas, a table, a few small comfortable chairs, and then inspected the bookshelf made by Berry Punch. The common room was beginning to look like home. The decorations probably left a lot to be desired by more fashionable minded ponies, but the dark grey suited Bucky. 

He made his way into what would be the armory and looked around. There were already racks made for the spell jars. Berry Punch had been one very busy earth pony. With little more than a hoof held saw, a hammer, some nails, and a fair bit of lumber, she had done a fantastic job of creating a place that was fit to secure magical munitions. 

The ship was seaworthy. One of the rare unicorns on the isle, a ship builder by trade, had come up from the harbour city to inspect the craft. Not that Bucky planned to put it in the water, but he had wanted to know. It never hurt to be too careful and there were always unknown emergencies. 

He peered out of a window and saw surprisingly few ponies out and about. And he understood why. He worried briefly about Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple, thinking fatherly thoughts about his fillies. He was certain that they were fine and that they had the means to endure the heat. 

One day, Dinky and Piña Colada would experience their first heats. The thought filled Bucky’s mind and for reasons he could not explain, he felt sad. He also felt hopeful though, and his sadness turned into a sort of bittersweet happiness. 

His thoughts took a darker turn as he remembered Dinky on the day of the want it need it spell. He gritted his teeth together and pushed it from his mind. He would have to guard himself around Dinky and Piña in the future. While he was their father, he was not their biological father, and as such, could be susceptible to pheromone reactions. He quietly made mental notes to prepare for this eventuality. 

It was a difficult line of thought for him and he wondered how many fathers had come to the same conclusion. It was a humbling thought and it made Bucky feel better. 

As an afterthought, he thought of Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple. The need to guard his mind was already here and he wondered briefly if Rising Star had reached the same conclusion of sorts, to protect himself around other mares. 

There were entirely too many ways to stumble and fall down as a sapient animal. 

There was a loud thunk above him on deck and Bucky heard his name being called. He moved as quickly as he could, moving up the stairs swiftly. He emerged out on the deck and saw a frantic looking Keg Smasher, Thistle who stood nearby, and Wheatberry, who was on Thistle’s back. 

“I need to go,” Keg Smasher said. The pegasus spread his wings and took to the air, leaving behind Thistle and Wheatberry. 

Bucky felt alarmed as Keg Smasher joined several other pegasi in the air and the the group took off, flying in formation. 

“A messenger came,” Thistle explained. “I don’t know what was said, but Keg Smasher was scared. He snatched me and Wheatberry up and then brought us here. He begged me to look after his foal.” 

Bucky watched as the pegasi turned into tiny dots in the distance. 

“Hi!” Wheatberry chirped. She squirmed on Thistle’s back, her wings flapping and one foreleg extended towards Bucky. 

“Hello little one,” Bucky replied, still watching where the pegasi had vanished. “I wonder what happened,” he said as he felt cold prickle along his neck. 

“Foal!” Wheatberry quipped as she patted Thistle’s sides. 

“Yes, there is a foal in there,” Thistle said to the pegasus foal on her back. 

“I suppose I should take Wheatberry to the others. They can play together,” Bucky suggested. 

“I am worried Bucky,” Thistle stated in a trembling voice. 

“So am I Thistle, but we don’t want to scare Wheatberry,” Bucky replied in a soothing low voice. “Come on Wheatberry, let’s find you some playmates.” 
	
	
> Chapter 112
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rising Star felt that he had handled himself rather well when he had become aware that his mares were in heat. The idea of getting together as a newly married couple was now on hold, and once again, he was waiting. Even with protection spells, engaging with Sparkler and Loch Skimmer would be dangerous. Heats had a way of ignoring protection spells. 

He was now sitting alone, meditating on top of a jutting outcropping of rock near the loch near the castle. He had winked up here, something he had done easily, where it had been so difficult to do before. Theoretically, all unicorns were capable of winking, or teleportation as the more scholarly types liked to call it. Most never did, lacking focus and drive. 

Magic was coming easier and easier now since the change. Magic he struggled with before now came to him almost effortlessly. Rising Star drew a deep breath, focused his will, and thought about fire. Specifically, he thought about making shadow wolves burn. 



 

With every step she took, Sparkler’s understanding that something had changed grew deeper and deeper. When her hooves touched the earth, she could feel a hum now. She could feel the stones and rocks around her. She could feel the soil, the soft loam and how it compressed beneath her hooves as she wandered between the trees in the copse of woods. 

She felt drowsy but awake, and she could feel a faint second heartbeat in her nethers. She had endured several heats, but this was different, and even with the spell to ease the sensation, she felt peculiar. She felt as though the earth itself was telling her it was time to plant seeds, and she wondered if earth ponies felt something similar. 

As she walked, she reveled in secret knowledge. Beneath her, she could sense water. It was down there, deep beneath her hooves, and something in her horn tingled telling her that she could call it to her if she wanted. She also knew that there was iron beneath her, and somewhere close by there was a vein of coal. Copper was abundant and she could hear the faint siren song of gold calling to her from the hidden depths beneath the jagged looking mountains in the distance. 



 

Rising Star was on fire, but it did not burn him. His mane and tail were gone, replaced by flames, and his body flickered with flames. Shimmering heat rose from him. He was also suffering from the strongest feeling of arousal that he had ever experienced in his young life, and the quiet saner parts of his mind now screamed at him that he should be panicking. 

It wasn’t every day that you had a throbbing erection that was on fire. 

He sat atop the rock burning calmly. He lifted a hoof and looked at it, studying the flames wafting from its hard surfaces. He put his hoof down and looked down between his front legs. He was sitting on his haunches and he could feel the rock growing ever warmer against his balls. The flames that burned his colthood felt like little kisses, little pecks from an attentive lover. Rising Star gasped as a surge of magic enveloped his body and the flames burned hotter and brighter. 

The understanding came to him that sexual release was near and he let the flames consume him. Pyromancy was more than a fancy word, it was a state of being, and Rising Star was learning all to well what it meant to romance the flames. His horny hormone driven adolescent mind caused his fire to burn like nothing else would. Raw passion fueled the flames. 



 

Sparkler emerged from the woods near the lake. She made her way to the waterline and walked along the shore, enjoying the quiet and thinking about her place as matriarch of her own little herd. More than anything, she wanted to be the matriarch they deserved. 

It was not a common thought for most fillies her age, and Sparkler appreciated the absurdity of it all. She felt that she was handling the responsibility quite well. She was doing a lot of things a filly her age would never do, at least not back at home on the mainland. Settling in to start a family, exploring the new depths of her powers, and preparing for war. 

She worried that when she finally went home, she would never be able to adjust. Movies, dating, talking with the few filly friends that she had, those things seemed like such shallow and trivial things now. Idle chatter in the schoolyard. She would never be able to take part in those sorts of things again without feeling some sense of contempt. 

She sat down near the water’s edge and peered into the water. Her mane was longer now, and unkept. She still looked like the filly she had been, but at the same time, she wasn’t. A powerful wellspring of emotion flooded up from deep within her, and she felt the first sting of tears. She couldn’t even understand why she was crying, only that she was lamenting the loss of something that she could no longer feel. 



 

Bucky watched his littlest foals with a sense of pride. He was sitting on his haunches, even though sitting this way for too long now made his hind legs go to sleep. Thistle and Berry Punch were sprawled out together nearby, Sentinel was laying beside him, while Dinky and Piña played with Wheatberry. 

A feeling of worry lingered over his sense of pride like a dark cloud and he wondered if perhaps he should have insisted on going with Keg Smasher. He didn’t know what was wrong, but Bucky was certain that he could have helped if there was a bad situation. 

Then again, Keg Smasher was trusting him with one of his foals. Bucky supposed that he was doing his part, Keg Smasher could at least put his mind at ease about Wheatberry being safe. 

He heard the flapping of wings behind him and he turned his head, on guard for any kind of threat. He saw no threat, only a grey mare that he loved and two charcoal grey fillies, whom he also loved as well. 

Derpy approached him on the side he could see from and sat down beside him as Ripple and Loch Skimmer flopped out breathlessly in the grass, both of them yawning. 

“You look a bit like a picture I saw in a book of a lion,” Derpy announced. “I think it is the sideburns that are starting to grow in. Or maybe just your mane.”

“I am the scrawniest lion ever,” Bucky replied, returning his gaze to his foals. 

“We never did get you into shape,” Derpy said, thinking back to words she had said long ago when she and Bucky had first met. 

“You’re getting delightfully pudgy in a few spots. Please don’t kill me,” Bucky said. 

“I guess I am packing on a few pounds early on in pregnancy and I take it that you like it,” Derpy said regretfully. 

“Very much so,” Bucky said agreeably. 

“If you weren’t so skinny and boney I wouldn’t need this extra pudge to accommodate you,” Derpy teased. 

Bucky sighed. At least she didn’t say anything about how short he was. He felt two lips press against his cheek just below his remaining eye. “If I am a lion, that makes you my lioness,” Bucky stated, feeling a warm tingly feeling from the kiss. 

“I will protect our young,” Derpy replied, her voice surprisingly forceful. “How is Sentinel?” she asked, her voice softening. 

“I am not asleep,” Sentinel said drowsily. 

“Oh,” Derpy replied. “How are you?” 

“Full of fish,” Sentinel muttered. 

“Are you in much pain?” Derpy asked in a motherly tone that was pregnant with worry. She turned her head and peered at the colt that was sprawled at Bucky’s blind side. 

“It hurts,” Sentinel replied in a soft confession. “But it is no worse than father endured,” he added. 

“Loch and Ripple look worn out,” Bucky observed. 

“I wore them out,” Derpy said. “Dealing with the heat when you are that young is difficult. It helps a pegasus filly out to get physical and tire herself out.” 

“When we get home, do you think we will need to send them to flight camp?” asked Bucky in a low voice. 

Derpy shrugged. “I dunno,” she answered. “Ripple is still weak from not eating right, but she is getting better. Loch is a quick study.” 

“We want them to have good lives,” Bucky stated. “If they ever want to join the weather patrols they are going to have to pass so many tests,” he said, voicing his concern. 

“Getting their basic flight permit shouldn’t be too hard,” Derpy said as she pursed her lips together. “Both of them are so different. Loch is like me. She isn’t made for speed. Once she develops, she will be a strong flier. Ripple was made for speed. Hard to see it now, but she is. I am kind of envious of her,” Derpy admitted. The grey pegasus fluffed out her feathers and tucked her head around to begin to preen her wings. 

Bucky prodded the pegasus mare beside him with a hoof. “You know, you should teach me how to help you with that,” he suggested. 



 

Rising Star sat upon his rock, cooling off in the aftermath of his magical surge. The rock was scorched and black. The colt looked like himself again, because he wasn’t currently on fire. His mind whirled with thoughts but his body felt relaxed. He had a dopey look on his face, the dopey look that one tended to have after a much needed sexual release. 

He winked from the rock and headed for the lake, thinking that a cooling dip would do him good. Plus, he needed to clean up. He felt sticky after his release. 

His thinking felt much clearer now and he broke into a gallop, his hooves thudding on the ground as he picked up speed, his mane and tail streaming out behind him. 



 

Sparkler slowly composed herself as she sat at the water’s edge. She felt better after a good cry, but she still did not understand why she felt such a sense of loss. She prodded the water with her hoof and watched the ripples. Each touch created more ripples and some ripples collided with other ripples as they traveled. 

There was some kind of meaningful analogy about life in the ripples, but Sparkler wasn’t sure she was in the mood to ponder it. 

As she stared into the water, she remembered all the time she had spent staring into the mirror and wishing that she was a pegasus. That phase of her life seemed over. Now, she wished that she was the sort of mare that her mothers were. Not just Derpy, something had changed, but there were parts of Berry Punch that she longed to emulate as well, like her courage. She prodded the water again. There was Bon Bon’s honesty. Lyra’s curiousity. Thistle’s generousity. 

It felt funny thinking of Thistle as her mother, but as she thought about it, she realised that Derpy wasn’t that much older than her. When Sparkler had entered her teenage years, Derpy had still been a teenager herself, but approaching the end of her teenage youth. 

“Are you okay Sparkler?” 

Sparkler jumped at the sounds of Rising Star’s voice and nearly fell into the water. 

“Sorry if I scared you. I saw you… you are a very distinctive shade of purple-pink,” Rising Star stated. “I thought I’d come over and check on you. Do you need to be alone?” 

Sparkler wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “I’m fine. I think. No, I don’t want to be alone. I was just thinking about a lot of stuff,” she explained. She sniffed. “You smell funny. And kinda good,” she said as her gaze lingered on Rising Star. 

Rising Star looked embarrassed and then threw himself into water. 

“Hey, come back, let me sniff you,” Sparkler said as she stood up. 

“Sparkler, I… you… uh, I don’t even know how to begin,” Rising Star stammered as he swam away. 

“But there is something about you,” Sparkler said as she stood at the water’s edge. 

“Look, Sparkler, I just had something of controlled magic surge, I was on fire, my dangly bits were on blazing with flames, I just had the best orgasm I’ve ever had in my young pathetic life, and you are a filly in heat that can smell what I have to offer you,” Rising Star said from the deep water were he swam. 

“Oooooh!” Sparkler said knowingly. She plunged into the cool water and swam for Rising Star.

Rising Star eyed the filly warily as he treaded water. “No mischief Sparky… I mean, right now, all I can think about is taking you in the grass over there and having my way with you and that would be bad, because even with protective spells, there is still a chance of something happening,” he warned. 

“I suppose you are right,” Sparkler admitted. “So it felt good? Letting the magic out?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Rising Star replied sheepishly. 

“So, uh, did you have to, uh, play with anything?” Sparkler inquired. 

“No,” Rising Star said. “I just sat there and it sort of happened,” he admitted. 

“I hope they let Dinky know about orgasms soon… if she has a big magic release it will be confusing for her,” Sparkler said as she floated near Rising Star. 

“This is very awkward Sparkler,” Rising Star stated. 

“Orgasm,” Sparkler said, looking directly at Rising Star. “We all have them. I had my first really good one when I was thinking about the first time you kissed me and I was giving myself a good workover in the shower. You nibbled my lip,” she stated bluntly. 

“You mean you’ve thought about me when…” Rising Star said in astonishment. 

Sparkler nodded. “Ever think of me?” she asked. 

Rising Star was still for several moments while floating in the water, but finally nodded his head slowly. “And I think my mother heard me,” he said in a strained slightly squeaky voice. 

“Oh my,” Sparkler said, her words punctuated by a giggle. 

“That night at dinner, my mother started talking to my father about how I was growing up and I wasn’t their little colt any more, and I wanted to die,” Rising Star said, his voice still rather squeaky. 

“So what set you off?” Sparkler asked. 

“Oh, it’s stupid,” Rising Star said. 

“Was it my tight little backside?” Sparkler asked. 

“No,” Rising Star answered. 

“Well, what was it? I told you, this isn’t fair,” Sparkler said as she treaded water. 

Rising Star took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The way your mane clings to the side of your neck,” he murmured. 

Sparkler giggled. “What?” she asked. 

“Don’t make me explain it!” Rising Star snapped. “We should head back and find the others before we get ourselves into trouble,” he grumbled. 

“Yeah we should,” Sparkler agreed. “You know Rising, you can tell me these things. I mean, someday very very soon you are probably going to be on my back panting into my ear. What is a little embarrassing and funny story compared to that?” the filly inquired. 

Rising Star did not reply, but made his way for the shore, hoping to get himself away from the filly before he lost his resolve. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 113
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The late afternoon sun caused shadows to lengthen and Bucky’s concerns to deepen. Keg Smasher had not returned, and evening was approaching slowly but surely. Wheatberry seemed perfectly content to stay with them and did not seem the least bit concerned about her father’s absence. 

Bucky’s concerns were many. Ripple was in considerable pain from flying and was now a curled up ball of misery next to Sentinel, who was also suffering. The two suffered in silence together. Loch Skimmer’s leg was bothering her. While she had not bumped it during takeoff or landing, the flight seemed to have jostled her leg around a bit and now she was in something of a sour mood. Bucky suspected there might be other reasons for her sour mood. 

Both Lyra and Bon Bon were watching him hungrily. This was a cause for alarm because Bucky honestly loved both of them and did not wish to do anything that all three of them would regret later. 

With family came tension, with tension came stress, and with stress came the need for release. Bucky had spent most of his life learning to hold everything in, and while that still had its place, even some valuable uses, Bucky was learning to let everything out. 

He thought about Sombra’s advice for living. Strong drink and hot mareflesh. Evading was also important. Bucky pondered the advice as he tried to push the worry from his mind. He was distracted by a giggle from Loch Skimmer. Rising Star was apparently trying to make her feel better and had whispered something into her ear. 

“Berry! Not in front of the foals!” 

Bucky’s ears perked at Derpy’s outburst and his head turned toward the sound. Thistle looked very flustered and she was panting heavily. Berry looked entirely too pleased with herself, and Derpy looked more than a little flustered. She was fanning herself with her wing. He didn’t know what had just happened exactly, but knowing what Berry was capable of, it was probably something Berry naughty. 

There was a series of popping sounds and Bucky felt himself become startled. He relaxed after a moment, seeing that it was only popcorn. There was a large jar of it that had been sent in the care trunk and Dinky was popping popcorn for Wheatberry. 

A loud squeal of alarm actually caused Bucky’s horn to ignite reflexively and his head turned sharply, only to see that Sparkler had her mouth full of water and she was squirting Piña. He made himself calm and told himself that there was no danger here in their room. Feeling bad for Piña, and still having a considerable amount of magic ready to go, Bucky conjured a small rain cloud over Sparkler’s head and locked it in over her horn. 

As he turned his head away to look at Sentinel, he could hear Sparkler crying out about being drenched. He could hear Sparkler’s frantic protests as she attempted to dismiss the rain cloud. He saw Sentinel give him an odd look that he could not make out. 

“Who summoned the rain cloud?” Sparkler demanded to know. “Dinky?!” 

Bucky swallowed his laughter and gave Sentinel a gentle prod. He saw Sentinel shaking a bit and felt concerned, until he realised that Sentinel was  trying not to laugh. The colt’s serious mien had been shattered. 

“I didn’t do it! Sparky, no tickles! Ugh, it is raining on me now, it keeps following you!” 

Bucky heard a faint snickering coming from Ripple as he turned to look at the fracas between siblings. He tweaked the cloud slightly and the rain changed to snowflakes. The fracas continued unabated and Bucky sighed. 

“Snowflakes!” 

“Hey, wait a minute…”

“I can’t make snow clouds Sparkler.” 

There was riotous laughter from all over the room and Sparkler sat in the middle of it all with a growing blanket of white flakes on her mane and pelt. She shook the flakes from her head and shivered. 

“You have no idea how good this feels right now,” Sparkler muttered. “Ah, that’s actually really nice,” she gasped. 

“Bucky, snow is getting everywhere!” Derpy protested. 

“Eh, the flakes melt and one of the unicorns can make the water go away,” Berry said dismissively. 

“I can understand how awesome this is because I know how hard clouds are to control,” Dinky said, looking up at the cloud in appreciation. “I want to know how you locked it in place over her horn though,” the unicorn filly added. 

“Magical signatures,” Bucky said, explaining nothing. He figured it was best to make Dinky work for it. Plus, explaining this in front of Dinky’s mother might earn him a dirty look, and Bucky was learning to evade. 

“It will go away, right?” Sparkler asked. 

“Well, a cloud that sized could keep pulling moisture in from the air around it and could just keep going,” Lyra explained. 

“I think I’ll keep it for a while,” Sparkler said as she gazed upwards at the cloud.

Little Wheatberry was having the time of her life and hoped that the fun would never end as she watched the snow fall and munched on popcorn. She was going to have a story to tell to her mama. 



 

Bucky was sitting in the dining hall eating dinner when he felt the sun slip below the horizon, the peculiar sensation in his horn letting him know that darkness now claimed the land around him. With the dark came fear, as there was still no sign of Keg Smasher. 

The first howls of the evening could be heard outside, and Bucky slammed his hoof down upon the table in frustration. He wasn’t very strong, and the sound wasn’t very loud, but the emotion that it expressed was clear. 

There were a lot of worried ponies, and many of them were turning towards Bucky, looking for some sort of reassurance. Bucky felt all too aware of the looks and slumped down where he was sitting. 

Berry Punch was making sure that Wheatberry ate a well rounded meal, and the foal squealed in protest, wanting to eat nothing more than hot buttery peas. Bucky sympathised. Hot buttered peas were delicious, but growing foals needed more than buttery peas. He cast a glance at Ripple, who was tearing into a pile of beets. Ripple had been the very first pony that Bucky had ever seen or known who suffered from malnutrition, and it was something that had changed him profoundly. 

Sparkler ate the way she always ate, with gusto and enthusiasm, her food getting a light dusting of snow as she gobbled it down. She had named the cloud “Poofy” and called it her boon companion. 

As Bucky continued to eat, a pegasus entered into the hall through the smaller doors in the rear rather than the larger double doors that was the main entryway. The pegasus approached him nervously. 

The pegasus stood near where Bucky sat, saying nothing, but standing at attention after snapping a salute with his wing. He stared at Bucky expectantly. 

“If there is something to be said, say it,” Bucky said in frustration. 

“One does not address their superiours unless spoken to sir,” the pegasus stated as he gave Bucky a fearful look.

“Do you have something to tell me?” Bucky asked. 

“Lord Buckminster, as of delivery of this message, you are now in charge of this castle and these isles until such a time that you are relieved,” the pegasus said nervously. 

“What the feck?” Bucky shouted in reply. “I demand to know what is going on!” 

“Lord Buckminster, Laird Keg Smasher had to go and deal with a wolf attack on another island. One of our larger villages fell prey to the wolves’ predations. We’ve never dealt with an attack like this one. Laird Keg Smasher went there to re-secure the area. We do not know why he has not returned, and there have been no further communications,” the pegasus explained. 

Bucky reeled from the information and he felt light headed and faint. Now was not the time to succumb to panic though. He steeled his nerves and a hard glint flickered in his remaining eye. He looked to Wheatberry, who seemed oblivious to everything. 

“What if Keg Smasher does not return?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

“Lord Buckminster, you would become Laird Buckminster and you would be responsible for our safety and well being,” the pegasus answered in a trembling voice. 

Bucky closed his eye and tried to collect himself. 

“Sir, I know how much you value your time with your family, but the other nobles are going to want some reassurance. After you finish your meal, I must request that you situate yourself in the throne room and make plans for what comes next,” the pegasus requested. 

“What comes next?” Bucky inquired, all too aware that there were too many eyes to count now looking at him. Had he been able to count them, it would have came out to an odd number given the unfortunate circumstances and the many missing eyes. 

“We must operate under the assumption that Keg Smasher is not returning and make plans to keep your ponies safe. He said that he would return before sundown and he has not done so,” the pegasus responded. 

Bucky gritted his teeth. He noticed that the pegasus had not said Laird Keg Smasher with his last address. It filled him with dread. 

“I am with you sir.” 

Sentinel’s voice cut through his inner turmoil like a knife. Bucky opened his eye and looked at his colt, who was sitting a short distance away. 

“I will assist you,” Sentinel stated in a somewhat groggy voice, looking Bucky in the eye and perking his ears forward. 

Bucky thought about dismissing Sentinel and sending him to bed for much needed rest, but then he realised that if he did that, it would cause him more pain than his burns. Bucky nodded. 

“I will be assigning the most loyal guards I know near your door,” the pegasus said in a low voice. 

Bucky looked at the pegasus in confusion. “Guards?” he asked. 

“Lord Buckminster sir, it is mere a precaution. Others will be jealous of what you have and there might be those who move to take it from you. Keg Smasher laid out a careful bit of planning. I am one of the few that Keg Smasher trusted with his plans, and I do hope that I prove worthy of your trust sir,” the pegasus explained. 

“What is your name?” Bucky asked. 

“I am called Thrasher,” the pegasus answered. 

Bucky felt a puzzling sense of calm overtaking him. He looked around the table at his family. “Rising Star, you are to keep them safe. I am trusting you with their security,” Bucky instructed. He saw the colt nod and was pleased to see a look of grim determination settle over Rising Star’s face. 

“I am coming with you,” Berry said.

“Alright Berry,” Bucky replied. 

“No, you listen here, you are going to need me if things get complicated. I’m a Shetland pony… wait, did you just agree?” Berry said in a confused voice. 

Bucky nodded. “I am going to need your ability to read other ponies,” Bucky stated. 

“Rising Star isn’t the only pony who can keep our family safe,” Sparkler said, a faint hint of anger in her voice. 

Bucky dismissed the cloud over Sparkler’s head with a mental flick and looked at Sparkler. “Sparkler, you are in charge of keeping Wheatberry at your side at all times. You are to keep her safe, secure, and happy. You are not to let her be more a leg’s length from you at any time, do you understand me?” Bucky commanded. 

Sparkler nodded, her moment of anger now gone, understanding just how serious her task was. She moved closer to Berry and the foal. Once settled, she gave Wheatberry a friendly pat. 

“We’re coming with you,” Bon Bon said. 

“I’d prefer that Lyra stayed to guard the family,” Bucky said. 

“Rising Star and Sparkler are formidable defenders. We have no doubt about their abilities. While we should trust Thrasher’s selected guards, I would feel better if we protected our own. So Lyra and I are coming with you and Berry,” Bon Bon explained. 

“I am more than capable of defending myself,” Bucky said, but even as he spoke his words softened as Bon Bon gave him the stinkeye. Bon Bon’s disappointment was one of the few things that Bucky truly feared. 

“You swore an oath to never bring harm to one of your fellow ponies,” Bon Bon growled. “And we are going to hold you to that oath. Lyra is under no such compunction. Should there be trouble, I know that Lyra will gleefully render our foes into greasy piles of ash,” Bon Bon said in a loud clear voice. 

Lyra nodded. “Yup, because I am feeling frustrated,” she muttered. She lifted her mug of wine, chugged it down, and then slammed the mug down on the table. Her golden eyes glanced around the room, meeting as many eyes as possible. 

Bucky nodded slowly and turned to look at Thrasher. “Give me some time and we will collect in the throne room as soon as I am ready,” he said. 
	
> Chapter 114
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The broken throne remained empty and Bucky sat on the floor next to it, just as Keg Smasher had done. He couldn’t feel his legs, he could only feel a painful burning sensation and a tingling tightness. For the past few hours, Lord Wrecker had been quietly telling Bucky everything he knew, and the old pegasus knew quite a bit. 

As Bucky squirmed and shifted, the pain finally becoming too much to bear, he felt himself lifted in a prickly field of magic. There was a faint pop sound as a rock suddenly appeared into existence, followed by another pop as it was transmuted into a purple-grey cushion. He was plopped onto the cushion without a word spoken. 

He cast a grateful glance upon Lyra, who stood nearby, alert and attentive, occasionally pacing back and forth. 

“Lay down,” Bon Bon instructed. “You can hold court in a more comfortable position. I can’t wait to get home and have a doctor look at your legs,” she muttered.

“I can’t,” Bucky said in soft protest. “Lord Wrecker is just as messed up as I am, and he is stuck sitting on the stone floor.” 

“LAY DOWN!” Bon Bon snapped, clearly not in the mood for shenanigans or protest. “Lyra, another cushion for Lord Wrecker if you please,” Bon Bon commanded. 

Lyra complied with Bon Bon’s request, lifting Wrecker, summoning a stone and then transmuting it into a cushion. Wrecker grumbled in protest as he was dumped onto his cushion. 

Sentinel crawled onto Bucky’s cushion with him and settled in beside his father. The colt had listened to every word spoken by Wrecker, and while he had a few questions, he chose to remain silent. 

“It nears midnight,” Wrecker stated. 

“Thank you for telling me everything,” Bucky said as he kicked out his hind legs behind him and made himself comfortable. 

“I had a bit of a talk with your matriarch,” Wrecker said. “I told her some of what I told you. She’s a fine mare, but I think I prefer the fiery spirit of yon daughter of Shetland,” he said as he gestured at Bon Bon. 

Bon Bon turned and glared at Wrecker with a burning stare. She was in heat and frustrated, and wasn’t in the mood for no guff. 

“See, that is what you want in a mare. I can’t stand it when they are soft and submissive. I want a mare that can bloody my nose and defend my foals,” Wrecker stated. He continued to look at Bon Bon appreciatively. 

“Seems to me that quite a few stallions here want their mares submissive,” Bucky replied in a faint angry tone. 

“Sadly, yes. We live under dire and desperate circumstances, which are now changing. But submissive mares can be treated like a resource and managed. I’ve always disliked that sort of thinking. It’s wrong,” Wrecker grumbled. 

“Makes me feel better to hear you say that,” Bucky said to the battered old pegasus. 

“I am not a popular noble,” Wreckler said in a strained voice, clearly in pain and in need of sleep. The old stallion grimaced as he settled into his cushion and tried to make himself comfortable. “There are those that feel that since the sweeps are over and things have changed, Keg Smasher needs to go. I disagree. I think we need him more than ever. He makes mistakes, sure, but he has done a better job of leadership than most of our previous Lairds. And lad, I hope you will forgive him for the many mistakes he has made involving you,” Wrecker stated. 

“I just hope he is alive,” Bucky said in a worried voice.  

“Don’t want to be Laird?” Wrecker asked the stallion beside him. 

“I want to go home,” Bucky replied in a flat monotone. 

“But if it fell upon your shoulders…” Wrecker said, his sentence left open and unfinished. 

“Of course I would do it,” Bucky muttered as he made a sour look. 

“Keg Smasher was right about you… you’re a noble lad alright. Sort of like yon Sentinel there,” Wrecker said in a low raspy voice. “I could have went to the mainland. I applied and received clearance. I was ready to go too, was just waiting on the boat to arrive.” 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

Wrecker sighed and looked weary. “Word got out there was a mad unicorn running amok on the isles. He was capturing earth ponies and pegasi. He was chopping them up for study. He was obsessed with earth pony hooves and pegasi wings,” he explained. 

“That’s horrible,” Bucky said in disgust. 

“Guess which house he was from,” Wrecker growled. 

Bucky sighed in frustration but said nothing. There was nothing to say, and nothing that could be said. It was one of the many things he hoped to make his former house pay for. 

“I was part of the group that hunted him down and killed him. He killed quite a few of us before we finally brought him down,” Wrecker said. “He killed my brother and my father. I was sliced up by invisible knives made of magic. But we managed to kill him, and I was given the title of ‘Sir’ for my troubles. Afterwards, I stayed. The boat left without me. And I never went to the mainland to live a life of happy ever after,” Wrecker said sadly. 

“You did good… be proud,” Bon Bon said in a low emotional voice. 

“Thank you pretty lass,” Wrecker replied. He was old, but not far enough gone that he couldn’t appreciate the look Bon Bon gave him. 

“And this is why I studied abjuration in school, even though it made me a total nerd. For a time, I entertained the idea of becoming one of Celestia’s black cloaks when I was a foal and full of dreams,” Lyra quipped. 

“What is abjuration and what is a black cloak?” Wrecker asked. 

“Abjuration is defensive and protective magic and a well practiced specialist can take it to an offensive degree. A spellbreaker. By knowing so much about magical defenses, it allows a unicorn skilled in abjuration to take out other unicorn’s defenses and protections. I was terrible about abjuration in school. It was my worst subject,” Bucky explained. 

“And a black cloak?” Wrecker inquired. 

“Black cloaks don’t exist. They’re spooks. Everypony knows they exist, but they aren’t acknowledged by the Crown. They’re the unicorn police and they take out rogue unicorns. And Bucky, I figured with your careful and cautious nature, you’d have been a natural for abjuration. Stupid Twilight Sparkle though, she kept making me look like I was an idiot. Grrrrr,” Lyra responded. “I did brilliant things in that class, but they were totally ignored because Twilight Sparkle did things that were even more brilliant and the second most brilliant unicorn in the class wasn’t worth paying attention to,” Lyra grumbled bitterly. 

“I excelled in a number of areas but did really well in enchantment, transmutation, and the creative magical arts,” Bucky said to Lyra. 

“Enchantment? Really?”Lyra peered at Bucky curiously and then sniggered.

Bucky felt his face grow hot. “Stop laughing!” he grumbled. 

“Why is this so funny?” Bon Bon asked as she poked Lyra with her hoof. 

“Enchantment is for homemakers and little fillies,” Lyra said. 

“IT IS NOT!” Bucky snapped. 

“Oh my,” Wrecker gasped. 

“Yeah it is,” Lyra said. “One of the classes you have to take is actually called “Hearth and Home Enchantments” and it is the perfect class for every little filly looking for a husband,” Lyra said with a chuckle. 

Bucky scowled turned away from Lyra, grumbling wordlessly as he did so. 

“At least our husband will be useful in the kitchen,” Lyra said. 

“I also have the theory required to create an enchanted suit of armor, which is how I am going to purge these isles from the wolves. I was able to enchant that ship outside and make it weigh a fraction of what it once weighed, which is how I plan to take you home. I could probably create golems, I can create magical objects and appliances, and with my current magical abilities, I could probably create magical artifacts of unspeakable power,” Bucky said in a low forceful whisper. “How do you think things like the Alicorn Amulet were made?” he asked. 

Lyra’s laughter died. She turned to look at Bucky. “I am sorry Bucky, I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just having a laugh. Look, I know how powerful you are. I was trying to lighten the mood a bit, I guess I screwed up. I’m sorry,” Lyra said apologetically. 

“I got teased a lot about it in school,” Bucky said in a low voice. “I’m sorry if I overreacted,” he added. “And now it seems I could possibly become the Dark Lord Buckminster, Scourge of the Hearth and Home Enchantment’s class,” he snarked. 

“Enchantment and transmutation seemed to have worked out for you, you are the second most powerful unicorn I know,” Lyra said in flattering tones. 

“Do you know what Twilight Sparkle specialised in?” Bucky asked, thankful that Lyra provided the means to change the subject. 

“Abjuration and divination,” Lyra answered. 

“Magic is confusing,” Wrecker interjected. “I’m glad I am a pegasus,” he said.

“Being an earth pony isn’t so bad,” Bon Bon said. 

“We need a school for magic here on the isles,” Wrecker stated. “Now that the sweeps are over, we’re going to have a lot of unicorns here that will need to learn all about abjuration and enchantment.” 

Bucky took the pegasus’ words to heart and he fell silent, thinking about how a school could change the isles. More than alcohol or raw resources, a school for unicorns could turn the isles into a civilised place. 



 

“It will be dawn soon,” Lyra said in a low whisper so she would not wake the two sleeping ponies. Bucky and Wrecker were sound asleep on their cushions. Sentinel had dozed on and off through the night, and was currently awake. Lyra was exhausted. She was maintaining two lyre spells, one in the throne room and one back in their private room. 

Bon Bon nodded. She felt irritable and hungry. She knew that Lyra was hungry, because she could hear Lyra’s stomach grumbling. Guards paced around them, occasionally glancing at the two mares in concern. 

Sentinel pressed himself up against Bucky and didn’t care who saw him doing it. He too was thankful to feel warmth and life in a body that he loved. Several ponies had come to the hall during the long night to speak to Bucky, and Sentinel had stayed at Bucky’s side. 

“Hey… you… yes you, you right there, since it is getting to be about dawn, I want you to go off to the kitchens and tell whomever is cooking that I want fried potatoes for breakfast,” Lyra commanded. 

The guard blinked at Lyra several times in astonishment. 

Sentinel raised his head. “I do believe that was a direct order from one of Lord Buckminster’s wives,” the foal growled. 

The pegasus snapped a wing in a cautious salute, went to the door, whispered something to a guard outside, and then returned to his position. “Fried potatoes for the lady,” he said in neutral tones as he resumed his post. 

“Lyra,” Bon Bon muttered while rolling her eyes. 

“Hey, no eye rolling. I’m not sharing my potatoes with you,” Lyra grumbled. 

“But now I want potatoes,” Bon Bon whispered. 

“Too bad,” Lyra quipped. 



 

Bucky stood at the castle gatehouse looking over the mustered guard as they presented themselves for inspection. There was still no sign of Keg Smasher. There had been no new word. Wrecker moved slowly beside him, wobbling around on three legs. 

“This isn’t like Keg Smasher at all lad. There should have been word by now. Or something,” Wrecker said in worried tones. 

“I hope the guard I’ve dispatched to check on Keg Smasher return with some kind of word soon,” Bucky said as he eyed the assembled pegasi. 

“Lad, I have a bad feeling. I wouldn’t expect good news,” Wrecker warned. “Come lad, let’s go have breakfast.” 

Bucky stood in place and gave the guard a final once over before giving a nod, which seemed to satisfy them. He looked down at Sentinel beside him. “Let’s go to breakfast and try to reassure some scared ponies. Then we’ll get Thistle and have a nice breakfast of fish. Sound good?” he asked of the colt. 

Sentinel nodded. “I think I smelled potatoes cooking. I hope I get some,” he replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 115
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch yawned. It had been a long night of being mostly unnoticed. She had remained in a quiet corner, dozing lightly, waking only when somepony had come to speak to Bucky. Sleeping on the stone floor was unkind to her joints and everything crackled and popped as she stretched. 

“Did I miss anything?” Berry asked of Lyra. At some point, during her dozing, Bucky had slipped off. 

“Bucky went out to inspect the guard. We’re waiting here until we are summoned for breakfast, in the event of somepony coming to inquire about events,” Bon Bon said, her words punctuated with a yawn. 

Berry scratched her cutie mark with her hoof. “Some of the nobles last night,” she muttered to herself. 

“Do you think any of them actually tried to kill Keg Smasher?” Lyra asked the red eyed earth pony. 

“Those neep headed numpties that talked to us last night? No,” Berry replied. “They were all scared and clueless, weren't they Bonnie?” 

Bon Bon nodded. 

“Hey, there are cushions?” Berry asked as she saw the cushions on the floor. 

Lyra kicked her hooves. “I was keeping two lyres going last night, several detection spells, and making those two cushions nearly did me in. I only did it because Bucky looked miserable,” the unicorn explained. 

“It’s okay Lyra, I was just giving you a bit of a hard time,” Berry said. “Oh gosh, I wish I hadn’t slept, I feel more tired now then I would if I had just stayed awake all night,” she muttered .

“You can always come to bed with us,” Bon Bon offered. 

“Yeah, you are always welcome in the bed with us,” Lyra said. She paused when she realised what her words might sound like and she blushed. “Uh, actually…” 

Bon Bon raised her eyebrow at Lyra. “Lyra, why are you acting funny?” 

“Well, um,” Lyra began. 

“We’re lesbians. She’s female. It’s okay Lyra. I mean, come on, we’re married to her too,” Bon Bon said in irritation. 

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Lyra asked. 

Berry giggled. “You know, I wouldn’t feel right about this until I talked with everypony else. I am flattered of course. But for right now, no stepping outside of our current arrangement,” Berry said coquettishly. 

A guard coughed and Bon Bon turned and looked in irritation. “Some kind of problem?” she asked. 

“No ma’am. Er, no Lady Bon Bon, there is no problem at all,” the guard replied. 

“I bet you’re probably thinking that if you could just spend just one night with us, you could change our minds, is that what you are thinking?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Bonnie,” Lyra whispered forcefully. 

Bon Bon scowled but said nothing else to the guard. 



 

The trip to the lake caused nothing but irritation. A contingent of guard insisted on following him. Keg Smasher went around alone quite often, and Bucky felt as though he was being foalsitted, which made him feel cranky. 

Lord Wrecker was quite unable to follow Bucky to the lake and had stayed back at the castle. Bucky worried for the old pegasus’ safety but said nothing. He walked around with jittery nerves and gritted teeth.

To make matter worse, the guard unit dispatched to Keg Smasher’s last location had not returned, something which all of the rest of the guard agreed wasn’t right.

They should have returned by now. 

Finally, Bucky could take no more. He needed sleep. He had secured himself in the room he shared with his family, and was now settling into the bed, where there were already a few sleepers. After laying down, he was quickly piled upon by Berry, Bon Bon, Lyra, and Sentinel, who arranged themselves all around him. 

The last sound he heard was Wheatberry giggling. 



 

“Bucky, wake up.” 

Bucky awoke to the sound of Derpy’s voice. He blinked his remaining eye a few times and felt his head thudding. Awaking with a headache was not something he was fond of and he kept his head where it was, resting on something soft and warm. Had he looked, he would have noticed there were the image of three wrapped candies just below his chin, more commonly called bon bons. He could feel the most delightful heat against the base of his throat and his chest. There was something heavy on his foreleg and it too felt warm. And rather damp.

As Bucky came around, he became aware of where he was resting his head and where his foreleg was tucked. At some point, he had used Bon Bon’s backside as a pillow, his foreleg had somehow wound up between her legs, and she was clenching it tightly between her solid thighs in her sleep. His leg felt damp. 

“Gah!” Bucky said, extracting himself from the awkward situation with a strange wordless cry. Once he was free of Bon Bon’s clutches, he looked up at Derpy. “Forbidden nethers,” he muttered. Much to his own shame, he could not resist sniffing his damp foreleg. 

Derpy laughed at her husband and stroked him with her wing. “Good news,” she said. 

Bucky looked up and around him. He pulled himself from the bed, hearing commotion in the hall. He was on his hooves in an instant, and out the door in moments. 

He saw Wheatberry and what could only be her mother. Winter Wheat looked battered and bloody, joyful and grief stricken. Fear made Bucky’s balls feel as though they were being jammed full of pins. 

“Where is Keg Smasher? Is he okay?” Bucky asked. 

Winter Wheat looked sad even as Wheatberry clung to her neck and was kissing her face. “He’s still alive,” she said, her eyes glancing down at Wheatberry in some unspoken communication. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Later, please,” Winter Wheat pleaded. “Keg Smasher needs you right away,” she said, her eyes locked on Bucky and looking at him, begging him for his help. 

“Brace yourself Lord Bitters, and follow me,” a guard said. 

Bucky fell into step with the guard. He glanced over his shoulder, shut the door behind him with his magic, and then turned his head around to watch where he was going. All thoughts of Bon Bon’s well cushioned backside were now gone and Bucky wondered what had happened. 



 

Bucky had never been to Keg Smasher’s private quarters before. There was a door that looked like any other, plain, simple, and solid. The room was spartan. There was a wooden desk, a tall wooden cabinet,  a table with stuff scattered over the surface, and a pile of straw in the corner. 

And in the pile of straw was what remained of Keg Smasher. 

Bucky wanted to ask what had happened, what had gone wrong, but all of those words seemed useless. “How can I help you?” Bucky asked, his voice little more than a scratchy whisper. Bucky moved in close, scarcely able to take in what he was seeing. He heard the door click behind him and he knew that he was alone, that he was trusted alone with Keg Smasher. 

“I need your help lad,” Keg Smasher grunted weakly. 

Keg Smasher needed more than help. He was a bloodied mess from ear to hoof. One wing was missing, leaving behind a trickling bloody stump. He was covered in bite marks and gashes. One leg had a rope tourniquet around it and most of the flesh from fetlock to knee had been stipped away. 

Bucky swallowed his revulsion and kneeled down beside Keg Smasher. “What do I do?” he asked in a strained voice. His head was thumping now, thudding away, as though there was hammer inside of it. 

“I need for you… to magic my leg away... what’s left of it. I don’t think I’d survive the sawing. And then I need for you to burn it shut,” Keg Smasher said breathlessly. 

Bucky looked down at the bloodied straw. There was a lot that needed to be burned shut. He would start with the leg first, and then go from the largest to the smallest wounds. It seemed to make sense, at least in his own mind. 

“No dying,” Bucky commanded. 

“I don’t want to go lad,” Keg Smasher wheezed. He looked terrified and both eyes were wide with fear. 

Bucky felt sick knowing that he was about to use his magic to sunder another pony’s flesh. He fought back his growing nausea and panic, knowing that he wasn’t actually bringing harm to another pony, but doing what he could to save Keg Smasher’s life. None of Sombra’s memories that he had recovered so far could prepare him for this.

“Sleep,” Bucky commanded, his horn igniting and his words carrying the force of magical compulsion. He watched as Keg Smasher’s eyes slowly closed and the big pegasus went still. Bucky steeled his nerves and drew together his force of will. 

He teleported the remains of the leg away from the body. It  reappeared a few feet away and fell to the stone floor with a thud. To Bucky’s credit, he did not throw up, but he came close. He removed the tourniquet and as he was doing so, gathered a telekinetic ball of energy together, imbuing it with great heat. He paused before burning the leg shut. He teleported away several inches of bone and muscle from inside of the stump, pressed the flesh together over the now smooth ends of bone, and pressed his magical brand against the bloodied flesh. 

There was a sizzling crackle as well as the smell of burning flesh and hair. 

The wound closed and Bucky looked around for his next target. He chose to work on the wing stump. He removed the bloody stump completely, teleporting what little bit was left away, and then pulled the remaining bit of bone free from the ball and socket joint with a wet sounding pop. He cringed as he worked. He pulled the skin closed with his magic and applied his magical brand, cauterising the wound shut. 

Bucky felt that he was off to a good start. He licked his lips nervously and looked over Keg Smasher, trying to figure out what to do next. He went to work on the legs, knowing that a pony could bleed out from leg wounds. One hind hoof was cracked and Bucky didn’t know how to fix that. It would need time to heal. 

He lifted Keg Smasher into the air using his magic and checked his belly, checking everything for wounds. He pressed his magical brand to every spot that oozed blood. 

And then, Bucky realised, his task was finished. There was nothing left to burn shut after many agonising minutes of work. He looked around the room and found a bucket, a clean bucket that was half full of water. He conjured more. He set to work cleaning Keg Smasher up, carefully wiping away the blood using his magic and rinsing Keg Smasher off with water. He held the maimed pegasus in the air and pondered the current situation. He could turn the straw into a mattress and get a big rock later for something more substantial, or he realised, he could get a big rock now. Teleporting that much mass would have been difficult if not outright impossible, but now Bucky realised it was within the realms of what he was capable of. He teleported the bloodied straw into the fireplace and set it ablaze to be rid of the mess. He touched a large rock from somewhere with his mind, took it within his will, and teleported it. As it winked into existence in the room, he transmuted it into a thick mattress, some sheets, and a few blankets and pillows. They were crude things, but better than the cold floor and straw. 

Unsure of what to do with the severed leg and the remains of the wing, he lifted them in his magic, wrapped them in a blanket, and set it upon the table. 

He felt his stomach growling. Teleporting that much mass was not without consequences. He felt tired, weak, and starving. He couldn’t remember ever having a headache this bad in a long time and he wondered if his remaining eye was going to pop out of its socket from the pressure. 

He settled Keg Smasher into the bed and covered him with a blanket. He lifted Keg Smasher’s head and placed a slightly lumpy pillow under it, and then let the pegasus’ head gently drop. 

He went to the door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the hall. Winter Wheat was looking at him imploringly. Her eyes were red and she had been crying. Wheatberry was on her back, looking distressed and afraid. 

“I think he’s going to make it,” Bucky reported in a low voice. “I did what I could. He’s comfortable. I made him a bed. A real bed.” 

The earth pony moved swiftly and Bucky felt her kiss his cheek. She drew away after she had done it and looked down at the stone floor. “Forgive me Lord Bitters,” she said in a wavering voice. 

“Think nothing of it,” Bucky said soothingly. “And please, call me Bucky. Everypony calls me Bucky,” he offered. 

Winter Wheat looked back up at Bucky and he saw moist gratitude in her eyes. She was young and pretty, and couldn’t be too much older than Sparkler. She was also bitten, but she didn’t look too bad. She was a big solid sort of earth pony, broad shouldered and thick legged. 

“My fellow-wives know what has taken place,” Winter Wheat said in a quiet concerned voice. “The guard have gone to fetch them. Keg will be looked after,” she continued. 

“If you need my help, you come to me and you ask. If you need somepony to look after Wheatberry for a while, she is safe with us. And when you get to feeling better, I’d really like to know what happened,” Bucky said gently. As he spoke, his words made his head thud painfully and he felt light headed. “There are some remains in the blanket on the table. I do not know what you might want done with them.” 

The earth pony filly nodded gratefully. “Thank you for the warning,” she said in a low voice. “And again, thank you for everything. My husband speaks highly of you. I see why.” 

Bucky nodded, reached out, touched her softly with his folded fetlock, and then excused himself. “I need to go. I do not feel well,” he said apologetically. And with that, Bucky pushed his way through the guard, thankful that he was not Laird Buckminster Bitters. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 116
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	At least somepony was nice enough to make sure that he had lunch. Bucky sat in the dining hall scarfing down as much food as he could. There was leftovers from breakfast and lunch and a small cask of mead had been brought to him. 

He was so empty that the alcohol could take no immediate effect upon him. He could feel his stomach converting food into energy almost as quickly as he could take it in. As he continued to gobble down enough food to feed several ponies, he had himself a troubling thought. Going on a magical rampage wearing a suit of enchanted armor was going to require a lot of food. He had experienced this thought before several times, but now it settled into his mind uncomfortably. A bit of teleporting with his own body mass wasn’t too bad, but wearing several hundred pounds of armor was going to deplete him quickly. Even if he lightened his armor like he did The Scorned Mare, he still had the molecular mass to deal with and magical molecular reassembly every time he winked.  

He thought about it as he chewed. Alcohol was good source of easily consumed calories and if he was using magic constantly, he could stave off the effects of inebriation. Unicorns could get drunk if they wanted to, and so could alicorns as Bucky recalled, thinking of Barley and Luna. He made a few mental notes. It might just be a beer and whiskey fueled rampage that drove the wolves from the isles. 

Sombra’s suggestion of strong drink made more and more sense. Bucky whipped his head around and looked at his hops cutie mark for a moment. He wasn’t sure if it was irony or not, but it almost made sense in a perverted sort of way that a unicorn warrior would have such a mark. Extreme magic took fuel, and alcohol was an exceptionally good fuel. He brought his head back around and eyed the food before  him, selecting his next target.

He took out a dozen fried oatcakes in mere moments, and then guzzled down half of the cask of mead in one go. He belched and let go a sound that would make Sparkler cheer in appreciation. There was a sound that would never be welcomed in a library. For a brief moment, Bucky was thankful that he was not the Scholar. 

There was leftover corn, turnip, and potato chowder. He lifted the large wooden bowl to his lips and guzzled, swallowing the creamy broth and chewing the vegetable bits. 

“I’m practically a pegasus,” Bucky muttered to himself, his mouth still full, something he would have never done even just a few months ago. He let go of another frightful resonating belch that echoed through the dining hall. “Or an earth pony I suppose.” 

“Do you need anything else sir?” a skittish looking serving filly asked. 

Bucky looked at the filly. She looked to be older than Sparkler, on the cusp of actual marehood. She was of solid earth pony stock and was looking at him with some small concern, worried that she would fail to please. 

Or, Bucky realised, be asked to satisfy other appetites. He didn’t know how to put the filly at ease or explain to her that he wasn’t that sort of noble. Instead, he went for an entirely different approach. He couldn’t tell why the filly seemed so skittish.

“There is lot of cheese and butter here. The chowder is fantastic. I’ve seen a few goats, the occasional cow, and even a few sheep, but there doesn’t seem to be enough dairy animals here to keep up with the sheer amounts of butter and cheese ponies eat. By the way, the gratin potatoes were fantastic lass, you tell whomever cooked them that they did a good job,” Bucky said in what he hoped were friendly but not too friendly tones. 

“That would be my mother sir,” the filly said with a blush. 

“Your mother made the gratin potatoes? She did a wonderful job,” Bucky replied. 

“She also helps to make the butter and the cheese,” the filly chirped happily. 

“So, she’s a great cook, she knows how to churn butter, and she can make good cheese? She’s a treasure. So where does all the milk come from?” Bucky asked. 

“My mother. And many of the other kitchen staff mares,” the filly answered cheerfully. 

Bucky looked down at his chowder bowl and then his eye looked up at the filly. 

“Being a milk mare means a comfortable life. If your milk makes the grade, it means a comfortable life of working in the kitchens and being fed the best food so you can make the best milk. My mother has high hopes for me, making good milk runs in our bloodline. I hope that I get a milk bucket mark just like my mother’s and my grandmare’s,” the filly explained. 

Bucky lifted his bowl and guzzled down the rest of the chowder. A small part of his brain screamed that he had just learned too much and consuming the rest of the chowder was folly. He didn’t care. Why was it okay to drink cows milk or goats milk but pony milk was somehow taboo? His brain implored him to stop thinking about this line of reasoning. He taunted his brain that milk was milk, and it all came from teats. Delightful life giving teats. Drinking cows milk or goats milk was milk meant for another species. At least pony milk was meant for ponies. His brain fought back the only way that it could under the mental onslaught. His higher processes shut down and all he was left with was various mental images of the teats of those he loved. Berry’s were small and firm. Thistle’s were growing and soft… and oh so inviting. Derpy’s pointed in different directions… He looked down at his foreleg and thought of Bon Bon. He immediately pushed that troubling thought from his mind. Forbidden teats and forbidden nethers were a no no. 

He wiped his muzzle and looked up at the filly. “I wish you the best of luck miss, and you tell your mother that Bucky says thank you,” he stated. 

The filly squirmed and blushed. “I just need to find a good husband,” she said suggestively. “I’m under Keg Smasher’s protection until just the right husband can be found. Keg Smasher values his cheese and I am a worthwhile asset,” she said with a bit of a titter as she looked at Bucky shyly.

It was time to go. 

“Well thank you again miss. I am almost done here. And I am a very busy pony,” Bucky said to the filly. He smiled at her one last time, lifted the cask, emptied it, scarfed down a few remaining morsels, and then rose from the table. He wondered if the filly knew what had happened to Keg Smasher. 

As he departed, the filly gave him a final nervous but fetching smile. 



 

Piña flipped the page to Starjammer’s Shadow Bestiary and cursed Starjammer’s name. He might have been a brilliant unicorn, but she was growing to hate his books. She had just read almost a hundred pages that could be summed up in just a few short words, that corrupted shadow creatures tended to have necromantic bites and drained life from their victims, giving them strength in return and healing their wounds if they had any. The more they bit, the stronger they became, until they were truly formidable foes. 

The earth pony scowled and looked up from the book. Her ears splayed out sideways as she thought about everything she had read. Corrupted shadows fed on thaumaturgical energy as well as life energy, which made them magic stealers. Starjammer mentioned in his book that enterprising unicorns had used corrupted shadow creatures to gather needed magical energy and then siphoned it off to power magical experiments and arcano-tech contraptions. 

Piña turned as the hum from Dinky’s horn intensified. A single fly buzzed around Dinky’s head, surrounded by a magic nimbus. Piña smiled, feeling pleased. She returned to her study. 

“What are you girls up to?” 

Piña nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard her father’s voice. “Not mischief!” she said defensively. The earth pony foal looked up and saw Bucky. “I was reading and doing some thinking,” Piña explained. 

Dinky managed to keep her concentration and held her control over the fly. She was lost in her own world at the moment, completely unaware that Bucky was near. 

“Ripple is sleeping,” Piña said in a low voice. “She lifted us up here on the deck of the ship and we stowed away inside the cabin. It is nice in here,” Piña said. 

“I was wondering how you girls managed to get up inside of here on your own. I was worried about you. You slipped off and didn’t tell any adults,” Bucky said. 

Piña squirmed. “We’re safe. We are with Ripple,” she said a small guilty voice. “I think I understand what the wolves are doing,” Piña said. She watched as Bucky’s demeanour changed suddenly. Where he seemed mildly upset before, his eye now blazed with a curious intensity and he sat down. Piña felt her mouth go dry. 

Bucky settled himself on to the mattress next to Piña, sitting first, and then sprawling out on his belly. Piña felt herself being tugged away from her book and she found herself in Bucky’s warm embrace, one foreleg wrapped around her and holding her close. Piña settled against Bucky’s chest and pressed her snoot into his neck for a moment, glad that he wasn’t angry. 

“So what are the wolves doing Piña?” Bucky inquired. 

“Being earth ponies,” Piña replied. 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said. “Can you explain it?” he asked. 

Piña pursed her lips together and further settled into Bucky’s embrace. She could feel his heart beating as her back pressed into his chest. All of Piña’s fears and worries melted away. “The shadow wolves are harvesters. They go out and collect energy from the ponies they attack. The book says that they can collect energy. And that unicorns can collect this energy from the wolves. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about harvesting, but I am an earth pony and I get hunches. If the wolves are collecting magical energy, they are probably bringing it back to some place where it is being collected, since new wolves keep being made. But since the attacks keep getting worse and worse, they are probably getting stronger and stronger, and with this much harvesting, there has to be a lot of surplus,” Piña explained. 

Piña squirmed and giggled as she felt a kiss on her ear. 

“So the wolves are bringing back what they harvest like earth ponies returning to a barn,” Bucky said. “And whatever they don’t use to make more wolves, they are gathering up and storing it away some how?” 

Piña nodded, feeling a little bit nervous now and hoping that her father would take her seriously. “It is just a guess,” she squeaked. 

“It is a very good guess Piña, and I think you might be on to something,” Bucky said soothingly. 

Piña relaxed in her father’s embrace, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh of relief. “Nopony ever takes us earth ponies seriously,” she whispered. “I don’t understand why. We have good minds. We can think. Smart Cookie was one one of the Founders. But nopony ever takes us seriously,” Piña muttered. 

“I do,” Bucky said. He kissed Piña again and gave her a squeeze. “You keep studying. I am in need of a nap. I had a very difficult morning Piña,” he whispered. 

As Piña watched, Ripple was gently lifted from her spot and brought closer. Bucky settled the pegasus filly beside him and Piña reluctantly slipped free of his embrace. She returned to her book and looked over at Bucky, who had lowered his head to the bed. He looked very tired. 

As Piña returned to her book, she could hear a faint wheezing snore coming from Bucky as he slipped into slumber. She dragged her book over and leaned up against his other side. She flipped through several pages and then the book fell open to an illustration of something called a “shadow battery.” It was a crystal column infused with raw magic, heavily ensorcelled by the strongest forms of enchantment, and when connected by something called an “ethereal bridge” to a unicorn, it could give the unicorn a vast reserve of external power so that they would not tire so quickly from prolonged spell use. Piña read the description carefully several times. She had come to her conclusion before reaching this page and she felt a small sense of pride. 

At the bottom of the page it stated that the shadow battery was created by a unicorn named Sombra. Piña shivered in horror, now all too familiar with that name, the boogeypony himself. 
	
	
> Chapter 117
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The afternoon loomed before him and Bucky felt better after a nap. Thankfully, all traces of his headache were gone. He was still worried about Keg Smasher and so many other things, but there were things to do. 

He settled a large boulder near the ship and sat down. Already, he was feeling a bit peckish. He was going to need an enormous gasbag. Even with the ship being lightened, there were still going to be plenty of ponies on board. He was working entirely by gut instinct and approximation. He was going to need a gasbag at least one hundred feet in length and sixty six feet in diameter. Give or take a bit. It was a lot to transmute and then enchant. Every square foot of the canvas would need to be enchanted to hold in the super compressed cloudstuff. This was a task that was going to require several days, followed by thorough checking. If one single inch lacked proper enchantment, it would leak, and that would be all kinds of bad. He was also going to have to craft an opening so that more super compressed cloudstuff could be added. The magic in the clouds faded with enough time and more clouds had to be added. That would be easy enough. A canvas flap opening with a magical adhesion spell to hold it shut. 

Bucky sighed when he realised the enormity of his task. This was a task for entire teams of unicorns. He had once visited the shipyards of Canterlot as a colt and watched the construction of airships. It was a school related trip to show the practical applications of enchantment and transmutation. The fillies he was with had shown no interest at all in the construction process, but it was a day that had always stayed in Bucky’s memory. 

Enchantment was power. A lone unicorn by themselves wasn’t much of a credible threat. Dangerous sure, lethal perhaps, but still fragile. But that same unicorn on an airship outfitted with magical weaponry, that held potential for being a real threat. Wars had been won this way, and it was the reason that Equestria was a major world power. The Equestrian Navy guarded the borders and protected vital trade routes. 

And it all came down to enchantment really. 

He heard the flutter of wings and saw Ripple struggling to ease Piña to the grass. The landing was a little rough, but Piña was a hearty little earth pony filly. He watched as Ripple took to the air again, returning to the deck to get Dinky. 

Bucky did nothing to ease their landing. They were big fillies, and a few bumps wouldn’t hurt them too much. Ripple came in for a much harder landing this time, and hugged Dinky to her barrel protectively as she tumbled through the grass. The two of them giggled as they pulled apart from one another and then the trio drew near to Bucky.

“That’s a big rock,” Dinky said as she rubbed her bumblebees on her backside. 

“Yes it is Dinky,” Bucky agreed.

“My arse hurts,” Dinky said as she sat down. 

“Dinky! Don’t let your mama hear you say that,” Bucky said in a half hearted scold. 

“Feck, shite, arse,” Ripple said. “Just words.” 

“Ripple!” Bucky exclaimed in exasperated tones at the pegasus filly. 

“Gobshite,” Ripple said with a smile. 

Bucky shook his head in disapproval. “Look, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I really don’t mind it all that much, but if you said those things around a certain grey pegasus mare… I suspect that you would excite her enmity,” Bucky warned. 

“What’s enmity?” Dinky asked. 

“An-ani-er-animous-no… animosity,” Piña said after failing the first few attempts. 

“What is ani-whatever you said?” Dinky asked. 

Piña rolled her eyes. “Odium, you noodlehead,” she said in a peeved voice. 

“I still don’t know what that is!” Dinky cried. “Ever since you’ve been reading that dictionary you’ve been all wordy you booger licker!” 

“Dinky, enmity means hostility and anger,” Bucky explained patiently. 

“So why not just say that it would make mama mad?” Dinky demanded. 

“You could have said “arouse her abhorrence” and I think it sounds a little better than “excite her enmity” does,” Piña said calmly. 

“Piña darling, how much time do you spend reading the dictionary?” Bucky asked. 

“She keeps reading it in school and Sparkler had to pull it away from her so other foals can use it,” Ripple said. “And snot face here skips out on her lessons to pick it up and read it.” 

“Fart fluffer,” Piña returned to Ripple. 

“Girls,” Bucky said patiently.

“Yes?” Dinky said sweetly. 

“Such ugly names you call one another,” Bucky replied. 

“I was going to say “fart licker” but I thought that “fart fluffer” was nicer,” Piña admitted. 

“Oh yuck Piña!” Dinky cried. 

Ripple fell over into the grass with a case of the giggles. 

“We love each other enough to know that the names are just meant in fun, there are never any hard feelings,” Dinky explained. 

“We’re sisters,” Piña said. “Sisters torment one another.” 

Bucky nodded in defeat, realising there would be no stopping this behaviour. “Look girls, I need to turn this big rock into a giant expanse of canvas so I can make a gasbag for the ship. If you want to watch, that is fine, but I need to concentrate,” he said in gentle tones. 

“Okay, shut up everypony, daddy is about to unleash the deep magic and I wanna watch,” Dinky insisted. 

“Transmutation,” Piña said. 

“I know what transmutation is you show off,” Dinky muttered. 

Ripple settled in between her two smaller siblings and held each one with her wings, hugging them to her sides. She blew her light blue forelock out of her eyes and awaited what was sure to be a good show. She yawned, feeling rather sleepy from the spell that eased her heat. Her nap earlier had helped, but she was already wanting to return to a nice nap. 

“Settling down, being quiet, and being a good foal, beginning now,” Dinky announced. 

Bucky smiled and raised his head high. He closed his eye and as he summoned his magical reserves, his emerald eye flashed blue green for a moment. The ground around him began to vibrate. 

Dinky could feel it buzzing in her teeth and horn vibrated. She could feel pressure just behind her eyes. Deep magic. The sort of magic that only type threes and higher could summon. The sort of magic that changed things. Real power. Dinky had experienced it and was now hungry for it. Transmutation, like cold magic, required tremendous amounts of willpower and focus. 

Piña meeped faintly as Bucky’s energy began to coalesce around his horn. She could feel it in her bones and down in her hooves. She huddled closer to Ripple and watched as the glowing orb of blue green magic grew brighter and brighter. 

Bucky wasn’t sure this was going to work. He had never attempted anything like this. It was sheer balls out experimentation. If he failed, he was going to have to make several sections of canvas and sew them together somehow. If this worked, he was going to have a long canvas tube and he would need to secure the ends. He felt dangerously close to a surge yet at the same time he felt as though he was in perfect control. He wanted a surge. He needed a surge. The air around him began to grow cold. 

The three fillies could see their breath and Ripple wrapped her wings around Dinky and Piña even tighter, trying to keep them warm. Ice crystals were forming in the air and falling to the grass. As Ripple watched, the rock began to look funny. The air around it shimmered and warped. It was like staring a patch of stone on a hot sunny day and seeing the heat shimmering off of it. 

Dinky felt the feeling of alarm that all unicorns felt when they sensed a surge coming from another unicorn. Panic overtook her body and she began to worry, fearing that Bucky was going to have the mother of all surges. 

Her panic was not unfounded. With an explosive roar, Bucky did have the mother of all surges and the world around them exploded with colour. Dinky felt herself wrapped in protective magic and a wave of cold washed over her. Her mane was blown back from her head and her horn tingled strangely. The air crackled and reeked of ozone. 

And when Dinky could finally see again the massive boulder was gone. There was an enormous grey mass of fabric where the boulder had been. 

“Ugh, I am starving,” Bucky shouted as he clutched at his stomach. His horn was encased in ice. He allowed himself to fall over in the grass and rested on his side. 

Dinky broke free from Ripple’s embrace and rushed to Bucky’s side. She kneeled down and touched his face, her own face full of worry. 

“I need food,” Bucky said. “I didn’t think it would be this bad, ugh, it feels as though my insides are going to implode,” he muttered. 

“Come on, let’s go find him something to eat,” Dinky said. 

“That was amazing,” Piña said. 

“Let’s go,” Ripple said as she rose up on wobbling legs. She used her wings to steady herself. 

“We’ll be right back,” Piña promised. 





For the second time this day Bucky was chowing down. After being brought a few oatcakes by the girls, Bucky was able to stumble his way indoors and to the dining hall, where he was brought much needed food and a big jug of watermelon wine. 

The three fillies stayed to watch their father eat and Ripple stole a swig of wine, lifting the jug up in her forelegs and tilting it back. 

“I wonder where everypony is,” Piña inquired. 

“Rising Star said he was going to go off and explore his magic,” Ripple said in reply. “Sparkler went off with Derpy, Berry, Loch Skimmer and Thistle. Some sort of big mare discussion and I wasn’t a big mare,” she grumbled. 

“And Sentinel is sleeping with Lyra and Bon Bon,” Dinky said as she watched her father eat. 

“What do you think they are talking about?” Piña asked. 

Ripple shrugged. “I just know that I wasn’t asked to be part of it,” she said in annoyance. 

“Don’t be upset Ripple,” Piña said gently. “Is it really so bad spending time with us?” she asked. 

“No,” Ripple replied, her expression softening. “No, no it isn’t.” 

“I was hoping to find you.” 

Bucky turned at the sound of the voice and saw Winter Wheat. Wheatberry stood close near her leg and looked quite distraught. Both of them had red bleary bloodshot eyes. 

Ripple held her forelegs out in a welcoming  gesture for a hug and Wheatberry ran to her. She lifted the yearling and held her close, and Wheatberry began to sob after burying her face into Ripple’s neck. 

“How are you?” Bucky asked in between bites. 

“I am holding up,” Winter Wheat said in a dull voice. “I seem to be alone in caring for Keg Smasher. There is so much going on. Our little hospital was overrun. The others want to come here but there is too much need for them,” she explained in a flat exhausted voice. “Or they cannot leave their towns and villages, lest what happened to mine happen to theirs.” 

“How is Keg Smasher?” Bucky inquired. 

“He sleeps for now. I gave him strong wine laced with the crushed seeds of poppies. One of my fellow-wives sent it back with the guard sent to collect her. The guard returned with only the packet of crushed seeds and no help for me,” Winter Wheat replied. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked, not sure if he actually wanted to know. 

Winter Wheat stared at Bucky for while and then moved to sit down beside him. She placed both of her forelegs on the table and leaned forward. “The wolves came. Two nights ago. Not long after I sent Wheatberry away to be with her daddy… I had this feeling. Earth ponies, we get this feeling sometimes, we just know when something is wrong,” she explained. 

Bucky nodded and glanced at Piña. 

“The wolves came by the dozens and started winking into homes. An alarm was raised. The wolves were everywhere. They’re vulnerable in the bright light, in the fire light, but it is like they didn’t care. They were just popping into houses and cottages and began killing,” Winter Wheat said in a low frightened voice. 

Bucky shivered and lifted the jug of wine to his lips. He drank quite a bit in one go. 

“I took up a torch in my mouth and I ran around the town setting things on fire with wolves snapping at my heels. I’m fast… and with everything burning they couldn’t wink and blink around. They had to run after me. I had a few nips but I kept running. Once everything was blazing… I set many of the thatched roofs on fire, we started getting everypony into the big common hall. The pegasi of our village engaged the wolves to buy us time and try to keep us safe. They gave us their foals and begged us to keep them alive somehow and to remember them,” Winter Wheat said, her voice now husky with emotion. “Those brave pegasi picked a fight with the wolves. Many earth ponies did too. The stallions stood together and made a wall so the mares to could escape to the hall where we could stand together.” 

Piña and Dinky clung to one another and Ripple held tightly to Wheatberry, horror visible on all of their faces. Bucky felt a twinge of worry upon seeing their reactions. 

“Somehow, we held out until dawn, and the wolves vanished. Most of our stallions were dead. We sent a messenger to Keg Smasher, a pegasus mare that had made it through the night without too many injuries. The wolves couldn’t take us in the hall, not with all of us herded together,” Winter Wheat said. 

Bucky passed the mare his jug of wine. She lifted it and drank, guzzling down a fair bit and setting it back down upon the table with a thud. 

“Keg Smasher and his guard came. The state of the town, the dead bodies everywhere. They tried to help us get together. They helped the wounded,” Winter Wheat said and then fell silent. She stared at Bucky with wide frightened eyes. “You have to believe me…” she insisted. “I know it sounds impossible, but you have to believe me!” 

“What happened?” Bucky asked, casting a glance at his foals, worried about whatever came next. 

“There was magic. We all felt it. Bad magic. It made everypony sick. The pegasi couldn’t fly. We all started vomiting. And then… and then… and then the impossible happened,” Winter Wheat mumbled, now looking quite distraught. 

“What?” Bucky asked urgently. 

“The dead ones, both wolves and ponies, they got up,” Winter Wheat whimpered. 

Bucky felt his blood run cold. He looked at his girls. All of them looked terrified. “Leave. Now. If you argue you will regret it,” Bucky commanded. “Go and take Wheatberry to our room. Sit with Lyra and Bon Bon. Now,” he added. 

The foals and Ripple didn’t need to be told twice, they scrambled away in a hurry. 

“Now I want you to tell me exactly what happened,” Bucky said, his control reasserting itself. 

“The dead got up. They attacked the living. We were all sick from the magic, whatever it was. Keg Smasher was the first to recover and he set about trying to protect us. He kept shouting, barking commands. He finally got through to his guard and they started to fight back. There was a pitched battle and we were all ushered back to the common hall. I defended my ponies once again. The dead had to be put down. Keg Smasher and his guard killed them, but it was difficult. How do you kill what is already dead?” Winter Wheat asked. 

Bucky reached out and touched the frantic mare with his foreleg and encouraged her to take another drink. She did and seemed to calm a little. 

“And then the sun began to set. Keg Smasher refused to leave unless he could get all of us and carry us home. He just wouldn’t go. We holed up in the common hall and waited. The wolves came at us by the hundreds. They didn’t stop. There was so many bodies that began to pile up. Keg Smasher had been fighting all day and he was starting to tire. He can only do so much. Eventually the wolves brought him down some time near dawn. Almost a hundred ponies went into the common hall, less than thirty saw the dawn. That guard you sent discovered us. He flew back and fetched help, and we brought Keg Smasher back,” Winter Wheat said in sorrowful tones. “My town is gone. And I think some of the dead made it away,” she said in a frightened whisper. 

Bucky scowled. It was too late in  the day to do anything. But he was already making plans to hunt down the remaining dead tomorrow. He knew that he was going to need Lyra, and even though Derpy was going to kill him, he was going to need Rising Star and Sparkler too. 

“We will watch Wheatberry, I want you to get some rest. I believe you. I want you to go to bed and lie close to Keg Smasher and I want you to sleep,” Bucky commanded gently. 

Already, his mind was putting a plan into motion and he had dozens of questions already forming. He would need Lyra well rested, but he also needed her to keep the cold and the fear away during the night with her magic lyre. He worried about Keg Smasher. In his current state, the cold would be dreadful for him. Bucky realised that there was much that needed to be done and just no means to do it. He was going to be forced to cut corners somewhere. 

Bucky hated cutting corners. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 118
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The entire herd sat in glum silence, unsure of what to make of Bucky’s words. He had told them everything that he knew, which was very little. The foals were frightened, and clung to one another for comfort. Even Sentinel seemed unnerved and leaned gingerly upon Ripple. Wheatberry was sandwiched between Piña and Dinky, looking quite frightened. 

“It would take a type three to raise even one reanimated corpse. But to raise an army of the undead like that, all at once, and make everypony sick?” Lyra asked of nopony in particular and breaking the silence. “That’s like a type four or even alicorn level magic.” 

“It scares me that you know this,” Bon Bon murmured as she squeezed Lyra gently. 

“I wish I knew how I know this. I just remember coming around on the Ponyville train platform and my head was full of things I shouldn’t know and I don’t remember learning,” Lyra replied. 

“So if we get bitten, will we become zombies?” Sparkler asked timidly, not wanting to look stupid. 

“No,” Bucky stated flatly. 

“No Sparkler, you need a lot of magic to reanimate even one dead body. There’s no known way of just randomly reanimating the dead. The energy required to move a body under magical motivation is immense and has to come from somewhere. What you see in those lousy movies isn’t based on solid magical theory or science. If reanimation was based on bites, the energy would split upon the instant of the bite, and be halved, with one half remaining in the host, and the other half going to the pony bitten. And you would have two very weak undead,” Lyra explained. 

“And further bites would continue to weaken them,” Bucky continued. 

“I see,” Sparkler said. 

“Does taking off their heads work?” Rising Star asked. He had seen a lot of zombie movies, and he realised that everything he knew was probably worthless. 

“No Rising, think of the dead body as a golem. It is animated. It does not require a brain. Destroying the head merely keeps it from biting and devouring. The undead do try and eat others, converting flesh into energy to keep going. Fresh fed undead can move very quickly while undead that haven’t snacked on anypony for a while continue to operate in a sort of low energy mode,” Lyra answered. 

“Total obliteration is required. Most reanimated corpses regenerate over time. Slowly but surely. They’ll have to be dismembered to stop them from fighting and then burned,” Bucky explained. 

“So how are we doing this?” Sparkler asked. 

At Sparkler’s words Derpy let out a low growl. She wasn’t happy about this at all, but hadn’t said anything so far. She snatched up Piña, Dinky, and Wheatberry and began to squeeze them in her forelegs, kissing each of them on the head. 

“Rising Star burns them. I freeze them solid. Lyra unloads lightning on them, which will probably set them on fire due to electrical burns. And you will find a way to deal damage, of this I am certain,” Bucky said  to Sparkler with a grim smile. “Nothing too flashy though. We don’t know what we are dealing with, and we don’t want to burn out right away. We’ll need to conserve our energy and let loose in controlled outbursts. Fire will be most efficient. Once they start burning, they should keep burning,” Bucky stated. 

Rising Star nodded. “I guess this is good practice,” he said in a strangled voice. 

“Lyra can’t go alone,” Bon Bon announced. 

Bucky scowled.

“She can’t. If she has a panic attack, I am the only one that can calm her down. And you as well Bucky,” Bon Bon retorted. “I protect what is mine. I have need of you for my future plans. I’m going.” 

As much as he didn’t want to, Bucky nodded in agreement. 

“I know a spell that will allow us to track the undead,” Lyra said sheepishly. “I don’t know how I know it,” she muttered quietly. 

“So we hunt them down, hit them hard, and then make it home before the sun sets,” Rising Star said, summarising everything. “What if everything doesn’t go as planned?” 

“We cut our losses for a day, we come home, and we set out again the next day. As bad as it might be leaving those… things wandering around, we are the ones best suited for stopping them. We cannot place ourselves at risk. We will leave several hours before the sun actually sets to give ourselves plenty of time to return home. Soon, our time will come and we will strike back against the darkness. Now is not yet that time though,” Bucky replied. 

“That’s awful. What sort of sick depraved psycho unleashes a horde of zombies on an island where there is nowhere to run?” Berry Punch asked, looking very disturbed. 

“It does seem cruelly effective,” Thistle replied. “Bucky, no getting hurt. Please. I think I speak for all of us when I say that you have more to fear from us than you do from those reanimated corpses. Don’t do anything stupid,” the kelpie begged. 

“Yeah, no playing the hero. If you come home all bitten and chewed up, I don’t think I can take it,” Derpy said as she squeezed the foals in her forelegs again. 

“Which one of you has been giving Thistle lessons?” Bucky asked. 

Berry Punch and Derpy Hooves looked at one another and then glared at Bucky in unison. Bucky slumped under the withering stare of the two mares. 

“I bet that this is what you were doing when you all got together today… how to wrangle your husbands,” Bucky muttered. 

“None of your beeswax,” Derpy replied. 

“Oh by Luna’s stars, that is what you were doing today… having some big mare get together and explaining to the fillies how to lead us around by the nose! Ugh!” Bucky exclaimed. 

Derpy continued to hold her foals but now looked even more unsettled. 

“I am not a filly,” Thistle insisted, her face contorting into a pout. “I am a mare. And don’t you forget it Buckminster Bitters, or I will make your days miserable and your nights even worse!” 

“Ugh, she was so sweet and innocent,” Bucky muttered. He cast an accusing glance at Berry Punch and she looked back at him smugly. Bucky knew how to wipe that smug look off of Berry’s face and silently resolved to do so the first chance he got. 

“You’re stubborn and pig headed and it takes an army of us to keep you in line,” Thistle quipped. 

“I feel unsettled by this revelation,” Rising Star muttered. 

“Oh shush,” Loch Skimmer said timidly to her husband. She looked apologetic even as she said it. She reached out a wing and touched Rising Star gently. “We love you and want to look after your better interests. I don’t think you’re headstrong like Bucky, and I said so today that all we have to do is nudge you in the right direction,” she said softly. She became aware of what she said a moment later and realised that several mares were now staring at her. “Oh bother,” she squeaked. 

“Oh that’s it, Rising, we’re going to have our own secret meetings,” Bucky snapped. 

“There are far more important things to be discussing,” Sparkler said forcefully. “Yes, mom tried to give us some helpful advice and we all talked about the males in our lives that we love and how to keep them safe. We have more pressing issues.” 

“Yes,” Bucky agreed. “Lyra, we are going to need you well rested for tomorrow. If you are well rested, that means letting down our guard and dealing with the cold. And waking up feeling unsettled and afraid. Also, I am worried about Keg Smasher. I don’t know how to help him. The cold and the fear will not be good for him in his condition,” Bucky said. 

“We can’t help him Bucky… it pains me to admit it, but I don’t see a way of doing it,” Lyra said. “And if you want me awake and aware for tomorrow, you’re right. It means me sleeping tonight. Which means no magical enchanted lyre to keep the fear away,” Lyra replied. She looked sad and defeated. 

“I can do it,” Dinky said from her mother’s arms. 

“Dinky?” Bucky asked. 

“My bees can make music, remember? I’ve been practicing sometimes. Ask Piña,” Dinky answered. 

Piña nodded and squirmed in Derpy’s grasp. “We’re little, but we’re not helpless,” she insisted. 

“Staying awake all night and keeping my magic going might be tough,” Dinky said. 

“We have a few hours before sundown,” Derpy said. “You could get a nap and we could wake you,” she said, her voice filled with maternal pride. 

“Dinky, if you can do this, it will be a big help for all of us,” Bucky said solemnly. 

“I know,” Dinky said. “I’ll need some help though. If I start to nod off I’ll need somepony to poke me,” she added. 

“I will aid you my sister,” Sentinel said. 

“I know you will,” Dinky said. 

“I’m in,” Ripple announced. “Sentinel isn’t the only noble pegasus around here. If he can do it, so can I,” she stated. 

“We should let Dinky sleep now,” Derpy said. 

“Problem is, I am not sleepy,” Dinky said. 

“I can fix that,” Bucky offered. 

“Oooh foal raising is going to be nice with a unicorn in the house,” Derpy said. “There is still some junk food in the trunk. I think Dinky will need the extra sugar to keep her going to through the night,” the mare suggested. 

“That seems wise,” Bucky agreed. “Dinky, I want you to understand something. By doing this, you are potentially saving the lives of other ponies.” 

Dinky blinked a few times and struggled to take in her father’s words. She looked very confused and a little bit frightened. “So if I fail that means…” 

“You will not fail,” Bucky said soothingly. “You’ve been learning what I have to teach you, right? Control? Do you remember your lesson after I was mauled by the wolves and I told you what I did wrong? Did you take it to heart Dinks?” he inquired. 

Dinky nodded. “I think about it all the time,” she answered. “I had to stop being such a foal after that.” 

“Dinky, being a type three means that certain expectations are placed upon you. It isn’t fair. We can either run from what is expected for us or we can rise to the challenge,” Lyra said to Dinky. 

“But it isn’t that different from other types of ponies. Among us earth ponies, the biggest and the strongest of us are expected to pull the heaviest loads. Being gifted means giving more of yourself in return,” Berry said with a nod to Lyra. 

“Or in the case of being a pegasus like Keg Smasher, being the biggest and the strongest means that you are expected to hold the line and defend everypony smaller than you are, and everypony is smaller than Keg Smasher,” Bucky said. 

“Daddy’s big,” Wheatberry said sadly. Her ears were folded back against her head and she looked frightened. 

“Your daddy is a giant,” Derpy said. “And a hero,” she said to the distraught foal. 

“We need to let Dinky sleep. Dinky, you and I will spend a bit of time together when you wake up,” Bucky promised. “I’m proud of you.” 

“Sentinel is going to be a monster when he grows,” Ripple said. 

“Then I shall have to protect everypony smaller than I am,” Sentinel stated. 

Bucky lifted Dinky away from Derpy in his magic and carried her to the bed. He set her down gently, kissed her on the head, and then touched her gently with his snoot. A moment later, Ripple was in the bed. She lifted her head and exposed her cheek to Bucky, waiting for a kiss, which Bucky gave her. 

“I probably will not make it through the night, but it doesn’t stop me from trying,” Piña said as she jumped into the bed after working free from Derpy’s embrace. “We sisters have to stick together.” 

“Yes we do,” Loch Skimmer said. She hobbled to the bed on three legs and settled in with the foals. “I’ll take first watch in keeping Dinky awake. And then somepony else can take over. We’re bound to have a busy day tomorrow, and the rest of us will need to function,” she stated. 

“Good idea,” Berry said. “I’ll relieve you.” 

“And I’ll take the last watch,” Derpy said. “That’s what, three hours each?” 

“About that,” Berry answered. 

“Nine hours of keeping my bees humming,” Dinky said, her voice full of honest foalish fear. 

“I’ll give you some tips,” Lyra promised. She approached the bed and gently kissed the fillies each in turn. 

“Don’t be afraid,” Bucky said. “You were meant for greater things. Now sleep,” he said, his words carrying magical compulsion. 

Dinky tried to say something in reply but found that the darkness was impossible to resist. Her fear melted away and the last thing she was aware of was Loch spreading her wing over her, making her feel safe and secure. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 119
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The room was chilly and Dinky struggled through her own disappointment, grappling to keep her resolve and her focus. When Lyra had her lyre going, the room stayed warm and toasty from the fire, and the fear was gone. The room was chilly, but not freezing, and Dinky couldn’t tell if it was the wolves’ fear that plagued her or her own sense of failure, but she felt nervous and unsettled. 

The others had settled in for the night, and for the first night in quite a while, ponies in the bed were huddled under blankets. Dinky could feel the chill on her nostrils and it was her siblings that kept her warm, piled around her on the couch. Sentinel in particular was a great source of warmth due to his thick shaggy pelt and higher than a normal pony body temperature. 

She looked up at her father and gave him a half smile, and she felt some of her courage returning when he touched her. Dinky knew that he believed in her, and she was determined not to let him down. He had always believed in her. All Dinky could think about was everything that Bucky had done for her, starting with being her tutor and keeping her at home with her mother. He had endured so much in keeping her safe and Dinky wanted nothing more than to offer something in return, something to prove to him that all of the time he had spent trying to both teach her and be a good father was something she appreciated. 

Lyra had helped to fine tune the hum coming from her bees and now the musical unicorn was sitting on the couch and spending a final bit of time offering reassurance before going to bed. 

Dinky thought about everything that the wolves had taken from her. She thought about her father’s eye. She thought of Piña’s misery and everything that Piña did to hide it. As she did so, the room felt a little warmer and Dinky felt a little more confident about her task. Where foalish determination was not enough, it seemed that anger gave her the edge she was seeking. She settled in between her siblings and thought about everything the wolves had done. 



 

“How are you holding up Dinky?” 

Dinky did not reply to Berry Punch’s inquiry. Her head was hurting, she felt tired, and talking would require effort. She just gave a nod. 

“It is a little past midnight. You’re doing so well,” Berry whispered. 

“She hasn’t even dozed off yet and the bees just keep humming,” Ripple said.

“How are you holding up Piña?” Berry asked her smaller sibling. 

“I am studying dweomers,” Piña replied, looking up from her book and rubbing her eyes with her fetlock. 

“Piña, hugglebug, tell me, what is a dweomer?” Berry asked, raising her eyebrow and feeling slightly concerned about Piña’s study habits. 

“Dweomers. Magical auras. The subject of study for auroramancers,” Piña replied. “All I have in this book here is a short section explaining some of the basic theory. The study of magical radiation, magical fields, different types of magical light, which comes from different magical fields, and the generation of magical darkness,” the foal explained. 

“I see,” Berry said, now more aware than ever that her sister was developing signs of being devastatingly intelligent. 

“Daddy gave himself a sunburn when he used his light spell. He burned the wolves. Which means he generated actual daylight. There is something called “ultraviolet radiation” and that is what causes the wolves to burn and sunburns to happen. Ponies that can generate actual daylight are very rare the book says in a hoofnote. The only ponies that can do this come from a bloodline of unicorns who once kept the sun moving back when the world was still in chaos,” Piña said, tapping her book with her hoof. 

“Bucky has ancient blood. His lineage goes all the way back to before the Long Walk, when ponies from the Old World came to Equestria,” Berry said. 

“But weren’t there ponies already here in Equestria?” Piña asked as her muzzle scrunched up in concentration. 

“Yes there were,” Berry answered. “The Founders hadn’t encountered them yet. It wasn’t long until they ran into Discord and the ponies that Discord kept as slaves. And then the battle for Equestria began. Our Founders saw this as a land worth fighting for. The Royal Pony Sisters were freed from their prison. More ponies came from the old world. The Elements of Harmony were recovered. And then there was a big fight, a terrible fight, and it lasted for many years. Discord was defeated but that was only the beginning. There were griffons and dragons and so many other foes that had to be subdued. At the cost of many lives, Equestria was founded, secured, and eventually had our borders expanded from ocean to ocean.” 

“We’re so small though… I’ve always wondered how ponies stand up to dragons,” Piña said thoughtfully. 

“By working together. Unicorns need a lot of food to keep using their magic. You’ve seen how Bucky can eat. He can eat more than a whole clan of earth ponies when he starts using the deep magic. Before the founding of Equestria, unicorns were limited by what food they had. Magic was extremely limited. The old tribes squabbled and fought for resources. Some kept slaves. Some traded services for food. But after the founding of Equestria, we all worked towards a common goal. Earth ponies grew tons of food. All of this food caused a magical revolution of sorts. We saw an era of magical exploration that made us a major world power. The extra food and the extra magic allowed the pegasi to grow in number. They had always lived bloody lives of violence and conquest, keeping their numbers low. But with the surge in the pegasi population, we had armies. Vast powerful armies that could protect the unicorns while they slept and recovered. By working together, we grew strong. Even dragons learned to fear us. We stopped being an easy meal, and after the dragon wars, where we slaughtered several thousand dragons, most of the dragon clans agreed to a treaty to prevent their race from being exterminated completely,” Berry said, finding all of the history she had learned in university was finally useful. 

“It was ponies like Bucky that made the dragons fear us, right?” Ripple asked. 

“Yes, very powerful unicorns. Star Swirl the Bearded. Clover the Clever. Sombra,” Berry replied. The earth pony shivered for a moment after saying the last name. “Princess Platinum was a powerful unicorn in her own right. She came from those who learned how to control the sun. She was a brilliant strategist. She played to win. Along with Smart Cookie and Clover the Clever, those three clever ponies used their minds to carve out an empire. Platinum was full of cunning and was always thinking ahead of her enemies, Smart Cookie was probably the smartest pony who has ever lived and was the brains of the outfit, and Clover the Clever’s talent was luck, which was an immensely powerful talent. She was lucky at everything she did.” 

“What of Hurricane?” Sentinel asked. 

“Hurricane brought an end to clan warfare of the pegasi,” Berry answered. 

“How did he do that?” Sentinel inquired. 

“Before I answer, you have to understand, those were very different times,” Berry replied in a nervous whisper. 

Sentinel nodded and Berry continued. 

“Hurricane, at Platinum’s request, moved against the heads of the other pegasi clans. He made them squabble with one another. He instigated fights and restarted old blood feuds. And once everything was stirred up and everypony was fighting and weak, Hurricane took to the field and killed all of the clan heads. He then killed their wives. And he killed their oldest offspring. Hurricane’s army committed The Purge, something that isn’t talked about very often. Hurricane spared the youngest of clans. They had no parents to teach them that they had to hate one another. What they had was Hurricane telling them that they were all brothers and sisters. There was no oral tradition passed along about the blood feuds and why one clan had to hate some other clan. All of that was over. Hurricane erased history and taught the pegasi a new way. The pegasi were unified, and those that grew up under Hurricane’s iron hoof fought savagely to defend one another. If you were some monster and you injured even one member of the flock, the entire flock would hunt you down and kill you. The new generation of pegasi were of one mind and one body, made that way by Hurricane’s fanatical teachings,” Berry explained. 

“That seems awful…” Sentinel said slowly. 

“But necessary?” Berry asked. 

Sentinel nodded but had no words to say. 

“Hurricane also taught them it was their sacred duty to defend the unicorns and protect the earth ponies. You had an entire generation of foals that were blank slates, foals that did not learn to hate from their parents. They learned unity and togetherness. And then those foals as they grew up and started having foals of their own, they taught their foals what they learned from Hurricane. And so the pegasi entered a new era of savagery. Hurricane’s doctrines were horrific, but they are part of what made us the world power we are now. The new generation grew up believing that a dozen griffons had to die for every foal or pony taken or killed during raids. Eventually, the griffon colonies in the New World were all but exterminated, and many griffons fled back to Griffonholm. But that wasn’t enough. The pegasi followed them across the ocean, determined to get their pound of flesh for all of the atrocities the griffons visited upon our kind. Griffonholm was sacked and much of it was left a ruin. The twin capitals of Griffonholm, Huginn and Muninn, were turned into a pile of rubble. Finally, the last few surviving chiefs of the griffons came to Celestia and begged for mercy, which she refused. The war lasted another half a decade, and Celestia accepted surrender from the king of the griffons himself,” Berry said, enjoying the chance to tell a tale. 

Sentinel gulped and and his ears folded back against his skull. “That’s awful,” he murmured. 

“Can we talk about happier things?” Dinky asked, her voice wavering. 

“Sorry Dinks,” Berry apologised. “We still have a few chocolate covered shortbread cookies, ya want one?” she asked. 

Dinky nodded gratefully and Berry slipped from the sofa to retrieve some cookies. 



 

Dinky wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up. She was sweating profusely, and her mane clung to her face and neck. She couldn’t stop trembling and the corner of one of her eyes kept twitching. Her horn ached and her head throbbed. She looked at Piña and saw that the earth pony filly she called her sister looked every bit as miserable as Dinky felt. 

At some point during the night, the bees had changed. The droning buzz became more of a melodic hum, a softer gentler sound. Occasionally a bee would wink out of existence and Dinky would have to replace it. 

“Dinks, you are starting to worry me,” Derpy said in a hushed whisper. 

“I’m not quitting,” Dinky whined. “Daddy endured worse keeping me safe… I will not quit,” she said through gritted teeth. Dinky felt a large drop of sweat bead up on her brow and roll down her face, increasing her irritation. She could feel more muscles in her face beginning to spasm and she wasn’t sure of the cause. The drop of sweat was annoying, or it could have simply been the strain. 

“It will be dawn soon,” Derpy said soothingly. “Not much longer Dinks.” 

“I didn’t think I’d make it all night,” Piña said. “But I am so worried about Dinky.” 

“Dinky is a tough little unicorn, just like Bucky,” Ripple said. 

At Ripple’s words Dinky felt a surge of pride and some of her trembling eased off a bit. She leaned on Ripple and rested her head on Ripple’s shoulder. She felt Ripple’s wing brush over her face and wipe it off, and her mane was brushed away from her eyes. 

“I can feel the humming inside of my head,” Dinky murmured. 

“Dinky, I will never forget this,” Derpy said to her foal. “When we get home, I am going to spoil you. You get a free pass for toys, books, ice cream, whatever you want,” Derpy promised. 



 

“Dinky?” 

Dinky struggled to make out what was being said. The voice sounded far away. There was a loud painful ringing in her ears. She could feel something hammering away on the inside and the outside of her horn. Her eyes felt dry and she could feel her eyelids sticking to them every time she blinked. 

“Dinky, it is dawn, you can stop now,” the voice said. 

Dinky did not relent. She was going to keep the bees going. They were the only thing holding back the fear and the cold. She felt something lift her and a strange cool tingly feeling enveloped her body. Something held up her head, which was limp on her neck. She felt like she was flying, her body was weightless and free. 

“Dinky love, sleep now,” the voice said. 

Dinky struggled and kicked feebly, trying to fight back against the sudden feeling of sleepiness. “No!” she shrieked. She struggled against the coming blackness. She shivered and felt hot at the same time. “No no no!” she cried. She felt her body going limp against her will and she felt something large and warm pressing up against her side. She was laying on something soft. 

“Dinky… stop struggling. It’s over Dinky… now sleep,” the voice said. 

Very much against her will, Dinky felt herself sliding into darkness. One by one, she felt her bees popping out of existence and her careful control was broken. She kicked and squealed, trying to rouse her body which had turned against her. 

“No!” Dinky murmured, her final word before she finally succumbed to the magical compulsion that was overtaking her. 

Finally, Dinky slept. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 120
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky looked down at the foal that he had just put to bed. Dinky was still fighting, and even in her state of exhaustion, had somehow managed to resist his sleep spell after he had cast it several times. He felt fiercely proud of her, as both his daughter and his student. 

As he turned around to look after the other foals, he saw a grey blur in his field of vision. A strong leg wrapped around his neck and he felt himself pulled close to a warm firmly muscled body. A moment later, there was two lips pressing into his, and waxy drool flooded into his mouth. The kiss was enough to make his hind legs buckle, afterwards, he felt himself being pushed down to the floor and rolled over, where the kiss continued. 

Finally, Derpy pulled away and Bucky gasped for air. He felt as though he was on the verge of being aroused, and he was on his back and fully exposed. He quickly rolled over and struggled to his hooves. 

“You helped her to become so strong,” Derpy whispered into Bucky’s ear as he made his way upright. “We’re going to have strong foals. Help me make more,” she said in a seductive whisper. 

“Whatever you ask of me I will do,” Bucky whispered in reply.

“Come home to me safe then,” Derpy whispered back. 



 

The day already felt too short as Bucky inspected the wagon in the courtyard. He had cast a featherweight spell on it to make it lighter, and a slipstream spell so that the pegasi could pull it behind them. Supplies were being loaded onto the wagon. There was a lot of food being packed in. It was only few hours after dawn and the group had eaten as much breakfast as they could possibly hold. Bucky felt hungry for fish, but he didn’t feel there was time. 

“Reporting for duty Lord Bitters.” 

Bucky turned and looked at the young pegasus saluting him. He couldn’t be much older than Rising Star. He was already heavily scarred and had the distinctive patches of missing hair on his pelt that indicated cauterisation. The other three pegasi were not covered in scars, and they looked scared, even though they were doing their best to hide it. 

Bucky had learned too much about pegasi body language and was able to see right through their efforts to hide how they felt. 

“Do you understand what is expected of you?” Bucky asked. 

“We are to be your shields,” the scarred pegasus said. 

“No,” Bucky said forcefully. “If you are in a position to be my shield, then I have failed. You four are to remain at our sides at all times. You are not to engage the enemy under any circumstance. I am in charge here and you will listen to me. We strike at distance and do not engage them directly. Do exactly as I say and we’ll all come home with our skins intact,” Bucky explained. 

The three frightened pegasi relaxed a bit and the scarred pegasus whipped out a wing in salute. “My name is Deadspin and it is an honour to serve you Lord Bitters, loyal equal to our Laird,” the scarred pegasus said brusquely. 

“One more thing,” Bucky said. 

“And that is sir?” Deadspin asked. 

“Never again call me Lord Bitters,” Bucky demanded. 

“Sorry sir, would never mean to offend sir,” Deadspin responded. 

The sound of hooves on his blind side made Bucky turn sharply. He saw Sentinel, who looked bleary eyed and tired. 

“Shouldn’t you be in bed where I left you?” Bucky asked. 

Sentinel snapped out a wing in salute to the four pegasi, folded his wing, turned, faced Bucky, and then snapped out a wing in salute once again, while standing at attention. 

The response from the four pegasi was immediate, all of them returning the salute and dropping their heads down low to Sentinel’s head height. 

This was a new behaviour to Bucky, and he watched it in great interest. Pegasi of both types that held true to their militaristic culture were fascinating, and completely different than the pegasi of the mainland. 

Sentinel then turned towards the other members of his herd a short distance away and saluted, his wing once again snapping outwards. 

The four pegasi followed Sentinel’s lead and saluted the others, which left Bucky wondering what sort of unspoken communication had just taken place. 

Derpy stepped forward and offered a salute, trying to mimic the well practiced gestures of the soldiers and Sentinel. Her attempt was clumsy but produced a snap, and the soldiers drew sharply to attention, all eyes focused on her. There was another salute from the four pegasi. 

“You do us a great honour ma’am!” they said in unison. 

“Look, time grows ever shorter,” Bucky said gently, wishing there was more time to watch the display. The look of joy upon Derpy’s face was impossible to ignore and it made his heart feel warmed. She never had this sort of respect afforded to her on the mainland, and watching the mare basking in the attention and devotion being offered to her now made Bucky feel good. Bucky felt thankful for the soldiers’ respect and it was little moments like these that almost made the isles bearable. 

As Bucky watched, Rising Star pulled Loch Skimmer close to him and kissed her passionately, and then whispered something in her ear. The filly giggled nervously and pranced around on her hooves as her wings fluttered at her sides. Her body language indicated apprehension, fear, and arousal. 

“Look, I know you can’t help yourself when it comes to doing stupid things, but try to listen to Bon Bon today, will you?” Berry said as she drew near to Bucky’s side. 

“Today I intend to be my careful and meticulous self,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“Yeah, today you just act like an accountant. You subtract what you need to and you come home. And keep an eye on Lyra. She’s jittery already and I am getting weird vibes from her already,” Berry said in a low voice. 

“Tell Thistle I love her and that I thank her for looking after my foals,” Bucky said, wishing that Thistle was here. She was back in their room watching over the sleeping foals who had kept watch all night. “Give her a kiss for me Berry,” Bucky asked. 

“Where?” Berry said with a seductive eyebrow waggle. 

The brazen words of the earth pony made Bucky chortle and he felt his spirits lift. “Anywhere you think you can get away with,” Bucky whispered. 

“Get away with what?” Derpy asked as she drew near. 

“Nothing,” Berry said with a giggle. 

Derpy scowled at the earth pony and then turned her good eye on Bucky. “Sparkler is scared. She is trying not to show it, but as her mother I can see it plain as day. Be gentle with her if you can, be harsh on her if that is what it takes to get her to move. I want her brought back to me safely and whole of body,” Derpy instructed. 

“So long as everypony does what I say, we’ll all come home in one piece. I have thought this through and I know what to do,” Bucky replied reassuringly. 

“And Rising Star scares me,” Derpy said. “He’s scared too, but he’s also eager to pick a fight. That’s never good. You keep him under control by whatever means you have available,” she added. 

“Rising Star is young and wants to prove himself,” Bucky said in return. “I’ll keep him focused but it is my intention to release his rage today. There is a lot that needs burning and by the end of the day, Rising Star will be a colt that knows his worth and measure.” 

The grey pegasus mare looked over her shoulder at Rising Star and then turned back to Bucky. She nodded gravely, leaned forward, and then kissed Bucky. 

Berry Punch took her chance to also get a kiss and then backed away from Bucky, understanding how precious the daylight hours were. 

“Okay, everypony into the wagon. I’m going to hitch up the pegasi and we’re going to go,” Bucky commanded. His voice was smooth and authoritative, sonorous and proud. 



 

The flight was short. They flew over the Hydra Teeth, over a short expanse of ocean, and then landed in the ruined port of the Isle of Wheat. The pegasi were skilled fliers, and, even though none of them had ever pulled a chariot or a sky wagon before, they had quickly adapted to the extra load and had compensated accordingly. 

The landing was a little rough, but there wasn’t a landing strip or even smooth road, just patches of dirt and grass. 

After landing, many supplies were loaded on to the pegasi and Bon Bon’s sturdy backs. The pegasi bristled at the idea of Lady Bon Bon being used a common pack animal, but Bon Bon bristled right back and insisted that she was here to do her part. 

Bucky surveyed the ruins and had trouble taking in what he was seeing. There were still dead bodies everywhere, probably those that had died after the others had risen. Burnt buildings still smoked and smouldered. The stench of death was everywhere and flies had already began arrive. 

It was heartbreaking. Bucky wanted to give each and every body the respect it deserved, but there was just not enough time. He silently resolved to come back here once the crisis was done. 

“Lyra, you said you have a spell that will allow you to track the dead?” Bucky asked. 

The green unicorn nodded and looked nervous. “Yeah I do… give me a moment… Bon Bon, I need your hoof to steady me,” Lyra requested. “Here we go, I’m committing necromancy,” she muttered. 

Bon Bon looked worried and moved close to Lyra. She touched her mate, pressing her hoof into Lyra’s ribs as the unicorn began taking deep breaths. 

Lyra’s eyes closed but her horn did not ignite. There was a whiff of ozone in the air and there was a faint hum. A moment later, Lyra’s eyes snapped open. They were red and the whites of her eyes were now a sickly green colour. A purple haze drifted from her open eyes and black flames shot from her horn. “The pain… the pain… no please no... no more cutting and burning… I’ll be good I promise… please stop cutting things off and making them grow back... I can hear the voices of those who died… no…”

Bucky felt worried and moved to Lyra’s side. She was twitching and continued to mutter horrifying things. He exchanged a worried glance with Bon Bon, who looked terrified. 

And then, the black flames went way, Lyra closed her eyes, and her whole body slumped. She leaned on Bon Bon and panted heavily. When she opened her eyes again, they were normal. 

“Lyra, you okay?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m fine, I just feel a little shaky,” Lyra replied. 

“You were saying stuff while you were casting that spell,” Bucky said. 

“I was?” Lyra asked as she shook her head. “I think I’d remember saying something… I don’t remember saying anything,” she stated. 

Bon Bon rubbed her mate affectionately and stared at Bucky, her eyes narrowed and glinting. “We’ll talk about it later,” she said gently. 

“It is really weird… all of them went off in this direction. Which doesn’t make sense. They’re mindless killing machines. Golems made of flesh. They should have just wandered off randomly in different directions hoping to find something to kill,” Lyra said as she rubbed her head. “Was I really saying something? I’m kinda worried now,’ she added. 

“Never mind about that now Lyra,” Bucky said. He looked in the direction that Lyra pointed. “Will you need to cast that spell again to track them?” he asked. 

“No, should be good for about twelve hours or so,” Lyra said. “We should be heading home before the spell expires, so we’re good,” she added. 

“Okay then. We move. You four stay as close to us as possible. We are not to be separated. If we see something that looks like a pony, we check and see that it is a pony. If it is undead, we put it down. If it is fast and it charges, I will freeze it solid. Rising, set them on fire and use your magic sparingly. Don’t focus on making them burn, just ignite them and get them burning, and then let your flames do their job. Lyra, you are free to zap anything that draws near. Sparkler, this is your chance to experiment with offense. Try to see what you can do,” Bucky commanded. 

“Alright,” Rising Star agreed. 

“Will do,” Sparkler replied. 

“Gotcha,” Lyra answered. 

“Any idea what sort of numbers we’re facing?” Bucky asked. 

“No clue!” Lyra exclaimed nervously. 

“Shite,” Bucky muttered. He set off in the direction that Lyra pointed, the others falling into step behind him. He moved slowly but with purpose, and then realised that he should not be taking point because of his blind spot. 

“Rising Star, up front with me. I need you to be my eyes,” Bucky requested. 

The colt moved up front quickly and walked abreast at Bucky’s right side. Bucky turned and looked over his shoulder. Sparkler was just behind him, Bon Bon and Lyra walked together, and the four pegasi had spread out, two on each side of the column of unicorns. 

“Keep watch over our rear,” Bucky commanded. 

“Doing that sir,” Deadspin responded. 

Not knowing what was ahead, the group left the wagon behind and trotted out of town. They moved together, staying close to one another, a unified herd in the face of danger. 



 

“Something draws near,” Lyra warned. “I can feel it. Just ahead.” 

The group was walking through a vast wheatfield and ahead of them was a collection of boulders, a few trees, and a thicket. The group stopped and all ears perked. A rustling sound could be heard. 

“Rising, come with me. The rest of you, move closely behind. Rising and I will assess the situation,” Bucky said as he began to move forward. His legs were aching and he was already having trouble walking, something he had not taken into account. He hoped that he could hold it together. There was whiskey, beer, and a cask of gin in the supplies. If he had to, he’d start drinking just to dull the pain. 

The pair moved forward and a jet of flame curled from Rising Star’s horn. Bucky turned his head so he could get a look at his companion and he realised that he was looking up at Rising Star. The colt had grown at some point during their exile, and it had escaped Bucky’s notice. Bucky cursed silently at being so short and continued onward, seeing that Rising Star appeared to be fine. 

“There,” Rising Star said, narrowing his eyes. “Pony shaped. Only has three legs. Looks… messy,” the colt reported. 

“We need to be sure,” Bucky said. “Ready?” Bucky felt Rising Star nudge him and Bucky took a deep breath. 

“You there, identify yourself. Can we help you?” Bucky asked. 

There was a low moan in response. 

“It isn’t living!” Lyra shouted. 

“We have to make sure,” Bucky said. 

“But I can tell, I can sense the undead right now, and that’s undead!” Lyra retorted. 

“And I wanted to be sure!” Bucky shouted. “Rising Star, burn it!” he commanded. 

The three legged pony had pulled itself out of the thicket and was now shambling towards the group. Rising Star growled, a deep resonating sound deep in his barrel, and there was a wash of heat from his body. 

The pony burst into flames. It continued to move forward for a few steps and then fell over, rolling and writhing in the wheat, setting the field on fire. 

Bucky watched as it burned, waiting patiently. Beside him, Rising Star was muttering to himself. The undead abomination burned with surprising intensity, bright blue and green flames rising up into the sky as the cleansing fires destroyed it. Sparkler came up along his left side and he saw her come into view. 

“I hope it doesn’t feel anything,” Sparkler whispered. 

“The soul is gone. Off to Tartarus to be judged and then off to Elysium once they’ve paid their penance. What you see is just a shell Sparky, just remains that haven’t stopped moving yet,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“It’s awful. To violate somepony’s body like that. Seems so wrong,” Sparkler said sadly. She reached up with a foreleg and wiped her eyes as the body burned. 

Bucky extinguished the flames in the field but allowed the body to continue to burn, now surrounded by a black patch of earth. He stood with two young ponies that he considered his foals, aware that their innocence was burning away as they watched the body that was consumed by flames. 

Finally, Bucky gave the signal to continue to move ahead, and the group left behind them a pile of bones and ashes. 



 

“Something is aware of us,” Lyra hissed. “I sense a group. No idea how many. Fast moving. Coming right for us,” the unicorn warned. 

There wasn’t much time Bucky realised. He peered ahead, his head cocked to one side, his ears perked. 

“I see them,” Rising Star hissed. 

Bucky realised that he couldn’t see much of anything that far ahead and it concerned him. It was something he was going to have to worry about later and he shoved the thought from his mind. 

Several things happened at once. Sparkler shouted “Wolves!” and a feeling of panic settled over the herd. Rising Star let loose with what appeared to be a meteor shower, and the flaming missiles homed in on their targets. Bucky was still having trouble seeing at such a distance. He felt a tremendous magical surge from his left and wondered just what Sparkler had done. 

There was a crackle of lightning and the stench of ozone, and as suddenly as it began, it was over. A large fire raged in the fields ahead of them. He moved forward cautiously, ready to freeze something solid if need be. 

“There is a wolf there but it isn’t moving,” Rising Star said as he peered forward. “It looks funny,” he reported. 

“That’s the one I zapped,” Sparkler said. “It does look funny,” she added. 

The pair followed Bucky forward, and the rest of the group moved behind them. Each unicorn was ready, horns ignited, and all of them were curious about the strange looking wolf ahead that was not moving. 

Bucky was the first to approach, waving Sparkler and Rising Star back with his hoof. He had trouble understanding what he was seeing. The wolf was grey and unmoving. 

The undead wolf was petrified Bucky realised. 

“Oh my,” Bucky gasped. 

“What is it?” Rising Star asked as he approached cautiously. 

“Sparkler…” Bucky said. 

“What did I do?” Sparkler asked, her voice full of concern. 

“That undead wolf is petrified,” Bucky stated in shock. 

“That’s a useful spell,” Rising Star said. 

“No, you don’t understand,” Bucky said. “This isn’t common magic. You’d need the Elements of Harmony to do this or a rare number of magical creatures,” he explained. “Ponies do not cast petrification spells.” 

“Sparkler does,” Rising Star said, wiping his nose and shaking his head as the stench of burning wolves assailed his nostrils. 

“I was scared! I didn’t know what I was doing!” Sparkler shrieked in panic. 

“Sparkler, you need to stop being afraid,” Bucky said in a serious voice. “We need you to keep it together and fear is not a luxury we can afford right now.” 

“I can’t help it,” Sparkler said. 

“What if Rising Star accidentally scared you?” Bon Bon asked. 

Sparkler couldn’t bear the thought of what Bon Bon said and burst into tears. She stood crying, the soot in the air clinging to her wet cheeks and turning her face black. She sobbed even more when Rising Star pressed up against her side. 

“We’re both going to have to learn control,” Rising Star whispered, trying to comfort the pony that he loved so much. “And we need to begin right now by holding it together. No more tears Sparky.” 

Sparkler sniffled and tried to contain herself. She covered one nostril with a hoof and snorted forcefully, expelling snot and ashes from her nose, and then covered the other nostril and cleared it out with one mucusy blast. 

“And this is why I married you, such an attractive pony,” Rising Star said softly. 

Sparkler turned and gave him a weak smile. “My nose was running,” she said in reply. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

Bon Bon patted the distraught filly and gave her a smile. 

“We need to keep moving. The sun is almost overhead. We’ll need time to get back to the wagon and I can still sense something in that direction,” Lyra said.

Bucky nodded and looked at the collection of burning corpses. Their work here was done. One undead wolf had been left to mark their passing as statue, a monument to lost innocence and of foalhood left behind. 



 

The group came upon a collection of crude stone cottages with thatched roofs. There were corpses all around, and something had been feeding on them. Several families had lived here, farmers, and they were all dead now. Mares, a few stallions, and a fair number of foals, all dead and mostly devoured. 

Sparkler wept bitter tears upon seeing them and Rising Star could only wrap his foreleg over her withers and hold her close, unable to speak himself. 

The group hadn’t stood a chance. 

Bucky took the chance to sit down, and he noticed Bon Bon giving him one of those looks. He smiled weakly at her. 

“We’re taking a lunch break. No protesting,” Bon Bon commanded. 

The group moved away from the mass of corpses and then ate in silence, eating out of necessity, none of them taking any pleasure in what they ate. After eating a meal, it was Lyra that urged them onwards. The group departed from the massacre, all of them looking over their shoulder one last time at the cottages. 



 

“Everypony holding up?” Deadspin asked. He was mostly concerned about Bucky, who was limping along, but didn’t want to say anything about Bucky directly that might get him a dressing down. 

“I’m managing. I feel kinda sleepy,” Lyra said with a yawn. She said nothing about her itching nethers that seemed to be ignoring the spell she had cast to relieve her heat. Her gaze fell upon Bucky and she felt a mix of concern and horniness. But mostly horniness. She pushed the thought from her mind and looked at Bon Bon instead as she walked, but found her gaze being drawn back to Bucky’s gnarled and scrawny backside. His tail had grown as long as any mare’s tail and it made her feel confused when she looked at him. 

“I could keep this up for days if I had to,” Bon Bon reported. She looked at Lyra and then at Bucky. She too was feeling concerned. Among other things. And she had noticed Lyra’s glances. She began to wonder if it would be so bad, Bucky was her husband after all. She bit her lip and ignored her thoughts. 

“I am young and impervious,” Rising Star said, not feeling at all impervious. He felt miserable and scared. And part of him wanted to cry, to bawl his eyes out and let everything go. But he couldn’t. He was the most effective weapon they had against the undead threat, and he began to notice that Bucky couldn’t see very well, so Rising Star made sure to keep his mind focused and his eyes free from things that would cloud his vision, like tears. 

“I’m okay,” Sparkler announced. “I’ve been better, but I am coming to terms with the idea that I am a magical abomination that is probably going to be locked away once I head back to the mainland,” she muttered. She noticed that both Bucky and Rising Star were giving her the stinkeye and her steps faltered. “Look, it was a halfhearted attempt at humour… I didn’t know what else to say,” she explained as she resumed her pace. She shut her mouth and stared ahead, refusing to acknowledge the dirty looks she was getting. 

“Bucky?” Deadspin asked. 

“What?” Bucky snapped, feeling irritated from Sparkler’s comment and the pain shooting up and down his legs. 

“Wanted to make sure you were alright sir,” Deadspin stated. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky grumbled unpleasantly. 

“We’re getting close,” Lyra said in warning. “Just ahead,” she added. 



 

The group moved through a copse of trees and saw ahead of them a long stone house with a thatched roof. They saw  the undead wolves moving in a circle around the house and they heard screaming. 

“No more death!” Sparkler shouted as she charged forward. 

“Damnit Sparkler, no!” Bucky shouted. In his panic, he failed to think of the fact that he could grab her and pull her back with magic, he bolted forward after her and summoned his magic for other purposes. A chill filled the air. 

Rising Star let go a stream of profanity that made the four soldiers ears feel soiled, every word spoken were words he had heard from Bon Bon or Berry Punch. As he charged forwards, he felt his own magic surge, and his body ignited into flames. 

Bon Bon held Lyra back and the pegasi as well, worried about the chill in the air and the flaming unicorn far more than she was worried about the wolves. Something bad was about to go down and Bon Bon’s own earth pony sense told her to stay back. 



 

As Sparkler continued forwards she felt a strange tingling travel through her body. She felt heavy and solid. She realised that she had turned to stone again. The first wolf reached her, moving with alarming speed, leaping for her, mouth open. 

The wolf’s teeth shattered against her stony skin and then it  bounced away from her. 

The stone unicorn lifted her hoof and stomped downwards, crushing the wolf’s skull. She continued onwards, hurrying for the stone house, now screaming at the top of her lungs, which came out sounding like two stones grating together. 



 

Rising Star felt an overpowering sense of relief when he saw Sparkler shift forms and turn to stone. He had shifted himself, and was now on fire. He welcomed the wolves. Fire needed things to burn. And to make fire happen, you needed rage. 

And Rising Star was nothing but a burning ball of rage at the moment. 

Around him, the fields began to burn as he ran forward. Sparkler was safe, and he was free to simply let go, so he did. Flaming meteors shot from his horn and went blazing off, looking for targets. Several undead wolves ahead burst into flames and Rising Star felt a grim feeling of satisfaction. All of his fear had burned away, consumed by flames that burned from within and without. 



 

Bucky’s adrenaline allowed him to move much faster than he expected, his terror urging him onward. As he watched, he saw Sparkler turn grey and his mind flooded with relief. He knew that she would be safe. He focused his magic on a cluster of wolves up ahead and summoned a gravitational singularity, which sucked them all in to one confined area and crushed them. He blasted their crushed and broken bodies with cold, freezing them solid and then hit them with a tiny ping of telekinetic energy, which caused them all to shatter like glass. 

In all of his life, he had never done anything like that, something so perfect and complex. It was almost as if something else had channeled his spell energy and cast through him. He dismissed it as reflexive spellcasting and went about the work of killing. 

There had been a lot of undead wolves, but now their numbers were rapidly dwindling. 



 

As Rising Star watched, an earth pony stallion was brought down, half a dozen undead wolves pulling at him from all sides. He had been around the corner of the house and had only now become visible as Rising Star had drawn near. There was nothing he could do. He watched helplessly as a geyser of blood shot into the air and the sight filled him with even more rage. 

He focused his rage upon the wolves and they exploded violently into clouds of ash and flame. There were no corpses, no bones, no nothing left behind but bits of black ash. 



 

Sparkler slammed her way through several wolves and carefully leapt over the body of a fallen pony. The door of the house was ripped off of its hinges, which were old and rusty. She charged through the doorway and into the house. The first thing she saw was a mare having her throat torn away, but still kicking and fighting, and behind the mare was a younger filly backed into a corner. 

Sparkler charged. 

The mare fell and the wolves fell upon the filly, yanking at her legs, seizing her by her throat, and taking her down. One bit down savagely on her belly, trying to open her up. 

Sparkler was far too enraged to notice the filly’s swollen belly. 

She kicked the first wolf she reached and its head exploded into a fine red mist. She stomped down on the second, shattering its spine. The second stomp crushed its head. She kicked out, her stone hoof inches from the filly’s face, and the wolf crushing the filly’s throat was tossed away. 

One wolf bit down savagely on Sparkler and she felt nothing. She kicked out with her hind leg and half of its body turned into soupy chunks of wolf bits, splattering all over the wall and dirt floor behind her. 

Sparkler let out a roar that sounded like an avalanche, and continued to rampage like the angry earth elemental that she was. 

Under her angry gaze, another wolf turned to stone. 



 

Bucky entered into the house behind Sparkler as Rising Star dealt with the few remaining wolves outside. The inside of the house was a mess. There was several dead ponies, many dead wolves, and a sobbing purple-pink filly in the corner. 

He rushed to her side, seeing that it was safe. Some of the limbs and body parts were still twitching, but there were no longer any solid foes except for the stoned undead wolf near Sparkler. 

“Help her,” Sparkler begged. 

Bucky looked down at the bloodied filly. Her eyes were glassy and she twitched feebly, still barely alive. Even as he watched, her opened throat continued to release her precious life’s blood. 

The filly’s lips moved but only a gurgle came out. Bucky looked over her body and realised with dawning horror that she was pregnant. He looked down at her belly, and then his gaze fell between her legs, where he saw two tiny hind legs protruding. She had been in the middle of a difficult birth when the wolves had finally reached the cottage, freshly fed and full of fight. 

“Sparkler, close your eyes honey. Don’t look. Stay here with me though, Rising Star is still killing a few wolves outside I think. I need you to close your eyes,” Bucky commanded. 

Sparker was busy staring at the two little hind legs protruding from the filly’s bloodied slit. One leg still kicked feebly. Sparkler closed her eyes and turned her head away. 

Bucky wasn’t sure what to do. He knew what he needed to do, but the filly was still alive and he had trouble with the knowledge of what was going to happen next. The filly had suffered enough. 

As he watched, the light finally faded from her eyes and she went still, giving out one final gurgle as she passed. Her eyes were vacant as she stared up Bucky. He prepared himself for the grim task ahead. He had precious seconds. 

Teleportation was never used for difficult foal births. The teleportation bubble was never exact and important bits could be sheared away. Bucky was left with one option. He closed his own eyes and summoned his magic. Reaching down with telekinetic feelers, he prodded around the slit and around the foal, and worked tendrils of magic up inside of the birth canal. He wrapped the barely moving body of the foal in a protective bubble. 

And with a heart wrenching splattering sound, he tore the filly open. 

The foal fell free of its confines and Bucky lifted to his neck, trying to keep it warm. It did not cry and Bucky felt his heart sinking. 

“All clear!” Rising Star bellowed. 

Bucky stumbled away from the remains of the foal’s mother and out the door, leaving the house of horrors behind him. Sparkler followed, her chin resting on Bucky’s withers as they walked, her eyes still closed. She was wailing with grief. 

Feeling nauseated, Bucky felt a small twitch from the foal, but it was not crying, and there was no hot breath on his neck from the foal’s muzzle. He staggered and fell into the grass, his hind legs finally giving way as his adrenaline ran out. He felt Sparkler collapse atop him, and could both feel and hear her grief stricken sobs. 

A stupour fell over Bucky, his mind falling into a daze. He lay in the grass as the other ponies gathered around him. 

“Give it to me!” Lyra barked, cutting through Bucky’s mental fog. 

Bucky felt the foal torn from his telekinesis and he looked up at Lyra. 

The foal was wrapped in a golden glow and Lyra held it before her. Lyra bent her head down and touched the foal with her horn and there was a faint crackling sound. 

A moment later, there was a shrill cry of a foal that was feeling the coldness of the world around it, free of the womb. 

“What did you do?” Bon Bon demanded. “What did you do Lyra?” she repeated. 

“I saw it in a movie,” Lyra replied. “A doctor used his horn to electro-zap somepony back to life just after they had just died,” she explained. 

“Lyra,” Bon Bon whispered. 

Sparkler looked up, scarcely believing what she saw. She could feel her own heart racing. She wrapped her legs around Bucky’s neck and squeezed tightly. 

“Lyra Heartstrings,” Bucky gasped. “I want you to mother my foals.” He blinked a few times in astonishment. 

“It is a little unicorn,” Lyra said. “A filly. A little unicorn filly,” she announced. 

“And she’s alive,” Rising Star said in startled awe. 

“No more death,” Sparkler murmured, pressing her face into Bucky’s neck and releasing the rest of her tears. 

“While this is a very happy occasion, we need to get out of here,” Deadspin said, his voice of worry. 

Bucky leaned his head into Sparkler’s warm embrace. “I hate to say this, but I think my legs are done for,” he announced. 

“Oh shite and buggery,” Bon Bon swore. 

“The foal needs to be fed,” Sparkler said as she wiped her face off on Bucky’s neck. 

“It does,” Lyra agreed. “I know a spell. Gimme some time,” Lyra begged. 

“I’m going to need somepony to haul the gear I’m carrying so I can haul Bucky back to the wagon,” Bon Bon stated in an irritated grunt. “And before you noble pegasi say anything, he’s my husband and he belongs on my back,” she added, blushing fiercely as she spoke. 

Rising Star collapsed into grass. “I feel dead inside,” he muttered. 

“All of you, eat, as hard as might be, you need to eat. We need you strong so you can make it back to the wagon,” Bon Bon commanded. 

“Foal,” Bucky said in a strained whisper. The crying foal was music to his ears. 

“Somepony is going to need to put out the fires and torch the remains of the undead,” Bon Bon announced. 

Bucky lifted his head and called to mind a spell of extinguishment. In moments, the fields ceased to burn. 

“I’ll take care of the wiggly bits in a moment,” Rising Star groaned. 



 

“This is awkward,” Bucky muttered. He was sprawled over Bon Bon’s back and the mare kept cursing with every step she took. 

“Of course this is awkward. I’m a lesbian. In heat. With a stallion draped over my back, and I can feel your balls slapping up against my croup with every step,” she grumbled. “And your hot sweaty pony smell is making me crazy. I’m tempted to drag you into the bushes right now and shatter your pelvis.” 

“Oh, this isn’t any easier on me Bonnie,” Bucky replied. 

“We’re almost to the wagon you two,” Sparkler said in a dull voice. 

“I ate but I feel like my legs are going to give out at any moment,” Rising Star announced. “So this is what magical fatigue feels like,” he groused. 

“I am having a troubling thought. All of the those undead took off in one direction… what if they were after this unicorn foal?” Lyra asked.

Bucky felt his blood run cold and his balls shriveled. 

“That’s a horrifying thought Lyra,” Bon Bon said as she felt Bucky shivering on her back. She felt a twinge of pity for poor Bucky, especially when she felt his testicles retract. 

“That’s awful,” Sparkler said. “Why was that undead pony in the thicket?” 

“Probably after some rabbit that had gone down its hole,” Lyra guessed. 

“Tomorrow we are coming back here to deal with the dead,” Bucky announced. 

“No need sir. We will have an honour guard dispatched and they will deal with the dead. You need to be at home recovering with your family,” Deadspin replied. 

Bucky did not reply. His head sank down on Bon Bon’s broad withers and he felt a quiet sense of relief. He stroked Bon Bon’s side with his foreleg and he felt her muscles quiver beneath him. “Sorry… I… I guess I just need comfort,” Bucky whispered. 

Bon Bon steeled her resolve and continued for the wagon. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 121 (Warning! Contains a creamy filling in the middle!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Immediately after landing, Bucky was approached by a pegasus and told that Keg Smasher needed to see him. Bucky was sore, exhausted, and on the verge of falling apart. But he agreed to see Keg Smasher right away, knowing exactly what Keg Smasher needed to know. 

He slipped away from his own family, who was eager to see him, and was led to Keg Smasher’s quarters. Keg Smasher was awake, sort of, he looked almost delirious with pain. Winter Wheat was close to his side, and there was a pegasus mare that Bucky did not know with him. 

Starting with their landing in the port town, Bucky told Keg Smasher everything, from the first encounter with the undead pony to the last encounter, the battle at the large farmhouse. He reassured Keg Smasher that all of the undead abominations were gone, and that Keg Smasher could rest easy. He also told Keg Smasher of the foal. The unicorn foal. He explained that Lyra was currently caring for it. 

Afterwards, Bucky seemed to run out of things to say. The two stallions sat in silence, the two mares saying nothing, and Bucky found absolutely nothing interesting to stare at on the walls. There were things that needed to be said but Bucky didn’t know how to say them. 





“So… those things... they’re all gone?” Keg Smasher asked again, seeking assurance. His words were slightly slurred and would have been difficult to be heard had it not for the oppressive silence. 

“Petrified, burned to ash, or shattered into thousands of tiny pieces after being frozen solid,” Bucky replied, his eye finally resting on Keg Smasher. 

The big pegasus took a deep breath and sighed. “In a day or three, I will want Sparkler, Rising Star, Lyra, and Bon Bon brought before me,” Keg Smasher said in a weak wavering voice. 

“I can do that,” Bucky said, wondering why Keg Smasher might want them. He did not press the issue, knowing that he would find out soon enough. 

“I’ve never been this close to death before… my thinking feels so clear but so muddled at the same time,” Keg Smasher said. The pegasus whimpered as he shifted in the bed, trying to get comfortable. 

“I felt the same way,” Bucky admitted. “I had some days where I had this amazing clarity of thought. I began to understand what was important to me. I felt some gratitude for things I hadn’t felt grateful for.” Bucky shifted. Sitting on the stone floor was causing him to ache. “Look, about the foal, Lyra is taking care of it, but I need to know what you want done with it,” Bucky asked in a strained voice. “Before Lyra gets strongly connected to it.” 

“Keep it safe… and take it with you when you go. Get it away from these wretched isles,” Keg Smasher whispered. 

“But you need unicorns here,” Bucky protested. 

“Yeah we do… and I’d say in about a year or so there are going to be plenty of foals being born. A year from now when the wolves are gone and the isles are safer,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“Keg, look, I already have Sentinel… being what I am, I feel funny taking more foals,” Bucky explained. “I am glad that you seem confident that I will exterminate the wolves,” he added. 

Keg Smasher glared at Bucky and drew in a deep breath. “You’re my best defender. You are my knight, and I don’t know what else you might be implying. I require my nobles to look after orphans and widows. With the wolves, that unicorn isn’t safe. I already have a couple of little unicorns locked up safe and secure within this castle… but those have parents. This one doesn’t. So I am trusting you with its care. I am not in the mood for arguments… my word is law,” Keg Smasher said weakly. “Do not defy me Buckminster Bitters.” 

“This castle… can the wolves get in here?” Bucky asked, changing the subject. 

“No lad, and I don’t know why… I do wonder sometimes. I’ve seen them right outside the gatehouse, pacing, blocked by some kind of invisible barrier. The guards go out and taunt them sometimes. This castle is almost a thousand years old and was actually built by the noble of House Avarice who was exiled to these isles for marrying an earth pony. Story has it, he built this castle out of a love for his bride, and he made it to keep her safe. I don’t know how true it is, but I find it a touching story. The stories say that after the exile, House Avarice sent assassins to kill him and his bride, but none could make their way inside this castle. They both lived for a long time, and had many foals together,” Keg Smasher answered. 

“I still feel funny about the foal,” Bucky mentioned in a soft passive voice. 

“Damnit, you’re still going on about that?” Keg Smasher snapped in pain filled anger. 

Bucky hung his head and his mane fell down over his face. 

“Look, you look like you’re about to fall over… go get rest,” Keg Smasher ordered. 

“I definitely need to,” Bucky agreed. “By the way ma’am, I don’t think we’ve met before,” he said to the pegasus mare. 

“I am Meadowlark,” the pegasus replied. “I married this big dumb lump.” 



 

Bucky staggered into his room, crossed the room with his hooves dragging, and collapsed on the bed. He lay where he fell and did not move. He was quickly swarmed by a number of ponies, who approached him in silence, most of them little and rather foal sized. 

Lyra was on the bed resting, the newborn nestled at her belly, and it was feeding noisily. 

There was a tingly feeling of magic all around him and Bucky felt himself being pulled to the middle of the bed where the foals around him scrambled to resume their positions. Bucky groaned as he tried to kick his his hind legs out to a more comfortable position and his head felt swimmy. 

“Father?” Sentinel asked, looking very concerned. He spoke in a hushed whisper, his eyes darting to Lyra and the foal. 

“Yes Sentinel?” Bucky replied. “How are you Sentinel? Feeling better? How is your back?” he inquired. 

“When I was saluting today, I pulled the skin. It hurts… but I will endure. How are you?” Sentinel answered, his voice full of worry. 

“Yeah, talk to us, we’re worried,” Piña said. 

“We were sleeping most of the day,” Dinky said. 

“Rising Star and Sparkler went off to the dining hall with Loch, they didn’t look very good,” Ripple said. “I’m worried,” she stated. 

“And what about the foal?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes, what about the foal?” Lyra repeated in an exhausted voice. 

“Dinky, Piña, Sentinel, Ripple, all of you have a new sibling,” Bucky replied in a low tired voice. He heard a gasp from Derpy and a moan of relief from Lyra. “You’re not off the hook Lyra, you still owe me one foal,” he said with a half hearted laugh. He heard an odd sound coming from Lyra and he felt a bit of panic. “Lyra, are you choking?” he asked, lifting his head in worry. 

The green mare was crying and rubbing at her golden eyes with her forelegs. Bucky wanted to go to her and comfort her, but he was currently buried under foals and wasn’t sure he could move even if he wanted to. His bones ached from exhaustion. 

Instead, it was Bon Bon who went to Lyra’s side and settled into the bed beside her, and she began stroking the emotional unicorn, trying to sooth her. 

Finally, Derpy could take no more and she tumbled into the bed, squashing Dinky and moving to Bucky’s side. “You smell like smoke,” she commented as Dinky tried to escape from beneath her. 

“I’m probably filthy,” Bucky said, now feeling some worry about the state of the bed’s cleanliness. 

“Mama, you’re smooshin’ me,” Dinky protested from beneath Derpy. 

“Good. Take note Lyra, when they get big and squirmy, foals must be sat on,” Derpy said, giving advice to the new mother and trying to cheer Lyra up. 

“Today was so awful,” Lyra whimpered. “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but I need to get some sleep so I can resume my watch tonight,” she said as she cried. 

“Bucky, you look like you could use some shuteye,” Berry said, looking Berry worried as she said it. 

“Yeah Bucky, you take a nap. And when you wake up, I’ll have you a fish waiting,” Thistle offered. 

“Mmm… that sounds incredibly good,” Bucky said. 

“Okay, every foal must go,” Derpy said as she rolled away from Dinky, freeing her. 

As the foals scrambled from the bed, Bucky felt himself being dragged by magic over the bed and closer to Lyra. She had rolled onto her back, and the foal was curled into a little ball on her belly, the foal’s head resting near Lyra’s teats. Bucky couldn’t help but notice that Lyra was opened and exposed in this position, and for a brief painful moment, he had a reminder of his old life. He felt a stinging sense of embarrassment seeing Lyra supine and recalled the night that Berry Punch had exposed herself to him while he was in the bath tub. Bon Bon was resting her head on Lyra’s barrel, and the foal was but a short distance away from her face. 

The foal, now cleaned up and no longer bloody, was a faded indigo colour, and tufts of frizzy bright orange mane stood on end. 

The door clicked shut but Bucky barely noticed. He was overwhelmed by too many feelings to comprehend at once. He could smell Lyra… there was the faint smell of her heat. There was the sweet smell of her milk. He could smell the salty smell of her sweat. And all of these scents made him feel something different. Mostly, what he felt was protective. A strange new feeling crept over him and it made his flesh tingle. 

“So what do we do if she pees? Or worse?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Oh bother,” Bucky said in alarm. “No diapers.” 

“It is a problem, but I don’t think the ponies here use diapers,” Lyra said. She yawned. “We’re going to need straw. And then we put the foal in the straw. And when the straw gets messy, we change the straw. And meanwhile, we hope that the foal doesn’t soil us too badly,” she added. 

“But we have no straw,” Bucky said. 

“And no cradle,” Bon Bon added. 

“So reach out with your mind and summon up some straw,” Lyra said in an exhausted voice. “And for now, we’ll just pile it up by the bed. And then the foal and I will sleep in the straw.” 

“I could try transmuting diapers,” Bucky said. 

“Straw. Now. Daddy will do what he is told or there will be trouble,” Lyra warned. “I’m sleepy. Want to sleep. Sleep. No more talk.” 

Bucky concentrated, thinking of straw, knowing it was all over this castle. He didn’t want to take anypony’s bed, so he focused on finding the largest mass he could find, which he reckoned would be the source. He latched on to it and tugged it through the aether, causing it to pop into existence in the corner of the room near the bed. There was a very large pile. Using his magic, he pushed a portion away from the main mass, what he hoped would be a big soft pile. 

Lyra eased herself from the bed and into the pile of straw, holding the foal in protective bubble of magic the entire time. 

The unicorn seemed comfortable as she settled in. 

“Look, about earlier, and the whole pelvis shattering thing,” Bon Bon began. 

Bucky raised his head and looked at Bon Bon. She seemed upset. 

“I wanted to say I am sorry… I don’t know what’s come over me lately. I even made a pass at Berry Punch and I think I might have upset her, I don’t know. I’m not myself,” Bon Bon explained. 

“I doubt Berry Punch would ever be upset over something like that. Don’t worry about it Bonnie… just wondering though… you let me have it for saying “screw” the other night but you seem pretty comfortable with swearing,” Bucky replied. 

The earth pony blushed. “You’re a unicorn noble… like it or not, certain things are expected from you. Somepony has to hold you to certain standards. I’m an earth pony. Ponies expect nothing from me. I have no societal obligations,” Bon Bon returned. 

“Shut it, sleep now,” Lyra insisted from the straw pile. 

“If I am a unicorn noble and you are my wife, then I would say certain things are expected from you, Lady Bon Bon,” Bucky said teasingly. 

“Oh don’t you dare throw that up in my face,” Bon Bon retorted. 

“You know, this double standard does not suit you Bonnie,” Bucky said, his tone a bit more serious. 

“All killing and no sleep makes Lyra a cranky pony,” Lyra singsonged. 

“Hey, as a unicorn, you don’t get to talk about double standards,” Bon Bon snapped. 

Bucky felt the sting of Bon Bon’s words and recoiled. “Yeah. I get it. Canterlot. The city built on a foundation of double standards,” he grumbled. 

“Sleep!” Lyra begged. 

“Look, Lyra is right… we need rest. I am cranky and cross. I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said, I was in the wrong. Forgive me?” Bon Bon said. 

Bucky gently kissed Bon Bon on the cheek. “Please hold me to higher standards,” he whispered. “Somepony has to, I find myself stooping lower and lower and it worries me.” 

“As much as I want to shag you right now, I am going to settle with cuddling you instead,” Bon Bon said. “Get over here,” she commanded. 

Bucky felt a strong foreleg hook over his barrel and drag him over the bed. He felt Bon Bon pressing up against his back. She was a lot like Berry Punch, solidly muscled with a heavy bone structure. One foreleg was wrapped over him protectively and Bucky felt secure in her embrace. 

As he lay there spooning with Bon Bon, the final sounds he heard were the snuffling sounds of a tiny foal breathing, and he felt better about the miserable day. 



 

“Rising, talk to me, you haven’t said anything,” Loch Skimmer insisted. The filly was frantic with worry and her wings fluttered as she pranced around on three jittering hooves. 

“I’m okay I think,” Rising Star replied. He felt tired. His head hurt a bit, and he was hungry, even though he had eaten in the wagon on the way back home. He eyed the jug that had been left on the table for him. Using his magic, he pulled it close, uncorked it, and took a sniff. He didn’t know what he was smelling. “What is this?” he asked. 

“Gin,” Loch Skimmer said. “I think,” she added nervously. 

“Ah, well then, gin,” Rising Star said as he lifted the jug. He took a long swallow like he had seen Bucky do and immediately wished that he hadn’t. The faintly blue liquid burned like fire going down and when he pulled the jug away some of it dribbled from his chin. Even with the painful burning, he felt better. His head hurt a little less and some of the horror of the day faded from his mind. 

“Gimme some,” Loch begged, using her nose to point to her leg in the sling. 

Using his magic, Rising Star lifted the jug, held it up to Loch’s lips, and then tilted it slightly. It was not a well practiced gesture and a sip turned into a big swallow. Loch took it down bravely, her teeth gritted and her wings shot straight out from her sides. She banged her good front leg down on the table, her hoof making a thudding sound that echoed in the dining hall. 

Sparkler took the jug next and took down a long pull. She coughed and sputtered for a moment, and then took another drink. After swallowing and composing herself, she looked sorrowful. “The sound,” she muttered. 

“Sound?” Loch asked.

“The sound of her ripping open,” Sparkler replied. 

Rising Star felt his heart drop. “Sparky, now isn’t a good time,” he said gently. 

“I keep hearing it though. I keep seeing it too… well, not actually seeing it, I did close my eyes just like father said to do, but I can see those two little legs poking out. And then he told me to close my eyes. After that, there was that sound. He pulled her wide open with his magic. And then I realised that I could do that to a pony… not that I would want to do that to a pony, and nothing feels right on the inside,” Sparkler said in a dull monotone. 

“Sparkler, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but as type threes, we need to find a way to keep our selves held together. You and I both. We accepted this. We chose to do this so we could help these ponies. And today, we made a difference. You carved a path for Bucky to follow and because of you that foal lives. You think it is any easier on him? I know it must be tearing him up inside, even if he is doing a much better job of hiding it than we are. At some point it will come to the surface and he will be forced to deal with it,” Rising Star said gently to his mate. 

“The fighting has only just started,” Sparkler said. “I don’t know what I expected. I knew it would be bad, but today… today was…” as she spoke her words died and she fell silent. 

“Today was glorious,” Rising Star said. “I saw my wife rampage and I’ve never been more in love with you than I was today when I saw you fearlessly rush forward and charge those wolves.” 

Sparkler blushed. “Fearlessly? I nearly dropped a steaming load as I ran forward. I was so scared that I turned to stone,” she said in a shame filled admission. 

“Doesn’t change how I feel about you,” Rising Star said as he took another slug of gin. 

“Thanks, that actually makes me feel better, I mean that,” Sparkler said weakly. 

“I wish I could be there with you,” Loch said. “For now, all I can do is comfort you when you get home,” she offered. 

Rising Star was in need of comforting, and he was full of liquid courage. He snatched Loch Skimmer in his magic and pulled her to him, and he released his emotions upon the pegasus filly. Her kiss was waxy and slobbery, and he gently held her to him with one foreleg. Finally, he pulled away with a wet smacking sound and dribbles of drool spattered to the floor. 

“Och… that doesn’t make dealing with my heat any easier,” Loch said in flustered tones as she fanned herself with her wings. 

“I think I need one of those Rising… I don’t know if I can be as enthusiastic, but I want to feel something warm and alive,” Sparkler said as she advanced on Rising Star. Her lips touched his, briefly brushing across one another, and she could feel the waxy residue left behind from Loch’s kiss. She could smell Rising Star, he reeked of smoke and fire. And then after a moment of feeling him close, she was able to let go. Her lips parted and gave him an aggressive smouldering smooch that she knew was making his legs wobble, because she could feel him struggling to stand. 

The two pulled apart and stood looking at one another, panting heavily, and Sparkler briefly toyed with the idea of having a foal. 

“I think part of me has turned to stone,” Rising Star said with embarrassment. 

Even though she didn’t want to, Sparkler found herself laughing at the joke. It started off with a nervous giggle that turned to a titter, and then full blown guffaws. And as she laughed, she felt better about what had happened today. She could feel some of the pressure in her mind being released. 

She didn’t feel done though. She snatched Loch Skimmer next and practiced her lip lock techniques on her, following through with her mother’s advice on how to make a pony’s legs go weak. She invaded Loch’s mouth and tried to tickle her tonsils. 

Finally, Loch pulled away with her wings now fully erect. “Oh, that felt weird,” she said breathlessly. “I mean, I kinda liked it, but it still felt weird.” 

Sparkler felt much better now. She pulled the jug of gin over and took a long swallow. She grimaced as the fire burned in her throat and then she belched out a thunderous blast. “I think I’m bi-sexual,” Sparkler announced. “Because I really enjoyed that. I wasn’t totally sure… but then Ripple kissed me and now I just slipped Loch the tongue, and I have the biggest filly boner right now.” 

“I’ve got something going on,” Loch skimmer whispered nervously. “My wings… stiff as board. And I can feel something throbbing back there,” she confessed. 

“Filly boner…” Rising Star said, mostly to himself. “Bucky said to use the edge of your tongue where it is really rough,” he murmured. 

Sparkler’s eyes went wide and she froze. She turned her head slowly towards Rising Star, her ears perked forward. “Whaaaaat?” she said slowly. 

“Oh nothing,” Rising Star replied. “I was thinking out loud. Never mind. I think the gin is making me feel better. I feel really relaxed. Except for the parts of me that feel really tight,” he explained. 

“I heard him too,” Loch said. “I think Bucky has been teaching Rising Star ‘Secret Stallion Sorcery’ so he can subdue us,” the filly stated, the charcoal grey pelt of her cheeks turning purple. 

“Secret what?” Sparkler asked incredulously. 

“Something Berry Punch said to me,” Loch replied. “She warned me that Bucky might teach Rising Star how to weaken our resolve.”

“I haven’t had enough to drink yet to have this day make sense,” Sparkler said.

“So drink more,” Rising Star said. He lifted the jug and tilted it back, taking a long pull from the brown crockery. He wheezed and sputtered as his throat burned and he set the jug down on the table. “Oh no… here it comes… uncontrollable boner,” Rising Star grumbled. 

Sparkler lifted the jug, took a long drink, and then slammed the jug down on the table. “Loch, we should do something about that,” Sparkler announced boldly. 

“Oh I dunno,” Loch replied. 

“I was old enough to go into battle today. Here I am getting plastered, and I intend to get shagged,” Sparkler insisted. 

“This scares me,” Loch said in a low whisper. 

“I was scared today too,” Sparkler said. She belched loudly and wiped her face with her foreleg. 

“Look, as much as I want to, I refuse to do anything until all three of us are ready,” Rising Star said in a low whisper. 

“Rising is right of course,” Sparkler said. 

“Let’s go,” Loch said. 

“What?” Rising Star asked. 

“Both of you faced what needed to be done today, I can do no less,” Loch murmured. 

“But this isn’t something that needs to be done,” Rising Star said gently. 

“Yes it is… I can’t live in fear anymore… it is hurting me and it is hurting you… you are my husband and we have an obligation to keep each other happy,” Loch said in a fearful whine. 

“We’ll need to find a quiet place,” Sparkler said. “Someplace out of the way. Secluded. Here in the castle. There is bound to be something somewhere.” 

“My sister said there is an abandoned library in the back wing,” Loch said. 

“Sounds ideal,” Rising Star said nervously. 

“I’ll grab the gin jug,” Sparkler said. 



 

“There’s no books,” Sparkler observed. 

The library was dark and quiet. As Sparker had stated, the shelves were empty. The floor was dusty and there were little hoof prints that could be seen from when little curious fillies had gone exploring. The only light came from two unicorn horns. 

Sparkler set down the gin jug after taking a good sized swallow. She felt brave, ready for almost anything. Out of her herd, she was the oldest, and it had always been generally accepted that she was in charge. Even Rising Star followed her lead. 

Sparkler’s bravery fled the moment she felt a muzzle push past her tail, slip between her cheeks, and a tongue gave her a curious lick.

“YeeaaaaUUUUGH!” Sparkler grunted as she leapt forward. “Oh gross, it’s dirty back there. I haven’t bathed,” she cried in panic.

“Tastes salty and kinda smokey. Not bad,” Rising Star said. 

“But I’ve been sweating,” Sparkler protested. 

“So what?” Rising Star said. “Come here filly,” he said boldly, pulling Sparkler in close with his magic. “We need to give Loch a good show,” he whispered. He kissed Sparkler forcefully and he felt her moan into his mouth. Rising Star felt Sparkler take charge during the kiss and he let her, submitting passively to her whims, mindful that Loch was watching their every move. 

Sparkler pulled away breathlessly. “Ready to mount me?” she said brazenly. 

“No,” Loch said. “Berry said there must be licking… to get us slicked up so it doesn’t hurt,” she said in a timid voice. 

“And Berry is right,” Rising Star said as he licked his lips. He lifted Sparkler in his magic, flipped her over, and gently placed her on the floor, belly up before him. He watched as she squirmed nervously. He leaned down his head and his snoot brushed over one of her teats, which caused Sparkler to kick one of her legs out. “Sparkler, just relax,” he urged. 

Sparkler closed her eyes took a deep breath. She felt vulnerable and exposed. She spread her legs a little wider, not sure what else to do, and part of her felt that letting Rising mount her might have been easier. She wouldn’t feel so exposed, and parts of her would remain hidden. From this angle, Rising Star could see everything. Her thoughts were interrupted by the curious feeling of two ponies breathing on her. She opened her eyes and she could see Loch’s face inches from her navel. 

“I was curious,” Loch whispered. She lifted her head and backed away. “You’re beautiful,” she added. 

Sparkler smiled and then gasped as she felt two lips kissing her just below her breastbone. She felt another kiss, and then another, and Rising Star was working his way down slowly. “Rising… I know we shouldn’t rush things, but we need to rush things, we need to be back before dark,” Sparkler whispered. 

Rising Star, thankful for Sparkler’s prompting, went right for the prize. He pushed his snoot into Sparkler’s snatch. She was a bit sweaty, but just below the surface she was rather dry. When he heard her cry out, he stopped and pulled away. 

“It’s tender… I didn’t expect for it to be so sensitive,” Sparkler explained. “I’m okay, but the feeling of being parted hurt just a little.” 

This time, Rising Star didn’t push his snoot down, he extended his tongue and gave a careful lick along the surface, then another lick, and with the third lick, he applied pressure and parted her again. This time Sparkler moaned and squirmed beneath him and ground her hips upwards eagerly. 

"More of that,” Sparkler begged. 

With Sparkler’s urging, Rising Star prodded her cleft with his tongue, exploring as he gently parted her with each lick. He found a tiny little nub just under a sheath of flesh, and he licked around it in a circle. He was rewarded with a loud moan from Sparkler. She was still felt rather dry, and her flesh clung together rather than sliding around smoothly when manipulated. 

“Rising… I don’t have a filly ribbon… mine got busted when I was doing the Running of the Leaves… I was still a young filly and when I saw the blood in my tail... I freaked out… and my mother took me to the doctor… and the doctor said that this kind of thing happens all the time…” Sparkler panted out in warning. 

Finding his tongue far too busy, Rising Star did not reply with words. He licked around until he found an inner opening and then plunged his long orange tongue inwards, encountering no resistance. It was salty, sort of smokey near the surface, and he supposed it was meaty as well, but he had nothing to compare it to. Sparkler giggled nervously and then thrust her hips upwards. 

“That actually felt really good,” Sparkler said. “You can do more of that,” she added. 

As his tongue probed Sparkler’s depths, he felt her begin to moisten. Her breathing was heavy now, and her legs twitched. He was so focused on making Sparkler happy that a sudden touch on his cheek startled him. He pulled his head back and saw Loch Skimmer. She looked frightened. 

“I didn’t mean to scare you… don’t magic me,” Loch begged. 

“You’re fine,” Rising Star said reassuringly. 

“I want to look. At her I mean. Compare her to how I looked when I saw myself reflected in the lake water,” Loch said bashfully. 

“Have a look, she’s beautiful,” Rising Star whispered. He lowered his head and shone his light on Sparkler’s now glistening folds. 

The flesh was swollen and the puffiness caused Sparkler’s slit to open slightly Loch saw as she studied Sparkler’s filly bits. The flesh inside the parted folds was a deep rich purple. Unable to help herself, Loch extended her wing and drew a feather over Sparkler’s flesh. The reaction was immediate. Sparkler exploded into laughter and tried to squirm away. 

“No! Loch! No!” Sparkler begged as she laughed. 

Loch prodded her with a feather again, this time near the top of her parted mound, near where the nub of flesh was still hidden. Sparkler squirmed along the floor and tried to escape. Loch delighted in her newfound power to make Sparkler squeal. Feeling curious, she extended her tongue and gave a careful lick. 

“That really gets me going… watching you lick her,” Rising Star said with unabashed honesty. “Bucky was right… there is nothing quite like watching two mares that you love making each other feel good.” 

Loch licked again and Sparkler gasped. “Blech, this tastes kinda weird,” Loch commented. “Rising, can you give me a drink of gin?” she asked. 

Rising lifted the jug of gin to Loch’s lips and then tilted it so she could drink. He watched in awe as the pegasus took down several swallows without effort. Loch pulled away and let out thunderous belch that rivaled Sparkler’s own famous frog calls. 

“Keep licking,” Loch commanded. “Your pegasus wife demands more licking take place,” she said as she sat down on the stone floor. 

“Please keep licking,” Sparkler pleaded. 

Eager to please, Rising Star went to work. After teasing the outer edges for a while, he took a more direct approach and suckled on Sparkler’s clitoral mound. The sound of Sparkler’s mewling cries caused his cock to throb. He was beginning to feel a strong need to bury himself inside of something. He felt Sparkler trying push up against him so he applied more pressure, pressing his muzzle downwards. 

Loch extended a wing to tickle Rising Star’s nose, but as she did so, her feathers brushed over Sparkler’s teat. There was a loud cry from Sparkler. 

Sparkler tensed, every muscle tightening, she could feel her belly muscles clenching. The feeling of the feather being drawn over her teat had been too much and it had pushed her over the edge. She cried out as her body shuddered and shook. As the wave of pleasure broke over her, she cried out again. Rising Star’s tongue plunged deep and wiggled along the back of her now slick depths, rubbing the tender flesh in the passage behind her clitoris. Sparkler clenched her teeth together and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. The light on her horn flickered for several moments, becoming considerably brighter. 

“I need to get off before this boner runs out of skin!” Rising Star said urgently. “I feel like I’m going to split open or something,” he whimpered. 

“Spell… protection,” Sparkler murmured. Her horn flashed for a moment, and she struggled to cast the very simple spell that was meant to protect her in times like these. She cast another on Loch Skimmer. 

Rising Star cast his own spell, thankful that this spell was incredibly easy. He couldn’t do anything complicated at the moment. 

“Lay down on me Rising… just be gentle,” Sparkler said. 

Rising Star eased himself down on top of Sparkler and fumbled around, needing to be inside of her. It was a painful urgent need. “I’m not going to last long, I’m sorry,” he said apologetically. “I wanted this to be special, but you don’t know how bad this is,” the colt explained. 

“I just had the best orgasm of my life,” Sparkler said warmly. “Just get it out and you’ll last longer for Loch… make it special for her,” she whispered. 

After poking around in the dim light for what felt like several painful hours, Rising Star felt something warm, wet, and inviting brush up against the tip of his cock. He prodded a bit, trying to find the inner opening. When he felt it, he eased himself in slowly, giving Sparkler time to adjust. He could feel her squirming a bit beneath him.

“Does it hurt?” Rising Star asked in a whisper.

“Not exactly,” Sparkler said after she took a deep breath. “But I can feel the stretching.” 

Loch Skimmer watched with open eyed interest the love making going on before her. In her short life, she had never seen anything like it. Her mouth hung open and her breathing was shallow. She felt a damp moistness down in her own as of yet unexplored folds. She could hear the wet slick sounds of penetration, the soft pleading cries that Sparkler made, and the breathless grunts that Rising Star was making as he slowly eased himself in. There was no violence here, no anger, no dead look of resignation on Sparkler’s face. There was only love being expressed in physical form. 

And Loch wanted it desperately for herself. She hoped that her fear would subside. 

Rising Star eased himself in and out of Sparkler, and could feel her hips thrusting upwards to meet him. He picked up the pace, feeling an urgent need to blow his load. He held back a little though, hoping to make it last as long as he could, but he wasn’t able to hold it back much longer. 

Sparkler wrapped her forelegs around Rising Star and held him close, feeling warm in the afterglow of her own orgasm. She could feel him breathing heavily against her neck. With a sudden jerk, Rising Star tensed up and thrust himself deeply into her. She felt what was almost painful pressure as he buried himself and then she felt a curious wet sensation deep inside of her. It took several moments to realise that Rising Star had gone off and left his seed inside of her. She felt his body go limp and he collapsed on top of her, panting heavily on her neck. She squeezed him and kissed his ear. 

Rising Star finally summoned up enough strength to roll off of Sparkler and he lay on his back on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He felt proud of himself. He had made Sparkler go off at least once, which he felt was pretty good for his first attempt. 

Sparkler rolled and rose into a sitting position. She took a long drink from the gin jug and then helped Loch Skimmer down a few swallows. Sparkler felt damp and sticky, and when she moved she could feel her breath catch in her throat as her sensitive skin tugged and pulled around her overstimulated nubbin just beneath her folds. 

As Rising Star was laying supine, something warm touched his belly. He looked up and saw Loch Skimmer smiling down at him. 

“It’s kinda long and skinny,” Loch Skimmer observed as she checked out the goods on Rising Star. The opportunity was too good to resist so Loch Skimmer extended a wing and ran her feather tips along Rising Star’s shaft, starting as his balls and ending at the tip. She felt a thrill of exhilaration as Rising Star squirmed and moaned beneath her touch. Loch realised that she had power in her touch and she did it again. This time, Rising Star made a series of pleading whimpers. Her third stroke caused Rising Star’s cock to twitch. 

“Loch, if you keep doing that, I am going to have to find some way of paying you back,” Rising Star muttered. 

Loch tittered and stroked the wiggling appendage once again. This time, Rising Star threw his head back and cried out. 

“Oh wow, he’s getting hard again,” Sparkler observed. 

“I need more gin,” Loch said. 

Sparkler raised the jug and both fillies took turns having a drink. The crockery was nearly empty now. 

Rising Star pulled himself into a sitting position, took a deep breath, and then killed off the gin jug. He gasped, shook his head, and shuddered. 

Loch Skimmer eased herself down upon the floor and rolled over onto her back. “I’m so scared,” she whispered. “I am so very afraid.” 

“It will be okay Loch,” Sparkler said soothingly. Sparkler rose, took a step, and then stood over the frightened filly that was her fellow-wife. “He was so very gentle. I had a moment where it sort of hurt, but it passed. Just say something when it hurts.” 

“I don’t want him on top of me… I don’t want to be pinned down,” Loch whimpered. 

“Okay,” Sparkler said. 

“Berry said that I could mount him,” Loch said in a fearful whisper. 

“If that is what it takes to put your mind at ease, I’ll lay on the floor and we’ll try it that way,” Rising Star offered in gentle tones. 

“Thank you… I think I’m ready now,” Loch said as she closed her eyes. “Now get to lickin’,” the filly said bluntly. 

Sparkler lowered her head and took one exploratory lick, curious about flavour. 

“SPARKLER? IS THAT YOU?” Loch shouted. Her voice echoed in the empty library. 

“Yes Loch,” Sparkler replied.

“Sorry, that felt weird. It spooked me,” Loch whispered. “Well, don’t stop licking… I’m a scared pony and I need to be slicked up so I need to be licked,” the filly insisted. 

Sparkler shrugged and continued licking. 

Rising Star felt himself hardening even more. 

“Licky slicky,” Loch said. Afterwards, she giggled. 

“Hey, stop hogging the snatch,” Rising Star said. He pushed his muzzle down next to Sparkler’s and stuck his tongue out. 

Loch felt the distinct tickle of two tongues lapping at her outer folds and she burst into laughter. She melted into the floor and allowed the moment to happen. She was still afraid somewhere deep inside, but it was hard to feel her fear at the moment. 

Rising Star enjoyed the feeling of his tongue brushing up against Sparkler’s as he went to work on Loch’s unexplored recesses. The worry and stress from earlier in the day were now completely forgotten, and all he could think about was the slightly drunk giggling filly on the floor. 

Loch rested her bad leg on her barrel and drifted away on a current of bliss. Part of her was still weirded out about the idea of Sparkler licking her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but it was hard to think about at the moment. She felt herself being parted gently and then felt two tongues ease their way in, teasing just below the surface. There was a moment of pain, which made her tense, followed by a moment of panic, but it passed quickly and Loch relaxed. 

“Go slowly Rising,” Sparkler said as she pulled away. “Did you feel that?” 

Rising Star lifted his head. “Yeah I did,” he said. 

“Hey…keep licking… I’m okay,” Loch Skimmer said to her mates. 

Sparkler was the first to lower her head and explore a little deeper into Loch’s quivering mound. A moment later, her tongue was joined by Rising Star’s tongue, and she followed his head as he began to delve for a little nubbin of flesh that was hiding somewhere. 

Unable to stop herself, Loch let out a shrill whinny when she felt two tongues brush over her little fleshy knob. Her ears splayed out and her hind legs kicked out straight. She felt her wings snap out to her sides. 

“I dunno what just happened, but please keep doing that!” Loch begged. 

Rising Star obliged the flailing pegasus. Loch’s wings fluttered along the floor and her legs were kicking with each lick. He felt Sparkler's tongue move away and work its way downward, deeper into Loch’s slit, and Sparkler’s wet cheek was pressed up against his. 

Sparkler probed deeper into Loch’s now swollen folds and savoured the flavour of what she found. She called up her magic and made her own little nubbin begin to vibrate, just as she had done in the shower so many times. As she worked her way in, she encountered resistance, unable to find the inner opening. She pulled back her head. 

“Loch has a filly ribbon,” Sparkler said in concern. Her spell ceased, and the pleasant thrum in her nethers ceased. 

“Mmmm,” Loch moaned, feeling fear and apprehension. 

“Loch, I think I can help you… I’ve been working myself to orgasm all by myself for many years. I have a very gentle touch with my magic. I think I could push down on it until it breaks,” Sparkler said in gentle tones. 

“It is going to hurt, isn’t it?” Loch asked. 

“Maybe,” Sparkler said, not wanting to lie to Loch, not during a moment like this. “But if we get it over with now, by the time you and Rising Star join with one another, if there is any pain, it should be over,” she suggested. 

“Okay,” Loch said in a fearful whimper. “Get it over with,” she begged. 

Sparkler leaned her head down and gently parted Loch with her muzzle. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. She rested her chin just below the ribbon of flesh and gave it one final parting lick. She summoned her magic and began to bear down. 

Loch felt pressure on her folds as she was parted and the faint tickle of Sparkler’s soft pelt on her delicate inner skin. She felt Sparkler’s warm tongue drag along her inner depths. And then she felt pressure. There was a sudden sharp stabbing pain…

Sparkler applied pressure, adding just a little more every few seconds. Suddenly there was a wet popping sound followed by the faint sound of flesh tearing. Loch Skimmer shrieked in pain and tried to crawl away, all of her good legs kicking, and even her wings trying to pull her over the floor. 

“Loch, it’s okay, Loch just listen to my voice,” Rising Star said soothingly to the filly. 

Loch bawled and tears trickled down the sides of her face. 

Sparkler took Loch in her forelegs and pulled her close. She felt Loch cling tightly to her, and she could feel the plaster cast pressing into her withers. “Loch?’ Can you say something Loch?” Sparkler begged, seeking reassurance. “We can stop if you want to Loch. We can do this another time,” she said. 

“I’m okay,” Loch sobbed. “It really hurt… just hold me,” she requested. 

“It sounded thick. Some fillies have really thick ribbons… your poor filly bits… I would never want to hurt you,” Sparkler promised. 

Loch sniffled. “Okay, the worst has passed. I’ve come too far to quit now. I think my fear made it worse somehow,” she said. 

Sparkler nodded and gave Loch one final squeeze before letting go. She looked over Loch’s filly bits and saw a rivulet of blood. She wiped it away with her foreleg and she felt Loch shiver as she did so. “Rising Star, she’s all yours. Try to replace the pain with something she’ll want to remember,” Sparkler instructed. 

Rising Star lowered his head and planted a loving kiss on Loch’s navel. The filly let out a nervous giggle and he saw her wiping away tears with her good leg. He saw more blood dribbling out, and, not knowing what else to do, licked it away. It was warm, salty, and rather coppery. He felt Loch shudder as he licked. He eased his tongue in, tasting blood and feeling her quivering inner muscles flexing as he prodded past the outer entrance. 

Loch felt her pain subsiding and her fear melting away once again. “I love you Rising,” she murmured. 

Rising, hearing her words, started down low with his tongue and worked his way upwards in a long slow motion, ending with the rough edge of his tongue sliding over her quivering nubbin. He heard Loch hiss and felt her shiver. He started low again, teasing the flesh as he lingered over every wrinkle and fold, and pressed his long tongue in a little deeper as he worked his way up. He tried to recall everything Bucky had told him during their long talk. With his next lick, he prodded at at Loch’s perky pegasus pucker before working his way up. The rubbery texture felt strange on his tongue, and the flavour he wasn’t too sure about, but the delighted squeal coming out of Loch made it the slightly uncomfortable experience worth it. 

Sparkler watched with great interest, her magic once again buzzing on her little filly knob. She was sitting on the floor with her legs kicked out to the sides, and her eyes were half closed. She felt euphoric. A jolt of pleasure spiked through her when she heard Loch make a happy squeal and she could see Rising Star gently lapping at Loch’s stormy grey pucker. 

Loch had no idea that something could feel so good. She closed her eyes and she felt as though she was floating. She could feel Rising Star’s tongue lingering over all of her secret places and loving every inch of what she kept hidden from the world. 

“Go inside of me,” Loch begged. 

Rising Star, hearing Loch’s request, did as she asked. He plunged his tongue down deep and waggled it inside of her. He saw her back arch and her legs kicked on either side of his head. 

“More of that!” Loch demanded. 

Rising Star felt a strange perverse pleasure in watching the pegasus warm up to his affections. He was throbbing now, desperately needing a release. He began thrusting in and out with his tongue and Loch made little squeals and squeaks in time with his pumping. 

“Oh something is happening,” Loch squealed. “My button needs loving,” she demanded. 

Rising Star smiled broadly. The pegasus had let go and was now thoroughly enjoying herself. He took her delightful little button into his lips and suckled, giving it a gentle tug with strong suction. Based on the reaction he was getting… 

Loch began to whinny fiercely and her wings became useless and stiff. She felt a hot gushing sensation down below as Rising Star squeezed her most tender part between his lips and tickled it with his tongue. Her ears were on fire. She bucked and snorted as she continued to whinny and nicker. She clenched her hind legs together, trapping Rising Star in her filly folds, and she realised that she was having an orgasm. 

The first wave of euphoric joy washed over her and was just beginning to wear off as the second wave hit. The second wave was almost too much to bear. She squeezed down upon Rising Star with her thighs and let out an equine scream of passion. 

Rising Star let go of Loch’s button and tried to let the filly recover, fearing that his head was going to be crushed. The pressure was already almost too much to endure. He realised that Loch’s strength dwarfed his own. She was a titan with wings and he was completely at her mercy. The thought made his cock twitch with need. 

Try to survive Rising Star remembered painfully. Bucky’s words rang inside of his head. 

Finally, Loch let let go and Rising Star pulled his head free. 

“We need to finish this,” Loch demanded. 

Sparkler felt herself approaching another orgasm. “This is hawt,” she murmured, not caring if anypony heard her. 

Rising Star eagerly laid down on his back and made himself as comfortable as he could on the stone floor. He had needs and the lusty pegasus seemed sure to please. 

“I can’t get up,” Loch cried. Her wings were too stiff to allow her to roll over. 

Rising Star lifted the filly into the air, flipped her around, and lowered her on to his belly. Loch straddled him, balancing herself with her one good leg. 

“Be careful,” Rising Star warned. 

“No,” Loch Skimmer growled. 

“Be gentle?” Rising Star pleaded, suddenly aware that he was not rutting Loch Skimmer, she was rutting him. 

“We’ll see,” Loch Skimmer grunted. 

Loch bounced around on Rising Star’s belly. She could feel what she wanted, but couldn’t seem to get it in. She growled in frustration and bared her teeth. 

Sparkler, seeing the struggle, used her magic to ease the tip into Loch’s eager snatch. 

Loch felt herself parted and eased herself backwards. About halfway in she paused, feeling some pain but not feeling any fear. She was still sore inside from where she had been torn. She looked down at Rising Star and snarled. Her head darted downward and she kissed him, a violent needy kiss that left waxy drool all over Rising Star’s muzzle. Loch could taste her own juices and it inflamed her mind. 

Sparkler came rather suddenly as she watched the change come over the pegasus. Loch was a savage feral creature now. Sparkler felt incredibly aroused as she watched Loch’s tail slash through the air. Loch’s head lifted and she thrashed it about, causing her mane to whip around. Loch was beautiful and it filled Sparkler’s heart with desire. 

No longer feeling pain, Loch began to rock her hips back and forth, feeling Rising Star’s fleshy ring rubbing up against her nubbin with each pelvic thrust. Her frenzied motion soon caused her to have another explosive climax. She laughed after the wave broke, feeling free, feeling as though she was flying. She loved the unicorn beneath her and she was no longer afraid. Her manic pelvic jerking caused Rising Star’s penile ring to keep rubbing over her now swollen and throbbing nub. 

Rising Star felt nearly delirious. He had no control as he was being rutted silly. He couldn’t even see straight anymore. He dug his forelegs into Loch Skimmer’s hips and held on. None of Bucky’s advice had prepared him for this. Finally, he wrestled some control from the filly and began to thrust his own hips upward, feeling a need for release. He felt Loch climax once again and she eased off, becoming a bit more passive and letting him work out his own frustrations. Rising Star let go completely and shagged the needy pegasus with everything he had, and he was pent up. Seeing her long tongue dangling from the corner of her mouth and flapping around pushed him over the edge. He thrust upwards and held her in place, releasing his load and gritting his teeth as he felt himself pumping out seed into her volcanic valley. He gave a few final pumps and then lay still. 

Loch Skimmer ground her hips a few last times, grimaced, and then rolled away. She collapsed on her back beside Rising Star and let out a few final whinnies. 

Sparkler eased herself down beside her herdmates and fanned her over overheated filly bits with her hoof. “I love both of you so much right now,” Sparkler whispered. 

“I can’t believe I was afraid of that,” Loch Skimmer said in a loud voice.



 

Keg Smasher looked up at the grey pegasus mare by his bed. This was the last pony he expected to see in his current state. Wheatberry was currently hugging her leg and the grey mare smiled pleasantly. 

“You wanted to see me?” Keg Smasher asked weakly. 

“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Derpy replied. “And maybe talk a moment,” she added nervously. 

“I ain’t going anywhere, we can talk,” Keg Smasher said in a low raspy voice. 

“I wanted to apologise. And say thank you,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

“For what?” Keg Smasher answered. 

“Things got out of hoof between us. We don’t see eye to eye. I’ve been feeling some regret. And I wanted to say that I am sorry. Can we be flockmates?” Derpy said cautiously. 

“I did something bad and you called me on it. I should be thanking you. I make mistakes, and I need honest ponies to call me on it. I need ponies that will take me to task,” Keg Smasher wheezed. 

“Maybe so, but I feel bad about it. You’ve given us so much… you’ve given us Thistle. And Sentinel. I, uh, I love them more than anything. They both mean the world to me. I can’t actually express with words how much I need them in my life,” Derpy said, baring her soul to the mutilated pegasus in the bed before her. “And now, the foal. You have no idea how happy you’ve made Lyra. That unicorn is full of darkness… something bad has happened to her but nopony seems to know what. And when she was feeding that foal, I could sense the joy coming from her.” 

Keg Smasher smiled weakly and took comfort in knowing that he had done the right thing. The pegasus’s words did more to make him feel better than all of the whiskey he had been drinking. 

“And I wanted to say thank you… you’ve given us family. That is a rare and valuable gift. We appreciate it,” Derpy said warmly. 

“I owe you so much more… you have no idea what your husband and your herdmates gave me today. I feel better knowing that I managed to give something back for all you and your herd have offered me,” Keg Smasher said, his eyes filling with tears. 

“I will leave you be… you look like you need rest. We will talk again though. And Wheatberry is always welcomed with us,” Derpy said. 

“If I… look, when she is older, if I wanted to send her to the mainland, for a visit, to learn about the outside the world, the good parts of the outside world, would you look after her for me?” Keg Smasher asked hesitantly. 

“Of course,” Derpy offered. “I am honoured that you would trust me with your foal,” she said. 

“Lass, I can’t think of a safer place for my foal. I’ve never had a soldier who can throw a punch as hard as you can,” Keg Smasher replied with a weak smile. 

Derpy blushed. “I really am sorry about that,” she said. 
	
> Chapter 122
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I can’t believe I was afraid of that,” Loch Skimmer said in a loud voice. 

“I can’t believe we just did what we just did in a deserted library with no books,” Sparkler said. 

“It was quiet and secluded,” Rising Star said breathlessly. 

“It was until Loch started to whinny,” Sparkler replied as she began to giggle. 

“I could feel that little ring of his banging into my bump,” Loch tittered. “Berry was right about mares mounting stallions.” 

“So, uh, what do we do if there are foals?” Sparkler said. 

Rising Star groaned, rolled over, and buried his face into Sparkler’s side. The cold stone floor beneath them felt good on his skin. “Bucky said he wouldn’t be upset if there were foals,” he muttered into Sparkler’s ribs. 

“You used the spells,” Loch whimpered. 

“Yes Loch, but we’re in heat. And spells aren’t always effective when dealing with a solar magic induced heat,” Sparkler explained. 

“Where do you learn this stuff?” Loch asked. 

“They teach fillies these sorts of things in school when they get old enough,” Sparkler replied. 

“This morning, I was a colt. Today, I burned down an army of the undead and shagged both of my wives until they made funny faces and their ears went in different directions. I think I am slightly drunk. And tonight, when I go to bed, I will do so as a stallion,” Rising Star announced. 

“Hey, you might even be a father,” Sparkler tittered. 

“You know, I am strangely okay with that,” Rising Star said, revelling in his newfound sense of self confidence. “We’ll be looked after. We’ll still go to university. We might have to accept some razzing for the help we’ll need from our parents… but I am okay with that.” 

“Any of that gin left?” Loch asked. 

“No, we drank it,” Sparkler replied. 

“I feel light headed… was it the shagging or the gin?” Loch inquired. 

“Does it matter? Both make you feel good,” Sparkler said. She lifted her tail and farted. 

“I wonder what time it is? There’s no windows in this library,” Rising Star said. 

“Oh shite, we’ll scare mama something awful if we’re not back before dark. She’ll think we’re outside with the wolves,” Sparkler said. 

“How long have we been here?” Loch questioned. 

“I dunno,” Rising Star returned. “A while. Long enough for me to give both of you a proper case of the shudders,” he said with a chuckle. 

“Shite!” Loch hissed. 

“Do you think we’ll have time to head to the lake and take a quick dip so we can clean up?” Sparkler said, now actually concerned and full of worry. 

Rising Star rolled to his hooves and then lifted Loch Skimmer up on three wobbling legs. 

“I’ve been shagged too well, I can’t walk,” Loch said as she almost fell and leaned into Rising Star. 

“I think we’re drunk,” Sparkler announced. 

“You’re drunk!” Loch accused. “I’m tipsy. That’s it.” 

Rising Star pulled Loch Skimmer up on his back, where she proceeded to grind her filly bits against his croup and squeezed his neck with her good foreleg. 

“I’m mounting you… yeah… you’re mine now,” Loch said lewdly as she scratched her itch against Rising Star’s backbone. 

“Oh this is such a turn on… can we stay just a little longer?” Rising Star asked. 

“No!” Sparkler snapped. “We don’t know what time it is!” she exclaimed as she rose to her hooves. 

Rising Star exited the library, pushing open the door and exiting the room. His horn was lit to keep away the darkness. He moved down the hall at a swift trot, wobbling somewhat unsteadily. There were lewd wet sounds as Loch continued to grind away on his back. 

“Oh that’s hawt,” Sparkler said as she followed along behind the pair.

As he trotted down the hall, Rising Star felt Loch Skimmer tense up and go still. She squeezed him painfully and he felt her body stiffen into total hardness, just as she had done not that long ago. 

“Wait, Loch, did you just… did you just do what I think you did?” Rising Star asked as he felt damp dribble running down into his dock and his tail. 

“Somehow she didn’t whinny,” Sparkler quipped. 

“No I had to grit my teeth together,” Loch said. “Oh this is nice, we need to do this more often, Berry was right, this is a lot of fun!” 

“She’s gone from being shy and skittish to being a total pervert,” Rising Star said as his hooves clattered over the stone floor. 

“I’m no pervert, I’m a pegasus, hear me whinny!” Loch shouted, her voice echoing through the hall. 

“Ahead there will be a window I think, I think I saw one,” Sparkler said. 

The trio hurried forward, moving at a brisk trot down the corridor, laughter peeling from the walls as they all felt the joy of being young and in love, as well as the euphoria of a good and proper shagging. 

“Rising, when you run, you’re bouncing me up and down,” Loch panted. “Don’t stop running… I think I’m getting close again…” 

“What have we done?” Sparkler questioned as she laughed. 

“Bucky said to hang on and try to survive,” Rising Star answered. “Pegasi!” he snorted. 

Rising Star skidded to a halt at the window and fear made his balls turn into ice cubes. “Oh we are so dead… it’s dark outside,” he squeaked as his testicles were yanked up into his stomach, through his body, and into the lump he felt in his throat. 

“It should be about dinner time, there is still a tiny bit of light, maybe we can run for the dining hall and get there before the rest of them do,” Sparkler said as she took off at a run. 

“You stopped running!” Loch shouted in disappointment. “I was so close!” 

Rising Star bolted off after Sparkler and Loch began to whinny. 



 

As Rising Star turned the corner, he saw total doom looming before him. A short unicorn with a jagged looking stony horn had come around the other corner, leading a troop of ponies behind him. Rising Star braced his legs and came to a skidding halt and a second later Sparkler crashed into his backside, nearly bowling him over. 

“Wow you are drenched back here,” Sparkler said. “Why did you stop so suddenly?” she asked as she regained her footing. She stepped around Rising Star and froze. 

“Hi!” Loch Skimmer said cheerfully. 

“Hello daughter of mine…” Bucky said dryly. 

Rising Star could not help but notice that Derpy and Berry had begun to circle, one taking one side, the other taking the other side. He gulped. Well, it had been nice while it had lasted. 

“You stink of gin and nookie,” Berry Punch quipped as she sniffed a bit. 

“Yes we do!” Loch Skimmer agreed. 

“You scared us,” Derpy said. “We were hoping that you’d show up for dinner… we were worried sick,” she said angrily. 

“We were making you some grandfoals!” Loch Skimmer announced. 

“Shut up Loch!” Sparkler begged. 

“I took your advice Berry… it was great. Now I know what it means to be a mare!” Loch Skimmer said gleefully. “The licking really did help,” she quipped. 

Rising Star groaned. He had survived the undead, but he wasn’t certain about his odds with the grey pegasus and the plum coloured earth pony. He heard more hooves and Bon Bon stepped from around the corner, shaking her head. 

“Oh shite we’ve stepped in the pony flops now,” Sparkler moaned. 

“Other than my filly ribbon breaking, I didn’t feel a thing!” Loch announced. “No wait, I felt all kinds of things… it was great!” 

Rising Star dropped his head and tried to look as submissive as possible. 

“We’re not mad at you about the sex, we’re mad because you scared us… it got dark and we didn’t know where you were,” Derpy growled. 

Rising Star took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“After everything that happened today, we just sort of talked ourselves into it… it made us feel better,” Sparkler pleaded. 

“Leave them be,” Bucky commanded. “Stop spooking them. They’ve endured enough today. Let them feel good about what they’ve done,” he said he in a loud clear voice. 

“The shudders feel really really good!” Loch Skimmer said as she giggled. 

“You smell funny…” Piña said from beneath Bon Bon. 

“Yeah, you three stink,” Dinky agreed. 

Sentinel nodded but said nothing as he moved to Bucky’s side. 

“My sister looks stupidly happy,” Ripple remarked. 

“Oh, you have no idea Rippy!” Loch Skimmer shouted. “Hey, did I ever tell you how Ripple got her name?” she asked nopony in particular. 

“Oh no!” Ripple said pleadingly. “No!” 

“She was in the lake… she was sitting down in the shallows watching our parents fish. I think she had just hit her decade mark or so…” Loch Skimmer said as she squeezed Rising Star. 

“NO!” Ripple begged. 

“And some of my mothers were on shore, repairing a net… anyway, Ripple farted. So I said, “Hey! You farted!” and she says “No I didn’t, I rippled” back to me and everypony starts laughing at us and from that day onwards, everypony called her Ripple,” Loch Skimmer explained. 

Ripple ran around in a circle burning with embarrassment and then finally ran to Bucky. She buried her face into his side and covered herself with her wings. 

After a moment, the laughter started. 

It started with a giggle, then a titter, followed by a few chuckles, until it was finally guffaws and Berry Punch had fallen to the floor to roll around and clutch her sides. Even Sentinel was laughing. 

“We need to do more of this,” Derpy said. “Laughing is good for us,” she said as she wiped a tear from her eye. “We forgive you for scaring us. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we hope you enjoyed yourselves. Now let’s go to dinner, they're probably waiting for Bucky since Keg Smasher will not be there.” 

“We left the gin jug back in the library,” Loch Skimmer announced.  



 

Bucky nudged Derpy and gestured at the giggling freshly consummated trio. “Look at them, look how happy they are,” he said in a low voice. “And everypony keeps looking at them. Everypony knows what they have done.” 

“They stink,” Derpy said. “Our wedding night… and the following morning, we stunk up the house. We need to do that again.”

“Wait for a heat and then have a marathon of sloppy shagging… with Thistle,” Berry suggested. 

“Oooooh,” Thistle moaned. 

“I gave her that kiss like you told me,” Berry said. 

“Oh?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

“Derpy and I pinned her in a threeway smooch,” Berry said. 

Thistle blushed and covered her face with her forehooves. 

“I never did get my fish,” Bucky said in a worried voice. 

“I had them put it on ice,” Thistle said from behind her hooves. “They’ll bring it out with dinner.” 

“She’s so adorable when she tries to look innocent,” Berry said. 

“Lyra, how is the foal?” Bucky asked. 

“She’s fine,” Lyra said. She was holding the foal in a bubble of magic as she sat at the table. 

“She’s been bleeding,” Derpy said in a worried voice. 

“The cord keeps dribbling a little bit,” Lyra said. 

“Lyra, while that is the herd’s foal, you are her mother. Please give her a good name,” Bucky instructed in gentle tones. 

Lyra blinked a few times and then burst into tears. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m so emotional right now… Bon Bon help me,” she pleaded. She leaned into Bon Bon’s embrace and fell silent. 

“Lyra is emotional… and let’s face it, she’s just as troubled as I am. She is going to need our patience and our help. Please, all of you, be extra considerate of her needs,” Bucky said to his herd. He tapped his horn with a hoof. “Unicorn problems cannot be faced alone. Unicorns need a herd to support them.” 

“I think it would be wise to get another mare’s milk started,” Bon Bon said. “While I would suggest myself, I keep the same schedule as Lyra. We might want somepony from the daywatch.” 

“That seems wise,” Derpy agreed. 

“Derpy produces pegasus milk, I say we lay the magical whammy jammy down on her,” Berry suggested. 

“There is a difference?” Bucky asked. Quite without meaning to, he licked his lips.  

“Pegasus milk is really thick and creamy. I mean, really thick. Frothy. Bucky, are you drooling?” Berry inquired after she answered. 

“No!” Bucky retorted as he slurped and then wiped his chin with his foreleg. 

Berry Punch narrowed her eyes. “You’re drooling… does baby want a teat?” Berry teased. 

“Berry… do you know what they make the cheese and the butter here from?” Bucky asked.

“Of course I do you numpty… did you just find out or something?” Berry returned. 

“You knew and you didn’t tell us?” Bucky cried. 

“Knew what?” Derpy asked. 

“Berry, want to tell them?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Berry said, pulling her head back and sitting up straight, which was a defiant posture. Her eyes widened and her ears perked forward. 

“Derpy, that butter that you like to slather all over everything, do you want to know where it comes from?” Bucky asked. 

“You fool,” Berry hissed. 

“A goat? So what?” Derpy said dismissively. 

“Bucky don’t, mainlanders are happier not knowing!” Bon Bon begged. 

“You knew!” Bucky said accusingly to Bon Bon. “You knew and you said nothing as I ate wedge after wedge of delicious cheese, gratin potatoes, and butter over everything!” 

“Knew what?” Derpy said in confusion. 

“Bucky knows and now he hungers,” Berry said in a low voice. “You were drooling…” 

“He’ll be after our teats,” Bon Bon warned. “The unicorn knows and now he hungers.” 

“What is all of this silliness?” Derpy demanded. 

“The cheese and butter all comes from mare milk,” Berry Punch said to Derpy in a low voice. 

“WHAT?!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 123
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Thistle hesitated outside of the door to their room. She was afraid of what she was about to do, and she took a deep breath as the group of equines began to pass through the door. She took another deep breath when the first one didn’t work, and, finding that didn’t help matters at all, went ahead with what needed to be done anyway. 

“Derpy, can we talk? Here in the hall?” Thistle asked. 

“Sure, what about?” Derpy replied. The grey mare still looked a bit unsettled. It had been a long day and there had been something of an unsettling revelation during dinner. 

Thistle began to have second thoughts and wondered if this was a good time. She intended to let it go but then other words came out of her mouth, much to her surprise. 

“About our agreement,” Thistle said. 

“Oh?” Derpy huffed inquisitively. 

“I know that we talked, and we discussed what was best for me… and at the time, I thought it was the best for me, but I am having second thoughts,” Thistle admitted. She felt her breath catch sharply in her throat as Derpy’s ears folded back. She felt even more afraid when Bucky lingered in the hallway, and then he took a seat on the floor next to Derpy. 

“Mare business,” Derpy said to Bucky. 

“I see that,” Bucky said. 

“So go inside. Leave us be,” Derpy said. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “Thistle looks terrified. I refuse to go while she remains distressed.” 

Derpy shut the door and the three of them remained in the hallway. Much to Derpy’s dismay, Berry Punch opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Berry shut the door behind her and sat down next to Bucky. She then heard Thistle make a sound that was the unmistakable sound of a filly holding back tears. 

“They all seem so happy… Sparkler is the same age as I am… and Loch is younger than I am… When I am taken into this herd, I want Bucky to be able to have me,” Thistle begged. 

“But our agreement,” Derpy said. 

“I know what I asked you to do… but when I asked for that, I was scared. And now I am realising that you can’t be my fellow-wife and my mother. I know you didn’t want me hurt, but I am hurting,” Thistle said in a strangled voice. 

“What is it that you two agreed on exactly?” Berry asked. 

“Not now Berry!” Derpy said forcefully. 

“That isn’t important,” Thistle said. “What matters is, I made a mistake and I wedged myself into this herd… I acted like a foal but expected to be treated as an adult… and I allowed myself to be a scared little filly, which made Derpy want to protect me, and we both agreed to some pretty unreasonable things I think because we were both scared. But look at them. Look how happy they are. I want the same thing,” the kelpie explained. 

Derpy groaned and sat down on the stone floor next to Bucky. “Thistle, we agreed… Bucky is hung like a barrel. And with your pregnancy-” 

“I know what we agreed on. I requested some of those things, and you laid out what you wanted from me. And now I am begging you to reconsider… I did what I did out of foalish fear… and desperation to get into your good graces…  I was so hurt already,” Thistle pleaded. 

“Derpy, the truth is, as was previously stated, you can’t be her mother and her fellow-wife. Just like with Sparkler, you are going to have to let her grow up and get hurt. It isn’t going to be like how it was with you. Thistle is going to be loved and protected and we will never let go of her. Don’t rob her of something important out of a misplaced motherly desire to keep her safe,” Berry said in a low soothing voice. 

“And it seems Thistle is showing some maturity in admitting that she made a mistake,” Bucky added. “Even though I don’t know exactly what went on.” 

“I am very confused and overwhelmed right now,” Derpy admitted, stating her honest feelings. 

“So am I,” Thistle confessed. 

“We’re not leaving this hallway until this is settled,” Bucky said in his quiet authoritative voice. 

“No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. When we got together, we laid down our own rules of engagement and look at us now. We’ve had to make a few changes. We all agreed to some things because we lacked the foresight to understand how much we would change. Thistle came into our lives. Bon Bon and Lyra joined our herd. We had to create new rules of engagement. But we can’t afford to squabble with one another. There are wolves trying to eat us. Some dark shadow looms over our family and wants to claim our husband. So we need to sort this shite out, get it over with now, and Derpy, you need to figure out where Thistle stands in this herd,” Berry said with her usual fine spoken eloquence. 

“I want you to protect me… I am a scared stupid filly and I know that… I have made some stupid mistakes… just try not to protect me too much,” Thistle asked of the grey mare beside Bucky. 

“You are not a filly,” Derpy said in a strained voice. The pegasus wiped her eyes with a wing and took a deep halting breath. “You’re a mare and deserve to be happy. And I was wrong to think I could protect you as a filly. And to be honest, part of me is probably always going to be a bit protective of you, because that is just the way I am… so call me on it when I do it.” 

Thistle nodded, unable to speak. 

“So… when do I get to have a go at Thistle?” Berry asked as she waggled her eyebrows. 

Thistle squeaked and looked at Berry. “You know, to be honest, there are times when the idea of you taking me scares me more than Bucky taking me,” she stated. 

“Really?” Berry said, her demeanour changing to something far more gentle. “You need to tell me when I overstep my bounds.” 

“Berry Punch is a shag-happy extravert,” Derpy said in a voice that was both happy and sad. “I’ll help you put her in her place,” she promised. 

“Hey, Thistle is an extravert, I can tell,” Berry said. “And nopony can tame me, I am berry wild.” 

“I made such plans to keep Thistle happy and safe,” Derpy said bitterly. “And I feel so bad about it right now,” she added. The pegasus heaved a sigh. “I feel so foolish. I thought I had everything figured out." 

“Cheer up Derpy… you can still be a mama bird. There is a foal in the next room that is going to need you. Lyra is going to need you. I am going to need you. And Thistle keeps getting bigger, so she is going to need you for other reasons,” Bucky said in kind tones. 

“I guess I still have some growing up to do,” Derpy said. 

“We all do,” Berry said. 

“Are we done? Because I have important business in the next room,” Bucky said. 

“We’re done I think,” Derpy said as she gave a glance to Thistle. 

“There is one more thing I want… what I was promised… when we… you know… do what needs to be done, I want to be with her first,” Thistle said to Bucky as she gestured to Derpy.

“I can give you that,” Derpy replied with a husky whisper. 



 

Bucky settled himself into the straw by the bed and then looked at Lyra. “Bring her to me,” he requested. 

Lyra moved hesitantly, clearly wanting to keep the foal close to her. She took a few half steps and her ears folded back against her head. “This is really hard for some reason,” she said in a pained voice. 

“I know Lyra. Come here, lay by my side. We’ll share her,” Bucky said soothingly. 

Lyra went to Bucky’s side and eased down next to him. As she pressed against his side, she felt better. Leaning over a bit, she kissed Bucky on the cheek and then pulled away blushing. She eased the foal down between Bucky’s forelegs, released her magic, and then rested her head upon Bucky’s foreleg, her snoot inches from the foal that she already so loved. 

“Lyra Heartstrings, it is good that you are already so protective,” Bucky said in a low whisper to Lyra. He raised his other foreleg and stroked Lyra, brushing her mane from her eyes. He felt her sigh in contentment. He lowered his leg and stroked the tiny foal with his folded fetlock. “Lyra and I would burn down continents for you,” he whispered in the foal’s ear. 

Lyra found herself giggling. This was an aspect of motherhood she had not expected. Her body was flooded with a crazy level of hormones after the spell she had used to start her teat milk. She could feel the foal breathing on her and could smell her milky breath. 

Bucky continued to inspect the foal. She was tiny, her pelt was a faded indigo, and she had the orangest orange mane he had ever seen. A tiny nub of a horn protruded from her forehead. He heard a giggle from behind the privacy barrier as Sparkler, Rising Star, and Loch tried to clean themselves up a bit. He felt good about the giggles as he leaned down and placed his lips upon the foal, kissing her softly. He pressed his nose into the wild orange tuft of frizzy mane and inhaled her scent. 

He felt a spike in his mood as he was flooded with oxytocin, his body rewarding him for fatherly behaviour. Dopamine raced through his slight frame, easing his many aches and pains from the long day of horror. The terrible visions of mutilated corpses and free roaming undead abominations were pushed out of his mind as serotonin went to work, changing his thinking and making him feel slightly drowsy. The triggered fatherhood response was a great natural antidepressant. 

Bucky knew none of this, only that he felt better, and Lyra was feeling much the same. The two unicorns were letting go and allowing themselves to feel everything, life unfiltered and raw. Their herdmates stayed back, giving the both of them the space they clearly needed. 

Overcome with strange new feelings, Bucky kissed Lyra again, nibbling on the corner of her mouth, and Lyra turned her head towards Bucky. The kiss intensified and both of them were quite overcome with emotion. After a few moments, they pulled apart and both of them snoot bumped the foal together. 

“Bucky, I feel so funny,” Lyra whispered. 

“Just let go and allow this to happen,” Bucky breathed. 

“I’m scared Bucky… I’ve never felt this much emotion,” Lyra murmured. 

“I’m scared out of my mind Lyra,” Bucky confessed under his breath. “We need to break the cycle of what was done to us and allow ourselves to feel this.” 

“This much emotion is dangerous,” Lyra whimpered. “I can feel it just behind my horn.” 

“I know,” Bucky said as he kissed Lyra’s cheek again. 

“We owe it to her to love her completely and hold nothing back,” Lyra whispered. 

Lyra pressed her face into Bucky’s neck and began to weep, letting go of a flood of emotion. 

Bucky, feeling Lyra’s tears, gently nudged the foal closer to her. He could feel the small warm body and treasured the sounds of the foal breathing in and out. The foal tumbled over onto her back and Bucky pressed his snoot into her belly, once again breathing deep of her scent. He caught the faint scent of blood from the dangling remains of the cord and his muscles tensed as though they were flooded by some electric pulse. Some deep primal instinct took over and he licked the foal, tasting her on his tongue, and his body flooded with even more hormones. He cleaned away traces of dried blood and then licked away traces of gunk from her ears. It was not a conscious action, Bucky was no longer fully aware of what he was doing. He had slipped into some sort of primeval equine state, and this, coupled with the physiological changes that had been done to his body when his teeth had changed, now steered his behaviour. He continued to lick the foal until it was clean, and each touch of his tongue upon the foal’s body strengthened the bonds between them. 

Sentinel watched the whole thing as though he was hypnotised, his eyes wide and almost unblinking as he sat, still as statue, fixated on Bucky’s interaction with the foal. When Bucky raised his head, Sentinel approached, moving oddly, his head low and his tail tucked between his hind legs. His wings drooped and the tips dragged over the stone floor. He approached slowly and when he drew near, he dropped to his belly and crawled forward through the straw. 

The equines in the room fell into silence, realising they were seeing something new and unknown. 

As Sentinel approached, Bucky’s remaining eye narrowed. He growled, and it was not an equine sound. It was a terrifying sound, a deep throaty rumble. And Sentinel replied with his own growl as he continued to approach. The lunar pegasus’ eyes were strangely glassy. The lunar pegasus colt sidled up alongside Bucky and then rolled over on his side, exposing his throat to the much larger male. 

There were gasps as Bucky’s head dropped and he licked Sentinel’s exposed throat. The tension in the air grew thick as everypony watched, waiting for whatever happened next. Even Lyra was transfixed, realising that she was near two creatures that were no longer entirely ponies. 

Sentinel rolled onto his belly and lifted his head, and the colt foal bumped his head against Bucky’s. There was more savage growling between the two. Whatever exchange was taking place, it was no longer wholly equine. Bucky nosed the tiny unicorn foal towards Sentinel, and the colt foal lowered his head. He too licked the infant a few times, and then pressed his face into the damp unicorn newborn. A deep throaty rumble emerged from Sentinel as he inhaled deeply, taking in the infants scent. 

Bucky licked Sentinel’s ears as the colt bonded with the infant. 

Lyra dared not speak. The two savage creatures beside her had slipped past the need for speech. She felt a surge of emotions and her heart began to race. She felt safe. She was secure. She was near two equine apex predators, something not natural to the equine herd structure, but welcomed by Lyra’s inner equine because of the feeling of protection the two of them brought. Trembling, realising she was in the presence of something completely new to her, Lyra cautiously extended her tongue and licked the side of Bucky’s face. She squeaked in fright as his foreleg lifted and then fell over her withers, pinning her down. Lyra had never been very strong. For a moment, she worried that she had set off whatever terrible beast that Bucky seemed to have become, but her fears turned into feelings of mild disgust and confusion when she felt the rough gritty texture of Bucky’s tongue along the side of her face and her ear, licking away her salty tears. Lyra, always the scholar, allowed the experience to happen and didn’t move. She closed her eyes and let go, letting the experience take her. 

As she felt the broad tongue brushing over her face, Lyra felt awash in a powerful new sensation of love. She felt her muscles relaxing, even as she came to the realisation that there were dangerously sharp fangs so very near her soft and tender flesh. There was nothing left to fear, and nothing could possibly harm her. 

Lyra Heartstrings was now a mother, and her foal was safe. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 124
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I am having some trouble taking in what I saw earlier,” Berry Punch confided to Derpy, who sat beside her on the sofa. She looked over at Bucky, who was asleep on the bed. “I mean, I can’t help but think about how he was. He would cringe just from watching other ponies touch one another. If you touched him he would jump out of his skin. You tried to teach him pegasus manners, and he was disgusted. He was so broken… so hurt… it filled me with such rage that somepony conditioned him to be that way… and then seeing him with that foal just a little while ago,” Berry said in a low strained voice. Berry leaned against the grey mare beside her and rubbed her own belly affectionately. 

“Something about that whole display really turned me on,” Derpy confessed. “I don’t know what it is, but I liked it,” she stated. 

“You’ve changed too you know,” Berry said. 

“I am sure I have,” Derpy agreed with a sigh. She watched Lyra and Bon Bon, who were fawning over the foal, trying to keep her quiet so other ponies could sleep. Seeing her herdmates happy filled her with a contented feeling. “Have I changed for the better?” asked Derpy in a quiet whisper. 

“I think so,” Berry said reassuringly. The earth pony gazed lovingly at the foal as Bon Bon nuzzled it. “I’ve been thinking… you know, while I am working, you know how I get Derpy, I can only have a clear head when I am doing something physical,” she stated. 

“Whatcha been thinking about?” Derpy asked in a tired voice. 

“How are we going to move on once we leave this place?” Berry asked. 

Derpy frowned and she rested her head on Berry Punch’s head. 

“I am so afraid that we are going to go back to the mainland only to find that we are not welcome. Or worse, go back to the mainland and not be able to fit in even if we are somehow welcomed back. I’m too smart for my own good. We’re a herd, and that’s bad enough in most ponies eyes, but what a collection of horror we will be when we return to civilised society. Ponies are afraid of what they don’t understand. Look at how ponies still treat Zecora. Or how ponies treat you. But little Sentinel… if somepony was to tease him or mistreat them, I would probably kick them into a greasy puddle of chunks. And where does that get me? I have a bad temper Derpy. I love little Sentinel. Or Bucky. I couldn’t bear somepony saying something bad about him,” Berry confessed.

“I heard my name,” Sentinel said as he slid from one sofa and moved across the room. He clambered up on to the sofa with Derpy and Berry Punch. “Both of you should be asleep,” he whispered. 

“Sentinel, do you know what came over Bucky earlier?” Berry asked. 

“No… and I don’t know what came over me either. It felt like I was dreaming or something,” Sentinel replied as he crawled into Berry’s embrace. 

The earth pony held Sentinel carefully, not pressing down on his withers where his charred flesh was. Berry Punch kissed the top of his head and then patted his backside affectionately. 

The foal began to squall, causing both Lyra and Bon Bon to try and shush it, before it woke the sleepers. Bon Bon was making cooing noises while Lyra tried making silly faces and waggling her ears. 

“She wants to go to sleep,” Derpy said knowingly. “You’ve spent all this time playing with her, talking to her, feeding her, burping her, and you keep passing her back and forth. If you laid her down, she’d be asleep in moments,” she added patiently.

“Oh?” Bon Bon said. 

Lyra settled the foal down in the straw and then sat down beside her. She touched the foal with her snoot one last time and then backed away. It didn’t take long before the squalling ceased and the foal fell silent. “She needed sleep,” Lyra whispered. 

Derpy smiled and then turned to look at Berry Punch and Sentinel. She kissed them both. “I am going to bed,” she announced as she pulled away and slipped from the sofa. 

Berry watched as Derpy settled into the bed. “I guess you’ll be up all night Sentinel. Keep watch over your new sister,” Berry said and then she kissed the foal in her forelegs. She carefully set Sentinel down and then slipped from the couch herself, off to join her mates in the bed. 



 

Bucky set down yet another glass orb. It would be dawn soon. He had awoken about an hour or two after midnight and had been hard at work since. He had filled several spell jars with minor spells and had made dozens of new glass orbs. He was getting good at working with glass and it made him feel good that it was a practical skill. Beer and booze could go into decorative glass bottles. 

The lab was chilly because Lyra was back in their room. Bucky found he didn’t mind the cold so much now. What was bothering him was his pelt. He was shedding heavily, which bothered him. Usually, in the summer, he was a light shedder, occasionally losing a few hairs. He had kept himself well groomed and well brushed, but recently he had let himself go. His mane was now long, and his tail had grown down to his chewed up heels. He scratched furiously at his ribs and even wondered briefly if perhaps he had fleas. 

Much to his relief, his eyesight seemed to be back. It was a distressing thought that lingered in the back of his mind. He had not been able to see for any sort of distance, nor could he see much in the way of details when they had set out to purge the undead. But now as he worked in the dim light of a few candles, his new green eyelight, and his own horn, he found that he could easily read his spellbook from across the room. 

He scratched yet again at his new sideburns. The growth of thicker mane-like hair was itchy on his cheeks. As he scratched, he cackled to himself with maniacal glee, and turned his head to look at one of his recent creations. In one of the spell jars he had placed a very powerful version of a “want it need it spell” and he longed to throw it at one of the wolves. It swirled inside of the globe, looking purple and violent somehow, and it was a similar corrupted version of the spell that Dinky had once cast that had caused rampant sexual desire. It hadn’t took him long to figure out what had gone wrong and he had easily replicated the spell. He intended to save the orb for when there was a large number of wolves and then unleash it when the time was right. 

Above all else that had changed, Bucky had developed a hateful mean streak. Creating a glass jar of magical rape was stooping low by any stretch of the imagination. Celestia would never approve Bucky had thought to himself upon the completion of the magical ordinance. The unicorn version of the spell was never intended to work on ponies, it was meant to be a distraction cast upon something so a clever unicorn could escape and live to cast another day. Bucky had kept this aspect of the spell unchanged. 

He laboured in the cold dark room, continuing to make more glass orbs, the effort to create one now a minor task. He was feeling some minor magical fatigue, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. As he worked, he formed a plan for enchanting the gasbag. It was going to take a while. And after the gasbag it would be time to forge armor. He had ideas. New knowledge filled his head now, his mind was flooded with all kinds of useful information from Sombra’s memories. Sombra’s fallen shadow had made a terrible mistake in trying to merge with Bucky’s mind and had left behind a wealth of information after its failure. 

Chains would also need to be forged, and a harness for the gasbag, so The Scorned Mare could be hung from it. He would need an anchor as well. He was going to have some exhausting days up ahead of him. he lifted a jug of mead to his lips and guzzled down a considerable amount, relishing the warmth of the sweet frothy liquid. He belched loudly, patted his stomach with his hoof, and then belched again. 

After another hour spent making glass globes, Bucky rubbed his head and realised it was time to quit for the night. His mead jug was empty.



 

In the moments just before dawn, Derpy was kissed to wakefulness by sweet mead flavoured lips, just as the kiss was getting good, Bucky had pulled away, and Derpy heard the sounds of another kiss on different lips. After another moment, there were more smooching sounds, and when Derpy had opened her eyes, Bucky was kissing Thistle gently. 

The pegasus smiled as she blinked a few times and tried to adjust to the waking world. She had been having the most wonderful dream of being surrounded by foals and walking through a pleasant meadow full of grass and butterflies. 

Derpy watched as Bucky continued his rounds, pulling in a squealing Bon Bon and kissing her on the cheek, and then Lyra, kissing the unicorn on her nasal bridge. Bucky then lifted the newborn foal in his magic and spent a quiet moment with the foal pressed to his neck. Unable to contain herself, Derpy reached out and grabbed a foal, any foal would do in a moment like this, and the foal she grabbed was pink. 

“I was sleepin’,” Piña protested as she was squeezed. 

“Don’t care,” Derpy said as she continued to cuddle Piña. 

“I care,” Piña muttered as Derpy’s lips pressed into her cheeks. She resigned herself to the pegasus’ affection and closed her eyes. Her mouth opened in a wide yawn as she rested her head against Derpy’s forelegs. 



 

Dinky took yet another bite of pease porridge. It was disgusting, but it was food, and Dinky knew that she needed food for what she had planned. She chewed thoughtfully. Her long night of suffering had taught her a great deal, and now Dinky had a better idea of what she was capable of. She understood the power of music now, and Lyra had been right. It was a magic all of its own. 

“Daddy?” Dinky asked. 

“What Dinky?” Bucky replied. 

“I think that Piña and I know everything that Sparkler and Rising Star can teach us… I want to study and experiment today,” Dinky requested.

She waited and watched as her daddy considered her request. He seemed to be taking a long time to answer and he had something of a silly looking half smile on his muzzle. 

“Piña wants to start reading Gabbenstern’s Grimoire and we’re not trying to get out of school to go and play, honest,” Dinky pleaded. 

“I know Dinky, and that bothers me. You’ve been very focused lately,” Bucky said. 

“So have you,” Dinky retorted in foalish frustration. She heard a sharp intake of breath from her mother and Dinky flinched, waiting for a stinging wing slap. After a few moments of sitting at the table with her eyes closed, Dinky realised she was in the clear. She opened her eyes cautiously and saw her mother glaring at her, and Dinky shrank down. 

“What are your plans Dinky?” Bucky asked. 

Dinky tried to ignore her mother’s burning stare and in a far more respectful tone, she answered her father. “I can connect to flies now. I was going to touch minds with different flies around the island and see what I can learn. I also want to test how much distance I can get,” she explained. 

“Piña, who was Gabbenstern?” Bucky asked. 

Piña chewed her food and swallowed before saying anything. “She was a hippogriff naturalist,” she replied. “I’ve read the introduction already. She studied the habits of pack animals. And herd animals too. The book was included in the trunk with the others.” Piña paused. "She was a prolific writer who created a plethora of works." 

“Plethora?” Dinky asked. 

“A whole bunch,” Piña explained. 

“Oh... why not just say “a whole bunch” and make things easier?” Dinky demanded. She stared at Piña and felt mildly frustrated as Piña rolled her eyes. Dinky shoved her muzzle into her bowl and ate angrily, feeling rather cranky this morning and not knowing why. She was impatient and wanted to use her magic. She didn’t want to use little useless magic like scribbling out her lessons. She wanted to use real magic. The stuff that scratched the itch. And Dinky had a terrible itch.

“Piña, do you know what a hippogriff is?” Bucky asked. 

“Half griffon and half pony. The book I read said that the pegasi might exist from griffons and ponies mixing together and then many years later all the ponies had from that mixing was wings,” Piña answered. 

Dinky swallowed and felt even more annoyed. She was a unicorn, and she felt she should be the smart one. Unicorns were supposed to have brains and horns. Piña was stronger than her, and recently, Dinky had come to the conclusion that Piña was smarter than her too. On some days, she felt okay about it, but today, Dinky was in a bad mood. The corner of her eye wouldn’t stop twitching and it had been bothering her all morning since she had woken up. She felt her frustration boil over and Dinky filled with anger. 

“I need to cast!” Dinky shouted angrily as she slammed her hoof down on the table. She banged her hoof a few more times and the corner of her mouth began to twitch along with her eye, increasing her feeling of frustration. “I don’t have time for stupid foalish stuff anymore!” Just as Dinky was getting ready to bang on the table again, she felt a rush of cold all around her and she thought for a moment that she was being turned inside out as the dining room seemed to melt away all around her. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 125
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky reassembled himself and Dinky in the courtyard and then watched and waited as the foal recovered from being pulled through the aether. Dinky stumbled around at first, and then she proceeded to hurl out her breakfast. Suffering molecular dissipation, having your molecules forcibly shifted from one location to another, and then reassembled bit by bit was difficult to endure no matter how many times one did it, but the first time was always the worst. 

He waited patiently for Dinky to finish puking and when she stood there gasping and choking, he gave her a gentle whack on the backside, causing her to hack and dislodge pease porridge from her nostrils. She drew in a shuddering breath and then stood there heaving for several minutes. 

While she was still trying to situate herself, Bucky struck. 

“Come on Dinky. We’re going on rock patrol,” Bucky announced. 

Dinky, still trying to get air into her lungs, couldn’t find the means to protest. She stood in place, still sucking in wind and hating the sour taste of bile in her mouth. The sour stench of vomit clung to her nostrils. She was covered in a thick layer of frost and it make her shiver painfully. She was so miserably cold that all she could think about was her mother’s downy wings and the warmth they offered. 

As Bucky walked away, he turned around to look at Dinky. “Come on Dinky, or I will make us wink again,” he threatened. 

A groan escaped from Dinky’s lips as she struggled to catch up with Bucky. She didn’t want to be teleported again. She was still having some trouble breathing from the first time. She spat out chunks of breakfast from her mouth and forced her legs to work. As she began to follow her father, she felt an odd envious sensation. That was power she realised, winking away and having near instantaneous recovery from the after-effects. As the thought settled into her mind, she puked once again onto her own forehooves. 

Bucky tugged Dinky along on a tether of magic, dragging her behind him as he walked. She struggled to keep her hooves and he could hear her laboured breathing. “Pegasi have to endure intense gravitational forces as they fly and loop through the air. It is very hard on their bodies. We’re not so different Dinky. We unicorns have to endure a lot on our bodies too. Magic takes a lot out of us. Winking for example, as you have discovered, is not a fun experience. Feels unpleasant, doesn’t it?” Bucky inquired loquaciously as he chatted amiably with his suffering foal. “Being a unicorn doesn’t mean a comfortable life Dinky… this is why most unicorns stick to simple magic or don’t even bother casting very much if at all. They stick to simple magic, cantrips, and very few explore their powers as wizards. You have to be hard Dinky. Tell me Dinky, do you like pain? Because being a wizard means pain. It is the cost of our spell casting. This is where my family has failed with our magical gifts Dinky. Every one of us could be master level wizards, like my father, he’s a type three, but he’s afraid of pain. Suffering is for other ponies he says. He said I was a damnable fool for delving so deeply into the magical arts. My mother could be a brilliant wizard. She was born with an extraordinary gift. She’s a type three as well. She’s let it go to waste. She’s afraid of a little pain. Let’s find out what you are made of Dinky, shall we?” 

Dinky could not respond. Every time she opened her mouth to talk, she felt more vomit threatening to spew out. 

Bucky tugged Dinky along through the gatehouse and as he walked, everything looked hazy and out of focus. He realised that he was having trouble seeing, and he dismissed it as fatigue from a long night of magical labour. “We’re going to gather a large pile of stones Dinky. I need rocks for all kinds of things. Well, correction, you’re going to gather a large pile of stones. I’m going to relax and hope that Thistle takes pity on me and brings me a fish, because I had my breakfast so rudely interrupted by a foalish outburst,” Bucky explained. He took a deep breath and turned to look over his shoulder at Dinky. “You can have a drink and wash the taste out of your mouth once you’ve earned it or you’ve conjured your own water,” he added in a stern voice.

Dinky moaned in frustration and felt the hot sting of tears in the corners of her eyes. Bucky had been hard on her many times before, pushing her onwards to bigger and better things, but she had never seen him like this. On some level, she knew she deserved it after having her temper tantrum. She wondered just how bad her punishment was going to be. 



 

The rocks were getting difficult to keep holding and Dinky had more than a dozen good sized stones held in her magic as she marched along behind Bucky, her short little legs forced to work double-time to keep up to him. She was miserable as she followed her father. 

“There’s another one. I like that one. It has heft,” Bucky stated as he pointed at a nearby stone. 

Dinky nearly cried. It was as large as Bucky’s head. She struggled to lift it in her magic along with all of the other stones. She wondered briefly what would happen if she refused, but then realised, she didn’t want to find out. She supposed that there might be things worse than winking that Bucky could do. She was sweating and she could smell the hot pony smell wafting off of her. Dinky hated being hot and stinky, and it offended her budding feminine sensibilities. She wobbled after her father on trembling legs, no longer sure just how many stones she was carrying. 

“We have lumber to move too… The Scorned Mare needs more work. Well, you will be moving lumber. Guess what I’ll be doing?” Bucky said informatively. 

“Waiting for fish?” Dinky panted. 

“Yes! You catch on quickly,” Bucky replied. 

A low moan escaped from Dinky’s lips. She wanted to quit, to fall over and let everything fall, but she knew that Bucky would never accept her excuse that she was out of energy. She had stayed up all night and endured, and now she knew that she was probably going to labour all day because Bucky knew what she was capable of. 



 

“I’m going to sit over here in this shady spot and eat this lovely fish that Thistle was kind enough to bring me. You’re going to move lumber. No less than a dozen planks at a time. If I see you moving less than a dozen planks from the gatehouse to the ship, there will be a crack lesson in teleportation mechanics. Do you understand me?” Bucky asked. As he spoke, he was uncertain if he could even see how many planks Dinky was carrying. His eye was having trouble again. He had spent too much time in the lab working and reading. He supposed that he wasn’t as young as he once was. Not even at the quarter century mark, he already had grey hairs coming in and was having eye trouble. He pondered the thought of getting glasses. Some ponies needed them. 

Dinky broke down into tears and nodded. He had been working her over for an hour or two by now. She suffered in mind and body. Most of her breakfast had been barfed out and her stomach growled painfully. Her legs were already getting sore and had a tremble. Her sides ached from the puking she had done. She hadn’t had any water, and her mouth was hot and dry. There was also a terrible taste that coated her tongue. She resigned herself to her fate and marched off to collect lumber. 



 

Berry Punch prodded her teat with a hoof and watched as a dribble of milk ran out. She felt weird all over and strangely emotional. Before going to bed, Lyra had laid down the magical whammy jammy on her and made her start producing milk. She licked her teeth and enjoyed several lewd thoughts. 

“Consider this your punishment for not telling us about what we were eating,” Derpy whispered. 

Tingles coursed through Berry’s body and she giggled. “This isn’t punishment at all. I can’t wait to tease Bucky,” Berry said in a soft gleeful voice. 

“You’re enjoying this far too much,” Derpy muttered with a smile. 

“I think I have a new fetish,” Berry announced. “Should I be this turned on after having a foal suckle on my teats?” she asked, Berry’s voice now far more serious.

“Oh, you have no idea how bad it can be just yet. There were times after feeding Dinky that I had to go take care of myself after she was done,” Derpy answered. She said nothing to Berry, but she felt a twinge of worry for Dinky and her foal was on her mind. 

“I felt a tingling sensation,” Berry reported. “Is that normal?” she asked.

“My doctor told me it was just hormones being released. Teat feeding is supposed to feel good otherwise mothers wouldn’t want to do it,” Derpy explained. 

“I felt so empowered,” Berry whispered. “Looking down and seeing that little foal latched on to my teat. I felt like I could carry the world upon my back. Do you think Bucky was teat fed?” 

Derpy felt her wings flare outwards a bit as the question flummoxed her mind. “Berry, where do you come up with this stuff?” she questioned. 

“I dunno, but think about it, Bucky’s mom, that hateful frosty bitch, and all those other stuck up Canterlot snobs, do you think they teat feed? I mean, teat feeding feels good and requires equine on equine contact, so I’m thinking they hire a nursemaid to do it for them or use bottles and formula, which makes me spitting mad and I can’t even figure out why,” Berry said in a heated whisper. 

“I used bottles,” Derpy said guiltily. 

“But you used teat milk,” Berry retorted. “You were out working and Dinky had to eat.”

“Are you okay?” Derpy asked. 

“Yeah, I know, something has come over me,” Berry confessed. “Poor Bucky,” she said with a sorrowful sigh. Berry could feel her emotions threatening to overcome her. She wanted to cry and laugh right now. She wanted to be cuddled. “I feel really strange right now,” the earth pony announced. 

Derpy stroked the foal sitting in the straw pile and looked over at Lyra, who was sleeping with a dopey looking exhausted grin. “Bon Bon said that Lyra has never behaved like this before. She’s never been this happy. Bon Bon thinks being a mother will help heal Lyra,” she whispered to her best friend. 

“Thanks for talking me into this,” Berry said to the grey mare sitting in the straw. She felt tears welling in her eyes and she wiped her face with her foreleg. “I’m crying,” she muttered. 

“There there Berry, it’s okay,” Derpy said soothingly as she stroked her herdmate with her wing. 

“No it isn’t okay,” Berry said. “Everything feels weird and I feel so in love with everything right now like you and Bucky and that foal and part of me wants to get laid but I don’t want it rough, I kinda want somepony to spend some time being sweet and gentle with me and tell me I am a good pony while they shag me,” she explained. 

Derpy blinked several times and stared at Berry, and then she realised that Berry Punch was being serious. More tears were coming and Derpy realised that Berry Punch was going to be in for a trying day. “Pregnancy hormones are tough, but suddenly having your body jolted into producing teat milk must be really hard on you,” she said out of concern for her friend. 

“I really wish we had some sweet potato chips,” Berry Punch said wistfully. 

“I’ve been craving waffles,” Derpy admitted. “Waffles with lime marmalade.” 

“So this morning sickness thing?” Berry inquired. 

“It comes and goes,” Derpy said. “You think Dinky is okay?” she asked, no longer able to contain herself and feeling very concerned. 

“I think Bucky is going to help her get her head screwed back on straight,” Berry replied. 



 

Dinky laid in the grass and cried, too tired to do anything else. She had been at work for hours. Her back ached, her horn hurt, and her legs cramped painfully. She was a sobbing blubbering mass of misery. Moving rocks, moving lumber, carrying bucketfuls of water out and refilling the common drinking troughs in the middle of the courtyard, her labours allowing the earth ponies that usually kept the drinking troughs full a well deserved break. Then she had unloaded a wagon, lifting each sack from the wagon and stacking it neatly in a supply shed. After that, Bucky had set her to work greasing the gate, slathering everything down with goop in the never ending battle against rust. 

And now, Dinky wanted nothing more than to crawl into her mother’s embrace and be a good foal. She was ready to be a foal again. As a stabbing pain shot through her head, she covered her face with her forehooves as she gibbered in agony. 

She felt a hoof touch her gently and she pulled away. Bucky was not so easily refused though and Dinky found herself pulled into his embrace as he sat on his haunches in the grass. After trying to resist for a moment, she melted into his forelegs and wept. She wanted to say she was sorry, but the wracking sobs would not allow her. Her horn sparked and fizzled, sending off showers of sparks. Each bit of magical discharge was excruciatingly painful. 

“The day is only about halfway done Dinky… do you want to do stupid foalish stuff or do you want to continue working like an adult?” Bucky whispered into Dinky’s ear. 

A wordless shriek escaped Dinky’s lips and she worried that her punishment could stretch on all day. She was certain that a whole day would kill her. 

“The day has only just gotten started Dinky… and there is much to do. Even after the sun sets, there is so much work that needs to be done. Now I want you to pull yourself together and give me an answer. Do you want to do stupid foalish stuff or are you ready for some adult responsibilities?” Bucky inquired in a hard voice. 

Dinky wanted to tell him that she was sorry, that she had messed up, but she could not get the words to come out. Instead, she lay limply in his embrace and continued to blubber and dribble snot everywhere. In the distance, a bell rang out. 

“I bet stupid foalish stuff sounds pretty good right about now,” Bucky stated in a flinty voice. “Just imagine how nice it would be to be sitting at a table doing your schoolwork. Or a bit of magical experimentation with Piña at your side. By being an insufferable brat, you took yourself away from Piña. Just imagine how miserable she is right now, and how worried she is about you,” he said in a stark whisper. 

Her father’s words cut deep and Dinky recoiled in mental anguish. 

“Well, since you won’t answer me, I guess we go back to work,” Bucky announced. 

“NO!” Dinky blurted out in a gagging ragged scream. She started to choke on her own snot and she felt herself lifted in magic, turned upside down, and then thumped lightly. She hacked up large wad of phlegm and tried to spit it out. It clung to her lips and to her tongue, dribbling out slowly in what seemed to be one long impossible to break strand. Still sobbing, she sputtered and spat, trying to get the blob of mucus to let go. She felt humiliated and embarrassed on top of everything else. The hateful slimy substance was finally pulled away from her by some unseen force and she continued to spit, trying to get the last of it from her mouth. 

“So, are you ready to do some stupid foalish things again, like having lunch and taking a nap?” Bucky inquired in a flat monotone. 

Dinky, unable to stop sputtering and still hanging upside down with snot dribbling from her nostrils, nodded her head yes as best as she could given the situation. 

“I lost an entire morning’s worth of labour that needed to be done because of your outburst. That is a half a day lost. That means it is going to be a half a day longer to finish up what needs to be done, which means another half a day before we can begin to remove the wolves,” Bucky said in icy tones. 

The dreadful realisation settled into Dinky’s mind and she experienced the worst spike of mental pain she had endured so far today. More than anything, she wanted to crawl into a dark hole in the ground and die. Shame flooded her mind and guilt gnawed at her insides. She felt herself being righted and felt a rush of gratitude that her blood was no longer flooding into her head and making her throbbing horn hurt even worse. 

“Do we have an understanding of one another? Don’t try to speak, just nod your head yes or shake your head no Dinky Doo Hooves,” Bucky commanded. 

Dinky nodded and then felt a rush of relief as once again, she was taken into her father’s embrace. She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and squeezed tightly, never wanting to disappoint him ever again. She felt herself being swung around to Bucky’s back and she felt him rise on unsteady legs. She clung to his back as he walked, still bawling, aware that other ponies were probably watching her foalish outburst. It made her feel even more miserable and ashamed as her father trotted through the gatehouse and then through the courtyard. Dinky was painfully aware of how she must look right now with her messy snot covered face. 

Miserable and in pain, Dinky resolved not to make the same mistake twice. 
	
> Chapter 126
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Her punishment it seemed, was not over. After getting cleaned up, having a long drink, eating lunch, and then returning to their room, Dinky found herself gently pushed away by her own mother. This was worse than anything she had endured this morning. This hurt. She wanted so badly to be hugged, but now understood that her mother was furious with her. 

“You were a brat,” Derpy said in a wavering quiet voice. “You made everypony miserable. We have the wolves making ponies miserable. We don’t need you making it worse. What you did was rotten. Piña cried and couldn’t pay attention in school. Your father’s legs are paining him from following you around. I raised you better,” she added in a cold voice as she pushed Dinky down on the bed. 

Dinky crawled away from her mother and cuddled into Bon Bon’s side. The earth pony did not wake. She buried her face into Bon Bon’s well padded ribs and forced herself to not cry, not wanting to add any further misery by waking the sleepers. 

Derpy walked away from her foal slowly, shaking her head from side to side as she did so. She exited the room and carefully shut the door behind her. She stood on the other side of the door and took a deep shuddering breath. 

Failing to hold it in any longer, the grey pegasus mare burst into tears all alone in the hallway. 



 

Bucky stared at the massive expanse of the canvas gasbag. It was mind bogglingly large. Absolutely huge. He was going to have to enchant one side of it, and, when that was done, crawl inside the canvas tube and enchant the other side of it. He groaned in anticipation of the task ahead. It was going to mean a lot of time on his legs, moving around, going from section to section as he cast various enchantments on it to make it cloud worthy. 

For one brief moment, he worried about Dinky and felt a shudder in his barrel. Seeing her in the condition she had been in had almost made him cry. 

Just spreading the gasbag out from its wadded up state had physically worn Bucky out. It lay spread out in the meadow next to The Scorned Mare, more than twice the length of the ship. It was going to kill the grass and bugs would nest under the canvas. The very notion of infestation caused Bucky to shiver. 

Resigning himself to his task, Bucky set about enchanting the vast expanse of canvas. 



 

Loch Skimmer lay half dozing in the sun. She felt pretty good about everything in life at the moment. All of her fears about Rising Star were now gone, replaced with a strong feeling of closeness. She could hear him and Sparkler splashing in the water not too far away. She rolled over onto her back and sprawled out, just like she had seen Berry do so many times. She could feel the sun on her teats and shining on places that usually she did not present to the sun. She rested her bad leg on her barrel and heaved a sigh of satisfaction. 

Without even realising it, she started to whistle, something she had only done when she was truly happy and safe. Her mothers had scolded her for whistling, telling her that it only made other ponies think that pegasi were part bird and that whistling made them all look bad. Loch Skimmer had taken to doing it when she was all alone or with Ripple. 

In the trees all around the lake, birds joined in and sang along with Loch Skimmer. She was completely lost in song now, feeling a rapturous sense of joy, and sunning her belly. She was unaware that the splashing had stopped and that her mates were enraptured by her song. 

She was completely unaware of the new mark adorning her hips as she continued to chirp and warble her song of joy. She just wanted the world to feel as happy as she did. And now, following her lead, the many birds in the trees echoed her song, filling the woods and the loch around them with a feeling of happiness. 

Without knowing why, the fisherponies and the farmers in the area felt happier, their spirits lifted. The nets weren’t so heavy and their tasks were not so arduous. There was now a spring in their step. Those in love or falling in love felt their passions quicken. Kisses became far more fevered. 

In mainland Equestria, pegasi managed the moods of the day with dawn songs, and certain rare pegasi manifested rare magic to influence animals capable of song. It was old magic, primeval magic, one of the cornerstones of harmony magic, and it was one of the many ways that the equine civilisation had tamed the earth. Music was a magic all its own, and nature was full of many voices. All that was needed was a conductor of sorts to bring them all together into harmony. 



 

Rising Star stood next to Sparkler, frozen in awe. Both of them could feel it, strange magic in the air, it made their horns tingle as their spirits lifted. The birdsong was breathtaking. And the cause of it all was a pegasus in the grass, sunning her belly and whistling. The pair clung to one another, realising they were seeing something wonderous. Both wanted to say something, but were fearful to interrupt something so beautiful and precious. 

Rising Star could scarcely breathe and Sparkler leaned against him trembling. As he watched, there was a flash of light and then Loch Skimmer was changed forever. On her hip was a glorious golden sun with a music note in the middle. Rising Star had witnessed a few things in his life that would forever leave a lasting impression upon him, but this was a moment he knew he would treasure, seeing the pegasus that he so loved getting her mark. 

He pressed his cheek against Sparkler’s and did nothing to break Loch’s concentration, hoping the song would continue. 



 

As Bucky worked, he couldn’t help but notice that the birdsong was becoming louder and more focused. His legs didn’t hurt as much and he found that it was much easier to work. The song was soothing and after the troubling morning he had endured, he felt strangely happy. 

His horn tingled strangely and Bucky realised he was feeling magic. Old magic. Primal magic. He had felt it coming from Cadance on the day he was married. He lifted his head and looked around. Whatever this was, it was strong. It carried with it a demanding magical compulsion that was difficult to resist. Not that Bucky wanted to resist. He closed his eye and let the moment take him. Something was focusing the latent energy of the nearby ley lines and turning it into raw emotional suggestion. 

Realising that the magic was being focused caused an alarm to go off in Bucky’s mind. You needed a unicorn to channel this sort of magic, and there shouldn’t be any unicorns this powerful on the isles. His eye opened and he cast several warding spells upon himself in rapid succession. He then cast several more spells that would allow him to locate the source of this strange magic. He then went shambling off on unsteady legs to investigate the source of the magical disturbance. 



 

Loch was oblivious to the effect she was having on the world around her. The sun on her teats and her delicate bits was arousing, and she reached down with her good leg and rubbed her navel, reveling in the sensation of her own touch. 

Belly rubs felt good. 

Her folded fetlock traveled further down as she thought of the events in the library just yesterday. 

This felt good too. 

Her whistling changed with her mood, becoming a bit more amorous. She rubbed the soft flesh just between her teats with the soft velvet covered knuckle of her fetlock. She moved in a slow lazy circle that made her whistle warble and change in pitch. 



 

“Rising… is she…” 

“She is or she is about to…” 

“Rising Star, this is hawt, what is she doing?” 

“Shush Sparky, I want to keep watching… just a little lower Loch… you can do it, that’s my filly.” 

“Rising Star, you pervert.” 

“I said to shush Sparky… don’t tell me this isn’t turning you on, enjoy the show.” 

“Oh I am Rising, I am.” 

“Oh sweet mercy, she is! Go Loch…” 

“The song… the music… it is driving me crazy. Oh who would have thought watching a pegasus stroking herself off would be so hot?” 

“I could watch this all day Sparky.” 

“You and me both… wow Rising she is really getting into it. Look how she kicks.” 

“Uncontrollable boner Sparkler…” 

“Oh I’ve gone hard too Rising… wait, are those ducks doing what I think they’re doing?” 

“Uh huh.” 

“How is she doing this Rising?”

“Look, I am trying to watch a really sexy pegasus rub one out, I have no idea how this works.” 

“I know that pegasi can affect the weather and the atmosphere, but she’s affecting the atmosphere with what she’s doing.” 

“Sparky… shush.” 

“So uh, wanna fool around?” 

“Maybe… but let her keep doing her thing. She just got her cutie mark Sparkler.” 

“Watching those ducks go at it and making me kinda good to go.” 

“Sparky…” 

“I am a horny teenager Rising, what, you think just because I am a filly that I am somehow immune to looking at something and not getting turned on somehow? I went shopping with my mom and Berry one time, saw a display of bananas, nearly lost my cool, turned around and then ran right into a display of cucumbers. Berry Punch laughed at me because she knew what the deal was. Mom was kinda confused.” 

“Oh Sparky, you’re not helping me at all.” 

“I just heard something hitting the water… are you dribbling?” 

“Sparky, please, this is embarrassing…” 

“Eeeew you’re drooling!” 

“I can’t help it, I’ve gone past the uncontrollable boner stage and into the I am going to explode stage.” 

“That’s kinda hawt. So, uh, anything I can do to help you explode so I can watch?” 



 

Bucky approached the lake, moving slowly and cautiously. The animals were acting… strangely. Strong primal magic was in the air. He could feel it. He had felt it before when Cadance had bound them together. Ahead of him was whistling… a loud clear whistling, a warbling wavering whistling. 

He pushed ahead through the tall grass and wove in between the many saplings all around him. 

As he approached the small private clearing where Thistle had made her home and the other ponies tended to stay away from, he saw a lone figure sprawled out in the grass. 

Several things happened all at once. Bucky realised it was Loch Skimmer. He came to understand that she was the source of the magical disturbance and it was her whistling that was the cause. He saw Rising Star and Sparkler a short distance away standing in the shallows of the lake. He discerned that Loch Skimmer had turned herself into a musical instrument and she was giving herself a good strum. There was a conclusion that he was terrible at metaphors under these sorts of circumstances. If anything, she was some kind of woodwind or a horn, but she was incapable of giving herself a good blow. He understood that Rising Star and Sparkler were engaged in a very private act. 

At the end of these realisations, he realised that he needed to go. He had seen too much. He turned tail, and, on aching trembling legs, left the young trio to have a private moment to themselves. As he departed, he thought about the deep primal magic he was feeling, how it was a pegasus of all creatures who was channeling it, and then he came to his final mind blowing conclusion. 

Princess Cadance had been a pegasus before becoming an alicorn. 



 

Loch Skimmer basked in the sunny afterglow, feeling alive. Her whistling had ceased during her shuddering gasps. She was vaguely aware that Rising Star and Sparkler had probably watched her. She hoped that they had enjoyed the show. The itch in her nethers felt a little easier to bear now, just as Berry had said it would be if she gave herself a little nudge now and then. 

Loch intended to give a very heartfelt thanks to Berry Punch. 

She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly. As she lay there recovering, she heard hoofsteps approaching. She rolled over and looked in the direction of the sound. She saw Sparkler and Rising Star, and both looked more than a little flustered. 

“Enjoy watching me?” Loch inquired. 

“Oh you have no idea,” Sparkler replied. 

“Loch Skimmer, you crazy crazy pegasus, you have a cutie mark,” Rising Star said proudly. 

“You can get a cutie mark for doing THAT?” Loch cried out in alarm. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 127
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The itchiness in his pelt was driving him to distraction. He reached up with a hoof and scratched at the base of his throat; this caused a mass of fine small hairs to drift down the grass. He glanced around him, twisting his head to make sure no pony was looking. He sat down on his haunches, balanced himself carefully, and then reached up with one trembling hind leg to scratch behind his ear. A front hoof lacked the leverage required for this kind of itch. Little tan hairs drifted away in the faint breeze. 

For a moment, Bucky wondered if one could go mad from itching. 

He tried to distract himself by thinking about something, but his thoughts drifted to Loch Skimmer and his discovery of strange magic. He wasn’t in the mood to ponder that so he pushed it out of his mind. He thought of Cadance briefly and felt a strange longing for her. He wanted her near so he could know that she was safe. That was distracting and he didn’t need distracting. He needed focus. 

He needed help. 

The canvas loomed before him and it was daunting. He’d been at at for a fair number of hours. He couldn’t remember how long he had been awake, but he was starting to feel a bit sleepy. The summer day seemed entirely too bright and a nice nap seemed like a really good idea. 

He continued about his task and then he realised in a rather sudden burst of mental clarity that he had helpers. He cursed himself for failing to grasp the obvious. He had three unicorns that could potentially help him… what they lacked was the education. It had taken him years to learn the sort of enchantments needed for this kind of work and thousands of hours of practice in school to become confident in his abilities. 

Princess Celestia insisted that ten thousand hours spent at a task was required for expertise. 

The problem was, Bucky didn’t have ten thousand hours to bring his helpers up to speed. What he did have was the ability to commune. Passing along the subtle nuances of his craft would be difficult if not impossible. He would have to go over and check every square inch of their work repeatedly. He could give them the basic gist of what needed to be done, and then… Bucky wasn’t sure what came next. Simple spells were easy to pass along. Theory and thought was manageable. But this, this was going to be complex. He wasn’t sure about Rising Star’s ability to perform the task. Rising Star was more about brute force. Sparkler was a good candidate. She was a quick learner and had a keen mind. And then there was Dinky. 

Dinky had given him quite a scare. Watching her growing irrational behaviour, coupled with the twitching and the fact that she wasn’t acting at all like herself had frightened him a great deal. He worried briefly about Sparkler and Rising Star, wondering when any issues might surface or manifest in their behaviour. He needed them leveled out. Too much was depending on them. 

He reflected back on all of the times he had been “worn out” as a foal. Hours spent scrubbing the floors of Canterlot castle and the school. Polishing the marble staircase in the grand gala hall. Polishing every bit of brass, silver, and gold finish in one of the many well appointed rooms. A couple of times, Princess Celestia herself had taken time out of her busy day to loom over him, give him the stink eye, and lecture him into submission. She was a stickler for details, letting him know when he missed a spot or if there was a smudge left somewhere on a reflective surface. 

And now, he understood why. It didn’t make it any easier to do to Dinky though. 

He recalled one particularly harsh day polishing statues in the Hall of Memory. Princess Celestia had raked him over the coals. She and her assistant Raven had even had a nice lunch in the hall, a lunch he had not been invited to share. As he laboured, his itching now temporarily forgotten, he even remembered why he had been in so much trouble. He had broken into the book depository, stolen several books intended for classes far more advanced than the classes he was currently in, and then he recklessly experimented, accidentally creating a carnivorous potato that had latched on to one of his teachers with sprouted vines and then gnawed upon his teacher’s hide. Advanced transmutation spells were dangerous and he had learned the hard way. 

He had wanted power, and Celestia had shown him how to endure. How to survive mindless drudgery and magical exhaustion. And now, he had power. He was able to sit here and perform this mindless, dull, repetitive task that he was doing now because he had spent so much time being “worn out” and subdued as a foal. He could sit in a dark room and mindlessly create spell jars for hours on end. He could prepare. And it had all started with scrubbing floors, polishing statues, washing windows, and menial magical labour. 

For Dinky, it was carrying rocks, hauling lumber,  fetching water, and greasing a gate. Later in life, it would be repeating the same dull experiment a thousand times hoping for the one time that produces usable results, if she chose that path, and Bucky hoped that she would. 

It would also mean control, which Dinky had been on the verge of losing this morning. 

Another few feet of canvas were now enchanted and Bucky prepared to move on to the next patch. 



 

“Ripple, please, don’t make me.” 

Ripple looked back over her shoulder at Dinky. The foal was frightened and she had frozen in place. Her eyes were red and bleary from crying. A few sparks fizzled from her horn. 

“I am sorry Dinky, but I promised that I would escort you to our daddy,” Ripple said apologetically. 

“I blew it, I let him down,” Dinky said as she stood there trembling. 

“Aw, Dinks, it isn’t that bad,” Ripple said as she turned around. 

“You don’t even understand what I did,” Dinky said, sitting down with a plop and dropping her head. Her ears drooped. 

Piña, unable to bear her sibling’s suffering, sat down beside her and leaned on her. 

“Don’t touch me Piña, I don’t deserve you being nice to me,” Dinky mumbled. 

Piña frowned and pulled away, only to turn herself around so she could throw her legs around Dinky. She pulled Dinky into a crushing hug that stole the unicorn’s breath away. Dinky was unable to draw enough air to protest. 

“Maybe I don’t understand what you did, but I am sure you can be forgiven. Look, I’ll stay and sit with you through whatever happens. And even if he tries to send me away, I’ll stomp my hoof a few times and look adorable or sad or something. He’s a sucker for a foal face,” Ripple said in gentle tones. The pegasus was a quick learner and Sparkler had been giving her lessons in how to sway Bucky. 

Dinky lifted her head and looked up at Ripple. “Promise?” she asked. 

“On my wings,” Ripple replied. 

“Well, let’s go,” Piña said. 



 

Bucky stood, stretched, and then arched his back. His spine crackled and his hind legs made odd clicking sounds. He watched as more of his pelt hairs drifted away in the wind. He was shedding, Derpy was having a bit of a molt, it was little moments of misery like these that could push a pony over the edge. 

“I’ve come bearing a message and a foal.” 

Bucky turned at the sounds of Ripple’s voice. He saw Ripple, Piña, and Dinky, the unicorn hiding behind Ripple and peeking out at him. 

“Give me the message and then I will want some time alone with Dinky,” Bucky said. 

“Sorry, I can’t do that, I promised her I’d stay here with her for whatever happens,” Ripple responded. 

“Loyal pegasi. A pony could ask for no better companion,” Bucky commented. When he saw Ripple blushing from his praise, he felt glad that he had made the filly feel good about herself. “Message?” 

“Mama bird says you are done for the day and she wants you back in the nest. You’ve been awake for too long,” Ripple said. She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. “I promised her I’d bring you back. Don’t make me break my promise.” 

Bucky nodded. “I will go once we are done here,” he agreed. “Dinky?” Bucky said gently. 

Dinky, hearing her father’s voice, buried her face into Ripple’s wing. 

“Dinky, come here, I’m not angry,” Bucky said. 

“I know you’re not angry, but I am ashamed,” Dinky whined. 

Bucky waited patiently and sighed. He had hoped to lure Dinky a little closer so he could hug her, but she was still hiding behind the pegasus, trying to look as submissive as possible. 

“Dinky, do you know what went wrong today?” Bucky inquired in a gentle and loving voice. 

“A little,” Dinky admitted. 

“Only a little?” Bucky asked. 

“I thought about it as I went to sleep and after I woke up,” Dinky answered. “I don’t understand everything,” she confessed.

“I see,” Bucky responded. “So, care to tell me about it? You’re surrounded by those who love you, you know you can talk about anything, right?” 

“Yeah,” Dinky squeaked. “Don’t make it any easier.” 

“No Dinky, I suppose it doesn’t,” Bucky agreed. 

“I don’t even understand why I was so angry. Everything was just making me angry. Everything. And then I felt jealous of Piña. And that made me angrier. And then… and then… and then my face started twitching and that made me angrier too and then I could feel a lot of pressure in my horn and-” 

“Easy Dinky,” Bucky interrupted, seeing the foal’s distress. 

“If I had kept going, something bad might have happened, right?” Dinky said fearfully. 

“Perhaps,” Bucky said. 

“DON’T BE SOFT WITH ME!” Dinky shouted. The little unicorn took a few deep breaths and tried to compose herself. “I don’t want be to be angry. I’m not angry. But please don’t be soft with me. Not about this,” she begged. 

Ripple shifted her body around and wrapped a wing around Dinky. She wiped a few tears away with her other wing. Saying nothing, she leaned down and kissed Dinky on the head, something Loch had always done for her to make her feel better. 

“I know what I can do… and I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt any of you. And today, I hurt you. I feel awful,” Dinky said. “I was just so angry. And it kept building up. I’ve been doing so much magic lately and now when I am not using magic I just don’t feel right and I start to get all shaky and I can feel my eyeballs vibrating,” she admitted. 

“That sounds awful,” Piña murmured. 

“It feels awful! And the feeling makes me angry,” Dinky confessed. 

“Dinky, do you have any idea or do you understand why I punished you the way that I did this morning?” Bucky inquired. “You’re a smart foal… have you thought about it?” 

“I don’t feel the magical itch. And right now I feel really calm. Mostly. I got a little upset a moment ago, but that was for a good reason. I don’t feel twitchy and angry. I’m not jealous of Piña. I don’t have this burning need to use magic… so I am guessing you drained me?” Dinky asked in a voice of uncertainty. 

“Yes Dinky. I drained you. When I was a foal, we called it being “worn out” and it happened to me frequently,” Bucky said. 

“That makes me feel so much better,” Dinky huffed. 

“For those of us with ambition and the desire for power, tasks like these help us learn to endure and focus. You do want to be an actual wizard, right?” Bucky said, not mincing any words. “You want power.” 

“Yes,” Dinky replied in a low voice. “And this morning I learned something from you… after you winked, you acted as though nothing was wrong. How?” 

“Suffering,” Bucky replied. “I had to learn how to suffer.” 

“I suffered… did I do a good job suffering?” Dinky inquired with foalish honesty. 

“Yes Dinky, I think you did. We quit because you finally threw yourself down on the ground and gave up. You lasted much longer than I thought you would,” Bucky answered. 

“You mean to tell me that if I had just fallen over and gave up, my punishment would have been over?” Dinky asked incredulously.  The foal took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly. 

“Yes Dinky. I thought you would have quit much sooner to be honest,” Bucky said bluntly. “Do you see what being stubborn and willful will get you?” 

Dinky narrowed her eyes and glared at her father. Her muzzle scrunched. “I’ll show you…” she hissed. Her tiny nostrils flared and her breath came in snorts. 

“Next time you are feeling a bad case of the angries, come to me. It is better to work these things out than to hold them in. Celestia and my teachers told me to do the same… but I never listened. I held it in until I got in trouble,” he admitted in shame. Bucky felt an odd sensation in his heart. Dinky was adorably angry and her tiny snorts made him feel a strong sense of affection. 

“I know this is a funny thing to ask, but can we do this again? I mean, just push me until I can’t go no more?” Dinky asked. 

“Why would you want that Dinks?” Piña asked, her eyes widening in shock and surprise. 

“I want to be able to wink and just walk away from it. I don’t want unicorn mind problems creeping up on me. I don’t want the angries,” Dinky answered. “And I want power,” she admitted in a small whisper. 

“Do you want lessons in how to wink?” Bucky inquired. 

Dinky looked thoughtful and stared off blankly in the direction of The Scorned Mare. She remained silent for quite some time. Finally, she turned and looked her father in the eye. “I want that,” she said in a flat determined voice. “It is going to mean a lot of barfing isn’t it?” 

“Oh, today was nothing. Nothing at all. Wait until you have two winks in a row,” Bucky warned. “You’ll swear that walking is preferable and that you will never wink again.” 

“That sounds bad,” Dinky said with a gulp. “So uh, as a foal, was I able to carry a lot of stuff today?” she inquired bashfully. 

“At one point, you had about two hundred pounds of rocks,” Bucky replied. “I don’t want to give you a big head, but that’s impressive. It also illustrates the point that you need to control yourself.” 

“Huh,” Dinky grunted. “And earlier today I felt so angry because Piña was stronger than me. Which is silly. I can lift things with my magic. Why was I so angry?” she asked, hoping to find some understanding. 

“Unicorn neurosis,” Bucky replied. 

“So I am just going to feel angry for no reason at all?” Dinky questioned. 

Bucky nodded. “That’s the way it is for most of us,” he answered. 

“And you feel this way?” Dinky asked. 

“All the time,” Bucky replied. 

“How do you deal with it?” Dinky inquired. 

“I used to just squash it down and then let it out slowly through hobbies and other activities. Now, I talk about it. I channel it out. Bon Bon and Berry Punch for some inexplicable reason have the uncanny ability to calm me down by touching me. I can’t explain why. I spend time with my foals, whom I love,” Bucky explained. 

“I kinda have a love hate feeling for the new foal,” Dinky confessed. “Everypony thinks she’s great,” the little unicorn muttered sullenly. 

“Dinky that’s awful!” Ripple chided. 

“Ripple, that’s honest. And as unicorns, we need to be honest. It helps us,” Bucky said in Dinky’s defense. Bucky sighed. “Dinky, we need to work on making sure your head is clear about your new sibling. Unicorn siblings can do terrible things to one another in heated moments, which is why so many of my kind in Canterlot are only-foals,” he said in brutal honesty. “Regular pony siblings punch each other and fight with words. Unicorns can set each other on fire or any number of horrible things could happen.” 

Dinky’s eyes shrank into terrified pinpricks. “No…” she murmured in fear. 

“That’s awful,” Ripple said. 

“I once sat on Dinky’s head and farted… should I be worried?” Piña asked. 

“You’ll be fine Piña,’ Bucky said reassuringly. 

“Are you sure?” Piña inquired. “It was wet…” 

Dinky’s eyes narrowed and she nodded. “No… I don’t feel angry. But now that I remember it, I have to pay you back,” Dinky announced. 

“That seems fair,” Piña said in a small voice. 

“Daddy, do I have the potential to be an actual wizard? Please don’t coddle me or tell me what I want to hear,” Dinky asked suddenly, and she could see that she caught Bucky off guard. 

“You’re a tough little foal. Tomorrow, I am going to teach you some new magic, and then I am going to work you until you fall over again,” Bucky answered. “But I think you’ll manage. Most foals your age don’t know what they want,” he said. “How bad do you want it?” 

“Bad enough to suffer for it,” Dinky replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 128
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy waited impatiently, pacing in the room they called home. Every day it seemed smaller somehow. Each day, the walls shrank just a little more. And with the new foal, things were tighter than ever. She trodded back and forth, glancing nervously at the door. 

Lyra, Bon Bon, and Sentinel were asleep still, at least for a little while longer. Lyra had awoke briefly when the foal had cried, but Berry had been in the room at the moment and had looked after the infant. Berry was now gone, off with Thistle, off for a quick dip so Thistle could catch enough fish for those who hungered. 

The foal was sleeping and Derpy wanted so much to nest with it, but right now she had another foal on her mind. Trusting Bucky on the issue of what to do with Dinky when the foal displayed worrying behaviours had been one of the most difficult things she had ever done. She had seen all of the worrying signs herself, had an inkling of the danger posed by them, but part of her still believed that it could be fixed with a few well placed wing slaps and then a hug once the punishment was over. 

This was taking too long. Ripple had promised to bring Bucky back. Derpy’s lip curled back. If her headstrong mate made sweet little Ripple break her promise, she was going to go out, snatch him up, and drop him in the lake. 

Derpy paused to reflect on her feelings for Ripple. She trusted Ripple with her foals. She loved Ripple a great deal. She loved Loch Skimmer too, but Ripple was still just young enough or perhaps just scrawny and small enough to trigger her extra strong feelings of motherhood. Ripple was filling out though. She was a sleek and beautiful creature, long legged, delicate framed, and she had beautiful slender wings. 

It was nice having other pegasi in her herd. 

Finally, after an eternity of waiting, the door opened. Piña entered first, peering cautiously around and trying to see if the new foal was still sleeping. Ripple came second, gently planting a hoof in Piña’s backside and scooting her through the door. Dinky came third, and Derpy struggled to keep her emotions in check. Bucky came last, and as he walked through the door, his eye met hers. She saw a faint nod. 

Unable to hold back, Derpy pounced. 

Dinky was not crushed to the stone floor, but instead was snatched between Derpy's forelegs. The pegasus mare’s momentum carried her forward, and she tucked, pulled Dinky to her barrel, rolled, and landed on her back with Dinky pulled tight to her. 

It was not the most graceful move and it was hard on Derpy’s body no doubt, but no foal had ever come to harm from one of her “snatch and roll” hugs. 



 

Bucky left the two alone for a much needed private moment with one another. He shut the door behind him, smiled at Ripple and Piña, and then moved to the straw pile. The foal was sleeping. Once again he felt a curious sensation traveling through him and his mind felt odd. He could smell her. The scent was like strong drink in his nostrils. It filled with him desire and need. Suddenly, he wanted all of his mares together in one place where he could watch over them, keep them safe. 

He backed away from the foal, not wanting to wake it. He eased himself into the bed, needing to hold something, an almost overwhelming compulsion. He grabbed Piña instead, lifting her in his magic and bringing her close. She soared through the air with a startled squeak and then settled in beside him. 

“You’re shedding,” Piña accused as her nostrils crinkled. “Poor thing. Does it make you itchy? I’ve been shedding a bit, but you’re shedding a lot,” she added as she brushed away little tan hairs from her pink pelt. 

Bucky was about to reply when he was suddenly crushed. The air in his lungs whooshed out in a gasp as Ripple settled on top of him. After taking a moment to get air into his lungs, he turned his head to look at Piña. “I’ve been shedding a lot. It is driving me crazy,” Bucky said. 

“There’s a brush around here somewhere. Lyra spends a lot of time brushing Sentinel. He sheds a lot in the heat,” Ripple quipped as she made herself comfortable. “You’re bony,” she observed as she examined Bucky. She poked him with hoof and then rubbed her head along the back of his skull. 

“So are you,” Bucky responded, enjoying Ripple’s affections. It was easy to know when a pegasus loved you and the bruising went away eventually. 

“I can’t help it,” Ripple answered in a soft voice, aware of the sleepers just a few feet away. “But I am getting better. I eat well now,” she whispered. 

“What’s your excuse?” Piña inquired in a tiny voice, looking directly at Bucky. 

“I’ve always been little and scrawny,” Bucky replied. “You’re getting big Piña.” 

“I don’t want to get big,” Piña said sadly. “I want to stay little so I can be cuddled.” 

“Berry is a big solid earth pony, and I cuddle her,” Bucky said. “When you grow up, you will find somepony that will cuddle you,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“Those are special cuddles,” Piña whispered. “I want cuddles like these, cuddles without the surprise going up your backside. Quiet cuddles without all of the moaning and heavy breathing. I know what you are doing to Berry Punch. She’s talked to me about it,” the earth pony foal murmured. 

Bucky chortled and tried to contain his laughter so the sleepers would not awaken. 

“Everypony, come on, we’re going for a walk so Bucky can get some sleep,” Derpy commanded. She stood at the door, Dinky by her side, waiting patiently. 

Piña got up rather reluctantly and slipped off the mattress. She turned and looked at Bucky one final time, and then watched as Ripple climbed from the bed. The pair walked slowly for the door and Piña wished she could stay with Bucky for just a little while longer. 

Bucky watched them go, wishing they would stay. 



 

Sentinel awoke to a strange sound, not one of the usual background sounds his ears could tune out. There was gurgle and a bit of a low moan. He lifted his head and his tufted ears stood erect, taking in everything around him. He raised a hoof and scratched behind his ear, sending sooty brown hairs flying. Bucky was nearby, and his night mothers were still asleep. 

He scooted from the bed with shocking speed, his movements catlike and graceful. He landed in the straw and prodded the foal with his nose. The little foal made snuffling sounds and looked up at him. Sentinel’s nose crinkled as he scooted away soiled straw with his hoof and moved in some fresh straw to replace it. A little foreleg brushed his face, causing him to freeze for a moment. He waited, allowing the touch to happen, and then he began to sniff the foal with his nose. He continued sniffing, moving around the straw pile, aware of the soiled straw, but worried about other things, like rats. He didn’t smell anything, but it never hurt to check. Sentinel was perhaps too cautious. The rats had learned to fear him and avoided him at all costs. There was a foal here though, and Sentinel knew from dreadful experience that rats would devour any unattended foal they could find. 

He moved to the wall and rubbed the side of his face along the wall, leaving behind a greasy oily smear on the stone. He stopped to sniff his work, and then he moved over to the foal. He rubbed the side of his face along the foal, careful to move the little bumpy places below his ears along her soft pelt. Part of him felt a strong compulsion to piss and mark his territory, but that was uncouth. The instinct was still strong, but the actual practice had long since died off. 

He lifted a wing, exposing the underside of his wing joint, and rubbed that against the foal, continuing to mark her. He had marked her several times already, leaving her thick with his scent. 

The rats feared his scent. 

His work done, he flopped down into the straw with his still unnamed sibling, wrapped her up in a wing, lowered his head with a soft growl, and then went back to sleep. 



 

Bon Bon awoke. She still felt a needful itch in her nethers, but it had eased off a bit. In a day or two, she reckoned it would be gone completely. She lifted her head and looked around her. Bucky was nearby, sleeping on his belly as he always did, his his hind legs kicked out behind him rather than folded beneath him. Lyra was still asleep beside her. It took a moment to find Sentinel, who was asleep in the straw with the foal. 

She slid from the bed, crossed the room, vanished behind the privacy barrier, filled the bucket a fair bit, sniffed, crinkled her nose, and then hurried away from the bucket. More than anything, Bon Bon wanted modern plumbing again. A unicorn was going to have to dump it out the window. Bon Bon knew she could do it, but had been forbidden from lifting the bucket in her mouth to spare her the humiliation. 

Her gaze fell upon the two sleeping unicorns. Both of them needed her, and Bon Bon liked being needed. She also needed them, but had different reasons for each of them. She recalled meeting Bucky, it felt like a lifetime ago now, and she remembered fondly the wagon ride home. She remembered the long talks with Bucky in the bed, and how he had bared his soul to her. She had fallen in love with him at some point during his convalescence. 

Maybe not love, she thought to herself, reflecting upon her own honesty. Infatuation perhaps. A curious crush. You felt the same way about Lyra when you nursed her back to health. You are an earth pony that can cultivate unicorns, and how can you not love what you spend so much time nurturing and growing? It is the earth pony way, her inner voice said to her. She considered her thoughts and watched both of them as they slept. 

She thought of Dinky’s troubling outburst at breakfast. She had another unicorn to cultivate and nurture. And then there was the little infant tucked away in the straw. 

She watched as Bucky twitched and began to spasm and kick. He whimpered in his sleep. Bon Bon went to his side, touched him with one hoof, and watched as he settled. All it took was a touch. With each passing day, Bon Bon became more and more aware that something was going on, and Berry Punch shared her observations. With Lyra, Bon Bon had believed it was because ponies simply needed to be touched. Now, it was clear that something was going on. Bon Bon lifted her hoof, turned up upwards, and examined her soft fleshy frogs. She stared at them for a while, lowered her hoof, and pressed it into Bucky’s side. He leaned back into her touch, his body moving beneath the pressure she applied. His sleep became even quieter and finally, he went still, a faint smile upon his face. 

Bon Bon realised just how much she really loved him. It was different than her love for Lyra, but it was love, no matter how confusing it might be. He had resisted her, drawing a clear line. He has kissed her, held her, cuddled her, been exceedingly intimate with her, but he had held the line. Even when she was carrying him on her back that horrible day, somehow, he had held back his arousal, even with her being in heat and her every step bouncing him on her back. All of his kisses had boundaries. 

The realisation actually inflamed her desire.

And then there was his behaviour with Lyra. He had done the same with Lyra, the other unicorn that Bon Bon loved. Lyra seemed just as confused about Bucky as Bon Bon felt. Bon Bon wondered at Bucky’s motivations and intended to ask him about it at some point. Why was he doing this? Bon Bon had her suspicions, and her most logical conclusion so far was that he was doing this so future foals would know that he loved all of his wives equally and unabashedly, because foals needed to see that their parents loved one another. Bon Bon thought of her future foals and how hard it would be, how confusing it would be, if they never saw their father touching and loving on their mother. 

A part of Bon Bon never wanted to ask, but wanted to continue to believe that it had to be the reason. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 129
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke to the horrible sensation of the infernal itching that had been plaguing him. Before his eye had even opened, he had already begun to scratch, and a whimper of pain escaped his mouth. He dug furiously at his own skin, determined to skin himself alive if need be to get rid of the horrible itch. His eye stayed closed, now clenched shut tightly as he tried to relieve himself. 

“Bucky?” 

That was Derpy’s voice. Full of concern and worry. Bucky’s senses told him that the sun had not yet set, but would soon, which meant it was almost time for the evening meal. He scraped at his flesh with his hooves, trying to make the itching stop. 

“Help me,” Bucky begged. “I don’t want to sound like a pretty pony princess, but I think I need to be brushed and I can’t do it in this state,” he pleaded. 

“I have this, I like brushing other ponies,” Lyra said enthusiastically. “Well, I like brushing Bon Bon and Sentinel… they’re other ponies. I uh, don’t actually like to be around “other” ponies all that much,” the unicorn admitted in nervous neurotic tones. 

A few moments later, Bucky felt some minor relief. Lyra worked in slow long strokes and he melted completely under the sensation. As Lyra brushed, Bucky felt his head being lifted in two forelegs. He opened his eye to see who it was and suddenly there was a grey blur before him. 

Derpy’s wings unfurled and the pegasus landed several feet away, wings spread out wide, her eyes wide and panicked. 

The room fell quiet, everypony wondering what had spooked the pegasus. 

“Bucky there is something wrong with your eye,” Derpy whimpered. 

Bucky blinked a few times… his eye felt fine. His vision seemed to be normal. In the commotion, Lyra had stopped brushing and the terrible itching was threatening to overcome him. He squirmed and began to scratch at himself with a hoof. 

Bucky watched as Derpy slowly approached the bed, Bon Bon on one side, and Berry Punch on the other side. All three of the mares looked spooked. 

“Oh… well that’s new… sort of matches his teeth,” Berry said in curious tones. She lifted her head and gave herself a good shake. “I don’t know what I am afraid of, Bucky is still Bucky.” 

Confusion was beginning to overtake Bucky now. He scratched and then he felt his hoof snatched in magic and pulled away. The brushing resumed and he squirmed against the brush. “I don’t understand what is going on,” Bucky grumbled. 

Derpy was shaking her head and looked frightened. Berry Punch was peering curiously and drew closer. Bon Bon was pressed up against Derpy. Foals had begun to gather. Thistle was peering out from behind Derpy. 

Sentinel lept up into the bed and peered at Bucky, looking intently, nearly nose to nose.

Bucky, still not sure what the big deal was, booped Sentinel on the nose, which caused the colt to go cross eyed for a moment. He uncrossed his eyes slowly and looked mildly annoyed. “This is a serious moment and you just tweaked my nose. Your eye… has changed father. It is like my eyes now,” Sentinel said in a vaguely irritated voice. 

Just as Bucky was getting ready to reply, the brush traveled over his croup. “Is that so-ooo-aaaah that feeeeeeels good,” he moaned. 

Derpy moved forward and gently shoved Sentinel out of the way. The colt squeaked and made room for the much larger pegasus, understanding pecking order all too well.  She closed her bad eye, leaned down, and carefully looked Bucky in the eye. 

Bucky, who was still in the throes of ecstasy from Lyra brushing his croup, could barely even see Derpy. The brush moved over the spot where his dock met his croup and Bucky melted completely, going limp on the bed. 

“Well, he’s still Bucky,” Derpy reported. “His eye does look like Sentinel’s now. It spooked me. Looking into your husband’s face and seeing a different eye looking back at you is hard to deal with,” she added. 

“He’s shedding horribly,” Lyra announced. “Sentinel has the same problem.” 

“So is this Sentinel’s shadow essence changing him or is this Sombra’s fallen shadow changing him?” Berry Punch inquired. 

“I have no idea,” Lyra replied. “Maybe both. I don’t know much about this sort of thing. Bucky has endured strange magic, has done radical body modification upon himself, infused himself with shadow, and has survived the attempted takeover of his mind by an undead fallen shadow. In spite of all of this, I have rendered him completely helpless with a brush. He is now mine to do with as I please, by right of conquest,” the unicorn announced. 

“Okay,” Derpy agreed. “You can have him for a little while. He seems happy.” The pegasus mare, still looking somewhat concerned, turned and walked away. She went to the straw pile and laid down carefully, and then cradled the tiny foal in her forelegs before her. She looked down and made cooing noises that the foal made little burbling sounds in reply. 

Berry, her curiousity not sated, moved forwards and got herself a good look at Bucky’s eye. Sitting down, she grabbed his head between her hooves, twisted it around, and peered into his eye. She scratched under his chin affectionately as she peered into his now slitted grey orb. 

“Have you been having any trouble seeing during the day?” Sentinel asked. 

Bucky did not reply right away. The brush was now moving over his ribs and the sensation was almost as good as a good shagging. Almost. “Yeah… I noticed it the other day. Rising Star could see things I couldn’t,” Bucky replied. 

“I have trouble seeing during the day,” Sentinel said.

“Something about him right now makes my heart go pitter-pat,” Thistle confessed. 

“It’s kinda awesome… I wonder how I would look with slitted eyes?” Rising Star inquired. 

“Rising, no! No radical body modification,” Sparkler demanded. Sparkler felt embarrassed for a moment, and she felt odd that she had just channeled Bon Bon. 

“Is it wrong that I am kinda disappointed that everypony stopped talking about my cutie mark and now I am forgotten?” Loch Skimmer quipped. 

“Just a little, but I’d be miffed too,” Piña said in a quiet voice. “It is impossible to get any attention in this family,” the earth pony foal muttered as she settled into a pout. 

“This whole family is weird. Next thing you know, one of us will sprout wings or something,” Dinky stated. 

“I could be the alicorn of wine,” Berry Punch said proudly. 

Bucky began to recover his senses. He reached out with his forelegs and pulled Berry Punch into a kiss, which caused all the foals present to squeal in disgust. 

“Oh gross… tongue!” Piña protested. “There are foals watching!” 

“I bet he’s trying to touch that dangly thing that hangs down in the back of everypony’s throat,” Dinky muttered. 

“I dunno, seeing your parents kiss isn’t so bad,” Loch Skimmer said in a subdued voice. “There are worse things you could be watching.” 

“Hush Loch, don’t spoil the moment,” Ripple said as she poked her sister. 

“Oh wow, they’re really going at it, usually they pull apart by now,” Sparkler observed. 

“I was supposed to have Bucky to my self,” Lyra groused. 

Bucky pulled away from Berry Punch, looking berry breathless. “Sorry Lyra. I got distracted… give me a moment and I’ll kiss you next.” 

“No, that’s okay,” Lyra replied in panic.

“No, no I think I need to thank you for brushing me,” Bucky insisted as he sat up. The unicorn turned his eye on Lyra and his ears perked forward. 

“No, Bucky, it’s no bother, hey… uuuuuurgh oh pony farts now my cheek is all wet and slobbery,” Lyra said as Bucky smooched her. She allowed herself to be held in Bucky’s embrace, trying not to squirm. Blushing heavily, she kissed Bucky on the cheek and then resumed brushing him, trying to work a few tangles out of his mane. 

Bon Bon watched the display carefully, looking for any signs of discomfort from Lyra. Her heart melted slightly when she saw Lyra relax and lean into Bucky’s gentle embrace. Her gaze settled on the tiny foal in Derpy’s forelegs, the earth pony sighed, and then felt a warm rush in gratitude in knowing that the filly was going to know that her parents loved one another.

“Oh yuck watching my sister kissing is even worse,” Dinky shouted. “The sound is horrible, I’ll never be able to listen to Berry Punch try and win the Sisterhooves Social pie eating contest ever again!” Dinky watched in horror as Sparkler and Rising Star exchanged a heated kiss. 

“What have I been adopted into,” Sentinel muttered to himself as he shook his head. 

“I wonder if we will be home in time to attend the Sisterhooves Social,” Piña wondered out loud. “If we do, I get dibs on Ripple. I want to win.” 

“Oh you little snot!” Berry retorted. 

“Sorry… but I do want to win,” Piña offered apologetically. 

“What’s a Sisterhooves Social?” Ripple asked. 

“Where I go to be disappointed every year,” Piña said glumly. 

“We should have a Sisterhooves Social here,” Dinky said. The unicorn foal became aware that the whole room had gone silent. She licked her lips and swallowed a few times, now painfully aware that she had everypony’s attention. “It might be really good to help the fillies and mares here to know that they can turn to one another in time of need,” the foal said hesitantly. Hearing only dreadful silence, Dinky screwed her courage to the sticking place. “We could make some really simple pies maybe, they use berries to make wine here, so maybe just a few pies wouldn’t be too hard. I know there is no sugar, but most berries are kinda sweet, and there is honey. We could make an obstacle course and other things where sisters have to rely upon one another,” she continued in a nervous squeaky voice. 

“It might brighten up the ponies spirits. That would hurt the wolves I think,” Sparkler said as she leaned on Rising Star. “Dinky has a solid idea.” 

“Yes she does,” Derpy said, her motherly pride making her voice waver. 

“I get dibs on Dinky,” Sparkler said. 

“I am going to make this happen,” Bucky stated. “I’ll use whatever authority I have here to make sure this happens. Lord Wrecker and I are basically in charge with Keg Smasher down. This was a brilliant idea Dinky, and it will help to foster a sense of unity between the females here,” he continued.  

“I can bake pies,” Bon Bon offered. “I’ve been to the kitchens… they don’t know how. Resources were far too precious to squander on things like pies.” 

“I will make them relax some resources,” Bucky said as he stroked Lyra gently. The unicorn was relaxed now and he enjoyed rubbing his fetlock along her ribs. 

“I can bake. Bonnie and I can bake pies and teach some of the kitchen ponies how to make some simple sweets with what they have available,” Berry said. “And there is milk available, which means whipped cream,” she added, licking her lips as she did so. 

“Ugh, Bucky is drooling again,” Lyra grumbled. 

“I am not,” Bucky retorted as he wiped his mouth. 

“We could set up so it happens right after we get The Scorned Mare airborne and all of the ponies could come and see her. It would give them hope. They would see that somepony is here to fight for them,” Rising Star suggested. 

Bucky pointed his hoof at Rising. “That right there is why I consider Rising Star one of my own colts now,” Bucky said. 

“I guess I have to sit this out,” Loch Skimmer said sadly. 

“I’ll serve in your honour,” Ripple said. 

“Aw, Ripple, now I feel guilty for telling everyone how you got your name,” Loch Skimmer said as she wiped at her eyes with her good foreleg. 

Ripple gently embraced her sister and squeezed.

“I think it’s already brought two sisters a little closer together,” Sparkler observed. 

Bucky pulled free from the now tight embrace of Lyra. “I gotta go… and it will be dinner time soonish,” he said apologetically. He slipped from the bed and disappeared behind the privacy barrier. 

Lyra watched as Bucky vanished from view, wanting to say something about how nice it was to be held by a male pony without expectations, but she could not find the courage to say the words. He had only been a gone for a moment, but she was already missing his warmth and the feeling of happiness she felt when he was near. The feeling of his fetlock stroking her ribs, being held close, and the feeling of his barrel expanding and contracting as he drew breath. 

“We can use the day to educate mares about mare’s rights and teach them to band together. To treat each other better. To protect their interests. To behave like something other than livestock,” Berry suggested. 

“OH! OH! I CAN HELP DO THAT!” Loch offered excitedly, shouting as she did so. 

Berry, sitting too close to Loch, rubbed her ears, and she watched as Ripple did the same. “Somebody had a life changing orgasm,” Berry quipped. 

“BERRY!” Derpy scolded. “Foals!” 

“But I did!” Loch said. 

Derpy shook her head, gave up, and returned her attention to the foal she was holding. She understood that Loch was now lost to her, lost forever to Berry Punch. She took consolation that she still had Ripple for now.

“We need to tell other mares that they have control over their own bodies,” Loch stated. 

“And that sisters have an obligation to keep each other’s bodies safe,” Ripple added. 

“I hate to cut everything short,” Bucky said as he emerged from behind the privacy barrier. “But I am starving and I do believe it is dinner time,” he announced. 
	
	
> Chapter 130
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky reclined and watched as Lyra fed their foal. The foal seemed to be absolutely enchanted with Lyra’s enchanted lyre, and watched it intently after it sprang into existence. As he watched, he reviewed his plans for the evening. He felt confident after his many hours of making spell jars to create something a little special. Tonight, there were dozens and dozens of spell jars to fill and Rising Star was going to help him. 

In the quiet of the evening, Sparkler was studying Bucky's own personal spellbook. She looked confused at times, shocked at other times, and keenly interested most of the time. Sentinel was practicing his writing, a crude pencil held in the grasping digit that opposed the central knuckle on his wing. Piña and Dinky were tucked away in bed, cuddled up against Derpy, and now sound asleep. Derpy was still awake, and Bucky could hear her talking in a low whisper to Thistle and Berry Punch. Loch and Ripple were still awake, but on the verge of falling asleep. Their quiet giggles were becoming fewer and fewer. 

“Bucky, I need to understand something,” Sparkler said in a low whisper. 

Bucky slid from the sofa, crossed the narrow path between the sofas, and settled in beside Sparkler. He leaned over and looked down at the page she was looking at. “What do you need to know?” he asked in a soft voice. 

“Right here, there is a spell called “Acidulent Assault pH 0” and a long series of notes and hoofnotes. I don’t understand any of this,” Sparkler whispered. “What does acidulent mean and what does pH 0 indicate?” she inquired quietly.

“Acidulent means something that is highly caustic or acidic. The pH is how you measure if something is an acid or a base. I took a simple cleaning spell that removed tough stains and that was mildly acidic, about on par with vinegar, which is about a three to a five. I modified it through some magical experimentation until I created the ultimate cleaning spell. This spell will dissolve almost anything. Stone, wood, metal, even living beings. I took a simple cleaning transmutation and turned it into something else,” Bucky explained in a low voice. 

“Oh… oh dear,” Sparkler whispered, her mouth now hanging open. “So you could clean away something or somepony you didn’t like.” 

“Oh, I would never use it on a pony,” Bucky insisted in a gentle whisper. 

“What about something not a pony?” Sparkler whispered with full body shudder. 

“Things not a pony better make sure they never hurt a pony in my presence,” Bucky said in an icy whisper in return. 

“So you just figured this out one day because you were curious?” Sparkler questioned quietly, looking down at the finely scribbled notes. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied in a nod. 

“And you worked as an accountant,” Sparkler whispered in a trembling voice. 

“I enjoyed making the numbers add up,” Bucky admitted. “It satisfies my obsessive compulsive disorder,” he explained in hushed tones. 

“I see. OCD. Explains why all of your notes are kerned to perfect justification to invisible margins,” Sparkler murmured. 

“You know what kerning is?” Bucky asked in stunned disbelief. 

“I worked in the school newspaper for a while. I too, like neat looking text,” Sparkler answered as she leaned over and whispered near Bucky’s face. 

Bucky suddenly felt extremely close to Sparkler, more so than he ever had. He smiled a broad smile and cherished the moment he was experiencing. 

“Can this be put in a spell jar?” Sparkler asked. 

“Of course,” Bucky answered, his smile broadening as he replied.



 

The paper crinkled as Bucky reviewed his notes and magical calculations. He glanced over at Rising Star, whose face still showed signs of being in awe every time his horn slid through the sides of a glass orb and he filled with a tiny puff of fire. The colt inserted his horn, his eyes widened, he released a gout of flame, and then lifted the orb away. 

“That is so awesome,” Rising Star muttered quietly. 

Bucky grinned and returned to his notes. He was creating a new type of spell jar. Something to hold a volatile liquid and a special type of stasis field woven into the glass. It would also have a sort of magical spigot, which would allow the liquid to pass through so it could be used. 

“You are allowed to drink here with me you know. You’ve earned that right,” Bucky said, reminding Rising Star of his privilege. 

“Been sipping, I don’t feel drunk though,” Rising Star answered. 

“Continuous casting of magic nullifies the onset of inebriation,” Bucky explained. 

“I don’t feel magically fatigued yet,” Rising Star reported. 

“It will happen eventually. As long as you keep taking in energy, raw calories, you will be fine for a while, but soon your thaumaturgical nerves will begin to wear out and need rest. You’ll know it when you feel it,” Bucky said, informing the colt so he would be aware. 

“So I could chug a gallon of whiskey and not feel at all drunk?” Rising Star asked. 

“I do it frequently now,” Bucky said. 

Rising Star let out a low whistle. 

“Won’t need to piss either, the continuous casting burns it right out of your system. Last night I killed a three gallon jug of mead down here,” Bucky explained. 

“I am a living inferno powered by booze now,” Rising Star quipped as he returned to work. 

Bucky chuckled and flipped through his pages. Everything looked right. Inside of the glass globe, time should stop completely in a very localised sense, much in the same way that it did inside of a spell jar. Decay would also be prevented, which was important for what he had planned. There were multiple spell matrices and various latticeworks that could contain something very powerful. This was the very pinnacle of transmutation and enchantment. This was ten thousand hours of his life now finally paying off. 

His eye roamed over his supplies. Salt. Sand. His notes. Images of a heptagram drawn to perfect proportions, done in seven perfect strokes. Several sketches of anatomy, detailing the internal structure of a chest cavity and the tissue structures around a heart, all drawn from memory after having seen a book once a long time ago. 

“Rising Star, things are going to get weird for a while. I am going to need you to stay silent. No matter what happens, you must not break my concentration. You must stay silent. Do I make myself clear?” Bucky said in a commanding tone.

Rising Star nodded and set down the glass globe he had just gone done filling. “Before you start, what is going to happen? I mean, so I can be prepared. I’ll keep quiet,” he asked, hoping for some kind of warning. 

“I don’t know what is going to happen exactly, but if everything works, you are going to see something that nopony would believe if you told them,” Bucky said. 

Rising Star nodded, stood up, and backed off to the corner of the laboratory. He sat back down, took a deep breath, and prepared himself for whatever was about to happen. 

Bucky prepared himself mentally for what he was about to do. He was the only pony on the isles that could do what he needed to do, but he was alone, and he needed a second pony with his spell casting abilities. The problem was, type fours were rare. He had found a solution though, and he had been preparing himself for a while. 

He closed his eyes, focused his will, and manifested a direct tie to the ley lines nearby. Raw magic flowed through him and the air around him began to crackle. His horn glowed with a bright blue-green aura. The stench of ozone filled the air. There was a thunderous roar and a flash of bright light. 

And then he saw himself stepping out of a ball of crackling energy. 

“We have very little time,” he said to himself. 

“I know,” Bucky replied. “Ready?” Bucky asked of himself. 

The other Bucky nodded. 

Rising Star watched as Bucky had a conversation with himself and wondered if he was going to go mad. He gritted his teeth together to keep from crying out. One Bucky stood, his horn glowing in blue-green magic, and, as he watched, the other Bucky’s eye changed. It turned red, the white of his eye turned a diseased green, and a pestilent purple haze drifted from it. Black flames crackled from his horn. A whirlwind formed and sand was sucked up into it. Raw magic crackled from both Buckies and the sand turned into liquid glass. The two types of magic shaped the glass into a large orb, it glowed with heat and Rising Star felt as though he was standing too close to a fire. Rising Star realised he had no idea what he was seeing.

Both Buckies stopped casting and the magic orb was held aloft in a blue green aura. The one that had been using dark magic vanished suddenly with a loud popping sound that made Rising Star’s ears ache. 

“Rising Star, hold this up for me, do not drop it. I shall return shortly,” Bucky promised. 

Rising Star did as he was bid, holding the glass orb up in his magic. It felt both light and heavy. As he stared, he couldn’t tell if the orb was growing larger or if somehow, he was growing smaller. And then, Bucky vanished. 

Rising Star was alone in the lab with an impossible object that seemed to be ignoring reality. It felt wrong in his magical grasp. It was a violation of the natural order and every cell in Rising Star’s body screamed at him to let go of the horrible object, or, better yet, hurl it into the wall. Time seemed all wrong. Rising Star wasn’t sure if a few moments or a few hours had passed. 

And then, as suddenly as he had vanished, Bucky returned, reappearing with a thunderclap. Rising Star felt the orb taken from his magical hold. Somehow, he remained silent. 

He watched as Bucky sat down and the orb was further manipulated. The whole room thrummed. He could feel a terrible pressure both inside and outside of his head, and it felt as though it was crushing him. 

“I bet you are wondering what just happened,” Bucky asked. 

“Yes,” Rising Star said in a gibbering whisper. 

“Be calm Rising Star, you sound troubled,” Bucky said soothingly as he worked. 

“There was two of you,” Rising Star whimpered. 

“Yes there was. Do you want to know how I did it?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes,” Rising Star replied. 

“A pony named Star Swirl created a spell that allowed a pony to step through time. The ultimate winking spell if you will. Star Swirl was very clever. He used the spell to send multiple copies of himself back in time so he could give himself details about what he observed, and all of the different versions of himself would watch and observe and experiment as it happened. He would then write down everything he saw from all the different angles of study into his notebooks. I learned this from Sombra’s memories,” Bucky explained. 

“Fascinating,” Rising Star whispered .

“I used the spell to step back into time and help myself infuse magical glass with harmony magic and dark magic. I bent the rules a little bit, but I didn’t break them,” Bucky said with a hearty chuckle.

“So that’s what happened,” Rising Star said, still trying to understand what had just taken place. He took a few deep breaths, rose, and came forward slowly. He took a seat beside Bucky and watched the glass globe take on more enchantments. 

“You can’t change the past. I didn’t change the past. I merely lent a little assistance to the present. Took my self a bit of convincing that I had succeeded in the future, but I believed that I had and I used my will to cling to that belief,” Bucky explained. 

“So you willed the future into existence?” Rising Star questioned. 

“Something like that. Star Swirl did it a few times, Sombra pulled it off once, and I figured if he could it, I had no good excuse for failure,” Bucky answered. He turned the globe around and examined it. It seemed perfect. 

“That thing… it feels wrong,” Rising Star muttered. “It messed with my head,” he added. 

“Yeah, it is trying to mess with mine too. Not doing a very good job. I’ve had much stronger things mess with my head, and a lifetime of learning how to repress everything. All that neurosis has been good for a few things. The essence of dark magic infused into the glass doesn’t like being woven together with harmony magic. This is an artifact Rising Star. The perfection of unicorn enchantment. An impossible object. Sombra made several artifacts. Star Swirl was obsessed with mirrors and made many reflective artifacts,” Bucky said as the room grew cold and the glass orb was cooled. 

“So, what is that thing?” Rising Star asked. 

“A prison and a cask,” Bucky replied. “Well, of sorts. When it is completed, I will show you. You’ve earned that right.” 

“I suddenly want to learn magic… I mean really learn magic. Teach me,” Rising Star begged in a soft pleading voice. 

“We begin tomorrow,” Bucky replied as multi-hued lightning crackled and popped around the orb. “I have so much to show you,” he added. 

Bucky carefully set the orb down on a simple shaped wooden stand he had prepared. It was cool now, and it swirled with darkness and the colours of the rainbow. It was mesmerising to watch, almost like a lava lamp, the darkness an amorphous greasy looking mass that refused to blend with the rainbow whorls. 

“Other than my wives, it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Rising Star murmured. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 131
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was now several hours after midnight, and Bucky had returned to the room his family now called home. Rising Star was collapsed in the bed, exhausted, and sleeping soundly, his mares piled around him. Sentinel was still working on his writing, tireless in his efforts to improve. 

As Bucky watched, the foal yawned. He kissed her softly and then he rested his head down beside her. Bon Bon was stroking his back in slow lazy circles and Lyra was helping Sentinel master fine print. 

And Bucky could not help but feel that everything was perfect. 

“You look tired, you should go to bed for a little while,” Bon Bon suggested. 

“I plan to,” Bucky responded. “Going to be a long day today. And tonight is going to be even longer,” he added. 

“How did Rising Star do?” Bon Bon asked in a low whisper full of concern. 

“Splendidly,” Bucky answered, thinking of Rising Star’s newfound interest in learning the magical arts. He yawned and his muscles softened under Bon Bon’s touch. 

“Her neck is getting stronger. She can hold up her head already. I think tomorrow she’ll take her first steps,” Bon Bon whispered in a prideful voice. 

Bucky eyed the foal. Having larger brains had radically changed the equine physiology. Some of the more primitive equines could walk after birth. Pony kind took a little longer. Early development was still rapid though and Bucky was eager for just one thing. “I want to hear her talk,” Bucky said as the foal squirmed up beside his cheek. 

“Give her time,” Bon Bon replied. “That will happen soon enough.” 

“Not soon enough for me,” Bucky muttered. 

“Bucky, be patient. Every father wants to hear their foal talk,” Bon Bon whispered soothingly into Bucky’s ear, her breath causing his ear to fidget. “You take so readily to fatherhood. So many stallions will have nothing to do with a foal not their own,” she said silkily, still making Bucky’s ear twitch with every word. 

The foal was making burbling noises, and then blew a slobbery raspberry, her little orange tongue sticking out as she did so. 

“There is something wrong with her Bon Bon,” Bucky stated. 

“Bucky, that foal is perfect. There is nothing wrong with her,” Bon Bon replied. 

“But there is Bonnie… her mane ignores the effect of gravity. I think it has gotten worse. Look at her. It just sticks out in all directions,” Bucky whispered. 

Bon Bon let out a wry chuckle and poked Bucky with her hoof. “Don’t you say another word about our foal,” she warned. 

“I am going to go to bed before my mouth gets me into trouble,” Bucky announced. 

“That would be wise,” Bon Bon agreed. 



 

There would be no school today, the teachers now busy with other tasks. Four unicorns assembled in the field where the The Scorned Mare was being slowly resurrected, brought back to life through love, care, and patience. 

Bucky, full of fish, whiskey, and ambition, readied himself for the task ahead. Sparkler looked calm and steady, dependable and reliable as always. Rising Star was twitchy and nervous. The young colt had changed in the past few days. He had discovered ambition and now dared to dream. Dinky, the smallest of them all, awaited the moment with a hungry look in her eyes and impatiently tapped one forehoof against the other. She had scarcely been able to eat breakfast and was behaving like a foal during Hearth’s Warming Eve. 

“We begin,” Bucky announced as his horn began to glow. He settled into the grass and extended his now well focused will. He took Dinky first, the foal was eager and slipped into his mental grasp with no resistance. He could feel her mind. While she looked outwardly agitated, her mind was calm and her thoughts placid. Wearing her out had been a good thing and now, she was well prepared. He took Sparkler next. Sparkler, calm on the outside, was full of fear on the inside, and Bucky could feel it. Fear of the coming conflict. Fear over somepony in her family getting hurt. Fear of failure. Behind the fear was resolve and a determination to protect and defend. Bucky made mental notes to take time to hone Sparkler’s defensive nature. The fear would need to go if she wanted to be truly resolute and become a protector. Slipping into Rising Star’s thoughts was like stepping into a fire. Bucky could feel the colt’s anger. Here there was aggression. Passion. The troubling events of the other day and their battle with the undead had changed Rising Star a great deal. There was also focus, which surprised Bucky somewhat. Rising Star had always been sort of aimless and directionless before. Now, his thoughts mirrored Bucky’s own feelings. Protect other ponies at any cost. Bucky now had a kindred spirit, and he felt a wash of gratitude come over him. 

The exchange of information began, and Bucky tried to give them as much of his experiences as possible. The knowledge of the spells was passed along easily enough, but the nuance and exacting nature of the spells could not be passed along so easily. Still, it was years worth of study transferred in mere moments. True to her nature, Sparkler took in the enduring aspects of the permanency spell the easiest out of the three, and it was the most complicated part of the entire task. 

Long after the information had been exchanged, Bucky continued to hold his foals in his mind. This was a private moment of closeness. He let them feel the love that he had for them, what they meant to him, and how proud he was of them for their efforts. 



 

Berry Punch lay in the grass with the newborn foal huddled against her belly. She watched the unicorns working not too far away and basked in the warm sun. 

“Motherhood suits you,” Derpy said. 

“It is like looking after Piña all over again,” Berry replied wistfully. “Well, I never teat fed Piña, but you get the idea.” 

Piña, hearing her name, looked over at her sister. She had been stroking the foal and sitting quietly in the grass. She said nothing, but continued to enjoy her time with the adults in silence. 

“She’s really enjoying some time out in the sun,” Thistle said as she watched the foal. She lay on her side and her tail twitched occasionally. “Ugh, my back is killing me, I can’t seem to get comfortable no matter how I lay,” she muttered. 

“I am glad my nausea from earlier is gone,” Derpy said. 

“I feel so emotional. I keep thinking about how all of us are pregnant and we are experiencing this magical moment all together, and it makes me want to cry,” Berry blurted out. 

“So cry, let it out,” Piña said softly to her sister. 

“I kinda wish I could,” Berry replied. 

Thistle rolled over on to her back and the shift in pressure caused a blaring blast to come trumpeting out of her backside. “Aaaaah that feels better,” the kelpie said as she sighed in relief. 

“That’s one way to let it all out,” Piña said as she fell over backwards into grass. 

“There is just something about Bucky,” Derpy said as she watched the unicorn working. 

“What do you mean?” Berry asked. 

“Well, when we met him, I found him so handsome. Sure, he was a bit scrawny, but his tan hide and his black mane… he had classical good looks. His looks have changed a bit, but I still find him appealing. Now, he looks dangerous and rough, and that makes my heart flutter,” Derpy explained.

“I see,” Berry responded. 

“What do you see in him Berry?” Derpy asked. 

“I dunno if I see much of anything… I found him handsome, and there is still something about how he looks that I like, but to be honest, with him, it was never about how he looked. He had something that the other stallions I’ve had in my life never had. I’ve been with a number of good looking fellas. Bucky is my mental match. Nopony has ever challenged me quite like he does. I’m attracted to his grim determination and his tenacity,” Berry confessed. “Maybe it is an earth pony thing, but he is just as stubborn as one of us. Plus, I like how he applies his unstoppable force against my immovable object,” she added coquettishly with a titter. 

Piña listened to all of this, and her young mind struggled to take in everything she was hearing. She wanted to say something, to ask questions, but she chose to stay silent. 

“Thistle?” Derpy inquired. 

“I feel safe,” Thistle stated. “I spent so much of my life being scared. Scared of everything. Scared of what I had to do, scared of my kind becoming extinct, scared of being alone, and scared of just having to settle into some horrible life because of my obligations. I’m not afraid anymore. Now I am free to be myself and I am not even sure who I am,” Thistle said. “I never bothered trying to figure myself out. I never thought it was important. When we lay in the bed, and I feel his head resting on my back, or just having him near, I start to dream,” the kelpie confessed. 

“What do you dream about Thistle?” Berry asked. 

“I’ve listened to Dinky talk about painting… I want to learn how to do that. I want to fly on that ship over there. I want to hear a musical concert. I want to watch a play. I’ve heard about all of these things talked about… and I want to see what they are,” Thistle replied. 

“All of those things are possible,” Derpy said to Thistle. “We all see something different in Bucky. That makes me feel good,” she added. 

“I think a better question is, what do we see in each other…” Berry quipped. 



 

The enchantment process was going well. Rising Star wasn’t terribly skilled, but that was expected. Sparkler took to certain aspects quite well. And Dinky… Dinky took to the task with a ferocious tenacity that seemed impossible for her age. Her eye for detail rivaled his own. On her own, without his prompting, Dinky had begun using detect magic spells to make sure that her castings overlapped and provided good coverage. 

It made Bucky proud. 

Even with having to teach as they worked, progress was far ahead of what Bucky estimated it to be. The work needed some touch up and correction, and it was easy enough for him to clean up the messy spots. 

Somewhere, in the middle of all of this, Bucky found his groove as an educator. He was gentle, he was supportive, and he remained patient, all of which noticed by his students. There was no fear of making mistakes or causing disappointment, which made the work much easier. 

At the rate they were going, it would only take a few more days Bucky reasoned. 



 

“Oh, this is very difficult,” Thistle said shyly as she laid on her back. She stroked Piña gently, the little earth pony foal had her head resting on Thistle’s belly and was waiting for the foal in Thistle’s belly to kick. 

“Look, we know that Derpy gets you going,” Berry said in a berry straightforward manner. 

“She does,” Thistle squeaked. 

“So tell us, because we have ways of making you talk,” Berry warned in teasing tones. 

“It is the same thing as Bucky… I feel safe. She’s a pegasus and she is all muscle and protection,” Thistle admitted, covering her face with her forehooves. “When she is holding me I know that nothing can reach me. Nothing can touch me. I’m safe and I can let down my guard.” 

“D’aw,” Derpy said, suddenly feeling more than a little bashful. 

“And what about me? Do I make you feel safe?” Berry asked. 

“Not exactly… sometimes you scare me just a little bit and I like it because it makes my heart race and then other times you scare me a lot and I don’t like that at all, but I keep wanting to you to just scare me a little bit so I can feel my heart beating and in those moments, I find you very desirable,” Thistle explained. 

“I see,” Berry Punch replied. “So I need to work on dialing it back a little bit,” she said as she thought back something Thistle had said previously about being nervous. “You need to tell me when I am crossing a line. A good time is only a good time if everypony is having fun.” 

“Am I attractive? I mean, I have pointy teeth and I don’t have a long pretty mane, and I am not like either of you,” Thistle said nervously. 

“I think you’re pretty,” Piña announced. 

“Why thank you Piña,” Thistle said warmly. 

“Thistle, your talent is undoubtedly sex appeal. It is very hard not to find you attractive,” Berry said as she patted the newborn foal laying on her belly. She could feel it wiggling towards her teats, hungry yet again. She supposed that little unicorn foals had little unicorn appetites as their magical systems developed, because Berry had never heard of such a hungry foal. 

“You never shy away from touching, that goes a long way for me,” Derpy said. 

“Am I pretty?” Piña asked suddenly of the adult females around her. “I am a boring little earth pony… I wonder sometimes.” 

“I am an earth pony and Bucky can’t resist me,” Berry said with entirely too much self confidence. She began to giggle as she felt two little lips tugging on one of her teats. 

“Pink is  a very pretty colour,” Thistle said. “So I think you’re pretty.” 

“When you grow up you will have a lot to offer to the right pony,” Derpy said gently. “You are smart and you are pretty. Just like Berry Punch.” 

“So Derpy, what do you find irresistible about me?” Berry asked in a berry curious tone of voice. Berry stroked the foal on her belly and shivered as tingles rippled through her body. 

“You were there,” Derpy replied in a morose voice. 

“What?” Berry questioned, not understanding.

“You were there,” Derpy repeated. “I was alone. My friends all abandoned me. I couldn’t exactly go out and have a good time with them anymore. My parents shut me out. I lost everything. The love of my young life ditched me. I was alone. And you came along and you were… well, you were you. Same as you are right now. Hard on me when I needed it, soft on me when I was broken, and you were just there. Just like you’ve always been there. You were there when Dinky was born. You took care of me, Dinky, and Piña when I was sick from the infection and my pelvis had to mend after being broken so Dinky could get out. It was just you and Amethyst Star, Sparkler’s mother,” she explained. 

“I am your friend, what else could I do?” Berry Punch replied. 

“Most of your friends abandoned you… you stopped going out with them. You lost so much,” Derpy said in a sorrowful reply. 

“Feck them, they weren’t my friends. They ditched me. I’m better off without them,” Berry grumbled. 

“This is why I love you,” Derpy said to Berry in an emotionally charged voice. “And this is why I wanted to help you Thistle. Somepony was there for me when I needed them most, I can never pay Berry back for everything she has done for me, but I am in a position where I can help somepony else now, and I want to help you,” she explained to Thistle. 

Piña, silent and humbled, realised she was in one of those moments. The adults were all quiet. There were no words. But there was so much emotion. She felt a strange sensation. She could feel it inside of her head, in her hooves, and deep inside of her barrel. She became hyper aware of everything, and she could feel it all. Every green plant in Thistle’s mane and tail. Every blade of grass around her. Every bit of clover. All of the living things in the dirt. She even became aware of the lives around her that she could not possibly see or even know about. There were two such lives in her sister’s belly. There were two more in Derpy’s belly. And the life in Thistle’s belly was so strong and so well connected that Piña could hear, no, she could feel its heart beating inside of her head, inside of her skull, where it thudded against the inner portions of her skull. 

It was all too much and it overpowered her. Her senses shut down and Piña felt herself slipping away. To feel the world around her so completely and unfiltered was overwhelming. She went down smiling. 
	
	
> Chapter 132
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky struggled to deal with his rising panic as he prodded Piña’s limp body with his hoof. She was not responsive. Bucky forced himself to calm, knowing that a panic attack now would be the worst possible thing that could happen. Berry’s panic was not helping him to concentrate and her emotional shrieking echoed in his ears. 

The air around him felt odd, it was magically charged and there was all of the signs of some kind of magical discharge. He cast a simple detection spell, and was very surprised to see Piña’s body glowing in the blue-green aura of his magic. 

It puzzled him, but he could not think clearly. 

He lifted his head, looked at Berry, feeling bad for her, and then looked at Derpy. Both of them were clinging to one another and trembling. Thistle was holding Dinky. Rising Star and Sparkler held each other. The foal lay in the grass before Derpy and Berry. 

He turned his gaze back down to Piña and tried to block out everything. Using his telekinesis, he gently opened one of her eyelids to check her eyes, and what he saw caused him to jerk his head back in alarm. He let go of her eyelid and allowed the eye to close. 

Pina’s eyes were a glowing milky white, flooded with magical essence in much the say way a unicorn’s eyes might react during heavy magic or a surge. Bucky shook his head at the impossibility. Earth ponies didn’t have a thaumaturgical system. 

He lowered his head and placed his ear against Piña’s barrel. Her heart seemed normal to his ears, but he wasn’t overly experienced in this sort of thing. She was warm to the touch, but not feverish feeling or sweaty. 

He took a hoof and held it in his magic, staring at it intently. He ticked the bottom of her hoof along her sensitive frogs with his magic and her leg twitched. It gave him an idea. He gave a soft tickle to her belly, just below her ribs, around her navel. 

Piña’s whole body wiggled under his magical touch. 

“Piña baby, stop scaring daddy, he’s feeling really panicky,” Bucky whispered. “Piña honey, you can stop scaring daddy any time now, wake up Piña,” he begged. 

Bucky was roughly shoved aside by Sparkler, whom Bucky suddenly realised was much stronger than he was physically. He nearly fell over as he was bowled out of the way. As he struggled to regain his footing, he saw Sparkler’s head drop down to Piña’s belly. 

A moment later there was a rude flatulent sound as Sparkler blew a loud raspberry against Piña’s tender flesh. The effect was immediate and sudden. Piña’s body jerked and the foal gasped. Her legs kicked. And then, a moment later… 

“STOP IT SPARKY!” Piña cried as Sparkler’s raspberry assault continued. The foal opened her eyes and blinked a few times, and then rubbed her head. “Why’d you do that for?” she asked. 

“You passed out,” Sparkler said in a worried voice. 

Berry tore away from Derpy, charged forward, grabbed Piña, and fell over into the grass with her, holding her close. Dinky came next, piling in, trying to wiggle her way into Berry’s embrace. 

Derpy held back and looked at Bucky, nervous and afraid. “What happened?” 

“Magic surge,” Bucky said. 

“How?” Sparkler asked. 

“I have no idea,” Bucky replied. 

“Earth ponies have some magic of their own, but how can they have a surge?” Rising Star questioned in a worried voice. 

“I don’t know, but her eyes were flooded with mana residue and she gave off an unmistakable magic aura,” Bucky explained. “She had a surge,” he insisted. “Berry, I know this is hard, but while the magic is still present, I want to do some tests,” Bucky said patiently but firmly. 

Berry, now sniffling, looked up at Bucky. “Tests?” she asked. 

“Yes Berry, tests. Nothing that will hurt her, I promise,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“Okay,” Berry replied as she continued to sniffle. She wiped her nose. 

“Piña, love, are you feeling alright?” Bucky asked. 

“I feel light headed. What happened?” Piña answered. 

“I want to find out,” Bucky said. He gently took Piña in his magic and lifted her up to his face. He cast a simple magical focusing spell, something a bit more informative than a simple detect magic spell. For a moment, Pina’s whole body glowed in a faint blue-green light, and then the glow from most of her faded. The glow intensified around her hooves and shone brightly. 

“Curious,” Bucky said. He kissed Piña on the snoot and gently set her down in the grass. “Berry,  I need your hooves,” he stated. 

Berry rolled over on her back and stuck her hooves in the air. Bucky cast his spell again on her, watched her whole body glow, and then the glow faded. Berry’s hooves also glowed, but faintly. She looked at her hooves with a confused look on her face, and then looked at Pina’s still brightly glowing hooves. 

Bucky snatched Sparkler in his magic and pulled her close. Turnabout was fair play. He cast his spell again on her, waited, and watched. The blue-green glow surrounding her body faded away, leaving behind a harsh glaring orb of luminescence around her horn. 

Sparkler squeaked in surprise from being tugged over and then watched crosseyed, staring up at her own horn as the magic coalesced around it. 

“The spell shows where magic is most focused,” Bucky explained. “I learned it in school to solve magical puzzles and unravel magical mysteries. Most unicorns think this simple cantrip is worthless, but I find that it has so many uses.” 

“So I have magic hooves?” Piña inquired curiously. 

“I’m not sure, but you have magic,” Bucky said. “In the book I read about Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Pinkie Pie has a Pinkie Pie Sense. It drove Twilight Sparkle nuts trying to figure out how that worked. Most earth ponies have some kind of minor earth pony sense… but I guess some earth ponies end up with a bit more,” he reasoned. 

Piña stared at her own forehoof and blinked a few times. It was still glowing faintly. She continued to stare at her hoof even as Dinky grabbed her and pulled her close. 

Bucky, not finished, lifted both Piña and Dinky in his magic. “Stick out your hoof Piña,” he instructed. 

Piña, trembling slightly, stuck out her hoof and watched Bucky with wide open eyes. “My hooves feel tingly and vibrate while you are holding me in your magic,” she said. 

“Interesting Piña,” Bucky replied. He lowered his head and touched her hoof with the tip of his horn. Piña squeaked and jerked her hoof back from him, which caused several alarmed gasps and cries from all around Bucky. “Didn’t hurt did it?” he asked in concern. 

“No, but it felt weird,” Piña answered. She reached out her leg and touched Bucky’s horn again. There was a little fizzle of magic and some sparks. “Weird,” the foal muttered. With a swift and sudden movement, she reached out and touched Dinky’s horn. 

“Hey, nothing happened,” Dinky said disappointedly. 

“Ignite your horn Dinks,” Bucky instructed. 

Dinky, cottoning on quickly, lit her horn and then grabbed Piña’s foreleg in between her hooves. She lifted Piña’s hoof to her horn and brought them together. “Hey, she zapped me!” Dinky shouted as the hoof touched her horn.

“Why?” Piña asked, staring at her hoof as she did so. 

“When unicorns touch horns, it creates a magical circuit if they are actively channeling magic. You get a little zap. Or a big zap. Depends on the unicorns really and how much power they are channeling. Piña is channeling magic right now through her hooves,” Bucky explained. 

“How?” Dinky questioned. 

“Well, a hoof is made from the same sort of organic material as a horn casing really,” Bucky said as he sat down in the grass and made himself comfortable. 

“So Piña has magic?” Berry asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky answered.

“So like a Pinkie Pie Sense?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky shrugged and took a deep breath, his muscles finally relaxing from his state of panic. He gently set Piña and Dinky down in the grass. 

“Pinkie Pie knows stuff,” Dinky said. “I miss Pinkie Pie. She was always so nice to me and Piña,” the foal said sadly. 

“I know stuff too,” Piña stated. 

“And what do you know Piña?” Thistle asked. 

“I know that Berry and Derpy are both going to have twins,” Piña replied. 



 

In the late afternoon hours, Bucky slumbered in the bed, having a bit of a nap so he would be well rested for the night of work that had been planned. Derpy watched him in the bed, sitting on the couch with her foals, Piña still awake and looking alert, while Dinky had dozed off after a long morning of spellcasting. 

Derpy stroked Piña and tried to ease her own worries. She looked over at Berry, who was sprawled out in the straw. The pegasus could see the worry on Berry’s face. Piña’s announcement had hit Berry like a ton of bricks. As she sat on the couch, she could not help but think about what Piña had said to them. 

Twins. 

Piña seemed completely unconcerned about everything as she sat and read her book. 

Derpy’s head turned as there was a soft rapping upon the door. She scowled, feeling irritated, knowing that there were sleeping ponies. She slid from the sofa and made her way to the door. She erased her scowl and opened the door slowly. There was a pegasus outside who looked at her blankly. 

“Ma’am, while Keg Smasher is awake and lucid, he requests the company of Lord Bitters, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, and he asks that the foal be brought to him as well,” the pegasus said gently. “Sparkler and Rising Star have already been informed and are on their way to see him now,” he added. 

“I will wake them,” Derpy replied, unable to hide the irritation in her voice. 

“I do apologise, but Keg Smasher has not been well. He has suffered an entire night of delirium. He is quite anxious to speak to those who have done so much to protect his ponies,” the guard explained. 

“I understand,” Derpy said, her tone now softening. She shut the door slowly and turned around to wake the others. 



 

Standing just outside of Keg Smasher’s door, Bucky yawned. As he was closing his mouth, the door opened and he was ushered in along with Bon Bon, Lyra, and the foal. He saw Rising Star and Sparkler in the room already and heard them speaking in low voices. 

“Are you doing okay Keg?” Bucky asked in a voice of warm concern. 

“I had a rough night, feeling better now though. These two have told me about all the work that has been done,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“The Scorned Mare nears completion,” Bucky reported. “So why are we here?” he inquired. 

“I don’t plan to keep you long,” Keg Smasher said in a raspy voice. “I just want to do what needs to be done,” he added. “First things first, might I see the foal?” he asked. 

Lyra moved forward, the foal held in a bubble of magic. She approached the bed and gently laid the foal down before Keg Smasher. She jerked nervously and twitched as she stood there waiting. 

“You look nervous lass,” Keg Smasher said as he eyed Lyra. 

“I’m sorry… I have some issues… I find myself being very protective and I don’t know how to cope with it yet,” Lyra replied with total honesty. “Plus, I just woke up and everything in my head is jumbled up. I’ve never been a mother before,” she explained. 

Keg Smasher nodded and then lowered his head down to look at the foal. He sniffed her and then gently bumped her with his snoot. After examining the foal for several minutes, he closed his eyes. “So precious,” he murmured to himself. He opened his eyes and looked at Bucky. “Something is up with her mane,” Keg Smasher said. 

Bucky nervously glanced at Bon Bon and then back at Keg Smasher. “I, uh, I think I know what you mean,” Bucky replied.

“Hush, both of you, hush!” Bon Bon scolded. “She’s perfect.” 

“She looks like a little fireball,” Keg Smasher muttered. “An adorable little fireball.” 

“Bon Bon, her mane… it just sticks out in all-” 

“Shut it Rising Star, you will not say another word if you know what is good for you,” Bon Bon interrupted. She turned and gave Rising Star the stinkeye. 

“Aye, this is why I love earth ponies,” Keg Smasher quipped. “I summoned you all for a very important reason. Normally, this would be a bit more formal, but I ain’t in no position to rise and be all courtly about this,” he grumped. 

Lyra, unable to contain herself, snatched up the foal and held it close to her neck, surrounded in the golden glow of her magic. One eye twitched frightfully and the muscles along her ribs quivered visibly. 

Bon Bon reached out a hoof and began to stroke Lyra, calming the twitchy unicorn. 

Keg Smasher watched all of this with a curious expression as he continued. “Rising Star, for your service in the destruction of the undead, I grant you the title of “Sir” and add you to my stable of nobles. Now and forever on these isles you will be known as Lord Rising Star. I thank you for your service,” Keg Smasher said in a wavering voice. 

Rising Star, overcome with emotion from Keg Smasher’s words found he could say nothing. Tears came to his eyes and he bowed his head low. He nodded and then swiped at his eyes with his foreleg. 

“Sparkler Doo Hooves, for your service I am granting you the title of “Dame” and you are to be added to my stable of nobles. Now and forever on these isles, you will be known as Lady Sparkler Doo Hooves. I thank you for your service,” Keg Smasher announced. 

“Thank you sir,” Sparkler said as she bowed her head. 

“Lyra Heartstrings, for your service you have earned the title of “Dame” and I am adding you to my stable of nobles. Now and forever on these isles, you shall be known as Lady Lyra Heartstrings. I cannot thank you enough for your service and for being that foal’s mother. To give of your whole life in service to another is a most noble act,” Keg Smasher said in a gruff voice. 

Lyra froze, unable to reply, her eyes wide. She finally blinked, but remained unable to move. One ear drooped and fell down to the side of her face. 

“She thanks you,” Bon Bon said apologetically as she continued to rub Lyra. 

“Bon Bon, for your service I am giving you the title of “Dame” and you are now added to my stable of nobles. From this day forward and for the rest of time, you will be known as Lady Bon Bon on these isles. I thank you for everything you have done,” Keg Smasher said to Bon Bon. 

“Thank you,” Bon Bon said graciously. 

“I thought I was already a Lady because I was Bucky’s wife,” Lyra whispered, looking very confused. 

Keg Smasher chuckled. “And now you are a Lady by your own merits, and not through marriage,” he said to Lyra. “Sparkler,” he said, now looking at the purple-pink filly, “In addition to your title of “Dame” I am granting you the rank of “Buck Sergeant” as well. This is not an honourific. You showed great courage charging forward and your actions saved a life,” he said solemnly. 

“I was so scared… I nearly messed myself,” Sparkler confessed. “I don’t deserve that.” 

“You were scared, but you did it anyway,” Keg Smasher said. “And yon filly is alive most likely because of your advance.” 

“Thank you sir… I will try to be deserving of this honour,” Sparkler replied, trying to think of how Sentinel might talk as she answered. 

“And you Buckminster… I am giving you the title and rank of “Knight Captain” for your own part in this. Everypony came home safe and you came back with one pony extra. Quite a feat. Consider this your official commission for command over your airship, the first vessel of the Clan Pickled Navy. She will not be the last,” Keg Smasher said in a dry pained voice. 

“That is a title I will gladly accept sir,” Bucky replied, standing up straight and turning his remaining eye upon Keg Smasher. 

“Now if you will forgive me, I need to rest. I don’t feel well,” Keg Smasher said in weak voice. 
	
	
> Chapter 133
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Where have you two been all day?” Rising Star demanded, finally finding his missing wives. He raised his eyebrow and glared at them with what he hoped was gentle anger. He really didn’t want either of them afraid of him. 

“We went flying for a while. And then we landed out in the middle of an island in another loch that can be found a fair distance from here. After that, we had a sisterly talk. So there,” Loch Skimmer replied. Feeling saucy, she cautiously stuck out her tongue, worried that Rising Star might take it wrong. She had seen Sparkler do it, and Sparkler got away with an awful lot for a female. 

“You scared me,” Rising Star stated. He was secretly pleased that Loch Skimmer had stuck out her tongue. It inflamed his desire for her. “So what did you talk about?” he asked in a soft voice. 

Loch Skimmer, taken off guard by Rising Star’s lack of anger felt a little more emboldened. “Sister stuff!” she said with a snort. “What sort of day have you had?” Loch Skimmer asked, changing the subject. 

“Yeah, sister stuff,” Ripple repeated. 

Rising Star rolled his eyes. “Keg Smasher thanked us for destroying the undead. I earned a title and now I am Lord Rising Star apparently. Which makes both of you a Lady through marriage. Sparkler earned a title too, and some kind of promotion. Keg called her a Buck Sergeant. I don’t even know what that is or what it means, but I am so proud of Sparkler right now,” Rising Star reported. 

“So Sparkler got a title and a rank, you just got a title, and you’re happy for her?” Ripple asked, looking more than a little confused. Her muzzle scrunched. 

“Yeah, she did. Why is that a big deal?” Rising Star asked. 

“But you… you’re male. She’s a female. She got something and you didn’t. And you’re not angry? Jealous?” Ripple inquired. 

“Why would I be any of those things? Sparkler was scared out of her mind. And you didn’t see her…. she just charged. At that moment, she was never more beautiful. She didn’t want anypony else to die. She deserves a little extra because of how hard it was on her,” Rising Star explained. 

“I’m having some trouble taking this in,” Ripple said. 

“I am too,” Loch Skimmer admitted.

“So because I am male I should be angry because Sparkler got a rank in the military and I didn’t?” Rising Star asked in confusion. 

“Well, I dunno,” Loch Skimmer said. 

Ripple started to reply, made a half hearted squeak, and then fell silent. 

“But now she’s a Buck Sergeant and you are not,” Loch Skimmer muttered. 

“Hey, I get to shag a Buck Sergeant,” Rising Star pointed out. 

Loch Skimmer began to giggle nervously and then she slipped into guffaws that were free of any sort of apprehension. She stood on three legs and laughed with her eyes squeezed shut. 

“My sister sometimes,” Ripple quipped. “And Sparkler, she has rank now, as bossy as she is, she is going to be impossible to live with,” she added. 

Loch stopped laughing suddenly. “Oh my gosh you are right Ripple,” Loch blurted out. “Rising Star, my sister and I talked. Quite a bit of it was about you. About what we did. About me getting my filly ribbon busted. How gentle you were. I’ve been worried that she is the way she is because of fear… after a number of things that have happened she has a right to be afraid. I was trying to tell her she has nothing to be afraid of,” she explained. 

“Oh… I see,” Rising Star said, now blushing a bit. 

Ripple looked at her sister and advanced on Rising Star, drawing close. “Thank you,” she stated in a timid quavering voice. 

“For what?” Rising Star asked. 

“For making my sister better,” Ripple said. 

“I, uh, oh, er, I…” Rising Star stammered. 

“Please never betray my trust,” Ripple begged. “It is fragile and so easily broken. I want to trust you like my sister does, because I want to be happy,” she said. 

Unable to say anything, Rising Star wrapped a foreleg around Ripple’s neck and hugged her close. He held her for several minutes, she was tense at first but relaxed slowly, and once he felt her relax he buried his face into her pale blue mane. 

Loch Skimmer, watching this, smiled and hoped that her sister would one day share her happiness. 



 

Bucky prepared himself for what was sure to be a long night. There was a lot of work to do, and he was going to be doing it alone. Other ponies were beginning to settle into the bed and Bucky could hear soft voices still talking about the events of the day, murmurs of Piña having magic and the talk of two sets of twins. 

The two sets of twins made what he was about to do even easier. 

Bucky needed to live, needed to survive impossible odds. He needed a trump card, and after much planning, he believed that he had one. 

“You look well rested for once,” Bon Bon said. 

“I feel rather well rested,” Bucky said. 

“It is easier for us to be awake at night,” Sentinel announced. 

“I think you are right Sentinel,” Bucky agreed. “And the night should fear us.” 

Sentinel nodded slowly, his face flashing with emotion for a brief instant before going blank. “Did Lyra brush away the itchies? Are you going to be able to work?” Sentinel asked. 

“I think so… and thank you Lyra,” Bucky replied. 

The unicorn smiled at Bucky. “Thanks for being sweet to me,” she said in reply. 

“Look after our foal,” Bucky instructed. “And try to comb her mane, it kinda sti-”

“There is nothing wrong with her mane!” Bon Bon snapped in interruption. 

Grinning sheepishly, Bucky backed away towards the door. 

“You’re in no position to talk you scruffy little hairball,” Bon Bon grumbled. 



 

The lab was dark. Bucky saw no reason to light any lamps or use any candles. His emerald eye glowed green and filled the room with a light that was easy on his remaining eye, bathing everything in a soft green luminescence that was strangely relaxing. 

Bucky carefully laid out the salt into a perfect heptagram with his magic. The floor had been scrubbed and carefully prepared. Bucky had pulled the spells from Sombra’s memories. He felt ready. Tonight, Bucky was going to make a bold gambit and he hoped that it would pay off. 

He understood that what he was doing was considered wrong by other ponies, but Bucky wasn’t sure if he considered what he was doing wrong. It was unicorn cleverness and a means to get a leg up on what was sure to be a terrible foe. 

There was simply too much at stake to risk a chance of losing. 

Bucky closed his eye and summoned his magic. But not his harmony magic. When he opened his eye, it was a glaring red colour and the white of his eye had turned a pestilent shade of green. Black flames wreathed his horn. 

Using his magic, he sliced open his leg, cutting deep, needing blood. Sometimes, magic meant suffering. He shook his leg over the center of the heptagram, sprinkling blood in the center. 

Terrible words came out of his mouth, ancient guttural words, more growls and grunts than anything, words now mostly forgotten, lost in time. The air around him crackled. Motes of black energy floated all around him. A soft purple glow formed around the heptagram. 

And then, Bucky was not alone in the lab. 

A small fell creature stood within the heptagram, a strange looking monstrosity, it looked like it was part ape and part hippopotamus. In blinked a few times, and then stared down at the blood on the stone floor, licking its lips. 

“Think of it as a peace offering,” Bucky growled. “For your cooperation,” he added. 

The creature began to greedily lap up the blood and then looked at Bucky hungrily. “What do you want?” the creature croaked. 

“I want information imp, and in payment, I offer you freedom,” Bucky replied. 

“Freedom?” the imp inquired, scarcely believing its good luck. 

“I give you my word, I will free you,” Bucky offered. 

“What sort of freedom?” the imp asked in lawyerly tones. 

“Freedom from your suffering. I will release you from your bondage,” Bucky said in his most authoritative voice. 

“I see…” the imp stated. “What do you want to know?” it asked, looking hopeful.

“I need to create armor for a battle. I will be fighting corrupted shadow creatures. But they are the least of my concerns. Fighting their master worries me. I have seen signs of necromancy and strong dark magic. I need to know how to defend myself. I’ve heard that the blood of demons infused into metal will grant considerable protection against dark magic,” Bucky replied. 

The imp nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes, the blood of demons would help you. If you would like, for some more of your blood, I could give you the name of a very powerful demon you could summon. With his name, you could control him. Bleed him dry. Make him screech,” the imp croaked. 

Bucky pondered the imp’s offer and peered at the imp thoughtfully. “Harvesting the blood…” he asked. “Your kind are almost functionally immortal on this plane. I could say, cut off your arm, make you bleed, harvest your blood, and your arm would grow back, am I correct?” 

The imp began to look nervous. “Yeah… my arm would grow back,” it replied. 

“So long as the heart exists, you continue to live. A big dangerous demon would have a heart that is very difficult to get to, so I would have to do a lot of chopping to wear him down and subdue him. Meanwhile, he would be healing rapidly and using his own magic against me. I assume that at some point, he would break free of the heptagram,” Bucky reasoned. 

The imp nodded, his nervousness now gone, replaced by a gleeful expression at the idea of violence against other demons. 

“So if the heart was say, ripped free from the body, what would happen?” Bucky asked. 

“We would grow a new body so long as the heart survived intact,” the imp answered. 

“And the heart would continue to bleed?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes,” the imp said evilly. “Much suffering. The big nasty demon would feel the pain of having to grow back a body. So much pain. Pain. PAIN! Delicious! I could tell you his name!” the fell creature said excitedly. 

“And with this big demon, what if I found a way to keep the body from growing back, but kept the heart preserved? What would happen?” Bucky questioned. 

“Then the big nasty would suffer and suffer and SUFFER!” the imp singsonged. “A pain unimaginable by mortals! Endless agony. So beautiful…” it shrieked gleefully. “Hey… you think like us… you’re not so bad for a pony,” the imp complimented. 

Bucky smiled broadly, revealing his fangs. He took a perverse pleasure in watching the imp study him appreciatively. 

“You know the value of suffering,” the imp said in a serious voice. “Power in pain. You are like us. You have seen beautiful misery. You have felt agony and the rush of power that it brings. You’re like us. You’ve seen enlightenment!” 

“I have,” Bucky agreed. “And now, our conversation is nearly over. I must confess, when I planned this, I assumed that what I would do would free you from your suffering, but it seems that I am wrong. For this, I am glad. I want you to suffer,” Bucky hissed. “How many of my kind have you tormented?” 

The imp panicked and its eyes went wide. It began to claw at its throat as invisible bonds tightened around it. It tried to speak, but no words came out, only a guttural utterance that sounded like “glurk” if such a word as “glurk” actually existed. 

“You’re tiny and pathetic, but as long as I keep your heart beating, you should provide me with what I need,” Bucky said as he went to work. Tendrils of dark magic writhed along the imp’s body and Bucky enjoyed watching the imp squirm. 

The magic cut deeply into the imp’s flesh and Bucky began to pull him open. After ripping open the filly in the farmhouse, this was shockingly easy. He had felt bad for the filly, it grieved him know what he had done to her body, and he was going to spend the rest of his life making it up to her by raising her foal. But he felt no such guilt as the imp was slowly torn asunder. 

“For too long, your kind has preyed on my kind. You feed on our fear. You keep hate in our world. You reach into the dreams of ponies and feast upon their suffering. You plant horrible thoughts into the minds of my kind. You are the source of so many tears upon the cheeks of foals,” Bucky snarled as he worked.

“AND YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID,” Bucky roared. 

The imp looked down and watched as its chest was rent open. It could feel every cut, every slice, every careful stroke of magic. It was beautiful and even the imp felt impressed somewhere deep inside. As he watched, his heart was carved from his chest along with a giant lump of gristle and other meaty bits. As he tumbled over backwards, his body going limp, he watched his still beating heart spurt a little dribble of blood. He reached up weakly with one nine fingered hand, wanting to put his heart back into his chest where it belonged. 

Bucky impaled the heart on his horn, stabbing it through the meaty chunk of gristle so the heart itself would not be damaged. Moving swiftly, he phased the still beating heart inside of the glass globe he had so carefully created the night before. It passed through the artifact glass and then Bucky gently shook it free. 

He stood back and waited, his ear to the glass. He began to worry, fearing that his attempt had failed. And then, he heard it. A faint thumping sound as the heart thudded inside of its glass prison, now held in stasis. 

He turned away from the horrible artifact he had created and surveyed his mess. The body would need to be disposed of. He relaxed his will and ended the spell that had called the creature forth into this plane. In moments, the body faded and fell back into Tartarus. He used the salt to clean the blood from the floor, and then he carefully collected the bloody salt and placed inside of a container. Using a pen, he marked the container carefully, labeling its contents, and then checked for any further signs of mess. Everything looked fine. 

Using a scrap of cloth, he wiped the blood from his horn and then, when he could contain himself no longer, he went to the glass globe with the still beating demon heart and gave it a gentle shake with his magic. 

Inside, there was a faint sloshing sound as it began to fill with liquid. Bucky chuckled to himself. He had his trump card. He placed the orb back into its stand. With time, he would have the demon blood he needed to enchant his armor. 

His work finished, he looked at the door. He was tired, what he had done had taken a lot out of him. He decided to call it quits for the night. 



 

Bucky settled himself on the sofa beside Sentinel and smiled at those who shared the night with him. Sentinel’s back was healing and the foal was looking much better. Bon Bon crawled onto the sofa beside him and he leaned into her. His muscles relaxed as Bon Bon stroked him. 

“Lyra has named the foal,” Bon Bon whispered.

“Oh really?” Bucky replied. 

Lyra, hearing Bon Bon, nodded. “She’s obsessed with my enchanted lyre,” Lyra said in a low soft voice. “I’ve named her Harper Heartstrings,” the unicorn said joyfully in a low whisper. 

“Might I hold little Harper?” Bucky asked. 

Lyra blushed and lifted the foal up in her magic, passing it to Bucky. 

Bucky leaned against Bon Bon a bit more and then cradled Harper in his forelegs. She cooed and burbled a bit, spitting and drooling everywhere, and Bucky treasured her warmth after the cold act he had just endured. “Hi there Harper. You have a name now. You should feel special, most foals around here don’t get a name for a very long time,” he whispered as he pressed his snoot against the foal. 

Harper responded by gumming the edge of Bucky’s nostril and flapping her lips, soaking Bucky in slobber. 

There was a time in Bucky’s life where he would have had a meltdown following such an event, but now he felt comforted. Harper’s eyes turned to look at the floating golden lyre and her little legs kicked as she squirmed in his embrace. 

Bon Bon, being the sharp eyed earth pony that she was, saw the gash on Bucky’s foreleg and the dried blood. She looked at it curiously, wondering how Bucky had suffered such an injury in the lab, but said nothing, hoping not to spoil the precious moment. 
	
> Chapter 134
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The past few days were an exhausting blur. The gasbag was nearly finished. Bucky’s students became much better at their tasks, but mistakes were made. They were easy enough for Bucky to fix though. Harper began to mumble something that sounded suspiciously like “mama” when she saw another pony, even Bucky. Bucky discovered he didn’t mind being called “mama” at all. The days became almost ordinary. 

And deep within the bowels of the castle, in Bucky’s laboratory, a dreadful glass orb filled with demon blood. The terrible heart continued to beat in the darkness. More spell jars appeared every night, many filled with fire. 

Keg Smasher began to make a few public appearances, staggering around on three legs and reassuring ponies that he was still alive and in charge. 

There was much discussion about the upcoming Sisterhooves Social. Plans were being made. Word was spreading all around the isles. 

Somehow, in the middle of everything, it slipped the minds of those involved to speak to Lyra about the troubling words she uttered as she slipped into darkness. It was one troubling event among many, now lost among the flood. 



 

Berry Punch watched as Bucky entered the room. He was carrying a bucket, a bowl, and several other items. He was also grinning the sort of grin that Bucky grinned when he was up to no good, and with Bucky’s new teeth, the grin was impressive. 

Nopony smiled like Bucky. 

As she watched, he set the clean metal pail down upon the floor, the bowl upon a low table, and a small container next to the bowl. 

“What are you up to?” Berry inquired. 

“Hush Berry, ponies are sleeping,” Bucky replied as he pointed to the bed where Sentinel, Bon Bon, and Lyra were slumbering. 

Berry raised her eyebrow. 

“No foals around. Perfect. Well, there is Harper, but Harper won’t mind,” Bucky stated. 

“Bucky, what are you up to?” Derpy asked. 

“Hush Derpy, stallion business,” Bucky answered, giving Derpy a saucy look. 

Berry Punch felt herself grabbed by the legs and dragged across the room, pulled over the bucket, and then held in place. Her eyes widened as she suddenly realised what was about to take place. “Bucky!” she whispered out in warning. She felt her hind legs pulled out apart a bit, and then a delightful tickle over her nethers. 

And then came the delightful slow tugging sensation over her teats, followed by the thud of milk splattering into the pail. Berry’s eyes rolled back into her head and her back arched. There was another long slow tug on her teats and the feeling of pressure being applied was nearly orgasmic. There was a wet splashing sound as more milk filled the bucket. 

“You… you… you’re milking Berry…” Derpy gasped. “And she likes it…” 

Berry, spread legged over the bucket, hiked up her tail reflexively as once again, more milk was coaxed out. She made little mewling sounds of pleasure as more milk could be heard splashing into the pail. 

“She’s presenting,” Derpy said. The pegasus could not help herself, she licked her lips and her tongue left behind a waxy sheen. “I really hope that Sentinel does not wake up,” Derpy breathed. 

Berry was completely lost in the moment. A broad smile split her face, her tongue was hanging out, and her tail was flipped over to one side, exposing her femininity. 

“You’ve found a way to tame the wild Shetland mare,” Derpy said breathily. 

It didn’t take long until Berry was milked almost dry and the pail was partially filled. Bucky scooted Berry away from the bucket, patting her backside with his magic as he sent her on her way. He watched as the mare stumbled away in what could only be described as a euphoric stupor. 

Bucky leaned over the pail, sniffed, stuck out his tongue, tasted, smiled, and lifted his head. He nodded appreciatively as and then lifted the mass of milk in his magic, leaving the bucket on the ground. 

He sat down on the sofa with bubble of magic full of milk over his head and gently smooched the pegasus mare at his side. 

“What are you doing?” Derpy asked with uncontained giggles. 

Bucky smiled but did not reply. 

After a while of holding the milk in a bubble over his head, he dropped the milk back into the pail, fished out a large lump of butter, dropped the butter into the bowl, added salt, and began to fold it into the butter using his magic. 

“You made Berry butter,” Derpy gasped. 

Berry, now recovering, stumbled over the table. “You milked me,” she said accusingly. She didn’t seem upset about in the least. 

“Oh Berry my sweet Berry… I’ve decided to make you my little milkmare,” Bucky said informatively as he continued to fold some sea salt into the butter. He took a pat of butter from the wooden bowl and applied it to Berry’s snoot with his magic. 

The earth pony mare looked down cross eyed at the butter smeared on her snoot. She licked it off, looking upwards with her eyes thoughtfully as she did so. Her eyes glanced around as she rolled the flavour over her tongue. “That is really good butter,” she announced. 

“Berry good butter,” Bucky corrected. He took a dollop of butter and smeared it over Derpy’s nose with magic. A moment later, the grey mare gave him what could only be described as a hot buttery kiss. 

In the bed, Sentinel closed his eye. He had only opened it a hair’s width, but he had seen enough. His family was weird. For the life of him, he could not figure out why Berry seemed to enjoy being milked so much. He pressed himself into Lyra’s side and drifted off into slumber. Lyra was warm and warmth made sense. 



 

Several ponies stood gathered around a boulder jutting out of the ground. A few were pegasi, one was a kelpie, and one was an earth pony. The rest were unicorns, and there was a bit of target practice going on. 

“That was a good shot Sparky,” Ripple cheered. 

“But my telekinetic blasts are so weak,” Sparkler whined in frustration. 

“But you hit the target dead on,” Loch Skimmer said. “Rising Star hasn’t hit the target dead on yet with his fire bolts.” 

“I don’t need to be accurate,” Rising Star muttered. “I just need to ignite something,” he added with a haughty sniff. 

“And with the explosive effect, he just needs to land one in the general area,” Dinky pointed out. “Not fair. I wish I was a pyromancer. I don’t seem to have an element,” the unicorn foal groaned in frustration. 

“Dinky, you are scary with fire spells,” Piña stated. 

“Scary isn’t good enough! I want to be terrifying like Rising Star. You can feel the heat coming off of his body and see the shimmering heat ripples… so much power!” Dinky shouted good naturedly. 

“Dinky, fire isn’t all that it is cracked up to be, you saw what Bucky did to me the other day. He sucked the heat right out of me and left me completely helpless. I really don’t have anything but fire, and that left me humbled,” Rising Star explained. He shuddered at the memory of being totally subdued and powerless. 

“How many ponies are there like father?” Dinky retorted. “Fire is awesome.” 

“That’s a fair point,” Sparkler said. She took aim and let go of another blast, sending a few chunks of stone flying from the boulder. Her eyes narrowed in disappointment. 

“Step aside Sparky, let me show you how it is done,” Dinky boasted. The unicorn foal angled her head at the boulder, closed one eye, squinted the other, stuck out her tongue in concentration, and her horn began to glow. “I think I’m surging a bit, stand back!” Dinky warned. 

There was a loud “PWOOMF!” sound and a starburst of telekinetic force shot from Dinky’s horn. It struck the rock with a thunderclap. Once the smoke and dust cleared, a large crack was visible in the boulder. 

Dinky fell over into the grass, rubbing her head. “Ow,” she muttered. “That hurts, daddy wasn’t kidding… ow ow ow,” she cried. 

“I think the boulder felt that,” Piña observed, her eyes wide with fear. 

Loch Skimmer whistled in alarm. “Wow, look at that,” she breathed. 

“Show off,” Sparkler muttered. “You okay Dinks?” she asked a moment later. 

“I’m fine, I must not be afraid of pain,” Dinky said in reply. The unicorn made her way to her hooves and steadied herself. “Pain is a weakness that will hold me back from what I want,” she whispered to herself. 

“Dinky cracked the boulder,” Rising Star said. “A few more hits in the same spot, and I bet she could break it in half,” he stated. 

“I should be able to bust it in half in one shot,” Dinky muttered. “I keep failing myself,” she added in disappointment. 

“Give it time Dinky,” Thistle said in gentle tones. 

“Daddy could turn this boulder to powder and we keep blasting little chunks off of it,” Dinky muttered. 

“Dinky, that isn’t fair to say, Bucky is a different type of unicorn,” Thistle replied in a soft voice. 

“I’m just not pushing myself hard enough,” Dinky stated in a matter-of-fact voice. “Just going to have to work harder,” she grumbled. 

Rising Star focused, aiming for one of the black marks on the boulder. He took a deep breath, and, rather than just flinging his magic, out, he held it back. He closed his eyes and focused on the black mark he wanted to hit, and he let his magic build. His mane and tail ignited into flickering fires. He opened his eyes and finally let go. 

This time, there were no darts that lept out, but a concentrated stream of fire, a thin red angry beam of flames. It struck the mark and the boulder burned for several moments. A thin trickle of melted stone dribbled from the boulder and the air was filled with heat. 

“Oh… that was awesome!” Dinky shouted. 

“Never done that before,” Rising Star quipped. 

“I’d imagine if you turned your head and swept that beam through a group of wolves, it would be lethal,” Ripple said. She nudged Piña gently, letting the earth pony foal know that she wasn’t alone in having ideas how magic should be applied. 

Piña nodded. “Beam attacks can be used to cut enemies in half. Well, telekinetic beams. I dunno what a fire beam would do,” she admitted. 

As Rising Star relaxed, his mane and tail returned to normal. The air around him cooled off a bit. He gave himself a shake and let go of the fiery urges he had inside. 

“Hey, you want to see something awesome?” Dinky asked. 

“Figure out something new Dinky?” Sparkler asked. 

“Not exactly. Father showed me a new trick,” Dinky replied. 

“Oh no!” Piña said, covering her eyes. 

“What did father show you?” Sparkler asked. 

“Fine control,” Dinky replied with a wicked grin. 

“No!” Piña whined. 

“Shush Piña,” Dinky said as she giggled. 

“Daddy used his magic for evil nefarious purposes,” Piña moaned. 

Aware that everypony was watching, Dinky took a few deep breaths, focused her will, and called to mind thoughts of burning. A bit of foalish rage gave her all the motivation she needed. She took a really deep breath, pushed, strained, lifted her tail, and then farted loudly. 

“Dragonfire!” Dinky shouted as she ignited her flatulence. There was a gout of flame that shot from her backside and scorched the grass. She felt a wash of heat as the flames gushed forth. As soon as the flames died down, she sat down in the grass to extinguish anything that might be smouldering. 

Dinky’s audience was stupefied. 

“I have got to try that,” Rising Star said in a stunned monotone. 

“So do I,” Sparkler whispered in awe. 

“Father has brought evil upon us all,” Piña lamented as she shook her head. 

“That is the most amazing magic,” Thistle murmured. “I want to see it again.” 

“Somepony needs to light mama Derpy’s farts on fire,” Ripple said, her eyes wide with wonder and her ears folded back against her skull. 

“Hey, somepony could light Ripple’s farts on fire,” Loch offered. She froze when three unicorns all turned to look at her sister. “Not all at once,” she added nervously. 

Sparkler’s gaze moved from Ripple to Loch. “Nopony farts like Ripple… I swear, she’s been taking lessons from mom,” she insisted. 

“It was just a few pointers,” Ripple said dismissively. “And I don’t want to explode violently. Keep all open flames away from my backside if you please!” Ripple began to back away from the group. 

“The whistling sisters,” Rising Star said with a chuckle. 

“Except one whistles out the wrong end,” Sparkler continued. 

“I wonder which tribe of pony’s farts burn the brightest,” Piña wondered out loud.

“Only one way to find out,” Dinky announced. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 135
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky worked quietly in the lab, but not alone. Tonight, Dinky, Sparkler, and Rising Star were with him, and the trio worked together to fill the globes. They were all moving towards a more nocturnal schedule now that The Scorned Mare neared completion. 

It was a tough adjustment for some, a natural progression for others. 

While his students worked, getting a chance to safely practice dangerous spells by casting them into spell jars, Bucky worked on something a little different. Using nothing but his magic, he had created something of a minor metalworking forge. He experimented with brass, and he was working the pliable metal into shape. It was now cooling, two little metal frames that looked a bit like odd figure-eights, one larger, the other smaller. As they hung suspended in the air, his magic leaching heat from them, he worked on creating four glass lenses. This was a practical concern, for him and Sentinel, and he intended to do something about it. Straps of canvas were created. Once the metal was cooled, everything was assembled carefully, and after several hours of magical labour, Bucky placed his finished projects down upon a table. 

“Bucky?” 

“Yes Rising Star?” Bucky replied. 

“I think I can finally feel what you’ve been talking about. I’ve always been a sort to worry. It has been different lately though. I keep focusing on things… and I can’t stop thinking about them,” Rising Star admitted while he worked. 

Bucky closed his eye and felt a wash of sadness overtake him. “That sounds like a symptom,” he answered. 

“I get like that,” Dinky said. “I keep thinking about being a little brat at breakfast the other day and being so angry, and my brain won’t shut up, and it makes all my muscles feel herky jerky and my eye starts to twitch a bit,” she explained. “I wasn’t like this before my cutie mark showed up.” 

“Yeah, that’s it,” Rising Star said to Dinky. 

“My thoughts feel a little more unsettled lately, but I can’t tell if it is stress or some kind of unicorn neurosis,” Sparkler stated. “There is a battle coming and I keep thinking about it. I am lousy at offensive magic and it just burns me up inside.” 

“Petrification is-” 

“Father, petrification cannot be relied upon. I have no control over when it happens, and it isn’t like I can sit back and practice to make it better,” Sparkler interrupted. 

“Sparky, you are more defensive. Focus on protecting others. You and Rising Star compliment one another. You’re the stop, and he’s the go. You’ve seen him, he has almost no defensive abilities of his own. He can’t make a telekinetic barrier to save his life. He can’t even make simple shields. If something ever gets past his offense, he is in big trouble. Be a shield to others,” Bucky explained, trying to comfort and reassure his daughter. 

“It worries me that I have no defense to speak of,” Rising Star admitted. 

“And I still don’t have an element,” Dinky said in a pouty voice. 

“Dinky, some unicorns never develop a strong connection to a particular element. More and more you are showing signs of strong mental magic, maybe your magical talents are attuned to other things,” Bucky suggested. 

The unicorn foal stuck her horn into a spell jar, summoned forth a poof of fire, and then pulled out. “Maybe… but just once I’d like to just burn everything like Rising Star does,” Dinky whispered. “Beautiful fire.” 

“Why fire Dinks?” Sparkler asked. 

“Why not?” Dinky replied. “If not fire, then lightning like Lyra. Or that thing with the rapid fire icicles that father does or the explosive ice orb… I want the whizz-bang burn off your eyebrows spells,” she added. When she was finished speaking, Dinky yawned and rubbed her belly. 

“The explosive ice orb was something,” Sparkler said, recalling the demonstration a few days previous. 

“The explosive ice orb is more psychological… sure, it is damaging, but it is as Dinky says, whizz-bang magic. On a battlefield with other sapient, beings, they would see it and panic. There are far more efficient spells for killing but they lack the spectacular whizz-bang effects that Dinky seems to be after,” Bucky explained. 

“I dunno Bucky, the other day when you sucked all those wolves into one little spot with that spell, froze them, and then shattered them, that was whizz-bangy,” Rising Star said in an insistent tone. 

“I am not even sure how I did that,” Bucky admitted. “Reflexive spell casting perhaps. It almost felt like something else channeled the magic through me.” 

“I wish I could have been there to see that,” Dinky said. 

“Your day is coming soon,” Bucky said to Dinky. “Well, night. Think you will be ready to defend your mother’s blind spot?” he inquired. 

Dinky’s eyes narrowed and a change came over the foal. “Nothing hurts my mama,” she hissed. Sparks flew from her horn as she spoke and her eyes had a manic gleam. “Nothing hurts my family.” 

“Easy Dinks,” Rising Star said soothingly. 

“I’m fine,” Dinky said reassuringly. “I have it under control. I’m just motivated now,” she explained. 

“You look too much like father when he gets that look of his,” Sparkler said to her sister. 

“Our herd is all we have,” Dinky retorted in a soft voice. “Daddy told me to focus on a reason to hold back all of the rage… I will keep those I love safe,” the foal growled. 

Bucky did not look up as he examined a spell jar. “Dinky is managing Sparkler. I’ve been inside of her head. She’s doing the best she can. She is honestly giving it everything she’s got, and she has nothing left to give. The stress is certainly affecting her,” he said as he watched the swirling fire inside of the spell jar. 

“And what about when this ends?” Sparkler asked. “When we’re no longer draining out her excessive magic into glass jars of death? When we go home and have to live among normal ponies? When there are no enemies left to fight?” 

“By then, with no enemies left to fight, the stress will go away and things will be much easier,” Bucky replied. 

“Father, I… I disagree…” Sparkler said in a small fearful voice. “When we get home, we are going to have to answer for things we’ve done here. That will be stressful. And we will be a herd of ponies living among other ponies that probably don’t like herds. And that will be stressful. And then there is adapting to life back at home again… Dinky dealing with other foals in school, foals who are going to tease her about her family and how her father looks and the scary bat pony brother she has and… and… and…” the unicorn filly broke down mid sentence and began to cry.

Bucky slumped, feeling a crushing weight bearing down upon his shoulders. “I was hoping to deal with that later… I didn’t want to think about that now,” he confessed. 

“It is all I can think about,” Sparkler screeched, her own emotions finally boiling out. “I think about my sister being teased and I have nightmares about a town full of pony statues!” 

Rising Star, saying nothing, moved over and placed a foreleg around Sparkler’s withers. He pulled her close and the pair sat huddled together, looking grief stricken and hurt. 

Dinky went strangely blank, showing no real sign of emotion, which caused Bucky to feel a rising sensation of panic. Bucky realised that he didn’t know what to say or do. He had only planned for the wolves, but preparing for life at home seemed far more terrifying. The wolves were a threat that Bucky could obliterate… other ponies at home were a threat that Bucky had no idea how to even begin dealing with. 

“We’re done here for the night,” Bucky said in a controlled monotone. “We’re going back upstairs, Dinky, you are going to go to bed, Rising Star and Sparkler, you two are going to spend some time together before going to bed, and we will return to this task tomorrow night,” he commanded in a flat voice. 



 

The dawn broke, the grey light filled with promise. Each day felt urgent now, a strong need to get things done. So much was happening so quickly. 

Sentinel yawned, feeling exhausted. He had spent the last few hours slipping in and out of shadow, becoming an insubstantial mass of writhing black darkness and then holding to that form for as long as he could. Now, he was laying on the floor clutching his frizzy maned sibling. Harper’s mane had really fluffed out over the past few days, but Sentinel did not dare to say anything with Bon Bon present. 

Bon Bon’s raised eyebrow was the worst punishment that Sentinel could imagine. 

Using his wing, Sentinel tried to smooth out the foal’s fluffy orange mane, gently stroking along the contours of her skull and down her neck. The foal giggled from his touch and her mane sprang back to its cloud-like mass mere moments after his repeated attempts to smooth it out. He tried smoothing it out yet again, and this time, as his wing caressed her neck, Harper’s horn ignited. 

Raw energy crackled and Sentinel felt his muscles all tense from a strong static discharge. It was over in a moment, and then Harper giggled as she rubbed her head with her forehoof. 

“Oh my gosh, Sentinel, are you okay?” Lyra inquired in panic.

“That was… unpleasant,” Sentinel confessed. 

“Little unicorns get magical surges… crazy magic sometimes,” Lyra explained. 

Bon Bon came over in a hurry and stood over Sentinel and Harper. She looked worried. “Are you sure you are okay Sentinel? Your ear tufts are smoking,” Bon Bon whispered. 

“I will endure my sister’s outbursts,” Sentinel replied. He waggled his ears and looked at Harper. “That was a good first attempt at magic,” he said proudly. 

“Sentinel’s mane… it looks a lot like Harper’s right now,” Lyra said as she tried to suppress a giggle. 

“Shush Lyra,” Bon Bon commanded. 

“Is something wrong with my mane?” Sentinel asked. 

“No,” Bon Bon insisted. 

“Nothing that can’t be fixed with a hairbrush,” Lyra sniggered. 

“What happened to Sentinel’s mane?” 

Bon Bon turned and looked at Derpy, who was easing herself out of the bed. Bon Bon sighed. “Harper let go of a tiny bit of magic,” Bon Bon answered. 

“I want to see Bucky’s mane get zapped,” Derpy said as she looked at her slumbering husband. She stretched her wings and arched her back, trying to get the kinks out. Her usual trumpeting honk to greet the morning echoed through the room and several other ponies began to stir. 

“Derpy… I just don’t know what to say. That’s horrible,” Bon Bon said. 

“Sorry… I can’t help it,” Derpy said. 

“Not the farting, wanting to see Bucky get zapped,” Bon Bon clarified. 

“But his mane is down past his shoulders now… he would look funny,” Derpy retorted. She vanished behind the privacy barrier and said nothing else. 

“It would look fu-” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon snapped. 

“-nny,” Lyra continued as her ears drooped. 

Sentinel ignored the adults around him and focused on his tiny sibling. “She looks unhappy,” he announced. “You think she’s hungry after that magical discharge?” 

“Maybe,” Lyra said as she snatched Harper out of Sentinel’s embrace with her magic. 

“Mamamoo,” Harper burbled when she saw Lyra. 

“Nuts,” Sentinel grumbled to his empty forelegs. He scowled. It was much easier to be the cuddle-er rather than the cuddle-ee. His ears splayed out sideways as he contemplated his lot in life.

Lyra settled down upon the sofa, rolled over on to her back, and settled Harper on her belly. The foal sprawled out, made herself comfortable, and began to suckle noisily. 

“Look at Lyra,” Bon Bon said to nopony in particular. “She used to be so shy. So closed off. And now look at her.” 

“Bonnie… you’re making me self conscious,” Lyra whined. “This is much harder than it looks,” she whispered. 

“I know Lyra, but you are doing it,” Bon Bon said proudly. 

“Harper is more important than any discomfort that I might have,” Lyra said in a small timid voice. 



 

As Bucky stepped into the bright sunlight, he adjusted the smoked glass goggles with his magic. His remaining eye was sheltered behind a dark lens, and his replacement eye was hidden from view. He had made a pair for Sentinel as well. 

He blinked a few times, and found that he could see much better. Glasses might have worked, but would have let in a lot of light from the sides. 

“Those goggles make you look like one of those airship captains from some movie,” Derpy remarked. 

“Knight Captain Buckminster Bitters,” Bucky said in reply. “I think that almost every little unicorn wants their own airship at some point in their life,” he confessed. 

“Ponies keep talking about movies,” Thistle muttered. “Come on, let’s go get you some breakfast,” she announced. 

“You hate your titles, but you seem happy with that one,” Derpy said. 

“Lord Bitters sounds dreary, Lord Buckminster makes me think too much about my father and his insistence on being addressed properly, even by my mother and I… yeah, I had to call him ‘Lord Buckminster’ or I’d be in a heap of trouble… but I must confess, I like the title Keg Smasher has given me. I feel like I have actually earned this one, rather than just be born with it,” Bucky explained. 

“You need a jaunty hat,” Derpy said as she squinted at Bucky. 

“I think I do,” Bucky agreed. “And The Scorned Mare is the first of many airships. Everypony that has worked to restore her has learned valuable skills. Keg Smasher will probably have to hire some unicorns to come and do some of the enchanting, but these ponies understand the industry of airship construction now. Once they get themselves a navy, they will have some feeling of power over their own destiny… even if they do plan to merge with Equestria, they will want some sense of identity and a fleet would provide that. Airship construction is considered one of the foundational cornerstones of an industrialised modern society according to most herdology scholars. This is the first big step out of the dark ages. With their own fleet, they can transport the liquor they produce and sell on their own terms. They’ll have a shipping industry. That will provide jobs. Generate wealth. They will start getting a mercantile presence in the world marketplace. This is the beginning of good things… and all because we needed an equiliser to fight the wolves,” he elucidated.

“My back is killing me,” Thistle said. “And my hips… I’m miserable,” the kelpie confessed. 

“Aw, I know how it is Thistle,” Derpy said warmly. 

Bucky, saying nothing, scooped up Thistle in his magic and relaxed the effects of gravity upon her body. The look of relief upon her face was almost immediate and she relaxed as she remained suspended in the air. 

“Oooh you get extra fish for this… and maybe a little something else,” Thistle promised. 

“Hey, you’re little… and you’re something else,” Bucky quipped as he followed after Derpy on the way to the lake. 
	
	
> Chapter 136
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With the afternoon came fatigue. Wearied, Bucky retired to their room and settled into bed, exhausted but happy, the morning had been productive and the gasbag was nearly complete. Bucky would need to give it a good once over, but he felt that it might be finished by tomorrow. The smoked glass goggles had done much to protect his eye, and allowed him to see in the daylight quite well. 

Moments after settling into bed, Bucky drifted into slumber as he felt Sentinel press up against him. He could hear Berry Punch talking in a low voice to Harper. He loved the sound of Berry’s voice when she was talking to little foals, a voice so smooth and sweet. As he slipped away, he wished that she would talk to him like that. 



 

The hinterlands. The land around him was dead. There was life to be found in the hinterlands, but Bucky had no interest in that. He struggled with two sets of memories. He was in his body, but it was not his body. This body was free of pain. This body no longer had to suffer. This body was taller, more powerful, and had wings. 

Bucky realised that he was an alicorn. 

The alicorn of war. 

He drew strength from violence and conflict. All around him was sand, sand to create the perfect army of spell jar golems, massive animated golems made of glass and death. Killing them, shattering them, engaging them in combat, it would break them and release the horrific spells they had contained inside. His army awaited. 

His fine tuned senses felt the approaching presence of conflict. Hatred approached. Something came for him that intended violence, and as Bucky waited, he could feel his muscles swell as he drew more strength. 

Ascension. Bucky had done so twice. The first was the change from being a pathetic unicorn, the second was from his worthless minor alicorn body. He had bound himself to warfare and all that goes with it, becoming immortal in the process. Much like Celestia and Luna, who had bound themselves to celestial bodies, and as long as those bodies existed, they would continue to endure. And so it was with Bucky. He drew strength from war and conflict, and this world was full of war and conflict. 

There were two alicorns left… Twilight Sparkle and Cadance, both minor alicorns. Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn of magic, approached rapidly, her need for violence giving him strength. Cadance had chosen to hide, knowing all too well that Bucky was nigh unstoppable as long as there was war in the world. 

Celestia and Luna were now gone, banished into their celestial spheres. One of the many privileges of being the alicorn of war was intrinsically knowing the weaknesses of your enemies. Bucky had no such weakness. There would always be war in the world. There would always be violence, hatred, and strife. And once he was done here in this world, he would move on to other worlds, sowing war, death, and destruction everywhere he went. 

Trapped inside this body, inside of this mind, Bucky realised that he was merely a passenger, trapped inside of a being that he feared becoming. This body was perfect, free of scars, unmarked by suffering and pain. His horn was long and straight, but more importantly, natural. 

In the distance, there was a thunderous boom as something approached, moving past the sound barrier, which meant that she was already here. Bucky flicked his magic and was shielded. He waited. 

And did not have to wait long. 

“YOU TOOK THEM AWAY FROM ME!” Twilight shrieked as she approached. 

Bucky felt himself seized in magic, lifted, and then slammed into the sides of ravine, shattering stone and sundering the earth from the impact. Several hundred thousand pounds of force had slammed into him, Twilight’s rage giving her power. Too bad Twilight’s rage gave him power as well. 

He laughed. 

The violence made him strong. 

He rose up from the shattered earth, his wings unfurled, and faced his opponent. She was little, she was fragile, and she did not understand. He could see it in her eyes. She truly believed that she could defeat him. 

Bucky, the real Bucky, trapped inside, felt pity and wanted Twilight to flee. He existed solely as a passenger, along for the ride, forced to watch as these terrible events unfolded. He watched through eyes his own yet not his own as Twilight was slapped with a raw blast of pure telekinetic energy. She was sent flying, hurled at the earth, her impact dug a long furrow into the sand and stone. She emerged from the trench several moments later, smiling a bloody smile, her feathers now ruffled and her horn glowed menacingly. She was mad with grief and Bucky wanted nothing more to try and comfort her. 

Except the body that Bucky found himself in had no such plans. 

Twilight let go with all of the magic she had at her disposal, and Bucky felt the blast connect with him. He winced inwardly, expecting pain. He felt nothing. Nothing at all. There was no pain. Just as there had been no pain during his own collision with the earth. The force of the blast flung him backwards, pushing him, and he was driven several hundred feet into the solid stone of the mountain behind him.  

Grinning in the dark, he ripped the mountain from its foundations and hurled it at Twilight Sparkle, feeling ever stronger due to her hatred. 

Twilight Sparkle, seeing the mountain coming right at her, spread her wings and flew for her life, knowing that such an impact would be fatal. She failed to understand that her foe was immortal, she assumed that there was some weakness, some means to defeat him and as it had always done for her, a means for victory would present itself if she endured long enough. 

“You do know that there will be no further ascension for you, right?” Bucky boomed. “You are not giving your body for some glorious cause or some magnificent end, you are here for revenge plain and simple. When you die, it will be due to your own selfishness and stupidity,” he explained as his horn charged. He knew what needed to be done to break Twilight, how fragile her mind was, he knew her weakness. Fear of failure. 

A part of Twilight that still held a spark of reason knew that Bucky spoke the truth. At his words, that last remaining vestige of sanity died and Twilight slipped into despair as she felt the crushing grip of failure close around her. She charged as the mountain struck the earth and shattered into boulders. She bellowed a wordless equine cry of murderous rage. 

The two beings battled, but for different reasons. Twilight sought vengeance, wanted revenge, while Bucky allowed the battle to continue, drawing strength from the conflict. He fed from Twilight’s hatred, from her violence, becoming stronger with each passing moment. Spells were hurled. The landscape was forever altered. Canyons that would have taken eons to form sprang into existence in seconds. The sky became black and sooty. 

And Bucky watched all of this in horror, knowing that the monster he had become was merely playing with her. He tried everything that he could to assert some control, to extend his will, to reign in the rough beast he had become. 

There was nothing he could do.

As he watched, Twilight was hurled several miles straight down into the earth. Even with her protection spells and considerable magic, the impact was terrible. He could see her from his high vantage point, struggling to rise from the ground, one wing now broken. The battle for control of the skies was now over. 

Tired of this game, Bucky drew together several hydrogen atoms and began the process to fuse them in the ultimate reaction. It was a casual dismissive act of magic, not even the worst of what he could do. Even as he and Twilight battled, his influence was spreading all over the world as all of the major species began to go to war. It was time to begin the purge. An alicorn of war only has one purpose, and his battle with Twilight had given him the last bit of strength he needed to begin the end of all things. 

Twilight, sensing what was going on, knowing of the dreadful atomic chain reaction taking place, wrapped herself in a protective cocoon of magic, bringing everything she had to bear for her own protection. 

There was a massive explosion and a monstrous mushroom shaped cloud rose up from the earth. Bucky waited, knowing that his prey would survive, but would be broken into submission. He circled overhead for a long time, feeling the world going to war all around him. The griffons were his most devoted minions, finally free to wreak havoc. Now under his influence, the gates of Tartarus opened and all of the horror imprisoned inside spilled out. The world went mad with the need for war, and far away in isolation, Cadance felt what little power she had left begin to fade and die. 

And Bucky, little scrawny Bucky, who wanted no part of any of this, thought that he might go mad. He wanted this to end. His own hold on sanity became a little more fragile with each passing second. 

Alicorn Bucky dove down into the fiery horror of the nuclear blast, circling low over the scorched black earth and it did not take long to find Twilight Sparkle. Her defenses had not been enough. She was burnt and blackened, somehow still alive, one eye and most of the side of her face burned away. She writhed on the scorched ground and panted in the gritty radioactive air. Her wings were stumps, the feathers burned away, and she was a leathery withered looking imitation of her former self. 

Bucky landed and approached. She was helpless, broken now, and he stood with one hoof pressed down upon her skull. “You could still live if you wanted… beg Twilight Sparkle. Beg me for your existence and I will give you a new body… become my broodmare and birth my foals of war for me,” Bucky demanded. 

Twilight did not reply, but spat. 

Alicorn Bucky sighed. He applied pressure with his hoof. 

Bucky, good Bucky, cringed at the sound of Twilight’s skull being crushed. He wanted this to end, for it to be over, for this nightmare to stop. He knew what came next. Cadance. He knew this future, this when and where. 

Alicorn Bucky spread his wings, his work only beginning. If you killed one being, you were a murderer. If you killed many, you became a conqueror. If you killed them all… 

You became a god.



 

Bucky awoke, pinned under Bon Bon’s weight. She was shaking him, slamming him down into the mattress repeatedly, and as his eye opened she ceased her frantic attempts to wake him. 

“I was about to send Sentinel in there after you, but I wasn’t sure if it would be dark enough for him to do anything,” Bon Bon said in a loud jarring voice. 

Bucky grabbed Bon Bon and pulled her down on top of him, crushing her body to his. She squeaked in alarm, squirmed, and finally gave into his embrace. He held her close and clutched her tightly. He could feel Lyra stroking him softly, and Sentinel was beside him. Berry’s cool touch was applied to his forehead, and he felt himself calming down.

Eventually, he relaxed his grasp on Bon Bon, but she did nothing to wiggle free. She remained, her head resting on his barrel, stroking his ribs with her hoof in a slow moving circle. 

“It was awful,” Bucky whispered. 

“Shush Bucky, not now,” Berry said gently. 

“Death, it all ended in death,” Bucky murmured. 

“No,” Bon Bon said soothingly. “There is all life all around you. Think of Berry, of Derpy, or Thistle. Think of the lives in their bellies. Think of Harper. Try to think like an earth pony and focus on life.” 

“Whatever it was, it was just a dream. I have this place well warded from outside influences,” Lyra said reassuringly. 

“Nopony can protect me from myself,” Bucky said bitterly. He could feel Bon Bon’s weight bearing down upon him. She was steady and sturdy, just as Berry was. Suddenly, he understood why one of his distant ancestors married an earth pony. It wasn’t a feeling he could put into words, or ever even hope to express, but he was grateful for Bon Bon and Berry Punch in this moment. The only words would come close to expressing his feelings, the only notion that expressed his thoughts, was that earth ponies were indeed the ultimate affirmation of life. 

“If it will make you feel better, you can milk me again,” Berry offered. Her tone was serious, her demeanour comforting. She would do anything to distract Bucky from his suffering. 

“Maybe a bit of time spent with Harper?” Lyra suggested. “She’s snoozing in the straw, but I know she wouldn’t mind a bit of time with her daddy,” the unicorn said softly. 

“I’m okay, just like this... for now anyway,” Bucky said. He could feel the sweat dribbling from his sides. For a moment, he felt awkward and embarrassed for having Bon Bon pressed up against him in this condition, he could feel his sweaty scrotum pressing up against her navel, but then he reminded himself that she obviously didn’t care. He felt his mane being brushed from his eyes and Berry’s cool touch made him shiver. 

“I still have bad dreams too… after what happened when I came to you in your dream,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “My dreams serve as a warning that I cannot stand alone and remind me just how much I need all of you,” he admitted. “I don’t know much about dreams, but I do have a few… instincts I guess you could say. Dreams keep us moral, to serve as a warning,” he explained. 

Now calming down, Bucky considered Sentinel’s words. He thought of the imp’s words as well, at how much he was like them. His mind filled with words he wanted to say, but no words seemed forthcoming. He felt a strange gratitude for the pain in his hind legs, recalling all to well the sensation of being completely pain free as an alicorn. More of the imp’s words lingered in his mind. 

All of his thoughts were scattered to the four winds when Berry’s muzzle clamped down upon his and she kissed him. Berry was aggressive, applying heavy suction and invading with her tongue, obliterating his ability to ponder and think deep thoughts. 

Finally, Berry pulled away and Bucky was left breathless. 

The Alicorn of War was forgotten, Bucky wanted to be the Unicorn of Drunken Sex. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 137
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t want…. this...” Bucky said haltingly as he gestured to the world around him. He took a long slug of mead and then set the jug down. “I just want a quiet life with foals and those I love,” he muttered in irritation. 

Berry Punch exchanged a glance with Derpy, but neither of them said anything. 

“I want those chains that Celestia saw fit to bind me with. I need those. I keep getting little glimpses of the future, little peeks into what might be, and I don’t want any of it!” Bucky bellowed. “I don’t even have the luxury of self pity and neurosis anymore… I can’t just slip away from reality with a panic attack because so much is depending on me… but nothing should depend on me… I… I… I hate that I have no control over my life or the events that keep happening to me!” he snarled. 

“Bucky-” Berry began.

“All I did was poke my snoot into magic a bit more than most and that sealed my fate. Something that I loved. I couldn’t control my life, I couldn’t control how my parents treated me. I couldn’t make them love me and I could never earn their approval now matter how hard I tried, but I could control magic. It was the only thing I could control as a foal. I did impossible things. I couldn’t make my parents love me but I could make reality bend and flex to my will. And because I wanted some means of control in my life, some small means of comfort, of something I had control over, I ended up tangled up in this destiny that I want no part of! I don’t want to be the alicorn of war. I don’t want want to be the alicorn of anything. I don’t want to be Sombra’s heir or the Lord of Winter. I want to be the pony that makes my wives make funny faces when I screw them silly,” Bucky rambled. He tilted back the jug he was holding in his magic and guzzled down at least half of it in one go. He wobbled unsteadily. He was expending no real magic to burn away the alcohol’s effects upon him and he had already downed an entire crockery of strawberry wine and a jug of whiskey that had been about one third full when he had entered the lab earlier. 

“Bucky please-” Berry continued as she lifted her hoof towards Bucky. 

“I want to have tea parties with Piña. I want to watch Dinky grow up and become whatever she is meant to be. I want to grow old with somepony. I want to watch Sentinel grow up and fall in love with somepony, because I know that it would be hilarious to watch the stuffy little guy fumbling around in love and trying to act all noble. I want to live and see just how floofy Harper’s mane becomes because right now her mane is pretty fecking floofy and I don’t care what Bon Bon says…” Bucky ranted.

“Floofy?” Derpy said, repeating the strange word. 

“Fluffy-poofy,” Bucky explained, his words slightly slurred. “And then there is Sparkler, Rising Star, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple… I want to see them make their marriage work… Loch Skimmer is already starting to heal and now she is blossoming into the most wonderful filly… young mare… -bluuurghph- that belch tasted terrible… I worry about Ripple, but she is starting to trust me and I treasure every moment where she touches me or hugs me and she isn’t afraid of me… I want to look after my girls… I love my girls. My girls… I love them all so much,” he mumbled. 

Berry leaned over closer to Derpy and raised her eyebrow. “He’s drank himself to the “I love everypony” stage already, look out,” she warned. 

Derpy looked around the lab, not sure what she was seeing, and wished she was someplace else. There were glass orbs carefully stacked in crates. There was a big glass orb that swirled with rainbows and darkness sitting on a stand. There were a few ingots of brass, sand was everywhere, and there was a collection of marked containers sitting upon a low table. As she looked around, she saw a glass pegasus sitting on the workbench. 

“What’s that?” Derpy asked. 

“A pegasusususususus,” Bucky answered. “I made it before you two showed up… I was lonely,” he confessed. 

“It’s beautiful,” Derpy said. 

“Bucky, the sun hasn’t even set and you disappeared off by yourself. We sort of figured we’d find you here. You don’t need to be lonely,” Berry said. 

“Is that me?” Derpy asked, squinting at the glass figure with her good eye. She could see details in the glass… including a few distinctive bubbles. 

“In miniature,” Bucky replied. “Every curve, every detail, all from memory. Every contour of your body, and I made a copy out of glass…” he muttered. “I was about to make one of Berry Punch before you both showed up.” 

“You… made a little glass version of me?” Derpy questioned, her eyes now misting over. 

“I wanted to remind myself how fragile life was… so I made a glass pegasusususususus to talk to,” Bucky explained. He tilted back the jug of mead and killed it off, guzzling down the rest of the contents. He belched thunderously and the sound of rattling glass was ominous. 

“Can… can I have it?” Derpy asked in a strangely bashful voice. 

Bucky looked at Derpy and his head cocked to the side. “But I was going to talk to her,” he murmured. 

“You can talk to me,” Derpy said, moving closer to the figure. “I guess it is very fragile,” she added as she approached. 

“Oh no,” Bucky replied. “She is… she is… -hiccup- she is very precious to me. I wanted a reminder of how fragile life is, so I made a glass pegasususususususus as symbolism… she’s actually harder than steel, just like the pegasususususususus I modeled her after.” 

“Nopony has ever done anything this nice for me ever,” Derpy said in a husky voice. “Something so beautiful… I am just an ugly grey mare with messed up eyes,” she added. The pegasus mare broke down into tears and began to sob pitifully. She covered her face with her wings as her whole body was wracked with sobs. 

“Oh sheesh, one is drunk and the other has mommy hormones,” Berry muttered. 

“Oh… noes… I did something to make my pegasusususususus cry… I am such a shite,” Bucky groaned as he wobbled back and forth. 

Berry covered her eyes with one fetlock and shook her head. “Bucky, use some magic, sober yourself up,” Berry requested. 

“No… and you can’t make me,” Bucky retorted as he crashed to the floor. “Stop moving the floor Berry, that’s cheating. I don’t know how you are doing it, but I don’t like it,” he grumbled. 

Berry Punch looked at the two ponies in the room with her, and she felt her own mommy hormones threatening to kick in and make life uncomfortable. She took a deep breath and tried to hold on to her patience. 

“Berry, leave the floor alone…” Bucky begged. 

“Somepony thinks I am pretty,” Derpy wailed. The pegasus fell over onto the floor and curled into a little ball of misery as she cried. 

“Keg Smasher said that a member of Clan Pickled is never drunk just so long as they can hold on to the earth and not fall off… I refuse to let go… now stop it Berry!” Bucky pleaded. 

Berry Punch rolled her eyes and rubbed her head with her forehoof. She was supposed to be the irresponsible pony. She had the reputation of being the wild untamed Shetland mare. She knew all too well what other ponies thought about her. They never thought of how she was Piña’s caretaker or how hard she worked. And she wished that the gossipers could see her now. 

“Berry!” Bucky shouted. 

“Derpy, pull yourself together. We need to haul Bucky back to our room and try to get him to sober up somehow,” Berry said gently to the sobbing pegasus. 

“He thinks I’m beautiful,” Derpy sobbed. 

“He’s told you that you are beautiful,” Berry said, trying to hold back her rising frustration. 

“But those are words… the glass pony is proof,” Derpy whined in a shuddering voice. 

Berry Punch felt her frustrations slip away and her heart softened. 

“I married a pretty pegasusususususus and a pretty earfy pony -braaap- and I’ve done things so perverted with both of them that it would make my mommy throw up,” Bucky announced as he rolled over onto his back. “My mommy is an insufferable coont,” he added, his words both slurred and filled with the Shetland accent. “Coont coont coont.” 

Berry bit down on her lip and it took all of her willpower to keep from laughing. 

“I can’t even imagine how my daddy kept his dick hard when he was screwing that frigid coont… I wonder if -bleeeeergh- if that is why I am a unicorn with cold magic… cold coont,” Bucky ranted. 

Berry nearly choked on her own tongue as she tried to keep her composure. She pulled Derpy up into a sitting position. 

“Coontcicle,” Bucky muttered. 

The earth pony mare suffered total failure and could no longer hold it in. Berry Punch brayed with laughter as she tried to comfort the miserable pegasus.

“I spent eleven months -bruuuurph- escaping that cold coont, and I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to get inside of a hot one,” Bucky muttered as he rolled on the floor. 

Derpy, still crying, began to giggle as Berry held her. Her barrel hitched from both sobbing and laughter. “He’s really drunk,” she said in a shuddering voice. 

Berry struggled to catch her breath. “I do believe the booze has had time to settle in,” she replied breathlessly. 

“I once caught my father whipping himself -hurk- with a drapery cord because he had a stiffy,” Bucky announced. 

Berry fell silent for a moment… Bucky’s words were far too serious to laugh at. Yet even as she tried to hold it in, she felt it slipping out. She chortled at first and then slipped back into laughter. 

Derpy wiped her eyes, looked at the glass pegasus, looked at her husband sprawled on the floor, and then looked at Berry. “Do we have any hope at being a normal family?” Derpy asked as she sniffled and giggled softly. 

Berry watched as Bucky’s horn ignited. “Oh good, he’s going to sober himself up,” she whispered in relief. She waited, hoping that Bucky would burn away his inebriation with a magical release. As she watched, a brown crockery jug popped into existence. She heaved a sigh of frustration. 

“I conjured it from the kitchen cellars… maaaaaagic,” Bucky said as he pulled the stopper free. He hugged the jug to his barrel, lifted his head from the floor, and chugged down a fair bit. “Oooh… -huuuuurgh!- brandywine,” he grumbled. 

“Oh he is going to be as drunk as a lord,” Berry sighed. 

“Berry Punch… my faithful earfy -huuuurgraaaap!- pony wife… give me a foal named Brandywine and I will forgive you for making the floor move,” Bucky announced. He held the jug up to his lips and gulped down the contents held within. 

“We need to get him back to our room,” Berry Punch said to the pegasus beside her. “You grab the glass pegasus that is the proof of your beauty and I’ll try to get Bucky on my back,” she instructed. 

“I’d rather crawl on your belly and rut your teats,” Bucky stated. He belched again before chugging down more brandywine. 

“Change of plans Derpy… I am going to give him what he wants if that’s okay. If he wants rough drunken nookie, he is going to get it,” Berry said.

“Uh oh,” Bucky said, his voice full of real fear. He started to try and wiggle away across the floor, tugging his jug with him. 

“You go ahead Berry… I’m not in the mood at the moment, but I’ll be happy to watch,” Derpy consented. “I feel really emotional,” she added. 

“Bucky, you’d better have a few more drinks, because I am going to screw your bones into paste,” Berry threatened. 



 

“He’s sleeping so peacefully now,” Thistle commented as she held Harper close to her. 

“He’s soused,” Derpy replied, her gaze lingering on the glass pegasus on the table. Derpy made no mention of the roughing up Bucky endured at the hooves of the sexually frustrated earth pony. He had passed out with a smile on his face, just as Berry had said he would. 

“Daddy smells,” Piña said.

“He’s had some drinks… he had a rough moment and he needed a way to let his mane down,” Derpy explained gently. 

“He stinks like booze and hot sweaty pony,” Dinky quipped. 

“I know,” Derpy said. 

“He smells like Berry,” Sentinel announced. 

“Sentinel!” Bon Bon snapped. 

“Well, he does. I can tell everypony apart by how they smell,” Sentinel muttered. 

“Well, you shouldn’t say it… I’m sure you know what he smells like…” Bon Bon said uncomfortably. 

“Oh, I do know exactly what he smells like,” Sentinel confirmed. 

“Sentinel!” Bon Bon snapped again. 

“Nopony can hide anything from my nose,” Sentinel muttered. 

Lyra squirmed uncomfortably at Sentinel’s words and then stared at Bon Bon. She made an embarrassed squeak after a moment of staring and then looked away, looking at the glass pegasus instead. 

“Oh this is not going to help Lyra’s neurosis,” Bon Bon muttered. 

“He’s been giving my sister special cuddles again, hasn’t he?” Piña asked. 

“Yes Piña, he has,” Bon Bon replied in a gentle voice. 

“When he’s inside of her, he’s not poking the foals in her belly is he?” Piña inquired out of foalish curiousity. 

Derpy choked and tried to suck in wind, and Lyra began to pound her on the back. The pegasus wheezed as she tried to fill her lungs with air and failed repeatedly. Her face turned a frightful shade of purple. 

“No Piña dear,” Bon Bon replied. “The foals are safe, I promise you,” she added in a strained voice. 

“Do the foals know that he is poking around in there? Does it scare them? Do they see it coming right at them and then swim out of the way or whatever it is they do in there?” Piña questioned. 

Derpy horked at each and every one of Piña’s questions until finally she threw back her head and opened her mouth wide, struggling to draw air. Lyra continued to pound on her back, now looking quite frantic and distressed.

Sentinel sat quietly, his ears splayed out to the sides of his head. His eyes were closed and he was as still as a statue. Piña’s words were going to haunt him forever, and he was already struggling to find some way to live in peace with them. He silently cursed Piña’s inquisitive nature. He loved his sister dearly, but lived in constant fear of some of her questions. 

Dinky had covered her eyes with her forehooves and was curled into a small ball of awkward emotion on the floor. Her sides heaved as she took deep breaths and tried to make the embarrassing new world she now lived in go away. She wondered if there was a spell that erased memories.

Bon Bon now understood a little bit of how Lyra must feel. The corner of her eye twitched and she could feel her ear flickering. The corner of her mouth tugged as her cheek contracted from her eye twitches. 

Thistle held Harper, the kelpie’s eyes now as wide. Her ears were folded back against her skull. “Berry Punch was never more needed than she is right now… she picked a terrible time to visit the loch for a dip,” she groaned. 

Lyra mechanically continued to pound Derpy on the back as her brain slipped off to its happy place. This was why she was a lesbian. No difficult penis questions had to be answered. She silently swore that her womb would remain a penis free environment. 

“Why is everypony so quiet?” Piña asked timidly. 
	
> Chapter 138
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Dinky?” 

Dinky looked up from her book and rubbed her eyes. “Yes Piña?” she replied wearily. It had been a long day, they had eaten dinner, and now it was getting close to the time for sleepy foals to go to bed. Dinky was sleepy foal. But she wasn’t going to bed anytime soon. 

“I have an idea Dinkadonk,” Piña announced in a low whisper. 

“Spill it, Pine Nut,” Dinky whispered back. 

“Fleas,” Piña stated. 

“What?” Dinky asked in confusion. 

“Fleas,” Piña whispered. “You can control flies, bees, butterflies, and one of those shiny beetles, you need to control fleas and send them after the wolves,” she explained. 

“Fleas?” Dinky murmured. 

“Fleas exist on ponies and wolves. Just find the fleas on the wolves. And then gather up every flea on the island and have them go after the wolves. It is called a plague Dinky, and you could cause one,” Piña said in a low but excited voice. 

Dinky nodded, beginning to understand. “Tomorrow,” she whispered. “Tomorrow I will try it.” 

“Hey, what are you girls whispering about?” Derpy asked.

“Nothing!” Dinky replied, her eyes wide with feigned innocence.

“We’re plotting,” Piña answered sweetly. She felt mildly annoyed with Dinky. Her sibling was terrible at subterfuge in any form. 

“Oh?” Derpy asked. 

“Just foal stuff,” Piña said as she folded back her ears and widened her eyes as she tilted her head to the side. She knew how adorable worked and she gave it to Derpy in a concentrated dose. Piña waited, her mind carefully calculating the next dose should it be needed. Piña decided that if it came down to it, she could try the hug and distract gambit. Pegasi were suckers for physical distractions. 

Derpy pursed her lips. Her instincts were telling her something was up, but Piña looked incredibly adorable. She decided to let the matter drop even though her motherly instincts were telling her that her foals were up to no good. 

Piña heaved a sigh and let it out slowly. She had learned a lot this summer, and each day she became more and more aware of what she was capable of. She and Dinky shared a giggle, and both couldn’t wait until tomorrow. 



 

“Dinky is so much like me,” Bucky whispered to Bon Bon, who was stroking him softly. 

“Driven?” Bon Bon asked in reply, her voice low and melodic. 

“Dinky possesses so much potential. She worked her self to the verge of exhaustion this evening and then kept going a little longer, refusing to give in until both Sparkler and Rising Star were ready to call it quits,” Bucky explained. 

“She’s like us Bucky,” Lyra quipped. She squirmed against Bucky as Bon Bon stroked them both. “She’s like us and she’ll suffer like us,” she reiterated. 

“Sadly, I know enough about unicorns to understand that statement and to know that it is true,” Bon Bon whispered. 

Bucky wiggled, trying to turn himself in such a way that the brush went over the itchy spot on his neck as Lyra brushed him. “She is also like us in that she is strong,” he stated. He jumped slightly as he felt Lyra yank a hair out from his pelt. “Ow!” 

“Hey, look at this,” Lyra said as she held up a tan hair in her magic. It was long, thicker, and shimmered faintly in the firelight. “This looks a lot like Sentinel’s hair. Bucky is going to be a shaggy pony,” she announced. 

Sentinel looked up from his writing. “What?” he asked, blinking his eyes a few times and recovering from distraction. 

“Bucky is getting shaggy hairs like you Sentinel,” Bon Bon said. 

“Makes sense,” Sentinel said. He resumed his task, his pencil scratching away on paper. 

“I love the feeling of Sentinel’s pelt,” Bon Bon said as she looked lovingly at Bucky. 

“Sentinel, what are you writing?” Bucky inquired with gentle curiousity.  

Sentinel set down his pencil and stretched out his wing, extending his grasping digit and claw that protruded from his central knuckle. “Stuff,” Sentinel replied.

“Stuff?” Lyra asked. 

“Yes. Stuff. I wrote down the questions Piña asked earlier today and how everypony reacted. I’ve been writing down notes about our family and I tuck them all away. I don’t know what it is called, but it gives me a sense of history,” Sentinel explained. 

“A diary,” Bon Bon said. “I keep one of those. Or did. I left it at home.” 

“Bon Bon, don’t be silly. Colts don’t keep diaries, fillies do. Colts keep journals,” Lyra corrected. “Sentinel needs a journal. I’ll try to transmute one. I’ve never transmuted a whole book before, this will be a good test of my abilities,” she added. 

“Easy on the magic Lyra,” Bucky warned. “You need to keep your milk flowing, think of how magic robs us of calories.” 

“A little magic won’t hurt me,” Lyra said as she cast a nervous glance at Harper. 

“Speaking of calorie expenditure, tomorrow is going to be exhausting,” Bucky muttered. 

“Big plans?” Bon Bon asked. 

“The once-over for the gasbag and then I begin forging chains to secure it to the ship. My first big foray into metalworking,” Bucky explained. 

“After that, The Scorned Mare rises like a phoenix from the ashes,” Sentinel muttered. “Hey, that’s worth writing down,” he grumbled to himself. He hunched back over his papers and the sounds of a pencil scratching away could be heard over the crackling of the fireplace. 

“How does he know what a phoenix is?” Bucky asked in confusion. 

“Piña has been reading to him,” Bon Bon replied. She settled herself a bit more on top of Bucky and Lyra, her body settling into the crevasse that formed between their two bodies, her barrel resting on two croups. 

“Piña… I don’t know what to do about Piña,” Bucky whispered. “What is the ethical thing to do about Piña...” he continued. 

“Bucky?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Piña is a foal. An earth pony foal. With magic. Understanding her and potentially training her to use it is going to involve magical experimentation upon a foal,” Bucky grumbled. 

“I never thought of it that way,” Bon Bon said. “But it would do her good. Would it be so bad? So wrong? She has a right to live up to her potential.” 

“Maybe so Bon Bon, and even if it never hurts her, it is still magical experimentation upon a foal… we seem to keep slipping down a moral slippery slope,” Lyra groused. 

Bon Bon sighed, hating that Lyra was right. She lifted her hoof and looked at it, wondering if she too had magic of some sort, given her knack for cultivating unicorns and keeping them sane. She pressed her hoof down upon Bucky’s spine, rubbed, watched as Bucky’s ears drooped, and then she saw his head lolling off to one side, bumping into Lyra’s. There was a soft ‘conk’ sound. 

“Ow, hey, watch it bonehead,” Lyra muttered. 

“Sorry…” Bucky offered. 

Bon Bon felt an exhilarating rush of power. Unicorns might control reality, but she could control unicorns. Thankfully, Bon Bon had no major ambitions or an eye for world domination. She just wanted a larger candy empire. She thought of her shop back in Ponyville and felt a twinge of regret. She hoped it would be there when she finally went home. 

“Hey,” Bon Bon said. “Would it be wrong to use golems to help me make candies?” she inquired. 

“Unicorns use golems to assist in all sorts of tasks. What do you think keeps the streets of Canterlot so clean and perfect?” Bucky answered. 

“Could you make me a few golems?” Bon Bon asked as she rubbed her hoof in a slow well pressured circle along Bucky’s spine. 

“Maybe,” Bucky replied as he melted. The feeling of the brush on his neck and Bon Bon’s touch upon his back was almost too much. “I bet I could make golems. I’d have to start small and experiment.” 

“I have always wanted to try that. But as a lone type three, it would be very difficult. Both of us together though,” Lyra said, her statement open ended and something of a suggestion. 

“Sparkler would be a natural for golem creation,” Bucky stated. 

Bon Bon smiled. She didn’t want the world, just a good hoofhold over the candy business. 



 

The iron ore was reddish green. Bucky had never actually seen raw iron before. He stood in the smithy, looking around, taking everything in. Later, he would do amazing things here. This smithy was used to make simple iron implements. Hinges. Barrel rungs. Crude armor. Nails. All of the various metal bits needed for day to day life. There was a small foundry for smelting, a few anvils, and the main blacksmith was a massive earth pony named Crush that had a pair of very expensive manipulation shoes.

Names were marvelously simple on the isles. Ripple. Bludgeon. Thrasher. Wrecker. Crush. Names that implied the actions that the ponies who held that name were good at. Crush certainly looked as though he was the embodiment of his name. Crush specialised in cold forging, pounding the metal until it became hot and pliable. One of his work hammers was half the size of Bucky’s body. 

Crush was willing to help him, or so Bucky had been told by Wrecker. Crush couldn’t tell Bucky anything… Crush had his throat torn open by wolves. The story about the event stated something to the effect that Crush was mighty pissed off about the whole thing, killed several wolves, stomped from his cabin to the castle, and then cauterised his own throat right here in the smithy. 

And Bucky believed every word of it. He could see the scars. Crush looked like the sort that would just be angry about having his throat torn open. Crush had no way of complaining about what had happened, so Bucky assumed that the big earth pony probably worked out his frustrations and mute rage by smashing iron repeatedly until the iron gave up and did what Crush wanted. 

Crush towered over Bucky, just like Keg Smasher did, and Bucky felt no small amount of resentment that he was so stunted and scrawny compared to other stallions. 

Bucky loathed being so small. 



 

After a morning of inspection, first checking out the smithy before it went into full production for the day, and then a whole morning of carefully inspecting the gasbag, Bucky was near exhaustion. He needed sleep. It would be lunch time soon. 

Pegasi fisherponies worked to create the largest net they had ever created. Bucky had transmuted a tremendous amount of rope, the rope was going to make a massive net, and the massive net would be used along with a harness to secure the gasbag to the ship. 

Lyra had worked a late shift, staying up past breakfast, transmuting a journal for Sentinel, and then adding more wards and defensive spells to The Scorned Mare before finally going to sleep. Bucky had worried about her milk production, but she had assured him that Berry produced a ready supply, something that had completely slipped Bucky’s mind. 

Even as he and the pegasi worked, others laboured to create an obstacle course and other events for the upcoming Sisterhooves Social. A ditch was being dug to create a mud pit for tug o’ war.

He heard the flutter of wings and Derpy landed beside him. 

“Hello handsome,” Derpy greeted. 

Bucky knew better than to argue. He turned to look at the grey pegasus and watched as she preened her wings, smoothing them out after landing. She was still molting a bit and she tugged out a feather that needed to go.

“Busy morning?” Derpy asked after she spat out a downy feather. “You seem distracted,” she observed. 

“You are very distracting,” Bucky stated. 

The pegasus mare blushed. “I know,” Derpy said shyly. “The ponies seem so happy to be working. So many smiles,” she added before tucking her head back under her wing and preening a few more feathers. 

“I need to get some rest. I’m afraid to go to sleep now. I don’t want anymore dreams,” Bucky said to his mate. 

“Do you need somepony to shag you to sleep?” Derpy asked as she lifted her head out from under her wing. 

“I hate to say it, but I think I am probably too exhausted to do that,” Bucky answered. 

“Well, eat lunch and go to bed,” Derpy suggested. 

“I can’t. This afternoon after lunch I need to smelt a massive amount of iron into ingots to create chains for the gasbag. Crush can’t do it all alone. Well, he and his helpers might, but it would take weeks to make as much iron as I need,” Bucky replied. 

Derpy growled. “I bet your eye is all red and bloodshot under those goggles,” she muttered. 

“Look, after smelting, I plan to go to bed. Well, I might cuddle Harper for a bit first, but I know my limits, and I’ve reached them,” Bucky said reassuringly. 



 

“Any luck yet Dinky?” Piña inquired as she held her hoof down upon the page she was reading. The breeze was acting up today, and it wanted to turn the pages of her book for her, which was annoying. 

Dinky did not reply. She was thinking of small irritating bugs that sucked blood. She was feeling increasingly frustrated and was doing her best to hold it in. She had been touching the mind of bugs for a while now, and something kept going wrong. 

“Dinky?” Piña asked. 

“What?” Dinky replied. 

“You seem off,” Piña said in a worried voice. 

“I can touch the mind of bugs all over the island and even that next island over now, but every time I try to reach out and touch the mind of a bug in those big mountains over there, my spell fizzles and I get a headache,” Dinky grumbled. 

Piña considered the implications of this for a moment and her eyes went wide. “We need to find daddy at once!” she cried. She rose, wrestled her book into the simple canvas bag she had, prodded Dinky to her feet, and tried to contain her own growing fear. 

“Ripple, wake up, wake up Ripple, we need to go!” Piña commanded as she shook the napping pegasus, who awoke with a snort and a fart. 



 

Bucky eased himself into the bed. In just a few hours he had made more ingots than Crush could make in months. He had carefully folded in charcoal and fused the iron with carbon, melding everything together in a vast bubble of magic, using a process similar to that of how he brewed beer without brewing equipment. Crush wasn’t even able to make steel on his own, his forge couldn’t generate the sort of heat needed. 

Soon, the steel ingots would be shaped into links for the chains needed. 

Lyra was sleeping in the straw with Harper, and Bon Bon was snoozing with Sentinel. Bucky eased his way close to Bon Bon, hoping to not wake her. He rubbed his good eye and then his whole face, the goggles left his face feeling rather itchy and irritated. Perhaps some magically transmuted rubber cushions were in order. 

He kicked out his hind legs into the odd and unnatural position that felt the most comfortable, feeling some relief as the tension back there eased off. So long as he moved slowly, his legs didn’t bother him too badly. It was only when he moved about in a hurry. As he began to drift off to sleep, he thought about his long walk to the beach with Piña. His legs had barely bothered him at all that day. He made a mental note to slow down when he could and that other ponies were just going to have to adjust to his pace. 

Just as sleep was starting to overtake him, the door slammed opened and the Gleesome Threesome exploded into the room. Bucky jerked back to wakefulness just in time to be tackled by a pegasus, the bone jarring impact immediately removing all thoughts of sleep from his mind. And this was a loving impact, Bucky knew enough about pegasi to know this. A combat slam would likely shatter his bones like glass and spread him like strawberry jam all over the bed. 

“Daddy, we need to talk to you!” Piña announced as the other sleepers in the room began to wake up. “We’re sorry to wake you but we need you awake!” she cried frantically. 

“Piña, what is it?” Bucky asked wearily. 

“I know where whatever is controlling the wolves is,” Piña announced. 

“WHAT?” Bucky questioned. 

“Dinky keeps trying to reach out and control bugs. Today, she was working on fleas. She can control bugs everywhere on the island and even the next island over, but her spell gets broken and she gets a headache when she tries to connect to bugs in the mountains,” Piña explained breathlessly. 

“Damnit, the Hydra teeth,” Bucky grumbled. “The Isle of Wheat’s port town sits right in their shadow. You can see them just across the water. Why didn’t I think of this? Magic loses potency at distances and the spell that created the undead had to come from somewhere close by.” 

“We’re not all that far from them either,” Lyra said. “Which means whatever is hiding there is also able to influence around us,” she added. The soft green unicorn yawned and nudged Harper. 

“Which means that night I got mauled by wolves I was wandering blindly right into the area where whatever is out there hiding has the most control. It probably knew I was here and was waiting for me, and knew just when to strike,” Bucky groaned. 

“You mean we’ve been right next door to it this whole time?” Bon Bon asked, struggling to wake up and take in the situation. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied as he struggled to breathe. Ripple’s forelegs were around his neck and she was squeezing him enthusiastically as she rubbed her snoot against the back of his head and snorted into his mane. “I wonder at which point whatever it is will realise that we are aware of it,” he muttered. 

“We need to prepare somehow,” Lyra said. “This might be paranoid, but right now we need paranoid, but I think the undead assault was to draw us out and see what we’re made of. It has probably been studying us and probably knows more about us than we do about it, whatever it is,” she explained. 

“You don’t think it is a pony either?” Bucky asked. 

“No…” Lyra replied hesitantly. “Call it a paranoid hunch.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 139
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All thoughts of sleep were now abandoned as Bucky stood in Keg Smasher’s room, looking over a large map that was spread over a wooden table. Lord Wrecker stood beside him, and Deadspin stood nearby. 

“You said that unicorn that vanished from the castle was found in the Hydra Teeth. Drained and untouched by rot,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes,” Wrecker replied. 

“The Hydra Teeth are almost the near center of the Isles… the center… the middle is where most of the danger is. The outlying islands get attacks and have wolves, but you say the attacks lack the ferocity and seeming coordination that they do here. And this is why,” Bucky explained. “The magic gets weaker the further you get from the center, which is here,” he said as he moved a marker using his magic over the mountains drawn on the map.

“So what do we do?” Keg Smasher asked weakly. “We take yon airship and bombard the mountains?” 

“No no no!” Piña cried, unable to be a good filly any longer. “You can’t!” 

“Why not little one?” Wrecker asked. 

Piña, aware that she might have blown it by speaking out even after promising that she would be good and she would be quiet, nervously composed her thoughts. “Whatever it is... it still has its earth ponies… its wolves... they’re still harvesting... we need to wear it down and stop it from gathering food,” she explained as she continuously licked her lips and halted out of nervousness. 

“Piña, I am trusting your instincts just like I trust Berry’s instincts. Calm down. Take a deep breath. And explain a little better,” Bucky said soothingly. 

“The wolves are still scaring ponies and feeding on fear. Whatever is out there is using the wolves to gather power. If you attack, whatever it is will be too strong. We need to starve it first, make it weak. We need to destroy the wolves and give it time to weaken. I’ve been reading about shadow batteries… remember? I showed you in the book daddy… you said I was smart and you hugged me and said that I might be on to something,” Piña said in frantic tones. 

Bucky nodded. “Piña, calm down. Settle. You have everypony’s attention and nopony is discounting what you are saying because you are a foal. At least, I’m not,” he said in soothing tones. 

Lord Wrecker eased his backside down to the floor and pulled Piña close to him with his remaining wing. His movements were slow, jerky, and looked pained. “I trust earth ponies a great deal little one. Winter Wheat had a feeling that something was going to happen, and she prepared for it. Little Wheatberry is still here because of her mother’s foresight. I think it is safe to say that everypony in this room believes you,” he whispered gently. 

Piña took a deep shuddering breath and leaned into Wrecker’s embrace, thankful for the pegasus’ gentle comfort. She had just interjected herself into a very adult situation, had come out unscathed, and the event was already being pulled apart and examined in her mind. 

“I could take a wing of pegasi and we could begin scouting,” Deadspin offered. “Daylight hours of course. Look for bones. Some signs of a den.” 

“I don’t know about that,” Bucky said hesitantly. “My wife Lyra is paranoid, and so am I. Whatever it is we’re facing, it knows that we know something obviously, because we are preparing. But if we start patrolling the Hydra Teeth, it could reveal what we know too early. It might use magic against you. Shoot down your patrol. It might get desperate, send out another massive wave of wolves, and then another undead army.” 

“Lord Rising Star and Lady Sparkler can deal with the undead army if such a thing happens,” Deadspin said gruffly. “Not sure what to do about the wolves though. While they are dealing with the undead, you could bring your own considerable magical powers to bear upon whatever is hiding out there. Isn’t there some sort of army you could conjure?” 

“No,” Bucky replied in a flat monotone. “Had I time and resources, I might be able to make a few golems,” he added. As he spoke, he thought about the dream and the spell jar golems. Perfect soldiers made of glass and death. “Never done anything like that though.” 

“What about necromancy?” Deadspin blurted out, which made Keg Smasher groan loudly. “That son of a bitch raised the dead against us! Our own dead! Our Honour Guard are experienced hard arses and they came home haunted! We should return the favour and turn the dead against their master!” 

“There will be no unnecessary acts of necromancy upon my isles Deadspin,” Keg Smasher grumbled. 

“Of course sir… I spoke out of place sir. Do forgive me sir and allow me a chance to return to your good graces sir,” Deadspin replied as his body shifted to attention. 

Bucky was reminded of Sentinel as he watched Deadspin fall back into line. 

“It is an emotional time Deadspin, and as a pegasus, I understand your anger,” Keg Smasher grunted. “I’d feel better if we were fighting a pony though. I want its head on a spike and mounted on the gatehouse,” he muttered. 

Piña whimpered and buried her face into Wrecker’s leg, suddenly reminded that she was still very much a foal. She felt feathers gently stroking her side as she cowered. 

“I am going to boost Dinky’s power and even if we can’t plague the Hydra Teeth, I am going to see what we can do about rooting out some of the dens they are bound to have around here someplace. The insect swarms should drive the wolves from their dens and into the daylight. I’ve been letting her experiment so she could learn, but it is time to take a more direct approach,” Bucky announced as he continued to study the map. “Also, I think it is time to let Lyra loose, but that might be reckless.” 

“Lyra?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“She is a powerful electromancer. I thought about goading her on a bit, getting her worked up and angry, and then let her conjure up a hell of a storm. It might cause some flooding though-” 

“But it should also flood any dens that are found below ground,” Wrecker said, finishing Bucky’s sentence. “That is risky. Might destroy a lot of crops.” 

“Sparkler can summon gems at will now. If need be, I will have her conjure up a king’s ransom and we will simply buy whatever food is needed to continue to survive,” Bucky replied. “I am too exhausted to tell if it is a good idea though. I will admit, it is reckless. Lyra isn’t even aware of the power she holds. She scares me a bit.” 

“She scares you?” Keg Smasher asked incredulously. 

“Imagine a hurricane so large that it stretches from one horizon to another and then some, and hailstones the size of watermelons,” Bucky explained. 

“Oh feck,” Keg Smasher gasped. 

“Electromancy must be respected,” Bucky stated. “I have no doubts that Lyra is my equal when it comes to casual rampant devastation.” 

“So… when the airship flies, and we begin hunting the wolves, I suppose it will be you on the ground drawing them out. We will blow them to smithereens with the magical ordinance you’ve been creating, thin out their numbers, bide our time a bit, allow our foe to weaken, find our foe, destroy them, and then try to perform some kind of final purge,” Wrecker summarised, bringing everypony back to task. 

“That sounds like a solid plan,” Keg Smasher said in agreement. “Deadspin, because you have worked with Knight Captain Buckminster previously, I am placing you in charge of the wing of pegasi that will be used to pull and defend the airship. You said that you trusted his leadership…” 

“I do sir,” Deadspin answered solemnly. 

“And Buck Sergeant Sparkler is to be your second in command upon the deck. I am leaving it to you to prepare her for this position. She’s a powerful defensive unit unto herself. I want you to get her fit to lead,” Keg Smasher ordered. 

“Sir, yes sir,” Deadspin said as he drew himself to attention. 

“You are to get Lord Rising Star prepared for battle as well. Help him get his head screwed on straight,” Keg Smasher commanded. 

“Yes sir,” Deadspin answered. 

“And finally, you are to give some combat training to young Ripple. Let her bust your chops a bit. Let her knock you down a few times. Give her some confidence to work with,” Keg Smasher suggested. 

“Of course sir. I can do that sir. Not a problem sir, being beaten down by a filly sir,” Deadspin replied. 

“Look Deadspin, I am only going to say this once. If you want any hope of a future in command, you will do as I ask. I took a savage beating at the hooves of Buckminster’s matriarch. She knocked out my teeth and broke my nose. She laid me flat… I was stallion enough to let her pummel me and I deserved it too… that filly Ripple might surprise you," Keg Smasher grumbled. 

“Yes sir, I will do as you ask sir,” Deadspin said as his ears splayed out sideways. 

“Attitudes about mares need to change around here,” Keg Smasher growled. 

“Actually sir, I have a petition from a group of mares that want to join the guard. They’ve been training themselves,” Wrecker reported.

“Oh really?” Keg Smasher replied as his eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed. 

“The Scorned Mare inspired them all. All of them are widows. They gave me quite a display. They call themselves the Ball Buster Brigade,” Wrecker explained. He heard a giggle from down at his hooves and gave Piña a little tickle with his wing. 

“I want them all brought to me at once when we are done here,” Keg Smasher demanded. 

“Sir?” Wrecker replied. 

“I want them here. Right away. I wish to speak to them. I intend to place the Ball Busting Bitch Brigade on decks. Buckminster’s foals are going to be aboard that ship. I want ferocity damnit!” Keg Smasher snapped. 

There was a gasp from Piña and her eyes went wide. She covered her mouth with her hoof. 

“And what do you think of that Deadspin?” Keg Smasher grunted. 

“Sir… I… I think it is a delightful idea sir,” Deadspin said in a wavering voice. 

“Damn right it is a delightful idea,” Keg Smasher snarled. 

“I think we should place Buck Sergeant Sparkler in charge of them,” Deadspin said, and this time, his tone seemed warm and genuine. 

Keg Smasher noticed the change in demeanour from Deadspin and his lip curled back into a snarling smile. “You’re still responsible for getting Sparkler and Ripple combat ready,” he growled. 



 

Bucky could feel his bones ache with weariness as he eased himself into bed. He had been awake for far too long. As he settled into bed, he felt two powerful forelegs wrap around him and pull him close. Bon Bon’s touch was welcome and he could feel her warm body against his back as he lay on his side. His mind began shutting down, he was too tired to keep thinking and focusing on all of the details. He felt a half awake Bon Bon kissing him just behind his ear and he felt little tingles course through his body. He could feel the warmth of her belly and the touch of her teats against his back. 

He was vaguely aware that at some point, this would have sent him over the edge at an earlier point in his life. What was it that Derpy had said to him? A touch was just a touch? Something like that. He felt warm and secure with Bon Bon’s hind leg resting upon his cutie mark. 

He drifted away into what he hoped would be a dreamless slumber, his final thought was of Piña and how much she had grown in such a short time. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 140
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke to the sounds of giggling and low voices. He felt muddled and confused. At first, he thought the others were going to bed, but then his odd magical sense kicked in and he realised it was almost dawn. He had the odd urge to fall back to sleep and slumber until sunset. 

He couldn’t believe that he had slept so long. He had missed dinner and slept through the night. His head was resting on Thistle’s back and he could feel her breathing beneath him, her body rising and falling. 

There was a wet sensation upon Bucky’s withers, and he realised that Berry was using him as a pillow. The mare had been drooling. Again. He yawned and lifted his head. A moment later he was ambushed on his blind side with a waxy kiss. 

“You finally got some sleep,” Derpy said after she pulled away, breaking the kiss. 

“No bad dreams,” Bucky muttered before he yawned again. 

“Well that’s good,” Derpy said amiably. “Big day today,” she whispered. 

“What do you have planned?” Bucky inquired as he snoot-bumped his mate. 

“Going to watch my foals get some combat training,” Derpy began. She took a deep breath, obviously somewhat unsettled by that. “And then I’m going to spend some time with Winter Wheat and Wheatberry and we’ll probably talk about mare stuff. After that, my day is open, so I thought I’d spend some time with Thistle and both of us will do our best to spoil Harper,” she continued. 

“I need… I need a break,” Dinky interjected. 

“Dinky?” Bucky asked of the foal tucked under her mother’s wing. 

“The past few days… I’m worn out. I can’t think right. And Piña is upset. So if it is okay, today, I think we’re just going to be foals today. Maybe we’ll watch Ripple learn how to fight,” Dinky replied. 

“Sounds like a good plan Dinky,” Bucky said approvingly. “Piña, are you alright?” 

“I’m okay,” Piña answered in a muffled voice, still cuddled up against Dinky. “Yesterday… all those words… everything said… really bad things are going to happen…” she said haltingly. 

“Yes Piña, some bad things must happen if we are to have good things,” Bucky replied as he pulled his forehoof free from beneath himself. Reaching around Thistle, he ran the edge of his fuzzy fetlock over a very delicate place.

“OooooOOOoooch!” Thistle squeaked as she awoke. She immediately began to squirm upon waking. “Uh oh, big pregnant pony needs to pee… move move move!” she begged as she wiggled about the bed, causing Berry to grunt. 

She rose up on wobbling legs, fell over on Berry, who grunted again and smacked her lips, and then finally slid free from the bed, shambled across the room, and made her way to the bucket while Lyra and Bon Bon chuckled from the couch. 

“You’re a bad pony,” Derpy said flatly to her mate beside her. 

“Why do you touch each other back there like that?” Piña asked in low curious voice. 

“Trust,” Berry muttered. 

“Trust?” Piña inquired. 

“Yes, trust. We trust each other to not hurt one another. Those are our most vulnerable places and the places where we could hurt one another the most. We trust each other to touch and to be touched in such a way that makes us feel good, and does not hurt us,” Berry explained. 

“Oh,” Piña replied. 

“By catching one another by surprise, those little gooses we give one another shows that even during our most relaxed moments, we have nothing to fear. So it allows us to relax even more. We let down our guard completely, knowing that we only want what is best for one another,” Berry said informatively. 

“Oh… I see… maybe growing up and falling in love won’t be so bad,” Piña said wistfully. “Dinky, we need to catch us a colt we can trust.” 



 

Sparkler stood nervously with Rising Star, all too aware that her mother was watching her. Ripple stood a short distance away, preening her wings, which were glossy and beautiful now that she was eating well, and there was a group of soldiers gathered around the dirt patch where training was to take place. She looked up at her mother, who was sitting comfortably on top of a thatched roof, Dinky and Piña sitting on either side of her. 

There was also a group of hard looking mares who sat in a clustered group together, exchanging glances with the soldiers. 

“I am here to try and whip all of you into shape. I have been asked to see if I can get you mares combat ready. Before we begin, there is something I want to say,” Deadspin announced. 

Everypony in the crowd turned their heads to look at Deadspin and the pegasus began to strut back and forth, his legs stiff and his ears splayed out diagonally. 

“I disagree with this. I think mares are far too valuable to risk losing in combat. Now before any of you get your feathers ruffled, I also don’t believe in hitting mares or treating them badly… I beat one of my own underlings into a bloody pulp for treating his wives like livestock. So this is going to be really awkward for me ‘cause I don’t want to hit any of you. You’ve all had hard enough lives,” Deadspin said in a clear clarion voice. 

An earth pony mare moved forward out of her group. “You think we’re soft or something?” she asked in a hard flinty voice. 

“Not soft, but you are smaller and therefore weaker. You were meant to be protected. We need foals to rebuild these isles, and I think this is a step backwards. Placing you in combat means potentially losing you,” Deadspin replied. 

“You think I’m soft,” the mare growled. “Let me tell you what… I lost my husband to wolves and then two foals to disease. I birthed those foals. I don’t think you’d survive foal birth you pompous featherbrain… but I like the idea that you are for the gentle treatment of mares… my dead husband was like that and he got laughed at quite a bit, so you must be pretty damn brave to be that way around your fellow soldiers,” she bellowed. 

Deadspin looked around him and heard sniggering. His cheeks turned red and his ears fell back against his skull. 

“See, I’ve been thinking, I might be a resource, but you are too. Males are scarce. Now, you have some ideas that I don’t agree with, but I think I can fix those,” the earth pony said in a loud voice. 

“Fix?” Deadspin inquired cluelessly. 

“Let’s see who is stronger and who is weaker you twit,” the mare challenged. 

“What?” Deadspin asked nervously. 

“How about I beat you down into the dirt and if I do that, you marry me and give me foals. You beat me down into the dirt and you get to go on thinking that mares are weak and not fit to be your equals,” she offered. 

“Oh no ma’am, I am a soldier. I do not even have a home, I live in the barracks. I’m not ready to start a family yet. I want a command position and I’d like to earn myself a title before settling down,” Deadspin said in polite but clipped tones. 

The earth pony mare advanced, her nostrils flaring. “Coward,” she hissed. 

“Ma’am, it is simple practical common sense… we stallions are bigger, you mares are smaller… it is so more of you can be fit into a homestead or a cottage, this is just common sense,” Deadspin said as he rose into the air, his wings flapping as he hovered. 

There were angry grunts and gasps from the group of assembled mares. 

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you… this was such a bad idea… can’t we just move past this and do what needs to be done?” Deadspin begged. 

“You’d better get down here pretty birdy… or I will have one of my sisters in battle clip your wings,” the earth pony mare threatened. As she spoke, several pegasus mares unfurled their wings and readied themselves. 

“I can’t marry you… and I don’t want to fight you… I don’t even know your name!” Deadspin retorted as he landed and folded his wings. 

“My name is Sour Mash and your name is now mud!” the earth pony said as she lunged forward. 

She collided with Deadspin and sent him flying. He tucked, rolled, recovered, and unsteadily rose to his hooves. He shook his head and tried to clear the stars from his vision. 

“Ugh, she hits like a runaway wagon,” Deadspin muttered as he tried to get some distance between himself and the snorting mare. 

“You’re a bit soft, I’m having second thoughts already!” Sour Mash shouted. 

Deadspin growled and his ears perked forwards. “I’m not soft because I don’t want to hurt mares… just means I’m gentle,” he said in his own defense. 

“I bet you get called soft a lot,” Sour Mash retorted. 

“That’s enough! If you want to be a soldier you will fall into line right now!” Deadspin snapped. 

Sour Mash launched herself again, and this time Deadspin sidestepped her as she soared through the air at him. One of Sour Mash’s hooves flew out and clipped the pegasus stallion on the chin, which sent him staggering. The blow was a glancing one, but Sour Mash was a natural born kicker. 

She landed, skidded to a halt, and then whipped herself around. She was grinning a hard grin that revealed she was missing a top front tooth. 

Deadspin could hear the laughter of his own troops and it burned him. Hot rage rose up inside of him. Hating himself for what he was about to do, it was time to put the mare into her place. He charged, reminding himself that the insubordinate mare had brought this on herself. 

The pair collided with a thud and Deadspin wasn’t sure what happened next. He could feel his body pummeled with hooves, and then he was grappled into submission. The mare had him in an embrace, and she was standing on her hind legs. Somehow, she had managed to capture Deadspin in a bear hug, and both of her impossibly strong front legs were now crushing his barrel. He felt a rib pop and give way, followed by another. 

The broken ribs hurt a great deal, but what came next hurt even more. 

The mare flipped over backwards, still holding Deadspin, driving him headfirst into the dirt. The mare recovered first and was up on her hooves in a moment. She began to circle Deadspin as he struggled to stand up. 

The other mares began cheering, hooting and calling out to Sour Mash, encouraging her to finish off the weakened stallion. 

“Sorry about the ribs,” Sour Mash said breathlessly. “But I could’ve broke all of them.” 

“I don’t want to hurt you, I’ll be flogged!” Deadspin protested. 

Sour Mash kicked outwards and Deadspin darted out of the way. He kicked back with his hind legs, and Sour Mash jerked her head back to avoid the blow. As she did this, Deadspin swept out with his front legs and kicked all four legs out from beneath Sour Mash. She fell over and hit the ground hard, which made her grunt. 

“I’m gonna make you teach me that move… and our foals!” Sour Mash shouted as she rolled over and rose to her hooves. She stood panting. 

Deadspin steadied himself and tried not to pant. His ribs ached. He felt conflicted. He didn’t have long to think because Sour Mash lunged at him. He jumped out of the way, and as he lept, Sour Mash’s two hind hooves connected with his front left shoulder, just in front of his wing socket. The force of the blow sent him spinning through the air and then tumbling into the dirt. 

He went still and just laid there. It was time for cunning… 

Sour Mash approached cautiously, her head held high. She waited for Deadspin to move. His eyes were closed, and she worried that she might have actually hurt the pegasus. She came a little closer and prodded him with a hoof. 

There was no response. 

She ears folded back against her skull and she lowered her head. “Pretty birdy?” she asked in a worried voice. 

Still no response. 

“Well damn, I thought pretty birdy was made of sterner stu-oooooof!” Sour Mash grunted as two forelegs wrapped tightly around her neck. She felt her body whipped around, and then two hooves connected with her gut. It knocked the wind out of her, flipped her through the air, and she landed hard on her back a few feet away. 

Deadspin took to his hooves and advanced, intending to end this. There were hoots and cheers from his own troops. Deadspin flung himself downward upon the prone mare, intending to wrestle her into submission. 

“Oh, you want to get right to the foal making,” Sour Mash grunted as she grappled with Deadspin. She punched outwards with a forehoof, and it connected solidly with Deadspin’s eye. She laughed crazily as his head snapped back. “Don’t worry, I won’t punch you in the balls, I might need those,” she said kindly as she slammed a knee into Deadspin’s broken ribs. 

The pair rolled around in the dirt, kicking, punching, both of them trying to dominate the other. Deadspin had given up on all pretext of being a gentlepony and he landed several solid blows upon the earth pony mare. Deadspin’s eye was swelling shut, and Sour Mash had a split lip. 

“I beat my daddy near to death when he broke one of my mama’s wings to make her behave,” Sour Mash grunted as she pounded on Deadspin. “At least he put up a good fight… you fight like old ponies shag!” 

“Oh you bitch!” Deadspin snarled as he headbutted the obnoxious mare. He heard a pained grunt and felt a rush of satisfaction. 

“That was quite a love tap!” Sour Mash shouted as she grabbed Deadspin’s head between her forehooves. She slammed her own head into Deadspin’s, once, then twice, and then three times. Deadspin went limp and she dropped his head into the bloodied dirt.  

Sour Mash crawled onto Deadspin’s back, straddled him, grabbed his hind legs in her forelegs, and still straddling his withers, began to bend him in half. She folded him over, bending his hips and his spine to an almost unnatural angle, lifting his hind legs to her barrel. 

“You! Your ladyship! I need you to marry us!” Sour Mash shouted. 

Sparkler was completely baffled. “I can’t do that,” Sparkler said in a halting voice. 

“Yer a noble, you can do it,” Sour Mash replied. 

“But marriage should be about love!” Sparkler shouted.

“What does love have to do with anything?” Sour Mash retorted. “Love can come later once we settle our differences!” 

“I can’t do this!” Sparkler shouted, leaning on Rising Star and hoping for reassurance. “And I can’t let you force him into marriage…” 

“Hey horsefeathers, you think I’m weak now?” Sour Mash asked as she tightened her hold. “I could snap your spine right now or pop your legs from their sockets. Think I belong on a homestead?” she demanded. 

Deadspin pounded the ground with his hoof but refused to beg for mercy. 

“Every year males get fewer and fewer and more and more mares have to share a single stallion in a herd. Give us what we want… a chance to defend our homes, to stand as equals, and I want you to submit to me!” Sour Mash shouted. 

“Never!” Deadspin groaned. 

Sour Mash wrenched his hind legs up higher and there was a loud pop from his hips. Deadspin cried out, making a foalish whimpering sound of pain. 

“Right now, I could end you. You ain’t so strong! How about I go out and do the fighting, and you stay home and do the foal raising!” Sour Mash grunted. 

“A mare’s place is in the homestead!” Deadspin snarled. “They must be kept safe! They should be cherished and loved! They should be treasured and kept from the jaws of slavering beasts!” 

“Oh that’s it!” Sour Mash snarled. She yanked upwards on Deadspin’s legs and leaned back, adding more compression on his spine. There was an ominous crackle. 

There was total silence all around them. All of the mares and stallions gathered dared not make a sound. 

Deadspin saw black stars in his vision and he pounded on the ground with both forehooves. He tried to roll over and couldn’t, and the mare kept bending him slowly. She was strong. 

“Last chance!” Sour Mash warned. 

“I submit! You’re stronger than I am… You’re the strongest pony I’ve ever fought! I give I give I give! I’ll give you whatever you want… I’ll give you foals and hope they are little fillies that grow up to be just like you!” Deadspin begged, his voice an agonised whine. 

Sour Mash relaxed her grip and let Deadspin’s legs fall down to the dirt. She patted him gently upon his croup. She turned herself around, while she still straddled him, and then picked up his head between her forehooves. She kissed him softly upon the top of his head and then dropped his head back into the dirt. 

“I do believe I have won my trial by combat,” Sour Mash said as she looked around her, her gaze meeting each stallion standing and staring at her. “If anypony treats me as anything other than their equal, I’ll kill ya,” she warned. 

“WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON HERE?” 

Everypony’s head turned and saw Keg Smasher, who stood unsteadily on three legs. 

“I just beat this oaf into submission and now he has to marry me,” Sour Mash said fearlessly to Keg Smasher. 

“Is this true?” Keg Smasher asked Deadspin. 

The defeated stallion nodded but said nothing. He spat out some blood and gingerly touched his swelling face with a bloodied hoof. 

“You look bad lad, this mare tore you apart,” Keg Smasher observed. “Do you want her flogged for the beating she has given you?” 

Deadspin shook his head no and spat out more blood. 

Sour Mash froze… now terrified of what might happen next. She had seen one flogging not long ago, and it had been horrible. 

“I dunno lad, we have laws now, harsh as they might be, we can’t allow this kind of violence between one another,” Keg Smasher bellowed in a loud voice. “I think an example needs to be made… we can’t have stallions beating on mares and we can’t have mares beating on stallions,” he added. 

“You touch one hair in her mane and I’ll kill you…” Deadspin growled. “I will end you!” he threatened. 

Sour Mash sucked in her breath and held it, looking at Keg Smasher and then down at Deadspin, whom she was still sitting on. She felt her heart race a bit from the stallion’s words. 

“Have a change of heart Deadspin?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“I have… I have found my equal sir,” Deadspin wheezed. “Maybe my better…” 

Sour Mash exhaled sharply and then let out a few pained and panicked wheezes. She had just found a good stallion, and getting flogged didn’t fit in with her plans. 

“You there, lass, what is your name?” Keg Smasher demanded. 

“Sour Mash… sir?” Sour Mash said hesitantly, not sure how to address her Laird now that she was a soldier. She was terrified of what Keg Smasher might order. 

“You just took apart one of my most promising up and comers. Do you want that worthless lout as a husband?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“He has potential,” Sour Mash replied. “Sir,” she added, still in fear of her Laird’s wrath. 

“Damnable earth ponies…” Keg Smasher muttered. “They’ll be the death of us all!” he shouted as he surveyed the crowd all around him, trying to gauge their mood. “And earth pony mares are the worst of all! Upsetting the social order, breaking the rules, starting a damn war after almost a thousand years of peace!” he bellowed, looking at Derpy as he did so. “Those insufferable earth pony mares are going to run roughshod all over us,” he grumped. “All of you are as stubborn as stumps! YOU! Sour Mash, you now are now the buck sergeant of your brigade and it is your job now to get all of those lumps combat ready. And clean up your damn husband! He’s a mess!” 

“We’re married?” Sour Mash asked. 

“My word is law!” Keg Smasher bellowed. 

Sour Mash sat, still straddling Deadspin, and she blinked a few times in surprise. 

“And Deadspin…” Keg Smasher growled. 

“Yes sir?” Deadspin whimpered as he wiped his bloodied lips. 

“Do you think a captain’s wages would be helpful to start a family?” Keg Smasher inquired.

“That would be very generous sir,” Deadspin replied. “But I do not deserve it. I was wrong, and I have been humbled sir,” he added. 

“I was hoping to hear you say that Captain Deadspin. And I hope everypony else heard him! Mares deserve to suffer just as much as we do. If they want to choose this life, let them! But no special consideration will be offered just because they are mares. They will tow the line or they will be drummed out!” Keg Smasher decreed. 

“My Laird!” a pegasus mare cried out. 

“Yes lass?” Keg Smasher replied. 

The pegasus mare pointed at another pegasus guard. “He’s handsome! If I pound him into the dirt, may I have him?” she asked. 

The pegasus in question looked panicked and didn’t wait for a reply. He took wing and deserted the field, flying away in a hurry. 

Keg Smasher heaved a sigh. The changes were coming faster than he knew how to deal with. He looked up at the departing pegasus and then at the pegasus mare with the crazy smile. 

“I want my trial by combat!” she demanded. 

“Oh bloody balls,” Keg Smasher muttered. 



 

Bucky examined the chain he had created. The steel was strong. The high carbon content should prevent rust. It would still need to be greased. Crush seemed pleased with the work as well, and the big stallion nodded mutely in approval. 

He had forged each link from a solid oval of steel, and then he had teleported them to connect to one another, leaving behind no weak point. He had learned a great deal about the shaping of metal from working with the chain links. He had also made a few steel objects. A few bowls, a drinking mug, a couple of plates, and an experimental set of war shoes with leg guards. He planned to enchant them later as an experiment, something that would magnify kinetic energy during a kick, delivering several tons of force on impact, while protecting the kicker from the impact. 

If they were successful, he would add an improved version to his armor. 

He smiled at his work and felt satisfied. He had more to do, but it was time for lunch. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 141
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I swear Buckminster, they’re like foals. I don’t know if I am their leader or their father.” 

Bucky studied the battered pegasus sitting at the table across from him. Lunch was over and most of the ponies had cleared out. A few had lingered, and were talking to one another, just like he and Keg Smasher were doing. 

“Today I saw one of my best and brightest get taken apart by a mare. I mean, she beat Deadspin bloody right in front of his own troops. On one hoof, I want mares treated better. But on the other hoof, not at the expense of the stallions… I married them, which is what they seemed to want. And then I laid down the law that there would be no further trials by combat, and that Sour Mash had secured a mare’s right to serve… but there is going to be so many new regulations to create and enforce now. I had to tell my troops that they had to see the pony serving beside them as their brother or their sister. I don’t know how to deal with the change,” Keg Smasher said, letting everything out. 

“There are going to be bumps in the road along the way. Mistakes are going to be made. I guess that sometimes, harsh examples must be made,” Bucky admitted. “But I don’t like the idea of ponies being hurt,” he added. 

“I know Buckminster, I know… and I thought about that the entire time I was out there. I thought I was going to have to flog her… and maybe that is what I should have done, for equality’s sake. She was a mare that had committed assault. I don’t know if I did the right or wrong thing… nothing is simple anymore!” Keg Smasher grumped. 

“Think you might have had trouble flogging a mare?” Bucky asked gently in a low voice. 

“Of course you twit! I want to foster a feeling that mares are to be loved, cherished, and protected, not beaten, subdued, and traded. But now the shoe is on the other foot damnit,” Keg Smasher grumbled in reply. “And I’m a bloody hypocrite!” The big stallion smacked his forehoof into the table in frustration. 

“How did the troops take all of this?” Bucky asked. 

“When everything was said and done, they followed my lead and accepted. They understood that there was to be no further trials by combat. And there was a sense of camaraderie, I could sense that. Something might be salvaged from this fustercluck. Those shite-bucket headed morons might fight like cornered bears if they feel that their sisters are being threatened,” Keg Smasher growled. “I fought a cave bear once… a right grumpy wee beastie.” 

“So, while the event was terrible, and we can both agree on that, do you think the end result will be worthwhile? Do the ends justify the means?” Bucky asked. 

“Damnit, I don’t know lad… I haven’t drank enough today to be a philosopher. What do I do if one of them is fat with foal? Does she serve? Do I drum her out? I see a tough future looming before me!” Keg Smasher shouted in frustration. “My foals are making me crazy!” 

“I kinda like it when my foals are making me crazy,” Bucky confessed. 

“You would,” Keg Smasher sneered. 

“Foals making you crazy are better than dead foals,” Bucky quipped. 

“Aye, That’s true,” Keg Smasher replied morosely. “Earth ponies. Harrumph!” he shouted as he changed the troubling subject. 

“The most troublesome of all of your foals?” Bucky asked. 

“You married two of them! You should know better than to ask that question,” Keg Smasher retorted. 

“Oh, I dunno, Berry Punch is kinda sweet when she isn’t starting a war or starting trouble. She’s had her moments. When I’ve hit some of the lowest points of my life, she’s been there to pick me up and carry me… and don’t even get me started on Bon Bon. She’s… something,” Bucky replied as he lifted his cup and drank a bit of wine he had left over. 

“I feel sorry for Deadspin… Sour Mash is going keep him in line and take no guff. Our earth ponies hold us accountable, don’t they Buckminster?” Keg Smasher asked. 

Bucky nodded but said nothing, thinking about how afraid he was of Bon Bon’s disappointment or Berry Punch disapproving of something he had done. For Bucky, it was a profound thought, and he suffered a twinge of regret knowing that Sombra never knew the pleasures of being married to an earth pony. Things might have gone very differently had Sombra had an earth pony wife or two. 

“Violence is all my foals know. It is the only language they understand. We are barbarians,” Keg Smasher grumbled. “And for the longest time, they used this as one of the many excuses to justify taking our foals. How do I make it end Buckminster?” Keg Smasher said in a soft pained voice. 

“Begin the slow process of change and stick to it,” Bucky replied. “Allow little slip ups like this one on occasion, bring down your hoof on other occasions where it is needed, and try to learn from any mistakes when you can… hard to say for sure,” Bucky answered. 

“So much is at stake. So many little lives that are going to be born about a year from now that need this to be a better place. We owe it to them,” Keg Smasher said in melancholy tones. 

“The best that you can hope for is that mares like Sour Mash have some foals that learn from both of their parents… they get Deadspin’s sense of chivalry and her sense of empowerment, at least I am guessing she feels empowered. It isn’t perfect, but it is a start,” Bucky answered. 

“Sour Mash refused to even leave the field when it was all said and done. She immediately set about teaching Sparkler and Ripple how to fight… and fight dirty, or so I hear, if the report I got about an hour ago is to be believed,” Keg Smasher groused. 

“Oh bother,” Bucky grumbled. 

“And you will be proud to know that Rising Star apparently has a mean left hook,” Keg Smasher reported. “Wrecker was impressed, said that Rising Star is fit to serve and to wear armor.” 

“I know this is an odd question, but what sort of ponies did Wrecker marry?” Bucky asked inquisitively. 

“A majority of them are earth ponies,” Keg Smasher sighed. “And Wrecker taught them all how to fight when he was still capable of such a thing. He’s survived more assassination attempts than I have. His wives are loyal and brutal. They’re fanatical in their defense. They’re all over this castle. You see them everywhere. One might be bringing your food or another might be scrubbing the floors, which are odd jobs for a lord’s wife, but they are hidden in plain sight all over and if something were to happen that would put Wrecker’s life or my life  or your life at risk, trouble would immediately come at the instigator from all sides,” Keg Smasher replied. “They act like the meekest most spineless mares you ever did see, all eager to please and soft friendly words.” 

“So beware of the meek well mannered earth ponies,” Bucky summarised. 

Keg Smasher nodded and flexed his remaining wing, giving a pained expression as he did so. He exchanged a knowing glance with Bucky, and there were no words that needed to be said between them. 

As the pair sat in silence, a group of guards came bustling through the door, all of them looking very serious. One broke away from the group and approached Keg Smasher and Bucky, bowing low and saluting both of them. 

“Sir, situation to report sir,” the guard announced as he stood at attention. 

“Do tell,” Keg Smasher said as he leaned on the table. 

“There has been a shipwreck sir. The survivors have been gathered and are going to be transported here, to the castle. They were trying to flee mainland Equestria sir. They hit the rocks along the Narrows, in the Inlet of Teeth when they tried to sail between isles,” the guard reported. 

“Oh shite,” Keg Smasher exhaled. 

“Flee Equestria?” Bucky asked in alarm. 

“There are a fair number of earth ponies, some pegasi, a few unicorns, and there are several griffons sir… the soldiers want to know what is to be done with the griffons sir,” the guard stated. 

“They are to be brought here unharmed of course!” Keg Smasher snapped. 

“But sir… there are griffons that come to our isles on occasion and… hunt sir,” the guard said in a low angry voice. 

“And these griffons are from mainland Equestria most likely, do you think they’d be hunting there with Celestia and Luna looking over their ponies you big dumb brain dead dolt?” Keg Smasher shouted bellicosely. 

The guard stared straight ahead stupidly and blinked a few times. “I don’t know sir,” the guard replied. 

“You don’t know!” Keg Smasher sneered. “GET OUT OF MY FACE!” he bellowed. 

The guard scurried away in a hurry and Keg Smasher was left stewing in his own rage, breathing heavily and thumping his hoof down upon the table. 

“My foals are dumb as rocks,” Keg Smasher growled. 

“That one might have rode the short wagon to school,” Bucky grumbled. 

“What?” Keg Smasher asked in confusion. 

“Oh, never mind,” Bucky muttered. “We have more foals to look after. The mainlanders are going to need a place to stay. I suppose you plan to keep them here in the castle somewhere?” 

“Shite, I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to stuff them in somewhere to keep them safe. And then I don’t know what to do afterwards. Things must be pretty bad in Equestria if ponies are fleeing,” Keg Smasher said, saying what Bucky was busy thinking. “I hate to ask you, but I might need you to lean on them just a little bit. You’re a noble… the right sort of noble… and you might have some authority over them that I might not have.” 

“No,” Bucky replied flatly. 

“No?” Keg Smasher asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“I refuse to acknowledge myself as a son of Avarice any longer. I might be a distant son of Platinum, but I want nothing to do with my old house other than burning it all down to the ground. I will not lord myself over them and use my names and titles to keep them in line. I just won’t,” Bucky argued. 

Keg Smasher sighed. “I suppose it was wrong of me to ask. Forgive me,” Keg Smasher stated. “I did something stupid once and almost lost you as a friend. I’ll never make that mistake twice,” he added. 

Bucky felt a strange rush of emotion creep through him. “I forgive you,” Bucky grumbled, finding it difficult to speak.

“We could use more unicorns,” Keg Smasher said in a hopeful sounding voice. He lifted his head and smiled. The guards had cleared the room and the two were left mostly alone, there were only a few other ponies in the hall. 

“I rather like being Knight Captain,” Bucky admitted. 

“Really? I mean, you have much better titles lad,” Keg Smasher said. 

“But I earned this one. I wasn’t born with it,” Bucky replied. 

“Well, you were born an armiger, that makes you something of a knight,” Keg Smasher said in return. 

“Well, maybe, but with the title ‘captain’ I feel like I have done something meaningful with myself,” Bucky confessed. 

“You really are pleased about it,” Keg Smasher said solemnly. 

“It acknowledges some meaning for my suffering,” Bucky admitted in a low whisper. “I am ashamed to admit it, but titles do matter. I hated my titles and my peerage. But I have been beside myself since getting the new title. Rank. Whatever it is,” he explained. 

“Yer an odd pony,” Keg Smasher grumbled at his friend. 

“It holds promise… one day I might be Knight Commander… or even Knight Brigadier,” Bucky said in an uncharacteristically cheerful voice. “I can finally move upwards… rather than just be some snobby noble stuck with what I was born with.” 

“In my last communications with Celestia, before she went silent, I pledged to give up my titles and peerage,” Keg Smasher announced. 

“What?!” Bucky exclaimed. 

“She has offered to make me Governor over the isles once we integrate. For life,” Keg Smasher responded. 

“She went silent?” Bucky asked. 

“I’ve tried to send her a message a few times. No response. I even sent a lone brave pegasus messenger who was ballsy enough to cross the sea. No reply,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“This is worrisome,” Bucky said in a strangled voice.

“You’re telling me. The big dame is pretty good about replying right away,” Keg Smasher said as he shifted his body to a more comfortable position. 

“When we take off for Equestria, I hope it doesn’t turn into a rescue mission,” Bucky said gravely.
	
> Chapter 142
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky exited the doors into the courtyard, he was mobbed by a herd of bloodied muddied mares who surrounded him on all sides, most of them grinning crazily. Some of them had eyes swollen shut. A few had cauliflower ears. Some were limping. 

“Your Lordship!” one called. 

“We beg an audience with you!” another shouted. 

“Just a mere moment of your time!” one promised. 

Bucky halted and looked around him, and he could not help but notice the looks of adoration coming from the mares. Some of them were fillies, but he suspected that he would be in world of hurt if he gave voice to that fact. 

“I have a moment,” Bucky announced. 

“We need a patron!” one of the mares exclaimed. She was a pegasus and one of her eyes was swollen shut. 

“A patron?” Bucky asked. 

“Lord Wrecker said our brigade needs a patron. He said we should come to you!” an earth pony mare responded. 

“I don’t understand, what does a patron do?” Bucky inquired. 

“A patron looks after their brigade. Makes sure they are outfitted and fed. A patron sometimes drinks with their brigade. We’re gonna protect your foals, so can you sponsor us as a patron?” a mare answered. 

Bucky’s remaining eye narrowed as he suddenly realised the potential in the situation. Thoughts began to rapidly fill his mind as he thought about all of the ways he could use this for a means of social change. 

“We’re already planning on a banner… your hops plant mark!” a mare announced. 

“Where is Sour Mash?” Bucky demanded. 

“I am right here sir,” Sour Mash responded as she moved forward. 

“I will consider being your patron. But I will expect a few things from you,” Bucky said in a loud clear voice that carried through the courtyard. 

“You want some of us as wives? We’ve already discussed that, we have volunteers!” Sour Mash said cheerfully. “Their faces are still kinda messed up, but they’ll heal. They’re bruised but pretty! We’re not very submissive though.” 

Bucky choked on his first attempt to reply and his words got caught in throat. He wheezed and coughed, and as he did so, Sour Mash gave him a friendly clubbing with her hoof to try and help him breathe. He staggered from the force of her enthusiastic concern for his well being. 

“No more wives,” Bucky wheezed, certain that his ribs were now forever bent. 

Several mares cried out and many looked disappointed. 

“We wanted unicorn foals,” one protested. 

“Raise ‘em to fight!” another shouted. 

“I will be your patron, but there are some conditions before I agree completely,” Bucky announced as he lifted his head as high as he could. Several of the mares were actually taller than he was and he felt mildly annoyed with his short stature. 

“Well, let us know what we need to do, we expect to earn it!” Sour Mash bellowed. 

“First off, I want all of you to spend some time talking to my wife, Berry Punch. I want you to learn from her and listen closely to what she has to say. Second, no more violence against males. If there is violence visited upon you, behave defensively and protect yourselves. Subdue, but do no harm. Third… and perhaps the most important… I want you to go out and gather more mares. I will give you one week. If you can triple your numbers, I will be your patron,” Bucky promised. 

“That’s it? Buggery and spitfire, We can do that!” Sour Mash shouted. 

“That’s it?” one mare questioned in disbelief. 

“That’s it,” Bucky repeated in reply. 

“Usually patronage involves going out and hunting down some horrible wee beastie, like slaying a hydra or killing some monster… Wrecker thought that maybe you’d have us hunt down wolves,” one mare said in a halting voice. 

“I feel kinda let down… you ain’t going soft on us because we’re mares are you?” one asked in a somewhat angry voice. 

“No!” Bucky shouted. “I have no idea what I am doing… I-” 

“How dare you ask that? You’ve seen how he is with his wives and his foals!” Sour Mash bellowed, cutting Bucky off as he floundered. 

“I’m sorry I-” 

“Oh shut up!” Sour Mash commanded the apologetic mare. 

“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” the mare responded. 

“A couple of us have gone wolf hunting. We’ve even killed a few already. We lost a few of us though,” a mare announced. 

“We remember our fallen!” a mare shouted. 

“Hunt me down more willing and able bodied mares!” Bucky bellowed, trying to recover the situation. “And one more thing… every single one of you is going to learn how to read and write,” he commanded. 

“What?” Sour Mash asked. 

“Well, I won’t be here forever, and I will want some means to communicate with you once I am gone,” Bucky explained. 

“Oh… uh… we can learn to read and write, can’t we girls?” Sour Mash asked her brigade. 

There was a murmur of confusion from the crowd. None of them expected this. Ears perked forward, wings fluttered, and tails swished. 

“In the future, I will be making you responsible for educating foals, teaching them to read and write. You are going to guard the future of these isles!” Bucky shouted. 

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Sour Mash said. “I want smart foals.” 

“Do this and I will be your patron,” Bucky promised. 

“You have a deal,” Sour Mash said, extending her hoof. 

Bucky raised his own and bumped it against Sour Mash’s. As he did so, there was a cheer. 

Bucky felt a strong sense of satisfaction in knowing that he had just secured something of a better future for the isles and made Keg Smasher’s life just a little easier. 



 

“Crush, I need supplies. I am about to be a patron for a new brigade. I want them outfitted in armor and supplied well. What is it going to cost me? How do I go about doing this? How do I secure your services and see that they are looked after?” Bucky asked of the big mute earth pony, so lost in thought that he forgot that Crush couldn’t answer. 

Crush pointed at the pile of steel ingots. 

“More steel? I can do that. I need the practice anyway. I’ll make you a stockpile of steel. To sweeten the deal, I’ll even enchant you a hammer to help you forge it,” Bucky offered. 

Crush raised his eyebrow and looked down at Bucky. He then looked at his helpers, the smallest of which was a foal that couldn’t be more than two summers old. The big earth pony looked thoughtful. 

“Are you worried about the earth pony way? I understand that, I do, but your forge doesn’t get hot enough to work the steel properly. But I can make you a hammer and maybe even an anvil that will help,” Bucky offered. 

Crush looked down at Bucky once again, studying the unicorn carefully. Slowly, he nodded and then looked to see the reactions of his helpers and apprentices. 

The other ponies in the forge all nodded and a few even looked excited. 

“Well then, now that we have that out of the way, let’s get back to work,” Bucky announced. The stallion felt immensely pleased with himself and the mischief he was making. 



 

Bucky looked over the refugees assembled in the courtyard. He had been summoned from the smithy by a guard, and now he saw before him the frightened and battered survivors from the shipwreck. 

Keg Smasher was sitting quietly upon a cushion, his eyes glassy with pain, the day had been far too long for him in his condition. The big pegasus was silent and letting Bucky deal with the influx of new ponies. 

He cleared his throat nervously, licked his lips, and then tried to deal with his rising sense of panic as he addressed the crowd. “Before anything is said, I would like to know what is happening in Equestria and why you were fleeing the mainland,” Bucky said in his commanding sonorous voice to the crowd. 

There was a murmur from the crowd as they all talked in low voices to one another, and after several minutes of talking, a mare with her mane drew up into a bun walked forward. 

“My name is Gardenia, and I can tell you what I know,” she offered. 

“I would be most appreciative,” Bucky said. 

“I know who you are… I mean, we all know who you are… you’ve been all over the papers, you and your wife, Berry Punch. You’re heroes,” Gardenia said in reverent tones as she shyly approached Bucky. “You do look a little different now…” she added, her words trailing off as she spoke. 

“Please madam, spare me the flattery. I am unaccustomed to it and it makes me uncomfortable,” Bucky said pleasantly. 

“Of course, I’m sorry… anyway, you’ve been in the papers. Berry Punch’s kick was the kick felt around the world. Her act of war started it all. And she did it for love of you, which is so romantic. After you left, the government collapsed shortly after. There was rioting. The earth ponies revolted completely in many places, demanding better treatment and equality, calling Berry Punch their hero. Every day there were more and more stories in the paper about government corruption and scandal. High ranking members of House Avarice went into seclusion… into hiding. The courts were all shut down, the banks all closed. Many of the earth ponies refused to farm or grow food, demanding that House Avarice be brought to some kind of justice. Vanhoover followed Ponyville’s lead and broke away, declaring independence. The earth ponies and the pegasi that lived there formed their own government and things started to get scary for unicorns when the secret police were formed and started hunting down unicorns with ties to House Avarice or that were suspected of “unicorn superiourity” and many unicorns just disappeared. I’m from Vanhoover,” the mare reported. 

“That sounds very disturbing,” Bucky acknowledged. “Please continue,” he asked. 

“They started finding bodies of unicorns… they were all dried out looked like mummies from the museum. They had no cutie marks, but nopony knew why. It was awful… I can’t believe the secret police would do that. I don’t understand how they could do that. Somepony committed arson and set the government grain silos on fire in the Unicorn Range. There were already food shortages. Some of the unicorns in Canterlot demanded that Princess Celestia use her magic to bring the earth ponies back under control and force them to grow food. Princess Celestia refused. These weren’t unicorns from House Avarice, but there are other noble houses that are just as bad. They formed a confederacy and declared war on Princess Celestia,” Gardenia explained. 

“Oh my, that sounds bad,” Bucky groaned. 

“And at some time during all of this, some horrible monster escaped from Tartarus. They call him Tirek, and he’s been rampaging around Equestria sowing chaos and havoc. There are all kinds of stories and rumours about him, but I don’t know what is true. And that is when we left,” Gardenia said as she gestured to the ponies behind her. “I started in Vanhoover, crossed the country with a few friends, made my way to Manehatten, met the others, and we all got together and stole a boat. A ship. None of us knew how to sail. We wanted to go to Tradewinds, the big city on the edge of the Sea of Grass and start over. There was a storm and we had no idea what we were doing, so we were really off course, and now we are here,” she continued. 

“Thank you for telling me all of this. I am sure that it has been a very trying day,” Bucky said graciously. 

“So what is to be done with us? All of us? I want the griffons treated well… some of the pegasi were a bit rude to them,” Gardenia asked. “The griffons had wings and they saved many of us… they could have flown away and saved themselves,” she added.

“I apologise and I will have the guard spoken to. There is much that you need to know before the sun sets. It is not safe to leave the castle once it is dark. There are monsters here, let how I look be a testament to my words. Especially for the unicorns. You must not leave the castle after dark, no matter what. You will be devoured. More will be explained shortly, but I am sure you are all very tired and in need of sustenance and rest. You will be looked after, but do not be surprised if you are put to work. Ma’am, if I might ask, what is your profession?” Bucky asked of the earth pony mare. 

“I am a schoolmarm,” Gardenia replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 143
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the late afternoon neared evening, Bucky called it quits for the day, finally worn out after his long day of labour. The day had been tiring and now he was worried. He sat on the sofa, reclining on his side, his barrel propped up on the arm of the sofa, and in his forelegs he held something precious to him. 

“Hi Harper… are you happy to see me?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

The foal gurgled and blew spit bubbles in reply, which made Bucky forget the troubles of the day and the fatigue he felt in his bones. Harper lay with her head resting on his neck, and he could feel her breathing. Life wasn’t so bad. 

“Lyra is conditioning her to pee upon command,” Sentinel reported as he sat on the floor before Bucky. 

“What?” Bucky asked. At some point, he might have been shocked or sent into panic by such a statement. Now, it took something serious to shock him. 

“When Harper pees, Lyra whistles. Lyra intends to condition Harper to the sound of whistling, emptying her bladder upon command, for reasons I am not sure I fully understand,” Sentinel explained. 

“Some kind of potty training,” Bucky muttered in befuddlement. In that moment, his love for Lyra grew just a little bit more. There was something about mad hedge wizards. 

“I plan to write about it in my journal,” Sentinel stated. 

Bucky smiled and settled into the sofa, which wasn’t as comfortable as he would have liked, but it was better than the bare floor. Harper squirmed in his embrace and he felt small hooves on his hip. He lifted his head, saw Piña crawling up on him and then she flopped down on his ribs, sliding backwards towards the back of the sofa. A moment later, Dinky crawled up and sprawled out over Piña. 

“There is going to be a lot of new ponies at dinner,” Piña quipped. 

“There’s a lot of survivors,” Dinky commented. 

“Too bad they lost a few,” Piña said sadly. “I wonder what it is like to drown.” 

“Piña, how about no morbid thoughts just before dinner,” Bucky suggested. 

“Okay,” Piña answered. 

“Ripple beat the stuffing out of a much bigger mare today,” Dinky said as she squirmed and tried to get settled. 

“Oh?” Bucky inquired with a monosyllabic grunt. 

“The bigger mare tried to pin Ripple during combat training and Ripple freaked out. She’s fast. Her hooves moved so fast that they were a blur. And when it was all over and Ripple beat the big mare down, the big mare was proud of her,” Piña explained. 

“I didn’t freak out,” Ripple protested from across the room. 

“What do you call it then?” Dinky shouted back. 

“I dunno, I just panicked a bit when she tried to hold me down,” Ripple said in a strained voice. “It is okay, we’re friends now… the black eye and the bruises will heal.” 

“And now, Ripple is going to get special boxer training from a big pegasus and he is going to have her punch a dummy made out of wood and rope because she’s dangerous,” Dinky told Bucky in excited tones. 

“Ripple, is this true?” Bucky asked. 

Ripple rose from her sister’s side, slipped through the room and sat down beside Sentinel. “It is true. He doesn’t teach just anypony how to box. He says I have talent. He is going to teach me hooficuffs. Several of the other mares are also getting lessons. He said we hit too hard to safely spar with the others,” she said. 

“You stick with your lessons. If you make me proud, I will forge you a pair of war shoes made for kicking,” Bucky promised. 

“I will do all that I can to make sure that you are proud of me,” Ripple said. The filly sat up straight and her ears perked forward. She beamed, looking exceptionally happy. She gave Sentinel a soft nudge and then, unable to contain herself, lunged forward and kissed Bucky on the cheek. 

“You know Ripple, I do believe he is already proud of you,” Sentinel whispered to the pegasus he called his sister. 

“I know,” Ripple said in reply. 



 

Bucky looked over the list of survivors and rubbed the scarred side of his face. A couple of school teachers, a few farmers, a crown certified alchemist, some weather specialists, a mailpony, and one of the griffons had listed his profession as an artist. The school teachers and the alchemist would be quite useful. The isles needed weather pegasi. Nature was wild here. He wasn’t sure what to do with the mailpony or the painter. The other griffons worked with the weather service. He wondered if the farmers had any other skills. 

Several ponies had no professions listed, just the word “unicorn” scribbled into the list. This pleased Bucky a great deal. Buck of all trades types were always welcomed. 

“No lab work tonight Bucky?” Bon Bon inquired in a soft voice. 

“Too tired,” Bucky replied. “And the others are worn out.” 

“I’m terrified of what is coming, but I am excited because everything is drawing near completion. The Scorned Mare is nearly finished. There are hundreds of spell jars downstairs. We know the location of our enemy,” Bon Bon said to Bucky in a silky whisper. “And you… you have held together so well. You’ve been the sort of pony I’ve always knew you could be. You and Lyra both.” 

“Thank you Bonnie,” Bucky whispered in a strained voice. 

“Aw nuts Bonnie, now I can’t see, my eyes are all watery… stupid hormones,” Lyra griped. “I am so emotional right now,” she whined. 

“Sentinel, I am going to need you to change your sleeping habits a bit,” Bucky said. 

“Sir?” Sentinel replied. 

“I need you up during the day if possible. I am going to be very busy, and I can’t be everywhere. I am going to need for you to be the very grown up and responsible pony that I know that you are and I need for you to look after the refugees. I want them to come to you with their requests and needs, and then you can come to me. And I am trusting you to filter through what is important. Serious needs are to be looked after, trivial concerns are to be ignored, and I only have the time and the resources to look after what really matters,” Bucky explained. “Keep a pencil and some paper handy. Put those writing skills to good use.” 

“I can do that sir,” Sentinel said. “Sir, can we talk for a moment?” 

“What is on your mind Sentinel?” Bucky inquired. 

“Princess Luna… I keep thinking about her. I’d like to meet her. I want to see her. I pray to her sometimes… do you think that is stupid? Do you think she can hear me when I look out the window and talk to the moon?” Sentinel asked. 

Bucky heard a faint gasp from Bon Bon and he felt a catch in his own throat, which he tried several times to clear. “I don’t know Sentinel… I know she visits ponies in dreams. She saved me… she gave me knowledge of how to craft myself a new horn. I’d feel very foolish trying to answer if she could hear you or not, and I would never want to lie to you,” Bucky replied. 

“Well, she’s already answered one prayer then,” Sentinel said with a heaving sigh. 

“She has?” Bon Bon inquired. 

“I begged for her to keep father alive,” Sentinel admitted to Bon Bon in a soft whisper. 

There was a strangled hitching sound from Lyra followed by silence. 

“I want to be able to go out into the night and bask in the moonlight. But those damnable wolves keep me indoors and I hate them,” Sentinel said. “I want to walk in the dark and secret places of the wood and prance through the moonlight dappled darkness that exists between the trees. I want to fly over a loch and touch the moon reflected in the water,” he added wistfully. 

“Sentinel, one day, this will be over and we will go to a place where you can do those things,” Bucky whispered. 

“I hope so,” Sentinel said as he lept up onto the couch beside Bucky and sat down. 

“I need to get some shut eye… if you can, come to bed at some point so you can be up tomorrow. I need you Sentinel,” Bucky said as he stroked the colt with a hoof. 

“I will serve,” Sentinel replied. 



 

In the hours just after dawn, pegasi and a few griffons laboured to gather clouds and compress them into cloud banks. They had to fly out over the isles and gather the wild clouds, return them to central location, and then squeeze them into place. Others stayed and minded the clouds to keep them from drifting away. 

A grinning earth pony mare and a somewhat battered looking pegasus stood together in the central courtyard, watching the morning drills after their first night together as a married couple. She was gentle and attentive, and carefully nosed the pegasi on occasion. Both of them seemed happy as they watched their respective squads train. 

A young pegasus filly was getting her hooves filed down flat on a grinding wheel and she was going to get her first set of slugging shoes. The pegasus filly was nervous and skittish. She looked forward to proving herself and wanted to make her father proud. 

A young unicorn colt and a young unicorn filly grappled together, trusting one another during their sparring to not hurt the other too much. Blows were expected though, as it was the only way they would learn. Plus, wrestling had its own rewards. They trusted one another with their honest mistakes, knowing that bumps and bruises would fade in time.

A grey pegasus sat upon the wall and watched as the pegasus filly she called her daughter was being prepared for war. She was fiercely proud of the filly. When ponies saluted her, she saluted back. While her salutes might have been somewhat clumsy, they were genuine and every pony in the courtyard had the utmost respect for the grey mare that sat watching them. 

Deep within the kitchens, a plum coloured earth pony mare worked hard to teach the kitchen staff how to make light fluffy pie crusts and how to make simple pies. There was going to be a pleasant surprise come lunch, and the kitchen staff took to their new assignment with joy. 

Moving about different groups, a small lunar pegasus foal yawned occasionally as he spoke with different ponies and coordinated messages between various groups, including taking messages to Keg Smasher directly. He wore brass goggles that had smoked glass lenses that blocked out the painful daylight and allowed him to see. 

Inside of a smithy, a gnarled unicorn wearing smoked glass goggles and a giant earth pony worked together, perfecting the art of steel. Chains were being forged. On the walls were diagrams and drawings done in charcoal upon the stone of various types of armor pieces and panels. Working as a team, they were the perfect example of what an earth pony and a unicorn working with one another could do together. It became obvious to any observer that the pair had an immense respect for one another, both of them were master craftsponies and they had the respect for one another that only came to those who were at the top of their trades. There was nothing to prove here, but there was a lot to get done. 

A lone kelpie swam the lake, hunting for fish and thinking about her marriage, which was coming soon. She was already a herd member, she knew this, but the ceremony, however simple, meant something to her, and she looked forward to what came after. There was no fear now. She was the trophy for triumph, and she would be wed upon the deck of The Scorned Mare once it was airborne. It would be a meaningful moment in so many ways. 

And far away under the mountains, a dreadful something waited in the dark. It had found a way past the wards that had been thwarting its efforts and now it moved against its enemy, reaching out to touch a fragile sleeping mind that had been heavily scarred by darkness and was now quite unbalanced by hormones. It would undo its enemy’s strength by weakening what made his enemy strong. It planned to kill three birds with one stone as it prepared the spell that would invade the fragile unicorn’s mind. 
	
> Chapter 144
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bon Bon awoke groggily to screaming and then confusion took her. She felt sick, nauseous, and it took everything she had to not vomit in the bed. Her vision blurred for a moment, then came into focus, blurred again, and when she could finally see again, she saw Lyra. 

Lyra was in the throes of dark magic, her eyes were tainted from the darkness and black flames burned around her horn. She was holding her head in her hooves and screaming. Bon Bon struggled to get to sit up and help her mate, she couldn’t bear to see Lyra like this and Lyra’s suffering was of far more concern than her own. 

Bon Bon felt panic as Harper began to shriek and wail, and then Bon Bon realised, she was under attack from dark magic. Something deep in her earth pony bones reacted poorly to the magic in the air. Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed Lyra, clamping both of her own hooves to the sides of Lyra’s head. 

Lyra was foaming at the mouth and was screaming incoherently, but at Bon Bon’s touch, something changed. Recognition flared back into her eyes. She looked at Bon Bon for a moment, and then a fierce expression came over her face. 

Lyra, feeling something trying to forcibly enter her mind, felt her memories flooding with vague thoughts of a time when something had forcibly entered her body. Brief snatches of past hurts flashed though her mind. Sounds. Smells. Wet squelching sounds. Cries. Moans. Whimpers. The soft sadistic symphony of sounds that harmonised with rape. The scent of blood… her blood. And a terrible stabbing pain began to thrum through her hips, the worst pain centered just between her legs. For a moment, she teetered upon the very verge of falling over the edge and slipping into total insanity, she didn’t want to remember those things. The faint clink and rattle of iron chains and the terrible pinch of the heavy iron collar around her neck. 

And then when Bon Bon touched her, Lyra thought of other things. Of Harper suckling at her teats. Of Sentinel’s absolute adoration and admiration of her. She thought of all of the time she spent answering Piña’s many questions. Of all the magical lessons she had given Dinky. Then she thought of Bucky and somehow Bucky’s mental image drove away the horror in her mind. Bucky loved her and would never hurt her. 

She felt a powerful spike of motherly instinct. Summoning her own considerable will driven magic, and now determined to fight for her foals, she brought her mind to bear upon the intruder, the mental invader that sought to take away everything she held dear. 

Lyra Heartstrings was gifted as a spellbreaker, and she sent a spike of raw magical agony back to the source, plucking the magic connection as though it was a string. It was a terrible thing to connect to the mind of a creature and then misjudge the strength of your foe. And Lyra’s new strength was terrible. She had inadvertently tapped into the very sort of wellspring of strength that Bucky drew from. 

The unicorn was not done in her assaults. She felt the force intruding in her mind retreating, she knew that she had hurt it, but while the connection still existed, Lyra, now in perfect control, sent everything she had back through the connection, and she could feel whatever was on the other side writhing in mental anguish. Lyra had her own dark magic and the will to use it. Black agony flooded from her mind and ran like a river into her fleeing intruder. Lyra had her own pain, her own anguish, her own unspeakable agonies and she broadcast every repressed memory she could feel lurking just beneath her subconscious back into the mind of her attempted mental rapist. 

Lyra felt herself become the violator and it felt good. 

The connection was severed and Lyra screamed because her bottled up wrath had no outlet… she wasn’t done. She wasn’t finished. She hadn’t had a chance to share all of her pain just yet. Pain gave dark magic power, and Lyra was full of pain.

The distraught unicorn looked up into the eyes of the earth pony that she loved, the earth pony whose touch took that pain away, and collapsed into Bon Bon’s embrace. She clung to the earth pony with everything she had, pressing her face into Bon Bon’s silken pelt. 

“I need Bucky,” Lyra sobbed to her mate. 

“Okay Lyra… give me a minute… I need to know that you are okay and then I will go and try to get him,” Bon Bon replied as she clutched Lyra to her barrel. She stroked Lyra. Harper was crying, shrieking now, and making gurgling sounds. 

Lyra snatched up the foal in her magic and lifted Harper to her, and the two mares tucked the tiny foal between them as they clung to one another. “I don’t want to remember, Bonnie,” Lyra whined, her voice cracking from pain. “I want to be happy with what I have now and I don’t want to remember,” she gibbered as Bon Bon rocked her back and forth. 

Bon Bon gently extricated herself from Lyra. She still felt sick and nauseous and she had trouble walking. Her vision blurred and she saw double. Her sudden movement was too much and she vomited upon the floor. She staggered and tried to not fall into her own puddle of sick. She somehow made her way to the door. She could hear Harper’s ragged cries behind her, and realised the foal must be feeling sick as well. 

Bon Bon pulled the door open and made her way into the hall, where she started shouting for a guard, her voice echoing off of the stone walls and reverberating down the hallway. She cried out for several minutes before finally hearing a weak reply, and then cried out that Lyra was sick and Bucky was needed. 

The guard replied with a weak shout and then Bon Bon returned to Lyra, to hold the unicorn and try to bring some measure of comfort to the foal. 



 

The pair waited, holding on to one another, both of them weeping, and each of them trying to comfort Harper, who seemed inconsolable. Bon Bon was not sure how much time had passed, but she suspected that everypony was still trying to recover from the effects of the dark magic. 

While Bon Bon gently rocked Lyra back and forth, Lyra somehow managed to summon her magical lyre and the soft sounds of comfort filled the room. Harper’s squalling eased; the foal still cried but now they were subsiding. 

There was a crackle of blue-green energy and then Bucky suddenly exploded into the room, covering everything with a layer of snow and frost. He crossed the room quickly, mounted the bed, and quickly took both mares into his embrace. 

“You’re not sick at all,” Bon Bon whimpered as she snuffled. 

“Bucky is too full of darkness,” Lyra explained weakly, her voice a halting screechy sound. “Bucky is darkness…” she added in an almost inaudible whisper. 

“I didn’t get sick like the others,” Bucky replied as he pulled them both close. “Is Harper okay?” he inquired. 

“She’s okay I think,” Bon Bon whispered in a raspy voice. 

Lyra settled into Bucky’s embrace, feeling safe and secure between him and Bon Bon. The horrors in Lyra’s mind began to subside. Lyra came to a terrible conclusion; Bucky was far more terrible than anything that lurked in the dark and she had his love. For a brief moment, she pitied whatever lurked under the mountain, but the feeling died and all she could feel was loathing. “Hold me Bucky,” Lyra begged. 

“Lyra Heartstrings, I have you,” Bucky soothed, whispering into the mare’s ear. He could feel Lyra shivering, and couldn’t tell the cause. It could be the fear or the layer of frost and snow in the room. It was an intimate embrace, he practically wore Lyra like a second skin, and had he been aware of the horror that lurked deep within the hidden and long forgotten recesses in Lyra’s mind, he would have marveled at her trust of him. But Bucky knew very little of what Lyra had endured.

Bon Bon felt a rush of relief inspite of all of the horror; something had changed within Lyra, some barrier had been broken down, and Bon Bon was grateful that Lyra had finally let somepony else in. She felt that Lyra’s trust of Bucky was certainly a sign that Lyra was healing and getting better. She did not know or understand any of Lyra’s reasonings, all she saw was the end result. Had Bon Bon knew the truth as to why Lyra felt safe, she might have felt disturbed or at least alarmed. 

The door opened and as it did so, Bucky’s horn flared a blue-green light. Derpy came through the door, she was struggling to walk but managing. On her back was Dinky, who did not look well. Behind her was Ripple, who was carrying Piña. Ripple looked as though she was going to fall over at any minute. Rising Star stumbled through the door with Loch Skimmer on his back and he stepped out of the way of the door as Sparkler staggered through the door as though she was drunk. 

The herd of ponies shambled through the room, avoided the vomit puddle, and collapsed on the bed, forming a protective pile around the smallest of them all. 

“I don’t know where Berry, Sentinel, or Thistle are, and I am worried,” Derpy gasped. “I am so scared,” she whimpered. 

“Berry will be fine,” Bon Bon said in a wavering but reassuring voice. “She’s made of iron.” 

“Thistle and Sentinel,” Derpy groaned. “I’m going after them,” she announced. She made her way back up to her hooves, flared out her wings to keep her balance, and then shuffled off towards the door. “Ripple, watch my littlest ones. I am leaving them in your care,” Derpy groaned as she made her way to the door. 

As Derpy neared the door, Berry Punch came into the door frame with Sentinel on her back. She didn’t look well. She had clearly been sick. 

“I feel like I’ve been on a bender,” Berry growled. “Hold on Sentinel, lemme get you to the bed,” she added as she sidestepped Derpy and struggled to not trip over her own hooves. 

“I’ll be back with Thistle,” Derpy said resolutely as she slipped through the door. 

As Berry approached the bed, Sentinel blew hot chunks all over the floor and down Berry’s side. Berry paid no attention, clearly not bothered by the colt puking his guts out all over her. “Change of plans,” Berry announced. “We’ll just lay on the floor,” she stated as she moved away from the steaming puke puddle. She tumbled to the floor and then pulled Sentinel into her embrace, trying to comfort the visibly ill foal. 

“Dinky, Piña, do either of you feel like you are going to be sick?” Bucky inquired. 

“I’ve already tossed my cookies,” Dinky groaned. 

Piña nodded and curled up into a huddled mass of misery, pressing herself against Ripple, who didn’t look any better. 

“I don’t understand what is going on,” Loch said. 

“Dark magic,” Bucky said. “Strong dark magic,” he added. 

“Lyra’s lyre sounds so soothing,” Ripple moaned. 

“Loch, whistle for us,” Bucky requested. 

“I can’t,” Loch protested. 

“Loch, we need you to whistle for us,” Rising Star begged. 

“Whistle a happy tune,” Lyra commanded. “It will help.” 

Loch pursed her lips and tried to whistle, making only flatulent spitting sounds. She struggled for a bit, spitting and sputtering, until Rising Star kissed her with as much force and intensity as he could muster. And then, Loch found her song. The first warbling notes came forth and she struggled to find the music within her. 

Her song did very little without the voices of nature to amplify it, but it did make her feel better. Loch could feel her own spirits lifting as she tried to push the darkness from her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to form a tune that harmonised with Lyra’s melody. She felt Sparkler embracing her and she could feel the music welling up within her. Loch found her strength and the darkness fled. 

Surrounded by her herdmates, Lyra Heartstrings felt a sense of belonging. She nuzzled Bucky and Bon Bon, and then squeezed Harper a little closer to her heart. She had always had trouble connecting to other ponies, always felt distant. Now, something had changed. These were her ponies. Her herd. These were her foals, this was her husband, and these were her fellow-wives, and she knew that she was a part of them just as much as they were a part of her. Lyra in that moment understood Bucky perhaps better than any other pony in her herd. She knew exactly where he drew his immense strength from, his resolution, and his iron will. 

Lyra resolved to be the sort of unicorn that her herd deserved. No more holding herself back. No more going half way. No more withholding herself mentally from their affections. It was time to destroy the barriers and let go. Lyra understood that just like Bucky, it was time for her to heal, and she resolved to make some changes. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 145
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The herd quietly recovered together, each pony clinging to somepony else. With each passing moment, they felt their strength recovering. A guard stopped by to check on them, and then he departed, not looking well himself. Bucky conjured water and they began to clean one another up as Bucky removed the mess from the floor. 

Quite some time later the door opened and Derpy entered the room. She grunted with every step and Thistle was sprawled out limply on her back. In her mouth was a basket full of fish. Derpy made her way to the bed and then carefully eased Thistle off of her back and down onto the bed with the others. She set down the basket and shook herself, flaring out her wings and stretching them a bit. 

“She’s worried about her foal,” Derpy said nervously, and it was clear from looking at the pegasus mare’s face that she was now worried about her own. 

“The sickness is just a reaction to the dark magic,” Bucky said reassuringly as Bon Bon pulled Thistle close and began to rub the kelpie with her hooves. Thistle responded almost immediately, and as Bucky watched, seemed to perk up from Bon Bon’s touch. Bucky’s observations were all going into a vast mental file. The touch of earth ponies seemed to help ease off the effects of dark magic assaults among the many things the touch of an earth pony seemed capable of doing. 

The strategic part of Bucky’s mind saw Bon Bon and Berry Punch as powerful assets. 

The rest of Bucky loved them dearly and treasured earth ponies for their solid and dependable natures. Bon Bon and Berry were almost fully recovered while the others were still struggling to fend off nausea and trying to push the feeling of horror from their minds. 

Using his magic, Bucky pulled Thistle into his embrace with Lyra, and the two mares clung to one another as he held them both. Bon Bon rubbed Thistle’s belly, which seemed to sooth Thistle’s fears. 

“Dinky… I hate to ask you… but I need you. We’re not going to take this lying down. As soon as you feel as though you have recovered, you and I are going to commune… and very bad things are going to happen...” Bucky said haltingly. 

“You’re going to need me,” Lyra groaned. “I think I can use some of my detection magic… I can maybe detect shadow… if we can find nearby dens… I know what you are planning to do. I have a perfect sense of direction once I want to find something,” she added in between heaving gasps. Her stomach was cramping and her teats were hurting. She felt too full of milk. 

“An exchange of pleasantries seems appropriate,” Sentinel heaved as he pulled Piña closer to him. Piña was miserable and welcomed Sentinel’s embrace. He could feel her as she buried her face into his thick shaggy pelt. 

“Can we push past its defenses and into the Hydra Teeth?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe. I hurt it Bucky… it has been weakened now, whatever it is. I could feel it in my mind Bucky… it was male… I think… at one point but no longer. It has changed. Moved on. It felt so very wrong as it touched me,” Lyra replied. 

“Do you know where it is?” Bucky inquired in a low voice. 

“I think I do, and even if I don’t, I could trace the spell back to its origins. It was careless Bucky… it thought it could take me and make me kill Harper and Bon Bon… hurt those I love… hurt you,” Lyra responded as she brushed her face up against Thistle. 

Dinky, finally mustering up enough gumption to reply, sat up. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. She wobbled as she sat up. She reached out with one hoof and placed it upon Sentinel to steady herself. “Whatever it takes,” she moaned as she rubbed her head with her other hoof. 

“Why isn’t Bucky sick?” Thistle asked. 

“Dark magic takes a contest of wills,” Lyra said weakly. “Dark magic is all about imposing your will upon another. Which is why it is useful against things like demons and other fell creatures. Certain very powerful entities can resist harmony magic, or are even immune to it, like very powerful demons. But hit them with dark magic and overcome their will to resist, and you can hurt them. You have to have a stronger will than they have,” she explained as she held Thistle. 

“I also suspect that Bucky is a bit darker than whatever is hiding in the mountains,” Berry said, stating exactly what was on her mind. Her comment was met with silence, and nopony responded. “I dunno about the rest of you, but I appreciate Bucky’s darker parts. As an earth pony, I respect a pony willing to get his hooves dirty,” she said, breaking the silence she created. “And things are going to get filthy,” Berry muttered as an afterthought spoken out loud. 

“I am well aware of Bucky’s darkness,” Derpy said in a low voice. “I know what sort of magic he used to keep Dinky and Piña safe that day in Ponyville. But I’d like to focus on Bucky’s happiness, he deserves it,” the pegasus added.

“As much as I don’t want any part of this, if Bucky is going to strike back, then I am going to be a part of it. We started this together and I will see this through to its end,” Sparkler said as she lifted her head away from the bed. “I don’t have much to contribute other than the presence of my mind,” she offered. 

“I’m in this as well…” Rising Star announced. 

“Get yourselves together then. We’ll need to eat something first. And then we are going to do terrible things,” Bucky said in a cold voice as he held both Lyra and Thistle. He kissed them both, and then reached down to stroke Thistle’s belly. 



 

Five unicorns gathered in the grass and settled down together. They were all quiet and solemn. A short distance away, a group of other ponies had gathered to watch over them, including a very nervous and upset Keg Smasher. Thrasher, Keg Smasher’s loyal assistant was beside him, while Wrecker glanced around nervously, not liking the direction things had gone. A group of mostly earth pony mares sat around Wrecker, each of them looking quite sour. 

Some of the unicorns from the mainland were watching, all of them quite frantic, none of them had ever experienced anything like this, they had already heard rumours about what Bucky was capable of, and of the things he had done. The tales of the undead walking the earth had unnerved them. 

A very large griffon sat nearby, carefully sharpening his beak with a stone and filing the tips of his claws into points. He was every bit as massive as Keg Smasher and he was terrifying to look at. Beside him sat a tiny pegasus filly that he occasionally stroked affectionately, consoling the still upset foal. Several of the more frightened shipwreck survivors sat close to the griffon, looking befuddled and confused. They had endured so much tragedy already and this only made things worse. 

Sour Mash and Deadspin stood guard together, watching over their brigades. Keg Smasher had given the order to expect anything, and there were terrified whispers that an army of the undead would descend upon them at any moment, so the guard was out in force. The two brigades intermingled and the stallions and mares watched over one another protectively, forming tight ranks together. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the mares held the line with the stallions, the first regiment of its kind for centuries, as even in mainland Equestria the guard were all male. They were clustered tightly around the rest of Bucky’s family, a fortress of flesh and fury. 

Bucky looked at his group of unicorns and his expression grew grim. “We are about to do bad things for the right reasons. I don’t know if I have prepared you enough for this. I hope that I have, but I am worried. We’re about to do the sorts of things that there might be more consequences for when we go home… and after giving it a lot of thought, I am not sure that I can ask you to do this. So I am telling you now, if you want to back out, do so. Lyra and I are committed to this course of action. She and I have a means to return fire so to speak, and Dinky, I am not sure I want you to endure this… or either of you for that matter,” Bucky said to his group. 

“Don’t you dare send me away!” Dinky snarled. “He made Piña sick… I want blood!” 

Bucky closed his remaining eye and lowered his head, saddened to see such a change come over Dinky. “I figured that is how you’d feel.” 

“If I don’t have a future at home, I have a future here,” Rising Star said. “So I fear nothing. I have my wives and I don’t need anything else.” 

Sparkler leaned over and kissed Rising Star affectionately before speaking her mind. She cleared her throat and then she looked at Bucky. “He’s right. We can always choose exile. I could spend the rest of my life here if I have to. I’d like to go home, but really, home is wherever my herd gathers,” she said in a raspy emotional voice. 

Lyra looked over at Bon Bon, who was difficult to see because she was surrounded by the guard. She tried to see Berry Punch, who she knew was looking after Harper. She really wanted to see Harper, but the little foal was not visible. She gulped, finding it hard to swallow, and tried to crush down her rising feeling of panic. Now was not the time for panic, she needed to do her part for her herd. Every pony had a part, some function in the herd, and she understood that her role was very much the same as Bucky’s, to defend them from the threats they had no means to fight. 

“A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens,” Bucky said mostly to himself in a low whisper. He knew that Sentinel prayed to Luna by speaking to her moon, other ponies prayed to the sun, Bucky himself had never been much for prayer, but now found himself in an odd position where he felt the need to say something. He thought about looking up at the sun to say something for a moment, but halted when he realised how much it would burn his eye. He had forgotten his goggles in the chaos. No, he no longer belonged in the sun, and he wasn’t sure how Celestia was going to deal with him after everything he had done. Exile was certainly an option, if he was lucky. 

In the end, Bucky could only think of one pony he could talk to that would understand. “Sombra,” he muttered to himself. “I hope I am worthy as your heir. I hope my enemies piss themselves when they hear my name,” he grumbled. Bucky pondered on the ridiculousness of it all. Nopony would ever be scared of a name like Bucky he thought to himself. A brief mad sounding maniacal laugh spilled from Bucky’s lips, which turned into a frightful cackle as Bucky reflected upon the insanity of the situation. 

“Bucky… you’re scaring me,” Lyra warned. “You know what they say about cackling and our kind…” 

Sparkler shivered suddenly without understanding why. 

“Let’s do this,” Bucky said as he lifted his head. “No turning back now, let it be known that when it came down to moral purity or fighting to win, I chose to go to Tartarus,” he growled. 



 

The crowd watched, most of them not understanding what was going on. Bucky hovered in place, now high above the ground, and four unicorns moved in orbit around him. They were all connected by shimmering ribbons of raw magic. Bucky’s horn burned with black fire, as did Lyra’s, while the other three were ignited with harmonious auras. 

Many in the crowd grew skittish, instinctually fearful of dark magic. They huddled together and sought comfort with one another. 

Derpy watched, her heart in her throat, she had seen powerful magical displays before, like when they had built the tower, but this felt wrong somehow. She clung to Berry Punch and Thistle, and she could feel Bon Bon hugging her from behind. Derpy leaned back into Bon Bon’s embrace. 

And then, the pegasus mare felt her heart break. As she watched, Dinky’s magical aura changed, going from her usual purple colour to a frightening black glow as black flames wreathed her horn. She cried out a wordless cry, a mournful sound that only a mother could make, and she felt Bon Bon’s grip tighten upon her. She clenched her eyes shut, unable to look any longer. She did not see Dinky open her eyes, which were now glowing a baleful shade of crimson and the whites filled with a pestilent shade of noxious green. She did not see that Dinky’s face was filled with ecstatic gleeful hatred. Thankfully, Derpy was spared this terrible sight.

The air crackled with raw energy and motes of raw magic floated around the coven of unicorns. The grass beneath them withered and died as they drew magic up from out of the earth. 

Several ponies cried out in panic as the skies above them filled with a buzzing thrumming swarm of something. These were not bees, nor were they any sort of bug anypony might recognise. These were foul abominations, unnatural things, what had been conjured was corrupted and warped by powerful dark magic. What had been summoned could only be described as creeping death by those unlucky enough to have witnessed the birth of this Tartarus-spawned swarm. 

The swarm grew larger and larger, becoming a seething black mass that buzzed over the coven of unicorns. The buzzing became a deafening roar and the swarm divided. Several masses flew off in all directions, with one mass heading right for the Hydra Teeth. Other smaller swarms headed off in other directions, each of them moving on an unerring course towards the hiding places of the hated wolves. 

Dinky understood now what Sentinel meant when he said he could see in all directions while he was in shadow form. She was the swarm now. She was the collective, the hive mind, she was everything all at once. With Bucky’s will surging through her mind, Dinky became one with creeping death as it zoomed out in different directions. She could see everything all around her. She could see in all directions. Her swarm knew where to go, given direction by Lyra’s magical influence. 

When part of the swarm hit the Hydra Teeth, Dinky felt resistance in her mind. Her vision from that section of the swarm dimmed, but did not die. Not this time. The nightmare insects flew into crags and canyons, followed trails of bones and rot, until they finally came to a dark crevasse. 

The other swarms were finding the secret hiding places of the wolves. A den under the roots of some giant tree. Caves. An old abandoned stone cottage down in the cellar. The swarm struck, seeking flesh. 

As her swarm entered the dark crack in the mountains, Dinky’s vision broke, but her swarm endured. Even if she could not see them any more, she knew that they would do their job, going into the very heart of the darkness upon these isles. 

In the other places, the swarm fell upon the sleeping wolves and began to gnaw upon flesh. The wolves awoke and began to thrash about, clawing and biting at themselves, trying to make the terrible nightmarish insects stop devouring them. Dinky could see and feel it all, and she reveled in her power. The wolves fled their dens, running out into the sunlight, and Dinky saw them burst into flames. Hundreds of wolves were dying and Dinky could see them all as they struggled. Her swarm began to wink out, each one of the nightmare insects was capable of only a few bites or stings before vanishing, going back into the aether, returning from wherever they had been conjured from. Dinky understood that the nightmarish insects came from another place, a place where the wicked were punished. 

Tartarus. The word loomed in Dinky’s thoughts. 

It was the last thing Dinky thought about before her mind went blank and she slipped off into comfortable warm darkness. 
	
> Chapter 146
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy settled over her foals and family, spreading her wings and trying to touch all of them at once. Lyra was sleeping, as was Bon Bon. Dinky and Piña were cuddled together, both asleep, and Sentinel was in the straw with Harper. Rising Star and Sparkler held one another as they slumbered. On the sofa, a short distance away, Loch Skimmer was fidgeting nervously and kept eyeing the bed as she clung to Thistle. Ripple was beside Derpy, doing her best to mimic the larger pegasus. 

Once again, the pegasus mare felt broody. She wanted all of her family in one place, and some were missing. Berry Punch had returned to the kitchens, determined to get more work done, and Bucky had gone off after eating most of the fish from the basket. Derpy supposed that Bucky must be building up some kind of magical endurance. He was pushing himself for longer and longer. He had said that there was simply too much to get done now that the pleasantries had been exchanged. 

“This feels kinda nice,” Ripple admitted as she settled her body over Bon Bon and Lyra, sliding into place into the narrow gap that existed between the two bodies below her. “I like this. It feels… satisfying,” she added. 

“Yes it does,” Derpy said softly. She leaned over and kissed the filly just below her ear in appreciation, and then snoot-bumped her when Ripple turned to look at her. 

“Right now I feel like I could fight bears… I don’t feel scared anymore,” Ripple said as she continued to settle over those she loved. She fluffed out her wings to make herself look larger than she really was and her ears perked forwards aggressively, the small filly trying to copy the larger pegasus mare’s body posture. “I could totally take a bear,” the filly growled. 

“If we ever encounter a bear, I’ll go for the groin, you go for the eyes,” Derpy instructed, feeling pleased that she had a little pegasus that wanted to learn her ways. She struggled to push all of the terrible thoughts from her mind and focus on what was important. Her family. 

“Why does this feel so soothing?” Ripple inquired. 

The older pegasus mare shrugged. “I dunno.” 

“I kinda want to fluff myself out and then go and lay on Harper,” Ripple whispered. 

“So do I,” Derpy admitted. “But she is safe with Sentinel. He’s a pegasus too, and I think he’ll turn out like us,” she added as she adjusted a hind leg to a slightly more comfortable position. 

“My mothers never did anything like this,” Ripple said in a low voice. 

“No?” Derpy replied in form of a question. 

“They piled us together and then one stood watch usually a short distance away. I have really hazy memories of being piled into the grass and watching the grownups fishing,” Ripple answered. 

“Not all pegasi are like us. Some are watchers, some are brooders. Watchers make good guards. You need both in a herd,” Derpy explained. 

There was a soft rap on the door and both brooding pegasi turned their heads sharply. It was perhaps one of the most terrifying responses ever in nature, an almost perfectly smooth mechanical movement that was known to unnerve things like dragons and large apex predators. 

It was Loch that eased herself from the couch and hobbled on three legs to get the door. She opened it slowly, and there was a low stereo growl from the two pegasi on the bed. 

In the doorway was a guard, a giant griffon, and on the griffon’s back was a tiny pegasus filly. Loch smiled at the filly and then stared upwards at the griffon. 

“Matriarch, please forgive my intrusion,” the guard said in a stiff voice. “But your services are needed,” he explained. 

“My name is Lugus… and I am told that there is no safer place for foals than in this room. I am in need of a guardian. This filly, I do not know her name, I plucked her from her mother’s grasp after the shipwreck. I had quite a few foals already and could not save both her and her mother. I promised the mother to look after the filly before she slipped beneath the waves. I need a place to leave her for a while while I go and hunt the wolves,” Lugus said, introducing himself and explaining his needs. “I have to know that she is safe… it is a matter of honour. I gave my word. I do hope you understand, but I cannot leave her care and safety to just anyone.” 

“Lord Bitters displayed several den locations on a map. We’re going to root out survivors and strike while there is daylight. We plan to pour bog oil down into the dens and then set them on fire,” the guard mentioned. 

“And I am going along because I am honour bound to be gracious and helpful to those that offer me hospitality,” the giant griffon added. 

“We can look after the foal,” Loch said as she cast a glance at Derpy. 

“She talks a little bit. I think she is about a half a year old. I am not sure,” Lugus said in a worried voice. “I have to feed her by claw. She hasn’t figured out how to feed herself just yet. She keeps asking for her mother…” 

“Aw, poor thing,” Loch Skimmer gushed. 

“Once I am done turning wolves into fertiliser, I will return for her and be indebted to you for your graciousness,” Lugus stated. 

“We will watch over her,” Derpy said in a warm inviting voice. “You may bring her in.”

Lugus entered the room slowly, well aware that even though he was invited, there was not one, but two brooding pegasi upon the bed and several of the most powerful unicorns he had ever seen in his existence. Sudden movements would be suicidal and foolish, and he was a griffon that wanted to live for a very long time. 

He approached the bed with his head held low and kept his claws from clicking on the floor. When he stood near the bed, he shimmied, slipping the foal from his back, and he let her slide down his wing. She landed on the bed and bounced. 

The smaller of the two pegasi moved with blinding speed, snatching up the foal in her forelegs and pulling her close. The larger of the pair looked disappointed, and Lugus swallowed his chuckle. 

“I thank you,” Lugus said graciously as he backed away from the bed and approached the door tail first. He carefully made his way out the door and then waved goodbye to the foal. 

“Stay safe,” Loch Skimmer said. “Please come back in one piece,” she begged. 

“I will do my best ma’am,” Lugus promised. 

Loch Skimmer waved politely as the pair departed and then shut the door. “I don’t understand why so many ponies hate griffons,” she muttered. 



 

The last of the chains needed was now finished. The net was done. The chains would need to be secured to the ship and to the net, afterwards, the gasbag would need to be filled. The Scorned Mare would be airborne in just a few more days. 

Bucky felt a gentle prodding by Crush and he smiled up at the big earth pony. Crush pointed at the wall where new diagrams had been drawn. Bucky, went to the wall, looked at the diagrams, and began to nod. The new design was different, and Bucky felt it was improved. His tail would be tucked into a long faux tail that extended from the body.

“The helmet design… I am not sure about it, but I get the sentiment,” Bucky said in apprehension. The new helmet design was lupine. There was something vaguely wolf-like about its shape and features. 

Crush shrugged and then nodded at one of his assistants, and the assistant cringed. 

“If we go with an animal motif, I say we go with dragon,” Bucky suggested. 

Crush stared at his cringing assistant with narrowed eyes and raised one eyebrow, which caused the assistant to whimper. 

“You suggested dragon didn’t you?” Bucky asked. 

Crush nodded. 

“I would have loved to see you pantomiming a dragon,” Bucky said with a wicked grin. “Make the tail a bit longer and a bit more dragon like. I can use it as a weapon by whipping my body around.” 

Crush’s eyes went wide and he nodded, looking very thoughtful as he did so. The big earth pony went to the wall, picked up the charcoal stick in his mouth, and carefully scribbled claws onto the design. 

“I like those… I like those a lot…” Bucky breathed. “So, serpentine body, dragon-like helm, claws, and a somewhat long tail that I can use as a weapon. Good thing I am skinny as I am, I can pull this look off. I’ll look like an earth dragon or a big scary looking lizard. Claws are good, but no spikes or blades on the armor. I’ll need to stand near my fellow ponies without injuring them,” the unicorn instructed. 

Crush pointed at Bucky’s horn and looked very concerned. His ears splayed out sideways on his head. 

“Yes, the armor will be powered by magic. I assure you, I will be able to walk around in it. It will be very light once I am done enchanting it,” Bucky said reassuringly. “Magical actuators and motivators will do all of the effort for me. All I will have to do is think about walking like I usually do and the armor will move under its own influence. So even if I am injured somehow inside of this, my armor will carry me back to safety,” he explained yet again, trying to comfort the overly protective and concerned earth pony. 

Crush moved forward and gently patted the little unicorn. 

“I swear, you’re just as bad as some of my wives, worrying about if I will be safe,” Bucky grumbled. “Earth ponies,” he grunted.

The big earth pony scowled and lifted his head high. He glowered down at Bucky, and extending his hoof, reached out and touched the withered side of Bucky’s face, followed by a gesture encompassing Bucky’s body. The mute pony made a faint annoyed grunt. Crush then touched his own throat, tilting his head back to expose every line of scarring. 

“Yes I know how dangerous they are… I will not allow the same mistake to happen twice,” Bucky promised. “And saying that I might be injured was only in theory. I don’t see how anything will be able to hurt me,” he continued. 

Crush sat down on the floor and swept Bucky up in a bone bruising embrace, smashing the smaller unicorn to his barrel as though Bucky was a foal. By size comparison, Bucky was a foal. Bucky squirmed and protested, all too aware of the looks he was getting from Crush’s assistants. 



 

Bucky secured the last of the chains to the long anchor bolts on The Scorned Mare, teleporting the links into the round steel eyelets. He began to secure the large steel rings to the net that would secure the chains to the netting that held the gasbag in place. Once he was finished, he teleported the chain links and formed a connection with the steel rings. The connections now secure, all that was left was to slip the gasbag into place once it was full and the ship would rise. 

He was tired, rapidly approaching the point of total fatigue, and felt as though he hadn’t eaten in days. His stomach growled painfully and he ignored it as best as he could. The events of the day troubled him greatly, and part of his mind wondered if he had done the right thing. Did the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? He had intentionally channeled dark magic through Dinky and corrupted her talent into something terrible and perverse. He had channeled himself through Dinky’s talent and had made her function as though she was a type four. 

This is why I created the alicorn amulet Sombra’s memories seemed to say to him as certain thoughts flooded into his mind. Certain talents become extremely useful when pushed to the next level. Bucky paused and mentally reflected upon the idea of what he could do with such an artifact. He shuddered and forced the unwanted thoughts from his mind, and tried not to think about how he could in fact create such an artifact himself now. With a shadow battery, an ethereal bridge, and an artifact of focusing, he would be unstoppable. He wouldn’t need to commune with the others to get things done. He could go out alone, and bear this terrible burden all by his lonesome, saving others from the torment of doing what must be done. 

Bucky scowled, not liking his thoughts. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 147
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It wouldn’t be too much longer before dinner, and Bucky was in the dining hall drinking with several other ponies that he considered his friends. It was an odd situation for Bucky, realising that he had friends that he deeply cared about and felt concern for, ponies that were not his family members, and the odd thoughts about the situation lingered in the back of his mind. He thought of Thunderlane and wondered if he and Thunderlane were friends. Thunderlane had abducted him before the wedding. Thunderlane had walked with him as Bucky accepted his fate and the pegasus had moved him along. Bucky realised that he missed Thunderlane. While Bucky had developed a fine appreciation for earth ponies, he realised that he treasured the loyalty of the pegasi that he knew. 

Keg Smasher was a motivated drinker, the big pegasus spared not a drop trying to kill his own pain. Things had changed between Keg Smasher and Bucky. Over the course of the past few days, the two seemed to have become as close as brothers, which felt odd for Bucky, because Bucky had no siblings and he had no idea what being brothers meant. 

Wrecker had joined them at the table, drinking slowly and saying very little. Bucky had no doubt that Wrecker was doing what he had always done in these situations. Take notes. Alcohol loosened lips. 

Deadspin and Sour Mash leaned on one another as they drank. Both of them looked fatigued but happy. Deadspin had his wing protectively around Sour Mash and the earth pony’s eyes darted back and forth as she drank, surveying the dining hall. 

“I still cannae believe that you threatened to kill me,” Keg Smasher grumbled to Deadspin. “Threatening your Laird. Saying you’d end me… you should be drawn and quartered.” 

Deadspin looked down guiltily into his own drink and his body posture became rather meek and submissive as he leaned even closer to Sour Mash. “A thousand pardons sir… but you did just threaten Sour-” 

“You flea ridden featherbrained oaf, of course I threatened her! I wanted to see how you’d react! And how she’d react! Yer not the yellowest bit o’ corn in the turd Deadspin! I worry about you sometimes,” Keg Smasher snarled. 

Bucky nearly spewed out his beer that he was drinking when Keg Smasher made his comment. He struggled to swallow slowly, taking down little amounts of what was his in mouth, unable to take it all down at once lest he choke. 

Berry Punch emerged through the doors and then joined the group, sitting down beside Bucky. She eyed Bucky’s beer but did not steal it, instead, she stared forlornly at the mug and looked sad as she rubbed her stomach. 

“Sour Mash and I are cousins,” Berry announced, still stroking her stomach. 

Sour Mash nodded and lifted a mug, her hoof jammed through the loop on the side. 

“What?” Bucky asked. 

“We both come from a pony named Rye Mash, the infamous sky pirate and notorious shotgun rapist,” Berry replied. 

This time, Bucky did choke, and Berry had to clap him on the back to get him breathing again. Berry pounded several times until Bucky finally drew in a heaving strangled gasp. 

“Rye Mash had a thing about teleporting a shotgun full of nails behind his enemies and letting them have it,” Berry Punch said proudly. 

Keg Smasher looked a bit queasy from hearing Berry Punch’s words and he lifted his mug slowly in his remaining wing. “That’s awful,” he grumbled before taking a drink. 

“Shotgun rapist,” Wrecker muttered. He winced and shuddered. 

“Berry Punch and I had a chance to talk for a bit, it is good to meet family members and get to know them,” Sour Mash said as she pulled Deadspin a little closer to her. 

“But I never did find out how you managed to learn how to fight…” Berry said open endedly as she gave a pointed look at Sour Mash. 

“Funny story… my best friend Bunny and I, she’s also an earth pony, we were talking about losing our husbands and how rotten life was. We were feeling sorry for ourselves and complaining that we had no futures. So I said to Bunny that the only future we have is the one we make for ourselves, and Bunny argued that the only future we have is the one our future husbands offer us… and then we sort of fell into one of those awkward silences that friends can have,” Sour Mash said as she waved her mug around for emphasis. 

Deadspin scowled a bit “I hope I am not that sort of husband,” he muttered. 

“Aw, yer sweet,” Sour Mash replied as she nudged Deadspin. “So anyways, we were sitting in this terrible silence and finally I says to Bunny, “I want you to buck me as hard as you can,” and she just sort of looks at me funny, so I slap her around a bit, goading her on, and finally I told her that she was called Bunny because all she was good for was squirting out foals, and so she clobbers me right in the mouth and knocks out my tooth. We had ourselves a scuffle. Turns out, the scuffle both made us feel better, and we spent several days nursing each other back to health. We really messed each other up. But we realised we could fight, and we learned that we were really good friends,” she explained. 

“Friendship is hooficuffs,” Bucky said as he took a drink of beer. 

“Damn straight it is,” Sour Mash replied. “So we went out and we started making more friends. We took broken battered mares and we punched and pounded on them like the blacksmith does iron until all that was left was hard gristle and a womb. Our ranks grew. And we had our little secret club with one another. We made a few rules. We decided we were going to make our own future and take what we wanted from life and that nopony was going to stop us.” 

“Lad, you done messed up,” Keg Smasher grumbled to Deadspin. 

“I like my mares… feisty and combative. It makes certain activities… more enjoyable,” Lord Wrecker interjected. “Sour Mash seems like a rare prize.” 

“Aw, thanks your lordship,” Sour Mash said as she blushed. 

“I have to ask… but did you jump my sweet little Ripple into your club?” Bucky inquired. 

“We tried… yer sweet little Ripple took apart one of our biggest bruisers, but yeah, she’s one of us,” Sour Mash replied. She eyed Bucky carefully and then took a long drink. 

“Oh stars, Derpy is gonna… I dunno if she is going to be proud and start strutting or if she is going to be out for your blood,” Berry said in a worried voice. 

“If any of you ladies want a real scuffle, ask Buckminster’s matriarch to give you a punch to the face,” Keg Smasher grunted. “Never in my life have I been hit so hard. And I’ve been clobbered by bears and once picked a fight with a manticore.” 

“I’m going to make history… I am going to take alehouse brawlers and give them actual military training. And then I’ll have my troops learn alehouse brawling. And I am going to have tough little foals,” Deadspin muttered mostly to himself. He turned his head and focused the eye that was not swollen shut on Sour Mash, giving her a longing lusty look. “Mmm, makin’ foals,” he moaned. 

“Later, I am gonna make you submit to me again,” Sour Mash promised, giving Deadspin a kiss on the cheek. 

“Look at you both… you just beat the stuffing out of each other and now you are in love,” Bucky said as he pulled Berry Punch close to him. 

“I think there’s some love in the ranks too,” Deadspin reported. 

“Oh and Lord Bitters, I do believe we can bring in four times our number. I’ve put out a call,” Sour Mash said to Bucky. “So you’d better get ready to be our patron.” 

“I’m looking forward to it,” Bucky said. 



 

Lyra buried her face into Bucky’s neck and continued to cry as she clutched him. She could feel Bon Bon pressed up against her back, and Bon Bon had her strong forelegs around both Lyra and Bucky. 

It was late, approaching midnight, and the others were now asleep. 

As Lyra continued to let out her grief, Bucky thought about the events of the day. Mostly, he just felt numb inside. Earlier, before she had gone to bed, Bucky had held Dinky, who had tearfully confessed that she never wanted to use dark magic ever again and had complained that her mind felt dirty now. Dinky had been a twitching neurotic mess, complaining that she could feel bugs under her skin crawling around and it had been Derpy that had actually given the filly a jigger of whiskey to calm her down and make her settle. Dinky’s constant twitching had been unbearable to watch. 

There were no other sedatives upon the isles. 

The fight had started now in earnest, and there had been casualties. Bucky wondered how far he would have to go to win this. He thought of his earlier musings about going at it alone and cursed his foolishness. He began to wonder about acceptable losses and then the dreadful thought came into his mind. Was Dinky an acceptable loss? Bucky didn’t know. As Lyra continued to soak his pelt with tears, Bucky quietly seethed with inner fury. 

This was another night of lost efforts, with everypony too tuckered out to make more spell jars. His carefully made plans were falling behind. Bucky could feel his control over the situation slipping. He gently lifted Lyra in his embrace, pulling her head up closer to his. He gently kissed her on both cheeks and then pulled her head down to his shoulder. He could taste the salt on his lips. A moment later, he felt Bon Bon kiss him from his blind side on the corner of his mouth, where he still had some sensation left. 

“It feels nice to be held by a male and not have to worry about his expectations,” Lyra said in a shuddering strained voice. “Something about how you smell is comforting,” she admitted. 

“I would never hurt you Lyra,” Bucky promised. 

“I know that now,” Lyra replied in a halting whisper. “I like how you smell…” 

Bon Bon stroked Lyra’s mane softly as she smiled sadly. “Silly Lyra,” she murmured. 

“You smell like smoke and fire… and maybe a bit of beer. There is a sweaty smell. It is a very masculine smell and part of me says I should be terrified by it, but right now, I just feel safe,” Lyra explained as her tears flowed but her sobs subsided. 

“These wretched isles don’t have much in the way of perfume or scented soaps. The soap we had in the trunk is already almost gone. I suppose we all smell a bit more… earthy,” Bon Bon whispered into Lyra’s ear. 

“We smell like ponies… not softly scented lies,” Lyra replied to Bon Bon. 

“I bet the isles smell a bit more like piss after what we did today,” Bucky stated bluntly. “I mean, between the ponies watching us and the wolves getting that wake up call, I bet there was a lot of failed bladders.” 

“Bucky, you are terrible… and I think I love you because of it,” Lyra responded. 

“I give up,” Bon Bon grumbled in exasperation. 

“Huh?” Bucky grunted. 

“You and Lyra both… your jokes… with everything going on,” Bon Bon whispered. “Both of you are awful. You deserve each other.” The earth pony squirmed and her face contorted in annoyance. “I don’t even want to think what your foals are going to be like, it just disturbs me to think about it,” she groused. 

“I’d like to have a little colt I think. And I hope he’ll be like Bucky,” Lyra said as she snuggled closer. 

“That might be nice,” Bon Bon said. 

Bucky thought about the dark things he had been doing lately, and he wasn’t sure he agreed with Lyra. He said nothing though, and continued to hold the unicorn close to him. Tears were still falling, but her uncontrollable sobs seemed to be gone. 

“We’ve all been pushed to our very limits,” Bon Bon said in a low pained voice. “I don’t know what to make of it. I used to know what was right and wrong. There was a very clear line drawn and I knew which side of that line I stood on. Now? I am not even sure if there is a line and if there was, I don’t know which side I would be on. I’ve sat back and done nothing as I’ve allowed terrible things to go on around me, because I reached a point where I actually believed they were necessary. Today, I watched a foal use dark magic and I didn’t know how to feel. Nothing makes sense anymore,” the earth pony lamented. “I am sorry for letting all of this out all of a sudden… I couldn’t hold it in anymore.” 

Bucky took a deep breath and let it out slowly. As much as it might be needed, tonight there would be very little sleep for him. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 148
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky sat upon the deck of The Scorned Mare and surveyed everything beneath him. The ship was tethered to a tower of the castle, and Bucky would have had quite a view from this height had he been able to see anything in the bright light. In the mid-morning sun, the first ever Sisterhooves Social was taking place. The ponies below him were happy. Joyous. Even in these troubling times. Bucky found that he could not join them. Every squeal, every excited shriek, every loud exclamation from a happy foal nearly sent him into a panic, made his muscles tense, and made his horn ignite reflexively. He sat in solitude, feeling very alone. He remembered a time when solitude did not bother him. 

This was the price he was going to have to pay for keeping his ponies safe. 

He lay down upon the smooth wood and looked down, understanding all too well Sombra’s pain, stuck on the outside looking in. He wanted to be with them, but he didn’t feel they were safe with him nearby. 

Later today, he would take Thistle as his wife. He felt guilty. He hadn’t been giving Thistle the time that she deserved with him. He hoped to make it up to her this evening. He thought about how nervous he had been when he had married Derpy and Berry. How afraid he had been. He had no fear of claiming Thistle as his, just a sense of sadness that he hadn’t given her the romantic courtship that she deserved. The past few days, he hadn’t really given anypony the time they all deserved. He had been working non stop getting the The Scorned Mare airborne and trying to catch up on much needed spell jars. He hadn’t been sleeping well. And when he had slept, his dreams had been troubling. 

The dream of being an alicorn was a nightmare for Bucky, but he supposed that many ponies dreamed of becoming one. In his most recent dream, he had watched helplessly as his alicorn self had ruthlessly killed Cadance, destroying the last bit of love and hope in the world, condemning the world to darkness and death. All hope had died with Cadance.

Bucky pushed the troubling recollection from his mind and tried to think of other things. As he lay there with his head hanging over the edge and cringing to himself, he heard the flutter of wings from behind him. He really wasn’t in the mood for company at the moment and he wasn’t sure what to do about his visitor. He had come up here to be alone and gather his thoughts. 

Or perhaps to wallow in his own guilt and misery. 

He heard the unusual and distinctive three legged tromping of Loch Skimmer and sighed. He heard the filly come up beside him on his blind side, then she laid down beside him, scooting herself up against his side, and then she covered him with her wing. 

“You slipped away. Everypony thought you might need your space. But I had to check on you,” Loch Skimmer said in a soft soothing voice. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied. 

“Yer a liar,” Loch Skimmer retorted, her annoyance causing her accent to become rather thick. Not knowing what else to do, Loch Skimmer leaned over and kissed Bucky on his withered cheek softly. “Anything in that jug?” she inquired. 

“Yeah, but I haven’t been in it yet,” Bucky answered. 

The pegasus filly smacked her lips and eyed the jug. “You shouldn’t drink alone,” Loch Skimmer said in a playful voice. “So why are you up here?” 

“I had to get away from the sounds Loch. The squealing. The shrieking. Squeaks. It makes all my muscles tense and I panic Loch. I… I don’t know what is wrong with me and I have trouble being around those sounds now. I can’t be happy with them today,” Bucky answered with total honesty. 

The pegasus filly looked crestfallen and she leaned her head over, pressing her ear up against Bucky’s neck. “I’m sorry… that sounds awful,” Loch said apologetically. 

“And this guilt is eating me alive… Dinky can still feel bugs crawling under her skin. She wanted to do it, I wanted to hurt my enemy, and I think I made a terrible lapse in judgment using Dinky’s talent in the way I did,” Bucky confessed. 

“Dinky is doing a little better,” Loch Skimmer said in a comforting tone. “They listened to you… even though Derpy really wants to hold Dinky, Berry has been with Dinky and stroking her, and Dinky is doing a little better. You were right, there is something about the touch of earth ponies.” 

“I still feel like I screwed up,” Bucky stated. 

“We are in the middle of some great conflict that I can barely understand. And everypony is doing their part. Everypony is suffering in some way. Dinky gave all she had to give, and I’ve talked to her. She doesn’t regret doing what she’s done, even though she never wants to do it again. Dinky got the revenge she wanted for whatever it was hurting her family. And now that she’s had a taste of revenge, she’s decided that it isn’t something she likes. So maybe some good will come out of this later, when she’s older. Dinky’s a good foal,” Loch Skimmer said to Bucky, trying to make him feel better. 

“Thanks Loch, that actually eases my mind a bit…” Bucky responded in a pained voice. 

“Even Rising Star is different now,” Loch admitted. “He’s changed from when I first met him. I’ve slowly become aware of it and I’ve watched the change take place.” 

“How so? How is he different now?” Bucky asked. 

“He’s possessive… I’ve seen him. When other males look at me, Sparky, or Ripple, he gets the same look in his eye that he does when he wants to burn something,” Loch replied. 

“That’s awful…” Bucky whispered. “I’m sorry.” 

“Why be sorry? I like it. It makes me feel safe. I trust you. I trust Rising. I trust no other males. And I feel better knowing that me and Ripple are watched over by a possessive pyromancer that will do anything to keep us feeling safe and happy,” Loch Skimmer said in a smooth soothing voice. “And you. I feel bad for saying what I said and leaving you out. You’ve done so much for my me and my sister.”

Bucky peered down at the ponies below him and wished that he knew what to say to Loch Skimmer after she had bared her soul to him. He thought of how possessive dragons were, how protective they could be of their treasured hoard, but the only thing that came out was a soft grunt, which wasn’t helpful or meaningful at all. 

“Looks like ponies have finished the race where they have their front legs tied together,” Loch commented. 

“The seven legged race? Who won? I was looking, but I wasn’t paying attention,” Bucky said in reply. 

“You also forgot those black glass goggles of yours, so you probably couldn’t see,” Loch teased. “I am not sure who won, I didn’t see,” she added. 

“You should be down there with them,” Bucky said as he squinted down below him, trying to make out what was going on. 

“I like getting a few moments alone with you,” Loch said. “A girl wants to spend time with her father.” 

Bucky choked. He felt his throat close suddenly and he struggled to draw in air. The restriction ended just as suddenly as it had started and he sucked in a painful burning lungful of air, wheezing loudly as he tried to breathe. 

“Bucky, take a deep breath,” Loch said in concern. “Come on, let’s crack that jug open and we'll both have a drink together.” 



 

“Dinks, love, you don’t look well. Do you want to be away from the crowd?” Derpy asked her suffering foal. 

“I’m okay… I can feel the bugs… but I want to be here for Piña… still feel the bugs,” Dinky replied in a low halting voice. 

Berry cuddled Dinky a little closer and rubbed her hoof along Dinky’s spine. “You did a good thing Dinky, you helped a lot of ponies. This is the sort of burden that your father has tried to prepare you for. You killed so many wolves. The soldiers are having trouble counting all of the bodies. You’ve saved so many lives with what you have done and think about how few howls have been heard lately, how warm last night was. You’ve made so many lives so much better,” Berry said comfortingly. 

“I don’t regret what I’ve done… but I never want to use dark magic ever again… just like daddy never wants to hurt another pony ever again… bugs… so many bugs,” Dinky murmured as she continued to squirm. She scraped her forehooves over her ribs and tried to squash the things she could feel creeping just under her flesh. 

“It makes me happy to hear you say that,” Derpy said to her foal as she leaned down and kissed Dinky on the ear. 

“Piña and Ripple came in second in the seven legged race,” Thistle reported. 

“Think they will do well in the pie eating contest?” Derpy asked. 

“Well, you’ve seen how Piña eats. Too bad Dinky couldn’t have joined in. We could have had Dinky and Sparkler use some magic and work up a unicorn appetite, and they would have won without trying,” Berry said as she continued to stroke Dinky. 

“That’s cheating!” Thistle blurted out. 

“Thistle, sweet innocent Thistle… how are you feeling about tonight Thistle?” Berry inquired with a wry grin. 

“Oh… I… well… I…” Thistle stammered as she began to blush. 

“Somepony is nervous,” Derpy said with the faintest smile upon her lips. 

“Well of course I am nervous… I don’t want to disappoint him… or you…” Thistle replied to Derpy. 

“Oh, you won’t need to worry about that. I’m sure he’ll be far more worried about disappointing you. Bucky’s a giver,” Berry interjected. 

“He’s sweet,” Derpy said as she closed her eyes and thought about Bucky. 



 

“Sorry I stumbled,” Piña said to Ripple. 

“Hey, I did too, so no worries,” Ripple responded to her smaller sibling. 

“We only came in second,” Piña grumbled. 

“So what? We’re having fun… and look at all of the other ponies around us. They’ve never experienced anything like this before. Look how happy they are,” Ripple said, trying to cheer Piña up. 

“All I can think about is how miserable Dinky is… I can’t focus on anything else,” Piña admitted. She rubbed her eyes ferociously as she tried to hold back tears. 

“Do you want to stop?” Ripple said as she gently stroked Piña’s cheek. 

“No… too many ponies worked too hard to make this happen. Quitting now after everything everypony has done would be wrong,” Piña muttered. 

“We can stop if you want to Piña,” Ripple offered. 

“No!” Piña protested. 

“It really doesn’t matter if we win Piña,” Ripple said as she pulled the filly close using her wing. She gave the earth pony foal a hug, hoping to cheer Piña up. “I’m just glad that today, I got to be the big sister for once.” 



 

“I think I’m feeling a little bit better,” Bucky muttered. He made a sour face. He wasn’t so sure that he liked bogberry wine, but he had kept drinking it anyway hoping that the taste might grow on him. 

Or that he’d be too plastered to care. 

“Gah! Tho thour!” Loch gasped as she stuck her tongue out through puckered lips. 

Bucky bravely took another long pull from the jug and felt his face contort. He could feel the tingles in the hinge of his jaw and tightness just below his ears. He smacked his lips loudly. “Who is the jackass that decided to make wine from bogberries?” Bucky demanded. 

“No more for me!” Loch said as she cringed away from Bucky and his jug. 

“I wanna know who gave me this… they’re making me work hard to get drunk… I bet it was Berry… -hurgh- Oh that’s foul,” Bucky said with a shudder. 

“I am gonna go find Rising Star and give him a sour kiss… Bucky, please, do try to come down,” Loch Skimmer begged. 

“Once I deaden my reactions I might,” Bucky replied. 

Loch Skimmer took one last loving glance at the unicorn before tossing herself over the side and taking wing, smacking her lips and regretting every sour swallow as she departed. 



 

Bucky exploded into existence and covered everypony around him in a layer of frost and snow. He heard several gasps, a few shudders, and a couple of thankful sighs. He shook the crusts of frost from his own pelt and peered around. He was surrounded by mares. He lifted his jug and took a long swallow. Bogberry wine was wretched. 

“Hey!” 

Bucky turned and looked at the pony addressing him and saw Sour Mash. She was grinning broadly. 

“Look at our new recruits. We’re running them through this Sisterhooves Social thing going on,” Sour Mash announced. 

Bucky nearly swallowed his own lips from the sourness of his wine and from what he was seeing. He sputtered for a few moments before recovering his ability to speak. “Foals?!” he asked in alarm. 

“Well, we figured that as a brigade we’d take in these here orphans and raise them to know our ways. You wanted us to teach foals to read and write, so we’d thought we’d go one step further and teach these fillies our ways of war and whoopassery. And don’t you worry, none of us gave those fillies those shiners and fat lips you’re seeing, they gave those to each other,” Sour Mash explained cheerfully. 

Bucky decided that he hadn’t drank nearly enough yet for the troubling new world he lived in to make sense just yet. He guzzled back some of the bogberry wine and noticed to his horror that it was starting to taste good. He peered at Sour Mash, looked out at the fillies, looked over his brigade, and then he shrugged in defeat. The foals seemed happy. 

“So our brigade has grown. And will keep growing. We’re gonna do what the males do and take in orphans to be raised for service,” Sour Mash said as she continued to smile a broad smile. 

Bucky thought of Sentinel and the colt’s militaristic ways. Sentinel wasn’t so bad. The isles produced a different breed of pony. He looked over the foals and discovered after a moment of reflection that he approved of this course of action. 

After even more reflection, Bucky determined that Loch had the right idea, and Bucky set off to find some mares to give some very sour kisses to, toting his jug behind him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 149
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Reflecting upon the rising of The Scorned Mare, a slightly inebriated Bucky felt a flood of emotions. The gasbag had been partially filled and then maneuvered carefully into place by an army of pegasi. Then, more cloudstuff had been continually added. The first lurch of the ship as she gained buoyancy had roused a loud fierce cheer from the spectators. Keg Smasher had stood nearby and bellowed angrily at any pegasus he had felt wasn’t moving fast enough or working hard enough. When The Scorned Mare had gained naught but an inch of clearance, another shout came from the crowd, which had quickly turned into a war-like chant, an angry bellicose cacophony of equine sounds. 

A foot off the ground and the crowd had gone a little crazy. Some ponies had begun to celebrate in the only way they knew how. It was at this point that the rampant sexual frenzy had kicked in, the need to celebrate victory triggering the need to make more foals to share in this brave new future. Derpy had covered Dinky and Piña’s eyes with her wings, but had stayed to watch the long awaited moment of triumph. Lyra, awake for the event, had set off a massive display of magical fireworks, which only further incited the gathered crowd. 

There had been all kinds of explosions going off during that glorious moment. 

Now, the ship was tethered to a tower, floating in place. It had no engines, no means of propulsion, and would have to be pulled by pegasi. It was a floating fortress. A home. A symbol of hope. It was the first of many. 

Already, another hulk had been retrieved from the coast and several unicorns that had survived the shipwreck were making plans to get it airborne. The wreck lay berthed in the same spot as The Scorned Mare had sat, carefully set in place upon the same boulders that had held The Scorned Mare up. 

It was fitting somehow that the shipwreck survivors were restoring an old wreck. 

Bucky took another long drink of bogberry wine and decided that he had been completely wrong. This stuff was fantastic. The shrieks and shouts weren’t so bad now. He could still feel his ears perking, and maybe even a little twinge of panic now and then, but the alcohol had taken the edge off. His lips still soaked with wine, he looked around himself for an unsuspecting victim. 

Thistle. 

Berry was still holding Dinky, Derpy was holding Berry, and Thistle was away from the the herd, which excited something deep within him. She’s easy pickings something in his mind told him. Something dark and predatory surfaced and Bucky pounced. He caught Thistle in an embrace and then tumbled down to the ground, pulling her down on top of him. Wrapping one foreleg behind her head, Bucky went in for the kill, plunging his muzzle into hers, giving her a sopping bogberry wine kiss. He could feel her tense and cringe, the sour taste coursing through her body as the kiss became quite intimate, but Bucky was determined to not let go. Thistle was stronger than he was as he discovered, so he had to subdue her the only way he knew how. 

The kiss intensified. 

Thistle whimpered in his grasp now, but her struggling was slowing down, and Bucky felt his prey becoming subdued. Her legs buckled completely and Bucky could feel the full heavy feeling of her weight bearing down upon him. His other forehoof trailed down her spine, starting at her withers and working its way down to her croup. His tongue softly grazed needle-like teeth. There were soft ridges on the roof of her mouth. She was different, she wasn’t like the vegetation eating equines that Bucky also loved. Thistle was now no longer resisting but actively trying to give as good as she was getting, and Bucky could feel her giggling into his mouth. 

Finally, before his arousal became uncontrollable, Bucky pulled away and gasped for air. Thistle rolled away, landing on her back, sprawled out in the grass, and she fanned herself with her hoof. There were several new flowers that had grown in her mane of living greenery, and one opened slightly in the aftermath of the searing kiss. 

“That was hawt!” Loch Skimmer hooted. The pegasus filly, deciding that Bucky had the right idea, tackled Rising Star and went to work on the colt, deciding to see how far she could go before becoming entirely too flustered. 

Derpy sighed. First Bucky, then Loch Skimmer, and now, all around her, ponies were making out. She hoped that it would not be a repeat of the day before, where the making out had turned into something else entirely. She licked her lips and then lunged at Bucky, feeling her own odd instincts. Something about Bucky’s predatory assault upon Thistle had triggered a strong protective need in Derpy and she moved to subdue the predator, her strong pegasus instincts taking over. 

Berry cringed, realising that poor Bucky never stood a chance. She carefully covered Dinky’s eyes with her fetlock and then kissed Dinky on the ear. 

The never ending evolutionary war between the flesh eaters and the grass eaters continued in the grass, and it appeared that the common prey animal was winning against the apex predator. Berry watched it with keen interest, noting how the pegasus seemed to know each of the unicorn’s weaknesses, and took the unicorn apart piece by piece. It was far more interesting than watching ponies eating pies. Of course, later tonight, Berry hoped to watch ponies nibbling on other ponies. 

Derpy sat atop the subdued predator and preened her wings, celebrating her victory. Her kind had survived dragons, wyverns, griffons, giant birds of prey, and all manner of things that found pony flesh delicious. A scrawny unicorn wasn’t much of an accomplishment. Flexing her body around to reach her wings caused her to fart, a loud trumpeting blast, and she could feel Bucky shuddering with somewhat drunken laughter beneath her. She lifted her head and whinnied in triumph, having not only subdued her foe, but also humiliated him. She nickered contentedly and continued to preen her wings, smiling at Thistle after she plucked out a feather that needed to go. 

“My family is weird,” Dinky muttered as she pushed Berry’s leg away from her eyes. She pulled Berry’s foreleg down and hugged it to her barrel, thankful for Berry’s continual comfort. 

“Dinky, this is the best part of being a member of Clan Pickled. You are going to grow up around earth ponies, pegasi, other unicorns, even a kelpie, and you are going to understand so many things that other ponies will have no clue about,” Berry whispered into the foal’s ear. 

“I remember how daddy was. Now he doesn’t act like he used to,” Dinky replied as she watched her mother continue to proudly preen over her father’s subdued body. “Remember how uptight he was about cleaning mama’s face at dinner time?” 

Berry squeezed Dinky in a loving reply. “I remember. Now, he just leans over and does what needs to be done without thinking about it. It has become second nature to him,” Berry said to the foal in her embrace. She turned Dinky’s head away and pointed upwards. “Look Dinky, there are birds perching on the railing of The Scorned Mare,” she said as she heard a wet sounding raspberry being blown, followed by a heated giggle coming from Derpy. 

“My jellybean!” 

Berry sighed. Some ponies. Bucky had started the day off in a snit, had disappeared when Berry had begun to notice troubling symptoms of mental trauma, he had self medicated, and now, Bucky was having a good time. She had hoped that the bogberry wine would have slowed him down a bit, but Bucky was pleasantly soused and actually seemed to be enjoying the incredibly sour stuff. It was even more sour than muscadine wine. She recalled a painful memory… finding black licorice in Bucky’s old apartment. She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. Of course Bucky would come to enjoy bogberry wine. Bucky loved self torture and all of the flavours of self loathing. 





Ripple let loose with a resonating gurgling belch that would put Sparker to shame. She rubbed her belly and flared out her wings. They felt too tight when folded against her sides. Using her hoof, she pulled another pie towards her. Ripple liked pies. These were simple pies, or so Ripple had been told, they didn’t even have a pie tin, whatever a pie tin was, but Ripple believed that these might just be the greatest thing ever invented. She took down another one in three bites and then slid more pies towards towards herself and Piña. 

“Blech! Sour!” Piña cried. “I hate cranberries!” 

“Cranberries? We call ‘em bogberries,” Ripple replied before shoving a pie into her mouth. 

“Glah!” Piña shouted, sticking out her tongue and letting it flap around. “Thour!”

The pies had progressively become more sour as the challenge had progressed, and very few contestants were left now. Most had quit from being too full to continue, others had halted because of the sourness, and Ripple was in for the long haul. She was determined to win. Plus, she discovered that she loved sour things. 

“Final round! Unsweetened bogberry pies! Last filly standing wins!” a voice announced. 

Ripple giggled in sadistic glee at the groans and sputtering all around her as she crammed a pie into her mouth. She puckered but still somehow managed to smile a wicked smile. She was probably going to explode at some point, but what a way to go. She looked down at her distended belly as she chewed and discovered that she rather liked her little round pot belly. She was fleshing out and becoming sleek. She had budding teats now, and her sister no longer teased her about having two bug bites. Her ribs no longer jutted out. She crammed in another pie and chewed noisily, smacking her lips and slurping up any stray crumbs that tried to escape. 

At some point, Ripple realised she could no longer hear the sounds of pies being gobbled around her. She looked around and saw everypony was staring at her, and a stream of partially chewed bogberries dribbled from the corner of her mouth as she turned her head from side to side. 

“I think we have a winner,” a mare announced. 

“I won?” Ripple mumbled with her mouth full. She swallowed slowly and then licked her muzzle clean. 

“You’ve won,” the mare replied. 

“Great, more pie please!” Ripple responded. 



 

“Thistle? You okay? You seem distracted,” Sparkler inquired as she poked the kelpie gently with her hoof. 

“I’m fine. Just thinking about tonight,” Thistle replied in a subdued voice. 

“Big night for you,” Sparkler whispered. “Scared? I know I kinda was.” 

“This isn’t my first time,” Thistle said uncomfortably. 

“I know Thistle, I didn’t mean that, sorry…” Sparkler replied, her words trailing off when she didn’t know what else to say. 

“I wish it was my first time… I wish I had waited. I’ve found the love of my life and I feel bad for some reason and I can’t say why,” Thistle confessed in a low whisper to Sparkler. 

Sparkler pulled the kelpie in for a hug and squeezed her gently. 

“I feel so foolish… it was something I could only give away once and I threw it away carelessly because I was so stupidly focused on getting a foal. I wish I had stopped to think about how precious the act itself was. But I didn’t. I didn’t know you were supposed to enjoy it. I feel so stupid,” Thistle admitted as her eyes misted over. 

“Aw, Thistle, don’t talk like that,” Sparkler begged as she pulled Thistle even closer. She could feel the kelpie’s barrel hitching as Thistle began to cry softly. 

“Sparky, what’s wrong?” Derpy inquired. 

“She’s having a rough moment,” Sparkler replied to her mother. 

“Thistle?” Derpy said to the sobbing kelpie filly. 

There was no reply. Thistle clung to Sparkler and continued to let out quiet sobs of pent up shame and grief. 

“Sparky, what did she say? Why is she upset?” Derpy questioned. 

“I… don’t know if I should repeat it,” Sparkler responded. “I think if she wants to tell you she will,” the purple-pink filly added. 

Derpy went to the two fillies, sat down, and then pulled them both in close. She leaned on them and wrapped her wings around them as well. “You’re supposed to be happy,” Derpy said soothingly. 

“I wish Berry was here, Thistle could talk to her,” Sparkler said in a low voice. 

“Berry took Dinky to bed. Dinky needed a nap,” Derpy said. 

“Think she’ll be up for the wedding?” Sparkler asked.

“I hope so. Dinky was really looking forward to it,” Derpy replied. 

“I am glad that Lyra and Bon Bon are joining me for my wedding,” Thistle sniffled. 

“Yes Thistle, we decided that this was a good time to bring them in and we didn’t want to wait until we got home. Not with everything that is about to happen,” Derpy said soothingly to Thistle. “So, why are you crying?” 

“Because I wasted something precious,” Thistle whispered. 

“Well, talk to me about it,” Derpy coaxed. 



 

“Fifth place,” Bucky said. “Not bad,” he stated as he poked Ripple in her tummy. 

“NO!” Ripple begged. She clutched her belly and rolled over onto her side. The effort made the skinny but fat pegasus fart loudly. 

“She ate too much pie,” Piña announced. 

“I can see that,” Bucky said as he settled his haunches down to the ground. 

“Fifth place. I’m never gonna win anything ever,” Piña lamented. 

“Aw, cheer up Piña, you’re an earth pony with magic. That’s gotta count for something,” Bucky said as he wobbled slightly. His nostrils crinkled. “What is it with pegasus farts?” 

“They’re sensitive to atmospheric pressure changes,” Piña quipped. 

“Earth ponies?” Bucky inquired. 

“Because it feels good?” Piña offered. “There isn’t a lot written about earth ponies in the books I’ve been reading.” 

“Well, that needs to change,” Bucky said defiantly. “When I get home and life settles down, if life settles down, I am going to lay siege to the Royal Academy of Magic and Science, batter down their door, and I will very gently scare the horseapples out of them and make them understand that earth ponies are wonderful creatures!” he growled in an only slightly slurred voice. 

“Can I watch?” Piña asked. 

“Sure. Afterwards, we’ll have a tea party,” Bucky answered. 

“Yay!” Piña cried cheerfully. “Ripple is gonna ‘splode,” she added in concern. 

“Ripple, how many pies did you eat?” Bucky asked. 

“Ooh ooh ooh one of the mares said that Ripple ate forty two pies,” Piña answered excitedly. “It is being kept as a record to see if anypony can beat it next year. Ripple is famous!” 

“How many pounds of pie is that?” Bucky questioned as he shook his head. “No open flames around Ripple tonight. And Rippy, I’d keep your arse pointed away from the fireplace,” he warned. 

The pegasus filly giggle-snorted and then groaned when the giggles shook her belly. She pressed down on her side and farted again. 

“Yargh, you’re just as bad as Derpy,” Bucky grumbled. 

“One time, my big sister took part in a refried beans and flat bread eating contest,” Piña blurted out. “And then she came home and farted in her twin sister’s ear and Berry Shine went deaf in that ear and it lasted for days.” 

“Piña, love, I think you’ve had too much sugar,” Bucky commented. 

“And I think you're a bit drunk, wanna make something of it?” Piña replied, sounding entirely too much like Berry Punch. 

Bucky threw back his head and roared with laughter. 



 

Sour Mash exchanged a pleased smile with Deadspin as she looked over her filly cadets. There had been no major victories, but the fillies had done well and the events had given them a chance to bond with their older sisters in arms. One day, they would grow into a fearsome army, but for now, they were worn out fillies who were mostly napping in the grass. 

“You’ve given me so many foals already,” Deadspin said affectionately. 

“Oh, we’re still looking for more. We’ve taken in orphans and even a number of fillies given to us by parents who couldn’t deal with another mouth to feed,” Sour Mash said grumpily. She felt a rush of satisfaction when she heard a low growl from Deadspin. “I plan to change that sorta thinking,” Sour Mash insisted. 

“The long talk that Berry Punch and Loch Skimmer gave the little fillies, I must confess, I found myself touched by it,” Deadspin admitted. “Can you forgive me for being a half a horse?” 

“No, I can’t forgive you for being a horse’s arse, not right away,” Sour Mash replied. “But I might someday if you keep nosing around in my root cellar. Can you forgive me for thrashing you?” 

“Maybe, if you’ll consider adding Bunny to our herd,” Deadspin said sheepishly. 

“I was gonna talk to you about that actually," Sour Mash replied. 



 

Keg Smasher nervously licked his lips and then looked at the grey pegasus mare that was squinting at him with a worrisome look upon her face. She was hovering and had her forelegs crossed over her barrel, which was never a good sign. 

“I’ve never been one for long fancy marriages. I’ve bragged that I’ve done two hundred in a day. So bear with me ‘cause I’ve never done anything quite like this before,” Keg Smasher announced. He punctuated his words with a nervous nickering and looked out over the crowd. He saw the grey mare’s scowl ease of a tiny bit and he relaxed some. She was still hovering with her forelegs crossed over her barrel, a posture that would make most adolescent dragons relax their sphincters violently after their bowels had turned to water. 

The crowd seemed joyous. The first ever Sisterhooves Social had been a smash success. The Scorned Mare was tethered overhead. A second airship was awaiting construction already. The guard had integrated, and while there was some ponies upset over the event, the overwhelming opinion seemed to be positive. A new mood, a new way of thinking was taking over Keg Smasher’s ponies. 

He looked out into the crowd and saw Thistle. She was wearing a crown of white wildflowers woven together upon her brow. He watched her eyelids as they fluttered nervously, like butterflies caught in a purposeful spring breeze. She was fat with foal, she was beautiful, radiant, and he hoped that she was happy. He shifted his weight, his cracked hind hoof throbbing painfully. 

His gaze fell on Lyra and Bon Bon next. He didn’t know them as well as he knew Thistle, and had only recently learned that they were mares only interested in other mares. His respect for Bucky had grown a fair bit upon discovering this knowledge. They looked nervous but beautiful as well. Lyra wore a crown of soft pink wildflowers and Bon Bon’s crown was little delicate periwinkle flowers. 

And then, there was Bucky. Who looked a bit drunk. Bucky, who had recently shown the disturbing signs of being a little kill crazy, something Keg Smasher himself suffered from, along with Lord Wrecker and so many others. Poor Bucky, who was going to spend the rest of his life paying for the good deeds he had done with naught but torture as a reward. It made Keg Smasher feel a little sad, but these things happened. He hoped that Thistle would help soothe Bucky’s rough moments. 

Keg Smasher pondered springing the words upon them and risking Derpy’s wrath, Surely she wouldn’t thump him for a second time, not in the condition he was in. The sounds of the crowd were already getting to him too, and his pain wasn’t helping. 

A pony shouting “wooo!” caused Keg Smasher to grimace and bare his teeth for a moment. 

Those untouched by fevered frenzy of battle had no understanding of how their sudden outbursts pained those who had been been touched by the madness of brutal combat. Keg Smasher struggled not to hate the revelers, they deserved their joy, but he was going to need to find a calm quiet place as soon as possible. The shout had caused a bit of alarm for others too, Keg Smasher had noticed. Bucky, as somewhat drunken as he was, had leapt a bit at the sound and his jagged bladed horn had flared with a blue-green light. Wrecker’s face had twitched and convulsed painfully. Keg had even seen the aftermath on Rising Star, the colt’s ears splaying out and one cheek tugging painfully as he struggled to contain himself, a brief moment of rage visible for those aware of the price of protecting others. 

Keg Smasher hated how observant he was as a pegasus. 

“Thistle, do you love this stallion and do you submit to him of your free will?” Keg Smasher asked of the kelpie. “And you two, Lyra Heartstrings and you, Bon Bon, do you submit to him as well and bow your heads to your new matriarch?” 

Thistle nodded and made a wordless squeak. 

“Yes,” Lyra replied as she nodded.

“Now and forever,” Bon Bon answered as she turned to look at Derpy and Bucky. 

“And you Buckminster… do you acknowledge your role as their protector? Would you wage war for their benefit? Would you bear injury upon your own flesh to keep them safe from any and all harm?” Keg Smasher questioned. 

Bucky visibly sobered a bit and looked solemn. He looked at Thistle, then at Bon Bon and Lyra, and then he looked at Berry Punch and finally, Derpy. He closed his remaining eye and nodded. “I would… my words feel so meaningless right now, but I hope my actions will speak for themselves,” he answered. 

“And what of you Derpy? Will you accept these mares into your herd? Will you claim them as your own? Do you trust them with your foals and with your stallion?” Keg Smasher inquired of the hovering pegasus mare. 

“Yes,” Derpy replied with a nod. She moved a little closer to Thistle, who appeared to be having some difficulty. 

Keg Smasher did not know what else to say. 

“I hope you lot have learned something!” Wrecker bellowed. “I hope all of you aspire to this sort of love and dedication. Our ways must change, let this be an example!” 

There was a dull roar from the crowd, and even though Keg Smasher cringed from the sound, he felt hopeful that change was coming. As a father, he was proud of his foals. They were learning, and hopefully he wouldn’t have to thump their heads too much. 

“Then as Laird I bind you lot together. Knight Captain Buckminster, I am trusting you with the love and care of something rare and treasured by me, the kelpie known as Thistle. Give her what she wants,” Keg Smasher announced. “I suppose you lot should be doing whatever comes next. Kiss one another and all that,” he added. 

Bucky didn’t need to told twice. He reached out and grabbed Thistle and he eagerly kissed her, repeating his performance from earlier. 

Satisfied only after leaving Thistle a breathless quivering heap on the ground, he stood up and grinned proudly, only to find himself being kissed from each side by Bon Bon and Lyra, who kissed him on each cheek. 

“I made a cake!” Berry announced. “A whiskey cake slathered in butter cream frosting. It should be wheeled out shortly. Hey, I wanna kiss somepony,” she quipped. 

The brazen mare fell upon Thistle and went to work, making out with the kelpie right there in the grass, not caring who saw. There were some gasps from the crowd. 

Derpy exchanged a few kisses with Lyra and Bon Bon, gentle pecks of affection, until Bon Bon pulled the grey mare in for something bit more substantial to show her affection. Like with Bucky, the kiss had boundaries, but it was clear that both mares enjoyed it a great deal. 

Lyra, already feeling pressure from the crowd, was looking for a means of escape, no longer wanting to be the center of attention. She kissed Bucky warmly, gave him an apologetic look, and then she was gone, winked away in the blink of an eye.

A loud cheer went up as a small wagon was pulled up to the group, and in the wagon was an enormous cake. Berry had made a thick heavy cake filled with berries and other fruit chunks, spices, and then she had pickled the whole thing by drenching it with whiskey repeatedly. As a last and final touch, she had slathered it down with a simple sunny yellow frosting made from whipped creamy butter and mead. The cake gave off heady fumes and made the ponies around it feel lightheaded. 

It was time to celebrate for just a little bit longer while there was still daylight. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 150 (Warning! Perverted ponies playing!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The deck of The Scorned Mare was brightly lit by magical glass globes of light and sunstones were embedded everywhere, the different coloured gemstones looking like Hearth’s Warming Eve lights as they twinkled in the approaching dusk. 

“I’m a little scared… not of what is about to happen, but of the wolves,” Thistle said as she stood on the wooden deck. 

“Most of the wolves on this island died,” Bucky announced. “There’s a few left, but not many. Lyra shadow warded the cabin. They can’t shadow-wink inside. The worst they can do is come up here on the deck and scratch at the door, but the lights will burn them a bit. They will not be able to teleport away if they do come up here. Worst comes to worst, I kill them from inside the cabin if we have visitors.” 

“It is good we are testing this,” Berry stated. “I mean, I trust your magic, but still, peace of mind,” she continued. 

“So beautiful, I love the lights. Makes me think of winter… of Hearth’s Warming… I so want to give you a nice holiday,” Derpy said to Bucky. 

“You know, I’ve done the measuring, the cabin space just for our family is larger than Derpy’s house, but not by much. That’s not counting the crew quarters. We could live here… if things in Equestria don’t pan out when we go home,” Berry said in a sad voice. “We could have a nice holiday here.” 

“Going to be strange sleeping in a bed with no foals,” Derpy said. 

“Going to be even weirder not having Lyra’s lyre. I hope that Bucky is right. We could have a long night if things get chilly or fearful,” Berry stated. 

“I could teleport us inside, but it would be unpleasant,” Bucky said. “It would make all of you sick, but we’d be with the others. There are methods of escape.” 

“I would be happy with this as my home,” Thistle said as she sat down, easing her rounded pregnant body down to the deck gingerly. “The beds are nice, it is cozy, there are all kinds of little nooks and places to curl up comfortably and read a book or watch the foals play. Bucky and Berry both put so much thought into making the cabin nice.” 

“The stairs are barely one pony wide,” Derpy said. 

“Well, he had to save space,” Berry replied with a chuckle. 

“But Thistle has to squeeze her way down the stairs,” Derpy answered. “And she is going to get bigger. We’re all going to get bigger.” 

“We’ll have to manage,” Berry stated. 

“I haven’t watched a sunset in a while,” Derpy said. “I hope it is safe to stand out here just a little while longer,” she added wistfully. 

Bucky shifted his weight, moving from one haunch to another. He was missing flesh from both and he could feel his bones pressing into the wood painfully. The sun would set soon. He could feel it. His vision was growing sharper. His sense of smell seemed to be stronger as well. He could smell all kinds of things on the breeze. 

“Ever notice that Twilight Sparkle has five friends and the six of them are a group with shared destinies?” Berry Punch said in a berry serious tone of voice. 

“I have,” Bucky replied. 

“Well, there are five of us and you Bucky,” Berry said. “You and Lyra sort of knew each other in school. Derpy and I have known each other for so long. Lyra and Bon Bon came together by sheer chance. And then you, you bumped into Derpy. Somehow, we all ended up here, and now, there is Thistle. There is your whole screwed up destiny thing going on. But we’ve all come together and such wonderful and terrible things have happened. We share a tighter bond for all of our suffering and endurance.” 

“Feels funny not having Bon Bon and Lyra here for this,” Derpy said. 

“Well, somepony has to watch the foals, and little Harper needs to feed,” Berry replied. 

“One day soon, we will all be in a position where we will have moments like this one all together, we won’t need a night watch or a day watch, and we can try to figure out how to be a somewhat normal family,” Bucky stated. 

Berry Punch snorted, an equine sound of derision. “Who wants to be normal? We’re a herd, we’re already well outside of normal for most ponies. We’re a unified tribe, we have unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, which is outside the realm of normal for most ponies.” 

“And Thistle,” Derpy added. 

“And one kelpie, with more on the way hopefully,” Berry said. 

“I want me some kelpie foals,” Bucky announced. “And I am ready to screw Thistle senseless to get them.” 

“Oooh!” gasped Thistle. She took a deep breath and squeaked. 

“Thistle, you know that was meant as teasing, right?” Bucky inquired in a gentle voice. 

“Yes, but I think I kinda want to be screwed senseless,” Thistle confessed in reply. 

“Oh… I am glad to hear you say that,” Berry Punch whispered into Thistle’s ear. “You… I am going to make you my plaything,” she breathed seductively. 

The kelpie’s breathing quickened and she heard Bucky chuckle. Her cheeks blazed with inner fire. She felt her heart beating, thudding away in her barrel. She also felt emboldened. “We’ll see about that Berry Punch… I’ll sweet talk Bucky into helping me and we’ll make you our plaything,” she threatened in a timid voice.

“Oh hey! She’s learning!” Berry crowed. 

“From you,” Derpy grumbled. “She was so sweet,” she said regretfully.

“We could work together and make Bucky our plaything,” Berry suggested. 

“I… I like that idea,” Thistle replied. She licked her lips fretfully. “We could screw him senseless,” she said nervously. 

“If you sound nervous it isn’t scary,” Berry said helpfully. “We’ll work on it together,” she offered warmly to Thistle. 

“I plan to love Thistle gently,” Derpy announced. “All this talk about screwing a pony senseless,” she muttered and then snorted. 

“There are three of us now, I bet we could take the pegasus,” Berry said as she licked her teeth. 

“Berry, don’t make me wrangle you in front of Thistle and spoil her night,” Derpy warned. “Saucy earth ponies need to know their place.” 

“Aw nuts… and this is why you don’t mess with the alpha,” Berry grumbled. 

“The sun has just hit the horizon,” Bucky announced, ignoring the playfully squabbling mares. “We should get indoors.” Bucky’s insistent suggestion silenced the playful banter and the four ponies all exchanged a glance with one another. 



 

Bucky gently laid Thistle down in the bed and then backed away. He had carried her though the door in his magic, as he had once carried Berry and Derpy to the bed one night so long ago that it now felt like a lifetime. 

Thistle looked at Bucky longingly as he backed away, giggling nervously, and she waved her hoof at him. “I hope you enjoy the show,” she whispered nervously. 

“You know Thistle, I don’t have to watch if you are nervous. This is a very intimate act and it is okay to be shy,” Bucky gently replied. 

“But I want you to watch… I’ve had daydreams about this for a while now,” Thistle said. 

“So what is the plan?” Berry asked. 

“We gently introduce her to our ways,” Derpy replied. 

“But go easy on me… I… I don’t think I am ready for more than one pony at a time,” Thistle whispered timidly. 

“It is only a good time if everypony is having fun,” Berry stated. “As much as I want a go at Thistle to make her squeal, I think I’ll stick to watching for tonight. It has been a long day for all of us, she’s pregnant, and we have the rest of our lives to spend shagging one another silly.” 

Derpy eased herself into the bed beside Thistle and began to kiss the kelpie along her neck. Thistle responded by going limp and closing her eyes. Thistle giggled and her tail of living greenery flicked against the blanket. 

Bucky backed himself into a small cushioned cubby in the wall and settled in. The room was dimly lit, and Bucky ignited the compressed peat bale sitting in the small cast iron stove that was in the rear of the room. 

Berry shoved her way into the cubby with Bucky and squeezed herself in beside him. The cubby was intended for a single occupant, but the pair made it work. Berry ground her plot up against Bucky’s balls, flexed her cheeks to spread them, and then gave his scrotum a playful gentle pinch as she squeezed her cheeks together. She then farted, causing Bucky’s balls to vibrate pleasantly. “That’s my vibrating plot trick,” she whispered. 

The pair watched as things begin to heat up between the pegasus and the kelpie. The couple lay belly to belly, with Derpy pulling Thistle closer to her body. She used a wing to stroke Thistle, dragging the tips of her feathers over Thistle’s ribs, which made Thistle giggle and squirm. 

“Thistle, I am going to kiss you… all over… and down there,” Derpy whispered heatedly in Thistle’s ear. She slid a hind leg between Thistle’s hind legs and rubbed, feeling a faint hint of moisture. Derpy felt Thistle tense and the kelpie’s moans inflamed her desire. 

“Mmmmm okay,” Thistle moaned in reply. She threw her head back as she felt lips moving down her neck in slow kisses and nibbles. The feeling of Derpy’s soft silken pelt against her own body made her feel hot and she felt her teats growing hard. 

Derpy worked her way down slowly, and then lingered at Thistle’s navel, the peak of her belly. She gently stroked the large rounded stomach of the kelpie, and whispered wordlessly to the foal inside as she kissed in slow circles around Thistle’s navel. She pushed Thistle over on to her back and pulled her legs apart. 

“Oh Bucky look… she’s winking,” Berry whispered excitedly as she ground her own winking flesh up against Bucky. She felt something prodding her backside and turned her head toward Bucky. “You know, if you work out your frustrations now, you’ll last longer for Thistle,” she suggested. 

Bucky grabbed Berry by her hips and pulled her closer. “You haven’t been properly warmed up, are you sure?” he asked. 

“Derpy and I can finish anything that you start,” Berry replied as she eagerly watched Thistle in the squirming throes of pleasure. She heard a loud wet sounding swishy noise as Thistle’s legs were spread even further apart, followed by a titter of embarrassment. 

Bucky licked his lips. Thistle was a delightful lurid shade of pink. He watched her whole body tense as Derpy ran her tongue over a stiff protruding teat. He shifted his body along Berry. She was laying on her side, he crawled atop of her, and then he carefully pushed one of Berry’s hind legs up to Berry’s barrel, leaving her spread and ready to be stuffed. 

“Oooh, kinky, this is a new position,” Berry purred. She watched as Derpy continued to tug and nibble on Thistle’s teats, pinching them gently between her lips, tugging on them, and stretching them out a bit with gentle pulls, letting them slowly slip free from her lips with a wet sounding pop. Berry shifted her hips and writhed beneath Bucky. She felt him shift and settle his weight and then she felt him pressing up against her already damp flesh. He was quick now, knowing full well what he was doing, Berry felt him part her, sink in slightly, and then freeze in place. She hissed, then moaned, it still stung. Bucky’s girth was considerable and she could feel her skin stretched tight around him. She clenched her plot cheeks and gave him a loving squeeze, and she could feel him easing his way inside of her. 

Behind her, Derpy could hear a hiss, a moan, and then the wet slick sounds of clinging mareflesh being parted. She gave a final stretching tug on a now rock hard teat, then a final parting lick, and then she scooted her body further down. Thistle had a different scent wafting from her marehood. Derpy knew what her own smell was like, and what Berry smelled like, and Thistle was very different. Derpy wondered if it was Thistle’s diet. 

Derpy gave one experimental lick and felt Thistle jump. She smacked her lips. Thistle was really salty and tasted a bit like Bucky’s kisses did after he had been eating fish. It was an odd flavour, and Derpy wasn’t sure what she thought about it. She gave another lick, starting low, and running her tongue along the entire length of Thistle’s parted cleft. 

“Mmm mmmm mmmmm mmm,” moaned Thistle as she wiggled her hips and kicked her legs. Thistle could feel Derpy’s tongue teasing over the folds of her flesh. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. She could feel cool air mingling with Derpy’s hot breath upon her moist flesh, and it made her whole body tingle. She could hear Berry’s soft moans and Bucky’s well timed grunts. Thistle briefly recalled the pain of her first time, and then pushed it out of her mind. This was so much better and she didn’t want to waste time thinking about the past. 

Derpy gave a careful lip nibble to Thistle’s winking button. It was tiny and bright pink, and it had a part running down the middle of it that made it look somewhat heart shaped. She felt the kelpie go stiff as a board and a soft cry of need escaped Thistle’s lips. 

Berry lifted her head and bit down on her bottom lip as she felt Bucky spear her and go balls deep for the first time. He had been making little gentle thrusts so far, going in only half way to work her up into a frenzy, and now she could feel his balls pressed up against her plot cheek as he remained buried deep inside of her holding himself in place. She felt Bucky’s warm fetlock sliding down between her legs, and then she felt pressure on her little berry. He was mashing her between his fetlock and his cock. She felt him ease out and then thrust back in, squeezing her clit as he did so. She squirmed and Bucky pushed her hind leg up closer against her barrel, making it easier for him to reach between her legs and plunge even deeper. 

Derpy could hear Berry mewling with each squelch. Unable to resist, Derpy penetrated Thistle with her tongue, going deep inside of Thistle’s searingly hot folds. Thistle gushed a bit in response and then made pleading cries. 

“I feel too hot…” Thistle gasped. 

“You need release,” Derpy whispered from between Thistle’s legs, her breath blowing over Thistle’s flesh. She rose and stepped over Thistle, and then lowered herself down, pressing her own mareflesh over Thistle’s, straddling her scissor legged. She ground her filly bits against Thistle’s and grunted as she watched Thistle squirm beneath her. She braced her front hooves on each side of Thistle’s barrel and bore down on the kelpie’s slick folds and Derpy could feel flaps of her own flesh slipping in and out of Thistle’s slick silken snatch. 

Bucky watched as Derpy and Thistle ground against one another and his thrusting grew frantic. Berry was bleating now as he rammed himself in deep. Taking her while she was on her side was a good idea, he could shift his weight down upon her cutie mark, push her leg against her barrel, and make Berry feel extremely tight around his thrusting cock. He squeezed her nubbin between his fetlock and his cock, and he could feel his ring banging against the flesh behind her clitoris, which created pressure from all sides. Berry had came quickly and Bucky took mental notes to perfect his technique. 

Thistle could hear Berry bleating and something about the sound excited her. She could hear Bucky’s grunting. She could hear Derpy’s heaving breathing as the pegasus continued to grind against her. Something was happening, and Thistle had no idea what it was. Her muscles twitched, spasmed, and tightened. She could feel her pucker clenching as she felt dribbles of moisture trickling down around it. She could feel the folds of her filly bits catching and tugging on Derpy’s sopping folds as they continued to rub together. Each breath felt like fire entering her lungs. She felt her little hypersensitive nubbin slip into Derpy’s searing hot slit and something broke as she felt Derpy clench around her and suck her even further in. There was an almost crushing amount of pressure, and it felt as though Derpy’s marehood was suckling on the little hard knob of flesh, trying to draw it even further in as though the hot snatch hungered and sought to devour Thistle’s fleshy button for a snack. 

Thistle threw back her head and shrieked as her whole body convulsed. 

Thistle’s shriek sent Bucky over the edge and he blew his load, jamming himself in as deep as possible into Berry, making her let out a bleating yell as he rammed his plow into the little stone in her garden furrow. Bucky knew that Berry got off on the sensation of hot seed being spilled inside of her, and he grabbed her around her middle to ram home a few more times as his final efforts, hoping to work out a few more squirts. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth and her eyes were rolled back into her head as Bucky continued to screw her silly, his frantic actions triggering another orgasm for himself. 

Derpy, who had not yet orgasmed, could hear the sounds of ponies cumming all around her as she continued to grind away on Thistle, knowing that it wouldn’t be much longer. Thistle had covered her face with her forehooves to hide the silly faces that she was making. Derpy could hear Berry’s bleating and the heaving breathless gasps that Bucky made after he blew his load. She knew that there was a creamy mess to be found inside of Berry. The thought proved to be too much and Derpy fell over the edge. She cried out, panting and groaning, and crushed her cooch against Thistle’s in one final frenzied effort. Her wings flapped and fluttered, threatening to go stiff from overheating. She had a second less intense climax a moment later, and then she collapsed gently atop Thistle, careful to not put too much weight on Thistle’s belly. She slid off and lay beside Thistle, pulling the kelpie close. 

“I love your cute little silly faces, don’t hide them,” Derpy whispered. 





Bucky collapsed on top of Berry Punch and just laid there, enjoying her closeness, his partially erect cock still stuffed inside of her. He wrapped his forelegs around her neck and drew her in for a kiss. A few moments of lip-nibblies, he felt Berry pull away from him. 

“I like the new position… we need to do this again,” Berry whispered. “Now cuddle me for a bit before you go and take Thistle,” she added in a pleading voice, rubbing her cheek up against Bucky’s muzzle. 

“You came,” Derpy whispered to Thistle. It was not a question. Derpy held the quivering kelpie in a fond embrace and her foreleg wandered over Thistle’s big round belly. She trailed her fetlock over Thistle’s still clenching filly bits and felt the kelpie shudder at her touch. 

“Again…” Thistle gasped as she panted, squeezing her hind legs together and feeling her belly muscles tighten up. 

“Oh my you are going to be fun to play with,” Derpy whispered. “Do you feel good and slippery? It’ll help with what comes next.” 

Thistle thought for a moment about what came next, and for a brief moment, her first experiences troubled her mind. She made the troubling thoughts go away and she snuggled closer to the pegasus beside her. “I had no idea that mares could do that with our parts,” Thistle admitted. 

“Berry told me about it,” Derpy replied as she stroked Thistle. “I like doing it… feeling another mare being slurped up inside of me.” 

The kelpie lost her composure and began to giggle. “Slurp!” she tittered. 

“Berry Punch might be a big pervert, but she knows her stuff. You would be wise to spend time talking to her and listening to her about her perverted mystical arts,” Derpy whispered as she trailed her fetlock along the curve of Thistle’s neck and took delight in making Thistle continue to squirm. “And tell her to be serious so she will behave and not scare you.” 

“That kinda tickles,” Thistle said breathily. She looked over at Berry and Bucky, who were canoodling with one another still. “Berry looks so happy,” she stated as she looked at the pair. 

“Bucky is the love of Berry’s life. And mine. And now yours. Do you think you can share?” Derpy asked in a low serious voice. 

The kelpie nodded slowly, never taking her gaze off of the cuddling couple tucked into the cubby. “I get a lot more than Bucky, I have you and Berry too.” 

Derpy nibbled at the edge of Thistle’s ear as she slipped her fetlock over Thistle’s still rock hard teats and she felt a powerful spike of arousal as Thistle stiffened in her embrace for a moment. She gave serious thought to taking Thistle again, longing to feel Thistle’s warm flesh pressed against her own once more. 

And then, the troubling thought came. Derpy realised that Thistle was Sparkler’s age, and it slowly sank into her mind what they had done together. The grey pegasus mare felt conflicted and confused. She thought of what Bucky was about to do… she felt her eyes misting over as her emotions began to overwhelm her. She took comfort in telling herself that this is what Thistle wanted and Derpy quietly resolved that she wouldn’t spoil the moment. Thistle wasn’t about to be taken advantage of and then left high and dry, this was a loving dedicated relationship, even if it pushed the boundaries of what society back at home considered acceptable. 

Even though part of her wanted to push Thistle away, another part of her wanted to take her again and make her feel good to make up for past hurts as the need for both sex and nurturing filled her mind. 

Bucky could already feel himself becoming aroused again. He had slipped free from Berry’s moist folds and he slid himself along her slick entrance, which made the earth pony mare mare moan and wiggle beneath him. He rose, pulling himself away from Berry, and then quietly slipped free from the cubby. 

Berry, seeing Bucky departing, reached out and grabbed him by his hind legs, pulling him back. She extended her head and neck from the cubby, slipping between his hind legs beneath him, she extended her tongue and gave Bucky’s cock a long, slow, lazy lick which made the stallion freeze in place. She licked again, savouring her own taste, and she could feel Bucky going stiff with each caress of her tongue. She opened her mouth wide and struggled to get the flared end of Bucky’s cock into her mouth. He was short enough that she could probably take it all in without deep throating him too much, but his girth caused her lips to stretch out as she struggled to take the tip in. 

Derpy and Thistle both watched as Berry sucked on Bucky’s cock, and they clung to one another as they watched the brazen display of affection. Derpy licked her lips, glanced at Thistle, and then back at Berry. “I didn’t think it would fit into her mouth,” Derpy whispered to Thistle. 

“It’s big…” Thistle gasped. 

“Berry says he is hung like a barrel,” Derpy said with a fillyish giggle. 

“It’s fat,” Thistle repeated. “The last one was long and skinny.” 

“Some mares want a scratching, others want a stretching. I like a good stretching,” Derpy whispered. 

“That’s going inside of me?” Thistle gasped in alarm. 

Derpy stroked Thistle soothingly and ran her fetlock along Thistle’s breastbone. “You can always wait… you don’t have to do anything,” Derpy murmured. “Now do you understand why I was so concerned?” 

Thistle nodded as she watched Berry struggling to take in more cock. Berry’s cheeks were puffed out and she had only the tip in her mouth, and her lower jaw didn’t look like it could open any further. “It is like a pony’s leg,” Thistle mumbled. 

“And it feels really good when it stretches my pucker,” Derpy whispered. 

“What?!” Thistle hissed in an alarmed whisper. “You’ve had him go there?!” 

“He was gentle and we were careful… it feels so good. I could play with your pucker and you could get an idea of how good it feels,” Derpy offered in reply. 

Thistle’s eyes went wide. She wasn’t even aware that something could go in there. Or that a stallion would want to go in there. She looked at Derpy, who was staring at Berry and her efforts to get as much of Bucky into her mouth as she could. 

Berry finally tapped out. Her lower jaw ached. She pulled her head away from Bucky’s now fully erect cock and wiggled back into the cubby to rest her head and neck upon the cushion. She panted, out of breath, and licked her lips. She looked up and gave a final parting pat to Bucky’s balls and then slapped him gently on his hops plant cutie mark to send him on his way. 

Derpy pulled away from Thistle after planting one final parting kiss on Thistle’s lips. “Just try to relax. And if you get scared or want to stop, say something. Don’t be afraid. One of us will scratch his itch and we can always try again later,” she said, trying to comfort the wide eyed kelpie. She slipped off the bed, approached Bucky, kissed Bucky passionately, and then stepped aside. She took a final glance at Thistle and then made her way to the cubby to squeeze in with Berry. 

Thistle tensed as Bucky slipped into the bed with her. As he cuddled up beside her, she could feel something prodding her hip. She melted when she felt his foreleg wrap around her and then felt his lips on her neck, working upwards towards her ear. “I think I’m ready,” she whispered. She felt a gentle tug on her ear as Bucky took it between his lips and pulled. Electric tingles coursed through her body and she could feel little shivers traveling up and down her spine. “So how are you going to take me?” she asked. 

“I am not sure yet,” Bucky breathed into Thistle’s ear. “I don’t want to hurt you or my foal and I want you to be comfortable… I know how your back hurts.”After speaking, Bucky could feel Thistle relaxing against him. 

Berry snuggled against Derpy and kissed her mate softly. “You know, I just kinda want to watch those two… I’m feeling sappy witnessing this tender moment,” she confessed. 

“You sound like Rainbow Dash,” Derpy replied as she situated herself belly to belly Berry Punch. She could feel Berry’s teats against her own and she realised that Berry was leaking a bit. “Are you full of milk?” 

“Yeah, and it kinda hurts,” Berry answered. 

“You know, Bucky would help you with that if you let him,” Derpy whispered. 

“Have him milk me again? I hate to admit it, but I really like it when he does that,” Berry answered. 

“No, I mean have him suckle at your teats. It might be nice for him. It could be a very special intimate moment between you two, if you don’t ruin it by being a crass horseapple head,” Derpy suggested. “You should try it with him sometime.” 

Berry did not reply and fell silent. She thought of an earlier conversation where they had wondered if Bucky had been teat fed. Berry tried to understand the scope of the act. In her mind, it might just be a moment even more intimate than sex, and something about that idea both scared her and titillated her a great deal in equal parts. 

“He could rest his head upon your thigh and just have a quiet moment of bonding with you… you could stroke his head or something. Give him something his bitch of a mother failed to provide,” Derpy whispered with a faint raspy growl in her voice. 

“Wow, I think you hate her just as much as I do,” Berry whispered as she watched Thistle enthusiastically making out with Bucky. 

“I don’t know how I feel and I don’t wanna talk about it,” Derpy grumbled as she gave Berry a crushing hug to relieve her frustrations. She could see Thistle’s winking fillyhood. It was no longer pink, but red, and her lips were swollen with desire and need. 

“Thistle, are you comfortable on your side?” Bucky asked in a heated whisper. He was almost completely overcome by need and he found it difficult to speak or concentrate. 

“Yes,” Thistle gasped in reply. Her own need was painful. She needed something to happen, even if she wasn’t sure what it was that she needed. 

“I am gonna roll you over onto your side, and then I am gonna spoon against your back. I am going to take you from behind and I promise to be careful and slow. I don’t want to put my weight down on our foal and I don’t know what I am doing because I’ve never rutted anypony fat with a foal before,” Bucky explained. 

“Just no going in my pucker!” Thistle begged. 

“What?” Bucky asked.

“Derpy told me she likes it right up her plot hole,” Thistle replied. 

“Yes, she does. And I only slipped it into Berry’s plothole once and that was an accident. I didn’t know what I was doing,” Bucky answered. He realised he might have made a mistake when Thistle tensed. 

“Just so long as you plow into my filly bits carefully,” Thistle whispered nervously. 

“Want me to spend some time nibbling on you?” Bucky offered. 

“No, I just want to know how this is going to be… I think I’m good to go,” Thistle responded in a panting reply. She began to twist and roll over onto her side and then scooted her plot up against Bucky. 

Bucky found Thistle’s body to be quite arousing in this position. She was smaller than him, and Bucky finally discovered what it felt like to be a larger stallion with a smaller mare. Or in Thistle’s case, a filly. With Derpy and Berry, they were roughly the same size as him, even though he was only slightly larger. 

But Thistle was small. Something about her drove Bucky wild and triggered his protective instincts. Her barrel was slender under his foreleg, and her form was delicate. The only thing large about her was her belly, which was a big as a giant pumpkin and she was only about halfway through her pregnancy now. He nuzzled her ear with his snoot and let out an excited whinny. His foreleg traveled along her side, over her sleek ribs, and his fetlock rested on the widest part of the belly. He pushed his hips forward as he pulled her to him and pushed her downwards towards his cock, which was throbbing with need. He felt a damp warmth and gently pushed her downwards onto himself as he carefully thrust upwards. 

Thistle parted with a small cry and Bucky held himself in place, going no further. She wiggled in his grasp and worked her way free, which made Bucky slip out of her. 

“We can stop any time Thistle,” Bucky whispered. He kissed Thistle just below her ear and rubbed her softly with his snoot. 

“I won’t lie, that hurt a bit,” Thistle said with a tearful sniffle. 

“I am so sorry love…” Bucky said apologetically. He lifted his foreleg from her and began to squirm his way out of the bed. 

“What are you doing?” Thistle asked. 

“Leaving you be,” Bucky replied. “This was a mistake, perhaps Derpy was right.” 

“No!” Thistle retorted. “You get back here and screw me gently!” 

Bucky went still, not sure what to do. He remained in the bed beside Thistle. The kelpie began to wiggle up against him and then wiggled her hips into an inviting position. 

“You finish what you started right now this instant mister!” Thistle demanded. “Just go… just go really slow…” she continued in a halting fearful voice. 

Bucky wrapped his foreleg over Thistle’s barrel and pulled her close.

“He’s in trouble,” Berry said to Derpy as the two remained snuggled together belly to belly, laying on their sides, legs entwined in a tangle. 

Derpy sighed, not sure what to do. She wanted to shout and make this stop. She wanted to break free from Berry’s embrace and then run over to comfort Thistle. She clung to Berry and felt a worrying sense of conflict. 

“Derpy, if you interfere, she won’t forgive you for a long time,” Berry whispered after she picked up on what Derpy was thinking. “She’s stubborn, and she is going to see this through. And Poor Bucky looks like a kicked foal right now.” 

Derpy buried her face into Berry’s pelt and let out a faint sound of pain. 

“Foal birth is going to hurt her even more Derpy, you’d better learn to deal with this now,” Berry whispered. 

Bucky rubbed his tip against Thistle’s folds, took a deep breath, steeled his nerves, and once again, he pushed his way into her. She was tight. He could feel her stretched tight all around him, and it felt like he had wormed his way into Derpy’s crushing pucker. She wiggled, writhed, and squirmed her hips, nearly causing him to slip out. He slid one foreleg, the one he was laying on, under her neck and pulled her head close to him, cradling it on his leg as he kissed her apologetically for hurting her again. He waited patiently, even though part of him wanted to bury himself deep inside of her repeatedly, over and over again, until he achieved release. 

Berry watched as Bucky held himself in place and she felt proud of him. She could see him sunk in only an inch or two into Thistle’s glistening folds. She could see that Thistle was stretched tight around the shimmering wet looking skin of Bucky’s mottled pink and brown cock. Thistle appeared to be stretched nearly to the point of breaking, and Berry felt some concern. Given enough time, things should loosen up a bit. Berry could see that Bucky was sweating, straining, fighting back his obvious need. Berry knew that most stallions would have gave up all pretext of being gentle and would have plowed onwards, not caring about the damage that they might do or the agony they might cause, and that many stallions were actually aroused by a mare or filly’s cries of pain. Berry had experienced a couple of rough tumbles in the hay. Bucky looked afraid and a little disgusted, perhaps with himself, Berry supposed. Thistle had a look of pain upon her face and her muzzle appeared to be scrunched up in intense concentration. 

Derpy could no longer bear to watch. She was feeling entirely too motherly and her emotions drove her to distraction. She hid her face in Berry’s pelt. 

Thistle braced herself and then pushed herself down a bit on Bucky, causing him to slide in deeper. She sucked in a deep breath and held it for as moment, and then let it out in panting gasps. As painful was it was, it wasn’t as painful as the first time she had been taken, and there was no violence this time. She could feel herself stretching a bit, but her skin still felt as though it had been stretched thin around her fleshy opening. She could feel Bucky trembling and she knew just enough about rutting to know that he was struggling to hold back. She could feel his hips twitching with an instinctual need. 

“Thank you,” Thistle squeaked. 

“For what,” Bucky gasped. 

“For everything,” Thistle replied with a breathless moan. She pushed herself down a little more and took more of Bucky in. Reaching down her with foreleg, she stroked her nubbin with her fetlock, trying to make herself relax. 

When Bucky heard Thistle moan and felt her shudder from her own touch, he nearly broke. The urge was painful. He ached with his repressed need. Thistle was so delightfully tight around him. He reached around her belly and stroked her teats, which caused her to make hitching shuddering gasps that only further inflamed his desire. He pulled out a tiny bit and then pushed in a tiny bit, feeling himself slipping in and out of her tight silken folds. She felt as hot as the steel foundry against the flesh that he had penetrated her with. The rest of him could feel cool air blowing over his sopping skin. He wanted to be warm, to be buried deep within her, but that would betray her trust of him. He wasn’t even ring deep within her yet.  

Bucky drew a deep shuddering breath and squeezed Thistle gently. Her small body filled him with all kinds of protective urges that conflicted with his need to rut her silly. He felt confused. Her soft cries of pain both filled him with desire and the need to comfort her. He didn’t know what to do.

Thistle wiggled her hips, sliding herself around on Bucky’s  flared tip, causing it to wiggle around inside of her. There was pleasure buried in the pain, and the pain was easing slightly. She came to a profound understanding of Bucky’s love for her. This must be just as painful for him, and that brought her comfort. She had an idea. She squirmed and let Bucky slip free from her folds, but she did not release him. She caught him between her thighs, squeezed, and then rocked her hips backwards. She felt him shudder behind her and heard him groan. She smiled. She could feel his cock slitting along her filly bump as it slid between her sopping slick thighs. She felt clever and proud for enduring and then finding a way. She could feel Bucky releasing his aggression as he thrust himself between her clenched thighs, and Thistle felt incredibly aroused by his grunting and heavy breathing in her ear. Each frenzied thrust slid along her winking nubbin and filled her body with crazy pleasurable sensations. She arched her back against Bucky to encourage him to let go. She could take everything he had to give this way. 

“Interfemoral intercourse,” Berry whispered to Derpy. “She’s a smart filly.” 

Derpy opened her eyes. “What?” she asked. 

“Thistle has Bucky trapped between her thighs and she isn’t letting go. And from the looks of it, they are both enjoying it a great deal. I think she’s gonna cum from the faces she’s making,” Berry said as she watched the rutting going on in the bed with great interest. 

Derpy allowed herself to look over at the rutting couple. Thistle no longer appeared to be in pain, and Bucky was screwing her three ways to Sunday. She could see Bucky’s cock sliding in and out between Thistle’s thighs and she could only guess at what it must be rubbing up against. She watched as Thistle squeezed her legs together even tighter, actually crossing them and hooking one hock over the other. The wet slurping sounds of sloppy shagging could be heard as Thistle clearly began to enjoy herself. 

Bucky thrust himself in and out from between Thistle’s silken thighs. He could feel the hot wetness of her slick slit rubbing along the top of his cock, and he could feel a little hard hot knob of flesh rubbing up against his ring with every pass. He held nothing back and gave it to Thistle hard and dirty, somehow knowing that going at it roughly was the only way to give Thistle enough stimulation to go off. 

And he intended to make the filly cum to show her how much he loved her. She was clenching her hind legs together and it produced the most wonderful feeling of friction against his stabbing thrusting cock as he slipped in and out of her silken embrace. Her ear flickered against his snoot and suddenly, he could not hold her close enough. He squeezed her as much as he dared as he continued to give her the most enthusiastic boning he could muster. He kissed her frantically just behind her ear. 

Thistle felt her body tense and she cried out. She could feel each thrust teasing her feminine folds and the hot feeling of Bucky’s plunging flesh lingering over her own little pebble hard knob of happiness. She felt too hot, and she felt wet down there. She could not contain herself and she continued to cry out as her body twitched and spasmed. 

Bucky smiled when he felt Thistle climax and kept going. He was pent up, but he had a ways to go. His frenzied thrusting continued unabated as he attempted to screw Thistle senseless. 

“See, everything is fine mama bird, love found a way,” Berry said as she watched Thistle make silly faces. The kelpie’s eyes had crossed and her tongue was lolling out as her nostrils flared. She kissed Derpy warmly on the lips and went back to watching the show. 

“We have a really good husband,” Derpy whispered softly after the kiss she had with Berry and she squeezed the earth pony close to her. “And look at her face… I wish I had a camera.” 

The two mares cuddled together as they watched Thistle having the time of her young life. 

Finally, Bucky could take no more. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, release was imminent. “What do I do?” he grunted. “This is gonna make a mess!” 

“Ease it inside of me… gently,” Thistle said. “Just the tip. I want to feel it,” she begged as she opened her legs. 

Bucky didn’t need to be told twice. He parted her once again, and found that it was a little easier this time, and upon entering her steamy recesses, he lost control of himself. With a jerking series of convulsions, he sent his seed spattering into Thistle as the kelpie let out a few gasping cries. He tried not to thrust inwards any deeper as he blew out several spurts of cum into Thistle’s overly tight snatch. 

“That didn’t hurt too much,” Thistle panted as she felt Bucky pull out of her. She squeaked as Bucky roughly pulled her close, crushing her to his body and she could feel his lips traveling down her neck, causing cold chilly tingles which made her flesh turn to goosebumps. She could feel the tips of his fangs pressing into flesh faintly as he continued to kiss her and work her over. She slid her slitted mound over his now softening cock, relishing the feeling of it against her. She heard a savage growl from behind her as she felt herself being turned over. In a moment, she was belly to belly with Bucky, and he was still crushing her close, he was snarling, and his muzzle connected with hers. 

The couple exchanged a smolderingly hot kiss before pulling apart breathlessly. 

Thistle saw the drowsy look in Bucky’s eye and felt relieved. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately and she wanted him to sleep. “Sleep,” she whispered. “I’m a very happy filly,” she cooed. She heard hoofsteps and then felt another body climb into the bed, and then another. Thistle felt Derpy settle in behind her, and she watched as Berry Punch eased herself down beside Bucky. 

“Was it everything you hoped for?” Derpy asked in a low whisper. 

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Thistle answered honestly. 

“You make the most adorable faces when you have the shudders,” Berry teased. “I can’t wait to have my fun with you.” The earth pony yawned and then rubbed Bucky, whose breathing had slowed. 

The earth pony’s yawn was contagious and Thistle yawned as well. She could feel Derpy’s warm body pressed against her back and she was sandwiched between the pegasus and the unicorn she loved. 

“No foals in the bed… as alpha I claim the morning shag,” Derpy said cheerfully.

“You didn’t get to have Bucky love you,” Thistle said with a sudden realisation. 

“No, but that’s okay. As a herd, it is all about give and take. There are four of us now. We can each satisfy one another. And come morning, I just might have another go at you as well you little minx… how would you feel about giving Bucky a nice show with Berry and I?” Derpy replied. 

“I’m not sure,” Thistle said in an uncertain voice. 

“We’ll move along at your pace,” Berry said reassuringly. 

“Thank you,” Thistle replied and then she yawned again. 

“He’s out,” Berry announced. “Sounds like a good deep sleep too, not the twitchy whimpering and kicking sleep he’s been having. I swear, he goes to sleep now and immediately begins to have bad dreams or something.” 

“Maybe we need to wear him out nightly,” Derpy said in a serious voice. 

“Good form of stress relief,” Berry responded. 

“He does so much for others… we owe it to him to keep him happy,” Thistle stated. 

Derpy nodded and squeezed the kelpie one last time as she yawned. 

“I feel sticky,” Thistle announced. 

“Thistle, have I got a story to tell you about our first night together…” Berry said. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 151
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky stood on the edge of the deck of The Scorned Mare, looked around for anypony that might be below in the early morning hour, lifted his hind leg, and pissed off the side of the ship. Where once this had been an act of fear, embarrassment, neurosis, and shame, he now took an entirely too casual attitude about the whole thing. 

Watching the stallion she so loved relieving himself, Berry Punch laughed. “We need to upgrade to modern indoor plumbing as soon as possible,” she commented. 

“I don’t think I could pee off the side, it doesn’t look safe,” Thistle said. “Oh how I wish somepony had thought of a bucket!” 

“Meh,” Berry Punch muttered. She walked to the edge of the ship, stood up on her hind legs, pinched a part of her anatomy in a certain way, and then while standing, pissed over the side. “I can write my name in the snow,” she bragged as she sent a stream of urine out in an arc. 

“Oh… oooh my… mmm mmm mmmph! There is just something about earth ponies,” Bucky gasped as he watched Berry with unabashed lust upon his face, still pissing over the side. 

“Bucky will hold you in his magic Thistle, and then you can just hang your backside over the edge,” Derpy said as she patted Thistle. 

“What about you?” Thistle asked. 

“Me? I’m a pegasus. I plan to make it rain,” Derpy said with a smile. 



 

Bucky stood in the foundry looking at the designs on the wall. Rising Star stood beside him, looking a bit roughed up but overall none the worse for wear. Rising Star rubbed at lump on the side of his head, a gift from Sparkler. 

“We’re really going to do this,” Rising Star said in a voice filled with awe. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

Crush nodded. 

“First, we need a couple of test pieces. Simple steel sheets, semi-finished, slightly enchanted, and treated with the... uh, liquid from yonder orb,” Bucky stated. 

“And Bucky, tell me, how do you plan to do battle in this suit of armor?” Rising Star inquired. 

“What do you mean?” Bucky answered. 

“Well, combat training,” Rising Star replied. 

“I have Sombra’s memories… and I planned to figure it out as I went,” Bucky said in a flat monotone. 

Rising Star rubbed his face with his hoof and looked disturbed. “Look, I just spent a couple of days of having my plot kicked all over the place and with each lump added to my skull, I understand just how little I know of fighting.” 

“The armor will be powered. It’ll make me strong. Plus, I’ll have my magic, how hard could it be?” Bucky said with a disdainful sniff. 

“How hard was it the first night you went out on patrol?” Rising Star questioned in reply as respectfully as possible. 

Bucky scowled. “It isn’t the same thing at all. I’ll be protected.” 

“Mama Berry was worried that you’d pull something boneheaded like this,” Rising Star groaned. He turned his head and did his best to give Bucky a withering glare, trying to mimic what Berry had shown as an example. 

Crush prodded Bucky gently, which nearly toppled Bucky over and then patted Rising Star affectionately. He smiled and pointed at Rising Star enthusiastically. 

“Oh sure, take his side,” Bucky grumbled as he recovered. 

“I need some assistance… oh, Knight Captain Buckminster.” 

The trio all turned to look at whomever it was that had spoken. There was a very large griffon standing in the doorway, and Crush’s assistants all scattered, suddenly finding business elsewhere. 

“Hi Lugus, where is your little pegasus filly?” Rising Star asked. 

“She is safe with your matriarch, who I fear may be spoiling her,” Lugus replied. “There is this pegasus affection ritual involving the hiding and the showing of the face. I do not understand it,” he grumbled. 

“So what brings you here?” Rising Star inquired. “Crush can’t talk,” he explained. 

“I am in need of a weapon. There are vermin on these Isles. I do not like vermin. Vermin that kill the young, prey upon the old and weak, and are barely even worthy foes. I want to hunt them. I understand that there is steel to be found here. I would like a hook-axe if such a thing could be made,” Lugus asked. 

Crush nodded. 

“I have nothing to offer in payment but my own body. I will join you if you will have me,” Lugus offered to Bucky.

“What’s a hook-axe?” Rising Star asked. 

“A griffon weapon. Axe blade on one side, a long hook on the other, a shaft about as long as a griffon body. A strong griffon can use the hook to snag foes up from off of the ground. And the axe is self explanatory,” Lugus replied. 

“So, are you a warrior?” Rising Star inquired politely. 

“In my home country, I was a knight. I was disgraced. I fled,” Lugus answered with brutal honesty. 

“How were you disgraced?” Rising Star asked rather sheepishly. 

“I refused my king. He wanted me to kill his son,” Lugus replied in a cold dead voice. 

“I don’t think that disgraces you,” Rising Star said in a soft voice. “Say, you have combat training… did you wear heavy armor?” 

Lugus nodded. 

“Bucky here needs training… we’re about to make a suit of heavy plate. I need for you to beat my dad into shape,” Rising Star stated with a cunning grin. 

The griffon raised his claw and scratched his head. “I can do that,” he answered. “But how is he even going to move in heavy plate?” 

“Magical motivators and actuators,” Bucky said in half-hearted explanation as he glared at Rising Star. Bucky’s glower was far worse that Berry’s withering stare. 

“See that he is whipped into shape and I will even talk him into enchanting your weapon,” Rising Star said shrewdly as he cringed away from Bucky. 

Lugus’ feathered crest rose and he drummed his claws upon the stone floor as he stood there. “Give me a week and he might stand up to a stiff breeze,” Lugus replied in an amused sounding voice.

“But you are helping us work the forge,” Bucky interjected.

“I can do that,” Lugus offered. “But your matriarch must provide care for my ward.” 

“Done,” Bucky stated. 

“Yeah,” Rising Star added. 

Crush flapped his lips, which made a flatulent sound, and then gently prodded Bucky once again, which almost tipped the little stallion over. 

“The wind wouldn’t knock me over,” Bucky said sulkily as he regained his hoofing. He glared upward at Crush and something in his neck cricked. “Ow… not fair… some ponies hogged all of the tall when they were born,” he grumbled as he reached up to rub his neck. 

“I have no idea how he understands Crush,” Rising Star said to Lugus. 

“I took lessons from Berry. Crush speaks a smattering of pegasus and earth pony non-verbal communicators. He’s actually really easy to understand if you pay attention,” Bucky said as he levitated a charcoal stick to Lugus. “Now draw me a hook-axe so I know exactly what I need to do here,” he instructed. 



 

Dinky sighed as she settled her body in the water. She didn’t feel the bugs anymore, but she did feel itchy all over. Her mind felt unsettled and she poked the water with her forehoof so she could watch the ripples as they spread. She turned and looked at her mother on shore. Her mama looked so very happy, and that made Dinky feel a little better. The little pegasus filly her mother was playing peekaboo with was giggling. 

Thistle was swimming out in deeper water and Dinky watched her for a while. Thistle looked happy and Dinky understood why. She had heard Lyra and Bon Bon talking with her in low voices this morning about being a mare within the herd. Turning her head, she looked over at Loch Skimmer, who was beginning to whistle to Harper, sweet little Harper who was being held by Berry Punch who lay on her back. 

She wished Ripple was here, but Ripple was off learning how to box. 

“Piña, do you think what I did makes me a bad pony?” Dinky asked her best friend and confidant. 

“No,” Piña replied without a second’s hesitation. “Do you think daddy is a bad pony for taking Thistle as his wife even though Thistle is Sparkler’s age?” 

“Well, no…” Dinky said after several moments of thought. 

“Why?” Piña asked. 

“Because I understand why he did it,” Dinky responded. 

“Well, a lot of ponies probably won’t understand, but we do,” Piña stated. “And daddy is a good pony. We know this to be true.” 

Dinky nodded. “Thank you Piña,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I would do without you. You take all of the complicated things in my head and make them simple.” 

Piña shrugged and watched as Thistle swam around in the water. “Mama Thistle looks happy,” she said as she gently stroked Dinky. 

“Yeah she does,” Dinky agreed. 

“I’m probably never going to be that happy. I know too much. I’ve become aware of too many things. I dunno how to put some of them into words yet, and that troubles me, it is like being just big enough to peer over the counter at Sugarcube Corner and see a treat you want, but not yet tall enough to reach it,” Piña said in a flat despondent voice. 

“I know what you mean Piña,” Dinky replied. “I know what I want in life… I still want power. I want to understand things… but not at the cost of having bugs crawling under my skin or having nightmares about wolves burning… I wanted them to hurt, but I can’t bear to actually see them in pain in my dreams Piña, and I don’t know how to talk to the adults about it,”she explained. 

“We’ve both become aware,” Piña agreed sadly. “We can’t go back to how we were.” 

“No,” Dinky answered as she began to sniffle slightly. “I don’t want to cry anymore… nuts and gum. I don’t even understand what I am aware of.” 

“Feck,” Piña swore. She felt a heady rush of heat flood over her cheeks. 

“Piña!” Dinky gasped, looking in wide eyed horror at her sibling. 

“That felt really good,” Piña confessed. 

“My mama will wash your mouth out with soap if she can find some,” Dinky warned. 

“Arse,” Piña muttered, savouring the word in her mouth. She had said it before, but never quite so forcefully or with so much meaning. 

Dinky’s face turned a bright maroon. “Stop Piña, they will hear you!” Dinky begged. 

“Shite,” Piña announced. 

“No Piña, not the big ‘s’ word…” Dinky cried as she looked around. She stared at her mother, then at Berry, and finally out at Thistle. 

“Buggery,” Piña grumbled, which caused Dinky to cover her ears with her front hooves. “You know Dinky, if I can figure out how to say these things without suddenly feeling ashamed or embarrassed, then I will no longer be a fecking foal,” she explained. 

“Piña!” Dinky squealed. 

Piña shrugged. “They are only words. The only meaning or power they have is what we give them.” 

“If you really believe that, then I quintuple dog blind dare you to walk up to Berry Punch or my mother and say those words,” Dinky challenged. 

“Okay,” Piña agreed as she rose to her hooves and waded out of the water. 



 

“Lord Bitters, you have some ponies needing to speak to you,” the guard reported. 

Bucky scowled, hating the sound of those words. He wondered why Sentinel had not prevented this. He looked around the forge. He was covered in soot and sweat. “I guess I will step outside to see them,” he growled. 

Bucky stomped outside and saw three ponies. Correction. Two ponies and one zebra. He couldn’t remember a zebra being on the list of shipwreck survivors. He stared at the zebra, and she shimmered and warped. Bucky had the most troubling sensation that his gaze belonged elsewhere and his brain suggested that he was looking at an earth pony. 

He looked around and the guard was gone. He peered at the three ponies and his horn ignited. “What is the meaning of this? If you don’t stop using that aversion spell, I am going to get snippy,” Bucky growled. 

“There is no need for that,” the unicorn replied. 

“Other ponies might be upset if they saw a zebra,” the earth pony explained. 

“And don’t you dare talk to us about “snippy” Buckminster Bitters, son of Buckminster Bitters and Primrose Propers, distant son of Platinum, Founder of Equestria, and blood heir of Sombra, the Lord of Winter,” the zebra warned. 

“Yes, “snippy” is a delicate subject for us,” the unicorn said with an equine derisive snort. 

“What do you want?” Bucky demanded. He felt a rising panic deep within him and there was a troubling understanding coming up into his memories that these were not ponies at all. 

“Sombra’s memories are surfacing,” the earth pony muttered. 

“We’ve been discovered,” the zebra announced. 

“But does he know our names?” the unicorn questioned. 

“That would be needlessly cruel if he did, hopefully Sombra isn’t the horse’s ass in death that he was in life,” the zebra said as she scratched her barrel with a hoof stained a greenish brown. 

“I liked Sombra… he shared his seed with me,” the earth pony said. 

“What is going on here?” Bucky demanded. 

“We came with an offer of unicorn cleverness,” the unicorn said with a wink. 

“Just get to the point,” Bucky commanded. 

“We wish to make a deal,” the earth pony offered. 

“We want you to make us a promise,” the zebra said. 

“Just one simple promise and we will give you something you will value in return, but we cannot tell you directly what it is, only that you will know the nature of your reward once you have it,” the unicorn explained.

“I am listening,” Bucky growled. 

“We want your solemn oath that you will never become the alicorn of war,” the three ponies all said in unison. 

“How do you know about that?” Bucky snarled. 

“Never mind how we know!” the unicorn bellowed. 

Bucky felt cold fear course through his body and his legs buckled. He nearly fell and he felt the fuzzy fizzy tingle of magic holding up his body. “I don’t want that future,” he admitted in a fearful foalish voice. “I just want to be a father… have lots of hot drunken nookie.” 

“That is wise beyond your years Buckminster!” the zebra praised. 

“It will not be an arduous promise then, just say the words,” the earth pony coaxed. 

“Yes, just say the words, spit on your hoof, and then touch hooves with us… as an extra added bonus, we will make you an offer you can’t refuse,” the unicorn promised in sweet motherly tones as she tried to comfort Bucky, who looked quite afraid. 

“You can’t tell me the nature of my reward, only that I will know it once it happens, but you can make me an offer?” Bucky asked in a confused voice as he wobbled on his hooves. 

“We cannot tell you the exact nature of your reward for making the oath, that would be breaking certain rules. But we can tell you about our little extra incentive. We just want you to say such simple little words, and you don’t want to do it anyway, what is there to lose?” the zebra said in gentle warm tones that made Bucky feel sleepy. 

“Well, what is the incentive?” Bucky questioned. 

“Make the oath and we can tell you that. Plus, we give you the reward that you so richly deserve,” the earth pony promised. 

Bucky licked his lips nervously and he peered at the three equines that were not really equines. He had a nagging suspicion that if he thought about it hard enough, he would know their names. 

But knowing their names was folly. 

Bucky spat on his hoof and extended it. “I give you my solemn oath that I will never become the alicorn of war,” Bucky vowed. 

The three mares each touched his hoof in turn, and Bucky felt an odd warmth in his body. His aches and pains soothed a bit. He felt the presence of deep magic and primal magic all around him. He felt a sense of peace enter his mind. 

“As for the nature of our deal, you will never lose a mare in foal birth and your mares will never fail to carry a foal to term,” the earth pony promised. 

“That’s… that’s comforting,” Bucky said.

“We also take comfort in your oath,” the three mares said in unison. 

“And we must be going, we have other deals to make and other fates to break,” the zebra muttered. She leaned in close to Bucky and kissed him softly just below his eye. “Brandywine, Barley Bitters, Ditzy Doo, Dizzy Doo… remember these names,” she whispered. 





Bucky blinked in the bright daylight. He didn’t remember coming outside. He stood just outside of the blacksmithy looking around and wondering why he was outside rather than inside working. He supposed that he had been deep in thought and had simply stepped outside for some cool fresh air. 

He turned towards the door. Standing around wasn’t getting work done and there was so much to do in such little time. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 152
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sparkler flopped over in the grass, both breathless and exhausted. Sour Mash had been working her over repeatedly and every bone in her body ached. Sparkler had never been very athletic, and she couldn’t understand how the earth pony kicking her plot could continue so tirelessly. She was immensely grateful for the chance to rest. 

As she lay on her side gulping in huge lungfuls of air, she watched Ripple. Ripple was soaked with sweat, glistening, her mane clinging to her neck and her tail clinging to her hind legs. She felt a small spark of attraction for Ripple. The pegasus filly was on her hind legs, well balanced, beating the stuffing out of punching dummy, the third punching dummy of the day because the previous two shattered from her blows, much to the shock and amazement of many of the soldiers who watched her. 

Sparkler was glad that Rising Star was in the forge… this many males watching Ripple would have pushed him dangerously close to being angry. Her colt had developed a possessive streak recently, and Sparkler loved him for it, even if made her worry somewhat. 

“...and this is for beating my mother…” THWACK! “...and this is for beating my sister…” THUMP! “...and this is for beating me just because I got underhoof when I was scared…” CRUNCH! 

Sparkler winced as she clutched at her heaving sides. There went another punching dummy. The post had shattered near the base and the dummy fell over. She watched Ripple drop down on all fours and flex her wings out. She was covered in sweat, but Sparkler somehow knew that her cheeks were wet with tears. 

“...AND THIS IS BECAUSE I FECKING HATE YOU! I HAVE A REAL FATHER NOW!” 

As Sparkler watched, Ripple bucked out her hind legs and connected solidly with the fallen dummy. It exploded into splinters and lengths of rope. She could not help but notice that Ripple’s buck had connected with the groin area on dummy. Still struggling to draw breath, Sparkler rolled up on to her hooves and went to Ripple’s side. 

Approaching cautiously, she sat down beside Ripple and gingerly placed a foreleg over Ripple’s withers. Sparkler pulled her close, and Ripple sat down and leaned into Sparkler’s embrace. Sparkler felt Ripple’s face pressed into her neck and then she felt the small filly break down into uncontained sobs. Sparkler squeezed and planted a kiss on the top of Ripple’s head, just between her ears and wrapped her other leg around Ripple’s neck, pulling her close. 

Sparkler felt two more legs wrapping around both her and Ripple, and she felt Ripple panic. Sparkler realised it was Sour Mash that was hugging both of them. “Don’t worry Ripple, it’s just Sour Mash, she’s family, she’d never hurt you,” Sparkler whispered soothingly, not wanting to see Sour Mash turned into a broken punching dummy. 

Ripple relaxed after Sparkler’s words and Sparkler was grateful for Sour Mash’s strong embrace. The two fillies and the mare clung to one another, saying nothing, quietly bonding. One had hooves as hard as stone, one could become stone, and the last was as resolute as a stone. 



 

Crush eyed the thin piece of steel. It was curved. It was black. And it was not the least bit shiny. It seemed to absorb the light. He raised an eyebrow and then stared at Bucky as he blew out a flatulent raspberry of disbelief with his lips. 

“Look, just smack it as hard as you can with your hammer, trust me,” Bucky insisted. 

Crush raised his hammer, his big hammer, the one that was half the size of Bucky’s body. He raised it high and brought it crashing down upon the steel. There was a screech of metal and the steel crumpled under his blow. Crush snorted in disgust. 

“Wait for it…” Bucky breathed. 

As Crush watched, the crumpled steel slowly returned to its original shape. After a few moments, it showed no sign of damage and Crush grunted. His ears perked forward and he looked at Bucky, who looked entirely too smug. He snorted an indignant snort and looked away. Unicorns were such snobs sometimes. Heaving a sigh of irritation, he smashed the steel plate once again so he could watch it slowly recover its original shape. 

“It is miraculous,” Lugus whispered. “For a suit of fine heavy plated mail… to self repair… unthinkably valuable.” 

“That was only the test plate. The actual armor will be much thicker, magically reinforced, magically hardened, and then made feather light through heavy enchantment. I will also augment the plate for kinetic dispersal,” Bucky stated. 

“What is that?” Lugus inquired. 

“The energy of the blow will be redirected elsewhere. In this case, a solid blow against the plate will be returned to whatever strikes it, meaning that if you struck it with a sword, the redirected energy would shatter the sword and probably break your claws as well as the bones in your forelegs,” Bucky explained. 

“And this is why your kind rule the world,” Lugus said. 

Bucky shrugged. “I don’t want to rule anything. I just want to get drunk and screw.” 

“If only life was so simple for all of us,” Lugus replied. 

“I like getting drunk and screwing,” Rising Star announced in what he hoped was his most adult voice. When he said the word “screwing” his voice cracked and it came out as a shrill squeak, which put the colt into a sulky mood, knowing that he had just blown his chance to fit in with the much older adults. 

Lugus turned and studied Rising Star, studying him carefully. “You need to be more confident. It is not done by words, but by deed. Be polite, be discreet, have a plan to kill everything you meet,” the griffon said in a helpful instructive manner. He turned and looked at Bucky. “Like this one. He plans.” 

“Be polite, be discreet, have a plan to kill everything you meet,” Rising Star repeated to himself. “I like that. Everything burns if I think about it hard enough, so I have that covered.” 

“So, any name for your pegasus filly?” Bucky asked, changing the subject as he began to shape liquid steel as though it was clay using his magic. 

“I do not know of any names yet. How are ponies named? There is so much about your culture that I just do not understand. Like your matriarch and her game of hiding and revealing her face. I do not see the purpose of such an act,” Lugus replied. 

“Foals think that peekaboo is the greatest thing ever. Harper will play peekaboo right up to the point of passing out and falling asleep if you keep going,” Bucky explained. 

“But this peekaboo… what does it accomplish?” Lugus asked. 

“It’s fun,” Bucky answered. 

“I do not understand,” Lugus stated in a flat voice. “Fun is learning how to sharpen things. Fun is learning how to throw knives and darts. Fun is swordplay, or spearplay, or axeplay. Fun is bloody combat and learning about what you are capable of. This peekaboo… it strikes me as a waste of time.” 

“Foals like it,” Bucky said with a smile as he worked the steel he was manipulating into a smooth curved shape. 

“Is it vital to the healthy development of a foal?” Lugus asked. 

“Yes,” Rising Star replied. 

“How so?” Lugus inquired. 

Rising Star hemmed and hawed, standing in place and looking thoughtful, and began to feel nervous when he saw Lugus tapping one claw upon the floor. “Well, a foal has to have fun, or they turn out like how Bucky over there used to be… which isn’t good at all.” 

Bucky nodded as he continued to shape the steel into a dome like structure. 

“I do not know how Buckminster was, so I have no means to make judgment,” Lugus stated in a low voice. “I find myself missing her when I am away. She is very dear to me already. I find myself very protective of her and her tiny soft little body. She is little more than a morsel or a snack but she is worth so much more.” The griffon paused for a moment when he saw the three ponies looking at him in horror. “Oh no no no, I would never do such a thing… it was a mistake of words. I would never harm her I assure you… I have never polluted my honour by eating pony flesh, nor would I,” he said assuringly. 

“Mistakes happen,” Bucky said gently. “When different cultures bump into one another funny things happen. It is better to try and understand than to be angry.” 

“I think I love her,” Lugus admitted. “Is that possible already?” 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Bucky asked as he continued to work. 

“We large griffons rarely raise our own young. We are far too busy. We place them into rookeries… nurseries, and then leave the rearing of our cubs to the servant class, the smaller physically weaker griffons unfit for a life of glory and honour. We are taught to avoid emotional attachment to anything,” Lugus explained. 

“That’s awful,” Bucky said in a pained voice. 

“I have been affectionate with her… I have tried to do what I have seen the servants doing. I stroke her, touch her, and even cuddle her. She cries sometimes no matter what I do and I don’t know how to fix that,” Lugus said in a worried voice. 

“She misses her mama most likely,” Rising Star said. “I miss mine.” 

“I vowed to look after her, but I worry if I will be a fit guardian,” Lugus admitted. 

“I worry if I am going to be a fit father,” Bucky groused. “The things I’ve done,” he muttered as he stared at the glass orb that swirled with rainbows and darkness. 

There was a loud series of clangs as Crush began to hammer away on a set of door hinges under construction and Bucky fell silent, not sure what else to say.



 

Life just wasn’t fair Piña reflected. Derpy’s startled squawk still rang in her ears and the stinging wing slaps over her muzzle had left her feeling sore. Neither Derpy nor Berry had accepted Piña’s announcement that she was no longer a fecking foal and now, she was in time out, sitting in the corner and staring at the wall with nothing to do. 

She could hear the angry breathing of her big sister behind her on the sofa. 

She balanced on her haunches and tapped her front hooves together, wishing that this was over. Her big sister had given her such a look. Berry said those words all the time and Piña could not understand why it was okay for Berry to say them but she could not. 

“Stop tapping your hooves,” Berry commanded in a low voice so the sleepers in the room would not awaken. 

Perhaps it was a bad idea to tell my sister to go feck herself Piña decided. That may have been a slight mistake. Asserting her newfound adulthood had gone terribly wrong and now she was getting an undeserved foalish punishment that she absolutely hated. Nothing was worse than being bored. She clacked her teeth together for the lack of anything better to do.

“Stop clicking your teeth together. And don’t you dare sigh either,” Berry demanded in a voice filled with warning. 

Piña sighed away. 

“Fine, sit there a little longer,” Berry announced. 

Piña sighed again. Hoping her sister wasn’t looking, she turned her head around and stuck out her tongue. Thankfully, Berry wasn’t looking and Piña reveled in private smug satisfaction.

“I heard that,” Berry said. “Keep it up. I don’t know what has gotten into you, but I have half a mind to wear you out like Bucky did Dinky. Maybe a few hours of pulling a wagon will allow you to think. It’s the earth pony way.” 

“You have half a mind to begin with,” Piña grumbled. She gloated in smug satisfaction once again when there was no reply. The room was filled with silence, and Piña celebrated her moment of victory over her sister. The silence became oppressive and Piña began to feel uncomfortable. 

And then, she heard it. The unmistakable sounds of her big sister, the pony she considered her mother, sobbing. Piña slumped in shame. She had gone too far. She felt tears coming to her own eyes. “I’m sorry… I was stupid… can I please come out of the corner and give you a hug? I’m sooooo sorry!” Piña whined. 

All Piña heard in reply was sobbing, soft quiet sobbing. She thought about leaving the corner and she fretted, stuck in the horrible corner while her sister, her mother was crying. “I’m such a gobshite,” Piña whimpered. 

“You stay in the corner,” Berry said in a shuddering voice and then went back to sobbing. 

Piña hunched over and covered her own face. Unable to hold back any longer, the foal began to sob herself. She cried until a long dribble of snot dangled from her nose and then she cried some more. 

And over on the sofa, unseen by Piña, Berry Punch smiled to herself as she continued to make sobbing sounds. 
	
> Chapter 153
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The days were passing by in a blur now, and Bucky had lost track of just how much time had slipped by. He was sleeping very little. The wolves were slowly returning to the isle and their howls could be heard nightly now, but not in force. The bitterly cold nights were gone, and much of the lingering sense of fear had not returned. 

The purge that Dinky had committed had been horrifyingly effective. Other isles were now reporting no howls at all now that the wolves had returned to the Isle of Groats, most likely having returned to guard their master. 

Hope seemed infectious. 



 

“It feels nice to have a day to do nothing together,” Loch Skimmer announced as she rolled over onto her back and rubbed her croup on the grassy earth. She snorted a few times, worked loose a fart, and she flicked her tail a few times just because it felt good. 

“Mama bird made Bucky take a break, and I am fine with that,” Rising Star said as he flopped down beside Loch Skimmer. “Working in the forge though is awesome. I am learning a skill. I can keep steel in a liquid form with like no real effort at all, I don’t even have to think about it anymore, and I’ve heightened my control to amazing levels.” 

Ripple flipped a cartwheel in the grass and then somersaulted backwards, landing on her hooves. Her wings remained folded the entire time. After giving a grin, she took off walking on her forelegs with her hindlegs held high in the air. 

“She’s turning into an acrobat,” Sparkler remarked casually before also flopping down in the grass with her mates. “Ripple can stand on her front hooves and box with her hind hooves. She’s amazing.” 

“All of my wives are amazing,” Rising Star bragged. 

“You know Rising Star, when we go home, you are going to be the only colt your age that is married,” Sparkler quipped as she watched Ripple’s lithe flexible body bouncing about like a spring. 

“I’ve thought about that,” Rising Star replied. “Every day I wonder what my mother and father are going to think.” 

“That’s ‘nuff of that, too serious,” Loch said as she chewed on a mouthful of sweet clover. 

“She’s right… I’m gonna go chase Ripple,” Sparkler announced as she rolled up on to her hooves and gave herself a shake. 

“Good luck,” Loch snarked. “Ripple is faster than a pease porridge fart through a pegasus with its tail on fire.” 

“Oh, I intend to catch her, maybe do a little innocent snoot-bumping,” Sparkler said, announcing her intentions. 

“Oh I wanna watch this,” Rising Star remarked. 



 

Derpy settled herself over Harper and Peekaboo, both foals under one wing. She let out a happy little soft nicker and fluffed out her feathers. Using her snoot, she scooted Harper towards her and smooshed her gently against Peekaboo. “I can’t believe Lugus named you Peekaboo,” she murmured to herself. Sentinel settled himself in beside her in the straw, taking a bit of a break. She watched as he yawned and she felt bad for Sentinel being awake during the day. With the foals sandwiched between them, Derpy felt that the foals were secure. She settled and gave Sentinel a loving nuzzle. 

Her gaze went to Bucky and Berry on the bed. His head was between her hind legs, resting on one of her thighs, and Berry, who was laying on her side, was stroking his head softly with one folded fetlock. Under almost any circumstance, this would have seemed sexual, but in this instance the act was serene. Derpy could sense by his breathing that Bucky was asleep. 

“Sentinel, I know that you think this family is a little weird sometimes, but do you understand at all what is going on?” Derpy said in a soft whisper. 

“I understand that father carries an extraordinary burden upon his shoulders. I also understand that what he and Berry did together comforts him, even if looking at it does make me feel a little strange,” Sentinel replied. “I would never begrudge him for seeking comfort. Not after what I saw in the dream.” 

“Still think about that huh?” Derpy asked as her eyes lingered on Berry Punch and Bucky’s blurry forms. She squinted one eye closed and the pair came into focus. 

“How can I not?” Sentinel answered in a choked voice. “All of you were dead. I was dead. And he was alone. It broke him. And now he sleeps like a foal at mama Berry’s teats. At least he’s not crying and kicking in his sleep.” 

“Does that trouble you?” Derpy asked. 

“Of course it does,” Sentinel replied in a flat voice. “Watching him kick and cry makes me actually hurt inside.” 

“No, I meant that he is sleeping at her teats… I’m just worried that this will seem weird somehow,” Derpy said for clarification. 

“Oh,” Sentinel remarked. “I’d rather he do this than drink himself into a stupour.” 

“I think I agree with you,” Derpy whispered. “Do you write about me in your journal?” she asked, changing the subject to something not quite so weird. 

“Yes,” Sentinel said sheepishly. 

“What do you write about?” Derpy inquired. 

“It is kind of private,” Sentinel said slowly in a low voice. 

“You don’t have to tell me,” Derpy said. She leaned over and gave the young colt a kiss. 

“My last entry was about how I am learning everything I need to know about being a pegasus from you,” Sentinel admitted. 

“D’aw,” Derpy gasped. She could feel her eyes beginning to water. 

“You might have feathery wings and I might have leathery wings, but we are still pegasi and you’re the sort of pegasus I want to be like,” Sentinel explained in a low trembling voice. 

“You say such sweet things and you mean them,” Derpy answered in a quavering voice. 

Sentinel did not reply. He leaned his head over instead and rested it upon Derpy’s neck. He heard Bucky snort faintly and he watched as Bucky stretched out his hind legs. There was a faint soft snore coming from the sleeping stallion. 

“He’s snoring!” Berry said in a hissing whisper. “It’s tickling my teats!” 



 

The endless grey expanse loomed all around him and Bucky felt a serene calm settle into his mind. He knew this place. And he knew the two figures approaching him. He was actually glad to see them now, and he discovered that he looked forward to these visits. 

“My son,” Sombra greeted. 

“Bucky,” Platinum said warmly. 

“Hi,” Bucky replied, not sure what to say. It felt strange trying to talk to them in a familial way, and all he had to go on for experience was his own parents. But Bucky didn’t want to go by those standards. 

“The hour of your proving draws nearer and nearer I think,” Sombra stated as he pulled Bucky into a hug. 

Not waiting for Sombra to finish, Platinum pushed her way into the embrace and wrapped her own forelegs around Bucky’s neck. She squeezed delicately at first, and then slipped into something a bit more base and equine. 

“We’re proud of you. We watch everything you do now. The master of this realm, who has always used visions of failure to torture us now shows us your life in detail,” Platinum said as she pushed Bucky down to the soft grey expanse. After she made him settle, she rested her head upon his withers and then watched as Sombra sat down beside her. 

“Certain things trouble us,” Sombra admitted. 

“Yes they do,” Platinum agreed as she snuggled closer to Bucky. “Like the imp.” 

“Bah, it was an imp,” Sombra retorted. “What is one imp? What troubles me is that you are keeping it from your wives. Be open with them. Be honest. You listen to Bon Bon you scoundrel, or I will tan your hide somehow. You aren’t so big that I can’t,” Sombra growled. 

Bucky felt an odd sensation of absolute panic. Is this what it feels like to have your parents disappointed with you he thought to himself. He tried to reorganise his thoughts. He had lived his whole life with his parents disappointed with him and everything he did. But this was different. This mattered in some meaningful way. “I am sorry sir, I will try to do better,” Bucky promised in a fearful foalish voice, and he couldn’t help but notice that he sounded like Sentinel. 

“Sombra, stop it, you’re scaring him. A gentle coaxing is all he needs, you don’t need to act like a brute pegasus,” Platinum scolded. 

“He doesn’t even act like a unicorn anymore,” Sombra retorted. 

“I don’t?” Bucky asked. 

Both Platinum and Sombra fell silent, and Bucky could feel Platinum’s head rising from his withers. He could feel her soft breathing on the back of his neck, and it was comforting. He felt like a foal again, much like he had felt with Berry just before going to sleep. 

“It is hard to say how you act… dear. We do find your behaviour a bit… troubling. There are times when you act like an earth pony. Or a pegasus. You behave like a brute now. Unicorns are supposed to be about gentle cunning,” Platinum said. A loud snort made her turn her head and she glared fiercely at Sombra. “Sombra, for all of his brutality on the battlefield, was still a unicorn. Refined. Graceful. He killed beautifully and artistically. He had this brilliant move where he sucked all of his enemies into one spot, froze them solid, and then shattered them with a delicate telekinetic tap. It was lovely to watch. He killed by the thousands but did so in a refined and genteel manner. Bucky… you behave like… like… like a filthy savage!” she said with a shudder. 

“Oh come on, it isn’t so bad,” Sombra said. 

“He’s making a suit of armor with claws! Claws! Do you know what you do with claws? It’s messy!” Platinum squealed, working herself into a tizzy. 

“What is that modern parlance they use now? Yes… stop being a drama duchess,” Sombra said gently as he stroked his wife. 

“I am a princess!” Platinum wailed. 

Sombra rolled his eyes and carefully patted the unicorn mare in the throes of pique. 

“I married earth ponies, a kelpie, and a pegasus,” Bucky said in his own defense. “And a unicorn too… I love them all… all you married were unicorns… things might have turned out differently for you had you opened your heart to others,” he insisted. 

“I doubt that. I don’t know… perhaps,” Sombra conceded. 

Platinum shuddered. “Marrying outside of your tribe… I understand you live in modern times dear, but like should go with like. You don’t mix lemon juice and milk without consequences.” 

“Hey, I love all of my wives as ponies!” Bucky retorted, raising his voice enough to cause Platinum and Sombra both to draw back. “Tribe has nothing to do with it! You said that Sentinel was worthy as your heir, did you mean that or not?” he demanded. 

“We did,” Sombra replied, taken aback slightly. “But that’s different.” 

“A pony is a pony is a pony!” Bucky growled. “I see no difference! We are one tribe!” 

“Perhaps he is right dear,” Platinum said in a soft voice filled with shame to her husband. 

“It seems that even in death, there is much to learn,” Sombra admitted. 

“They’re all mares. They all have hearts and needs. All of them are ponies, and all of them will have my foals. And those foals will be little earth ponies, little pegasi, little unicorns, and even little kelpies with your royal blood. I have four foals coming that I will treasure as my foals and there are no tribes! Just MY TRIBE!” Bucky said, his words getting louder and louder until he finally bellowed. “And if I hear so much as a single snort of derision from either of you, I will hunt myself down a griffoness, woo her, screw her, and keep screwing her until she squirts out little hippogriffs with your blood!” 

Princess Platinum let out a gasp and fell over limp with a muffled thump. 

“She’s fainted,” Sombra said in shock. “She hasn’t done that in about seven hundred years. The last time she fainted was when she discovered that one of her grandfoals had taken over the shadow government and the nightmare cult.” 

Sombra prodded Platinum, trying to rouse her. He looked worried. 

“I’m sorry… I guess I got carried away,” Bucky apologised. “I didn’t know the dead could faint.” 

“She still has her unicorn sensibilities, which you seem to have lost,” Sombra said in neutral tones. 

“I’ve lost nothing important!” Bucky growled. “But I have gained a great deal.” 

“Perhaps you have my son,” Sombra admitted in a halting voice. “The Founders wanted their tribes to live together, but they still recognised each other as a different tribe. Perhaps it is better this way… your way… to look at your herd as your tribe. Maybe those distinctions were a mistake, and we should have seen ourselves all as ponies all along.” 

Bucky pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked down upon Platinum. “I feel bad,” he muttered. 

“You shouldn’t,” Sombra said reassuringly. “You defended your tribe… from us,” he finished, his words filled with a lingering pain. “You truly are my heir. I am proud to know that my bloodline had finally produced one such as as you. One worthy son after a long line of vile unspeakable monsters.” 

“I don’t feel worthy,” Bucky confessed. “Especially after what I did to Dinky. I feel lower than dirt.” 

“Dinky has a powerful talent. The sort of talent that historians will write entire volumes about. As terrible as it might have been, using her gift to assist you in your war efforts was a good move. Sometimes, the pressing needs of the many must be balanced upon the shoulders of a few. She is young and she is resilient. She will recover in time and be made stronger for her experience,” Sombra explained. “And wiser,” he added in a comforting voice. 

“I still feel bad,” Bucky said.

“A prince should feel terrible when any of his subjects suffer… an important lesson that I myself forgot,” Sombra remarked. 

Bucky lifted his head and looked at Sombra, his glance drooping into a slack jawed stare. “What?” he finally gasped in an almost silent breathy utterance. 

“You heard me,” Sombra said in a commanding voice. “Just what do you think it means to be my heir?” 

“NO!” Bucky retorted. “I don’t want that. I don’t want to be the alicorn of war, I don’t want to be the prince of anything, no no no!” 

Sombra drew a deep breath, held it, and let it out in a patient sigh. Then, he looked at Bucky, fixing his commanding stare upon his flesh and blood. “You were meant to be the alicorn of war. My bloodline was promised to restore the alicorns back into the world. Already my brother’s bloodline has proven worthy of this prophecy and you must take your place by Twilight Sparkle’s side. You were born to this. This is your fate.” 

“Is… is this why you haven’t gone through the gate? So if I ascend, do you think you will go through? Is this what it takes for you to be free?” Bucky questioned in a pained voice. 

Sombra nodded. “I think we might, hard to say for certain… I have been punished for so long… and now, I get to watch your triumphs. I can only assume that my punishment will end with our mutual reward… your ascension and my freedom. I will have endured to see the restoration of the alicorns through my bloodline as promised so long ago.” 

“I can’t,” Bucky whined. “You don’t understand. I can’t!” 

Sombra slumped, looking defeated and saddened. 

“I don’t mind destroying the wolves. I don’t mind protecting the ponies and restoring your legacy to something good and worthy… but I cannot become the alicorn of war. I don’t want anything to do with war,” Bucky argued. 

“Then Platinum and I will endure here. Perhaps in another thousand years there will be another,” Sombra said as he stared down at his own hooves. “I am still proud of you for proving to be worthy as my heir and for attempting to restore my legacy. You have endured so much so far. I have no doubts that you will crush your enemies and go home a hero to Celestia, who will welcome you as one of her own, a noble that has truly proven worthy. And I do hope that you will be given a chance to continue our visits,” he continued in gracious tones. 

Platinum began to stir and she raised one hoof to her cheek. She took a deep breath and made a wordless murmur. 

Sombra stared down at her and gently touched her side. “You must do what you believe is right,” he said to Bucky. “Even if it means that we continue to suffer. We have one another, and we will endure.” 
	
	
> Chapter 154
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke with a feverish notion, an idea tickling his brain. His snoot was pressed in between Berry’s teats and he could smell the sweet smell of fresh milk. Berry’s hind leg was draped over his neck. He could hear low soft voices, ponies whispering to one another so they wouldn’t wake the day sleepers. 

Pulling his head from between Berry’s legs caused her to let out a startled gasp and Bucky sat up. He yawned, his mouth feeling sticky, and then used his magic to pull some paper and a pencil over to himself. 

“Bucky?” 

Bucky did not reply to the dulcet sounds of Derpy’s voice. He began to scribble down the thoughts in his head, his magic making an invisible hard surface for him to write on. It was one of the first of many difficult spells he had truly mastered, and he had done it at an impossibly young age. His accomplishment had been rewarded by getting to have an ice cream sundae with Princess Celestia and a quiet chat about the nature of talent.

Berry Punch sat up beside her husband, worried because he hadn’t been asleep all that long, and Bucky needed sleep. She watched as Bucky scribbled, scrawled, and scratched words onto the paper he held in the blue-green glow of his magic. 

After several minutes of scratching away on the paper, Bucky carefully placed the paper on the table along with his pencil. He grabbed Berry Punch around the neck, hauled her in close, kissed her warmly, and then threw himself down upon the bed. 

In moments, he was asleep again. 



 

“What was that all about?” Derpy asked. 

Berry shrugged. She smacked her lips. Bucky had milk breath and he smelled a bit like a newborn foal. The kiss had been somewhat confusing. 

Sentinel rose from Derpy’s side in the straw, went to the table, and then guiltily picked up the paper, pinching it between his grasping digit and the central knuckle on his wing. He looked around the room, looking at both Berry and Derpy, looking for some kind of reassurance. 

He calmed a bit when Berry gave him a faint nod and he began to read his father’s rather carelessly written script, which wasn’t like his father at all. 

“Well, read it,” Berry suggested in an impatient whisper. 

Sentinel took a deep breath, held the paper a little closer to get a good look at it, and then cleared his throat a few times. “I am an equine. Specifically, I am a pony. I was a citizen of Equestria, a loyal subject of the Royal Pony Sisters, but now I am no longer certain I am either of these things. I have things to answer for and my future is uncertain. I am a member of Clan Pickled. Of this, I have no doubt. I am welcomed and loved by my clanmates. I am the new Founder. I am the Father of my tribe. I lead a tribe of ponies. We will identify as ponies. We are all ponies. Ponies with horns or wings or even fins, but we are ponies first and foremost. We are more than a herd. We are what we should have been since the beginning. We are one tribe and we make no distinctions,” Sentinel read. He stopped for a moment, pausing. He looked up at Derpy. “There is a horseshoe at the bottom of it with a snowflake in the middle. Somehow, he drew the most amazing looking snowflake in such a short amount of time,” the colt said in awe. “Below the symbol he drew, he scribbled “the winter brought us together and I am the Lord of Winter” in teeny tiny letters.” 

“So he wakes up after falling asleep while suckling on my teats to jot down a moment of crazy brilliance, kiss me, and then lay back down and go to sleep,”Berry said. 

“So what is he going to do exactly?” Derpy asked in a low voice. “Bring back some horrible blizzardy winter that buries everything in snow and forces ponies to come together again to survive?” 

“Perhaps,” Berry replied. 

“My family is weird,” Sentinel muttered. “My sister has a terrible potty-mouth. My other sister keeps mumbling about the balance of power. My big sister is now reveling in her newfound slaphappy brutishness. My littlest sister looks like she’s been struck by mama Lyra’s lightning. And now, my father might be planning some sort of frozen doom. I need to write all of this down. I need to copy father’s ravings into my journal.” The colt went off to retrieve his journal and snatched up the pencil on the table as he did so. 

“I guess milk does do a body good,” Derpy quipped. 

“I’m not worried about Bucky freezing the world over,” Berry announced. “We have ways to keep warm.” 

“My thick pelt might be useful,” Sentinel murmured, mostly to himself as he flipped his journal open. 

“Bucky’s pelt is getting longer and shaggier. He’s got that wonderful patch of really long shaggy hair on his chest that feels so good when my I run my frogs over it,” Derpy said as she looked down at the two sleeping foals under her wing. 

Berry stroked Bucky gently. He was laying beside her, sprawled out on his belly now, his hind legs kicked out behind him in the strange manner that Bucky tended to stretch out. He still had bald patches on his hide, terrible scarring, but hair was growing back into some of the gnarled and disfigured places. Vast expanses of his hind legs were still bare and the flesh was as withered and shriveled as a raisin. She stroked his tail, smoothing it out, and she suspected that the reason why he kept it so long and full now was that it helped to cover his hind legs when he stood. She felt a pang of sadness for his self consciousness. Berry genuinely didn’t care what he looked like and she was not repulsed by his appearance. She leaned down and sniffed, taking in his scent, and then she smiled at Sentinel, who was watching her intently. 

“Are his balls comfortable?” Derpy asked in concern. She lowered her voice. “When he’s sweaty they cling to the bare skin on his legs and I know he chafes,” she explained as she cast a sheepish glance at Sentinel. 

There was a scratching sound as Sentinel scribbled something in his journal.

Berry pushed aside Bucky’s tail and gently prodded and poked around, which made Bucky snort in his sleep. Nothing was sticking or clinging and Bucky wasn’t sweaty. She quietly smoothed his tail back into place and glanced at Derpy, who seemed relieved. 

“Sorry Sentinel,” Derpy said in a low voice. “When you get married and love somepony you will understand.” 

“Why be sorry? I have balls. Two of them. I know what it means to have them hurt. I can only hope that I have a wife that cares about them,” Sentinel replied as he scratched away. 

Derpy squirmed. That wasn’t the sort of reply that she had expected. 





Rising Star quietly meditated with Dinky sitting beside him. It was a quiet moment of focus, something he needed to do more and more, and the quiet moment of reflection allowed him to settle his thoughts. He could hear Dinky beside him, trying to mimic his breathing, the long slow deep breaths he took as he tried to slow down his mind.

A fair distance away, Sparkler was working on her aim while shooting at a boulder. She was getting quite good at the electric zap spell she had learned back in Ponyville, and while she was no electromancer like Lyra, her static discharges were becoming fearsome, if she said so herself. 

Piña and Ripple were sitting in the shallow water watching Thistle, who was fishing. Thistle grumbled occasionally, saying that Bucky needed to learn how to fish, but everypony sort of understood just how busy poor Bucky really was, including Thistle. 

Loch Skimmer was sitting with Sour Mash and the two of them were having what was quite possibly the most perverse conversation that either of them would ever enjoy in their lives. Techniques, likes, desires, Sour Mash spared no detail, explaining to Loch Skimmer that penises were like dragons, they had to be slayed when encountered, their precious treasure taken and hoarded away. Loch Skimmer listened with rapt attention, learning even more about earth pony sexual arts.

Concentrating on his new sense of focus, Rising Star levitated a ball of water up over his head, trying to make sure that no water trickled out. He still had leaks, little streams of water that escaped from the tiny gaps in his magical field. Bucky could levitate water with no leaks, and Rising Star wanted the same level of control. Levitating a ball of liquid steel and having some of the contents dribble out would be terrible. 

Dinky attempted to do the same, and she too had quite a number of leaks. In no time at all, her pelt was damp from the water dribbling down from the sphere of magic over her head. The trickling water felt good in the summer sun and sent faint tickles through her body, which made it that much harder to concentrate. Her concentration broke and a large mass of water splashed down upon her head. She heard a laugh, followed by a startled cry and a wet sounding splash. She opened her eyes and saw a soaked Rising Star laughing at her. 

Dinky found the whole thing surprisingly funny and began to laugh along. Today just wasn’t a day to be angry about anything. 



 



My father’s words have affected me greatly. He wrote them out only a little while ago, but I have already been thinking upon their meaning. There is truth in his half awake ravings. I have never understood my place, but I think I do now. I am a pony with leathery wings. I am called a lunar pegasus by type, but my tribe is my father’s tribe. And in this tribe, we are ponies. Some of us fly, some of us walk, all of us have some kind of magic, some of us are grass eaters, a few of us are flesh eaters. Some are adult, some are young. 

I have all of these thoughts that I do not know how to fully express. My father has ideas. These ideas are going to change his foals, myself as well. I get the feeling we are going to grow up learning my father’s new ideas, and he is going to keep getting more ideas. And it will be up to us to tell other ponies about these ideas. 

My father, whatever his fate might be, has done one thing worth noting already. He has brought us all together and we do not squabble. We are as he said, one tribe. I’ve been learning history from Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra told me how the unicorns used the pegasi to bully the earth ponies into growing food. Bon Bon and Lyra both told me that many unicorns still have this belief, that the other tribes should be beneath them. I have learned about horrible words like “mud pony” and even writing them down or thinking about those words makes me feel sick. 

Should those words ever be uttered around me, I will feed somepony their own teeth. I will not be little forever. 

I must look angry because my mother Berry Punch is looking at me funny. I love her so much, and I wish I could tell her how I feel, but the words never come easy. Writing is so much easier because I have a chance to think about what I want to say. I think about what my mother Derpy told me… there are well spoken pegasi and even book writers. I think I might like to be a writer of books. 

I think when I am bigger and stronger, I will make it my life’s work to defend all those who are smaller than I am, and those who do not have wings. Father speaks often of how the Princesses have failed the earth ponies and that somepony needs to step in and do something to help them. In far off Equestria, they are rioting now because they have been treated so poorly for so long. 

The words of my mother Bon Bon still bother me. She told me how she was taken from her home as a foal, snatched away and stolen from her family, how she was taken away on a ship filled with other foals, and brought to a city called Fillydelphia. She told me how they shaved her bald all over, shaving off her mane, her tail, and her pelt, and how she was sprayed with something to kill lice and bugs, how they got it in her eyes, how it burned her eyes and her skin, and how she was blind for a month afterwards. She was kept in a freezing cold orphanage with no pelt as winter approached. 

Father is not the only one with a painful burden now upon his shoulders.


Squire Sentinel, son of Buckminster Bitters.


 
	
	
> Chapter 155
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky looked out at his wives and let out a little uncomfortable sigh. He had an unpleasant task ahead of him and it was better to simply get it over with. He swallowed a few times. He didn’t feel the least bit sorry about the imp, but Sombra was right. Keeping this sort of action from his wives was devious, and they deserved better. Before even saying anything, he vowed to make it up to them somehow. 

“I have something I need to confess,” Bucky announced. 

His wives already knew something was up when he had gathered them. The littlest foals were standing outside of the door with Ripple, no doubt trying to listen. Bucky scratched his withered scarred cheek and it made a scritching sound under his hoof. 

“That orb of mine, the one that makes other ponies feel weird looking at it and causes you to sort of feel confused and frightened, it is an artifact I created. I did pretty much one of the worst things a pony could do to finish the orb that is filled with darkness and rainbows. To complete my armor, I needed demon’s blood, so I conjured an imp, killed it, and harvested its heart. It lies beating inside of the orb,” Bucky said in slow measured words. 

There was a flash of green and several stinging slaps rained down on Bucky’s good cheek. They stung quite a bit and Bucky turned his head to see what was going on. Lyra stood next him, looking furious. 

“You… you feculent little toad, how could you summon a demon without me?” Lyra demanded to know. 

“I should have known you’d be sore about that,” Bucky said as he rubbed his cheek. The blows had not been overly hurtful, they were more like pegasus slaps, done out of a sense of correctional affection. 

“Was this truly necessary?” Bon Bon inquired in a more level headed tone as she gave Lyra a scolding glance. 

“Yes,” Bucky answered honestly. “I don’t know what I am facing. I needed an edge. It will give my armor much needed magical resistance, the ability to self repair, increased resistance to dark magic, which I suspect I will be seeing a lot of, and even quite a bit of resistance to harmonious magic, which I might also encounter. It should also help with the spell effects from the spell jars, blocking out most of the damage that I might take otherwise,” Bucky explained. He gave an apologetic pleading look to Lyra. 

“And this imp… it is a demon from Tartarus?” Bon Bon questioned. 

“Yes. A small demon. Not overly powerful. I was very, very careful about my selection and I didn’t go after anything I figured I couldn’t handle. I didn’t want it escaping and rampaging through the castle,” Bucky answered. 

“What would Princess Celestia do to unicorns that did something like this?” Bon Bon asked in a flat monotone. 

“She’d probably have them mindwiped completely and stuffed into an asylum of some sorts,” Lyra replied. 

Bon Bon raised her eyebrow and looked at her mate. 

“No Bonnie, I am not overreacting or being dramatic. Not this time. Necromancy and demon conjuring are the two big unforgivable sins,” Lyra said as she gave a piercing stare to Bucky. 

“So Bucky got his hooves a little dirty because he is playing to win, so what,” Berry Punch remarked. “I don’t see what the big deal is. This is just like kicking somepony in the potato sack. Sure, it is dirty, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to win a fight,” she added in a heated voice, slipping a foreleg around Bucky in a protective gesture. “I ain’t got no qualms about kicking a pony in the groin.” 

“We know,” Derpy replied. “I am still madly in love with you for kicking Bucky’s mother.” 

“I really don’t understand what is going on… Bucky, that birthright of his… doesn’t that protect him?” Thistle inquired, trying to understand what was going on. 

“If he kills another pony for justified reasons, sure. And that birthright is stupid, it is part of the reason why there are still problems between unicorns and earth ponies. But this isn’t exactly pony killing. And we all know that Bucky isn’t one for hurting ponies, which is why we are going to need to keep him safe from other ponies should something happen,” Berry replied. 

“Well maybe if this Princess Celestia didn’t want Bucky summoning demons out of desperation maybe she should have came to this isle and done something herself,” Thistle grumped. She folded her forelegs over her barrel and rested them on the curve of her stomach as she leaned back into the sofa. She crossed her hind legs together and then let out an angry equine snort of disgust followed by a raspberry noise as she flapped her lips in exasperation. 

“Thistle, I am feeling a whole lot of love for you right now,” Berry admitted. 

“We are discussing the wrong thing,” Bon Bon announced. 

“We are?” Derpy asked. 

“We need to figure out some way of protecting what is ours when we go home and end this war. If Celestia is going to be furious she might take our herd members to punish them. I hate to say it, but we may need a plan of escape or something… we can’t just let the Princesses take Bucky for what he has done,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Escape?” Lyra questioned incredulously. 

“Well, something, we fight… we stop them. We keep Bucky for ourselves and we flee somehow,” Bon Bon answered in a worried voice. 

“How?” Lyra asked. 

“I dunno… we conjure up a big demon that Celestia can’t ignore and then we skedaddle and just go... somewhere,” Bon Bon suggested. “I know it sounds terrible, but between you and Bucky, I am certain that it is possible.” 

“I have to agree with Bonnie,” Derpy said, looking troubled. “I don’t like even thinking about it, but she can’t have the father of our foals. I’d rather slap her muzzle and declare war to keep him.”

“You would slap Celestia? Are we really contemplating war on alicorns?” Lyra announced in shock. 

“It seems that way,” Bucky grumbled, his face contorting into a sour look. “We don’t know what is going to happen. We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. When we go back to Canterlot, we stay on board the The Scorned Mare for all the good it will do us. I am positive that if it came down to it, Keg Smasher would order his pegasi to turn on Celestia. We have a minor advantage that Keg Smasher’s army are hardened, the Royal Guard are soft. We probably couldn’t outrun Celestia’s navy though, not under pegasus power.” 

“So we fight a losing battle or we don’t fight at all,” Derpy said in defeated tones. “What about our foals? What if she tries to take them? What if she tries to take Sparkler and Rising Star because of what they have become? Or Dinky?” 

“Then I gather a large mass of hydrogen atoms and fuse them,” Bucky said grimly. “I assure you, we would feel nothing. It would be over in milliseconds. Canterlot and the sickness it represents would be gone forever.” 

“That’s horrible,” Bon Bon whispered. 

“I’d rather go that way,” Lyra admitted. “Bucky is right, we wouldn’t feel anything. Our herd, our tribe, we stay together and that’s final. I could fuse a few hydrogen atoms as well. And the mountain Canterlot is built on is full of cobalt. If we wanted to fight dirty Bucky and I could fuse cobalt atoms. It would render the area uninhabitable for thousands of years.” 

“I could try petrifying Celestia,” Sparkler said in a quavering nervous voice. Sparkler let out a shrill whinny of fear when every head in the room turned to look at her. “She’s immortal, right? But she can be hurt. I could… I could try to petrify her. And if it works, we can take her hostage. We then threaten to drop her statue from a great height. She would survive I suppose, but it would take her a long time to gain her full power again once they undid the petrification and put all the broken chunks back together, however it is that immortal alicorns fix themselves.” 

“I don’t care about no imp. But I do care about Bucky… Sparkler’s plan seems plausible,” Rising Star said. “We could hold Canterlot hostage if we had to. We might have to resort to dirty methods. Atomic fusion, petrification, burning… sweet burning,” he added, his last words spoken more of a lustful moan than words. 

“I care about the imp. Well, not about the imp really. I kept this from all of you… and for that, I was wrong. I thought I’d carry this particular burden upon my shoulders alone… as for the current topic of our discussion, petrification seems like a viable option. It worked on Discord,” Bucky responded. 

“If somepony comes after my herdmates I’ll turn Ripple loose on them,” Loch Skimmer said, her tone serious. “Ripple is a good filly. She listens to her big sister.” 

“So the imp is a non issue… it seems that going home might be harder than taking on the wolves. So why go home? Why not just send Keg Smasher to sign the treaty and politely refuse to go to Canterlot? We could stay here. Maybe talk Keg Smasher into keeping the isles independent. We have plenty of raw resources and more importantly, we have some unicorns now to help pull the isles into a more modern setting. We stay here and we make the isles the sort of home we want to live in,” Berry suggested. 

“I might be welcomed home with fanfare and trumpets, even with everything I’ve done. All might be forgiven as the future alicorn of war returns home,” Bucky grumbled. “Twilight Sparkle’s friends obliterated Twilight by accident, turning her into a little ash pile on the library floor.  They were all given royal pardons.” 

“Do we take that risk?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Life is all about risks Bonnie,” Lyra quipped. 

“I just hope that we’re making all of these plans for nothing,” Berry sighed. 



 

“I feel funny sitting out here in the hall,” Dinky fussed.

“Father did something he feels bad about and he needs to confess to our mothers. I am sure he will talk to us about it at some point. For now, we must endure,” Sentinel said to his sibling. 

“We’ve been there for other important talks. They let us listen and talk when it involves us,” Ripple interjected. 

“Yeah they do,” Piña agreed. “This isn’t so bad.” 

“I suppose you are right. At least Ripple came out here with us. She was allowed to stay in there with the adults. Which means Ripple is a grown up,” Dinky groused. 

“Sentinel is more grown up than I am,” Ripple stated. 

“Maybe,” Sentinel replied with a shrug. 

“Don’t you maybe me you little squirt, I have feathers and the will to use them!” Ripple threatened as she extended a wing. 

“No… no tickles! It’s demeaning!” Sentinel begged, his eyes wide and pleading. 

“Aw, you know I can’t tickle you when you make that face, that’s not fair,” Ripple said dejectedly. “Come here, lemme kiss you instead,” she offered. 

Sentinel stepped forward cautiously and then relaxed when Ripple kissed him on the cheek. He smiled briefly and then sat down. 



 

The straw was soft and sweet smelling. Bucky lay in the straw pile and Harper was between his front legs, her head laying on his right leg as she stared up at him in adoration. It became clear to any observer that Harper loved her daddy. 

“Daddy?” Bucky asked in a low whisper. 

“Mama!” Harper replied. 

“No, daddy,” Bucky corrected. 

“Mama?” Harper said in a puzzled sounding murmur. She pointed upwards with her hoof, and she giggled when Bucky kissed it softly. “Mama!” 

Bucky sighed and shook his head. 

“Bucky, you’re just going to have to accept that you are “mama” and deal with it,” Lyra insisted. “Every night it is the same thing. You say “daddy” she says “mama” and you are her “mama” and that is just how it is. Is being called “mama” so bad?” 

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” Bucky sighed. 

“Mama,” Harper cooed. 

“The only name she’s picked up on is Sentinel’s,” Bon Bon said proudly. 

“Senty,” Harper repeated. 

“I’ve been experimenting a bit Bucky,” Lyra announced. 

“Oh?” Bucky answered. 

“Berry Punch and I have been comparing our milk… it is different. I mean, really different. We’ve been studying it,” Lyra said as she scratched her belly. 

“Any findings?” Bucky asked, his interest now captured. 

“Well, a few actually,” Lyra began. “Our milk is different colours. Mine has a faint blue colour and Berry’s is more yellow. Different textures. Mine is somewhat thinner, her milk is thicker and more creamy. What was interesting was the butter test,” she continued. 

“The butter test?” Bucky inquired. 

“Berry’s milk makes butter. My milk… it just doesn’t. I don’t think there is enough fat,” Lyra reported. “We’ve discussed getting Bon Bon lactating. We want to see if earth pony milk seems to have the same calming effect as their touch seems to have. We might need for you to drink some milk, which uh, shouldn’t be a problem for you… I don’t think that all earth ponies have this touch, but that is just a hunch. Bon Bon’s touch seems to have more of an effect on me than Berry Punch’s touch, but I do feel calmer and more leveled out when they touch me, just like you observed. I think you’re on to something. I can’t believe that nopony has noticed this before.” 

“So do you think we could calm neurotic unicorns with earth pony milk?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe, but getting them to drink it, let’s face it, it would push most of them right over the edge. Since you’ve been suckling on Berry, haven’t you felt better? I mean, you sleep afterwards. Your mood seems a bit more stable. There are observable differences Bucky. I have to admit it, but I’ve thought about trying a few drinks myself when I get the jitters just to see what happens,” Lyra replied. 

“Mama!” Harper cried, demanding Bucky’s attention. 

Bucky snoot-bumped the foal and then nuzzled her. “So earth pony milk makes butter, has a different colour, and potentially carries the same effects as the mysterious power that earth ponies have in their touch,” he summarised as he rubbed his cheek on Harper’s belly, which made the foal burble and giggle.

“Yes,” Lyra said awkwardly. 

“Bucky, if I do begin lactating, I don’t mind spending a bit of quiet time with you. It isn’t sex,” Bon Bon said with a fierce blush. “It is just bonding time… with my husband… instead of a foal.” 

“This just feels funny to even talk about,” Lyra said as she squirmed. 

“Which is probably why this has never been investigated or looked into. The social taboo is a powerful deterrent. Anypony trying to present any of this as science would get thrown right out of the academic institution they made their report to,” Bucky grumbled. 

“So we need to fight past the squirm factor,” Bon Bon said in a wavering voice. “There are times when I wish I was Berry Punch. She doesn’t seem to have a squirm factor.” 

“Or shame,” Lyra quipped. 

“Or fear,” Bucky added. 

All three ponies turned to look at the earth pony sleeping in the bed. 

“She’s my rock,” Bucky whispered. 

“She’s amazing,” Bon Bon said with a nod. 

“There is just something about earth ponies,” Lyra stated. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 156
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The helmet was massive and thick. It hit the table with a loud clang which reverberated through the smithy. Lugus peered down and tapped upon the thick glass visor and then ran a claw over the faux fangs along the muzzle extension. 

“That helmet has to weigh a good twenty pounds,” Lugus muttered as he tapped on it once again. “It is so decorative. So beautifully crafted. You can get away with such detail because you can make this feather light.” 

Bucky nodded. “Yes I can. And I plan to do so. When I am done, it should maybe weigh two to four pounds or so. Maybe less. The steel is very dense, very solid. There is only so much I can do. Wood is much easier to enchant for lightness.” 

“Good steel takes heat,” Lugus remarked. 

Rising Star squirmed awkwardly at the griffon’s words. 

“Yes it does. Rising Star’s efforts are invaluable. I can’t make anything that hot with out a lot of effort, and it would deplete me quickly trying to maintain it. Rising Star can do it with hardly any effort at all. Look at him, he’s not even trying,” Bucky commented with a wry grin. 

Crush nodded in approval of Bucky’s words and then lifted the helmet on his hoof. He looked at the horn hole, examined the glass visor, the faux dragon snout, and the decorative frills that would cover Bucky’s ears. He set the helmet back down and nodded once again. 

“The back plates are impressive, the chest plate seems solid, and each day more pieces come together. And this has been infused with the blood from that orb?” Lugus inquired. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Can you make my hook-axe infused with that?” Lugus asked. 

“I could. After its creation, you would never need to sharpen it. Nor could you. The metal would heal,” Bucky answered. He levitated the helmet to his head and carefully tried it on. His horn went through the hole and the helmet glowed in a faint blue green haze as it powered up. 

“The helm, like the rest of the armor, is magic reactive. Contact with my horn powers it. The armor will connect all of its pieces together in a powerful magical field, sort of like how two magnets will cling together,” Bucky announced. The helmet changed his voice. His usual sonorus and regal voice was now replaced with something horrifying, something demonic, something fear inducing, and even Lugus felt unnerved by the sound of Bucky’s voice. “I see the fear spell is working. Mwahahahahahah!” he cackled, he then watched the results in an almost sadistic glee as every pony in the room trembled and the big griffon fluffed out his feathers in fear. 

“Was that wholly necessary?” Rising Star inquired in a fearful squeak. “I… I… I very nearly pissed myself!” 

Crush nodded and then left the smithy, stepping out the door for what seemed the most obvious reasons, snorting as he left. 

“Entirely necessary,” Bucky replied in a demonic growl. “I might have to fight more than wolves. This gives me an edge. If I project the Voice through his helmet, I could even the odds a bit if I am outnumbered,” he explained. 

“Oh stars, the Royal Canterlot Voice would be awful!,” Rising Star whined as he cringed away from Bucky and his horrible helmet. “Please, take it off,” he begged. 

Bucky lifted the helmet from his head and set it down upon the table. The faint blue-green glow faded as it powered down. “Still needs a few more enchantments and then it will be finished.” 

“Do you think it would stop bullets?” Lugus asked. 

“Without a doubt. Not many guns around after the global firearms ban ultimatum,” Bucky answered. “Would stop cannonballs too. Kinetic dispersal is the ultimate trump card when it comes to armor creation. I am really glad I took the highest level of enchantment training in school.” 

“So if Crush or I were to smash the helmet with that big hammer, what would happen exactly?” Lugus inquired. 

“The hammer would shatter like glass and every bone in your upper body would probably explode into tiny fragments as the resulting shockwave flowed through you,” Bucky replied. His horn lit and a thin beam focused on the helm. A symbol was carefully drawn along the top ridge of the muzzle extension, a stream of smoke rising from the metal as the magical glyph was burned into place.

“How are you able to enchant it if it is magically resistant?” Rising asked. 

“Ah good, a question with the opportunity to instruct with the answer. Magical attunement Rising Star,” Bucky said in reply. 

“Magical attunement?” Rising Star inquired. 

“You will notice how the armor powered up when it touched my horn. It is attuned to me and me only. If you put the helmet on your head, it would hurt you quite a bit, you’d have a horn-ache for hours. It is attuned to my magical signature, this means that the spells I cast on it always work. It won’t resist me. As the creator of the armor, my magic is permanently infused into the metal, and because of that, it will always respond to me and me only. This is why so many unicorn relics are useless after their creator dies,” Bucky explained. 

“What about those war shoes you are making for Ripple?” Rising Star asked, looking at the four shoes sitting on a rack in the corner. 

“Those are different. Those aren’t powered. They’re enchanted. But yes, I plan to attune them to Ripple. She will be the only pony who can wear them. And because of this, those shoes will always fit her, even as she grows. I plan to include a number of useful enchantments and enhancements. She’ll never need to worry about breaking her legs while wearing them, provided she hits something hoof first,” Bucky replied as he continued to add glyphs to the helmet. 

“To make such extravagant gifts for your foals,” Lugus said. “Among my kind, nothing is ever given, it is earned or taken by force. If you are not strong enough to keep something, you do not deserve to have it,” he added. 

“So why did your king ask you to kill his son?” Bucky asked. 

Lugus grunted and then squawked in surprise, his beak falling open in shock. 

“Sorry… delicate subject I guess,” Bucky apologised. 

“I was not expecting it,” Lugus stated as he regained his composure and smoothed out his ruffled feathers. “He found his son disgraceful. When I found out everything that happened, I of course refused to kill his son. I fled in disgrace as a coward.” 

“What happened?” Rising Star asked softly. 

“There is the ancient practice we griffons have, and it disgusts me. I do not find it honourable. We call it The Hunt. A pony or a zebra is prepared for quite a long time, it is conditioned for speed, it is taught to hide. It is given hope by being constantly told that if it can survive The Hunt, it shall go free. The practice is supposed to be outlawed as outlined in the current treaty, but the nobles still continue the practice of owning slaves and holding Hunts. Anyway, nothing ever survives The Hunt. Afterwards, when the prey is caught, it's skinned carefully, with all attempts made to keep it alive during the skinning. It is a horrible practice, done entirely for bragging rights. After the skinning, if it is still alive, it is carefully skewered on a spit, and, if done with skill and care, kept alive through the impalement. Then, it is roasted alive until it dies, and the flesh is eaten. It is a barbaric practice of cruelty,” Lugus explained. He fell silent, clearly suffering from a burst of emotion. 

“That’s horrible,” Rising Star gasped, his eyes wide in shock. 

“The king’s son refused to take part in the practice. He fled and crossed the river, finding sanctuary with the other king. I was ordered to cross the river and kill him… as if I was some common assassin! The GALL!” Lugus said, his word ending with a roar. “To be able to swear fealty to a worthy king. A chief. A laird. To find a noble cause” 

“Swear fealty to Bucky,” Rising Star suggested. 

“What?” Bucky and Lugus said in unison. 

“Bucky has created a new tribe. We are a tribe. Bucky is the chief of our tribe. We’re small, but we’re good sorts,” Rising Star explained. 

“Rising Star, we’re a tribe of ponies,” Bucky said. 

“Who make no distinctions. We have horns, wings, and fins. Why should we discriminate against griffons? Why not add beaks to our list? He’s raising Peekaboo, and Peekaboo spends all day in the room with Harper. Why can’t we be a tribe of sapient creatures that make no distinctions?” Rising Star questioned. 

“You’re absolutely right,” Bucky answered as he turned to look at Rising Star. Bucky blinked his remaining eye several times as his brain tried to register this new idea his beliefs and his ideals. “We should be a tribe of similar hearts and minds. Bodies shouldn’t matter, only what we believe,” he said in a low emotion filled voice. 

“Well?” Rising Star said somewhat impatiently. 

“Would you join us Lugus? I don’t mean joining my herd directly, but my tribe… we could lead by example. Show that peace is possible… that we can coexist,” Bucky invited. 

“And it would be good for Peekaboo,” Rising Star quipped. 

Lugus reached up and scratched his feathered crest with his claws as he studied Bucky. He made a confused sounding squawk and then began to look around the smithy. He sat down and his wings began to fidget as he tried to concentrate. 

“Our cause is noble and our way is just,” Rising Star stated. 

“It would be an honour to have you among our number,” Bucky said to Lugus in a low regal voice. “I am a deeply flawed individual, but I do have vision. I have ideas. And Rising Star is right. We need to live our message. If you want peace between our kind, we need to show that we can live together.” 

“I lived in Equestria and I was always treated as an outsider. I was never truly welcomed. Even after my story became known, ponies treated me with suspicion. There was a zebra in the town where I settled, and he was treated poorly as well. It always bothered me that I was never welcomed,” Lugus said in a pained voice. 

“Well, allow us to make it up to you,” Rising Star offered. “Let us prove that not all ponies are xenophobic jerks. All we have is each other. Do you think they will be any kinder to Bucky with how he now looks? Sorry Bucky, but it is true and I know you know it.” 

Bucky nodded, fully aware of the consequences of his appearance. 

“He is marked with honour, his scars are his proof of survival after battle… why would your kind reject him after the great service he has performed for them?” Lugus inquired. 

“Because ponies are stupid,” Rising Star answered, stating the obvious.

The comment should have been funny, but there was no laughter. Three serious faces all regarded one another solemnly. Bucky reached up scratched the deformed side of his face. Lugus raised his talons and drummed his claws upon the table. And Rising Star realised that he had actually shown some real adult maturity and depth. 

“I would join you if you will have me,” Lugus said. 

“Great!” Rising Star exclaimed. “Hey, Bucky, you know that snowflake that you drew? You should turn that into a pendant. I’d wear one. Put it on a chain around my neck. It could be our tribal marking.” 

Bucky nodded slowly. “That might be interesting,” he said to Rising Star. “Lugus, I will accept your service. I require no complicated oath, only that you place family and tribe first, and that you are a good father to your foal, which I know you will be.” 

“I swore to Peekaboo’s dying mother that I would look after her foal. I would not break such an oath. I give you my word that I will uphold your ideals and your values, they do not seem in conflict with mine. I will defend you, all of our tribemates both now and in the future, and I will defend your family with my life if necessary. All I ask in return is that if I fall, that you look after Peekaboo. She is very dear to me,” Lugus said, speaking his vows and baring his soul. 

“I could do no less,” Bucky replied. “You have my word,” he said as he extended his hoof. 

Lugus made a fist with his talons and bumped it against Bucky’s hoof. 

“Rising Star, you have sworn witness to this event,” Bucky stated. “Do not forget this day. In this smithy, we have forged a new alliance and have grown our tribe.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 157
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dreamer lies dreaming… remembering a time long ago. 

Celestia was such a large pony. Too large really. Impossibly large. Bigger ponies scared Bucky, with him being so small and slight. He was the smallest foal in his class, even smaller than most of the fillies. He was frequently mistaken for being in the wrong class for his age and skill. 

Celestia, the giantess, was looking down at Bucky curiously, a pleasant amused look upon her face. “Do you know why you are here?” she asked in a radiant warm voice filled with gentleness. 

“Do any of us know why we are here?” Bucky replied, his own question far more meaningful than a foal his age should ask. 

The large white alicorn laughed softly, a musical laugh that caused her feathers to ruffle slightly. She reached out one wing and gently touched the side of Bucky’s face, cherishing the look of unabashed adoration coming from the tiny foal. “Do you know why you are here with me and we are talking? Do you understand what you have done?” 

Bucky shrugged noncommittally. “I know I did something mischievous, and now I am starting to worry about my punishment,” he said in a small fearful foalish voice. 

“Oh my sweet little Buckminster, you are not in trouble,” Celestia said reassuringly as she patted the foal on the head with her wing. “You should be in trouble, but I do believe that we will let that slide due to the nature of your accomplishment.” 

The foal took a deep breath, puffed his cheeks, and let it out slowly. 

“You have done something that even most adult ponies fail to accomplish. Even most of your teachers would have a hard time doing what you did. What you did today was most impressive,” Celestia praised. “Even I had some trouble looking at you,” she confessed. 

“This is about the aversion spell?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes it is, you mischevious little scamp,” Celestia replied. 

“I just wanted to read undisturbed,” Bucky explained in a slightly frantic voice. 

“Yes, you wanted to read your book about Star Swirl’s many enchantments. In alchemy class. When you should have been reading your alchemy book and taking notes,” Celestia stated. 

Bucky slumped down in shame and his ears drooped down to the sides of his face. He found that due to his small stature, making himself look at pathetic as possible was a great way to get adults to feel sorry for him and go easy on him. He gave it his best effort. He even sucked in his stomach to make his ribs look more visible, making himself look almost skeletal. He became the embodiment of gaunt, scrawny, and miserable. 

Celestia, observing his efforts, actually felt a twisting twinge of pain in her heart and she took a much needed deep breath. “Somehow, you’ve managed to master a difficult spell that allows you to hide right in plain sight, and makes it difficult for ponies to look at you. Your teacher said she couldn’t even see you, and every time she looked over at your desk, she found herself looking at the clock instead. She could not even speak to you to scold you, and she had to summon other teachers to try and deal with you. That is a very powerful enchantment laced with illusion that you have managed to master,” Celestia said, her voice filled with faint pride and praise. 

Bucky lifted his head and there was a faint mischievous smile upon his muzzle, an impish grin that caused his teachers no end of alarm when it became visible. It was the look of a natural born troublemaker. 

“Star Swirl’s talent was conjuration. He was also a gifted enchanter. He did extraordinary things with enchantment. But as good as he was, there was another. There was one pony who shared a friendly rivalry with Star Swirl, and this pony was a master of enchantment. He created the spell you used today. He too, was a troublesome prankster. Do you know who he was?” Celestia inquired. 

Bucky struggled to recall the creator of the aversion spell. It had been on the tip of his tongue, but now it was gone. It was there in the book even, but Bucky couldn’t recall seeing it. He struggled to concentrate, and found his thoughts turning to other things. Like the black licorice in his saddlebags. Or the fact that Celestia smelled like vanilla and something spicy-sweet, and there was a tiny glop of frosting just below her nostril. The way the sun shone through the windows and created a dazzling array of colours on the floor. He could think of everything but the name of the pony who had created the aversion spell. And then, he had a troubling thought. 

“Princess Celestia, is there an aversion spell on his name so I cannot remember it?” Bucky innocently asked. The look of shock and surprise on Celestia’s face told Bucky everything he needed to know. The giantess alicorn’s mouth was actually hanging open. Bucky felt a wicked sense of pride blossoming in his barrel. It wasn’t every day that a foal outsmarted his instructor, much less outfoxing an immortal alicorn. 

“Luna’s stars Buckminster, I think you and my most faithful student Twilight Sparkle are going to go on to do such great things. Come, we need to talk, let us go for a walk in the gardens,” Celestia invited. Her horn ignited and she went to work, shoring up the mental defenses that were already beginning to buckle inside of the overly inquisitive and stubborn mind of her student. 





Lugus carefully affixed the sharpened steel tip to the wooden shaft, finishing off his javelin. He had several completed and sitting by his side on top of a sheet of canvas he planned to stitch into a quiver for his javelins. Near him was Peekaboo, who was prowling through the grass and chasing after bugs. The morning was cool still, and the grass was damp. He examined his work and found it pleasing. There were mindless deer in the hills nearby, and he had a taste for venison. Flying through the dense wooded forest was a sure way to break a wing, so Lugus had set about making a few javelins to assist him in his hunt. 

He could throw a short spear with enough force that it would travel right through the body of one of his fellow griffons, so he figured using them to hunt deer would be practical. 

He set down his javelin and then snatched up Peekaboo carefully in his talons. The foal began to giggle and he carefully smoothed out her wings with his other set of talons so her feathers would not get mussed. He kept her plumage immaculate, and it would reflect badly upon him if she went around looking unkept. He settled back on his haunches and cradled the foal in his forelegs. 

In these moments, his brain always had the most disturbing thoughts, thinking of things to torment him like why must food be so adorable? and this softness of character you are experiencing is most troubling but he shoved those thoughts away. He had a peculiar feeling of affection for the tiny foal, and if something was to ever ruffle her feathers, he would do terrible things to them. He was more than capable of unspeakable cruelties upon those deserving of such torments. 

“You and I have a family now. A tribe. A place where we belong. And you will be able to grow up with some of your fellow ponies,” Lugus said to the foal in his embrace, his beak clicking a few times as it moved. He did not have lips or soft tissues, and his words were entirely formed in the back of his throat through highly adapted vocal cords. 

“I see ponies kissing their young, smooshing their soft fleshy faces up against them in rituals of affection. I do not understand these practices, and I regret that I cannot kiss you in the manner you deserve,” Lugus said apologetically. “We griffons do not kiss of course. We have beaks. We have our own rituals of affection though, regurgitating food with one another and our young. I do not think you would enjoy that.” 

Peekaboo looked up at the griffon and blew a raspberry, her orange tongue slipping out and flinging slobber everywhere. 

“Alas, the flatulent lip vibrations, we griffons cannot do that either. Why is it that you do that?” Lugus asked, knowing that there would be no answer but he did not care. 

“I have been watching you with her… you are so gentle with her.” 

Lugus bristled at the sound. He clutched Peekaboo close and looked at his visitor. He saw a chestnut brown pegasus mare. As he watched, she sat down and fluffed out her wings in an “I’m not threatening manner” at him. 

“You might even be larger than Keg Smasher and she is so tiny. I’ve been watching you for a couple of days now, every chance I get, especially when you have her with you,” the pegasus admitted. 

“Why?” Lugus asked in a flat voice. 

“I’m curious,” the pegasus responded. She sat with her head cocked and staring at Lugus with one eye, and she reached up to brush her mane out of her vision. “I am with Lord Buckminster’s Ball Buster Brigade. My name is Yew Wood. And I might just be the most curious pegasus who has ever lived.” 

“There is nothing wrong with curiousity,” Lugus stated. “My kind prize inquisitiveness and bravery.” 

“All it has ever gotten me was in trouble,” Yew replied. She shifted her body and lifted her head, trying to get a better view of the foal in Lugus’ arms. 

“I lost my foal,” Yew said in a strained voice. 

“I am most sorry,” Lugus offered in return. 

“I lost everything. My husband, my foal, and my sister, all in one night,” Yew said as she pushed her mane out of her eye again. “It is really nice seeing you so kind and loving to that foal. My husband was not the affectionate sort. He wouldn’t let me love on my foal, kept telling me to not get attached to it, it was probably going to die or get taken. I wish I hadn’t listened.” 

Lugus felt a stinging pain in the back of his throat as everything tightened. “I too was told not to development an attachment to anything. That it would make me strong. If I had nothing I feared losing, then I would have nothing to fear,” Lugus replied in a strained voice. 

The pegasus took a deep breath and she moved just a little closer. 

“This entire time, you have sat with one side of your body turned away from me. Are you trying to hide something? Your posture is most peculiar,” Lugus observed. 

“Sorry… I… er…” Yew fell silent. 

“Look at me,” Lugus said. “What are you hiding?” 

Yew Wood’s wings flared out and for a moment, it seemed as though she might fly away. She then composed herself and folded her wings back to her side. “Look, I am sorry, I let my curiousity get the better of me again, I should be going. Sour Mash is gonna kill me if I don’t hold my own.” 

Lugus gently placed Peekaboo in the grass. “I know your kind. Would you like to spend a moment with her?” he asked. 

The pegasus looked torn, her expression one of conflicted pain. She started to move forward and then halted, still focusing on Lugus with her right eye. “That’s dastardly, using her as bait,” Yew muttered. 

“You are hiding something. I suspect I know what it is. Do not hide yourself,” Lugus commanded in a gentle voice. 

Yew Wood shyly stepped forward, took a deep breath, let it out with a shuddering exhale, and then moved forward. As she did so, she turned her whole face towards Lugus. 

The pegasus’ left eye was missing and a long jagged scar ran down her face, a thin red line that went from scalp to the corner of her mouth. The eye socket had been burned shut and left to heal. 

“I see,” Lugus said in a soft voice. 

“I’m a bit shy about it,” Yew said as she slowly approached the griffon and Peekaboo. 

“Why?” Lugus asked. 

“Because I’m ugly,” Yew replied. 

“I do not think so,” Lugus retorted, his beak clicking several times. 

“My husband said I was ugly,” Yew responded. “He was an earth pony. They’re honest.” 

“Your husband was an idiot and a liar,” Lugus growled. 

Yew sat down suddenly and stared at the big griffon. 

“Scars are beauty. They are tales of survival. Proof of endurance. You have lost an eye, but you have also gained a story. Scars are our written history upon our flesh,” Lugus explained. 

Yew gaped and she looked perplexed as she tried to take in the griffon’s words. 

“This is one of those moments that Buckminster spoke to me about where differences of perspectives becomes a challenge,” Lugus stated. “Here, hold foal.” He made a gesture towards Peekaboo. 

The pegasus cautiously crept forward until she reached Peekaboo, feeling entirely too close to the griffon for comfort, settled back upon her haunches, and then lifted the foal in her forelegs to cradle it. Her body relaxed considerably when she smelled the foal. 

Lugus leaned back a bit, lifted a wing, and raised his front leg. He reached around with his other front leg and pointed at a gruesome scar just between his wing joint and his shoulder. “This right here, this was done by a wild boar that was about the same size as you. His tusk went through my ribs, shattering them, and into my lung. I was impaled, lodged upon the boar’s tusk, and I could not get free. He savaged me. I was caught. I was a fledgeling still. I had been out hunting deer when I came across the boar and we entered our deadly dance with one another. Skewered on his tusk, I reached around and cut his throat with my claws. Eventually, my father found me, near death and still bleeding out, still pinned on the tusk of my prey. Took me forever to heal from this, but it made me stronger. I became Lugus the Boar Killer. And this was the proof of my deed. I was still a fledgeling, but I had the respect of every adult in my clan,” he explained. 

“That’s awful,” Yew murmured. 

“So what happened to you?” Lugus inquired. 

“One of the giant eagles that live around here… back when I still lived near the scrags along the coast, the rocky cliffs, back when my husband and my family was still alive. It came upon our little community looking for food. When everypony else was flying away or running away, I flew right at it. There were earth ponies that I knew would get snatched up… I picked a fight. It cost me an eye but the eagle went away with a cracked beak and some broken bones,” Yew said as she cuddled Peekaboo. 

“Yet a moment ago you were so timid,” Lugus said in a soft teasing tone.

“Well, I can be brave!” Yew snapped, her timid demeanour now gone. 

“So you are a mare that would pick a fight with an giant eagle simply because it is the right thing to do,” Lugus stated. 

“Well, I joined up with Sour Mash because it was the right thing to do. I was already full of piss and a need to prove myself. Now I can fight and fight to win,” Yew replied. “This foal is adorable.” 

“I am quite in love with her,” Lugus confessed. “She confuses me to no end. You ponies, you fascinate me, with your soft squishy expressive faces, your funny little lips, your apparent softness that is tempered by iron wills.” 

“You have a beak. I guess it would be hard to make a face that shows how you feel,” Yew said. 

“My crest expresses my mood,” Lugus said, reaching up and touching the feathers on top of his head as he did so. While Yew was distracted, he reached out swiftly with his other talons and gently snatched her by her muzzle. He turned the scarred side of her face towards him so he could get a better look, and Yew trembled in his grasp. Lugus could smell her fear as he examined her scar. “You are beautiful,” Lugus stated. 

Yew ceased to tremble and she let out a confused whimper, she wanted to pull herself free from the griffon’s grasp but for some reason, she didn’t dare. She could feel the fine points of the claws on the end of his talon fingers. Nothing pressed into her soft skin or hurt her in any way. The griffon was in her blind spot and she could not see him. She felt something lightly touching her scar and tracing along the length. She began to tremble again, not entirely sure of what was happening. 

“That is quite a story,” Lugus said as he let go of the frightened pegasus. “That went down to the bone and even deeper in places, gouging into your skull.” 

Yew nodded as she turned her head to get the griffon back into her field of vision. 

“I didn’t hurt you did I? I would never be able to forgive myself if I did,” Lugus said to the frightened mare. 

Yew shook her head no and squeezed the foal she was holding a little tighter. 



 

Bucky took a large bite of fish, chewed, and tried to remember his dream, trying to remember that day in the royal gardens. He was distracted by a flick of Thistle’s tongue as she licked away a bit of fish flesh on his muzzle and then by the sounds of her tearing off a bite. 

Enchantment, like dark magic, was all about the force of will. The enchanter has to believe in the enchantment lest it fail, and when two wills struggled together, the stronger was the victor. As a foal, he had nearly broken one of Celestia’s enchantments upon his mind, having become aware of the aversion spell on Sombra’s name. 

He leaned down and tore off another bite of fish. 

Chewing somewhat before gulping, Bucky tried to make sense of this memory. He reflected upon his accomplishments and wondered how much of what he had done was from himself and how much was from Sombra’s memories. He certainly had the raw skill. He supposed that he wanted to know how much skill he actually had on his own and took a small measure of comfort that he had nearly broke Celestia’s enchantments on his mind. 

“Bastard son of a bastard!” 

Bucky raised his head and peered out, having once again forgot his goggles. He could hear splashing in the lake, the unmistakable sounds of Sentinel thrashing about. 

“Mmm mmlug flug gleerglug! Muthlerplufflur!” 

Sentinel was talking with his mouth full again. Swearing with his mouth full. 

“Oh my, he’s got a monster,” Thistle said. She licked her lips after she spoke and looked out over the water hungrily. 

Bucky saw Sentinel as the colt came into focus, wrestling with a fish whose length was thrice Sentinel’s own. He had the fish hugged to his barrel and his teeth sank into the fish’s spine. Somehow, the colt was dragging the fish ashore. 

“Coshnosher!” Sentinel swore with his mouth still full. 

“Sentinel! Your mouth! Do I need to stand you in the corner like Berry does Piña!” Thistle threatened. “No, don’t answer that, you beat that fish into submission!” 

Sentinel slugged the fish a few times with his hoof and as Bucky watched, the fish flopped up and around, catching Sentinel’s ear in its maw. He heard Sentinel scream in pain and the colt fell over in the water, punching and kicking, still not letting go of his prize. Bucky could smell pony blood in the air. All thoughts of enchantment and breakfast forgotten, he started to move towards the water. 

He was stopped by Thistle planting her hoof into his chest.

“No,” Thistle stated. “Let him fight. Do not rob him of his victory.” 

There was another ragged scream from Sentinel and Bucky began to prance in place. As he watched, Sentinel got his own maw around the fish’s body, just behind the head, sinking his fangs into the gills. Sentinel wrenched his head back and tore the fish’s head from its body. He spat it out in the shallow water, blood trickling down the side of his face from his torn ear, his barrel heaving from his efforts. 

The colt dutifully continued to drag the body ashore, and then dropped the carcass in the grass. He stood over his fallen prey, lifted his mouth open wide, and roared.

“That has to be at least one hundred pounds of trout,” Bucky whispered into Thistle’s ear. 

“I wouldn’t know,” Thistle whispered back. 

Sentinel stood bloodied over his prize for a moment longer, he then stepped aside, sat down, and wiped the blood from his face with one foreleg. Looking down in anger, he punched the dead fish once again, venting his bile upon the fallen enemy, and then he rubbed away more blood from his torn ear. 

“Stupid ear biting fish!” Sentinel snarled as his head plunged downward, his fangs bared, ready to eat his breakfast. 

“I cannot put into words how proud I am of our foal,” Bucky said to Thistle. 

“Nor I,” Thistle replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 158
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel grunted impatiently as Lyra yawned. Lyra had a length of thread and a rather large looking needle sitting on the table. His ear was still trickling blood and there was a large tear near the base that went halfway through his ear. 

“Sentinel, this is gonna sting,” Lyra warned as she lifted up a small cup full of strong whiskey. Without further ado, she poured the hard liquor over Sentinel’s ear, which caused him to hiss loudly. “I am so sorry baby!” Lyra whimpered. She began to gnaw on her front hoof from her emotional agony. 

Sentinel gritted his teeth and said nothing, sitting there stonily. 

“You know, this would be easier somehow if you were crying,” Lyra said after pulling her hoof from her mouth. “At least I could be punished for hurting you… I would know how much you are suffering and it would hurt me… with you being so silent I just don’t know,” she confessed. 

Sentinel sighed and felt awful for Lyra. He slumped. He felt two lips press up against his cheek and then he saw the needle being threaded in mid air, surrounded by a golden glow. He felt his pucker tighten and clench violently as he thought about what was about to be done. 

Quite by mistake, a whimper escaped his lips and that seemed to send Lyra over the edge as she began to cry. The needle and long length of thread hovered hesitantly in the air. 

“I don’t know if I can do this Bonnie,” Lyra whined. 

“Lyra, you must,” Bon Bon said. She covered her mouth with her fetlock and yawned. “You are the only pony who can. He’s been oozing blood for a while now. Leaving it be hasn’t made it stop bleeding. It needs stitching. Or do you want somepony to finish removing his ear and then cauterise it?” 

“NO!” Lyra cried, her exclamation loud enough to make Harper wake up and start to cry. 

“I don’t want my ear cut off and cauterised!” Sentinel begged, finally saying something and breaking his stony stoic silence. “Mama Lyra please just sew it together!” 

Bon Bon went to Harper where she lay in the straw and tried to comfort the crying startled foal. She eased herself down into the straw, laying on her belly, and cradled Harper in her forelegs. She hummed to the foal and planted a little kiss on the foal, and Harper continued to wail, kicking her little stubby legs around in the air. Bon Bon winced when she heard Sentinel’s sharp intake of breath. 

“There’s little ridges of cartilage… oh this is awful!” Lyra moaned. She wrapped her forelegs around Sentinel, the colt who had seen so much abuse already. He still had a few bare patches on his withers from his burns and there were scars on his skin that would last a lifetime. She pulled the foal close and focused her magic, trying to make the stitches small, neat, and tight. She could feel the resistance against the needle as she had to force it through the cartilage of Sentinel’s ear. She could feel his body tighten and tense. 

And then, much to her dismay, she could feel the shuddering of his barrel as her colt began to quietly cry while still trying to hold still. 

Lyra hated these isles. They were a barbaric place. She hated what they were doing to Bucky and the rest of her herd. She hated what they were doing to her. She hated the attempt to seize her mind. And more than anything, she hated that she was jamming a large needle through a foal’s ear over and over while causing friction burns with rough thread as she pulled everything tight with no anesthetic. 

“I hate everything about these cursed isles!” Lyra sobbed. 

Bon Bon nodded but said nothing, still trying to get Harper to settle. Harper could hear her mother crying and it only made her wails intensify. She pressed her snoot against Harper’s tummy and wished that Bucky was here. Bucky had a knack for quieting Harper, and much to Bon Bon’s relief, it didn’t involve using a sleep spell. 





“I am not so sure I understand my sister sometimes,” Loch Skimmer said to Sparkler as she watched her sister balancing and standing on her right front hoof, her other three legs and her wings sprawled out in different directions to keep her balance. “She looks funny standing on one front hoof.” 

“What amazing balance though,” Sparkler said as she leaned on Loch. Her head hurt, and she had a bump the size of a goose egg just behind her ear. “Sour Mash clipped me because I got a bit cocky,” Sparkler grumbled. 

“Well then, don’t get cocky you dunderhead,” Loch teased. 

“If you didn’t have a broken leg, I’d be all over you right now,” Sparkler grumbled. 

“Like you was all over me the other day when you, me, and Rising Star rolled around in that patch of wildflowers?” Loch replied with a suggestive question. 

Sparkler blushed and looked at Loch. “Yeah, maybe,” Sparkler said. 

“I still don’t know how I feel about filly on filly contact,” Loch admitted. 

“I know,” Sparkler said as she watched Ripple switch over to her left front hoof and raise her right hoof from the ground. 

“I don’t mind you touching me, but I feel awkward and out of sorts when I try to return the favour,” Loch Skimmer confessed. 

“Well, just let me touch you then. I like that… I like it a great deal and I don’t expect anything in return. I can get it from Rising Star,” Sparkler said in return to Loch Skimmer. 

“But I feel bad not returning the favour,” Loch protested. 

“Look, you make me feel good in other ways,” Sparkler said reassuringly.



 

Bucky looked upon the armor pieces spread out over the table. A few more enchantments were needed, but the armor was finished, completed, the last piece forged. It was now time to fine tune the finished work and sort out any problems that might arise. 

It was time to test. 

“Rising Star, do you think you will be able to lift me into the air with my armor on?” Bucky inquired. 

“I think so,” Rising Star replied. 

“Good,” Bucky replied. 

Bucky ignited his horn and pulled on the helmet, powering it up. The blue-green glow intensified and began to spread over the other armor pieces. They slowly floated into place around his body, linking and locking together with loud clicks and clanks. There was no visible or exposed flesh. 

Bucky took his first step. There was a loud metallic clunk as his steel covered hooves clopped onto the stone floor of the smithy. His first movements were jerky and he realised he was thinking too much and concentrating too hard. He tried to focus on walking naturally and made his way towards the door. 

The armor was black and dull looking. There was no reflective surface anywhere. It was draconic in appearance, skeletal looking, and terrifying to look at. Light seemed to die upon its surface. It was also covered in eyes, small closed eyes, and when the eyes opened, it would reveal a hidden sunstone that would flood the surrounding area with ultraviolet light. The armor thrummed with power and made everything around it vibrate. 

“You look like death,” Lugus remarked. 

“I know,” Bucky said in a demonic metallic growl. 

“There’s that feeling of pissing myself!” Rising Star whimpered. 

Crush the earth pony split once again. The big earth pony didn’t like magic much to begin with and he took off to have a well deserved break at a nice water trough outside. 

“I feel so strong,” Bucky announced, his voice now a source of terror. He cleared the door and entered the courtyard. Ponies scattered upon seeing him, and within moments, most of the courtyard had been cleared. He stomped through the courtyard testing his new abilities. He moved so easily now. He could feel new strength. It took no effort to walk, the armor did all of the work for him. All he had to do was remain limp, suspended in a field of magic. 

“The walk is a bit mechanical looking,” Rising Star observed as he followed along behind Bucky. “And the tail swings a bit. It does seem be acting as a good counter balancer, just like Crush’s assistant said it would.” 

“Rising Star. You are to lift me and throw me against the wall. Hard, but not too hard. We need to test how this takes impacts,” Bucky commanded.

“No! I can’t throw you against the wall! How hard is too hard? All of your wives and my mothers will play hopscotch on my corpse if I hurt you…” Rising Star replied, shying away in terror of all kinds. 

“You will do as I ask,” Bucky demanded, his voice now a terror that came from the depths of Tartarus. 

Rising Star cringed. He didn’t like this at all. His horn flashed to life and he lifted Bucky into the air. “Oh I hope that Derpy forgives me, I don’t want to be kicked by a pegasus that I love and turned into a fine red mist,” he cried. 

Not knowing what else to do, he hurled Bucky into the strong stone wall. 

There was a loud metallic clang upon impact, and it sounded like a ringing bell. Bucky bounced from the wall and hit the ground hard. His armor plated form did not move and Rising Star struggled to hold in his urine. 

After a few moments, Bucky began to stir. 

“I have detected a problem,” Bucky announced. “I will need sound dampeners. I can still hear bells ringing in my ears. Oh the sound!” he said in a voice that sounded as though it was reading off the soiled laundry list for Tartarus. He slowly rose up off of the ground, the armor lifting him up to his hooves in a mechanical fashion. “I didn’t feel a thing!” 

The voice was too much and Rising Star took off at a run, heading for a little patch of hedges intended just for the purpose he needed them for, a keening wail escaping his throat as he ran. 

“Some ponies,” Bucky growled mechanically, his voice sounding like something reverberating up out of some dark abyssal plane of death and destruction. He took off at a trot, which picked up a bit as he cleared the gatehouse, finally becoming a gallop, and then, Bucky ran. He took off with incredible leaps and bounds, soaring for a good twenty feet through the air before his hooves hit the ground again and propelled him through the air. 

Lugus had to take wing to keep up, and even then, Bucky was still getting faster and faster. Lugus straightened out his body, tucked his legs up to his torso, and poured on all of the raw speed he was capable of. The landscape went by in a blur as he flew, and Bucky’s pace continued to pick up once Bucky mastered the new movements to keep himself going. 

The armor gave Bucky incredible speed. 

Lugus, a flying creature, was having trouble keeping up. Lugus cursed his large form and wished he was a smaller griffon, one of the speedy fliers used as messengers. He gulped in air and pushed himself to go even faster, trying to keep pace with the mechanical monster below that was sprinting at cheetah speeds. 

In no time at all, Lugus saw a tower and windmill, and Bucky seemed to be slowing down. Finally, Bucky stopped near the tower. There was also a large stone hall with a pegasus statue up on top. 

Lugus circled as Bucky rested. 

“I made this tower,” Bucky announced in the terrible mechanical voice he now had. “And the hall too. Over an hour from the castle at walking speed. We just did it in a few minutes. I am not even breathing hard.” Bucky then turned tail and took off once again, bolting back towards the castle, realising that dozens of improvements needed to be made. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 159
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy felt especially protective as she wandered through the meadow, leading a little parade behind her. Dinky and Piña walked together side by side, and little Wheatberry walked just behind them. On Derpy's back was Peekaboo. They walked near the next hulk being restored and ponies waved as they went by. Buildings were being built by what ponies were now calling the shipyard. The shipwreck survivors had manipulation shoes and the unicorns had magic. The new buildings were going up quickly, were well made and quite modern looking. She knew that Berry was around here somewhere, putting her skills as a carpenter to work. 

Near the castle, ground was being broken on a new schoolhouse, a dedicated schoolhouse. Keg Smasher had promised a title to Gardenia if she stayed and became the Royal Education Supervisor for the isle. Now, Lady Gardenia had something she never had in Equestria. Respect along with willing eager students. 

So much had changed Derpy realised. Hope was taking over. She looked over her shoulder to make sure her charges were following along and continued her march around the meadow. 



 

“I could never keep up with that sort of magical output for any real length of time,” Bucky said as he wobbled around inside of the smithy. He looked at the armor. “It needs more work than I thought. I need to do something about the voice. It is too menacing. It needs sound dampening. And I need a means to take in energy without taking my armor off, because it takes a lot of effort to do so. I am going to have to spend most of my time walking around in low power mode, which is going to be slow but will only have a minimal drain upon my mana reserves.” 

“Strap a keg on to your armor and then use your magic to conjure up a drink of high test whiskey when you start to feel your legs wobble. The close range won’t take much of a magical drain to get a drink. You should make a net gain with each gulp. We take the keg and place it right over the spot where the tail connects for balance.” Rising Star suggested. 

Bucky fell silent, staring at his colt. After several moments of moving his mouth, some words finally fell out. “That’s brilliant Rising Star… We could easily fit a five gallon keg back there. I could craft one from steel. No tubes or hoses. I was planning on using whiskey to keep me going anyway, but I thought I’d have to return to the ship to get it. I will still need to refill, but this should keep me out in the field longer.” 

Rising Star beamed. “Hanging around the forge has taught me how to be practical. I’ve learned so much here in so little time,” he said. 

“There is still the matter of learning how to move in the armor and heavy combat,” Lugus stated. 

“The run today taught me quite a bit. Running and walking are easy. My body doesn’t feel like my body though in the armor. Everything is big and weird and nothing moves the way it should. You’re right, I will need time to learn how to move inside of the armor,” Bucky admitted. 

“As much as your wives might protest, we might do well to go out on a nighttime excursion. You, on the ground and I, in the air offering support. Then we can see if maybe we can engage a few of them while their numbers seem to be slowly building. You should listen to your wives though, they are wise,” Lugus said as he scratched his shoulder. 

“I kinda wish I could go out… hey Bucky, don’t stare at me like that, it’s creepy,” Rising Star said. “You used to stare at me like that when I would get a little too friendly with Sparkler.” 

“I am okay with you doing things with my daughter now. I am glad you are in a dedicated and loving relationship. But if you ever step a hoof outside this castle after sundown, the wolves will be the least of your worries, I assure you,” Bucky promised. 

Rising Star gulped. “I understand Bucky… look, I just wished I could go out. I want to hurt the wolves too. I have my own issues,” he said with a slight stammer. “I keep thinking about the Isle of Wheat and what happened. The pony I was a few moments too late to save. And when I see what happened in my minds eye… I want to burn things!” 

“Rising Star, I understand. And while you might be somewhat protected in your flaming form, the wolves would still bite you even if it burned them. They tried biting Sparkler in her stone form. If even a few slipped through somehow and got to you, you’d either end up dead or looking like me,” Bucky gently replied. 

“Looking like Bucky isn’t such a bad thing… but you should listen young Rising Star,” Lugus interjected. “Bucky should listen more too. He is thick headed.” 

Bucky shot Lugus a sour look and his scowl only intensified over time. 

“I talk to your wives when I leave my foal in their care. They make me promise things! Like to not let you overwork yourself. The grey mare could be a nanny to dragon young. She has a fierce presence,” Lugus said in his own defense. “And the little dark grey daughter you have… the one with the blue mane, she learns the fierce arts of broodery from your matriarch.” 

“Ripple,” Rising said with a smile. “My sweet precious Ripple. I love that filly,” he muttered with a dopey grin plastered across his muzzle. “And Loch Skimmer, her sister. And Sparkler. Uh, I gotta go. I, er, uh, something tells me my wives need me... my boner sense is tingling,” he stammered. Rising Star took off at a gallop out of the smithy. 

Crush snorted as he watching Rising Star leave, and then went back to hammering out some iron horseshoes on his anvil as he shook his head. 

“Hm, I wonder if my wives need me,” Bucky mused. “I’m feeling a bit empty after the magical expenditure I just had. I think I am going to go find food. And maybe spend some time talking with my wives.” 

“You have clever wives. A clever wife is worth more than a thousand well sharpened swords,” Lugus stated. “I am beginning to wonder if I should perhaps hunt myself a clever wife down to help me raise my ward. Peekaboo continues to mystify me.” 

“Have one of the griffonesses from the shipwreck in mind?” Bucky asked. 

“No… Peekaboo needs a pony mother. Tell me Bucky, tell me about your pony courtship rituals. Beyond offering to regurgitate a hot meal, I am completely lost,” Lugus replied. “Among my caste, we do not woo. We simply take. If a female does not wish to be taken, she must be willing to defend herself and insure her own safety.”



 

Sentinel continued about his task, even though he had been excused. While Lyra and Bon Bon slumbered, Sentinel moved among the refugees along with Thrasher, Keg Smasher’s personal assistant. He took requests, he answered questions to the best of his ability, and he worked as his master’s squire as well as his father’s son. 

He could not help but notice that most of the ponies were not friendly or receptive to him. Not all ponies were as quick to love him, like him, or even accept him as readily as his family had. Some even refused to speak to him, speaking to Thrasher instead. 

A couple had even said the horrible words… bat pony. 

Which had not improved the quality of his day. While breakfast had been lovely and his victory satisfying, his ear was throbbing and he was in a lot of pain. His mother Lyra had been a gibbering mess when he had departed. He did his task with as much dignity as he could muster and remained quite civil, even to those who Thrasher said needed a good thrashing, because apparently, that is what Thrasher did. Thrasher was good at beating things into a bloody pulp. 

Some of the rudest ponies Sentinel had met where his own fellow pegasi, which confused him. He couldn’t understand why this was. His mother was a solar pegasus, and his father had been a lunar pegasus. They had loved one another, or so Sentinel hoped, he couldn’t remember them very well. His mother had died and then his father had gone mad with grief, Sentinel could remember that, his father going insane and then rushing off into the night howling like a savage beast. His father had deserted his post. 

As he walked, Sentinel shuddered. He had only the barest idea of what Bucky, his father now, was capable of, but Sentinel couldn’t bear the thought of what Bucky might do if something was to kill one of his mothers. His father’s rage might be catastrophic. 

“You look troubled Squire Sentinel,” Thrasher observed. “Ear bothering you?” he inquired. 

“No Sir Thrasher. I am unsettled by a number of things. The rudeness of the pegasi. Some of the mainlanders. And I am worried about my father,” Sentinel replied. 

“Your master, His Grace, Lord Bitters. You are on duty Squire Sentinel. You would do well to remember that. As for the mainlanders and the pegasi, they are unmitigated unwashed arseholes. Well, some of them. I do not like them. Not at all. They might be useful, but they are rude. They have no concept of chivalry or graciousness. They are barbarians,” Thrasher stated. 

“Indeed,” Sentinel agreed. 

“Lord Bitters, he understands chivalry. He understands sacrifice. He truly understands what it means to have your back broken by the yoke of power placed upon it. Which is why my father, my master His Grace, Laird Keg Smasher, chose Bucky to look after the isles if something happened. You are a very lucky pony Squire Sentinel, you must never forget that. As for these arseholes and their self importance? Service would break most of them. They lack our strength. It takes power and guts to bend your knee and serve,” Thrasher said in a regal voice. 

“Sir Thrasher, might I ask a very personal question?” Sentinel inquired. 

“You may, good squire,” Thrasher responded. 

“Did it bother you handing over authority to Lord Bitters rather than taking your father’s place as his son?” Sentinel asked, hoping that his question was not insulting. 

“Not at all. I strongly suspect that my father was testing me to see how I would react and if I would obey his wishes. To see if I would do what was needed for the greater good rather than my own desires or wishes. He was most proud of me,” Thrasher replied, a broad smile upon his face. “It was most satisfying to earn his pride, to know that I deserved it.” 

“It does feel good to have that sort of pride,” Sentinel agreed. 



 

Derpy carefully drew her lips over her feathers as Wheatberry watched and tried to imitate her actions. The yearling wasn’t very good, but she was trying. Peekaboo was too little to even try and she was content to be snuggled by Piña and Dinky who fawned over her. 

“No, stick out your lips Wheatberry, pretend you have a duck bill,” Derpy instructed cheerfully and then demonstrated once again. 

The foal did her best and tried mimic the larger pegasus’ well practiced movements. She slobbered all over her wing, leaving it rather damp, and little trails of drool dribbled down from her chin. 

“Mama, what does a little pegasus do if it is born to parents with no wings and no special pegasus slobber?” Dinky asked. 

Derpy broke down and looked quite distressed for a moment. “I would hope that a friendly pegasus would take it upon themselves to preen the foal on a regular basis. I hope the parents would understand the importance,” she replied. 

“You know mama, you spend a lot more time preening your wings now than you used to. They stay so shiny and perfect,” Dinky observed. 

“I suppose I do,” Derpy admitted. 

“Is it because you found daddy?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes,” Derpy replied to her foal in a rather bashful voice. “I want to look good for him.” 

“Are you disappointed that I am not a pegasus?” Dinky inquired bluntly. 

“No,” Derpy answered without a moment of hesitation. “Are you disappointed I am not a unicorn?” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 160
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I know we’ve been preparing, but I still can’t believe we’re going to do this,” Berry Punch said as she watched a team of pegasi overhead hauling The Scorned Mare through the sky. They swarmed the sides and the rear while flapping their wings and slowly moved the ship through the air. They were getting good at quick moves and maneuvers, halting suddenly and shifting directions. 

“They’re still working on the harnesses the pegasi will wear for the long trip back to Canterlot,” Derpy said absentmindedly. “We’re going home soon Berry… I’m scared. We could be leaving for home in a week or two if all goes well.” 

“I’m scared too,” Berry admitted. 

“I’ve always wanted to live on the mainland, but now I am scared to leave,” Thistle confessed. “I have my family here. My herd. My tribe. I am really happy with what I have. All of this talk of trouble when you go home. What about me and our foal? I don’t want Bucky in trouble, I need a husband and our foal needs a father,” the kelpie said in distressed tones. 

“I’m worried about whatever is controlling the wolves being a stronger foe than Bucky anticipated. Bucky, as strong as he is, has limits. There is only so much he can do,” Berry said. 

“Daddy doesn’t fully know his own limits,” Piña stated in a small voice, butting in to the adult conversation.

Derpy, Berry, and Thistle exchanged a three way glance, a knowing look that spoke volumes without saying a single word, the sort of look only those very close to one another could possibly give to each other and know exactly what is being said in silence. 

Dinky sat in the grass saying nothing, using a small brush on Peekaboo’s mane. Dinky understood the price of power and the balance of power now, perhaps better than most adults who would never truly know what it feels like to take the first steps towards omnipresence. Dinky had been everywhere on the isle all at once, it had stretched out her mind and left it a little thin. She understood her father’s pain, perhaps more than most of her mothers did, with the exception of Lyra. 

Things had changed between Dinky and Lyra. There was now a quiet sense of understanding now. 

“Think we will see him?” Piña asked. 

“Maybe. He’s been strutting around in that armor more and more, giving ponies something to look at. The ponies deserve to see their champion,” Berry Punch replied. 

“I wish that Ripple wasn’t so busy,” Dinky said, finally saying something. 

“Ripple is busy developing her natural talents,” Derpy replied. 

“Natural talents for violence,” Dinky said despondently. 

“Some ponies are fated to keep other ponies safe. Ripple has a powerful gift. More is expected of her because of her skill. She’s like you Dinky. There is no end, no limit to what she can do now that she has us behind her, supporting her and helping her to live up to her potential,” Berry explained. 

“She’s happier now,” Piña stated. “I mean, since she’s starting beating on stuff and getting her anger out, she’s actually been a lot happier… cheerful like our big sister Loch is cheerful.” 

“See, that’s a good thing,” Derpy said. “You can’t bottle up that kind of anger. It poisons you.” 

“My anger poisoned me. I can remember feeling the bugs sometimes. Under my skin. And I keep having dreams,” Dinky said in a dull voice. “I was so angry. It was so easy to slip into darkness. Daddy hardly had to nudge me. I wanted to go into darkness. It was like standing at the top of the slide and wanting to go down. I was so angry. Angry about everything. Thankfully, daddy has been teaching me better things to do with my anger when he has a few spare moments,” the unicorn foal stated. 

“Anger can be a powerful motivator for change,” Berry agreed. 

“I am going to use my anger to change the world, even if the world doesn’t want to be changed,” Dinky announced. 



 

“Well, the voice is fixed I think. I might still sound a little funny and a bit metallic, but the scary piss yourself in fright voice should only come out now when I use the Voice inside of the helmet. It seems like it was all or nothing. I was so hoping to have two levels of intimidation to use,” Bucky said to his working companions. 

Crush snorted and gave a nod of approval as he pointed at the helmet. 

“Yeah, I know you didn’t like the old voice, it was a bad idea, it was impractical,” Bucky admitted. “Now stop saying “I told you so” because there are horseshoes to make and much to do.” 

The big earth pony made a flapping sound with his lips before going back to work. 

“The hook-axe is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Lugus stated as he looked upon the massive weapon that lie upon a rack. It was still in the state of construction. Dull black metal just like Bucky’s armor. It was a fearsome weapon of intimidation. 

“Don’t touch just yet, it would be bad if you did,” Bucky warned. 

“I know,” Lugus said, still staring at the axe. 

“I still need to work on Ripple’s shoes,” Bucky sighed. 

“You need a break. You’ve been at this non stop for the past several days and up all night filling spell jars,” Rising Star stated. 

“Well, it needs to be done. You’re worn out after a day in the forge, Sparkler is worn out after a day of getting the horseapples kicked out of her by Sour Mash, Dinky is still having trouble concentrating for any length of time, and Lyra can’t cast spells without turning her teat milk into water,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You are nothing but bones. You are getting thinner,” Lugus said in worry. 

“Yeah, no comments about how I’m not fit for a meal or something,” Bucky mumbled. 

“A meal implies something to eat. You are bones,” Lugus spat. 

Bucky glared up at the much larger griffon, his lip curling back into a snarl. 

“I am becoming increasingly fascinated by your facial expressions. I like this one,” Lugus stated as he reached out and touched Bucky’s face, poking at the corner of the stallion’s lip curling scowl. “This expression suggests anger with a hint of annoyance. Perhaps ire.” 

Bucky nodded slowly. 

Lugus pinched Bucky’s cheek. “Such soft squishy faces. I like them all a great deal.” 

Bucky growled in annoyance and pulled himself free of Lugus’ grasp. He reached up and rubbed his cheek. “That is so annoying when you do that,” he grumbled. 

“But your face and all it can do. It is like living clay,” Lugus said in his own defense. 

“I swear Lugus, if anything else did that to me… I would turn them into a small rodent… and maybe let Sentinel eat them,” Bucky groused. 

“Fire roasted rat is delicious,” Lugus stated. 

Every pony in the smithy turned to look at the griffon in disgust and Lugus’ crest raised. His feathers fluffed out and the big griffon tried to smooth them down with his talons. He clacked his beak together and ignored the stares. Bucky was giving him an odd questioning look.

“Bucky, you know nothing. You should try fire roasted rat. Sentinel would probably enjoy it a great deal,” Lugus said dismissively. 

“Sentinel loves hunting rodents but I think he likes them raw,” Bucky said in a low voice. “He’s offered to share a rat with me.” 

There was a gurgling gagging sound from Rising Star and the colt swallowed loudly, trying to gulp down his need to feel sick. 

“Today I plan to hunt later. I have finished my kit. If I bring down a deer, would you, Thistle, and Sentinel like to try some?” Lugus inquired invitingly. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow, and could feel the numbed spot just under his ear offering a bit of resistance, the paralysed spot from where he had banged his head into the wall long ago in what seemed like another life. “Sure, why not. I will trust the meat you offer,” he said. 

“Your wife… the kelpie, Thistle… she has taught you honour for your food,” Lugus stated. It was not a question. 

“Yes. Almost every day when she catches fish for me, they usually come with some kind of lecture she has thought up and I am forced to endure as I eat the fish that she has caught,” Bucky replied. 

“She is a good mate. She will give you strong young with honourable ideals,” Lugus said. “I want to go fishing. I need to construct a bow and fishing arrows.” 

Bucky nodded and went back to work, his horn igniting as he began to burn in yet another glyph onto his armor. There was too much to do to keep standing around in idle chatter.



 

Ripple focused her mind and her balance, easily standing now on her front right hoof. Her wings were tucked into her sides, both of her hind legs were held together and formed a straight line from her body, and her left front leg was tucked against her barrel. She was as straight as pole as she stood on one hoof. 

“You must be like your namesake, you must flow like water,” Knocker instructed. “And you must not think in limits. When you strike, when you lash out, you must not think of moving your hoof from one place to another in a line or a curve. Simply focus on your hoof existing in one spot and then existing in another. Do not tarry in the spaces in between where your hoof is and where you want to strike, this is the path of the slow strikers. Will your hoof to be where you want it. Do not move it, will it to another location,” the old stallion said hypnotically. 

Ripple did not respond. She ignored the sweat trickling down her sides. She ignored the burning pain in the muscles of her right front leg. She blocked out the stabbing cramp in her front right shoulder. 

“Focus on your danger sense. We pegasi can fly through the storm. We do not fear the lightning. If you think about avoiding the danger, the danger will find you. We are creatures of instinct. We know of the lightning before it happens. We are creatures of precognition my student,” Knocker explained. 

Ripple felt something in her mind screaming out and she exploded into action. With a flurry of movement, she cartwheeled away, flipped through the air, and landed on her left front hoof a short distance away. She turned her head. Where she had been standing was Knocker’s raised hoof. He would have bruised her ribs again if she had failed and possibly gave her a few lumps to meditate on. 

“You are my best student. Who would have thought it would have been a filly?” Knocker said with a lopsided smile. “I would have never thought a filly capable. But here you are, and here I am,” he said. 

Ripple felt something in her mind screaming again and she sprang away. A second later, there was a flurry of blows that seemed to be coming at her from all possible directions. She flowed away from them, blocking some of them that got too close, her hooves moving in a blur. She was impossibly fast, moving with super-equine speed. She did not focus on lashing out as she had seen one of her fellow students attempt to do with Knocker, she focused entirely upon defense. 

She didn’t want a skull fracture like the last now failed student. 

Ripple was rocked back on her hind hooves while her front legs moved to block the incoming assaults. Her wings were out for balance. Her mind told her the real assault was coming, this was merely a warm up. She flipped away, somersaulting backwards, springing from her hindhooves to her forehooves then to her hindhooves to her forehooves over and over until she stood in a braced position on her hindhooves with her forelegs crossed before her in a defiant gesture and her teacher stood a short distance away. 

“You are a marvelous creature,” Knocker whispered. “You were made for death. You are slender supple destruction with delicate beautiful wings.” 

Ripple blushed but kept up her guard. Master Knocker was not above using flattery as a weapon. She had seen that when he had beaten another student into a bloody pile of pain. 

The old pegasus dropped down on all fours, flexed his wings, folded them, and then went into a relaxed posture. “Be at ease Ripple. I have no further desire to test you. I do want you to continue your meditations. Think of those you love, how you can defend them, and what will become of them should you fail. Our time grows short. You must go into battle. Do not shame me! You are my prized pupil and I wish that we had a lifetime where I might teach you all I know. I have given you what you need and the tools to keep learning on your own should you wish to do so. I have others that I need to beat wisdom into, please excuse me.” 

“Thank you,” Ripple said as she dropped down on all fours. 

Knocker moved slowly towards Ripple, his head low and his posture radiating harmlessness. He stood near the filly, looking into her eyes. “I mean what I said. You have a great gift. I was a foolish old stallion thinking that only males could have such a gift. With you, I was also a student and we have learned together. Seek out further training. Always test yourself. Hone your skills. Some pegasi fly above the storm, for safety away from the lightning, other pegasi fly through the storm and do not fear it. I am a better teacher for having you as my student, and you have been my best student. Your raw potential is endless Ripple. Seek the center of the storm, therein lies wisdom,” Knocker instructed. He leaned in and carefully kissed the filly upon her cheek, knowing full well the danger of doing so, but choosing to do it anyway. 

Ripple felt the soft kiss and felt confused, Bucky was the only other male pony that kissed her like that. Her gaze dropped down to the ground and she backed away, unsure of what she felt. “Thank you sir, I will spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of the gifts you have given me,” she said, trying to think of how Sentinel might reply to this situation. 

“Be true to the way of the Storm Seekers,” Knocker instructed. “And protect your tribe.” 
	
> Chapter 161
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once again, the dreamer lies dreaming… recalling lessons past. 

The small glass orb on the table before him infuriated Bucky. He didn’t know what was wrong, but the cursed glass orb was resisting his attempts to enchant it. He had no instructor to speak to, no teacher to ask for help, this was his exam and he was secured away in a small room with no windows. Just a simple plain room with a small table and a cushion for him to sit on. 

And the hated glass orb that he could not seem to enchant. 

The corner of his eye twitching painfully, Bucky glared at his now hated enemy. He was going to fail this exam. All he had to do was cast a simple light spell on the globe. He had cast all kinds of simple enchantments already, including plenty of light spells on glass globes as practice. 

This one seemed to resist him, which was maddening. 

Feeling a clever burst of imagination, Bucky squirmed on his cushion and cast detect magic upon the orb. He felt the tingle of strong magic coursing through him. His birthright. The only thing his parents ever gave him that was truly his to keep that they couldn’t hold over his head or take away. 

The orb showed no signs of enchantment or other signs of a magical signature. 

“Oh come on!” Bucky grumped. With no further use for the orb since it couldn’t be enchanted, Bucky hurled the hated glass object into the stone wall with considerable force, not caring in the slightest that he would be in all sorts of trouble for breaking it. 

The orb hit the wall and bounced, coming back to strike Bucky in the head. 

Without knowing it, this moment was the defining moment of young Bucky’s life, the moment where he would perfect his technique for dealing with everything that would puzzle him in life. It would become the way he dealt with his problems, learned from the world around him, this was the moment that made him Buckminster Bitters, that shaped him into the unicorn that could out stubborn an earth pony. The defining characteristic that would exemplify his life and his method of complex understanding and his entire philosophy was remarkably simple…  

Blunt force trauma.

“CONK!” … “BONK!” 

“Oh horsefeathers! I hate you!” Bucky screamed at his new sworn enemy as he struggled to lift himself up off of the cold stone floor where he had fallen and then bonked his head on the stone floor. He lifted the orb in his magic, ready to hurl it into the wall again, when he had an important thought as he rubbed one of the two large lumps growing rapidly off of his skull, the beginning of the many injuries he would sustain in a life of grievous bodily harm.

The orb did not break. 

If the orb was ordinary glass, it would have broke. The realisation dawned through Bucky’s mind, filling him with competing emotions of rage and elation. The orb was enchanted. Even if he couldn’t detect it. “AH HAH!” Bucky crowed. “I have you now, you hated inanimate object of lies and betrayal!” 

Bucky glared down at the orb as he placed it upon the table. He couldn’t place a light spell on it and he knew why now. Grinning maliciously, he rubbed his forehooves together and let out a small cackle, while not his first cackle, it was still a developing cackle, and would have been seen as a serious warning sign had his teachers witnessed it. 

Igniting his horn, Bucky went to work, summoning up all of his willpower, hoping he could dispel the enchantment upon the orb. He had a marvelous idea. He could feel the orb resisting him, something pushing back, creating pressure in the base of his horn. Gritting his teeth and clearing his mind, Bucky continued to will the enchantment away. 

And then, with enough force to make his ears pop painfully, the pressure in the base of his horn burst, giving him a terrible headache and horn-ache, but he knew that the enchantment was gone. Another brief cackle escaped his lips as he leered over the orb, plotting and planning. It was just a glass orb now. He could enchant it with a light spell, but that seemed meaningless after his effort. His stomach growled painfully. His constant magic usage was leaving him thinner and scrawnier than he usually was. 

Holding the ball up close to where he could see it, he carefully conjured a tiny bit of stone from the wall, shaping the tiny amount of matter with his magic, which was exhausting. He made a tiny little castle with a few towers, one long tall tower, and he teleported it inside of the globe. He affixed it into place with a simple cantrip intended to make things stick and stay upon a surface, and he began to swoon with fatigue. 

Summoning up the last of reserves, he cast a tiny snowstorm inside of the glass globe. As he watched, tiny snowflakes swirled around inside of the sphere, a raging blizzard upon the castle trapped in glass. Satisfied with his work, he lowered it to the table and placed it on the rounded indentation intended to hold the orb and lowered his head to the table, hoping his headache would go away sooner rather than later. 



 

“Hi Harper… are you daddy’s little filly?” Bucky asked. He was laying on his back, holding Harper in the air, held between his fetlocks. He bounced her up and down gently, allowing her to ‘fly’ overhead, which was something she seemed to enjoy. 

“Mama!” Harper responded and then burbled as her father gently bounced her around. 

Without warning, the burble changed to a gurgle and Harper vomited up the contents of her stomach directly upon her father’s face below her. She heaved once, hiccupped, heaved again, belched, and then heaved for a third time, all upon the unicorn beneath her that was too stunned to respond. 

“Oh dear,” Bucky gasped after several moments of stunned silence. “Did Harper have an upset tummy-wummy?” he inquired in a silly voice, vomited milk running down the sides of his face. 

“Mama?” Harper said in an uncertain voice. 

“Oh my… Bucky…” Lyra said from behind a fetlock covering her mouth. She began to snigger. 

“Lyra, ’s’not funny,” Bon Bon scolded as she tried to choke back her own chortles. 

“Snot is funny sometimes,” Lyra retorted as she collapsed with the giggles. 

“I was trying not to laugh, I didn’t say snot,” Bon Bon argued as she began to titter. 

Harper, not yet done, hurled again, this time emptying her stomach of several clumps of curdled soured partially digested milk which rained down upon her father below her. 

“Oh Harper… what has daddy done to you to make you hate him? Do you feel neglected?” Bucky inquired. 

“She’s been getting little magical surges, they upset her tummy as she tries to convert food to mana I think,” Lyra explained. 

Bucky gently placed the foal down in the straw and sat up. He wiped the steaming vomit from his face and realised that he needed a good washing. He conjured up some water into the clean bucket, rose to his hooves, crossed the room, and went to work as Lyra came over and tended to the foal. 

“You were dreaming again earlier, you seemed happy about it this time,” Bon Bon remarked. 

“I was dreaming about an exam I took in school,” Bucky replied as he scrubbed his face. 

“Only you and Lyra would enjoy dreaming about taking exams in school and be happy about it,” Bon Bon quipped. 

“I sort of passed an impossible test. I was supposed to enchant a glass globe that couldn’t be enchanted. It was a test to see how I handled failure. The globe appeared to be completely unremarkable, with no sign of magical enchantment,” Bucky explained. “Advanced enchantment applications caused a lot of students to have nervous breakdowns. I figured out that the orb was enchanted. I broke the powerful enchantment placed upon it, made a little castle inside of it, and then conjured up a tiny little blizzard to turn it into a snow globe. My teacher, Apricot Summers couldn’t believe I’d done it. She summoned Princess Celestia. Celestia took the orb away, I have no idea what happened to it. Nopony had a way to grade me for what I had done, the whole purpose was to fail the test and then be evaluated on how you dealt with failure,” he said. 

“I had to take a similar test in advanced abjuration. It was how to handle failure. Twilight Sparkle did what you did. She broke the test and then lectured the teacher about how lousy the defensive protections were that held the spell matrixes in place and that the magical wards should be protected with additional magical wards to protect the wards, and then more wards to protect those wards, and then everything covered up in feedback loops to confound any attempts of interference. I really hated her,” Lyra muttered. 

“How did you handle your failure?” Bucky asked as he dried his face using magic. 

“Oh, I had a total meltdown as was expected. I had to spend almost a week in the recovery wing. From what I was told, I rocked back and forth in a chair muttering about sapient oranges and their plans to infiltrate unicorn society,” Lyra replied. 

“I had a week similar to that. I was taking exams. I was a little stressed. And my green beans were touching my mashed potatoes one day during lunch. I liked my food to be well separated. I lost it. I accidentally made it rain green beans after a surge. I spent a bit over a week in the recovery wing,” Bucky said,  fondly reminiscing about his time in school. 

“That was you?” Lyra asked. “They had to get the best spellbreakers in the school to clean up that mess. It didn’t stop raining green beans for three days and there was butter everywhere.” 

“You two scare me sometimes,” Bon Bon said hesitantly. 

“Dinky is rapidly approaching the age and the education where she could make some really interesting things happen if she surges,” Lyra said with a self satisfied sigh. 

“When harmony magic sours, it turns into chaos magic… good times, good times,” Bucky said. 

“I swear, both of you are incorrigible,” Bon Bon muttered. 

“I have to go,” Bucky announced. “I will be in the lab filling spell jars and making more spell jars.” 



 

Derpy studied the big griffon as she sat on her haunches holding the tiny pegasus foal named Peekaboo. Lugus was looking back at her expectantly, awaiting some kind of reply. Derpy sensed that he was nervous and the fluttering of his wings confirmed her suspicions. 

“You want me to do what?” Derpy asked, still not believing exactly what she had just heard a moment ago. 

“I want for you to tell me how to woo a pegasus,” Lugus said in a soft somewhat humiliated voice. 

“Um… why?” Derpy inquired. 

“Because,” Lugus stated. 

“Because is not a reason. Doesn’t work when Sparkler or Dinky use it on me, won’t work for you either,” Derpy said in reply.

“I have found a pegasus that I feel would be a suitable nestmate for me and I want the best warrior mother available for Peekaboo,” Lugus explained. 

“Why me? Why not one of the many other pegasi males around here?” Derpy questioned. 

“This is humiliating. I do not wish to be made into a laughingstock. I thought you would understand,” Lugus answered in total honesty. 

Derpy nodded. “I do understand that,” she said in return. She looked over her shoulder at Dinky and Piña, who were giggling. “Sorry about them, they can’t help themselves.” 

“Foals will be foals?” Lugus said hesitantly. 

“Yeah, foals,” Derpy repeated. 

“So will you help me?” Lugus inquired. 

“Yeah I guess… you do so much to help Bucky,” Derpy agreed. 

“Good!” Lugus cheered. 

“So who is the pegasus you are after?” Derpy asked. 

“Yew,” Lugus responded. 

Derpy growled. It was a frightful sound, and the stiffening of her legs was immediate. Her wings flared out slightly as her ears folded back against her skull. Her head lowered, protecting her throat. One front hoof began to paw the earth. 

Lugus let out a loud squawk of alarm and backed away. “Oh no, not you, Yew. Yew Wood. She is named after the tree,” Lugus cried in panic. 

Derpy snorted and threw her head back. She whipped her mane around in frustration and flicked her tail. “For a moment, I thought I was going to have to remind you that I am a happily married mare and I was going to give you quite a lesson in pegasus talk,” Derpy said in a low growling voice. 

“Can you still help me?” Lugus asked. 

“Yes,” Derpy replied. “I might have a colt someday. And Bucky isn’t a pegasus. I might have to tell my colt how to attract a pretty pegasus filly. I guess you’ll make for good practice. This is weird though,” 

Lugus nodded eagerly. 

“First off, wings should be glossy and shiny,” Derpy said. “And neat. Give her something to look at. Make sure you work that wingspan too.’ 

Lugus spread his wings a bit. “My wings are immaculate,” he acknowledged. 

“Expand your barrel… do griffons have a barrel? Make your ribs look big… bigger the better. Strut around with stiff legs, but not too stiff. You don’t want to challenge her to a fight, well, unless you are into that sort of thing but you had better not hurt her or there will be fur and feathers flying,” Derpy instructed. 

“Seems reasonable so far,” Lugus answered. 

“Wait, this is stupid,” Derpy said, suddenly looking very unsure of herself. 

“This is?” Lugus responded. 

"Yes,” Derpy answered. “This is. What do I know of pegasus courtship? I’ve been shut out by my own kind,” she said as she looked incredibly angry for a moment. 

“Oh and now the storm cloud mare is angry with me again it seems,” Lugus stated. 

“Okay Lugus, this is what you do,” Derpy instructed as she set Peekaboo down in the grass and watched as the foal toddled off towards Dinky and Piña. She marched up to Lugus stiff legged and commanding. “You give her a really sweet look right in the eye, just like this. And then, when you have her attention, you reach out very slowly and gently, so you don’t spook her, and then you touch the side of her cheek, like this,” she said as she demonstrated. She reached up and gently touched the side of Lugus’s head, away from his beak. “And now the next part is important. To make sure your intention is very very clear, you lean in very very close, and you tell her, “catch me if you can,” just before you take off running. And then, you run. You run fast. And if she is falling behind too much, you slow down. If she is right behind you, give a bit of speed. Make her chase you. Flying is okay, she’s a pegasus, right?” 

“I see,” Lugus said, rubbing beneath his beak with his talons. 

“I caught myself a pretty good unicorn this way,” Derpy said proudly. She could hear the giggling of her foals behind her. “You can skip all of the stupid dances and plumage displays and just go right for what matters. Good luck Lugus.” 

“I think I shall go find her now, before the work of the day begins in earnest,” Lugus replied. The big griffon spread his wings and then he was gone. 
	
	
> Chapter 162
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bon Bon looked at the sleeping form on the bed and felt a pang in her heart. Bucky was sleeping, something he desperately needed, and so did Bon Bon. After breakfast and some time spent with family, Bucky had gone to the bed rather than the smithy. The earth pony mare watched as his body jerked and twitched in his sleep. He did not look peacefully at rest this time. She eased her body down on to the bed and scooted close to Bucky, placing a hoof upon him. She felt his body relax slightly under her touch. She looked at Lyra, who was yawning, and with a nod of her head, encouraged Lyra to come to bed. Harper was sleeping soundly in the straw. 

Bon Bon smiled as Lyra came to bed, and she pulled the other unicorn that she loved into a kiss, which quickly turned into something heated and needy. Lyra melted under her touch, and Bon Bon ran her hoof down Lyra’s belly, stroking her milk swollen teats and making little circles on her navel. The pair settled in next to Bucky, both of them kissing him softly, and then laid their heads down together, glad to finally go to sleep after a long night. 



 

The cold snow swirled around Bucky and he realised he was not in his own body. He could feel himself consumed by grief, a grief so terrible that he could scarcely stand to feel it. He could not feel the cold, only pain, agonising emotional pain. Looking through another body’s eyes, he saw a pony bundled up in many layers of clothing, wearing a tall pointed hat covered in bells. A white beard was visible, poking out from a scarf wrapped over a muzzle. 

“I worry about you brother,” the white unicorn said. 

Bucky realised it was Star Swirl… which would put him in Sombra’s body. 

“I know you grieve, but this is madness,” Star Swirl said in a worried voice. 

“You hateful old hermit, what do you know of love, loss, or grief?” Sombra said. 

Bucky could feel the pain in the words spoken, and he could feel a terrible sense of loss. 

“There is exactly one pony that I have some shred of concern for,” Star Swirl argued. “And he is going mad. This tomb you have created at the top of the world to freeze and preserve her body, to keep it from rot… it is a wonder you haven’t frozen to death!” 

“I no longer feel the cold,” Sombra said in a dead flat voice. 

“I suppose you do not,” Star Swirl said.

“Sombra, please, talk to me. We are brothers, surely we can still talk,” Star Swirl begged. 

“What is there to say? My own brother thinks I have gone mad,” Sombra growled. 

“You keep coming here! To the top of the world! To this tomb where you placed her body! This is a place that would kill most ponies. All there is up here is ice and death! You made this endless storm of ice up here to keep her body preserved and safe! This violates the natural order!” Star Swirl said in a frantic voice. 

“The top of the world was already covered in ice,” Sombra retorted. 

“You made it worse!” Star Swirl accused. “This is a frozen version of Tartarus!” 

“WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF LOVE?” Sombra screamed. “LEAVE ME BE! I CAME HERE TO BE WITH HER! I WANT TO CRAWL INTO THIS TOMB AND LAY DOWN BESIDE HER, NEVER TO MOVE AGAIN!” 

“Brother, please, be reasonable. Come back with me. Let somepony comfort you. Feel warmth again. Sit by a fire, give in to strong drink like you once did,” Star Swirl pleaded. 

“There is no comfort. There is only death. Once I am done here, I intend to take my legion and push our foes into the ocean along the eastern front,” Sombra replied in a flat monotone. 

“The sisters worry about you my brother. Luna weeps for you and what you have become. She smashed down the door to my tower and gave me a royal command to bring you back to her so that she might talk some sense into you. No other pony could survive making this trip.” Star Swirl stated.

The wind picked up and became a banshee’s wail. Star Swirl shivered under all of his layers of clothing and he leaned into the wind. Bucky, seeing through Sombra’s eyes, could see the tomb. It was a tall spire of rock, beautifully shaped, and covered in writing that Bucky could not make out through the near white out conditions. 

“My brother, I wish I knew how to reach you…” 



 

Lugus squirmed, unsure of himself. He was afraid. He was a creature who was normally not afraid of anything, and because of this, he was not accustomed to coping with fear. He had killed a wyvern, hunted dangerous game, and had even done a nearly impossible task, flying over the ocean from one continent to another, flying to Equestria from Griffonholm. Even during that long voyage which many said was impossible, he had not felt fear. He did not fear death. 

He was terrified of Yew Wood. 

He was currently sitting atop a tower, staring down on to the training field, watching her as she trained in combat. He had no idea of how to approach her. His fascination with ponykind was taking over his life since he had found Peekaboo. 

Living in Equestria had taught him much, and he his odd equine fixation had only grown as he watched them and observed them up close. He had even began to entertain notions of a sexual encounter with one, if one proved willing. To this end, he had endured a painful surgery removing his penile barbs, something many of the good griffons did when they came to Equestria, not wanting to hurt their mates, their griffonesses. It had been something of a fantasy, something he thought about but never thought he would act upon. He had even thought about securing the services of a willing prostitute, but that in the end, he had decided that such an act was beneath him.

Yew Wood was so small and delicate. He could probably completely wrap his talons around her body and touch his claw tips together. She was maybe a third of his size. And she completely terrified him. 

“Perhaps this is a foolish venture,” he muttered to himself. “Like stays with like.” 

He thought about their last encounter. How she had trembled at his touch. The smell of her fear. The way she had looked at him after he had touched her and told her that she was beautiful. She had approached him and she had clearly been terrified of him. 

Lugus realised he was a coward and he clacked his beak together several times. She had been scared out of her mind to approach him but she had. He was scared to approach her… and he wasn’t sure if he could. 



 

Bucky awoke, his dream entirely too fresh within his mind. He gently eased himself free of Bon Bon and Lyra, trying to not disturb them, and he slipped from the bed quietly. Harper was asleep in the straw, snuffling lowly in her slumber, and Bucky felt a strong pang of love for her. Once this was over and they were on their long voyage home, he intended to spoil her into rottenness since he would have nothing better to do on the ship.

After taking care of a bit of personal business, he departed from the room and made his way through the castle, thinking of all of the ways that love could go wrong. He thought of Sombra and his grief. Bucky felt a lump in his throat. He could see a lot of himself in Sombra. He suffered a very dark thought and wondered who might die first among his wives, and then he wondered if the rest would be enough to pull him away from the darkness. He hoped so. It would not be fair to them to slip so far into grief and despair, leaving them grieving for over the loss of a fellow-wife and their husband. 



 

Rising Star brought the hammer down in slow measured strikes. He just wasn’t as skilled as Bucky was, shaping steel like clay, but he could keep it hot and pliable, and he was learning how to strike the steel just so from watching Crush work with iron. The arrowhead he was making actually looked like an arrowhead. The slow steady tapping of the hammer and the methodical approach to the work soothed his mind and made all of his many frustrations fade into the background. 

Rising Star decided that there was no shame in combining magic with brute force, using both magic and blacksmithing tools to get the job done. He felt a sense of pride from Crush admiring his work. 

More importantly, he knew he was learning a fine sense of control, which was something he lacked. Just how much force was necessary to place into each strike. His magic was all about brute force, and he knew that he needed to reign it in. On the deck of The Scorned Mare he was not going to be able to unleash a firestorm lest he set the whole ship on fire. Small controlled bursts. He didn’t want to burn his fellow ponies. 

He carefully shaped the hollow concavity on the end of the arrow head that would be affixed to the shaft and thought about the new griffon archers that would be joining the guard. It was going to further change things around here, both griffons in the guard and archers. The pegasi and earth ponies would finally have a reliable means of range, and airborne archers were an undeniable asset. 

He felt a twinge of frustration when he thought about the fact that Bucky would have flicked a gobbet of raw molten steel into an arrowhead in seconds, and he had been here banging away for a good ten minutes shaping the metal with tools. He drove the frustrating thought from his mind. Instead, he thought of how Crush might feel, watching unicorn effortlessly pound dense steel into submission and not requiring a body full of bulging muscles to do so. 

The thought quickly humbled him and Rising Star felt guilty about even having thought about Bucky and his abilities. 

Rising Star continued his work when he heard Bucky entering the forge, glad that he had pounded a bit of wisdom into himself as he had laboured. 



 

Lugus steeled himself as he approached Yew Wood. She was currently on break, he knew this from his observations. She was still glistening with sweat from earlier and her muscles moved fluidly under her taut pelt. She was a beautiful creature, lithe and supple as the wood she was named after. 

He froze when she looked at him. She was staring at him curiously with her remaining eye affixed upon him. Her posture suggested puzzlement, but he couldn’t be certain. Her wings were flared out slightly from her sides, allowing the breeze to flow above and below her wings, as well as along her ribs, allowing her to cool down. 

Lugus did the same thing when he became too hot. Letting the cool breeze under his wings was one of the many simple pleasures he enjoyed in life. 

“You’ve turned into a statue,” Yew stated. 

Lugus realised he had been standing still and in place for a fair bit of time just staring at the pegasus. He forced his legs to move, shifting his body, and then sitting down. He couldn’t help but feel that this was a mistake as he loomed over the much smaller pegasus. Other ponies were starting to look at him. His tongue felt dry and clung to the inside of his beak. 

“Look, I know why you are here,” Yew said in a soft voice. 

Lugus went to say something, but all that came out was a squawk. His vocal cords were too tense to make the complex sounds for speech. 

“Knight Captain Buckminster’s matriarch Derpy came and told Sour Mash to tell me to be expecting you,” Yew said in a hushed calm voice. “They’re watching you even now. My sisters in battle know why you are here.” 

Lugus squawked again and felt like an idiot. He was a grown griffon but he was squawking like a fledgeling, which was shameful. 

“Derpy came to warn us what to expect. After giving you her advice, she began to worry about how it might look to have a griffon chasing a pony, and she didn’t want the guard being sent out to destroy you for hunting me. She didn’t want any misunderstandings that might get both of us hurt. She is a remarkable mare and I am proud to serve her husband,” Yew explained. 

Lugus nodded in understanding and felt a warm rush of gratitude. He owed the motherly mare his thanks and so much more. He wondered how he could make up his debt to her. 

“Now… there is the matter at hoof. I do believe I am supposed to chase you while my sisters observe protocol and harass you while you flee,” Yew stated. 

Lugus felt his muscles tense. Was this about to really happen? 

“I don’t know what will become of us, but I am curious and more than a bit flattered that you say I am beautiful, and that goes a long way in my mind,” Yew said, looking Lugus directly in the eye. “And the fact that you must have humbled yourself trying to get advice on how to approach me, that touches me.” 

Lugus made another squawk and his crest rose. This was immensely frustrating, being robbed of speech and being turned into a dumb beast. 

“Now Lugus, this is the part where you run and we chase you… Sour Mash says it will be good exercise!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 163
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus the griffon found himself in the odd situation of fleeing from food. His brain screamed at him that this was wrong. He didn’t need to retreat from anything quite so harmless as what was behind him. With no real effort at all he could turn around and lay waste to everything in pursuit of him. 

Another part of his mind exhilarated in the chase, and told him to ignore the other parts of his brain, because it was stupid. Yew was much faster than he was, but she had no depth perception with just one eye. Several mares were flying in formation with her, keeping her safe and on target. Others flew around him, mocking him good naturedly. 

There were also several stallions who were in on the razzing, letting him know exactly what would happen if he harmed their sister in battle, which may or may not have been good natured threats. Lugus didn’t mind, he would have done the same in their position. If anything, he appreciated their vigilance, threatening a super predator his size took guts. 

Lugus soared over the ground as there appeared to be some rules to this game that he did not understand. There were earth ponies chasing him as well. Flying away from them seemed rude somehow. This was a social ritual, something clearly invented by herd animals. Griffons did nothing like this… well, there was chasing, but that was hunting, and it had very different outcomes. 

“Get him girls!” 

Sour Mash didn’t even seem to be breathing hard Lugus realised. He marveled at the earth pony’s endurance. He was beginning to appreciate the different types of ponies he encountered, both here and during his time in Equestria. 

“He’s got stamina, that’s important!” a mare shouted as she rolled crazily through the air, streaking past Lugus and the others and then performing a loop to fall back in beside Lugus mid air. 

“I don’t have anything nasty to say to you and I am sorry… you said Yew was beautiful and that was sweet,” another mare said as she flew past. 

Lugus felt puzzled. In Equestria, most of the ponies had nothing to do with him. He was feared more than anything, or ignored if he was lucky. Here, some of the ponies seemed genuinely friendly, but there were those who had experienced bad encounters with griffons in the past and held bad memories. He bore them no ill will. 

Quite without warning, Lugus reversed his wing strokes and landed, coming down solidly, his bulk landing on the earth with an audible thump, his claws digging into the earth. He turned, his crest rising, as the pegasi circled around him overhead. “My turn,” he said in a low growl. 

Squealing wildly, the pegasi took off in a tightly clustered flock. 



 

“No sign of Lugus, where is he?” Bucky inquired outloud. 

“No clue,” Rising Star replied as he carefully tapped away with a large hammer. 

Bucky rubbed his head with his folded fetlock. “He’s allowed some time to himself. You know what, so are you Rising. Just because I am here doesn’t mean you have to be. Once you finish whatever it is you are crafting, go take a break,” Bucky instructed. 

“But work needs to be done,” Rising Star argued. 

“Yes, but you don’t need to slave away all day. You are young. Go do something nice,” Bucky returned as he rubbed his head. 

“You know Bucky, a smithy is the last place you should be if you have a headache. You haven’t been sleeping enough. You look pretty worn down Bucky,” Rising Star said in a voice full of concern. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky muttered. 

Rising Star looked over at Crush and gave a faint nod. 

Bucky suddenly found himself being shoved out of the smithy by the big earth pony, and in the doorway, a large hoof was planted squarely into his backside, giving him a big push outside. He nearly went sprawling into the courtyard. 

“Oh come on!” Bucky shouted. 

“Don’t worry Crush, as a noble, I give whatever formal pass you need to not get in trouble for tossing Bucky out the door,” Rising Star said with a wry smile. “I don’t know all of the right words, but I have your back.” 

“Rising Star…” Bucky grumbled. 

“If you can’t sleep, at least go do something restful. You look awful Bucky,” Rising Star pleaded. 

From the doorway, Crush nodded and made a grunting sound. 

Rising Star heard Bucky snarl wordlessly and then the gnarled unicorn exploded, leaving behind a layer of frost over everything and snowflakes swirling through the air. 

“Is he back in the forge?” Rising Star asked. 

Crush turned around and checked the smithy, and then turned back to Rising Star, shaking his head “no” as he did so. The big earth pony looked relieved. 

“Don’t let him back in for today… wait, is the orb in there?” Rising Star asked. 

Crush shook his head again and Rising Star took a deep breath of relief. 

“Well, that’s good then. I am going to mess around for a bit, maybe watch Ripple do her thing for a while, and then I’ll be back to hammer out some more arrowheads because I find it is really relaxing,” Rising Star stated. 



 

As Bucky walked, he sulked. His mind was full of all kinds of thoughts that were to jumbled up to deal with. He was a bit peeved about being tossed out and told to go and rest. He cleared the gatehouse and emerged into the meadow just outside the castle, and the small town spread about the walls. 

The air was filled with laughter and pegasi, which were flying in a tight knit formation. Behind them was something large. Bucky wasn’t sure what it was, and he peered, trying to see in the bright daylight. It clearly wasn’t threatening, but he couldn't make out what it was. 

And then, he realised it was Lugus. Bucky watched as the flock of pegasi whooshed past and then the giant griffon whizzed by. The giggling gaggle of pegasi mares and the lone griffon were being chased by a sizeable herd of earth ponies, led by Sour Mash. 

The earth ponies came to a skidding halt, quickly formed ranks, and then stood at attention when they saw Bucky. Sour Mash raised her hoof to her eye in a salute.

“Knight Captain Bitters,” Sour Mash said with a smile. 

“Buck Sergeant Sour Mash,” Bucky said in reply. He slowly raised his foreleg up into a salute in return, and then sat down in the grass. “What is going on here?” 

“A chase sir. The griffon is chasing after a mare named Yew Wood,” Sour Mash reported. 

“Oh my,” Bucky sighed. 

“Your matriarch Derpy told us to indulge in this activity,” Sour Mash explained. 

“I see,” Bucky said. 

“Wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings that might get somepony or a griffon hurt,” Sour Mash continued. 

“She really is everypony’s mother,” Bucky said. 

“Well, I’d be proud to call her my mama,” Sour Mash stated. “If you will forgive me for being so blunt sir.” 

“Sir?” a mare asked. 

“Yes?” Bucky answered. 

“My name is Bunny. If she is everypony’s mother, what does that make you?” Bunny inquired in a soft sweet voice. 

Bucky jerked his head back in surprise and looked at Bunny, causing a murmur to travel through the crowd. “I am just a pony. I am here to defend you and try and do what is right for you,” he answered slowly, hoping that his reply was fitting. 

“Sounds like something a father would say,” a mare interjected. 

“Mmm hmm,” another mare agreed. 

Bucky didn’t like where this was going. Father, prince, alicorn, all of these not so subtle hints and nudges about some great responsibility. Feeling bad for doing it, he teleported himself away to another location, unable to face any further reminders of some greater destiny, leaving behind frost and snowflakes in a wide area around his point of departure. 



 

Lugus smoothed out his feathers in his beak and watched as Yew Wood did the same a short distance away. He was aware that she was looking back at him. The flock of pegasi had departed, all except for one mare who sat a fair distance away, watching. Lugus supposed it was probably military protocol to not leave a fellow soldier alone. 

He thought briefly about Peekaboo, but knew that she was safe and secure. 

Lugus felt his breath quicken as Yew approached him, she drew closer timidly, until she was quite close. Her head low and her posture radiating submission, her ears back and her own wings drooping, she cautiously extended her head and gently drew his wingtip into her lips, where she began to shyly tend to one of the central primary feathers. 

Lugus had always wondered how pegasi preened their feathers with those soft smooshy lips of theirs. He was intrigued. And somewhat aroused. He could feel little tingles coursing through his wing and up and down his spine from the unexpected touch. Aware of the fact that he had only recently honed his beak to a razor’s edge, he carefully took a feather of hers into his beak, wrapped his tongue around it, and pulled it straight and clean, starting out at the downy barbs, sliding over the afterfeathers, and then sliding along the siffer barbs that extended from the rachis. Her feathers were flawless, immaculate, perfect. There was no debris to remove from the barbs. 

The mutual preening continued and Lugus began to see that they weren’t so different. 

It wasn’t long before they were sitting close enough to be touching, and Lugus realised that they were alone, the lone watcher now gone. 

“What is griffon courtship like?” Yew asked as she lifted her head. Her lips were waxy and glistened with moisture from her efforts. 

“Among my caste, we do things by contract with the bigger more powerful females. Breeding gives them wealth, power, and bodyguards. A male griffon wanting young purchases a contract from a willing female, and she sells him a few years of her life. The details are discussed and terms are agreed upon. Once everything is settled, they breed. Depending on the terms, she may or may not provide care for the cub. If she has twins, the father may have to pay a ransom for the second cub. Very wealthy males might pay for a lifetime contract,” Lugus replied. 

“That seems different…” Yew responded. 

“Not all griffons are this way, just the ones I come from. There are griffons who believe in more traditional marriage, but they are seen as weak and spineless,” Lugus said in a low voice. 

“What do you believe?” Yew inquired. 

“I am no longer sure what I believe in anymore. I used to know. And then everything in my life felt wrong. I do not know what to feel or what to do think anymore,” Lugus admitted. 

“I am willing to discuss a contract with you,” Yew offered. 

“But we are just getting to know each other,” Lugus replied. 

“The day I married my first husband was also the first time I had met him,” Yew patiently answered. “I was traded for a plow and a few sacks of dried peas.” 

“Surely you were worth much more than that,” Lugus said in an indignant reply. 

“What would you give for me?” Yew asked in a very blunt fashion. 

“I am a pauper,” Lugus replied. “But I do not deny that you are desirable. I would go to war for you, claim plunder-” 

“Ssh, that’s enough of that,” Yew interrupted. “I have but a few demands if we were to create a contract. I want a loving husband this time. One who is affectionate and kind. One who is an active and involved father. Like how you are with Peekaboo. And I want for you to show me the same type of affection that you give Peekaboo. In exchange, I am willing to give you foals. Cubs. Whatever they will be. I understand that they will be crossbreeds. I can accept that.” 

“This is very sudden and forward,” Lugus stated. 

“Life is short and ends suddenly,” Yew said in reply. “How about we spend the next few days just doing what we are doing now and see what happens? I want some kind of future to hope for. Soon, very soon, there is going to be a battle and I need something to fight for. I need a reason to see my way through all of this fear. So before that battle starts, hopefully we can come to an understanding.” 

Lugus, feeling bold, pulled the pegasus close to him and closed his wing around her, as he had watched some of the pegasi around him do. “I am glad that I have came to these isles. I have met some of the most important beings in my life here,” he said as he felt the small mare lean up against him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 164
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The late afternoon sun shone down and there was an unmistakable sense of elation in the air. It was like the first day of spring after a particularly harsh and brutal winter, just knowing that the worst was over. After a bit of lunch and a short nap, Bucky had donned his armor after having to plead with Crush to get into the smithy to retrieve it. 

The lower power mode allowed him to move with very little mana expenditure at all, but he was slow. He walked with practical mechanical efficiency. He had done much to silence the armor both inside and out, the sound dampening spells were now working. Walking over stone no longer produced metallic thumps. 

Regular walking worked well, but any variation took serious effort. Walking on three legs required lot of concentration. The armor wanted to use the fourth leg. It was almost like wearing a golem around him that was semi-autonomous. The black glass visor blocked out sunlight and ultraviolet rays, protecting him and his faint shadow nature. He felt stronger in the suit, like he felt when it was night time. With a bit of enchanting, he planned to use the glass in the visor as a means of focus for his eyelight, turning the beam into a high powered well focused spotlight by shining it through the visor. That would take photon manipulation though, and that was tough work. 

“Okay Bucky… that boulder up ahead. Dig your hind legs in. Use those claws for traction. Launch your self at it, turn your head away, and strike it with your front shoulder. Use your armor’s mass and momentum as a weapon,” Lugus instructed as he circled overhead. The large griffon seemed to be in a good mood. “And once you hit the boulder, the very moment you land and your hooves hit the ground, whirl around and strike it with your rear hips or your tail. This is the follow through. A staggered opponent can be knocked over this way,” the griffon explained as he made elaborate gestures with his talons. 

“Got it,” Bucky replied in a hollow mechanical voice. 

Bucky picked up speed, crouched low, dug in his hind hooves and claws, and then launched himself in a clumsy leap attack. He soared forwards, his forelegs tucked under his body, and he turned his head at the last moment. He struck the boulder with terrific force, enough to shatter several small pieces loose, and when he landed, he turned about suddenly, causing his tail to slam into the boulder, which worked loose a few more pieces of stone. 

“That was not awful,” Lugus stated in a flat unimpressed voice. 

“It felt clumsy. My body is so much larger now. And things don’t move the way they should. Walking and running seem to be fine, my armor is practically self aware when it comes to that, but this took a complex series of moves,” Bucky replied. 

“I know nothing of what you speak. This self powered armor baffles me. I would rather have a suit of steel plate that I power,” Lugus said as he circled a dozen feet overhead. 

Bucky backed off from the boulder, moving quite some distance away from it, turned around, pawed the earth, braced himself, and then launched himself once again. He soared majestically, flying in an arc, but this time, he did not turn away his head or slam into the big stone with his shoulder. Whipping himself around mid air, he slammed the rock with his tail as he went zipping past and then landed on the ground with a thud. 

Bucky could not help but notice that Lugus looked impressed. 

“That was an improvement. You should try that again. And keep doing it,” Lugus suggested. 

“I wonder if I can do that griffon move where I latch my front claws into something and use my hind claws to tear its guts out,” Bucky said, expressing his curiousity. 

“All big cats do that, it really is not so much a griffon thing. It is an instinct,” Lugus stated. 

“Sentinel does it when he is attacking a big fish. He’ll hug his forelegs around his prey and then kick the stuffing out of it with his hind hooves,” Bucky said as he moved away from the boulder. 

“I like Sentinel. He understands honour, or at least tries to do so. He will grow up to become a great pony. Perhaps he will be a knight like us,” Lugus stated. “This time, as you run past, don’t leap, stand on your front legs, swivel around, and tail smash.” 

“Coming to terms with being a knight and running away from your duties?” Bucky asked as he bent and flexed his legs. 

“Trying to. I did not fail my king, my king failed me. I have been thinking lately about my knighthood and what it means to me. I do not know what I am sometimes,” Lugus admitted. 

“I was born to my position and I had always believed it worthless. Then my eyes opened a bit and I saw it from another perspective, and then I saw it as unicorn injustice. And then, I came here to this place, and I gained wisdom. Or I think I did. I still have moments of doubt, but I do see the hope that it has brought to the ponies here. A born knight come to rescue them from darkness,” Bucky said in his mechanical voice. 

“We have those born to knighthood in my homeland. Most do not deserve it. Very wealthy sons of the high nobility and kings. Most are drunkards and rapists. And they use their authority to kill those who dare speak of them as drunkards or rapists,” Lugus replied. 

“Mmm, I like drinking, but I am too much of a wooer and a screwer to be a rapist,” Bucky grunted as he charged. He surged forwards, his legs pumping like pistons, and as he neared the stone, he braced his front legs into the ground, pivoted on them, swung his tail mightily… 

And missed completely. 


“Well nuts,” Bucky growled as he recovered, getting all four hooves back down upon the ground. “As for rapists,” he muttered. “We have laws back in Equestria that prohibit some unicorns from being tried as rapists… well in special circumstances. There are still laws on the books that allow highborn unicorn nobles the right of primae noctis with earth ponies and pegasi, and under very special circumstance, other unicorns,” he finished. 

“We call it droit de ravage and I find it abhorrent,” Lugus said, snapping his beak together when he was done speaking to emphasise his point. “One of the many reasons why I did not look back as I fled.” 

Bucky was circling the rock now, walking with a stiff mechanical gait, swinging his tail from side to side and trying to get a feel for how his body moved. “Be the knight you were meant to be with me Lugus, I cannot change the world alone,” Bucky asked. 

“You are my chief, I will do as you ask,” Lugus replied. 

Bucky wound himself up and let go, smashing his tail into the stone and busting a large chunk free. He struck again, reversed his tail slap and broke off more stone. “When I go home, I intend to make certain things right. I guess some of my work is done for me, from what I’ve heard about the collapse, but when I get done it is my plan to completely destroy the Canterlot way of life,” Bucky growled from within his helmet. “I didn’t just make this armor for battling shadow wolves and their master, I made this armor to do battle with other unicorns if it comes down to it. Still working out the finer points of how to bring down thousands of unicorns without harming them.” 

“This is why I will follow you into Tartarus if necessary. Not only do you plan to bring down thousands of unicorns, but you intend to do it without harming them. Simply taking on thousands of unicorns in battle was not challenge enough for Bucky Bitters,” Lugus said in an amused voice. 

“With the way my life is turning out, a trip into Tartarus might become a reality,” Bucky stated in an angry bitter voice. He turned his backside towards the stone and bucked out with his hind legs, delivering an explosive impact to the boulder. It cracked in half and seemed to offer up a stony silent admission of defeat. “We need another stone.” 



 

Keg Smasher watched as the griffons worked to make bows. There were wood shavings everywhere. A call had gone out for every available pegasus feather that could be offered to make fletchings for arrows. 

He felt that integrating the griffons into the guard had been a good move. Already, there were mares in the guard, and that more than anything else was creating change upon the isles. And now, griffons. Keg Smasher felt a silent sense of pride. Equestria, for all of its greatness, had only males in its guard and Celestia had stated that she would never allow griffons into the ranks. 

The isles were actually somewhat more socially progressive than mainland Equestria, and that made Keg Smasher feel pretty good about himself. 

Airborne archers would be a great tactical advantage and would keep his ponies safe. 

He heard the fluttering of wings and saw a grey blur in the corner of his vision. He turned to see a smiling grey pegasus. “Where are your foals?” Keg Smasher asked good naturedly. 

“With Berry Punch and Thistle. Dinky is practicing magic and getting ready for the big fight,” Derpy replied as she settled in next to Keg Smasher. “How are you? How is your cracked hoof?” 

“I am still recovering, I can’t lie. Still having trouble walking on my hoof, but I only have three legs now. Don’t have much of a choice,” Keg Smasher answered. “Any day now, there is going to be a call to fight and take back the night.” 

“I know,” Derpy said. “Bucky wants us to try and move to a more nocturnal pattern of sleep within the next few days.” 

“I’ve called off active full body contact training to give my troops time to heal up and be well rested. There was quite a cheer when I did that,” Keg Smasher stated. 

“I could imagine,” Derpy said in reply. 

“Your daughter Sparkler, I am told she has turned into quite a scrapper. Sour Mash and the others have not gone easy on her. I suspect that when she takes on her stone form, she is going to be a formidable defensive juggernaut. I’d like to see her in battle, but I will not be there,” Keg Smasher said sadly. 

“It actually brings me comfort as a mother to know that my daughter is trained to take care of herself and she has the defensive abilities that she does,” Derpy said as she reached out and stroked Keg Smasher with a wingtip to comfort him. 

“Every mother’s dream is having her daughter safe, free from danger, violence, and rape,” Keg Smasher said bluntly. 

“Yeah,” Derpy replied in a soft strained voice. 

“Eh, sorry lass, I find my words growing blunter and blunter as I grow old,” Keg Smasher apologised. 

“But it is true,” Derpy said in return. “Every mother wants that. Or I would hope. There are bad mothers and I would very much like to kick them.” Derpy thought about one bad mother particular that she wouldn’t mind kicking into a greasy spot on the ground. 

“Deadspin says that Sparkler is a brute. She’s a lot like us pegasi. We turn hard in battle when our blood boils and she can turn to stone. She’s just as solid as we are, all she needs is wings. She even acts like a pegasus Deadspin tells me. Make her mad and she goes stiff legged,” Keg Smasher said with a chuckle. 

Derpy thought about how badly Sparkler wanted to be a pegasus at one point in her life and she smiled, realising in some small way, Sparkler had her wish granted. Sparkler was growing into a secure, mature, self confident young mare, and Derpy could feel herself filling with pride. Quite without realising it, her barrel puffed out, she threw out her chest, spread her wings slightly, held her head high, and looked very much like a proud pegasus parent. 

“I can see why Buckminster loves you. If you will forgive me for being so forward, you are beautiful when you allow yourself moments like these,” Keg Smasher said to the puffed out pegasus beside him. 

Derpy let out a small gasp but she did not deflate. 

“We are pegasi. We were made to strut. It is in our nature. Once, when I still lived on the mainland, I saw a peacock. I watched it for quite some time. I decided that I wanted to be a peacock. I was still a young colt you see… so I became a peacock,” Keg Smasher said as he smiled. 

“What happened? I mean after you tried being a peacock?” Derpy asked. 

“I got noble ideas. My strutting made my head big. Other pegasi got sick of my strutting and tried to beat me down a bit, I was entirely too successful with the fillies. I discovered I was good at violence. I started getting big dreams. And then, I decided that it was time to really strut my stuff,” Keg Smasher answered. “So I came here, to this place, to find my ancestral roots. I found a nightmare. I gathered others loyal to me and we hid inside of kegs. We were delivered to a wedding feast that the current laird was having. I popped up out of my keg along with all of the others, and together, we slew every noble in the castle. I beat the laird to death in front of his own wives, and then I killed them too. I knew what they had done and the sort of mares they were. The laird was lucky they hadn’t poisoned him like some of them had poisoned the previous laird, if rumours were to be believed,” he explained. 

“Oh… that’s awful,” Derpy said as she scowled. 

“We had to completely eliminate the noble families, all of them, and start over. Every last member,” Keg Smasher said regretfully. “You know, if you ever want to see any real social change in Equestria, some of you might have to gather together and do the same. I know Bucky wants to see the end of his own House. And he’d be right to kill every last one of those worms. I know he won’t do it, but he’d be right to do it if he did. Would be bloody ironic, House Avarice all slain by one of their own armigers. Wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it either, I mean, it is his right by birth to kill ponies for their crimes. He could just sit back once the last body falls and invoke his right for retribution. The big dame Celestia and the little dame Luna wouldn’t be able to do anything about it but give him a hateful look. If they prosecuted him regardless, they’d look like bloody hypocrites for not prosecuting House Avarice during these long thousand years for the crimes they’ve committed.”

Derpy nodded, only partially understanding what was being said. “Putting Bucky on trial for slaughtering his own house would make them look bad, when they should have put House Avarice on trial for all for the things they have done,” she said, rolling the thought around inside of her mind. 

“Yes. If House Avarice can exercise its birthrights why can’t Bucky? It would be seen as selective enforcement of the law. All of this is wasting our breath though. Bucky swore that he’d never bring harm to another pony,” Keg Smasher grumbled. “And while I respect him for it, I can’t help but feel that he is wasting a fine opportunity.” 

“I hate to say this, I mean, I really hate to say this, but I think I agree with you. Does that make me a terrible wife? I do kind of wish that Bucky would just kill them all. I know that he could. At the same time, I can’t bear to think what so many acts of killing would do to him… I feel awful for even saying it now,” Derpy said fretfully. “He doesn’t sleep well anymore. He jumps out of his skin at the slightest sounds. I worry for him.” 

“For the rest of your life, you are going to have a burden. No doubt, once all of this is over, Bucky is going to be hurt in the sorts of places where most ponies can’t see. He’s already something of a cripple. I get the feeling that this is going to finish him off and the inside is going to match the outside. And it is going to fall upon you, being the strong pegasus you are, to carry him for the rest of his life,” Keg Smasher said solemnly.

“I can carry him. I will carry him if it comes down to that, and I will never complain, not after what he has done for me and everything he has given me and so many others… this is going to break him, isn’t it?” Derpy replied. 

“I fear so lass… I fear so.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 165
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I call it Chieftain’s Fury," Bucky announced in a low sonorous and solemn voice as he set the massive hook-axe down upon the table before Lugus, now in its finished form. “There are some sunstones embedded in it, they will provide light in the darkest of places and times. It will cleave through steel or stone effortlessly. I have made a sheath for it that will hold the blade, it would cut through a regular steel and leather sheath upon contact. You must take serious care to never touch the edge of the blade, it will cost you parts of your body that you will miss.” 

Lugus looked at the axe and felt quite humbled. This far exceeded any expectations that he had. It was black steel, just like Bucky’s armor. There was no shine upon the metal. It looked menacing. The axe blade was shaped like the crescent moon, and several stars secured the crescent into place. The hook on the other side was wicked looking, and had a barbed tip. 

“It is feather light, but will strike with the force of a hurled mountain. If you throw it, it will teleport back into your talons. Eventually, this magic will run out and it will need time in the sun to recharge. Each throw it will take a little longer for it to return. The portion of your blood I took from you has bonded the weapon to you. It will only function in your grasp. After much debate, I have decided against making it hurt strangers, that would be too risky, but if any try to use it, it will fumble from their grip and be quite unmanageable,” Bucky explained. 

“Thank you my friend,” Lugus said in a small humbled voice. 

“Think nothing of it,” Bucky said. “Ripple, come here,” he commanded. 

Ripple, who had been sitting quietly this whole time, came forward, approaching the table. She smiled a soft smile and her hooves clicked and clacked upon the stone floor. 

“These are yours,” Bucky stated as he placed four war shoes upon the table. “They are articulated, the metal plates are hinged to allow for some movement. There is bound to be a little restriction, but they will bind your fetlocks and keep them safe from breaking. The guards will keep your cannon bones from harm. Like Lugus’ axe, they are feather light and enchanted for striking. They have been enchanted with cold, my cold, a portion of my own essence, a bit of my life force. Your foes will feel the chill of the grave. Even the wolves, if I did everything right. The cold will slow your enemies, maybe even freeze some smaller weaker enemies solid. Striking them a second time will make a frozen enemy shatter like glass. With your blood, I have bonded them to you. They will grow with you, and will always fit. They also have sunstones embedded in them. In the presence of dark foes, they will ignite and light your way.” 

“Thank you father,” Ripple said. She bounced in place for a moment, unsure of what to do, and then she pounced, wrapping her forelegs around Bucky’s neck and planting dozens of kisses all over the good side of his face. 

Bucky patiently waited for her burst of enthusiastic affection to end, smiling faintly. It was worth every minute of effort placed into the shoes. When she finally worked her need to be affectionate out of her system and sat back down, Bucky took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “Keep Rising Star safe Ripple. He has powerful offense, but I worry. I have debated about taking time to make another suit of armor, and Rising Star doesn’t have the fine level of magical control needed to handle powered plate. And I don’t think he is strong enough to move around in standard plate. It has been a troubling decision that I hope I do not regret later. I still remember our war council… everypony was worried about keeping you safe.” 

“Those sideburns that are taking over your cheeks make it difficult to kiss you,” Ripple said, and then she let out a fillyish giggle of happiness. “They’ve crept down your muzzle now and are almost to the corners of your mouth.” 

Bucky rolled his eye. Fillies. 

“So, Lugus’ axe has a name, but my shoes don’t?” Ripple asked. 

“Oh, the weapon has a name,” Bucky replied. 

“It does? What is it?” Ripple inquired. 

“I call her Ripple,” Bucky answered. 



 

“Bucky, I dunno about those sideburns,” Berry Punch said as she reclined against Bucky. 

“Everypony keeps talking about them,” Bucky muttered. 

“They tickle the inside of my thighs,” Berry stated, making everypony in the room go completely silent. Even the foals fell quiet. “What, they do…” 

“Berry Punch,” Derpy sighed in exasperation. 

“Berry is right, they do tickle the inside of my thighs,” Thistle said in a low coquettish voice as she began to blush. 

“Well this is going in my journal,” Sentinel muttered. 

“Sentinel, no! Be a good colt for mama!” Derpy begged. 

“Derpy isn’t complaining,” Berry Punch wickedly observed. 

“Well, I like being tickled,” Derpy confessed. She paused for a moment and then realised what she had said. “Berry! Shush! You are Berry perverted!” 

“This whole conversation is just awkward,” Sparkler stated. 

“Sure is,” Loch Skimmer agreed. 

“I dunno, there have been worse conversations,” Ripple interjected. 

“We all have to stay up all night,” Rising Star muttered. 

“We made it though last night,” Piña said, poking Rising Star in the side. “You’re getting thinner like daddy,” she observed. 

“Been using a lot of magic at the forge,” Rising Star said as he gently prodded Piña back. “You used to be pudgier… what is your excuse?” 

“I dunno,” Piña replied while shrugging. 

“We’re all a little thinner,” Dinky said as she looked up from her book. 

“Stress most likely,” Berry said dismissively. 

“Harper has gotten fatter,” Lyra said. 

“She has,” Bon Bon agreed. 

“Foals should be pudgy,” Derpy said as she pulled Thistle closer. 

“I dunno, I kinda like my mares a little pudgy,” Bucky stated. 

“Bucky!” Derpy scolded.

“Here here!” Rising Star said in support of Bucky. 

“Rising!” Ripple scolded, sounding a bit like Derpy when she did. 

“More cushion for the pu-mmmshing!” 

“Oh that’s enough of you,” Berry said as she covered Bucky’s mouth with her fetlock. 

Bucky pushed her leg away and turned his head to look at her. “You taste like Thistle,” he muttered. 

Berry Punch turned a much darker shade of plumb all over her face and neck. 

“She goosed me!” Thistle said in her own defense before anypony else could say anything. 

Sentinel rolled his eyes and began to scratch away inside of his journal. Tonight looked as though it would be promising, and Sentinel was looking forward to practicing his wordcraft. He was surrounded by witty adults and printing down their words was sure to improve his vocabulary. 

“Must have been a juicy goosey,” Derpy whispered into Thistle’s ear. 

“Mom!” Sparkler protested. 

“I dunno, how juicy was this goosey? I’m kinda curious,” Loch stated. 

“Loch Skimmer!” Sparkler said, grabbing the pegasus next to her and squeezing her around her neck gently. “You do not encourage parents to talk about the disgusting things they do to each other!” 

“But we do disgusting things to one another too,” Loch Skimmer argued. 

“Oh this conversation has gone sour,” Derpy groaned. 

“Sure has,” Sentinel agreed as he scritched and scratched away. “Juicy goosey. Ugh!” he said with a shudder of revulsion. “And my itchy healing ear is driving me crazy.” 

“Don’t scratch at it my little cuddlebug,” Lyra said. 

Sentinel set down his pencil and looked at Lyra, his face a blank expression. One nostril flared slightly, which spoke volumes in pegasus-speak. He picked up his pencil and went back to writing. 

“What did I say?” Lyra asked. 



 

Lugus settled down into the straw and pressed his head up against Peekaboo, who cooed in response. Beside him, Yew was laying on her belly with her head raised. 

“Do you think he is ready?” Yew asked. 

“Ready or not, he is committed. We act soon,” Lugus responded without opening his beak. 

“I still find it strange you can talk without moving your beak,” Yew said. 

Lugus did not reply, but delighted in the sensation of Peekaboo squirming beside his face. He could feel her stubby little legs kicking as she lay upon her back, fussing and fighting. 

Yew leaned over and rested her head upon the back of Lugus’ broad neck, which was as large as her barrel. “This is nice… I mean, this just feels good to be near somepony, er, some other being as you lay down and go to sleep." 

“It is nearly dawn. Try to sleep as long as you can,” Lugus said gently. “We must prepare to go forth at night and do our dirty work my little bird. There are vermin to kill, and I loathe vermin.” 



 

Bucky looked over his armor, which was finished. The last addition was a five gallon keg, also done in black steel, designed to hold whiskey, and lots of it. Upon the keg were several racks to hold spell jars. It was an armor worthy of Sombra. Sure, it was modern, thoroughly modern and sleek, but Sombra could appreciate it for the finely tuned instrument of death dealing that it was. 

The last and final enchantment had been on the tail, and it now sought out enemies of hostile intent when he swung it, pulling him towards whatever he was fighting. The self targeting feature was Rising Star’s idea, after learning that arrowheads could be enchanted to find enemies once fired. Bucky tended to be complex while Rising Star favoured a simple practical approach. 

One thousand spell jars had been loaded on board The Scorned Mare.  Fifty racks of twenty each. Some were for the wolves. The rest were for their return home, just in case things got a little out of hoof. Keg Smasher had already told Bucky who he backed if the homecoming went sour, and while they were going to be away, the isles were going to be gearing up for an invasion, and the preparations were beginning now. 

The Scorned Mare was loaded down with provisions for the long trip as well, dry goods mostly, and booze. There was a lot of alcohol on board. The crew quarters below decks had been finished and the fisherpony pegasi had woven netted hammocks for the crew to sleep in. 

Summer would soon end and the fall would be upon them. Wolves had returned to the Isle of Groats. Dinky had thinned out their numbers a bit, but the wolves from other isles had been called back, going from one isle to another by whatever means they traveled. 

Crush had a new hammer, a new anvil, and several surprising enchantments done to his smithy. All debts had been paid and then some. Bucky had found a clever way to smelt steel outside of his own magic, creating a rather simple solar foundry and a couple of overpowered sunstones. It could only produce steel in small batches, an ingot or two at a time, but it was functional. Armor was already being hammered into shape by Crush and his assistants. It was crude and simple, but of a time tested and proven design. Rising Star had offered a portion of his own life essence to help power the foundry and Bucky had carefully woven an enchantment worthy of Rising Star’s sacrifice. 



 

Tonight, they would begin. The time of preparation was over. Several long weeks of making ready were now over and now was the time of proving. Bucky felt safe and secure in his plan. The Scorned Mare would be well defended high overhead. He would be safe inside of a moving fortress of magical might. 

Lyra’s spells of detection and location would allow them to hunt down wolf packs and exterminate them with impunity. She was well attuned to their signature now, she would find them and Bucky would kill them all. 

His family was asleep all around him, and Bucky found that he could not sleep. The room was darkened, the light from the window blocked out, and everything that he loved was all piled into the bed all around him, except for Berry Punch, who was in the straw with Harper. 

Alone in the dark, Bucky continued his vigil. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 166
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dinky Doo Hooves sat upon her mother’s back and waited for the sun to settle below the horizon. Her stomach was full of butterflies. She was absolutely terrified, but then so was everypony else, and she could sense it. The deck was full of ponies, mostly pegasi and a fair number of earth ponies were there as guards. Dinky and her mother stood in the center where it would be well lit, along with Berry Punch, Bon Bon, and Lyra. Secured in a protective magical bubble was Harper, magically tethered close to Lyra’s side. Lugus and Yew Wood stood near Derpy, and Lugus had his axe strapped across his back. Rising Star, Sparkler, and Ripple stood off in a small cluster together, and her father paced the deck wearing his terrifying black armor. Deadspin and Sour Mash stood near the front of the deck together, both were wearing simple armor. 

“We’ll not be fighting over the Isle of Groats tonight. Instead, we are departing for the outer isles. Our purpose tonight is to let ponies see us, a shining light in the night sky. If we do encounter anything, we will engage. Everybody knows the plan. Pegasi push the craft through the sky, the others form protective ranks around Knight Captain Bitter’s family and keep them safe should we be boarded. Everypony does what needs to be done and we should all live through this and have stories to tell our foals,” Deadspin said, giving a fine speech to motivate his troops. 

“Ladies, do me proud. I ain’t one for speeches. We got something to prove, so no fecking up. We’ve been given a chance that even the mares back in mainland Equestria don’t have, so let’s prove to everypony that we can fight just like the big stallions and we ain’t helpless little whiny milksop fillies. We have foals on board, and most of us know what losing one feels like, so lets make sure we put a stop to it,” Sour Mash said to her mares and fillies. 

There were a few cheers and a couple of bellows. The mood was festive, and the multicoloured sunstones shining along the deck and along the rails added to the mood. Brightly lit glass globes that shone with warm sunny yellow light covered the rails and were secured along the underside of the gasbag. The deck of the ship would be as bright as day, and any shadow wolf teleporting aboard would be forced to materialise along the deck railing. 

“No one is to leave the deck of this ship under any circumstance,” Bucky instructed. “I will be the only pony on the ground. I will act as bait to draw them into the open. If my hunch is right, they will not be able to help themselves. The wolves for all of their apparent cunning, are still mindless creatures. They will sense that I am a unicorn and I am their prefered target. I do believe they will come for me even though they will no longer have the means to be able to hurt me,” he explained in a cold mechanical voice through his helmet. “When the opportunity presents itself, I will send up a flare as an indicator that somepony to drop ordinance upon my location. Do not worry about harming me, I am well protected from the magical bursts contained in the spell jars. Rising Star, if I send up a series of five flares, you are to stand along the edge and rain down fire upon my location. We’ve tested this, so have no fear of harming me.” 

“Yes sir,” Rising Star replied. 

Bucky removed the tether and secured it into a nook designed to hold it. He looked around, his armor glowing with a blue-green field and his visor glowing with a pale green light. “We depart.” 



 

“This is boring,” Dinky said as she stifled a yawn. She shifted on her mother’s back. She expected a lot more excitement. So far, all they had done was soared through the night. It was nice to see stars again though, Dinky realised. 

“Such is the nature of battle young master Dinky Doo. Long periods of boredom interspersed by soiling yourself in terror,” Deadspin said dryly in reply. 

“I still want to know how daddy plans to get down to the ground from up here. He may have made his armor light, but it still has mass, and teleporting that much mass is going to burn through his mana reserves,” Dinky said in a low quiet voice. She could feel her mother shrugging beneath her. 

“I don’t know Dinks,” Derpy said. 

“Look, the moon!” Dinky cried, seeing the moon slowly rising over the horizon. “Been so long since I have seen it through anything other than a window.” 

“Sure is pretty,” Berry remarked. “Poor Sentinel. I bet he’d love to be out here. If we were boarded by wolves though and the lights reacted, they’d burn him.” 

“He is safe in the cabin with Thistle, Loch Skimmer, and the others. I am sure that he is being a dutiful guardian for Peekaboo,” Rising Star said as he shifted his weight from his right hooves to his left hooves. 

“I am still not detecting any shadow creatures out and about,” Lyra reported. “I only have two signatures. One is on the deck with us and the other is in the cabin. Feels weird to detect them.” 

“We will be passing over Isle Fishhead soon,” Deadspin announced. 

“I was born there,” Bon Bon said wistfully. 

“Wait, are we over the ocean right now?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes young master Dinky Doo,” Deadspin replied. 

“Over the deep water?” Dinky said, her voice sounding a bit panicked. 

“We’ll be fine Dinky, don’t be afraid,” Derpy said soothingly. 

“I… I am not afraid for myself… just Thistle. If something were to happen, the sea water would kill her,” Dinky said in a pained voice. 

“Nothing will happen Stinky Dinks. Father made this ship to protect his valuables, and Thistle is very dear to him, just like you are and the rest of us,” Sparkler said, trying to comfort her sister. 



 

There was a suggestion of dawn just over the horizon, and a large heavily wooded isle was beneath them. There was a series of freshwater lochs and the map suggested that there may be some rather feral kelpies living way out here, but it was not known for certain. There were so few left. 

Bucky looked down at the map and then raised his head to look at the horizon. “The pegasi have to be getting tired even with alternating shifts. We’ll find a spot to tether around here. Once the sun properly rises, we will relax our guard a bit, have a bit of rest and relaxation upon the ground, and I think I might send Thistle after some fish for me. And then it is back to the ship to sleep. We’ll keep a guard posted, everybody knows their shifts. We will begin again once the sun begins to settle. There are four isles very close together, and Pine Isle is the largest of them all. There are a few ponies living out this way, including a logging camp and a pitch processing camp. We will ask them what they know about the area and if they have heard howls.” 

“We covered far more territory in one night than I thought we would,” Deadspin stated. “I thought it would take two nights for certain to get out this far with a ship this size.” 

“We had a good tail wind,” a pegasus reported. 

“And the ship really is light. It requires no effort to move it. I think one pegasus could probably push it around, but it would be slow,” another pegasus chimed in. 

“I have slain the dragon of boredom,” Sour Mash muttered as she prodded her cousin Berry Punch. 

“I’ve been wondering for the past few hours if we could just strap a few pegasi to the back and feed them oatmeal until they were ready to burst. We could be the first ship powered by pegasus farts,” Berry Punch said to Sour Mash. The two earth ponies began to laugh riotously with one another and there were several chortles from all around them on deck. 

Derpy giggled and she felt Dinky squirming on her back. The foal had stayed awake all night, and had been surprisingly alert. 

“I want to get down,” Dinky begged.

“Okay Dinky, it’s dawning,” Derpy consented. 

Dinky slid off of her mother’s back and landed on the deck with a thud. She stretched her legs and walked around in a circle, and several earth pony mares closed ranks around her. She was thankful for the mares, their need to protect her, and she smiled up at them as she walked the kinks out of her legs. 



 

Derpy settled in next to her husband, ready to sleep the day away. She wrapped her forelegs around his neck, hauled him in for a sloppy kiss, and then pulled away with a wet sounding smack, leaving the unicorn stallion with a wet slobbery smile. 

He tasted of fish and a faint hint of whiskey. 

As she watched, he was pulled in for another kiss, this time by Berry Punch, whose lips lingered over his for just a little longer. She didn’t pull away immediately, but rather gave a tug to his bottom lip and then let go only when it slid free of her puckered lips. 

Derpy smiled. She wanted Bucky happy. 

Thistle moved in for another kiss, her third or fourth this morning from what Derpy had seen. Derpy did not begrudge her, for fetching his breakfast, Thistle deserved those kisses. 

“I feel like the foals should be in bed with us,” Berry stated in an uncertain voice. 

“They are safe and secure in their rooms,” Derpy stated. 

“Room. You know that Dinky and Piña are together and eventually they will move in on Sentinel’s little cubby to take it over,” Berry said in a soft somewhat sad sounding voice. 

“The foals will be fine,” Bon Bon said after she planted gentle kiss on Bucky’s cheek. The earth pony pulled Bucky’s head down and she began to rub the sides of his neck with her hooves, which caused the unicorn to relax somewhat. She watched as Bucky kicked out his withered hind legs and she knew that he was making himself comfortable. She hoped that he would sleep. 

“Oh he is never going to get to sleep now,” Lyra moaned as she watched Berry Punch wrestle Thistle down to the bed and the two ponies began to make out aggressively, each trying to gain some sort of dominance over the other somehow. 

“Eh, leave them be. I like watching,” Bucky grumbled as Bon Bon continued to rub his neck and tried to get the knots out of his muscles. 

“I kinda like watching too… there is someth-” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon scolded. 

“I dunno, it is kinda nice to watch them making out… I wonder what it would be like seeing you and Lyra have a go at one another,” Derpy remarked to Bon Bon. 

Bon Bon felt a hot blush rising through her neck and then it blossomed in her cheeks. “That might be kind of fun,” she said in a heated whisper. “When we get home maybe if Lyra agrees,” the earth pony added in a slightly jumbled gasp. 



 



Determination. 

I have been thinking about this word. And others. Resolve. Willpower. Integrity. As I think about what it means to be my master’s squire and my father’s son, I keep focused on the example given to me by how my father has lived his life. 

When I first met him, he was a wealthless noble in exile. He had nothing. From what I have gathered, he has been cut off from his family and all he had was his name and his titles. He came to these isles with nothing. In the short time he has been here, his family has grown and he has carved himself out a life through force of will. He has gone from having nothing to prowling around on the deck of his own warship outfitted in magic armor. He has gained a group of followers who believe in him. He has founded his own tribe, and the numbers grow daily. I know that Keg Smasher now counts himself among our numbers, the Founder’s Foals. 

As his squire, I can do no less. If he can start from nothing, then I can as well. I will become a knight and I will follow in his hoofsteps. My mother Lyra says that knights, real knights, are relics of the past in Equestria and most of the modern world, a meaningless title that nopony cares about. She also says that Equestria needs knights again. More than just becoming a knight, I feel the need to make ponies believe in knights again, to believe they are needed. 

I have learned one important thing about my father’s rise to the guardian he has become. The world needs heroes. Ponies want heroes. I’ve read about the Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and the hope they have brought to the world. 

As soon as I can earn my knighthood, I plan to start my own order, the Knights of Harmony. I’ve been talking to Ripple, trying to fill her head with ideas, and I hope that she will join me. There is the little detail that she needs to become a squire first, but I have a plan to fix that, I just need to talk to Sir Lugus the Knight and try to convince him that he needs a squire. I need to make a well reasoned plea for my sister. I’ve asked my father about female knights and he cannot remember any in his history lessons, but he also told me that they could have existed at some point, he just cannot remember. 

I need to end this. My sisters have invaded my bed and they are glaring at me angrily as I try to write. They are tired and wish to sleep. And to be truthful, I need to sleep as well. It has been a long night of thinking and worry. 

I hope I prove worthy as my father’s son. 


Squire Sentinel, son of Buckminster Bitters.


 
	
> Chapter 167
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky carefully considered the reports given to him by Deadspin and the others, the information gathered from the locals that lived in this area. There were still howls, but they were few in number. They had never had too much of a problem with wolves this far out. Lately, the wolves had been a bit more aggressive than usual, and Bucky suspected he knew why. 

“Sir, the loggers say there are caves up along the ridge that overlooks this loch,” Deadspin said as he pointed to the location on the map with his wingtip. “The howls are also heard along this ridge and down in this gully. Produces an echo. Some nights it can be heard and it scares them something awful.” 

“Clever, using acoustics to their advantage,” Lyra stated. “Well, clever for something also mindless. Whatever is controlling these monsters knows his… its stuff,” she added, correcting herself after she fumbled her wording. 

“We are moving to this location now,” Deadspin reported. 

“Quartermaster Bunny says she has prepared the ice bombs. The pine trees burn a little too well ‘cause the pine pitch. We don’t want to burn down the whole isle. I know you could extinguish the flames afterwards, but as dry as it is here, the flames would spread fast and a lot of trees would be burned as you battled,” Sour Mash said, adding her own report. 

“My wife, er, Quartermaster Bunny has good horse sense,” Deadspin stated. 

“We may not even need the bombs. If there are only a few, I will eliminate them,” Bucky replied, finally weighing in on the plan, his voice a mechanical thrum coming from inside of his helmet. 

“Sir, we’ve been wondering, do you want some pegasi to provide you with an airlift?” Deadspin asked. “I mean, when you go down.” 

“As I have stated, a red flare for pickup. I have my own way down,” Bucky said, offering no further explanation to the ponies around him. 

“Well, the unicorns will be ready to lift you when you need a way back up,” Deadspin said in a slightly puzzled voice. 

A howl tore through the stillness of the night, and Bucky found that it was music to his ears. He lifted his head and the green illumination of his visor glowed a little brighter. 

“Vengeance,” Bucky stated in a cold mechanical growl. 

“Almost to the location sir,” a pegasus reported. 

Bucky tromped over to his family and looked them over. “Stay safe,” he commanded. “I love you all. Do not worry for my safety.” 

Dinky, sitting on her mother’s back, raised her right forehoof up to her brow in salute, copying what she had seen the earth ponies doing when they saluted. She was terrified and elated all at the same time. She watched as her father turned and approached the deck rail. 

“This is a good drop off point,” an earth pony mare reported, shining a spotlight down below. “There is a clearing in the trees.”

“Suits me fine,” Bucky said. He turned and gave one last glance to those he loved.

Derpy nearly took wing when she saw Bucky launch himself over the rail, knowing that he was not a pony with wings that could fly. They were hundreds of feet up in the air and he had simply tossed himself over. A worried wordless cry escaped from her lips, a whimper of fear that she knew spooked poor Dinky. She hoped that her husband would be okay. She felt a gentle touch and looked at Berry, who was beside her. 

“We have to trust him,” Berry said in a strained voice. 



 

Bucky plummeted to the ground, not feeling the least bit concerned. The sane rational part of his mind knew that he should be pissing himself in fright, but that part of his mind was so quiet and helpless now, each day it died just a little bit more. Soon, it would be gone, and Bucky would be free of the nagging worries of meaningless things like self preservation.

And Bucky would not mourn its passing. 

A few seconds later Bucky slammed into the earth, his four legs braced for the impact. He hit the ground hard enough to sink in past his fetlocks. He laughed the sort of laugh that one gets when they verge upon insanity as he pulled his steel covered hooves free. 

He stomped out of the clearing and into the woods, able to see in perfect clarity. He moved, a shadow slipping between beams of moonlight, and he began to hunt his prey. Roles had been reversed. He could hear them howling, and they were moving closer. 

Bucky began to power up his sunstone eye and the green glow from his visor intensified. There was no point in wasting his magical energy. This would be a low power run. Try out a few blasts, open up the sunstone eyes all over his armor, and then stomp and kick the rest to death if they did not burn away completely during the initial exposure. 

The moon seemed a little dimmer as darkness began to move around him. Bucky braced himself, rooting himself to the ground, bracing his legs in place. Above him, the lights of The Scorned Mare seemed to dim and he knew that shadow was all around him. He could sense them now, he could feel them in his horn, and he understood that his own shadow essence was reacting to them. 

A dark shape lunged and struck Bucky from the side. He did not budge. He turned his head and his visor glowed a piercing green. There was a howl of pain and the dark shape slipped away, smouldering. Bucky felt a tinge of disappointment. His visor would need a bit of work it seemed. 

Still surrounded by shadow, Bucky opened the eyes on his armor, exposing the sunstones. There was a brilliant flash of light that flared and grew brighter and brighter in the presence of shadow. He could hear howls of pain. And then, the first dark shape ignited. It shrieked in pain, running around and rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish itself. Bucky stomped down, crushing its skull flat beneath his hoof. Other wolves were combusting around him. The ones that tried to flee Bucky pulled back to him. They could not teleport away. 

He ripped one open with a swipe of his claws, smashed another with his tail, and he reveled in his new found enjoyment of death and dismemberment. He bucked out, connecting with a dark mass that was only starting to burn. He killed with slow methodical mechanical efficiency. There was no need to hurry. His prey had no chance to harm him, could not escape, and if they ran, he would only pull them back or run them down. 

Bucky carefully extinguished the corpses and made sure there were no smouldering embers. It wouldn’t do to have the forest burn down. Some of the pine needles had ignited when a burning shadow wolf had rolled in them, trying to put itself out. 

First contact had gone astonishingly well. 

Bucky shot a red flare upwards and then stood there waiting. It didn’t take long until he felt the tug of magic gently lifting him. He rose slowly, not at all concerned about being dropped. 



 

“No further shadow creatures detected, other than the two on board this ship,” Lyra reported. “How did it go down there?”

“Exactly as planned, my love,” Bucky replied in his mechanical voice as he looked directly at Lyra. After the spree of violence, he was feeling strangely amorous and full of desire. He turned his gaze to Derpy and Berry Punch, and then to Bon Bon. He loved them all, but at the moment, he was in the mood to really show his love to any that would be open to his affection. All of his wives were looking at him strangely, and he couldn’t figure out the looks upon their faces. 

He pushed the distraction from his mind. He turned to look at Deadspin. “We will sweep the other isles tonight. Remember, staggered pattern. Lyra’s detection has a maximum range. We want to be thorough in our extermination.” 

“Yes sir, of course sir,” Deadspin replied. “For your information sir, you have entrails clinging to your leg sir.” 

“Oh? Eeeew,” Bucky groaned as he looked down. “Are those intestines? I’m sorry everypony, I didn’t know and I couldn’t feel them. Somepony needs to tell me these things!” Bucky stomped over to the deck railing and kicked out his front leg, trying to shake the ribbons of innards free from his armor. Finally, they fell over the side and down to the ground below, probably landing in a tree somewhere. Bucky hoped that they didn’t stick to the side of the ship. 

“I wanted to say something, but I knew if I opened my mouth, I would have spewed,” Berry Punch said in a wavering unsettled voice. “I don’t know how Lyra handled it so well.” 

Lyra shrugged. “I’ve studied haruspication… based on what I saw, that wolf had no future,” Lyra said. After she spoke, she began to chortle. 

“What?” Bon Bon said. “Laypony terms Lyra,” she added. 

“Haruspication. The school of divination that involves studying entrails,” Lyra explained. 

“Oh… YUCK LYRA!” Bon Bon shouted. 

“Well, I was an exchange student for a while. I went to the Sea of Grass with the zebras. I also studied another form of divination called hieromancy and then there was hippomancy… oh don’t worry, hippomancy didn’t involve studying dead ponies. The zebras have this neat trick were they can tell a lot about an equine’s future by listening to the sounds they make while rutting,” Lyra said in matter of fact tones. “Squishy squelchy sounds are the portent of a good breeder and some say twins.” 

Bon Bon covered her eyes with her fetlock and shook her head. 

“And I learned tyromancy from the Saddle Arabians,” Lyra said. “That was an awesome summer.” 

“Do I even want to know?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Predicting the future by studying cheese,” Lyra explained. The unicorn suddenly became aware that everypony on deck was staring at her wide eyed. She felt a twinge of self consciousness. 

“Mmm… cheese,” Bucky murmured mechanically from within his helmet. He began to pace the deck, trodding back and forth along the length. 

“You know, this is almost too easy,” Berry said. “Just a few wolves, way out here in the middle of nowhere, and I would almost bet we are going to run into just a few more wolves in an isolated patch of land someplace else. Lyra isn’t the only pony who is a bit paranoid. I get the feeling that something wants to lull us into a false sense of security.” 

Bon Bon nodded slowly, and Sour Mash also nodded in agreement. 

“Even if there were a hundred wolves, I don’t think Bucky could be harmed by them,” Lyra stated. “That said, I am not trying to be dismissive of your observation. I do believe that something is trying to test our reactions and our capabilities. All the more reason to be increasingly alert. I can still remember the feel of it in my mind sometimes… it used to be a pony…” Lyra said as she rubbed her neck. Her face sank into a worried look and she pulled Harper’s bubble closer to her. “It stopped being a pony. It gave that up because equinity was holding it back.” 

Lugus’ feathers ruffled and he appeared much larger than he usually did. “I do not like this discussion,” he stated. 

“I hope that Bucky doesn’t give up his own equinity to defeat it,” Lyra whispered. 

“We’ll probably have to help Bucky heal. It wouldn’t be the first time and it probably won’t be the last time. He does his job, we do our job. He fixes this problem, we fix him. I’ve come to accept this. This is my duty as a wife. Bucky has his pain he has to endure, and so do I,” Derpy said in a low voice. She relaxed slightly when she felt Dinky patting her on the neck. 

“He’s worth it,” Berry said. “Nopony else would put up with my shenanigans.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 168
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Crescent Moon Isle. Named so because it is actually shaped like the crescent moon. There is a colony of lunar pegasi here and they wish to speak with you sir,” Deadspin reported. “During the day of course, which may be awkward for all parties involved. A forward messenger has been sent, they understand the danger of being on deck at night time.” 

“Squire Sentinel, you seem to be squirming,” Lugus said as he settled his haunches down upon the deck.

“I want to see the colony,” Sentinel admitted. 

“I planned to take you with me,” Bucky said. “Actually, it was requested that you come along.” 

“Thank you!” Sentinel gushed in an uncharacteristically excited voice. He threw his forelegs around Bucky’s neck and squeezed. He froze, mid embrace, and then slid away looking guilty. He cringed, now looking mortified. “Forgive me sir. We are not in private and I allowed my feelings to get the better of me sir,” he apologised as he hung his head in shame. 

“Sentinel,  I am not in my armor and we are in a moment of downtime. You are free to be a colt,” Bucky said soothingly to Sentinel, who seemed to perk back up a bit from Bucky’s words. Bucky gestured around the deck. “Right now, everypony that is awake is relaxing and having a bit of rest. And everypony here knows how seriously you take your duties. So stop beating yourself up.” 

“Yes si- ...er, father,” Sentinel replied haltingly. 

Bucky yawned and looked longingly at the cabin door. Even if he could not sleep, there were other things he could be doing in bed, even if he might feel slightly guilty about waking his mares to do so. He pushed the thoughts from his mind, they needed their rest. 

“We’ll be at the settlement soon Knight Captain Bitters,” a pegasus reported. 



 

They lived in caves, Bucky realised as he approached. He could see the caves. He could smell rotten eggs from a nearby hot spring. There were crudely made rabbit hutches. And off in the distance, there was a small freshwater loch. Sentinel was right beside him, nearly bouncing with each step, scarcely able to contain himself. 

And then, the lunar pegasi themselves came into view. Only a few of them were awake in the daylight hours to greet him. 

“Greetings honoured guest,” a male stated as he moved forward. “I am Wave Breaker, he who fishes in the ocean. This is my colony.” 

“Salutations Wave Breaker. I am Buckminster Bitters, scourge of wolves,” Bucky said graciously in reply and making up something right on the spot. “How fares your colony?” 

“This is all of us,” Wave Breaker replied, gesturing with his wing and looking sorrowful. 

Bucky counted three mares, one filly, seven lunar pegasus stallions, and one solar pegasus stallion. He looked around in confusion. “This is all of you?” he asked. 

“We are all that is left. We have fought the wolves. Finally, for whatever reason, they have stopped coming to our island. We used to be over one hundred strong,” Wave Breaker said in a now stony voice. 

Bucky wheezed as he inhaled sharply, trying to think of something meaningful to say. He could think of nothing. This colony had endured such heavy losses. He turned to look at Sentinel, and saw the colt’s eyes were glassy with tears that were barely being held in check. He felt a stabbing pain in his barrel as Sentinel sat down roughly in the dirt, his hind legs giving way as his emotions threatened to overrun him. 

“Why didn’t you tell Keg Smasher it was this bad? Send a messenger?” Deadspin said in stunned disbelief. 

“And what would have been done? We would have had to flee our home. Give up our way of life. Run away as cowards. We would rather die,” Wave Breaker grunted in reply. 

“And you have,” Deadspin said flatly. 

Wave Breaker bared his teeth at Deadspin and there was clearly tension in the air. 

“That’s enough, both of you, we have a common enemy to fight,” Bucky said diplomatically as he moved between the two of them. 

“We are abandoning our colony,” Wave Breaker said in a strained voice. “Our home has become a place of graves now. The caves are tombs where our dead slumber. We no longer sleep within them.” 

“I am sorry,” Bucky offered. “I am purging the wolves as we speak, perhaps something can be done to save this place?” 

Wave Breaker shook his head. “Our numbers are too few. We wanted to meet you and tell you of this place before we left.” 

Sentinel left his father’s side and slowly approached Wave Breaker, his posture submissive. His ears were folded back, his wings, drooped, his head was held low, and his tail was pulled between his hind legs as he slowly approached. 

“I always wanted to come here, to see where it is I came from,” Sentinel said in a low whine. “I wish I had something meaningful to say. I seem to only find meaningful words when I am writing.” 

“I know you…” one of the mares said as she limped forwards. “You are Bloodweather’s colt. I’d recognise that scab coloured mane anywhere. Come here to me, colt,” she commanded. She was much larger than Wave Breaker, as were the other mares here. 

“Who are you and how did you know my father?” Sentinel asked as he moved slowly forward. He lifted his head hopefully, looking at the mare for answers. 

“I am called Shadow Glide and at one point, I hoped to be your father’s mate. But he fell in love with a feather wing and I wanted his happiness more than my own,” Shadow Glide said in reply. She looked down at Sentinel and after a moment, touched him with her wing tip. “You look exactly like your father. I heard that he died. What is your name?” 

“I am called Sentinel. And yes ma’am, he died,” Sentinel answered with a soft nod. 

“And this small stallion here? Who is he to you?” Shadow Glide asked. 

Sentinel became painfully aware that everything around him had gone silent. He looked around him and saw every eye on every pony all around focused on him. He swallowed, trying to down the lump that had formed his in throat. 

“This is my father now. He has been good to me. I have become his squire, but I am his son first and foremost,” Sentinel said, his voice cracking and becoming an embarrassing squeak. 

“Ah, Bloodweather and his honour lives on,” Shadow Glide said in a bittersweet voice. She leaned down and nuzzled Sentinel. “You could have been my colt, and I would have been proud of you. Go and do good things.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Sentinel said, his voice still cracking. 

“Perhaps there is still hope for us,” Wave Breaker said. 

“Take shelter with Keg Smasher for a while. Rebuild your numbers. We have griffons now that I know in time will be welcome among your number. And when you are strong again, come back out here and reclaim your homes,” Deadspin said. 

Wave Breaker looked around at his clan, then looked at Deadspin, studied Sentinel for a while, and then, he finally turned to Bucky. He peered at the stallion, as if trying to read him. 

Bucky, aware of certain pegasus non verbal communicators, was aware that he was being sized up. He turned his remaining eye upon Wave Breaker and stared back, his face neutral. 

“I want a better life for this filly. Her parents are gone,” Wave Breaker said, breaking his long silence. 

“Oh shite,” Deadspin breathed very quietly to himself, which might have worked around normal pegasi, but his lunar cousins heard his words. Several heads turned to look at him pointedly. 

“Let us speak plainly. What do you want?” Bucky demanded. “Don’t mince words. Just be out with it. Do you want us to take her with us?” 

“In a sense, yes. I would like to arrange a betrothal,” Wave Breaker said as he looked directly at Bucky. 

Bucky choked. He hacked and he heaved for air, trying to reclaim the breath that had fled his lungs. He coughed violently and finally hacked out a wad of phlegm. He sat down and thumped on his own barrel, trying to clear his airway. 

“She has nothing. Nothing at all. Soon she will not even have our home. I want her to have something. I have nothing to give her, but by giving her to you, I can offer her a better future and our kind, which has always been few in number, will continue if she is bonded with Sentinel,” Wave Breaker patiently explained. 

“We have heard stories. Even on the mainland, our numbers are too few,” Shadow Glide interjected. “This is about the survival of our kind. We have lost too many fighting this pointless fight to keep our homes.” 

Wave Breaker turned and gave Shadow Glide a scathing hateful look and the pair locked eyes, trying to assert dominance over one another. 

“It is not our way to run from a fight,” Wave Breaker snarled. 

“It does not seem to be part of our way to survive either… but now that we are too few, you have us run!” Shadow Glide snapped. 

“Please stop!” Sentinel cried. 

The two adults looked down at the colt and glared at him. Then, they resumed looking hatefully at one another, a fight that became apparent to any observer had been going on for quite some time. 

“You have brought us to ruin,” Shadow Glide accused. “You broke with the old way. You stepped in to lead with your honeyed words and impassioned pleas. Once there were more males than females, you broke our sacred matriarchal ways and seized power for your self! And look where it has gotten us!” The much larger mare bristled and puffed out her barrel, making her look quite intimidating. 

Wave Breaker slumped. “I have. I did. I thought we needed better leadership. Shrike was no better though. Before she died, she revealed to me her plan to lead us all to glorious death in battle and have our colony come to a bloody and final end,” he admitted in a broken voice. “My pride and wanting to keep our home has been the end of us. Which is why I wish to send Moonbow away. Sentinel has a chance to learn a new way of life and I want the same for her. I am shamed by my failure.” 

“First wise decision you have made,” Shadow Glide said in an icy voice. “And I did not know about Shrike’s plans. Wave Breaker, you should have talked to me.” 

“You judge and second guess everything I say!” Wave Breaker snapped. 

“Stop!” Sentinel cried. “Just stop being hateful to one another! A clan, a tribe, it all means family… just stop fighting!” he shouted as he ran back to his father’s side. 

“I don’t know that I can do this,” Bucky interjected. “I don’t know how I feel about arranged marriage.” 

“What about Thistle?” Sentinel inquired. 

“That’s different,” Bucky answered. 

“How?” Sentinel asked. 

“It just is,” Bucky replied. He could see Wave Breaker beginning to bristle. 

“He is still young and so is she. A bit too young for marriage perhaps. But she could go with you and they could grow together. And when the time is right, they could marry,” Shadow Glide said in a gentle suggestion. She moved closer to Wave Breaker and stood next to him. “In this matter, we are in agreement. Our species must survive. Our colony has failed, but we have hope. Seeds can always be planted elsewhere and life will go on.” 

“I don’t know that I can force my son to go through with this… this feels wrong,” Bucky said. “I do not wish to insult you, and I am starting to understand that this is why you wanted me here, but I do not think I can allow this.” 

Both Wave Breaker and Shadow Glide glared at Bucky now, trying to understand the outsider, fierce looks upon their faces. 

“I cannot do as you ask,” Bucky said, looking down at Sentinel. 

“Will nopony ask me what I want?” Sentinel asked in a quavering nervous voice. 

Frantic, Bucky looked upon Sentinel, feeling frightened and worried. “Sentinel, do you understand what you are getting in to? If you agree to this and we took her with us, you would be obligated, do you understand me? There would be no backing out or changing your mind later.” 

Sentinel licked his lips nervously. He looked at the filly, looked at Wave Breaker and Shadow Glide, and then finally, he looked up at his father. His ear itched terribly and he wanted to scratch it, but he knew that if he did, Lyra would somehow know and scold him. 

“Would you actually make this decision for me and not give me a say?” Sentinel finally inquired, looking up at his father inquisitively. 

Bucky swallowed and looked around, realising how he answered was going to have drastic consequences either way. He had no clue what to do. He looked at Deadspin and saw only a blank face. He looked up at The Scorned Mare up above him and wondered how many slaps he might have to endure. Finally, he looked at the filly in question. 

“You there, your name is Moonbow, correct?” Bucky asked.

The filly raised her head shyly. She looked at Bucky with piercing eyes. 

“Yes, you there. Come forward. Moonbow, that’s a pretty name. You are named after the rainbows that form around the moon before the weather changes, right?” Bucky said. 

The filly nodded and she came forward slowly, slinking along, not meeting any other adult eyes as she passed. She walked in a servile crouch and approached Bucky. About ten feet away, she stopped and sat down, wrapping her wings around her body and her legs, trying to look very small and submissive. 

“Moonbow, I want you to tell me what you want. And don’t be afraid of the adults. I am a unicorn you see,” Bucky said, gesturing up at his horn. “And I will know if you are being honest with me. You can be completely honest with me and I will make sure that nopony punishes you for telling the truth. Now tell me, what do you want?” 

Moonbow took a deep breath… 
	
> Chapter 169
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I want a chance to form a new colony where the females and males do not fight over whose way is right and whose way is wrong,” Moonbow said in a low raspy voice. She turned and looked over her shoulder after she spoke. “I would rather see females and males work together, as equals. Just because we females are larger and smarter, doesn’t always make us right.” 

There was a low growl coming from Shadow Glide and Bucky ignited his horn, hoping a threatening gesture would be enough. As he lifted his head and focused his eye on the big mare, there was a blur of something sooty brown in his vision as something shot past. 

It was Sentinel, and he had placed himself between Shadow Glide and Moonbow. His head was low to the ground to protect his throat, his backside was high in the air, his wings were out, his barrel expanded, and the colt was growling savagely with his lips curled back to expose his teeth. 

Shadow Glide seemed taken aback by Sentinel’s snarling. She threw her head back and her posture shifted to something a bit more neutral. “You are like your father,” she muttered. “Suicidally fearless and no respect for the superiourity of females,” Shadow Glide said with a disdainful sniff. 

“Respect isn’t given, it is earned,” Sentinel snarled in reply, his teeth still bared. “Threaten her again and I will make you thrash me.” The colt’s posture stiffened and his tail whip-cracked off to one side. 

“Sentinel, enough, to me,” Bucky commanded. 

Sentinel turned and looked at his father. He then turned and gave a final snarl to Shadow Glide. “Yes father, I will do what you ask out of respect,” he said pointedly. He relaxed his aggressive posture and backed away, still glaring at Shadow Glide. “Threaten her again and see what I do…” he warned. 

Moonbow peered at Sentinel and studied him. As he approached, she reached out and touched him with her central wing knuckle, stroking him softly. “I want a mate who is utterly fearless,” she said in a low voice. 

“Squire Sentinel is certainly fearless,” Deadspin said, taking a deep shuddering breath and hoping there would be no violence. He understood a little bit of lunar pegasi and their confusing backwards ways, and he was surprised that it hadn’t came to blows during the tense moment. 

“I understand my obligations,” Sentinel began. “My kind must continue. I understand that our numbers are too few. If required, I can be Moonbow’s mate and I will be dutiful to her needs. I can marry for duty so that our kind will have a future. If things do not work out too well between us, I can always marry for love later while still performing my duties for you,” he continued. The colt paused. “Not to say that I would not love you. That came out sounding badly, do forgive me.” 

Bucky heaved an internal sigh that showed nothing on the outside. 

“I have learned a great deal from my mother Thistle,” Sentinel stated. “We have a lot in common. We are both a species nearing its end. I have always known what would be required from me and I accepted it a long time ago. I can only hope that I am as lucky as she is, and find the love of my life.” 

“We are few in numbers because our ways are foolish. Never running from battle… what has that gotten us?” Moonbow demanded, daring to turn around and look at her elders. “And dying gloriously in battle should we be injured rather than limp home and recover to fight another day. And we wonder why we approach our end!” 

“My father committed suicide,” Sentinel said, coming to painful realisation. 

“I am sorry,” Moonbow replied, not taking her eyes off of her elders. 

Bucky, realising what he had almost done in the dream, felt a painful clench around his heart from Sentinel’s words. He wanted to hug his colt, to pull him close and squeeze him dearly, but now might not be the best moment. He resolved to do so later. 

“Sentinel, what would be more important, your honour or coming home to me and living to fight another day?” Moonbow asked bluntly. 

“While my honour is important, I place my family and especially my smaller siblings above it. You would be among their number. My father charged off into the night and left me alone. He was… STUPID!” Sentinel said, his words working into a shout. 

“Speak not of your father that way!” Shadow Glide demanded in a throaty growl. 

“Shut up!” Sentinel snapped. “I will speak of him in the manner that he deserves! I wasn’t worth living for! He left me… and to do what? Die uselessly? He died for my mother, but he couldn’t live for me. He was a COWARD!” 

Shadow Glide bristled with anger and her hackles rose. She started to say something else, but Wave Breaker gently nudged her with his hoof. She swallowed her angry retort and flapped out her wings in annoyance. 

“Bucky, my father, my real father, has taught me a better way. Family first before anything else. Nothing is to be put before family,” Sentinel said, glaring up at Shadow Glide. 

“I want that,” Moonbow said, whipping her head around owl-like towards Bucky. 

“Sentinel, come here my son,” Bucky commanded. 

Sentinel, grunting and panting with anger, went to his father’s side. He sat down when his father made a gesture to do so, and then he continued to glare angrily at Shadow Glide. 

Bucky carefully wiped away the tears that were spilling down Sentinel’s cheeks with his fetlock and silently resolved to be a better father somehow, worthy of Sentinel’s adoration. He added it to his internal to do list, along with being a better husband. 

“It is time to find a new way,” Wave Breaker said. “Our way has brought us to this end. I wanted to change our ways, but I think I have failed. Or maybe it was too late. Either way, we are done. Our ways have failed us.” 

Shadow Glide snarled at the stallion beside her but did not chastise him. She glared at him for a long heated moment, and then her snarl melted into something almost resembling a look of defeat. She looked at the stallion beside her for a long time, studying him, and then her gaze shifted to Bucky, and she began to study him. 

Sentinel took the opportunity to compose himself, while Moonbow kept rotating her head around in what appeared to be a boneless fashion to study all involved. 

“Take her with you. Teach her your ways. Teach her the sort of courage your son displays,” Shadow Glide said to Bucky in a strangled voice. “I am begging you tiny male… give her what we could not.” 

Bucky felt a pang of irritation at “tiny male” and realised that antagonistic behaviour was probably so deeply ingrained that she probably wasn’t even aware of what she had said, or so he chose to believe to soothe his own frazzled nerves and growing temper. 

“When we are older, I will marry you if you will have me,” Sentinel said to Moonbow. “That is, if my father allows this. In the end, I must trust his wisdom and know that he will do what is best for me. In this decision, I also hope he will do what is best for us, and for my kind.” 

“I will go with you, learn your ways, and bear your foals,” Moonbow agreed, looking at Sentinel. Her gaze shifted to Bucky. “If you will have me. I am stubborn and headstrong. I am violent and savage. But I am also willing to change.” 

“Why does this have to be betrothal?” Bucky asked. 

“She is at that age. It would be cruel to string her along and then break off the agreement later, leaving her with nothing to show for what she has given,” Shadow Glide replied. 

“I suppose I can understand that,” Bucky sighed. “Moonbow, do you want to be betrothed to Sentinel?” he asked. “I want to hear what you want.” 

“I like what I have seen so far. I will not find such a mate here among my colony,” Moonbow said, whipping her head around to look at the other males. “I want to be in a place where my views are listened to and even accepted.” 

“Yes, but do you want Sentinel? Do you want to make such a big decision about your life and your future love?” Bucky asked. 

“Foals are needed, love is nice if it happens,” Moonbow said as she blinked several times at Bucky. Her ears were perked forwards. 

“Oh nuts, I am dealing with Thistle all over again,” Bucky groaned. 

“I find Sentinel a worthwhile catch. He defended me,” Moonbow said. She made a series of clicking and popping sounds with her echolocation and moved a little closer to Sentinel. “I could see myself loving him in time.” 

“I am still not certain about the betrothal part. Why can’t she just come with us and then find her own love later?” Bucky asked. 

“We need assurance our kind will survive now,” a female lunar pegasus said. “We have heard stories about you. We know you are honourable. Do you even understand the level of trust we have given you, tiny male?” 

“We are trusting you to continue our kind,” the other female said. “If she goes off and there is no marriage to Sentinel, but to another kind of pony, if she never breeds with Sentinel, and she has foals that are not our kind, we die off just a little more. By giving you her, we are trusting you with our future, tiny male.” 

“Okay I get it… you want me to defend you from extinction. Now stop calling me tiny!” Bucky snapped angrily. 

“Sentinel’s father came from pure stock, and we know that Moonbow comes from pure stock. They will produce lunar pegasus foals,” Wave Breaker said, offering an explanation to Bucky. 

Bucky nodded with newfound understanding. He looked down at Sentinel and Moonbow, now gaining a gleaning of understanding on what must be done and why this was important. “You need pure bloodlines to make sure that future foals are lunar pegasi.” 

All of the other lunar pegasi nodded and looked all of them looked at Bucky expectantly. 

“Sentinel, I will not make this decision for you,” Bucky said. “This choice is yours alone to make. I know you will do the right thing.” 

“Before I accept, I have a few demands,” Sentinel said in a loud clear voice. “Moonbow, you must learn to read and write. It is our way and you will follow it. Also, I have grown envious of my father’s good fortune in finding a mate that will bring him fish.” 

“You want fish?” Moonbow asked. “Males bring food…” she said hesitantly. She paused, looking confused and then peered around her. Her ears folded back against her skull. “You tricked me into saying something awful,” she accused. 

Sentinel allowed himself a ghost of a smile. “If you bring me a fish I will bring you a fish.” 

Moonbow nodded in acceptance and her ears lifted slightly away from her skull. She slunk into a submissive posture. “We can trade fish clever male,” she stated. 

“We act as a new colony and we make our own ways. Both of us. We make new rules, new traditions, and we will teach them to our foals. The old ways have failed,” Sentinel said. 

“In this we agree,” Moonbow said in reply. 

“My father’s word is law until we are married,” Sentinel stated. “And I am leaving the decision to him to decide when we are old enough. I trust his wisdom on this issue.” 

“That is acceptable,” Moonbow said in return, bowing her head. 

“Do you have any demands?” Sentinel inquired. 

The lunar pegasus filly looked thoughtful and carefully considered Sentinel’s request. Her wings fluttered slightly and she narrowed her eyes to study Sentinel as she chose her words. “Only one. One very simple request.” 

Sentinel shifted on his haunches, moving a little closer to Bucky. 

“I want a kiss.” 

Sentinel cringed and then shuddered. “Ugh. Blech.” 

Suppressing a laugh, Bucky rolled his eye and remained silent. Sentinel had a great deal to learn about the female heart and its demands. He gently prodded Sentinel, trying to encourage the colt to move forward. “Go on son, seal the deal,” Bucky gently whispered into Sentinel’s ear. 

Sentinel rose to all fours and strode forward a few steps, and paused as Moonbow also rose up on all fours. She turned towards him and batted her eyes at the colt, which made Sentinel step backwards. 

Bucky, trying to be a good parent, gave Sentinel a loving gentle shove forward with his magic, being a good father and encouraging his son to do his best. 

The colt and the filly stared at each other and then slowly began to circle one another as they sized each other up. Moonbow’s tail was swishing and her wings fluttered. 

“You’re older,” Sentinel said. 

The filly nodded but said nothing. 

“Have you had a heat?” Sentinel asked. 

“I had my very first heat this summer,” Moonbow replied as a blush filled her face, turning her a delightful shade of purple. 

“You’re big,” Sentinel said as he continued to circle with Moonbow. 

“Thank you. My mother was enormous,” Moonbow answered. 

“I never want to establish dominance by combat… I’ve heard our kind does that,” Sentinel said as he struggled to work up his courage. 

“We do, but I am sure we can find a new way,” Moonbow offered in reply. 

“You have your mark, it is interesting. What does it mean?” Sentinel inquired as he peered around her front shoulders and tried to see her hips. There were wisps of blue flames. 

“When I dive into shadow, I turn into a willow wisp. I am a big blue ball of floating blue flames that do not burn or give heat, but provide light. It is an absolutely useless talent, I have no stealth to hunt by,” Moonbow answered. 

“I do not think that sounds useless, lighting the way for others who cannot see and keeping them safe is a powerful gift,” Sentinel said, lifting his head and looking Moonbow directly in the eye. 

“I never thought of it that way,” Moonbow said, her blush getting darker. Her dark grey pelt made her blush difficult to see, but it was quite visible now, as evidenced by the purple splotch her face had become. 

Moonbow, growing tired of the waiting, reached out with both wings and grabbed Sentinel by the neck, hooking her central knuckles together behind his head. She hauled him in and kissed him fiercely, not bothering to go for his cheek. She clumsily smashed her lips into his and then moved them around as though she was chewing on his face, not knowing what else to do. 

Sentinel's wings flared out and flapped as he tried to escape the much larger female that was now devouring his face, or so it felt like to him. “MmmmMMMblumphrump!” Sentinel moaned as he tried to escape. 

Finally, Moonbow let go of her prey and allowed him to breathe again. 

Sentinel backed away, his barrel heaving. He was wide eyed and panicked. As the laughter started, he felt the hot fevered burn of embarrassment creeping up his neck and through his face. He slowly came to the realisation that he may have made a mistake as he looked at the much larger female lunar pegasus grinning at him and licking her lips. 

More than anything else at that moment, Sentinel wanted one of his mothers as he heard the raucous laughter all around him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 170
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was only a few hours before the evening and Bucky watched his family interact. Moonbow had been made welcome, and now the filly was rapidly trying to find her place within the herd. He felt two lips press against his cheek and turned to look at Derpy, who was sprawled out beside him. 

“It is good you got a little bit of sleep,” Derpy whispered into Bucky’s ear. “And you did good today. Remind me to give you the special “good husband” hug sometime.” 

Bucky smiled and shifted his weight, leaning up against his solid matriarch. He listened to the conversations floating around the room as he nuzzled and snoot-bumped the pegasus. 

“...and she can turn into a willow wisp,” Sentinel said. 

“Will o’ the Wisp,” Berry Punch corrected. “Will o’ Wisp. A fae spirit. I’ve heard lots of stories about them and the ponies of the isles have told stories about them for the past one thousand years. Now I wonder if they were seeing a lunar pegasus in shadow form. There have long been stories of helpful wisps leading ponies out of danger, lighting their way, and leading little lost foals back home.” 

Bucky pondered Berry’s words. Fate had given him a powerful and meaningful herd, Luna had hinted at that. He thought about Moonbow’s ability to become a Will o’ the Wisp and what Berry said about wisps leading ponies back who had lost their way. 

“...not going to catch Bucky’s fish forever. He’s just a very busy pony,” Thistle said. 

Bucky smiled. He was a very busy pony. He had just done his part to help secure the future of the lunar pegasi and he felt that he had proven himself a worthy father today. The happy grey pegasus beside him confirmed his beliefs. He could smell her happiness with him, and that made him feel good. He had expected a few slaps, but this was so much better. 

“...my tribe, the males bring us food and we allow them to breed with us,” Moonbow explained in low voice that somehow carried over the various titters and giggles heard around the room. “Females never get their own food. We are too busy fighting, protecting, and guarding our males as they work to please us.” 

“I like these ideas,” Thistle said as she gave Bucky a very straightforward look. Her serious face melted as she began to giggle. “Actually, I’d rather bring him fish than go out and fight his battles.” 

“Sentinel has the right cutie mark for his species then,” Berry stated, suddenly understanding a whole lot more about Sentinel. “A fish cutie mark makes a lot more sense when you think about the males being the hunters and providers.” 

“His mark makes him very desirable,” Moonbow agreed. “A fish bringer is better than a deer bringer. Deer bringers can get gored. Too much risk and danger for the deer hunters. Makes the females jumpy when they go out hunting. I find his fish mark very desirable.” 

“Did you get a chance to give everypony a proper goodbye?” Derpy asked. 

Moonbow nodded. “Yes matriarch. Even the males.” 

Derpy sighed and looked at Bucky with one raised eyebrow. “You know, I suddenly feel really bad about all of the times I said “mare business” to you,” she whispered to Bucky. 

“My little brother is betrothed,” Ripple sighed. “You had better be good to her Sentinel, or I will box your ears. And you Moonbow, you had better give my little brother the respect he deserves, or there is going to be a scuffle.” 

Moonbow’s ears folded back and she went into a submissive slouch, still trying to find her spot in the female hierarchy of this herd. She looked pleadingly at Ripple but said nothing. 

“I don’t like this,” Lyra whined. “I was just getting used to being a mother. I was just starting to think of Sentinel as my foal. And now this happens,” she said, her face sinking into a pout. 

“Little colts and fillies grow up Lyra,” Bon Bon said patiently. 

“I am still your foal,” Sentinel said in a pained voice. “And now you have another on-oomph!” 

Sentinel’s words were cut off as Lyra hauled him close with her magic and then began to squeeze him to her as she cried. Recent events and stress had simply been too much upon her and her mommy hormones. 

“Sentinel found himself such a pretty filly,” Bon Bon said with a sniffle. “Such a beautiful silver mane.” 

Moonbow blushed and then covered her face with her wings. She flopped down upon the floor and went limp, not at all used to such open affection and soft words. 

“I feel a lot safer,” Piña said to anypony that would listen. 

“I do too,” Dinky agreed. “There are two of them now. Monsters look out.” 



 

Deadspin prowled the deck with Sour Mash and Bunny on his heels, walking on either side of him. The pegasi propelling the craft were in good practice and there was a tailwind. They were flying as they soared over the ocean. 

They were heading to an isle known as Dragonmaw Island. There was a little flat patch of land in the center, and the entire isle was surround on all sides by jagged crags, stony outcroppings, ridges, and gullies. Nothing had been heard from the isle for a while and the worst was feared. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lyra said. “There is something wrong on the isle ahead of us,” she insisted. “I sense hostile magic. Very hostile magic. We should gain altitude and keep ourselves up high and out of reach if possible.” 

“Skyward lift!” Deadspin bellowed. 

“HEAD SKYWARD YOU BIRDBRAINS!” Sour Mash hollered, her voice impossible to ignore. 

Deadspin smiled at his earth pony wife. She had a voice made for command. He loved everything about her, but he was especially proud of her voice. Even if she could get a bit deafening when he was on her back or they were belly to belly. 

“Will you be able to drop from this height?” Derpy asked her husband. 

“I could drop from where there is no air at the top of the sky,” Bucky replied in a cold mechanical voice. “Would leave quite a crater though. Hmm, I could use my impact like a bomb.” 

“Bucky, be careful. Be methodical. Be the sort of calculating bastard I know you can be,” Lyra begged. “I don’t like what I am sensing. There is shadow here, and something else. I don’t like it, it makes my skin crawl and I can see little things in the corners of my vision and there are whispering sounds in my ears when I focus on it.” 

“Thank you Lyra. I promise to be careful… and thorough,” Bucky replied to his nervous unicorn wife. 

“Prepare flaming ordinance!” Bunny shouted. “We’re dealing with mostly bare rock and scrub. Nopony cares if it burns!” 

Sparkler lifted a rack of spell jars that glowed orange and were carefully marked as “fire” on the labels. She placed them on the mount made just for holding the rack and secured them. “Ordinance ready!” Sparkler reported. 

“Oh hey, the extra glowy orange ones… I filled those!” Rising Star said excitedly. 

“Extra super burny flaming ordinance ready!” Sparkler repeated, correcting her earlier announcement. 

There was a loud caw of laughter from Quartermaster Bunny, who delighted in her job. 

“We’re too far up for me to see if we are over the island,” Deadspin reported. “Too dark.” 

Bucky stomped over the rail and peered down. “We’re here,” he announced. “Will you be able to see me?” he inquired. 

“My eyes are sharp sir and the night is clear. The glow you give off will be visible. So long as I have a clear line of sight, we will follow overhead,” Deadspin answered. “Full stop!” he barked. 

The ship slowed and then went almost still, still being pushed around slightly by the wind. The pegasi pushers compensated, becoming better and better at their jobs as time went on. 

“I love you all. I mean that. All of you. Guard my foals and what I hold dear,” Bucky said as he tossed himself over the edge. 



 

Bucky braced his legs and tried to enjoy the freefall. He counted slowly, methodically, being the accountant that he used to be as he plummeted. His armor was well made and he trusted it. It would take some serious magic to even begin to undo its enchantments and protections. 

One thousand thirty two… one thousand thirty three Bucky counted to himself. 

At thirty three, he impacted into the ground. A thirty three second drop before crashing into the earth. There was an explosive blast all around him from the impact. Sealed inside of his armor, he felt nothing, it was like stepping out of bed. 

A tiny floating golden lyre appeared near his head. It strummed for a moment, and the heard a familiar voice. 

“Ahead of you lies gloom, so go and seal its doom, to guide you to your fight, just follow the big spotlight,” Lyra’s voice singsonged, coming from the lyre. 

Bucky loved his clever unicorn mare. She had found a means to communicate, even if was in the form of a terrible song. As a fellow unicorn, he understood the weird constraints of how some spells worked. 

“And now I must go and shut my trap, ‘cause our sweet  little Harper just took a crap.” 

Bucky smiled inside of his helmet, feeling much better about the dirty work ahead of him. He took off at a slow steady pace, following the spotlight that occasionally flashed down ahead of him. Walking in low power mode was slow and tedious, but necessary. There was something here that frightened Lyra, and he didn’t know what he was facing. He conjured a swallow of whiskey from the keg secured upon his croup and pressed onwards. 

There were no howls, but Bucky could sense them. Large numbers, just ahead. He found it odd that there were no howls. He was starting to feel an odd feeling in his horn, a new tingling that worried him. 

Suddenly, the world went completely dark around him and he was buried in shadow. Not sure of the numbers he was facing, and not happy about the strange feeling he was getting in his horn, he sent up a flare. 



 

“FLARE!” Sour Mash bellowed. “LOCATION?” 

“I have eyes on Bucky, but he looks dim. It is like there is a hole in the night all around him. It is dark. Really dark!” Deadspin reported. 

Rising Star came forward with a half dozen of the extra burny orbs held in his magic. He peered over the edge and stared downwards, and it took him a moment to see the dim figure of Bucky far below. “He’s mobbed by something!” Rising Star shouted. “Hold on Bucky!” 

Rising Star released the spell jars over the side, given them a final magical nudge to guide them to their target. 



 

The world exploded into fire and shrieks all around Bucky. His armor protected him from the fiery blasts. There was a savage roar as the world ignited, both from the flames and from something else. Still on fire, Bucky whirled around, trying to see what was attacking him. There were wolves, so many wolves, but there was something else. 

He heard another roar and whipped around again, finally seeing a towering figure that blazed brightly as it stood over him. A massive shadow bear loomed above him, waving its forelegs around as it burned. 

Something had corrupted the bear Bucky realised. He launched himself at the burning bear, and slammed into it sideways, knocking it over backwards. He stomped down upon its guts, trying to ram his hooves into the soft tissues of its entrails. He ignored the burning wolves attempting to gnaw on him and slamming into his armor. They were killing themselves in their mindless attempts to bring him down. 

He felt a hoof sink in deep into the bears guts and heard a fierce roar of pain. He twisted his leg around, using his claws to rend the creature’s insides, shredding it from within. The bear rolled and Bucky found himself falling over, and he thudded down onto his side. The bear was mindless in its corrupted fury and clearly was not slowed down by pain. The bear rose up on its hind legs again. 

Bucky rose to his hooves and then launched himself at the bear again. He was tempted to use magic, to call forth some spell to finish his task, but that would be wasteful. He could kill claw to claw and conserve magic. 

He slammed into the giant bear, punching and kicking with his front hooves, and bowled the big beast over. He slammed one hoof down upon the bear’s skull repeatedly, turning it into a lumpy paste filled with bits of splintered skull. 

Long after the bear had stopped moving, Bucky continued punching, his foreleg moving like a piston with each blow. Finally, he stopped. 

The wolves had burned and the big shadow bear was no more. Around him, the scrub grass was on fire and the light was illuminated by the flames. Bucky took a deep breath and steadied his nerves. His work was not yet done. 

He illuminated his visor with his sunstone eye and shone the green spotlight around him. He saw a ravine up ahead through the trees, a narrow crack in a stone ridge. He felt a chill when he looked in that direction, and he moved off in his slow steady mechanical gait to investigate. 



 

After moving through the crack he found himself in a narrow ravine with steep sides. He could sense more wolves coming, but he did not care. Something terrible was hidden in the dark ahead, and he could sense it. 

He took another gulp of whiskey that he conjured from his keg. 

He was aware he was being hunted, he just didn’t care. As the wolves rushed around him, Bucky sent up a flare, choosing to save his magic for whatever was ahead. The wolves were swarming him now, swirling all around him, gnashing teeth and furious shadowy forms. 

He continued to ignore them until the fire rained down, and then he took a bit of personal satisfaction in watching them all burn. They shrieked and howled as they sizzled and popped. Bucky felt no sympathy for them all. He supposed that he should feel some. The wolves never asked to be corrupted and turned to evil. They were part of the natural order too. But try as he might, Bucky could not muster any feeling of pity for the wolves. 



 

The crack ahead of him filled him with a sense of dread. It would take him underground. There would be no sending up a flare to call for bombs. Bucky would be alone in the dark. The feeble voice that was Bucky’s sense of preservation implored him turn back, to run away, to not enter the dark abyssal depths of the crack. The voice was too weak for Bucky to hear now. He pushed his way through the dark crack and found himself in a sharply descending passageway. 

The green light from his visor led the way, his sunstone eye proving its value and making itself worth the agony of implanting it. The green light was easy on his eyes and illuminated everything. 

The passage was steep and narrow, but large enough for a bear to crawl out of Bucky realised. Ahead of him was more darkness, and he watched his step, knowing that some yawning chasm could appear in a moment. If he fell, he could teleport himself to safety, but it would be draining. 

Finally, he saw a sickly yellow glow up ahead, and Bucky picked up his pace. He readied his magic, something felt wrong. This was a place full of magical sickness. A faint gibbering cry escaped from Bucky’s lips. What was left of his equinity suffered in this place. He could feel an ache in his bones and a dull thudding in his brain. 

He rounded the corner and stepped into a cavern. Ahead of him, he saw piles of dead bodies, dead ponies, all brought here to this abattoir of horrors. Some had been hung on jagged stone outcroppings and flayed. After looking around and taking it all in, including a massive crystal spire in the middle of the grotto, he saw something that he wished he had never seen. 

There was a unicorn colt that was about the same size as Sentinel. Looking at it, it was clear that it was dead. There was an exposed ribcage on one side. It glowed with the sickly yellow glow that the crystal emanated. 

It was also moving around and it turned to stare at Bucky with empty eye sockets. 

Bucky inhaled sharply as he looked upon the unbelievable unimaginable scene, and then to his terror, the unicorn foal’s horn began to glow. It was impossible for the dead to cast spells as far as Bucky knew. He braced himself for a magical battle with a foe that should not exist.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 171
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The undead foal moved slowly and without much coordination. Its horn flared brightly and a shield appeared around the crystal. It shimmered like a soap bubble and the colt backed up inside of the shield, seeking protection. 

The crystal flared with a sickly yellow light and several of the dead bodies began to move, slowly rising up to their hooves. They moved slowly and stumbled towards Bucky, who was still in shock because of what he had witnessed. 

“Greetings Buckminster Bitters,” a cold sepulchral disembodied voice said. 

Bucky began to sweat inside of his armor. The voice sounded entirely too much like his own. It was only a trick perhaps, intended to unnerve him. He tried to quell his unwanted and unwelcomed fear so he could focus upon the task at hoof. 

“You are so gifted. I am so proud,” the voice said in cold cutting sarcasm. It filled the air with booming laughter. “At long last, one of our line has made it this far. You still have a horn. Sort of. I always knew that House Bitters was the only true heirs among the many houses of Avarice to the only two bloodlines that mattered.” 

“Who are you?” Bucky demanded as he kept a wary eye upon the undead. 

“It doesn’t matter, but the fact that you are of my blood will make it so much easier to absorb your essence when I claim you,” the voice said. “And with your essence, I will claim your destiny as my own!” 

“Not bloody likely,” Bucky retorted. “Bah, I should know better, talking to dead things.” 

“I AM NOT DEAD!” the voice shrieked. 

“Oh, struck a nerve have I?” Bucky asked in a harsh mechanical growl. 

“You should respect your elders and your future GOD!” the voice bellowed. 

“A god that hides behind undead foals isn’t much of a god,” Bucky snarked. 

“I am going to enjoy devouring your essence,” the voice hissed. 

“You’re deluded,” Bucky snarled in a cold metallic growl. 

Bucky lashed out with his telekinesis and sent the undead flying away from him. More started to twitch and rise. Bucky ignored them, focusing instead upon the shield and the crystal. He cursed himself. Abjuration was never his strong point. 

To buy him more time to concentrate, he pulled a flame filled spell jar from the rack on his armor and hurled it at the undead, setting them ablaze. The cavern was now well lit, and ghostly shadows danced along the walls. He readied another burning spell jar and turned his gaze upon the shield. He gave it a good telekinetic thump and saw it shimmer. It wasn’t that strong. 

He hurled the second spell jar at the pile of the dead and then once again focused his attention upon the crystal and the troublesome shield. He needed Lyra. She would have had it down in an instant. He slammed it with another telekinetic thump, sending a few thousand tons of force at it. It cracked and static coursed along the outer surface. 

Bucky felt a painful gurgle in his stomach. The last telekinetic burst has been a big one. He conjured more whiskey from the keg, knowing that it was a stopgap now. He pulled a lightning filled spell jar from his rack and hurled it at the shield. 

The lightning crackled all along the surface and the shield began to flicker. As it flickered, Bucky slammed it one last time, lashing out with all of his willpower and fury. The shield popped like a bubble, exposing the undead unicorn foal and the crystal spire. 

“You are disappointingly weak in some simple areas of spellcraft,” the voice taunted. “Really, if all you have is brute force to remove even a simple shield, you have no chance to survive our encounter.” 

“Oh piss off,” Bucky growled. He felt infuriated. He was all to aware of his own shortcomings as far as magic was concerned, and now he began to worry. His failures in school might come back to haunt him. 

He focused on the task at hand and sent a spike of energy at the crystal. It cracked, and then the crack began to grow larger and larger. It sounded like ice cracking, a glacial shelf preparing for a thunderous break. 

“Acceptable losses. I have learned your weaknesses and will plan accordingly,” the voice announced in mocking tones. 

The crystal exploded with terrific force, obliterating most of the bodies in the cavern. 

Bucky looked carefully around the underground gallery, looking for signs of anything moving. Seeing nothing, he moved towards the crystal fragments, intending to collect a sample for study. Lyra would be most interested and might have a way to deal with future crystals that might be a little easier for him to manage. 

He selected a long shard of crystal that still thrummed with magical energy and gathered it up in his magic. It felt wrong to even hold it. It reeked of dark magic and Bucky’s first instinct was to hurl it away. He resisted the urge. He needed its secrets, and perhaps Lyra would have a way to deal with the crystal shielding spell. 

Bucky summoned a large quantity of whiskey and drank it down. He needed the energy. He summoned more, and then more, and then a bit more for good measure. His stomach still gurgled, but didn’t feel so burned out and empty. 

After stomping around, he found what remained of the undead foal. He shone his eyelight down upon it, and began to study what was left of the body. While most of the corpse was rotted away, the head and horn was remarkably well preserved. The foal had little magic Bucky realised. It was a custodian. A means to magically trigger defenses and maintenance perhaps. Bucky suspected that the bear was corrupted into shadow by the crystal, and then perhaps left here as a guardian. 

Still, it was alarming. The dead should have no magic. Bucky racked his mind, trying to think of any undead types that might still have magic. Spirits like Sombra were one thing, they were magic, but corpses with no animating life force, this was a whole different issue entirely. 

He thought of Harper and nearly pissed himself as he imagined what her fate might have been. Suddenly, more than anything in the entire world, he wanted to be in a cool dark place holding Harper and smelling her sweet milky scent. He ached to hold her. 

He gave a final careful check to all of the corpses in the cavern, and then, deciding he couldn’t be too careful, he froze them all solid. Closing his eye, he sent out a telekinetic nova and shattered them all. He felt a painful gurgle in his belly as he opened his eye. He could see the little frozen bits of corpses all around him. 

Nothing threatening remained in the underground chamber, and the mystery of the lost ponies upon the isle had been solved. 



 

The moment Bucky’s hooves hit The Scorned Mare he let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t know what to say, or what to tell the the ponies around them. He could only stare at them dumbly as the feeling of numb shock continued to take over his body. He set down the crystal shard upon the wooden map table and then simply stood there, not moving, not talking, doing nothing. 

“Bucky? You alright in there?” Derpy asked.

“I’ve been better,” Bucky said in a small frightened voice. 

“No more tonight. I understand you need to be on deck just to keep guard through the night, but no more trips down to the ground tonight,” Derpy said soothingly. 

“I couldn’t, even if I wanted to… I can’t talk about it yet,” Bucky said and then fell silent. 

Derpy wanted Bucky to talk, but decided to not press the issue. She understood the need for silent reflection. More than anything, she wanted to hold him and comfort him. She felt a nudge, turned, and saw Berry. 

“I no longer detect anything below us,” Lyra reported. "The isle is kinda small. Whatever it was, it is gone now. Bucky put an end to it.” She moved forward to the map table and began to look at the crystal shard. She eyed it for a few moments, lowered her head to the table level, and then studied the crystal from a different angle. 

“This feels wrong,” Lyra announced, not wanting to touch the crystal at all. “Oh this is bad. I am not even sure how bad this is yet, but it is bad,” Lyra said in a panic. 



 

In the soft grey hour of the dawn, Derpy waved her hoof in front of Bucky’s eye as he lay on the bed. There was no response. He lay there, staring blankly off into space. She waved again, hoping for a response, and there was none. She pondered a gentle slap with her wing, but decided against it. She needed to get his attention somehow. 

Instead, she kissed him. For a moment, there was no response, but then Bucky thawed. It was as if he slowly came to life. Derpy pressed her advantage and her lips against Bucky, pushing and then rolling him over onto his back. She climbed on top of him, straddling him gently, and stroked the sides of his face with her wings as she continued to kiss him gently and softly. 

She broke the kiss and lifted her head, her eyes meeting Berry’s, who looked quite worried. Berry leaned over Bucky to say something, but was interrupted when Bucky grabbed her and pulled her in. Derpy, still straddling Bucky, gently kneaded his barrel with her front hooves. She wasn’t an earth pony, but she knew how to make Bucky feel good. 

“I need my kelpie,” Bucky said breathily as he broke away from the kiss he shared with Berry. “I need all of you. I’m so tired…” 

“We’ll be here with you… get some sleep,” Thistle said as she crawled into the bed and went to Bucky’s side. The kelpie squeaked when she was taken and pulled in for a kiss. 

Derpy slid off of Bucky and took her usual spot by his side. She watched as the others shuffled around and went to their usual positions, each one settling into place in turn, and she watched as Bucky’s head drooped into to place on Thistle’s back. 

“Where is my other earth pony and my unicorn?” Bucky inquired in a dazed voice. 

“They’ll come to bed soon. Harper won’t stop crying, they have her in another room and they are trying to quiet her,” Berry replied and then yawned. 

Bucky thought of Harper, and then thought of the abomination deep underground. He shuddered and wondered if he would ever be able to sleep well ever again. 

“Sentinel and Moonbow are doing well together I think. When I checked on them before going to bed, Sentinel had Dinky, Piña, and Moonbow all piled into the bed with him. They looked adorable together. I wish I had a camera,” Berry said as she rubbed Bucky with her hoof. 

“Moonbow hit her decade mark this spring,” Thistle whispered. “She and I talked during the night. We have so much in common. I don’t want her making the same mistakes I did. Unlike me, she is willing to listen and learn.” 

“Already showing signs of being a good mother,” Derpy said, praising the kelpie. 

“Also, you have to watch when she pounces on Sentinel. She’ll be sitting still and Sentinel will be minding his own business and then POW! She just bursts into action and pounces him, and Sentinel rolls and bounces away on stiff legs with his back arched and he hisses,” Thistle said, smiling as she told the story. “At first it scared me because they snarled and there was bared fangs and they made such ferocious noises at one another and I thought for certain there was going to be a fight. Turns out, this is how they show affection. So when it happens, don’t be scared.” 

“They don’t hurt each other?” Derpy inquired. 

“No, she likes him. She told me she was trying to teach him how to act like a lunar pegasi,” Thistle replied. “Sentinel was upset though because she interrupted his writing. She gave him something to write about.” 

“Well, we want Sentinel to be aware of his roots. I’m sure after a couple of moments of terror, wetting ourselves, and worrying that they are attempting to murder one another, we’ll get used to it like Thistle has and everything will be fine,” Berry said.

“I can feel the foal kicking,” Thistle announced. 

All three mares felt Bucky tense, and then he moved quite suddenly, pushing Thistle over onto her side. Thistle let out a squeaky squeal as the side of Bucky’s face and ear was pressed up against her navel. Thistle tried to hold still, tried to contain herself as she felt Bucky pressing up against her, but then she felt his ear slowly trail over one of her teats. 

She lost it and let out a long low pleasurable moan. Her tummy and other tender bits were just too sensitive now. She let out a startled cry when she felt Bucky’s snoot pressing into her stomach, and then he began to sniff her, pressing his nose into different places and deeply inhaling her scent. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she let herself enjoy the experience. 

Thistle believed that Bucky was at his best when he was in his most animalistic states. There was nothing that would ever come near her and ever harm her again. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 172
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky prowled the deck, looking over the day guard. The Scorned Mare soared towards a new cluster of islands and the sun was directly overhead. There was blue-green ocean below. There was no more sleep to be had and there was nopony that Bucky felt close enough to talk to. It was just him and his thoughts. 

He was alone with his thoughts, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle. 

He suspected that whomever was behind the wolves had to be a member of House Bitters, or had been when they were still a pony. Lyra was right on that account. There was no equinity left in his foe. Bucky worried how much of his equinity was left in him. It was a troubling thought. He knew he was breaking down. He was becoming numb inside, his feelings becoming dull and dead. 

House Bitters had its own rogue’s gallery, the family members that were never talked about. So many had been carted off to asylums. Madness was a common problem. There had been quite a bit of inbreeding over the years to keep the bloodline as pure as possible, breeding only with other members of Platinum’s bloodline. Bucky’s own father had broke with tradition and had married his mother, Primrose Propers. It had been done with Goldflake’s blessing, Goldflake being the head of all of the various houses of Avarice. 

His father’s father, also named Buckminster Bitters, had married his first cousin, which was rumoured to also be his half sister due to a little adultery that was never discussed. Buckminster’s father’s father had gone a little crazy after his father had apparently spontaneously combusted one day. They found his charred corpse in the study. He had been named Buckminster Bitters as well. Being the anal retentive obsessive compulsive types that they were, they stuck with what worked. The name was inherited, along with all of the prestige that came along with it. Bucky felt that he would be glad to break with tradition. 

Spontaneous combustion happened. So did suicide. One of the many hazards of being a Canterlot unicorn. It was a fine thin line to walk and the pressures were many. 

What Bucky wanted more than anything right now, was a cup of tea. Or coffee. Anything hot, calming, and flavourful. He could feel it in his throat, the desire, the need for something soothing that was not hard liquor. He turned his face towards the wind and felt his mane blow back. He closed his eye and allowed himself to get lost in the moment, feeling the sun and the wind on his face. There was a salty tang in the air. 

His serenity was rudely interrupted by the thought of whatever it was he was fighting planning for his next visit. Bucky wasn’t particularly skilled in abjuration or stripping away defenses. He had never intended his talent to be used for war. He had merely wanted to unravel the mysteries of what was possible, enchantment and transmutation had allowed him to do that. 

He was going to need Lyra. He hoped that she could include a few spells inside of spell jars that would help him break down defenses, or that she could teach him how to shatter shields and protective wards. Lyra might have played second fiddle as a spellbreaker to Twilight Sparkle, but Lyra was second fiddle to Twilight Sparkle which meant that Bucky could ask for no finer teacher. There was also the fact that Lyra had created a shield which had even kept him contained. He thought of that night and how Lyra had subdued him and his magic. 

“You should be sleeping.” 

Bucky nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Derpy’s voice. It was the voice of an irritated mother who had just found her foal out of bed and prowling about the house. Quite without meaning to do so, he turned around and looked at her guiltily. 

“I can’t sleep,” Bucky whimpered in a strained voice. 

“I know, but Bucky, you need sleep,” Derpy said. 

“This is almost over. Maybe when my mind is at ease,” Bucky replied. 

“Come back to bed. Berry Punch is waiting. She’s full to bursting with milk and Harper is sound asleep. Let Berry comfort you,” Derpy said in a gentle enticing voice. 

Bucky did not reply, but he did rise and begin to make his way to the cabin door, a pegasus just behind him prodding him along. 



 

“Tonight, we will be over these cluster of islands here,” Deadspin said as he pointed to the map with his wing. “We’ve already had scouts return with information. No howls. The isles are warm at night. No trace of bitter cold. Whatever might have been here has retreated, possibly pulled back. We’re hearing reports from several outer isles of the same thing. Isle o’ Groats is reporting that the nights are bitterly cold again and the fear has returned. So the battlefield has changed. We’ll do a flyover so Lady Lyra can check, but I don’t think we are going to find anything.” 

Lyra yawned and peered off towards where the sun would soon be setting. “Well if the battlefield has changed, we need to change. We keep up our flyovers but we should hurry back to the Isle of Groats and bring the battle back to whatever is holed up there.” 

“We have to make sure there are no more crystal spires,” Bucky said. 

“I agree. I plan to spend tonight studying the shard you brought back. Bucky, it is filled with necromantic energies. I am positive it is a shadow battery,” Lyra stated. “There is also weird mental magic. Some kind of mind control magic residue. I can hear it whispering to me when I touch it with my magic.” 

“I need to be able to do something about the shields,” Bucky said to Lyra. 

“I know. We’ll work on that. There are hundreds of empty spell jars still and I plan to give you a crash course in practical spell breaking. I am not sure how well you will do though Bucky. It is all about magical finesse, not brute force,” Lyra replied. 

Bucky gave his unicorn wife a sour look. 

“Hey, don’t you look at me like that you half a horse! You run around practically screaming “BUCKY SMASH!” as you crush things and smash things and slam things using only the raw brute force of your telekinesis. I remember stories of what you did to the schoolyard slide back in Ponyville. You made a big tower by smashing rocks together! Let’s face it, you are a one trick pony!” Lyra retorted, not liking the sour look she was getting. “I love you and you need to hear the truth. You can’t brute force everything!” 

“Yes I can,” Bucky stubbornly argued in a low subdued voice. “And I have lots of tricks.” He thought about the accusations that Princess Platinum had leveled at him, calling him a brute. He felt righteously indignant that anypony would dare judge him. 

“Yeah. You are a master enchanter. How do you use it? You make armor. And then, “BUCKY SMASH!” as you run around crushing and kicking things to death. You make bombs to blow your enemies to bits. Don’t get me wrong, it is practical and it gets the job done, but all you do is brute force everything, pummeling things into submission. You are as subtle as a whorse’s queef!” Lyra retorted, snorting several times to punctuate her words. 

Bucky sulked in silence, glaring at Lyra. 

“I love you so much, sometimes I can’t stand it,” Lyra admitted. “But you are so thick headed.” 

“That crystal shard… is it dangerous?” Lugus inquired, gently butting into the conversation. 

“I have it set up in a containment field and a resized repurposed spell jar. I had to wrap it in a null field to make it behave. It will be safe to study, and once I understand it, I intend to destroy it,” Lyra answered. “We’re dealing with another master level enchanter. Something that understands the subtle uses of magic.” 

Bucky scowled and his head dropped even lower. He did not shrug away when Lyra kissed him on the cheek, but his glowering did intensify. 

“To be fair, Bucky is still young. Given enough time, I have no doubt that he will become the greatest enchanter of our age. I am sure he will learn to be subtle someday,” Lyra said as she prodded Bucky with her hoof. 

“I am calling for rest and relaxation tonight,” Berry Punch said. “We’ll post guards, but if there is determined to be no threat, I say pull up to a safe altitude and let the foals out on the deck. Let them see the the moon, the stars, and Luna’s sacred night. And no dressing up as Bucky Buckethead tonight.” 

“I agree,” Lugus quipped, his beak clacking together for emphasis. “Our chief looks awful. If he was food, I would not eat him. He appears to be living carrion.” 

The ponies on the deck stared at Lugus, a silence falling upon them all. It was broken by Lyra, who burst out laughing, clutching her stomach with one hoof as she threw back her head and guffawed. 

“Oh thanks Lugus… I feel so flattered,” Bucky replied snidely. 



 

The night air was cold at this altitude and the air was a little thin. The pegasi were fine, but the others had to breathe a little deeper. The breeze was salty and smelled of the ocean, even this high up. They drifted through the dark, clouds above and below them, and swaths of clear sky all around them. 

Sentinel sat on the deck, looking up at the moon, Moonbow sitting beside him, the pair close together and sitting in silence. The magical lights had been dimmed and the offensive capabilities turned off to keep the lunar pegasi from harm on the odd event that anything might happen. Moonbow, much larger and shaggier than Sentinel, kept moving a little closer, until she was pressed up against his side so they could keep warm together. She was a creature of instincts, and her instincts were to keep the smaller males around her protected. Sentinel triggered those instincts. To an observer, it looked like budding affection. 

Sour Mash was telling a story to Dinky and Piña, a scary story about banshees that left both of the foals clinging tightly to one another and shivering in the cold night air. Sour Mash was an excellent storyteller and several of the adults had gathered around to listen. Sour Mash was also quite good at making “wooo wooo” noises to emphasise her story at key points. She sat on her haunches, waving her front hooves around, explaining with slow drawn out words how banshees would scream to paralyse their victims and then suck the life out of them, slurping it right out like soup from a bowl. 

Lyra was off in a far corner studying, Bon Bon near her side, and Lugus stood watch near both of them, eyeing the crystal shard nervously. Bon Bon occasionally spoke to Lugus, and it was clear to any on deck that might be watching that the two of them were slowly becoming acquainted. 

Berry Punch lay on a cushion, covered in a blanket, with Harper nestled against her belly. Derpy stood guard over them, the pegasus looking fierce. As serene as it might be, she was taking no chances. Yew Wood sat nearby, and Peekaboo was clinging to Yew Wood’s leg. 

Ripple, on guard and on duty, walked the outer edges of the deck with several other pegasi. She was wearing her war shoes and they clicked softly with every step. Her mane whipped in the breeze and her tail billowed out behind her. She was solemn, she was serious, and even though she hadn’t told anypony, she wanted a fight. She was tired of living in fear. Now, she wanted things to fear her. Not her fellow ponies though, and Ripple was beginning to think of the fine line she would have to walk to be a protector of her species. 

Rising Star, Sparkler, and Loch Skimmer sat off alone, talking quietly to one another, sharing their hopes, their dreams, and their shared desires for the future. Loch Skimmer quietly confessed to the ears of her mates that while she did not mind continuing her education, she wanted a foal as soon as possible, telling Rising Star in quiet urgent tones that she had needs, powerful needs, and that she was ready for them to start their family as soon as this was all over. 

Bucky sat on the prow of the ship, looking out towards the stars. He occasionally turned to watch the others, and then he would resume his star gazing. As he sat, he thought about the flayed bodies he had found, some skinned, some missing bits and pieces, and he wondered why. He wished he had given more attention to those details. Were they missing hooves? Wings? The assorted magical parts that different ponies had? Bucky did not know. He silently cursed himself for his lax behaviour, his emotional shock he had felt, and how it might have caused him to miss important details. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 173
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky, you are hopeless,” Lyra cried in exasperation. “We’ve spent the past two nights trying to pound a little spellbreaking into that thick skull of yours. I don’t know what to do with you. In a serious fight with a credible wizard, you’d be screwed!” 

“I would not!” Bucky argued. 

“You would so! I could totally take you out!” Lyra crowed. “I have the defensive means to hold you off long enough to wear down the defensive enchantments on your armor. I would work through your protections. Dispel your enchantments. While you were busy trying to bash your way through my defenses, I would be carefully undoing all of yours! Time would be on my side and eventually, I would crack you like a walnut!” 

Bucky glared at Lyra but said nothing, knowing that every word she said was true, and painfully so. He hated Lyra just a tiny bit in that moment, but he also loved her fiercely all the more. 

“I don’t understand, you had trouble holding back Bucky’s magic the night of the dream,” Bon Bon stated, looking with confusion upon both Lyra and Bucky. 

“That was different. I was trying to hold back his magic and keep all of you safe. If we went at one another, I’d let him cut loose with his magic and exhaust himself against my defenses and then I’d pick him apart piece by piece and lay him low,” Lyra explained. 

“Oh,” Bon Bon said. She looked away from the pair, off into the late afternoon sky. The sun would be setting soon. She turned back to Lyra and blinked several times. “Really, you two should kiss a bit and make up. I think you hurt Bucky’s feelings.” 

“I needed my feelings hurt. I am still a Canterlot unicorn somewhere deep inside. I have too much pride. Lyra is right with everything she has to say,” Bucky admitted. He heaved a sigh and dropped his head down in shame. He stared down at the deck where he was sitting and began to trace over the whorls in the wood grain with his eye, looking for some kind of pattern or meaning in the wood. 

Bon Bon placed her hoof under Bucky’s chin and lifted his head. She kissed him softly on the nose and then patted him on his neck. “You are getting better with your pride. There is hope for you yet,” she whispered, and then kissed him again. 



 

“The isle below is unnamed. It is uninhabited mostly, but it has a few buildings and a place to rest for flying pegasi who are traveling from isle to isle. And ships. It is small. One half is flat, the other half is like a big mountain that has been cut in half, leaving a cliff on one side and a jagged slope on the other. Passing ships have reported hearing howls on the isle at night sometimes. Keg Smasher guesses that if the wolves swim, they might be stopping by here to get some rest and hide from the sun,” Deadspin reported. 

“There is something awful here,” Lyra said as the ship was brought to a halt. “I’ve been feeling it as we’ve been drawing closer.” 

“I feel it too,” Bucky said in a low mechanical voice that reverberated from his helmet. 

“I don’t detect any shadow wolves though,” Lyra said in a voice full of worry. 

“That’s because they’ve probably all been called back,” Bucky said. 

“That seems likely,” Deadspin announced. 

“Tonight you get to try the little cakes I made of compressed oats, corn, and dehydrated fish. They are heavy and dense. I’ve packed them inside of some folded canvas. Tuck them between you and your armor somewhere, like along your side. Magic some out when you need a bite to eat. They smell awful to me, but you will probably like them,” Berry Punch said as she gestured to a small folded bit of canvas on the map table. 

The canvas vanished with a flash of blue-green light and Bucky gave a nod of thanks. Suddenly, he didn’t want to jump over the side of the ship. He didn’t want to face whatever evil was down below. He could feel his inner equine give a whinny. He wanted to be in his cabin, screwing Berry Punch until her eyes crossed and her tongue was hanging out. He wanted to hear her bleating. He wanted to climb over her back, grab her around her middle, and have a go at her. Or to even be her victim, where she took him down and had her way with him. Either way, his inner equine whinnied, snorted, and gave a few nickers to let him know that there were still things worth hanging around for. He smiled a smile that nopony could see and thought about everything he had to come home to. 



 

Bucky moved along a ridge, flashing his eyelight ahead of him. He could sense what he was looking for, somewhere ahead of him and maybe above him in the darkness. A cold sense of dread made his testicles draw up into his body and sent painful contortions down his spine. 

The inside of his armor had the mouthwatering scent of fish. It was difficult to believe that at one point he had been physically repulsed by that smell. Now, he was drooling uncontrollably, trapped inside of his armor with delicious fishy smelling cakes of oatmeal and corn. 

There was a trail here, it had been used by many animals, and it was relatively near the shoreline. As he stomped along, he heard owls hooting and other creatures of the night making noise, probably scolding him for stomping up the side of a mountain while wearing heavy plate. He could hear frogs croaking somewhere in the tidal marshes off in the distance. If not for the overwhelming sense of evil, this would be a tranquil place. 

Bucky had the curious notion of wondering what frog might taste like, and he resolved to ask Sentinel about it sometime. Given everything else Sentinel ate, including things like slugs, he suspected that Sentinel would know. He loved his son dearly, but Sentinel had odd eating habits. Anything could potentially be food. 

He realised that he was paying attention to little details again, things he had tuned out before because he had always seen them as distractions. He found that he actually cared about frogs croaking and owls hooting. He cared about them because they weren’t distractions, they were reminders that he was still alive. The idea brought him a small measure of comfort, and he promised himself that when this was over, he would spend a little more time being distracted. 



 

The passage was wide, well traveled, sloped downwards, and was littered with the bones of small animals which crunched under his steel shodded hooves. He had found the cave entrance after climbing around for a while and shining his light around. 

Nothing came to greet him, but he knew what lay ahead. He had with him several spell jars filled with shield busters that Lyra had created and he hoped they would work. 

“Hello again Buckminster,” a disembodied voice said as he made his way down the passage. 

“I know you were once a member of House Bitters. Who are you?” Bucky demanded. 

“So clever. I remember you being born and wondering if the shadow would touch you as it had touched me,” the voice replied. 

“Who are you?” Bucky demanded again, this time with more force. His voice echoed off of the walls. 

“You were born and you ruined what little bit of happiness your father and your mother had. I must confess, they were so distraught, I thought about bringing you here as one of my special foals,” the voice said in a taunting fashion. “Not going to ask me who I am again?” the voice asked after several moments of silence. 

Bucky growled inside of his helmet and a red haze filled his vision. 

“I spent my life preparing this place and then old age caught up to me before I was ready. I had to improvise Buckminster. Just like you. Unlike you, I was only a type two, a shameful family secret. Now, there is no end to my power. I had to free myself from my worthless body that held me back, even though things weren’t quite ready. But I have been fixing things. I am patient. I am beyond concerns such as aging now, I have all the time in the world.” 

“Are you my great grandfather?” Bucky demanded, trying to will the red haze away and keep his wits about him. He knew he was being goaded. It was a guess, but Bucky thought it was a good guess. 

There was a long moment of drawn out silence before there was any sort of reply. 

“You are clever. You might be one of the stupidest unicorns that has ever lived, but you have your moments when you are quite clever… did I leave behind a nice charred corpse?” 

“My stupidity is matched only by my stubbornness… Celestia said I could out stubborn an earth pony. Know this… I cannot be stopped. I will come for you. And one way or another, I will kill you. And because of what you did to Lyra, I am going to allow myself to enjoy it,” Bucky said in acidic tones. 

“Ah yes, the unicorn bitch. You do know she is a better wizard than you, right? Wait, of course you do. Does it gall you? Do you hate her? Do you wish to put her in her place? There is only one cure for a mare unwilling to breed you know… I had to use the cure on your great grandmother… If had not, you and I would not be talking. Funny how life is. She had a fancy for mares too. A pity she had to be broken, she was never quite the same afterwards,” the voice said and then broke into an obscene titter. 

Bucky saw the red haze in his vision returning and it became hard to see. He stomped with enough force to crack stone as he made his way down the passage. 

“I put a spike bitted bridle in her mouth and I had to use spurs secured on my front fetlocks. I had to break her spirit before I broke her in. I know what happened to Lyra… I tell you, she would enjoy you breaking her. It would not be the first time she’s been broken.” 

“You are so dead!” Bucky yelled. 

“I am beyond death,” the voice mocked. 

“You fail to understand just how much I want to kill you. I will find a way,” Bucky snarled in reply, and then let out a wordless scream of rage. He charged forward down the dimly lit passage while mocking laughter flooded the darkness all around him. 



 

He emerged into a cavern deep underground that was filled with a hazy purple glow. There were two crystal spires here, one red, the other blue. The voice had gone silent some time ago, and Bucky was breathing heavily from his rage. His body was already tired, exhausted, and his emotions had worn him out. 

Several undead unicorns turned to look at him with sightless empty sockets. In the back of the cavern there was a large stone table, and on the table there were a collection of severed unicorn heads, all well preserved and their horns glowing with different magical signature colours. Some were adults, while others were considerably smaller. A few looked like the heads collected from infants. 

“I have no intention of fighting you and wasting my energy here. I already know your strengths and weaknesses. I will not waste precious energy defending this place. It will be painful losing my focus nexus, but I will not be needing it much longer. I am so close to ascension. Perhaps when you come for me, you will meet me in my new form. If not, I will absorb you and then perhaps I will become what I was meant to be.” 

After the voice spoke, the undead unicorns dropped to the stone floor, no longer animated. The horns on the collection of severed heads went dark. The crystals began to flicker and dim. 

Bucky didn’t wait for them to go dark, he slammed into them with a powerful telekinetic blast, causing them to shatter explosively, flooding the room with raw magic. The explosive burst destroyed the bodies of the undead, sundered the table into several smaller pieces, and scattered the severed heads all over the chamber. They bounced, rolled, and burned.

Bucky felt cheated somehow after his enemy had simply withdrawn. He wanted a fight, and it had been denied to him. He wanted to take something from his foe, to lash out, to cause loss. Now he was left standing here, impotent with rage, and nothing to vent his fury upon. 

He forced himself to calm down and regain his senses. He quietly resolved to not go rushing after his enemy. Time perhaps might not be on his side, or his foe could be lying, but either way, Bucky was determined to not go rushing in until he felt he was ready. There were still other isles to check. There were probably other crystal spires too, and he had to make sure they were destroyed. 

After slowing down his breathing, he conjured a bit of fish cake into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. They were quite good, and the bite of food helped Bucky calm down even further. He lifted his head and began to search the cavern. There was probably nothing here, but he would look anyway. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 174
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Just as the sun began to crest over the horizon, Bucky began to take off his helmet and power down his armor. He had spent the night pacing slowly over the deck, cursing and muttering to himself after his encounter in the cave. As his armor began to drop away, several ponies who loved him used this moment of distraction to strike. 

“SLEEP!” Lyra commanded, calling forth everything she had, surging forth with a powerful mental enchantment. The spell struck Bucky unawares. His horn flared for a moment and then his helmet clattered to the wooden deck just before his body tumbled down. 

“I didn’t think that would work… catching Bucky off guard allowed me to slip past his mental defenses and his guard. He didn’t have his will power up,” Lyra said sheepishly. 

“Good work Lyra. Lugus, load Bucky’s armor into the case made for it. Derpy, let’s get him to bed,” Bon Bon commanded. 

The grey pegasus nodded and gave a friendly kiss on the cheek to Lyra. “Ya did good,” she said to the unicorn and then she patted her with her wing. Derpy moved forward and gently prodded Bucky with her hoof. “How long will he be out?” 

“Hours,” Lyra replied. 

“I feel bad for ambushing him, but it had to be done,” Berry Punch said as she drew near Bucky’s body. 

“That wheeze of his is getting worse,” Bon Bon stated. 

“When he wakes up, if it is still daylight, we feed him, give him some water, and then we do what mares do to wear out our husband to make him sleep. We have numbers on our side. Or we can distract him and have Lyra zap him again, but he might be a bit suspicious or on to us,” Derpy said as she looked down at Bucky’s sprawled out form. As she watched, Lyra’s magic enveloped him and lifted him into the air. Derpy watched Bucky’s body wiggle in the air as Lyra shook him gently, shaking loose a leg guard and then she lowered him over Derpy’s back. Derpy grunted, shifting Bucky’s body around. “He doesn’t weigh anything anymore,” she added as muscle in her foreleg quivered from a line of drool that came from Bucky’s open mouth as it began to trickle down towards her hoof. 

“I know,” Lyra said in a timid voice. “It takes no effort to lift him now.”

“We need for this to end. I know we need to go home, but I don’t know if that is a good idea. Bucky needs time to recover. I’m worried that this is gonna kill him,” Berry Punch said, giving voice to her fears. “Not whatever is hiding under the mountain, but all of this.” 

“We’ll need to pamper him for a while. He’s earned it,” Bon Bon stated. 

Lyra nodded and watched as Derpy carried Bucky away, heading off to the door of the cabin. “I love him Bon Bon. It makes me feel funny,” she admitted. 

“Me too,” Bon Bon replied. 



 

Sentinel watched as Moonbow settled herself on his bed and sprawled out. It was the late afternoon, soon to be evening, and ponies were starting to wake up. Except for Moonbow, who seemed ready for a nap. He was sitting at a small fold out shelf desk intended just for him and his writing. 

“Are you happy?” Sentinel asked. 

The lunar pegasus filly yawned and then studied Sentinel before responding. “What does happiness have to do with anything?” 

“Well, I don’t want you miserable,” Sentinel replied. 

“I like it here. I like Dinky and Piña. I like Ripple, from what little I have been around her. And I really like our matriarch,” Moonbow admitted. 

“I love all of my mothers,” Sentinel stated.

“It is only proper for a male to love the females that have reared him,” Moonbow said with a snort. She wiggled around and rolled over onto her back, scratching herself with a hoof as she did so. “We must hunt other worthy females together. I demand a proper herd.” 

“Hunt? Seems like such a strong word,” Sentinel said in a soft reply as he watched Moonbow rolling around and scratching. “You need a brushing. I get the itchies too.” 

“Hunt. Capture. Catch. Lure in with sweet words. Find. Keep. I require more females,” Moonbow said as she gave Sentinel a look. 

“I want to make something very clear. I intend to follow my father’s example if I do form a herd. If I take other wives, they might not be like us,” Sentinel said in a worried voice to Moonbow. 

The filly gave a snort. “I like you. You are bold. I shall hunt you something soft and weak.” 

“They are not soft and they are not weak. Berry Punch, the earth pony mare, she started a war to declare her love for my father,” Sentinel said in a slightly annoyed voice. “She set off a war that ripped a country apart and broke a fragile peace that has lasted for centuries.” 

Moonbow rolled over onto her belly, lifted her head, and then looked at Sentinel with narrowed eyes. “That is a powerful courtship display. I shall have to rethink my thoughts of the others.” 

“You do that,” Sentinel said, looking Moonbow in the eye. 

“You are a fearless male to be meeting my eyes like that. In my colony, if a male looked into the eyes of a female, he was thrashed until he submitted,” Moonbow stated. 

“And how did that work out for your failed colony?” Sentinel asked. He watched as Moonbow bristled in front of him, he could see the fine hairs along her back rose up in anger. Her breathing increased.  As Sentinel watched, the filly became angrier and violence seemed likely. 

“You are right. We were stupid.” 

Sentinel gave an internal sigh of relief when he realised that her anger was not directed at him. He watched her ears droop as the anger melted away from her, and was replaced with sadness. He abandoned his desk and went to his bed, which was two whole steps away. He crawled onto the bed and sat down beside Moonbow, who was looking at him. He thumped his skull up against hers, headbutting her gently, and rubbing his scent glands below his uninjured ear over hers. 

It was a move that Moonbow did not expect and had nothing to compare to. In her colony, no male had ever done anything quite like this. Unable to come up with any kind of response, she froze and waited for Sentinel to make the next move. 

Sentinel raised his head and peered at the door. A second later, Dinky and Piña came barreling through, big grins plastered on their faces as they looked at Sentinel and Moonbow. 

“You two are kinda adorable,” Piña said as her smile widened. 



 

“Bucky, I know how to speed up our search,” Lyra said. 

The stallion yawned as the sun neared the horizon slowly. There was still a while before there was darkness. He looked up at Lyra as he lay upon his back on the bed. 

“I had the most excellent idea Bucky… we’re wasting too much time and effort hunting for spires and going from island to island. I was able to secure the magical frequency from the crystal sample you brought back. I am working on a spell that will make the ethereal bridge visible and make it flash like a beacon. The ethereal bridge will look like a beam of magic going towards the Isle of Groats. We just need to find the beams and follow them out to their locations. At the end of each beam will be a crystal spire. I just need for you to give the command to head back towards the general direction of the Isle of Groats so we can find the termination point of the beams, and then we can head back out and follow the beams to their source. No more random fumbling around hoping to find a spire,” Lyra said, giving a long winded explanation. 

“You are a better wizard than I am,” Bucky said as he pulled Lyra down on top of him. The unicorn mare let out a cry of alarm as Bucky groped her, and Bucky gently embraced her. He kissed her on the cheek as he rolled over on his side, spooning a bit with a Lyra and looking into her golden eyes with his own single eye. 

Lyra, realising that once again, Bucky was not actually trying to do anything too untoward with her, relaxed in his embrace and trusted him with her body. 

“I was taunted by our mutual enemy. He… it said that you were a better wizard than me. And he’s right. You come up with utterly brilliant simplistic solutions while I rely on brute force. We might have been out here hunting for days,” Bucky said as one hoof traveled up Lyra’s shoulder, trailed along her neck, making the mare shiver, and then he gently pulled her in for a tender kiss, holding the back of her head with his hoof. 

Lyra melted. It was a simple soft kiss, there was no invasion, no intruding, no tongue, not even an open mouth, just a simple soft pressing of the lips together. There was absolutely nothing at all threatening about the kiss, and Lyra found herself reciprocating, reaching around and stroking Bucky’s neck. 

And then, before things got too heated and tempting, Bucky pulled himself away. 

“I am a one trick pony. I am practically a pegasus when it comes to magic. I use raw magical intimidation, brute force, and I bludgeon everything into submission because it is the only thing I know how to do,” Bucky whispered to Lyra, whose snoot was scant inches from his own. “But I can change. I need to change. Help me.” 

“Of course,” Lyra said in a strained voice, feeling strangely emotional. She was close enough to be breathing Bucky’s air, something that usually only happened with Bon Bon. “We’ll start all over tonight if you will give the order to head back to the Isle of Groats so we can find the ethereal bridges.” 

“Done,” Bucky said. 

“These two are so sweet with one another,” Bon Bon said as she crawled over the bed and flopped down on top of Lyra, making the green unicorn grunt. 

“Bucky, you can cast wards and protective spells… you have the basic theory. You just lack the patience. Don’t get me wrong. You can be incredibly patient when it comes to certain things,” Lyra said as she struggled to talk with Bon Bon crushing her. 

“Hey, come and eat. Dinner is done and the sun will be setting soon,” Berry Punch announced as she stuck her head in the door. 



 

Bucky stood at the prow of the ship, staring ahead into the darkness. They had changed course, and flew back at full speed towards the Isle of Groats, the ocean dark beneath them. The wind whipped his long mane around him, and the ponies behind him agreed that he struck a fine figure leaning into the wind. 

Ripple stood by, fierce and protective. It was unlikely that anything would attack them, but Ripple felt better protecting her father. She was beginning to understand that she needed to feel useful, she needed something to define her life and give her purpose. 

“Bucky, that’s enough dramatically staring ahead into the darkness for now,” Lyra said in a loud merry voice. “You and I are dueling. Right here on the deck. Sparkler, Rising Star, Dinky, it is time for you to learn something, so gather around and watch. The rules are simple. Defensive spells. No hurting one another. I’ll use a little zap spell that might sting a little, but it doesn’t really hurt. I’ll even go easy on you at first. Try to wear down my protections using the spells I’ve been trying to teach you.” 

Bucky turned and looked at his unicorn wife, who was already throwing up protective bubbles and shields. A floating tiny magical bubble was orbiting around her body, darting about wildly to and fro. He started calling up his own defenses, which were crude and simple, things he had learned in remedial defense, which he had only just barely passed. 

The other ponies on the deck scrambled, giving the dueling unicorns a wide berth. 

Before Bucky could even get off a spell to begin to wear down Lyra’s defenses, he felt a powerful zap. It made his mane and tail stand on end and electricity coursed over his pelt. 

“That was easy,” Lyra teased. 

Bucky let go with a brutishly powerful dispelling enchantment. The blue-green bolt of energy flew at Lyra. The little soap bubble that Lyra had conjured zoomed in to intercept and second later Bucky was hit by his own spell, which did nothing. The tiny magical orb that Lyra had summoned bounced around in a seemingly mocking fashion. 

“You would have just ripped apart your own defenses. This little floating orb is a spell reflector. Anything you cast at me will be bounced back to you. So trying to break down my defenses, slapping me with telekinesis, shooting ice magic at me, this little bubble will bounce most direct attacks aimed at me back at the idiot shooting me. You need area of effect attacks that do not try to target me specifically to even have a chance at slipping past this little fella. He’s protective,” Lyra explained. 

Bucky nodded and began to summon more defenses. “How do I dispel it?” he asked. 

“You don’t,” Lyra replied. “It is master level abjuration. There is no way to dispel it, you have to slip past it somehow,” she instructed as she made the spell reflector pop into nothingness. 

“Well, that makes things a little more fair,” Bucky muttered. 

“I have no intention to make this fight fair. Fights are never fair. You and I, we don’t have honourable enemies Bucky. So come on, do your worst,” Lyra invited. She smiled a smug smile and gave Bucky a saucy wink. 

Bucky let go with several spells, most of which bounced off of Lyra. One spell caused her shield to crackle and pop but the shield held. He took a bit of satisfaction in seeing the look of surprise on Lyra’s face, but he couldn’t tell if she was being genuine or just leading him on. Lyra was crafty, and like Berry Punch, probably much smarter than he was. Bucky was beginning to realise just how thick headed and stupid he was. 

“It is all music Bucky… spell crafting is music. Shields and protections are like glass and spells are frequencies. You have to find the right pitch, the right tone. You make just the right sound, and glass shatters. When you slam into a shield, you have to figure out how it hums, how it reacts, and then you have to hit it with just the right frequency to make it shatter. Just like tapping on a wine glass will make it ring, you have to learn how to listen to the sounds of magic as it happens. I have a pitch perfect ear. I know every spell, I hear the music in everything. And then it is merely finding the harmony between the spell and the shield… the right magical musical note to make the shield shatter,” Lyra explained. 

“Bah, your metaphors are confusing and sleep inducing!” Bucky taunted. 

Lyra pulled back her lip into a sneer and pressed her advantage. She let go with a powerful burst of magic, stripping away all of Bucky’s defenses and giving him a good zap to teach him some respect. 

Bucky staggered backwards, sparks still coursing along his body, and gave a maniacal laugh. “For all of your defenses, taunting still gets through,” he said after he guffawed for a bit. 

“You celebrate a pyrrhic victory,” Lyra scolded. 

“I take what I get!” Bucky retorted. 

“Ugh, you are so thick headed and brutish!” Lyra grunted. 

Still smiling, Bucky began to summon up his defenses as he heard laughter all around him. Lyra was soundly thrashing him, repeatedly, but he didn’t mind. He grinned his fiendish grin and send off a few shots at Lyra, making her shields crackle and pop. 

Lyra blocked his attacks effortlessly and kept her defenses secure. Bucky’s attacks were weak and ineffectual. She sighed, and began to prepare a much stronger zap spell. Bucky only understood one thing when it came to instruction, there was only one way to reach him. As she prepared to cut loose, a glass orb materialised directly in front of her and crashed to the deck, shattering. There was a flash of golden light, and she felt the powerful rush of her own magical signature. A second later, she felt a light telekinetic tweak upon her nose, and a building fury began to build up inside of of her. 

“YOU CHEATED!” Lyra shouted. 

“UNICORN CLEVERNESS!” Bucky crowed. “It isn’t cheating when I do it!” 

“You used a spell jar you conjured up filled with my own magic against me!” Lyra cried. 

“Your own magic ignores protective enchantments and always works. No chance of being resisted. I learned that in enchantment,” Bucky replied. 

Lyra felt a grudging slightly hateful respect for Bucky as she stood there glaring at him. She had been defeated, felled by her own magic. “You clever bastard,” Lyra said. “Ugh right now I want to toss you over the railing Bucky. You are unbelievably infuriating sometimes. And I think I love you for it.” 

Bucky lifted the shards of broken glass in his magic, crushed them into a fine glittering powder, and then let them float away into the breeze. 

“Would somepony explain to me the moral of this lesson?” Rising Star begged. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 175
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t understand what is going on,” Bucky said, shaking his head slowly. “We saw the beams… I mean, we all saw them. Lyra cast her spell and now they are gone. Did he hide them somehow?” he asked, turning around to look at Lyra. 

“There are a few possibilities,” Lyra replied nervously. “The most obvious one is that it severed the links once it realised what I have done. The other possibility is that it hid them somehow, but I doubt that. That would require tremendous amounts of energy, and they vanished far too soon after being revealed for this to be likely.” 

“Can he reconnect?” Bucky inquired, his face pinched in concentration. 

“I can’t say for certain, but my gut says no. To create the ethereal bridge you have to physically go to the location to create the magical wormhole. You might be able to do it over a short distance, but that would defeat the purpose of an ethereal bridge, and that is distance. No Bucky, he… it is withdrawing. I think it wants to force your hoof in battle. He’s wasting no more resources and no doubt preparing for your arrival,” Lyra said in a worried frightened voice. “I feel panicky Bon Bon, help me.” 

Bucky watched as the earth pony and the unicorn clung to one another. He turned to look at Deadspin. “Deadspin, send messengers to Keg Smasher. Send out scouts to each island and search every cave, turn over every rock. If the links are severed, and I believe Lyra is correct, there should be no danger. I hope… anyways, we shouldn’t waste time and effort hunting them down. We will deal with the ruins after I deal with the master of the wolves under the mountain.” 

“There were three beams and I still have the general directions in mind,” Deadspin reported. 

“Pegasi are marvelous creatures,” Bucky murmured. 

“Why thank you sir,” Deadspin said, saluting as he did so. 

“So what do we do now?” Sour Mash inquired. 

“We are currently over the Isle of Wheat and the Hydra Teeth are right ahead of us. We pull back to a secure distance and we spend one more night in preparation,” Bucky replied. 

“So… why don’t we attack during the daylight hours?” Deadspin questioned. 

“Tempting,” Bucky said. “Very tempting to to do just that. But then the caves would be full of wolves and who knows what else and I would have to fight my way in, battling for every inch taken. As much as it bothers me to say this, I don’t think I could do that alone. I would get tired and worn down eventually. No, we have to attack at night and I will try to lure them out of their lair. We then proceed to dump every spell jar we have upon them and thin out their numbers. I am positive that every corrupted shadow creature has been withdrawn to guard the lair. We probably face numbers in the hundreds, if not thousands.” 

“How could thousands of creatures exist? I mean, food,” Sour Mash inquired. 

“They don’t actually need to eat flesh,” Bucky answered. “They can eat flesh, but they don’t actually need it to survive. They just need to feed on fear. Sort of like changelings I suppose. When they eat a pony they aren’t doing it for the meat, they are doing it because it scares other ponies.” 

“Well that explains why there can be so many,” Sour Mash said, looking thoughtful. “Wait, if they are ALL on the Isle of Groats right now, howling and scaring ponies, how bad is it? It must be unbearable, the fear and the cold. I bet it has never been this bad,” she added in a fear-filled whimper of concern. 

Bucky grimaced but did not respond, knowing that Sour Mash had to be right. The master of the wolves was probably making a last ditch effort to draw as much energy as possible now that his batteries were gone. Ponies could die from extreme fright, they were simple creatures, and Bucky understood this on some deep instinctual level. Fear travels fast through the herd. When the sun set, the wolves would go out in force. They would howl, they would invade homes, they would be out in force, killing and scaring ponies, probably like they had never done before, trying to make a last ditch effort for their master. 

“Bucky?” Derpy asked in concern. The grey pegasus mare looked a bit sleepy, being awake during the midday. She reached out with a wing and stroked Bucky’s side. 

“We attack tonight. Prepare everything. Leave some orbs for Canterlot, we might need them, hard to say, but get everything you can up on deck and prepare for tonight. Secure the foals and Thistle in Lyra’s special room. It is small and cramped, but I am taking no chances. The rest of the ship is no doubt secured, I trust in Lyra’s spellwork, but it was Lyra’s idea to make the room, so this is for her peace of mind as much as it is my own. Everypony make your preparations for battle tonight. More than anything I want to put all of you out of harm’s way, but I can’t do this on my own,” Bucky said, looking around and meeting the eyes of the ponies he trusted most. 

“I was born for this, and have spent every day of my life training for a time such as this one,” Deadspin said solemnly. “Sour Mash and I will prepare our troops.” 



 

“Are you sure you are going to be safe?” Piña asked in a wavering voice that sounded like she was on the verge of tears. 

“Piña, love, as much as I want to, I can’t promise that I will be coming back. Which is why I wanted to spend a little time with all my foals,” Bucky said. 

He looked around him, surrounded by his foals, he looked upon each of them in turn, feeling them pressed up against him. Sentinel, who was stoic but slipping, Piña, whose eyes were glassy, and Dinky, who made no attempt to hold back the tears. Lyra was close by, holding Harper close, and Moonbow sat near the bed, an outsider looking in, trying to understand what was going on. 

“Sentinel, if I fall, if I do not return, you are to make sure that my girls have worthy loves later on in life. It will be your duty to protect them, to look after them, and do what needs to be done,” Bucky instructed. 

“No…” Sentinel replied, his voice pleading. “Don’t talk like that.” 

“Sentinel, please, do as I ask,” Bucky whispered. 

“Of course father, I will do as you ask. I am grateful for your trust,” Sentinel whimpered. 

There was a pained cry from Ripple, who was sitting near Derpy, suddenly not sure about her place in herd. She fled from Derpy’s side and dove onto the bed, crashing into the pony pile with reckless abandon. She squeezed Sentinel and then she hugged Bucky, but said nothing. She wiped her eyes with her wings and settled in beside her father and pulled Piña close to her. 

“Bucky, I know how important this is, but you need to try and get some sleep. All of you, stay with your father. Spend a little time with him. Treasure every moment,” Berry said in a strained voice, giving up her own happiness and need to be near Bucky so Piña and the others could have what might be Bucky’s final time spent with them. She wanted to be with Bucky, to feel him against her, to feel him inside of her, but she didn’t want to take this time away from the little ones she held dear. She leaned on Derpy, knowing that Derpy must be feeling the much the same. 

Looking upon her young, Derpy felt conflicted. She wanted to push them away and cling to Bucky, and she hated the selfish feeling she kept having. Instead, she settled for climbing up on the bed and settling down near them, close to them pressing up against Ripple instead. She kissed Ripple affectionately, and then settled in, choosing to stay quiet so nopony would hear the strain in her voice. She watched as Berry Punch settled in beside her, and she gave a kiss to Berry as well. 

Not knowing what else to do, Thistle piled into the bed and joined the others, settling in with Berry and Derpy, pressing her face into Berry’s side to finally release the bitter tears she had been holding back this entire time. The sobs were painful and wracked her spine, causing her back to ache fiercely. 

“It is good that all of us have come together during this time,” Bon Bon said in a low gentle voice as she climbed up into the bed and then made a gesture for Moonbow to come to her. She embraced the lunar pegasus filly who crept in beside her and held her close. “This is all we have in life. Each other. And we don’t know how much time we have. Bad things happen in life, and we are not promised another day. So we need to make each moment matter. This is why we shouldn’t squabble with each other. This is why we should remind each other each and every day why we love each other, what we mean to one another, and what we feel towards each other in our herd.” 

Rising Star shoved Loch Skimmer onto the bed and then followed as Sparkler climbed in. The bed was crowded now, and Rising Star grunted as Loch Skimmer flopped down on top of him. “What is it with pegasi and their failure to understand personal space,” he muttered. 

Holding Harper in a bubble, Lyra climbed into bed and settled in near Bon Bon. 



 

The grey expanse stretched endlessly all around him. Bucky wasn’t even aware that he had slipped off into slumber, but it must have happened at some point. Two figures stood nearby, looking nervous. Bucky didn’t even have a chance to say anything before the smaller of the figures slammed into him and hugged him fiercely. 

“So now you know,” Sombra said. 

“How much do you know?” Bucky asked. 

“Only a little. And what I do know, I am forbidden to say,” Sombra replied. 

“I understand,” Bucky said in grim acceptance. 

“He was sick Bucky, the shadow, it corrupted him. It is not his fault. It came to him at an early age. Like it did you. But Celestia didn’t protect him, he wasn’t a very strong unicorn but he was so ambitious, she didn’t think-” 

“That’s enough Platinum,” Sombra gently interrupted. 

Princess Platinum fell silent and then sat down next to Bucky after releasing him. She looked him over, touching him several times. She prodded his ribs, his too thin legs, and his bony neck. A look of dreadful worry spread over her features. 

“I have faith in your abilities,” Sombra said reassuringly. “You have endured so far. You have done so much. Just a little longer, and this terrible test will be over.” 

“I’ve spoken to Celestia, I’ve wanted to tell her of the good you have done, but the master of this place will not allow it. She knows very little of what is happening. But she does now know that you are in mortal peril and that you face a trial that few could imagine. No one knows the outcome, but you have become the subject of many wagers-” 

“Platinum, please, we will be punished again if you keep speaking on these issues,” Sombra urged, cutting Platinum off. 

“About our last conversation… I was wrong Buckminster,” Platinum said, falling silent and unable to say anything else about the subject. She looked at Sombra and made a little gesture with her dainty hoof.

Sombra gave a knowing nod, turned his gaze from Platinum, and focused on Bucky. “A time will come when Sentinel will truly prove worthy as your heir. For good or for ill, certain entities have taken an interest in him. We can say very little, but he will be given a chance to prove himself. Once this is over Buckminster, you must prepare him for an interesting life. He has drawn the attention of many powerful entities. Already, various parties are busy squabbling over the future of your foals,” Sombra said in a low rumbling voice. 

“Sentinel and his foals will long guard your foals and their foals, I was eavesdropping again when I was out on the astral plane being clever and-” 

“Platinum!” Sombra scolded. 

“I CANNOT HELP IT!” Platinum shrieked. “I want to give Buckminster some measure of hope!” 

There was an ominous rumble from somewhere far off in the distance, and both Sombra and Platinum began to tremble. What sounded like a thunderstorm came rolling in, and the grey around them darkened. Platinum lifted her head and regained her composure, refusing to be threatened. 

“Bucky,” Platinum said, dropping all sense of formality. “Don’t be brave. Be clever. Just between the three of us, you are not terribly bright all things considered. You blunder through everything you encounter. You are like one of those steam driven contraptions that move on tracks…” 

“Trains,” Sombra offered. 

“...yes, that is it, a train. Hit your trouble like a train! And that might be enough for now, but you must try to change your ways later,” Platinum said in an urgent voice. “You are quite bright in some aspects, but overall, you tend to be painfully dull witted, and at some point, this will be your undoing.” 

“Ugh, everypony keeps telling me how stupid I am lately,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Well, we all love you and worry about you,” Platinum said sweetly, still ignoring the darkened expanse all around  them. 

“When all else fails Buckminster, go with your strength,” Sombra advised. 

Platinum wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck and hugged him again, and after embracing him for a moment, kissed him softly. “Try not to dwell too much on what victory will cost you,” she whispered. “You will endure-” 

There was another rumble of ill omen and Bucky felt himself being swept away as he heard Platinum shrieking and begging. She was still saying something, but he couldn’t make it what it was over the thunderous sound all around him as he was expelled from this plane of existence. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 176 (now slightly edited to fix an oversight) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A yawning chasm loomed before Bucky, and it was filled with darkness. He could feel it deep within his bones. The ground around him was littered with bones and debris. He was deep within a ravine, with sharp angled walls on each side. The path to the crack in the mountain was only a few ponies wide. 

And then, the darkness came to life. 

Black shapes slipped out of the gap before him, like Tartarus spawned nightmares slipping from an infernal womb. Bucky looked miniscule compared to the coming onslaught, a tiny black shape in the night about to be swallowed by darkness. He sent up an attack flare and readied himself to endure whatever it was that might come at him.





As Rising Star began to approach the deck rail to send spell jars over, a dark shadow formed around the outside of the ship. He felt his blood turn to ice and dark shapes began to appear on the outer edges of the deck, no longer able to shadow wink. The air was filled with the snarling and the growling of wolves. 

He stood frozen, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. 

All around him, the guard began to mobilise, but none moved as fast as one dark shape among the shadows. As the dark tide surged towards Rising Star, a dark grey blur shot past him and collided with the first of his foes. 

“NOT MY MATE!” 

Ripple moved among her enemy, smashing and crushing. She flowed out of the way of snapping jaws and struck with the force of a tidal wave. She danced among her foes, bashing them down and Rising Star felt a magical tug pulling him back to safety as the darkness continued to swarm the deck. 

Others had joined Ripple, Sour Mash now at her side, leading a charge of bellowing mares, and Ripple was their champion. In the panic and confusion, nopony saw the golden glow of light flashing on Ripple’s hips as she did battle. 

Rising Star knew Bucky needed help on the ground, but no spell jars were being dropped. They were swarmed. There was no way to reach the deck railing and send aid down below. The world seemed to slow down all around him as he watched the battle unfold. Sparkler was bowling through the wolves in stone form, sweeping them from the deck. 

More wolves kept coming, shadow winking up to the deck to do battle, and Rising Star felt his heart stop when there was the sound of a massive explosion and he felt The Scorned Mare shuddering from some massive impact. 

“WE’VE BEEN HIT! FIRE DOWN BELOW THE SHIP! THE HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED!” 



 

Buried in darkness, Bucky understood that something had gone horribly wrong. There were thousands of wolves coming out of the hole, and something else as well. Something dreadful, and he didn’t know what it was. There was no fiery death raining down, or any sort of death for that matter. 

There as a massive explosion above him in the night sky and Bucky very nearly teleported himself back up to The Scorned Mare. Everything had gone wrong. He could see dimly see fire up above him, and he felt sick with worry. 

He pulled a spell jar from his rack, something he intended for emergencies, and it glowed a violent looking purple glow. He lobbed it forward into surging darkness and it shattered with it hit the stone. For a moment, the darkness continued to seep from the crack, but then, something changed. Several wolves became outlined in a faint purple glow. 

The “want it need it” spell went to work, and the night suddenly became a lot more horrible. 



 

Thistle realised with growing horror that the wolves were inside of the ship. She could hear them as they snarled and howled. She clutched Piña and Peekaboo, holding them close, trying to comfort the screaming foals, but more than anything else, Thistle wanted to be comforted as well. Loch Skimmer huddled beside her, trembling with fear and clutching Thistle's neck. 

Sentinel stood beside Thistle, growling softly and preparing himself for the worst. He was willing to die if he had to, and he swallowed his fear. He felt Thistle touch him, and he leaned just a little bit closer to her, hoping that Lyra’s protections would hold. 

A terrible change had come over Moonbow. 

She stood at the door to the small secured room with her head low, growling and snarling savagely. Her teeth were bared and every shaggy hair on her back stood on end. A long line of drool dangled down from her slavering jaws. The lunar pegasus filly was utterly terrifying in appearance during her current state. She pawed the wooden floor occasionally with her hoof and her teeth gnashed together from her nervous twitches. She was a murderous beast, and her instincts had been triggered. She felt no fear. The foals being in danger had brought out the very worst in her, the beast of nightmares that the lunar pegasi still were deep on the inside. 



 

“FORM RANKS AND MOVE BELOWDECKS!” Sparkler shouted in a voice that sounded like a rockslide. Others were falling into place around her, and they were moving to take care of the wolves that were inside of the ship, no doubt shadow winking in through the hole in the bottom. 

Berry Punch stood in the middle of a protective phalanx of earth ponies and pegasi, watching the chaos all around her. Lyra was with her, Harper still by Lyra’s side, and Bon Bon stood pressed up against Lyra. Rising Star stood with them, a last line of offense if needed, but his fires were a danger to the ship. Derpy had taken to the air, Dinky on her back. The wolves did not fly, and could not teleport in the bright lights of the deck.

Other pegasi had formed ranks around the airborne Derpy Doo Hooves, and she hovered among their ranks as Dinky rained down telekinetic death. Dinky could drive a nail into wood with her telekinesis, and she was driving bit sized holes through the skulls and bodies of any wolves she could safely target. 

A large mass of darkness took shape near the prow of the ship and cold fear settled over the entire crew. All of them felt it, and the air turned icy cold, hot breath now visible in the night. 

“BANSHEE!” a voice cried in warning.



 

The magical rape bomb was highly effective, but Bucky could take no satisfaction. Hundreds of creatures were in the cave entrance, taking part in an orgy of death and dismemberment. Too many creatures to deal with magically, if Bucky did do anything to dispose of them, he would be too depleted to continue. 

He was at a standstill, and he could not simply smash his way through. He looked upwards and could see flashing flaring lights. The deck lights were strobing slightly and he knew what was happening up there. There was nothing he could do. He had to continue somehow. 

He lobbed a precious burning spell jar into the pile of snarling snapping gang rape and set a few on fire, and much to his surprise, the fire spread rapidly. He thought about flashing them with the sunstones embedded in his armor, but he didn’t know what he might still face inside. He needed to conserve as much energy as possible. 

He made a decision, and the eyes on his armor opened, flooding the area with light. They burned with blazing intensity, and many wolves burst into flames. It also caused the shadow wolves to stop teleporting from the mouth of the cave and up to the ship up high above them. 



 

Ripple lashed out with one front hoof and snapped the spine of her hated foe. She punched another one and shattered its skull. She moved through them dealing death, a beautiful delicate dancer in the darkness. Her war shoes kept her well protected and the sunstones weakened her foes. 

Lugus, hearing the cry “banshee” took to the air to intercept. He didn’t know what a banshee was, and he didn’t care. He pulled his axe from his back and prepared to give a good accounting of himself. He lunged at the dark shape that was forming near the prow, the sunstones on his axe igniting. It was not a solid foe, but more of a dark amorphous shape, a dreadful spirit. 

And then, the banshee screamed. 

Several ponies froze in fright, and there was a sound like a loud ringing bell over the decks. The banshee moved swiftly towards its frozen foes. 

“STRIKE NOW, LUGUS! NOW! WHILE MY SPELL IS MOST EFFECTIVE!” 

The voice was Lyra’s, Lugus realised. He shook the strange feeling from his muscles and and raised his axe high for an overhead chop, hoping that Bucky’s enchantments could somehow cleave a foe with no physical body. 

The axe came down and there was a crackling sound, like fat frying in a skillet. 

There was another shriek from the banshee, this one of pain. Lugus reversed his stroke and struck with the flat of his axe, somehow connecting to a solid foe. The banshee wailed in agony and turned to face the enraged griffon, not understanding how the griffon was hurting it. 

Lugus made another mighty swing, this time in an arc, his axe moving through the middle. The dark shape flew apart into motes of darkness, and then was no more. 



 

Sparkler moved though the dim hallways and rooms belowdecks, crushing, stomping, and killing. She bodychecked one wolf, pinning it against the solid wooden bulkhead. Several mares and a few stallions moved with her, and the group moved from battle to battle, trying to work their way down to the breached section of hull. 

Sparkler was unstoppable now, she had perfected control of her stone form, and she had the combat skills to use it effectively. She impaled one wolf upon her stone horn and then shook him free, its blood trickling down her sensationless face. More than anything, she hoped that Thistle and the others were safe in the secured room that Lyra had made. 



 

“DINKY! FATHER STILL NEEDS HELP! PICK UP AS MANY SPELL JARS AS YOU CAN AND DROP THEM OVER THE SIDE!” Rising Star shouted over the din of battle. 

Derpy swooped down, and Dinky snatched up several whole racks as they flew by, the other pegasi flying with them in formation. The pair worked well together, Derpy kept her foal safe, and Dinky was proving to be a competent battle mage in spite of her age. 

The pegasus mounted unicorn foal held over a hundred spell jars in her telekinetic field, shaking and unsteady, but she didn’t need to hold them for very long. She struggled to hold everything up as her mother approached the railing of the ship, flying between the deck and the gasbag, flying over large numbers of wolves doing battle with the pony guards upon the deck. 

She looked down once they cleared the railing and could see a faint glow down below. She dropped everything she had upon the faint beacon that she knew was her father and hoped that this would be enough to help him. “I need more spell jars!” Dinky shouted to her mother, and she felt her mother bank, maneuvering around to do another fly over. 



 

Spell jars exploded all around Bucky and he felt relief. He reasoned that they must be gaining control of the situation high above him, and it put his mind at ease. Ice, fire, and lightning froze, burned, and flashed all around him, and his enemies died by the hundreds. The entrance was nearly plugged up with still writhing bodies. 

More death came down from up on high, and Bucky smiled a grim smile. 

The wolves in the pile were mostly dead now, burning and blazing merrily, a funeral pyre with flames that whirled up into the night sky. Bucky decided not to wait, and began to climb over the pile of burning bodies, ready to make his way down into the dark depths, to face the master of the wolves. 

It was time to end this. 



 

Lugus moved among the injured, lifting several ponies at a time and bringing them back to secured locations upon the deck. So far, somehow, nopony had died, but there were grievous injuries that needed to be tended to before somepony did die. These were his friends and his comrades, his brothers and his sisters, and he loved them dearly. 

Lugus knew from experience that the battle was dying down. The wolves had come and they had failed. No new wolves were teleporting aboard the deck. All that was left now was clean up. 

As he watched, an airborne wing led by Derpy descended upon the wolves, and the wolves were pummeled by magical blasts from Dinky. The pegasi were brutal and did what they did best, attacking as a group. The wolves were being pushed back towards the rails, and Lugus saw that the deck was drenched in blood and entrails, running over the sides in streams. 

A cheer went up from where Sour Mash and her group were fighting, having slain the last of their foe and clearing their section of deck. They moved quickly, moving on to assist others in sweeping the deck clean, Ripple by Sour Mash’s side and protecting her commander. 



 

Sparkler stood near the hole in the hull and continued to extinguish the flames. The blast had ripped a massive section of the hull away and had set the lower hold on fire. The charred bodies of wolves were all around the hole. Some had teleported in and escaped the fires through luck, but the ship was being cleared. She stood in the flames unconcerned about being burned, and she carefully put out the fires all around her. 

She peered down, hoping to see some sign of Bucky, but saw nothing but a column of fire stretching high into the night sky beneath her. She hoped that he would return, alive and in one piece. 

“Good luck father.” 
	
	
> Chapter 177 (The Darkness is vanquished and the Isles Arc approaches its end)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dark passage was pierced by the green glow of Bucky’s spotlight. The ground beneath his hooves hummed and vibrated. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of bodies just behind him, but Bucky knew that the worst was still ahead, somewhere down in the depths. 

“They’re dying  you know… I blew a hole right through the bottom of that worthless ship. Even now, my wolves prowl the inside, killing as they go. The defenders die one by one. And soon, very soon, I think I will have enough energy to send off a second blast. If I adjust my aim, I do believe I can bring it down.” 

Bucky hoped the voice was goading him. He pressed onwards, not bothering to reply. 

“Most of your foals and your pathetic herd died screaming. But I have special plans for your student and the one you call Harper. She’s more powerful than you realise. But you can’t see what I can see. You are still in that pathetic mortal body. Don’t worry grandson, I plan to remedy that soon!” 

Forcing himself to stay calm, Bucky made himself take deep breaths and maintain his slow and steady pace. Running or rushing forward would be careless, and would take too much energy. He began to hate the low power mode of his armor though. The magical drain was minimal, but the pace was unbearable. 

“The cross eyed grey pegasus was the first to die… the banshee got her. She died from fear. And that filthy mud pony that you actually enjoy sticking your stubby little dick in, she died, her foals were ripped from her belly, and then devoured.” 

So this is what going mad feels like Bucky thought to himself. He choked back his replies, determined to remain silent. Bon Bon had lectured him thoroughly about his temper before the sun had set, and her gentle but forceful words echoed in his ears even now. 

“Sentinel died begging for his life like a coward.” 

One hoof in front of the other Bucky thought to himself. Now he knew the voice was lying, Sentinel was suicidally fearless when it came to the defense of others. He had seen that just the other day. He thought of the warm hug that Sentinel had given him before he had donned his armor. Sentinel's hugs were rare, special, infrequent enough that they were treasured when they happened. 

“And that whiny little milksop mud pony foal, her constant whining has finally ceased.” 

“Daddy, you are probably going to have to do bad things again to get through this. Just do whatever you have to so you can come home to us. I don’t care what you have to do or how bad it is, nopony will ever convince me that you are a bad pony. Just be careful, okay?” Bucky recalled Pina’s final words to him as the sun was beginning to set and she was being dragged off to Lyra’s warded fortress within the bowels of the ship. 

Apparently frustrated by the lack of response, the voice fell silent. 



 

Bucky came to a vast underground grotto and heard the yelping of wolves. The chamber was dimly lit, illuminated by several crystal spires. There were several bitches in here, and many wolf pups in pens. A couple of crude golems prowled the room. 

After studying the room for a few minutes, Bucky realised that this chamber was a breeding pit. This was where new wolves were born and then corrupted as they matured. Nothing moved to attack him, the golems seemed uninterested and the bitches appeared to be spellbound. 

The golems really were extremely crude, poorly made, and the enchantments appeared to be decaying. They were made of shoddily carved wood, walked bipedally, and seemed to have no real awareness. They were clearly the sort of golems a dedicated type two might create if they could summon enough skill. Bucky set them ablaze, igniting the wood with a simple ignition cantrip. The golems had no defensive enchantments. After looking around, Bucky flashed his sunstone eyes on his armor, setting the bitches and some of the wolf pups on fire. The rest he burned using his magic. It didn’t take much to make them blaze. 

He turned his attention to the crystal spires, examining them carefully. One glowed with an eerie black illumination. It was small, shorter than Bucky’s withers, and it throbbed with a horrible power. Bucky could feel the magical radiation in the air through his horn, and even though he had only been here a few minutes, he could feel the shadow essence in his body growing stronger. 

Knowing it was foolish, knowing it was wrong, he basked in the dark glow of the crystal, and he could feel the shadow magic within him growing stronger as his body drank in the dark energy. It gave him strength. His vision improved in the dark room, and the faint light seemed brighter. 

It was killing off his solar nature by degrees, working rapidly on him because of the fact that he was already so heavily touched by shadow, and Bucky somehow knew that he would be stronger now in the dark, and weaker in the light. He could feel it. As the darkness settled in around him, the aches and pains in his hind legs eased. The nagging fatigue he felt was fading now, and he felt stronger. 

He wanted nothing more than to stand by this crystal shard forever. Realising that he was losing too much of himself to shadow, Bucky kicked out and struck the shard, making a fine spiderweb of cracks appear. The cracks grew and spread, and eventually, the crystal went dark, a swirling vortex of shadow leaking out of it. 

The darkness was comforting now. Soothing. He dimmed his eyelight, not needing so much illumination now. He went to work shattering the other crystals, kicking them with a steel covered hoof. These crystals exploded violently when damaged, but Bucky wasn’t bothered by the explosions.

The crystals gone, the only light in the room was the faint blue-green glow from Bucky’s armor, the spellweave that held the armor sections together, and the faint green glow from his visor. Bucky found that he could see everything in the room with perfect detail in the dim light. 

Bucky could not see it, but a powerful dusky ambience now emanated from his armor, a writhing mass of shadow, the same sort of wispy tendrils of darkness that he had seen coming from Sentinel when the colt shadow dived. 



 

Only darkness was ahead, and Bucky continued down into the depths. There were stairs carved into the rock here, and rusting iron mounts on the walls that held globes of magical light. The globes were still there, but had long since gone dark. Bucky took the stairs carefully, not wanting to tumble down the long flight of stairs in a suit of heavy plate mail. 

As he walked down the stairs, he thought about the final lesson he had given Dinky, standing on the deck in the late afternoon sun, holding her close and spending a final bit of time instructing her as both her father and her teacher. This lesson was about sacrifices, and acceptable losses. Those with great power have great obligations, and sometimes, a job had to be done because nopony else could. Sometimes the jobs were unpleasant, sometimes they were dangerous, and at other times, they were fatal, but the job still had to be done. Dinky had looked at him, tearfully nodding and telling him she understood. 

To be completely truthful, Bucky did not expect to climb back up these steps, and he made peace with that fact as he made his way down. He was surprisingly calm for a pony walking to his own death. Bucky had one trump card that he knew he could play. He could make this mountain his tomb, bringing down the entire mountain upon his own head and bring about his enemy’s ruin as he did so. 

He entered another chamber, this one small and illuminated by many large crystal spires. He peered around, trying to figure out what he was looking at. In the back of the chamber, he saw a brightly glowing crystal spire that swirled with shadows, and near the base of the crystal, he saw the dried, desiccated, now mummified body of a unicorn with a broken horn. 

Inside of the crystal spire that towered over the shrivelled remains, he saw a ghostly figure swimming through the swirling shadow. 

“Greetings. I’ve been waiting for you to show up. I see you’ve been drawing shadow from one of my marvelous crystals. Feels good, does it not?” 

“I didn’t come here to talk,” Bucky snarled. 

“No, you foolishly came here so I could bleed you dry and add your magic to my own. And then perhaps, I will finally be ready to create a new body, one made of infernal shadow, and I will be free to ascend to godhood.” 

“Not if I can help it,” Bucky said. 

“Go ahead. Do your worst. I will do nothing to stop you.” 

Taking the invitation at face value, Bucky let go with a massive telekinetic blast. He let go of thousands of tons of force, cutting loose with a good sized burst of power. 

Bucky blinked, and inside of his helmet, his mouth dropped open in shock. Nothing had happened. There was no damage. Nothing in the chamber was disturbed except for the mummified remains upon the floor, which were now a pile of dried bits blown into a corner. 

“That was helpful Buckminster. A few more of those and I will be ready to ascend. Please, help your dear old grandfather.” 

Bucky snarled. “It appears we are at an impasse.” 

“You idiot! I feed on harmony magic! What do you think I’ve been drawing off of these wretched mud ponies that infest these isles? They do not have much magic, but they do have magic, and I’ve been down here slowly drawing it away from them. A pity I could not have done this in Canterlot, drawing magic from these dirty draft animals makes me feel soiled.” 

For the lack of anything more useful to do, Bucky conjured whiskey from his cask and had a few swallows. He had come so far, endured so much, and now, there was nothing he could do. He hated the realisation he had reached, but he understood that, perhaps, it was time to bring the mountain down upon both of them. 

“Tsk tsk, suicide Buckminster, really?” 

Now, Bucky felt really peeved, not wanting this thing inside of his head. 

“Well, it appears you are no longer any use to me. You refuse to feed me willingly, so it is time for you to be humbled and taught a lesson. You are a terrible grandfoal!” 

As the voice spoke, a tremendous black blast flew from the crystal in the back of the room, hurtled through the room, and struck Bucky directly, sending him flying into the wall with terrific force. There was a loud thunderclap that reverberated through the chamber. 

It took a few moments for Bucky to come to his senses. He was laying on his side, and everything hurt. All of his previous encounters with pain seemed pleasant to what he was enduring right now. He could see several bits and pieces of his armor scattered around him. He looked down at his own left foreleg, and saw that his hoof and fetlock was hanging on by a few meaty strands, the cannon bone had been shattered and the jagged ends were visible, exposed, and full of agony as he could feel the sensation of air blowing over exposed bone. 

And, as Bucky realised, his blood was flooding the chamber around him, spurting out of his leg in time to the rhythmic pumping of his heart. 

“Disappointing really. I actually expected something from you. A fight perhaps. Some form of entertainment. Instead, you lie there, bleeding to death upon my floor, your armor useless, and your life now measured in minutes. Any last words Buckminster?” 

“You fail to understand something. Unlike other ponies, I am not full of sunshine and rainbows,” Bucky spat, coughing out blood as he did so. “I AM FULL OF DARKNESS AND PAIN!” 

He dug deep into his own pain and hatred, reaching down into the very essence of his being, and let go with a massive blast of dark magic. There was a dull roar and a muffled explosion. 

When the dust cleared, cracks were visible and spreading along the crystal spire that held his great grandfather’s life force. 

“And whiskey,” Bucky muttered. “Can’t forget the whiskey.” 

“You fool! Do you know what you have done?” 

“DIE!” Bucky cried in a wet wheezing shout. Bucky could hear blood sloshing around inside of his helmet. Around him, his armor was slowly reforming and pulling itself together. 

Several crystals exploded violently, and one of the larger bursts sent Bucky’s body flying again, his body only partially armored this time. He slammed into an outcropping of rock and then fell for a good twenty feet, slamming into the floor. 

The chamber went mostly dark, there was a faint light coming from near the main crystal near the back. The only sounds in the chamber was Bucky’s wet whistling wheeze and something liquid dripping to the floor, which was Bucky’s blood. 

Bucky cast a simple spell, trying to detect magic of any sort, and something in the back of the chamber glowed brightly. He gave it a tug with telekinesis, too weak to do much of anything else, and it tore free from the magical machinery it was bound to. After Bucky pulled it to him, he saw it was an egg. A phoenix egg, or had it been at one time. Now, it radiated a bone chilling cold and the once orange shell had turned blue. 

Now struggling to think, Bucky realised this was the start of it all, it had been used as a battery, much like a potato could be used to provide power. His grandfather had used the endless supply of harmony magic that would trickle from the phoenix egg to power his crystal soulstone. He gently set the egg down near his visor so he could watch the swirling patterns of blue on the shell. 

He was dying. He could feel it. His heart felt too slow. His horn sparked, and he couldn’t seem to draw up enough magic to do anything meaningful. He needed to stop the bleeding somehow. He sent out a red flare, not that he expected it to do him much good, but at least his body would be recovered. He watched at the red ball of magic took off up the stairs, and he gave it mental instructions to find Lugus. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 178
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus watched as the tiny red flare danced around his head, bouncing around enthusiastically and zooming about back and forth. He peered down over the side of the ship and saw nothing. They shone the big spotlight down, but there was no sign of Bucky. 

“I am going down there,” Lugus stated in flat voice. When he spoke the red flare popped out of existence in a shower of sparks. 

“We are under orders to stay on board,” Deadspin said.

“Maybe so. but I am going down there,” Lugus said, repeating his intent. 

“I am going with you,” Sparkler said. 

“No. You are not. Stay put filly,” Lugus said, turning to stare at Sparkler. 

“You can’t stop me,” Sparkler said. “If there is trouble down there, nothing can hurt me. You are soft and squishy Lugus. Don’t make me thump you to prove it.” 

Lugus puffed out nervously, his feathers making him look much larger than he really was. He glared at Sparkler. 

“Buck Sergeant Sparkler, you are to escort Lugus in the cave and keep him safe. You are also charged with bringing Knight Captain Buckminster back to us,” Deadspin commanded. 

There was some grumbling around the group gathered on the deck. 

“Is it actually over?” Berry asked in a dull deadened voice. 

“It isn’t even midnight yet… everything feels so calm,” Lyra said in a flat monotone. 

“The air feels so warm,” Ripple said. She turned around and looked at her mark once again, scarcely believing it was there. A bright red horseshoe surrounded by silver stars and crescent moons. It was a combat mark, or, as Rising Star had said upon seeing it, “a cutie mark for knocking stuff the feck out.” 

“I will carry you down,” Lugus said. “Grab spell jars. We do not know what we face. How can we be sure it was Bucky who sent up the flare?”

“Be careful Sparkler,” Derpy said, stepping forward, Dinky still on her back. Both of them looked exhausted. 

Sparkler grabbed a dozen spell jars in her magic and stood ready near the rail. Lugus snatched her around the middle, his long talons completely wrapping around her barrel, and he effortlessly lifted her in one set of talons. His beak clicked nervously and he looked around him. 

“We shall return,” Lugus said, leaping from the railing, causing Sparkler to let out a loud squeal of fright. 



 

They landed in the passageway after Lugus had carried Sparkler over the burning pile of bodies at the entrance. The pair looked at one another for a moment, and then Sparkler threw her forelegs around Lugus’ neck and squeezed. Then, they turned to face the darkness together. 

Sparkler’s horn lit the way and a glow emanated from Lugus’ axe as they made their way into the depths. Sparkler set a brisk pace, and Lugus followed just behind her. The smell of charred bodies invaded their nostrils and Sparkler began to realise that she was afraid of the dark. Her horn flared a little brighter, and she held up the spell jars before her, their faint light illuminating the way. 

Eventually, they came to the breeding pit and found the mess that Bucky had left behind, both of them in shock at what they saw, Sparkler was careful stepping through the mess, and she tried to not step on any of the scattered charred bodies. 

On the stairs that seemed to stretch forever, they both caught a whiff of something truly awful, something rotten and terrible. Something foul lurked below. They hurried, not knowing what they would find. 



 

Sparkler was the one who saw him first, and she ran to his side, her hooves splashing in some sort of liquid. She realised it was blood when she shone the light upon it, and then she realised it was Bucky’s blood. She screamed in terror and nearly fainted. 

Lugus rushed over and immediately began to access the situation. He kneeled down. “Are you alive, friend?” 

“Leg… bleeding…” 

“We need to get the bleeding to stop,” Lugus said. He began to look around for something to use as a tourniquet, to tie around Bucky’s leg. There was nothing. 

“Sparkler, can you burn him shut?” Lugus asked. 

“Oh that’s horrible!” Sparkler cried. 

“But can you do it? He is dying. Maybe already too far gone,” Lugus said in a calm voice. 

“I’m not good at stuff like that… wait, the alcohol. Douse his leg and I will ignite that,” Sparkler said, feeling sickened at the thought of what she was about to do. 

“This is too much blood for a leg wound,” Lugus said in a low whisper, mostly to himself as he worked open the spigot on the cask located on the back of Bucky’s armor. “Catch it in your magic. There is no cup.” 

Sparkler did as she was told, and caught up a sizeable portion of whiskey in a magic bubble. It dribbled everywhere, her fields were not very good at holding liquids. She doused Bucky’s leg, which made her father jerk. She took this as a good sign. And then, hating herself even as she did it, she ignited the whiskey and set Bucky’s leg on fire, which caused Bucky to let out a wet raspy yelp. 

“I hear a sucking chest wound,” Lugus said, his beak grinding against itself in worry. 

“En… en… enact emergency protocols. Follow Lugus,” Bucky said in a weak wheeze. His armor began to pull itself together from around the room, and sealed him inside. “When we… when we return, tell your mother… Sparkler tell her to say those three words I love to hear…” Bucky commanded haltingly, and then fell silent as his armor slowly rose up to its hooves. 

“He’s walking on a stump!” Sparkler shouted. 

“No he isn’t, he is floating inside of his armor. Grab that egg he was staring at and let’s go,” Lugus said in a nervous pained voice. There was no light inside of Bucky’s visor and the magical aura on his armor was especially dim. Lugus waved his talons in front of Bucky’s visor and there was no response. 

“The egg is freezing cold,” Sparkler said. “It is difficult to hold it in my magic.” 

Lugus slowly walked towards the stairs, and noticed Bucky moving slowly after him, his movements especially slow and jerky. “He isn’t walking right,” Lugus said. 

Sparkler again led the way, holding the egg a fair distance away from her, it was too cold to get near her. She looked around the grotto, wondering what took place here, her eyes lingering over the dark room one last time, and then she took off up the stairs. 

Lugus had to carefully nudge Bucky’s armor a few times as Bucky mounted the stairs, the armored unicorn’s steel hooves failed to move with any sort of coordination at all. It was going to be a long trip up. 



 

On board the deck of The Scorned Mare, Rising Star gently lowered Bucky’s armor down to the deck after lifting it on board the ship. Bucky did not move, nor did he respond to anything being said to him. 

“He said to say the three words he loves to hear from you,” Sparkler said to her mother, the poor pegasus looking absolutely beside herself with worry. She gently placed the egg down in a rack that was empty of spell jars and focused on her father. 

Derpy stepped forward and then leaned in close to Bucky’s helmet. “I love you,” she said in a strained voice that cracked with emotion. 

There was a loud hiss and the magic aura around Bucky’s armor grew dimmer and dimmer, until it was gone completely. With a clunk, the armor powered down and began to fall away from his body. What Derpy saw made her puke, spilling out the contents of her stomach. 

Blood began to spill onto the deck, dribbling out of Bucky’s armor, and it was Lugus that caught his body before he fell over. The big griffon gently lowered Bucky down and began to pull away armor panels. Behind him, he heard the sounds of retching from several ponies who could not bear what they saw. 

The stump of Bucky’s left leg was still bleeding, but it had been slowed down. Just behind his left shoulder though, there was a terrible gash in Bucky’s side, exposing several ribs, and raw red glistening flesh was exposed, along with peeks of Bucky’s pulsating insides. 

“We have to fix this,” Lugus commanded. “We need to begin by removing the rest of the bone from the joint. Then we need to seal it shut with burning. We need to stop the bleeding from the gash in his side.” 

Lyra stepped forward and looked at Rising Star. “I’ll remove the rest of the bone, you burn it shut. Gently. Not too much fire. I dunno if I can do this!” Lyra cried. She began to sob as she settled down near Bucky’s side, and then she dry heaved a few times, gagging when she saw the wounds. 

Lugus placed his head over Bucky’s ribs, trying to stay away from the open gash. “His heart is very weak but it is beating. We need to hurry.” 

“Do it Lyra,” Derpy commanded, wiping her lips with her wing. 

The exposed bone jutting from Bucky’s leg vanished into nothingness and then there was a poof of fire. The blood stopped trickling and then Rising Star turned to examine Bucky’s side. 

“I don’t know if I should burn that,” Rising Star said. 

“The bleeding has to stop,” Lugus said. 

Rising Star scrunched his muzzle with concentration and closely looked at the wound. His horn ignited, but instead of a poof of fire, a thin red beam came out from his horn tip. He drew a fine line down several locations, closed several bleeding openings, and then lifted his head. “I didn’t want to burn the bones. We need to bandage it.” 

“This is good work,” Lugus said. “Such fine detail,” he added as he studied the wound. 

“We need to get cleaned up and in bed,” Lyra said. She kneeled down close to Bucky, lifted his head, and gently opened his remaining left eye to check on him. She screamed and nearly dropped Bucky’s head on the deck at what she saw. 

“What’s wrong?” Derpy asked. 

“His eye!” Lyra whimpered. 

“Show me,” Derpy demanded. 

Lyra carefully turned Bucky’s head around again and opened his left eye. The sclera was a sickly green and the iris had turned crimson. As they watched, a purplish haze began to drift away from his open eye. “But he isn’t using any dark magic right now, this shouldn’t be happening,” Lyra whined. “Something is wrong!” 

Berry Punch staggered forward, looking quite frazzled, bits of vomit still on her muzzle. “We’ll worry about that later. Get him cleaned up, get that wound bandaged, and then get him in bed. After that, let us leave this place.” 

Lyra closed his eye and the drifting purple haze slowly vanished. She gently laid his head down and waited for somepony to bring some water, sitting in a daze. She heard Harper crying and wanted more than anything to hold her foal. 



 

“Think he’ll live?” Berry asked in a low whisper. 

Derpy nodded, but said nothing. She was glued to Bucky, who was laying on his uninjured side, and Derpy was pressed up against his spine. She gently nuzzled him with her snoot, snorting into his mane, which always gave him the shivers and made him react. 

Only now, he wasn’t responding. 

“Once again, he did what needed to be done and paid for it with his body,” Berry said as she scooted a little closer to Derpy. She looked at Thistle, who had cried herself to sleep quite some time ago. “It’ll be dawn soon.” 

As Berry watched, the tears finally came for Derpy, who began to sob silently. Berry pressed the side of her face up against Derpy’s neck and the old friends pressed together, leaning on each other, knowing that they would get through this somehow. 

Bon Bon awoke, lifting her head and looking around blearily. She looked at Derpy and Berry, and gave them both a sad smile, trying to comfort them. 

All of them took consolation in the fact that the nightmare was over. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 179
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How are we to give him sustenance in this state?” Lugus inquired, sitting close to the edge of the bed. He moved slowly, all too aware that Derpy was eyeing him. They were on friendly terms, but Lugus understood instincts, being a creature that lived by them himself. 

“Berry was desperate and wanted to get some sign of life from him. She rubbed her teats in his face. When some milk dribbled over his nose, he started to suckle on the air. So she stuck a teat in his mouth,” Derpy said as she fluffed out her feathers and tried to relax, knowing that Lugus was not a threat. 

“Ponies are celebrating. They are cheering. Dancing. Breeding for sport. We remain here in the dark being sorrowful,” Lugus mused. 

“We’re alive and we are together,” Derpy responded. She nickered faintly and looked down at Bucky. She shoved her snoot into the back of Bucky’s head and nosed around in his mane. She snorted and waited for some kind of response, and then looked heartbroken when there was none. A soft wordless whimper came from the back of her throat and she continued her long vigil. 



 

Ripple sat preening her feathers, all too aware that Rising Star was watching her every move. It made her feel funny and a little self conscious as she carefully put everything in order. She heard Rising Star clearing his throat and she raised her head. 

“You saved me. You came waltzing in and you kicked and you crushed and you killed to keep me safe. You called me your mate,” Rising Star said in a soft low voice. “You were so amazing… mostly, I just feel inadequate. I wasn’t able to do much.” 

Ripple had a bit of down clinging to her nostril and it made her sneeze. She recovered and looked at Rising Star sheepishly. “You are my mate. One day, I might give you a foal. I think I am starting to love you, just like Bon Bon and Lyra love Bucky. If something tries to hurt you, I will kill them.” 

“Well, we’ve established that you will in fact do just that,” Rising Star said. “You were amazing. You were like some super hero in a comic book. You’ll have to read about them when we get home.” 

The filly smiled and wiped her nose with her leg. She then gave a halfhearted scratch at one of her many bandages before going back to her preening. She heard hoofsteps coming closer, and she raised her head. When she did so, she bumped snoot first into Rising Star, who kissed her softly but warmly on the lips. She felt a leg snaking around her neck and pulling her closer, and Ripple allowed herself to be drawn in, not feeling threatened or scared by the kiss.



 

Dinky lay on the wooden planks of the deck and tried to make her stomach stop heaving. She had already puked over the edge a few times, hoping that there was nopony below. The Scorned Mare was tethered to the castle now, and the past day had been one of recovery and celebration. But not for Dinky. She was sick with worry. 

She felt two forelegs slipping around her, one of them working its way under her, slipping between her body and the wooden deck. She was pulled up into an embrace by Sentinel, who was sitting on his haunches. She felt her mane being brushed out of her eyes and her head cradled. 

“You feel too warm.” 

“I don’t feel good Sentinel.”

“Let me help you inside. Lay down with mama bird and father.” 

“Okay. I just hope I don’t throw up again.” 



 

“Look, Ripple is kissing him back,” Loch Skimmer said, pointing down to the pair below them on the lower deck. She was sitting on the upper deck above the cabin with Sparkler. “I don’t know how I feel about my little sister kissing, but I think I am okay with it.” 

“She’s happy Loch. She’s alive and she’s figuring out her place in the world,” Sparkler replied in a low voice. “She was amazing in battle. Sour Mash says she killed dozens of wolves. Sour Mash couldn’t keep count of all the kills.” 

“My cutie mark is for music, I can’t believe my baby sister got a mark for killing,” Loch said, her voice sounding somewhat bittersweet. 

Sparkler stared down at her trembling jerking foreleg and said nothing. She watched the muscles twitch and spasm, wishing they would stop. It kept happening, and it worried her. 

“Happening again I see,” Loch said, watching Sparkler. 

“I can’t stop shaking Loch. It keeps happening. Just when I think it is over, the shakes return. Deadspin says I have battle nerves. It is my body’s way of dealing with all of the killing I did. But Ripple is just fine and I don’t understand,” Sparkler said in a quavering voice. 

“I am sure that Ripple is having her own troubles,” Loch said. “But she’s a hard little cuss. With her mark, she’s made for killing. I am not so sure that you’re cut out for it though.” 

“I don’t want to kill ever again,” Sparkler said, the tears finally welling up. “The sounds Loch, I keep hearing the sounds. Like when father had to rip open that filly. Or the sounds of me walking through a lake of my own father’s blood. It is all I can hear Loch.” 

The pair embraced one another and fell silent, and Loch Skimmer held on to Sparkler while the tears worked their way free. 



 

Moonbow settled herself onto a soft cushion in the corner and watched the grey pegasus named Derpy from a distance. The big griffon and the pegasus were worried about Bucky, and rightfully so. She snatched up the little pegasus foal named Peekaboo from up off the floor and pulled her close, cradling the filly in her forelegs. Moonbow lowered her head and gently sniffed the foal she was holding, breathing in her scent, trying to bond with her new colony. 

“Can I sit with you?” 

Moonbow looked at the pink earth pony that was called Piña Colada. She blinked a few times and studied the very pink filly.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Piña said. 

“Sit with me, little one,” Moonbow said, scooting over on her cushion and raising her wing. As she watched, Piña was on the cushion in a hot moment and settling against her side. She lowered her wing over Piña and pulled the foal closer. 

Piña heard a few echolocation sounds from Moonbow and wondered what they meant. She had heard Sentinel make them too. They made her feel safer, so she didn't mind them. “You turned into a very scary pony in that room.” 

“Something was threatening you and the others. Nothing threatens foals and lives. Unacceptable,” Moonbow said. 

“Seems like all pegasi are real fierce about defending foals,” Piña said. 

“It is what we do,” Moonbow said. She paused, hearing the door open, and she saw Sentinel entering the room. She smiled, her fangs visible.  Behind Sentinel was Dinky. 

“Dinky isn’t feeling good, I brought her in,” Sentinel reported, snapping off a salute to Lugus.

Moonbow watched as the big griffon lifted Dinky in his talons, and she felt her muscles tense. She had to remind herself that the griffon was not a threat. She watched as Dinky was gently placed on the corner of the bed and stroked a few times. “Sentinel is an interesting pony,” Moonbow observed. 

“He’s my brother,” Piña said as she cuddled even closer against Moonbow. “Please be good to him. I love him so much.” 



 

Berry Punch, on the ground and done checking up on a few ponies she was worried about, was stopped by three ponies who asked for her attention. One was a unicorn, the other was an earth pony, and the third was also an earth pony but looking at her made Berry Punch feel weird. The third also had a brown hoof. 

“We worry for Buckminster,” the unicorn said. 

“We desire to help him,” the earth pony said. 

“To this end we have made a potion to ease his wound,” the earth pony with a brown hoof said in a low melodic voice that made Berry Punch feel a little sleepy when she heard it. 

Berry Punch shook her head. “That’s very nice and all, but I am not about to give my husband some strange potion from ponies I don’t know,” she said in a reserved but friendly voice. 

“We mean no harm,” the unicorn said. 

“He is dying, this is very important,” the brown hoofed earth pony said. 

“I am very sorry, but no. And I need to go,” Berry said, sounding worried.

“Stop,” the unicorn demanded. 

Berry Punch froze in place, her eyes wide, not moving at all. 

“Buckminster is dying and that goes against our plan. He was struck with a necromantic death spell, it is mind boggling to all of us that he did not die immediately. You will take this potion and you will pour it over the wound in his side to close the hole in his lung and to stop what is devouring him from within. We need him around to collect his future reward,” the unicorn said in a hypnotic voice. 

“Yes, when the one called Cadance meets with her fate, she will need a powerful guardian, and so much of our plans now depend on Buckminster,” the earth pony with a brown hoof said as she shimmered and became a zebra with a brown hoof. 

“And there is the matter of punishment… he still needs to deal with his horrendous house, he is the only one who can,” the earth pony said. “He is the only being who can give them the punishment they truly deserve.” 

“So you will do what we tell you to do, Berry Punch, mother of Brandywine, mother of Barley Bitters, mother of Juniper Berry, and mother of Berry Mash. We need your foals and for them to be useful, they require the guidance of their father. So you will do as we command,” the unicorn whispered into Berry’s ear. 

Spellbound, Berry Punch gave a vacant nod. “I will do as you ask,” she said in a dull voice. 

“Just pour this into the wound. All of it. Do as we ask and you will never know the mother’s pain of having to bury your own children,” the earth pony said in a warm gentle voice. 

“We give you this as a compensation for doing us this favour,” the zebra said. 

“A fair exchange by any account,” the unicorn stated. 



 

Berry Punch snapped to attention, realising that she must have zoned out. Stress did funny things to a pony. She blinked a few times and rubbed her head with her hoof, and, as she did so, looked down at the tiny phial hanging from a cord around her neck. 

The three ponies had given this as a gift to Bucky, to help him after he had done so much to help others. She moved off at a trot, off to get a lift from one of the many pegasi standing guard around The Scorned Mare. 

She peered off towards the setting sun, knowing that the isles no longer had to fear the night. All around her were happy ponies, still reveling in their victory. Berry wished that Bucky was awake to join them.



 

Derpy watched as Berry approached the bed and slipped a small blue glass bottle from off of her neck with a hoof. She pulled out the tiny stopper on the blue glass bottle using her teeth, and then carefully approached Bucky.

“What are you doing?” Derpy asked. “What is that?” 

Berry did not respond, but had a blank look on her face. As Derpy watched, Berry carefully pulled away the bandage and then tipped the glass bottle over and poured out a white syrupy liquid into the wound on Bucky’s side. A terrible smell filled the room and Bucky’s flesh sizzled when the liquid made contact. 

“What is that terrible smell?” Lugus said, waving one wing. The big griffon looked concerned and he craned his head to get a better look. 

Derpy leaned her head down and looked at the wound. It was bubbling, like pouring peroxide over a cut. Something black dribbled out of the wound, it moved, wriggled, and writhed. Once upon the surface of Bucky’s flesh, it hardened and solidified into something resembling black dried out clay. Derpy’s nose crinkled. 

“That is a very strange infection,” Lugus said. 

“It would have killed him,” Berry said in a soft dull voice. 

“This is miraculous,” Lugus said. “The wound, I can see the flesh closing around it, the ribs are no longer visible.” 

“There is still an ugly gash, but you can’t stare down into Bucky’s insides any more,” Derpy said in an awed voice as she continued to watch the wound closing, slowly but surely. Already, the process seemed to be slowing down. 

Lugus carefully picked up the black bits and placed them into a cool damp rag that had been used to clean Bucky off. He folded the rag and set it down, planning to dispose of it into a fire later. He felt a powerful sense of relief when there was no longer a wet sucking wheeze coming from Bucky. The sucking chest wound had closed. 

Berry blinked a few times and the bottle she held in hoof vanished in a flash of blue light. She looked down at Bucky, whose breathing now sounded much better. She watched his barrel rise and fall. The terrible wound on his side was mostly healed. All that was left was a laceration, a surface wound that should heal up in time. The flesh looked healthy and pink. 

“Those were some nice ponies. If I see them again, I hope I remember to tell them thank you,” Berry murmured. “Hey, where is Thistle?” 

“She is with Lyra and Bon Bon. All of the stress has made her feel poorly,” Derpy answered. 

“It is finally over. Well, this is. There is still the matter of making repairs to the hull and going home,” Berry said, laying down beside Derpy. “Think Bucky needs another feeding?” 

“I shall leave for that. Moonbow, do you mind looking after my foal?” Lugus inquired. 

Moonbow looked up from her corner. “I don’t mind. I like looking after foals.” 

“I am going to spend some time with Yew,” Lugus announced. 

“But you’ve already been spending time with us,” Berry said with a faint smile. 

Lugus fluffed out and his tufted tail twitched. He stared at Berry, saying nothing. 

“Lugus, go spend some time with your pegasus. Just be gentle. She’s injured. I just got done talking to her in the barracks. They had to cauterise the bite on her leg because it kept trickling blood. She’s fine though,” Berry Punch said. Berry Punch pulled the sleeping form of Dinky close to her and made the foal comfortable. 

“I feel conflicted. I should have been there with her,” Lugus said. “But I could not leave Bucky’s side in the condition he was in.” 

“Look, she understands you big honour bound lug. Now go tell her that Bucky is recovering and ease her mind. Frankly, I do believe she would have been angry with you from shirking your duties and leaving Bucky’s side while he was so close to death…” Berry said, pausing and looking thoughtful for a moment after she spoke. 

Lugus, still fluffed out and looking apprehensive, quietly departed, easing his large bulk out the door. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 180
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky stared down into the pool of water and saw his own reflection. He could see the moon above him and his face in the water below him. His eyes, both of them, were wrong. The blood red crimson irises had slitted pupils and the whites of his eyes had turned a foul shade of green. The foal in the water looked up at him with a sad, pained expression upon his small face. He could see a tiny pair of wings fluttering at his sides. 

“What have I become?” Bucky asked his reflection in the water below. 

As he watched, he saw his mother’s face in the water, appearing next to his own. 

“YOU ARE A MONSTER! AN ABOMINATION! YOU ARE THE WORST MISTAKE I HAVE EVER MADE! JUST THE SIGHT OF YOU NOW SICKENS ME!” 

Bucky cringed away from the water, a whimper escaping his lips. 

“I tried to tell your father that nothing good would ever come from having foals! I told him! I TOLD HIM! I begged him to leave me be! But one drunken night and he has to hold me down and force me… and then YOU happened, an everlasting reminder of my shame!” 

“No…” Bucky whimpered as he looked over his body and saw that he really was a foal, and it wasn’t just his reflection. 

“I begged your father to let me drown you in the river… or to leave you in the orphanage!” 

“No… why are you telling me this?” Bucky whined. “Stop, please stop!” 

“When you were little I tried to POISON YOU! You lived you little monster… the doctors saved you… said the manticore venom would stunt your growth… you became even more worthless. Your father had to cover everything up. He made the doctors believe it was an accident, you got into something you shouldn’t have… I wish it would have killed you!” 

“No… Why?” Bucky pleaded. He could take no more and he backed away from the pool, falling over his own hindhooves as he stumbled from fear. 

And then, he heard the wolves howling all around him. 

Bucky did the only thing he could do, he ran, a corrupted purple haze streaming from his eyes as he did so. He ran as fast as his stubby legs would carry him, his small stunted body darting off into the darkened woods, his wings flapping but unable to provide him lift. The howls grew closer and Bucky felt his bladder give way. 

He slipped between shadows in the trees, running for his life from the wolves that now hunted him. He hear them drawing closer, their heavy ragged breathing, and the snapping of their jaws, all of them hungering for his flesh. 

“You monster!” one of the wolves shouted in Celestia’s voice. 

“I didn’t want to be this way!” Bucky cried as he willed his tiny legs to run faster. 

“You have fallen into shadow!” 

“I didn’t have any choice!” Bucky protested as he ran, his sides hitching, now burning from his exertions. He was having trouble breathing. 

“There is no point in running! The light will find you. My light will find you!” 

“What else could I have done?” Bucky begged as he ran for his life from the wolves who were closing in all around him. Turning to look over his shoulder, he could see one now, drawing close, jaws open, teeth gleaming in the moonlight, ready to take him down. 

“Your mother was right! You should have never been born!” one of the wolves cried in Celestia’s voice. 

The night was filled with an explosive roar and even darker shadows moved all around Bucky as he ran. Something truly black and terrible descended down upon him. Something so dark that it made the rest of the night seem like daylight in comparison. 

“BEGONE FOUL SPAWN OF TARTARUS! GET THEE HENCE YE FOUL MONSTROSITIES OF FELL SHADOW! THIS DARK ONE IS MINE!” 

Bucky felt himself taken in by magic, his running halted, there were four legs standing around him like bars in a cage, and a tall dark figure up above him. He cowered, not knowing what was happening, but all around him was swirling shadow. 

Then there was a bright piercing flash of light and Bucky saw everything. All around him were enormous lunar pegasi and they were battling horrible misshapen demons. It was a fierce battle, full of flashing fangs, claws, and hooves. 

“SECURE THIS REALM! PROTECT YOUR PRINCE!” Princess Luna commanded, using the Royal Voice. 

Bucky clung to Luna’s leg, burying his face behind her knee. The sounds of battle all around him were horrible. Screams, tearing and rending of flesh, savage sounds, bones snapping, and the wet spattering of blood hitting the earth and the trees. Bucky wrapped all four of his legs around Luna’s leg and held on to her, shivering and afraid. 

More demons came, blinking into existence all around them, and even more lunar pegasi arrived to do battle. Luna’s horn flashed again and gleaming moonlight shone around her and the foal she sheltered beneath her. She glared fiercely at anything that drew close. 

Nothing made it near enough to attack her. 

Luna kneeled down, settling herself to the ground, and cradled the tiny foal she was sheltering in her forelegs, holding him close. She wrapped her wings around him and shielded him from the sight of the horrific  battle being waged all around them. 

“I have you Buckminster,” Luna said in a soothing voice, whispering into the foal’s ear. 

“Why is this happening?” Bucky whimpered. 

“Ssh, be calm little one,” Luna whispered in a soft silky whisper that somehow carried over the sounds of the battle all around them. 

“Why did my mother say those things?” Bucky asked. 

“Those were demons my precious little foal,” Luna explained. “Not your mother.” 

“Was it true?” Bucky inquired, burying his face into Luna’s neck and wrapping his forelegs around her neck tightly. 

“Sadly, some of it, yes,” Luna answered, her voice full of hesitation. “The demons spoke the truth, knowing it would hurt you. Not the parts about you being a monster. You are not a monster.” 

“So my mother did that?” Bucky asked. There was a sound of ripping flesh nearby and he cringed. The hot smell of sulphur and blood filled the air all around them. 

“Yes,” Luna answered.

“How could they get away with that?” Bucky questioned, the first shuddering sobs beginning to overtake his tiny frail body. 

“I wasn’t here to watch over dreams and scare ponies back into the light. I wasn’t here to stop the shadows as they burrowed into the minds of my subjects. I was locked away on the moon and the shadows prospered. All manner of horrible things happened and I could do nothing to stop them. My sister simply does not have that kind of power. She held up our nation as best as she could, but she could not stop the decay happening from the inside. She wasn’t capable of watching things as I can watch things,” Luna soothed, her voice practically a lullabye. 

“My mother…  really…  poisoned me…” Bucky sobbed. 

“Had I been here, I would have possibly prevented that,” Luna whispered comfortingly. “Or would have found out through her guilty mind. She would have been punished. There is so much work to do now, I am overwhelmed. There is simply too much decay to deal with. Canterlot is a cancerous growth upon our society.” Luna wrapped her wings a little tighter around Bucky as a severed demon head went soaring past and blood splattered over her muzzle. She looked up in annoyance and then dropped her head back down to focus on the injured dreamer in her embrace. 

“Does Celestia really hate me? Is she going to kill me?” Bucky whined. 

“She is… upset. She is worried. She is still trying to figure out exactly what has taken place here. I will shield you from my sister’s anger though. Do not worry about her. She does not know the full extent of what you have endured, or what you had to do. There was no other way, little Buckminster,” Luna answered. “She has made mention about having you permanently exiled to the Shetlands though. She is confused, hurt, and upset right now. I will deal with her, give me time.”

“There was nothing else I could do!” Bucky wailed. 

“I know. I can see it all in your mind right now. I helped you once, and I will help you again. I am tired of losing my precious foals to darkness. No more,” Luna said in a forceful voice. “I will preserve you. What our society might throw away, I still see great value in. You have endured a terrible trial and you did what had to be done. I will do everything I can to heal your mind, but it is going to take time, if you will permit me.” 

“Help me,” Bucky pleaded. 

“Do not worry, I will,’ Luna promised as the battle began to die down around them. She watched as her lunar guard formed a protective perimeter around them, a circle of muscle and rage, a wall of fury and fangs. “You are mine now, I have claimed you. I have put down my hoof and laid claim to your life, as is my privilege. Celestia’s hurt and confusion will blow over and she will come to terms with all of this in time. You must come home soon Buckminster, I give you my word, you will be safe if you do. There is much that needs to be done.” 

“Okay,” Bucky snuffled. “Why didn’t you come to help me sooner? When I had that horrible dream… they were all dead, and everything hurt so much!” 

“There was a crisis Buckminster, I do hope you will forgive me. I could not come. I could not help. Everything had collapsed and fell apart, and in the chaos, an old enemy from our past tried to take revenge. He has been dealt with and now we are rebuilding,” Luna answered.

“I would forgive you anything Luna,” Bucky whispered, wiping his face against Luna’s neck. “Am I an alicorn now?” 

“No Bucky, this is a dream. You are seeing yourself for how you really are, what you are meant to be, the alicorn of war,” Luna explained. 

“I don’t want to be an alicorn,” Bucky whined. 

“Why not?” Luna asked in confusion. “This is what everypony dreams of, Buckminster, you have earned this. This is your rightful place, your destiny. Even my sister, for all of her confusion right now, knows this.” 

“But she was going to exile me,” Bucky said. 

“Well, the Isles could use an alicorn to assist them and lead them,” Luna said. “Not that I want you exiled. What do you have against being an alicorn?” 

“I’ve had dreams Luna, look into my mind. I will let you see everything. The alicorn of war only has one purpose,” Bucky said. 

“I will examine your dreams in time,” Luna replied. “I hope you realise that you cannot hold off your destiny. This was meant to happen. You have been Touched.” 

“Don’t make me do it,” Bucky begged. 

“Now is not the time for this decision. You are wounded and fragile. You were poisoned with necromantic death magic. Recover Bucky, now is not the time to worry about this issue. A mutual acquaintance of ours had made sure you had something to drive the magical poison from your body and render it harmless. All of us involved in this affair are still wondering how you survived being struck by that spell. It should have been instantly fatal, severing your soul from your body,” Luna said as she stroked Bucky with her wings. Her guard stood stone still now, resolute and unmoving as statues. They snorted occasionally as they peered into the darkness around them. 

“Will they come back?” Bucky asked. 

“The demons? No. I shall be speaking to their master about their release. This wasn’t supposed to happen. There are many forces at work here Buckminster, all of them wanting something different from you,” Luna replied. 

“What do you want from me?” Bucky inquired. 

“I want to see you happy,” Luna answered. “More than anything else. More than living up to your potential. You have endured a miserable experience. And if you really do not want to be an alicorn, then I suppose I can find a way to live with that. The others will hound you though.” 

“Thank you Luna,” Bucky said, finally sounding somewhat at peace. 

“Now rest, my foal. I will watch over you. You exist on the edge of life and death at this moment. And since everything else is breaking the rules I have chosen to be clever as well. You will live Buckminster, I will see to that. I will stay here with you and watch over the fragile connection you have to your body. Now rest. Sleep here in my embrace,” Luna said as she began to hum a soft song of sleep. 

Feeling safe and secure, Bucky allowed himself to slip off into slumber, Luna’s lullaby cradling his very soul in a velvet embrace. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	 
	
	
> Chapter 181
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Yew Wood looked up at the large griffon hulking over her, a soft smile turning up the corners of her mouth. She couldn’t feel the pain in her leg when she looked at him, and there was something certainly attractive at about the big predator. He had fought valiantly in the battle, fearlessly charging in to deal with all threats, and he had struck down the banshee. He had braved the darkness to rescue Bucky. 

Trembling slightly, she reached out and carefully smoothed out the ruffled feathers along his broad chest, and she felt him jerk slightly at her touch. Yew understood she had power over him, she could gently push him and he would fall over and go belly up for her. 

“How is Bucky?” Yew asked. 

“Recovering. I think he will live,” Lugus replied. 

“Mmm, that will be good, if we have young together, I want them to know their chief,” Yew said suggestively. 

The big griffon made a nervous squawk. 

“I have decided that I want to keep you. If you will still have me. You and your cat-like curiousity. You and your fascination about us ponies and our squishy parts. If you would like, I will show you all of my squishy parts. I could show you all of my expressive and silly faces I can make if you would like to see them,” Yew said, looking at Lugus as she spoke. 

As she watched, Lugus reached up and smoothed down his feather crest with his talons. 

“Have I shown myself as a worthwhile mate?” Yew inquired sweetly. 

The big griffon nodded slowly and then scratched at his left front leg with his right set of talons in a careful sort of way that he did not cut himself with the sharp edges or tips of his claws. 

“So how do griffons marry? Do we write out a contract? Go before Keg Smasher?” Yew asked in a low seductive voice. 

“I do not know. I do not wish to write a contract for you. No words could be used to describe your value,” Lugus responded nervously. “There is no way to accurately measure your appropriate worth.” 

“Aw, you really know how to make a mare feel special,” Yew gushed. 

“I give you my solemn vow that I will be a good life-mate for you. My life for you,” Lugus said in a low flat voice. 

“I accept Lugus… I offer you everything I have in return,” Yew replied. “So are these our vows? What comes next?” 

“I spend the rest of my life proving worthy of your affections,” Lugus stated. 

“There you go again, making a mare feel good,” Yew said teasingly. “I’m tired Lugus. Care to take me back to our quarters on The Scorned Mare?”

Saying nothing in return, Lugus carefully took Yew into his talons, spread his wings, and took off into the air with a single leap from his powerful hind legs. 



 

Bon Bon held Harper’s tiny body close to her and tried to put everything back together inside of her mind. Lyra was beside her, sleeping fitfully and crying occasionally in her sleep. Her husband was hovering somewhere near death. She had witnessed a terrible battle and she could still hear it in her ears. The banshee’s wail had caused her to freeze completely, like it had so many others. 

She could still hear it shrieking. 

She tossed and turned a bit, trying to find a comfortable position to lay in, still clutching Harper to her barrel. The foal was finally asleep and Bon Bon didn’t want to wake her up. As Bon Bon struggled to deal with everything on her mind, she felt a warm sensation spreading over her barrel and stomach. 

“As if mama didn’t have it hard enough, you just had to widdle, didn’t you Harper?” 



 

The sun settled over the horizon and ponies remained outside. Guards were posted just in case a few shadow wolves had somehow survived somewhere, but no howls had been heard. Ponies were slowly coming to the realisation that the nightmare was over. 

Ponies remained in the grassy meadows around the castle and the tiny town, staring up at the stars and the moon, finally able to enjoy Luna’s night without fear. Fires were lit and ponies gathered around to talk and tell stories. 

Far above them, on the deck of The Scorned Mare one pony who truly loved the night sat staring up at the moon as it rose over it trees, a sad distant look upon his face. He sat alone, a crude journal upon the deck planks in front of him, and a pencil held between his grasping digit and the central knuckle on his wing. The pages in his journal fluttered in the faint breeze. 

“I don’t know if you can hear me Princess Luna, but if you can, my father needs your help. He’s not well. All of those ponies down there below me, they are out celebrating your night… something they would not be able to do if my father had not reclaimed it from the evil that has plagued these isles,” Sentinel said in a quiet voice. “I am not saying you owe him, but it would be awfully nice of you to help him if you can hear me.” 

The colt scribbled something down in his journal, his ears folded back as he wrote. 

“My father ended the nightmare here, the dark shadow that tainted this land. I only know a little bit about you, but I know enough to know that surely, you of all ponies must know what it feels like to be trapped in a nightmare,” the colt said in a low whisper to himself. “And what it means to be freed from darkness,” he continued.

Sentinel looked down at the sketch in his journal, the outline of trees and the moon rising over them. He didn’t think it was a very good sketch, but it captured the moment well enough. He sighed, wishing he could draw better. It was something he was going to have to work on. 

“I would do almost anything you might ask of me if you will help him,” Sentinel offered, glancing up briefly at the moon.

He scratched down a few more lines, trying to add shape and definition to the trees. He made careful soft strokes, and what he drew resembled the suggestion of trees rather than actual trees themselves. He added a few round circles to the moon that were intended to resemble craters. He tried shading one and then frowned, not happy with the results. 

As he continued to scratch and scribble, the sky in front of the moon began to warp and shimmer. Sentinel looked up and saw the disturbance in the sky, his mouth dropped open, and he let out a small startled cry. 

The sky above him swirled, a dark vortex of shadow, and silver streams of moonlight shimmered through the whirling shadow. There was a distant roar in the night, followed by a loud thunderous boom, and then the sky was filled with silver light. 

Two very large figures came out of the vortex and came streaking down to The Scorned Mare, and a general cry of alarm went out as the pegasi guarding the deck began to mobilise to deal with the new threat. 

The two figures drew close and Sentinel realised what they were. Lunar pegasi. Big ones. Really really big ones. They came down hard and came to a skidding halt upon the deck, each of them as wide at the shoulder as a pony was tall. They were clad in heavy plate armor. 

“Stand back you lot!” one of the two lunar pegasi warned. 

“We are Mistress Luna’s Myrmidons, and as of this moment, this ship is now Princess Luna’s sovereign territory. We are here to secure Prince Buckminster,” the other explained. 

Sentinel rose slowly, assumed a submissive posture, and then slowly approached the pair. As he did so, he realised that they were female. As he drew near, he raised his head slightly and looked up. The two big mares looked down at the trembling foal and then both of them bowed their heads down, which left Sentinel stunned and confused. 

“You are his son, are you not?” one of the mares asked. 

“I… I… I am,” Sentinel stammered. 

“I am Grimglammer and this is Shadowguard. We need to see him at once. We come with supplies, medicine, and we are to stabilise his condition. More of us are coming, but they have to fly here. Opening a shadow portal is very draining. Will you take us to him?” Grimglammer asked. 

Sentinel looked around him at the pegasi on the deck, all of them looking confused. “Stand down,” he commanded in a soft voice. “Come with me,” he said to the two big armored mares. He began to cross the deck slowly, his heart thudding painfully in his barrel. 

“Do not slink little one, it is ill befitting our kind and your stature,” Shadowguard commanded. 

Sentinel stood up straight as he walked and he felt a hard nudge in his backside. 

“Head high,” Grimglammer demanded in a harsh bark. 

The colt lifted his head high and approached the cabin door. It opened, and Lyra came out, looking bleary eyed. Her horn was glowing with an alarming intensity. 

“What is the commotion… oh my goodness!” Lyra said, her last words becoming a gasp. 

“Lady Heartstrings?” Grimglammer inquired brusquely. 

“Yeah?” Lyra replied. 

“We are here for your husband,” Shadowguard announced. 

“Mother Lyra, they are here to help,” Sentinel said, trying to calm his mother’s seemingly frazzled nerves. He reached out and touched Lyra’s leg softly. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Lyra’s horn go dim. 



 

“Lady Hooves,” Grimglammer said, bowing her head slightly. 

Derpy stared up at the two big armored figures as they loomed over her and Bucky. Sentinel was standing beside the bed, and Lyra stood nearby. Others had begun to gather, crowding into the small room. 

“Permission to examine our Prince,” Shadowguard said. 

“You may,” Derpy said in a low somewhat confused voice. “Prince?” she muttered. 

Grimglammer leaned down and began to look Bucky over, sniffing him a few times, placing her head over his barrel and listening, examining his the remains of his leg, and finally peeling back the bandage over the gash in his side. 

“Have you been able to get anything down his gullet?” Shadowguard inquired. 

“We, uh, well, Berry actually, she got him to suckle at her teats several times now,” Derpy said in a somewhat embarrassed voice. 

Shadowguard stared at Derpy for a moment, turned around, focused her intense stare upon Berry, and nodded. “You are a clever mare. Just what he needs. Nutrients and hydration. Probably why he is still alive. Too bad there are no IVs here,” Shadowguard stated. 

“Thank you,” Berry said, backing away shyly from the big mare who stared at her. 

“I thought all of the Royal Guards were male?” Bon Bon asked. She cringed when Shadowguard focused her piercing upon eyes on her. 

“We are not Royal Guard. We are Mistress Luna’s Myrmidons,” Shadowguard said. She turned and looked at her companion, who was still examining Bucky. “How does he fare?” 

“He is bad off, malnourished looking, and surprisingly alive,” Grimglammer answered. The lunar pegasus mare popped a latch upon her armor using her wing and then pulled one of her saddlebags free. She opened it, stuck in her central knuckle, and began to dig stuff out. 

She pulled a giant syringe from the supplies, held it up to the light, gripped between her grasping digit and her central knuckle, read the label, her lips moving slightly as she did so and a faint murmur escaping her fanged mouth, pulled off the cap from the needle, and then stabbed Bucky in the buttocks with the enormous spike. She jammed down upon the plunger and emptied the syringe. 

“You better make sure he lives Grim, I am not in the mood to have the Mistress sever my head from my shoulders for failure,” Shadowguard muttered as her companion worked. 

“What are Myrmidons?” Bon Bon gently inquired. 

“We do not exist,” Shadowguard replied as she focused her attention upon her companion and Bucky, scowling as her companion worked. 

“You look pretty real to me,” Sentinel said. 

“Here squire, hold this,” Shadowguard said, taking off her helmet using both of her wings. She plunked it down upon Sentinel's head, and it nearly took the colt down to the floor. 

The colt stood on trembling legs, struggling to hold up the immense weight of the heavy plated helm. His knees banged together and with great effort, he held his head up high, unable to see anything. 

“Huh,” Shadowguard grunted. “Colt has grit, I’ll give him that. There are grown ponies that couldn’t hold my helmet. You got balls squire.” 

“Thank you ma’am,” Sentinel said in a quavering voice. “Might I hold anything else for you ma’am?” 

Grimglammer pulled out another syringe and began to prepare it, this one holding a dull pink liquid. She was still scowling. “His body has been purged of the worst of the necromantic poison, this will make him sweat out the rest of the toxins in his body,” she muttered as she stabbed the six inch needle just below Bucky’s hops plant mark. “He must have a natural resistance to poison or something, no pony should be alive in his condition. Even the Princesses would be laid low for quite some time by this kind of magical venom. Worst thing is, if he would have died, I do believe this would have revived him from the dead as some sort of zombie. Mistress mentioned something about that as she procured the medicine I brought.” 

“Grim, stop, you are scaring his wives,” Shadowguard said in a low voice. 

“Has your husband ever been poisoned by magical toxins before?” Grimglammer inquired, looking up at Derpy. 

“No… I don’t know… not that I know about,” Derpy replied, looking worried. 

Grimglammer nodded and resumed her task. She pulled Bucky’s mouth open and examined his tongue, which looked purple. “Nuts, Mistress will have my head,” she grumbled. 

“So more of you are coming?” Sentinel asked, still standing on trembling legs and holding up Shadowguard’s helmet upon his head. 

“Yes. We’re going to haul this ship back to Canterlot. Mistress is worried that there are things that might take an interest in Prince Buckminster never returning home. He’s made enemies, the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, which is why we are here,” Shadowguard replied. 

Grimglammer poured a liquid over Bucky’s gash that smelled like sour bananas, her nose crinkling as she worked. She pulled the bandages away from his stump and then poured the rest of the liquid over the burned end. It sizzled as it made contact with the seared skin. 

“Squire, we will require quarters. One bed. We can hotswap our rack. But one of us is to be standing guard at all times,” Shadowguard said, looking down at the colt that was still struggling to hold up her helmet. She smiled a crooked smile, revealing her fangs. 

“I am sure we can come up with something,” Sentinel replied from within the helmet. 

“One of us is required to be at his bedside at all times. I apologise in advance if this upsets you ladies,” Grimglammer said. “Orders are orders.” She went back to work, this time applying fresh bandages to cover Bucky’s wounds. 

“Thank you,” Derpy said in a raspy emotional voice. 

“We are here to serve, Lady Hooves,” Shadowguard replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 182
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel stared up at Grimglammer in what appeared to be total awe, sitting quietly in the dark while most of his family was sound asleep. They were free to return to being awake in the daytime now, and Sentinel wasn’t sure of his place within the herd any longer, with Lyra and Bon Bon now moving to a more diurnal schedule. 

“Did Princess Luna hear my prayers?” Sentinel asked in a low sibilant whisper that he knew Grimglammer could hear. He could hear Moonbow breathing right beside him in the dark. 

“I can’t tell you that, colt,” Grimglammer answered. 

“I mean, I was out there praying to her moon when you two showed up,” Sentinel stated. 

“Should you be talking to us on duty?” Moonbow asked inquisitively. 

“I have other directives. Comfort for one, but I have no idea how to fulfill that function. Plus, these are the Isles. I am always to be on the lookout for talent,” Grimglammer answered. 

“How does one become a Myrmidon?” Moonbow asked. 

“It starts by being deemed worthy. You don’t find the Myrmidons, the Myrmidons find you. First you get put on trial, and when you are finally found guilty, you wear the chains and weights until you figure out how to fly again. Some never learn how to fly. I can’t tell you more than that,” Grimglammer replied. “I might have told you too much already, but I have been told to expect this question.” 

“How did you know how to heal my father?” Sentinel replied. 

“I am a medical doctor, I specialise in curses, jinxes, and in magical maladies and malaises,” Grimglammer replied.

“You are amazing,” Sentinel breathed in the dark. 

“Every Myrmidon is required to be the very best in their field. I am a doctor, Shadowguard is being trained to become a dream healer,” Grimglammer explained. 

“Dream healer?” Moonbow asked. 

“Go into a pony’s mind and make them face their fear in such a way that it benefits them. Help them repair the broken parts of their equinity. Take each and every hequine and shequine, figure out what makes them strong, and then bring it out. Only Shadowguard is being trained to deal with those who have been targeted, touched by shadow or corruption in some way, influenced by things that want to hold them back or keep them from some form of greatness,” Grimglammer explained in a soft silken whisper. 



 

In the dark, two figures held each other close, and a third smaller figure was pressed tightly between them. The smaller figure was sleeping, as tiny foals tend to do in the night, and its sleep was undisturbed by howls or the terrifying things that had once stalked the night. 

“It feels strange not being able to kiss you on the lips,” Yew murmured. 

“If I had lips, I would kiss you all over. Especially in your mare places, I long to find out why such a thing is done,” Lugus replied in a soft voice. 

“Mmm, that would be nice, but to be fair, my mare places have been thoroughly loved. Repeatedly in fact. The first few times were a bit awkward, but you are three times as big as I am, if not larger,” Yew said in a faint soft musical giggle. She rubbed her face against Lugus’ soft feathers and velvet coat, right on the place where the two intermingled. It made the large griffon shiver in the dark. “You know, you have a very strange organ. It is very… hard.” 

“It should be, there is a bone in there,” Lugus said, his feathers fluffing out to cool his suddenly flushed skin. “I used to have spikes and barbs. I had a surgery while I lived in Equestria to remove the barbs and spikes. My kind has evolved our organs for rape and unwilling copulation.” 

“That’s awful… but you were so gentle and kind to me,” Yew said in a pained voice. 

“We can choose to rise above our bestial natures, but many of my kind do not,” Lugus stated in a sad wistful sounding voice. “Bucky told me that if I took you as my mate and I did so much as scratch you with my talons, he was going to have a new lion skin rug. I offered to skin myself for him, to ease his mind.” 

“You talked about me with him?” Yew inquired. 

“We talked a bit as we worked in the forge. I asked him what he thought about interspecies breeding. He said it would be a good statement for our tribe,” Lugus answered. He reached out and stroked Yew’s cheek with his folded knuckle, keeping his razor sharp talons away from her face. 

“I like his tribe idea,” Yew said. “I am a pony with wings. But I am a pony first and foremost.” 

“And I am a winged avian mammal, I chose to guard ponies and defend my chief’s ideals,” Lugus said, pulling Yew a little closer as his beak opened in a yawn.



 

Grimglammer gently reached out and stroked Bucky with her central knuckle. The stallion was sweating profusely, and the bed around him was soaked with sweat. It had taken a lot of convincing to make the grey pegasus give the unicorn some needed room. A foul smell wafted off of Bucky. Grimglammer lifted a wet cool cloth and gently wiped Bucky’s face with it, cleaning gunk out from around his eye. “You did a marvelous job replacing your eye and your horn,” she said in a low soft whisper that sounded far too gentle to be coming from such a big brutish creature. 

She looked down and saw Moonbow standing beside her, still as a statue, unmoving in the darkness. Grimglammer smiled to herself, welcome for the help from a fellow guard. She shifted her weight, causing her armor to clank softly in the dark. She reached out and touched Sentinel, nudging him softly as he slumbered. 

“He is to be my mate,” Moonbow whispered. 

“Are you worthy of him?” Grimglammer asked. 

“What a strange question coming from a female,” Moonbow replied. 

“But the question remains valid. I know of your views, I used to hold them as well, I came from these isles,” Grimglammer stated in a smooth voice that seemed to blend with the darkness in the room. 

“He is different, I will confess,” Moonbow stated. “He confuses me. He is quite unlike our kind. I have spoken to him, he has read me things he has written. He has dreams and wishes that confuse me and leave me asking questions.” 

“Ah, so you are open minded enough to ask questions, that is a start,” Grimglammer whispered to the smaller female at her side. 

“He wants to be a knight, he has this image of what a knight should be in his head. He wants to go off and battle giants, trolls, manticores, and things that eat ponies. He wants to be just like his father, and that really confuses me because males are supposed to be the hunters and the gatherers while we go out and do the fighting,” Moonbow said to the much larger female hulking over her. “It doesn’t make sense. He is smaller and lighter, faster on the wing, and more suited for hunting, stalking prey, and getting food. We are larger, stronger, and more suited for fighting. But he wants to fight. When I pounce him, he bounces away ready to scrap. He doesn’t just fall down submissively and let me dominate him.” 

“One day, mark my words, you will pounce him and he will swat you aside, I don’t care how big you grow,” Grimglammer said in a thoughtful whisper. 

“The idea of that excites me,” Moonbow purred. 

Grimglammer heaved a sigh that made her armor clink softly. “Deviant,” she muttered. 



 

The sky of dawn was a faint soft pink, a smear of pastel blue, and a hint of royal purple as the night retreated from the light. Many ponies had slept outside in the meadow, around fires, out under the open stars. Pegasi and earth pony guards moved among the sleepers, still cautious, still careful, but optimistic that the nightmare was now over. The dew covered everything, and several early risers had taken to rolling in the wet grass, kicking and snorting to welcome the day. 

Rising Star stood on the deck of The Scorned Mare watching Lugus prepare for a hunt. The griffon had a long wooden bow, the string made from a fine braid of donated pony hairs. It glistened in the early morning sun, the wood polished to a mirror finish, and Rising Star recognised the arrowheads on the arrows as his own. His sharp eye had spotted the three tiny stars he had left impressed into his work as his signature. Lugus’s arrows were terrifying, longer than a pony’s leg, and the bow had to be at least six feet in length. The grip of the bow was as large around as Rising Star’s fetlock. 

Shadowguard came strolling out onto the deck and watched the griffon. She was wearing her armor and she moved slowly around, each hooffall thudding on the deck. 

Rising Star was terrified by the lunar pegasi mare that dwarfed him, and suddenly understood what it felt like to be Bucky in a world full of much taller stallions. 

“He is going to awaken soon. His eye shows sign of movement and I do believe my Mistress has been successful in securing his body and his soul. He is kicking and twitching, showing signs of life. Bring back a deer or a boar or something, full of blood, and bring Grimglammer the heart. The rich heartblood will be good for him, he needs the iron and the nutrients. His body is a burned out husk,” Shadowguard commanded. 

“I will do as you bid,” Lugus said in reply. 

“You are his griffon at arms?” Shadowguard inquired. 

“Yes ma’am, that I am,” Lugus answered. 

“I am making you his royal hunter. He needs rich red bloody meat,” Shadowguard stated. 

Rising Star gulped and felt a little sick. He swallowed and hoped his queasiness would pass. “So Bucky… he’s a prince now?” he asked in a squeaky nervous voice. 

The big mare turned her gaze upon Rising Star and stared at him, studying the unicorn colt with a blank expression. “Yes, he is my prince,” she answered. 

“You know, he is going to be really angry if he hears you calling him that,” Rising Star said nervously, daring to correct the big mare. Shadowguard blinked a few times, and Rising Star felt a deep sense of inner satisfaction in watching her squirm uncomfortably. “He hates titles, but if you call him anything, it should be Knight Captain because he feels that he has earned that,” he explained. As he watched, the big lunar mare turned her head back towards the door, stared for a moment, and then swiveled her head around to stare once again at Rising Star. 

“But he has earned the title “prince.”  He is Sombra’s heir. He has earned the right to claim his ancient birthright, and has proven himself as a champion of my Mistress Luna,” Shadowguard said in a slow drawn out voice. 

Rising Star took a moment, but he caught the careful wording of the giant mare. “So… Princess Celestia doesn’t feel this way?” he asked. 

“I cannot speak for Princess Celestia. She is currently grief stricken and rife with emotional turmoil. She needs time to… reflect upon her sensibilities,” Shadowguard carefully responded. “I owe no fealty to Princess Celestia. She is not my princess. I have sworn fealty to my Mistress Luna, and when he awakens, I will swear my oath to Prince Buckminster, once he is of sound mind.” 

“Bucky is not a sound minded pony,” Rising Star said in a low voice. 

Lugus’ feather crest rose and his eyes darted from pony to pony as he watched the big mare bristle from the colt’s words. 

“No offense intended ma’am, but Bucky kinda had to let go of his sanity, it was holding him back. Somepony had to face the darkness on its own terms, and Bucky willingly let go of some of his equinity, his fear, his sanity. He did what needed to be done. Have you seen his eye yet? It’s stuck that way, that horrible purple fog starts to creep out the moment you open his eyelid and you can see the slimy green colour of his eye… this has hurt him in ways I can scarcely comprehend. The sounds of foals playing now makes him cringe and jump. Sudden noises startle him. Unexpected laughter makes his horn ignite and the look on his face sometimes when this happens would probably even make your pucker clench. And this was before he went down under the mountain and fought whatever it was he faced down there. I can’t imagine him being better any time soon,” Rising Star said, angrily and bitterly. “Meanwhile, you lot in Equestria let this evil fester here, growing worse and worse, and it took something from me that I hold very dear. I had to watch as this fight consumed him, devoured his body, and broke him.” 

Shadowguard stared at Rising Star, but the big mare made no reply. 

“I am off to hunt,” Lugus said nervously, gathering up his bow and his arrows. 
	
> Chapter 183
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hmm, why yes, I do believe he is coming around. When he wakes up, I want all of you to try and stay quiet. I am sorry, but I must insist. My Mistress has been working on his mind, he will be fragile and easy to overwhelm,” Grimglammer said, looking around the room at Bucky’s wives. 

“He is going to want his foals,” Derpy said in a firm voice. 

“I doubt he will even be able to talk,” Grimglammer said, looking Derpy in the eye. 

“Doesn’t change the fact that he is going to want his foals,” Derpy retorted, sounding slightly annoyed and angry as she repeated herself. 

“All I ask is that you give me a little time to work,” Grimglammer said gently. “The big griffon should be back soon and I intend to feed your husband a meal of blood while he is still awake. Do you want your foals seeing that?” 

“No,” Derpy said in a sour angry voice. “Not sure if I want to see that.”

Looking anxious, Berry Punch wiggled a little closer to Bucky’s body and rested her head down on her crossed front legs. Her mane, now long and untrimmed for quite some time, spilled over onto her face. She looked rough, and her eyes were bloodshot from crying. She felt Thistle scoot up next to her and she could feel Thistle’s wide pregnant belly pressing into her ribs. 

Hearing Harper beginning to fuss, Lyra tried to quiet the foal. She stroked her fetlock along Harper’s spine and nuzzled the foal with her snoot, but to no avail. Harper began to kick and whimper, which made Grimglammer stare at her.

“Bring that foal over here. Place it next to his head, close to his ear. Let us try something,” Grimglammer commanded, her voice gentle but insisting. 

Her mouth pressed tight into a straight line, Lyra did as she was instructed, placing Harper down near Bucky’s neck. The foal squirmed and wiggled until she reached her father’s head, and, finally getting what she wanted, cuddled up against the side of her father’s face, took an ear into her mouth, and began to chew on it, slobbering copiously as she did so. “Mama,” Harper mumbled, her mouth full of ear. 

“Hmm, curious,” Grimglammer muttered. 

“What?” Thistle asked. 

“Suddenly, I have the desire to have foals. Ugh!” Grimglammer grumbled.

“There is nothing wrong with that,” Thistle said.

“Yeah there is,” Grimglammer replied. 

“And what could that be?” Berry Punch inquired. 

“There is currently a wager between Shadowguard and I over who will crack first and give in to foal making desires. It can’t be me. She wins everything,” Grimglammer said as she watched the foal attempting to devour her father’s ear. Her face looked hopeful for a moment as Bucky twitched and the corner of his mouth moved.

“So after he wakes up and gets better, what do we do? What happens?” Thistle asked. 

“Well, I stabilise him, and then we wait for the others to arrive. After that, we go home,” Grimglammer said, turning to look at the kelpie as she did so. “Which reminds me, Luna wants for me to give you a thorough examination if you will consent. May I do so later?” 

“Okay,” Thistle squeaked nervously. 

“I will be gentle,” Grimglammer promised. 

“Most ponies when they see the doctor, the doctor is not covered in reinforced plate mail,” Berry Punch quipped, nosing Thistle and trying to comfort her. 

A low groan came from Bucky and the whole room fell silent, save for Harper. 

“Mama?” Harper burbled, letting go of Bucky’s ear as she did so. 

“Prince Buckminster, can you hear me? I am Myrmidon Grimglammer, and I am here to help you. You probably can’t talk, but can you give me some kind of sign you understand what I am saying?” Grimglammer said in a clear voice, speaking her words slowly. 

A leg twitched weakly and Bucky’s eyelid fluttered. After a few tries, it opened, and a foul purple mist emanated out from his corrupted orb. There were a couple of gasps from around the room as his eye became visible again. 

“Is it safe for the foal to be around that?” Bon Bon asked in a frightened whisper. 

“Mistress Luna will explain more about his condition when we return home. I do not know enough about it to comment. She did say that as bad as it might appear, it is perfectly safe for all of you to be around him, and told me it was simply excess dark mana burning off from his body. She explained that it was like a fire being extinguished but still smoking to me when I inquired several times about the nature of his condition, so that I might understand him better and help him,” Grimglammer answered. 

“Hnnnngunnnnf, Tharferf,” Bucky moaned. 

“Yes, very good. You made a noise. Good job my Prince. Soon, you will string several noises together in a coherent fashion and recover your ability for speech,” Grimglammer stated. 

“Bucky, did you just say “Harper”... can you hear us?” Lyra gently urged. 

“Tharferf,” Bucky mumbled somewhat incoherently. 

Grimglammer went to work, looking over Bucky, prodding him to check his responses, looking into the his eye, and even pinching him gently upon the neck using her grasping digit and her central knuckle to get ahold of a bit of tender flesh. She looked extremely pleased when Bucky gave a faint yelp of pain. “Please forgive me my Prince, and I hope you do not request my head for what I have done to you,” she said in a contained but excited voice. She lifted a cool damp cloth and wiped Bucky’s face again, wiped away encrusted mucus from around his nose, and then gently wiped away more gunk from his eye. 

“Bucky, can you hear me?” Derpy asked. 

Every mare in the room fell silent as Bucky’s nostrils flared and a raspy wheezing sound came out from his lips. His barrel rose and fell, but no words came out. The stallion struggled to move his legs, but nothing really happened after the initial twitches. 

“Mama?” Harper chirped, breaking the silence. 

“Daddy,” Grimglammer corrected helpfully. 

Harper turned her head to look up at the big mare, her eyes narrowed fiercely and a few sparks spewed from the tip of her horn. “Mama,” she insisted, before resting her head on her father’s ear. 

“If you argue, she will zap you. She did it to Rising Star one night when he kept trying to get her to say “daddy” to Bucky. She burned off a patch of hair from his pelt,” Bon Bon warned. 

“Oh my, she is one of those types of unicorns,” Grimglammer muttered. 

“Hrrrflurghlarf,” Bucky stammered, his still purple tongue hanging out of his mouth. 

Eyeing the glass near the bed, Grimglammer had an idea. “Somepony try giving him some water. Lady Heartstrings, I do believe that fine control is in order here.” 

Lyra nodded, lifted the glass, conjured some water, and then held it in the air above Bucky, who responded by extending his lips towards the glass eagerly. Berry Punch was the first to respond, sitting up scooting over, sitting back upon her haunches, and then lifting Bucky’s head away, which make Harper protest angrily and beat her tiny front hooves against Berry’s belly. 

The glass was lowered to Bucky’s lips and he drank greedily, spilling more water over his muzzle and his neck then went down his throat. Lyra conjured a bit more water and Bucky continued to drink, his movements barely coordinated enough to allow him to swallow. 

Finally, his thirst slaked, Bucky ceased to drink and his eye looked up at Berry, giving her a pleading look. Berry continued to hold Bucky, stroking his neck and cradling his head. 

“Now hopefully he is still awake and aware when Lugus returns,” Grimglammer said. 



 

The griffon was all too aware of the eyes upon him when he hung the small mindless deer by the leg from a section of rope secured to the upper railing on the deck above the cabin. He worked near the edge of the rail, the deck was going to have to be scrubbed. He placed a large clean bucket under the deer, said a few silent words of thanks, and then using one of his claws, sliced the deer open. It was still warm. He slit the throat, allowing blood to go into the bucket, and then he sliced open the belly. Making a few well practiced cuts, he reached in a foreleg up to the elbow and pulled out the still warm and rather gooey heart. He set it down upon a clean cloth provided just for this purpose. He wrapped it carefully, picked it up, and then he went inside the cabin to deliver it to his chief. 



 

“I can’t watch this,” Berry said. 

“Neither can I,” Derpy admitted. 

Most of the mares except Thistle and Grimglammer turned away. Thistle gave a faint nod to Lugus, her lips moving but no sounds came out. Grimglammer stared down at the now bloodstained cloth that was intended to be a bandage before it was repurposed. 

Lifting it from the cloth, Lugus held the heart over Bucky’s maw. Berry Punch was holding him up again, as she had done before, but she had her head turned away. Lugus, holding the heart in his talons, allowed the blood to drip on Bucky’s lips, the thick purplish red heart blood oozing down in viscous droplets. Bucky began to lick the liquid from his lips eagerly and Lugus squeezed a bit more, causing a stream to to trickle directly into Bucky’s mouth. 

“This is good, just what he needs,” Grimglammer said as she watched Bucky feed. “Iron, protein, all manner of nutrients, just what the doctor ordered. 

The heart was squeezed carefully, slowly, a steady pressure applied to get the precious life giving liquid to come forth in a steady stream of nourishing sustenance. Finally, after what seemed like several minutes, the heart had nothing left to give. Bucky was still licking his lips and gurgling for more. 

Using his beak, Lugus carefully snipped off a tiny morsel from the heart, pinched it between his other talons, and then stuffed it into Bucky’s mouth. After a moment, the tiny tidbit was swallowed whole. He snipped off another piece after getting a nod of approval from Grimglammer, and making sure his claws did not snag Bucky’s face or lips, slipped in another sliver of raw heart, which Bucky swallowed. 

There were gagging sounds from around the room as the strong scent of blood clung to herbivorous nostrils. 

Snipping off a rather large piece, Lugus offered a bite to Thistle, who hesitated a moment before accepting, allowing Lugus to stuff the meaty morsel into her mouth. She gnawed for a bit and her eyes closed, little happy noises came from the back of her throat as she chewed and then swallowed. 

“That’ll be good for the mother to be,” Grimglammer said. “There is more deer outside. I think I’ll get some myself before I get some rack time and let Shadowguard take her shift. 





“Buck Sergeant Sparkler, permission to check out your backside, ma’am.” 

Sparkler rolled her eyes and then looked at her husband. “You know, you are not actually enlisted in the guard. You don’t have a rank. You don’t need to call me that,” she said. 

“But if I was enlisted, you would outrank me. I’d be a private right?” Rising Star asked, a faint smile upon his lips. 

Sparkler nodded. 

“Want to inspect my private parts to see if they are fit for duty?” Rising Star inquired, somehow keeping a straight face as he asked his wife a very silly question. 

Rolling her eyes again, Sparkler gave her husband a hard shove that tipped him over, causing him to fall over upon his side in the grass. When Rising tried to get up, she shoved him again, shaking her head in exasperation. 

“Permission to stand at attention,” Rising Star said, trying hard not to smile. 

“Oh you are impossible!” Sparkler groaned. 

“Feeling any better yet?” Rising Star asked, this time his voice was completely serious. 

“No,” Sparkler said. “Not at all.” 

“If it is any consolation at all, it was amazing watching you work. The way you helped to hold the deck. You secured the bowels of the ship after the wolves got inside. They’re all saying that your actions, your defense, what you did saved so many lives,” Rising Star said. “How’s the shakes?” 

“They come and go,” Sparkler replied. “How’s the anger?”

“I think I need some time burning things or working in the forge smashing stuff with a hammer,” Rising Star answered. “I just want to set everything on fire.” He paused, rubbed his ribs, and turned his head skywards. “You were a hero,” he stated. 

“I did what needed to be done,” Sparkler said. “Dinky was the hero.” 

“Dinky was awesome. Watching her and Derpy work together… I think Dinky might have scored more kills than you did Sparkler, and that’s not even counting her bombing run where she dropped dozens and dozens of spell jars on the wolves down below. It was unexpected watching them take to the air and really stick it to the wolves. They worked so well together. I couldn’t do much but stand around because of the danger of using extreme fire magic on a wooden ship,” Rising Star said, shaking his head sadly at his own final words. 

“Rising, don’t sell yourself short, you played your role in the preparation. You helped make all of this possible. You helped my father make his armor. Your fires forged the tools of war,” Sparkler said reassuringly. 

“Thanks Sparky, I think I needed to hear that,” Rising Star said as he looked up at his wife. 



 

“You okay Dinks?” 

Dinky shrugged, not sure how to reply. 

“Please say something Dinky. You’ve been so quiet,” Piña begged. 

“I feel better, but my mind doesn’t,” Dinky said as she rolled over in bed. 

Piña placed both of her hooves on Dinky’s back and pressed down lightly. “Don’t turn away from me,” she requested. “I need my sister back, I am suffering too.” 

“I’m sorry Piña,” Dinky said in a miserable voice. “Nothing makes sense right now. One moment I am really happy to be alive, and the next moment I just want to lay down, go to sleep, and not wake up for a long time, hoping that somehow, all of this will just be forgotten or something.” 

The door opened and a shaggy head with long tufted ears poked through the door. 

“You okay?” 

“We need you Sentinel, Dinky is having one of her moments and I think I am too,” Piña said. 

The colt entered the room, walked to the small bed, and hopped up. He settled in beside his siblings, yawned, and then prodded Dinky. “You should be outside. In the sun. It will make you feel better. Want to go to the lake or something?” 

“I dunno,” Dinky said. 

“I’m worried about daddy,” Piña said. 

“He was awake for a while,” Sentinel said. “Not long though. He ate a little, they got some food in him, and the effort of eating wore him out. He sleeps again. He is going to live though.” 

“I wish I could have been there while he was awake,” Piña whined. 

“He is very, very sick Piña,” Sentinel said in a comforting voice. “And they fed him blood. Fresh blood.” 

“Eeew yuck,” Piña said with a shudder. 

“Gross,” Dinky said as she huddled into a tiny ball, pulling her legs into her belly. 

“Did you eat some?” Piña asked. 

“I ate some of the deer’s liver, it was actually quite good,” Sentinel said. “And yes, I drank blood. Lugus collected it in a big bucket. He is going to cook it in a kettle and make some kind of broth from it and a bunch of deer fat for father to drink during the moments he is awake.” 

The earth pony clutched her sides. “That makes my liver hurt just thinking about it. I think. Where is my liver anyway? I hope nothing ever eats my liver, wherever it is.” 

Sentinel smiled, revealing his fangs, and then he hugged Piña. “While I am around, nothing will ever eat your liver,” he said, trying to comfort his sibling. 

“Promise?” Piña asked. 

“I give you my word,” Sentinel replied. 

The grateful earth pony foal threw her forelegs around her brother’s neck, squeezed tightly, and then kissed his cheek. “Sentinel?” 

Hearing the question in Piña’s voice, Sentinel gave his sister a reassuring squeeze. “What?” 

“You’ve been talking to those big guards… are you going to leave us when we go home? Are you going to become a guard?” Piña asked, her voice strained from barely contained emotion. 

“No, sister,” Sentinel said, not hesitating for a single moment with an answer. “My place is here with you, Dinky, and Harper. You need a big brother. Things are going to be hard for you and Dinky for a while I think. I don’t want to be a guard, I want to be a knight, and that means staying by my father’s side and doing good deeds, and maybe fighting monsters if there are any.” 

“What about Moonbow?” Dinky asked, squirming and rolling over to look at her siblings. 

“I think she is quite taken by them. I think if they asked her, she would go,” Sentinel said, a trace of sadness in his voice that only his sisters would be able to detect. 

“Still going to marry her?” Piña asked. 

“Of course, I gave my word. If she leaves, I suppose we will have to get to know each other when we are older,” Sentinel replied. “She has a right to have dreams, to have desires, to wish for things that might be different than what I want.” 

“You’re starting to get wordy, just like Piña,” Dinky quipped. 

“How do we go home?” Piña asked. 

Both of her siblings looked at her blankly, not understanding her question, but both saw the pain upon her face, her eyes filling with tears and her tiny nostrils flaring. 

“How do we go home? We’re not going to be like the other foals… when we sit in school… when we try to talk to them, we’re going to be different from them. We are going to know things, feel things, we’ll have seen things they will not have seen. And I used to get teased for being too pink. What are they doing to do to Sentinel? What are they are going to say about us? Being in a herd? Our daddy, what he did… I am starting to realise and understand so many things, and I am so afraid,” Piña explained. 

“You sound neurotic,” Dinky said. 

“Maybe I am,” Piña whispered. “I have magic. Maybe I have the neurosis that comes with it too,” she added, looking thoughtful as the tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She felt two strong forelegs lock around her and nearly squeeze the air out of her lungs. 

“We will have to protect Sentinel,” Dinky said. “It doesn’t mean we have to hurt other ponies, but I don’t have a problem scaring them just a little bit. I think I am turning out like father. I’ve seen the darkness and now life seems so much more important to me. I never want to hurt other ponies.” 

“Do you think Ripple is still going to be part of our little gang or have we lost her to adulthood?” Piña asked, sniffling and struggling to breath as her small barrel hitched. 

“She’s changed since she’s killed,” Sentinel said. “She’s stopped being afraid. She knows what she is capable of now.” 

Dinky squirmed closer to her siblings and touched her brother’s side.  “Have you talked to Lugus yet about having him take her on as a squire?” 

“When things calm down I plan to do that,” Sentinel replied, stroking Dinky with his wing as he held on to Piña, who was still crying. 

“You are like the best big brother a filly could ask for,” Dinky said, looking up at Sentinel. “I am going to try and sleep again. Can you watch over me in case the bad dreams come again? I keep dreaming that I slip off of my mother’s back and fall down to my death.” 

“I will watch over you Dinky, try to get some sleep,” Sentinel promised. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 184
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Heaving a sigh of relief, Derpy was thankful that Bucky’s tongue was no longer swollen and purple, but had gone back to a somewhat more usual orange colour. She stroked him gently with her wing, moved just a little closer without pressing up against him, and laid her head down upon the bed. She wished that he was awake, but was content to know that he was currently beyond pain. 

Grimglammer had seen to that, injecting him with powerful painkillers when he had awoke an hour or so ago. Bucky had slipped off with a dopey smile after eating the rich broth that had been prepared for him. 

It was late, and it had been a long day for Derpy. A long troubling, trying day that had left her mentally exhausted. Knowing that time was the only thing that would heal Bucky, she gladly slipped off into slumber, hoping that when she woke, Bucky would be better. 



 

Another day, another dawn. And on this day, as the sun dawned, Ripple stood proudly at attention as the day began and the golden rays of sunlight spread over everything as the sun rose above the treeline. 

“You lot turned the tide of battle. All of you, male and female, have proven your worth. We have special honours for pegasi and for earth ponies, and the earth ponies are off earning their honorifics right now from Lord Thrasher. It is my honour to look upon you fine pegasi, knowing that I see the very best of the best before me,” Deadspin said as he moved among his troops. 

Ripple stood shoulder to shoulder with several other pegasi, some of them much larger than she was, but she had no doubt where she stood among their ranks. Still at attention, her eyes traveled over to her teacher and instructor, Knocker, who was a fair distance away, looking upon several of his students, Ripple among them. 

“Every pony proved their worth during the battle, but you lot went above and beyond the call of duty. Some of you held the line and defended Knight Captain Bitter’s wives. Others pushed our enemies from the deck. One of you turned into a whirlwind of death to defend your husband, and you acted bravely in the defense of the one you love,” Deadspin bellowed as he paced. 

A hot feeling filled Ripple’s cheeks and she struggled to remain at attention. She felt too hot and wanted to flare out her wings for a cooling breeze along her sides. 

“Each and every one of you are now within the ranks of the Dragoons, our air cavalry. The best of the best. The numbers fell for a while, many died defending farmhouses or off picking fights with the wolves. But now, the ranks are growing again, and all of you have proven worthy. You are an elite brotherhood… and sisterhood, of death dealers. I am proud of you all and it has been an honour to serve beside you!” Deadspin shouted. 

A cheer went up from the gathered pegasi and the ponies standing around them. In the crowd, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, and Rising Star all beamed with pride as Ripple received her accolades and new title. 

“All of you are dismissed. Go and celebrate today as Dragoons. Remember, Dragoons keep Death busy while skillfully evading Death’s clutches,” Deadspin said to his crew of deadly killers. 

Leaning over to whisper into Sparkler’s ear, Loch Skimmer lowered her voice and spoke. “You know Sparky, I am the only one in this herd that has not served and does not have a rank.” 

“One of us has to stay sane,” Sparkler replied. “Might as well be you.” 



 

Unable to stop squirming, Thistle tried to relax and let the big lunar pegasus mare have a look at her. She rolled over onto the back, exposing her belly, and a faint squeak of fear escaped from her lips. She could feel her hind legs being gently pulled open, and then rotated, checking the movement in her hips. 

“Do try and relax little one, it will make this easier,” Grimglammer said, looking somewhat tired. It was going to be rack time again soon, but she still had some work ahead of her. 

Closing her eyes, Thistle decided to try and wait this out, just letting it happen. She felt vulnerable and exposed under the much larger predator. She felt a pressure upon her large belly, and the tickle of a large tufted ear. She giggled nervously from the tickle. 

“Two heartbeats, both of them quite strong and healthy,” Grimglammer murmured. 

A moment later there was a very embarrassing sniff in a very delicate location and Thistle squealed before finally letting out another nervous giggle. 

“Any discharge?” Grimglammer asked. 

“Discharge?” Thistle asked, opening up her eyes and looking at the much larger mare. 

“Discharge. Runny gunk that oozes from your vulva,” Grimglammer explained. 

“Oh… I think I understand. I get really runny and dribbly when Berry Punch or Derpy work me over,” Thistle confessed, now blushing. She bit down on her lip and fell silent. 

“I see,” Grimglammer stated. “Well, that’s pretty normal. So no runny smelly discharge, burning painful itchy sensations, or just a feeling of something being wrong?” she inquired. 

“No,” Thistle said. 

“Been taking the neo-natal vitamins that were sent out for you?” Grimglammer asked. 

“Yes, we’ve all been taking them, Derpy said they were running low,” Thistle answered. 

“I am going to be inserting something into your vulva and down into your vagina. It is going to be cold, I am sorry,” Grimglammer said apologetically. 

“Oh? Why would you neED TO DO THAT?” Thistle asked, her voice shooting up several octaves. “COLD!” 

“I need your temperature,” Grimglammer said. “I need to do the best I can to determine how healthy you are. If you have a higher than normal temperature down there, I can spot things like infections or other complications. I don’t have a lot to work with out here, and I could only bring what would fit in the saddlebags of my companion and I.” 

The kelpie squirmed uncomfortably and tried to not squeeze her legs shut. “I don’t like this,” she whimpered. 

“I know, I am sorry,” Grimglammer whispered in a soothing tone. 

Finally, the invading feeling of cold pressure was pulled free and Thistle was able to take a deep breath of relief. She rubbed her belly, mostly trying to make herself feel better. And then, she saw the enormous metal spike being held up in Grimglammer’s thumb and knuckle. “Oh no no no, what is that?” Thistle whimpered. 

“Vaccinations,” Grimglammer answered, preparing the syringe. 

“No!” Thistle cried. 

“This will all be over in just a second, I apologise miss, but I do need to poke this into your backside,” Grimglammer stated. 

“No! NO! NOOO! DERPY! SOMEPONY HELP ME!” Thistle screamed as she scooted over the bed away from the big mare holding the giant metal needle. 

Grimglammer scowled when she heard the thudding of hooves, and all of her muscles tensed. “Oh nuts, why can’t this ever be easy…” 

A second later the door exploded open, nearly torn free of its hinges. Stiff legged and stomping, a grey pegasus pushed into room, her wings flared and each breath a violent snort. Her golden eyes were filled with what could only be described as homicidal fury. Behind her was a green unicorn, and the doorway was filled with golden light from the unicorn’s horn. 

Grimglammer held up the syringe before her for all to see. “Vaccinations. She just got a little scared.”  

Derpy pawed the wooden planks and took a deep breath. Her wings flapped a few times, then fluttered, and then she slowly folded them in to her sides. The look of homicidal rage was still blazed in her eyes though, and her pupils were the size of pinpricks. After taking a few deep breaths, the grey pegasus finally let go of her berserker fury and the faint light of sanity crept back into her eyes. 

“That’s a railroad spike!” Lyra shouted. 

“It is a standard guard issue field syringe,” Grimglammer said. “I plan to stick all of your other family members as well, so make peace with it now.” 

“I don’t wanna be stabbed!” Thistle protested. 

“Needs to be done,” Grimglammer said firmly. 

“Yes it does,” Derpy said in a ragged voice. 

“TRAITOR!” Thistle cried. 

The grey mare sighed and then turned to look at Lyra. “Go get Sentinel and the girls.” 

Lyra’s lower lip quivered and trembled. “Oh don’t make me be the bad mama,” Lyra begged as she backed away. She saw the look on Derpy’s face, took a deep breath, and resigned herself to her fate. “I’ll go get Sentinel and the girls.” 

Going to Thistle’s side, Derpy pulled the kelpie close and tried to sooth her. “This needs to be done,” she whispered, stroking Thistle and glaring at Grimglammer. “It might be kinda awful because some inconsiderate arsehole couldn’t be bothered with packing needles for little ponies.” 

“NO!” Thistle sobbed, squirming in Derpy’s embrace. The kelpie resisted being turned slowly over, exposing her rump to the big mare holding the metal spike that was the sum of all of Thistle’s fears. Finally, knowing that she was no match for Derpy’s strength, Thistle gave in and wrapped her forelegs around Derpy’s neck and squeezed. 

A moment later, her frenzied scream of pain could be heard all over the whole ship. 

A few minutes later, there was another scream of pain when Derpy Doo Hooves received her vaccination boosters from a standard issue syringe, stabbed directly into the big fleshy padding of her rump. 

Bon Bon came running, no longer able to stay put like she had been told, and she froze in the door, her eyes wide with horror. She began to back away into the hall. A guard pegasus showed up a moment later, and peered around in confusion. 

“Vaccinations, little cousin,” Grimglammer said to the pegasus. “Want one?” she asked, holding up a syringe. 

The pegasus took off, running away as fast as he could go down the hall, returning to his post, his armor clanking as he departed. 

Lyra returned, with three foals with her, holding two them with her magic. 

“What is going on?” Sentinel demanded. “Why are my mothers screaming?” He pushed his way through the door, looked up, and let out a shrill squeak of alarm from his echolocation when he saw Grimglammer.

“Sentinel, be a good colt, show your sisters how brave you are,” Derpy said, rubbing her backside with one hoof while wiping away tears from her eyes with her wings. “Let Grimglammer stick you in the backside.”

Looking around and weighing his options, Sentinel made a very difficult decision, something his kind seldom did. He chose strategic retreat, taking off as fast as his legs would carry him, panicked clicking sounds coming from his throat as he ran. 

“Aw nuts,” Lyra said, shoving Dinky and Piña into the room and shutting the door behind them. She took off after Sentinel at a run, hoping to catch him. She readied her magic and began to feel a crippling sense of self loathing setting in. 

“Sentinel, come back! Mama loves you!” Lyra cried. She reached out with her magic and grabbed Sentinel, and then as she watched, he dissolved into shadow in the dim light of the hall and slipped free from her magical grasp. “Oh bother! Shadow diving isn’t fair!” 

Sentinel was simply gone. He hadn’t just shadow dove, he had shadow winked, which meant he could be anywhere on the ship, anywhere where it was dark. Lyra set off to play hide and go seek with her colt, hating herself for what she was doing. 





“No way!” Dinky cried, her horn flaring with dangerous intensity. 

“Dinky, don’t do it!” Derpy warned. 

“If she sticks me I’ll zap her!” Dinky threatened, backing into a corner and shielding Piña with her body. “Ya like bees? Well, do ya?” 

Derpy cautiously approached her cornered foal. “Just a shot Dinky… you can be brave for just one shot. It will only hurt for a few minutes, and mama got one, so can’t you do it for me?” Derpy coaxed. 

“BEES!” Dinky shouted. “Sting me and I will sting you back! Don’t make me call out the wrath of the swarm! There is no place to run in this little room!” 

Grimglammer wasn’t sure what was so threatening about bees, but she stood at the ready with a syringe, waiting for Derpy to wrangle her foals. 

Derpy pounced on Dinky, wrestled her, and pinned the foal down, securing her in a headlock. She folded Dinky in half, exposing her buttocks to the air. A moment later, Dinky’s agonised cry filled the room. 

Thankfully, there was no bees. 

Derpy tried to console Dinky, and was promptly bitten, Dinky biting down savagely on her mother’s leg. Derpy let go, and Dinky ran off to another corner to rub her aching buttcheek, glaring balefully at her mother. 

Holding a fresh syringe, Grimglammer advanced on Piña, who was cowering in the corner. 

“Stay back, if you hurt me my daddy will kill you when he wakes up!” Piña wailed, the tears already flooding down her cheeks. She pushed herself into the corner, her hooves scraping and skidding. 

Derpy pulled Piña into an embrace, and began to expose Piña’s backside, lifting her slightly for the injection. Piña gibbered with fear, kicked, squirmed, and her full earth pony strength kicked into emergency mode. Derpy was actually having trouble holding her. 

Berry Punch came through the door, saw what was going on, realised what was about to take place, and said nothing, knowing her sister needed the shot, but secretly hoping that Piña would wiggle free and escape somehow. Berry did not close the door behind her. 

As Grimglammer approached, Piña’s hooves began to glow alarmingly. One shot out and connected with the lunar pegasus mare’s leg. There was loud crackle and a whiff of ozone as the big armored mare was launched across the room and smashed into the wall. She bounced and fell to the floor, and there were several gasps from all around the room. 

But none looked so shocked and stunned as poor Piña, who was now sitting on the floor, free of Derpy’s grasp, her hoof still trailing smoke. “What did I do?” she whimpered. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 185
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I have served but I don’t have a rank,” Rising Star said to Loch Skimmer, correcting her earlier statement she had made after he had thought about it for a while. “So you are not the only one without a rank.” 

“Yeah, but you got a title, and you are now Lord Rising Star,” Loch Skimmer argued. 

“Yeah, but I was considered too dangerous to be around other ponies in combat in case I flared or ignited,” Rising Star mumbled. 

“And I am just a boring pegasus,” Loch Skimmer said, watching a butterfly go fluttering past, her eyes bright and happy. 

“You are not a boring pegasus. Your sister is mastering the arts of war and you are Berry Punch’s perverted pupil,” Sparkler said, prodding Loch Skimmer in the ribs. 

Above them was loud cry, and all three of them looked up. Above them, a dark figure popped into existence, and leathery wings could be seen fluttering. 

“He’s too disoriented to fly!” Loch Skimmer said, her pegasus observation kicking into overdrive. Her wings whipped out. Rising up on her hind legs, her broken leg clutched to her barrel, she kicked off from the ground and shot into the air, her powerful wings creating a downdraft that kicked up debris all around her and her companions. 

She was airborne in seconds and hurtling skyward. 

“How did he end up outside of the ship?” Sparkler asked in a panic. 

“Hold on Sentinel!” Rising Star shouted. 

Loch Skimmer flew through the air, her legs folded against her body, her ears folded back against her skull, and she moved as fast as her physiology allowed. She was made for strength while her sister was made for speed, but in this instance, strength was needed. She maneuvered beneath Sentinel and then tried to adjust her speed to match his freefall speed so there would not be a painful collision. She had seconds, the ground was already too close for comfort. 

There was no time for corrections, Loch Skimmer gritted her teeth, and braced for impact. Sentinel slammed into her hard enough to knock the wind out of both of them, and Loch Skimmer struggled to keep her wings flapping. For a moment, she lost her own orientation, and couldn’t tell which way was up or down. She saw stars in her vision, and there was a stabbing pain right between her wing joints. There was no time recover, she bucked her body, tossing Sentinel free from her for just one second, rolled over in the air, caught Sentinel again, clutched him tightly to her barrel, wrapped her body around him as best as she could, and then a moment later, she crashed withers and shoulders first into the ground, hitting hard. 

“Loch?” Rising Star asked, the first to reach the crashed pair. “Sparky, go get help!” 

Sparkler took one long look at her mate and her younger sibling, and then ran off shouting. She didn’t have to wait long, guard pegasi were already hitting the ground. 

“Loch, talk to me, say something before I piss myself,” Rising Star pleaded. 

“I finally did something heroic… ouch,” Loch Skimmer groaned. “Sentinel?” 

“I’m good,” Sentinel said after sucking in a gasping breath. “Can’t see, sun blinded me.” 

“Loch, is your leg okay? Did you bump it? Does it hurt?” Rising Star asked, his voice full of worry and concern. He pranced in place before darting forward and nosing both Loch Skimmer and Sentinel. 

Loch cradled Sentinel in her embrace, and neither of them made any move to separate. They could feel each other’s hearts thudding crazily, and Sentinel rested his head on the crook of Loch Skimmer’s neck, where it met her chest. 

“What happened little guy?” Loch Skimmer asked, extending her wings and making sure they were intact. They were sore, but seemed to work. 

Sentinel did not respond. He shuddered, grunted, and wrapped his forelegs around Loch’s neck, squeezing her tightly. 

“I know this is embarrassing Sentinel, but your little balls must be sucked right up inside of your body… are you okay? What happened?” Loch Skimmer asked, running her good foreleg over Sentinel’s spine and trying to comfort him. 

Other guards were crowding around now, waiting, trying to see if the pair was okay. As they watched, Sentinel gingerly pulled himself away from Loch Skimmer, stood on wobbly legs, and staggered away. Rising Star helped Loch Skimmer get up on her hooves, and after an initial stumble, she too managed to walk a bit. 

“Big brute mare wanted to stab me in my arse,” Sentinel said, giving himself a good shake. 

“What?” Rising Star said. 

“Grimglammer wanted to jab an enormous metal spike into my arse!” Sentinel repeated. 

“Why?” Rising Star asked. 

The lunar pegasus blinked a few times, trying to adjust his sun dazzled eyes. He shrugged in reply to Rising Star and then looked up at The Scorned Mare. “She wants to stab all of us in the arse. Are all mainlanders barbarians? And they call me a savage!” 



 

Bucky once again found himself somewhere outside of his own body. He stood in a field of stars, stretching around him infinitely in all directions. He could see galaxies and all sorts of heavenly bodies. He also saw a tall alicorn stallion staring down at him, and Bucky realised he was in his alicorn foal form. The large alicorn was grey, and his mane was full of galaxies. 

“Greetings,” the alicorn said, his voice almost unnaturally soft in the void of the universe.

“Who are you?” Bucky asked. 

“Some names are better not known little one,” the tall alicorn replied. 

“I suppose you have something to tell me,” Bucky said, looking around. “Why else would I be here?” he added, wondering what it is what he was standing on, which seemed solid but was invisible. He looked up and studied the tall stallion, trying to figure out what he was seeing. For a moment, the stallions pelt turned white, and then, for a single blink of an eye, his pelt had turned black. His mark was a set of scales, and they moved, shifting constantly. 

“What do you know of balance little one?” the grey alicorn asked. 

“I know that it is an impossible ideal, something you chase after but never can catch,” Bucky said, watching as a star supernovaed and exploded, ripping apart a small galaxy. 

“Astonishing, I did not expect for you to make that answer,” the alicorn said in a deep warm voice, the ultimate fatherly voice. 

Bucky turned to watch the stallion again, no longer looking at the universe around him, and for a moment, the stallion became a mare. She flicked her tail during that moment and a new galaxy went whizzing off into the void. 

The alicorn, now a stallion again, smiled and his horn ignited. A small sun appeared, but it was not a star, it was the symbolic representation of Celestia’s mark. It floated around Bucky’s head for a moment, and then came to rest in front of Bucky’s nose. 

“This is light. By itself, it means nothing. It needs to shine somewhere, that is its purpose,” the alicorn explained. He spread his wings and snorted. From his horn more magic came, and a floating image of Luna’s mark whirled around Bucky’s head, before settling close to Celestia’s mark. “This is darkness. Also meaningless without something to define it. These two were meant to exist in balance. And for a time, they did. They coexisted and my offspring did as I intended for them to do. In time, I gave them bodies because other forces came into play that wanted to destroy the balance. The very heavens had been wrecked, the sun, the moon, and even the planets were all torn from their celestial mounts during the war that nearly ended all things. Celestia and Luna brought harmony back to the sun and the moon, and they made the planets move and follow order. It was not perfect order though, the fine machinery of the cosmos was broken, and due to the chaos curse, the planet itself was locked in place. So the sisters have to juggle the sun, the moon, and the other planets around it in a careful dance, making sure nothing ever collides, ensuring that life goes on.” 

Bucky watched as a tiny model of the solar system appeared before him, the planets moving in impossible orbits around a small green and blue planet that did not move. 

“All of this requires two sisters,” the alicorn said. “Without both of them, the system fails. Chaos introduced a new foe, but it was not Discord. This time, the sisters were turned against one another, and one was forced to hold up all of this, all by herself, an impossible task that took all of her energies. Somehow, through impossible odds, she endured after losing her sister. Celestia suffered for a thousand years, enduring an unspeakable amount of mental anguish and pain. She had to keep all of this moving, and run an empire. To say her attention was divided is an understatement,” the alicorn explained. 

“How did she manage?” Bucky asked. 

“Extraordinary ponies like yourself gave all they had to help her. She held herself together, somehow enduring the thousand years it took to manifest a new balance,” the alicorn stated. As he spoke, a new star was born, and Bucky recognised it as Twilight Sparkle’s mark. It moved, zipping around, before finally settling near Celestia’s sun and Luna’s moon. “Twilight is where light and darkness exist together in balance. It is harmony. Twilight Sparkle restored the much needed darkness, the world was dying without it. She restored Luna, rebirthing her though the Elements of Harmony, returning her in a diminished state as a foal, so Luna could grow up and learn a few much needed lessons once again.” 

“So that is why Luna came back as a tiny filly? I remember her, I saw her a few times,” Bucky said, sitting down upon nothing and stretching out his wings. He reached up and wiped his eyes, trying to fan away the purple mist oozing from his corrupted orbs. 

“Celestia and Luna both are still trying to repair the damage done during Luna’s absence. Not only to the world around them, but the celestial mechanics as well. Even magic was breaking down, and would have died, ending all life upon this tiny planet. Twilight Sparkle became necessary in more ways than one. She is magic. Should she choose to remain mortal, eventually her body will be returned to the ground like a seed, and new magic will grow. Should she choose immortality, in time, she will embody and control all magic in the local cosmos. So now, there is the sun, the moon, and magic, all working in balance, keeping the celestial mechanics moving,” the alicorn said, touching Bucky with his wing. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Bucky asked. 

“Because, you have claimed your spark of divinity, and the time is coming for you to make a choice. It is time to create a new balance. Or to destroy it,” the alicorn answered. 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky stated, looking very confused. 

The big alicorn became female once again, and a blue glow surrounded her body. From her breast, a blue crystal heart came forth, and floated in the void. It was alone, close yet distant from the others, the sun, the moon, and the star. “Love has been made manifest, during Luna’s long absence, love nearly died from the world, shadows remained free to roam, and they poisoned the hearts of many without Luna to hold them back. Hatred grew strong, so did apathy. The world rapidly approached destruction, the different species and tribes growing to resent one another. The unicorns, able to touch the universe directly through their horns, many of them suffered the worst of all. The cosmological decay hurt them in ways you can barely imagine. Then Cadance came and she held the rampant hatred in check. She battled apathy. She made the ponies and other species begin to care about one another again. She worked to make the tribes remember why they came together. But Cadance, like Celestia, is alone,” the alicorn explained, turning back into a stallion as it spoke. 

“So I am here to balance Cadance?” Bucky inquired. 

“Perhaps,” the alicorn answered. 

“But I don’t want to be the alicorn of war,” Bucky said. “Do I have to do it?” 

“No… you do not. In the end, the choice is yours. You will either bring balance or you will upset the scales completely. You get to choose how this ends,” the alicorn said. 

“That’s an awful thing to lay down upon somepony’s shoulders!” Bucky shouted. “I know what happens if I become the alicorn of war… all life ends!” 

The big alicorn looked sad for a moment, and then joyous. “The old machinery is cleared away, the wreckage removed, and a new machine will be created to replace it. Perhaps this time, the balance will be held.” 

“No!” Bucky shouted. “Even if it is flawed, the old machinery should be allowed to continue! It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to keep functioning! Perfection, while desirable, is impossible!” 

The big alicorn became a foal almost the same size as Bucky and the pair studied one another. “New flaws will be introduced into the system. The current model is not sustainable. All that can be done is to introduce stopgaps to keep the celestial cogs from flying apart. An alicorn for love, to repair something that should have never been broken. Other systems will break down and others will have to step up to hold the machinery together. They will know unimaginable suffering holding together the cosmological machinery, just as Celestia has experienced.” 

“So by refusing to do what I was born to do, I am condemning others to suffer?” Bucky asked. ‘“Either I end all life or I increase the suffering of those who live… what sort of horrible choice is this?” 

“Yours,” the alicorn foal replied, now becoming a filly. 

“So what happens if Cadance dies?” Bucky asked. 

“Love dies with her. Eventually, another will rise to take her place, or she will choose a second ascension which will render her immortal,” the alicorn filly responded. “She will choose just like you must choose. You have freedom of choice, but you do not have freedom from choice.” 

“So I become the alicorn of war or I do not become an alicorn,” Bucky said. 

“Yes,” the alicorn answered. “You have two choices. Either or. In the end, it comes down to what you believe is right.” 

“I do nothing but make bad choices! I am constantly being told how stupid I am! I have lousy judgment and do nothing but make mistakes… and now it falls on my shoulders to screw this up too?” Bucky asked. He watched the sun, the moon, and the star as they orbited around one another. “Why can’t love and war exist together? Where is whatever will bring balance between us?” 

“It is not fated to exist. If it did, as the alicorn of war, you would know how to exploit its weaknesses, and would move to undo it. It would never survive your onslaughts,” the alicorn answered, now a full grown adult again. 

“So after I end all life and destroy the celestial machinery, what then? What becomes of me?” Bucky questioned. 

“There are always further forms of ascension,” the alicorn answered. 

“Did something like me cause the chaos war that broke the planets and screwed everything up?” Bucky asked. 

“You must choose. In the end, you will decide what is the right thing to do,” the alicorn stated. 

“You did not answer my question,” Bucky said with surprising vehemence. 

“There is no answer,” the alicorn responded. 

“Screw you and your ambiguity!” Bucky snarled. “I bet if I ascended I’d know your weaknesses too…” 

“Eventually,” the alicorn remarked, not at all concerned. “None of that matters. Like it or not, you are now one of my foals. I have Touched you as I have Touched others. And now, you must make a choice.” 

Bucky stared at the representations of various alicorns floating in the void. He reached out with his hoof, and much to his surprise, he was able to touch the crystal heart that represented Cadance. He gave it a gentle nudge, and moved it closer to the sun, the moon, and the star. “The machinery might not be perfect, but I intend for it to continue,” he said as he kept nudging the crystal heart closer and closer to the triune cluster. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 186
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“What did I do?” Piña asked in a worried whisper. 

Grimglammer struggled to stand, her legs not wanting to work. She shook her head, causing her armor to clank and rattle, and finally, with a great deal of effort, she heaved herself up onto her hooves and wobbled unsteadily in the small room. 

“We all knew that Piña had magic,” Berry said. “But I don’t think anypony expected whammy jammy zap boom pow magic.” 

“I’m starving!” Piña said, rolling into a fetal position and clutching her stomach. 

Derpy took this opportunity to snatch Piña again and wrangle her into position for getting a shot in the backside. Piña kicked and struggled, but was left weak from her magical outburst. 

“That was unexpected,” Grimglammer said as she crossed the room, and stuck Piña in the behind with a syringe. “Must tell Mistress about this alarming development.” 

“OW! GOBSHITE!” Piña swore. Her lips quivered and her eyes filled with tears. She rubbed her backside and glared at Grimglammer. “I should zap you again… if only I knew how I did it the first time!” 

Derpy let Piña go and the earth pony foal retreated to the corner with Dinky, both of them glaring balefully at the adults in the room. 

“What is with all of the shouting?” Moonbow asked, coming around the corner at the worst possible time. She was half awake and completely unaware of what was about to happen next. 

Not saying a word, Grimglammer stabbed a freshly prepared syringe into Moonbow, causing the big filly to snarl, snort, and then roar. Moonbow scuttled off once the syringe was pulled out, fleeing down the hallway, her echolocation making angry sounding squeals, clicks, and pops. Grimglammer prepared another syringe and advanced upon Berry Punch...



 

“Come on, time to face the music,” Rising Star said, as guard pegasi set him down upon the deck. “Let’s go and get this over with, this cannot be anywhere as bad as Sentinel is saying. There are no needles longer and fatter than a pencil.” 

Sentinel glared up at his older brother, his lip curled back, saying nothing. 

“Shots aren’t so bad, the needle always looks bigger than it really is,” Sparkler said. She waved at the kind guard pegasus who had set her down gently and nodded her head in gratitude. 

Rising Star gently pushed Loch Skimmer towards the cabin door and watched as Sparkler gave a similar push to Ripple. Sentinel followed behind them on his own. 

“You will eat your own words,” Sentinel muttered as the group pulled open the door and went inside. 



 

“Woah there, we need to talk this over!” Rising Star said. “Now, I hate to abuse my authority, but as a local lord, I am demanding that you stand down with that weapon!” 

“There are now two sources of authority I recognise,” Grimglammer said. “And you are not one of them.” 

“But that needle is bigger than a pencil!” Rising Star said, backing his backside up against the hall wall. 

“Do your worst!” Sparkler demanded. She stood resolute and unmoving, ready to turn to stone at any moment. 

“All of you are behaving like foals!” Derpy shouted. 

“You are not sticking me,” Ripple said. She sat down and glared defiantly at Grimglammer. 

“You all have to go to sleep sometime,” Grimglammer said. 

“You just go right ahead and spook Sparky,” Ripple said with a smug smile. 



 

Derpy rolled Bucky over onto his back and propped his head up on Berry’s soft side. She gently lowered his severed stump down onto a folded blanket on his barrel to cushion it, and was very careful about the gash in his side just behind his front shoulder. She looked at Lyra, who was holding a bowl and a spoon in her magic, the bowl steaming from the reheated blood broth that Lugus had made. 

Lyra rubbed her rump and winced before trying to settle into a more comfortable position. She stirred the soup, crinkling her nose as she did so, and then lifted up the spoon, extended it out to Bucky, and fed him a bite. 

“Are you comfortable Bucky?” Derpy asked as some soup dribbled down his chin. She watched carefully as Bucky looked at her, unable to respond. He really wasn’t able to move on his own yet or do much of anything, but he was now awake, alive, and slowly recovering because of Grimglammer. His corrupted eye made her feel queasy looking at it. 

Unable to contain her curiousity, Bon Bon looked up at Shadowguard. “If Bucky is a prince now, what does that make us?” 

Shadowguard pursed her lips and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Mistress was not specific about that. My best guess would be his consorts.” 

“My arse hurts,” Thistle grumbled, rolling over onto her belly and rubbing herself. 

“It was immensely satisfying watching Piña take down Grimglammer,” Berry said. 

“I still want to know why Sentinel was covered in bruises and so was Loch Skimmer,” Derpy said as she reached back and rubbed just behind her bubbles. “And why neither of them wanted to talk about it.” 

“Foals don’t always tell their parents everything, especially when they reach Sentinel’s age. He probably doesn’t want to worry you any more than you are. In his mind, it probably made sense, even though in reality it still worries you,” Berry said. “It is going to be awful when Piña reaches that age.” 

“She ate like Bucky eats after a big burst of magic,” Derpy said. 

“Well, she had a big burst of magic. And now she’s napping, which is probably for the best,” Berry said, stretching her neck out and nosing Thistle as she spoke. 

Derpy watched as spoonful after spoonful of broth disappeared into Bucky and she felt a little better. She watched Lyra’s careful movements, the way she wiped Bucky’s chin with the spoon, the care and gentleness she had, making sure she didn’t bang into his teeth or his lips. Lyra was going to be a good mother, and Derpy knew it. The fragile unicorn had her faults, but she was a caregiver. 

“Bucky, we have the phoenix egg, just so you know. I don’t know if you remember it, but Lugus and Sparkler found it on the ground next to you. We have it in storage in a cabinet, it is actually what is keeping your broth chilled so it doesn’t spoil. It has turned the cabinet into a freezer,” Lyra said as she continued to feed Bucky. “Something is wrong with that egg. Phoenix eggs are supposed to be hot.” 

Bucky squirmed and his mouth moved, causing soup to spill out. His whole body tensed with effort, his eye blinked, and finally, an ear twitched. 

“Bucky?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky wiggled helplessly in reply, his eyelid fluttering. 

“Do you want to see your egg again?” Lyra asked. 

The stallion’s lips quivered and his nostril flared. 

“Well, after you eat, I will get it for you so you can have a look at it,” Lyra offered. “But you have to eat first. Doctor Grimglammer says you are malnourished.”

“I feel like we are treating him like a foal. Eat your dinner and you get to see your egg,” Derpy said bitterly. “How long is he going to be like this? He’s just laying there, mostly paralysed.” 

“Well, Grimglammer told me that he should be dead, so she doesn’t have a basis to measure recovery. He is already awake, somewhat aware, and responding to various stimuli, so it is anypony’s guess really,” Shadowguard said as she shifted her weight and looked down upon the bed. 

Derpy reached out with her wing tip and carefully tickled Bucky’s sensitive frog on one of his hindhooves. His body jerked and his eye locked on Derpy. She smiled. “See, that’s something I understand. That look,” she said as she tickled the sensitive place on Bucky again. 

“Derpy, stop, I can’t feed him if you are tickling him,” Lyra protested, holding the spoon aloft near Bucky’s snoot. 

“Well, I’d kiss him right now but he probably tastes like blood broth,” Derpy said, her words causing Bucky to smack his lips together. The grey pegasus smiled for a moment, a sad smile, and then she placed her hoof on Bucky’s belly, patting it affectionately. “You’d probably really like a kiss eh? I’d say that’s a sign you are getting better.” 



 

The night was warm and full of fireflies. The breeze was somewhat humid, the air was balmy, and the moon was high in the sky. Sentinel sat upon the deck of The Scorned Mare, his journal before him, and his eyes were held skyward. 

Returning from a short flight, Moonbow landed on the deck, coming down hard and heavy, before stumbling and going face down into the deck planks. She was already a strong flyer, but her landings were terrible. She picked herself up and recovered her dignity. 

She approached Sentinel with a look of mischief and then sat down beside him, a playful grin upon her face. Her face changed to one of concern as she leaned in and studied Sentinel’s stitched ear, and then it changed back to one of playful mischief as she pulled back. 

“I heard what happened today,” Moonbow said. 

“Loch told you?” Sentinel said. 

“Yes she did, future life mate,” Moonbow responded. 

“Ugh,” Sentinel groaned. 

“I’ve heard that you can fly, but you can’t fly very well. I am guessing you have only flown in the daytime, right?” Moonbow inquired. 

The colt nodded after a moment of internal debate. 

“The daylight weakens us. Come with me, I will help you fly. Our matriarch has commanded me,” Moonbow said. 

“My journal,” Sentinel said, looking down at the rather crude looking book. 

“Will be right here when you get back,” Moonbow insisted. 

“I can’t fly that well… the few times I’ve flown Derpy had to keep raising me up so I could glide for a while,” Sentinel said. 

Letting out a stream of annoyed clicks and pops, Moonbow leaned in and nuzzled Sentinel. “She has feathers. She can’t teach you what I can teach you. Now come on little male.” 

“I dunno… after today… I am kinda worried. I shadow dove and wound up outside of The Scorned Mare and no matter what I did, I couldn’t fly, and I think I would have probably died if Loch Skimmer hadn’t saved me,” Sentinel said, his face contorted in shame. “I’ve been stuck indoors at night for so long. I’ve only ever tried flying down a hallway at night.” 

“Fly with me,” Moonbow said enticingly. 

“I dunno,” Sentinel whimpered. 

“I understand. You don’t know how to fly well and you don’t have a lot of skill with your echolocation. You are blind,” Moonbow whispered in a low voice so the pegasi guards wouldn’t hear her. 

Upon hearing her words, Sentinel slumped down in defeat, his wings going limp against his sides and drooping down to the deck. His barrel hitched once, then twice, and then continued hitching in the rhythmic telltale pattern of one who cries silently so others do not hear. 

Not knowing how to react or what to do, Moonbow sidled up closer to Sentinel and wrapped her wing around him, pulling the smaller colt close to her. “This is nothing to be ashamed of, we can fix this. I do not think any less of you, future life mate,” Moonbow whispered. She waited, letting Sentinel cry his frustrations out. 

After a long wait, Moonbow prodded Sentinel again. “Come now, just leap off the edge of the deck and try to fly. If something goes wrong, I will catch you. I give you my word to keep you from serious harm. The landings might be a little rough.” 

Sentinel ducked his head and did not respond. 

“Our matriarch wants you to fly. The bossy cross female has put her hoof down,” Moonbow stated. 

Moving slowly, Sentinel slipped free from Moonbow’s embrace, rose up on all fours, and stretched out his wings. “If I fly and my wings get sore, I will not be able to write,” he said. “Maybe this is a bad idea.” 

Feeling frustrated, Moonbow gave Sentinel a shove towards the deck railing. The colt squeaked and stumbled forward, casting one final glance backwards towards his journal. He was shoved again, and then again, and finally, he stood at the rail. 

“You know, I don’t know that I am in the mood for a flight,” Sentinel said. 

“Don’t make this hard,” Moonbow said, her voice a growl. 

“What are you going to do?” Sentinel said, peering over the edge and looking down. 

“Well, Derpy and Loch Skimmer both suggested that I throw you over the deck rail,” Moonbow said. “But that would not endear your trust.” 

Sentinel froze up completely and then looked at Moonbow. He peered over the side, looked down, thought about what happened earlier, and then back at Moonbow. 

“So here is what we are going to do. You are going to climb up on my back, hold on, and I am going to take off, and once we are flying, you are going to slip off of my back and fall back into my slipstream, gliding behind me. If there is a problem, I give you my word as your future mate that I will catch you,” Moonbow explained. 

“Okay,” Sentinel squeaked, his voice overcome by uncharacteristic fear. 

“So come on then, climb on,” Moonbow said.

Hesitating for a moment, Sentinel found his courage and clambered up onto Moonbow’s back. He pulled himself up, climbing up over her rump, sliding over her back, pulling himself into place by hooking his front hooves onto her wing joints. As he slid over her croup, something terrible happened. 

He became aware of exactly how he was climbing onto Moonbow’s back and how it looked. He became aware of the exquisitely soft and shaggy coat that Moonbow had. He became painfully aware that his scrotum was sliding up and over the curve of her buttocks, and then over her well padded croup. And there was the embarrassing awareness of of a growing problem. And by the stars, how it was growing. 

“Wait, is that… are you… is that what I think it is… oooh… hey that’s kinda nice,” Moonbow said, shifting her body around, trying to get a feel for what was rubbing up against her. 

The sudden movement and the silky feeling of Moonbow’s pelt was too much, and Sentinel found his growing problem has grown out of hoof. He slipped from Moonbow’s back and went scampering off over the deck, trying to hide himself as he fled. 

“Sentinel, come back,” Moonbow said, taking off and chasing after the colt. It wasn’t like he could get away from her, being trapped on deck. 

She cornered him at the prow, when he had ran out of places to go. He was sitting down with his legs squeezed together, his head down, and his posture submissive. “Sentinel…”

“Just leave me alone,” Sentinel said. 

“Sentinel give me a chance-” 

“Just go away!” Sentinel interrupted. 

“No! What has gotten into you?” Moonbow said. “This is perfectly normal!”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Sentinel snapped. 

“You went hard, so what, I’m flattered!” Moonbow said. “This is your first time, isn’t it?” 

Sentinel nodded. 

“This is supposed to happen,” Moonbow said. 

“You don’t understand,” Sentinel said, ducking his head down in shame. 

“You are impossible! You have all of these feelings and emotions. You place so much feeling into everything… I do not understand you at all,” Moonbow said. “Small impossible male,” she grumbled. 

“What if my sisters were sleeping with me and this happened?” Sentinel whispered. 

Moonbow felt her breath catch in her throat, suddenly understanding Sentinel’s concern. In the short time she had known him, she had come to understand one thing. He lived for his siblings. “Little colts grow up,” Moonbow said, feeling that her words were useless but saying them anyway, not knowing what else to say. 

“So what do I tell them? How do I make it better? How do I kick them out of my bed?” Sentinel said in pained whine, his voice full of strain and emotion. He squirmed and tried to cover himself, not liking the fact that Moonbow was still trying to catch a peek, even during this serious moment. “Or you. You’ve been sleeping in my bed as well… ugh this actually hurts.” 

“It will go away in time,” Moonbow said. “I had terrible urges during my first heat. I had to chew on these bitter leaves given to me to try and make it easier. And I was separated from the males and had to stay by myself. I spent my time in the top of a very tall tree, sleeping during the day, and waiting out the night hoping that the wolves would not eat me. And I was miserable.” 

The colt squirmed. 

“I mean I was really miserable. I found out that rubbing myself didn’t help at all. Just made everything hot and sloppy-” 

“Not helping!” Sentinel gasped, cutting Moonbow off. 

“I am actually really flattered,” Moonbow whispered. “I got to cause your very first hardness, and it happened when you climbed up on my back.” She turned and looked around, the guards were all the way over by the door to the cabin, and she turned to look back at Sentinel. 

“You were very soft and I could feel things rubbing and suddenly all kinds of things happened,” Sentinel admitted in a pained whisper. He shuddered, gasped, then he squeezed his hind legs together even tighter and wrapped his wings around his body. 

“Tell me how soft I am,” Moonbow said sweetly. 

“No!” Sentinel protested. 

Hissing slightly, Moonbow slumped. “I liked hearing I am desirable. It makes me feel things.” 

“Like what?” Sentinel asked. 

“Like I have moths fluttering in my stomach. Like my head is full of moonbeams. And right now I feel sweaty under my dock,” Moonbow answered. 

“Uuuuuaaaaagh!” Sentinel gasped, closing his eyes. He clutched himself, pulled his wings around him even tighter, and tried to think about something other than Moonbow’s sweaty dock, which quickly become impossible. The more he tried not to think about it, the worse it became. And then, much to his horror, his hyper-sensitive nose caught a whiff of Moonbow. He needed to be away from her. He needed air free of her scent. 

With nowhere to go, and no more deck left to retreat upon, Sentinel, knew what he had to do. Moving with sudden speed and swiftness, Sentinel broke for the railing, spread his wings, and hurled himself over the side. 

Plummeting towards the ground once again, his wings flapping uselessly, Sentinel understood just how much of a mistake this was. He closed his eyes and flapped even harder. 

He felt his wings brushing up against something, and then he felt something large and solid pressing up against his back. Two large legs wrapped around his barrel, and he felt himself jerked skywards. He opened his eyes and saw the ground just a few feet below his hooves as he soared, slowly being pulled upwards. He heaved a sigh of relief and felt Moonbow squeeze him. 

Worst of all, he could feel the cool night air blowing over his fevered exposed skin, and more than anything else, he wanted to find a warm place to bury it. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 187
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With the new dawn came more preparations. The Scorned Mare was due to have her repairs finished today, the hole in the hull filled in with new wood by a few unicorns held in place by helpful pegasi. Work had already been partially completed. 

Provisions were further being loaded into the holds, and even in the early dawn hour, pegasi lifted heavy loads from the ground and carried them skywards, to crews waiting on the deck. Earth ponies pushed and pulled cargo around on deck and secured it down into the hold. Lugus worked tirelessly, directing the flow of traffic and making sure there were no airborne collisions, while Yew stood on the ground and gave clearance to go up. 

A falling crate could be fatal for any pony unfortunate to be underneath it when it fell. 

Help was scheduled to arrive today, and departure for home was scheduled for tomorrow, with little time for rest for the arriving pegasi. 



 

Laying in bed, Bucky stared at his phoenix egg and tried to recall the strange dreams he had been having. The egg was sitting in a simple wooden stand that Lyra had crafted, and it filled the room with cold. The blue tints in the shell swirled and waved as Bucky watched. It was mesmerising, soothing, and calming. It was like watching a lava lamp, something Bucky enjoyed a great deal. 

His wives were bundled under blankets, asleep, and Grimglammer loomed protectively over him. Bucky had only been awake for a while, he was full of morphine from the shot that Grimglammer had given him a while ago. The blue on the egg rippled and swirled, always moving, ever shifting. Bucky could remember staring into the shell as his life hung by a thread, down there in the darkness, after having delivered ruin to his hated enemy. 

Am I free? 

Bucky struggled to move his head, to see who was speaking. He couldn’t move, his head was propped up on a lumpy cushion, and his eye darted around trying to see who was talking. 

You ended the nightmare… can you free me? 

Again, Bucky heard the voice. He whimpered, trying to alert Grimglammer, but all she did was stroke him gently and make a wordless sound of comfort. 

I can feel my strength returning… I am no longer a chick in mind, but I am trapped in this shell… free me and I will help you… I must be reborn! 

Bucky struggled to move, tried to make his legs work, tried to do anything he could to communicate that something was going on. 

I can’t go on like this. 

Bucky wondered if there was more than morphine in that shot. The egg was alive right now, different shades of blue dancing over the surface of the shell, and he could see it vibrating slightly. 

He turned my shell into a prison and then he drained me… he never stopped taking from me… if you help me, I will help you, I will willingly give you what he took! 

Having nothing else to fall back on, Bucky tried to summon up his magic. Nothing happened at first, but he persisted, trying to flog his drug addled brain into functioning. The warm haze of morphine dulled his senses and robbed him of his willpower. He felt a painful pressure building up behind his fulgurite horn, the pressure building to such a point he could feel it pressing against the back of his eye. 

I give you my life willingly… you ended the nightmare… I will bond us and you will live! 

The voice in his head was soothing, comforting, and it made the horrors still fresh in his mind fade. It overpowered the terrible voice of his grandfather telling him that his foals had died, and all of the other terrible things said. He could see the egg vibrating now, bouncing around expectantly. 

I will cleanse your body with fire!

Bucky’s horn finally ignited, his magic taking a great effort to make happen. He touched the shell with his will, and could feel the dark magic binding it. The blue-green aura around his horn faded, and black flames quickly leapt up to replace it. The dark magic came easy, it took no effort, no extensive focusing of will, the dark energy flowed from Bucky’s body. He broke the seal on the egg even as Grimglammer was giving off a panicked cry of alarm. 

The egg exploded, filling the room with bone chilling cold, coating the walls with ice, and filling the room with snowflakes. Blue flames rose up from the egg, a burning funeral pyre that gave no heat, but burned with freezing intensity. The blue flames streaked through the air and enveloped Bucky’s body, the primal magic lifting him from the bed. 

The room filled with worried cries as Bucky began to burn. 

The pain was agonising, Bucky could feel it all, but he welcomed it. It coursed through his body, making every nerve scream with agony, restoring and repairing as it rippled through him. 

He became aware of the sound of his own breathing. 

After several agonising moments, the pain faded, and a soothing feeling of cold settled over his body, overpowering the fevered agony he felt, cooling even his feverish thoughts, easing his delirium. The burning pain in his stump faded into nothingness. He felt himself drop onto the bed and bounce, his stump hitting the mattress, and there was a final spike of cold that traveled through his brain and out his horn, sending shivers and convulsions up and down his spine. 

Bucky heard a faint squawk and the fluttering of wings, and then he knew no more. 



 

Grimglammer eyed the phoenix warily, not sure what to make of the bird perched on the unicorn’s horn. She shivered, still feeling a cold that had even pierced her thick shaggy pelt, and tried to make sense of what she just saw. 

Both the phoenix and Buckminster had just been burned in blue freezing fires. 

Now, there was an adult phoenix sitting guard and trying to nip anypony that got to close. She had seen it for a moment when the egg had exploded, it had been a chick, but then it had caught fire and burned, taking Buckminster with it. 

She needed to check on Buckminster to see if he was okay, but the phoenix seemed to have other plans. It was blue and white, much like its shell had been, and burning continuously with chilly azure flames that defied all sense of logic. Fire was supposed to be hot. 

“Stupid bloody bird!” Grimglammer swore. 

“It is so beautiful,” Lyra said, wiping sleep from her eyes. The phoenix turned to look at her, and she smiled at it, trying to be friendly. She could see the bird’s talons clenching Bucky’s horn. There was still a faint blue glow around Bucky’s body. “Grim, stand down. The phoenix is sustaining him. I think. Look how easy Bucky breathes now.” 

The phoenix squawked and bobbed his head, looking around the room, and the fires radiating from its body flared for a moment in a display of defense. The chill in the room grew even more painful, and then began to ease off as the phoenix seemed to understand there was no threat. 

“We’re his wives, he needs us,” Lyra said soothingly. She approached on the bed slowly, reaching out her hoof. “We’ve been keeping him alive. I must confess, I am surprised to see you’ve hatched, but you are a phoenix… can your kind even be killed?” She stopped in place when the bird made a cooing noise, and she bowed her head. “Don’t move, let me handle this,” she whispered. 

Lyra waited, eyeing the phoenix warily, waiting for some sign that it accepted her. “You and Bucky… he saved you, so you are saving him?” she asked. 

There was a trilling sound from the phoenix and it bobbed its head. 

“Look, I am no threat at all… I am his mate. I have no desire to harm you,” Lyra said soothingly. She panicked for a moment when she heard the flutter of wings and then gasps from the mares all around her. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the blast of cold that was sure to come. 

Instead, she felt a weight on her horn and a chilly feeling on her forehead. She looked up at her horn, now crosseyed, and saw the phoenix sitting there, preening a blue flaming wing. It was cold, but not unbearably cold. She felt a soothing calm take over her body and all of her worries and fears fell away. It was like Bon Bon’s touch, only stronger. She felt herself going limp, and her body eased down to the bed beside Bucky’s. She felt like she could go back to sleep. She felt safe and secure. She felt her eyelids growing heavy. 

And then, the phoenix fluttered off, returning to roost upon Bucky’s horn, and Lyra was left feeling sleepy and discombobulated. 

“Lyra?” Bon Bon asked, worry in her voice. She clutched Harper to her, little Harper who did not seem to be afraid at all, but laughing and cooing. 

Lyra did not respond, but slipped off into a blissful slumber, her mind free from its usual troubles, a smile still upon her lips. 

“You’re just like Philomena,” Grimglammer breathed. “Well, you look different, but you are capable of drugging overly neurotic unicorns, aren’t you? You had me worried.” 

“Philomena?” Berry Punch asked, shaking some snowflakes free from her ears and shivering against Derpy. 

“Princess Celestia’s phoenix. She uses the phoenix to dope students that are too far gone into neurosis. She doesn’t like having to use pharmaceuticals more than absolutely necessary,” Grimglammer explained. 

“Bucky has a phoenix?” Derpy asked. 

“It seems that way,” Grimglammer replied. “I am sorry bird, but you did give all of us a pretty good scare,” she said to the phoenix, who was still eyeing her warily. 

“Will it help his mind?” Derpy asked. 

“Look what it did to Lyra. She went down like she was hit with a wagonload of chlorpromazine hydrochloride with a diazepam chaser… she is even drooling and smiling, the sweet happy smile of the chemically calmed,” Grimglammer answered, looking down at Lyra. 

Derpy slowly approached the phoenix, her head low and her ears back. Her wings fluttered nervously, and Berry Punch’s hoof trailed along her side. “Thank you,” Derpy said in a low voice as she drew nearer. She froze when the bird turned its head to look at her. Its eyes were glittering black orbs and they stared at her, meeting her gaze. She saw the beak open and the bird bobbed its head, bouncing around on Bucky’s horn, dancing from one set of talons to the other. She watched as the wings flared out and the phoenix presented its tail to her.

She did not know how respond. “You… whatever fates brought Bucky to this horrible place and put him through these trials… you are here to help him recover,” Derpy said, struggling to put into words the complicated thoughts running around in her mind. “You’re here to make things better… to make things right.” 

The phoenix shrugged and then turned its head upside down to look at Derpy. 

“Did that phoenix just shrug?” Berry asked. 

“It appears so,” Grimglammer said. “Philomena is pretty smart. She plays pranks on ponies. Guards who screw up have to guard her and she makes their lives miserable.” 

“Hi birdie,” Thistle said, looking at the phoenix, but not daring to approach. 

Derpy pushed forward, reaching Bucky’s side, and leaning in close. The bird made a warbling sound, but did not stop her as she leaned down and gently kissed Bucky on the cheek. She raised her head and looked at the phoenix, and not knowing what else to do, snoot-bumped it. 

The feeling was unique. Cold, but comforting. A brisk sensation coursed through her, like eating a big bite of strong peppermint ice cream. She felt a wing brush up against her cheek, and the worry of many days melted away from her body, all of her fears and concerns melting away, her muscles finally relaxing. 

“Everything is going to be okay,” Derpy said, a single tear sliding down her cheek. 
	
> Chapter 188
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky, since you seem to be feeling better, Grimglammer wants to see if we can get you up on your hooves. Lyra will be here to catch you if you fall. Loch Skimmer is going to help you walk. You must be careful,” Berry Punch said in a slow careful voice. “It is important to keep the blood flowing to your legs… there could be problems, issues, things like blood clots.” 

Bucky nodded slowly. He kicked out a leg and gave it a wiggle. “Why Loch?” he asked in a somewhat drugged slur. 

“Because honey, she has experience in walking on three legs,” Berry replied, her voice hitching when she said the word “three.” 

Shadowguard stood nearby, looking nervous and apprehensive. “If he suffers any further harm, Mistress will demand that I sever my own head,” she muttered. 

Derpy pulled Bucky close, kissing him for a brief moment, and there was a squawk from the phoenix, who was now perched on a small bookshelf. She rolled Bucky onto his side, careful of the gash behind his shoulder, and watched as the golden glow of Lyra’s magic surrounded his body. 

“Come on father,” Loch encouraged. She lowered her head and nosed Bucky. 

Lyra lifted Bucky, held him aloft for a moment, and then set him down upon his hooves, but did not allow all of his weight to settle. He wobbled in place and his head drooped. 

“Try to hold your head up father, it will help you keep balance with one front leg,” Loch Skimmer said, offering up gentle instruction. 

“Is walking,” Bucky murmured. 

“How much morphine does Grimglammer have in him?” Berry asked. 

“Enough, apparently,” Shadowguard replied. 

“Now father, pay attention. When you walk now, you have to start to rear up on your hind legs, kick out your good front leg, bring it down, and then make a little hop forward with your hind legs. See, watch me,” Loch said, and then demonstrated, taking a few steps in the small room before reaching the wall. 

Bucky watched Loch for a moment, licked his dry lips, and then wobbled in place. He kicked out his front leg, stumbled, and then hung suspended in mid air. He felt his legs being moved back into place by Lyra. “Love Lyra,” Bucky mumbled. 

“Yes Bucky, we all love you… but you need to move your legs so you don’t run the risk of losing another one,” Lyra said. 

Loch Skimmer demonstrated her walk again, this time crossing the room in the opposite direction, coming towards Bucky. As she passed him, she kissed him softly on the cheek. 

The phoenix came down and perched on Bucky’s horn, surrounding Bucky’s body in a blue aura. The shaking and wobbling eased a little bit as the bird flexed its talons, clinging to Bucky’s jagged horn. It whistled at Loch Skimmer. 

Loch Skimmer whistled back, and the phoenix began to bob around. 

Bucky made the motions of movement, and Lyra eased him along. He just wasn’t strong enough yet to rear up, but he did kick out his legs and move around. 

“Hopefully, this will do,” Shadowguard said. “Grimglammer was worried about his lymphatic system not working right and so many other problems. Hopefully, this will reduce some of the swelling in his fetlocks. You there, kick those legs!” she commanded. 

“Are you even allowed to give him commands?” Thistle asked. 

“I am allowed to do anything within my power to preserve him, keep him alive, and make sure he survives until I deliver him to my Mistress,” Shadowguard replied. “I am to also provide comfort, behave like a fellow family member, have a friendly bedside manner, AND YOU THERE, KICK THOSE LEGS!” Shadowguard bellowed. 

Bucky nearly lept out of his skin and wiggled his legs, shuffling around on his hooves. 



 

Rising Star looked over at Sentinel, who was sitting beside him and yawning. The colt looked troubled and rather sleepy. “Long night?” Rising Star asked. “Get lots of writing done?” 

“Only a little,” Sentinel replied. 

“Did you spend a little time getting sweet with Moonbow?” Rising Star asked in a teasing tone of voice, giving Sentinel a nudge. Much to his surprise, the colt reacted, his whole body tensing up and his eyes clenching tightly closed. “What’s wrong? Did she hurt you? Did she get too pushy?” 

“No, nothing like that,” Sentinel replied. 

“What then?” Rising Star inquired. 

The lunar pegasus squirmed, his leathery wings fluttering at his sides. “I wish I could talk to father,” Sentinel said. “I really need to talk to him.” 

“What’s wrong?” Rising Star questioned, slipping a foreleg around Sentinel. 

“It is really embarrassing,” Sentinel said. 

“Hey, my whole life is one long embarrassment,” Rising Star said with a soft laugh. 

“Moonbow was going to give me flying lessons,” Sentinel began. He looked up at Rising Star, and saw that Rising had his serious face on. “And I climbed up on her back to so we could fly, and then I got really hard and poked her.” 

“Oh,” Rising Star said, no trace of a smile or a laugh manifesting. “This upsets you?” 

“All I could think about last night is how I sleep with my sisters and having this happen,” Sentinel said. “And then I started to freak out because I thought about having to tell them to stay out of my bed, and sounding cruel, and I started to wonder if I was going to have to tell them why I was kicking them out of my bed, and then I started to feel kinda panicky, and Moonbow, she wasn’t helping me at all, I could smell her and it only made the problem worse, and then-” 

“Woah, slow down,” Rising Star said soothingly, cutting Sentinel off. “Deep breath.” 

Sentinel took a deep breath, then another, and finally, another. 

“Boners happen. Especially around a filly that you really like. And they like to happen while you sleep. They creep up on you and then jump out and surprise you. At this stage of your life, there isn’t much you can do to stop them,” Rising Star carefully explained. 

“How do I tell Piña and Dinky that they can’t sleep with me?” Sentinel asked. 

“Those girls adore you Sentinel, they love you a great deal. My advice, be honest with them. Just sit down and be totally honest with them. Tell them the truth. I promise you, as difficult as it might be, it will be better for all of you than just shutting them out and telling them nothing,” Rising Star explained in reply. “If you just shut them out, you will break their little hearts.” 

“I suppose you are right,” Sentinel said. 

“There was a morning a long time ago, when we first came to the isles, and it was freezing cold, and Bucky threatened to plant me in my grave because I was belly to belly with Sparkler in bed. I had a raging stiffy. Sparkler was actually trying to help me hide it, because she loved me that much. We suffered through that moment of embarrassment together,” Rising Star said. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Sentinel asked in a low whisper. 

“So we have something in common. You told me something that probably makes you feel embarrassed and humiliated, it is only fair that I expose myself and tell you something equally as bad. To give you perspective. If we have something in common, something we’ll share, we’ll be closer. As brothers should be,” Rising Star replied. 

“Moonbow kept wanting to see it,” Sentinel said. “I am not sure I understand why.” 

“It excites her. She’s a little older than you Sentinel. Did you show her?” Rising Star inquired. 

“Yeah… I did. She finally talked me into it. It lasted a long time, and it just wouldn’t go away. She said she would show me hers if I showed her mine,” Sentinel answered. 

“The standard exchange,” Rising Star stated. 

“When I saw her, I had really strange feelings,” Sentinel admitted in raspy nervous voice. 

“Did she lift her tail?” Rising Star asked. 

“No…” Sentinel said, nearly choking. “She rolled over onto her back and she showed me everything… and she talked me into sniffing her.” 

“Did she sniff you?” Rising Star questioned. 

“Yeah, a few times at that point. When I told her yes she caught me by surprise, knocked me over, had a good long look, and then she just stuck her head down there and starting sniffing me and I felt shivery all over,” Sentinel answered. 

“Yeah, Moonbow strikes me as the take charge type,” Rising Star said. “So what happened?” 

“We spent some time on the deck together. She just held me, she had me pulled up close to her barrel and her belly, and she had her legs around me, and I could feel all of her against my back, and we just laid there for a long time looking at stars and the moon together,” Sentinel replied.

“See, it turned out okay. I think she likes you Sentinel,” Rising Star said. 

“Thanks,” Sentinel said. “I don’t think I need to talk to father anymore. I feel a lot better.” 



 

“By the stars, look at them all!” Rising Star said. 

A swarm flew overhead, circling around, some of them already beginning to land. A big male lunar pegasus landed on the deck of The Scorned Mare and looked around. He wasn’t wearing heavy plate, but the light partial plate of the common guard. 

“I am Captain Furious,” the lunar pegasus said, introducing himself. “Who are you?” 

“I am Rising Star,” Rising Star answered. 

Ripple kicked the colt next to her, making Rising Star cry out. “Lord Rising Star, you doofus.” 

The guard immediately snapped to attention and his wing went out in salute. There was a faint smile on his lips, the white tips of his white fangs visible. 

“I have no idea how this works,” Rising Star said awkwardly. “I was deemed too dangerous to be in the common rank and file. I’m a living bomb. Are we supposed to use titles, or ranks, or ranks and titles? Why can't I just be me?” 

“Dragoon Ripple, at your service sir,” Ripple said after she kicked Rising one more time before stepping forward. She snapped a wing out in a swift smooth motion and saluted. 

“Dragoon? A filly? At your age? I bet that’s quite a story,” Captain Furious said. He snapped off a respectful salute to Ripple. “What is the situation? How is Prince Bitters?” 

“Knight Captain Bitters is recovering. Myrmidons Grimglammer and Shadowguard have done their jobs. He is secure, safe, and alive. Everything has gone as planned, sir,” Ripple reported. 

Rising Star squirmed uncomfortably and looked at his wife, not knowing what to think. To say that Ripple had changed was an understatement.

Grimglammer arrived on the deck, she wasn’t wearing armor. Her body was one giant mass of scars and missing patches of pelt. She looked half awake, irritated, and pleased all at the same time. 

Captain Furious quickly stood at attention upon seeing her. 

“Greetings Captain. Nice of you to finally arrive,” Grimglammer barked. 

“There was a headwind most of the way,” Captain Furious reported. 

“Then you should have used it to better yourselves… AND ARRIVED EARLY!” Grimglammer snapped. 

“Yes ma’am, of course ma’am, I missed an opportunity,” Captain Furious said. 

“I missed you Furious. I saw a foal. It made me have funny feelings,” Grimglammer said. 

Captain Furious froze, unblinking and unmoving. 

“Oh stand down you bucket-headed moron,” Grimglammer commanded. 

The lunar pegasus stallion relaxed his stance a little bit but still stood at attention, more or less. He stared straight ahead, looking somewhat scared. 

“You know, my husband here makes the same look when Sparkler or my sister torment him,” Ripple observed, speaking to Grimglammer. 

“Dragoon Ripple, you have a husband? The living bomb?” Captain Furious asked. 

“Sir, yes sir,” Ripple replied. 

“Okay, that’s enough of the rank and file meadow muffins,” Grimglammer said. 

There was a clank as Furious took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. 

“So what is it like being married, Grimglammer?” Ripple inquired as the deck began to fill with more pegasi. 

“Furious is a devoted and dutiful mate. He gave me quite a chase though. He’s fast, he outran and outflew me. I had to build my endurance before I could run him down,” Grimglammer said with a wry smile. “He proved himself worthy prey.” 

“Wow, that is a lot of lunar pegasi!” 

Ripple turned to look at Sparkler who had just appeared on deck. 

“Arse stabber,” Sparkler said to Grimglammer as she approached. 

“Stuck Sergeant,” Grimglammer replied. 

“Stab somepony in the arse today?” Sparkler asked. 

“Day is still young, Stuck Sergeant,” Grimglammer answered. 

Furious cleared his throat and stretched his wings, and then cracked his neck to relieve the tension. “I could use some rack time so I can be ready when we depart tomorrow.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 189
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rising Star looked up at Crush the earth pony and felt a tightness in his throat. The silence hung heavy in the air, Rising Star’s emotions were running rampant, and he couldn’t find anything worthwhile to say after telling Crush that he was leaving. 

He felt himself being snatched, taken in a fierce hug, one big strong leg around his neck squeezing him almost but not quite to the point where he couldn’t breathe. The hug lasted several minutes, and spoke volumes. Finally, Crush let go of Rising Star, stepped away, pointed all around the forge, pointed at the tools, pointed at the fire, and then prodded Rising Star in the chest. 

“Yes Crush, I plan to keep working metal. It keeps me from going loony,” Rising Star said in return, feeling the tears coming and unable to do anything to stop them. “And if Bucky were able, I am certain he would give you the farewell that you deserve.” 

Crush pointed down at his own left leg and then pointed at Rising Star’s horn. 

“Yes, I plan to help Bucky if he needs me. I know he will be thinking of something to replace what he has lost. Bucky is that sort of pony,” Rising Star said. 

Crush looked concerned for a moment, and then prodded Rising Star several times, emphatically, his brow furrowed in concern. 

Rising Star nodded. “I suppose he will always need me.” 

Crush lowered his hoof, holding it over the ground, and then raised it up high, holding it in place for a moment before prodding Rising Star once again. 

Looking somewhat embarrassed, Rising Star looked down at the floor. “Yes Crush, I did a lot of growing up this summer. I came here to these isles, got a chance to learn how privileged I was, just how good I had it in life, I got to learn what life would be like without the Princesses, I got married, had to grow up a whole bunch, had to learn how to be strong while watching a pony I love die by degrees, consumed from the inside out, got to experience fear, got to experience death, saw the walking dead, learned how to wage a war, learned I was too dangerous to participate in the war, survived a major battle, saw a banshee, became a noble, and I learned a trade.” 

The big mute earth pony nodded enthusiastically and prodded Rising Star one last time. 

“I suppose I did find myself. Huh.” 



 

“Loch Skimmer, Ripple, some of your mothers are below… they know you are leaving. They wanted to say goodbye, they are seeking permission to board,” the pegasus guard said to the two pegasi sisters. 

Ripple and Loch Skimmer exchanged a glance with one another, saying nothing between them. Ripple looked away first, staring down at her hooves, and it was Loch Skimmer who looked the guard in the eyes. She held her head up defiantly, whipping her long mane around. 

“I am not sure what you are talking about. All of my mothers are here, onboard this ship, looking after my father,” Loch said in a cold angry voice. Beside her, she heard a silent pained gasp from Ripple, and then she felt Ripple’s face pressing into her withers. In a moment, she felt a moist dampness spreading over her pelt. 



 

In a small room within the castle, another father was busy talking to his son, the tone serious, the mood somber. In the room there were others, a small council of highly trusted and proven ponies. 

“Thrasher, while I am away, your word is law. I am trusting you to look after my ponies. All of them. Right now, they are pretty happy and well behaved, but that can change. Lord Wrecker has offered to help you, you listen to him… Bah, I know you will. Lord Deadspin will be here to assist you as well. Lady Sour Mash and Lady Bunny are earth ponies. If you have doubts, you talk to them and you listen to them. We pegasi can be a little flighty at times, but those two are good solid dependable sorts,” Keg Smasher said to Thrasher. “And you look after Wheatberry.” 

Thrasher nodded solemnly, but said nothing in return. 

“There is one little problem we need to discuss before you go,” Lord Wrecker said. 

“And that is?” Keg Smasher inquired. 

“When you go, send word to Princess Celestia. There are some troublesome reports coming in from the Minnowrock Isles, our neighbor in the archipelago, that griffons have been raiding their most distant isles, and scout airships have been sighted among their inner isles. It seems the griffons are working their way westward, and if their progress continues, they will reach us eventually. The ponies of Minnowrock are experiencing losses, and have requested our aid. I just got the missive this very morning,” Lord Wrecker replied. 

“Oh shite…” 



 

“Come to visit us,” Berry Punch invited. 

“We will, I promise Berry,” Sour Mash said. 

The two cousins exchanged a smile and a hug, glad to have found one another, happy to have had a chance to get to know one another, and a little sad about the coming separation. Sour Mash poked Berry Punch’s belly with her hoof, and then leaned in and kissed Berry just behind her ribs. Not satisfied, she threw both forelegs around Berry’s neck and squeezed tightly. 

“Look after my Sparkler,” Sour Mash begged. “Something is wrong with her, she can’t stop shaking. I hope we will have some way to communicate. Try to find some way to send me a message if you can. Bucky is clever…” 

“I will try,” Berry promised. “I am worried about Sparkler’s shaking too. Keeps getting worse. Gets real bad when she is upset.” 

“You kick Bucky in the arse when he needs it and be really gentle with him at all other times… we earth ponies can get a little boisterous with those we love,” Sour Mash said. 

“Deadspin is going to need you and your solid shoulders. Bunny’s shoulders too,” Berry stated, nuzzling her cheek against her cousin’s muzzle. 

“There has been reports of griffon raiders… I was there when Lord Wrecker got the security briefing. I hope you have enough guards to keep the ship safe,” Sour Mash whispered into Berry’s ear. 

“You keep these ponies safe,” Berry begged. 

“I will,” Sour Mash said. “Married me a good husband, I plan to have me some foals, this is my home and I will keep it safe.” 

“Name a foal after me,” Berry requested. 

“You do the same for me,” Sour Mash returned. 

“Deal,” Berry responded. 



 

Sentinel stared dully at the wall after telling both Piña and Dinky everything that had happened, not able to look them in the eyes. He had spilled out his heart and now the room was silent. He didn’t know what else to say, he had followed Rising Star’s advice to the letter, and had spared no detail for the sake of honesty. 

“So you are kicking us out because of a boner?” Piña said, scratching her chin as she spoke. She scowled. “That’s no reason to kick us out. Dinky and I will just bring our own blanket, wrap ourselves up, and you can sleep under your own blanket.” 

“Oh, this could poke though the blanket,” Sentinel huffed. 

“Hmm, that is a problem,” Dinky said. 

Feeling a painful tightness in his chest, Sentinel said goodbye to his innocence, unable to find some way of salvaging what was left. “I can’t do that to either of you. I would never be able to live with myself. Like it or not, we are going to grow up. Soon, both of you will have your first heats. And then the real trouble will start because we’re not actually related, I will be able to smell it, and the smell will cause me all manner of problems.” 

“We have ways of dealing with that on the mainland,” Dinky said. 

“Doesn’t change the fact that we are growing up. And I must protect you… even from myself,” Sentinel said in a heartbroken voice. 

“We still love you,” Piña said. “So things are changing. So what. You are still our brother, you can’t change that.” 

“At least you loved us enough to be honest with us,” Dinky said. “If you would have just kicked us out, I would have hated you.” 

Piña crawled closer on the bed, wrapped her forelegs around Sentinel, and pulled him close. A moment later, Dinky joined them and the trio sat in silence, all too aware that things had changed for all of three of them over the summer. 



 

The sun was nearing the horizon after a long day and Thistle looked out upon the land she loved, but wanted desperately to leave behind. She thought about everything that had brought her to this point. She thought of her failure, her isolation, her growth, her acceptance, and finally, she thought about her family, and what they meant to her. 

It had almost been like a fairytale when Keg Smasher had first told her. A noble was going to come and sweep her off of her hooves. She was going to have a herd to look after her. It was going to be all so perfect. She had even accepted the idea of being a servant in a noble’s family, or even a broodmare, because nobles had wonderful lives and provided well for their foals, or so she believed from everything she had heard from fanciful stories. 

Thistle had her noble. A knight. A knight in terrible black armor. Much to her dismay, there was no romance, no fairytale ending of happiness ever after from marrying a knight that took his duties seriously. His body was ruined, no doubt that his soul was broken, and Thistle had watched him slowly sink into ruin. He was going home to face the consequences of his own family and the country they laid to waste. 

She took consolation in knowing that she had brought him happiness, and every day she made it a point to be as dutiful to him as he had been to the ponies of the isles. She lifted a hoof and rubbed her belly, silently thankful she had found Bucky. She had seen how he was with other foals, and she had no doubt that he would claim this foal as his own. She had no fears, no worries, no concerns that her foal would be an outsider in this herd, an unwelcome foal forced to live beneath the others or without a caring father. 

She sat down, settling her now widening backside down upon the planks, and she looked off to the horizon, watching the sun set upon a land she no longer called home. 



 

A lone figure stood in the doorway, watching a trio of foals cling to one another. She was the outsider, but she had been made to feel welcome. The herd was crazy, no doubt about that, they had peculiar ideas, strange practices, but they had welcomed her in without hesitation. 

“Might I come in?” Moonbow asked. 

“Come and join us,” Piña said invitingly. 

Moonbow crossed the room and jumped up into the small bed, came close to the trio, and settled in next to them. She folded her legs beneath her and laid down. 

“You gave my brother a boner and now things are weird,” Piña said, summarising the current state of affairs in a manner reminiscent of her big sister. 

Feeling self conscious, Moonbow said nothing, but looked up at Piña. She saw a pained and embarrassed expression on Sentinel’s face, and she tried to imagine what the colt must be feeling right now. She felt a pang in her heart. 

“I hope you understand just how much we love him,” Dinky said. 

“That is part of the reason why I am here,” Moonbow said. “Sentinel, I wanted to tell you something. Something important. I’ve made a decision.” 

“And what is that?” Sentinel inquired.

“You have picked a good fight. A worthy foe. I want to join you,” Moonbow stated. 

“I don’t understand,” Sentinel said in return. 

“Last night, I saw the real you. I saw you for what you really are, and I felt something in my heart. When I was holding you last night, when we were looking at the stars, I started thinking about it. The way you treasure your sisters. The love and devotion you show. You had your little moment with me and you didn’t even think twice about your own needs, your first thought was how this was going to affect your sisters. That touched me,” Moonbow admitted. 

Sentinel nodded and waited for Moonbow to continue. 

“You are going to have a whole bunch of little brothers and sisters soon, and I don’t think you can defend them all by yourself, but I know you would try. It is what we do. We are protectors. You and I, we are not happy unless we have something to defend. It is what we are. To that end, I plan to join you in your efforts to protect this herd, this family, this tribe. And when we have foals, and we will have foals, I will raise them to be the protectors of this family. I will be the mother of a whole new type of colony, and we will have one purpose. And I hope that all of our foals, and their foals, and their foals will follow this purpose. We will raise them to understand honour and to defend our ideals, whatever we choose our ideals to be, and this family will always have worthy protectors, defenders to watch over them.” Moonbow said. 

Sentinel felt himself squeezed by his sisters and he looked at Moonbow, looking her directly in the eye. “I would like that. I would like to know that my family has somepony to watch over them, and will continue to watch over them even after I am gone.” 

“I want your sisters to sleep a little easier even though they can no longer sleep with you,” Moonbow stated, her eyes meeting Dinky and Piña’s. 
	
		
> Chapter 190 (Heading Home)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus stood near while Yew said goodbye to her sisters in arms, watching her as she hugged and kissed members of her fellow brigade, wished them well, and exchanged hopeful words about the future. He settled back upon his haunches, and gave Peekaboo a gentle squeeze, holding her tucked in one foreleg. Peekaboo was apparently in some pegasus stage where she needed constant contact and affection, and her little forelegs were wrapped around Lugus’ leg, refusing to let go or be put down. 

He watched as Keg Smasher was airlifted onto The Scorned Mare. A gust of wind came up unexpectedly, causing the ship to move slightly on its tether, and he could feel his feathers ruffling. 

His time upon these isles had been brief, and he found them every bit as savage as his homeland. This was an awful place, but it was getting better. Equality was taking root here. His chief had left behind an indelible mark upon the isles. It would be a long time before all of the change had any real widespread effect, but the seeds had been planted. 

Lugus wanted to plant seeds in his homeland. He clicked his beak thoughtfully and bounced Peekaboo a bit, causing her to giggle. 

“Bath?” 

Again, Lugus bounced the foal he was holding. “No Peekaboo. It is not bath time.” He felt the foal go still in reply. “It is goodbye time. Our tribe is heading home,” he said. Lugus felt a tingle as he felt Peekaboo’s breath ruffling the feathers at the base of his neck. He valued her breathing quite highly, and Yew Wood teased him frequently for his constant checking to see if Peekaboo was still breathing after being asleep and quiet for a few hours. 

The big griffon was beginning to understand Bucky’s mania with foals, and he lived in constant worry. 



 

A pair of lunar pegasi stood near the prow, a smaller male and a much larger female. Both were armored, one in light partial plate, the other in full heavy plate. They stood close to one another, watching the bustle all around them. 

“I was serious, I want to have a foal. Just one. Maybe two,” Grimglammer whispered into her husband’s ear. 

“Hmm, Equestria is a real mess right now. Tirek managed to destroy pretty much everything that was left. We are going to be very busy ponies for a while,” Furious responded. 

“Furious, please, don’t make me pull rank on you and give you orders,” Grimglammer replied, her tone soft and needful. “I don’t want to do that but I will… I mean it, being around this… this herd has done something to my mind. They live with reckless abandon and love one another so much, I want to be like them. I feel like I have been infected with some kind of disease after being exposed to them. Even in their darkest moments, you should see how they are.” 

“I have never been able to say no to you,” Furious muttered. “I am a spineless wretch.” 

“That’s not true!” Grimglammer snapped. 

“Hey, I was making a joke,” Furious said in soothing tones. “Take a deep breath, I think the stress is getting to you. First everything in Equestria, and now this.” 

“You are the bravest pony I know,” Grimglammer said, turning her head so she could see her husband. She lifted the visor on her helmet so she wouldn’t have to peer through the slit. 

“I don’t know about that, but I had to be brave to marry you, they call you the Night Terror,” Furious said with a crooked smile. “But I hear you are now called “Arse Stabber” by these ponies here.” 

The big mare shifted her weight, causing her armor to clank and rattle. “I mean it, I want a foal. Which means getting cut from active duty. And to be honest Furious, I am not sure I plan to return. After everything that has happened in Equestria… and then everything I’ve witnessed standing bedside over our new Prince… I think I’m done. It is time to have a family.” 

“You are actually serious about this,” Furious stated. 

“Of course I am serious about this you mental midget! If I stop now, if I have a foal now, if we have a foal now, I will be past my half a century mark when they graduate the guard academy. Or go to university. Or do whatever it is they want to do,” Grimglammer responded. 

“You know, I never wanted to be a guard,” Furious confessed. 

“No?” Grimglammer replied. “Then why did you join the guard academy? I mean, all of your years of service… all of your accomplishments… and you didn’t want to be a guard? Why did you join?” she questioned.

“Well, there was this really sexy filly I met one night who wanted to be a doctor,  she was all angsty because she wanted to be a doctor and a guard. She wanted everything all at once… she was really hot. I mean really hot. She was the total package. So my dick made a decision for me, and I joined the guard academy hoping to get laid at some point…” 



 

Dinky could barely contain herself because of the excitement in the air. She could scarcely believe they were leaving. She sat upon the upper deck, the deck above the cabin in the rear of the ship, and watched as the final preparations were being made. 

There were solar and lunar pegasi saluting one another before the solar pegasi flew away, there was a cheering crowd down below them, and the skies around them were filled with pegasi and a few griffons who were now part of the guard. 

There was a loud cry as the tether was lifted away by Lyra, and the ship began to drift away from the castle. The lunar pegasi began to slip into the harnesses secured along the long lead, the lead being played out slowly as the lunar pegasi took their positions. 

“I can’t believe this is happening.” 

Turning her head, Dinky glanced at Piña. 

“I’m scared Dinky… at least here, as bad as it is, we are accepted,” Piña whispered, scooting closer to her sister and wrapping a foreleg over Dinky’s withers. 

“Home… Piña, home… ice cream again. And cupcakes. And grocery stores full of food that is not pease porridge or some glop,” Dinky said to her sister and best friend. 

“Root beer,” Piña said wistfully. 

“Scratch and sniff stickers,” Dinky quipped.

“Oh gosh,” Piña gasped as The Scorned Mare lurched. 

The ship began to move as the lunar pegasi team pulled. It picked up speed rapidly. The fliers had shed their armor and were free to give all of their effort to pull on the harness. The castle rapidly began to become smaller behind them. Clouds whizzed by in the sky. 

“Poor Sentinel, he just got smooched,” Dinky said, feeling genuine sympathy for her brother but also a strange sense of happiness which unsettled her for reasons she could not explain. She silently watched Piña’s reaction, which seemed to be one of curiousity rather than disgust, but she couldn’t tell for certain. 

The siblings felt another pony sit down behind them, and it was Piña who craned her head around to see who, because Dinky’s attention was now focused on watching Sentinel and his stoic responses to Moonbow’s friendly affections. 

“Hi Berry, how is Harper?” Piña inquired. 

“Harper is napping, right along with Bucky, who spent some time wobbling around this morning. He wore himself out,” Berry replied, stroking her sister and then patting Dinky affectionately. 

“When he wakes up again, can we please spend some time with him if we are careful about his wounds and we are very, very quiet?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes Dinky, he has been wanting to see you. He isn’t himself… he is full of morphine and a couple of other drugs to keep him from suffering,” Berry Punch answered. 

“Is his mind okay?” Piña questioned. 

“We don’t know yet. He’s so drug addled… there are some concerns though,” Berry said with soft honesty in reply to Pina’s question. “Both of you are going to have to understand that Bucky, your father, might be a bit different. He has survived an ordeal that has changed him. He is going to need your help to see him through as he recovers.” 

“But the bird will help him, right?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes, that silly crazy bird seems to be helping him and Lyra. All of us actually. If we start to get weepy, it comes over to cheer us up,” Berry replied. 

“Phoenixes are very rare and powerful animals, Starjammer has a lot to say about them. When they choose to bond with another creature, they are the best friend you could ever ask for,” Piña said, her muzzle scrunching as she tried to recall what she had read. 

“Does it have a name?” Dinky asked. 

“Bucky keeps grumbling about freezerburn in the room. It stays a little chilly in the room now, and the bird leaves icicles where it roosts on occasion. I do believe that Bucky is calling the bird Freezerburn, but it is really difficult to say. Your father is like a very simple minded foal right now,” Berry answered. 



 

“We’re out over open ocean,” Bon Bon reported, sticking her head in the door. “There are sea birds flying along side of us. White birds with grey heads. They’re beautiful!” she added, before slipping out of the door and vanishing. 

“Wet birds,” Bucky said in a slurred voice. 

“Yes, sea birds,” Shadowguard said, smiling down at Bucky and trying to look dutiful with a phoenix perched upon her helmet. She could feel the cold radiating through the metal. 

Derpy made a wordless noise of worry and carefully pressed her snoot against Bucky’s neck, breathing in his scent and trying to remind herself that she was grateful that he was alive. 

“Cold bird… ice bird,” Bucky muttered. 

“Phoenix,” Shadowguard said helpfully. 

“Freezerburn,” Bucky said. He struggled mightily, his thoughts were active in his mind, but he was having trouble speaking. He was having trouble concentrating. And everything was coming out garbled no matter how much effort he put into trying to communicate. He couldn’t understand what was wrong. 

Your mind has been damaged. Be patient. The moon pony is repairing it. 

Bucky squirmed, hating all of this, hating that he sounded like a drooling idiot. He raised his stump and looked at the bandaged end, trying to focus his eye. He currently saw five or maybe six different stumps. The world was very confusing and he had trouble trying to form a coherent thought in his mind. 

“Too many half leg,” Bucky heard his mouth say, and he seethed inside when he heard himself. He could feel Derpy touching him and he made a vain attempt to move his body closer to her, all he succeeded in doing was exhausting himself and making it difficult to breathe. 

The moon pony really is trying… you should not even be alive. 

“Bucky, love, you have some visitors,” Berry Punch said as she stepped through the door. “Bon Bon told me you were awake, and I promised some very concerned foals that they could have some time with you today.” 

“Foals,” Bucky gasped, a long string of drool gushing from the corner of his mouth. He squirmed when he felt Derpy wiping his face. He felt like an idiot. More than anything, he wanted to kick, scream, and shout, to force his body to move around and to communicate something other than gibberish. 

“Hi daddy,” Dinky said as she climbed up on the bed, her brow furrowed with concern. 

“Hey there,” Piña greeted, pulling herself up behind Dinky and drawing close to her father. 

“Father?” Sentinel asked, standing by the bedside and looking on with a serious gaze. 

Remaining silent, Bucky could feel his heart breaking. He wanted to say something meaningful, he wanted to say he loved them, he wanted to express that he was okay, but he could not make anything work the way he wanted it to work. He could feel his girls settling in beside him and then he felt the bed shake again as Sentinel climbed on and drew close.



 

A loud cry of alarm had mobilised the deck, and three faint shapes could be seen on the horizon. Grimglammer peered off into the distance, trying to discern the threat. The sunlight dazzled her eyes and made it difficult to see, but she had a nagging suspicion of what it might be out here over open ocean. 

“Prepare the emergency evacuation plans. I am going out to intercept those fliers. If I don’t come back, if I can be seen fighting, take whatever time I can buy you and get everypony off of this ship. Carry them on your backs. Leave behind half of the guard so we can buy more time for Knight Captain Bitters, his family, and Keg Smasher,” Grimglammer instructed. 

“I am coming with you,” Furious said. 

“No, you are not. Rally the guard and prepare to evacuate, should it become necessary,” Grimglammer said. 

“NO!” Furious barked. 

“STOW YOUR SHITE! That’s an order!” Grimglammer shouted as she took wing. 

“You heard her. Do everything she said… we will buy you time… three dragons coming in hard and fast. Move quickly!” Furious commanded as he took off after his mate. 
	
> Chapter 191
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus peered out toward the horizon with his griffon eyes, both of them narrowed and squinting, straining to see what was going on. He saw five figures heading back towards the ship. Three dragons and two lunar pegasi. 

“Stand down!” Lugus shouted. 

The ponies on deck remained alert, but waited as the figures drew closer. 

Finally, after many suspenseful minutes, Grimglammer landed upon the deck, lifted her visor, and folded back her wings. “Reinforcements!” 

There were many sounds of relief as the three dragons drew up alongside the ship and glided on enormous leathery wings. One flew on each side, and one dropped down below the ship. One was black, one was green, and the last was blue. 

“A gift from the Queen of the Sea Dragons. She owes Mistress Luna a favour and sent help. They will escort us back to Canterlot. We are officially under the Queen’s protection and we can relax our guard a bit. Two more dragons will be joining us shortly,” Grimglammer explained. 

The big mare looked at Furious, who handed landed beside her. “You!” she barked. “You are in a world of shite! I gave you an order and you defied me, you brave stupid bastard!” 

Furious gave a sheepish grin and looked at his mate. “I saw an opportunity to improve myself. It was only three dragons, I figured we could take them.” 

“I am going to finally get some rack time. Captain Furious, I demand a word with you down below,” Grimglammer commanded. Her expression softened. “Don’t you ever disobey me ever again when it comes to a matter like this. I’ve already killed one dragon. I am not a helpless filly. I can handle myself.” 

The stallion stared at his mate, drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “We go together. If I am with you, and I see you in trouble, I am coming with you. Don’t be a bitch about it.” 

“Furious, please, a word with you in private. Come with me,” Grimglammer said in a soft low voice. “I am angry with you, but I do not intend to chew you out.” Having said what needed to be said, Grimglammer turned and headed towards the door that led to the crew quarters. After she stepped through the door and it closed behind her, a series of low cheers erupted from the guards left on deck. 

“Why is it that I am more afraid of her than I am a dragon?” Furious asked of himself in a low whisper, slowly heading for the door. He shook his head in confusion, feeling an odd mix of fear and love for the big mare he called his mate. 

“Captain, we are all more afraid of her than the dragons,” one of the lunar pegasi reported, snapping his wing into a salute. “Good luck, sir.” 



 

The stars overhead seemed to drift by slowly. Bucky watched them as they passed. He was sprawled out on a blanket propped up between Derpy and Thistle, with Berry Punch sitting close by. The moonlight seemed invigorating and everypony seemed to notice the change in Bucky when exposed to the night. 

“Moon,” Bucky mumbled, his mouth sounding like it was full of food and his tongue slipping out from between his lips as he spoke. 

“Yes Bucky, moon,” Berry said in reply, sounding very much like a mother speaking to her foal. She pointed at the moon and then repeated the word again. “Moon.” 

His frustration rising, Bucky seethed and kicked against the prison that was his body. He made a mental note that one day, he was going to screw Berry Punch silly. His eye darted about, looking for something, anything he could use to make his point, some means to communicate. His gaze fell on Sentinel, and in particular, Sentinel’s journal. He struggled to pull his willpower together, his mental focus, and strained to snatch the pencil out of Sentinel’s grip, to free it from the funny little thumb that Sentinel had sticking out on the joint of his wing. 

His body began to sweat from the effort. This was like learning how to levitate a feather all over again, which had seemed like an impossible task at the time. Or learning how to lift a one ton statue for the first time. That had been tricky. The only difference between lifting a feather and lifting a one ton statue was raw magical aptitude and willpower. There were plenty of type threes who could barely write their own names using their magic because of how little control they had. 

You are going to rupture a blood vessel in your brain if you continue… Bucky heard inside of his mind.

The phoenix was a distraction that Bucky didn’t need. He strained, trying even harder, forcing his brain to focus, it was just a pencil and a simple message. All of his efforts caused a few tiny drops of urine to dribble out, and nothing else. 

Oh you are impossible. Very well, I shall help you before you give yourself an aneurysm or have a stroke. You did save me from the horrible crystal lich. Your stubbornness disturbs me and worries me war pony, I shall go and pester the honour pony and steal his writing stick. 

The phoenix took wing from the deck railing, swooped around Sentinel’s head, snatched away the pencil, and then landed on Sentinel’s journal. Holding the pencil clumsily in his claw, the phoenix began to scratch something down, and the ponies on the deck watched in wide eyed awe. 

After completing his task, the phoenix made a squawk of annoyance, dropped the pencil, and flew off, circling overhead a few times before landing on the deck rail and staring at Bucky. 

“He wrote something,” Sentinel said in a confused voice. 

“What?” Berry asked. 

The lunar pegasus colt dropped his head and struggled to read the rough poorly written letters. After a few minutes of study, he cocked his head to the side and read it again, this time with his lips moving. He then began to read in a loud clear voice. “Sorry honour pony. War pony angry. Not stupid. Not foal. Having trouble. Wants to angrily mount too smart pony for… hey, I don’t want to finish reading this… my apologies.” 

Grimglammer threw back her helmeted head and laughed riotously, stomping one foot on the deck. After a moment, she composed herself and drew nearer to Bucky. “Your mind is intact inside of there somewhere… oh that’s a relief.” 

“How?” Berry Punch asked. “What?” 

“Sentinel, please continue,” Derpy said in a pleading voice. 

“Very well mother, I suppose you want to hear father’s thoughts... Wants to angrily mount too smart pony for speaking to him like a foal and make her go stupid after many hours of mindless rutting,” he said, finishing the crudely written words and making a face of disgust, his muzzle contorting and crinkling.

“That sounds like Bucky,” Berry said. She looked at him apologetically. “When you get better and you are capable, I will try to make it up to you,” she promised. 

“So… Sentinel is honour pony, Bucky is war pony, Berry Punch is too smart pony, what are the rest of us?” Derpy asked slowly as she turned to look at the phoenix, now aware that there is was a lot more to the bird. “And how did the bird know what to write down?” 

“My most educated guess is telepathy of some kind,” Grimglammer said. “Would explain how it knew how to write. It borrowed Buckminster’s knowledge. Which means that bloody bird knows everything Buckminster knows. Oh my stars and moon, we have a phoenix that is using the future alicorn of war as a library… nice birdy… good birdy,” she said in a saccharine worried voice. 

Squawking and shrieking in annoyance, the phoenix took flight, flying off into the darkness of the night to find food. 



 

“I wonder how fast we’re moving,” Derpy said, looking over at Berry in the dark as they tried to go to sleep. 

“I dunno, but we should be home soon,” Berry said. 

“Bucky got a whole lot better tonight after the time in the moonlight. Grimglammer says he is like the lunar pegasi now,” Derpy said, aware that Grimglammer was right beside the bed and listening. It was difficult to have a conversation with a guard beside the bed. She pressed her snoot against the side of Bucky’s face and inhaled deeply, glad to feel warm flesh against her own. 

“I wonder what the sun will do to him,” Berry said, knowing that there would be an answer. 

“Sunlight will be disorienting and confusing for him. Might cause headaches. Lowered visual acuity. A loss of some physical strength. On the list of positives from his change, he will have increased strength and stamina at night. Trust me ladies, you will grow to love this part of him. He will heal minor wounds quickly by drawing in shadow. It is how we lunar pegasi are able to deal with tears and rips in the membranes of our wings. Your husband should be able to shadow dive, and will very likely be able to dreamwalk. Hard to tell what gifts the shadow may have manifested in him. His physiology is not at all unicorn-like anymore,” Grimglammer explained in a low steady whisper. 

“So… he’s like a… a lunicorn?” Berry Punch asked in reply. 

It took a moment of thoughtful silence for Grimglammer to ponder Berry’s question, picking apart the word lunicorn carefully, and there was a snort in the dark. “Not bad, not bad, good work too smart pony,” she said in a low breathy voice that contained a hint of laughter. 



 



We race towards a home I am not certain I belong in, towards a future I am not sure if I want. Perhaps it is my nature, but I fear the worst is somehow yet to come. As I watch the stars go flying past, I am afraid, deathly afraid of what lies ahead. We move swiftly, how fast I cannot tell, but in my mind, we move at the speed of thought. It seems there is only one thing to do on this ship as we travel, and that is think. For me, it is thinking about being trapped on a ship moving towards something that fills me with dread. I am not even sure what it is that scares me, I just have a bad feeling about returning to Canterlot. 

The phoenix calls me “honour pony.” Is that what I am? Is that the sum of my parts? Is that all I amount to? Am I like my father’s armor? A strong sturdy shell but empty on the inside? I hope this is not the case. 

I am still trying to deal with how the war ended. It was a war… there were two sides, a well defined enemy, there was right and wrong, black and white, and a goal in mind for each side. On our side, it was fought by good and brave ponies, ponies who understood that being free was going to take some sacrifice. They worked tirelessly, they gave all they had, and thankfully, they had a champion to do battle with the darkness under the mountain. 

Our part in the war is not yet done. They get to celebrate, they get to be free, the shadow in their lives finally gone. What do we get? We get the broken remains of the champion, that’s what we get. I’ve heard the guards talking. Princess Celestia has actually said that she wants my father held accountable and there has been a bitter dispute between the two sisters. The sisters are on the verge of war over my father’s fate. I don’t even think my family is aware of the trouble that lies ahead. Or maybe they are and they say nothing, trying to spare us “foals” from further pain. 

War. We ended one war, and I fear we are heading for another. The sisters have fought before. I’ve heard the guard talking, Equestria is in ruin and there is so much fighting and squabbling already. War between the sisters would be the end of all things I think. 

There is nothing worse than fighting between siblings, which is why I maintain my passive nature with my sisters. I love them dearly and would never do anything to offend them, hurt them, or cause them to hate me. Father commanded for me to protect them, his final instruction was for me to look after them if he fell. 

I believe the fall is yet to come. I hope I am the pony my father believes me to be. 


Squire Sentinel, the honour pony. 



	
	
	
> Chapter 192
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“We just flew over the remains of Manehatten,” Furious reported, sticking his head in the door and making a brief announcement. “We should be arriving in Canterlot in a short time. This evening, if the wind holds.” 

“Remains of Manehatten?” Bucky said in a slurred voice, struggling to turn his head and look at Furious. “Remains?” The stallion squirmed in frustration, Furious was already gone. 

“Manehatten was hit hard by Tirek’s rampage,” Shadowguard said. “And before that, the earth ponies rioted against the unicorn government in the city. The government sector was burned to the ground, except for the big steel and glass buildings. Word got out that House Avarice was tainting the city’s drinking water with birth control chemicals to keep the earth pony population in check.” 

Suddenly filled with rage, Bucky kicked out his hind legs feebly and made a wordless cry of anger. He lifted his good front leg and struck the mattress, venting his bile. 

“Good, good, starting to see some fine motor control, Grimglammer will be pleased, so will my Mistress,” Shadowguard said. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky tried to regain control of himself. He wasn’t sure how many days had passed. Time was a blur. He was getting sick of being drugged. He wanted to feel pain again. “No more shots,” Bucky grumbled, turning his head enough to look upwards. “No more.” 

The pegasus beside him scowled. “Bucky, you need those to keep you from pain,” Derpy said soothingly, stroking her mate with her wing and watching as Bucky’s muscles quivered from her touch. 

“No more drugs!” Bucky demanded, his words only slightly garbled. “Want to feel something again by damn! Want to feel your lips on mine when you kiss me!” he mumbled angrily. 

“Well, at least he has the ability to talk again,” Bon Bon said. She stroked Bucky softly, trying to calm him down. She lifted Bucky’s hind leg and carefully moved it back to a better position and then patted him on his cutie mark. She lifted Harper, hooking a foreleg around her, and then dropped her in front of Bucky’s face, figuring she could fix the fussing foal and the grumpy stallion in one fell swoop. 

“Harper,” Bucky said, seeing the foal suddenly in his field of vision and his mood instantly improving. “Hi fuzzball.” 

Biting her lip, Bon Bon held back her irritated retort. She watched as Harper wiggled over and cuddled up against Bucky’s face, trying to smother her father to death by laying down over his muzzle, one more repeated attempt at patricide. She sighed. She thought of another little filly with a frizzy fluffy mane, a filly named Twist who sometimes helped her in her shop in exchange for sweets. She remembered Twist’s nasal lisp and her sunny disposition. 

Bon Bon fervently wished that Twist would be there when she returned to Ponyville. 



 

Derpy watched the standoff, worried about the outcome. Sentinel was standing over Bucky, teeth bared, his lips curled back, and a fierce but tiny growl was coming out of the colt. She started to reach out and pull Sentinel away, knowing that he would submit to her touch, but then she decided to leave him be, which was a very difficult decision. 

“He said no more,” Sentinel snarled. 

Feeling angry for a variety reasons, being summoned out of her rack and now being challenged by a colt of all things, Grimglammer tried to suppress her own need to growl in reply. “I am under instructions to keep him from suffering. I was given orders by my Mistress to keep him free from pain and to look after his well being. Please, stand down.” 

“No!” Sentinel shouted, spreading his wings and standing stiff legged. He could feel his father touching one of his legs, a soft clumsy contact from his father’s good front leg. 

Squinting one eye shut to clear her vision, Derpy studied Grimglammer, and decided to only interfere if she had to. If Grimglammer made a move towards Sentinel, there would be words. And maybe violence, for all of the good it might do. Grimglammer wasn’t wearing her armor. 

“You will respect his wishes. He said no more, and you will obey!” Sentinel said, puffing out his barrel and trying desperately to look intimidating. 

There was a deep savage sounding growl from behind her, and Grimglammer realised that Moonbow was in the doorway flanking her. Moonbow wasn’t very big yet, but her growl certainly was. The growl trailed off and become a demonic sounding hiss, followed by a series of clicks, pops, crackles, and chirps made by echolocation. The most direct translation into spoken words was “touch my mate and I will murder you and then eat your corpse, afterwards I will crap your remains into your empty skull.” Realising that this was a fight she didn’t want to win, Grimglammer stood down. She recapped the syringe and placed it into the container near the bed. 

Sentinel hissed, trying to mimic Moonbow’s demonic death hiss, hoping to drive home his victory. He did not stand down, but continued to stand stiff legged, wings out, and barrel inflated as much as possible, his eyes never leaving Grimglammer, and he remembered all too well the feeling of being stabbed in the backside. 

Ignoring Sentinel and turning around to face Moonbow, Grimglammer offered up a peacemaker’s smile. “You have quite a way with threats,” she said. 

Moonbow stood down, relaxing her posture and folding her wings. She raised her head high and perked her ears forward. “And I meant it too… never try to dominate my male ever again. He is mine.” 

“I get that,” Grimglammer said in neutral tones. “I am going back to my rack. If you need anything, come and get me,” she said as she made her way to the door. “Oh, and Moonbow… I am impressed. I will speak with you later after I sleep. You did good. You continue to surprise me.” 

Sentinel gave one final yowl as Grimglammer stepped out the door, his pride still stinging from the vaccination. Once she was gone, he deflated, folded his wings, stepped away from his father, sat down, and then fell over, breathing heavily from fear and panic. 

Derpy snatched him up immediately and began to squeeze him. 

“You did good my squire,” Bucky said in a rather clear voice. 

“Thank you father… for a moment, I thought I was going to piss myself and bring shame down upon my head,” Sentinel replied. 

Moonbow hopped up onto the bed and settled in near Bucky, watching Sentinel get comforted by Derpy. She felt immensely proud, seeing Sentinel stand up to the big mare made her have a peculiar feeling inside.

“You said something in echo talk, what was it?” Sentinel said, as he calmed, feeling Derpy stroke him. He snuggled closer to his mother and tried to make his heart slow down. 

“I told her that if she touched you, I would murder her, eat her body, and then crap out whatever was left into her skull,” Moonbow said, cocking her head to the side to study the drifting purple mist that continuously spilled from Bucky’s eye. 

“I am starting to love you just a little bit,” Derpy said to Moonbow. 

Bucky gave a faint chuckle but said nothing. 

“Does that impair your vision? Do you see the glowing purple whatever it is coming off of your eye?” Moonbow asked. 

“No, I see nothing. Everything looks normal,” Bucky replied. 

“Are you in pain?” Derpy inquired. 

“I can feel again, it is much easier to talk,” Bucky answered. “Where is Freezerburn?” 

“I think he went off to find food. He always comes back,” Derpy said. “So you are in pain,” she added, looking a bit glum. 

“It isn’t so bad,” Bucky said, reaching out and touching Sentinel with one trembling leg. 

“I wasn’t sure which side to take,” Shadowguard said from her corner in the room. “I was beside myself over here thinking I might have to step in.” 



 

Berry Punch and Bon Bon stared down over the rail as the day neared its end. Both of them had seen the devastation from their lofty height. A massive forest fire had burned away a large section of forest and left behind the blackened remains of now dead trees. 

A massive black dragon flew along their side of the ship, its body longer than the ship itself, but not as long as the gasbag. The pair could see the dragon occasionally turning its head to look at them. The dragon’s talons were longer than a pony’s body. 

“So much has happened,” Berry Punch said. 

“And there is so many things we don’t know,” Bon Bon added. 

“Look over there, out in that big field, you can see campfires and each of those campfires probably have ponies around them. I think it is a refugee camp,” Berry said as she pointed with her hoof. 

“I hope the dragons don’t spook them,” Bon Bon said, her voice full of concern for her fellow ponies. “Those poor souls have probably suffered enough,” 

“Hey hey, look at that, I spy with my little eye a pony necking with a griffon and giving the griffon neck nibbles,” Berry said as she poked Bon Bon. 

Turning her head, Bon Bon saw Yew Wood planting kisses along Lugus’ impossibly broad neck and the griffon’s feathers continued to fluff out with each kiss as she worked upward. Peekaboo was sitting on a blanket watching the world go by. 

“Those two have been using this little trip home to honeymoon. I really hope that biology plays nice with both of them and gives them offspring,” Berry Punch said in a wistful voice. 

The air was warm, almost uncomfortably so, and was unusually humid. There was a tension in the air, the tension felt just before a thunderstorm. Berry looked around, scanning the sky, and off in the distance, she could see dark clouds and flashes of lightning. Something felt wrong, and it bothered her earth pony senses. 

“Is that a wild storm?” Berry asked one of the lunar pegasus guards on deck. 

“Yes,” the guard replied. “During the collapse, we lost control of the weather. Many of the weather teams were busy doing other things, like acting as a militia or trying to deliver supplies to needy ponies. Princess Twilight Sparkle used her influence and secured much needed food and supplies from the Saddle Arabians. I don’t know what she offered in return, but there is no doubt she has saved hundreds of thousands of lives because of her efforts.” 

“Discord also used his magic to feed ponies. The draconequus proved his worth. I hope he will recover,” another guard said in a voice filled with concern and worry. 

“Recover?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Discord battled Tirek. Tirek moved towards Ponyville and Canterlot, and Discord engaged him in battle. It destroyed the countryside, ravaged the Foal Mountains, and destroyed the Hollow Shades. That’s the burned forest you could see as we passed,” the guard explained. 

“Why… why would Discord risk himself like this? He’s never struck me as the noble self sacrificing type,” Berry Punch said in disbelief. 

“Word has it he did it because he loves some mare named Fluttershy,” the guard replied. 

There was a loud gasp from Berry Punch, and she began to cough and sputter. She hacked, horked, and wheezed, until Bon Bon pounded her on the back, trying to help her breathe again. 

There was a loud cry of alarm which didn’t help Berry Punch and her breathing at all, and the deck all around them was suddenly exploding with activity. The guards mobilised and formed ranks, forming neat rows along each side of the deck along the rails. 

Berry heard a loud squawk from Lugus. She then saw the big griffon gently extracting himself from Yew’s clutches, getting up on his paws and talons, and then standing protectively over Peekaboo. 

“Over there!” Bon Bon cried. 

Looking around, Berry saw what Bon Bon was pointing at. A flock of pegasi approached as the sun began to tease the horizon. In the soft light of sunset and the approaching twilight, Berry Punch saw a pink figure that stood out in the mass of dark hues and she felt her heart leap into her throat. The flock approached quickly, and would be on deck in minutes. 

“Oh nuts, somepony, quick, go get Sentinel!” Berry commanded, and she watched with satisfaction as a guard scrambled to do her bidding. She secretly delighted in her newfound authority. She wasn’t sure what her authority was, or if she was even technically royalty now, but she did enjoy watching the guards hurry to follow her occasional commands. 



 

Captain Furious stood on deck, near the center, waiting for the honoured guests to land. At his side was the colt known as Sentinel, and the colt was clearly beside himself, breathing heavily from fear, worry, and apprehension. 

“Calm down,” Furious whispered to Sentinel. “Stand at attention. Prepare your best salute. Remember who you are, and who your father is. Behave in a manner befitting your position, squire.” 

“Y-y-y-yes sir,” Sentinel stammered as he drew himself to attention. He closed his eyes and waited, trying to slow down his breathing. He heard a thump on the deck, and then a few more thumps and thuds. For a moment, he thought his throat was going to close. 

And then, he opened his eyes. Above him, inches away from his snoot, was Princess Luna. She was covered in full heavy plate mail, the visor was up, and her face was visible. Sentinel felt his knees buckle and he fell down to the ground, cowering and bowing, forgetting to salute. He closed his eyes and shivered. 

He felt the electric tingle of magic all over his body, lifting him up from the deck planks, and then he was gently set down upon his hooves. Something cool touched his cheek, and he realised it was metal. He opened his eyes and saw Princess Luna looking at him in concern. Slowly, it dawned upon Sentinel to salute, and his wing haltingly went out, finally snapping into the correct position. 

“Why do you fear me?” Princess Luna asked. 

At that moment, Sentinel wanted to crawl into a dark hole and die. All that came out of his throat was a whimper. He could feel his cheeks flooding with heat, and his ears were on fire, especially his stitched ear which still hurt. He saw Princess Luna leaning her head down, drawing close to him, until he could feel her breath near his ear. An embarrassingly loud squeak escaped from him, and he felt his balls being sucked into his stomach. 

“I heard every word,” Princess Luna whispered, speaking into Sentinel’s ear. 



 

The small room was crowded, and two alicorns stood near the bed, one dark blue and wearing full heavy plate mail, the other pink and wearing a light partial plate which seemed more ornamental than anything else. 

“Cadance, how is your foal?” 

Cadance, who was getting ready to say something, felt her breath slip out in a gasp. She heard a similar gasp come from Luna beside her. She stood there open mouthed for a moment, blinking in disbelief, and then she regained her composure. This was not the greeting she expected at all. 

“How did you know?” Cadance asked. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky said, struggling to lift his head. 

“Stay down Buckminster, do not attempt to rise upon our account,” Luna commanded. 

“You must not say anything. Nopony knows. It is currently a well protected secret,” Cadance said in hushed whisper. 

“I will defend you and your secrets with my life,” Bucky offered, still trying to lift his head. 

“Buckminster… your eye… your body… you...” Cadance said, taking it all in. 

Luna’s armor clanked and creaked as she turned her head and watched as Cadance began to weep. She wanted to comfort Cadance, but wearing heavy plate made it difficult to hug other ponies. She had to be content to stretch out a wing and stroke Cadance. 

“What happens now?” Bucky asked in a weak voice. 

“We return to Canterlot. Cadance and I are to secure this ship, the magical munitions, and the dangerous artifact onboard. They are all evidence against you now. As of this moment, you are in custody and under arrest for a list of crimes that stretch from Canterlot to Ponyville,” Luna answered. 

There was a loud angry growl from Derpy, but Bucky silenced her by feebly raising his stump in her direction. 

“I understand and accept everything. I will not attempt to resist,” Bucky said in a weak raspy voice. 

“Buckminster… do you trust me?” Luna inquired in a cold emotionless voice. 

“I’ve let you touch every part of my mind while I’ve been dozing away in drug induced slumbers, of course I trust you,” Bucky said to Luna. 

“Shining Armor is already preparing your legal defense and so is Twilight Sparkle. She cannot defend you though, that will be Shining Armor’s job. After the treaty is signed, you will be brought before a court of four alicorns, you will be tried, afterwards, you will be sentenced once the nature of your crimes have been examined and discussed. And no matter what happens, I beg that you trust me,” Luna explained. “Please trust my sister as well,” she added. 

“After everything he did to end the terror on the isles,” Derpy whimpered. “Why?” 

“I did bad things,” Bucky admitted. “I did immoral things. I did wrong things. And I am prepared to face the consequences for doing those things. Princess Luna, I am trusting that you have a plan to see me through this.” 

“It will be difficult, and there is no way you can avoid punishment. I do have a plan, however, I am sure that you understand that I am forbidden to speak about it with you,” Luna responded in a cold officious voice. 

Bucky nodded weakly. 

“Buckminster, why did you turn to dark magic? You have so much love in you… so much strength… surely there was some other way?” Cadance said in a voice that cracked with emotion. 

Drawing in a deep breath and closing his eye, Bucky went limp on the bed. After a moment of silence, his eye still closed, he let out his breath slowly and drew another. “There was no other way Cadance.” 

“That is for the Court of Royals to decide,” Luna stated. 
	
> Chapter 193 (Canterlot)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy was not a happy pony. After their arrival at Canterlot castle, they had taken Bucky away, hauling him off to the hospital wing. The only thing keeping her from falling apart was her herd and her fellow tribe mates. They had been given a collection of rooms and then left alone, the door to the wing locked to keep them all secured. 

This was not the homecoming Derpy wanted.

“Okay everypony. As hard as this might be, we all need to settle in. I know we are all worried, scared, wanting to know that Bucky is alright, and wanting some answers. We will get those in time. We just need to be patient and on our best behaviour,” Bon Bon announced, taking command saying what needed to be said. 

“They just left us here. Not one word, just locked us in like prisoners,” Berry Punch grumbled angrily. She began to pace back and forth in the large common room. 

“There is food on the table there, and there is a refrigerator,” Sparkler said. “At least they are looking after our needs and being kind. There are beds… and bathrooms… and bathtubs,” she added, her voice collapsing into a needy whine. 

Rubbing her head with her hoof, Derpy looked thoughtful for a moment and then looked at her herd. “Somepony is going to need to explain what a toilet is and how it works to those of us that don’t know what a toilet is and how it works,” she instructed. 

“The lights look funny,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Those are electric light bulbs,” Berry said in reply. 

“Huh?” Loch grunted. 

“You can turn them on and off by hitting the light switch. Think of it as magic that earth ponies and pegasi can use,” Berry explained. 

“They took our weapons,” Lugus complained, his crest standing at full attention. 

“Not all of them,” Sentinel replied. “We still have Rising Star, Sparkler, Lyra, you, and Ripple to look after us if something goes wrong.” 

“I am shocked that we didn’t get fitted with magic inhibitors,” Lyra said as she began to explore the area, poking her head through the various doors exiting the common room. 

“Sentinel, you really know how to make a filly feel good,” Ripple said, patting her sibling with her wing. “If we get a chance, I’ll show ya some of my fighting moves to help pass the time.” 

Derpy listened as her herd settled in, the overwhelming sound of too many voices, and she began to think about how nice a hot bath would be. She felt guilty and conflicted, worried about her husband but wanting a bath for herself. A faint wordless whimper escaped her throat. 

“It will be okay,” Bon Bon whispered into Derpy’s ear. 

“Pregnant pony needs to pee,” Thistle announced. 

“I guess we get started now,” Berry Punch said. 



 

“You want me to pee into the freshest cleanest water I’ve ever seen?” Thistle asked in disbelief. She stared at the toilet, squirming and kicking her hind leg, and then she stared at Berry Punch. “Are you mad?” 

“You’ve been to the mainland!” Berry Punch cried in exasperation.

“They pooped and peed in little wooden sheds!” Thistle cried back in reply. 

“Just plop your backside over the bowl and pee Thistle, then you flush it by pulling down on the handle,” Berry instructed, trying to not let the stress get to her. 

“But that water is fresh!” Thistle shouted. “What happens to the water after it is soiled?” 

“It gets flushed and then it goes away. After that, ponies don’t think about it. The toilet just fills back up and we go on about our lives,” Berry answered. 

“I feel funny about this… that is clean precious water,” Thistle whined. She began to dance in place. “What about that big thing over there, it has a little hole in the bottom?” 

“The bathtub?” Berry asked. “Um, generally, you don’t pee in the bathtub, but there are exceptions,” she explained. 

“Loch Skimmer! Stop playing with the light switches!” 

Berry covered her eyes with her fetlock. 

“Moonbow! Stop swooping around the chandelier at once! This is not a good time to practice flying in the dark!” 

“I really gotta pee!” Thistle begged. “Where is a bucket?” 

“Thistle, there are no buckets. You’ll have to pee in the toilet or end up going on… oh bother you actually did,” Berry said in a strained voice. She looked down at the growing yellow puddle. She could see the look of humiliation and shame on Thistle’s face. 

“I’m sorry,” Thistle squeaked. 

“Thistle, I know it seems strange, but you have to pee in the toilet… now the bathroom is dirty and we’re going to have to pester Lyra to come in here to clean it because there is no mop or some means for us to clean it up,” Berry said. She wrapped a foreleg over Thistle’s neck and tried to comfort the crying kelpie. 

“Loch Skimmer! This is not one of Vinyl Scratch’s raves!” 



 

Bucky watched the ceiling as his bed was wheeled to a room. He was comfortable enough, but lonely already. He wanted his family. He wanted somepony to be there to comfort him. Luna and Cadance were gone. He looked down at the IV now sticking out of his good leg and sighed. He hoped he would not be drugged up too much. 

“I will bring you some special ice cream to help you get fattened up,” the nurse promised as she moved his bed. “Mister Bitters, I wanted to thank you… I think every earth pony in Equestria will want to thank you,” the nurse whispered in a low voice full of emotion. 

“Thank you,” Bucky answered in a raspy dry voice. 

“I will bring you some ginger ale too… is there anything else you want? Anything at all, some special treat?” the nurse inquired. 

“Just my family,” Bucky grumbled. 

“I wish I could do that, you deserve it… at least you will not be lonely, you will have a roomie,” the nurse said cheerfully. 

Feeling frustrated already, Bucky groaned. The bed stopped for a moment and Bucky heard a door opening. Then, the bed started to move and Bucky saw the door frame up above him as the bed passed through the doorway. It was turned around so the foot of the bed was facing the door, and then rolled into place near the wall. He heard clicks as the wheels were locked into place. 

“I will be back with the ice cream and a few drinks for you real soon. And don’t worry, I’ll feed you,” the nurse promised. 

Bucky heard hooves on the hard tile floor and realised the nurse was gone. He sat in silence, hoping his roommate would be the silent type, maybe in a coma or a nice vegetative state so Bucky could be alone with his thoughts. 

“It is funny what we do for love,” a weak scratchy voice said. 

Wincing, Bucky tried to place the voice. It sounded terribly familiar. 

“Love… the most hated of all emotions. It makes us stupid. We do stupid things. Well, I did stupid things… you on the other paw, you did incredibly evil things and I am not the least bit surprised, Buckminster Bitters. I remember you that day in Ponyville when you saved Dinky from the whole town. You went to such extraordinary lengths to save her. Dark magic… tsk tsk.” 

The voice was vaguely sarcastic but surprisingly genuine and heartfelt. Bucky’s mind sluggishly attempted to put a name to the voice. 

“You killed something on the cusp of godhood,” the voice said, all sarcasm gone. “You killed something that even the Elements of Harmony would have been powerless against. Some other way would have to be found… like dragging it to Tartarus… but you killed it and saved all of us the trouble.” 

“You sure do talk a lot,” Bucky grumbled, still not able to place the voice. 

“I get bored easily,” the voice answered. “Talking is all I can do…” 

“Discord?” Bucky asked. 

“The one and only,” Discord replied. 

“Why are you here? Can’t you just magic yourself better with chaos?” Bucky inquired as he tried to move his head enough to see his roommate. 

“I would if I had magic,” Discord said. 

Bucky heard the snapping of Discord’s talons and then heard the pop and fizzle of magic. 

“It will come back in time… or so Celestia thinks. She isn’t sure. Nopony is sure. Right now, I am distressingly mortal. I could die. It is so exciting!” Discord said in a manic voice. “I’ve never died before. Fluttershy slapped me when I told her that I could die and said she would never forgive me if I did.” 

“I’m sorry Discord, I don’t know what to say,” Bucky said in a weak voice. 

“I am not sorry. Not sorry at all,” Discord whispered in a frantic voice full of worry. “But I do regret not confessing my feelings for Fluttershy sooner. Why do we love? What do we gain out of it? Look at us, both of us, we lie upon the edge of ruin. They are going to railroad you Buckminster,” he added in a pained grumble. 

“I know,” Bucky answered. “I don’t know why we love, Discord. I suppose it makes life bearable,” he said, answering his own question hesitantly. “How did you beat Tirek?” 

“I dropped mountains on his head, zapped him with chaos magic, blasted him with harmony magic, I tried everything. Finally, I tried something crazy on the old magic eater. I gave him what he wanted,” Discord answered. 

“You gave him what he wanted?” Bucky questioned. 

“I lured him to a ley line nexus. He wanted to eat magic, so I force fed him all the magic he could stand. For a brief moment, he became the god he wanted to be. He was a giant… he was immense and all powerful. The next moment he popped and I contained the blast to keep Canterlot and Ponyville from being destroyed. It was an incredibly insane thing to do and also quite stupid,” Discord explained. “I didn’t know if it would work. I had no idea what I was doing, I used the only weapon I had, which was chaos. Tirek is dead, his physical body is no more. And the one little pony that I care about is safe.” 

“That is all that matters. We keep those we love safe and damn all other consequences,” Bucky mumbled, feeling exhausted. 



 

Foals could be counted on to be foals. Even during the worst of times. Especially during the worst of times. Berry shook her head at the rampant destruction of the common room. Sparkler had found several canisters of whipped cream in the fridge and all of the makings for ice cream sundaes. Instead of going on the ice cream, Sparkler had squirted the whipped cream into Dinky’s ear, setting off an epic battle between siblings, which quickly turned into a battle between hastily gathered allies. 

There was chocolate syrup on the chandelier. 

At least Derpy finally lightened up just a little tiny bit and had let go after Piña had squirted her with the strawberry sauce. Berry felt a bittersweet moment of happiness, it was good to hear Derpy laughing again, sounding almost carefree. 

She hoped that Keg Smasher was well. He was somewhere else, secured away in another set of rooms somewhere. Berry did not know. 

The door behind her opened and Berry Punch turned around. She saw Cadance, who looked incredibly sad. The sad look turned to one of shock when the alicorn saw the state of the room she had entered, and Berry felt a smile spreading over her muzzle. 

“I’ve come with a bit of news,” Cadance said in a low voice. “Buckminster is secured in the hospital wing. He is comfortable, they have placed an IV in him, and the nurse intends to stuff him with special high calorie and high fat ice cream. Tomorrow, early morning, Loch Skimmer will be escorted to the hospital wing, and one pony may go with her. She will have her leg examined to see how it is healing.” 

Sighing, Berry Punch looked Cadance in the eye. “Are we prisoners?” 

“Not exactly. You have two family members who have been… altered, for lack of a better description. You are being observed. Which reminds me, Sparkler also has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow as well. Grimglammer wants those tremors checked out,” Cadance answered. 

“What if we don’t want to be observed any more?” Berry said angrily. She held her temper in check, not making threats, and biting back all of the rage filled words that wanted to spill out. 

“Please, for your husband’s sake, try to cooperate,” Cadance begged. “Now is not the time for rash anger, even if it is justified.” 

“SO YOU ADMIT IT IS JUSTIFIED!” Berry snapped. She heard hooves behind her and could smell a whiff of ozone. 

“Why are we being locked up?” Rising Star demanded. The room began to grow warm.

“Because of you and Sparkler,” Berry said. “Calm down Rising, don’t give them a reason to lobotomise you,” she warned. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.” 

“We would never lobomi-” 

“Oh stow it,” Berry interrupted. “Wiping somepony’s mind clean is just the same is cutting out a chunk of their brain. I know what was done to Bucky. They carefully snipped out the truth and the dangerous parts and they poked around inside of his head trying to keep him safe. Are you going to keep Rising Star and Sparkler safe?” 

The pink alicorn slumped. “I don’t agree with what is going on! Stop taking it out on me! I am not even speaking to my aunt right now because of what is being done! I hate her! I HATE HER!” 

“I… I didn’t know… I’m sorry,” Berry said in a halting voice, her mind a confusing jumble after hearing the alicorn of love announce that she hated somepony she had loved. 

“I hate that she is right. We’ve tried the other nobles. They are down in the caves below, which are now converted into dungeons. They’re not up here in the lap of luxury being made comfortable. Celestia said if we let Buckminster get away with what he’s done, it would undo all of the hard work that has been done to hold the nobles accountable. We can’t make exceptions for just one, no matter what he’s done. It would be hypocritical!” Cadance cried, the tears now running like rivers down her cheeks. 

The crushing weight of reality came crashing down upon Berry Punch’s broad withers, and she felt faint. She felt her legs begin to wobble. 

“We have to hold him accountable so we can uphold our values. We cannot excuse him for what he has done, no matter how good or how valid his reasons are. The future of our new legal system rests upon what we do next,” Cadance said as she sniffled. 

Rising Star reached out and gently prodded Cadance. “Come sit with us. Stay with us for a while. Talk with Harper or play peekaboo with Peekaboo.” 

“You’d let me stay for a while? You don’t hate me?” Cadance asked, confusion now in her voice and pain clearly visible on her face. 

“No,” Rising Star said. “If you will excuse the mess, maybe we can show you that we are not a threat. We welcome you to spend a little time with us,” he added, the room cooling off slightly as his rage subsided. 

“I would like to stay,” Cadance admitted. “For observation reasons,” she said with a sniff.
	
> Chapter 194
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It felt funny not having a cast on her leg. Loch Skimmer stuck her leg out and wiggled it. It felt too light and most of her pelt had been rubbed off. Whatever it was they had cleaned her bare flesh with stung her skin and left it feeling cold. 

“Don’t put all of your weight on it. Just a little of your weight. Be careful, the bone has healed well. Whomever did that set the bone almost perfectly. You shouldn’t have any problems with it at all. In time, you will be able to run and do all the normal things a fine filly like yourself would enjoy doing,” the doctor said. 

“Thanks,” Loch said, still flexing her leg. 

The doctor looked up at Cadance. “Actually, we should examine them all. If you would, have them brought to us one or two at a time so we can run a full battery of tests and give them exams,” the mare requested. 

“Consider it done,” Cadance said. 

“Just a few more tests to do,” the doctor said to Loch Skimmer, smiling gently as she did so. 

“What sort of tests?” Ripple asked, feeling concerned. 



 

“Buckminster, don’t move, there is some kind of monster perched at the end of your bed!” 

Opening his eye and wiggling, Bucky struggled to wake up. He looked around wildly, and saw no monsters. He did see Freezerburn, who had somehow found him. The phoenix was preening his wings and looking smug and self satisfied. 

“Freezerburn, how did you get in here?” Bucky said in a dry raspy voice. 

“That… is your friend?” Discord asked. “Do you know what kind of hideous monster that is? That is a corrupted phoenix. It is death on blue wings!” 

The phoenix squawked indignantly, took off from the foot of the bed, landed on Discord’s bed, and began to pace along the blanket. 

“It’s coming for my eyes!” Discord cried in alarm. 

“Discord, stop being a goof,” Bucky muttered. 

“It’s terrifying!” Discord said, his head scooting over his pillow. 

Bucky waited and listened, and sure enough, he heard Discord go silent for a moment, his body going still. He heard the sound of Discord’s breathing become regular and steady, and the sounds of his weak struggles faded. 

“Oh that’s kinda nice. Much better than eyeball eating,” Discord said as he heaved a contented sigh. 



 

The shaking would not stop. Not with all of the stress. Sparkler took a deep breath and tried to make her body go still. A lot had been done in the early morning hours, and now, she was sitting in a small room in the hospital wing of Canterlot Castle. 

“I’m scared Rising,” Sparkler admitted. “Worried about Loch and Ripple.” 

“I know,” Rising Star admitted. 

“Worried about us,” Sparkler said. 

“Bucky said he had a plan to protect us,” Rising Star said. 

“He can’t even do anything right now but lay there,” Sparkler said bitterly. “Rising, if it came down to it, do you think we could fight our way free and help the others?” 

“Do you think we would get very far? Would it help us? Would it help Bucky?” Rising Star replied, looking at his wife with some concern. “We would only prove them right, that we were dangerous monsters. Now is the time to settle into place and wait things out.” 

“Since when did you become so mature and dependable?” Sparkler asked. 

“Since Crush the earth pony pointed out that I had found myself and showed me the measure of a stallion. Bucky had been quietly showing me by example, Crush had to explain it to me. Now you listen to me Sparkler, and you listen well. Don’t do anything rash,” Rising Star replied. 

“Crush is mute,” Sparkler said, shaking her head in confusion. 

“Crush had a lot to say if you listened,” Rising Star retorted.

Not knowing what else to say, Sparkler fell silent and her eyes roamed over the room. There was an eye chart, jars full of cotton balls, as well as a poster announcing that sexually transmitted infections were the silent killer among the guards and every bit as insidious as any foreign invader.



 

Luna warily eyed the phoenix that was staring at her. The pair watched one another, neither moving, each trying to size the other up. Luna had been quite surprised to come into the room and discover the large and surprisingly predatory phoenix sitting on Bucky’s horn and preening itself. 

“Long story,” Bucky said. 

“One worth telling,” Luna stated, looking at the bird. “At another time though.” 

“This isn’t a social visit I take it,” Bucky grumbled. 

Fluffing out her wings, Luna shook her head and approached Bucky’s bedside. She noted the bottles of ginger ale and the wrappers of a few treats at bedside. “Do you want anything?” 

“No, just my family,” Bucky said, struggling to lift his head. 

“I wish I could give you what you wish. In time. For right now though, there are things that need to be done,” Luna answered. “We need to discuss a few things,” she added, casting a simple silence barrier around the bed. 

“Some answers?” “Bucky stated. 

“Yes,” Luna responded. “Like your eye, which I know you have been asking about. The condition is called Taint. It happens when your body’s natural mana reserves become corrupted by dark magic. Normally, when casting dark magic, you summon forth the energy and then use emotion to corrupt the energy into dark energy. The body’s natural mana remains harmonious.” 

“So I am producing dark mana naturally?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes… you were always a quick one,” Luna said, clucking her tongue lightly to punctuate her words. “The issue here is, now you must learn to free your mana from corruption if you want to cast harmony magic. Dark magic will now come easily to you. This condition is complicated and unknown really. Most unicorns die from it, because it is deadly poison to the body. You should be dead really, there was only one other unicorn in history who survived the Taint and grew strong from it,” she explained. 

“Sombra,” Bucky said. 

Princess Luna looked terribly sad for a moment. “I see so much of him in you Buckminster, I… I loved him like a brother. We went into Tartarus together. He was so loyal. He followed me, always my shadow, always just slightly behind me on my heels, always so dutiful, so diligent, always faithful… until he changed.” 

“I know. I have his memories. Every day a few more of them surface,” Bucky said, looking Luna in the eye. He could see that her eyes were tearing over. “I would follow you into Tartarus. Cadance too. I understand what you fight now, and how the world fell into decay without you. I have been made aware of a great many things.” 

“Would you Buckminster? Would you willingly follow me into Tartarus? Do I have your oath?” Luna said, her voice very insistent and pleading. 

“I give you my word as a knight, and not just for you, but for all of you. Even Celestia, I understand what she must do, and she is right for doing it,” Bucky answered. 

Looking unsettled, Luna stepped away from the bed, her eyes closing and an expression of pain flooding her face. “We should discuss more relevant issues. Like your health. The stress and everything that has happened has taken a toll on your body. Buckminster, I know how you feel about ascension, so I will not even discuss that option with you. We dare not use healing magic because that might trigger the change. It would heal you, restoring you to what you were meant to be, which is an alicorn. You have the spark of the divine inside of you now.” 

Bucky nodded weakly. 

“We need to have you up and moving for the treaty. After some heated debate, my sister and I have decided to place you inside of your armor and then trust you to be on your best behaviour. I know you will do everything I command of you, including taking it off when it comes time to do so. It will restore your mobility and allow you to function. I must admit, the design is impressive. I have never seen its like. It has also been shadow infused, which means it will bond with your nature. I am not sure how you did that,” Luna said as she studied Bucky’s face, looking for some of expression feeling. 

“I changed under the mountain,” Bucky said in a raspy wheeze. “Perhaps my armor did as well,” he added. 

“We have so much to talk about involving your changes. The Taint. Other issues. You are going to need to learn how to use your new magic. But all of this will have to come at another time,” Luna said, her eyebrows raising in concern.  “The doctors tell me you are malnourished. You have worms. You have stomach parasites, which have been sapping your strength. Your family probably has them as well, but with your heavy magic usage, it is a wonder you haven’t killed yourself. The doctors tell me they cannot figure out how you are even alive. The Taint is a particularly virulent toxin. They are going to begin the processes of fixing what they can the hard way, without using healing magic. I have made it clear that they are to respect your wishes.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said gratefully. 

“I must go. There is much to do,” Luna said regretfully. 

“Tell Celestia… tell her I am sorry and I wish to see her,” Bucky whispered. 

Luna gave a faint nod, turned, and headed for the door. 



 

Holding her close, Rising Star tried to comfort his crying wife. He had his leg around her, and he kissed her neck softly, gently pressing his snoot against her, trying to let her know that it was going to be okay somehow. He wanted to cry himself, but was somehow holding it all together. Bucky was gone, and Bucky was usually the one who held things together. Rising Star realised he had to step up now and fill Bucky’s shoes somehow. 

“The condition is called Shivers. It is a neurological condition, a type of palsy. It is aggravated by stress and other factors. It grows worse over time, and is a surprisingly common problem in unicorns. At one time not all that long ago, it was untreatable, but now we have a variety of medications which fix the problem. The medication is really quite good, but sometimes it can take a while to find the right pill to ease the problem. The good news is, there is a pill for every type of case, and no case goes untreated,” the doctor explained. 

“Any time there is good news, there is bad news,” Rising Star said, eyeing the doctor. 

“Yes, there are a few side effects. One major one and a few minor ones that are of no real concern at all, the little side effects are all easy to deal with,” the doctor replied. 

“And what is the major side effect?” Rising Star inquired in a clipped voice, wishing the doctor would just be out with it.

“Well, that is a delicate issue and one that should be discussed car-”

“Out with it!” Rising Star demanded. 

“Sterility. The medication causes sterility. Not right away, but after about a year of taking it, give or take, it causes permanent sterility,” the doctor said in a halting voice. 

“So I get to go on shaking and have foals, or I get to stop shaking and never have foals,” Sparkler whimpered. 

Rising Star actually lifted Sparkler out of her chair and cradled her in his forelegs, holding her close and clutching her body tightly. He buried his face into her mane, he could feel the sobs increasing, and feel her twitching muscles convulsed, as though they were reacting to the bad news. 

“I understand you are in a herd marriage,” the doctor said sheepishly. 

“Yes,” Rising Star growled, his voice a clear warning that this was a delicate issue. 

“We can extract eggs… we can store them. We can do amazing things now… one of your other wives could be a surrogate mother. There are ways to still have a happy ending from this,” the doctor said, reaching out and touching Sparkler with her hoof. 

“Really?” Sparkler sniffled, her barrel hitching. “I could still have foals?” 

“There are ways,” the doctor offered, offering up a hopeful smile. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 195
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy tried to deal with all of the news and information she was having to take in. It was overwhelming and unsettling. On top of worrying about her husband, there was the fact that Sparkler had something called the Shivers. The entire herd had worms and stomach parasites. There were cavities. Fungal infections. Multiple cases of malnutrition. 

And there was the introduction of rich foods to their diets. Miserable gassy ponies reclined on every comfortable surface, occasionally getting up to run to the bathroom, cursed with an explosive case of the trots. Derpy was terrified to even fart anymore and her pucker was horribly chapped from the constant squirts. All of them were waiting for the pills they had taken to help their stomachs to kick in. 

All of them had been poked, prodded, stabbed, violated, had stool samples taken, blood drawn, and had exceedingly thorough physical examinations that had violated their senses and their decency. 

It had not been a good day. 

Thistle was terrified of indoor plumbing as well as all of its implications and was torturing herself, refusing to go until it was absolutely necessary. Loch Skimmer would foalishly play with the light switches if left in a room unwatched and unattended. Ripple tried crawling inside of the fridge to cool off her overheated belly. Moonbow had done a cannonball from the bathroom counter into the tub, the force of the impact actually having washed poor Sentinel right out of the tub after he was hit with a tidal wave of water. 

The entire living space was completely trashed and there was nothing that could be done about it. Lyra was passed out on a chaise lounger, a diapered Harper right beside her, little Harper who suffered the most out of all of them, wanting to see Bucky and not understanding why she couldn’t. She wanted her mama… 

“Is this what dying feels like?” 

Derpy pondered Sentinel’s words and contemplated the effort required in making an answer. She lifted her head weakly and looked at her colt, he was sprawled out over the arm of a very large overstuffed couch, his legs dangling down on either side, and his wings hanging limp. He didn’t look well. 

“I don’t wanna fart no more, my pucker hurts.” 

Alas, Derpy had trouble generating sympathy for Dinky. Derpy had her own problems. She cursed the cupcakes she had eaten, the ice cream, and the brownies. Well, everything really. The massive plate full of macaroni and cheese she had eaten had turned into lead inside of her stomach. 

There was a loud trumpeting blast and an ear piercing squeal from Dinky. 

There was still no sympathy from Derpy. 



 

The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence as Bucky studied Shining Armor. The stallion looked like he hadn’t slept in a long while. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and a nervous tic made the corner of his eye twitch. 

Discord was gone, having been wheeled outside to spend some time in the sun, to relax and have a pleasant time in the gardens, leaving the room for the two stallions who were now stuck in a drawn out silence. 

“How bad was it?” Bucky asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Pardon?” Shining Armor responded. 

“The trial. Your sentence. For your family and others,” Bucky said in a weak dry sounding voice. He saw his ginger ale lifted in Shining’s magical aura and he took the straw between his lips gratefully.

“Some of my family were punished quite harshly. Others, like my mother and my father, they were sentenced to a lifetime of community service and shown mercy. They are now forbidden from owning anything or having wealth and must depend entirely upon the kindness of others to survive, have a roof over their heads, and get food. They are not allowed to keep bits. My father, as head of the house, he had to write out a public apology and make a speech in the middle of Canterlot, and then another speech in the middle of Ponyville in front of all of the earth ponies and pegasi, all the refugees. They… they…” Shining Armor stammered and his voice faltered. “They were grateful and they called my father a good pony, an example to others and that his humility was appreciated. The ponies of Ponyville have been very good to my father and mother, and look after their needs. Twily and I are forbidden from doing anything to help them like taking them in with us.” 

Swallowing a bit more ginger ale, Bucky struggled to turn his head to look at Shining Armor a bit more directly. He licked his lips and cleared this throat. “That doesn’t seem so bad.” 

“We saw which way the wind was blowing and we did the right thing. It saved us a lot of hardship and grief. We were shown mercy while many others were tried to the fullest extent of the law,” Shining Armor replied. 

“What will happen to me?” Bucky asked. 

“I am unable to comment on your possible punishments, but mercy isn’t possible,” Shining Armor said in a dull deadpan. “They won’t kill you. Celestia has told me that. You’ve done a few things that actually deserve the axe though. Buckminster… how much punishment are you willing to endure?” 

Bucky tried to make sense of the strange question. “Huh?” 

“Sparkler and Rising Star being what they are… Lyra Heartstrings... they are all going to be placed under the judgment of the inquisition. Lyra has used dark magic and necromancy. Sparkler and Rising Star, it is likely that they will be punished quite harshly for allowing you to change them. And Lyra… I have been told to begin preparing a legal defense for Lyra,” Shining Armor stated in a low pained voice. “How much punishment are you willing to endure?” 

“All of it,” Bucky said in a weak wheeze. “How can I have them spared? I will let my head be separated from my neck if need be.” 

“I have a plan…” Shining Armor offered. 



 

Bucky’s mind whirled with everything that Shining Armor had said. He didn’t know what to make of it all or how to accept what he had to do. He was going to have to hurt his family terribly and he hoped that one day, they would forgive him. In time, he hoped they would understand what it was he was about to do. Out of all of them, he hoped that Bon Bon would find it in her heart to forgive him for what he was planning. 

He was just able to get his lips around the straw in his drink and suck some liquid through, but it required him straining to lift his head slightly. 

“Buckminster?” 

Bucky saw a flash of pink in his vision and his head fell back onto his pillow. 

“Buckminster, I brought you visitors,” Cadance announced. She stepped out of the way of the door to allow the pony behind her access. 

Seeing the flash of grey made Bucky’s heart leap up into his throat. As Derpy came into his field of vision, he began to sob with relief and he heard her doing the same. She stood on her hind legs at his bedside and he could feel her strong legs pulling tight around him, careful of his injuries. A moment later, there was a shift in the bed as something small was dropped near his neck, and he knew it was Harper. 

Cadance watched the reunion and basked in their love, drawing strength from it. She had carried Harper for Derpy, holding the foal in her magic, and now she thought of the foal in her belly. She drew near the bed, knowing she was welcome, but fearing she was an intruder. She watched Bucky fall prey the affections of his mate and his obvious relief from being able to see her. She heard the happy little grunts that Harper made. 

“Everypony is sick Bucky… they say we have worms,” Derpy said in a sour voice. 

Bucky nodded. “I have them too.” 

“Thistle is terrified of plumbing. I told her she was acting like a foal and she accused me acting like her mother instead of her fellow-wife. I think she’s mad at me,” Derpy said. 

“Try to see it from a kelpie perspective,” Bucky wheezed. 

“I am trying…” 

“I know you are,” Bucky said. “Be strong.” 

“We can see out of our window… big parts of Canterlot are missing. They’re just gone!” Derpy said, crawling up into the bed and squeezing in beside her husband. The narrow hospital bed was only meant for one pony, but the couple made it work somehow, Derpy’s tail swishing from side to side as it hung off the side of the bed. 

“You smell so good,” Bucky breathed. 

“Soap… we have soap. And bathtubs. I don’t smell like stale farts and hot sweaty pony anymore,” Derpy said excitedly. “I had a bubble bath and I swear, it felt like I was getting my cutie mark all over again,” the mare gushed. 

“You smell like jasmine… and some kind of berries,” Bucky said, breathing in slowly. 

“They’re keeping all of us locked up Bucky,” Derpy said, her happy mood suddenly gone. 

“I know,” Bucky whispered. 

The grey pegasus’ eyes narrowed. “Sparkler has a condition called the Shivers. It is because she is a type three now.” 

A terrible pain tore into Bucky’s chest and it made his breath catch in his throat. 

“She is going to be okay though, there are pills to fix it. I… I don’t think I should have brought this up. I am sorry,” Derpy said apologetically. “All of us are going to be getting trims to our manes and tails. There is going to be some big photographic opportunity when the treaty is signed. We have to look good. You know, you could use just a tiny trim… but not too much. I like your mane and your tail to be long and full,” she added, changing the subject. 

“I will not be seen at the treaty signing. They are placing me in my armor so I can be mobile,” Bucky said in reply. 

“Ooh! That will make a good picture!” Derpy exclaimed. “Try to look extra scary as you loom menacingly over your family!” 

Standing silently in the background, Cadance hoped that the treaty signing would go off without a hitch. More than anything, she hoped that Bucky would hold everything together.



 

“Loch! Stop flushing the toilet! You’re upsetting Thistle!” Berry shouted. 

“What makes the water do that? The whirlpool?” Loch inquired. 

“Suction as it goes down the hole,” Berry said. 

“Why is it always in the same direction?” Loch asked as she hit the handle again. 

“I don’t know,” Berry said. “I said stop flushing the toilet!” 

“Sorry… it is like magic though. I hit the little lever and I make a whirlpool happen!” Loch Skimmer said. She watched as the bowl begin to fill with water once again. 

Berry Punch, now at the end of her patience, shoved Loch Skimmer out of the bathroom and into the common room, grunting and gritting her teeth as she did so. The flighty pegasus giggled softly as she was evicted. Berry pulled the door shut behind her. 

“Ripple! Stop trying to see if the light in the fridge stays on or off!” Berry barked. 

Ripple pulled away from the fridge, looking guilty. 

“And close the door!” 

Her head down low, Ripple closed the door and slunk away from the fridge. She fled the room, slipping through a door, and once out of Berry’s sight, broke into a mischievous grin as she lept up onto the bed and began to bounce around. The mattress was extra springy and jumping on the bed was exactly what Piña and Dinky promised that it would be. 

Berry sat down on the couch and thought about crying. Not long after Derpy had left, the entire herd had gone crazy, rising up from their various places of rest and then going nuts. Lyra and Bon Bon had disappeared behind a locked door and there was a mysterious silence that Berry suspected had something to do with a soundproofing spell. 

“Blech! Soap! Why is there soap in the chocolate syrup bottle?” 

“HAH! That’ll learn you to stop drinking from the chocolate syrup bottle Moonbow!” 

Berry fell back into the sofa and wondered if she was cut out to be a parent in a modern sugar filled world, Dinky’s shrill voice echoing in her ears as she sank into the cushions. 

“BRAAAAAAAAAAAP!” 

“Soap bubbles!” 

Closing her eyes, Berry could hear Piña’s sugar fueled manic giggling as Moonbow belched out soap bubbles. In one of the bedrooms, she heard a crash, and she could only assume that Ripple was jumping on the bed once more. She had probably done a super double bouncy and cracked her head into the ceiling again. She already had one goose egg sized lump that had turned her into an honourary alicorn. 

Berry put her hooves to her head and tried to hold back her rising frustration as she heard Thistle starting to cry once again as the sound of a flushing toilet could be heard from the bathroom. 

“LOCH SKIMMER!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 196
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky stared at his armor case. The dull black armor was visible and he shivered as he recalled painful memories of descending down under the mountain. He suffered a flashback, a vision of his own severed leg extending from his sundered armor and lying in a pool of his own blood. 

“Buckminster, focus.” 

He snapped to attention at the sound of Luna’s voice and looked at her.

“How do I help you put this on?” Luna inquired. 

“I just need to place the helmet on my head,” Bucky answered. “Once it comes into contact with my horn, the rest of the plates will slide into place. I’ll need to be out of bed though.” 

“I understand. I will hold you up,” Luna offered. 

“Am I… am I still an armiger?” Bucky questioned. 

“Do you still have armiger status?” Luna responded. “Yes. For good or for ill, you still have that power. For now. Do not count on having it for long.” 

“I understand,” Bucky whispered. 

“Plotting revenge?” Luna asked in a low voice as she lifted Bucky out of bed and suspended him in the air. 

“Luna, I swore I would never bring harm to another pony ever again,” Bucky wheezed. 

“I will hold you to that,” Luna said. 

“Please… do,” Bucky gasped, his voice raspy. 

“You sound like you are in pain,” Luna said, her voice full of concern. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Bucky said. “My magic functions better when I am free of the drugs. I am still having trouble making harmony magic happen.” 

“What now?” Luna asked. 

“The helmet if you please,” Bucky instructed. 

Bucky watched as the helmet lifted in the soft glow of Luna’s magic and the room went dark for a moment as it was slipped over his head. He could feel the metal sliding around his horn. And then, he felt the sweet tingle of magic coursing through his body. He felt the armored plates sliding into place and the magic field suspending him in mid air, securing him inside of an armored womb. He felt himself set down upon his steel hooves and his armor quivered, making a faint clank. 

“And you say you are completely suspended inside of there? No weight on your joints or metal pinching you? No weight on your stump?” Luna inquired. 

“I am fine,” Bucky said in a low mechanical growl, his wheezing making a dreadful sound as he breathed. 

“That is so intimidating,” Luna murmured. “So dark and melodramatic. You have a sense of style that I can appreciate.” 

“Thank you. Have you seen Freezerburn?” Bucky said in reply, wondering where his phoenix was. 

“He was last spotted terrorising the north wing of the castle and my sister actually gave chase to him to try and stop him from being a public menace,” Luna answered. “I found it highly amusing, much to my sister’s dismay.” 

“Amusing?” Bucky questioned. 

“You know, it always surprises ponies, but at one time, I was the bearer of the Element of Laughter, along with Loyalty and Honesty. And watching a corrupted phoenix playfully scaring ponies is funny,” Luna replied. 

“So I take it that Celestia was Kindness, Generousity, and Magic,” Bucky said, trying to flex his mental muscles and prepare for the coming storm. “Loyalty…” he muttered inside of his helmet. 

“Yes Buckminster, I was the Element of Loyalty, and I will always provide for those who remain true to me. Are you my devoted servant?” Luna inquired. 

“From now until my death, Mistress,” Bucky vowed, his voice a low mechanical thrum. 

“Mistress?” Luna said in a tone of faint disbelief. “You, a prince, call me Mistress?” 

“I would be your slave if it would have my family spared,” Bucky said, turning his head to study Luna. “You and I both know I have useful talents and Equestria lies in ruins. You have been in my mind. You have seen every dark corner. You know what I am capable of and what I willing to do. You know that I will do anything and that there is no end to what I am willing to embrace for their sakes. Celestia has her ponies, her champions that are full of sunshine and rainbows. I am full of darkness and pain. You and I both know I no longer belong in their world. I belong in yours.” 

For a long moment, Luna listened to the wheezing sounds coming from Bucky’s armor. Her face was solemn and serious. “You deserve better,” she murmured in a sad voice. 



 

The great hall was full of ponies. Guards. Alicorns. Reporters. Former nobles of House Avarice. Bucky saw his herd and his tribe. He saw Keg Smasher and did a double take. Keg Smasher was standing on four legs and had both wings now, whole of body once again. Bucky was silently grateful for Keg Smasher’s restoration. He saw Lugus raise a wing in salute, Sentinel by his side saluting as well. 

He followed Luna, walking just behind her, on her heels just as Sombra had once done. There were gasps as he entered the great hall, and many flashbulbs went off as reporters snapped photographs. 

And then he saw her. 

His heart in his throat, he wanted to run over and comfort her. Celestia didn’t look well. She looked thin and pinched. Her eyes were glassy and bloodshot. She was missing patches of hair from her pelt and there were ragged still healing scars all over her body. She looked grief stricken and full of torment. He could see the anguish upon her face, and it broke his heart. He was glad his helmet hid his tears, and he did his best to cry silently, knowing his helmet would amplify his sobs. All that could be heard was a damp sounding wheeze. 

Following Luna, Bucky was led to his family and instructed to stand guard. 

“At this point, signing this treaty is a mere formality. You have no house. You have no standing. All of you are paupers and there is no war. This is a document for the history books to show that your power was broken and by signing this treaty, your demise will be documented,” Celestia announced in a loud clear voice. 

Most of the gathered members of the House of Avarice hung their heads, but a few remained defiant. Bucky saw there was no magic inhibitors except upon a few. He saw shackles and hobbles around their legs. He saw that his mother was one of the few who held their heads high and proud. 

The knowledge of how to cast a necromantic death spell lept into Bucky’s mind. He grinned a ghoulish grin that none could see.

“This sheet of paper is your end. Will the heads of your respective houses come forward please,” Celestia said. 

Several ponies came forward, representing the various houses that made up House Avarice. Chains clanked as the unicorns stumbled forwards towards the table. 

“Does anypony have anything meaningful to say before this is signed?” Celestia asked. 

Bucky did not see Derpy nervously licking her lips or the sudden nervous hitching of her barrel. With her in his blind side, he did not see the nervous flutter of her wings. He did not see her until after she had stepped forward. 

“This paper is full of words. Words that will not even be remembered by most ponies,” Derpy said nervously, looking around the room. Her wings fluttered and her steps were slow. “These words won’t fix anything. These words will not make the hurt go away. And if they are not remembered, what good do they do? What purpose do they serve?” 

The room was silent except for the pop of a few flashbulbs as reporters snapped pictures of the grey pegasus who was now standing in the middle of the room near the table. 

“A hug can go a long way towards saying you are really truly sorry… trust me, I know, I am a mom,” Derpy said as she sat down on her haunches, spread her wings slightly and extended one foreleg out in an inviting gesture. And then, she laughed. A warm genuine laugh that filled the room with life. 

The room fell into a dumbfound silence that was absolutely deafening, and Derpy was still laughing, a soft faint laughter that was completely disarming. 

A single stallion moved forward towards Derpy, an older stallion that Bucky recognised as Goldflake, the head of all the houses that made up House Avarice.

“Come on, don’t be shy, we can show them all how to make things better,” Derpy said with a chuckle and her eyes glittered with merriment. 

“Stay away from her!” Bucky growled, his voice a terrifying mechanical whine from inside of his helmet. Black flames lept to life around his horn and ponies in the room began to scream. The temperature of the room dropped suddenly and everypony could see their breath. 

“You touch her, you harm one golden hair in her mane, and I will kill you,” Bucky warned. “I have one pure thing left in my life. I will not allow you to taint it with your touch. You corrupt everything you come into contact with.” 

Bucky’s armor writhed with black tendrils of shadow creeping along the surface as it drew power from Bucky’s corrupted mana. It was a fear inducing sight and a stampede broke out, many ponies fleeing from the room. A few brave reporters remained, knowing they were going to get the story of their lives. Members of House Avarice screamed and panicked, shackled and unable to run, trapped in a room with what was clearly a murderous psychopath full of dark magic. 

“Bucky, don’t do anything foolish,” Rising Star begged. 

“Give the word father, and I will join you,” Sparkler said, getting a dark look from Rising Star for her words. She stepped forward and her horn flared. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a while,” she growled. Her whole body trembled and her face spasmed terribly. 

Goldflake remained still, frozen in place. 

“Bucky, your vow,” Bon Bon said, wishing she could touch Bucky to calm him. But he was encased in his armor and out of her reach. She moved close, moving into his field of vision, smiling but her face showed fear. 

“I should kill all of you for what you have done. And who could stop me? I could invoke my right as an armiger right now and send all of you to the death that you all so rightfully deserve,” Bucky snarled. 

“Buckminster… not like this, please, not like this,” Celestia said in a pleading voice. “Let this end. I am begging you. Not in front of your foals.”

“He’s just angry, and rightfully so. A lot of bad things have happened. And you know what? I am still pretty angry too… but what is anger going to do for me? The fighting has to stop sometime,” Derpy said, still laughing, but now sounding a little nervous. She made a gesture with her foreleg, beckoning Goldflake to come closer. 

The stallion moved forward, staring at Bucky as he did so, clearly terrified. He sat down upon the floor a few feet away from Derpy, closed his eyes, and summoned his courage. He stood back up and took the last few steps towards the giggling mare. He sat down in front of her and the pair embraced. 

“He is very protective of you,” Goldflake said. 

“He protects what is his,” Derpy said, all too aware of Bucky standing behind her, fuming in a murderous rage. 

“I betrayed my own house,” Goldflake confessed to the mare still hugging him. “I sent out the ledgers and leaked all the papers that led to our downfall.” 

“Do you feel better about it?” Derpy asked in a motherly voice. 

“No, I still feel pretty ashamed about everything,” Goldflake admitted. 

“Are you sorry?” Derpy asked as she squeezed the old stallion. 

“Very much so,” Goldflake confessed, a few tears now rolling down his cheeks. 

“Are you ashamed of what you have done?” Derpy asked, stroking the back of the stallions neck and trying to soothe him. 

“I am so terribly ashamed… I even told Platinum I was ashamed… she kept tormenting me,” Goldflake said as he began to sob pitifully, collapsing against Derpy completely. 

Unable to bear another creature in pain, Derpy wrapped her wings around the crying pony and squeezed him warmly. “You really are sorry,” Derpy whispered. 

“How can you tell? I tried to tell Celestia I was sorry…” Goldflake whimpered. 

“A mother knows,” Derpy said, patting the pony she was hugging on the back and trying to soothe him to make his hurt go away. 

After several moments of odd quiet with Bucky looming over both of them, Goldflake lifted his head. “I think I am ready to sign the paper now and take what is coming to me,” he said in a shuddering voice. He pulled away from Derpy slowly, rising up on wobbling rickety knees. He gazed at Bucky for a moment, staring into Bucky’s darkened glass visor. “You are the only one of us that ever amounted to anything good. Don’t mess that up.” 

“What is to be done with them?” Bucky demanded. 

“They are going to be banished to the Hinterlands. A lawless place. Many nobles have already been shipped there,” Celestia said in a ragged nervous voice. 

“I am suspending judgment upon this one,” Bucky announced. “He gets to live out the rest of his days in relative peace. I am invoking my right as armiger. Let him spend the rest of his days in a small cottage somewhere and make sure there is a painting of Princess Platinum hanging up inside of it.” 

“Very well, I shall grant clemency at your command,” Celestia said in a voice that was filled with relief. She watched as Goldflake moved towards the table and then signed the paper. 

“As for the rest of you…” Bucky growled. 

The room was filled with gasps. A few ponies from House Bitters actually pushed Bucky’s mother and father forward, hoping he would take his wrath out upon them. Primrose Propers and Buckminster Bitters Senior stared at their son in horror and shock, both of them clearly quite terrified and stunned that their own house would shove them out to expose them like this. 

Dark energy crackled along Bucky’s horn and screams came from around the room. The temperature dropped even more and ice began to frost the windows. “KNEEL!” Bucky commanded.

One by one, as if being pressed down by some invisible crushing force, the rest of the members of House Avarice dropped down to the front knees and groveled face down before Bucky. A few resisted, or tried, before some unseen force finally drove them down. 

“King Sombra had a way of dealing with traitorous unicorns. Useless unicorns. As his son, so do I,” Bucky hissed.

A panicked cry went out among the kneeling unicorns and one by one they began to writhe in fear as a dark shadow entered their minds. Black crystals began to sprout from their horns, long black protruding spikes that glowed with dark energy. Several screamed in fright and a few fainted. 

“Never again will any of you know magic. This is your curse. You will live out your days in the Hinterlands with nothing to aid you. I suspect most of you will become food. I will see all of you in Tartarus!” Bucky said, his voice a demonic growl. 

“You’ve turned us into earth ponies!” Primrose shouted. 

“NO! YOU DON’T GET TO BE EARTH PONIES! EARTH PONIES SERVE A USEFUL PURPOSE! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU HAVE NO USEFUL PURPOSE! YOU ARE MEAT UNFIT TO EAT!” Bucky shouted, his voice causing all of the windows in the room to shatter and the flashbulbs in the cameras to explode, and he wasn’t even using the royal Voice. 

The room flooded with the released urine of most of the House of Avarice, who suddenly lost control of their bladders, and a few lost control of their bowels. Humiliation as well as fear was now visible on their faces as they all kneeled before the terrible armored figure that held them in his thrall. 

The dark energy slowly retreated from Bucky’s horn and he slowly backed away from the cowering mass of misery that was spread on the floor before him, left wallowing in their own filth. 

“Sign the paper,” Bucky commanded. “I have lived to see the end of my own house. None of you will ever know magic ever again, and none of you will ever have foals. Your treachery and deceit ends with you. I have ensured that.” 

Whimpers and weeping began to take over the subdued masses as Bucky’s words settled into their fear addled minds. 

Looking around, Berry Punch tried to locate any foals in the group, and came to a dreadful conclusion. Bucky was among the last foals born to his bloodline. As she studied the group, she saw a couple of younger stallions and mares that were about Bucky’s age, but she saw no colts or fillies. The whole house was being exiled, and if there were any colts or fillies, they would be sent off as well. As a member of Clan Pickled, she figured she should feel exalted about seeing the end of House Avarice, but instead she just felt empty inside. 

“Sign the papers,” Luna commanded. “All of you have an airship to catch. It is the last touch of civilisation that any of you will likely experience. We want you gone. You are lucky that my devoted student has let you live.” 

Keg Smasher watched as the paper was signed. Many ponies stood there stupidly trying to lift the pen in their magic until it dawned upon them that they had no magic, and then they had to go through the humiliation of signing by writing with their mouths, which was beneath them. Tears of humiliation and shame fell down their cheeks as they picked up the slobbery pen and accepted their fate. 

When the last signature was signed, the room fell silent, save for the sound of weeping. 

Celestia felt a rush of relief and while her face remained expressionless, she beamed inwardly, having finally saw the final sign that she had been waiting and hoping for since everything had started. 

She looked upon Derpy, knew she had witnessed an act of laughter, and the briefest nod from her sister confirmed what she already knew to be true. She looked at Buckminster and hoped that he wasn’t too far gone, and that he still had the strength to endure his trial. Her champion might have stumbled, but she believed that he could still be redeemed. 

All of the signs she had hoped to see, all of the signs she was looking for had been found. An act of generousity during a birthday party that seemed so long ago. An act of kindness when Dinky had reached out to Diamond Tiara, an enemy by all accounts, trying to offer comfort after Diamond Tiara had been injured and Dinky had been the cause. An act of questionable honesty by Berry Punch, which had been the cause of this entire conflict and had caused all of the terrible truth to come out and many dark secrets to be dragged out into the light. An incredible act of loyalty, enduring through impossible odds to keep a foal safe after a spell gone horribly wrong, which ended with great suffering upon poor Buckminster who had to pay the price for his loyalty. The act of laughter, which she had just witnessed, the bubbly pegasus that Buckminster so loved being a true inspiration and role model for all, A mother’s simple love and laughter which had brought some love and light to a dark and terrible time. As for magic, all of the evidence Celestia needed for magic was plainly visible. 

Equestria finally had its Guardian to pair up with its Scholar. The Knight and the Librarian. 

Still showing no trace of emotion, Celestia rejoiced, and it gave her strength for the dark time that still lay ahead. She turned and studied Buckminster, wishing she could see his face. She wanted to run to him, to comfort him, but now was not the time. Not yet, she knew that he had to endure just a little while longer. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 197
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	For a time, Bucky wasn’t sure that the long night would end. He was exhausted, but couldn’t sleep. The events of the day before played through his mind endlessly and he wondered if he did the right thing. At one point, Bucky seemed to know what the right thing was, but now, given everything that had happened, the right thing seemed elusive somehow, just out of reach, an impossible ideal. 

As he lay in bed, he listened to Discord’s heavy and laboured breathing as the draconequus slept. Bucky’s own lungs felt soupy, the medication he was on was causing a great deal of mucus build up in his sinuses and lungs. All things considered, he was feeling much better and even had a tiny bit of strength. 

For all the good it would do him. 

There was a soft knock at the door and then a gentle voice said “it is time.” 

Bucky heard Shining Armor enter and there were two unicorn guards with him. He saw them come into his field of vision and he sighed, preparing himself for what was to come. 

“Are you ready?” Shining Armor asked. 

“Does it matter?” Bucky said in a fatalistic reply. 

“Buckminster, if it is any consolation, both Night Light and Twilight Velvet are happy… exceedingly so. My father told me that he is happier now than he has even been during his life. He and my mother have been working as school teachers with the refugee foals. They have meaning and purpose in their lives now. Ponies love them. My father told me he is glad that this happened, but the trial was the scary part. I hope that the council of alicorns find a punishment suitable for you. I don’t actually know what is going to happen anymore. All four of them went into seclusion last night after the events of yesterday. Cadance and Celestia are talking again, and not as monarchs, but as family… I heard them speaking before they went into seclusion, both of them sharing a mutual concern for you,” Shining Armor said in a nervous wavering voice. 

Bucky managed to give a faint nod. “So how am I to be presented on trial? I notice that there is no armor this time.” 

“You will be propped up in a comfortable chair and wedged into place with pillows. You will be made comfortable for the events. If you need water or a drink, you have but to ask, and I will make sure that you get what you need. Are you ready?” Shining Armor inquired. 

“I am,” Bucky groaned. 

“Buckminster…” Discord said in a half awake mumble. “Buckminster, good luck. Celestia has always been surprisingly fair in her judgments. When I am better, I’ve heard rumours that she plans to sentence me to a life with Fluttershy… and no possibility of parole.” 

Realising there was no sarcasm, merely a clumsy attempt at comfort and kindness on the draconequus’ part, Bucky felt a moment of kinship with Discord. “I hope we will talk again. I do not know what fate awaits me. If we do not speak again, I hope your time with Fluttershy goes well.” 

“Are we friends?” Discord asked. 

The sudden question and the timing shocked Bucky and he didn’t know what to say right away. He felt his tongue sitting uselessly in his mouth and he didn’t know how to respond. 

“I’d like to think we are friends. We understand one another. That is what friends have in common right? I’d like to think there is another pony besides Fluttershy that truly understands me,” Discord said in a soft whine. “What we will endure for love…” 

“We are friends,” Bucky said as he felt his body lifted with magic. “Goodbye.” 



 

The small stone room had no windows. There were four thrones along one wall, a small wooden table, two chairs, and a little boxed in area filled with cushions. On the four thrones sat four alicorns, and in the boxed in area, Bucky saw some of his family. His foals were not present, save Sentinel, who was sitting there looking sorrowful. There was no sign of Ripple or Loch Skimmer. Moonbow was absent. Bon Bon and Thistle were not there, and that made Bucky sigh with relief, because it would make what he was about to do easier. Bon Bon would never approve of what was about to happen.

He felt himself placed into a high backed chair and several pillows were placed on either side of him to prop his head up with. His stump was carefully placed on an elevated surface, perched upon a pillow, so the blood wouldn’t run down into the end of it and cause problems. 

“Are you satisfied with your legal representation? Do you feel he is biased against you in some way?” Twilight Sparkle inquired. 

“No, I do not feel that he is biased against me,” Bucky replied. 

“Good, then this council of alicorns comes to order,” Celestia said in a soft voice. As she spoke a magic quill began to move over a scroll and record every word that was being spoken.

“Do you understand the seriousness of the charges against you?” Luna asked. 

“I understand,” Bucky said in reply. 

“The charges against you are grave. Dark magic. Corruption of a foal using dark magic. Over a thousand counts of creating magical weapons of mass destruction, some of which were created by your accomplices. The creation of a weapon that causes magically induced rape. The summoning of demons. Several counts of creation of artifacts of dark magic. Reckless experimentation upon your fellow ponies, also your accomplices. Using dark magic to sterilise and prevent the ability to procreate. Using dark magic to block the natural use of magic. Using your power as an armiger to overrule the punishment placed upon the head of a convicted criminal and abusing your authority for the gain of your house. The list goes on and on, so for brevity’s sake, I will cut this short,” Twilight Sparkle announced. 

“Do you wish to make a plea? Or invoke any inherent rights as a noble?” Celestia said, her lips pressed into a thin flat line. 

There it was, the trap. Bucky knew this moment was coming and was waiting for it, and he lept for it willingly. He took a deep breath, shuddered, and then drew in another deep breath. 

“I invoke my right as a highborn noble to claim my family as property,” Bucky said in a raspy cry. “According to the laws I am being tried under, as a noble whose family once raised the sun, I have the right to claim the lesser tribes as property and keep them for my leisure.” 

“Do you now?” Luna said, leaning forward, looking very serious and mildly angry. 

“Yes, I am invoking my right to claim them as property. All of them. They cannot be held accountable for what they’ve done because they’ve lived in fear of what I would do to them if they resisted me,” Bucky said. 

He started to hear an angry retort from Berry but then there was silence. Bucky could see the magical field around the boxed in area. He could see the look of anger and confusion upon his family’s faces. 

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “We have an whole room of witnesses who can testify that Derpy Doo Hooves said, and I quote, “He protects what is his.” This clearly implies a relationship of possession. This was said yesterday during the signing of the treaty.” 

There was a soft sad sigh from Cadance, who could not hide her feelings as well as her aunts could hide theirs. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. 

“Do you understand the seriousness of your confession?” Luna asked. 

“Do you truly see them as objects? As property? Is that all they are to you?” Celestia inquired, her voice an emotionless deadpan. 

“A collection of lesser unicorns, a few servile pegasi that I keep as guards, and a couple of filthy mud ponies I keep for my sexual amusement when I get bored,” Bucky said in a strangled voice. He couldn’t even bear to look at his family, not now, and he couldn’t see their reaction. 

“Rising Star is not your family,” Cadance said, her voice hitching slightly. 

“I muddled his mind using my ability to commune. He is a weak minded simpleton with low self esteem and all of the needs of a horny teenage colt his age. I poisoned his mind and gave him Sparkler as a sexual gift to bind him to my will,” Bucky replied. 

“And Sparkler Doo Hooves just went along with this?” Luna asked. 

“Sparkler wanted a father. I withheld my affections from her and toyed with her emotions to also bind her to my will. I made her do things to earn my affections. She so desperately wanted a father that she was willing to do anything to earn my doting attention. I also held her in check by keeping her mother subjugated and her younger sibling in my thrall. The younger sibling that I corrupted with dark magic so I could break Sparkler’s will and make her completely submissive to me. Sparkler was acting out of confusion and a need to protect her family and self interests,” Bucky explained. “I had also undermined her will and her judgment through regular communing. I made sure that both of she and Rising Star were lovesick with one another and then threatened one to make the other do as I desired.” 

“This is a very serious confession,” Twilight Sparkle said, scowling as she spoke. 

Huddled together, Bucky’s family couldn’t believe what they were hearing. They clung to one another, trying to make sense of what being said, except for Sentinel, who had buried his face into Derpy’s neck and clung to her, weeping bitterly. 

“And what of Lyra Heartstrings?” 

“Another weak minded lesser unicorn that I bound to my will. I kept her in check through her mate Bon Bon, whom I held in my thrall. When Lyra began to resist me, I found the golden opportunity to cement my control over her when I tore Harper from her mother’s belly and gave her to Lyra as a gift. Lyra is confused, weak minded, and needy. When I gave her the foal, it broke her completely, she lived in fear what I might do to Bon Bon and Harper if she resisted me. She was easy to break, as she has already been broken,” Bucky answered, offering up an explanation. “I had to work with somepony’s sloppy seconds.” 



 

“Why is he doing this?” Lyra whimpered, now trembling violently and holding tight to Berry Punch. She wailed, clinging to Berry Punch and tried to make sense of everything being said. 

“He loves us,” Derpy said, wrapping her forelegs tighter around Sentinel. “He loves us and he intends to make sure we can go free and have one another. He doesn’t mean what he is saying. He would never say anything like that and mean it,” she cried as she buried her face into Sentinel’s mane. “They’re just words. They don’t mean anything. Don’t listen to your father Sentinel… don’t listen! He’s lying!” 

Berry Punch struck the shimmering bubble around them, beating it with her hooves. Unable to do anything, she fell back into Lyra’s embrace and began to weep, unable to hold it in any longer. 

Rising Star and Sparkler clung to one another, painfully aware that their potential freedom was going to come at a terrible price. Both of them collapsed against Derpy and Sentinel, and they felt Derpy trying to wrap her forelegs around all of them to draw them in. 



 

“So you contend that you had victims, not accomplices. Do you understand what you are confessing to and the seriousness of these crimes?” Celestia asked. Her face was stern, serious, and her eyes blazed with barely contained intensity. 

“Do you have any regrets? Do you feel any remorse?” Twilight asked. 

“I regret nothing. And why should I feel any remorse for making lesser creatures useful to my purposes?” Bucky said in a snide bitter voice. He choked and began to struggle to breathe. 

The four alicorns studied the unicorn propped up in the chair before them, all of them sitting silent for a moment and giving Bucky a moment to compose himself. 

“Your mastery of dark magic is damning. A little curious dabbling is one thing, and I intended to forgive you for your lapse into dark magic when you saved Dinky Doo Hooves after giving you a stern warning to never do it again. Now you sit before me as a master of the dark magical arts, marked with the Taint. You have delved into all manner of forbidden magic, the worst of which was corrupting a foal and making her conjure a swarm of demon insects from Tartarus to do your bidding. Summoning a single demon is enough to have your head removed from your neck, but you summoned an army of hundreds of thousands of demons, corrupting a foal’s harmonious magical talent to do so. Your crime is disgusting and vile. You also summoned a demon for the purpose of creating artifacts of unspeakable indescribable evil. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Celestia said in an icy voice. 

Bucky gave Celestia a defiant look, his nostrils flaring and his lip curling back to expose his fangs, and his remaining eye locked into place with hers. “I regret nothing.” 

“You are the last titled noble in Canterlot who has not yet faced punishment. Your crimes are many and you show no remorse or regret. This court cannot recommend mercy or leniency,” Luna announced. 

“This is your last chance,” Twilight warned. 

“Do you wish to retract anything you have said or wish to plead for mercy before we pick apart your testimony and the arguments you have presented?” Celestia inquired. “We are well prepared to tear apart everything you have said and discern the truth. Once we have done that, we will begin to examine the others, Rising Star, Sparkler Doo Hooves, and Lyra Heartstrings.” 

“No… I would rather invoke one last right,” Bucky wheezed. 

“And that is?” Cadance asked. 

“My right as highborn noble whose family once raised the sun that my word is divine, thus inviolate and irrefutable. I demand that this trial ends and that you cease your questioning of me at once, this very instant,” Bucky demanded. 

Cadance slumped and began to sob, covering her face with her hooves. 

“Do you know what you are doing to yourself?” Luna said, a look of stunned shock upon her face. Her ears were folded back against her head and the corner of her lips quivered. 

“I will go to Tartarus in a manner of my own choosing!” Bucky snarled at Luna. 

Twilight Sparkle, unable to keep her emotions in check any longer, fell apart and began to sob bitterly, leaving only two alicorns capable of meting out justice. 

“Since you show no remorse and continue to abuse the law to your benefit, we have no option to offer up the worst penalty we can offer short of death,” Celestia announced. 

“You will suffer for your crimes, make no mistake,” Luna said in a voice utterly devoid of any emotion. 

“Rather than banish you, we sentence you to a life of slavery. As of this moment, your status as an armiger is revoked, all of your privileges and inherent rights as a noble are withdrawn. You will pay restitution for the family you have traumatised and toyed with,” Celestia said, her eyes blazing. She turned to look at Bucky’s family, and the shimmering bubble around them vanished. 

Bucky could hear the sounds of their weeping and more than anything else, he wanted to die rather than face this moment. The inner turmoil he felt was agonising. He felt sick to his stomach and nausea threatened to overtake him. 

“Derpy Doo Hooves. You showed a remarkable amount of charity and forgiveness yesterday during the signing of the treaty. Can you find it in your heart to forgive him for the crimes he has committed against you and your family?” Luna inquired. 

Derpy sniffled, her family pressed in tight all around her, huddled together in grief. “I don’t understand what is going on,” she whined, still clutching tightly to Sentinel. “I don’t understand any of this.” 

“We wish to make the punishment fit the crime. A slave needs masters. This stallion has wronged all of you. We wish to teach him humility and to make him bow his overly proud neck,” Luna explained. “He is unrepentant and proud. We intend to break him so that he might learn his lesson.” 

“Once we have him properly subdued, we wish to know if you would like custody of him as compensation for all of the terrible things he has done to you, your foals, and your herd. The laws we gathered to place him on trial him make this issue very clear. Victims have a right to demand compensation,” Celestia said in a flat voice. 

“He will be required to obey your every command and do all that you ask of him. If he is insolent, we will take steps to make him obedient, such as a geas,” Luna said, her gaze falling upon Derpy and her eyes glittered with repressed anger. 

“What do I do?” Derpy asked. 

“You assume ownership of him. As the alpha of your herd, the Matriarch, we are offering to give him to you as property. Do you want him or does the very sight of him disgust you?” Celestia inquired. 

“I want him!” Derpy cried out in a strangled sob. “I… mean I want him to learn to from the wrong he has done,” she said in a confused whimper. 

“Guards, please prepare for the procedure,” Luna commanded. 

Several guards approached Bucky as one guard exited the room. Bucky was lifted from the chair and placed upon the table and held in place by the guard. 

“If you resist, if you struggle, you will only make this worse. If you use magic, the consequences will be dire. My advice is that you take your punishment willingly,” Celestia said in a dead icy voice. 

Bucky heard his family cry out and begin shrieking. 

“We prepared for this outcome, fearing that Buckminster would abuse the law and twist it to his whims, just as his family has done for a century of centuries. We have prepared a branding iron in the shape of your destiny mark, and now he will be marked as your property,” Luna said to Derpy as her gaze fell upon Bucky, was sprawled out over the table. 

The branding iron was in the shape of several bubbles gathered in a cluster.

Derpy watched as Bucky squirmed upon the table and she felt the faces of her family being pressed in all around her, damp cheeks and muzzles pressing into her from all sides. She alone held her head up and watched. She felt her resolve slipping and Derpy started to close her eyes as she watched the hot iron drip sparks as the unicorn guard approached. 

And then she saw Bucky’s tainted eye staring at her, looking at her pleadingly. She wanted to comfort him, to rush to his side, to hold him and somehow make this better. She squinted one eye closed and looked at Bucky with her good eye, bringing him into sharp focus, forcing herself to maintain eye contact. She owed him that and so much more. 

“The law has failed us,” Celestia announced. “There is no justice. Now that the last noble has been tried and the noble houses are no more, I want every law erased from the books so that we may start over fresh. I want the books collected and kept as relics of a failed system. Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, your punishment as part of your parents house was never announced, but I am about to do so now. You are to lay the foundations of new laws so we may build our society anew.” 

Celestia made a gesture and the guard readied himself, his face a stoic mask of grim resignation as he drew near Bucky to do what must be done. 

“I regret nothing,” Bucky whimpered, looking Derpy directly in the eye and his nostrils flaring. “Nothing at all!” 

Derpy watched and felt her whole body tense. She felt sick, but she forced herself to keep her eye open and not blink, trying to be there for Bucky the only way she could as the branding iron was pressed into his leg, just below his own hops plant mark. There was a loud hissing sizzle, the stench of burning hair and flesh filled the room, and Bucky’s ragged scream echoed from the walls. Sentinel’s shill cry pierced her ears and made her head throb painfully. But she never broke eye contact, holding onto Bucky the only way she could, and she felt every moment of his pain as he was branded with her mark. 

“Have him removed from this room. The sight of him disgusts me,” Celestia commanded. “I want him isolated in the hospital wing for a while so he can reflect upon his crimes. See that he is treated with the compassion he failed to offer others.” 

“This trial is over. The last noble has been dealt with and the very law itself has been placed on trial here this day. Ultimately, our law has failed us. Let us throw it out and find a better way,” Luna said in a clear clarion voice. After she fell silent, the magical quill that had transcribed the trial went still and fell over. 

“I regret nothing…” 



 

Bucky lay in a bed, alone, by himself in a small room. His side ached where he had been branded. A soothing ointment had been applied, which had dulled the pain slightly, but his flesh was still taut and full of agony from the branding iron that had been pressed deeply into his flesh. 

He still had his family and his life. He regretted nothing. It was a small price to pay. He had struck down his house and he had forced all of the laws from the books, allowing the system to be reset. He sighed, thinking about what he had just done.

The door opened and Bucky heard hoofsteps approaching his bed. He could hear weeping, and he struggled to lift his head to see who it was in his blind spot. 

Much to his surprise, he felt another pony crawling into the bed with him, and as he felt himself being picked up and nearly crushed, he realised it was Celestia as he was pressed against her barrel and cradled between her forelegs. He had always felt so small compared to her, and this was no different. He was like a foal again. 

Her weeping turned into agonised wails of anguish and he could feel her hot breath above his ears. Her whole body spasmed with sobs as she let out one keening wail after another. Bucky, unable to deal with his own emotions any longer, began to weep with her, and the pair wallowed in misery with one another. 



 

“I hope you will forgive me.” 

Celestia’s voice was raw and could barely be heard. Bucky could not reply, he tried, but only a strangled sound came out as he choked on his own mucus. 

“I am so sorry… I feel so terrible.” 

Bucky wanted nothing more than to comfort the still weeping mare. It felt like they had been huddled together like this, pressed up against one another, for hours, and Celestia had not stopped sobbing. He didn’t know what to say or do. 

“That was every bit as bad as having to banish my own sister…” 

Bucky could hear the anguish in Celestia’s voice and his crying turned once again into sobs. Overcome yet again, Bucky cried like a foal in his mother’s arms. 

“I am so proud of you. I love you so much… I feel so bad for what I was forced to do to you. I feel even worse that you understand why it had to be done,” Celestia said, almost hiccuping from her sobbing. “I hope you will forgive me… nephew.” 

“I forgive you. I trusted Luna and I trusted you,” Bucky whimpered, his voice a rasping scratchy sound that could barely be heard. 

“The nightmare is finally over and now we can truly rebuild from Luna’s fall.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 198
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So how much did you know?” Bucky asked as a damp wet cloth wiped off his muzzle. 

Celestia, wiping Bucky’s muzzle clean from snot and dried tears, closed her eyes for a moment. “That is very difficult to answer. A little. A lot. When I started to get the notion that you were going to be the one, I mobilised everything I had. I knew you were touched by shadow from a young age, but I wasn’t totally sure it was going to be you. And then certain events began to play out and I saw patterns. I understood that the isles would be your testing grounds, but there are other places that destiny might have pulled you towards. I knew there was darkness over the isles, but I had no idea just what was hiding there under the mountains. Buckminster… I… I don’t know how much you are aware of yet, but I know you have become aware of your divine spark. I was told I couldn’t interfere. There is so much I wish I could tell you, but I am not allowed.” 

“I understand,” Bucky whispered. 

“Be angry with me! Shout! Scream… be mad… show some sign of emotion! At least Twilight Sparkle slapped me…” Celestia said in a pained voice as sat down in a chair beside Bucky’s bed. 

“You called me “nephew” and I was wondering why you did,” Bucky questioned. 

“Because you and Cadance are orphans,” Celestia answered. 

“I’m an orphan?” Bucky asked, sounding puzzled. 

“While you were gone, I legally severed your ties to your parents. I wasn’t sure how this trip was going to turn out. If things went badly, I didn’t want your parents or your house to have the right to claim any of your foals and keep them as possible heirs. I know that Derpy and Berry Punch both are pregnant with your foals. If you had died…” Celestia choked, her words failing for a moment and she was forced to swallow and clear her throat. “If you had died, I wanted to make sure your foals were untouchable.” 

“But nephew?” Bucky inquired.

“We’re royals. We must have contingencies. Cadance has no parents. She too is an orphan, if something was to happen to her, as her aunt, I would have access to her foals to protect them,” Celestia explained. 

“I am a slave,” Bucky muttered. 

“Still a prince,” Celestia stated. 

“I don’t want to be,” Bucky protested. 

“Which is why you will make a good one,” Celestia argued. “Buckminster, why won’t you ascend? I know you know how. And if you do not not wish to do it yourself, let Luna or I do it for you. You should ascend. Heal your body. Restore yourself.” 

“I don’t want to do that,” Bucky grumbled. 

“But you were meant to be the alicorn of war,” Celestia said in a gentle reply. 

“The alicorn of war is the end of all things,” Bucky said.

“The dreams you’ve had. Those are dreams. You don’t have to end the world, just protect Equestria,” Celestia said as she shook her head softly. 

“I have,” Bucky stated. 

“Buckminster, your body… the damage done. This has shortened your life,” Celestia whispered, her voice a soft satin. 

“So I say no and you immediately go for the emotional blackmail approach,” Bucky grumbled. 

“What? No! Not that, I am just worried… Buckminster, this has robbed you of years of your life. You deserve better,” Celestia said, more tears now starting to fall again. 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky offered. 

“So am I,” Celestia responded. 

“So what happens now?” Bucky asked. 

“Shining Armor is with your wives and discussing your punishment. Their obligations for your care. He is going to make them all sign a contract,” Celestia replied. 

“Bon Bon is going to kill me,” Bucky muttered. 

“Why?” Celestia asked. 

“Because I lied Celestia, I lied through my big pointy teeth! Do you know how earth ponies are about lying?” Bucky said in a slightly panicked voice. 

“They can get a little carried away in their reaction, or so I have read in the papers. There might have been a little rioting,” Celestia said with a ghost of a smile. 

“What happened to you?” Bucky asked, unable to contain the question anymore. 

“There was a war Buckminster,” Celestia said. 

“I know that, but you… you look almost as bad as I do,” Bucky said in a raspy voice. 

Celestia lifted up a glass of apple juice for Bucky to get a drink and slipped the straw between his lips. She watched as he drank the cold beverage slowly. “There was a war Buckminster. Ponies declared war on me,” Celestia said in a grief stricken voice. 

“What did you do?” Bucky asked, the straw slipping from between his lips. 

“Nothing at first. I holed up here in Canterlot Castle and let them wear themselves out. I ignored them and it infuriated them. And then they got the bright idea to attack one of the refugee camps near Ponyville. The moment I got word, I took wing. Half of them were waiting here in Canterlot to ambush me.” 

“Oh no…” Bucky gasped. 

“I can’t use magic safely around my little ponies… I was angry Buckminster… it doesn’t justify what I did. Normally I only allow the smallest fraction of my magic to come out in a battle for fear of destroying everything around me. It is the reason why I lost to Chrysalis and ponies still make jokes about it. But when they attacked me in the skies over Canterlot, I was filled with so much anger after hearing that they had attacked a camp of refugees to lure me out… I slipped Buckminster. It was an accident,” Celestia said, looking distant. 

The white alicorn tucked the straw back into Bucky’s mouth and urged him to keep drinking before she would continue, smiling weakly and looking Bucky in the eye. 

“Luna came when she saw the fires in the sky over Canterlot. My anger was nothing compared to Luna’s. She was at the point where she had reached her limits. I had killed a few, but Luna, she could not stop killing. She tore through their ranks and then she smote ruin upon their houses. She was blind with fury. And for the second time, I had to protect my little ponies from Luna’s murderous wrath. She refused to understand why I was protecting them after they had hurt me. It took a while before she calmed, but now ponies think we are fighting again. And maybe we are. We’ve have a few disagreements, but in private we comfort one another,” Celestia explained. “You must understand Buckminster… Luna’s loyalty. She took it personally that I was assaulted. It wasn’t that the ponies had attacked their monarch, it was that they had attacked her sister. Luna has a fear of being alone. For the few ponies that let her in or she lets in and she calls family, she becomes rather murderous when a family member is threatened. You and my sister have much in common.” 

“So Luna killed a few nobles that made a bad decision,” Bucky grumbled. 

Clearing her throat, Celestia squirmed in her chair. “It wasn’t just Luna. Buckminster, you are going to read some things in the paper, or hear some stories. It was a family quarrel... it was a mistake.”

“A family quarrel?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, Cadance showed up and she was spoiling for a fight. She had a lot of pent up anger. You live with pegasi, so I know you know what I am talking about,” Celestia said in a sad voice. 

“So three of you did what exactly?” Bucky questioned. 

“Cadance and Luna felt I was wrong. Both of them were rearranging Canterlot. I had to stop them. And both of them were furious with me for protecting the ponies at war with me… I had started the battle and it escalated all so quickly. I let too much magic slip out. And then those two showed up and everything just went wrong,” Celestia said, heaving a sigh. 

“And where was Twilight Sparkle during all of this?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh Twilight was the responsible one. She was in the refugee camp and she had all of the unicorns spellbound. She rendered them harmless and locked them all away in protective custody. Twilight Sparkle has grown up so much,” Celestia said, sounding proud. 

“We outnumber you,” Bucky said with a wry smile.

“I do not follow,” Celestia said in puzzlement. 

“You and Twilight seem to be the only voices of reason,” Bucky said in an exhausted voice. 

“Oh dear,” Celestia gasped. 



 

Bucky was half dozing when the door opened and he heard hooves on the tile floor. He barely had time to get his eye open when he was swarmed. There were muzzles pressed into his face from every direction and murmured words he could not make out over everything being said all at once. 

And then, just as the crowd was backing off to give him some air, Bucky felt a sharp blow the side of his head. It whipped his head off to one side and made him see white stars in his vision. 

“Bon Bon! What has gotten into you?” Lyra shouted. 

Still seeing stars, Bucky heard the sound of hooves clattering over the tile floor as somepony ran out of the room, and he could hear sobbing. 

“Bucky, are you alright?” Derpy asked. “Bon Bon hasn’t been right since she heard.” 

“Yeah Bucky, are you alright? How is your backside? Are you comfortable?” Berry inquired. 

“Hurf ponies,” Bucky groaned. He could taste blood inside of his cheek. 

“We have a legal writ that clears all of us from any wrongdoing,” Lyra said. 

“They’ve already released a transcript of the trial into the newspaper,” Berry Punch said. “A special edition was printed off.” 

Thistle settled herself into the chair that Celestia had been sitting in earlier and sat panting for a while as she rubbed her tummy. “I’ve been so panicked.” 

“We had to talk about our contract and our ownership of you,” Berry said as she stood beside the bed. “Well, Derpy’s ownership of you. And what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do to you.”

“We had to talk about sex with a lawyer Bucky… I keep getting traumatised because of you,” Derpy said with a scowl. She held her scowl for a moment and then her face broke into a smile. “Everything is going to be okay.” 

“The paper said you were a hero for what you did in court, taking the full brunt of the law upon your shoulders as an example for why it should be destroyed,” Berry said. “We’re going to have to protect our husband you know… a lot of mares might be attracted by this sort of thing.” 

“Everypony understands why you did what you did… even if Bon Bon seems a little upset about it,” Lyra said. 

“Sentinel isn’t taking it well though,” Derpy said. 

“Ripple discovered coffee,” Berry Punch announced, swishing her tail from side to side as she did so. “We may have a problem now.” 

“We sure do,” Thistle said. 

Bucky sighed and enjoyed listening to his wives chatter. He didn’t feel the need to say anything, he was just glad to hear them talking. He was perfectly content to just keep listening.

“All of your pegasi guards miss you,” Derpy said. 

“Don’t… don’t make jokes about that,” Bucky begged.

Derpy paused and looked confused for a moment, and then felt bad after she saw the hurt on her husband’s face. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know. I was trying to make a joke so what you said wouldn’t sting so much.” 

“I know,” Bucky said, looking miserable. He closed his eye for a moment and took a deep breath. “I would rather be back under the mountain again walking down the endless line of steps.” 

“I will admit, for a moment, I wanted to strangle you Bucky. All your talk about facing things together as a family and then you go off and commit the ultimate act of hypocrisy when you go off to face the punishment all by yourself,” Berry said. She leaned onto the bed and planted a kiss on Bucky’s lips, a brief peck to let him know she wasn’t too angry. 

“They say I am going to deliver sometime around Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Thistle said. “I’ve never celebrated that before.” 

“Oh… Bucky, you should know. Freezerburn has a bounty on his head. He flooded the entrance hall and then froze the water. When Princess Luna went to address the crowd not long after the trial, she took quite a tumble, and Freezerburn was seen fleeing the scene of the crime, cawing as he flew away. He’s been declared a public menace,” Lyra said with a broad grin. 
	
	 
	
> Chapter 199
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster?” 

Hearing his name, Bucky drifted in the chasm between sleep and the waking world. He began to cross the gap, leaving the blissful pain free place he was in and moving towards the agonising state of being known as waking reality. He forced his eye open. 

“We didn’t know you were sleeping, I’m sorry, I whispered your name at the door, we can come back,” Cadance said apologetically. 

“Stay,” Bucky mumbled in a raspy gurgle. 

“Would you like a drink?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

“Please,” Bucky said appreciatively. 

A moment later, a cup of grape juice was set on the little table that reached over the bed and a straw popped into existence. The cup was held up to his lips and Bucky slurped through a straw, relishing the sweet liquid and its cold refreshing effect upon his throat. 

“We didn’t know Buckminster,” Cadance said. 

“What?” Bucky asked groggily, the straw slipping from his lips and grape juice dribbling down his chin, staining his pelt purple as it did so. 

“The trial. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know what Luna had planned out so carefully and told her sister, or that Shining Armor had directed you to do what you did. When we heard those words coming out of your mouth, the things you confessed to, how remorseless you seemed about all of it, it had a profound effect upon us both,” Cadance explained. 

Twilight Sparkle nodded as she leaned in and began to study Bucky’s horn and eye. 

“You were very brave to take a fall for your family like that,” Cadance said. 

Bucky’s remaining locked onto Cadance’s own sad eyes. “Anything Cadance. I would do anything. So Luna planned this?” 

“I know,” Cadance said, acknowledging what Bucky would do for his family. “And yes, she did,” she replied. 

“Your horn is really fascinating. Based on my brief analysis, you’ve constructed one giant focusing crystal. The intensity of your spellcasting must be spectacular. I’ve been given a commission from the sisters to study you. Gently of course. We wish to investigate the possibilities of artificial horns and prosthetics for injured unicorns, but we don’t want them having focusing crystals and becoming exceedingly overpowered. There are a lot of unicorns with cracked horns right now, the hospitals are crowded with more cases than the system can deal with given its current state of affairs. Overzealous earth ponies and pegasi are attacking innocent unicorns and intentionally cracking or even breaking their horns, not realising that they could kill a unicorn by doing that. So many have died and the survivors… It really-” 

“Perhaps another time would be best to discuss this issue, wouldn’t you agree Twilight?” Cadance said, gently interrupting her sister in law.

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, grinning sheepishly as she fell silent. 

“How long Cadance? The foal?” Bucky asked, his voice sounding much better after a long drink, his throat soothed and cleared by the grape juice.

“As you might have discovered, I gave you a little wedding gift,” Cadance said with a soft smile. “The spell affected me as well. My foal will be born in the spring. Probably right around the same time that Derpy and Berry Punch’s foals will be born. The doctor gave your wives a clean bill of health by the way. The foals are in fine condition. You are going to be a busy daddy.” 

“I am going to be an aunt,” Twilight said, her muzzle scrunching. “I wonder if there is a book explaining how to be a good aunt,” she muttered to herself. 

Cadance, rolling her eyes at Twilight’s words, smiled broadly at Bucky. “You need to pick out a godmother for your foals. I don’t want to pressure you, but I know of a perfect candidate,” Cadance said with an effervescent giggle in her voice. 

“Who?” Bucky asked. 

“Luna has never once in her long life been asked to be a godmother,” Cadance answered. 

“What?” Bucky said in reply, his voice full of disbelief. 

“Well, you see, a thousand years ago, Luna was the Night Princess, and she scared ponies. She was the Sister of Thunder, The Electric Death Fury, the winged embodiment of war, death, and destruction. It made her unpopular with the nobles. Also, dark blue was considered a colour of ill omen, and ponies were superstitious back then,” Twilight muttered as she continued to peer at Bucky’s replacement eye. “You know, with my help, I think we can give you some vision in this eye of yours again, but it wouldn’t be regular vision. This would be perfect to test my theory on light warping and photon field manipulation theories, giving you extraordinary extrasensory detection abilities and the ability to see things that do not want to be seen.” 

“Twilight, regular pony words if you please,” Cadance coaxed. 

“The ability to see things with powerful aversion spells and to see past invisibility spells. To see all of the things hidden all around us in plain sight. I cast a really powerful spell in the library that allowed me to see like this for about thirty seconds and I found a whole bookshelf that had been secreted away. It was full of amazing books on how to detect invisible creatures and things that do not wish to be seen. All of those books have been hiding in plain sight this whole time. The world might be full of things just hidden right outside of our field of view,” Twilight explained. “I also found a whole new library wing that exists only in fold space, it appears to be completely empty, but I am testing to see if that initial observation holds true.” 

“I feel stupid,” Bucky announced. 

“We all do,” Cadance said as she smiled at Twilight. 

“So what is going to happen to Berry Punch now that we are home… she started the war. I know there were going to be consequences we would have to face. How do I save her?” Bucky questioned. 

“What laws do we try her under? Currently, there are none. Berry Punch is a free pony and there are no plans to hold her accountable,” Twilight answered. 

Bucky heaved a sigh of relief and went limp in bed, his exhalations coming out as a long pained groan. He took a few deep breaths, feebly raised his good foreleg to his barrel, and laid it over his breastbone. 

“I am creating the Bureau of Thaumaturgy,” Twilight announced rather suddenly. 

“Oh?” Bucky grunted in a somewhat curious reply. 

“Yes. And as of this moment, consider yourself drafted. Don’t bother telling me no. As of just a few hours ago, when the laws were struck down, Celestia and Luna both gave me authority over all magic. I’m taking over what is left of the agency known as the Black Cloaks and rebuilding it from the ground up. Celestia disagrees with me, but I intend to put your talent for dark magic to use and study you as I do so. Dark magic is dangerous, but I want to give it a scientific study. I don’t believe it is inherently evil, but I do think that most of the ponies who exploited it were evil. I’d like to study its usage by a pony that clearly has a good heart. You proved that today when you took the fall for your family,” Twilight replied. 

“So I have no say in the matter,” Bucky grumbled. 

“No,” Twilight said coldly. “Let me make this clear. Luna and I have a lot of work to do. You either work with us, or we place a magic inhibitor on that ugly black lightning rod you call a horn.” 

“If this is what my Mistress wants, I will do this,” Bucky agreed. 

“And what about what I want? Why is it always Celestia this and Luna that?” Twilight snapped in irritation. “So frustrating,” she grumbled as she ground her teeth together. “And why do all of Luna’s devoted servants call her “Mistress”... the whole dark mistress thing is so cliché.” 

“Twilight, be gentle,” Cadance urged. 

Drawing in a deep breath and flexing her foreleg, Twilight calmed herself. “We have cultists running around creating havoc and chaos. We have unicorn superiourity groups who want a return to the way things were. We know for certain there is a necromantic coven that has sprung up somewhere down in the badlands and they are experimenting on changelings. Equestria has enemies. All of our black cloak operatives have died fighting various threats and Tirek, save two, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. You will be meeting them soon Buckminster. They’re paranoid, crazy, and exceedingly dangerous. Just like you are dangerous. The fact that almost a thousand of their colleagues have died has left them a little bit unstable. They’re survivors though. Just like you are,” Twilight explained.

“Only two?” Bucky questioned. 

“That’s it. They survived. Mostly due to their eccentric natures and extreme paranoia,” Twilight answered. 

“Twilight, you need to speak to my wife… Lyra Heartstrings would jump at an opportunity like this. Lyra is a better spellcaster than I am by far. She was second only to you in her specialisation when she was in school,” Bucky said to Twilight.

“Hmm, that is actually a good idea,” Twilight murmured absentmindedly. 



 

“Lugus, do you have a moment?” 

Lugus looked up from his book and saw Sentinel. The colt was weepy eyed and looked miserable. He shut his book and set it down upon a small ornate table beside the couch and patted the spot on the couch next to him, inviting Sentinel to come have a seat. 

Seeing the invitation, Sentinel hopped up on the couch beside Lugus and settled in. He took a deep breath and then shook his head. 

“I’ve read the transcript,” Lugus said in a low voice. 

“I was there,” Sentinel whimpered. 

“I know,” Lugus said, his beak snapping together and clacking once. 

“How could this happen? I don’t even understand what went on… my father is a hero… a knight. Was a knight. I don’t even know what he is right now. Why did they do this to him?” Sentinel questioned. 

Reaching out, Lugus gently stroked Sentinel’s mane, trying to comfort the foal. “Your father had to perform one final task to be a hero. He brought down a very corrupt system by exposing all of its worst faults during his trial. He exposed the gross injustice. The fact that his word was considered divine and beyond reproach is an abhorrent concept in the times in which we live. Do you want for me to explain to you what has taken place?” 

“Yes please,” Sentinel replied. 

“The sisters rule by the divine right of their word because they control the celestial bodies. By condemning your father, they have condemned their own rule. It was the only way they could admit that their absolute power was faulty. Making your father guilty was the only way they could expose their own guilt in a way that would be meaningful. I suspect that your father was made aware of everything ahead of time. Your father proved that having a divine mandate was a terrible injustice. Such a mandate prevented the Princesses themselves from seeking justice against the alleged crimes being presented in court. If two ponies have divine mandates that hold that their word is absolute, what happens when they disagree with one another? The system cannot hold,” Lugus explained. 

“So are the Princesses still in power?” Sentinel inquired. 

“They are for now, but I have a suspicion that will change,” Lugus replied. 

“Who will replace them?” Sentinel asked in a worried voice. “Somepony has to be in charge! Everything will fall apart and become even worse if nopony is in charge!” 

“Sentinel, the papers keep talking about an old form of earth pony rule called democracy. It seems to be what the ponies want. I believe the sisters are positioning themselves to allow for such a system,” Lugus said, trying to comfort Sentinel’s worries. 

“So my father had to say all of those terrible things… he had to lie… he had to admit to such awful things to… to… to…” 

“The legal system had become a dragon, and your father was tasked to slay it,” Lugus said as he stroked Sentinel’s good ear. “Your father bravely charged into battle and never once flinched in his duties. Already, there are editorials appearing in the newspapers explaining much of what I just said so the common pony can understand what has taken place this day. As the sun outside sets, so does the old empire.” 

“Will the new empire need knights?” Sentinel asked. 

“An empire always has need of devoted defenders,” Lugus replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 200
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Opening up his eye, Bucky stared up at the ceiling in the dark. Arranged carefully all around him were his foals, the little ones anyway, and he was grateful. He had been moved into his family’s quarters in the early evening, and there had been a tearful reunion. He shifted his body, trying to get comfortable, and then winced as the place where he had been branded sent a jolt of pain shooting through his leg. 

It wasn’t the worst pain he had endured. 

He took a deep shuddering breath in the dark and tried not to cry. It was finally over. Bucky hoped that the worst was behind him. The wolves. Facing the darkness under the mountain. Seeing the end of his own house and the ruination of his own bloodline. The trial where nobility itself was held accountable and he had become the whipping colt for an entire nation. 

It was finally over. 

He listened to the sounds of his foals breathing, a sound most dear to him. He shifted his stump on the pillow it was propped up on. He could feel a dull stabbing ache in the end where the flesh was healing over the bone. No more hoof. No more manipulation shoe to perform minor tasks. No more fetlock to wrap around things and grasp them in the most simple and primitive way that ponies had to interact with the world. Pinching something in your fetlock was crude, but it had been the first big step in pony evolution most biologists argued. The hoof was basically a big toe or a thumb and folding it back against the leg allowed for simple grasping. 

Bucky would never hold anything ever again in his left fetlock. He would never feel anything ever again with his left frog. But Bucky did not intend to leave himself with a useless stump. As always in times of trouble, Bucky began to plan.



 

“Bucky?” 

Hearing Bon Bon’s voice, Bucky opened his eye. He was alone in the bed. He wasn’t sure were everypony was. He yawned attempted to stretch, his body barely capable of the feeble effort it produced. 

“It is time for you to take some pills Bucky… and I wanted to talk to you,” Bon Bon said as she climbed up into the bed with Bucky. She set down a cup on the small table by the bedside, poured in the contents of a cold bottle of orange juice, and then opened up several bottles of pills, shaking out what was needed. 

“I forgive you,” Bucky grumbled in a dry voice. He heard the catch in Bon Bon’s breathing when he said the words and he wanted to pull her close to him and squeeze her. 

Saying nothing, Bon Bon slipped a straw into the cup full of orange juice so Bucky could take a sip. When he was done, she lifted the small paper cup holding all of the pills up to his lips and tipped it into his mouth. She then lifted up the orange juice again so he could swallow the dozen or so pills he needed to take. 

“I said awful things about Lyra,” Bucky whispered after he had swallowed. After speaking, he took the straw in his lips and took another drink. 

“I don’t know how I should feel,” Bon Bon murmured. “You lied. You lied. After everything I tried to teach you about the importance of honesty. I understand why you did it. I’ve read this morning’s paper. I understand why all of this had to be done. I don’t know why Bucky… it doesn’t make sense to me… I am fine with you and Lyra resorting to dark magic. I am okay with Lyra using necromancy. I am not overly bothered that you created a bomb that causes rape. But it is eating up my insides that you lied in court. Even though I know why you did it.” 

“I knew you would take this badly,” Bucky said. “I was more afraid of your reaction than just about anything else.” 

“I don’t know how to make peace with this. And I don’t hate you. I love you. My problem is with the situation, not with you. It bothers me that the new system, whatever is going to replace everything being torn down, it troubles me that the catalyst was a lie,” Bon Bon said. 

“But I was born with the right that my word is divine. I had the power of life and death. I had the right to kill other ponies for what I felt was just reasons. Just because I was born with it. How could I lie?” Bucky said with a wry grin. 

“I know Bucky. And it clearly wasn’t fair,” Bon Bon said. 

“Shining Armor told me that the last time that law was invoked it was when Equestria was founded. Princess Platinum used it to hand authority over to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. A unicorn named Sombra seconded the transfer of power. The law was printed in one book, and apparently the book was kept hidden away in an archive. The modern nobles never knew it existed. Otherwise things might have been much worse,” Bucky explained. 

Bon Bon pressed her lips together and groaned. 

“Keep me honest Bon Bon,” Bucky said, turning his head slightly to bring Bon Bon into sharp focus. “I love you.” 

“I know,” Bon Bon said as she began to fluff Bucky’s pillows that he was propped up on. “And I love you back…” 



 

There were four sets of eyes focused on Bucky, and four concerned faces with bittersweet smiles. Four sets of ears perked and waiting for a response. Two sets of wings with slightly ruffled feathers that fluttered at nervous sides. 

“We wanted to thank you for what you did for us,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“You are my foals… I could do no less,” Bucky said in reply. 

“It was very difficult to hear those words,” Rising Star said. 

“It was very painful,” Sparkler agreed. 

“Even though I was lying, I had to make it a believable lie,” Bucky said in a strained voice. “With every word I spoke I wanted to die.” 

“We know,” Sparkler said. 

“None of us hate you for anything you said,” Ripple stated. 

“In happier news, there are no laws prohibiting our marriage,” Rising Star said. “Princess Luna spoke with us, she said our marriage will be legally recognised and that we have nothing to worry about. She also said my parents were going to be brought to Canterlot.” 

“Our noble titles are being preserved as well, recognised as foreign nobles for the time being. Shining Armor spoke with us… there is going to be a new nobility, but there will no longer be inherited titles. The new nobles will be those who have done extraordinary things for the empire and recognised for their actions. We’re going to be recognised for our efforts in the Shetlands and then our titles will be Equestrian titles,” Sparkler said. 

“I am still recognised as a Dragoon. That is all that matters to me,” Ripple stated. 

“The newspaper I just read said you were the greatest liar who has ever lived,” Loch Skimmer announced, smiling sweetly as she did so. “The most important lie ever told.” 

“Oh moon and stars, Bon Bon is not going to be happy about that,” Bucky grumbled.

“The earth ponies are demanding that you have your knighthood restored. They want somepony to protect them from the dark things that now roam Equestria at night. There are hundreds of letters to the editors in the newspapers,” Rising Star said. 

“They are saying this is the golden era of journalism. Princess Celestia forcibly took over the newspapers… all of them, and then determined which papers were owned by which houses. Now, all newspapers are free to tell the whole truth, not just a few small independent papers. The nobles can no longer censor the big important newspapers. Every paper company is under protection by Princess Celestia herself and any attempt to interfere with the distribution of the news will be seen as an act of war against the Princesses,” Sparkler announced. 



 

“Twilight, there are griffons scaring my little ponies. The Shetland Isles, the isles that Buckminster worked so hard to secure, are worried about griffon raiders. The Sea of Grass is having regular terror raids. This cannot stand,” Celestia said as she paced back and forth in her room in front of a set of shelves holding a collection of plaster hoof prints. 

“The zebras have long been the common prey of griffons,” Twilight said. She looked down the ledger she was standing over and made a few corrections. 

“It ends now. There are no longer laws holding back my influence on certain foreign matters for fear of how it might affect the importing and exporting businesses the nobles had. I have grown weary of the predatory actions of the griffons. I see a chance to bring about long lasting peace. A small chance. And it is a gambit I am willing to take sides on,” Celestia explained to her former student. The alicorn smiled and looked hopeful. 

“What are you planning?” Twilight asked as she scribbled down a few notes. 

“When Buckminster has recovered, it is my intention to send both you and him overseas to visit the griffons as diplomats. I want you to do what you do best. Work as a friendship ambassador. Spread a message of goodwill. Give them an example of unity. I want you to take your friends. Win the trust of the griffons and try to get them to come together,” Celestia replied. 

“And what of Buckminster?” Twilight inquired. She looked up at Celestia and scowled, clearly not liking how this was starting to sound. Her brows furrowed and her ears perked forward. There was an annoying warbling sound coming from Philomena’s room and Twilight was in no mood for distractions. 

“Buckminster will be there to protect you and your friends. To keep all of you safe. He will be there for my peace of mind. And, if your efforts fail, Buckminster will be my trump card,” Celestia said as she shuddered and shivered violently. “If the negotiations fail, Buckminster can be counted upon to do what he was born to do. When the griffons have suffered enough ruin, they will come to me and grovel at my hooves, as they did once long ago when Sombra nearly brought them to extinction.”

“Is this wise?” Twilight queried. She heard Philomena trilling and wished the phoenix would be quiet. As a species, phoenixes were incredibly annoying and Twilight rather disliked them. 

“It is probably a rash thing to do,” Celestia admitted. “The griffons are no longer afraid of us. Our old enemies are testing their limits. We are surrounded on all sides by those who would devour us. We need to make a show of strength. Preserve your image Twilight. If things go badly, let Buckminster do what he does best. Let the griffons see you as the reasonable one. The good one. Let them live in fear of Buckminster so they will want to deal with you. If left to his own devices, Buckminster will make the griffons beg to deal with you.” 

Both alicorns paused in their discussion, now aware of a soft cooing sound mingled with raucous squawking. It had started off as a faint noise, but was now impossible to ignore. Celestia cocked her head and tilted her ear towards the sound, trying to discern its cause. 

“Philomena?” Celestia said in puzzlement. 

The large alicorn moved swiftly towards the balcony, the smaller alicorn just behind her.

“Philomena, how did you get out of your cage?” Celestia asked as she started to pull open the balcony doors. After pulling the doors open, she stepped out onto the balcony. 

Celestia froze, and Twilight gasped in embarassed shock. 

“Philomena! You brazen harlot! How could you! You cradle robber!” Celestia shouted in disgust. 

“Is that Freezerburn?” Twilight said as her mouth fell open. 

The pair watched the copulating birds for a moment and then Celestia stepped back inside, pulling Twilight Sparkle with her. She slammed the doors in anger and closed her eyes, squeezing them shut, trying to unsee what she had saw. 

“Wow, they really looked like they were enjoying it. You’d think that something hot and something cold wouldn’t be attracted to one another. It was really quite fascinating actually. Would you please open the door so that I might observe? I’d really like it if-” 

“Twilight…” 

“Yes Celestia?” 

“Not another word. Not one more word.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 201
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Do you want one of us with you?” Derpy asked, giving Rising Star a soft nuzzle. 

Rising Star closed his eyes and let Derpy comfort him. He leaned into her touch and tried to clear his mind. He thought about himself, his wives, his parents, and the complication of everything that was about to happen. 

“It is going to be overwhelming as it is. Maybe the fewer of us the better,” Rising Star said in an unsure voice. “I still don’t know what to say to my parents.” 

“Don’t be a foal for your parents, be a husband for your wives,” Derpy suggested. “You are a good husband. You’ve made Sparkler very happy and I am proud to have you as my son. If your parents see you being a good husband, I know they will be proud of you.” 

“How do you know?” Rising Star asked. 

“I’m a mom,” Derpy replied. She lifted her head and looked at the reflection of Rising Star in the mirror, and saw him looking back at himself. “You’ve grown taller.” 

Nodding, Rising Star silently agreed. 

“And you are very handsome. Keeping your mane a little long was a good idea,” Derpy said as she reached out with her wing and gently brushed the hair from Rising Star’s eyes. 

“Thank you,” Rising Star said, blushing slightly. 

“Now go have a nice time with your wives and your parents,” Derpy said. “I need to go check on my husband.” 



 

Derpy entered the room where Bucky was laying and slowly approached the bed. She saw the steady rise and fall of his barrel and noticed he didn’t sound so congested. He looked better too, a very general sense, even though Derpy couldn’t put her hoof on what had changed exactly. 

“The contract,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“Is a very silly piece of paper,” Derpy said with a smile. “Shining Armor said it was his best piece of work ever. He is very proud of what he did.” 

“You have to keep me happy… otherwise I get to complain about my treatment,” Bucky said with a faint smile.

“Yeah I do,” Derpy said, her own muzzle splitting with a broad smile. 

“I have to be well fed. I have to be kept comfortable. And the sexual obligations…” Bucky whispered in a voice that sounded like it was holding back a chuckle. 

“Hey… you have some obligations to me as well,” Derpy said in a vaguely seductive voice. 

“I think I am feeling a bit of unhappiness right now… right here on my muzzle, just above the corner of my mouth and just below my good eye,” Bucky said. 

“Oh? Let me get that for you,” Derpy said, jumping up into the bed beside Bucky. She kissed him on his muzzle, approximately where the unhappy spot was located. 

“Ah, that’s better,” Bucky said, relaxing into his pillows. “So about that penalty if you make me unhappy…” 

“Oh dear,” Derpy said, laying down beside Bucky. She tried to ignore the crash and the yelling in the other room. 

“Berry Punch ends up owning both of us. Me, because I have to spend my life as a slave, and you, because you screwed up and failed to look after me,” Bucky said. 

“We don’t want that,” Derpy said with a soft giggle. “Imagine what Berry Punch would do to the both of us if she had ownership.” 

“And if Berry Punch fails, the three of us end up in Bon Bon’s care, then Lyra, and finally, Thistle provided she is of responsible age. And if Thistle fails, we go into Luna’s custody,” Bucky said, shivering slightly as he could feel Derpy breathing on his neck. “What happens if Luna fails us?” 

“The contract does not say. At that point, Luna becomes one of us on the chain gang and we probably go to Celestia to get a stern talking to,” Derpy said, now laughing as she spoke, unable to contain herself. 

There was a loud hissing sound followed by growling from the other room and the two ponies in the bed sighed together, sounding content. Neither of them did so much as flinch when there was another loud crash. 

“Moonbow is pouncing Sentinel again,” Derpy said. 

“You horrible little monsters! All pegasi are brutes! You bloodthirsty little savages!” 

Bucky heaved another contented sigh. “Poor Berry Punch,” he murmured. “You know, I really like that part in the contract where I get one day off a week from being a slave and you have to behave as my servant.” 

“That was actually my idea,” Derpy said. After the words left her mouth she began to plant little kisses along Bucky’s neck and delighted in making him squirm just a little bit. “And I will do anything you ask of me…” she breathed seductively. 

“I can’t think of anypony I’d rather be owned by,” Bucky said, totally ignoring the sounds of shattering glass and Berry Punch’s frustrated swearing. 



 

“I’m scared,” Ripple said, her wings fluttering nervously. 

“Ripple, honey, don’t be scared,” Rising Star said as he stood nervously in the center of the room. He lifted one hoof and shook it nervously. 

“I get horny when I get nervous,” Loch Skimmer muttered. She looked around at the furnishings in the small sitting room. “This place is fancy.” 

“Loch Skimmer, is there anything that doesn’t make you horny?” Sparkler asked. 

“Let me get back to you on that,” Loch Skimmer snarked. 

They could hear faint voices outside the door and the two unicorns and two pegasi all huddled together nervously.

“Lord Rising Star and Lady Sparkler Doo Hooves will see you now.” 

Rising Star felt a lump magically appear in his throat and he found it hard to breathe as the door handle began to move. The door opened and he saw his mother and father. He stared at them for a moment, holding himself together somehow, and then he lost it completely as he began weeping. 

He ran to his mother and she hugged him, wrapping her forelegs around his neck. 

Rising Star’s wives all watched as he was crushed by both of his parents, Shining Star and Galaxy Guide, and all three of them were crying. Loch Skimmer leaned on Sparkler and rested her head against Sparkler’s neck. 

Still crying, Rising Star gently pulled away from his parents to introduce his wives. “You sort of know Sparkler already… you told me to go after her and I did. The pegasus with the straw coloured mane is Loch Skimmer. The pegasus with the blue mane is Ripple, who is very dear to me because she saved my life,” Rising Star said to his parents. 

Ripple nearly found herself bowled over when Rising Star’s mother slammed into her, wrapped a leg around her neck, and began squeezing tightly. Ripple squeaked in nervous alarm, and then tried to relax and allow herself to be hugged. 

“Well, say something about yourselves,” Rising Star suggested

“My sister Ripple and I, we were about to be traded for…” Loch Skimmer’s words trailed off when she saw the blank stares of horror from Rising Star’s parents. 

Ripple felt Rising Star’s mother squeeze her even tighter, a hug of almost pegasus proportions. She felt comforted by the crushing embrace and leaned into it. 

“Loch Skimmer and Ripple were going to be placed into a very bad situation that would have ended badly for them. Rising Star agreed to marry me and both of them to save them. Your son was very heroic. He says Ripple saved him, but he saved her from a fate worse than death,” Sparkler said rather bluntly. 

Shining Star looked into Ripple’s eyes and then began to kiss her face repeatedly, pulling tighter and tighter with each kiss. Finally, she relented from her kisses and pressed her muzzle into the top of Ripple’s head, breathing in her scent. “Nopony better touch my little girl. I’ve always wanted a little girl. Now I have a little girl that I can spoil.” 

“You did good,” Galaxy Guide said to Rising Star, his voice sounding a bit raspy. 

Shining Star finally let go of Ripple and then moved towards Loch Skimmer, snatching the other pegasus and working her over with motherly affection. 

“So what have both of you been up to?” Rising Star asked. 

Galaxy Guide cleared his throat. “We joined up with the Ponyville Militia early on. We worked in the provisions brigade. We’ve never seen combat, but we’ve battled hunger. We’ve used our magic to prepare and distribute food to lots of hungry ponies. Nothing quite as exciting as the action you’ve seen.” 

“Killing is awful dad… be thankful you’ve never seen heavy combat. You wouldn’t like what it does to you,” Rising Star said in a dull voice, his expression going vacant for a moment. “It hurts you on the inside and makes you change.” 

Galaxy Guide looked taken aback, his eyes narrowing, and he leaned in close to his son. “I’m sure it has… I’d say something to make you feel better, but it would just sound trite. Is there anything that helps you get through it?” 

“Well, Bucky has given me the best advice so far… get drunk and screw.” 



 

Piña reclined back into a tub full of bubbles and giggled at Dinky, who was in the other end of the tub doing the same. The pair had been covered in all manner of sticky stuff yet again and Berry Punch had tossed both of them into the tub and told them to clean up. 

“I’m not sorry I slathered potato salad all over your head,” Piña said. 

“And I am not sorry I shook up a bottle of of lemon soda, pointed it at you, and popped the cap off with my magic,” Dinky said in return. 

Piña giggled a bit more. “Must be nice knowing that you will never need a bottle opener.” 

Dinky farted, releasing a stream of bubbles into the bathwater and making rude resonant noises as her flatulence reverberated against the bottom of the tub. 

“Has the worm medication kicked in yet?” Piña asked. 

“Yeah, it has. I pooped out a bunch of stuff that looked like spaghetti noodles and it was Bon Bon who helped me get cleaned up. She was really nice. I love Bonnie,” Dinky replied. “What about you?” 

“Nothing yet, I’m going to get another dose soon,” Piña responded. 

“Bonnie really is a good mama. I was crying and really embarrassed and still pooping and she came into the bathroom and gave me a hug while I was stuck on the toilet and she made me feel better,” Dinky said. 

“We had cooties,” Piña said, somehow managing to giggle. 

“I hope the other fillies in school never find out that we had cooties,” Dinky said. 

“The doctor said that this kind of thing happens when you have a whole bunch of ponies all living together without modern sanitation,” Piña commented. “I really hope that the Princesses help fix up the isles now.” 

“So now that we are home, what do you want to do first? Go to a movie?” Dinky questioned. 

“No… I wanna go to a grocery store,” Piña said. 

“I kinda want to do that too,” Dinky said. 

“And have a tea party with daddy. He deserves a nice time,” Piña stated. 

“I’m up for that,” Dinky said as she sank down into the water a little bit more and rubbed her belly with her hooves, scrubbing away any dirt that might be in her pelt. 

“Are you ready to be a big sister?” Piña asked. 

Dinky did not respond right away. She thought about it for several moments, which lapsed into minutes, before she finally had a reply. “Yeah. I am. Everything I’ve learned from all my bigger siblings. Sparkler. Sentinel. Ripple, Loch, and Rising Star. Even Moonbow. I think I’m ready. I just have to try and act like them.” 

“We’re going to be the best big sisters ever,” Piña said. 

“Gonna be your birthday soon,” Dinky said. 

“I know,” Piña said. 

“Almost time for school to start. The end of the summer and the start of fall,” Dinky said wistfully. “Time of the year when pancakes and maple syrup tastes really good. Everything turns orange. Won’t be long before it is time for the running of the leaves.” 

The bathroom door opened and both fillies let out a squeal. Berry Punch staggered through the doorway, slammed the door, shuffled over the bathroom tiles, and then threw herself into the tub, displacing Piña and shoving her towards Dinky. 

“I’m having some second thoughts about motherhood,” Berry grumbled as she sank down into water. “Moonbow is a terror. She just wants to play. But she doesn’t understand that she can’t play like that indoors. All of my foals are wild feral savage brutes!” 

“We’re sorry we misbehaved… please still have our siblings,” Piña begged, sloshing through the water to rub Berry’s belly. “We’ll be good. Don’t have second thoughts about motherhood!” 

“I won’t use my magic to paint on the ceiling with ketchup and mustard anymore, I promise!” Dinky said. 

“Keep begging, and you, Piña, you keep rubbing my belly… I’m going to have to think about this for a while,” Berry mumbled. 

Now worried, Piña placed all of her efforts into rubbing Berry’s belly to make her big sister feel better. Piña wanted to be a big sister more than anything else in the whole wide world. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 202
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Drawing in a deep breath, Bucky tried to ignite a bit of harmonious magic. He had managed a few successful attempts, but he wasn’t sure how he had managed to it. He stared at the straw in front of him, willing it to move. Dark magic was easy now. It flared effortlessly. No emotion involved at all it seemed. 

But harmony magic was now difficult. He needed to free his mana from the corruption, by using emotion. He closed his eye and ignored the straw for a moment, the way it silently seemed to mock him. He ignored the pain in his leg where he had been branded. He ignored the throbbing in his stump. He shut all of these things out. All of these things were distractions. 

It was like being a foal all over again and having to learn to use magic. The grey pegasus sleeping beside him snorted and let out a little whinny in her sleep. Bucky loved the sounds she made when she was sleeping. Or screwing. Bucky simply loved the sounds she made. 

Focusing on the things he loved, he thought about his family. Honour bound Sentinel. How much he loved Dinky and Piña. Little Harper and her insistence for female pronouns. He thought about how much he loved his herd and everything he had fought for. He thought of Luna and how she had kept him with his family, just as promised. 

Bucky opened his eye and saw a familiar blue-green glow coming from his horn.



 

Trotting as fast as her legs would carry her, Dinky struggled to keep up with Princess Celestia. Her bath had left her feeling fresh and clean. Her pelt shone with a natural brilliance after being brushed by Lyra. She wondered why she had to go with Princess Celestia, but she wasn’t worried. 

Lagging somewhat behind, Piña Colada didn’t try to keep up, she kept to her own pace as she followed after the pair. She was radiantly pink and her clean hooves clicked and clattered upon the tile as she trotted through the corridor. 

“I hope that both of you know just how special you are,” Princess Celestia said in a soft motherly voice. 

“You aren’t going to take Dinky away and make her go to your school are you?” Piña asked. 

“Why would I do that?” Celestia replied in puzzled tones.

“Because of everything that happened,” Piña said. 

“I have no intention of taking Dinky from all of you. Your herd needs every member you have to heal after all that has taken place,” Celestia said, trying to soothe any fears that lingered in Piña’s mind. “We are here,” Celestia announced, pushing her way into a small room. 

Dinky and Piña followed after Princess Celestia and entered the room. It looked like a cleaning closet, only much larger. In the middle of the room was a table, and upon the table was a collection of objects. Celestia moved gently in the room, her hooves making only the softest sounds upon the stone floor. The foals watched as she lifted two pie tins in her magic. 

“Making pie?” Piña asked. 

“No little Piña,” Celestia replied. 

The foals watched Celestia curiously as she poured a white powder into the tins and then added a little water. The mixture was stirred with magic and then Celestia set the pie tins down upon the floor. She smiled. 

“Please, both of you, press your hooves down into the plaster, quick now, before it becomes too hard to work with,” Celestia instructed. 

Dinky and Piña both carefully placed one hoof each into their tins and pressed down, and then lifted when Celestia made a gesture to do so. 

Lifting a pair of clean cloths, Celestia wiped plaster from Dinky and Pina’s hooves. “I collect hoof prints from little foals that I know are going to change the world. Special foals. Foals with talent. Foals with unlimited potential. I collected a hoof print from Buckminster when he was little, and I have another hoof print from Lyra Heartstrings. And both of you know how special those two turned out.” 

Dinky sat down on the floor and looked at Celestia, her eyes wide. 

“Why me?” Piña questioned. 

“Because, you are an earth pony with magic. I have long suspected earth ponies had the potential to have strong magic. Pinkie Pie strikes me as being especially magical. But you, I have a feeling that you are going to learn how to control your magic directly so it is not as chaotic,” Celestia explained. 

“I know I could use my talent to spy on stuff,” Dinky said in a low voice, knowing full well her potential. 

“Yes you could Dinky,” Celestia said to Dinky in a soft voice. “And when you get a little older and have more control over your talent, you and I are going to have a talk about how you could help keep Equestria safe.” 

“I don’t want to use my talent to hurt anything ever again,” Dinky stated, her eyes narrowing and her gaze dropping down to the floor. 

“I will not ask you to use your talent to hurt others, only to keep others safe. And maybe save a few lives,” Celestia said in a soft soothing voice. 

“I can do that,” Dinky said. “But I want to make one thing clear. I do not work alone. If you want me to use my talents to help other ponies, Piña works with me.” 

“That actually makes me very happy to hear you say that,” Celestia replied. 



 

Rising Star looked around the table nervously at the light lunch spread out for them all. He wasn’t particularly hungry and he still felt rather nervous in the presence of his parents. Loch Skimmer was already chowing down, doing what Loch Skimmer did best. Living life with gusto. 

“So… um, I guess all of you are, uh, familiar with one another and are all grown up now, since, uh, you get drunk… and… uh… screw,” Shining Star stammered nervously. 

“Rising Star is really good at screwing!” Loch Skimmer said around a mouth full of salad greens. “He’s a fantastic shagger!” 

Rising Star wanted to dribble out of his chair and form a puddle of embarrassment upon the floor. Hearing Loch Skimmer announce that to his mother made him wish that he was dead. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then reminded himself that Loch was a pegasus. She couldn’t help how she was, and he loved her dearly. He heard Sparkler giggling behind a hoof she had held up to her mouth. 

“I see,” Shining Star said in a low squeak. 

Galaxy Guide grunted and loaded some salad on his plate and then added a few croutons. 

“He’s left Ripple alone though. Ripple is into fillies, and this is why we didn’t want to be traded into marriage. They don’t care about stuff like that on the isles. No respect,” Loch said as she scarfed down a huge bite of cantaloup. “Mmmm, I like melons!” 

Ripple choked and sank down into her chair, her face, which was a dark charcoal grey, began to turn a blotchy purple. “Loch!” she cried as she hid her face behind her hooves. 

“You’re gay. So what?” Loch Skimmer mumbled, her mouth full of cantaloup. 

“Loch…” Sparkler whispered in warning. 

“There is nothing wrong with being gay, and I am very proud of my son for taking you as his wife to save you from those who would not respect you,” Shining Star said in a wavering voice. She reached out and stroked Ripple, who was sitting beside her. She felt a little better when she felt Ripple respond to her touch. 

“I raised my son right,” Galaxy Guide grunted. He looked around the table, clearly overcome with emotion, and he looked very proud. 

“So, um, how will Ripple be happy later on when she grows up?” Shining Star inquired gently, her nervousness fading away and being replaced with motherly concern. 

“Oh… she and Sparky here plan to shag like rabbits when Ripple feels she is ready,” Loch said just before she jammed her muzzle down into a bowl of berries and cream. 

“Oh… I see… so everything works out okay then, Ripple will have her needs looked after,” Shining Star said in a slightly strained voice. 

“Rising, son, you have to be living every teenage colt’s dream,” Galaxy Guide said as he wiped his muzzle with a napkin. 

“Laxy!” Shining Star scolded. 

Rising Star squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. “Yeah… survive a war… get drunk… screw…” he muttered. 

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Galaxy Guide said, looking apologetic. 

“I had to watch somepony I love dearly get ripped apart inside and out… get consumed by darkness… I had to watch him die a little more each day. It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare. And the only comfort I had was with my wives and my extended family,” Rising Star spat. 

“I’m sorry,” Galaxy Guide said to his son. 

“I am sorry too… I stay sorry. I stay angry. You have no idea how angry I stay. And just like Bucky, the only thing that keeps me from burning down the entire world around me are my wives, who keep me sane. We’re all screwed up and broken ponies and all we have is one another,” Rising Star grumbled. 

“Son, the war is over. The fight ended. I know it will be difficult, but now is the time to put that behind you and move on,” Shining Star said, setting her fork down as her horn dimmed. 

“Rising, you okay?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Rising, do you need a few moments to yourself?” Sparkler inquired, her voice full of worry. 

“I’m fine,” Rising Star whispered as he let out a deep breath. 



 

Moonbow waited patiently, stalking her prey. She didn’t move, not one muscle twitched. To most observers, she appeared to be asleep, her eyes closed. Her eyelids only opened the tiniest bit for her to observe her prey. An occasional whistling snore came out, which was actually her echolocation system keeping an active lock upon her target. 

Her target was busy drawing upon a sheet of paper using some charcoal pencils which had been provided for him. 

Concentrating, she increased her heartbeat, preparing herself. She had an instinctive feeling that the moment to strike would come soon. Sentinel was yawning, and his guard was slipping as he grew tired. She could feel the blood rushing to her extremities, preparing her body for the hunt. Her prey was small and appeared to be helpless, but she had learned that he was fearless in combat and was in fact, quite wily. He was excellent breeding stock and would give her fine foals one day. 

She saw his head nodding, drooping slightly and she saw him put down his pencil. He flexed his wing, which seemed to be cramped after the time spent drawing, and then, he yawned again, exposing his fangs as well as his long orange tongue. 

It was the right moment. Moonbow launched herself from her spot upon the sofa, soared through the air with her wings still folded tightly to her sides, and she pounced. It was the oldest and most instinctual pair bonding and mating behaviour her species had. Females pounced males in play when younger, and then would hold them down to breed with them when they were older. 

She heard an angry yowl from Sentinel as they collided, and the force of the impact knocked him from the chair. Their entwined bodies tumbled through the air and then crashed into the floor. They rolled for quite some distance, Moonbow gently grabbing while Sentinel kicked and wiggled, trying to free himself. The wooden chair beside the table fell over and clattered to the floor. 

Bursting free from her clutches, Sentinel tumbled away and then bounced up onto all fours, springing away stiff legged, wings out, and hissing loudly in challenge. Moonbow felt her heart flutter and there were moths in her stomach. Something about her future mate made her have funny feelings when he was so defiant and brazen. He was never submissive. He continued to bounce away, his legs acting like springs, and his stiff legged gamboling excited her. She let out her own somewhat lusty yowl in response to his. He wasn’t ready for more affectionate gestures or activities yet, so her pouncing remained innocent for now. 

She watched, her heartbeat increasing rapidly, as Sentinel’s lips curled back completely from his teeth, exposing a mouth  full of deadly weapons. His hisses were getting better and she wondered if they would soon bear the magical effect of fear that their kind possessed. She pounced again, launching herself from her position upon the floor. 

She collided with the floor, hitting nothing, Sentinel bouncing out of the way with a stiff legged springy leap. She rolled, tumbled, and then launched herself again, this time with a false start in one direction before changing directions, and this time, she was rewarded for her cunning as she came crashing down upon Sentinel once more. She carefully pinned him down and rendered him helpless. Puckering up, she kissed him gently upon the cheek and sang a little song of victory using her echolocation. She grinned a wicked grin and stared into Sentinel’s eyes. 

Sentinel kicked and squirmed beneath her and she felt her body warm slightly. She felt a strange blush build up in her cheeks as she became aware of the fact that every pony in the room was watching her. Bon Bon. Lyra. Berry Punch. Thistle. Even Harper was staring at her wide eyed. 

“All pegasi are brutes,” Berry Punch grumbled as she rolled her eyes. 
	
	
> Chapter 203
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Raven clearly worried too much, and Celestia knew this. Her assistant was beside herself with worry, saying that there was an angry mob here to have some words. They didn’t wish to address her in an orderly fashion one at a time in her throne room. No, they wanted to keep their angry mob status and make demands as a group. 

It was something Celestia was okay with. In fact, she desired it a great deal. They were angry foals who were now rebelling against their parents. Celestia hoped that some gentle words would help them find their way and guide them as they took their first foal steps towards a little bit of self rule.

The guard threw open the massive doors as she approached and Celestia saw hundreds of ponies gathered in the central courtyard. They looked shocked to see her in the doorway, most had been staring up at the balcony where she usually addressed her subjects. She moved into their midst and many fell down and bowed. A few dropped their heads. Some held their heads high in defiance, and Celestia was just a little bit proud of those that did. 

“My subjects, you wanted to see me?” Celestia said as she looked all around her. The guards looked concerned. 

“Give us what we want or we will riot!” a pony bravely shouted. The voice came from behind Celestia and she couldn’t see who it was. She smiled gently, cleared her throat, and then lifted her head up high. 

“Riot is such an ugly word,” Celestia said in a calm voice. “I find that when the word “riot” is used in the newspapers, it is because somepony has an agenda, or the writer responsible did not know how to spell “demonstration.” Angry ponies riot. Reasonable ponies demonstrate. What sort of ponies am I dealing with today?” she inquired of the crowd. 

The crowd began to murmur and the sounds of worried voices could be heard all around her. Celestia waited patiently. She stood with the breeze upon her face and the sounds of her beloved little ponies in her ears. 

“We have some requests to make of you. If you fail to give us what we ask for, we will hold a demonstration!” a pony shouted. “A very well behaved demonstration. Because we are reasonable ponies…” 

“I like reasonable ponies,” Celestia said. She beamed and looked all around her. Most of the crowd was sitting down now, almost all of them looking at her inquisitively. “Reasonable ponies will be listened to. And might even get what they have asked for, provided it is in my power to give.” 

“We have a few requests,” a stallion said. 

“I would like to hear them,” Celestia responded. “Might I have your name first?” 

“My name is Silver Shill, and I came here on behalf of the Farmer’s Union of Ponyville,” Silver Shill answered. 

“Well then, Silver Shill, I would like to hear your reasonable requests,” Celestia said in a soft voice that somehow carried over the sound of the crowd. 

“The trial was a sham… we all understand that. Keg Smasher, Laird of the Shetland Isles, gave a detailed account of everything that took place there. We feel that Buckminster Bitters was treated poorly. We understand why it had to be done, so the system could be struck down, but we request that Buckminster Bitters be reinstated as a knight. There are bad things roaming Equestria now. With the destruction that took place in the Hollow Shades and the Foal Mountains, many monsters were displaced from their lairs. We need a pony that knows how to fight monsters and win,” Silver Shill said in a loud clear voice. 

An earth pony mare nervously approached Celestia, bowed her head slightly, and then sat down. She looked at the crowd all around her, blinked a few times, and then focused her gaze upon Celestia. 

“We the ponies would like a say in this issue,” the mare announced. “My name is Cherry Berry and I head the Airborne Watch Union of Ponyville.” 

“This is turning out to be quite interesting.” 

Celestia turned her head upwards at the sound of Luna’s voice. Her sister was up on the balcony, looking down upon the crowd. Celestia felt the first feeling of actual worry. Her little ponies were still scared of Luna, and rightfully so after what happened over Canterlot. The papers were still calling her “the electric alicorn of death” and other horrible terms which made her out as a monster. 

“So you want Buckminster Bitters reinstated as a knight, even though I am sure all of you know what he has done?” Luna asked of the crowd. 

There was a nervous murmur but the crowd stayed calm. A few now watched Luna warily, hoping the temperamental blue alicorn would not unleash electric death once again. Vast sections of Canterlot were now bare of buildings.

“We know what he did,” Silver Shill said, daring to look up at Luna and raise his voice just a little bit. “We also know that if you truly believed that he was a bad pony who had a desire to hurt others, you would have never placed him back into society where he might do us harm. We have asylums for the truly dangerous. You sentenced him to life with his family, so he could be happy. We humbly request that his talents for death, destruction, and mayhem be put to good use, keeping all of us safe. We know of his vow to never bring harm to another pony. Keg Smasher spoke a great deal about it in the interview.” 

“He is well experienced in killing monsters. And there are reports of undead in the badlands and Los Pegasus,” Cherry Berry interjected. “We need an experienced undead slayer. What are your pegasus guards going to do exactly? Keg Smasher spoke at length about his battle with the undead and the horror of trying to take them down. They don’t die!” 

There was a sudden rush of noise from the crowd and Celestia could feel the panic in the air. As a group, the entire crowd scooted inwards a bit, packing in a little tighter and a little closer all around her. She could see ponies shivering with fear in the warm late summer sun. 

“Please give us what we want. We’re tired. There has been a lot of fighting and scary times. I think all of us are tired of living in fear. Please don’t make us go through the trouble of having to organise a demonstration,” a pegasus begged. 

“We want his knighthood restored!” a mare shouted. 

“And maybe just a little promotion?” a stallion added. 

“And what should we promote him to?” Luna inquired, her loud booming voice falling out over the crowd. 

“A corporal?” somepony suggested. 

A lone guard standing near the double doors shook his head sadly but said nothing, he resumed standing attention and went still as a statue. 

“Making him a corporal is not a promotion,” Luna said, raising her eyebrow slightly. 

“My little ponies, if you want self rule, you will be required to educate yourself on these sorts of issues so you can have a say in them. How can you have an informed opinion of what to ask for if you do not know anything about what it is that you are requesting?” Celestia inquired in a soft gentle voice. 

“Maybe we’re not ready for self rule just yet,” Cherry Berry said. “But we can learn as we go. We’ll just have to take control of little things that we do know about and trust that you will give us more authority over ourselves after we learn.”

“Yeah, like us farmers! We farmers know what is best for us farmers! Which is why Princess Twilight Sparkle demanded that we form the Farmers Union so we could look after our own needs and stay out of her mane. What do Canterlot Unicorns know about growing apples or carrots?” Silver Shill announced. “We’re going to need somepony to look after us and protect us while we make mistakes so we can learn!” 

Smiling a delighted smile, Celestia felt a burning sense of pride for her little ponies. 

“What about a sergeant?” somepony asked, suggesting a rank. 

Again, the lone guard shook his head and the crowd began to watch his reaction. 

“Most of us are farmers and we know nothing about the guard and their ranks,” a mare shouted. “This is a problem. If we voted on an issue, would we be doing more harm than good?” 

There was a loud murmur that went through the crowd as the ponies began to chat amicably with the pony sitting next to them, trying to find some consensus. Several ponies gathered around Silver Shill and there were some loud voices who tried to speak over the crowd. Finally, some sort of agreement seemed to be reached, because the crowd quieted down. 

Clearing his throat, Silver Shill looked Princess Celestia in the eye. “We the ponies request that Buckminster Bitters be given a promotion to one step above whatever he was previously. We admit our ignorance in this issue and we beg that you will forgive us. We will strive to better ourselves if we can.” 

“A major,” Luna announced. “Knight Major Bitters. Is this what you want?” 

The lone guard nodded his head while making a gesture of encouragement and the crowd quickly began to agree, all of them shouting. 

“Very well then. Let us all take a step in the right direction together, shall we?” Celestia said in a proud but gentle voice. “I would like to see a show of hooves then. How many ponies would like a restoration of Buckminster Bitter’s knighthood and a promotion?” she inquired. 

The crowd raised their hooves, looking somewhat confused and befuddled. A few ponies were smart enough to realise that history was being made this day in the courtyard. Sadly, there was no reporters to record this momentous event. 

“Well, that looks to be unanimous,” Luna announced. “Your Night Princess would like to make a suggestion. The griffon known as Lugus, he is Buckminster’s personal griffon at arms. In his homeland, he was a knight. Shall we restore a second knighthood this day to celebrate this momentous occasion?” 

“Yes?” Cherry Berry said, her voice echoing from the courtyard walls. The crowd roared after she spoke and she grinned sheepishly. 

“Well then, my good quiet ponies,” Celestia said, which shushed the crowd, all of them instantly fell silent for her. “How about a show of hooves?” 

Again the crowd raised their hooves. 

“Once more, I think that was everypony saying yes,” Luna announced. “Now, there is another issue to discuss… being a knight is a full time job. Monster slaying takes a lot of a body. They do not have a lot of time to work for gainful employment. If they did, they would not be warriors. You do not send a farmer to fight a monster, and you do not send a warrior to plow a field. How will Lugus provide for his family? He has a wife, a pegasus named Yew Wood, and pegasus foal that he rescued named Peekaboo.” 

“I will talk to the Farmer’s Union about donating a portion of food to Lugus and his family to help them. Once the financial institutions are using money again, I will personally ask each and every farmer for dues so we can provide Lugus a salary, provided that the crown matches us bit for bit,” Silver Shill offered. 

“Done,” Celestia said briskly. 

Silver Shill blinked, looking surprised. “Okay,” he said nervously. “I’m gonna have a lot to tell Applejack when I get home,” the stallion whispered to himself. 

“So are there any other polite and well worded requests that we can deal with today?” Celestia questioned as she looked around the crowd, her wings fluttering slightly. 

“Well yes actually… my name is Chocolate Morsel, and I have a solution to the communication problem we seem to have since the mail system fell apart. I’ve figured out a way to send electric pulses over wires with a simple machine that even earth ponies and pegasi can use. It makes little clicks and beeps and I call the beeps and boops Morsel code after myself. You can talk with another pony instantly at any distance without having to use magic or wait on a letter to arrive,” an  brown earth pony stallion said. 

“I am intrigued,” Celestia responded. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 204
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna seemed exceptionally pleased when she came bursting through the door with Lugus right behind her. She moved with grace and dignity, her wings spreading slightly in a display of dominance and being pleased. Even with her joyful demeanour, her face looked tired and pinched. Bucky was forced to wonder when Luna had slept last. Alicorns, even immortal alicorns, needed sleep. 

Beside him, Derpy awoke with a snort and a sharp peal of flatulence, which made the corner of Luna’s mouth curl upwards for the briefest second. Bucky felt a moment of relief when he thought about Luna being the Element of Laughter. 

“Princess,” Derpy said in an embarrassed tone while trying to pull herself together. She smacked her lips together a few times and then pulled herself into a modest position, rolling over on the bed and then sitting up. 

Bucky sighed. He had been enjoying the view of the sprawled out pegasus sleeping on her back with her teats pointed up at the ceiling. Derpy was starting to show in her pregnancy, but only slightly. She had been exquisitely beautiful slumbering beside him, her straw coloured mane spilling over her face and all around her neck. 

He could hear other ponies gathering around the door, the sounds of many hooves clicking all in one place as the herd drew together at the door but did not enter. 

“I come bearing news. The ponies have spoken, they want their knight back. As of this moment, your knighthood has been reinstated, along with a small promotion to Knight Major,” Luna announced. She beamed, looking immensely pleased. “And you are not to serve these ponies alone. Lugus, the ponies have spoken. You are to join Buckminster in his duties. I am recognising your knighthood and giving you all of the duties and privileges of being an Equestrian knight,” the princess added as she turned and spoke to Lugus. 

Lugus looked stunned for a moment, and then bowed his head. “I will do as you bid,” he said in a low soft voice. 

“You will do as the ponies bid. They are going to sponsor you. The farmers will feed your family and will soon be providing a stipend so you will have a few bits for spending. I fear you will never become wealthy doing this job,” Luna said in a solemn voice. 

“This is not a job you do for coin,” Lugus replied, bowing his head further. “This is a job you do because it must be done, and the reward is honour.” 

“The nobles and their many armigers seemed to have forgotten that. Save one,” Luna said, turning her head towards Bucky. “Buckminster, I know you have a squire… Lugus, you will need to find a squire. A knight must have a squire.” 

“Actually, I have been meaning to talk to Lugus about that,” Sentinel said, shoving his way through the crowd of larger ponies and making his way to Luna’s side. “I’ve been wanting to talk to Lugus about this, but then everything happened and I wasn’t even sure if I was a squire anymore after what happened to father so I never said anything. Everything got so dark for a time… Ripple would make a fine squire.” 

“A female?” Luna said in surprise. 

The room fell silent for a moment, and every eye in the room turned towards Luna. The room was filled with the many sounds that accompany uncomfortable silences. Breathing. The sounds of tails swishing. The wet sound of somepony smacking their lips or licking them nervously. 

“I am not against the idea of a female squire,” Luna said, trying to dispel everypony’s concern. “It is just that, to my knowledge, there has never been a female squire or knight in Equestria’s long history. The Myrmidons are probably the closest thing that we have to knights anymore… and having both genders has worked out surprisingly well.” 

“Ripple is a Dragoon and she is combat tested. She is young and still needs training. I need training. Ripple’s destiny mark shows that her future is going to be filled with all sorts of glorious violence and honourable combat. Or maybe less than honourable combat. I’ve heard a few unfounded rumours that Ripple has been known to engage in less than acceptable places to land her strikes,” Sentinel said, his face darkening as he neared the end of his words. 

“Where is Ripple?” Luna inquired. 

“My sweet little Ripple is off with Rising Star and his other wives, meeting with his parents,” Bon Bon replied, standing just outside the door. 

“Lugus, would you be willing to talk to her?” Luna asked. 

“I would be honoured to speak with her. Ripple is a noble soul. She understands sacrifice,” Lugus replied. 

“Finally, I did something important!” Sentinel shouted. “About bloody time.” He stood in place for a moment, his eyes closed, and his face scrunched up in a moment of jumbled emotions. His eyes opened and he bolted for Moonbow,  upon reaching her, he planted a kiss on her cheek. Realising what he had just done, he backed away, looking somewhat embarrassed, his wings fluttering nervously. “I don’t know what came over me. I suppose I have learned things from my father.” 

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Moonbow said in a low voice. 

“Alright, if you could, everypony out. I need to speak with Buckminster alone,” Luna announced. She gave an apologetic half smile to every pony as they began to file out the door. Derpy, after jumping off of the bed, was the last pony to leave. 

Luna shut the door and then turned to look at Bucky. 

“Luna, I don’t think I can handle anything overly traumatic,” Bucky said, turning his head slightly to focus on Luna. 

Luna crossed the room, moving gracefully, effortlessly, and made her way to a chair that was in Bucky’s field of vision. She climbed into the chair and spread out comfortably, not looking at all like a dignified princess. “No worries nephew. And no calling me “Mistress” for now. This is a small private magic lesson between family,” she announced, settling into the chair. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, Bucky settled back into his pillows, relaxing and making himself comfortable once more. “I can focus harmony magic again. Sort of. I am still having trouble. I have to think about my family and what I love to get it to happen,” he explained. 

Luna nodded in reply and then began her lesson as she turned to look directly at Bucky. “There are several schools of magic, all of them very different from one another. Harmony magic, common to most unicorns, is the most common source of channeled magic. The power of the cosmos channeled through the body and the horn,” Luna began. “But you already know that.” 

“Yes, I do,” Bucky acknowledged. 

“And there is dark magic. Which we do not actually know very much about. My sister knows a fair bit about it, she studied it for a time, but she did not like how it made her feel. Personally, I have a great deal of trouble making dark magic work. If I had a weakness in magic, it is my inability to cast dark magic. Oh I can squeeze off a few spells, but it drains me and leaves me feeling very unsettled,” Luna said, making a gesture with her hoof to emphasise her words. 

“As I recall, you mastered shadow magic,” Bucky said. 

“Umbramancy,” Luna said in reply. “It is how I patrol the dreamscape. Shadow magic, where light and dark magic work together in harmony. It is neither dark or light. It is the fine balance of the two opposites and it is what I do best. It is how I heal minds, gently correct the wicked to make them regret their evil ways, and how I spook ponies back into the light. Very few unicorns ever have shadow magic. Sombra did. Mostly, the practitioners are lunar pegasi. Like little Sentinel. He is bursting with potential. I haven’t met his like in ages. Probably before I was banished. You are going to have to learn how to use umbramancy and when I teach you, I will be teaching Sentinel as well. I am claiming both of you as my students.” 

“Sentinel stopped Sombra’s shadow from taking over my mind,” Bucky said. 

“I am well aware of what Sentinel did. He stopped a monster far worse than what you faced in the darkness under the mountain. Sombra’s fell shadow would have claimed your body and your destiny, he would have ascended, and he would have become the alicorn of war. Draw your own conclusion from there,” Luna replied. 

“I am all too aware of what Sentinel prevented,” Bucky said in a pained whisper. 

“Back to the subject at hoof, you have a monumental task ahead of you. Celestia was a gentle teacher. I am not,” Luna stated plainly. “I get results.”

“I understand,” Bucky acknowledged. 

“And there still more types of magic. Do you know what they are?” Luna inquired. 

“The only ones I can think about right now that are major types are chaos, healing, and necromancy,” Bucky answered. 

“Yes,” Luna replied. “Healing and necromancy, the two opposing forces of balance. What do you know of healing magic Buckminster?” 

“Very little. I know it is something you must be born with and it is incredibly rare,” Bucky replied. He shifted his stump on the pillow beside him and his lip twitched from an itch he could feel under the skin. 

“Actually, if I might enlighten you, healing magic is more common than most ponies realise,” Luna said in a low voice. “But the practitioners are so incredibly rare.” 

“Why?” Bucky asked. 

“Pain Buckminster. When healing magic is performed, the healer has to experience the pain of what caused the injury. So when they close up a cut or heal a broken leg, they get to experience the sensations of pain that caused those injuries. Very few ponies develop their gifts and those that do charge an obscene amount of coin for it,” Luna explained. 

“That sounds awful,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You would make a good healer if you had the gift. You have this casual disregard for your body that stupifies me,” Luna stated. 

“What about necromancy?” Bucky asked. 

“Ah, necromancy,” Luna mused. “It looks identical to dark magic when it is being cast, but it is actually very different. Almost any unicorn can do it. It can heal, but it can also harm. It can be used to regrow limbs and heal the body… but as it is being used, it leaves open a magical rift between this realm and Tartarus. As the caster continues to focus the magic, dark things slip out, released into this world to run free. When very powerful spells are cast, very dangerous entities tend to slip out and escape. And then my sister and I are forced to round them up and drag them back to Tartarus. Some of them cannot be killed. Others can. Their evil never truly goes away, you can kill the body and slay the lesser demons, but the evil itself oozes back into Tartarus and eventually something absorbs it and becomes a little stronger. The demons are constantly at war with one another down there, each trying to absorb one another and all of them vying to be the strongest.” 

“I had no idea,” Bucky breathed.

“That every time you channel necromancy you allow demons to slip into the world?” Luna replied, raising an eyebrow as she spoke. “This is why we are so harsh on necromancy. It is the unforgivable sin of magic.” 

“Under the mountain… he… his ascension… he…” Bucky stammered, trying to find the right words. 

“Many of the demons in Tartarus used to be ponies,” Luna said in a pained voice, understanding what Bucky was trying to express. “There are other forms of ascension Buckminster. Not all of them are good. Not all become alicorns. Some become other things.” 

“So he would have become some horrible shadow demon,” Bucky said. 

“Yes, in time. He was close. And there would have been no stopping him by the usual mortal agencies. My sister and I would have had to subdue him and place him in the prison constructed for his kind. My sister became the gatekeeper of that place after slaying the previous gatekeeper who had become corrupt and wicked. It is one of the many duties she is tasked with. She is the warden, and she has the power to incarcerate those who are sufficiently wicked,” Luna explained. 

“But Celestia is not the master of Tartarus,” Bucky said. 

“Not exactly. She just has power over the gate,” Luna replied. 

“How did she get this power?” Bucky inquired. 

“A time will come when one demon or some horrible entity will consume all of the other evils to be found, both on earth and in Tartarus. Celestia has been tasked with slaying that evil when it finally comes to power. She is weakened now after the thousand years she has endured alone… I cannot speak of certain things… but my sister has been left weakened and there is a lot more at stake than most mortals will ever begin to understand. These were a thousand years she should have been drawing strength and preparing for the inevitable conflict,” Luna said in a worried voice. “But my downfall placed everything out of balance.” 

“So every act of necromancy allows demons to escape from Tartarus, come out here to feed upon the fears and hatreds of the sapient races, eventually they get returned to Tartarus, now stronger, and then the denizens of Tartarus squabble and fight with one another, consuming that power and getting stronger and stronger. The demons are really nothing more than shadow wolves, out to collect energy and bring it home. It is exactly what I have just endured, only on a cosmic scale,” Bucky said in a slow measured voice. “And ponies who resort to necromancy might just want simple things like healing without the cost of pain.” 

“Your ability to assess your enemy is amazing… you do realise that is part of your divine nature…” 
	
> Chapter 205
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky’s mind reeled with everything he had learned. It was a lot to take in all at once. He thought about the necromantic spells that had popped up several times in his mind. The knowledge of the death spell that had sprung into memory during the signing of the treaty. Bucky realised that things had been whispering in his ear already, knowing that he was a powerful conduit of magic. He silently resolved to never use the foul magic and to have a long talk with Lyra about her curiousity. 

His mind drifted and he thought of Lyra’s repressed memories. He thought about the words she had said that day when they had hunted the undead. He shuddered, suddenly understanding what necromantic death cults were really doing. Releasing demons into the world. 

He stared at the now empty chair where Luna had been sprawled out, and wished that she hadn’t needed to leave so soon. He had questions. 

The door opened and he heard the sound of little hooves on the stone floor. Dinky and Piña came into his field of vision and hopped up on the bed with him. Behind them was Derpy, returning to her spot on the bed. 

“Celestia made us stick our hooves in plaster,” Dinky announced. 

“She has your hoof print in plaster,” Piña said to Bucky as she flopped over near Derpy. 

“She has hoofy prints of ponies she knows are going to change the world,” Dinky said as she crawled over her mother and then settled on her mother’s back, resting her head upon her mother’s withers. 

“This is gonna sound stupid, but having my hoof dunked in plaster actually made me feel a little better about everything that happened on the isles,” Piña said. 

“That doesn’t sound stupid,” Derpy said as she pulled Piña closer and drew the foal into her forelegs. “You want something to show for what you had to go through.” 

“Yeah. Maybe I do,” Piña said as Derpy stroked her tummy. 

“Piña and I are going to keep Equestria safe… Celestia is going to hire us for some big important job later when I am older,” Dinky announced. 

“Oh my,” Derpy said, her voice a little nervous. 

“She promised me that I would never have to hurt a pony. Just keep them safe and save a few lives,” Dinky said reassuringly to her mother. 

“And we get to work as a pair. I am happy about that. I get to be Dinky’s researcher,” Piña quipped, her tone excited. “Celestia is going to give me books about library science so I can learn how to be a better scholar and archivist. She wants me to be the best researcher I can to help Dinky.” 

“I am proud of both of you,” Bucky said. 

“So what did Luna want?” Derpy asked. 

“I had myself a little magic lesson,” Bucky replied. 

“Stay in school daddy,” Dinky said, reaching out and gently prodding her father on the neck. “You study hard or you will get such a scolding…” 

“Yes Dinky, I understand,” Bucky answered with an amused grin. 

“You better get good grades mister,” Piña warned. 

“Speaking of good grades, are you girls going to be ready for school?” Bucky questioned. 

“Um, maybe?” Dinky said hesitantly. “My feelings go back and forth. I dunno how I feel.” 

“If I go back to school I am going to be forced to learn boring stuff that they think earth ponies need to know. I won’t be reading magic primers,” Piña said petulantly. “I’ll be taking stuff like “agriculture and why you belong in the dirt” and all the stuff that has no meaning for me.” The earth pony foal scowled and folded her forelegs over her barrel. 

“You stay in school Piña. You make friends. It isn’t wasted time. I will make sure that you are taught what you need to know, but you need to trust me and stay in school. At least for now,” Bucky commanded. 

“I will do as you ask, but I don’t have to like it,” Piña grumbled. 

“No. The system is unfair and biased. But that old system is now torn down. A new system is going to be made. And you need to endure and be patient,” Bucky said in gentle tones. 

“Yes father,” Piña said, accepting her fate. 

“Berry Punch worked hard to educate herself. She endured through all of the useless drivel in primary and secondary school. She probably had to learn a lot of the boring things that earth ponies are required to know. She stuck it out and then went to university,” Bucky said soothingly. He watched as Piña’s scowl softened.  

“Berry Punch is a smart pony,” Derpy said to Piña.  “And so are you my little foal. But you are going to have to work for what it is that you want.” 



 

Shining Star looked upon the ponies sitting on the couch with a mother’s eyes, trying to understand them all. She saw her son, who was sitting tall and proud, and three fillies that she now called her daughters. She realised that her son was now a stranger to her. Her son had left, and somepony else had come back in his stead. Her son had been soft spoken and a little shy, what the school counselor had called a cautious extrovert. Her son was gentle. Careful. Her son had been the sort who had never hurt a thing. 

Her son was now a hardened killer and a living weapon. The long talk with Raven, Princess Celestia’s personal assistant, had been a real eye opener. Her son could destroy the entire town of Ponyville in the blink of an eye. Her son would forever have to watch his temper. 

Yet for all of her fears, she had hope. Her son was a good husband, attentive and devoted. She had noticed when her son had helped Loch Skimmer up on the couch. She was still limping on a leg that had been broken and was now weak. The way her son reached out and tried to soothe Sparkler when she succumbed to terrible spasming she was now afflicted with. The soft and gentle way he touched Ripple, trying to be affectionate to her even though there was an insurmountable gap that existed between the two of them. 

Her son had left home as a colt, and in his stead, a stallion she did not know had returned. 



 

“You kissed me.” 

Sentinel cringed, knowing this moment would come. Moonbow’s words almost sounded like an accusation. He waited, not knowing if he would be pounced or not. He braced himself in his chair and looked at Lyra pleadingly. 

Lyra, who ignored him and went back to rocking Harper, who had finally stopped crying. 

“That was very sweet of you,” Moonbow whispered, standing next to his chair. 

“I don’t know what came over me. I was overcome with emotion,” Sentinel said as his ears ignited. His still healing ear burned painfully. He looked at Moonbow. The filly had reared up on her hind legs, braced her forelegs on the table, and now looked him in the eye. 

“I like knowing that you are pleased with me,” Moonbow said. 

Sentinel waited, now worried. Moonbow was being entirely too submissive all of a sudden. They had a well defined predator versus prey relationship. She was the predator, and Sentinel understood that he was the prey. He could feel her breathing on his neck. She had no concept of personal space. He could hear Bon Bon and Yew playing with Peekaboo, but he couldn’t afford to be distracted at the moment. 

“I am not going to pounce you, I promise,” Moonbow whispered. “Well, not this moment. I will do so later. But there is something I want from you my noble squire.” 

Uh oh Sentinel thought to himself. 

“Will you please sit on the couch with me? Together? I just want some of your time,” Moonbow asked. 

Sentinel took a deep breath and relaxed. He thought for certain that Moonbow was going to ask for something else. All she wanted was some time with him. He could do that. He took another deep breath and turned his head to face her. “I can spen-nnnnnfmph!” 

Sentinel was caught quite off guard when Moonbow pressed her muzzle against his. She wrapped one foreleg around Sentinel’s neck and squeezed gently. Sentinel started to fall over off of his chair and Moonbow pulled him back, drawing him closer. It was a soft gentle kiss, nothing more than two pairs of lips pressed together, and it remained quite innocent. Finally, she pulled away. 

“Come sit on the couch with me and read to me,” Moonbow requested as she pulled away. 



 

“Son, you won’t need to worry about a place to live. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but you have one less thing to worry about. Besides, your room at home is small. And your bed is meant for a single pony,” Galaxy Guide said to his son. 

“Oh small beds are no problem! We like sleeping in a pile. Well, Sparkler and I do, Ripple still gets a little icked out when Rising Star rises to greet the morning,” Loch Skimmer said with a broad grin. 

Sparkler tittered softly when she heard Rising Star’s embarrassed groan. 

“I cause him to have uncontrollable boners. It is a pegasus thing I think,” Loch explained. 

“Boners happen dear. Probably the best part of being married… waking up and knowing that you husband loves you and desires you… and having the proof poking you,” Shining Star said, now quite relaxed and talking openly, much to Rising Star and Galaxy Guide’s dismay. 

Rising Star covered his face and wondered if it was embarrassment or magic that was causing his skin to burn feverishly. He didn’t know what to do with Loch Skimmer, but some kind of revenge was in order. More than anything, right now at this moment, he wanted to be back in Crush’s forge, carefully tapping away on metal in slow careful strikes.

“Boners are like the greatest thing ever,” Loch Skimmer chirped. “I used to be really scared of sex… Berry Punch helped set me straight and Rising Star has been such a good husband.” 

“I worked very hard to raise my son well,” Shining Star said. “And I understand why you were so afraid. After speaking with you, it is easy to see why you were afraid. No filly should ever have to go through what you to two had to go though.” 

“I was so scared and relieved when Bucky came to rescue us,” Ripple said. 

“Don’t go into the details again,” Shining Star said soothingly. “It left you so troubled to tell us the first time.” 

“Both of you are so kind to us… I don’t know what I expected,” Ripple said. 

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure how you two would take it. I’ve been worried about this for a long time,” Rising Star admitted. 

“I am just happy to have daughters! And one that is still just little enough that I can spoil her just a tiny bit,” Shining Star said. 

“We’re going to have to go soon,” Galaxy Guide said. “As much as we want to stay, we have a job to do and there are a lot of hungry ponies to feed. We’re needed.” 

“Dad… father… if there is one thing I understand, it is duty,” Rising Star said. 

“I know son,” Galaxy Guide responded. 

“When we get back to Ponyville, maybe we could help you,” Sparkler offered. 



 

Bon Bon leaned over closer to Lyra and gave her mate a nudge. She made a careful gesture towards Sentinel and Moonbow, who were on the couch together. Sentinel was reading her a newspaper. After making her gesture, Bon Bon stroked Harper, who was sound asleep in Lyra’s embrace. 

“Our little colt is growing up,” Bon Bon said. 

“No…” Lyra moaned. “I am not ready for this stage of motherhood Bonnie.” 

“Look at them, she’s stopped being such a brute for a while. They’re necking,” Bon Bon said. 

“My little colt is not necking… he’s… Moonbow is just… they’re just… nuts…” Lyra stammered. “You know they can hear us, right?” 

“Oh, of that, I am certain,” Bon Bon whispered. 
	
	
> Chapter 206
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had seemed so simple at first. One simple command with a straightforward reward. Capture the cold blue phoenix and get a promotion. He had been at this almost all day, and the long string of disasters was getting worse. 

Private Summer Alfalfa wasn’t even sure if he would still be a guard when the sun set. 

Being a guard was good work for a type two like himself. His talent was voice projection, as evidenced by his bullhorn cutie mark. Normally, all he had to do was stand in one spot for a few hours and announce when so and so was coming or going. Occasionally, Raven would use him to make announcements. 

That horrible bird had frozen the water in all of the toilets in all of the public bathrooms and quite a few private bathrooms as well. It had created snowponies in the public gardens that were doing very perverse acts upon one another and had caused Princess Celestia herself to shout “That carrot does not belong there on a snowpony!” within earshot of a group of delegates from Saddle Arabia. It had flown by and frozen the ink in Raven’s inkwell. It had flown into the kitchens and frozen Princess Celestia’s cake solid, turning the icing into something resembling reinforced concrete. It had perched upon a chandelier and had dropped something frozen that was not an ice cube into Princess Twilight Sparkle’s coffee, which had not been noticed by Twilight Sparkle until it was too late. In her half awake - half asleep state, she had not noticed the frozen lump until it had clinked against her teeth. In a furious rage, Twilight Sparkle had fled the castle and had returned to Ponyville. It had flown through the medical wing and left many of the medical instruments highly chilled, causing a lot of shouting, shrieking, and general trauma when the Gamma Brigade had come in for their bi-annual prostate exams and STI checks. 

The phoenix known as Freezerburn had been deemed public enemy number one… or pubic enemy number one by many of the Gamma Brigade. 

Summer Alfalfa had no idea how to catch the dreaded corrupted phoenix. 



 

Bucky watched as Freezerburn preened himself and made himself comfortable, perched upon the ornate headboard of the bed above him. The phoenix seemed worn out and a little tired. 

“Haven’t seen you in a while Freezerburn,” Bucky commented. 

Found mate. Much shagging. Tried to teach ponies not to take themselves so seriously. Made the big burny pony angry, Freezerburn replied inside of Bucky’s mind. 

“Burny pony?” Bucky asked. 

Big. White. Horn and wings. Much burning and fire. Big burny pony. 

“Celestia?” Bucky questioned. “Wait, where did you find a mate?” 

Big burny pony has a pheonix friend. 

“Oh shite! You shagged Philomena!” 



 

"Ripple, I know it has been a long day, but I was wondering if you had a moment,” Sentinel said, looking up at his big sister pleadingly. 

“I always have a moment for my little brother,” Ripple said as she hopped up on the couch and settled in beside Sentinel. 

“Father and Lugus have had their knighthoods reinstated. Lugus is in need of a squire. I told everypony including Princess Luna that it should be you. I think you would make a fantastic knight,” Sentinel said in a low solemn voice. 

Not knowing how to respond, Ripple fell silent. Her wings fluttered nervously. “Can females become knights?” she said after many moments of silence. 

“Princess Luna said that you might be the first,” Sentinel said in low proud whisper. “You have to be the youngest Dragoon there is. Look how the guards react when they hear that. Ripple, that means something really important.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Ripple said in a stunned voice. 

“Well, I was tasked to talk to you about it to warm you up to the idea and get you to think about it. This is a really big deal. This is potentially history in the making. At some point, Lugus is going to formally ask you to be his squire and you need to be prepared to answer,” Sentinel stated. 

“How could I refuse?” Ripple blurted out in a rather loud voice, causing several ponies in the room to turn and look at her. “I like fighting. It is what I do best. What else am I going to do? Become a schoolmarm? Push clouds? I know I can’t join the guard here. No females.” 

Wiggling in place, Sentinel’s seriousness fell apart and his face split into a wide toothy grin.

Suddenly, there was a series of heavy thumps upon the door and everypony in the room jumped from the sound. Getting up from the couch where she was sitting with Thistle and Yew, Berry Punch got up to answer the door. 

She pulled open the door to reveal Shadowguard and several other heavily armored figures. Shadowguard bowed her head slightly to Berry Punch upon seeing her. 

“Ma’am, I have come to collect the lunar pegasus known as Moonbow,” Shadowguard announced in a loud commanding voice. 

“What?” Berry Punch asked. She heard hooves behind her and knew Derpy was now in the room and moving rapidly towards the door. She hoped that Derpy was in a friendly mood. 

“Do I get to say goodbye?” Moonbow begged in a quiet submissive voice. 

“Of course you do. But time grows short. We have to have you secured in the Chapel of Night before the moon rises,” Shadowguard replied. 

“You’re leaving?” Sentinel asked. 

“You knew this was coming,” Moonbow said in a quiet voice. 

“I thought we would have more time,” Sentinel said, his eyes now beginning to shimmer with wetness. He jumped from the couch and moved to stand near Moonbow. 

“This is why I wanted to spend some time with you today and why I wanted to play with you,” Moonbow said. “Think well of me Sentinel. I am doing this for us. Our tribe needs a protector.” 

Not knowing what else to do, Sentinel raised his wing slowly and sadly in a forlorn salute. 

“When I return to you I will be both a worthy mate and guardian,” Moonbow promised. 

“In your absence I shall do all I can to prove worthy of your efforts,” Sentinel vowed. 

“You can’t just take her,” Berry said angrily. 

“I choose to go,” Moonbow said in a sad voice. “Berry, please, you have been very kind to me. I am doing this so I can protect you and your foals.” 

“Come little one. Time grows ever shorter,” Shadowguard said in a low voice. 

One of the Myrmidons came forward and set a set of shackles down upon the floor before Moonbow. He stood over her, a fierce expression his face. A low growl resonated in his throat. 

“Submit to him willingly female. It is time to begin your humiliation. These are your first chains. Later, there will be others. From this point onwards, you will address all of us as Mistress or Master. You no longer have a name little female,” Shadowguard said. “Now roll over and show throat.” 

“Yes… Mistress,” Moonbow said. She slowly eased herself down to the floor and rolled over, her legs now up in the air. 

The big male Myrmidon lifted the chains using his grasping digits upon his wing knuckles. With well practiced movements, he quickly hobbled Moonbow. 

Sentinel and his family looked on in silent shock. He stumbled over to Berry Punch and wrapped one foreleg around hers, seeking some kind of reassurance. He felt Derpy move beside him and her wing brush over his back. 

With a harsh jerk, Moonbow was pulled up to her hooves. She yelped in pain as she kicked out to keep her balance and the hobbles bit into her fetlocks. 

“Wait!” Sentinel cried. 

“Hold!” Shadowguard barked. 

Not knowing what else to do, Sentinel rushed forward to Moonbow and kissed her, the sort of big wet kiss she always seemed to want from him. He had no idea what he was doing, but it didn’t stop him from trying. He could feel one of her fangs trail over his lip slightly as he clumsily pressed his muzzle against hers, and his mouth filled with the taste of his own blood. 

He pulled away and looked Moonbow in the eye. “Will we be able to see each other?” Sentinel asked in a fearful frightened voice that was entirely unlike his usual demeanour. 

“Only if she earns it,” Shadowguard said. “And for one year, you will be able to see her, but she will not be able to see you. It is called the year of blindness. Prepare yourself young Sentinel. Outsiders are forbidden to know our ways, but I feel that you should know. I would feel dishonest answering your question otherwise.” 

“Thank you,” Sentinel said to Shadowguard. “Moonbow, I know you will prevail.” 

“I do this for you,” Moonbow said solemnly. “A knight needs a suitable mate.” 

“A Myrmidon deserves a worthwhile partner,” Sentinel replied. 

Saying nothing else, Moonbow began to hobble towards the door, her chains preventing her from moving in a dignified manner. Instead, she had to shuffle and nearly tripped over her own hooves several times. She yelped and whimpered with each step. Her face burned with shame as she was unable to hold in her cries of pain. 

“Moonbow… good luck,” Derpy said, raising her own wing slowly and offering a clumsy salute. 

“Look after my mate… mother,” Moonbow said as she stumbled through the door. 

“We must be going. Goodbye,” Shadowguard said as she backed out of the door and then shut it behind her. 

The room fell silent and the faint clink of chains could be heard in the hall outside of the door. In a few moments, the clinking faded and there was no sound. All who had witnessed Moonbow’s departure remained stunned, and nopony knew what to say exactly. 



 

Lyra felt sick to her stomach. She couldn’t bear to see Sentinel the way he was. He was stoic as always, and had only cried for a little while, but somehow, seeing him not crying and sitting in a chair looking morose was worse. It was the look of resignation on his face that made Lyra ache on the inside. He had been sitting in that chair for hours after Moonbow’s departure and the other foals had gone to bed. Not reading, not writing, just sitting here staring blankly ahead. 

Stroking Bon Bon for a moment to make herself feel better, she slipped from the couch, crossed the room, lifted Sentinel in her magic, crawled into his chair, and then eased him down into her embrace. She knew something was terribly wrong when he didn’t squirm or try to kick free. He merely remained limp in her forelegs, his head resting in the crook of her neck. 

“This herd knows how to deal with tragedy,” Lyra whispered. 

“We’ve seen so much,” Sentinel agreed. 

“You were starting to bond with her… a meaningful bond. Friends,” Lyra said into Sentinel’s ear as she ran one of her forelegs down along his spine. “How is your lip? I saw that you cut it.” 

“My lip is fine,” said Sentinel, sounding horribly dejected as he lifted one foreleg and wrapped it around Lyra’s neck. “Would you play me some music mother?” 

“Sure,” Lyra whispered as her horn glowed in a soft golden light. Her lyre appeared overhead and soft sad melody began to play. 

After a while, Lyra felt Sentinel calm and go completely still, his breathing soft and steady. With a sad smile, she realised that her colt had fallen asleep. Leaning back into chair, Lyra cast a glance at Bon Bon and continued to hold Sentinel, not wanting to move for fear of waking him up. 



 

Alone and bound, Moonbow struggled to keep her balance. She was secured in the Chapel of Night, whatever that was, bound in heavy chains. A tight collar was around her neck and a chain was secured to the wall high up above her. To keep from strangling, she had to stand and stay balanced upon the very edges of her hooves. Her legs burned as though they were on fire. A tight clamp had been placed upon her dock, and it worked like the collar around her neck. So long as she kept her hindquarters held high, she could keep herself almost free from pain. If she lost her balance and slipped from the edges of her hooves, the sudden pain in her dock was blinding and made her bawl with agony as she had discovered. The pain was debilitating and the puddle of urine around her hind hooves was evidence of her failures. 

Heavy weights had been secured to her collar and it made it very difficult to hold her head up and keep her balance. Chains had been wrapped around her body and no matter how she wiggled her wings, there was no comfortable position to be found. She struggled to breathe, struggled to swallow, and focused all of her efforts on balancing on the edge-tips of her hooves. 

Her thoughts drifted to Sentinel and she resolved that she would make it through the night. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 207
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Being a shadow creature, Moonbow felt the dawn break. She was delirious with pain. She had been hearing things in the dark. Voices of those long dead from her old colony. Laughter. Soft hisses and growls. Her fevered mind barely registered the sensation of the sun coming over the horizon. She did not hear the click of the door behind her or the soft tap of hooves. 

Her bonds were released and she fell suddenly, as there was no longer anything to hold her up. She had been dangling by her collar and dock clamp for hours. Her body never hit the floor though, she was caught and held by some invisible force that cradled her gently. 

She made a strangled wordless cry, kicking and struggling, her body reacting with fevered panic. She hissed feebly and gnashed her teeth, biting at the air all around her, trying to be intimidating. 

“Hush now my sweet little foal… away with me to your rest… come and rest your weary head… upon my tender breast…” 

The voice was soothing. It burrowed through her now awakened feral nature. The voice quieted all of the other sounds of madness Moonbow kept hearing. Her slavering jaws stopped snapping and her grunting cries ceased. 

“Listen to my lullabye… find shelter from the bitter cold… I will cradle your aching neck… upon my fetlock’s fold…” 

The song was mesmerising and Moonbow felt herself drifting over the ground, flying without flapping her wings. She hissed one last time and then fell silent completely. The lullabye was now a soft hum. She could feel her agonised muscles being gently rubbed by something invisible and Moonbow wondered if she was dreaming. 

After floating away she was brought back to the world again when she was dunked into warm water. It was soothing all around her. She tried to focus her eyes and all she could see was something blue with silver sparkles, like stars glittering in the distant night. 

“Who?” Moonbow moaned, her first somewhat coherent word. 

“I am your mother,” the voice said in a smooth satin whisper. 

“Mama?” Moonbow asked. 

“Yes my foal… now hush my beloved foal and let me tend to you,” the voice commanded. 

Moonbow tried to see, tried to make sense of what was happening, but could not. She sank back into water, now limp, her head resting upon the edge of the tub she had been placed in. 

“Your mother loves you…” 

Moonbow struggled to determine if she was dreaming or awake. She could no longer tell. The dreadful voices were gone. All she could hear was her mother’s humming and the soft feeling of something gently bathing her body and making all of her aches go away. She felt warm and blissful. Her pain was now gone and she felt as though she was floating away again. 

“Your mother loves you…” 

“Yes mama,” Moonbow mumbled. 

“Good foal…” 

Moonbow felt cool water at her lips. She opened her mouth and drank greedily. She choked for a moment and she felt her head lifted. She coughed and sputtered and then began to drink the water again. 

“Do you want some food?” 

“Yes mama,” Moonbow moaned. 

“There is something your mother wants…” 

“W-w-what?” Moonbow stammered. She licked her lips. Food sounded good. Food sounded very good. She felt her belly growl. Somewhere, off far away, she could smell fresh blood and it made her belly ache with hunger. 

“Your mother needs help protecting all of your little brothers and sisters. Very bad things want to hurt them. Did you hear them in the dark? They will come for your brothers and sisters if you do not help me…” 

“Yes mama,” Moonbow whispered. 

“Good foal… your mother loves you… just like she loves all of her little foals… but your mother loves you just a little bit more because you are going to protect all of your little brothers and sisters…”

Princess Luna smiled. The rebirth of a new foal always filled her with hope for a better future. Now that she was back, her Myrmidons had their mother again. Celestia had done all that she could, but Celestia did not have dominion over the creatures of the night and was never able to truly bond with the lunar pegasi in the way that Luna could. 



 

Rising Star moved through the private gardens, following a stone path. It wasn’t long after dawn. He had been told that Princess Celestia herself had requested a meeting with him, and now he was hurrying off to find her. He moved along the cobblestone path with purpose. 

Sure enough, as he had been told, there was a massive stone spire with steps spiraling up along the sides. He mounted the steps and took them several at a time, the vigor of his youth allowing for reckless exertion and abandon. 

He rounded the final steps near the top and he paused for a moment when he saw her. She was beautiful, standing face first towards the sun. From up here, he could see all of Canterlot and even the surrounding countryside far below. 

“Do not be shy,” Celestia greeted warmly. “I wanted to talk to you.” 

Rising Star took the last few steps and joined Celestia upon the platform. 

“No titles, no formality, let us speak to one another as we are,” Celestia said. “Do you know what we are?” she inquired. 

“Ponies?” Rising Star replied. 

“Yes, we are ponies, but that is not the answer I wanted from you,” Celestia said, her voice filled with a soft faint laughter. 

“I don’t know,” Rising Star said. 

As he watched, Celestia transformed before him. Fire burned from her eyes. Her delicate pastel rainbow mane and tail turned into a blazing curtain of plasma. Her whole body became engulfed in flame. The heat caused the rock to sizzle all around them, and Rising Star realised he was on fire as well. 

“We are living flame. Few are as dangerous as we are,” Celestia said, her voice a roaring furnace. “It feels good letting it out, does it not?” she asked. 

Rising Star nodded. It did feel good. He was on fire again and all of his repressed rage was burning away from him. He allowed himself to blaze a little brighter. “Bucky was able to subdue me,” Rising Star said. “I don’t know how dangerous I am,” he added. 

“Buckminster’s real magic is a special type of entropy. The cold he brings is caused  by how he leaches heat from everything around him. If he understood what he was truly capable of, he could go on to do even greater things,” Celestia said, her voice sounding like a forest fire. “He could draw heat and energy from all around him and convert it to his own energy. You and I burn energy. Buckminster leaches energy. He is our anathema. I suspect that when he subdued you, he extinguished your fires.” 

“It was like he sucked me dry,” Rising Star said. 

The burning alicorn nodded. “Buckminster has the sort of magic that makes stars burn out and stop blazing. It is what causes things to cease their movements and go still. It is the force that tries to make the universe grind to a halt. Do you understand?” 

“I am not sure that I do,” Rising Star said, shrugging his shoulders. 

Celestia studied the young colt standing beside her. Very few could stand by her side when she was ignited. It was nice to have another pyromancer to spend time with. 

“Am I an abomination?” Rising Star asked. 

Cocking her head, Celestia regarded Rising Star carefully, trying to read his expression and guess his emotions based upon the state of his flames. “No,” she said in a soft crackling voice that sounded like blazing kindling. “No you are not. You are living up to your potential. Buckminster has undone whatever quirk of fate that was holding you back. In time, I hope he will be able to do the same for others.” 

The blazing pair both stared off into the direction of the sun, silence settling over the two of them for a moment. Rising Star shifted his stance, settling his weight over to his left hooves. It felt good to burn and let it all out. 

“Our rage is a danger to all those around us. A while ago, I let my rage get the better of me. Too much of it overpowered me and my control slipped for just a mere moment. I vapourised the fortified compound of those who dared to attack me and incinerated my attackers. I intended to subdue them. I made a terrible mistake and many died. Even more died when Luna and Cadance showed up and thought my mistake was an example,” Celestia said to Rising Star. 

“That’s awful,” Rising Star said. 

“It is. It was. They were misbehaving, but I still love my little ponies even when they are being a little naughty,” Celestia replied. 

“But they hurt you…” Rising Star said. 

“Does that excuse me?” Celestia asked. 

“Well, no, I guess not… I don’t understand,” Rising Star muttered. 

“You have the power to reduce a pony that hurts you to cinders in the blink of an eye. Do I need to worry about you hurting one of my little ponies if they misbehave?” Celestia inquired. 

“No!” Rising Star said quickly. “If you recall during the treaty signing I was trying to keep everything calm.” 

“I do recall. Which is why we are here talking now. I know how angry you are. I want to see if I can help you,” Celestia said. 

“I just need time to heal,” Rising Star said. 

“That is not enough,” Celestia responded. “Does anything make you feel better?” 

“Well, I feel better when I am working with metal. It calms everything down and keeping the steel in a liquid state allows me to burn off my anger,” Rising Star said, trying to guess what Celestia wanted to hear. 

“This is good. I will see that you are set up with a forge that is well stocked and well supplied. You will make me things. You will tame those fires and keep them in check because you are a good pony and you love your family,” Celestia said, her mouth a roaring blast furnace. 

“If I am making you things, I expect to be paid. I have three wives and you wouldn’t believe what two pegasi and a unicorn can eat in a single meal. After standing on her front hooves for a few hours, Ripple can clear a table in no time. Loch Skimmer eats like she does everything else in life. She holds nothing back. Sparky’s magic bleeds her dry. So yes, I will tame these fires, but first, I need to have my worries relieved so I can breathe a little easier and not be so stressed out,” Rising Star replied in a surprisingly strong and authoritative tone of voice. 

“You will be paid fairly for your services. Buckminster is a prince. He is entitled to a royal stipend, some of which will be distributed to you as a member of his family. You see to it that my little ponies safe, well protected, and your skill as a smith continuously improves. I will see to it that you are provided for,” Celestia offered. 

“Deal,” Rising Star said. 



 

Derpy yawned and gently pulled Sentinel close. She kissed him softly and stroked his side as she cuddled him in the bed. It had been a rough night for him and Derpy hoped that she could console him somehow. 

“Mother, I think I understand you better now,” Sentinel said in a soft whisper, hoping to not wake his father, who was still sound asleep. 

“Hmm?” Derpy murmured, making an inquisitive noise in response. 

“When father went off to battle… when he had to endure what we went through… I think I understand the worry you felt,” Sentinel said. 

“Aw…” Derpy gasped. She hugged her foal a little tighter and watched as Berry Punch opened her eyes. 

“Worried about Moonbow?” Berry said just before breaking into a yawn. 

“Yes,” Sentinel said in a pained whimper. 

Wiggling her head closer and flopping her body around, Berry maneuvered herself to plant a kiss on Sentinel’s nose. She lay there snoot to snoot with Sentinel, looking him in the eye, occasionally glancing into Derpy’s eyes. 

With her chin pressed to the top of Sentinel’s head, Derpy looked at Berry Punch’s worried face. “They are going to teach her everything she needs to know to help keep all of us safe. They are going to teach her how to read and write. She might become a doctor like Grimglammer or something wonderful. She is going to learn how to fly and do amazing things. She is going to learn how to wear heavy armor. Do you remember how heavy that helmet was?” 

Sentinel made a small whimper of agreement but said nothing. 

“When you begin your lessons with Luna and the other lunar pegasi, I want you to think about everything that Moonbow is giving up so she can learn how to protect us. She probably won’t be getting things like ice cream or cookies or rootbeer. You love rootbeer Sentinel… now that you have had it, imagine not getting it. So every time your lessons get tough, you think about what Moonbow is having to endure and you stick it out,” Berry Punch said in a soft whisper. 

“I will,’’ Sentinel promised. 
	
> Chapter 208
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Father? I needed to talk to you… alone if possible,” Sparkler said, looking at her mother. She stood at the foot of the bed, looking a bit out of sorts. Her tremors weren’t as bad this morning, at least not yet. She waited patiently. 

“Your father just ate. Try not to upset him too much,” Derpy said. She slid from the bed, stretched out her legs, walked to Sparkler, planted a kiss on Sparkler’s cheek, and then trotted out the door, flicking her tail around as she left, leaving behind a cloud of citrusy soap scent. 

Sparkler had to admit, it was nice to smell like something other than hot sweaty ponies once again. She hopped up onto the bed with her father and lay down near him. 

“What’s up Sparky?” Bucky asked. 

Sparkler looked into his eye. He had his head held up, lifted away from the pillows, at least for now. He was looking stronger, and already a little fatter. She looked at the tub of ice cream still sitting on the little table that was at the bedside. “Bananaberry Swirl with Crunchy Honey Oat Clusters” the label said. Finally, her eyes fell upon her father’s severed stump, sitting on a pillow and propped up for his comfort. 

“We made it home,” Sparkler said. 

“Yes we did,” Bucky agreed. 

“And we got everypony that we love home safely with us. Not one of us lost along the way,” Sparkler stated. Her eyes darted upwards to look into her father’s Taint filled eye. 

“That is important,” Bucky said, his head falling back onto the pillows and his body going limp. He sighed with relief. 

“I was worried there for a time. When the wolves were on the ship. They were inside of the ship. I… they… we… there was so much fighting. I don’t know how many I killed. But when I was belowdecks, all I could think about was Rising Star and Ripple abovedecks and hoping I would see them again when I got back up there. Going into the bowels of the ship to root out wolves was terrifying. I very nearly lost control of myself. I knew it had to be done and I was the only one who could do it safely,” Sparkler said, her gaze never leaving her father’s eye. 

“We understand one another,” Bucky groaned. 

“Yes, I think we do,” Sparkler remarked as she nodded in agreement. 

“I never once thought about what might happen to me, I just wanted to get them home safe and have them survive the battle,” Sparkler said. “Being made of stone makes you feel kinda invincible. I think I understand how you feel inside of your armor.” 

“I wasn’t invincible,” Bucky said in a strained voice. He lifted his stump slowly, his leg shaking unsteadily as he did so. “I paid for my hubris. Don’t ever think of yourself as invincible.” 

“I know father… I went down into the dark to find you… There was one more pony I had to bring home safe or I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself,” Sparkler said. She looked down and watched one of her legs quiver and her face turned into a scowl. 

“Sparkler, love, I’m sorry about the shakes. I gave you power at such a price,” Bucky said apologetically. 

“Like you, I regret nothing. I was able to keep ponies I love safe. I was able to rescue Harper… I love Harper like nothing else I know. The Shivers are a small price to pay,” Sparkler said reassuringly to her father. She smiled a halfhearted smile as her face jerked and spasmed. 

“What about the pills?” Bucky asked. 

“We haven’t decided yet about those. Ripple… Ripple offered to carry my fertilised eggs to term should I want foals. She wants to give Rising Star foals someday, and she loves me… she wants to prove her place and her value in the herd. She’s learned a lot from Bon Bon and Lyra,” Sparkler replied. 

“I am glad we are talking,” Bucky said. 

“So am I,” Sparkler said. “We are the protectors of our herds. I understand you now… I find I don’t relate so well to other ponies any longer. Grimglammer said I might have something called post traumatic stress disorder. Might cause me some problems and irritate my Shivers condition. I look at other ponies and I just don’t get them. But you, you and I, I think we understand one another.” 

“I think you’re right,” Bucky said. “A terrible burden has been placed upon us. We’ve endured. We’ll both bear scars. Rising Star too… this has been awful on him.” 

“Oh, I know. He doesn’t see how strong he is now. He doesn’t understand that he is what is holding me together right now. He doesn’t understand how all of the little things he does keeps me sane and happy,” Sparkler said, her eyes falling down to her father’s severed limb. “Just like my mother… and all she does for you. Where would you be without your grey pegasus?” she mused. 

Bucky desperately wanted to tell Sparkler how proud he was of her at this moment. He wanted to say some meaningful words that would make everything better. He wanted to say some sentence that would truly express his emotion. But the words did not come, and he had no sentence full of meaningful platitudes to say. All he could do was look at her sadly. Above him, on the headboard of the bed, there was a sad sounding squawk. 

“I don’t think I say it enough, but I love you, daddy,” Sparkler said sweetly. 



 

“Things are moving quickly,” Berry Punch said as she folded up the paper and set it down upon the table. She stared at a dish of pastries and thought about eating one. Her plot was going to become enormous if this kept up. 

Then again, Bucky liked her plot to be a little squishy. She grabbed a pastry and took a bite. 

“I don’t follow,” Bon Bon said. “I haven’t read the paper yet.”

“Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor have released a press announcement. I think they’ve had this planned for a while,” Berry said around a mouthful of food. 

“What does it say?” Thistle inquired. 

“They are going to form the Stable of Representatives,” Berry said after she swallowed. “Thirty earth ponies, thirty pegasi, and thirty unicorns will begin the process of creating representation. No Canterlot unicorns currently alive will be able to hold office. There are going to be places were you can nominate ponies you believe would be good in the new government.” 

“This is exciting!” Bon Bon said, trotting over the table, sitting down, and picking up the paper to read. 

“Vanhoover and Ponyville are going to hold discussions with Princess Celestia about reunification. We have a chance at rebuilding the nation,” Berry Punch said. 

“Nominated ponies will go through a screening process and background checks,” Bon Bon muttered as she read. “Elections will be held and the nominees will be voted into office…” she continued in a murmur. “Those who hold office will receive no pay for the job and will be required to accept a geas of office?!” Bon Bon shouted as she stared wide eyed at the paper. 

“Inspired by Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor’s parents and the many other nobles who begged for mercy,” Berry Punch said as she grabbed another pastry. “Public office will not be held for personal gain and you will be required to live off of the goodwill of those you serve.” 

“Nopony would ever willingly take this job!” Bon Bon cried as she threw down the paper. “That isn’t giving us what we want, that is a way to make sure it will never happen.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that Bonnie… if somepony was to nominate me, I’d run for office. I don’t give two shites and a tinkerpony’s damn about getting paid for it. It is a job that needs to be done. As for having a magical geas placed upon me? I’d want to know the specifics, but if I had to swear to never harm the interests of the ponies I served, you bet your sweet soft squeezable plot that I’d let Twilight Sparkle lay down the magical whammy jammy down upon me. I have no ulteriour motives or hidden agendas. A geas can’t hurt you if you are honest, straightforward, and true,” Berry Punch retorted. 

“You’re crazy…” Bon Bon muttered. 

“As a sump-hole rat,” Berry agreed, now grinning. 

“Is my plot really sweet and squeezable looking?” Bon Bon said, craning her head around and looking at her backside, which was spread out a bit from sitting in the chair. 

“Yes Bonnie,” Lyra said from over on the sofa where she was watching Harper wobble around on the floor. 

“This smacks of untested idealism,” Bon Bon muttered. 

“We’re going to make mistakes Bonnie,” Berry Punch said, waving a hoof around wildly. “Our first effort at government is probably going to fall flat. And so will the next one. And maybe the one after that. But with each attempt, we will get better.” 

“Still better than the old system. Who wants a return of the noble houses?” Lyra said as she watched Harper attempt to kick out her hind legs and buck. 

“Ugh,” Bon Bon grunted. “At least there is talk of reunification.” 

Harper sneezed suddenly, and with the sneeze came a crackle of energy, a whiff of ozone, and a brand new smoking crater on the sofa a few spots down from Lyra.

“Bless you Harper!” Lyra said in a singsong voice. “Good girl! You pointed your horn away from mommy when you sneezed! Always point your horn away from other ponies when you sneeze!” 

“You got that Lyra?” Berry asked in concern. 

“Yeah, I’ve been fixing all the other broken stuff around here. I’m getting good at it,” Lyra muttered. Her horn ignited and she went to work using a simple repair spell. 

“Harper is getting dangerous. I hope we survive if she ever gets a cold,” Bon Bon said, turning around in her chair to watch Lyra’s foal. 

“I wonder how many non unicorn parents know to teach their unicorn foals to keep their horns pointed away from other ponies when they sneeze?” Berry questioned. 

“Unicorns with allergies must be terrifying come spring,” Thistle quipped.

“Well, adult unicorns are mostly okay. Bucky sneezes and doesn’t cause a fusion reaction,” Berry said. “And Lyra sneezes all the time and doesn’t blow us all up. But little unicorns are terrors until they get some training to hold back their magic. Little unicorns require magic training as well as potty training.” 

Harper bounced on her tiny legs and wobbled for the table, her nose dribbling and a little snot bubble that had formed was inflating and deflating as she breathed. 

Bending down, Bon Bon dutifully scooped up Harper, held her close, and wiped her nose with a napkin. She kissed the foal on the head and then gently set her down upon the floor so she could run around. Peekaboo was hiding somewhere, probably under sofa or a chair. Bon Bon scanned the room and saw a tail poking out from under an overstuffed chair. She sighed and turned back around in time to see Berry Punch stuffing a whole pastry into her maw. 

A door opened and Yew came staggering out, looking like she had just woke up. Her mane was mussed and she smacked her lips as she walked. She wordlessly approached the table and sat down, staring bleary eyed at her companions. She gave a little wave with her hoof and offered a smile. 

“Long night?” Berry asked. 

Yew nodded. 

“Peekaboo still having bad dreams?” Berry inquired.

Yew nodded again and then she yawned. 

“Lugus still up all night pacing around and worrying about Bucky?” Berry questioned. 

Yew nodded yet again and looked at Berry Punch. “Lugus is finally asleep. It isn’t just Bucky… he has to check on Peekaboo to see if she is breathing in the middle of the night. He says he has to be awake and ready to tend to her if she wakes up crying from a nightmare. He just sits there beside her little cradle all night long rocking it back and forth… and I am stuck in the bed all alone,” Yew grumbled. She yawned again, slipped out of her chair, and then wandered off in a daze towards the bathroom door. 

“Somebirdy is a devoted papa,” Berry Punch quipped. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 209
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The two stallions looked at one another, neither of them quite sure what to say. It was an awkward moment, filled with an uncomfortable silence, and Keg Smasher kept clearing his throat. Finally, taking control of the moment, Keg Smasher sat down upon the floor by the bed and leaned in closer to Bucky. 

“It is a right shame they can’t heal you and make you whole. I… I thought I’d never fly or run again and it damn near killed me. You deserve a better fate,” Keg Smasher said in a strained voice that clung in his throat. “I can’t thank you enough for what you have done.” 

“Are you leaving?” Derpy asked. 

“Aye. I am. Celestia is sending me home. And two modern airships are coming home with me, loaded down with all manner of terrible weapons. Fully crewed as well. Celestia said she plans to build a military academy out on my isles. She is using the seized assets and wealth of House Avarice to do it too. I didn’t know what to say to the big dame,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“If you ever need help for any reason, contact me,” Bucky said, turning his head to look at his friend. “If you need me, I will come. I mean that. I… I want to come back to the isles and see that they are doing well.” 

“Aye… I do need ya. But so does Equestria. So I am leaving you and Berry Punch here as the official representatives of Clan Pickled. No, I am not joking, stop looking at me like that. You both are here to represent our better interests for now. You know our struggle. I am trusting your judgement. Celestia and Luna both, the big dame and the little dame, they are going to come to you when they have questions or need advice about what to do on the isles. I’m trusting you,” Keg Smasher said in a low voice. 

“If you need us, we will come to help,” Derpy said as she wiped her eye with her foreleg. 

“My ship leaves at noon. I’ve said my goodbyes to Thistle. Last I saw, she was in the bathroom crying her eyes out. Look after her,” Keg Smasher said. “Said my goodbye to Sentinel too. He seems unwell. And I know why.” 

“I hope we see each other again sooner rather than later,” Bucky said. 

“I’ll be sending Wheatberry to stay with all of you when she gets a little older. I want her to get to know you and call you her chief, just like I do Buckminster… keep your idea about being a tribe alive. Don’t let it die. Now is a perfect time to spread those ideas of yours,” Keg Smasher said, leaning closer to the bed. He placed his hoof onto Bucky’s remaining front hoof. 

“Goodbye Keg Smasher. Have a good journey,” Bucky said in a voice choked with emotion. 



 

Pacing nervously, Thistle crossed the room yet again. She was miserable. There was no place to swim. No place to fish. She wasn’t nearly as omnivorous as Sentinel or Bucky, and some of the foods she had tried had left her feeling just awful. She enjoyed sweets, but now she had digestion issues. There was fish provided for her, but it was cooked and it wasn’t the same. She was starting to hate these rooms. She liked being outside. First it was being trapped on the airship with no place to swim, and now here. Soaking in the tub was nice, but it wasn’t big enough for her to really stretch her tail out. Some of the bubble bath soap irritated her skin and some didn’t, and she didn’t understand why. She was getting tired of being a pony. She was a merpony. She needed water. She needed to swim. 

She needed to be out catching fresh live fish. She felt hungry and irritated, and she wasn’t sure she was getting enough food. 

“I need to be outside!” Thistle shouted suddenly, startling her herdmates. 



 

Princess Luna softly stroked the lunar pegasus she was looking after as her time permitted. Moonbow was now awake, still a bit groggy, but drinking water and recovering. Luna was fiercely proud of the recently rebirthed foal, even though she did not show it. 

“You could have made it end at any time by simply asking for it to stop,” Luna said, her wings fluttering at her sides. She stood waiting and Moonbow did not reply. Instead, the filly laid her head down in the straw and truth be told, Luna wanted to settle down into the straw with her. “You have endured your first ordeal. Many fail this first test. Most cry out in the first half of an hour and beg for release. You have done well my foal.” 

“Yes Mistress,” Moonbow replied. 

“No… for now, I am your mother. When you are injured, when you are hurt, I am your mother. When you are fit, when you are well, I am your Mistress. Do you understand?” Luna said, correcting the filly for her mistake. 

“Yes mother,” Moonbow answered, her eyelids fluttering slightly. 

“If you are ever terribly injured, you cry out for your mother,” Luna instructed. 

“Yes mother,” Moonbow replied, her voice still somewhat raspy and her throat still sore. 

“Why are you here filly?” Luna inquired, her voice warm and soothing. 

“For Sentinel. My future mate,” Moonbow answered. 

“And what is it that you want from life? What do you want to be best at? If you do not know yet, you do not have to answer me… how can I have you trained to prepare for life?” Luna said as she lowered her head and came nose to nose with Moonbow. 

“I want to be a mother… I want to start a new colony and protect my new tribe,” Moonbow replied in a wavering voice. 

“It is very difficult to serve your Mistress if you are fat with foal,” Luna said in a low voice. 

“I plan to serve my Mistress by being fat with foals. I will birth the strongest young and they will serve Equestria,” Moonbow said, daring to look Luna in the eyes. 

“So you want to be trained for motherhood?” Luna inquired. 

“Yes!” Moonbow gasped, her voice pleading. “It isn’t enough to simply be a mother… I want to protect my tribe and teach my foals the ways of war… I want to be a Myrmidon who births future Myrmidons!” 

“You are ambitious…” Luna whispered. 

As Luna watched, Moonbow’s eyes fluttered shut. She opened them a moment later, looking up in worry, but her heavy eyelids began to shut once again. Luna smiled. She watched as her foal drifted off into slumber. 

Princess Luna liked Moonbow’s sense of vision. 



 

Wincing, Bucky gritted his teeth and hissed a bit when the doctor peeled away the bandage covering the gash in his left side just behind his shoulder. The sudden feeling of air on the wound stung. He heard the clink of metal and then felt a cold feeling on the wound. Something wet was dribbled into the laceration and it burned like fire on contact, making Bucky growl. 

“Sorry about that,” the doctor said. “Your lung is healing nicely, the wound is closing, and you are healing much faster than expected. Most ponies would die from such a wound. Your lab work is coming back and you have shown a remarkable improvement. You need more iron in your diet I think, but the anemia is getting better. Your breathing sounds much better. You’ve suffered profound physiological changes during your… uh… transformation. Your digestive tract can barely be recognised as equine now. We’re not quite sure what it is. We’re equine doctors, equine digestive tracts are all we know.” 

Bucky nodded but said nothing as the doctor continued to work. 

“Your thaumaturgical glands have been greatly enlarged. We don’t know the full effects of this yet. To be honest, there is a lot about you that we don’t know. We don’t have a comparison. We’ve studied other extremely magical beings, certain high magic equines, we, uh, cannot name names, but you seem to be entirely unique in a number of ways. Such as, your, um, Taint. There is also the fulgurite horn you have created for yourself… it has fused most of your skull with highly magical glass which has encased your brain. We don’t know the full effects of this yet, or even if it is beneficial or harmful,” the doctor continued. 

“Any useful observations?” Bucky inquired. 

“Well, the magically infused glass that has bonded with your skull has made your skull almost unbreakable we think. You will be very resistant to head injuries. Get hit in the head hard enough and your brain will still bounce around though. We are finding traces of the fulgurite magically infused glass all over your body actually… in your bones. Places not your head. A colleague of mine theorised that every time you wink, you distribute a little bit of the magically infused glass throughout your bone structure. You have a lot of excess material in your horn. Your body might be redistributing it. We don’t know,” the doctor answered.

“What about my hind legs?” Bucky asked. 

“Still learning about those,” the doctor answered. “But the damage was extensive. Your tendons and ligaments suffered some damage when your legs were injured. Princess Luna will be speaking to you on ways to deal with the problem.” 

“There is a way to fix it?” Bucky questioned. 

“Well, I only know a little bit,” the doctor replied. “Practical augmentation. Powerful enchantment magic. Princess Luna will know more. Sorry Buckminster, big stick…” 

Snarling, Bucky felt something pierce his side and go deep inside of his body. He could feel the cold and the stabbing pain left him feeling breathless. He could feel something sliding around deep within his insides. 

“I am drawing off fluid from around your heart, a procedure called a pericardial tap, or pericardiocentesis. Yes, I am aware it hurts, even with the local anesthetic,” the doctor said in his most professional voice. “You are suffering from cardiac tamponade, or a severe buildup of fluid around the heart. It has weakened your heart’s pumping ability. It is one of the reasons why you are as weak as newborn foal right now.” 

“Oh that is unpleasant!” Bucky growled. 

“Yes it is,” the doctor replied. “Most ponies scream when the procedure is being done. The good news is, in a few hours, you will feel a lot stronger. In fact, if I was a betting pony, I’d place a wager on you getting up on your hooves for a while tomorrow.” 

“I can feel a sucking feeling inside of me,” Bucky groaned. “Ugh, I feel nauseous.” 

“Almost done,” the doctor announced. “Try to take a few deep breaths. Breathing should be much easier now.” 

Bucky did as he was told, breathing in and breathing out slowly. It was much easier to breathe and the pain in his barrel was getting better. “OooooooOOOOH FECK!” Bucky swore as he felt a sudden sharp stabbing pain go tearing through his heart. “What was that?” he demanded. 

“You might experience a few more big spikes of pain like that. The fluid is now gone and your body needs to adjust and allow your organs to return to their original positions. Everything was being pushed away from your heart, creating incredible strain on your insides,” the doctor explained as he finished up his work. 

“I heard shouting!” Derpy shouted as she came bursting through the door. “You okay Bucky?” she asked, her voice full of worry. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky said. 

“You be gentle,” Derpy warned as she scowled at the unicorn doctor. 

“I am done ma’am,” the doctor said. “Just wrapping up. Putting on a fresh bandage. In a few hours, your husband is going to feel a lot better. Try to have him move around in the bed just a little bit. Not too much. Make him eat as much of this special ice cream as he can stomach. A little light exercise is in order. Nothing strenuous though. Get his heart beating.” 

“Oh… I know how to get his heart beating,” Derpy said with a smile. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 210
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Embarrassing moment or no, Bucky was glad to see Luna. He squirmed and shifted, trying to hide the fact that the blanket had an unsettling rise in it. When Luna had arrived for her late afternoon visit, Berry Punch and Derpy had been giving him a quite a show. It had been enough to leave him a little excited and get his blood pumping. Berry Punch had fled the room giggling while Derpy was holding her ground. 

Luna looked tired as she settled into the chair beside the bed. 

“How is Moonbow?” Derpy asked. 

“She is well. She dealt with her first ordeal, the one that weeds out the weak. She is now one of my foals, no matter what happens next, she has earned the right to call me mother,” Luna answered in a mournful drawn out voice. 

“If you really want me to go I will,” Derpy offered. “I just wanted to find out about my missing foal. I’m worried. I am glad she has endured.” 

“Stay. Keep Buckminster happy,” Luna said with a hoof gesture. 

“I have to look after what I am responsible for,” Derpy said in a very serious voice. 

“Indeed,” Luna said, turning her head to look at Derpy directly. “There are very few ponies I would trust to keep the life of another.” 

“So what am I learning about today?” Bucky questioned. “Practical augmentation?” 

“Yes,” Luna replied. “Something that should be effortless for you. How to enchant your body. I will be giving you some very powerful spell books for you to study. You will make your body functional again.” 

“That will be nice,” Bucky said. 

“Buckminster, do you remember just after you replaced your horn and you took Piña to the beach with you? The long walk? You did so on your bad legs and it never slowed you down,” Luna said. “I’ve studied this in your mind… you’ve cast spells without even knowing that you have done so. Or something has cast spells for you.” 

“I do remember that. And yes, the thought has crossed my mind. I went off for a long walk that day and my legs never seemed to bother me,” Bucky said, his face contorting with concentration. 

“It is possible to cast a type of featherlight spell upon your own body. It is very difficult to do, something only the most skilled of enchanters have a chance of pulling off, but practical augmentations do exist. Making your body light to allow for long distance walking without effort. Making your skin as hard as steel. Making your body work with impossible strength. Augmentation spells improve the self and allow for all kinds of useful abilities,” Luna explained. 

“I suppose a lot of these are combat oriented,” Bucky observed. 

“Well of course. If, for example, my sister, who is wont to do something like this, was fighting some big hairy smelly demon that was immune to harmonious magic, she would have to go hoof to claw with it. She would make her skin as hard as steel. She would increase her strength. She would increase her body mass considerably. Using the right spells upon herself, she could attack the infernal horror. She could slam into it moving twenty times the speed of sound while her body weighed fifty thousand tons. The collision would be terrific. The demon would never survive the initial impact. After that, it would be a matter of making sure the heart was destroyed. If it was the nearly immortal type, there would be the task of gathering its essence and hauling it off to Tartarus. This is how my sister and I win fights against powerful harmonious magic immune monsters,” Luna instructed. 

“What about Tirek?” Bucky asked. 

“Discord required a means to redeem himself I suppose,” Luna replied. “Tirek was made off limits. Do not ask me the reasons why.” 

“So Bucky could use magic to make his body move again,” Derpy said, her face now looking hopeful, a soft smile spreading over her lips. 

“Your husband is probably the greatest enchanter and transmuter of our era. I have no doubt that he could use these body enchantments and self transmutations,” Luna responded. 

“So I make myself feather light and then I don’t need to worry about the strain upon my legs. What if a strong wind comes along?” Bucky asked. 

“You make sure you have a sticky hooves cantrip active,” Luna sighed. “Buckminster, I worry about you. That is a first year cantrip…” 

“I never claimed to be smart,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You dipped your hooves in ink and then walked along the ceiling during your first year. My sister loves telling this story,” Luna said, rolling her eyes as she spoke. 

“I came around the corner and there she was. Standing on the ceiling right in front of me. She looked angry. I knew I was in trouble,” Bucky said. 

“It didn’t stop you from booping my sister’s nose with an inky hoof, you defiant little miscreant,” Luna said with the faintest hint of laughter in her voice. 

“Bad foal!” Derpy scolded. She shot Bucky a meaningful glare. “There had never be little inky hoof prints on our ceiling!” 

“Popcorn,” Bucky said, smiling as he recalled a fond memory. 



 

The sensation of fear was almost overwhelming. Moonbow followed along behind the big male that she did not know. She was not hobbled and was free to walk without restriction. She was still sore from her night in the chapel. She was confused, not knowing her place in the new world. And she was terrified because she did not know what was about to happen. 

The moon was high in the sky as they drew near some hidden grove, and she could see lights up ahead of her. It had to be near midnight. Her belly growled, now painfully empty once again. The big male was silent, offering no comfort or helpful words to her, and she wished he would say something. 

More than anything, Moonbow wished that she could see and hear Sentinel. 

She stepped through the trees and saw an open expanse before her. There were a large number of lunar pegasi. None were wearing armor, they were all wearing heavy black cloaks. They looked shapeless, and this somehow made the whole situation far more terrifying. 

Ahead of her was a wooden platform, a raised dais lit with torches that burned with sickly looking green flames. She followed the wordless instruction to go up the stairs and she stood in the middle of the dais where a copy of the Mistress’ destiny mark was etched upon the floor. She trembled. There were three lunar pegasi sitting at a table before her, all of them cloaked. Their eyes glittered in the green light, almost luminescent within their hoods. 

“Sit,” one commanded, a female with a raspy voice. 

“Now we determine your measure,” the second said, this one male. 

“Tell us, little female, are you a good pony?” the third one asked, this one female. 

Sitting down, Moonbow thought about her answer carefully. She was honourable. She did not flee from battle. She had endured the long night in the chapel. She was careful around foals, never stepping on them or kicking them by accident. She was always true to her word. She was dutiful, devoted, and dedicated. She was honest and spoke her mind. She had pledged her entire existence to Sentinel and his father’s tribe.

“No, I am not a good pony,” Moonbow said in a low voice that cracked with emotion. 

She became aware of many eyes looking at her now. The three ponies at the table. She could feel eyes looking at her from all sides, she could feel them staring, their gaze burning into her back. She began to wonder if she was worthy of even being a Myrmidon.

“If you are not a good pony, then why would you endure a night in the chapel?” the raspy voiced female snapped. “What motivates you towards our ranks? Pride? Vanity perhaps?” 

“I wish to hold myself accountable. I desire to live in service of others,” Moonbow said plainly. Her eyes remained downcast and she stared at the inky blackness around the moon etched into wooden planks. 

“You have answered wisely little female. Many make their first mistake upon the spot where you are sitting. It never goes well for them. By your own admission this council finds you guilty. You have been tried in a court of your betters, and you are lacking. We sentence you to a life of servitude, so that you might be made better,” the male announced. 

“Now tell us, which is better to strive for? Muscle or wisdom?” the second female inquired. 

“Wisdom,” Moonbow said without hesitation. “Living by muscle destroyed my colony. We’re all dead. I am one of the last of my colony.” 

The raspy voiced female made a sad sound and leaned forward. “The path of wisdom can only be found through great suffering. Are you willing to suffer little one?” 

Moonbow raised her head and looked at the trio defiantly. “Do your worst,” she spat, thinking of how fearless Sentinel could be. 

“Very well. At your command, we shall do our worst. Prepare the gauntlet!” the male shouted as he lifted his head high. 

“The walk of trust lies ahead little female. Many never reach its end,” the second female warned, shaking her head within her hood. 

Gulping, Moonbow struggled to find her courage. She turned her head and saw two long lines of lunar pegasi, and a narrow path between them. Each pegasus was holding a cane in their grasping digit. It took a moment, but she realised that she was going to walk down that narrow path. She began to tremble as she rose to her hooves. 

“You can quit now,” the female with the raspy voice said. 

Shaking her head no, Moonbow slowly trotted over to the gauntlet, ready to accept her fate. This would probably hurt, but she could endure pain. Or so she hoped. She gritted her teeth and approached. She saw Grimglammer and Shadowguard. They were the first pair she would encounter, and she recognised their faces in their hoods. 

“Begin the walk of trust!” a voice shouted. 

Taking a deep breath, Moonbow took her first few steps into the gauntlet. She heard a swishing sound and braced herself. There was a light tap upon her backside, followed by another. The second one had a bit more force to it and she jerked a bit from fear. She wondered if Grimglammer and Shadowguard were going easy on her. She heard more swishing and felt blows raining down upon her. Some stung just a little bit, but it wasn’t serious pain. 

Her nerves were getting the better of her though. She was waiting for it to become painful. With each swish, she clinched up and jerked. Her movements became more and more unsteady. 

And then finally, there was a single painful blow upon her croup just as she visibly flinched. She lost control of herself. Another painful lash came down upon her spine and she nearly bolted. As she lost control, the blows hurt more and more. 

Moonbow came to the sudden realisation that she was the cause of the blows. 

She froze in place, trying to gather her willpower and her thoughts. As she stood there, unmoving, a single blow came down right upon the tender place where her dock connected to her croup, a place still tender from the clamp and the abuse she had endured in the chapel.

Moonbow screamed out and nearly took off running. Her mind warned her that if she did bolt, she would never make it to the end of the gauntlet. The pain in her backside was blinding as she forced herself to walk forward slowly with slow careful steps. A second blow came down in the same spot as the first, which made her scream bloody murder once again, and now her dock felt as though it had its own heartbeat. Fire burned down her tail and up her spine. She felt nauseous from pain. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to lift her tail to defecate ever again. 

As she walked forward with slow measured steps, the painful blows subsided, finally becoming light swats again, little taps that barely stung. She controlled her fear and her nervous responses. She didn’t allow herself to jerk or flinch. She remained still and she focused on placing one hoof in front of the other. She came to the understanding that she could trust them not to hurt her just so long as she did what was expected of her. 

Finally, after what felt like an hour’s march, she exited the gauntlet. Ahead of her she saw Luna, and off in the distance was another alicorn that she had seen before but she could not remember the name of, she was a dark dusky purple in the silver moonlight. 

“Have you gained wisdom?” Luna inquired in a solemn voice. 

“Yes mother,” Moonbow replied in a trembling voice. 

“You remembered our previous lesson. I am pleased with you,” Luna announced. 

“Thank you mother,” Moonbow said. 

“You can quit now,” Luna said. “Failure of the next trial means your death. Most never survive the next trial. You can leave now, we will return you to Sentinel, and you can live a life of easy comfort.” 

“I would rather die,” Moonbow said defiantly. 

“Very well then my foal. Come with me and I shall take you to what might very well be your death,” Luna commanded. 

The dark blue alicorn took off at a steady pace and Moonbow followed. Ahead, she could see a large pool of water in a vast stone basin. As they approached, her breath was caught in her throat. The pool was full of stars and the moon was reflected upon its surface. 

As she drew near though and stood at its edge, her rapture turned to horror. She could see down into starry water and see white bones just a few steps in. She saw even more several yards in. There were bones strewn all over the bottom of the reflective pool. 

“This water is special. It will know your heart. It will know your resolve. If you falter for even a second, you will sink below the surface and you will never draw another breath ever again. Most are not worthy. Keep your eyes focused on what is most important to you,” Luna instructed. 

Moonbow stood at the edge of the pool and peered down at the bones. She poked the water with her hoof and then watched the ripples. “How do I walk upon water?” she asked. 

Luna let out a patient sigh. “This pool was created by a unicorn named Sombra, my most devoted and loyal friend before he fell into shadow. This pool is one of his many great enchantments. He created it with his brother Star Swirl. To cross the water, one must simply focus on what is important to them.” 

Moonbow swallowed. She took a long look at the many skeletons in the water. Most were lunar pegasi, but she saw a few unicorn skulls in there as well. The water clearly had a story to tell and the bones were mute witnesses. She took a deep breath, poked the water once more with her hoof, and then studied the ripples. She looked up at the moon above her and thought about Sentinel. He prayed to the moon. She had sat with him while he had done it. She took her first step and felt her hoof strike something hard as stone. 

She wanted to look down and see herself standing upon the water, but a voice inside of her head screamed at her to keep her eyes focused on the moon. She did not look down, but kept her eyes skywards as she trotted out over the water. She tried not to think about the beauty of the water below her, how it was filled with stars and the moon. And bones. So many bones. 

“Mother moon, guide my heart,” she whispered, repeating the words she had heard Sentinel once say. She swallowed. She didn’t know if she was almost done or not. She thought about checking... certainly one little glance to see how far she had come couldn’t hurt anything. 

She snorted. That sort of thinking would get her killed. She ignored the nagging need to look down. To look away. She could almost feel something tugging on her head now. Her throbbing dock thudded painfully and oddly enough, the pain helped her focus. 

She let out a cry of alarm as she stumbled, sheer terror flooded through her being as she pitched forward. She regretted only one thing as she plummeted to her death… that she had not pounced Sentinel one last time. 

Her face smashed into the grass and she shrieked as her emotions overcame her. She crawled forward upon her belly to be away from the mirror pool full of bones. She began to sob uncontrollably as she sucked in painful breath after painful breath. She lay in the cool slightly damp grass and was thankful to be alive. 

“You lived,” Luna stated. 

Moonbow looked up at Luna. She sniffled as she continued to sob. 

“You remained focused. Had you looked down or taken your eyes off of the moon even once, you would have died, pulled down into depths. Your flesh would have burned away most painfully and your bones would have joined the others,” Luna explained. 

“Mother!” Moonbow wailed, still filled with terror. 

“Good foal…”  
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 211
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The door opened and Bucky saw a familiar face. Princess Celestia’s personal assistant Raven. She was carrying several clipboards in her magic and several ledgers floated in her telekinetic field as well. She was smiling, she was always smiling, and she was humming to herself as she entered the room. 

“Bucky,” Raven greeted. 

Smiling, Bucky felt a little better. At least Raven understood which name he prefered. “Hi Raven. How goes life?” he responded. 

“Always busy. I’ve had to resort to minor time travel just to stay on top of everything,” Raven replied with a cheerful grin. “Celestia has threatened to give me wings and make me the alicorn of organisation.”

Bucky couldn’t tell if she was joking. “What brings you here?” he inquired. 

“You,” Raven answered. “Today, you have several more tests and procedures scheduled. All of your consorts need to be fitted. We need measurements from you as well. Princess Celestia should be by to speak with you… maybe. Things are really crazy right now and she might not make it today.”

“Fitted?” Bucky asked. 

“For your coronation,” Raven explained. 

“Oh no! No, that’s not happening. No way is that happening!” Bucky said as he squirmed helplessly in the bed. 

“Oh believe me, I am utterly shocked about the whole thing as well you little malcontent,” Raven said in sunny tones, her face still beaming. 

“You can’t talk to him like that,” Derpy warned, raising her head and flaring her wings out. 

“Why not?” Bucky grumbled. “She of all ponies has earned it.” 

Derpy scowled and stared at Raven. She pulled her wings in and snorted threateningly. 

“Your husband has collected the largest disciplinary file ever on record. Most students have a folder, maybe two. A few special students can claim to have a drawer. Your husband has several filing cabinets devoted to his exploits,” Raven said in impossibly chipper and cheerful tones. 

“Okay, to be fair, I did get in trouble, but there is no need to exaggerate,” Bucky said and then heaved a dismissive sigh. 

“Because of my obsessive compulsive disorder, I do not engage in hyperbole. Would you like to see the cabinets?” Raven said in a warm inviting voice as she leaned in closer to Bucky. 

“Oh bother… she’s telling the truth,” Bucky whispered. “I still became a prefect and protected the students when Nightmare Moon returned.” 

“Celestia wanted any potential attackers to know our pain suffering in having to deal with you! YOU ARE A MENACE!” Raven retorted, her voice loud but still rather cheerful. “I begged Celestia to be merciful to any potential threats to the school. But no, she just smiled that smile of hers and said that anypony attacking the school would get what they deserved.” 

“Oh my,” Derpy gasped. 

“And your husband became a prefect, not as a reward, but as a punishment. Bucky understood duty. It was the only way to keep him somewhat contained,” Raven said to Derpy. 

“Bucky…” Derpy said. “Tsk tsk, you are a bad pony.” 

“You haven’t changed Raven. I don’t know how you do it, but you are still the young looking mare that used to scold me one moment and give me milk and cookies when I was sad the next moment. When I first came to the school you were Celestia’s assistant and you have been at her side this entire time,” Bucky said in a wistful voice. 

“I had just graduated when you arrived,” Raven said, sitting down in a chair beside the bed. She settled in and gazed at Bucky. “You were so little and small. The other foals teased you. Bullied you. I felt bad for you.” 

“You gave me a scarf on Hearth’s Warming Eve… nopony else had given me anything. You also left me cookies in my room. I know it was you. I would recognise your script in an instant…” 

Derpy reached out and touched Bucky, she could hear the sadness in his voice, the pain. His head was turned and he was looking at Raven. She could see his ears and how they drooped. She stroked his neck and wished that she had Bon Bon’s touch. 

“Nopony should be alone on Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Raven replied. “It is awful for the students stuck at the school during the holidays… those whose parents don’t want them.” 

“I just stayed in my room and refused to come out,” Bucky said, his features becoming downcast. “I just didn’t see the point.” 

“Don’t ever tell Celestia, but I was always just a little bit proud of the trouble you caused,” Raven admitted. 

“Really?” Bucky asked. 

“Truly,” Raven answered. 

“Even when I flooded the school with spiders on Nightmare Night?” Bucky questioned in a faint whisper. 

Raven shuddered visibly. Her mouth opened and her tongue lolled out as she gagged. She squirmed with revulsion. “I… urgh... “ 

“You did what?” Derpy asked. 

“I don’t wish to speak about it!” Raven cried as she waved a forehoof in front of her face. 

“How?” Derpy asked. 

“I created the spider orb,” Bucky said, falling back into his pillows and smiling at the memory. He sighed a contented sigh. 

“No… no more!” Raven begged. 

“Spider orb?” Derpy questioned. 

“A glass orb that attracted spiders. It’s a funny story… see, there are some simple enchantments to bring pests out of hiding so you can squish them with your hoof. Bugs and spiders and such. I worked up a very powerful version of that spell and enchanted a glass orb as a sort of spider beacon. I then rolled the glass orb down an air duct so it couldn’t be found. In no time at all, the school was swarming with spiders of all kinds. The walls were covered with little eight legged horrors. Rivers of spiders flowed down the halls,” Bucky explained.

“Enough!” Raven begged. “Celestia had to send me on vacation!” 

“Bucky, how could you? Bad foal!” Derpy scolded. 

“Yes! Bad foal!” Raven repeated, pointing her hoof at Bucky. 

Grinning sheepishly, Bucky allowed a smug look of satisfaction to settle over his face. 



 

The grass was still covered in the morning dew. Thistle was grateful to be outside, but there was no place to swim. She rolled in the grass and enjoyed herself immensely, kicking her legs up into the air and snorting. 

Others were with her. Sparkler, Rising Star, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple were all enjoying the early morning outside in the small private garden. Sparkler had her head in the flowers, examining each delicate blossom. Ripple was beside her doing the same. Rising Star was sitting in the middle of the garden with his eyes closed, just enjoying himself. 

Loch Skimmer was plotting. 

Her husband was completely oblivious. His guard was completely down. She stretched out her body and flexed her muscles. Moonbow had given her wonderful ideas. She flexed her wings and gave a tiny snort. Remembering she had to protect her weak leg, Loch Skimmer launched herself, throwing her bulk at the clueless unicorn minding his own business in the grass. 

POW! 

“OOOF!” Rising Star grunted as he tumbled into the grass, now winded. He struggled to make sense of what was going on. He felt a brief spike of arousal as a lithe body compressed against his. He felt himself being wrestled into submission.

Rising Star fought back. 

“Big brute pegasus!” Rising Star shouted. “I’ll make you learn your place!” 

Sparkler felt a twinge of panic. She turned and watched the pair. She feared that Loch Skimmer would have a moment of panic at the words. She knew that Loch Skimmer had fragile trust. Sparkler held her breath and she heard Ripple’s panicked breathing right beside her. 

“Oh really? I want you to put me in my place!” Loch Skimmer giggled. 

Sparkler exhaled sharply in relief, and the beginnings of a smile appeared on her muzzle. 

Rising Star wrangled the pegasus and rolled her over. For a moment, he had her pinned beneath him. She was giggling and parts of her jiggled enticingly with each movement she made. He was all too aware of her bad leg and he tried to be careful. He suddenly found himself airborne and a second later, he was in the grass flat on his back. 

Loch Skimmer threw herself onto Rising Star and straddled him. Sitting on his barrel, she used her wings to tickle his ribs. “I’m a bad filly… but you already knew that. And you are too sweet to put me in my place. You’d never hurt me-unf!” 

Rising Star rolled Loch Skimmer over and she kicked and wiggled beneath him. He managed to get her on her belly and then climbed over her back, sitting on her. “You tickled me!” he accused. He reached back and gave her a light swat over her cutie mark. 

“Spank me will you!” Loch Skimmer shouted as she bucked Rising Star from her back. As he tumbled into the grass, she tackled him again. She jammed her muzzle into his neck and blew a raspberry. She then clamped down on an ear with her lips and gave a tug. 

Sparkler smiled and watched as the pair continued. Both were covered in grass stains. Both were happy. And Loch Skimmer clearly trusted Rising Star, which made Sparkler feel better. They were really going at it now, Loch was doing everything she could to gain dominance. 

“You raspberried my foal hole!” 

“Well, you wiggled, I was going for your teats!” 

“Do it again!” 

Sparkler felt Ripple nuzzle her side and Sparkler turned to the filly at her side and smiled. The pair exchanged a knowing look and watched as Loch Skimmer and Rising Star wrestled one another, struggling for dominance. Sparkler couldn’t help but notice that Rising Star wasn’t trying very hard. 

“I remember how skittish Loch was.” 

Sparkler looked over at Thistle who was now sitting down beside her. Thistle was covered in grass stains and her coat was damp with dew. The plants that made up her mane and tail looked vibrant in the morning sun and Sparkler noticed several new blooms in her mane. 

“Are you happy Thistle?” Sparkler asked. 

“I will be once I get to go for a swim. My husband is alive and recovering. I am finally living the life I’ve always wanted. I still don’t like toilets though,” Thistle replied. 

“You know Thistle, I think I actually understand you. I’d imagine that as a kelpie, they weird you out. As for Loch and her fixation with electric lights… pegasi have a special relationship with electricity because of storms. To have total mastery over it is probably magical for her,” Sparkler said to Thistle. 

“Hey don’t pull on THOSE! I need those to pump you full of foal batter!” 

Sparkler heard Ripple giggling as she continued to study Thistle. The kelpie was already as large as most ponies get when they become fully pregnant. “You know Thistle, you’re big. Really big.” 

“Hey! No! No licking my wingpits! Ugh! Stop stop stop!” 

“I know Sparkler. I am hoping that I am as big as I am because there is a little kelpie inside of me and she needs the extra room for her tail,” Thistle said in a low voice. She watched the pegasus and the unicorn in the grass and her heart felt glad. 

“Hey! You two! Go hide in the bushes or something! Loch Skimmer, you caused it, you fix it!” Sparkler shouted. 

“Boner!” Loch Skimmer crowed triumphantly. 

Thistle watched as the pair disappeared into the nearby shrubbery, giggling every step of the way. “You know, if there are any ponies around, they are going to hear those two,” she commented. 

“I can only hope,” Sparkler said with a grin. 



 

Sentinel hated the blindfold but understood its purpose. He huddled in the bottom of the chariot and waited for the ride to be over. He was told that it would be a short trip. He was getting a chance to see Moonbow, and he had jumped at the opportunity. He didn’t know the guard in the chariot, and he didn’t care. He just wanted to see Moonbow, even if it was only for a little while. 

He felt the chariot slow down and his ears popped as the altitude decreased. 

The landing was smooth and Sentinel felt himself pulled from the chariot. The blindfold was pulled free and Sentinel blinked in the bright sunlight. He saw a flash of blue. 

“Princess Luna?” Sentinel inquired as he struggled to see. 

“She is eager to see you. Come,” Luna instructed. 

Sentinel shuffled after Luna as his eyes struggled to adjust. They were somewhere with a high altitude, perhaps upon some mountain plateau. He flexed his wings and yawned. It had been a long night for him. Ahead of him was a small grassy area and on the edge of the grassy area was a forest. In the distance, there were some buildings and what appeared to be a tall tower. 

And then, he saw her. Sentinel bolted, leaving Luna’s side to run to her. 

“Moonbow… you…” Sentinel said haltingly. 

Moonbow was hobbled in chains and heavy weights. Around her neck was a heavy iron collar that forced her head down. She looked exhausted and Sentinel suddenly felt like crying. He held in his tears as he drew nearer. 

“You are bound… the chains… and big iron weights,” Sentinel stammered. He looked around and saw a few other lunar pegasi foals, all of them bound as Moonbow was. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing. 

“My bonds weigh as much as I do. As I grow, so will they,” Moonbow said, struggling to hold her head up. She smiled weakly. 

“How long must you wear them?” Sentinel asked. 

“Until I can fly again,” Moonbow replied. 

Sentinel studied her bonds and the heavy iron weights clamped around her legs. The only thing not shackled was her wings. On her back was a small stuffed doll. Sentinel felt puzzled. The doll confused him more than anything else. 

“You have a doll,” Sentinel said in befuddled tones. 

“I have a foal,” Moonbow corrected. “I chose motherhood as my path. I must look after our foal. I must keep him clean and out of the dirt. I must keep it comforted. I must keep it happy. If I fail, it will cry and I will be punished.” 

“It is enchanted?” Sentinel questioned. 

“Yes,” Moonbow replied. “I named him Sentinel.” 

Sentinel felt a lump in his throat. “You look exhausted.” 

“It was a long night for me. I waited for you. I was told I had earned a reward. I chose to see you. I’m tired Sentinel,” Moonbow said. 

Sentinel laid down in the grass and made a gesture to Moonbow. “Rest your head.” 

Moonbow looked up at Luna, who was standing nearby. She saw a faint nod and then moved to Sentinel’s side. She eased herself down and rested her head upon Sentinel’s back. It felt good to lay down and rest after the long night she had endured. 

The cold iron collar pressed into Sentinel’s side and Sentinel squirmed slightly, feeling the hard iron edge pressing into his ribs. He made himself go still. Moonbow’s discomfort was surely worse than his own. He gently pulled the doll from Moonbow’s back and cradled it in his forelegs. “Sleep for a while,” Sentinel said. “I’ll look after our foal and see that it doesn’t cry and wake you.” 

Luna drew near and stood over the pair. “She did very well Sentinel. She endured her trial and survived her initiation. She is strong. She will make a good mate for you.” 

“Survive? Is her life in danger?” Sentinel asked, looking up at Luna, blinking fearfully. 

“Not any longer. Now she is an asset. She will be guarded. Protected. She will be looked after and nurtured so that she might grow strong. She will be educated,” Luna stated in a soft voice as she looked down upon the pair. 

“I hope she flies soon,” Sentinel said. 

“I don’t want to fly soon… I want to bear these weights as long as I can. They will make me stronger. How else will I move in heavy armor and fly with grace?” Moonbow said in a sleepy voice. 

“I… I understand,” Sentinel said, coming to a painful realisation. 

“Honour has its own weight Squire Sentinel. The chains you bear are every bit as heavy as those she wears. In time, you will learn to move with fluid grace under the burden that you choose to bear,” Luna said, offering up gentle instruction and wisdom. 

Sentinel hugged the doll in his forelegs and pressed his face into it, smelling Moonbow’s scent in the doll’s fabric. He felt a single tear fall free from his eye and it stained the fabric, making it dark. He tried to ignore the cold iron pressing into his side and focused instead upon the weight of Moonbow’s head upon his back. 

“When she is finally freed from her bonds, she will be strong… strong enough to protect others. Strong enough to stand in defense of all those smaller and weaker than she is. Mark my words, she is going to be a big one. She will be a walking and flying fortress of might,” Luna explained in a proud voice. 

“I understand,” Sentinel whispered. “All of the weakness has to be cut away.” 

“Five years Sentinel. Five short years. Surely you can wait for five years,” Luna said. “I have total confidence in her ability to succeed. She will not fail me.”

“I will wait,” Sentinel said in return. 

“Don’t be idle Sentinel. Grow strong. Become educated. Hunt for other fillies worthy of our herd,” Moonbow said, her words ending in a loud yawn. 

Sentinel felt his face burn and his ears grew uncomfortably warm. He clutched the doll ever closer. “I will do as you ask,” he squeaked nervously. 

“Stay strong Sentinel. The path you have chosen is just as difficult as the one she now walks, but for different reasons. One day, my sister and I will make you earn your knighthood. Do not expect for it to be easy,” Luna warned. 

“I will prepare,” Sentinel said. 

“So you can assist your father better, I am reviving the rank of Cornet and bestowing it upon you. I will be giving you books to read so that you might understand your duties. Cornet is the lowest ranking officer position available. I demand that you hold yourself to the behaviour befitting an officer at all times. Do you understand me?” Luna said in a serious voice. 

“Yes ma’am,” Sentinel replied. 

“Very good Squire Cornet Sentinel. This is not an honourific to placate you. I expect much from you in exchange for this privilege I am giving you. Your prayers have touched me. Your sense of duty has impressed me,” Luna said. 

“I await your orders,” Sentinel said, looking up at Luna. 

“Comfort this filly of mine. She is weary and has endured a great deal. Stay with her until my return, I will be collecting you in a few hours to return you to your father,” Luna commanded. 

“I will serve,” Sentinel said, bowing his head slightly. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 212
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus settled his bulky haunches down to the ground and stared at Ripple. The filly was looking up at him, her expression one of fearless curiousity. She had an expressive face. One ear drooped off to the side, the other remained perked. Her wings were perfectly preened and her sleek body rippled with fine muscles. 

“I suppose you know what I want from you,” Lugus said, cocking his head to one side, and then the other, getting a good visual lock upon Ripple. 

“I do,” Ripple replied nonchalantly. 

“I would like to take you on as my squire,” Lugus stated. 

“And I would like to be your squire,” Ripple answered. She smiled broadly, holding nothing back. She was a creature of oft expressed emotion. 

“I have a condition,” Lugus said, hunkering down and leaning closer to Ripple. His talons flexed and his claws sank into the lawn, pressing softly into the dirt. 

“And that is?” Ripple questioned, her drooping ear standing straight now that her attention had been engaged. 

Lugus’ crest rose and his feathers fluffed out. “You must not be such a stick in the mud as little Sentinel,” Lugus said in a quiet voice. “To have such an expressive face and then never use it to make silly faces… I cannot bear it.” 

“That is your only condition?” Ripple asked, her face contorting into a quizzical expression. 

“Yes, I am finding the expression upon your face right now quite enjoyable,” Lugus said, his head turning around completely until the underside of his beak was pointing skywards and his crest pointed towards the earth, his eyes never leaving Ripple. 

“You are doing that creepy bird thing again. Heads shouldn’t twist that way, at least not without me twisting them around and making turn that way,” Ripple said. “I will be your squire. And I will make silly faces for you.” 

“Thank you, my little squire pony,” Lugus responded. “We must work hard and find glory. Bucky and Sentinel are ahead of us. Bucky slew a god while it incubated in its womb. Somehow, our enemies must learn to live in fear of our very shadows.” 

“I will need to find other masters… other teachers of the fine art of hooficuffs if I am to stand a chance of picking a fight with an emerging god and winning,” Ripple said, mostly to herself and looking thoughtful. “I know there are others out there who seek a worthy student. I hope you don’t mind me taking time to better myself and prepare myself for combat.” 

“I am counting on it,” Lugus said. “Plus, I intend to teach you the way of the Cunning Claw, the martial arts of the griffons. You do not have claws, but the concept is the same. It is all about swift debilitating strikes that cripple your enemy, each blow visiting ruin upon their body.” 

“Father could make me claws… they took away my shoes. I am still a bit angry about that,” Ripple said, her face darkening. 

“They took Chieftain's Fury from me. I do not know if I will ever see it again,” Lugus said, his eyes narrowing. 

“I’m looking forward to those combat lessons,” Ripple said, smiling up at the griffon as she spoke, her wings fluttering with barely contained excitement. 

“Good, let us begin,” Lugus said as he launched himself at the filly with a loud squawk.



 

Sparkler watched Ripple and Lugus sparring. Quite a crowd had arrived, and guard pegasi were standing around the fighting pair watching with curiousity. Lugus had curled his talons into fists and he wasn’t pulling his punches to make them harmless blows. A couple of his strikes had connected solidly with Ripple, who took them quite well. She gave as good as she got, thumping Lugus soundly when she had the chance. The griffon was at least four times the size of Ripple but moved as an equal to her speed and grace. 

Sparkler couldn’t help but notice that Ripple was beautiful. Her sweat streaked pelt glistened in the sun and droplets of moisture flew from her contours as she moved. She cried out with every blow, making guttural sounds that forced her to breathe and were intended to intimidate her enemies. Her light blue mane clung to her neck, the fine blue strands clumped together to form tendrils that wrapped along her graceful curves. 

Ripple stood easily on two legs, either her hind legs or her front legs. She moved with a fluidity and grace that Sparkler envied. She could cartwheel and do standing flips. She was a young filly who was perfecting her physique. 

And Sparkler found Ripple quite desirable to look at. 



 

Yew Wood wasn’t quite sure what to make of her living situation. She knew she was a tribe member, a part of a tribe founded upon a new set of ideals, but she had trouble defining the relationship as a whole. She felt more like she was in an extended family. She was sitting on a couch waiting for Lugus’ return. Berry Punch was beside her, reading a newspaper, and Bon Bon was on the other side, leaving her tightly squished between the two of them. Bon Bon was watching Peekaboo and Harper nap together on the floor in a large patch of sunlight, occasionally making satisfied sighs. 

Yew Wood wanted to learn how to read. In time, she would learn, but she couldn’t help but feel a little bored now as they all sat around in this large room doing nothing. Living like a princess wasn’t all that interesting. Yew wanted to be off doing other things. Anything really. 

Berry Punch farted beside her, and Yew could feel the creeping warmth spreading through their pressed together flesh. Yew smiled. This is what it meant to be a well bonded herd. Her mind wandered a bit, she wasn’t married into this herd, but she was certainly a part of it. She had fought and bled for it. She had suffered for it. Her foal, and there was no mistaking that Peekaboo was her foal now, was cared for and looked after as one of the herd’s foals, and there was nothing singling Peekaboo out as an outsider. She heard the slurping sounds of Lyra sucking on a straw, her drink now empty. 

“Ponyville democracy is spreading like wildfire,” Berry Punch commented. “It no longer has the nobles opposing it. The Ponyville town hall model of government is going to be adapted and expanded upon. Twilight Sparkle has officially surrendered Ponyville and has ended her war with Princess Celestia. As of noon today, Ponyville is going to be part of Equestria as a whole again. Vanhoover is in talks for reunification. This is fascinating stuff.” 

“I don’t know enough about it to comment,” Yew said in reply, looking over Berry’s shoulder at a photo in the newspaper. “The pictures in the paper are so pretty. I wish I understood how they did that.” 

Berry Punch tapped the paper with her hoof. “This picture is history. That’s Bucky, scaring the meadow muffins right out of his family. You know, with as terrifying as he looks, I honestly thought public opinion would be against him, demonising him. Instead, most opinion seems surprisingly positive and popular. This article here below the picture is a writer’s rant that we need stronger protective figures in these dark times. There are still roving gangs of bandits, hordes of monsters, and ponies keep talking about weird creepy cults running around and doing spooky stuff.” 

“Ponies are scared right now,” Yew replied. “When ponies get spooked, they sometimes do bad things. Fear affects our judgment.” 

“Even with everything that has happened, support for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are at an all time high. Funny how the ponies lost faith in the noble houses, but not in the princesses,” Bon Bon said, leaning over a bit more on Yew to look at the newspaper. 

“There is overwhelming support for the Stable of Representatives,” Berry said as she read another op-ed piece. “Wow, the newspapers are really good now. There is actual news in here, not fluff pieces and useless advice on how to remove stains from a cocktail dress.” 

“The pegasi are causing a bit of a problem though. Cloudsdale is demanding that the only ponies who should be able to vote are those who have served in the guard,” Lyra remarked. “Back page story, bottom left corner.” 

“Cloudsdale scares me sometimes. The old military clans are too focused on service and special privileges for those that have served,” Bon Bon said, shaking her head. 

“Fascism is not something we need creeping into our new government like a weed in the garden,” Berry said as she made a sour face of distaste. “Military this, and military that, and we need more authority… blah blah blah… only those who have served truly have the right to have an opinion… ponies who haven’t served are ignorant peasants… more pegasi politics. Derpy’s family were autocratic fundamentalists. They made me sick!” 

“What makes earth pony politics any better?” Yew asked in a small quiet voice. 

“Equality. The idea that we are all ponies and that we are all equal. Those of us who have lived on the bottom for so long just want to be recognised as equals. With the fascist military pegasi clans of Cloudsdale, they believe the only ponies who belong in the guard are pegasi… because they can fly. If they had their way, guess who the only ponies who could vote would be? They tolerate unicorns in the guard because they can be hauled around in sky chariots and used as field mortars, but there is no real love there. The pegasi have long memories and the term “servile pegasi” makes their ears burn,” Berry explained. 

“That doesn’t sound very fair,” Yew agreed. 

“General Iron Sky says that we are draft animals and we can’t be trusted to vote,” Bon Bon muttered. “He is threatening to resign his position if earth ponies are given the right to vote.” 

“Bastard,” Berry swore. She threw down the paper down on the floor in disgust. 

“Life seems so much more complicated here,” Yew said in a low uncertain voice.

“Yew, life is complicated everywhere,” Berry said in reply. 



 

“Father, Princess Luna regrets that she will not have time to speak with you today,” Sentinel said as he pushed his way into the room. With a leap, he flew up into the bed and then settled in near his mother, falling over onto Derpy’s side with a grunt. “There is a huge stack of spell books left in the other room. Mother Lyra is arranging them and she will be bringing them in shortly.” 

“Oh good,” Bucky said, yawning after he spoke. “How is Moonbow?” 

“Bound in chains. I don’t wish to talk about it,” Sentinel said, as he pressed his head against Derpy’s side. “How soon till they start to wiggle around in there?” he asked his mother. 

“It’ll be a while,” Derpy replied. 

“Knight Major Bitters, you now have a junior officer at your command. Princess Luna gave me the rank of Cornet, an old rank that doesn’t exist anymore, but has been revived. She told me on the way home that she is going to restore this rank back into the military code for all squires,” Sentinel reported. 

“Ooh an officer to do my bidding,” Bucky said proudly. 

“My little colt is an officer,” Derpy said in gushing tones. Her head darted back over her shoulder and she planted a kiss on Sentinel, and then another, and then a third. Derpy made a pleased sounding whicker and then she raised her head up high. 

“Somepony is a proud mama pegasus,” Bucky said as he watched the pair. 

“I am proud of all of my foals,” Derpy said. She sniffed and lifted her muzzle upwards a bit. 

“With responsibility comes service,” Sentinel said, curling up against his mothers side. He yawned. “I’m worn out. I had to deal with a fussy foal and keep it from crying so it wouldn’t wake Moonbow.” 

“What?” Derpy asked. There was no reply and Derpy turned her head to look back at Sentinel. His eyes were closed and his barrel rose and fell steadily. She nuzzled him one final time and Sentinel grunted in his sleep. 

“He’s worn out,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“He was foalsitting?” Derpy whispered. 

“Seems that way,” Bucky replied. 
	
> Chapter 213
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The late afternoon sun shone into the window and the blinds were left open. The sunlight bothered Bucky. He could still be in the sunlight, but it left him feeling weak and kind of disoriented. On top of everything else, Bucky had to worry about getting enough vitamin D. He silently cursed his new physiology. The doctor had explained that the lunar pegasi, whom Bucky now resembled, got their vitamin D through the consumption of herbivores who collected vitamin D for them, meaning they did not need sun. Their thick shaggy pelts didn’t allow much sunlight to reach their skin. They were truly nocturnal carnivores with omnivorous capabilities. Bucky, formerly a diurnal herbivore, had an odd mishmash of the two systems now, and weaknesses from both. 

He watched as Lyra moved around the room, placing books upon various available surfaces. Her coat gleamed and her mane had been cut into the style she favoured. Bucky could tell that she felt beautiful again, she strutted now, the way she had moved had changed. She moved with a certain confidence, poise, and grace. Bucky had not even noticed just how dull looking some of their pelts had begun to look upon the isles. He watched Lyra’s tail swish around, revealing little glimpses that left Bucky feeling intrigued. 

“Enjoying the show?” Lyra asked. 

“I’ll admit to looking, but I understand there is to be no touching,” Bucky replied, a grin spreading over his face. 

Lyra moved close to the bed, her task done. She came to Bucky’s side and nuzzled him, and after a moment of bonding, gave him a swift peck upon his cheek. “Need anything?” she asked as she lifted her head. 

“Actually, yes. I need to talk to you,” Bucky said, his grin slipping away and a nervous expression settling over his face. He reached out with an unsteady foreleg and touched Lyra’s face with his folded fetlock. 

Derpy was gone, she had carried Sentinel to bed and had not returned. Bucky could hear her talking in the other room, the soft baby talk she used with Harper and Peekaboo. It made what he needed to do a little easier. 

“Sit with me Lyra,” Bucky invited. 

Lyra looked around, her eyes settling upon a chair, but then she changed her mind and hopped up into bed. She eased herself down beside Bucky and positioned herself so she could look him in the eye. Her tail thumped against the bed a few times as she shook it to spread it out. She knew full well that Bucky really enjoyed looking and she didn’t mind showing. 

“Lyra, we need to talk. About some of our mutual interests,” Bucky began. 

“Yeah?” Lyra said in a curious tone. 

“Lyra, no more necromancy. Now look, don’t get upset just yet, give me a chance, necromancy isn’t dark magic even though it appears to be. It is actually something else entirely and I only just recently learned this,” Bucky said, enduring the stinkeye that Lyra was giving him. 

“Well then, what is it really, Mister Warlock?” Lyra said with only a faint hint of sarcasm. 

“Every time necromancy magic is used it allows demons to escape from Tartarus. Which is why it is such an easy magic to use. It aids the demons in their escape,” Bucky briefly explained. “This is why the spells just show up in your mind and why even type twos can become exceptionally powerful spell casters if they use necromancy.” 

“Oh,” Lyra said dully as she looked like she was deflating. “But the potential to grow back limbs without having to suffer from healing magic,” she murmured, her eyes falling upon Bucky’s stump. 

“Isn’t worth the price,” Bucky stated. 

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” Lyra agreed, her eyes still lingering on Bucky’s stump. “Still tempting to think about. I must confess, the knowledge of how to do it has crossed through my mind several times.” 

“During the trial I had the knowledge of a necromantic death spell pop into my head. It made me feel so happy… I wanted to use it upon my family,” Bucky confessed. 

“We’ve both been changed by the darkness that has been our lives,” Lyra said, shaking her head sadly. 

“Which is something I want to talk to you about. We need to work on those memories you have tucked away deep down and find out what has happened to you. I am going to speak with Princess Luna about it,” Bucky said. 

“I can’t face it Bucky,” Lyra whimpered in reply. Her face contorted as though she was in pain. “You don’t understand… I don’t want to remember…” 

“Lyra it is hurting you. Luna needs to be made aware of it,” Bucky said. 

“What if she is already aware of it and is leaving me alone?” Lyra said as she closed her eyes and rested her head down upon the bed. “I am fairly certain that Luna had to have been poking around in my head after I was found at the train station. Maybe I was too damaged to deal with. Maybe she figured I was better off not knowing.” 

“We still need to talk to her. Whomever did what was done to you needs to be dealt with,” Bucky whispered. 

“I can’t talk about this anymore… where is Freezerburn? I need Bon Bon… I gotta go,” Lyra said in a panicked voice. She lept from the bed and hurried out the door, her hooves clicking upon the floor. 

Bucky sighed and hoped he hadn’t done more harm than good. He wondered where Freezerburn was. The phoenix had slipped off once more. Bucky hoped that he wasn’t going to have to grant a royal pardon once again. 



 

The sun retreated from the window as Bucky continued to read. The book was propped up on the bedside table that could be suspended over his stomach. He was able to turn the pages with magic, but it took a moment of concentration to do so, which bothered him. 

The book was all about dark magic. In particular, dark enchantments. Fear spells of different varieties. Mind magic of different sorts. Dark command spells that were indeed dark, and not just in the sense they were dark magic, but were dark in purpose, including a spell that filled the target with an overwhelming need for suicide. 

Had anypony else looked at the book, they would have wondered why Bucky was reading a blank tome. The book was written with ink that could only be seen when under the influence of dark magic, and Bucky’s Taint filled orb allowed him to easily read the spidery letters that were found upon the pages. 

He ignored the spells that could potentially harm or kill other ponies and instead focused on spells that were debilitating, like the one that filled the target with an overpowering feeling of hopelessness. More advanced versions of the Horror spell that he had once used, fear spells capable of working on even the strongest of minds. Bucky understood that he was going to have to be careful. Ponies could die of fright. The book was full of dark abjuration spells as well, powerful magical defense spells, including one that would make the caster immune to necromancy based attacks. He found several notes from Luna appended to these pages, written on fine stationery in her smooth script and tucked into the book, commanding Bucky to study these spells in depth. Magic resistance. Magical immunity. Magical vampirism, the ability to draw magic from a target and recharge one’s own mana reserves to keep fighting during prolonged battles. 

Bucky suspected that many of these spells had been created by Sombra because as he read them, he had vague recollections and memories come to the surface of his mind about their uses. These books were powerful and dangerous, and he realised that Luna was trusting him with a level of power that was beyond anything he had even dreamed existed. Bucky resolved not to let his Mistress down… the deal was that he got to be with his family. All he had to do was serve willingly and protect the empire, something he was willing to do anyway. 

There were no depths that Bucky would not traverse to keep his family and the ponies that he loved safe. 



 

Not long after slipping into slumber, Bucky found himself in a now all too familiar grey plane and he saw two faces lined with worry waiting for him. He barely had time to get himself oriented when he was tackled in a fierce hug and then his face smothered in kisses. His small foal sized body was easy prey for Princess Platinum’s affections. He quietly endured until Princess Platinum wore herself out and settled down to sit beside him. 

“We get to watch you almost all of the time now,” Sombra said. 

“Were you punished?” Bucky asked. 

Platinum squirmed. “We shan’t talk about that.” 

“Very well,” Bucky said. “But I want it said, whomever is hurting you had better leave you alone. I have no compunction about coming to Tartarus and holding them accountable for hurting you. Nothing harms my family,” he hissed. 

Sombra looked terrified for a moment and his eyes darted all around him. He wrapped a foreleg around Platinum and pulled her closer. 

“Be careful what you say, dear,” Platinum warned. “I know you mean well.” 

“You were quite merciful with Goldflake,” Sombra said, changing the subject. 

“That was more for Derpy’s sake. I followed my wife’s example. He seemed… regretful,” Bucky stated in slow measured words. 

“Dear, you keep following the examples of your wives,” Platinum commanded in a gentle loving voice. “I have spoken with him… Goldflake… I have tried soothing him and telling him that he has done well.” 

“He is consumed by guilt. He came to it late in life, but the regret he is experiencing will make things easier on him when he passes and comes here to this place,” Sombra said in a solemn stately voice. “He does not have long.” 

“We absolutely adore watching your foals… we’ve come to love them all. Watching them makes the time spent here bearable. I… I actually do not wish to leave. To cross over I mean. I want to watch them grow. I want to see them face life,” Platinum said as she studied Bucky’s new body. “Seeing you as you are… an alicorn foal. It makes my heart feel hopeful.” 

“This is only what I am on the inside… I hope you understand, but I will never ascend,” Bucky said in a pained voice. 

“Don’t worry about us and do not feel guilty. Buckminster, Bucky, you live the life you feel you need to live. I am having second thoughts. I am not so sure that your ascension is what will set us free,” Sombra said. 

“You say that as though you almost have made yourself believe it,” Bucky replied, looking at Sombra and studying his face. 

Sombra’s expression sank. “I don’t know what to believe. I want to believe that what you were meant to do still lies ahead and you just have not done it yet. And once you have, we will go free.” 

“In the end, it isn’t about us. We will endure. It is about you. And we are proud of you. You are my son. I am willing to scrub away a thousand years of bad history and say that you are my foal. You are the son of Sombra and of myself. I have spoken with Celestia about giving you the Platinum Crown. You have ideas in your mind that I find myself enamoured with. Follow your dream. Found a new tribe. Bring ponies together. Make them believe again. Many are hurt after everything that has happened. The tribes are divided. Equestria cannot survive with the tribes not trusting one another. Be an example to them,” Platinum said as she leaned upon her husband. 

“I will never wear a crown,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You are a prince,” Sombra stated. 

“I am a slave,” Bucky retorted. 

“You can’t run from your destiny forever,” Sombra said in a patient voice. “It will catch you.” 

“I’d like to see it try,” Bucky said defiantly. “Celestia said I could out stubborn an earth pony. I’ll never stop running. Never. I’m happier being a slave. Isn’t that what a good father is? A devoted servant to his family? I will never wear a crown. I will never ascend. I will do my other duties, I will protect the ponies that are now my responsibility to protect, but my only obligation is to my family. That’s it. No more, no less. I chose slavery and servitude. I do not choose wings or a crown.” 

“Come here, let me hold you. It has been so long since I have held a foal… my heart aches,” Platinum pleaded. 

Bucky willingly walked over and allowed himself to be held. Platinum laid down and cradled him in her forelegs, smoothing out his wings carefully and then stroking his mane. He thought of Luna holding him in much  the same way, defending him from those that sought to do him harm. 

“Seeing your eyes the way they are… it fills me with sadness,” Platinum said as she pressed her snoot into Bucky’s neck and breathed in his scent. 

“Bucky, if it is any consolation… your great grandfather is here in this place. He will know suffering like few will ever know suffering. Had he ascended, he might have been one of the prisoners here one day, but since he failed, well, I understand they are creating new punishments to make him atone for his evil as a mortal. Those that have recently died are getting to listen to his wailing as a form of punishment. His cries are… unpleasant and I say this after enduring here for a thousand years,” Sombra said in a wavering unsteady voice. 

Bucky felt Platinum shiver and shudder as she cuddled him, her mane tickling the side of his face as she shook. Her eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened, they were glassy with tears. He reached up and gently stroked the side of her muzzle, hoping to bring some small measure of comfort. He felt her head lean into the touch and a soft hum could be heard in the back of her throat. 

Sombra watched as Platinum cuddled Bucky, and stood silently over the pair, a silent guardian now happy that he had something to guard once again. 



 

It was several hours until dawn and the head editor for the Canterlot Trumpet opened an envelope bearing the royal seal. Inside there was a collection of papers secured with a red ribbon, and another smaller envelope also stamped with the royal seal. He opened the smaller envelope. 

“Squire Sentinel, son of Buckminster Bitters,” the editor read to himself. His face turned thoughtful. “Wow, the kid is a natural born writer,” the editor quipped. “I should offer him a job.” 

He pulled out the papers and began reading, his brow furrowing. “Enclosed is a copy of the original document, the original is of course something I treasure too much to give away,” the editor read to himself. His lips moved as he read and the big burly stallion’s face softened. 

“I am an equine. Specifically, I am a pony. I was a citizen of Equestria, a loyal subject of the Royal Pony Sisters, but now I am no longer certain I am either of these things. I have things to answer for and my future is uncertain. I am a member of Clan Pickled. Of this, I have no doubt. I am welcomed and loved by my clanmates. I am the new Founder. I am the Father of my tribe. I lead a tribe of ponies. We will identify as ponies. We are all ponies. Ponies with horns or wings or even fins, but we are ponies first and foremost…” the editor read out loud to himself. He continued reading, now silent, clearly overcome with emotion, his eyes beginning to water as he read, blurring his vision. “We are one tribe…” the editor finally said as he neared the end of the document. He set down the paper and rubbed his eyes. “I am a pony with a horn,” he muttered to himself as he tried to compose himself. 

He sat in his office, silent, aware that the paper needed a good story to place upon the front page. He picked up the other papers and started looking them over. 

“My father’s words have affected me greatly. He wrote them out only a little while ago, but I have already been thinking upon their meaning. There is truth in his half awake ravings. I have never understood my place, but I think I do now. I am a pony with leathery wings. I am called a lunar pegasus by type, but my tribe is my father’s tribe. And in this tribe, we are ponies. Some of us fly, some of us walk, all of us have some kind of magic, some of us are grass eaters, a few of us are flesh eaters. Some are adult, some are young…” the editor read through the copy of the journal entry, rubbing his eyes fiercely as he did so. 

He flipped over to a new page of carefully written script. 

“My father, whatever his fate might be, has done one thing worth noting already. He has brought us all together and we do not squabble. We are as he said, one tribe. I’ve been learning history from Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra told me how the unicorns used the pegasi to bully the earth ponies into growing food. Bon Bon and Lyra both told me that many unicorns still have this belief, that the other tribes should be beneath them. I have learned about horrible words like “mud pony” and even writing them down or thinking about those words makes me feel sick… Should those words ever be uttered around me, I will feed somepony their own teeth. I will not be little forever…” the editor read. He glanced nervously at the clock upon his desk. He continued to read, a lump in his throat, and tears stinging his eyes. He fell silent for a time. 

“The words of my mother Bon Bon still bother me. She told me how she was taken from her home as a foal, snatched away and stolen from her family, how she was taken away on a ship filled with other foals, and brought to a city called Fillydelphia. She told me how they shaved her bald all over, shaving off her mane, her tail, and even her pelt, and how she was sprayed with something to kill lice and bugs, how they got it in her eyes, how it burned her eyes and her skin, and how she was blind for a month afterwards. She was kept in a freezing cold orphanage with no pelt as winter approached… Father is not the only one with a painful burden now upon his shoulders…” the editor read in a strangled voice. He glanced at his clock again. 

There was still time. He could put all of this out in type in time for the morning printing. Even if the paper had to be a little late. He gulped down his coffee and scrambled out of his office, the sheaf of papers in tow. 

He had a story to that needed to be on the front page, perhaps the most important story of his career. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 214
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The entire herd and its extended members were in shock after seeing the morning paper. A stunned silence had fallen over the table, not much was being eaten and nothing was being said. Sentinel sat at the end of the table wondering if perhaps he had done something wrong. Berry Punch was quietly staring at her buttered toast. Thistle was hunched over her poached fish. Bon Bon gently stroked Lyra and Lyra held Harper. Loch Skimmer ate, but did so in silence. Sparkler was carefully spooning hot mush into Peekaboo. Rising Star was scratching his chin. Ripple was slowly eating her bowl of granola and milk, her muzzle dipped into the bowl. Lugus was sitting with his crest perked straight up, and Yew was beside him staring at the newspaper even though she couldn’t read it. Dinky and Piña kept exchanging glances with one another then looking at Sentinel. Derpy smacked her lips a few times and rapped her hoof against the table. Bucky was propped up in a high backed chair at the other end of the table, staring at the fruit bowl rather vacantly. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Sentinel inquired in a faint squeaky voice, breaking the silence after it had endured for a small eternity. 

“No,” Derpy said right away, looking a little startled. 

“It is very quiet and it feels like I am the cause,” Sentinel said. 

“You did a good thing,” Bon Bon said in a strained voice. “But you did reveal a lot of our more private moments when you sent in copies of your journal entries… things that could make us look very good or very bad.” 

“I wanted ponies…  to see father’s vision…  and to see us for what we are… ponies,” Sentinel explained in a halting voice. 

“We understand that,” Lyra said. 

“I wanted ponies to know about things that happened on the isles. Good and bad. They had to see us at our worst and at our best. Including some of the awkward things that makes us ponies,” Sentinel said, trying to make his family understand why he had done what he did. 

“Sentinel, there is no need to defend what you have done,” Bucky said. 

“He talked about the teat feeding,” Berry Punch said to Bucky in a somewhat stunned voice. 

“I wanted them to know the crushing weight he carried and the things that comforted him,” Sentinel said, his voice now hitching. “He came to his vision after he drank of your milk…” 

There was a clunk as Derpy dropped her spoon. Her ears drooped, falling down to the sides of her face. She sighed, looked at Sentinel, and then looked at Bucky. “He included a journal entry about how other ponies treat me and how much it hurts me… that was private.” 

“There were a lot of ponies who didn’t actually know I was gay,” Bon Bon said as she slumped down into her chair. “I kept things like that to myself so it wouldn’t hurt my business.” 

“He exposed our weirdness. So what,” Ripple said as milk dribbled from her muzzle. “You’re gay. I’m gay. Some of us are bi-sexual. Berry Punch has a fetish about being milked by her husband and will forever be known as Bucky’s Milkmare, not to mention the completely non sexual aspects of trying to comfort her husband as his body approached death from his continued efforts. Even the doctors said that Berry’s teat milk is probably the reason why father is alive. Sentinel talked about my sister’s growth and change from a repressed frightened filly to the glorious pervert she is now. SO WHAT?” Ripple snorted, spraying a fine mist of milk from her nostrils, and then jammed her muzzle back into her bowl. 

“Th-th-thank you sister,” Sentinel stammered, slumping down even further into his chair. 

Ripple did not reply, but kept her muzzle snoot deep in milk and granola. 

“Rising Star’s uncontrollable boners,” Loch Skimmer said, now smiling slightly. “I’m proud to be a pervert. Shagging feels good. It isn’t anything to be ashamed of. It isn’t dirty or wrong. And if we stopped doing it, there wouldn’t be any more little ponies.” 

“Sentinel looks really miserable,” Piña said, now also looking quite miserable. 

“He didn’t write anything embarrassing about you or Dinky,” Sparkler said. 

“He didn’t? Well what about kicking us out of his bed because he’s suddenly springing boners himself?” Dinky retorted. “Sure, that’s embarrassing for him, but what about Piña and I you big doofus!” 

“Hey! No name calling!” Derpy scolded. 

“But Sparkler is a big doofus!” Dinky argued. “She’s a tail fluffing fart sniffer!” 

“ENOUGH!” Bucky shouted, his voice causing the silverware to rattle. He wasn’t using the Voice, but it was loud enough to command attention. 

The table fell silent again and every head looked at Bucky. Even Harper and Peekaboo stopped what they were doing to turn and look at the unicorn who struggled to sit up straight in his chair. Peekaboo covered up her face with her wings and hid behind them. 

“I’m proud of Sentinel and what he did. He painted an honest picture of us with words. Warts and all. And as a family, we have warts. So what! Now not one more word!” Bucky commanded. 

“What Sentinel did took courage,” Lugus said. 

“The sordid details about our lives are going to come out now anyway. We’re royals. The press is going to dig out every nugget of dirt they can find and print it. At least this information came from somepony we love and it wasn’t some heartless cruel exposition piece taken out of context meant to do us harm,” Bucky explained. 

“Senty,” Harper announced. 

“Yes, Senty,” Bucky said. “The honour pony.” 

“Thank you father,” Sentinel said. 

“Why can’t you call me daddy or dad or something not quite so stick up the plot formal?” Bucky said, falling over in his chair and slumping down. 

“I… I… er… well…” Sentinel stammered. 

“Oh bugger it,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Mama,” Harper quipped. 

“Heck, you could even call me mama if you wanted to Sentinel,” Bucky said, lifting his good right hoof and gesturing at Harper. 

“Can we call you princess?” Ripple asked as she lifted her head from her bowl. She felt every eye now turned upon her. “Well, he might need a little cleaning up… one of you could maybe braid his mane and put a few ribbons in it…” 

Bucky roared with laughter which quickly turned into a wheeze. He started to pitch forward in his chair and Derpy had to catch him. She gently pushed him back into the chair and held him in place as he hacked, horked, and recovered. 

“Why am I the only one laughing?” Bucky wheezed.

“Well, currently everypony is giving me the stinkeye,” Ripple stated. “And Sentinel is still too worried about what the family thinks of him. Don’t worry Little Brother, Big Sister has your back.” 

Sentinel took a deep shuddering breath and let it out slowly. 

“The Gleesome Threesome has come together upon this issue and we stand in defense of our brother,” Piña said as Dinky nodded in agreement. The two foals began the process of staring down the adults and glared fiercely at any would would meet their gaze. 

“What Sentinel did must have took some serious guts. I’m not sure I have that kind of bravery,” Rising Star muttered. 

“Now quit moping. There is a lot to do today. Thistle, you have an ultrasound and I am coming with you,” Bucky said as he slowly looked around the table. 



 

Slumped in his wheelchair, Bucky tried to find some way to pass the time while they waited. Thistle was sitting on the table and rubbing her belly as she waited. Derpy was sitting in a nearby chair and occasionally stroking Thistle’s side. 

“From this angle of view, I have a fantastic eyeful of Thistle’s teats,” Bucky announced. 

Blushing, Thistle shifted slightly. 

“Well hello there,” Bucky said in a low breathy voice. He lifted his stump from the armrest and flexed his joint, grimacing as he did so. 

“Thistle, close your legs,” Derpy said in a hushed whisper. 

Tittering, Thistle closed her legs and behaved herself. “I’ll let you sniff all of my blossoms later,” Thistle promised. 

“Hey, I wanna sniff your blossoms,” Derpy announced. 

“You can sniff my blossoms any time, but I want Bucky better so he can sniff my blossoms,” Thistle stated. “And maybe I could squeeze him between my thighs again. I want to feel him tease my... Why are you staring at me like that Derpy? You are staring at me aren’t you? Hard to tell sometimes...” 

“Doctor,” Bucky greeted. 

“Oh noes,” Thistle gasped. She covered her mouth with her hooves. 

“Ready for your ultrasound?” the doctor inquired, blushing furiously as she stood in the door. Her white pelt was beet red all around her face and neck. 

“How long has the doctor been there?” Thistle asked. 

“Blossoms,” The doctor said in a strained voice. 

“Oh dear,” Thistle groaned. 

“Her blossoms really do smell amazing,” Bucky said to the doctor. 

“My name is Doctor Whippoorwill… and I am going to attempt to remain professional and do my job,” the pegasus doctor announced. 

“And what pony doesn’t enjoy eating a nice tender blossom…” Bucky said as he looked at some poster on the wall announcing the dangers of feather flu. 

“Bucky!” Derpy scolded. 

The pegasus’s wings fluttered as she stood in the doorway. “Can we please restore some decorum?” Whippoorwill begged. 

“Sorry, my husband hasn’t been looked after in a while if you know what I mean,” Derpy said. “I think it causes him brain damage. Severe brain damage.” 

The doctor nodded and moved forward slowly. She approached Thistle, reared up on her hind legs, and leaned on the examination table. She poked and prodded with her hoof, and then rolled Thistle over onto her back, gently letting her down. She continued to poke and prod, pressing all over. “Wow, upon first glance, I’d say you were ready to give birth in just a few days.” 

Thistle blushed and then looked over at Derpy. 

“She’s gained a lot of size suddenly. Over the last month, it was like she doubled in size,” Derpy said to the doctor. 

“Really?” the doctor asked. 

Thistle nodded and the doctor did more prodding. 

“Experiencing any pain?” Whippoorwill asked. 

“I have a lot of back pain,” Thistle admitted. “I keep telling the doctors this. Doesn’t anypony write this down?” 

“I’ve read your file. I like to hear for myself directly. I’ve been told to look for a tail today,” Whippoorwill responded. “This might hurt a little bit,” she warned as she pressed down. 

Thistle let out a cry and Bucky’s horn spouted black flames. 

Derpy tensed and watched Bucky. She saw him take a deep breath and the magic went away. She took her own deep breath and eyed the doctor, who looked terrified. “He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Derpy said apologetically. “And he would never hurt another pony. He can’t help it after what he’s endured.” 

“I’ve read your husband’s file… I’m sorry… it is very unnerving,” the doctor said as she looked at Thistle. 

Bucky sat in sullen silence, saying nothing and trying to calm his frazzled nerves. 

“Bucky is a good pony,” Thistle said. “He just gets a little jumpy when ponies cry out or sound like they might be in pain. He would never hurt you… he’s just a little over prepared for threats, that’s all.” 

The doctor stepped away from the table, grabbed a machine, and rolled it over. She tapped a switch and there was a hum from the machine. With her wing, she grabbed a tube of lubricant from a heated vat of water, shaking away the excess liquid. 

“This is going to leave you feeling slick and goopy. I recommend a bubble bath,” the doctor suggested. “Are you ready?” 

“This won’t hurt?” Thistle asked. 

“There might be some moments of discomfort, but it won’t hurt, I promise,” Whippoorwill replied in a reassuring voice. She reared up onto her hind legs again, took the tube in hoof, and the squeezed out a dollop of lubricant onto Thistle’s belly. 

“That’s warm,” Thistle said as the doctor began to rub her stomach with an applicator. Thistle understood the importance of the object. A lubed hoof would lead to slips and falls. 

“Only a cruel doctor would squirt cold lube onto a pregnant mare’s belly,” the doctor said. 

“Hmm, I bet Thistle would be a lot of fun while she’s slick like that,” Bucky said as he watched with peaked interest. 

“You know, it is very difficult for me to do my job when you're behaving this way… doubly so when I have to think of a stallion your age being married to a female that is still legally a filly and the harm you must be doing to her,” the doctor said in clipped tones. 

Derpy bristled. “Now look here!” she snarled. “You can’t talk to him like that!” 

“I am obligated to treat my patient. I am under no obligation to like statutory rape,” the doctor snapped. “Just like a noble. Special exceptions for sexual perversions.” 

Derpy was out of her chair in an blink, moving like a grey blur, standing at the tableside in an instant, suddenly reared up and snoot to snoot with the doctor, her wings spread out and her nostrils flaring. “Say one more thing about my family and I put you through the wall.” 

Whippoorwill said nothing. She dropped the applicator on the table, dropped down on all fours, and walked out of the room, leaving behind three very angry ponies. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 215
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know, I am a big girl now… I don’t need you fighting my battles for me or hovering over me like I am some silly little filly,” Thistle snapped. She snorted once, twice, and then thrice, each time sounding just a little angrier. 

“I wasn’t trying to treat you like a filly,” Derpy retorted. “I would do the same for any of my fellow-wives.” 

“I dunno, you sound pretty angry, like you’ve been caught in the act,” Thistle said in guarded tones, glaring at Derpy. 

“Of course I sound angry!” Derpy shouted. “I am angry! Somepony said something awful about us!” 

“SHUT UP!” Bucky commanded. 

Both mares fell silent and slowly turned to look at Bucky. 

“We cannot afford to fall apart right now and start bickering among each other. I won’t stand for it! Derpy mothers everything she touches. In all honestly it was probably half and half. She is going to be extra protective of you because of your age Thistle, she can’t help her instincts, they make her what she is. Derpy, Thistle is a big girl. Now no more quarreling,” Bucky demanded. 

Thistle and Derpy remained silent, cowed into submission. 

“Now kiss and make up,” Bucky said in a tone that was not a suggestion. 

“We’d better do as he says,” Thistle said in a small voice. “I was behaving like a foal.” 

“It would be wise,” Derpy said. She looked at Thistle. “I’m sorry… I might have responded with just a little bit of motherly instinct.”

“It’s okay,” Thistle said, looking at Derpy.

Both of them shot a glance at Bucky, turned back to one another, gave each other a quick kiss, and then Derpy pulled away to cool off. The grey pegasus stood stiff legged, her wings out in a dominant pose. 

“She is sexy when she’s angry,” Bucky muttered. 

“Yeah, she kinda is,” Thistle said. “But I like her more when she is smiling.” 

“Shush,” Derpy said, not bothering to make clear whom she was shushing. 

“So what do we do now?” Thistle asked, trying to get comfortable upon the examination table. She squirmed and kicked around a bit, unintentionally giving Bucky quite a show. 

“I guess we wait,” Derpy said, now pacing back and forth in the small examination room. She was still stiff legged, but she folded her wings against her sides. 

“My balls itch and I can’t reach them,” Bucky said. “And I don’t trust my magic yet with something that delicate. I might tear them off. Still trying to learn how to focus again.” He squirmed around in the wheelchair and very nearly fell out. 

Derpy was at his side in an instant, pushing him back into position and propping him up. She reached up and offered a helping hoof, scratching an itch that just had to be scratched. 

“Am I interrupting something?” 

Derpy froze and then saw the look of stunned horror upon Bucky’s face. A moment later, she recognised the voice. She froze, her hoof still in a very compromising position. 

“It is very kind of you to try and make your husband feel better after something so upsetting. You are a very devoted wife. I knew I could trust his life in your care.” 

“Princess Celestia,” Bucky said in a strained squeaky voice that cracked from nervousness. 

“Um, this isn’t what it looks like,” Derpy said, not daring to turn around. She pulled her hoof away slowly and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“You were scratching his itch. I heard everything. I was coming by to see if there was a new kelpie in my kingdom. I am very concerned over this issue. I ran into Doctor Whippoorwill. She has been relieved of her job,” Celestia said in a cool collected voice. 

“She shouldn’t be fired,” Bucky said. 

“Buckminster, what am I to do with you… protecting ponies who wrong you,” Celestia said in a calm gentle tone. She clucked her tongue a few times and stared at Bucky, her ethereal mane whipping around aimlessly. 

“This is bound to be upsetting to some ponies,” Bucky argued in a very subdued voice. 

“She has been warned several times about her judgmental behaviours. When the guards come in with a case of the Drips, she is supposed to treat them. Not cast judgment. She committed her final offense,” Celestia explained patiently. 

“I see,” Bucky said in a miserable sounding voice. 

Celestia strode into the room purposefully, came to Thistle’s side, and then smiled down at the kelpie. “I know that Bucky loves you. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you. Cadance feels stronger when she is around you… you are filled with love. Now we shall determine if you are filled with a future kelpie.” 

Celestia studied the machine for a moment, scowled, prodded a button with her magic, waited, scowled a bit more, and then gave the machine a swift kick. The machine thrummed to life. “Percussion engineering,” Celestia muttered to herself. “Makes me glad I am part earth pony.” 

Lifting the ultrasound wand in her magic, she squirted a glob of lubricant over the end and pressed it to Thistle’s stomach. She maneuvered it around for a while, frowned, moved it a little more, smiled, and then continued to move it around at different angles and positions. “Been over a year since I used one of these last,” she said apologetically. “Oh there we go…” 

“Well?” Bucky said impatiently. 

“Oh I just found Thistle’s bladder. Looks almost full, I’d better hurry,” Celestia said, beaming a celestial grin. She looked at the machine’s arcano-tech projection screen. “This machine was made to mimic the echolocation of lunar pegasi. A gifted lunar pegasus can tell the gender of their foals before they are born. From long time ago, marriages were arranged between them while the foals were still in the womb, and for some, the tradition persists.” 

“Fascinating,” Bucky stated. 

“Lunar pegasi midwives would occasionally work for the nobles and tell them what gender their foals were. We only recently figured out how to mimic their abilities and this machine was the result,” Celestia explained as she rubbed the wand over Thistle’s belly. 

“I can’t take it anymore!” Derpy cried. 

“Oh… there we go…” Celestia said, her grin broadening ever wider. “Thistle, I see a tail.” 

Thistle made no response. She lay there for a moment, quiet, stunned, and then she began to weep. Her cries started off small, but quickly became overpowering sobs. She covered her face with her forelegs and her whole body shook as she wailed. 

Derpy sat down suddenly upon the floor, unable to say anything, unable to respond. She took several deep breaths and then, she too began to cry. 

Bucky slumped over in his wheelchair and took a few deep gulping breaths. He said nothing, but stared at Thistle. 

“There… I think that little bit of news will make everything better. I am going to step out for a moment and speak to another patient. Discord is having a few problems and I do hope I can make him feel better,” Celestia said, excusing herself and stepping outside the door. 

“We have another kelpie,” Bucky wheezed. 



 

Sentinel stood by and proudly watched as Ripple was informed about her rank of Cornet by Grimglammer. The filly could barely contain herself, her wings fluttering as she pranced around in excitement. He watched as Grimglammer saluted, and then Ripple returned the salute. 

“Two squires,” Grimglammer said. “Both in the same family. What a marvelous age we live in,” she stated. The big lunar mare looked around the room and saw a lot of proud eyes. “Alas, I must be going. This is my last day of duty, and I requested the privilege of this mission.” 

“Last day?” Sentinel questioned, blinking as he looked up at the big mare. 

“Furious and I both are going to settle down and raise a family. We’re also going to try and talk Shadowguard into forming a herd with us. If both of us are fat with foal together, nopony has to lose our wager,” Grimglammer replied. 

Saluting, Sentinel snapped to attention. “I wish all of you the best of luck,” Sentinel said. 

“Thank you,” Grimglammer said. “We will be seeing each other again. We are retiring to Ponyville, Princess Twilight Sparkle has personally invited us. There is a large cave on the edge of the White Tail woods. It is large and comfortable, and we are going to convert it into a home.” 

“Will you visit us when we arrive in Ponyville?” Ripple asked. 

“Of course,” Grimglammer said. “One of my retirement directives is to look after the Knight and the Librarian. In an unofficial capacity of course. Which means we will be neighbors.” 

“Will you teach me some moves?” Ripple inquired. 

“On the condition that you teach Sentinel how to fight,” Grimglammer answered. 

“I intend to. He’s a tough little scrapper,” Ripple said. 

“I know, he’s flashed those cute little fangs at me,” Grimglammer stated. 

Blushing, Sentinel kicked his right front hoof into his left front hoof and grunted in embarrassment. He then kicked the floor a few times, but he said nothing. 

“I must be going,” Grimglammer announced. 

“Goodbye,” Sentinel said in parting. 



 

“So we have a kelpie,” Berry said to Bon Bon. 

“I know,” Bon Bon replied. 

“So will she sprout legs after she is born?” Lyra asked. 

Bon Bon shrugged and said nothing. 

“So I have a kelpie sister,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“We have a kelpie sister,” Sparkler corrected. 

“Well, yeah, but you get what I mean,” Loch Skimmer said, rolling her eyes at Sparkler. 

“While I am happy about the kelpie, I must say, I am worried about the lack of males in this family,” Rising Star said as he levitated over a hundred crayons, trying to work on his fine magical control. “Nuts, this is harder than it looks.” 

“Crayons are for colouring, not for magicking,” Piña protested. 

Dinky, flustered by Rising Star hogging most of the crayons, levitated Rising Star up off of the floor and held him near the ceiling. “You took all of the Thistle colours you jerk,” she accused. 

“Hey, woah there Dinks, the floor is a long way down,” Rising Star said nervously. He squirmed midair and his tail swished in fear. “Seriously, Dinky, I like having my hooves on something solid.” 

“Dinky, put Rising Star down,” Lyra said. 

“Harrumph,” Dinky grunted. She let Rising Star down slowly and Rising Star, thankful to have his hooves on the ground, returned all of the crayons with a sheepish grin. 



 

Thistle settled deeper into the tub and took a deep breath. She was still in pony form, which made her kind of uncomfortable in the water, but she really didn’t have enough room to stretch out her tail. She let out a low moan as Derpy scrubbed her belly with a brush. She felt the brush moving in slow careful circles, never once striking her more tender places. 

“I feel so much better,” Thistle said in a drawn out voice. 

Derpy did not reply, but kept scrubbing, trying to get the goop worked out of Thistle’s pelt. She smiled though as she leaned over the tub. 

Without giving a warning, Thistle wrapped her forelegs around Derpy’s neck and hauled her into the tub. She locked lips over Derpy’s own, and kissed Derpy with an almost pegasus level of ferocity. She felt Derpy squirming on top of her, trying to not squish her or her belly. She felt Derpy’s wings snap outwards and she felt the pegasus’ body stiffening. She wiggled her tongue in past Derpy’s lips and then felt Derpy melt into her embrace. She felt the pegasus begin to kiss her back. After a moment, Thistle pulled away, leaving Derpy breathless and heaving. 

“I want you to think about what I just did before you think of me as a foal again,” Thistle said in a gasping voice. “I am all the mare you can handle. I’ve earned my place in his herd. I carry my fair share of the load. And I’ve cried more tears than I can count for Bucky and I mmmMMMMmmmph!” 

Derpy shut Thistle up with a kiss and squeezed a fetlock full of tender Thistle flesh. The two mares struggled for dominance for a moment and then Derpy pulled away. “Just remember. You have my love. I am not a perfect pegasus. I make mistakes. I’d rather make a mistake protecting you then do nothing at all.” 

“Protect my foal,” Thistle begged. 

“You have a whole herd looking after you,” Derpy whispered reassuringly. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 216
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Everything was chaos. The past few days were all one chaotic jumble. The last thing that Bucky remembered clearly was finding out that Thistle had a kelpie foal coming. There were fittings for formal clothing, trips to the dentist, hoof polishing, a rehearsal that Bucky had managed to talk his way out of by playing sick, and Bucky had ignored almost everything by keeping his nose buried in books. 

Also, in the mess, Bucky had taken his first few steps unassisted, the day before last. 

He watched as his family swirled around him, each one trying to figure out what to do next. Ripple refused to wear a dress, saying she’d rather show up in armor instead. Somehow, Ripple still looked girly. Her mane had been turned into three long braids and tied off with royal purple ribbons. Ripple insisted she didn’t mind looking girly, she just refused to wear a formal gown or a dress. 

Loch Skimmer refused to wear a dress at all, protesting for all to hear that such a thing blocked off Rising Star’s access to her filly bits, and that clothing was unfair to husbands and wives. Derpy, Berry, and Bon Bon were still trying to herd Loch into a corner so they could get a gown on her and Bucky could hear them in the common room pleading with Loch to cooperate. 

Sentinel didn’t seem to mind dressing up once the act was finally done, and was strutting around in a black wool officer’s coat with silver trim. The insignias of his rank were pinned to his lapels. The colt strutted, moving around with easy confidence and grace in his uniform. His tail had been bound, wrapped around the dock with black grosgrain ribbon in military style. 

Piña and Dinky wore simple gowns that were almost floor length and they tried to not step on the hems. They had to move slowly and carefully so they wouldn’t tumble. Piña took to it much better than Dinky did, slinking around in a manner that mimicked Berry Punch’s slinky movements in her form fitting gown. 

Derpy wore a grey gown that was a few shades lighter than her pelt. It had a swooping backline that split along her neck and remained open down to her wing joints, exposing a delicious expanse of pony flesh for all to see. Bon Bon had warned that such a revealing cut was sure to cause a scandal, but Derpy didn’t care. She enjoyed parading herself around for Bucky to view. 

Lyra wore an extra frilly formal gown that made her the frilliest mare in the herd. She had even touched up her face with a bit of makeup and now pranced around fishing for compliments. She moved with surprising grace and beauty. 

Bon Bon wore a simple modest gown, one might even call it plain, and simply stated that anything too frilly offended her earth pony sensibilities. She wore it well though, and parading herself in front of Bucky had left him breathless. 

Berry wore a gown that accented her every curve as an earth pony. It somehow made her hips look wider and plumped out her plush figure. It was also open beneath so Harper could be fed easily, due to Bucky’s outright refusal for bottles and formula, or what Berry called the first of many of Bucky’s royal decrees. Berry didn’t mind at all and was glad that Bucky had put his hoof down. 

Rising Star wore a tuxedo cut jacket that was dark bottle glass green rather than black. He was a dashing figure, his jacket contrasting sharply with his light blue pelt. He had to keep away from Loch Skimmer, who threatened to undress him forcibly and “ravage” him repeatedly. 

Sparkler, much to everypony’s shock, wore a military uniform that had been fitted for her. It had been Luna who had come through for Sparkler, providing a jacket that would fit with a few modifications. Her Buck Sergeant status was proudly worn on her lapels and the charcoal grey wool looked stunning in contrast to her purple-pink coat. Sparkler chose to make a political statement with her clothing. She believed that mares were fit to serve in combat roles, not just as field medics, doctors, nurses, and entertainment. (As was the case with the Wonderbolts) She even wore a service cover, the glengarry set at a rakish angle upon her head. Luna was certain that the uniform would set off a firestorm of political controversy. Thankfully, Sparkler was known for having thick skin. 

Thistle wore a gown with heavy floral accents that complimented the living greenery of her mane and tail. She was in full bloom now, her mane and tail filled with pink blossoms. She was impossible to ignore. Whenever she drew near to one of the other mares in the herd, sniffing could be heard as Thistle’s magic took full effect and her effect upon Bucky was in fact, actually magical. 

Lugus wore nothing, as there was nothing that would fit him, but he was quite intrigued by the gown that Yew was wearing. 

The hustle and bustle was interrupted by a knock at the door, which turned out to be a messenger stating that the whole family was needed for a photograph session scheduled beforehand. As everypony panicked and tried to collect themselves so they could go, Bucky begged that Sentinel stay behind and keep him company, to which Sentinel agreed. 

It wasn’t long before the herd stampeded out the door, leaving Bucky and Sentinel alone in the suite together, and Bucky smiled a wicked smile. 



 

“Come on Sentinel, time is short,” Bucky said. 

Sentinel looked up at his father in confusion, his face rather blank. 

“There is no photograph scheduled. Mental magic. Just a tiny bit of mind control. I had to get everypony out of here so I could escape. We don’t have long before my treachery is discovered so we need to skedaddle now,” Bucky explained. 

“Father! This smacks of dishonesty!” Sentinel cried out in protest. 

“Yes it does,” Bucky agreed. “But there is no way I am letting them crown me,” he said. 

“Father, this is wrong,” Sentinel said with pleading urgency. 

“I no longer have a healthy sense of right or wrong. I fear I’ve become a pragmatist. Write that down in your journal and feel free to tell the papers. I feel that it is only fair for other ponies to know what they are in for,” Bucky said. 

“Father…” Sentinel said in exasperation, the closest he would come to sassing his parent. 

Bucky’s face grimaced with concentration, his horn flashed with a bright blue-green flare, and then he slowly slid out of bed. He stood shaking on three legs. “Practical augmentation is my ticket to freedom,” he muttered, mostly to himself. 

“You no longer look like a skeleton,” Sentinel observed. 

“Thank you,” Bucky said. He wobbled around on three legs. “Feels weird being this light. Oh, right, sticky hooves,” he muttered. His face scrunched and after several moments, his hooves and Sentinel’s hooves glowed in a blue-green aura. 

“Father, this is not behaviour befitting an officer,” Sentinel said fearfully. 

“Sentinel, you are a colt. You are entitled to play and have fun. Now you listen to me, today, we’re going to play hide and go seek. We’re going to hide, and probably the entirety of the Equestrian Royal Guard is going to seek us,” Bucky stated. 

Sentinel groaned and his facial expression was one of actual pain. “I’m going to be court martialed,” he moaned. 

Bucky took off with surprising speed on three legs, hopping around and getting a feel for his new three legged gait. He cleared the door, peered around the common room, and then bolted for the door leading out, Sentinel hot on his heels. 

He stuck his head out the main door and peered down the hall. Sure enough, at the end of the hall, there were two guards. Bucky grinned. 

Without saying a word, he placed his hoof on the wall and then boosted himself up. He scurried up the wall and then made his way along the high ceiling. Sentinel followed, a panicked look on the colt’s face. Their hooves were silent and made no sound. 

“Sentinel, ponies hardly ever look up. It is our major failing as a species,” Bucky said philosophically to his son as he scooted along the high vaulted ceiling. His mane hung down towards the floor and he looked rather wild. 

Moving swiftly and silently, the pair scooted past the guards, passing overhead. Bucky continued, looking around him, trying to get his bearings. After moving up the hall, he turned to look at Sentinel. 

“We’re not too far from the school wing. Follow me, I’ll show you around,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“This castle is far too large,” Sentinel said in a panicked whisper. 

“Extradimensional space,” Bucky whispered back. 

“Wizardy stuff,” Sentinel grumped. 

The pair made their way along the ceiling, and Bucky’s pace picked up as he became accustomed to moving on three legs. He looked all around him, mostly down below him, hoping he and Sentinel would not be caught. 

“I’ve been putting on a little,” Bucky confessed. “I had to make ponies believe I was too weak and helpless to escape.” 

“Father, I fail to see the point. They will find us. And they will crown you,” Sentinel said. 

“And I will keep running,” Bucky replied. “If they are going to do it, it is going to be without any pomp and circumstance. And they are going to have to drag me there in chains.” 

“Father, not to be pedantic-” 

“You’ve been spending too much time with Piña and your writing,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Father, you are a slave, I have no doubts at all that they will in fact drag you to your coronation in chains,” Sentinel hissed. 

“Sentinel, stop pointing out the obvious,” Bucky said. 

“Yes father,” Sentinel agreed. 

“Token resistance,” Bucky stated. 

“What?” Sentinel inquired. 

“Token resistance,” Bucky repeated as he hobbled along the vaulted ceiling of the hallway. “What is important is the fact I am resisting. It doesn’t matter if I win or lose, I’m going to lose, but I am going to lose while I am fighting. I will go down with my ship,” he explained. 

“The Scorned Mare is sinking?” Sentinel asked in confusion.

“No,” Bucky said, somehow still holding on to his patience. “It means I will never give up. I will fight a losing battle because I am a stubborn jackass.” 

“Oh… I already knew that father,” Sentinel whispered as he scurried after his father. 

Bucky halted, turned his head, and looked at Sentinel, raising his eyebrow as he did so. Sentinel whimpered, fearing his father’s displeasure. Bucky grinned and Sentinel’s face contorted in confusion. They were standing where two hallways crossed and Bucky moved off once again, this time down a side wing. A brass sign down below said “school dormitories” in ornate letters. 

They passed another pair of guards and Sentinel’s face writhed with panic. Bucky moved with the cool easy grace of a skilled troublemaker who was now forced to hobble on three legs. 

The guards looked up and Sentinel freaked out completely. Letting out a screech, he glared at the guards, scowling fiercely. He paced back and forth in place upon the ceiling, trying to figure out what to do. Finally, an idea struck him. 

“I am Squire Cornet Sentinel,” Sentinel announced. “Neither one of you saw anything, do you understand me?” 

“Sir, yes sir,” one of the guards said, snapping off a salute as he looked up with a dumbfounded expression upon his face.

“We are on a very important mission and I must escort my father to safety,” Sentinel reported. “If anypony comes along asking, we went in the other direction.” 

“Understood, sir,” the other guard said. “Prince Bitters has not been seen in this wing.”

“That’s right!” Sentinel said. The colt began chewing on his lower lip nervously and then took off once again after his father who had never once stopped or even slowed down. 

The guards, watching the pair depart, said nothing to one another until the pair were quite some distance away. They watched with bemused interest as the prince and his son departed. 

“I like him. As far as officers go, he’s a good one,” one guard said to the other.

“Can’t get in trouble for following orders,” the other guard muttered. 



 

Bucky neared an old familiar place. As he drew near, he felt his emotions spike and for a moment, he felt like crying. Ahead was his old familiar hiding place, where he went to get away from life in general.

“Sentinel, here is where I spent most of my time in school,” Bucky said. 

Sentinel walked forward along the ceiling and looked down towards the floor. Ahead of them was a gap, an opening in the wall ahead, invisible if you were standing on the floor. It could only be seen if you were standing upon the ceiling and looking downwards. As he watched, Bucky carefully eased his way in, and Sentinel followed. There was a hidden room and Sentinel peered around in the faint dim light. 

“What is this place?” Sentinel asked. 

“A long time ago, this cubby was filled with a massive stone block. If the castle was under siege, the block would be dropped into the hallway below, squishing the attackers and plugging up the hallway to stop further intrusions,” Bucky explained in reply. 

“Fascinating,” Sentinel responded. 

“My old aversion spell on the opening still works. Nopony has found this place. Even my old books are still here. This place has gone completely untouched. I thought for certain that somepony would have found it by now,” Bucky said in a melancholy voice. “Does nopony ever get into trouble and run around on the ceilings?” 

Sentinel looked around the room and saw a few old dusty cushions, several books, an old candle, and several glass orbs. “What do the orbs do?” 

“I always kept a few around for experimenting,” Bucky said. “But one of them should vibrate if the guard comes near.” 

“This is a side of you I never expected,” Sentinel whispered to his father. 

“I came here to study. To get away from bullies. I came here to cry. I came here so I could be left alone and not be bothered. I laced this room with enchantments so it would not be easily detected. This was my fortress. This is where I grew up and developed my solitary nature that would have been my undoing. This is the room where I decided that I didn’t need other ponies and I convinced myself that it would be better if I lived by myself, never married, never had foals, and died alone, taking my family name with me,” Bucky said. 

“That’s awful,” Sentinel replied in a pained voice. 

“Yes, it is,” Bucky responded. “You know I love you a great deal, right?” 

“Yes father, I know,” Sentinel answered. 

“I am glad I changed my mind. I am happy that I bumped into a special grey pegasus… it seems like it was a lifetime ago,” Bucky whispered. 

“I am glad you did too,” Sentinel said. 

“Sentinel, I have a job for you as my squire. I need for you to take a message to Princess Celestia. It isn’t fair of me to keep you here with me where you might get in trouble and make ponies worry about you. I need for you to slip out of this room, make your way to the great hall, ask the guards for help if you get lost, and I want you to tell Princess Celestia a very simple message,” Bucky said in a low but commanding voice. “And do not betray my position… loyalty my squire, loyalty…” 

“What should I tell her?” Sentinel replied. 

“Catch me if you can,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 217
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel squirmed and felt itchy all over as he approached the double doors of the great hall. This was where the treaty had been signed. It was packed full of ponies and Sentinel felt as though he had trouble breathing. The doors had been opened for him as he approached. He saw his mothers and his siblings nearby. He saw the Princesses, all four of them, Princess Cadance now back from the Crystal Empire after she had returned home for several days to take care of affairs there. 

“Hello Squire Cornet Sentinel. You look very handsome,” Princess Celestia greeted. 

“Would you happen to know the whereabouts of your father?” Princess Cadance asked in gentle tones, cautiously approaching Sentinel. 

“I will not betray his location… but I come bearing a message,” Sentinel said, daring to look up at Princess Celestia as he spoke. 

“Where is your father?” Princess Cadance said sweetly. 

Sentinel licked his lips nervously and his eyes darted between Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance. His wings fluttered against his side and he blinked a few times. 

“Squire, do not betray your father’s trust,” Princess Luna instructed, her tone harsh. 

“Princess Luna!” Princess Celestia said in scathing tones. She turned and glared at her sister, her eyebrow raised sharply. A flashbulb went off, capturing her expression for the newspaper. 

“He was sent as a messenger. One does not coerce the messenger or kill them,” Princess Luna said, moving near Sentinel. “Now tell me, what is your father’s message?” 

“Father says to catch him if you can,” Sentinel said in a strained voice. He was upset about the idea of killing the messenger, which he did not like, not at all. He drew closer to Princess Luna until he was actually pressed up against her side. 

There was giggling from the platform where Bucky’s herd was gathered and a few exasperated sighs. Murmuring could be heard from the group, and it quickly spread over through the hall. Finally, the murmuring became a dull roar as the entire hall began to talk about the missing prince. 

“I want him found. Spare no effort. I want him brought here. Search the castle. Focus on the school wing. Expect prankish resistance,” Princess Celestia said to her Solar Guard. “And make sure my office as Headmistress is well guarded!” 



 

Bucky carefully made his way around the school, visiting his old haunts. With him he had his orb of warning, and the act of holding something was a good test of his concentration. The school was empty, all of the foals packed off to attend the coronation no doubt. Bucky stuck to the ceilings, occasionally the walls, and he prowled the deserted corridors thinking about all of the years of his life he had spent here in this place. He had stayed here for almost twenty years of his life. He had come here as a tiny foal, and he had left here as an adult. Not all that long after graduation, he had met Derpy, and everything had changed. 

His nose wrinkled as he passed the alchemy labs. He had done well enough there, but he was not skilled by any stretch of the imagination. He had passing grades. Alchemy was completely optional as far as classes went, and he had attended out of curiousity. The stink of old potions, salves, and brews tingled in his sinuses. 

There were no guards posted in the school and he made his way further in. He thought about heading to the astronomy tower, he had another secret nook that he frequently hid inside of there, but instead he continued towards the enchantment and illusion classrooms. 

As he approached, he heard the sound of crying. He wondered if there was a lost student, or a troubled student. It was a sound that couldn’t be ignored and Bucky moved along to investigate, hobbling along the ceiling on three legs. 

The sobbing was coming from one of the illusion classrooms. 

He made his way down the wall, stepped onto the floor, and cautiously approached the door. His orb did not vibrate, so there were no guards near. He carefully pulled the door open and looked inside. 

In the classroom, sitting at a student’s desk, there was a blue mare with a pale blue streaked mane. She looked terribly familiar, but Bucky could not recall her name. 



 

The two unicorns stared at one another for a while, the blue one still sniffling and trying to compose herself. She wiped at her eyes and rubbed her nose on her foreleg. She hiccuped a few times as she struggled to get her emotions under control.

“Are you alright?” Bucky said again now that the blue mare seemed to be in a better position to answer. “You seem familiar.” 

“Trixie remembers you… Trixie used to bully you in school Trixie… I… I don’t know who I am any longer,” Trixie replied, falling silent and more tears now trickling from her eyes. 

“I remember you now,” Bucky said. “You made my existence miserable. You did terrible things to me. You were so heartless and cruel… You turned me into a gerbil and left me inside of a maze.” 

“I’M SORRY!” Trixie wailed as she slumped over the desk and began to sob again. 

Not knowing what else to do, Bucky reached out and gently patted the inconsolable mare upon the back. She froze up completely at his touch, becoming rather statuesque, and Bucky pulled his hoof away, leaning upon a desk to keep his balance. 

“What… are… you… doing?” Trixie asked in a shuddering voice. 

“Trying to comfort you,” Bucky replied. 

“But I was unspeakably cruel to you,” Trixie sniffled as she lifted her head. She wiped her eyes again and looked at Bucky, her lips quivering and her eyes shimmering with tears. 

“What happened to you? I thought you were famous,” Bucky said, his voice full of genuine warmth and concern. 

“Trixie thought… I thought I was famous too,” Trixie said in a miserable voice. 

Bucky looked around and peered at the door for a moment. He checked his orb. He then looked up at Trixie. “What happened?” he questioned. 

“Bad things,” Trixie answered. “A lot of ponies started to hate unicorns. Something was running around sucking unicorns dry. It was Tirek. It was a scary time to be a unicorn for a while. Ponies were running around and cracking or breaking off unicorn horns… I don’t have the best reputation…” 

“Yeah, you were a heartless bully and a real show off,” Bucky agreed. 

The blue unicorn mare flinched as though struck. “Trixie deserves that,” she muttered as she looked at Bucky. “A group of pegasi and earth ponies burned my wagon. With me still inside of it. I had to wink away and then use my talents for illusion to get away from them. I came here. This was the only place that ever felt like home. I begged Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle for a place to stay safe. Princess Celestia allowed me to stay here with the agreement that I work as a teacher’s assistant. None of the students respect me. They all laugh at me and make fun of me. I’m miserable.” Trixie’s expression became morose and she wiped her face yet again, her forelegs now sticky and damp with mucus and tears. 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky stated. 

“Why are you sorry?” Trixie asked in total befuddlement. 

“Because you sound sorry… and it looks like you need a friend,” Bucky replied. 

“Twilight Sparkle is the closest thing I have to a friend. She’s been very kind to me,” Trixie stated in a strangled sounding voice. “Look, Trixie knows who you are now… why are you here with me?” 

“Because they want to stick a crown on my head and I can’t let that happen,” Bucky replied. 

“Why not?!” Trixie exclaimed. “I mean, you are a prince. You killed a crystal lich… you… you… you’ve become great and powerful.” 

Not knowing what to say, Bucky shrugged. 

“I don’t understand,” Trixie whispered, her nostrils flaring. 

“I don’t either,” Bucky said. “One minute, I’m totally okay with life, I finally accepted my solitude, and then out of the blue, I bump snoot first into a pegasus and she runs me down. I thought she was trying to kill me or something. I had no clue what was going on. Next thing I know, I am no longer happy being alone. I couldn’t sit in solitude and sulk, hating the world. So I went to see Celestia and I was told to make friends. So I made friends with the grey pegasus, and then this earth pony came along, and oh boy, earth ponies are a whole different critter. We became friends. Stuff happened. Other stuff happened. I got swept away by everything that was happening and I didn’t seem to have a say in anything. Eventually I ended up on some isles infested by shadow wolves and to top that off, I had to deal with a thousand year old curse caused by Star Swirl the Bearded and Sombra. I had a terrible dream where I murdered my whole family. I learned something very important from that dream though. I endured. Eventually, with a lot of help, I destroyed the wolves and killed my great grandfather who had become a crystal lich.” 

“What did you learn?” Trixie asked, her eyes wide with interest and curiousity. 

“I learned that I am not great nor powerful. I just made friends and they pulled me through. Everything I am is either because of my family or the friends I’ve made,” Bucky stated. “I couldn’t have done this on my own. Everything I’ve become, everything I’ve accomplished, it was because somepony else helped me do it.” 

Trixie stared at Bucky, her eyes narrowing as she tried to take in everything he had said. She opened her mouth and started to say something, but then she fell silent and her mouth snapped shut. She closed her eyes and a pained look crept over her face. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“I have one friend, and I don’t deserve her,” Trixie confessed. 

“Well, now you have two,” Bucky said. 

“But I wronged you.... I did awful things to you… I bullied you…” Trixie sputtered. 

“Why?” Bucky asked bluntly. 

Trixie covered her face with her front hooves and slammed herself into the desk. She moaned wordlessly and rocked back and forth in her seat. 

“Why?” Bucky asked again. 

“Because Trixie… because I had a crush on you,” Trixie admitted in a strangled sob. 

“Oh,” Bucky said. 

“I spill my guts and all you can say is “Oh” in reply?” Trixie said as she continued clutching her face and rocking, still trying to comfort herself. 

“Well, I don’t know what else to say,” Bucky responded. “Wait, you still don’t-” 

“Maybe just a little,” Trixie interrupted. 

Sighing through his nostrils, Bucky tried to figure out something nice to say, but failed miserably. He looked at Trixie, focusing his remaining eye upon her. 

“You were this brilliant enchanter and your skill as a transmuter wasn’t bad either. The entire school talked about you. You were as good of an enchanter as I was at illusion. You robbed my limelight. You stole away all of my glory. I plotted and had revenge fantasies. Eventually, those revenge fantasies became something else… oh, I was still getting revenge, but in a very sexy way. Well, the very sexy way in the mind of a fifteen year old filly… this is very embarrassing,” Trixie confessed. 

Bucky looked down with alarm at the vibrating globe on the desk. He panicked. “Oh bugger,” he swore. 

“What is it?” Trixie asked. 

“The guard are near,” Bucky replied. “They’ve come for me,” he added. 

“We can’t let them catch you!” Trixie cried. 

“You don’t need to get involved in this,” Bucky answered in a low voice. 

“But… but… you said Trixie was your friend…” Trixie whispered, her lower lip quivering. 

“I can’t have you in trouble with Princess Celestia and jeopardise your standing here,” Bucky responded. He concentrated and lifted up the orb in his magic, and then shakily got up on his hooves. 

“I’m coming with you,” Trixie whispered. “I can make us invisible.” 

Bucky reconsidered. That was something he had a lot of trouble doing. Aversion was the next best thing. He looked at Trixie. “You do understand that I am off limits, right?” 

“We can still be friends,” Trixie said. “Any idea where to hide? I know you had hiding places all over the school.” 

“The astronomy tower. I had a hidden nook there. There should still be a powerful aversion spell lingering on the entrance,” Bucky said. 

“Well, Trixie will get you there, and then Trixie will lead them away with many distractions,” Trixie offered. 

“Let’s go,” Bucky commanded. “Worst comes to worst, I will write you out a royal pardon.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 218
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna could not help but feel a little proud as she looked at Sentinel. He was holding up under the pressure rather well. Her sister had continued to try and question him, Princess Cadance had tried to make a few gentle inquiries into Buckminster’s possible whereabouts, and Sentinel was now playing a word association game with Princess Twilight Sparkle and Piña Colada to pass the time. Any further attempts at questioning would be interrupting Princess Twilight Sparkle’s game, which would be rather rude and breach of etiquette. 

The great hall was still packed with ponies who waited and there was quite a bit of laughter as guards came in from time to time to report that Buckminster Bitters could not be found. When Princess Celestia had requested that the unicorn guard lock in on Buckminster’s magical signature, his location was pinged as being in thirty seven different locations all at once, including Princess Celestia’s office as the school Headmistress. 

The guard remained flummoxed. 

Princess Luna watched Buckminster’s wives, all of whom were tittering and giggling, making quiet jokes among themselves. His older foals, Sparkler’s herd, were off standing with one another and the pegasus known as Loch Skimmer occasionally brayed with laughter. 

Eventually, Princess Celestia admitted that there might be a few issues getting the Prince to his own coronation and she had food and refreshments served to the guests who had arrived to attend this momentous occasion. 

Princess Luna smiled a serene smile. She knew exactly where Buckminster was. He was safely secured in his hidden nook beneath the stairs of the astronomy tower according to one of her shadow stalkers, a mostly invisible servant made of shadowstuff that roamed the castle and kept her informed of everything that went on within these walls. She hoped that Buckminster had a nice conversation with Trixie Lulamoon and she hoped that Trixie would make a much needed friend. Trixie needed friends. She had been inside of Trixie’s mind many times now and Trixie lingered upon the very edge of suicidal despair. 

“That’s impossible Piña! There is no way that floccinaucinihilipilification is a real word!” 

Now watching the word game being played, Princess Luna saw Princess Twilight Sparkle conjure up a massive dictionary of obscure words. The book was opened and Twilight began searching, quickly flipping though pages. Princess Luna’s smile turned into a wide toothy grin as she watched Princess Twilight Sparkle scowl. 

“How in Equestria did you know about that word?” Princess Twilight Sparkle demanded. 

“Oh I have no idea what floccinaucinihilipilification means,” Piña replied politely. “But Starjammer was fond of using it. I encountered this word at least a dozen times in one of his books.” 

“Ugh!” Princess Twilight Sparkle grunted as she stared down at the paper. 

“There is also floccinaucinihilipilificate… whatever that means,” Piña added. “He used that word quite often as well. And floccinaucinihilipilificating too.” 

“Starjammer was a bit verbose,” Princess Twilight Sparkle agreed. “Well, Piña Colada, you win. Congratulations. There is no way I could top that.” 

Perhaps delighting just a little too much in Princess Twilight Sparkle’s defeat, Princess Luna felt a great deal of satisfaction in watching the Princess of Friendship being taken down a notch by a foal. Princess Luna sighed. There was going to be nightmares over this. Surely Princess Twilight Sparkle’s neurosis would be triggered by such a loss. 



 

“You have food and a few drinks. That cushion is dusty but comfortable. Are you sure that you will be okay in here?” Trixie asked. 

“I’ll be fine,” Bucky said. “Thank you Trixie.” 

“There are guards everywhere. The unicorn guards are out in force. I had to walk right through the middle of a group of them. I wasn’t sure if my spell would hold,” Trixie said. 

“Trixie, mind if I give you a magic lesson?” Bucky whispered. 

“But I must go and lure them away from here,” Trixie said. 

“Trixie… I’ve learned something very important. Magic is always stronger when it is being cast for somepony else’s gain rather than your own. I would be willing to bet bits or donuts that your spell held out because you were helping me. This is the big secret to having powerful magic.” 

Inhaling sharply, Trixie looked stunned from Bucky’s words. “Thank you… stay safe my friend. I will lure the guards away and keep them busy.” 

As the mare walked away, Bucky smiled a self satisfied smile. When Trixie slipped through the well hidden opening, his smile broadened into a wide grin. He had no idea if what he said was true, but it had seemed true enough for Trixie and that is all that mattered. He hoped that he had set her upon a better path.

His hidey hole was pretty much exactly as he had left it. A hidden nook that could be found under the stairs, the door would open when you pressed upon a hidden stone button that was heavily protected by aversion spells. Bucky had first found it by accident, when he noticed there was a place he couldn’t seem to look at no matter how hard he tried. He was busy trying to count all of the stone blocks that made up the retaining wall along the side of the stairs and his count kept failing. 

Some other student from long ago has made themselves a secure place to hide away and Bucky had taken it over. Several of Bucky’s old books were still secured in the room, Bucky had left them hoping that some other student would find the room. His notes, his cheat sheets on various types of spell casting were still right where he had left them. 

He cracked open a bottle of watermelon-lime soda and took a long swallow. He stuck his muzzle down inside of the basket of food Trixie had rummaged from somewhere. He didn’t know where she had found the basket, but the food probably came from the kitchen. In the basket was a wedge of cheese, a loaf of crusty bread, a whole pie of some kind but Bucky wasn’t sure what sort, a dozen hard boiled eggs, a small jar of blackcurrant preserves, a pile of peanut butter cookies, and a big container of raspberries that had cream to go with them. 

Smacking his lips, Bucky went to work on the eggs, which were already free of their shells. He chewed thoughtfully and noticed that the egg was perfect. Not over boiled with the yolk turned green. Bucky was famished. He tore into the rest of the food and enjoyed the cozy feeling of being back in his hidden nook. 

Finally, when he was finished, he settled in for a much needed nap. He was too full. 



 

Princess Celestia watched as the ponies filed out of the great hall, trying to ignore the many snickers and fits of laughter as the crowd exited the room. The coronation had been a dud. She looked over at the small modest circlet still sitting upon the cushion. Buckminster was entitled to the Platinum Crown, but she knew that he would never wear such a gaudy tacky thing. 

The circlet was plain, made of silver, and had a fine silver snowflake in the center of the front. It was plain and otherwise unadorned. It had the stark austerity that somehow seemed suitable for the Lord of Winter. Beside it was a torque, a gift commissioned by Keg Smasher. The torque was a relic of a forgotten time, a symbol of a proven warrior in the old traditions, and this torque was carved in old script from the old dead tongue with the word “chieftain” written in a language that nopony had spoken in over thousand years. 

Princess Celestia still spoke the old words though and the meaning of what they stood for blazed within her breast. She understood now why Keg Smasher had commissioned the torque. It was only after she had read the newspaper article about Buckminster’s newfound ideals that the real meaning of Keg Smasher’s gift had come crashing down upon her like an avalanche from a mountain. 

The room was nearly empty now and Princess Celestia watched as the last few ponies filed out. She came the understanding that she and Buckminster truly wanted very different things. She didn’t know how to feel about this revelation. She wanted Buckminster to celebrate his accomplishments. After all he had endured, especially after his painful trial, she wanted a moment where he was seen in a positive light. She wanted him to be happy. But Buckminster had hidden himself away, and Princess Celestia was not entirely certain why. She could not figure out what he was running from. 



 

After awaking from a long nap, Bucky was now roaming the halls, walking out in the open. He had no concerns about being caught. The sun had set and he had a feeling that the coronation had been called off by now. He passed several guards who saluted. Lunar Guards. The Solar Guard has vanished with the setting of the sun. He was now walking among guards loyal to him and his interests, and had no fear of being caught. 

Most of the guards were chortling as he passed, and he smiled a self satisfied and rather smug smile as he hobbled along. The augmentation spell was marvelous. His frail body and legs moved easily and he was adjusting well enough to his three legged gait. 

He came to the Hall of Glass and noticed that there was a new window, just as he suspected there would be. It was cordoned off by velvet ropes. He approached slowly and looked up the stained glass window and sat down to have himself a long look. 

He didn’t like the window at all. He scowled. He stood triumphant, striking a heroic pose over an enormous pile of dead wolves, cute looking dead wolves with comically dead faces. He was not wearing his armor. His fulgurite horn was missing, the unicorn in the window was unblemished and perfect in every way. A radiant beam of sunlight shone down upon him. No crystal lich. No terrifying darkness that had nearly robbed him of his sanity. The unicorn standing upon the wolves had all four legs. 

“After everything I’ve endured, I have to deal with this insult?” Bucky snarled. 

It was almost too much to bear. Reaching out with a careful thump of telekinesis, Bucky shattered the window. It took all of his effort to control, but Bucky held every shard in place. He had long worked with glass, and it was now his prefered medium. He struggled with the focus required for the harmony magic he was using. 

The glass was rearranged slowly, a few pieces at a time, and reassembled. It was painful work and it gave Bucky a headache from the level of concentration required. He moved slowly, carefully, making the glass conform to his will. 

In no time at all, he was sweating from his concentration, but this was the price of having to learn how to use his magic again. Slowly, the new window took shape. Bucky liked what he was seeing in the new window. This was closer to the truth. 

After what felt like hours of effort, Bucky sat back and studied his work. 

There was a little tan unicorn with a long black jagged horn. He was missing a hoof. The unicorn was happily shagging a grey pegasus from behind, her hindquarters up in the air and her wings spread. The grey pegasus’ face could not be seen because it was jammed between the legs of a plum coloured earth pony who was lying on her back. Sitting on the earth pony’s face was a pale blue kelpie pony with a green mane and tail. Beside the foursome was a beige earth pony and a mint green unicorn engaged in mutual cunnilingus, just as Bucky imagined they would do. He included the careful detail of the beige earth pony being on top. He didn’t want to make Bon Bon angry again any time soon. He owed her after the lying he had done. 

In the distance, there were a few foals playing with one another, and off to the other side was another group of ponies. A purple-pink mare, a sky blue stallion, and two charcoal grey pegasi, one with a straw coloured mane and the other with blue. They were chasing after one another in a circle. In bottom corner was a pile of dead wolves. Horrifying ugly things. Nothing cute about them. Flames rose from the pile of bodies. In the other bottom corner, a room full of different coloured crystals could be seen, and a black armored figure standing defiantly before them. 

Bucky liked this version of the window much better. Especially the happy grin on the pale blue kelpie pony’s face as she was being gobbled three ways to Sunday by the earth pony beneath her. Now the window was truthful, or so Bucky felt. 

“You know, your artistry with glass is spectacular. Your wife Derpy showed me the marvelous glass pegasus you made for her.” 

Bucky cringed. 

“I have been alive for a very long time, and I have never seen any glasswork quite as perfect as that pegasus. You captured every detail of her perfectly. And now, you have created a masterpiece of stained glass.” 

His muscles all clenching, Bucky waited for the mother of all scoldings. He was caught in the act, and he had stood Celestia up today. He could hear her approaching. After a moment, she stood beside him, leaning forward to study the new stained glass window Bucky had worked so hard to create. 

“Thistle looks very happy,” Celestia remarked.

Bucky said nothing, he knew a trap when he was caught in one. 

“You are the Lord of Winter. Upon the first day of winter, I will surrender my control of the seasons to you. You will be responsible for creating the first snows of the season. I know that you know the spell to do so. It will be your job to heal the land during the cold season of death. Come spring, you will surrender control of the seasons back to me. Sombra once did this job. It was a duty that he truly loved, and it was how I knew that he was lost to me forever… when he refused to end the winter.” 

Bucky didn’t know what to say. Celestia was crying again and he had no idea how to make her feel better. He remained silent as he sat by her side. She towered over him, he could stand completely beneath her and not even touch her belly. He felt like a foal again. 

“Since you seem to have an aversion to the word “prince” I am giving you the title you feel most comfortable with. Chieftain. I feel that it is somehow most appropriate for you. You are already gathering a tribe. Cadance has the north, Twilight has her kingdom, you will have your tribe. Somehow, this all feels right.” 

“Cadance sits upon the throne that is rightfully mine,” Bucky stated in a low solemn voice. 

“Do you want it? She has offered to abdicate her position for you,” Celestia replied. 

“No,” Bucky responded. “Let Love rule in War’s stead. I will lead a tribe of warriors, defenders, and dutiful servants.” 

“I am so very proud of you. You should ascend-” 

“Not this again,” Bucky said, daring to interrupt the monarch he knew he was in hot water with. “No. Every time you ask, every time you mention, my answer will be no. It will never change. I refuse to release war upon the world. I will remain the unicorn of lusty buggery,” he stated, gesturing at the window with his bandaged stump. 

“Buckminster, you cannot run from your destiny forever. Look what happened to Twilight Sparkle. She died. Eventually, the same will happen to you,” Celestia said in a sad voice. 

“And if you love me you will let me stay dead,” Bucky retorted. 

“Buckminster, please, do not ask me to pick between the love of one pony and the lives of millions,” Celestia pleaded. 

“You don’t understand… the alicorn of war is the end of all things. Even you. I love you. But if you walk away from this conversation with me believing that you will raise me once I go, I will go out and commit deeds so black that Tartarus will secure my soul in the deepest darkest prison they have available just to keep it from ever reaching my body again,” Bucky promised. 

“So this is how it is going to be between us?” Celestia asked in a heartbroken voice. 

“That depends on you. I don’t want things like this between us. I would rather be your servant. I would rather be your devoted slave, just as I now am to my wives and family. But I don’t want to ascend, and I don’t want to live in fear of you raising me when I am in no position to stop you,” Bucky replied. 

Celestia bowed her head. “I give you my word. I will not resurrect your divine essence. However, I will occasionally try to convince you to do the right thing,” Celestia promised. 

“I can live with that I suppose. It will be annoying, but I can live with that. I will serve you. I suppose you already know about my special oath of fealty to Luna,” Bucky said. 

“I do,” Celestia answered. “It has made my sister very happy. We have talked about it in private at some length.” 

“I’m glad you like the window,” Bucky commented, desperate to change the subject. 

“I plan to leave it exactly how it is,” Celestia said with a sniffle. “I know how my little ponies stay warm through the winter. It is somehow fitting.” 



 

“Today, Trixie learned the secret to power that you and the others have kept so carefully hidden from me,” Trixie said to Twilight Sparkle. 

The pair were sprawled out and comfortable in Twilight’s private quarters, both flopped out on the enormous bed, and Twilight was pleased that Trixie had managed to make a friend. She was curious about Trixie’s knowledge about the secret of power. Trixie often came up with all kinds of interesting things in her quest for power and glory. 

“Buckminster revealed the secret to strong magic… how he is capable of such powerful feats of magic and you as well… and I have seen the proof for myself!” Trixie exclaimed. 

Twilight smiled. Trixie kept slipping in and out of the third pony, but she was getting better. Her neurosis wasn’t as bad as it once was. “Well, what did Buckminster reveal exactly?”

“He told me the secret to having powerful wizardry is to not cast spells for yourself, but for others… and I have witnessed the proof of this today as I eluded the guards and brought him lunch. I did nothing for personal gain today and my feats of magic were most impressive,” Trixie replied. 

“You know Trixie, he is absolutely right… I am a little shocked that he shared our little secret to being great and powerful. You must have really touched him today for him to reveal that,” Twilight answered. 

Trixie blushed. “I confessed to him that I only picked on him in school because I had a crush on him,” she said as she tapped her forehooves together. “And I was very honest with him today. He was kind to me.” 

Twilight sighed and felt happy for her friend. It was obvious to anypony who looked that Trixie was definitely turning over a new leaf. She made a mental note to have a word with Buckminster about his cleverness in dealing with Trixie. 
	
> Chapter 219
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The woods were dark and kind of scary. Bucky moved around cautiously, his small foal body easily slipping through trees. His wings fluttered at his sides. He could not help but wonder what sort of horror was going to come and ambush him next. He was getting pretty good at recognising when he was having one of those sorts of dreams, and this had all the signs of being a bad one. The woods looked just like the Everfree Forest. Black vines were everywhere and he could see scary glowing eyes in the distance. 

Owls hooted in the darkness and bats flew overhead. Unseen things chittered in the deep dark, unpleasant gurgles and growls reached his ears. Bucky cowered, the small stunted alicorn foal of war was a rather pathetic sight all things considered. Bucky heard a rustling in the bushes. He turned his head, his Taint filled eyes trying to focus on whatever was there. 

He saw a zebra and cocked his head to the side, now puzzled. What was a zebra doing here, he wondered. He studied the zebra for a moment and was curious about what he could to do defend himself if this turned into something horrible, and he was sure that it would. 

“You have no need to fear us, we love you, little one,” the zebra said kindly. 

An earth pony stepped out from the thicket and looked at Bucky with a gentle face. “We thought we’d drop in on you now that you are one of us. See how you are settling in to this new life and all that comes with it.”

“We are glad to know that you are better. For a time, we were worried,” a unicorn said as she stepped out behind the earth pony. 

“We worried for our brother,” the zebra said, her voice gentle and sweet. 

Suddenly, Bucky remembered everything. “I know you. I made a deal with you… and I know your father…” 

“Father,” the earth pony said. 

“Mother,” the unicorn stated. 

“Creator,” the zebra added. “It is all the same, brother.” 

“Don’t bother asking for our names,” the earth pony said as she saw Bucky opening his mouth. “You have suffered enough without knowing those.” 

An owl flew overhead and Bucky jumped. A second later, he found himself embraced by the earth pony, who was sitting with him and holding him close, one leg around him squeezing him to her barrel. He felt her lips kiss the top of his head. 

“Are you Celestia and Luna’s sisters?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes,” the zebra answered.

“No,” the unicorn replied. 

“Half,” the earth pony explained as she gave Bucky a loving squeeze. 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said, shaking his head as he did so. 

“They were born. In time, when they had proven worthy, they were given the divine sparks of Light and Darkness, who had already been born long before Celestia and Luna. The Royal Pony Sisters became avatars, bodies for Light and Darkness. We sprang directly from our creator’s mind and we took on bodies over time,” the unicorn explained. 

“We are the Fates,” the zebra stated. 

“And we are at war with our father,” the earth pony said. 

“We have gone against her will,” the unicorn added. “She wishes to bring about the end of all things. It amuses him that we strive against him. Our mother does little to stop our intrusions. He does not believe that we are powerful enough to thwart her plans,” the unicorn mare explained. 

Bucky felt dizzy. The gender pronouns were as confusing as Harper’s insistence of all things female. 

“You are the end of all things,” the zebra said rather accusingly. 

“I don’t want to be,” Bucky whined in a squeaky foal voice. 

“We don’t want you to be either,” the earth pony said. She gave Bucky another motherly squeeze and kissed him once more. “Oh my you are adorable you little alicorn foal of war you,” she gushed in between kisses. She showered Bucky with every ounce of earth pony foal affection she could muster. 

“So… I guess my reward for our bargain was me living through the death spell,” Bucky said as he tried to put the pieces together as he endured the earth pony mare’s endless affections and physical adoration. 

“No,” the unicorn replied. “Your reward is forthcoming. Soon.” 

“We know that you will be happy with it,” the zebra said in a cheerful voice. 

“I guess you can’t tell me what it is… since you can’t do that, tell me, why does Celestia believe my ascension is a good idea?” Bucky inquired. 

“She can see some of the bigger picture, but not all of the bigger picture, and father has whispered into her ear,” the earth pony replied. “Mother told only half truths to our half sister. Celestia is too virtuous to question the divine will of our creator. She would blindly obey and bring about the end of all things because she is a devoted foal to our parent. It is her best and worst quality, her strength and her weakness. She loves. Sometimes blindly.” 

“Can’t you tell her?” Bucky asked. 

“She is not on speaking terms with us. We have rebelled against our mother’s will,” the zebra said in a sad voice. “We cannot convince her to see reason. We’ve tried so hard.” 

“We still love our half sister a great deal,” the unicorn said. “But she is too assured of her own goodness and the idea that she is inherently right. She does make mistakes. When father stops speaking to her for a while, she begins to flounder from a lack of direction. She looks for signs, portents, messages in the stars and occasionally, she sees something that is not there. She becomes frantic when mother goes silent.” 

“So where do I fit in with all of this? I mean, what now? What can I do to help? How can I help make things better and try to make sure that life goes on?” Bucky questioned. 

“You would help us? Even after everything you have already done? All you have endured?” the earth pony replied, squeezing Bucky yet again. 

“Of course. Not only do I love my wives, but I love my foals. And I will love their foals. And those foals that will come after. I would do anything for them,” Bucky vowed. 

“If you will help us willingly, we will owe you one favour,” the zebra said, scratching her side with her one brown hoof. “A favour between family members.” 

The unicorn’s horn flashed brightly and the dark woods faded away.





The group stood in a crystal cave and it was full of light. Bucky saw a tree, and it was unlike any other tree he had seen. It was made of crystal, or appeared to be, and parts of it twinkled. He gasped from its beauty and he slipped free from the earth pony’s fond embrace to move closer. He saw the cutie marks of Celestia and Luna upon on the trunk, he saw Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark a little higher up, and he saw the elements of harmony. 

“We planted this tree,” the unicorn announced. 

“This was the beginning of our rebellion,” the zebra said. 

“This is where we defied our creator and started to take our stand,” the earth pony  explained in a solemn voice. “We robbed a smidge of our creator’s divine essence. We stole a single speck of star dust from her mane and we brought it here as this planet was dying.”  

“We planted it, and like a seed, it grew over time,” the unicorn said as she drew near Bucky. “For a time, the harmony it brings was used to resolve conflicts. Now, the elements have been restored to the tree to aid our half sisters in balancing the cosmos. It has made their task a little easier. It was Twilight Sparkle who reunited the sisters and restored the elements.” 

“So what is my part in all of this?” Bucky inquired. 

“Aside from destroying everything?” the zebra replied. 

“Come… see,” the unicorn said. She pointed at the tree with her hoof. “Do you see?” 

Bucky looked at the tree and the ground around it. He studied everything carefully, trying to look for whatever it was he was supposed to be seeing. He searched the trunk. He searched the ground. He reached out and touched Celestia’s mark and Luna’s mark. “I don’t see anything related to me,” he finally admitted. He stared at his three big sisters and waited for some kind of help from them. 

“Look closer,” the unicorn urged. 

Feeling frustrated, Bucky circled the tree a few times and tried to figure out what he was supposed to see. There was nothing. He stepped in and out of the light and the darkness as he circled the tree and could find nothing. Finally, he sat down and flapped his wings in frustration. “No hops plant anywhere.” 

The zebra and the unicorn laughed while the earth pony looked on with gentle affection. She approached Bucky slowly, touched him gently, and then sat down beside him. Kissing him softly once more, she remained close after the kiss and whispered into his ear. “The tree casts a shadow. The shadow is just as much a part of harmony as the light. One defines the other. The tree’s shadow has many meanings. For some, it is dismissed as darkness. For others, it is a shaded place of comfort out of the sun for them to rest. But the shadow of the tree serves a purpose, just as much as the tree does. You exist within the shadow.” 

Bucky sat in dumbfounded silence and could not form the words to make a response. He leaned against the tree and felt it thrum against his skin. Something about the faint vibration was soothing. He closed his eyes and pressed his ear against the tree. He found that he could hear things, the vibration forming sounds as it pulsed into his head. The sounds of a crying foal. Laughter. The swearing of an oath of duty, the details quickly slipping away as Bucky heard them. Kind generous words of encouragement. The heady crackle of strong magic. He heard Luna’s voice singing a soft lullaby. He heard his own words to his great grandfather, his last defiant shout as he let go with all the dark magic he could muster. He heard the lewd squishy sounds of two ponies enjoying the act of making foals a great deal, including vows of true love spoken in the heat of the moment, perhaps the most honest of all words between two ponies madly in love, the heavy breathing, and the soft giggles as they approached nature’s reward for continuing the species, the orgasm. 

He heard Celestia saying that she loved him. 

He pulled his head away from the tree, feeling dizzy. He had trouble sitting up. He felt as though he had entirely too much to drink. He started to fall over and he felt a leg catch him. The cave whirled around him, and there was nothing he could do to regain his senses. He saw strange lights and their brightness dazzled his eyes as they danced all around him. He was blinded by their flashes as they pulsed. They were cutie marks, destiny marks, but he could not make out what they were. There were many, and they all flashed as they swirled around his head. 

He felt himself being lowered down and his head resting on something warm and soft, but he couldn’t see well enough to figure out what it was. The sounds of the cosmos were echoing in his head now, a steady vibration inside of his skull. Something protruded at his mouth, pressing in on his lips. He felt his mouth open and something slipped in, pressing against his tongue. 

A moment later, his mouth was flooded with milk and he was forced to swallow to keep from choking. The milk was both bitter and sweet. Salty and sour. It was everything and nothing all at once and he felt his heart thudding inside of his barrel as more and more of it flooded down his throat. He had trouble keeping up with the torrent raging from the teat. He could feel his heart beating inside of his ears. He struggled for air but there was none to be had. There was only the milk, and it was life giving. So long as he kept swallowing, the need for air remained a painful need and not a necessity. 

Somehow, he knew that he was sucking at the teats of the earth pony. There was a dull roaring in his ears, but it grew louder and louder. Soon, it was all he could hear. His mind slowly went blank, all conscious thought slowly slipping away from him. There was only warmth and comfort. 

Suddenly, the roaring in his ears went silent and the world went still. The milk continued to flow into his mouth and down this throat. There was no longer any frantic need to breathe. He was content now, happy, not worried about death at all. 

“Go forth brother… and know we love you,” three voices said in unison. 
	
	
> Chapter 220
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky slowly awoke and became aware of the world around him. His brain still swirled with the things he knew, memories, knowledge, he remembered everything from his dream. As he slowly came to the waking world, he became aware of the soft indirect light of day streaming through the window. He felt the warmth of the pegasus sleeping beside him. 

But something was wrong. 

He raised his stump and gave it a shake. He couldn’t feel anything. He was aware that he should feel something. It should hurt. It should itch. There should have been some indicator that something was wrong. With a soft wordless cry of worry, he grabbed the bandages in his teeth and tore them free. The sticky tape pulled some of the fine hairs of his pelt out, and he felt that, a faint sting more than anything else. He stared at his stump. 

It was completely healed over. The flesh was pink and healthy looking. It was covered with a latticework of fine scars, but it was healed. He prodded the end of his stump into his chin, bracing for the pain as he did so. There was soft twinge for a moment, but no spike of blinding pain. He took a quick mental inventory of himself. Reaching down, scraped away the bandage covering his brand with his remaining front hoof. Right away he was aware of something different. No pain. Even as he pawed at the bandage, rubbing himself should have hurt. 

The bandage half on and half off, Bucky turned his attention to other places. Fidgeting around, he went to work on the bandage on his side, near his shoulder, where he had the laceration. He touched it gingerly. No screaming agony. He prodded himself again. He could feel the lump of scar tissue under the bandage. 

It slowly dawned on Bucky that not only was he healed, but he had his strength back. 

He bounced out of bed and skittered on three legs. Derpy awoke in the bed and started to look at him through half opened eyes. Bucky suffered from a sudden urge to grab her and shag her senseless, but he had something else he needed to do. 

“I love you. I’m fine. I’ll be back real soon,” Bucky said as he took off at a three legged trot for the door. “Really, see, I’m fine, I’ll explain later.” 

“Bucky, get back in this bed,” Derpy mumbled as she started to lift herself. 

Focusing his concentration, Bucky called forth his magic and exploded into a cloud of snowflakes, exiting the room in his usual dramatic fashion. 





It was difficult to wait patiently. Celestia needed to know everything. She needed to know the truth. He had reappeared near the entrance to the royal wing, the section of the castle where the two sisters had their private quarters. The guards had been a little surprised to see him, and had shown him to a small sofa where he could sit and wait to see Celestia. 

He heard low voices talking, and then he heard her voice. He took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how he was going to convince her of the truth, what it was that she needed to hear. He had to tell her about the Fates. He had to tell Celestia about her mistakes. 

And then, he saw her. Celestia and Raven came around the corner together, both of them looking at Bucky, and Raven had a bemused look upon her face. Celestia was smiling, her usual soft  gentle smile. Bucky felt his heart racing as he prepared himself for what needed to be done. 

He took another deep breath, collected his thoughts. and began to sort out how to tell the guardian of the cosmos that she was making a terrible mistake and she needed to hear what her half sisters, the Fates, had to say and the truth of the matter. He opened his mouth… 

“You look especially fine today ladies.” 

Bucky blinked a few times, trying to understand what had just happened. The words he had wanted to say hadn’t come out at all. Something else had taken their place. This was not expected. 

“Buckminster?” Celestia said gently, sounding slightly concerned. She could see a confused look on Bucky’s face and wasn’t sure what was happening. 

Bucky pressed on, determined to try again, to stubborn to give up. “You know, Raven, if I may be so bold, you have aged like a fine wine. A very drinkable wine I might add.” 

Inside of his mind, Bucky began screaming as he saw Raven turn beet red. Celestia was also blushing, turning a faint shade of pink. He stared at the two mares in stunned horror. He had tried to tell Celestia that he was aware of the cosmic alicorn and the Fates. Instead, he had just made a pass at Celestia’s personal assistant. And from the looks of things, Raven was all to happy to accept that pass and run with it. 

“I’m worried... Buckminster, are you feeling okay?” Celestia inquired as she patted the stammering unicorn mare at her side. Celestia’s brows furrowed. 

“I’m fine. Really. I had this weird dream last night and I wanted to tell you about PICKLE BARREL KUMQUATS-” Bucky clamped his remaining front fetlock over his muzzle and his surviving eye opened wide. “CHIMICHERRYCHANGA!” The word slipped out from his mouth unbidden as he was trying think of a way to say what needed to be said without actually saying it, and the brilliant idea of writing it down had crossed his mind. He abandoned the idea. 

“Buckminster?” Celestia inquired again in an concerned voice. 

“I had some weird dreams and I woke up healed,” Bucky said as he held up his stump. He didn’t dare say anything else. Raven was giving him flirty looks and Bucky squirmed uncomfortably. 

Coming forward quickly, Celestia peered at Bucky’s stump, her eyes narrowing as she studied the now healed over end. Her eyes widened, then narrowed, and she made a peculiar equine sound of confusion, a sort of whinny-nickering-bellow-grunt of perplexed emotion. “It does look better… but I worry that your brain might be a bit scrambled.” 

“Oh my brain was scrambled a long time ago,” Bucky said dismissively. 

“No, Buckminster, I am concerned. You faced a crystal lich. The aura of fear they generate is damaging to the mind. Your behaviour has been… erratic lately to say the very least,” Celestia said as she continued to study the healed over skin. 

“Celestia, I threw myself off of The Scorned Mare and dropped over a mile, plunging towards the earth. I only survived because of my armor. The sane part of my brain that causes me to feel fear has been malfunctioning for quite some time,” Bucky responded. 

“I see,” Celestia said. She shot Raven a sour look and the unicorn mare began to compose herself under Celestia’s withering gaze. 

With a loud squawk, Freezerburn went shooting off down the hall with Philomena in hot pursuit. Bucky watched the pair of phoenixes go streaking off. He scratched the scarred side of his face with his right front hoof. 

“Those two,” Raven sighed. 

“So is that where Freezerburn has been hiding?” Bucky asked. 

“Much to my dismay, Philomena has chosen Freezerburn as her mate. Phoenixes mate for life you know. And they are functionally immortal,” Celestia replied. 

“Well, I’m glad he’s happy,” Bucky said as he listened to the shrill cries and squawks from the down the hall. 

“I am just glad that the worst of the pranks are over. What a horrible way to attract a mate,” Celestia said as she lifted her head up high. “You know Buckminster, corrupted phoenixes are very rare and quite dangerous. I am genuinely surprised that Freezerburn is so kind and well behaved. He is a lot like you. He has endured something terrible but has somehow kept himself from becoming a monster.” 

Bucky nodded. He had come here to tell Celestia the truth but now was getting a brief lecture about the behaviours of phoenixes. He sighed. He felt the warm tingle of magic upon his side and then he was pushed over slightly. He felt the bandage over his gash being pulled away gently and then he heard a gasp from Celestia. He turned his head to look at her and saw her stunned expression. 

“It is healed,” Celestia said. “But there is no evidence of healing magic. There should be a magical signature. Healing magic would trigger your ascension… this is difficult to understand. Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?” 

“Well, there is something OATMEAL? ARE YOU CRAZY?” Bucky replied. Once again, he covered his mouth with his fetlock. He wanted to tell Celestia about his problem, that every time he tried to tell her about what was going on, he had strange words come blurting out of his mouth, but even that caused him to blurt out a crazy jumble of nonsensical words. He realised that Celestia was deep inside of his personal space now. He could feel her breathing on his snoot. She was an inch away, nose to nose, snoot to snoot, and she was studying him. 

“I am worried Buckminster. I am very, very concerned,” Celestia stated. 

“Doctor said I need to eat more. I, uh, er, well, he said, um, well the earth pony doctor you have looking after me said I might suffer from fugue like states if I don’t eat enough,” Bucky stammered. “Something to do with my messed up thaumaturgical gland mana conversion system. Lots of medical mumbo-jumbo.” 

“I would go have breakfast if I were you,” Celestia suggested. 

“I think I’ll go screw my breakfast and eat all my wives,” Bucky murmured. His eye shot wide open and his pupil shrank down to a pinprick. “I… oh… eat my breakfast…” he stammered, not bothering to finish his sentence. 

“Buckminster,” Celestia said in concern. 

Not knowing how else to deal with the situation, Bucky teleported, leaving behind a flurry of snowflakes and a layer of frost all over the walls. 

Celestia shivered and shook the snow from her pelt. “It was bad enough when Sombra did that,” she muttered. “Leaving ice and snow everywhere. Brrrr!” 

“I dunno, I’m feeling kinda warm,” Raven said, her eyes narrowed as she smiled a pleasant smile. “Have I really aged like fine wine?” 



 

Sitting at the table, hunched over some paper, and surrounded by a pile of books, dictionaries, and thesauruses, Sentinel concentrated upon the task at hoof. It was difficult to focus. His father was acting peculiar, more so than usual. He was worried about Moonbow. Harper kept sneezing and occasionally her magical blasts ricocheted. Lyra kept hollering at Dinky to put something down, couches, the refrigerator, ponies, and Dinky kept trying to figure out just how much she could lift with her magic. 

Nopony seemed to appreciate that Sentinel had an important job to do and nopony would be quiet so he could focus. He was about to unleash the first volley in his assault against General Iron Sky, a pegasus that Sentinel simply could not stand. Sentinel wanted his words to be a slap across the muzzle to the obnoxious general. 

He looked at the crumpled balls of paper that were his first attempts. He needed to write something spectacular, something witty, something worthy of the paper. He wanted ponies to talk.

Clutching his pencil in between his grasping thumb and the central knuckle of his right wing, Sentinel stuck out his tongue in concentration and began to write once again. 



 

Bucky leaned his head back against the edge of the tub and sighed. He didn’t care that the tub was a little crowded. He closed his eye and allowed himself to mindlessly drift away as he felt Berry Punch scrubbing his stomach… and everything else down there. A hot cup of coffee was sitting on the counter near the tub. The hot water made the tight skin on his stump relax. Lifting the coffee carefully in his magic, he took a sip of the hot liquid, shuddered from the pleasant feeling of it trickling down his throat, and then levitated it back to the counter. 

It was nice being able to sit in a hot bath again. 

“True love means never having to scrub your own back,” Berry said as she teasingly scrubbed around a very sensitive area. “Thank you for scrubbing my back… I’m glad you are feeling better,” she added in sultry tones. 

Bucky wished that he could tell Berry what had happened, but he was terrified of what might come out of his mouth. He remained silent and simply enjoyed the moment. The tub was just wide enough for Berry to be squeezed in beside him, but only if they were pressed tightly together, and the feeling of her touch as she scrubbed everything that needed scrubbing… Bucky shivered. 

It was good to be up and moving once again. 
	
> Chapter 221
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------





An open letter to General Iron Sky
 

Today, I hope to have my say about several issues. First, I’d like to call you out about your idea that only those who have served having the right to vote. It sickens me. I see it for what it is. It isn’t even about just serving, but sexism as well, a word my mother Berry Punch has taught me a great deal about. The majority of the guard are males since only males can serve in combat roles. According to Princess Luna, males make up roughly one seventh to one sixth of our population. A minority by all accounts. Under your policy, around six sevenths of the population would have no right to vote, and those that do vote would likely be pressured to vote in the interests of those higher up in command. This would give a minority overwhelming power over a majority. You sir, are a pompous buffoon. This is not even taking into consideration that of that one seventh, only a fraction of those are serving in the military, the rest are civilians. 

This is the rule of the noble houses all over again, a small minority having absolute power over the majority. Is this what we, the ponies of Equestria, want a return to? 

Second, the ability of females to perform in combat. Some of the most powerful combatants I know are female. My sister Ripple is a Dragoon and has a destiny mark because of her combat prowess. The Shetland Isles, where I come from, is now transitioning over and allowing females in active combat roles. Should I mention Princess Luna herself, perhaps the greatest melee combatant who has ever lived if certain historical notes are to be believed? And what of Princess Luna’s rumoured Myrmidons, the majority of which are rumoured to be female because the males have trouble completing the training?

I am sick of hearing how fragile mares are and how they need to be protected. I am sick of hearing that mares are the weaker sex. I have grown tired of the notion that only males are fit for combat, and by extension, the right to vote. 

I am tired of hearing how something takes balls to do. I am sick of male genitalia being used as euphemisms for power, toughness, and endurance. There is no truth in these statements. As evidence of my own statement, I offer up the following: Once, in play, my sister Piña Colada stepped upon my testicles. The pain was blinding. It was all I could do not to cry. Testicles, balls, the potato sack, there is nothing tough about them. They are fragile. Weak. Soft. One swift strike is all it takes to disable a foe, something my sister Ripple repeatedly points out in conversations about combat. 

No, if you want toughness, you have to look at filly bits. Those things were made to take a pounding. Look at the size of a foal and compare it to the hole from which it exits, and then imagine passing that foal out through your colt bits. There is far too much evidence suggesting that mares are tougher than stallions. 

My name is Sentinel, and this is my plea to the public. Females, demand your right to serve. Protect our budding right to vote. If you are a female and you wish to serve, please, send a letter to your local paper and let your fellow ponies know. Give good reasons as to why you wish to serve. We now have a public voice, let us use it responsibly.

Squire Cornet Sentinel, son of Knight Major Buckminster Bitters.  



Sentinel stared at his letter for several minutes. He wasn’t sure if it was a very good letter, he hadn’t really done something like this before, but taking that first step was important. He had to stumble a few times if he was ever going to run. He trembled as he reread his words. He wasn’t sure if the dictionaries and the thesauruses had helped him or not. The letter seemed awful and he was tempted to crumple it up with the others. He snatched it in his grasping digits, folded it carefully, and placed it inside of the envelope. He held a bar of sealing wax over a lit candle, allowed it to soften, shook it to make it dribble upon the envelope, sealing the envelope with wax and then pressed Princess Luna’s royal stamp to the wax leaving her mark imprinted in it. He carefully wrote down that the letter was to go to the Canterlot Trumpet. He blew out the candle and pressed his lips together in stoic resignation. 

For a moment, Sentinel was worried that he was going to throw up. He had himself a bad case of nerves. He fought back the queasy feeling in his guts, slipped out of his chair, made his way to the door, exited the door, made his way down the hall, and then delivered his letter to a guard with instructions for delivery. 

Feeling even worse, Sentinel made his way back to the room, shut the door behind him, made his way to a sofa, sat down, clutched his stomach, and wondered what to do with the twenty bits promised to him if he wrote something that generated public interest. He had very little concept of money, and Equestria’s economy was only just now recovering. Bits were just starting to be used again. He had no idea if twenty bits was a lot of money or not, nor did he care. 

Much to his relief, he felt himself being pulled into Sparkler’s embrace, and he went willingly, without fuss or protest. He felt her kiss the top of his head and he felt comforted. He said nothing as he continued to think about what he had done. 





Bucky was sitting on the sofa enjoying family time when the door opened. There was no knock, no warning, no nothing. Luna strode through with a heavy wooden case held in her magic. Behind her were several unicorn guards. 

The wooden case was set down upon the floor with a thud and Bucky recognised it right away. It was the case that held his armor. A familiar looking axe was set down upon the case, and then a set of war shoes. 

“These artifacts of dubious origins are being returned to you,” Luna announced. “They are to be used in service of the empire. They are too well made, too useful, and too practical to be destroyed, in this my sister and I are in agreement. Buckminster, once you have constructed an appropriate vault, the orb with the still beating demon heart will be returned to you. You are to be its custodian. It is… useful and after much debate, my sister and I have decided to take advantage of it. Rising Star, it is my understanding that you are getting a royal commission to work steel for my sister. You are to have access to this orb for certain projects. Once your skill has improved, I may commission you to make Myrmidon armor.” 

The room was filled with stunned silence. 

After several moments of just sitting there, Rising Star finally spoke up. “I’d be honoured,” he said in a quiet voice. He took a deep breath and looked at Bucky. 

“My shoes,” Ripple said as she cautiously crept forward. “And my Master’s axe.” 

“Thank you Luna,” Bucky said. 

“You are most welcome,” Luna replied. 

“Luna, while I have you here, I’d like to bend your ear,” Bucky said. 

“I have a small amount of time. Before you bend my ear, you have a meeting with two ponies in just a little while. You will be escorted to meet with them. You and Lyra Heartstrings both,” Luna said in return. 

Nodding, Bucky looked around at his wives and saw each of them give a faint nod. He cleared his throat, coughed, more out of habit than need, his lungs hadn’t bothered him all morning, and then looked at Luna. “We… all of us, humbly request your service as a godmother for our foals,” he said at he looked Luna in the eye. 

“What?” Luna said, her teal eyes going wide. Her wings fluttered softly at her sides. 

“We want you to be the godmother to our foals,” Derpy said. 

“Nopony has ever requested this… We doth not know how to respond,” Luna said, falling into old speech patterns as her emotions took over. She took a few steps backwards and her nostrils flared. After a few moments of heavy breathing, her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“Maybe there is some formal method we missed out on, but we thought that we would just ask directly," Berry Punch stated. 

Thistle nodded. “Want a kelpie foal?” she offered. 

“We doth accept thine offer…” Luna said in a strained cracking voice. There was a crackle of magic from her horn and then she was gone, vanishing in a bright flash of blue. 

“Is she okay?” Derpy asked as the unicorn guard filed out the door. 

“I think she was overcome with emotion. She probably wanted a moment alone to compose herself,” Bon Bon said as the door was pulled shut. 

“The only thing left to do now is to get Sentinel legally recognised as my heir and son,” Bucky said as he leaned against Derpy and took  deep breath. “I hope we get to go home to Ponyville soon.” 



 

Bucky stared at the circlet that symbolised his authority and the torque that marked him as a chieftan. He looked at the note left in the small wooden box containing the two items. He sighed, thankful that his royal title was not “prince” and was something he could live with. He ignored the circlet and instead placed the torque around his neck. It was small, made of braided silver cables, and the two end caps were wolf heads with open roaring mouths. Their eyes were little onyx flecks. The torque was strangely warm to the touch and Bucky suspected it was magical. He would figure out what it did later. 

He looked at himself in the mirror, lifting his head high for a moment, and then dropped it back down to his more usual slouching position. He bared his fangs, looking at them, stuck out his tongue and licked them, and then he closed his mouth after pulling his tongue back in. He got a good look at his artificial eye. The black fulgurite in his eye socket was shockingly smooth in contrast to his horn. The tiny emerald in the dead center of the black fulgurite flickered briefly as his mind commanded it to light. He examined his Taint filled eye and briefly wondered how many mana calories he burned from the continuous magical emission. Perhaps a doctor might know. He leaned in close to the mirror and looked at his horn. It was every bit as long as Celestia’s. Black, jagged, with a few places having sharp bladed edges. At a certain angle, he thought he almost looked like a changeling. His long shaggy pelt was shiny and healthy looking now. His sideburns framed his face and they were long and full. 

He turned around and stared at his own backside. His hind legs were withered and malformed now. The doctors told him his tendons and ligaments had suffered terrible damage, some of them had been bitten right through. He flicked his tail, which was almost floor length. Such length was unheard of on a stallion and he expected that he would have to endure a few laughs. 

Ponies laughing about his tail length were the least of his worries though. 

His ribs were still visible but getting better. He had nearly killed himself with continuous magic use the doctors said. His spree of never-ending spell casting had taken a toll upon his body and the consequences were unknown. Constant use of deep magic. The endless nights of creating spells jars and filling them with spells. Creating artifacts. Unicorns were never meant to cast spells for so long with such poor food and so little rest. It was generally accepted by all of his doctors that it had been Berry Punch’s exceedingly rich and nutrient dense teat milk that had kept him going during the final days when he burned through everything he had trying to prepare. Harper had indirectly saved his life. 

Without Harper, Berry Punch would have never started nursing. Without Berry Punch, Bucky understood that he would have died at some point, probably slipping off in his sleep or having some sort of magical aneurysm… the possibilities of how he might have died were endless. Such a small thing had made such a difference. 

He shook his head slightly and his mane spilled down around his torque. He decided he would wear the torque. He felt as though he had earned it. He would only wear the circlet when he absolutely had to. He liked the torque. The two wolf heads were powerful reminders of what he had faced, what he had endured, and what made him the pony with a horn that he was now. 

He smiled at himself. He had to go. He had a meeting with two ponies. 
	
	
> Chapter 222
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m nervous Bucky, I can’t do this without Bon Bon,” Lyra said in a low whimpering voice. “How can I be away from Bonnie? I’ll have a break down. I’ll fail and leave us all in a bad spot… I’ll make mistakes and it will cost everypony their lives… I’ll hmmmph-” 

Cutting Lyra off with a soft kiss, Bucky leaned in and make sure he did a proper job. When he pulled away, Lyra was breathless and didn’t look so nervous. “Lyra, I’ll make sure that Freezerburn is with us. If I concentrate, he shows up. Now steady yourself.” 

“Yes Bucky… thanks,” Lyra replied, her eyes narrowing into a shy expression. Lyra took a deep breath. “Those kisses of yours are something else.” 

“I’ve had a lot of practice. Thinking back to my old life, never thought I’d say that,” Bucky said as he looked around the small room he and Lyra were waiting in. “Do my kisses bother you at all? I worry about it sometimes and I never want to hurt you for any reason.” 

“No Bucky, I’ve grown quite fond of them. You know, I wouldn’t hate you if your kisses became a little more intimate. Sometimes. Occasionally. As a once in a blue moon special sort of thing just as surprise. I think I could handle it. I don’t know. I’d like to know if I was okay with it,” Lyra said in a nervous half whisper. “I know Bon Bon keeps thinking about it. We talk a bit.” 

“I miss you and Bon Bon in the bed with us,” Bucky said. 

“You needed the extra room because you’ve been recovering. We haven’t been sleeping well apart from you and the others,” Lyra admitted as she reached out and gently touched Bucky’s face with her folded fetlock. She reached up, grabbed an ear in her fetlock, and gave a tug. 

She lowered her foreleg when she heard the shuffling of hooves just outside the door. She turned, watched the door, and waited, aware that Bucky was doing the same. This was something of a realisation of a dream for her. She had only heard stories about this sort of thing, but to find out they actually existed, that made the dream real. And now she was being asked to join them. What was left of them anyway. 

The door opened and two figures slowly entered together, touching one another as they moved, brushing up against each other. One was dark blue, almost the same shade as Luna, and she had a clock cutie mark that was visible for a moment. Her mane and tail was a dark purple-black. The other, a stallion, was orange-yellow in colour, and his mane and tail was cream coloured. The stallion’s blinking was out of synch. One eye blinked, and then a second later, the other blinked. Both had frantic manic looks upon their faces. Fear burned in their eyes. As they moved through the door, the stallions cutie mark became visible for a moment, seven stars, trailing in a line, going from smallest to largest. 

Both of them stared at Bucky, their faces serious as they studied him. 

The stallion went to work, prowling around the room, his horn glowing as he peered into every corner, checked over the ceiling, and studied every inch of the furniture. 

“You can never be too careful,” the mare said. She waited, watching the stallion work. Finally, when he gave a nod, she sighed in relief. 

“I am Witching Hour. This is my husband Tiddlywinks. Marriage was forbidden in the black cloaks, especially to a fellow black cloak. But we’re alive and THEY'RE ALL DEAD!” she said in a frantic wavering voice. She shook and  trembled in place and seemed to calm slightly when Tiddlywinks returned to her side. “Alive. Alive. Somehow alive. I watch him and he watches me and we are still alive.” 

Tiddlywinks nodded. 

“You have to forgive my husband. He never speaks where other ponies might hear him. Justifiable paranoia. Somebody might steal his voice and do terrible things with his words,” Witching hour explained. “The last group of assassins we killed called out to us in our friend’s voices to try and get us to lower our guard. And they said my husband was crazy for not speaking…” 

The door slammed shut behind them and then glowed with a bright aura of magic. 

“Warlock,” Witching Hour stated as she turned her gaze upon Bucky. 

“I suppose I am,” Bucky said. 

“Luna said you can be trusted. I only trust Luna. I use dark magic too if I have to. Hope I never end up Tainted. Taint is lethal poison for most, or so I hear. But you, you are special,” Witching Hour said with manic zest. She fell silent for a moment, studied Bucky, and then cackled. 

“It isn’t good for our kind to cackle,” Lyra said softly. 

“I know!” Witching Hour replied. “But I lived. I lived. I lived. And cackling is all I can do now. Cackle or cry. Cry. Cry.” 

Bucky exchanged a glance with Lyra and he leaned over, pressing into Lyra’s side. He continued to study the pair of unicorns. After taking a deep breath, he started to think of the right words to say and how to deal with the obviously damaged pair. 

“So, uh, what do you specialise in?” Lyra asked. 

“Abjuration,” Witching Hour replied right away. She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Also in hexes and curses,” she whispered. “Bad things. Black arts. Only when I have to… Luna said it was okay. It was okay. It was all okay. I wasn’t a bad pony for LOOKING IN ALL THOSE BOOKS!” 

Witching Hour calmed a bit as she sat down upon the sofa and Tiddlywinks sat down near her. The stallion wrapped a leg around the mare’s withers and she smiled a half sane smile. She shivered for a moment and closed her eyes, her face clenching up as she was probably reliving some horror. Then, she opened her eyes and looked at Bucky. 

“Winky specialises in spellbreaking. He can peel through any sort defenses. He can strip away augmentations. He survived the Ritual of Sight and he is immune to most illusion, but it forever messed up his blinking. Poor Winky doesn’t actually do well with offensive magic. He’s a savant with spell stripping though,” Witching Hour explained. 

“Between the four of us, I think Bucky has the offensive spellcasting covered. He’s lousy with defensive spells and can’t tear down defenses,” Lyra said bluntly. 

“We’ve read his detailed file. To say he is good at offensive spellcasting is like saying LUNA LIKES LOOKING AT THE MOON!” Witching Hour said as her face spasmed from nervous energy. 

Lyra blinked. Witching Hour seemed completely unaware of her shouting outbursts. Lyra took a deep breath and wondered what she was getting into. The pair had clearly endured trauma like few ponies could understand. Except for maybe Bucky and herself. 

“We’ve read his file. Your husband is an enchanter and a transmuter. Makes magical toys to do his dirty work. Exceedingly dangerous, as all enchanters usually are, but Bucky is a special kind of “sick in the head” dangerous. The first pony ever on record to make a “rape bomb” to subdue his enemies. His potential for transmutation is still unknown, but his school records include a carnivorous potato. Needs training in offensive transmutation. Known equine pacifist. Entropic cold elementalist with unexplored “vampiric” abilities that Celestia is loathe to use but Luna is impatient to explore. Likes working with glass. Generated the largest disciplinary file ever in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Most of that disciplinary file is eyes only top secret. Under normal circumstances, Bucky is the sort of unicorn we would normally be hunting down to make him “vanish” so we could keep society safe,” Witching Hour recited in a dull monotone, as though she was reading off some invisible sheet of paper. 

Tiddlywinks gave his wife a nudge and then snorted. 

Bucky squirmed, raised his stump, made a dismissive gesture as he waved it around, and then he looked at Witching Hour. “I don’t know if I should be insulted or flattered. I don’t know how to feel about everything that was just said. I’ll be the first one to admit I’ve done some questionable things, but I’ve done them for the right reasons. Crystal liches don’t fight fair, and I don’t either.” 

Witching Hour blinked a few times, her ears splayed out sideways, and her eyes darted from Lyra to Bucky. “We’ve all done questionable things. I’ve used dark magic to completely mindwipe a foal molester. There was nothing left of his mind to recover. I cleaned him out completely. Left him a vegetable. I had to be removed from active duty and placed on observation status. Luna went peeking around inside my head. In the end, it was determined that I was overcome with emotion and I was disciplined, receiving an official reprimand from the Crown for my actions. In private, Luna thanked me for doing what needed to be done. The pony I wiped had a sickness for which there is no cure. Luna said what I did was merciful,” Witching Hour said in a strained voice that wavered and cracked as she spoke. 

Tiddlywinks nodded but remained silent. 

“Tiddlywinks lost his marbles when we uncovered a slave labour mining operation down in the badlands. They had ponies of all ages chained up and forced to work. Many died. Winky lost his mind for a moment. He levitated a chain and beat the mining camp operator to death. Winky was disciplined. Funny… somehow, we lived through the extinction of our order, but those that mocked us for the bad things we did are now all dead. None of them were willing to fight dirty to stay alive,” Witching Hour said as she stared Bucky in the eye. 

“Dare I even ask who owned the mine?” Bucky asked in an icy voice. 

“Do I even need to answer?” Witching Hour replied. 

Bucky let out a wordless snarl but said nothing.

Not liking her husband’s suffering, Lyra reached out to stroke Bucky, patting him softly, and then adjusting the torque around his neck, straightening it so the two wolf heads faced forwards. Somehow, they had moved off to one side. She smoothed out his mane and noticed a few more silver hairs had found their way into his long flowing locks. She reached out and smoothed out the swirling chest scruffle that Bucky had, since his pelt had changed he had a rather unruly spot that always managed to stick out. 

“She loves you,” Witching Hour announced, ending the quiet that had settled over the room. Witching Hour cocked her head to one side. “As a unicorn, as a type three, it was very difficult for me to learn how to love, if I may be so open and honest.” 

Tiddlywinks nodded enthusiastically. 

“Winky here is a type three as well, even though his common magic never shows it. Like I said, he’s a savant. Love is the only reason we are still alive. Well, love and having no qualms about fighting dirty. Because of us, Twilight Sparkle and her new Bureau of Thaumaturgy, there is going to be an entire elite branch of cloaks that are married. Magic of friendship… and marriage. Twilight has a lot of changes planned,” Witching Hour said. The unicorn mare seemed much calmer now and her spastic outbursts had ceased. 

“Changes?” Lyra inquired. 

“Well, magical licensing for one. Twilight Sparkle believes that magic is a privilege, not a right. She’s got some plan for a different colour of cloak to enforce this new wing of magic control. She’s said that earth ponies and pegasi get by just fine without fancy unicorn style magic and unicorns can learn to get by as well. She wants some accountability and responsibility after everything that has happened,” Witching Hour answered. 

“Oh that is not going to go over well,” Bucky muttered. 

“Twilight Sparkle doesn’t care. If unicorns want to cast, they can get a license and then face consequences for irresponsible casting. Equestria has been gutted. There are cults running around. We have reports of the undead all along the southern expanses, like Dodge City. Las Pegasus was pretty much abandoned when the water went dry. Strange lights have been seen in the city and urban looters who have been plundering Las Pegasus have made all kinds of bizarre and scary reports after heading back north. Unicorns have formed covens and many have gone rogue. There is nothing holding back the darkness right now. The black cloaks are all gone. Luna’s Lunar Guard have taken heavy losses in trying to secure the south. The Myrmidons recently lost over a dozen of their ranks. They flew south and not a one has returned. No trace of them either. A search party was sent out and they were attacked by unicorns in the San Palomino Desert. The Myrmidons were forced to flee. Do you know what it takes to make the Myrmidons flee?” Witching Hour said to to Lyra and Bucky, making gestures with her hoof as she spoke to bring focus to certain words and key points. 

“So what you are saying is, we are in some trouble,” Bucky summarised. 

“No. Not saying that at all. I am saying that we are completely horned. Twilight Sparkle estimates that there might be a hundred to maybe two hundred known adult type threes. She has no estimate currently available as to how many of those might be suitable for combat roles or worthy of service. We don’t have the means to even begin rebuilding our magical defenses. There are a lot of foals though. There’s been a boom on little type threes being born in the past few years. Several hundred in Celestia’s school,” Witching Hour explained. 

“Oh... shite,” Bucky groaned. 
	
	
> Chapter 223
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pushing open the door, Bucky and Lyra returned to the Royal Suite after their meeting with Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. Much to Bucky’s surprise, Twilight Sparkle was sitting on a sofa and playing with Peekaboo. He paused just inside the door and wondered what was going on, and his eye went around the room looking for clues. 

“Hi there, I was just dropping off some manipulation shoes,” Twilight said when she saw Bucky. She smiled and began to rock Peekaboo. 

“They're not actually shoes,” Ripple said with a very confused look upon her face.  

“Well, they used to be iron horseshoes, but really, what else can you call them?” Twilight responded with a grin. 

“They’re stickers,” Piña said matter-of-factly. 

“I stepped in goop,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“It is a thin bio-thaumaturgical film that is artificial in nature. It gets absorbed into the hoof and remains there for a year to eighteen months, and provides a minor near field magic that allows for manipulation,” Twilight droned, reciting these facts from memory. 

“I keep feeling like I am sticking to the floor,” Ripple grumbled. 

“Well, let go of the floor,” Twilight Sparkle said helpfully. 

“Thank you Twilight, I am sure it was difficult to procure these during these troubled times,” Bucky said graciously. 

“Oh, I had to make these myself. I did it late at night when I couldn’t sleep. The factories that make these are no longer functioning. Manipulation shoes are in short supply. There are quite a few of the really bad ones around. The ones that barely even work,” Twilight replied. “Cheap knockoffs that sometimes mess up your hooves and make them rot. Stupid Flim Flam Industries…” 

“How are these made?” Piña inquired. 

“Well, there are factories in the big cities, like Baltimare, and unicorns go to these factories and they sit down in a government regulated comfortable chair. Then something is slipped over their horn and all they have to do is sit there for three hours. Then, there is the government mandated lunch break, they are fed at the expense of the Crown, and then it is back to work for three more hours, sitting in the chair wearing something on their horn. They’re free to talk to one another or even play games with the unicorn sitting next to them,” Twilight answered.

“They’re milked like cows?” Piña responded in a startled voice. 

“Well, no… uh, well, yes actually, I suppose they are. The device goes over their horns and their magic is harnessed and used to make the shoes. And a number of other items, some of them arcano-tech in nature. For many type one unicorns, it is how they make a living. They’re not particularly magical, but what little magic they do have can be harnessed. Quite a few type twos do this for a living as well because it really is a good way to make bits, especially if you are not educated because you never finished school. It doesn’t hurt them and many of them find the experience quite pleasurable. Plus, they know that what little bit of magic they have is being used to help others,” Twilight explained. 

“There are some shoes on an activator pad for both of you,” Bon Bon said helpfully to Bucky and Lyra. 

Bucky finally moved away from the door, eased himself into a chair, and then leaned upon the table. Lyra went and sat on the sofa with Bon Bon, and the pair exchanged a quick kiss. 

“How did your meeting go?” Twilight asked. 

“Is this something we should talk about around everypony else?” Bucky replied. 

Shrugging, Twilight focused on Bucky and set Peekaboo down. “I just wanted to know how the meeting went, that’s all. No need for details,” Twilight stated. 

“I am a bit bothered by the idea of magical licensing,” Bucky said, turning his head towards Twilight. “Seems like unicorn backlash.” 

Sighing, Twilight’s wings fluttered as she began to formulate a response. “This isn’t as bad as it sounds. Type ones will not even need a license. Not enough magic to be of concern. Type twos will require a permit. Type threes and above will require a license. Let’s be honest, magic is too dangerous. It needs some regulation. My plan, as it currently, stands, is to let all of the current adult unicorns go unlicenced. The license will be optional, but not required. If they commit an offense, they will be punished to the fullest extent that the new laws will allow. So it will be in their best interests to get a license and comply. Minor spellcasting and cantrips are allowed, it is only deep magic and dangerous magic that I wish to regulate. To this end, all unicorns when they graduate magic school,  they will have a license upon graduation, just like all pegasi who attend flight camp. No flying without a license,” Twilight explained. “So the current generation of unicorns will be grandfathered. Sort of. Life will go on as usual, but if they do something destructive or harmful, they will receive no mercy or leniency if they are unlicensed. The next generation will grow up knowing the laws and the regulations, and it will not be a problem.” 

“That seems fair,” Lyra said, her face thoughtful. 

“You mean I can’t fly?” Loch asked incredulously. 

“Not without a license, no,” Twilight replied. 

“We will need to get you a learner’s permit,” Derpy said. 

“But I can fly just fine,” Loch Skimmer argued. 

“If another pegasus is in your flight path, and both of you are heading right for one another, which way do you bank to turn to get out of the way?” Twilight asked. 

“I suppose I’d go left,” Loch answered. 

“What if that pegasus goes left too?” Twilight questioned. 

“Oh…” Loch said slowly, coming to a realisation after a few moments of thinking. 

“Right?” Ripple said helpfully, trying to come to her sister’s rescue.

“Actually, both pegasi are required to bank right so there is no confusion. I had to learn this after I got my wings,” Twilight said. 

“I actually lost my flight license for a while,” Derpy admitted. “I was only allowed to fly while I was working so I could do my job. Six months of walking except for when I was at work.” 

“So unicorns need licenses, pegasi need licences, what about earth ponies?” Loch Skimmer inquired, looking around the room. 

“Wagon and cart licenses,” Berry said. “I have mine. Class four. Extra heavy load bearing class. I can pull the big ones. I can do so safely and without risk to others. It actually takes a lot of skill to pull a heavy wagon. You have to stop sooner, you have to be careful about corners, going up hills, going down hills, lots of ponies could be hurt with a runaway wagon. Pull a wagon without a license and you will get fined.” 

“Pegasi need chariot and sky wagon licenses,” Derpy said. 

“Unicorns need a licence to pull a wagon as well,” Twilight said. 

“Hmm,” Loch Skimmer said to herself as she became thoughtful. 

“Will I need a magic license?” Piña inquired as she trotted near Twilight Sparkle and looked up. The earth pony foal lifted a hoof and looked at it curiously, her brow furrowing as she continued to wonder how to make her magic activate. 

“Yes Piña, you will. I’ve heard about your magic. I am very curious about you. There are some ponies I want for you to meet, I think they have magic as well. There is a lot of testing that needs to be done… The Pie sisters, Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie, I strongly suspect that like you, they have a working thaumaturgical nervous system and the means to generate mana. I have long wondered about Pinkie Pie’s powers, and I think we are close to finding an answer,” Twilight replied. 

“I suppose pegasi need a license for weather work as well?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Yes,” Twilight answered. “They get that when they finish flight camp. It is optional.” 

“So you mean to tell me, earth ponies and pegasi needed licenses for the common everyday sorts of things they did, but unicorns had no restrictions?” Thistle asked. 

“Correct. I intend to try and level out the system so it is fair,” Twilight stated. 

“What about my water shaping?” Thistle asked. 

“Before I can answer that, I’d need to study you and how your magic works,” Twilight replied. “I am actually very curious about you Thistle. You have strong magic without having a horn. Fascinating stuff.” 

“I just want to go for a swim,” Thistle said in a heartbroken voice. 

“Be patient Thistle, you have a surprise coming,” Twilight responded, hoping to make the depressed kelpie feel a little better. 



 

Keeping a wary eye upon his hunter, Bucky watched as Peekaboo stalked him. Every time he looked at her, she would freeze in place. Bucky was quite amused at the sight. She kept her face covered with her forelegs and used her back legs to push her over the stone floor, her hindquarters shoved up high in the air and her chin resting upon the ground as she kicked forward. Bucky was sprawled out on the floor and the cool stone tiles felt good against his skin. His pelt kept him warm. Maybe too warm. 

“No see me,” Peekaboo announced as she moved closer, her face covered by her forelegs and her little wings were flapping. 

Smiling, Bucky understood. Peekaboo could not be seen if she could not see you. It was a perfectly logical assumption on Peekaboo’s part. He looked up at Derpy and saw she was busy brushing Dinky. 

“Nopony knows who I are,” Peekaboo whispered as she continued to creep up on Bucky. 

“I could have swore I heard something,” Bucky said as he looked off in a different direction away from Peekaboo. 

The foal froze and sucked in a deep breath in panic, realising she could be heard even though she could not be seen. Peekaboo peered out at her prey from between her forelegs and waited for him to look someplace else. 

Bucky glanced out of the corner of his eye. Peekaboo was close now. Just close enough for him to snatch. He waited just a moment longer, hoping she would edge just a little closer. He flexed his fetlock and made himself ready. 

Moving swiftly and suddenly, Bucky snatched the foal who was creeping up on him. Peekaboo squealed, a piercing cry, and Bucky panicked. He pulled her close and immediately tried to comfort her. 

“I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry baby,” Bucky cooed. “Oh please don’t cry.” 

“Not scared,” Peekaboo said. 

“You’re not?” Bucky asked. He looked around him, aware of so many eyes. He heard the rustle of newspapers being folded and set down. For a moment, he looked at Lugus, who was trying to teach the many intricacies of chess to Ripple. Derpy was smiling at him as she continued to brush Dinky. 

“Was playing,” Peekaboo said as she relaxed into Bucky’s embrace. 

“I was worried that I scared you,” Bucky said. “I did snatch you suddenly and I am kinda scary looking… you screamed. I get nervous when foals scream.” 

Peekaboo looked up with adoration in her eyes. “Not scary,” she murmured. “Mama told me story. Booty and Beast.” 

“Booty and the Beast?” Bucky gently inquired as he nuzzled the foal he was holding. He didn’t bother trying to correct Peekaboo. He understood what she was really trying to say. 

“Yeah. Booty and Beast. Beast scary. Scared Booty. But she love him. Kiss him. Make Beast not scary. Happy ever after,” Peekaboo explained in a lispy foalish voice. She reached up with her head and kissed Bucky softly on the cheek. “See, no scary no more.” 

Bucky felt a lump rapidly growing in his throat. He squeezed Peekaboo gently. “Which mama told you this story?” Bucky asked, the question forming in his mind when he realised that Yew Wood couldn’t read yet. 

Pointing at Berry Punch, Peekaboo smiled. “That mama,” she answered. 

Looking Berry Punch in the eye, Bucky smiled. He didn’t know what to say, but he knew that some thanks were in order. He felt another slobbery kiss on his cheek and tears began to sting at his eye. 
	
	
> Chapter 224
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy looked around the room at her herd and wondered what came next. This was their last night here. Tomorrow, they would return to Ponyville. Bucky was on the floor, mobbed by foals, and quietly reading them a book about a mouse that was a knight and had a needle for a sword. Ripple was becoming increasingly heated as she continued to lose to Lugus. Loch Skimmer was busy trying to figure out how to use a spoon with her hooves. Sentinel was studiously peering into a dictionary as he worked on a crossword puzzle. Sparkler was busy writing something, but Derpy didn’t know what it might be. Rising Star was meditating, hovering inches off of the floor and a large wisp of fire burned above his horn, contained in a magical aura to trap the heat. Thistle was trying to find some comfortable position to lay down in on the couch. She flipped, she flopped, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t get comfortable. Yew Wood and Lyra were discussing motherhood and exchanging helpful tips. Bon Bon and Berry Punch were quietly discussing something in the newspaper and looking at Bucky as they talked. 

Every pony was accounted for. 

Derpy was exactly two decades old, and only barely out of her own teenage years. She had a lot of responsibilities for a mare her age. She thought about her mistakes, her triumphs, her failures, and the things she needed to work on to be the sort of mare her family deserved. She understood she was far from perfect. She had done her best so far, up to this point in her life. She had sacrificed everything she had for Dinky and Sparkler. She thought of a Nightmare Night, her last Nightmare Night as a teenager, and how she had dressed up in paper bags so there would be enough money to get Sparkler and Dinky good costumes. Now, there were others. So many others. Harper and Peekaboo were the smallest foals in their tribe. Little Peekaboo was not her foal, not directly, but it was agreed that the whole tribe would raise her. Derpy was quietly ready to give up anything to provide for her family. Her herd. Her tribe. 

There was an angry cry from Ripple as she lost and a loud squawk of triumph from Lugus. Derpy smiled. Ripple was competitive, even for a pegasus. Derpy thought of Rainbow Dash and wondered how she was. Derpy wondered if Ripple and Loch would get along with the pegasi of Ponyville. She had fears for Sentinel and how he would fit in. 

There was a faint knock at the door. Derpy slipped from the couch and made her way to the door, smiled her best smile, and pulled the door open. A unicorn was holding a scroll in his magic. Reaching out her wing, Derpy took the scroll, nodded, and gently shut the door. She looked at the scroll. It was addressed to Lord Rising Star. 

“Rising Star,” Derpy called. 

With a snort, Rising Star snapped out of his meditation and his flame vanished in a poof. He looked up at Derpy, blinking, trying to clear the white mana residue from his eyes. He had been in deep focus, following Celestia’s advice about communing with fire. Fire had a voice. 

“You have a letter,” Derpy announced.  She held out her wing and the scroll. 

Grasping the scroll with his magic, Rising Star levitated it over to himself, popped the seal, and opened the scroll. He began reading. The script was fine, flowing, and very official looking. 

Derpy watched as Rising Star’s face scrunched up and a worried look appeared on his face. She moved through the room swiftly, worried that it could be bad news. She went to his side and was ready to comfort him. “What is it?” she inquired gently. 

Rising Star looked up from the scroll and his eyes darted around the room. Everypony was watching him now. His magic fizzled and the scroll drifted down to the floor. “I’ve been nominated,” he said. 

“What?” Sparkler asked. “Nominated for what?” 

“I’ve received over one hundred nominations so far… for the Stable of Representatives,” Rising Star answered in a stunned voice. “In a week, after more nominations have been collected, I will be formally asked if I have a desire to run and have ponies vote for me.” 

“What about school?” Derpy asked. 

“We can get tutoring,” Bucky said in a very serious voice. “Private education. Geared towards politics.”

“Are you going to accept?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“How could I say no?” Rising Star said, blinking slowly and trying to take everything in. “I mean, serving others. Somepony has to do the job. This is a test of idealism. To see if ponies will do this job without pay for the good of the public. If I say no… if I said no… well… I… somepony has to say yes and set an example,” he stammered. 

“But you know nothing about politics,” Bon Bon said. 

“Perfect,” Berry said. 

“Perfect?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Well, he’s going in honest. And you’d better come out honest too, or Bon Bon and I will kick your sorry little star covered plot all over Ponyville,” Berry replied, her gaze narrowing and settling upon Rising Star. “Don’t think that we won’t. Ask Bucky what happens to ponies that lie.” 

“They get slapped. And rightfully so,” Bucky said as he rubbed his cheek. 

“You are going to be a busy pony,” Sparkler said. “Metalworking, school, working as a representative, and you have three wives that need your attention.” 

“I need to know how to beat Lugus,” Ripple said with a snort. 

“A warrior is only as good as their mind,” Lugus said patiently. 

“Are you even old enough to run?” Lyra asked. 

“I must be. I’m nominated. I’m considered a legal adult because of my marriage,” Rising Star replied. He looked down at the scroll on the floor. He took a deep breath and then looked at everypony around him. “I need to be alone,” he announced. Not saying anything else, he stood, trotted off towards the room that he and his wives were staying in, and then shut the door behind him. 

“I wonder what his parents are going to say,” Sparkler said after her husband had vanished. She heaved a sigh and stared at the bedroom door, tempted to go in after him. 



 

“I don’t understand how he has so many nominations,” Sparkler said in a quiet voice to Berry Punch. She was sitting on the sofa now, worried for her husband, who was still secured in their room. 

“He’s been in the paper so much already. He was the quiet voice of reason during the treaty signing. How that made it into the papers and became so prominent, I’ll never know. Sentinel’s letter to the paper. Rising Star is… well, a rising star,” Berry replied, looking Berry serious. 

“He is a young voice that many of the troubled younger generation can relate to. They’ve all been held down by the system. Rising Star is a pony they believe will share their points of view,” Bon Bon said, her brow furrowing. 

“Everything is moving so quickly. I feel so overwhelmed. Stuff just keeps happening. I need time away from everything. I’m not doing well,” Sparkler admitted to the mares sitting on either side of her. 

“Brace yourself Sparky. Tomorrow, we’re heading home to Ponyville. I imagine that things are going to become even more overwhelming for a while,” Berry Punch said, wrapping her foreleg around Sparkler and giving a squeeze. 



 

Peekaboo watched her daddy’s tail. It was interesting. It wasn’t like her tail at all. It was long, skinny, fuzzy, furry, and had whole bunch of feathers at the end of it that he used to tickle her. She liked to hold on to it while she was sleeping. Daddy wasn’t quite a pony. She missed her mommy, but she had a whole bunch of new mommies now and that made things a little better. She remembered water, she remembered everypony crying, and she remembered flying away with her new daddy, along with a bunch of other foals. 

She wished she knew where her mommy went, but it didn’t bother her much anymore. She only thought about it sometimes. There were too many interesting things to explore to be sad. 

Peekaboo the foal was in an unusual position. She was at the peak of her imprinting stage, the stage where she would learn the most about the world around her. She had a whole herd of ponies to learn different behaviours from, and there was a griffon as her central paternal figure. Most foals at her stage of development had two parents and possibly a few siblings to aid in their development and help to formulate their budding behavioural patterns. Having such a diverse social structure around her was going to make her psychology as a herd animal unique to say the very least. 

She watched as her daddy’s tail swished, turned her head around to look at her own tail, and then tried to move her own tail in a similar manner. Her tail had too much hair. She scowled, her little face contorting with foalish frustration, and then gave up trying to make her tail move in the manner she desired. 

“No,” Peekaboo muttered. 

She turned her attention on Harper. Harper was wobbling around on her little legs and slowly exploring the world around her. Harper was too little to play with very much. The other foals were too big to play with, they had their own fun, and Peekaboo had trouble joining in. 

Peekaboo grunted. Boredom was a terrible thing for a foal of any age. 



 



I am still having trouble understanding everything my father had to endure after we arrived in the mainland. His trial does not sit well with me. I still have nightmares about it. Only instead of branding him, they cut off his head and everypony is laughing about it. I hope I am never tasked to slay a dragon like my father was. I don’t know if I have the same sort of courage as he does. 

I have seen a side of my father that I was not aware of. His total lack of respect for authority. He is an authority figure, I mean there is no doubting this, but he acted like a foal on the day of his coronation. I am still having trouble putting all of my thoughts and feelings about that day into words. Watching him as he ran from his responsibility has affected me in ways I do not understand. He was so gleeful. It was all a game to him. He ran and he expected them to give chase. I don’t understand. He faced his trial fearlessly, repeatedly saying he regretted nothing. He was defiant. He never ran from his trial. He endured his branding. My mother Derpy tells me that he made no move to stop what was happening. But he ran away when it was time to claim his rightful reward after everything he had endured. I just don’t understand my father at times. 

I miss Moonbow a great deal. Once again, I am the only lunar pegasus around. I understand the choice she has made. I accept it. I can only hope that I make choices to make myself worthy of everything she is sacrificing. I get to sleep in a comfortable bed and eat sweets. She has to try to find a way to sleep covered in iron weights and shackles. One day she will be an unstoppable juggernaut of motherhood. (I like my new thesauruses - I hope I use brackets right) 

I don’t know what sort of knight I will be. Will I be a knight in shining armor? Will I fight with hoof, fang, and muscle? Will I fight with words? My mother Lyra says that wars can be fought with words. Words have power. My father has his armor and his unbreakable will. Lugus has an axe. A really big axe. I am not sure what I have yet. 

I need time to get away from everything and have quiet moments again. I can’t think in all of this chaos. I think everypony is starting to go crazy. Tomorrow, we depart for Ponyville. I don’t know what to expect. 

I am actually quite afraid. 

I must go. Peekaboo has pounced on Lugus’ tail and there is quite a commotion. 

 
	
	
> Chapter 225 (Ponyville) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Something was terribly wrong with his family. Sentinel felt his ears burning yet again. Breakfast had been completely disrupted. Berry Punch and Loch Skimmer were on the floor, clutching one another, braying and crying with laughter, Derpy had fallen over onto the table and was pounding it with one hoof, his father struggled to remain in his chair. Thistle had ran into the bathroom announcing her need to pee as she fled. Bon Bon and Lyra remained seated but clung to one another as though their lives depended on it. Rising Star finally lost his seat and fell to the floor with a thump, laughing as he fell. Sparkler was snorting with every laugh she made. Ripple looked embarrassed and tried to ignore the insanity around her. 

Even Lugus had lost it completely and made strange avian noises as he clutched at Yew. 

“Filly bits… take a pounding!” Berry shouted as she pulled Loch Skimmer even closer. 

At the sound of Berry’s words, Sentinel watched as his father lost it completely and his head hit the table with a thump, his barrel heaving. Sentinel wished that he understood what was so funny. Dinky and Piña weren’t laughing, and looked just as confused as he did. 

With a shriek, Derpy fell from her chair and slipped from the table. She hit the floor with a thud, her laughter never stopping. She reached up towards Bucky with her forelegs, her eyes clenched shut as she guffawed. 

“My filly bits can take a pounding,” Loch Skimmer giggled as tears streamed out of her eyes. She buried her face into Berry’s neck and wheezed as she chortled. 

“I can’t beeeeeeeeeeeeelieve they printed this,” Berry Punch heaved. 

“I don’t know what is so funny,” Sentinel snapped. 

His words fell upon the group like oil upon a fire. Giggles turned to chortles and then turned to guffaws. Sentinel scowled. He had completely incapacitated all of the adults in his family and he didn’t understand how he had done it. 

“Accidental innuendo is the best kind,” Bon Bon said as she wiped her eyes. She leaned over and kissed Sentinel, whose scowl intensified. “My little colt is so innocent and sweet. He doesn’t even know why this is funny.” 

Sentinel crammed a bite of fried fish into his mouth and chewed sullenly. He wasn’t sure how he felt about cooked fish. He knew that Thistle didn’t like it. He sort of liked the golden fried crispy bits. 

“My sweet big brother Sentinel told that General Dunderhead he was full of poop,” Piña said, not understanding what the big deal was. She wanted to say something other than “poop” but Berry had already pulled her aside and warned her about swearing around foals now that they were back home. 

“He sure did…Sentinel called him on his crap… Sentinel had a vowel movement,” Berry chortled, barely able to contain herself as she spoke. After she was done speaking, she exploded with more laughter. 

There was a thump as Bucky slipped from the table and then there was the clatter of a spoon that fell to the floor. He landed on Derpy and the pair clutched one another, with Derpy rolling over and pulling Bucky on top of her. 

“I’m gonna die,” Lyra heaved, sucking to suck in air. 

“No puns! NO!” Derpy begged, holding Bucky close. 

“What is so funny?” Sentinel snapped, finally out of patience. 

“In a few years… not long at all… you’ll be pounding Moonbow’s filly bits,” Berry chortled. 

Sentinel choked. The thesaurus said that pounding was another word for abuse and comminute. The slow painful realisation of what he wrote sank into Sentinel’s mind. He felt his cheeks blaze. He thought about the night he had climbed onto Moonbow’s back. He felt a strange heat in his belly. And then, he felt something else. He thought about how soft she was. How she smelled. Her warmth. The way she pounced him and sat on top of him. The heat of her body as she was sitting on him. Certain parts were hotter than others. Sentinel grunted and realised he now shared a problem with his older brother Rising Star. 

He was out of his chair in a moment, on his hooves, and galloping for the nearest bathroom door. He ran inside and slammed the door shut, and then quietly hoped that he could die from embarrassment. Worst of all, they were still laughing. 



 

Bucky followed after Luna on three legs. Luna looked a little better, as though she had finally rested recently. In the distance, The Scorned Mare was tethered and moored. Bucky was glad to see her again, and he worried this might be the last time. 

“What of my ship? What becomes of The Scorned Mare?” Bucky inquired. 

“She is still yours. She is being upgraded. She is getting the latest in arcano-tech engines. She is being fitted with a new gasbag with a cloud scoop and a compressor. A weapons system is being installed. The interior is being modernised with things like a kitchen and modern plumbing. She is small but charming. I’m paying for this from my own private treasury. She’ll be needed soon,” Luna replied. 

“Needed soon?” Bucky asked. 

“Celestia and I will speak with you when it is time,” Luna answered. 

“Very well then,” Bucky responded. 

“Thank you by the way. For making me the godmother of your foals,” Luna whispered. 

“You saved me. I get to be with those foals because of you. It is only right that I share them,” Bucky said to Luna as she came to a stop. He stood beside her. 

“You will be the registered commander of this vessel. Your rank and command will extend to the Royal Equestrian Navy. This ship will bear a diplomatic flag and any attack upon it will be an act of war upon Equestria. The deck counts as sovereign Equestrian territory anywhere she flies. If need be, treaties, agreements, and articles of surrender can be signed upon the deck and be legally binding. Apart from the diplomatic flag, this ship will be registered within the Lunar Court. Apart from declaring war upon Equestria, an attack upon this vessel will be declaring war upon me directly,” Luna said in a commanding voice. 

“Will I be able to moor her in Ponyville?” Bucky asked. 

“Perhaps,” Luna replied. “Tricky docking a ship this size.” 

“This ship is small. I chose the hull because of that,” Bucky said. 

“Still larger than your average rowboat with a gasbag that is common with the more adventurous aviators,” Luna said in return. 

“Something will have to be figured out,” Bucky said. 

“Are you ready to return home?” Luna asked. 

“Yes and no. I want to head home to Ponyville… I don’t want to be mobbed when I go there. I don’t think I can take it right now,” Bucky answered. 

“Barley will be very happy that you are returning home. He has been worried sick,” Luna said to Bucky as they both stood looking at the shipyard. The wind blew and Luna watched Bucky’s long mane and tail billow out off to one side. 

“How are you and Barley?” Bucky inquired in a low voice. 

“We are close. We are friends. I do not know what will become of us,” Luna answered carefully. “He is very dear to me. He held everything together in Ponyville working as the coordinator between the different refugee camps. He kept ponies calm. Twilight Sparkle finds him indispensable and she values him as a friend I believe, even if they don’t always see eye to eye,” Luna replied. 

“I bet Ponyville has changed,” Bucky stated.

“More than you know… Buckminster… there is a delicate issue I must discuss with you. There is a changeling living in Ponyville. You are bound to find out because you are that sort of pony. It is a very important social experiment. His name is Slate and he lives with Lily Valley, Roseluck, and Daisy. He believes he is a pony and he has no idea that he is actually a changeling,” Luna said, watching Bucky carefully as she spoke. 

“Does he truly believe he is a pony?” Bucky asked in a strained voice. 

“Yes. He does. With all of his heart and mind. More importantly, he loves those three mares a great deal. And they love him,” Luna replied. 

“I will keep him safe. He has nothing to fear from me. I will not bring harm to another pony,” Bucky said as he looked down at the ground. “I suppose he feeds on them.” 

“Yes. He does. He has been there for a while now. He has grown healthy and very happy. He is still a little feral because he showed up completely mindless. He is our means of study. We’ve learned so much from observing him. My sister… Celestia, she has a plan Buckminster, to bring peace with the changelings. She plans to use Dinky’s magic some day to see if the connection to the hive mind can be severed. She also wishes to see if Dinky can give them free will like Slate has free will,” Luna explained. 

Bucky sat down rather suddenly as his brain tried to take in everything Luna had just told him. He took a deep breath, held it, and then blew it out with a flatulent sound as his lips flapped together in an equine sound of stunned shock. 

“Dinky is powerful beyond what most ponies could comprehend. She is a telepath Buckminster. That part of her gift hasn’t developed completely, but it will. Right now, she can connect to insects. She can command swarms. She is not elementally aligned though. Her focus lies elsewhere. You did her a favour exposing her to dark magic. I’ve been inside of her mind. She has had her taste of it, and she never wants to experience it ever again. This puts my sister’s mind at ease. Powerful telepaths… mentalists… they can be problematic. Dinky has been scared straight so to speak. She will never wander from a righteous path. You have done for her what I do for others through dreams. You have scared her into complete submission and dedication to virtue,” Luna said as she watched some pegasi lifting up a large section of kitchen counter. 

“Should I be proud of that?” Bucky asked. 

“It is better that such a lesson comes from a father who loves her,” Luna replied. 

“I don’t think I feel good about this,” Bucky stated. 

“Buckminster, the sort of harm she could have caused if she strayed from the path of gentle goodness would be immeasurable,” Luna said in a soothing voice. 

“Maybe you are right,” Bucky muttered. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it. I did something terrible to her.” 

“We shall take you home under the cover of nightfall. There will be guards posted around your home to allow you to settle in undisturbed. The crowds will come. Sooner or later, you will have to face them,” Luna said. “For now, you should return to your family. Are you studying those books I gave you?”

Realising the nature of her last question, Bucky turned to look at her. “Yes Mistress. I am,” he replied. 

“My most faithful student… Your Mistress is pleased,” Luna said in a warm voice. “Soon, I will begin Sentinel’s training. Much of it I will be doing myself.” 

Luna watched as Bucky rose up on three legs and together, they headed back to the castle in a slow leisurely walk, the Mistress and her student, Luna slightly ahead and Bucky just behind her upon her heels. 



 

Everything was packed. Evening approached. A somber mood had fallen over the herd. Some were hopeful about returning home, others were terrified of yet more changes. It was a quiet time, and not much was being said. Harper and Peekaboo napped, cuddled up together upon a small quilt laid over a sofa. 

Bucky was reading a spell book about offensive transmutation, deeply engrossed in his studies. Sentinel was beside him, reading an officer’s manual. Beside Sentinel sat Rising Star, and Rising Star was busy staring at his letter of nomination with a look of worry upon his face. 

Loch Skimmer busied herself with attempting to use a curry comb upon her sister using her hooves and her new manipulation shoes. Ripple sat serenely receiving her sister’s ministrations, occasionally turning to look at Rising Star. 

Sparkler was reading one of Sentinel’s officer manuals, her lips moving as she read, trying to commit it to memory. Her eyes were narrowed with concentration and she was wearing the glengarry she had worn to the coronation. 

Derpy, Berry, Thistle, Bon Bon, and Lyra were all crowded onto one couch together, bonding and holding one another in a quiet moment, coming together as fellow-wives. 

Lugus was sprawled out upon the floor and Yew Wood walked along his back, cracking and popping his spine. The much smaller pegasus looked as though she had felled the much larger griffon and was standing upon him in triumph. 

Piña and Dinky were colouring together, both of them laying on the floor and working on the same picture. 

A soft knock came tapping upon the door and then it opened. Twilight Sparkle appeared, and there was a whole host of unicorn guards behind her. She smiled warmly as she saw the tribe all together. 

“Come, it is time. The unicorns will carry everything. Leave it to them. We must go,” Twilight commanded. “It is time for you to receive the reward that you so richly deserve.” 

An excited murmur broke out and the entire tribe began to move… 



 

The fleet of chariots and the sky wagon moved swiftly through the dark, and the lights of Ponyville were below them. Derpy knew right away that something was off. Her home was near the middle of town and the group was heading past the town. She felt a little worried but said nothing. Maybe something had happened to her home… 

Bucky, sharp eyed as he was in the dark, could make out the refugee camps on the outskirts of Ponyville. The campfires blazed and tents could be seen. There was a lot of new construction all over town. He saw the library tree as they passed overhead. 

Finally, the group slowed and began their descent. It was Berry that slowly began to recognise where they were. Her old farmhouse. It had changed. Lights blazed from the windows. It had been expanded upon and completely restored. The old distillery looked different. It had several wings extending from it, a greenhouse, and it had been completely renovated to the point where it was almost unrecognisable. Berry Punch did a double take. She saw the moon behind the farmhouse. She blinked a few times and realised that there was a small lake where there had once been fallow fields. She could see a long dock extending from the back of the house. 

In short time, they landed, and the dumbfounded group all crowded together. 

“That’s the new school. We’ve made a few changes. We’re still working on the dormitory towers. Princess Celestia ordered the construction of a kelpie preservation environment. The lake is pony made, becomes quite deep in some places, is fed through underground springs we’ve tapped into, and has been stocked with fish. The farmhouse has been completely rebuilt and has been greatly expanded to fit your family,” Twilight explained in a loud voice for everypony to hear. 

Berry Punch barely heard a word Twilight was saying. There was an ivory coloured stallion coming down the steps slowly, his gait slow and pained looking. Berry began to cry when she saw him. For a moment, she remained frozen. 

And then, she ran to him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 226
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Barley O’Blivion had fallen down into the grass from Berry’s affections. The pair held one another, both of them crying. Bucky felt a little better knowing that Berry had her uncle again. He felt something brush up beside him on his blind side. He turned his head around and saw Bon Bon pressed against his side. He turned back around to face Barley but said nothing, allowing Berry to have her much needed moment. 

“What about my house?” Derpy asked Twilight in a shy soft voice. 

“Still your house. You can do whatever you want with it. If Rising Star and his herd are not happy here with you, it would make a good home for them,” Twilight replied. 

“Oh,” Derpy said in a subdued voice. 

“I want us to stay together,” Rising Star said. “I can’t function without the rest of you.” 

Piña slipped away from Dinky’s side and went to join Berry and Barley. Barley pulled her in and she found herself squished between them. Piña made little sniffly-snort noises as she reunited with her uncle once again. 

The guards began to disperse around the farmhouse and set up a defensive perimeter. Twilight Sparkle paced back and forth. She watched the trio embracing in the grass and her wings fluttered at her sides. 

“I am actually really glad we are neighbors. I am still learning about our connection. I only recently found out that I am Star Swirl’s distant relative. We were meant to work together in our prospective functions. Once you get your wings, we could do great things together,” Twilight said in voice thick with barely contained excitement. 

Bucky thought about saying something but remained silent. He bowed his head slightly to Twilight and acknowledged her by looking her in the eye. He could see it in her expression. She looked hopeful. 

Barley pulled himself free from Berry and Piña, rose up on wobbly knees, and slowly approached Bucky. He peered at Bucky, looking him up and down slowly, and his eyes took in every detail. “Aye lad… ye look like shite,” Barley stated. 

Laughter burst from Bucky’s mouth and came forth in a flood. Bucky could not contain himself. Finally, he had to lean on Derpy to keep standing up. To say that he looked poorly was the understatement of a lifetime. 

Barley, satisfied with his assessment, moved on. He approached Loch Skimmer and Ripple, one knee popping loudly as he went, and then began to study them, giving them both a good looking over. “Aye… what do we have here? Two prood daughters of Shetland? What a sight to make eyes sore… the blue maned one has a right murderous look about her. I like her. Hello nieces I’ll love to pieces.” Having spoken his piece, he moved on and continued his inspection.

Loch Skimmer exchanged a glance with Ripple, and Ripple shrugged. 

The acerbic old stallion stopped and stared at Thistle. One eye narrowed and he leaned in close. “A kelpie. Aye, that settles it, yer my favourite. Oh howdy ye are fat with foal ye pretty lass… If’n you have need of anything, ye have but to ask,” Barley said as he raised one hoof and gently patted Thistle upon the shoulder.  

He ambled along until he came to Bon Bon and Lyra. He peered at Bon Bon, raised his eyebrow, and nodded. “Aye lass. I knew ye’d be running off after Bucky. Ye loved him and his wives. Ye took this sweet little bard off on some great adventure, and now yer back home with a story to tell,” he said as he leaned in close to Bon Bon. His gaze fell upon Harper and the old stallion sucked in his breath sharply. “Aye… a fire hair like meself when I was younger. And she’s poofy… Nopony better make fun of this one or I’ll kick you right where yer already split!” he threatened. He leaned in and gave Harper a kiss, which made the foal giggle. 

Barley stood back and studied the whole group with a weathered eye. “Good thing I renovated the farmhouse. There is a lot of ye,” he muttered. “And a griffon too. A big griffon.” 

“Well, are you going to show us inside?” Bucky asked. 



 

“That chair, over by the fireplace, that chair is me own,” Barley stated as he lead them through the front door and the living room. “Old stallions and kelpies only. Nopony else!” he grunted grumpily. “And wipe yer hooves you bloody savages, you’d think you’ve been off in some horrible place with no manners or something.”

Thistle tittered as she looked at the chair and then at Barley. She saw him wink at her and immediately she began to like the old unicorn. She looked around the living room. There were a few bookshelves and several couches. There was a log burning in the fireplace. 

“Kitchen!” Barley barked as he moved through a wide archway. “Over yonder is the dining room. We’ll need a bigger table or some of us can eat in the kitchen at the smaller table,” he explained as he tottered forward with the group behind him. “Library is just through those doors at the end of the dining room.” 

He moved through the wide arch in the back of the kitchen and halted by some stairs. “Past the stairs is the nursery. There is also a few bathrooms down this hall. At the end of the hall is the master bedroom. There’s a big bed in there… dinnae worry, it’s fit for shagging,” Barley explained. “Empty headed numpty wanted to put the master bedroom upstairs away from the nursery. Moron!” he grumbled irritably. 

He slowly went up the stairs with a whole herd of ponies behind him. He stood in the hallway at the top of the stairs. There was another set of stairs here, doubling back over the first set and going upwards. “Several bedrooms and bathrooms up and down the hallway here. There is also a small comfortable gathering room with a few games and such in it. Up the stairs is a few more bedrooms and another flight of stairs. At the top of those stairs is the attic, which is partially finished. The attic is a large space with hardly any walls. Wasn’t sure what to do with it. Might be a good spot for yon great big bird of prey we have among us. Give him room to spread out and be comfortable.” 

Piña trotted over to a pink door and pushed it open. Her eyes went wide. “Is this my room?” she asked, her voice a strained whisper. She saw two beds in the room, a desk, and other stuff. 

“Aye my little sweet thing. For you and Dinky,” Barley answered. “I figured you two would want to be together.” 

Piña went through the door and Dinky followed after her. A moment later, the door was shut and there were giggles. Barley sighed and moved back down the stairs, the large group following after him. He went down the hall towards the master bedroom and stopped at a wide door. 

“This leads outside,” he announced. He pushed open the door and stepped through, revealing a large back porch and the dock. There were chairs and tables. Soft electric lighting lit up the whole area.

Thistle shoved her way through the crowd, made her way to the dock, waddled as fast as her pregnant body would allow, and then dove off of the end of it. She disappeared and did not resurface right away. There were bubbles coming up out of the water. 

“Will we e’er see her again?” Barley asked in a worried voice. “I rather liked her,” he added. “Do come back pretty lass!” he called. 

“She’s been waiting for the water. We might not see her for a while,” Bucky said. 

Barley sighed a sad sigh and looked around. “My legs hurt. I’m gonna go sit down.” He made his way through the crowd, picked up Harper from her sling using his magic, and held her in front of his face as she giggled, made his way indoors, and vanished from view. 

“He took Harper!” Lyra whined. 

“Probably to spoil her, no doubt,” Bon Bon said, trying to soothe Lyra. 

Lyra took off in a hurry, following after Barley, leaving the group a little smaller. 

“I wonder if there is a room for us,” Rising Star said as he made his way to the door. Loch Skimmer, Sparkler, and Ripple took off after him. 

Bucky eased himself into a chair and took a seat, enjoying the night. He could hear frogs and crickets. He saw ripples in the water. There was an owl someplace, and it hooted forlornly. He had no intention of leaving his chair for a while. The night was peaceful, cool, and calm. 

He looked over and saw Sentinel settling into the chair beside him, his small face looking skyward at the moon. 

“I’m raiding the kitchen,” Berry Punch said. She departed right away, heading off through the door, and after a moment, Bon Bon and Yew, who was holding Peekaboo on her back, went after her. Only a small group was left on the back porch now. 

“The Everfree is a little close… you should keep a watchful eye off in that direction,” Twilight Sparkle warned as she made a gesture with her hoof. “The school is almost finished. Princess Celestia still wants for you to head the school Buckminster, even after everything that has happened. Or maybe because of everything that has happened. We’re still trying to hire and secure teachers. There aren’t enough teachers. Celestia’s own school is having a shortage as well,” she admitted.

“I have my own plans for the school,” Bucky responded. 

“We will talk about those at another time. Settle in. Get comfortable. I will return tomorrow. Welcome home Buckminster,” Twilight said. She spread her wings, gave a few flaps, and then took off, shooting off like a streak into the darkness. 

Bucky watched her go, able to see her faint outline against the stars. 



 

Sparkler looked around the room that was certainly meant for them. It had a large bed. There was a little sofa in the corner, a big bay window that overlooked the lake, shelves, a big mirror upon the wall, a large desk, and the room itself was surprisingly large. 

Loch Skimmer flopped on the bed and bounced a few times. 

“You know, before you three, uh, begin your inevitable shagging, I’m gonna go bunk with Dinky and Piña. There is a second bed in their room and I know they will both be in the same bed. There is no way I want to be in bed with my sister during or just after you all get done doing what I know it is that you are about to do,” Ripple said. She smiled sheepishly and then vanished out the door. 

“We’re going to have to work out a way to keep Ripple happy,” Rising Star said in a worried voice. “Having two sisters in the bed together during certain moments is a bit skeevy I’ll admit.” He jumped onto the bed with Loch Skimmer and nosed the frisky looking pegasus. “We’re gonna need to soundproof this room.”

Sparkler continued to stare out the window, looking down at the lake, watching the moon reflected in the water. The effect was hypnotic, soothing, and she didn’t mind that Loch Skimmer and Rising Star were getting started without her. 



 

Lyra watched Barley playing with Harper and took a deep breath. Harper was cooing and happy, and more importantly, she seemed to love the old stallion who was holding her, rocking her, and bouncing her in his embrace. 

“I love me some foals,” Barley groaned, shifting in his chair as he tried to get comfortable. “I dinnae mean to make you upset lass… I got carried away… I’ve been under a lot of strain. Comfort is in short supply when you get to be my age,” he said apologetically. 

“I’m not upset,” Lyra responded. “I was more surprised than anything. I’m very protective of her… I love her so much. I never thought I’d love anything so much. Loving Harper has… it has… it has made me feel more love for Bon Bon, Bucky, and the others.” 

“I know lass, been a rough road for ye,” Barley said, his accent softening as he calmed down and settled into his chair. He settled Harper against the crook of his neck and patted her back with the soft side of his folded fetlock. “Oh to have foals again… these are the only thing that matters in life.” 

“I suppose coming from a group of ponies that had their foals stolen for so long makes them that much more important,” Lyra said as she watched Harper going still and falling quiet. 

The log in the fire popped, sending a stream of embers up the chimney. The ticking of a wind-up clock could be heard in the room. The smell of fire was pleasant and brought a feeling of coziness to the room. The couch Lyra was sitting on looked new but the design appeared to be over a hundred years out of date. It had clawed wooden feet that curled around wooden knobs and the legs of the couch looked like griffon legs, and the wood was a dark mahogany. 

“I ain’t e’er leaving home again,” Barley said in a soft voice. “No more traveling. I’ve secured a place for those I love to be happy, safe, and comfortable. I’ve got my bed picked out that I plan to die in. I was so worried about all of ye.” 

“How much do you know about what has happened?” Lyra asked. 

“Luna showed me some of it. I saw it in dreams. I know what took place. She dinnae wanna show me but I demanded to know,” Barley replied. He smiled briefly as Harper burped, ceased patting her back, closed his eyes, and allowed his head to fall back into the chair’s cushion.

Lyra listened to the crackle of the fire and said nothing else, allowing silence to overtake the room. She felt as though she had come home. She heard soft voices in the kitchen, happy voices, and then she heard laughter. 

Summoning her lyre, Lyra began to play a little tune. It started off sad, but slowly became happy, and it filled the room with soothing sound. In no time at all, she heard a snore coming from Barley’s chair and she could hear the soft sound of Harper breathing. She lifted a blanket that was folded over back of one of the couches, spread it out, and laid it over Barley. He snorted once, and then settled back into his slumber, Harper sound asleep on his shoulder. 

Lyra found that she had room in her heart for one more stallion. 
	
	
> Chapter 227
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dawn was grey and the sounds of birdsong could be heard all over. Loch Skimmer was the only pony up for the dawn, the entire house was still sound asleep. She wandered around outside, exploring her new home, and she waved cheerfully at the guard pegasi who were posted around the farmhouse. 

There was a raspberry thicket, a vineyard, an enormous garden full of vegetables as well as melons, and there were songbirds everywhere. Loch Skimmer began to whistle with them, joining them with her song. 

She stopped when she heard wings, big wings, and the sounds of hooves in the distance, not too far away. She turned around, expecting guards, wondering if they had come over to listen to hear singing. 

Instead, she saw Princess Twilight Sparkle and another pegasus, a soft yellow pegasus with a pastel pink mane. The yellow pegasus was hiding behind Twilight Sparkle. Loch Skimmer, always a friendly one, smiled and waved at the pair. 

“Celestia was right about you,” Twilight stated. “This is my very best friend Fluttershy. You and Fluttershy share something in common.” 

“We do?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

Nodding, Twilight gave Fluttershy a gentle nudge and pushed her forward. After taking several minutes to gather her courage, Fluttershy spread her wings, raised her head, and in a soft voice, she began to sing. Immediately, all of the birds around her flocked close, and they joined her in her song. Some perched upon her spread wings, others on her back, and one perched upon her head. 

“I can make the birds sing,” Loch Skimmer said, beaming as she realised she wasn’t alone and wasn’t a freak. 

“Celestia thought so. She told me to head over here and come looking for you during the dawn. We have a job offer for you. Fluttershy heads the Dawn Brigade. Every morning the dawn is orchestrated. A song is chosen to help shape the mood of the day. Some days, it is hope. Other days, it is courage. Songs of peace and unity have been common themes lately because of the refugees. How would you like to work for the Dawn Brigade and make the lives of thousands of ponies better?” Twilight said, now smiling herself due to Loch Skimmer’s infectious grin. 

“You’ll be paid a fair wage,” Fluttershy said in a small voice. “Our gift is rare. There are only a few like us in Ponyville. I need the help. If you don’t mind. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble that is. Ooh… have I been too forward again? Darn Iron Will… I still get so pushy,” she squeaked. 

Loch Skimmer darted forward, causing all of the birds to fly away, and she hugged the squeaking pegasus, making Fluttershy squeak even more. With each squeak, the vicious cycle grew worse and worse as Loch Skimmer felt the need to make the squeaking pegasus feel better, and she was completely unaware that she was the cause of the squeaks. 

Few ponies were so cheerfully oblivious as Loch Skimmer. 

“I’m so glad to see you two getting along!” Twilight Sparkle gushed. 

“I have a special song that I can sing…” Loch Skimmer boasted good naturedly. 

“Oh? You do? Is it inspirational?” Twilight Sparkle responded in a curious tone. 

“It makes ponies horny as all get out and want to make foals,” Loch Skimmer replied excitedly. She felt the pony she had her foreleg around go limp and she caught Fluttershy before she hit the ground. She gently lowered the fainted pegasus down to the soft grass. 

“Oh my… poor Fluttershy. She’s fainted. Um, well… okay then. Celestia didn’t mention anything about this. But uh, well, hoo… there are probably times when we will need your special song like when Celestia triggers heat cycles. Every pony has a special purpose and every special purpose is special and necessary,” Twilight stammered. 

“Wanna hear it?” Loch offered. 

“No!” Twilight said, now completely off guard. She lifted Fluttershy in her magic and eyed the farmhouse. “Let’s get her inside, shall we?” 



 

Loch Skimmer watched as Twilight Sparkle prepared tea. She sort of liked tea, provided there was a lot of sugar in it and maybe a bit of milk. Fluttershy was laid out on the couch in the living room, still completely unresponsive. 

There were sounds in the house now as a few ponies began to awaken. 

“Is she going to be okay?” Loch Skimmer asked in a worried voice. 

“She’ll be okay in a while. She has very delicate sensibilities,” Twilight said sheepishly. 

“Do I still have a job?” Loch Skimmer questioned. 

“Of course,” Twilight said as she began to steep the tea. 

“I don’t know anything about bits or money,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Time to learn,” Twilight said cheerfully. 

“I can read and write,” Loch Skimmer announced. 

“And that is why I know Buckminster is a good pony. His insistence upon education. Your whole herd seems geared toward self improvement and education. The focus upon knowledge and its importance seems to have become a central tenet of your herd’s ideology,” Twilight responded. “It is good that Buckminster has things he believes in."

Loch Skimmer nodded, now feeling a little lost. Some ponies were entirely too wordy. “Yeah. Bucky is a firm believer in getting drunk and scre-er, uh, gently making more little ponies,” she said in reply. She remembered Berry’s warning about being so blunt and she realised that “screw” might be a dirty word if she used it here. 

Twilight froze for a moment and felt her eye twitch. Firm. It had to be an accidental choice of words. She took a deep breath. “Yes, well, fatherhood is a noble goal,” Twilight said as she thought about her own father’s raised eyebrow. She shivered. “Making little ponies is very important and so is the relaxed casual environment to make them. Alcohol might help as a social lubricant to assist in relieving anxiety. But being a good responsible parent means educating them, which your father seems very keen upon.” 

“Berry is a berry good educator,” Loch Skimmer said with a broad toothy smile. 

“Is she?” Twilight asked as she convulsed slightly from the pun. 

“She taught me all about shagging and how to have explosive orgasms!” Loch Skimmer gleefully replied. 

There was a thump as Twilight Sparkle hit the floor. 

Looking on with some concern, Loch Skimmer wondered what was up with the ponies of the mainland. Perhaps there was some kind of disease or condition. She slipped from the chair, walked over, and prodded the passed out prone purple princess pony. 



 

I don’t know what happened,” Twilight Sparkle said. She sat up slowly and got to her hooves. She shook herself. “We were talking about something…” 

Nodding, Lyra finished the tea. It was strong from steeping too long, but it was salvageable. She shot Loch Skimmer a glance and the pegasus filly fell silent just as she was about to say something. Loch Skimmer had briefly explained what had happened and Lyra was having trouble keeping a straight face. With fine telekinetic control, Lyra set the tea out upon the table and then wandered off to the fridge to begin thinking about breakfast. Lyra came to the conclusion that they were going to need a much larger refrigerator. This one would be emptied within a day. 

“Ooh,” Fluttershy moaned, her voice creeping into the kitchen from the living room. 

Pouring tea as she sat down, Twilight made herself at home as she had already done so many times before in this house. She knew this house from the many hours spent with here with Luna and Barley. It was one of her favourite places, a quiet place of peaceful reflection. She doubted it would be a quiet place any longer. Even Celestia and Cadance had stayed here. Barley had always been a gracious host. 

Fluttershy peeped around the doorway and then slowly entered the kitchen to join Twilight at the small kitchen table. She approached the table slowly and cautiously, as if she wasn’t sure if she was invited, and then after Twilight made a gesture, Fluttershy sat down. 

Fluttershy meeped with surprise when Loch Skimmer hugged her to make her feel better. 

“I’m sorry… I wasn’t always like this. Berry Punch made me better. I used to be a very broken pegasus. A lot of bad things were done to me. I’ve healed and learned to love. I love Rising, I love Sparkler, I love my sister more than ever now that my heart has been opened, I love Bucky, I love everypony in my family. And I tend to come on a little a stro-oooOOOOooOOF!” 

Loch Skimmer never got to finish when Fluttershy suddenly ferociously hugged her back. 

“Oh you poor dear… it must have been so awful for you!” Fluttershy cried as she began to squeeze the stuffing out of Loch Skimmer. The filly squirmed as the yellow mare applied a crushing amount of pegasus affection in her embrace. “I’ve heard stories… they made me sick. I had nightmares!” 

Twilight watched all of this with a raised eyebrow. She’d seen this before. All it took was one little thing to trigger Fluttershy’s need to nurture and protect and suddenly Fluttershy was a pegasus again. Twilight found that she much prefered the company of pegasi. She thought of one pegasus in particular that she’d like to spend a little time with and she felt her cheeks grow warm. 

“Oh you poor, poor dear… I’m so sorry that something hurt you… let me make it better!” 

Twilight looked at Lyra. “Pegasi. What can you do?”

“Not much you can do,” Lyra replied, yawning after she did so. She crossed the kitchen and looked into the pantry. The pantry was huge. It was an entire room unto itself. It was filled with hundreds of jars of preserved fruits and vegetables. Lyra saw a jar of stewed apples and cinnamon. She snatched it in her magic and levitated it over to the table. She fetched a bowl and a spoon. She unscrewed the jar and poured some apples from the jar into the bowl. She then sat down and began to eat. 

Lyra’s ears perked and she cocked her head. “Three legged sound pattern. That’d be our patriarch,” she said as she looked up into the doorway, chewing as she did so. She saw Bucky come stumbling through a moment later and poured him some tea. 

Bucky sat down at the table and peered around, unaware of the effect he had upon Fluttershy, who was sitting in his blind spot. She had let go of Loch Skimmer and was now staring at Bucky, her mouth gaping with horror. He was completely unaware until he heard her begin to cry. He turned his head to look at her, and then reached out to try and comfort her. 

“I don’t think we’ve met,” Bucky said to Fluttershy. 

“You… your body… all of you…” Fluttershy whined. 

“Fluttershy, are you going to be okay?” Twilight inquired. 

“I think I need some hot tea,” Fluttershy sniffled. She wiped her eyes and demurely picked up her teacup between her front hooves, her eyes never leaving Bucky. “How is Berry Punch? She is a dear friend. We knit together,” she said, trying to make herself feel better with small talk. 

“She’s going to have twins,” Bucky grumbled, not fully awake. 

The words had a profound effect upon Fluttershy. “Oh that is very good. Twins are always a nice surprise.” 

“Derpy is having twins too,” Lyra said. 

“YON SCARY WEE BEASTIE! LEMME SEE YER WAR FACE!” 

“Was that Barley?” Lyra asked. 

“Yeah, who else would talk like that?” Twilight answered. 

“What is going on?” Lyra inquired. 

“I have no idea,” Twilight said with a shrug. 

“I like Barley,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“Everypony likes Barley. Even if they don’t want to like him to begin with,” Twilight said as she craned her head and tried to peer through the doorway. 

“I BET YE DO YER FATHER PROOD!” 

“All that yelling is very inconsiderate… ponies might be trying to sleep,” Fluttershy whispered after taking a sip of her tea. She continued to look at Bucky, her eyes glassy with tears, her expression broken hearted. 

“Barley is getting acquainted with Sentinel,” Bucky mumbled. Using telekinesis, he stole a stewed apple out of Lyra’s bowl and gobbled it down. 

“Hey! Get your own!” Lyra protested with her mouth full. 

“SHARP TOOTHED TERROR OF YONDER NORTHERN EXPANSES!” 

“Barley gets a bit worked up sometimes,” Twilight stated. “He and Luna occasionally go on a spree.” 

“Ooh, yer a squire eh?” 

The voice was still loud but was no longer shouting. Fluttershy drank more tea and continued to look at Bucky. Lyra was now guarding her bowl under a field of glowing golden magic. Twilight poured a second cup of tea. There was a loud thump upstairs followed by giggling. There was the sound of a toilet flushing. The house was slowly filling with the sounds of life. 

Unable to poach Lyra’s food, Bucky began eating stewed apples out of the jar. He gobbled them down, eating wolfishly, not behaving at all like a proper unicorn. He was completely oblivious to how Twilight was watching him. In no time at all, he had finished the jar. He belched loudly, a thunderous belly busting gurgle, and Fluttershy cringed in her seat. 

“I wonder if Thistle has caught any fish,” Bucky said. He slipped away from the table, leaving behind an empty jar. He hobbled out the room and down the hall to the back door. 

“I noticed the fangs,” Fluttershy whispered after Bucky was gone. 

“You know,” Lyra said to her companions at the table. “I think everything is going to be okay now. I finally feel like I am home, even though this isn’t Bon Bon’s place. We need to go there and see how the shop is, but I don’t feel like being mobbed.” 

“I love this place,” Loch Skimmer said. “And now I have a job so I can help support my family. Life is unbelievably good.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 228
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch sat at the table and quietly drank her coffee, not at all concerned that there was a princess at her breakfast table. There had been a prince with morning wood in her bed earlier, so she wasn’t overly concerned about these sorts of things. She was happy to see Fluttershy again and hoped they could start knitting together soon. Berry needed to do something physical to really get her mind going, and knitting was a good way to engage her body so her mind could function. She needed to sort out everything that had taken place. She looked over at Derpy who was eating sauerkraut  and drinking black coffee for breakfast. 

Pregnant mares had a right to eat whatever it was they wanted. Even if it did cause explosive flatulence later on, the sorts of farts that might wreck a less faithful and devoted marriage. Thankfully, Derpy had nothing to worry about. Bucky loved her and the proof was on his backside. 

Reaching down and stroking her own belly, Berry was thankful to be home and that she and her foals were healthy. She took the hoof she was rubbing her belly with, reached out, grabbed her coffee, and took a gulp. She looked over at Bon Bon, who was just starting to fry some eggs and tomatoes in a skillet. 

The stove was a problem. The four burners would never be enough to cook all the food needed to feed a group of ponies this size. There was one oven. Berry quietly reflected upon all of this and wondered what to do about it. She didn’t know if she had a bank account left after the economic collapse. She took another drink of coffee and peered around the kitchen.

The sounds of foals running around crazily made the house feel like home for Berry. Dinky and Piña both had mouthfulls of water and were running all over the house squirting one another. Berry sighed, feeling happy. She heard Barley talking quietly to Sentinel in the living room. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but it warmed to heart to know that the two of them were getting along. 

“Newspaper takes a while to get delivered this far out. And we get six of them!” Sparkler announced as she waltzed through the kitchen. She pranced around the table dropping off the different newspapers and then took off out the door and down the back hall towards the back of the house. 

“She’s always in a better mood after a proper shag,” Loch Skimmer observed. 

Twilight Sparkle turned a darker shade of purple and Fluttershy allowed her mane to fall down and cover her face. The sounds of Fluttershy’s panicked wheezes filled the kitchen, which made Bon Bon step away from the stove to stroke her and make the panicked pegasus calm down. 

From the living room, there was a loud cry as Harper began to squall. Lyra, hearing Harper cry and realising that Berry hadn’t eaten yet, excused herself from the table to go feed Harper, who was probably hungry. 

Rising Star stumbled into the kitchen a few moments later and sat down where Lyra had been sitting. He blinked a few times, yawned, and then looked around. 

“This is Fluttershy. Fluttershy, this is Rising Star. I nominated him for the Stable of Representatives,” Twilight said, introducing the pair and giving Rising Star a wink. 

“You did that?” Rising Star mumbled. 

“I sure did. Well, I am one of many… I’ve been very impressed with you Rising Star,” Twilight replied. 

“Thanks,” Rising Star grumbled. 

“Rising Star… you should have showered… you stink like mare musk,” Loch Skimmer announced after sipping her tea. She failed to notice the horrified expressions of Twilight and Fluttershy, or the wide grin on Berry Punch’s face. She was completely oblivious to the clatter of the spatula in the cast iron pan after Bon Bon dropped it. 

“Loch Skimmer… how are you even awake and so chipper… I mean… it was about three in the bloody morning when you finally let Sparky and I go to sleep,” Rising Star said with a bleary expression upon his face. 

“The dawn is too pretty to miss. I’ll nap later,” Loch replied. “Oh! Food!” 

Bon Bon kissed Loch Skimmer on the ear as she set down a plate of fried eggs and tomatoes and then moved back to the stove. She patted Rising Star as she moved past. “Want something?” 

Rising Star nodded but said nothing. 

“Playing Twister last night sure was fun,” Loch Skimmer said. “I love learning new games!”

“Nothing like a one in the morning game of Twister,” Rising Star mumbled. 

“I’ve learned to never try to play Twister with pegasi,” Twilight said with a soft smile. “They’re too flexible and the close physical contact isn’t at all embarrassing for them.” 

Nodding, Rising Star silently agreed and then he looked at Loch Skimmer. 

“Oh I don’t like twister,” Fluttershy murmured. “It is um… I just don’t like it. All the touching.” 

“BARLEY!” 

“PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!” 

“Oh no… Pinkie showed up and got past the guards…” Twilight said as she slapped herself in the face with her hoof and grunted. “Pinkie and Barley…” 

“Oh… my…” Fluttershy said in a panicked voice. “I should be going!” 



 

Sentinel felt dizzy as the room whirled around him. He was being held in the forelegs of one Pinkamena Diane Pie as she danced around on her hind legs and spun him around the living room, prancing and leaping about on two legs with as much balance as Ripple had. 

This was undignified. 

“OHMYGOSHYOU’RETHEMOSTADORABLEFOALEVER!” Pinkie shouted. 

Feeling kind of nauseous, Sentinel hoped that Pinkie would stop spinning around soon. Round and round she spun, lifting up up and swinging him up and down. And then, as suddenly as it started, it was over and Sentinel found himself on the sofa. 

“My Pinkie sense tells me a foal is going to be sick… I wonder where the sick foal is?” Pinkie muttered as she took off through the house to go looking. “There is going to be a sick foal!” she cried out in warning. 

Heaving, Sentinel tried to make the room stop spinning. He closed his eyes and covered his mouth with his front hooves. He was suddenly in no mood for breakfast. He felt his gorge rising. He wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to try and fly again. Living with his hooves on the ground seemed like a brilliant idea. 

Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to give a lunar pegasus, who by their very biological design, were physically adapted and evolved for erratic flight patterns that were impossible for feather winged pegasi, a severe case of motion sickness. By all known scientific and medical accounts, lunar pegasi were immune to dizziness and vertigo due to their unusual physiology. 



 

Twilight Sparkle covered her eyes with her fetlocks and sighed. Now, there was two of them. Loch Skimmer and Pinkie Pie were nattering on with one another and acting if they had known each other their whole lives. They giggle-snorted together and filled the kitchen with laughter. Fluttershy had fled the kitchen and Twilight considered the option to escape as well. 

It was too early in the morning for Pinkie Pie. 

Barley was quietly drinking coffee and eating a breakfast of fried eggs and tomatoes while reading the newspaper. He didn’t know that eating his breakfast and reading the newspaper caused all manner of internal strife for Twilight Sparkle, who had nightmares about Barley’s big bushy eyebrows being raised in a menacing fashion. 

Barley had the enviable ability to completely tune out Pinkie Pie. 

Dinky and Piña were eating granola and milk, chewing down big mouthfuls so they could run off and play once they were finished. They said very little as they shoveled down their food. 

Ripple was drinking coffee, much to Bon Bon’s vexation. The timer had been set and soon the Ripple-bomb would go off. Thankfully, there was a wide expanse of countryside all around the house for her to gallop off her excess energy before it turned into coffee fueled mayhem. 

“There’s gonna be a mob o’ earth ponies showing up here later. They’ll stay away from the house to give ye privacy, but they agreed to work the garden in exchange for some of the produce. They’re refugees and they’ve had a rough go. Be kind to them and don’t run them off,” Barley announced. 

“Speaking of earth ponies, I want to see Diamond Tiara,” Dinky said with her mouth full. 

“Maybe later today,” Berry said. 



 

“Well?” Bucky asked, looking at Sparkler with a raised eyebrow. 

“There is a massive lump of black basalt under the field here. Down a ways. I can feel it. It sings to me,” Sparkler replied. 

“Can you shape it?” Bucky inquired. 

“Not by myself. I would need your help I think. Tap into a ley line and supercharge me. I can shape little rocks and even a medium sized rock, but I don’t have the energy for something this big,” Sparkler answered. 

“And you can shape rocks without any heat? I mean, we had to melt rock the last time we made a tower,” Bucky said to his daughter in a low voice as they stood in the field some distance from the house .

“No heat. The rock will just move like clay for me,” Sparkler said. 

“I need to construct a vault. And as an archmage, I deserve a proper tower. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but a tall black tower appeals to me,” Bucky stated. 

“I think I could leave behind a shell of black basalt and when I hollow out the space below ground, everything that made up the solid mass can be lifted above ground to make a tower. You’d have a massive space under the tower that you could turn into a vault. You’d have your tower. You should keep your office as Headmaster in the top of the tower,” Sparkler said. 

“Hmm, good idea,” Bucky muttered. 

Sparkler sat down. She only had a couple of minor tremors and her condition wasn’t bothering her as bad as it had been. She was able to smile without her face jerking and twitching. 

“When we shape it Sparky, I want little nooks along the outside walls. Little comfortable places for pegasi to roost so they can nap in the sun. Or out of the sun depending on which side of the tower they roost on,” Bucky suggested. 

“I will do as you ask… but it will cost you,” Sparkler said as she looked at Bucky. 

“Name your price,” Bucky sighed. “Can’t do something for somepony just because they’re family, right?” 

Sparkler giggled for a bit and then got herself together. “I want a room in this tower. For my own studies. I’ll share it with Rising Star. But I want us to work together on projects. A family of unicorns all working together.” 

“Fine, but you have to make a private room for Lyra,” Bucky said. 



 

Entering the back door of the house, Bucky suddenly found himself snoot to snoot with a pink pony that he somehow knew without actually having been introduced to directly. She pressed her snoot into his and stared at him eye to eye. 

“You look a little bit like Sombra,” Pinkie Pie announced. 

“Maybe just a little,” Bucky said, finding it impossible to back away for some reason. 

“The eye thing is really creepy,” Pinkie stated. 

Starting to feel sweaty, nervousness took over Bucky. He liked earth ponies a great deal. And Pinkie Pie was rather attractive as far as earth ponies went. She was pudgy in all of the right places and jiggled enticingly when she moved. 

“Your horn is really long. Are you trying to compensate for something?” Pinkie asked. 

A sharp intake of breath was all Bucky could manage. He was sensitive about how short a certain part of him was… but he wasn’t trying to compensate with his horn… was he? 

“I bet it is because you are really short and stubby!” Pinkie Pie chirped. “You’re the same size as me and I am kinda short!” 

Exhaling suddenly with relief, Bucky wished that he could somehow pull his snoot away from Pinkie Pie, but an invisible force held him in place. 

“Sombra was really big and tall. And kinda handsome in a spooky way. I bet the ghosties giggle when they see you… you’re scary!” Pinkie said and then went pronking off, leaving Bucky alone.

Bucky stood there, pondering what Pinkie Pie meant when she said that the ghosties giggled when they saw him. It was probably random Pinkie Pie nonsense and he dismissed it as he continued down the hall towards the kitchen. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 229
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in the grass near the garden, Bucky watched the earth ponies who had come to work the garden. There were two adults, a filly in her teenage years, two colts, also teenagers, and a foal that followed them all around trying to be helpful. They were moving through the rows slowly harvesting onions, tomatoes, and eggplants. 

He envied them their gift, their connection to the earth. 

It was all they had to fall back on. The only useful skill they had left it seemed. The ability to work the land. As refugees, Bucky supposed they could have been almost anything in their old lives, but now, they were farmers. It didn’t seem fair. 

Having been distracted by watching the earth ponies work, Bucky didn’t notice that the foal had slipped off until it was too late, and discovered much to his surprise that she was sitting before him, looking up at him curiously. 

“Hi little one,” Bucky said in a soft voice, the same sort of voice he used when Harper and Peekaboo were frightened and were in need of comforting. He cocked his head slowly to focus his remaining eye upon the foal.

“Citrus Summer… get back here… you’ll make us lose our jobs!” a mare shouted. 

“Citrus Summer is it?” Bucky asked. 

The foal nodded. She moved a little closer and tried to wipe dirt from her face with her dust covered foreleg. All this did was leave her dirtier. She froze up completely when Bucky slowly reached down and lifted her mane out of her eyes with his stump. She peered up at the unicorn and blinked a few times. 

“Citrus! Get over here! We need this job!” 

“Where are you from little one?” Bucky inquired. The little foal was orange, exceedingly orange, and Bucky found that he liked her eye searing colour a great deal. She was living sunshine and it was impossible not to feel cheered up by being around her. 

“My family and I are from Dodge City,” Citrus Summer cautiously replied. 

“How is life being a farmer?” Bucky asked. 

“Easy!” Citrus Summer answered. 

“Easy? This looks like hard work… and you seem to be working the hardest out of all of these ponies,” Bucky said to the foal, who began blushing and making a painfully adorable face. 

“This is like a dream for us. Before, my mama, my daddy, and my oldest brother worked in a copper mine… my very oldest brother died there because it wasn’t safe,” Citrus Summer explained. 

“I am very sorry to hear that,” Bucky said, lowering his head and drawing nearer to the foal. She was smiling now, and didn’t seem afraid, but one mare, presumably her mother, was rapidly approaching panic. 

“The mine was really hot. Dodge City was really hot. My parents worked all night when it was cooler, pulling carts in and out of the mine. Mama said the carts left my daddy swaybacked,” Citrus said, now chatty in a way that only foals who just met somepony can be chatty. 

“So you like farming work?” Bucky asked. 

“It isn’t hard work like pulling a mine cart… mama sings while she is working and she smiles a lot, and she and daddy get to stand together, and I get to be with them,” Citrus replied. 

The mare crept forward just a little bit more and then stopped, looking sick with worry. “Please… she’s so curious. Don’t be upset. She knows she isn’t supposed to go off and bother the ponies we work for. We’ve already lost a few jobs because of her-” 

“Hush,” Bucky commanded, interrupting the pleading mare. 

She fell silent and began to look very afraid. Chewing on her lip, her eyes darted out to the other earth ponies in the field, all of whom had stopped working and were watching the unfolding situation intently. 

“Your mother has a green bean cutie mark. I am assuming that is your mother,” Bucky said to Citrus in a soft voice. 

“Yep, that’s my mama. She has a bean cutie mark and her name is Dandelion,” Citrus announced. The foal beamed up at Bucky, the smile of foals and extraverts everywhere. “My father has a wagon wheel cutie mark and his name is Pinto.” 

“Very interesting,” Bucky said with a wry smile. 

“We live in a tent,” Citrus Summer said. “We’ve been camping for a long time now.” 

“My name is actually Dandelion Fluff… I’m very sorry she bothered you…” the mare said in apologetic tones. 

“She isn’t bothering me,” Bucky responded. “I like foals. I like foals a lot.” 

“You are a very patient stallion,” Dandelion said, dropping her gaze into the dirt submissively when she saw Bucky was looking at her. 

“I try to be. Tell me, do you enjoy farming?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes sir, very much so sir,” Dandelion replied. 

“I am going to ask this again. This time, I want an honest answer not brought about by fear. Do not attempt to supplicate me,” Bucky said to the mare. “Do you enjoy farming?” 

“Yes… we do. It is much easier on my husband. He has a bad back. We like working together as a family and while it is hard work, it isn’t working in a dangerous smelly mine full of poison gas. It is very peaceful here and Barley has been very kind to us,” Dandelion answered. 

Pressing his lips together into a straight line, Bucky nodded a little bit and then began to look at the others. “The filly and the colts are yours I take it?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes sir… they are sir. They’re good foals. Quiet. My oldest filly is smart… I don’t want her being a farmer… Her name is Honeysuckle and the two colts are Butter Bean and Lima Bean,” Dandelion said. 

“I like your foal,” Bucky announced. “She’s brave. Let’s be honest, I look awful. And she came up to me anyway,” he announced as he gently nudged Citrus softly. “How would you like jobs? Let me put this another way… how would you like to live here and look after these fields and the grounds around the school?” 

Dandelion shot a nervous glance at her husband and her older foals. She then looked at Bucky. “Live here?” she asked. “I suppose we could move the tent here,” she murmured to herself. 

“Well, the tent would be temporary. I’d have a house built,” Bucky said .

Dandelion looked at Bucky shrewdly. “And we spend the rest of our lives working to pay off the house so we could live in it?” she asked. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “I build you a house because I am generous to my servants and wish to inspire their loyalty. The house is given to you and a good working wage is offered to you as well. I do have a condition though.” 

“And that is?” Dandelion questioned. 

“All of your foals are to be educated. This means reading and writing. Especially Citrus Summer. She seems bright,” Bucky replied. He blinked in the bright sunlight and wondered where his goggles might be. He was going to have to try and conjure them later. 

“So we work on your land and you give us a house?” Dandelion asked in disbelief. 

“Seems very simple,” Bucky stated. “And I will pay you. Might need some time to establish my finances.” 

“And we just have to do common farmer stuff… work the fields, maybe pull wagons, keep the grounds looking neat and orderly, stuff like that?” Dandelion inquired. 

“Mama, you're making this complicated,” Citrus said as she rolled her eyes. 

“No more wagon pulling for your husband. At least not until I can pay for a doctor to get his back examined and maybe fixed,” Bucky said. 

Her eyes narrowing, Dandelion peered at Bucky. “And what about when my husband and I get too old to work? What then?” 

“You retire and continue to live out your days here as management, telling the new generation of servants what to do, how to do it, and how I like things done,” Bucky said with a soft chuckle. 

Dandelion looked at her husband, whose head was bobbing up and down enthusiastically. She turned her head back towards Bucky. “We accept. After we finish today, we will go and pack up our tent. Just let us know where to settle in.” 

“Oh, and one more thing. Do not disturb the lake,” Bucky said in a serious voice. 

“Understood,” Dandelion said as she shot a glance around to her foals. 

“I am glad we could work out something,” Bucky said. 



 

“Peekaboo! I see you! I see you!” 

Twilight Sparkle wondered how this would end. Pinkie Pie had discovered Peekaboo, the same Pinkie Pie that had once checked her mailbox every few moments for six hours straight without tiring. She watched Pinkie, who was sitting on the floor with the foal, and Pinkie seemed entirely too willing to keep playing the game until one of them lapsed into a coma. And it would probably be Peekaboo. 

“Where did Peekaboo go? I’ve lost a foal! Oh woe is me… oh there she is! I see you!” 

Berry Punch watched the pair with a big smile upon her face and Barley, who was sitting beside her in his chair, was cuddling a very sleepy Harper who needed her mid-morning nap. It felt good to be near Barley again. The family felt complete. Fluttershy, sitting beside her on the sofa was humming to herself as she watched Pinkie playing with Peekaboo. 

There was a knock upon the door and it was Lyra who answered. A guard announced that there was a visitor for Twilight Sparkle. 

“Oh that’d be Rainbow Dash with the daily report,” Twilight said. “I should go talk with her.”

“Send her in,” Berry announced. “No need to leave.” 

The guard nodded and stepped away from the door. 

A moment later, Rainbow bounded into the living room with her usual swagger. She flicked her tail around and immediately went for the sofa where Twilight was sitting. She lept up, settled in, and hugged Twilight, making happy little grunts as she did so. 

“Aye… Rainbow Dash… when are ye gonna let me plunder the pot of gold in the south end of yer rainbow?” Barley asked. 

Everything fell silent for a whole minute as Barley’s words lingered in the room. Fluttershy squirmed uncomfortably. Twilight’s cheeks looked like two tomatoes. Berry’s mouth hung open in shock. Lyra darted off down the hall, fleeing the living room. Pinkie Pie was oblivious, still locked into a deathmatch game of peekaboo with Peekaboo. 

Rainbow Dash exploded with laughter and fell over on the sofa clutching her sides. 

Barley grinned and looked over at Berry as he waggled his eyebrows. 

“You two… are horrible,” Twilight muttered. She poked the guffawing pegasus beside her with her hoof. “You shouldn’t laugh at that! It only encourages him… it’s awful what he said.” 

Wiping her eyes, Rainbow Dash sat up and tried to pull herself together. “We’ve got a few situations Twi’,” she reported. 

“Oh?” Twilight inquired in a monosyllabic utterance. 

“The White Tail Woods camp has an outbreak of hoof rot. The living conditions there are deteriorating. We’ve spoken with the camp leader and tried to explain that they need to move the camp and give the land time to heal, but they are scared that they are going to be sent off someplace horrible and everypony refuses to move. They don’t believe us when we tell them we just want to move them over the rise and down into the gorge,” Rainbow Dash explained. 

“Buggery… I was hoping to have a few days with my family. I’ll go talk with them,” Barley groused. He carefully passed Harper to Berry. “Here, look after my little fluffball.” 

“Need a lift?” Rainbow Dash offered. 

“Are ye finally offering me the ride of a lifetime?” Barley asked as he squinted one eye at Rainbow Dash. 

The rainbow maned pegasus giggled like a school filly and then looked guilty when Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat. “I’ll carry ya over,” Rainbow Dash offered. “And I’ll bring ya back too.” 

“Anything else before you go?” Twilight asked. 

“Well, a few things actually. We’re facing a water shortage. We can’t schedule the heavy rain like we used to. The meadows where the rainwater runs off and collects into the local waterways are now filled with camps. If we have a hard rain, the meadows will become mud pits and everything will become a nightmare. We need a big rain Twilight. Applejack says it is affecting the coming apple harvest. Cherry Berry of the Airborne Watch tells me that timberwolves have been coming out of the Everfree along the southern edge of Ponyville and prowling. She has watchers along the outskirts, but it is something to be concerned about. I’ve posted some of our militia out that way, but we are spread thin. Also, poison joke has begun sprouting all over the Sweet Apple Camp along the Everfree border,” Rainbow Dash said, offering a detailed report. 

“Anything else?” Twilight said, raising her eyebrow. 

“Oh, the Rambling Rock Ridge camp are all getting the green apple splatters… they’re all sick Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, now looking very concerned and serious. 

“If we make it rain, it floods the camps. If we don’t make it rain, we face a food shortage… ugh! I don’t know what to do,” Twilight muttered. 

“We better be going,” Barley said, his voice now serious and businesslike. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 230
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rarity moved through the processing camp with recent arrivals from Manehatten. Behind her, her sister and her sister’s friends trotted with her, and Rarity carefully assessed the situation. There were wounded ponies that would need medical treatment, foals that were missing their parents or had no parents and needed to be looked after, and ponies with special needs like the elderly and the infirm. 

Being the fabulous Element of Generousity had its perks. Ponies knew her and her visits to the camps were always well received. It was important that the refugees felt that somepony cared about them. Twilight was very insistent about this issue and Rarity agreed.  

“Oh Sweetie Belle… be a dear and take a message. We have a large group of foals that will need to be sorted out. It is going to take a while… be a good sister and run to Sugarcube Corner. Tell the Cakes that I will require treats. An assortment of cupcakes, cookies, and fresh fruit if there is any to be had shall do nicely. Tell them to place it upon my tab. And Apple Bloom… Scootaloo... could you be so kind to help deliver those treats?” Rarity said to the trio following her. 

“We’d be glad to,” Apple Bloom said. “Alright girls, we have to go do our part. Let’s go!” 

Rarity watched as the trio went running off and sighed. All three of them had become so responsible and grown up over the summer. Sweetie Belle was maturing. Apple Bloom showed so many leadership qualities. And Scootaloo had her delivery service. 

Tossing her head around to whip her mane out of her face, Rarity continued on her rounds. She pranced carefully, moving among the crowd, waving and smiling, making her way to the hastily constructed shed that housed the office for the processing camp. As she moved through the crowd, she saw a familiar face. 

She froze, looking at the soft cream coloured mare with a blue mane that was gingerly slipping free from a wagon hitch harness. The harness had rubbed away her pelt in places, leaving bare exposed skin, some of which was blistered. The mare was dirty, caked with old mud, her hooves were chipped and scuffed, yet somehow she managed to radiate a quiet dignity  despite all of this. 

Rarity felt her heart seize up in her barrel. “Coco Pommel… what has become of you?” 



 

The water looked cool and inviting. The afternoon was warm, entirely too warm, and Bucky realised that the heat was going to be a problem for him from now on. He watched Thistle swimming, surfacing occasionally to wave before disappearing once again beneath the waves. She had been in the lake all night. He had missed her in the bed. 

He watched Ripple, marveling at her physical skill. She was standing on one front hoof, balanced upon the top of a post that held up the rail along the rear porch. She hadn’t moved in quite some time, and had become a Ripple statue. Earlier, she had gone tearing around the fields after drinking her coffee. 

Out of the corner of his surviving eye he saw a streak of grey go galloping down the dock and then go diving into water, cannonballing in and causing an enormous plume of water to rise up. Bucky had practical concerns. Like wet ponies coming into the house and tracking in water. He was going to have to enchant the back door to instantly dry ponies. It was a simple enough enchantment and it was more commonly used to dry off ponies soaked in the rain before they came inside. He made a mental note to apply it on the front door as well. 

Something large flew overhead and Bucky realised that Lugus was heading off towards the Everfree, probably to go hunting. Living on the edge of the Everfree had its perks.

It was almost too peaceful and Bucky had trouble letting his guard down. There was nothing to do, no pressing need, nothing to worry about, Bucky almost felt bored. He knew this blissful state would end soon enough. 

He heard the soft approach of hooves drawing nearer to his chair and then the soft feeling of a foreleg slipping around his neck to pull him in. Without being able to see her, he knew it was Berry. One very smouldering kiss later, Bucky realised that he was in fact, entirely too hot. He rose from his chair, slipped free from Berry, ambled over to the dock, and then fell over the side rather than walk all the way down to the end of it. He sank into the water and was thankful to be home. 





Bon Bon paused and looked at the napping pegasus. Loch Skimmer was sprawled out upon the couch, sound asleep, her wings fluttering at her sides occasionally. Peekaboo was quietly napping on a quilt spread over the living room floor, little Harper right beside her. Pinkie Pie had worn Peekaboo out and then had gone bouncing off saying she had a full afternoon of work. Fluttershy had flown off with Twilight Sparkle. The house was quiet and serene. 

She checked on Lyra in the kitchen, who was busy mincing up onions, garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms. A large pile of eggplants sat upon the table. Bon Bon could only guess what Lyra was fixing, but she assumed it would be baked eggplant with a rich red sauce.

Bon Bon walked through the dining room and pushed open the library door to investigate. Her mouth hung open. This was easily the largest room in the house. There were lots of comfy chairs, tables, a few desks, and the walls where all lined with shelves, most of which were empty. Bon Bon knew they would be full soon enough. There was a door in the back of the library and she moved to check it out, her hooves clattering over the hardwood floors. She noted that there was a big fireplace in the library, it was back to back with the fireplace in the living room. 

Reaching the door, she pushed it open. There was a small room here, more shelves, and a fully stocked bar. It was a small cozy room made for one purpose. Bon Bon liked it immediately. There was a small loveseat, two high backed chairs, and a big pile of cushions in the corner. 

She backed out of  the room, made her way through the library, and went off to explore the rest of the house. There was a smaller bedroom located right next to the master bedroom, a large nursery which would be full soon, several bathrooms as Barley had mentioned, a storage closet, and a nook under the stairs that some foal would probably turn into a hidey hole. 

Correction. A foal had turned it into a hidey hole. She looked down at Sentinel, who was grinning at her sheepishly as she stood there with the access door open. He had brought along a few cushions and was fixing up the place. 

“Hi mother… I’ve found a cave to call my own,” Sentinel announced. 

Bon Bon found herself smiling. “Are you happy here?” 

“Yes, very much so. I like this spot,” Sentinel replied. 

“But you have your own room upstairs,” Bon Bon said. 

“And I like that room… but I feel safe and secure here. I like having a hiding spot,” Sentinel explained as he tucked a book away on a small storage shelf. 

“You’re my little cave dweller,” Bon Bon said as she shut the door. She left, walking down the hall and leaving Sentinel alone. She had long wanted a family, and all things considered, Bon Bon was happy with the family that she had. She appreciated them all the more after everything she had to endure to have them. 



 

Twilight Sparkle landed near the massive brick building that was under construction, came to a running stop, folded her wings, and then became the composed alicorn she was known to be. Ponies waved as she drew near. Refugees were hard at work constructing the new Ponyville Orphanarium. 

The refugees worked willingly. Any refugee who worked on various public works projects was promised citizenship in Twilight’s Kingdom, which was how Ponyville was jokingly referred to these days. Twilight Sparkle took a lot of pride in her sense of civic planning. When she had taken over Ponyville, she had been free to get things done and change things that needed changing. Her sense of civic duty had blossomed. Her trip to Fillydelphia had changed her profoundly and it was part of what made her the leader she was today. 

“Mayor Mare!” Twilight cried, seeing the pony she was looking for. 

“Yes Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Mayor Mare replied. 

“Just call me Twilight, please, I keep telling you this… I need the orphanium report if you please. We look ahead of schedule,” Twilight said to the mare before her. 

“Oh we are… volunteer turnout was at an all time high for the past few days. I’ve spoken with Silver Shill, the head of the Farmer’s Union… he’s pledged support with food when we start housing foals. There is going to be a food shortage though. We are overpopulated. We need water somehow,” Mayor Mare reported. 

“And what of the caretakers?” Twilight asked. “How are they settling in?” 

“Oh, they’re fine. Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee are tickled pink about their appointment. Celestia’s punishment was surprisingly fair… they were starting to look for a foal to adopt when the collapse happened. Fancy Pants was mortified when he found out where his family fortune came from. It was so nice of them to join your parents right from the start… I’ve had them over for dinner several times. Such a nice couple. Just like your parents,” Mayor Mare said with a broad sunny smile, her eyes merry and bright. 

“Princess Celestia will be pleased to know that the life she sentenced them to is working out for them,” Twilight responded. 

“The water issue is a big problem Twilight. The town reservoir is running low. The river is at critically low levels. We need a big rainstorm or we need to start piping in water from the Everfree aquifer. But it will take time to tap that and lay in pipes. It will take too long,” Mayor Mare said. 

“How dire is the food situation?” Twilight asked. 

“Well, the grocery stores are almost empty. The farmer’s markets are usually emptied before noon. The town’s food reserves that you’ve had put aside are dwindling, running at a deficit. We need a big harvest. If we don’t get some drenching rain, we are not going to get a big harvest. But if we get a prolonged soak, it will flood the camps,” Mayor Mare said in a worried voice. 

Twilight’s eyes opened wide. “I have a solution!” she shouted. Rearing up on her hind legs, she spread her wings, kicked off from the ground, and took off, streaking through the sky. 



 

Bucky watched as Twilight landed, coming to a somewhat clumsy stop and then folding in her wings. She waved at him frantically and Bucky began to swim towards the shore to speak with her. She pranced in place impatiently and Bucky figured it must be important. 

He crawled ashore, waterlogged, and struggling to walk on three legs. His coat was too shaggy and dense now, and held too far too much water. It was difficult to keep his balance. 

“I need your help Buckminster. I need you to make the largest ice cube that Equestria has ever seen!” Twilight exclaimed. 

“What?” Bucky asked. 

“Big ice cube! To solve the water shortage!” Twilight  replied. 

“If I make a giant ice cube, it will pull all the water from everything all around us and leave everything dry. The water has to come from somewhere Twilight,” Bucky answered. 

“Get in the chariot. There is still one parked by the school. We’re going to Winsome Falls!” Twilight said as she snatched up Bucky in her magic and took off running around the house and towards the school. 

Sighing, Bucky summoned his patience. If she wanted ice, the Lord of Winter would give her ice. Bucky had always wondered just how big of an icecube he could make. 

He saw startled guards running towards Twilight as she galloped through the yard and wondered how it must look to them to see the Princess of Friendship running around with the Lord of Winter held in her magic. Upon reaching the chariot, Twilight stuffed him in and then hitched herself into the harness, shooing the guards away and telling them to guard the house. 

And then, Twilight was off and Bucky discovered much to his terror what it was like to break the sound barrier as they went hurtling through the sky in complete silence. 



 

“Just freeze one lake and we’ll haul it back to Ponyville. I’ll hit it with a featherweight spell and tow it back in my magic. We’ll dump it in the reservoir and call it a day,” Twilight explained. 

The plan was brilliant and utterly insane, the sort of plan that only an alicorn and a type four unicorn could create and execute together. It was the sort of plan that had elevated equine-kind to prominence upon this planet. More importantly, Bucky liked the plan. 

“This is going to drain me,” Bucky said. 

“Both of us. I’ll be able to get us home, but we’re going to need a ten thousand calorie meal afterwards,” Twilight announced. “All you need to do is freeze a whole lake solid. I’ll featherweight it, rip it out of the ground, and haul it back to Ponyville.” 

Grinning a maniacal grin, Bucky nodded. “I’m liking this plan.” 

“Well, get to work,” Twilight said impatiently. “We have an obligation to protect our ponies.” 

“Actually Twilight, if I freeze two lakes, we could drop one in the reservoir and drop the second one behind the dam possibly. How low is the water level back there?” Bucky inquired. 

“Good thinking! Two lakes it is!” Twilight shouted. 

Bucky hobbled closer to the lakes and looked around. “These will refill, right?” he asked. 

“Yes,” Twilight replied. 

“Good deal,” Bucky said as his horn flared. 

He summoned forth everything he had, free to finally freeze everything around him. It began to snow in the general area. Frost appeared everywhere. He pointed his horn at one lake and let go, focusing a beam of pure elemental cold into the lake. 

Twilight, a creature aligned with fire, felt the cold and it made her ache. She burst into flames to keep warm, her mane and tail becoming wisps of flame, and her feathered wings became a roaring inferno. She could feel the heat being leached from her, so she cranked up her internal furnace.

Profound changes overtook the pair. Bucky slowly turned to ice, his body turning blue and icicle spikes emerging from his form as ice consumed him. His horn became ice encrusted and grew even longer. His mane and tail were gone, now replaced with cold blue flames that were surprisingly like Freezerburn’s flaming blue feathers that produced no heat. He grew larger, taller, his small fragile body was completely encased in ice. 

Twilight Sparkle burned hotter and brighter as more and more heat was leached from her body. Eventually, her physical form collapsed completely and she became a flame elemental, prancing around on legs made of living fire. After several minutes, she ceased to be a pony at all, becoming a ball of living fire that danced around the sky, bobbing back and forth like a miniature sun, a ball of living searing plasma. 

Bucky turned his horn towards the second lake and went to work, the first lake now frozen. He felt surprisingly strong. The magical drain didn’t feel nearly as bad as he thought it would be. He realised that he had barely even tapped into his cold potential. He could keep going. He could make anything freeze. He could make things still. He could bring calm to the universe around him. He could restore order… 

“BUCKMINSTER! ENOUGH!” 

Bucky snapped to attention from Twilight’s magically amplified voice. He ceased his magic and realised he was completely encased in ice. He didn’t feel cold at all. He felt strong. He still had magic left. He looked up and saw a burning ball of white flame hovering above him. 

The world warmed as his magic retreated. 

Twilight popped back into pony form with a loud thunderclap and then landed beside Bucky. She looked at him and watched the chunks of ice melting and falling away from his body. “I think you lost control for a moment there,” Twilight said. “I’ve never converted into a plasma wisp before. I wonder how hot I was burning? Doesn’t really matter though, the ambient air temperature was still plunging down below zero. Whew, talk about a hot flash… now I feel all sweaty and cold at the same time. I need to eat something.” 

“I feel weird,” Bucky said. He shook the ice from his pelt and large chunks of ice fell away from his body. 

“We got what we came for, let’s go,” Twilight said. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 231
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The citizens of Ponyville saw a strange sight overhead. Princess Twilight Sparkle pulling a chariot with two large frozen chunks of ice following along behind her, surrounded in a magenta glow. A few sighed and went about their business, Ponyville was a strange place after all, a couple stopped to stare, a few took photographs of the event, and one older mare fainted. 

The chunks of ice were massive, larger than the largest buildings in Ponyville. One was dropped off in the lake that had formed behind the hydroelectric dam and the other massive chunk of ice was plunked down in the freshwater reservoir. Once that was done, the chariot went streaking off, and the strange spectacle was over. 

The mare who fainted would never fully recover and would spend the rest of her days fearing the invasion of the giant flying icebergs, always keeping a wary eye upon the sky. 



 

At home once again, Bucky sniffed and smelt something delicious. He paused, sniffing, watching as Twilight Sparkle zoomed off again towards Ponyville. The chariot was parked once again by the school and the guards paced around the perimeter of the property. So far, no massive mob had shown up. 

Something stunk of delicious garlic and onions. Bucky teetered up the steps and made his way indoors, sniffing with every step. As soon as he cleared the door he was nearly bowled over by Loch Skimmer who rushed to greet him and plant kisses all over his face. 

“Dinner will be done soon. Lyra has made an enormous amount of baked eggplant lasagna layered with cheese. Several pans are cooking in the oven right now. There is also going to be garlic bread and a spinach with alfalfa and bean sprout salad,” Bon Bon announced. 

“Some of the foals and a few family members will have to sit at the kitchen table,” Lyra said informatively as she paced by the stove and looked in the oven window. “I hope there is enough. We need a bigger oven.” 

“I knew we’d be a large herd, I dinnae know you’d be founding a tribe,” Barley groused. 

“I keep wondering how I am going to get back and forth to work… I don’t even have my learner’s permit to fly yet,” Loch Skimmer said as she walked Bucky to a chair, nudging him along with her wing. “I don’t even know where to show up for work… nopony told me anything.” 

“Don’t worry about it lass, it’ll all sort out in time ye pretty little cuss,” Barley said as he sat reading the paper. He lowered his paper and looked at Bucky, one eye narrowed. “Somepony went and hired the earth ponies in the garden as groundskeepers.” 

“Is that a problem?” Bucky asked. 

“Nay, I’m prood of ye fer doing it,” Barley replied as he hid his face behind his newspaper. 

“We need to grow bell peppers!” Bon Bon shouted from the kitchen. 

“Celery!” Lyra added. 

Strolling casually into the living room, Derpy took a seat next to Bucky. She leaned on him and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Our son has made himself a hiding place under the stairs. He’s calling it his cave. Once he is done fixing it up, he plans to invite you inside. Seems you had some hiding places in school and Sentinel was quite impressed.” 

Chuckling, Bucky nodded. 

“Dinky and Piña have a new friend they’ve been playing with,” Derpy said. 

“Who?” Bucky asked. 

“A little earth pony foal named Citrus Summer,” Derpy replied. 

“Good. This pleases me. I don’t want the hired help being treated poorly or somehow unequal. I want their foals to get along with our foals,” Bucky said. “I remember how my family treated the help. Makes me feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it.” 

“Calm down,” Derpy whispered soothingly. “I think we’re all better than that.” 

“I want to be better than them,” Bucky groaned in an insecure voice. 

“You are,” Derpy said, smooching him on the cheek. 

“Quit yer bellyaching… ye did good lad. And if anypony treats the help poorly, I’ll be giving them such a tongue lashing,” Barley grumbled from behind his paper. “Besides… I has me a soft spot for the wee orange filly.” 

“You just love foals,” Derpy said to Barley. 

“Aye. I do,” Barley replied. “Eh… they're gonna put all that empty space in Canterlot to good use. Building the Stable House. A place for all of the representatives to gather an vote on the issues at hoof. I like where this is going.” 



 

“Eggplant?” Sentinel asked in a curious voice. 

“It’s delicious,” Piña said just before jamming a bite into her mouth. 

Looking down at her plate, Ripple struggled to hold a fork with her hoof. She was still getting the hang of things, but she had perfect control over her body. Usually. Controlling her manipulation shoes was another story. 

“I don’t understand silverware,” Yew said, looking down at her utensils. “Looks like you could stab your lip with the fork.” 

“I already have,” Ripple muttered. “During breakfast I stabbed my gums.” 

“This really smells good,” Yew commented. 

“Mmm hmm!” Dinky nodded, her mouth full of lasagna. 

“This might be better with meat in it,” Sentinel quipped.

“Gross! Who would put meat into lasagna?” Piña responded. 

“Maybe little slivers of deer,” Sentinel mused. 

Piña puffed out her cheeks and made a gookie face. 

Dinky laughed and Lyra started to laugh as well. Yew giggled around a mouthful of food. 

“Piña… what am I going to do with you?” Lyra asked. 

“Love me,” Piña replied. 

Lyra looked at the foals around the table and was glad to be sitting with them. She watched as Sentinel finally tried a bite of eggplant. She watched him chew slowly, his expression blank. She felt her muscles tense. She waited, hoping that he would like it. 

A moment later Lyra felt as though she had made a major accomplishment when Sentinel dropped his muzzle to his plate and began to noisily savage his food, devouring it in large wolfish bites. It was pretty much the highest form of compliment she could hope for. 

“He was hungry,” Yew commented as she watched the lunar pegasus colt scarf his food. She followed his example and planted her muzzle into her plate and began gobbling. 

“Sentinel has his own little hiding spot,” Piña said between bites. “We want a hiding spot.” 

“Yeah!” Dinky agreed with her mouth full. 

“He needs a place to have a little privacy. That’s important to him,” Ripple said. “He’s in a house full of fillies and mares.” 

Piña chewed her food thoughtfully, looked at Sentinel, and thought about making a comment about him needing a place to hide his boners. She swallowed and then said nothing. She couldn’t say something that mean about her big brother. Then she began to chortle as she realised that he had a place to hide his boners… Moonbow. Someday. For some reason, the thought didn’t seem as icky as it once did. 

“I am an apprentice to an all powerful archmage. I need a proper study,” Dinky said with a few dramatic gestures. “I need a secret location.” 



 

Chewing on his garlic bread, Bucky came to one simple conclusion. He swallowed, smacked his lips, and then looked around the table. “This butter is flavourless.” 

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Derpy said, her ears perking forward. “I miss the butter on the isles.” 

Suddenly feeling many eyes looking at her, Berry Punch looked up from her plate. “What?” she said, her mouth full of salad, a little bit of oil and vinegar dribbling out as she spoke. 

“You are such a gifted pony…” Bucky said as he turned his sole surviving eye upon Berry. 

The earth pony mare begin to giggle as she was eating, dribbling more oil and vinegar as she did so. She wiped her face with her foreleg, stabbed a big slice of eggplant, stuffed it into her mouth, chewed, and then swallowed. 

“So full of milk,” Bucky said as he licked his lips. “And I bet Bonnie would have sweet milk.”

Bon Bon blushed and then began to chortle. 

“Ach, so ye discovered the secret of the wunnerful butter o’ the isles,” Barley said. “I say, ye should run her down and milk her fer being a saucy little tart. Been too long since I’ve had proper butter.” 

“Conversation over food is never boring in this tribe,” Lugus said. He tried a bite of the lasagna and held it in his mouth for a while to get a taste for it. Lugus, being semi-omnivorous, could eat small portions of things not meat and not have too much trouble in his stomach. 

“It’ll be all garlicky now,” Derpy complained. 

“Mmm, garlic butter,” Bucky said as he ate a bite of salad. 

“Rising, honey, are you gonna milk me someday?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

Upon hearing Loch’s words, Rising Star nearly choked and Barley whacked him on the back. Snorting through his nostrils for air while his mouth was still full, Rising Star tried not to laugh. Beside him, Sparkler was about to fall out of her chair and everypony at the table was laughing. 

“Well, dairy should come from trusted family members,” Barley quipped. “Pegasus butter is too thick to spread when its cold. I can remember Berry’s father milking me sister right at the breakfast table so we’d all have fresh milk.” 

“Well, this just got weird,” Sparkler said before jamming a big folded up lasagna noodle into her mouth along with a big runny glob of cheese. 

Recovering from his laughter, Rising Star felt an odd pressure in his horn. His sinuses suddenly felt clogged and his entire head felt stuffy. His ears popped, then popped again, and he felt something pressing on the back of his eyeballs. A puff of fire exploded from his horn and then a scroll landed on the table between his glass and his plate. 

“Ow,” Rising Star said as he rubbed his head with his hoof. He lifted the scroll with his magic, broke the seal, and saw one word. “Testing,” he read aloud. “I don’t think I like this new mail service.” 

He felt the terrible pressure building again in his head and he clenched his eyes shut. “No,” he moaned, not enjoying this sensation at all. A second later, there was another big poof of fire and a second scroll landed on the table. Rising Star groaned wordlessly and had to hold his head up, his eyes still closed. 

Levitating the scroll, Bucky popped it open to see what it had to say. “Instructions for return mail coming soon. Sorry about the headache. You can actually do something that Twilight Sparkle cannot do. Love, your fellow pyromancer, Celestia,” he read. 

“More mail is coming?” Rising Star whined. 

Suddenly, Bucky clutched at his head and everypony at the table watched as tendrils of shadow snaked around his horn. After a few moments, the shadow coalesced into a scroll and landed on the table, being the crescent moon symbol of the Lunar Court. 

“Ugh, haven’t I suffered enough…” Bucky muttered. 



 

Barley sat in a reclining deck chair watching the moon rise up over the trees, his bones aching and tired. It has been a long day. Convincing the camp leader to cooperate had taken some serious cajoling and all of the charisma he could muster. He looked over at Sentinel, who was sitting beside him. 

“Aye, yer a quiet sort,” Barley quipped. 

“I have trouble expressing myself sometimes… I find it is easier to write. I can think about what it is I want to say and carefully put the words together,” Sentinel replied. 

“The trick to talking well is saying what ponies want to hear, while remaining true to yer own self, and saying what ponies need to hear, all at the same time,” Barley confided. 

Staring up at the edge of the moon that was peeking over the trees, Sentinel did not know how to respond. The stars twinkled overhead. There were crickets and frogs. Owls hooted. Whippoorwills cried. The night air was sweet and rich with scents that only Sentinel could smell. 

“Ye had to watch yer father do a right awful thing and endure a terrible trial,” Barley said. He heard a whimper from Sentinel and a pained expression crossed over his own face. “Reading that transcript killed me. I understand that ye were there.” 

“I was,” Sentinel replied. 

“Yer father, and make no mistake nephew, he is yer father in every way that matters, said what some ponies wanted to hear… but even with all the awful things he said, he stayed true to himself and his ideals, and then said what needed to be said. Bucky is a right good lad. He’ll grow old and wise if he lives that long,” Barley explained. 

“I worry about that,” Sentinel confessed. “He runs away from silly things… foolish things. I don’t understand it. He ran away from his own coronation and hid. But he willingly walked into the lair of a crystal lich. He runs at danger, not from danger. My father confuses me.” 

Taking a deep breath, Barley considered Sentinel’s words carefully as he gazed up at the starry sky. The night air was warm and pleasant. Fireflies danced in the grass and over the lake, which was currently kelpie-less. 

“My father is going to get himself killed one day… I don’t think he will suffer from old age,” Sentinel stated in a solemn voice. “I… love… I love him so much.” 

“A stallion could not ask for a finer colt,” Barley muttered and then fell silent to enjoy the sounds of the dark sacred night all around him. He loved the night… and he loved its Mistress. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 232
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting by the fire, but not in Barley’s chair, Bucky made himself comfortable and sighed. He suspected the peace wouldn’t last. His belly was still full from dinner. He was mildly worried that there were no leftovers. Every last bit of lasagna had been eaten. There was a lot of mouths to feed, and some of them were unicorn mouths, which could be bottomless pits. 

Derpy sat beside him, reading something, and he wasn’t sure what it was. Feeling curious, he leaned over and prodded his pegasus mate gently, noticing the softness of her padded sides. It gave him ideas. 

“What are you reading?” Bucky inquired. 

“Flight camp brochures. I found them in a drawer. We have a few pegasi now… and they need to learn how to fly. Properly. From pegasi who are better fliers than I am,” Derpy answered, her voice serious and calm. 

“I suppose you are contemplating sending our foals away to flight camp?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, I thought about it, until I saw this brochure. This is a flight camp that comes to you. I like this one because I don’t want to break apart our family. It is run by a pony named Surprise. She’s a Wonderbolt. She brings military style flight training but with gentle instruction. She focuses on defensive flying and responsibility. I like this brochure a lot,” Derpy replied. 

“We can look into it,” Bucky said. 

Outside in the yard, Bucky heard one of the guards shouting, and then there was more shouting. Wondering what the commotion was, Bucky slipped off the couch and made his way to the front door. The shift had changed a while ago with fresh guards coming in for the evening. 

He made his way outside and saw a chariot along with a wing of lunar pegasi. Peering up, he squinted, and was able to make out two figures in the chariot. He made his way to the steps, hobbled down the steps, and then trotting on three legs, walked out onto the lawn where the guard began to salute him. 

He watched the chariot land and the two figures stepped off. After a moment, he recognised them and began to hurry forward as fast as his three legs would carry him.

“Witching Hour, Tiddlywinks, what brings you here?” Bucky asked as he approached the pair ponies. He felt a little concerned and hoped they were just here for lessons. 

“Princess Luna sent us here,” Witching Hour responded. “We need a place to stay for a while. This is not a secure location, but Princess Luna couldn’t think of a better place to send us and we refused to stay in Canterlot Castle. IT GIVES MY HUSBAND THE WILLIES! Celestia has clairaudience spells all over the castle.” 

“You need a place to stay? What happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Our apartment building exploded. Our apartment specifically. We have several. We never stay in the same apartment two nights in row,” Witching Hour replied. “We checked the door, it showed no signs of tampering. Turned the knob, opened the door, BOOM! Winky’s reflexes saved us both. As soon as he heard the popping crackle sound, he teleported both us to safety in a fraction of a second.” 

Swallowing loudly, Bucky sat down with a thump, his hindquarters hitting the grass. He could see that they were both trembling with fear and their eyes darted around everywhere. 

“PONIES KEEP TRYING TO KILL US!” Witching Hour shouted. She froze for a moment. “Sorry… shouting. Right,” she said, taking a deep breath. 

“Well, I have a few spare rooms… you could pick one. The guards have been staying in the unfinished dormitory towers. You are welcomed to stay with us,” Bucky offered. 

“We keep a highly modified tent in our private fold space. We’ll set up someplace private. We need quiet time. You probably won’t be able to find our tent or even see it. If we need something, we will come to you. We will need something to eat… and we hope you will not be insulted if we thoroughly inspect our food. SO MANY PONIES HAVE TRIED TO POISON US!” Witching Hour said to Bucky. 

Private fold space? 

Bucky thought about what Witching Hour had said. He knew it was possible, but he had not looked into creating one for himself yet. Nothing from Sombra’s memories seemed to surface about the matter, which lead Bucky to the understanding that it had to be a magical development that happened after Sombra’s time. 

The lunar guards were deploying all around the property and Bucky watched them disperse. He heard soft whispering as the guards discussed various duties amongst themselves. 

“Stay here as long as you need. My home is your home, always. Do whatever it is that you need to do to feel safe. Try not to spook my foals. Watch out for Dinky and Piña. They’re overly curious and will probably ask you a million questions. And if anything comes here trying to harm you, you have powerful protectors all around you,” Bucky said to the pair. 

Both Tiddlywinks and Witching Hour nodded gratefully and then began to make their way towards the school. Bucky watched them go and began to feel a sense of worry. Lyra was going to need to cover this place in wards. He turned around headed for the house, and he saw Derpy and Berry Punch on the front porch watching. 

“We heard everything,” Berry said as Bucky approached. 

“That was very nice of you to let them stay,” Derpy said. 

“We came home to a different Equestria,” Berry said in a sad voice. 



 

At the same time, in a different part of town, Coco Pommel was sitting on a soft overstuffed fainting couch, recovering from her ordeal while sipping hot tea. Her hooves were so sore that she could barely even hold the tea cup, and she smelled strongly of medicated liniment that had been liberally applied not long ago. 

“You pulled a wagon full of ponies all the way from Manehatten to Ponyville,” Rarity said in a cultured voice. “That was so kind of you, darling.” 

“I’m an earth pony,” Coco replied in a calm voice. “I was able to find out how strong I was.” 

“You poor dear,” Rarity whined. “How dreadful. Look at you. You are in such a state. It breaks my heart to see you like this.” 

“We were attacked by bandits. They wanted to drive the males away and keep us females,” Coco said, her words causing ripples to form in her teacup as she spoke into it. “A pegasus in our group, the most gentle and kind pegasus you ever did meet, he killed one of them. They all ran away after that.” 

“Ruffians,” Rarity hissed. 

“And then there was a forest fire. It was burning on both sides of us. We were trapped in the middle. We had no choice but to keep going and hope that the flames didn’t burn us,” Coco said, her voice finally losing its calm and wavering slightly. 

Rarity lifted her own teacup and took a sip of the hot tea, a blend she had made herself of peppermint, anise, and chamomile. Her eyes lingered on Coco’s blistered back and the places she had been rubbed raw. It made Rarity ache to see another pony she so loved in such a sorry state. 

“We met a nice dragon. He helped us. He lifted the wagon and carried us over a raging river. The bridge was gone. He stayed with us for several days and gave us a chance to rest. He was very kind. I would have never thought a dragon would be kind. He gave us quite a scare when we first saw him though,” Coco said as she let the steam from her tea soak into her snoot. 

“Not all dragons are bad, dear… some of them are simply delightful. Like my little Spikey Wikey. He is such a nice little gentle-dragon. Twilight Sparkle has raised him so well,” Rarity said. 

“Thank you so much for taking me in,” Coco said graciously. 

“About that. Darling, we need to talk. To be honest, I took you in with an ulteriour motive. I need help. I know you have organisational skills because of your time spent working in the theatre. You know how to work with large groups of ponies and keep everything focused. I need you to help me,” Rarity said bluntly. “Take a few days to settle in and get rested. We’ll talk more later.” 

“I want to help,” Coco said. “I’ll start tomorrow.” 

“Very well. Tomorrow. I am so glad to see you again and know that you are safe!” 



 

Sitting in the library, Sparkler had her nose buried in a book about an officer’s obligations to the public. She reread several words over and over again, trying to fully understand their meaning. Short simple words. 

An officer is to protect civilians from the soldiery. 

The book elaborated that in the event that the guard was deployed as a constabulary force, there was a risk of the guard treating civilians as combatants due to their training, and the entire chapter was about the escalation of conflict and how an officer was to prevent it from happening. Civilians were soft targets, but to the common guard, it was easy to forget that in times of crisis. 

An annoyed feeling crept over Sparkler as all four of her legs began to tremble and then her back muscles began to spasm painfully. She gritted her teeth and kept reading, ignoring her body as it rebelled against her wishes. Very much against her will, she found herself crying out slightly. 

The guard were there to battle enemies of the Crown, and by extension, citizens who engaged the guard might be treated as enemies of the Crown. This left a sour taste in Sparkler’s mouth. The guard were there to protect and serve the Crown. Something was needed to protect and serve the ponies. The common pony was not an enemy of the Crown and didn’t deserve to be treated as such. 

An officer’s duty was to make sure to rein in the guards that became too overzealous in their duty. Sparkler thought about this, turning it over in her mind. The most obvious solution was to not use the guard to pacify the citizenry, but during these troubled times, something was necessary. Sparkler had read plenty of stuff in the newspaper about violence in the camps. Sexual assault. Ponyville had more ponies than ever before and in these trying times, the worst sorts of behaviours came out of panicked ponies who were desperate and scared. 



 

“Going to be Piña’s birthday real soon,” Berry said. 

“I need to go home and get the book I have for Piña in my closet,” Derpy said. “I have a copy of “A Filly’s Guide to Growing Up” sitting on my closet shelf for Piña to have on her birthday.” Derpy scowled. “I guess that place isn’t home anymore.” 

“Change is always a bit rough,” Berry said as she patted Derpy. 

“The summer did kind of go as we planned it. Dinky and Piña both grew up a bit and both know what it means to be young fillies. I just don’t know what went wrong… they learned all of the right stuff through all of the wrong ways I think,” Derpy grumbled. 

“They learned about the important stuff. Love, sex, family values, probably a few lessons they weren’t quite ready for, but they adapted quite well. I think in the long run, this summer will make them better ponies. A little rough around the edges, but our little girls are growing up. They’re becoming just a bit more independent and want to push the limits to see what they can get away with,” Berry said. 

“At least we have Harper and Peekaboo to fawn over,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

“Well, for now. We’re going to be overrun with foals soon,” Berry said with a laugh. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 233
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle slowed down and began her descent, circling overhead and gliding down gently near the farmhouse. The guard saluted her. She was aware that Bucky had visitors, having received a message last night about the situation. She scanned the area, looking around. She saw Loch Skimmer and her sister Ripple. 

Ripple was running around on her front legs and leaping, which confused Twilight greatly. Ponies should run around on four legs. Not two. And certainly not the two front legs. And they shouldn’t be leaping all over the place. 

Seeing Twilight, Loch Skimmer came over to be friendly, tackling Twilight in an extra squeezy pegasus hug. The pair embraced for a moment and then Loch Skimmer let go. 

“So how do I go to work?” Loch asked. 

“Don’t worry about that right now, you have the job. Wait for things to calm down and get settled, and Fluttershy will start coming out here to train you,” Twilight replied. 

“Okay,” Loch said as she pranced around in a circle around Twilight Sparkle. 

“Is Barley up yet?” Twilight inquired. 

“I don’t know,” Loch answered. “I haven’t seen him yet.” 

“Hmm,” Twilight hummed. 

“I know that Sparky wants to talk to you,” Loch announced. “But I don’t know why.” 

Twilight nodded and made her way to the front door. She let herself in and peered around the house. She saw Barley in the kitchen fixing coffee. Twilight made herself at home and immediately began to prepare tea. 

“Morning,” Barley said amicably. 

“Good morning!” Twilight cheerfully replied. 

The two ponies had been at this routine for a long time now, and moved around the kitchen with an easy grace, easily sidestepping one another as they went about their separate tasks. Barley hurriedly stuck his scones in the oven and began to bake them. 

“Twilight?” 

Turning, Twilight saw Sparkler. “Good morning,” Twilight said as she began to set the table and lay out the tea service. 

“I need to talk to you,” Sparkler said. 

“Well, I have time. That is what I am here for. There’s a lot to talk about today,” Twilight responded, smiling as she spoke. 

“The ponies need protection. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I was up for most of the night reading Sentinel’s officer training manuals. The part about an officer’s duty is to protect the citizenry from the guard… it stuck out in my mind. We need a way to keep the peace but not with the guard. I know there are problems here, I’ve seen the paper,” Sparkler said in a hesitant voice. 

“Like a police force?” Twilight said. “Like they had in Manehatten and Baltimare?” 

Suddenly feeling stupid, Sparkler facehoofed. She had been so focused on the problem that she had failed to grasp the obvious. She had read quite a few crime novels as a filly. 

“You okay?” Twilight inquired. 

“Having myself a stupid moment,” Sparkler mumbled. “Yes. A police force. I am sure the militia does a good job, but Ponyville needs a dedicated police force.” 

Pressing her lips into a flat line, Twilight Sparkle stood looking thoughtful for a moment. She made a thoughtful grunt and her wings twitched. “That is actually a really good idea.” 

“I want to help,” Sparkler announced. 

“Oh bother,” Barley said. “The grey mare is gonna be in such a tizzy.” 

“You want to help organise a police force?” Twilight questioned. 

“I am a Buck Sergeant. I have experience with actual command. I’ve had combat experience. I thought about pressing for military service with the guard, but then I realised I have trouble right here at home that needs to be looked after. I can’t save the world, but I can make Ponyville a better place,” Sparkler stated. 

“So what brought this about?” Twilight asked. “I mean, you’ve been thinking about this.” 

“When I read in yesterday’s paper about the guard breaking a stallion’s leg because he stole something,” Sparkler muttered. “Overwhelming use of force to gain submission is the right thing to do in combat but the stallion in question was stealing turnips.” 

“The guard in question is being reprimanded,” Twilight said in a soft voice. 

“That isn’t enough! Who protects the citizens from the guard?” Sparkler retorted. 

“This is a very delicate issue,” Twilight said in a calm voice. 

“Yes it is. I might be young, but I know I have been declared a legal adult with all of the responsibilities and privileges that apply to being an adult. I am willing to help,” Sparkler said. “I’ve given a lot of thought about what to do with my life. Before we left home, I had everything planned out. I was going to go to university. I was going to lead a quiet boring life doing absolutely nothing useful. But then, I went off and I grew up. I saw the world for what it really is. And now I am home and nothing in life makes sense anymore,” Sparkler said, struggling to speak as her face twitched violently. She sat down in a chair as one of her legs began to kick. 

“Are you willing to help me create a police department for Ponyville?” Twilight asked. 

“Yes,” Sparkler said, hiding her face with her hooves. She didn’t want others looking at her during these states. She felt hideous and unattractive. She silently wondered when she should start taking the pills. Her sudden self consciousness set off a whole new round of twitches and spasms. 

“Give me a few days to ask around. I’ll get you some ponies to work with. You will keep your rank of Sergeant when you take command of the constabulary. I trust that you will lead a force of gentle protectors,” Twilight said. 

Stumbling into the archway, Bucky staggered into the kitchen looking bleary eyed. Even the purple haze drifting from his Taint filled eye looked half awake. He hobbled to the table and sat down, leaning over on the table for support. 

“Morning pegasi… Loch Skimmer,” Bucky muttered. He yawned, revealing fangs. 

“Buckminster-” 

“Stop. No more Buckminster. Call me Bucky… really… I hate my name,” Bucky insisted. 

“Bucky… okay then. Bucky, there will be a royal accountant coming out today to visit you. They will let you know about your financial situation. Luna is hoping to come out today at some point to speak with you, Witching Hour, and Tiddlywinks. She might not be able to make it. Mayor Mare has requested an audience with you. I have you penciled in for ten o’ clock. If you try to skip out like you did on the day of your coronation, I will never forgive you. This is VERY important. It is about the school and what you want from the community. Mister Rich will be coming by later today after your meeting. He is one of my most trusted civic planners and he is going to help you with getting the school going. Construction is scheduled to begin again on the dormitory towers. Each tower holds seventy six students and there are currently two towers which are partially completed. More towers will be built in time. Down the road from here, we plan to construct housing for the teachers and staff members. So these are all issues that concern you,” Twilight explained in her usual long winded fashion. 

Bucky yawned in reply. 

Barley, always thoughtful, shoved a cup of coffee under Bucky’s nose and then went back to watch his scones in the oven. He fretted to himself, worried if they would come out perfect. 

Twilight watched as Bucky added cream and sugar to his coffee. “I think the water crisis is over. I did some calculations. The ice we brought back should give us enough water to work with until winter. But we need to clear out the last of the refugee camps before it gets cold. We are building suburbs outside of Ponyville. Some of the refugees are going to be sent to other places that need labour. To help with the food crisis, we have another train full of goods coming up from Saddle Arabia soonish. Celestia said she might have both of us guarding the train. I know how you feel about not hurting ponies, but the bandits must be dealt with. Just give them a really good scare and make sure that the train keeps moving.” 

“How are you getting food from Saddle Arabia?” Bucky grumbled. 

“Sharing my own personal arcano-tech research with them. Right now, I am working on organising a mutual assistance pact between our nations. They have resources we need, we have resources they need, and I have been working very hard to foster better relations between us. They are preparing to send a whole lot of food. Mostly grain, soybeans, and rice. Enough to see the refugees through the winter. Things are still going to be difficult though,” Twilight said. 

“Oh sure… little miss popular leaves out one important detail,” Barley groused. 

With a panicked gasp, Twilight grinned sheepishly and glanced at Barley. “The Saddle Arabians love Barley. He and Luna left a lasting impression upon the delegation they sent up here.” 

Nodding, Bucky lowered his head and stuck his lips into his coffee cup. He slurped some out and then blinked a few times. Lifting his head back up, he turned to look at Twilight. “I will meet with Mayor Mare but only if I may take my squire. I either act in my official capacity as a knight or I don’t act at all.” 

“That’s acceptable. She wanted to speak with her prince-” 

“Chieftain,” Bucky corrected. 

“That title is just to humour you,” Twilight groused. “Because you acted like a foal and took off during the day of your coronation. You have all of the powers of a prince at your disposal as Equestria’s War Chief.” 

“Bah!” Bucky grunted. 

“Don’t take no guff Bucky,” Barley said as he pulled the scones from the oven. 

“Don’t encourage him!” Twilight snapped. 

Thinking of a response, Bucky continued to drink his coffee and he sniffed a few times as the scones were set down to cool. He glanced at Sparkler, who was sitting quietly and looking thoughtful. “So… what are my legal rights as prince exactly? I mean, where is an official list of my powers and what are the limits of my control?” 

Twilight opened to her mouth to respond, fell silent, started to say something else, made a wordless noise of irritation, inhaled sharply, began to speak again, and then her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know anymore.” 

“That’s what I thought,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You still have obligations!” Twilight retorted. 

“Yes I do,” Bucky agreed. “I am not a prince. I am a slave. I exist to serve others.” 

“I serve others too…” Twilight said defensively. 

“I know you do. Which is why I am willing to do anything within my power to help you. You live in a library. I live in a farmhouse. We are easily accessible royalty. We’ve made ourselves available to those we serve. You accept your title and the prestige that comes with it. I do not,” Bucky explained. 

“Bucky… I don’t understand you,” Twilight sighed. 

“I am happy to be a slave. I chose this. Your brother worked out a deal with me and even though I did not know the punishment, I knew that if I jumped through all the hoops and did everything asked of me, I would get to be with my family. My title of slave means more to me than any other title I have a claim on. Prince. King of the Crystal Empire. Knight,” Bucky said in a low voice. When he was done, he drank some coffee and then rested his stump upon the table. 

Twilight lapsed into sullen silence. She levitated over a scone, spread some butter on it, and then she slowly nibbled off tiny bites as she sat in her chair thinking. She eyed Bucky a few times but could not figure out anything worth saying. 

Bucky smiled in a smug self satisfied sort of way and drank his coffee. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 234
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy flexed her wings and braced herself for what was coming next. Flying to her old home, having a look around, and then beginning the process of registering her foals in school. She was not looking forward to heading into town and facing all of the other ponies just yet. 

As she stood there, she had a moment where she wasn’t sure that she could do it. Her sense of introversion screamed at her to stay. She was only aware of her introversion because of Berry Punch, who had quietly explained it to her during a long chat one day. 

She looked at the guard and grinned sheepishly as she stood there flexing her wings. She became slowly aware of the fact that what she was doing might be considered a plumage display. She felt a hot creeping heat working its way up her neck and through her wings. She closed her eyes and thought of how she felt when Bucky touched her, her reaction was identical. 

As she took wing, she actually noticed for the first time the extra weight in her belly as she flew and she could not help but smile as she went soaring off into the sky. 



 

Stepping slowly off of the chariot, Bucky looked around Ponyville. An old familiar friend returned, and he felt a sharp spike of panic go lancing through his barrel. Ponies were staring at him. A few looked afraid. Some looked curious. But every eye in the general area was focused upon him. And probably Sentinel as well. 

“It’s rude to stare.” 

The voice was loud. The voice was commanding. The voice was right to the point and said what needed to be said. The voice was Sentinel’s. Bucky turned around and glanced at Sentinel briefly, remembering not to stare. It was rude. 

“We must be going,” Twilight said, giving Bucky a gentle nudge. 

Not quite sure what else to do, Bucky raised his stump and gave a wave before going into city hall to attend to the meeting. 



 

Feeling irritated, Lyra pushed the newspaper away from her and levitated her cup of tea to her lips. It felt good to be back in civilisation again. She took a swallow and then chewed on a cold scone while looking at Bon Bon and Berry Punch. 

“Sentinel’s letter to General Iron Sky has generated a lot of controversy,” Berry remarked. 

“Sure has,” Bon Bon quipped. 

“I cannot believe that Celestia herself has responded to this issue. I mean, I keep wondering if she actually did it or if her assistant did it for her, you know what I mean. Pledging support for female guard members, saying that it is time for a change,” Berry said, gesturing at the paper. 

“And what does your feminism have to say about this issue?” Bon Bon teasingly asked. 

“It tells me that it would be really sexy to have a fellow herd member in uniform,” Berry replied without missing a beat. 



 

Clicking his beak together to get Peekaboo’s attention, Lugus crouched. “Look little one… like this,” Lugus instructed as he pounced. His leap carried him for almost a good twenty feet and he landed solidly on all fours, his claws digging into the earth. “Now… try to pounce upon the grasshopper. Keep your front down… keep your little hindquarters up… legs taut but flexible.” 

Peekaboo assumed the position, narrowed her eyes, splayed out her small stubby wings, and then she pounced, missing the grasshopper completely. 

Yew balanced on her haunches and clapped her front hooves together. 

“She didn’t catch the grasshopper,” Lugus stated. 

“But she tried. So I am clapping,” Yew replied. 

Lugus shrugged. “I will defer since you know more about this than I do. When I failed, I was beaten with a rod or a cane and disciplined.” 

“That’s horrible!” Yew protested. 

“Results were rewarded. Failure was punished. I am the strong griffon that I am today because all weakness was ruthlessly carved away from me,” Lugus explained. 

Frowning, Yew shook her head sadly. She watched as Peekaboo attempted to pounce upon another grasshopper. “Griffons seem so cruel.” 

“We are,” Lugus admitted.

“You’re not,” Yew said, raising her voice slightly. “Don’t you dare lump yourself in with them you big lummox!” 

“I left home for a reason. Somehow, I retained my own individual sense of honour. It did not sit well with them,” Lugus said. As he was speaking, he reached out with his talons and snatched a grasshopper in mid leap. He tossed it into his beak and swallowed once he was finished talking. 

“The way you speak has changed,” Yew observed. 

“I try to talk more like ponies,” Lugus said in return. “We are mimics. We copy the sounds and speech of others, we griffons.” 

“Well, why don’t you come over here and talk sweet to me? Tell me all about my expressive little face and how it makes you feel,” Yew said enticingly. 

Seeing an opportunity, Lugus pounced. 



 

It was very difficult to hold back the yawn that pounded upon his fangs like a prisoner upon iron bars. Bucky envied Sentinel’s ability to be completely enraptured by a droning presentation of civic planning. Bucky shifted in his chair and rested his weight against the table. Even by his old accounting job standards, this was boring and tedious. 

Finally, Bucky could take no more. 

“This is all fine and good to prattle on and on about daydreams… what are we doing for the ponies of this town right now?” Bucky interrupted. 

The room went as silent as a long occupied tomb. 

“The proposed memorial fountain does absolutely NO GOOD TO THE REFUGEES RIGHT NOW!” Bucky continued, releasing his frustration. “And I am pretty sure they would be in trouble if they tried drinking from it or bathing in it,” he snarled. 

The mayor gulped loudly and backed away from her presentation board. 

“Surely something useful comes out of these meetings eventually, progress is clearly being made, but think of how much further we’d be down the road of progress without all of this useless drivel!” Bucky bellowed. Out of the corner of his surviving eye, he saw a remarkably smug look upon Twilight Sparkle’s face that was entirely too much like his own. Could ponies have a striking family resemblance after one thousand years? Bucky didn’t know. But he felt a sudden moment of kinship with the alicorn. 

“Give me the budget,” Bucky demanded. 

Looking suddenly nervous, Ivory Scroll, the mayor, looked pleadingly at Bucky. “We have accountants and city treasury officials who deal with-” 

“GIVE ME THE BUDGET!” 

The mayor’s secretary hurried forward, lifted the folder, and handed it to Bucky. She then retreated, fleeing the room with her tail tucked between her legs and her ears pinned to her skull. 

“Really there is no need for-” 

“I am a certified accountant with a long history of getting results. Just ask Mister Rich,” Bucky growled, cutting off the mayor once more. He lifted the folder and began to look over the proposed budget. His face turned into a terrifyingly sour scowl and another assistant fled the room. 

“This can go… this can go… this is stupid… if the surviving rich ponies of the town demand gardening service along the public walks bordering their properties, they can pay for the service themselves. I am all for city beautification but this is patently ridiculous. Nope. Nope. Certainly not. Why? That’s gotta go. With the funding cut from there this can be raised… city employees do not need an expense account at the most expensive restaurant in town during these troubled times. What in Tartarus is this? A joke? The expense account gets more money than the school funding for Miss Cheerilee? RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Bucky said as he slashed away savagely with his pen. 

Twilight Sparkle covered her mouth with one fetlock and coughed demurely. She then turned to Sentinel and gave him a wink that only Sentinel could see. 

“Why do the wealthy get trash pick up twice a week while everypony else gets trash pick up once every two weeks? THAT’S GOTTA GO! What a load of horseapples… why is it that every tree in the town grows wild and free except for where the wealthy live? Why do those trees require so much money for pruning? I bet somepony has a really cushy job with a stupidly high wage for doing nothing more than lopping off a few branches now and then… that’s gotta go. THIS IS NOT A BUDGET! THIS IS A FAT CARCASS WAITING TO BE DISEMBOWELED! DIE DIE DIE DIE!” 

Sentinel covered his face with his hooves and sunk down in his chair. This was side of his father he had not seen, and he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to see it ever again. The force of his father’s pen strokes caused ink to spatter along the wall and it was like blood from a gutted animal spraying forth in rhythmic spurts. His father’s savage ferocity was terror inducing and Sentinel hoped that he never did anything that evoked his father’s excitable ire. 

“I’ve quintupled the education budget after I’ve gutted all of the perks for the wealthy. Cheerilee will be getting a much needed raise. The city is now running in black ink. We could probably lower taxes, but I am not even certain about the tax situation during these difficult times… that section of the budget is missing…” Bucky said as he shot an accusing glance at the mayor. “Also, I have completely killed the funding to all of the accountants on payroll that created this budget. I’ll be taking over this department. It will save the city almost a half a million bits a year and I’ll do this for the reasonable sum of SACKING THE ENTIRE ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT!” 

Mayor Mare flinched as she backed into corner. 

“I’ve taken that lump sum of money that would normally be spent upon an army of accountants and I’ve spent it instead on the new orphanarium. The funding for which was criminally low. Are there any objections?” Bucky said, tossing the folder down upon the table. 

“No… no I think that about covers it,” Mayor Mare said politely. 

“Well, I am glad this meeting was so productive! In the first half we took care of all of the issues involving our new school, and in the second half, the dragon that was the city budget was slain by our noble knight. I feel as though we accomplished something today!” Twilight announced in chipper tones. 

“We sure did,” Ivory Scroll, the mayor, replied in terrified tones, her tail clenched tightly between her hind legs. 

“And you kept assuring me that everything that could be cut from the city budget was being cut… tsk tsk. It seems there was a lot to cut from the budget and your staff simply wasn’t looking hard enough,” Twilight said in an impossibly cheerful voice. 

“I know what I’ll be writing about for my next open letter to the editor,” Sentinel said. 



 

The house was dusty and quiet. Everything was right where it was left it seemed. Derpy stared at the spot upon the wall where her husband had smashed his head into it. Up the stairs and down the hall was the bed where she had watched over him and had truly fallen in love with him. This house was where it had all started. 

Nopony had bothered her as she had flown in to town. A few had looked at her, a few had flown close, but she had not been disturbed by anypony. 

She remembered coming home and finding the house full of popcorn and macaroni noodles everywhere, and the crunching sounds they made under hoof. 

Derpy made her way up the stairs to retrieve a book for Piña. 

She roamed the house, going from room to room. She made her way to Sparkler’s room. She peered around, her eyes roaming over the table that Sparkler used as a desk. She opened the wooden box that her daughter kept her treasures in. She saw a diary and lifted it out with her hoof. Placing it on the table, she opened it and had a look. The last few pages were all about how much she loved Rising Star and how happy she was to have a father. She stuffed the diary into her saddlebags with the book for Piña and moved on. 

Much to her surprise, this house no longer felt like home. 
	
> Chapter 235
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dinky was practicing magic on the front porch and Piña was reading a book when Dinky noticed a brown stallion coming up the road and a pink foal beside him. Dinky remained still for a moment, rubbed her eyes, and then burst into action, running from the porch at the two figures. 

A moment later, Piña had left her book behind and was following Dinky. 

Piña actually reached Diamond Tiara first, pulling ahead of Dinky, and Dinky arrived a moment later. The three foals fell into a three way hug and Filthy Rich stopped in his tracks to watch them, smiling as he stood there. 

“You’re here early,” Berry Punch said from the front porch. “We were told to expect you.”

“Sorry, Diamond Tiara was most impatient,” Filthy Rich said apologetically as he began to approach the house. He glanced nervously at the pacing guards and was relieved to see a nod. 

“Tell me everything,” Diamond Tiara said, still clinging to Dinky and Piña. 

“Have you made any friends?” Dinky asked. 

Diamond Tiara’s face fell and her ears drooped. “Apple Bloom and her friends sorta tolerate me. Nopony else trusts me no matter what I do. I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve tried to be good. I’ve tried to show ponies that I’ve changed. Nopony is willing to give me a chance.” 

Piña squeezed even harder to try and make Diamond Tiara feel a little better. “You look good. I mean, you look normal again.” 

“Been a long summer for me,” Diamond Tiara said. “I’ve missed you both. Well, tell me about the Isles.” 

“In a bit. There’s some ponies you need to meet. Like our big sisters Ripple and Loch. And our big brother Sentinel. Well, he’s not here right now but he will be home soon,” Dinky said. 



 

Berry looked out the kitchen window and watched the foals playing as she served coffee to Mister Rich. “How’s life been?” she asked. 

“Lost everything,” Mister Rich replied. “All I have now is my house and my daughter. Lost every single bit I had when the banks went under. The banks didn’t have real money in them. Just accounting ledgers stating how much each account was worth. None of the money in the banks was real. All those bits were off somewhere else. I’m recovering though, making money again and slowly making something of myself the hard way.” 

“Sorry to hear that,” Berry said apologetically. “I suppose I ruined a lot of ponies lives.” 

“You aren’t responsible. You struck a blow for earth ponies everywhere. You’re a hero,” Mister Rich insisted. 

“I don’t know how I feel about the aftermath just yet to be honest,” Berry admitted. 

“Not your fault. The nobles did this. Well, some nobles. I actually feel bad about all of them being dragged down by the actions of the upper houses. Fancy Pants, my business rival, he is a remarkably good pony. He deserved better. He had a nervous breakdown not long after the truth came out. He is still consumed by guilt. He had no idea. Night Light and Twilight Velvet… if only all unicorns were like them. So selfless and good. Or Buckminster. There… there are good unicorns,” Mister Rich said as he stared down into the murky blackness of his coffee cup. “I actually became physically ill when I read the transcript of Buckminster’s trial. I didn’t know what to make of it. It wasn’t until I read the well reasoned explanations of what was really taking place that I understood what had actually happened. I don’t know if I could do what he did.” 

“He lied,” Bon Bon snapped, still sore over the issue. 

Saying nothing, Mister Rich nodded. 

“So, found a nice mare to settle down with yet?” Berry Punch asked. 

“Funny that you mention that… I am seeing somepony. We’re both very busy but we try to make time for one another. She and Diamond Tiara are starting to get to know one another. She’s a fantastic mare. Her name is Gala Appleby,” Mister Rich replied, still staring into his coffee. 

“One of the Apple family,” Berry said, nodding in approval. 

“She was one of my secretaries before I lost everything. One of the many ponies I had wronged. She’s making me earn my forgiveness… I like her a great deal,” Mister Rich admitted. 



 

“So… bees,” Ripple said, cringing as she did so. 

“Yeah. Lots of bees,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“Can we not talk about my bees?” Dinky requested. 

“Bumblebutt has some issues about her bees,” Piña quipped. 

“Coconutbutt!” Dinky retorted. 

“Oh no you didn’t!” Piña grunted as she tackled Dinky and began to grapple her sibling into submission for the most hated of all sisterly insults. 

Loch Skimmer watched her younger siblings roll around in the grass, trying to wrestle one another into submission. Piña didn’t look like she was trying very hard, so it would be somewhat fair for Dinky. “You don’t seem like a bad sort anymore,” Loch Skimmer said as she turned her attention to Diamond Tiara. “Shame ponies won’t give you a chance.” 

“You have us,” Ripple said kindly. “Any friends of my little sisters are friends of mine.” 

“Wanna go swimming later?” Piña asked as she gave Dinky a hoof noogie, making sure she didn’t strike Dinky’s horn by accident. 

“I’d love to go swimming,” Diamond Tiara replied. “I’ve heard about the kelpie in the newspaper. Thistle, right?” 

“Right,” Loch Skimmer answered. 



 

The chariot landed smoothly and it was Sentinel who stepped off first. Bucky tottered off a moment later and became aware of a group rushing up to greet him. He sighed and braced himself for a tackle, knowing there was probably a pegasus barreling at him. 

Sure enough, Loch Skimmer rarely disappointed. Bucky endured the greeting as Twilight Sparkle unhitched herself from the chariot and waved hello. After Loch Skimmer had let go, Bucky saw a blur of pink in his limited day vision. He needed to find his goggles. 

The pink blur was not Piña, but was Diamond Tiara. He felt her forelegs around his neck and was surprised by how much affection was in the hug. He felt confused for a moment but didn’t know what to say. 

“This is my big brother Sentinel. He’s a squire. Which is a really fancy word for being stuffy and uptight,” Piña said, introducing her brother to Diamond Tiara. 

“Pleased to meet you… Piña I am not stuffy nor am I uptight,” Sentinel said in return in a rather uptight fashion. 

“You have a fish,” Diamond Tiara observed, seeing Sentinel’s cutie mark. 

“A brown trout actually,” Sentinel corrected as he departed for the house, not realising that a filly had been checking out his backside with curious interest. 

“My father is inside… he’s been looking forward to seeing you,” Diamond Tiara said to Bucky as she patted him kindly once more. She looked up at Bucky and pain was visible upon her face. She said nothing, understanding all too well what it felt like to be disfigured. “I’m glad to see you home again.” 

“I am glad to be home again,” Bucky replied. He then looked at Twilight, who was still stretching her wings and getting her feathers sorted out. He thought about saying something about the real reason he had been brought to the meeting with the mayor, but couldn’t find anything witty to say. 



 

Settling in at the dining room table, Sentinel realised he needed to secure some sort of a flat writing surface in his cubby under the stairs. He set down his journal, set out some paper, and made the mistake of looking into the eyes of three fillies who were staring at him. 

“Come play with us…” Dinky invited. 

“You don’t always have to be writing,” Piña said. 

“I need to write down what happened in the meeting while it is fresh in my head,” Sentinel explained, feeling a stab of guilt as he looked at his sisters. Their wide pleading eyes were focused upon him and Sentinel knew all to well the power they had. 

“I’ve read your stuff in the paper,” Diamond Tiara said. “Especially what you wrote about your family,” she added. 

“My brother is getting famous,” Piña remarked. 

“We should leave him alone. I am sure he will join us later,” Diamond Tiara said as she cast glance at Sentinel. “I’ve never seen one of your kind before.” 

“You probably would have teased him if you saw him before everything that happened,” Dinky said with a faint giggle in her voice. 

A pained look crawled over Diamond Tiara’s face and she slumped in place, looking miserable, her ears drooping down to her cheeks. “You’re right… I’d have ran him down and said bad things about what he is.” 

“I’m sorry… I said something stupid. Let’s go get you cheered up,” Dinky said as she prodded Diamond Tiara. Dinky felt awful. What was only intended as playful teasing had gone completely wrong. 

“But you are right. I did awful things. And that is all anypony can think about. And nopony trusts me now. They can only remember the bad things I’ve done,” Diamond Tiara said as she climbed up into a chair and then rested her head down upon the table. Not looking at Sentinel and with her face smooshed into the table, she asked a difficult question. “What do I call you so I don’t say anything insulting?” 

“I am a lunar pegasus,” Sentinel replied, feeling kind of sorry for the pink filly who was slumped over the table. 

“Yeah… he’s not bat pony. Just like a solar pegasus isn’t a bird pony,” Piña quipped. 

“Or you know, we can just call each other ponies,” Dinky suggested. “I’m a pony with a horn and he is a pony with wings.” 



 

Lyra and Bon Bon moved around the kitchen trying to figure out what to make for some kind of lunch as a small group sat around the kitchen table and made plans for the future. Lyra, disappearing into the pantry, returned a moment later with a couple of pecks of potatoes held in a magical bubble. She dumped them all into the sink and began to wash them. 

Bucky sat at the kitchen table holding Harper to his barrel and trying to soothe the upset foal as he settled in for his meeting with Mister Rich. Harper wanted Lyra’s attention, but Lyra was busy and so Harper was acting as fussy as possible. 

Berry, still at the table, watched Lugus talking to the guard and wondered what was being said. Yew and Peekaboo were a short distance away. She sighed and wondered where Derpy was and why it was taking so long for Derpy to come back home. 

“Soup?” Bon Bon inquired in a soft voice. 

“Potato and shoepeg corn chowder,” Lyra explained in a low whisper. 

Hearing her mother’s voice, Harper opened her mouth, shrieked, and then turned on the waterworks for maximum effect. She squirmed in Bucky’s grasp, kicking and thrashing about.

“Reminds me of Diamond Tiara,” Mister Rich said in a wistful voice. “She’d cry until she had her way. She had a set of lungs that had to be heard to be believed.” 

“Harper… hush,” Bucky said, patting Harper on the back with his stump. Of course, the foal did not listen and Bucky pondered saying “hush” again to quiet his wailing foal. 



 

“It is great seeing you again,” Cheerilee said to Derpy as the pair sat down. The earth pony studied the grey pegasus and smiled a sunny smile of affection. 

“I know you must be very busy, thanks for seeing me,” Derpy said slowly, all too aware that ponies were staring at her and Cheerilee. 

“I’ve been worried,” Cheerilee said, her smile never breaking but her eyes were filled with concern. “And then I read in the papers about everything that happened. How is Dinky and Piña?” 

“They’re fine… mostly. Still recovering I think. They need for life to get back to normal. Routine. You know, the day to day stuff that makes life what it is,” Derpy responded. “Is there going to school in the fall?” 

“Yes… but the classroom is going to be overcrowded. We’re still busy trying to figure out what to do,” Cheerilee replied. 

“I need to register Dinky and Piña… and I need to get Sentinel some placement testing. Is there going to be a problem with Sentinel attending school? He’s-” 

“A pegasus,” Cheerilee interrupted. “Just like you. I would hope there would be no problems,” she said, her voice now wavering with hidden concern and worry. “If there are any problems I will attempt to deal with them, but I am overwhelmed. They want to place over fifty foals into my classroom somehow and it will be me all by myself,” Cheerilee explained. 

Derpy heard fear in the earth pony’s voice. Real fear. Her smile remained as bright as ever, but it was a false smile, the sort of smile you give to let everypony know everything is okay as the disaster continues to progress. 

“The orphanarium will have its own school. At least that is promised, but there are currently no teachers available. And if it does ever happen, that is going to take a while. A lot of foals won’t be attending school this fall. I already have your foals marked down for registration because I knew that you would be meeting with me the moment I saw your return in the newspaper. I wish all mothers were as dedicated about their foals education as you are,” Cheerilee said, her eyes becoming glassy with emotion. 

“I still wonder where Bucky is going to find teachers for his school,” Derpy said. 

“Everything is still being rebuilt. It is education that suffers the most during these times. Nopony sees it as a necessity. They don’t understand that foals need a sense of routine so they can feel as though their lives have returned to normal. If something isn’t done, this is going to leave a scar in the education of this generation. I’m scared… ponies don’t understand that we are going to be rebuilding for the next fifty to one hundred years… an entire generation. And it is the foals alive right now who aren’t being properly educated that will be the ones forced to deal with the reconstruction,” Cheerilee explained, her smile fading away and replaced with a look of genuine fear. 

Derpy did not know what to say. She stared at Cheerilee, trying to think of words that simply were not there. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 236
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dining room table was still covered with dishes from lunch and two ponies were busy trying to make themselves comfortable in the library. A pile of papers was spread over a table and there was a map as well. 

In the living room, a different group of ponies was sprawling out, mostly foals with a few adults. Yew was already sound asleep on the floor with Harper and Peekaboo at her sides. Loch Skimmer had her head resting upon Yew and was drifting off to sleep. Ripple was on the sofa, her eyes struggling to stay open. Beside her Piña, Dinky, and Diamond Tiara were in a pile of their own, heads drooping and conversation slowly dying as they drifted off. 

Sentinel had hidden away in his cubby and enjoyed the quiet dark as he too drifted off to sleep, feeling safe and secure in his private space. 





“So you want me to be your majordomo,” Mister Rich said, sitting comfortably in the library. There was a snifter of whiskey beside him on a small table. 

“Is that the word for it?” Bucky questioned, curling into the chair, resting his head upon the arm, and wrapping his long tail along the side of his body as he settled in. 

“Close enough for your purposes,” Mister Rich replied. “You want me to be the go between for you and city hall. You need somepony to keep an eye on the bureaucrats, keep your interests guarded, and organise everything you want done. I used to manage an empire. I have experience in it. You’re going to need an army of devoted workers.” 

“Help me,” Bucky asked. 

“I will,” Mister Rich replied. “Our goals are similar. I’ve been focusing on community improvement and education. Different towns have different industries. Manehatten had culture, theatre, art, and the fashion industry. Baltimare had manufacturing. A lot of furniture is made in Vanhoover because that is where the lumber industry is. I want our chief industry in Ponyville to be education. I want ponies to come here to acquire learning. I want it to be our brand. Ponies buy Manehatten fashions. Ponies seek a Ponyville education… I want this town to have a brand.” 

“I like this line of thinking,” Bucky remarked, his ears perking forward a bit and his face becoming quite thoughtful. 

“I was the one primarily responsible for the building of your school. I organised the refugees into labour groups. The construction has been stop and go. Right now I am pushing for a new schoolhouse but I am being ignored by the mayor. She says there is no money in the budget… what is so funny Buckminster? Why are you laughing?” 

Chortling, Bucky wasn’t sure how to explain what he had done to the budget. “Oh there is money in the budget. I have… reorganised the budget. I’ll write you out a note. Drop by city hall today or tomorrow and pick up a copy. If they give you any lip, tell them my pen will begin go to work on city hall salaries next.” 

“Did… did you… did you abuse your authority?” Mister Rich stammered. 

“The budget was a monster that was terrorising the town. I am to do anything to keep ponies safe as part of my obligations. It is part of my royal duties. The ponies of Ponyville were threatened by the budget and there was real harm being done. I did my job,” Bucky explained in a very solemn voice. 

“You… you did your accounting magic upon the budget, didn’t you?” Mister Rich inquired. 

“Yeah. I did. Ruthless efficiency,” Bucky answered, nodding as he did so, his smug smile present and accounted for. 

“And so now that the hard work has been done, you want me to function as a gardener to keep the weeds from creeping in and protect our mutual interests,” Mister Rich said as he lifted his whiskey snifter. 

“Correct. I will see that you are paid and paid well. Assemble an army Mister Rich. Let us work on this idea of Ponyville as a brand name for education. We’ll turn out educated earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns the same way Baltimare churns out consumer goods. Or used to,” Bucky stated. 

“Public image is a concern Buckminster,” Mister Rich said. “Even if you are doing good things, ponies are going to complain if you come down too hard.” 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle has told me I have the authority to come down as hard as I want right now during this period of anarchy. I am unofficially in charge of the defense of this nation just below Princess Luna. I have free reign to do anything I feel is necessary to protect and defend. To this end, Twilight Sparkle and I discussed becoming the two heads of education. Prime ministers. Department heads. She used so many big words and phrases I can’t keep up with her garble. The best defense begins with education. It is part of what keeps Equestria as a major player in the world power structure. So I will do what I need to do to make things happen by any means necessary, and you will do whatever it is you need to do to repair my public image if there are any overwhelming displays of force. I don’t plan on putting anypony in the stocks so your job shouldn’t be too hard,” Bucky explained in a slow and patient manner. 

Nodding slowly and grimacing from his whiskey, Mister Rich gave Bucky a long look. 

“In time, the public will begin voting for things in their own interests. If ponies are going to vote, they need to be educated so they can vote well. In time, we can soften our stance a little bit and be gentle. For now, brute force is the only thing ponies understand during this time of civil unrest,” Bucky continued. 

“I understand,” Mister Rich said. “I will talk to my own public relations department. Their numbers have dwindled but the ones who are left are good at what they do.” 

“Mister Rich, place advertisements in the newspaper. Put out the word that any teacher who comes to Ponyville will get an above average wage and a place to live. Make the words sound real inviting and irresistible,” Bucky instructed. 

“Consider it done,” Mister Rich responded, a worried look of reservation upon his face. 



 

Rising Star carefully explored the school. The construction wasn’t finished. The building was quite large and the wings added a lot of extra space. He heard Sparkler’s hooves upon the floor behind him. Some of the classrooms already had some desks, but not many. There were birds in the building. Windows were still needed in many places. 

The fillies restroom needed a door and for the wall to be finished. Rising Star realised that he hadn’t been inside of a fillies restroom. He stuck his head through the door and looked around. Behind him, there was giggling. 

He continued down a hall and came to what appeared to be an unfinished lift. There was steam pipes connected to it and he supposed that it would be steam powered once it was done. There was an indicator for four floors. 

Ahead, he saw an exit to the outside. He trotted to the doors and stopped when he heard voices just outside the doors. He saw Bucky and two unicorns talking. 



 

“How are the both of you settling in?” Bucky asked as he sat down in the grass. 

“We’re good,” Witching Hour replied. “Fine. Recovering.” 

Raising an eyebrow, Bucky studied the pair. “Look… I’ve been thinking… how about we make this a permanent arrangement? Stay here. I’ll have a house built. We need to start schooling the next generation. Work as teachers in between assignments. We’d be safer if we stuck together. You could finally settle down. Maybe have a foal or two.” 

“A house?” Witching Hour said, her face twitching in disgust. “I am more of a tower unicorn myself. If I was to ever settle down it would be in a tower. I miss Trottingham and it’s lovely little towers. Canterlot was far too pretentious with its big towers.” 

“So, build a tower. Out here near the school. Or away a bit for privacy. We’d be safer if we settled in together,” Bucky stated. He watched as Witching Hour shot a glance to Tiddlywinks. 

“We would like to settle down… we want things other ponies want. A foal. Maybe two. There is no safe place,” Witching Hour said. 

“This is going to to be a magic school. I need for this to become a safe place. As safe as Celestia’s school. I can’t do it on my own. You two… you two know how to keep safe. I need guardians. Capable guardians. Proven guardians. Help me,” Bucky cajoled. 

“The offer is tempting,” Witching Hour said in a low voice. 

“If something comes for you, we have a better chance of fighting it together,” Bucky said in a persuasive voice. “Lugus has his axe. He’s killed a banshee. I understand that such a task is very difficult.” 

“Almost impossible,” Witching Hour acknowledged. “I can’t promise anything, but Winky and I will think about it. We’d like to put down roots.” 

“Fantastic,” Bucky said. 



 

Derpy and Cheerilee sat together in the park after a lunch of daisy sandwiches. The pair sat in the grass together. Other ponies were around them and the pair spoke to one another in low voices as they continued their afternoon together. 

“Things have been frightening. There are these weird cults running around. Unicorn superiourity cults. Doomsday cults. Cults that want to kill all unicorns. There are ponies that want to wreck what little bit of society we have left so they can rebuild a new society. There are even a group of ponies who want to steal back control of the sun and moon. They fled from Equestria before the fall of the noble houses, went into the Badlands, and then presumably to regions beyond. There are rumours they are hiding in Saddle Arabia, far to the south. There are some things the papers won’t print because of the panic it might cause,” Cheerilee said to Derpy. 

“Wow, that is kinda creepy,” Derpy stated. 

“A lot of public servants have been killed. Teachers. Educators. Somepony tried to kill Mayor Mare one night. Twilight Sparkle was in Canterlot. There was a big disturbance in one of the camps. A manticore attacked the refugees. The militia moved to defend and somepony tried to kill Ivory Scroll while the militia was off fighting. I think somepony lured the manticore to the refugees as a distraction. Does this sound paranoid?” Cheerilee asked after she was done saying everything else. 

“How did the mayor survive?” Derpy asked, her brows furrowed. 

“Barley heard the disturbance. He was having a late night meeting with some of the camp leaders in a restaurant near the mayor’s house. He led a group of concerned citizens over to find out what the screaming was about. She had jumped out of the window and was running up the street with a strange unicorn chasing after her. I don’t know what happened exactly, but there was a fight and the unicorn teleported away,” Cheerilee replied. “Holly Dash was gravely wounded that night. She lived, but she spent a fair bit of time in the hospital. She was outclassed by the strange unicorn who had more magic. Barley ripped a street lamp out of the ground with his magic and whacked the unicorn with it to save Holly’s life, or so the story goes depending on who you ask. Other ponies say Barley smacked the unicorn with a garbage dumpster.” 

“Barley hasn’t mentioned any of this,” Derpy muttered. “I wonder why he hasn’t told us?” 

“He doesn’t strike me as the type to toot his own horn,” Cheerilee answered. “Or maybe he didn’t want to worry you.” 

“Bucky was supposed to meet with the mayor today. I hope he doesn’t scare her or anything,” Derpy said with mild concern. “I need to be heading back. Come out to the farmhouse. Please, talk with Bucky. He needs to know these things. He can help.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 237
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Something niggled at Bucky’s mind when he thought about the Black Cloaks and their destruction. The group was a thousand strong. The nobles, those who had the strongest magic by average, were mostly accounted for. And of those nobles, most of them were barely even able to write their own name with magic. 

Something did not add up in Bucky’s mind and he was still in full blown accountant mode. 

Where was the force responsible for taking out the Black Cloaks? Tirek had killed quite a few, but the Black Cloaks were hardened killers and skilled wizards. Something had hunted them down and killed them. Something had infiltrated them. Systematic extermination. 

This bothered Bucky. Certainly Luna would know about a large group of capable unicorns running around murdering ponies. Everypony dreamed. Unless of course Luna had a blind spot… Cold fear crept up Bucky’s spine and made him shiver. His balls prickled from fear. 

Bucky began to sense that there was something wrong. 



 

Thistle lay sunning herself upon a large rock. It was a good rock for sunning. She was still in merpony form and her long tail hung all the way down to the water. The heat from the rock made her back feel better, and swimming had done wonders for mood and pain levels. 

Beside her, a very wet Berry Punch was getting comfortable upon the rock which happened to be sticking up out of the water. To reach the rock, there was a bit of a swim. Or flight, if you were a pegasus. 

“Are you happy Thistle?” Berry asked. 

“So very much,” Thistle replied. 

“Feeling settled in?” Berry inquired. 

“Mostly. I needed some time to myself. I didn’t mean to run away from everypony,” Thistle answered. “The lake is lovely. It is a healthy lake. Mostly. I’ve been herding the fish and encouraging them to breed to increase their numbers. There is even a cave down there. Somepony was very thoughtful when this was created.” 

Berry Punch rolled over onto her side, wiggled her forelegs around Thistle, and carefully pulled Thistle on top of her, enjoying Thistle’s weight pressing down upon her. Thistle squeaked a few times and then squealed when her tail and midsection sank in between Berry’s hind legs. Berry snaked a hoof up along Thistle’s spine. “I’ve always found you so attractive in this form,” Berry whispered before she kissed Thistle. The kiss was long and passionate, and Berry discovered that even in merpony form, parts of Thistle could become very warm. Berry could feel that warmth pressing against her. 

Thistle became keenly aware of where her bulk was resting as Berry kissed her. She relaxed into the kiss and placed both of her front legs, now with fins on the ends, on both sides of Berry’s face, touching the mare lovingly. Her tail flapped against the water, splashing, and her movements caused parts of her to grind against Berry Punch. 

Pulling away, Berry gasped a few times. “Thistle… Derpy and Bucky told me to come and remind you that we are all married. And you need to come out of the lake for more than just sleeping with us in the bed. We miss you…” 

“I’m sorry,” Thistle said tenderly, kissing Berry on the snoot for emphasis. She ground herself into the growing heat that she could feel just below Berry’s belly. She could feel Berry’s hind legs wrapped around her tail section. “Do you trust me?” 

“Of course,” Berry moaned, feeling Thistle rubbing all of the right places. 

“Mmm, good,” Thistle whispered just before she kissed Berry again. Flexing her long body and tail, she flopped from the rock and pulled Berry along with her. With her lips tightly pressed against Berry’s lips, Thistle pulled the earth pony down into the depths where she could have her way with Berry. It was the kelpie way. 

From the shore, a very aroused Lyra thought the kelpie and the earth pony making out was the most erotic thing she had ever seen. Feelingly suddenly needy herself, she hurried off into the house to find Bon Bon. Some itches required help to scratch. 



 

Bucky continued unpacking books from various trunks and placing them onto shelves in the library. The books about dark magic were carefully warded and protected from anypony viewing them but him. Luna had seen to that. There were spellbook primers for foals, he placed those on the lower shelves. There were a few spellbooks about geomantic magics intended for Sparkler. Several books about fire spells were for Rising Star. 

Bucky pulled out an enormous tome with the words “Enthralling Evocations” printed on the cover. There was a snowflake, a wisp of fire, and a bolt of lightning, the three major elemental powers. It was too big to fit upon the shelves. He placed it upon a small table by a chair instead. 

He lifted another book from one of the trunks… “Spell Shielding and You: Special Germaphobe Edition.” He stuffed it away on the shelf with a snort. “Advanced Spell Shielding: The World Is Not Safe Edition.” He tucked this one next to the first. “Advanced Protections and Shielding: Sometimes Pegasi Fly With Scissors Edition.” Bucky rolled his eye. Unicorns were strange creatures and he did not understand them at times. “Avoiding Trauma: Defensive Augmentations for the Phobophobic.” This went with the others. “Practical Protections for the Persnickety Pony: A Brief Abridged Dissertation of Dueling Defense by Starjammer.” Bucky gasped. The book was over a foot thick. He felt a keen sense of loathing for Starjammer for a moment and then stuffed the book onto the shelf. 



 

“Mama, Diamond Tiara is going to need a lift home later,” Dinky said. 

Derpy nodded and patted Dinky on the head. “I can do that,” she offered. 

“Sentinel won’t come out of hiding,” Dinky reported. 

“Well, maybe he needs time to himself,” Derpy responded. “He probably just needs some time to adjust to everything. He’s sensitive.” 

“Maybe you’re right. Anyhow, gotta go!” Dinky cried and then took off running up the stairs. 

Feeling peckish, Derpy sauntered into the kitchen and began to look around. She checked the pantry, she looked in the cupboards, and after finding the waffle iron, she began to pull out ingredients. She plugged in the waffle iron. 

She separated two eggs, getting her wings slightly messy. She put these into a small bowl and set them aside. She poured  a little bit of milk into a mixing bowl, poured in a tiny amount of lemon juice from a bottle, and then set that aside. She measured out some flour, some brown sugar, a little bit of baking powder, and a bit of salt into another mixing bowl. She then set this aside. 

She beat the egg whites until they were perky and formed peaks. She added the egg yolks to the milk and lemon juice mixture and mixed that. She added a dribble of vanilla, a little bit more, looked around the kitchen with a naughty gleam in her eye, and, seeing that she was alone, added just a little bit more vanilla. She giggled. She continued to mix the milk mixture. She added all of her dry ingredients just a little bit at a time, whipping as she added them, her movements making parts of her jiggle as she stood on her hind legs at the counter. When the mix was creamy, she began to fold in the whipped egg whites carefully. 

She pushed the bowl aside and began to brush oil over the hot waffle iron. Using a ladle, she added a dollop of waffle batter to the iron and closed the lid. She hurried to the fridge, found a jar of orange marmalade, set that on the table, and then hurried back to the waffle iron. 

Lifting the lid, she removed the waffle, afterwards, she put the waffle on a plate and covered it with a clean towel to keep it warm. She added more waffle batter to the waffle iron and then closed the lid. 

In no time at all, she had her favourite treat from when she was pregnant with Dinky. Waffles. She slathered them down with marmalade and tore into them, scarfing them down with abandon. 

“You have something sticky on your muzzle… let me get that for you.” 

Freezing in place, Derpy heard Bucky’s voice right beside her. Somehow, he had crept up on her. A moment later, she could feel his hot breath on her cheek. It lingered there for a moment, and she could feel and hear him sniffing her. Her heart began to race. She felt a tightness in her wings as she began to feel too hot. 

And then, she felt his tongue traveling down her muzzle and over her lips. Derpy closed her eyes and tried to remain calm. Again, Bucky’s tongue slowly slithered over her skin, licking away everything sticky. She could still hear and feel him sniffing her. 

“Something else is sticky I bet… real sticky. I can smell it. I’ll be in the bedroom. Finish your waffles. I’ll be waiting for you. Come to bed… sticky.” 

She heard Bucky walking away and she opened her eyes, feeling entirely too hot. She scarfed down her waffles and made a real mess of herself. Leaving dirty dishes all over the kitchen, she hurried off to the bedroom where Bucky was waiting. 



 

“Me kitchen!” Barley cried as he came through the kitchen door after coming home. “Me beautiful kitchen! Who did this to ye?”

He trotted into the kitchen and set about cleaning everything up. Waffles. Marmalade. He knew of one pony in particular that loved waffles with jam or marmalade, and he remembered how much she ate when she was carrying Dinky. 

“Me poor grey mare was famished,” Barley muttered, his anger softening as he moved about the kitchen cleaning up. As he cleaned, he began pulling dried white beans from a bin, placed them into a giant stock pot, covered them with water, and then put them on to boil. He was old, but he had magic still. Stuff flew all over and in no time at all, everything was neat and tidy. He pulled out onions and garlic, set them aside, and then wandered off to the bar to have a  drink. 



 

The sun was drifting down near the treeline when Princess Luna burst into existence near the farmhouse and then flapped her wings to slow herself for a landing. She cleared the steps in a single leap as she always did and then let herself in as she had always done. 

There were screams this time however, which were sorely out of place. Luna froze. A pink foal went scurrying off down the hall in terror. Sighing, Luna drooped and her head hung low. No matter what she did, this still happened far too often. 

“I think Diamond Tiara might have overreacted,” Dinky said as she looked up at Luna. “Hi Godmother.” 

Feeling her heart warm, Luna smiled down at Dinky. “Where is everypony?” 

“Well, mama Derpy is in the bath and then she is going to fly Diamond Tiara home. Berry is in there with her. Lyra and Bon Bon are in their room. Sentinel is hiding under the stairs in his colt cave. Daddy is napping a bit in the bed. I think mama wore him out. Thistle is in the library reading a newspaper where it is quiet. Barley is coming up right beside you and about to hug you I think… yep,” Dinky said, as she watched Barley wrap one foreleg around Luna’s neck and smooch her cheek. 

“Ye just can’t keep away from me,” Barley said as he waggled his eyebrows. 

“I plan to spend some time with you, but Buckminster and Sentinel require some education. Give me some time,” Luna said softly. 

“Whatta mare,” Barley muttered as he teetered away on rickety knees. 



 

“Sorry.” 

Sentinel sighed. His sanctum had been violated. “There is nothing to fear from Luna.” 

“She scares me,” Diamond Tiara whispered. 

There were two forelegs around his neck and Sentinel could feel the earth pony trembling. He sniffed. There was no scent of fear. Sentinel felt very puzzled. Diamond Tiara was pressed tightly up against his side. A slow realisation crept into Sentinel’s head as she continued to huddle up against him in his darkened cubby. 

“I am already betrothed to be married,” Sentinel whispered. 

“You’re WHAT?” Diamond Tiara shouted. 
	
	
> Chapter 238
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How could somepony your age already be spoken for?” 

Sentinel looked at Diamond Tiara, who still had her forelegs around his neck. She had stopped trembling and was now looking at him curiously in the dim light. Her face showed confusion and maybe a little bit of hurt. Sentinel felt awkward all of a sudden. There was no place to run, no place to go. 

“Arranged marriage. Lunar pegasi are few in number. I have obligations. I have a duty to continue my species. I am also supposed to find other wives for a herd,” Sentinel replied in a cautious manner. 

“You’re strange. I mean that, you’re really strange. And I kind of like that in a weird way,” Diamond Tiara confessed. 

“So why are you here with me?” Sentinel asked. 

“You’re the first colt that has been nice to me. The only colt. And you are so nice to your sisters. So patient and kind. I… uh, it is kind of embarrassing actually,” Diamond Tiara said, a stammer coming into her voice. 

“What?” Sentinel said with mild insistence. 

“I had my first heat this summer. It was a very confusing time for me. I… it was very difficult to go through. Afterwards I just wanted a colt to talk to. To get to know. Somepony that wasn’t my father. And I sort of got rejected by everypony. Even the new colts in town. Stories spread about how I was and then everypony just sort of teases me and I never get a chance,” Diamond Tiara whispered, closing her eyes as she spoke. 

“And I didn’t send you away or mock you?” Sentinel inquired. 

“Yeah,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“So you acted scared to see Luna, which really hurts her by the way, just so you could try and get close to me?” Sentinel questioned. 

“Maybe?” Diamond Tiara responded. 

“Please go apologise to her. Tell her the truth,” Sentinel commanded. 

Looking mortified, Diamond Tiara pulled away and her ears splayed out sideways… “I guess you hate me now too. I messed up. I did it without thinking. I’m sorry,” she said as she stood up. She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly. 

“I’ll come with you if you’d like,” Sentinel offered. 

“Why? I just did something awful,” Diamond Tiara murmured. 

“Because you are afraid. Honestly afraid. I can smell it now,” Sentinel explained.

Turning a much darker shade of pink, Diamond Tiara began to chew her lower lip nervously. As she bumped up against the door, she began to tremble, for real this time, and she realised that Sentinel really was as alien as he seemed. There would be no secrets around him she realised. No subtle manipulations to get her way. He could see right through her. And something about that comforted Diamond Tiara for some reason. There would be no slipping back into old behaviours by accident. 

Rising up on his own four hooves, Sentinel arched his back and stretched. “Come on, hit the latch so the door will open. I’ll go with you so you don’t have to be afraid about facing this alone.” 

Nodding her head, Diamond Tiara turned around a bit, and popped the latch with her hoof. The door opened slowly. And then she saw the two dark blue forelegs. She immediately felt sick with fear. Real fear. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t move. 

“How long have you been there?” Diamond Tiara asked in a small foalish voice filled with fear.  She lied down upon the floor and tried to make herself look as pathetic as possible. 

“Long enough,” Luna replied. 

Looking back at Sentinel, Diamond Tiara blinked a few times in shock. “You knew she was out there, didn’t you?” she asked. 

Saying nothing, Sentinel nodded. 

“I’m sorry,” Diamond Tiara apologised. 

“We’ve all done stupid things to get the attention of a colt,” Luna admitted. “Or a stallion.” 

Very much against her will, Diamond Tiara felt herself being pulled out of the closet under the stairs by an invisible force. She dropped her legs and tried to reach the ground. A moment later, she was gently set down and she saw Dinky and Piña. Her face burned with shame. 

“I screwed up again. I just don’t think sometimes,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“Dinky does that all the time,” Piña quipped. Her words got her slugged from Dinky, but Piña didn’t care, being the stout and stocky little earth pony she was. 

“Jerk,” Dinky muttered to Piña. “We’re still friends. That hasn’t changed,” she said to Diamond Tiara. 

Emerging from his cubby, Sentinel blinked in the bright hallway light. “I don’t understand girls,” he said as he stood there waiting for his sensitive eyes to adjust. 

“Come on,” I’ll take you home,” Derpy offered as she stepped into view. 

Turning to Sentinel, Diamond Tiara looked at him pleadingly. “Are we still friends?” she asked in a low voice. 

“Why do you think I offered to help you tell Luna the truth?” Sentinel questioned in reply. 

“You’re a gentlecolt,” Diamond Tiara stated. “Thank you. I’m ready to go now.” She turned and began to follow Derpy to the front door. She turned her head and gave Piña, Dinky, and Sentinel a final glance. After watching Dinky wave, she turned to Luna. “I really am sorry. Will you let me make it up to you somehow?” 

“We will speak later,” Luna replied. 



 

Bucky stood next to Sentinel in the cool dark of the night. The moon was overhead and the song of the night was in full force. Frogs and crickets fill the night with sound. In the distance, Sparkler also filled the night with frog song, loudly belching out various vowel sounds, sweetly serenading those she loved, and Rising Star, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple were her adoring audience. 

Princess Luna found the whole thing quite amusing. 

“I know Sentinel can shadow dive. Buckminster, I am going to pull you into shadow. Forcibly. We don’t have time to have you figure this out on your own. Once I pull you into shadow, your body will rapidly adjust to it and you should be able to do it again on your own. Any questions?” Luna said, looking at her two students. 

“My horn… it will go with me? I mean, it isn’t a natural part of me…” Bucky asked slowly. 

“It will. It has absorbed your essence. Your nature. You infused the fulgurite with shadow, but you have also developed your own natural shadow essence and have further infused the material,” Luna replied. 

Feeling a sense of worry, Bucky began to wonder if eating all the bean and barley soup he had eaten was a good idea. He could feel his stomach sloshing when he moved. And based upon Sentinel’s expression, Sentinel was having a similar issue. 

“Father, this will be disorienting. Seeing in all directions at the same time is confusing,” Sentinel warned. 

“Couldn’t possibly be worse than winking for the first time,” Bucky muttered. 

Raising her eyebrow, Luna gave Bucky a cold glare. “So confident.” 

“Uh oh,” Sentinel groaned. 

“Brace yourselves,” Luna instructed. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky tapped into his inner resolve and waited for whatever came next. He felt a curious sensation all over his body. He could hear a faint lullabye, but it was inside of his head, in between his ears somehow. A sort of soothing hum. The world lost its sharp focus and became hazy. 

And then, everything went wrong. 

Bucky could see in all directions all at once and his mind had no frame of reference to fall back upon for this sort of event. He wanted to breathe but he currently had no lungs. He felt as though he was strangling. He needed air but there was none to be had. The memory of his lungs needed air he realised. He forced whatever was left of his mind to cast that memory aside. As he tried to look around him, he saw white flakes, little flurries of snow swirling around. 

The need to be in a body again was overwhelming. It was like an ache. It was like being underwater for too long and needing to come to the surface, but unable to reach the surface. 

Bucky realised it felt an awful lot like dying. 

And then he was solid again. He landed in the grass on his side and, hitting hard, and he lay there gasping for air. Each lungful of air burned and caused exquisite agony. This was somehow worse than winking for the first time. For a moment, he thought he was going to be sick. 

“That was unexpected,” Luna announced as Bucky writhed on the ground. If she felt any concern for Bucky at all, she didn’t show it. Luna coughed and backed away from Bucky, taking Sentinel with her in her magic. 

“My nose burns,” Sentinel muttered, wiping his nostrils. He sneezed a few times and spat. 

“You okay? You should be okay,” Luna said, real concern in her voice for Sentinel. “As a shadow creature, you should be alright. Anything else would be dead right now.” She looked into Sentinel’s watery eyes and studied him carefully. 

“What happened?” Sentinel asked, his eyes red and bloodshot. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Ugh, I feel awful.” 

“Your father became a freezing cloud of poisonous shadow mist,” Luna said. She coughed again and wiped her nose. She lowered her head down to the ground, wiped her nose along the grass, and then snorted a few times to clear her nostrils. “Anything not like us would be dead. All of the toxins your father has absorbed in his life have returned to haunt us.” 

A long runny ribbon of snot dribbled from Sentinel’s nose and he snorted to free himself from it. It went flying off in an parabolic arc and landed in the grass some distance away, shimmering moonlight reflected upon the shiny surface of the mucus missile. 

“So I shouldn’t shadow dive around other ponies?” Bucky groaned, still trying to recover. 

“No,” Luna replied. “You’d kill them. Or make them wish they were dead, like Sentinel and I are feeling right now.” 

“The cold wasn’t so bad… but the stink. The STINK!” Sentinel complained. 

“I know. That was almost pure hydrogen sulphide. Ugh,” Luna remarked. 

“Rotten eggs!” Sentinel shouted. He had recovered enough to begin running away, his wings flapping as he ran. 

“I regret nothing,” Bucky muttered. 

“Foul smelling knave,” Luna retorted. “I desire that we become better strangers!” Taking off after Sentinel, Luna left Bucky sprawled in the grass. “The scent of War is most undesirable!” 

Chortling, Bucky felt pretty good about himself all things considered. One more weapon in his arsenal, though he would never be able to use it around ponies. 

“Luna?” Bucky asked in a quizzical tone. 

“Yes?” Luna replied, now a safe distance away. 

“I was thinking earlier… where are all of these powerful unicorns coming from that have killed off the Black Cloaks and are running around down the Badlands? The nobles from Canterlot don’t seem to be the cause. Something doesn’t add up,” Bucky said, revealing this thoughts. 

“I had hopes that you wouldn’t figure this out just yet,” Luna said. 

“You have a blind spot. A group of ponies you can’t track. Can’t see into,” Bucky stated. 

“I do,” Luna admitted. 

“So are they unicorns from another part of the world? Trottingham? The Old World?” Bucky questioned. “And why can’t you sense them, find them, go into their dreams, discover their motives, etcetera?” 

“My sister and I don’t know. But we are aware of them,” Luna said. “We know they move among us.” 

“Changelings?” Bucky asked. 

“No… we know too much about changeling illusion now. I’ve been inside of Shining Armor’s mind. Chrysalis left behind too many secrets of how their magic works. Shining Armor saw everything, even if he doesn’t remember it. I was able to study everything in detail. The changelings are no longer much of a threat,” Luna explained. “Plus, I have been studying Slate. He dreams. I’ve been inside of his mind. He loves. And I’ve seen him for how he really is in dreams. He is still a bug, but his body is no longer full of gaps or holes. Love has healed him. Real love, given to him by Lily, Roseluck, and Daisy. Difficult to go into Slate’s head for dreams, but it keeps getting easier. As time goes on, he becomes more and more like a pony. His dream self, what he truly is, is changing. He is becoming a pony on the inside.” 

“So the changelings are ponies?” Sentinel asked. 

“Maybe. Under some curse perhaps. Curses are funny things. My sister has high hopes that Dinky will be able to unravel the mystery. Perhaps love is what heals of them of their affliction,” Luna replied. 

“I think I am ready to try again,” Bucky said. 

“And I think that Sentinel and I will stay over here this time, thou foul smelling malodorous miscreant,” Luna responded. 

“Knave of noxious vapours?” Sentinel hesitantly quipped, looking up at Luna. 

“Oh very good… I like that one,” Luna said, her voice full of praise. “Come. Both of you. There is much to do this night. Let us begin in earnest.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 239
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch quietly read the newspaper at the kitchen table. The past few days had slipped into a sort of quiet routine. There was a lot of canning and food preservation to do before winter, a job that Bon Bon and Lyra excelled at together. The pantry was rapidly filling with jars of canned vegetables and dehydrated eggplants. Berry enjoyed working in the kitchen a great deal. 

But for now, she was content to sip her coffee and read her newspaper. General Iron Sky was now under fire and backpedaling from his comments. A majority of the population not able to vote had left a lot of feathers ruffled. There were demands for his resignation. Mares were demanding their right to serve. The voting process and its details had been released, and the votes would be held soon. 

The official title of the new government was a major source of curiousity for Berry Punch, and it was something she would have to study. Crowned Confederacy. Equestria would be broken down into regions and special powers would be given to the local regions to allow each to run to the best of its abilities. Cloudsdale had no need for a farming oriented government like Ponyville, the paper offered as an example. Each region would have its own representatives in due time. Absolute power would be held by the crown but only used in times of crisis and unrest. Each region would, in time, know how to govern its own needs best. Each region would eventually be given its own Stable of Representatives. 

Berry took another sip of coffee. Government tailored to the needs of a specific region sounded pretty good to her, and each region being able to act autonomously sounded even better. There was no good reason for a representative in Cloudsdale voting about the farming issues or water distribution rights in Ponyville other than for reasons like vote trading, which would only gum up the political process. 

Turning a page, Berry continued to read and ignored the anarchy all around her. Across the table, she could hear Barley clearing his throat. Any moment now she expected for him to start shouting that running needs to be done outside, not indoors. She ignored Piña’s pleading cries for help because Sparkler would not stop blowing raspberries on her belly. 

“FOALS NEED TO RUN OUTSIDE YE LOUSY LITTLE GITS!” 

Sighing contentedly, Berry was thankful to be home and have all of her herd together again. 





Tilting her head off to one side, Loch Skimmer listened carefully to Fluttershy singing. Humming really. The singing would start soon enough when the music within took over. Remembering everything Fluttershy had told her, Loch took a deep breath and sang from her stomach. 

“TRALALALALALA LAAAA LAAA LOOOO LAAAAAA LOOO!” 

The echo of her voice came back to her from the trees. A flock of birds flew away, now terrified, streaking the trees and ground with white as they departed. 

“Ooh… my…” Fluttershy whispered. “Such a powerful voice you have… I’ll try to call the birds back and we will try again. Their little backsides must be puckered by now. Poor little birds.” 

Frustrated, Loch sat down with a thump. “What am I doing wrong?” 

“Oh your singing is wonderful,” Fluttershy said. “But, um, well, there is a tiny bit too much volume. Maybe we should have you whistle… maybe that would be best,” she stammered nervously, uncomfortable with offering any sort of criticism. 

“But I thought I needed volume so all of the birds could hear me. If I sing really loud, I can effect more birds in one area, right?” Loch asked. 

“Try calling the birds Loch. Whistle. Just close your eyes, think about gentle happy thoughts, and whistle,” Fluttershy instructed. 

Doing as she was told, Loch closed her eyes, puckered up her lips, and began to whistle. She thought about all of the things that made her happy. Harper and Peekaboo. Seeing somepony after they had been gone for an hour or two. The time did seem to stretch on forever when somepony she loved was away from her. She thought about moments of laughter with Berry Punch. She loved all of her mothers, but Berry Punch was special. 

“Ooooh keep going,” Fluttershy coaxed. 

Digging a little deeper, Loch Skimmer thought about those most special in her heart. Sparkler, Rising Star, and Ripple. She thought about the different sorts of affection she had for each. She loved Sparkler, but she loved Sparkler in a different way than she did Rising Star. She thought about Ripple. She thought about comforting Ripple during those private moments where all the pain finally came up to the surface and Ripple would cry bitter tears. Fiercely private moments that no other ponies were even aware of. Loch felt something in her heart swell. 

The sky around her was filled with the sounds of birdsong and Loch felt a sense of triumph. 



 

Rising Star watched as the Royal Solar Corps of Engineers surveyed the site of what would soon be his forge. The pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns worked together, efficient in every movement they made, marking off with stakes the perimeter of the building. Ground was going to be broken today. Apparently, getting the forge going was a priority of the Crown, and Rising Star felt a small bit of pride that he and Bucky’s services were so desperately needed. 

“This has to be some kind of dream come true for you,” Sparkler said in a solemn voice. 

“This was a dream I didn’t know I had,” Rising Star admitted to his wife. 

“You don’t seem so depressed,” Sparkler commented as she sidestepped a little closer to Rising Star and watched the engineers working. 

“I’ve been feeling a little bit better actually,” Rising Star replied. “I think ponies are going to vote for me. I don’t know if I will win, but I know they will vote. My forge is being constructed. Bucky and I have talked about me teaching in the school when it is completed. I don’t feel so worthless. So much seems to be depending upon me now.” 

“You were never worthless,” Sparkler said in a comforting voice. 

“Celestia’s meditation trick has helped me. I’ve heard the fire talking to me. It has a voice just like she said it did. It wants things from me. And not burn down everything sorts of things. It wants me to create. To make things. It whispers words of purpose in my ears when I manage to tune everything out and listen,” Rising Star explained. “I can hear the sun talking to me,” he whispered in a very low voice. 

“I’ve been reading… our elemental attunements make us what we are. I’m not connected to fire, lightning, or ice. It’s funny, I always wanted to be a pegasus. It was a dream of mine. But yesterday, while reading about elemental alignments, I discovered that I am an earth pony with a horn. Well, maybe not a real earth pony, but earth ponies tend to be geomantically aligned. There are earth ponies that can talk to rocks. And the rocks supposedly talk back to them and tell them things. If fire talks, then the rocks probably talk as well. Maybe I should spend some time trying to listen,” Sparkler said to her husband in a low voice. “This all sounds so crazy.” 

The pair watched as sky wagons pulled by pegasi came in for a landing in the grassy field some distance away. Building supplies and raw materials were being delivered. More workers were arriving. 

It was shaping up to be a productive day. 



 

“So I said, tulip-ortation? Petal powered magic? Are you crazy?” 

Groaning, Bucky looked pleadingly at Twilight who was sitting across from him in the library of the farmhouse. Twilight looked to be in just as much pain as he was, and he took solace in that fact. Pinkie Pie was truly unbearable at this early hour. 

“So you’re telling me that pegasi live in giant gourds in the Isles?” Rainbow Dash asked, bringing up a conversation from a previous day. “Like the little gourds that Fluttershy turns into birdhouses?” 

“Yes Dash,” Bucky replied. 

“Twilight, why don’t we grow those here? I mean, the housing issue. If we can grow those big gourds and get that magical fertiliser from Zecora, we could grow giant gourds and at least the pegasi would have a home for the winter if we could grow enough. I don’t know how they would keep warm, but it is a sheltered dry place,” Rainbow Dash insisted. “We still need to find a place for the earth ponies though.” 

“Oh I am positive the pegasi would find a way to keep warm piled inside of a gourd,” Twilight said, a blush covering her cheeks. 

“I could fly out to the Shetlands. I bet I could do it in less than a day. I could get a whole bunch of gourd seeds. I could be there and back again in three days, tops,” Rainbow Dash boasted. 

Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips together and looked thoughtful at Rainbow Dash’s words. 

“It is a sound idea. We could easily hang the gourds from trees. If need be, we could probably find a way to put them on a crude foundation and have them on the ground as well. Craft a simple door to keep the weather out. Not an ideal house, but it would allow ponies to make it through the winter with some kind of shelter. We’d need hundreds of gourds though. I don’t know how many,” Bucky said while gesturing with his stump. 

“The first gourds we grow would provide seeds for more gourds. We’ve been experimenting with magical fertiliser, the food grown from it is… off. The food is greatly enlarged, but offers no more nutrition than say an apple of normal size. It hasn’t been a solution for feeding the masses. But the gourds wouldn’t be for eating. Just living in… and already giant gourds would become even larger…  Rainbow Dash, I am going to need for you to head for the Shetlands. I will write you a letter explaining what we need,” Twilight said. 

“Awesome…” Rainbow Dash gasped, her excitement already building. 

“Once you have cleared the coastline, you are cleared for as much speed as equinely possible. I will be outfitting you with a tracker to measure your speed. We’ll take care of several tasks all at once,” Twilight Sparkle stated. 

“Dashie… good luck!” Pinkie Pie said. 



 

“Chickens and ducks,” Ripple said as she watched the crates being unloaded from the wagon. She fluffed out her feathers and studied the chickens. “What is to be done with these chickens and ducks?” She had seen chickens in a book, but she knew what ducks were. 

“Fresh eggs,” Pinto Bean said, watching his sons unload the wagon. “Maybe for eating sometimes,” he added, shuddering as he spoke. “But eggs are valuable.” 

“I don’t recognise that,” Ripple said. 

“That’s a goose. There is also a gander in the wagon,” Pinto replied. He sat down and rested his back. “Geese also produce eggs. Big eggs. Delicious eggs.” 

“My mother Bon Bon said she is going to start pickling eggs. She wants me to help her so I can learn a valuable skill,” Ripple said as she watched the fowl being unloaded. 

“Pickled eggs are good eating,” Butter Bean quipped as he set down a crate full of chickens. He wiped his brow and looked at his father. “This is a lot better than pulling a mine cart.” 



 

Freezerburn perched on the porch railing and began to preen his feathers. His mate, Philomena, was sitting beside him, cooing softly and fluffing out her feathers. It was time to build a nest somewhere, and this seemed like as good as place as any. There were ley lines nearby in the Everfree, an intersection, so there was plenty of magic in the area to draw from. The nearby forest and swamps were also filled with abundant food, including Freezerburn’s favourite meal, hydra spawn. Just rip off one head, fly away with it, and there was a feast of flesh, eyeballs, and brains. Philomena was more into fruits, vegetables, and seeds, but he did not begrudge her. 

He gave his mate a loving head bonk and then squawked loudly to claim his territory. 
	

	
> Chapter 240
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in deep concentration, Piña tried to focus her will. Her father was sitting beside her, and she tried to match his steady breathing. For almost an hour the day before they had done this, and nothing had happened other than a strange feeling of pressure and a faint tingling in her hooves. 

She was determined to become an earth pony mystic. 

Not far away, Berry Punch laid in the grass watching Piña, Dinky, and Bucky meditating together. Dinky was levitating slightly, as Rising Star was also starting to do on occasion. A state of supreme focus, something few adult unicorns managed, from what little bit that Berry knew about magic. 

“Dinky… do you wish to try teleporting?” Bucky asked in a low whisper. 

There was no response right away. Dinky continued to levitate slightly, just a few inches above the grass. Her eyes remained shut. The only observable response for a while was the movement of her throat as she swallowed. Finally, she spoke. 

“I am ready,” Dinky responded. 

She disappeared in a burst of cold and reappeared a fair distance away. Berry Punch was up on her hooves in a hurry when she heard Dinky gag and strangle. A second later, Dinky was vomiting out her breakfast all over the grass. 

Somehow, Piña held her concentration even with the sounds of her sister being violently ill and the sudden burst of freezing cold. She suspected that her father had teleported Dinky for that very reason, and Piña tightened her resolve and focus. She forced her body to relax and listened to the sound of her father’s breathing. 



 

Sitting at the kitchen table, Sentinel watched his mothers working, Lyra and Bon Bon both preserving food for what was certain to be a difficult winter. As they worked, he sketched what he saw, Bon Bon standing on her hind legs at the stove and Lyra beside her at the counter. An army of jars stood ready. 

“How do I talk to fillies?” Sentinel asked. 

Continuing at her task, Bon Bon took a deep breath. “Just talk to them, dear. Why don’t you ask your father for his advice?” 

“I plan to do that, but both of you are lesbians. You have experience in talking to fillies or mares. You know what fillies want to hear, right?” Sentinel asked. He had been thinking about this for a while, and he felt his logic was unassailable. 

Tittering, Lyra looked over her shoulder at Sentinel and smiled. 

Snatching a carrot with his thumb, Sentinel lifted it to his mouth and began crunching down upon it. He chewed thoughtfully and slowly, holding the carrot in the thumb of his left wing, while he continued to scribble with his right wing. He swallowed and looked at Bon Bon. “Fillies confuse me.” 

“Oh that’s how it is supposed to be, dear,” Bon Bon said as she worked. “I suppose you are confused about what Diamond Tiara did.” 

“Moonbow too… I miss her,” Sentinel said morosely. “I have weird feelings. I want to protect fillies… mares… females… but I don’t want them to feel like I am superiour, like they need my protection, that they are somehow weaker. I don’t know how to be chivalrous without being insulting. My officer’s manual says to behave in a chivalrous manner at all times and protect the weaker sex. But I don’t think they are weaker at all. Nothing makes sense right now.” 

“Oh my, this is a moral conundrum,” Bon Bon replied. She turned her head and looked at Lyra, her face serious, her previous smile now gone. “I thought you were having the usual problems a colt your age has with fillies. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you ask me something this complex.” 

“Bonnie, he is a sensitive little introvert like me. He is never going to have the common problems common to colts his age,” Lyra said in a low voice. For a moment, Lyra felt an odd emotion and she couldn’t tell what it was. It was almost like a physical ache in her barrel, and then the feeling passed. 

“I wish I understood why Diamond Tiara did what she did. I fail to understand her motivations,” Sentinel said, explaining his position. “And since that happened, there has been this weird awkwardness between me and my sisters. My sisters and I… ugh, they’ve been treating me differently ever since it happened and I can’t figure out why. And when I asked them about it last night, they got quiet and changed the subject. And I can’t figure out why.” 

“Sentinel, they are probably embarrassed and ashamed that their friend used you,” Lyra replied after thinking about Sentinel’s words for a few moments. “They know that Diamond Tiara has some behavioural troubles. Maybe they feel bad that you saw a bad side of her.” 

“I have a bad side,” Sentinel admitted. 

Snorting once, twice, and then a third time, Bon Bon finally laughed. 

“I do too have a bad side. Sometimes I am curt,” Sentinel confessed, his ears splaying out sideways. His once torn ear flickered. It had healed well enough, but it was sometimes a bit spastic. 

Unable to help herself, Lyra began to chortle. She tried to hold it back, but failed completely and finally let out a chuckle. “Sentinel, if that is the worst your bad side has to offer, I think you’ll be okay,” she said, still sniggering slightly as she spoke. 



 

“Surprise will be out this way in a few days,” Derpy announced. 

“So I’ll be able to fly again?” Yew asked. 

“Yes,” Derpy replied.

Dancing in place, Yew looked extremely pleased. She danced a little jig of happiness, her hooves clattering on the hardwood floor. 

“Are you happy in the attic?” Derpy inquired. 

“I like it. Barley says he is going to have a door put in and a little balcony for us to take off and fly from. And get it insulated before the winter. Right now the only problem is going up all of the stairs,” Yew responded. 

“Lugus is a big creature,” Derpy stated. “I worry about him being comfortable. I mean, he’s huge. Nothing is big enough for him. Couches, sofas, chairs, rooms, beds, bathtubs, he’s a giant. He has trouble going through doors.” 

“He’s a big pussycat… eagle hawk bird of prey creature… I’m trying to say he’s gentle,” Yew replied. “He’s been good to me. I'll curl up at night and he wraps himself completely around me. It’s like sleeping in a walled fortress.” 

“You love him,” Derpy said. 

“Like you love Bucky,” Yew answered. “Our foals are going to grow up as sisters.” 

“I think so,” Derpy agreed. 

“Sissy,” Harper announced from where she was sitting on her quilt. 

“Yes! Sissy!” Yew praised, looking at Harper. 

“Can you say my name? Not mama, but my name?” Derpy asked. 

“Burpy?” Harper replied, her brows furrowing with concentration. 

“Close enough,” Derpy sighed. She pointed at Yew. “What about her name?” 

Harper looked briefly frustrated. “She.” 

“No, her name is Yew,” Derpy corrected. 

“Harpy?” Harper inquired. 

“No, Yew,” Derpy said again. 

“Me?” Harper asked. 

Realising the problem, Derpy sighed and gave up. 



 

The late afternoon sun shone brightly. Bucky and Sparkler, well rested and full of energy, looked at one another for some time, studying each other’s moods. Sparkler didn’t seem nearly as twitchy as she sometimes was, and Bucky was in an unusually subdued and laid back mood. 

“Ready?” Bucky asked after several minutes of silently settling in. 

Sparkler said nothing but nodded. 

The Tree of Harmony was not too far away and it sat upon an intersection of ley lines. Bucky reached out with his mind and touched the lines, drawing energy from them. He then drew Sparkler in, causing her to gasp loudly. When the magic overtook her, she turned to stone, first grey stone, and then it steadily darkened until she had turned into what appeared to be a  mass of black obsidian. 

Both unicorns rose up into the air, moving in a binary orbit around one another. A line of raw crackling magic went from Sparkler’s horn down directly into the earth. The ground trembled and there was low rumble that filled the air. 

The earth split open a moment later and a spike of black basalt came creeping up like a sapling seeking the sun. It curled and moved around, finding its direction, and then more earth was moved aside. A mass of black rock came creeping out, slow and steady. It moved like clay upon a potter’s wheel, flexible and supple, flexing and moving under Sparkler’s magical guidance. 

It snaked skyward, moving ever so slowly, gaining mass and width. It did not grow in a straight line. It moved fluidly. There were curves, twists, bulbous protrusions, and a strangely organic looking growth. At a little over one hundred feet tall, it stopped. It continued to widen, nooks appeared in the sides, places where pegasi could sun themselves just as Bucky requested. The top of the tower split open like a gaping maw. Bucky intended to create a glass dome to cover it. The sides continued to widen and spread out. Windows opened along the sides and a door opened near the base. 

Inside, stairs formed a sloping spiral leading up along the inner outer walls. Multiple floors appeared, seven floors in total, and doors opened along the stairs to give access to the different floors. The stairs were wide enough for a pegasus to fly up. Several nooks were created along the stairs for decorations. Fireplaces bubbled into existence. Not big square fireplaces, but round curved fireplaces that were rotund with small openings. The stone would absorb heat from the fire and radiate warmth for hours. 

More stairs formed, leading into the bulbous room in the bottom of the tower, which would become a vault. The whole tower had once been a massive solid boulder. The inside of the boulder had been hollowed out and reshaped into the tower that was now above ground. 

The tower was near the school, but not too near, and was roughly the same size as the dormitory towers, but much wider. Towers were efficient and efficiency appealed to most unicorns. Maximised living space in the smallest available footprint and easy to heat in the wintertime since heat rises. 

The tower was not at all straight. It leaned to one side, then the other, some sections were wider, others were thinner, and it appeared to look more like a tree trunk than anything else. None of the windows were any kind of recognisable shape. 

Bucky let go of Sparkler’s mind and both of them fell to the grass with a gasp, and Sparkler slowly returned to her normal pony form, the stone fading into flesh. 



 

The tower would need to have a secure door made. Bucky made his way through the entrance and looked around. The stairs looked like they were made of black flowing liquid. Each stair was slightly different in shape and size. The first floor was open. There were stairs going up, and there were stairs going down into what would be the vault. He would need to construct a door that would keep his orb safe. The entry room needed furniture Bucky decided. He stood at the base of the steps and snorted. He winked, exploding into a cloud of snowflakes, leaving Sparkler behind to climb the stairs. 

He appeared on the second floor and nearly slipped and fell down the stairs, stepping on his own sheet ice. A quick cantrip saved him. He stepped off the landing and went through the door into the second floor room. He peered around. Large and spacious, and rather egg shaped. He liked it. There was a fireplace along the far wall. Several windows let in light. 

Sparkler moved into the room to look around and he left her behind. He winked again once he stood on the landing. Several quick winks later, he was on the top floor, and had a good idea of where not to wink, so he didn’t teleport into a solid wall. Now he could travel from the first floor to the top. The room at the top he planned to turn into his office as Headmaster. It was much larger than Celestia’s office, and this made him feel more than a little pleased. 

When the glass dome was constructed he could place a ledge around the outer perimeter to walk on when star gazing. He could hear Sparkler’s laboured breathing as she trotted up the stairs. The sound of her discomfort brought him a strange sense of satisfaction. 

“Think of the students. They will be exhausted when they reach me. And quite easy to manage I suspect,” Bucky said with a wicked grin. 

“You… are… a… bad… pony…” Sparkler panted as she finally crested the stairs. 

“I make no claims on goodness,” Bucky said in a serious voice, his grin vanishing. 

“You… stinky… cheese… smelling… warlock… you… need… to… teach… me… tele… port… tation…” Sparkler heaved. 

“Why yes, I do believe being sent to see the Headmaster will be quite a punishment. Nothing quite like climbing to the top of a hundred foot tall tower,” Bucky stated, looking thoughtful as Sparkler heaved out a sigh and fell to the floor. “Note to self. Place a trash can right near the door for students who are bound to throw up.” 

“You… dastard!” Sparkler huffed as she lay on her sides. For the first time in her life, Sparkler finally believed that her father might be capable of a tiny bit of evil. 
	

> Chapter 241
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was fascinating watching Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks move around the farmhouse and cast warding spells. They moved in perfect harmony with one another, always close, their magic wove together into single spells of perfect execution. The house was being covered in protective wards and defensive measures. 

Bucky moved along behind them, adding his own touches. Aversion fields for those with hostile intent. A new dark magic ward he had learned that not only caused a powerful form of aversion, but also caused fear and confusion as well for those with hostile purposes or intent. It was powerful new magic and this was good practice. Another dark magic ward caused a random teleportation field. It was not a lethal spell, but the rapid fire teleportation would induce severe nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness in all but the most hardy and seasoned teleporters. 

Bucky debated internally about a ward that caused the targets to become deaf, dumb, and blind. It wouldn’t physically hurt them, and the effects could be reversed, but it was a nasty thing to do to somepony. 

He snapped to attention and noticed Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks staring at him. 

“Yes?” Bucky inquired slowly. 

“Your cloak. You are an ENCHANTER. Your cloak should BE interesting. I know a little bit of enchantment, but nothing like you. Have you done anything with your black cloak?” Witching Hour inquired. 

“No… I didn’t know I was supposed to. You mean we actually wear these when out on duty? That’s a bit… corny,” Bucky replied. 

Rolling her eyes and snorting, Witching Hour had trouble believing that somepony so dense could be so powerful and dangerous. “Yes. We actually wear the cloaks when we are out in the field. We don’t stand out because we aren’t seen. WE AREN’T NOTICED. And if by some chance we are, memories are given a little editing because ponies are happier not knowing for certain that we exist. The cloaks are our armor. OUR PROTECTION. Each cloak is unique and represents the wearer. Tiddlywink’s cloak changes to look like clothing depending on who is viewing it. It might look like a rain coat or even a suit jacket. He blends in with the crowd and becomes completely UNREMARKABLE and unobservable.” 

“Oh,” Bucky mumbled. “I see.” 

“BECAUSE YOU SUCK at defensive magic, you should make your cloak as defensive as possible. We can help you. OR YOU CAN GO TO LYRA,” Witching Hour suggested. 

“You seem nervous,” Bucky said casually. 

“I am TELLING my BOSS who is a known WARLOCK that he sucks at MAGIC,” Witching Hour said as she cringed away from Bucky. 

Nodding, Bucky smiled. “I understand. That must be stressful,” he said in reassuring voice. 

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA,” Witching Hour replied in a somehow shy and sheepish manner. 

Bucky found that he rather liked the dark blue mare and the orange-yellow stallion. For all of their quirks, they were good unicorns and Bucky was glad to have some of the faith in his own type restored. He had been having some issues with his own kind lately after having to deal with his own traitorous house. 

“WE HAVE decided to STAY,” Witching Hour stated, snapping Bucky back to attention. “We like your TOWER. It is CHARMING. The tower is what has sold us on the idea of working together.” 

“Sparkler and I could probably help you shape stone into another tower. But we’d need to find a big boulder for Sparkler to work with,” Bucky offered. 

“Thank you,” Witching Hour said graciously. 

“So tell me… what do you know about the unicorns that are running around that nopony can seem to find…” Bucky inquired. 



 



Today, I finally ran down and devoured a squirrel. It took a great deal of effort, and the burst of speed I had to summon near the end was considerable, but the squirrel was delicious. They are rats with big fluffy tails. The bones are easily crunched and swallowed without complications. 

Much to my dismay, there were witnesses. Dinky and Piña will recover in time I hope. 

My mother Thistle tells me I need to lay off the frogs, my constant snacking is hurting their numbers. She scowled at me and scolded me about the still kicking frog leg sticking out of the side of my mouth after she caught me in the act. She doesn’t understand how tasty they are. They’re slippery and really easy to swallow whole. She doesn’t particularly like frogs and she doesn’t understand why I love them so much. 

I performed a valuable service today in the garden. Working among the earth ponies my father has hired, I went through the garden and devoured any slugs I could find. I did the best I could to ignore the gagging and retching sounds all around me. While bugs are crunchy and delicious, slugs are slurpable and chewy. I also found a really big nightcrawler which had a pleasant earthy flavour. 

I found a dead woodchuck. It was slightly rotten and mouth wateringly stinky. Took me a while to track it down and find it, it was near a stump at the edge of the treeline. Thankfully, nopony was around to witness me eating it. It tasted really good, things that are rotten always taste just a little bit better, but it has given me terrible gas. I am not supposed to eat carrion. I feel kind of guilty for doing it, but it smelled so good and tasted even better. At least I resisted the urge to roll in it, the compulsion was almost overpowering. So stinky!

I feel so ashamed. I farted in the kitchen, a carrion fart. Mother Lyra vomited into the sink and claims that the smell curdled the milk in her teats. I certainly hope this is not the case. I feel terrible. I want to die from the shame I feel. I can’t help how I am. It is a struggle to contain my inner nature. 

Earlier today, near the treeline, I saw a strange animal I’ve never seen before. It was black, had white stripes, and sort of looked like some kind of cat. I wonder how it tastes. After I am done writing, I think I will try to catch one if I can find one. So many things to eat, so little time. 

 




Sparkler read the scroll from Twilight Sparkle for the third time and tried to come up with something other than anger in response. She wasn’t angry with Twilight, far from it, but angry at the situation. Out of the thousands of ponies in Ponyville, a miniscule number were interested in police work. 




Thunderlane. Pegasus. Cool head. Militia member. Not terribly bright but faithful, loyal, and true to any cause he lends himself to. 

Big McIntosh. Earth Pony. Gentle giant. Strong. Cool headed. Physically intimidating. Stubborn and honest. 

Sunshower Raindrops. Pegasus. Exceptionally strong flier. Exceptional intelligence. Can communicate with birds and has a predilection for gossip. Tends to know what is going on. 

Blossomforth. Pegasus. Flexible. Scrapper. Capable melee combatant. Fearless in defense of her friends. Known risk taker. A bit hot headed. 

Bulk Biceps. AKA: Snowflake. Pegasus. Sounds scary but is actually quite timid and shy. He’s willing to serve and might be useful in situations that require muscle. Rivals Big Mac for strength. 

Cherry Berry. Earth Pony. Head of the Ponyville Airborne Watch Union. Smart. Observant. 

Holly Dash. Unicorn. (Type II) Helped to save Mayor Mare from unknown assailant. Now filled with a desire to protect and defend. 

Twinkleshine. Unicorn. (Type II) Highly social extravert. Good with ponies. Friendly. Good at calming down crowds. Has helped Barley deal with the refugees for quite some time. 

Orange Swirl. Pegasus. Fast. Works as a messenger and she delivered this scroll. Fearless. Organised. Strong communications skills. 


 

A meeting with all of them had been arranged in just a few days, giving Sparkler time to prepare. She didn’t know what to do, and for a moment, she felt a burst of panic. She had no idea what she was doing. She wondered briefly if she was in over her head. 

She quickly recovered her resolve though, determined to see this through. Hopefully, the first recruits would be enough to show ponies that a difference could be made and more ponies would join. Foal steps. 

Heading off to the house, she hoped she could talk to Berry Punch for some advice. 



 

“So these unicorns just start showing up from out of nowhere and start creating trouble,” Bucky said, trying to understand everything he had just heard. 

“Yes. Look, we were going to tell you eventually, but Princess Luna wanted to give you some time to settle in. She was hoping that as the, uh, unascended alicorn of war, you’d be able to sniff out their weakness and hopefully start figuring out who and what they are,” Witching Hour said. 

Bucky eased himself against the cushioned back of the chair and rested his barrel upon the arm of the chair, leaving his front legs dangling over the side. He thought for a moment, trying make sense of everything he had heard. 

“We have a mystery,” Witching Hour stated. 

“We certainly do,” Bucky agreed. “I need more information. I need everything you know. I need everything Luna knows. And maybe I should talk to Celestia too.” 

“Or Twilight,” Witching Hour said. 

“What does she know?” Bucky asked. 

“Twilight Sparkle has a hunch. She believes that the unicorns are mirror travelers. She can’t prove it yet. It is just a hunch. But Twilight, like you, has powerful hunches. Celestia believes Twilight is wrong and they are simply from another part of this world. Luna hasn’t taken sides because of the delicacy of the issue,” Witching Hour replied. 

“Is there something I am missing?” Bucky asked. 

Sighing, Witching Hour nodded. “Celestia was in love with Sombra. A different Sombra. One that existed on the other side of a mirror. Twilight and her friends had to get involved. There was a dimensional rift. I don’t know all of the details, but this Sombra was good. And immortal apparently. He and Celestia have been seeing one another for the past thousand years or so. I don’t know how it ended, but the Elements of Harmony had to be used. Celestia came back kind of broken. It took her a while to recover. Now, Twilight Sparkle sees a new threat and believes they are mirror hoppers, and Celestia dismisses it by saying that Twilight Sparkle is making an assumption because of whatever happened on the other side of the mirror,” Witching Hour explained in a calm collected voice. 

“Sheesh,” Bucky gasped. He shivered and shuddered, realising his own relation to Sombra and then he thought about Celestia thinking about him in that way. “What a mess. Now I am worried about talking to Celestia about this.” 

“You should be worried. She is very sore about the issue. Any mention of mirrors is met with outright hostility. The room becomes kinda hot and stuffy. She just lost her secret lover of the past one thousand years,” Witching Hour whispered. 

“Celestia deserves any comfort she can find,” Bucky said in Celestia’s defense, knowing full well what Celestia had been doing for the past thousand years. His mind filled with images of the cosmic alicorn and everything he was shown. He was probably one of the few ponies that had any hope of understanding Celestia’s true pain, and he was completely unable to say anything. The realisation almost made him cackle. 



 

The house filled with screams as Sentinel made his way through the front door. He staggered, having difficulty seeing, and long streams of drool dribbled from his lips. 

“STINK!” 

“STANKY!” 

“WHAT DIED?” 

“ACH… CRIVENS! SOMETHING DINNAE SMELL GOOD!” 

“SENTINEL! UGH!” 

“MOMMY! SMELLS BAD! REAL BAD!” 

There was the sound of retching from the kitchen and the clatter of glass. 

“That’s twice today… what is that abominable odour? Lyra, you okay?” 

Sentinel fell to the floor and wished that he would die. The black and white striped cat like creature had sprayed him with some noxious liquid that had squirted out of its backside. It was like being bathed in liquid farts. His father’s cloud of freezing toxic mist smelled worse, but the black and white creature’s chemical defense had a much stronger effect. 

He looked up and saw his mother Derpy looked down at him through his blurred vision caused by his burning eyes. “Mama… help me,” he begged. 

“My colt found a skunk,” Derpy said as she tried not to gag. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 242 (May contain kinky!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ripple and Sentinel both sat in the library, reading different officer’s manuals. Ripple looked serious and was focused on her reading. Sentinel was distracted. A useful spell from Bucky had gotten rid of the stink, but the memory lingered on. 

Barley was in the room with them, reading through a book borrowed from the Ponyville library. He was silent, his eyes were on the book, but his mind was someplace else. There was so much to worry about. The refugees and the coming fall and winter. Concern about the spreading cases of infectious hoof rot. His overly curious nephew that had tried to eat a skunk. And the concern of having enough food to make it through the winter, not just for the town, but here at home. Unicorns ate a lot of food when using magic. Root vegetables were being planted for the fall, as well as some squash and a few other fast growing late summer early fall friendly crops. He hoped there were enough neeps and tatties to get them through the winter. 

Rising Star came into the library, flopped down in a chair, and then he levitated over a book about practical applications for pyromancy. He yawned, having had a long day, and then settled in for some serious reading. Tonight’s chapter was all about a spell called “flamewhip” and its many uses, both in and out of combat. 



 

“We’ve been home all this time and no grocery store,” Piña said in a low whisper to Dinky, who was in the bed beside her. “Papers say the grocery stores are kinda empty though. I guess there is no point in going.” 

“Things will get better soon Piña,” Dinky responded reassuringly. 

“All of the seats have been torn out of the theatre and it is being used to house sick ponies who can’t be outside,” Piña said, glad to have Dinky close. “Think Ripple will come to bed with us tonight Dinks?” 

“I hope so. I miss sleeping with my mom… with everypony. We all slept together in a big pile for so long. Now I can’t even sleep unless I have somepony in the bed with me. Sentinel has his own room. Nothing is like it was,” Dinky whispered in reply. 

“I feel really bad about what Diamond Tiara did to Sentinel. I’m kinda angry with her. But at the same time, I understand she’s lonely. She’s older than us and she likes colts. I don’t know what to do Dinks. I feel bad that she did what she did to Sentinel and Luna. We spent so much time telling Sentinel how she was our friend and she-” 

“She made a mistake Piña,” Dinky interrupted. “What are we going to do? Ditch her? Abandon her? Sentinel is able to forgive her. We should too. It will be awkward for a while but it will blow over.” 

Piña pulled Dinky closer and squeezed the now smaller unicorn. Piña had grown over the summer. Where once they had been almost the same size, Piña was now larger, heavier, and bulkier, filling out as an earth pony usually does as they race towards their first milestones of maturity. 

“Gonna be your birthday soon,” Dinky said just before she yawned. 

“You know, I don’t wanna celebrate my birthday,” Piña said.

“Why not?” Dinky asked, now puzzled. She felt Piña stroking her side along her ribs and began to feel even more sleepy. 

“Just don’t. Feels wrong. There is all these foals living in dirty camps with hoof rot and I am in this warm soft bed with you and I am completely safe and secure with a whole army of parents and siblings that love me and there are no shadow wolves trying to eat me or crystal liches trying to scare me to death and I have it really good right now… and a birthday party really isn’t necessary,” Piña explained in response. “I heard Berry and Bon Bon talking. There might not be enough food to make it through the winter here on our farm. We’re going to have to feed the earth ponies we have working the land and all of us.” 

“You sound like a grown up,” Dinky retorted. 

“We’ve both grown up,” Piña stated. “We’ve matured. We’re not the foals we used to be.” 

“Diamond Tiara is a bit like us… she’s matured. Sure, she did something stupid, but she knows she did something stupid. And she feels bad. I think were all going to be different from the other foals around us. More grown up because of what happened,” Dinky whispered in the dark room to Piña. 

“We still get along okay with Citrus. She is about our age,” Piña stated. 

“Piña?” 

“Yes Dinky?” 

“Have you noticed anything different going on “down there” between your legs now that you’ve gotten a little older?” 

“I haven’t had a heat.” 

“I know… but I kinda noticed the other day when I was climbing over the arm of the couch and I straddled it for a moment like a ponyback ride, I kinda rubbed up against it and it made me feel tingly all over down there and my pucker clenched up and felt real tight. My dock had this prickly feeling like little bugs were crawling all over it,” Dinky confessed. 

“I’ve had that happen once or twice,” Piña admitted. 

“When we were staying in Canterlot, I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard Moonbow in the bed next to us. She was rubbing herself and kinda moaning Sentinel’s name. I would hear wet squishy sounds like a pony stepping in the mud. It made me feel really confused and funny all over. I still don’t know how to feel about it. I haven’t told anypony until just now,” Dinky whispered. 

“Yuck,” Piña gasped. 

“It was kinda gross but it was also kinda sweet. I mean, she was thinking about our brother while she was… you know… um…” Failing to find any suitable words, Dinky fell silent. 

“Yuck!” Piña said again with a shudder. 



 

“Hoo howdy sure is a pretty moon out tonight Silver.” 

The orange mare’s beauty was breathtaking under normal circumstances, but seeing her in the moonlight, soaking wet and streaming water as she sat on a rock after a late night swim inflamed Silver Shill. He coughed a little bit to clear his throat and moved a little closer to the earth pony mare. 

“I know what you’re up to loverboy, creeping up on me all coy like and hoping I won’t notice ‘cause I’m looking up at the moon. I bet you your trying to think of something clever to say with that there silver tongue of yours.” 

“I am much happier as an honest earth pony,” Silver Shill confessed. 

“Lying ain’t no good for us earth ponies. Gives us the heebie jeebies and discombobulates us from nature. I know from experience. Earth ponies was made to be honest.” 

“We’ve been friends for quite some time… well, business partners, then friends… and recently, things have changed and I don’t feel honest anymore being around you,” Silver Shill admitted. 

“Oh? And what great lie are you telling now, grifter?” 

“Applejack, I don’t wanna be your friend anymore… withholding the truth is the same as lying,” Silver Shill said as he scooted just a little bit closer to the fiery mare. 

“Oh… I see how it is… so that’s how it is gonna be, huh?” 

“Applejack, I’d rather have you as a wife,” Silver Shill stated in a low voice, looking up at the moon and hoping that his heart didn’t explode in his barrel. 

“Well… shucks. Why didn’t you say so sooner? You kept me waiting you silver tongued con artist,” Applejack said with a snort. “For a time, I thought your gate opened the other way. I’ve been sending all kinds of signals.” 

“I know. I wanted to prove myself, to show I was being honest,” Silver Shill responded. 

“Oh I has me a plan on how you can show me that you’re honest. I’m gonna put that tongue of yours to work, you sly trickster you. Now I’m gonna lay my body down in that soft grass over yonder, where it is damp and cool, and you’re gonna hunt my radish…  got it?” Applejack said. 



 

Sitting at the kitchen table, Derpy thought about everything that needed to be done. Her old house needed to be packed up and cleaned out, and everything brought here. She had no idea what to do with the house. Much to her surprise, it had been paid off completely by an anonymous source and she was the sole owner. Holding on to it seemed wise. Sparkler and her herd might want to move out someday. 

The house was quiet. The foals were upstairs asleep. Sparkler was outside in the cool of the evening running laps around the house and the lake. The rest of her herd was in the library. Derpy loved quiet moments like these. Soothing downtime for any introvert. She knew that Bon Bon and Lyra were on the back porch relaxing after a long day of work. She didn’t know what Bucky was doing. He had vanished. Berry had taken a bath and Derpy guessed that she had gone to bed. She wasn’t sure where Thistle was, but the lake was a safe guess. 

“Derpy… come to bed. We have a surprise for you,” Berry said in a sultry whisper from the kitchen archway. She gave the grey pegasus her best seductive gaze and batted her eyelashes. 

Giggling, Derpy slipped from her chair and followed Berry down the hall. 



 

Bucky was tied to the bed and Derpy felt something inside of her break. Raw white hot anger flared. She lept forward immediately to free him. “Just because he is my slave doesn’t give us the right to mistreat him!” Derpy said furiously. Reaching the bed, she pulled the cloth gag from Bucky’s mouth and patted him gently, feeling awful for his predicament. 

“Are you okay?” Derpy asked, her tone both worried and furious. 

“I am a unicorn,” Bucky whispered. “Do you think ropes could hold me in this situation?” 

“Oh…” Derpy gasped, realising a mistake might have been made. Her anger melted away and was replaced by confusion. She turned and looked at Berry, flashing a sheepish grin. She turned back to Bucky, put the gag back into place, and then patted him softly once again and he made a muffled moan into the gag. He was tied down on his back and was completely exposed. She turned her head once again, looking at Berry and Thistle. “I don’t understand this. Sorry if I overreacted. I might own him but I never ever want him abused.” 

“Understandable. I suppose I should have warned you,” Berry replied. 

“So why is he tied down? I don’t get what is going on,” Derpy said, her eyes straying to a spot between Bucky’s legs. 

“This is all about trust. Bucky is tied down, helpless, gagged, and he has to trust us to take care of his needs as we take care of ours,” Berry said as she came forward and mounted the bed. She made a gesture for Thistle to come over. “We can do anything to him when he is like this.”

Reaching out with her leg, she ran her folded fetlock over his breastbone and began working her way slowly down Bucky’s belly. “We can make him our toy. We can give him a little loving abuse. We can tease him mercilessly. We can use whatever parts of him we want to satisfy ourselves. But make no mistake, we will use him. If he is naughty, we might spank him. If he is a good little toy, we might let him get off without waiting for too long… but he is ours to play with.” 

“Trust?” Thistle asked. 

“He has to trust us not to hurt him for realsies. There is play and there is real hurt,” Berry explained in a teasing tone of voice. The soft side of her fetlock lingered over a very delicate place on Bucky, rubbing in a little circle. “But the rope lets him know that we are in charge. It is a two way street. We have to trust that Bucky will play by the rules and stay tied down. He could free himself at any time and spoil our fun. So this is a choice for him.” 

Licking her lips, Derpy leaned over Bucky. “So, what do we do first?” she asked. 

“Well, I was thinking tickle torture,” Berry announced. 

“I’m in the mood for… meat,” Thistle whispered. After a moment, she tittered, unable to stay serious after what she said. “You know… after we get done with Bucky, I say we tie up Berry Punch and do awful things to her.” 

“I really like that idea,” Derpy said. “We need to hogtie the wild Shetland mare.” 





Berry Punch checked the ropes once again. With a nudge, she was able to slip the loop from Bucky’s stump. Smiling, she slid it back into place over the end of his severed limb. "If we hurt you at all, or something goes wrong, you just pull this leg free from the rope, wave it around, and we’ll cuddle you until you feel better. Okay?” 

Bucky nodded, unable to reply with the gag in his mouth. 

Smiling, Berry turned to look at Derpy and Thistle. She stood up over Bucky with her tail over his face, the long fine hairs spilling over his muzzle. “So, what do we do?” 

“I say we get each other warmed up,” Thistle said as she pushed Derpy over and flopped down on top of her. She struggled with the grey mare, and the pair began to flounder around the bed, each trying gain dominance.

With Thistle being pregnant, Derpy didn’t try very hard. She allowed herself to be pinned down and dominated, even when Thistle sat down upon her head and dry humped her face. 

Still standing over Bucky, Berry Punch looked down and noticed something was peeking out. “Hey ladies… I think this naughty stallion likes to watch his mares to fight one another.” 

“Am I sexy?” Thistle asked Berry as she sat down on Derpy’s head and ground her bottom against the pegasus. She yelped softly when she felt a gentle tugging nip. 

“So very sexy,” Berry admitted as she watched Thistle get rolled over by Derpy and held down for a moment. Berry saw a flash of orange tongue plunging into Thistle’s fuzzy cleft, and there was a long low moan from the kelpie. She felt the muscles in her dock tensing and her tail slowly rising in arousal. She knew that Bucky was down below her, getting quite a show from the two mares beside him or just by looking up. 

“Not fair, you went right for the licking,” Thistle protested. 

“You sat on my face,” Derpy argued as Thistle wrestled her over. 

Sitting on top of Derpy, Thistle straddled Derpy’s already moistening minge, the mare making meek muffled moans as she did so. There was a salacious sound of succulent suction, as two lewd luscious labias longingly latched, locking lasciviously to one another in lurid lovestruck lust. 

Looking down, Berry Punch could see that Bucky definitely liked what he was watching. She dropped her head and gave a long lick, starting at his flared tip and slowly working down to his balls. The half hard cock twitched and Berry held her head over it, breathing slowly onto the skin. She could see the goose bumps all over Bucky’s body. 

Derpy and Thistle continued their tribadism, something Thistle enjoyed a great deal. Berry took note that Thistle enjoyed external stimulation more than internal stimulation. 

Hearing the moaning from the two mares was making Berry feel wet. She felt something dribble, hot sticky liquid trailing from her now clenching marehood, and she could hear Bucky’s surprised murmur through his gag. She knew without looking that she had dripped on him. Sticking out her tongue again, she gave another long slow lick to Bucky’s now fully erect cock. Her tongue lingered over the flared tip, moving in a circle, and then moved down, zigzagging from side to side as she trailed her way downwards.

Feeling a spike of jealous envy, Berry could hear Derpy was already approaching orgasm. Her oversized clitoris and pent up state allowed her to scratch her itch against Thistle, who was humping back and forth in a furious fashion, her mouth open and her tongue hanging out as she ground away on Derpy’s clenching cleft with her own madly winking and now swollen slit. Berry waited for just the right moment, her body ready to pounce. 

When Derpy started to let out whimpering cries, and with Thistle nowhere near the finish line, Berry Punch sprung into action. She pushed Thistle over, knocking her onto her back, and Berry dove down between her legs. She could taste Derpy’s distinct flavour upon Thistle’s luscious labial lips, and Berry plunged her long tongue down deep into Thistle’s now overly hot and excited folds. The fuzz along the edges was glazed over with squalene secretions, and Berry loved every inch of Thistle’s small delicate marehood. It was like a tiny fragile blossom, a delicate bloom, a rare treat for a hungry earth pony to devour. Thistle was tiny and delicate, and her cunny wasn’t very deep. Berry could lick its deepest and most hidden recesses without effort. 

“Wow, Bucky is really turned on… he’s drooling… there is a puddle forming on his belly,” Derpy announced breathlessly as Berry Punch continued to work poor Thistle over. 

Derpy, feeling creative, maneuvered around the bed until she was sitting at Bucky’s backside. She grabbed his left hind hoof and held it between her own two front hooves, lifting it as much as the rope would allow. Her eyes narrowed into a mischievous expression of well meaning malice. Her tongue came out and she slowly licked one of Bucky’s frogs. 

The effect was immediate. Bucky exploded with muffled laughter through his gag and his whole body tensed. He squirmed against his bonds and was unable to stop Derpy from taking a second lick. 

Derpy allowed her tongue to linger, moving in a lazy circle, pressing down on the soft fleshy pad in the center of Bucky’s hoof. Derpy, still riding the aftereffects of her first orgasm, felt a spike of arousal. Seeing her husband completely helpless and at her mercy turned her on. She also felt a tiny bit of shame because she enjoyed it so much. Watching him and feeling him thrash against his bonds made a hot prickly heat appear in her nethers. She licked his frog again, knowing there was nothing he could do to make her stop. This made Derpy feel incredibly naughty with a touch of guilt. She was torturing her husband and she found herself enjoying it.

The only thing that allowed her to continue was knowing that Bucky could make this stop at any time. She moved on to his right hind hoof and then gave it a teasing lick, and she could hear a frustrated moan from Bucky, followed by involuntary laughter. 

Meanwhile, Berry was getting Thistle frustratingly close to orgasm, only to back and away and tease. Thistle was making little mewling pleading cries now, begging for release. Ignoring Thistle’s cries, Berry focused on Thistle’s teats instead, giving each one a lick with the rough side edge of her tongue. 

“Berry please… don’t tease,” Thistle whined. 

“Oh… we have a beggar… maybe we’ll tie you up next,” Berry said, her hot breath blowing over Thistle’s most delicate places and making the kelpie jerk and twitch. Without a word of warning, Berry latched on to Thistle’s winking nubbin with her lips and suckled, causing Thistle to kick all four legs into the air and squeal, an adorable fillyish squeak of bliss as she finally slipped over the edge, shuddering with a powerful orgasmic spasm in her chasm. 

Lifting her soaked and dripping muzzle from Thistle, Berry turned her attention to Bucky and Derpy. She watched as Derpy licked Bucky’s frogs and Bucky’s reaction was certainly something to see. With each lick, his cock twitched and thudded against his belly. 

Repositioning herself, Berry got herself a mouthful of cock and began sucking. It was far too girthy to get much in, not without making her jaw ache from opening too wide, but she was able to gobble the flared end well enough. She ran her tongue over the tip and teased the opening. A bitter liquid trickled out and Berry shuddered from the taste. 

Bucky didn’t taste like other stallions. His taste had changed since the introduction of meat into his diet. Berry wasn’t sure what to make of the flavour, but it was strong, bitter, pungent, and musky. 

Berry lifted her head away, locking her lips around him with powerful suction to tease him as she pulled up. She could feel Bucky straining beneath her. He was moaning and laughing as the assault upon his frogs continued. She gave a long lick, moving her tongue from his balls up to the tip of the shaft, lingering for a moment as she traveled. 

Thistle, recovering, moved over to Bucky’s left side since Berry was on his right, and Derpy was in the middle. She began licking Bucky’s shaft, her tongue commingling with Berry’s as they worked together. Each shuddering breath was hot upon Bucky’s throbbing foal making pole. 

Derpy, realising she was missing out on the fun, moved up between Bucky’s legs and stuck her head in between Berry and Thistle. Cheek to cheek with her two fellow-wives, she gave Bucky a loving lick, languidly lingering lazily over his balls. They were salty, a bit sweaty, and Derpy rather liked the flavour. They were large, soft, and slipped around in the little sack they called home. This was Derpy’s most treasured object… the source of all future foals in her family. She curiously slurped a testicle into her mouth and applied careful suction. 

“I am so turned on right now, I am about to go off from the feeling of my own winking,” Berry panted, lifting her head up for a moment to take a breather. She was incredibly aroused from watching Bucky struggling against the ropes. 

“More goo is dribbling out,” Thistle said between licks. 

Berry went back to work, teasing with her tongue around the tip. She felt Bucky spasm and knew he was close, so berry close to going off, and Berry wrapped her lips around his flared tip. She ground her tongue down upon the narrow opening and waited, wondering how much of a load Bucky would blow. 

With a grunt, Bucky went off and Berry’s mouth was flooded with hot, salty, bitter, foul tasting cum. Stallion spunk was actually something Berry didn’t mind, but this was even worse than the cock snot she had sampled earlier. She struggled to swallow, gagged, and then fled from the bed and out the door to the bathroom as the rest of Bucky’s seed shot all over his belly and his barrel. 

Feeling adventurous, Thistle gave a lick to the still warm semen. She shuddered. It didn’t taste good at all. Far too bitter. She watched as more stringy strands came spurting out, Bucky’s cock jerking spastically with each burst. 

Crinkling her nose, Derpy watched as Thistle shivered and pulled away. She climbed up over Bucky until she reached his head and loosened his gag. “How was it?” 

“No more frog licking!” Bucky shouted. 

“So… more frog licking in the future,” Derpy replied. 

“No… it tickles,” Bucky begged.

The door opened and Berry came back into the room. “Sorry about that,” she said in an embarrassed voice. 

“You know, Berry is the only one of us who hasn’t gone off,” Derpy announced.  

“There are ways to fix that,” Bucky said, his horn flashing. 



 

Derpy took a long lustful look at Berry Punch, who was hogtied on the bed. She wasn’t tied down like Bucky was. All four legs had been bound together, she had been gagged, blindfolded, and left on her back. Her curvaceous backside was exposed for all to view, her winking pulsating sex out on display. Derpy could even see her tight perky pink little pucker sitting just above her dock. 

“Naughty mares who waste spunk have to be punished,” Derpy announced. She grinned when she heard Berry moan. She gave Berry’s buttocks a good swat and watched as Berry’s marehood quivered in response. She gave another good brisk slap, striking Berry right on the left strawberry, which made Berry cry out into her gag. 

“Did I hurt you?” Derpy asked, now worried, the act dropped. 

Berry shook her head no. 

“This kinda play makes me nervous. How do we know when to stop?” Derpy asked. 

“Comes down to trust,” Bucky stated. “She wants to be dominated. I dunno about you, but I am going to screw this earth pony silly.” 

Berry nodded enthusiastically, unable to respond in any otherway. 

“Before you do, I have my own plans,” Derpy said. “Thistle?” 

“My back hurts. I’m going to lay here and watch. I’m worn out,” Thistle replied. 

“Be my guest,” Bucky said to Derpy with a waving gesture towards Berry. 

Derpy dove in, her head darting down to get lick of Berry’s exposed and helpless folds. Berry was tangy and salty, there was a faint hint of something almost like garlic. 

Her bound legs squirming against her bonds, Berry kicked and wiggled as Derpy worked her way in deeper and deeper. Berry could feel Derpy’s strong tongue parting her folds, licking around little secret nooks and crannies, and going especially deep into her cranny. 

And then, she felt the tongue someplace else. Berry squirmed as Derpy’s tongue circled her pucker. Berry never quite understood Derpy’s fascination with anal play. She took a deep shuddering breath as intense pressure was applied to her clenching tailhole. She felt herself growing moist back there, the skin becoming soft and slick, and she thought back to the time when she had shared Derpy’s sensation of backdoor penetration and sex. She felt her heart race just a little bit faster. 

“Mmmmph!” 

Bucky watched as the tip of Derpy’s tongue wormed its way inside of Berry’s flexing pucker, pushing apart the wrinkled skin. Berry squirmed and wiggled, trying to get away from the randy pegasus that was giving her a rimjob. 

Leaning down, Bucky gave Thistle a slow tender kiss, allowing his tongue to creep into her mouth and explore the hidden fleshly places beneath her tongue. When the long kiss was over, he trailed little kisses along her cheek, down her neck, and then began to work his way down further, each peck making Thistle let out a tiny squeak. Finally, he kissed her navel and went no further. He worked his way back up, slowly, teasingly, little kisses being trailed over every inch of progress, until he found himself at her ear. He gave her ear a teasing lick, and then kissed her one last time just above her eyes. Leaning over her ear, he took a deep breath. “I love you dearly. I hope I can provide the life you wanted,” he breathed into Thistle’s ear. 

“I’m a very happy kelpie,” Thistle whispered. 

As Bucky watched, Derpy disengaged from Berry, stepped over the hogtied earth pony, sat down near Berry’s head, spread her legs, tore away Berry’s gag, and grabbing ahold of Berry’s ears, forced Berry’s muzzle into her hot damp folds. He could see Berry’s orange tongue licking, probing, finding its way into Derpy’s depths. 

He lay down beside Berry punch on his side and scooted closer, until his belly was pressed against her soft silken sides. He then began to wiggle his way upwards, until he had positioned the tip of his cock against her smouldering snatch. He could hear the wet sloppy sounds of Berry working Derpy over. He snaked one leg through Berry’s hogtied limbs, wrapped it around her, pulled her close, and then, he thrusted, sinking himself almost halfway in. 

He heard Berry hiss and he waited for a moment. All she needed was a moment. He gave her that. He then pulled out, leaving only the tip inside, and, with one well practiced thrust, buried himself balls deep in the earth pony. He wasted no time hammering her as hard as he dared, each slamming thrust forcing her muzzle deep into Derpy’s snatch. He worked with a slow steady rhythm, Berry needed a moment to gasp for some air after all, but he gave her the sort of rough rutting she had been begging for. He spared her backside no mercy. Each one of his frenzied thrusts caused Derpy to cry out as Berry’s muzzle collided with terrific force against her stench trench. 

Derpy kept a tight hold of Berry’s ears, pinching them in her folded fetlocks, pushing and pulling Berry’s head up and down to force her tongue to move over all the right areas as Bucky continuously collided against Berry’s cunny curtains. 

Thistle watched with growing interest as Bucky’s pecker, glistening with juices, slid in and out of Berry Punch. She could see the skin stretched tight all around, and she watched as Berry’s foal hole changed shape, getting pushed inwards on each thrust, and stretching outwards each time Bucky pulled out. Thistle became quite aroused by the sight of the stretching distorting skin, how elastic it seemed to be. 

Bucky knew he was doing a good job because Berry began bleating each time his balls slapped into her. He could feel her growing tighter around him, and then, after a few more solid slams, Berry let out a muffled cry into Derpy’s slick snatch. 

He was close now, so close, and with a wet “schlorp!” sound, he pulled free of Berry’s well plowed furrow. Berry made a confused needy cry as he repositioned himself, sitting on his haunches, and bumping his groin up against her backside. He grabbed her by her hogtied legs, his hind legs stretched along each of her sides, and then, he pulled her down violently onto his cock, impaling her, going in as deep as possible. 

Berry bleated uncontrollably as she was speared. 

With a few quick thrusts, Bucky approached his breaking point and blew his load, filling Berry Punch with hot creamy foal batter. He gave a few more humps, keeping himself deep inside of her, squeezing his hind legs against her sides. 

His balls turned to ice when there was a soft knock at the door. 

“Aye lad, finish up in there, Luna’s arrived unannounced for a lesson, I’ll try to stall her.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 243
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You look like you just got out of the shower,” Luna said with a wry smile as she saw Bucky hobble through the archway into the kitchen. She was sitting at the table drinking a bottle of cold cider and Barley was sitting across from her. 

“Something like that,” Bucky responded awkwardly. 

“It will just be us tonight,” Luna stated. “We shall be going to Canterlot. Prepare yourself for a different means of travel. It will be… unpleasant to say the least. Are you well fed and rested?” 

“Well, I am kinda tired, but I did eat a decent sized dinner,” Bucky replied. 

“We shall be going in just a while. Say your goodbyes, my student. It will be a long night,” Luna instructed in a patient but commanding voice. 

“Yes Mistress,” Bucky said, bowing his head slightly when he heard the tone in Luna’s voice. He turned and made his way back down the hall to say goodbye to his wives. 



 

Going through a shadow portal was unpleasant. It was like having something reaching up painfully inside of his tailhole, grabbing him by his spleen, and yanking him inside out in one smooth fluid motion. He stood gasping inside of a large room inside of Canterlot Castle. 

It was a room he had never seen before. It had no windows, the walls were grey stone, and it made him feel really weird to be standing in it. It made him feel strong. It was like standing next to the shadow crystal in the lair of the crystal lich. 

“This room always makes our kind feel strong. My sister complains of weakness when she enters this room. Through this door is one of Equestria’s greatest secrets,” Luna said as she headed for the door she mentioned. 

It opened as Luna approached and Bucky saw something wondrous, something that made his breath catch in his throat and for a moment, it felt as though his heart had stopped beating. His hind legs gave out and he sat down upon the stone floor, his eye wide and staring. 

Inside the room was a massive stone arch and it was alive with shadow. 

“This is the Shadow Gate. My sister brought it here from our old castle. I am constantly connected to the dreamscape. I roam the dreams of my subjects even now as we talk. I am everywhere and in every mind. This shadow gate however, allows my faithful dream wardens to enter the minds of dreamers everywhere. Normally, they have to shadow dive and then enter physically into the body of a dreamer to gain access to dreams, much like Sentinel did for you. This gate allows them to shadow dive and then go into the minds of dreamers almost anywhere. It acts as a bridge between all dreaming minds. Each night, hundreds of my lunar pegasi patrol the dreamscape, protecting the minds of dreamers from the destructive influences of escaped imps, mephits, demons, and shades,” Luna explained. She watched Bucky, who was completely enraptured. It was like watching a foal experience their first Hearth’s Warming Eve. She pushed the doors shut slowly and waited for Bucky to regain his senses. 

“But this is not the purpose of why I brought you here tonight. There are those whose minds I cannot connect with and that this gate does not touch. A few days ago, some of my Myrmidons subdued and captured a most interesting unicorn. We’ve been trying to interrogate him. I cannot go into his dreaming mind, I cannot enter into his mind at all actually. Neither can my sister. We have decided to try dark magic to force entry into his head. I am not that skilled in dark magic, and my sister is worried about scrambling his mind if she uses just a smidge too much power and slips. So, this leaves you,” Luna said, bringing various relevant points of detail into the conversation. “My lunar pegasi have no means to peer into his dreams either,” she added after a moment of thought. 

“Hmm,” Bucky hummed noncommittally . 

“I don’t want you to hurt him. We want to stop him and others like him from hurting others. We captured him outside of Ponyville by sheer luck. Some of my Myrmidons were conducting war games in the Whitetail Woods. He had a detailed map of Ponyville showing the residences of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Also on the map were the marked secondary targets. Ivory Scroll, the mayor. Silver Shill, the head of the Farmer’s Union. Cherry Berry, who heads the airborne watch. We don’t know what he was planning to do for certain, but we suspect he might have been there to gather intelligence or possibly assassinate selected targets,” Luna explained. 

“This is worrisome,” Bucky whispered. “So you want me to use dark enchantment and my knack for communing to connect to his mind and forcibly extract information?” 

“Yes,” Luna replied. 

“Where is he?” 



 

The unicorn was dark brown and his mane and tail were the colour of muddy water. An inhibitor was upon his horn and he was chained to the floor with a shackle around one of his hooves. He stared defiantly at Luna. 

“What, no monologuing about how I am going to beg to talk when you get done with me?” the unicorn snarled. “How scared I should be?” 

“Oh, you should be scared,” Luna replied. “Buckminster, do be a faithful student and come to your Mistress,” she commanded. 

When Bucky entered the room the unicorn backed away as far as his chain would allow. His mouth dropped open. When he saw Bucky’s head turn, and Bucky’s single Taint filled eye was visible, he let out a soft whimper. 

“The time for talking is done. You had a chance. Now, now we shall simply take,” Luna said in an icy voice. 

“He is like War Empress Umbra… She of the Fallen Shadow, Student of Nightmare Moon,” the unicorn gibbered, now cowering with what appeared to be real fear. 

“Interesting. Is there anything else you wish to tell me?” Luna said. 

“You can’t listen to her. She is like Princess Selene… She’ll turn into a monster… ours was called Nightmare Moon. She was the end of everything… everything! She will bring eternal night!” the stallion cried, pleading with Bucky. “Turn back from your evil… there is still time…” 

Exchanging a glance with Bucky, Princess Luna looked thoughtful for a moment. “I am going to step outside and leave you two to get acquainted. Find out as much as you can my faithful student.” 

“Yes Mistress, I shall do as you ask,” Bucky answered. 

The stallion panicked and tried to get away from Bucky. He pressed himself against the wall of his cell and cowered, his legs buckling and his body sliding down the wall to the floor. 

As Luna left the room, Bucky sat down a safe distance away, out of reach of the strange stallion and began to focus his mind. He took a few deep breaths, calmed himself, and then he closed his eye. His horn ignited effortlessly with dark magic. 

As he reached out to touch the other stallion’s mind, the room filled with screaming. 



 

Bucky found himself in an unfamiliar body in a strange place. He was in the middle of a castle courtyard. It was nighttime, and the sky was dark. There was no moon and no stars, only a black sky. Unicorns stood all around, providing light with their horns, illuminating the courtyard. 

Before him was the body of a dead alicorn. She looked identical to Nightmare Moon, the monster that Princess Luna had become, but her mark was different. It was a blood red full moon on a black inky patch. She had been beheaded somehow, and what Bucky presumed to be the immortal alicorn of the moon was dead, which confused Bucky a great deal. 

A starburst of light shot from her body and struck the pegasus standing over her, and somehow Bucky knew that the pegasus had been the one who had struck the killing blow. He watched the pegasus rise into the air, lifted by an unseen force. A glow overtook the pegasus’ body, and the night became as bright as day as the glow intensified. 

As he watched, the pegasus became an alicorn. 

“A new alicorn!” a unicorn cried. 

“With all the rest of the alicorns now dead, we have a new one! Commander Night Watch has become an alicorn!” another unicorn shouted. 

“Doesn’t matter. This world is dead. Magic is dying. There is no sun. There is no moon. What little bit of life is left is dying off. The plants have long since vanished and without the magic of Nightmare Moon, the mushroom forests and the magical plants of the night will die. We’ll have nothing to eat. We’re doomed,” a pegasus said. 

“I will preserve us,” Night Watch said as his hooves touched the ground. “We will find a way to continue. There is so much more that I understand now.” 



 

Bucky felt a stabbing pain in his head. He blinked. The stabbing pain came back, stronger this time, and he felt his connection to the unicorn forcibly sever. He focused his gaze upon the unicorn and saw the strange stallion’s head smash into the already blood soaked wall, and this time, his horn snapped off completely at the base. 

“No!” Bucky cried, rising up on his hooves, knowing he could do nothing. As Bucky watched, the strange unicorn seized, shook, and then slowly died, his eyes becoming dull and vacant looking. “LUNA!” 



 

“This is most troubling,” Luna whispered. 

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed, her voice strained. 

“So are they mirror travelers?” Bucky asked, fearful of causing injury to Celestia’s feelings. 

“It seems likely,” Luna admitted. “Which would explain a lot.” 

“So we have an enemy that we cannot see, cannot track, and probably cannot reason with,” Celestia said, summing up the situation. 

“If we can capture a few more, I might be able to attune the Shadow Gate to be able to work with their minds. I do not know if I could go into their minds, but my lunar pegasi might,” Luna suggested. 

“I have my doubts, my Mistress,” Bucky interjected. 

“Do explain,” Luna commanded. 

“It stands to reason that they specialised in fighting against you. They killed the alicorn that was their Master of Dreams. Even if you do find a way into their heads somehow, they will counteract it. They survived a war with you,” Bucky explained. 

“This is worrisome,” Celestia stated. “Buckminster brings up a valid point.” 

“I do believe that the unicorn, whomever he was, allowed me to see this one memory as a warning,” Bucky said, expressing the thought that came creeping into his mind. “And this goes without saying. If they killed Selene, the Luna of that world, I suspect that they might have the means to kill either one of you, immortal or not.” 

“I cannot even begin to figure out how they might have done that,” Celestia said, her face contorting with fear and worry. “Luna and I are linked to primordial elements… and celestial bodies… so long as those elements exist, so long as those celestial bodies exist, we are immortal.” 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your connection?” Bucky inquired. 

“Light… fire. So long as light exists, so long as there is fire in the world, I will be reborn like a phoenix,” Celestia answered. 

“And Luna is the dark? Well, their world had gone dark, Selene should have survived,” Bucky said, now looking thoughtful and he turned his eye to Luna. “I am not a terribly bright unicorn. I don’t know what to say or do.” 

“I can’t exist without Luna, and she cannot exist without me,” Celestia said.

“We define one another,” Luna added. 

“Although one of us did exist for a time without the other,” Celestia stated. 

“Sister! Speak not of such things,” Luna warned. 

“What? He can know our secrets,” Celestia said. 

“Secrets?” Bucky asked. 

“Buckminster, which one of us is the older sister?” Celestia inquired, holding out a commanding hoof to silence her sister. 

“You?” Bucky replied to Celestia in a quizzical tone. 

“Think again,” Luna whispered. “I only call her my big sister.” 

There was a flash of light from Celestia’s horn and a scroll tube appeared upon a nearby table. Celestia levitated it over, popped off an end cap, and slid out a sheet of paper. She unrolled it silently, and then held it before Bucky so he could have a look. 

“Whose destiny mark comes first on the tree?” Celestia asked. 

Bucky stared at the picture of the Tree of Harmony and then his jaw dropped. 





“In the beginning, all was darkness. But the darkness was not aware of itself. And then, light appeared, and there was contrast. The darkness became aware,” Celestia said in a voice that was not quite like her own. Her eyes blazed with inner fire as she spoke. 

“She has always been the brave one. The strong one. She has always loved me and done everything she could to protect me,” Luna said, looking at her sister. 

“Does Twilight know?” Bucky asked. 

Both sisters nodded. 

“Back to the subject at hoof. What do we do about the strange unicorns visiting our world?” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 244
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky sighed and waited for his family to gather around. He was tired, it had been a long night, and more than anything, he wanted to tell his family about the news and then go to bed. He rubbed his face with his right fetlock and settled back into his chair as more and more ponies and a very large griffon packed into the living room. 

Looking around, he saw that everypony was here and he cleared his throat to get their attention. “Some news. Well, several bits of news. First off, I am sending the guards away. We’ve settled in and had our private time. So expect visitors. The guards are clearing out before noon today and it will be made known in Ponyville that we are accepting visitors but we don’t wish to be mobbed. So I don’t know what is going to happen,” Bucky announced. 

“Ooh strangers…” Loch Skimmer murmured. 

“Hush Loch, before I have to find something else for you to do with those lips of yours,” Rising Star said amorously as he leaned in and kissed her. 

Waiting, Bucky laughed quietly as he paused for the pair to finish. 

“Second order of business. Celestia and Luna want Twilight Sparkle and I to head to Griffonholm to deal with a diplomatic crisis. I will be leaving before the month is out,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh you’re not going alone!” Bon Bon said. “You’ll get in all kinds of trouble without us.” 

“We need to stay here. School is starting. Foals need to stay so they can go to school. Plus, we have doctors visits and all kinds of other things for those of us who are pregnant,” Derpy said. 

“Sentinel will be going with me. I need my squire,” Bucky said to Derpy in a gentle voice. 

“No! Sentinel is staying here to go to school… he’s a smart colt with a future as a writer,” Derpy argued. 

“Let me put this another way. Princess Luna wants Sentinel to go so he can be schooled in diplomacy with hooves on experience. As my squire and as a potential knight, diplomacy will be one of his many tasks and obligations,” Bucky explained. 

Scowling, Derpy folded her forelegs over her barrel and glared at Bucky, her brows furrowed. “Then you take care of whatever you need to and you hurry home. I want my colt in school. Today he has placement testing along with Ripple and Loch Skimmer.” 

“I get to go to Griffonholm,” Sentinel said in a low voice. 

“Ripple is traveling with us as well,” Bucky stated. “Lugus is coming and he is required to have his squire present. Ripple also needs to learn diplomacy.” 

“YES!” Ripple cheered, pumping her hoof into the air repeatedly. 

“A trip to Griffonholm,” Lugus said in a low voice, his beak snapping together several times as he spoke. He smoothed back his crest with his left talons and tried to not look disturbed. 

“Sorry old friend. Celestia insisted on you going. She wants an example that griffons can peacefully coexist with ponies. She wants you to take Yew Wood and your foal too,” Bucky said. 

“This is dangerous,” Lugus said. 

“I know,” Bucky agreed. 

“Wait, dangerous?!” Derpy snapped. 

“Griffons are duplicitous treacherous creatures,” Lugus stated. 

“Not all of them,” Yew retorted, slapping Lugus with her wing several times as she spoke. 

The big griffon cringed away from the small by comparison mare and gave her a pleading glance to make her stop. When she finally relented, he stroked her softly, and then tugged on one of her ears gently. 

“I’m going,” Lyra stated. 

“I guess this means we are taking Harper,” Bucky sighed. 

“Of course,” Bon Bon answered. “I’m coming too. You… you will get into trouble and cause all sorts of bad things to happen if somepony isn’t there to make you behave.” 

“You make him behave!” Derpy commanded. 

“You know I will,” Bon Bon said as she shot a glance at Bucky. 

“Maybe there will be a big fight and I’ll get to punch stuff again,” Ripple said excitedly. 

“Ripple!” Derpy barked. 

Slumping down and becoming completely submissive, Ripple dropped her gaze to the floor and looked guilty. She wiggled behind her sister Loch Skimmer and tried to hide from Derpy’s disapproving glare. 

“If there is trouble, you kick plot and you kill stuff. No playing around Ripple. Death strikes, not crippling blows,” Sparkler commanded. 

“Sparkler!” Derpy shouted angrily. 

“Sorry mother… she might be your daughter, but she is my herdmate, and I am her matriarch,” Sparkler argued. 

Her mood souring completely, Derpy fell silent and looked at Ripple, who was hiding behind Loch with a pleading expression in her eyes. “If there is trouble… you do whatever you have to do to come home safe and we’ll sort out whatever happens after you come home.” 

“Yes mother, I understand mother,” Ripple replied. 

“And I am not your commanding officer,” Derpy muttered. 

“In a few days, I will be heading to Saddle Arabia, far to the south. I will be returning home by train. I will be guarding that train, along with a whole bunch of Myrmidons and Twilight Sparkle. Lugus, you have been requested to come along. No squires. Not for this. We are expecting heavy resistance along the trip. Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks will be here to keep all of you safe. If something happens, YOU LISTEN TO THEM OR SO HELP ME… look, just listen to them if there is a crisis or something happens. Respect my wishes,” Bucky commanded. “Rising, if something happens, if being the operative word here, if there is trouble, you burn down anything that threatens our family. That goes for you as well Sparky. Petrify anything that threatens you. And when I am gone in Griffonholm, you will be responsible for their protection then as well.” 

“I understand father,” Rising Star acknowledged, bowing his head slightly. 

“If need be I can summon my protectors,” Dinky offered. “I don’t want to hurt anypony, but I don’t want my family hurt either. If something happens… bees.” 

“What abou-” 

“Ripple,” Bucky interrupted. “It goes without saying. You do that hoof-fu thing that you do.” 

“Yes! Permission to punch something so hard it explodes,” Ripple cheered, looking nervously at Derpy as she did so. 

“I feel inadequate,” Loch Skimmer whined. 

“Why sis?” Ripple inquired. 

“Well, Rising is a living bomb, Sparkler is an unstoppable stone statue, my sister can punch things and make them explode… and I’m just kinda here. Useless. I don’t think I can fight. I feel like we are supposed to be the protectors of this family. Bucky depends on the three of you to keep his foals safe and his wives safe, and I’m just sorta useless,” Loch explained. 

“You are not useless! You are my sidekick!” Berry Punch said. “My pervert pupil… but more than that, my daughter. You keep Sparkler and Rising Star sane, and you keep your sister leveled off. Say you are useless again and I will slap you so hard it’ll make your head spin.” 

Loch offered up a half smile and sniffled a bit. 

“You help to keep my boners warm,” Rising Star whispered into Loch’s ear, making the filly giggle uncontrollably. He then wrapped a foreleg around her and hugged her. 



 

After discovering he could not sleep, Bucky prowled the property. There was a lot to do today. On the side of the school away from the house, just inside the treeline, there was a massive half buried lump of granite that could be shaped into a nice tower for Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. 

Above him, a hot air balloon towed by a pegasus was being pulled along, and a pony waved from the basket of the hot air balloon. Bucky lifted his stump and waved back. 

The guards were packing up and getting ready to go. The engineers building the forge were already hard at work for the day. A carriage house was also planned for construction, but the location was not yet determined. Today, a massive supply of sand was to be delivered for Bucky. Fine sand of the highest quality, and kept in large storage containers. Also on today’s list of things to was to survey a site to build homes for the earth pony groundskeepers and future servants. 

Bucky tried to keep his mind focused on what needed to be done, and not upon the unicorn that had died last night. The strange mystery that the unicorn represented was perplexing to Bucky. There was trouble brewing, and Bucky wasn’t sure what to do. 

As he hobbled along, he saw Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks already hard at work for the day, covering everything in protective spells. They seemed rather sedate and relaxed all things considered, and Bucky was glad that they had found some peace. 

The earth ponies he had hired were hard at work already, and he noticed that they seemed rather happy. They were still thin looking, and Bucky worried about them a great deal. A nurse was coming out today to check their hooves since they had been living in a camp. 

Finally, he found who he was looking for. “Come Piña, time for a magic lesson. Let’s see if we can get something to happen today.” 



 

Berry Punch pulled Thistle closer and planted a few kisses along her neck, making Thistle giggle softly while squirming to break free. 

“Don’t get me worked up Berry,” Thistle tittered. 

“But your talent is sex appeal. Your cutie mark gives me ideas,” Berry whispered. “And these pregnancy hormones just make me want to hug and squeeze everypony I love. And shag them.” 

“My back hurts,” Thistle explained.

Berry pulled away, looking berry serious. “Need some time in the lake? Or a hot soak in the tub? Anything I can do?” 

“A backrub might be nice,” Thistle said in a quiet voice. 

“Okay, but you have to make those cute little squeaks that you make,” Berry insisted. 

“Deal.” 



 

Rarity moved through the crowd carefully, wearing protective booties over her immaculate hooves. She was taking no chances. There was a positively dreadful disease going around. The mid morning sun was almost unseasonably warm today, and she could feel her pores threatening to make her glisten alluringly as she trotted. 

As she moved, she thought about Coco, who was at the depot, taking inventory of all the supplies to distribute. It was dreadfully warm Rarity realised as she thought about her dear friend. Coco’s attention to detail was already indispensable and and Rarity wondered how she had ever done this job for so long without her. 

Arriving at the processing office, Rarity wiped off her boots and stepped inside. 



 

Loose Leaf, the incredibly organised earth pony, watched Rarity as she entered, and waited for Rarity to catch her breath. Rarity looked flustered about something today, and Loose Leaf was a little worried about the news she had to give Rarity. 

“Loose Leaf, how are you this day?” Rarity said in a cultured voice. 

“I am doing well,” Loose Leaf replied. 

“You look worried, dear,” Rarity said. 

“We have a situation,” Loose Leaf reported, deciding not to waste any further time. 

“We do?” Rarity asked, her voice vaguely pouty and filled with concern. 

“We have a camp resident that just arrived early this morning from the Unicorn Range. I don’t know what to do with her. It would be a bad idea to simply leave her in a camp,” Loose Leaf responded. 

“Why?” Rarity inquired. 

“She… she is deaf and dumb. I don’t know if there is a kinder way of saying it, forgive me if my words are heartless or harsh,” Loose Leaf answered in a hesitant voice. 

“Oh my,” Rarity gasped. “With all of the trouble going on, she wouldn’t be able to hear any sort of alarm or warning. She wouldn’t be able to cry for help. Oh… this is just dreadful.” Rarity flounced into a chair with a huff and fanned herself with a booted hoof. 

“There is one more problem with her. It has already been causing some minor trouble,” Loose Leaf mentioned, worried about Rarity’s mercurial moods. 

“And that is?” Rarity questioned. 

“She’s a donkey,” Loose Leaf replied. 

“Oh. I thought it was a problem. It is like ponies being afraid of zebras or llamas. How gauche… well, that complicates things,” Rarity fumed as she continued to fan herself. 

“Any ideas where we can keep her safe?” Loose Leaf inquired. 

“Hmm, give me a moment,” Rarity hummed. 

Loose Leaf turned away from Rarity and returned to reading her well written and thoroughly detailed report written out for Twilight Sparkle. Hoof rot, fleas, lice, and a terrible infestation of an extremely hardy species of pubic lice were becoming too common in the camps. Incoming refugees were dwindling. New arrivals would be turned away soon, sent off to other places, like Vanhoover. Winter in Vanhoover was excruciatingly cold however. 

“I am having a marvelous idea,” Rarity said. “My… rather… uncouth… friend Barley could probably use some help for his gardens. It is a busy time of the year. Certainly she could pull a cart or help out in the garden, even without hearing or speech.” 

Looking thoughtful, Loose Leaf nodded. “That is a good idea.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 245
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus came in fast and hard, holding a long wooden pole. Ripple blocked each of his attacks, his swings, his thrusts, and one particularly vicious overhead chop. Her hooves ached from the impacts, but her hooves were growing tougher and tougher each day. For her hooves to become hardened, they had to absorb heavy painful blows and heal. 

She was now able to block things that would have made her shriek with pain a month ago. 

Lugus stayed airborne, hovering just above the ground, and Ripple stayed on the ground, obeying Lugus’s rules. Aerial combat would come later. The filly and the griffon moved with perfect grace, it was almost as if they were dancing. 

However, the large lump on Ripple’s front leg and the enormous bruise over her rear hip was evidence that this was not a dance. When Lugus had the chance, he struck and he struck hard. Ripple was getting better and better, offering fewer and fewer chances for Lugus to land a blow. Occasionally, she managed to tag him. Lugus had his own collections of bruises, lumps, and abrasions. 

With each blow, with each strike, Ripple screamed and cried out. It kept her breathing, as each scream required a deep breath. It manifested her rage. It also kept her adrenaline flowing. She was a fierce deadly creature now, already approaching peak physical condition for her age, and she was young. She had her whole long life to perfect her art. 

Lugus suddenly let go of a flurry of attacks, not hard, but fast, coming in an endless stream. Ripple blocked, kicked away, or evaded most, but a few slipped in and the wooden pole caught her sharply on the right shoulder, making her cry out in pain rather than fury or anger. 

The violence suddenly stopped and Lugus tossed the pole away. He landed, folded his wings, and then looked patiently at Ripple. 

“What did you do wrong?” Lugus inquired. 

“I was… too… confident…” Ripple gasped as she collapsed into grass, panting with pain and squeezing her eyes shut as she rubbed her shoulder. 

“Yes,” Lugus agreed. 

“I… I should… should have… I should have eased off. Not retreated, but backed off and gained some distance when the fast quick assaults began,” Ripple admitted, her eyes squeezed shut and tears slipping from the corners as she spoke. She tried to flex and rotate her shoulder, cried out wordlessly, and stopped mid motion. She went limp in the grass and laid still. 

“You okay?” Lugus asked. 

“It hurts… but it hurts more that I was stupid. I was feeling cocky,” Ripple confessed. “You are too big to move as fast as you do.” 

Letting out a squawk, Lugus sat down in the grass and then made a laughing sound deep in his throat. He reached up and began to rub a large lump on his sternum, his crest high, and his tail swishing back and forth slowly. 

“You are the most extraordinary warrior I have ever seen,” Lugus admitted. “To have so much potential at such a young age. One day not long from now, we will be evenly matched you and I. Already, you put me on the defensive far too much. In my homeland, such an admission from a warrior like myself, a knight, would be shameful. I would likely be punished. Maybe even put to death for dishonouring myself. But I am proud to have you as my squire.” 

“Thanks,” Ripple responded, looking up at the big griffon and smiling. 



 

Piña wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but she was feeling something. Her hooves tingled and she could smell ozone in the air, just like she could smell it when unicorns were casting a spell. She felt squirmy and itchy all over. Her knee had a pinchy feeling. 

Beside her, Bucky had his eye closed and he sat on his haunches, balanced and calm. He had not slept, but was surprisingly well focused for having been awake all of the day before, up all night, and now part of today. He felt lucid. He felt collected. He felt strangely serene and realised that he loved this farmhouse and the surrounding land. 

The calm was completely disrupted with Piña’s right front hoof burst into flames. 

Piña shrieked right away as her pelt singed and her skin began to blister. Bucky responded immediately upon opening his eye, sucking away the flame and the heat, and replacing it with a soothing cooling sensation. He lifted Piña in his magic and looked at her leg. The burn was superficial and she was missing a little hair. 

“You okay Piña?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah… I think so. Scared me more than anything,” Piña replied. “It was all hot and then I smelled burning hair. My knee had a pinchy feeling.” 

“Hmm,” Bucky hummed, taking a mental note. “Go inside Piña. Tell somepony what happened. And they’ll slather some salve all over it and you’ll feel better in no time.” 

“I made magic happen again,” Piña said. 

“Yes you did. But you don’t seem to be able to cast spells at a distance. I am guessing that the magic manifests at your hoof and goes no further, meaning everything you cast will have to be touch based magic. Unicorns have spells that only work with an actual horn touch. I will have to ask Twilight for a book if she has one. Certain spells will be very dangerous for you because of proximity. If you can learn to control fire though, it might have some uses. You would be able to light candles or possibly be able to heat things by touching them with your hoof,” Bucky explained. 

“That would be awesome. I’d love to do that,” Piña said as she was set down in the grass. 

“Good girl. Now go inside and get that looked at,” Bucky said, gently patting her on her backside to send her on her way. 



 

“I wanted to give Sparky a proper marriage ceremony when we came home,” Derpy said glumly to her fellow-wives in the kitchen. “But everything is all messed up. We came home and our home is all strange and weird now. I wanted to have a big party of some sort where we could all celebrate our marriage together. Give Sparky and her herd a proper ceremony, and a chance for all us to celebrate our love.” 

“Keg Smasher did a fine job of bringing us together,” Bon Bon said as she sat at the table drinking coffee. She first took a sip, then she took a swallow, and finding that it had cooled just enough to do so, she took a long pull from her cup. 

“Parties weird me out,” Lyra whimpered. “I am still having nightmares about the coronation. I can’t believe I let you all talk me into going into a room packed with so many ponies. I kinda wish that Bucky would have let me tag along on his adventure.” 

Stirring her coffee with a spoon, Berry smiled. “I think Sparky and her herd are happy.” 

“If we wanted to help them celebrate, all we would need to do is give Loch Skimmer a big tub of frosting and have Berry whisper a few ideas into her head,” Bon Bon said in a low voice, a broad smile on her face. 

“I got burned.” 

Every mare in the room froze, and motherly instinct kicked in instantaneously. Every head turned. There were five distinct sharp intakes of breath. Thistle let out a low moan of concern. 

“I made magic with my hoofy and it caught on fire. Daddy put me out. I’m missing some hair and it blistered,” Piña explained. 

Berry slid from her chair and went over to Piña, looking at her leg. “We’ll put some burn ointment on this and it’ll be okay,” Berry cooed soothingly. 

Rolling her eyes, Piña snorted. “Don’t treat me like I am a foal.” 

“I’m treating you like you are my foal. Because you are. Bratty little sister or not, you are my foal. And I will worry about you if I feel like it,” Berry groused. 

Leaning forward, Piña kissed Berry on the snoot. “Thanks…” 

“Don’t mention it,” Berry replied. 



 

Seeing Cheerilee again made Bucky feel rather nostalgic for the time when he was just falling in love with the two mares who had started all of this. Her saddlebags were full and she trotted at a brisk pace, moving with the easy grace that all earth ponies seemed to posses when walking down dirt roads, each step causing a puff of dust to ripple outwards from her hoof. 

He realised he could only see her in detail when she was close. He really needed to start wearing his dark smoked glass goggles in the daylight, but he couldn’t figure out where he had placed them. He had tried conjuring them up, but they were nowhere to be found. Sentinel was missing his pair as well. 

“Hello Bucky,” Cheerilee said. “Or should I call you something else now?” 

“Bucky is fine,” Bucky replied. He went still as Cheerilee drew close. 

He could feel her breathing on him as she drew near, looking at his emerald eye and his horn. He could hear the sharp inhales of shock as she studied him. He heard her make a sad sound in the back of her throat, a low whimpering sound. 

“They did a number on you,” Cheerilee whispered. “I’m so sorry.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said graciously. 

“Ready to be an educator?” Cheerilee inquired. 

“Very much so. At least foals don’t try to devour you alive,” Bucky replied. He recoiled, regretting every word he had just said when he saw Cheerilee’s look of disgust and horror. 

“I… I suppose black humour is how you deal with it,” Cheerilee squeaked. 

Slumping, Bucky did not know how to respond. 

“You did a brave thing. You did a good thing. I’m sorry you had to suffer,” Cheerilee said. 

“I have my reward,” Bucky said, hoping to comfort the stricken looking mare. 

“Being a prince?” Cheerilee asked. 

“No,” Bucky chuckled. “My wives. My foals. They’re all I want.” 

Reaching out, Cheerilee gently stroked the withered side of Bucky’s face. She ran her fetlock over the spiderweb of scars tenderly. “I wish I knew what to say about that. I am glad they make you happy. I seem to be short on clever phrases and pithy sayings lately.” 

“Actually, when you get done testing, I want to talk to you about my plans. How would you feel about teaching here? At my school?” Bucky questioned. 

“I know nothing of magic,” Cheerilee answered. 

“No. I plan to teach all kinds of ponies here. Together. Little unicorns working side by side with earth pony alchemists and clever pegasus researchers. Or anything really. I want them all to work together. As a group. Trusting one another. I want earth ponies and pegasi to be part of the learning process for unicorns learning magic. I want troubled unicorns to make friends… and learn the magic of friendship. I have plans,” Bucky explained. 

“We’ll talk later,” Cheerilee replied. “But yes… I would be willing to work here doing something like this,” she offered. 

“Oh… Cheerilee… watch out for Loch Skimmer. She’s a good filly… but she can be a little… blunt,” Bucky warned. 

“I’ll keep that in mind but I have been teaching for a long time. I doubt she could say anything that I haven’t heard before,” Cheerilee replied, smiling brightly as she did so. 

“I hope they do well,” Bucky said as Cheerilee headed off to the house. Once she was a safe distance away, Bucky grinned. “She doesn’t stand a chance with Loch.”





Bucky was watching the sand being unloaded from fleet of skywagons when a worker pointed out that he had two visitors coming over to see him. He stood up, turned, sat back down, and waited for his visitors to get closer so he could see who they were. 

One was a white pony… and the other was a brown grey looking pony. 

When they drew closer, he squinted and stared. One pony had incredibly long ears. 

“Prince Buckminster… we haven’t been formally introduced. I am Rarity, one of Twilight’s friends, and I am here on a mission of mercy.” 

“Just Bucky will do,” Bucky replied. 

“Bucky?” Rarity said, her mouth contorting into a distasteful moue. “Oh my goodness… oh dear… you poor thing… you’ve been… been…”

Hearing Rarity fall silent, Bucky took a deep breath. “Yes. I know. My face. My horn. My everything,” he said, holding up his stump. 

“Perhaps a clever application of makeup would help you recover your… rugged good looks,” Rarity suggested. The tacky looking jewelry around his neck certainly didn’t help and she considered suggesting that he take it off. Just as she was about to say so… 

“What brings you here?” Bucky asked, feeling mildly irritated. 

“Oh… oh of course. Oh dear, it slipped my mind. I have with me a donkey. She is young. I am not sure how young. I don’t know what age she is to be honest. She is deaf and mute. I thought she would be safer out here away from the camps and the city of Ponyville. She couldn’t hear alarms or cry for help if something happened. She’s defenseless,” Rarity explained. 

“So you want me to look after her and let her stay here as hired help?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh… yes… that is exactly what I was hoping… if I might trouble you, it is quite a long walk to make it out here and I am in desperate need of visiting the powder room,” Rarity demurely stated. 

“Be my guest. Just walk right in. Somepony in the house will show you,” Bucky offered. 

“Oh what a perfect gentlestallion you are!” Rarity cried as she trotted away. 

Bucky watched the donkey staring at Rarity as the white unicorn mare trotted off. He saw the donkey roll her eyes and heard her snort. Reaching out, he gently prodded her, making her turn to look at him. 

“Can you understand me?” Bucky inquired, moving his lips slowly. 

The donkey stared at him for a moment, her expression quizzical. After several moments of consideration, she nodded slowly. 

“Reading lips?”

Again, she nodded. 

“I am guessing that the well meaning unicorn named Rarity treated you like you were stupid instead of just being deaf and dumb?” 

The donkey nodded enthusiastically. 

“She meant well.” 

Shrugging, the donkey snorted. 

“Can you pull a cart? Are you good at manual labour?”

The donkey shook her head no. She lifted a hoof to her mouth, made a faint coughing sound, pressed the hoof to her throat, and then flung out her leg and shook it. She then pointed to her other foreleg and prodded the muscle. 

“When you got sick it messed up your body and left you weak?” 

The donkey froze for a moment, looking very surprised. She blinked a few times, and then her eyes narrowed at Bucky. She leaned her head forward, nearly touching his snoot with her own. She snorted. 

“One of my best friends is mute. We had long conversations.” 

The donkey jerked her head back, her eyes going wide again. She cocked her head to one side and then prodded Bucky with a hoof. 

“You’re not that different from an earth pony.” 

The donkey’s nostrils flared for a moment. An intense look blazed in her eyes. And then, she slowly smiled. 

“So you can’t work in the garden much. At least not heavy labour. You seem smart. Can you read? Write?” 

The donkey nodded frantically and looked at Bucky with pleading eyes. 

“You probably really want to communicate. Do come up to the house with me. I bet you’re hungry. You look thin. My instincts tell me you are a foal still, no matter how you might protest. You seem more adult because you are quiet and serious and subdued.” 

The donkey looked shocked and peered at Bucky once again with narrowed eyes. Reaching out, she booped him on the snoot. 

“Okay, you’ve made your point. You can be playful. No need to be sarcastic about it.” 

The donkey’s jaw dropped open and her ears drooped forwards as she continued to stare at Bucky in disbelief. 
	
	
> Chapter 246
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Much to Bucky’s relief, Rarity had pressing business elsewhere and departed quickly, saying “ta ta” and telling him that a finely tailored suit would do a great deal to ease the “distracting imperfections and unsightly blemishes upon his slender masculine form.” 

Bucky understood that Rarity was a good pony, but he found her mannerisms rather irritating, and he figured that it would be better to take Rarity in small doses. Having her around, even for a short time, made him feel all the more grateful for his own wives. 

The donkey was scarfing down leftovers as fast as Bon Bon could serve them, and showed no signs of slowing. The poor thing was clearly starved, and Bucky felt genuinely bad for her. She had no manipulation shoes it seemed. She was light grey, dappled with golden brown spots, and her muzzle was white. Her mane was black and her tail seemed exceptionally long by any standard, with a thick tuft of hair at the end. Her tail was currently coiled around the chair leg and Bucky wondered how prehensile it was. 

“You poor thing,” Bon Bon said as she set down bowl of reheated cornmeal mush. 

“She can’t hear you Bonnie,” Lyra quipped. 

“I don’t care, that was more for my benefit,” Bon Bon muttered. 

“Is it just me or is Rarity a bit snooty?” Lyra inquired. “I mean, I kinda know her just a little bit. We’ve been to the spa together and we’ve bumped into one another many times now, and I am actually a seething caldera of rage right now that is struggling to hold back crackling electric death because of her repeated “suggestions” on how our husband could improve his appearance and I think my neurosis is getting the best of me.” 

Bon Bon hurried away from the table and immediately began to try and soothe Lyra’s frazzled nerves, stroking her and whispering softly into her ear. 

Sitting quietly, Bucky levitated a pencil and some paper over to the table and set them down, having them ready for when his guest needed them. He levitated the dirty dishes back to the sink, washed them, dried them, and placed them in the cupboard. There were spells that simplified the process, but low output telekinesis used far less mana calories. 



 

Words were his friend. Numbers not so much. Sentinel struggled with the math on the test he was taking. He felt sweaty and nervous. He hated tests. Too much pressure. He knew he had done well on the writing part and the reading part. He wasn’t sure about the history part. There was a lot of questions he couldn’t answer. He had been able to name all of the royalty present in Equestria though. 

Ripple, sitting beside Sentinel, had a different problem. She had some trouble with words. She could read well enough, and understand what she had read, but writing was difficult. Finding the right words was a tricky business. Math on the other hoof was stunningly easy. One pile of dead bodies when added to another pile of corpses, made for a much larger pile of corpses. All of her math questions that required to her write them into word problems turned into body counts, shockingly well written body counts. Subtraction problems usually involved ripping limbs or heads from bodies and how many limbs were still attached to the body. After much internal debate, the scrotum counted as the mathematical equivalent of two, because there were two testicles that could be ripped free, thereby increasing the number of parts that could be torn from a body, including legs, wings, a head, a tail, ears, four eyelids, a penis, etcetera. Ripple worked with a manic glee, tearing through her math section with ease. 

Loch Skimmer approached her work carefully and methodically. Her words were carefully chosen, but simple and plain. She understood what she read, and her written summaries were short, brief, and the central points were focused upon. Her math portions were a bit tricky, but she did the best she could. She felt that she did exceptionally well, she was able to answer every question on the test, but she wasn’t sure if she had provided enough information. This was stuff that Sparkler and Rising Star had pounded into her head when they taught school. 

Derpy paced back and forth in the dining room, glowering at her foals, just waiting for one of them to slack off even just a little bit. She walked silently, treading carefully upon the hardwood floor, her hooves making no sound. Her feathers were ruffled and her ears were perked forward. 



 

Picking up the sheet of paper, Bucky squinted in the bright light of the kitchen and focused on the fine well written print. “My name is Bittersweet. I am one decade and three summers old. I am not stupid. I hate ponies that seem to think that screaming will somehow make me hear them. It only makes their lips harder to read. I do not know where my mother is, but I am worried and scared for her. I am keenly observant with my eyes. My mother and I used to work for a wealthy family of pegasi who worked in the entertainment industry in Las Pegasus. I am an experienced nanny but I cannot provide references. I can talk with my ears,” Bucky read out loud. 

He paused, and his muzzle scrunched. He peered at Bittersweet, trying to understand what he had just read. “You can talk with your ears?” 

Bittersweet let out a sigh, hunched over a sheet of paper, and began to scribble out words with the pencil in her lips. She wrote slowly and carefully, her eyes occasionally flashing up at Bucky and her ears moving the entire time she wrote. Finally, she finished and lifted her head. 

Floating the paper over, Bucky had a look. “Ear language. A movement of the ears that corresponds to each letter of the alphabet, and specific gestures for common words. If you let me stay, I can teach you. I will teach your foals. Just please don’t make me stay outside. I am scared of the dark. I will do anything my dignity allows if you will keep me as a servant,” Bucky read, struggling to focus upon the paper. 

He looked at Bittersweet, who was looking at him pleadingly. “Ear language. Something donkey in origin?” 

The donkey nodded slowly and her ears twitched. 

“I’m guessing it was meant as a way for servants to talk to one another without being heard by your masters. Being seen and not heard is what makes for a good servant,” Bucky said, moving his lips carefully. 

Nodding enthusiastically, Bittersweet leaned forwards. 

“I must admit, I have concerns about a deaf-mute nanny, but I believe you will be extra attentive with your eyes. Pegasi are persnickety about who they let watch their young, and I have no reason to think you lied. So you must be a good nanny. You are intelligent, you are bright, and let’s be honest, you are in a bad spot. So let’s get a few things clear. You are now my nanny. You will live in this house, you will be given a room, you will be fed, and you will be looked after. You will be paid a fair wage. There are currently two small foals. One is Harper, the other is Peekaboo. There is about to be a lot of foals, so we could use the help. There is going to be two sets of twins soon, and one more foal is going to be here by winter,” Bucky explained. 

Bittersweet’s eyes went wide. She gaped at Bucky. 

“In over your head?” Bucky asked, a soft chuckle escaping with his words. 

Nodding, Bittersweet slowly closed her mouth. 

“And I will not require you to go outside at night or be in the dark. Nothing should live in fear,” Bucky said in a gentle voice that Bittersweet could not hear, but he could see the relief in her eyes. 

As Bucky watched, tears of gratitude slowly made their way down the donkey’s cheeks. 



 

Sitting on the porch, Bucky sipped his gin and lemonade. The late afternoon sun was away from the the front of the house, and the porch was gloriously shady and cool. A nurse named Redheart was looking over his earth pony groundskeepers and Bittersweet, his donkey nanny, making sure they were in good health and free of hoof rot. 

In the distance, beyond the school, there was a new tower for Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. It wasn’t too tall, only around eighty feet. It was fairly broad, and the top was onion shaped. Or maybe turnip shaped. It was a massive bulb on top of a flowing column of granite. It needed windows and a door still. Bucky planned to work on making glass later. 

Beside him on the porch, sitting on a swing, Sparkler sipped her own drink and relaxed. Her Shivers seemed mild today, or so Bucky noticed, and he felt some relief for her. 

“You are getting better at stone shaping,” Bucky said, trying to engage Sparkler in some kind of conversation. 

“I need practice. One day, I might not need you to supercharge me to shape big things like towers,” Sparkler said. “Today, when I touched the granite, I felt something weird in my head. I dunno what it was, but I felt at peace.” 

“I feel like that sometimes when I am using my magic at an extraordinary level. I can just tune everything out and my mind goes blank, and all of my worries slip away. There is just magic and nothing else,” Bucky replied to Sparkler. 

“Yeah… I think I am falling in love with my magic. I have so much of it now. My telekinesis is stronger now, so much stronger now that I am a type three. I can do things now that were impossible before. I am starting to understand some of those complex things in the spellbooks you want me to read. When are you going to teach Rising, Dinky, and I how to wink?” Sparkler said, ending her words with a question. 

“As soon as I think you are ready. Winking is dangerous. You need a fine level of focus and concentration so you don’t wink yourself into a wall or down underground,” Bucky answered. 

“Yeah… my focus isn’t the best yet to be totally honest. And Rising Star still gets distracted. Dinky however…” Sparkler murmured. 

“Dinky shows a scary level of control already for a foal her age,” Bucky finished. 

“Father, she can lift my whole herd with her magic,” Sparkler announced. 

“Really?” Bucky asked. 

“Truly,” Sparkler replied. 

“That is impressive,” Bucky admitted. 

Looking out over the property, Sparkler took a long drink of gin and lemonade and then turned and looked at her father. “We’re building a village.”

“I suppose we are. All of the teachers will need houses or towers nearby. The servants all need a place to live. I am thinking that this farm will become its own community in time,” Bucky responded. 

“How did your talk with Cheerilee go?” Sparkler asked. 

“She couldn’t stay… testing ran a bit longer than she expected and she had to go. We only talked briefly and she said she is all for the merger of the schools. Her concern is that the school is outside of town, rather than in the inside of town, so students may have trouble getting here. We’ll have to set up a wagon service to cart in foals that are too far away to walk here within a reasonable amount of time,” Bucky answered. 

Sparkler took a long swallow of her drink, grimaced, it was more gin than lemonade, and then she pulled an ice cube into her mouth to crunch on using her tongue. 

“I wonder how they did on their placement tests,” Bucky muttered. 

“I am worried too. If Loch or Ripple let me down, I am so going to work them over. I will Buck Sergeant Sparkler both of them to death if they botched this,” Sparkler said between crunches. 

“Sentinel will punish himself and nothing I could do would be worse than what he will do to himself,” Bucky grumbled. “He’s such a stuffy little guy.” 

“Hey, you don’t get to complain about Sentinel being stuffy,” Sparkler snarked. 

“Heh, I suppose you are right. I’m one to talk, right? At least I have a long history of mischief to show that I am not a total loss,” Bucky said, smiling rakishly as he spoke. 

“You probably played those pranks because you were so repressed. Imagine if Sentinel started pranking us,” Sparkler muttered. 

“Sheesh, Sparky, don’t talk like that, I felt shivers up and down my spine and got a tingly feeling in my dock,” Bucky said as he shuddered. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 247
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Is it just me or has Ripple really filled out and started looking hawt?” Sparkler asked Loch Skimmer, who was sitting beside her. She felt a spike of attraction. Loch was preening her wing. 

“Ugh, I wouldn’t know…” Loch Skimmer retorted as she lifted her head. “She’s my baby sister you perv!” 

“She used to look like a foal. She was so small… so skinny… Her legs got all long. She’s covered in muscle. She’s almost as big as you are now. What a difference a little bit of time, food, and love has made,” Sparkler said, her eyes narrowed and lust filled. “At some point recently, my brain stopped saying “foal” when I looked at her.” 

“Eeeew gross… stop… that’s my sister!” Loch cried. 

“Just saying, you have a hawt sister,” Sparkler teased. 

“My baby sister isn’t hawt! Stop saying that! New subject!” Loch protested. 

“When is your birthday?” Sparkler asked. 

Taken aback by the sudden question, Loch Skimmer panicked for a moment. “I don’t know!” 

“That’s awful,” Sparkler said. 

“We just go by how many summers we’ve seen,” Loch muttered. “Ripple is supposed to be treated like a foal…” 

“Ripple stopped looking and behaving like a foal. You do know that she kinda sorta slipped Rising Star the tongue, right? They were kissing so innocently and she licked his lips. And then he freaked out and she freaked out and-” 

“OH GROSS STOP STOP STOP!” Loch Skimmer shouted as she tackled Sparkler and knocked her off of the bed. She pinned Sparkler to the ground, sat on her head, mindful of Sparkler’s horn, and held Sparkler down. “I’ll fart on your noggin,” Loch warned. 

“Murphulphlurb!” Sparkler murphulphlurbed, pinned under Loch Skimmer’s loaded plot. 



 

Barley settled into his chair by the fireplace, curled up as much as his rickety old spine would allow, and then rested his head upon the arm of the chair. He was tired and it had been a very long day. He saw Lyra bringing him a cup of tea and he managed to offer a thankful grunt when she set the cup down upon the ornate wooden table that stood next to his chair. 

He watched her sit and settle upon the floor with Harper, Peekaboo, and the new donkey nanny that was named Bittersweet. 

Barley liked Bittersweet. She didn’t take no guff from nopony. 

There had apparently been quite a scare earlier when Bittersweet had seen Lugus and then proceeded to freak right the feck out. Donksylvania had been completely overrun by griffons, and donkeys had lived in mortal fear of griffons ever since. 

Barley liked Lugus. He liked Lugus even more now that he had heard that Lugus had patiently stood there with a deaf-mute donkey kicking the stuffing out of him and doing nothing to defend himself. Lyra finally pulled Bittersweet off of him and got her calmed down. 

Lugus had no lips and this made it extremely difficult to communicate with Bittersweet. Once Bittersweet had realised that Lugus posed no threat, she had calmed a bit, but was still very afraid of the large griffon. Lugus, knowing that actions spoke louder than words, gently pushed Peekaboo over to Bittersweet and then had walked away, leaving his foal with the donkey. 

And now, Bittersweet was on the living room floor trying to make sense of this weird tribe of ponies and one griffon she had found herself living with, and Lyra was still trying to soothe her frazzled nerves. 



 

Derpy pulled the blankets over Bucky’s sleeping body and was silently grateful that he was finally asleep. He had been awake for far too long and had done far too much. He reeked of gin, or what Barley called “hero’s burden.” Barley assured her that heroes never slept well and the only happiness they ever had was what others gave them. 

Heroes sacrifice their own happiness and peace o’ mind so the rest o’ us can be happy and have peace o’ mind, Barley had told her in his soft lilting voice. 

She felt troubled, because Bucky seemed so happy being home… the nightmare was over. He could finally rest. The long sleepless spell troubled her. She paced beside the bed, torn between the need to crawl into the bed and guard his body or the desire she had to go upstairs and spend some time with Dinky and Piña before they went to sleep. 

“I’ll watch him.” 

Turning, Derpy looked at Thistle. 

“I’m tired. My back hurts. I’ve been a little constipated and using the bathroom actually wore me out. I’m going to go to bed. I’ll stay with him. I know how you feel about protecting him when he is worn down like this,” Thistle stated as she crawled into the bed. 

Derpy gently helped Thistle get situated, lifted Bucky’s head carefully, and lowered it down upon Thistle’s back once the kelpie was comfortable. Bucky’s breathing immediately became more regular, and both mares sighed. 

“He needed his kelpie pillow,” Derpy whispered as she tucked the blanket around both of the ponies she loved so dearly. 



 

The woods were dark but Rising Star didn’t find them scary. He crept carefully over logs, under low hanging branches, around brambles, and carefully avoided patches of stranglesnatch, a carnivorous vine that watered itself with fresh blood. 

The Everfree had a strange beauty at night. His horn was lit, not with the usual glowing brilliance of most unicorns, but with a wisp of pink-white fire that only a pyromancer could summon. 

Lots of ponies connected with the fire element, but most were not pyromancers. They were just handy with fire spells and good with making things burn. Then there were the minor pyromancers. Ponies with a strong connection to fire and could undergo minor elemental shifts. 

Rising Star had learned he was a Pyromantic Unicornis Majoris. He was fire trapped in a unicorn’s body. Upon first hearing it from Celestia, Rising Star was filled with fear. He was making peace with it though, and with the advice offered by the living embodiment of the sun as well as a few books, he was rapidly coming to terms with his power. He was to fire what Bucky was to cold. A special type of fire. 

Minor pyromancers burned from within and quickly tired themselves out. Fire spells were the most draining. Major pyromancers with the right training could draw in ambient magical radiation from the ley lines all around them and set it ablaze, offering up a nearly infinite amount of fire with enough focus and training. It wasn’t tapping into the ley line directly, which was something Celestia was capable of, but it did allow for Rising to burn things continuously and never wear out, provided that he trained himself to focus. 

He cautiously peered around him, wondering if some terrible drooling monster might ambush him. Rising Star was kinda hoping that something would try something stupid. He was in quite a mood and he couldn’t figure out why. 

“What is this? What do I see? A burning pony… in the Everfree.” 

Rising Star froze at the voice and then turned his head. 

“A cunning look, a dangerous flash, I must ask you, don’t burn me to ash.” 

The zebra was watching him, waiting, a lantern filled with fireflies had been set down near her hooves. She looked rather afraid. 

“Let down your guard, just ease your mind, have no fear, I don’t burn the kind,” Rising Star said in reply. He saw the zebra smile. 

“Twinkle twinkle Rising Star, how I wonder how you are?” the zebra said. 

Squirming, Rising Star realised he did not know the zebra’s name. He had heard it before, but he could not remember it. He felt a pang of guilt for not knowing. 

“Relax your mind and worry no more, Zecora is the memory you are looking for,” the zebra rhymed. 

“I felt the blush of worry upon my cheeks, but then I heard the voice of kindness speak,” Rising Star offered in return. 

The zebra nodded and bowed. “I have a quest I must bespoke… I need the leaves of the fireoak,” Zecora stated. 

“I swear upon the heart that burns within my breast, I will aid you on your quest…” Rising Star replied with a sheepish smile. “I’m really not that good at this. And I used to fancy myself as a poet too… how embarrassing.” 

“Rising Star… don’t be absurd, I am flattered by your words,” Zecora said. She dropped her head, picked up her lantern, and headed off. 

Sensing adventure, Rising Star took off after her. 



 

The log in the fireplace popped and crackled, filling the room with a pleasant and cozy background sound. The smell of peppermint tea hung heavy in the air, and a very adult sounding silence was filled with the rustle of newspapers and cleared throats. 

“You know, I’ve read through this three times now, and I still find myself smiling. Captain Spitfire is well spoken. She wants the Wonderbolts returned to full military status and no longer considered the entertainment division, which she feels is an embarrassment to their proud and noble history. She also wants the head of General Iron Sky on a platter. The fact that she has over a thousand nominations for the Stable of Representatives is impressive,” Berry said, breaking the silence. 

There was a crackle from Barley’s newspaper and he lowered it to look at his niece. “Aye… an’ Spitfire is a looker too… if’n I’m gonna be voting, I have no shame in voting for some mare that is easy on my eyes,” Barley replied. 

Remaining silent, Lyra wondered how Barley turned the word “too” into something with two syllables. “Tay-oo” which also rhymed with how Barley said “no.” 

“Barley, have you no shame?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Nae, my sweet dear Bonnie… it was chewed off by a badger,” Barley replied. 

Chortling, Bon Bon rolled her eyes and gave up. 

“I plan to do my part to help our family. When the vote comes, I’ll be voting for Rising Star. He’s a fine lad. Good head on his shoulders. Plus, he knows how to light his farts on fire, a skill every politician should have,” Barley announced. 

The room filled with giggles and titters. 

“I don’t fully understand the need for voting,” Sentinel said, finally sticking his snoot into the adult conversation. “Why not just have the royals run everything?” 

“Because lad, they’re ponies too. They make mistakes. Luna’s made all kinds of mistakes and the nattery old dame has chewed my ear off telling me about them,” Barley replied. “It is time for us to make our own mistakes. Look after our own affairs. Let them look after the big things, and we look after the little things, so more things can get done,” he explained. 

“I think the vote is a good idea, I just don’t fully understand it,” Sentinel said, stating his position clearly. “I am not sure what it will accomplish.” 

“Probably not much in the beginning. We’ll have to learn as we go,” Barley patiently answered, looking over at Sentinel fondly. “I’m glad that Bucky brought me back a nephew.” 

“While most of us are gathered here, there is something I want to bring up… well, I know Thistle is in the bed with Bucky and Derpy is upstairs with the fillies, but I plan to spring this on them as well… times are hard right now. I mean, we all know that. Just look at the papers in front of you. With all of the shortages and stuff… I was thinking, we need to fall back on things we learned while visiting the Shetlands,” Lyra announced. 

“Aye, and that is?” Barley asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Well, I know it has been talked about a few times, but I think we need to have a serious talk. We need to get all of the mares in the herd producing milk. We go through butter and milk by the pounds and by the gallons every day… we have an untapped resource that we could be exploiting,” Lyra explained. “It is just milk. Made by equines, for equines, and it shouldn’t be weird that we use it. We could secure cows or goats, but we would have to feed them and house them. Times are going to be rough enough as it is.” 

“Aye… between Bon Bon and Berry we should have enough for day to day stuff. Mostly. If we make something like chowder or something that needs a lot of milk, we might need more,” Barley stated, his voice serious and firm. “Things will be a little harder once the foals arrive though.” 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Berry said. 

“Self sufficiency is something we should strive for,” Bon Bon remarked. “I suppose I can be milked. It will give Lyra something to do.” 

“We Shetlanders have an awful lot we could be teaching ponies about living, if they’d just stop laughing at us and poking fun at our ways,” Barley muttered, his lilt softened into an almost non existent state. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 248
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Wow, who would have thought there was a word that rhymed with “ophiotaurus” and that you could be so clever in explaining to what in Tartarus this thing was,” Rising Star said to Zecora as he stood over the charred remains of the weird half bull half snake creature that had given them both a scare. 

He let out a grunt when he was suddenly hugged by the grateful zebra, who had been grabbed by the horrible monster and nearly swallowed whole. If Rising Star hadn’t responded as quickly as he had, the outcome might have been very different. He could feel Zecora squeezing him and he felt pretty good about everything even though he nearly lost control of his bowels and his bladder just a few minutes ago. 

“Oh noble unicorn I owe my entire life to you… you have saved me from being Zecora stew!” Zecora rhymed, still clinging to Rising Star’s neck. 

“We’re both equines,” Rising Star replied sheepishly. 

“When I go to town... there are many gripes, ponies say bad things... because of my zebra stripes,” Zecora whispered. 

“Yeah well, when you need to go to town, you just stop by the farm and you get one of us,” Rising Star grumbled angrily. 

Rising Star took a deep breath as Zecora let go and then backed away from him. She was only slightly singed. His magic was dangerous to everything around him, but he had somehow managed to keep from burning Zecora to a crisp. The giant ophiotaurus on the other hoof, it was not so lucky. Flamewhip was an incredibly useful spell. He had wrapped the telekinetically charged lash of fire with physical properties around the ophiotaurus, tied it up, subdued it, and then set it on fire once he had safely secured Zecora away to safety. It was big enough to eat a pony in one gulp. 

It settled into his mind exactly what he had done and Rising Star felt his body begin to tremble, the post-kill jitters settling in and doing a terrible number to his already bad nerves. 

Seeing Zecora continue onwards, Rising Star hurried to follow her and keep her safe. 



 

The fireoak was a flaming oak tree deep in the heart of the Everfree. Rising Star figured it had to be midnight, and he hoped that his family wasn’t too worried about him. He stood watching the tree in awe, and as he watched, a flaming bipedal figure came dancing and prancing along, moving towards them. 

“Mind your manners and make no fuss, a pyrodryad approaches us,” Zecora rhymed reassuringly. 

Rising Star watched the dancing figure that walked on two legs, a creature made of living flame. As she drew near, he felt himself igniting somewhat, his mane and tail bursting into flames. 

“Thelesignus, how bright you are, my companion here is named Rising Star,” Zecora said, introducing the pair as the pyrodryad drew near. 

“Greetings fellow fire spirit trapped in pony-flesh. How are you this fine evening?” Thelesignus inquired politely, her voice a crackling bonfire given speech. The pyrodryad turned to look at Zecora. “Are you in need of acorns?” 

Zecora nodded silently and backed away from the pair as it grew uncomfortably warm. 

“Would you like an acorn?” the pyrodryad asked, reaching out and stroking Rising Star with a flaming hand with seven fiery fingers that lingered on Rising Star’s neck, trailing upward slowly, and she giggled as she watched the pony shiver at her touch.

“I don’t understand what the acorns are for or what they do,” Rising Star whispered. 

“They are fireoak acorns. One day I will find a suitable mate… perhaps a phoenix or a fire spirit trapped in pony-flesh… and then the acorns will become my children and there will be more fireoaks and I will have many pyrodryad daughters… but for now, the acorns are simply nuts. They can be turned into potions, which is why the zebra finds them useful, those potions will burn away almost any infection or disease, even magical ones… or you could eat one,” Thelesignus suggested suggestively. 

“I am a happily married pony… very happily married with three wives,” Rising Star stammered nervously. 

“One more wife couldn’t hurt,” the pyrodryad whispered as her fingers caressed under Rising Star’s jaw and tickled his chin. “I would share you…” 

“No, that’s okay… I’m already in over my head,” Rising Star responded nervously. 

“Oh… that’s too bad,” Thelesignus said poutily. 

Rising Star watched with terrified fascination as the pyrodryad reached into herself, her hand merging with her own crotch, moved around, and then she pulled out a handful of acorns. She carefully placed them on the ground and made a gesture to Zecora. 

He watched as she held up one acorn pinched between her fingers and waved it in a hypnotic manner in front of his snoot. Rising Star found himself mesmerised by the acorn, which was surprisingly not on fire. 

“This nut will change you. Phoenixes sometimes eat them to have visions and gain power. Far below your hooves lies a sea of fire. Eat this, and the fire you draw from the ley lines will seem like little but a warm zypher compared to the new fires you will be able to summon. And all I ask in return is a little kiss. Just a tiny kiss on the lips and I will give this acorn to you… a gift of unbelievable power,” Thelesignus said, tapping the acorn on Rising Star’s snoot to punctuate her words. 

“Zecora, what should I do?” Rising Star asked. 

Zecora, scooping up the acorns and stuffing them into her saddlebags, looked up at Rising Star after securing the last one and shrugged. “Extra power might be nice, will you pay the pyrodryad’s price?” 

“Just a friendly little kiss you say?” Rising Star inquired. “What will the acorn do exactly if I eat it? What will happen?” he questioned. 

“The fire of the ley lines is the fire of the aether. The fires deep within the earth are different fires. They are the fires of life. The roots of my tree go down deep into the ground and draw from this fire. It is what causes the tree to burn but not die. This acorn,” Thelesignus stated, holding up the nut before Rising Star’s eyes. “This little acorn will make you like my tree. Your hooves will pull up the primordial fire from deep below. This will change you… forever. All of your offspring will be touched by fire. I give you my word that this will not hurt you or rob you of your pony form. But I can see into your mind. I know what you desire. You desire to keep your family safe. This will let you do that… this will give you the power you need to secure their future… and all I want is a kiss.” 

“Seems too good to be true,” Rising Star muttered. 

“Perhaps we should go and just be on our way, you can go home and forget the gifts of the fey,” Zecora interjected. 

The pyrodryad blazed brighter for a moment. “Yes, I am fey… but I give you my word. This will not hurt you. This will help you keep your family safe! This will give you a level of control that you could only dream of otherwise. Your wife… Sparkler… yes, I can hear her name in your mind… both of you would draw from the same source. Your magics would merge… become powerful… you would be able to cast symbiotic magic with one another. All I want is a kiss.” 

“A kiss doesn’t seem like such a terrible price to pay,” Rising Star said, feeling temptation. Control. Power. All of his future foals gifted with fire. He was having a hard time seeing the drawback to any of this. 

“Fiery earth magic. A natural connection to everything that comes from the earth, including metals. Just think of what you could do as a smith if you could connect with the metals you worked with.  And all I require is one willing kiss,” Thelesignus offered. 

“I will give you what you want,” Rising Star whispered hesitantly. “Just one quick meaningless kiss.” 

Thelesignus pressed the acorn up against Rising Star’s lips, and when he opened his mouth, she pressed it onto his tongue. She then placed her hand under his jaw and closed his mouth, and leaned in close. 

The acorn was bliss. Rising Star had no words to describe the flavour. It filled his mouth and burned through his body. He felt heat rippling and radiating from his skin. He felt pressure behind his eyes and in his horn. He felt a strange feeling in his hooves. He looked down and saw that his hooves were changing. Right before his eyes, they were warping. He felt a weird feeling of peaceful confusion, a sense of sleepy awareness that made his head feel swimmy. His hooves were splitting. He felt a hand under his chin lifting his head up. Everything was fire. He felt two lips briefly touch his own, and a powerful jolt traveled through his body. He felt strange as the pyrodryad pulled away, and he heard peals of laughter fill the Everfree forest all around him. 

“At last I will have my daughters!” 

WHAT? Rising Star’s brain screamed at him. It was only a kiss something inside of his brain said. His legs wobbled and he felt weak. His balls felt like he had been rutting Sparkler and Loch Skimmer all night. He let out a wordless cry and heard Zecora shouting something, but he could not make out what was being said. 

Suddenly, everything exploded into fire. Rising Star felt himself being pulled into the flames and sucked down into the ground, the earth devouring him and swallowing him whole. 



 

Rising Star came to awareness slowly. He was laying next to a river of fire, a running river of magma. He groaned and rubbed his head. He caught a glimpse of his hoof and did a double take. His hoof was cloven, like a goat’s hoof. His legs were longer. He braced his hooves beneath him and stood up. He was taller. His tail felt weird. There was something pointy inside of his mouth, and he ran his tongue over what he could only assume were fangs. 

Turning around to look at his own backside, he saw his tail was now like a donkey’s tail. 

“Oh stars! I’m a storybook creature! I’ve turned into one of those fey unicorns like in the stories my mother used to read to me… oh nuts what do I do… what have I done? What did I get myself into? And where am I?” Rising Star said to himself as he began to peer around. 

“You must be new here,” a voice said. 

Rising Star turned around, trying to take everything in. Nearby was a tree. A tree on fire. And in the tree was some kind of bird. Also on fire. “Where is here?” Rising Star asked politely. 

“You mean you don’t know?” 

“Well, no, if I knew, I wouldn’t be asking.” 

“Whatta moron. Kid, you’re in Tartarus.” 

“WHAT?” Rising Star screamed.

“This is the realm of Scorch the Usurper. The fey fire elemental,” the bird replied. 

“I’m in Tartarus?” Rising Star whimpered. 

“This is a nice part of Tartarus,” the bird answered with a cackle. “At least if you are a fire elemental. Otherwise, this is a HORRIBLE PLACE!” 

Rising Star looked around. Everything was on fire. There was a river of magma, he was standing on hot black coals, and a raging inferno blazed in the distance. The air was filled with the stench of brimstone, which for some reason didn’t bother him. 

“Oh by the stars I was so STUPID!” Rising Star shouted. 

“Eh, you’re one of us now. Scorch will find a purpose for you. He found one for me. I show up and taunt new arrivals. Well, I shouldn’t be taunting you, you are a fellow fire elemental, but, eh, screw you anyway. I am supposed to torment the souls sent here for processing,” the bird explained. 

“Oh pony farts… I’m in Tartarus… I don’t want to be here,” Rising Star whined. “I have three wives at home… a family that loves me.” 

“Tough luck kid. I hear these sad sob stories all the time. Anyway, I’m off. I am going to go peck out the eyes of the damned and maybe get a bite of delicious genitals from the all you can eat corpse buffet,” the bird said as it took wing and flew off. 

Alone, afraid, and uncertain what to do, Rising Star focused his magic and attempted to send a message to Princess Celestia through the living fire. 
	
	
> Chapter 249
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All things considered, this was a nice place. The fire didn’t bother him, the landscape was interesting, and oddly enough, the smell of brimstone was strangely appealing to him now. He stepped into the river of magma and it felt it running around his hooves. There was a pleasant tingling sensation. 

“Oh bugger.” 

Turning, Rising Star looked around to see who the voice was. He saw a tall bipedal figure of living flame. As he watched, it changed shape and became vaguely pony shaped, but it had no solid parts, it remained a cloud of flame. 

“You’re not dead,” the flame pony said. 

“No, I’m not. Who are you?” Rising Star asked in what he hoped was a polite tone. 

“I’m Scorch. I sensed something strange. You don’t belong here kid, you’ve done been pranked,” Scorch muttered. 

“Well, send me back,” Rising Star requested. 

“I can’t,” Scorch replied. 

“Why not?” Rising Star asked. 

“The rules don’t work that way,” Scorch said. “But I think I can help you.” 

“Please, I have three wives, I want to go home,” Rising Star begged. 

“Hold on kid,” Scorch said. “Just keep everything together and we will work something out,” he promised. 

“I just got tricked into being sent here by the fey. Why should I trust you?” Rising Star asked. “You’re a fey elemental right?” 

“Oh, you shouldn’t trust me. Only a moron would trust me. But I am friends with Celestia. We play chess together. And she’s part of my bridge club. And you can trust her. Hold on kiddo,” Scorch replied nervously. “Oh the big dove is gonna be pissed…” 

The fire elemental became bipedal again, snapped his fingers, and a sheet of parchment appeared in mid air. It floated there, not moving, and Scorch pulled a pen out from nowhere. He began to write slowly, humming to himself. When he was finished, he rolled up the scroll, held it up to what appeared to be his mouth, blew out a gout of flame upon it, and then he smiled at Rising Star. 

“Now we wait kid. She’s good about answering her mail. We’ll figure out a way of getting you home in an hour or so. Now you just stay calm and tell me all about your wives or something kid,” Scorch said in a friendly voice. 



 

“... And that is why Loch Skimmer is the most wonderful pervert ever,” Rising Star said with a big dopey grin on his face. He looked at Scorch, who was clutching his sides and guffawing with laughter, the big primordial fire elemental really wasn’t a bad sort at all. Rising Star could understand why Celestia liked him. 

Suddenly, Scorch stopped laughing. He looked around.

“We got incoming kid, three alicorns… oh by the Hag’s saggy left teat, why does there have to be three alicorns?” Scorch said, now looking worried. 

“I’ll tell them not to hurt you,” Rising Star whimpered, moving closer to the cowering fire elemental. “I kinda know them. Just stay close to me.” 

There was a loud crackle, a pop, and a brilliant flash of light. When Rising Star could see again, there was two alicorns and one figure in dull black armor. Both of the alicorns, Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle were on fire. 

“I’ve come for my son,” Bucky announced, making no bones about why he was here, his voice a menacing mechanical growl. 

“Scorch, why is my little pony Rising Star here with you?” Celestia asked, sounding very cross. Her nostrils flared and her brows furrowed. She made the sort of face that was the last face that millions of demons and evildoers saw in their final moments before their impending destruction. 

“I DIDN’T DO IT!” Scorch cried out in a frightened voice. “I don’t want to lose my friend!” 

“I met a pyrodryad. I ate an acorn. I ended up here,” Rising Star said, leaving out a few minor details in the sequence of events. “And don’t hurt Scorch. He’s nice. He’s been nothing but good to me, but I’d have to be a moron to trust him.” 

“Rising Star… I do not even know what to say,” Celestia said in a very cranky sounding voice. She scowled. “You are an infernal fey creature now. I cannot undo that.” 

“Look, I wanna settle this peacefully,” Scorch whined. “I don’t want no violence or bodily harm or any kind of trouble.” 

“Then let him go,” Twilight commanded, her eyes blazing like miniature suns. She took a step forward and bared her teeth. 

“He cannot do that Twilight. It is not that simple,” Celestia said in an annoyed voice. 

“Look, Celestia, I owe you a few favours, but I can’t just give him to you… but you know that. So I’ll make this as easy as I can. We trade,” Scorch said in a trembling voice. 

“I’d rather just kill you,” Bucky growled. 

“You cannot kill him Buckminster,” Celestia said dismissively. 

“Then I spend hours making him wish he was dead until he lets my son go,” Bucky growled, his horn now flaring with dark magic. 

“Woah!” Scorch whined. “I’m not technically evil!” He grabbed Rising Star and held him close, trembling with fear. 

“He speaks the truth,” Celestia muttered. “And he has been a big help to me in the past. I cannot let you threaten my friend. Now behave yourself.” 

“We really don’t have anything on us to trade,” Twilight said, taking a step forward to get a better look at Rising Star, who was clinging to Scorch. Twilight thought the pair looked rather pitiful together, but she said nothing about her personal private thoughts. 

“The only one who can trade with me is the buckethead over there,” Scorch said. 

“Which is why I brought him here,” Celestia stated. 

“Why me?” Bucky asked. 

“Family member. Fey rules,” Celestia answered tersely. 

“Oh… so what do you want from me?” Bucky questioned. 

“Well, this is a pretty standard hostage situation… one soul for another. Has to be a family member. I really don’t care who,” Scorch said. “I’m sorry… them’s the rules. I didn’t make the rules, but I am bound by the rules.” 

“So I could trade myself,” Bucky stated. 

“No!” Rising Star shouted. “NO NO NO!” 

“Or maybe a foal that you are not to fond of,” Scorch muttered dejectedly. 

“Are you sure I couldn’t kill him?” Bucky asked. 

“Buckminster… I do not know what to do. There are rules here. Strange magic. Primordial magic. We have to figure out some way to free Rising Star and give Scorch what he wants,” Celestia said in a strained voice. 

“Very well. I accept,” Bucky said. “The soul of one family member in exchange for my son, Rising Star. How do we do the exchange? How do we make a binding deal?” 

“All you must do is say the name of the soul you wish to exchange,” Scorch grumbled. 

“Buckminster… don’t do this,” Twilight warned. “We’ll go to war… I’ll find a way to bend the rules of magic. We’ll find a way…” 

“Buckminster, it was very noble of you to make this sacrifice,” Celestia said solemnly as she closed her eyes. She began to silently make plans on how to free Buckminster from Tartarus somehow. 

“Wait, you are gonna let him do this?” Twilight snapped. “There is no way you can just let him do this… he is the alicorn of war. We need him!” 

“NO!” Rising Star shouted. 

“It is his choice Twilight. His soul is his own,” Celestia said in a sad voice. 

“I just need a name,” Scorch said. “Just say the names of the exchange in full and we will seal the deal,” he explained. 

“Very well. In exchange for the freedom of Rising Star, I offer you the soul of another family member in exchange. Primrose Propers.” 

“BUCKMINSTER!” Celestia screamed. 

“Done!” Scorch accepted. He snapped his fingers. A blue flash surrounded Rising Star and there was a loud pop. 

“Where am I? What is going on here?” 

“Welcome to Tartarus,” Bucky said in a low mechanical growl to his mother. 

“Buckminster, how could you?” Celestia inquired angrily. 

“I have brought no physical harm to her. I have merely facilitated her arrival to face judgment,” Bucky replied in a cold mechanical thrum. 

“What have you done?” Primrose hissed. “What is this place? I demand to know what is going on! Tell me at once!” 

“What a lovely juicy soul,” Scorch cackled. He snapped his fingers again and Primrose vanished. He rubbed his flaming hands together in glee and continued to cackle. “Oh I am going to have fun with that. I love the property laws here.” 

“Buckminster… how could you?” Celestia repeated. 

“It was easy,” Bucky answered. 

“So I am free?” Rising Star asked. 

“As a bird,” Scorch replied. 

“I am at a loss for words,” Celestia whispered. 

“Buckminster, you just traded your own mother… to a Lord of Tartarus,” Twilight gasped, finally able to say something about what had just happened. 

“She was an insufferable coont,” Bucky growled. 

“And this is why you treat your foals with respect and love,” Scorch jubilantly announced. He clapped his hands together a few times, looking very pleased with himself. 

“Can we go home now?” Bucky asked. 

“I want to be away from this place. Stinks like rotten eggs here,” Twilight muttered. 

“Scorch, we must be going. I will speak with you soon, sorry if we must make a hasty departure, but the sooner we get Rising Star out of here the better,” Celestia said apologetically. 

The great white alicorn’s horn flashed with a golden light… 



 

Rising Star blinked and saw the farmhouse in front of him. He blinked again. He looked down. He still had cloven hooves. He was still a lot taller. He was still… 

“OW” Rising Star shouted as a white wing slapped him in the back of his head. 

Again the wing came down, a painful stinging blow. After the first two strikes to get in practice once again, Celestia let go of a flurry of blows, each blow landing in the perfect spot to cause the maximum amount of sting. When Rising Star tried to run from her, she ran after him and kept slapping, using both wings for maximum efficiency. 

Ponies began to step out on to the porch into the dark night to watch what would become known as the Great Alicorn Slapfest. Nopony said anything. Nopony made any move to stop Celestia. Nopony made a move to help Rising Star escape her fury. Around and around the yard they went, Celestia raining down what seemed to be an endless number of blows. 

“NEVER MAKE DEALS WITH A FEY CREATURE! YOU STUPID, STUPID COLT!” 

Finally, Rising Star fell into the grass and curled into a ball, begging for the slapping to stop. 

Standing over him, Celestia scowled down. “We are not done. We are going to talk later,” she said icily. She turned away in disgust and faced Buckminster. 

“Take off your armor,” Celestia demanded furiously

“Uh oh,” Bucky whimpered, his voice odd inside of his helmet, sounding strangely foalish. He took off his helmet and various sections of armor began to fall away from him. 

Wasting no time, Celestia rushed forward, wings out, and the Great Alicorn Slapfest continued. Bucky didn’t bother running, he stood there and took it, his ears splayed out to the sides in submission. 

“YOU DO NOT TRADE YOUR OWN MOTHER’S SOUL TO A FEY DEMON LORD OF TARTARUS! BAD FOAL! BAD BAD BAD! SHAME ON YOU NEPHEW! YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!” Celestia scolded as she landed many blows upon Bucky in rapid succession, her wings moving in a blur of righteous fury. 

The ponies on the porch watched, eyes wide, mouths hanging open in utter shock. 

“YOU! BOTH OF YOU! THIS IS NOT OVER! WHEN I HAVE CALMED DOWN I WILL HAVE WORDS TO SAY TO BOTH OF YOU!” Celestia shouted as she ceased slapping poor Bucky silly. She made no move to catch him when he fell down into the grass. Celestia stood there, panting with anger, her sides heaving like bellows.

White feathers floated in the breeze, drifting to the ground like snowflakes, and Celestia stood over two ponies that she loved a great deal but was currently very disapointed in. 

There was a crackle, a pop, and then Celestia vanished. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 250
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Laying in the grass with her husband, Derpy tried to comfort Bucky after the Great Alicorn Slapfest, which had left him sore and rather battered. She kissed him softly and made soft cooing sounds into his ear, while wrapping her wings around him gently and stroking him with her forelegs. 

“She must really love you,” Derpy whispered. 

“How can you tell?” Bucky replied in a mildly sarcastic voice. 

“Because she wing slapped you,” Derpy answered. 

“Love stings,” Bucky groused. 

“Bucky, a pegasus’ wings are so sensitive. Just think about what happens to me when you gently stroke my wings or blow on them or just try to get me wound up… each blow, each slap, they are full of ouchy. A wing slap hurts a pegasus just as much as the pony they are slapping. It is shared pain. We share the pain with those we love and bear their punishments. If we wanted to hurt them, we’d just kick them,” Derpy explained. 

“Wait, so each time she slapped me she was hurting herself?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes, you dimwit,” Derpy responded.

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky murmured. 

“She loves you,” Derpy whispered. 



 

“You stink like  rotten eggs,” Ripple said, backing away from Rising Star and fanning her nose with her wing, her eyes narrowing as she retreated. 

“I do?” Rising Star replied, sniffing as he did so. 

“You do,” Loch Skimmer answered. “You’re kinda stinky.” 

“I hate to admit it Rising, because I hate to sound shallow, but you are a bit sexier right now, even with the eggy smell… there is something about you…” Sparkler confessed. 

“What about the Stable of Representatives?” Rising Star whispered. “Only a moron would trust me now. I’m a fey creature.” 

“Bon Bon will keep you honest,” Sparkler said reassuringly. 



 

Looking at Twilight, Rising Star tried to understand the long winded and overly wordy explanation he had just been given about everything that just happened after he had explained to her in brief what had taken place in the woods. 

Twilight, noticing his vacant expression, rubbed her muzzle and grunted in frustration, not sure why other ponies had such a problem communicating over such simple concepts. She gave such detailed and careful explanations. The whole world was obtuse. 

“Okay, let me try this again. I’ll use simple words this time. Really simple words. Try to keep up,” Twilight grumbled in annoyance. “Celestia draws her fire from the sun. I, like most pyromancers, draw my fire from the aether. You used to draw your fire from the aether. I strongly suspect that now, you draw your fire directly from Tartarus itself, which means you have demon-fire, or quite literally the infernal blazes. I would also strongly suspect that if we measured you, you would no longer be a type three, but a type four unicorn, at least as far as raw power goes in relation to fire. You seem to have suffered a few minor physiological changes. Horn growth, longer legs, cloven hooves, your tail has been altered, you’ve grown fangs…” Twilight summarised. She yawned and covered her mouth with her wing. “Look, I need to go get a few hours sleep. We will talk later. At least try not to be a tricky lawyerly fey creature or I will geas you into submission.” 

“I’ll be good,” Rising Star said in a strangled voice. “I’m just glad to be home… with my wives… my family…” He watched as Twilight spread her wings, took flight and departed. 

“You okay Rising?” Bucky asked in a concerned voice. 

“Yeah, I feel mostly okay. Thanks for rescuing me,” Rising Star said graciously in reply. 

“Think nothing of it. You are my son. I wouldn’t want to explain to your other parents why you were stuck in Tartarus,” Bucky responded. He looked at his armor pieces scattered over the lawn. “Tartarus wasn’t such a bad place. Scorch seemed nice enough for a fey demon lord fire elemental. Looks like you have a friend you can probably call on in times of trouble.” 

“He is part of a bridge club with Celestia. And they play chess together. When she was a little filly, Scorch used to foalsit her and keep her from burning down the entire countryside,” Rising Star said, smiling as he spoke. 

“Oh… well that is interesting,” Bucky said in stunned disbelief. 

“And I got to tell him about my wives and we talked about all kinds of things… you know, you’re right. I think he’s my friend now. He was honestly worried about me and my well being now that I look back on everything. And he was so afraid of losing his friend… to think that friendship means so much to a fey demon lord…” Rising Star said thoughtfully. 

“Or a draconequus,” Bucky mentioned. “Or a lonely unicorn who had given up on the world. Never underestimate the power of friendship.” 

“I’m tired. I’m going to try going back to bed while I am feeling sort of sleepy,” Bucky muttered as he teetered off to the house, lifting his armor pieces in his telekinesis to place them back into their case before he went to bed. 



 

The first grey light of dawn broke over the trees as Bucky took a sip of coffee and tried to make everything stop shaking. He wasn’t sure what was wrong. Fear? Lack of enough sleep? A bad case of nerves from visiting Tartarus? He had no idea. He took a sip of the hot liquid and felt it trickle down his throat, burning as it went down. 

There was several hundred pounds of coffee stored in the pantry, and Bucky was quite happy about this fact. Barley had seen which way the wind was blowing early on, and had stockpiled coffee back when it was plentiful. There were also tins of compressed loose leaf tea and a number of other dried goods staples that made life bearable. 

He heard a cry from the nursery and set his cup down upon the kitchen table. He rose from his chair, made his way down the hall, into the nursery, and saw Harper in her crib. She glared at him, indignant that the sun was rising and nopony has freed her from her prison. Everypony else in the house was sound asleep. Dawn was supposed to bring freedom, and the adults had failed in their responsibility. 

He lifted her in his magic, levitated her over, and then sat down in a rocking chair. He pulled her close, cradling her to his barrel, wrapping his diminished leg around her, and began to rock back and forth while holding her. 

“Hi Harper,” Bucky whispered. “It was a long night last night. Everypony is worn out. There is no need to be fussy,” he cooed. 

“Mama,” Harper said, resting her head in the crook of Bucky’s neck. 

“Rising Star had himself an adventure that he’ll be able to tell his own foals about, but I don’t think he told me the whole story,” Bucky whispered as he rocked in the chair with Harper. 

“Story,” Harper burbled, drooling into Bucky’s thick shaggy pelt. 

“Well, there was a unicorn who had a son that he loved a great deal. And this son found himself in Tartarus, trapped there. The unicorn didn’t know why, but he was worried. And the only way to free his son was to trade the soul of another family member,” Bucky said, telling Harper a story in a soft sonorous voice that made the foal go still. 

“So the unicorn, he was clever. He made a plan to free his son from the fey fire elemental named Scorch. This unicorn is brain damaged… he has a very muddled sense of right and wrong now. He’s not sure if there is right or wrong. There is only playing to win, which is all that mattered to him, because he was painfully and horribly selfish. It is his major failing, and it will probably cost him dearly one day. He wanted to keep his son. So, the unicorn was clever and traded the soul of his own mother for the soul of his son. The unicorn got to keep his son, which made him happy. Now, his son is a fey creature, and probably has a very interesting future in politics.” 

Bucky could tell from the sounds of her breathing that Harper was asleep. Yawning, he continued rocking while holding Harper, humming softly to his foal, and before too long, he too drifted off into sleep, his cup of coffee growing cold in the kitchen where it was forgotten. 



 

Loch Skimmer awoke to the stench of rotten eggs and lifted her head. At first she thought that somepony had farted, maybe her, but then she recalled Rising Star’s feculent new funk. She leaned in close and gave him a sniff. 

“Yuck,” she muttered. 

It really wasn’t that bad, it was like spring water that reeked, redolent of rotten eggs, but it was bad enough to be noticed. Still, there was something incredibly alluring about him now. Some kind of irresistible charm. She shook her head, her ears flapping around crazily as she did so, and then yawned. Something else stunk as well. She sniffed around, smelling Sparky, and then sniffed Ripple. She lifted a wing and sniffed her own wingpit. 

“Eeew… gross,” she murmured. “I have underwing stink. That’s not attractive.” 

She slipped out of bed with her tongue sticking out, arched her back, stretched her legs, spread her wings, tried not to smell the stench coming from her own wingpits, and then stumbled for the door. Opening the door, she peered into the hall. The house was silent. Barley’s room was at the other end of the hall. 

Moving through the door, Loch Skimmer made her way down the hall to the bathroom. The door was open and it was unoccupied. She went inside and closed the door behind her. Inside the bathroom was an old bathtub that was big enough for four ponies. 

Showers might be the single greatest invention in the whole wide world, and perhaps the best thing the mainland had to offer. She kicked the levers to get the water running, banged an ornate iron lever that redirected the water to the shower, and then stepped in to hot steamy bliss. 



 

Five mares had their heads poked into the nursery door, their faces melting from the adorable sight. They were silent, or tried to be, there were a few low moans and whimpers, and all of them were quite taken by what they saw. 

Bucky, asleep in the rocking chair, was holding Harper, also asleep. Harper had drooled a great deal, leaving Bucky quite damp. His head was tilted back, his mouth open, and as a testament to his powerful magic, his horn had a dim glow. The rocking chair continued to rock back and forth, even in his sleep. It was a rare unicorn that could keep their magic going in their sleep. 

The mares backed away from the door and made their way down the hall, heading off to the kitchen together. Derpy had been the one who discovered the slumbering unicorn, and then had dragged her fellow wives out of bed to come have a look. 

Spilling into the kitchen, the five mares began to rummage around for breakfast. The coffee in the coffee urn was still hot, but the cup of coffee on the table was cold. 

Barley silently staggered into the kitchen, stared at the herd of mares for a moment, blinked a few times, and then sat down at the kitchen table. He rubbed his eyes and remained silent as the mares moved about the kitchen. 

“Bucky traded his own mother’s soul,” Lyra murmured, breaking the silence. 

“Good riddance,” Berry grumbled. 

“To bad rubbish,” Barley finished. 

“Is it wrong that I feel very attracted to him for being such a bad pony?” Derpy asked. 

“He’ll keep ye safe,” Barley groused. “He traded one soul worth keeping for one soul that was utterly worthless. If I was a demon I’d feel cheated.” 

“We’re never going to have normal family problems,” Bon Bon said. 

“Nay, I doubt we’ll ever be normal,” Barley replied. 

Moving with a cloud of strawberry scent, Loch Skimmer bounced into the kitchen, moving through the crowd and kissing cheeks, bringing smiles with every peck. The charcoal grey pegasus beamed, her own smile shining like the sun, and she finally sat down at the table next to Barley. 

“Rising Star stinks like rotten eggs now,” Loch announced. “Somehow, he’s even more sexy, but I can’t figure out how or why.” 

“Bloody fey,” Barley muttered. 
	
> Chapter 251
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Do you think it is safe to go into town?” Bon Bon asked. 

“It’s safe enough,” Barley replied. 

“Worried about hoof rot,” Bon Bon stated. 

“Aye, I worry as well. Avoid muddy places, wet places, and try to wash your hooves in clean water any chance you get,” Barley said after taking a swallow of coffee. 

“I plan to go into town today. Check on my shop and my old apartment. I bet the fridge is a nightmare. Gonna need to to get a wagon and move everything out,” Bon Bon said in a sad voice. She slumped at the table, holding a spoon with her hoof and stirring her coffee endlessly. 

“Why so glum Bonnie?” Barley asked. 

“My business… I don’t know what to do about it. It is so far away now. Lyra and I do most of the cooking around here. I am not sure what to do. Making candies made me so happy… but now I have responsibilities. I feel so conflicted,” Bon Bon confessed. 

“Go back to work if it makes you happy. There are a lot of ponies here, if need be, we’ll hire a cook, but you have a right to be happy. The walk will keep you fit ye pretty lass,” Barley said, looking Bon Bon in the eye. 

“I dunno if I wanna go,” Lyra said in a low voice. “I dunno if I can face the crowds. The ponies looking at me. Staring at me.” 

Looking at Lyra, Bon Bon felt smidge of worry. Lyra certainly seemed happier out here on the farm. It made everything all the more conflicting. She reached up and scratched at her ear nervously with her right front hoof. She needed to be making candies again. 

“If’n ye go, take Loch Skimmer with ye, she’s a gabber, she’ll help ye deal with the crowd,” Barley suggested, his lilt becoming noticeably thicker after taking a few drinks of coffee. 

“I don’t have a problem with the crowds so much, I just don’t want to be mobbed and asked a million questions,” Bon Bon muttered, her muzzle scrunching up as she lifted her coffee cup and took a sniff. “Bucky makes coffee too strong. This is sludge.” 

“Aye, ‘tis proper coffee,” Barley amicably agreed. He chortled when he saw Bon Bon roll her eyes at him and slapped the table with his hoof. He smiled a lopsided grin of affection at the earth pony sitting across from him at the table and tried to get his old ears to stand up straight. 

At his age, it was getting difficult to get anything to stand up at attention. 



 

A low slung figure moved slowly through the tall grass. It moved carefully, each move made with consideration towards the end goal. All four knees were kept bent to keep the figure’s profile low. It moved silently towards its prey… freezing in place every few moments in the seemingly jerky movements of a practiced hunter. 

A restless tail swished as the hunter moved towards its acquired target, and a low growl could be heard, a faint almost imperceptible sound. Ultrasonic sounds tracked distance and calculated effective ranges for pouncing through a highly advanced system of echolocation. 

There were few finer hunter-killers to be found in nature. 



 

Three fillies hugged one another in the mid-morning sun. Dinky and Piña both squeezed Diamond Tiara, embracing in a three way squeeze. They all giggled, happy to see one another. Summer was drawing to a close and days to be spent in play were running out. 

“We should have a sleepover,” Dinky suggested. 

“I’ll ask my dad,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“We can have a tea party,” Piña gushed. 

“What is it with you and tea parties?” Dinky asked. 

“I like tea. And I like parties. And I really love those little cucumber sandwiches with spicy brown mustard that Berry makes,” Piña answered, licking her lips after she spoke. 

The world suddenly became a very confusing place as a sooty brown blur came soaring out of the grass and crashed into Diamond Tiara. The earth pony filly shrieked and fell over, going limp as something plowed into her and bowled her over. Dinky and Piña both screamed and shouted, panicking, unable to make sense of the situation. Dinky’s horn flashed with a truly dazzling brilliance. 

And then, things made sense again. 

Sentinel was sitting on top of Diamond Tiara, smiling an almost non existent smile, the corners of his mouth only almost turned upwards. The colt looked very pleased with himself. And, after a long profound silence, Diamond Tiara, pinned beneath him, started to laugh. 

Dinky, realising what had happened, began to laugh as well, but then fell silent when she saw her daddy and Mister Rich on the porch. Her daddy looked worried. Afraid. Frightened. But then she saw his face soften and slowly break into a laugh. Mister Rich still looked confused. Beside her, Piña was beside herself with laughter, guffawing and rolling on the ground. 

“I thought I’d be friendly,” Sentinel explained. 

Dinky watched her daddy lean over and whisper something to Mister Rich, and then Mister Rich looked better, his own face and body relaxing a bit and even offering up a bit of a laugh. 

“You tackled me,” Diamond Tiara said, looking up at Sentinel with wide eyes. 

“No, I pounced you. I wanted you to know there was no hard feelings after what happened. This is how my kind show that we like somepony,” Sentinel replied. 

The two stallions on the porch were heading back inside and Dinky took a deep breath. She had nearly let go with a tremendous amount of magic. Her mind went back to the night where she rode on her mother’s back shooting bolts of telekinetic death down upon her enemies. For a moment, she could hear the sounds. Yelps of pain. Whimpers. Cries. The smell of blood thick in the air. The sounds of violence filling the air and making it impossible to hear anything else. She remembered in vivid detail the bombing run, dropping dozens of spell jars filled with death down upon her enemies far below her. The way her mother banked and descended slowly, giving Dinky time to line up her targets for another strafing run. The furious howls of her mother and the spitted curses, the terrible things her mother had said, her gentle loving mother’s ferocious snarls and growls as the pair of them worked together to rain down death and dismemberment from above. 

“Dinky?” 

Snapping to attention, Dinky looked around. 

“Dinky, you were talking to yourself… are you okay?” Piña asked. 

“What was I saying?” Dinky questioned in reply. 

“I dunno, I couldn’t make it out,” Piña said in a worried voice. “You don’t look well.” 

“You know, I suddenly don’t feel well,” Dinky admitted. 

Sentinel scooted away from Diamond Tiara and went to Dinky’s side, giving her a hug and wrapping his wings around her. He felt confused. Just a moment ago, she had seemed so happy, but he could feel the hitching of her barrel and the wetness of the tears now starting to fall. He held her close and tried to comfort her, feeling worried for his sister. 



 

Feeling more than a little concern because of her Shivers, Sparkler worried about making a good first impression. She had to meet the hopeful first recruits of the Ponyville Police Department today. She trotted down the road, moving with mindful purpose, off to the location in which they would all be meeting. Twilight had reassured her that these were good ponies and her Shivers shouldn’t be a problem. 

She hoped more than anything that this was true. 

As each day passed, she was feeling more and more self conscious about her condition. Even the looks of concern from those who loved her made her feel awkward and sometimes infuriated her, filling her with rage even though she had no good reason to be angry. 

Pushing these thoughts from her mind, Sparkler focused instead on just how sexy Rising Star had become quite literally overnight. He was taller, seemed to be more muscular, but she couldn’t quite be sure, and there was something impossible to resist about him. 

Flicking her tail, Sparkler went down the road with a smile upon her face. 



 

“Where is my squire?” 

The closet under the stairs was empty. Bucky stood there for a moment at a loss. He was having some trouble thinking. He was distracted and out of sorts. He looked at Mister Rich and then looked around the hallway. His eyes glanced over the door to the nursery and he saw Bittersweet on the floor with Harper and Peekaboo. A contented feeling slipped over him, easing some of his sense of worry.

“I have lost my squire,” Bucky announced. “I’ll be upstairs. Sorry about the cold Mister Rich, I really am.” 

Before Mister Rich could ask why Bucky was sorry, Bucky exploded into a cloud of snowflakes, covering the walls in frost and leaving behind a patch of ice on the floor. Mister Rich shivered violently, the cold biting in deep into his thin pelt. He still had his summer coat and it offered no protection.

Upstairs, Bucky nosed around, checking doors. Sentinel was not in his room. There was stuff on his desk, papers, pencils, indicators that Sentinel had been there. Usually, he kept his desk tidy, so he must have left in a hurry. 

Curious, he pushed open the door to Dinky and Piña’s room. 

He found Sentinel. The fillies were gathered around a small short table, and Sentinel was with them. They seemed to be having a tea party. Sentinel was certainly a pretty colt, with his hair braided into two pigtails and tied off with pretty pink and yellow ribbons. A white flower was tucked over one ear. All of the fillies were gussied up and looked extra pretty for the tea party. 

Bucky saw his son looking at him pleadingly. 

“Father… they foalnapped me from my desk and drug me in here. Dinky used her magic,” Sentinel whimpered. “They said it was because I pounced their friend.”

“Well, I was going to have to have you join Mister Rich and I for a talk, but I can see you are previously engaged,” Bucky said, struggling to keep a straight face.  “It is very important that you keep your sisters happy. Be on your best manners. And look after our guest Diamond Tiara. Be a good squire.” 

“Yes… sir,” Sentinel squeaked. 

Closing the door, Bucky bit down on his lip to keep from exploding with laughter. Only a supreme act of will kept him from losing it completely. He backed away from the door, snorting a few times as he beat a hasty retreat. 



 





Rising Star


First off, welcome to the family. Celestia will be talking to you soon. There are a lot of things you should know, and I should have spent some time telling you things, but it was a stressful time for both of us and you were scared out of your mind. 

Truth be told, so was I. 

You’ve probably noticed the lingering smell of brimstone. That is because we are fey. There is difference between fey and fae. The differences are minor, but major, meaningless, and of vital importance. All fey are part of the fae, but not all fae are fey. We are the otherworlders. We are extra dimensional beings. Don’t worry, this will all get explained. 

Anyway, after Celestia and I talked, I’ve been volunteered to be your uncle. If you need advice, you send a letter. If you need help, you send a letter. If you are in life threatening trouble, you call out “Uncle Scorch” and reach down deep into the fire within. Yeah yeah, I know, I’m a demon, but I am not one of those sorts of demons. I am free to walk through the gate at any time and frequently do. So don’t feel bad about calling me if you are in trouble. 

All of your foals, all of your future offspring, they will be like us. In time, the blood will fade and only the occasional cloven hoof will show up, but expect some interesting foals in the near future. I’ll be glad to be their Godfather. Been a while since I’ve done that job. 

Be careful about deals you make. Be careful about giving your word. We tend to geas ourselves, quite often without even realising it. Be wary of foals or other cute innocent little baby critters. We tend to become rampaging behemoths in protection of the young. Well, some of us. We’re all a little different, these are just general warnings kid. Watch out for primordial ice elementals. We don’t get along well. Most importantly, be careful with your magic. You are going to notice that you are a lot more powerful now. Don’t worry too much. Fire will obey you now and bend to your whim, where as before, you had to exert mastery over it. Fire is now your slave.


I will be in touch, your friend, Scorch. 
 

 

Looking at the letter, Rising Star felt an odd emotion bubbling through him. He was part of something larger now, some larger part of the world that he had no idea existed. He rubbed his aching head. Having letters exploding out of his horn was unpleasant but practical. 

He heaved a sigh, feeling a little better about everything that had happened. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 252
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All of the house plants were dead. The room was covered in dust. Other than that, everything was the same as when they had left. Somepony had boarded up the shop windows and the glass door. The apartment above the store smelled of neglect and emptiness. 

The trip here had been largely uneventful. Ponies had stared a bit, a few had waved, but most had simply left her alone, which she had not been expecting. Bon Bon didn’t know what to make of it. She had expected something else, a different reaction, but now, more than anything, she felt like an outsider. 

She dared not open the fridge, fearful of whatever eldritch horror might be lurking inside. They had done nothing to clear out the fridge before leaving. Or the breadbox. Or the fruit and vegetable bins. There was something nose crinkling lurking somewhere in the kitchen. Her husband might have bravely faced the crystal lich, but Bon Bon had no desire to face whatever was causing the nose crinkling stink. 

“Eeew,” Bon Bon groaned. 

Staring at the living room, Bon Bon felt a spike of emotion. There were two high backed chairs with a small wooden table tucked between them. Many nights had been spent in those chairs, one Lyra’s, one her own, sometimes quietly reading and other occasions passing time together in conversation. There had been many conversations about starting a family. 

The apartment could be called cozy, but Bon Bon could only think of her family, and the apartment would be cramped now. There was one bedroom. This was no place to have a foal. There was no yard. There was a street just outside both the front and back doors. There was no place to play. 

She took the steps from the apartment down into the shop proper, and found everything covered in dust. They had given away all of the candies the day before they had left. Large spiders crawled over the floor and Bon Bon watched them warily. Her sharp eyes saw tiny footprints in the dust, indicating rats. Ponyville was having a problem with rats lately, or so the paper said. 

Something stunk horrendously down in the shop, and she suspected the supply fridge down here was also full of eldritch horrors waiting to unleash tentacles upon her if she opened the door. Lyra had some very strange books about tentacles and the terrible things they did to ponies. 

Shuddering, Bon Bon moved away from the fridge. 



 

The group of cadet hopefuls attempted to stand at attention. Sparkler smiled as she studied them. In their faces, she saw hopefulness and dedication. She saw eagerness. She saw bravery and kindness. Certainly, there were a lot of pegasi, but others had turned out, and Sparkler had no intention of turning any of them away. She wanted all three tribes represented. 

“Greetings, I am Buck Sergeant Sparkler. Let’s get one thing out of the way right now. I have the Shivers, and it causes me some problems, but it will not prevent me from doing my job. I am very glad that all of you showed up, and I hope that all of you stay.”

There were a few grunts and nods, and one very loud “YEAH!” 

“Well, one pony here has spirit and guts,” Sparkler announced. 

“YEAH!”

“Snowflake, right?” Sparkler asked as she drew near the musclebound pegasus and looked him in the eye. He snapped to attention as she came closer and his large nostrils flared. 

“Yes ma’am,” Snowflake replied in a surprisingly soft voice. 

“Why are you here Snowflake?” Sparkler inquired.

Swallowing, Snowflake tried to think of a good reason as to why he was here. Nopony told him there would be a test. Feeling nervous, he began to sweat. “Because… I want… to live… in a nice city?” 

“Very good. That’s what I want to hear,” Sparkler responded, her ears snapping forward sharply. “Ponyville is a nice city. But we have some growing pains. We have some ponies here who are new and don’t understand how we do stuff here in Ponyville. We have some ponies who don’t know that all three tribes live in peace here and work together. And we want to help them.” 

“I’ve been helping them.” 

Sparkler turned and focused on the voice. “And you are?” 

“Cadet Twinkleshine,” the unicorn replied. “I’ve been working with Barley for a long time now. Ponies know me, I know them, and I have been helping them readjust.” 

“I haven’t announced who I will select as cadets yet,” Sparkler stated. 

“I know for certain you will pick me. I have absolute confidence in your ability to make wise decisions and do what is best for Ponyville,” Twinkleshine replied. 

“Very good answer cadet Twinkleshine,” Sparkler said to the confident unicorn. 

Moving down the line, Sparkler picked a pony at random. “And you are?” 

“Blossomforth,” the pegasus answered. 

“And why are you here? What do you hope to accomplish?” Sparkler questioned. 

“I gotta problem with bandits. A big problem,” Blossomforth replied. She raised one front leg and cracked her fetlock, put her hoof down, lifted her other front leg, cracked that fetlock, and then she looked pointedly at Sparkler. “So, are you going to do something about the crime or am I going to have to be a vigilante again?” 

“Blossomforth, now is not a good time to harass your future boss,” Thunderlane warned. 

“Now is a perfect time. I want to know if you plan to take a hard stance or not,” Blossomforth grumbled sullenly. “Otherwise, I am wasting my time.” 

“I plan to do something about crime, but I don’t want ponies hurt unless it is absolutely necessary,’ Sparker stated firmly. 

“I can live with that,” Blossomforth said in return. “That’s how it should be.” 

“Excellent,” Sparkler said as she turned to Thunderlane. “How you doing old friend?” 

“Just fine,” Thunderlane replied. “How is your mom?” 

“Pregnant,” Sparkler replied. “Drop by the farmhouse.” 

“Will do,” Thunderlane answered. 

“So why are you here?” Sparkler asked. 

“The flock looks after its own. I want to be paid for it,” Thunderlane replied. 

“Well, that’s honest,” Sparkler responded. 

She moved down the line until she reached the other unicorn. “Holly Dash?” 

“Yes ma’am,” Holly replied. 

“Saved the mayor?” Sparkler inquired. 

“I did my part,” Holly answered. 

“Want to keep saving ponies?” Sparkler asked. 

“Yes,” Holly replied, wasting no words. 

“Good deal,” Sparkler replied. 

Standing in front of Big McIntosh, Sparkler smiled. “I know better. Welcome aboard.” 

Blushing, Big Mac said nothing, but grinned shyly. 

Stepping heavily, she moved on, feeling so confident about the situation that she barely even noticed any annoying symptoms of her Shivers. Everything about this felt right so far, almost like this was meant to be. She came to the next pony in line. 

“Sunshower Raindrops, what brings you here?” Sparkler asked cheerfully to the pegasus mare who was beaming with pride before her. 

“Twilight Sparkle believes that my spy network and me will be useful in police work,” Raindrops replied. “Plus, I can do things like pick Big Mac up and fly with him. If he’ll let me grab him and fly away with him,” she clarified. 

“Eenope,” Big Mac interjected. 

“It was just an example Mac,” Raindrops said sheepishly. 

“Yes, you and your birds… I’ve read about you. Impressive. We’ll need you to be our ears,” Sparkler said, affirming Raindrop’s position. 

The young filly sidestepped over and moved close to her next subject. “Cherry Berry. Balloonist. Highly observant. An earth pony who likes to fly.” 

“Yes ma’am… embarrassing really… time for a full disclosure. I am a terraphobic earth pony,” Cherry Berry blurted out.

Raising her eyebrow in confusion, Sparkler took a deep breath and looked Cherry Berry in the eye. “Say again?” 

“I am an earth pony. I have a fear of the ground. I’ve seen a therapist on and off about it. Like right now I am a bit nervous and I’m freaking out only slightly. It isn’t as bad when I am indoors and I feel safe. But on the ground and out in the open?” The earth pony stopped speaking and shuddered violently. 

“How is an earth pony afraid of the ground?” Sparkler inquired. 

“I dunno, I just am. I feel comfortable being in the air. Nothing looks right unless I am looking down on something from above and the fear goes away,” Cherry Berry explained. 

“So this is why you founded the Airborne Watch Union and why Ponyville has ponies in balloons and pegasi in the air watching and waiting to sound the alarm. Sounds like your phobia is useful. Let’s put it to work,” Sparkler said to Cherry Berry. Sparkler watched the earth pony take a deep breath and relax slightly, which made Sparkler relax as well. 

“And that leaves me,” Orange Swirl said nervously. 

“I hear that you’re fast,” Sparkler announced. 

“Oh, I am no Rainbow Dash,” Orange Swirl said modestly. 

“I also hear that you are fearless,” Sparkler said, stating what little she knew to develop a rapport with her cadets. 

“I am a pegasus wing semaphore specialist. I took communications in university. Ponies seem to think that I am organised,” Orange Swirl said, listing her traits. 

“Very useful,” Sparkler said. “Alright, all of you are my cadets now. I want you out at the farmhouse early tomorrow morning. Last pony to arrive is going to run extra laps around the house and the lake. I’m tough but fair. You all take care of each other, and I take care of you. I am your Buck Sergeant. As of right now, I am your best friend, your boss, your big sister, your little sister, and I demand to be the center of your attention. We are all ponies first and foremost. We all have different strengths that we bring to the table being different tribes and what not. And I plan to make all of you damn useful. Am I understood?” 

“YEAH!”

“Thank you cadet Snowflake. Because I like you, I am going to run laps beside you tomorrow. We’re gonna run until we puke together. Do you like the sound of that?” Sparkler asked. 

“YEAH... Wait, maybe?” 

Laughing, Sparkler turned to face the ripped muscle bound pegasus. “I bet you think I’m joking,” she said. 



 

“Lugus, I need to study your talons if you don’t mind. I want to make a sketch. Should only take a few moments,” Bucky explained, holding a pencil ready. 

Coming closer, Lugus lifted up one set of talons and held it up before Bucky, flexing his talon fingers and talon thumb. “Raptor talons. Three forward talon fingers and one talon thumb. My claws are somewhat retractable,” Lugus explained, demonstrating, his claws slipping into sheaths so it would be easier to walk without his claws digging into the floor. Fully extended the claws at the end of his talon fingers were several inches long, bladed, and razor sharp. 

Studying them carefully, the pencil moved over the paper for Bucky without him looking at it, creating an exact print of what he was looking at. “Anisodactyl,” Bucky muttered to himself. 

“And I have never once brought harm to Peekaboo or Yew with any of my claws or my beak,” Lugus said, his voice full of pride. 

“Those are impressive. Nature worked overtime creating those,” Bucky said as he continued to observe. “So the sheath extends over the claw, retracting it slightly and angling it upwards and away from the ground when you are walking on it.” As he spoke, the pencil copied down every single detail perfectly, as though it was printing out a photograph. 

“So why are you looking at my talons?” Lugus asked. 

“I intend to create my own,” Bucky responded. “I’m missing a hoof. A set of talons seems more efficient for my purposes. I think I will include fully retractable claws and rounded fingertips for safety. I’m not as careful as you. They’ll function like my armor, powered by my body’s natural mana reserves. They’ll work both passively and actively as I need for them to. I’ll have to develop a walking routine and standard adaptable behaviours. Plan to make them from the same metal as my armor and then enchant it into usefulness.” 

“Retractable claws might be nice, but that would make the fingers hollow and restrict flexibility when the claws are pulled inside. Make claws appear when needed. Out of ice or something,” Lugus suggested. 

“Brilliant,” Bucky said, the pencil darting off to one side to make notes. “I plan to make the connection point out of fulgurite since it seems to like fusing with my bones so well. And then, I’ll just teleport the whole limb into place. That’s gonna sting a bit.” 

“You are mad, my chief,” Lugus said in a quiet voice, his beak clicking. 

“Totally and completely,” Bucky agreed. “But I mean, that’s been medically established, right? At this point, saying I’m mad is flogging a dead pony.” 

“How did your meeting with Mister Rich go?” Lugus inquired. 

“City Hall is undergoing some restructuring. There were some ponies there who immediately wanted to spend the new city surplus on useless expenditures. I’ve sent Mister Rich off with a mandate for infrastructure work. Laying in sewer and water pipes. Putting the refugees to work in paid positions. Going to be hundreds of new jobs created and maybe a dozen jobs lost. Maybe the bureaucrats can work to create efficient means of waste removal laying sewer pipes instead of flooding us with more crap,” Bucky answered. 

“This is not going to win you many friends in the higher places,” Lugus warned.

“I don’t give a flying feck at a rolling donut if this makes me friends,” Bucky retorted, sounding angry. 

“But those friends might be useful in later ventures,” Lugus said patiently. 

“Maybe so. Maybe you are right… ugh,” Bucky sighed. 

“Mister Rich has left his foal in your care,” Lugus stated as he placed his talons on the ground, the drawing now completed. 

“Yeah, Diamond Tiara is going to spend a few days with us while Mister Rich goes to Canterlot for me and deals with a few issues. This new means of communication… Morsel Code. I’ve issued a decree, I want an office established in Canterlot and one here in Ponyville. Somepony smarter than me needs to figure out the logistics. How much wire we need. How to string that wire. I’m thinking tall poles sunk into the ground with the wire strung between them. I’ve made this a national defense issue so it can’t be ignored or put off. I hope Luna doesn’t rake me over the coals for overstepping my bounds, but I do see it as a national security issue. We need a way of instant communication between cities that does not involve magic,” Bucky ranted.

“That seems prudent,” Lugus replied. 

“Why is it that you, me, and Mister Rich are the only ones that seem to think so? I have a whole bunch of pissed off unicorns that want to keep the magical message monopoly going for themselves, and a group of concerned Pony Express workers are worried this will put its flying messengers out of jobs and the postal service is already breathing down my neck with some worry. The postal service which currently barely functions by the way,” Bucky grumbled. He reached up and nervously scratched at his neck with his stump. “Ah that feels good… on my neck and on my stump… the end of it gets itchy.” 

“Seize control of the Pony Express, draft the workers, and then station them at the Morsel Code offices. When a message comes in, dispatch a flier to the recipient immediately. Everypony stays happy,” Lugus said, his crest at half mast and his tail swishing from side to side thoughtfully. 

“Good idea,” Bucky said, snatching a fresh sheet of paper with his magic and making notes. "I’ll make the Pony Express workers a national asset for our defense. It will keep them employed. We’ll call them the Civil Defense Message Corps or something. That will keep them happy. We need better means of communications. I’ve been hearing these horror stories about how during the worst of the collapse, Twilight Sparkle was completely unable to contact Celestia.” 

“The lines will be vulnerable,” Lugus warned. “And can be sabotaged in times of conflict.” 

“I am aware of that, I don’t have a good solution yet,” Bucky mumbled in frustration. “I’ve put out a call for arcano-tech tinkerers to come up with a fix.” 

Gritting his teeth with frustration, Bucky slammed his right hoof down upon the table. He made a wordless snarl and then with a flash of his horn, he conjured a bottle and two glasses from the nearby bar in the back of the farmhouse’s library. Still grumbling, he poured the conjured rum into two glasses. His horn flashed a little brighter and several ice cubes manifested mid-air and then fell into the glasses with a splash. He grabbed one and took a sip, offering the other to Lugus, who took it gratefully with a nod. 

“To the simple pleasures in life,” Lugus said, raising his glass in his talons and saluting Bucky. 
	
	
> Chapter 253
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was almost evening when Princess Celestia burst into existence by the farmhouse. The crickets were chirping, frogs were singing, and Bucky was deep in his cups on the front porch, well on his way to becoming soused. Upon seeing Celestia, his horn flashed and he quickly approached the terrible state of being sober. 

Already, his head was thumping. 

Looking around her, Celestia’s gaze fell upon the school and the new towers that had sprung up only recently. Her head moved slowly, taking in every detail, her keen pegasus powers of observation manifesting, and finally she turned her gaze on Bucky. 

“I am still very upset with you,” Celestia announced. 

“She poisoned me,” Bucky said, his voice dangerously close to a growl. Only his love for Celestia kept him from being openly hostile towards the alicorn. 

The alicorn slumped and looked grief stricken. “I know. My sister Luna told me.” 

“I regret nothing,” Bucky grumbled, his expression almost but not quite apologetic as he spoke, his shoulders slumping and his body language was one of sadness more than anything. 

“I am going to carve those words on a monument dedicated to you,” Celestia replied with no trace of humour in her voice. She recovered her composure and stood up straight. Her feathers remained fluffed out however, a clear indicator for anypony that spoke pegasus that her feathers were literally ruffled by the subject. 

“You know, sometimes, I worry that you fail to understand just how much I have changed. Have you spoken with Luna?” Bucky inquired, his eye narrowing and his ears splaying out to the sides for moment. 

“She has tried… she has tried to tell me things but I refuse to believe… I… we both know that you are troubled, but I believe that you can recover. You can get better… what you endured has been very trying for you and then coming home… having to face everything… but I know you can be restored if you will just-” 

“Hold that thought,” Bucky said, daring to interrupt Celestia. “What if I don’t want to be restored? I have no intention of ascending. Becoming an alicorn will not fix me. Becoming an alicorn will only take everything already wrong with me and make it worse. Do you know what source the alicorn of war draws from? Do you?” 

The big white alicorn stood there mutely, unable to answer, her eyes wide and unblinking, her ears folded back against her head, and her wings fluttered uncomfortably at her sides. Her ethereal mane and tail moved in an erratic pattern now that she seemed irritated and upset. 

Bucky felt a twinge of pity when he realised that Celestia didn’t know. “The alicorn of war draws power from hatred Celestia. Just like Cadance draws power from love. You mean to tell me that you didn’t know? Just think about how much I HATE my mother and how much strength that would give me. Think about the conflict in the world right now. And hatred for unicorns. You know how loving Cadance gets around love, right? Well, imagine what I’ll become.” 

“I believed that the alicorn of war would draw strength from defending others,” Celestia stated, her voice ragged with emotion. “Surely all of that energy can be redirected. Repurposed. We could find a way of keeping you focused as you kept all of us safe. The hatred might make you strong, but love would keep you balanced. Harmony would find a way.” 

“I suppose you are here to talk with Rising Star,” Bucky stated, changing the subject. 

“Yes, I am,” Celestia responded, drawing her head up higher and straightening out her long swan-like neck. “I do not understand you Buckminster… you have so much love but also so much hate. How can both exist in your heart?” 

“I don’t hate you,” Bucky replied. “It is either or for me. Something is wrong with me. I don’t seem to have a middle setting.” 

“So you love me,” Celestia responded. 

“As much as you love me. Or so I would hope in a fair exchange. How are your wings?” Bucky questioned, raising his eyebrow and narrowing his surviving eye at Celestia, his ears perking forward. He thought about a different Sombra through the mirror and wondered briefly just how much love Celestia had for him and how far their love had gone. He worried if there was any lingering projected emotions that might be influencing her and how she viewed him. He hated himself for being as cynical as he was and immediately wished that he had not burned the alcohol out of his body to make himself sober. 

“Sore.” The alicorn hesitated after speaking the lone word, her muzzle scrunching slightly as she looked thoughtful. “In a great deal of pain actually,” Celestia answered, being a little more honest once she realised that Buckminster understood just how much the wing slapping had hurt her. 

“Rising Star is in the house. I think he’s in the library. We all just ate a while ago, and he likes to study after dinner,” Bucky said. “Just follow the scent of rotten eggs.” 



 

Rising Star stared down at the floor, unable to meet Celestia’s gaze. Other ponies had been shooed out of the library, the door had been shut, and the pair were now alone with each other. His guts were clenching painfully from guilt. 

“I know what happened.” 

Squeezing his eyes shut, Rising Star’s whole body tensed. “It was only a kiss,” he whispered in a pained raspy voice. He felt a tightening in his dock and his ears drooped down to the sides of his face as his bottom lip protruded outwards. “It was so tempting… I didn’t see the harm in just a kiss, and the acorn seemed so harmless… I mean, Zecora uses them in potions so I thought they must be safe.” 

“I have spoken with Zecora. I was visiting with her before I came here. She was worried for you,” Celestia replied as she watched Rising Star twist himself into knots. “She considers you a friend. You left quite an impression upon her.” 

“Thank you for letting me know,” Rising Star said appreciatively. He relaxed a little, took a deep breath, and then kicked his hind legs around beneath him trying to get comfortable on the sofa. He was sitting in the ‘pony-loaf’ position as Berry Punch called it, laying on his belly with all four legs tucked in beneath him. He was supremely self conscious around Celestia and he didn’t want to take a chance at certain things peeking out or any embarrassing reveals around the princess. Plus, he didn’t want to look at his own hooves. 

“Twilight Sparkle will be bringing you a book about fey unicorns. As you have discovered, they are not old pony tales or fairy tales. There used to be a fair number, but they met a bad end about eight hundred years ago when they attempted to seize power from me, believing they could control the sun better than I could. The cloven hooves were all exterminated, something I did not want to happen. Are you at all familiar with the coven trials?” Celestia said, her eyes narrowed and her expression curious. 

Rising Star shook his head and waited for Celestia to continue. 

“House Avarice sent out their armigers all over the land. The cloven hooves, even the innocent ones, they were all hunted down and exterminated. There were public trials, all of which were shams. They blamed the cloven hooves for all kinds of things. Famines, bad water, plagues, diseases, foals that died in their sleep, there was a lot of panic. And it all started off because just a few decided to challenge my rule. There was very little I could do. I was beset on all sides by enemies, I had lost my sister, I could not be everywhere at once, and a variety of other factors kept me from trying to deal with the terrible situation.” 

A terrible prickling feeling began to creep up Rising Star’s spine. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Not one bit. A cold sensation crept up his croup and then went galloping up his spine, up his neck, and then it sent shudders through the back of his skull that traveled through his whole body. He snorted and tried to compose himself. 

“You are going to notice some changes. One of the most important to be mindful of is that ponies, females in particular, are going to be attracted to you. Twilight Sparkle will be giving you a spell you need to learn to curb this irresistible attraction. Husbands will become quite jealous and possibly even violent if their wife begins to fawn over you or show that she finds you desirable. And I do not want you hurt, Rising Star.” 

Nodding silently, Rising Star remained quiet. He had a suspicion this was one of those occasions where it was more important to listen than it was to talk. 

“Certain types of monsters will be, and I hesitate to use this word, friendlier towards you. Ursa Majors and other zodiac animals, being fey, will tolerate you far more than the average unicorn. They will see you as one of their own. But I really do hesitate using the world friendly, Rising Star. The term is subjective. They are violent dangerous monsters, but now, you are one of them. So how they treat you is bound to be different.”

“I don’t understand the difference between fey and fae,” Rising Star admitted. 

“Fae creatures are nature spirits or manifestations of natural concepts. Dryads are f-a-e creatures. Linked to trees, they are gentle nature spirits who serve harmony and keep the balance. Pyrodryads are f-e-y creatures. Nature spirits, but otherworldly nature creatures. Creatures who serve harmony, but have a touch of chaos and have infernal natures. Extra dimensional beings who connect to another plane. Like you. Once the connection to the primordial plane of fire was established for you, you were sucked down to the source. Make sense?” Celestia explained. 

“So like everything else, there is a balance. Light and dark, fae and fey, heat and cold, it is all part of a self balancing system,” Rising Star replied. “I draw my power from an otherworldly source, making me an outsider. A dryad draws directly from this worlds source and as such, belongs on this plane of existence.” 

“A very astute observation,” Celestia praised. 

“So infernal doesn’t necessarily mean evil, at least in this case, so I am not an evil denizen of Tartarus or anything,” Rising Star said, seeking confirmation. 

“Other than some changes, you are still Rising Star. You can still choose to do good things or bad things. How you look does not make you evil, even though certain ponies might think otherwise. Your magic has a touch of chaos to it, but that does not make you evil. Do keep in mind that your fires will now burn anything if you exert your will and make it happen,” Celestia replied. 

“I already can burn rocks and stuff,” Rising Star stated. 

“No, I mean chaos driven fires will burn anything. Even the demons of Tartarus will feel your fires if you so will it. Why do you think Scorch is one of the Demon Lords of Tartarus?” Celestia responded. “Scorch could burn this whole planet into non existence if he so willed it. But he remains curious about life and some might even say he values it in his own way.” 

The realisation was like a slap on the face, and Rising Star did not know how to put it in context. He slipped his front left hoof free, extended it a bit, and had a look at it, examining his cloven hoof. He found that he could flex his hoof and pinch the two halves together. His cloven hoof was black, hard, and strangely shiny. He could see swirling shadows moving just under the surface, and found it mesmerising. 

“I am trusting you Rising Star, because I believe you are a good pony,” Celestia said in a trembling voice. “Keep my little ponies safe. Buckminster, for all of his darkness, I know he will keep my little ponies safe, and I want to believe that you will do the same.” 

Not entirely sure of what to say, Rising Star nodded. He took a deep breath and settled for what for appeared to be a long conversation. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 254
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So how much did you erase? How much did you cut away? I suppose it was for his own good, or at least you will make a very convincing argument to that end, as you always do.” 

Standing just at the edge of the steps, Celestia did not turn around to face Buckminster, who was sitting behind her, right where he had been when she had arrived. His voice was angry and carried with it a subtle undertone of frustration. 

“I did what needed to be done,” Celestia replied in a low whisper. “I suppose you sensed what I was doing when it happened.” 

“Of course I did,” Bucky replied. “Enchantment and transmutation are my bread and butter. I could feel the enchantment magic in the air. You know… a less understanding father might take offense to you messing with the minds of his foals.” 

Hearing the icy edge of anger in Buckminster’s voice, Celestia felt a faint prickle of fear. 

“I suppose there was a lot at stake and things that needed protecting,” Bucky said in cold voice. “We’re not so different, you and I. We both do… things. When you do… things, you can excuse them for the “greater good.” When I do… things, it is because I am playing to win or simply being a pragmatist. Right and wrong no longer seem relevant to me. I have discovered that I can live with myself after what I’ve done. Thankfully, out of the both of us, at least one of us has the “greater good” in mind.” 

Biting her lip, Celestia choked back an angry retort. She chewed on her lip, her anger causing the temperature around her to rise, and then she tasted blood in her mouth. Tears stung her eyes. Buckminster’s cynicism and bitterness cut deep, made her angry, and hurt her far more than she would ever dare confess. 

“So what were you protecting?” Bucky asked. 

Taking a deep breath, Celestia tried to calm herself. She turned to face Buckminster and looked him in the eye. “I planted the acorn that would eventually become Thelesignus,” she said. “I was a filly. A tiny tiny filly. And I was given the acorn as a test. I was told to plant it where it would do the most good. I chose to plant it in the Everfree, not too far from the castle where I spent my years as a filly. I could have placed it in a private garden for my own amusement, but I chose to plant it so it would keep the Everfree, which has always been dangerous, in check. For over a thousand years, I have nurtured that tree and kept it safe.” 

“So I am guessing that something went on that was a bit more than Rising Star eating some acorn,” Bucky said in a low accusing whisper that was thick with contempt. 

“Yes,” Celestia admitted in a guarded voice, feeling another hot flash of anger towards Buckminster and the fact that he of all ponies might judge her for her actions. 

“I can’t help you protect what you hold dear if you keep me in the dark,” Bucky responded. 

“You chose the darkness,” Celestia said and then vanished. 

Staring at the blank space where Celestia had just been standing, Bucky heaved a sigh of frustration. He understood the necessity, but resented the intrusion. He cursed, grumbling to himself, and then decided that it was time to go inside for the evening. 



 

“You know, I am not sure what to think about you liking my brother,” Dinky said in a low voice. “I mean, I don’t hold it against you or anything, and I don’t want you to stop liking him, I just don’t know what to think about it.” 

“He’s different,” Diamond Tiara admitted. 

“He pounced you. I’ve never seen him act so silly… I think that is as close as he’s come to being playful,” Piña commented. 

“Sentinel is kinda… I dunno…” Dinky began, and then faded off when she couldn’t figure out what to say or how to finish her statement. 

“He’s noble. He’s chivalrous. I mean, he let us drag him to the tea party and doll him up, and patiently sat there while we robbed him of his dignity. He could have screamed at us or even fought back, but he was just so kind,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“Sentinel is a good pony,” Ripple said, looking up from her book and speaking to the younger fillies. “He is what more colts should be.” 

“So you think he likes me?” Diamond Tiara asked in a worried voice. 

“He pounced you. We can assume that he likes you. Or has an interest in you,” Ripple stated in a carefully worded response. 

“I really want him to like me,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“You just want a colt to like you,” Piña teased. 

“Well, yeah, but not just any colt… I’m picky. I wouldn’t want Snips or Snails liking me,” Diamond Tiara responded. 

“Oh gross, Snips eats paste and likes it,” Dinky groaned. 

“And Snails always smells like sour milk for some reason,” Piña muttered. “Yuck.” 

“Snails always has a boogery snoot,” Dinky said with a shudder. “When he breathes, sometimes there are snot bubbles that grow and shrink as he breathes in and out.” 

“EEEEW!” Diamond Tiara squealed. “I know what you are talking about… I used to tease him about it… I still want to tease him about it… we shouldn’t be making fun of them now…” 

“You’re right,” Piña agreed, looking guilty. 

“Funny how easy it is to do something awful,” Dinky remarked, her ears drooping down low as she slumped over and sighed once done speaking. 

“Do you think Moonbow will kill me?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Maybe… but she wants Sentinel to find another pony or two to have a herd with. I miss Moonie,” Piña replied. She heaved a fillyish sigh of longing and looked sad for a moment. 

“Oh I don’t know about all of that later… I just want to get to know Sentinel now,” Diamond Tiara explained in a nervous voice. 

“You’re hot to trot for my brother,” Dinky said, shoving Diamond Tiara over on the bed. 

“Just a little, but I don’t want to think about marriage and adult stuff… I just… I dunno, want a special somepony,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “But Sentinel is engaged to be married. Which is weird. He is somepony else’s special somepony and I feel like I am intruding on something.” 

“This whole family is weird. I call my sister my mother,” Piña retorted. 

“And Piña Colada is actually my aunt… I think,” Dinky added. 

“Princess Luna is our Godmother,” Ripple said, her face hidden behind her book. 

“Rising Star, our big brother, got sent to Tartarus for something,” Dinky said. 

“And our daddy had to go to Tartarus to rescue him,” Piña continued. 

“Both of them got wing slapped silly by Princess Celestia,” Ripple contributed. 

“I wonder if daddy scared the demons down in there?” Piña asked. 

“If they’re not scared, they’re dumb dumb stupid heads. They should be afraid,” Dinky replied in a very foalish sounding voice. 

“Your family is kinda weird,” Diamond Tiara interjected. She rolled over on the bed and propped her head up on her front hooves, resting her chin on both of them. 

“Yeah, well, if you are interested in my brother, you have to take all of us with him. You’ll be a weirdo too,” Dinky said, flopping over on Diamond Tiara’s side and using her back as a pillow. 

“I don’t want to marry him… I just want a special somepony,” Diamond Tiara whined. 

“Sentinel only understands duty, honour, and obligation. If you show an interest in him, he is going to court you. Probably following the instructions for courtly behaviour found in one of these officer manuals that we have to read. If you get him to like you and then let him go, you are going to crush his heart. Don’t hurt my little brother’s heart,” Ripple explained, her last words a clear warning to the other pink earth pony filly in the room that was not named after an alcoholic beverage. 

“I hurt him once. I don’t want to do it again. I just want a special somepony, so why does this have to be complicated?” Diamond Tiara said fretfully. 

“Nothing is ever simple for Sentinel,” Piña responded. “Everything has rules. Meaning. He tried to explain it to me once. He called it virtue and something else.” 

“I’m not ready to figure out my life and to try and be an adult. I’ve made a mess of my foalhood. Why does everything have to be so hard? Why can’t anything just be easy for me like it used to be?” Diamond Tiara whined, her voice almost squeaking from emotion as her ears splayed out sideways. “Nothing makes sense anymore. I’ve become an outsider. Hardly anypony likes me. Hardly anypony trusts me. I keep making mistakes when I am really trying to be good and ponies just think I am acting and when I do make mistakes I get punished extra bad because of what I have done in the past. And I finally meet a colt that doesn’t immediately hate me and he’s complicated.” 

“Nothing easy is worth having,” Ripple said, lifting her face up out of her book to look at the troubled earth pony filly. 

“I don’t understand,” Diamond Tiara replied, the first few tears now beginning to fall. 

“I want to become a knight just like Sentinel wants to become a knight. My whole life finally makes sense now. I have purpose. I have direction. But if I want to be the very best sort of knight I am capable of being, I’ve got to have my snoot bloodied regularly. I’ve got to take my lumps from Lugus. I have to test myself every single day. Right now, I am covered in bruises, lumps, bumps, and there is a tiny crack in one of my back hooves that is just killing me right now. And tomorrow, he is probably going to thump the fire out of me again. One day, all of this is going to be worth it. One day, all of this training is going to pay off. Like Lugus, one day, I am going to meet my banshee. And when that day comes, I will not hesitate, I will not freeze, I will not falter, and the lives of everypony around me that is depending on me to do the right thing… I will do the right thing. I will come through. I will not fail. Reaching that point is not going to be easy. I am going to have to bleed for it. There is going to be a lot of lumps. Lugus takes a great deal of satisfaction in lump stacking, hitting already lumpy places and making them lumpier. It hurts so bad… and I love him for it.” 

“Funny to hear you say all of that, seeing as how your father used to beat you,” Piña said in a quiet voice that was full of confusion. She leaned over and rested her head on Dinky’s side, making herself comfortable. 

“Lugus loves me and wants what is best for me. And I trust him to do the right thing. If I am seriously hurt, I mean really hurt, he stops right away, picks me up, and holds me while I am bawling my girly little eyes out. And I trust him completely. But if I want to face my banshee, I am going to have to do things the hard way and take my lumps,” Ripple explained. 

“You are only a couple of years older than I am. You’re married. You have your whole life figured out. I am not even sure how I am going to face the next year of school. You seem to like pain and lumps. You scare me just a little bit with how much of your life you have together,” Diamond Tiara said to Ripple as she sniffled and wiped her nose with her foreleg. 

“If you want your life to be better, make it happen. Pony up. Dedicate yourself to a cause. Take your lumps. So everypony hates you because of what you did. So what? Dedicate yourself to those who are your friends now and everypony else can go get stuffed. Just take a direction and go with it. You stick with us, and we stick with you, because that is how we are in this tribe. My father, my real father, Bucky, he just went to Tartarus ready to go to war to rescue his son and my husband from that horrible place. You stick with us and I know for a fact that he will do the same for you. You stick with us and I will call you sister. But if you toy with my brother, if you string him along and break his heart, you will get a detailed blow by blow explanation of what my cutie mark means,” Ripple said. When she was done speaking, she lowered her face back down into her officer’s training manual and continued to read quietly to herself. 

Trembling, Diamond Tiara did not know how to reply and fell silent after hearing Ripple’s words. She didn’t know anything about causes, or dedication, or even what her direction was. When she was little, she wanted to be a princess. A lady. She had a grand dream of elegance and nobility, and not long after, her cutie mark had appeared. Her father had called her his precious little Diamond Dazzle and the name Tiara had been tacked on after her cutie mark had manifested. She hadn’t even worn her tiara in months. It seemed so useless now, and she was teased for wearing it now that she was alone and at the bottom of the herd structure. 

Her thoughts, fears, and worries were all interrupted when Piña smacked her in the head with a pillow, knocking her over and completely ruining her concentration. Before she could protest, she was slammed with another pillow held in a magic glow. 

For a moment, everything was smiles and laughter, until somepony threw a pillow at Ripple. 

Ripple’s cutie mark was all about war, and pillows were a weapon. 
	
	
> Chapter 255
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The predator’s dilemma. The depths of Sentinel’s mind had trouble figuring out where a desire to devour began and a desire for sexual conquest ended. Before him was a small pink earth pony filly, supine, helpless, on her back, sprawled out, and willing to fulfill either or both of his primal needs. 

Diamond Tiara had sparked both sorts of desires within the now sexually aware apex predator. He stood over her, looking down, and she was smiling up at him invitingly. His mind recalled in vivid detail sitting on top of her, the soft velvet feeling of her short haired pelt as his testicles pressed up against her, the feeling of domination as he straddled her. Her muscled curvature set off hunger of all sorts. The heaving flesh along her ribs. The sure to be succulent muscles along her forelegs, which lay at her sides. He could feel the heat coming up from her navel, which heaved from her heavy breathing, rising and falling. Every inch of her thighs would be delicious. She was the ultimate prey animal, full of muscle, docile, and submissive to any of his cravings. 

Below her navel he could see two small budding teats, just now developing and turning into something other than two meaningless bumps. They would be tender, easy to tear off and consume, and the tender sweetmeats and treasures that were hidden just beneath the skin, the tasty guts down beneath, they would be worth every bite. And just a little farther down from her teats was another series of muscles Sentinel’s predatory mind told him would be a good place to start ripping and tearing, an area filled with clenching muscles and rich red blood he could satiate his every hunger with. 

He had other hungers. He could feel himself even now, hard as a rock and quivering. 

“You’ve found quite a treat for us to devour together.” 

Turning, looking over his shoulder, Sentinel saw Moonbow. She was grinning, her large fangs visible, her tongue lolling out. A tongue evolved for licking marrow out of cracked bones. Something about seeing her excited this way inflamed his desires even further. 

“This is the proper way for a hunter to woo his mate… to bring food. You’ve caught quite a meal my little hunter,” Moonbow said in a low heated growl, her words resonating deep in her throat. 

Sentinel watched as Moonbow moved closer. Her head dropped to Diamond Tiara, she began to sniff her, and Diamond Tiara giggled, unaware of the coming feast, or perhaps not caring about the fact that she was about to become food. The idea that she wanted to be devoured set Sentinel on fire. His guts clenched painfully, and there was a dull throbbing ache in his balls. 

“What a morsel… look at all of this fat, soft flesh. It is like she has been fattened up for the slaughter. What a soft pathetic mewling creature. What a meal you’ve found,” Moonbow said lustily as she began to sniff along Diamond Tiara’s throat, taking in the scent of hapless, willing prey. 

“Wait,” Sentinel whispered. 

“Wait?” Moonbow asked. She sniffed again, and then began to move towards Sentinel, sniffing at him. “Oh… you want to play with our food… I understand my mate.” 

Moonbow moved swiftly, impossibly fast for a creature of her already considerable size and bulk, and not even her full size yet. Sentinel found himself thrown down on top of Diamond Tiara’s body, every warm curve of her pressing tightly against his own finely muscled body. A broad hoof pressed down on his croup, and he felt himself… 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Sentinel cried, feeling warm flesh wrapped around him for the first time. Diamond Tiara’s delicate throat was inches away from his toothy maw, and he could feel her heart beating in her barrel, which was pressed against his own. Diamond Tiara was panting, heaving, her breath coming in fevered whimpering cries, and he felt the sort of intimacy that only predator and prey share with one another as the predator works his way inside, finding all of the hidden places within their prey. 

“Rut her senseless, get the blood flowing, and then tear her throat out,” Moonbow snarled. 

Using his echolocation, he easily found the artery in her throat that lead directly to her heart. Moving with the precision that only an apex predator has, he clamped his maw down upon her jugular, bit down, and drank deep of the warm salty liquid that came spurting forth. 



 

Bolting awake with a cry, Sentinel kicked and squirmed beneath his covers. His bed was soaked. His belly felt damp. He was still aroused and his body shuddered as even more seed came spurting out. Everything was drenched. 

Confused, frightened, and feeling horribly guilty for even dreaming about killing and eating another pony, Sentinel began to weep bitterly, covering his face with his hooves, his body wracked with sobs as he wailed into his pillow, too ashamed to let anypony hear him. 

When his sobs finally subsided, he slipped free from his sopping wet bed, dropped to the floor, eased down the hall, and took a shower, hoping that nopony would awake. No matter how much he scrubbed, the shame would not go away, and he did not feel clean. Many sooty brown pelt hairs were washed down the drain as he literally scrubbed away some of his own pelt from his frenzied efforts. 

After his shower, he did not know what to do. He stood in the hall, still slightly damp, and he could smell her. His nose told him she was nearby, tucked in bed in his sisters’ room, along with Ripple, Dinky, and Piña. Shame burned the back of his neck and his ears. 

His father was gone, having left shortly before midnight to go to Canterlot. Sentinel’s bed was still a mess. More than anything, he wanted his father. His father would understand and would make everything better somehow. His father would know how to make the hurt and confusion go away. His father could make the savage primal parts of him behave and become submissive. 

He looked at Barley’s door. Barley was always nice to him. Barley was always kind and called him nephew. Barley, who was quiet and reflective and knew how to say all of the right things to Sentinel’s quiet inner voice. He moved on silent hooves towards Barley’s door and pushed it open. He peered inside at the sleeping stallion, and then crept to his bedside. 

“Barley!” Sentinel hissed. 

There was a muffled snort, a gasp, and a sharp report of flatulence as the old stallion was startled into wakefulness. 

“Ach, crivens, damnit lad, yer a terrible wee beastie, ye dinnae scare an old stallion awake at his bedside with yon skeery flesh ripping face full o’ fangs,” Barley grumbled. 

“Sorry…” Sentinel whimpered. 

Sensing something was wrong, Barley lifted his head, causing his neck to crackle. “What’s wrong lad?” 

“I had an accident in my bed,” Sentinel said, his voice thick with shame. 

“Ye wet the bed? Eh, so what, I wet the bed occasionally. At my age, I sneeze and everything back there leaks,” Barley groused. “Luna’s a real tease about it, she likes to tickle my nose with her wing just trying to make something happen, laughin’ the whole time, the cuss headed lass. Nae respect for her elders.” 

“No… I didn’t piss the bed,” Sentinel whispered in a faint voice. 

“Oh… ye had yerself one of those sorts of dreams, eh lad?” Barley said, rising into sitting position and looking at Sentinel, who was barely visible in the dark. 

“It was a nightmare,” Sentinel cried, sitting down upon the floor and shaking with terror. 

“Ach… one of those sorts of dreams and it was skeery,” Barley whispered. 

“I’ve never had a dream like this before…” Sentinel confessed. 

“Ne’er had a wet dream before and yer first one was skeery… aye, that’ll put ye off the mood for a while,” Barley grumbled. His horn ignited and he lifted the squirming colt up to the bed with him. He wrapped one foreleg over Sentinel’s withers and gave a squeeze. “You must be scared shiteless.” 

“My bed is a mess,” Sentinel whispered. “I did something wrong. Luna is going to punish me. I broke the rules. I did something forbidden. I did something my kind are never supposed to do… I-” 

Barley silenced Sentinel with a light slap over the muzzle. “Crivens lad, it was a dream. You dinnae do anything wrong. Dreams ain’t real. And Luna wouldn’t punish you for something ye did in a dream. Now come on, I’ll help you strip yer bed and haul everything down to the laundry room. We’ll clean this up and fix this wee mess, and yer gonna stop acting all nancy about it, ye ken?” 

“Yes sir,” Sentinel responded, burying his face against Barley as his sobs began again. 

“Aye, that’s a good lad, cryin’ ain’t nancy, let it out, but no more blaming yerself,” Barley whispered soothingly to his nephew. 





“Aye, there is a lot to be done today,” Barley said as he sipped his hot coffee, looking at Rising Star and raising his eyebrow as he did so. He was red eyed and bleary from a lack of sleep.

“I know, I am still kinda surprised by it. Celestia believes that I can help with the hoof rot problem by purifying the ground,” Rising Star replied before shoveling in a bite of eggs into his mouth. 

“Aye, fae creature,” Barley said, looking at Rising Star with an amused expression upon his face. “Now there are two o’ ye fair folk in this family, and I couldn’t be prouder.” 

“Two?” Rising Star asked. 

“Aye,” Barley grunted between coffee sips. 

“Maybe I’ve gone stupid, but I thought I was the only one,” Rising Star muttered sullenly, no longer feeling quite as special. He slumped at the table and shoveled in more eggs. 

“Ye and yon kelpie out in yon lake, ye daft neep headed numpty,” Barley chortled. 

“Oh… wait, really?” Rising Star said, coming to a swift and sudden realisation. 

“Aye, she’s fae. A water spirit. But she’s kind and shy and sweet. She dinnae stank of rotten eggs like ye do ye great lout,” Barley chuckled, a twinkle in his eye. 

“Surprise is coming. All fliers need to eat more and chat less,” Derpy instructed from the living room. “Wow, Sparky sure can move now. Never thought she’d be such a runner.” 

“Well uncle Barley… do you still love me even though I reek of rotten eggs?” Rising Star asked, leaning over and getting closer to Barley. 

“Aye, I love ye… but only a moron would trust ye now, ye cheatin’ cunnin’ creature,” Barley said as he leaned over and drew closer to his nephew. “No honeyed words from ye or I’ll give ye such a zappin’ on yer arse.” 

Bursting into laughter, Rising Star slapped his hoof on the table at the old stallions words. 





Moving at a swift canter that was not quite a gallop, Sparkler urged her cadets onwards as they approached the bend at the far side of the lake, near the tree line for the Everfree. She ran beside Snowflake, just like she said she would, offering encouragement as she continued. 

She kept a close eye on Cherry Berry, who seemed to be having some trouble being out in the open and running on the ground. The earth pony was managing, but was clearly having a few minor issues about doing so. She admired Cherry Berry’s dedication and spirit. Even with her troubles, she persisted and continued with her task. 

Holly Dash and Twinkleshine ran together, urging each other onwards. They didn’t have the stamina and speed of the earth ponies and pegasi around them. Big Mac brought up the rear, making sure nopony fell behind. He wasn’t even sweating, and with his long legs, his movements were effortless. 

Thunderlane led the herd, and Blossomforth ran at his side. Sparkler watched her as her head moved around, her eyes darting about, her gaze moving towards the treeline of the Everfree. 

Orange Swirl and Raindrops ran just behind Thunderlane and Blossomforth, both of them giggling and laughing as they ran, clearly having the time of their lives together. 

Sparkler felt a fierce sense of pride. All of her cadets had arrived together in one unit, not one lagging behind. Their arrival had surprised her. She expected one or two to be late, she had not expected for all of them to arrive all at once, all grinning and looking pleased that nopony was last. Sparkler had the strangest feeling that somehow, this half baked idea of hers was going to work somehow. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 256
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a small army of foals looking at the window. His window. Bucky smiled, knowing that they were seeing a foal friendly version of the window. He had enchanted it oh so carefully. He sat quietly behind them, and none of the foals seemed to know that he was there. Every foal gazing up at the window and listening to the lecture was a unicorn, and so was the teacher. 

Class was in session. 

Class became a lot more interesting when the teacher turned around and saw Bucky. She cleared her throat and fell silent, looking at the three legged unicorn off sitting by himself. 

One by one, each foal turned around to have a look at whatever it was the teacher was looking at. There were many quiet gasps and a faint murmur could be heard in the crowd. 

“Prince Buckminster,” a foal announced. 

“Just Bucky,” the one eyed stallion replied with a snort. 

“I believe his proper title is “War Chief Buckminster,” class. Hero of the Shetlands. Destroyer of the Crystal Lich,” the teacher corrected. 

“Nope, just Bucky,” Bucky insisted. 

“But that is not proper,” the teacher replied. 

“I’m just a pony,” Bucky muttered. He looked at the faces of the foals. Some were clearly terrified by his appearance. Others were curious. Others were in awe. The teacher looked quite afraid and she trembled visibly. “And I am not a proper pony,” he stated. 

“As the Lord of Winter, can you make it snow?” a foal asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. 

“Is it true that you have Sombra’s memories?” another foal inquired. 

“Some of them,” Bucky answered. 

“Do you like tea or coffee?” a foal questioned. 

“That’s a very political question among unicorns, there is no way I’m answering that,” Bucky chuckled, smiling, revealing his fangs, causing a few foals to cower at the sight. 

“Is it true that you have five wives?” a small filly asked. 

“Yes… and I love each and every one of them,” Bucky responded. 

“Do you get nagged a lot?” a brave colt questioned. 

“When I deserve it,” Bucky replied, unable to hold back his chuckle. 

“Why aren’t you at home with your wives?” a filly asked. 

“Mystery Mark, what have I told you about using contractions?” the teacher warned. “That is going to be two hundred and fifty sentences on the chalkboard later.” 

“Why are you not at home with your wives?” the filly asked again, looking ashamed. 

Feeling slightly annoyed, Bucky shot a scathing glance at the teacher. “Because I'm about to head off to Saddle Arabia on a top secret mission.” For a moment, Bucky felt a pang of shame, and then realised he had just used a contraction. His irritation increased and his dislike for the teacher grew just a tiny bit more. It always started so early, the enforced rigidity. He hated it. 

“My father says you seized control of the government of Ponyville. Is this true?” a colt questioned, looking rather nervous as he asked. 

“I seized control of the bureaucracy and dismantled them. The mayor is still free to do her job, and I dare say her job is a lot more pleasant without the bureaucrats breathing down her neck and second guessing her every move. She actually has time to meet with the ponies she serves and her schedule is now very open,” Bucky explained. 

“How does an accountant kill a crystal lich?” a filly asked. 

“How did you know I was an accountant?” Bucky inquired in return. 

“We have a schoolbook about you,” the filly replied. 

“Oh my, already… they wasted no time,” Bucky said. 

“Come, it is nearly time to change classes, we must return,” the teacher instructed. She stood, stomped a hoof, and class fell into a line behind her, from the largest to the smallest. A few waved at Bucky. 

“You and Princess Twilight Sparkle seem really nice,” a filly said in parting as the line began to move. 

“Be good little foals,” Bucky called out. “And make sure to question authority,” he added. 



 

Celestia’s office hadn’t changed much. The door was still shockingly easy to disenchant, the alarms were all primary school level spells, and Bucky concluded that Celestia wanted foals to break into her office. For some reason. He felt slightly confused. 

Her desk was a bit more cluttered than he remembered. Pencils, pens, a kazoo, probably taken from a student, a phoenix feather, a couple of comic books, and a plate with cake crumbs were all to be found upon her desk. 

He went to work, attempting to apologise the only way he knew how. Soon, the desk was on the ceiling once again, so was the chair, and everything else in the room. He sighed a smug sigh of satisfaction, and then had a brilliant idea. He turned the floor, the ceiling, and the walls into mirrored surfaces, and the effect was vertigo inducing. There were a billion reflections of himself stretching off in all directions. 

“You… you should not be here.” 

All of the hair on the back of Bucky’s neck stood up. “Twilight,” he muttered in surprise. 

“Ugh, that is nausea inducing,” Twilight said as she looked around. 

“I was uh, apologising,” Bucky explained. “Celestia and I had a misunderstanding of sorts.” 

He backed out of the room, closed the door, and began to lock it, re-enchanting all of the alarms and protections upon the office entrance. 

“So you’ve pranked her, turning her office upside down,” Twilight stated. 

Nodding, Bucky said nothing. There was nothing that could be said. 

“You are a disreputable maladjusted warlock,” Twilight groused. “How louche you have become. I suppose you will be pranking me next?” 

“I’m also your cousin,” Bucky teased, not answering Twilight’s question.

“Only distantly,” Twilight retorted. 

“Celestia needs to know that I still love her. There were some harsh words,” Bucky halfheartedly explained. “We should skedaddle. If the guard comes along, we’ll both be blamed. I’ll make certain of it.” 

“You… monster!” Twilight cried as she took off at a trot. 

Smiling, Bucky took off after her with his three legged hobble. 



 

Sentinel was having trouble paying attention to Surprise, the Wonderbolt flight instructor. He felt sick to his stomach, nervous, and more than anything, he wanted to crawl back into bed and go to sleep. He felt guilty and ashamed. He missed his father terribly already. 

And everywhere he went, he could smell her. 

Her scent clung to his nostrils, filling with a flood of confusing thoughts and feelings. All he could think about was the dream and the horrible thing he had done. More than anything, he now wanted to protect her to make up for the awful thing he had done while dreaming. 

He had no idea what it was that he was feeling, and he wasn’t sure who to talk to. 

“Can you fly yet?” 

Snapping to attention, Sentinel realised that Surprise was addressing him. “No ma’am, not very well ma’am.” 

“When I get done with you, you’ll be flying. I’ve helped train your kind,” Surprise said kindly. “And I bet I know the problem too.” 

“Problem?” Sentinel asked. 

“You’re probably extending the fingers in your wings out from your central knuckle and locking them into place, and when that happens, your wing is too rigid and becomes too flat. You need to leave your fingers loose so you can cup some air under your wing,” Surprise explained, smiling broadly as she did so.

“I thought I was supposed to lock my fingers into place,” Sentinel said, mystified that the solar pegasus would know this. 

“No silly,” Surprise giggled. 

Looking at her, Sentinel realised he was seeing something different now. She was sleek. She was curvy. Her croup had the most spectacular arch to it. Her hocks were amazingly shapely. Her gaskins were bulging. Her stifles were smooth, supple, and seemed almost a perfect place to get a good grip with his hooves if he… 

Ugh, what is wrong with me? Sentinel asked himself. He blinked and made himself stop staring at Surprise's shapely smooth silky sleek supple seductive silhouette. 

“Are you with me?”

Sentinel snapped to attention again. 

“I said your name three times, are you alright Sentinel?” Surprise asked. 

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Sentinel answered, being completely honest without saying what was really wrong. He yawned to drive home the point. This was almost dishonest, and he didn’t like it at all. 

“It is tough to be a lunar pegasus and be awake during the day,” Surprise stated. 

“He’s probably thinking about pouncing Diamond Tiara,” Loch Skimmer giggled. 

“I am not!” Sentinel retorted. 

“Wow, somepony is touchy. Sorry Sentinel,” Loch Skimmer said apologetically. 

“It is too warm... I feel like I am overheating… I feel funny... I don’t feel well at all,” Sentinel stammered. “I gotta go!” he shouted as he took off, running at top speed for the lake, hoping to hit the water before something slipped out and embarrassed him to death. 



 

“You… you… you transmuted a hairy mustache onto Celestia’s statue!” Twilight stammered. 

“Luna’s too,” Bucky responded as his horn flashed and Celestia’s statue turned into a hideous shade of plaid. “Hmm, nice colour.” 

“Plaid is not a colour,” Twilight argued. 

“Sure it is. When a pony is wearing a tie that is plaid, how do we describe it when we see it?” Bucky retorted good naturedly. 

“We say that he is wearing a plaid tie,” Twilight said slowly… “Wait, you tricked me, plaid is not a colour!” Twilight recoiled in horror, her mouth dropping open. “You made Luna puce coloured!” 

“And gave her a goatee. Helps with that whole “evil” appearance,” Bucky mentioned, explaining his reasoning. 

“Why am I watching you commit magical vandalism?” Twilight whined. 

“Because deep down, you want to join me. See that statue of Cadance over there?” Bucky replied, grinning wickedly. “You love Cadance… so give her a makeover.” 

Grumbling, Twilight cautiously approached the statue. She looked to the left, then to the right, then behind her, and finally, she looked up. She and Bucky were alone. “This feels wrong.” 

“Of course it’s wrong,” Bucky answered. “Looking forward to Saddle Arabia?” 

Chewing her on her lip, Twilight did not respond right away. She was too busy turning Cadance a nauseating shade of avocado green. “I’ve been there a few times now,” she finally answered. “I don’t like how they treat males there,” she muttered as she turned Cadance’s hair a revolting rainbow of sewage coloured sludge. 

“Is there going to be a problem with me being there?” Bucky asked. 

“So long as I make it clear that you are not for sale or trade,” Twilight grumbled in reply. 

“Oh dear,” Bucky gasped. 

“Not slaves… well, not in the traditional sense. Pets really. Pampered. Loved. Spoiled. Males are rare down there and what few there are… well, they’re spoiled pompous brats with a roaring sense of self entitlement. The mares do keep them happy, and social status is determined by factors like how spoiled and pampered your stallion is. Even with the seemingly loving attitudes, the males are occasionally sold or contracted for breeding purposes. Rarity’s cat has better manners than most of the males in Saddle Arabia,” Twilight explained. 

“Hmm,” Bucky hummed, admiring Twilight’s work. “Cadance is missing something. How about some braces on her smile and some horn rimmed glasses?” 

“Brilliant,” Twilight crowed. “Oh, wait, what am I saying? You monster!” 

“You call me a monster, but you’ve added braces, an external retainer, and hideous glasses,” Bucky quipped. 

“And I made her cross eyed,” Twilight added. 

“You know, the cross eyed thing is just mean…” Bucky stated. 

“Oh… your wife… I’m so sorry… I’m an awful pony… I’m the monster!” Twilight shouted fretfully. She started to say something else, but choked on her words when she heard Bucky laughing behind her. She turned around and saw her own statue. It was bile yellow with puke green polka dots. She stared, now completely at a loss for words. Her mane was a day-glo safety cone orange. 

“Our work is done here, we should move on. The guard will be patrolling in less then three minutes,” Bucky warned. 

Twilight followed after Bucky, hoping they wouldn't get caught. 
	
	
> Chapter 257
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sentinel?” Thistle inquired gently, slowly approaching the colt in the water. She could smell fear, panic, and a number of other scents. She could also smell the source of Sentinel’s fear and panic. Her little colt was growing up. “Sentinel, please, don’t try to swim away, or I will use the water to grab you, don’t make me do it.” 

She finally drew near where Sentinel was huddling down in the shallow water, sitting in water that came up to his neck. He was breathing heavily and glaring at her, angry and frightened. Thistle felt her heart breaking when she saw the hurt in his eyes.

“Tell me, what is wrong my little colt?” Thistle asked. 

“I had a terrible dream where I mounted a filly and tore her throat out because I wanted to eat her,” Sentinel confessed in a frantic whisper. “She was food… but I wanted her in other ways… I was so scared. I feel so ashamed. I’m never supposed to use my teeth on another pony. Please don’t hate me mother Thistle.” 

“Oh… my poor colt… I don’t hate you… sometimes creatures like us have these dreams. The grass eaters trigger our base instincts. I don’t know if I am going to be very good at talking about this, but I’ve had those kinds of dreams as well,” Thistle replied in a slow loving voice, her long fishy tail swishing in the water. 

“You’ve had dreams like that?” Sentinel asked. 

“Including one about Bucky, where I couldn’t help myself and I just took a little nibble. He forgave me and said he understood, patting me on the head. It was a very troubling dream, because that is probably what Bucky would actually do. It scared me terribly and I thought I was unfit to be around him and my fellow-wives. I had trouble looking them all in the eye for a while,” Thistle explained in answer. 

“That was just eating… this dream I had involved… involved-” 

“Oh I’ve had those sorts of dreams as well. We are what we are Sentinel. Meat eaters in the bodies of ponies. We must always guard against our instincts,” Thistle interrupted. “So who was it?” 

“Oh I couldn’t tell you,” Sentinel whispered fearfully. 

“If you ever want to leave this lake again, you will tell me,” Thistle said with a cheerful but willful smile. “Don’t test your mother’s patience.” 

“Yes mother,” Sentinel replied, bowing his head. “It was Diamond Tiara.” 

“She’s a pretty little thing. Do you share your father’s appreciation for earth ponies?” Thistle asked, her voice sweet and soothing. 

“Now that you have said something, the thought is crossing my mind,” Sentinel muttered. 

“She is pretty, but she also strikes me as being strong, stocky, and sturdy. She will make a good mate for you,” Thistle said, looking thoughtful as she spoke.

“With Moonbow it was necessary, but I am far too young to make these sorts of decisions,” Sentinel protested. “She’s young too. The mainlanders are different from us. She might be old enough to marry back where we came from, but that isn’t fair to her… I do kind of like her. There is something about her… how she struggles.” 

“You should go back to your flying lessons,” Thistle suggested. “We will talk later. Come to me Sentinel. If you are troubled, come to me and we will talk.” 

“Yes mother, I will do as you ask,” Sentinel replied. 



 

“So how is our old home?” Lyra asked. 

“There are probably tentacle monsters in the refrigerators,” Bon Bon replied. 

Giggling, Lyra squeezed Harper close and lost herself for a moment in mirth. 

“I suppose we need to pack up everything we want to keep and move it out here. Our little small bedroom we’ve claimed for our more private moments is about half the total size of our old apartment… I never realised how small it was,” Bon Bon said, her eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed thoughtfully. She watched Lyra holding Harper and thought about how much smaller the apartment would have felt with Harper exploring around underhoof. 

“At some point, we should think about maybe letting the others watch our “more private moments” perhaps,” Lyra suggested. 

“Do you think you’d be comfortable with that?” Bon Bon asked. 

“I dunno… I’d like to be, but it is hard to say. Might be real hard around Bucky,” Lyra confessed in reply. She squeezed Harper again, and then began to bounce her around gently. “Berry and I flirt a bit. I feel bad for leaving Bucky out, but maybe we could ask the others to join us. But not all at once. I think I’d be overwhelmed. I still have some trouble when it is just us Bonnie.” 

“I know Lyra,” Bon Bon said gently. 

“So how is everypony? Did you see anypony?” Lyra questioned. 

“I saw a few ponies. I stopped in and visited the Cakes. I saw Twist,” Bon Bon replied. 

“How is Twist?” Lyra inquired. 

“She is staying with the Cakes. Her parents went to Manehatten on business. The collapse happened. They haven’t been heard from in a long time,” Bon Bon said sadly. 

“That’s not good,” Lyra said. 

“She’s about the same age that Pinkie Pie was when Pinkie Pie left home, came to Ponyville, and then lived with the Cakes. I think she’ll adapt,” Bon Bon said. “Her parents were always gone anyways. They were never that close. As terrible as it sounds, I think it will make it easier.” 

“Are we good parents?” Lyra asked, her voice filled with insecurity and doubt. 

“I think so Lyra,” Bon Bon answered. 



 

Looking at the map, Bucky studied the long twisting route that the train would be taking from Saddle Arabia to Ponyville. A vast section of desert, the Badlands off to one side, plenty of places for an ambush. The Macintosh Hills would have a strong potential for danger, there were a number of tunnels and canyons that seemed ideal to stop a train. Traveling along the coast of the inland sea would expose them to ships. The train would be traveling through Mustangia as it traveled along the coast of the inland sea, taking on water and fresh coal. The entire route seemed as though it would be fraught with danger. 

“Why can’t we do this by airship?” Bucky asked in a demanding voice. 

“Most of our navy is engaged along our borders, and many are in the Sea of Grass securing the borders with Griffonholm and the Hinterlands. Our fleet is spread thin. Also, I do not think you understand how much food is being shipped. The train is going to be several miles long. Ten engines and ten tender cars for coal,” Luna replied. 

“What a nightmare. The train will literally stretch from one horizon to another,” Bucky grumbled, rubbing the withered side of his face with his stump. “This is insanity.” 

“Nothing has ever been done like this before. This is a moment of engineering history. The longest train ever assembled. The heaviest load ever hauled. The food we haul will keep hundreds of thousands from dying of starvation during the winter,” Luna said, her voice full of an odd manic pride. 

“Twilight and I must make sure that this train does not stop,” Bucky stated. He looked at the specification sheet. “Twenty two thousand feet long. That is over four miles in length.”

“Especially in the Macintosh Hills. If the train is halted on an incline, it will have to be thrown into reverse and pushed back to level ground in order to build up enough steam to make the climb on the second attempt,” Luna explained. “You will need at least a hundred mile stretch to build up steam to make the climb.” 

“This is nuts,” Bucky grumbled.

“You will have one airship for support. A light support frigate crewed by Myrmidons,” Luna said, ignoring Bucky’s grumbling. “Pity you don’t have wings, they would be useful here. Twilight will be able to fly from one end of the train to the other. Enchant your armor so you will stick to the train and not risk falling off. You will be able to walk along the top and the sides. There will be a couple of passenger cars in the middle for your comfort.”

Looking at the map, Bucky sighed. He turned to look at Luna. This whole idea was folly. Scowling, he shook his head. “What if the track is damaged? Will the brakes on the engines even be able to stop the train?” 

“We will have some unicorn engineers on the airship and the means to repair. That is why we are sending along a supply frigate,” Luna responded. Seeing Bucky’s irritation, her demeanor changed to one of commanding superiourity, and she watched as Bucky became a bit more submissive. “As for stopping, you and Twilight will be responsible for stopping the train in an emergency.” 

“Sending supplies by sea is out I suppose,” Bucky said as he leaned over the map.

“Would take too long,” Luna answered. 

“This is going to go badly,” Bucky mumbled. “This will all end in tears, I just know it.” 

“And it is your job to make sure that it does not,” Luna demanded. “You are to keep Twilight as safe as equinely possible and you will command the Myrmidons if they require leadership for some reason.” 

“Like when something goes catastrophically wrong,” Bucky groused. 

“You are a type four and Twilight is an alicorn. Between the two of you, you should be able to reverse natural disasters, change the geography, alter the course of rivers, and make sure a train makes it from one point to another,” Luna snapped. 

“I suck at magic, remember?” Bucky retorted, daring to talk back to his Mistress. 

“You are good at killing things and finding creative solutions to impossible problems. No more whining!” Luna barked. “Plus, you are barking mad down deep in your mind. There are things in that twisted brain of yours that frighten me a great deal. If something happens and the train is lost, I at least have the satisfaction of knowing that those responsible will be dealt with in what could only be described as a waking nightmare.” 

“I won’t hurt or kill other ponies,” Bucky stated defiantly.

“I am not asking you to kill other ponies, but if this mission fails and hundreds of thousands of ponies starve just because you decided to go easy on a few bandits, you will never know the end of my fury,” Luna promised. 

“I understand, Mistress,” Bucky replied. 



 

“You are to keep Buckminster contained, do you understand me Twilight?” Celestia inquired, her voice firm. “No fusing of hydrogen atoms. No demon summoning. No disintegrations,” she commanded, her eyes narrowing.

“Then why are you sending him?” Twilight asked. 

“In the event that those things become necessary,” Celestia huffed. She turned her head to look at Twilight when she heard the loud gulp from across the room. 

“What about me? You know… I could… I could do those sorts of things,” Twilight stammered nervously. 

“Could you?” Celestia asked coldly. 

“Well, theoretically,” Twilight began. She opened her mouth to say something else, her lips moved, but no words came out and she remained silent. Finally, she closed her mouth and gave up after realising she had no idea what to say. 

“How is Chrysalis?” Celestia inquired. 

“Chrysalis? What does she have to do with anything?” Twilight questioned in reply. 

“She is still somehow alive after you went off to do battle with her,” Celestia stated. “And now, ponies in the south are being taken. Even killed. She foalnapped Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. She nearly destroyed the Crusader Project.” 

“Well I couldn’t just kill her!” Twilight protested. 

“Exactly,” Celestia stated. 

“Oh… that’s not fair!” Twilight retorted angrily, her wings flared out and her legs went stiff with rage. 

“I suspect that Buckminster would kill her without a moment’s hesitation,” Celestia said in a soft voice, trying to defuse Twilight’s anger. “That is the difference between the two of you. It is my hope that you never have to kill anything.” 

“Do you really think he would kill her?” Twilight asked in a hesitant voice, but still angry. 

“If he discovered that she captured and tortured the Cutie Mark Crusaders to lure you into battle? If he found out she hurt you and your friends?” Celestia asked. “What do you think he would do? Be honest Twilight Sparkle.” 

“I… I… I suppose the Badlands... would become... heavily irradiated,” Twilight stammered. “But he is such a good pony with his family. I’ve seen him. I’ve watched him play with Harper. I don’t want to believe he would do something so horrible.” 

“His own mother...” Celestia stated, falling silent, unable to finish her statement. 

“I know. That bothers me. I don’t know how to deal with it,” Twilight admitted. 

“I have begun to have concerns about my beloved Buckminster,” Celestia whispered. “I hope I do not lose him. Luna assures me that he can be contained. Balanced out. Held in check. But I am starting to have my doubts.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t push him so hard,” Twilight suggested. 

Celestia whirled on her former student angrily and whinnied furiously. 

“You pushed Sunset Shimmer too hard. You were so certain that she was going to be the Element of Magic. You hounded her. You pushed and you shoved and you never let her have a moment of peace. The strain finally got to her. And when she broke, you exiled her beyond the mirror rather than deal with and take responsibility for your own failure. What will you do with Buckminster once you’ve pushed him too far and he breaks?” Twilight said, standing her ground defiantly. “Will he go through the mirror? Would you kill him? Have me find some way of binding him or imprisoning him?” 

Too furious to answer, Celestia stormed out of the meeting room, leaving Twilight Sparkle standing all alone by herself, and many unspoken words left between them. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 258
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy heaved a motherly sigh and read over the paper once again, squinting her bad eye shut so she could focus with her good eye. Placement testing wasn’t quite as good as she had hoped. Sentinel was well ahead of primary school standards for writing, but had abysmal skills in math. Ripple had slightly below average writing ability and her math skills were subpar. She was going to have to attend primary school and potentially be the oldest filly there. She excelled in simple arithmetic and creative solutions but there was a concern she might have some issues with violence. Loch Skimmer was thoroughly average and had scored just high enough to be placed into secondary school, but secondary school was optional and not required. 

The frustrated grey pegasus tossed the paper on the kitchen table. This would not do. She could feel all of her hopes and dreams teetering on some great precipice. When Bucky came home, she was going to have to talk to him about private tutoring for all of their foals, including Rising Star and Sparkler, who seemed to have no interest in going back to secondary school or even university. 

If she had to, she would wing slap them into submission. She had dropped out of school and she wasn’t about to allow it to happen to her foals. She nickered, an equine sound of frustration, and then she blew her golden mane out of her eyes with a snort. 

Feeling frustrated, she took it out on the first thing she could find. She snatched Berry as Berry trotted past, the earth pony had been on her way to the fridge, Derpy hauled her in with her forelegs, crushed her into submission, lifted her from the floor, kissed her savagely, and then dropped the stunned earth pony upon the hardwood floor, where Berry lay giggling stupidly on her back. 

Derpy wiped her mouth with her foreleg and felt a little better. 



 

“What marvelous fliers I have, and I am glad you could finally join us Yew Wood,” Surprise chirped cheerfully. “You look sleepy this afternoon.” 

“Peekaboo was fussy this morning long before the dawn and Lugus insisted on letting her sleep with us rather than in the nursery,” Yew replied before slipping into a yawn. “Plus, he kept me up all night.” 

“Griffons are largely nocturnal,” Surprise said knowingly. 

“Tell me about it,” Yew mumbled. 

“I like being all up all night,” Loch Skimmer giggled. 

“You certainly keep parts of Rising Star up all night,” Ripple deadpanned. 

“Ladies!” Surprise shouted. “Focus.” 

“Lugus and I were just talking. We do that. He tells me about his time as a fledgeling and his trials as a knight,” Yew said nervously. 

“Sure he does,” Loch tittered. 

“Can we not have implications of rutting,” Sentinel begged. 

“Yes,” Surprise agreed. “Sensitive little ears.” 

“Sorry,” Loch Skimmer apologised. 

“We’re going to take wing. Sweet little Sentinel can glide marvelously, I’ve never seen a better potential as a glider, but we’re going to need somepony to give him a lift to keep him aloft,” Surprise instructed. 

“Flattery to cajole me is not needed,” Sentinel grumbled. 

“I do not flatter,” Surprise said. “Gliding is an art. Not every pegasus can glide so well. Gliding means long distance flight with very little energy expended. It means efficiency. One day, you will make for a marvelous cross country flier but only if you pay attention to me, listen to what I say, and learn.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Sentinel responded, perking up a bit under Surprise’s honest praise. 

“Sentinel is our glider, Ripple is our junior speedster, Loch Skimmer is our heavy lifter, and we need to find out what Yew can do,” Surprise summarised. 

“I have big wings and I’m clumsy,” Yew said self consciously. 

“Big wings are a good wing type for a number of things. Gliding, heavy lifting, flying through heavy winds and storms, and keeping foals covered up snuggly-wuggly,” Surprise replied. 

“Ugh, cuteness,” Sentinel groaned. 

“Like you,” Surprise chirped. 

“I am not cute,” Sentinel proclaimed sullenly. 

“Sure you are,” Surprise argued. “I think my husband is handsome in his own way and my little foal, who is still so teeny tiny, she is cutesy-pootsy adorable,” Surprise argued. 

“Wait, are they…” Sentinel fell silent when he saw Surprise wink and had the sudden realisation that somehow, everything was going to be okay somehow. Not just with his flying lessons, but everything. His dad had chosen a solar pegasus as his mate and had not devoured her. Several things in his brain suddenly clunked into place. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, suddenly feeling much better and thinking about how funny life was. 





“Please, keep Twilight safe, she is very dear to me.”

Looking at Celestia, Bucky nodded slowly, acknowledging her command but said nothing in reply. In Bucky’s eye, the big alicorn almost looked like she was suffering a fit of neurosis. Celestia looked miserable, and he felt as though he was to blame. 

“I want you safe as well, please, do not think for one moment that I do not constantly worry about your safety and well being,” Celestia said in a strained raspy voice. “I am so sorry, I was wrong for what I said to you and I regret everything.” 

“You only spoke the truth,” Bucky replied. Upon saying it, he wished he could take it back. He watched Celestia flinch in pain and he felt something in his barrel clench tightly. “Nopony can fault you for saying what needed to be said. I chose the darkness. I still have purpose with my darkness. I am still loyal to you and willing to serve.” He hesitated, unsure if he should say what was on his mind. “I also know about Sombra… through the mirror.” 

“I loved him. And I see so much of him in you, even now,” Celestia admitted. “But do not worry. You are Buckminster and he is Sombra, and I know how to keep you separated in my mind. I loved the Sombra in this world as well, but in a very different way.” 

“I would do anything for my family,” Bucky stated. 

“I know Buckminster… that is probably far more fitting to carve upon your monument,” Celestia replied, looking sorrowful. 

“You are part of my family,” Bucky whispered. 

Celestia froze, her eyes closing tightly, and her whole body shivered. “That makes me a feel a little better to hear you say that Buckminster.” 

“I will bring Twilight back to you, whole and in one piece. She is also my family,” Bucky promised in a low voice. “Family doesn’t always agree, and they might not always get along, but they do stick together. At least mine does.” 

Opening her eyes, Celestia looked over at Buckminster and smiled a weak smile. “You have an airship to catch. Try to come home in one piece. I do not think I could bear watching you convalesce once again in the hospital. And look out for Twilight. She is very confused and angry about so many things. She is not sure about her place in the world. She had a very idealised view of how the world was, how the world should be, and then one day, she went to Fillydelphia and found out that the world was a very different place. Not long after, she watched everything she knew and believed in come crumbling down. She realised that I could make mistakes, and that I have made mistakes. She watched as the collapse happened and she could do nothing but try to keep control of the tiny section of the world around her. She still holds to her idealism and the last shreds of her naivety like a foal clings to their doll after a nightmare. I want her to keep her idealism Buckminster… it is my hope.” 

“I understand. I will try to protect that as well if I can,” Bucky acknowledged as he turned to go, hobbing off on three legs. 

Watching him go, Celestia sighed. She drew in a deep shuddering breath and hoped that both of her foals returned in one piece. She understood that the rift still existed between her and Buckminster, but it was easy enough to stand on either side and wave at one another. 



 

Carefully following Surprise’s instructions, Dinky prepared to cast one of the first and most important spells she had learned as a unicorn. She recalled the words to the Blink spell in her mind, thinking back to that day that seemed so long ago. She had cast the spell that had made everypony want to hug her and her daddy, still her teacher back then, had nearly died because his horn had cracked. But he had kept her safe, and nopony was seriously hurt because of her mistake. She saw the pegasi overhead, ignited her horn, and said the magic words. 


”Whenever I am all alone 
And I am too scared to think
Whenever I need some help
I flash my light and blink!” 
 

A strobing purple flare shot from Dinky’s horn and rose into the sky, impossible to ignore, the universal unicorn cry for help that every pegasus was duty bound to answer. Dinky watched as Surprise banked, rolled sharply, and then began to angle towards the ground, the others behind her following her example. 

A moment later, Surprise had landed near Dinky, gave a wink, and saluted with her wing. She pranced around in place, watching her students land, cringing as Sentinel came in for a hard landing. 

“We all just saw a Blink spell. The Blink spell is a call for help that all pegasi are obligated to answer, class. It means trouble, or that somepony is hurt, or that something terrible happened that only a pegasus can fix. You ALWAYS come and investigate if you see a blink spell, do you understand?” Surprise said, explaining the situation to her class in a voice of commanding instruction. 

“See a flashing flare, come rescue some unicorn, maybe have a chance to kick plot, got it,” Ripple answered as she folded her wings to her sides. 

“A Blink spell means trouble,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“If I see one, I will respond,” Yew acknowledged. 

“I already knew this from my officer’s manuals,” Sentinel stated. “Airborne Distress Signals, chapter two, what to look for.” 

“Dinky cast a very powerful version of the spell. Sometimes, the Blink spell is very faint. Always be watchful. If you are in the sky, you are obligated to answer. Always be on the lookout. Responding quickly can be the difference between life and death,” Surprise instructed. 

“This is one of the first spells that daddy taught me,” Dinky said proudly. “And he stressed how important it was. It makes a lot more sense now, after all of the trouble that’s happened. It is about tribal unity. If a unicorn calls for help, and the pegasus answers, it means that the tribes are working together. If a unicorn calls for help and the pegasus ignores it, there is something wrong.” 

“Dinky is correct. Always look for Blink spells and listen for cries of help. We are PEGASI. We are the sworn protectors of the other two tribes. We have a reputation to protect and that reputation states that we are loyal and we come to the rescue when there is trouble,” Surprise stated in a surprisingly harsh militant voice. “And if I ever find out that my students slacked off and trouble happened… and my students did nothing… I will bring a flock and I will hunt my students down for one final lesson. Am I clear?” 

There were several nods and Surprise smiled at the earnestness that she saw. 

“So when we see a Blink spell, we stop, circle overhead, look for trouble, and then dive down to investigate,” Ripple said. 

“Always,” Surprise responded. 

“And other pegasi will come as well,” Loch said. 

“Yes, but you must never make the mistake of thinking another pegasus will take care of it. What if every pegasus believed that the pegasus on the next cloud over was going to check it out and then just ignored it?” Surprise questioned. 

“Nothing would get done because everypony would pass the blame on everypony else. So everypony stops what they are doing and drops down to investigate,” Sentinel answered. 

“Good foal,” Surprise replied. “You get a chocolate covered biscuit when we’re done, you adorable little cuddlebug.” 

Very much against his will, Sentinel found himself almost smiling at Surprise’s praise. 
	
	
> Chapter 259
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alone in his small cramped cabin, Bucky began to examine his torque for lack of anything better to do. The braided silver coils were beautifully crafted, the wolf heads were in perfect detail, it always stayed strangely warm to the touch, and it gave off a faint dweomer of magic. 

He looked it over, eyeing it carefully, looking for visible glyphs or sigils, and found nothing. He cast a few simple spells to detect magic and detect the nature of the enchantment. Suddenly, the torque was no longer a mystery. It thrummed for a moment, and made a sound like a bell being struck. 

A faint glow came from the wolf heads and a projected image of five mares appeared before him, five mares he recognised all too well. Five mares that he was missing a great deal right now. 

“Behave yourself!” they all said together as they stood waving, their tails swishing, looking up at him longingly, broad smiles upon their faces. Derpy was waving with her wing. Bucky felt a lump growing in his throat. He missed them all terribly already and was wondering how he was going to sleep without them. 

The torque was nothing more than a moving image and a message, and it made Bucky feel better to hear their voices again. It was quite possibly one of the most thoughtful gifts that anypony could have possibly given him. 

“I helped to make that.” 

Looking up, Bucky saw Twilight in his doorway. 

“The door was open. Usually that means a pony wants company, unless I am mistaken,” Twilight stated as she came in. She sat down on the only other bit of furniture in the cabin, a chair. Curling up, she made herself comfortable.

“Do you love somepony?” Bucky bluntly asked.

Twilight blushed and her ears splayed out sideways. “Maybe,” she admitted. 

“Either you do or you don’t,” Bucky replied. “Make up your mind. Are you a tease or something?”

“It’s complicated,” Twilight muttered, her ears now framing her face, completely limp and dangling down as she glared at Bucky. “I have a penpal. Who I like a great deal and we’ve been getting to know each other through letters,” she confessed in a guarded monotone. 

“And here I thought it was Rainbow Dash,” Bucky stated. 

“Rainbow? Really? You think that? Why does everypony think that? We’re just friends,” Twilight answered, looking confused. “I’ve never understood this accusation.” 

“Maybe I’m making a mistake when I watch her speak pegasus towards you,” Bucky said dismissively. “I am pretty good at reading Derpy’s signals, but I admit, Rainbow Dash might have different signals. I’m probably wrong.” 

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said in a confused voice. 

“Nevermind, it is probably nothing,” Bucky said. 

Twilight shifted her body into a comfortable pony-loaf position and looked at Bucky. She studied him, watching his Taint filled eye ooze a purple haze out around his head, the vapour trail drifting back into his long shaggy mane. She swallowed nervously and then decided to speak her mind. “It is difficult to see you the way you are. I mean, your eye. Sombra was a difficult foe. It makes me recall a lot of bad memories.” 

“Bad memories? Have a lot of horrible hideous things try to kill you?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, no,” Twilight replied. 

“Been mauled? Savaged by creatures who don’t even wait for you to die before they start chewing off pieces of your flesh and swallowing them? Or tied down to a table and had hot irons pressed into your flesh to make the bleeding stop? Or had somepony dig around inside of your eye socket to scoop out the remains of your ruined eye? Or-” 

“I get it,” Twilight said squeamishly. “But you’re not the only one who has had it rough.” 

“I’m sure plenty of your enemies have tried to talk you to death,” Bucky stated. 

“That’s not fair… Discord turned my friends against me,” Twilight snapped.

“I’ll admit, that’s probably just as painful as having hot irons pressed into your flesh,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“Are you being serious or is that sarcasm?” Twilight asked in guarded tones. She glared at Bucky, her ears folded back against her skull, her nostrils wide and flaring. Her tail swished once, and then she pulled it back in and tucked it against her side. 

“I would find having my family turned against me most unpleasant. I’d find a way to kill whomever did it of course,” Bucky said in a low voice. “Slowly and unpleasantly. I might even resort to necromancy to keep them alive long enough for some real satisfaction. I would want them to admit to their mistake you see, before I finally granted them the mercy of actual death.” 

Feeling a chill in the air, Twilight slumped her head, feeling genuine fear. She chose to ignore Bucky’s terrifying little rant. “Doesn’t change one thing that is true. Most of my enemies have tried monologuing me to death. Nightmare Moon came back from the moon feeling chatty and sociable. Discord put us in a hedge maze and played with our minds. Chrysalis… well, there was an actual scuffle during the invasion of Canterlot… wait, what were you doing during the Canterlot invasion?” Twilight asked, coming to a swift realisation.

“Acting as a school prefect. All of the students were hidden away in the emergency bunker. I hadn’t actually graduated yet,” Bucky admitted. “There was uh, some disciplinary issues that prolonged my graduation.” 

“You and your pranks,” Twilight muttered. 

“No… actually I was going through a personal crisis due to my parents and I sort of fell apart. I became exceedingly antisocial and withdrawn. Celestia came down hard upon me,” Bucky answered, looking away from Twilight, a pained expression on his face as his focus was turned to the empty corner. “So, uh, what about Sombra?” 

“He was scary, but he didn’t do a very good job of trying to kill me. His love of stairs nearly did though. What a jerk. Stairs everywhere,” Twilight groused, her tone bitter. Her ears perked forward. “You haven’t done anything evil involving stairs have you? I mean, one could see it as a warning sign.” 

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Bucky deadpanned, immediately thinking of the stairs in his own tower. They were steep and twisty for a reason. 

“The worst danger I was ever in came from my friends. They killed me. Quite by accident,” Twilight said, looking down at her own folded forelegs distractedly. She sighed. “My life has been an adventure, but it hasn’t been all that exciting now that I look at it.” 

“I was out of place for what I said,” Bucky said in apologetic tones. 

“Everything you had to deal with tried to kill you,” Twilight replied in equally apologetic tones, looking Bucky in the face as she did so. “I guess that is the difference between the Scholar and the Guardian. Our experiences are different because our purposes are different. I wonder how things might have been if our roles had been reversed.” 

“Would you want to be like me? Be honest, I will not hate you, cousin,” Bucky commanded in a gentle voice, a soft voice that he hoped would put Twilight at ease. 

Her lips pressing into a flat line, Twilight hesitated to reply. She thought about the missing limb. The lost eye. Having the Taint. Her eyes lingered over all of Bucky’s scars. “No, no I don’t think I could handle it,” she finally admitted. “I can’t help but notice that you address me as family.” 

“That is because you are,” Bucky replied. 

“So I suppose you’d be on the warpath if something happened to me,” Twilight said. She watched Bucky raise his head and look at her. For a moment, his face became so distorted with malice that Twilight shivered. For just a brief second, he didn’t look at all like an equine, but something else entirely. She realised that Bucky wouldn’t be all that out of place in Tartarus. She shivered again and felt a cold prickly feeling in her hooves, which made her wonder if her earth pony physiology was reacting in some way. She made a mental note to ask Celestia if earth ponies could detect unbridled evil. For a moment, she wondered if she saw what seemed to scare Celestia so badly. 

“So… who is your penpal?” Bucky asked, focusing his eye on Twilight. 

“Oh, you wouldn’t know him. He’s from the Crystal Empire,” Twilight replied. “Oh wow… I just realised how pathetic and cheesy that sounds.” 

“Does your brother approve?” Bucky inquired, a mischievous gleam in his eye. 

“My brother is the one that got him to write the first letter,” Twilight giggled. “Oh my gosh I sound like a lovesick filly… how embarrassing,” she said as she pulled one front hoof free from beneath her and covered her muzzle. “Celestia made me write him back… she told me it went against protocol for a royal to not write back to a soldier that sent a letter. We owe them for their service, or so she claims.” 

“So he’s a soldier,” Bucky said, seizing upon a detail. 

“Ummm,” Twilight hummed. “Sort of. He’s a guard, but he’s actually part of the messenger division and the communication corps.” 

“So he’s seen action,” Bucky stated. 

“Are you teasing again?” Twilight snapped, suddenly defensive. 

“No… I was reading in the paper how much danger the messengers were in during the collapse, especially the ones running messages to Canterlot when some of the nobles were at war with Celestia. They killed the messengers. Dirty pool, “ Bucky responded. “Dirty pool…” For a moment, he struggled to contain his anger, he couldn’t tell if he was upset about somepony hurting a messenger or somepony at war with Celestia. 

“I was wrong I see… of course I should have known better. Of course the alicorn of war would have a soft spot for soldiers,” Twilight said in an embarrassed tone of voice. She squirmed and stuffed her front hoof back under her barrel. 

“So does it ever become any easier? Being a royal I mean… the guilt is eating me alive. I went from being a noble full of self loathing to a royal full of self loathing,” Bucky said in a strained voice. He fidgeted and squirmed, now wishing he could take back what he said and say something else instead. 

“Celestia tells me that being a noble is all about entitlement. Being a royal is all about enforced servitude and being a slave to the common good. We don’t have the option of saying no for example, when we were both asked to escort the longest train ever assembled,” Twilight responded thoughtfully. 

“What do either of us know about rulership?” Bucky asked. “To be fair, we’re both very broken ponies… I’m speaking in a very honest and blunt sort of way.” 

“Oh, I agree. I have some serious issues. I have some trouble dealing with feelings when I am busy sorting out facts. I think I hurt Celestia earlier when I was stating some facts. I didn’t take into account how it would make it her feel, I was just trying to be factual,” Twilight admitted, her eyes narrowing. She stared off into some non existent point point, looking troubled. “I suspect that I owe her an apology.” 

“Neurosis,” Bucky muttered. 

“Yeah, that too,” Twilight agreed in a huff. “But to be fair, you’ve progressed past neurosis and into deeply troubling and advanced psychopathy. You seem to only have a conscience when it suits you, which is a dangerous sign of-”

“There you go, stating facts again,” Bucky said in a dull monotone, interrupting Twilight. 

“Oh… gosh I’m sorry,” Twilight said fretfully. She took a deep breath and made ready to offer a stronger apology, but she choked on her own breath when Bucky exploded into laughter. She remained silent for a time, feeling somewhat frightened by Bucky’s maniacal guffaws. For a moment, it was dangerously close to a cackle… but then it smoothed into a chuckle and Twilight found herself reluctantly joining in, her laughter more of a nervous giggle. It occurred to Twilight that she was laughing with a madpony. His rant from earlier came back into her mind and she began to worry slightly. Bucky was a good pony… he is just a little troubled, Twilight thought to herself. 

Her reserved and nervous giggle died while Bucky’s laughter continued. 

“In Saddle Arabia, they have these wonderful things called pita pocket sandwiches,” Twilight stated, hoping to change the subject and make Bucky stop laughing. Much to her relief, his manic laughter eased off. “They have this bean paste from chick peas that is fried into patties. The unicorn chefs they employ apparently created this dish. I think you’d like it.” 

“Mmm, bean patties. Embarrassing social consequences be damned,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 260
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The city of Baah-Rein. The city of Sheep Stop in some old tongue. Aside from ponies and the much taller Saddle Arabians, there were sheep everywhere, baahing and bleating away, and Bucky suddenly missed Berry Punch more than ever. Smiling to himself, he realised that with a little effort on his part, he could make Berry Punch fit right in here. 

There were a fair number of unicorns here, a few pegasi, and the occasional earth pony. Type one unicorns seemed to be everywhere, and Bucky wondered where they came from and why they were here. He wondered if they immigrated down here to feel special, being away from the type twos and type threes of Equestria. Any sort of magic was useful down here, where the Saddle Arabians had no magic. 

Most of the unicorns wore collars, indicating that they were owned. 

Bucky didn’t like this. Not at all. 

Saddle Arabia didn’t keep slaves, not in the traditional sense, but they had a culture of pets. It was a culture that encouraged ownership over what you adored. The males seemed pampered and the unicorns actually looked a bit fat all things considered. Most of them were pulled around the streets in drawn hackneys pulled by earth ponies or goats. 



 

The hummus was fantastic and Bucky was glad he had learned the seemingly simple recipe for its creation. He was currently licking out the bowl of hummus and listening to Twilight Sparkle clearing her throat. He knew why she was clearing her throat. It was because he had his head inside of the hummus bowl. He simply didn’t care and was ignoring her. The Saddle Arabian ponies had no magic and they ate without silverware. Bucky felt that he was fitting right in just fine. 

Finally, he heard Twilight sigh and give up. When there was no more hummus, Bucky moved on to a dish of slivered cucumbers in yogurt, filled with little green leaves which seemed like mint and something else, Bucky wasn’t sure what. 

“I see you are enjoying the khyar bi laban,” Twilight said in a low embarrassed voice. 

Lifting his yogurt covered muzzle from the bowl, Bucky smiled. “It’s delicious!” he cried and then stuffed his head back down into the wooden bowl, slurping and smacking away on his food. 

“Such a simple dish really… cucumbers, yogurt, garlic, and different types of mint,” Twilight mused. “All things we eat in Equestria, but this dish is unlike anything we prepare for ourselves.” The princess watched her companion gorging himself on food and felt mildly disgusted. Her table manners weren’t always perfect, but at least she knew when to make the attempt, like in diplomatic situations. Buckminster was just barbaric. She shuddered and felt the corner of her eye twitch in alarm, the coming storm of worry just on the horizon. 

“Save some room for fattoush. The bread salad is delicious. I do hope they bring out the abakadoo ma' taheena soon, that’s avocados and other stuff,” Twilight announced. She tried to ignore the fact that Buckminster was sucking in khyar bi laban through pursed lips, and making the most obscene sounding slurping sounds in the process. It almost sounded like the wet sloppy sounds of muddy ghosts crawling through the air ducts- 

“Once I have The Scorned Mare again I’m coming back here for the food,” Bucky announced around a mouthful of yogurt and cucumbers, completely derailing Twilight’s train of thought. 

Twilight began to have worrisome thoughts about eyebrows. Angry eyebrows slowly raising. Her mood manifested in her mane, and a single split end poinked into existence. Her father and his raised eyebrows. It hadn’t been ghosts at all, but Shining Armor and Cadance. Wrestling. 

No… not wrestling 

There was entirely too much pressure upon Twilight Sparkle, getting the train back home in one piece was really starting to weigh upon her mind. She could only imagine her father’s look of disapproval if she failed. He might raise his eyebrow again. Or her mother might take away Twilight’s most prized possessions, her library card. How would it look if the town librarian lost her library card? Not good. Not good at all. The corner of Twilight’s mouth twitched and several more hairs in her mane sproinked up alarmingly. Suddenly her appetite was gone. Gone. Like her library card would be if she failed. Gone like her dignity when her father raised his thick hairy eyebrow at her. Gone like her sanity would be if she was sent back to magical kindergarten. 

And the sounds of Bucky’s slurping flooded her mind with the memories of the night she had hidden under Shining Armor’s bed trying to hide from the ghosts. And she had discovered what Shining Armor and Cadance were really doing. 

Twilight snapped to attention when there was a slight pressure upon her nose. She focused, trying to see what had happened, and she realised she had been booped. Buckminster had nose booped her and left behind an enormous dollop of khyar bi laban. Twilight, a princess of Equestria, was sitting there, stupidly staring cross eyed at a giant blob of khyar bi laban plastered to the end of her snoot. Several more split ends manifested, each accompanied by a faint sound like somepony plucking strings on a cello or a violin. Magic manifested in strange ways, often comical ways, and magical insanity was no different. 

Bad manners. Bad manners. Buckminster needed that raised eyebrow. Buckminster needed his library card taken away. Buckminster needed to go back to magical kindergarten. 

A reedy wavering laugh escaped Twilight’s lips. If something went wrong, she would blame Buckminster and they would both go back to magical kindergarten together. She would make certain of it. A worrisome thought occured. What if Buckminster got the gold stars she was entitled to? She couldn’t let that happen. No. She needed those gold stars to validate her existence. She was just going to have to show him what she was capable of. Twilight Sparkle giggled, and for a brief moment, it lapsed into a cackle.



 

The train was impossibly long. Over twenty two thousand feet in length. It stretched from one horizon to another. Ten engines of a fairly recent design teamed with ten tender cars. Each engine had four driving wheels connected with heavy duty coupling rods on each side, or eight wheels total providing pull. The cars were all of an enclosed design, not open air bin cars like Bucky was used to seeing. There were a few passenger cars in the middle of the train. 

The past week of travel and relaxation had been surprisingly pleasant and just what Bucky needed. He missed his wives terribly, but he was managing, and he found that he rather liked Twilight’s company, even if she had lost her mind just a tiny bit the other night during dinner. 

Bucky did get the distinct impression that he wasn’t the only pony with questionable sanity. 

He settled into the passenger car, determined to enjoy as much of his trip as possible. His armor was at the ready. There were high calorie snacks stationed around the train that could be conjured up if needed. A whistle blew, and there were several loud cries. 

Many were worried that the train wouldn’t be able to move. 

Another whistle blew, and then another, and then horns blared. A shudder was felt in the passenger cars. The train vibrated, it seemed to almost shiver with anticipation and Bucky found himself shivering with it. Cold chills ran down his spine. He was part of history with this train. 

He felt somewhat excited. He wasn’t too sure about going down in the history books as a royal, but escorting this train was a worthy accomplishment that he didn’t mind taking credit for. 

“Think it will move?” Bucky asked his companion. 

“Yeah,” Twilight grunted in reply. “The wheels will spin a bit on the rail and when they get hot, they’ll get traction.” 

“Think we’ll have trouble?” Bucky inquired. 

“Almost certainly. But from who is anypony’s guess,” Twilight answered. “Changelings, mirror travelers, bandits, saboteurs, cultists, ponies who hate Equestria, unicorn superiourity groups, could be anypony.” 

“Well, I’m ready,” Bucky said. “This might sound odd, but I am actually spoiling for a fight. Or at least something exciting. I’ve been bored out of my mind since returning to Equestria.” 

“You sound like a pegasus I know,” Twilight muttered. “I miss my friends.” 

“I miss my family,” Bucky whispered. 

“The idea of having a family scares me,” Twilight admitted. “I don’t know if I can do it. The idea of being responsible for all those lives frightens me.” She looked around as the train lurched again and then gave a soft smile. “Any moment now,” she announced. 

And then, with a screech of metal, the train lurched again and moved a scant inch forward. The passenger cars were two miles away from the engines and two miles away from the rear of the train, where there was a little caboose for comfort. With a herky jerky motion, the train began to move, the metal couplings creaking as tension spread through the cars. 

“We’re actually moving,” Bucky muttered in disbelief. 

“I know… feels amazing. We’ve done the impossible,” Twilight responded as she broke into a broad smile and clapped her front hooves together. 

“Getting it home intact is going to be the impossible task,” Bucky argued, a smile cracking his mangled face as well. 

“Did you enjoy our visit?” Twilight asked, settling into a comfortable position in her chair. 

“The food was good. The uh, the delegate trying to give me a unicorn pet was troubling,” Bucky admitted, his voice sounding troubled. “I don’t know how to feel about that.” 

“You enjoyed the food so much that he wanted you to have one of his cooks so you could eat well. They all felt you were far too thin for a male,” Twilight explained. 

“Oh I get that, I heard all the whispering,” Bucky said as he reached up and scratched his ear. “It was very clever of you to tell them that I was a pet myself. They were concerned about the branding though. They’ve outlawed that practice here and have gone with collars.” 

“They were a bit shocked, but also strangely hopeful that we were finally starting to civilise ourselves as a nation,” Twilight giggled. “For a pegasus to own a pet prince… I do believe we may have accidently cemented all future relations quite securely.” 

“You gave your word that you would lecture my owner about my scrawny appearance and slight build. You’d better keep your promise,” Bucky chided. 

Overcome with the giggles, Twilight was unable to reply. She continued to giggle, the worries of the mission temporarily forgotten as she thought about the absurdity of the situation. She enjoyed spending time with Bucky. Her distant cousin was almost like a brother or some other close member of the family now. She saw a side of him that was easy to love and to feel affection towards. She had seen other sides as well, but she chose to focus on the good parts. She saw the pieces of Buckminster’s personality that Celestia desperately wanted to hold on to.

The train lurched again and now it was actually moving, creeping forward oh so slowly. 

“A week to get home if we’re lucky,” Bucky said, looking pensive. For a moment, a dark cloud passed over his face. “A week of not being able to watch my foals do silly things.” 

“I miss Spike,” Twilight said. “I left him with Fluttershy and Discord.” 

“How is Discord?” Bucky asked, seizing upon the offered distraction. 

“Discord is doing a little better. He’s able to get up and move around now. He still has no real magic. When he gets a cut, he actually bleeds now, which really thrills him and makes him excited. He keeps announcing that he is going to die when he gets nicked,” Twilight said. 

“Fluttershy loves him,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“More than anything,” Twilight replied. “All of my friends are growing up and settling down and I’m still stuck writing my pen pal.” 

“Settling down?” Bucky asked. 

“Applejack got married. She didn’t want a fuss so she slipped off to city hall and eloped. She married Silver Shill and they’re happy," Twilight answered. “And her brother Big Mac married Cheerilee not long ago.” 

“Cheerilee didn’t tell me this,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Big Mac is a very private pony,” Twilight said to Bucky, trying to make him feel better. “And Applejack insists that Rarity is madly in love but I don’t see it,” she huffed. “I think Applejack is teasing me and having a good laugh at Rarity’s expense which kinda makes me mad.” 

“Rarity found her noble?” Bucky asked, remembering what he read in the book about Twilight and her friends. It was public knowledge that Rarity wanted a big step up in life. 

“No, Rarity has an earth pony living with her. They’re just friends. A pony named Coco Pommel, an old friend of Rarity’s. Spike seems to think there is something going on there too, but I think he’s seeing something that isn’t there because of Applejack’s teasing,” Twilight explained. 

“And Pinkie Pie?” Bucky asked. 

“Pinkie Pie has a pen pal just like me,” Twilight said, blushing as she said it. 

“And what about Rainbow Dash?” Bucky asked, even though he suspected he knew the answer already. 

“I dunno, Rarity keeps implying that Rainbow Dash has a crush on somepony, but I can’t figure out who. Probably some Wonderbolt. I’d guess Soarin,” Twilight replied, now looking out the window as the train picked up speed and moved at the pace of a slow walk. 

“Sometimes, the love of our lives is just a snoot-bump away,” Bucky said and then then yawned. He settled into his chair. “Maybe I’ll get in touch with Shining Armor and find out who your pen pal is.’ 

“YOU WOULDN’T DARE!” Twilight shrieked in alarm, covering her face with her wings, trying to hide her glowing embarrassment. 

Laughing, Bucky fell silent and watched the world as it crept by. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 261
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Saddle Arabia was behind them and the inland sea was ahead of them. The train moved with surprising speed once it was finally moving. Overhead, the supply frigate kept pace and the Myrmidons circled around the train, keeping a wary eye on threats. 

Mostly, the trip was boring. The most difficult thing Bucky faced was boredom. Twilight had her snoot buried in a book. Bucky had his snoot in a book as well, but he was too distracted to pay attention. He lifted his head and looked out the window, hoping Mustangia would come into view soon. Something. Anything. All around was savanah, an endless expanse of grasslands that seemed to stretch in all directions, and all of it the most boring shade of dull brown. There were no clouds to look at. The island sea was close, they would reach it sometime today, and travel along the coastline until they reached Mustangia in a day or two, where they would take on fresh water and coal for the train. 

Focusing his attention on the table, he drew upon his cold magic. In moments, he had himself a chunk of ice formed, and he shaped it carefully, making a tiny little ice pony mare in perfect exacting detail. He gave her wings and a horn, deciding the ice pony deserved to be an alicorn. His horn flashed brilliantly for a moment and the ice pony began to dance upon the table, a miniature ice golem for his amusement. 

The ice pony seemed alone as it paced along the table. She wandered around, her little ice wings fluttering, her little icicle horn glistening. She looked up her creator and cocked her head. 

Bucky felt a twinge of guilt. He knew better than to attempt to give his creations a personality. It was one of the great unspoken rules of enchantment. He felt a pang of shame for his first golem, a tiny automaton made of ice that he made for his own enjoyment. 

She would melt soon, unless Bucky cast powerful permanency spells upon her to keep her animated. Realising she was alone and her life was limited, Bucky decided to do the right thing. Calling forth another burst of cold and drawing in water vapour, he made another chunk of ice. In no time at all, there was another little ice alicorn running around on the table. He made this one a stallion. 

He watched his icy creations sniffing one another and then they chased one another around the table, their little hooves clattering. Bucky became aware that Twilight was no longer reading, but watching, her mouth open in awe. 

As Bucky watched, his little ice ponies caught one another and sure enough, the male mounted the female and began rutting her senseless. Their lives would be short but enjoyable. 

“Ugh, that’s perverted,” Twilight grumbled, turning away. 

“That’s what ponies do Twilight. Including your parents. Twice at least,” Bucky replied. 

“Ugh. Ugh. UGH! NO! Blargh!” Twilight grumbled. “Why must you be so awful?” 

“Just think about the faces your friend Applejack probably makes when she and Silver Shill do what ponies do,” Bucky teased as the ice ponies continued their rutting. 

“NO!” Twilight cried, covering her face with her hooves. “Why must you be such a pervert!” 

“Heh heh heh,” Bucky chuckled. 

“You have such talent, you just made ice golems with no real effort, and you had to be a pervert about it,” Twilight complained. 

“So, ever thought about riding the pony making bone with your pen pal?” Bucky inquired. 

Saying nothing, Twilight glowered at Bucky, her eyes narrowing and becoming pinpricks of furious rage. Her nostrils flared and her ears splayed out sideways. She felt an embarrassing quiver in her wings and it only made her angrier. 

“You look upset, I’m sorry. I am coming to the awkward conclusion that you have never rode the pony making bone at all,” Bucky said, his tone genuinely apologetic. 

Twilight’s expression intensified for a moment, and then began to soften. “I’ve never done anything of that nature,” she admitted. “Just the thought of it scares me.” 

“I was once like that,” Bucky said. “And then Celestia sat down and had a sex talk with me. She said the word “clitoris” and I just about died. I had the mother of all sex talks from the mother of all ponies.” 

“Oh by the moon and stars that sounds awful,” Twilight whispered. 

“It was, but she set me straight. Gave a spell book full of sex magic. She wrote most of the spells herself it seems,” Bucky said as he lifted his head to look Twilight in the eye. “Really kinky sex magic. If you ask her nicely, I know she would give you a copy.”

“There is an image I didn’t need, Celestia…” Twilight froze, her eyes clenched shut, and she shook her head from side to side wildly as though she had just eaten something incredibly sour. “How could she? I mean, why? I can’t imagine her… doing things…” 

“She’s still a pony. At some point, she was in love. She did things. I don’t think she’s doing those things now, but Luna certainly is,” Bucky said as he turned his attention back to the wildly rutting ice ponies on the table. 

“They're both sterile you know. Side effect of immortality. They can still experience phantom heats, but they can’t have foals,” Twilight said in a sorrowful voice. “This is why Celestia takes on personal students and Luna takes on Myrmidons. Did you know that the Myrmidons call Luna mother when they are hurt? Luna really loves her Myrmidons. They're her murderous, freakishly-devoted-to-their-mother foals. I’ve been there with her a few times now when “a new foal is born” and Luna starts working on their minds to make them into Myrmidons. I was there when Moonbow went through the rituals. She was older than usual, but she handled herself quite well.” 

“Luna is the former bearer of the Element of Loyalty,” Bucky stated. 

“I know… she told me that love is the strongest and purest form of loyalty, and all of her Myrmidons love her. It scares me how loyal they are to her. Luna wants me to take on a few Myrmidons but I’ve refused. I don’t think I’m mature enough for that sort of responsibility or love,” Twilight admitted. She squirmed and looked at the ice ponies who were still rutting. She quickly turned away, her cheeks as red as tomatoes, and closed her eyes. 

“I do believe I may have passed some of my own desire on to my creations,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh gross,” Twilight fussed. “I’m trapped on a train with a horny warlock.” 

Unable to help himself, Bucky began to snigger uncontrollably. 



 

The inland sea was beautiful. The water sparkled and was a deep azure blue in the sun. The train was slowing down, a difficult task, and Mustangia was just ahead over the horizon. The sea was clear of ships near the coastline and there was nothing but flat land all around. 

Some of the Myrmidons had flown ahead to secure the train station in the great city-state of Mustangia. It was a port city on the inland sea and located on the train line, making it a major trade center and a focal point of transport. 

Mustangia was protected as an asset of Equestria and governed by Saddle Arabia. Ponies of all sorts could be found there, but it was primarily an earth pony city. Saddle Arabians lived there and so did many zebras, or so Bucky had heard. Friendly griffons settled there as well, fishing from the great inland sea to get the meat they needed in their diets, most of them refugees from Griffonholm. 

Out the window, Bucky could finally see the city in the distance. Several zeppelins and airships floated over the far off horizon. The train was slowing, and he could hear the squealing of the brakes and smell hot metal from the locomotives. 

And he was two miles away from the engines. Up close, the sound must be deafening. 



 

“Everything seems secure, Knight Major Bitters,” the Myrmidon reported, snapping out a wing in a smart salute. “The teams work to load coal from the supply ship in the harbor quickly. There is a chute to feed it into the cars directly. The water tanks have already been refilled. Will we be spending the night in Mustangia?” 

“No, we will not,” Bucky replied, his words slow and drawn out. 

“We’re going to begin the climb through the Badlands Foothills and into the Macintosh Hills in the dark sir?” the Myrmidon questioned. 

“If an attack is going to happen, it will happen night or day. The Badlands are our biggest concern, and you lot are stronger at night. We’ll have reduced visibility, but I feel that is a worthwhile tradeoff,” Bucky said, explaining his reasoning. 

The Myrmidon, a male, looked thoughtful for a moment and then began to nod his head. “I concur, sir. This course of action seems wise and well thought out. By dawn, we should be heading downhill towards Appleloosa then into Equestria proper. We’re making good time and we are ahead of schedule.” 

“The engineers who calculated the loads and speed made a few mistakes and things are working out in our favour,” Bucky stated. 

“Sir, we are unhappy about Princess Twilight Sparkle leaving the train and flying around. Her safety is our priority. Sorry to be forward, sir,” the Myrmidon reported. 

“She can look after herself. I hope… she is doing her job,” Bucky replied. 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle flew off to look at various birds that live on the prairie. She was not looking after the train sir. And we had to send a detachment to go and look after her, a detachment that should have been guarding the train, sir,” the Myrmidon said in a nervous voice.

“I will have a word with her. She’s a curious sort of pony. I am positive she was keeping an eye on the train even though she might have been looking at a few birds,” Bucky responded. 

“She was busy reading a bird watching field guide, sir,” the Myrmidon reported. 

“Oh dear,” Bucky muttered. “Still, she is a master of divination. I am positive that she had everything under watch. She takes her duties very seriously.” 

“Of course, sir,” the lunar pegasus grunted. “And when my Myrmidons landed and scared her, causing her to scream in terror, I am certain her awareness was focused upon the train.” 

“Oh bugger,” Bucky swore. “I will have a word with her.” 

“This is why we are under your command, sir,” the lunar pegasus said in a low voice. 

“I’ve never gone to officer’s school. If you think I know what I am doing you are sorely mistaken. I just make stuff up as I go and hope things work out,” Bucky blurted out, his words loud enough that several Myrmidons turned to look at him. 

“Mistress trusts in your ability to make stuff up as you go and have things work out. You are an experienced field commander by all accounts. You treat your troops as equals and think of our needs. We will follow you. Into Tartarus if necessary,” the Myrmidon said, his tone reassuring. 

“I want this train moving within a half an hour of the last piece of coal falling into place,” Bucky commanded. 

“Aye aye, sir.” 



 

The sun was beginning to settle upon the horizon. The past few days were uneventful, boring even, but Bucky had a nagging sense of worry now. The Badlands were a confirmed battlezone, filled with changelings, cultists, covens, monsters, and all manner of horror. There were troubling reports of necromancy. There were rumours of vampires. Luna had briefed him on so many possible things. 

Bucky stood atop the train, armored and ready. His sense of danger was highly attuned now, and everything just felt wrong as the train chugged up the steadily increasing grade of the hills and mountains up ahead. Beside him, Twilight also stood, her feathers ruffling in the wind, her mane and tail whipping around her. Twilight looked afraid. 

A Myrmidon landed upon the train, saluted them both, and then turned to Bucky. “Sir, as suspected, we have company incoming. Changelings from the east and bandit raiders are moving slowly in from the southeast. Mostly pegasi with a few chariots and some unicorns. The changelings are a considerable threat. They are mobilising as we speak, sir,” The Myrmidon reported. 

“I have a plan,” Bucky announced. “Here is what we are going to do. You are going to airlift the engineers out of the locomotives and secure them on the frigate. The frigate is going to go home at full speed. Keep a few Myrmidons aboard the frigate for security. The rest of you are going to engage the enemy and buy us time,” Bucky commanded. 

“What about the train?” Twilight asked. 

“I’m getting to that,” Bucky replied. “You and I are going to run this train. How much heat and pressure can you give me Twilight? You’re a pyromancer.” 

“The engines will explode,” Twilight argued. 

“No, not if I hold them together and leach off the excess heat. You can run the engines. We’ll both use our telekinesis to hold the train on the track. We are going to run this thing at top speed until we make it to Ponyville,” Bucky explained. 

“You’re mad,” Twilight gasped. 

“Yes, I am,” Bucky agreed. “Can you make the engines burn and produce extreme pressure and steam?”

“Well yes,” Twilight replied. “Theoretically. You’re going to supercool the outside of the locomotives and keep them from exploding? You’ll have to be right on top of them!” 

“Yes,” Bucky answered.

“It will be like riding on top of a bomb!” Twilight cried. “If something goes wrong I’m not certain your armor would save you!” 

“We’ll need to load in coal and keep the heat going full tilt. I’ll be able to coat the engines with ice and keep everything cold. I will keep everything from going critical. I’ll need you to fly over the train and keep the train on the tracks with me. The end of the train will behave like a whip. Pay special attention to it and keep it on the rails,” Bucky instructed. 

“This is utterly mad,” the Myrmidon said. 

“Try not to kill too many ponies or changelings,” Bucky commanded. 

“Excuse me, sir? Changelings-” 

“Might be ponies under a curse or something. We don’t know. Slow them down, give us time to get this train moving, keep them busy for a while, and then disengage. That’s an order,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Sir, yes sir,” the lunar pegasus responded. 



 

This was going to be a long ride home. Bucky stood on the first locomotive, secured into place, covered in ice, and trying to keep everything together. Beneath him the metal glowed cherry red and the ice sizzled and popped as more formed. Ten locomotives burned with supernatural power. Each smokestack had a column of fire that rose over a hundred feet into the air and black smoke poured out into the night. 

The entire train was covered in two magic fields, one magenta, the other blue-green. The locomotives  were all covered in ice and steam. The sounds of metal fatigue filled the night. With the fires of Tartarus shooting out of the smokestacks, visibility was surprisingly good. 

Bucky figured they had to be going several hundred miles an hour and it was raw magical brute force keeping everything together. The train, the rails, the fragile laws of physics, he and Twilight were somehow managing so far. All bets were now off. The throttles were all thrown open to the maximum. Bucky was pulling in as much water as he could from deep below the ground to make ice and keep the tanks on the engines filled. Twilight was moving coal with her telekinesis. 

The boilers screamed with pressure. 

The wheels and the tracks glowed red in the night and the entire train was an eerie terrifying sight to any who witnessed. It moved with impossible speed. And then, everything shifted as they crested the marker for the highest peak in their climb. Everything would be mostly downhill from here, with few changes in grade along the way. 

As the engines crested the hill, Bucky realised they would be picking up speed. 

Unbeknownst to him, the denizens of the Badlands and the hills were all fleeing away from the train, as nothing sane would even think approaching the nightmarish sight of the runaway locomotives. 



 

Bucky was feeling surprisingly energetic as the train continued downwards. The metal beneath his armored hooves seemed almost soft. He could feel it move sometimes. He leached as much heat as he could and dedicated his will to leaching even more. His own armor was completely encased in ice. 

Much to his terror, he realised they were coming up on a curve. The straight track was over and now it was time to test just how much magic he and Twilight really had. He had no idea just how many tons the train weighed, but they were going to have to hold it to the rails somehow. 



 

As an alicorn, Twilight was used to doing impossible things, but this nearly broke her fragile connection to sanity. The train was going around the gentle curve with the wheels on one side completely lifted off of the track at the height of the curve. It took everything Twilight had to hold the train and keep it from tipping over. There was over four miles of train to hold on to. Buckminster was doing all he could to keep the engines from exploding and it fell upon Twilight to keep the train on the rails. 

Behind them, the rails exploded and tore away from the earth after the train passed, all of which would have to be replaced. The steel rails curled and twisted from the heat and the pressure, turning into giant curlicues and coiling up like ribbons. 

Twilight came to one terrifying conclusion. She didn’t know how to stop the train. She hoped that Buckminster had a plan. She wasn’t certain that he did. Her brain ached and her wings burned with exertion as she struggled to keep up with the runaway out of control train. 



 

The hour was uncertain when Bucky saw lights in the distance. It took several moments of thinking to realise it was Appleloosa up ahead. His brain was full of confusion. Rivets were popping off from the locomotives all around and him rocketing off into the night, glowing white hot, looking like shooting stars as they arced through the night air. 

Bits of metal had been flying off and Bucky strained to hold everything together with ice. Magical ice that was as hard and as dense as he could make it. But the ice kept burning away no matter what he did and he had to constantly create more. He knew he could kill the fires completely, but they needed the fires to keep the engines running and keep the train moving. 



 

The residents of Appleloosa fled the town, running off into the desert. Off in the distance, a demon train approached, belching flames that rose a hundred feet into the night sky. A fiendish glow came from the locomotives, and a horrible sound could be heard for miles around, the screeching of the damned. The train was clearly filled with the denizens of Tartarus and it was approaching Appleloosa, which is why the alarm had been sounded. 

Even the buffalo fled the area, trying to get as far from the fire belching monstrosity as possible. An old medicine bull announced that it was the end of the world and from that point on, there was only panic and fear as they stampeded into the darkness away from the harbinger of doom barreling down the railroad tracks. 



 

Things weren’t looking good. They had lost several wheels from the locomotives. Bucky had replaced them with wheels made of ice and it was a constant struggle to keep everything from flying apart. The smokestacks were getting soft now, they had become slightly misshapen, and Bucky struggled to keep everything solid. 

Things were moving way too fast now. The curves were murder. Bucky couldn’t even begin to imagine the strain Twilight must be under. They had passed the junction for Dodge City and the Ghastly Gorge awaited ahead. 



 

Twilight welcomed the long straightaway ahead. All she had to do was hold the train together, and didn’t have to worry about struggling to keep an untold number of tons tipping over. They had passed the Dodge City junction and were making good time. Fantastic time. Twilight realised they would be in Ponyville sometime around dawn, and she tried desperately not to have the mental breakdown that wanted to follow that conclusion. 

Her vision was blurry and her whole body was covered in soot. She was mentally and physically exhausted. She didn’t know how Bucky was doing. She worried for him a great deal. But he was doing his part, so she assumed that he must be alright. 

She squinted and tried to see the magical projection map she had created that would allow her to see ahead from her position over the middle of the train. It was alicorn level divination magic. It gave her real time data of the conditions up ahead and let her know if there was anything to worry about. 

Much to her dismay, there was something to worry about, and at the speed they were going, they only had to minutes to deal with it. Twilight screamed in horror as she dug a little deeper and made ready to do the impossible.





With a cry of terror, Bucky soiled his armor. His bowels turned to water. Ahead was the most terrifying thing he had ever encountered in his life, even worse than going down into the deep dark below the mountain. Ahead was the Ghastly Gorge, and there was no bridge. There was only a yawning chasm almost a mile wide. 

They were moving far too rapidly and stopping the train in time was impossible. 

Part of the bridge still existed, but the most important part, the middle part, was missing. Bucky wondered what to do. He supposed teleporting away was an option, but they were so close to home now. It would be dawn soon. 

As he watched, a magenta beam of pure telekinetic energy appeared, spanning the bridge and connecting the two ends. A second beam appeared, but it flickered and fizzled. Bucky realised that Twilight was giving it her all. There was nothing left to give. He didn’t know what he had left in him, and he wasn’t sure his telekinesis could support several miles of train. 

There was only one way to find out. He reached out with his magic and a blue-green beam appeared beside Twilight’s rail of energy. This was quite possibly the most insane thing he had ever done. His terror gave way to a thrilling feeling of being utterly alive. His fear melted away from him as something deep inside of his brain finally gave way, the strain finally too much for his mind to bear. He was free now, fear no longer hobbled him. 

Maniacal cackling could be heard, his helmet amplified the sound and it filled the night, echoing along with the thunderous roar of the locomotives as they consumed themselves in fire. 

He felt a shudder when the train hit the telekinetic rails and he could feel the strain inside of his mind, just behind his eyeball. He had to hold up over four miles of train by sheer force of will over an almost one mile gap. Good thing he no longer had a sense of fear. There was nothing holding him back now. At this point, death would be welcomed. 



 

Somehow, Twilight was not sure how, she and Bucky had held the train up over the gap. Now there was an even worse problem for her. One of the sharpest curves on the whole line that would bring them into Ponyville. She pulled and tugged on the train as it began to take the curve, and the bend was several miles long. She could feel Bucky working with her, offering as much support as equinely possible. Somehow, he had formed the second rail on the bridge and for reasons Twilight could not explain, their magic was working remarkably well in synch with one another. 

The entire train wanted to tip over along the curve, and she had to pull fiercely to keep it from derailing. Twilight dug deep and pulled, exerting her magical will, completely oblivious to the physical changes her body was going through. 

Alicorns drew strength from different sources, and Twilight was the alicorn of magic. As such, under extreme feats of magic, Twilight grew as an alicorn. Celestia had grown quite large holding up the celestial bodies of the cosmos, Luna was larger than the average pony for the same reason, and Cadance had borne witness to several acts of love that had physically altered her body. The night’s extreme use of magic had changed Twilight considerably. Her wings had grown larger, her legs had lengthened, and her neck had grown a little more swan like, all hallmarks of alicorn growth. 

They were still moving at hundreds of miles per hour, and Twilight’s map indicated that Ponyville was just ahead. She still had no idea how to stop the train, but it was time to do so. 

Hoping for the best, she let the fires in the locomotives go out.



 

The sun was just beginning to peep over the horizon when Bucky saw the lights of Ponyville ahead. They were moving way too fast. As if Twilight was reading his mind, he felt the fires in the engines go out. He began leaching as much of the heat away as possible and started crusting over the wheels in ice all along the whole length of the train. Steam rose into the heavens. Even with the fires out, flame and smoke shot out of the remains of the smokestacks into the sky. 

More bits of metal were shooting away from the locomotives as the train began to slow. Bucky wasn’t even sure how much of the locomotives were left, he had replaced quite a bit with ice along the way. 

They were moving far too fast as they neared Ponyville, and Bucky worried that the town was in danger. He applied more ice, trying to put everything into a deep freeze. Everything he loved was here. The train lurched and he could sense Twilight’s magic trying to pull the train backwards to make it slow. 

Behind him, there was an explosion as one of the locomotives shattered and exploded. Bucky reached out with his mind and tried to keep the train from derailing. They were so close. Almost home. Another locomotive gave way as the cold bit deeply into it,  the boiler shattering into a million pieces. 

Bucky realised that he was riding a bomb into Ponyville. He had no choices left, the train had to be halted, and he applied more ice, trying to freeze the train in place and make it slow down so it could be stopped. He uncoupled the boxcars behind the engines and made a tough decision. With a furious scream, he derailed the rest of the engines, tipping them over off of the track, and then teleported away from them as they plowed into the grass. Several more locomotives shattered and exploded, sending metal fragments everywhere. 

Re-appearing on top of a boxcar, Bucky focused on making more ice to slow the train down. There were no longer any locomotives or tender cars. He could hear the muffled thuds of explosions behind them as the locomotives finally gave up the ghost, pushed far beyond their limits. 

He saw Twilight Sparkle overhead, a flash of purple streaking past, and she was using all of her magic to push the train backwards and make it stop. 

The entire town of Ponyville heard the explosions and the screech of metal, and quite a few witnesses watched as the train came to a lurching halt at the edge of town. Enterprising reporters were already hard at work trying to take pictures of what was sure to be a historic event. 

The air was humid from all of the steam, and the stench from everything that was burning drifted into the town. The melting ice turned everything around the tracks into mud. The rails behind the train were all gone, curled up, twisted, distorted, and broken. 

Twilight Sparkle crash landed into the grass and lay still, her body not moving. 

When the train came to a halt, Bucky lept from his spot on the boxcars and went to Twilight’s side, hoping that she was okay. He could not help but notice that there was something different about her. He stood beside her and took off his helmet, his armor falling away, the plates falling to the soggy earth. He prodded Twilight and heard her groan. Bucky realised he was filthy from soiling himself. He fell into the grass beside Twilight and took a deep shuddering breath, thankful to be alive. 

Already, a crowd was gathering. Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart hurried through the growing mob, neither one of them dressed in their usual attire for work. Nurse Redheart’s mane was frazzled and uncombed. Dr. Stable had forgotten his glasses. Pegasi came streaking in from all around. Quick thinking pegasi grabbed clouds and positioned them over the burning wreckage over the locomotives, and the rain fell down upon the twisted metal remains, making them sizzle. 

And in the grass, Bucky began to cackle like he had never cackled before in his life. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 262
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nurses Snowheart, Sweetheart, Tenderheart, and Nursery Rhyme all exchanged knowing glances with one another. A few were in uniform, others had been just called in, and the hospital was busy. Two royals in desperate need of fluids and food, as well as a whole host of ponies who had fainted from fear when the ice encrusted demon locomotives arrived from Tartarus to invade the town. Nurse Redheart was already out on the floor, growling, spitting obscenities, and smiling sweetly whenever she was in close contact with her fellow equines, a perfect nurse by any account. Nurse Redheart and Doctor Horse were both a little nervous about keeping their jobs after giving the prince sedatives due to his frightening manic and rather insane behaviour. 

Things went from frantic to worse when a dark blue alicorn materialised in the middle of the nurse’s station. She yawned, looking sleepy, and then peered around with bleary bloodshot eyes. A possum clung to her horn with four grabby little feet, and his tail was wrapped around her ear. 

“Um, we do not allow rodents in the hospital,” Snowheart said in a low worried voice. 

“TIS NOT A RODENT!” Luna bellowed in reply. “He is my precious Tibble-kins.” 

“Oh, well if he is not a rodent then there is no problem,” Nursery Rhyme said as she gave Snowheart a swift kick in the leg and offered Luna an appeasing smile. 

Princess Luna, having just been woke up with news of the crisis, was not in the mood to be bothered by her subjects. She took off down the hall, peering through doors, looking for a pair of ponies she was deeply concerned about. 

“An enema is not something to be sheepish or shy about,” Luna suggested to a nurse as she stuck her head into one door. “It is far better to simply get it over with,” she stated as she gave the enema bulb a hearty squeeze with her magic. She smiled when she heard the stallion groan, then gasp, and then a moment later Luna was rewarded with the sounds of something splattering into a metal bedpan. “See? Already so much better,” Luna remarked as she trotted away. 

“Nurse, help me, I think I’m pooping out my pancreas!” 

Humming to herself, Luna made her way down the hall. She realised that she was not wearing her regalia and she probably looked like quite a sight. She sighed, exhausted from the long night. The dreamscape had been rife with nightmares of a demon locomotive, the residents of Appleloosa in particular had nearly been scared to death. Luna, who knew how to craft a fine nightmare on her own, had to admit, the imagery she had seen in the dreamscape was quite impressive. 

Sticking her head into a random doorway, she found what she was looking for. One sleeping lavender alicorn and one dopey looking unicorn. She entered the room and began to check them both over. 

“I rode the BOMB!” Bucky announced in a wavering voice. “Big fire. Gooey kablooie.” 

Her nose crinkling, Luna realised she smelled feces. She lifted Bucky’s blanket. He had been cleaned up a bit, but not nearly enough. A quiet anger seethed inside of Luna’s mind. He deserved better. She immediately began conjuring up what she needed to get him cleaned up, including fresh sheets and a blanket. 

“I rode the train of consequences,” Bucky giggled, his manic giggling slowly turning into a cackle as his remaining eye darted around wildly. “The train of pain exploded mostly on the plain.” 

Sighing, Luna realised she had her work cut out for her. “Where is that stupid bloody phoenix?” she asked. “At this moment, Freezerburn would be most useful.” 

“I kept them safe… I kept them SAFE! I brought the food. The food. THE FOOD! Everypony expected me to fight. Everypony thought I would fight. I would fight and I would kill and the Badlands would become an ocean of blood and that tiny little voice of the equine inside of my head would finally go silent forever and then the killing would be so much easier… just a chore… JUST  A CHORE! Now a bore… but I didn’t stay to fight, I ran away… and the little voice went silent anyway, THAT STUCK UP LITTLE CANTERLOT UNICORN… should be screwed with his own horn… he stopped talking to me… I think he hates me… what did I ever do to him? WHY WON’T HE TALK TO ME? AM I NOT AN EQUINE? AM I A MONSTER WHOSE THOUGHTS ARE CONSUMED WITH TEATS AND OTHER JIGGLY BITS OF MAREFLESH? I just rode the worlds longest penis and I screwed Equestria good and hard… cumming fire and ice everywhere. I belong way down below… should have left me with Scorch…” 

“Buckminster, enough!” Luna commanded as she booped the raving unicorn on his nose with one bare hoof. He became sluggish from her touch, Luna doing what multiple injections of powerful sedatives could not do. 

“Mommy, my fear has died, his voice forever silent,” Bucky mumbled as he drifted away. 

“My poor foal, you deserve better than this,” Luna grumbled as she went to work, trying to clean up and restore a pony that was very dear to her. 



 

Twilight Sparkle awoke to a throbbing hornache. She opened her eye just a tiny bit, was assaulted by the sunlight, and immediately squeezed her eye shut with a groan. There were times she hated Celestia’s sun. 

“I saw her blink!” a raspy voice cried out. 

“Hush Dash,” another voice responded. 

“Twilight?” 

“Ugh,” Twilight grunted. Everything in her body throbbed with pain. And the bed felt too small. “The blinds… close the blinds,” she begged. 

A moment later, the sounds of the blinds being closed could be heard and Twilight tentatively opened one eye again. Seeing that there was no horrible sunlight, she opened the other eye and looked around. One blue alicorn, one sky blue pegasus, one grey pegasus, all of whom were staring at her. She started to stretch her legs and felt the tug of an IV in her right front leg. 

“Twilight say something,” Rainbow Dash pleaded. 

“Something,” Twilight muttered. “Buckminster?” 

“Sleeping peacefully,” Luna responded. 

“I don’t know how we did it,” Twilight murmured. 

“You’ve grown Twi!” Rainbow Dash gushed, unable to contain herself any longer. “Your legs, all of you, it’s larger now!” 

“What?” Twilight muttered in reply. 

“You’ve experienced some alicorn growth,” Luna said, offering the briefest of explanations. “I will explain more later when you are capable of understanding.”

“Oh. Is that why the bed feels too small?” Twilight asked. “Is the food okay?” 

“The grain in the first few cars is being magically dried. It became damp from the steam. It should be fine,” Luna replied. 

“The locomotives are all wrecked,” Derpy said as she paced near the bed where her husband slumbered. “They’re melted and big pieces are missing.” 

“In the span of about nine hours you traveled almost two thousand miles,” Luna said. 

“So we were doing at least two hundred miles per hour,” Twilight groaned. Her horn thudded with its own heartbeat. “On average. Give or take… oh my horn is killing me.” 

“Currently our fastest steam locomotive goes one hundred and ten miles per hour,” Luna stated. “So I believe some recognition for breaking a speed record might be in order.” 

“Pfaw, that’s slow,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “I’m the world’s fastest flier. Mach two confirmed after my trip to the Shetlands.” 

“Not bad for a pegasus,” Luna said in a rather haughty voice. “Rather slow by alicorn standards.” 

“But… hey… no… why… ugh… my dreams… that’s not fair!” Rainbow Dash sputtered. The skinny little pegasus puffed out in an attempt to look as large as possible, her feathers fluffed, her legs stiff, and her ears perked forward. 

“Is Bucky going to be okay?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes, try not to be troubled,” Luna replied. 

“He was cackling,” Twilight remarked. “I think I was too.” 

“Your task was stressful. He will be fine. He just needs sleep,” Luna said and then gave a yawn. Her yawn caused Tiberius to yawn, and then the contagious yawn spread to other ponies. She didn’t feel the need to worry them with details of Buckminster’s little breakdown. She was currently hard at work restoring what she could of his mind. 

“The nurses said he was a little off,” Derpy said in a worried voice. 

“He was a little delirious,” Luna explained in a comforting voice. “I assure you, when he wakes, he will be fine,” she promised. 

“Okay,” Derpy said nervously. 



 

Something seemed off, and Bucky wasn’t sure what it was. Twisting his head around, he looked over his body. He stretched out his wings and looked at them. Still the same wings. He was certain his eyes were still full of Taint. Something was out of place though. He looked at the Tree of Harmony and then scratched the side of his head against it. 

He kicked out a leg and had a look. Still the same foal leg. 

“You’ve grown.” 

Not even feeling startled, Bucky sighed with relief. It was one of the many voices he had been waiting for. He knew that voice, and the two others who accompanied it. He turned around to have a look at them. 

“Our little brother has grown. Not to worry too much. You have the beast contained. But your power has certainly grown,” the zebra explained. 

“Just like Twilight has grown,” the earth pony muttered. “She needs to leave her comfort zone more often. This experience has been good for her,” the unicorn remarked. 

“We have a task for you,” the zebra said. 

“Yes, a task,” the earth pony repeated. 

“We wish to repurpose one who has passed beyond the mirror. Once you are done dealing with the griffons, we wish for you to aid us, since you have offered to do so,” the zebra said, offering a partial explanation. 

The earth pony moved to Bucky’s side and laid down near the Tree of Harmony. Reaching out with her foreleg, she pulled the foal down to her. Bucky, not resisting, lay down beside her, and leaned close when she kissed him softly. Something about her kiss eased his troubled mind and made everything better. She was warm against him, her pelt was velvety against his own, and he felt safe and secure against her, like any foal would feel against his mother or bigger sister. 

“She was wronged. Celestia believed her to be something that she wasn’t. Our parent had gone silent and Celestia acted out of fear and doubt. She still has a powerful destiny, but it has been… disrupted. We wish to restore to her some of what she has lost, and offer her a better fate. You will use your authority to claim her as an asset. Demand that she be fetched from beyond the mirror and brought to you. She will make a fine teacher for your school, and a fine student for you to impart your ways upon,” the earth pony explained. 

“So I am to take a student? What about Dinky?”  Bucky questioned. 

“She from beyond the mirror will be your student in the sense that she will learn from you. You will be an example for her and offer her shelter. Should you take her on as your apprentice, that is entirely up to you, but it is not a bad idea,” the unicorn answered. 

“Celestia will challenge your decision, but you must be strong. Celestia needs for this to happen. Healing must take place. The scab must be ripped away or the wound will forever fester. She may come down hard upon you,” the zebra warned. 

“Seek Twilight’s aid. If you appeal to Twilight’s sense of reason, Twilight will help you,” the earth pony said, nuzzling Bucky as she spoke. 

“And what do you hope to gain from this?” Bucky inquired. 

“Ah, our brother is on to us. Yes, there is something we want. We wish to reconcile with our sisters,” the unicorn replied in a low voice. 

“But first, she must be made to see that she can make mistakes,” the zebra stated. 

“And that those mistakes have terrible consequences. She may plan for the long term, but many have suffered in the short term. She must be made aware of this,” the earth pony whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

“Our beloved sister has help now. She no longer has to make impossible decisions for long term gain. She can focus more on the here and now. And having her reconcile with Sunset Shimmer will hopefully set her upon a better path,” the unicorn explained. 

“I will do nothing to move against Celestia or do anything that will bring harm to her,” Bucky said, nearly melting under the earth pony’s affections. “I will help you, just so long as I am never required to do anything that will hurt her.” 

“We want her hurting to end,” the zebra said. 

“You have made us decide that it is time to bring our family together. When the time is right, we will present ourselves to Twilight. Cadance is already aware of us and our efforts. She is undecided if our cause is right,” the earth pony said and then planted a wet smooch upon Bucky’s head, just behind his ear. 

“It is our hope that all of us together can prove our mother wrong,” the unicorn said.

“Our sister Luna repairs what has been injured in your mind. You have endured. With your growth, you will be a little stronger and a bit more prepared to deal with such strain, but be careful,” the zebra warned. 

“We worry for your safety,” the unicorn added.

“Sombra and Platinum send their best wishes and their love. We spoke with them recently, both are very proud of you. Celestia has been speaking to them as well. All of us are slowly coming together. I hope it will be enough to convince father that he is wrong,” the zebra said. 

“Life must continue,” Bucky agreed. “Even if it is a hard life.” 
	
	
> Chapter 263
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Feeling better daddy?” Piña asked, hopping up onto the couch with her father and settling in at his side. She rubbed her cheek against his neck, feeling his longer shaggier pelt against her own shorter silkier pelt, and there was a faint soft crackle of static electricity as she nuzzled. 

“Much better now,” Bucky replied, glad to have Piña beside him. 

“While you were gone, it was my birthday,” Piña whispered as she continued to rub her face against her father’s neck, tilting it slightly so her ear was rubbing against him. 

“I know Piña, and I am very sorry… I got called away on business,” Bucky apologised. 

“No, ‘sokay, really, I don’t want a big party this year and I told everypony that, what I do want is some time with you and a little trip to the Ponyville Tea Room. With just a few friends,” Piña said. She craned her head around to plant a kiss on the side of Bucky’s cheek. “Berry said that she is going to fix a cake and maybe a nice dinner, she wants to do something for me for my birthday, but I don’t want a big fuss with everything that has been going on.” 

“We will go to the Ponyville Tea Room. Send out some invitations to your friends. I am sure that Derpy will be glad to deliver them,” Bucky said. 

“While you were gone, I was able to create a massive static discharge with my hoofsies. Dinky’s mane and tail stood up for hours,” Piña giggled. “Dinky was running around pranking ponies. She’s figured out how to cast illusions. Watch out if you are sitting down, the kitchen chairs might or might not be there for reals,” she warned. 

“Illusion you say,” Bucky said, some genuine alarm in his voice. “Oh my, and with her being gifted as a mentalist.” 

“She made an army of illusionary spiders and sent them after Barley while he was in the shower. He went running around the hall soaking wet and covered in soap shouting “crivens” at the top of his lungs. What does crivens mean?” Piña said, still giggling. 

“I’m not sure,” Bucky sniggered in reply, trying to keep a straight face. 

“She also made a swarm of bats fly out of the refrigerator when Bon Bon opened it. Bon Bon has a potty mouth,” Piña whispered conspiratorially. 

“So do you,” Bucky whispered back. 

“I know,” Piña chortled. 

“So you have been practicing magic while I was gone,” Bucky said to Piña, feeling rather proud of her as he spoke. 

“Can I be your apprentice?” Piña asked, now suddenly serious. “I mean, Dinky is your apprentice, and you are our dad, and I know you are already teaching me, but I, well, I want to be like Dinky. Labels are important, they indicate significance and relevance and I want to be significant and relevant.” 

“The Significant and Relevant Piña Colada,” Bucky replied, his mind thinking about Trixie.

“Don’t tease daddy, or I’ll zap you too,” Piña warned. 

“Oh gracious, you’d zap your daddy?” Bucky asked. 

“In a heartbeat. You don’t understand how badly I want this,” Piña answered. 

“An apprentice doesn’t sass her master like that,” Bucky warned, a faint laugh barely contained in his voice. 

“You mean I’m-” 

“Yes Piña,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Thank you,” Piña said, kissing Bucky’s cheek once again. 



 

Pressing his face tightly against Thistle’s rounded belly, Bucky felt the foal kick again. He sucked in his breath sharply and went completely silent, not breathing, not moving, his eye closed as he waited for another sign of life. 

Thistle tried to stay still, tried not to giggle as she felt Bucky’s twitching ear tickle her tummy. She stuck a hoof in her mouth and bit down. She felt his face moving along her curves, his thick and rather coarse sideburns trailing along the thin pelt of her full to bursting stomach. 

The constant pressure of his head proved too much, and Thistle farted, a loud squealing squeaker that made Bucky jerk his head away in alarm. His ears pinned back against his head, and his eye went wide with alarm.

“That sounded like a manticore rutting a chimera,” Bucky announced. 

“The things you say,” Thistle whispered and then exploded into breathless laughter. 



 

The night was dark and surprisingly cool. Fall was certainly coming upon them, and summer was dying down. Summer Wrap Up would happen soon, but Bucky would be in Griffonholm when it took place. 

Other ponies were asleep. It was well after midnight and Bucky was alone, labouring in the night, working with glass to soothe his troubled mind. He had been quietly creating windows for his tower and shaped opaque glass doors to place in the entrances. He fused the glass windows into the opening they were intended for and enchanted each of them to be quite sturdy and magically hardened. The tower was more than a place for his office as a headmaster. It was more than a place for a few magical laboratories. It was more than a place for his vault to hold his orb with the still beating heart of a demon imp. 

It was a place where he would secure his family in times of crisis, a fortress to protect that which he held most dear to his heart. He would spare no effort for their safety. It still needed to be furnished and have creature comforts added. It needed plumbing.  

And Bucky still needed to make the glass dome that would cap off the tower. 

As he worked, Bucky realised that he could easily make a mooring for The Scorned Mare and provide her with a secure berth on the side of the tower. He would need to construct a cradle for her to rest in so the wind wouldn’t buffet her around too much. He would need to go to Canterlot and get measurements at some point soon. 



 

A faint pink light filled the edges of the night off to the east indicating the dawn was thinking about happening soon. Bucky surveyed his work. The glass dome was finished. He had also added glass ledges in his office to walk around on for a good view out of the dome, and a flight of glass stairs so ponies could reach the circular ledge. Flowing glass bookshelves had been created. 

He had been productive and had kept the troubling thoughts he had out of his mind. Luna told him that he might feel a little off for a few days. He was tired, and something told him he would sleep well. Before going to bed though, he needed a bite to eat.



 

Sitting at the kitchen table, Bucky orchestrated beautiful organised chaos in the kitchen. He made tea, brewed coffee, prepared several quiches to go into the oven, delicious breakfast pies made of eggs, cheese, diced green onions, fresh dill, and in one special quiche, dried smoked fish bits that he had found in the pantry with a note suggesting that he try some. 

There was a lot of eggs in the kitchen, all of them bearing Lyra’s magical signature. Bucky guessed that she had been conjuring them from wherever the chickens had been laying them. Lyra was clever like that, never putting forth physical effort when magic effort would do. He didn’t want to say that Lyra was lazy, but Lyra loved her comfort, and that was the closest he would come to saying anything on that issue. 

“Father?” 

Turning his head, Bucky looked at Sentinel, who was standing in the kitchen archway entrance. He smiled briefly, glad to see Sentinel during a moment of quiet when the house was calm and still. 

“Hey Sentinel,” Bucky greeted in a low voice. 

Coming into the kitchen, Sentinel climbed up into a chair beside Bucky and then leaned on the table, resting his forelegs on its surface. He yawned, completely unaware that how adorable he was when he did so, his echolocation producing a squeak as his maw opened wide. 

“It is finally just us,” Bucky said. “Everypony else is still asleep for now.” 

“I like it when it is just us,” Sentinel commented in a low voice. 

“I know. So many ponies want my time. I worry that I neglect you,” Bucky admitted. 

“I don’t feel neglected. I have my duties to keep me busy,” Sentinel admitted. 

“Our duties. They will be the death of us,” Bucky stated in a solemn whisper. 

“Probably,” Sentinel agreed in a perfectly serious reply. “We are what we are. We’ve accepted this and march towards the inevitable conclusion. I could think of no finer end.” 

“You’ve gotten wordy and smart,” Bucky said in a low chuckle. 

“Been reading. A lot. And writing. And submitting things to the newspapers. I’ve made a few bits but I don’t know what to do with them,” Sentinel replied. The lunar pegasus foal reached up and scratched at his scarred ear with his front hoof, and then let out another yawn. 

“So my squire. Report. How was everything while I was gone?” Bucky asked as he fetched himself a cup of tea with his magic. He was also cleaning up a few dishes that had been used during the preparation of the quiches. 

“Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks came inside for dinner after Lyra invited them in. Tiddlywinks never talks, but I like him. We played chess. He’s too good at it. Worryingly so. I don’t think I’ll ever be that good. Barley has been teaching me how to play blackjack and poker. Mother Derpy has been showing troublesome signs… something is wrong with her. She’s been eating waffles covered with sauerkraut. Berry Punch keeps making bread pudding with leftover stale bread. And fresh bread. And she doesn’t share,” Sentinel reported, becoming sullen when he mentioned the bread pudding. “Surprise’s flight camp went well. We all have our basic flier’s licences. Surprise is married to a lunar pegasus and has a lunar pegasus foal. She’s a neat mare and we’re going to be penpals. She says that Ripple is fast enough to be a Wonderbolt junior cadet. Ripple is fast. She kept up with Surprise when Surprise gave every bit of speed she had, and Ripple managed to overtake her. Surprise is no slouch for speed.” 

“A lot happened,” Bucky said. 

“Sure did,” Sentinel agreed. “Thistle and Yew are becoming closer friends. She helps Yew with her reading primers. Lugus has started teaching me how to track. My nose is enough to find anything, but I want to learn how to follow other signs like footprints, broken branches, and bent grass. Piña zapped Dinky because Dinky was being an insufferably awful foal and playing pranks. Harper can say almost everypony’s name now and has taken to wandering… you should watch out for that by the way, she has a knack for slipping out the door if you aren’t paying attention. Bon Bon and Lyra packed up their old apartment and cleared it out from what I understand, and Bon Bon plans to reopen her candy store in town once everything settles down.” 

“Interesting,” Bucky remarked. 

“Sparkler and her police cadets have been meeting out here on the farm every morning and they should be arriving soonish. Rising Star has been going to the refugee camps with Barley and purifying the earth. Also it seems he can cure some diseases just by touching ponies. It gives them a bit of a fever and makes them all hot and sweaty, but the sweating is good for them or so I’ve heard. Also, it has been confirmed that Rising Star will be a candidate for the Stable of Representatives. Now that Loch Skimmer can fly she has been going off with Fluttershy… she should be waking up soon. She sings in the shower and is quite loud,” Sentinel said. He paused, and his face scrunched up. “She occasionally moans in the shower. I wonder if she is in pain or something.” 

“Sentinel?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes father?” Sentinel replied. 

“You’ve talked about so much, but I am curious about one thing,” Bucky stated.

“And that is?” Sentinel asked. 

“Diamond Tiara. Do you like her?” Bucky questioned. 

Sentinel slumped down in his seat and inhaled sharply, causing a snorting sound in his sinuses. His ears fell back against his skull and his lips pressed tightly together. His breathing became rapid and his small barrel heaved with barely contained emotion. 

“A father worries about these things,” Bucky said, a faint smile spreading over his muzzle. 

“I like her. She is a good friend,” Sentinel responded in neutral tones. 

“Aw, Sentinel, don’t be like that,” Bucky said, reaching out and prodding his son. He took a sip of his now slightly cooled tea and then smiled broadly. 

“She organised my desk for me. I now have inbox and an outbox, my art supplies are all in one location, my pencils for writing are all located in another, and she told me that she helps keep her father organised… because.... she… loves… him,” Sentinel confessed in a low squeak.

“So she likes you,” Bucky said, his voice now openly teasing. “I mean, organising your desk, that’s practically a declaration wanting somepony to be her special somepony I think.” 

Sentinel made a low worried moan at his father’s words and sank down even further into his chair. He covered his face with his front legs and his wings fluttered against his sides. 

“Aw, cheer up, it isn’t so bad. She probably just really likes you and wants you to be her friend. Enjoy your foalhood and try not to be so worried about stuff. Things like this don’t have to be so serious. Not that I would know, but I am speaking in a very general sense. Hey, something smells good,” Bucky said, his nose now sniffing at the savoury smell in the air. 

“Dinky kept teasing both of us about roosting in a tree and kissing,” Sentinel squeaked. 

“That sounds like Dinky,” Bucky acknowledged. 

“I can’t deal with this pressure,” Sentinel whined as his head thumped down upon the table. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 264
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“He’s finally out,” Derpy whispered as she shut the door behind her. Her mane was mussed and her cheeks were flushed. She was breathing heavily and her tail twitched restlessly behind her. She stretched out one wing and began to fan herself. 

“Looks like he put up a struggle,” Berry replied in a low voice. 

“He… just wanted… a little kiss… before bed…” Derpy confessed hesitantly. 

“So where did he kiss you?” Berry giggled.

“All over. He was very grabby. I swear, he’s like a foal sometimes,” Derpy complained. 

“He seems to have had a busy night. There is a new glass dome on the tower. Glass windows and doors too. I don’t know how he made the hinges, but they look neat. Breakfast sure was nice. And as a parting gift, he left you all flustered,” Berry said as she began to walk away from the back bedroom door with Derpy beside her. 

As both mares came into the kitchen, they bumped into Bittersweet, who was holding a written note in her lips. She held it out to Berry, who took it in hoof and had a look. 

“Harper keeps vanishing. Very hard to find. Worried about job,” Berry read. “Oh my, troublesome unicorn magic.” 

“Bittersweet,” Derpy said carefully, making sure her mouth movements were very careful. “You don’t need to worry about your job so much. I trust you completely with my foals and you do a very good job. Unicorn foals are tricky for anypony… er, anydonkey.” 

The donkey visibly relaxed and her long almost rabbit like ears drooped down to the sides of her face. She sighed and gave a nod. She turned for a moment and then pointed at Peekaboo and Harper, both of whom were sitting at the table, one in a high chair, the other in a booster seat. She then turned and carefully mouthed the words “I love them so but they both try my patience” to Berry Punch, who nodded in understanding. 

“Peekaboo has a knack for hiding in plain sight,” Derpy said as she moved into the kitchen where Lyra was busy feeding Peekaboo quiche while introducing Harper to thin runny oatmeal. 

Upon seeing Derpy, Harper blew a raspberry, spraying oatmeal everywhere and all over everypony. She bounced up and down in her chair, spewing oatmeal, all while banging her front hooves on the high chair tray. 

“Nuts,” Lyra muttered. “Harper, why do you do this to mama?” 

“Love mama,” Harper replied. 

Wiping oatmeal from her face, Lyra snorted. When she was done wiping her face, she went to work on Harper's, even though it was a futile effort and Harper would only make her face dirty again. Lyra felt it was important that she never gave up. 

Berry coaxed Bittersweet into a chair and then Lyra levitated over a cup of tea for the donkey. Bittersweet still had trouble being treated as a family member rather than a servant donkey, and she sipped her tea nervously. 

Derpy, covered in oatmeal, took over feeding Peekaboo. “Eat your breakfast,” she urged. 

“No,” Peekaboo refused, crossing her forelegs over her barrel. 

“Why?” Derpy asked. 

“Egg pie icky,” Peekaboo fussed. 

“But you like scrambled eggs,” Derpy reasoned. 

“Pie crust,” Peekaboo said. 

“What if I scraped the pie crust away?” Derpy offered. 

Peekaboo’s expression softened for a moment and she looked around, her face pensive with thought. Her resolve came back a moment later. “Green stuff. Yuck.” 

Sighing deeply, Derpy settled in for the breakfast battle that seemed to be becoming more and more common every morning with Peekaboo. “So you don’t like the green onions and the seasoning?” 

“No!” Peekaboo cried. 

“Plerf!” Harper spat, spraying oatmeal everywhere. 

A deep sense of contentment settled over Derpy. This is what she wanted from life more than anything. She loved moments like these, even if it tried her patience. Foals were foals after all. Sometimes they misbehaved and sometimes they were lovable. She thought of Bucky for a moment and his reluctance to go to bed. He was really just a big foal sometimes. She began picking through the quiche, scraping away crust and bits of green.

“Just where is Yew anyway?” Berry said. 

“She went to the lumber mill with Lugus right after breakfast. They need planks to construct a smokehouse so Lugus can start storing up smoked fish and smoked meat for the winter,” Bon Bon replied. “And I need to go. I have a lot to get done today. Lyra, are you going to be okay without me?” she asked, sounding worried.

“Freezerburn is around,” Lyra nervously replied. “If I have a bad enough problem, I know if I call his name he will come. He and Philomena have a nest in that big hollow tree.” 

“I should only be gone for a few hours. Supplies are scarce, but I am going to try and see what I can do to restock the store for when I reopen. Mister Rich put me in touch with a very helpful supplier than can get hard to procure stuff… the same supplier the Cakes are using,” Bon Bon said as she carefully kissed Harper on the back of the head and avoided being slathered in oatmeal. 

“Bun Bun,” Harper cooed, dribbling oatmeal down her chin and her barrel. 

“This is like the happiest I’ve ever been in life,” Lyra announced. “And I’m covered in runny oatmeal. Harper, you just want to be nursed, don’t you?” 

“Want mama,” Harper begged, reaching out with both front legs towards Lyra. 

“Don’t you want to be a weanling?” Lyra asked as she slipped in another spoonful of oatmeal into Harper while the foal had her mouth open to fuss and beg. 

“A foal can nurse for up to six months or more,” Derpy said as she stuffed a bite of food into Peekaboo. “Don’t rush it. We just want to introduce her to a little food, not take her off the teat completely,” she explained. 

“Peekaboo is about a half a year old and seems weaned,” Lyra said as she carefully spooned in a bit more oatmeal into Harper’s mouth. 

“I’d almost guarantee that Peekaboo was still nursing when the shipwreck happened,” Derpy said knowingly. “It was the loss of her mother that made feeding necessary. Lugus must be an extraordinarily patient griffon to coax her into eating after such a trauma. Which is why I love Lugus so much.” 

“We all love Lugus,” Bon Bon said as she trotted to the front door. “I’d trust him with my life.” 

“Buh bye Bun Bun!” Harper shouted, spraying more oatmeal as she blurted the words out. 

Wiping her face with her foreleg, Lyra smiled patiently and set down the spoon. After she levitated over a fresh towel, she began to clean Harper and herself up. “I’ll do the laundry in a bit, it’s easier for me to manage than it is for you,” she offered as she scrubbed Harper’s face. “And I am going to take this little rascal into the living room and give her the breakfast she wants.” 

“Where are Sentinel and Ripple? And everypony else for that matter?” Berry questioned. 

“Sentinel and Ripple ate a light breakfast and joined Sparkler. Dinky and Piña ate, Piña drank a lot of tea, that foal has a thing for tea, and then went into the library,” Lyra replied as she tried to wipe oatmeal out of the inside of Harper’s ear. How it got there was anypony’s guess. 

“Thistle is in the lake,” Derpy said. “She has the fish breeding out of season and she is trying to keep conditions just right for all of the new fishes to hatch. She says the lake is very large and the fish population is very small, and with all of the meat eaters around, more fish are needed.” 

“Huh,” Berry said. “Thistle is a fish herder.” 



 

Standing over her kill, Ripple examined  the remains of the giant spider. One leg still twitched. Green goo dribbled from its wounds. A foul looking yellow liquid trickled from its fangs. Not far from her, Sentinel sat in the grass trying to calm himself. 

“That’s a giant mailpony eating spider,” Sparkler said. 

“It’s dead, whatever it is,” Ripple remarked. 

“I’m going to go round up my cadets. Thank you Ripple for… just being you,” Sparkler said. “You okay Sentinel? Did you get bit?” 

“No, I’m fine,” Sentinel responded after a moment. “I almost got bit but I bucked it in the face a few times to let it know I don’t approve of its arse biting ways.” 

“Living so close to the Everfree is exciting,” Ripple said as she peered into the treeline, hoping for more mailpony eating spiders. She turned and watched Sparkler trotting away. 

“That spider almost got poor Blossomforth,” Sentinel growled, sounding rather upset. 

“We took care of it. You did good Sentinel, tearing off the spider’s legs and getting Blossomforth free. You also made a good distraction so I could do what I do best,” Ripple praised. 

“We make a good team,” Sentinel agreed. He spat a few times. “Spider tastes awful and the hairs are still in my mouth. Yuck.” 

“This spider is over a yard wide,” Ripple said as she moved around the still twitching corpse, her body tensed and ready to deliver another flurry of blows. “A mailpony eating spider. I wonder why Sparkler calls it that? Blossomforth is not a mailpony.” 

Shrugging, Sentinel continued to try and spit out hairs while trying to get his jitters to stop jittering. This was not his first fight against a much larger foe, but it was certainly more dangerous than the giant brown trout he was fond of catching and eating. He looked up at Ripple when he came to a troubling realisation. 

“We ran towards the danger Ripple. When everypony else was running away and Sparkler moved herself between the spider and her cadets, we ran at the Spider. Is there something wrong with us?” 

“No little brother. Some ponies run from danger, others run towards the danger. All part of the balance. Somepony has to keep other ponies safe. You are a very brave little colt,” Ripple said as she moved away from the spider. She went to Sentinel’s side and kissed him between his ears. 

“I’m not so little,” Sentinel replied. 

“I’m sorry Sentinel,” Ripple responded. 

“I’m tired of being a colt,” Sentinel grumbled. “I want to do things. Important things. Meaningful things. I want to be able to follow father into the thick of battle and not have him worry about me being so little and weak. I feel like I am a disappointment. I’m just a foal. I am not a protector, I am something to be protected. Father had to go off alone when he escorted that train and I couldn’t go with him because I’m so little and helpless.” 

Sitting down beside Sentinel, Ripple wrapped a wing around her little brother. “There is more to being a squire and a knight than just combat. Take this time to hone your skills as a writer. Learn other useful things. Be patient. One day you will be one of the largest ponies around, and you will be too busy trying to save the world to keep up with your writing on a regular basis or take art lessons or do whatever.” 

“At least I can fly now,” Sentinel grumbled. 

“Yes, you are certainly improving at a rapid pace now that you know what you were doing wrong before,” Ripple replied. She gave her brother a squeeze and wondered what she was going to have to do to make him feel better. 

“I want to see Moonbow,” Sentinel announced out of the blue. 

“Miss her?” Ripple asked. 

“Very much,” Sentinel replied. 

“Want to tell her about Diamond Tiara?” Ripple teased. 

“Ugh, why Ripple? Why must you tease me?” Sentinel whined. 

“Because I am your sister,” Ripple answered. “And I love you a great deal. Sisters tease their brothers. Especially after a sleepover where all they heard was a fussy pink earth pony filly saying “Sentinel this” and “Sentinel that” all night long.” Ripple fell silent when she felt Sentinel growing warm under her wing. “She likes you a great deal Sentinel. She is worried because she feels you take everything too seriously.” 

“I do want to tell Moonbow about Diamond Tiara. And ask a few questions. Mostly, I just want to talk to her and hear her voice. Tell her I helped kill a spider. I mean, I tore some of its legs off… I want to let her know that I am working just as hard in my own way as she is. Or at least I hope I am. Every day I worry that she is suffering and miserable to become something great and I am just being… worthless and doing nothing to improve myself or prepare myself for the life that I have chosen,” Sentinel responded. 

“You worry about proving worthy for Moonbow?” Ripple asked. 

“All the time. And while she is giving up whatever was left of her foalhood and comfort for me out of some strange sense of love and devotion, I’ve been playing around with another female and living a comfortable life,” Sentinel said guiltily. 

“That sounds rough, little brother,” Ripple said in return. “Moonbow wants for you to find another worthy female or two for the future.” 

“Diamond Tiara can’t figure out what she wants yet. I’ve overheard some of the things she’s said to Dinky and Piña and you. This is all very serious business. If I become involved with her, and it goes nowhere, then I have made no progress towards my end goal of forming a suitable herd for Moonbow to return to,” Sentinel explained. “I’ve just wasted my time fooling around with Diamond Tiara who wanted a fling when I could have been forming a bond with a pony who knew what they wanted from life.” 

“You are far too serious for a colt your age,” Ripple said. “I don’t know how to help you.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 265
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All that could be seen was ice and snow, a white blur that made it difficult to even see the tip of his muzzle. A dark grey muzzle Bucky’s consciousness noted. The cold, as bitter as it might be, was completely unnoticed by the body that Bucky was currently in while dreaming. 

“Sir, the Windegos are being pushed back,” a voice reported. 

“Good,” Bucky heard a voice coming out of his muzzle say in a savage growl. 

“Clover the Clever’s forces protect her while she wields the Hearthfire spell,” the voice reported, shouting over the shrieking wind. 

“The Fire of Friendship as she calls it,” the body Bucky was in bellowed in reply. 

The pair of ponies came to a door and pushed their way inside, a flurry of snow coming inside with them. For the first time, Bucky could see clearly. His companion was a massive lunar pegasus and Bucky, after a moment of searching his thoughts, knew that his name was Briarburner. He tried to comb his memories for more details. 

“Clover is an extraordinary mare,” Briarburner said as he drew near the fire. 

The room was circular. Bucky realised he was in a tower. Some sort of watch tower probably. It was warm inside. Painfully warm. He realised that he and Sombra now shared something in common. 

“Clover is certainly an extraordinary looking mare,” Sombra replied after a moment of hesitation. “She is a most pleasing shade of green and her mane is-” 

“Sir, I know from my intelligence reports that you’ve had a good look at her mane from up close and had several opportunities to examine the back of her head in quite some detail,” Briarburner grumbled. 

“It was meaningless,” Sombra said dismissively. “She had cold sickness and it was a practical way to warm her body. There is nothing between us.” 

“But you still find her pleasant to look at,” Briarburner muttered. 

“Of course I do, I’m not stupid,” Sombra retorted as he snorted. 

“Which is why you had to warm her up several times, right sir?” Briarburner inquired. 

Still trying to take in his surroundings, Bucky realised that Sombra still had his natural horn. There were no fangs. Sombra was still a pony. A very shaggy stocky pony meant to endure the cold. Sombra had not yet endured his many changes. 

“Bah, Clover was a distraction at best. Mares only get in the way. Good for scratching the itch and little else,” Sombra snarled, tired of Briarburner’s badgering. 

“And what of Platinum?” 

“Oh do not start discussing that spoiled little trollop,” Sombra bellowed. 

“Princess Celestia wants you to marry her. She believes it will be good for both of you,” Briarburner stated in diplomatic tones. “My intelligence can find no dalliances on her part. She seems to still be as pure as the freshly fallen snow.” 

“So not a trollop, just a stuck up insufferable prat,” Sombra snorted. 

“If anypony is the trollop here, I suspect that it might be you,” Briarburner deadpanned. 

Glaring icily at his second in command, Sombra bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes as his barrel began expanding and contracting rapidly from his sharp intakes of breath. 

“Shall we make a list, sir?” Briarburner offered. “Clover the Clever. Xalaxne the Seer. Carroway the Stormhorn. You’ve done nothing but make innuendo at Princess Celestia while Princess Luna egged you on just to tease her sister. And how many unicorn serving wenches have lost their purity as you’ve rammed their gates open in conquest?” 

“Virginity is a prize that can only be taken once!” Sombra argued as he settled into a chair. 

“So take Princess Platinum’s, sir. She will make a worthwhile conquest,” the lunar pegasus suggested in wry tones. 

“She is an awful mare,” Sombra grumped in a low sulky voice. “Celestia asks too much of me. Who does she think she is burdening me with such a millstone around my neck?” 

“Sir, if I might point out, I have on many occasions, and I should add that my spies have also observed this, that you have stared longingly at her plush and rather perfect backside,” Briarburner said in diplomatic tones. 

“Her backside is marvelous. Her endless whining would kill the mood,” Sombra retorted as he glared at the ever so mouthy lunar pegasus. 

“Might I recommend a gag sir… or perhaps you could find another use for her mouth,” Briarburner suggested. 

Stroking his chin thoughtfully, Sombra did not reply right away. He sat silently, musing over Briarburner’s suggestion, reflecting on his options. “She hates me you know. Says I am an oaf,” Sombra said after several moments of silence. 

“Well, to be fair sir, you are an oaf, a cretin, a bit of pervert, a regicidal maniac, a shameless flirt, a ne’er do well, you have a lewd tongue, you unsheath regularly in public due to a staggering lack of control, you drink copiously, and you are a thief of purity,” Briarburner replied dryly. “And those are your good qualities… sir.” 

“You know, one day, you will speak one word too many and I will be forced to collect your head,” Sombra stated. “Don’t think for one moment I would shed one tear for the loss of my best friend. I would still have your severed head to keep me company. At least it would be silent.” 

Chuckling, Briarburner went over to a shelf and poured himself a drink of strong ale. He raised his mug in salute to Sombra. “I have taken the liberty of speaking to Platinum’s friends. They are willing to foalnap her and bring her to the wedding. They all believe that marriage would be best for the both of you. Especially Clover, who believes that Platinum could use a bit of ‘warming up’ from you.” 

“You... treacherous... knave... how could you plot against me?” Sombra bellowed. 

“Sir, Celestia has given orders. Your lechery is at an end, or so she believes. You have one week to prepare yourself,” Briarburner chortled and then he began to guzzle down the contents of his mug while Sombra began to spew obscenities.



 

Loch Skimmer circled over Ponyville, watching the ponies down below. Several pegasi watched her warily, and Loch understood why. She was an outsider, and her place in the flock had not yet been determined. Fluttershy was the most wonderful pony that Loch could imagine, even if she was a bit shy. 

She banked, rolled, and then leveled out. She reveled in having her freedom again, the ability to fly. She loved to feel the wind trailing along her body. She was not a fast flier, nor was she particularly skilled, but she was a steady flier. 

She had spotted Barley and Rising Star earlier, and had even flown low to say hello. She had spotted Cheerilee and had swooped down to be friendly. Loch Skimmer was starting to know a lot of ponies and she hoped that her charm would allow her to make friends. She smelled good, she had a great smile, and she felt she was funny. 

It was then that Loch Skimmer saw the Blink spell. Surprise’s lesson was immediately recalled in her mind and she twisted mid-air, turning her snoot earthwards. She dove, her wings tucked to her sides. At the last minute, her wings flared out and leveled her out just above the ground, and she flew between buildings towards the source. 

A construction scaffold had collapsed, causing several ponies to fall from great heights. She could see them on the ground. Several limbs twisted at unnatural angles, which made her own once broken leg ache painfully. Other pegasi were all around her and more were on their way. 

She landed, coming down smoothly, and then folded her wings at her sides. She began to take everything in, trying to figure out what to do. Pained cries began to reach her ears. 

“We have wounded! We need to get them airlifted!” 

There was a loud creak of metal, then a screech, and more of the scaffolding tore away. Reflexes took over. Just as she had done with Sentinel, Loch Skimmer reacted without thinking, immediately launching herself skywards towards the scaffolding. If it fell, it would crush the already injured ponies below. There were pegasi all around her. 

As a group, the pegasi caught the scaffolding and safely lowered it to the ground, while other ponies began to move the wounded away from the construction site. Loch Skimmer felt a powerful sense of belonging, moving as one part of a whole flock, the feeling of being an outsider now gone. 

She felt the tendons in her wings creak as she strained to lift the heavy scaffold framing. Other pegasi around her had their teeth bared from strain. With a great deal of effort, they moved the metal framing away and set it down safely where it could do no harm. 

“We need to get these ponies in slings and get them to the hospital,” a voice commanded. 

“We need strong steady flyers. If we jostle them to much, we could hurt them,” another voice instructed. 

Loch Skimmer went forward with a few others, hovering over the group. “I’m not fast, but I’m steady,” she stated. 

“Put this canvas harness on and we’ll get a sling hooked up,” a white pegasus mare commanded in a loud clear voice that cut through the confusion. 

Loch Skimmer did as she was told, easily slipping into the harness. There was a large metal ring now protruding from the girth of her barrel. A moaning earth pony was carefully placed into a sling and then a lanyard was clipped to the metal ring on Loch Skimmer’s harness. 

“Go go go!” a pony shouted. 

Rising slowly, Loch Skimmer carried away her precious cargo, following other pegasi who were departing for the hospital. She was careful with every flap of her wings, trying not to jostle the earth pony in the sling. She compensated for the wind and followed the other pegasi carrying the injured to the hospital. 

It was a short flight and there were nurses waiting on the roof. Loch Skimmer’s wounded pony was unclipped and she was waved off, cleared to go. She took off at speed for the construction site where more wounded awaited, pumping her wings as hard as she could, applying some much needed hustle to her flight. 

When she returned to the construction site, there was a pony in a sling waiting for her. She dropped down, hovering carefully, and another lanyard was clipped to her metal ring. She waited, wanting to fly, but worried about a signal of some sort. She looked down and saw a pony carefully making sure everything was in the sling because a leg had flopped out. 

Loch Skimmer was glad she had waited. 

“Go!” her loader cried out. 

With a flap of her powerful wings, Loch Skimmer was gone. 



 

Her throat was parched and Loch Skimmer sat on the roof of the hospital drinking ice water out of a paper cup. The breeze felt good on her body. Her wings ached, but she didn’t mind. She had carried nine ponies in total, and she felt pretty good about it. 

She saw a white pegasus approaching her, and Loch Skimmer had the feeling she was being studied. Her ears fell back and she assumed a submissive posture, wondering what was about to happen. 

“You are a remarkably stable flier,” the white pegasus said. “My name is Sky Hook. I head the emergency response team. For somepony who clearly has never done this before, you impressed me.” 

Blushing, Loch Skimmer smiled. She felt hot, nervous, and sweaty. “I just did what I thought was right,” she said sheepishly. 

“We only recently formed the emergency response team. Ponyville is becoming too large and there are too many ponies. How would you like a job? The pay is awful, there are long periods of boredom, and when disasters do happen you will be overworked to death,” the mare offered. 

“I have a job working with the Dawn Brigade… it doesn’t pay very much, or so I’ve been told. I’m from the Shetlands. I don’t know a lot about money yet,” Loch Skimmer replied. “And I will be starting school soon.” 

“School is fine and having a second job is fine. We need stable fliers. In fact, if you take me up on my offer, you are going to have to spend a few weeks in training, which means more school. In a sense anyway,” Sky Hook explained. “While in school, you can work in the afternoons and evenings. Look, you are too stable of a flier for me to give up on. I don’t need fast reckless fliers, I need somebody that flies like there is a foal in their sling. Like you did. I kept an eye on everything you did.” 

“I’m flattered,” Loch Skimmer murmured. 

“Well?” Sky Hook questioned. 

“I’ll do it,” Loch Skimmer replied, nodding her head as she did so. 
	
	
> Chapter 266 (Has a bit of a dark moment)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dreamscape had shifted. Things were different now, but Bucky didn’t know what all had changed. He had fangs now. A red focusing crystal protruded from his forehead, and it gave off a fiendish red glow. He was standing in a vast hallway made of glowing crystal and swirling black tendrils of shadow swam through the crystalline structure like fish in a glass aquarium. 

“Briarburner, report,” Sombra commanded. 

Bucky saw Briarburner. The lunar pegasus looked awful. He was thin looking, pinched, he had aged terribly. One eye was missing. His face and body were a mass of scars. The years had not been kind to Sombra’s second in command. 

“Sire, your project to turn the crystal ponies into living focusing crystals has been a partial success. Some of them do indeed amplify the magical radiation from the ley lines and greatly increase what can be drawn upon from a limited location around them. We are gathering those who exhibit this phenomenon and they are being brought here for your inspection. It should increase your magic by a hundredfold or more. There is no accurate means to measure this, but it is speculated that your power will far exceed an alicorn,” Briarburner reported. 

“This is good news,” Sombra hissed. 

“Sire, more news from the south. The Royal Pony Sisters advance north with their army. Sire, please, hear me out. It doesn’t have to be this way. Luna still loves you. Celestia is angry but I know she still loves you as well. If you would just step back from this madness and talk to them, they could help you… Sire… Sombra, I am still your friend. I might be the last one you have, I am begging you to reconsider this course of action,” Briarburner said in a pleading voice. 

“And you know this how?” Sombra asked, turning to stare balefully at the lunar pegasus. 

“I have spoken with them, sire. I went to them with a white flag. I begged them to spare your life, that there is something wrong with you and that you should be offered mercy. You need healing, we can avoid this violence,” Briarburner whimpered, now cowering before his king. 

“So that’s it then, my last loyal servant has betrayed me,” Sombra whispered.

“I followed you because I loved you like my brother, you were my brother,” Briarburner growled, his posture slowly becoming defiant. “You were my brother. I was never your servant, but your friend.”

“You speak in the past tense,” Sombra said and then gave a low chuckle. 

“We can be brothers again, let the sisters help you… heal you… urgh… hurghk…” 

Briarburner fell silent and his eye bulged. His body slowly lifted into the air and he began to scrape his front hooves over his throat. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he struggled to breathe. He shot one last pleading look at Sombra, a look of love betrayed. 

“Simply letting you die is too easy,” Sombra whispered as writhing black shadow crawled along his body. “First, you will hang for a bit… but not too long… I want you aware of what comes next.” 

Briarburner gasped, sucking in wind, a wet whistling wheeze could be heard in his throat as he struggled to breathe. He remained suspended in midair. 

“Next in the process of drawing and quartering, we emasculate the traitor,” Sombra announced calmly as his horn flashed. 

Screams filled the hall and there was a wet tearing sound. Briarburner shrieked, a ragged cry that echoed through the hallway. Wet bits of flesh splattered as the fell to the floor. Blood trickled from the open wound and began to pool upon the crystal floor. 

“A little necromancy to keep you from dying right away,” Sombra said in a low steady voice. “Tsk tsk, we can’t have you dying. The next part hurts and I want you to feel it, brother.” 

“No, Sombra, please, no,” Briarburner croaked as he felt pressure in his stomach. A moment later, his guts spilled out upon the floor. He felt his head being forced to look down at his own entrails, and he let out a whimpered cry. His legs kicked feebly in the air. 

“Well, you’ve been drawn, how about the quartering?” Sombra asked, licking his fangs as he spoke. His horn flashed again. 

Briarburner gave a feeble cry as one leg was twisted and then torn free. He hung limply in the air now, suspended by shadowy tendrils that came out of the walls of the crystalline passage. The walls and the floor pulsed as he neared death. With a sharp yank, his other hind leg was torn free. One front leg was twisted slowly, the bones cracking and popping as it was pulled, until it finally snapped and then it was torn free. Briarburner let out a feeble yelp. The only thing keeping him alive and conscious now was the foulest of magic, and he felt his last leg slowly being ripped from his body. 

“Any last words Briarburner?” Sombra asked. “We rapidly approach the part where I take your head. I recall saying that I would have to take your head once. Where are your witty criticisms now my sharp tongued brother?” 

“I… loved… you… turn… back-” 

“Turn back and the sisters will forgive me... I grow weary of this puerile behaviour,” Sombra said in a cold dismissive voice. He began to twist Briarburner’s head slowly around, almost teasingly, enjoying hearing the sounds of neck bones breaking. With a final wrench, Sombra pulled Briarburner’s head from his neck. 

He allowed the body to drop to the floor. Already, the crystal was absorbing the blood and body parts, transmuting them into the crystalline structure of the tower. The tower was a living thing, and Sombra had constructed it from the bodies of those who had crossed him. 

Sombra turned and walked away from the rapidly vanishing corpse. 



 

With a low cry, Bucky awoke, sweating, his heart pounding wildly in his ribcage. He lay in the bed, terror making every nerve his in body twitch, and he struggled to draw in air after his initial cry had emptied his lungs. 

Within seconds, the first tears began to fall. He rolled over and clutched a pillow. The large bed was empty and Bucky lay in the middle. He felt miserable after what he had just witnessed. His stomach churned and the remaining contents threatened to come up violently. He could taste the bile in the back of his throat. 

Not all of Sombra’s memories were pleasant or helpful. 



 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky sank even lower into the tub. A sense of lethargy had overtaken him, a creeping malaise that made him want to sink into the water and not return to the surface. He drew a deep breath and tried to push the revolting images from his mind, wishing that the memory of the dream was not so vivid. The water was hot, as hot as he could get it without scalding himself, but somehow, Bucky felt cold as he soaked. He shivered occasionally and felt as though his teeth would begin chattering at any moment. 

He conjured up a glass and a bottle of gin. Having second thoughts, he returned the glass to its source and kept the bottle of gin. He chilled the liquid with his magic, lifted his head out of the water, tilted the bottle to his lips, and drank down a quarter of the bottle in one long pull. 

He belched ferociously, the resonating sound causing the drinking glass full of toothbrushes on the sink to rattle and the medicine cabinet made a clattering sound. He laughed, a hollow sound that conveyed no real emotion, the empty laughter of the damned and the broken. 

The bathroom door opened and Derpy stuck her head inside the bathroom. She looked at Bucky, then the bottle of gin, and then back at Bucky once more. She raised her eyebrows in concern and her ears perked forward. 

“You’re awake. I heard a sound. I was worried,” Derpy said as she came inside the bathroom and shut the door behind her. “You look a little off.”

“I feel a little off,” Bucky admitted. “But seeing you, I feel a little turned on.” He snatched the pegasus mare in his magic and pulled her into the tub with him, setting the bottle of gin down upon a small wooden crate by the toilet that was covered in magazines. 

Squealing, Derpy fell into the tub with a splash. 

“This water offers no warmth,” Bucky whimpered. “I need to feel something warm,” he begged as he pulled Derpy on top of him. “Like you,” he whispered as he pressed his muzzle onto Derpy’s and drew in her warm breath into his lungs. He took several shuddering breaths as he kissed her, finally feeling warmth in his body again. Some things certainly felt warmer than others. He needed to feel Derpy’s life affirming heat, and it was only something that could be found inside of her. 

The grey mare let out a low shuddering moan as she melted into Bucky’s embrace, their bodies entwining in the tub, and she gave Bucky the sort of warmth she knew he needed. Pegasi were naturally hot blooded creatures, and Derpy definitely felt heated as Bucky’s hoof and diminished leg trailed over her body. She lifted her head, pulling her muzzle away from Bucky’s when she felt him taking her, and let out a gasp. 

“I am yours,” Bucky whispered into Derpy’s ear. “Do with me as you will. I am your slave.” 



 

“It just sort of happened,” Derpy said apologetically to Berry Punch. 

“I told you, I’m not angry,” Berry replied patiently. 

“But we have rules, and I broke them. I should have made my intentions clear before we did anything,” Derpy said as she slumped down upon the kitchen table.

“I pulled you into the tub,” Bucky said in a low voice. “So this is my fault.” 

“I’m not angry… look, heat of the moment thing and I understand. Bucky was having one of his turns. He needed you. There wasn’t an opportunity to come and announce your plans. And you didn’t try to hide it afterwards,” Berry explained. “There was no time to declare intentions or make your plans known. So stop fussing about it. The rule is there to make sure we communicate, like we are doing now.” 

“I’m not upset either,” Thistle said. “I just want Bucky taken care of. He had a bad dream and he turned to you for comfort. How can I fault you for giving it to him?” 

“We’ll be in trouble if we start sneaking around behind one another’s backs and stop being honest,” Berry stated. “So long as there is total honesty, I ain’t got a problem with what happened.” 

“Rules and laws have one thing in common,” Bucky muttered. 

“And what’s that?” Berry asked. 

“They’re useless,” Bucky replied. 

“How so?” Berry inquired. 

“Well, in the case of laws, good ponies don’t need them and bad ponies don’t follow them anyway. As for our rules, the fact that Derpy and I are baring our guilty souls to you and Thistle shows that we don’t need the rules, and if we were bad ponies, we wouldn’t feel guilty about what we’ve done at all,” Bucky explained in reply. 

“I never thought of it that way,” Berry said, suddenly looking thoughtful. “Way to undermine our entire society you jerk.” 

“I’m not sure I understand,” Thistle said. “Or that I want to.” 

“Because you are a good pony,” Derpy said as she scratched her belly. 

“Damnit Bucky, now you have me thinking. I need to go for a walk and get my body moving so I can think properly. You’ve presented an entirely too logical argument against law and order in general,” Berry fussed. “Anyway, I’m not mad. Thanks for being honest. I’m going for a walk around the house and the lake.” 

“I think I’ll join you… all of these waffles are making me fat and jiggly,” Derpy said in a low voice, her eyes darting over to Berry, still looking apologetic for what had happened. “Pegasi shouldn’t be fat or jiggly.” 

“I’d join you but I don’t know if I can waddle that far,” Thistle huffed in frustration.

“I think I will take this opportunity to use my disability to my advantage and walk behind two mares with big jiggly backsides,” Bucky announced. 

“Bucky, I appreciate your earlier honesty, but my plot is not at all big or jiggly,” Berry replied in a steely voice, leveling her narrowed eyed gaze upon her husband. 

“I bet I could make it jiggle,” Bucky teased in a low whisper. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 267
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Flapping her wings carefully, Derpy gently set Bucky down on the ground. Beside her, Loch Skimmer was landing with Dinky and Piña riding on her back. With Bucky safely on the ground, Derpy landed beside him and folded her wings. 

“If anything goes wrong, Loch and I will be at my old house packing stuff up. Dinky, Piña, enjoy the time with your father. It is important for little fillies to have quality time with their father,” Derpy said in a low voice. She reached back with her head and with a quick tug, pulled loose an annoying feather that was coming loose from her wing. 

“I feel kinda bad for leaving everypony else out,” Piña murmured guiltily. 

“Bucky is only one pony, and we all want time with him. You need time too. Now behave with your best manners. I mean it. And not pegasus manners either. All three of you,” Derpy said, narrowing her eyes at Bucky. “No pranks.” 

Bucky, glancing around at the crowd staring at him, nodded slowly. “Best manners. Perform pranks. Gotcha.” 

The grey pegasus leaned in close. “Please, this means so much to Piña, don’t go-” 

“I was kidding,” Bucky interrupted. “I know how much this means to Piña. I give you my word as your husband and one of your best friends that I will behave and make them behave.” 

Smooching Bucky on the cheek, Derpy flapped her wings in a burst of happiness. When she pulled away, she was beaming, her white teeth visible for all to see. “Come on Loch, we have a lot to do.” 

“Come on my little ladies, Diamond Tiara should be waiting for us inside,” Bucky said as he made his way to the door. He turned his head around for one last longing glance at Derpy as she walked away, Loch Skimmer at her side. 



 

“Greetings Pri-” 

“No, just Bucky please. The reservations were under the name Bucky and Diamond Tiara should already be here waiting for us,” Bucky said, cutting the hostess off. 

“Of course sir,” the hostess said, looking at Bucky nervously. “We’ve secured a private room for you so you can enjoy your time here.” 

“And so other patrons can enjoy their time here as well no doubt,” Bucky muttered. 

Looking mortified, the hostess froze, unsure of what to say as she stared wide eyed at Bucky. Her ears went back against her skull and a single rivulet of sweat trickled down from her mane, down her forehead, and pooled on her nasal bridge. “I didn’t mean to imply that sir.” 

“You didn’t mean to imply it, but you did imply it. I didn’t ask for a private room. But I suppose it is for the best,” Bucky grumbled. “Come on girls, Diamond Tiara awaits.” Feeling annoyed and rather irritable, Bucky thought about placing a minor aversion spell upon himself so nopony would look at him. 

The hostess led them through the establishment, and Bucky could see scrunched muzzles and pinned back ears. There were a few kind looks, and that made the walk through the large central tea room bearable. He could hear muttering with his sensitive ears. Disgusted muttering. And angry muttering. He had no doubt that some of the bureaucrats he had laid off frequented this establishment. He felt a painful twinge of panic, his old companion stabbing through his chest to say hello. 

Suddenly, more than anything, he wanted out of the tea room and to be someplace comfortable. 

The hostess ushered them into a small private room with comfortable plush chairs around a small circular table. Diamond Tiara waved, and then a look of concern spread over her face, her eyes narrowing and her mouth pursing into a tight worried pucker. 

“Hiya Diamond,” Piña greeted as she climbed up into the chair next to Diamond Tiara. 

“Heya,” Dinky said as she climbed up into the chair on the other side. 

“Thank you,” Bucky said, dismissing the hostess. He was glad to see her go. He watched the fillies talking for a moment and then went to sit down in a large overstuffed high backed chair. He settled in, sitting on his haunches, and he rested his stump upon the table. 

“Sorry the about the fuss,” Piña said, looking at her father apologetically. 

“Not your fault,” Bucky replied. “The table is strangely empty for a tea party.” 

“Service should be arriving soon. I used to come here all the time with Silv…” Diamond Tiara said, her words fading into a pained exhale. She looked around, her eyes narrowing and pleading look overcame her features for a moment. She took a deep breath before she continued. “This is a full service, or high tea. There will be several types of tea served, different types of scones, both sweet and savoury, I recommend the cheddar and chive scones, they are delicious, the lemon curd is nice, there will be egg salad and cucumber and watercress sandwiches, and there is usually a cheese sampler platter and crackers of different types.” 

“You know a lot about this stuff,” Dinky remarked. 

Swallowing nervously, Diamond Tiara nodded. “I have to know about this stuff because of my daddy… he would bring me along to help him charm clients and I spent hundreds of hours taking etiquette lessons as a foal,” she admitted. 

Piña leaned near the table, lifted her head up high, rested one hoof and fetlock upon the table, and then folded her other hoof over the first, looking very prim and proper. She managed to look dignified for all of five seconds before she began to giggle. 

Unable to help himself, Bucky thought about how useful Diamond Tiara would be in Sentinel’s future. Sentinel was a little rough around the edges for all of his stuffiness, and Diamond Tiara’s fine social polish would be an asset to his endeavours as a knight. He silently cursed himself for thinking like a Canterlot unicorn, and then reconsidered and wondered if he was just being a concerned parent. 

“The walls are fuzzy,” Dinky observed. 

“They’re covered in crushed velvet,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“This place is fancy,” Piña said. “This is so neat. I’ve been dreaming of this day.” 

“The chairs are slickery,” Dinky said, looking down at what she is sitting on. 

“They’re made of silk,” Bucky commented as he prodded the seat he was sitting on with his front hoof. “So is the tablecloth I think. Even by unicorn standards, this is swanky.” 

“Even the ceiling has fuzzy stuff. And the light cover is stained glass. So pretty,” Piña said in awe, looking up. “What is the wood paneling called?” 

“Wainscotting and crown molding,” Bucky replied. 

“Actually, this is boiserie, far more ornate than wainscotting,” Diamond Tiara gently corrected, her ears splaying out the sides submissively. 

“Diamond, relax,” Bucky said with a gesture of his remaining front hoof. He watched her take a deep breath and close her eyes for a moment. She was clearly nervous and high strung. “You don’t need to worry about making a good impression for me.” 

“Thank you, sir,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice. “I want you to like me.” 

“I do,” Bucky responded. 

“She wants you to like her so Sentinel will like her,” Piña teased. 

Turning a bright shade of pink, Diamond Tiara gnawed on her lip nervously but said nothing. She rubbed her front hooves together fretfully, and then reached up and smoothed her mane back behind her twitching ears. A loud gurgle came from her stomach and she looked even more embarrassed. 

Piña giggled. 

“Piña, you shouldn’t tease,” Dinky grunted. 

“I wasn’t teasing in a bad way,” Piña protested. 

“Well, look at her, she’s miserable,” Dinky retorted. 

“I’m fine,” Diamond Tiara squeaked. 

“She’s just madly in love,” Piña teased. 

“Piña!” Bucky said firmly. 

Fanning herself with her hoof, Diamond Tiara slumped down in her chair, her impeccable manners now forgotten. She took a few deep breaths and her eyes darted from Piña to Dinky. Finally, she composed herself and placed her hoof back down upon the table, poking a folded napkin nervously. 

“Sorry Diamond,” Piña whispered, realising just how flustered her friend was. 

The door opened and a unicorn with a silver serving cart pushed her way inside. She began setting the table, laying out platters and tiered serving trays laden with food. She set out several teapots, each covered with a tea cosy, a pitcher of cream, and many other things from her serving cart. 

“Fresh hot rhubarb pies just came out of the oven. They’ll take a while to cool, but I will bring you a few in a little while. And if I may be so forward Mister Bitters, begging your pardon,” the serving mare said in a low humble voice. 

“Yes?’ Bucky answered. 

“You did a brave thing. You did a good thing. You’ve made the lives of a lot of ponies better, including us unicorns, showing that not all of us are bad. I have a colt that wants to grow up and be a knight like you. He’s dying to meet you milord,” the mare said in a hushed low voice. 

“I am going to be opening a school for ponies soon. Make sure you enroll him. We’ll get to know one another soon enough, I am certain,” Bucky said, smiling carefully and trying to not reveal his teeth. 

“Thank you milord… but I am rather poor… I can’t-” 

“You WILL enroll him, cost is not an issue,” Bucky interrupted. 

“Thank you, thank you so much, I wish I could do more than say thank you,” the server gushed as she set the final items out upon the table. “Ponies say a lot of things about you… sir… I’ve never believed any of the bad things ponies say. I’ll make sure to tell everypony how kind you are,” she promised. 

“Thank you,” Bucky replied in a warm sincere voice.

The serving mare quietly backed out of the room, bowing her head one last time as she slipped out of the door and then shut it behind her, leaving the group of ponies alone once again. 

“Sentinel is going to have a tough act to follow,” Diamond Tiara murmured in a thoughtful voice. 

“He’s going to need help,” Bucky said to Diamond Tiara, openly dropping a hint. He looked at the three fillies. “Dig in. Manners aren’t so important back here in private. Just try not to get anything on the walls or the ceiling. I’ll make sure to voice to your mother that you were on your best behaviour if you will do the same for me,” Bucky said, making his foals an offer they couldn’t refuse. 

“The teapots are hot, can somepony please pour me some green tea?” Piña requested. 

Bucky studied the teapots for a moment, and saw a pot marked with a black leaf, a green leaf, and the third pot had a red leaf. He lifted the green tea and poured Piña some, and when finished, poured some for himself. He watched as she added lemon juice and honey to her tea and then followed her example. 

Lifting the pot with the red leaf in her magic, Dinky poured a measure of cream into her cup, and then carefully filled it the rest of the way with rooibos tea. She looked at Bucky, and beamed when he nodded. Adding the cream first was important. She knew that if she poured cream into hot tea, it would scald and taste terrible, something she had learned from her father. Adding cream to the cup first and then adding the tea slowly allowed the cream to heat gradually. She added a few spoonfuls of sugar to her tea and then eyed the food, licking her lips. 

Diamond Tiara went for the black tea, lifting it carefully, pouring it into a cup, she added a whole slice of lemon and then a single spoonful of sugar. She looked around the table, surveying what had been brought out. “Pasties!” she cried, seeing a favourite treat. “Kinda makes sense too, with the shortages. Flour is common enough, and it is easy to get full on little pies.” 

“I wonder what is in the pasties?” Dinky asked. 

“Usually fruit or sometimes vegetables and cream cheese,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“That sounds good,” Dinky said, snatching a few steaming pasties in her magic and placing them on her plate. She continued to hunt for other foodstuffs that she loved, and after looking around for a bit, added a few sandwich slivers to her plate, all of them egg salad. 

“Wanna sleep over?” Piña asked. 

“Dinky is eating egg salad sandwiches,” Diamond Tiara replied, casting a worried look at the unicorn beside her. 

“So, we eat egg salad sammiches and we destroy her. Together,” Piña giggled. 

Dinky, her mouth full of egg salad sandwich, scowled at Piña and gave her the stinkeye. 

Bucky chortled as he loaded his plate down with little assorted cheese triangles and crackers. “If you want to stay over, you may,” Bucky offered. Mister Rich wanted his daughter to spend as much time around other good ponies as equinely possible, and Bucky was all to happy to oblige. 

“Okay,” Diamond Tiara said as she carefully took a few pasties and placed them on her plate. 

“So mama Derpy gave me this book, the same one that Dinky got, telling me that I am a grown up filly now, something I already knew. Since I am so grown up, can I have an allowance?” Piña asked and then crammed a whole cheddar scone into her maw. 

“Hey, I wanf an awowfance,” Dinky said around a mouthful of sandwich. 

“If you want an allowance, you have to work for it,” Bucky replied, raising his eyebrow over his surviving eye at his fillies. 

“Aw, that’s asking a bit much,” Piña grumbled. 

“Loch Skimmer has two jobs already,” Bucky said before he took a sip of tea. 

“Yeah, well, we study and practice magic all the time. And we’ll be starting school soon,” Dinky argued after she swallowed. 

Sensing an opportunity, Bucky leaned forward and pressed his advantage. “Every hour you spend studying each night after school will get you a bit, for a maximum of three bits for three hours a night,” he offered. 

“That’s fifteen bits a week if they study. That’s kinda low,” Diamond Tiara stated, leaning forward to engage Bucky. “A single trip to Sugarcube Corner with one cupcake and one milkshake is six bits. That’s only two trips to Sugarcube Corner with three bits left over. There is not much of a chance for them to be generous to their friends with that little cashflow.” 

Scowling, Bucky sat up straight and glared at Diamond Tiara, his eye narrowing. He began to tap his surviving front hoof upon the table thoughtfully. “If you study three hours a night five nights a week, there will be a five bit bonus added for a total of twenty bits a week. If you want more bits, you’ll have to do chores. Both of you. And this doesn’t mean letting Dinky do all of the work with her magic while you do nothing but watch Piña,” Bucky said, making a return offer. 

“That’s not a bad deal, but he didn’t make clear how much the other jobs pay,” Diamond Tiara warned. “Be careful, he’s an accountant and he’s crafty. Daddy says to never trust an accountant unless you pay their salary, and that’s only if they have an ironclad contract.” 

“Daddy, you wouldn’t cheat us, would you?” Piña inquired sweetly. 

“No!” Bucky said nervously. 

“Will these chores be paid by an hourly rate or by flat rate per chore?” Diamond Tiara questioned. 

“Are you some kind of lawyer?” Bucky asked. 

“Actually, I am a certified notary public. I process a lot of my daddy’s papers for him. I’ve thought about studying law or becoming a paralegal. But there are currently not many laws in existence,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“Flat rate per chore, with exceptions for really hard work, agreed upon by a case by case basis,” Bucky offered, his burning stare focused on Diamond Tiara. He took a sip of tea and felt immensely proud of a foal that was not his own. 

“That’s  mostly a fair deal,” Diamond Tiara said to her cohorts. 

“We can agree to that,” Dinky said, giving her father a shrewd look. 

“I think we can work together,” Piña agreed, casting a glance at her sister, then Diamond Tiara, and finally, her father. She stuffed a another whole scone into her mouth and chewed slowly as she stared at her daddy. 

“You fillies are ruthless,” Bucky stated. “I’m proud of you for it too.” 

“Even me?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Even you,” Bucky replied. He watched as Diamond Tiara’s hard edge softened and the filly began to fumble for words while turning a brighter shade of pink. “You’ve come a long way. Never discount the progress you’ve made.” 

“Thank… you…” Diamond Tiara stammered. 

“I hope we get rhubarb pie soon,” Dinky said, changing the subject. She prodded Diamond Tiara with her hoof and then patted her on the shoulder. 

“So Piña, is this everything you hoped it would be?” Bucky inquired before he gobbled a cracker with cheese on it. 

“Yup,” Piña answered in a chirpy voice. She turned her hungry eye upon a plate of cookies and grabbed several. “I wish Ripple was here.” 

“Ripple had to go with Lugus. The spiders in the Everfree have overpopulated a bit and are now trying to hunt new sources of food, like ponies,” Bucky said to Piña.

“I know why she couldn’t be here, I just wish she could be. She’s still young enough to have fun and she’s girly in her own way,” Piña responded. She crammed a cookie into her mouth and chewed noisily. 

“I hope Ripple stays safe,” Diamond Tiara said in a worried voice. 

“She and Sentinel already killed one spider. She’ll be fine. She’s with Lugus and Lugus is huge. I saw Lugus lift up a whole wagon into the air,” Dinky said as she held her teacup between her hooves. 

“Ripple deserves an allowance,” Piña stated. 

“She sure does,” Bucky agreed. 

“Hey… hey hey hey, if we bring you dead monsters from the Everfree, will you pay us?” Dinky asked, excited from her good idea, locking her gaze upon her father. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “But I might save you from Derpy wing slapping you to death and praise you for doing a good deed.” 

Scowling, Dinky had nothing else to say to her father about the issue. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 268
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I think that is the last of them.” 

Ripple looked around her at the sounds of Lugus’ words. The woods around them was festooned with dead spiders everywhere. There were spider legs kicking and twitching all over the ground, there were dead spiders skewered onto protruding broken tree branches, spiders cleaved in half by Lugus’ axe, and crushed spiders pounded into spider jam from Ripple’s war shoes. Ripple was covered in foul sticky ichor, webbing covered her from ear to hoof, and her mane and tail was plastered to her body. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel clean again,” Ripple muttered. 

“That was a lot of spiders. We must have killed hundreds,” Lugus said in a nervous voice, his beak clicking together in agitation as he spoke. “Nice work with the spider queen by the way. Did you get bit?” the griffon asked, concern now filling his voice. “If you did, don’t try to hide it out of bravado. These are poisonous.” 

“I’m good. I have a few scrapes and slices from the claws some of them had on the end of their legs. Only one laceration I’m worried about, it’s bleeding freely. I hope it will close,” Ripple replied. She craned her head around to look at her hind leg and focused on her slashed open gaskin. “Looks pretty bad actually. I am surprised I’m not woozy.” 

“Battle nerves. We should get you home before shock sets in,” Lugus said as he brought his axe down upon a squirming spider that wasn’t quite dead yet. 

The glade was silent save for the two voices, one griffon and one pony. Not long ago, it was alive with chittering sounds and the rustle of thousands of long hairy legs. There were bodies wrapped in webbing here, many bodies of creatures from the surrounding Everfree, captured by spiders and wrapped up in silk to be preserved and consumed later. 

Having a quick look around, Lugus found one pony shaped silken mass. He approached it slowly, reached out with his claws, and tore it open. Inside was a mare he did not know. Her eyes were white and colourless. Two holes could be seen on her neck. Her body was slightly dessicated. 

“We did not save her,” Ripple said, sounding distraught. 

“We could not have saved her. She has been here for a while. We are not to blame, we did what we could, these things happen. But never forget Ripple. This is why we do what we do. By destroying this spider nest, we are preventing future tragedies like this one. I will take her back to town so some grieving family can finally know of her fate. I want you to go home, get cleaned up, and have that gash looked at. Do as I say,” Lugus said, turning  his head around and giving Ripple a glance. 

“Yes sir, of course sir, but I do wish I was going with you to return the body,” Ripple answered, whipping out a goop and webbing encrusted wing in salute. “Oh yuck. This is an offense to my girly sensibilities.” 



 

“NO NO NO! YOU ARE NOT COMING IN THE HOUSE!” 

Ripple backed away from Derpy and jumped backwards down the front porch steps. Her ears splayed out submissively and her head dropped low. 

“You’re bleeding!” Derpy cried. “LYRA! First aid!” The motherly pegasus whinnied in concern and then nickered nervously as she walked in a circle around Ripple, checking over her injuries.

A few seconds later, Lyra came bursting out onto the porch. She looked around, saw Ripple, looked both disgusted and worried, and immediately conjured up the first aid box as she trotted down the stairs and approached Ripple. 

“Turn the hose on her,” Derpy suggested. 

“Good idea,” Lyra agreed, her horn flaring brighter for a moment. The hose came to life  and moved in a serpentine fashion in Lyra’s telekinesis as the spigot turned with a squeak. 

Ripple gasped when the cold water hit her and began blasting away the green gunk and webbing she was completely covered in. The water was exceptionally icy and it felt good and sort of hurt at the same time. It shocked her senses and spiked her adrenaline, making her feel jittery and jumpy once again. 

“My sweet little filly,” Bon Bon fussed, coming out the front door. “Something hurt my filly… it had better be dead.” 

There was a loud squawk and two phoenixes appeared, one orange, one blue, both of them flying through the yard and then landing upon the porch rail. They watched with curious interest, cocking their heads off to one side, then other, and Philomena made concerned cooing noises. 

Finally mostly clean, Ripple stood dripping water into the grass below. She was breathing heavily, her barrel heaving, and she gave her wings a flap to shed excess water. She shivered a bit and then had another look at hind leg. Blood was coming out in a steady trickle. Now free of filth, she saw a small flap of flesh hanging away from the gash. She hissed when she saw it, realising it might need to be stitched. She didn’t look forward to finding out. 

There was a flash of orange and Ripple felt two prickly pokey claws on her back. They didn’t dig into her skin, but they tickled a great deal, causing shivers up and down her spine, and she realised that Philomena was perched on her withers, just between her wing joints. There was another soothing flash of orange and Ripple felt herself grow calm, her breathing slowed down and she started to think that everything was going to be okay. 

There was an exceptionally bright flash of orange and a burst of intense heat. Not burning heat, but pleasant heat, like laying on a hot rock on a summer day and feeling the soothing warmth radiating out into your skin. Ripple gasped. The gash on her leg had closed considerably, and blood was no longer dribbling out. It wasn’t completely healed at all, but it no longer looked like it needed stitching. Ripple felt a small head rub up against the back of her neck and feathers tickled her through her pelt. She giggled, feeling like a small filly foal once again.

“Thank you, Philomena,” Ripple said, her tone gracious. 

With a squawk, Philomena spread her wings and flew off, heading back towards the hollow tree where she had made her nest. In a moment, there was a flash of blue when Freezerburn flew off after her. Ripple watched them go, thankful for their presence, even if Philomena’s morning crowing was more annoying than any rooster. 

Yawning, Bucky emerged through the front door. “What happened?” 

“You need your sleep,” Derpy grumped. 

“I heard a commotion. Hey, who hurt my Ripple?” Bucky asked, his voice becoming icy and dangerous. 

“I’m fine, a spider just got lucky,” Ripple explained. “Lugus is in town delivering the body of a mare we found wrapped in webbing. Really, I’m okay, I just need something to eat more than anything.” 

“You still need a proper bath,” Derpy retorted. “Come on Ripple, I’ll help you get scrubbed up and while you’re getting a bath, somepony will fix you something to eat.” 

There was a flash and a pop as Lyra returned the first aid box to its location with magic, unsummoning it now that it was no longer needed. “Stupid spiders,” Lyra grumbled. She watched Ripple go inside with Derpy and gave Bon Bon a glance. “I hate seeing her get hurt.” 

“I know,” Bon Bon replied, a sad smile on her face. “But this is the path she has chosen.” 

“I just hope she doesn’t end up like me,” Bucky mumbled, not yet fully awake. 

“I really hope that never happens,” Lyra whimpered. “I love Ripple.” 

“Both of you are worry warts,” Bon Bon said, prodding Lyra with her hoof and then poking Bucky. “Come on, Bucky, you should go back to bed. I hope you had a nice time with your fillies earlier.” 

“Too late for me I think. I’m awake now. Luna is going to deliver something tonight when she pays us a visit so I think I am going to head over to my tower and make sure everything is ready for later,” Bucky announced. 

“Ooh, somepony is getting his orb back,” Lyra said in a voice dripping with anticipation. “I hope we can experiment together soon. I have ideas Bucky. Defensive ideas for our cloaks.” Lyra beamed with eager excitement and completely ignored the dark look she was getting from Bon Bon, who did not approve of the orb on general principles. 



 



I wish I understood more of what was going on in the world around me. I live in momentous times, but I lack the wisdom and the maturity to fully grasp the events that keep happening all around me. General Iron Sky is being forced to resign due to scandal, something about adultery and divorce. He had a moment where he fell down, became unpopular, and then the whole herd turned against him to kick him while he was down. While his public popularity was low, ponies seized upon his many misdeeds and spoke of them publicly. There are a lot of young pegasus fillies who have foals that they claim are Iron Sky’s. I do not know if these statements are true, but the public believes them to be. I have become aware of the court of public opinion and the tyranny of herd mentality. 

It is a good reminder to keep my own snoot clean and never stray from my duties or my obligations. 

It is funny how the herd can turn on ponies. Diamond Tiara, who genuinely tries to be a better pony, has not been given a second chance. General Iron Sky will likely never be forgiven. This bothers me. A pony shouldn’t be shunned because of mistakes. Berry Punch says this is how herd psychology works. I struggle against my own inner nature and I am more than a creature that acts upon base instinct. We are capable of rising above our own inner workings. We should be able to rise above herd psychology. We are aware of it, why not strive against it? 

I will be heading off to Griffonholm soon. I have some fear and worry. Father believes this trip will go badly, and I trust his intuition. I am not sure what he is up to, but I know he is preparing. I’ve seen the fine grains of sand lodged in his hairy hide, a clear indicator he’s been working with glass. I have a hunch that he’s doing more than making windows and glass domes. Late at night he is working with Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. I have seen strange lights in the distance from my bedroom window. 

I suspect that while Twilight Sparkle prepares for peace, my father is preparing for war. 

I don’t think the griffons will be ready for my father’s style of diplomacy. I don’t want everything ending in bloodshed. I would like to see a peaceful resolution between our species. Lugus is an amazing individual, and proof that griffons can be noble, just, and true. He says their penchant for slavery comes from feline laziness and that he had to work hard to overcome his inner nature. He is industrious and has something he calls a ‘work ethic’ that he takes a great deal of pride in. 

I don’t know if I have a work ethic. I am not sure I fully understand the concept. 

My brother, Rising Star, is becoming increasingly popular. Even though his nature is somewhat questionable now, and he has even been quoted in the paper as saying “only a moron would trust a fey creature such as myself,” ponies seem intent to vote him into office. Lyra and Bon Bon say he has captured the public imagination and his daily visits with Barley have brought him into the public eye. There is a photograph in the newspaper of him pulling a cart with Barley sitting in the cart, and a caption stating that Rising Star is kind to the elderly. I suspect that Rising Star could do something incredibly stupid and somepony somewhere would find some way of saying something in a positive light about the situation. Barley is old, and getting older, and Rising Star was just being kind and pulling his uncle around to save his legs. Rising Star’s parents have been in the paper several times now telling stories about their son as a colt. Rising Star has become a figure of public adoration. I pray that the herd never turns on him. 

My own writings go well. I have had several publications now, and I have a collection of bits growing in my secret hiding place. I have been in contact with the head of the Ponyville Gazette. She wants me to write some opinion pieces for her and she says that she might eventually hire me as a reporter if I was interested. She cannot believe I am as young as I am. 

I could not help but notice that she seemed distressed about my appearance when we met. 

I get a lot of looks when I go into town. Ponies stare at me, and some are openly afraid. Grimglammer, Shadowguard, and Furious will be moving to Ponyville soon, there has been some delays keeping them away, but there are no lunar pegasi here. I feel rather alone. There are no other ponies like me around. Ponies are genuinely afraid of me. I don’t like it, but I understand it. I’m different and I look scary. The herd wants everypony to look the same and conform. Ponies always talk about the three tribes. And my tribe isn’t even mentioned or acknowledged. I’m an outsider. 

Luna will be coming tonight and there will be a lesson. I look forward to it.

 
	
> Chapter 269
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Waiting patiently, Bucky watched as Luna inspected the vault entrance on the floor of his tower. He watched her expressions, the flutter of her wings, the way her ears moved as she studied the entrance. He watched her lips moue, and watched as she gave a sturdy knock with one silver shod front hoof.

“This is extraordinary work. A door made of solid glass, yet more secure than a door made of regular steel. I am impressed,” Luna stated, lifting her head and looking at Bucky. 

“I wouldn’t try testing it,” Bucky warned, his voice insistent. “I’ve placed a spell mirror on it. It could be… dangerous.” 

“Hmm, I didn’t detect that,” Luna said, her gaze dropping down to the circular glass door in the floor. She tapped it again and then looked at Bucky. “I suppose that is the point though. Undetectable enchantments. You’ve become quite powerful.” 

Shrugging, Bucky made a dismissive gesture with his stump. “I am still lousy with personal defense. Witching Hour and Lyra tease me constantly.” 

“I am satisfied that the orb is safe and other curious ponies will be kept away from it,” Luna said. 

“Wonderful. So, what is the lesson for tonight?” Bucky inquired. 

“Tonight, we travel. Sentinel too. There is something there I wish for you to see,” Luna answered. “My Myrmidons returned from the south with a few things most unusual in their possession. What they brought back concerns me Buckminster. I am afraid, and I am not one that scares easily.” 

“Oh bother,” Bucky muttered. 



 

“Sentinel, stop squirming. It is unbecoming,” Luna patiently instructed. 

Saying nothing, Sentinel tried to sit still. He looked around at the room made of black volcanic stone. It was hot, stuffy, and the air smelled like Rising Star, somewhat foul with a hint of rotten eggs. There was a massive black slab of stone that served as a table. There were no windows in this room, and Sentinel desperately wanted some fresh air. 

“Hey, that’s not fair, I’m squirming too but you scolded Sentinel,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Buckminster, stop squirming, your Mistress wills it,” Luna commanded.

“Yes Mistress,” Bucky replied in a low voice, giving Luna a petulant sour look. “What are we waiting on exactly?” 

“That is what I want to know,” Luna said impatiently. 

“So where are we exactly?” Bucky asked. 

“Hidden Hollow Fortress. It is not on any map. It is a recent construction, we are still excavating new levels actually, located under Rambling Rock Ridge. We currently do not have a surface entrance larger than a small berry, which is why I had to shadow portal us down here,” Luna answered. 

“Fascinating,” Bucky remarked. 

“So a top secret location,” Sentinel stated. 

“Indeed,” Luna responded. “A research facility and a base of operations for my agents. Eventually this will be one of the command centers for the Black Cloaks. Your demon orb was studied here Buckminster. Some of my best researchers were impressed. It bears the magical residue of time travel.” 

“I might have had to go back in time and help myself out to make it,” Bucky replied in a noncommittal manner. He scratched himself with a hoof, not caring about the look that Luna was giving him. “It is far too hot in here,” Bucky complained. “I’m tempted to cool this place off.” 

“Far below us is a number of geothermal caverns filled with boiling hot springs. We will be using steam to power this facility and to operate the lifts. And everything else as well. We have one steam turbine already running and dozens more are going to be constructed. This is why we will always need unicorns. Secret skunkworks and hidden Crown projects,” Luna said, offering some explanation about the heat. 

“Skunks. Not food,” Sentinel grumbled. 

“Of course they’re not food,” Luna responded, turning one eye upon Sentinel and raising her eyebrow. For a moment, she held her serious mien, and then her face slowly broke into a wide grin. “You learned that the hard way.” 

“Sure did,” Sentinel growled. “I hate skunks. Maybe I’ll still eat one out of spite.” 

A unicorn trotted into the room, looking apologetic. “We’re sorry, the lift went down for a while and ventilation went down as well for the observation lab. There was barely any breathable air for a time. We are ready to display the exhibit.” 



 

The observation lab was more black stone. A vast long expanse, scarcely furnished, with study cubicles and glass dividers that created workspaces. There were no creatures here yet, but there would be, or so Bucky guessed as he looked around at the various pens and containment units being constructed. Copper pipes ran along the ceiling and large steel ducts ran along where the ceiling met the wall on Bucky’s left. The air smelled stale and the stench of eggs was much stronger, just as Bucky imagined Dinky and Piña’s bedroom must be smelling right about now. Something in the distance went clang in a regular rhythmic pattern.  

Ahead, there were bright lights, electric lights, all of them offering a soft yellow glow. As they drew closer, the lights grew brighter, and Bucky could see an observation cubicle that was completely finished. It currently had a curtain over the window, offering a flair of the dramatic for whatever came next. 

Finally, the trio came to the window, standing close, and the unicorn escorting them hurried off into a nook, still looking apologetic and worried, casting fitful neurotic glances at Luna. 

“We’ve captured something most interesting,” Luna announced. “There’s been lots of rumours, but this is the confirmation we’ve needed. Have a look.” As she finished speaking, Luna whisked away the curtain to reveal what was behind the window. 

Gasping, Bucky found himself staring at a changeling. It didn’t look right. He wasn’t sure why he felt that way, but the creature just seemed off somehow. It was small, black, the carapace looked dull, and the eyes were a cloudy blue colour. It twitched occasionally and then it turned its head slowly towards the window. 

“It’s hideous,” Sentinel gasped. 

“It’s dead,” Luna stated. 

“What?” Bucky cried in alarm. 

“Undead changeling. A zombie to use the silly modern parlance. It is quite fascinating really. Shall I begin the lesson?” Luna asked, turning to look at Bucky and Sentinel. 

The pair nodded together, Sentinel moving closer to his father until he brushed up against his father’s leg. Bucky sat down upon the floor, easing his haunches down slowly, and then silently urged Sentinel to sit down beside him. Sentinel sat down, pressing against his father’s side, sitting haunch to haunch. He pressed his head into his father’s ribs and peered through the window through narrowed eyes. 

“The subject is most curious. Undead. Does not need to consume flesh to fuel animation. Still feeds on love, which is a terrifying prospect. Subject regenerates alarmingly fast in the presence of creatures who love one another. Whole limbs can be regrown in seconds. If we were to drop the magical containment field, the changeling would still be capable of mirroring one of us. This is a repurposed infiltrator. We have disenchanted it quite a bit, but it had spells that would allow for remote viewing, allowing the viewer to see whatever the changeling sees. It is non violent. It has no desire to attack anything at all. What concerns me is that we might have quite a few walking among us right now, acting as spies. Our anti-illusion spells work on regular changelings and we are currently modifying the spells to deal with this new threat. Since it feeds on love, it leaves behind no trace of its passing, no dead bodies, nothing. Detecting them will be difficult and we dare not use necromantic detect undead spells,” Luna explained. When she was done speaking, her horn flared brightly for a moment, and one of the changeling’s legs was torn free. Immediately, a new leg began to form, growing rapidly, and the leg that was torn off rapidly turned into a fine powdery dust. 

“This is incredible purpose driven magic,” Bucky whispered, his voice faint and sounding as though he was in shock. He shook his head. “Somepony went through a lot of trouble to create something like this.” 

“This is frightening,” Sentinel squeaked. 

“It gets better,” Luna stated. 

“Do tell,” Bucky acknowledged. 

“The creature is female. We have never encountered a female changeling other than Queen Chrysalis before. Before her death, she was fertile. We have encountered plenty of male drones, all made sterile, and this discovery leads our researchers to suggest that changelings of both sexes are born fertile and something happens to sterilise them. We do not know what happens to the females, but here we have one. One of our researchers believes this changeling was hatched from an egg stolen away from Queen Chrysalis, which is only a theory for now. The brain seems far more developed than a standard changeling brain, or maybe that is because it is female. We have chopped off the head of  this one several times and slowed down the artificial decay process just long enough to have a chance to get a few glimpses. It lacks the syrupy fluid around the brain that we have discovered in other changelings we have captured. It could be because it is dead, because it is female, or because this creature might not have gone through whatever process might exist to make it a loyal slave to Chrysalis’ whims,” Luna elucidated, lecturing in a rather long winded fashion and in detail. 

“So this was a fortunate find,” Sentinel said, lifting his head a little higher to have a look at the changeling, who was now whole of body. “The leg grew back quickly,” he observed. 

“There is a lot of love present,” Luna replied. “My love for both of you, the love of a father for his son, the love a son has for his father, there is a veritable feast for a changeling between the three of us.” 

“So right now, we could potentially have any number of these things running around, somepony could be watching us, and whatever it is, it is strong enough to challenge the might of the changelings, or at least infiltrate the changelings lair and steal eggs as needed… I say this because I doubt that Chrysalis would willingly give her eggs away, the implications of everything involved here are quite unsettling,” Bucky said, looking away from the window and turning his gaze to Luna. “We have a very dangerous enemy lurking in the shadows. And I suspect it is the mirror travelers.” 

“I do as well, and it makes me feel better to hear you say that,” Luna said, turning around completely to face Bucky and Sentinel. “Twilight is reluctant to reveal her feelings, she wants more time to study. She says that the source spell for remote viewing is in the abandoned city of Las Pegasus. I am tempted to send my Myrmidons there in force, but I do not want to risk their safety unless I absolutely have to. Fighting an unknown enemy is risky. Each Myrmidon is many years of investment and losing them is especially painful for me, not just a loss of an asset, but a loss of a friend and a loved one.” 

Bucky focused on the bug, studying its twitchy movements, watching as it paced slowly back and forth in front of the window. He rose up on three legs, hobbled over to the window, and looked in, his snoot touching the glass. “What if they are like us but they just look bad on the outside?” he asked in a pained voice. “Every day I look at my colt, I look at Sentinel and think about how different he looks from other ponies and I wonder if there are those narrow minded souls who question if he is even a pony at all. I pity those who hate and fear him just because he is different. And then I am forced to examine my own values because of what I see when I look at a changeling. What if they really are like us? What if Chrysalis is doing something to them that takes away their free will and makes them slaves? And what if nopony cares about their plight because it is easier to dismiss them as monsters and turn away from what might be our cousins?” 

Moving towards Bucky, Luna approached and slipped a foreleg over his withers. She stood there, her leg draped over his shoulders, and moved her head close to Bucky’s ear. “This is why I selected you as my protege,” she whispered. “For all of your darkness, for all of your madness, you have moments of incredible clarity and lucidity.” 

“I want to help them. No creature deserves this sort of fate. Undead or mind control, it all comes down to slavery and I don’t like it,” Bucky growled, aware of the fact that he was a willing slave protesting slavery. 

“My sister has placed her faith in Dinky and her ability to control insects. Changelings, if they were ponies, are mostly insectoid now. Dinky will need her father’s help… Celestia wants to control, I want to take out the source of the problem,” Luna whispered. 

“Kill Chrysalis?” Bucky grunted in a fearful voice. “I don’t know about this… if she is a pony… or was a pony… I won’t bring physical harm to another pony.” 

“Maybe not kill her, just break her power somehow,” Luna said soothingly, still speaking into Bucky’s quivering ear. “Killing her would be a terrible option. I hope we can find another way, but she remains a threat to us. And she holds thousands and thousands in her thrall. They deserve their freedom.” 

Squeezing his eye shut, Bucky pulled his head away from Luna, grimacing in pain. “It almost sounds like you want for me to break my vow, using guilt as a lever." 

“I want you to find some way of breaking her control, enchanter. Not now of course, but in time. In the meantime, I am going to have my tacticians plan for an excursion into Las Pegasus. After you are done visiting Griffonholm, I might have a task for you. I strongly suspect that you could infiltrate Las Pegasus and have a look around. You wouldn’t need to kill anypony, just do whatever is needed to subdue and pacify them. We need intelligence. I am not sure about my course of action just yet,” Luna said in a low voice. 

“This is wrong. We shouldn’t cut apart and torture this changeling. It should be destroyed and put down. Put to rest. Given an end. I know studying it is important, but this feels wrong." Sentinel said in a low strained voice. 

“If only we had the luxury of morality,” Luna replied regretfully. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 270
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Labouring alone in the dark, Bucky found himself far too focused on everything he had learned earlier. His mind reeled from everything he had taken in, and he felt overwhelmed and slightly panicked. He pushed those thoughts and tried to focus on other things instead. He thought about his magic, the act he was doing right now, at this moment. Magic scratched the itch. It was his to command. It was his to control. It was his expression. He could do terrible or beautiful things with it, or even terrible beautiful things with it. He always felt a sense of rapture, a joyous surge of wonder when he conjured the deep magic. Even the dark magic now called to him, singing a siren song to his soul, urging him to use more and more, to satisfy his itch. It didn’t matter which type magic he used, all of it made him gloriously happy. 

He teased it out of his body, pulling it forth from the deepest parts of his being, sometimes it flowed forth and sometimes it spurted violently, rushing out in nearly orgasmic bursts. Magic had been his first true love, and while he was still very fond of it, he had other loves now. He shivered as he called forth a sizeable gush of raw energy, shaped it in his mind, and then released it in a steady spine tingling flow that caused his breath to catch in his throat. 

It ached to hold the magic back and release it in a steady trickle. 

All around in his glass domed office were sixty four glass orbs, all of which were swirling around in a careful waltz, never colliding with one another as they darted to and fro. Streams of raw magic trailed between them. In the center was Bucky, hovering, airborne, transfixed in the eye of the storm. 

He needed harmonious magic, and he needed deep harmonious magic, the kind he could only summon now while he focused on those he loved to purify his Tainted essence. He let his mind wander as he continued to channel energy, drawing from the nearby ley line nexus where the Tree of Harmony resided. 

Golden eyes that glittered with loving merriment, fine thin strands of straw coloured hair that spilled down her neck in a cascading flow of sheer beauty, a pelt that was grey with just a hint of blue, these were the things he focused on to purify his essence. He felt a warm tingling in his balls that throbbed all the way into his dock and made his barrel hitch with every breath. The way she smelled. She was an electric creature, and there was always a faint hint of ozone hiding coyly in the feathers of her wings. The way she smiled, the little crinkles that formed in the corners of her eyes when she was radiantly beaming with unbridled joy. She was his laughter. 

There was a thunderous crackle that echoed through Bucky’s tower as he began to summon dangerous levels of magic. The stone walls began to take on an eldritch glow, a faint blue-green faerie fire burned over every surface around him. 

His mind turned to another pony, the first thing coming into memory was her come hither stare, the way her eyelids lazily lingered half closed as she longingly looked at him. The solid stockiness of her body. Her fine plum wine coloured pelt. The way her curly mane the colour of crushed raspberries tumbled and bounced around upon her brows as she pranced. The way her face changed so quickly, going from anger to happiness in the span of seconds. While she was beautiful, he didn’t value her for her body, but for her mind. She was his intellect, she was his wisdom, she was everything he needed but lacked between his own ears. He would be lost without her. 

The glass globes around him took on a strange glow, the glass itself swirling with a rainbow sheen, like soap bubbles reflecting in the summer sun, a slick shimmering prismatic spectrum of colour was now infused into the glass. These orbs were going to be special. Bucky was deeply in tune with the ley line now, having surrendered his will. A portion of his own life essence was going into these orbs, sacrificing his own lifespan so Equestria could have a better future. The ley lines knew what needed to be done. 

His thoughts shifted once again, and he thought of the third mare he had fallen in love with, she with two forms, both beautiful. She was smaller and delicate, not quite a mare, but on the verge of being one, and she was a gorgeous monument to fertility at the moment, her belly swollen, her body fat with foal. Her eyes were the colour of the sea during a storm, an almost incandescent shade of green. He thought of the flowers that grew in her mane of water weeds, and how everywhere she went, she brought the scent of springtime with her, the heady aroma of new growth that inspired a pony’s mind to think of love and foalmaking during the season of renewal and rebirth. 

Eldritch lightning sprang from his horn and struck the glass globes in orbit all around him, crackling and bursting with raw harmonious thaumaturgical fire, each orb being touched in turn. Bucky curled into a fetal position as he floated, unaware of his body curling up, lost in magic, floating in a womb of blazing, burning spellfire. 

An image of a rose and cobalt coloured mane flashed in his mind, flowing large wavy curls that spilled down over a pair of eyes as blue as sea ice. A pelt that was the colour of fresh cream. Her body was stocky and broad, a solid creature, a beast of burden that held boundless beauty that could be found on every cushioned curve, and could be witnessed watching every rippling muscle. She was a physical creature with earthy wisdom, and she was as honest as she was beautiful. She was a rare treasure, a mare who loved him with every fibre of her being, and, although there had never been deep physical intimacy between him, he had never cleaved apart the secret places of her femininity with his own flesh, somehow she was as precious as the air he breathed. She kept him true. 

A low orgasmic moan escaped Bucky’s lips. He was lost to the world now, his body and mind consumed with magic. The whole tower vibrated now, it had become like a living thing, and the walls reverberated with magic and the thunderous crackles of the eldritch lightning flowing from Bucky’s horn. 

In his mind’s eye, he saw a pair of orange gold eyes staring into his own. They were merry, but occasionally flashed with grief and sadness, eyes filled with secret hurt that tried to act as a whole with the rest of her fine features to offer a brave face to the world. Orange gold eyes that burned with mischievous fires that matched his own inner chaos. Her body was fine, delicate, she was not solid nor sturdy like the others. He had her trust, his reward for overcoming her sense of hurt and winning her guarded affection. It was one of the things he valued more than just about anything else, what he considered a true treasure worthy of his royal blood, she was one of his five crown jewels. They shared a bond through magic, and, as unicorns, both knew an intimacy that the others would never know, having bared their minds to one another. She had let him in to touch her deepest and most hidden innermost places, an act that went far beyond base physical intimacy. 

With a cry, Bucky released a massive surge of magic that caused the glass globes to glow from their own power, each now alive and radiating light that matched the colour of his magical radiance, a blue-green glittering shine. They were almost alive now, primed and readied for the final touches that would give them faint sentience, a gift of awareness. 

With a savage growl that escaped from his lips, Bucky’s magic shifted, becoming black as the empty void. The room around him filled with streams of raw dark magic, Tainted essence mixed with the raw magic drawn from the ley lines. His own divine spark radiated its own signature energy, while he was not an alicorn in body, he was one in soul and spirit, and he was creating weapons for war. His inner nature manifested as he called upon the deepest magic within himself. The shadowy forms of two wings grew from just behind his withers, dreadful things, horrid things, the wings of nightmares lost in the shadows of Tartarus.

Just as he had focused on love to purify his essence, he now lost himself in hate, fueling his inner nature and giving strength to his divine essence as it manifested. For a moment, his wings seemed almost solid, it was as though they were just one overlapping dimension away, the next reality over, ready to come creeping and crawling into this reality if Bucky so willed it. For a moment, his flesh vanished and he became a writhing mass of black swirling shadow as his shadow nature manifested and merged with the dark magic he was channeling, two different types of magic infusing into one fiendish emanation of raw power. 

He thought of his mother, and all she had done. Her tongue was as sharp as any axe, keener than any sword, and cut deeper than any surgeon’s scalpel. She always knew just what to say to bring the pain, her acid words lingered in his ears, caustically dissolving his will as they burned into his mind. Her face was always contorted with severity and cruelty. Her eyes blazed, burning with her inner hatred for everything. Nothing was safe from her ballistic cruelty, which always struck its targets flawlessly, always evoking hurt and helplessness when her heartless words invariably found their mark. 

Faint sparks of dark energy now burned within the glass globes, the foundations for further dark enchantments. The seeds of hatred that would draw in further dark energy and give it a place to find purchase, gain strength, and eventually find balance with the harmony magic infused into glass. The darkness lurked in the center, inside the hollow of each globe, lurking just under the light, a hidden place of corruption and dread. 

Bucky was now unseen, surrounded in a globe of blackness that shrouded his body and was rapidly growing and filling the room. No light from the moon that shone through the glass dome could reach his flesh. It was primordial darkness, the stuff that existed just before there was light. Only the glass globes, a fair distance away from Bucky, could be seen as they continued their orbits, moving counterclockwise around the unicorn shrouded in darkness in the center of the room, floating high in the air. 

He allowed his mind to recall thoughts of his time under the mountain. The spirit lich trapped in crystal who sought to ascend, who wanted to become demon shadow. He thought of the long stairs, the seemingly endless stairs, all of Sombra’s descendants probably had an obsession with stairs and Bucky was no different, each step down made his heart heavier and heavier with growing hatred, the torturous lying words he had heard upon entering burning in his ears. He thought of how Lyra had been violated and a cold seething rage filled his bosom. Memories of laying in a vast pool of his own blood danced around in his mind’s eye. He allowed his mind to think of those black thoughts he had experienced when he believed that he was going to die down there in the deep dark, and how much hatred he had held in his heart during those moments, the hatred he had used to summon enough dark magic to give him the Taint. 

With an explosive blast, Bucky channeled a powerful intentional surge of dark magic. It tore through his mind and devoured his consciousness. Agonising mana-fire burned through his body, consuming him from within, electric agony dancing along every nerve. A high pitched keening scream tore raggedly out of his throat. There was a pain in his horn, it was as if he was forcing his body to pass something too large out of a hole too small. He felt a ripping tearing sensation in the base of his fulgurite horn, down in the root, and an all consuming agony bubbled through his brain. Finally, the darkness in his mind matched the darkness shrouding his body, and the black flames of magic danced unseen along his body inside of the sphere of darkness all around him. A small piece of his soul tore free, and his divine essence sought out the glass globes circling around his writhing form. 



 

Tasting copper in his mouth, Bucky awoke. His head throbbed dully as he realised he was laying on the cold stone floor. He opened his eye, which felt as though it had gummed over, and it was a struggle to pull his eyelids apart. He looked up and saw the moon directly overhead. He rolled over onto his back and rubbed his head, groaning and moaning from the hammering inside of his skull. 

Letting out a startled cry, he twisted his head around trying to see if the torture he had endured from his own magic had paid off. He spotted a glass globe upon the floor, it was fine, it glowed with an eerie light, and he willed it to come to him. 

It rolled over the floor, moved by some unseen force, pulled along by a blue-green manifestation that came from Bucky’s jagged blade-like horn. It clinked and it clattered as it rolled, rolling over tiny grains of sand that Bucky needed to clean up. He lifted the orb to have a look at his most precious creation. 

Orbs of undead compulsion. He had found a way around using necromancy to detect the undead. Instead, he had enchanted the orbs to draw in anything that gave off a necromantic signature, overcoming it’s unnatural animation processes and forcing it to be drawn to the orb through a powerful compelling force of irresistible compulsion. Any location that the orb was placed the undead would gather, mindlessly milling about and herded together by a powerful dark enchantment. 

He heaved a sigh of relief. Sixty four orbs that would gather the undead. Myrmidon units could use the orbs to draw in the undead for disposal. It wasn’t detection exactly, but it was unicorn cleverness. A solution to the problem, a workaround that bent the rules but did not break them. 

Looking up at the shimmering prismatic orb that pulsated darkness, Bucky began to cackle as he lay in a silvery pool of moonlight. It wasn’t cheating when he did it. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 271
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know Mister Rich, I have recently fallen in love…” 

Looking up from his menu, Filthy Rich was suddenly distracted from his worrisome decision of what to order. It wasn’t breakfast time, it wasn’t quite lunch time, it was that time of day just in between that always irked him and made him irritable. He looked at Ivory Scroll, the town’s mayor, painfully aware of the fact that his pulse quickened when he looked at her and her words lingered in his ears. 

“Fallen in love, have you?” Filthy Rich gruffly asked, his gaze dropping back to his menu so he wouldn’t give himself away. She was just one mare of many that he had an interest in, and he couldn’t fathom why he was suddenly so flustered, or why the thought of ordering the food to go seemed so important. 

“My job,” Ivory Scroll said, staring off at some non existent point on the distant horizon, her eyelids batting as she spoke. “For a time, I was actually starting to hate my job. Every day it was a grind. Every day, I had to cater to the whims of the Ponyville pony plutocracy. The democratic processes we pride ourselves upon in this town had ground to a halt. Our town hall meetings were going nowhere. The bureaucracy of this town had everything in a stranglehold. Every day was spent in meetings getting nothing accomplished.  I hated them so much. But recently, I’ve been able to meet with my ponies again. Talk to my constituents. Things are getting done now. I can have meetings with concerned townsponies and work gets accomplished. Funny, I resented Buckminster for what I believed to be interruption of our democratic processes, but I now believe it was a restoration of said democratic processes… He and Twilight gave us our right to self rule back and broke the backs of budget bearing despots and ended committee driven tyranny. I can do my job again and feel happy. My cutie mark has actually been tingling lately because I am so pleased that I can do my job again.” The mare took a deep breath and sighed, her eyes focusing on Filthy Rich. “And I get to have a marvelous mid morning brunch with you Mister Rich…” she breathed, allowing an alluring look to linger over Filthy Rich. 

For a single hot second, Filthy Rich felt something that was awfully close to infatuation, and for several hot seconds, he entertained the idea of Ivory Scroll tying him to his own bed with his collection of neckties. That would be satisfying. 

“So Mister Rich,” Ivory Scroll stated, her voice almost a question with the first three words. “What do you recommend for brunch?” 

“Radishes,” Filthy Rich growled, daring to look the mayor in the eye. 



 

“Gourds you say? How… quaint... Twilight,” Rarity said, puckering in her lower lip and sucking her cheeks in to make her muzzle look drawn. The fashionista flounced away from her friend and threw herself down upon a sofa in a fit of pique. “Giant gourds no less… this is the solution to the housing crisis, giant birdhouses? In a hideous dull brown-green?” she heaved, laying one well hooficured hoof upon her brow as her breathing began to increase dramatically. 

“Yes,” Twilight snapped, watching with some small sense of irritation as her friend dialed up the drama-meter to almost unprecedented levels for this occasion. “Giant gourds that could be grown quickly, scooped free of seeds, dried out rapidly, and turned into a comfortable shelter that will allow ponies to survive the winter. Each domicile will have a door and a couple of windows. There won’t be any indoor plumbing I’m afraid, but that-” 

“That’s dreadful!” Rarity wailed. “No indoor plumbing!” 

Taking a deep breath, Twilight drew deep from her patience reserves. “Celestia wants this winter to be cold, far colder than usual. The land needs to be healed. She is going to have Buckminster work up-” 

“You know, I’ve been meaning to speak with him about a few ideas of mine. I’m thinking a floor length cape, trimmed in ermine. Faux fur of course. Something to highlight his regal features. And I could make a fashion line fit for… fit for… fit for kings,” Rarity interrupted in a breathy voice full of inspiration, her barrel heaving as her words neared their finish. 

There was a loud “THUNK!” when Twilight’s head hit the table. She raised her front right hoof a few inches, dropped it with a thud, raised it, dropped it, and then raising it once more, allowed it to drop for a final time, tapping out and admitting defeat, just like she had to do when her big brother best friend forever used to give her hoof noogies. 

“Coco, darling sweet Coco, she says she finds him curiously handsome. Can you believe that?” Rarity inquired, still on the sofa and staring up at he ceiling, her nostrils flaring in frustration, completely oblivious to Twilight’s suffering. “For some reason, the fact that Coco finds him handsome irks me Twilight, whatsoever shall I do? I can’t have this feeling of dreadful annoyance lingering between friends, do you have any advice?” 

“Perhaps one friend should listen to the other while they are talking, focusing and paying attention to what is being said,” Twilight suggested, trying to keep her teeth from grinding together. 

“Oh, capital idea Twilight,” Rarity agreed. “Maybe when I take Coco to the spa later I can get her to talk about how handsome he is for around an hour or so and maybe then it will be out of her system and no longer a concern, so we can move on to more important things.” 



 

The kitchen was full of hot mareflesh, not that Bucky was in a position to notice. He was barely even a quarter awake, a cup of coffee before him on the table, and his head hung over the cup so he could breathe in the fragrant steam. Scowling, he realised his coffee was still black. Reaching out with his magic, he grabbed the nearest available source of milk that was free roaming on the hoof, which just so happened to be Bon Bon. He tugged her over, positioned his coffee cup down between her hind legs, gave her a few quick well practiced tugs upon her marvelous teats, and then levitated his coffee back upon the table. 

Bon Bon let out a slow hissing breath, her eyes rolled back up into her head, and when she inhaled, she shuddered. There was milking, and then there was milking, and Bon Bon suddenly felt delightfully dirty. She walked away from the table as she heard the clinking of a spoon stirring sugar into a coffee cup. “Hmph, I never even got a kiss,” she grumbled, grinning from ear to ear about Bucky’s lacto-lechery. “Ooof!” 

Once again, she found herself tugged across the floor by magic, turned around, and then two lips pressed into hers. She resisted for a moment, on general principles, token resistance, this was after all, a kiss done after the fact, after she had complained, but it was too nice a kiss to pass up. She leaned into it, and for a moment, her lips parted as Bucky’s lips parted, and they breathed the same air, causing electric pitter pattery tingles to go coursing up and down her spine. She pulled away with an audible “smack!” sound, and then as an after thought, planted a quick peck on the good side of Bucky’s face. 

“That was kind of a turn on,” Derpy said, smacking her own lips together a few times, her gaze darting from Bucky to Bon Bon, and lingering on both as she squeezed her bad eye shut. She leaned over the kitchen table and peered closely at Bucky, realising there was something different about him. “You have more silver hairs. I’m just noticing this morning for some reason. Where did all of these come from? I don’t remember seeing these before…” 

Shrugging and giving a noncommittal grunt, Bucky said nothing but took a sip of his coffee. 

“The silver in your sideburns is kinda sexy, a turn on by all accounts,” Berry grunted, hoisting up her own cup of coffee to have a sip. “The house is quiet. Too quiet. The foals are up to something.” 

“Dinky, Piña, and Diamond Tiara were up till the wee hours of morning lighting their farts on fire,” Lyra said as she rubbed up against Bon Bon, causing an audible crackle of static electricity. “They’re still asleep the last I checked.” 

“Do I even want to know how you know this?” Thistle asked. 

“Sentinel told me earlier this morning,” Lyra replied. “Sentinel is growing up. I had to help him change his sheets this morning. Poor little fella looked so embarrassed. Barley told me that Sentinel came to him the first time this happened, but this morning, Barley and Rising Star were already gone with the dawn. So Sentinel came to me. I’m so happy he trusts me.” 

“What happened?” Thistle asked, blinking and not understanding. 

“My poor little colt suffered from a wet dream,” Lyra replied. 

Suddenly, a stream of coffee gushed from Bucky’s lips, spewing all over the kitchen table and onto the floor. He set down his cup as he began to hack and cough. He struggled to breathe and Derpy began to pound him on the withers with one front hoof. 

“I don’t think he suffered,” Berry mused. “The fact that it was wet indicated he had a good time.” 

A terrible pained wheeze could be heard from Bucky after Berry had her say, and five mares all stopped and watched their husband with a growing feeling of alarm. Bucky coughed and sputtered, and the first sounds of heaving laughter could be heard escaping from his throat. Five tightly puckered sphincters relaxed slightly, and perked ears stood down. 

A wad of paper towels descended upon the mess, wiping up the spittaked coffee from the table and the floor, Lyra’s horn flaring brightly as she worked. 

“So Sentinel has been having those sorts of dreams. Well, he’s about that age. I suppose I shall have myself a talk with him,” Berry chuckled, her voice full of an almost teasing merriment. “When I do, I want backup. Bucky, I’ll need you there.” 

“I’ll never forget the first time I caught Sparky doing the laundry. I thought she was being grown up and responsible, taking care of chores early in the morning, but then I saw her cheeks and the pleading way she looked at me, begging me not to say anything with her eyes. And I knew,” Derpy said, still rubbing Bucky’s back while she spoke. 

“What happened?” Thistle questioned. 

“Of course I said something. I’m her mother. I’m obligated to take every opportunity I get to embarrass her so that way when she’s a grown mare, we’ll have something meaningful to talk about over tea or coffee,” Derpy answered. 

Drawing in a deep raspy breath, Bucky tried to restore his calm as he took another drink of coffee. 

“So our little Sentinel is growing up… anypony notice the flustered look he has when he looks at Diamond Tiara?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Yup,” Lyra replied. “He’s adorable. He’s looking without trying to look. He wants to be respectful of her body, but at the same time, he wants to look at everything there is to look at. He’s so stuffy and formal about everything. I like to watch him sniff after she passes by.” 

“So what is our policy about dirty magazines?” Berry asked. 

“Oh Sentinel would never look at those,” Derpy said dismissively. 

“I’m not worried about Sentinel… too much anyways. Dinky and Piña on the other hoof, I could totally see them both looking at the pictures in a dirty magazine and snickering together like the horrible little imps that they are,” Berry explained, her words causing Bucky to chortle. 

“Colts are still gross to both of them,” Derpy argued. 

“But for how long?” Berry inquired. 

“Forever, if I have my say,” Derpy deadpanned in reply. “Thunderlane was just telling me that Rumble’s mother, Flitter, found some dirty magazines under Rumble’s bed. Flitter didn’t take it well. She left the magazines under the bed where she found them, and then she cried for the most of the day Thunderlane said. He had to endure a cry-fest rutting to make her feel better.” 

“I know how that is. Sometimes a mare needs a good cry while she is being railed. It gets the poison out,” Berry remarked. “No mother wants to admit her sweet innocent little colt is growing up and becoming something other than her sweet little innocent foal that she birthed,” she said in a shockingly gentle yet straightforward manner. “My mother said it made hugs awkward knowing that her colts were at an age when even a slight breeze left them turned on for hours. She had to love on them quickly and then run away before the consequences manifested. Eventually, she just gave up and grew distant.” 

“Yeah,” Derpy agreed, her nostrils flaring as she began to sniffle a bit. “It was hard losing Sparky to growing up. I wasn’t ready,” she whimpered. “I’m not ready to give up my other foals just yet. I want more time. I need more time.” 

“Do you think that Sentinel would really look at dirty magazines? I mean, we want to believe that he wouldn’t, I think we all want to believe that, but as stuffy as he is, he is bound to be curious and want to look,” Bon Bon said, her ears folded back against her skull as she watched Lyra moving jars of canned veggies into the pantry. 

“I don’t want Sentinel to turn out like I did. I’d buy the magazines for him myself if I wasn’t worried about what all of you would do to me,” Bucky interjected, his words causing five pairs of eyes to focus upon him, glaring balefully. Bucky ignored them all and continued to drink his coffee. 
	
	
> Chapter 272 (Warning: dangerous levels of "D'aaaaw!" found within, not responsible for diabetes or sudden death) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t understand why you’d be upset… about me buying Sentinel a dirty… magazine,” Bucky gasped and grunted as Berry Punch worked on his spine with her hooves. She was straddling him and he could feel her warmth upon his croup. As she worked, little pops and cracks came from his spine, and the occasional burst-fire crackle. 

“Because you bought it you oaf!” Berry retorted as she kneaded along Bucky’s back just behind his withers, feeling out knots and crushing them gently, rubbing and moving her hooves, pressing in and twisting gently, and savouring the feeling of his warm body tucked between her hind legs as she sat on his back. 

“I don’t get it, you’re no prude, I can’t… ugh… yeah right there… oh by the stars… that’s wonderful… I can’t understand why… you would… be upset,” Bucky moaned, his words forcibly extracted by Berry’s hooves making each rib along his spine pop. 

“The whole point of a colt his age having porn is that somehow, they bought it on their own, or traded for it somehow, or did something to get it, so it feels special to them. The sense of triumph. The feeling of accomplishment. Good grief Bucky, what did you do to your back last night? Anyway, a colt or a filly has to feel like they are doing something sneaky, that somehow they are smarter than their parents. It is an important part of growing up. Part of the rush of having porn is the thrill of being caught. And Sentinel deserves that little thrill,” Berry explained as she continued to work on Bucky, using the hard edges of her hooves to press into the grooves alongside of Bucky’s spine and grind the kinks out. She slid herself forward, dragging herself over the knobby bumps of his spine, feeling his croup brush along her nethers. She let out a slow hissing breath that sounded like a tea kettle as she worked, and felt rewarded by the unicorn going limp beneath her. 

“I get… I get it now… ah… AH… oh… oooooh… oh yes Berry, right there… that spot… I get it now, Sentinel… ah… oh my… needs to feel a little… dirty… about it… so it… will do… him some good… EGADSSHOULDMYSPINEDOTHAT?” 

Berry slid off of Bucky’s back and laid down beside him on the bed. She was feeling aroused, but there was no point in getting Bucky worked up and undoing all of her hard work, not to mention the fact that right now, he probably wasn’t able to move, nor would he be able to move for a fair bit of time. “Just stay down for a while. Your back was messed up in a way that’s usually seen on an earth pony pulling wagons. Your spine was out of alignment. I put it back. You should feel a strong tingly feel-” Berry Punch paused as Bucky began to cry out, he let out a whimper and banged on the bed with his remaining right front hoof. “Like I was saying, you should feel a strong tingly feeling in your hips and hind legs as sensation returns and it might hurt a little,” Berry continued, wiping a tear out of Bucky’s surviving eye as she spoke. 



 

With her ears perked for danger and every muscle in her body ready to spring into action, Ripple stood watch. She stood on the edge of the sloping roof of the farm house, looking down upon the donkey and two foals down below. Bittersweet herded the foals in her care, keeping them together, not letting one or the other wander off. Ripple trusted Bittersweet’s eyesight, and they were far from the Everfree treeline, but Ripple decided long ago that she didn’t like taking chances. 

There was something about her that appealed to Ripple; being mute, she had a quiet mysteriousness, and to understand her, Ripple had to spend a lot of time looking directly at her, looking directly into her eyes and at her lips when she mouthed words. Bittersweet had the most marvelous script and it was delightful to read Bittersweet’s written notes. While reading Bittersweet’s notes was pleasant, watching Bittersweet’s lips as she mouthed her words ever so carefully was one of Ripple’s favourite new pastimes. You had to pay attention, you had to hang on every word, you had to make your mind recognise the patterns of sounds if you wanted to understand what was being said. 

And Ripple always watched with rapt attention when Bittersweet had something to say. 

There was much to learn from Bittersweet, and Ripple was an avid pupil when it came to the ear language that Bittersweet offered to teach. She had already spent a number of silent quiet hours watching Bittersweet’s lips, reading her fine spiderwebby script, and focusing on Bittersweet’s long rabbit like ears, trying to learn the alphabet of the ears. 

Scanning the horizon, Ripple squinted and looked for anything that might be a danger. The Everfree was behind her, behind the house and past the lake, and ahead of her was the front yard, the road, and the copse of forest that existed along the road that led to Ponyville. There were a few curious rabbits that wouldn’t live for very long if her brother Sentinel saw them, a few tree dwelling rodents that were far too cheeky, and two phoenixes preening one another and necking. 

Looking at Bittersweet directly, Ripple felt strangely nervous. Her frogs felt sweaty and her underwings always felt itchy. Her throat felt hot and dry, and Ripple suddenly wanted a cool drink of water. She had been feeling this way a lot lately, and she wondered if she was under too much stress. She wanted to talk to Sparkler, she felt compelled to do so, but she didn’t know what to talk to Sparkler about. There was just need to talk to somepony she trusted, but first she had to figure out what to talk about or why she wanted to talk. 

Nothing made sense, and as Ripple stared at Bittersweet, completely unaware of the fact that she was doing so, the feeling of confusion grew considerably. 



 

“This is a personal organiser. I have taken the liberty of filling in all of the names and addresses of the various newspapers you have obligations with, as well as the contact information of the editors and directors you have been in touch with, including their home addresses that I gathered from my father’s agents,” Diamond Tiara said, her hoof resting on a small ornate book that was trimmed with brass caps along the corners. “And this is an agenda. I’ve taken all of your current deadlines and due dates and marked them in on this month and next month’s calendar. You had everything scratched out on loose bits of paper on your desk, including one that fell behind your desk and could no longer be seen. That would be disastrous if you missed a project due to a lack of organisation. So I am going to help you. When you get a project, let me know all about it and I will keep these two books current and up to date for you,” the highly organised earth pony offered as she reached over the table and touched Sentinel’s forehoof with her own. 

The agenda was almost identical to the personal organiser. Both were bound in smooth but grainy green material, had brass caps along the corners of the covers, and were filled with beautiful ivory coloured paper. 

“Thank you,” Sentinel said, trying to sound gracious as his voice came out in a nervous squeak. He felt his muscles tense as his voice nearly cracked. Her fetlock folded around his leg, squeezing slightly, lingering over him, and he could feel her softness and her warmth. 

“Success is all about organisation. If you want to make your father proud, ahem…” Diamond Tiara paused for a moment after her voice had become a faint squeak and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. She cleared her throat a few times before she continued. “Erm well, sorry about that, if you want to make your parents proud you have to succeed, and if you want to succeed you need to be organised. So we can clearly see that organisation is key to making your parents proud. Especially your… especially your mothers. It is important to keep her proud.” 

Sensing that something seemed off, Sentinel’s ears perked forward. Diamond Tiara looked incredibly sad for a moment, and also in pain. It had only been on her face for a brief second, but Sentinel was certain he had seen it. 

“I, er, um, I need a moment to myself,” Diamond Tiara said, excusing herself from the table as she slipped out of her chair and landed upon the floor. She took off in a hurry, one ear twitching, her tail swishing, her barrel heaving. 

Leaping from his chair, Sentinel went after her, coming up alongside her in the hallway as she attempted to escape. He overtook her, turning about as he past, and then stopped while facing her. He saw tears in the corners of her eyes. 

“What’s wrong?” Sentinel asked, his tone insistent, his snoot an inch away from Diamond Tiara’s. Her breath still smelled like toothpaste and orange juice. As he watched, more tears began to trickle down, making the fine hairs on her cheeks turn a darker pink. 

“Please, let me go,” Diamond Tiara begged. 

“No,” Sentinel stated, not budging, and ready to move if she ran off in another direction. 

Her barrel hitching, and pained whimpers coming out of her throat, Diamond Tiara closed her eyes and stood there, unmoving, trying to breathe. “Don’t look at me, not like this,” she pleaded.

“I’ve watched my sisters cry. You’re no different,” Sentinel said, all of his previous nervous squeakiness now gone. The scent of lavender and lilacs teased Sentinel’s nostrils and made him want to sneeze. It was her scent. Lavender, lilacs, toothpaste, orange juice, and something else. Something feminine. He leaned in just a little closer, unaware that he was doing so. “Talk,” he commanded. 

“Mmm… mmm… mmm… my mmmm… mmm.. mmm.. mother left mmm… mmm… me,” Diamond Tiara moaned, her utterance coming out in pained panting gasps, the tears now flowing freely. Her backside fell to the floor and she sat upon her dock painfully, which did not help her condition at all. 

“So is this acting to get my attention as it was with Luna or am I seeing something real?” Sentinel inquired, his tone analytical and curious.

The words caused Diamond Tiara’s whole face to contort with pain and she began to scoot away from Sentinel, pushing herself with her front legs and sliding her backside over the hardwood floor. “I… I… I deserve…” she stammered, her words dissolving into a plaintive wail. “I deserve that,” she sobbed. 

Sentinel came to the sudden and painful realisation that she was not acting. He moved to her side and sat down, and as she tried to squirm away from him, he wrapped one wing around her body and forcibly pulled her close. She slapped him, once, twice, and finally a third time, striking him solidly in the chest with one front hoof, but he ignored her feeble struggles. She was an earth pony, but he was a lunar pegasus that lived in a world made out of paper and glass that he always had to be oh so careful with, lest he wrecked and destroyed everything he touched. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. 

“So am I,” Diamond Tiara cried, almost hiccuping from her sobs. She resisted for a while longer, wanting to pull away from Sentinel, but then realised her efforts were futile. She went still and allowed herself to be held, feeling embarrassed and ashamed. 

“You lost your mother?” Sentinel asked, his voice gentle, his tone soft. He flexed his wing and drew her in closer, and he could feel her ribs pressing against his own. Her body was soft and had give to it when it was squeezed. It was entirely unlike Moonbow’s body, which was like hugging a fuzzy stone covered in a fine silky shaggy pelt. He squeezed a little more, feeling her warmth seeping into his own flesh. He heard her gasp and he turned his head to look at her. 

A moment later, two lips brushed up against his own, and Sentinel discovered he was once again, the victim of a surprise kiss. This one was timid and clumsy, it was salty and flavoured with tears, toothpaste, and orange juice. Diamond Tiara’s whole muzzle was soaked from her weeping. He felt her body twist against his own, turning, trying to face him, and Sentinel found that he could not let go at this moment even if he wanted to, and he squeezed even more, discovering just like his father had, that earth ponies were in fact, quite durable and solid, and made to be squeezed. The kiss progressed, becoming even more confusing, as Diamond Tiara continued to cry even as she pressed her lips even harder into Sentinel’s own. 

Finally, she pulled away and then buried her face against Sentinel’s neck, still sobbing, pressing her whole body up against him, no longer ashamed and finally able to let go. 

Unbeknownst to the pair, a grey pegasus, a cream coloured earth pony, and a mint green unicorn all watched silently from the kitchen archway, their expressions solemn as they stared down the hallway. The earth pony leaned on the pegasus, and the unicorn kissed the earth pony with a swift peck on the cheek. 
	
	
> Chapter 273
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Awkward silences were difficult to talk about, difficult to break, and were frequently the leading cause to even more awkward silence, such as what existed between Sentinel and Diamond Tiara, who sat side by side at the dining room table once again, trying to figure out what to say and do after their rather soggy first kiss. 

Turning his head, Sentinel caught a sideways glance of Diamond Tiara. Her face was still stained with tears. Her nostrils were crusty. At any moment, he figured that she was going to slip off and go to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Her mane stuck to the sides of her face and she was still breathing heavily. As he watched, she wiped her nose with her foreleg, leaving her fetlock shiny looking with snot. She was certainly a mess. 

Trying not to look at Sentinel, Diamond Tiara tried to make sense of what had just happened. She felt light headed, confused, and entirely too warm in certain places, like her ears and her cheeks. Her mind kept recalling the sensation of being squeezed by Sentinel, the powerful crushing sensation that was so delightfully comforting somehow. The hug was somehow even more memorable than the kiss. It had been almost impossible to breathe, she had felt wonderfully light headed, as well as the most important aspect, while trapped in his iron embrace, she had felt as though nothing could touch her, nothing could harm her, and she was free to just let go. Her eyes darted nervously to the left and lingered for a moment on Sentinel’s dark rust coloured mane. 

The silence was oppressive and neither could figure out how to overcome it. 

Help came in the form of an overly cheerful green unicorn, who came bursting out of the kitchen bearing food, a plate full of cookies and fresh milk held aloft in her magic, which she promptly set down upon the table. Without further ado, she grabbed the snot encrusted earth pony filly in her magic and went to work scrubbing her off with a hot steaming towel, scrubbing her face first, ignoring her muffled protests and feeble attempts to escape. Once Diamond Tiara’s face was cleaned, Lyra wiped Diamond Tiara’s two front legs until they were clean enough for Lyra’s inspection, and then she smiled broadly at the pair. 

“Both of you are so sweet together,” Lyra announced, grinning from ear to ear. She then turned and hurried away, practically bouncing with excitement, each step nearly bursting into a pronk as she retreated. 

A second later, there was a bright flash from the archway leading into the dining room, and a very proud looking pegasus retreated into the kitchen holding a camera in her wings. Her laughter could be heard, a cheerful sound that was infectious, as other ponies in the kitchen began to laugh.

“Ugh,” Diamond Tiara grunted, covering her face with her hooves. “There goes our dignity.” 

“At least mother Lyra scrubbed your face,” Sentinel whispered, finally having something to say. “You kissed me,” he accused in an even lower whisper. 

Squirming in her seat, Diamond Tiara kept her hooves over her face. “You were so warm. It felt so nice… you were holding me. It was like my father holding me, but different. I felt… I felt…” the filly stammered, and then fell silent, her words trailing off into a shrill pre-adolescent squeak of shame. 

“Thank you for the organiser and the agenda,” Sentinel said, trying to restore his aplomb while enduring the increasingly awkward moment. He cautiously reached out for one of the glasses of milk, hooked a wing around it, and pulled it close without spilling any. He pondered the plate of cookies, wanting one, but worried that it might be rude to take one before his guest did. 

“You are a perfect gentlecolt,” Diamond Tiara murmured around her hooves, which were still over her face. She took a deep shuddering breath and felt a little better. After a moment, she allowed her front hooves to drop down to the table. 

“I am sorry for my accusation,” Sentinel apologised, still eyeing a cookie. There was a peanut butter cookie sitting just under an oatmeal cookie. He felt a tiny flood of drool begin in his mouth, under his tongue, in the wet squishy places where drool happened. The peanut butter cookie was tantalising. It was alone, the only one of its kind, and it called to him. 

Inhaling sharply, Diamond Tiara turned to look at Sentinel. “But you were right to make it. I need to be held accountable for my behaviour and taken to task. I slip up so easily if I stop paying attention for even one moment. It is so stressful always having to be on guard constantly.” 

Turning to look at the earth pony filly beside him, Sentinel tore his eyes away from the peanut butter cookie on the plate just under the oatmeal cookie and looked at Diamond Tiara. Lyra had done a wonderful job of cleaning her up. He felt his heartbeat increase and he was suddenly aware of the blood flowing through the vessels in his throat. He could feel it, feel the pressure of it, feel the heat of it as he suddenly felt warmer. He leaned forward, towards Diamond Tiara, drawn in. He had made the mistake of looking into her wide shimmering eyes for just a moment too long, and he had fallen in. Now, he wanted to feel her softness again. 

Just as his lips were about to brush up against hers, his chair, a treasonous object, tipped over from too much weight placed on one side. With a thump and a clatter, Sentinel and the chair went down to the floor. 

The colt was up on his hooves a moment later, and the head of a cream coloured mare poked in. Seeing her colt was okay, she departed just as quickly as she appeared, and Sentinel’s ears burned when he heard her snickering. 

And then, Diamond Tiara started to giggle as Sentinel stood his chair upright and climbed into it, once again sitting beside her. He sulked, sitting in his chair, all feelings of goodwill and good manners forgotten, and, feeling very foalish, he reached out and took the peanut butter cookie, snatching it between his thumb and central knuckle. He took one petulant nibble and chewed in sullen silence as Diamond Tiara tried to quiet her giggles. 

“I’m sorry,” Diamond Tiara whispered. Ever so carefully, so as to not repeat Sentinel’s mistake, she leaned over, wrapped her forelegs around his neck, and kissed him softly on the cheek, the scent of peanut butter cookies clinging to her nostrils and forming a memory that she hoped would remind her of this moment forever. “This might be a terrible time to ask, but, I wanted to know, would you be my very special somepony?” 



 

The mares all agreed that more photos were in order. The photo of Sentinel and Diamond Tiara together was priceless, and as they worked in the kitchen, the mares would pause to gush over the picture laying on the table. 

“Well, we have lots of milk now,” Bon Bon said as she folded salt into a large bowl of butter, carefully blending it together with a rubber spatula. 

“Do you think Diamond Tiara might be a little freaked out if she finds out where the milk we just gave her comes from?” Lyra inquired, her tone sheepish and worried. She was preparing garlic for the bin, pulling away stalks and green bits with her magic and tossing the bulbs into a large wooden container for storage. 

“She might,” Derpy answered with a broad smile, her bad eye squeezed shut and her good eye focused on the picture. “But she’ll get over it. Foals are resilient.” 

“Derpy’s milk weirds me out,” Lyra said. “It’s like a partially melted milkshake.” 

“Pegasus milk is thicker and creamier. It also doesn’t freeze at high altitudes or low temperatures,” Derpy responded, her tone cheerful. 

“It also makes sticks of butter you could build a house with,” Bon Bon muttered. “I swear, it’s like hard cheese. You could run Derpy’s butter over a cheese grater and have little butter shreds.” 

“Not fair,” Lyra groused as she tossed more garlic into the bin. 

“Motherhood is more than the thickness of your milk,” Bon Bon said reassuringly, patting Lyra as she took a break from her task. Bon Bon heaved a sigh and thought about the feeling of Harper nursing, the warm glow she felt, and the tingly sensations that caused her so much happiness, and she regretted not doing this sooner. 

“Or how much milk you can produce. Berry Punch has us all beat. I feel inadequate,” Derpy grumbled, her wings fluttering as she spoke. “I don’t know how she does it, but she can fill a bucket like no other mare can. All alone she can produce more milk than Bon Bon and I can make together. And a few hours later, she has more.”

“She’s gifted,” Bon Bon agreed. “Our foals will never know hunger with Berry around.” The mare felt a shiver run up and down her spine, the memory of Bucky milking her fresh in her memory. She took a deep breath and composed herself before going back to salting the butter. 

“Thinking of Bucky?” Derpy asked, leaning closer to Bon Bon and perking her ears forward. 

“How could you tell?” Bon Bon gasped. 

“Because. I’m a pegasus. Observation powers. And every mare that Bucky touches makes a certain face when she thinks of him. Thistle does it, Berry does it, I have no doubt that I do it, and I just saw you do it,” Derpy explained in reply. 

“So we have the ‘Bucky face phenomenon’ do we?” Lyra inquired. She turned towards Derpy and raised an eyebrow. “Have I made this face?” 

“Lyra, I want you to think for a moment about the times when you’ve been scared, frightened, and then think about how Bucky held you. Think about how your body felt pressed up against his. Or think about how he has kissed you… ah, there we go,” Derpy said as she watched Lyra trembling in her chair, the unicorn mare’s eyes narrowing, the flared nostrils, and the sharp intake of breath. 

“He is becoming a bit too good as a kisser,” Bon Bon remarked, thinking of the smouldering smooch she shared with Bucky earlier. She felt heat blossoming in her belly, spreading upwards into her barrel, into her throat, and finally the heat radiated from her cheeks. She felt like a school filly again and was unable to stifle a giggle. 

“He gets too much practice,” Derpy replied. “He’s clever. He studies each of us and knows just which buttons to push when he has his way with us. Not that I’m complaining.” The grey pegasus rested her head upon one hoof, her elbow propped up on the table. 

“Sentinel is getting a bit of practice lately as a kisser,” Lyra said, her face looking sad and happy at the same time as she spoke, her eyes wide and full of barely contained emotion. 

“Think he’ll keep Diamond Tiara on a straight and narrow path?” Bon Bon questioned, her eyes darting from Derpy to Lyra. “I worry about her. She’s trying, don’t get me wrong, but I have a bit of fear about her leading Dinky and Piña into trouble.” 

“To be completely honest I am more concerned about Dinky and Piña leading Diamond Tiara into trouble. Both of them are still a little unsettled from the isles. They know things that foals shouldn’t know. It’s changed them, done something to them. I am trusting Sentinel to keep all of them on the straight and narrow. And Ripple. I don’t know what I’d do without Ripple. Ripple keeps the girls leveled off and she acts as my eyes. My little fillies have no idea that Ripple keeps me informed of their plotting,” Derpy said, sighing once she finished. She slumped in her chair, her forelegs resting upon the kitchen table. 

“Dinky and Piña are still good… Dinky is a little prankish, but she is leveling out. Piña seems to be at that awkward in between place where she isn’t a little foal anymore, but she doesn’t seem to know what comes next as far as maturity goes. I am betting that she is at the age where her toys don’t talk to her as much anymore and all of the stories in her mind about their adventures are fading, being replaced by her own adventures,” Bon Bon said, her voice wistful, her gaze distant and focused on some non existent spot upon the wall. 

“Gosh that’s depressing Bonnie,” Lyra groaned. 

“I remember when my toys stopped being fun,” Derpy said. “Poor Sentinel. I don’t think he’s ever even had a toy, much less had a toy talk to him in his imagination, or gotten lost in a world of pretend.” The grey mare drooped, slumping down into her chair even more. “That’s really depressing.” 

Reaching across the table, her fetlock folded, Bon Bon brushed the soft edge of her bent leg along Derpy’s cheek, wiping a tear away. “Cheer up, we gave him a better life, that counts for something.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 274
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was late afternoon when Princess Luna and Princess Twilight Sparkle blinked into existence in the front yard of the farmhouse, arriving with a thunderous crackle of magic. The pair wasted no time and immediately let themselves inside, where they were greeted by the herd living in the farmhouse, who was quite happy to see both of them. 

After much time was spent saying hello and exchanging pleasantries, Luna got right down to business and pulled Bucky into the kitchen, with Twilight following along behind them. 

“You sent me a message requesting my presence. And Twilight Sparkle’s as well. You said it was important and that we need to come as soon as possible. We are here. What is so important?” Luna questioned, her tone brusque. 

“I have a gift for both of you,” Bucky said in an openly smug teasing voice. “But not here. Meet me at the top of my tower,” he invited. He gave Luna what appeared to be a coy wink, a difficult feat for a one eyed pony. A second later, he exploded into a cloud of snowflakes, leaving Luna covered in a layer of frost. 

Shivering, Luna shook herself free of the ice and snow and turned to look at Twilight. “I really hate when he does that,” Luna deadpanned. “Let’s go,” she commanded, disappearing with a crackle of magical energy.



 

“This is not the top of his tower,” Twilight grumbled. 

“No. It is not. Somehow, our teleportation has been blocked. No matter, we shall take the stairs,” Luna replied, casting a glance at Twilight, her eyebrow raised in irritated sense of annoyance. 

“I can teleport anywhere,” Twilight growled. “I’ve even teleported into Celestia’s private rooms. Something is rotten here and it smells like the stinky warlock upstairs.” 

Nodding, Luna agreed as she went to the staircase and mounted the steps. She took a few steps and immediately noticed there was something wrong. The stairs felt too steep. Too dizzying. There was something disorienting about them. Her hooves felt heavy and she found herself struggling after just a few steps. Nothing too bad, but just enough struggle to be rather annoying. She heard Twilight grunting behind her. 

“You MONSTER!” Twilight shouted. “You wretched SPAWN OF SOMBRA! WHAT IS IT WITH STAIRS AND THE BOTH OF YOU?” Twilight bellowed, her voice echoing up the stairs as she stomped up each step, her anger making her horn glow menacingly as she took each step. “Sane ponies enchant stairs to be easier to climb or allow for winking… when I get up there I’m gonna…” 



 

Panting in a most uncouth manner, Luna took the last few stairs and then staggered into Bucky’s office. There was sand all over the floor and one very smug looking unicorn examining a small glowing glass globe. For a moment, Luna felt the conflicting feelings of loathing and admiration for Bucky, and she was torn between which feeling was stronger. 

“You monster!” Twilight heaved, pushing past Luna rather rudely and staggering into Bucky’s office. “You demon... of impossible staircase architecture! You warlock of impractical interiour design!” 

“Sticks and stones may break my bones… but whips and chains excite me,” Bucky teased, looking up at the pair. He heard a chuckle from Luna, but Twilight continued to growl and grumble. “I am still fine tuning the stairs. When a student is sent to the headmaster’s office, I want it to be memorable,” he explained patiently, ignoring his distant cousin’s outbursts. “Thank you for your assistance. Your input had been most helpful.” 

“You dastard!” Twilight bellowed, sitting down with a plop. She grimaced as she felt the sand clinging to her sweaty pelt and other places where sand should never go. It did nothing to help her mood having sand creeping up into those places. She squirmed, which only made the sand go creeping ever deeper, attracted to moist sweaty places that she was sitting upon. 

“I am sorry, I really don’t have any furniture yet,” Bucky apologised, his tone sincere this time. He made a dismissive gesture with his stump. “But that is not why I brought you here,” he announced. 

With a flourish, he lifted two glass globes with his magic and levitated them over to Twilight and Luna, making them dance in the air, moving in an orbit around one another, a delicate graceful dance. It was the showy gestures of somepony who took a lot of pride in their work and felt justified in showing off. 

“These are orbs of undead compulsion. They attract the undead. They do not use necromancy. They override the animation magic of the necromantic spell and make it behave like a golem made of meat. Any undead in a wide area will be forced to walk towards the orb, where they can be dealt with in whatever way is wise. I have sixty four of these. I plan to keep one, I am giving one to both of you, and I plan to give one to Celestia and one to Cadance, which leaves quite a few to be used by Myrmidon units. This is me being clever,” Bucky bragged, doing absolutely nothing to hide his almost unbearable sense of smugness. 

Examining the small glass orb, Luna took it into her own magic and eyeballed it carefully, scrying and divining its magic, and beside her, Twilight was doing much the same. Luna turned it over carefully, noticing it was a self contained merging of harmonious and dark magic, the harmony magic was infused into the glass that contained a dark magic core. The design was brilliant, beautiful even, in both concept and physical appearance. And then, she detected something she did not expect. 

“This contains some of your life,” Luna stated, her tone cold and rather angry. “You… you shortened your life to make these. You made sixty four of these!” she snapped. 

The smug look adorning Bucky’s face vanished and he slumped down, his ears splaying out sideways, and he pulled his stump to his barrel, trying to look as small as possible as Luna began to boil over. 

“YOU STOLE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE AWAY FROM YOUR FAMILY!” Luna shouted, her eyes wide with fury, her nostrils flaring, and her wings flared for maximum intimidation as she took several steps forward and towered over Bucky, one wing raised high to slap him silly, quivering, barely held in check. 

“I did what had to be done,” Bucky hissed, becoming defensive and daring to glare up at Luna, angry with her for being furious rather than grateful. “My life is already shortened. We both know that… I will go to Tartarus in a manner of my own choosing! And when I go, I will drag as many of Equestria’s enemies with me as possible!” 

“Well this explains the silver hairs I see,” Luna spat, her tone icy. “We could have found a way. A different way. If necessary, we might have even used necromancy, as problematic as that is.” 

“Buckminster, what did you do?” Twilight whispered, transfixed by the orb, its light shining upon her face and reflecting in her eyes. “So beautiful, but so dark, and made at such a terrible cost… how could you?” As she spoke, a single tear rolled down her cheek and splashed to the floor below, leaving behind a dark spot. 

“I regret nothing,” Bucky grumbled. 

“STOP SAYING THAT!” Twilight shouted, her eyes clenching shut as more tears escaped. She breathed heavily, her barrel expanding and contracting, and her wings drooped at her sides, the tips falling down to rest upon the sandy stone floor. 

“So you have made these artifacts at the expense of your own life. Equestria owes you a debt of thanks,” Luna said, her voice now a neutral monotone. Her eyes shifted away from Bucky and once again she peered into the orb she held in her telekinesis. As she stared, she thought she could see things. Shapes. Possibly even cutie marks. Her eyes narrowed and she peered into the orb, trying to see what it had to show her. 

“If you keep looking, you will not like what you see,” Bucky warned. 

Tearing her gaze away, Luna cocked her head at Bucky. “What manner of enchantment is this?” she demanded, her tone one of impatient curiousity. She raised one hoof and tapped at the orb, and when her silver shoe struck it, it rang out like the clarion call of a rung bell. 

“The dark magic… it seeks out necromantic energy and death. The orbs are directly connected to the ley lines, and thus, they are connected to the fabric of reality. If you stare into them for too long, you will begin to see the ones you love dying, each death more horrible than the last. I spent quite some time peering into them and not liking what I saw. It took me a while to realise it wasn’t scrying or prophecy, but the fear of death in my own mind that the orb was feeding on,” Bucky explained. He shifted uncomfortably and looked at Luna, a look of dreadful apprehension upon his features, one ear dangling down beside his face. 

“So these can have some unpredictable effects upon the weak minded living,” Luna stated, her ears perking forward and her eyes narrowing. Once again, she dared peer into the orb and watched the rainbow colours swirling along the glass, occasionally revealing the darkness lurking inside. “This is good to know.” 

Opening her eyes, Twilight peeked into the orb and her mouth fell open. “So beautiful,” she breathed. She raised her wing and touched the orb with her extended primaries. “Strong enchantment has always eluded me,” she whispered. 

“Enchantment is more about empowering what you create rather than just raw power channeled to empower the self,” Bucky said, a proud look creeping over his face. “It is a subtle art that few truly grasp or fully delve into.” He lifted several orbs with his magic and they began to orbit around his head. “I have other ideas I plan to implement. Don’t worry Luna, none of these plans involve shortening my life any further, but that might still happen in the future.” 

“I would rather you didn’t,” Luna said, her voice pleading. “I am sorry for my outburst, but Buckminster… how could you?” she asked, this time, her voice gentle and warm with concern. 

“I did what needed to be done. I fear I have become a pragmatist Luna, I don’t know if the ends will justify the means, and I doubt I will live to see the ends. Others will have to determine if what I did was justified,” Bucky answered. 

“I don’t understand... dark magic gains strength through hatred, through anger, through selfishness… these orbs reek of dark magic, I can’t imagine what you had to think about to focus this much darkness in these orbs, but you committed such a selfless act in their creation… this is a contradiction that I cannot reconcile,” Twilight said, expressing her innermost thoughts out loud. “How is such a thing possible?” 

“I get the feeling that dark magic and harmonious magic isn’t quite as black and white as we currently believe. Buckminster’s extraordinary creations offer evidence of this, and we need to reexamine what we currently think we know,” Luna replied, turning to look at Twilight and observing the foal-like sense of wonder and curiousity upon Twilight’s face. She turned her head back around to look at Buckminster, who was peering into one of his own orbs. “One of these should go to Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks,” Luna instructed. 

“They could put one of these to good use,” Twilight agreed. “The Bureau of Thaumaturgy thanks you,” she added, still studying her orb, its rainbow light reflecting upon her white teeth peeking out of her open mouth. 

“I actually take a little bit of comfort in knowing that after I am dead, a part of my own life essence will continue to serve Equestria. A thousand years from now, those orbs will still serve a practical purpose in keeping ponies safe,” Bucky said, a soft sad smile playing across his crooked mouth as he looked down at his collection of magical orbs. 
	
> Chapter 275
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Two fillies relaxed in a bathtub, one purple-pink and the other charcoal grey. They each reclined, facing one another, one looking exhausted, the other looking pensive. The purple-pink filly had her eyes closed, the charcoal grey filly had her eyes open, and she looked at her bathtime companion with interest. 

“Am I pretty?” Ripple asked, her voice wavering with worry. 

“Yes,” Sparkler replied, one eye peeping open to look at Ripple. “Why do you ask?” 

“Because I’m not like you. I’m dark and dull looking. All of the other fillies and mares always seem so bright and colourful. I feel so plain. Plus, I am always covered in bumps, bruises, lumps, and cuts. My sister has the same pelt colour as me, but at least she doesn’t look like she has been chewed on and spit out,” Ripple answered in a weak sounding voice. 

“Loch Skimmer is hawt,” Sparkler admitted. “She does it without even trying. You’re hawt for different reasons,” she continued, opening both eyes to look at her tub mate. 

Ripple squirmed under Sparkler’s gaze, feeling self conscious about her appearance. The bathwater was strong with the smell of mint and jasmine, it tickled her nose and appealed to her inner feminine nature. “I mean, I want to be girly, okay, maybe I don’t like dresses that much or even clothing because it just feels wrong, but I like having my mane and my pelt brushed. I like looking pretty. I like feeling girly and doing girly things when I am not crushing something into paste. I liked it a lot when Dinky tied ribbons into my mane and dolled me up a bit. But having a black eye that was half swollen shut kind of ruined the effect.” 

“I came home with white salty sweat crusted all over my hide after running my cadets through the woods over fallen logs and leaping over streams and running up and down hills along the gorge just north of here. I stunk to high heaven. I smelled so bad that my own mother didn’t want to hug me or touch me until I got clean. We clean up fine,” Sparkler said, trying to reassure Ripple, not sure of what to say or how to say it. 

“But I stay covered in bruises,” Ripple whined, her voice finally breaking from her emotions. “I feel hideous.” 

“And you are bothered by this now of all times?” Sparkler asked. 

Ripple sank down in the water, feeling her hip slide up against Sparkler’s. Her leg, pressed against Sparkler’s ribs, could feel Sparkler’s muscles quivering as her body endured its many twitches and spasms because of her condition. Ripple’s ears drooped and her light blue mane darkened where the water soaked into it. “I didn’t mean to,” she murmured. 

“You didn’t mean to what?” Sparkler inquired, her ears splaying out sideways in confusion. Beneath the water, her front hoof moved over Ripple’s belly and rubbed reassuringly, stroking the soft skin, making gentle little circles that made Ripple wiggle under her touch. 

“Sparky, I think I have a crush on some… some one and it isn’t you. I didn’t mean for it to happen, I just suddenly realised I had some of the same feelings for them that I do for you and I am so sorry and I wasn’t trying to cheat and-” 

“Shush!” Sparkler commanded, cutting Ripple off. When she spoke, Ripple fell silent, her guilt visible on her features. “Very calmly, tell me what happened.” 

“Earlier today I was with Bittersweet. I was up on the roof watching her as she watched over Harper and Peekaboo. I have these weird urges to keep them all safe you see… anyway, when Harper and Peekaboo were taken indoors for a nap, Bittersweet and I started talking and we kept leaning in closer and closer and I was watching her lips move and trying to understand the ear language she uses and then I’m not sure how, but our snoots bumped together and we both started blushing and I am not even sure how I know, but I know for a fact that she is like me and my heart started racing and we just kinda sat there for a few minutes staring into each others eyes I swear nothing else happened and when I thought about it later I realised I’ve been having these feelings for a while now, and they’re like the feelings I have for you because you really are something nice to look at, I think it is a pegasus thing, I like to look at things and it makes me feel good in certain places and-” 

“Ripple,” Sparkler interrupted, butting in gently. 

“...and I never want to be unfaithful to you or Rising Star ever but I can’t help how I feel and-” 

“Ripple!” Sparkler shouted.

“What?” Ripple said and then fell silent, looking at Sparkler, trying to show how sorry she was by looking as submissive as possible.

“Ripple, honey, I am not angry. I want you happy. If you fall in love with somepony, or somedonkey in this case, then we will work out a way. I know your heart already belongs to me, and if I can share Loch Skimmer with Rising Star, then I can share you. If this becomes serious enough, I will speak with Rising Star and we will discuss our options. Now hush. I’m tired and everything hurts. We’ll talk more when we’re not trying to relax in the tub,” Sparkler said, looking Ripple directly in the eye and keeping eye contact. 

“Okay Sparky,” Ripple agreed, nodding her head slowly. 



 

All of the adults were in a tizzy. Peekaboo quite liked the panic, the adults searching frantically for her, crying out her name, saying “Peekaboo!” repeatedly to get her to appear. She stayed very still and did not move, her eyes closed, and she tried to hold her breath for good measure. Even the pony with the big spiky horn was looking for her. Daddy was prowling the house calling for her, and her mama had walked right past several times, Peekaboo could tell by the sound of her voice and the clatter of her hooves as Yew Wood trotted right past the chair where Peekaboo remained hidden, her eyes closed, trying not to giggle. She knew the sounds her mama made all too well. All of them. She had a lot of mamas now to make up for the mama she had lost in the water and had trouble remembering. Some days she remembered more; other days, it seemed more like a dream. 

“Peekaboo! Be a good foal and show yourself!” Derpy cried. 

“How does a pegasus foal just vanish?” Bon Bon asked, her face crinkled with worry, her brows furrowed. 

“Sentinel!” Bucky bellowed. “Sentinel, front and center!” 

Peekaboo heard a clatter of hooves and the rustle of wings. She squeezed into her hiding place, scrunched her eyes shut even tighter, and swallowed her need to giggle. This was too much fun. 

“Sir, reporting for duty, sir!” Sentinel replied, snapping up a wing in salute. 

“Sentinel, sniff out Peekaboo. I want her found,” Bucky commanded. 

“Aye aye, sir,” Sentinel answered and then dropped his nose to the ground. He sniffed the hardwood floors, moved slowly, approached Yew Wood, sniffed her, snuffled up her front leg, pulled away, sniffed along the ground until he reached Lugus, whom he sniffed for several long moments, and then Sentinel took off down the hall and into the kitchen, where he proceeded to sniff around. 

“Very interesting, that little colt,” Lugus said in a low worried voice. 

“I strongly suspect that Sentinel’s sense of smell is magical in nature,” Bucky said in a low voice to Lugus. “We keep interesting squires.” 

“We do,” Lugus agreed. 

“Nothing in here,” Sentinel reported. “Except there is the corner in the pantry where mother Lyra keeps going to fart.” 

“I was trying to be well mannered,” Lyra cried, protesting her exposure. She blushed and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. Her eyes darted to Bucky, then to Lugus, and then to everypony else standing around. 

Sentinel came tearing through the archway of the kitchen and then into the living room. He stopped, sniffed, and then dropped his head to the floor. He snuffled for a bit and then looked at Lugus. “She’s in here.” 

“We’ve looked everywhere in there,” Lugus said. 

“She’s in here,” Sentinel insisted. He sprang forward, crossed the room, and then froze near Barley’s chair. He sniffed around, peered under the chair, sniffed, and then froze. “Hey, she wasn’t there when I just looked a second ago,” he said. 

“She’s under the chair?” Bucky asked. 

There was a giggle from under the chair and there was no mistaking Peekaboo’s distinctive giggle. Yew Wood dashed through the room, kneeled down, yanked Peekaboo out from under the chair, held her in her forelegs as Yew sat back on her haunches, and began to squeeze her foal, torn between a mother’s anger and a mother’s relief. 

“She wasn’t there when I first looked, honest,” Sentinel said, looking his father in the eye, his face filled with concern. 

“I believe you,” Bucky said, turning his eye upon Peekaboo. For a moment, he thought he saw something on her hip, but then it was gone. When he turned to look at Sentinel again, he saw something in the corner of his vision, and his eye darted back to Peekaboo. Again, when he looked, he saw nothing. “There is something peculiar going on here,” he announced. “I keep seeing something out of the corner of my eye on Peekaboo but it vanishes when I look at it directly.” 

“I see it,” Lugus reported, his sharp eyes darting back and forth. 

“Some kind of mark, but I can’t see what it is exactly,” Sentinel said, cocking his head off to one side and trying to peer at Peekaboo’s backside. 

“So Peekaboo just got her cutie mark for hiding? We’re doomed,” Yew said in a defeated voice. She squeezed her foal and kissed the top of Peekaboo’s head, a few tears now slipping down her cheeks. 

“I strongly suspect that we are in for a lot of trouble,” Bucky announced. 



 

“So you smooched my brother,” Dinky said, looking at Diamond Tiara and raising an eyebrow at her friend. The filly leaned forward on her bed and pushed her book aside, a Daring Do novel brought from her old bedroom. 

Nodding, Diamond Tiara did not reply. 

“That’s kinda gross,” Piña whispered. “Do you know what he eats?” 

Once again, Diamond Tiara nodded, but said nothing. She knew what Sentinel ate. Dinky and Piña had both told her in detail. She tried not to think about it too hard. She swallowed, feeling slightly queasy and had the sudden urge to brush her teeth. 

Leaning forward, her face now inches from Diamond Tiara’s, Dinky squinted and tried to look as intimidating as possible. “Are you going to be a good filly?” 

With a shrill squeak, Diamond Tiara nodded for the third time, still silent, and she could feel Dinky breathing on her snoot. She let out a wordless cry when she felt two legs wrap around her neck, and then relaxed when she felt a hug. She allowed herself to fall into Dinky’s embrace. 

“I’d be happy if I could call you sister someday,” Dinky whispered. 

“I’ve heard my sister talk about love,” Piña said. “She tried to explain what it was like when she looked into Bucky’s eyes and just knew for certain that he was the one, he was the pony that she had been waiting for her whole life for. She knew that she loved him more than anything else, more than any other pony she had met, and she wanted him to be the father of her foals.” Piña fell silent and looked thoughtful, prodding at the pillows with her hooves, and then looking at Diamond Tiara. “I wonder if there is some kind of magic that lets us know when we meet our special somepony.” 

Dinky, letting go of Diamond Tiara, sat back on her haunches and looked at Piña. “Sparky told me that she felt that way about Rising Star. She knew before we left for the isles that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.” 

“I don’t know what I feel,” Diamond Tiara admitted, finally saying something, her brows furrowed. “I do know one thing.” 

“What’s that?” Dinky asked. 

“When I finally let go and started bawling my eyes out, when he was holding me… when I turned to him and cried, I didn’t feel ashamed about it,” Diamond Tiara replied. She heaved a sigh and then her gaze moved to Piña. “I wish I had a mare to talk to. There is Gala Appleby, a mare my father is kinda seeing, but I can’t talk to her about this kind of stuff.” 

“I could call Berry up here. I’m sure she’d be willing to talk to you about girly stuff and love. She’s good at that stuff,” Piña offered. 

“I dunno if that is a good idea,” Dinky said, her voice hesitant. “We’ve all seen what Berry did to Loch Skimmer…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 276
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a satisfied sigh, Bucky gazed longingly upon The Scorned Mare in her docking cradle. Life had turned into a blur for a while, with so much to do and so much to get done. All around him life was rapidly moving ahead. Rising Star’s smithy neared completion, a few small houses had been built by the Royal Solar Corps of Engineers, and the docking cradle for his ship had been finished. The school had seen much progress, the current dormitory towers had been finished, and new ground had been broken for several more. 

The Scorned Mare had indeed been upgraded. She had a semi-rigid gasbag shell now, somewhat smaller than the old gasbag, with a cloud scoop and all manner of new arcano-tech gadgets. And that was just the gasbag. The ship itself was now thoroughly modern with indoor plumbing, with toilets and showers, a modern kitchen, and far more comfortable berths to sleep in. 

Along her sides were electro-cannons, three rows of nine each, for twenty seven guns total on each side, all of them automated, each of them ready to spew lightning at a foe. The Scorned Mare had more electro-cannons than any other ship her size, making her a small but formidable foe.

The ship was fully stocked and ready to go. 

Bucky however, was not ready to go, but he would do his duty. 



 

The library, now filled with even more books, was a comfortable and cozy place. It was, perhaps, Bucky’s second favourite room in the farmhouse, the first being the nursery. It was the place where Bucky chose to hold court, if one wanted to call it that, and where he was currently sitting with Mister Rich, discussing last minute issues before his departure. 

“Do you think Rising Star will be able to make a small cast iron wood burning stove for every single gourd house?” Mister Rich inquired, shifting in his seat, his pen held at his hoof, and poised over paper on a clipboard, which was resting on the small study table before him. His eyes looked upwards, and his gaze fell upon Bucky, who was sitting in a high backed chair some distance away, and Mister Rich couldn’t gage Bucky’s current mood or what he was thinking. 

“I think he will. The forge is almost completed. And you misunderstood, he isn’t going at this alone, Princess Celestia has some of her own blacksmiths and metal workers on this task. Rising Star will only need to make a few hundred, and while I do believe he will be slow to start, once he figures it out, with his magical skill he should be able to crank out a dozen stoves at a time once he warms up to his task,” Bucky answered, doing nothing to hold back the impish smile spreading over his muzzle. 

“My apologies,” Mister Rich returned, one eye widening and his ears lacking back ever so slightly. His pen slashed at the paper and he made a few notes. “I was working with faulty information it seems. There are a lot of ponies criticising the gourds. For all of the critics, there are a lot of homeless ponies who are desperate to have anything.” 

“I am still irked that the credit keeps going to either Twilight Sparkle or myself, when it was Rainbow Dash who had the idea. I grow weary of dealing with ponies who want to take me to task for this issue when it wasn’t even my idea,” Bucky grumbled. He lifted a glass of rum to his lips and took a slow swallow. 

“We have managed to secure a few more teachers and teacher’s assistants. All of whom are willing to work at your school, but they understand that they must first assist Twilight Velvet and Night Light with the refugee foals and Cheerilee in the schoolhouse. Things aren’t looking nearly as grim as they once did,” Mister Rich reported. 

Nodding, Bucky felt pleased at the news. He took another sip of rum. It burned his throat pleasantly and filled his insides with warmth. His remaining eye glanced at the door when it opened and he saw Sentinel step inside. He watched as his colt moved through the room and then take a seat in chair at the table, close to Mister Rich, and then pulled over a pile of papers to begin reading through them. 

Try as he might, Bucky couldn’t discern how he felt about Sentinel taking so much interest in civics and the colt’s obsessive need to understand all of the gritty mind numbing details. His wandering mind was interrupted when Diamond Tiara sheepishly entered the room, darted to the table while peering at her father, and then took a seat beside Sentinel. 

“Gimme those reports,” Diamond Tiara demanded, snatching away a sheaf of papers from Sentinel. “Those are unorganised. Reading them will make no sense.” She immediately began to sort through the papers and handed a few of them back to Sentinel, scowling, and shooting an icy glare at her father for his failure to pre-sort the reports prior to the meeting. 

Stifling a laugh, Bucky somehow remained silent when he heard Sentinel groaning. He turned his attention to Mister Rich, took a deep breath, caught a whiff of his rum, and then breached an issue that he had been thinking about for a while. “Ponyville needs a police station and a jail. I know there is enough money in the budget to begin planning. We need to either convert a previously existing building or build a new one. Sparkler has introduced her cadets to the community as police, and they need a base of operations.” 

“So many building projects, so little time,” Mister Rich sighed. “We have the funds, not sure about the labour. Most ponies are working on the apartment buildings that are going up. The labour is horribly unskilled at construction. We have ponies who used to be marketers and department store salesponies trying their hoof at construction. There’s been injuries and quite a few have been hurt.” 

“I know, Loch Skimmer tells me about her job in detail,” Bucky replied. “She wants to learn how to be a paramedic…” 

“Daddy, these numbers don’t add up,” Diamond Tiara interjected, sliding a sheet of paper to her father. “Something seems off. Have a look please,” she requested. 

Bucky watched as Mister Rich took the paper and began to look it over, and then he watched as Mister Rich’s face melted into an angry scowl. There was a clatter as Mister Rich’s pen fell to the table. 

“What is it?” Bucky asked, raising his eyebrow. 

“Somepony is spending too much money on too many supplies for the project. The supply list reads all wrong. Thank you Diamond, I will have this thoroughly examined,” Mister Rich growled, his irritation building up into a fury. 

“Think somepony is embezzling?” Bucky inquired. 

“Without a doubt,” Mister Rich answered. 

“Refugees?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m not sure,” Mister Rich replied. 

“Once you terminate the contracts, if they are, send them packing. We have no need for them here. If there is any protest, contact Twilight Sparkle and they will be removed,” Bucky instructed. 

Nodding in reply, Mister Rich picked up his pen and made notes of Bucky’s edict. 



 

“Aye, I see ye have an impressive list of references. Well, one reference, but many years of service. They get shipped off for being pricks and you get left unemployed, which is an awful thing at your age,” Barley grumbled as he looked over the sheet of paper he was given. “Do ye happen to know what neeps and tatties are?” 

“No sir, I am sorry,” the unicorn mare answered. 

“I am hesitant to hire a cook that doesn’t know what neeps and tatties are,” Barley said, raising one bushy grey eyebrow. 

“I am capable of learning,” the unicorn replied, her voice cracking with nervousness. 

“Must be tough, living a good life in the house of your employer and to suddenly find yourself in a refugee camp at your age, no longer pampered, safe, or warm at night,” Barley stated, genuine sympathy in his voice. “Semillon Bordeaux?” 

“Pronounced “Say-mee-yaw Bor-dough”... I am from Fancy. I can even speak Fancy which may help if you have any high society functions, which I am sure you will, given that there is a prince living here,” Semillon replied. 

“If you ever call him that, you will set him off something awful lass,” Barley warned. 

“I understand sir,” Semillon replied. 

“I like you,” Barley announced. 

“Thank you very much… sir,” Semillon replied, now trembling. Her eyes looked pleadingly at Barley and her barrel began to rise and fall at an increased rate. 

“And no, there is no way I am going to ask you to do anything that’ll rob ye of yer dignity in order to get or keep the job. I’m a randy pervert, make no mistake lass, but ye look like yer about to piss yourself. I’m guessing this is the part of the interview where other ponies ask what other household duties you can perform?” Barley inquired, blunt as always. 

The mare took a deep shuddering breath, let it out in a nervous squeak, and nodded. 

“None o’ that here. I’ll only flirt when I’m given a clear signal, otherwise, what fun is there?” Barley muttered. “Yer a fat cook if you don’t mind me saying so, and that puts me at ease. Never trust a skinny cook I say. Nae, dinnae be embarrassed lass, I meant it as a compliment. Look, I’m an arse, and I say stuff, you’ll get used to me in time.” 

“So I have the job?” Semillon asked, nearly holding her breath from nervousness. 

“Aye. There is a bedroom on the third floor that I think will be nice for you. Sits in a corner of the house, has two windows facing different directions. Sorry about all of the stairs. There is a bathroom right next to the bedroom,” Barley said, smiling at Semillon as he spoke. “I done hired me a Fancy cook. I’ve done well for myself, not bad for some old fart from the Shetlands.” 

“Thank you so much… you will not regret this,” Semillon whispered, her relief visible upon her face, her ears splaying out sideways as she smiled happily. 

“Oh, and watch out for wee Dinky…” 



 

Dinky came to the slow painful realisation that she should not have pranked her father. She panicked and pounded upon the arms of the chair, both of which were wrapped around her tightly and prohibiting her escape. The dining room chair had quite literally come to life when she had sat down in it, the arms grabbing her, and then it had scurried off, running for the front door, and was now running circles in the yard while everypony watched and had a good laugh. 

Even more alarming was the fact that nopony had come to her rescue. 

“Somepony help me!” Dinky cried. 

“No, I think I’ll watch,” Derpy replied. 

“Mama!” Dinky protested, squirming, trying to get free of the chair that was squeezing her and running around willy nilly, the come to life spell seemed to have given it no real motive other than to hold on to her and run on its four legs. 

“You pranked your daddy… Having a dragon roar come of the breadbox when he opened it… you nearly gave him a heart attack you little hooligan,” Derpy said, sitting down on a chair on the porch. 

“You know, it isn’t every day you see a chair running around the yard holding onto a foal,” Berry Punch observed. “I mean, weird stuff happens every day in this house, but this is exceptional. Bucky really went all out for this one.” 

“We had a saying in school… never prank anypony from the enchantment class,” Lyra stated, sitting down beside Derpy and setting her cold drink upon the ratty looking wicker table beside her. “This is why. Oh look, the chair is starting to spin around in a circle.” 

“Ugh somepony make it stop!” Dinky begged as the world around her spun crazily. For a moment, she could see the house, then the school, then the trees, and  then the house again, and the chair spun even faster. She felt her gorge rising. 

“That chair moves like a ballerina,” Bon Bon said, sitting down beside Lyra. 

“Sure does… how long before Dinky tosses her cookies?” Berry asked. 

“Did that chair just do a backflip?” Lyra inquired. 

“I do believe it did,” Derpy answered, nodding her head. 

“That’s impressive,” Lyra stated. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 277
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The house was full of ponies, but somehow, it did not feel crowded. They were packed into the living room, in the kitchen, in the dining room, and in the library. A few were sitting on the back porch, looking over the lake. This was a house rebuilt with a herd in mind, and it was meant to be full of ponies. 

A party was taking place, a farewell party, as some of these ponies were heading off to lands far away, off on the adventure of a lifetime, and the gathering was intended to introduce everypony to one another so that they might all be friends and get along together. 

Not everypony at this party was a pony. 



 

“And this is my pen pal, Flash Sentry.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle stood in one spot, twitching slightly, and kicking the ground with her hoof. She offered a sheepish grin, which quickly turned into a frightened embarrassed grin, and finally, after a few moments of social awkwardness, her head dropped low and her ears splayed out sideways. 

“This is not going as I had planned,” Twilight muttered, her ears drooping even lower. 

“Hello,” Flash Sentry said, his eyes darting around to take in all of the new faces around him. He extended one wing and waved. Reaching out his left front leg, he gently touched Twilight, which caused the nervous mare to nearly jump out of her skin. She lept away with a frightened cry, and a distinctly red flush appeared upon Flash’s cheeks. He stood there silently, radiating the heat of awkward shame. 

“I wonder if there is punch,” Twilight grumbled, and then took off to the house at top speed, trying to leave the painful situation behind her, her mane and tail streaming out behind her as she galloped. 

“You’ve have to excuse Twilight. She gets like this around Flash for some reason,” Spike the dragon said apologetically. “Oh, and thanks for taking me in while Twilight and the others are gone. I’m gonna love it here!” 

“We’re glad to have both of you as guests, and you are always welcome to stay here Spike,” Bon Bon said in reply. “My colt Sentinel is about your age. I think. Both of you probably have a few things in common.” 





“The new body looks good Discord.” 

Discord sighed and looked at Bucky. “This form feels so diminutive.” 

“Probably much easier to move around in,” Bucky responded, looking upon his friend with concern as they sat looking out over the lake together. He glanced at the dark grey pony beside him with three tornadoes as a cutie mark and smiled. 

“It is very kind of your family to take me in while all of you are gone. If I may, might I ask you for a favour Buckminster?” Discord inquired, his tone unflappably polite. 

“Anything for a friend,” Bucky answered, his ears perking forward as he spoke. 

“Please, bring my beloved Fluttershy back home… I… I have come to an understanding about love and I have no desire to come to an understanding about loss,” Discord said, his face creased with worry as he squirmed in his chair. “Death... Buckminster… it haunts my every waking moment. I have such… morbid thoughts. The idea of me dying or Fluttershy dying fills me with horrible dread. I’ve only just started living… that must sound strange coming from a being as old as I am.” 

“I will do everything within my power to do as you ask,” Bucky replied, his voice low and solemn. “I have a bad feeling about this though. I do not agree with Celestia on this course of action.” 

“Neither do I! Which is why I want you to keep her safe if you can… we both know what griffons are capable of… I know that you know because of your friend, Lugus, that giant warrior caste griffon… I know you can’t make promises, not over something like this, things can happen, but I just want your reassurance,” Discord said, his voice taking on a frantic edge as he spoke. 

“Mind if I join you?” 

Both Discord and Bucky craned their head to look at Silver Shill, who stood nearby, looking a bit out of place and out of sorts. Bucky waved him over and pointed at an empty chair, offering up a half smile as he did so. 

“I needed fresh air. Applejack got me flustered,” Silver Shill explained as he sat down in the chair and got comfortable. He settled in and allowed his gaze to fall upon the lake. 

“Had to cool off eh?” Bucky asked. 

“Yeah… Applejack snuck up on me and planted tulips when I wasn’t expecting it,” Silver Shill replied. “I couldn’t help but overhear certain things when I came out… I’m sorry… but can you keep an eye on Applejack for me?” 

“Of course,” Bucky answered, sighing, feeling a sense of dread and worry at the edges of his mind. He started to wonder what limb or which piece of his anatomy it was going to cost him to keep everypony safe. It was a black thought, and Bucky struggled to push it from his mind. 

“I feel bad for you Buckminster,” Discord said, his voice faintly sarcastic, and one eyebrow raised for dramatic effect. 

“Being taken away from my family?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Discord chortled. “Being trapped on a ship with Pinkie Pie.” 



 

Derpy watched the party as it began to take on a life of its own on the front lawn. Twilight and her friends were doing the conga, with Berry Punch bringing up the rear, just behind her friend Fluttershy. As Derpy watched, Loch Skimmer fell into line behind Berry, hooting and hollering, and then Ripple joined in, giggling as she grabbed her sister and joined the dance line. 

Derpy noticed that Sparkler was nowhere to be seen and her brow furrowed. 

Sighing, Derpy wished that she could enjoy the party. It wasn’t that there were too many ponies around, even though there were too many ponies around, it was that she had a bad feeling about the whole trip and wished that it wasn’t happening. 



 

“So those burn scars came from Sombra?” 

Looking over at Spike, Sentinel nodded. “They didn’t hurt so bad in the dream. I don’t know why. But in the waking world… I wanted to die,” the colt confessed. 

Cringing, Spike flexed his fingers and clicked his claws together. “Yeah, Sombra gives me the creeps. He’s the boogeypony. I still have bad dreams about him all of the time.” 

“I do too,” Sentinel admitted. 

“I had to rescue Twilight,” Spike said. “I became the Hero of the Crystal Empire.” 

“I rescued my father… and everything else that was at stake,” Sentinel replied. 

The little dragon looked thoughtful for a moment, and then his eyes widened. His frills trembled and he began to wring his hands together. His mouth moved for a moment, and then gulped, making a loud sound that could be clearly heard in the room. “Wait… if Sombra’s shadow would have taken over Buckminster’s body, claimed it as his own, and then used it to become the alicorn of war…” 

Nodding, Sentinel shuddered at the memory of his father’s near suicide. 

“...it might have been the end of everything we know,” Spike whispered. “Celestia said that I ‘prevented the end of everything we know and love’ when I stopped Sombra. Sounds like we both did,” the dragon said in a low frightened voice. “You know, your father and my mother might be the heroes that the world recognises, but we’ve done pretty good for ourselves.” 

“I don’t want ponies knowing about it,” Sentinel grumbled sullenly. “I want to forget it ever happened. I saw my father at the lowest point of his life. I can’t bear to think about it. I… love him dearly. I don’t always understand him or even approve of his actions, but I love him in ways I cannot express and will always respect him for the burdens he carries.” 

“I know how you feel,” Spike replied. “I love Twilight more than any gems or any of my comic books. She’s like the most wonderful mother anypony… er, anydragon could ask for. But it is a lot of work being her little dragon and Number One Assistant now that she is a princess.” 

“Somepony… hmm, somedragon, has to do this job. It falls on us to keep our parents safe, secure, and sane,” Sentinel mused. “My father would be lost without me I think.” 

“Sane… heh! Twilight loses her marbles all the time and I’m the one that has to sort everything out and keep her going. Like when I had to send a message to Princess Celestia when Twilight had that little incident involving the ‘want-it-need-it’ spell because she had nothing else for a friendship report,” Spike said, giggling slightly as he spoke. 

“My father goes a little mad on a semi-regular basis. I’ve heard a few stories about when he rode the locomotives into Ponyville… Princess Luna wanted me to keep an eye on him for a while… she didn’t go into full detail, but she said he was raving just a little bit… why are we so special? Why are we the ones destined to do what we do? Why are we both adopted? Why are we so alike?” Sentinel said, his words turning into questions. 

“I dunno, but it is nice to finally have a friend who understands,” Spike said, smiling and showing his perfect white teeth. 



 

“Once more with feeling!” Pinkie Pie shouted, pirouetting away on her hind legs and watching as Ripple kept pace with her, matching her balance and grace. The pair moved flawlessly together. “Nopony else can dance with me like this but Princess Cadance!” Pinkie squealed. 

Ripple lept, did a flying roundhouse kick, and landed on one hind hoof with perfect balance, her other hind hoof held high. She cartwheeled away and giggled as Pinkie Pie cartwheeled beside her. 

“So nice to have another acrobat!” Pinkie chirped. 

Loch Skimmer, never one to give up, wobbled around on her hind legs, her front legs held out to her sides for balance, and tried to dance like she had seen the other two doing. Loch squealed in alarm when she felt Pinkie Pie’s forelegs slip around her body and whisk her away, bouncing around with her, and the pair danced together, with Loch leaning on Pinkie Pie to keep her balance. 

“Dancing like this is about trust,” Pinkie Pie explained as she whirled Loch Skimmer around. “This is a special dancing between friends when you stand up on your hind legs like this to dance around. You have to move together and trust each other, so nopony falls over and gets hurt. You have to be extra special close friends and you have to anticipate each other’s moves. Especially when a pony does this!” Pinkie warned as she dipped Loch Skimmer over backwards and then whipped her back up as they continued to cavort and caper capriciously, circling continuously counterclockwise. 

Licking his lips nervously, Flash Sentry gave a headlong glance to Twilight Sparkle, who was busy talking to Rarity about something. His frogs sweating, he committed himself to a course of action. Before fear and doubt could consume him, he darted to Twilight, snatched her up in his forelegs, and danced her away from Rarity. His movements were clumsy and the pair threatened to fall over together a few times, but Flash persisted, holding Twilight close as she stammered wordlessly in protest, her cheeks ablaze with an inner glow. 

“See? Trust!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she whirled Loch Skimmer around. “Say, you’re getting better Loch, I bet you’ll make a marvelous dancer!” 

“Is it wrong that I am turned on by this?” Rising Star asked in a low voice to Barley, who was sitting beside him. 

“Aye, two mares dancin’ and prancin’ about… that’s good reason to suddenly have a hankerin’,” Barley replied. “I needs me a drink. I come home to get away from crowds of too many ponies…” the old stallion got up, his knees popping, and he trotted off inside of he house to invade the bar. 

To be continued in the next chapter of The Chase… 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 278
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I love this house. It is so beautiful,” Coco said to Derpy in a refined voice. She smiled graciously and her ears perked forward. “So spacious and perfect for raising foals with a big family.” Pausing, Coco cast a quick glance at Rarity. “I would like to have a family someday.” 

“The house is certainly large. It is so very quaint. It has a certain… rustic charm,” Rarity said slowly as she looked around, oblivious to Coco’s furtive glance. 

“Rarity, when you say it like that it almost sounds insulting. It is like you can’t think of anything nice to say so you put it into friendly trendy fashion terms as a hollow compliment,” Coco said in a low demure voice, leaning close to Rarity as she spoke. 

“Coco… dear… I-” 

“She’s right,” Derpy said sullenly, closing one eye and glaring at Rarity. 

“That was never my intention… I…” Rarity said, her words trailing off into a stammer followed by silence. She moued, her lip protruding, and then looked at Coco, her eyes large with hurt. 

“It isn’t honest, and it makes you sound a bit like Suri Polomare,” Coco said in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry, I’m an earth pony, and I must abide by my sense of honesty because I don’t want to turn out like Suri who ignored her earth pony sense. And we both know what that did to her.” 

“You’re right… Coco… Derpy… can you both forgive me? I have my faults, I’ll admit. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say and I guess the wrong words spill out. Coco, will you help me get better?” Rarity said, offering an apology and asking for help. 

“I forgive you,” Derpy grumbled. “I know how easy it can be to stumble over words.” 

“I forgive you as well and I will take you to task,” Coco replied to Rarity, a soft smile spreading across her muzzle. “And if you disappoint me, I have a well practiced pouty expression.” 

“You are a good… friend... Coco,” Rarity said in low voice. 

Smiling, Derpy watched the pair with interest, her keen powers of pegasus observation kicking into overdrive as she watched Coco’s earth pony body language expressing Coco’s feelings, the feelings that Coco obviously hadn’t expressed to Rarity yet. “You know, we have a fully stocked bar. Both of you should have a few drinks. I’m sorry, I can’t join you, foals in my tummy and all,” Derpy invited.

“Oh my, a few drinks sound lovely. I would die for a gin and tonic,” Rarity said, accepting Derpy’s offer. 

Coco, realising what was going on, shot Derpy a glance, smiled, raised one eyebrow, her eyes darted to Rarity for one moment, and then her tail swished from side to side. “Yes, I do believe a few drinks would help me to relax and enjoy myself. I’m the shy quiet sort, and I have trouble in crowds. Makes it difficult to be in the fashion industry.” 



 

“Nopony ever takes us sidekicks seriously, we’re always unappreciated and left in the background. Where would the hero be without us?” Spike grumbled in annoyance. He took a long drink of home brewed rootbeer, patted his belly, belched out a multi-octave belch, and squinted one eye in annoyance. “Twilight would fall apart without me. I never get enough thanks.” 

Shrugging, Sentinel downed a long gulp of rootbeer, burped thunderously, using his best pegasus manners, and looked at Spike with wide eyes. “I don’t have that problem. I am secure in my position.” 

“That’s not fair,” Spike growled, raising his clawed hand, curling it into a fist, and shaking it in a frustrated gesture. “I’d like to be a squire. I’m stuck being an assistant.” 

“A squire isn’t fun and games. Do you know how many officer’s manuals I’ve had to read? And I am still reading? And the pressures… don’t get me started on the pressures of being a Cornet. There is an entire book on initiating duels and the etiquette of dispute. You know, I’ve discovered a glaring discrepancy by reading from officer’s manuals. Ripple isn’t supposed to be an officer. She’s female. Females are forbidden from holding combat roles and ranks. Nothing in my life makes sense,” Sentinel groused. He guzzled down the last half of his bottle of rootbeer, set it aside, and cracked open another using his teeth. Spitting out the bottle cap, he raised it in salute to Spike, and then took a long drink. Once finished, he belched again, causing Rarity, who was walking through the dining room at the moment to freeze in place with a look of disgust, Coco giggled, and Derpy, his mother, shot him a look. 

“Sentinel, you disappoint me,” Derpy said in a disapproving voice. 

“I should say!” Rarity cried. “There are guests over!” 

“I’m sorry mother, I shall try to do better, please forgive me,” Sentinel begged. 

“Next time, open your mouth more and pull your throat open. Tilt your head back ever so slightly. I swear, you’re worse than Dinky. No colt of mine should have such poor manners,” Derpy scolded. 

“I really am sorry… really,” Sentinel whimpered. He slumped down in his chair and sulked, his expression one of pain and discomfort. “I try so hard.” 

“I… don’t understand… anything that goes on around me… anymore,” Rarity stammered, shaking her head and blinking rapidly. “I think I need that drink.” 



 

The crickets were out in force, the evening settling over the farmhouse, and the party was still going strong. Foals (and one dragon) were out chasing fireflies, most of the adults were out in the front yard, and quite a few ponies had imbibed a bit of social lubricant, making them quite loquacious as equines tend to be after a few drinks. 

The entire party came to a grinding halt when Coco Pommel pulled Rarity in for a smouldering tongue invading kiss. Rarity resisted, pulling and eventually breaking away from a disappointed looking Coco, whose eyes immediately began to moisten. 

“I don’t think I’ve had nearly enough to drink just yet,” Rarity announced in an an embarrassed voice. She lifted the drink levitating beside her to her lips and guzzled down the entire glass of gin and tonic that was mostly gin with very little tonic, smacked her lips, and then pulled Coco in for a quick apologetic kiss, followed by picking up where they had left off with the tongue invading kiss. 

The gathered adults watched for a moment, and Twilight immediately ran away from Flash Sentry, who was standing beside her. She darted over to Fluttershy and Discord, sitting down beside them, and grinned sheepishly as she peered around with her ears pinned back against her skull. 

“What’s her problem?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking Flash Sentry in the eye. 

“I have no idea,” Flash replied. 

“Ugh, sounds like Soarin eating pie,” Rainbow muttered, her gaze falling upon Rarity and Coco, who were now lying down in the grass and clinging to one another, making out for the whole world to see. 

“That’s kinda hot,” Flash Sentry whispered. 

Rainbow, hearing Flash’s whisper, slugged the pegasus on the shoulder. “Don’t be a creep, Flash,” Rainbow grunted. 

The orange pegasus bristled. He raised one eyebrow, glared at Rainbow Dash, and with one well practiced movement of his wing, slapped the sky blue pegasus across the muzzle. 

“What the hay?” Rainbow shouted angrily. “How dare you slap me?” 

The party froze again, with the exception of Rarity and Coco Pommel, who were far too interested in one another to stop what they were doing and watch the pegasi challenging one another. Educated observers noted that it was a friendly wing slap, which probably hurt Flash just as much as it did Rainbow, in return for Rainbow’s punch, which had only hurt Flash. There were a few gasps. 

“You might treat your flockmates like that, but I am not your flockmate,” Flash Sentry growled. “And I will be treated with the respect I am owed for the service that I do.” 

“Respect? You’ve been necking and dancing with Twilight all night, displaying your plumage, and then you go off and watch two mares make out and talk about how sexy they are… you… you… friend stealing pervert!” Rainbow Dash puffed out her barrel, her legs with stiff, both wings extended, her tail raised and swishing from side to side. “You jerk!” Rainbow shouted, slapping Flash across the muzzle with her left front hoof. 

“Challenge accepted,” Flash snarled, lunging at Rainbow Dash and body checking her, sending her sprawling backwards. Rainbow was upon her feet in a second, angry, embarrassed, and filling up with a full head of steam. She snorted… 

“Motherplucker!” Rainbow screamed, skipping the usual opening exchanges and going right for the pegasus pleasantries. She extended both wings and raised both central middle primaries at Flash Sentry, causing shocked cries and gasps from the ponies all around her. She lunged at Flash, moving with incredible speed. 

Flash, well trained, intercepted her combat tackle, used Rainbow’s own momentum as leverage, lifted her high, flipped her over, and then slammed her into the grass, flat on her back, knocking the wind out of her. She lay there gasping, trying to suck in wind, her wings flapping. He wing slapped her again across the muzzle. 

“You are a bully, a braggart, a boaster, and a boorish brute. You give us pegasi a bad name by perpetuating the stereotypes about us. Strike me again and I will thrash you to within an inch of your life. Are we clear?” Flash asked, one hoof pressing down into Rainbow’s barrel. 

Rainbow Dash, never a quitter, reached out and slugged Flash Sentry in the face as hard as she could, and even with a poor angle and poor leverage, the punch connected solidly, sending Flash sprawling into the grass. 

He recovered, spitting out blood, and lifted his head high as he watched the pegasus mare recover and climb to her hooves. “My apologies my good ponies, but I am a pegasus of my word,” Flash said, offering an apology. “You asked for it!” he shouted at Rainbow Dash as he charged, wings out, and teeth bared. 



 

“What in the world got into you?” Twilight demanded as she held an ice pack up to Rainbow Dash’s eye, which was swollen completely shut. “I can’t believe you picked a fight with Flash? What is wrong with you?” Twilight repeated angrily, slapping the pegasus she was helping in the back of the pegasus’ head with her wing, making Rainbow groan. 

“Ow Twi,” Rainbow Dash whined. “I’ve been beaten up enough already.” 

“I’ll say. You picked a fight with a real soldier and he taught you a lesson!” Twilight snapped. “What were you thinking?” 

“Aren’t you mad at him for beating the stuffing out of me?” Rainbow Dash whimpered, turning her head to look at Twilight with her other eye, which was half swollen shut and turning an interesting shade of purple green. 

“No, but I am so angry with you right now that I can’t figure out why I am helping you. You got what you deserved, and Flash was absolutely right. You use your position as my friend to treat the rest of the flock like you are their… their… their… queen and somepony finally called you on your horseapples!” Twilight shouted. 

“Twi!” Rainbow cried. “How could you turn on me?” 

“Because you behaved like a… a… a… you acted like a half a horse, and not the front half you stuck up little bully!” Twilight retorted. 

“Twi!” Rainbow cried. “... I’m sorry...” 

“So am I. Now hold this. I’m gonna go look after Flash, who deserves my help a lot more than you do!” Twilight said, pulling the ice pack away and then throwing it at Rainbow. 

“Twilight! Really… I’m sorry. I… I… lo-er, eh, oh gosh, Twilight I’ve had too much to drink and I’m sorry! It went to my head!” Rainbow cried as her friend stomped off. 

Realising that Twilight hadn’t heard a word she said, Rainbow Dash slumped down into the grass, and once she checked that nopony was around or watching, began to cry. 

“I just screwed up and lost my bestest friend,” Rainbow sobbed to herself. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 279
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hoo boy, Rainbow sure got her comeuppance,” Applejack drawled. The earth pony mare belched horrendously, pulling her lips back from her teeth and letting go in a manner that any well bred pegasus parent would approve of. 

“Poor Dashie… she was asking for it, but I think it was a bit much,” Pinkie Pie mused as she nursed her rum and hard cider, shaking the glass gently to make the drink and the ice cubes swirl around, causing the ice to clink in the glass. “Poor Twilight… so oblivious.” 

“I know, right? Something wrong with that girl. But Rainbow has made us both Pinkie Pie swear not to tell her,” Applejack fussed. She took a long swallow of her drink and grimaced. The farmer prefered old fashioneds with extra citrus. 

Sighing, Pinkie Pie nodded and wrapped a foreleg around Applejack’s withers. “Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend… forever,” Pinkie Pie said halfheartedly. The pink earth pony fidgeted and fretted. “Why is Twilight so oblivious?” 

“Cause she gots her head filled up with more important stuff, like keeping us all safe, keeping us all fed, keeping a bunch of us from freezing to death come winter, and she is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Oblivious,” Applejack replied. “She’s like Celestia and Luna now. The weight of responsibility on her shoulders keeps her occupied. It’s like an applebuckin’ season that never ends.” 

“What’s his excuse?” Pinkie asked, pointing at Bucky who was laying in the grass some distance away, surrounded by foals and one dragon. “I mean, he’s just as bad as Twilight but for different reasons. Plus, he’s scary.” 

“I don’t think he’s bad. Neither does Silver… naw, he ain’t bad, he’s just come to the understanding that the world ain’t so black and white. He’s done found himself a shade of grey he fancies and now he is trying to figure out how to live in a world that defines everything in black and white,” Applejack said, a faint slur in her voice. “Ever notice that Celestia is all pure and white and lovely… and when Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, she became all black and dark and hideous?” 

“Yeah… she did,” Pinkie Pie responded, nodding sadly. 

“See, it comes down to black and white. You’re either black or you're white. Or you are honest or you are a liar. Ponies like knowing they are one thing or the other… I was talking about something deep… what was it?” Applejack asked. She belched again and then killed her drink in a single swallow. 

“Celestia is white and Luna is black,” Pinkie Pie answered, her own words slightly slurred and her head bobbing slightly. The pink mare looked a little sleepy, and her eyes were only half open. “Celestia is good, and Luna is eeeeevil.” 

“Yeah… that’s it… that’s it exactly. And Buckminster over there, he chose Luna,” Applejack finished philosophically. “Something about grey. I don’t remember. I need another drink.” 



 

Twilight gingerly held the ice pack to Flash Sentry’s jaw and tried to keep her wings still. Something felt off, but she didn’t know what it was. Something about this whole situation bothered her a great deal. She had trouble putting it into words. 

“Your friend’s behaviour was totally uncalled for,” Flash grumbled. 

“Yeah it was,” Twilight admitted. 

“She has the worst manners I’ve ever seen,” Flash mumbled as he leaned his head into the ice pack. “If she ever had foals and taught them to act that way they’d be kicked out of any flock they tried to fit in with. Seriously, the only reason the flock here tolerates her is because she is your friend. I saw how they were earlier today before we came here to this party. She struts her stuff and uses you to avoid any consequences. About time somepony called her on her behaviour.” 

Hot prickly anger stabbed into the back of Twilight’s neck and she felt herself becoming heated. Suddenly, she wasn’t so sure that she liked Flash so much. 

“She acts as though she owns you. She has no claim on you. Any of your subjects get near you and she fluffs out her feathers and flares her nostrils and does that little possessive plumage display that she does and she treats you like you are her possession,” Flash said, letting it all out.

“What?!” Twilight snapped in confusion. 

“Rainbow Dash struts around acting like she owns you,” Flash replied. 

“No she does not!” Twilight retorted angrily. 

“She most certainly does! She makes it clear to any pegasus that gets near you that you are off limits and then the threats begin. She’s an insufferable little-” 

“SHUT UP!” Twilight cried. “Not another word. I don’t believe you! You’re just trying to turn me against my friend! You… you… you’re jealous!” 

Baring her teeth, Twilight growled ferociously, raised one hoof, and then slapped Flash Sentry as hard as she dared with her inherent earth pony strength. 

Flash went sprawling, rolling over backwards in the grass. He recovered quickly, looked up at Twilight with hurt and betrayal in his eyes, and his ears pinned back against his skull as he defiantly looked the princess right in the eye.

“You behave just like she does,” Flash snarled. “Same piss poor attitude and responses she makes!” 

“You… you! I’ll deal with you later when I’m cooled off!” Twilight said, stumbling away, finding that she suddenly desired as much strong whiskey as possible. She held back the tears as she retreated, not wanting to let anypony see her cry. 



 

“Been quite a party,” Berry Punch commented as she leaned against her longtime friend and fellow-wife, enjoying the sensation of Derpy’s pelt intermingling with her own. 

“Bucky has been surprisingly well behaved. He hasn’t been drinking as much as I thought,” Derpy replied, giving voice to her observation. 

“He’s cutting back. Or trying to. Look at him. Telling some story to Spike and the others. Look at Spike and Sentinel. I think they’re friends,” Berry remarked. 

Derpy prodded the grass with one hoof and watched fireflies go by. She sighed contentedly and watched as several ponies around her departed, stumbling away, off to find a bed to sleep in one of the many bedrooms on the third floor. She watched Rarity and Coco in particular, feeling happy for them. No doubts the sheets would definitely need changing come morning. Both mares were giggling as they staggered away. 

“Thistle seems to have hit it off with Fluttershy,” Berry observed. 

Looking over, Derpy nodded when she saw Thistle sprawled in the grass with Fluttershy’s head pressed against her large rounded belly. The butter yellow pegasus had her ear pressed tightly against Thistle’s stomach and looked as though she was listening intently. “Poor Sparky. She came out for a bit of food and then vanished back into her room.” 

“It’s hard for her sometimes,” Berry agreed. “Discord and Rising Star seem to be becoming friends. I don’t know if I should be worried or not. Fey creature and the embodiment of strife? Seems… troubling.” 

“I have my wings ready for both of them,” Derpy giggled. 

“Do you think Twilight knows that there are two ponies that love her madly?” Berry asked in a conspiratorial whisper to the pony beside her. 

“No. She has no clue. Twilight speaks pegasus all wrong. I don’t know why,” Derpy replied in a low voice. “All she seems to be able to express is aggression and anger. Nothing else. I don’t understand it.” 

“She lives under very trying circumstances. She has had to present a very hard front to the whole world. I’m sure that’s the reason. She really came into her princesshood during a time of conflict. War even. She’ll mellow out. I hope. Or there will be a lot more war,” Berry Punch stated, sounding Berry worried and giving voice to her concerns. “if she acts like that around griffons, who, from what little I know about griffons, are very much like pegasi, and there will be war. I hope Bucky can level everything out. Or at least kill them all before she gets hurt.” 



 

Lifting them all carefully, Bucky teetered off on three legs to take his foals to bed. All of them were asleep and it was quite late. Even Sentinel had finally nodded off, it had been a long day with no nap and even the lunar pegasus could stay up no later. He held them in his magic as he climbed the front stairs, and then realised he was going to have to climb the stairs the hard way rather than teleport. 

Barfing foals were never fun. 

Quietly sighing, he mounted the stairs and hopped up the stairs carefully. He was extra careful not to bump any little heads into the walls as he made his way up. After a climb that felt much longer than it was, he made his way to Dinky and Pina’s room, carefully tucked both of them into the same bed, kissed them both, and then departed. 

He pushed open the door to Sentinel’s room and made his way inside. He placed both Sentinel and Spike into the bed, covered them, and after a moment’s pause, kissed them both as well. As he turned to leave, his eye lingered over Sentinel's desk. There was a small photo of Diamond Tiara in a little wooden frame, barely visible in the faint light coming from the hall. He smiled and then let himself out, thinking that Sentinel needed a photograph of Moonbow. 



 

“Truce,” Flash Sentry stated, shaking his wing and the full bottle of whiskey he held beneath it. “I want to apologise.” 

“I do too… I made my best friend angry with me. I think she hates me!” Rainbow Dash whimpered. “I really stepped in it tonight.” 

“I think we both did,” Flash Sentry said to the pegasus mare sitting in the grass before him. “So truce?” 

“Truce,” Rainbow agreed. “But only if you share that whiskey with me.” 

“That’s why I brought it,” Flash said, flipping out his wing, allowing the bottle to drop, and then catching it in his fetlock, pinching the neck of the bottle tightly. It was a well practiced move and he did it without looking. 

“That’s pretty slick,” Rainbow complimented. 

“Shining Armor and I are drinking buddies. We both know our way around a bottle,” Flash replied, raising his eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “So…” 

“So what?” Rainbow asked. 

“So does Twilight know that you love her?” Flash inquired. He stared forward as he spoke, and when he was finished, he uncapped the bottle with his teeth. He extended it to Rainbow Dash, offering her the first drink. “Ladies first.” 

Taking the bottle, Rainbow Dash nodded in appreciation. “It is nice of you to call me a lady after the way I acted. You could have gotten your digs in,” Rainbow said, ignoring Flash’s question. 

“Truce, remember?” Flash reminded. 

“Yeah, but it’s something I know I would do,” Rainbow Dash confessed just before she took a drink and passed the bottle back to Flash. She hissed and shuddered after slugging down some of Barley’s special single malt reserve. “Tastes a bit like peat and iodine.” 

Taking a slug, Flash swished it around in his mouth and then nodded. He swallowed, grimaced, and then looked Rainbow in the eye. “So?” 

“I haven’t told her. I can’t tell her. I just can’t. I love her so much. It drives me crazy. But I don’t think she swings that way and if I tell her… if I tell her it might ruin our friendship and that makes me want to kill myself when I think about it happening. I really screwed up. She’s so angry with me. I think we might be through as friends,” Rainbow whimpered. 

“So we have something in common,” Flash stated, handing the bottle back to Rainbow Dash and offering a grim smile. 

“We do?” Rainbow asked. 

“We both love the same mare,” Flash said. 

“I guess so… so you really do love her? It isn’t just because she’s a princess? Because I knew her before she was a princess… and oh my gosh I just did it again didn’t I?” Rainbow muttered as she accepted the bottle. She took a long drink and then belched. 

Shrugging, Flash eyed Rainbow Dash, trying to study her. “I love her. At some point during her letters, I fell in love with the creator of such beautiful words,” Flash confessed. “You swing both ways.” 

“I like leaving myself open to the possibility of a good time,” Rainbow admitted. “It all feels good… but I haven’t been… I haven’t done… I… ever since I understood what it was I felt about her, I haven’t been having a good time,” the pegasus admitted as she hoofed the bottle back to Flash. 

Accepting the bottle, Flash took a long drink. He belched once, then again, and then for a third time, each louder than the previous. He eyed Rainbow Dash, trying to read her. 

“Look, I want Twi happy… I’ll be civil… as much as I can be. If I step out of line, let me know… look, I want you to promise me something… you’re a big tough soldier... please? Pretty please?” Rainbow wheedled. 

“What?” Flash inquired, passing the bottle back to Rainbow. 

“If we get into trouble… if the griffons act like jerks, and I know they will, you do that fancy combat slam on them and kick the horse apples outta them. Please, please keep my best friend safe. I’ll… you… if you promise me that you will keep her safe I’ll… well… I’ll step out of the way and let you love on her a bit unchallenged. And then once I finally tell her how I feel, I get out of the way completely and let you two be happy,” Rainbow answered and then took a drink. 

“You really do love her,” Flash said as he watched Rainbow kill almost a quarter of what was left in the bottle. “How about this… we let her pick between us, but we don’t sabotage each other’s efforts. Fair?” 

Pulling the bottle away from her lips, Rainbow nodded. “Fair. So can we be friends?” 

“I think so. It will make Twilight happy,” Flash responded, accepting the bottle as Rainbow passed it back. He took a long guzzle to match Rainbow’s well practiced chugging. 

“You’re not a bad guy… I like you… it’s chilly out here,” Rainbow said, scooting closer to Flash and pressing up alongside him. She shot him a disarming look when he glared at her. “Hey, it’s cold and I’m just being friendly… I thought we had something in common… don’t be so serious.” 

Relaxing slightly, Flash passed the bottle back to Dash. It was now nearly empty. 

“So… do you think you can teach me to fight like that? Not now obviously, it would look like we were fighting and if Twilight came out she’d totally freak out and lose her marbles. But I am willing to learn if you are willing to teach,” Rainbow Dash said. 

“I’m willing to teach,” Flash said in a voice made raspy by whiskey. “It is cold out here,” he added. He allowed himself to lean on Rainbow Dash a little and looked up at the stars, wobbling somewhat unsteadily as he did so. 

“I love her so much… I think I hurt her… I feel so bad… I can’t seem to help how possessive I am…” Rainbow Dash confessed, wrapping her wing around Flash and collapsing completely against his side. She hiccuped as she pressed the side of her face against Flash’s neck. “You’re very warm.” 

Nodding, Flash did not reply, but continued to stargaze. 

“And you have to be the nicest stallion ever to listen to me and my drunken lovesick ramblings after what I did to you… Twilight deserves the very best… and you… you’re like the very best. If you weren’t the very best for her, I’d still be kicking your plot all over the yard right now,” Rainbow said, her words becoming even more slurred. “Or trying to. You hit like a runaway wagon.” 

Snorting, Flash turned his head to look down at the pegasus draped against his side. He smiled and watched her for several minutes, saying nothing. He watched her eyes grow heavy and he felt his own doing the same. She was soft and warm, and it was chilly outside. Flash decided that Rainbow Dash wasn’t so bad. 

“You haven’t made one pass at me and I’ve really been trying… I’m feeling kinda frustrated right now,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “You really do love her. I feel warm and fuzzy all over.” 

“I know what you are up to,” Flash stated. 

“So awesome…” Rainbow Dash murmured. “So, since you are a perfect gentlestallion, do you think you could hold back my mane when I puke in a few minutes and maybe help me clean up? I can’t feel my legs no more. Or my tail. Or my plot. I really hope I am not shooting out of both ends when it happens… I don’t want to die of embarrassment just yet. So can you help me even though I was a jerk?” 

“It would be my privilege,” Flash replied. 

“I’ll try not to spew or spurt on you,” Rainbow promised. “Here it comes…”
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 280
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel awoke with the distinct feeling that something was hugging him tightly. Normally, this would be the cause of some alarm, but within moments of gaining some small semblance of wakefulness he came to the realisation that it was Spike who was clinging to his back and hugging him tightly. The dragon was still asleep. Sentinel, feeling groggy, extricated himself from Spike’s embrace, slipped out of the bed, walked into his own desk with a thump, cursed, saying something so awful that if his mother Lyra heard it she would immediately use the scrubbing bubbles spell on his mouth, snarled at the wooden desk in annoyance, and then began to stumble out of his room to head down the hall to the bathroom. 

Morning and the lunar pegasus were mortal enemies, but Sentinel tolerated the existence of morning because of his family, most of whom were solar ponies. He had no doubt that if left to his own devices, his father would adapt to a fully nocturnal lifestyle. Outside, the dawn would break soon, less than an hour perhaps. 

At the bathroom door, he heard the shower running. Repressing a snarl, Sentinel turned and headed for another bathroom. Loch Skimmer must be in pain or something, because he could hear her moaning in the shower. He thought about knocking on the door and inquiring if she was okay, she did spend a lot of time flying and lifting heavy stuff using her wings. His poor sister probably woke up sore and stiff. 

The other bathroom was unoccupied and Sentinel stumbled in, shutting the door behind him. He took care of his business in a fastidious clean almost cat like manner, thought briefly about how much things like toilets annoyed his poor mother Thistle, and then once finished, he slipped into the shower. 

The hot water felt wonderful. He turned around, hiked up his tail, and allowed the high pressure of the shower to clean everything back there. Using his echolocation, his sang a little, warbling out a tune, while it was not a song most solar ponies would appreciate, it was a song, but he didn’t know what he was singing. He really couldn’t speak the echo language like Moonbow could. 

The hot water spraying on his dangly bits and the thought of Moonbow proved to be quite a combination. He felt a stirring of desire go through his body, and then he had the less than innocent thought of how soft squeezable Diamond Tiara would feel trapped between him and Moonbow. Not as food, but as something else. Sentinel let out a squeak and felt an odd sensation down near his gut. There was a palatable sense of arousal beginning to creep through him. 

And then, very much against his will, he suddenly understood just what it was that Loch Skimmer was doing in the shower and why she moaned. He came to the brain destroying conclusion that if he could let the water run on his backside and it felt good, by logical extension, so could Loch Skimmer, and she had other things back there the hot water could hit that probably felt great. Sentinel let out a small shrill prepubescent scream, horrified by his own budding sexuality. 

His arousal died just as abruptly as it had begun and he felt his testicles retract into his body from revulsion. He shuddered, felt more than a little nauseous, and then he laid down in the tub, allowing the steaming hot water to wash over him. It was going to take a lot of scrubbing to feel clean again. 



 

The dawn broke and a house full of sleeping ponies did their best to ignore the crowing rooster and the crowing of Philomena, who greeted the morning sun with a blood curdling scream that sounded like a schoolyard of foals being chopped up by a minotaur with an axe. Celestia considered it one of Philomena’s best qualities and frequently turned her pet phoenix loose in her school dormitories. 

One pony was already awake and stood a short distance away, watching two ponies sleeping, both pegasi, one blue, the other orange, and both were ponies that this pony had strong feelings of affection for. 

Twilight Sparkle stared at Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash, both of whom were sleeping in the grass and covered in the morning dew. Flash was sprawled out on his belly, his head down in the grass, and Rainbow Dash was half draped over his back, with her head resting on his withers, one front leg wrapped around his neck. 

She had been quite angry when she had found them, but then the slow realisation crept into her mind that these were her friends. And her friends would never do something that heartless. At some point in the night, they had become friends with one another. 

A short distance away was an enormous puke puddle, already partially soaked into the ground, the semi-solid remains of somepony’s dinner last night. The sour smell clung to Twilight Sparkle’s nostrils and she was far too hungover to even think about using magic to make it go away. 

Sighing, Twilight didn’t know what to do with the pair. One of her best friends was clearly jealous about there being another friend in the picture. Rainbow was always a little jealous when other ponies got to close to Twilight, and Twilight valued the fact that Rainbow Dash was so protective of her. 

She thought of the day that Berry Punch had kicked Bucky’s mother and Rainbow’s confession that if somepony touched one feather on Twilight’s wings that Rainbow would probably kill them. Several times Rainbow had actually moved in Twilight’s defense, and then there was last night, which was simply chalked up to drinking, or so Twilight deduced. 

The more she looked at her friends, the more her heart warmed at seeing them together. Rainbow Dash was drooling in her sleep, as most pegasi tended to do, if Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were any indication. Flash’s shoulders were damp with drool and dew, and Twilight couldn’t tell if Flash was drooling into the grass. 

They were kind of adorable together and Twilight liked knowing that they had made up at some point. It would make the trip easier. She found something about the pony pile appealing, and for a brief moment, she felt a spike of attraction for both ponies. She felt her cheeks blaze. She pushed the idea of attraction for Rainbow Dash out of her mind. Dash was interested in ponies like Soarin… not other mares. Rainbow Dash was far too interested in racing, stunt flying, and other more masculine activities to ever be interested in girly stuff and other mares. 

Sighing, Twilight listened to the blood curdling screams of Philomena while cursing the fact that phoenixes felt the need to crow and greet the sun. 



 

With a roaring crackle, Princess Celestia materialised just outside the farmhouse. She folded her wings, lifted her regal head, perked her ears forward to listen for any ponies that might be up to greet her dawn, and began to head towards the house. 

When Celestia saw the empty bottle of gin on the porch, she understood that it had been one of those sorts of parties. This had not been a party with tea and punch… well, maybe punch, but it was probably spiked with with high proof liquor. Twilight and her friends tended to have somewhat more reserved parties. 

She heard a low moan coming from around the corner of the house and moved off to investigate. Coming around the corner, she saw Twilight Sparkle rubbing her head and two pegasi sprawled in the grass. 

“Gooooood morning Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia cried out in her most chipper cheerful voice that she could muster. 

The hungover alicorn of magic fell over as though she had been poleaxed, clutching her head and rolling over onto her side. She let out a groan and the other two pegasi grunted in the grass a short distance away. 

“Helloooo Twilight, how are you this fine morn?” Celestia inquired politely, as politely as one hundred and twenty three decibels allowed. Celestia, a being with thousands of years of experience, knew full well that pain began at one hundred and twenty five decibels and she smiled broadly, mindful of her generous observance of the threshold, hoping to teach Twilight a lesson about staying away from strong drink. 

“Nooo,” Twilight whimpered, clutching her head. 

“Twiiiiiiilight, I could not hear you… are you well?” Celestia chirped at a full one hundred and twenty one decibels. Mercy was one of Celestia’s best qualities, or so ponies said. The history books were full of treatises about her mercy and generousity. Celestia generously stayed away from the one hundred and twenty five decibel limit.

“Ugh!” Twilight grunted, rolling over onto her back and wishing she was dead. 

“I hate morning ponies,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, not yet fully aware of what was going on. The sky blue pegasus slipped off from Flash Sentry’s back and then rolled over in the dew sprinkled grass, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She was completely oblivious to the fact that the Princess of Morning Ponies was a short distance away. 

“Such a glorious morning!” Celestia announced in a hangover shattering one hundred and twenty decibels. “Tiiiiiime to riiiiise and greeeet the sun!” 

“Mercy!” Twilight begged, writhing around on her back, and the cool dew soaking into her feathered wings made her shiver. 

“Oh no… there will be none of that,” Celestia replied, this time hitting one hundred and twenty four decibels. She moved forward slowly, and, feeling particularly impish, lowered her head over Twilight, pursed her lips, and then blew a Royal Raspberry upon the prone purple princess pony on the ground before her. 

“NO!” Twilight shrieked and then exploded with laughter. She rolled away from Celestia, clutching her sides and trying to escape the horrible terrible morning tyrant. Her laughter caused pain to spike through her head. “No more! Somepony help me!” 

This was a rare treasured moment for Celestia. She was free to truly be herself, there was nopony around to judge her, hold her to a standard, or condemn her for being a pony made out of flesh and blood like every other pony. She advanced on Twilight and Celestia reveled in her own inner pegasus nature. She pressed her snoot into Twilight’s tummy, applied pressure, and then let go with another Royal Raspberry. 

These were usually reserved for Luna, and Luna alone. 

“No more! Please… no… more!” Twilight heaved, pounding on the ground with her front hooves, struggling to laugh and breathe in her current condition. She wheezed as she sucked in some much needed air. 

Looking around, Celestia saw another target. Rainbow Dash was still rubbing her eyes and was completely oblivious to the danger. Certainly another pegasus would appreciate this gesture of affection. Moving with an alarming amount of speed for her size, Celestia pounced, landed with as much grace as a mare her age should possess, pressed her muzzle down onto Rainbow Dash’ naval, and blew out a trumpeting Royal Raspberry, extra slobbery. 

“OH WHAT THE HAY!” Rainbow Dash cried and then began to chortle, rolling around the ground. Her eyes opened and she saw Celestia, and the skinny little pegasus guffawed even harder. On top of being hung over, Rainbow Dash realised she was hallucinating as well this morning. Even though her head thudded painfully, she could not stop laughing. 

“Rise and shine my precious little ponies,” Celestia commanded. 

“What’s going on? Am I dreaming?” Rainbow Dash questioned as she tried to swallow her giggles long enough to ask a question. 

“Does this feel like a dream?” Celestia inquired just before pressing her snoot down into Rainbow Dash’s silky stomach and blowing yet another extra slobbery, extra loud, extra tickly Royal Raspberry upon the prone pegasus.

“OH GOSH THIS IS REAL!” Rainbow Dash cried out in panic as she tried to wiggle away from Celestia, flopping around in the grass like a landed fish, her wings out and flapping. 

Realising that she might never have this chance again, Celestia made the most of it. She turned, advanced on Twilight Sparkle, who was still trying to recover, puckered up, and then she jammed her snoot into Twilight’s neck, delivering yet another Royal Raspberry. 

“No!” Twilight begged, rolling away onto her belly and crawling away, her wings flapping. She was wet, covered in dew and blades of grass, and her usual serious mien was completely gone, and now the young mare was acting like a foal again. “You’re worse than Cadance! Stop stop stop!” 

“This is a side of you that I did not know existed.” 

Turning to look at the voice, Celestia saw Buckminster, and Sentinel was sitting at his side, wide eyed and in stupefied shock. A wide terrible smile spread over the white alicorn’s muzzle and she turned her body around to face then both. 

“You wouldn’t dare…” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“You rearranged my office, vandalised the royal statuary, and you corrupted my precious Twilight Sparkle into committing those heinous acts with you. I would dare,” Celestia replied, advancing slowly and threateningly, her wings flared outwards, her head low and ready to raspberry. 

“I will not go quietly into the day!” Bucky cried and then took off at a three legged trot, moving as quickly as he could. “Run Sentinel, this foe is beyond the both of us!” 

Sentinel, heeding his father’s advice, bolted, running as fast as his stubby legs would allow from the crazed raspberry blowing alicorn loose in the yard. 

“Have you learned nothing Buckminster? You never run from a pegasus!” 
	
	
> Chapter 281
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A very nervous group of cautious ponies were at the dining room table eating breakfast, not quite sure how to act with Celestia sitting at the table with them. Bites were delicate, timid, and small. Regularly boisterous eaters were skittish. Brash devourers were sheepish and uncertain. The conversation was almost non existent as ponies nervously tucked into their oatmeal and fruit. 

“I expected a livelier table,” Celestia said after swallowing a dainty bite of oatmeal. 

“I suspect that some of these ponies have never been hungover before,” Bucky replied, looking around, and eyeing some of the more bleary eyed guests at the table who didn’t look so good. He spooned in a large dollop of butter into his oatmeal and then added honey. 

“My head… I fear I do not feel well,” Rarity murmured demurely, unable to muster enough energy for her usual theatrics to accompany such a statement. She took a swallow of orange juice, grimaced, and then added a ladylike spoonful of butter and some strawberries to her oatmeal. She stared at the raisins on the table for a moment, then she looked at the applesauce, and then she just dully stared down into her bowl, her expression rather vacant. 

“Pinkie Pie feels a little less like Pinkie Pie and more like Greenie Puddle…” Pinkie Pie groaned. She prodded her oatmeal with a spoon. “But if I feel like Greenie Puddle, I lose the alliteration of my name. I think I hear Colgate’s dental drills buzzing in my ears.” 

“Y’all are a buncha lightweights,” Applejack grumped as she loaded butter and applesauce into her second bowl of oatmeal. She lifted her spoon from her bowl, pointed it at Pinkie Pie, and scowled. “And you’re an earth pony. We have a reputation to uphold. We’re earth ponies. We’re supposed to be able to hold our liquor.” 

“That’s just not fair,” Rainbow Dash whined. “Earth ponies and their alcohol tolerance… you have all that strength and endurance… and that too.” 

“No, what isn’t fair is them unicorns who can make themselves sober up by casting powerful magic,” Applejack retorted, her green eyes darting around to look at some of the unicorns and alicorns at the table. “That’s cheating. It’s… like pegasus wings during a competition,” she grumbled, giving Rainbow Dash the stinkeye. 

“You mean I can make myself sober?” Twilight whimpered. 

“Sure,” Bucky replied. “Just have to focus your will while being completely soused, no problem at all, and then use some deep magic. Regular magic won’t do. I tend to fire off a non specific dispel magic focused point blank. It does nothing to the area around me and tends to sober me right up,” he explained. 

“This butter is marvelous. So much better than the butter that the royal kitchens use… where do you get your butter from? Is this made here on the farm?” Celestia asked, gently butting in and taking charge of the conversation. 

“Oh, thanks… I made that butter myself,” Berry Punch answered, a broad smile slowly spreading across her muzzle. 

“Is this goat butter? Or does it come from cows?” Celestia inquired, insistently but politely, one eyebrow now raised. “It is so rich and creamy… this is the best butter I think I have ever had in my whole long life… I must know.” 

“Princess Celestia… I made that butter myself. I started with the finest meal you could feed a pony, digested it carefully, snuggled with my foals, kept my bright and sunny disposition so my milk wouldn’t sour, and then Bucky milked me… afterwards, I churned my own milk into butter,” Berry Punch explained in reply. 

There was a clatter of spoons from around the table, several grunts, and Princess Celestia sat frozen in shock, unblinking, having become quite statuesque. The only visible sign of life was a slight flaring of her noble nostrils. 

“Well, at least it’s made all natural and with love,” Applejack said as she shrugged. She took another bite of her oatmeal, completely unphased by the revelation. “Now that you mention it, I do think I can taste the foal snuggling,” the earth pony mare said with a smile. 

“I actually take a lot of pride in my milk,” Berry said, ignoring the looks of disgust and horror all around her. “It’s made me feel more important as a mare. Not only am I feeding my foals, but I am providing for my whole family… I’ve never felt more… like, well, more like a mare than I do now that I provide milk. It has made me take better care of myself and respect my body more. I feel… valuable or something.” 

“It improved your feelings of self worth?” Coco asked timidly, aware that Rarity was now looking curiously at her. 

“Yeah,” Berry replied. “I am having a direct impact upon the health of everypony in my family. I watch what I eat. It forces me to think about somepony other than myself and I haven’t been so selfish,” she explained, gesturing with her spoon. 

“I feel the same way,” Bon Bon admitted from behind her napkin as she wiped her face. “To be honest, at first, I thought I’d feel degraded, like I was livestock or something. But now I feel empowered.” 

“Oh my gracious… this has certainly given me a lot to think about,” Celestia said as she slowly lifted her spoon and gingerly took a bite of oatmeal. She chewed thoughtfully and looked at Berry Punch as she ate, and then her gaze darted to those who were no longer eating. After taking a deep breath and relaxing, Celestia realised she was eating another mare’s butter and enjoying it a great deal. She dropped her daintiness completely and began to spoon in large bites of buttery oatmeal, realising she didn’t have to keep up the act around these ponies. Here, she could just be a pony. For a brief moment, she could understand Luna’s appeal with spending time with Barley and Bucky’s family in general. 

Coco prodded her oatmeal a few times, added another spoonful of butter, and then took a big bite. After chewing thoughtfully for a few moments, she swallowed, her brow furrowed, she looked up at the ceiling while deep in thought, and then her gaze dropped and she looked at Berry Punch. “Thank you,” Coco said graciously, her voice filled with warm sincerity. 

“This isn’t the strangest thing I’ve done,” Discord announced as he bravely ate another bite. He smiled at Berry. “This gives me ideas,” he admitted as he cast a leering gaze at Fluttershy. 

“Oh… ooooh… oh my,” Fluttershy stammered, her voice a low moan. Her cheeks turned beet red and she dropped her eyes, unable to look at anypony else. “Oh maybe I shouldn’t have said that I would do anything to make you happy.” 

“Gonna make Fluttershy your little milkmare?” Pinkie Pie asked as she nudged Discord. When he nodded, Pinkie Pie managed to smile, even with her headache. “Just be gentle,” Pinkie Pie said in a low voice to Discord before she returned to eating her oatmeal. 

“Too bad Silver is in the kitchen eating at the table in there with the foals,” Applejack said around a mouthful of oatmeal. She wiped her straw coloured mane out of her eyes with her foreleg, her mane was loose and spilling down her neck as well as her shoulders, and then she tossed her head back slightly to keep her mane away from her face while she was eating so it wouldn’t get sticky or dirty. “I’d love to spring this idea on him.” 

“You know, for those of you not eating right now, by rejecting my butter, you are rejecting me,” Berry stated, a faint hint of hardness entering her voice. “The very essence of me and everything that makes up what I am as a mare.” For a moment, her eyes darted to Bucky, then Derpy, and then finally to Bon Bon, seeking support. 

“I’m sorry… I’m hungover and this is a bit much to take in,” Twilight apologised. 

Rarity, who slowly lifted her spoon with her telekinesis, eyed her bowl, closed her eyes, and then took a bite. After chewing and swallowing, she opened her eyes and looked at Berry. “It… just came as quite a shock. I never meant to be insulting. This… this is the very essence of generousity, giving something of yourself.” 

“This is part of the way of life on the Shetlands,” Bucky remarked, not looking up from his bowl. “I was shocked when I learned the truth, but it didn’t really slow me down. It’s brought me closer to my wives. All of them. It’s forced me to re-evaluate their value to me as mares, mothers, and loved ones. I now see mares as the source of life… they give us foals, they provide foals and even their families nourishment, and my respect for females at large has grown greatly.” 

The table remained silent for a while after Bucky spoke, with ponies eating while looking thoughtful. Celestia kept turning to look at Bucky, staring at him peculiarly, as though she was looking at a pony she didn’t know. Rarity looked at Bucky for a long moment, her cheeks becoming quite red, and then she dropped her gaze to stare into oatmeal, which she continued to slowly eat. Twilight studied the butter, turning a scholarly eye upon it as she thoughtfully ate her oatmeal. 

“Why do we think this is wrong?” Twilight asked, a thoughtful honest question slipping from her lips. “If the milk is good enough for our foals, why not us? When and why does it become wrong?” Twilight’s face contorted and her muzzle scrunched, causing wrinkles to appear upon her nasal bridge. “Why do we drink cow's milk? That’s for cows… calves… suddenly I feel very confused and life doesn’t make sense, not that life ever made much sense.” 

“Those are very good questions Twilight,” Celestia responded, looking at her former student with wide thoughtful eyes. Celestia’s ears folded back slightly as she leaned forward over her bowl. “A better question is… why does everypony do it and never ask questions about it?” 

“Because, quite frankly, it is embarrassing… it is easier to just go along with what everypony else is doing and not look like a freakshow. You are bound to be shamed and publicly ridiculed if you question the status quo… oh my… I think I’m having an epiphany or this hangover is causing me to have an aneurysm,” Twilight replied, lifting up her left front hoof to rub the side of her head. She ate several bites of her oatmeal in rapid succession, barely chewing as she gulped down her food. 

“We worry so much about what other ponies think about us,” Derpy stated. 

“I certainly have to worry about what my little ponies think about me,” Celestia confessed, looking around the table. “It isn’t often that I get to just be a pony… like this.” 

“Or holding down your subjects and blowing raspberries on their bellies,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. 

“Hey, to be fair, she treated us all as equals. She razzed Twilight and me as well, and we are certainly not subjects… but I do notice that nopony has raspberried her,” Bucky interjected. He lifted his orange juice, took a drink, eyed the glass, and then he looked irritated. “Needs more pulp.” 

“Buckminster… bring an army... dear,” Celestia said with the barest hint of sarcasm. 

“I wouldn’t need to. I just need to wait till you are fully absorbed in spouting off your platitudes in public… I could take advantage of my diminutive size, walk beneath you, and give you the raspberrying you deserve,” Bucky replied, leaning towards Celestia and raising his remaining eyebrow over his surviving eye focusing his Taint filled stare upon Celestia, smiling his crooked smile. 

“I do believe this is the part where my sister might say… 'You, minion, are too saucy' towards you at this moment,” Celestia responded, her eyes merry, a smile spreading wide over her muzzle. 

The other ponies at the table stared at the unicorn and the alicorn, all of them silent and wide eyed, and nopony quite knew what to say about the ruthless battle of wits taking place. Twilight in particular seemed shocked at the exchange. 

After a moment of silence, Bucky threw back his head and laughed, causing Celestia to do much the same. He banged on the table with his remaining front hoof and Celestia stuck out her tongue at him, something that further stunned poor Twilight, who had never seen her mentor behaving how she had been behaving this entire morning. 

Berry smiled, but not at the exchange of jokes. She was pleased that the apparent gap between Bucky and Celestia seemed to have closed for now, and the tension between them seemed gone. 

“It’s funny cause minion is another word for slave, right?” Applejack asked in her usual blunt fashion, causing the table to fall silent and stare at her, eyes blinking rapidly. “What? What’d I say? Something wrong?” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 282 (The official start of the Griffon Diplomacy Arc)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The door of the library clicked softly as Celestia locked it behind her and focused her regal gaze upon Bucky. She crossed the room quickly, heading for the large couch, eased herself down, pulled up her legs, and quickly made herself comfortable in the pony-loaf position, never once taking her eyes from Buckminster, who was sitting in his usual high backed chair, a chair jokingly referred to as his throne. 

Bucky watched the large white alicorn making herself comfortable and noted full well that she was acting like a pony… not as the Supreme Royal Diarch. He felt a vague sense of amusement and he truly enjoyed seeing her like this. He had never quite witnessed anything like this before, seeing her so relaxed. Even when she was sitting back in Derpy’s old house and Luna had climbed into her chair and the pair had shared a sisterly embrace, that memory held nothing in comparison to what he was seeing now. 

It seemed the rift between them had vanished.

“Buckminster, I must make a request of you,” Celestia began. 

“Whatever you ask, as your humble servant, I will do as you request,” Bucky replied. 

“Still an armiger,” Celestia mused. “Still the noble knight… it really is funny Buckminster… there were a lot of armigers… ponies at arms… the noble standard bearers and enforcers of the great houses. Many of them paid lip service to me. Many of them said those same words that you just said to me over the years. You are one of the few ponies that ever made them sound honest, genuine, and sincere,” the alicorn admitted. 

“I never quite knew what to make of that status,” Bucky replied. “Well, then I went to the Shetlands. Then I knew what to do. There were suddenly a lot of little ponies who needed protection and everything I learned about my status, which wasn’t much, it all came into perfect focus.” The unicorn fell silent, looking contemplative. His eye fell to the arm of his chair and he studied the pattern of the fabric, examining the warp and the weft of the weave. One ear remained upright, while the other ear drooped down, sticking out sideways at an odd angle. 

“I am afraid Buckminster. I really do not know what to do. I feel as though this trip is a dreadful idea, but you and Twilight need the lessons in diplomacy. I am so scared that I am losing sleep over this matter. Something must be done though, and it cannot always be Luna and I who do it. The griffons need to see that Equestria is more than the Royal Pony Sisters. They must be made to respect our strength,” Celestia said, not quite looking Bucky in the eye, her eyes angling downwards to books on the bottom row of a bookshelf nearby. 

“Twilight is far stronger than I am,” Bucky stated, shaking his head. “Each day after my lessons with Luna, Lyra, and occasionally Witching Hour, I start to question my abilities,” he admitted, still shaking his head slightly and his nostrils flaring. 

“Do not doubt yourself,” Celestia replied reassuringly. “You can do something that Twilight is thus far incapable of. You have killed… you have used your magic to take other lives… Buckminster, I do not want Twilight living with that burden, please, I am begging you, protect my student and keep her from that dreadful knowledge. This is one lesson I hope she never learns.” 

“Yeah, I get it, you don’t want her to turn out like me,” Buckminster grumbled. 

“I do not mean that,” Celestia argued, her voice as soft as in owl in flight. “It tears apart my insides knowing what you have gone through. I could not bear it if it happened to her as well, please, please… keep her safe and keep her… innocent.” 

“I’m not sure about innocence,” Bucky responded. “I mean, have you seen Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash? I strongly suspect your student is going to end up as the middle in a pony sandwich,” he said, trying to lighten the mood with a joke, unable to bear seeing Celestia looking so distraught. “And when that happens, your student is going to learn all manner of lessons, like sexual multitasking.” 

Celestia offered a weak watery smile, a few tears coming out of the corners of her eyes as she looked directly at Bucky. “You really are terrible. There was a point in your life where you would have fainted from even thinking about such a thing.” 

“And then I had a ménage à trois,” Bucky returned, speaking Fancy. “Derpy and Berry cured me of that deplorable condition. And you… you said “clitoris” to me and I very nearly died,” he added in a very accusing tone. “You tried to murder me.” 

“Just keep her safe,” Celestia requested. “And please, Buckminster, one more thing.” 

“What’s that?” Bucky asked. 

“Please, do not come home with more wives. Please do not come home married to some of my treasured and beloved national heroes. A griffoness might not be so bad, it would certainly give Platinum something to talk about, but really, do you want to spend the rest of your life with Pinkie Pie?” Celestia replied, raising one eyebrow as she spoke. 

Chuckling, Bucky shook his head. He was seeing a side of Celestia he never thought existed. “Well, I have a pegasus, a few earth ponies, a kelpie, and unicorn. All I really need now is an alicorn and I’m set with a well rounded collection.” 

“Buckminster… if you work your charm on Twilight I will personally take you to Gelding Grotto,” Celestia warned. 

“Who said anything about Twilight?” Bucky deadpanned. 

For a moment, the only sound the room was the seemingly thunderous clicking of the wind up clock. Celestia blinked, trying to gauge the level of innuendo and sass she had just encountered, which she estimated had never been this high for at least one thousand years or so. Her mouth fell open and much to her dismay, no words came out. The last pony who had ever spoken to her in such a fearlessly brazen manner had been Sombra, the Sombra of this world, and for a moment, Celestia remembered the gloriously perverted pony that Sombra was, her cheeks blushing a heated crimson as she did so. 

“It might be a little weird, calling you “auntie” and all, but we like weird in this family,” Bucky continued in a flat monotone, his lone eyebrow raised in cocky bravado. “How do you feel about being milked?” 

“Buckminster,” Celestia began, shaking her head slightly. “Once, a long time ago, I dabbled into sexual sorcery, thinking it was the next logical step to look for a magic greater than friendship because the intimacy and trust involved. I have literally written the book on perversion, both magical and physical, and have even shared some of my findings with you… you… my little pony… are a bold and brave little pony to so willingly seek your wreck and ruination upon my loins.” 

“I’m told I am not the brightest little pony,” Bucky admitted with a haughty sigh. 

“You have changed,” Celestia said, a faint hint of laughter teasing at her voice. “Really though. Just because some of the Elements of Harmony have not been claimed yet, doesn’t mean you have to lure them in with your dashing good looks and honeyed words.” 

“Ouch,” Bucky grunted. 

“Buckminster, if I actually hurt you with my jest, I am sorry,” Celestia said hesitantly. 

“No, I’m fine, really. Just surprised you went there. I suppose I had it coming after the add an alicorn to my herd joke,” Bucky responded, the good side of his face thoughtful, the bad side of his face frozen into a spiderwebbed mass of scars that never expressed anything but loss and pain. “I will keep your foal safe,” he promised. 

“Twilight is not my foal,” Celestia immediately retorted, her tone both angry and defensive, and both of her eyes narrowed. 

“Lies do not become you, auntie,” Bucky whispered. 

Sputtering, wordless, Celestia tried to recover from Bucky’s accusation and failed. Finally, she regained her composure, closed her mouth, and settled for glaring sullenly at the snarky little unicorn sitting across from her. 

“Twilight is just as much your foal as she is Twilight Velvet’s foal. You’ve made a terrible mistake, haven’t you? Softening your heart after all of these long years and letting one of us little flesh and blood mortals so close. You didn’t keep her at a leg’s distance so it wouldn’t hurt so much when she withers and dies of old age. She wasn’t your student and you do her a disservice calling her as such. You once bore the Element of Honesty and you shame yourself with your dishonesty,” Bucky said in a flat emotionless voice. 

“I get so lonely… after Sunset Shimmer… I was so fragile,” Celestia confessed. 

“Thought you’d try being a mother rather than a teacher?” Bucky questioned, his voice low and sonorous. 

“Yes,” Celestia admitted, nodding her head, tears now visibly falling down her cheeks. “I thought if I acted with a mother’s heart I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I made with Sunset Shimmer. I thought… I thought… I thought if I made Twilight love me that she would not dare turn against me.” She paused, shaking her head, her eyes closing. “That sounds so manipulative… I feel so ashamed now that I listen to my own words.” 

“I will keep your foal as safe as I can,” Bucky promised. 



 

The Scorned Mare awaited her departure. A crowd of ponies gathered around, and there were many tearful goodbyes under the noonday sun. The mood was subdued, almost somber, and even though there was a large crowd, it was strangely quiet. 

Bucky was surrounded by his family, and missing them already. There was a massive pony pile hug, the sort of thing that would have once caused Bucky to have a panic attack, but it was now something he drew strength from. 

“Keep him sane,” Derpy begged in a pleading voice to Bon Bon. 

“I will,” Bon Bon replied, clinging tightly to the grey pegasus mare.

“Bring daddy back,” Dinky asked Lyra while squeezing the unicorn. 

“I will Dinky, I will,” Lyra promised. “I’ll wipe that awful place off of the map if I have to… I love you Dinky.” 

“Don’t take no lip… er, no beak from no griffons,” Berry said, looking first at Bucky and then at Lugus. “If you get any kind of threats at all, you don’t let them get the chance to get the drop on you...you collect their heads and seek forgiveness from Celestia later. Lugus, you keep him SAFE. I am charging you with your chief’s safety.” 

“Yes, I understand Berry. Ripple and I understand our duties as bodyguards,” Lugus replied, bowing his head low as Berry wrapped her forelegs around him and offered up a crushing hug. 

“Ripple… you listen to your big sister… if there is trouble, you punch first and ask questions later... if there are any survivors,” Loch demanded. “And you’d be stupid to leave survivors… just saying.” 

“I will,” Ripple replied. 

“Come home,” Sparkler begged. 

“Rising Star, you are in charge while I am gone. Look after your mothers and your siblings. I am trusting you with their safety and their comfort,” Bucky instructed. 

“Yes sir,” Rising Star answered. 

“I wish you didn’t have to go…” 



 

“Rarity, come home to me,” Coco said in a breathy whisper as she held Rarity close. 

“I want to come home to you,” Rarity whispered to Coco. “Look after my sister, Sweetie Belle. Mother and father are not the most attentive parents. Sweetie needs supervision…” 

“Sweetie and I are good friends, I will keep her safe,” Coco promised, offering reassurance to Rarity. 



 

“I know, look after Apple Bloom and the others,” Silver Shill said preemptively. 

“Apple Bloom will be fine… look after Big Mac. Even with Cheerilee, Mac gets in quite a state if his sister isn’t around to keep his head screwed on straight. Ever since we lost our parents, he… he gets himself all worked up if he can’t keep an eye on me and know that I am safe. He’s probably gonna cry at some point, and it is going to be the most heartbreaking thing you’ll ever see… just try to comfort the big lug. Keep him distracted,” Applejack said in a low voice. 

“I’ll do what I can,” Silver promised. 



 

“Twilight, stay safe.”

“I will stay safe Celestia.” 

“You let Buckminster keep you safe. Let him do what he does best.” 

“And I will do what I do best, I get it… I will miss you Celestia.” 



 

“I love you, my dearest Fluttershy.” 

“I -squeak!- know Discord. Honey, your hooves are wandering -squeal!- oh yes, please squeeze me there.” 

“Stay close to your friends at all times. And stay especially close to Buckminster. When the killing starts you’ll be safer that way. Just stay close to the deific demiurge manifestation of war and make sure you smile and wave to the dying-” 

“Discord, none of that sort of talk… you hush mister.” 

“...” 

“That’s better… who’s a good draconequus?” 

“I am.” 

“That’s right. And my good little cute cuddly draconequus gets to play with naughty Fluttershy… when I get home… YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE ME!” 
	
> Chapter 283
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m so glad you changed your mind, Twilight!” 

Sighing, Twilight looked at Spike and gave a half smile. “You can thank Buckminster. He pointed out that he is bringing along his own son on this trip, and the least I could do was bring my assistant to help me out.” 

Spike bounced up and down in place as the ship rose higher and picked up speed. He clutched the rail and looked down. Already, the farm looked quite small beneath them. 

“You are to stay with Sentinel or myself at all times, do you hear me? If I call for you, you come running. I want you safe… Spike, you are very dear to me… you might be the most precious thing I have,” Twilight stammered. 

“I know… I get it… mom,” Spike replied, rolling his eyes. He let out a grunt when Twilight hugged him suddenly, and without saying a word, he hugged her back. 





Bucky studied the projection map that rose out of the crystal console. Huginn and Muninn were highlighted and blinking and The Scorned Mare’s arcano-tech magi-nav system knew which way to go. The twin cities, the capital of Griffonholm. The ship was fully automated like most modern vessels and would carefully plot the most efficient course, avoid bad weather, give warning of threats, and if need be, defend itself. 

Bucky thought about his crew and felt a pang of worry. There was Twilight and her friends; Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Plus Spike. And then there was his own tribe; Lugus, Yew Wood, Peekaboo, Ripple, Sentinel, Bon Bon, Lyra, and Harper. 

This of course, filled Bucky with some worry. Yew Wood, Bon Bon, Lyra, Harper, and Peekaboo would be spending most of their time aboard The Scorned Mare, keeping an eye upon the ship and staying safe. 

He growled. If he had his way, he’d keep Twilight’s friends on board, but Celestia wanted Twilight and her friends on display. He couldn’t understand Celestia’s reasoning, their friendship wasn’t a display to griffons… Lugus called it a buffet, reminding him that some griffons prefered the magical tongue tingling of unicorn flesh, some liked the chewiness of earth ponies, others like the meat of pegasi, and Twilight, being an alicorn, would secure the ultimate in bragging rights as a meal of alicorn flesh would be a rare treat enjoyed by few griffons in history, and the temptation to secure those bragging rights would be great. 

Very dark thoughts settled into Bucky’s mind what would happen if somehow the griffons managed to subdue and capture Celestia or Luna. Once rendered magically inert, the griffons would probably keep carving chunks of meat off of the immortal sisters and have a never ending feast of flesh. 

When he noticed the ice covering the inside of the navigation cabin, he forced himself to think of something else, or tried to, as Sombra’s memories pushed into his mind, showing him flashes of old battles, where the Royal Pony Sisters had actually engaged the griffons who had invaded the then fledgeling nation of Equestria. 

He clutched at his head with his remaining foreleg and his stump when he saw Celestia impaled on a spear, it had gone the entire length of her body, a massive griffon even larger than Lugus skewering her with a magical weapon, and then the griffon’s claws wrapped tightly around her throat to strangle her. The griffon exploded, Luna’s fury knew no end, and then he saw all to clearly that Sombra and Luna both had to endure the agonising task of pulling the spear out. Celestia’s cries rang in his ears and he tumbled over, falling out of his chair, the sound of her plaintive whimpers echoing through time in his mind. 

“ENOUGH!” he bellowed, writhing on the floor. He could feel the soft touch of Celestia’s legs clinging to his neck… no… Sombra’s neck, and he could hear her voice begging him to make the pain go away. Laying on the floor, Bucky kicked and snarled, trying to force the horrifying images out of his brain, his rage boiling over in his mind as he learned something he had never wished to know.

In that moment, Sombra had communed with Celestia, sharing her pain, their minds touching in the most intimate way possible, he had felt the spear in his own body, and he had done everything he could to comfort her as the spear was tugged out inch by agonising inch, pulling and tearing at her organs and scraping over bone as it was extracted. 

The knowledge of why Sombra was Celestia’s most devoted and dedicated servant came at a terrible price, and Bucky’s mind struggled to deal with what he now knew. 



 

Twilight looked at Bucky when he entered the large room that served as dining room and a communal gathering place to simply hang out. She noticed that he looked unsettled, upset about something, he was trembling and sweating. She watched as he went to the water cooler, got himself a cup of water that shook and splashed in his telekinesis, and she eyed him as he tossed his head back and swallowed. 

Sighing, Twilight realised that Bucky, even in his happy moments, never quite looked right. Whatever he had endured on the isles had changed him, taken something from him, and Twilight felt a genuine sense of concern for him. She noted every silver hair in his mane and tail now, and, if she looked carefully, was certain she could see grey hairs in the thick shaggy tan pelt of his. Her gaze shifted and fell upon Lyra and Bon Bon. How many years did he have left? With the necromantic death spell, the strain upon his body, the magical artifacts he had created, the axe, Ripple’s war shoes, the horrible orb with the still beating demon heart, and now the orbs of undead compulsion, Twilight came to the throat tightening conclusion that Bucky probably had more years behind him than ahead of him. He would be lucky to even see his foals, still in their mother’s wombs, married or finding love. 

Already, Twilight felt herself mourning the loss of her friend. 



 

“Hello Yew.”

Looking up, Yew saw Fluttershy. Yew smiled at the yellow pegasus and patted the seat beside her on the sofa in invitation. 

Smiling in return, Fluttershy sat down upon the sofa and settled in, laying down and pulling her legs in beneath her, and she faced Yew, eyes wide. “I hope I’m not interrupting.” 

“No, I was just sitting here wondering what to do for the whole trip,” Yew admitted. 

“I was hoping we could talk,” Fluttershy stated in a very low voice. 

“You wanted to talk to me?” Yew asked. 

“I was hoping that we could,” Fluttershy replied, her eyes narrowing slightly and her ears splaying out sideways from her head. Her soft pink mane spilled over her eyes and she did nothing to brush it away. 

“I always have a time for a friend,” Yew replied.

“You are very kind,” Fluttershy whispered. “This is… this is very difficult for me to talk about and I wanted some perspective…”

Her brows furrowing, Yew studied Fluttershy as the pegasus beside her became very quiet. Reaching out a wing, Yew gently touched Fluttershy in silent encouragement, her feather tips trailing over Fluttershy’s cheek. 

“We have something in common,” Fluttershy started, her tone soft. “We both love very dangerous creatures… some ponies might even call them monsters, not that I would ever think that Lugus or Discord is a monster… oh I’m sorry this is all coming out wrong...” she continued, her voice faltering and then she fell silent. 

“I understand,” Yew said, scooting over the couch to press up against Fluttershy and comfort her. “Do keep going.” 

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Fluttershy looked Yew in the eye, her eyes barely visible from behind her mane. “I wanted to know what you see in him... for me… I feel safe with Discord. He’s a big scary… well, he is a monster but he is my monster and when he holds me, I feel very safe and secure, like nothing bad in the world could possibly hurt me. I don’t feel so nervous. Like when Applejack or Rainbow Dash hug me only better… oh please don’t tell them that.” 

“My first husband wasn’t one for affection. Lugus is learning how to be affectionate and loving. He’s very kind to me and Peekaboo. And yes, Lugus makes me feel safe. He’s big, he’s scary looking, and he is four times my size, but I love him a whole bunch. The very first time we fooled around was very difficult because the size issue. So Discord helps you deal with being afraid?” Yew responded. As she spoke, Fluttershy had scooted up against her, and now both of them were side by side, and pressed up against one another. 

“I am always so afraid. I’m afraid of everything. But I get along with animals. Beasts. I don’t know why. Animals are easier to talk to than ponies. And Discord feels more like an animal to me. He’s easier to relate to. He’s not a pony… and I have problems with ponies. Even though he is currently in pony form… my mind still sees him for what he is, which isn’t a pony. It makes it easier to get close to him. To be open… like with you right now, I am really struggling to talk about this, but I want to talk about it because you have Lugus,” Fluttershy said in a voice as soft and silky as rose petals. “Would you like to learn how to knit?” she asked, her question randomly coming in out of the blue. “I taught Berry Punch… we could all knit together and talk.” 

“I would love to learn how to knit,” Yew replied. 

“Oh good, because I brought my yarn and I don’t like knitting alone,” Fluttershy said. 



 

“I like this comic book.” 

Spike looked up from his own comic book to look at Sentinel, his interest engaged. “You do?” he asked. 

“I’ve read a few comic books… I didn’t like most of them. I like books better, more words, less pictures. But this, this has amazing art that I wish I could draw and it has good dialogue as well,” Sentinel explained. 

“Hum Drum and I share a lot in common,” Spike muttered. 

“How so?” Sentinel asked. 

“Cause a lot of the time, I’m useless,” Spike answered. 

“So make yourself useful,” Sentinel suggested. 

“How? Twilight has her all powerful alicorn magic, her friends can all do amazing things… and mostly, I’m just in the way. Twilight was going to leave me at home so I would be out of the way,” Spike grumbled. 

“Keeping you out of harm’s way and keeping you out of the way are two very different things,” Sentinel said to Spike in a low voice. “Father has to keep me out of harm’s way sometimes. Like during the battle with the shadow wolves. The light spells might have hurt me. I’m a shadow creature. Twilight loves you. She doesn’t want you to be hurt, but she is willing to take that risk and you are being brought along. Prove yourself indispensable. Make yourself necessary. Make yourself useful.” 

“I’ll try,” Spike said, flexing his clawed fingers nervously. 

“This is funny,” Sentinel announced. 

“The comic book?” Spike asked. 

“No. Us. This situation,” Sentinel said. 

“I don’t understand,” Spike said, one eye opening wider than the other as he looked at Sentinel. “How is this funny?” 

“I’m a squire, I want to be a knight, and you are a dragon. In the books, the noble knight always slays the dragon. I’ve found that it is much more preferable to be friends with one,” Sentinel explained. 

“Gosh… thanks,” Spike said sheepishly. “It has always bothered me that knights have to kill the dragon. Why is there no nice dragons in stories?” 

“I dunno. Ponies tell rotten stories about my kind as well. Call us vampires. Boogeyponies. I have met the boogeypony and I am nothing like him. But we’re scary and unwanted,” Sentinel replied. 

“It’s hard being a dragon. The ponies around me… they have trouble relating to me. And they age so quickly. I grow so slowly. Twilight is going to die of old age before I’m even a dragon teenager unless she becomes immortal somehow. Celestia tells me I act very mature for my age as a dragon because of the ponies around me have affected my development,” Spike said, setting down his comic book and looking a bit glum. 

“Yeah, but we have ponies that love us both,” Sentinel said reassuringly. “We might have some trouble fitting in, but we do have ponies that do love us. Twilight’s friends all love you, and Twilight, and that’s important.” 

“I suppose it is,” Spike said. “It takes one century for me to have one of your decades. It isn’t fair. Everypony I love is going to be gone.” 

“Celestia and Luna will be around. And you will have your duties to keep you busy,” Sentinel replied. 

“Duties?” Spike asked. 

“Who is going to look after Twilight’s foals, her foal’s foals, and all of her grandfoals when she is gone? She won’t be there to do it, and she is going to need somepony she trusts to keep her loved ones safe. You will be the most important big brother of all time. Or uncle,” Sentinel explained. 

Spike sat there in stunned silence, his eyes wide, his mind blown. He wrung his hands together, looking fretful, and then he raised his gaze to Sentinel. 

“You okay?” Sentinel asked. 

“I’ve never thought about it that way. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I have to start planning now… I have to remember as much about Twilight as possible so I can keep her memory alive and what she is really like so her grandfoals and great grandfoals will know her and why she was such a great pony… I need to start writing down the amazing things she says and all of the hard work she did to become a princess. I need to catalogue everything there is that I know about her. I’ve been with her since the beginning Sentinel. NOPONY knows her better than I do,” Spike said, tapping the side of his head. “Dragons have long memories… and even longer lives… long after she is gone I can look after her family and make sure they stay safe and secure.” 

“With a sense of duty comes direction,” Sentinel said, smiling at his new friend. 
	
	
> Chapter 284 (Warning! Off the charts dorkiness found within)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Without saying a word, Flash Sentry sat down next to Rainbow Dash near the rail of the ship and joined her to stare at the distant horizon. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath when Flash sat down, turned her head to look at him, and then she raised her eyebrow as she pulled her head away from Flash Sentry, as though she needed a little distance to take him all in. 

“Look, I was drunk, you were drunk, and we both know that nothing happened, so let’s not make this weird, mmmkay?” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice. She felt a growing sense of irritation when Flash did not turn to look at her, and she struggled to keep her hooves to herself to get his attention. 

“I need your help,” Flash whispered, still staring off towards the horizon. 

“You… need my help?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice filled with confusion and a hint of sarcasm. She wanted to prod Flash Sentry with a hoof but knew it was a bad idea. She had just made a resolution to work on keeping her hooves to herself and already she was having trouble sticking to her own plan. Her last bit of hoofiness is what had caused the black eyes on both her and Flash Sentry. 

“I don’t know how to talk to her… it’s easier when I can write her a letter, and it is a little easier when I am sloshed, but now that I am sober, I don’t know what to say and being around her makes me so nervous and I nearly threw up when I bumped into her in the mess hall,” Flash Sentry blurted out. 

“Woah… you mean to tell me that you actually have the stones to come to me and ask for my help so you can woo Twilight Sparkle away from me even though I’m busy plotting on how to keep her for myself… oh my gosh you are some kind of special!” Rainbow Dash responded, her voice rising into a raspy reedy whine. “You are like the ballsiest stallion that ever lived… I can’t believe you!” 

“If you really loved her you’d want her to be happy and you would want her to be free to make a decision between the both of us,” Flash argued, his voice firm. 

“Oh… you jerk!” Rainbow Dash retorted. “Fine… you know what, since I am so confident that I have confidence to spare, I’ll help you out.” The lithe blue pegasus mare leaned over towards Flash, very respectfully and carefully wrapped a foreleg around his neck, pulled him down low, and then with slowly spoken words, she whispered something into his ear, which flickered from the feeling of her hot breath upon it. 

Flash Sentry nodded, smiled, and as an extra friendly gesture, nuzzled Rainbow Dash’s bruised cheek with his swollen tender snoot. “Thanks,” he said graciously. “You are a loyal friend.” 



 

Feeling nervous, Flash Sentry swallowed a few times. He made the terrible mistake of looking into Twilight Sparkle’s large reflective eyes. For a moment, he nearly stumbled and fell into those eyes, leaving himself lost forever. She was only a few feet away, and he had caught her as she was coming out on deck. She stood just outside the door, the wind whipping her mane and tail wildly, and she was almost too beautiful for words. 

It was even worse because he knew that Rainbow Dash was only a few yards away and watching every move he made. He noticed the way her ears moved in the wind, it was clear she wasn’t a pegasus, one of the many contrasts that he loved about her. She had wings, but she clearly wasn’t a pegasus. Her ears flapping in the breeze were distracting and he found he could not stop staring at them. Most pegasus mares had strong stiff ears that didn’t budge unless there was a hurricane. 

“Is there something you wanted Flash?” Twilight asked, raising her eyebrow and looking at the tall stallion. She realised she was now the same height he was since her alicorn growth spurt. “You don’t have to be nervous just because I’m a princess.”

Flash wanted to tell her he wasn’t nervous because she was a princess, he wanted to tell her that he was nervous because she was too beautiful for words. His mouth opened and a croaking sound came out, completely destroying his plan. 

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, taking a step forward and lifting her head higher. 

“Twilight Sparkle, if I told you that you had an amazing body, would you hold it against me?” Flash Sentry blurted out in a squeaky nervous voice, repeating everything that Rainbow Dash had told him to say. 

Twilight’s eyes went wide and her pupils became large black voids. Her ears, still flapping in the breeze, tried to perk forward a bit. Her mouth fell open and she inhaled sharply. Her nostrils flared as her breathing increased, and she gazed into Flash’s eyes. 

And then, Princess Twilight Sparkle exploded into laughter. She laughed for several moments, and then her laughter faded into a giggle, punctuated by snorts. She couldn’t stop giggle-snorting to save her own life, and she backed a few steps away from Flash Sentry. 

“Oh my gosh, you’re such a dork,” Twilight tittered, her cheeks turning a bright purple red. She rushed forward suddenly, planted a swift peck on Flash Sentry’s cheek, pulled away, turned tail, and then darted through the door to go back inside, still giggling madly as she retreated and the door closed behind her. 

Rainbow Dash crossed the deck and came to Flash Sentry’s side. “I can’t believe that worked,” she said in stunned disbelief. She looked nervous for a moment and her wings fluttered. “Well, of course it worked, I told you to say it, I just can’t believe your smooth execution of it. You were so slick in your delivery!” Rainbow Dash explained in a strained voice, her eyes darting around nervously under her nearly swollen shut eyelids. 

“She kissed me… oh my gosh you’re like the best friend a pony could ask for,” Flash Sentry gushed, sweeping Rainbow Dash into an extra squeezy pegasus hug. 

“No… no no no, this is sappy, cut it out, somepony might see us and get the wrong idea or something,” Rainbow Dash pleaded, trying to escape Flash Sentry’s crushing embrace. Much to her dismay, she found that she didn’t want to escape his vice-like squeeze. For just a moment, her body betrayed her and relaxed into his, delighting in the feeling of taught muscles just under a fine silky pelt. She rubbed her bruised cheek against his corded neck, and felt electric tingles running down her neck, down her spine, and crashing like a bowling ball into pins when the shuddery tingles finally reached her dock. 

“So, what else do I say?” Flash Sentry inquired, letting go of Rainbow Dash, who looked strangely disappointed as he pulled away. He chalked it up to his victory, getting a peck on the cheek from Twilight Sparkle. “That was like the wittiest thing to say… I never would have thought of that on my own… I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard when you first said it, but I trusted you that you wouldn’t lead me astray and it actually worked. You’re the best Rainbow Dash.” 

“Oh, um, well, gee, thanks,” Rainbow Dash stammered, a blush overtaking her cheeks. “What are friends for, right?” she added as she tried to squash down the conflicted feelings welling up inside of her. “I have a million pickup lines… I’ll have Twilight madly in love with you in no time.” 



 

Feeling rather predatory, Flash Sentry stalked his prey, his confidence soaring. She was trapped on an airship with him, and that made it easier. All he had to do was find Twilight, deliver Rainbow Dash’s stunning flirts, recover himself, and then find her again after she ran away. 

He found her in the library, and when he entered, he saw her cheeks turn bright pink. He took it as a good sign. He felt strong… empowered. He allowed himself to strut just a little, his wings flared out and his tail hiked high. 

“Hi Twilight,” Flash Sentry greeted. 

Twilight immediately began to giggle-snort, much to Bucky’s dismay. There was a long heaving sigh from the stallion from behind the book he was reading. 

“So… Twilight, would you like to go get a drink? I could get you a gin and platonic or would you like a whiskey and sofa?” Flash asked, daring to bare his teeth in a cocky grin, hoping that Rainbow Dash’s witty words would once again help him out. 

Something didn’t go right. Twilight sucked in her breath and held it, and Flash felt a moment of panic. He watched the mare biting her lips, and her whole body squirmed. There was a loud groan from behind Bucky’s book. Flash took a deep breath and made ready to apologize, but then, something happened. 

Twilight Sparkle howled with laughter. She fell from her chair, rolled on the floor clutching her sides, and, after several moments of suffering from paroxysms of mirth, she managed to get to her hooves, her breath heaving, and she fled the small library, pushing past Flash Sentry, who blocked the door. She galloped for the bathroom, hoping she would make it before her bladder burst, as her laughter echoed from the narrow halls. 

Bucky, dropping his book, looked up at Flash Sentry with his remaining eye. “Smooth,” the annoyed stallion announced. “Real smooth. You should tell her that you want to rearrange the alphabet so you can place U and I together. Or better yet, tell her that her eyes are like limpid pools of primordial ooze, and you are the protozoa that wish to swim in their depths.”

“Hey, that’s a good idea,” Flash Sentry announced as Bucky disappeared behind his book. The pegasus departed, off to find Rainbow Dash and tell her what happened. 



 

The wily mare was on to him. Twilight immediately began to giggle as he approached, her eyes narrowing and her wings fluttering. There would be no more surprising her Flash Sentry realised. He lifted his head up high, cleared his throat, and looked Twilight bravely in the eye. 

“I’ve brought my library card… I was hoping to check you out,” Flash said slowly, a smile spreading over his muzzle as he spoke. 

“Flash… you’re killing me!” Twilight giggled. She covered her mouth with her fetlock and giggle-snorted yet again. “You’re too much!” Twilight, unable to deal with the sudden embarrassment, took off running yet again. 

Flash Sentry watched her go, fleeing the room, her titters and giggles lingering in his ears like sweet music. As he watched her retreat, he heard Rarity’s cultured voice trying to reach him. 

“Darling, that was dreadful!” Rarity said. “If you want to reach her heart, you have to be classy and witty… say something like… I dunno, Sorry, but you owe me a drink… and when she asks why, and trust me, Twilight will ask why, she’s unfailingly polite, tell her that when you looked at her, it caused you to drop your drink… see, this is witty, classy, and it breaks the ice in a most delightful fashion, don’t you agree dearie?” 

Nodding, Flash Sentry couldn’t help but agree. Twilight’s friends were full of helpful advice. “You’re the best Rarity, thanks!”

“Oh, I know,” Rarity agreed. “There’s no need to go around announcing it, goes against my modesty.” 



 

“Flash… fancy meeting you here,” Twilight Sparkle said, seeing Flash approach her yet again. She felt a hot flush of nervousness blossom just under her dock, spread up over her croup, along her back, and through her wings. In one of their previous encounters, he had told her that her eyes were like limpid pools, and that he was the protozoa that wished to swim in their depths… or something to that effect. It was the most nerdy romantic words she had ever heard in her whole life and it had made her heart go pitter-pat. She felt her pulse quicken just thinking about her last encounter and how she had acted like such a dork, giggling like a school filly when she had heard the words “limpid pools” in reference to her eyes. 

“Hi Twilight,” Flash Sentry greeted. 

“We keep bumping into one another,” Twilight remarked, her throat feeling far too dry. She swallowed, and then her whole mouth went dry. Her lower jaw dropped open slightly and she brought herself up to her full high, which made her feel a little self conscious, she was now taller than all of her friends. 

“You know Twilight… you’re the only girl I love right now… but in ten years, if I get lucky, I will have to make room in my heart for another girl…” Flash Sentry stammered. This was a line that Rainbow Dash had spent a whole ten minutes thinking about, and his guts flooded with fear from saying it. It sounded dangerous to say, and it could easily be taken wrong. If Twilight slapped him, he hoped that Rainbow Dash had a plan to help him apologise. 

“Oh… really… another girl?” Twilight inquired, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Flash Sentry, wondering where this line of dialogue might go. She wondered if Flash was interested in starting a herd. 

“Yeah,” Flash replied. “If I am really, really lucky, she’ll call you mama,” Flash said in a dry raspy voice, looking Twilight in the eye as he spoke. 

“That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard Flash…” Twilight replied breathlessly. 
	
	
> Chapter 285
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ignoring Rarity’s shrill squeals of protest, Rainbow Dash dragged Rarity away to a private cabin, pulling her along with one folded fetlock hooked around Rarity’s own fetlock. Rainbow plowed forward on three legs, and while Rarity came along, she did so under dramatic protest and with sufficient token resistance. 

“Unhoof me you brute,” Rarity demanded as Rainbow Dash pulled her through the door and Rarity cried out when the door slammed shut. 

“I need a friend,” Rainbow Dash said, looking Rarity in the eye. 

“Oh… well, why didn’t you say so?” Rarity asked. 

“It’s complicated!” Rainbow Dash gushed in reply. “I’m so confused. I made a mistake. I’ve made so many mistakes. I keep making mistakes!” she shouted as she flopped down upon the small bed, landing on her back and covering up her face with her front hooves. 

“Tell me what is wrong, dear,” Rarity said, her demeanor changing as she hopped up onto the bed beside Rainbow Dash and settled in. 

“Promise me that nothing I say will leave this room!” Rainbow Dash demanded from behind her hooves. 

“You are one of my best friends. I promise,” Rarity vowed. 

“Ugh I don’t know where to start,” Rainbow Dash grunted. 

Reaching out and patting Rainbow, Rarity tried to console her friend. “The beginning is usually a good place,” Rarity whispered. 

“The beginning eh?” Rainbow Dash replied. “Well, if that is the case… earlier this year, Twilight and I flew to Canterlot to spy on Berry Punch and we saw Primrose Propers get cunt punted… the kick heard around the world. The start of the war. And later, we were visiting Celestia and I was kinda defending Berry Punch and what she did and I sorta said something about if somepony was to harm one feather on Twilight’s body that I’d kill them… I said it ‘cause I was all emotional and stuff, but I meant it, and then I sort of realised that I really loved Twilight. I mean really loved Twilight. I had been attracted to her before, even when she was still a unicorn, there was something about her eggheadedness that I liked.” 

“I see,” Rarity said, making a distasteful moue at the words “cunt punted” and raising one eyebrow in disapproval. “Do go on.” 

“But I haven’t said anything to her because I don’t want to ruin this great friendship we have. I don’t think Twilight swings that way. I mean, she’s all straight laced and kind of a prude and you know how she gets if we talk about sexy stuff. You remember the night when Pinkie Pie talked about masturbation and made that joke about the time I saw Discord playing with himself and Twilight got so stressed out that she threw up into the popcorn bowl…” 

“Yes, I do remember that in quite some detail Rainbow Dash,” Rarity stated, shuddering and looking rather distressed. 

“Well, if I tell Twilight that I want to mash our mare minges together she might hate me… I love her so much and she is my best friend. I can’t stand thinking about all of the ways she might hate me if I spring this on her, so I don’t say anything,” Rainbow Dash whimpered. 

Shuddering with revulsion, Rarity closed her eyes. “Rainbow Dash, your language… so I take it you are having a problem because of Flash Sentry moving in on your turf.” 

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash replied. “I really messed up there too… I feel so guilty… so guilty. I made a truce with him and promised that I wouldn’t sabotage his efforts to romance Twilight… but I did! I did try to sabotage his efforts! That smarmy pegasus came to me for help on how to talk to Twilight and I had this evil idea and-” 

“And you told him to use the most dreadful pick up lines in existence, only it backfired terribly and now Twilight is utterly charmed by Flash Sentry,” Rarity interrupted. 

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash admitted in a raspy whine. “Why am I such an awful pony? Why must I be so possessive and horrible?” 

“Dashie, take a deep breath for me,” Rarity requested. She watched her friend draw in a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly. She patted Rainbow on her taut tummy and leaned over Rainbow to look her in the eye. 

“That’s not even the worst of it!” Rainbow Dash shouted in a nasal whine. 

“Oh?” Rarity asked, still trying to get Rainbow Dash to calm down. 

“I think I’m falling in love with Flash… I mean, I didn’t mean to do it, it just happened and we’ve been hugging and he squeezed me… and oh horseapples everything has become so complicated,” Rainbow Dash confessed. 

“Oh my gracious,” Rarity whispered, her eyes narrowing and her brows furrowing. 

“I am such a horrible pony!” Rainbow Dash said as she collapsed into sobs. “I’m not loyal, I’m selfish, I’m mean, I bully other ponies, and I… I…” 

“Oh Dashie, I don’t know what to say… we all have our faults,” Rarity said, laying down beside Rainbow Dash on the bed and pulling the pegasus close, embracing her tightly and stroking Rainbow Dash’s neck to make the wailing pegasus settle down. 

“I tried to wreck my best friend’s love life just because I want her for myself. I don’t deserve her… she’s so happy with Flash… I’m a bitch!” Rainbow shrieked. 

“You hush right this instant!” Rarity demanded, slapping Rainbow Dash lightly on the back of the head, her hoof causing a rather hollow sounding “conk” noise to manifest. 

The distraught pegasus said nothing else, but continued to cry as Rarity held her close. Rarity gently ran her hoof up and down Rainbow’s neck, trailing lightly, the unicorn having learned long ago that pegasi needed physical comforting from her many encounters with Fluttershy. 

“Rainbow, darling, you need to tell Twilight Sparkle the truth. She deserves that. And Flash too. This could still have a happy ending. You might form a herd or something,” Rarity whispered. 

Sniffling, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Yeah right… like Twilight would do something like that. She throws up in the popcorn bowl when you make jokes about masturbation. What do you think she’ll do if the idea of a threesome gets into her head? We’ll see an alicorn level neurotic breakdown.” 

“Well, maybe. Most likely… you do bring up a good point. Twilight Sparkle is… fragile,” Rarity stated, fully aware of her own hypocrisy, feeling burning shame creeping up the back of her neck and cheeks. I’m an awful friend as well she thought to herself. 

“So Rarity, are you like a lesbian or a bi-sexual now?” Rainbow asked, changing the subject. She drew in a deep convulsive breath and let it out slowly. Tears still flowed from her eyes, but her painful sobbing had subsided a bit. 

“Oh I wouldn’t know how to answer that… it has nothing to do with gender. Coco is beautiful, but it isn’t because she is a mare. She is an amazing pony and she makes me want to be a better pony. I am in love with the part of her that is beyond gender… I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like I don’t care if she is male or female, I just want her body because of the mind that comes with it. Everything she says… everything she does… her kind honesty…” Rarity answered hesitantly, pausing frequently as her jumbled thoughts spilled out in pieces. 

“I know how you feel,” Rainbow Dash said with a snuffle. 

“You do?” Rarity asked. 

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Twilight… I mean, she’s sexy in her own way, don’t get me wrong, but that isn’t why I love her. I love her spirit. I love her courage. I love her will. The parts of her that I love about her the most have nothing to with gender. My dad… he warned me about being careful who I fell in love with, because the physical things only last so long. And once those fade with age, you’re left with nothing when you get old. You wake up one day at the breakfast table and realise you have nothing to talk about. I could see myself growing old with Twilight and talking about things like Daring Do books.” 

“I had no idea that you were capable of such depth,” Rarity said in astonishment. 

“Oh thanks Rarity,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. 

“Well, you never show this side of you… what you said was beautiful,” Rarity replied in pouty tones, pulling Rainbow closer and rubbing her cheek against Rainbow’s neck. “It sums up how I feel about Coco rather nicely.” 

“What do I do Rarity?” Rainbow whined. 

“You tell Twilight the truth,” Rarity suggested. 

“Maybe when this trip is over,” Rainbow Dash stated. “She’s under a lot of pressure and it can wait till we get home.”

“That seems reasonable,” Rarity said. 

“What do I do if I lose my friend?” Rainbow Dash asked. 

“That won’t happen, I promise,” Rarity soothed. “I will help you. We will all help you. And don’t look at Flash Sentry as competition, otherwise, you will ruin everything.” 

“Probably. I hate losing,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “You’re a good friend Rarity.” 

“Thank you Dashie dearie,” Rarity replied. “You are a dear friend.” 



 

“Whatcha reading?”

Lowering his book, Bucky looked up at Lyra. “Dark magic battle spells. There is an anti-cohesion spell in here. It causes the cellular structures in the body to break down and become a runny liquid. It causes horrible agony and it causes very little mana consumption,” Bucky replied. 

“Neat!” Lyra responded. “While Bonnie isn’t here, tell me all about it!” 

Sighing, Bucky grinned. “You know Lyra, as far as wives go, you have a special place in the black part of my heart,” Bucky teased. 

“You say the sweetest things, you flatterer,” Lyra tittered. 

“The spell is called “Goop” funnily enough. As the first target is turned into a puddle, if the liquid splashes on other living things, it will cause them to break down as well. Sombra invented this spell and it is a hybrid enchantment-transmutation spell. According to Luna’s notes in the book, he turned whole crowds of confined enemies who could not escape into what Luna called “soup” and she wrote it in large bold letters,” Bucky explained. 

“That’s awesome!” Lyra exclaimed. “If you use it on the griffons I wanna watch.” 

“I’ve already figured out a way to improve upon it,” Bucky said.  

“How could you make it worse?” Lyra whispered in morbid fascination. 

“Turn the soupified masses into a golem,” Bucky answered. “Think about how horrible that would be for a moment, my lovely Lyra.” 

“It would run around punching things, making them melt, and then sucking them up to keep growing bigger and bigger?” Lyra gasped, her mouth hanging open and her eyes growing wide. “Oh that is gloriously evil,” she breathed. “I wanna have your babies.” 

“Nopony understands us quite like we understand one another,” Bucky giggled. 

Tittering, Lyra blushed. “It feels nice to flirt with you,” she admitted. “So, what else is in that book?” 

“There is a spell called “Tentacle Torment” that looks interesting. Dark magic. Conjuration and transmutation. Opens a semi-permeable portal to Tartarus. A writhing mass of tentacles come out, grab things, begin violating them right away, and then drag them bodily off to Tartarus,” Bucky replied, knowing that Lyra would be interested. 

“Oh that sounds neat!” Lyra said with great enthusiasm. “Lemme guess, Sombra?” 

“How did you know?” Bucky responded, a lopsided grin manifesting upon his withered face. “Luna has notes for this one too… her sister does not approve of this spell and lectured Sombra about its use on several occasions.” 

“Sombra was an immensely powerful archmage. He was Star Swirl’s equal. Star Swirl is remembered, and alas, poor Sombra is best left forgotten,” Lyra stated. 

“You know, Clover the Clever learned a lot of dark magic from Sombra. She almost became Tainted I think. It mentions that she developed “mana sickness” and had trouble making harmonious magic for a time. Star Swirl and Sombra had a bit of a falling out because of it. Sombra corrupted his brother’s apprentice, which is dirty pool,” Bucky said, looking thoughtful. “The most interesting thing I learned was about Clover herself.” 

“And that was?” Lyra inquired, looking interested. 

“Clover the Clever, while very clever, was a dirty cheater. Her name comes from Princess Platinum, and it is an allusion to unicorn cleverness, or being a dirty rotten cheater, because-” 

“It isn’t cheating when we do it,” Lyra finished, a fiendish giggle escaping her lips after she spoke. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 286
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Smiling oh so gently, Fluttershy passed out knitting needles to Yew Wood and Ripple, took a deep breath to prepare to instruct them on their use, decided another deep breath was in order after she didn’t feel particularly confident after the first deep breath, and then took another deep breath when she realised that good things come in threes and she was bound to feel better after a third one. 

Ripple, holding a long knitting in her wing, lifted it up to examine it closely, noticing its length and pointy end. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she hefted the needle, getting a feel for the footlong implement of impalement. With a fluid motion, her wing whipped out and the needle went flying. 

“Apple,” Ripple called out languid disinterest as the missile flew, no longer looking at her target, but at Yew, giving her a wink. 

A second later, it skewered an apple sitting in a pile of fruit in a fruit bowl over a dozen feet away. It had flown between a banana and an orange to find its target. It quivered for a moment, the apple bleeding out juice, and the pony sitting at the table with the fruit bowl raised one eyebrow in annoyance when she saw the improvised implement of impalement. 

“Ripple… what have I told you about turning relatively harmless things into terrifying weapons of grievous bodily harm?” Bon Bon said, tapping her hoof on the table in annoyance. 

“Not to do it?” Ripple squeaked in reply. Ripple knew full she had crossed the line with mother Bon Bon and she was in deep meadow muffins now. 

“Yes. Now get over here,” Bon Bon demanded in reply. 

Drooping as much as possible to look submissive, Ripple spilled off of the couch and began to walk over to Bon Bon, dragging her hooves, her lower lip protruding and her nostrils flaring. She kept her head low and her wingtips dragged along the ground. “I’m sowwy,” she murmured in as much of a foalish voice as she could muster. 

Fluttershy, feeling stressed, decided a few more deep breaths were in order and she watched with almost moistening eyes as Ripple drug herself off to whatever terrible punishment awaited. 

Reaching the table, Ripple reclaimed the knitting needle, pulling it free of the apple, licked it clean, gobbled down the apple in a few wolfish bites, and then looked at Bon Bon pleadingly, her eyes wide as her bottom lip quivered with guilt. 

“You were bad. Don’t be bad again,” Bon Bon said in a faintly angry monotone. 

Rubbing her head up against Bon Bon, Ripple closed her eyes and begged for forgiveness the only way she knew how, trying to be as affectionate as possible to her mother and snorting to get Bon Bon’s attention. Finally, Bon Bon melted, reached out one leg, and Ripple felt herself being squeezed in a way that only Bon Bon could squeeze, which for most ponies might be bone shattering, but for Ripple it was a comforting reassurance that Bon Bon still loved her. 

“No more throwing spoons, knives, forks, letter openers, melon ballers, spatulas, playing cards, or knitting needles and sticking them into things. You could scare a pony… just look at poor Fluttershy. She’s almost hyperventilating… for shame Ripple,” Bon Bon said in a low voice to the petulant pouting pegasus. 

“That list keeps getting longer,” Ripple whined. 

“You keep throwing stuff! You scared poor Lyra almost to death with the playing cards slicing off sections of eggplant!” Bon Bon scolded. “And don’t get me started what you did with the melon baller! Bucky blinked! You scared your own father! Well, somewhat... well, the fact that he blinked is what concerned me… You oughta be ashamed of yourself!” 

“I really am sorry,” Ripple whimpered, cowering away from Bon Bon. “I’m ashamed!”

“Go learn how to knit. And not kill things. Now go!” Bon Bon commanded in a firm tone, sending the pegasus filly away with one hoof pointing back towards the couch from whence Ripple had came. 

Ripple backed away from Bon Bon, her head low, her tail tucked between her legs. She backed her way to the sofa, never once taking her eyes off of Bon Bon, until she felt something grab her by her hips and pulled her into a crushing hug. She was suddenly snatched into a very yellow embrace. 

“You shouldn’t be so hard on her Bon Bon! She’s almost crying! She’s a filly... how can you be so harsh? You raised your voice at her… look at her, she’s miserable,” Fluttershy scolded as she snuggle-huggled Ripple in a crushing panicked embrace. “That was uncalled for! That isn’t how you speak to foals, you encourage their gifts!” 

Rolling her eyes, Bon Bon stared down at her book upon the table, unable to look at Fluttershy babying the deadly killer that Bon Bon called her daughter. Fluttershy clearly did not understand that a firm hoof was necessary when dealing with the murderous little brute. 



 

“I’m bored.” 

A cold chill crept over Applejack as Pinkamena Diane Pie uttered the most terrifying words in the world. She shiver-shuddered and then reached up to adjust her hat. “Now now Pinkie, there is plenty to do, there’s no need to be bored.” 

“But I am bored,” Pinkie Pie replied, her left eyelid quivering. 

“Maybe you could play with Harper and Peekaboo? They’re not Pumpkin or Pound, but they’re foals,” Applejack suggested. 

“That’s a good idea!” Pinkie chirped as she bounced off of the sofa to be with the foals sitting on a quilt in the middle of the floor. 

Lifting off her hat, wiping her brow, and then heaving a sigh, Applejack gave silent thanks that the crisis was averted and that something had drawn Pinkie Pie’s attention. 

There was nothing quite as bad as a bored Pinkie Pie. 



 

The sun had settled over the horizon far to the west and they continued to head east. The companions were all gathered in the large common room, save for Lugus and Ripple, who were up on deck with Flash Sentry, talking to one another and looking at the stars. 

Twilight and her friends continued to get to know Bucky and his family as they raced eastward, towards Griffonholm, and the twin cities, Huginn and Muninn. 

“So, have any of you been in a serious fight before?” Bucky asked, his tone soft, gentle, and inquisitive. 

“I think the closest we came to being in actual combat was the changeling invasion of Canterlot. They didn’t want to kill us, just subdue us, and it turned into a real brawl,” Rainbow Dash replied, her friends each nodding in agreement. “Personally I’ve been in a few scuffles as a part of the Ponyville Militia, but nothing too serious,” she admitted with a surprising bit of humility. 

“The changeling fight was fun!” Pinkie Pie announced. 

“Fun?” Twilight grunted in incredulous disbelief. 

“Yeah silly, fun, remember when I did this?” Pinkie Pie responded, yanking Twilight off of the sofa, whipping her around, and holding her in place. “I used you as a cannon!” 

“I still don’t know how you did that,” Twilight mumbled. “And stop pointing me at things, it’s dangerous!” 

“Oh that’s right, my unicorn cannon is now an alicorn cannon!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “Oh goodie!” 

Covering her eyes, Applejack shook her head and groaned loudly. 

“Pinkie Pie! Put me down!” Twilight commanded. 

“Aw… sorry Twilight,” Pinkie Pie apologised. 

“Unicorn cannon?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Yeah… I used Twilight as a cannon. I cranked on her tail and made her horn fire,” Pinkie Pie explained. 

“I still don’t know how she did it,” Twilight muttered. 

Smiling, Bon Bon lifted herself free from the sofa, rose up on her hind legs, snatched up Lyra under one foreleg and then snatched Bucky, who squirmed and grunted. In a moment, Bon Bon had one unicorn under each foreleg, squeezed against her sides. 

“I can dual wield unicorns,” Bon Bon said with a wry grin, hefting the two ponies around with ease. 

“Hey, watch where you point me!” Bucky snarled. 

“I could totally dual wield Rarity and Twilight!” Pinkie Pie shrieked with excitement. 

“Oh no you don’t!” Rarity said, slapping away Pinkie Pie’s grabby hooves. 

“Unicorns aren’t weapons!” Twilight protested. 

“I beg to differ,” Bon Bon retorted, hefting Bucky and Lyra around. “Right now I am lugging enough firepower to level a kingdom. This is quite a rush. At this moment, I just might be the most dangerous earth pony who has ever lived,” she giggled. 

“Bonnie, stop being a spaz and put me down,” Lyra said, squirming in Bon Bon’s iron embrace. “Bucky, tell her to put us down!” 

Grunting, Bon Bon dropped her unicorns back down upon the sofa. “Well, that was fun while it lasted.” 

“I ain’t bad in a slobberknocker,” Applejack said slowly as she watched Bucky and Lyra settle back into place and Bon Bon taking a seat between them. “I mean, I go on pie deliveries all the time and I’m still alive.” 

“Pie deliveries?” Bucky inquired. 

“Applejack delivers pies anywhere,” Pinkie Pie explained, hugging her cousin as she answered. “Even really dangerous places like the Everfree and Froggy Bottom Bog.” 

“Interesting,” Bucky mused to himself. “In the event of trouble, you girls stick together. I mean it. You cling to one another like glue. Am I clear?” 

“Yeah yeah we get ya,” Applejack replied. “You worry for us pretty little things and you plan to do your knight in scary armor bit.” 

“Applejack, don’t be sarcastic. He’s worried and so am I,” Twilight said, staring at Applejack. 

“Look, Celestia wouldn’t have sent us if this was actually dangerous. It might be a little scary now and then, but everything she has had us do so far hasn’t ever been that life threatening,” Applejack argued. “We have Twi… and Buckminster. Griffon’s ain’t stupid. They’re jerks, like Gilda, but they ain’t stupid. They know we have the upper hoof.” 

“I am inclined to agree with Applejack, who has always had remarkable horse sense,” Rarity said, looking thoughtful. “Celestia would not sacrifice her national heroes for some ideal. We’re far too valuable. Just so long as we stick together, everything will be fine.” 

A growing feeling of frustration filled Bucky, but he said nothing. There was no point in upsetting the mares or scaring them senseless. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly. 

“Nopony ever mentions me,” Lyra said. “It is always Bucky this, and Twilight that, and I always had to play second fiddle to Twilight in school, I was always second best to Twilight and never got the recognition I deserved.” 

“Sorry Lyra,” Twilight apologised. 

“Bucky is terrible at magic. Really. Back me up on this Twilight. I outclass him every important way I can think of but never once am I mentioned when issues of importance come up. I am always stuck in the background and nopony ever thinks of me being dangerous like they think of Bucky being dangerous, and I hate it,” Lyra protested bitterly. 

“I’d like to go on the record as saying that Lyra is indeed a better spell caster than I am,” Bucky stated in a low serious voice. “And she never gets the recognition she deserves living in my shadow.” 

“Thank you Bucky,” Lyra said, reaching around Bon Bon, grabbing Bucky by the head, pulling him in close, and kissing him on his withered scarred cheek. 

“Fine, we have Twilight, Lyra, and the unicorn that killed the Crystal Lich,” Applejack corrected. “My point is, we outclass those fool griffons. We’re ponies. We have magic. We rule this world and it is about time those griffons realise that.” 

“That seems a little… biased,” Rarity announced, her voice filled with hesitation. 

“Shucks, it’s the truth,” Applejack muttered. “Those fool chicken cats were almost exterminated once. They’re like foxes who raid the henhouse. You kill enough of them and you feel kinda sorry, so you stop… and the next thing you know, to repay you for your kindness, you got dead chickens in the henhouse once again.” 

A dreadful silence fell over the companions, and nopony knew quite what to say. 
	
	
	

	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 287
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How do the lightning cannons work?” Ripple inquired, looking over the deck rail at the protruding metal antennae sticking out from the sides of The Scorned Mare.

“Super compressed cloudstuff naturally turns into stormclouds. The gasbag above is filled with clouds which turn into storm clouds. Those storm clouds produce electricity. Between storm clouds producing electricity, and the solar collectors built into the gasbag, this ship has enough electricity to power everything, the lights, the refrigerators, heating, air conditioning, and the electro-cannons. Most of the time you never actually need to use the electro-cannons, just the sight of them is enough to discourage most threats. Some ships have them and they’re not real, they’re just decoys to scare threats off,” Flash Sentry explained. 

“Neat,” Ripple replied. “So how do you know so much about this?” 

“When I was a foal, I wanted to be an airship captain,” Flash Sentry admitted, grinning sheepishly. “I still do.” 

“So why didn’t you become an airship captain?” Ripple asked, turning her head around to look at Flash Sentry and perking her ears forward in interest. 

“Because, when I took the placement testing that pegasi take in school, I had high scores in military communications and military supply chain management. I didn’t want to be a quartermaster or a sky wagon puller, so I chose communications,” Flash Sentry answered. 

“So you did it because a piece of paper told you to?” Ripple asked, her eyes going wide in disbelief as she stared at the orange pegasus. “What about dreams?” 

“I had dreams. I wanted to be an airship captain and a police officer. At the same time. And an official Princess Rescuer… but that dream was silly and I let it go. I didn’t have the necessary skills for being an airship captain, I scored too low in vital areas. I did score well enough to be considered for military police duty… and when I got my cutie mark, for a time, I really did think I would become a police officer. A blue shield... I had some hope for a while. But real life happened and I was good at what I did working in the messenger corps. I personally flew several dangerous missions during the collapse and wound up in quite a number of dangerous situations. I’m still alive, and that sort of tells me that I am doing the right thing,” Flash Sentry answered. 

“So the fact that you are alive tells you that you are competent and good at what you do… but are you happy?” Ripple questioned. “I mean I’m good at a number of things, but I’m happy when I’m following my dream. I’m gonna be a knight someday.” 

“I don’t know if I’m happy,” Flash Sentry sighed. 

“I am finally happy,” Lugus interjected. 

“Hard to tell when you are happy. You can’t smile,” Flash Sentry replied. 

“I have Peekaboo. I have Yew, my beautiful one eyed mate, who has scars that tell stories, and it is she whom I love. I have a squire. I have a chief who is worth serving and an honourable tribe. I am finally living up to my ideals as a knight. I was miserable before,” Lugus explained. 

“Think there will be trouble, large friend?” Flash Sentry asked. 

“Almost certainly. I should not have come. I have a feeling that when I return home, they will try to arrest me or have me killed,” Lugus replied, sitting down upon the deck. “I came because it was requested, but it is a bad idea. I am conflicted. I must stay at my chief’s side, but by doing so, I am putting him in danger… or so I worry,” Lugus replied, his crest rising high as he spoke. 

“If anything touches you, I’ll crack their skull open and spill their little birdy brains out,” Ripple said, bristling and puffing out, her legs going stiff as she stood near Lugus. 

“Ripple, you are practically a griffon,” Lugus stated in an amused voice. 



 

“This is the greatest trip ever,” Spike said, giggling as he spoke. He had several marshmallows impaled on his claws and he waved and wiggled them as he belched up a gout of flame, toasting them with just the perfect amount of burn. He peeled off a well toasted marshmallow and passed it to Sentinel. “And the adults are so wrapped up in their little chat that there is nopony to tell us to go to bed,” Spike chortled. 

Taking the offered marshmallow with an extended thumb claw, Sentinel then jammed it into his mouth and chewed. “These are great,” he mumbled around a mouthful of marshmallow. “Most of the time, I go to bed on my own. Nopony ever has to tell me to go to bed. I have duties to perform and I need to be well rested.” 

Blinking, Spike froze. “I never thought of it that way. I have a lot of responsibilities. But at the end of the day, I just want to have fun and play… and usually Twilight has to tell me to go to bed or put me to bed.” Spike paused for a moment, looking thoughtful as he ate a marshmallow. He swallowed it with a loud gulp and then looked at Sentinel. “We’re overworked. We have so many responsibilities and duties to perform. We never get a chance to do what we are doing now, just having fun and doing nothing.” 

“I get a chance occasionally,” Sentinel replied, his ears splaying out sideways as he became reflective. “But I am not one for play. My sisters do drag me to tea parties though and I do play darts with Ripple.” 

“But we’re kids. We’re supposed to be playing around when were not in school. We’re not supposed to have full time jobs just yet,” Spike said in a voice full of regret. “I want to go to school with the foals I know. Even if school isn’t fun. I hate that I can’t go. Twilight says I wouldn’t learn anything there that she couldn’t teach me, but it isn’t about learning stuff… and she just doesn’t understand. I want to be around other kids sort of my own age… like Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, or Scootaloo. I really like Sweetie Belle. She and I talk about all kinds of stuff. Apple Bloom and I build stuff. And Scootaloo and I do adventurous stuff together,” he confessed, baring his soul to his new friend. 

“So tell your mother you want to go to school with the rest of the foals and tell her why. Twilight strikes me as being mostly reasonable. If she doesn’t listen, I will help you. Going to school together would be nice. I’m worried about school,” Sentinel responded. The lunar pegasus colt slumped down in his bunk, sighed, and then stretched his wings out. 

“It is difficult to be a dragon living in a world full of ponies,” Spike murmured morosely, hunching over and resting his chin on his palm. “I don’t fit in with other dragons any more, I learned that. They horrify me… dragons are awful… but I don’t quite fit in with ponies either. I get along really well with you though.” 

“We aren’t so different,” Sentinel said reassuringly, seeing his friend in distress. “When other ponies look at us, they see a monster with terrible teeth and scary claws. Thankfully, we have those who love us and see past that.” 

“But you are still a pony,” Spike said in return. 

“Am I?” Sentinel asked. “I eat meat. I have echolocation. I am a shadow creature that has an almost pony shaped body. I have to be careful of everything I touch so I don’t shatter it, break it, or crush it. I am already far stronger than all of the adult ponies in my family, including Bon Bon. If I was to ever lose my temper and slap one of my sisters with my hoof,  I could shatter their skulls into a thousand pieces. The only other pony I can ‘play’ with is Moonbow, who is just like me. We can be rough with one another and not suffer the consequences. If I was to hug Diamond Tiara like I do Moonbow, it would kill her. I don’t feel like a pony,” he explained. 

“But don’t you see? You are… you love them. You don’t hurt them. You are careful and considerate of how fragile they are, because you are a pony. You hold back because you value them. Just like I do… I get the strangest ideas sometimes… I’ve had dreams about eating Sweetie Belle-”

“Wait, what?” Sentinel interrupted.

“I’ve had dreams about eating Sweetie Belle,” Spike repeated in a raspy pained voice. “It’s awful, I didn’t mean to say it, it just sort of slipped out, please don’t hate me.” 

“I’ve had dreams about eating Diamond Tiara. I’ve even found myself staring at her legs and thinking about how delicious they looked,” Sentinel admitted. “Or other parts of her tender little body…” he grumbled in a low growly whisper, feeling a rush of heat creeping along his skin all over his body. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, Spike fell over on his bunk and clutched his face. “Oh that is such a relief. I thought I was alone… I thought I was a monster. I’ve never even told Twilight. The worst part is, in the dream, Sweetie Belle was alright with it, telling me it was okay and trying to comfort me because I was crying while I was eating her.” 

“I had a very similar dream about Diamond Tiara. And my mother Thistle told me that she had a dream about my father… he was very forgiving towards her about being devoured,” Sentinel said to Spike, his body flooding with relief as he was finally able to talk about this with somebody he could relate to. 

“I wonder why we dream about them being okay with it?” Spike questioned, laying flat on his back. He grabbed his tail and clutched it, squeezing it in his clawed fingers, fidgeting nervously. 

“I dunno,” Sentinel answered. “Maybe it is because we know that they love us in spite of being what we are… or something. I wish I had an answer.” 

“Sometimes I feel like a pony trapped in a dragon’s body. I want to be a pony more than anything,” Spike confessed. “I don’t want to be Twilight’s dragon assistant, I want to be her foal. I want to be soft and fuzzy. I want Twilight to hug me and feel something other than hard metallic scales,” he explained. The little dragon yawned as he continued to squeeze his own tail and he started to struggle to keep his eyes open. 

“Spike?”

“Yes Sentinel?” 

“I am really glad we are friends, Spike.” 

“Me too.” 



 

“So you fell in love with Yew because her face is messed up and she is missing an eye?” Flash Sentry inquired, trying to understand the griffon. 

“I do not think her face is messed up. Is a page covered in letters that tell a story messed up?” Lugus asked in reply. 

“Sorry, I misspoke, please forgive me,” Flash Sentry said as he cringed. 

“Do not worry little pegasus,” Lugus responded. “I fell in love with Yew because she is a beautiful creature to me. She is a survivor. She picked a fight with an eagle. I love every inch of her tiny barely more than a meal body.” 

Gulping, Flash Sentry looked concerned at the griffon’s words. “A meal?” 

“She knows how I am… we have talked. She accepts my foibles and even thinks they are funny. She trusts me. Asks me if this spot on her leg looks especially delicious or how I would properly prepare her haunches,” Lugus said, making a chuckling sound deep in his throat as he spoke, the words coming from a different part of his throat. 

“Well, that’s good that you can joke about it,” Flash Sentry stated. 

“Love bears all things,” Lugus replied. He scratched at the spot on his chest where his fur and feathers merged. “Isn’t that right my squire?” 

“Oh I don’t know…” Ripple replied, dropping her gaze to the floor. 

“You love Sparkler. Sparkler loves you. But you also find yourself attracted to a donkey,” Lugus said to his squire, his tone faintly teasing. 

“She is a very pretty donkey!” Ripple responded defensively, looking Lugus in the eye. 

“She has a very expressive face and ears. I like her,” Lugus said, reaching out and gently stroking Ripple with his wing. 

“I’m really afraid Lugus… what if we really like each other but she isn’t agreeable to the whole herd thing and I lose her? I’m really falling for her. And Sparkler knows it. I love Sparkler, and I kinda have a crush on Sparky, but I have a major crush on Bittersweet. I mean, I think about her constantly. Sparky says it is because I already have her, and it is true, I do have Sparkler, so I am comfortable with our relationship and I know that someday, when I feel ready, Sparky and I are going seal the deal on our relationship… but I don’t have Bittersweet. I’m having to work to get her affections. I have to earn every smile from her. And it all feels so different,” Ripple explained. “So exhilarating to do all of the right things and get a smile from Bittersweet.” 

“Love is confusing and difficult,” Flash Sentry agreed. “I think Twilight’s closest friend is falling for me. I feel awful about it, I keep thinking I need to send some clear message to end it, but if I do, and it hurts her, it will also hurt Twilight, and potentially wreck my chances with Twilight. I don’t know what to do.” 

“Love is complicated. I don’t like it,” Ripple muttered. “Crushing skulls is easy. I like that. Pounding things into pudding… that’s easy. I like that. But love? What a mess.” 

“At least neither of you are over four times as large as your mate. You don’t know what trouble is,” Lugus said, prodding Ripple and Flash with his wings. “You have it easy.” 
	
	
> Chapter 288 (Warning! Interspecies meatpole ride!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Yew Wood carefully stepped on Lugus’ back, making his spine crackle as she pranced around on his backbone. The big warrior grunted as the much smaller pegasus danced across his back, his eyes narrowing or going wide as she moved and shifted over his broad body. She was only a quarter of his size, and Lugus loved her more than he had any words to express. 

“Do you remember our first time?” Yew asked as she applied her weight to her front hooves, pressing down between Lugus’ wing joints and causing a popcorn sound to fill the air. She smiled when she heard Lugus groan and continued to press down, until there was finally a loud pop and the big griffon went completely limp beneath her. 

“How could I forget?” Lugus replied, his beak not moving, and his voice coming from deep within his throat. “It was a very memorable time for me.” 

“For me as well,” Yew responded right away, balancing perfectly upon the monstrous brute she called her husband. “It was the first I felt truly loved… even though I had been previously married.” 

“It was right after the battle,” Lugus said, reminiscing to a time not all that long ago. 

“What was it that really made you fall in love with me?” Yew inquired, leaping off of Lugus’ back and settling down beside him on the bed. 

“Your pretty face,” Lugus admitted in reply. 

“With the big jagged scar running down one side and my missing eye?” Yew sighed. “You sweet talker. Just when I think we have something meaningful between us, you have to go right for the physical attraction.” 

“The scar is… how you say… sexy,” Lugus muttered. “But I love you for other reasons too,” he added before he got himself in trouble. 



 

The much larger griffon looked down at the much smaller pegasus who was looking up at him with one curious eye. He reached down and grabbed her with his talons, lifting her up to eye level, and carefully held her. He was able to wrap his talons completely around her body, his claws meeting together, and he squeezed her gently, understanding that pegasi liked a little squeezing. He watched as she folded her forelegs over her barrel and peered at him. It took an enormous amount of trust to be held in the claws of a creature that could bite your entire head off. 

“So how are we going to do this?” Yew asked. 

“Wait, I thought you were once married and had a foal?” Lugus said in a teasing reply. 

Reaching out, Yew Wood rapped Lugus sharply on the beak and shook her head from side to side. “One of your hind legs is actually larger around than my body is. Really. What is the plan?” 

“I don’t know,” Lugus said, being serious. “I have some concerns about hurting you.” He gently set the pegasus down upon the floor of their small cabin on The Scorned Mare and stepped back. 

“Test run. I’m going to stand here, and you are going to act like you are mounting me,” Yew instructed, flicking her tail around. She turned around, presented by hiking her tail up, and dropped her front half down to the ground, leaving her rump up high in the air. 

Lugus, being a very playful feline, reached out with one wing tip and gave her a tickle just below her tail, causing the mare to wiggle and giggle. He then attempted to mount her. 

Yew vanished. 

He stood over her, and she was completely gone. He dropped his head down to look between his front legs, and he could see her beneath him. She was halfway between his front and rear legs, and he was no where near where needed to be to penetrate her. He stepped forward, still looking at Yew, and banged his head into the wall, causing Yew to giggle. 

“I’ll back up,” Yew offered. 

Lugus watched and she scooted backward between his hind legs. Another problem presented itself. She was short, and he was tall. With her rump waggling around pleasingly in the air, she was still about a foot away from his hips. He dropped himself down a bit, finding the angle awkward and rather painful, until he felt his balls brush up against her. 

“You still have the largest stones I’ve ever seen,” Yew announced from beneath him. “Almost as big as my head… they’ll make a nice place to rest my noggin I bet.” 

“This isn’t working,” Lugus observed. 

“Yeah, I know,” Yew replied. “You’d make a nice shelter though. Keep the rain off of me,” she added, standing up beneath him.

“There is going to be a much larger problem,” Lugus said in a low voice.

“And that is?” Yew inquired. 

“When erect, my penis is longer than your whole body,” Lugus answered. 

“Oh… my… gosh… really?” Yew breathed. “Lugus, I love you, but I’m worried.” 

“So am I, I would never hurt you,” Lugus promised reassuringly. 

“Roll over,” Yew commanded, reaching up and prodding Lugus’ belly. 

The giant griffon flopped over on the bed and rolled over onto his back, his legs splaying out in different directions. He looked over at Yew, who was climbing into the bed and then climbing up on top of him. She stood on his ribcage, her weight easily supported by his bone structure. 

“What do I have to work with here?” Yew said, using her nose to root around in Lugus’ groin. “Oh my… what do we have here?” she asked, sniffing and snuffling around. “Something is peeking out,” the pegasus announced excitedly. 

“That feels very nice,” Lugus uttered as he felt Yew’s warm damp snoot brushing up against his bare flesh. 

Not quite believing what she was seeing, Yew teased the tip of what was peeking out. “I dunno if it grows thicker, but it seems skinny,” she said. 

“Very long and skinny… and there is a bone in there,” Lugus heaved as she felt her heavy breathing on his most sensitive areas. 

“I’ve seen pony peckers bigger around than this… but never anything this long… and it keeps growing!” Yew admitted. She gave it a curious lick and she felt Lugus convulse beneath her. “Salty!” 

“Oh… that… felt very good. It has been a while since I have done anything,” Lugus whispered. “This can’t be fair to you… I know from reading, your kind has foreplay… your kind at least tries to give the females pleasure… they call it hunt the radish. But I am incapable of such a thing,”

“So when you peek out, the bone just slides into place?” Yew asked.

“I suppose so, I do not know the actual mechanism,” Lugus replied. 

“That’s a really big cock,” Yew gasped. It was indeed as long as the length of her body, skinny, veiny, and free of barbs. It was an odd shape compared to what she was used to, and she noticed that Lugus had an odd smell that she found she rather liked. “This is gonna be a really morbid question, but what happens to griffonesses who are about my size?” 

“Do you really want to know?” Lugus inquired.

“Yeah… kinda,” Yew replied, feeling somewhat afraid. 

“If a warrior such as myself takes a smaller female for the purposes of satiating his lust, he usually jams it in as far as he can to satisfy his need. The smallest low ranking females… many die from this kind of copulation,” Lugus responded. “I have never done such a thing.” 

“That’s what I thought,” Yew whimpered. “That’s awful.” 

“My kind has no respect for any race, even our own,” Lugus stated. “We only respect strength, and we even eat the smaller members of our own race.” 

“Oh YUCK!” Yew shouted, sticking her tongue out in disgust. 

“We only respect strength, and they are weak. If you don’t want to be food, be strong enough to survive. If you do not wish to be raped to death, be strong enough to say no and defend your body… it is how we are,” Lugus explained. 

“Okay, new rule, only sweet talk from here on out,” Yew announced as she prodded the enormous penis pointing up at her with her hoof. 

The smaller pegasus turned around, straddled Lugus’ chest, and then began to back up with her tail hiked up into the air, wiggling over his body. Reaching back with a wing, she pulled the enormous griffon cock downwards and maneuvered it until she felt it prodding at her already somewhat damp slit. She jammed herself backwards and felt him slip in, and immediately  bottomed out. Yew cried out a lusty cry and chewed on her lower lip. 

With a squawk, Lugus felt the pegasus grinding herself on the tip of his penis. Only a small portion of it was inside of her, and her inner flesh was far hotter than he was used to. He had to force himself into submission and not succumb to the sudden urge to grab Yew in his talons and force her down the length of his cock, the urge to penetrate, to bury himself in her, it was almost too strong to resist. He allowed her to continue pleasuring herself even though it wasn’t doing very much for him. 

Realising that something might not be right, Yew came to the slow conclusion that she was only teasing the tip of the giant griffon’s pecker, and she started to try and figure out what to do to satisfy Lugus. Already, she was close, All she had to do was push back on Lugus’s shaft and she could grind herself against his bone hard rod at just the right angle, applying pressure directly to her little nubbin, causing the most delightful feelings of the shudders to go tearing through her body. It was like rolling around in a thundercloud on a stormy day. 

Seeing the look on Yew’s face did something to Lugus, and he felt a most peculiar emotion coursing through him. He could not put a name on what he felt, but the feeling was almost overpowering. She was chewing on her lip, her eye was closed, and her ears rotated and pivoted about. Her mouth fell open and she began to whimper as she rubbed herself on the end of his shaft. Finally, she cried out once, then again, and finally a third time, before her movement’s slowed. He reached out his talons and touched her gently, stroking her side, his knuckles trailing over her soft perfect wings. 

“You aren’t hurting your leg are you?” Lugus asked as he continued to gently stroke the pegasus he loved in her ogasmic afterglow. 

“No… I haven’t even felt my leg now until you mentioned it. I was too busy with other things,” Yew giggled. “Now we have to figure out how to get you off,” she said thoughtfully. 

She pulled off of the large still erect cock and then started to slide her wet cunny down along Lugus’ shaft. She went slowly, teasingly, stopping to rub herself backwards and forwards along the length as she went. She saw Lugus’ eyes close and she knew she was doing something right. In no time at all he was slick with her wetness and Yew was able to slide back and forth along the length. She could feel him throbbing beneath her, and she was already approaching her second climax. 

“Let me know when you are close,” Yew whimpered as she ground herself along Lugus’ shaft, sliding up and down its length. She could feel the griffon trembling beneath her. 

The meat pole ride was lovely. 

Quivering, Yew felt her hips bucking, she needed something inside of her, and she continued to grind away on Lugus’ long shaft. She ground herself near the base, where his balls were, wrapped her forelegs around the length, sliding them up and down, and then using her tongue, licked around the lip, making out with the slick pink flesh. She felt a shiver when Lugus squawked and then hissed. She slide the entire length of her plush body against his length as she licked little loving circles around the opening. 

“I’m… going… to burst,” Lugus warned. 

Moving quickly, Yew Wood clambered up Lugus’ body, positioned his tip against her snatch, and took him as deep as she could. She wrapped her good hind leg around his length and began to slide it up and down, hooking her hock along the underside of Lugus’ throbbing shaft, and each movement of her leg made Lugus squirm and gasp. 

She was rewarded for her actions with a hot flood of seed spurting deep inside of her, she continued using her leg to pump Lugus’ shaft, working up and down the length, and she felt a delightful fullness in her groin as she was flooded with spunk. 

Breathless, she finally collapsed upon his belly, the tip of his cock still inside of her, and she rubbed her cheek along his fur. “That was nice,” she purred. She felt a final hot spurt deep inside of her, and then Lugus moved a bit beneath her. 

“You make adorable faces…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 289
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Slowly coming to wakefulness, Bon Bon opened her eyes and took in the world around her. She felt weight and pressure on each side of her body, which was good. She spooked now if she woke up alone. The isles had left behind their mark on Bon Bon, and while she was the solid rock of her herd and tribe, she too had her issues. Wiggling between the two bodies, Bon Bon yawned. She felt hot breath on her neck and on her cheek. 

As she gained higher and higher states of awareness, Bon Bon slowly came to the understanding that she had awoke between two very aroused unicorns. Lyra, who was breathing on her cheek was practically sleep-humping Bon Bon’s leg, while Bucky, who had his face pressed into her neck, well, Bon Bon could tell that her husband had pressing issues. That pressing issue was pressing into her hip, right into her cutie mark. 

Suffering a very perverse thought about cream filled candies, Bon Bon giggled. 

Bon Bon moved her head, trying to get away from Bucky’s horn, which was always unnaturally cold, coated in frost, and smelled like an afternoon thunderstorm. As she started to stir, both Lyra and Bucky latched on to her, squeezing and pulling, not willing to let her go. She felt Bucky’s stump clutching her, sliding around on her barrel, and his breathing increased. The earth pony mare waited, hoping it wasn’t panic. She heard Bucky whimpering faintly in his sleep and felt a tugging at her heart. She squirmed and rolled over, greatly disturbing her companions, who grunted in protest. 

With a great deal of caution, Bon Bon extracted herself from the bed and went to work, rolling Bucky over on to his other side, and then she carefully nudged Lyra over against Bucky’s back. Still asleep, Lyra latched on to Bucky immediately, pressing her face into the back of Bucky’s neck, and wrapping one foreleg around the girth of his barrel. 

Both of the troubled unicorns quieted, and Bon Bon slipped away to take a shower. 



 

Dawn had slipped past and yet it felt too early for Fluttershy, who was as sensitive about the time of day as a pegasus could be. The idea slowly crept into her mind that it was probably still dark in Ponyville, or at least maybe the sun was getting ready to rise there. 

She turned her face into the wind, feeling it caressing her body, and without thinking about it, her wings opened slightly, allowing the breeze to tickle her ribs. The air was damp and smelled of salt. They were over the ocean, and Fluttershy tried not to think too much about the deep water beneath her. 

She did not like deep water. She much preferred to have solid ground beneath her. The idea of being over the ocean unnerved her greatly. She was not a strong flier, and, if something happened to the ship somehow, she would have no way of rescuing her friends or herself. There would only be crashing into the water eventually, no matter how hard she tried to fly, followed by crushing blackness as she slipped beneath the waves. When she heard hooves behind her, she squealed in alarm and whirled around. 

“Sorry!” Ripple apologised, dropping into a submissive posture as her ears splayed out sideways. She extended a wing and gently touched Fluttershy. “I saw you up here near the prow and thought I’d join you. Not many ponies are awake yet. Who’s cooking breakfast? I wasn’t sure… Rarity fixed a really good meal last night but the portions were all so dainty. Not all of us are worried about watching their figure and Rarity is a unicorn, if she doesn’t want to get a fat plot she should just use more magic. That’s what Lyra does.” 

Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy relaxed and found herself giggling from Ripple’s loquacious greeting. “Oh, Rarity is always watching her figure,” Fluttershy said in a voice that was as soft and silky as two satin sheets rubbing together. “You have a lump on your head that wasn’t there when I saw you last… what happened? Are you okay? Did something attack in the night?” 

“Last night, Lugus, Flash Sentry and myself were on the deck. We were talking. I got a little playful with Lugus, and boxed him a bit, and then Flash Sentry showed me this great new combat slam. The only way to really show me involved piledriving me into the deck a few times to make sure I really got it. Flash accidently dropped me on my head. It’s no big deal. Lugus caught me before I could get seriously hurt, and Flash caught the rest of me,” Ripple explained. 

“Oh that’s just awful,” Fluttershy breathed, covering her mouth with one hoof. 

“I trusted them both to teach me, and when an accident happened, they both moved quickly to reduce my injuries. I could have been seriously hurt. When getting piledrived, the target is supposed to land on their back so the wind is knocked out of them. Non lethal takedown. Flash was nervous and I slipped from his grip. I took a tumble headfirst. These things happen. I’m not upset,” Ripple said as she sat down on her haunches. “It is an impressive lump though.” 

“Rainbow Dash does martial arts… some kind of hoof-fu, I don’t know what it is, but I suspect the martial arts she practices are very different from actual hoof to hoof combat training that soldiers have,” Fluttershy said in reply, looking at the lump on Ripple’s head in concern. She moved close, wrapped a foreleg around Ripple’s neck, and began to examine Ripple’s somewhat lumpy skull, and faint soft whimpers could be heard with Fluttershy’s every breath. 

“I’ve heard about this from Surprise. There are a lot of so called ‘martial arts masters’ running around in Equestria claiming to be a master in some form of combat. Some sort of highly organised combat dance routine with a lot of rules, regulations, and safety. In real combat, there are no rules, there are no regulations, and there is no safety. There is no crying ‘foul’ or having a referee step in and make something stop trying to kill you. There is only sudden brutal death for one combatant or the other, and Lugus has done everything he can to teach me that,” Ripple said, wincing as Fluttershy traced her fetlock over the big lump on Ripple’s skull. Ripple felt two lips pressed against her face, just between her eye and her ear, and Fluttershy kissed her softly, trying to make everything better. Ripple knew better than to push the kindly healer type away and allowed Fluttershy to continue working. 

“You must trust Lugus a great deal,” Fluttershy whispered. 

“With my life,” Ripple replied as she reached out with one foreleg, wrapped it around Fluttershy’s neck, and gave the yellow pegasus a squeeze. “Thanks for teaching me how to knit. More lessons today?” 

“Oh goodness yes, there is nothing else to do,” Fluttershy responded. 



 

Not fully awake, Twilight Sparkle moved around the kitchen and tried to concentrate enough to prepare breakfast. No she mentally corrected. On a ship, this is called a galley. I think. She started to prepare the coffee and the tea, pulled several loaves of zucchini-banana bread out of the freezer, placed them into the magical reheater, and then began to prepare a large batch of oatmeal. She was starving from last night. Rarity never fixed enough food to feed anypony, much less a large crowd. 

As she pulled multiple packages of hay bacon from the fridge, Twilight Sparkle suffered a curious thought. Why does hay bacon exist? She knew what bacon was. It was made from pigs. It was made of meat. Horrifying meat from another animal. And yet some pony thought it was a good idea to take hay, process it heavily, add artificial flavourings, compress it into strips, and somehow make it taste like bacon. How did that pony know what bacon tasted like? Twilight Sparkle wondered. She flipped over one of the packages and looked at the ingredients. 

“Egg whites… well, that seems harmless enough,” Twilight said to herself. “Soybean oil with TBHQ… wait, tertiary butylhydroquinone? Eeeew… that stuff is basically butane… this is an explosive… ugh… textured soy protein, waitaminute, hay is like halfway down the ingredient list right next to wheat gluten. Why does this have some of the same ingredients as gunpowder and why are there so many explosive compounds? What are we eating?” Twilight muttered as she began to tear open the packages of hay bacon and then laid the bacon out so it would be ready to fry when the oatmeal was nearly done. “I don’t even want to know what is in a hay burger,” she grumbled to herself. As she started to toss the emptied packages into the trash incinerator, she noticed one important detail. 

The hay bacon proclaimed itself all natural and organic. 



 

“Pinchy knee just won’t go away,” Pinkie Pie murmured. “Why do I keep getting pinchy knee? This is driving me crazy. Must be because Mister Grumplepuss is around. Why must Bucky always set off my pinchy knee?”

“What are you nattering on about?” Applejack grumbled blearily, giving Pinkie Pie a raised eyebrow of Apple Family Disapproval.

“Pinchy knee!” Pinkie Pie cried. “It actually hurts Applejack, my knee is killing me,” the pink earth pony mare admitted. 

“Maybe you need to have a doctor look at it when we get home,” Applejack suggested just before she yawned. 

“You mean if we get home,” Pinkie Pie hissed as some of her curls went limp. 



 

Yew Wood carefully brushed Harper’s mane, trying to get the enormous poof of fluff to behave itself even somewhat. The mass of Harper’s mane was actually larger than Harper was, sticking out in all directions, frizzy, curly, and crackling with static. The foal’s face was currently invisible, hidden behind the mass of fluffy bright orange curls and her horn was completely buried somewhere in the almost cloud like mass of hair. 

“How is my sweet little Harper this morning?” Yew asked as she tried to tame Harper’s hair. 

“Want mama,” Harper replied. 

The foal’s body moved, but Yew couldn’t tell if Harper was trying to look up at her. She couldn’t see Harper’s eyes. She tried to scoop the fluff away with one hoof to get a look at Harper’s face. 

“Which mama do you want?” Yew asked. 

“Mamamama,” Harper replied. 

“Bucky,” Yew stated. 

“Mamamama,” Harper repeated insistantly as a ripple of static electricity coursed through her mane and zapped Yew Wood. 

“Oh my, you have some serious static issues this morning. Must be the altitude or something,” Yew said, pushing back Harper’s mane and spotting one tiny faded indigo coloured ear. She leaned down and gave a kiss on the ear, and she heard Harper coo from inside of the cloud of frizzy orange hair. 

The chestnut pegasus watched Peekaboo playing on the floor, pushing a ball around with her nose, chasing it as it rolled away from her. When it rolled too far away, Peekaboo pounced, landing on the ball. Yew watched as Peekaboo tucked and rolled, clutching the ball to her barrel, and kicking it with her hind legs like a cat. 

“Daddy would be proud,” Yew said, praising Peekaboo. “Such a good little pouncer!” 

Delivering one good powerful kick to her ball that sent it flying, Peekaboo looked up at her mother. “Daddy proud?” Peekaboo asked as she watched her mother brush Harper. 

“You pounced the ball, caught it, and subdued it. Daddy would be proud,” Yew responded, smiling broadly. 

“I bounce too,” Peekaboo announced as she clambered up on all fours and then pronked around the room stiff legged. When she got near the ball, she dropped into a crouch, spread her wings out as much as possible, waggled her rump around in the air, and then launched herself at the ball. 

This time, she hit the inflatable rubber ball too hard, bounced away, and then she took a tumble across the floor. Undaunted, the pegasus foal picked herself up, curled back her lip, snarled, growled, and then launched herself again. She collided with her prey, rolled over with it, and kicked at it with her hind legs as though she was trying to disembowel it, just as her daddy had shown her. 

“That’s my good filly,” Yew praised, her smile broadening across her face. “Mama’s little terror… you show that ball who’s a big bad pegasus!” 
	
	
> Chapter 290
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The clicking sounds were soothing. As he worked, Sentinel mimicked the clicking sounds from his knitting needles with his echolocation, while working under the watchful eye of Fluttershy, who peered carefully at his efforts. He held the knitting needles in his grasping thumbs, pinched between them and the central knuckles on his wings, and with his fine sense of control, he was able to produce neat even stitches in no time.

“Knitting has long been a part of our heritage as pegasi,” Fluttershy stated as her group worked. “I don’t know how long, but it has long been a part of our warrior culture. The ability to hold knitting needles in our wingtips helps us to train our primaries for fine control, allowing us better flight,” she instructed, turning her gaze around to look at her students. “It kept our warriors sane after battle, giving them something peaceful and calming after all of the killing, soothing their minds and washing away all of the horrors of war. A long time ago, we pegasi kept sheep on our high mountain tops, and we protected them in exchange for wool,” the pegasus explained. 

“It is soothing,” Ripple agreed, almost looking as though her eyes were going to slip closed at any moment. Her ears were drooping as she laboured and a soft smile remained upon her face. 

“I find that knitting keeps me serene and calm when life is troubling,” Fluttershy admitted. “I don’t like some of my more troubling pegasus instincts.” 

“I think I understand,” Yew Wood stated, lifting her head after Fluttershy spoke her words. “But I like my pegasus instincts. I can understand why someponies might not though.” 

“Knitting is boring,” Rainbow Dash called over from the chair where she was sitting and reading a Daring Do novel. 

“And this is why you have behaviour problems Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy gently returned. “If you don’t mind me saying… oh dear, there goes those pegasus instincts again… why must I be so forceful and combative.” 

“I do not have behavioural problems!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

Lowering her needles, Rarity glared fiercely at Rainbow Dash, her blue eyes flashing over the top edges of her reading glasses, and one fine thin eyebrow lifted towards her maneline as she gave her friend the strongest glare of disapproval she could muster. 

“Okay, maybe I do have a few minor issues-” 

The sound of Rarity clearing her throat seemed quite loud in the common room, but thankfully, it didn’t throw anypony off of their counts, ruining a perfectly good row of stitching in the process. 

“Okay, so maybe… just maybe, I have a couple of issues that-” 

Shaking her head at the recalcitrant pegasus, the corner of Rarity’s mouth curled back into a sneer of annoyance and critical disposition. Rarity made a moue of displeasure and her nostrils flared as her ears rotated inner sides forward, a well refined equine expression of I can’t believe the thickheadedness of this dunderhead before me. 

Seeing Rarity’s ears swivel around, Rainbow Dash snorted in anger. “Fine. So maybe I’ve got some troubles!” she snapped. The blue pegasus slammed her book shut, lept out of her chair, and then stomped out of the common room, each step thudding on the floor as she went. 

When the blue pegasus was gone, Rarity sighed with frustration. “That mare is so hard to reach sometimes. What she needs is to settle down and marry… becoming a mother would cure her of her… brutishness and constant selfishness,” the unicorn murmured in frustration. 

Lifting her head and leveling a piercing gaze upon Rarity, Fluttershy rotated her ears, turning the inner parts forwards, and gave Rarity a bitter taste of her own medicine. 

“Why I never!” 



 


“We should be arriving not too long after dawn,” Bucky announced as he studied the navigation projection. He was squeezed into the tiny navigation command cabin with Lugus, who was far too large to fit into this small room. 

“I am worried,” Lugus said in a muffled voice, his beak not moving as he spoke. 

"That’s two of us,” Bucky replied. 

“It was a mistake for me to come… I am putting us all at risk,” Lugus said to his chief, voicing his concern. He reached up with his left talons and smoothed down his crest. 

“Nonsense. I don’t care what Celestia says, I’m going into this with the assumption that there will be killing on an immeasurable scale before this is over. And if anybirdy comes along and tries to harm you, well, I think we both know by now what I do to things that harm my family and tribemates,” Bucky said in a low voice fraught with meaning. 

“We all need to be exterminated for the sake of a better world,” Lugus said in a low voice that resembled a whisper. "Maybe not all of us, but most of us. Those of us who are good are already in Equestria, but there are still a few in Muninn that are worth saving. Perhaps,” the griffon mused sorrowfully, his feathers drooping. “Huginn is a horrible place. They’ve killed the land. There are no fish in the rivers or the lakes. Things have trouble growing. All of the factories and the industrialisation… all of the coal we burn. The land is poisoned and not much grows. There used to be great cities, many great cities, but they have all died off as the land died. We’ve burned up our country and Huginn and Muninn are all we have left really, the Twin Cities, the two shining jewels that exist on the coast. We gather fish from the sea. And of course, we range far to the south to hunt zebras and ponies, the north to hunt the llama race, and far to the east to hunt others.” 

“So Muninn is different than Huginn?” Bucky inquired.

“I was born in Huginn, but I belonged in Muninn,” Lugus replied. “Not that the griffons in Muninn are perfect. Far from it. But a few good griffons have banded together in Muninn and have tried to change things to make them better. They are universally hated and reviled.” 

“How many griffons are left in the world?” Bucky asked, subtly shifting into accountant mode and mentally preparing to run some numbers. 

“Less than a hundred thousand, more than twenty thousand,” Lugus answered slowly, his crest rising into a thoughtful position. “My race is dying. Just before I was born, we had a civil war… one of many, and our precious numbers were almost halved by the conflict. Before that, there was an actual war against the entire world… the pirates of the world united and declared war upon us… this was about two hundred years ago. We lost many ships and many griffons were killed. The world still had guns and magic then. I hate guns. I dislike them a great deal. Not honourable weapons at all. They require no discipline. They are a coward's weapon. I hate that my species and the minotaurs invented guns.” 

“I don’t know, guns aren’t inherently bad. They’re just used by individuals with bad intents. Doesn’t make the gun bad, just gives spineless types a means to fight,” Bucky returned. “If honourable sorts, like yourself for example, used guns, they’d have a better reputation. If ponies and the other races saw guns on honourable types, and those guns were displayed but seldom if ever used, eventually ponies would become used to them as being a last resort, rather than say, a means to instigate trouble,” the stallion reasoned. 

“Maybe you are correct, doesn’t mean I would soil my talons with a gun,” Lugus answered, his beak clicking together in frustration. “At least the minotaurs saw reason after the world war… they saw the destruction of their own species looming. They changed. They ditched their guns, abolished slavery, and sane leaders emerged to lead them out of their long march to extinction. I don’t know that my kind should be saved.” 

“Lugus, my dear friend, if more griffons were like you, the world would be a magnificent place. I know you hate your species, but you do yourself a disservice by speaking so harshly about your own kind. You do have redeeming qualities,” Bucky said, looking up at his friend in concern. 



 

Laying on the floor, Flash Sentry watched Harper and Peekaboo playing with one another, his eyes following their every movement. He sighed occasionally, thinking about foals and family, and wondered what to do about his odd little dilema. 

“You are so much easier to talk to when you are little,” Flash whispered to the fillies. “But at some point, you grow up and things become complicated. You require rituals of appeasement and honeyed words to continue your affections,” he mused to the filly foals. 

Taking an interest in Flash Sentry, Peekaboo stopped rolling the ball back and forth between herself and Harper, and she trotted over to Flash, sitting down beside his head. The little filly smiled, her eyes bright and merry, and she giggled when she saw Flash’s eyes look at her. 

“See what I mean? You get happy if I just look at you,” Flash Sentry whispered. The stallion heaved another lovesick sigh and thought about foals again. Little lavender coloured foals. With blue manes perhaps. Or little orange foals… with rainbow coloured manes perhaps. 

Inhaling sharply, he wondered where that thought came from. He expelled it forcefully from his mind. As attractive as Rainbow Dash was, he was not about to call down the wrath of Twilight Sparkle upon his head to flirt with the obviously interested pegasus. 

Sensing that she was no longer the center of Flash Sentry’s attention, Peekaboo grabbed ahold of Flash’s ear, pinching it in her fetlock, and then gave a mighty tug. She gave several more smaller yanks, giggling while she pulled, until her grip slipped and she fell over backwards, with all four of her legs sticking up into the air. 

Indignant, Peekaboo nickered angrily, righted herself, and then sat down by Flash’s head once again, her wings buzzing with embarrassment. “I fell down… go thump,” she announced. 

“You sure did,” Flash Sentry agreed. 

“You nice, not laugh,” Peekaboo said. She leaned over and planted a kiss on the much larger orange pegasus’ face. “Bad to laugh at fillies when they fall down, go thump.” 

“Yes it is,” Flash Sentry agreed, feeling himself blush from the unabashed affections from the foal. He felt her warm body wrapping around the side of his head and squeezing him, hugging his skull. 

There was a bright flash and a popping sound, startling both Flash Sentry and the foals. Flash lifted his head and whipped it around, his instincts taking over quickly. He saw Twilight Sparkle holding a camera in her telekinesis field, and a broad smile was on her face. 

“Sorry,” Twilight Sparkle apologised. “But you looked so adorable,” she explained, her wings flaring out from her sides and her tail swishing around wildly in a state of high agitation, as though she was swatting at an army of invisible flies. 

“I like foals I think,” Flash Sentry admitted. 

“That’s good,” Twilight Sparkle answered, lifting her right front leg and scratching her left front leg with her right hoof. 

His eyes darting around, Flash Sentry wondered if etiquette demanded that he offered Twilight a seat. He swallowed, feeling nervous, and licked his lips. “Um, Princess Twilight, I can’t help but notice that you are just standing there… may I sew you to a sheet?” 

Silence exploded into the room with deafening force. Twilight turned a fascinating new shade of a colour that had never been scientifically observed before. Her mouth slowly fell open and her eyes went impossibly wide. 

“Show you to a seat,” Flash Sentry corrected, his voice nearly an ultrasonic squeal that only lunar pegasi and various species of bats might hear. 

“Sew her to a sheet!” Peekaboo chirped as she reached over and hugged Flash Sentry’s leg. 

“Sheet!” Harper peeped. 

“Well, this got awkward,” Twilight croaked in a dry raspy voice. 

“It sure did!” Rainbow Dash chortled. “Both of you are a bunch of dorks!” 

“Rainbow!” Twilight shrieked. “How long have you been standing there!” 

“Long enough!”
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 291
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky watched as the small corvette dirigible approached. It was a small ship, smaller than The Scorned Mare, and was clearly built for speed. It was a rigid gasbag design, sleek, modern, and fast. It bore the flag of the Zebra empire, a white flag with green palm fronds. He peered carefully, squinting his eye, his vision greatly improved in the dim light of twilight as the sun began to dip over the western horizon behind him. 

He levitated a small cracker loaded down with hummus and a slice of stinky cheese to his mouth, took it in with one bite, crunched thoughtfully, and continued to keep an eye on the corvette. 

“We have company,” Lyra announced, lifting one hoof over her eyes so she could peer off into the distance, her golden eyes now narrowed. 

“That we do, love,” Bucky replied, loading up another cracker with hummus and a small slice of cheese. He growled when Lyra stole a cracker, did the same, and then grunted when Lyra slugged him gently in protest. “But you stole my cracker,” he grumbled, feigning hurt about being slugged. 

“I feel like an airship pirate,” Lyra quipped around a mouthful of cracker, spraying crumbs everywhere as she spoke. 

“I don’t… I have no booty to plunder,” Bucky deadpanned. 

Making “snerk” noises, grunting, and nearly choking, Lyra was forced to swallow her cracker to keep from spewing it out everywhere. She burst into laughter and clutched her stomach with one front leg. 

“At least you’ve seen some action this trip,” Bucky muttered. 

Blushing, Lyra looked away, her cheeks blazing. “Look, I said I was sorry about dry humping you in my sleep and leaving a wet spot on your back. I thought you were Bon Bon.”

Grinning rakishly, Bucky prodded Lyra with his stump and offered her a cracker loaded with hummus and cheese. “It’s okay Lyra, I’m not upset.” 

Accepting the cracker, Lyra popped it into her mouth and crunched it up, daring to glance over at Bucky. Swallowing, Lyra leaned over and kissed Bucky on the cheek. “You know, if the idea of being with a stallion didn’t cause me to have panic attacks, and I wanted to be with a stallion, it would be with you.” 

“I know,” Bucky replied in a soft humble voice. “And every day I hope I never break your trust. It is one of the few things I care about… I mean, I’ve done a lot of horrible things, but I never want that to be one of them. I am open to all manner of other horrible acts though.” 

“I see pegasi… we have company,” Lyra announced. 

“I know, I’m not worried,” Bucky responded. 



 

On the deck before Bucky stood a strange creature. A zebra with wings. Clearly, it was half pegasus, half zebra, and he wore a uniform jacket with openings for his wings. He had two pegasus escorts standing on either side of him, both wearing light but functional armor of fine design, and war shoes of exceptional make. 

“Knight Major, we received word you would be traveling by this way. I am very pleased to meet you, I am Captain Finch… yes, Zebra Finch, I’m aware of the opportunity for a laugh here. My companions are named Pelican and Skua.” 

“Please, call me Bucky. This is one of my wives, Lyra Heartstrings, and Princess Twilight Sparkle will be on deck in a moment,” Bucky said, introducing himself and Lyra in reply. 

“Just Bucky?” Finch said incredulously. “You address a prince by his rank or by calling him by royal title,” the striped pegasus said nervously, his wings fluttering at his sides, and his long corded tail whipping about. 

Rolling his eye, Bucky sighed. “That might be so, but I don’t want to be a prince. It is quite a headache and a bunch of ponies seem to forget that you are just a pony and can make mistakes.” 

“Oh my… well, that actually seems most reasonable,” Finch replied, looking nonplussed and stepping one step backwards. “This is a most marvelous ship,” he complimented, changing the subject. 

“That is a lovely little corvette you have,” Bucky said, looking over at the ship keeping pace with them. “Quite a number of weapons. I don’t recognise some of them.” 

“Oh, experimental designs from the school of high wizardry in Tradewinds. Obnoxious weapons, keep failing, the designs are faulty. When they work, they shoot fire and ice. When they work. There is nothing quite like the reliable electro-cannon I say,” Finch replied, grinning broadly. “The wizards guild is quite annoying I must say, sticking their noses into everything, trying to improve things that work just fine and fixing things that aren’t broken.” 

“Greetings.” 

Every head turned to look at Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was wearing a small tasteful gold diadem and her tall form moved with as much grace as she could muster. She approached the group, both Sentinel and Flash Sentry just behind her, and she extended one wing in a soft salute. After her salute, both Sentinel and Flash Sentry whipped out a wing as well, both looking forward, standing at attention. 

“Captain Finch, Pelican, Skua… this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, my squire, Sentinel, and Communications Specialist Flash Sentry of the Solar Guard,” Bucky said, introducing the group to one another. 

“Charmed I am, it is a pleasure to meet you, Princess,” Finch returned, bowing his head slightly. “I’ve heard so many stories, it really is a pleasure and a privilege to finally meet you. If it isn’t too much to ask, before we part ways, might I get a picture with you?” the striped pegasus politely inquired. 

“It would be my honour,” Princess Twilight Sparkle answered, giggling slightly and blushing. “I am guessing that you were sent here to greet us.” 

“Well, a bit more than that I am afraid,” Finch replied. “Begging Your Majesty’s forgiveness, but I do have some grim news to impart, and it pains me greatly that I must distress you, your ladyship,” he said apologetically. 

“Please, tell me,” Twilight said, her smile vanishing and she suddenly became quite serious, her wings becoming still at her sides and she drew herself up to her now considerable full height. 

“In the past day, we’ve officially gone to war with the griffon empire. We will no longer tolerate their predations. Princess Celestia does not agree or condone our actions, but we feel that we have no choice. I must ask that you suspend your trip… we are begging you to not negotiate with these… these… animals and I was sent to convince you to join our cause, to beg for Equestria’s aid in this war,” Finch said nervously, having some trouble looking Twilight in the eye. 

“What happened?” Bucky inquired in a low commanding voice. When he spoke, Twilight stepped back and nodded, leaving him standing alone to deal with Captain Finch. 

Looking around, Finch slowly came to the realisation that Princess Twilight Sparkle and Prince Buckminster Bitters both shared authority, but clearly had their own separate duties. He turned to face Buckminster and so he could address him directly. 

“About a week ago, in the far east expanses of the Sea of Grass, we intercepted a couple of slaughterhouse ships. Make no mistake, they are exactly what they sound like. Griffon raiders preyed on settlements on our distant borders, north, near the Hinterlands. They move in, capture any zebras or ponies they find, imprison them, kill some, slaughter them, pack them on ice, and keep the rest as slaves. They then head home with fresh meat and slaves, or back to raider camps in the Hinterlands. We’ve already been pummeling the raider camps. The wizards and zebra alchemists have developed a new kind of bomb that specifically targets griffons and causes a severe case of beak rot. We’ve been bombarding the Hinterlands and we plan to push further north to Griffonholm soon,” Finch reported. 

Looking grim, Bucky nodded. “I understand your efforts. We must continue this trip and try to work for peace. I must ask you that you do not attack Griffonholm for a while. Try to give us a chance to work towards a peaceful solution. If that fails… while Princess Celestia might not aid you, I will consider doing so-” 

“Buckminster!” Twilight snapped, interrupting Bucky mid-sentence. 

“I will consider joining you and aiding your efforts,” Bucky continued, ignoring Twilight’s vehement word of protest. 

“Buckminster Bitters, you do not have the authority or the backing to do such an act,” Twilight Sparkle warned, stepping forward and getting in Bucky’s personal space. 

“I can think of nopony that could stop me,” Bucky remarked, turning away from Twilight to look at Finch. “The right thing must be done. The Sea of Grass has long been our allies, friends, and staunch supporters. It is time that your loyalty be acknowledged. If I will it, I can make things happen. I don’t have a large army, but I can muster up quite a few Myrmidons. I have a warship… and with The Scorned Mare being under Princess Luna’s protection, if they fire upon my ship, Princess Luna will get involved in the war, no matter what her sister Celestia says.” 

“Buckminster!” Twilight grunted, sounding quite irate. “Stop this at once!”

“No,” Bucky replied. “You are only my superiour as a Black Cloak, and back home as a higher ranking member of the royal family. Here, on this ship, under Princess Luna’s executive order, my word is law. You will fall in line Princess Twilight Sparkle, and recognise my authority as the commander of this vessel.” 

Snarling, Twilight stomped her hoof down, closed her eyes, stomped again, and then stormed away, leaving the air reeking of ozone and the smell of something burning in her wake. She strode to the door leading belowdecks and slammed it shut behind her. 

“Oh my… permission to be excused, sir,” Flash Sentry requested. 

“Go after her,” Bucky grunted in consent. He turned to watch Flash go, and then turned to look at Sentinel, who looked quite disturbed and distressed. 

“I take it that your actions will not be popular at home,” Finch said, watching as Bucky turned around towards him again. “I do appreciate your support, and the Sea of Grass thanks you as well.” 

“I will deal with whatever happens. I have my own way of doing things. I don’t think it will make me popular,” Bucky responded, looking troubled. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that Bucky,” Lyra said reassuringly, nudging her husband. “Some might be upset with you, but I think a lot of ponies at home will appreciate you taking a hard stance on the issue and coming to the aid of our zebra friends.” 

“More than just zebras… ponies forget that there are a lot of ponies in the Sea of Grass as well. Zebras, ponies, all of them equines. And it isn’t right to leave them to the predations of the griffons while we sit across the sea in relative safety,” Bucky said to Lyra. 

The visiting pegasi squirmed, Captain Finch looking both relieved and quite stressed at the same time, and the trio all looked around, trying to figure out how to deal with the situation that had just happened. 

“As I have previously stated, give me time to try and coax the griffons into a peaceful solution. I will attempt to get them to call off the war they have with you, but by all means, keep pounding away on the camps in the Hinterlands. If negotiations fail, you will have my support in the coming war,” Bucky said, trying to reassure Captain Finch. 

“Thank you, sir, I must be returning to my ship soon. My crew becomes quite nervous without me,” Captain Finch stated, bowing his head slightly. 

“I wish you good luck and good fortune, from one commander to another,” Bucky said, his tone heartfelt and sincere. “And I do apologise that you did not get your picture with Princess Twilight Sparkle.” 



 

Heading belowdecks, Bucky found himself ambushed by Twilight, who approached him slowly and cautiously. He bowed his head and readied himself for her angry outburst. 

“I wanted to apologise,” Twilight offered.

“What?” Bucky asked in stunned disbelief. 

“I wanted to apologise,” Twilight repeated. “Flash Sentry came and spoke to me. He calmed me down and said some very logical things. Rarity and Applejack overheard. And my friends reminded me that friends stick together. And the zebras have long been our friends. If something happens, I don’t know that I can support you, but I will not oppose you, and will try to protect you from Celestia if she gets a bit angry if I can.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said, lifting his head to look Twilight in the eye. 

“What are friends for?” Twilight replied in a low voice. 
	
> Chapter 292
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dawn approached, and with it, Griffonholm. Huginn and Muninn awaited ahead in the distance, and Bucky’s thoughts were curiously more about saving the griffons rather than exterminating them. More than anything, he wanted to believe that there could be good griffons like Lugus in the world, which would make the world a better place. 

A part of him desperately wanted to hold on to that ideal as he approached the griffon homeland. Other parts of him were entirely ready to finish what Sombra had started. 

There were no ships coming to greet them, nothing at all came to escort them into griffon airspace, and Bucky felt a growing sense of concern. He yawned, having slept very little, while he trusted The Scorned Mare to keep him safe, he wanted to be awake as they drew near to the seat of the griffon’s power. 

There was a bitter acrid smell that hung heavy in the air, even out over the open ocean. It burned the nostrils and it was very difficult to see the stars, the sky was hazy and filled with eye watering smog. Bucky caught a whiff of rotten eggs and heard the tap tap tap of claws upon the wooden deck. 

“Smells like home.” 

Bucky did not turn to look at his companion, but continued to peer ahead. “Good morning Lugus. Sleep well?” 

“No, my chief, I did not. I fretted most of the night. Yew Wood became quite annoyed with me and I had to appease her,” Lugus answered. The big griffon sat down, reached out one set of talons, grabbed Bucky, pulled him closer, and gave him a sort of awkward half hug. 

“Lugus?” Bucky inquired as he was being gently squeezed. 

“Yew Wood demanded that I be more affectionate of you and to show you rather than tell you how much I appreciate you as my friend,” Lugus explained, hearing the question in Bucky’s voice. After an increasingly awkward moment, Lugus let go of Bucky, and then scooted away to offer a bit of personal space. The big griffon began to drum his claws nervously upon the deck, producing a staccato rhythm of tapping sounds. 

“I trust you with my foals, that is a lot coming from me Lugus… I hope you understand that,” Bucky said in a low husky voice, still staring upwards at the dim stars that could only barely be seen. 

“I know… and your trust is my most valued treasure. My chief, if things go badly here, I will make sure that you have the means to make an exit… I want you to be safe… I am trusting you with my foal. If something happens, please, be a good father to Peekaboo and look after Yew Wood. They are very dear to me,” Lugus said hesitantly, his voice uncertain, his beak clicking together from nervousness. 

“To paraphrase my pegasus wife, the tribe looks after its own. Harper and Peekaboo are sisters for all intents and purposes. If things go badly, I assure you, Yew Wood and Peekaboo will be looked after. I know that you will do the same for me if something happens,” Bucky responded. 

“Of course I would… but my chief… it would be my failing if something happened to you… it would mean that I did not get you to safety… I… I… you are not to put your life at risk for me, it is my sworn duty to do it for you… the tribe needs its chief, it is a matter of priority… I cannot even… I do not have your vision…” Lugus stammered nervously. 

“We both know and understand where our duties will eventually take us Lugus. I’m halfway there already and I know you know that,” Bucky said in a harsh whisper. 

“Yes my chief,” Lugus said, bowing his head. 

“So if something happens, and I order you to get my family to safety, I need to know that you will follow those orders,” Bucky continued. 

“Of course I would, my chief,” Lugus replied dejectedly, scooting closer to Bucky and looming over him protectively. 

“We can die gloriously and that’s easy for both of us. I think we both hold a beautiful death as some sort of noble ideal. I need to know that you will live in my stead if it comes down to it,” Bucky stated. 

“I can… I will… I will not fail you,” Lugus vowed as the dawn broke on the horizon, the first golden rays of light appearing, turning the distant edge of the world various shades of pinks, purples, and soft shades of blue. 

The pair watched the sun rising into the hazy smoggy sky, both of them now silent, the time for words over. Lugus scooted beside Bucky and both sat near the rail, an odd looking pair of companions, both of them desperately hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. 



 

Muninn loomed in the distance. The castle was on an island, a massive plateau of rock jutting up out of the ocean, sheer cliff faces on all sides that was at least one hundred feet high or higher. The castle was built on a cliff, and a town sprawled out from its edges. It looked a bit like Ponyville, lots of thatched roofs and architecture with thick exposed wooden beams. The castle had a massive stone bridge that spanned the channel, and on the other side of the channel was Huginn castle. The thatched roofs were brown and grey from ash and grit that fell like snowflakes from the black clouds that loomed overhead. 

Huginn castle almost mirrored the design of Muninn castle, and it too was built onto the cliff face. Spreading out like a cancerous growth from its walls was the city of Huginn. Most of the buildings were concrete, plain, unadorned, utilitarian and practical. Apartment buildings existed in tightly packed clusters, some of the buildings a good ten stories tall. The clusters existed around factories, factories with tall black smokestacks that belched forth black smoke. Everything in the city was covered in soot, dirt, grit, and grime. 

Open sewer vents lie gaping in the cliff wall and the filth from the city poured directly into the ocean waters. Industrial runoff and waste flowed endlessly into the ocean, and the seawater looked brown and sludgy all around the coastline. 

The land surrounding Huginn was utterly devoid of trees or green fields. In the distance was a vast shipyard, the largest that Bucky had ever seen, and airships were being constructed by an army of workers. Near the city, several mountains of piled coal awaited to be burnt in the many steam power plants and factories. Mountains of iron ore sat waiting to be smelt into steel. 

The land was a nightmare of industry. Bucky’s only comparison was Baltimare, a city he had occasionally visited, since his family had one of their ancestral houses there. Baltimare had many factories, but nothing like this. Equestrian society tried to exist with nature, and while things like pollution happened, great effort was now expanded to clean up and reduce the impact of the pollution, though Bucky understood that such efforts had not always been the case. When Equestria had first industrialised, a lot of damage had been done to the land and harsh lessons had to be learned. 

The land was dead and nothing would grow here for a very long time. 



 

A small airship approached, bearing the banner of Muninn. It had no weapons and was clearly a means of transport. Bucky watched it with interest, wondering if somebirdy had finally decided to greet them. He had everybody gathered on deck, which made him quite uncomfortable, and Twilight, as well as her friends, all huddled together looking nervous. Rarity’s alabaster pelt had already turned a sooty grey and she was protesting in whiny whispers that the abysmal air would be the death of her. Spike, always Rarity’s friend, was busy trying to comfort the distraught mare, but his efforts did nothing to quiet her protests. 

Lugus paced the deck, his axe strapped across his back. Beside him, Flash Sentry kept pace with him, wearing armor. Not the ceremonial gold armor of a guard, but the functional light steel field plate favoured by the pegasi who worked in the long range reconnaissance patrol and messenger divisions. The armor was well polished and clearly well cared for, but it was also full of gouges, dings, a few dents, and some of the edges had been notched. It was armor that had seen action. The one thing it was free of was rust. 

Standing beside Bucky, Ripple and Sentinel fidgeted, with Ripple snorting occasionally and sneezing because of the filthy air. Ripple’s eyes watered and she watched the approaching airship, every muscle in her lithe body twitching in anticipation of something happening. Sentinel was calm, cool, and collected. 

“Buckminster… you are not wearing your crown… your circlet!” Twilight shouted, realising that something was missing. Her wings fluttered nervously and she calmed a bit when Rainbow Dash stroked her. 

“Oh… that. I knew I was forgetting something at home. Sentinel, how could you let me forget such an important thing at home?” Bucky responded, his gaze moving from Twilight to Sentinel. 

“What? Father, er, Master, your squire was not aware that it was his responsibility to keep track of your regalia of office,” Sentinel replied, looking quite nervous for a moment, until he saw his father smiling a lopsided smile. The lunar pegasus colt gave Bucky a petulant sulky stare that lasted for only a second and then faded away, a brief glance of foalish anger. 

“Hey, leave my colt alone,” Bon Bon grumbled. “You scared the poor little guy to death, shame on you Bucky,” she scolded. 

“Where is Yew?” Bucky inquired, his gaze turning back towards the approaching airship. “Is she belowdecks with the foals?” 

“Yes she is, sir,” Ripple replied. 

“Good deal,” Bucky grunted. “Look alive ponies, we have griffons in the air.” 



 

The two griffons were medium sized, neither of them as large as Lugus. One was wearing heavy armor, the other wearing light armor and a crowned helm. Both were clearly nervous, their movements jerky, their armor clanking as they moved. 

“I am Prince Tannis, son of King Tanner, He Who Makes the Drums of War,” the griffon with the crowned helm said, introducing himself. “While my father does make the drums of war, do not let his name fool you, he does indeed desire peace.” 

The griffon took off his helm, a sign of respect and trust, something Lugus had spent a great deal of time educating Bucky about. 

“I see there is no delegation from Huginn,” Bucky observed out loud. 

“King Fleshrender… he did not think you were worth greeting. I offer my most sincere apologies, but not on his behalf,” Tannis responded. “He is a disrespectful oaf.” 

“This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, She Who Discovered the Magic of Friendship,” Bucky said, introducing Twilight as she came forward, making a gesture towards her with his stump. 

“And this is War Chieftain Buckminster Bitters, Bane of the Undead and Shadow, also the Lord of Winter,” Twilight said, announcing her well practiced line of introduction. The corner of her eye twitched and her ears flapped in the breeze. 

“I do not know King Fleshrender,” Lugus bluntly interjected. 

“The previous king, whose name died with him, was… deposed by Fleshrender, who took the throne. The previous king was weak, had grown fat, and was unable to protect his own interests. I know of you, Lugus of Huginn, The Boar Slayer, and also the Killer of Wyverns. It is my distinct pleasure to finally meet you, though there will be many who will not celebrate your return,” Tannis said, stepping towards Lugus and completely ignoring the warning squawk of his companion guard. He extended his talons to Lugus, and waited expectantly. 

Looking down at the offered talons, Lugus extended his own, and together, they locked talons to confirm trust. A after a brief shake, they disengaged and backed away from one another. 

“Prince Tannis, it pains me to inform you that I can offer no fealty to my homeland. I have sworn an oath to my chieftain, and as such, my loyalties exist solely with him. I can only offer you my decency,” Lugus said, bowing his head low. 

“Your decency is all I require, as I desire the trust of your chieftain,” Tannis replied, bowing his own head. “I know of your criminal status. I will do all I can to protect you, but my power is limited due to… circumstances within the empire. For the record, I do not believe you to be a criminal,” the smaller griffon said to the larger. 

“I would like to resolve things peacefully,” Bucky announced. 

“Yes, we are here to procure peace,” Twilight added. 

“I would like peace, but I fear your mission here is futile,” Tannis stated, his crest rising as he lifted his head high. “Fleshrender has ignited the fires of hatred in many a griffon heart, and he promises a return to former glories. He is a butcher.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 293
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Does everypony remember the rules?” Bucky asked, his tone cold, harsh, and devoid of emotion. He stood impassively looking at Twilight and her friends. 

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “Eat nothing. Drink nothing. Accept no gifts from the griffons. We only eat and drink from our own stores from The Scorned Mare where the food is safe,” she repeated. 

“Good,” Bucky praised. “Lyra, Bon Bon, Yew, you will be staying aboard, minding the ship, looking after the little ones, and keeping everything ready to go at a moments notice. Make sure nothing gets aboard. I doubt anything will, but be mindful.” 

“Aye aye, captain,” Lyra replied. 

“Lyra, you dweeb, Bucky is not a captain,” Bon Bon chided.

“Oh… right… pony farts,” Lyra muttered. “Way to kill my fantasy about being a skypirate, Candy Cheeks,” Lyra retorted, feeling no small sense of self satisfaction in watching Bon Bon squirm and blush. 

“We all stay together if possible. I understand that there are some places you will not want Lugus and I following you, like the little fillies room,” Bucky stated. 

“I can’t go if somepony is watchin’,” Pinkie Pie interjected. 

“Pinkie,” Applejack grumbled, rubbing her face with her folded fetlock. 

“Well I can’t!” Pinkie Pie insisted. 

“They want us to stay in a room in the castle, which I don’t agree with, but they seem to have gone through a lot of trouble for our hospitality. King Tanner has been working with Celestia for a while now, and he is the reason why we are here, so... very much against my own judgment and because Twilight Sparkle insists upon a gesture of trust and friendship, we will be staying in the castle at night,” Bucky announced, his expression one of grave concern. “But I would like to voice my opinion that this is a bad idea and it is tactically dangerous.” 

“Diplomacy begins with trust, all of my books tell me that,” Twilight stated. 

“Twilight, what do your books tell you about a mouse trusting a barn cat?” Applejack grumped, giving her dear friend a pointed look. 

“Look, I’m not stupid, I know it is dangerous, but we have to do something to try and work out some kind of trust between our species… otherwise, this will end badly,” Twilight Sparkle said, her gaze locked with Applejack’s. 

Looking away from Twilight, Applejack snorted. Her gaze fell upon Bucky and she pushed her hat back from her eyes with one hoof. “Why don’t you just get it over with and go on o’er yonder and sack that eyesore that has corrupted nature? I can actually hear the ground crying out to me to do something about it as it dies,” the farmer demanded, gesturing wildly with her hoof. “You… do the Lord of Winter thing and just bury this dead land under ice and snow. Give it a burial! Don’t you feel it Pinkie Pie?” 

“I don’t know what I feel,” Pinkie Pie replied in subdued tones. “But I know I don’t like it,” she added, shaking her head sadly. 

“Applejack, as much as I might like to do so, and as much as it would give me a great deal of personal satisfaction to do what you suggest, I am here to secure peace,” Bucky argued gently, looking into Applejack’s green eyes with his own Tainted orb.

“And that eye of yours is creepy,” Applejack said with a pronounced shiver. 

“Applejack!” Rarity scolded as Bucky began to chuckle. 

“Buckminster! Stop laughing right this instant!” Rarity snapped, scolding Bucky. 

“What?” Bucky asked, his laugher dying from the shock of being told what to do. 

“Applejack, his eye is from an unfortunate condition! You don’t laugh at the crippled and infirm!” Rarity said, getting in Applejack’s face and going snoot to snoot. 

“Sorry Rares, geesh, look-” 

“Sorry nothing! He took us on his ship. He carried us across the ocean. He’s lost sleep over our safety. He has been the epitome of charm and good graces even when I have not!” Rarity said hotly to Applejack, her ears swiveling forward and one hoof prodding Applejack in the chest repeatedly. 

“That’s enough, both of you,” Twilight commanded. “We can’t start bickering between one another.” 

“I apologise,” Applejack stated, looking around sheepishly. “I suppose I deserved that. Thanks Rarity… I think,” she added as she rubbed her chest where Rarity had prodded her. 

“What about me?” Spike asked in a quiet voice. “I haven’t heard about what I am going to be doing,” he continued in a small fearful voice as he held his tail in his clawed hands and squeezed. 

“You will be with me,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “As my number one assistant and my personal protector. Keep your firebreath well stoked Spike. If ever I am in any danger, or my friends, or your friend Sentinel, you hold nothing back,” she commanded in a motherly tone. 

Spike, unable to believe what he was hearing, began to look a little teary eyed. He stood in place, still squeezing his own tail, and gave a little nod when no words would come out of his mouth. 



 

Casting one last glance towards The Scorned Mare, Bucky entered the castle of Muninn, his trunk in tow behind him, floating in a field of blue-green magic. He hobbled on three legs, Twilight Sparkle at his side, both of them leading the way, and Lugus brought up the rear. Guards were everywhere within the entranceway, and commoner griffons had been cleared out for the entrance procession. 

The air stank of pollution and filth. It burned the eyes and thoroughly violated the nostrils. Nothing white existed, having turned into a shade of sooty grey. Ash fell like snow outside, and the companions were glad to be indoors. 

The floors were sooty, gritty, and dirty. 

Coughing, Fluttershy struggled to breathe in the dank environment, and a raspy wheeze could be heard deep in her barrel. The air was chilly, not that the cold bothered her, but the dampness of the air and the pollutants irritated her lungs a great deal. 

Seeing that Fluttershy was struggling, Rainbow Dash lifted Fluttershy and placed her upon Applejack’s back, and Fluttershy was grateful for the gesture of comfort and affection. She placed her forelegs around Applejack’s neck, squeezed lightly, and tried to cough as politely as possible so she wouldn’t disturb anypony or anybirdy. 

They were lead down a long dingy hallway, full of many disorienting twists and turns, and torches burned every few yards to light the way. There was no electricity, no windows, and no other sources of light, the torches and their greasy flickering flames that left black sooty smudges on the stone walls. 

The guard eventually led them to a small room, with too few beds, bowed slightly, and then he departed, closing the door behind him. 

The room was rather cramped, but comfortably furnished. There were bookshelves along the back wall, and four bunk beds filled the room. In the center of the room was a small table, there was one single overstuffed chair in the corner, and there was a chaise lounge in the front corner, near the door. 

There was no window, and Bucky saw a collection of familiar looking buckets in an otherwise unoccupied corner. Groaning, he realised that there was going to be some issues for the mares… the bedding situation was going to be troublesome. 

“Well, looks like we’ll be sharing beds,” Twilight announced. 

“I call dibs on Twilight,” Rainbow Dash blurted out. 

“There are not enough beds. This is not how you treat diplomats,” Rarity said, her muzzle contorting into a fashionable well practiced pout. “No matter what we do, there is no way to be comfortable.” 

“There are eleven of us and eight beds,” Applejack muttered. 

“Twelve!” Spike corrected. 

“There are twelve of us and eight beds,” Applejack repeated, raising her eyebrow. 

“So some of us have to share a bed, so what?” Pinkie Pie remarked. “My knee keeps going pinchy pinchy,” she muttered. 

“Look, the griffons are trying to throw off our guard and get us to bicker,” Bucky interjected. “They want us to squabble, not be well rested, and for us to be uncomfortable so they will have an advantage.” 

“How do you know this? What is your line of thinking for this accusation?” Twilight questioned, raising her eyebrow at Bucky. 

“Diplomacy is just as much a part of war as combat and killing,” Bucky replied. “I just… I just know things. I don’t know how I know them, but right now my head is filling full of knowledge about the situation. Stuff I know I’ve never learned before.” 

“I understand,” Twilight said in reply, her voice low. “I started experiencing the same thing just before I became an alicorn… it got really strong. I knew what to do for my friends, and when all of our destinies got messed up, I just sort of knew how to fix them somehow… you’re getting premonitions,” she explained as she continued. 

“Well, that’s creepy,” Applejack announced, dropping Fluttershy off into the only chair in the room. The orange earth pony mare peered around the room and then spied the buckets. “They ain’t got no indoor plumbing.” 

“Oh come on Applejack, for a long time, neither did you,” Rainbow Dash teased. 

“Grr… ‘Bow, unless you want to eat your own teeth, I’d advise not pushin’ my buttons right now,” Applejack grunted. “I ain’t in no mood to deal with any further aggravations. I’m worried sick about Fluttershy, I’m scared about what is going to happen because of Pinkie’s pinchy knee, and more than anything else, I want to be home and babybuckin’ with Silver Shill.” 

“I’m sorry Jackie,” Rainbow Dash rasped. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was trying to lighten the mood… still friends?” she asked, one hoof extended. 

Nodding, Applejack bumped Rainbow Dash’s offered hoof with her own, but said nothing. The two mares looked at one another for a moment, and then in an almost unheard of move, Rainbow Dash threw her forelegs around Applejack’s neck and squeezed tightly. After a moment, she let go and backed away. 

“Apology accepted,” Applejack said in a low slightly embarrassed voice. 

“I have some snacks in my trunk if anypony gets hungry. DO NOT touch the spellbooks bound in black leather. Yes, they are leather, as horrible as that sounds. They are icy cold to the touch and if you touch them for too long, they will hurt you… I am the only one who can touch them safely,” Bucky announced. “I don’t wish to see anypony hurt. And for the record, I claim the chaise lounge. I’ll sleep on that. I’m small and it’ll fit me nicely.” 

“Sombra’s books?” Twilight inquired in a low whisper. 

“Some of them, yes. A couple are from Star Swirl and his more… darker experiments. None of them are safe Twilight, do not let your curiousity get the better of you,” Bucky warned, his face full of genuine concern. “No matter how much you might want to know about your ancestor, I assure you, you will not survive the reading. You cannot even read the text unless you are focusing dark magic or are Tainted.” 

“Oh… eeew… okay, I get the picture, the books are dangerous. I’ll try to curb my curiousity,” Twilight responded, looking somewhat afraid and squirmy. 

“Are there any spellbooks with practical combat in there that I might read?” Rarity asked in a wavering unsteady voice. “Nothing with any sort of dark magic for me thank you, I’ve had my fill.” Rarity recalled a rather unfortunate incident involving a dark magic spell book and she blushed, her cheeks feeling far too hot. 

“Actually,” Bucky replied as he opened the trunk with his telekinesis. He rummaged around inside, moving things around, lifting bags of compressed bean curd protein snacks, and then he finally pulled out a thin wooden bound book. “I was hoping that you would ask me that. Here, read this. This was intended to be one of Dinky’s primers for an introduction to combat casting. She’s grown past it long before she got it, but Celestia meant well. This is a schoolbook from about five hundred years ago, back when Celestia’s school still taught combat magic to foals, so be careful with it. The spells are stunningly effective, simple, and versatile to any unicorn with a creative mind, like yourself.” 

“Why thank you,” Rarity replied, accepting the book. “I shall take good care of it and return it to you in good condition.” 

“I can’t pee in a bucket with everypony watching,” Pinkie Pie chirped. 
	
> Chapter 294
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The rapping upon the door made everypony look up. Bucky lowered his book and peered at the door, his horn glowing in a blue-green aura, Flash Sentry was on his hooves, and Lugus flexed his talons. Paying attention to none of this, Twilight Sparkle pulled the door open with her telekinesis. 

A griffon guard looked into the room, he was nervous, and at the sight of Bucky, the griffon began to tremble, his poorly fitting armor clanking. 

“I have a message from Prince Tannis,” the griffon reported. “He wants to meet with you, but not all of you. He desires a small intimate meeting before the official talks begin tomorrow. He has requested the presence of Princess Twilight Sparkle and War Chief Buckminster Bitters. You may bring one guard. He is trusting you with his safety.” 

“I do not like this,” Lugus said right away, causing the guard to cringe. 

“Lugus, I want you to stay here and look after everypony else. Squire Ripple, you are coming with us. Flash, you are to let no one through this door while we are gone. Do not fail me,” Bucky instructed, his voice low but commanding. 

“Just a question, but why Ripple and not Lugus as a guard?” Applejack inquired, looking curiously at Bucky. 

“Lugus’ large size would be a detriment in close quarters fighting,” Bucky replied, his words blunt, direct, and to the point. 

Nodding, Lugus silently agreed. 

“And no offense to Flash Sentry, but I know that Dragoon Ripple is combat tested,” Bucky continued. 

“No offense taken,” Flash Sentry announced. 

“Well, let’s go I suppose. Let’s go and do what we were sent here to do and make a good honest effort for peace,” Twilight Sparkle said as she made her way to the door. 

“Yes… let’s do that,” Bucky agreed, a faint hint of icy sarcasm in his voice. 

Landing on the floor with enough force to make her war shoes clatter and throw sparks, Ripple obediently followed along behind Bucky and Twilight, scowling, her eyes darting around looking for any sign of treachery. 



 

The chambers of Prince Tannis were rather spartan and not what Bucky expected. There were no windows, it was a small secure room with one entrance, and the door was heavy and solid. There was a bed, a small table, a few chairs, Prince Tannis, and two female griffons that Bucky did not know. Bucky slowly realised the lack of windows were for the sake of safety. 

The prince was not wearing his armor and Bucky took this as sign of total trust. 

“Greetings… might I call you Twilight and Buckminster in this more relaxed setting?” Tannis inquired as he stood near the table and bowed his head slightly in respect as his guests stood near the door. 

“I am agreeable to that,” Twilight replied, offering up a smile. 

“I prefer it,” Bucky stated, lifting his head as he strode forward to take a seat at the table. He moved with a steady sense of confidence, something he did not have in his old life. 

“This is Agnetha,” Tannis introduced. “I desire her talons in a permanent contract. Our fathers are trying to work out an agreement. This is her chaperone, which she does not need… I will not touch my beloved Agnetha until certain things are… fixed. I desire to go to Equestria and have a certain surgery done so we can both be happy.” 

Drawing near the table, Twilight sat down in a chair and made herself comfortable. She peered around, studying Agnetha and her chaperone, and then she turned to look at Tannis, who was visibly happy and practically bubbling over with good mood. 

“I am one of Fleshrender’s daughters… I do not hold my father’s ideals,” Agnetha said in a low frightened voice. “Nor do I wish to be interrogated of his doings.” 

“So what do the both of you want from us?” Bucky inquired, getting right to the point as he sat down in a chair. 

Looking a bit perturbed, Tannis helped Agnetha take a seat at the table and then sat down himself. He reached up and smoothed down his crest, stilled his fluttering wings, and then he gazed longingly at Agnetha. “I desire to step back from the brink of extinction. I know which way the wind is blowing. The population of Muninn is now almost non existent. Most griffons have crossed the bridge and gone to Huginn, and the balance of power has shifted here in Griffonholm. King Fleshrender makes promises of glory. He has united the war chiefs under his banner. He has taken all of the villages and towns left in Griffonholm, emptied them of griffons, and relocated them in Huginn, to live in those abysmal apartment complexes that he claims are the future.” 

“This kind of industrialisation can’t be sustained,” Twilight Sparkle said, shaking her head gently as she spoke. 

“I do not know his final plan, but I have suspicions that he is eyeing the Hinterlands… or even lands farther south… to seize them and claim them as our own. I suspect he does not plan to stay,” Tannis said in a low pained voice. “It wasn’t always this bad. I mean, for all of my life, I remember smog and pollution, but under Fleshrender’s rule, he has… he has… there are no words for what he has done.” 

“He is preparing for some kind of great leap forward and sacrificing the land,” Bucky interjected coolly, looking around the table and meeting each eye. 

“My father is going to be angry with me for having this meeting, but I am willing to risk his wrath to do the right thing,” Tannis admitted, looking apprehensive and tense. 

“We want to do the right thing for our kind,” Agnetha corrected, reaching out and poking Tannis with her folded knuckle. 

Furrowing her brow, Twilight took on a thoughtful look of concentration, her ears perking forwards. “I don’t understand… why do you have two seats of government? Two cities? I understand have two kings, because we have Celestia and Luna in Equestria… but I do not understand the social dynamic at work here.”

Sighing, Tannis looked sorrowful. His beak opened as though he was going to answer, and then he fell silent, his words dying in his throat. He tried several times to offer an answer, and failed each time, falling silent. 

“We strove for balance,” Agnetha replied, speaking for Tannis. “Well, we did at one time anyway. Huginn was for the warriors. The fighters. The knights. Those who exemplified our warrior ideals. Muninn was for the artisans. The armor makers. The stone workers. The artists, the poets, the singers of songs, and our noble skalds who kept our history and our stories alive. The skalds, who buried the dead with honour. The skalds who are now gone from our once great society. We have nobirdy to sing to us warnings about our past mistakes.” 

“That’s awful,” Twilight breathed, looking quite distressed. 

“It is worse than you know… the skalds had magic. We had magic at one time. They did magic with song and verse, the stories say they could heal wounds, cure poisons, and soothe the battle sickness of the mind, easing the bloodlust of our warriors after battle. But as we slipped further and further into savagery and barbarity, we turned away from our skalds… our magicians… those who kept us well,” Agnetha explained. 

“So the music died completely and your species went mad?” Bucky inquired, mincing no words and speaking bluntly. 

“Yes!” Tannis shouted, banging his clenched talons down upon the table in frustration and rage, his crest rising, the feathers along his neck fluffing out to dissipate heat as his anger increased. 

“You would be correct in that assumption… I am the liaison to this castle,” Agnetha said in a low demure voice. “I have spent my time here wisely, studying our history. I am not very important to my father… he believes that he insults me by dispatching me to live with the soft sniveling artists on the island of Muninn. And I continue to let him believe that I am insulted.” 

“Clever birdy,” Bucky mused, a faint chuckle escaping his throat as he raised his eyebrow and looked at Agnetha with a wry smile. 

Her crest raising high, Agnetha blinked at Bucky. “Why thank you… you are very kind to say so. You are a shameless flatterer.” 

“I think I am starting to see the problem here,” Twilight groaned, covering her face with one folded fetlock. The alicorn sighed deeply, rubbed her nasal bridge, and flexed her wings slightly. 

“Things are no longer harmonious,” Bucky stated, finishing Twilight’s interjection. 

“If ever there was an argument on why we need artists and musicians in society, why we need the arts and culture, one only needs to look outside at Huginn,” Agnetha said, her eyes darting between Twilight and Bucky. 

“I agree completely. I mean, I live in a library for crying out loud. And you can always spot the ponies who don’t read as much as they should or spend time doing artistic activities,” Twilight said, still rubbing her nasal bridge. “My sinuses are killing me.” 

“I understand a little about both of you. Princess Celestia calls you both the Scholar and the Guardian. You are a librarian and you are a knight… this is balance for your kind, correct?” Tannis questioned, his eyes shifting from Twilight to Bucky. 

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “I suppose it is. The librarians and the artists need those to protect them and make sure that art flourishes. The warriors need somepony to protect.” 

Grunting wordlessly, Bucky nodded. He cast a glance over his shoulder and looked at Ripple, who stood near the door, her eyes wide and her ears perked. He peered at the chaperone, who had pulled out knitting needles and was now knitting and minding her own business. 

“I want this to work. I need this to work. I have plans for the people of Muninn… I need time at least… and I am hoping that you can buy me time during this period of diplomacy…” Tannis murmured in a low voice. 

“Why do you need time?” Twilight asked, lowering her foreleg away from her face to look clearly at Tannis. 

“I have long been talking with the remaining griffons of Muninn that I know desire change and who want nothing to do with Huginn and the path of war… I want to take the griffons still loyal to my cause and be away with them, hopefully to Equestria. I want to trust my father, and I do trust my father… but I am not sure I trust him completely. He seeks to placate Fleshrender… this place is dead. Even the ocean is dying and we have to fly farther and farther out to find enough fish. I refuse to eat anything but fish… I do not trust the meat here,” Tannis explained in a low whisper. 

“So you do not intend to stay?” Bucky inquired, leaning over the table and his voice gaining a hard edge as he focused his attention upon Tannis. 

“Only a madbirdy would stay in this place,” Tannis answered. “The alchemists say the ground is poisoned with mercury and so is the water. Everything is full of lead. The foul toxins that fill our air, our soil, and our water… all of it causes madness and insanity. This place can’t be saved. If we continue to live here, we will all go mad. I spend a lot of coin procuring purgative elixirs from Tradewinds to keep myself, Agnetha, and those followers I know are most loyal to me free from the poisons that plague our land. My father… I fear he is succumbing to the toxins all around us which is why I do not trust him completely.” 

“Oh dear,” Twilight muttered, looking quite frightened. 

“Why doesn’t your father take any of those elixirs?” Bucky inquired. 

“He says they are full of zebra mind control magic, and as such, they are forbidden,” Tannis replied, his voice a fearful wavering whisper that came from deep within his throat. 

“Oh shite,” Bucky swore. 

There was a hostile clucking sound from Agnetha’s chaperone and a loud click of a beak snapping shut in anger. The irate griffoness narrowed her eyes at Bucky and glared at him furiously, practically daring him to swear again. 

Bucky, being Bucky, paid the griffon nanny no attention. After being wing slapped by an irate alicorn, Bucky was rather unimpressed by the hostilities of a griffon chaperone. 

“Buckminster…” Twilight stated in a frightened voice. 

“Yes Twilight?” Bucky responded. 

“Would you hate me if I changed our mission prerogatives and turned this into a rescue mission?” Twilight Sparkle questioned, her voice trembling. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “I would be quite relieved if you did.” 

“Tannis, Agnetha, I want you to listen to me carefully… you have friends now, and we are here to help…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 295
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Well, how did it go? Y’all was gone for quite a while,” Applejack drawled, unable to resist asking about whatever had just taken place. “You done been gone for hours. Can we have Twilight bring us dinner down now?” 

“In a bit Applejack,” Twilight responded. 

“Our priorities have changed a bit. We have friends now… there is hope to be found here,” Bucky said, looking around the room at the gathered ponies, who were all peering curiously at him and Twilight. 

“And friends look after one another,” Twilight said, giving her friends a little nod. “Tannis and Agnetha are our new friends, and we need to help them if we can. The situation here is worse than previously thought. But there is hope.” 

“Hope is always good,” Rarity stated, lifting her head. “And this is what we were sent here for. To make friends.” 

Coughing, Fluttershy weakly raised her head to look at Rainbow Dash. “See, I told you, not all griffons are bad. Gilda was just having a bad day or something.” 

Shrugging, Rainbow Dash looked nervous. “So do we negotiate peace with them? They’re not in charge… I don’t understand.” 

“They’re not in charge but they are close to those that are,” Applejack said sagely. “So I reckon we now have an angle to work.” 

“So nice that we’ve found friends,” Pinkie Pie announced. “Makes my pinchy knee worth it. We’ve found good griffons.” 

“We need to convince the griffons to leave Huginn and Muninn peacefully,” Bucky said. “The land here is unfit for life. It is the very land itself making the griffons mad and volatile. If we can convince them to leave peacefully, we might still save them. Heal their minds perhaps. What they have done to the land has made them sick. It doesn’t excuse them of their atrocities, but we might still be able to save them from themselves.” 

“So you believe that peace is possible?” Rarity questioned, a thoughtful expression up her face, her blue eyes glittering with hope. 

“I don’t know that peace is possible, but I am willing to work towards this end,” Bucky said hesitantly, his voice quavering. “I feel that a resolution with violence would be a failure on our part.” 

“I believe that peace is possible,” Twilight said. “And with all of us working together, we can do anything.” 

“We’ve pulled off more impossible stuff in the past,” Applejack grumbled, shaking her head and scratching her cheek. “So what’s one more impossible act?”

“I think this will be easier to pull off than it would be to get Applejack to make dresses,” Rainbow Dash sniggered. 

“You got waylaid by rodents, Dashie... rodents,” Applejack retorted.

“And a bear!” Rainbow Dash spat out. 

“Oh he showed up later,” Fluttershy interjected in a hoarse whisper. 

“HAH!” Applejack grunted smugly. 

“Oh stop that!” Rarity scolded. 

Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack started to chortle as Rarity stared them down, and the pair wrapped a foreleg over each other’s withers, sitting close on a bed together. When Rarity rolled her eyes, the pair fell into uncontrollable giggles and Rainbow Dash leaned in to whisper something into Applejack’s ear, the pegasus’ snoot bumping into the brim of the farmpony’s hat. 

“Sometimes I wonder about you two,” Rarity grumped. 



 

The sound of ponies eating filled the room. Dinner was simple, and Twilight had retrieved it with Lugus to watch over her, returning with a large insulated chest full of hot food, with a second chest full of cold food and drinks. 

The meal was unusually silent, not much was being said, and there was a distinct lack of laughter. The severity of the situation was settling in upon them and it had left the companions feeling rather subdued. 

Looking down at the tin of sardines he was eating, Bucky saw that they were canned in Vanhoover. He found that he rather liked sardines, even though Thistle did not, and he really enjoyed the extra spicy ones pickled in spicy pepper sauce. He looked up at Lugus, who had torn through several cans of sardines and hoped that Lugus was getting enough to eat. Concern gnawed at Bucky’s insides. Lugus was a large creature with a staggeringly high caloric intake required for his health and wellbeing. 

“Here Lugus, take my cheese wedge. I’m not in the mood for cheese right now,” Bucky said, his voice breaking the near silence, the only sounds were ponies chewing. 

“Are you certain?” Lugus inquired in reply, turning his eye upon the wedge of cheese with a hungry glance. 

“Please, I’m not in the mood, go ahead,” Bucky insisted. 

Twilight paused in mid bite, shoveling a spoonful of sweet baked beans with shredded bits of carrot into her mouth. She watched the big griffon nervously accept the cheese wedge and she realised what Bucky was doing. She chewed thoughtfully, watching the griffon eat, pecking off bites of cheese. 

“Here, take mine as well,” Twilight offered. 

“Are you certain?” Lugus said sheepishly, looking at Twilight with a somehow shy expression, his eyes narrowed. 

“Cheese gives me gas, and I’ll be sharing a bed tonight,” Twilight responded.

“Never stopped you before,” Rainbow Dash chuckled. 

“Oh goodness gracious,” Rarity muttered, rolling her eyes. “Some ponies.” 

“Thank you,” Lugus said appreciatively, accepting the cheese that Twilight levitated to him and shook gently in offer. 

“So we’ll all be meeting with King Tanner tomorrow,” Pinkie Pie said thoughtfully, her voice unusually reserved and soft. “For whatever reason, he didn’t feel like speaking with us today.” 

“Yes Pinkie,” Twilight acknowledged. 

“So what do we do when he refuses to meet with us tomorrow?” Pinkie Pie asked. 

“Pinkie Pie, do you know something? Do you have one of your special feelings?” Twilight Sparkle questioned, concern evident in her voice, her brows furrowing as she peered at Pinkie. 

“I just get the feeling that there is no party planned for us. At least not a party we want to attend,” Pinkie Pie said in a strange raspy voice. 

“What? Pinkie, what are you saying?” Twilight asked. 

“I was saying something?” Pinkie Pie questioned in response, looking confused. The earth pony mare blinked a few times and wiped a few limp strands of mane out of her face with a foreleg. “I wasn’t saying anything, I was eating,” she said in cheerful tones, looking around at the ponies staring at her. “These beans are really good!” 

“You were saying something about some party,” Applejack said, waving her spoon at Pinkie Pie as she spoke. 

“No I wasn’t. I think I’d know if I was talking about a party, I’m the party pony,” Pinkie Pie said in a chirpy cheerful voice. 

Twilight, realising that she was engaging in equine necrosadism, decided that beating a dead horse just wasn’t worth it, and she cringed internally at her own morbid thoughts that manifested, wondering how certain words and thoughts just popped into her head. She shot Applejack a meaningful glare and the orange earth pony fell silent. 

“This is like the most boring sleepover ever,” Pinkie Pie muttered as she took a bite of stewed cabbage and potato. “There is gonna be a party… the party to end all parties and we’re all invited,” Pinkie Pie said, her voice shifting into a deep baritone growl as she spoke. 

Terrified, Twilight silenced her friends with a gesture so she could continue to listen to Pinkie Pie’s premonitions, pronouncements, and prognostications. 



 

“I don’t like this,” Applejack grumbled, gesturing at Twilight and Buckminster, who had secluded themselves inside of a sound proof bubble. The orange mare scowled, pulling her lips back from her teeth. Her nostrils flaring, she snorted. “Nope, I don’t think I like this at all.” 

“I don’t like it either,” Rainbow Dash agreed, leaning on Applejack and frowning. 

“They have important things to talk about, and we don’t always need to know what is going on,” Rarity said dismissively. “You two are behaving like two foals who want to eavesdrop on their parents.” 

The two mares glared at Rarity, offering her a withering stare. Applejack raised her eyebrow, and Rainbow Dash fluffed out her feathers, two very clear signs that they did not approve of Rarity’s interjection upon the issue. 

“With you two behaving like ruffians, no wonder she had to secure herself behind a sound proof bubble,” Rarity said, sniffing and turning her nose up at her friends. 

“All three of you, cut it out,” Ripple muttered. “This is bad on morale.” 

“Thank you Ripple,” Sentinel remarked, looking up from his journal at his sister. 

“We are all miserable together. Bucky and Twilight are miserable in a bubble. So what?” Lugus said dismissively. 

“He’s right,” Applejack groaned. “I’m just complaining for the sake of complaining.” 

“I’m complaining because I’m bored. I want to fly or do something,” Rainbow Dash admitted, her wings twitching when she said the word fly. 

Polishing his helmet, Flash Sentry grunted. “Sure, it’s boring, but no worse than guard duty,” he commented, rubbing a small cloth in measured circles on the back of his helmet as he spoke. 

“I think I’ve read all of my comic books now about five times over,” Spike grumbled. The little dragon heaved a sigh and looked at Sentinel. “I don’t know how you make this look so easy to bear.” 

“That’s easy. I write,” Sentinel replied, looking up at Spike. 

“Whatcha been writing?” Spike inquired, tugging on his tail from nervousness. 

“So far, Applejack and Rainbow Dash have done little but complain, Rarity has been bossy, while poor Pinkie Pie has done all of the work of looking after Fluttershy who can’t stop coughing until her feathers fall out,” Sentinel answered. “I’ve written down almost everything to preserve the little details for the history books.” 



 

“There seems to be a lot of commotion,” Twilight Sparkle observed, looking through the sound proofed bubble at the rest of the room. She blinked a few times, her eyes watering, and then reached up and wiped her runny nose. 

“I think Sentinel is entertaining them. I don’t know what is going on, but Sentinel certainly has their attention,” Bucky said, peering at his colt. “Twilight?” 

“Yes Buckminster?” Twilight responded. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky wondered if he would be able to get the question out or if incomprehensible garble might come out like it did when he tried to talk to Celestia. “What do you know of the Fates?” he asked, relieved that the words came out. 

“Very little,” Twilight responded in a low voice. 

“What do you know?” Bucky inquired, his tone cautious. 

“I know that very little is known about them. They are apparently immortal, operate out of a shop in the ancient city of Tradewinds, and like to meddle in the affairs of mortals. I know that Princess Celestia doesn’t like them and wishes they would stay out of Equestria. They exist upon the council of Immortals, along with other entities like Scorch. I also know that to know their names is to know suffering and death,” Twilight answered, reciting what facts she knew from memory, her stare rather blank and vacant while she spoke. 

“Hmm, at some point, you and I should go to Tradewinds to have a talk with them,” Bucky said, choosing his words carefully, feeling an odd tickle in the back of his throat as he spoke, and he didn’t think it was from the dingy air. He suspected it was the odd magical warning kicking in and letting him now that he was about to blurt out something about chimicherrychangas or oatmeal or perhaps pickle barrel kumquats. 

Or worse, flirting with Twilight Sparkle, which would be awful indeed. She was confused enough with Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. Bucky sighed, feeling embarrassed and awkward from something that actually hadn’t happened yet. 

“I would actually be interested in meeting them,” Twilight admitted, looking pensive as she spoke, blowing her mane out of her eyes. “I have some questions for them… like Slate. He’s doing really well Buckminster, you need to meet him sometime soon. He’s really a nice… pony.” 

“I’m sure he is,” Bucky answered. “There are other questions though…” Bucky said, pausing, not willing to push his luck. 

“I’d like to know ‘why me’ and how come I was chosen,” Twilight said. “Why a sonic rainboom brought me and my friends together. How all of our lives tie together so strongly and overlap even before we knew one another. Or why a unicorn bumps into a pegasus while out doing errands and ends up in love. It all seems so contrived.” 

“Maybe it is,” Bucky admitted in a low voice, nodding at Twilight. 

“How I hatched a dragon egg into a dragon… that’s the real question Buckminster. Celestia doesn’t know that I know… Spike was never supposed to have hatched from the egg. The real test is actually about how you deal with failure. I was supposed to have failed that test, handled it well, not have a meltdown, and proved that I was worthy as Celestia’s student. Instead, I hatched a false dragon egg and caused a real dragon to appear… I am not supposed to know this Buckminster. Celestia has kept this from me. I suppose she has her reasons. My divination is getting to the point where I can’t control what I find out anymore. I keep stumbling into things I’m not supposed to know,” Twilight confessed in a frantic voice, looking Buckminster in the eye as she spoke, becoming increasingly more nervous. 

“We’ve both done impossible things,” Bucky whispered, looking up at Twilight. “Think about who we are and the bloodlines from which we come from.” 

“I think about it all the time Buckminster, my power grows every day, I keep getting surges. Ever since the train, things haven’t been the same for me. I’m taller. Stronger. Faster, bigger, and better. And my magic is getting harder to control sometimes,” Twilight said, closing her eyes and shaking her head in doubt. Her lips pursed together for a moment and then her eyes opened. 

“Still have a stubby little horn though. Out of all of the royals, you have the tiniest most adorable little horn,” Bucky teased. 

“Only because you cheated! Your horn is only as long as Celestia’s because you went and made this enormous glass sword for a horn rather than a reasonable artificial extension! I can’t even imagine how much that horrendous looking changeling like extremity amplifies your magical power… it’s probably like having the Alicorn Amulet sticking out of your forehead,” Twilight retorted angrily. “And you made it from fulgurite, so even a tiny amount of magic is focused to incredible intensities.” 

“Hey, Luna helped me, this was her doing,” Bucky said defensively. 

“But you didn’t have to make it so long!” Twilight argued. 

“Does it make you feel insecure?” Bucky chortled in a smug voice. 

“Yes! You cheated! I’ve worked hard for everything I have… you just stuck a big black scary changeling antenna on your noggin,” Twilight protested, sputtering as she spoke. 

“I never would have thought that Twilight Sparkle, the great force of magic that she is, would suffer from horn envy,” Bucky chortled. 

“Ugh, you smug unbearable lout! I hate you sometimes!” Twilight shouted. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 296
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight awoke, completely tangled up in the legs of Rainbow Dash on one side, and a much smaller than herself Ripple on the other, sandwiched between two pegasi, which Twilight Sparkle felt was a good thing. She had long grown used to pegasi and their sleeping habits, the compulsive and habitual cuddlers that they were. 

At some point in her life, Twilight Sparkle wanted to do a sleep study on pegasi to see how much of their social behaviour existed in the unconscious realms of sleep. 

Yawning hugely, and making a faint whine as she did so, Twilight looked around, smacked her lips when in her yawn ended, and saw Buckminster and Lugus were wide awake, reading silently, together. Flash Sentry had taken the first watch when they had gone to bed, and he was now asleep in a bunk all by himself, his mouth open, and his orange tongue was hanging out. 

Upon waking, Twilight suffered a peculiar thought as she thought about having to pee in a bucket. Why are we having to pee in a bucket when we have seen evidence of a sewer system? her brain asked of her. She did not have an answer, other than humiliation and abasement. 

She attempted to extricate herself from the pegasus sandwich, only to have Ripple clamp down with surprising ferocity. Twilight felt her bones creak painfully, and she bit down on her lip to keep from making a sound as she closed her eyes.

“Keep princess safe,” Ripple murmured in her sleep, rubbing her cheek against Twilight’s neck, her eyes closed, one wing fluttering under the blanket. 

“Who keeps me safe from Ripple?” Twilight muttered. She bit back an angry reply when she heard Buckminster chuckling from his chaise lounge in the corner. Opening her eyes, she glared at Buckminster, and Lugus had joined in on the chortling. 

Teleporting, Twilight freed herself from the pegasus prison. She stood in the middle of the room, yawning again, and smiling a somewhat sadistic smile when she heard Rainbow Dash grunting as Ripple latched on to her. 

“Morning Twilight,” Bucky greeted. 

“What an odd turn of phrase,” Lugus remarked. 

“I suppose it is,” Bucky agreed, never once taking his nose from his book. 

“Whatcha reading about?” Twilight muttered. 

“Trying to understand defensive abjurations… cognisant self healing self aware mirror matrices have me completely baffled,” Bucky admitted. 

“Oh those are easy,” Twilight groaned, not quite awake. “Each matrix should overlap and be ready to draw from or offer power to the other should one of them fail. If you summon, say, a gross of spell barriers, that is to say one hundred and forty four, you stagger them in such a way and connect them in a manner in which each will support the others for additional strength if you are suddenly struck with something that delivers a lot of damage to your protective barrier. I had to explain it to my brother so he could improve his shield barrier spell…” Twilight said, her explanation dwindling off into nothingness as she realised that Bucky was looking at her as though she had sprouted a second head. “Oh… that’s right. I forgot… Mister Big Bad Warlock can’t even figure out basic spell defenses.” 

“Basic?” Bucky grumped. “Basic you say… I’d love to see you teach a couple of first years or even second years using that kind of talk.” 

“Sorry Buckminster… I suppose you need to go back to magical kindergarten,” Twilight teased. 

“Why thank you Twilight Snarkle… say, would you like a crash course in basic transmutations or enchantments? How about a common come to life spell that doesn’t cause farm equipment to go on a rampage?” Bucky replied, returning shots fired. 

“Applejack,” Twilight grumbled, her eyes narrowing. She turned her head to look at the sleeping orange mare laying in bed with Rarity. 

“Should I even mention your usage of the want it-” 

“Enough! Truce! I’m sorry I teased you! I gotta go!” Twilight said, vanishing into the bucket corner behind a fogged over spell bubble. 



 

“ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted, trying to be heard over the rush of the angry voices. 

Twilight’s friends fell silent and the room quieted. Not five minutes before, news had been delivered that King Tanner would not be meeting with them, and it had caused an explosion of hostile rage to come boiling out. 

“If we are desperate and frustrated, we are more likely to agree to things we would never agree with otherwise for the sake of feeling like we accomplished something and make progress after being locked in a room for a day or two,” Bucky explained in a low voice that did more to silence the room than Twilight’s outburst. “This is just part of the headgames. We must endure.” 

“So another day of sitting around and doing nothing… this stinks!” Rainbow Dash protested as she banged her hoof into the rough timber bedpost. 

“And we can’t leave and go spend time on The Scorned Mare because it might seem rude if we weren’t here, waiting in this awful room to be at their beck and call… I don’t understand this,” Applejack groaned, falling over backwards on the bed. 

“I am not so sure I want to be diplomatic with the griffons,” Rarity interjected, her lip protruding in a pout. “I say we go wait aboard The Scorned Mare anyway… they have wings, when they want us, they can come and say so.” 

“They’re just trying to -cough- test us to see if we are willing to stay the course because we believe in peace,” Fluttershy remarked, laying her hoof ever so softly upon Rarity and trying to soothe her. “What kind of message do we send if we grow impatient? This -cough- goes beyond our needs, this is about two nations making a -cough- lasting peace.” 

“We need to stick together. We need to stay together. And we need to spend each moment as though it might be our last,” Pinkie Pie said, latching on to Rainbow Dash and squeezing her tightly. “I love you Rainbow!” 

Crushed in Pinkie’s embrace, Rainbow Dash squirmed uncomfortably. “I love you too, Pinkie… this is embarrassing!” The pegasus grunted when Spike tackled her as well, wrapping his forelegs around her middle and giving the blue pegasus a loving squeeze. “Ugh! Sappy!” 

“Good, seems like we all have our heads screwed on straight,” Flash Sentry said, looking worried. “Twilight, I don’t like this-” 

“I know Flash, nopony likes this,” Twilight interrupted. 

“No, Twilight, please listen to me,” Flash Sentry said, looking at Twilight with wide focused eyes and perked ears. 

“Sorry, go ahead,” Twilight replied, her ears drooping and her head dropping slightly. 

“I don’t like these long periods of boredom. Stuff like this tends to cause a pony to drop their guard. This is becoming tactically dangerous,” Flash Sentry explained. 

“Flash is correct,” Ripple said, moving to stand next to Flash Sentry. 

“My squire has learned much,” Lugus said proudly, stroking his chest feathers with his left talons as he spoke. 

“Maybe we should have brought yarn for knitting,” Ripple said. “More to do.” 

“We can pick that up when I go to pick up breakfast,” Twilight stated. 

“Seems wise,” Sentinel agreed. “Boredom is the enemy here.” 

There was a knock upon the door, which made Fluttershy squeak and then collapse into a coughing fit. Rarity held Fluttershy, trying to ease her friend’s suffering, patting her on the back and trying to ease her through the coughing spell. 

Lugus opened the door, looming largely over the much smaller doorframe. 

“Prince Tannis,” Twilight said, seeing the prince. 

“I apologise for my father… he says he is unwell. He has terrible headaches frequently… I have his permission to deal with you this day. He has asked me to take you upon a tour of the area by airship, so I can show you what Huginn and Muninn has accomplished by working together, to inspire what we can do if we work together,” Tannis said, his tone humble and apologetic. “My father has been talking to Fleshrender, trying to bring our own kind together in some form of cooperation.” 

“A tour would be lovely,” Twilight Sparkle replied in an overly cheerful voice. “I assume we would be on The Scorned Mare for the tour?” 

“Oh, of course,” Tannis replied, bobbing his head. “Our ships are coal burning steam. They are noisy. It would be impossible to hold a conversation on deck.” 

“Before the tour, perhaps you could show us to where you find fresh fish,” Bucky interjected, a clever grin upon his face. “The canned sardines, while nice, are no substitute for fresh fish and I do believe Lugus would enjoy spreading his wings for a bit.” Bucky felt a burst of pride… fresh food, fresh air, a chance to be away for a while from this industrial sump-hole, and a chance to do something to lift flagging spirits. A subtle master stroke on his part, resetting the game board a bit more in their favour. 

“That would be pleasant,” Tannis agreed. “We can make a lovely day of diplomatic relations between us… again I apologise for my father. He has taken ill, it cannot be helped. Agnetha will be joining us if that is okay. And her chaperone of course.” 

“That would be lovely. I am sure my friends would love to meet Agnetha,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking around the room at her friends, who were all nodding eagerly from her words. She felt a burst of pride bloom within her barrel, knowing that her friends would always be there for her. 

“I am certain that Agnetha would be most appreciative of having some female company. She doesn’t get a chance to socialise much,” Tannis said in a low voice. 

“Oh... we can do girly stuff,” Rarity tittered, causing Rainbow Dash and Applejack to roll their eyes together. “I could use some girly time… I’m grey!” she whined, brushing at her sooty pelt. 

“Well, shall we make a day of this?” Tannis inquired politely, bowing his head to Twilight Sparkle. 

“I’d love to,” Twilight responded with an awkward giggle. 



 

Crushed by Bon Bon, Bucky struggled to breathe. Just as he started to open up his mouth to inhale, he felt Bon Bon’s lips clamp down upon his own. He felt dizzy and lightheaded as Bon Bon smooched him. She pulled away with a wet pop, and Bucky once again attempted to draw in air, only to find Lyra’s lips latching onto his own as Bon Bon continued to squeeze him nearly to death. 

Nearby, Lugus was getting worked over by Yew, and the much larger griffon had fallen over, bowled over by the much smaller pegasus’ affections. Yew hugged and squeezed Lugus’ neck, and planted kisses all over his face, ruffling his feathers. 

Agnetha, standing next to Tannis, felt her feathers ruffling as she watched the display of affection, something that was almost unheard of in her culture. She started to move towards Tannis and heard an angry squawk from her chaperone. She looked at Goshawk, her chaperone, who clearly did not approve of Lugus and Yew’s antics. Pressing her luck, Agnetha nuzzled the side of her face against Tannis’ neck, earning her a painful wing slap from Goshawk. 

“I am off to take a shower!” Rarity announced, trotting off to the door that led belowdecks. “I do not wish to be disturbed!” 

“Let us be away from this place. I’ll get us moving,” Bucky said as he wiggled free from Bon Bon and Lyra’s overly enthusiastic affections. He left his trunk on deck and made his way to the navigation cabin to pilot the ship manually. 

“You have no guards and you are not wearing your armor,” Twilight observed, looking at Tannis, coming to a slow understanding about the situation. 

“I am trusting you,” Tannis said, lifting his head high. “My safety and my life is entirely dependent upon you. I want to be your friend,” he explained. 

“I think I see Buckminster waving, I suspect he needs your input on where to go,” Twilight said, gesturing at the small navigation cabin at the rear of the ship. She smiled at Tannis. “Thank you for trusting us.” 

“This has to work… otherwise me and my kind are dead. My life and the lives of my fellow griffons all depend upon your help,” Tannis replied to Twilight, bowing his head humbly and then heading off towards the navigation cabin. 

“I intend to be queen of Muninn one day,” Agnetha stated as she watched Tannis walk away. “I make no bones about it… I want to see my species restored to their former glory. Peacefully. But to do that, I need those who will back my gambits. I do hope that we will be friends Twilight Sparkle. I hope that we have a glorious day.” 

“Agnetha, it would be my honour to help you. Thank you for making me believe that peace is possible,” Twilight responded, smiling at the griffoness and her chaperone. 
	
	
> Chapter 297
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Scorned Mare moved swiftly under Bucky’s guidance, heading towards an archipelago that Tannis had pointed out on the map. The ship moved silently, and Bucky steered into the clouds to feed the cloud scoop. 

Beside him, Lyra watched, learning the manual controls as she observed Bucky’s deft movements, her face growing more and more thoughtful. 

“Bucky, love, how did you learn how to operate an airship?” Lyra asked, saying the question that had popped into her mind. She scratched her head with one front hoof and prodded Bucky with the other. “How?” 

“Luna taught me how to do it in dreams,” Bucky grunted in reply. 

“Oh, that makes sense. Can you teach me through communing?” Lyra inquired. 

“I can teach some of what I know, you know how it is. Communing can teach the basics, but not the subtle nuances,” Bucky replied, enjoying Lyra’s lingering touch. 

“I know… I really want to learn… I like airships. I can feel the storm inside of the gasbag. I can hear it singing to me Bucky… so much storm magic,” Lyra stated, looking over at Bucky’s withered face. She trailed her hoof along Bucky’s neck, causing him to shiver. 

Pressing her advantage, Lyra threw both forelegs around Bucky’s neck and embraced him, hugging him tightly. “I can’t sleep right if you aren’t in the bed,” she whispered, her voice nervous. “I’m scared Bucky… something feels wrong here.” 

Snaking his surviving foreleg around Lyra’s body, Bucky pulled her close, pressing his muzzle into the soft fuzzy place just behind her ear, breathing in her scent. He felt her shudder, her body trembling from his touch, and he held her tightly, treasuring her warm body against his, glad for the hug. Lyra smelled like storms and springtime, she had a strong scent of hyacinths from her perfume or her soap, and it clung to his nostrils. He trailed his stump along the base of her ribs, and took a brief moment of perverse pleasure from hearing her breathing stutter slightly, little needy gasps escaping her lips. 

“Bucky, be honest with me, I want to know, do you ever want to feel me from the inside?” Lyra whispered, her lips brushing against Bucky’s throat as she spoke.

“Of course I do Lyra, but I am content with this,” Bucky breathed, his words causing Lyra’s ear to flicker. “I enjoy our closeness like this… these moments where you feel safe enough to hold me close and not panic. I treasure these moments, and they are far more important than feeling you from the inside.” 

“Thank you Bucky.” 



 

“You are an amazing knitter… Goshawk, am I correct with your name?” Fluttershy said, her voice a little raspy but improving in the fresh air. 

“My name is Goshawk, and thank you,” Goshawk replied, taking her eyes off of Agnetha for a moment to look at Fluttershy. “She looks like a different creature.” 

“Oh, I agree. I think the shower did her good, and the brushing will make her pelt shiny,” Fluttershy said in a low sweet voice that radiated calm. “She’s safe with my friends. And Tannis is off talking with Lugus, so you can relax a little.” 

“I am always on duty,” Goshawk said in a raspy reply. 

“I can see why,” Fluttershy answered, her needles clicking as she worked, the salty breeze ruffling her now pink again mane. 

“What do you mean?” Goshawk asked, swiveling her head around to look at Fluttershy. “I do not follow the meaning of your words.” 

“Oh… um, well, I’m sorry -cough- well… it is pretty obvious that you love her a great deal, even if you don’t show it in the usual way,” Fluttershy stammered nervously. 

“Is it that obvious?” Goshawk questioned, her hard voice softening. 

“Well, probably not to most, but to me it sure is,” Fluttershy replied, offering up a gentle smile to the griffoness. 

Sighing, her feathers ruffling, Goshawk somehow looked incredibly sad, even though she did not have lips to frown with. “I have a secret,” Goshawk admitted. 

“You do?” Fluttershy squeaked in surprise. 

“I hope to live long enough to see her marry. Tannis is good for her. I have high hopes. I want to see her have cubs. I’m her mother,” Goshawk confessed. 

“But she doesn’t know?” Fluttershy asked, her question a pained whimper. 

“She can’t know. It is part of the deal I made… Fleshrender, before he became king, he developed a fancy for me. I knew better than to refuse him, because he would just take me anyway, there would have been no stopping him, I convinced him to give me a cub and I told him that he could do anything and everything he wanted to do with me and I would willingly submit to his desires… that I wouldn’t try clawing his eyes out… and he agreed. He allowed me to raise her as her nanny, and eventually I became her chaperone. But she is not to know I am her mother,” Goshawk answered, hesitating a few times as she spoke. 

“But why?” Fluttershy inquired and then cleared her throat. 

“For her own safety and happiness. If something happens, and I have to protect her, it is only her nanny or her chaperone that dies… not her mother. She will run away or flee and have a chance to keep living while I buy her time. If she knows that I’m her mother, the foolish young thing will stay to fight, to protect me, and will only die by my side needlessly,” Goshawk explained in a pained voice. “Fleshrender has been a lousy father, but in this issue we agree… she must be protected. I hope that he loves her in his own way, but that is a mother’s foolish hope.” 

“I understand,” Fluttershy whispered, shaking her head. “A mother has to protect her young no matter what,” she said, reaching down and rubbing her stomach. “I want to be a mother,” the buttery yellow pegasus confessed. “I want to rub my tummy and know there is something in there.” 

“I want to see her marry. I have somehow kept her alive all of this time, and there have been close calls. Fleshrender has rivals. I approve of Tannis… even if it seems like I don’t,” Goshawk said, her feathers fluffing out in the breeze. 

“You’re a good mama,” Fluttershy praised, the sort of sincere honest compliment that only a creature as innocent as Fluttershy could say. 

“Thank you… I have spent my whole life wondering and doubting myself,” Goshawk muttered, her beak clicking together as she spoke. 



 

The Scorned Mare sat in the water, bobbing in the waves, her anchor dropped into the water to secure her. She floated a ways out, off of a long sandbar, a perfect place to set up a temporary camp to spend part of the day on. 

Driftwood was gathered to start a fire. The day was windy and there was an unmistakable chill in the air, the hint that the seasons were changing. Rarity was busy setting out a couple of blankets where a pony or a griffon might sprawl out and get comfortable. 

There was a vast tidal pool sunk into the rocky shore at the end of the sandbar, and it was filled with fish that got trapped when the tide went out. Sentinel was already hard at work pulling fish out of the pool, subduing them and ripping their heads off. 



 

“I am so glad they set up their own campfire to cook fish over,” Rarity said in a low voice, her eyes darting around to look at her friends. 

“It is their way… it doesn’t make them bad Rarity,” Twilight said, looking at Rarity. 

“I know that, but it smells awful. I actually wasn’t trying to complain, I was being grateful. I suppose I complain too much,” Rarity answered, looking rather dejected. 

“Sorry Rarity,” Twilight offered. 

“Think nothing of it,” Rarity returned. 

“What is Pinkie Pie doing?” Applejack asked, watching the pink pony digging in the sand with Ripple. 

“Hunting for seashells I think,” Rainbow Dash said, the wind whipping her prismatic mane around her face. 

“Funny, but the smell of cooking fish doesn’t seem to be bothering Bon Bon or Lyra. They’re both over there with Bucky and the griffons and having a nice time,” Twilight observed, watching the other group with keen interest. 

“I think I’ll join them,” Fluttershy stated, rising up on her hooves and then departing, carefully stepping through the loose sand, the wind ruffling her feathers and musing her mane as she walked. 

“What do you think it is like?” Rarity asked. 

Looking at her friend, Twilight felt puzzled. Rarity was staring off at the other group, her eyes narrowed, her face thoughtful with her brows furrowed. The wind had completely destroyed Rarity’s carefully coiffed mane. 

“What is what like?” Twilight inquired, seeking clarification. 

“For Bon Bon and Lyra. His wives. What do you think it is like, kissing him? To feel those bladed fangs… during more… intimate moments, do you think he nibbles on their necks like the stallions are said to do in those tawdry romance novels? What do you think it feels like? To have teeth like that so close to such soft fleshy places? How they must trust him… to be so close to such an animal, what do you think it feels like?” Rarity questioned, shivering several times as she spoke, her eyes never leaving Bucky. 

“Rarity, have you lost your mind?” Rainbow Dash whispered in a low voice, staring at Rarity while she stared off at Bucky. 

“Are you infatty-ated or whatever the word is with him?” Applejack asked, prodding Rarity with a hoof. 

“For a time, I was worried that I was,” Rarity replied with total honesty, trusting in her friends during a moment of vulnerability. “But then I realised that I was curious. He is so unlike us now. He and Sentinel. They’re ponies, but not ponies.” 

“I think I understand,” Applejack responded slowly, looking over at Bucky. “You were so caught up in curiousity that it probably felt like a crush.” 

“I like thrill seeking, but I don’t want to feel sharp teeth nibbling at my neck or against my lips. That’s creepy,” Rainbow Dash muttered, shaking her head as she spoke. “I watched Gilda eat a rat once. It made me sick to my stomach. I could never watch her eat ever again.” 

“I’ve been around a couple of Luna’s guards… they’re not bad ponies, but I can’t stand to watch them eat. They have their own mess hall for a good reason. It makes me queasy to even watch Bucky, Sentinel, and Lugus eating sardines out of a can,” Flash Sentry remarked, his eyes darting around to look at different ponies as he spoke. 

“I know Spike sometimes eats meat. Fluttershy gives it to him. Mostly fish I think. I hope. I really don’t want to think about it, and it makes me feel nauseous to smell Spike’s breath after he’s been over at Fluttershy’s house,” Twilight Sparkle said, her voice low, her mane whipping in the wind. She scooted a little closer to Flash Sentry, and her gaze settled into the blazing fire she and her friends were gathered around. 

“Fluttershy told me that she’s tried fish,” Rarity said in a soft voice full of confusion. “She told me one day at the spa. She told me that she wouldn’t feed her animal friends anything she wouldn’t eat herself. I asked her what she meant… she said that she sometimes tries their food, to make sure that it tastes good and is pleasant for them… she told me she’s eaten fish, and I can only assume anything else she feeds her animals. It was such a shock to me. Sweet innocent Fluttershy… the last pony I thought would try flesh.” 

“Sort of makes sense though,” Rainbow Dash stated, her gaze on Fluttershy, who was now sitting at the other campfire, snuggled close to Yew Wood. “I mean, Fluttershy. Nature’s Wonder.” 

“She’s so sweet and innocent… so demure… so graceful, and yet she seems so happy with them over there. She seems out of place somehow… yet she belongs. Yew has one eye, she isn’t a predator, but she certainly belongs over there. She’s a killer. The griffons, Sentinel, Buckminster… all predatory. Sharp beaks and pointy fangs. They all belong together. And somehow, Fluttershy seems to fit in with them just fine. I don’t understand,” Rarity mused. 

“Fluttershy is what she is. I done gave up trying to understand her a long time ago. She’s tamed Discord and I’m alright with that. She’s made my orchard better with bats, and I’m okay with that, but it took a while. Flutters just prefers the company of animals. And I ain’t saying that in a bad way, so don’t start with me y’all,” Applejack interjected. 

“I’m glad that Fluttershy is the way she is,” Twilight stated. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 298
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blue skies were behind them, and smoggy skies were ahead. The Scorned Mare plunged through a cloudbank, skimming through puffy fluffy wild clouds, descending gradually from the high altitude she had climbed to for part of the trip. The twin cities of Huginn and Muninn once again were ahead, and a patrolling airship flashed a powerful spotlight in greeting. 

Most of the group had remained on deck, with Fluttershy having gone belowdecks to be in the air conditioned atmosphere indoors, along with Bon Bon, Lyra, and Yew. Twilight and her friends gathered near the rails with Tannis and Agnetha, and Bucky controlled the ship with his magic as he maneuvered carefully to take them over Huginn at a slow cruise. 

Passing overhead, one could actually feel heat radiating from the city of Huginn. 



 

“King Fleshrender claims this is the most advanced industrialised city in the world,” Tannis said, reciting what appeared to be a well practiced speech. “Since we don’t have much in the way of magic, we don’t have very much arcano-tech. We rely on coal to provide power for everything. Below us are hundreds of factories. We churn out consumer goods. Common things like spoons, knives, forks, lanterns, the sort of things we use every day that we all take for granted, the trinkets of civilisation,” he announced. 

“And I suppose armaments and airships as well,” Bucky remarked, peering over the rail at the Tartarus-inspired landscape below. A river of brown sludge slowly made its way to the ocean, burbling and glorping as it sloshed along, and Bucky felt a strong sense of revulsion as he saw it. 

“Some of the factories are dedicated to airship manufacturing, I admit,” Tannis admitted. “But King Fleshrender’s big claim to fame is that we can make more consumer goods than any other civilised nation on this planet. Our factories are a wonder of mechanical automation.” 

The group looked over the edge of The Scorned Mare, studying the city below. There was no greenery, no parks, there was no wasted space in the city. The streets were all arranged in a perfect grid. Many of the streets had rails in the center, and a small train trundled along the rails, moving supplies, goods and passengers from one section of the city to another. 

Seeing the train gave Bucky ideas for modern transportation back in Equestria, it was a brilliant idea, a series of wagons that needed no ponies to pull them. It would be perfect in a city like Canterlot, Manehatten, or Baltimare. 

“The small train… I have seen such a thing in a toy store, a giant toy for foals to play on, but this one actually seems practical and functional, this is amazing,” Bucky said, looking down with genuine appreciation. 

“We call it a trolley train. We no longer have private wagons in the city. It was Fleshrender’s solution to several problems. It got rid of traffic and the dependance upon slave labour to pull wagons. Now, everything is delivered and moved around the city with careful scheduling, and some of the trolley trains are dedicated to moving griffons around to their jobs,” Tannis explained, gesturing and pointing at various moving railcars down below them. 

“But can’t you just fly everywhere?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking confused and shaking her head. “I don’t understand why you’d take this trolley thing when you could just fly… this doesn’t make a lot of sense.” 

“Rainbow Dash, there are tens of thousands of griffons in the city. All of them trying to fly to their jobs or run errands. The skies become too crowded because the population is too dense. My father demanded that the skies be cleared and order restored to the city. Most griffons no longer need to fly and can save their energies for their shift in the factories,” Agnetha said, looking first at Rainbow Dash and then down at the sprawling city below her. 

“I suppose it would become crowded with everybirdy trying to fly everywhere all at once,” Rainbow Dash admitted, her brows furrowing. “But I would hate not being able to fly and be free in the sky.” 

An airship went steaming past, belching out clouds of black smoke, sending black ash floating down to the city down below. Below the airship, suspended by cables, were long steel girders too big to be moved by trolley train. It was crewed by griffons black with soot and grime. 

Another ship went moving past, this one carrying an enormous vat of what appeared to be fresh water. As they watched, the ship descended upon a tall concrete structure, and the vat was docked with the giant water tank on top of the high rise tenement building. With a loud gurgle-glug, the water vat was emptied into the giant water tank. Once this was completed, the airship sped off, presumably off to wherever it was it had drawn fresh water from. 

“What are those big beehive looking structures?” Twilight Sparkle inquired. “I’ve never seen anything quite like those before. No windows, several stories tall, and they appear to be made out of reinforced concrete.” 

“I don’t know what those are to be honest,” Tannis replied, shaking his head. “I have asked about them, and have received no answer… they puzzle me,” the griffon admitted. 

“I have never seen anything like them before,” Lugus said, peering downward as they drifted over the city. “The city has changed so much since my departure. I don’t recognise anything. Everything I once knew has been knocked down and rebuilt.” 

“I don’t agree with everything that King Fleshrender has done, but he has brought a sense of order to the nation. The trains run on time. Military service is mandatory for all citizens of Huginn, from the warrior castes to the servant castes. The day is divided into well measured parts, with part of the day spent doing drills and training. The other part of the day is spent labouring in the factories or other jobs. Food, however questionable it might be, is brought and distributed equally among the citizens, something no other king can lay claim to doing… although it disturbs me a great deal because I know that some of the meat is pony and zebra meat, or meat from other creatures with language. It concerns me,” Tannis said, explaining life in Huginn. The griffon slumped down, looking miserable, his feathers now filthy and sooty once again. 

“What terrible price is paid for order,” Bucky said, shaking his head. 

“So… is King Fleshrender a fascist?” Twilight asked, her voice hesitant and barely audible over the industrial grind of the city below. She looked worried, her eyes narrowed and watering, tears streaming from the corners, the whites of her eyes now bloodshot. 

“That is complicated to answer,” Tannis replied. “He rejects any accusations of fascism, but with the same breath he orates about the glorious autarky of Griffonholm and demands worship and veneration of the Crown. It has practically become a religion. He has even taken to raising cubs in Crown sponsored rookeries. The indoctrination starts at an early age…” he said, his words trailing off. 

“My father truly believes he is leading Griffonholm towards some great and glorious future, and promises all griffons a return to previous glories,” Agnetha stated, her crest rising as she spoke. She gestured at the city below her, her talons flexing. “And this is the price of that dream. I do not agree with my father, and gladly work to oppose him in secret.” 

The ponies and griffons on the deck of The Scorned Mare all watched a gout of flames shooting out of a tall smokestack, belching and spewing thick black ash into the air which drifted down to the city below. 

“That is one of Fleshrender’s new oil refineries. He’s been trying to find new uses for the thick black sludge that leaks out from the deep earth. Our alchemists have produced some fascinating new compounds and we are on the verge of discovering what might be fuels superiour to burning coal,” Tannis said, explaining the purpose of the building with the flame belching smokestacks. 

“I am not sure if the price of progress is worth it,” Rarity said, raising her eyebrow and looking at Tannis pointedly. She shook her head, coughed, cleared her throat, brushed flakes of ash from her now sooty grey pelt, and then sighed. “When I look at the city down below us, I see a terrifying vision of the future if progress is not tempered with patience and wisdom. As a craftspony, I can see my trade being devoured by industrial machinery and made soulless and  left empty of art, beauty, and aesthetic.” 

“Wow Rarity… that’s pretty deep… I don’t know what to say,” Twilight Sparkle stammered, her voice now raspy and gravely. 

“Rares, that has to be the wisest thing I think I’ve ever heard you, or anypony for that matter, say in my entire life,” Applejack said, looking at Rarity with an expression of appreciation. 

“I hate these moments when I don’t feel smart enough to say something worthwhile,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. 

“There used to be hills off in the distance,” Lugus said, peering off into the smoggy horizon, rubbing his eyes to try and clear them. 

“Those hills are gone. There was copper and coal beneath them,” Agnetha said, batting a few large flakes of ash out of the air as they drifted down in front of her face. “Using massive steam powered machines and alchemical applications, my father had the ground cracked open to expose the wealth found therein. He had the hills sheared off layer by layer until they were gone, and then vast open air pits were dug down into the earth. Along with the coal and copper, we found veins of silver and platinum. This wealth allows us to secure water and food from the diamond dog kingdom off to the east,” the griffoness explained. 

“That’s the most awful thing I’ve ever heard,” Pinkie Pie moaned, finally saying something. Her cheeks were sludgy from tears mixed with soot. Much of her mane had gone limp, either from depression or the awful atmosphere. “You can’t do that to the land… the land is a living thing. It has feelings… it sings to those who can hear it, like my sister Maud. She looks so happy when she can hear the earth singing to her. I’m not sure I’ve heard the earth singing quite like Maud does or felt particularly connected to the earth in general, but even I can feel this,” she blurted out, the floodgates opening, and tears spilling out from her eyes. 

Saying nothing, Applejack collected Pinkie Pie into her forelegs, hugging her tightly and trying to make the inconsolable dingy pink earth pony feel better. Pinkie Pie, glad for the hug, collapsed into Applejack and sobbed, hiccuping as she let it all out. 

“So what happens when the resources run out?” Twilight questioned out loud, already knowing the answer. “Nevermind. Don’t answer that. It was a rhetorical question… I don’t even want to know.” 

“So that enormous mountain of piled coal that I can see from here, I take it that it all used to be a hill somewhere over there on the horizon,” Bucky said in stunned disbelief. 

“Yes,” Tannis admitted in a voice filled with grief. 

Most of the companions watched as another airship hauling a vat of water maneuvered over a building nearby, making ready to deposit its precious payload into the enormous water tank on top of a sooty concrete building. This time, the building appeared to be a factory, not an apartment building. One of end of the building flowed a river of yellowish and slightly green sludge that ran down a canal and then into the river of brown sludge that eventually emptied into the ocean. Pinkie Pie, still sobbing, continued to cling to Applejack, both of them  feeling a pain that only earth ponies could feel. 

Deep within the ship, Lyra held Bon Bon, who was also overcome with a most peculiar feeling as they drifted slowly over the ruined earth that was the foundation of the city of Huginn. 

“I can’t take this anymore,” Twilight coughed. “I feel sick inside… I don’t know what is wrong, but I don’t feel right. I want to be away from here. I guess it is time to head back to Muninn, not that it is much better.” 

“Finally feeling your inner earth pony Twilight?” Pinkie Pie said as she sniffled, looking up at Twilight with her cheeks covered in a black pasty substance. “Make this go away Twilight… I can’t bear it anymore! Please!” she begged, giving her friend Twilight Sparkle a pleading stare. 

“I don’t know what to do Pinkie Pie.” 
	

	
	
> Chapter 299
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a round of showers aboard The Scorned Mare, the group returned to their quarters to settle in. They were subdued, silent, thoughtful, what they had seen had changed them all in some fashion, forever altering their world view. 

Bucky, somehow completely unaffected by the harsh toxic air, was filled with ideas, his sense of practical realism ignited. Public mass transit would revolutionise life in the cities and reduce the dependence on pony drawn wagons, cabs, and carriages, which tended to flood the streets with impossible traffic in the larger cities. Bucky saw a means to ease the heavy burdens off of the shoulders of earth ponies all over Equestria and make their lives a little better, their existence a little kinder, and already his mind, a perfect mind for plotting and planning, was hard at work trying to think of a way to do this as cleanly as possible. 

Much to her horror, Twilight saw a world where eventually industry outpaced or even replaced magic, a thought that frightened her a great deal, an outcome she was already subconsciously preparing to prevent. Magic was mostly clean, at least when used responsibly, did not devour whole forests, nor entire hills, or so pollute the ground beneath a city as to completely render the area unfit for life. Her own unicorn-centric view manifested, anything that couldn’t be dealt with by the judicious use of magic could be dealt with using muscle and effort, which was why there were earth ponies. 



 

The room was filled with the relentless clicking of knitting needles and ponies already soiled from soot even though they had showered not all that long ago. The group was subdued, quiet, thoughtful, with little being said at the moment. The only real conversation seemed to be between Lugus and Flash Sentry, who spoke in quiet tones about the burden of duty and a society that would never truly appreciate all that was being done for them by those who served. 

Pinkie Pie, completely unable to comfort herself, attempted to comfort Fluttershy, holding her and patting the yellow pegasus on the back when she coughed, which she did frequently. Fluttershy’s weak constitution and frail respiratory system was unable to deal with the harsh environment, and she sneezed, coughed, and wheezed, just as she did when it was springtime and the air was full of pollen. Her constant coughing made it difficult to knit. 

Feeling unusually reflective and quiet, Applejack thought about her experiences, the day as a whole, from their time on the beautiful unspoiled beach to the horrible hours spent drifting over Huginn. Her brows furrowed, the apple farmer thought about the loss of the land, how precious and finite the world was, and how things like coal, once gone, were probably gone forever, never to return. The earth only had so much to give and what was a pony or griffon supposed to do when everything was gone? The question haunted her, and Applejack felt her worldview shifting to something unknown, a feeling that she no longer understood the world as much as she thought. 

Her wings fluttering, Rainbow Dash tried to imagine a world without flight. To have wings but not the ability to use them. To be hauled around in a steam powered trolley, back and forth, huddled together while going to and fro. She felt itchy all over, and she found herself staring at both Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry, feeling an odd longing when she looked at either of them. 

“What happens when the coal runs out?” Spike asked, his question loud enough to jolt everypony and everybirdy from their stupour. He waved a clawed hand around in wild furtive gesture, looking upset and confused. “I have thoughts I don’t know how to put into words!” 

“Slow down Spike,” Sentinel said in a calm voice, looking over at his friend with concern, his knitting needles still clicking. “Try to form a question.” 

“When your life depends on burning coal to keep going, how do you live when the coal is gone?” Spike asked, flexing his clawed fingers nervously, his eyes wide with nervous energy. “I mean, the electric lights, the factories, everything the griffons currently have, it all depends on coal. What will they do when it is gone?” 

“Well,” Lugus began, clicking his beak together, his eyes closing in thoughtful concentration. “Most likely, being griffons, they will move on and take something elses’ coal to keep society going,” he continued, one talon tapping upon the floor, nervously drumming away with a “tap tap tap” sound. 

“And what then?” Spike questioned. “So they go to war with a neighbor? Take their coal? Their water?” 

“Yes Spike,” Lugus said patiently, looking at the little dragon who seemed to be having a severe crisis. 

“So this is like dragon greed,” Spike whimpered. “You grow larger and larger, and you keep taking and taking, but what happens when there is nothing left to give to the dragon?” 

“The dragon dies,” Lugus replied, causing several ponies in the room to gulp loudly, and Spike broke down completely, covering his his face with his hands after Lugus spoke. 

“I couldn’t stop,” Spike whimpered. “I needed more and more… I just wanted to keep taking and taking and now I feel so bad about it… if it wasn’t for Rarity stopping me I… I…” he stammered, his words fading into sobs. 

With a flash of glittery magic, Rarity lifted the dragon up, brought him to her, and hugged him close, trying to comfort the weeping baby dragon. She sat back on her haunches, took him into her forelegs, hugged him tightly, and kissed him softly upon the top of his head. 

“That certainly puts things into perspective,” Twilight murmured softly, looking at Spike and Rarity together. 

“Shush Spikey Wikey,” Rarity cooed, trying to calm the sobbing Spike, who was quite beside himself at the moment. 

“So what will happen when the griffons run out of coal? Or ponies for that matter?” Ripple questioned. “Equestria needs coal to run the trains. How do we know that we are any better than the griffons? What will we do to keep our way of life going when the coal runs out? We might  go about it in a nicer way, but the end result is the same. We will run out of coal and we will go looking for it in other parts of the world to maintain our way of life.” As the filly spoke, her wings moved on their own, the knitting needles producing a crooked yellow expanse of knitting that served no purpose but practice. 

“The Crystal Empire has vast deposits of coal in the northern reaches, under the tundra. It is part of the reason why Princess Celestia secured the throne of the empire for Cadance, annexing the empire and securing its resources for Equestria. There is also shale oil and natural gas in the many bogs in the north. The ponies of the Crystal Empire lived a thousand years ago… they aren’t even aware of the wealth all around them and don’t even know the fortune they have lost,” Flash Sentry said, his face contorting with guilt. “We took it from them before they even knew what it was they had.” 

“Flash Sentry… that’s awful and I wish I could say that it wasn’t true,” Twilight said in a raspy emotional voice. “I guess that is why Princess Celestia said that securing the North once the Crystal Empire reappeared was so important.” 

“I don’t understand… the Crystal Empire vanished, what about the land?” Sentinel asked, shaking his head with confusion. 

“The land itself was cursed. All of it. The crystal city vanished and the land all around became unreachable. Any pony trying to travel where the city was, or where the land was, would find themselves randomly teleported to some other location, and thousands of miles of land were unreachable… Sombra’s magic was powerful,” Twilight explained as best as she could, not in the mood for an in depth explanation.  

“A terrible fate for the Crystal Empire, but a beneficial act of serendipity for modern Equestria,” Bucky grumbled. “I mean, it certainly worked out in our favour having the land locked away and unreachable for a thousand years, only to have it reappear right when we need it the most. The coal mines of the Badlands went dead, the coal around Dodge City is now down deep and hard to reach, and I know for a fact that we import a lot of coal at great price from the southern kingdoms.” 

“Actually Buckminster, we’ve cut back on our imports since Princess Celestia’s hydroelectric initiative starting showing positive results. Ponyville Gorge dam now produces more power than Ponyville needs, now that it has been optimised. Before the collapse, there was talks about shutting down one of Baltimare’s coal power plants and using the extra electricity from Ponyville Gorge,” Twilight Sparkle corrected, rubbing the side of her face with her hoof. “Except now, most of Baltimare is still without power at all. It’s all so tragic.” 

“So we are moving away from coal powered technology?” Ripple inquired, looking curious, edging closer to Twilight Sparkle as she hoped for an answer, her needles still trying to stab something into existence from the yarn she worked. 

“Slowly. We were building more dams. Solar plants were being planned. I don’t know about the train situation. Still need coal to burn and boil water for the trains,” Twilight responded, her ears perked forward in concentration. 

“The Scorned Mare is a marvel of clean technology. Contained storm cells, solar, all very self sufficient,” Bucky said. “So we can do better if we work for it. Can’t imagine the cost though. I’d venture a guess that the cost is going to make it difficult for most to reach this level of self contained sufficiency.” 

“Something is wrong here,” Rainbow Dash interjected. 

“What makes you say that Dash?” Twilight asked. 

“Cloudsdale’s weather factories take enormous amounts of electricity to operate. We use super compressed storm cells to generate electricity. Why aren’t the griffons doing the same?” Rainbow Dash said in a raspy voice, waving her hoof around wildly. 

“Rainbow Dash, airships and Cloudsdale share something in common,” Twilight replied in a soft voice. 

“Whassat?” Rainbow Dash questioned, looking frustrated. 

“Unicorn magic. By themselves, the griffons do not have the arcano-tech to manufacture the containment vessels for the clouds,” Bucky stated, answering for Twilight. “We only have what we have as a society because the tribes cooperate and share with one another.” 

Spike, now quiet, continued to cling to Rarity, his arms around her neck, his head upon her shoulder. She stroked him softly, still trying to soothe him, and she occasionally whispered soft words into his ear frills. 

“So how is Griffonholm producing these airships?” Rainbow Dash asked, her brows raising in concern. “I mean, if you need unicorn magic to make certain things work… I don’t understand… something seems off here,” she stammered, her magenta eyes widening with growing alarm and concern. 

“Either they have lighter than air gases filling the gasbag or they have unicorns helping them,” Bucky answered. “And I’ve already thought about unicorns helping them. It is possible, however unlikely. There have been unicorns who have helped them in the past.” 

“Did anybody bother to cast detection spells on the airships today while we were out?” a very sheepish Twilight asked, her words wavering with worry as she spoke, her head slumping down and her ears drooping from the crushing feeling of having done something both foalish and foolish. 

“No,” Bucky admitted. “Which was stupid of me,” he grumbled as he scratched the withered side of his face that was partially covered now by a silver streaked sideburn. 

“Stupid of us,” Twilight corrected. “I could have done it and failed to do so.” 

“If they are using lighter than air gases, the airships would be highly explosive, and thus, a weakness in war. I doubt that the griffons would present such a weakness right now, with so many enemies,” Lugus said, offering his opinion, his crest rising as he became thoughtful. “I wish Yew was here to adjust my spine.” 

“Back bothering you?” Bucky asked. 

“Room is too small. I spend too much time hunched over or bent in half,” Lugus replied, flexing his wings slightly. 

“If all of the griffons are now equals like Tannis claims, and I’m not doubting Tannis, but I’m doubting that Fleshrender horseapple head… how is a big warrior griffon like Lugus able to fit on one of those little trains with all of the other griffons? I didn’t see any big griffons flying around anywhere today, and I know that no big griffon like Lugus is riding inside of one of those tiny little toy trains. I might be a hick but I ain’t dumb,” Applejack said, reaching up and tipping her hat back from her eyes and looking around the room. 

“Applejack, you bring up a very good observation,” Twilight admitted. 

“Most of the warrior caste griffons would never allow themselves to be lumped in with the commoners. Griffons of my size are practically royalty unto ourselves. We get what we want because we are large enough, powerful enough, and dangerous enough to take it. Might makes right,” Lugus said, explaining his own position in griffon society. “Not that I ever did anything like that… I am disgusted by those that do.” 

“Nopony doubts you Lugus, there is no need to protect your reputation my friend,” Bucky said, reassuring Lugus’ worries and doubts with soft gentle words. 

“Lugus is a nice griffon. I like Lugus. I didn’t like Gilda,” Pinkie Pie said, finally breaking her silence. “Gilda was a jerk. She was mean to Fluttershy. She was a lousy friend to Rainbow Dash. I wish all griffons were as nice as Lugus, Tannis, or Agnetha… my Pinkie Sense tells me they are good friends just waiting to be befriended.” 

Feeling an icy stabbing sensation in his spine, Bucky suddenly wondered if Fleshrender and Tanner were both avoiding the diplomatic negotiations because of Pinkie Pie’s well known Pinkie Sense. The books about Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends were many, and stories about Pinkie Pie and her Pinkie Sense were many and well detailed. He felt a twitchy burning sense of nausea taking him over and he suddenly felt quite ill. 

“Buckminster, you don’t look well,” Twilight said, looking at Bucky. 

“I hate the name ‘Buckminster’ and I wish nopony would use it!” Bucky snapped. 

“I’m sorry,” Twilight offered, feeling concerned, noting that Bucky had avoided saying anything about how he was feeling with his reply. 

“Bucky… -cough- you don’t look well. Did the air -cough- get to you?” Fluttershy inquired in a soft gentle raspy whisper that somehow silenced everything else in the room. 

“No,” Bucky answered. “I have a lot on my mind. I don’t feel well, that’s all,” he explained, not telling the truth but not lying either. “I didn’t get any sleep last night. I’m tired. I think I am going to go to bed and get some shuteye.” 



 

Laying on the chaise lounge, Bucky tried to tune out the soft sounds of the room. He hadn’t eaten dinner, Twilight had not gone to fetch it yet, and truth be told, he didn’t feel like dinner. Each muscle in his body twitched, every nerve was on fire, and he couldn’t help but feel as though something was wrong. 

He silently told himself that he might just be overreacting or over thinking… Tanner did have heavy metal poisoning and headaches seemed like a reasonable problem, but he couldn’t get the notion that they were being avoided because of Pinkie Pie out of his mind. He felt one hind leg kick and the blanket over him felt too heavy. 

His thoughts drifted to Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks, and he started to wonder what they would do in this situation. He had done everything that Witching Hour had told him to do. He checked his food for poison, even the food on board the ship, if by some odd chance an infiltrator had somehow made it onboard. He was cautious. He was paranoid. He was careful. The room was warded with alarms and the door was being locked at night. There were no windows, and the door was the only way into the room, making this a fairly secure place. Lugus, Flash Sentry and Ripple all made for formidable guards and one of them was awake and on watch at night. 

Even with every bit of precaution, something felt wrong. He took a deep breath, and began the ritual he did now every night before going to sleep, running a checklist of paranoia, an activity that had become habit. Every night before going to bed, he cast a few simple wards on himself and a purpose driven aversion spell that made him difficult to see for anything hostile towards him. He had been practicing this little ritual for a couple of weeks now, and it actually allowed him to relax and wind down before going to bed. He wished for Lyra and Bon Bon to be in the bed with him, but there was nopony. 

His horn flashed several times, his magic flaring, and the pre-sleep ritual made him feel just a tiny bit sleepy. He missed his wives at home. He missed his foals. He missed Barley. He even found himself missing Bittersweet oddly enough, and he knew that Ripple was missing her as well. 

His last thought was of Harper and her fluffy poofy orange mane that stuck out in all possible directions, a static-filled mass of curls that had all of the electric intensity of an angry thunderhead. 
	
> Chapter 300
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“THE PURPLE ONE IS SUBDUED!” 

“I CAN’T FIND THE UGLY BLACK HORNED ONE!” 

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU GOLDURN POLECAT BASTARDS! DIE!” 

“Twilight -gurgle- nooo!” 

Bucky awoke to the sounds of screaming, his eye flying open as he tried to take in what was going on around him. The air was filled with some kind of irritating dust, it burned his lungs slightly and made his eye water, but it was not incapacitating. He rose from the chaise lounge and everything around him moved in slow motion as adrenaline flooded his body. So much was going on all at once. 

Applejack was on her hind hooves, her front hooves raised in a boxer’s defensive stance, and Rarity was behind her in the bunk bed, her horn glowing. There was a griffon beak down in a pool of blood at Applejack’s hooves, and she was busy punching the second one to death, his beak already cracked. 

A griffon had pulled Pinkie Pie out of bed and she was currently mid swing, the griffon had her by one hind leg and was about to smash her head first into the wall. Pinkie Pie was screaming, a high pitched squealing scream of pure terror, and it was this sound that had pulled Bucky from his slumber. 

On the floor, Fluttershy was limp and unmoving, held beneath a griffon who was wasting no time, he had her pinned down and his spiky member was hard and ready for the fun to come. A vacant expression was on Fluttershy’s face, and at this point, she was little more than a warm body. 

Twilight was limp, unmoving, in her bed, Flash Sentry was pinned down on top of her, and a griffon had his talons around Flash Sentry’s throat. On the floor by the bed, Rainbow Dash lay writhing in a rapidly growing puddle of blood. 

Lugus was engaged, trying to fight enemies in a room too small for him to fight effectively in, his axe still upon his back. The bookcase in the back of the room was open, revealing a passage behind it. Ripple was at Lugus’ side, her eyes clenched shut, her forelegs raised in a defensive boxer’s stance, she was bloodied but still fighting, and somehow, Bucky realised that Ripple had been blinded by whatever was in the air. 

There was a red brown blur and a roar as Sentinel launched himself at the griffon attacking Flash Sentry, and it was in this chaos that Bucky found himself trying to take in, with everything happening all at once. 

“NO!” Bucky cried, his magic flaring. 

Inches from the wall, Pinkie Pie’s movement was arrested, she was suddenly wrapped in a blue-green glow of magic. Her attacker vanished, and reappeared a moment later, half in and half out of the wall that he had just been teleported inside of. Fluttershy’s attacker also vanished, suffering the same fate. Pinkie Pie was dropped to the upper bunk of a bed, gently, and she lay there limply where she had been placed. 

Applejack uppercutted the griffon she was fighting, whipping his head backwards, causing his neck to snap, and as his limp body hit the ground, Applejack moved towards Fluttershy, her teeth bared, her eyes bloodshot and filled with a terrible fury. 

Sentinel collided with the griffon attacking Flash Sentry, and there was the horrible sounds of shattering bones. Biting down on the griffon’s foreleg, Sentinel bore the much larger griffon to the floor, stomped down upon upon the griffon’s chest, and with a jerk of his head, Sentinel ripped the griffon’s foreleg free from its shoulder, causing blood to go spurting and spraying all around the room. Not done, Sentinel spat out the leg and with one terrible savage bite, seized upon the griffon’s throat, tearing it out with one violent upwards tug. He was so busy that he did not see the griffon coming up behind him. 

“No!” Spike cried, inhaling sharply as the griffon approached Sentinel from behind. The little dragon released a terrible gout of flame, incinerating the griffon and filling the room with the smell of burning hair and feathers. 

Not sure what to do, Bucky held back his magic, knowing that if he unloaded with everything he had, he would kill friend and foe alike. Focusing his efforts, he went to work on Lugus’ attackers, he pulled Ripple back away from the danger, and in a few moments, the last of the griffon attackers were felled, telekinetic bolts of energy having neatly bored holes through their skulls. 

Bucky was on his hooves in a moment, heading towards Twilight’s side, wondering what was wrong with her. Others were coming around as well, and as he drew near, he saw her on the bed, panting heavily, her horn and part of her face covered in a black waxy substance. Flash Sentry was clutching his throat, his eyes bloodshot, he gasped and croaked, still trying to draw in air. 

“Don’t touch it Bucky!” Lugus shouted, wiping at his eyes with his wings, tears streaming down into his feathers. “Don’t touch the black stuff!” 

Unable to help Twilight, Bucky lifted Rainbow Dash up off the floor, trying to figure out where the blood was coming from. He found the cause right away, a long gash stretched from ear to eye, with the torn flesh ending right at the eyelid. Just a tiny bit more and Rainbow Dash would have lost an eye to whatever had slashed her face open. She was limp but trying to talk, her eyes unfocused. 

“Fluttershy!” Rarity cried, trying to rouse her dear friend. 

There was no response. Applejack and Rarity both tried to get Fluttershy to respond, to no avail. The yellow pegasus remained limp, her eyes vacant, locked away in a catatonic state. Rarity lifted her in a telekinetic field and set her down upon a bed. 

“I killed something… oh no I killed something… I KILLED SOMETHING WITH MY TEETH… I KILLED SOMETHING THAT TALKS WITH MY TEETH AND THISTLE IS GOING TO KILL ME!” 

“Sentinel, enough,” Bucky barked. “Go look after Ripple, she’s blind.” 

“Yes… fa… fath… yes sir,” Sentinel stammered in a weak voice, obeying his father’s command, Spike moving off with him at his side. 

Lugus was busy trying to remove the goop from Twilight, who was screaming now, her shrill cries of pain filling the room with a dreadful sound. Lugus worked with the blanket, trying to wipe away the black tarry waxy substance, revealing burned and blistered flesh beneath it. 

“Magic poison,” Lugus explained, his eyes blinking rapidly and watering. “Works well on unicorns, stops their magic for a while while it remains on their horn. Burns anything with magic. Whatever you do, do not try washing this away with water, it will just spread it over the skin even more.” 

“Applejack, get over here! Apply pressure on Rainbow Dash’s head! Try to stop this bleeding, I am going to secure that open passage!” Bucky commanded, stepping away from the bed where Twilight, Flash Sentry, and Rainbow Dash were all laid out together. 

Moving towards the hidden passage behind the bookshelf, Bucky tried to control his growing rage. The passage was dark, narrow, and impossible to see down. Just a few feet down the hallway, Bucky saw something that made his heart almost stop. 

There was a unicorn, or what was left of her. She had no legs, no ears, no tail, her body only existed as life support for her horn. She had no eyes, and she lay there on the ground, wheezing faintly. Her whole body was covered in scars and it was clear she had been recently tortured, probably to make her perform whatever spells had been recently used. 

Gently, Bucky lifted her in his magic, his rage now seething, a horrible darkness growing within him like a cancerous nightmare. He brought her into the room and laid her down on the chaise lounge where he had been sleeping. 

Upon seeing the mutilated unicorn, Pinkie Pie began screaming, kicking and flailing around in the bed, screaming herself hoarse in terror. After several screams, she fell silent, her face covered with her front hooves, her eyes closed tightly. 

“Ripple, you okay?” Bucky asked, trying to gain some kind of control over the situation all around him. 

“I’m good… I got the dust bag right in the face… I’m alright though… Sentinel, pour some water over my face,” Ripple said in a gritty voice full of pain. 

Bucky turned his attention back to the passage behind him, and using his magic, he sealed it off with ice, a massive plug of ice that filled the passageway and made it impassible for the time being. He turned his attention back to Twilight, feeling a great deal of worry. 

“It burns so much! IT BURNS!” 

“I know,” Lugus said soothingly, wiping more of the greasy substance away from Twilight’s now blistered skin and her horn. Sparks were coming off of her horn now, enough of the goop had been wiped away to allow some of her magic to return. “Hold still Twilight, you don’t want this in your eye,” Lugus warned. 

“Lugus, it hurts,” Twilight whimpered, unable to stop squirming. “I’ve never been in this much pain in my whole life!” 

“I know… I’m sorry, I’m doing all I can,” Lugus replied in a strained voice that was full of pain. His own eyes were bloodshot and watering from the dust attack. 

“I can’t get the bleeding to stop,” Applejack grunted, pressing down on Rainbow Dash’s forehead. “The blood just keeps coming no matter what I do.” 

“Twi… I feel woozy Twi,” Rainbow Dash moaned in a muffled voice from under the blanket pressed to her head. “Speak to me Twi… I’m cold and I don’t feel right.” 

“You hush with that kind of talk Rainbow!” Applejack shouted angrily, applying more pressure on the blanket she had against the blue pegasus’ forehead. 

Bucky began piling the bodies of the griffons in the hallway behind the bookcase, except for the ones merged with the walls. He left those on display for whomever might come into this room later. He wanted them to be seen. They were his warning. 

With a loud cry, Twilight teleported out of bed, leaving behind the rest of the goop on the bed behind her, and she reappeared in the middle of the room looking furious. She saw the mutilated unicorn and her eyes blazed with incensed anger. An odd choking sound gurgled in her throat, and she turned away, unable to look at the legless unicorn any longer. She stomped over to the bed and leaned over Flash Sentry, trying to make sure he was okay. 

Everything was still in chaos. 

Unable to speak, Flash Sentry could only croak and make weak noises of pain. His eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were purple. Blood vessels in his ears had popped, turning the thin skin of his ears purple as well. He was still struggling to  draw breath. 

Shaking her head, she leaned over Rainbow Dash next, trying to see if her friend was okay. Rainbow Dash’s eyes were still unfocused and Twilight stood there helplessly, not knowing what to do. 

“Rainbow is going to need to be cauterised. She is bleeding out,” Bucky said, trying to assert some control over the situation. “We need to move quickly, stop her bleeding, and then flee this place.” 

“We have to burn her?” Twilight said, her eyes going wide with shock and fear. 

“I’ll take care of it. You’ll need to hold her down,” Bucky said as he moved near the bed, his head low, his mouth set in a terrible scowl. 

“No… Bucky no… I… I should do it!” Twilight stammered. “I’m her friend. I’ll do it.” 

“Fine, you do it,” Bucky grunted. “Fine thin beam of heat. Pinch the flaps of skin together in your telekinesis and then just burn them together. Otherwise, she will die from blood loss.” 

“Ugh, no,” Twilight moaned in protest. “NO!” 

The alicorn shoved Applejack aside and pulled away the blanket. There was a growing puddle of blood in the bed under Rainbow Dash’s head, and her mane was matted with crusted blood. The pegasus flailed feebly. 

“Fluttershy won’t talk,” Pinkie Pie said in a sad voice, clinging to Fluttershy, working with Rarity to try and revive her friend, to rouse her from her catatonic state. 

“Father, Ripple is still blind,” Sentinel reported. 

There was a faint gasp and groan from the eyeless, legless unicorn, and then she made no further sounds. Bucky shut his eye and began cursing under his breath, uncertain of his breaking point, and knowing he was nearing it rapidly. 

“She’s dead,” Spike said, prodding the remains of the unicorn on the chaise lounge. “This is awful, I want to go home!” 

“Twi, I feel so cold Twi!” 

“Hold on Rainbow… I’m sorry… Rainbow I am so sorry… Applejack, hold her down, hug her or something, and I will keep her head still with my magic,” Twilight said as her horn flared, shedding a few sparks. 

Lugus was trying to help Flash Sentry, he had pulled him from the bed and placed him upon another, and the two soldiers shared each other’s miseries silently. Lugus gave Flash Sentry a little water to soothe his tortured throat, and the orange pegasus coughed and sputtered as he tried to swallow. 

“No… Twi… no… don’t burn me Twi… no… no fire… I’m scared of fire… no… NO!” 

There was a hissing sound and the room filled with the scent of burning hair and flesh. A moment later, Rainbow Dash screamed raggedly, her hind hooves kicking feebly under Applejack’s body, which was pressing down on top of her. 

“No… it burns, it’s hot… Twi please stop! Twi why you gotta burn me Twi!” 

Bucky’s world suddenly turned yellow in the middle of one of Rainbow Dash’s screams. He felt a crushing pressure on his neck, and he was suddenly unable to breathe. He saw stars in his vision, and he could hear the sounds of his own heart echoing inside of his ears. He struggled to breathe, and heard Rarity shouting. 

Fluttershy had woken up, terrified, and now clung to Bucky for comfort, slowly crushing him to death in her mindless panic. He struggled and kicked in her embrace, desperately needing oxygen. He could feel his heart thudding and there were more screams from Rainbow Dash, who cried about being on fire. Pinkie Pie began screaming and was trying to pull Fluttershy off of Bucky. 

Stars filled Bucky’s vision and his vision grew dim. Sounds began to echo, and the world became a series of jumbled confused images and noises. As near as he was to death, he refused to fight back, unwilling to bring harm to Fluttershy. He could feel his jaw being crushed in her grasp. 

“SLEEP!” 

The terrible crushing embrace ended at the sounds of Rarity’s voice, and Bucky drew in one terrible pained gasp, trying to fill his lungs as Fluttershy fell away from him, her body falling limp to the floor. He collapsed on top of her, unable to stand, wheezing painfully, trying to get precious air back into his body. 

“Bucky, you speak to me this instant! Give me some sign you are okay!” Rarity demanded, lifting Bucky’s head with her forelegs and shaking him gently. 

Unable to speak, Bucky nodded weakly as he looked Rarity in the eye. 

“I’ve never used a sleep spell before… I saw it in the primer you gave me… I can’t believe it worked so well,” Rarity breathed in panic, her words coming out as she panted. 

“I’ve stopped the bleeding!” Twilight shouted. 

“What do we do now?” Pinkie Pie said in weak frightened voice. 

“We get organised and we go make sure our friends are okay,” Twilight responded. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 301
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Fluttershy didn’t mean to hurt you,” Pinkie Pie said in a soft subdued voice. “She was scared. She went to you because she trusts you… you’re an animal she can trust.” 

The words that Pinkie Pie spoke were direct, honest, true, and not intended to hurt or cause ill will, just a simple statement of Fluttershy’s point of view. Nodding, still trying to breathe, Bucky silently agreed, finding no fault in Pinkie Pie’s reasoning. He was an animal, a terrible beast and he knew it. 

Bucky felt himself being lifted to his hooves by Rarity’s magic and he drew in a painful breath, the stars slowly clearing from his vision. He heard, but he could not see Twilight Sparkle’s soft concerned murmurings to both Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry. 

“This is my fault,” Bucky rasped in a scratchy voice.

“How is this your fault?” Rarity questioned in reply, her own breathing still deep and panicked from the events that had just taken place. 

“I failed to find the secret passage. My wards were easily broken. My ability for defensive magic is lacking… and it placed all of you at risk. I am a fail-” 

Something clamped around Bucky’s muzzle, cutting him off. He felt Rarity’s magic tighten around his snoot, a painful feeling of pressure that made the stars in his vision return, his vision now even worse. He jerked his head around reflexively, trying to be rid of the unseen cause of pain. 

“That is enough of that,” Rarity said angrily. “Right now we do not have the luxury of self doubt, self pity, or self debasement… we are depending on you to get us to safety and rescue our friends… Tannis and Agnetha are out there somewhere and I for one am worried about them. Now if you will be a good and gentlepony, SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND DO WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO BEST!” The mare paused, a pouty moue appearing on her face, and she looked Bucky in his remaining eye. “We await your commands good sir.” 

Bucky felt the force upon his muzzle let go; he opened his mouth and flexed his still aching jaw, glaring at Rarity with an expression of hurt and anger. He swallowed an angry retort filled with bitter words and instead went to his trunk. With a flick of his magic, he flipped it over onto the lid, bent his head down, touched the bottom of the trunk with his horn, and with a hiss, it opened, revealing a false bottom. 

Dull black armor awaited inside the seemingly cavernous expanse, the inside impossibly large compared to the outside. Bucky began lifting out pieces one at a time and placing them on the floor around him, preparing them for wear. He checked everything. As he made preparations, Ripple, still blind, slipped on her war shoes with Sentinel’s help, and Spike stayed near the pair, his expression showing clear fright. 

“My magic isn’t working right,” Twilight muttered. “I can do simple things, but I have been trying to teleport Rainbow Dash, Flash Sentry, and Fluttershy aboard The Scorned Mare,” Twilight reported, her voice quavering with fear.

“I am amazed you can do magic at all after your exposure to the magic poison,” Lugus said in reply, lifting Flash Sentry up on his hooves and steadying him. 

“There’s no windows… just stone… too much… and everything still hurts,” Twilight whimpered, shaking her head. “How are we going to get out of here? What if Tannis and Agnetha are dead? Or was it just us?” 

“I want us ready to go in just a few moments. Lugus, friend, I know you are unwell yourself, but I need for you to carry our wounded. You’re big and broad backed. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will both fit on your back just fine,” Bucky commanded. As he spoke, Flash Sentry toppled down to the floor, nearly hitting the ground, and would have if Lugus had not caught him. 

“I’ll carry Flash,” Twilight said. 

A low gurgle came from Flash, but no words. The pegasus stallion shook his head vehemently in protest, causing Twilight to glare at him furiously. 

“What, because I am a princess, I can’t carry or rescue my own guard?” Twilight questioned angrily, her horn sparking wildly as she spoke, her eyes blazing with terrible fury from everything that had happened. “You threw yourself on top of me trying to protect me you stupid lovesick fool! What were you thinking!” 

Unable to reply, Flash Sentry make a croaking gurgle and looked pleadingly at Twilight with red bloodshot eyes as Lugus held him up. 

Several racks of glowing orbs were lifted out of the trunk and Bucky smiled a grim smile of satisfaction. He lifted the lid, revealing a layer of glass spell jars, all filled with a dreadful unmistakable purple aura. Throwing open the lid on the second rack, a layer of glass orbs filled with a pulsating black aura were revealed. Bucky chuckled to himself, an odd sound, something he could not repress. 

“Are those?” Twilight gasped, looking at the glass orbs and suddenly knowing what they were, the horrible knowledge filling her brain. “Those are… those are… wait, what are the black ones?”

“The black ones are a dark magic variant of mine… I call it ‘hate it kill it’ and I suspect it will be quite effective. Ladies, I want you to take a few of these,” Bucky replied, offering some instructions as he did so. 

“What?” Rarity breathed, her word almost inaudible. She watched Bucky lift a glowing purple orb, and she knew from reading the newspaper exactly what they were. “Are they fragile?” she asked. 

Dropping the orb on the floor caused a few panicked screams. It bounced a few times, making clinking sounds as it did so, and then Bucky lifted it once again, holding it aloft in his magic for all to see. 

“Purpose driven magic,” Bucky explained. “These will not break unless you will them to break. If you throw them at an enemy, they will know. They will break and release the spell within. I want you to take a few of these, they will be useful in keeping you safe if we are ambushed again. The spells inside will not hurt or affect ponies or Lugus or anything friendly towards us.” 

“I think I’d rather have a few of the black ones,” Rarity said in a hesitant voice. 

“Rarity!” Twilight snapped. 

“What? The purple ones… that particular shade doesn’t match with my mane. And black is always fashionable,” Rarity retorted. “All I have to do is toss these with my magic?” 

“Yes,” Bucky replied, looking at Rarity as she lifted three glowing black orbs and held them in her telekinesis. Nodding in approval, Bucky waited for others to take a few. 

“I agree with Rarity,” Applejack said, grabbing a few black orbs and stuffing them under her hat. “Black is fashionable and proper for a funeral.” 

“Ripple, can you see anything yet?” Bucky asked, worried about his beloved little girl and her magenta eyes. 

“I can see a little, light and dark mostly,” Ripple reported in reply, still wiping her eyes. She had Spike on her back, and his forelegs were wrapped around her neck. “Spike is going to be my eyes. Good thing I’m a precog. I fly through the storm, not above or below it.” 

“That’s my girl,” Bucky praised as he lifted his helmet. He took a deep breath. The armor always changed him. He wondered briefly if his armor was like a substitute for wings, an outward manifestation of the inner alicorn of war. When the helmet struck his horn, it slid into place and other armor pieces flew to his body, finding their place. 

The armor had changed slightly. Gone was the large keg that held whiskey, replaced with heavy armored saddlebags that would hold concentrated calorie dense protein packs and his collection of glass orbs. He began loading his saddlebags, teleporting things inside of them, as there was no openings. He felt himself suspended, held inside of a gentle magical field, and various magical systems hummed as they came online. 

There had been a few upgrades. Looking around, the glass visor covering his eye told him the pulse and respiratory rates of his companions as he looked at them, flashing a red indicator of alarm at those too weak protect themselves. Fluttershy triggered this, as did Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. Much to his surprise, the red blip flashed when he looked at Pinkie Pie. 

“Keep an eye on Pinkie Pie,” Bucky announced in a mechanical growl. “She isn’t well and she will need to be looked after.” 

“I’m okay… I think,” Pinkie Pie said in weak voice. “Just scared.” 

Bucky kicked the lid of his trunk shut and then flipped it over. Touching it with his horn again, it began to glow with an odd light. “Emergency protocol failstate. Return to roost,” Bucky commanded. 

A set of eight spindly legs sprouted out of the trunk and it rose, shaking itself off, and then stood in place waiting. 

“Be ready… I am opening the door. Is everypony and everybirdy ready to go?” Bucky asked, looking around the room. 

“How will your trunk get back to The Scorned Mare?” Twilight inquired. 

“It will walk to a location where it can teleport and return. The battery will be dead most likely at that point,” Bucky replied, offering brief explanation as his companions made ready. “I hope the rest of us are okay,” he said in a low worried voice, revealing his concern. 

Prepared for the worst, Bucky opened the door. 



 

The hall was empty, but Bucky heard the sounds of fighting in the distance. He turned his head from side to side, checking for everything, ready to kill anything that moved. He stepped out of the door, his armor moving at a slow mechanical gait, his tail swinging from side to side as he walked. Directly behind him was Applejack, then Ripple, Sentinel, and Spike, and the behind them was Rarity. Lugus followed her with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash on his back, his eyes still streaming tears from the dust attack. Behind him was Twilight, bringing up the rear, with Flash Sentry thrown over her back like a sack of potatoes and Pinkie Pie at her side. 

The trunk scurried off in the direction opposite of where they were going. 

“Is it an invasion?” Applejack asked, hearing the distant shouts and screams. 

“Seems that way,” Bucky replied in cold mechanical voice as he took off down the hallway, heading for Tannis’ quarters and hoping his griffon friend was okay. 

“Applejack, you’re limping!” Rarity exclaimed. 

“I’m fine,” Applejack retorted testily. 

“No you are not… you're limping and leaving blood when you walk!” Rarity cried out in alarm, pointing down at the ground. 

“I sliced open my frog on that last griffon’s beak, it is worse than it looks,” Applejack muttered. 

“Applejack, this floor is FILTHY! The infection you might get could make you lose your leg!” Rarity said, lifting Applejack up off the ground. 

“No Rares! Dangit, put me down!” Applejack protested as Rarity set Applejack upon her back. “I can walk!” 

“Applejack, stay put,” Bucky commanded. “Don’t make me subdue you.” 

“Fine!” Applejack spat, sitting astride Rarity. 

“Where did you learn how to fight like that Applejack?” Rarity said in a low voice as they walked down the hall. 

“Delivering pies,” Applejack said, lifting off her hat and fetching a glass orb filled with black horror and holding it ready in her uninjured front hoof. “I hope we meet more griffons. I gots me something for them. I’m gonna be just like Rarity here and I’m gonna be the goldurn spirit of generousity.” 

“Hush up, not so much noise,” Lugus gently suggested as the made their way down the hall. “Now is not the time for idle chatter.” 

“Lugus is right,” Twilight said from the rear of the group, nervously looking back over her shoulder as they made their way down the dimly lit hallway. 

“Wait here… Twilight, shields up… I am moving ahead. There is fighting around the corner,” Bucky announced as he stomped off. 

The group huddled together pressed tightly against one another, and a dark pink bubble appeared around them. They watched Bucky go, and then he vanished around the corner. 

Shouting could be heard, squawks of surprise, and then the unmistakable sounds of violence reached the companions, causing all but Lugus to cringe. 

“DIE!” 

There was the dreadful sounds of shattering glass, followed by raucous laughter that filled the hallway, echoing up and down the passage, laughter that sounded more and more like a cackle as it continued. 

Pinkie Pie, unable to bear it any longer, fell to the floor and curled up in a fetal position. “No!” she cried. “Laughter is something you do to make others feel good or protect yourself from fear… you don’t laugh while killing… no no no… NO!” she pleaded, her final word a shriek. As she whimpered and cried, her curls melted away, her hair going straight. Her eyes went blank and vacant, and then her soft cries ended. 

“Pinkie Pie? Say something Pinkie!” Twilight shouted in fear as the violence around the corner went into full swing and Bucky’s horrible maniacal laughter echoed in her ears. 

“I never want to laugh again,” Pinkie Pie moaned in a heartbroken voice and then went silent. 

Twilight prodded Pinkie Pie and got no response. Gritting her teeth, Twilight screamed through clenched jaws, feeling powerless to anything. First Fluttershy going catatonic, then nearly killing Buckminster, and now Pinkie Pie, who had completely checked out. She prodded Pinkie again, shaking her, trying to rouse her friend. Pinkie Pie’s eyes were open, but the light was gone, and she looked a bit like she did when Discord had cast his spell upon her. Her curls were gone, limp, and her bright pink pelt now seemed strangely grey, as though the happiness, light, and life had been sucked out of her. Twilight couldn’t tell if it was the soot or some strange magic at work. 

She lifted Pinkie Pie in her magic, holding her aloft, and Twilight wondered if any of her friends would ever be the same after this. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 302
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“That unicorn… the one with no legs, do you think she might have been one of the nobles that was sent to the Hinterlands?” Applejack asked in a low whisper as the group continued down the hall, trying to ignore the bloody mess that Bucky had left. 

“I don’t know Applejack, I hope not. As bad as they were, I don’t think anypony deserved that,” Twilight replied. 

“It was nice of Bucky to remove the bodies and stuff them in that empty room,” Rarity said as she stepped over a puddle of blood, trying to keep her soiled hooves from becoming bloodied soiled hooves. 

“Why do you think she cooperated with them?” Spike asked, unable to hold in his question, his voice screechy with fear. 

“Because Spike… I’m certain that at some point, she just wanted to make the pain stop,” Twilight said in a strangled reply, her voice cracking at several points. Twilight suffered through a nightmarish thought of being forced to watch as another creature devoured your own leg, and other even more horrible images began to flood into her mind. 

“We just left her there,” Spike murmured. 

“We have enough to worry about as it is Spike… as awful as it seems, we need to try and get out of here alive. She was dead, Spike. We have enough to carry as it is,” Twilight said, trying to comfort Spike. 

“We should be silent,” Lugus insisted, his beak clicking nervously, his claws tapping as he walked along the stone floor. The griffon sneezed as silently as possible, and a large number of feathers fell from his face, causing him to make a noise of avian irritation. 

“Why are Sentinel and Bucky completely unaffected by the dust bomb?” Spike asked in a very low voice, his nervousness compelling him to speak, to say something, and he was filled with the desire to hear the voices of those he loved and trusted. 

“Lunar pegasi are immune to most poisons and Buckminster… Bucky… Bucky is Bucky… I saw his eye watering. It bothered him, just not as much as it did us,” Twilight patiently explained in a low whisper as she carried Flash Sentry on her back and Pinkie Pie in her telekinesis field. 

Falling silent, Spike leaned forward and rested the side of his face against the back of Ripple’s head, burying his face into her pale blue mane. 

Several griffons came into the hallway ahead, moving through an intersection, and they froze when they saw Bucky, making no sudden or hostile movements. They were clearly terrified, and all of them assumed a submissive posture that was remarkably similar to pegasi. 

“We mean no harm,” one griffon said in a low frightened voice. “We were fleeing… Prince Tannis told us to go find safety when all of this started… there were so many soldiers from Huginn… we don’t want any violence,” he hesitantly explained in a halting voice that hitched from nervousness. 

“Fall in line with us, we will keep you safe,” Bucky said, his horn glowing a bright blue-green. A faint soft outline of magic appeared around the griffons. “If you betray us, you will die the moment you think a hostile thought.”

Twilight Sparkle, feeling confused, could not think of any harmony magic that would do what Bucky was claiming, and then she came to the slow realisation that it was a clever ruse. The griffons were probably harmless, and Bucky simply wasn’t taking chances. 

She was forced to wonder if Bucky was really the monster that some thought him to be, and Twilight Sparkle could not longer tell where she stood on the issue. 

“Thank you… thank you, you are very kind,” another griffon said, cautiously approaching Bucky with his head held low. 

These were small griffons, even smaller than ponies in general, these weren’t eagles mixed with lions, these were more like sparrows mixed with cats. Twilight Sparkle pitied them, being forced to live among their larger brethren that only respected size and strength. She watched the one approaching Bucky, crawling along the ground, so obviously pleased that it was being allowed to live unmolested that it nearly broke her heart, even under the trying conditions of everything else that had taken place. She watched as it nervously touched the leg of Bucky’s armor in grateful appreciation, squawked, and then scrambled away to safety. 



 

“Stay here,” Bucky commanded, moving ahead by himself as they neared the prince’s quarters. “WATCH YOUR BACKS!” he shouted, his voice a mechanical bellow. 

Ahead, after Bucky vanished through a doorway, the companions heard screaming. Terrible screaming and the terrible cacophony of violence taking place. Wet splattering sounds, the sounds of bones snapping, the sound of bodies being crushed. Twilight realised that Bucky was killing them using brute force and not magic. She cringed, feeling nauseous, and nearly threw up when there was a particularly awful sound of some vast quantity of something moist and wet being spilled out all over the stone tiles, it sounded like the night her mother, Twilight Velvet, had sneezed and dropped a casserole all over the floor. 

“Sounds like a slobberknocker,” Applejack mused, seemingly unaffected by the sounds of violence coming out of the door. “Ooh, I bet that smarts,” she quipped when there was a loud series of whimpers followed by a shrill scream, and then there was only the sounds of Bucky’s spine tingling mechanical laughter, which made Applejack smile smugly. “Them there sons of bitches done learned themselves a little something I’d say. Whatta shame. I hope Bucky made it hurt.” 

Twilight felt shocked by Applejack’s seeming cruelty, she felt something inside go numb, her brain not wanting to accept the reality of the world around her. She felt Flash Sentry shift on her back, and his laboured breathing frightened her a great deal. 

A small part of Twilight regretted having Flash Sentry on her back during such awful circumstances, and a tiny flame of hope flickered to life that better circumstances for having Flash Sentry on her back would come soon. If she survived this, Twilight Sparkle fully intended to make up for lost time and try living a little. 

“I’m so cold,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, laying limp over Lugus’ back. “Don’t let them hurt me Lugus,” she begged, her legs feebly clutching at Lugus’ body. “I could feel that griffon’s talon under my skin… he was trying to peel my scalp off.” 

“Pony scalps of rare colours are valuable trade goods,” one of the smaller griffons said in small frightened voice. “Not that I would ever do such an awful thing!” he squeaked, cringing back away in fear. 

Sighing, Lugus reached out with his talons, grabbed the smaller griffon, who screamed pitifully, and then held him close and gave him a hug. It was an entirely ungriffon-like thing to do, and the smaller griffon was paralysed with panic. After a moment of fear, the smaller griffon went limp, not knowing what else to do. Lugus set the smaller griffon down and patted him gently. 

“Thank you… sir?” the little griffon squeaked, scurrying away from Lugus. 

“Prince Tannis is secured,” Bucky announced as he came through the door, Tannis just behind him, the griffon covered in blood, his armor was crusted over with crimson. “He had barricaded himself into his room… his bodyguards are all dead. We must go find Agnetha and see if she lives.” 

“Prince Tannis the Kind,” one of the smaller griffons mewled, running forward towards the prince, his wings flapping. “You live! I was worried!” The smaller griffon stopped a respectful distance away from the prince, flexing his talons nervously, his tail swishing. 

“I hope my father is okay,” Tannis said fearfully. “And not in league with Fleshrender,” he added in a low growl. “Thank you for your concern,” the prince remarked, looking down at the smaller griffon before him. 

“We must be going,” Bucky commanded. 



 

Agnetha’s quarters were a fair distance away, and even from far down the hall, it was clear that something was wrong. Tannis started to bolt forward, was grabbed by Bucky’s magic, and dragged backwards. 

“Do nothing foolish. You are useless to Agnetha and the rest of us if you are dead,” Bucky growled. “NOW STAY!” he commanded. 

Nodding, but saying nothing, Tannis submitted. 

Bucky moved forward cautiously, stepping over the first of many bodies. The floor was slick with blood, and vast puddles had formed. Corpses were piled up like cordwood around the door, and Bucky stuck his head into the doorframe, looking into the room, the green spotlight from his visor flooding the room with light. There were dozens of dead griffons, and one living griffon near the door at the back of the room. 

“Goshawk?” Bucky said, stepping over a griffon that had two knitting needles jutting up out of his ruined eyes. The griffoness was in bad shape. Her lower beak had been torn away, one wing had been hacked off, and she was missing two talons from her left front leg. “Goshawk? Speak to me,” he repeated, watching the griffoness writhe on the ground. 

“You…” Goshawk groaned. “Knight… I… I beg a favour from you,” the griffoness moaned, her voice coming from down deep inside of her throat and spilling out of her ruined mouth. 

“Anything within my power to give you is yours,” Bucky offered, lowering his head down near the mutilated griffoness. 

“Agnetha still lives. She is behind the door. I held them off… I protected my cub. I didn’t let... them hurt my young,” Goshawk gurgled. 

“You made a good accounting of yourself,” Bucky replied, coming to understand the terrible truth of the situation, realising he was looking at Agnetha’s mother. “You did what any good mother would do.” 

“See that she is bound to Tannis… I want… I want you to do it. I trust you… with my cub after seeing you with yours… a marriage… like in the storybooks. Please do as I ask,” Goshawk pleaded, reaching out feebly with her existing talons and wrapping them around Bucky’s leg. “Now please… end me… I am in agony and I don’t want to cry out and shame myself when I see Agnetha… she must not know... that I am her mother… it will hurt her too much… keep her alive, please, keep our kind alive, do not hate them… some of us are good,” she panted. 

“You want me to end your suffering?” Bucky inquired, his voice a cold thrumming whine coming from inside of his helmet. 

“I drank… a potion I had saved… to make me a better warrior… I should have died already… end this… please,” Goshawk begged, looking up at Bucky, her eyes wide, the green light of Bucky’s visor illuminating her face. 

Nodding, Bucky agreed to her request. “Any last words Goshawk? I will end this swiftly and without pain.” 

“I have one... further request... of you noble... knight,” Goshawk answered in a soft halting screech. 

“Anything,” Bucky replied, his head bowed. 

“Be there for her…” Goshawk gasped. “Be the father she deserves… like in the storybooks… not like Fleshrender.” 

“I will,” Bucky promised. 

“I’m ready,” Goshawk grunted. 

With a flick of his telekinesis, Bucky broke Goshawk’s neck, causing her to go limp and still immediately. He watched the light fade from her bright orange eyes, her stare becoming dull and vacant. He pulled his leg free from her now limp grasp, gently lifted her away from the doorway, and then set her down on a small sofa a short distance away. 

“Farewell Goshawk,” Bucky said in a low voice as he forcibly ripped the door from its hinges. He heard screams from the other side, and then saw Agnetha. She panicked for a moment, and then realised she was being rescued. 

“Is it safe? Does Tannis live?” Agnetha questioned. 

“He lives,” Bucky responded. “Not exactly safe, but you are in no immediate danger.” 

“Goshawk,” Agnetha said sadly, seeing the body upon the sofa. 

“I am now your guardian,” Bucky informed the griffoness before him. 

“Mother chose you?” Agnetha inquired, tears trickling from her eyes. 

“You knew?” Bucky asked. 

“For a long time… I figured it out. I know why she didn’t tell me…” Agnetha whispered as she approached her mother’s body. She touched it, gently, stroking her mother’s bloodied crest for one last time. 

“Come. Tannis will be happy to see you,” Bucky said, turning around and making his way to the door, and then peering out into the hallway to look at the others. 

“Thank you, mother,” Agnetha murmured, saying her final goodbye. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 303
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Keep together. Keep these ranks tight!” Ripple barked as she peered around half blind. “If I can’t see you, I can’t protect you!” 

The little griffons swarmed around her, coming a little closer. She was not quite a full grown mare, and she was only just a little larger than they were. They packed in a little tighter, quite unused to the idea of something offering them protection. 

Mercifully, the orbs that Bucky had given to Rarity and Applejack had gone unused so far. They encountered little resistance and what little they did run into was easily crushed by Bucky, who was by and large, completely impervious to the griffon’s assaults. 

It would be dawn in a few hours, and this was a night that would be remembered by all forever. Each had been touched in some way by the terror and the horror of everything that had taken place. Bucky continued to think of his failure, and how this was his fault. Twilight Sparkle thought about how close she had come to death and knowing loss on a scale she could still only scarcely comprehend. Pinkie Pie remained catatonic, Fluttershy was still asleep from Rarity’s spell, Applejack learned that she was quite capable of killing, and Rarity was still internalising her role in all of this as she carried Applejack upon her back. Rainbow Dash learned that she would, in fact, do anything to protect Twilight, her friend and the pony that she loved, and she had suicidally charged into the waiting claws of a half dozen griffons to protect Twilight’s helpless body. Flash Sentry learned that he was more than willing to die for Twilight Sparkle, and had come moments away from doing just that. Spike learned how incredibly easy it was to burn things to death and was now busy trying to make himself forget just what he had done. Ripple learned that her training and skill had paid off in actual combat conditions, having killed quite a few griffons even while blinded. 

Sentinel learned one of the most terrible lessons of all. Just how fragile the world around him was, and how careful he had to be to live in it. He hadn’t meant to tear off the foreleg of the griffon, ripping it free from the shoulder. He had meant to injure, to bring harm, but not kill. It had been too easy. The limb just popped off effortlessly, like snapping a thin brittle twig. 

The fragility of the world around him now frightened Sentinel, and he thought of the time he had pounced Diamond Tiara. So much careful control had gone into that, so much gentle planning, to plow into her lightly and not shatter every single bone in her body. Earlier, the reverse was true… Sentinel had thrown caution to the wind and hit with everything he had, and what he had done horrified him. He marched silently beside Ripple and Spike, surrounded by griffons either not much larger than he was or just about the same size he was, and they pressed in tightly around him, touching him for reassurance. 

Sentinel silently vowed to never strike back against his own ponies in a state of anger or emotional distress, the consequences of such an act would be disastrous and heart breaking. 



 

The bridge loomed long before them, stretching across the channel from Muninn to Huginn. King Tanner could not be found, and there simply was not the time to search the entire castle, where there was still fighting. 

Above them, a terrible swirling storm lit up the sky with lightning, and in the eye of the storm was The Scorned Mare, which seemed unharmed. There were several wrecked airships crashed into the ground around them, including one that was partially submerged in the ocean. Something awful had destroyed the airships, and Bucky doubted that it had been just the The Scorned Mare’s electro-cannons. Lyra had clearly been given an opportunity to unleash her pent up magical frustrations, and she had spared no effort, releasing a storm so large and so terrible that it defied imagination. 

In this moment, Bucky loved Lyra in ways that words could not express. She was his destructive equal, this storm of nightmare proportions was her work, he could feel her distinctive magical signature in the hurricane overhead. A driving rain fell upon the land, and in the distance, over Huginn, watermelon sized hail could be seen falling when purple lightning arced from the clouds. When The Scorned Mare had obviously been attacked, Lyra had clearly unleashed every ounce of her fury upon the griffons in response. 

“This is where we part ways,” Bucky announced. 

“What?” Twilight asked, lifting her head high to look at Bucky. 

The group stood just inside the gatehouse, out of the black rain, and Bucky stood at the threshold of the gate, staring outwards at Huginn castle. Prince Tannis and Agnetha huddled together, finally free to hug one another without a scolding from Goshawk. 

“Father… what are you planning?” 

“Death.” 

“Oh… well, I see… of everything?” 

“I don’t know yet. Hopefully only enough to make my point.” 

“What does it take to make a point?” Sentinel asked, immediately regretting his question, cringing, his ears drooping. 

“You have to kill enough so it becomes a statistical act rather than just a common garden variety massacre.  The body count has to be so staggeringly high that it has to be estimated rather than counted and survivors are measured in percentages of what used to be rather than listed numbers for the sake of softening the blow in the history books,” Bucky explained. 

“I don’t understand any of that,” Sentinel replied. 

“One day, you will,” Bucky said. “And it breaks my heart knowing that I am about to perform the act that will teach you.” 

“I understand it all too well,” Twilight said in a strangled voice. “War Chief Buckminster Bitters, I Princess Twilight Sparkle, as the appointed senior representative of the Diarchy of Equestria, do back your formal declaration of war. I want King Fleshrender removed from power and I demand his execution. I… I.... want… I want… I want…” Twilight broke down, unable to finish, sobs overcoming her ability to speak. 

There was a long dearth of words in the gatehouse, the only sounds being the driving rain and the booming crash of thunder every few moments. Twilight’s pained sobbing was completely drowned out by the sounds of the storm. 


“Princess, I know what you want. I am your servant,” Bucky said, breaking the silence. “I will find out what happened. I will make Fleshrender tell me in detail why this happened. And before he dies, I will make him beg me for release, which I will not grant easily.” 

“YOU DO THAT!” Twilight shouted, her words echoing in the stone gatehouse. “I WANT HIM TO HURT LIKE WE HAVE! I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO OR WHATEVER HORRIBLE ACTS YOU COMMIT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN! YOU CONJURE UP AN ARMY OF DEMONS FROM TARTARUS IF YOU HAVE TO, BUT I WANT HIM BROKEN!” 

With a flash of his horn, Bucky collected the unused spell jars from Rarity and Applejack, bowed his head slightly to Twilight Sparkle, and then he stood in the gateway once again, preparing himself, his horn still glowing. 

Tears streaming from her burning eyes, Twilight Sparkle watched as Bucky summoned the deep magic, enchantment magic of the strongest type. Something began to materialise upon the bridge outside of the gate, Bucky was conjuring raw material from somewhere, constructing something to do his bidding. 

Much to her horror, Twilight Sparkle realised that Bucky was constructing a golem from sewage, a frightful automaton made of pollution and excrement from the sewers spewing filth out into the oceans. It was a large bipedal construct, it let out a gurgling roar as it came to life, raised its arms, and bellowed in challenge. 

And then, in an act clearly done for the sake of sadism of the worst stripe, Bucky cast a corrupted ‘want it need it’ spell upon the sewage golem, giving it magical sex appeal that would be hard to resist. In that moment, Twilight realised that Bucky was as cruel as Fluttershy was kind, and she loved her distant cousin for his unspeakable mind numbing cruelty. 

“Return to The Scorned Mare. Sentinel and Lugus rule in my stead while I am gone. I will be gone for a while, I will empty the castle and I plan to take my time with Fleshrender. So I might be busy for an extended period of time,” Bucky said as he stepped out into the black greasy rain. 

Watching him go, Twilight remained in the gatehouse, her friends and rescued griffons huddled around her. She was their safety now. She watched as Bucky grew smaller on the bridge, becoming a distant figure, his sewage golem moving ahead of him. There was a terrific sound as the gate on the far side of the bridge was ripped free from the castle and then flung into the sea below. 

A second later, the war began in earnest, with Bucky delivering the Equestrian response for the earlier assault. 

“Time to go,” Twilight said.

Her magic was still not quite right, but her telekinesis worked. She lifted everything around her effortlessly, wrapped them in a protective shield that would make her big brother best friend forever proud, spread her wings, and then she took flight, protected from the highly acidic rain. She flapped her wings, thankful for her earth pony strength and stamina, it allowed her to push through the pain. She climbed higher and higher, watchful of the sky around them, and she closed the distance to The Scorned Mare quickly. 

She landed on the deck moments later, and saw Lyra moving quickly to greet her. 

“Griffons attacked!” Lyra shouted over the storm. “They fired on us! With BIG BLOODY CANNONS!” 

There was a sudden flood of sound, cries of concern, fear, and anger from the group on the deck. Twilight, still in pain, her face covered in blisters, most of her mane now burned away from the awful goop that had been poured over her head to subdue her, could not even hear herself think. 

“SILENCE!” Twilight commanded, bringing silence to the deck around her. “Lyra, tell me what happened.” 

“They used guns! Cannons! The shields went up and the cannonballs bounced off, and then the electro-cannons started to fire. I came out on deck and Bon Bon tried to stop me, but I was so scared for all of you… more ships came and attacked. I WRECKED THEM!” Lyra reported, her excitement evident in her voice. “And then I summoned up the biggest storm I’ve ever summoned in my life because there was nopony around to tell me not to and make me stop and I figured I’m never going to get a chance to become the Storm Queen again and I’d be foolish not to take this chance to see what I am capable of. I mean, this is AWESOME! The storm I mean… not everything else… I hope Bucky is proud of me… Bon Bon sure isn't. I want somepony to be proud of me,” the unicorn said in a soft insecure voice. “I also piloted the ship, pulling it out of the mooring without wrecking it, which I am pretty proud of.” 

“I am proud of you. The storm was a good defensive gesture. Nice work Lyra,” Twilight said with warm sincerity. The alicorn turned around and faced the crowd behind her. “Get the wounded into the infirmary. Rarity, look after Applejack’s frog, get it cleaned up and disinfected. Keep the little griffons together so they don’t get scared. Tannis, you will check into the infirmary and get your wounds looked at… wait, we don’t have a nurse…” Twilight said, her words trailing off. 

“Agnetha is somewhat trained as a nurse. As with most females in the royal families, she has medical training… a father tends to trust his own brood when something happens,” Tannis explained. 

“I can help,” Agnetha offered. “I want to help!” 

“Agnetha, get as cleaned up as possible and then you are in charge of the infirmary. Rarity, you are her assistant. Get everypony and everybirdy cleaned up and looked after. Sentinel, Spike, both of you are to look after our griffon guests. See that they are kept calm, comfortable, and their needs are met. When this is over, we will head back to the beach we visited for food, so I’m sorry if anybirdy is hungry. Lugus, I want you on deck with me, and Ripple, I am requisitioning you as my royal guard along with Lugus,” Twilight commanded, her tone one of absolute authority. 

Snapping off a sharp salute, Ripple clicked her shoes together, producing sparks. She moved to Twilight’s side and peered around, still half blind, but performing her duty without complaint. 

“Lyra, ease this storm off a little at a time. We’re going to need visibility once the dawn comes, but for now, the giant hailstones are useful for keeping the city locked down,” Twilight said, looking at Lyra as the group slowly filed off deck and went belowdecks. 

“Aye aye ma’am,” Lyra replied, lifting a hoof in salute. 

The wind whipping her tail around, Twilight realised she finally felt comfortable in her role as a princess. This felt right. This was getting something accomplished. This was making the world right, a better place. This is what she failed to do in Fillydelphia. More importantly, she had a willing accomplice in Bucky, who was more than eager to do the right thing. She felt no pity or remorse in turning Bucky loose upon the griffons. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle had finally come into her own. 
	
> Chapter 304
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dawn broke and Lyra’s hurricane had eased off to allow griffons to escape from Muninn castle. Smoke rose from Huginn castle where Bucky was visiting. Survivors continued to flee from Muninn, and Twilight had personally escorted several groups of the smaller griffons up to The Scorned Mare, including a group of tiny females that Lugus had spotted, his vision now much better. 

The group of little females were terrified of Lugus, but Ripple managed to calm them, soothing them with carefully spoken words of reassurance. 

Ripple was in the middle of organising the griffons on deck and letting them know that they would be kept safe when there was a blinding freezing flash on the foredeck, covering everything in ice. 

Turning, Twilight saw over two dozen griffon cubs and one relatively large griffon female. Immediately, the vomiting started, teleportation sickness setting in. “I need fresh drinkable water!” she barked, issuing a command as she approached the group. 

The griffoness, still puking, was terrified as Twilight approached, her eyes wide with fear as she gagged. She was sick all over the deck, and then feebly crawled away from her own puddle of vomit. 

“You are safe,” Twilight said, looking down at the griffoness. 

“He killed all of the older fledglings!” the griffoness shrieked once she stopped gagging. “He said we could live… I begged him for my life… I’ve only ever wanted to be a nursemaid… the hallways have rivers of blood and it runs down the stairs in a flood!” 

“Fleshrender brought this down upon himself,” Twilight said coldly. 

“I don’t care who the king is, I just want to keep the cubs safe,” the griffoness said, gagging again when she was done speaking. 

“And this is why Buckminster let you live,” Twilight stated. 

There was a sudden loud explosion and Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around, seeing a massive mushroom shaped cloud rising up from Huginn castle, one section of the castle was now crumbling away into the sea as a massive fireball plumed upwards towards the sky. 

“What is he doing?!” Twilight cried out in fear. 

“That would probably be the gunpowder stockpile going off,” the griffoness answered in a strangled raspy voice. 

“What?” Twilight asked, turning an angry burning stare upon the griffoness. 

“The castle has a massive stockpile of gunpowder and an armory of the new types of bullets. The new rifles use a bullet with a shell casing-” 

“WHAT?” Twilight roared. 

“The new rifles-” 

“WHAT NEW RIFLES?” Twilight shrieked. 

“The factories… they churn out hundreds of new rifles every day… and thousands and thousands of bullets. The new rifles aren’t like the old muskets. They have a lever and hold a dozen shots so you don’t have to reload. The bullets are in little brass shells filled with gunpowder and whatnot,” the griffoness explained. 

“Where is the gunpowder stored in the city?” Twilight demanded to know, trying to restore her calm sense of order and mostly failing. Things were worse than she thought. Much worse. Autoloading rifles were pretty much the worst thing Twilight could think of. 

“The big conical buildings,” the griffoness replied. “I hear the castle staff talking about it while I look after their cubs.” 

“That look like beehives?” Twilight said, trying to contain her rage. 

“Yes ma’am,” the griffoness replied helpfully, glad to be alive and willing to do anything to remain that way. She started collecting the cubs, pulling them close to her, fretting over them as they recovered. 

“Gunpowder… rifles… the factories all making rifles… guns for war… what if they invaded the Sea of Grass… or Equestria…” Twilight moaned backing away from the griffons. 

“We have averted a major crisis,” Lugus said, speaking in a low voice to Twilight Sparkle. “An army of griffons with guns invading Equestria would have been terrible. The death toll would be catastrophic. The Royal Sisters would have stopped them eventually, but they would have gained a foothold.” 

“I know Lugus,” Twilight agreed. “We got here in time to stop this awful future, but Buckminster… Bucky... can’t do this alone… Oh by Luna’s stars they’re probably shooting at him!” 

“He’ll be fine. That armor could stop a cannonball,” Lugus said, no trace of worry in his voice. 

“Oh they were shooting at him,” the griffoness reported. “Shot thousands of rounds at him. The hallways were filling with brass shells. He was force feeding rifles down griffon throats. Well, some of them. Some griffons got rifles shoved up their backsides and he’s even been using the rifles with his magic to shoot and kill griffons. Mad crazy bastard. Wouldn’t stop laughing… more of a cackle really. Shivers me skin!” 

“So Bucky was okay?” Lugus asked. 

“He took time out of his busy day of killing to talk to the little ones… he froze over the door with a massive wall of ice. Even took off his helmet and his armor for a while. He told the cubs a story… something about some knight that killed a crystal lich. I sat in the corner trying not to piss myself,” the griffoness replied. “I offered him some tea to drink and he kindly refused me. Don’t blame him. Probably thought it was poisoned.” 

“So he took a break?” Twilight asked incredulously. 

“Conjured himself up some clean water and a cup made out of ice. Had a bit of a sit down. Made it snow indoors for the cubs. He started asking questions. He got the younger cubs to go and sit in the corner, and the older fledglings to sit in a different corner. Started asking about peculiar questions about stuff and made me leave. He locked me in a closet and I couldn’t hear anything. When I was let out, the older fledglings were all in a different room, dead, and the little cubs were in a different room, safe and secure. And he had his armor on again. And then it got really cold and we were here,” the griffoness said, explaining everything that happened. 

“I am guessing the older fledglings were probably well indoctrinated,” Lugus said sadly, slumping down. 

“Oh they start the education young,” the griffoness replied. “I don’t agree with it. It’s awful.” 

“What happens?” Twilight asked. 

“Oh ma’am, you don’t want to know… that Buckminster fellow didn’t want to know either when I told him,” the griffoness replied. 

“Tell me,” Twilight demanded. 

“Well, I don’t rightly know about the other nurseries, but I know there in the castle… once a fledgling reaches the decade mark, they get their loyalty test,” the griffoness explained hesitantly, assuming a very submissive posture, slouching down and her wings drooping. 

“Loyalty test?” Lugus asked. 

“I don’t agree with it, I think it’s horrible!” the griffoness cried. “It’s cruel and horrible and it damages their little minds!” 

“Tell me,” Twilight demanded. 

“About a month before the loyalty test, the fledglings get moved to a special nursery… I’ve never been to one of these… never! I swear, he even used magic on me to make sure I was telling the truth… but they move the decade mark fledglings to special nursery where they live with a group of little pony or zebra foals. For a whole month they live together and make nice. They become friends. After a moon cycle, the fledglings are ordered to kill their friends… awful business. Terrible business… the fledglings that obey get to go to a victory dinner and those that refuse are killed. The victors then dine on a fine meal of pony flesh and griffon meat… I’m sorry ma’am but I tried to tell you didn’t want to know, you look poorly,” the griffoness said. 

“So he killed those who passed their loyalty test?” Lugus inquired. 

“I suppose he did, I was too shocked to think much about it,” the griffoness replied. 

Twilight ran over to the rail of the ship and puked over the side, heaving out bile because her stomach was empty. Her dry heaves continued, and her mind was unable to take in the kind of barbarity she had just heard about. 

“Thank you for telling us everything,” Lugus said. 

“I’m not like the other griffons… I try to only eat fish when I can, if I can get them, I just wanted to be a nanny… I was good at what I do which is why I was protected and allowed to live even though I had some funny ideas,” the griffoness said, looking up at Lugus with wide frightened eyes.

“You have been spared,” Lugus stated reassuringly to the griffoness. 

“We’ve got incoming!” Lyra shouted from the navigation cabin. “Some blips on the projection map! Big blips, flashing red and moving towards us with speed! Are you sure dropping my storm was a good idea?” 

Coughing, Twilight Sparkle lifted her head. She turned around, scanning the sky, and in the distance, she saw several large airships, big ones, dreadnaughts. Warships that shouldn’t exist, but did. 

The alicorn’s rage boiled over. 

Spreading her wings, Twilight Sparkle took flight, and as she took to the air, she ignited, blazing brightly, flames trailing from her feathers. Her elemental form burned away the last bits of magic poison in her system, purifying her, like a phoenix reborn in fire. 

The skies were black with swarming griffons taking flight from the dreadnaughts, and Twilight cast a powerful shield spell around The Scorned Mare behind her and herself. The air filled with the reverberating crackle of rifle fire, and Twilight sensed the bullets coming in at her. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she stopped them, plucked one out of the air, held it up before her snoot, and examined it slowly. 

It was a little slug of lead covered in copper. The tip was sharp. She looked up at the reinforcements that had arrived. Tens of thousands of griffons were approaching her and swarming down to the castle… some were big griffons. Lugus sized griffons. They closed the distance rapidly. Hovering in place, Twilight Sparkle regarded them while thinking about her friends. The swarming masses drew closer. She could see faces now. Eyes. Each griffon was carrying a rifle as they flew, and the air was filled with tens of thousands of bullets, all bouncing off of her shield bubble. She watched as they would fire, pull the lever, and fire again. It was a smooth swift well practiced action. She studied the rifles and their high rate of fire, able to get off all twelve shots in less than a minute. 

Twilight Sparkle ran the numbers of the algebra of survival through her head. 

Equestria would suffer horrendously under such an army. Most unicorns would die from the initial onslaught of bullets, pegasi would be picked off by sharpshooters, and earth ponies would be been hunted down and exterminated. Even the lunar pegasi, as tough as they were, would die eventually if shot enough times, but they would make the griffons work to kill them.

All Twilight Sparkle could think about was ponies being killed, eaten, or taken into slavery. Or even captured and hunted for sport later. Seething fury filled her as she contemplated a future where most of Equestria was dead. 

“NO!” Twilight Sparkle bellowed. Reaching out with the strongest magic she knew, Twilight Sparkle tapped into the sun itself, flooding her body with solar fire. She exploded with flames, sending a massive burst of fire out all around her. In one second, thousands and thousands of griffons died, instantly incinerated from her burst of flame. 

And Twilight Sparkle was only getting warmed up. 

Unleashing her rage, she called down a solar flare from the sun, the first of many, and a lance of flaming death struck one of the distant dreadnaughts. It exploded, part of it evaporating away into nothingness. She called down another flare, this time aiming for one of the big beehive structures. 

A massive mushroom cloud over a mile high suddenly appeared over the city, and several apartment buildings instantly became dust. Windows and glass shattered everywhere. Buildings exploded and crumbled. Factories collapsed. 

Twilight called down another, striking another gunpowder depository. 

A second mushroom cloud sprouted over the city, this one even larger than the first. Twilight called down more fire, this time striking the mountain of coal on the edge of the city. A billowing cloud of flames erupted in the distance, consuming a dreadnaught that was flying to close to the coal pile. 

More flares rained down, destroying the enemy airships and another gunpowder depository, causing a third mushroom cloud to erupt over the city. Twilight Sparkle turned the shipyards into a puddle of liquid steel and death, leaving behind a lake of steel glowing cherry red, boiling and bubbling as things that were not steel burned away. 

And in the span of a few minutes, the once peaceful Twilight Sparkle had turned the death toll into a statistic, having killed multiple tens of thousands in the first opening shots of her war on Griffonholm. Whole sections of the city were gone, vapourised, turned to dust.

She struck another beehive shaped structure with a solar flare, triggering yet another massive explosion in the distance. A gigantic residential complex simply vanished, ceasing to exist in the blink of an eye, the residents now a statistic, one measured in dust. 

The skies were cleared of all threats and Twilight Sparkle hoped that Bucky would hurry up and find Fleshrender. She wanted this to end, but this was only the beginning. 

Twilight Sparkle screamed, an inequine sound, venting her fury as she called down more fire upon the helpless city below her. She blazed brightly, a second sun in the sky, and the last traces of Lyra’s storm had burned away. 

The world needed to learn to fear alicorns again, and Twilight Sparkle intended to make them remember, turning Griffonholm into a lesson the world would never forget. 
	
	
> Chapter 305 (now with one major edit) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Most of the city of Huginn was gone, with the areas around Huginn castle still somewhat intact. Twilight Sparkle didn’t want to risk doing harm to Buckminster, who still worked within, doing whatever horrible things Buckminster was doing. 

Twilight Sparkle didn’t know what Buckminster was doing in there, but at one point, a writhing mass of long black tentacles sprouted from one of the inner courtyards and started to snatch griffons with rifles out of the air. Twilight didn’t know what had happened yet, because she couldn’t bear to look. 

All Twilight Sparkle understood was that a portal to Tartarus had been opened not once, but on several occasions, and things had temporarily been allowed to rampage. Twilight could feel the lingering magical signatures, knowing what had happened, like a lunar pegasus sniffing the wind and knowing everything around them by scent. Twilight was far too sensitive to magic now. 

Her morning rampage had caused yet another growth spurt, leaving her longer legged, larger winged, and now she had a few more inches of horn. Twilight Sparkle was completely oblivious to this though at the moment. On the horizon, more griffon warships were coming in, returning to the city from whatever secret location they had been moored in. Twilight noted their direction and fully intended to go hunt down what had to be a secret griffon military base. 

She now flew without flapping her wings, borne upwards on updrafts of pure magical currents. She felt them in her feathers, which were blazing with pink-white intensity flames. Twilight Sparkle had discovered Magic, the same Magic that Buckminster had also discovered, the intoxicating drug-like thaumaturgy that made her brain buzz with nearly orgasmic aftereffects. The Magic had set her free, just like it had set Buckminster free. Twilight Sparkle finally had control because she had  Magic with a capital M.

Much like Star Swirl and Sombra before them, Twilight and Buckminster were doing what they were born to do, which was cast mind boggling levels of magic and perform impossible feats. 

The big dreadnaughts moved with shocking speed for ships their size. Scanning the city below her, Twilight lifted up several steel girders from a pile. With an effortless flick of her magic, she instantly accelerated the steel girders to one thousand seven hundred and one meters per second, give or take an extra meter per second, launching the steel beams at the dreadnaughts. 

They struck with explosive force, obliterating the airships cleanly and neatly. 

Twilight Sparkle smiled, revealing that even her teeth were on fire. She noted more ships moving in on the distant horizon and she wondered if she could hit them from here with her improvised magical railgun. 



 

A lone armored figure emerged out of Huginn castle, exiting through the ruined gate and onto the bridge, wading through a river of blood that ran in a raging torrent from out of the partially destroyed castle behind him. 

The figure walked slowly with a steady mechanical gait, it was clearly in no hurry. There was no need to run. He refused to run after his prey, their running only led to them dying tired with sore legs. Floating along behind him was a rifle of beautiful construction, a one of a kind piece of art, and as the figure walked, the rifle was carefully cleaned and reloaded, freeing it from filth and making it useful once again. 

The rifle had once belonged to King Fleshrender, who made the mistake of telling Buckminster that he would surrender his arms when they were pried from his cold dead talons, which Buckminster had found were perfectly acceptable terms of surrender. 

But not before finding out everything he wanted to know from Fleshrender about everything that had happened. That took a while… it took time and dark magic along with a dash of unspeakable cruelty and sadism. But Bucky was patient and he was rewarded with everything. Most of Fleshrender’s skin had been peeled away, and as a point of pride, Bucky had kept him alive without using necromancy, something he would love to be able to boast about but he didn’t know to whom. 

Those weren’t Fleshrender’s griffons bursting into their bedroom in the middle of the night. 

Well, most of them. King Tanner had to offer up a few of his own troops as proof of loyalty, to show that he was willing to go along with the plan. Unknown to Tanner, Fleshrender was busy rewarding Tanner’s loyalty by having his son, Tannis, killed. 

Griffon politics were horrible, but Bucky found that he rather liked them on some level, appealing to something deep within his inner nature. He stomped over the bridge, his armored hooves thudding with every step, and it felt good to have four legs again, even if one was only temporary. 

King Fleshrender had done it for power, King Tanner had done it for money. 

As he walked, Bucky cackled maniacally, and he made plans to feed King Tanner his own crown. It seemed only fitting, and Bucky had already formed a plan to help the griffon king swallow it. 



 

Entering Muninn, Bucky slowly paced the hallways, trying to find wherever it was that Tanner had hidden himself away. The castle was strangely empty, there were no guards, no griffons fleeing, it seemed deserted. He held the rifle at ready in his magic, it was truly a beautiful machine of death and he appreciated it, both the aesthetic and purpose. It was perfect for killing ponies… or griffons. 

He found himself in a long hall filled with tables, and scanning the room, he saw several guards who had been up to this point, relaxing. That was until they saw Bucky. He scanned the room, noticing the equine shaped body roasting over the fire in a spit, vast sections of it already missing, and one of the smaller griffons who had been recently killed being prepared to be placed over the fire, plucked and skinned. 

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Huginn has been destroyed,” Bucky announced. 

There was a moment of tense silence as the guards calculated the odds of their survival. The griffons fidgeted nervously, unsure of what to do next. A low panicked scream came from small griffoness tethered to a table, a heavy rope around her neck, and she flapped her wings pitifully to try and get away. One hind leg was twisted and useless, and she held it up against her body as she tried to escape. 

Realising there was an innocent present, Bucky changed his plans from punishment to swift kill. Using his telekinesis, he began snapping necks in a methodical efficient manner, and one by one, the griffons watched each other dying, the last one letting out a pleading squawk before going down. 

Approaching the table with the rifle pointed at the ceiling, Bucky moved slowly towards the small griffoness, who cowered before him. 

“I mean you no harm. Would you like safety and freedom?” Bucky asked in a terrible mechanical growl that probably did not help the griffoness feel at ease. 

“Please! They killed my sister and wanted to do things with me,” the griffoness replied, still cowering away from Bucky in fear. 

“What is your name?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m a nobirdy… I do as I am told and hope to live to see another day,” she replied.

“Surely you have a name?” Bucky asked again, scanning the room for any incoming threats. He untied the rope from around the griffoness’ neck and freed her. 

“My name is Belisama,” the griffoness answered, standing on three legs. 

“Belisama, you look injured. I am going to send you to a place where you can be helped, but the trip is going to make you sick. You will recover… I am sorry that I did not come sooner to save your sister,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“I give you my life,” the griffoness offered, bowing her head. 

“I don’t want your life,” Bucky retorted. 

“But you are saving me… everything has a price, you have shown me kindness, I offer myself up willingly,” Belisama said in a low frightened voice. 

Bucky studied the small griffoness. She wasn’t any bigger than Sentinel, bright eyed, covered in soot like most griffons, making it impossible to figure out her real colouring. “Look, I don’t want to keep you,” Bucky said, trying to be reasonable. 

“All the more reason to give myself to you… you will be a kind and responsible master,” Belisama argued. “And a master keeps their property safe.” 

“You are not my property!” Bucky said, his voice approaching a shout. 

“But I have already given myself to you as payment,” Belisama replied. “Thank you master for saving me.” 

“Away to the ship with you!” Bucky snarled, suddenly filled with an anger he didn’t understand. His horn flashed a bright blue-green and he teleported the griffoness away to The Scorned Mare. 

Feeling tired, his bones aching with weariness, Bucky continued through the doors at the other end of the long hall, off to search for King Tanner. 



 

Bucky looked down the bodies and studied them, some of which were wearing the uniforms of King Fleshrender’s guard. He’d recognise them anywhere. He had just got done killing thousands of griffons wearing that uniform while they uselessly kept firing guns at him.

He carefully fished out their bullets and stowed them away in his saddlebags. 

No sense letting the useful things go to waste. He stepped over the bodies and made his way down the wide hallway, approaching double doors at the end. He threw them open and a group of guards rushed him. Feeling impatient, he slammed them aside with his telekinesis and made his way through the door. 

Walking into the throne room, Bucky immediately saw Tanner, who was sitting on his throne, waiting patiently. He was wearing fine ornately decorated armor and a crown. He made no move to defend himself, or to flee, he sat there on the throne calmly, doing nothing at all. 

“Greetings I suppose,” Tanner said in an irritated voice. “I suppose we should exchange the usual pleasantries. I’m not like that weak minded fool Fleshrender. I will tell you nothing.” 

“I’m done asking questions,” Bucky replied, moving towards the griffon on the throne. “Fleshrender already told me everything I needed to know.” 

“Has he now? Well, then, I surrender,” Tanner said, giggling as he spoke. 

“I am not in a position to accept your surrender,” Bucky answered. 

“Oh dear, you plan to be dreadful, don’t you?” Tanner inquired in a sarcastic voice. 

“Fleshrender tried to murder your son,” Bucky stated. 

“Oh come on, I know that Fleshy is probably dead and you probably killed him. there is no use trying to turn me against him now,” Tanner tittered obscenely. 

“You and your alchemists improved the black powder design, making it foul the firearms far less. You were preparing a crippling poison to place into Equestrian water supplies. You planned to make the Sea of Grass your new homeland and Equestria your hunting grounds. All of this was your plan… and Fleshrender planned to repay you by killing your son and eating him as you were forced to watch. Fleshrender has the brawn, you had the brains,” Bucky said coldly. 

“Guilty as charged,” Tanner admitted in a bored voice filled with sarcasm. “But I don’t believe you about my son. You are… how do you say, ‘yanking my chain’ to get me to feel bad about betraying you. I don’t. I did what was right for my subjects.” 

“And I am about to do what is right for my subjects,” Bucky said, snatching the crown off of Tanner’s head. “Your son is lost to you. I am claiming him as spoils of war.” 

Bucky seized the griffon in his magic, forcibly tilting his head back and prizing the griffon’s beak open. Tanner  tried to fight back against the invisible bonds holding him, to no avail. Tanner watched as his crown began to melt above him, going from a solid to a liquid in the span of moments. 

Tanner gagged in fear and watched as the magical bubble containing molten gold opened, releasing a rivulet of liquid gold, which dribbled into his open beak. The former king of the griffons let out a gurgling scream that was quickly silenced as more gold was poured down his gullet. His body twitched and kicked, and he was forced to drink every last drop. 

Bucky dropped the griffon’s lifeless body to the floor and stared down at it. 

He felt tired, weary, his head hurt and his throat as well as his ribs were sore from laughing. He was thirsty, his calorie dense snacks were almost gone, and he felt as though his work was done. It was time to return to The Scorned Mare and take a well deserved rest. 

Saying nothing, he turned to leave the throne room and a dead king filled with a fortune in gold upon the dirty stone floor. He walked away with his slow mechanical gait, making his way to an exit so he wouldn’t have to expend so much mana to teleport himself aboard his ship. 

As he walked through the doors of the throne room, he let out a weary sigh. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 306
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky exploded onto the deck of The Scorned Mare with a burst of ice, freezing everything around him. Teleporting himself and his armor, which had considerable mass, was exhausting. He looked around and saw Twilight Sparkle hovering a short distance away, blazing brightly, still connected to the sun. 

He peered down at the city below and saw a ruin. Most of it was simply gone, the rest of it was wreckage and debris. Some of it was still burning. Scorched craters pockmarked the land, and it almost looked like the surface of the moon. 

“Bucky… are you okay?” 

Turning away from the nightmarish ruin below, Bucky turned to look at Lyra, glad to see her. She was smiling, excited, and Bucky was glad to know that she was unharmed. 

“Twilight Sparkle kinda wrecked the city,” Lyra said in a voice reedy with nervous excitement. “It was awesome… I mean, I did some neat stuff, but I am a type three. Twilight Sparkle cut loose as a type five. She held nothing back,” the unicorn reported. 

“I would have done the same in her position,” Bucky replied. “Did my trunk make it?” 

“Yeah, it crawled off into its storage spot… we have a lot of griffons on board Bucky, we’re getting overcrowded. The Scorned Mare was only meant to hold maybe sixty or so at most, we’re at well over one hundred right now. The system is producing enough drinkable water though and we seem to be okay, just not enough bunks.” 

“Most of the griffons are small. We’ll make do,” Bucky said, looking at Lyra, drinking her in and appreciating her beauty after all of the horror he had seen. “I am tired. I am going to go remove my armor.” 

“Okay Bucky… I think we’re okay now.” 



 

The helmet was the last thing to go into his trunk. Bucky stretched, got his neck to crack, and then took a deep breath, feeling surprisingly okay after all of the killing. He had killed old and young alike, sparing those that he felt that he could. 

He had carefully secured the rifle down inside of cavernous expanse of his trunk, and all of the bullets as well. Fleshrender’s rifle was very much like his soldier’s rifles, only of much better quality and better materials. Rosewood and mahogany inlaid with silver, a blued steel barrel, and a large brass scope for distance sighting. The rifle was shockingly accurate for almost a mile of distance, provided one used the rangefinder on the scope. 

There was a soft knock upon his cabin door and Bucky pulled it open. He saw Lugus, who looked weary, the big griffon was clearly exhausted. Bucky felt how Lugus looked, and the two friends stared at one another silently for a moment. 

“What is it Lugus?” Bucky inquired after a moment of silence. 

“There is a griffoness that is demanding to see her master and know that he is well,” Lugus said in a low voice. 

“Oh nuts… Lugus, tell her to go away,” Bucky sighed. 

“Buckminster… she calls you master… she has given herself to you,” Lugus said, his voice somewhat hesitant. 

“I don’t want her,” Bucky retorted, his patience stretching thin. 

“You don’t understand my chief… she is yours. You have no idea how insulting this would be to her if you just send her away. She is like me… a creature of honour. She is one of the sane members of my species that hasn’t fallen into madness. You cannot just be rid of her,” Lugus explained. 

“So what should I do Lugus? Keep her as a servant?” Bucky questioned, his voice rising slightly. 

“Or a wife,” Lugus said in a flat voice. 

“Lugus have you taken leave of your senses? Did you get hit on the head?” Bucky asked, his voice now low and rather growly. 

“I took several blows to the head but my judgment is sound,” Lugus replied defensively, looking Bucky in the eye. “But you don’t understand what this means. Our word is our contract. We griffons live by contracts. I gave you my word as a contract. Too few of us follow the old ways anymore where our words mean something. She gave herself to you… her word is her contract. If you force her to break her word, she loses her honour, do you understand?” 

“No!” Bucky retorted angrily. 

“If you cast her aside not only have you done your part to nearly exterminate the griffons, but you will have also destroyed just a little bit more of our culture as well… WE ARE TOO FEW! And I don’t mean our numbers, I mean OUR HONOUR! SHE HOLDS ON TO THE OLD WAYS AND IF YOU CAST THAT ASIDE I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU!” Lugus shouted, rising up over Bucky and looking down upon him. 

Bucky, who had faced far scarier things, was unconcerned by Lugus’s angry shouting. 

“Look, my chief, I-” 

“Lugus, I have had a very trying day. I just got done killing thousands and thousands of griffons. I skinned Fleshrender alive and I made Tanner drink his crown. I killed several hundred fledglings who have eaten pony flesh and passed their loyalty test. I will listen to what you have to say later, but I am not certain I see the importance of this. My apologies,” Bucky said, his eye never once breaking eye contact with Lugus. 

“Yes, of course my chief. I am merely begging you to keep us alive and our culture as well. Some of it is salvageable,” Lugus said to Bucky, slumping down and assuming a more submissive posture. “Forgive me my angry outburst.” 

“And forgive mine as well, this has been a hard day for all of us,” Bucky returned. 

“She is down in the infirmary, her leg is broken. She is scared, nervous, and panicked. She is of the servant caste and servants like serving and knowing their master is okay. Everything she knows has just been destroyed. All she wants is some comfort and reassurance, something familiar, which is to serve. She has an exaggerated sense of duty, just like another pony I know,” Lugus explained patiently. 

“Fine… Lugus, that I do understand. At some point I will try to talk to her,” Bucky promised, trying to reign in his impatient feelings of frustration by taking deep breaths. 

“No, you will do more than talk,” Lugus insisted. “You will listen, even if it means I have to drag you to her and sit on you.” 

“Lugus… this really means this much to you?” Bucky asked.

“Buckminster… my chief… I gave her my word that I would make you see reason somehow,” Lugus replied. 

“Lugus… Lugus, please, tell me that you didn’t just do that… giving your word about getting me to see reason. Maybe trying to get me to see reason? See, that is a reasonable goal,” Bucky said in a pleading voice. “And it gives you room for failure… you did say ‘try’ right?” 

Lugus shook his head no, which caused Bucky to groan in exasperation. 



 

Twilight Sparkle skidded to a halt as she landed on the deck of The Scorned Mare. Every muscle in her body ached with exhaustion, she was starving, and she felt completely numb between her ears. Her fires had extinguished and now, she was just an alicorn again, no longer ablaze with rage. 

“Where is Spike?” Twilight asked, the first words out of her mouth as she landed. 

“Spike is fine,” Ripple reported. “He is assisting Agnetha and Rarity. Rarity is quite good at stitching up wounds.” 

“Rarity is stitching up wounds?” Twilight Sparkle asked in stunned disbelief. 

“Yes, and she is quite good at it. The swelling on Rainbow Dash’s scalp became quite bad near the ear and the wound tore open a bit. I am told that Rarity sewed it up,” Ripple reported in a loud clear voice. “Lyra talked her into stitching wounds. Lyra sewed Sentinel’s ear back on when it was nearly torn off by a giant trout.” 

“I would have never thought that Rarity would hold up under that kind of situation,” Twilight murmured, distracted by the ringing now in her ears. “I need to tell Rarity what a good pony she is and that she is a dear friend.” 

“Are you okay?” Ripple asked, noticing that something seemed off with Twilight. 

“I don’t feel well, I need rest. And you do too. You are dismissed or whatever it is called. If any threats come, I think the ships automated defenses will let us know. Are we still getting survivors trying to board?” Twilight responded. 

“Yes,” Ripple answered. “Well, I think. I haven’t seen any in a while. Yew Wood has been most useful in helping because of her understanding of griffons.” 

“Good deal… Ripple, go to bed,” Twilight insisted. 

“Thank you ma’am,” Ripple replied, bowing her head slightly. 



 

“Bucky, I know you are tired, but we have a situation developing,” Lyra reported as she watched Bucky take a soothing sip of coffee. 

“Situation?” Bucky inquired, raising his remaining eyebrow over his surviving eye. 

“The little griffons.. and even some of the bigger griffons we have as guests, what few of those there are… they are demanding to see their king,” Lyra squeaked in a nervous voice. 

“WHAT?!” Bucky thundered, his voice causing everything around him to rattle and Lyra’s mane blew back away from her face. 

“They want to see their king… the other king… they recognise Tannis as one of their kings, they are demanding to see their warrior king,” Lyra explained in a halting nervous squeal. 

“OH FECKING BUGGERY!” Bucky bellowed. His head thumped down on the table and a long low whimper escaped his throat. 

“Tannis is the rightful King of Muninn, you are the rightful King of Huginn now, and your subjects are starting to demand to see you,” Lyra said soothingly, wrapping her foreleg over Bucky’s withers. 

“I don’t want to be king,” Bucky whimpered, the terrible events that had happened finally catching up to him, and his resolve stared to crumble. “Lyra, don’t make me be king.” 

“I don’t think it can be helped, honey,” Lyra whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

“I need Lugus… Lyra, I need Lugus, he will know what to do about this,” Bucky groaned. He banged his stump on the table and lifted his head up. 

“The griffons say there must always be two kings to maintain balance… and you are their warrior king,” Lyra crooned into Bucky’s ear, trying to calm Bucky down. 

“Lyra, love, go fetch Lugus… he’ll know what to do,” Bucky begged. 

“Okay Bucky, you just sit here and try to stay calm, I’ll go fetch Lugus,” Lyra promised, kissing Bucky on the good side of his face with a wet sounding smack. “I’ll bring Bonnie too.” 



 

Bon Bon’s hooves kneaded deeply into Bucky’s back as he leaned into the table. Bon Bon stood behind him, standing on her hind legs, and she grunted from her effort. Lyra did not return, having departed to look after the deck of the ship with Yew. 

Lugus sat across the table, looking concerned, his claws drumming rhythmically as he stared at Bucky. The big griffon’s crest was up and Lugus looked like he was going to fall over from exhaustion at any moment. 

“I will not help you,” Lugus stated, breaking the silence. 

“What?” Bucky asked in disbelief, looking at his friend. 

Shaking his head, Lugus lifted his other talons and pointed one at Bucky. “I refuse to help you until you sort out your situation with Belisama,” he said in a low voice. 

“I said I’d talk to her!” Bucky snapped, setting down his coffee cup on the table with a clunk, causing some of the liquid to slosh out. 

“I am sorry my king,” Lugus retorted. 

“Oh you birdy bastard!” Bucky snarled. “Don’t you dare call me your king!” 

“You are the rightful king of Huginn. And technically Muninn as well, but you cannot sit on both thrones at once my king,” Lugus said, offering a bare explanation. 

“I am not the king!” Bucky snapped. 

“Bucky, do try and remain calm,” Bon Bon insisted in a soothing whisper. 

“NO! Somebirdy is trying to stick a crown on my head!” Bucky grumped angrily, waving his stump at Lugus. “He knows how I feel about responsibility!” 

“Belisama might make a good queen,” Lugus mused. 

“Oh you son of a bitch… you… you did this… I know YOU did this!” Bucky accused. 

“YOU TRIED TO CAST ASIDE OUR HONOUR!” Lugus roared in reply. 

“So you spread word that I was the king?” Bucky demanded to know, his mouth falling open as he gaped at his friend. 

“No… I did no such thing. I merely did nothing to stop the notion when Belisama proposed it and the others heard it. I merely said she had a good point,” Lugus said, flexing his talons nervously. 

“OH DAMNIT SHE IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME I JUST KNOW IT ALREADY!” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 307
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke to the sounds of his belly growling, a loud squelching gurgle that jarred him from sleep. He was alone in the bed, and as cold terror flooded through his body, he came to wakefulness covered in sweat and shuddering. 

He sat in the darkness of his cabin, shivering violently, his teeth chattering together painfully. Bucky feared biting his own tongue. He let out a nervous giggle that borderlined dangerously upon a cackle. Today had almost been more than he could bear at certain points. He wasn’t too bothered by killing the adult griffons, but slaughtering the loyal fledglings had nearly been his undoing. He thought about Fleshrender’s frantic admissions of the breeding programs to produce the cruelest griffons possible, and how it was necessary to eat the weak so they wouldn’t pollute future bloodlines, but instead give more strength to the already strong. Everything in the city, everything about their society, it was all part of a massive machine that produced madness. 

Something about his soul now felt thin, like a spot of fabric that had been worn down and made flimsy, and Bucky was painfully aware of its existence. He let out a wordless cry of guilt and pain as he felt the walls of the room closing in around him. He hadn’t asked for this to end this way. Not like this. He had felt so much hate today, and even though he was not an alicorn, it gave him power. His enemy hated him, and it had made him strong. 

Bucky came to the stunning revelation that there was now a lot less hate in the world. In his dream, where he had seen a glimpse of the future, he had grown powerful off of the hate that lay festering in Griffonholm. In his dream, the griffons were his most devoted minions, his most loyal servants. The hatred of the griffons had given him deific levels of power, and now, that reserve was broken, burned off of the map. 

Now he had their love, their devotion, and he was their king. He had broken their hatred. He had broken their backs and their savage hold upon the world. Bucky took a deep breath and sighed, realising that love was the only way to stop him. He thought of Belisama and wondered if she could love him, if he could love her, and if Lugus’ advice was what was perhaps the best thing for the entire world. Could he love his enemy? Would it weaken his horrible inner nature? He didn’t know. 

After the cleansing of Griffonholm, Bucky realised that he should be theoretically weaker now that the world had been freed from terror and hatred. Bucky wanted to be weaker. But was he weaker or was he fooling himself with false hope? He rubbed his throat with his stump, lying there in the dark, pondering his own divine nature and wondering if he had taken one step back or one step forward with the terrible events of this day. 

Could he make the griffons love him? Could he make the griffons love, period? 

Hearing a vivid crunching sound, Bucky recalled all to well how he had crushed Twilight Sparkle’s skull in that fateful dream, ending her life after her refusal to be his broodmare. He shook his head, wishing for the nightmarish sound to go away. Things moved in the shadows, and those things were a part of Bucky. He was the boogeypony and he had come to Griffonholm. 

“This wasn’t how things were supposed to end… I was supposed to keep Twilight innocent… I was supposed to end this peacefully… if I had more skill at magic our attackers would have never broke into our room… my wards would have kept them away.” 

No, a voice inside of his head said to him. No, you should hate Twilight Sparkle for what has happened. She could have cast those wards. She could have saved everypony. This was her failure. 

“No!” Bucky grunted, flopping around on the bed, his sheets soaked with sweat. “No, not her fault, I refuse to hate her for my failure… I refuse to hate… I REFUSE TO HATE!” 

The bed froze over, the soaked sheets now as stiff as iron. The walls of the room were now covered in a thick layer of ice. The room crackled with hoarfrost and steam puffed from Bucky’s nostrils. 

“I choose to love,” Bucky reminded himself. “If the griffons want a king I will be their slave instead. As for Twilight, I will keep my loathing turned inwards, where it belongs,” he uttered in a wavering whisper. He panted in the dark, the cold air filling his lungs and invigourating him. 

He sat in the dark, collecting his thoughts, trying to calm himself, trying to take deep steady breaths to make his heart slow down. There was still the issue of Huginn and Muninn, and what to do with them. The land was ruined. It was going to need to be healed. There were still griffon camps in the Hinterlands that would need to be found and rooted out. 

He panicked when the door opened, and then he saw Bon Bon standing in the entrace, looking around the room at all of the ice, and he saw her staring at him, her face full of concern. He could see her white teeth for a moment as light from the hall flooded into the cabin. 

“Bucky,” Bon Bon whispered, crossing into room, the door shutting behind her. 

In a moment, she was in the bed with him, and Bucky could feel her shiver as she laid down on the icy sheets. He felt a strong foreleg hook over his body and pull him close. Suddenly, he was warm, secure in her embrace, the world forgotten about for a moment. He pressed his snoot into the tender flesh of her throat, nuzzling along the graceful curve of her neck, finding that secret hollow just under her broad jaw. The fine hairs of her pelt tickled his nostrils, causing him to have electric tingles all up and down his back. He kissed her, little kisses that trailed lightly over her throat, and then up the side of her jaw, and he felt her body tense as she held him. He sniffed and snuffled, taking in her scent, and he pressed his whole body against hers. 

“I know what you need,” Bon Bon whispered. “And it is yours if you require it,” she offered in a breathless gasp. “If you take me right now, I won’t stop you. Lyra already knows, we’ve talked.” 

“I just need you… just you… like this,” Bucky grunted in reply, holding on to Bon Bon tightly, feeling temptation only for a moment before his willpower took over and he realised that his trust with Bon Bon and Lyra is what made him strong. Love. 

The mare’s body shifted against him, her hind leg snaking up over his hip. He felt his sweaty testicles pressed against the searing heat of her teats, where were full and swollen with milk. He inhaled sharply, smelling sweat and the faint scent of arousal coming from Bon Bon as they continued to press tighter together. 

“There is one thing I want from you,” Bucky breathed, his breath blowing hot against Bon Bon’s neck and parting the fine hairs of her pelt. “I hunger…” 



 

“Any sign of Bucky?” Twilight asked Applejack, who looked exhausted. 

“He’s done holed up somewhere,” Applejack answered, looking over the rail at the dead darkness below where a city used to be. “Get enough sleep?” 

“I don’t know Applejack,” Twilight Sparkle replied, shaking her head from doubt. “I had strange dreams but I can’t remember what they were.” 

“Or you don’t wanna remember after what you’ve done,” Applejack responded. The earth pony mare turned and looked at her friend. “You gonna be okay?” 

“I just feel numb Applejack. It kinda scares me,” Twilight confessed to her friend. “I know something is wrong, but I can’t feel what’s wrong. How are Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?” 

“Fluttershy woke up for a while, and then went back to sleep on her own. She wanted Bucky or Discord… didn’t want to talk to the rest of us… she just cried, said she kept feeling something poking her between her legs… she was scared… Pinkie Pie is still checked out Twilight… I’m real scared. Pinkie Pie just lays there with her eyes wide open not moving and barely breathing. She closed her eyes for a while and we figured out she was asleep. And I’m worried about Rarity. She’s been without sleep since this whole thing started, she’s still in the infirmary with Agnetha, running herself ragged, looking after every little detail. She sewed up my frog. Hurt like cussfire,” Applejack said, blurting out everything she could think of. 

“What about you?” Twilight asked, worried about the mare beside her. 

“I’m angry Twi… I’m angry that I didn’t kill more… I’m angry because your face is all blistered and burnt… I’m angry because Rainbow Dash had to throw herself into a whole mess of griffons and got the stuffing beat out of her. Flash Sentry still ain’t got his voice, and I’m right angry ‘bout that too. I’m powerful angry Twi, and it makes my insides hurt,” Applejack confessed.

“I hope Flash Sentry will be okay… I like his voice,” Twilight admitted with a whimpering cry, a faint equine sound of grief. 

“Agnetha said his windpipe was near crushed,” Applejack murmured in a low voice. “She also said that most ponies would have died from being strangled. You know what I think?” 

“What do you think Applejack?” Twilight responded. 

“I think Flash lived ‘cause he loves you and I think that if’n you had the common sense of a garden stone, you’d marry him Twilight. He done threw himself down on you to protect your body,” Applejack answered, turning to look Twilight in the eye. 

Wrapping a wing around Applejack and pulling her close, Twilight Sparkle took comfort from the now much smaller earth pony. 

“You keep getting bigger, Twi,” Applejack stated. 

Grunting, Twilight said nothing but continued to hold on to her friend, feeling the earth pony’s warmth against her body which stood out in sharp contrast compared to the chilly night air. 

“You know Twi… I know how you feel about big shindigs and whatnot. I know you don’t like them. And I know that a royal wedding is probably what is scaring you off from having any sort of meaningful relationship, especially after what happened with Cadance and your brother,” Applejack said, removing her hat, holding it against her barrel with one front hoof, and leaning her head against Twilight Sparkle’s neck. 

“It scares me something awful Applejack. I can’t face that kind of pressure. Celestia would turn it all into some big public spectacle just like she did for my coronation or Buckminster’s coronation, and I’d let her walk all over me and just play along even though I’d hate every moment of it,” Twilight admitted in a fragile sounding voice. “I hate my life sometimes.” 

“You know, sugarcube, Bucky is the commander of this here vessel, and as commander, he could marry you off to Flash if you asked him real sweet like in that way you have when you want something,” Applejack suggested. 

“You really think he would?” Twilight asked in reply. 

“You’re like his close cousin… or sister I reckon… of course he would. Celestia can’t possibly be any angrier when you two get home than she is already going to be. Might as well go on ahead and live it up a little before you got to go back and face the music. If you are going to get your backside tanned, you might as well do something worthy of the whoopin’ you’re about to receive,” Applejack said, her words honest and blunt. 

“I want to be married,” Twilight admitted. “After everything that’s happened, we nearly got killed Applejack. We almost died. Or worse… the worse part scares me Applejack. I’ve never had a stallion on my back before and when I was hauling Flash Sentry through the halls, all I could think about was wishing he was on my back for better circumstances,” she whispered, her cheeks turning bright red. 

“It’s a special feeling Twi, trusting somepony like that, to feel them against you, breathing on your neck, nuzzling around in your mane, and being close enough that it isn’t embarrassing or weird… you can just enjoy it and not be all tense about it. I hope you get that with Flash,” Applejack said as she rubbed her cheek against Twilight’s neck. “I think it will do you good.” 

“It would make me happy…” 
	
	
> Chapter 308
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The fourth day dawned, bleak and grey, and The Scorned Mare had remained unmolested through the night. Deep within the bowels of the ship there was life, the huddled masses thankful to have lived another day, the lovers thankful they still had their loves, and one unicorn who was busy trying to make sense of everything that was going on in his life. 

Lugus, who had woke up not long ago, loomed patiently near a much smaller griffon, a griffon that was practically bite sized compared to him, and he watched Bucky with a weary eye while giving a gentle nudge to the smaller griffon. 

Bucky, who had been awake through the night, stared blearily at Lugus and Belisama from over the top of a large cup of coffee. Lugus, who was looking at him defiantly, staring him in the eye, and Belisama, who averted her gaze and stared at the floor. One of her hind legs was in a plaster cast and slung to her body with an expanse of fabric. 

“Are you well?” Bucky inquired in a low gentle voice, looking down at Belisama in concern. “You have rested I hope… in a little while we are going to get food before we continue our… diplomacy… in this place.” 

“My king, I am well,” Belisama replied. 

“Don’t call me that,” Bucky requested. 

“Yes, as you command, Majesty,” Belisama answered. 

“Oh no, not that either,” Bucky begged. 

“Of course, Highness,” Belisama returned, her eyes still averted. 

“No titles of royalty,” Bucky stated, a simple command. 

“Yes master,” Belisama said obediently. 

“No, don’t say that either,” Bucky requested. 

“Yes my keeper,” Belisama replied. 

“You… you are wearing on my last nerve,” Bucky grunted, a hint of anger in his voice. “No more titles. Call me Bucky or call me nothing.” 

“Yes, as you request... Nothing,” Belisama responded, causing Lugus to chortle faintly in the back of his throat. 

“Lugus,” Bucky growled. 

“Yes my king?” Lugus replied. 

“I see what is going on here… griffons do have a sense of humour,” Bucky stated in an irritated voice. 

“I don’t know what you mean, Sire,” Lugus said, still looking Bucky in the eye. 

Sighing heavily, Bucky tried to collect his thoughts. He rubbed his cheek with his stump, closed his eye for a moment, and then took a drink of coffee. “I have been up all night thinking about you griffons and your leadership situation,” Bucky said, opening his eye and causing a thick purple mist to spill out. 

Lugus, suddenly very serious, lifted his crest and stared at Bucky intently. 

“If I might say so, the griffons want you for their king. You and Tannis. I have spoken with many, and the feeling is shared. We need a warrior king to protect Tannis… he is our best hope for survival… Tannis the Kind will give us the kind of life we want,” Belisama said. 

“Where is Tannis, by the way?” Bucky asked. 

“I woke him up,” Lugus replied. “He said he was coming, the events of everything that happened press down upon his spine and crush him.” 

“Well, while we are waiting… Belisama, to be honest, I do not know what to do with you… and I do not wish you insult you, but I don’t feel right about owning you,” Bucky said to the small griffoness. 

The griffoness looked up at Bucky for a moment, bravely looking him in the eye, and then she averted her gaze once again. Her wings fluttered and there was a ruffle of freshly cleaned feathers. 

Hearing the sound made Bucky suddenly miss Derpy, a painful aching sense of longing creeping into his barrel that made his heart feel cold. 

“In my life… I have had several masters. None of them have been particularly good. None of them have been mindful of my safety. The only kindness ever offered was that they kept my sister and I together and none of them raped us. I have always been left to fend for myself. I have lived my whole life in fear. And then you came,” Belisama said in low raspy voice. 

Lugus, moving suddenly, snatched Belisama without warning, wrapping his talons around her small body, lifting her up, and then he carefully set her down upon the table so she would be at eye level with Bucky so Bucky could see her. 

The griffoness panicked and started to leap off of the table, but Lugus snapped his talons once in warning, causing her to freeze in fright. 

Bucky studied her, taking her in, seeing how different she was now that she was cleaned up. Her cat half was calico, a mix of reds, golds, and oranges mixed with black and white patches. Her feathers were brown with orange hints. Her eyes were large and luminously green. Her beak was a tawny gold colour, almost tortoiseshell. 

“I am taking control over my own fate and I am choosing a better master. I have given myself to you in the hopes that I might have a better future. You saved me and took revenge upon my sister’s killers… you have provided me a service I have no chance of ever paying for,” Belisama explained.

“You don’t need to pay me for anything,” Bucky replied. 

“My last master was King Tanner… he gave me and my sister to his guard to reward their loyalty… you saved me… and you killed the king, making me either your property or part of your pride,” Belisama whispered, daring to look Bucky in the eye again. “I was part of his pride, but he never… took me… for a time, he found me useful.” 

“What is it that you do?” Bucky asked, leaning forward and drinking some of his coffee. 

“I am a skilled alchemist and a bit of a musician,” Belisama answered, lowering her haunches down to the table and sitting down carefully, mindful of her leg. 

“Wait, that is a valuable skill, why would he throw you away like that?” Bucky inquired, his ears perked forward. 

“Because… I overheard him talking about what was being planned for you and I called him a monster. I told him he was condemning us all to death. I called him a bad master… and a worse king,” Belisama answered in a wavering voice. 

Bucky recoiled as if he had been slapped. He fell back in his chair, slumping down, his head falling back so he could stare at he ceiling. “You’re very brave,” he whispered, looking upwards, his guts churning painfully. The little griffoness was not as submissive as she appeared. 

“Thank you sir, that is very kind of you to say,” Belisama murmured. 

“What do I do… Lugus, I don’t know what to do,” Bucky grumbled as he sat up straight again. He stared at Belisama, then at Lugus, and realised that Belisama was just as brave and fearless as Lugus was even at a fraction of his size. 

Another figure entered the room, moving through the dim darkness, very few lights had been turned on and the windows were currently closed. Tannis approached, his posture submissive, his head low and spine hunched. 

“I’m sorry,” Tannis apologised. “It was very difficult to move and get out of the bed.” 

“Combat will do that to you,” Lugus said in reply as Tannis sat down at the table. 

“Hello Belisama,” Tannis said nervously. He looked at Bucky, seeing his eye glowing in the dim light, and felt a chill. “Belisama and I know one another. I do not know her as well as I would like, but I do know she is trustworthy. I cared for her when I could, but it is considered bad form for a son to provide for his father’s pride.” 

“Tannis was kind to me,” Belisama stated, looking for one brief instant at Tannis. “He brought my sister and I fish and occasionally he gave us purgatives when we weren’t being watched.” 

“Sons conspire against their fathers… and a mindful king watches his family,” Tannis said nervously. “We are creatures of extreme paranoia. But I give you my word, Belisama will be loyal to you.” 

“I’ll deal with that later,” Bucky interjected. “For now, there is far more pressing and practical matters at hand.” 

“And those are?” Tannis inquired politely. 

“I am now your guardian, and Agnetha as well. I am claiming you both as spoils of war, and keeping you as my wards. Goshawk begged me to be Agnetha’s guardian before she died. You are my children, both of you, and I look after what is mine. From this moment onwards, both of you are under my protection and care,” Bucky answered, his tone cold and commanding as he leaned forwards. “As my adoptive wards, I am responsible for your well being and I intend to provide for that.” 

“Thank you sir, you are very kind,” Tannis said graciously. 

“You are now a ward of the War Chief of Equestria, and I ask that you willingly submit yourself to me Tannis. I must ask that you unconditionally surrender all of your power, titles, and claims to land in Griffonholm. Do you understand what I am asking?” Bucky questioned. 

“I do sir… and I, Tannis, now ward of Buckminster Bitters, do offer my unconditional surrender of everything I have and everything I am,” Tannis said in a strangled voice. “And I beg you for mercy for my former subjects.” 

“Wait… hold on to that thought, don’t jump to conclusions just yet,” Bucky said reassuringly. 

“I don’t understand sir,” Tannis said in a voice now cracking with emotion. 

“Tannis, Huginn and Muninn are no more. I intend to bury them under ice and heal the land. You do not have a kingdom here, but you do have kingdom. You may not have lands, but you do have your subjects. I am appointing you as king, under my authority. I will take you back to Equestria and I will reunite you with your subjects who have found a home there. They will be glad to have a king again,” Bucky explained. 

“But what of-” 

“Tannis… about the second king. I am going to assume that title because it seems to be what the griffons want, am I correct in this?” Bucky asked, interrupted Tannis mid sentence. 

“I… they… we… yes, sir, I have spoken to my subjects at length here on the ship trying to reassure them and give them hope, they revere you as their liberator,” Tannis replied, his eyes flooding over with tears and his voice becoming a pained screech. 

“In a few days, when this is over, it is my intention to have you and Agnetha marry. I will do it here, on the deck of The Scorned Mare. You are not to touch her until we return to Equestria and that little problem of yours is fixed. But I already know that you will not betray my trust,” Bucky said and then finished off his now cooled coffee in one gulp. 

“Of course not sir, I would never betray your trust,” Tannis squeaked, overcome with emotion. He wiped at his eyes and tried to regain his composure. 

“Belisama,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes my master?” Belisama replied. 

Grunting with annoyance, Bucky glared at the unrepentant griffoness. “I am appointing you as my liaison to the griffons. I can’t personally deal with all of them, but I can deal with you. Some are going to want to follow Tannis, others will want to follow me. It is my first decree that they be allowed to choose. I need an army, but not for war. Put out the word that I want hard workers, artisans, crafters of all stripes, anybirdy willing to obey my commands willingly. Let it be known that I will provide for them, but tell them they must be willing to learn and adapt to a new way of life. It is my intention to show them a new way. A better way. I will try to preserve what I can of the old ways, but a new way is needed if you desire a better future.” 

“Yes… master I will tell them,” Belisama replied. “And I eagerly await your new ways as your servant.” 

“Lugus,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes my friend?” Lugus answered. 

Raising his eyebrow, Bucky took note of how Lugus had addressed him. Not as king, but as friend, and he felt a smile threatening to spread across his muzzle. It seemed he was back in Lugus’ good graces again. 

“Lugus, I am appointing you as Defender of the Empire. You are now responsible for every single griffon and griffoness in my care that swears fealty to me. You will look after them, you will care for them, you will make sure the sick are tended to, and most importantly, you will protect them. These are now my children Lugus… DO NOT LET MY CHILDREN COME TO HARM.” 

With a stunned gasp, Lugus nodded his head, his beak clicking, and he raised his right talons, flexing them into a fist. “I will protect them my king,” Lugus vowed. “My life for them if necessary.” 

“When Sentinel awakes, inform him he has new duties. A prince has to get to know his subjects, and I want Sentinel to get his first taste of rule. He is to spend the day getting to know his subjects and earning their devotion and trust,” Bucky instructed. 

“Yes my king,” Lugus answered in a solemn voice. 

“In just a little while, I am going to take us to a place where we can get lots of fish. Bring as much as you can onboard and I will freeze them. My subjects must eat. Once provisions are secured, it is my intentions to find out where reinforcements came from. Twilight Sparkle and I have unfinished business. After we root out what is sure to be a hidden base, we move to the Hinterlands, explore a bit, do as much damage as we can, and then we will be off to Tradewinds to speak with the zebras and explain what happened. Also, I plan to stop by and speak to some healers I know… the last of the vile toxins from this wretched place need to be purged.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 309
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	One last group of survivors had been gathered up from Muninn, a group of griffons guarded by a warrior that Tannis knew, who had been huddled in a house basement waiting for the storm to blow over. A rather large, though not quite Lugus large, griffon had protected a group of much smaller griffons and griffonesses, keeping them safe. 

The warrior was being carried below, and Bucky doubted he would survive. Had they found him sooner, he might have been patched up, but he had done what his honour demanded be done, keeping those smaller and weaker than himself safe and getting them out of the castle when everything had gone down. 

There were far too many lives on board The Scorned Mare and Bucky worried about what to do. Sighing, he made his way into the navigation cabin, closed the door behind him, and then sat down in the command chair. The console came to life when his magic touched it, and he set a course for the archipelago where they had held a picnic not all that long ago. 

As the ship moved off towards its destination, Bucky realised that the griffons and non unicorns shared a problem, getting the short end of the stick from the universe. There was a distinct lack of magic and life simply wasn’t fair. As he departed from the blackened city, his thoughts drifted towards noble goals and aspirations, a desire to make life a little bit more fair somehow, to give the griffons and non unicorn races a better brighter future that did not include ruining the earth and poisoning themselves. There had to be a happy medium with industry and mechanisation. There had to be a replacement for magic, or at least a substitute. 

The door opened and Lyra entered, she came in quietly and sat down in the chair beside him, squeezing up against him. The chair was large enough for one very large pony, a full sized stallion, or one Bucky and a mare. 

“Hello Lyra… come for a lesson?” Bucky asked, glad to feel Lyra pressed up against him. He caught a whiff of the distinctive scent of ozone that Lyra always had about her and felt a wave of relaxation crash over him, like the ocean slamming into the rocky shore. 

“Yeah I did,” Lyra replied, rubbing her ear against Bucky’s neck. 

“How many?” Bucky inquired. 

“Too many,” Lyra answered. “But not enough. The current count at this moment is one hundred and forty one griffons plus the ponies we have with us, not counting Lugus, crammed on board a ship meant to hold sixty. We don’t have enough bathrooms. The bunks are crowded. We have griffons sleeping on the floor in the common room and the dining area. The entire crew area is stuffed and the passenger cabins are overcrowded.” 

“Oh dear,” Bucky said. 

“And yes, I counted the griffons we just took on,” Lyra added. 

“How are the gender ratios?” Bucky inquired, a look of concern spreading over his face, his nostrils flaring.

“More females than males, but I don’t have a hard count yet. Sorry. I didn’t think of that. From what I’ve heard, among the smaller griffons, a lot of the little males fought valiantly to buy time for the females to escape. Being a member of the servant caste sounds like it sucks. They get treated worse than the earth ponies do. The little griffons don’t seem as… off as the larger griffons,” Lyra replied. 

“The bigger griffons are sick from eating sapient life I think, and other griffons. I’ve read about this happening… it happens to diamond dogs that eat other diamond dogs. They become psychotic. The diamond dogs however got smart about it, and they started killing diamond dogs that had a taste for their own kind. The little griffons are the food… from what I’ve been able to gather, the little ones fly off to find fish because nobirdy bothers to feed them or look after them, at least in Muninn. I think we can save them Lyra… I have a plan,” Bucky said, wrapping his good right foreleg around Lyra’s withers and pulling her close. 

“I’ve been talking to Belisama,” Lyra said. Her brows furrowed when she heard Bucky groan loudly and tense up beside her. “What? I spoke with Lugus at length. Bon Bon too… Bon Bon and Belisama are rapidly becoming besties.” 

“Oh for the love of Luna’s night…” Bucky swore. 

“Lugus brought up some very compelling points,” Lyra said in a low patient voice, the voice she used when there was something she wanted from Bon Bon or Bucky. 

“Lyra… can’t we talk about something, anything, other than this subject?” Bucky begged in a wheedling voice to Lyra beside him. 

“If you keep her as an owned servant Derpy is going to give you the wing slapping of a lifetime. It might even be worse than the time Celestia got ahold of you and I already know that when Derpy hears what Lugus has to say that Derpy is probably going to demand that you do the right thing… once she cools off about it that is,” Lyra said in a low voice, leaning on Bucky and rubbing his chest with her hoof, making little circles, stroking him gently. 

“And just what is the right thing?” Bucky demanded, his patience running dangerously thin, and he feared he knew how Lyra would answer. 

“Bucky… you are now the undisputed king of the griffons. If you keep her as a servant, the entire world will see that as a sign of you subjugating the griffons and enslaving them. The other sapient species will talk… but if you marry her, if you keep her as an equal, so the griffons have a queen who is actually a member of their own species, the rest of the world will see that you treat the griffons as equals… more so, elevating one of the servant caste griffons, the smallest and weakest of their species, to the position of queen, it will be a powerful political statement against their culture of war and domination,” Lyra explained in reply. 

“And let me guess, Lugus told you this?” Bucky questioned. 

“A little. Some of this is my own reasoning. I do try to be a philosopher at times,” Lyra said in a low voice with a teasing smile. “This is why I am awesome and Bon Bon loves me.” 

“No, Bon Bon loves you because you have a soft squeezable plot and you make the most adorable ‘meep meep’ noises while she works you over,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Did she tell you this?” Lyra asked in panic. 

“In her sleep, she told me about all kinds of things as I laid there awake and listening to her as she snuggled me to death… she thought I was you and she said all kinds of things,” Bucky answered, a rakish grin spreading over his muzzle. 

“Bon Bon told me she loves me for my mind,” Lyra breathed in shock, her eyes as wide as saucers, her ears splaying out sideways. “But this whole time she’s loved me for my sexy sexy buttocks.” 

“You sound okay with that,” Bucky stated, turning to look at Lyra with his remaining eye, having to turn his head around completely because she was on his right. 

“Every mare wants to know she is pretty… even me,” Lyra admitted. 

“Oh, you are pretty,” Bucky agreed. 

“Distracting me from Belisama will not make the problem go away,” Lyra said, raising her eyebrow and squinting one eye at Bucky. 

“Nuts!” Bucky snapped. 

“She is in our cabin speaking with Bon Bon right now and getting the lowdown on the living situation back at home,” Lyra reported. “Bon Bon is also giving her a list of your known weaknesses, how and when you like your tea, how you like your coffee, and various ways to get on your good side.” 

“Bonnie has betrayed me!” Bucky bellowed. 

“Oh stop being a camel kisser,” Lyra muttered. 

“What?” Bucky asked, his voice full of confusion. 

“A camel kisser… a drama dairy lover,” Lyra explained. 

Bucky’s expression went blank, his eye blinking rapidly. Dromedary lover… His eye twitched painfully as he thought about his love of milk… especially fresh from the teat. With just a few words, Lyra’s wit had completely defenestrated him, leaving him dumbstruck. 

Somehow, Lyra Heartstrings had completely undone Buckminster Bitters, known to some as the ‘Dark Lord,’ known to others as the ‘Boogeypony,’ while others simply called him ‘father’ or ‘daddy’ with the exception of one who called him ‘mama.’ 

Lifting her hoof, Lyra gently closed Bucky’s mouth, pressing his lower jaw upwards and causing his teeth to gently click together. She gently wiped away a little dribble of drool from the corner of his mouth, kissed him gently upon the lips, gave him a little squeeze, and then Lyra allowed herself a maniacal victory laugh. 



 

Sitting down in the sand, Rainbow Dash tried to collect her thoughts as she watched the many griffons pulling fish from the tidal pool while others soared over the surrounding ocean looking for prey. 

Her head ached painfully and each throb of her scalp made her vision fuzz over. All she could think about was the feeling of the griffon’s talon slipping under her scalp and tearing downwards along her skull. Just a little bit more, just a tiny bit more... she would have lost her eye, and with that, her depth perception. No more trying to be a Wonderbolt. No more precision flying. No more being Rainbow Dash. Life missing an eye wouldn’t be much of a life at all. She had killed one griffon, she knew that for certain, and maybe one or two more. It was hard to tell, things got confusing in the chaos of the battle. The knowledge that she had killed something weighed heavily upon her mind. 

She fell over backwards in the sand and felt the sun on her belly. 

“Why did I do it?” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. 

Because… when you saw Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry in danger, you moved to save both of them, her mind answered. 

The pain in her head spiked and she felt a wave of nausea. 

“I love them both,” the pegasus murmured to herself in an almost inaudible utterance, her face contorting with pain. “I want their happiness more than my own. I was willing to die for both of them.” 



 

“Have you spoken with Buckminster yet?” Rarity asked Applejack, who was sitting beside her in the sand. 

“Not yet, but I plan to do so… unless you want to be the one who does it,” Applejack replied in a low voice, watching Rainbow Dash who lay muttering in the sand a short distance away. 

“You talk to Buckminster and give him some of that horse sense you have,” Rarity said. “You make him listen to reason Applejack… how did your talk with Twilight go?” 

“She was real easy to lead to water, I just hope we can get her to drink,” Applejack replied. “She’s all for the marriage idea to Flash Sentry, away from the controlling demands of Princess Celestia. I think she’s thirsty. Once she goes to drink, and Buckminster goes to perform the ceremony, we drag Rainbow Dash to Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry, and we do what’s best for all three of them, ‘cause we’re good friends and we know what is best for her. Ayup… she ain’t been bred yet Rarity, that ain’t natural for a mare her age.” 

“What if Rainbow Dash resists? I mean, she doesn’t seem like she could put up much of a fight right now, but she is stubborn, just like another mare I know,” Rarity questioned. 

“Hey, that’s not nice, talking about Pinkie Pie when she’s comatose,” Applejack scolded, turning to scowl at Rarity. “And if Rainbow Dash resists, by golly, I got rope. I never leave home without rope. Too durn useful.” 

Her lips pulling into a moue, Rarity made a pouty look at Applejack. “Yes… poor Pinkie… so we tie her up then? Think we’ll need a gag?” 

“Yes, if we have to, I’ll tie up Rainbow Dash… again… I’ve lost track of how many times it’s been by now,” Applejack replied, raising her eyebrow and looking at the blue pegasus in the sand with a great deal of concern. “And if we have to, we’ll gag her.” 

“And what about Twilight?” Rarity inquired in a low conspiratorial whisper. 

“Just stick with the plan. She’s right ticklish. If she tries to say no, go for her ribs. Spare nothing Rarity… use that fancy magic you got and you make her beg for mercy. This is for her own good and her happiness, and I know that Buckminster will do what is best for her, ‘cause he’s cold blooded evil like that. He’ll do the right thing,” Applejack answered. 

“And what of Flash Sentry?” Rarity questioned, confirming the last part of the plan. 

“He can’t talk, so he can’t say ‘no’ unless a miracle happens,” Applejack responded. 

“So operation ‘Form a Flock’ is definitely on?” Rarity asked. 

“Once I talk to Buckminster and make him see reason, yeah it is,” Applejack replied. 

“I’m worried Applejack… if we are doing the right thing,” Rarity admitted. 

“Oh foalnapping the wedding couple and encouraging them to do the right thing is a fine earth pony tradition… stop being such a unicorn Rarity.” 
	
> Chapter 310
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sprawled out in the sand, Bucky was getting some much needed time with Harper, who was delighted to see her ‘mama’ and be fawned over. The foal burbled and cooed as it sat in the sand beside Bucky, her bright orange mane whipping around in the salty ocean breeze. 

“Everything went wrong,” Bucky confessed to his foal, his face pinched with worry. 

“Wong,” Harper repeated, looking up her mama and smiling. “Wong. Wong wong wong wong wong,” the foal sang. 

Blinking, the sun was entirely too bright for Bucky, but he knew some time spent in the sun was important. He reached out and stroked Harper with his right fetlock, pushing the mass of curls that was her mane out of her eyes. The foal giggled at his touch. 

“How are you and Peekaboo getting along?” Bucky asked, treasuring this moment of small talk with Harper. 

“Sissy,” Harper announced in a very matter-of-fact voice. 

“Yes, Peekaboo is your sister. Very good. All ponies and now even griffons in your tribe are your sisters,” Bucky praised. 

Harper turned her head and looked over at the many griffons, who, along with Lugus, were busy securing provisions for the trip. She watched them for a moment, her brow furrowing and her eyes narrowing. “Sissies?” she asked, pointing with one hoof. 

“Yes, that is your tribe… Harper, you are going to grow up and you are going to protect them… you’re daddy’s little zapper,” Bucky said in a very foalish foal-talk voice. 

“Mama,” Harper corrected, eyeing her mama sternly. 

“Yes, fine, you’re mama’s little zapper,” Bucky agreed, nodding his head. 

“Birdies,” Harper chirped in a cheerful voice .

“Yes Harper, birdies,” Bucky singsonged, finally letting go of his tension and relaxing. 

“Harpy like birdies,” Harper announced, putting together a sentence, her eyes crossing in concentration and her ears splaying out sideways. “Peekaboo birdy?” 

“Peekaboo is sort of a birdy… she’s a pegasus,” Bucky answered, feeling very proud that Harper was starting to ask such important questions about the world around her. 

The foal carefully considered her father’s words, her ears rotating and pinning back against her head, vanishing into the vast nebulae of her springy curly mane. “Burpy birdy… miss Burpy.” 

“Aw, Harper you’re adorable when you miss your other mothers,” Bucky crooned. “And she certainly is Burpy.” 

“Sand,” Harper blurted out, poking the sand beneath her. 

“Yes, this is sand. Mama loves sand, because mama can make glass from sand,” Bucky replied, trying to teach Harper something new. 

“Mama… ass… sand!” Harper chirped. 

“Glass,” Bucky corrected. 

“Ass!” Harper repeated. 

“Eh, close enough,” Bucky reluctantly agreed. 





Sentinel stared out at the dozens and dozens of eyes staring at him, eyes of all different colours. He had trouble making out the emotions on the faces staring at him, as they all had beaks, hard beaks that did not move, frown, or smile. All of them had crests of different shapes and sizes, and almost all of them had their crests raised. 

“Ripple… I’m freaking out,” Sentinel whispered to his sister. 

“Sentinel… don’t freak out,” Ripple said reassuringly. 

“Ripple, you want to know the best way to make a pony who is freaking out freak out? You tell them not to freak out,” Sentinel hissed. 

“Oh hush you big baby,” Ripple retorted, lightly slapping Sentinel with her wing. 

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Sentinel said in a loud clear voice, addressing the crowd. “Did I do something wrong?” 

“You brought fish to the weak and the wounded,” a griffoness said, a tiny griffoness smaller than Sentinel. 

“My father wanted me to look after you,” Sentinel responded. 

“Usually, for us, we servants, we are left to fend for ourselves, and those not strong enough to survive are picked off… you cared for those of us who could not care for themselves our prince,” another griffon said, averting his gaze slightly when Sentinel turned to look at him. “The weak are usually left to die because they become a detriment.” 

“That ends!” Sentinel shouted. “All of you are to stick together and look after one another. And my father and I will look after you as best as we can. Be kind to one another… look after one another… your numbers are too few now.” 

“We little griffons have always looked after one another… it is how we have survived,” a little griffoness said in a clarion voice. “But the big ones only look after themselves… most of them. You were very kind to look after us… kind like Tannis who risked his father’s wrath.” 

“Tanner is dead… my father made Tanner drink his own crown,” Sentinel announced. 

“So what happens with us now?” a griffon questioned. 

“Now… now…” Sentinel stammered, unsure what to say. 

“Now we take you home, we go back to Equestria and you get to live a peaceful sheltered life,” Ripple said in a loud commanding voice, lifting her head high as she addressed the griffons. “There is a vast wood called the Everfree. You will be able to hunt there if you so desire. Eat nothing that talks!” 

“We are not really hunters,” one of the griffons said, a bony looking male whose wing was in a sling. “We are not of the hunter caste.” 

“But surely you can hunt,” Ripple replied, looking at the wounded griffon. 

“We are expected to work, to labour, not to hunt,” the wounded griffon said to Ripple, looking at her for a moment before averting his gaze. 

“That ends now,” Sentinel announced. “You are free.” 

“But we want to be servants… we just want worthy masters!” a griffoness shouted. “We wish to be provided for while we do what we do best. You don’t ask a hunter to make a beautiful mural… you don’t ask a warrior to craft a bell. Hunters cannot paint a portrait. Warriors do not create fine watches filled with perfect tiny cogs and delicate machinery. And a master craftsbirdy cannot perfect their craft if they are forced to hunt or do things not related to their craft… this is why we need masters. We must have masters if we are to be good artists. Our needs must be provided for in exchange for what we do.” 

“We can hunt if we have to, but we want our work appreciated. There is no shame in being a servant to a worthy master,” a griffon added. 

“We want our lives to have meaning and for our crafts to have value,” a griffoness demanded in an angry voice. “For too long we have been treated as slave labour that can be eaten when it is convenient!” 

“That has come to an end,” Sentinel said, trying to reassure the crowd. He looked over at Ripple and raised his eyebrow. “I am not sure I understand what is going on,” he whispered to his sister. 

“We just want a say in our own lives, to express our opinions without being killed for it,” a griffon explained. “It feels nice to assemble and gather, to address our prince and not fear for our lives… we just want to speak with you. We want our needs known but we are very frightened and we don’t know what is going to become of us.” 

“You have nothing to fear from me,” Sentinel replied, lifting his head as high as he could. “You can make watches?” he asked, the oddest bits of information sticking in his brain as he tried to take in the situation. 

“We have a few clockmakers and watchmakers in our ranks,” a griffoness answered. “Most of them were abducted and taken to Huginn.”

“Any brewers?” Ripple asked, looking out over the crowd. She saw a few raised talons and smiled. “Well I have good news… this family makes its fortune from brewing and alcohol. Barley will be very happy to see you, and your king, Bucky, my father, he is known for making beer. It is what his destiny mark ordained him to do.” 

“Enough rest,” Sentinel announced. “More fish are required. If you want to eat, we need more fish caught. I don’t think we have nearly enough for the trip. I will take all of your concerns to my father and speak to him about your desires.” 


 

Floating off of the coast of Muninn, Bucky stood on the deck of The Scorned Mare and heaved a sigh. Beside him was Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings. Bucky looked first at Lyra, then Twilight Sparkle, and then he looked up the sky, knowing what he must do. 

“What if the griffons still come back here and try to survive the winter?” Lyra asked. 

“It is possible that they might try to hole up in one of the castles and then survive by fishing… the winter might actually work out to their advantage, protecting them from their neighbours,” Twilight reasoned. 

“I suppose some griffons might be foolish or stubborn enough to do that,” Bucky admitted, shaking his head sadly. “Desperation would only increase their need for predation, and they would continue to hunt in surrounding lands.” 

The Lord of Winter moved to the rail and looked down at the soiled sea. He touched the water with his mind, extending his will, bringing the chill of death to the water. The sea began to roil beneath The Scorned Mare, churning and foaming, and a freezing wind gusted against the ship, causing all those on deck to shiver. 

Twilight, sensing what Bucky was doing, feeling the weave and the flow of his magic, offered aid, her magic blending seamlessly with his own. Their time working together on the train had impacted her profoundly, and she found she could magically connect with Bucky in a way that she could with no other unicorn or alicorn. 

“Woah, something big is happening,” Lyra said in a frightened voice as she moved to peer over the rail at the water down below. The sea was turning into massive chunks of ice, which pulled themselves together. 

As Lyra watched, two massive figures crawled out of the ocean, both made of ice, each one over a hundred feet tall. They climbed the cliff, coming ashore on Muninn island, and both of the large figures turned around to look up at The Scorned Mare. They were bipedal, large, two giant ice golems.

“Deliver ruin upon those castles… protect this land. Allow no griffons to return. Scare them away if you can, kill those who resist. Your service is done when winter ends,” Bucky commanded in a loud imperious voice. 

The two giant golems nodded in acknowledgement and then stomped off to destroy what little bit was left of Huginn and Muninn. Bucky watched them go, Twilight Sparkle beside him, and after a moment of silent reflection, he turned his gaze skyward. 

From his horn came a beam of blue light. It rose into the sky, and a massive glowing snowflake appeared. It flashed for a moment, a nearly blinding flash, and Twilight Sparkle was forced to avert her eyes for a moment. 

Clouds began to gather and the temperature started to drop. 

“How long?” Twilight asked. 

“As long as it takes,” Bucky replied. 

“How long do you think it will be?” Twilight asked again. 

“Hundreds of years,” Bucky answered sadly. “It will take several generations of endless winter before the ground is clean and ready for life again. The storm will end when the season passes, and the earth is ready for spring.” 

In the distance, a tower crumbled over as one of the massive golems punched Muninn castle, shattering a wall and dislodging the tower. The other golem was crossing the bridge to deal with what remained of Huginn castle. 

“What about the treasuries?” Twilight asked. “Gold. Wealth. Riches…”

“Who cares? I don’t,” Bucky responded as the first flakes of snow began to fall, large fluffy flakes that were shockingly white given the amount of pollution in the air. “I have what I consider valuable now… who cares about anything else.” 

“The griffons mean that much to you?” Twilight inquired, shaking snowflakes from her muzzle. 

“More than I could ever hope to explain in words… Twilight, we failed them,” Bucky responded. “And now, I am going to spend the rest of my life making it up to them and giving back what was taken from them.” 

“I’m not sure I understand,” Twilight murmured, shaking even more snowflakes out of her mane as the snow came down thick and heavy now. “I mean, things ended badly, but we saved Equestria.” 

“We didn’t save Griffonholm,” Bucky answered, turning away from Twilight and heading off to the navigation cabin. 



 

Bucky began the hunt for the rest of the griffon fleet. He studied the map carefully, looking at the vast illusionary projection, zooming in and studying the topography of the surrounding land, and taking into account the direction Twilight Sparkle had seen more ships come from. The Scorned Mare drifted through the rapidly growing blizzard as Bucky took the ship east. 

Griffonholm was a large country, most of it was mountainous, with the exceptions of the lands near the coasts. To the north were pony lands, pony lands under constant threat of war or invasion from the griffons, as well as the llama homeland. To the east was Donksylvania, the homeland of the donkeys, now gone and part of Griffonholm. Donksylvania was mostly low mountains and many lush alpine valleys fed by melting snows from the jagged peaks all around them.

Following his gut instinct, Bucky plotted a course for Donksylvania, thinking a valley would be a perfect place to hide a military installation. Activating the controls with his magic, he changed the map to show the real terrain of the ground beneath him as he flew overhead so he could look for clues. 

They were out of the ruined city and soaring over the ruined countryside. Bucky took note of the clearly abandoned settlements dotting the map, ruined hulks of buildings, roads, canals that no longer contained water, and, much to his surprise, a rather well maintained railroad that snaked through the land and off to the mountains in the east. 

Impatient, wishing for this to end, Bucky goosed the throttle and urged his ship onwards, hoping to root out the hidden griffon threat so the world would be a little safer. 

Studying the map, he noticed that the Donksylvania was bordered by a diamond dog kingdom. Feeling a crushing sense of sadness, Bucky realised that the poor donkeys never stood much of a chance of long term survival being trapped between two hostile neighbours. 

Bucky slowly recalled Agnetha’s words the day of the tour… the day before the dreadful night… Griffonholm was getting food and water from the diamond dogs. 

“...This wealth allows us to secure water and food from the diamond dog kingdom off to the east.”

Cursing, Bucky hoped that he wasn’t going to have to create an international incident as he began to realise there still might be a considerable threat to deal with off to the east.
	
> Chapter 311
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A loud klaxon went off, nearly deafening Bucky, and he saw five blips moving on the projection screen. He growled angrily, infuriated that something would threaten him, his ship, and those he was sworn to protect. 

“So this is what Lyra woke up to,” Bucky snarled as he watched the map come to life with five big blips and hundreds of smaller ones. “What an awful sound.” 

He watched as Twilight Sparkle teleported on deck, her horn glowing fiercely, and for a moment, he felt a powerful spike of love for her. Not romantic love, but a fierce love nonetheless, a powerful feeling of fraternal love that exists between siblings. 

Lyra appeared by his side quite suddenly, popping into existence in the navigation cabin. She snatched a horn ring tethered to the console with a fine crystalline cable, slid it over her horn, and then she convulsed for a moment while her thaumaturgical system integrated with the ship’s arcano-tech defense systems. 

“Oh that’s a rush,” Lyra moaned, an almost orgasmic sound, her eyes going white as her body flooded with excessive mana. The smell of ozone filled the air and The Scorned Mare thrummed with power as she merged with Lyra. 

Bucky stepped out of the navigation cabin and teleported to the commander’s cabin. 



 

He burst into existence with his usual flurry of snowflakes and ice, greeted by a frightened squawk. Belisama shrieked when Bucky burst into the room, and Bucky saw her cling to Bon Bon. A hairbrush lay on the bed, evidence that Bon Bon and Belisama were getting to know each other. 

Saying nothing, Bucky went to his trunk, flipped it over, opened it, and began to pull out his armor. He snatched up several spell jars and slipped the helmet over his head, which caused his armor to rapidly come together around his body. In his hurry, he neglected to close the lid of his trunk. 

Now armored, Bucky looked at Bon Bon and Belisama. “Stay in here. We’ll be fine.” 

Ready to go, Bucky stomped out of the commander’s cabin, down the hall, and made his way to the deck of The Scorned Mare where Twilight Sparkle was waiting. 



 

“We got a problem Buckminster,” Twilight reported.

“And that is?” Bucky replied. 

“I can’t tap into the sun again, it’s dark,” Twilight Sparkle answered in panic. 

“So use other combat spells,” Bucky responded. 

“I really don’t know other combat spells,” Twilight whimpered in alarm. 

“Figure something out Twilight,” Bucky barked. “Our lives depend on it!” 

Twilight watched as Bucky headed over to the rail and looked down. She went over to join him and peered over the rail at the ships rising up and gaining altitude to greet them. Many griffons flew alongside the ships, and incoming rifle fire began to happen, the bullets bouncing from the kinetic dispersal shields of The Scorned Mare. 

Reflexively, Twilight Sparkle cast a powerful shield around the ship and began to summon her magic, preparing to use her telekinesis as an offensive weapon. 

“Goodbye,” Bucky announced and then leapt over the rail. 

Screaming, Twilight watched as Bucky dropped away, she tried to grab him but felt her magic being blocked, a gentle nudge of telekinesis to let her know that it was okay. She watched him plummet to the ship beneath them, slam into the gasbag, rip through, and disappear from sight. 

“He’s a madpony!” Twilight screamed as the first volley of cannonfire hit her shields. 



 

Tearing through the gasbag and dropping through the compressed stormclouds inside, Bucky felt a tingle through his armor. It was like kissing Lyra when she was excited or being playfully zapped by Harper when she was in one of her moods. A second later, he dropped through the bottom of the gasbag, crashed into the deck of the ship, tore through the deck of the ship, dropped through the floor below, and came to an abrupt crushing halt in a dining room several floors below the deck, surrounded by several very frightened looking griffons, a few diamond dogs, and one very disturbed looking minotaur. 

“Mind if I drop in?” Bucky deadpanned, his voice cold and mechanical as it came out of his helmet. 

With a flash of blue-green light, a glowing purple orb dropped to the floor, bounced several times, and smashed at the hooves of the minotaur, who was still frozen in shock and surprise. 

“You poor dumb bastard, you have no idea,” Bucky growled as the spell took hold of the minotaur and several nearby diamond dogs, outlining them in a purple glow. 

The room around Bucky erupted in sexual violence, a frenzy of frantic frenetic rape. 

“My work here is done,” Bucky announced, moving on and leaving the room behind him. He exited a doorway, moved into a hall, and was immediately shot in the face, the bullet slamming into his visor. 

The griffon yanked down on the lever and fired again, and again, and then a third time, before reaching the conclusion that his gun was doing nothing. He screamed, turned to flee, and Bucky froze him solid. 

All around him, the ship began to freeze over, water pipes began bursting, and metal screeched as the cold became unbearable. Stomping down the hallway, Bucky found some stairs upwards, took them, and then emerged onto the next deck. He peered around, the lights flicking as the electric systems began to die. The ship was no doubt leaking cloudstuff and was probably sinking. He took the next flight of stairs, and kept going upwards, until he emerged onto the deck. 

All around him was electric death as the electro-cannons on The Scorned Mare fired upon the griffons who tried to take his ship. The ship that Bucky was on was indeed sinking, and a nearby ship was on fire and going down as well. 

There was a deafening boom and Bucky saw the shields around The Scorned Mare flicker. A gunship with an enormous cannon was firing upon The Scorned Mare and Bucky immediately realised that the gunship was a credible threat. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t hold off that kind of firepower forever, and the shields around The Scorned Mare would deplete rapidly. 

Knowing that it would drain him terribly, Bucky teleported, moving himself and the enormous mass of his armor to the gunship, preparing a few orbs to be ready to drop ahead of time. 



 

Bucky was greeted with gunfire, bullets slamming into his armor from all sides, and he began to laugh crazily as the absurdity of the situation took hold. He dropped his orbs, one purple, one black, tossing them into the crowded deck carelessly, not caring who he killed or targeted for the snuggle-struggle about to happen. 

The Love Boat, the ship he was last on, was sinking rapidly, he watched it go for a moment before turning his attention to the task at hand. 

What he saw concerned him. A massive figure strode through the crowd, shoving others aside, ignoring the magical compulsion around him. A large Lugus sized figure, only larger than Lugus. And far more terrifying. 

The griffon, if it could even be still called a griffon, was more machine than griffon. Its beak was gone, replaced by a serrated metal beak, one eye was missing, covered in a shining steel plate, and both front legs were gone, replaced by mechanical legs and talons. The figure was armored, and both wings were metallic and batlike. On its back, there was a large square armored box with several steel coiled tubes that connected into the griffon’s neck. 

The most terrifying thing about the massive figure was the odd magical signature he had, which was distinctly unicorn magic in nature. It worried and concerned Bucky. He immediately began to worry that the griffons had powerful unicorns working with them. 

The figure charged, and much to Bucky’s surprise, he felt something slam into his armor. The big griffon wasn’t simply bounced away by Bucky’s defensive protections. Bucky felt himself sliding backwards towards the rail, and, as rage overtook him, he angled his legs to hook his claws into the wooden deck planks. 

Summoning up a massive thudding blast of telekinesis, Bucky knocked the figure away, a blow that should have been instantly fatal, but the big armored figure was already shrugging it off. All around the two armored figures was a cacophony of murder and rape, the effects of Bucky’s spell jars having a horrible effect upon the griffons. 

The griffon lept again; Bucky felt the much larger griffon slam into him for the second time, and then he heard the screeching of metal. Realising that the griffon’s mechanical claws were somehow cutting into his own armor, Bucky felt a growing sense of concern. It was time to end this, no matter the cost of magical energy expenditure. 

He grabbed the big griffon by the head and began squeezing, applying as much force as he could. Bucky felt his magic being resisted, something was pushing back, the griffon had powerful enchantments upon his armor and his body. A strange green glow surrounded the griffon’s body as Bucky lifted him into the air, still applying crushing force to the griffon’s head. Bucky began to apply his will, concentrating upon the goal of simply pinching the griffon’s head between two massive forces of applied telekinesis. 

The big griffon squawked, his mechanical beak opening wide, and there was a screeching sound of metal fatigue. Beside him, another airship suddenly exploded, and the ship that Bucky was on shuddered from the blast. 

Finally, the griffon’s head exploded, bursting like a busted boil. There was a bright flash of green light and the griffon’s body fell the ground, convulsing, his mechanical legs kicking and shredding the deck. 

A concussive blast came from the griffon’s chest as it suddenly exploded, showering the area around the body with internal organs, bits of meat, and feathers. The metal box upon the griffon’s back burst open, a flood of green liquid spilling out, and with it, the slimy body of a unicorn, a legless, eyeless unicorn whose body only existed as as life support system for the horn. Tubes emerged from the unicorn’s body in several places, and a magical collector was still connected to the horn. The griffon and the unicorn had been connected by a series of tubes. 

Bucky felt sick and disgusted. He froze all of the moisture in the gasbag above him solid, causing it to rupture, and then he teleported away as the ship exploded violently, releasing shards of ice flying off in all directions, damaging the remaining ships, the massive ice bomb killing hundreds of airborne griffons, skewing them with ice or freezing them solid. 

He miscalculated his teleportation to The Scorned Mare and found himself appearing mid air. Sighing, he gave up and accepted the fact that he was going to fall, and he looked down at the shipyard below him. He had found the base. They were well into what used to be Donksylvania at this point. 

He crashed into the ground a few moments later, surrounded by some very surprised diamond dogs and a hoard of minotaurs, all of whom looked at him stupidly. Above him, a battle raged. Not too far away, a large airship crashed into the ground, landing on top of a massive building, setting the whole thing ablaze. 

The group, looking at Bucky, wanted no part of the armored figure that had just fallen out of the sky from the flaming battle up above them. They fled, running as fast as their legs could carry them, and Bucky was content to let them go, the minotaurs mooing an apology to the angry armored figured that had dropped out a sky filled with lightning, ice, and fire. 

The base was in ruins. Flaming wreckage was falling all around him, and Bucky saw a massive opening in the mountainside where two ships were housed, hidden from view from up above. Another ship was moored out in the open, and it was currently on fire. A large chunk of airship hull dropped upon him, and Bucky grunted as he had to free himself from beneath the flaming chunk of wreckage. 

The battle here was all but done, but Bucky suspected there would be more bases of operations in the Hinterlands. He began the long walk to the cavernous opening in the side of the mountain, seeing the airships gave him an idea, and he hoped that a little luck would be on his side. 



 

A few dead griffons, minotaurs, and diamond dogs later, Bucky approached the hangar, eyeing the airships as he walked, stepping over the corpses of those foolish enough to oppose him in battle. He was willing to live and let live, but these stupid few had decided to open fire upon him. 

The ships were fairly large and were clearly of zebra make. One was partially dismantled, being stripped apart, probably so the griffons could turn it into a warship. The other was mostly intact and hadn’t been picked over yet. The gasbags were made with unicorn magic, and Bucky guessed that these ships came from the shipyards of Tradewinds. 

The skies above him had gone silent, and Bucky was thankful that it was over. He craned his head around and saw The Scorned Mare descending slowly, the electro-cannons still glowing brightly, and a bright magenta coloured shield still around it. 

Something nearby exploded, and Bucky couldn’t be bothered to investigate what it was. He turned his head back around and began to investigate the hangar, his visor spotlight beam glowing brightly, flooding the area with lurid green light that was easy on his remaining eye. He had fixed the focusing problem on his visor and it now produced an abundance of light, drawing directly from his emerald sunstone eye. 

The mostly intact ship seemed sound, and Bucky slowly walked around it, looking it over as it floated just a few yards off the ground, moored in place with chains and cables. The griffons had taken it cleanly and swiftly, without a lot of damage to the ship itself. 

It looked to be a convoy freighter, longer than the The Scorned Mare by half, and whatever armament it once had, had been stripped away. It was a large vessel, and as Bucky came to the rear of the ship, he saw there was one big problem. 

The rear section of the ship was open, gaping, and the propulsion system had been completely gutted, probably removed and placed on board a griffon ship of some type to upgrade it to modern airscrew propulsion. As he walked around the rear, he saw some doors in the back of the hangar, barricaded doors. He suspected he knew what would be found behind them, and he did not look forward to opening the doors. 

Bucky heard voices, familiar voices, and he looked off in the direction of the hangar opening. Twilight approached, Lugus by her side, his axe upon his back, and much to his shock and surprise, he saw Belisama. 

With his rifle. 

The little griffoness was flying, flapping her wings, the rifle clutched in her talons, taken from his trunk. Bucky watched as she flew rapidly to meet him, her crest raised in concern, her wings beating rapidly. 

“Master! You are safe… I was worried for you! I saw you drop over the rail when I came abovedecks,” Belisama said when she saw Bucky. 

“What are you doing out of the safety of my cabin… and more importantly, why do you have my rifle?” Bucky questioned as Twilight and Lugus approached. 

“I was worried for my master and I took matters into my own talons,” Belisama replied, averting her gaze and looking down at the ground, her head ducking low. “Master’s wife Bon Bon tried to stop me, but I was very quick, and she is very slow.” 

“But what are you doing with my rifle?” Bucky demanded, his patience wearing somewhat thin. 

“At first, she was missing, but once she had the basics figured out, she was making headshots on the griffons, picking them out of the air and shooting them where they stood on the decks of the other ships… her skill… her rapidly acquired skill, and accuracy, is impressive,” Lugus reported as he drew near. “I do not approve of firearms, but Belisama is a remarkable shot.” 

“I don’t approve of this at all,” Twilight muttered. “You shouldn’t even have that rifle Buckminster… I’m sure Celestia will have plenty to say about this.” 

“I was worried for my master and my king… I could not sit idly by and do nothing,” Belisama said in a pleading suplicative voice. “And I saw the means to protect my fellow griffons. I had heard stories of such things, and I am a very quick learner.” 

“So let me get this straight… you snatched my rifle, some ammunition, watched me drop over the rail, you used the rifle a few times, figured out how it is used, how to aim, begin killing by shooting moving targets out of the air, and killing other targets at extreme distances, and in the course of a single battle, become a sharpshooter?” Bucky inquired. 

“It certainly seems that way my-” 

“Silence Lugus,” Bucky interrupted. “Belisama, do you have anything to say for yourself?” he demanded. 

“Master, it is easier to beg forgiveness than it is to ask for permission?” Belisama responded, her tone more of a question than a statement of certainty. “I deserve to be punished master… I will not ask for mercy, but I will hope for it. You seem to be a kind master.” 

Inside of his helmet, Bucky smiled and he looked at Belisama, who was still averting her gaze. He felt a warm rush of emotion towards the brave little griffoness hovering near him. “You crazy little sparrowhawk... Never defy me again or put yourself in danger.” 

Looking up at the convoy freighter, Lugus’ crest raised as the giant griffon looked thoughtful. “Planning on adding a second ship to your fleet?” Lugus inquired, craning his head around to look at the much larger vessel. “She’s a big ship… missing her engines, but I think we can tow her. She is big enough that there would be enough room for everybirdy to spread out a bit… I wonder what she looks like on the inside.” 

“Go check it out, but be careful Lugus,” Bucky ordered. “Twilight, Belisama, there are some doors in the back of the hangar that I saw. They are barricaded from this side. I suspect we have some rescues waiting to happen. We should go investigate.” 

“Master must never scare me like that again,” Belisama begged, following after Bucky as he moved away, the rifle in her talons raised and ready. 

“I can’t believe you used yourself as a cannonball,” Twilight muttered. “Celestia was right about you… something is rotten in your brain. A sane pony doesn’t use themselves as a ballistic weapon.” 

“Twilight… you wound me!” Bucky replied in a voice dripping with sarcasm as he approached a door. Exhausted, he ripped away the the locks and heavy beams upon the door, securing whatever was locked inside. 

His horn glowing brightly, he opened the door. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 312
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The door opened with a creak and Bucky shone his light within, ready for anything that might be inside. There was a pitiful sounding squawk, many screeches, and wordless whimpering, all at once, and the overall effect made Bucky’s heart feel as though a shard of ice was being stabbed through it. 

The lone aggressive squawk came from a solitary small griffon who stood in front of the others, wings out in defiance, his beak open in challenge. The little griffon’s tail twitched and he raised his talons in a threatening gesture. 

“I am not here to harm you,” Bucky announced, looking in on the pitiful group locked in the room. 

“Your king is here to rescue you!” Belisama shouted, moving into the doorway, hovering over Bucky. “King Fleshrender is dead, and so is King Tanner… King Buckminster has saved us.” 

A deafening silence came from the stunned griffons and griffonesses who all stared at Bucky and Belisama, eyes blinking rapidly, little crests rising in curiousity. The lone defender of the group sat down suddenly, and his wings fluttered as he tried to process what had been said. 

“King Tannis the Kind also rules. We are going to a new land where we can be happy and free. We are no longer slaves, but free to choose good masters!” Belisama announced. 

“We are free?” the little defender asked, cautiously approaching Bucky with his head low and his body crouched down. “Our wings have been clipped. We are starving and many of us have died. How can we trust you?” 

“Because I have this!” Belisama shouted. She raised the rifle, pointed it upwards, and then pulled the trigger. The sound was thunderous in the room and it sent the little griffons scattering. Flying forward through the gunsmoke, Belisama looked down at the griffons cowering against the walls and in the corners. “If I was not free, how could I have this?” she asked, holding the rifle out before her, presenting to her fellow griffons and griffonesses. “And my leg… my leg has been mended… I have been severely wounded and not used for food!” 

Twilight watched all of this with a confused sense of awe, noting just how different these griffons acted compared to the much larger griffons. They stuck together, moved together, and one particularly brave griffon had moved forward to defend the others. Twilight Sparkle had never seen anything quite like it before. 

“We have a new king,” the little protector said, crawling forward to Bucky. 

“Don’t you dare give yourself to me as gifts!” Bucky warned, backing away, not trusting the devoted little griffons in the slightest. The last thing he wanted or needed was more fanatical minions like Belisama. 

“But we are yours!” the little protector shouted. “You have saved us… we belong to you! You have armed one of us and given her power! You are worthy!” 

Bucky groaned and shook his head, hating Belisama just a tiny bit for what she had done to him. “No, really, that isn’t necessary!” 

“Too late, what’s done is done,” Belisama said, turning around to look at Bucky, still hovering, her white plaster cast glowing green in Bucky’s visor light. 

“Belisama, lead them out of here. We have another door to open. Keep them in the hangar, safe, and look after them. We will work on feeding them soon. Make note of the wounded so we can get them patched up,” Bucky commanded, taking charge of the situation. 

“Master, they have clipped wings. They are helpless. They cannot fly,” Belisama reported. 

“Just keep them together and make them comfortable for now,” Bucky stated. “And stop calling me things like master! It is annoying!” 

“Yes my king,” Belisama replied, bowing her head slightly. “Follow me. Carry the wounded and those too weak to walk if you can. Show our king what we can accomplish together and that we are worthy servants!” 

Watching the griffons and griffonesses file out, Twilight looked at Bucky, wishing she could see his face. “You know Buckminster,” Twilight started. 

“Please, call me Bucky, I grow weary of everypony and everybirdy calling me everything but ‘Bucky’ and it wears my patience down,” Bucky interjected. 

“Bucky… I do believe that Princess Celestia will approve of what has taken place here. I know that you will be a good king for the griffons,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low voice as the griffons continued to exit the room.

“And why is that, Twilight?” Bucky replied. 

“Because you don’t want to be king… you see it as a duty, but you don’t crave power,” Twilight Sparkle reasoned. “You actually worry and fret over them. You do all of the things that Princess Celestia said that I do that makes me a good princess.” 

“Thank you Twilight,” Bucky responded in a low mechanical voice. 

“Maybe you running from your coronation was a good thing Bucky… maybe you just weren’t being offered the right crown. He Who Should Not Be Named in present company did awful things. This is your chance to make up for his mistakes I suppose. I think I understand what you mean now, about not being able to save Griffonholm. The strong preyed on the weak… we should have done more to save them, long before this happened. Princess Celestia says we can’t solve all of the world’s problems but I think I am starting to disagree. Saving these griffons was a good thing. I can’t imagine being locked away like this,” Twilight Sparkle said, her voice low and full of emotion. “You have your little griffons, I have my little ponies.” 

“My little griffons,” Bucky grunted. 

“Let’s go open the other door,” Twilight suggested as the last griffoness stepped out of the room, leaving the pair alone as the group followed Belisama. 



 

Wasting no time, Bucky tore away the second door and was greeted with screams of terror. Equine screams of terror. He backed away from the door and looked at Twilight, made a gesture with one armored leg, and then continued to back away from the door. 

“You’re safe!” Twilight shouted over the hullabaloo. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle and you are safe. If just one of you could come forward and give me some information so we can help you, I would appreciate it,” she commanded. 

A lone zebra stepped into the green glow of Bucky’s visor lamp and peered ahead at Twilight, licking his lips nervously. He looked at Twilight pleadingly. “We are rescued?” 

“Yes, you are rescued,” Twilight answered. “Where are you from?” 

“I am from the Sea of Grass, as are many others, pony and zebra alike. The zebras and the earth ponies are okay… the pegasi have had their wings clipped or broken. They take away any unicorns they find and we never see them again,” the zebra answered. 

Scowling inside of his helmet, Bucky drew one terrible conclusion. There wasn’t enough food on board The Scorned Mare for everypony. Gritting his teeth, he came to the painful realisation that he was in a bad spot. 

“They kept us as slaves… those not strong enough to work were taken away. They took our foals from us,” the zebra said in a strangled voice. “Took wives from husbands and did terrible things. We want to go home.” 

“And we want to take you home,” Twilight Sparkle announced in a loud voice, her own horn igniting and flooding the area with bright magenta light. She looked over the group and saw grief stricken faces, faces filled with fear, haunted faces that might never smile again, and it broke her heart. “I should warn you, we have griffons with us… good griffons… griffons who have suffered just as you have suffered. Slaves just like you. Please try to be mindful of them because we want to help all of you.” 

“Are the little griffons okay?” a mare asked. 

“They are fine,” Twilight responded, feeling somewhat surprised by the mare’s question and apparent concern for the griffons. 

“Sometimes when they are out and working, they steal extra food for us because we don’t get very much with our rations,” the mare said. “The little griffons have been very kind to us, what will become of them?” 

“You are looking at their king. They will be cared for and looked after. We are rescuing them as well,” Twilight Sparkle answered, pointing at Buckminster. 

Bucky strode away from the group, heading off to his griffons and Belisama, seized with an idea. He moved swiftly, expending the extra energy, the idea bubbling in his head. The griffons were all huddled together in the hangar, and Bucky could hear them talking. They were cold, they were hungry, but they sound happy. 

“I need your help,” Bucky announced, looking over his subjects. 

“How can we help?” a griffoness asked. 

“There has to be food around here… pony food. There were minotaurs around and the slaves have been getting rations. Where is the food? Can some of you show me?” Bucky questioned, looking around at his devoted flock. 

“The minotaurs have the food that is used to feed the ponies. It is brought by airship from Minos. We have had to unload several ships, the minotaurs eat a lot of food,” the griffoness replied. “The supply depot is on the other side of this base, tucked away in a vast network of caves where it is cold.” 

“Wonderful,” Bucky announced. 

“Sometimes when things get busy, we are responsible for feeding the ponies. We filch extra rations,” the griffoness admitted. 

“Good… good,” Bucky stated, looking around at the griffons looking up at him with wide adoring eyes. “Any other supplies which might be useful? Anything that we can use or take? Anything that you can tell me that is helpful?” 

“We know that the fleet was taking heavy losses in the Hinterlands. The zebra fleet hit hard and many ships went off to do battle. A few days ago, the entire base went into a panic and we were stuffed inside of the room and forgotten,” the little griffoness reported. 

“They raided a zebra medical freighter,” a griffon offered, coming close to Bucky and sitting down at Bucky’s armored hooves. “That was a while ago, just before the base went on lockdown. I don’t know where the supplies are, but I’m betting they’re secured with the food.” 

“Very good,” Bucky said, looking down at the griffons who were looking at him now with unabashed affection. “Say… what have they been feeding you?” 

“We eat rats and other vermin. We are responsible for keeping the other food free of pests. They kept the other meat for the warriors and hunters,” a griffon answered. 

Sighing with relief, Bucky felt bad for the emaciated griffons, but thankful they had not been eating pony flesh. 

“Bucky?” 

Turning to look at Twilight, Bucky saw the alicorn leading a large group of ponies. 

“Any ideas Bucky? What do we do? They’re starving. They haven’t been fed in a few days. I think when we started our attack on Griffonholm everything went bad here. How can we care for them?” Twilight Sparkle questioned. 

“There is food here Twilight, and possibly the medical supplies from a zebra freighter. Hopefully the base is secured. We’ll need to look around and scavenge what we can. Our top priority is getting that big convoy freighter airborne so we have a place for the ponies, zebras, and griffons. After we have them stowed away, my plan is to fly over the Hinterlands towards Tradewinds and return the ponies and zebras to their homeland. Also, I plan to stop and see a few friends of mine to get purgatives for everypony and everybirdy,” Bucky explained. 

“The plan is sound,” Lugus announced, landing a few feet away. “The ship will be comfortable enough. The cargo hold is vast and wide open, there are crew quarters that are somewhat adequate, and the water system functions. There aren’t very many beds though. Creature comforts will be scarce.” 

“I’m sure we can make things work,” a stallion said, moving forward and looking at Lugus hesitantly. 

“I will move to secure the base, Twilight, look after our rescues, Lugus, you are with me,” Bucky said, moving off to make sure the area was free of any hidden threats. 

“Wait master, I am coming with you!” Belisama shouted, flying off after Bucky and Lugus, her wings buzzing frantically. 

“Come Belisama, do try to keep up,” Bucky said as he neared the entrance to the hangar, turning to look over his shoulder at the group of ponies, zebras, and griffons behind him. “Twilight, keep the griffons and the ponies together. I think right now everypony and everybirdy could use a friend.” 
	
	
> Chapter 313
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As they moved across the base, Bucky did two things. First, he kept a shield up around himself and his companions, and second, he cleaned the rifle for Belisama using a simple cleaning spell. 

“Stay close to me. I can’t protect you if you are outside of my shield bubble, and I don’t want either of you getting hurt,” Bucky commanded as he gave the rifle back to Belisama. “And you… you and I are going to have a long talk about what you have done Belisama. I am not angry, but there will be words about this.” 

“You had better not scold her,” Lugus warned. 

“Lugus, I am not sure you have a say in this,” Bucky warned. 

“You appointed me as their defender. That means defending them from all threats, including you,” Lugus argued, his crest rising. “Belisama did something brave and her courage should be commended, even if I don’t agree with what she has done. She might have defied you, but in doing so, she has proven her worth.” 

“Lugus, you astound me on occasion,” Bucky stated, turning his head to look at his large friend. “But this is why I keep you around I suppose.” 

“A good master is hard to come by,” Belisama said in a low voice. 

“Stop calling me master!” Bucky demanded. 

“Buckminster, the title is one that is given to you out of respect, devotion, and trust. She has given you the entirety of her life with a verbal contract. It is our way. It is a word, one word, that says everything she feels about you… before you reject her you need to think about the one you call Mistress and why you do it,” Lugus chided, coming dangerously close to scolding Bucky. 

“That… that’s different,” Bucky retorted. 

“How?” Belisama asked, half flying half hovering near Bucky’s head. “There is one you call Mistress? Master is a much better master than I thought, master knows what it means to be a servant.” 

“I am actually a slave,” Bucky admitted as they walked through the flaming wreckage of several large wooden buildings. “That is why I have that brand.” 

“Master is owned by another?” Belisama asked. “Bon Bon did not tell me of this.” 

“Long story, but yes, I am property,” Bucky admitted. 

“Then I have chosen wisely. A king who has known slavery is a wise king. When the others find out about this they will rejoice and celebrate. We finally have a king who knows of our pain,” Belisama said as she peered around watchfully, the rifle raised and ready. 

“His keeper, his owner, is the kindest creature you will ever meet, and she was trusted with his care and keeping,” Lugus explained as they walked. 

Inside of his helmet, Bucky scowled, this was not turning out in his favour at all. There would be no living this down or escaping their devotion now, and he knew that telling Belisama to be quiet about it would do him no good. Bucky had a nagging dreadful fear that this would only make his subjects even more fanatical in their devotion. This was shaping up to be just awful. 

The sharp crack of rifle fire filled the air, followed by second shot. 

“I missed,” Belisama hissed as she activated the lever and made ready to fire. 

Bucky felt a small bit of concern when a bullet thudded off of his blue-green spell bubble. His shields were never all that good, but should be adequate for stopping bullets. Or so he hoped. He would never forgive himself otherwise. He peered ahead, marveling at Belisama’s eyesight and talon-eye coordination. There were dark shapes in the distance and flashes of gunfire. Dozens of bullets bounced off of Bucky’s shields and he redoubled his efforts. 

There was a bright flash followed by a deafening roar. Bucky panicked as something very large passed overhead, something he wasn’t sure he could stop. He concentrated every ounce of his will into creating the strongest shields possible and continued to move forward slowly, ready to attempt to grab something with his telekinesis if necessary. 

“Oh my he’s a big one, I’ve already shot him once,” Belisama muttered as she took aim again, peering down the long scope. There was a loud crack. “No, this is worrisome. I have shot him twice now, he’s got a big gun. And he keeps ducking around the corner of that building.” 

Again, Bucky felt something big pass entirely too close, this time near Lugus. 

“I am going to teleport forwards and leave both of you here,” Bucky said, making ready. “You will be shielded. I am going to kill this ars-” 

There was sharp report of rifle fire that cut off Bucky’s words, and a self satisfied squawk from Belisama.

“You brained him. From here. I am impressed,” Lugus announced. 

Belisama did not reply, but was busy taking aim as a volley of return fire bounced off of Bucky’s shield. The little griffoness seemed to be enjoying herself immensely, and Bucky found himself strangely attracted to her bloodlust, a most peculiar sensation, given that his other wives really didn’t have bloodlust. 

“DIE MOTHERPLUCKER!” Belisama screamed, getting into the spirit of things. “NO MORE! NEVER AGAIN!” She fired several times, and then the rifle went click. She fumbled around in the bag she had around her neck, and then let out an angry screech. 

“No more bullets?” Bucky inquired. 

“No more bullets,” Belisama admitted in a sad voice. 

“Do you feel better?” Bucky asked as a bullet bounced off his shields. 

“No, master, I do not,” Belisama answered. “Killing did not soothe the hurting places where my sister’s memory remains.” 

“It never does… it only leaves things feeling more empty,” Bucky said, once again moving forward slowly, advancing on the resistance in the distance who kept shooting. Some were flying forward to greet them and Bucky felt a brief moment of pity as Lugus rose up into the air and drew his axe. 

When the first griffon was in range, Lugus hurled his axe with a fierce overhead chopping motion. It flew straight and true, turning over in the air, and a second later, struck the first griffon with enough force to make him explode into meaty bits, scraps of fur, and feathers. With a flash, the axe vanished and returned to Lugus’ grasp. 

“Master, do you think they will have more bullets?” Belisama asked as Lugus once again took aim and made ready to kill another griffon. 



 

The hand cannon was very large and scary looking. It lay on the ground next to a very large hunter griffon, a hunter griffon who was missing most of his head. Bucky eyed the weapon and then lifted it reverently, appreciating the deadly design. 

“It fires bullets bigger around than cherries,” Bucky said, having no other reference. “The recoil must be immense,” he added as he lifted a big brass shell. The shell was was quarter of a foot long and felt as though it weighed over a pound. Over a pound of brass, powder, and lead. “Lugus?” Bucky offered, extending the weapon out to his friend. 

“I loathe guns,” Lugus hissed, his eyes narrowing. 

“So use it only when necessary. I am certain you will be a better shot than the previous owner. If I gave this to Belisama, the recoil would knock her out of the air,” Bucky reasoned. 

Snarling, Lugus took the gun, stuffed it under his harness, and then began looting the big shells from the dead griffon. As he was doing this, Bucky moved forward, having finally crossed the valley floor and reached the other side. There were several intact wooden buildings here, and Bucky took no chances, keeping his guard and his shields up around his companions. Belisama was checking the bodies of the fallen griffons and fishing out magazines for Bucky’s rifle. 

Bucky pushed his way into a wooden building that seemed unoccupied. He peered around, saw a lot of beds, a few tables, some chairs, and it occurred to him that the building could be looted. The mattresses and such would be useful in the freighter to make it just a little more comfortable. There was a phonograph and a collection of records sitting in a box. 

The walls were covered in crazy. 

Incomprehensible garble covered the walls, bits of text and drawn pictures, ranting raving script that mentioned strange voices, flashing lights, and bugs crawling around inside the shafts of some poor griffon’s feathers. Everything else in the bunkhouse seemed perfectly homey, comfortable, what you would expect in a soldier’s barracks, but the walls concerned Bucky. The walls were evidence of something insidious in the psyche of the griffons. 

Seeing a fridge in the corner, Bucky moved through the barracks, worried at what he might find inside of the fridge. Severed heads? Foals? Some other unspeakable horror? He didn’t want to open the door, but he was unable to resist looking. Bracing himself, he pulled the door open... 

And much to his relief saw a fridge full of beer. The bottles were made of green glass and had a picture of a smiling minotaur on them, holding his thumb up. On the bottom shelf there were a few bottles of wine, zebra wine. He pulled open the freezer, wondering what might be in there, and immediately wished he hadn’t. 

He slammed the door and really wished that he hadn’t opened the freezer. The severed head staring back at him still had its eyes open. Bucky had let his mental guard down after discovering the beer and wine. 

“Gah!” Bucky gasped, backing away from the fridge and knocking over the table. 

“Bucky?” 

“I’m okay Lugus… just saw something… no Lugus, I am not okay,” Bucky admitted. 

The big griffon entered the barracks, Belisama darting in right beside him. He looked around, his sharp ears listening to the sounds of Bucky’s heavy breathing inside of his armor. Lugus felt a sharp twinge of concern. 

“It still had the eyes Lugus… it looked at me. It freaked me out a bit… I hate to admit it, but there are still things that bother me apparently… feeling kinda panicked Lugus!” Bucky stammered. “It was a foal Lugus, and it looked a lot like Dinky.” 

Lugus strained his ears, trying to identify the strange sound coming from inside of Bucky’s armor. He was worried for a moment that Bucky was getting sick inside of his armor, which would be bad, Bucky could drown from such an act, but after a moment, it was apparent that Bucky was sobbing. 

“It looked like Dinky.” 

“Hold yourself together my friend,” Lugus said, offering quiet reassurance. 

A loud shuddering sob escaped from Bucky’s armor and Belisama didn’t know what to do. She landed on Bucky’s armored back, settling herself down carefully, trying to not bang her cast on the armor plating. She steadied herself with her right talons while holding the rifle in her left talons. 

Lugus stared at the walls, taking in all the written testament to madness all around him. Looking up, he even saw words and pictures scribbled all over the ceiling, each word, each picture, each bit of graffiti evidence of the madness of his species. He snatched a pillow case from off the bed, made his way to the fridge, opened the freezer door, looked inside for a moment, let out an angry screech, and then he laid the pillow case over the severed head so it wouldn’t stare out at any who opened the freezer. 

Opening the fridge, he looked inside, grabbed a beer, pulled off the cap using his beak, sat down, and poured the entire bottle down into his gullet. He set the bottle down upon the top of the fridge, belched, and then turned around to look at his companions. 

“That was unpleasant,” Lugus said. “It did look like Dinky. I miss her.” 

“I had my eyes closed,” Belisama admitted, still sitting on Bucky’s back. 

Bucky’s sobs made an odd sound as they came out through his helmet, and his head hung low. He stood, unmoving, unable to speak, consumed by the emotion of the past few days, the severed head of the foal shattering all of his internal walls. 

“I have never seen a king cry before,” Belisama stated. “It makes me feel very humbled and very small.” 

“Let it out my friend. There is much to do, but it can wait. We seem to be safe for the time being,” Lugus said, looking around the room and peering out the window. “The Scorned Mare is calm and quiet, so there is nothing attacking her. If there are any remnants, they are hiding or fleeing. Take some time to compose yourself and we will go look for the food stores.” 

“Mast… uh, my friend,” Belisama whispered in a low uncomfortable voice. “I am only a little griffoness, but I would do anything to protect your foals. Please my friend, try to pull yourself together. I can’t bear to see you like this and I have no means to touch you or comfort you, not that it is my place to do so.” 

“Thank you Belisama,” Bucky sobbed, his voice a strangled wheeze. 
	
> Chapter 314
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With an annoyed grunt, Bucky tore the massive vault like door from the side of the mountain, his magic nearing the end of its limits. Inside was a long hallway, extending at a slight downward angle, with a smooth floor that had two lines worn into the flooring, the wheels of many carts having worn it down. 

Nothing moved to stop them. After having exited the barracks with the crazy writing on the walls and the severed head in the freezer, they had encountered a group of diamond dogs led by a minotaur who pleaded for mercy. Bucky, feeling merciful, even after the incident with what was in the freezer, took their guns away and then used a powerful dark magic fear spell upon them, sending them away from the base, they would forever be deathly afraid of the sight of a pony. 

Walking down the hallway, Bucky saw an open door and a room full of small carts, large carts, and pallet movers. He ignored that door for now and continued moving, coming to another door. He pulled it open, ignoring the lock, and smiled at what was inside. Medical supplies of all kinds. Gauze, bandages, medicine, antibiotics, everything that might be needed could be found here. 

“This is fortunate,” Lugus stated, looking at Belisama who was still riding on Bucky’s back, held securely in place by Bucky’s magic. “Might even be painkillers which are needed.” 

“I suppose we are going to loot this place and take everything?” Belisama asked. 

“Loot is such an ugly word,” Bucky interjected. “We are going to appropriate.” 

“Good… we shall appropriate everything that isn’t nailed down and find hammers for everything that is,” Belisama stated, peering into the room one last time as Bucky began his slow march down the hall. 

Bucky opened several doors in the hallway, some having nothing but empty storerooms behind them, others having miscellaneous goods, like a room full of rubber tires and wheel assembly parts. Bucky supposed it was to keep the rubber from dry rotting. 

Behind a locked and heavily secured door, Bucky found an armory. He flicked the light switch and the lights flickered on, the dull yellow light flooding the room. He immediately saw boxes of rifle ammo. 

“Hey Lugus, what does ‘ten mm’ mean?” Bucky asked, looking at the boxes. 

“It means ten millimeters. They are using the measurement system from Fancy and the old world Ponyland, places like Germaney. I am not sure how it applies to the bullet though. It is clearly a measurement of some sort. 

“Lugus, over there, shells like your gun uses,” Belisama said, pointing at an open box that read ‘20mm’ in bright red letters. Below that were the words ‘Brimstone Busters’ in bold black print. 

“I plan to take all of this. I wasn’t in a good position to loo- er, appropriate Huginn castle armory, I blew it all up, but I plan to seize everything in here and dump it in front of Celestia,” Bucky said in a low somewhat angry sounding voice. “Make her think about what these sort of projectile weapons might do to her… no, our little ponies. I’m betting the ten whatevers would punch right through the magic shields of most type twos in just a few shots and even most type threes would have trouble holding up under sustained fire. And those shells as big around as cherries, over four inches long, and weigh about a pound, those would obliterate most unicorn defenses. I’m not even sure I could stop those for very long.” 

“It is all very troubling,” Lugus admitted, looking around at the racks of ammo and the rows of rifles. 

“What’s this?” Belisama inquired, taking wing from Bucky’s back and flying over to a cabinet. Using Bucky’s rifle, she smashed the glass of the cabinet doors, sending shards of sharp glass falling down to the floor. She knocked a few large dangerous shards out of the way and reached inside. With her other talons, she pulled out a very large pistol, holding it up to the light. “Here, master, hold this rifle and this pistol for me please, there is a book in here I wish to grab. There are more pistols too.” 

Levitating the pistol and the rifle, Bucky watched at Belisama reached in and pulled out a book. He floated the pistol over, observing the design. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. 

Opening the book, Belisama began to flip through it, scanning over the pages. She stopped a few pages in. “These are prototypes that are being field tested. They are revolvers, based on an original design by a unicorn named Rye Mash. Rye Mash favoured guns with multiple shots, but hated guns with too many barrels. So he created a revolving cylinder design that held four bullets in different chambers that revolved so the bullets would line up with the barrel for fast firing. He would later invent an improved design that held eight shots of black powder load. These revolvers are based on Rye Mash’s design, but use the new shell casings,” Belisama summarised as she scanned over the text. 

“So prototypes,” Bucky stated, taking in every detail of the revolver. The revolving cylinder held eight bullets, was quite large, and the barrel was intimidatingly long. With a flick of a small delicate locking system, the cylinder fell open and Bucky figured out how to load the weapon, it was just a simple matter of sliding the shells into the eight holes and then closing the cylinder back into the gun. He looked up at Belisama and saw she was busy securing an oilcloth canvas harness system around her body with two holsters secured under each of her wings. 

Something about the griffoness became quite attractive to Bucky as he watched her heft two revolvers, one in each set of talons to get a feel for them, then she jammed them into the holsters and then began stuffing bullets into ammo pouches. 

“We’ll come back and appropriate everything here,” Bucky said, backing out the room to continue down the long hallway. With a flash of light, he tucked the book into his saddlebag for later perusal. 

Belisama and Lugus followed a moment later, the little griffoness loaded down with two enormous revolvers and ammunition. Lugus had reluctantly added more shells for his hand cannon. 

“You know, it was the minotaurs who invented the hand cannon,” Lugus said in a low voice that carried down the hallway. “I learned that in school. Everything about the minotaurs is a competition. Horn sizes, how loud their voice is, how tall they are, everything has to be bigger, better, or faster. To compete with the black powder pistols of of that era, the minotaurs invented a ridiculously large hand cannon to establish firearm dominance. I am guessing that it was the minotaurs who designed and created my weapon.” 

“Maybe,” Bucky agreed. “I don’t know enough about this sort of thing to have a say.” 

At the end of the hall was a massive pair of double doors, heavily locked, and reinforced. Bucky tore them free from their hinges and entered into a vast underground chamber. He flicked the light switch and waited. 

With loud clicks and pops, the lights came on a few rows at a time. Bucky found himself smiling in spite of all of his inner turmoil. Ahead of them was a vast underground warehouse full of food. Bin after bin of different types of root vegetables. Tinned goods stretching off for impossibly long rows. Bucky stomped over the tinned goods and saw a minotaur offering a thumbs up, just as he had seen on the beer bottle. The tin was labeled at ‘cream of celery soup’ and promised to be the most delicious soup ever eaten, with a guarantee by a minotaur named Galveston le Garlique. Another tin was labeled as ‘Fancy onion soup’ and yet another tin examined was labeled as ‘mushroom bisque.’ 

Bucky sighed with relief and continued to scan the soups, hoping that most of it was suitable for ponies. Minotaurs were omnivores and most chose vegetarian diets out of a sense of conscious obligation. There were thousands and thousands of tins of soup here. 

He finally came across one that read ‘crab and corn chowder’ and Bucky felt his mouth watering. Hot soup sounded good. Hot soup with crab and corn sounded excellent. And maybe Bon Bon might be bothered to make him some cornbread. 

“This is a lot of soup,” Lugus announced. “And some of it would be good for griffons,” he added. “There are giant tins of sardines over this way,” the griffon said as he took off for the sardine stockpiles. 

“There are giant bags of coffee and big crates of tea over here,” Belisama pointed, hovering high in the air over the assorted supplies. “And over there I see wheels of cheese.” 

“So we are set for food,” Bucky said, his voice full of relief. “As soon as possible, Twilight Sparkle and I will begin moving all of this out so ponies and griffons can eat.” 

“With the exception of the root vegetables, all of this is stuff that will last for years. This was a very well supplied depot,” Lugus said. “And most of this comes from Minos. I find this very troubling. I hope the minotaurs at large were not secretly supporting Griffonholm.” 

“Hopefully all of this was secured though a supplier or group of merchants and not offered though government aid,” Bucky said in reply, peering around. “I’d hate to have to go visit Minos as a diplomat.” 

“The minotaur envoys came to Griffonholm,” Belisama reported. “I acted as a food server when the delegates were there. King Tanner tried to get the minotaurs to engage in a trade treaty, offering coal and mineral resources. The minotaurs politely declined and the government appointed delegates left a few days later. They refused to trade because of the stories of griffons taking slaves and other horrors.” 

“So then, how did all of this get there?” Bucky asked. 

“There are always shady merchants that need their necks wrung,” Lugus responded. 

“I spy diamond dog goods over in that corner,” Belisama announced, zipping off. She stopped over a large rack of tins and swooped down. “Fifteen bean chicken chili,” she read off of a can label. “Guaranteed to make your anus the envy of all your neighbors. Become popular!” 

“Diamond dogs are so weird,” Lugus grunted in disgust. “Butt sniffing.” 

“Lugus, you and I live with pegasi… what sound do you usually wake up to in the morning?” Bucky inquired, shouting to be heard in the vast expanse. 

“Point taken my friend,” Lugus acknowledged reluctantly. “Squeezing Yew Wood is a hazardous proposition.” 

“I’m tired… I don’t know how much longer I can keep going,” Bucky announced. “Teleporting with this armor takes a lot out of me. I’m starting to feel shaky and weird. Too much mass.” 

“We should head back,” Lugus agreed. “I will come back here with Lyra and some of the griffons and we’ll haul back enough food for a feast. When you have rested, you and Twilight Sparkle can clear this place out and load it into the freighter.” 

“That sounds like a good plan Lugus,” Bucky responded. “The medical supplies should prove most useful.” 

“Griffon food,” Belisama said, hovering in a distant corner. 

“Nothing horrible I hope,” Bucky replied, lifting his head and trying to look at Belisama in the distance. 

“Big bags of chocolate covered crickets. I haven’t seen these in years. The factories stopped making them when Fleshrender announced his master plan to turn Griffonholm into the leader of world industry,” Belisama said, sounding sad. “I love chocolate covered crickets… I would get them when I was a good cub and got good marks in school. And over here is a big cannister of mealworm flour! I haven’t seen this stuff in years!” 

“Mealworm flour?” Bucky grunted in disgust. 

“Griffons eat a lot of bugs… good source of protein,” Lugus replied, offering a brief explanation. “Or some of us do when we can get it. When I lived here there were still bug farmers. Griffons that grew mealworms, crickets, and giant roaches for eating.” 

“Oh… BLARGH!” Bucky gagged. 

“Oh master… let me fix you some mealworm puff puffs and change your mind,” Belisama begged, flying back to Bucky’s side with several bags of chocolate covered crickets clutched in her talons. 

Sighing, Bucky hung his head. He recalled being disgusted by fish. “Very well. I shall try your mealworm puff puffs,” he acquiesced to Belisama. “And Lugus… bug farms… I want to know more about this concept, my little griffons will need to eat.” 

“I am not a farmer, but I will tell you what I know,” Lugus offered. “I do know you can grow a lot of food in a tiny space.” 

“Talk to me as we return to the others…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 315
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Scorned Mare floated peacefully in the valley between two vast icy mountains over the ruined remains of the griffon outpost base. The little griffons, led by Lugus and Lyra, looted various stores and tried to make the newcomers comfortable. The other little griffons, those with clipped wings, made themselves comfortable upon the deck of The Scorned Mare as the night grew colder, huddling together with the former slaves who had been rescued. 

Belowdecks, Bucky returned to his cabin to take off his armor, and upon entering his cabin, he saw Bon Bon and Fluttershy together upon the bed, both side by side, both in the ‘pony-loaf’ position that ponies tended to favour when wanting to be comfortable while talking to one another. Saying nothing, Bucky quietly began to remove his armor and place it in the trunk, securing his rifle and various odds and ends inside of the cavernous fold space. 



 

His armor secured, Bucky flopped down on the bed, collapsing upon his side, not caring who else was in the bed currently. He had barely even bounced upon the mattress when he was immediately grabbed by Bon Bon, who hooked a foreleg over him, pulled him close, and began rubbing his withers. 

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy offered in a small voice, giving a nervous apology. 

“For what?” Bucky asked in a tired and defeated sounding voice. 

“For hurting you… for almost killing you,” Fluttershy squeaked softly. “I was so panicked… holding you made me feel safe. I couldn’t get close enough to you no matter what I did.” 

“Think nothing of it,” Bucky said as he melted under Bon Bon’s ministrations. 

“I was so scared,” Fluttershy said. “And when my body finally worked again, I had no control over it,” she explained as the first few tears began to fall. 

“You had a moment as a pegasus where you needed an extra squeezy hug to feel safe,” Bucky said, nodding his head faintly in understanding. He grunted as Bon Bon coaxed a loud crackle from his spine and then went limp. 

“I came here to get away from my friends because they keep wanting to talk about it… it being the part where something almost happened. And I don’t want to talk about that. It didn’t happen… you saved me,” Fluttershy whispered, turning her gaze away from Bucky and Bon Bon. 

“How is Pinkie Pie?” Bucky asked, changing the subject and giving Fluttershy a means out of the current conversation, which he sensed she wanted. 

“Oh… Pinkie Pie isn’t well. She hasn’t talked or done anything. She just lays there in her bunk with her eyes open. Unless she is asleep. If you put food in her mouth she swallows it. Nopony can seem to reach her,” Fluttershy answered. 

“That’s not good,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Do you know if Twilight Sparkle has tried to contact Celestia through Spike?” Bucky questioned, asking about anything that came to mind. 

“She got a message from Princess Celestia a while back, and then she cast a spell so no more messages would come,” Fluttershy responded, now looking at Bucky again, her face serious with concentration. “I don’t know what the message was, or why she doesn’t want to talk to Princess Celestia.” 

“Fluttershy… he’s gone,” Bon Bon whispered. “Poor thing can never sleep right.” 

Looking over the now sleeping unicorn, Fluttershy breathed a low sigh of relief, feeling better having said what little she had said. She lowered her head down to Bucky’s side, her chin resting on the soft expanse of shaggy pelt just behind his ribs, and listened to the sounds of Bon Bon’s steady breathing. Finally feeling safe, Fluttershy closed her own eyes, the painful memories of what had happened no longer haunting her mind. 

It wasn’t long until Bon Bon realised that she had two sleeping ponies in her care. 



 

Flash Sentry watched as Twilight Sparkle distributed food to the gathered survivors of the military outpost. He sat silently, still unable to speak, not that he had much to say. Beside him was Rainbow Dash, who leaned on him wearily, moaning occasionally from pain. 

“That was crazy what you did Flash,” Rainbow Dash whispered in a raspy voice. 

Unable to say anything in reply, Flash Sentry grunted hoarsely. 

“They came into the room so quickly. There was that dust bomb. One poured that stuff over Twilight’s horn as she was waking up. She started screaming and I didn’t know what to do,” Rainbow Dash said in a quavering whisper. “But you were there.” 

Flash Sentry nodded as he felt Rainbow Dash’s wing wrap around him. 

“I never once thought of my own safety Flash… in my whole life, I’ve never done anything so crazy… I saw you charge in and I just sort of followed you,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, her voice full of fear. “I keep having nightmares Flash.” 

Flash Sentry slipped free of Rainbow Dash’s wing, extended his own, and then wrapped it around her, giving her a squeeze as he did so. 

“I keep seeing Twilight with no legs and no eyes Flash… just a broken Twilight who does whatever they want to make the pain stop,” Rainbow Dash gibbered, the pegasus now trembling from fear. “I don’t even want to think about what they would have done to the rest of us.” 

Taking a deep breath, Flash Sentry squeezed the frightened pegasus beside him again, his nostrils sending out puffs of steam into the frigid night air. 

“Flash, there is something I want from you,” Rainbow Dash said in a low whisper, her voice husky with emotion. “I won’t interfere Flash… be with her Flash, make her happy. I won’t get in the way. You’ve won me over when you dived into the middle of all those griffons.” Falling silent, Rainbow Dash craned her head upwards, closed her eyes, and then planted a light kiss on Flash Sentry’s cheek. 

Wishing he could say something, anything, to be able to utter some meaningful word, Flash Sentry sighed with regret and gave Rainbow Dash another squeeze. He saw Applejack off in the distance, on the other side of the crowd, and suddenly felt very awkward. Worried that Applejack might get the wrong idea, Flash Sentry relaxed his hold on Rainbow Dash and squirmed nervously. 

“Applejack is giving us a funny look,” Rainbow Dash grunted in a gritty voice. “I suppose we’re being too friendly. I hope I haven’t screwed anything up. I was cold… uh, well, actually, I suppose I just wanted to feel safe… that sounds really stupid and I don’t know what to say… I’m gonna shut up now,” the blue pegasus mare stammered. 

“You two look simply adorable together… blue and orange are marvellously fabulous contrasts with each other,” Rarity said as she sat down near Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. 

“Rarity, this isn’t what it looks like, I was thanking… uh, well, I was thanking Flash Sentry for saving Twilight and that’s all,” Rainbow Dash mumbled nervously. 

“Rainbow Dash… that little peck on the cheek, I have never seen you quite so affectionate,” Rarity murmured as she scooted a little closer to Rainbow Dash, batting her eyes rapidly. 

“It isn’t like that Rarity! Tell ‘em Flash!” Rainbow Dash said in a panicked voice. 

Grunting, Flash Sentry said nothing. 

“Aw nuts, Flash can’t talk… Rarity, I would never betray Twilight… I kissed him because he saved her and he totally deserved it and you… you… you don’t even know what is going on or what I’m doing so don’t make any assumptions!” Rainbow Dash said, her voice rising a few decibels from nervousness and turning into a nervous squeak. 

With a snort, Flash Sentry spread his wings and took off, knowing trouble when he saw it. He flew away rapidly, finding another spot on deck to sit and watch Twilight. He cast one final glance at Rainbow Dash and Rarity as he flew away. 

Leaning in close to Rainbow Dash, Rarity batted her eyes and looked sideways at her friend. “You are so much fun to tease.” 

“Ugh, you are a horrible pony,” Rainbow Dash muttered, rolling her eyes. 

“You know, herds are becoming de rigeur,” Rarity suggested in a teasing tone. 

“Rarity, cut it out… you and I both know that Twilight is too straight laced,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “She would never go for something like that. Besides. I’ve sent her all kinds of signals. She’s totally not into mares.” 

“Love has a funny way of changing ponies,” Rarity said in a low voice. 

“Like you and Coco?” Rainbow Dash inquired, looking into Rarity’s blue eyes. 

“Coco makes me very happy. I never once in my life thought I’d fall in love with a mare. But I didn’t fall in love with a mare… I fell in love with Coco, who happens to be in a mare’s body. It’s complicated, but I plan to make it work,” Rarity said to Rainbow Dash as she pressed up against Rainbow Dash’s side. 

“Well I plan to let Twilight go so she can be happy… plus, she’s a princess. Her life is complicated enough. Marriage is going to be a big deal for her. There’s no guarantee she’ll even be able to marry Flash Sentry, even if she wants to. Princess Celestia probably has somepony planned out for her or some noble cause for Twilight to follow that will leave her no time for marriage,” Rainbow Dash said in a bitter raspy growl.

Looking over at Applejack, Rarity locked eyes with the orange mare for a moment and then looked at Rainbow Dash, leaning in close, snoots almost touching. “If you had the chance, if you could, if she was willing, would you?” 

“Would I what?” Rainbow Dash said thick-headedly. 

“Would you form a herd with Twilight and Flash Sentry?” Rarity questioned, her voice a low throaty whisper. 

“There is no point in answering that… look, Rarity, I just want to let go and move on. Just leave it be,” Rainbow Dash begged. 

“Just answer me… Dashie,” Rarity pleaded breathily. 

“I would in a heartbeat,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “But there would be a scandal.” 

“Scandals come and go,” Rarity sighed. “I’ve been in a few.” 

“Twilight is in enough trouble as it is… Spike got a message from Celestia and Twilight almost lost her marbles. She cast a spell so Spike couldn’t get any more messages from Celestia and she muttered to herself for like a half an hour,” Rainbow Dash whispered. “She burned the letter she was so angry.” 

“Oh dear… that sounds dreadful,” Rarity said in genuine alarm. 

“I think it is because Twilight used Celestia’s sun to burn away the city,” Rainbow Dash said in a low frightened voice. “Rarity?” 

“Yes Rainbow?” Rarity responded. 

“Do you think Twilight killed any ponies when she obliterated the city? I mean, slaves or ponies hidden away someplace in some prison?” Rainbow Dash questioned. 

“What a horrible thought,” Rarity gasped, the realisation filling her brain with painful confusion and worry. “I never even thought about that.” 

“I can’t stop thinking about it… when Bucky goes off and kills, he just sorta slogs through the mess and he comes eye to eye with what he kills… I don’t know that I could do that… again… after what happened… I can still see their faces Rarity… even though they were trying to kill me, I feel sick inside when I think of their faces. Twilight never saw any faces. She just called down fire and blew up the city. It was all so clean and neat Rarity, like everything else that Twilight does. She just burned away a city and all who lived there and she never had to look at all of those faces that died. She might have killed ponies or zebras and she will never know because she just scrubbed the city away with fire,” Rainbow Dash said, stammering at several points when emotion overtook her, her ears splaying out sideways. “Bucky is a monster, but he knows he is a monster. He admits it. He’s made some kind of peace with it and he kills and he laughs about it because he knows that he’s damned some part of himself and it's all become so funny… Twilight told me that she simply erased the city and that it was better to not think of the little details, but there was no way of knowing for certain what actually happened. I don’t know how I feel about what she did.” 

“Twilight did what she felt was necessary. I don’t know if she was right. Is the world a safer place? Perhaps. Was the cost worth it? I’m certain that Twilight will, at some point in the near future, create a series of charts, graphs, and diagrams showing that statistically, what she did was justified and in everypony’s best interests, and then she will never speak of it again. She will run some fancy mathematics to offer evidence that the world is now a better place… and she will focus on the end results so the little details, the important details, do not drive her mad. She is going to need us Rainbow,” Rarity replied, shaking her head sadly. 

“We live in a different world now… a world where Princess Twilight Sparkle burned away a city using the sun. I think you’re right Rarity, she is going to need us,” Rainbow Dash mused. 
	
	
> Chapter 316
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Day five dawned upon the life bustling within the wreckage of the military base. Bucky moved the entire contents of the armory into a secure storage and supply room aboard The Scorned Mare in the hours just before dawn and now he was moving mattresses and other creature comforts aboard the freighter, moving effortlessly in his armor which aided his walking. 

Upon one of many of his return trips to the freighter, he saw Sentinel leaning down over the prow of the ship, painting something with black paint and a paintbrush. Bucky levitated the collection of mattresses and beds to the deck of the ship where a crew of griffons and ponies worked to stow them away. 

Peering into the pink light of dawn, Bucky saw that Sentinel named the ship The Albatross. Bucky immediately thought of Colteridge and couldn’t think of a more appropriate name… this was certainly an albatross around his neck. 

“Sentinel, who told you to name this ship The Albatross?” Bucky inquired. 

“Mother Lyra… she said something funny to me,” Sentinel replied in a loud voice as he worked. He never lifted his eyes from his task. 

“And what was that?” Bucky asked, still looking up at his son. 

“Hang on,” Sentinel replied, pausing his task for a moment to look thoughtful. “Ah, well a day… what evil looks… had I from old and young… instead of a horseshoe... an albatross… around my neck was hung,” the colt recited, trying to remember Lyra’s words. 

Nodding, Bucky realised that Lyra understood what was going on. 

“It’s a funny poem, I don’t understand it,” Sentinel admitted as he raised his head to look down at his father. “Mother Lyra looked really sad for a moment and started to sniffle. She said that this ship and Belisama are your albatross, and then she told me to get up here and name the ship. Why is this name so important?” 

“It is about a curse Sentinel, about a burden carried for penance,” Bucky answered. “But the albatross is also considered a good omen as well. A blessing. I suppose… I suppose it comes down to what you do with it. You’re a good colt for listening to your mother.” 

“So is Belisama your curse or your blessing?” Sentinel inquired, peering downward at his father below him. 

“I don’t know yet,” replied Bucky as he began to slowly head off to secure more creature comforts. “I would like to think that some good can still come out of all of this.” 



 

With a flick of her magic, Twilight levitated the entire contents of the vast warehouse full of food. It wasn’t too different than picking every apple in Applejack’s orchard, except that there was more food, and she slowly moved the vast cloud of items out through the door and up the passageway so they could be secured aboard the ships. 

She had slept little and was exhausted in more ways than one. 

“Twilight, you feeling okay?” Spike asked as he waddled along behind Twilight. 

“I’m fine Spike,” Twilight grunted, her concentration going towards other things. 

“I’m worried about you Twilight, you don’t seem like yourself,” Spike grunted in worry for the pony he was following. “I’m not fine Twilight… I keep having nightmares. I’m not fine at all.” 

“I’m sorry Spike, I really am. I’m starting to think it was a mistake to bring you on this trip,” Twilight admitted as the pair walked up the long passage to the surface. 

“Don’t say that!” Spike shouted. 

“What?” Twilight asked, stopping mid step. 

“That this was a mistake… I’ve made a really good friend in Sentinel, and I saved him… THAT ISN’T A MISTAKE!” Spike growled ferociously, wisps of green fire and sparks spewing from his mouth. 

“I’m sorry Spike… I should be more careful about what I say,” Twilight responded, sighing, and getting her hooves moving. 

Spike ducked under the mass of food moving overhead and followed Twilight. “Sentinel and I understand one another. He doesn’t like me for what he can get out of me, I am not his assistant, I am not his errand dragon, and he doesn’t keep me around for whatever task I might be useful for.” 

Twilight froze again, feeling something in her blood go cold. 

“Your friends, as nice as they are, none of them treat me the way Sentinel does… and I’ve noticed the difference,” Spike whimpered. “Funny… real funny that I didn’t learn about friendship from the Princess of Friendship or her friends!” the dragon shouted angrily and then ran away, leaving Twilight alone in the passage. 

Her cheeks blazing, her ears drooping, Twilight felt the first tears begin to fall. 



 

Looking over at Agnetha, Tannis set down his pen and rubbed his throat nervously. “Two hundred and nine… two hundred and nine,” he muttered. “Agnetha, that is not enough,” Tannis said in a low pained voice. 

“Actually my love, the warrior died during the night. I held his talons in my own and he told me the things he’s done that he regrets,” Agnetha murmured in reply, looking over at Tannis and feeling his pain. 

“Two hundred and eight,” Tannis whimpered. “What… what did he regret?” 

“He regrets many things, he regretted not doing something about the situation sooner, even something foolish that would have got him killed. He does not regret doing what he did though. He told me he would do it again. As he died, he said that he failed as a warrior for not looking after those smaller than himself, and he said that we have forgotten our way,” Agnetha answered in a low voice. 

“I’m not even sure what our way is anymore,” Tannis grumbled, his beak clicking. 

“Tannis, you and I are hunter griffons. It is our way to provide for the servants and the warriors,” Agnetha said gently. 

“I am a king without a kingdom!” Tannis snarled, clenching his talons into a fist and banging on the table, causing everything to bounce. 

“Things look bleak right now, but remember, there are many griffons who fled our homeland and live in Equestria. They are whole of body and mind. They are healthy. We will reunite with them and then, somehow, life will go on,” Agnetha soothed. “Plus, as small of a consolation as it might be, we have each other.” 

“And I thank Buckminster and Twilight Sparkle for that almost hourly. I think… I think I would have cut my own throat,” Tannis admitted. 

“Don’t say that!” Agnetha admonished angrily. 

“This is your doing,” Tannis said, sinking down in his chair and sulking. 

“I don’t follow,” Agnetha said, her crest rising in confusion. 

“Goshawk and all those stories about true love and living happily ever after. You… you filled my head with all of these foreign ideas about romance and romantic love. These ideals are not our own… but now that I have been exposed to them, I find that they define my every action. You… your thoughts, your very thoughts have tainted me, infected me, changed how I think and what I do,” Tannis explained. 

“Is that so bad?” Agnetha inquired in a subdued voice. 

“Yes!” Tannis admitted. “When I think of being forced to live in a world without you, it makes me want to rip out my own still beating heart!” 

“Goshawk subverted us both… I suppose this is her fault,” Agnetha sighed. 



 

Ripple paced the deck, painfully aware of the eyes gazing upon her with unabashed adoration. A small group of griffons followed her every step, moving with her as she prowled the perimeter of the deck of The Scorned Mare, her war shoes clicking with every step. 

Finally, she could take no more and turned to look at her admirers. She saw many eyes blinking at her in adoration, some green, some hazel, some gold, eyes of many colours. She saw little crests rising in anticipation and little talons clutching and flexing. “What is it that you want? Why do you follow me?” 

“We’ve never had a princess who guards us before,” a little griffoness replied. 

“I am not a princess,” Ripple stated, correcting the griffoness. 

“But you are your father’s daughter, are you not?” a griffon argued. 

“I am,” Ripple answered, her wings fluttering. 

“He is our king. That makes you our princess. And yet you perform guard duty,” the first little griffoness who spoke said in a very reasonable sounding voice. 

Sighing, Ripple realised she had lost the battle and gave up. 

“You are little, but you guard,” a griffon said, cautiously approaching Ripple, practically crawling on the ground. 

“I find my small size an asset,” Ripple stated. 

“We wish to join you. We want to guard our fellow griffons. We wish to be your loyal guard and work with you… if you will have us. We are servants, but our ways are changing. We throw ourselves and our fates upon your mercy,” the griffoness said. 

Pursing her lips, Ripple counted the griffons. Eleven sets of eyes blinking at her. Some male, some female, all of them eager and clearly willing. “I am a Dragoon. I am a harsh officer and I do not tolerate any weaknesses. If you want to be under my command, you will take your lumps as I have taken my lumps, and you will learn to like them.” 

The largest among them moved forward. “Our whole life we have done nothing but take beatings, be abused, and suffer the tortures from those larger than us. If you think for one moment that we are weak, you are mistaken.” The large little griffon paused, realising what he had done, whom he had spoken to, and immediately assumed a very submissive posture, averting his eyes and slouching down before Ripple. 

“ASSEMBLE!” Ripple barked, her voice shockingly loud coming from a little filly. 

The griffons and griffonesses scrambled, quickly forming a two by two formation, with the largest among them up front and alone. 

“You are mine,” Ripple snapped in a more reasonable volume. “As of this moment, you belong to me. I’m gonna make something of you little fluffballs, even if it kills you,” the pegasus growled, looking out over her recruits. She felt an immense feeling of satisfaction when she heard several of them gulp. “Now let’s get moving. We have a perimeter to maintain. Stay in formation and follow me. NOW MARCH!” 

Ripple took off with a new swagger in her step, and the eleven griffons and griffonesses quickly fell into step behind her, their claws clicking on the deck, tails swishing, little wings fluttering with a newly found sense of pride. 



 

Already feeling fatigue, Bucky checked over his work, looking at the back end of The Albatross. He had peeled metal plates from the second ship in the hangar and fused them to the open gaps in the The Albatross, sealing off her hind end. The Albatross was mind numbingly big, over a hundred feet in length, and made to be a heavy lifter. She still had a working shield generator, but it was a weak one that would only hold up against a few shots. She had no engines, but still had a working cloud scoop. With the hull sealed, the interior could be pressurised, allowing for high altitude flight. The heating and cooling systems would keep his passengers comfortable. 

Sitting on Bucky’s back, Belisama kept a watchful eye on everything around them. She had her two revolvers tucked away in holsters under her wings, and there was an officer’s sabre now strapped to her back. In her mind, her developing sense of freedom equated the right to arm oneself with being free. A small folded blanket had been laid over Bucky’s armor by Bon Bon so Belisama would be a little more comfortable. 

Turning from his work, Bucky watched as Lugus flew overhead carrying a large stove in his talons, his wings pumping to support the extra weight. The Albatross needed a larger kitchen to look after the needs of those on board. The fact that Lugus could easily carry such a large heavy object in flight was not lost on Bucky, and he marveled at Lugus’ strength. 

“Getting tired?” Belisama inquired, sensing something was off. 

“Need food,” Bucky grunted from inside of his helmet. 

“Come then, let’s get you fed. You do a lousy job of caring for yourself,” Belisama scolded in a low voice. 

“Oh not you too,” Bucky protested. “I have enough wives telling me that.” 
	
	
> Chapter 317
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“My friend, we have a problem,” Lugus reported in a low voice to Bucky, who was busy relaxing on the deck of The Scorned Mare and drinking hot tea. The griffon sat down on his haunches and looked around to see who might be listening. 

“And what is the nature of this problem?” Bucky asked before taking a sip of tea. 

“My squire has accepted ownership of a group of griffons,” Lugus said in a low voice, and then ducked out of the way as Bucky spewed out tea. 

“What?” Bucky gasped, before he began to cough and sputter. 

“Ripple has accepted ownership of a group of griffons pledging service to her. I don’t think she knows or understands just what has taken place,” Lugus explained as his head turned to watch his squire, who was standing near the prow of the ship. “See that group of griffons following her? She agreed to their terms with a spoken contract.” 

“Oh bugger,” Bucky grumbled, squinting at Ripple in the bright sunlight. “Lugus, there needs to be general warning issued about this whole verbal contract thing… I can’t have my griffons giving themselves away to everypony.” 

“Alas my king, I was ambushed and before I could refuse them, several pledged themselves to me and Yew… Yew is quite taken at having devoted servants. She is already fawning over them and wants to teach them how to knit,” Lugus replied to Bucky. 

“I don’t understand this culture of willing servitude,” Bucky snapped, glaring around angrily. “They just keep giving themselves away.” 

“They are oppressed and heart broken. They are desperate for worthy masters. They want caretakers who will love them and look after them,” Lugus said. “I do not understand them myself, I am a warrior… I know little of their ways and their culture is beyond my understanding.” 

“Does Yew understand any of this?” Bucky inquired, looking Lugus in the eye. 

“I’ve tried to explain it to her,” Lugus answered. “Yew thinks they are adorable and she has spent much time cuddling those now devoted to her.” 

“I… I… I don’t understand what is going on and everything already seems to be falling apart. You make it sound like Yew thinks of them as pets or something,” Bucky grumbled in a low voice. 

“I think she thinks of them as… foals… because of their small size,” Lugus returned, stammering slightly, and gently correcting Bucky’s assertion. 

“RIPPLE!” Bucky bellowed. 

The griffon and the unicorn watched as Ripple paraded over, her griffons in tow. She approached with her head high and her wings flared out slightly, looking proud. She stood near Bucky for a moment, bowed her head slightly to Lugus, and then sat down on haunches. 

“You called for me?” Ripple inquired. 

“Ripple, I am concerned that you don’t understand what is going on,” Bucky stated. 

“About what?” Ripple asked. 

“Ripple, these griffons gave themselves to you. I mean they are literally giving you their lives. They are giving you ownership of them. Do you have any idea of the responsibility you will have for their care?” Bucky questioned. 

“All they did was pledge their dedication I thought,” Ripple said, looking all around her at the griffons and griffonesses sitting nearby, and then at Lugus, who was shaking his head slowly. 

“As king, you have power to override their ownership and claim them as your own,” Lugus said, causing several concerned peeps to come from the crowd of griffons around him. 

“No Lugus,” Bucky said as he looked at Ripple. “Ripple, you are going to keep your guard. You will be responsible for their care. Their feeding. If they are injured, it will be your job to care for the wounded and nurse them. You are going to take responsibility for them all, you will keep them, and you and your herd will provide for their every need or so help me… you… you… you don’t even want to know what will happen if you disappoint me.” 

“Father, I would never willingly disappoint you,” Ripple said bowing her head. 

“You will teach these griffons how to defend themselves. You will make them fearless and fierce. You will teach them martial discipline and at some point in the not too distant future, you are going to present them to Princess Luna for full martial inspection,” Bucky commanded in a low sonorous voice. 

The sudden gulp from Ripple was audible, quite loud, and sounded painful.

“Buckminster, my friend, is that necess-” 

“Lugus, I find it necessary,” Bucky interrupted in a cold commanding voice. 

Lugus, sighing, turned on Ripple, raised his head high, reached out his talons, grabbed her around her barrel, lifted her, and pulled her close, holding her beak to snoot. “Our honour has been engaged. You have never disappointed me thus far, and you will not fail me now. You will make them ready for full martial inspection. Have Sentinel help you. Sentinel has more of an eye for detail than you do, between the two of you, there will be no chance of failure.” 

“Sir, yes sir,” Ripple said fearlessly, her eyes never leaving Lugus’ piercing stare. 

Nodding, Lugus gently set the filly down, patted her affectionately, and then looked down at all of the griffons who had watched everything that had taken place with wide worried eyes. 

“I pity all of you,” Lugus said, looking over Ripple’s troops. 

“Ripple, you make them worthy and I will arm them,” Bucky promised. 

“Consider it done,” Ripple responded, bowing her head down low. “SALUTE!” Ripple cried, whipping her wing out. 

The griffons followed her lead, and eleven wings snapped outwards with an audible crack, a good first effort by any account, and Lugus nodded his approval. 

“They need little hook-axes,” Lugus mused. 



 

As the sun started to settle over the western mountain ridge, Bucky found one last feature of interest as he prowled the military base for one last time, wearing his armor to assist his movement. There was a railway depot with a track ending, a railway turntable, and a tunnel leading back to Huginn going under the mountain. There was a train parked in the tunnel, hidden from above, and Bucky moved into the dark passageway to investigate. 

There was a locomotive, a tender car, a few empty boxcars, and then he found boxcars with steel kegs. The kegs said “Warning: Explosive!” in bright red painted letters. Bucky peered down at the long line of boxcars stretching under the mountain in the long tunnel, and wondered how many thousands of tons of gunpowder there was. 

Bucky realised that as he was leaving, he was going to have to detonate the powder reserves, and he wondered what sort of spectacular explosion awaited. He would have to do it when his ships were a safe distance away. 

Pausing thoughtfully, he realised that blowing up all of the powder was a waste. Lifting out a dozen steel kegs with his telekinesis, he began the long walk of hauling them back to to the vast holds of The Albatross. 



 

“You should just go and talk to her.” 

Sighing, Spike turned and looked at Sentinel. “I want to, but I feel bad after what I said,” he confessed. “Things feel weird now.” 

“Look, didn’t you learn anything from what happened that night? You almost lost your mother,” Sentinel said in a forceful voice. “She is your mother Spike… even if you can’t say anything because everything feels weird, if you go up and give her a hug, it will make things better… because that’s how things are with your parent. I’ve learned one very important lesson from my mother Derpy… words sometimes get misunderstood or in the way, but a hug is always a sure means of communication.” 

“I said something awful,” Spike groaned, wringing his hands together. “It was awful because it was true, but I know it hurt her. I can’t take it back. I can’t unsay it. Every time I get near her now, she gets teary eyed and won't look at me.” 

“Spike, this can be fixed. This can be made better,” Sentinel insisted. 

“BUT I DON’T WANT THINGS TO GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE!” Spike shouted. “I don’t want to be her… her… her… servant! I want to go to school this fall. I’m not happy.” 

“We’ve talked about this… you need to tell her,” Sentinel responded in a low soothing voice to his friend. 

“I’m so miserable right now… and I know she has to be miserable. Pinkie Pie is all kinds of messed up, we’re at war, Twilight has failed and Princess Celestia is really really angry… I don’t actually know what is going on, but I know that Twilight almost had a meltdown… and I’m having my own meltdown… and I can’t lay all of this on her right now,” Spike stammered. 

“Spike, I am sorry,” Sentinel said as he turned for the door of his cabin. 

“For what?” Spike asked. 

“For what I am about to do,” Sentinel replied. 

“What are you doing?” Spike questioned. 

“I am going to get Twilight and bring her here, and then both of you are going to talk,” Sentinel answered as he stepped through the door. “And if you value our friendship, you will be here when I return. This is a small ship and there is nowhere to go.” 



 

Carefully pulling the brush through Peekaboo’s mane, Belisama glanced up at the one eyed pegasus watching her. She gave Peekaboo a tickle with her wing and listened to the foal giggling as she tried to work out a few tangles. 

“It isn’t easy you know,” Yew said in a low voice, reaching out with one wing and brushing her mane from her face. “I’ve seen how you look at him. I’m getting pretty good at reading griffons.” 

“What isn’t easy? I don’t know what you mean,” Belisama replied. 

“A griffon and a pony can love one another, but it isn’t easy. Ponies are affectionate creatures. They have big soft squishy lips… like mine. They like to kiss. They like to kiss all over, kissing every inch of the body you can imagine,” Yew said suggestively, and then she puckered up her lips to make a smooching sound. 

Belisama’s only reply was a worried squawk. 

“Griffons have a beak. So certain concepts are lost to the griffons. Lugus and I have had to fumble through many awkward situations,” Yew confessed. 

“I know about mating… I have never done it, but I am not stupid,” Belisama whispered. “I would rather not be having this conversation. I don’t understand the need to talk about breeding. If it is not being done for the purpose of making cubs, then it is a means for males to assert their dominance. I understand it completely.” 

“No, you don’t,” Yew said sadly. 

“You shouldn’t tell me what I don’t understand,” Belisama said defensively. 

“What about love?” Yew asked. 

“Something in storybooks,” Belisama retorted bitterly. 

“Look, I know about the barbs. And I think I understand the fear-” 

“YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE FEAR!” Belisama shouted, causing Peekaboo to flee, the little foal squirming off with her wings flapping, heading for her mother, Yew Wood. 

“Then tell me about the fear,” Yew said in a gentle voice, unphased by Belisama’s anger. “I know about the barbs, and I understand that males in your culture use sex as a means to establish dominance.” 

“More than that,” Belisama hissed, her beak snapping shut with a clacking sound. 

“What then?” Yew asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. 

“You have been with Lugus… and you have seen his length,” Belisama said in a cold voice, her eyes suddenly blazing with anger. “Now imagine being my size.” 

“The thought has crossed my mind,” Yew responded in a somewhat strangled voice. 

“My sister…” Belisama began, and then fell silent. “Bandua… Bandua was killed when a much larger griffon forcibly penetrated her. He just kept going, forcing his way in deeper and deeper, until she was impaled and screaming. After he was finished, he skinned her, plucked her, and prepared her for eating. I was forced to watch, knowing the others were planning to have their way with me once they were done eating.” 

Yew felt sick and her stomach lurched. She swallowed a few times, clung to Peekaboo, and she struggled to look Belisama in the eye. “So sex is used for more than a means to establish dominance.” 

“Yes,” Belisama hissed. 

“Lugus has never hurt me,” Yew said in a gentle voice. “Look, I know what you want from Bucky… I am very close to his wives, we are like sisters, and there are no secrets between us. We talk about our husbands openly and all of our bedroom habits as Berry Punch likes to call them. Bucky is a very sexual creature.” 

“If I am ever taken as a wife, if he wants me, I will be submissive, go limp, and allow him to have his way with me, as is his right,” Belisama said in fearful voice. 

“Oh Belisama,” Yew murmured. “That would be the worst thing you could do.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 318
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Closing the door behind him, Sentinel left Twilight Sparkle and Spike together in his cabin. He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and then let it out slowly. There was one thing that Sentinel understood about family, and he had learned it from his mother, Derpy. Family needed to talk and let things out. Things like ‘I love you’ needed to be said. There had to be words. 

From the other side of the door he heard sobbing. Sentinel fled the hallway, heading off to find some place he could go that was quiet, calm, and secluded, which seemed an impossible task on a ship full of little griffons who liked to hide in every nook and cranny. 

Without realising it, he soon found himself abovedecks and saw his father in the small navigation cabin, alone, and Sentinel realised that there was a good chance to have a talk with his father. 



 

“Hello father,” Sentinel greeted, sitting down on the floor while Bucky studied the large projection map. He peered up at the map and saw the Hinterlands on display. 

“Sentinel,” Bucky said in a distracted voice. 

“Planning on assisting the zebras in the Hinterlands?” Sentinel inquired, looking up at his father with wide curious eyes. 

“Only if I have to do so,” Bucky answered, his eye never leaving the map. “Need to get to Tradewinds and return the zebras and ponies safely home. Medicine is also needed. For all of us I think. We’ve been to a very polluted place.” 

“I feel fine,” Sentinel reported.

“You and I both,” Bucky stated. “Fluttershy still sniffles, Rarity has a bit of a wheeze that she refuses to say anything about according to Agnetha, and Rainbow Dash has been getting bloody noses on occasion.” 

“How do you keep track of them all?” Sentinel asked, his voice held a hint of awe as he looked at his father with his ears pinned back. 

“I love them Sentinel. Wholly and completely. Earlier I took a full briefing from Agnetha about the state of health. Many of the little griffons are sick, some are losing feathers, there is severe malnutrition, quite a few have a condition called ‘weepy eye’ that seems caused by the industrial contaminants in the air… Sentinel, these are all duties that one day, you will have to do in my stead,” Bucky answered, looking away from the map and down at his son. 

Sucking in a deep breath, Sentinel let it out slowly, his cheeks puffing out. 

“You will need some help organising. Treat Diamond Tiara well and you might have that help,” Bucky said with a faint hint of a tease in his voice. “One day, these will be your subjects. You will be responsible for every aspect of their life. You must protect them. Nurture them. Give them a future. Begin working to earn their trust now. Endear yourself to them. Be yourself. Be kind. Let Ripple handle the martial aspect of things for now. She is more into that than you are. Delegate tasks and responsibility. Find some griffons you can trust and make them responsible for their own kind.” 

“What is to be done with them?” Sentinel inquired in a low voice. 

“Great things,” Bucky responded. 

“I don’t understand,” Sentinel stated. 

“I have a glorious future vision of griffons integrated with the pony tribes. I intend to use their strength to aid Equestria. They are industrious. They understand machines of all types. They have remarkable talon to eye coordination. They can do amazing things that could reduce the dependence on magic for many earth ponies and pegasi. Once I am gone, I intend to leave behind an industrious army of griffons that are loyal and dedicated to protecting and serving Equestria,” Bucky explained, making a few sweeping gestures with his stump as he spoke, his ears twitching to different positions rapidly. 

“And you are leaving this legacy to me,” Sentinel nervously squeaked.

“Think of how much in common your kind and the griffons have. The griffons farm bugs Sentinel… or did. You like bugs. This could be a means for your kind to find more acceptance in Equestrian society and reduce the need to hunt, which scares ponies. A stable healthy source of food in a society of herbivores,” Bucky said in return to Sentinel. 

“Hrm,” Sentinel hummed thoughtfully. 

“Sentinel, survival of the lunar pegasi and the griffons are practically intertwined in my vision. Both have similar needs. Both have similar problems. Being a fierce predatory species among the ponies is difficult. Most of the world’s sapient species are herbivorous… there is always going to be difficulty maintaining trust and understanding. But I think I see a way,” Bucky said in a somewhat manic and insistent voice. 

“And it will be up to me to make sure this vision continues,” Sentinel sighed, slumping slightly before his father, realising for the first time the enormity of his task, and its importance. The colt felt the first crushing weight of rule settling upon his shoulders, and after a moment of thoughtful consideration, found that he did not mind. 

“Sentinel, I love you a great deal… I understand that I have laid out a task that seems impossible, but there is no one else I trust enough to look after my legacy. You are ideally suited for this role, this future, perhaps even more so than I am. The griffons will follow you and Moonbow for your strength,” Bucky said to Sentinel, reaching out to stroke his son with his right fetlock as he spoke. 

“Father… I am going to have to take on a griffoness as a mate, aren’t I?” 



 

Sentinel prowled the halls once again, his mind unsettled, trying to figure out everything that had taken place in just a few short days. He had, previous to the trip, figured out his place in the world, at least sort of, in a very general sense. And then, during the course of the trip, he had killed a sapient creature using his teeth and immense strength, had seen death on a scale he could scarcely comprehend, and now it seemed that his entire future was all neatly laid out for him. 

His father was creating a lasting legacy and giving his tribe a future. 

The colt understood that his father would have other foals, and those foals would continue other aspects of his father’s legacy. There would probably be a unicorn born at some point with immense magical power that might continue in Bucky’s role as the Lord of Winter. It slowly percolated into Sentinel’s brain that he was continuing the militaristic branch of the family that would serve and protect the future Lord of Winter. 

Sentinel felt a strong rush of pride. Not only was his father trusting him with the griffon kingdom, but Sentinel understood that he was being entrusted to protect every other legacy his father left behind, every brother and sister not born yet, it was all being left to him. The colt suddenly felt very small and very humble as he trotted through the halls and he hoped that he would prove worthy.

Sentinel found that he missed Diamond Tiara a great deal, and he wondered if the earth pony filly missed him. School had started by now, and he hoped that Diamond Tiara wasn’t being bothered too badly by her classmates. Sighing, Sentinel realised he missed Dinky and Piña as well, and hoped that they were sticking by Diamond Tiara’s side. 



 

Returning to his cabin, Sentinel saw that Spike was gone and the cabin was empty. The cabin, small, some might even say cramped, was Sentinel’s favourite space aboard The Scorned Mare. It wasn’t quite his hiding space beneath the stairs at home, but it was a small secure space where he felt well hidden and secure. It had clearly been designed with him in mind, no doubt designed by Princess Luna. There was a small folding desk, two bunks, both of which folded into the wall, a well supplied small closet full of art supplies, a small round window, and the walls, which were painted a beautiful shade of dark purple-blue and covered in small stars that actually twinkled with a faint magical glow. 

He sat down near his desk, banged on just the right spot with his hoof, and the entire desk fell outwards into place. He pulled open a drawer, pulled out a fine pen with a silver tip, his journal, set them down upon the desk, and then stared at the wall, trying to gather his jumbled thoughts. 

Sitting in the dark room, Sentinel wrapped a tendril of shadow around the pen, willing it to move, straining, his whole body trembling. He gritted his teeth and felt a bead of sweat dribble down just behind his ear as he extended his willpower, just as Luna had instructed. 

With a clatter, the pen trembled upon the desk, bouncing and vibrating around. For just a brief moment, it lifted into the air, rising a scant inch away from the desk, and Sentinel held it for a few seconds, exhausting himself as he did so. 

Sentinel let go, his whole body now shaking, his head hurting. Shadow based physical manipulation was a rare gift that few had, a gift that Luna called umbrakinesis. His father had the gift as well, but tended to ignore it in favour of his own telekinesis. 

Extending one jittering wing, Sentinel picked up his pen, turned on his desk lamp which bathed his desk in a faint glow that Sentinel could see just fine by, and then opened his journal. 




Night has fallen on the fifth day of our stay in the griffon empire, or what is now left of it. So much has changed. I remember our first day here and the feeling of bleak emptiness upon seeing Huginn. Huginn now being buried under a blizzard that will last centuries. 

So much has changed since we were attacked. Spike has certainly changed, and I have as well. I can still taste griffon flesh in my mouth while I sleep, and the scent of blood remains strong in my nose. I still feel so guilty. I am still bothered by just how easy it was to rip the griffon limb from limb and tear his throat out. He was so physically weak, I can still remember him and his feeble struggles against me, trying to make me stop. 

It is an important reminder that I must be forever vigilant and watch my strength. The world and the living things around me are all so fragile and easily broken. I do believe that my budding relationship with Diamond Tiara, should it continue, will be good for me in the long run, she is fragile and delicate, well, as much as an earth pony can be fragile and delicate, and she will make, for lack of a better term, good practice. I just hope that I never sneeze while holding her, I tend to clench up. 

Father plans to leave tomorrow with the dawn. There are those labouring through the night with last minute preparations to make The Albatross a suitable place to live, as I do believe my father plans to use it to house the griffons once we return home. 

I worry that I lack my father’s sense of vision. He sees himself as a new founder, creating a new unified tribe, not just of ponies, but of sapient species. He sees a connection between the lunar pegasi and the griffons that I did not see, but I should have seen. Our survival as a species does indeed depend on one another, I do believe my father is correct with his idea. We need to earn the trust of those who fear us. I don’t know how to do this, but I know my father has a plan. 

The griffons have placed all of their hope in Belisama, who has given herself to my father as his servant. I have heard them talking, I have heard their hopeful conversations. I wonder if my father is aware of how much is being said. The griffons love my father as one of their kings, but they want a queen. I wonder how my mother Derpy will feel about having a flock that is entirely loyal to her. I wonder how Moonbow will react when she learns of our future. 

The griffons are amazing creatures. I have spent some time watching them closely and have discovered their bathing habits are quite interesting. They preen their wings, getting their feathers damp with drool, and then they rub their wings all over their body, covering their pelt with a somewhat waterproofed coating of slobber. Lugus has never done this in the open, but the griffons seem to enjoy sitting in the sun with one another and preening together as a group. They also grab their tongue with their talons, soak their talons in slobber, and rub themselves down using their talons. They are clean fastidious creatures. 

When I get the chance, I hope to sketch them preening as a group. 


	
> Chapter 319
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster… Bucky… can we talk?” Twilight said as she approached Bucky who was sitting in the darkened dining hall, the faint unnatural glow of his Taint filled eye was the only light in the room. Twilight smelled the strong scent of tea, a medicinal smell, with the nostril tingling smell of peppermint. 

“What is on your mind, Twilight?” Bucky replied. 

All around her in the dark, Twilight thought she heard things… or felt things… or sensed something looking at her. She felt like a foal again, worried about ghosts in the dark, or the boogeypony in the closet. It brought up vivid memories of being in the Crystal Empire, being hunted by Sombra. 

“You feel it, don’t you?” Bucky inquired. 

Swallowing, Twilight cleared her throat and nodded. “Is that you?” 

The oppressive darkness vanished. The dark still remained, but the lingering dreadful feeling of apprehension went away. Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, sat down at the table with Bucky, and ignited her horn for some comforting light. 

“My shadow essence manifests in the dark. I can’t always control it,” Bucky admitted. “I generate an aura of apprehension and dread. Luna tells me that Sombra did much the same.” 

“Creepy,” Twilight Sparkle whispered. 

“You wanted to speak with me?” Bucky inquired in a low voice. 

“I have heard that you plan to make your school open to all tribes, to fully exploit their potential. Cheerilee mentioned it, that you spoke to her, and Luna mentioned it as well, telling me that you have a grand vision,” Twilight began, looking Bucky in his eye, and watching as the glowing purple mist drifted away, floating around his ear.

“You have heard correctly,” Bucky answered and then took a sip of tea. 

“I want to register a student,” Twilight Sparkle said sheepishly, her gaze dropping down to the table. 

“I see,” Bucky replied. “Are you the parent or guardian of the student in question?” he inquired, the ghost of a smile lurking in the left corner of his lips on the good side of his face. He took another sip of tea and took perverse satisfaction in watching Twilight squirm in her chair. “School is not in session yet, but will be soon. Before winter begins it should be open.” 

“I’m… I am…,” Twilight began and then fell into a silent pause that lasted for several moments. “I am his mother,” Twilight said in a pained voice. “And I am not a very good one.” 

Bucky’s sense of perverse satisfaction died and was replaced with a growing feeling of concern. “That’s not true Twilight. At least I don’t think so.” 

“I hatched him, I’ve raised him, I taught him how to read and write, and I’ve used him as a mailbox for well over ten years. I have been absolutely awful to him, and I want to make it up to him… he wants to go to school and be a foal… um, uh, or in this case a dragon… hatchling? I don’t know… the point is, I made a terrible mistake and I need to fix it,” Twilight said, stammering a few times as she struggled to get the words out. 

“Twilight, we all make mistakes with those we love,” Bucky said in a soothing voice. 

“Says you… you’re like the father every foal would beg for!” Twilight snapped. 

“Dinky,” Bucky said in a defeated voice. “I channeled dark magic through Dinky and used her to summon a swarm of demon bugs.”

“That’s… well…” Twilight said haltingly and then fell silent. 

“I have laid a terrible burden upon Sentinel’s shoulders and I allowed him to enter into a prearranged marriage,” Bucky continued, shaking his head sadly, staring down into his teacup. 

“That doesn’t seem so bad when you consider the bigger picture and the context of necessity,” Twilight whispered, glancing up at Bucky. “At least you didn’t give your foals away as cheap labour to your friends.” 

“I will make a note to enroll one dragon, and will figure out the best way to exploit his unique talents for the greater good of Equestria. He will receive no special treatment though… I don’t care if you are a princess or a pauper,” Bucky said in a flat voice that contained no humour. 

“He will do well,” Twilight responded. “He’s driven, and he wants to go to school more than anything.” 

“I take it that you and Spike had a long talk,” Bucky stated, finishing off his tea and then pouring another cup. 

Fetching a teacup with her magic, Twilight poured herself a cup of tea and then stared down into murky depths of her teacup. “We talked. Mostly, he talked. I didn’t say much. When I started to say stuff, I said all of the wrong things and I made everything worse. Finally, I just shut up and it became obvious that shutting up was the right thing to do. Reason and logic didn’t seem to apply.” 

“That is a very important lesson,” Bucky whispered, his breath causing ripples to appear in his tea. “Foals… little ones… they don’t care about reason or logic or why you think things should be the way they are… none of that matters Twilight. They just know that something hurts and they want you to fix it because they can’t. And trying to explain away their pain or telling them their pain is unreasonable only hurts them more.” 

“Well, I really hurt Spike… I did just that. I tried to explain to him why he was taking this way too seriously and he cried for almost half an hour and refused to speak to me,” Twilight grumbled. 

“Ouch,” Bucky grunted. “Twilight, please tell me that you weren’t actively keeping track of the time that… oh dear,” Bucky said, interrupting himself when he saw Twilight begin to nod. “At least you didn’t say anything to him about how long… oh… nevermind,” he added, cutting himself off once again when he saw Twilight nodding once more. 

“Mother of the year,” Twilight said in a strangled bitter voice. “For a time, it hurt so much to think about… this whole situation, that I actually thought about surrendering custody of Spike back to Celestia,” she confessed to Bucky. 

“Oh… oh Twilight Sparkle, that’s not good,” Bucky said in a voice quavering with concern, looking over at Twilight with a pained expression upon his face. “Where is Spike now?” Bucky inquired. 

“I tucked him into bed in Sentinel’s cabin. I… I… I kissed them both good night and told them both that I loved them… both. Spike looked at me suspiciously and Sentinel tried to squirm away from me,” Twilight answered and then took a sip of tea. “Hey, this stuff smells kinda awful, but it doesn’t taste bad.”

“Some kind of root… valerian or something, Luna mixed this tea for me and told me to drink it when my nerves are bad and I can’t sleep,” Bucky responded. 

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping,” Twilight remarked, her voice low and somewhat raspy. Her wings fluttered for a moment and then she slumped down into her chair. “I keep thinking about what I did.” 

“Killing does something to your head,” Bucky said knowingly. He reached up and tapped on his skull with his right hoof. “It is like losing your virginity Twilight. Once its been done, there is no going back to how things used to be.” 

“Ugh, can we please leave that out of this?” Twilight begged in exasperation. 

“Celestia is demanding a full explanation of everything that has happened and she has sent explicit instructions that I am to use my authority to seize control of The Scorned Mare and return home immediately,” Twilight confessed, looking at Bucky through narrowed eyes. “Bucky, she thinks it was YOU that used her beloved sun as a weapon.” 

“What?” Bucky asked in reply, his eye opening wide and his eyebrow raising in concern. “She thinks what?” 

“She doesn’t realise it was me… she knows there was something wrong… she got a big pile of burned griffon bits dumped on her head after Spike torched the griffon. She said in her letter that she waited to send a message, worried that Spike suddenly burping out a letter might give us away… she figured out that we were in a tight spot on her own. But she thinks it was you that used her sun… she wants to know if you have ascended… she can’t tell, she says she can’t get a focused fix on you anymore because something is blocking her and she thinks it is you and she wants to know if you ascended into the alicorn of war because you used her sun,” Twilight explained with frantic nervousness. 

“Oh really?” Bucky said in an icy voice. “I bet that would make her really happy,” he hissed, the darkness coming to life once again all around him. 

Hearing something unpleasant and unseen in the darkness, Twilight Sparkle shivered and made her horn glow a little brighter. “Bucky, please, my nerves can’t take the spookiness right now.” 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky tried to calm down, and as he did so, the darkness around him became less terrifying. His barrel heaving, he struggled to regain his composure. 

“She can’t get a focus on you because of me. I’m blocking her. I’m shutting her out. She spies on everything. She is always watching over those of interest to her. I’ve seen it Bucky, in her private astral realm, she has projections showing everything about me… and others. I’ve even been there with her when she was spying on you… I shut her out because I wanted to deal with this… just me and you together, to prove that we can. She watches Dinky now too. And Piña. And Sentinel. Well, all of you. You have collected quite a few powerful entities that have captured her interest Bucky… but I blocked her out because I didn’t want her interfering or watching over our shoulders. I’ve also blocked any further messages from her through Spike,” Twilight said, her voice now somewhat manic as she spoke over her teacup, inhaling the steam. She took a long swallow, swished it around in her mouth, and then swallowed with a loud gulp. 

“I don’t know what to say Twilight,” Bucky grumbled, slumping down in his chair. “I mean, what does a pony say after hearing that.” 

“When I became an alicorn, when she revived me from the dead, I never gave much thought to all of the projections she had of me,” Twilight whispered. “But after the fact, after everything settled in, I started to think about how creepy it was.” 

“That is unsettling,” Bucky agreed. 

“I don’t know what the right thing is anymore Bucky… if you should be the alicorn of war or not… I’ve debated it for a long time… but the one thing I do know is, you have a right to choose… I’ve been having some paranoid thoughts lately Bucky, and they keep me awake at night. I won’t say them, but I suspect that you are having them as well,” Twilight Sparkle said in a husky emotional voice. 

Nodding, Bucky said nothing but acknowledged Twilight’s words. 

“I don’t know what is right or wrong anymore,” Twilight said, the first tear finally falling. “I find that I keep saying that lately. I… I started to lose track back when Discord took away my horn and set me loose in the hedge maze. He took my horn, he took Rarity’s horn, he took away the wings of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy… but he took nothing from Pinkie Pie or Applejack. I realised that later. He took NOTHING from Pinkie Pie or Applejack. He left them as they were, and it occurred to me after the fact that the whole situation sums up everything currently wrong in Equestria. He saw nothing worth taking from either of them, and I don’t know how I feel about it, other than just feeling confused. I think I’m losing my way Bucky.” 

“I’m sorry Twilight… I wish I could help you, but I lost my way a long time ago. Now, I just sort of stumble my way though life depending on my wives and those I love to see me through, and when a crisis comes, I just make stuff up as I go along,” Bucky responded. 

“I can’t even figure out why I trust you so much, but I do,” Twilight admitted. “And don’t take this the wrong way, but it bothers me. Not that I trust you… just that I can’t figure out why.” 

“We’re family Twilight. In the distantly related sense, in the divine sense, and bonds forged in the heat of trouble sense… and I will always be there for you if you need me,” Bucky offered. 

“Thanks Bucky… I’m going to go to bed I think. This tea made me feel sleepy,” Twilight replied and then finished off her cup. 

“Sleep well,” Bucky whispered. 
	
> Chapter 320
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a flick of his magic, Bucky made The Scorned Mare rise, pulling The Albatross with it. The thrum of the engines made the ship feel alive, and Bucky was glad to be moving again and away from the wreckage of the military base. 

Some of the bodies had started to stink and there was a lot of dead things within the ruins. Most of the base had been picked over, scavenged, and anything remotely useful had been taken. 

A warning indicator beeped incessantly, showing that the engines were operating above recommended capacity, and a little message popped up on the display that without direct sunlight, there would be reduced speed and power with the current load. 

This alert made Bucky scowl fiercely. 

Snarling, Bucky wracked his brain and immediately began to try to think of a solution, not sure what to do, but knowing that something needed to be done. He needed more power somehow. The Scorned Mare had a rather small gasbag filled with cloudstuff, and the electrical generation was sufficient for her own weight. 

The Scorned Mare shuddered as it rose above the mountain peaks. The wind hit The Albatross, the gale force gusts tugging on the much larger ship, the forces of drag hard at work. The bigger ship had no engines to assist and was completely at the mercy of the wind. 

As they flew away from the military base, Bucky reached out and touched the kegs full of gunpowder with his mind, igniting several kegs with a simple flame spell. 

A moment later, the train parked in the tunnel exploded, collapsing the passage, the muffled roar of the explosion causing Bucky’s coffee cup to rattle alarmingly upon the little table it sat upon. 

Setting a course south and west, Bucky turned The Scorned Mare towards the Hinterlands and began the journey that would eventually take them to the Sea of Grass. 



 

Soaring high above the clouds for the most available sunlight, The Scorned Mare pulled steadily forward, towing The Albatross behind it. It was cold up at this altitude, but Bucky found that he didn’t mind the icy breeze that tried to slash through his shaggy pelt. He sat on the deck, looking forward, his nostrils puffing out clouds of steam that immediately got sucked away behind him. The air was thin up here, but Bucky found that he didn’t mind that either, provided he stayed still and didn’t move much. He was glad that he had sealed  the hull on The Albatross so the inside could be pressurised. 

He yawned, finally feeling sleepy, and decided a bit of sleep might be a good idea. He rose to his hooves, wobbled a bit, and then took off at a three legged trot to the door that led below decks. Lyra was in the navigation cabin and everything seemed to be going according to plan, which worried Bucky somewhat, but he was currently too tired to care. 



 

Entering his cabin, he saw Belisama asleep on the small sofa, partially covered by a blanket. She had been up for a good part of the night, keeping him company, and had made the pot of tea he had drank while while speaking with Twilight Sparkle. With a gentle touch of magic, he pulled the blanket over her, mindful to not let it snag upon her plaster cast, and he watched her sleeping for a few moments. 

“That was very sweet of you.” 

Hearing Bon Bon whisper softly, Bucky turned and saw Bon Bon’s head poking through the door. He grinned sheepishly and then crawled into the bed, wiggling under the blanket, and then tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in. 

“I hate trying to sleep alone,” Bucky grumbled. “Come back to bed Bon Bon.” 

“I can’t,” Bon Bon whispered. “There are ponies and some griffons to look after, Harper is being fussy, and I just woke up not all that long ago, so I am not sleepy.” 

“Not fair,” Bucky grumbled in a low voice. “His Royal Highness demands his snuggly wuggly bed warmer.” 

“You know, Bucky my dear, I think that might be the first time I have heard you invoke a royal command towards a member of your own family, and it is hilarious,” Bon Bon replied, raising her eyebrow slightly. 

“Your sass isn’t warming my bed,” Bucky mumbled. “Get your sass over here so I can squeeze it and rub my cheek up against it. I demand you present to me your warm sass for my comfort.” 

Giggling softly, Bon Bon departed from the room and shut the door, leaving Bucky all alone in the bed, grumbling wordlessly to himself, denied his snuggly wuggly bed warmer. 



 

Lyra, alone in the navigation cabin, was giving a lot of thought about how to fix the energy issue. She had something of an idea of how to fix it, but lacked the means to implement it. The Albatross currently produced far more electricity than it needed. A ship’s engines were the primary drain on the power system. The Scorned Mare was not producing enough power under the current load. 

What was needed was a means to get the electricity flowing between the two ships. 

Snatching the microphone from the stand, Lyra lifted it to her lips. “All crew members are to be belowdecks unless you have specific clearance to be on deck,” Lyra announced in a clear voice, broadcasting to the entire ship. “We are now passing into the Hinterlands. We are still under general quarters and will remain that way, but if there is trouble, there will be an announcement. Also, for anypony or anybirdy listening, your pilot is thirsty and could use a drink.” 



 

The Hinterlands were little more than barren rock, sand, alkali flats, and in the southeastern expanses near the Sea of Grass, a vast marsh that covered thousands of square miles. It was a lawless place, a terrible place, a no-species land of exile. Slavery still happened here, nothing had ever truly gained control of the Hinterland, and this was the dumping ground where every other nation on the planet banished its undesirables. 

Even dragons avoided this place, except to fly over while looking for food. 

Griffons, the particularly bad griffons, had long since inhabited this land, preying upon all those who lived here. Trolls roamed the rocky reaches. Hideous creatures called fomorians lived in caves here, massive bipedal giants that ate anything smaller than they were. Chimeras of all kinds roamed the wastes, collections of all manner of horror mixed into one body. Cockatrices were said to roam wild here, and in great numbers. The marsh was full of cragadiles, some of them as long as The Scorned Mare if stories were to be believed, and the cragadiles were preyed upon by giant hydras. 

The Hinterlands were considered to be a truly awful place and Lyra loved to read books about everything that was said to go on there. 



 

“This part of the trip seems too uneventful,” Lugus stated, only his front half fitting into the navigation cabin. “This design seems impractical,” he complained.

“Hey, don’t jinx it… and what seems impractical?” Lyra replied, looking over at Lugus. 

“Having the navigation cabin here on the rear deck that can only be reached by walking over the deck. At this altitude it is impractical,” Lugus explained, the icy wind blowing over his backside. 

“This is the POOP DECK!” Lyra corrected as she burst into laughter. “This deck covers the rear cabin. Just below us is the commander’s cabin and Bucky. And there is a second control room for the ship, but I don’t like that one.” 

“There is a second control?” Lugus questioned, his head cocking off to the side. 

“Yes,” Lyra replied. “Down deep in the ship. No windows. Well protected. In the event of an intense battle, there is a second navigation center down in the bowels of the ship where everything can be controlled and you don’t have to sit in a cabin made of glass that rises from the very rear of the poop deck.” 

“Ah, I see,” Lugus responded. 

“But I don’t like it, and I want to see the battle if it happens,” Lyra said with a grin. “Like the battle over the griffon military base. That was awesome. I had the control ring over my horn and I was jacked into the ship. I could control the electro-cannons with my mind. Merging with The Scorned Mare is like the greatest feeling ever Lugus.” 

“Unicorn technology frightens me,” Lugus said in a low voice as he watched Lyra bounce around in her seat from her pent up excitement. 



 

Yawning, Bucky looked at the projection map, stuffed into the command chair with Lyra. He rubbed his belly, looked around, and with a grunt, realised that the late afternoon almost evening hour was entirely too early to be up. 

“Something really big happened here. Two crashed ships below us, one of them one of the big griffon gunships… look at it Bucky, the big one is blown in half… it looked like something ripped it apart… do you think dragons might have done it or did something like a zebra warship blow it up?” Lyra questioned. 

“The firepower to do that would be immense,” Bucky grunted, not fully awake. He stared at the projection image blearily, and as he did so, he felt one of Lyra’s forelegs wrap around his withers. “I wonder if the zebras got tired of the firearms ban and the Council of High Sorcery authorised the use of projectile weapons like cannons… there is a really big hole… there, right there, do you see?” 

“I do Bucky, I see it,” Lyra said, leaning down over the projection. 

“The sun will be setting soon and we’ll be under reduced power,” Bucky grumbled. 

“I have a solution Bucky, but I don’t know how to implement it,” Lyra announced. 

“Do tell,” Bucky stated.

“We need a way to share electricity between the two ships. I don’t know how to do that though,” Lyra answered, shrugging as she spoke. 

Both unicorns froze in the command seat as the console made a faint beep. Both turned and looked at the map, noticing the ten blue dots now moving rapidly towards The Scorned Mare, two of which were really, really, really big. 

“We’ve got friendlies,” Lyra grunted. “Incoming fast. They’re moving! Magical signatures detected, probably unicorns. Should we meet them? Should we drop altitude?” 

“Drop altitude and prepare to meet them,” Bucky answered, slipping free of the chair. “My best guess it is the zebra fleet. We should let them know what happened.” 



 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, he saw a familiar figure on deck. He hobbled forward towards the grinning figure, now smiling himself. “Finch… Pelican… Skua, how are you?” 

“Knight Major, so glad to see you… we’ve heard disturbing things. Perhaps you could tell us what is going on?” Zebra Finch greeted, the zebra pegasus raising a wing in salute to Bucky. “Where is Princess Twilight Sparkle?” 

“She is coming,” Bucky replied. “So what have you heard?” 

“Some kind of powerful magical force manifested over Griffonholm. Our wizards tried to scry on the city and saw that it is covered in a blizzard. And we know from the griffon warships that we have captured that there is some kind of major panic,” Finch replied, looking at Bucky pointedly. 

“The griffons attempted to murder us in our sleep. We managed to escape with our lives, but not without injury. I started a war and both kings of Griffonholm are now dead. The griffons are no longer a threat,” Bucky explained. 

“And what of the new griffon kings?” Finch inquired, now looking very serious. 

“Not a threat,” Bucky stated. 

“And you know this how?” Finch questioned, now increasingly agitated and nervous. 

“King Tannis is belowdecks. He is the new king, by my backing, and I give you my word that he is not a threat to you. He desires peace,” Bucky replied in a patient voice. 

“There are always two!” Finch said in fear. 

“It’s complicated,” Bucky began, taking a deep breath. 

“What is going on?” Twilight demanded, now on decks, and having heard only part of the conversation. She approached rapidly, her much longer legs making her stride quite quick. Her wings fluttered and her tail whipped in the breeze. 

“We were discussing the new kings of the griffons,” Finch said, trying to calm himself and bowing his head to Twilight Sparkle. 

“Bucky is now king of the griffons,” Twilight Sparkle blurted out, trying to assert control over the situation, her scabbed over and still blistered face looking serious. 

“Oh dear… I began to suspect as much when he started to explain… I must offer my apologies, but as king of the griffons, I must ask that you surrender at once and submit to our authority,” Finch said in a nervous squeaky voice. 

“WHAT?” Twilight bellowed. 

Skua and Pelican moved closer to Finch, the stalwart pegasi guards eyes narrowing as the situation suddenly became quite tense. 

“Look, I must ask that you surrender so we can sort this out. The griffons have a lot to answer for, and I have before me the king of the griffons… please, don’t make this difficult,” Finch begged. “I am obligated to do what must be done.” 

“NO!” Twilight snapped. 

“I surrender,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“What?” Twilight growled. “NO!” 

“Twilight Sparkle, stand down this instant,” Bucky commanded in an icy voice. 

“Why should I?” Twilight snarled. 

“Because the zebras are our friends, and betraying a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend… forever,” Bucky said in a calm commanding voice. 

“I am certain we can sort something out… I need to get in touch with the Council… there is a mirror we can use to communicate. I offer you my word that while you are our prisoner, you will be treated with the utmost respect and care. There has been enough bloodshed and death, and we have no desire to continue it,” Finch said solemnly. 

“Twilight Sparkle, go fetch Tannis and Agnetha. Explain to them what is going on and tell them that I said to come along quietly,” Bucky instructed. 

“If you would like, you may have one attendant come along with you to vouch for your care and wellbeing. We will keep you in a nice cabin, but you will not be permitted to leave,” Finch said nervously, watching Twilight Sparkle with a wary eye. 

“The griffon empire surrenders,” Bucky said again, giving Twilight Sparkle a very pointed stare. “I will do anything you ask of me, but I must ask that you do not hurt my subjects. They have suffered enough. The surviving griffons are not a threat and their numbers are too few. They near extinction.” 

“I don’t think a magic inhibitor is necessary,” Finch stated. “Your Majesty, we appreciate your cooperation and I do humbly beg your forgiveness for what is about to happen, but I am confident that an agreement and conclusion can be reached.” 

“You are not taking him,” Lugus growled, his talons flexing and clicking upon the deck. “I will not allow you to take my friend. Have a clear shot Belisama?” 

“I do,” Belisama chirped. 

Looking around, Bucky realised that he couldn’t see the little griffoness anywhere. “I SAID STAND DOWN AND I MEAN IT! Lugus, do as I command!” 

“We cannot let them take you my king,” Lugus said in a savage growl. “We finally have a worthy king and I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO TAKE HIM!” 

“I think I find myself agreeing with Lugus,” Twilight said in a commanding voice. 

“Has the world gone mad?” Bucky snarled. “I SAID STAND DOWN AND THAT IS AN ORDER! LUGUS, OBEY OR FACE BANISHMENT!” 

Snarling, Lugus glared at Bucky, his talons flexing, his tail swishing, his wings flared out in a stance of aggression. The big griffon folded his wings in let out a roar of frustration. He turned his head away from Bucky and peered off towards the navigation cabin. “Belisama, stand down.” 

In the distance, there was an ominous click. 

“Finch, as I have stated, I surrender. I will answer for the crimes of my griffons,” Bucky said in a low gritty voice, his eye now focused on Lugus. “And I must ask that you forgive the actions of my loyal guard. They have not had a worthy king in a long while and fear losing their hope.” 

Finch, who feared that his anus would never fully unclench, took a deep breath and wondered how close he had been to dying. “The Council… they are most reasonable. I am certain that this can be resolved peacefully.” 

“If you harm him, if you do anything at all to harm him, consider yourself at war with Equestria,” Twilight Sparkle warned. “He might be the king of the griffons, but he is also a prince in our nation.” 

“Twilight, that is enough,” Bucky growled. “On behalf of the griffons, I am obligated to attend to issues of diplomacy. We were sent on a mission for griffon diplomacy, and that is what I will do. I will do whatever it takes to secure a future for my subjects. Now go and fetch Tannis and Agnetha.” 

“My king, I ask that you forgive me,” Lugus whispered. 

“Later Lugus, now is not the time,” Bucky replied. 

“My king, they intend to make you answer for the crimes of the griffons… there might not be a time later,” Lugus said in a low pained voice, his eyes wide and pleading. 

“Enough Lugus, watch over Bon Bon and Lyra. Keep my foals safe. Look after my subjects. While I am gone, you are in charge of the fleet,” Bucky instructed. 

“We give you our word that he will be safe while we figure out what to do about this situation,” Finch promised. 

“But that does not include a promise of his safety after the fact!” Lugus snarled. 

“LUGUS! Enough!” Bucky shouted. 

“I am coming with you,” Belisama said, appearing on the deck, flying down and hovering near Bucky. “They said you may have an attendant. I am your servant, I am coming with you, master.” 

“Very well. Disarm Belisama,” Bucky agreed. 

Stomping away, Twilight Sparkle finally went belowdecks to fetch Tannis and Agnetha, grumbling as she went, her horn glowing menacingly. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 321
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The stateroom was small but comfortably appointed. Bucky looked around and felt Belisama’s talons clutching tightly at his mane, and he felt her shift slightly upon his back as they entered, her cast resting upon his ribs. Tannis and Agnetha stood close together, both clearly afraid, both of them staring at Finch. 

“I was hoping we could talk. That is if you wanted to speak with me,” Finch said in a low worried voice. “If you wish to remain silent to protest your capture I understand.” 

“I will speak with you, but I am thirsty,” Bucky responded, turning around to look at Finch, a smile upon his muzzle. 

Sticking his head out the door, Finch barked an order to a guard and then pulled himself back into the room. He watched as Bucky levitated Belisama to a bed and then sat down in well cushioned chair. 

“I really am sorry about this,” Finch apologised in a raspy worried voice. 

“Finch, stop apologising. It does not become you,” Bucky said in pleasant tones. 

Tannis settled onto a small sofa and Agnetha sat down on the bed beside Belisama, picking up the smaller griffon and stroking her gently. A five way glance was exchanged among the occupants of the room. 

“We knew the griffons had cannons,” Finch began, looking around nervously. “But then a few days ago, they started attacking with rifles. We encountered heavy casualties and there was ship to ship fighting. The new rifles the griffons had are unlike the old designs of the past. We’ve seized many. We have also mounted several cannons on our ships to help combat the griffons. It seems the firearms treaty has ended.” 

“I suppose that it has,” Bucky agreed, nodding his head as he spoke. “And you were wise to arm your ships. Electro-cannons, while powerful, have limited range. Projectile cannons are powerful and useful.” 

“And I cannot help but notice that your servant was armed when you surrendered,” Finch said, looking over at Belisama. 

“My most devoted servant is very protective of her king. I must ask that you forgive her overzealousness. But yes, she was carrying two revolvers of a new design. They are fearsome weapons,” Bucky responded, looking Finch in the eye. 

“We have courier ships returning to Tradewinds with several of the new rifles and some of the new bullets. The black powder appears to have changed as well. Does not produce as much smoke. Our unicorns were quite vulnerable to being shot, their shields did not hold up for very long,” Finch reported, looking pained. 

The door opened and a unicorn entered the room, holding a tray in his magic. He set the tray down on a small table, bowed his head, and departed, saying nothing. On the tray was a large pitcher and five glasses. 

Lifting the pitcher, Bucky poured himself a glass and then levitated it over to himself. He took a drink, made a curious face, took another drink, and then smiled. “This is wonderful. What is it?” 

“Coconut milk. Quite refreshing. We drink a lot of it,” Finch replied, smiling in appreciation. 

“Master, you should have let me try that for you… to see if it was poisoned,” Belisama said in a soft worried voice, staring at Finch. 

Finch gulped. 

“Belisama, Finch is my friend. Friends trust one another. We are their guests for now, and we must trust them if we want the future to be better,” Bucky patiently explained to the little griffoness. 

“Why thank you… sir… I feel awful for having taken you captive,” Finch said. 

“I am not captive. I came willingly. I am your guest,” Bucky corrected, his tone was almost fatherly, nearly the same sort of voice he used to speak to Sentinel, Dinky, or Piña. 

“Your Majesty, you are being shockingly gracious about this,” Finch said in a low voice as watched Bucky drinking coconut milk. 

“I am trying to set an example for my two wards… Tannis and Agnetha. Their parents set dreadful examples for them. I had to kill both kings and being bad parents is among the worst of their crimes, at least in my own opinion. They failed to provide a good example for their offspring. Now it rests upon my shoulders… it is my responsibility… to make sure that they are prepared for leadership,” Bucky replied in a slow measured voice as he gazed at Finch. 

“So Huginn and Muninn are no more?” Finch inquired, looking at Bucky and then the griffons. 

“They are gone, now buried under a massive blizzard that will last for centuries until the land has been cleansed. It is better to not ask about details. Suffice to say, the griffon threat to the world has been largely nullified. There are remnants to be sure, but those can be dealt with. Their factories are no more. Their seat of power is gone,” Bucky answered. 

“So what happened?” Finch asked, his brow furrowing. 

“The griffons planned to abandon their homeland. They planned to poison the water supplies in Equestria, crippling Equestria’s ability to respond, and then they planned to invade the Sea of Grass to secure it as a new homeland. They had factories that made countless new rifles every day, more bullets than you can imagine, and gunpowder manufactured at an industrial scale. This grand plan failed,” Bucky responded as he poured himself another glass of coconut milk. 

Gasping, Finch reeled from Bucky’s words, not wanting to believe what he had just heard, but knowing that Bucky wouldn't lie to him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, squeezing his wings against his ribs in a self-hug to make himself feel better. 

“My father was a monster,” Tannis murmured, his beak clicking. 

“So was mine,” Agnetha said in a gravelly growl. “And now they are both dead. Are we to answer for the crimes of our parents?” 

“I do not know,” Finch said. “The Council will want to speak to you.” 

“The griffons also had the support of some of the minotaurs and diamond dogs,” Bucky said after he took a long drink of coconut milk. 

“What?” Finch gasped in disbelief. 

“It is true. When we found the military outpost in what used to be Donksylvania, there were diamond dogs and minotaurs present. The diamond dogs were supplying food and fresh water to the griffons,” Bucky answered in a solemn voice. 

“This… this isn’t a war between nations… this is… this is… this…” Finch stammered in fear, his eyes blinking rapidly.

“This is a world war?” Bucky suggested. 

“Is such a thing even possible?” Finch whispered.

“I do believe so,” Bucky stated, shaking his head sadly. 

“I need to go make my report… I need to tell them everything you have told me… they need to know… I thank you for being so open and direct… and for saving so many lives. Dinner will be brought to you shortly, if you need anything, knock upon the door and ask,” Finch said, bowing his head as he spoke. 

“Finch, I hope we can end this as friends,” Bucky said in a low voice. 



 

“I’m scared,” Agnetha admitted, lifting her head. She had curled into a ball on the bed and now that she had lifted her head, she peered at Tannis, her eyes full of worry. 

“Agnetha, there is nothing to be afraid of,” Bucky said in a soothing voice. 

“But there is so much reason to hate us… and they are going to hate you by extension. My father tried to make war upon the entire world,” Agnetha whimpered, tucking her head back down against her chest. 

“Agnetha, don’t worry,” Bucky responded in a soft voice. 

“Easy for you to say, they will probably let you go. Tannis and I will be lucky to live. They have every reason to hate us,” Agnetha whined, her eyes closed tightly shut as she started to cry. “They are never going to let us go.” 

“I’m not leaving without you,” Bucky soothed. “You are my wards. I look after my own. Now stop worrying. The zebras and the Council of High Sorcery probably want to know what is going on and if the current hostilities are over,” he explained. 

“I finally have a chance to make things better and it feels like it is all over instead,” Agnetha sobbed in a hitching voice. 

Tannis eased himself down upon the bed with Agnetha and curled up around her, trying to comfort the sobbing griffoness, stroking her crest with his talons. 

“I am finally free… I don’t want to be a prisoner again,” Belisama said in a defeated voice. “I was foolish… I started to have hopes and dreams again. That was dumb.” 

“Hush Belisama,” Bucky commanded. “Everybirdy just calm down.” 

“Easy for you to say, you are in no real danger here. They will let you go free because you are a pony… a worse fate probably awaits us,” Belisama muttered. 

There was an insistent knock upon the door, an impatient rapping of hoof on wood. 

“I do believe that is the knock I’ve been waiting for,” Bucky whispered with a mischievous smile. “Do come in!” he said in a much louder voice. 

The door opened and Finch came into the room looking flustered and rather angry. 

“You didn’t tell me you had zebras and ponies from the Sea of Grass onboard that other vessel,” Finch said in an angry frightened voice. 

“Well, in the commotion, it may have slipped my mind,” Bucky admitted. He huffed loudly, blowing his mane out of his eye and then adjusted his wolf head torque around his neck. He looked up at Finch and smiled broadly, revealing his fangs. 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle refuses to relinquish our citizens while we are keeping you as our... guest… this… this is not easing any tensions between us right now,” Finch stated, barely able to look Bucky in the eye. 

“Your citizens are safe and under the protection of my griffons, whom I have instructed to care for them, feed them, look after them, and keep them well. The little ones do like serving, and it made them immensely happy to have somepony in their care. It was these same griffons who stole food at great risk to themselves to offer your citizens an extra bite while they were prisoners of the much larger and nastier griffons. Your citizens and my little griffons are actually quite close. I dare say that if you were to go aboard that ship and do anything stupid, your citizens would become quite irate if you harmed one of the little griffons who are their caretakers,” Bucky said in a voice that dripped with smugness. 

“Are you keeping them hostage?” Finch demanded, his whole body trembling with fear as he looked at Bucky. 

“Are you keeping me and my companions hostage?” Bucky asked innocently, blinking in mock-shock from the accusation. 

“So they are your guests,” Finch grumbled. “Point taken and message received. If you will excuse me, I have another communication to make.” The striped pegasus stepped out of the door and slammed it shut behind him. 

“Master is treacherous,” Belisama whispered, staring up at Bucky with wide surprised eyes. “Forgive me for saying so,” she squeaked. 

“Bucky… what are you doing?” Tannis asked. “Our lives are at stake… I thought our best route was cooperation and throwing ourselves upon their mercy. I thought that was your plan.” 

“Oh, but I am cooperating,” Bucky stated, his mouth curling into a twisted smile. “I am also engaging in diplomacy. I tried to tell you all that everything will be fine. I am your king, your devoted servant, and for you, Tannis and Agnetha, I am practically your father now… you need to trust me. I am full of unicorn cleverness. It is the only way to play this game. Now we wait.” 

“What is the plan exactly?” Tannis inquired, still stroking Agnetha. 

“The plan,” Bucky stated. “Is to make them the unquestioned staunch allies of Equestria and the new griffon nation, whose name is yet to be determined.” 

“Forgive me, but are you mad?” Tannis inquired. 

“Yes actually,” Bucky cackled. 
	
	
> Chapter 322
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky smiled when a small ghostly flickering image of Twilight Sparkle appeared in the middle of the room. With a flick of his magic, he locked the door and soundproofed the room. He leaned forward in his chair and his smile turned into a broad toothy grin. 

“Everything pretty much went the way you said it might Twilight,” Bucky said, looking down at Twilight’s illusionary projection. 

“Did I do a good job of protesting?” Twilight asked sheepishly. “It felt wrong being deceitful… Applejack slapped me a few times, said it was wrong to lie. It really hurt Bucky.” 

“Bah, you’ll get used to that. Bon Bon has set me straight a few times now, it just means that the earth pony in question loves you dearly. Just give her a hug and say thank you,” Bucky responded. “And yes, you did a fine job of playing your part.” 

“Wait,” Tannis interjected. “She knew about this?” 

“What is going on?” Agnetha demanded. 

“Master is treacherous, I knew it,” Belisama muttered, shaking her head. 

“We both sort of thought that this might happen once we got to the Sea of Grass. We had a plan in place,” Twilight said, her projection turning to look at the three griffons looking stupidly at her. “Bucky is my dear friend. Of course I’m not going to let him suffer any more than he has to. And if I didn’t want him taken there isn’t a force on this planet that could stop me. He saved my life and the lives of my friends. Are they treating you well Bucky?” 

“They have given me coconut milk Twilight… I must say, we need coconut milk back in Equestria,” Bucky replied, still grinning crazily. 

“Finch toured The Albatross. The zebras and ponies actually threatened him, telling him he had better not harm the little griffons, saying that the griffons had suffered enough and were slaves too. I think this will go a long way towards cementing the new relationship between all three nations Bucky… seeing it made me feel hopeful,” Twilight Sparkle reported, a sunny smile appearing upon her lips. 

“Marvellous Twilight, marvellous,” Bucky stated in a low pleased sounding voice. 

“The ponies and the zebras actually protected the servant griffons?” Tannis inquired, lifting his head and looking at Twilight’s projection. 

“Finch demanded the griffons get away from the citizens of the Sea of Grass. The griffons got a little spooked. A lot of the zebras and ponies actually picked them up and hugged them to make them feel better, and a few really rude words were said to Finch, who was completely flummoxed about the whole situation. He apologised,” Twilight’s illusionary projection answered. 

“Twilight, remember, offer no specific details about anything that happened in Griffonholm. Keep everything to a bare minimum and admit to nothing,” Bucky warned. 

“I know that Bucky… what do you think are the chances of this working?” Twilight questioned, turning her head to look at Bucky. 

“I don’t know Twilight, we’ve both been right about a number of things thus far, so I think we can venture a guess and say that we just might get what we want out of this,” Bucky replied, shrugging as he spoke. 

“We have to secure a meaningful future for the griffons Bucky… you just keep doing what you do best. Scare them silly and keep acting crazy,” Twilight recommended. “I think that Princess Celestia might banish both of us to the moon though.” 

“Who says I’m acting?” Bucky demanded, suddenly serious. “And Twilight, we cannot possibly be in any more trouble than we already are. There was a line and we crossed it. Might as well keep going. Remember Twilight. You be the good pony and I’ll be the scary crazy pony… which is easy for me because I don’t have to act.” 

“Oh Bucky, you’re so silly sometimes,” Twilight Sparkle giggled and then vanished. 

“Well, everything is almost going according to plan so far… but I did think I’d get taken into custody in Tradewinds,” Bucky grumbled to himself, rubbing his belly with his remaining front hoof. 

“You are practically a griffon,” Belisama whispered, looking at Bucky with wide concerned green eyes. “Master, I am impressed by your treachery.” 

Chortling, Bucky shrugged. He relaxed his magical hold and released the door and killed off the sound proofing spell. “No more whispering about committing suicide in desperation," he said loudly. 

Nodding with understanding, Tannis went along with Bucky’s ploy. “Yes sir, I’m sorry sir, I will not allow it to happen again.” 



 

After a soft knock, the door opened, and Finch entered, followed by a unicorn. The unicorn levitated a silver mirror behind him, which he laid down upon the table very carefully. Then, the the unicorn left, leaving Finch alone in the room with Bucky, Tannis, Agnetha, and Belisama. 

“There are those who wish to have words with you,” Finch said as the mirror flickered with magic. “Bocor Oya and Grand Sorcerer Canterberry.” 

As Bucky watched, two illusionary projections emerged from the mirror, a zebra’s head and a unicorn’s head. The unicorn was wearing a tall conical hat covered in stars, and Bucky thought he looked a little ridiculous. 

“Greetings, I am Bocor Oya,” the zebra said, introducing herself. 

“And I am Grand Sorcerer Canterberry of the Council of High Sorcery in Tradewinds,” the unicorn added. 

“I am Bucky. This is Tannis, that is Agnetha, and the little one over there is my devoted friend and bodyguard, Belisama,” Bucky said, offering up introductions and taking perverse pleasure from seeing the two projected images scowl at the lack of protocol. 

“Your Majesty, it has come to our attention that you are the king of the griffons,” Oya said in slightly annoyed voice. 

“I am. Fleshrender was killed after his full confession of his crimes and I made Tanner drink his own crown as punishment for the crimes he committed,” Bucky responded in deadpan. 

“Oh my… that’s dreadful,” Canterberry grumbled, looking rather queasy. “Oh… I think I can taste my dinner… oh bother what a perfectly awful way to die.” 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle is the reasonable one. They failed to be reasonable with her. Both Fleshrender and Tanner tried to assassinate the two of us and our dear friends. They became enemies of Equestria and I was forced to deal with them… so tell me, how do we plan to handle this? Will this end reasonably?” Bucky said, ending his words with an inquiry. He felt a smug sense of satisfaction spread over him when he heard three distinct gulps around him, one from Finch and two from the projections. 

“To be honest, we are not quite sure what to do,” Canterberry stated in voice quavering with nervousness. “This sort of situation has never happened before in our long history, and we’re not sure we have the legal means to deal with it. A king has never voluntarily surrendered and cooperated in the middle of an active war.” 

“And under normal circumstances, considering the atrocities committed, you would be put to death for everything that has happened,” Oya remarked as she looked at Bucky, the zebra’s eyes piercing and bright. “But you are not responsible for those atrocities, and by all accounts, you have saved many lives by your actions.” 

“And there is the matter of the rescued zebras and ponies… who are demanding that the griffons be spared,” Finch reported. “By all accounts, from what my officers have gathered, the little griffons are slaves and not active participants in the war.” 

“Yes,” Oya agreed. “We are sending a ship your way loaded with ninety seven little griffons taken as captives when we seized a griffon dreadnaught gunship. Their wings are clipped. None of them can fly. I’m told they are quite annoying as they keep trying to give themselves away as gifts to the zebras and ponies aboard the ship carrying them.” 

“So… is this to be an exchange of prisoners?” Tannis asked nervously. 

“No,” Canterberry replied. “We are giving you the griffons as a good faith gesture. It saddens me to do it though, I am told they are master mechanics and repairers. They completely overhauled the ship they were being sent to you on.” 

“On behalf of my subjects, I thank you for your graciousness and your hospitality,” Bucky said in a stately voice. 

“That is very kind of you to do, but I am curious about our current predicament,” Agnetha interjected politely. “I am begging you for the lives of my subjects, I will do whatever it takes to secure their freedom. They have suffered enough. If you need somebirdy to pay for my father’s crimes, I will gladly do so.” 

“Agnetha, be quiet,” Bucky commanded. 

“Yes sir, sorry for speaking out of place sir,” Agnetha apologised. 

“The Council of Sorcery and the Council of Bocors are still speaking. My friend Canterberry and I were asked to speak with you to get some kind of idea what sort of pony you are. Both councils need some kind of assurance. We’ve made so many treaties with the griffons and each and every single one of them has been broken. We understand that the circumstances have changed and we are no longer dealing with a griffon king, but there are those on the councils whose hatreds run deep,” Oya said, explaining the situation at her end to Bucky and the others. 

“I understand,” Bucky replied, nodding his head softly. “Many generations of distrust do not simply go away.” 

“Do you have anything to say?” Canterberry inquired, looking at Bucky, his projection looking hopeful. 

“I am Bucky Bitters and I am the War Chief of Equestria. I am a knight. I answer only to Princess Luna when it comes to martial matters. I am also one of the kings of the griffons, and it is with both of these positions in mind that I would like to make you an offer,” Bucky said in smooth charismatic voice. 

“And that is?” Oya asked. 

“A mutual protection pact. A real one. Not the current lip service treaty that both of our countries have with one another. Princess Celestia will likely not agree with my actions, but know this, The Scorned Mare is sovereign territory of the Lunar Court, and I am a duly appointed agent of affairs of said court. My authority is second only to Princess Luna’s. Any agreement signed upon The Scorned Mare’s deck is legally binding, and Princess Luna is a princess of her word. In times of trouble, I will personally involve myself in your defense and bring with me my loyal and devoted army of griffons who will be under my command,” Bucky answered, offering up a deal. 

“This is quite a tempting offer,” Canterberry said in a low voice. 

“It is,” Oya agreed. “Because we know who and what you are. The Three Sisters live in Tradewinds. They’ve told both councils about you, even though the details were scarce.” 

“There is trouble around the Shetlands. I know that the griffons have been sending raiders up that way, and I am concerned for the safety of my subjects up there, both pony and griffon. Equestria is currently having trouble keeping its borders well defended,” Bucky stated making a gesture with his stump. 

“We are aware of the collapse,” Canterberry sighed, his voice sad. “Many Equestrians came to Tradewinds. We were quite surprised. Many in the Sea of Grass go to Tradewinds so they can go to Equestria.” 

“We can commit to nothing at this moment, our respective councils are still talking, but I can say that I am hopeful that we can work together,” Oya said to Bucky. She then turned to Tannis and Agnetha and smiled at them. “And both of you as well. You have a long and difficult task ahead of you, earning the world’s trust again. I am hoping that we can help you do that.” 

“I will lean heavily upon my colleagues for a peaceful resolution that brings our nations together in a meaningful way. The surviving griffons are mostly slaves it seems. It would be cruel and heartless to punish them for the crimes of their masters. Many in our nation know the pain of slavery and the cruel touch of a burning brand. I will remind them of our shared pasts,” Canterberry said, looking at Tannis when he spoke. “Finch! See that our guest is treated well. Allow him the run of the ship and access to the deck. You have royalty on board and you had better treat them with the respect they deserve!” 

“Sir, yes sir,” Finch squeaked nervously. 

“We will contact you tomorrow with an answer. In the meantime, please enjoy our hospitality. The ship carrying your subjects should arrive sometime after midnight at your location. We are informing them that they have new kings. I do hope we can work together as friends,” Oya said in a friendly voice. 

“Thank you Bocor Oya and Grand Sorcerer Canterberry… I am most pleased that cooler heads have prevailed. The last attempts at diplomacy… went poorly,” Bucky responded, leaning forwards towards the projected illusions coming out of the mirror. 

“Yes, on behalf of my subjects, I offer my gracious thanks to the both of you, Bocor Oya and Grand Sorcerer Canterberry,” Tannis said, bowing his head. 

“We will contact you again tomorrow,” Oya said as the projections flickered out and then disappeared. 

“Perhaps I can get all of you to follow me to the mess hall? Twilight Sparkle has sent over food suitable for all of you. We could have a meal together,” Finch offered. 

“That would be lovely,” Agnetha replied, her crest rising. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 323
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The moon and stars stretched endlessly above Bucky and the chilly night air blew his mane back from his face. The breeze ruffled his bushy sideburns and his ears were tugged backwards by the occasional strong gust. His thick shaggy pelt was coming in even thicker for the winter, and the tuft of hair upon his chest had grown surprisingly long. Long tufts of hair had sprouted from the tips of his ears, and he was beginning to look like Sentinel. 

The Scorned Mare and The Albatross were a short distance away, surrounded on all sides by the Sea of Grass fleet in a protective formation. 

“You called me your friend.” 

Turning to look at the source of the voice, Bucky’s gaze fell upon Belisama, who was a short distance away and cowing submissively. 

“That was very kind of you. It is much easier to be property when your master is kind,” Belisama said in a low voice, looking up at the stars overhead. 

“But I don’t want you as property. This part of our relationship bothers me Belisama,” Bucky said to the little griffoness as his own gaze returned skyward. 

“But I want to be property. Just like all of my kind. We can’t help how we are. We are what we are. We were made to be this way I think,” Belisama said in a low voice, watching as a cloud passed before the moon. 

Clearing his throat slightly, Bucky tried to understand what Belisama had just said, trying to understand that servant caste mindset of willing servility. “What would it take to free you? What would it take to convince you that you are free?” 

“What if I don’t want to be free?” Belisama returned, her feathers ruffling. “Freedom is a very scary thing. Some freedom is good. Freedom to live is nice. But total freedom? That scares me.”

“I don’t understand,” Bucky stated, shaking his head. 

“I’ve told you. We just want enough freedom to practice our art and what we do best. We want to paint, dance, sing, make art and music, make clay pots and be better potters, we want to be the very best at what we do, but to do that, we need masters to look after us and care for us,” Belisama explained patiently. 

“Yes, you’ve told me this,” Bucky responded, shifting his body from a sitting position to a ‘pony-loaf’ position. He grunted softly from the pain in his hind legs and was glad to fall into a more comfortable position. “I just don’t understand.” 

“Begging your pardon for the intrusion,” Finch said apologetically as he moved closer. “But I do understand.” 

“Do you?” Belisama asked, turning her head completely around backwards to look at Finch as he approached. 

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I overheard. I am terribly sorry… I’ve freed a lot of slaves. Those taken into slavery are very different than those born into slavery. Those taken into slavery know how to be free… it takes them some time but they sort themselves out and after a while, they are okay. But those born into slavery, especially those born into slavery that has lasted for generations…” Finch said, his words trailing off as a sorrowful look crept over his face. “Those born into that kind of slavery are never truly free. The best they can hope for is a kind caretaker that understands their needs, provides for them, and treats them kindly while they work.” 

“So what you are saying is, the current griffons who are alive… the little ones… most of them will never fully adjust to being free, but their offspring have a chance of breaking out of the mindset?” Bucky responded in a curious voice. 

“Well, yes,” Finch replied to Bucky’s question. “But the cubs would need somepony or somebirdy to teach them how to be free… otherwise, their parents might teach them to be servile.” 

“Oh,” Bucky grunted, his remaining eyebrow settling over his surviving eye. 

“Tradewinds is full of freed slaves. Zebras and ponies that used to be slaves. The streets are filled with thousands of beggars who can’t think for themselves, can’t function in society, they just don’t grasp that they are free. They need somepony watching over them, telling them they are good, or I suppose somepony punishing them, but I don’t want to think about that… but they need validation,” Finch mused, his tail whipping around his hind legs at nonexistant flies.

“I think you do understand. Maybe more than you realise,” Belisama said in a sad voice. She wrapped her wings around her body and sighed, looking miserable. 

“There is a lot I don’t understand,” Finch stated. “You have firearms. The ultimate in freedom. With those, you would never be taken as a slave ever again. You could live and die by your own terms Belisama… but you choose servitude.” 

“I need a master,” Belisama admitted in a strangled voice. “But I have… enough freedom… to choose a better master and I have made my choice.” 

“If I may say so, you have done a fine job with finding the right master,” Finch stated, turning to walk away. “You know Your Majesty, if I might be so bold as to suggest this, the kind thing to do would be give her the kind of validation she desires. She might never be free, but her cubs could be,” the half zebra half pegasus said as he walked away, his hooves tapping on the deck as he departed. “A mother can always know freedom through her offspring. Trust me… I know this from my own mother and my father who looks after her.” 

Turning his head around, Bucky watched Finch go, and Bucky’s nostrils flared with emotion. He took a few deep breaths, tried to collect his thoughts, and then turned his gaze back skywards, looking at the twinkling stars. 



 

The dawn broke on the seventh day, bringing with it a feeling of infectious hope. During the night, the freighter carrying the ninety seven griffons had arrived and in the cold light of dawn, the griffons were being ferried over to Albatross to be with the others. 

Awake and thoughtful, Belisama quietly groomed Bucky in his sleep, running her talons through his mane to gently remove tangles. When he made a soft cry in his sleep, she gently stroked an ear, not knowing what else to do. The stallion grunted at the touch, kicked a bit, and then rolled over onto his back, nearly crushing Belisama, who was half of his size and had to scramble out of the way. Reaching out with her talon-finger, but mindful of her claw, she carefully ran the tip of her talon-finger over the many scars on the side of Bucky’s face, places were no hair had ever grown back. She could feel the grooves in his skull where teeth had scraped over the bone, peeling half of his face away. With her talon-thumb pad, she felt the smooth black glass that filled his eye socket and then touched the green emerald embedded in the middle.

Tannis was still asleep in the bunk above Bucky, his tail hanging down over the side. 

In the bunk on the other side of the room, Agnetha was sprawled out, and much to Belisama’s chagrin, she noticed that Agnetha was awake and watching her. 

“Belisama?” Agnetha inquired in the faintest of whispers. 

“Yes?” Belisama replied guiltily, being caught in the act of grooming her sleeping master. She pulled her talons away from Bucky and lifted her head to look at Agnetha. 

“Courtship preening is usually done when the one you desire is awake,” Agnetha breathed, her beak not moving at all. 

“This wasn’t courtship preening,” Belisama whispered back, her voice barely perceptible, something that could only be heard by another griffon who was listening intently for the sound. “I am merely grooming master so that he might be presentable later.” 

With a grunt, Bucky rolled over again and Belisama was forced to scamper out of the way. Her eyes wide, she crawled close and began to examine Bucky’s horn, trying to ignore Agnetha, who was watching everything Belisama did. 

“You are awfully curious,” Agnetha said in a teasing whisper.

Ignoring the larger griffoness, Belisama reached out one claw from her talons and tapped Bucky on the horn. It was cold and the material was rough, not smooth like the fulgurite glass around his eye. She ran her talon-finger tip over the length of it, feeling the lumpy misshapen surface, the sharp edges, and the jagged protrusions. 

“Inquisitiveness is our undoing,” Agnetha warned. “Curiousity kills the cat.” 

“Satisfaction brought it back,” Belisama whispered in reply. 

Twitching, fearful, Belisama reached out one shaky set of talons, extended one talon-finger as well as one talon-thumb, carefully pinched Bucky’s lip between them, pulled his lip away from his teeth slowly, her crest rising, and studied his teeth. With her other talons, she reached out and touched one of his bladed fangs, running her talon-finger pad over the sharp tip, feeling the pointiness and appreciating its simple perfection. 

With a loud snort, Bucky reached out his foreleg and Belisama suddenly found herself snatched and pulled close, the much larger equine crushing her against his body. She yowled softly as she was pulled in, snapping her beak shut to try and muffle her involuntary cry. She found herself embraced tightly between his front legs and the stallion whickered in his sleep, making an equine sound of slumbering satisfaction. 

“Help me!” Belisama whispered.

“I don’t think I can,” Agnetha whispered in reply. 

The little griffoness realised she was in trouble and should have stayed in her own bed. She wiggled, trying to work her way free, her lithe feline form made for escaping from tight spaces. 

“Snuggly wuggly,” Bucky grumbled in his sleep, smacking his lips together once as he spoke, one ear twitching, thumping upon his pillow. He pulled Belisama closer. “Fluffy.” 

“Agnetha, you must help me,” Belisama whispered frantically. 

“You got yourself into this,” Agnetha said in a nearly silent hushed reply. 

“Master is aroused… my maidenhood is in danger.” 

Agnetha’s eyes went wide as she grabbed her own beak and clamped it shut with her talons. The hunter griffoness slipped out of bed, her claws clicking faintly upon the floor. She crossed the room in a few steps, reared up, placed her talons upon the edge of Bucky’s bed, extended her wing, and using the tips of her feathers, tickled Bucky’s nose lightly. 

Sneezing explosively, Bucky rolled over to be away from the tickle but did not let go of Belisama, who once again let out a faint yowl of fear as she remained trapped between Bucky’s forelegs. 

“What is going on?” 

Agnetha froze and she felt her heart stop for a moment. That was Tannis’ voice... 

“Tannis, be silent,” Agnetha hissed softly. She looked upwards and saw Tannis peering down over the edge of his bunk, sizing up the situation. His crest was raised and his facial feathers were fluffed out in obvious amusement. 

“Master is very very aroused,” Belisama murmured in fear as she tried to wiggle free. 

“Give him a tickle,” Agnetha whispered in an almost imperceptible voice. 

Her eyes going as wide as saucers, Belisama froze in fear and stared up at Agnetha. 

“Really… males are ticklish there. If you give it a tickle, he might let go,” Agnetha breathed, her voice exiting her beak through her nostrils. 

Still looking down, Tannis nodded, silently agreeing with Agnetha’s plan. 

Closing her eyes, Belisama dragged her tail tuft along Bucky’s rigid length. She felt the stallion’s whole body go stiff for a moment, Bucky inhaled sharply, and then he giggled in his sleep. His grip relaxed slightly and Belisama wiggled free. She lept into Agnetha’s forelegs and nearly cried from relief as the bigger griffoness whisked her away to safety. 

Agnetha set Belisama down upon her own bunk and stroked the little griffoness affectionately. “Is your curiousity satisfied?” she whispered to the frightened and disturbed looking griffoness. 

Nodding, Belisama had nothing to say. 
	
> Chapter 324
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Well Bucky, what do you think they are going to do?” Twilight asked, looking over at Bucky, whose mane was whipping wildly in the wind. The alicorn felt her stomach churn… her nerves simply couldn’t take much more stress and she badly needed some alone time in her library, which would be immediately closed to the public upon her return. 

Adjusting his torque, Bucky turned his head to look over at Twilight, who was sitting on the deck beside him. “Finch said that the decision, whatever it might be, will be returned before noon today. He had an update of sorts from Bocor Oya. The news of my capture has thrown the Sea of Grass into a state of civil unrest it seems.” 

“Oh no Bucky… that’s not good,” Twilight replied, her voice tight and strained with worry. She shook her head forcefully. “That is not good.” 

“Grand Sorcerer Canterberry issued an official statement to the public stating I had emancipated the griffon slaves. It set off a firestorm,” Bucky said, still looking at Twilight. 

“What? I don’t understand,” Twilight muttered. “Please explain.” 

“Finch tells me that the Council of High Sorcery wants my incarceration. Not all of them, just most of them. Enough that it is a problem. Canterberry tossed my name into the court of public opinion and told the public at large exactly what I did and that I am now the Slave King of Slaves. Seems that word of my own status as a slave has been leaked out. So now there are a whole bunch of zebras and ponies who are very angry and demanding that their government release the Slave King. So there is trouble on the homefront,” Bucky explained. 

“Word that you are a slave was bound to leak out sometime… I still don’t know how I feel about that whole issue,” Twilight remarked in a flat voice. “At one point in my life I had a very good working knowledge of right and wrong. I knew the difference between black and white. At some point, the world made sense.” 

“And then life happened?” Bucky replied, raising his eyebrow. 

“And then I met other ponies. I came down out of my tower and I lived in Ponyville. Then there was my first adventure, dealing with Nightmare Moon. And then, after that, other things happened and everything that used to make sense stopped making sense,” Twilight admitted, her voice dry and raspy. “When did you notice the change?” 

“When I bumped snoot first into Derpy and she chased me. Not much has made sense since then. And I’ve had to just sort of bumble along through life making stuff up as I go,” Bucky answered, his gaze dropping down to his right front hoof. 

Lifting his head, Bucky saw Twilight was gazing longingly at Flash Sentry, who was sitting upon the deck of The Scorned Mare. His remaining eye narrowed, showing only crimson, and his mouth twisted into a horrible grin. “You know Twilight…” 

“Yes Bucky?” Twilight replied. 

“Pegasi need to know you are interested,” Bucky stated. 

“I don’t understand… what are you talking about?” Twilight answered. 

“Flash Sentry is over there. You should fly over, drop in on him, reach out, very gently stroke his cheek, and then take off running or flying,” Bucky suggested. 

“What? Why?” Twilight replied, her cheeks turning bright red. “Oh… NO! Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” 

“Just go and do it… life won’t make sense, but at least you will feel better about it,” Bucky said, his words turning into a soft chuckle. 

“I can’t do that… that would be awkward!” Twilight protested. 

“You know what else is awkward Twilight?” Bucky responded. 

“I am asking myself inside of my own head repeatedly if I am going to regret this, but what?” Twilight answered, her eyes narrowing and her brows rising. 

“Hot sloppy wet messy rutting Twilight. That’s awkward. Waking up stuck to the bed and having to peel yourself away from the sheets-” 

“GAH! SHUT UP THAT IS SO HORRIBLE AND GROSS!” Twilight shouted, closing her eyes and covering her face with her wings. 

“Yeah, but it feels good, so it is kinda a worthwhile tradeoff. And worth the awkward moments,” Bucky said in an amused voice.

“I keep getting traumatised by sex… first it was my brother and Cadance, then it was walking in on my parents and watching my dad raise his eyebrow at me while I stood there stupefied, and now… you… you horrible warlock,” Twilight shrieked. 

“Look, just be a pony for a while. Go on over there and give him the invitation,” Bucky cajoled, trying to coax Twilight into action. 

Licking her lips, Twilight swallowed loudly. “But I’m not pretty right now… Part of my mane is gone. I am still covered in blisters from that waxy goop. I have bald patches.” she squeaked in a low voice. “I can’t.” 

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! He dove into a mob of griffons to save your life, not out of a sense of obligation to you as a princess but out of love you horseapple head! I am one hundred percent certain that he doesn’t care what you look like,” Bucky retorted angrily. 

“Okay,” Twilight replied in a shrill squeak. “What do I do?” 

“Just go over there, touch his cheek lightly, and then fly away,” Bucky instructed. 

Spreading her wings, Twilight Sparkle took flight, and Bucky watched her go. It was clear to Bucky that she was still trying to get used to her new body proportions, including her larger wings. Feeling a strange sense of pride, Bucky watched her land near Flash Sentry, shyly approach the pegasus stallion, and with agonising slowness, she reached out to touch his cheek. 

When contact was made, Twilight Sparkle turned tail and flew away. 

It took Flash Sentry all of an eyeblink to get airborne and go after her. 

Smiling, Bucky sighed, glad to have corrupted Twilight Sparkle just a little bit more. He hoped that Rarity and Applejack were still working their end of the job. Straining to see, Bucky hoped more than anything else that Twilight Sparkle was happy. 



 

Sighing, Bucky was formally carried through the air back to the deck of The Scorned Mare by Skua and Pelican, and Finch flew with them. The deck of his ship was covered with many griffons, a few ponies, quite a number of zebras, and in the center of it all, there was a table with a familiar silver mirror sitting upon it. Beside the table, Tannis and Agnetha were already sitting. 

When he felt his hind hooves touch the ground near the table, Bucky noticed the first twinges of nervousness. Whatever was about to happen would be historical, and Bucky found himself in the middle of it. A banner of the Lunar Court hung from the gasbag above them all, and there was an explosion of flashbulbs as Bucky was set down beside the table. 

The mirror flickered to life and two projected heads appeared, Bocor Oya and Grand Sorcerer Canterberry, both of whom were smiling. And for good reason. The Sea of Grass had been pushing for a stronger treaty for a long time, and seeing them smile made Bucky feel hopeful. He watched as Twilight approached the table, she was wearing her diadem and her face was stern and solemn. 

“Greetings Your Majesties,” Oya said, looking at Bucky, Twilight, Tannis, and Agnetha in turn, her head moving around to acknowledge each pony and griffon at the table. 

“I do hope all of you are well,” Canterberry said, his ears folding back. His projection was missing the tall conical hat he had been wearing before. 

“I hate to sound impatient, but I’d like to skip the pleasantries and get down to the details,” Bucky announced, squinting as more flashbulbs went off. He wasn’t sure when the press had arrived, but he noticed that there were quite a number of small fast personal airships around. 

“This seems reasonable given the circumstances,” Oya agreed with a nod of her head. 

“Yes,” Canterberry also agreed. “There is an angry mob positioned around the Academy of Sorcery and the sooner I can tell them good news the better. Or maybe I should let the angry mob in to speak with my colleagues… I have grown weary of my associates. There is no justice like angry mob justice.” 

“Where is the little one? Belisama?” Oya asked. 

“I am here,” Belisama replied from her perch on Bon Bon’s back. 

“Do come here,” Oya instructed. 

Slowly, cautiously, Belisama took wing and flew over to the table. She landed in between Bucky and Twilight, settling down carefully so she wouldn’t disturb her broken leg. 

“Buckminster Bitters, the Council of Bocors recognises you as one of the rightful kings of the griffons. You have killed their previous kings and emancipated them from the terrible slavery they have existed under. We recognise you officially under the formal title ‘The Shackle Breaker King’ in our own nation. The Bocors have officially drawn a distinction between the slaves and their masters, and the little griffons do not deserve to suffer for the sins of their species,” Oya said in a loud clear voice that carried over the crowd. 

“Thank you,” Bucky stated in a soft gracious voice. 

“Furthermore,” Oya continued. “For the larger griffons, mercy will be granted if they willingly submit themselves to your rule and the rule of King Tannis, whom we also recognise. For those who resist your rule, we offer no mercy and we will hunt them down to the ends of the earth for what they have done to our nation and our citizens.”

There were a few gasps from the crowd and a couple of cheers. 

“We have drawn out a very simply worded treaty, the guarantee of assistance in times of crisis, a bond of good faith. The last treaty we had with Princess Celestia was over one hundred pages long and was indeed, an act of lip service,” Canterberry said in a deep voice. 

“But there are a few provisions that we must demand before we can allow the treaty to be signed,” Oya stated, shouting a bit to be heard over the roaring crowd. 

Looking around him, Bucky realised that there were hundreds, maybe thousands of ponies and zebras on the decks of the airships around him, all waiting on this moment. He suddenly felt a stabbing pain of panic go lancing through his insides, which made him shudder. “What are your demands?” Bucky inquired. 

“Two things,” Canterberry announced. 

“And those are?” Bucky replied. 

“The first is simple. We want your sworn spoken word that you will look after these former slaves as you might your own offspring, that you will love them, be gentle with them, and give them the sort of life that they deserve… we want this oath from Tannis as well,” Oya explained, looking at the two kings. 

“Tannis,” Bucky invited, making a gesture towards the young griffon. 

“I no longer know my own titles,” Tannis said nervously. 

“King Tannis the Peacebringer,” Canterberry suggested, raising his eyebrow. 

Bocor Oya’s projection nodded at Canterberry’s words and smiled broadly. 

“I, King Tannis the Peacebringer, offer you my solemn word as king that I will look after these former slaves to the best of my ability, that I will love them, I will be kind and patient with them, and I pledge to dedicate my entire existence to giving them the sort of life they deserve,” Tannis swore, looking at Oya as he spoke, his talons flexing from nervousness. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky realised that there were what had to be thousands of eyes focused on him, the entire deck of The Albatross was covered in griffons. He felt a tense pain in his chest and tried to will it to go away. 

“Uh, I am Bucky Bitters, the Shackle Breaker King. Speaking as a father, I fully intend to treat my subjects as my children, because in a sense, they are. So I give you my word as a father, rather than a king, but feel free to have both. I will do my best to teach them, to lead them, to lead them down the path to freedom. I offer up my word that as the War Chief of Equestria, I will do anything and everything in my power to protect them, defend them, and keep them from the predations of those who exploit them for bad ends,” Bucky said, somewhat less eloquently than Tannis and his oath. 

For a moment, the crowd remained silent, too silent, and Bucky felt the icy chill of fear running down his spine. And then the crowd around him exploded with a deafening roar of approval and the thunderous stomping of hooves. 

It took several minutes for the crowd to quiet down enough for Oya and Canterberry to continue, and the bocor had to shout a few times to get the surrounding audience to behave so she could proceed. 

“And this brings us to the second condition,” Canterberry stated in a commanding magically projected voice that carried over the crowd.

“We demand that the enslaved griffons have a say in their future,” Oya announced. “To this end, we demand that the griffoness known as Belisama be married to Buckminster Bitters and be made queen.” 

The crowd erupted in thunderous silence. 

“What?” Bucky grunted. “I mean, this was discussed, well, sort of, as something in the future,” he said in a wavering voice. 

Twilight Sparkle facehoofed, realising that their ploy for diplomacy had just been masterfully countered and the game was now cutthroat. 

“We require a marriage… now,” Oya stated patiently. 

“But I have wives at home and there are complications,” Bucky argued. 

“I do hope they are very understanding wives,” Canterberry deadpanned. 

Scowling, Bucky realised that he had very little choice in the matter. He looked down at Belisama, who was petrified with fear, her eyes closed, her wings wrapped tightly around her body. The little griffoness was clearly terrified. 

“Once this treaty is signed, we will immediately dispatch several captured griffon dreadnaughts to the Shetlands to secure that region and we will ask that Princess Luna send troops to aid us,” Oya announced in a clarion voice. 

Bucky saw Twilight Sparkle staring at him, her face pinched in concern. 

“This was not in the plan,” Twilight Sparkle whispered. 

“Bon Bon, Lyra, I need you,” Bucky called out. 

The two mares came forward slowly, Bon Bon confidently and Lyra shyly, and both stood near Bucky, taking their places on each side of him. Bon Bon stared at the projections intently, her face neutral, while Lyra looked frustrated. 

“What do I do?” Bucky asked his two wives in a low voice. 

“Well, for starters, asking Belisama what she wants would certainly help,” Bon Bon replied, her voice patient. 

“What I want is meaningless,” Belisama squeaked. 

“No,” Bon Bon returned, shaking her head forcefully. “Belisama, you and I have talked about this. For once, you need to say what you want. You need to be open, honest, and direct,” the earth mare commanded. 

“I was open to the idea of marriage… I didn’t expect it so soon,” Belisama said in a small frightened voice. 

“You were certainly curious this morning,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You… were… awake?” Belisama stammered in terror. 

“Your mistake was grabbing my lip where I still have a lot of feeling,” Bucky stated, realising that everypony and everybirdy was looking at him strangely. “Look, long story, can be summed up with the words ‘curiousity killed the cat’ and that’s all I am saying about the issue.” He glared daggers at Tannis, who looked like he might start laughing. 

“I want what is best for my fellow griffons,” Belisama announced. 

“That isn’t enough,” Agnetha said gently, looking down at Belisama. “You also need to do what is best for you.” 

Shaking with fear, Belisama buried her head under her wings and hid, her whole body trembling, and she collapsed into a small ball of fur and feathers upon the deck, even pulling her tail up out of sight, trying to make as much of her disappear as possible. 

Lyra, still scowling, sat down and her horn ignited. She levitated Belisama upwards, lifting the miserable ball of griffoness, and gently took Belisama into her forelegs. She gave the griffoness a comforting hug and stroked her back, smoothing down some ruffled feathers. “I can’t promise you that things will be easy, because they won’t be, but I can promise you that it will be worth it,” Lyra whispered into Belisama’s ear. 

“And this is what I hoped to see,” Oya’s projection announced. “Healing.” 

“I want… ” Belisama said in a strangled voice, her face still hidden under her wings. “I want what is best for me… I want to be loved and know that I am valuable. I am willing to call my master husband instead.” 

“I can’t imagine how difficult it was for you to say that,” Lyra whispered, still stroking Belisama softly. “You and I are going to be special friends Belisama.” 

Reaching out her talons, Agnetha snatched Tannis’ talons and held them in her own, her eyes tearing over as she watched the unicorn and the smaller griffon together. 

“We need some kind of answer,” Oya urged. “We need to know that the griffons have a secure future as equals, and not as servants and slaves. Having one married to Equestrian Royalty will ensure a much better future, because let’s face it, Equestria looks after its own.” 

Starting to sniffle, Lyra gently placed Belisama down on the ground, helping her to sit up, and she wrapped one foreleg around the griffoness to steady her. 

“Belisama, if you want it, I will be your devoted servant,” Bucky offered.

“He certainly will,” Bon Bon said reassuringly. “For all of his faults, Bucky is a wonderful husband and a devoted father.” 

Leaving the crowd, Sentinel trotted to the table and sat down near his father. His bold move inspired others and Lugus moved forward, Ripple beside him, and Ripple’s eleven griffon guard moving behind her. 

Reaching out, Lugus placed his talons upon Bucky’s withers and gave a gentle squeeze, mindful of his claws. He wrapped his immense wings around all those he was sworn to protect and pulled the whole group closer, crowding the whole family together. 

“I want… to be happy,” Belisama squeaked, her voice nearly a squawk. 

“Where is Yew?” Bucky asked. “She should be here for this.” 

“She is belowdecks, with Harper and Peekaboo,” Lugus responded. 

“I agree to your terms of marriage,” Bucky said to the two projections. 

“Belisama, are you willing to become queen and do what is best for your subjects?” Canterberry inquired, his tone gentle. 

“I don’t know what I am doing, but I am willing to try,” Belisama replied, her beak clattering together from nervousness. 

“You will make a fine queen,” Agnetha soothed, still holding Tannis’ talons in her own. She scooted a little closer to Tannis and trembled with excitement. 

“Belisama, do you, of your own free will, offer yourself in marriage to Buckminster Bitters?” Oya inquired, her projection looking concerned. “I know this is difficult for you, but this is the first big step the little griffons need to take to be free again. Somebirdy needs to lead them.” 

“I give myself willingly. I have chosen a better master and I’m willing to call him husband. I… want what Yew has told me about. I want what Agnetha has. I want what Bon Bon spoke with me at length about… I want to have hope and love… I deserve to know what those things are,” Belisama said with her eyes closed, her voice cracking with nervous panic. 

“And what about you, Buckminster Bitters? Are you willing to give her and her future subjects those things she desires? Hope and love are precious things… can you give them to her?” Oya questioned, staring at Bucky with her projection. 

“I will do everything within my power to keep her and her future subjects happy, safe, and secure,” Bucky vowed, his voice solemn. He reached out his stump towards Belisama, whom Lyra poked gently. 

Bucky smiled when he felt Belisama’s talons wrap around the remains of his leg. 

“I, Bocor Oya, do hereby recognise this new union of the griffon empire, and officially recognise King Buckminster Bitters the Shackle Breaker and Queen Belisama the Courageously Hopeful as the rightful leaders of their subjects. Let the griffon empire never again know slavery, with two slaves now as their appointed rulers,” Oya commanded, her magically projected voice reaching the entire crowd. 

“Bah, stuff my titles in a closet,” Canterberry growled. “As a believer of civility and liberty, I bless this union and personally pledge the backing of the Academy of Sorcery to your future endeavours. The Council of High Sorcery recognises both of you as the rightful rulers of your empire.” 

The crowd exploded with cheering which lasted for several minutes.

“The mirror is going to need to recharge… if you would please sign the treaty, I will immediately dispatch aid to the Shetlands,” Oya said, smiling at Bucky and Belisama as she spoke. She turned to look at Twilight Sparkle, her smile growing ever wider. “I look forward to working with you. I understand that you are quite progressive as a ruler and you have a zebra friend.” 

“Zecora is one of my dearest friends,” Twilight replied as Bucky signed his name to the treaty. Twilight lifted a pen once Bucky was done. “I believe Zecora will be happy to know our nations have been brought a little closer together,” Twilight said as she signed her name. Twilight passed her pen to Agnetha and grinned eagerly at the griffoness. 

Signing the paper, Agnetha’s crest rose and she felt a swell of pride as she secured a future for her people. Holding her head high, she passed the pen to Tannis. 

Taking the pen, Tannis signed his name with an artistic flourish, the pen making scratching sounds as it moved over the parchment. Extending the pen to Belisama, he silently encouraged her to take it. 

Fearful, feeling as though she might faint, Belisama took the pen into her trembling talons. She looked down at the paper. Princess Twilight Sparkle. Queen Agnetha. King Tannis. Bucky, who had simply signed his name as ‘Bucky’ with nothing less and nothing more. For a moment, her vision blurred over and she thought she was going to pass out for certain. 

“Come on Belisama,” Bon Bon coaxed. “Just a signature. Do it for your griffons.” 

With shaking talons, the griffoness placed the pen to the paper and carefully scribed her name, trying not to mess it up too badly, wishing she could stop shaking. 

Queen Belisama, slave no longer, but servant to her griffons by choice. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 325
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun was racing towards the western horizon as The Scorned Mare headed for Tradewinds, The Albatross in tow. A small fleet traveled with them, the Hinterlands were still considered dangerous, and there was a sense of triumphant joy after the historical events of the afternoon. In the long history of the mid-to-modern era, nothing like the current treaty had ever taken place, and many called it the dawning of the new age. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle was already being called the architect of this new era, while Bucky was being called the enforcer, the agent that ensured that change happened. A world wide war had been averted and several agents of the press from the Sea of Grass had already been speaking with Twilight about her visions for the future. 

During a later communication, Bocor Oya promised that the merchants who had supplied the griffons with the provisions needed to aid them in global conquest would be held responsible. Already, the Sea of Grass was sending agents to Minos to investigate the merchant’s guilds, and more agents to the small diamond dog kingdom that had aided Griffonholm. 

Ships had been dispatched to the Shetlands, which eased Bucky’s mind considerably. Agents had been sent to the Minnowrock Isles to offer them aid and assurance. The entire archipelago was being seized and placed under the protection of the new Equestrian and Sea of Grass alliance. 

Bucky could scarcely imagine Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s reaction to the messages that assistance was required. He knew that Princess Luna would comply, it was, afterall, she who had told him that The Scorned Mare was her sovereign territory. He worried that there would be tension between the sisters once again and he would be the cause. 

The old era of diplomacy involving the noble houses was dead, with protection coming at a price and lip service as the only real return. Bucky could not help but feel that this is how it should be, the royals being involved in diplomacy directly, using their influence to keep the world safe, calm, and secure. House Avarice had profited greatly from the tensions in the world, selling peace and the promise of safety. Bucky, the nascent alicorn of war, accepted no coin for what he did and offered deterrence… or else. 

Bucky took no small amount of comfort in knowing that Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, was already being seen as a world influence and leader, bringing peace and the promise of prosperity to the world with a simple stroke of a pen. 

The sun, racing towards the western horizon, was setting upon the old world, and when the sun rose again tomorrow, it would be rising over a new world, a new era of cooperation and security. 





With a tired sigh, Bucky allowed his head to fall back into the overstuffed cushion, weariness overtaking him as he held Harper in his forelegs, clutching his foal tightly to his chest. Harper, content to be held, was nearly asleep, her head resting on the crook of Bucky’s neck where it broadened out towards his shoulder. The foal’s eyes were closed and Bucky occasionally patted her gently with his stump. Beside him on the small sofa was Peekaboo, sound asleep, tuckered out after a long day of being a pegasus foal. 

The calm and the quiet were exactly what Bucky needed after nearly suffering a panicked meltdown earlier. Being an introvert who was the center of attention in such a large crowd was troubling for Bucky, and he was glad it was over. 

“The world that both of you are going to grow up in is a very different one than I grew up in,” Bucky whispered to both foals. “I can’t even begin to imagine just how different everything is going to be. It’s a real shame I won’t be here to see it for very long. I wonder if I’ll live long enough to see you grow up and have foals Harper.” 

Closing his eye, Bucky squeezed Harper just a little tighter. “Time grows ever shorter. So much work to do and so little time to do it. And you Harper, you are just the beginning. You’re going to have so many brothers and… oh wait, you’re going to have so many sisters soon. Derpy and Berry both will have foals come spring. Thistle should have hers sometime around Hearth’s Warming. Still have to work on getting Bon Bon and Lyra fat with foals. And Belisama too I suppose. Princess Platinum is going to be so upset with me.” 

Harper’s only response was a tiny squeaky fart, but thankfully nothing that required a diaper change. The little unicorn was asleep, her mouth open, a stream of drool running down Bucky’s pelt, staining it a darker shade of tan. 



 

Entering their cabin, Bon Bon was greeted by a heartwarming sight. Bucky was sound asleep on the small sofa, Harper and Peekaboo piled together beside him. Moving quietly, she pulled a blanket off of the bed and threw it over the sleepers on the sofa. Carefully, cautiously, having heard from Belisama that Bucky was ever so treacherous even in his supposed sleep, Bon Bon kissed Bucky on the cheek and then backed away, hoping he would not wake. 

She checked the thermostat, knowing that Bucky needed a cool room if he was to have any chance of sleeping well at all, turned off the lights, and then quietly exited, closing the door behind her as softly as possible. 

Sighing contentedly, Bon Bon headed off to find Lyra. 



 

“How bad do you think the damage is going to be?” Lyra inquired, one eye narrowed, the other wide, her eyebrow raised high in a quizzical expression. 

“Damage?” Bon Bon asked in reply, looking at Lyra with an equally quizzical expression upon her face. 

“Derpy,” Lyra stated, saying one word and nothing more. 

“Oh I’d imagine that our matriarch is going to be slightly peeved upon hearing the news, but once she understands everything that has gone on and the good that will come from it, she will calm down,” Bon Bon said reassuringly. “And when she learns more about Belisama, I am counting on her to go into ‘mother bird mode’ which will make our task easier.” 

“Task?” Lyra questioned in a monosyllabic response. 

“Yes… your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to generate sympathy for Belisama by telling Derpy exactly what happened to Belisama and what almost happened to Belisama, sparing no details at all. We want Derpy so angry at what almost happened to Belisama that she forgets that she is angry with Bucky and starts to love on him instead for being a gentlepony and saving Belisama from a fate worse than death,” Bon Bon explained patiently.

“So you are saying that the trick to managing Derpy is to direct her pegasus rage towards a worthy target and away from us… she is going to be furious, so we need to give her something to be really furious about so she won’t wing slap us to death?” Lyra summarised in a hesitant still trying to understand what was going on voice. 

“Correct Lyra,” Bon Bon said, nodding slowly. 

“So I’m going to do my pathetic groveling bit, ham it up a whole lot, try to act as emotional as possible, which really won’t be acting because what almost happened to Belisama really gets under my skin… and tell Derpy in graphic detail about Belisama’s sister Bandua, how she was literally raped to death and then was being cooked to be eaten, and how Bucky came waltzing in and rescued Belisama, who gave herself to him in gratitude, and is now one of the queens of the griffons and Bucky had to marry her,” Lyra said, outlining the detailed points of the plan. 

“Yes Lyra,” Bon Bon replied, looking hopeful. “We need to get Derpy feeling protective. She’ll be all over Belisama like a foal on candy and all of her anger and rage will be directed at things other than us, which is a good thing… because let’s face it, this debacle happened under our watch. We were supposed to keep Bucky out of serious trouble and bring him back home with all of his assorted body parts still attached and in good working order.” 

“So in our favour, Bucky is returning home with his remaining eye, three legs, both ears, his dangly floppy funtime bits, and everything pretty much how it was when he left home. You want to remind Derpy of this or should I?” Lyra responded. 

“Oh I think I can do that,” Bon Bon stated. “You just make sure you do that pathetic grovelling thing you do, like you do to me when you are in trouble or you want something.” 

“I can do that,” Lyra agreed, both eyes now narrowed. “But I am taking a real risk to my own personal safety.” 

“Worried about a few wing slaps?” Bon Bon inquired of her mate. 

“No… not that, I’ve been wing slapped a few times… but you know how Derpy gets when she gets… emotional. She’s gonna wanna hug something and it might be me. Emotional pegasus hugs Bon Bon… I’m gonna have to ask you for hazard pay,” Lyra answered, explaining her concern. 

“What do you want Lyra?” Bon Bon asked bluntly, staring at the minty green unicorn with mild annoyance. 

“Well, aside from my usual rates for hazard pay, I want assurance that you will use your big squeezable earth pony body to defend my frail skinny unicorn body from imminent pegasus huggle-harm,” Lyra replied, reaching up to brush her mane out of her eyes as she spoke. 

“Okay, so if she makes a move, I’ll intercept and you retreat. I can do that. As for your hazard pay, you will get the usual hour of cuddles and kisses with all attention on you,” Bon Bon conceded. 

“Pleasure doing business with you Bonnie,” Lyra said, her face splitting into a broad toothy grin and her ears perking forward. “Oh, and you have to whisper that I am the most special unicorn in the whole wide world in my ear while you hold me.” 

Grinning wryly, Bon Bon silently agreed with a nod. 



 

Feeling miserable, Belisama tried to collect her thoughts about everything that had taken place. Her stomach cramped painfully and her wings ached from tension. Her broken leg had its own heartbeat lurking just under the cast. She felt nauseous and weak. Already, doubt was setting in, harsh crippling doubt. Hunters and occasionally warriors became kings and queens. Never the servants. The servants served, the warriors fought, and the hunters provided. 

The entire world had been turned upside down. 

“Belisama?”

Opening her eyes, Belisama saw Agnetha looking at her in concern. 

“You look awful,” Agnetha said in a worried voice. 

“I feel awful,” Belisama admitted. 

Sitting down on the couch beside Belisama, Agnetha gently picked up the smaller griffoness and held her tightly, stroking her softly. “I’d like to think that we are friends,” Agnetha said in a low voice. “And that there is no caste distinctions between us. We are two griffonesses caught up in extraordinary circumstances and we have nobirdy to turn to but each other.” 

Calming slightly from Agnetha’s affectionate touch, Belisama took a deep breath and closed her eyes again.

“We will probably be the first griffon queens ever to work together and not treacherously conspire against one another and each other’s husbands. Our husbands are friends and will not make war against one another, either openly or hidden in the background. You and I will hopefully never have to worry about which morsel of food might be poisoned, or if an army of assassins will come in the night, and we might be the first griffon queens in history that can sleep in a room with windows… windows and not worry about our safety… can you believe that? Tannis is promising me big picture windows,” Agnetha said in a steady reassuring voice. 

Unable to hold it in any longer, Belisama began to weep, her emotions finally overtaking her. She clenched her talons tightly into fists and her whole body shook from the convulsive sobs that consumed her. 

“Let it out,” Agnetha whispered as she squeezed Belisama a little tighter. “It’s good to let the poison out.” 
	
	
> Chapter 326
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The little griffoness was on the sofa in the common area, her scavenged officers sabre held in her deft talons as she carefully sharpened it upon a whetstone. Bucky marveled at her care and attention to detail. The sword had seen better days before Belisama had claimed it as her own, and now it was gleaming, well oiled, the blade was now free of rust spots, and the guard had been finely polished to a near mirror finish. 

Sitting down at a small table by himself, Bucky leaned against the table wearily. He had no idea what time it was, but it felt late. Or maybe it felt early. It was difficult to tell anymore. Looking out the window simply revealed that it was dark and the night was full of stars. He had barely sat down and collected himself before several flying blurs flew past his table, leaving behind a pile of crackers, sliced cheese, a bowl full of hummus, a tin of sardines, and a bowl of olives. The last blur left behind a tall glass of coconut milk filled with crushed ice and rum. Bucky blinked several times, wondering what had just taken place. 

“Don’t complain, you will only hurt their feelings,” Belisama said as she tucked her whetstone into a small satchel and sheathed her sword. “There is much celebrating. They serve because they choose to, not because they have to. There is a difference and a servant is happiest when serving a kind master.” 

Lifting up the glass, Bucky sniffed a few times, the sweet scent of coconut and rum filling his nostrils as he inhaled deeply and then took a drink. He swallowed slowly and chewed on the crushed ice. He looked over at Belisama and nodded, his head bobbing as he chewed. Swallowing one more time, he looked down at his olives, grabbed one in his telekinesis, and then looked back up at Belisama. “I think I understand. I serve because I choose to do so. I became a knight because I chose service. Or perhaps service chose me… I don’t know,” he muttered and then popped the olive into his mouth. 

“I have been talking with your other wives. A very long talk. They have told me much,” Belisama said, as she took wing, flew a short distance, and then landed in a chair opposite of Bucky at the table. She watched him smear a bit of hummus upon a cracker and top it off with cheese. “So… about us.” 

“Nothing is going to happen between us until we get home. And beyond that point, nothing is going to happen between us until you are ready and in a good state of mind. The only thing I require from you is to look after my foals and protect them fiercely,” Bucky responded, and when the final word had left his mouth, he gobbled his cracker, chewing enthusiastically. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, Belisama leaned back in her chair, the scabbard across her back clunking against the wood behind her. “I am still… untouched.” 

Using his telekinesis, Bucky tossed an olive at Belisama and was absolutely delighted when the griffoness caught it, snapping it up in her beak in an impressive display of olive predation. Ignoring her statement, Bucky asked a far more pressing question. “So… you little griffons… I can’t help but notice that you have different beaks than the big griffons, like Lugus. Lugus definitely has an eagle’s beak. Sharp and hooked. You on the other hoof, your beak looks rather… crow-like if you don’t mind me saying. Some of the other little griffons have different beaks. I’ve seen woodpecker like beaks, owl like beaks, and little conical bills like songbirds have.” 

Her crest rising, Belisama pulled her head down into her shoulders, slumping down, her neck compressing to make her look smaller. She let out a small squawk and stared at Bucky with with wide eyes. 

“Did I say something wrong?” Bucky questioned, looking worried. 

“Beaks are a sensitive subject among griffons,” Belisama said in a tiny voice. 

“Well, seeing as how I am king and all, don’t you think you should tell me more about this whole beak thing, rather than sit there looking all adorably embarrassed about it?” Bucky responded inquisitively. 

Her feathers fluffing, Belisama tried to ignore Bucky’s comment as she glanced at him cautiously. “The more predatory the beak, the more respect a griffon tends to get. Even us little ones. A little griffon with a hook beak is likely to be treated better and have more respect than a griffon with a songbird beak,” Belisama explained, her beak not moving as she talked. 

“Hmm, do beaks affect what you eat at all?” Bucky inquired just before gobbling down another cracker loaded with hummus and cheese. 

“Yes actually,” Belisama asked. “Among us little griffons, quite a number of us are far more capable of surviving on seeds, nuts, bits of fruit, and the occasional bit of meat.” 

“Any really weird beaks that I should know about? Is there an undesirable beak that is considered just awful?” Bucky questioned, tossing Belisama another olive just so he could watch her catch it. 

“I have seen a griffon with a beak like a pelican. He was a hunter oddly enough… life is cruel... he hated fish. The least desirable beak is a vulture’s beak… vulture griffons tend to be bald along with the beak and have a love of rotten flesh. I have known a couple,” Belisama answered. She drummed her talons upon the table, her claws clicking on the hard shiny surface. “Lugus is right.” 

“About what?” Bucky replied with an inquiry. 

“You do make weird faces… are you even aware of how much your lips move and your nostrils… and everything else?” Belisama questioned in answer. 

“I am missing half of my face,” Bucky stated, talking around an olive he was chewing on. “There was a time in my life when I would freak out if one hair was out of place. Now look at me. I’m horrible.” 

“I like your scars,” Belisama said in an honest fashion. “I like to read your face.” 

“You sound like Lugus when he talks to Yew Wood,” Bucky said in return to the griffoness across the table as he tossed another olive at her. He gave an enthusiastic snort when she caught it, for some reason, it still amused him greatly. 

Swallowing, Belisama’s crest rose and she looked at Bucky. “You don’t even realise what you are doing, do you?” 

“I’m doing something?” Bucky asked as he loaded up a cracker with hummus and cheese, his eye lingering at Belisama as he prepared his food. 

“When griffons court one another, for those of us who bother with courtship, we throw food at one another. It allows us to test the reflexes of a potential mate and see if they are worth making cubs with,” Belisama explained, turning her gaze away from Bucky. 

“Woah, you mean you actually throw food at each other?” Bucky asked. “I was trying to be playful.”

“Sometimes. The bigger griffons engage in contracts. We little griffons actually do think about long term pacts that you might call marriage… and I suppose it is, but we tend to think of it as mutual survival assistance,” Belisama answered, her eyes still averted and her talons trembling. “Lugus and I lived very different lives and we both have very different views of our culture. My kind survives by helping one another. His kind survives just by taking what they want. Contracts were created to politely make demands and receive compensation, not that the warriors needed to be polite. But some of the warriors developed their own code of honour… like Lugus. Contracts allowed them to live honourably and not have everybirdy living in fear of them, or at least the griffons his size like to think nobirdy is afraid of him.” 

“Does Lugus frighten you?” Bucky bluntly asked. 

“He does… I can’t help it. I’ve seen a warrior his size swallow a griffon my size… alive. In one bite,” Belisama admitted, shrinking down even more in her chair. 

“Ugh, that’s awful. Lugus would never do that,” Bucky responded, looking disgusted. 

“I want to believe that, but after what I have seen...” Belisama said, her words trailing off unfinished. 

“Lugus could swallow the one thing he loves the most in the world whole… and I am talking about Peekaboo… but I know for a fact he wouldn’t. What Lugus would do to something that harmed that foal… it gives me nightmares to think about it,” Bucky said, defending Lugus’ solid reputation. He silently opened the tin of sardines and pulled one out, holding it in his telekinesis. He broke off a piece and placed it over a cracker, sniffed it a few times, and then gobbled it down hungrily. 

“We were talking about beaks and somehow ended up on courtship… and then other things,” Belisama muttered, her beak clicking a few times as she spoke. 

“You have a beautiful beak Belisama,” Bucky said as he tossed a sardine at the griffoness with a flick of a his magic. 

Snapping the treat out of the air, Belisama swallowed it and then stared at Bucky nervously, her crest half risen, both her right and left talons clutching the table edge. She didn’t know how to read Bucky’s feelings or expressions. Bucky had no crest, no feathers that ruffled, no wings, there was simply nothing that gave Belisama a frame of reference. At least pegasi had wings and feathers, which could be used to determine mood. She watched his ears, his funny looking protruding ears that wiggled and waggled as they pointed and moved every which way. 

“I must admit, I do find you desirable,” Bucky confessed in a low voice. “Your spirit impresses me,” he added, casting a glance around the room at the other griffons, well aware that he was being watched. There was no sign of Twilight or her friends, or even other ponies. Just griffons, all of whom were watching Bucky with wide curious eyes. “Me tossing food at you… they’ve been watching me do that and have reached some kind of assumption, haven’t they?” Bucky inquired. 

Nodding, Belisama could not find the words to reply, so she remained silent. 

“Yeah… I’m flirting with your queen… you like that, don’t you, makes you happy, yes?” Bucky said in a loud voice, addressing everybirdy around him. He tossed another olive and watched as every eye in the room tracked the olive in flight. He heard the snap of Belisama’s beak from his blind spot, and he continued to stare at his subjects. 

“Usually, in the royal pride, the griffoness brings food to the griffon,” a griffon at another table bravely commented. 

“Is this true?” Bucky asked, turning around to look at Belisama. He watched her nod slowly and then he turned back around to look at his subjects. “Am I breaking some kind of rule?” 

“You are the king… you make the rules,” another griffoness said.

“Oh that’s a terrible idea,” Bucky replied, turning his eye upon the griffoness who spoke, causing her to immediately avert her gaze. “In the long history of ideas, that has to be one of the worst ones. You have no idea of the sort of trouble I am capable of or the mayhem I could cause with that sort of ideology.” 

“We love our king. He can do no wrong,” a griffon said in a nervous squeaky voice. 

“Oh I can do wrong… just you wait. My other wives are probably going to kill me for what I’ve done… I make mistakes all the time,” Bucky said, looking out over his subjects, none of whom would look at him at the moment. His eye narrowed as he looked out over the griffons sitting at various tables around the room. “Fleshrender and Tanner were your kings… and they did wrong. The sorts of wrongs that I had no choice but to kill them for.” 

“They are our kings no longer. You are our king… and you can do no wrong,” a griffon replied in a nervous screechy voice. 

“A king can do wrong,” Bucky stated in a firm voice. “Or am I making a mistake with my assertion?” 

The room was overtaken by a tyrannical crushing silence as no griffon or griffoness dared to answer Bucky. He peered out at his subjects, waiting patiently for some kind of reply. He turned back around to look at Belisama, who had also averted her gaze. 

“Don’t defy me on this issue… I’ll show you how wrong I can be!” Bucky announced. 
	
	
> Chapter 327
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Entering the navigation cabin, Bucky squeezed into the command chair beside Lyra, shoving her aside and paying no heed to personal space. Looking at the projection, his lips pressed into a straight line, his eye narrowed as he gave a nod of satisfaction. 

“The griffons returned to us from the Sea of Grass have an idea Bucky,” Lyra reported as she wrapped a foreleg around Bucky’s withers. 

“An idea for what?” Bucky grunted as he continued to stare at the projection map. 

“For the electrical issue. They’re all a bunch of little technicians Bucky… and so adorable,” Lyra replied as she gave Bucky a squeeze. 

“They can fix the power troubles?” Bucky inquired as he continued to study the map. 

“Well, they’re all master technicians and mechanics. The griffons were using them to repair ships and keep the fleet in order. The zebras and ponies from the Sea of Grass rescued them, which was really nice of them. They told me that it might be possible to string a high voltage electric cable along one of the tow chains, connected to The Albatross’ storm generator at one end and The Scorned Mare’s engines at the other,” Lyra answered. 

“That is brilliantly simple,” Bucky remarked as he pulled up a map file on Tradewinds. 

“Lugnut and Spanner are amazing little griffons. They immediately tried to give themselves to me, begging me to keep them together, saying they would do anything for me,” Lyra reported. 

“Lugnut and Spanner?” Bucky questioned, now ignoring the map and giving his full attention to Lyra. “Explain.” 

“Lugnut and Spanner are a couple Bucky,” Lyra answered with a broad smile. “Through impossible odds they have somehow stayed together. It is really very touching,” she sighed. 

“And they gave themselves to you?” Bucky asked, raising his eyebrow. 

“They tried to. I told them they belong to the new king, and that their status as a couple was safe,” Lyra said, her ears splaying out sideways. 

“So we have a married couple among the captures from the Sea of Grass,” Bucky stated, shaking his head. “Noted. Not sure what the big deal is.” 

“Bucky, they’re gay,” Lyra sighed, staring off out of the window with a dreamy expression upon her face. “I’ve talked with them for quite a while. They love one another so much. And they're doing something that is almost universally reviled in their own culture.” 

“Oh… I see,” Bucky grunted in a strained voice. “Oh… oh my, that is something that might demand my attention I suppose.” 

“They’re so lucky that one of them wasn’t eaten or killed just to cruelly torture the other and break his spirit,” Lyra said with a far away look in her eye. “So romantic. Impossible odds. Their secret only recently got out.” 

Extracting himself from the chair and giving Lyra a kiss at the same time, Bucky squirmed for the navigation cabin door. “I gotta go Lyra. Need to go create trouble among my subjects.” 

“Have fun Bucky,” Lyra said in parting as Bucky slipped out the door. 



 

Bucky was barely even set down upon the deck of The Albatross when he immediately made his way for the door that led belowdecks. There was a crowd of griffons and a few zebras on deck, chatting quietly amongst themselves, and they watched Bucky with interest. Lugus, folding his wings, landed behind Bucky after setting the unicorn down upon the deck, his claws clicking upon the decking as he fell into pace behind Bucky. 

Belowdecks, Bucky found himself in one of the vast cargo holds that had been converted into a community space. Everybirdy in the room had stopped what they were doing and a few brave griffons looked at him directly. Bucky saw the nanny griffoness from castle Huginn, she was still tending to her brood of cubs, and he smiled broadly at her. 

“I need Lugnut and Spanner front and center,” Bucky said in a loud clear voice, his gaze now travelling over the crowd. 

There was rush of sound as two griffons came forward, both small, one mostly black and the other mostly grey. They moved together, looking scared, neither one of them meeting Bucky’s gaze as they approached. Finally, they stood before Bucky and sat up on their haunches, bowing their heads respectfully.

“I understand that you two are an item,” Bucky said in a loud clear voice that echoed through the cavernous hold. 

“Yes sir,” the mostly grey griffon said in submissive voice. 

“In the mood to make a deal?” Bucky asked in a very direct fashion. 

“Deal sir?” the black griffon questioned in reply. “Please be merciful, Your Majesty!” 

“You fix the power situation between the two ships and I will appoint you as my Royal Mechanics. Both of you will be under my protection and I will recognise your union. I understand that neither of you can fly right now, but you will have Lugus here to help you move from ship to ship. What do you say? The Crown wants something from you, and I’m guessing you want something from the Crown. Fair trade?” Bucky offered. 

The black griffon immediately hugged the slightly smaller grey griffon tightly and both let out a squawk. They both stood before Bucky for several moments, shaking and shuddering, and it took a while for Bucky to realise that they were both crying. 

“I want to make it clear, right now, this minute, the Crown has no issues with same sex couples. And if there is any harassment or unpleasantness in the ranks, the consequences will be dire. Do I make myself clear?” Bucky announced, looking out on the crowd, and Lugus looking very stern behind him. 

“We are your most devoted servants, Your Majesty,” the black griffon with a crow like beak said. “I am Lugnut and this is my mate, Spanner.” 

Spanner, somewhat smaller, grey, speckled, and with a somewhat more owlish beak, looked up at Bucky with a gaze of pure unabashed worshipful adoration. “You spoke with Lyra?” 

“Yes I did,” Bucky replied, sitting down upon the floor and lowering his head to get a better look at Lugnut and Spanner. 

“She is like us,” Lugnut stated in a low voice, his eyes darting around the room nervously. 

“Yes she is,” Bucky agreed. “And that is one of the many things I love about her. Tell me, are there others like you?” 

Both of the little griffons shrugged and Lugnut looked down at his feet. 

“Word got out. During the big battle when the zebras took the ship, we both thought that we were going to die. The engine room was on fire. We were locked into that section of the ship and told to fix the engines by the bigger griffons. When we thought we were going to die, we comforted each other and our secret got out. And then, by sheer fortune, we were rescued by the zebras and a nice unicorn who kept us all from burning to death,” Lugnut explained, staring at his feet the whole time.

“We don’t know if there are others like us,” Spanner admitted in a raspy sounding whisper, wringing his talons together as he spoke. 

“If there are others like you, they need to know that it is now safe for them to come forward and be open about who they are,” Bucky announced in a loud clarion voice that echoed through the hold. “And to this end, I am appointing Bon Bon and Lyra as your special… uh… nuts, what’s the word I want here… anyhow, I am appointing Bon Bon and Lyra to look after your special interests. If you have troubles, you can come to them. If you are being harassed, you can come to them. If you just want to talk, you can come to them. If you are gay and feeling scared and confused, any of you can go to them for help. And all I want from you two in exchange for all of this, is to fix the electrical problems we are having. Can you do that?” Bucky said in a commanding voice. 

“We can fix it I think… we just need the cable,” Spanner replied. 

“We have the cable. I secured a massive coil of it wrapped around a giant wooden spool in the rear hold,” Lugus announced. 

“Good. Then I will consider this problem fixed. Lugnut, Spanner, when you have completed your task, report to Lyra, Bon Bon, or myself and you will be reassigned quarters upon The Scorned Mare. The Royal Mechanics are valued assets,” Bucky stated in a matter-of-fact voice. “I need to go. It was a pleasure speaking with you all.” 



 

Once Bucky was again aboard The Scorned Mare, he was immediately accosted by Twilight Sparkle, who quickly pulled him aside. The alicorn was frantic and looked somewhat panicked, her whole body twitching nervously. 

“Bucky, Finch sent Skua over with a message from Tradewinds. Bad news,” Twilight reported, her ears flapping crazily in the strong wind. 

“Twilight, it is barely even noon… why must bad news come so early in the day?” Bucky replied, shouting to make his voice heard over the wind. 

“I can’t help when bad news comes!” Twilight retorted, narrowing her eyes at Bucky. 

“So what it is now? Is Celestia going to give us a lunar vacation? Is my right to rule the griffons being challenged? Does somepony from the Sea of Grass demand to marry me to strengthen diplomatic relations?” Bucky questioned. 

“Minos has collapsed into civil war Bucky… the minotaurs are killing one another and the new griffon rifles are being used in the conflict,” Twilight snapped in frustrated anger. 

The alicorn’s words struck Bucky like a slap across the muzzle. His mind reeled from the news and Bucky struggled to come up with a suitable response. He stared at Twilight with a vacant expression upon his face. 

“The merchants guilds, the banker’s guilds, and the manufacturer’s guilds have formed a coalition with one another,” Twilight reported. 

“And they’re fighting the government?” Bucky asked, trying to understand what was going on. 

“Ugh, didn’t you pay attention in civics class?” Twilight angrily demanded.

“No!” Bucky retorted. 

“Minos is run by guilds. There is no central government. Everything is done by guilds voting and agreeing upon an issue. There are merchants guilds, financial guilds, industrial guilds, educational guilds, science guilds, there are a lot of different guilds for every aspect of society. The guilds most suited for dealing with certain problems within society handle the bureaucracy of that particular issue. It’s been a surprisingly stable system for a long time,” Twilight explained. “But there is no central government.” 

“So a collective of guilds have gone rogue and now there is civil war? I’m guessing word got out about the griffons' failed gambit and now somebovine doesn’t want to face the consequences,” Bucky responded. 

“Yes Bucky,” Twilight replied. “The guilds have armies of trained mercenaries. It appears that this has been planned for a while. The guns left Griffonholm some time ago and were already in place, probably in preparation for when Griffonholm poisoned Equestria’s water supplies and invaded the Sea of Grass.” 

“Oh bugger,” Bucky grunted, feeling panicky and worried. 

“How many kingdoms did the griffons give guns to Bucky? Just think about how bad this might be. There are a number of species with hands, all of them with questionable history as far as living in peace goes,” Twilight stated, looking Bucky in the eye. 

“Worse than that Twilight, that means the new gun design is known by other species… who knows who might be manufacturing them right now as we speak? Minos has a manufacturing guild. I know there are industrialised diamond dog nations. Now that the design is known and probably known to be effective, there will be no stopping it,” Bucky said, shaking his head in disbelief. 

“This can’t be undone, can it?” Twilight asked, looking at Bucky pleadingly. 

“No Twilight… guns were created, they were banned, but they were not forgotten. Something that powerful simply does not go away. I strongly suspect that destroying the noble houses of Equestria has created a massive vacuum of power. We are seeing the far reaching consequences of the fall of the noble houses. They didn’t just control Equestria, they had the whole world in a stranglehold. Now that they are gone, others wish to rise up to their former positions of prominence,” Bucky patiently explained. 

“And guns will give them the means to do that I suppose,” Twilight said in a defeated voice. “Something with a destructive power that rivals magic. Bucky, I’ve been studying the new cannon designs… the zebras were showing me earlier this morning. These aren’t the old cannons that fire a big round cannonball. These new cannons are just big versions of the griffon guns. They use a massive brass shell packed with powder and a big bullet that is jacketed with brass or copper over the soft lead. The big guns are accurate, powerful, and can be loaded very quickly. Thankfully, there were only few griffon ships that had them.” 

“That is worrisome,” Bucky admitted. 

“Bucky, as powerful as your armor is, believe me, I’ve examined it, I do believe that one of these guns would overcome the enchantments and rip right through it on a direct hit… how do we stop what is happening? How do we fight against these sorts of weapons?” Twilight questioned. 

“I don’t know Twilight… but I’ll admit, we might be in trouble,” Bucky answered. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 328
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Tradewinds stretched out before them, one of the largest cities in the world. It was a stunning mix of old and new, stone towers existed in between modern high rise skyscrapers of steel and glass. Small mini-airships darted around the city. The city was impossibly large, stretching from horizon to horizon, and walking from one side of the city to another was a daunting prospect. 

On the distant edge of the city was the famous shipyards of Tradewinds, massive airships were being mass produced, the end result of centuries of cooperation between the zebras and the unicorns that lived in the city. 

The entire city was remarkably clean by any standard. The skies were clear, greenery grew everywhere, and massive vertical gardens grew up along the sides of tall buildings to provide food for the residents of the city. 

As they drew closer, Bucky saw that the streets were flooded with traffic. Equines on hoof, drawn cabs, cargo wagons, and endless stream of thriving life trying to get from one point to another. In the entirety of his life, he had never seen streets so packed, even during his foalhood, when he occasionally spent time in industrious Baltimare, he had seen nothing like this. He immediately thought of the griffons’ small trolley trains and how efficient they had been. 

Tradewinds was the most amazing thing that Bucky had ever seen, and it changed him profoundly to look upon it. The unicorns here were free with their magic, doing all that they could to improve the lives of the earth ponies, the pegasi, and the zebras. The tiny personal airships alone were all the proof that Bucky needed. It took serious magic for featherlight spells and cloud containment fields. A massive weather factory was visible, the end result of unicorn and pegasus cooperation, and it churned out massive clouds which were immediately gathered up by sky wranglers and placed into waiting airship gasbags. 

Tradewinds was a city of cooperation. It was everything that Bucky hoped a city could be, or should be, and seeing it from up above gave him ideas on how things might be in Equestria if the right decisions were made. 

It did not escape Bucky’s attention that he was now one of the ponies responsible for making those decisions. He sighed, watching as more and more of the city came into view, the city’s lights starting to twinkle as the sun settled upon the western edge of the world off to the right them, igniting the ocean in a riotous display of oranges, golds, blues, purples, and pinks. The past few days had brought an endless stream of news of violence erupting in the world, the civil war in Minos was already getting ugly, and the first ships of the Sea of Grass fleet were now reaching the Shetlands and Minnowrock to battle the griffon remnants. 





Two figures approached Bucky as he was carefully set down upon the stone dais by Lugus. He recognised them both from having spoke to their projections. Oya was a very pretty zebra and Canterberry was a crotchety old unicorn wearing a tall conical hat with a dark blue cloak covering his body. 

“Welcome, welcome both of you,” Oya greeted, looking at Twilight and Bucky. 

“We hope you will enjoy your stay here,” Canterberry said in a tired sounding voice. “The whole city has been awaiting your arrival. It has been a long time since royalty from Equestria has graced us with their presence. Hopefully, we do not continue to be strangers.” 

“I would rather that we be friends,” Twilight Sparkle said in a careful cultured voice, the results of many lessons from Cadance. 

“We have been in contact with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Both are worried and seeking answers. They wish to know why you have not been in communication with them,” Oya said to Twilight, her eyes narrowing slightly. 

Grunting in frustration, Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes, her carefully cultured mask falling away. “Because I need time to think about everything that has happened and get my head together without Celestia influencing everything that I think.” Twilight, realising what she had just said, slumped, her ears drooping down to the sides of her face, and her expression became one of disappointment. “That should not have been said out loud.” 

“A good leader must learn to think for themselves. Herd-think can at times be dangerous and counterproductive. Canterberry and I are ostracised from our respective councils because we are far too independently minded,” Oya said in a very honest and open voice. 

“I think that Bucky and I are are well on our way towards that end. Bucky is of course a lot farther along than myself,” Twilight huffed, her wings fluttering. 

“Come, there is much to discuss, both councils wish to speak with both of you directly, there is a meal planned, and we wish to formally thank you for returning our citizens to us safe and sound. Please, allow us to show you our hospitality,” Canterberry said in a kind voice.

“Will there be coconut milk?” Bucky asked in a hopeful voice. 

“Bucky, you are such a foal,” Twilight grumbled, snorting in gentle derision.  

His nostrils flaring, Bucky glared at Twilight, his eye narrowing until most of the green was gone and only the crimson was visible. “If the Sea of Grass offered me a lifetime supply of the stuff, I would drive their enemies from this continent and into the sea in gratitude.” 

Twilight Sparkle froze in panic, worried how Bucky’s words would be received. Her breath caught in her throat and she could hear her own heart beating in her ears. She turned to look at Oya and Canterberry, fearful of their reaction. 

What she was not prepared to hear was their laughter. 

Sighing with relief, Twilight Sparkle allowed herself a tense nervous chuckle. 

“I will go and fetch the others who cannot fly,” Lugus said, excusing himself with a formal bow. “Please excuse me,” he added as he unfurled his wings and flew away. 

“Feels wrong leaving Pinkie Pie all by herself,” Twilight Sparkle said in a voice full of regret. “She still hasn’t come around.” 

“Don’t worry so much Twilight… once this is over, I plan to talk with some healers I know that live here. They’ll fix Pinkie Pie up in no time,” Bucky said in a low reassuring voice. 

“I feel funny attending to this function while Pinkie Pie just lies there drooling,” Twilight sorrowfully confessed. 

Oya, seeing Twilight’s distress, stepped towards the troubled alicorn with her head held high. “I know the healers of which Buckminster speaks. I will have them summoned to look at your friend. I am certain they will be able to help her.” 

“Thank you,” Twilight Sparkle said, her eyes tearing up slightly. “This has been a very difficult time. To tell the truth, I’m not in the mood for a big party or a lot of noise.” 

“Come on Twilight… we’ll get through this. It isn’t about what we want, there are many depending upon us and our actions,” Bucky said, moving to Twilight’s side and touching her with his stump. 



 

Atropos looked at her sisters Clotho and Lachesis with a raised eyebrow. The three were crammed into a smaller cabin aboard The Scorned Mare with Pinkie Pie. The three sisters exchanged a three way glance with one another, the unicorn, the earth pony, and the zebra all reaching a conclusion.

“The embodiment of the Element of Laughter is broken,” Atropos the unicorn said in a mournful voice. 

Clotho the earth pony nodded. “War has put an end to Laughter, making himself stronger and the forces that can stop him a little weaker. This is worrisome.” 

“Our brother did not mean to subdue her. She is not his foe. This was accidental,” Lachesis the zebra said, looking at her sisters. “Still, it is disconcerting to see how his power manifests. Even his accidents are beneficial and make him stronger.” 

“We need to restore Laughter to keep his terrible power in check. How do we do this sisters?” Atropos asked, her eyes narrowing as she prodded Pinkie Pie. 

“We can’t heal her,” Clotho said in frightened voice. “This is beyond us.” 

“We need another spirit of laughter,” Lachesis stated, having an idea. 

“There is another. We need to speak with Twilight Sparkle… she is still connected to our Tree and our Elements,” Atropos said, tugging on Pinkie Pie’s ear. 

“We must make sure that the Elements persevere. They do not know their own importance or that they continue to carry the power of the stones within them. This was unexpected, our brother undoing a potential threat,” Lachesis said, running her brown hoof along Pinkie’s spine. “The Living Elements are the only other hope we have of stopping him should the worst happen.” 

“Can our brother be stopped?” Clotho questioned, looking first at Atropos and then at Lachesis. “It is the one thing I cannot see when I peer forward.” 

“Yes,” Atropos insisted, trying to reassure her sister. “Soon Cadance will have her date with destiny. The day draws ever nearer. We Fates will intervene. Soon our brother will be shackled with the only things that might stop War. We must have faith that our plan will work.” 

“Our brother loves. I trust in love,” Lachesis said in confident voice. “So long as he continues to love, the manifestations of his hatreds will remained weakened.”

“And now he has a fierce spirit of devotion guiding his way… the griffoness will do him much good,” Clotho said as she rolled Pinkie Pie over and rubbed the mare’s stomach. 

“Thanatos says that Platinum’s screams can be heard across the various planes of Tartarus,” Atropos muttered, sounding annoyed. 

“That is not important. Let Platinum scream,” Clotho grumbled. “We need to heal the Element of Laughter.” 

“She will never be whole on her own after this. She will need somepony to make her laugh,” Lachesis said, touching Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark tenderly with her brown hoof. “Motherhood will do her good.” 

“The spirit of laughter will make a good father, a good husband, and will restore Pinkie Pie to her usual self,” Atropos said, her eyes glowing with a strange light as she peered forward towards Pinkie’s future. “Destiny has been changed slightly. Our brother has changed one possible future but there is still hope. We three Fates can still intervene. Our creator can still be stopped and life will continue.” 

“So the Element of Laughter will no longer be an individual, but a collective of souls?” Lachesis questioned, looking at her sisters. 

“It will make the power of laughter stronger. This works out to our advantage if we continue our gambit correctly,” Atropos said as her eyes returned to normal. She stroked the comatose pink pony gingerly, her touch genuinely loving. “You have long wanted motherhood… it is now time,” the unicorn whispered into Pinkie Pie’s ear. “Your foal will help hold back our brother’s terrible power. I can already see the new future as it unfolds.” 

“I don’t want all of this to end,” Clotho said, her shoulders slumping slightly as her eyes teared over. “Our brother scares me as much as our creator does.” 

“We mustn’t fear him, it will make him stronger. We must love him sister,” Lachesis said, wrapping a foreleg around Clotho’s withers. “We cannot make war against War, the only option we have of stopping him is Love.” 

“Cadance is our best hope, which is exactly why our creator seeks to undo her,” Clotho said, tears coming down now in a flood. “Our creator can be so cruel. Life is just a means to an end, there is no connection to what has been created. It is like watching fish in a tank.” 

“The future keeps changing. Our brother keeps severing threads faster than we can make plans to counter. I keep getting blank places in the future that I can’t seem to peer into,” Atropos said.

“Which is why we have no hope of opposing him directly. We must encourage him to love so he will stop himself,” Lachesis said to Clotho, trying to comfort her sobbing sister. 

“And if we fail, there is still the Living Elements, the embodiments of what they represent. If we fail, they might still be able to stop him, which is why we must restore the pink one and make her strong again,” Atropos said in a low voice. She leaned down and gently kissed Pinkie Pie upon the forehead after brushing her now straight mane aside. “You carry our hopes and dreams…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 329
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were no big bathtubs onboard The Scorned Mare, and Bucky was thoroughly enjoying the large tub in the hotel room suite. The evening had been exhausting in more ways than one, and Bucky needed downtime as an introvert. Bon Bon was beside him in the large square tub, and Lyra was sitting on the other side, looking at Bon Bon and Bucky with a sleepy expression of relaxation upon her face. 

“There is a surprising number of type threes here,” Lyra said as she laid her head back upon the edge of the tub. “Well, at least with the ponies we met this evening.”

“And the zebra unicorns are fascinating,” Bon Bon remarked, nodding her head slightly as she spoke. “And the zebra alchemists are working on a new chemical compound that will allow cloud retention in a gasbag. I’ve never seen Lyra look so animated listening to another pony.” 

“Alchemy is its own powerful form of magic. Ponies should respect it and take it seriously,” Bucky grumbled. “And where is Belisama? Why isn’t she in here with us?” 

“She is sleeping Bucky,” Lyra replied. “Hey, what did you think of those compressed cloud dispenser stations for the mini airships? Just pop in, refill the gasbag, and go zooming off to be somewhere else in the city. This place is amazing. Little tiny airships that hold only a pony or two and don’t take up a huge amount of space like a hot air balloon.” 

“Lyra, I don’t think you love me anymore,” Bon Bon said regretfully. 

“What are you talking about Bonnie?” Lyra replied in a worried voice.

“I think you’re having an affair with an airship or two,” Bon Bon deadpanned. 

“Airships are awesome,” Lyra squeaked. 

“I think about everything I have seen and heard tonight and I can’t help but think how some of this might help Equestria. Manehatten and other big cities have traffic problems with all of the pony drawn cabs and carriages. Personal airships and cloud dispensing stations to keep them refilled and floating would help out quite a bit, pegasi shouldn’t be the only ponies who can fly,” Bucky said as he closed his eye and relaxed a bit. 

“I don’t mind being on a big airship, but the idea of being on a little one scares me,” Bon Bon admitted. “Then again, I don’t like it when Derpy or Lugus picks me up and flies with me. At least The Scorned Mare feels like solid ground beneath my hooves.” 

“You think Twilight and her friends are having a nice time?” Lyra asked, kicking her hind legs around the in the water and stretching out. 

“Poor Flash isn’t. Poor dear. Kicked out and told mares only so they could probably all do what we are doing, soaking the in the tub together. A stallion can be in same bath as a mare and not be thinking about perverted stuff,” Bon Bon said to Lyra. 

“Says who Bonnie?” Bucky impishly asked as he grabbed Bon Bon and pulled her close. He pressed his snoot into the soft velvety place just behind her ear and nuzzled, causing Bon Bon to let out a fillyish squeal. 

“Bad Bucky! Bad!” Bon Bon scolded, squirming away from Bucky and moving to the other side of the tub with Lyra. 

“Oh come on… it isn’t like I had a boner or anything,” Bucky grumbled. “I wonder how Rising Star is doing. I miss the others,” he said in a forlorn voice. 

“School has started. I bet the house is quiet with Dinky and Piña off at school,” Lyra said as she sank down in the water, leaving only part of her head and snoot above the surface.

“I can’t wait to be home. Should only take a few days, maybe four or five to get home if we are lucky,” Bucky said as his gaze lingered on Bon Bon, his eye drinking in her beauty as her wet mane clung to her shapely well muscled neck. 



 

The tub was crowded and personal space simply didn’t exist. Twilight Sparkle felt her annoyance growing steadily. The night had been long and difficult, and the alone time that Twilight desperately needed wasn’t happening. Applejack was on one side of her and Rainbow Dash was on the other, two ponies who had no concept of personal space or boundaries. 

On the other side of the tub was Fluttershy and Rarity, both of whom had their eyes closed as they relaxed, pressed tightly against one another. 

“Them there vertical gardens are the most impressive thing I have ever seen. The whole side of the building that faces the sun is used to grow food, mostly things on vines and what not. I ain’t never seen anything like it,” Applejack said as she reclined against Twilight Sparkle. 

“You’re awfully quiet Rainbow, are you alright?” Twilight inquired of her friend. 

“My head hurts and my ear is throbbing,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “It’s nice to feel safe again and not be scared. Just doing this.” 

“This is quite lovely,” Rarity agreed in a low murmur of pleasure. “So you’ve come to appreciate girly stuff Rainbow Dash?” 

“Naw, it ain’t that,” Rainbow Dash responded. “Just the feeling of being safe. In this tub. With all of my friends. I wish Pinkie Pie was here.” 

“She hasn’t been the same since she heard Bucky laughing,” Twilight said in a low strained voice. “She’s turned grey, just like she did when Discord changed her.” 

“I’m sure she can be made better,” Rarity said in a reassuring voice. “Pinkie Pie is the most resilient pony I know. Remember when Applejack made those simply dreadful baked bads? Pinkie ate a few and was sick for hours… but she recovered.” 

“And a few hours later, she had the explosive splatters and was stuck on the toilet,” Rainbow Dash said with a weak chuckle. 

“Hey, shut up, don’t talk about that. Let bygones be bygones,” Applejack demanded. 

“And your apple brown betties constipated the Ponyville relay team,” Rainbow Dash chortled in a low voice. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Dashie,” Applejack retorted, punctuating her words with a loud snort. 

“Applejack, I had to squeeze out a log with five grunt rings because of you,” Rainbow Dash said, lifting her head to look at Applejack. 

“Oh this conversation has took a turn for the worse,” Rarity protested, rolling her eyes. “This is just dreadful.” 

“I dunno, I’m just glad to hear Rainbow’s voice,” Twilight murmured, staring up at the ceiling, unaware that Rarity and Applejack exchanged a glance after she spoke. 

“I am shocked that Fluttershy hasn’t complained about what we’re talking about,” Applejack remarked, looking over at Fluttershy.

“She is asleep. Poor thing is tuckered out. I’ll wake her in a while, the hot water is so relaxing,” Rarity said in a low voice. “Speaking of which, there are two big beds. Who is sleeping with whom?” 

“I think I’ll crash with Twilight and Rainbow,” Applejack said, looking over at the two ponies beside her. “You’re a blanket hog.” 

“I am not,” Rarity retorted in a low voice. 

“Twilight is a pillow hog,” Rainbow Dash muttered. 

“What?” Twilight demanded. “Get your own pillow! You drool!” 

“Alicorns rule, pegasi drool,” Applejack sniggered. 

“And earth ponies ain’t cool,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. 

Rarity, noticing that nothing had been said about unicorns, was silently thankful and kept her mouth shut, saying nothing to alert anypony to this fact. 



 

In the dark hours before dawn, Bucky sat at the table, trying to scribble out some kind of speech to give at dawn. He had been awake all night, laboring away in the dark room while the others slept. There were griffons here in the Sea of Grass, some of whom had families that had been here for a long time. There were zebras and ponies that needed reassurance that Bucky was okay and unharmed after being taken into custody. 

There was a nation holding its breath that needed reassurance after everything that had happened and Bucky had no idea how to give it to them. He and Twilight both had been asked to give a few words during a dawn address to the nation to symbolise the dawn of a new era. He tossed away yet another wadded up ball of paper and licked his lips nervously. 

He rose from the table and walked to the window. He looked out over the city, seeing a city that never slept. Cabs were bustling through streets, just as they had done all night, moving around helter skelter every time Bucky had looked out of the window. Airships flitted about and the city lights illuminated the city. 

“I don’t give speeches, I kill things,” Bucky whispered to himself, his stomach twisting into knots. “Oh this is dreadful. I wish Sentinel was here. He’d have a speech cranked out in a jiffy.” 

He used to be such a civilised unicorn… a well bred and proper unicorn. Life had done something awful to him, leaving him something else. During the question and answer session about the city, he had asked about the city sewage and what was done with waste on a such a large scale, causing quite a number of ponies and zebras to choke. 

As it turned out, the city waste was converted into methane, burned, and turned into electricity by powering steam turbines, and at least one council member was quite happy and enthusiastic to explain in depth the whole process, and she had even offered Bucky a tour of the plant. 

The zebra witch doctor had spent the rest of the night shamelessly flirting with him. 



 

The plaza was packed with ponies, zebras, griffons, giraffes, and quite a number of other sapient races as the sun crept over the horizon. Several thousand creatures had packed themselves into the plaza and packed into the streets around the plaza. 

Twilight Sparkle had been quite entranced by her first meeting with a giraffe. 

The mood was one of hope. It surged through the crowd like an electric current, and the crowd packed closer and closer to the raised podium where Bucky, Twilight, and all of the others waited to speak. 

“So who goes first?” Bucky asked Twilight. 

“You do, since you asked,” Twilight responded. 

“Ugh, I hate you,” Bucky grumbled, barely able to hear himself over the roar of the crowd all around him as far as his eye could see. “Well, no, I shouldn’t say that. I actually love you a great deal, but I am a bit peeved you’re making me go first.” 

“Aw, thanks Bucky,” Twilight replied, leaning a bit on Bucky and smiling. 

“Enjoy taking the stairs for the rest of your life,” Bucky chortled.

“Oh… you fiend!” Twilight hissed. 

The pair watched as Bocor Oya addressed the crowd and said a few inspirational words about the new era of cooperation for both the Sea of Grass and Equestria, and how the Princess of Friendship had brought them together. 

All too soon, Bucky saw Oya turn around and look at Twilight and himself. Sighing with resignation, and knowing he had no speech, he approached the microphone slowly, bowing his head respectfully to Oya as he drew near. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky made the mistake of looking out over the crowd. Thousands and thousands of eyes peered back at him, some full of fear, others full of curiousity, and some with adoration.

“Good luck father!” 

Hearing Sentinel’s words lifted Bucky’s spirits slightly and he lifted his head high. He looked out over the crowd and cleared his throat. “You know, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be to get started,” Bucky said in a warm honest voice to the crowd. “You will have to forgive me, I actually don’t like crowds,” he continued with his honest streak, speaking openly about his current difficulty. “So I am sure that some of you are wondering right now, just how does a pony become the king of the griffons? Well… let me tell-” 

A single loud “CRACK!” rang out through the crowd and a fine mist of crimson erupted from Bucky’s head as he was flung backwards, his body tumbling away from the podium and collapsing in a heap. He lay on the ground, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, one hind leg twitching and kicking violently, blood pooling around his head and a growing dark stain appearing around his hindquarters and his bowels and bladder released themselves. 

Lugus responded in an instant, flinging himself over Bucky, and as he did so, another loud “CRACK!” pealed through the plaza. A jet of blood spurted from Lugus’ side, just behind his ribs, causing the giant griffon to growl savagely. The crowd panicked and stampeded and the air was filled with screams. 

“There!” Belisama cried, pointing at a glint of metal she had seen with her sharp eyes. 

With a snap of his wings, Sentinel took flight just as Twilight Sparkle brought up a shield bubble around the podium. Panic and chaos erupted all around the podium and Agnetha quickly tried to stop the bleeding on Bucky while Belisama went to work on Lugus, who was still huddled over Bucky’s convulsing body. 

An angry red haze filled Sentinel’s vision, making it difficult to see. His ears sounded as though they were filled with bees, a painful droning sound that only served to further enrage him. Not too far away, he saw his target. A minotaur with a scoped lever action rifle. 

There was another terrific “CRACK” and Sentinel felt a burning pain in his side as the bullet grazed his shoulder and skidded along his ribs, just under his wing. Another shot thundered out through the rapidly emptying plaza, and Sentinel felt something graze his leg, but he was far too enraged to feel pain. 

A second later, Sentinel tucked in his wings and head just before he cannonballed into the minotaur at full force. The impact shattered most of the bones in the minotaur’s torso and sent the rifle flying. It hit the ground and fired one last final shot up into the air. 

Whipping his head out, Sentinel clamped down upon the minotaur’s muzzle as he landed on his hooves, his rage fueling his strength. His jaws easily crushed bone, collapsing the minotaur’s face with a sickening crunch that Sentinel did not hear over the roaring rushing sound in his own ears. 

Releasing his bite, Sentinel savagely bit down upon the minotaur’s throat, gave a jerk, and ripped the minotaur’s head free from his shoulders. His rage still not spent, Sentinel began punching the bloody torso, one heavy blow causing the left arm to rip free as Sentinel’s right front hoof connected with the shoulder joint. He punched again and again, his fury growing worse as the scent of blood filled his nostrils. 

“Sentinel?” 

“Get away from him Bon Bon, he’s gone feral!” 

“Sentinel, mama needs you… come here to me Sentinel.” 

The voices were difficult to hear, his ears were still full of the sound of berserker rage. Sentinel stopped punching and stood there, trying to listen to the voices, the red tint in his vision making it almost impossible to see anything. He stood there, a long trail drool dribbling down from his blood soaked muzzle. 

“Bon Bon! Get away from him! It isn’t safe!” 

“Sentinel, mama is scared and she needs you… come to me Sentinel.” 

Looking down at the bloody partially dismembered corpse, Sentinel let out a pained howl, his fangs bared, and his ears still buzzing painfully. He sniffed, smelling blood… and something else. Something comforting.

“That’s right… come to mama… do you remember how I held you when your back was burned and Lyra read to you?” 

Moving towards the sound of the voice, Sentinel moved away from the bloody chunks left strewn all over the ground. More slobber trickled from his jaws. He sniffed, trying to ignore the scent of blood and the terrible need to feed. He turned and looked back at the bloodied mess now behind him. 

“No no baby… come to mama… mama needs you.” 

In the red haze of his vision, he saw a pony, but he had a hard time recalling a name. He knew her scent though, and he sniffed the air, smelling her, smelling her fear, and smelling his own scent. She was his. He moved towards her, stiff legged, and then he felt two legs wrap around him, pulling him in tightly. 

The red haze subsided slightly, and Sentinel began to sob as his senses slowly returned, each moment beginning to realise more and more what he had done. Bon Bon… it was Bon Bon… her scent was comforting. He collapsed completely in her embrace, going limp as Bon Bon held him, and he felt Bon Bon begin to cry. 

Behind the sobbing pair, a growing crowd formed around the fallen Lord of Winter. 
	
> Chapter 330
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky lay upon the hospital gurney, limp and unmoving, and an army of doctors had already begun to mobilise. Agnetha was half on and half off of his gurney, still trying to help. Zebras and unicorns were filling the room, and there was a lot of shouting about how to fit Lugus on a gurney that was only half as large as it needed to be. 

It was in the middle of the chaos that Agnetha, who was peering at Bucky’s headwound with narrowed eyes, trying to see just how bad it was, noticed something shiny just beneath the skin as blood continued to ooze out. 

“Belisama! Get your little talons over here right this instant!” Agnetha shouted over the chaos. She looked over at a zebra who was busy looking at Bucky’s head. 

Flying over, Belisama carefully hovered over Bucky’s gurney and looked down at her bloodied husband, barely able to contain her own emotions. Her body quivered with fear and it made hovering difficult. 

“Right there, just below the surface of the skin, there is something shiny. Reach in there with your tiny talons and pull it out,” Agnetha commanded, pointing at Bucky’s wound with her own talons. 

Belisama felt a strange feeling overcome her and with a small squawk realised that she was no longer flying. She was surrounded in a magenta magical aura that steadied her in the air over Bucky, keeping her perfectly still. She didn’t know who was doing it, but was thankful that it steadied her talons. She peered into the wound, which Agnetha wiped with a talonfull of gauze to clear away some of the blood for a moment. She saw something shiny. She reached out her left talons, the talons she was most dexterous with, and using her middle talon-finger and her thumb talon, she pinched the shiny bit of metal just under the surface of Bucky’s skin and plucked it out. 

Holding it up, she realised she had a wad of lead and copper in her talons, covered in blood and a few bits of flesh. It was flattened. Both Belisama and Agnetha studied the squashed bullet. 

“It never went through his skull,” Agnetha shouted to the rest of the room. “I don’t know how, but this is a flesh wound we’re dealing with!” 



 

“You doing okay Bon Bon?” 

Still covered in blood, Bon Bon looked up at Twilight Sparkle and offered a weak smile. “No,” Bon Bon admitted. 

“Look, sorry about what Applejack said. She feels awful about what she said about Sentinel… how is he?” Twilight questioned, her voice soft. 

“They have him sedated. It took a lot of drugs to put him under. He was shot twice. Some of his ribs are cracked but not broken. One bullet tore through his leg, but they told me it passed through,” Bon Bon said in a strangled voice. “Everything I love is dangerous.” 

“Bon Bon?” Twilight said curiously. 

“Bucky… we all know how dangerous he is. Lyra… if ponies only knew how dangerous she was. Bucky is respectful of her power you know… and Sentinel. I just watched my colt dismember a body… I knew lunar pegasi were dangerous, but actually seeing it… it broke my heart Twilight,” Bon Bon replied hesitantly, her words slow halting. 

“Any word on Lugus?” Twilight inquired. 

“They took Lugus to a different part of the hospital. Yew went with him. Lyra is with Harper and Peekaboo… I hope she isn’t freaking out or having a panic attack without me,” Bon Bon said dully, her eyes glazed over. “I don’t even know whose blood I have on me.” 

“Poor Spike is beside himself, he’s worried that he is going to lose his friend. He’s back on the ship so he can stay safe,” Twilight said, her words almost a sigh. 

A zebra came through a door and approached both ponies slowly, her head low and her eyes narrowed. She looked exhausted. She bowed her head to Bon Bon and then to Twilight Sparkle, afterwards, she cleared her throat and stood with her head high. 

“His Majesty is stabilised. His skull is covered in the same magical glass as his horn. The swelling is going to be the big problem, he is going to be paralysed for a while because of the pressure upon his neck, but I assure you, this is temporary. We were able to stitch his scalp back together. He looks much worse than he really is, so please keep that in mind when you see him. He is currently sleeping, but you may go in if you’d like,” the zebra reported. “Would you like a chance to shower? We have facilities here for the doctors and nurses.” 

Nodding, Bon Bon’s head slowly bobbed up and down. “Thank you.” 



 

Much to Bon Bon’s relief, Bucky moaned as she approached. She stood near the bed and leaned her head down, kissing Bucky on his snoot, the only place not horribly swollen out of proportion. She heard the crinkle of bandages and the strange chemical smell of disinfectants. 

“Shot me in my head Bonnie,” Bucky whispered in a slurred strained voice. 

“I know Bucky… how do you feel?” Bon Bon asked, her snoot inches from Bucky’s and her heart in her throat. 

“Can’t move,” Bucky grumbled. 

“I know Bucky. There is swelling in your neck,” Bon Bon replied, having quite some difficulty talking. “The doctors told me after I showered that you are going to be fine. We want to move you aboard The Scorned mare Bucky so you will be safe. They’ve increased the security in the hospital, but this is not a safe place like our ship is.” 

“No,” Bucky groaned, struggling to speak. “No… must give speech. Need help. Need paper and pen. Will need somepony to speak for me. By sundown. Make it happen.” 

“Alright Bucky. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll get Twilight Sparkle and if you feel strongly about this, I’ll do what I can to make sure this happens,” Bon Bon responded in a soft voice. 

“Belisama… get Belisama to speak. New wife must learn her place in our herd. Must act like queen she is,” Bucky mumbled in a raspy voice. “Don’t take no for answer. Ruffle feathers if you must.” 

“I will speak with her Bucky,” Bon Bon promised. “I’m going to go find a pen and some paper and then I will be right back.” 



 

“How is Lugus?” Bon Bon asked Yew Wood, who looked miserable. 

“He’s alright the doctors say. He lost a lot of blood. He’s a really big griffon and the bullet was teeny tiny by comparison. It didn’t hit anything vital and lodged just behind his ribs, just missing a lung,” Yew explained in reply, her face pinched with worry and fear. “How is Sentinel?” 

“They still have him sedated after what happened. I don’t like it. I’ve demanded that they stop. Sentinel is no threat at all. He didn’t hurt me and to be completely fair, that minotaur did just try and kill Sentinel’s father. I’m actually really angry at how Sentinel is being treated,” Bon Bon said, gritting her teeth somewhat as she spoke. 

“And Bucky?” Yew inquired. 

“Sleeping. I helped him write a speech and it wore him out. He wants to address the nation as the sun sets. I’m supposed to make Belisama read what was written,” Bon Bon answered as she sat down in a chair. “He can’t even control his own bodily functions. They have him in diapers. He’s in no position to be going out, but he was pretty insistent about it. I don’t know what to do or how we’re going to get him out there, but he had a nurse issue a press release for him already so I guess we’re on.” 

“We can’t let him be seen in public with diapers on!” Yew protested, her voice an angry over emotional squeak. 

“I guess we’ll cover him with a blanket,” Bon Bon said. Very much against her will, Bon Bon yawned, covering her face with a hoof. “I’m exhausted Yew… I don’t know how much more of this day I take.” 

“My apologies ladies,” a voice said. “But I couldn’t help but overhear your troubles,” a tall stallion said as he entered the waiting room. 

“You shouldn’t be in here!” Bon Bon shouted. “Security!”

“I am security,” the stallion replied. He was wearing a long flowing black cloak that covered his whole body and only a pale white muzzle stuck out from under the hood. “Believe me, I come on orders from the highest levels of authority. My name is…” the tall figure said, his voice trailing off. “My name is Ash Tanto.” 

“For a moment it sounded like you didn’t know your own name,” Bon Bon said suspiciously. 

Pulling back his hood, the stallion revealed his face, smiling at the two mares. He was pale, a soft white that was almost pink as the skin beneath showed through his thin pelt, and his eyes were bright, pink, and piercing. His mane was thin, wispy, and white. 

“Are you an albino?” Bon Bon asked, looking at the pale pony. 

“Something like that,” Ash replied. 

“So who sent you?” Bon Bon demanded, glaring up at the tall bony looking figure. 

“My sisters. I was sent to look after my sibling,” Ash said in a low chuckle. 

“Who are you really?” Bon Bon questioned, her eyes narrowing as she peered at the enigmatic figure. “And why do you call Bucky your sibling?” 

“Because he is. And who I am is not important,” Ash replied in a soft voice. He took off his cloak, revealing his body. He was a tall gaunt earth pony of bony build, and almost looked more horse like than pony. Using his teeth, he dropped his cloak upon Bon Bon, who was immediately buried in it. 

Struggling to escape the black expanse, Bon Bon let out a startled cry. The fabric, if it could even be called that, was the blackest thing she had ever seen. It was soft, silky, and flowed like water as she worked to get her head free. She finally wadded the cloak up in her forelegs and looked up at the tall pony standing over her, her eyes wide and just a little angry. “Who are you?” 

“Ash Tanto,” the tall gaunt stallion replied. “But that is just one name among many. Cover your husband with my cloak. I give you my solemn oath, it will keep him safe. Tell him to keep it, I have others, but that one is special. If you will excuse me, I have duties to attend to. Hospitals always keep me busy. There are many who need my comfort in the most troubling moments of their lives.” 

“Who sent you?” Bon Bon demanded, still hoping for an answer. The cloak felt strangely cold in her grasp and Bon Bon felt a prickle of fear. 

“Three sisters. Bucky’s three sisters. You will be meeting them soon when they give you the purgative and restorative elixirs for you and all of your friends, and the griffons you are now responsible for,” Ash answered, looking down at Bon Bon patiently. 

The tall stallion moved away from Bon Bon, backing away slowly for some distance before turning around and walking away. 

“Thank you,” Bon Bon said, feeling relief that the stallion was gone, but also strangely comforted by his visit. “Thank you whomever you are!” she called out once again. 



 

Four figures gathered in a large comfortable room, a zebra, a unicorn, and two earth ponies. Three were female and sitting down in comfortable chairs, sipping tea, and the fourth, a tall gaunt stallion, eased himself down into a chair with a grunt. 

“You seem to have misplaced something important, brother,” Atropos said, looking over at the pale figure. 

“Oh, I know exactly where it is,” the pale figure replied. 

“What did you do Thanatos?” Lachesis demanded, glaring at her brother. 

“I gave my cloak to Bon Bon, so she could give it to our brother,” Thanatos replied, grinning a ghoulish grin. 

“You horrible fiend! What have I told you about you and your pranks!” Clotho scolded, baring her teeth at her brother. 

“Prank?” Thanatos said, looking as innocent as possible. “I am concerned for his safety. The cloak will keep him safe. Accusing me of pranks… it was you that allowed him to be shot in the head just so he would fall in line with your hatred of firearms,” he added in a voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“Telling him about it or explaining to him our reasons wouldn’t have brought him around. He’s thick headed,” Atropos muttered. 

“Morta, you’re a bitch,” Thanatos stated. “Thick headed indeed.” 

“Don’t call me that, you ghoul,” Atropos retorted in a cross sounding voice. 

“Our brother is now properly motivated. He will use his divine nature to wage war upon firearms and we will finally be rid of those hated things,” Lachesis grumbled over her teacup as she held it in her telekinesis, which seemed to be coming from nowhere. 

“I’m sorry for calling you a ‘bitch’ Morta,” Thanatos teased. 

“Call me Morta one more time… just one more time… I will find a way to get even with you somehow,” Atropos snarled at her brother. 

“Forgive me sister,” Thanatos apologised in a sincere voice. “Real shame sending that poor minotaur to his death just to make your point… you heartless bitch.” 

“He was going to die anyway when he was going to attempt to kill Bocor Oya and Grand Sorcerer Canterberry. I simply repurposed his death. Foolish minotaur… I’ll not let Tradewinds and the Sea of Grass be plunged into civil war,” Atropos retorted angrily. 

“Having our brother shot in the head was regrettable, but there can be no doubt that he is now on our side of the firearms issue. This was for his own good,” Clotho said in a sad voice, staring down into her teacup and looking guilty. “He was already being entranced by the forbidden romance of the damnable objects.” 

Lachesis looked up and over at both of her sisters. “We all know how stubborn he is. Was there any other way to make this point to him? He was already falling in love with the damn things. He thought he’d try to find the good in them. The world will be a safer place once he figures out a way to be rid of the awful things.” 

“Do you really think he can?” Thanatos questioned, raising his eyebrow and looking at Lachesis with his piercing gaze. 

“I can’t see the outcome of this future, but I trust in my brother’s knack to defeat his enemies,” Atropos responded, looking over at Thanatos. “And shame on you… leaving your cloak with War. You’re sick Thanatos!” 

“Oh come on sister… it is amusing,” Thanatos whined to his sister. His contorted suddenly and became serious. “I want him safe. I couldn’t think of any other way to make sure.” 

“Don’t complain Morta… at least Thanatos is on board with our plan,” Clotho said to her sister. 

“Stop calling me Morta!” Atropos snapped. 

“War is going to get in so much trouble wearing that cloak,” Lachesis groaned. 

“Sundown approaches. Come, let us finish our tea and disguise ourselves. We have history to observe,” Atropos said, looking at her siblings with wide eyes. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 331
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bon Bon didn’t like this plan at all, but Bucky was insistent about his desire to appear in public. His remaining eye was completely swollen shut, leaving him blind, and his entire face was misshapen. A ragged red gash between his horn and his ear was hidden beneath bandages. 

“My head hurts but I don’t feel bad,” Bucky whispered in a soft but reassuring voice. 

“I can keep us safe,” Twilight Sparkle promised. 

“I just don’t know if I can go out and face the public again,” Bon Bon admitted. 

“It is just us this time. Everyone else is safely secured,” Twilight said reassuringly. 

“He has made his wishes known. We should respect them,” Belisama said impatiently. 

Sighing, Bon Bon bowed her head in defeat. She swallowed, her throat feeling dry and parched, her lips felt dry, and her head ached slightly. Being married to Bucky had some trying moments and Bon Bon steeled her courage to the sticking place as she tried to prepare herself for what must be done. 

“How are we carrying him?” Belisama asked. “He can’t walk.” 

“We’re going to cover him in that cloak and then I am going to carry him on my back,” Bon Bon responded, speaking what she had on her mind for a plan. 

“That cloak is weird,” Twilight muttered. “It gives off no magical signature but it isn’t normal. It isn’t even made out of fabric. I can’t find any threads in it. It isn’t woven. I can’t figure out what it is.” 

“Will it keep him safe? Ash Tanto said it would keep him safe,” Bon Bon questioned, concern in her voice. 

“No idea. This cloak isn’t natural. I’m not even sure it is supernatural,” Twilight answered, shaking her head. Ash Tanto… she thought to herself, making a mental note. “I can carry Bucky in my telekinesis,” Twilight offered. 

“No. My husband, my responsibility,” Bon Bon said, shaking her head at Twilight. 

“Belisama, I know you’re tired. Want a ride?” Twilight inquired. 

“If you don’t mind,” Belisama said shyly, turning to look at Twilight. 

“Let’s do this then,” Bon Bon announced. 



 

The voluminous black cloak draped around both Bon Bon and Bucky, but did not drag along the ground. It was Twilight who noticed that the cloak hovered above the ground and did not touch. 

A small crowd had gathered in the plaza, but not the thousands and thousands who had been there this morning at dawn. The crowd that was there looked terrified and kept glancing around to look for hidden assassins. 

Twilight kept a shield bubble around the group, taking no chances. She approached the podium with Belisama upon her back and Twilight could feel the griffoness quivering with fear. Using her magic, Twilight levitated the microphone to Belisama, who took it in her trembling talons. 

Looking out upon the crowd, Belisama closed her eyes, pulled the sheet of paper from her satchel with her other talons, and then opened her eyes. She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the throbbing in her broken hind leg. 

“My husband asked me to pass this message to you. Write this down. Spread this message to the whole of the world,” Belisama began, holding up the paper. She looked out upon the crowd and saw them staring up at her. Flash bulbs flashed as reporters captured this moment in history. 

Speaking with a clear voice, Belisama continued. 

“For a time, I entertained the idea of championing the cause of firearms. I saw them as a means to promote equality with magic and perhaps as a means to allow slaves to rise up against their masters. A means for the oppressed to have a voice,” Belisama said, reading from the paper. 

“But the events of this morning changed that. I freed a nation of slaves. I prevented a war that would have brought the entire world into conflict. And for my troubles, I was shot in the head by a would be assassin. Lugus, my very best friend and boon companion, a noble griffon who champions the causes of others, was shot in the side. My colt, Sentinel, who is also my squire, was shot several times. These events have changed my mind. The world has the means to use firearms, but not the discipline, the morals, or the sound mind required for responsible use,” Belisama read, her eyes darting up from the paper to look out over the crowd. 

“I have a message for you,” Belisama announced. “Lay down your weapons. Surrender your firearms. Relinquish all of your stockpiles of gunpowder. If you value your lives, you will do as I ask. You don’t want to know what is in store for you if you fail to acknowledge my simple request. Forget even the idea of guns and gunpowder if you ever want to know peace again. Failure to comply will mean your lives are forfeit.” 

More flashbulbs exploded and the crowd looked completely stunned. 

“The world is changed by examples, not opinions. Do not force me to make an example of you and your opinions. What happened this morning is an example for why firearms should not be allowed. The Council of Immortals was wise to impose a ban upon them and I will be enforcing that ban, no doubt with the backing of the Council of Immortals. Make war against me at your own peril. This has been a message from the Lord of Winter,” Belisama read from the paper, her eyes darting over the words as she spoke to the crowd. 

“Are there any questions?” Belisama asked as she looked out over the crowd. 

“How will you make guns go away?” a reporter asked. 

Looking at the paper, Belisama flipped it over until she found what she was looking for. She cleared her throat again. “I will create an army of golems that will police the world and they will be attracted to gunpowder. Draw your own conclusions from there, but let it be known, these impartial peacekeepers cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be bargained with. And they will be unstoppable.”

“Automatons that hunt down gunpowder?” a zebra shouted. 

“Spell jar golems made of glass and filled with spells,” Belisama read from the paper.

“That’s… horrifying,” a unicorn shouted. “If you were to damage one it would release the spells inside.” 

“That is the idea,” Twilight Sparkle announced in a magically amplified voice. “Fighting back will be useless. The only sane option is to submit and obey. Know this, Bucky is my friend and I am appalled at what was done to him, his friends, and his family because of this event. It is my intention to make sure that this plan goes forward and I will be helping Bucky with the creation of the army of golems. Surrender your arms now or be destroyed.” 

A stunned silence lingered over the crowd for several long minutes, and after the pronounced silence, a single cheer came from a large black stallion near the front of the mob surrounded by three mares. His cheer caused the rest of the crowd to erupt in cheering, and soon the crowd was roaring with approval. 



 

Bucky lay in bed sleeping, Belisama beside him, and Bon Bon sat by the bed on the sofa, rubbing her head and trying not to think about how Derpy was going to react to everything that had happened under Bon Bon’s watch. Lyra was beside her on the couch, sitting quietly, trying to take everything in that had happened during this impossibly long day. Harper was asleep in her crib, mumbling in her sleep. 

The door opened and Sentinel entered. He peered around, looked at Bon Bon and Lyra, went to couch, crawled up between them, and curled into a small miserable ball. 

“Trouble sleeping?” Lyra whispered. 

The colt nodded but said nothing. 

“Need to talk about it?” Bon Bon inquired. 

Shaking his head, Sentinel continued to lay there, a miserable lump of pony. 

“Well, I think you did the right thing,” Lyra said in a soothing low voice. “Bon Bon and I don’t love you any less because of what happened.” 

“I made a mistake. I killed him. That’s the second thing that can talk that I killed,” Sentinel whimpered. “And now they can’t question him. Can’t find out who sent him. Bocor Oya spent some time talking to me.” 

“Don’t worry about those things,” Bon Bon murmured, stroking Sentinel softly. “In much pain?” 

“No,” Sentinel grunted. 

“Your father is going to be okay. The doctors say that when the swelling goes down on his neck he’ll regain his movement and control over his body. He won’t be like this for long,” Bon Bon explained in a low soft voice as she continued to rub Sentinel softly. “The bullet actually did more damage to his neck… it gave him whiplash. They say the wound on his head is superficial, even though it looks awful.” 

“I wanted to eat him,” Sentinel confessed. 

“I sorta figured that out on my own Sentinel,” Bon Bon replied, shaking her head softly. “Which is why I stopped you. I’m just glad I could reach you.” 

“I feel like a monster. That’s twice now that I’ve ripped something limb from limb,” Sentinel said in a pained raspy whimper. “I can’t even write about it because I am so upset. I don’t know how to make myself feel better.” 

“You’re not a monster,” Lyra crooned softly. “You are what you are. You are a creature with powerful instincts and a lot of love for your family. I feel safer knowing that you are here to protect me, Harper, and everything I love.” 

“Spike is having trouble too… he killed something that talks. He’s asleep. I left him in my cabin by himself,” Sentinel murmured as he squirmed around and covered up his face with his wing. 

“Sentinel, baby, there is nothing that you could do that would make me stop loving you. I’m your mother. And so is Lyra. There is also Derpy, Berry, and Thistle. In time, I am sure Belisama will become very fond of you. But speaking for myself, I know you are a good little colt. You did what needed to be done to keep your father and others safe today. As bad as it was, as bad as it feels right now, and as much as it pains you, everyone that is important to you is still alive and the minotaur that tried to murder your father is dead,” Bon Bon whispered, saying reassuring words to Sentinel. 

“Belisama said she was proud to call me one of her cubs,” Sentinel mumbled in a gravelly voice. 

“See, you are well on your way to winning her over with your charms,” Lyra said, shifting positions and curling up next to Sentinel. “You’re the other special male in my life. Have I told you that Sentinel?” 

“Yes Lyra,” Sentinel responded in a low exhale.

Nosing Sentinel with her snoot, Lyra grunted. “Well, I’ll just keep saying it for my own benefit then.” 

“I know Moonbow will be okay with what I’ve done, but when Diamond Tiara finds out, I’m scared she won’t like me,” Sentinel admitted, making a quiet confession of his fear, a rare act for the colt. 

“You know Sentinel, Diamond Tiara isn’t perfect, but I will say this. Don’t underestimate her. You’ve offered to be her friend during a very rough moment of her life. You even offered to be her friend after she wronged you and Princess Luna. For all of her many faults, she may surprise you on this issue,” Bon Bon whispered as she continued to rub Sentinel with her hoof. 

The trio fell silent as Belisama began to make peeping noises in her sleep, her chest hitching, it was evident to any watching that the little griffoness was afraid of something. Her talons flexed and she muttered one word, “Bandua,” before falling silent again.

“She and Bandua were so close,” Lyra said in a pained whisper. “She told me that she would do anything for Bucky just because he killed her sister’s murderers.” 

“She treats it like a debt,” Bon Bon responded. 

“For her, it is a debt Bonnie,” Lyra replied. “For griffons, justice is usually something paid for. If you can’t deal with it yourself, you hire somebirdy to do it for you. If somebirdy wrongs you, you have a few options on how to do deal with it. For the servant griffons, offering yourself in servitude was one way to secure justice. I talked with Lugus about it for a little while. The big warrior griffons collect a lot of little servants this way to look after all of their needs and all they need to do is go crack somebirdy’s skull open like an egg.” 

“He’s asleep,” Bon Bon murmured to Lyra, her eyes darting down to Sentinel as she spoke. “Maybe we should go to bed as well.” 

Yawning, Lyra nodded. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 332
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alone in a cabin, Twilight Sparkle scribbled furiously with a pen, trying to figure out a riddle. She knew for certain that the cloak belonged to something that probably wasn’t a pony, but she wasn’t sure who or what it was. Who was Ash Tanto? 

Ana Shott? No, that wasn’t it. Han Stoat? That seemed unlikely. She hadn’t heard of any immortals by those names. Nat Hosta, Nat Shoat, Stan Oath, Hot Satan, none of those names made any sense either. Hot Satan in particular sounded like total gibberish. What sort of deity would be named ‘Satan,’ hot or otherwise? 

“Oath Ants?” she said out loud, puzzled. “Shat Nota, Tanto Sha, Toast Nah? None of these many any sense. And why am I talking to myself? I wish I had Smarty Pants with me… she could help me.” 

She heard a grunt behind her and nearly jumped out of her skin. Flash Sentry entered the cabin, approached Twilight slowly, kissed her softly upon the cheek, and then looked down upon Twilight’s piece of paper. Picking up a pen, he scribbled something down, his ears forward in concentration.

Peering at Flash Sentry’s careful script, Twilight Sparkle read it out loud. “Thanatos.” 

Sitting in stunned silence for a moment, Twilight Sparkle attempted to take in the ramifications of who this name was, who the cloak belonged to, and what to do with this information. “Flash Sentry, you are a genius!” Twilight cried, breaking the silence. She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and hauled him in to kiss him on the cheek. 

Hearing Twilight say his name, Flash turned his head to look at her just as her forelegs were wrapping around his neck. A moment later, he felt two lips against his, kissing him clumsily, but he didn’t mind. He kissed back, and then things became interesting when he felt Twilight Sparkle’s mouth open slightly. 

After several very interesting and heated minutes, Twilight Sparkle pulled away breathlessly, her nostrils flaring as she sucked in big lungfuls of air. Twilight stared into Flash’s eyes and found herself unable to say anything of importance, the owner of the cloak temporarily forgotten. 



 

In the hours between midnight and dawn, Ripple stood upon the deck of The Scorned Mare surrounded by her fellow guard, trying to take in the events of the day. As she tried to gather her thoughts, she paced occasionally, moving from one side of the deck to the other, the little griffons following after her dutifully. She already had them marching in time and moving as a unit, little claws clicking in time with her steel war shoes. 

“We live in a very different world,” Ripple announced, breaking her own long silence. 

“Yes we do, a world where we are free,” a griffoness blurted out. 

“Yeah, I suppose that makes for a different world as well,” Ripple agreed, realising her perspectives and the griffon’s perspectives were separated by vast gulf of varied experiences between them. “How do you feel about guns?” Ripple inquired, looking over her group of devoted followers who hung on her every word. 

“How do you want us to feel about guns, Cornet Ripple?” a griffon answered. 

“Stop that!” Ripple barked. “I want your opinions. I will not tell you mine until later.” 

The flock of griffons all looked up at Ripple nervously and then at one another, each trying to reach some kind of consensus with the griffon next to them. There were a few nervous squawks, a screech, and many ruffled feathers. 

“Private Grunion! Your opinion please!” Ripple demanded impatiently. 

“I… don’t know… at first I thought guns were nice, but then today happened. How can anybirdy be safe if somebirdy just pops out of nowhere and shoots you? I’ve spent my whole life not feeling safe, I’m done being a slave and I don’t want to be a slave to fear either,” Grunion said, looking at Ripple with wide perplexed eyes. 

“Anything else to say?” Ripple inquired in a softer voice. 

Realising he had been put on the spot, Grunion sat back on his haunches and wrung his talons together, trying to think of something worthwhile to say. “If all of your power and authority comes from having a gun, what if somebirdy comes along with a bigger gun?” 

“Very clever,” Ripple said, nodding her head thoughtfully. 

“I suppose all of this talk depends on which end of the gun you are standing on,” a griffoness said thoughtfully. “I can see guns as being useful, but also a problem,” she continued, looking around at her fellow griffons and noting the many raised crests.  

“Is there really a need for guns with strong magic? What’s needed is a promise that those with strong magic will actually do more to keep creatures like us safe. If we arm the world with guns, some group will end up using those guns to keep another group oppressed. But those guns aren’t really all that powerful compared to magic. We either need to be armed with guns or an assurance of protection. I think… hard to say. I don’t see guns making the world safer, what we need is strong magic and the will to use it in the defense of the little creatures like us who suffer the most,” Grunion said, looking thoughtful. 

“So if my father came to the defense of little creatures like yourselves, guns wouldn’t be needed?” Ripple inquired. 

Shrugging, Grunion did not reply, not knowing what to say, his mind already dizzy from the complex thoughts bouncing around inside of his skull, tormenting his little birdy brain. 

“My father makes magical ordnance. He makes really amazing purpose driven magical glass jars that only have an effect upon a hostile creature attacking him, and completely ignores the innocent. In my own opinion, I think guns might be a bit more viable if somehow they only worked when pointed and fired at something actively hostile towards you, wanting to do you harm, but the gun would be completely useless against innocents,” Ripple said, explaining her own feelings. 

“Do you think your father could make a gun like that?” Grunion questioned. 



 

Laying awake in the bed but unable to move, Bucky thought he was going to lose his mind, if such a thing were possible, given the current state of his mind. He had ideas, plans, thoughts, and no means to immediately begin to act upon them. He sighed, feeling impatient, and stoically attempted to endure the long night by taking comfort in his family, who were all around him in the bed. 

The faint beginnings of a plan percolated through his mind, already he had ideas on what to do. The first thing that needed doing what to create a couple of big scary glass golems filled with fire so the press could come along and take pictures of them and then inform the press that these were the enforcement golems. The enforcement golem pictures would quickly become the image forever lodged in the public mind, the image would be enough of a deterrent for most. There was nothing like the image of a twenty foot tall multi-ton golem smashing through your city to make you pause and think about things, important things like keeping your head attached to your body somehow when said golem came knocking. 

Fear was always a good place to start. At least fear did not bring harm to the innocent, and Bucky depended upon his plans not hurting the innocent. What he needed was a means of delivery. A simple glass globe spell jar with a small arcano-tech motor that he could enchant to draw power from the nearby ley lines that would power a small propeller to give the spell jar the ability to fly. Bucky recalled a detail from a book that he read about Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Rainbow Dash had a tortoise named ‘Tank’ that had a similar device that allowed him to fly with Rainbow Dash. 

Bucky tried to grin fiendishly but found that his face was far too swollen. 

A faint soft cackle escaped his lips as he continued to plan his greatest prank ever. A devious plan filled his mind and set his brain on fire. A means to make the world safer that would hurt no one, render firearms completely useless, and the potential to go down in the history books as the greatest prankster ever. 

“Bucky, stop cackling and go to sleep… or else,” Bon Bon mumbled in a half awake state. “I mean it mister. I know you're planning something but you need rest.” 



 

A zebra, an earth pony, and a unicorn stood upon the deck of The Scorned Mare, a massive stack of wooden crates piled up near them. Bucky, who was spread out on a blanket with a pile of cushions and covered in the black cloak, eyed his sisters as they approached. The ship was currently docked and a gangplank led to the deck, which was heavily guarded and defended by unicorns from the academy of sorcery. 

“So my brother, we finally meet face to face for once,” the earth pony said in a low voice to Bucky. She came closer, lowered her head, and kissed Bucky softly on his bulging cheek. 

“We’ve come with what is needed to heal the sick. These elixirs will purge poisons from your systems and heal the physical damage caused by those poisons,” the unicorn said as she looked around at the ponies and griffons staring at her. 

The zebra lifted her head high and looked out at the crowd around her. “You have very kind kings who are willing to provide these things for you.” 

“I’ve also cooked up a little something for Lugus,” the earth pony announced. “I’ll be heading off to look after him,” she said as she trotted for the door leading belowdecks. 

“You… you’re the... pickle barrel kumquats,” Twilight said, the last three words blurted out loudly. Shaking her head, Twilight Sparkle tried again. “You three are the three sisters, also known as... when I was a foal I was afraid the toilet would eat me.” Twilight froze in horror and covered her mouth with her hoof, feeling absolutely mortified when she heard her friends giggling. 

“I thought you were smart,” the zebra whispered to Twilight. “By all means, keep trying. This is quite amusing.” 

“I know who you are,” Twilight grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the zebra and the unicorn and glaring at them. 

“They’re my sisters,” Bucky said in a smug voice. 

“And I know who owns that cloak,” Twilight said in a low voice, peering at the unicorn sister who had the same sort of smug grin that Bucky usually had, the grin of the insufferably smug who knew they were completely unassailable in their fortress of unbearable smugness. 

“Figured that out did you?” the zebra asked, winking at Twilight. 

With a painful moment of clarity, Twilight Sparkle realised that if she tried to say anything, anything at all, more nonsense would come spewing out of her mouth. Gritting her teeth together in frustration, Twilight remained silent and quietly began to hate the Fates. 

“I’ve brought you something as well Bucky… don’t worry, this is safe for you to drink, it will not cause any unwanted side effects… like wings,” the unicorn said as she lowered her head down to Bucky to kiss him softly. “Black is a very becoming colour upon you,” she stated after giving Bucky a sisterly kiss. “Keep this cloak with you always my dear brother.” 

“This elixir won’t cure you completely, but it should close the wound a little and reduce the swelling,” the zebra said, now ignoring Twilight and eyeing Bucky in concern. 

“Thank you so much for providing healing for everypony and everybirdy,” Bucky said graciously, looking up at the unicorn who stood near him. 

“Yes, thank you,” Twilight added, forcibly evicting the words from her lips, the words refusing to leave upon their own peaceably. 

“We’ll need some helpers passing all of this out,” the zebra said in a loud voice. “One purple phial and one green phial each. I must warn you, the green phial will taste terrible, but it is important that you drink every last drop.” 

“Yes, the griffons on the other ship will also need this medicine,” the unicorn said, looking around at the crowd. 

“I’ll be happy to help,” Rarity offered. 

“And I can fly,” Fluttershy squeaked nervously, having trouble with the crowd. 

“I’ll do my part,” Twilight offered. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 333
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Can you even see anything at all?” Lyra asked, her lips a few scant inches away from Bucky’s ear, causing it to flicker as she spoke. Lyra gently stroked Bucky’s neck and wished she had some way of making Bucky feel better. 

“I can see a little bit, but I can’t open my eye more than just a crack,” Bucky grumbled in reply. “I can see outlines and blurry shapes. I was able to see my sisters earlier. Was kinda weird, I was able to see them well enough but not much of anything else.” 

“They give me the creeps… I’m not saying anything bad about them, just that they give me the creeps,” Lyra said as her stomach gurgled at a startling level of volume. “Oh that stuff I drank... I feel miserable.” The minty green unicorn clutched her stomach and bared her teeth in pain. Something hideous lurked in the depths of Lyra’s bowels, and the unicorn mare wasn’t sure if it was safe to pass gas, so she held it in and tried to cope with the pain and the pressure. 

“I wonder what they are saying to Twilight… I hope Twilight isn’t having her mind blown,” Bucky said as a dreadful feeling of concern began to overtake him. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly. “My mind is already pretty broken so certain things don’t bother me… but Twilight Sparkle is kinda fragile. And the things that my sisters have to say can be… upsetting.” 

“Feels weird to hear you call them your sisters Bucky,” Lyra remarked, shaking her head. “If I understand things correctly, I think I know who they are.” A resonating gurgle came from Lyra’s stomach, it sounded like a partially clogged drain sucking down water. Her lower belly was filled a terrible heat and a very painful cramp made Lyra squeeze her eyes shut. 

“Best not to talk about it Lyra, unless you want garble coming out of your mouth uncontrollably,” Bucky warned. He paused, sniffing, catching a whiff of something rather foul in the air. “Did you just fart Lyra Heartstrings? Ugh, I can taste it! I’m stuck here on the bed and I can’t run away either! You’re a horrible pony…”  

“I gotta go!” Lyra blurted out, departing from Bucky’s side with great haste, her tail tucked tightly between her hind legs.



 

Confused and left without Celestia’s guidance, Twilight Sparkle tried to take in everything that the Fates had told her. She was certain that the Fates hadn’t told her everything, but they had certainly told her enough, and once again, Twilight was left questioning everything she thought she knew, just like she had once done after Celestia had explained a great deal of what went on in the background after Twilight’s return from Fillydelphia. She lay in the bed staring up at the bunk up above her. 

At least the Fates had been kind enough to explain how to help Pinkie Pie and spared no detail. Twilight Sparkle knew just what to do to make Pinkie Pie better. 

Scowling, Twilight Sparkle immediately put her mind to work on figuring out the Fates’ cryptic riddles, hints, and half explanations to what was really going in the world. 

A miserable blue figure pushed her way through Twilight’s door and flopped out on the bed beside her. Rainbow Dash’s stomach gurgled and made cringe-worthy squelchy-squirty sounds. Rainbow Dash rubbed her stomach and pressed tightly up against Twilight Sparkle. 

“I’m dying Twi… I wanted to tell you that you’re my very bestest friend,” Rainbow Dash moaned as her stomach continued to churn. “I’m dying and this is the end of me. I’m gonna explode and all that will be left is a few feathers.” 

“You’re not dying Dash,” Twilight gently corrected, her own stomach beginning a conversation of growls and gurgles with Rainbow Dash’s. “Rainbow? What if somepony you loved was being led astray… misled… by their… their parent and this pony trusted their parent and believed that they could do no wrong… but there was no way to reach them or help them see that a mistake was being made… how would you help them?” 

Doubling over and clutching her guts, Rainbow Dash farted in reply, a trumpeting blast worthy of her pegasus nature. “Oh my gosh… I’m so glad my plot didn’t just explode,” Rainbow Dash muttered, ignoring Twilight Sparkle’s question. “The last time I farted it was lumpy. By the way, never ever go into a bathroom after Rarity gets done filling up the thundermug… may cause blindness Twi.. the Element of Generousity leaves behind a stench that generously lingers forever.” 

“Can’t be as bad as Applejack,” Twilight murmured, allowing herself to drop her usual guard against such subjects. She rolled over in her bed and wrapped one foreleg over Rainbow Dash, pulling her close and holding her, and finding much to her surprise that Rainbow Dash did not try to resist. “One time, and I’ve never told anypony this, but Applejack just let herself into my bathroom at the library while I was showering. She came in, sat down, started reading a newspaper, and even tried to talk to me while I was in the shower like it wasn’t a big deal.” 

“Yeah… Applejack did that to me when we were in Manehatten helping Rarity and staying in that big hotel room. She just came right in while I was in the tub and started talking to me about the sweet corn harvest as she was dropping  hot plot dumplings in the gravy bowl,” Rainbow Dash responded as she snuggled up a little closer to Twilight and allowed herself to be comforted. 

“Is that what friendship is?” Twilight inquired in a low voice, whispering in Rainbow’s ear as she cuddled against her friend’s back feeling disgusted by Rainbow’s words but also somewhat aroused by holding Rainbow Dash so close. 

“What do ya mean Twi?” Rainbow replied. 

“I mean, is that what friendship is… being so comfortable with somepony else you can just walk in on somebody and feel safe… you know… pooping in front of them or in the same room as them,” Twilight explained in a strained voice. 

“Twilight, I think she does it because she’s a big country bumpkin,” Rainbow Dash answered, a soft giggle overtaking the blue pegasus mare. “You know Twilight, I think you and I are close enough that I could pinch a loaf in the same room as you,” Rainbow Dash confessed. 

“Ugh… gross! Pinch a loaf? Really Rainbow… that’s awful!” Twilight protested, her troubles from the Fates now completely forgotten. “Are we really that close?” she asked, her tone suddenly serious. 

“Yeah Twilight… I love you,” Rainbow replied, internally cringing in horror at her slip of the tongue. She panicked for one brief second and felt a tightness in her barrel. “I mean, as a… as a friend,” she stammered in correction. “Nothing mushy.” 



 

A feculent funk lingered throughout The Scorned Mare and the ship’s atmospheric regulation systems were powerless against the stench. The Albatross suffered a similar fate as the purgatives took hold and worked their magic. Everypony and everybirdy was laid low, and many either sat upon an available toilet or huddled miserably in their bunks. 

Only a scant few were left completely unaffected by the chemical cleansing of toxins from the system. Sentinel was largely unaffected, but then again, very little bothered his stomach being an opportunistic carrion eater. Bucky was completely unaffected as well. 



 

Left to his own devices and able to see just a tiny bit, Bucky kept himself busy sketching out his plans and making notes. On a sheet of paper, using his telekinesis, he scribbled out designs for tiny spell jars with arcano-tech powered propellers to be used as a delivery system for spells, and in between sketching, Bucky scribbled down his thoughts on how to keep innocents safe. The entire system would be completely non-lethal while still being an effective means of pacification. 

As he scribbled, in the back of his mind, his mind was hard at work thinking of ways to prevent the events of Griffonholm from ever happening again. His idea for an automated spell jar delivery system would allow his glass globes to travel anywhere in the world and disperse spells. With the right spells, he wondered if he could stop wars, free slaves, and put an end to tyranny, but mostly he wondered if he could do it as bloodlessly as possible. 

Never once did Bucky stop to think if he should be doing this, only that he could be doing this, his mind ablaze with possibilities. The violence had to stop. Conflict had to end. Bucky had no doubts that he could in fact wrangle most of the sapient species into submission and make them behave. Most of them didn’t need to be wrangled into submission and made to behave. There were only a few species that continuously created trouble for their neighbors. If left to their own devices, the zebras were a perfectly peaceful species. Most of the equine species were harmless. 

No, the real threats to the world were the unicorns, some of the more predatory sapient species, and those who had hands or manipulatory digits. Guns would never be a serious concern as far as the zebras, earth ponies, or the pegasi were concerned, none of which had fingers. Sure, manipulation shoes could be used to discharge a firearm, but it wasn’t practical for an earth pony, who was a quadruped. Guns made bipedal creatures with hands fearsome in much the same way magic made unicorns dangerous, and both needed a way to be contained. 

Scowling, Bucky realised that there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about the unicorns, other than help Twilight Sparkle regulate magic and make sure that the abuses of the past could never happen again. What he could do was put an end to one species preying upon another by taking away their means of power and subjugation. 

Most of the world’s sapient species were perfectly content to live in peace, but because of a few troublemakers, one group that Bucky was now the king of, the entire world had to live in fear of conflict. 

Sucking in his lip and pressing down upon it gently with his teeth, Bucky realised that Sombra had gone about this all wrong. Creating an army of twenty foot tall unstoppable juggernauts of destruction were not the answer. Crushing your enemies with force would only leave them bitter and seeking revenge. 

Surely it would be better to completely subdue your enemies, doing no harm, killing no one, and then figuring out what had caused the conflict in the first place so something could be done to correct it. If the troublesome species were gently reprimanded and taught to live in peace and more power was distributed equally, the reasons for war could be countered. 

But could this be done?

His pen scratching furiously, Bucky began to create a list of things that led to wars, the first thing he wrote down was a lack of education followed by a lack of a fair distribution of resources. He paused thoughtfully for a moment and then his pen moved again, expanding on the lack of fairness in the distribution of resources, and Bucky thought about exploitation, how those with resources tended to bleed their neighbors dry to further solidify their own power by making those around them weaker. House Avarice had done plenty of that. 

Bucky had a tribe to lead, and his tribe would wage war upon the causes of war. He took a deep breath, his mind whirling with far too many thoughts. It was time to reveal himself to the world, not as the nascent alicorn of war, but as the founder of a new tribe, a new way of life, his vision that he had in the Shetlands finally coming into perfect focus. And for all of this to work, his tribe had to stop killing and attempt to use non lethal means to wage war. What he couldn’t subdue with gentle correction he would make powerless with fear. He certainly had the dark magic and the reputation that would allow for that. The dangerous predatory species understood fear as a motivator and Bucky was prepared to use it as a temporary measure. 

An impossible task loomed ahead of Bucky and for a moment he was uncertain of his ability to even begin such a venture. His pen ceased movement, hovering in the air doing nothing, and Bucky was overwhelmed as he came to the stunning realisation that everything he had experienced in his life had happened to prepare him for this moment. 

It was time to show the world a better way. The only way for life to continue living was to present a united front to the creator alicorn intent upon destroying the world. Somehow, Bucky had to prove that life was worth saving, and that the world was capable of better things. 

A soft faint cackle escaped Bucky’s lips as he began to plan. 
	
	
> Chapter 334
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Time to go home,” Lyra said to herself as she carefully maneuvered The Scorned Mare skyward, The Albatross in tow. Both ships were connected now with a powered tether, giving The Scorned Mare plenty of power. Lugnut and Spanner had fixed the power issue and had assumed their role as the Royal Mechanics. 

They were going home with three hundred and five griffons and two zebra diplomats. 

Several days of rest and recovery had passed, good days, pleasant days, long days that Rarity spent sightseeing around the city of Tradewinds, dragging Applejack everywhere she went. Twilight Sparkle spent most of the time with the Council of Bocors, ironing out tedious details and trying to engineer better trade agreements. 

Lyra had spent one of those days careening around the city getting pilot lessons in a small personal airship and having the time of her life. 



 

Bucky sat huddled in a chair upon the poop deck of The Scorned Mare, the chair secured in place with a sticky spell so it wouldn’t slide around the deck. He was wrapped in the black cloak that mystified Twilight, it was wrapped around his body and strangely, it did not flap or billow in the strong wind. He couldn’t move very much yet, but he was capable of sitting up on his own and he had control over his body again, at least in a limited capacity. 

He raised the hood up over his head using his magic and watched as the entire world came into sharp focus, his vision clearing completely in the bright light, as though it was nighttime. He lowered the hood and watched as the world became blurry once again. He had been doing this for the past half an hour, observing the results. He felt stronger wrapped in the cloak, more alert, more focused, and the sunlight did not dazzle him so badly. 



 

“Applejack, we need to make sure we get Twilight married before we return home,” Rarity said in a low calm voice. “There will be a political firestorm, Twilight will be swallowed up on controversy, Flash Sentry will go back to the Crystal Empire, and all of our efforts will be for naught.” 

“Rarity, this is all we talked about when we was out sightseeing,” Applejack grumbled to her friend. “Look, I know how important this is. And I know this is probably our only shot. If she gets home unmarried, she’ll lock herself up in her library and make herself busy with work.” 

“And everything will be ruined if that happens!” Rarity whined, the sound nasal and yet somehow well practiced, a refined fine whine. “Twilight will bury herself in work, Rainbow Dash will go chasing after her dream of the Wonderbolts, and Flash will be gone up north which will allow Twilight to fall back into the comfortable routine of nice safe letter writing with no messy social interaction.” The alabaster mare flopped over backwards upon her bed, covered her face with her hooves, then she heaved a frustrated dramatic sigh and gnawed upon her lip in frustration. 

“Rarity, you are impossible,” Applejack said while rolling her wide green eyes. 



 

Feeling concern for his friend, Spike carefully set down the tray of food he had carried to Sentinel’s cabin upon the desk. He saw Sentinel on the bed, the colt was disheveled and distraught looking, which pained Spike a great deal. 

“I brought you some food,” Spike announced, his eyes glancing at the tray. 

“Not hungry,” Sentinel grumbled and then closed his eyes. 

“You gotta snap outta this,” Spike begged. “I’m having trouble too… I can’t deal with this alone and seeing you like this isn’t helping,” the dragon admitted, wringing his clawed hands together fitfully. 

Grunting with effort as he rolled over, Sentinel looked at Spike, his expression sorrowful. “I’m sorry Spike… I just can’t seem to shake this.” 

“Bon Bon told me to tell you that if you didn’t eat, she was going to have Lyra make you eat and this is your last chance,” Spike said, relaying the message Bon Bon gave him. “And Lyra promised that she wouldn’t be nice about it… at all.” 

“Spike… every time I eat something… I… I keep thinking about the feel of that minotaur’s skull crunching as I bit down upon his muzzle… it hurts Spike… inside of my head,” Sentinel confessed, his red bleary eyes starting to tear up once again.

“I know,” Spike replied. “I used my fire to toast a marshmallow and I started crying and I couldn’t stop.” Reaching out, Spike grabbed a piece of fruit off of the tray. “Here… eat this. It is a gift from the zebras called a safou. They’re delicious,” the dragon said, offering the egg sized fruit to Sentinel. 

Extending a wing, Sentinel accepted the fruit, brought to his mouth, stuffed it in whole, and began to chew. There was something crunchy inside, which bothered Sentinel a bit, but much to his surprise, he was hungry and the fruit was delicious. He turned to look at the tray and saw Spike offering him another piece of fruit, which he gratefully took. He slipped out of bed and sat down at his desk to eat. 

“You and I… we’re not like them,” Spike murmured nervously as Sentinel began to gobble down his food. “We’re monsters… we have sharp teeth and both of us will be big hulking monsters when we grow up. We’re not like them at all.” 

“No Spike… we’re not. We’re dangerous,” Sentinel replied around a mouthful of fruit. 

“But we’re trusted,” Spike stated. “Twilight said she trusts me.” 

Sentinel froze mid-bite, his jaws no longer chewing, and his ears folded back against his skull, Spike’s words lodging in his brain and shutting everything down. A bit of juice and drool dribbled from Sentinel’s chin and ran down his neck and chest. 

“And Bucky… he trusts you Sentinel. He tells you to look after your little sisters. Bucky doesn’t strike me as the trusting type… we might be dangerous, but we’re trusted that we’re not dangerous to the ones we love… at least that is the conclusion I reached,” Spike stammered, his voice halting and hesitant. 

Swallowing his mostly unchewed food, Sentinel gulped hard and then looked Spike in the eye. “Thanks Spike… everypony keeps trying to reassure me, but that puts things in perspective. And thanks for the food.” 

Watching Sentinel stuff his face, Spike sat down on the floor, clutched his tail tightly, and was thankful he had somepony to talk to. “Twilight and I have been a lot closer. She’s been treating me differently. I’m going to start school and I’m really excited.” 

“School will be nice I suppose,” Sentinel said around a mouthful of safou. “Ripple will be with us. She’s upset about it. She’ll be the oldest one in the school.” 

“When Bucky’s school opens I get to go there. I’m excited about that,” Spike said, tugging on his tail nervously. 

“Father wants to make his school a place where all species can come and learn to work together towards the greater good,” Sentinel said before he began to gnaw a wedge of cheese. He bit down savagely, eating it wax and all, just how he liked it, and he was thankful that somepony, probably Bon Bon, had left the wax on when she had cut the cheese. 

“So I’ve heard… which is why I want to be there,” Spike responded, letting go of his tail and leaning back against the wall. 



 

Her knitting needles clicking, Fluttershy blew her mane out of her eyes and looked over at Yew Wood, who was looking at Lugus with one wide eye. Lugus was recovering, but that did nothing to ease Fluttershy’s worry. Lugus was sprawled along the entire length of the long couch in the common room and Fluttershy had pulled up a chair to sit close to him as she knitted. Ripple sat nearby, knitting quietly, her griffon guard all around her on the floor, all of them taking some downtime together. 

Fluttershy thought that Ripple’s griffon guard were adorable. 

“Are you comfortable Lugus?” Fluttershy asked in her soft quiet voice, her concern evident in the wavering tone she spoke with. 

“As comfortable as I can be given the situation,” Lugus said in a strained voice. “I hate guns,” he grumbled, his beak clacking together. 

“That potion helped though, it closed the wound up, mostly everything looks better,” Yew said, reaching out and gently rubbing Lugus’ neck, ruffling his feathers with her front hoof. “It was very noble of you to shield Bucky’s body like that. The second shot might have killed him.” 

His crest rising angrily, his talons clenching and flexing, Lugus looked at his mate with narrowed piercing eyes. “I could do no less… and don’t speak of such a thing. His death would have been my failure,” Lugus said in a rumbling growl that came from deep within his chest. “I can’t protect him from bullets… too fast… which is why I hate guns. There is no honour in killing something like a common treacherous assassin.” The big griffon, now worked up, let out an angry squawk of protest as his tail whipped around as though it had a mind of its own. 

“Hush you big brute,” Yew commanded, taking her hoof from Lugus’ neck and tapping on his beak. “Don’t be grumpy,” she added, using the same voice she used when she was speaking to Peekaboo when Peekaboo was grumpy. 

“This whole trip has gone poorly,” Fluttershy said during a soft exhale, her forelock slipping back into its usual place over her face. “I can’t wait to be home with Discord. Those nice sisters told me that I will be rewarded for what I’ve had to endure. They made me feel so much better. Such nice sisters… if only more ponies were like them… well, one is a zebra but that doesn’t matter to me, zebras are equines too. They were all so kind to me. When the unicorn mare kissed me on my cheek and told me I would never have to worry about losing Discord, all of the fear I had sort of just went away. I don’t know why.” 

“The earth pony who healed me was creepy,” Lugus admitted in a low voice, peering around as he spoke. “Something about her was off.” 

“Lugus! For shame! She healed you! Brought you medicine! Made you better!” Yew scolded, poking Lugus with her hoof as she spoke, her ears perking forward and her wings fluttering. 

“The zebra was really nice and not creepy at all… she told me that I would know true happiness before winter and to trust my very life to my guard,” Ripple announced, looking up from her own knitting to look over her guard. “You hear that you little fuzzballs? I gotta trust you lot, you’d better earn it!” 

There was a chorus of squawks in reply as each of her guard raised a wing in salute. 



 

There was no denying it, wearing the cloak made Bucky feel as though it was nighttime. It was like wearing cool darkness. While others complained the cloak was cold, even uncomfortably cold, Bucky found the coolness it radiated soothing, it was like standing beneath the moonlight during a perfect night, where there was just enough chill in the air to feel revitalised after a hot day. 

The strange material, whatever it was, stayed black. No hairs stuck to it. After all of the examining Twilight had done, all of the touching Bucky had done, and even Lyra looking it over, no fine pelt hairs stuck to the cloak’s voluminous expanse. It remained black, as black as a lightless void, and nothing stuck to it to cause flaw to the perfect expanse of black nothingness. 

It was also a garment of perfect drama… of this there could be no doubt. There were black cloaks and then there were black cloaks. An entrance into a room wearing this would leave behind what was sure to be a lingering impression, and Bucky appreciated that on some deep level. Celestia had her sunshine, Luna had her moon, Cadance had her love and serenity she radiated, Twilight had her magic and her optimism, and Bucky had the feeling he would soon be known for the darkness he brought with him. 

And he found he didn’t mind. He wanted ponies to choose Twilight Sparkle and her light, the darkness he brought with him would aid him to that end. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 335
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Huddled in his chair upon the deck of The Scorned Mare, Bucky looked at both Agnetha and Tannis, smiling as best as he could. Tannis, slightly larger and bulkier by far, was sitting with his wing protectively around Agnetha. Agnetha, smaller, delicate and graceful, was rubbing the side of her face against Tannis’ neck, ruffling their feathers together in what was unmistakable avian affection. Bucky had learned that ruffled feathers needed fixing, which meant allopreening between a couple. Allopreening meant trust, trust enough that a razor sharp beak was allowed near a soft delicate throat. 

Already, Bucky was picking up upon the language of his subjects, now that he had a large sample group to study, and the knowledge given to him by Berry Punch on how to observe the effects of unspoken language. 

Not far from Tannis and Agnetha were Lugnut and Spanner, also close together and clinging to one another affectionately, right in the open now that they had nothing to fear. 

“You know,” Bucky began as he looked around at a number of griffons and ponies around the deck looking at him. “Kings and queens have been getting their needs meet before the common griffon for a long time. How about we look after Lugnut and Spanner first?” he inquired, turning his half opened eye upon Tannis with a meaningful look. 

“I think that’s a splendid idea,” Tannis said, rotating his head around to look at the smaller pair. Tannis, unsure of how to feel about the pair, couldn’t deny that they deserved to be happy, but felt conflicted about the need to repopulate his species. While he said nothing, something about this rubbed him wrong, but he understood the need for personal freedom and that it was more important than any of his own personal opinions. He was determined to make changes and go down in history as a progressive, and there could be no doubt that this was a bold first step, so he silenced any feelings of personal objection from within, because this was something that needed to happen. Outwardly, he remained calm and kept his crest under control. This wasn’t anything to get his feathers ruffled over and he was determined to be a better king than his father. 

“You know,” Agnetha said in a low calm voice. “I cannot help but feel that we are making a mistake here.” 

Immediately, many pairs of eyes were upon Agnetha, some of them silently demanding some kind of explanation, others looked on in fear, and one Tainted eye looked at her while waiting for her to continue. 

“We have a pair bonded couple that are about to be married under our new laws, a social contract to be pair bonded for life. This kind of dedication should be rewarded and celebrated, we are embracing a new way of life as we travel across the ocean to a new land. Pair bonded couples should raise young together. I am not so sure I like the idea of communal nurseries where only one set of opinions are taught to the cubs. We should have cubs raised to believe in other things, to have differing opinions,” Agnetha explained, looking around nervously as she spoke. 

“What are you driving at Agnetha?” Tannis inquired, his wing still held tight around Agnetha as he looked her in the eye. 

“I am saying that if they were open to the idea, we should give them one of the cubs to raise. A young one. Perhaps the youngest one we have, because that is where change will start. The cub will grow up knowing two fathers and see it as something normal. We shouldn’t force it upon them of course, but looking at them right now as I speak, I suspect that they like this idea,” Agnetha answered, her gaze shifting to Lugnut and Spanner. 

“I’d like to make it known that I like this idea,” Bucky announced. 

“I do as well,” Belisama said, sitting beside Bucky upon the deck. 

“We want what everybirdy else wants,” Spanner said, his voice a nervous squeak. 

“We just never thought we’d get it,” Lugnut admitted, shaking his head. 

“Are you agreeable to this course of action?” Agnetha questioned, looking at her subjects, her eyes narrowing as her keen intelligence took over, realising she had a chance at a serious change in societal mores within the reach of her metaphorical talons’ grasp. Agnetha, a keen hunter, realised that her prey was nearly subdued and it was time to strike. “You clearly wish to reap the rewards of change, but are you willing to endure the work required so others might also benefit from these changes?” 

“Of course we’re willing to work so others can be happy,” Lugnut said in reply, his feathers ruffling as he grabbed Spanner and squeezed him closer. “We’re not afraid of hard work. We’ll take as many cubs as you will throw at us,” the griffon stated, his eyes narrowing as he looked up boldly at his queen. 

“Just one will do,” Agnetha responded. “Unless of course you want more than one, but one should do nicely to begin with. Both of you are males. We wouldn’t want you overwhelmed.” 

“You think because we’re two males that were not capable of looking after cubs,” Lugnut sneered, bravely defying his queen. “Spanner… I do believe we are being patronised and our honour questioned,” he said in a low voice to the griffon he was holding. 

His crest rising, Spanner let out an angry avian peep of indignant fury but said nothing. He stared up at Agnetha for several moments and then averted his gaze, staring down at the deck while his chest heaved from heavy breathing. 

Bucky, who realised exactly what was going on, recognised Berry Punch level social manipulation when he saw it, having been the victim of it a few times himself. He smiled lopsidedly and waited for the inevitable outcome of this situation. 

“Agnetha, we should not antagonise our subjects,” Tannis said softly. 

“I’ll not have my honour questioned… I demand satisfaction!” Lugnut growled, fluffing himself out to almost twice his normal size in bold defiance. 

“My apologies,” Agnetha responded. “Two cubs shall be yours, but I must request the two youngest. We want them to learn as much as possible and I know for certain that there are two young impressionable cubs available. Sisters in fact. It will be good to keep them together. It isn’t good to separate twins, it would be an ill omen  as we reestablish our kingdom,” the clever griffoness explained. 

“We accept,” Lugnut grunted, now averting his gaze and staring down at the wooden deck planks. “We’ll show them, won’t we Spanner,” he whispered softly. 

“And both of you are willing to endure a little surgery to have the barbs removed?” Belisama inquired, looking at the pair with curious eyes. 

“I would never want to hurt my mate,” Lugnut replied in a low voice. 

“Me neither,” Spanner answered, lifting his gaze to look at Belisama. “It is very nice to see one of our own caste as queen,” the griffon said amicably to nobirdy in particular. 

“Do either of you have anything to say to one another?” Bucky asked, angling his head down to look at the pair of griffons before him on the deck. “Any special vows?” 

“We’ve said those when we thought we were going to die,” Spanner answered. 

“It meant more during that moment,” Lugnut added. 

“Do both of you promise to be devoted, dutiful, and dedicated to one another?” Bucky inquired, his voice smooth and steady, his tone one of fatherly concern. “You are carrying with you the hopes and dreams of those like you… are you willing to live your lives as an example for those who have the same hopes and dreams that you do?” 

“I’m in for it,” Spanner agreed. 

“Talons-y!” Lugnut exclaimed. 

“Huh?” Bucky grunted, confused. 

“My king, it is an expression from the griffons who live in Fancy with the ponies. It means ‘let’s go’ and it is a common expression shouted at the beginning of an adventure,” Spanner explained. 

“Oh… I see… bad news Spanner, you are marrying an egghead. Hrm, I really hope that doesn’t mean something different to griffons than it does ponies. Did I just screw everything up?” Bucky inquired of the crowd around him. He looked out into the many faces and saw no replies. “Well then, Spanner, you and your egghead are now bound by the law of my authority. There were a lot of words I was supposed to say but I don’t remember them, Keg Smasher was right, it is a lot easier to shout ‘my word is law’ when these situations arise.” 

“We’re married?” Lugnut asked. 

“Yes,” Tannis stated in a gentle voice, trying to emulate Bucky. 

“I will have your cubs brought to you,” Agnetha said, trying not to chuckle. 

“This is simply fabulous,” cultured voice announced in the background just before a flashbulb went off. “Oooh this new camera is a joy to use.” 

“Save your film,” another voice drawled. 

“Oh darling, I have plenty of film, don’t you worry,” the cultured voice responded. 

“Moving on,” Bucky announced. “Tannis and Agnetha, front and center.” 

The pair of young adult griffons both turned their heads to look at Bucky, their eyes wide with excitement. The breeze whipped at their feathers and their tails twitched against each other. 

“Any fancy words? Or Fancy words as the case may be? Talons-y and all that?” Bucky questioned, looking at Tannis and Agnetha. “I know this probably isn’t the royal wedding that both of you hoped for, but things are pretty swanky given the circumstances.” 

“Agnetha, I have no castle, no treasury, no wealth, all I can offer you is myself and my oath that I will be a good king,” Tannis said, craning his head around to look Agnetha in the eye, his crest now fully extended. 

“That is all I ask for,” Agnetha replied in a quiet voice. “I have nothing but my father’s terrible legacy, which I plan to atone for, by being a devoted queen to my subjects and I will do whatever I can to make you happy as my husband. I would like for us to be a living example for our subjects. I had a long speech prepared but I forgot all of it when I looked into your eyes.” 

“Aye, that’ll do it,” Bucky announced. “By right of my authority as one of the kings of the griffon empire, I bind you together in marriage. Do not break this contract lest your honour be forfeit, and might all of our subjects stand in witness of this union... I almost said something about kissing the bride, but that would have made me look incredibly stupid.” 

“As queen, I bless this royal union and I do not oppose this binding… I was supposed to say other things… I can’t remember what they are,” Belisama stammered nervously. “I’m failing in my duties,” she said dejectedly. 

“You said enough,” Bucky remarked as a camera flash went off. “You said what was important, the rest of it is just empty words that sound meaningful.” 

“Thank you,” Belisama murmured, her feathers fluffing out. 

“Dance with me Agnetha,” Tannis demanded as he reared up on his hind legs and pulled Agnetha up with him. He pranced away, pulling Agnetha along with him, his forelegs wrapped around her body, and the griffoness clutched Tannis for balance. 

Bucky watched them dance, glad for their happiness, and was delighted to see that Lugnut and Spanner joined in. Music from Lyra’s lyre suddenly filled the air, a joyful sound that lifted the hearts of all those who heard it. 

“Dance with me Lyra,” Bon Bon begged. 

“I can’t! There are ponies and griffons watching,” Lyra replied, backing away from Bon Bon, trying to escape from Bon Bon’s nefarious scheme to embarrass her. 

Not taking no for an answer, Bon Bon grabbed Lyra, hoisted the unicorn into the air, and went waltzing off with her, Bon Bon bouncing around on her hind legs as she held Lyra in her forelegs, Bon Bon’s hooves thudding heavily into the wooden deck as she pranced. 

“So… anybirdy or anypony else wanting to get hitched?” Bucky inquired, his Taint-filled eye falling upon Rarity as he spoke. 

“Ooh!” Rarity squealed. “I know a couple that needs to be hitched!” 

“Applejack! Stop shoving me! What are you doing?” Twilight demanded as she was pushed in front of Bucky. “What’s going on?!” 

“Sorry Flash, but this is for your own good, I’m going to shove you now, if that’s okay, if you will allow it, if you don’t mind… I’m very sorry,” Fluttershy said as she gently nudged Flash Sentry with one hoof hesitantly. Fluttershy squealed in frantic panic as she poked Flash Sentry several times with her hoof, trying to get him to move. 

Twilight Sparkle felt her blood run cold as ice when she heard Bucky cackle. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 336 (The Weeping Wedding)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Whoa! I don’t know about this… I mean, I’ve thought about this, but Celestia will never approve and I have enough trouble to face when I get home!” Twilight protested as she was shoved forward by Applejack, who was now much smaller than Twilight was. 

“Which is why you need a family with you to help you deal with Celestia,” Applejack retorted as she gave Twilight a hard shove towards Bucky’s makeshift throne, Lyra’s lyre now playing a slightly more ominous tune. 

Twilight stumbled and nearly fell over, scrabbling to stay up on her hooves, her wings flared out to help her keep her balance, her wingspan now nearly twice what it once was. “I dunno about this Applejack! Celestia would never approve!” 

Flash Sentry, still silent, looked around the group, realising he was defeated, and approached Bucky with his head low, letting out a raspy sigh as he accepted his fate, Fluttershy still cringing and prodding him along, letting out pained squeaks with every poke she made. 

“Twilight, this might be your only chance to get married in a manner of your own choosing, away from Princess Celestia and all of the pomp and circumstance that you hate. While I would love a big royal wedding for you, that would not make you happy. Being your friend, I want what is best for you, and this is your chance to be happy,” Rarity said sternly, looking Twilight boldly in the eye. 

“Flash, are you up for this?” Twilight squeaked, realising there was no escaping. 

Nodding, Flash Sentry gave a grunt of consent, his voice still not working very well. 

“Well, I must say, it is a lovely day for a wedding,” Bucky announced. “Being the commander of this ship and being king gives me all of the authority I need to pull this off. Celestia will have no choice but to recognise this union and leave you be. Plus, this deck is the Lunar Court, meaning Celestia would have to petition her sister to even begin to challenge what is about to take place… so… who is up for a marriage?” 

“I suppose I… I… wait, this is what I wanted, why am I so afraid?” Twilight Sparkle stammered, the first hints of anger coming into her voice. 

“Because you have always done what Celestia has wanted you to do without question and now you are doing something YOU want and you know that it might not be what Celestia wants,” Applejack mused, pushing her hat back from her eyes. 

“I… I… I want… I want what I want,” Twilight growled, lifting her head up to her full height and towering over Flash Sentry. For a moment, with the breeze whipping the remains of her mane around her head and neck, even with her still damaged face, she looked incredibly regal, and as she stood tall and proud, the music from Lyra’s lyre went silent. “I love Flash… he protected me. He loves me for who I am, a nerdy bookworm, and not as a princess. I will finally have something I want.” 

“Wait, we’re missing something… be right back, Rainbow Dash has done slipped off. If’n all y’all will pardon me, I has me a pony to go and wrangle,” Applejack drawled as she headed off to the door that led belowdecks. 

“While we are waiting, I’d like to take a moment to appoint Flash Sentry as a hero within the Lunar Court for his defense of the Princess Twilight Sparkle. As Princess Luna’s personal representative and her acknowledged second in command, I hereby grant you the title ‘Sir’ for your noble efforts. It is only right that a princess marry a noble,” Bucky announced, squirming to sit up in his chair, his black cloak spilling around him. 

Flash Sentry gave a snort of acknowledgment and bowed his head. 

“Wait… you… you’re being clever again Bucky… you just placed Flash Sentry under the protection of the Lunar Court by making him a member… any move to challenge this marriage would be a move against the Lunar Court,” Twilight Sparkle stammered nervously, leveling her gaze upon Bucky. 

Cackling ever so softly, Bucky nodded his head, saying nothing, the dreadful purple mist creeping up and out of his hood, completely unaffected by the wind. 

“And as queen, I appoint you as a representative of my court, granting you the title of ‘Ambassador’… and as queen, I approve of this union to strengthen our ties to the various courts of Equestria… did I say everything right my husband?” Belisama said in a halting voice, her announcement ending in a question. 

“Close enough for my purposes,” Bucky responded. “WHERE IS RAINBOW DASH?” he thundered. “We don’t want her missing her best friend’s wedding!” 

“Shall I go with Applejack to fetch her sir?” Ripple inquired, her guard looking eager. 

“No… I think Applejack has it, but I am impatient,” Bucky replied as he turned to look at Ripple. He knew full well the details of the plan and said nothing else, it would not do to spook Twilight Sparkle at this point. 

“I’m really very sorry for poking you repeatedly… I do hope you will forgive me,” Fluttershy said, apologising to Flash Sentry. “But I had to make you cooperate and my friends put me up to this.” 

Smiling a broad toothy smile, Flash turned to look at Fluttershy. He touched her gently with his wing and then ever so gently, nosed her in the neck with his snoot, causing Fluttershy to inhale sharply and run away, her wings fluttering, her cheeks turning bright pink under her sunny yellow pelt. 

“You always know just what to say Flash,” Twilight remarked as Fluttershy giggled off behind Rarity. “I’m scared out of my mind right now. If I faint, just keep going. I’m… I’m willing to go through with this.” 

Applejack burst through the door, rope in her teeth, dragging a hogtied Rainbow Dash behind her on the deck. She dutifully pulled forward, bringing Rainbow Dash with her. 

“I didn’t want ponies to see me cry… I didn’t want to ruin this… my head was hurting and I just wanted to be alone in my cabin,” Rainbow Dash whined as she was pulled over the deck. “I was trying to be a good friend… I gave my word I wouldn’t sabotage Flash Sentry’s efforts to win over Twilight and me crying might make her feel guilty… I didn’t want to be a bad friend, I’ve done enough of that,” the pegasus cried, her words causing her to collapse into sobs. 

Spitting out the rope, Applejack looked down at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “We can’t have you missing your own wedding Dash.” 

“What is going on here?” Twilight demanded, suddenly aware that there was trouble ahoof and she was in the middle of it. She smelled a plot, and she suspected it was Rarity’s. 

“I didn’t do it Twi, I was trying to be good,” Rainbow sobbed. 

“Rainbow Dash here, she loves you Twilight. She’s loved you for a long, long, long time now. But you are too durn thick headed to see that. She’s also developed a bit of a thing for Flash Sentry, but she’s trying to be a good pony and stay out of that because she loves you,” Applejack explained as she gently patted the hogtied pegasus. 

“And as for Flash Sentry, there is no doubt that he has had his eye on Rainbow Dash for a while. Both of them love you Twilight… they were both nearly killed trying to defend you… and I know Rainbow Dash really does love both of you because she has actually been trying to be good. If you sit down and think about it, she’s been giving you plenty of space so you and Flash Sentry could spend time together, and Rainbow Dash hasn’t been at your side trying to drive him away… Rainbow has been a loyal friend at the cost of her own broken heart and feelings,” Rarity said, elucidating upon the situation. “Our brash little pegasus has finally learned to love, and what it means to let go. She wanted your happiness more than her own.” 

Her mouth hanging open, Twilight Sparkle looked down at Rainbow Dash and blinked a few times, trying to take everything in. Using her magic, she undid the rope securing the pegasus’ legs and wings. 

Squeezing her eyes shut, Rainbow Dash refused to look at Twilight Sparkle, her sobs were heartbreaking as her whole body hitched from her weeping. She covered her face with her hooves and lay on her side, her misery evident to all that viewed her. 

Using her magic, Twilight gently lifted Rainbow Dash up and set her gently down upon her hooves, steadying her. She cast a glance at Flash Sentry, trying to figure out his feelings, and saw deep concern in his eyes. 

“What do I do to fix this?” Twilight asked in a raspy voice husky with emotion. 

“You know what needs to be done,” Bucky said in a low voice, leaning forward slightly as his hood fell back from his face. 

“Twilight, Rainbow Dash is your dearest and most trusted companion, your boon friend, and somepony that you trust. Would it be so awful to share a husband with her? Ask yourself my dear… do you think you would be happy?” Rarity questioned, raising her eyebrow at Twilight. 

“I’ve actually thought about Rainbow Dash… in that way… but I didn’t think she was interested in mares… I mean… she’s Rainbow Dash… she’s into racing and sports and-” 

“And she’s into you,” Applejack interrupted, cutting Twilight Sparkle off. 

“Love is special. The more you share it, the more of it there is,” Fluttershy said in a soft voice as she shyly approached Rainbow Dash to comfort her sobbing friend. “Personally, I only see myself loving one other creature, but for the three of you… I see a flock of pegasi waiting to happen. Look into your heart Twilight, and try not to think of Princess Celestia or of yourself as a princess… think about what you want as a pony.”

“Rainbow Dash… would you be willing to share me with Flash Sentry?” Twilight breathlessly inquired, tears now coming out of her own eyes, her four legs visibly quivering, her ears twitching uncontrollably as her emotions took over. “And Flash Sentry, would you be willing to share me with Rainbow Dash?” 

“I can share,” Rainbow Dash replied, wiping her eyes fiercely with one fetlock. “I’m a selfish pony, but I can keep both of you. That’s not sharing… that’s having my cake and eating it too.” 

“Oh gosh, there she goes, being honest,” Applejack grumbled, rolling her green eyes. 

Grunting, Flash nodded as he looked at Twilight, and then he moved over to Rainbow Dash. Extending his wing, he placed his feather tips under Rainbow Dash’s chin to make her look up at him. Unable to say anything, he leaned forward and kissed her softly, a quiet gentle kiss on the snoot that said everything his crushed larynx wouldn’t allow him to say. 

“I don’t know what to say or do here,” Twilight said. “I’ve never made a decision like this on my own. Celestia has always been there to guide me.” 

“Ow, stop shoving, Sentinel,” Spike protested as he was pushed forward. 

“You have a say in this,” Sentinel said to his friend as he continued to shove Spike forward towards Twilight Sparkle. 

Looking at Spike, Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Spike, what do you want?” Twilight asked in a pleading voice filled with uncertainty. 

Freezing in place, Spike clutched his tail nervously and began to tremble. 

“Spike… Sentinel is right… you have a say in this… I can’t do this without you,” Twilight stammered nervously, her eyes locked on Spike. 

“I want... a family Twilight… a family might be nice. If I am not going to be your assistant any more, but your little dragon… then I’d like to have a family and some attempt at being normal,” Spike said in a halting voice full of pauses. 

“A family,” Twilight Sparkle said, closing her eyes. “A family would be nice. Wait… a family, Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed, opening her eyes. 

“What Twilight?” Rainbow Dash sniffled in reply. 

“Your adoption of Scootaloo was blocked because you were deemed too irresponsible to be a single parent,” Twilight stated. 

“Oh thanks for bringing that up right now… kick me while I’m down Twi,” Rainbow Dash cried, more tears now flooding out of her eyes and splashing to the deck. 

Using her magic, Twilight snatched Rainbow Dash and pulled her close and then pulled Flash Sentry to her side. She made a gesture to Spike to come closer, and the little dragon waddled over as fast as his legs could carry him to stand with his mother. 

“We’re going to make a family,” Twilight announced. “And a responsible parent out of Rainbow Dash if it kills us.” 

“Wait, Twilight, what are you saying?” Rainbow Dash asked in a raspy whine. 

Standing tall between Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle raised her head high. “We’re going to make a family, and we have one more member to go home and collect when all of this is over. Derpy told me change begins at home just before we left…” Twilight announced, her words trailing off. “We were talking about changing the world.” 

“Scoots?” Rainbow questioned. 

“Flash, would you mind?” Twilight inquired. 

Looking thoughtful, Flash nosed Twilight on the neck in consent, causing the taller mare to shiver. He smiled and sighed in resignation. 

“We’re going to have a family,” Twilight said again as she looked up at Bucky. 

“Scoots,” Rainbow Dash repeated, now sobbing even more. She fell over onto Spike, who struggled to hold up the wailing pegasus. 

“Bucky, you said the world is changed by examples, not opinions in your speech. Well, you wrote it but Belisama said it… anyway, I want to set an example,” Twilight announced, her cheeks stained with tears. 

“Very well Twilight… I will help you to that end,” Bucky agreed in a soft voice. 

“Am I going to get a sister?” Spike asked. 

“Yes Spike, you are. You’re going to get what you wanted,” Twilight replied, looking around at her friends, all of whom were looking at her with proud expressions. 

“Do the lot of you accept one another?” Bucky asked, looking at the group in front of him. “Do you understand the mortal danger you are placing yourselves into and the sort of fury that is going to come down upon your heads when you get home? Are you willing to face that danger together?” he questioned. 

Nodding, Flash Sentry grunted in reply, pressing himself against Twilight’s side. 

“We pegasi stick together,” Rainbow Dash said in a strangled voice, still being held up by Spike. 

“Twilight?” Bucky inquired, his nostrils flaring. He caught a whiff of fear on the wind. 

“I accept this mortal peril,” Twilight acknowledged, looking at Bucky with wide unblinking eyes, her pupils shrinking with fear. 

“Well then, my word is law… be bound together and never part,” Bucky commanded. “And be forewarned. Celestia’s wing slaps hurt like nothing else. I’d rather be gnawed on by wolves again,” he said a blood curdling voice of warning. 

Twilight blinked as Rarity’s camera flashed several times in a row and it slowly dawned upon her that she was now a married mare. She had done something life changing on her own… without Celestia, without her mother, without her father, she had done this with her friends. She swallowed, tried to speak, and found that her voice was lost. All that came out was a squeak. 

“Aw, that was beautiful,” Applejack muttered, wiping her eyes. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 337
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know, y’all ain’t done yet… there’s still a matter of kissing one another,” Applejack announced, looking over with one narrowed eye at the newly married trio, a broad smile upon her face. 

“How?” Twilight asked, looking panicked. 

“Twilight… ya press yer lips into another ponies lips and suck on ‘em like a pickle,” Applejack explained. “And that works on other places on a pony later in private. Boy howdy does it ever work.” 

Her cheeks turning crimson, Twilight stared at Applejack. “I know how to kiss… but who do I kiss first so somepony doesn’t get upset? There are two of them. If I kiss one first, the other will be upset.” 

“Oh,” Applejack grunted as she shrugged.

“There she goes, making stuff complicated,” Rainbow Dash muttered, rolling her bloodshot eyes. 

“Snoots first, and all three of you press together, meeting in the middle,” Rarity instructed, taking charge. “Just go cautiously, be careful, and for goodness’ sake, don’t be lewd.” 

Rainbow Dash was the first to stick her snoot in, then Flash Sentry, and finally, Twilight Sparkle, seeing their muzzles close to one another, stuck her own muzzle in until her snoot bumped up against the two others already present. She felt an awkward but enthusiastic smooch as she engaged in her very first three way kiss and was painfully aware that everypony and everybirdy was looking at her, and the saw the flashbulb going off again. 

“This is all so very sweet,” Fluttershy stated, looking over her friends with a beaming smile of joy. “I wish Pinkie Pie was here for this.” 

“We’ll have to make it up to Pinkie Pie by allowing her to throw a party once she’s better,” Applejack said, sitting down next to Fluttershy. 

“This really has been a lovely day… after everything that has happened, this day sort of makes up for everything else. Three lovely weddings,” Rarity said with a sigh as she took a seat next to Applejack and Fluttershy, sandwiching Fluttershy between herself and Applejack. 

“Rares, you’re next. What do ya say to dragging Coco onboard this here ship and having a quick simple ceremony on deck?” Applejack questioned. 

Blushing heavily, Rarity gave a soft demure nod. “I think that is a marvelous idea actually and I know Coco would go for it. She is so fond of simple things and earnest endeavours. I miss her terribly,” Rarity replied, wiping at her eyes as her mascara began to run from a few tears that she could not hold back. 

Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy watched as Rainbow Dash, Flash Sentry, and Twilight Sparkle moved off to the bow of the ship to have a somewhat quiet moment with one another, the crowd parting to give them space. 

“That went well,” Fluttershy sighed. “Everypony is happy and nopony was hurt. Poor Rainbow cried the whole time though.” 

“I feel sorry for Rainbow Dash,” Applejack grumbled. 

“Why?” Fluttershy responded in the form of a question. 

“Cause Flash Sentry and Twilight Sparkle are both bigger than she is by far. Little ol’ Rainbow is going to be completely at the mercy of those two when things get physical,” Applejack explained in a low voice. 

“Oh… oh my… um… oh dear… oh poor Rainbow… and she’s always so assertive too… she likes to be in charge,” Fluttershy stammered as Lyra’s lyre began to make a plucky plinky tune. 

“Just imagine what it is like to be poor Bucky,” Rarity mused. “Both Derpy and Berry Punch are physically larger than him. Not taller, but bulkier and more solid by far. He had to be a very brave unicorn to face that situation the first time.” 

“Silver Shill is a lot stronger than he looks. I tried to mare-handle him just once to establish a bit of dominance, and he gave me what for and stallion-handled me right back,” Applejack said with a chuckle. 

“He didn’t hurt you did he?” Fluttershy asked in concern. 

“Aw, naw, he wouldn’t do that… we was wrasslin’ a bit, so it was consensual. I just had me a moment where I tried to be my usual dominating self and Silver Shill wasn’t having none of that. I liked it,” Applejack answered, her eyes narrowing as a broad grin took over her muzzle. “I liked it a lot… nothing wrong with a little friendly competition or a bit of bedroom rodeo.” 

“Everypony is so happy,” Rarity said as she looked around at the various dancing couples. “I can’t wait to be home with the one I love.” 

“Are you going to be okay with Discord after what happened?” Applejack asked of Fluttershy, her deep concern evident upon her face. 

“I’m going to be fine. Nothing happened. Bucky made it stop. I was just a little shook up for a while, but I’m okay, really.” 

“You’re a much stronger mare than other ponies give you credit for,” Rarity mused. “But this is why I count upon you as my dear friend. You tamed the Lord of Chaos. You’ve scolded dragons. I’m still having nightmares where I wake up in cold sweats and you’re just as calm and serene as ever.” 

“I find it is better to focus upon the present rather than torture yourself over what might have been… I know what almost happened. I can still feel it sometimes… the feeling of him on top of me… and it scares me. But I am not going to let what almost happened take a whole future from me of good things that will happen,” Fluttershy explained in a strangely strong and empowered voice. “The present is all that matters. Not the past, nor the future. Discord is teaching me that. I suppose a part of him is rubbing off on me.” 

“Flutters, you’ve changed,” Applejack announced. 

“I have,” Fluttershy agreed. “And for the better. I used to let my worries about the future consume me and I used to allow the pains of my past to continue to hurt me.” 

“I am amazed Fluttershy,” Rarity said as she wrapped a foreleg around her friend for a hug, pulling Fluttershy close. “Discord really has been the very best thing for you. I was so worried, but my mind is at ease now.” 



 

“Are you happy Belisama?” Bucky asked as he pulled the griffoness into his chair with him and stuffed her in beside him. 

Making a surprised peep, Belisama went a little stiff as Bucky pulled her close. “I don’t know. I haven’t stopped to think about it,” she admitted after a moment of thinking. “I suppose I am, but I still grieve for my sister.” 

“I want you happy,” Bucky said as he watched the others make merry. “I have a deep pressing need for that very thing and I will not rest until I know you are satisfied. I love all of my wives a great deal, and fret over their happiness.” 

“You are very kind,” Belisama replied, relaxing into Bucky’s side and resting her head against him, Bucky’s black cloak spilling around her. It wasn’t cold as she expected for it to be, when hung from his neck the cloak was warm and soft, pleasant, almost like being out of doors on a balmy summer night. She snuggled closer and the cloak spilled around her. 

“As my wife, you must never have a slip of the tongue and call me ‘master’ ever again… I will be quite upset,” Bucky said to Belisama in a low voice. 

“Yes my husband,” Belisama returned, allowing her guard to drop a little. 

“You did very well with Flash Sentry and your announcement. Just do as I do. Make this stuff up as you go along and ponies and griffons will somehow get the idea that you know what you are doing and everything will be okay,” Bucky said in a tone of sincere praise. 

“You will make a very memorable king doing that,” Belisama remarked. 

“Are you sassing me?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe just a little,” Belisama admitted. 

“Good,” Bucky stated. 

“You plan everything else so well from what I hear… you plot and build up your treachery like an artist paints, but you just sort of make up everything else as you go along,” Belisama said, trying to understand her husband. 

“I have my moments,” Bucky admitted. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what was Bandua like?” he asked in a soft gentle voice. 

For a moment, Belisama felt her throat painfully close. She took a deep breath and composed herself, pressing herself tightly against Bucky. “Bandua was my twin. I studied alchemy, she studied music. This was when we were young, before Fleshrender took over. Things were bad, but not as bad as they became. As we grew, she taught me music and I taught her alchemy. We were gifted enough that we had a much easier life than most other griffons in the servant caste. We have gifts for skills that were highly prized… or were. Music became unfavourable under the new regime.” 

“So what do you play?” Bucky inquired. 

“I can play the autoharp… which isn’t a harp at all, but a type of zither. And I can play the zither, but I prefer the autoharp,” Belisama answered as she extended her talons and displayed her claws. “These make great pluckers.” 

“If I was to set you up with an alchemy lab, would you be happy?” Bucky questioned. 

“Oh I would indeed… I could make myself useful,” Belisama answered. “But I have fallen out of practice. It has been a while. You really are worried about me being happy.” 

“Of course I’m concerned about you being happy… like I said, I take these things very seriously,” Bucky replied, cocking his head so he could look down at the griffoness in the chair beside him. Feeling brave, he ducked his head down and kissed her on top of her head, causing the little griffoness to fluff out and peer up at him with wide curious green eyes. 

“What was that for?” Belisama asked. 

“I kissed you… it doesn’t have to be for anything,” Bucky said in return. 

“That felt weird,” Belisama said, continuing to fluff out, her crest rising. 

“You… you're overheating a bit… which is why your feathers fluff… you get hot,” Bucky stated, watching Belisama fluff. “Did I make you warm with that little kiss?” 

“No I’m not!” Belisama retorted defensively. “No you didn’t!” 

“Oh I think I did,” Bucky teased as he watched Belisama try and smooth out her feathers and straighten herself out. “How is your leg? Been bothering you?” 

“It hurts… but I am managing,” Belisama murmured in reply, her traitorous feathers fluffing back out as she tried to smooth them down. 

“You really are a beautiful creature,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“You flatter me… but it is not necessary… you have me as a wife and I am yours to do with as you please,” Belisama peeped nervously in reply. 

“Well, it pleases me to flatter you,” Bucky responded, watching Belisama becoming increasingly flustered. He could feel the warmth radiating from the griffoness now and it amused him to no end. 

“The unicorn healer,” Belisama muttered, still trying to calm her protruding plumage as best she could while she spoke as she looked up at Bucky. “She said that I was something you needed, something you were missing, and that I would change the world… what did she mean by that?” 

“Oh my sister loves to be cryptic. I have no idea what she meant by that,” Bucky responded, shaking his head and continuing to gaze into Belisama’s green eyes, Lyra’s music flowing through his ears as ponies and griffons on the deck continued their merrymaking. 

“I’m just a little griffoness… how can I change the world?” Belisama questioned, her tone troubled. 

“I’d say you already have. You delivered my speech for me. You’ve become one of the queens of the griffons. Make no mistake… you are not queen by just title alone, I expect for you to work as part of your position. I’ve talked with Tannis… I know that queens were largely useless and had little power… I’ve learned a lot about the pride structure, but you have a job to do and I will take you to task,” Bucky answered, his tone gentle but commanding. 

“You really mean that, don’t you?” Belisama inquired, her eyes blinking curiously as she leaned on Bucky, her crest half risen. 

“We might be royalty, but we are servants. In time, you will learn just how seriously I take my position, for all my jokes and pranks. I do not rule over others, I serve them. I am their devoted servant, and I work for them. I would give my life for them. I would do anything to help them, and a kingdom is only as good as the least of its servants,” Bucky explained patiently. 

Closing her eyes, Belisama nodded. “I will be a servant with you and our subjects will be our masters.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 338
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It wouldn’t be long until they were home, and then it would be time to face the music for everything. There was a lot to answer for for Bucky. His failure in the griffon empire, his marriage, and he had no doubt, allowing Twilight to get married. Celestia wanted Twilight’s innocence preserved, to keep her a clean approachable public figure. 

Now, married into a herd, Twilight had made a powerful political statement, the very same political statement he had made, and Celestia was certain to have something to say about that. Bucky had no idea what might happen when they were finally home. 

Sighing heavily, Bucky felt the particular pain one feels when they are ashamed of their own home country. After seeing Tradewinds, Equestria felt almost backwards. Herd marriage was common, so common that nopony cared about it and it wasn’t a big deal. Canterberry had even asked how the Equestrians could screw up something as simple as marriage. 

The unicorns of Tradewinds had felt the cosmic decay as well, but they had been dealt with in quite a different fashion, with inquisitorial squads taking out problematic unicorns before they presented any real threat. Magic was highly regulated, very much more so than Equestria, and failure to graduate from the Academy of Sorcery meant death, removing unicorns that could not be safely trusted within society. It had been a grim lesson for Bucky, a lesson he did not know how he felt about just yet. As awful as it was, Tradewinds did not have a unicorn problem. The bad ones either died or fled the city and the Sea of Grass, moving to the Hinterlands or some other lawless place. 

It troubled Bucky that he no longer knew the right thing to do about the unicorn problem. Were dangerous unicorns too dangerous to live? He thought of himself first and foremost, unsure of the answer. 

He also found his mind creeping to a possible resource. Tradewinds had many type threes and skilled magic hunters. The Black Cloaks were almost non existent now, and Equestria’s new allies had a surplus of powerful wizards. Bucky quietly made a note that his new friends might be useful against the mirror travelers. 

“Harper… you’ll be a good unicorn when you grow up, right?” Bucky inquired of his foal who was busy gnawing upon the ear of a big stuffed zebra, a gift from Tradewinds. 

Halting mid-bite to look up at her mama, Harper’s eyes narrowed. “No,” she answered innocently, her muzzle shiny with drool. 

“Aha! I knew it… you admit it! You’re going to be trouble,” Bucky announced. 

“Bucky, have you lost your mind? Again?” Bon Bon asked, lifting her head up from the bed to look at Bucky, who was sprawled on the couch with Harper beside him. 

“Why don’t you just come to bed,” Lyra begged, her voice sleepy. She yawned after she spoke, letting out a soft squeak. She reached out with her magic, placed Harper back in her crib with the stuffed zebra, lifted Bucky, and then dumped him unceremoniously into the bed. 

“Is he like this every night?” Belisama inquired with her eyes still closed. 

“If left to his own devices, yes. He needs Berry and Derpy to wear him out,” Bon Bon muttered, rolling over and pinning Bucky in place under her foreleg. 

“I’m so pent up, I do believe I could wear them out,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Bucky, you can’t even walk hardly right now,” Lyra argued. “You’re as weak as a kitten… ugh why is it when you can’t sleep, nopony else can either?” 

“Somepony aboard this ship is having nookie… and it isn’t me,” Bucky mumbled in frustration. “Do you think Twilight was brave enough to go for the whole take on everypony at once experience?” 

“Oh stars Bucky,” Lyra gasped, covering her ears with her forehooves. 

“Well, they went into Twilight’s cabin and nopony or nobirdy has seen them since. They haven’t come out for a meal or anything… they’re going to dehydrate,” Bucky said, giving voice to his fear. “What if I kept Twilight safe this whole time and something bad happens because she dehydrates?” 

“It is so difficult loving a madpony,” Bon Bon remarked as she gave Bucky a squeeze. 

“This is really awkward,” Belisama peeped. “Can we talk about something else if there must be crazy midnight rantings?” 

“Belisama dear, trust me, sex is a very different experience when you don’t have to worry about penis barbs or being hurt and you love and trust the one you're with,” Bon Bon said in a reassuring voice. 

“Yeah… sex is nice when you love the one you're with and you know they won't hurt you,” Lyra seconded, pressing her face against Bon Bon’s back. 

“Sex!” Harper shouted from her crib. 

“Oh bother… there will be no getting rid of that,” Bon Bon said in exasperation. 

“For some reason I cannot help but feel that somehow, we are responsible,” Bucky announced, pinned under Bon Bon’s affectionate embrace and unable to move. 

“Sex?” Harper said again, this time her inflection one of a curious question. 

“Derpy is going to kill us… we might have lived for the rest of our failures, but this isn’t going to go over well… this will be the very thing that pushes her right over the edge and makes her go all pegasusy on us,” Lyra groaned in a fearful voice.

“I’ll give my body so the rest of you might run,” Bucky offered in a low worried sibilant whisper. 

“So noble Bucky… so noble,” Bon Bon said, giving Bucky another squeeze. 

“I survived angry sex with Berry Punch… I’m thinking I might survive a round with Derpy,” Bucky said, recalling a drunken moment in the laboratory after he had given Derpy a glass pegasus and Berry Punch had screwed the self pity out of him. 

“Sex,” Harper remarked casually. 

Sniggering, Lyra covered her mouth with her hoof and tried not to laugh. 



 

Once again, the time felt off as Bucky watched the dawn. Traveling around the world had caused his internal clock to fail completely, and sleep was even more difficult to achieve than before. Staring out the porthole window, Bucky saw the first rays of gold and pink as the sun dawned behind them. 

“Sun,” Harper announced from her crib. “Harper loves sun.” 

“Very good Harper,” Bucky said in a distracted voice, his stomach rumbling loudly. 

“Want out,” Harper begged. 

“So does mama,” Bucky agreed from where he was still pinned under Bon Bon. 



 

On the deck of The Scorned Mare, Ripple was busy doing her daily wing-ups, pushing herself to the very limits of what she was capable of. Near her, her griffon guards were doing the same, and there was a great deal of grunting, peeping, and growling as the griffons approached various states of exhaustion. 

This morning, Ripple was shooting for two hundred, a nice round number. She led by example, and her guard were motivated to keep up with her. From outside of her field of vision, she heard a peep and a thump of a small body hitting the deck planks. 

“Is that you Private Grunion?” Ripple asked as she approached the one hundred and twenty mark, barely even breathing hard. 

“I’m still going!” Private Grunion cried out in sharp reply, his tone defiant. 

“I’m going to make something out of you Private Grunion… even if it kills you,” Ripple announced as she passed the one hundred and twenty mark. “Every single one of you little hairballs… I’m going to turn into something so beautiful that just looking at you will make dicks hard and make coonts go moist. You’re all going to be somebirdy. You came to me as chicks, but I am going to turn you into the little killers that nature intended for you to be. Now who are you?” 

“Ripple’s Raptors!” the unit cried out in unison. 

“Seems I’m still dealing with chicks… I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that!” Ripple retorted angrily, now approaching one hundred and thirty. “You annoying little dick dribbles better stow your shite and get yourselves presentable for Princess Luna.” 

“RIPPLE’S RAPTORS!” the group barked out together. 

“That’s still piss poor but I guess I have to live with it,” Ripple grunted as she heard another exhausted body go thudding to the deck. “Once I get your wings warmed up, we’re going to have a live combat exercise, and one of you special little feather brains I’m gonna pummel until you’re black and blue while the rest of you beat the crap out of one another,” she announced as she passed the one hundred and thirty mark. 



 

Leaning heavily upon the table for support, Bucky looked over at a red eyed Twilight Sparkle, watching as she scooped cottage cheese onto her plate from a serving bowl and then added tinned pineapple, the pineapple coming from the food stores they had raided from the griffon base. 

“Well, how was the first night of married life?” Bucky inquired, no trace of amusement in his tone, his voice full of concern. 

“Nothing happened,” Twilight Sparkle said blankly. “We held one another in a big pile… and Rainbow and I talked while Flash just sort of grunted or made his feelings known. It… it was really nice actually… it made me feel a lot better.” 

“That’s good. Trust is important,” Bucky said in a low voice so he wouldn’t disturb others who were eating. “Don’t rush things Twilight. Everything will happen in time and believe me, when you do finally get around to things, it will be worth it. But there is no need to rush.” 

“Thanks Bucky… that actually means a lot,” Twilight murmured as she dumped a portion of tinned beans upon her plate. “Rainbow Dash has carried a torch for me for a long time. Ever since we watched Berry Punch kick your mother in the foal hole.” 

“So I take it she was finally honest about everything,” Bucky responded, leaning on his right foreleg and struggling to sit up. 

“She was so relieved to finally let it out… she did nothing but cry all night. We all did actually. Not just about mixed signals, but everything that happened. I’ve never been magically helpless before… it bothers me. Magic is what I am… whatever that goop was, it completely nullified me and left me helpless... Flash Sentry nearly died and would have if Sentinel hadn’t done what he did… and poor Rainbow… she’s a fast pegasus, not a strong pegasus… she was no match for that many griffons but that didn’t stop her from trying,” Twilight said in a halting reply. 

“So I take it that the healing has begun,” Bucky said, looking at Twilight Sparkle in concern, his swollen ears sticking out at odd angles. 

“Yeah Bucky… I think it has actually. Rainbow Dash said she finally felt safe last night and then she really cried… those really big sobs that completely take over your whole body,” Twilight answered, looking down at her food dully. “I hope you know what I mean.” 

Bucky nodded weakly, thinking back to how Celestia had wept, how she had held him after the trial, letting the grief and the poison out, and how she had been completely incapacitated by her grief. 

“If you wouldn’t have woke up at the moment that you did… I don’t even like to think about it,” Twilight said with a visible shudder that shook her whole body. “Part of me still feels so numb inside.” 

“Twilight… please, listen to me carefully… you must reclaim that part of yourself. If it stays numb for too long… a little important part of you dies… trust me,” Bucky warned. “Find some way to make yourself feel again, even if it hurts and you don’t think you can bear it… you have Flash and Rainbow now… they can get you through it.” 

“I’ll take that into consideration,” Twilight replied as she stuffed a spoonful of beans into her mouth. 

“Look, it might be difficult to talk about, but I know my sisters talked to you. I’m dying to know what was said,” Bucky said in a very low voice as he changed the subject. 

“I am aware of certain things now… I still need time to take everything in and figure out what I believe. I was told to ask you… how can we free Celestia? They said that you would know what I meant when I said it,” Twilight Sparkle responded after she swallowed. 

His whole body trembling, Bucky tried to take in Twilight’s words and had difficulty. 

“They said they want their sisters back… that there is a dark time coming where the world will need the might of five alicorn sisters,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking confused. 

“Twilight… you know how you are about your parents? And how you live in fear of your father raising his eyebrow? Well… both you and Celestia have something in common… she is afraid of disappointing the one she calls her parent,” Bucky explained, shocked that the words came out so smoothly. “And I don’t know that we can free her.” 

“Bucky… I know what the alicorn of war does now… I mean, I sort of knew before, because we’ve talked a little, but I believe you now… I really hope that five alicorn sisters aren’t needed to stop you… you’re my friend and I owe you so much… it pains me to think that one day, you could potentially end everything there is,” Twilight whispered in a dry raspy voice filled with fear, one ear twitching alarmingly. 

“I will never allow that to happen,” Bucky grunted in a surprisingly forceful voice. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 339
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nearly overwhelmed with curiousity, Twilight watched Bucky work, assisted by Lyra and Belisama. He was doing something with guns and magic, and she had no idea what it was, but she sensed strong deep magic all around her, which is what had brought her to the deck in the first place. She stood in the midmorning sun, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. 

She approached cautiously, not wanting to disturb Bucky or endanger herself. 

“Greetings Twilight… come to investigate?” Bucky inquired from his chair where he sat wrapped in his cloak. 

Nodding, Twilight tried to peer under Bucky’s hood. For a moment, she thought she saw a skull and she shivered, the chill wind in the air intensifying the shuddery sensation. “What are you up to?” 

“Solving the gunpowder crisis,” Bucky replied as he looked up at Twilight. “Tell me Twilight, what do you know of my prefered weapon, the humble spell jar?” 

Her mind shifting to a more analytical mode, Twilight immediately brought up all of the relevant data she knew. “Enchanted glass. Ultra-efficient means of magical storage. Your prefered method of spell delivery as a magical combatant so you don’t get tired during prolonged engagements. Deemed safe by any standard after I gave them a thorough examination. The glass won’t break and release the spell except for extraordinary circumstances. The orbs are safe to use around innocents and non combatants. Purpose driven enchantments and transmutations, specifically targeting only those who have hostile intentions, triggered by exceptionally powerful mental detections that are only available to grandmaster level enchanters, in this instance, you, as you are probably the most skilled non alicorn enchanter alive. The chances of an innocent being harmed by one of your spell jars is practically nil, which is why I will enthusiastically recommend them to Celestia and Luna as part of our new defense initiative,” Twilight recited, offering up what she felt was a brief summary of relevant information about Bucky’s spell jars. 

“Bucky works very hard on purpose driven magic,” Lyra said, turning around and looking at Twilight with a proud gleam in her eye. “He’s pioneering a whole new field of magical study… nopony has ever refined purpose driven magic as much as he has, even Celestia and Luna have largely ignored this aspect of enchantment.” 

“I concur,” Twilight agreed with a soft nod. “As magical studies go, it has largely been ignored.” 

“I am going to render all gunpowder non-hostile,” Bucky announced casually. 

“How?” Twilight inquired. “I mean, I know you have golems planned… I know you have something already ready to go… but what?” 

“The first phase of the plan is to give the public a good scare. Make a couple of twenty foot tall multi-ton glass golems, fill them with fire, get photographs of them, and get those in the paper. Let the public see what they think they will be dealing with. Scare them into surrendering,” Bucky replied in a low calm voice.

“Okay, I get that, but that doesn’t fix the problem… what do you have in mind?” Twilight questioned, sitting down upon her haunches and making herself comfortable. 

“My plan is to make more spell jars and affix to them small arcano-tech motors… with propellers. Simple mechanical golems. Small. Efficient. They will draw power from the ley lines and fly all over the globe autonomously, seeking out gunpowder. When they find it, they will detonate and contaminate the gunpowder with a transmutation spell I am still refining,” Bucky explained patiently, making a gesture with his stump. 

“And that will make the gunpowder useless?” Twilight asked, her eyes narrowing in concentration. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “Gunpowder gets used in other applications, like fireworks and mining. Blast powder. What this will do will make the gunpowder enchanted, so it is purpose driven like my spell jars. If any kind of hostile intent is detected, the transmutation takes place and something truly magical happens.” 

“What exactly?” Twilight inquired, peering at Bucky curiously. 

“Belisama, gun please,” Bucky instructed. He waited as Belisama loaded Fleshrender’s rifle with fresh shells and then took the gun when she was finished. Looking at Twilight, he allowed his hood to fall back from his face. “I want you to shoot me,” he commanded. 

“NO!” Twilight protested, rising up on her hooves and backing away. 

“Twilight, come on… trust me. Belisama and Lyra have both already taken potshots and everything is okay,” Bucky said reassuringly. “I refuse to move forward with any sort of magical alteration unless I personally know that it is safe and I test it upon myself first.” 

“That’s dangerous!” Twilight retorted, still stunned by Bucky’s request. 

“Fine,” Bucky muttered. “Belisama, shoot me!” he commanded, handing the griffoness the rifle using his telekinesis. 

“This is bad!” Twilight cried in panic. 

Raising the rifle to her shoulder, Belisama took aim. 

“Aim for the head… just in case there is an accident,” Bucky ghoulishly suggested, an insane rictus spreading over his muzzle. 

“I can’t look!” Twilight squealed as she squinted at Bucky. She heard an ominous click and a loud “CRACK!” rang out. Twilight screamed bloody murder as Bucky was pelted in the face by a giant snowball. 

“Gah! That’s chilly… it went up my nose!” Bucky shouted, shaking the snow from his face with a feeble nod of his head. 

“How?” Twilight asked in a low voice of utter awe. 

“Earlier I got butterflies to come out of the gun,” Lyra reported. 

“Butterflies, snowballs, confetti and streamers, and there was the anomaly,” Bucky announced in a disgusted tone of voice. 

“An anomaly?” Twilight inquired. 

“Dung of unknown origin,” Belisama replied, clicking the safety on the rifle and then setting it down. “Thankfully that hit a floating spell target.” 

“The flying spell jars will transmute the gunpowder into a humorously non lethal spell that also changes any projectiles such as bullets or shrapnel. The world will find that attempting to go to war using gunpowder will be quite hilarious,” Bucky said, a cackle creeping into his voice. 

“This is amazing… Bucky… I don’t even know where to begin,” Twilight stammered. 

“You can begin by helping me! I can’t do this by myself. I am going to need thousands of tiny arcano-tech motors and propellers. I am going to attempt to automate this process as much as possible, and I don’t know how to do that… so I am going to need all the help I can get if I am to pull this little prank off successfully,” Bucky said, peering at Twilight intently. 

“You’ll have the full backing of the Bureau of Thaumaturgy and I know that Princess Luna will gladly kick in funding from the defense budget… so these little flying golems will fly around, hunt down gunpowder through magical tracking, detonate, release the spell, contaminate the source of the gunpowder, and then if it is used in a hostile fashion, will render it completely harmless?” Twilight responded. 

“That is the general idea… if everything goes as well as I hope it does. In time, this will simply end guns as a threat against sapient lifeforms. If they want to kill each other, they’re going to have to do it the hard way,” Bucky said as he pulled his cloak tighter around him. 

“Bucky, as your friend, I must beg of you to never point a gun at yourself ever again or have somepony or somebirdy else do it either… I know you believe in product testing, but I couldn’t bear to see you hurt again,” Twilight requested. 

“I refuse to use magical ordinance unless I know that it is safe,” Bucky retorted, punctuating his words with a snort. “And it isn’t safe unless I test it upon myself. I stand behind everything I create and trust my own life to my creations.” 

“You’re a madpony,” Twilight grumbled. 

“Ponies keep saying that… I’ve never tried to deny it!” 



 

Stepping out into the late afternoon sun, Lugus carefully moved his immense bulk through the door and immediately saw a scene of carnage upon the deck. In the middle of it all was his squire, Ripple, who was preening her wings casually. All around her were eleven griffons sprawled out in various states of misery. There was some blood on the deck, and the griffons bore signs of furious bloody combat. Eyes were swollen shut. Feathers were ruffled and bloody. There were loose feathers stuck to the blood drying on the deck. 

“Squire Ripple… what has happened here?” Lugus demanded, moving towards the group slowly, his side clenching up in pain with each step. 

“Sir, we had a live combat exercise and there was a fracas, sir,” Ripple reported, snapping to attention when she heard Lugus’ voice. 

“A fracas?” Lugus inquired as he eased his bulk down to the deck and sat down upon his haunches. 

“Sir, Cornet Sentinel called it a fracas, sir,” a griffoness reported. 

“Sir, I think fracas is a fancy word for scuffle, sir,” a griffon said as it rolled over, clutching his side as he did so. 

“Sir, there was a combat exercise and everything was going splendidly sir, that is until Loki picked up another griffon then used Callum as a weapon against Freyja. After that, things got out of talon, sir,” a griffon explained. 

“Thank you Private Grunion,” Ripple barked. 

“Ugh,” Grunion groaned, rolling over and laying on his stomach as he clutched his head, one of his eyes completely swollen shut. 

Trying desperately to hide that he found this whole scene hilarious, Lugus attempted to stuff his feelings deep down inside so he could remain serious for this unit inspection. “So Private Loki picked up and used Private Callum against Private Freyja?” 

“Sir, that is what started the fracas, sir,” Ripple replied, still standing as stiff as a statue, her expression stony. 

“This is why the servant griffons have never been trained for service,” Lugus said in a stern voice, still trying to stifle the need to laugh, partially because the situation demanded seriousness, and mostly because it would hurt his side too much. “Private Callum, report.” 

“Sir, I have a headache, sir,” Callum reported as he struggled to sit up and then fell over, his head thudding against the deck, which caused him to let out a pained peep. 

“Private Loki?” Lugus inquired. 

“Sir, permission to die, sir,” Loki replied, clutching his groin. 

“Denied,” Lugus said through a clenched beak, now feeling a laugh tearing around his insides and trying to escape. “Somebirdy has sustained a groin injury.” 

“Sir, I fight to win, sir,” Freyja grunted as she attempted to sit up, both of her eyes swollen shut and blood crusting over her feathers. She rose to a sitting position with great effort and then feebly raised a wing in salute. 

“Freyja, everybirdy knows you are sweet on Callum,” a griffoness groaned as she flexed her wing and tried to work a kink out. 

“Shut up you dirty little spy!” Freyja snapped. “Always sticking your beak into somebirdy elses’ business Kiara!” 

“We’ve all seen you preening him,” another griffoness grunted as she sat up and looked at Lugus. Her white feathers were stained with blood and only one pink eye was visible. 

“Shut up Branwen, you freak albino,” Freyja snarled. 

“Silence, all of you,” Ripple barked, causing the group to fall silent. 

“I am not impressed,” Lugus announced in a grim sounding voice. “Stand up and present yourself, I need to know what I am working with so I can help Ripple whip you into shape,” he commanded, glaring down at the much smaller griffons with a stern eye. 

“Sir, I am Grunion, sir,” Grunion said as he tried to get up and failed. He flopped back down with a painful “thud!” onto the wooden deck. 

“Sir, Private Loki, sir,” Loki said as he struggled to all fours, his hind legs shockingly bowlegged and his tail curled up beneath his belly. His scrotum was visibly swollen to twice its normal size and he moved gingerly, trying to not let anything bounce. 

“They call me Gofannon,” a griffon who made no attempt to move said in a low groan. 

“Sir, I am known as Angus, sir,” a griffon reported, rising up  and sitting on his haunches and feebly extending a sore wing in salute. 

“Sir, I’m Shaquah,” a griffoness announced, making no attempt to sit up, remaining on her back. “Why is there so many Cornet Ripples?” she inquired. 

“Kiara,” a black crow-like griffoness said, her lithe black body remaining still. 

The albino griffoness extended a wing. “Sir, I am Branwen, sir,” she said, sounding off in a pained wheeze. 

A remarkably fat looking griffon rolled over onto all fours and stood on wobbling legs as he looked up at Lugus, who towered over him. “Call me Flench.” 

Still sitting and making no effort to stand, Freyja, unable to see, cocked her head to where she had heard Lugus speak. “I am Freyja, slave to  nobirdy no more.” 

“Sir, I am Brigid,” a skinny long bodied griffoness announced as she lay on her back, clutching a somewhat bloodied foreleg to her chest. 

Realising he was last, a final griffon made a startled peep as he clutched his head in agony. “Sir, Callum, sir,” he reported, his crest rising and falling as he spoke. 

“You call yourselves raptors… all I see are chickens,” Lugus sneered. “Squire Ripple… I do believe you have gone too soft on these doves. We need hawks and eagles… not ducks and geese. Beat them into shape as I have done you and show no mercy,” Lugus commanded, still trying not to laugh. 

“Sir, with pleasure, sir,” Ripple snapped. 
	
> Chapter 340 (Homecoming) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As it neared midnight, Bucky realised that they would arrive in Canterlot by noon. The past few days of flight were largely uneventful, a quiet reflective time where everyone had spent a lot of time thinking about everything that had taken place. Bucky, having recovered enough of his mobility to hobble around again, was now free to roam the ship at night, stumbling down the halls clumsily looking for some means to pass the time. 

He made his way into the large common room and dining area of The Scorned Mare and as he stepped through the door, many small avian heads turned to look at him, little eyes filled with outright adoration peering at him intently as he entered. 

Quickly sizing up the room, his own gaze fell upon a group of griffons he was glad to see. He smiled, lurched forward unsteadily, and after a few shaky steps, sat down upon his haunches beside them on the floor, where two cubs played together on a blanket. 

“Lugnut… Spanner… how goes fatherhood?” Bucky inquired. 

Spanner, looking proud, looked at Bucky for a whole minute before averting his gaze and staring at the floor. “I think they like us… the first day was difficult but now they are trusting us.” 

Both cubs turned to look at Bucky, the slightly larger one peeping at him curiously, her eyes wide and somewhat fearful. The smaller one buried her face into the chest of her larger sister and tried to hide, causing Bucky to inhale sharply as he watched the emotion evoking sight. 

“Have you named them?” Bucky questioned, his eye never leaving the cubs. 

“They work together and are very close. We’ve named them Sprocket and Cog,” Lugnut answered as he reached out and touched his mate affectionately. “Magpie the nanny has been most helpful, but I don’t think she likes us.” 

“It will take time,” Bucky sighed, shaking his head slightly. “I remember you two… I remember that… I remember that day in the nursery,” he said in a shuddering voice, strong emotion overtaking him as he spoke. 

“My king? You don’t look well… are you alright? Should we fetch one of your wives?” Spanner questioned, worry evident in his eyes and his raised crest. 

“I… had to do something terrible… I had no other choice… I… I… I didn’t want to do it… but what they had done… what they did… it wasn’t their fault… they were made to do it, but that didn’t change the fact that they killed and consumed so willingly… they were so young… I looked each one in the eye and apologised as I put them down… I made it painless… I tried to make it-” Bucky paused, shaking his head, he felt a pair of talons holding his front leg, gently pressing down upon him, a soft touch. He looked down and saw Lugnut trying to comfort him. 

“Forgive me my king… but you looked distressed,” Lugnut said as he pulled his talons away and averted his eyes. 

“I still see their faces,” Bucky admitted. “I paralysed them all so they wouldn’t run. I had to make them stop screaming… I couldn’t bear it… they knew what was coming but couldn’t run from it or escape it… I could smell their fear.” 

With a pained look in his eyes, Lugnut slumped down, his eyes closing. “You did what needed to be done my king,” he said in a soft whisper as more little griffons and griffonesses crowded around Bucky. 

“None of us hate you for what you did,” Spanner said, his eyes darting up to look at Bucky for a moment. “We know what happened. We’ve all talked about it and word has spread. What you did was mercy. Eating things that talk makes you mad… makes you have thought-sickness and you want to eat even more things that talk… some sort of horrible compulsion.” 

“Some of the bigger griffons thought it made them strong,” a griffoness said, looking grief stricken as she spoke. “It made them fearless and made them want to kill. It made them fierce. Only a coward or a dove would reject becoming fearless and fierce.” 

“I’ve never seen a king cry before,” a young griffoness said as she reached out and grabbed onto her friend beside her. “I don’t know how to feel.” 

“I’m sorry… you probably shouldn’t see me like this,” Bucky apologised. “I don’t know what came over me.” 

“It’s nice to know that you have feelings for us,” a griffon said, cautiously approaching Bucky and sitting down just a short distance away. 

“It is only right to feel bad about what happened, but it needed to be done,” a griffoness said as she too, moved closer. 

With a grunt, Bucky flopped down upon the blanket near Sprocket and Cog, his head coming to rest near the two small cubs, both of whom peered at him curiously as he laid there miserably. The larger, brave and far more curious, pushed her sibling back and cautiously approached Bucky, which made the griffons gathered around gasp and make surprised peeps. 

Extending her talons, the griffon cub touched Bucky on the nose, she then moved closer, and with a slow careful wave, tried to fan away the purple mist drifting from his eye. 

“Sprocket is very brave,” Lugnut whispered. 

“I don’t think there is anything for her to be afraid of,” a griffoness stated. “We are in no danger from our kings.” 

“No… no do not touch his bandages,” Spanner said, keeping an eye on his cub, reaching out to push her talons away from the white gauze around Bucky’s scalp. 

“How old are they?” Bucky asked. 

“Nanny Magpie says they are almost six months. Born in early spring. They are little hoot owls, they like being awake all night,” Lugnut replied as he watched Sprocket touch Bucky’s horn and jerk her talons back in shock. 

“Cold!” Sprocket chirped, pressing her talons into her fuzzy pelt to get warm. 

“Yes,” Bucky responded. “My horn is always cold. It leaches heat from the surrounding environment.” 

Cog, joining her sister, clutched her sister’s foreleg in her talons and stared at Bucky up close, her curiousity evident in her wide unblinking stare. 

“It has been a long time for any of us to have willingly trusted our young around one of our kings,” an older griffoness said in a quavering voice. “Fleshrender would drag those not loyal to him, or not loyal enough to him, and devour their young before them… he was a terrible king.” 

“Which is why I killed him. Slowly, and in much pain, without mercy,” Bucky said in a pained reply, his voice thick with emotion. He felt a tickle as one of the cubs grabbed a talonful of his mane, gave a tug, and climbed up onto his withers to sit on his back. “We are going to be in Canterlot soon… it won’t be long now. All of you will have a new home and you will not need to live in fear. You will be free to come and go as you please. I still need a dedicated army of griffons for my plans, but none of you are required to stay with me. There are griffons in Equestria that I know will help you get settled,” he announced as the second cub began to climb up beside her sister. “Your lives are your own.” 



 

In the early morning sun, the distant floating fortress class airship was impressive. Over two hundred feet in length and bristling with electro-cannons. It drifted slowly through the clouds and approached The Scorned Mare. The massive vessel was blue steel with a black gasbag. On the side of the gasbag was a crescent moon and one single pegasus wing extending from the inside curve. 

“We have incoming!” Ripple shouted, peering off into the sky. “Alicorns incoming!” 

“Oh nuts… they came to greet us,” Bucky grumbled, leaning back into his chair, the exhaustion of the long night suddenly hitting him like a runaway wagon. 

“Clear the main deck!” Ripple barked, her sharp command sending griffons scurrying off of the main deck and up the stairs, where they huddled around Bucky on the poop deck. “Sun and Moon incoming! Raptors, if you disappoint me, I will beat you like a drum!” 

“Oh shite are those Myrmidons?” Bucky swore, leaning forward slightly in his chair. “Somebody go find Twilight Sparkle and get her on deck! Fetch Tannis and Agnetha too!” 

Princess Luna came in first, being a faster flier than her sister. She landed upon the deck gracefully, folding in her wings while still in the air and then landing on her hooves with a fluid motion, immediately trotting towards Bucky and not wasting any time.

She paused as came up the stairs when she saw the griffons around Bucky’s chair. Behind her, Celestia and the Myrmidons were landing. Smiling, Princess Luna bowed her head slightly to the griffons as she stood there trying to take in the sight of the griffons and their king. 

“Permission to approach your king,” Luna said politely, looking around at the griffons, all of whom scattered when she spoke, scampering and scurrying away. Now frowning, Luna sighed. This was not the first meeting she had hoped for. Moving swiftly, she approached Bucky, wasting no time. The Night Princess immediately recognised the cloak and knew its origin, but said nothing as she pulled back the hood to look at Bucky, scowling when she saw the bandages. 

“It seems the king was crowned,” Luna said angrily, the smell of ozone filling the air. “Are you okay Buckminster? I have been worried sick!” 

“Hi Luna,” Bucky said casually, somewhat uncomfortable that Luna’s face was less than an inch from his own, and he saw her teal eyes blazing with an irate fury that he hoped was not directed at him. 

“I am certain you must have your reasons for not contacting us, but my sister and I have both been worried sick. We have read the news reports. Are you okay?” Luna said in a shockingly loud voice that made Bucky’s ears ring. 

“I’m okay,” Bucky said softly as Luna kissed one cheek and then the other. 

“That cloak!” 

“Later sister, now is not the time,” Luna said when she heard Celestia’s words. 

“Buckminster, how are you feeling? Where is Twilight? Is Twilight okay? I do not see Twilight… where is she?” Celestia inquired frantically as she approached Bucky. 

Unable to stop himself, Bucky began to laugh a bit, a laugh that was dangerously close to a cackle, as he realised that there was so much to explain. Unable to hold back, the laugh became a bit of a guffaw, and Bucky struggled to pull himself together under Celestia’s withering gaze. 

“So many griffons…” Luna murmured, looking around the deck. “Hello!” she greeted, ignoring Bucky’s chuckles. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen any of the little griffons… they are so adorable!” Luna crowed.

“Luna… sister, contain yourself,” Celestia said sternly. “Buckminster, if you are done laughing about whatever it is you find so funny, I would really like for you to begin explaining what has been going on and why Luna is obligated to send a battleship to assist the Sea of Grass fleet.” 

“I’ve been wanting to send out battleships to do something,” Luna huffed, turning around to face her sister. “We have them, we should use them!” 

“Luna, now is not the time,” Celestia said patiently. 

“Oh, now is the time,” Bucky stated, looking up at Celestia. “Twilight and I have completed our diplomatic mission and the Sea of Grass is finally recognised as our equals. Now that House Avarice is out of the way, true equality between our two nations has been achieved. We are now obligated to protect each other’s interests, and I would expect the Tri-Empire alliance to be growing soon.” 

“Tri-Empire?” Celestia inquired, a confused expression. 

“Equestria, Sea of Grass, and the griffon empire,” Bucky explained. 

“Yes… there is much to talk about concerning that,” Celestia responded, taking a deep breath. “I must say I am actually quite pleased with how that turned out, it made my breakfast memorable reading that in the newspaper. At least something can be salvaged from whatever it was that happened over there.” 

“I can’t tell if you are being serious or sarcastic,” Bucky remarked, looking Celestia in the eye, a scowl spreading over his muzzle. 

“No, Buckminster… I was being serious. If the griffons must have a king, I would rather it be you… I hope you didn’t give them too much trouble during your coronation,” Celestia responded in a solemn voice. “I know how you feel about rule and it brings me comfort to know that the griffons will finally know a kind monarch.” 

“Princess Celestia…” 

Turning sharply, Celestia saw Twilight and her heart immediately lept up into her throat. She saw the missing section of mane, the half healed blisters and scarring, and she saw just how much taller Twilight now was, noting that she was the size of Luna. “My most faithful student… Twilight,” Celestia breathed in an barely audible utterance. “Twilight, how are you? Are you okay?” 

“I got married…” 
	
	
> Chapter 341
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Taking a big deep breath, the large white alicorn endured one of the most trying moments of the past five centuries and she felt the corner of her eye begin to twitch and spasm as she stared at her most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Celestia struggled to contain herself, drawing in another deep breath and suddenly feeling quite faint. 

“This is most joyous news!” Luna bellowed, moving now from Bucky to Twilight, a broad smile upon her muzzle, her bright white teeth standing out in sharp contrast to her midnight blue pelt. “Please tell me that Princess Cadance and your brother Shining Armor’s plan worked out favourably,” the Night Princess begged excitedly. “Or did Bucky have you marry a griffon to cement his alliances? It was certainly within his right to do so, being a male he has every right to marry off his cousin for the purposes of diplomacy.” 

“LUNA!” Celestia snapped during the middle of a sharp intake of breath, her breathing becoming increasingly strained. 

“What?” Twilight responded, looking confused, first at Luna, then at Bucky, then at the griffons who had fled and were all waiting quite some distance away. “No! I didn’t marry a griffon… I married Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash!” she hastily explained. 

“So Cadance and Shining Armor’s plan did… wait a moment… Rainbow Dash?” Luna said, interrupting herself and then standing still in shock. 

“I married two of my best friends, but not all of my best friends,” Twilight said, grinning sheepishly. “I made a very adult decision all on my own.” 

There was suddenly a very loud thud that made everypony and everybirdy stop what they were doing and stare. Sprawled out upon the decks, Princess Celestia lay limp, her large white form unmoving. 

“Please… somepony see that she is okay,” Bucky said with genuine concern in his voice, no sarcasm or snideness present as he leaned forward slightly in his chair. “She kept taking deep breaths until she started to hyperventilate.” 

Princess Luna, lifting her sister in a midnight blue glow, peered around the deck and gave a smile. “We should probably get her someplace comfortable below and continue talking down there. This has ceased to be a simple welcome and I fear this will become a family quarrel.” 

“I agree,” Bucky said, slipping from his chair and raising himself up on three wobbling legs, his cloak shifting and moving around him to cover him. Wrapped in the dark black expanse, he felt stronger out and away from the direct sunlight. “My bed is the only bed large enough down below… I am almost certain that Lugus is in his bed at the moment because he was feeling poorly earlier.” 

“Buckminster, we will be needing a lift home… the ship you see is departing for the Shetlands and the Minnowrock Isles. One battleship and one hundred very eager Myrmidons, all of whom want to thank you for giving them something interesting to do on vacation,” Luna stated as she moved down the stairs and towards the door that led belowdecks. She paused as she drew near Ripple and eleven griffons, all of whom saluted her smartly. Each of the griffons bore the unmistakable marks of extreme violence, eyes swollen shut, scratches, lumps, bumps, and bruises. She flipped out her own wing in salute just before she slipped through the door and into the depths of the ship. 



 

Cradling Harper in her forelegs, Luna sprawled out on the bed near her sister, glad to be holding her goddaughter. She had tried to take in everything Buckminster and Twilight had said, but it was far too much to take in all at once. She looked at Bucky, who was sprawled on the couch, and then at Twilight, who was sitting upon the floor. 

“I can’t believe I fainted,” Celestia murmured, rolling over and pressing up against Luna for comfort. Celestia was unsure of where to even begin after being told everything. “Twilight… I am very happy for you, but this isn’t what I expected.” 

“There is still a lot to sort out. My marriage is the least of our concerns,” Twilight said, sensing some lingering concerns on Celestia’s part in this whole issue. 

“First things first… Buckminster, you must never use my sun as a weapon ever again,” Celestia said gently, her eyes closed, her brain thudding behind her horn in a fierce headache. 

“Um, Celestia, that wasn’t Bucky,” Twilight Sparkle interjected in a cautious voice. 

“What?” Celestia inquired, her eyes suddenly snapping open. 

“I did that. While Bucky could, he has the right bloodline, it was me who called down the solar flares,” Twilight explained, suddenly feeling quite afraid. 

“We cannot let this get out,” Celestia said in alarm. “How many ponies know about this? We need to make sure to protect your public image.” 

“Only a few know and they are trustworthy,” Twilight Sparkle said in reply. “Bucky told me to say nothing about the details.” 

“Oh thank you Buckminster… Twilight, we cannot have your public image sullied… you do not know what it is like to have the world fear you… it took me almost a thousand years just to have the world trust me again after what happened with Luna and Nightmare Moon. We cannot have this getting out… I… I will take the blame for this and make it known that I did it… you are far too much a valuable diplomatic asset to allow your image to be tarnished,” Celestia stammered, a pained expression spreading over her face when she mentioned Luna. 

“No,” Bucky protested. “No, I do not agree… if you are just now gaining back the world’s trust after Luna’s fall, we cannot have you fall out of favour. That will hurt my plans too much,” he added, glaring fiercely at Celestia. 

“Well, who then? Me?” Luna questioned. “I suppose I can take the blame. Nopony likes me anyway and that is never going to change it seems.” 

“No,” Bucky answered. “Me.”

“NO!” Twilight shouted, causing Celestia to flinch in pain. “No… you’ve suffered enough! No Bucky… I won’t allow this!” 

“Silence Twilight, this goes beyond either of us. The world has to be able to trust alicorns, including you, and not cower in fear of their destructive power. We want the world to come together in a spirit of trust, not cower in fear… one more act of villainy on my part… Celestia can be made to look like the hero for scolding me publicly and yanking back on my chain like the vicious dog I am,” Bucky explained patiently. 

“Buckminster, it pains me that you understand this all too well and are willing to suffer for it,” Luna said in a voice thick with emotion, her eyes glancing first at her sister and then down at Harper. 

“I don’t want this,” Twilight cried, the first tears beginning to fall, and there had been far too many tears as of late. 

“It was this lack of trust that forced you to stand down as House Avarice bound the world in an iron grip, isn’t it?” Bucky asked, looking at Celestia. 

“Yes Buckminster, it was,” Celestia replied, nodding her head softly. “Ponies… the world… they were all so terrified after what Luna did… realising I could end all life on the planet. I had to secure myself inside Canterlot and hide myself away. I had to stop using my magic to perform great miracles, because when things are that afraid of you, those miracles only serve as a reminder that you can also perform terrific disasters. I had no choice to but to step into the background and act as meek and powerless as possible to earn the world’s trust again.” 

“We cannot have that happen to Twilight,” Luna stated. “I am still greatly feared, ponies love my sister but the world still has trust issues, so it falls upon you and Cadance to be our public faces,” the Night Princess explained to Twilight Sparkle. 

“So it falls upon me to take this upon my shoulders… I will take responsibility for the utter annihilation of Griffonholm. I’ll need to be publicly condemned of course, we can’t have the public thinking for one second that you approve of what I have done,” Bucky said, looking around the room and trying to form a plan. 

“This is the most awful thing I’ve ever heard… this is going to be Bucky put on trial all over again… I won’t allow that,” Twilight said in a soft voice, her barrel hitching as she tried to choke back her sobs. “You… you wanted him to ascend. You put him up to this, didn’t you? You sent me and my friends over to Griffonholm and put us in danger so he’d become enraged and sprout wings… and now all of this is happening. If you only understood what the alic-” Twilight was suddenly cut off by a powerful fit of coughing and she doubled over, whooping and hacking, clutching at her barrel with one foreleg. 

Saying nothing, Celestia went limp, her head falling to the bed, her face burning with shame from Twilight’s words. 

Luna, sensing that everything was in danger of turning into a truly ugly family spat, took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “The world is a much safer place now than it has been for a long time. Even with the civil wars breaking out in Minos and several diamond dog kingdoms going to war with one another, we are closer to peace than we have been for centuries. The griffons were a major source of strife in the world, rousing their neighbors against those who want peace. There has always been tensions between those with hooves and those with fingers and claws and the sharp teeth they bear.” 

“Let us not say anything we will regret later,” Bucky stated, looking first at Twilight and then at Celestia. “Luna… your words are wise.” 

“So the alicorn of war did not manifest, but the world was brought just a little closer to peace,” Luna said in a subdued voice. 

“Look, we know about your three sisters,” Twilight said in a strangled voice. “Bucky has known for a long time… and I know what compels you… and he… she… IT… whatever it is, it is wrong!” Twilight snapped, her words practically a gurgle as she used sheer force of magical will to overcome the forces holding her back from speaking. 

“Twilight, refrain from speaking about what you cannot possibly begin to understand,” Celestia said in a cold voice. 

“NO!” Twilight growled.

“Twilight… please, when things have calmed down, I give you my solemn word that we will have a discussion about this later,” Celestia responded in a flat voice. 

“HOW ABOUT NOW!” Twilight bellowed, the first hints of the Royal Canterlot Voice manifesting in her voice, which caused Harper to begin crying. 

There was a bright flash of golden light and then there was one less alicorn in the room, Celestia vanishing from sight. Twilight, infuriated that she was denied, coughed once more to clear the phlegm from her throat and then sighed, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. 

Trying to soothe Harper, Luna cooed at her goddaughter, trying to quiet Harper’s cries. Luna bounced and cajoled the foal, kissed her softly, and even resorted to making funny faces and sticking out her tongue, all of which Harper ignored. 

“Nuts,” Bucky swore, scowling fiercely. 

“I am willing to accept the fact that I must keep my public image unblemished and I hate that Bucky is going to have to suffer in my stead. But I do not accept just being brushed off about this issue,” Twilight grumbled, trying to calm herself. 

“We do not get along with our sisters,” Luna admitted. “Celestia loathes them for waging war against our parent. Celestia hates them even more for abandoning the ponies and Zebras of the Sea of Grass and going into hiding, leaving the zebras and ponies to fend for themselves. I have my own issues with them, for offering Celestia and I no warning for what was to happen to me, or doing nothing to stop it… they could have stopped it… when the three of them work their magic together, they can bend reality to their whim. They have far more power than Celestia and I do… they could have easily thrashed Discord, their power to bend reality outranks his greatly. They could have stopped Sombra, but they did nothing. He… he… demanded that they step aside and they did, all of them bowed to him and allowed him to leave… it wasn’t long after that we lost him forever, the darkness consumed him completely and we had to go to war to stop him. We asked our sisters for help and they refused.” 

“Perhaps they had their reasons,” Bucky said in a soft patient voice, worried about Harper’s cries, his eyes locked on a shock of poofy orange mane. “We need a way to reach Celestia… we need some way of gaining her trust again.” 

“We need to make her listen somehow,” Twilight said. “At least listen to us and try to sort out this disagreement we seem to be having.” 

“There is one that Celestia listens to… but I am forbidden to speak of her,” Luna said in a low voice, still trying to comfort Harper. “It seems that Celestia has gone off to sulk though… she currently sits in the middle of her sun, pouting. I am going to trust both of you with one of Equestria’s most closely guarded secrets.” 

Bucky and Twilight both fell silent and became attentive, both of them looking directly at Luna, the Night Princess actually looking somewhat frightened. 

“There is one that Celestia trusts and has seen her through these long years of ruling all alone. I suppose a bit of background is in order,” Luna began, her eyes going distant as though she was looking a thousand years backward in time. “It started off with Sombra and his idea to keep ponies safe… he had been experimenting, but his experiments were all failures. Celestia and I didn’t know he was experimenting. He was sealing the souls of lesser creatures in crystal, but most of his attempts were failures,” Luna said, shaking her head sadly, her expression becoming quite pained. 

“I have some memories of this,” Bucky said in a low voice. “But they are hazy and Sombra won’t let me see them.” 

“And for good reason,” Luna responded, looking over at Buckminster. “Sombra realised that he needed luck to make this happen. This was after Princess Platinum had died, and madness was overcoming Sombra more and more. He was obsessed with keeping things from dying, especially things he loved. And one of the things he loved was Clover the Clever, whose talent was luck. For a time, during a lucid moment, he took comfort with Clover after Platinum’s death. He had been with her previously, and he returned to her for a time, desperate for any sort of comfort or consolation. But Clover did not make the ache in his heart stop. Knowing she would wither and die, Sombra abducted her… using the foulest magics, he ripped her soul from her body and secured her away in crystal, and she was the very first success he had in transferring consciousness from a body into crystal. He learned a great deal from the process and refined it. It was no doubt Clover’s luck that allowed her to survive.”

“That’s monstrous!” Twilight breathed. 

“Why do I suddenly know where this is going...” Bucky stated in a heartbroken voice. 

“Clover went mad inside of the crystal. She went mad and Sombra locked her away. He was able to tap into her luck and used her as a weapon. It was part of the reason why he was so successful. Celestia and I found her in one of Sombra’s hidden research facilities not long before the end finally came for him. Clover was Celestia’s dearest friend, and Celestia could not bear to smash her crystal and free her,” Luna explained in an agonised voice. “Celestia rescued Clover’s crystal and kept it, and she and Star Swirl immediately tried to find a way to heal Clover’s mind. Neither of them could bear to end her misery and tried to help her. Many things happened, including my fall. About two centuries after my exile, Celestia was finally able to heal Clover’s mind and calm her, and Clover, being clever, made the most of being trapped inside of crystal. She was Celestia’s closest friend and confidant, was a fellow immortal for Celestia to spend time with and talk to, and Celestia was able to draw upon Clover’s luck, which is why my sister always has so many successful gambits.” 

“Clover is alive?” Twilight gasped. 

“Sort of,” Luna admitted. “And I think it is time that both of you talk to her. I know for a fact that she has long begged to speak to both of you, but Celestia has always said she never felt that it was the right time.” 

“Well Twilight, perhaps we have an ally,” Bucky mused thoughtfully. 

“When we return to Canterlot, I will take you to see her,” Luna promised. 
	
> Chapter 342
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting down together at a table in the common room, Princess Luna studied Tannis and Agnetha carefully, watching them as they watched her, and Bucky realised a lot was being communicated even with nothing being said. 

“My sister and I would like to extend an invitation to the both of you to stay in Canterlot castle with us. You could learn a new way to rule. Canterlot would make a good central seat to your government and my sister and I are willing to share,” Luna offered in a low measured voice. 

“Your sister isn’t here,” Tannis stated, his crest raising. 

“We knew a little of the situation. Mostly from reading the news. Celestia was actually very hopeful about having you as guests. It made her feel better to focus upon the good that could come out of this situation and she talked a great deal about all of the new opportunities that could come from having the both of you stay in Canterlot,” Luna explained patiently. 

“I have to say, in my own opinion, that this is one of the best possible outcomes I could think of. You and Agnetha could ask for no better teachers than Celestia and Luna. They have a unique wealth of experience that you could draw from. Canterlot Castle has the sort of facilities you would need for when our subjects come to petition you. Plus, any griffons that you keep personally will get the finest schooling one could ask for as far as civil service goes,” Bucky said, speaking his feelings on the issue as he leaned heavily upon the table, his gaze falling upon Belisama beside him. 

“A far more pressing question on my mind is what is to be done with us once we reach Canterlot? What is the plan? Do we just go on about our lives?” Agnetha questioned, her crest rising slightly and her feathers fluffing outwards. 

“The plan, if there is one, is to get the entire lot of you vaccinated to prevent any problems and then use the hospital facilities of Canterlot Castle get the barbs removed from the males. I understand that it is a simple procedure that takes very little time but has an uncomfortable bit of downtime afterwards,” Bucky responded. “Afterwards, when new male griffons are born, the procedure can be done at birth to make things easier.” 

“As strange as it sounds, I am looking forward to this,” Tannis said in a low worried voice. “My desire to be with my bride is overwhelming.” 

Tittering, Agnetha playfully pushed Tannis away from her and made a strange chirping sound that Bucky hadn’t heard from a griffon before. 

“What about the ones who choose to stay with my mas- my husband and I?” Belisama inquired, her eyes wide with concern as she corrected herself mid sentence. 

“We house them in The Albatross until something better can be done and we make things work. The farm is large and there is enough space there for everybirdy. Plus, the griffons and griffonesses will be most useful at my school. As I stated, I need an army… an army for war. I never said what enemy I will be fighting,” Bucky responded, reaching out and touching Belisama affectionately. 

“This seems wise,” Luna agreed with a faint nod of her head. “You know, given everything that has happened, Celestia has exactly what she wanted. Peace has been made with the griffons, the world is far more secure, Equestria is made stronger, and it was my sister’s intentions to completely start fresh with a new treaty as far as the Sea of Grass is concerned. Nothing went as planned of course, but the end result is what is important. My sister's endless optimism will be rewarded once she calms down.” 

“Are we really at peace?” Tannis asked, slouching in his seat. 

“What do you mean?” Luna inquired in reply. 

“Still so many griffons being killed… I feel bad about it. They’re bad… but we are so few now… and now we are a species without a homeland who is now dependent upon the good graces of others to survive. We have no land, we have nothing,” Tannis explained, his eyes full of pain as he spoke, his right talons clenching into a fist.

“One day, winter will end over Griffonholm. You will not live to see that day, but your distant offspring will. And they will return home with the spring. You’re like birds who have flown south for the winter. One day, you will return home, and your nation will rebuild and be stronger than ever, because you will have friends who will aid you and make sure you do well,” Bucky said, cocking his head so he could look Tannis in the eye. 

“Birds in the spring,” Agnetha said wistfully. “Have we become the snowbird empire? Is that what we are reduced to?” 

Unable to help himself, Bucky began to chortle, his barrel hitching as he tried to hold back laughter, and a few snorts escaped his nostrils. He fell back in his chair and laughed. 

“What is so funny?” Tannis asked, his crest going completely flat. 

“I am the Lord of Winter, King of the Snowbird Empire,” Bucky said, unable to stop his laughter. 

“That is somewhat amusing,” Luna said in a quiet voice, a ghost of a smile playing across her muzzle as her eyes twinkled with barely contained laughter. 

It was Tannis who broke next, a soft chuckle escaping, then Belisama, and then, finally, Agnetha gave a reluctant laugh. The laughter continued for several minutes, dying off for a moment before somepony or somebirdy chuckled and it began again. 



 

The lights of Canterlot loomed ahead, and the distant lights of Ponyville was off to the left. The night was cloudy and cold, the breeze was strong, the air was was crisp and smelled strongly of autumn. There was a faint smell of wood smoke as ponies burned logs in fireplaces to keep warm, and there was no doubt that there was plenty of snuggling and canoodling between lovers, as this was the perfect sort of night for it. 

Reflecting upon the weather, Bucky thought about holding somepony you loved when it was hot, humid, and sticky. His nostrils flaring wide, he came to the conclusion that cold weather was a far more pleasant for loving and being pressed up against another warm body. Foal making was definitely better in the cold weather. And there were plenty of warm bodies that he wanted to be pressed up against right now. Or even inside of… 

Visible above Canterlot, several massive airships floated above the city, recalled from wherever, they were now awaiting orders to be dispatched to somewhere. They all dwarfed The Scorned Mare considerably. Bucky could see their deck lights and lighted windows along the sides. 

“My sister is preparing the fleet. She is most upset about guns being back in the world, and so is Scorch. Poor Scorch is actually quite irate. He feels that it is always the artists who suffer the most because of guns, the soft creative sorts, and Scorch likes artists a great deal. Some of the Council of Immortals have been speaking with one another… there is a diamond dog kingdom to the south and east of the Sea of Grass. Word has it they have shock troops that have been using the new rifle designs. The Sea of Grass has been seeing heavy losses. They are sending ships to protect their citizens. My sister has agreed to send the ships you see to scrub the kingdom off of the map. It seems that now that Griffonholm has been destroyed, keeping the new rifles a secret is no longer a priority,” Luna explained in a pained voice. 

“Any word from Minos?” Bucky inquired, looking up at Luna. 

“Minos has completely collapsed, much like Equestria has. The good minotaurs, our trade partners, are begging for aid, they are fearful to use guns in a conflict as they wish to remain trustworthy in the eyes of the rest of the world. I don’t know what will happen,” Luna answered, shaking her head sadly. “Labrynthia, the ancient city of stone, is now the site of a pitched battle. Most of the minotaurs there have long been peaceful and have forgotten conflict and the battle is hitting them hard. Peace and prosperity brought more wealth than slave trading and war mongering. There is an empowered minority who desire a return to the old days, the bad old days, where the markets sold pony slaves rather than mass manufactured labour saving devices.” 

“Because hands with fingers and thumbs give them a right to rule while hooves are a sign that you are a beast of burden, a draft animal meant to pull plows, carriages, and wagons. And the gun is the ultimate symbol of that great disparity between those with fingers and thumbs, and those with hooves. Guns give power to those with hands,” Bucky said in a pained voice. “Being able to walk upright and bipedally allows those hands a lot of freedom to be used in any manner imaginable. And griffons only need to be airborne to free up their hands. Ponies, being quadrupeds… guns are not a good option for us unless you are a unicorn, and unicorns have too much power already.” 

“Seems as though being shot in the head has given you wisdom,” Luna remarked, turning to look at Buckminster beside her with a pained by wry expression upon her face. 

“I don’t see guns being useful… most ponies can’t manipulate the gun for use. With a few exceptions, most ponies aren’t bipeds. I foolishly thought that guns would level the playing field and shift the balance of power… I was wrong. The earth ponies, pegasi, and zebras would still be at a disadvantage trying to use them, and those with hands would only further have more power, returning back to the bad old days when so many of us are slaves. I will not allow that to happen. I see why the Council of Immortals came together and banned their existence,” Bucky said, explaining his feelings and opinions on the issue to Luna, his eye fixed on Canterlot. 

“Not all ponies are as light on their hooves as Cadance, Ripple, and Pinkie Pie. I could see Ripple using a rifle and relying upon her manipulation shoes for its operation and grip… but that is Ripple’s special talent… anything she touches becomes a deadly weapon for her. Her talent frightens my sister something terrible,” Luna responded, her eyes looking towards Ponyville. 

“Ripple is going to grow up to become a tornado of death and dismemberment. I couldn’t be prouder,” Bucky said, his voice solemn and serious, with no trace of humour of mirth. 

“She is a worthy daughter for War… which reminds me… why are you wearing my brother’s cloak?” Luna asked, now looking directly at Bucky. “I would recognise it anywhere… I made that cloak for him.” 

“It was given to me to keep me safe… I must say… it brings me comfort. Makes it easier to see in the daylight. It scares Twilight Sparkle though,” Bucky stated in reply. “So you made this?” 

“Death has many cloaks. That one is the Shroud of Night. I wove it for him... I made it from elemental darkness. You are actually wrapping your body in the night when you wear it, which is why the daylight doesn’t bother you. Under the cloak, you will be able to use your shadow magic, and in times of trouble, you could shadow dive and merge with the darkness of the cloak, vanishing completely,” Luna answered, offering an explanation. 

“It makes me feel better wearing it. Calmer somehow,” Bucky admitted. 

Canterlot was close now. Bucky could see the shipyard docks ahead and massive floodlights shone upon the docking cradles as they approached. 

“Oh dear… we have a visitor,” Luna said in amusement as a grey shape loomed in the darkness ahead, zooming towards the ship at an alarming speed. 

A moment later, Bucky found himself snatched, the impact somehow painful and gentle at the same time, crushed between two powerful forelegs and hauled off the deck, carried skyward by a sobbing grey pegasus. 

He clung to her, paying no mind that the ground was a great distance below, wrapping his own legs around her and squeezing as much as he could, his diminished strength not allowing him to do much. 

Derpy’s lips found his and the pair embraced as she streaked upwards, bursting through clouds, gaining altitude to be above traffic. She pulled away with a wet “SMACK!” sound and then began planting dozens of little worried pecks all over Bucky’s face. 

“I was so worried… I saw the papers,” Derpy cried, clinging to Bucky tightly. “Oh I love you so much… I never want to lose you,” she sobbed. 

Unable to respond, Bucky hauled Derpy in for another kiss, his lips pressing against hers tightly. He could feel the heat of her body pressed tightly against his. He felt one of her hind legs wrap around his hips and pull his lower half up tight against her belly and her secret places, and he felt a searing heat pressed up against him. 

“I’m still going to have to kill you… but that can wait till later,” Derpy said after she pulled away from the kiss and pressed her lips against Bucky’s ear. 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said, offering a preemptive apology for everything that had happened, breathing his words against Derpy’s neck and making the mare shudder. 

“Oh you are going to be sorry… there is going to be angry rutting later,” Derpy said, still weeping. “I’ll be careful with your head.” 

“I did what had to be done,” Bucky said, now feeling tears in his own eye. 

“I know… Celestia and I talked just yesterday. She is really proud of you for doing what was right, even though you had to know that you were going to be in big trouble when you came home to me,” Derpy said as she squeezed Bucky tightly, rubbing her whole body up against his. “Is she nice? Is she good with foals? Is she good to you?” 

“Her name is Belisama, and she is very nice. I think you and her are going to be friends,” Bucky said hopefully, rubbing his cheek against Derpy’s jawline. 

“Still going to have to kill you… later,” Derpy said in a frantic whisper as she rubbed her now enlarged pregnant belly against Bucky. 

“I missed you too.” 
	
> Chapter 343
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Holding the one she loved, Derpy could barely even remember why she had been angry. She clutched him tightly, holding him close to her as they lay in a bed together, listening to the soft sounds of Bucky’s breathing. The ship had docked and things were happening, but Derpy didn’t care about those things. She pressed her lips against Bucky’s still swollen nasal bridge and kissed him softly, which caused him to murmur wordlessly in his sleep. 

The pegasus had only met Belisama briefly, and not much had been said yet, other than a friendly hello. There had been long warm hugs with Bon Bon and Lyra, long lingering hugs, and Bon Bon had tried many times to say “sorry” until Derpy had shushed her. 

And now, there was only Derpy and Bucky, alone with one another, Bucky had finally succumbed to sleep, easing Derpy’s mind and making the mare feel better. The long trip to Canterlot had been worth it, Derpy had flown here earlier during the day when she had received word that Bucky would be home between midnight and dawn. 

Heaving a mighty yawn, Derpy also succumbed to sleep. 



 

In the rosy light of dawn, Bucky found himself surrounded by griffons in one of the vast courtyards of Canterlot castle. Of the three hundred and five griffons, one hundred and forty one griffons chose to follow Bucky home, their devotion evident in their wide eyes that were filled with adoration. The rest chose to stay in Canterlot with Tannis and Agnetha. 

The one that surprised Bucky the most was Magpie the nanny, the rather large hunter griffon that Bucky had rescued from the nursery. Since drinking the restorative healing elixir, the griffoness’ demeanour had changed considerably, she was very calm, affectionate, and quiet. She stood with the rest, huddled over the smaller servant griffons protectively, her eyes darting about as she took in everything around her. Half of the young had been left with Tannis and Agnetha, to be raised as they saw fit, and the other half were now with Bucky, leaving him with sixteen cubs that he was responsible for, plus Sprocket and Cog, Lugnut and Spanner’s cubs, which made for eighteen total. 

And for some reason, all Bucky could think about was poor Bittersweet, who was bound to be a nervous wreck around so many griffons. Bucky hoped a raise in pay would be enough to convince her to stay. 

Next to him, Derpy looked out at the group, yawning occasionally, a confused look upon her face as griffons kept addressing her as their queen. It was too early in the morning to figure out what being a queen meant, but the parts of her brain that were awake told her that this was trouble of the worst kind. 

Through most of the night, Belisama, a creature that leaned towards being a nocturnal being, had sorted through the griffons and griffonesses, making a list of all those who wanted to remain with Bucky. She now sat a short distance away, looking exhausted, her tail wrapped around her body and her eyes struggling to stay open. 

“Bucky… what are we going to do with all of these griffons?” Derpy inquired, giving a narrowed eyed stare to her husband, her voice sounding somewhat concerned. 

“We care for them… we look after them. Look, love, I know it seems overwhelming now, but just think. We need help finishing the school and then we need help staffing the school. We need caretakers and teachers. We need carpenters and labourers. Rising Star could probably use help in his forge to make stoves for the winter,” Bucky responded, looking out over his subjects.

Her eyes falling upon a few small griffon cubs, Derpy’s heart softened a bit. “Rising Star has help. Scorch is there helping to make those little cast iron stoves and stove pipes. A lot of gourds have been grown and they're turning them into cute little houses,” Derpy said, her ears splaying out sideways. She rose, stretched her spine, and then walked towards Magpie and the cubs, the crowd parting to get out of her way as she passed. 

The grey mare sat down amidst the cubs, studying them, hearing their curious peeping and low frightened voices. Reaching out a foreleg, she snatched up a small male cub in her fetlock and lifted him gingerly as she sat back upon her haunches. She cradled the cub in her forelegs, looking him over, her bad right eye squeezed shut so she could see clearly. She rocked the cub to and fro and she began to hum, her motherly instincts taking over, and she found she really didn’t care what species she mothered… young were young and her instincts were fierce as well as overpowering. Compelled by a force she could barely comprehend, she suddenly felt very protective of the brood of griffons. She looked up at Magpie and the pair exchanged a knowing nod. 

“This one needs a bath,” Derpy announced. 

“Yes he does, Your Majesty,” Magpie agreed. 

“My name is Derpy… Do you like being a nanny?” Derpy asked as she looked down at the cub she was holding, which was small, brown, had gold feathers, and had a beak like an owl. “He’s very sweet,” Derpy said, extending out her forelegs and offering the cub to Magpie, who carefully accepted the foal and cradled it. 

“You are one of my queens, and I will address you with the respect you are owed,” Magpie said. “Your husband did a kind thing for me. He saved me and had my mind healed. I owe him and his pride my life… I could do no less, and me honour demands so much more. I will guard your young with my life.” 

Unsure of how to respond, Derpy blinked a few times. “Thank you,” she said in a low subdued voice, planting her front hooves upon the ground. “Bucky, where will we house them?” 

“The Albatross will have to do for a while. It is warm and secure against the weather. It has a massive stockpile of food… enough food to see us all through the winter quite comfortably and then some. Come spring and beyond, we’ll figure out something better,” Bucky answered, all to aware that his subjects were all hanging upon his every word. 

“By any stretch of the imagination, housing them in The Albatross is quite generous, most of us in the servant caste live in closets and cupboards if we have anyplace to call our own at all. You have been unbelievably kind… my husband,” Belisama said, struggling to hold her head up in her exhausted state. 

“Sentinel would be upset if somepony stole his closet… that’s his hidey hole,” Derpy said, looking at the cubs who gathering around her and staring up at her with wide curious eyes, their little crests raising as they studied the grey mare. “Where is Sentinel anyway? I haven’t seen him.” 

“I suspect he and Spike are spending time together before Spike has to head off to Ponyville with Twilight Sparkle,” Bucky responded, greatly enjoying seeing Derpy brood over the griffon cubs. As he watched, the grey mare picked up a small female cub and hugged her, which caused the cub to peep loudly in alarm, as she had not been fast enough to escape. 

“You know… you are still in plenty of hot water Bucky… but this kinda makes up for what you’ve done… just a little tiny bit,” Derpy said as she lovingly squeezed the peeping cub and kissed it upon the head. “Don’t expect any mercy. Angry.” Derpy swiveled her head around and glared fiercely at her husband. 

Gulping, Bucky said nothing, he had hoped that Derpy had forgotten about whatever trouble that lay ahead. He ducked his head down low and slouched, his eye narrowing sulkily as he began to plan on how to distract her. 



 

In a nearby garden, Ripple and Sentinel stood at attention, both of them staring straight ahead as Princess Luna looked them over. A short distance away, Flash Sentry also stood at attention, and the soldier was absolutely statuesque in his stance. 

It was just chilly enough to see the breath of every pony in the garden during the early hours just after dawn. Princess Luna began to pace around, her head held high, and she paused to examine her lunar guard. She stomped away, seemingly satisfied. 

“I will keep this brief. I am exhausted and need sleep. Flash Sentry, you have handed in your resignation papers and have requested a discharge. It is a real shame to lose one of your valour. From what I am told, you saved Princess Twilight Sparkle’s life. So… I refuse to see this as a discharge. As of this moment, I consider you as Princess Twilight Sparkle’s full time protector. As such, you are relieved of active duty and may be officially discharged on the record, but off of the record, I intend to hold you responsible for her happiness and safety, and the safety of her consort, Rainbow Dash. At ease,” Luna said, her tone commanding and proud. 

Other than a deep breath, Flash Sentry made no acknowledgement of Princess Luna’s words, and he remained at full attention, his eyes wide and watchful. 

“Cornet Sentinel, Cornet Ripple… both of you have gone above and beyond the call of duty during this trip. I have heard reports of your actions and I am impressed. From this moment forward, both of you are of the rank Cornet First Class and when my sister returns, Princess Celestia will likely give you a medal, Sentinel, for your brave efforts in bringing down your father’s would be assassin. You have done well Squire Cornet Sentinel, and I am very proud of you,” Princess Luna said, her gaze affixing upon Sentinel as she spoke. 

With a loud crack, Sentinel whipped out a wing in salute, his whole body somehow becoming stiffer, and his ears swiveled forward. 

“Squire Cornet Ripple… your Raptors are officially recognised as a patrol under the Crown of the Lunar Court and will have all of the duties, obligations, and privileges of the guards within my court. I want them worthy of my inspection. I have no intention of telling you when I plan to inspect them. Make them ready. Make the most of their talents and their ability to grasp weapons,” Princess Luna commanded in a regal voice. 

“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Ripple barked in reply, one wing snapping out in a salute. 

“Make the most of their strength. The griffons have much to offer us… it is my command that you show the world that the little ones are to be feared just as much as the big ones. Do not disappoint me,” Princess Luna demanded, her snoot inches away from Ripple as she spoke. “Are there any questions?” 

“Ma’am, what is a patrol, ma’am?” Sentinel inquired, his eyes still locked forward. 

“A patrol is specifically a small group, sometimes called a platoon, but the term patrol is more commonly used for scouts,” Princess Luna explained. 

“Ma’am, is it your intention to use them as scouts, ma’am?” Sentinel questioned. 

“Are you being clever, Squire Cornet Sentinel? Trying to discern a clue for their purpose?” Princess Luna barked, moving over to give Sentinel a good shouting as she moved muzzle to muzzle with the colt. 

“Ma’am, yes I am, ma’am,” Sentinel confessed. “I thought myself very clever. My father told me to be clever.” 

“It is my intention to see if they make good scouts. They are small swift fliers. I believe they will be good for search and rescue operations and scouting enemy positions,” Princess Luna announced in a clarion voice. 

“Ma’am, am I to understand that you plan to use them as spies, ma’am?” Sentinel asked, his eyes still locked forward. 

“Make them ready!” Princess Luna shouted, giving a command. “As of this moment, for your cleverness, consider yourself a Raptor young Sentinel. Welcome to Lunar Intelligence. If you thought the regular ranks had exacting standards, just wait till you see what you are in for now.” 

Swallowing with a gulp loud enough to be heard throughout the entire garden, Sentinel kept a brave face on and continued to stare straight ahead, the only sign of his distress was a trickle of sweat running down from behind his ear. 

Saying nothing else, Princess Luna strode off, her guard following closely behind her, all of them laughing and chuckling amongst themselves as they departed. As Princess Luna trotted away, Sentinel’s ears drooped, Flash Sentry finally relaxed, and Ripple took a deep breath and held it for a long moment. 

“You big dope… you just had to ask questions,” Ripple said as she let her breath out. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 344
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“We need to talk,” Derpy said in a low voice to Bon Bon and Lyra, her amber eyes narrowed and a serious expression upon her face. The pegasus looked at the two mares, her features stern but calm, and her ears were splayed out sideways. 

“I agree that we need to talk, but we shouldn’t talk without Lugus,” Bon Bon stated, looking Derpy in the eyes, her own ears perking forward. 

“Why does Lugus need to attend our mare meeting?” Derpy inquired, raising her eyebrow slightly. 

“So he can help you understand everything that has happened and everything that led to this outcome. Bucky’s ownership of Belisama wasn’t something he could just refuse, he tried, and the Sea of Grass demanded that the marriage take place-” 

“Okay,” Derpy said, interrupting Bon Bon. “I’ll talk with Lugus. We’ll all talk to Lugus. And I will give you a fair chance to help me understand how and why all of this happened without my decision or input. I know a little bit, but I’d like to know more,” the grey mare added. “I’ve learned some hard lessons about making judgments before I understand everything… I don’t want to repeat those mistakes.” 

“You’re taking this much better than we all thought you would,” Lyra squeaked nervously, her ears pinned back against her skull. 

“Oh this isn’t over… not by a long shot. I'm giving you all a chance before I do anything stupid, but don’t think this is over,” Derpy stated, her eyes narrowing almost to slits. 

“Let’s go find Lugus,” Bon Bon suggested. 

“What about Belisama?” Lyra asked, looking worried. 

“We’ll bring her in later, after Lugus has had his say,” Derpy responded, exhaling sharply to blow her straw coloured mane out of her eyes. 

“Be gentle with her Derpy… she’s put on a brave face, but she’s still grieving for her sister, who was killed in the worst way you could imagine right in front of her as she was forced to watch. Bucky saved her from a fate worse than death,” Bon Bon said, already hard at work to smooth the situation over. 

Her expression softening, Derpy took a deep breath and her ears perked forward. “I’m willing to listen,” the grey mare replied in a soft voice. “I just need your help in making me understand.” 



 

“Hello again Raven,” Twilight Sparkle said warmly, the two mares hugging for one brief moment. “How are you?” 

“Fine,” Raven replied, stepping away to look up at the now much taller Twilight Sparkle. “How is married life?” 

“I’m very happy,” Twilight admitted, a half smile appearing upon her muzzle. 

“And you Buckminster? How are you?” Raven questioned, looking at Bucky in concern and approaching him slowly. “How is your new wife getting along with Derpy?” 

“I’m good… I don’t know how Belisama is getting along with Derpy. I’ve left them to sort things out between one another,” Bucky replied, cocking his head so he could get a better look at Raven. “Derpy is a good mare. She’s hot tempered, but also good hearted and compassionate. I’m certain that things will be okay… in time.” 

“I have been tasked with allowing both of you to see Clover,” Raven said in a low calm voice. “I have recently had to remove the portrait of Princess Platinum that usually resides down in the vault.” 

“Oh dear,” Bucky murmured, cringing somewhat as he spoke. 

“Clover knows you are coming and she is very excited. She has been wanting to meet with both of you for quite some time,” Raven stated in a matter of fact voice. “Follow me please, and I will lead you to the Solar Archival Vaults.” 



 

Taking in a deep breath and holding it for several moments, Derpy slowly let it out as she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. After a few moments of attempting to restore her calm, she opened her eyes again and looked at Lugus. 

“Bucky killed her sister’s murderers and rap-”

“No, please, I can’t bear to hear any more about that,” Derpy begged, suddenly feeling queasy. She wondered how much of it was distress and how much was pregnancy hormones. “Bucky did the right thing,” the pegasus said. “Let’s leave it at that. You’ve told me what happened. So Belisama felt as though she has a debt?” 

“More than that… she is like so many others in her caste. She gave herself as property out of gratitude for what Bucky did… when he did the right thing. But as a servant, she wanted to be with a master who would protect and care for her,” Lugus explained carefully, his breathing slow as his side ached. 

“I’m having trouble with this servant thing,” Derpy confessed, shaking her head. 

“It is troubling,” Bon Bon agreed. 

“I suppose I understand it, but I’m having trouble understanding the need for a master,” Derpy said, trying to put her thoughts into words, her brows furrowing. “Why don’t they want to be free?” 

“Because freedom scares them Derpy,” Lyra answered. “Slavery and servitude is what they know… but they can choose a master. Belisama chose Bucky… it’s probably the first time she’s ever tried to assert a need for her own freedom. They want to work and do what they do, but they need their sense of purpose… they like serving, but the idea of being totally responsible for themselves scares them to death. They need a provider and something that gives them a sense of validation. Something that appreciates their work and gives them a sense of pride,” Lyra explained in a soft voice, a growing sense of concern building in her mind as she watched Derpy’s face take on a deeply troubled look. 

“Are they all that broken down?” Derpy asked in a low pained voice that was husky with emotion. 

“Derpy, this whole generation is lost. Servitude is all they will know. The best that can be done for them is to teach the next generation how to be free,” Lugus said in steady measured voice. “This was discussed at length in the Sea of Grass and Bucky got a crash course in slave mentality from those who are quite knowledgeable.” 

“Oh my… and Bucky is a slave,” Derpy said, closing her eyes as her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“Bon Bon and I both explained to them everything that happened and why it happened, and that Bucky chose slavery to put an end to the era of the noble houses,” Lyra said, responding to Derpy’s words. 



 

The crystal spire was tall, imposing, and radiated strong magic. It glowed with a soft silvery-blue light that flooded the room and floating in the clear crystal was a ghostly figure who had an eager expression upon her face. 

“Hello… both of you… I have waited so long for this moment,” Clover greeted. 

Freezing in place, Twilight Sparkle was unable to deal with the notion that she was speaking to one of the ponies she had long called one of her heroes. Next to her, Bucky craned his head to look up at Clover, his eye narrowing so he could study her. 

“Hello Clover,” Bucky said, looking up at the phantom mare trapped in crystal. 

“Celestia speaks so often of both of you… I feel as though I know you,” Clover said in a soft voice that filled the room, seeming to come from everywhere and every direction. “Especially you Twilight Sparkle… she has loved you for so long, watching you grow up and become the mare that Celestia always believed that you could be.” 

Blushing, Twilight Sparkle’s hind legs buckled and she sat down upon her haunches with a muffled thump. 

“And you Buckminster… when she knew that you were going to be the one, she did everything she could to prepare you and rig the game in your favour. It broke her heart when you came home in the shape that you did. She stayed here with me and mourned for so long, blaming herself for not preparing you better,” Clover stated, her expression sad, her eyes wide as she looked down upon the two ponies before her. 

“It feels funny to hear you say that,” Twilight Sparkle said, finally speaking, her voice raspy and low. The alicorn lifted her head up high and looked up at Clover, watching her spectral form flicker inside of the crystal.

“Ponies forget that Celestia is also a pony. She has hopes and dreams, fears and worries, and her heart breaks just as easily as any other,” Clover said sagely. “She doesn’t have the luxury of taking time for herself healing when her heart breaks… like when she lost Sombra for the second time. Buckminster, I fear what losing you will do to her.” 

“I… I… I don’t know what to say,” Bucky stammered. 

“She really loved the Sombra on the other side of the mirror,” Twilight said in a small pained voice. “I can’t believe I am talking to Clover the Clever!” 

“More like Clover the Cheater,” Bucky interjected. 

Scowling, Clover stared down at Bucky. “Word has it you’re clever as well,” Clover said, her voice dripping with molten sarcasm. Her scowl broke into a wide grin and she floated up near the edge of the crystal. 



 

Heaving a sigh of defeat, Derpy rubbed her head with her folded fetlock knuckle. Try as she might, she couldn’t stay angry. She still felt cheated out of having a say in the decision process, she was frustrated about the situation as a whole, but she couldn't bear to bring her anger against Bucky, Belisama, or anypony or anybirdy else involved. All that could be done now was pick up the pieces and move on. 

“I want to be angry,” Derpy admitted. 

“Well, we both figured you’d be angry,” Bon Bon stated. 

“I think I’ve finally grown up as a pony,” Derpy said in a low voice. “Kinda scares me… thinking about that. Realising that Bucky has obligations to the whole wide world.” 

“I’m guessing that getting to know Thistle has made you wiser,” Bon Bon said in a low voice, her ears splayed out sideways as she spoke, her eyes on Derpy. 

“I really love Thistle… more than I can put into words… this whole time I keep wondering… what if Bucky has brought home a best friend that I just don’t know yet?” Derpy asked as she rubbed her own belly. 

“Belisama is sound asleep,” Yew reported, sticking her head in to the room to make her announcement. “I did not wake her.” 

“There will be plenty of time to talk later,” Derpy replied. “Thanks Yew.” 

“Don’t mention it,” Yew said as she backed out of the door. 

A three way glance was exchanged between Bon Bon, Lyra, and Derpy, each mare taking a moment to look at one another, an unspoken agreement taking place between them. 



 

“So how do we reach her?” Bucky questioned, his tone one of barely contained frustration. “Cause the way I see it, this has become a threat to Equestria. This… this outside influence is affecting her decision making abilities and preying upon her need for approval.” 

“Every filly wants to please her father… if he can be called a father in this instance,” Clover said, shaking her head sadly. “I only know a little bit about him. Her. It. I just know what Celestia constantly frets over doing what is right.” 

“I can’t believe that… that… he completely cut off Luna and refuses to speak to her now,” Twilight said in astonishment. “I suppose I can understand Celestia’s fear of going against his will. Once again, Celestia is the one left bearing the guilt and the blame for what happened to Luna.” 

“Oh it is much worse than that, Twilight,” Clover remarked. “He blamed Celestia for not giving her sister enough attention and seeing that there was a problem. Celestia told me that he went silent for one hundred years… it was right after Luna’s banishment, when Celestia was the most vulnerable and in pain. When she needed a sympathetic ear. It was right when a filly needs her father the most… and he cut her off to punish her.” 

“Was it punishment?” Twilight inquired curiously. 

“What else could it be?” Clover snapped in reply. 

“So do you think she is talking to him right now?” Twilight questioned. 

“I don’t know,” Clover responded. 

“I don’t even know how to fight something like this… he created me to end all life in this little pocket of the cosmos and then told me that I have a choice… wasn’t much of a choice. The Fates tell me that he’s largely lost interest in trying to fix anything, he just wants to sweep it all away so he can start over at yet another attempt at perfection,” Bucky said, his lip curling back in a snarl. 

“He talks to Celestia less and less these days… it leaves her frantic. The last time he went silent was during the Sunset Shimmer Crisis… Celestia was so certain she was making the right decision upon her own… after everything that went wrong, she promised herself she would never make another major decision without his guidance ever again,” Clover said, revealing a bit of information about recent history. 

“And if he is losing interest and speaking to her less and less… and she is hesitant to make decisions on her own…” Twilight muttered. “...this leaves us in a really bad situation.” 

“I am really starting to hate this creep,” Bucky growled. “To me, it sounds like he is systematically breaking down Celestia’s ability to make decisions for herself, for Equestria at large, and the world by extension. Leaving her emotionally insecure and uncertain of herself… I don’t like it.” 

“I think you’re right Bucky,” Twilight agreed, her voice fearful and husky. 
	
> Chapter 345
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With two Myrmidons, one on each side, Bucky slowly made his way down a long hallway in Canterlot castle, his mind still trying to take in everything from his long meeting with Clover the Clever and everything that had been said. Already, he was trying to form a plan, but he didn’t have much to go on, so there wasn’t much to plan with. 

Frustrated, Bucky snorted, which caused the big female on his left to turn and look at him with a worried expression. He ignored her and kept going, the sound of her armor clacking and jangling was somehow comforting to him, but he could not say why. If anything, it should have served as a distraction. 

“When you go to claim her, I want her unharmed,” Bucky instructed in a calm voice that did not give a hint at the turmoil within him. 

“Understood sir,” the big female Myrmidon replied. 

“She’s been banished… how are we to proceed if we return her and there are complications?” the smaller lunar pegasus male questioned in a hesitant voice. 

“I am expecting complications,” Bucky responded in a firm voice. “This will work out to my advantage. I was told to seek her out and it is my intention to make her my student. That said, she will be most useful in the current situation I believe,” he added, but not elaborating. 

“Princess Celestia will not be pleased about this,” the big female stated. 

“Mistakes were made… it is time to correct them… and perhaps heal from them,” Bucky replied as they began to near the long hallway. 

“Very wise, Lord of Winter,” the smaller male said, smaller being relative as he towered over Bucky by a great deal. 

“And this is where we part ways,” Bucky announced. “It was a pleasure speaking to both of you. I trust that there is no trouble in fetching her immediately?” 

“Sir, Princess Twilight Sparkle has altered the mirror so it can be used at any time. We will leave immediately. We should return before tomorrow's sundown if we are lucky… or at least tomorrow evening. Will you be at home by then? Do you want her brought there?” the big female responded, her questions carefully spoken. 

“Yes… bring her to my home. It is time for a homecoming,” Bucky answered, offering a soft nod as he spoke. “And then let Princess Luna know once she has been returned. Tell her to send a message to Celestia and tell her that I have her former student. That should lure her out of her hiding… hmm… I have no way of knowing how Celestia is going to react.” 

“Very well, sir. Consider it done,” the male Myrmidon said in reply. 

With that, the two Myrmidons took their leave and Bucky watched them go. 



 

Moving slowly, Bucky approached the place where The Scorned Mare was secured, and he watched as The Albatross was boarded by guard doctors armed with vaccinations. He was going to have to leave The Albatross and quite a number of griffons behind so various things could get done, and then return for them later. 

Rather than go through the crowd, Bucky teleported onto the deck of the his ship and looked around, trying to take the situation in. He grinned at Lyra, who was busy shaking frost off of her pelt and frowning at him. 

“I wish to depart soonish. There is much to be done, I want to see my family, is everypony going to be ready to go?” Bucky asked. 

“Twilight and her friends have already cleared out. I was told to tell you that Pinkie Pie is secured in the hospital and she is being cared for. Everypony else has their own means back to Ponyville. The griffons are going to be looked after. Belisama has been vaccinated, she’s not feeling so swift and has gone back to sleep,” Lyra reported in a loud voice to be heard over the crowd. 

“And where is my sweet bubbly butt matriarch?” Bucky inquired. 

“Derpy is spending time belowdecks with Harper and Peekaboo. She is remarkably calm about this whole situation. We might still live,” Lyra replied, grinning broadly. 

“Hmm,” Bucky hummed, and then he exploded into a massive burst of snowflakes, leaving Lyra covered in ice once again. 

“Ugh, I hate when he does that!” Lyra grumped. She shook herself again, shivered, and then set about getting everything ready so they could go home.



 

Shivering, Derpy turned to give her husband a icy glare after he burst into existence in the room, covering everything in a dusting of snow. Harper cooed, delighted by the sudden snow, and Peekaboo giggled softly as she shook snow from her stubby wings. 

“I really want to be mad at you,” Derpy mumbled from the bed, looking up at Bucky. 

Falling over on the bed, Bucky looked over at his mate. He sighed softly, his barrel rising and falling with his breath, and then he reached out and pulled Peekaboo close to him, snatching her away from Derpy’s side. 

“It’s selfish that I even want to be mad at you… you… you had to do a lot of killing. I’ve heard some stories Bucky. I talked with Magpie while you were off taking care of whatever business you were looking after. And now I feel awful that I was even angry about all of these… minor things after everything you had to go through, I can’t even imagine what you had to endure, and then you got shot in the head. Bucky, am I a bad wife?” Derpy said, her last words a question from her pained heart. 

“No,” Bucky said as he nuzzled Peekaboo. “I worry constantly that I’m a bad husband,” he continued in a low voice, giving Peekaboo a little squeeze. 

“I guess we both have our faults,” Derpy whispered. “Anyway, I’d like to say, I offer my approval, not that it matters.” 

“But it does matter, love,” Bucky responded as Peekaboo wrapped her forelegs around his neck and squeezed. “It does matter to me… I don’t want there to be any resentment between the lot of us over this issue. It has been tearing me apart on the inside, it worries me that this might be an issue of contention.” 

“Thanks,” Derpy replied, sounding somewhat shy. “Berry thinks all of this is funny… not the shot in the head part, but the marriage. Berry lost her mind for a while when she heard what happened. I’ve never seen her so angry. Thistle was sad, but Berry and I, we were angry. And we all had to hold one another and try to get through it.” 

“Are my girls in school?” Bucky asked, changing the subject. 

“Yes, they are in school and settling in. Dinky is doing okay, but Piña Colada got an official reprimand and had to stay after school the other day,” Derpy answered, a worried look upon her face. “Piña used to be so sweet and shy.” 

“What did my sweet little adorable Piña do?” Bucky inquired, squishing Peekaboo down between his forelegs and using her to rest his chin upon. 

“There is a colt named Steeplechase. He was tormenting Diamond Tiara. Dinky gave him a warning, Diamond Tiara didn’t do anything, Piña also warned him but then he… he used some foalish playground insults about us and our family. Piña responded badly,” Derpy explained, her eyes narrowing. 

“That doesn’t tell me what happened,” Bucky said as he rubbed his chin along Peekaboo’s back, causing the foal to giggle in his grasp. 

“Piña Colada punched him so hard that he was out cold for three hours,” Derpy said in a nervous voice, turning away from Bucky and staring at the wall. 

“Piña stopped being shy and mousy,” Bucky said. 

“I miss Piña,” Peekaboo said in a soft voice. 

“You will be home to see her soon,” Bucky promised. 

“A lot has happened,” Derpy said, now looking at Bucky again. “Rising Star was voted into office as a representative. Sparkler now has an active police force under her command, Loch Skimmer got a bit of a promotion because she is really good at lifting injured ponies and carrying them off to the hospital, and a lot of work has been done on the school while you were gone. Rising Star’s friend… Scorch I think is his name… he summoned up a bunch of golems made out of dirt and they went to work on the school and the dormitory towers.” 

“Oh my,” Bucky stated in surprise. 

“Bucky, could you do me a favour?” Derpy asked, closing her eyes and taking a very deep breath after she spoke. 

“Anything for you,” Bucky offered. 

“Belisama… it is going to be her first time. When you two get around to doing something. Please, try to make it as special as possible for her. I’ve heard some very distressing things Bucky. It makes my heart ache to think about what’s happened to her,” Derpy responded, her eyes still shut as she spoke, but opening when she finished. “She is going to be scared Bucky… you’re bigger than she is, and a lot of bad things have happened to her. Just… just be the pony that I know you can be when that time comes.” 

“Of course,” Bucky replied. “I will do as you ask.” 

“She’s one of us now… I want her looked after,” Derpy said, her voice raspy and thick with emotion. “How is your head?” 

“I’m fine,” Bucky answered. “It hurts a bit but I’m okay.” 

“Bon Bon told me what happened with Sentinel,” Derpy said in a pained voice as she squeezed Harper for reassurance. “Bon Bon is a good mama.” 

“Mama!” Harper agreed just before she heaved a mighty yawn and making an adorable squeak. The foal rubbed her cheek against Derpy and closed her eyes. “Sleepy.” 

“It is nap time already Harper?” Derpy asked. 

“Go nap nap,” Harper agreed, resting her head upon Derpy’s foreleg. 



 

“YOU DUNDERHEAD!” Ripple bellowed. “Because you had to be clever and try to get information out of Princess Luna, we are now in a world of trouble.” 

“We needed some way of knowing so we could be prepared,” Sentinel argued, staring down at his own hooves with a sullen expression upon his face. “I will admit, my curiousity was our mutual undoing.” 

Looking at her griffons, Ripple scowled with deep frustration. “We’ll have to go to Lugus and hope that he helps us. But Lugus might not help us and then force us to stumble through this, maybe even allowing us to fail so that we might learn.” 

Neither one of them responded when the ship gave a lurch and then began to drift skyward, both of them were far too focused on the current pressing issue. 

“Private Loki!” Ripple snapped. 

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Loki replied, snapping to attention. 

“You have some actual combat experience considering your background as a pit fighter. The Raptors are to be a scout unit. Spies. Intelligence. This is going to mean possibly crawling into tiny places… you know, sneaky stuff. What sort of weapons might you recommend for such a unit?” Ripple questioned, staring Loki in the eye and making him squirm uncomfortably. “Speak plainly,” she commanded. 

“Well, big weapons are right out,” Loki replied right away. “Swords, spears, axes, maces, all of those things are trouble if you are crawling through a drain… I have experience with that actually… My master, bless his beak, he sent me to assassinate one of his rivals. I crawled up through the sump hole after going through the sewer. I waited for him and when he sat down, I stabbed him right in the groin with a dagger. Worked out real well.” 

“Loki, you scare me and disgust me,” Ripple admitted. “Which is why I like you.”

“Aw, thank you,” Loki said, his crest rising. “Anyhow, daggers, darts, garrotes, and slings… we could do well with slings. They’re small, fold up, stay out of the way, and sling stones are deadly.” 

“Private Loki, you are a genius,” Sentinel said, his eyes going wide.

“Sir, thank you sir,” Loki replied, blinking in surprise. “My nanny said I was a bit of a cat brain and I didn’t get good sensible avian intelligence.” 

“I’m having an idea,” Ripple announced. “A really big idea involving father’s spell jars,” the pegasus filly said, her eyes narrowing with pure malicious intent as she peered at Loki, causing the small griffon to peer at her curiously. 

“They would make excellent sling ammo,” Sentinel said, cottoning on to his sister’s plan. He grinned. “You know, I think we can make this work.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 346
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was good to be home and to feel his foals and family clinging to him, even if it felt overwhelming to be surrounded by so many ponies all at once, all of whom wanted his attention. They were careful, but insistent, and there was no fighting the mob that enveloped him, swallowing him up with soggy tear filled embraces. 

Quite unable to speak, Bucky’s emotions got the better of him as he began to weep, and he was content to remain in a pile of other over-emotional equines. The cool fall air made it far more pleasant to hug a fellow equine and hold them, there were no hot, sticky, and sweaty embraces that was part of what made summer so unpleasant. 

Finally, after much happy rejoicing, the herd began to pull itself together. 



 

Belisama found herself in the uncomfortable position of being studied. She had been told that the pride, or the herd as equines called it, was large, but she was unprepared for this. Curious bloodshot eyes watched her, and only one of them approached her, a broad smile upon the pegasus’ face. The pegasus in question was somewhat smaller, still a filly, was a dark charcoal grey, and had a golden straw coloured mane that hung down into her face. 

“My name is Loch Skimmer, and I try to be friends with everyone. And everything. I’ve even made friends with a bear, Fluttershy introduced me to him. And I’d like to welcome you to the family,” the pegasus said in a warm gracious voice. “You have a broken leg… I did too when they took me in. See, I turned out okay.” 

Something about the filly’s voice was comforting. Soothing. Loch Skimmer radiated a sunny warmth that was impossible not to like, and Belisama felt welcomed, even if she was still hesitant and overwhelmed by everything. 

“I suppose introductions are in order, but at this point with so many ponies around, it is probably a bad idea to start laying names on you and making the confusion worse. So how about a better approach of introductions over time because you look a little frightened. My name is Berry Punch, and we have something in common.” 

“We do?” Belisama asked, looking up at the smiling pony named Berry Punch. 

“Sure we do… we share a husband,” Berry said and then began to laugh. After laughing for a few moments, Berry Punch turned to her husband and prodded him in the ribs with her hoof. “Bucky… we’re going to have to stop you from going on diplomatic visits in the future. This one is okay though, I like her.” 

In that moment, Belisama realised she had something in common with everypony present, and the tension in her muscles eased off a bit. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, She felt a little better about everything. 

“Berry is right. We have our whole lives ahead of us to get acquainted. There’s no point in overwhelming her now,” Derpy said, looking over at the griffoness sitting in the grass. “Let’s get inside. I’m feeling peckish and having a meal or having tea together will give some of us a chance to talk.” 

“Diamond Tiara isn’t here,” Sentinel said dejectedly. 

“She’s still at school. Dinky and Piña got a day off to be with their daddy… She’ll be coming by after school,” Berry replied, feeling something tight in her chest when she noticed Sentinel’s heartbroken expression. She watched as Sentinel went sulking off, no doubt to his hidey hole under the stairs. 

“Where is Discord?” Bucky inquired, looking around. 

“He left not long before you arrived. Fluttershy came to collect him. They left together by guard drawn chariot,” Thistle replied, still rubbing her face against Bucky’s neck. “Somepony help me back inside the house,” the kelpie requested. 

“I got this,” Rising Star said, lifting Thistle in his telekinesis and carrying her inside. 

“Thistle can’t hardly walk anymore. She’s under doctor’s orders to stay in bed or stay in the water… she’s fine Bucky, get that worried look off of your face, she’s healthy as a horse, she’s just having a very big foal,” Berry Punch explained and then kissed Bucky on the cheek. 



 

The kitchen was cozy and quite unlike anything Belisama had seen. There were windows, big glorious windows, several windows, including a big window that extended out of the room that had a bench that could be sat on, something that she had been told was a ‘bay window’ when somepony had noticed her fascination. 

The kitchen was warm and pleasant. Warm air blew out of vents in the walls near the floor. There was the scent of fresh baked bread and the sweet smell of fruit preserves. Sitting on the bench in front of the window, Belisama couldn’t help but feel that this was the home she had always wanted, but she wasn’t even aware that a place like this existed. 

To be this safe, to be so secure that there were windows had a profound impact upon Belisama. She allowed herself to relax and soak up the sun that shone through the glass, warming her calico hide as the others gathered around the small kitchen table. 

Belisama’s peaceful reverie was not to last however, overcome with curiousity, two foals climbed up on to her window bench to sit with her. She eyed them nervously, both of them were smiling and she was only somewhat larger than both of them. 

“I’m Dinky, and this is Piña,” Dinky said, introducing herself. “Are you a grown up?” 

Her crest rising, Belisama stared at Dinky wide eyed. 

“You’re kinda small,” Piña stated in a foalishly curious voice. 

“I’m an adult,” Belisama said in a nervous voice, her beak clacking together as she spoke.  The griffoness suddenly felt quite small with Dinky and Piña on either side of her. 

“You’re very pretty,” Dinky said, her eyes looking over Belisama’s distinct patterns. Dinky was completely unaware that her mother was watching every move she made. 

“How old are you?” Piña asked. 

“In the spring I will be almost two decades old,” Belisama replied, her tail now twitching with a mind of its own.

“I really like Lugus so I am probably going to like you too,” Dinky said, scooting a little closer to Belisama, and still completely oblivious that she was being watched by the adults at the table. 

“It’s rough being little… we little ones have to stick together. It’s going to be nice to have an adult that knows the pressures of being small… adults forget sometimes what it is like to be this little and can become quite patronising,” Piña said, glaring at the ponies around the table. 

“The papers said that the little griffons like you were kept as slaves and servants,” Dinky said in a subdued voice. “That isn’t right, picking on somepony because of their size. I wouldn’t want somepony picking on my daddy just ‘cause he’s a runt,” Dinky stated, looking Belisama in the eye as she spoke. 

At the table, Bucky snorted. 

“Ripple is on the smaller side but nopony in their right mind would pick on her,” Piña said, shaking her head at the though. “Ripple has this move called a ‘piledriver’ that she does… you should totally see it sometime.” 

“I’ll admit, I kinda want to hug you… you look like you might be kinda snuggly. I like cats. Rarity has a cat, but it’s cranky and not friendly. Other ponies have cats in Ponyville and I like those a lot. It’s actually very difficult to keep my hooves to myself because you look like you’d be nice to cuddle,” Dinky said to Belisama with foalish honesty. 

Reaching out her forelegs, saying nothing, Belisama embraced Dinky, her movements slow and hesitant. She pulled the foal in for a hug, and then a moment later she felt four forelegs circling around her and squeezing her tightly. 

“Oh you are very soft and fluffy,” Piña announced with what could only be described as foalish enthusiasm. “So very soft and fluffy!” 



 

Sitting around the table, Bucky and his wives watched the griffoness and the two foals sitting on the bay window bench as they had tea together. A broader cushioned chair had been brought in for Thistle, the hard wooden kitchen chairs were far too uncomfortable for her. 

“Sparkler and Rising Star both have a secondary school tutor now,” Berry reported. “They don’t have a lot of free time any more, but they sit down for four hours a day together and do schoolwork. They haven’t given up. Rising Star got elected and Sparkler is busy keeping Ponyville safe and secure. Crime has actually been a bit of a problem, shockingly enough. Mostly, what Sparkler and her troop do is calm the populace a bit. Seeing them out on patrol makes ponies feel better.”

“So Rising Star got elected,” Bucky said, staring down into his teacup. 

“Yeah… we had his parents over for a celebration dinner,” Thistle replied, squirming slightly in her chair. “My whole arse hurts,” she muttered. “Everything back there feels sore and tight.” 

“When does he get started with that job?” Bucky asked as he glanced at Thistle in concern. He felt miserable seeing her so uncomfortable. 

“Twilight Sparkle still has to perform the geas of office and the papers say it’ll be about two weeks before all ninety representatives meet in Canterlot for the first meeting. That’ll be a moment of history,” Berry answered as she grabbed a fresh scone to gobble down. 

One husband and five wives all turned to look at the sixth wife and two foals sitting in the bay window bench together, and a faint conversation could be heard about the troubles of being little. When Bucky heard the word “runt” being used in reference to him, he snorted and turned away, a wry half smile upon his lips. 

“Well, at least Sparkler and Rising Star are in school. Sort of,” Bon Bon huffed, none to pleased about the situation. 

“Barley says that Mister Chips comes highly recommended,” Berry said in a Berry serious voice, looking at her fellow earth pony. “Unicorn, type one, worked in a private school in Manehatten, Toffee Chips was a pioneering educator who won several educational awards, including one from Princess Celestia herself. He has a knack for making his students want to learn and pay attention. Barley conned him into working as a tutor, saying it was certain to get him a job at your school Bucky, which Mister Chips desperately wants.” 

“Fantastic,” Bucky said just before sipping his tea. It felt good to be home again and decompressing from the pressures of the outside world. He found he rather liked having mundane concerns again. 

“Our cook, Semillon Bordeaux is very nice,” Derpy said. “She and Barley are good friends now… and Semillon has a soft spot for Bittersweet. Say what you will about Barley, but he knows his ponies and how to read them. I don’t know how we lived without Semillon for so long.” 

“Where is our donkey nanny?” Bucky inquired after Derpy mentioned her by name. 

“Last I saw, Ripple was leading her away to have a chat with her, probably about having a hundred and some odd griffons around,” Lyra answered as she dunked a cookie in her glass of milk. “And there might be snogging. I suspect that there might be a bit of snogging. They were real happy to see one another.” 

“Getting around to that time of year where I start making snognog,” Bon Bon sighed. “I really need to get back to work. My cutie mark has been itching.” 

“What in Tartarus is ‘snognog’ and why am I intrigued?” Bucky questioned, raising his eyebrow curiously at Bon Bon. 

“Snognog is the greatest stuff on earth. Bon Bon makes fresh eggnog, blends it with spicy spiced rum, and then adds a healthy dollop of cinnamon liqueur. High test cinnamon liqueur,” Lyra explained, a smile splitting her muzzle as she realised she had Bucky’s undivided attention. “It’s like drinking a really hot and breathtaking kiss.” 

“Bon Bon… please, don’t make me beg, but you must get started making me some snognog right away. I will do almost anything within my power for you if you will just make me some snognog,” Bucky pleaded, his nostrils flaring with desire. 

“I’m already queen… not really sure what else I could ask for,” Bon Bon mused, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. 

“Oh look, they’re hugging,” Derpy announced, pointing at the bay window bench. 

“That’s adorable… now, about this snognog,” Bucky said, undeterred and focused on an issue near and dear to his own heart. He stared over the edge of his levitated teacup at the cream coloured earth pony across the table from him. 

“You’re awful,” Derpy grumbled, prodding her husband with her wing. 

Aghast, Bucky turned to look at Derpy. “I’ve had a very traumatic experience and that sounds like just the thing I need to make me feel better… well, that and watching you make silly faces while I stuff-” 

“That’s enough hot stuff,” Derpy interrupted. “Foals present.” The grey mare turned her gaze towards the bay window bench and watched the griffoness with her foals, noting how gentle Belisama was and how mindful she was of her talons, just like Lugus was. Her heart warmed slightly and she sighed a contented sigh. 

“Don’t let her soft cuddly appearance fool you,” Bucky said in a low voice. “She might act servile and soft around us, but make no mistake, she has no qualms about killing. She is every bit as fierce as Lugus but in a much smaller body.” 

“Good, I’m counting on it,” Derpy said, her eyes narrowing and pupils widening. She closed her bad eye and focused her stare upon Bucky. “There’s been a lot of trouble lately. As a mother, I need all the help I can get to put my mind as ease.” 

“Well, there is also Ripple’s guard and over one hundred griffons who are fanatically loyal to their new master and king,” Bon Bon interjected. “I think we’ve reached the point where if something tried to hurt our young, the response would be something written about in the history books.” 

“Something did try to hurt our young… and it will be written down in the history books… when The Scorned Mare came under attack, all I could think about was Harper and Peekaboo… I love those little snots,” Lyra grumbled, her eyes narrowing and her ears folding back against her head. 

“So Lyra conjured up a hurricane that was several hundred miles wide and had watermelon sized hail,” Bucky bragged, looking around the table. “I’ve never been more proud of Lyra.” 

Blushing, Lyra crammed a whole cookie into her mouth and stared down at her glass of milk. She chewed noisily, smacking her lips, feeling dreadfully self conscious. 

“For being so sweet to Lyra, I’m gonna make you some snognog,” Bon Bon offered. 

“Note to self… be sweet to Lyra more often,” Bucky remarked. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 347
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I missed you,” Bittersweet mouthed, her lips moving to form the the words, her eyes locked on Ripple’s own. “I was scared,” she added silently, her ears moving around, repeating her unspoken words in ear language. 

“There were some tense moments,” Ripple replied, moving her lips as well but saying nothing, her snoot only a short distance away from Bittersweet. “To be honest I was scared a few times. I got blinded. All of my training paid off though.” 

“Sparkler and I have been talking,” Bittersweet said wordlessly. “And Rising Star too. He’s been very kind to me and I kind of like him. Loch Skimmer and I have become friends.” 

“You do? You have? What have you been talking about?” Ripple questioned, her eyes going wide with curiousity, her lips moving but no audible words coming out. 

Saying nothing, Bittersweet wrapped her leg around Ripple’s neck and pulled her in, kissing her softly, warmly, pulling the pegasus close. She groped Ripple clumsily, one foreleg sliding down from Ripple’s crest to her withers. 

Finally, the two broke apart after a very wet, slobbery, and clumsy kiss. Staring at one another, not needing to say anything, Ripple held tightly to Bittersweet and did not let go. She pulled the donkey close again and squeezed her, glad to be home, glad to be safe, glad for the fighting to be over. Their necks twined together and Ripple could feel the throb of Bittersweet’s life blood against her throat. 

Feeling safe, feeling secure, and finally in a place where she no longer had to be so stoic, the horror of everything that had happened finally overcame Ripple and she began to weep, finally letting it all out as she held on to Bittersweet. 



 

Alone in his closet under the stairs, Sentinel was grateful to be home again and have his private space. Already, he was missing Spike, but took a bit of comfort in knowing he would see the dragon at school. Maybe even tomorrow if he could convince everypony to let him go right away. 

He closed his journal, set aside his pencil, rolled over onto his back, and then stared up at the underside of the wooden stairs. He just wanted things to go back to normal as soon as possible, whatever normal was. He wasn’t sure what normal was, but it involved some kind of routine and a repeating pattern of predictable events and activities that took place every day without fail. 

The news papers had been carefully folded and saved for him, and he had even looked at a few of them. Rising Star’s election. General Iron Sky facing criminal charges. Spitfire being elected to the Stable of Representatives. Coco Pommel organising a toy drive to collect toys for needy colts and fillies for this year’s Hearth’s Warming Eve. The paper with the news that his father had been shot in the head and the other paper about his father’s speech later that same day, given by Belisama, the queen of the griffons. The papers that talked about the massive blizzard that raged over what used to be Griffonholm. 

There was a lot to catch up with and Sentinel had a lot of reading to do. 

He thought about Moonbow, wishing that he could see her, and thought about sending word to Princess Luna, a request to see his betrothed. It would be nice to see Moonbow and get her perspective on everything that had happened. 

There was a soft knock upon his door and Sentinel rolled over. As he did so, the door opened and he saw Berry Punch smiling in at him, her ears perked forward and her eyes twinkling with merry mischief. 

“You have a visitor,” Berry announced and then stepped aside. 

A pink blur hurridly pushed its way into Sentinel’s cubby and the door was shut by Berry, leaving two foals trapped in a very confined space with one another. Before Sentinel could protest, Diamond Tiara had her forelegs around his neck and was squeezing him hard enough where most ponies would have strangled. 

“I was so scared,” Diamond Tiara admitted, her voice a soft squeak. 

Wrapping his own forelegs around her, Sentinel pulled her close and without a word of warning, pressed his lips against Diamond Tiara’s, giving her a mostly innocent but wet sounding smooch. The earth pony filly froze, her eyes blinking rapidly, her eyelashes fluttering, and her tail swished from side to side. 

“You actually missed me,” Diamond Tiara stated in a low whisper. 

“More than you know,” Sentinel confessed, still holding the filly he fancied. 

“I missed you… I missed you so much… I’ve been a mess without you actually,” Diamond Tiara confided in a low soft breathy voice. “My father keeps teasing me and saying I’m lovesick. Maybe I am.” 

“You’re so soft… and you smell good,” Sentinel murmured, snuffling along Diamond Tiara’s neck with his sensitive nose. He rubbed the spot just under his ear against her, unaware that he was marking her with his scent glands, leaving behind a slightly oily smear and marking her as his territory, just as he did with everypony that he loved, only this time, it was accidental. 

“Are we making out?” Diamond Tiara whispered. 

“I have no idea,” Sentinel replied, pulling her closer and grasping her tighter. “You… you’re very special to me. I thought about you while I was gone.” 



 

“So Sparkler, Rising Star, and Loch Skimmer all approve of me courting you,” Ripple said wordlessly, mouthing her words carefully so Bittersweet would understand. 

The donkey nodded and offered up a shy smile. 

“You’ve no doubt figured out the end result of all of this, I’m in a herd… I’m married. If we want to be together, this means…” 

Bittersweet nodded, understanding Ripple’s unfinished utterance all to well. “I understand where this ends and I don’t know yet. Give me time. I’m still thinking about all of this, but I do not deny that my heart beats for you. Rising Star promised me that he would be affectionate but also leave me be,” Bittersweet silently mouthed. “Sparkler has begun courting me as well, hoping to lure me in. I don’t know how I feel about her just yet, but I do know how I feel about you.” 

Smiling broadly, Ripple learned forward and kissed the donkey on the cheek. 

“More than my herd, I have other duties,” Ripple mouthed, looking into Bittersweet’s eyes. “My griffon guard unit and the empire that I serve.” 

Seeing the word griffon, Bittersweet looked terribly afraid for a moment but relaxed when Ripple stroked her with a wing. 

“I have given my guard orders to keep you safe, happy, and earn your trust,” Ripple said carefully, making sure that Bittersweet could see her lips move. “Are you going to be okay with that?” 

It took several moments, but Bittersweet finally nodded in reply. 

“They get treated like donkeys do,” Ripple mouthed. “Treated as servants and slaves. I know this is troubling with you, but you have something in common with the little griffons. I’ve talked with them, they were horrified by what their larger kin did to the donkeys.” 

Bittersweet threw her forelegs around Ripple’s neck and squeezed, pulling the pegasus close as the first tears began to fall. The donkey began to weep silently, her ears going limp against her head. 



 

“Bucky, we need to talk,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

“What about, love?” Bucky responded, not lifting his head from the arm of his chair in the library. It felt good to be home. 

“Thistle isn’t the only one facing some complications from pregnancy,” Derpy said in a soft voice. 

“What’s wrong?” Bucky asked, lifting his head and looking at Derpy in concern. 

“I’ve been noticing some pain in my pelvis Bucky,” Derpy answered, shaking her head as she spoke. “Just little pain, but pain. I was worried so I told the doctor about it. You remember how I told you about how they broke my pelvis to get Dinky out?” 

“Yes, the symphysiotomy,” replied Bucky, recalled a painful conversation from the summer. “They had to smash your pelvis, breaking it to get Dinky out.” 

“I have some arthritis down there Bucky… they’re telling me as my pregnancy progresses and the winter sets in, it is going to get worse and worse,” Derpy said in a subdued voice, staring down at the hardwood floors as she spoke. 

“How bad?” Bucky inquired in a raspy voice made gravelly from pain. 

“They don’t know how bad just yet,” Derpy said in a low voice. “But they are telling me it has the potential to become unbearable,” the pegasus murmured. “They talked with Berry Punch about the possibly of me being bedridden and if I would have somepony to look after me.” 

“But the pain isn’t so bad right now?” Bucky inquired, looking at his mate in concern. 

“No, I’m fine for shagging,” Derpy said, offering a warm smile and a soft fillyish laugh. “I thought it was a bladder infection actually. I had a bad one while I was carrying Dinky and oh gosh did it hurt.” 

“I don’t know what to do,” Bucky stated, looking defeated and helpless. 

“Nothing anypony can do. I’m just going to have to grin and bear it,” Derpy said, her nostrils flaring as her ears splayed out sideways. “It’s worth it, I’ve wanted more foals. Dinky needs siblings.” 

“And I suppose Berry is fine,” Bucky sighed. 

“Berry has a body made for pregnancy the doctor said. She has wide foal bearing hips, a sturdy spine, and she has hip joints that are in magnificent shape from all of the running and wagon pulling she’s done,” Derpy said, her smile growing a little broader. “You and I both know from experience that Berry Punch has a body made for foal making as well.” 





Princess Twilight Sparkle paced in front of the library, looking at the twenty pegasi guard scouts assembled before her. Her head was held high and she towered at her new full height over all of them, her wings fluttering nervously as she walked back and forth. 

“As stated in your mission briefing packets, his name is Cheese Sandwich. You’ve seen pictures of him. His current whereabouts are unknown, but I want him found and I want him brought to Canterlot. Move quickly. Once he is located, I don’t care what you have to do, get him to Canterlot immediately. Tell him that Pinkie Pie is in terrible trouble and she needs his help. Do you understand your orders?” Twilight Sparkle said, offering instruction to the solar scouts standing before her. 

“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” the scouts all replied in unison. 

“Well, don’t just stand there, get moving!” Twilight snapped in irritation. 

The guard immediately responded, taking off in different directions towards Equestria’s major cities and settlements, leaving Twilight Sparkle standing in a cloud of dust. 

“I hope they hurry.” 

Twilight turned and looked at Rainbow Dash, who had come out of the library. 

“How are you feeling Dash?” Twilight asked. 

“Still woozy sometimes. I got hit in the head pretty hard, the doctor in Canterlot said it might affect my balance for a while. And my emotions,” Rainbow Dash replied, thinking about how much she had been crying lately. 

“What is Flash doing?” Twilight inquired, her eyes lingering over the blue pegasus as she looked at her friend in an entirely new way now. 

“He and Spike are playing cards together and having fun,” Rainbow Dash answered. “They’re getting to be good buddies. Spike doesn’t want time to settle in, he wants to go to school tomorrow. He’s so excited, he won’t shut up about it.” 

“Rainbow, you feeling up for a little trip?” Twilight questioned as she cautiously approached Rainbow Dash. Leaning her head down, she gingerly kissed the now smaller pegasus on the cheek. 

“A walk?” Rainbow Dash replied. 

“Before the sun sets, we have one more family member to look after,” Twilight said nervously to her fellow-wife. 

“Today? Right now? Really?” Rainbow questioned excitedly. 

“Raven sent the official order from Canterlot when we were there earlier,” Twilight Sparkle stated. “Consider this my wedding gift.” 

“So we’ve just got to go and pick her up?” Rainbow squeaked, her eyes watering over with tears once more as her ears drooped down. 

“Yes. But she doesn’t know we are coming. It’s a surprise,” Twilight responded. 

“Do you know where she is?” Rainbow Dash questioned, looking up at Twilight as she cried, her eyes full of unabashed adoration and love. 

“If everything has gone as planned, she is at the Carousel Boutique with Rarity, Coco, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. They were having a little welcome home party for Rarity, and that was the plan to lure Scootaloo there,” Twilight explained. 

“I can walk to Rarity’s place,” Rainbow Dash said as she staggered dizzily off. 
	
	
> Chapter 348
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the hour before dawn, the house was full of hustle and bustle. Semillon, the cook, was already getting breakfast for the foals ready, and the other early risers as well, There was an unmistakable feeling of excitement in the air. Sentinel could barely contain himself, today was the first day of school for him. It had taken much cajoling, but finally his father had made the final say, which meant that Sentinel was going to school. 

Citrus Summer, the earth pony foal of the hard working ponies who looked after the land and the garden, was having breakfast with them and would be catching a ride to school with them this morning, as she did every morning. She sat at the table, chattering away to Dinky and Piña, going on about the difficulty of moving a pencil with your lips. 

Breakfast was thick oatmeal and freshly baked cinnamon rolls, along with all of the usual stuff that went on oatmeal. Little nostrils flared as Semillon applied the glaze to the cinnamon rolls, and wide little eyes glanced over to watch her work. 

“Cinnamon buns are sticky,” Derpy groaned, awake before the chickens. “Now I will have little foals with little sticky faces.” 

“Your buns are sticky,” Piña quipped. 

“They might be… how would you like for me to be your foalsitter Piña?” Derpy replied, a bit of a grin spreading over Derpy’s lips as she settled down at the table. 

“Don’t sit on me with sticky buns!” Piña protested, which made Citrus Summer bray with laughter. 

“Buns,” Dinky remarked and then began to giggle immaturely. 

Rolling his eyes, Sentinel looked at his sister Dinky and his ears folded back against his head. “I remember you being a bit more mature.” 

Turning to look at her brother, Dinky smiled a broad toothy smile. “Discord reminded me of how important it was to play and be a foal.” 

“Discord, who was well behaved and made me suspicious,” Derpy grumbled, her face clouding over with motherly worry. “Where is Ripple?”

“Outside getting a run before school,” Piña answered. “Can I put peanut butter in my oatmeal?”

“I don’t see why not,” Derpy said, her voice patient and loving in a way that only a devoted mother can be patient and loving this early in the morning. 

“So are we princesses now?” Dinky inquired, looking up at her mother. 

“Dinky… that’s complicated,” Derpy responded, looking down at her daughter. 

“Life is often complicated,” Dinky stated, giving a knowing nod to her mother. 

“To the griffons yes. But ponies don’t need to know and you don’t need to go around introducing your self as Princess Dinky Doo Hooves,” Derpy said, her tone becoming firm. 

“I had no plans to do that,” Dinky said in a low voice. “I was just curious. I can’t wait to meet all of the griffons and be nice to them.” 

“You’re very sweet Dinky,” Derpy said proudly. 

“Belisama is so soft and fluffy,” Piña remarked. “And she is so nice to us. She said we were very well behaved and not bratty at all.” 

“She doesn’t know you very well yet,” Derpy snarked, her brows furrowing. 

“Ouch!” Piña cried, looking wounded as Dinky began to giggle. 

Hoisting the tray of cinnamon buns high in the air with her magic, Semillon brought them over to the table and set them down carefully, making sure nothing was disturbed. Finicky about her duties, the unicorn mare made no distinction between serving foals and serving adults, she did her very best either way and held herself to exacting standards. The tray was carefully placed in the center of the table and nothing was jostled. 

“Thank you,” Sentinel said as Semillon turned to head back to the stove. 

Turning her head to look at the colt, Semillon smiled. “You’re welcome.” Having replied, the cook headed off to fetch the oatmeal, humming quietly to herself. 

“What are we going to do when Berry Punch is too fat to pull a wagon?” Piña asked as she grabbed a sticky cinnamon roll to eat. 

Rolling her eyes, Derpy shook her head. “Well, for foals that call one of their parents fat, they get to walk to school in the morning.” 

“But we have to walk home in the afternoon,” Piña protested. “And it is a very long way. I meant to say fat with foal,” the earth pony foal corrected, looking at Derpy with wide eyes as she stuffed as much cinnamon bun in her mouth as equinely possible. 

“My mother has offered to pull the wagon,” Citrus Summer said, hesitantly taking a cinnamon roll, which caused Derpy to look concerned. 

“You’re our guest. There is no need to be shy about taking food,” Derpy said in a gentle voice. “You take what you need. I don’t like how scrawny you look,” the motherly grey pegasus stated. 

“Thank you,” Citrus Summer said just before taking a bite. 

“We’ll figure out something when the time comes. Now eat. All of you. Sentinel, are you nervous?” Derpy said, her gaze falling upon her colt as she asked her question. 

“I get to see Spike again and see how he is settling in,” Sentinel said dismissively. 



 

It is a dreadful feeling, realising that you are different, that you are doing something that causes you to stand out among your peers. Such was the case with Sentinel, who realised that he was the only foal in class that was eagerly paying attention and taking notes about Cheerilee’s history lecture. He glanced at Spike, who had a dull glazed look in his eye. Spike had done well for the first lesson of the day, script work was something that Spike did well, and his writing skills were complimented, but the dragon had begun to drift off during history. 

The classroom was entirely too full and crowded. More desks had been crammed in, leaving very little room between them. Most of the students were nodding off during the mid-morning lull as Cheerilee continued her lesson about history. 

“... and so began the era of freedom, once the era of slavery had come to an end. Equestrian subjects were finally left alone to live in peace after a long and difficult battle with the nations that practiced slavery. Slavery in the world was put to an end. Are there any questions?” 

Looking around nervously, Sentinel raised his foreleg. 

“Yes Sentinel?” Cheerilee said, glad to see at least one student was paying attention. She made notes about the others who were napping. 

“But slavery didn’t end. House Avarice continued in the slave trade, and it happened right here in Equestria. Dodge City started off as a slave market where slaves were bought and sold to work in the many mines, and the practice continued even after slavery was officially outlawed. Plus, Equestria did nothing to stop the world slave trade, we just pretended to condemn it within our own borders. The Sea of Grass continues to this very day dealing with slavers who steal their citizens. Should I even bring up the fact that the griffons took a massive part of their own species and turned them into slaves?” Sentinel said in a nervous voice. 

“Um… I’m not sure what to say,” Cheerilee said in a somewhat panicked voice. “I will admit that the history printed in the history books isn’t always accurate.” 

“Diamond dogs took my sister Rarity and tried to make her a slave. She had to be rescued. And that happened here in Equestria. And still keeps happening, or so my sister says. The south is lawless,” Sweetie Belle interjected, her green eyes glittering with foalish anger. 

“And then there is wage slavery, like what happened in Baltimare, where the pay is so low that ponies have just enough to get by, but never enough to get out, and some of the factories operated by House Avarice didn’t pay in bits, but company coins, had company credits, and company stores. Ponies often died in debt to the company credit providers and the company stores, plus the costs of their own houses. Somehow they died in debt after working their entire lives and had nothing to show for it. That’s slavery,” Sentinel stated in a matter of fact voice. 

“That is a bit beyond the simple history lesson we had today,” Cheerilee said in a nervous voice. “I’m not supposed to say this, but I will admit that there was and continues to be a lot of unpleasant and unfair things in the world. I suppose the important lesson here today is that it is important to study these things for yourself.” 

“If it is wrong, why teach it?” Sentinel inquired. 

For a moment, Cheerilee looked frantic. Her eyes darted around the room. Anger flashed in her eyes. Her ears drooping in defeat, Cheerilee closed her eyes. “Because I am not much better than a slave myself. I became a teacher to make a difference and I am continuously coerced into teaching things I don’t agree with just so I can keep my job. I endure because I want to believe that things will get better, but change takes time. So I do what I can when I can when I have the chance to do it and hope that one day I will get a chance to make the difference I wanted to make before I am too burned out and bitter from all of the compromises I had to make.” Taking a deep breath, Cheerilee opened her eyes and found Sentinel staring at her intently. 

“Your day is coming,” Sentinel said in a low voice, his eyes locked on Cheerilee. 



 

“So how is school? Is this what you had hoped for?” Sentinel inquired, looking at Spike. Beside him was Diamond Tiara and his two sisters, Dinky and Piña. 

“I liked the writing and the math. The history lesson was boring until the end of it, where you made it interesting. The first half of the day wasn’t bad,” Spike admitted. 

“Math is not my best subject,” Sentinel stated. 

“Nor Ripple’s,” Dinky muttered. “She’s off sulking over there. I feel bad for her.” 

“She doesn’t wish to be bothered,” Sentinel said to Dinky. “She’s having a tough go at this transition. She’d rather be at home continuing her martial training.” 

“You seem to be adjusting well enough,” Piña remarked. 

“I have my friends and my sisters with me,” Sentinel responded. 

“Oh no, here comes trouble,” Diamond Tiara muttered. 

Tensing, Piña’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the approaching colt. “And I’m not allowed to punch him again either.” 

“No bees,” Dinky whispered to herself. 

“Hello losers!” 

“Oh gosh, I used to sound like that," Diamond Tiara muttered. 

“I’m surprised they allowed monsters to come to school,” the colt said, first looking at Sentinel and then Spike. 

“Look, Steeplechase, just go away and leave us alone,” Diamond Tiara said in a flat humourless voice, her ears folding back against her skull. 

“Give me one good reason,” Steeplechase sneered. 

“Just go away,” Dinky muttered. 

“Leave us alone,” Diamond Tiara said, her eyes downcast as she thought about all of the times she had done this herself. 

“Gonna cry about it Diamond? When are you gonna tell your headshrinker about your new coltfriend? I see you had to go for the ugly one because nopony else will even give you the time of day,” Steeplechase teased. 

The colt’s words cut deep, and before he was even finished, Diamond Tiara had begun crying. Dinky and Piña had moved between Steeplechase and Diamond Tiara, and Sentinel had wrapped one foreleg around Diamond Tiara’s withers to comfort her. 

“Sod off,” Piña swore, her eyes narrowing. “Want another long nap?” she asked as she raised her left front hoof in a threatening gesture. 

“Want to be arrested? This time my father promises to press charges!” Steeplechase retorted, taking a step closer to Piña. 

“Then I guess I’d better do something worth getting in trouble for… your mouth has far too many teeth I think!” Piña threatened, her lips curling back from her teeth as her eyes became piercing pinpoints of rage. 

“What’s going on here?” 

Everypony stopped and looked at the drawling voice. Apple Bloom stood a short distance away, her eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. Sweetie Belle was on her left and Scootaloo was on her right. 

“I wasn’t causing trouble, I promise, I wasn’t instigating anything!” Diamond Tiara whined, burying her face into Sentinel’s neck as she continued to cry. 

“You know Apple Bloom, I’ve always wondered something. Is Applejack and Big Mac your bother and sister… or are they your mother and father?” Steeplechase asked, his lip curled back in a snarl. 

Before Apple Bloom could make her angry retort, a grey blur shot past her and collided with Steeplechase, bowling the colt over and sending him sprawling. The grey blur happened to be Rumble, who began a furious assault upon the earth pony colt, moving with the sort of furious speed only an enraged pegasus could muster. 

“Dirty motherplucker!” Rumble shouted as he punched Steeplechase in the snoot, sending a spray of blood spurting out onto the grass nearby. He pulled up his front hoof and rammed it down again, striking Steeplechase in the eye this time with a wet meaty sounding thud. The third punch connected with Steeplechase’s lip, splitting it open on the colt’s teeth. 

A crowd began to gather and there was shouting. It wasn’t long until Cheerilee came running over and tried to put an end to the scuffle, but Rumble ignored the attempts to pull him away, getting in several more hammering blows. 

It wasn’t long until the pegasi, always watching, began to land. 



 

Cheerilee sighed, knowing that something like this was bound to happen. The classroom was over crowded, the students were stressed, and everything was under constant pressure. Steeplechase, bloodied and bruised, one eye swollen shut and forced to breathe through his mouth because both nostrils were swollen shut, was being lifted away to the hospital by a helpful pegasus. Rumble was sitting on a bench waiting for one of his parents to arrive. The students were divided. Some were spooked and would not stop crying, others were excited, jubilant even, that Steeplechase had been so soundly thrashed. 

His eyes on Cheerilee, Sentinel wrapped his wing a little tighter around Diamond Tiara as she continued to sniffle and cry. He felt a hot prickly heat along the back of his neck, a symptom of his frustration no doubt, and he didn’t know what to say to make the sobbing earth pony at his side feel better. 

“Are you really seeing a psychologist?” Dinky whispered, patting Diamond Tiara on the back and trying to comfort her. 

“A psychiatrist,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “A behaviour specialist. I wanted to get better,” she said as she drew in a deep shuddering breath and trembled. 

“And you didn’t tell us?” Piña questioned in a low voice. 

“It’s embarrassing and I am ashamed of it,” Diamond Tiara murmured. 

“So how does Steeplechase know?” Sentinel inquired. 

“His father is my psychiatrist,” Diamond Tiara sniffled. 

Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel watched as Blossomforth and Raindrops arrived, wearing the hats and badges that marked them as officers of the law while Diamond Tiara continued to sob softly with her face pressed into Sentinel’s neck. 

“What do you think they are going to do to Rumble?” Dinky asked. 

“I dunno… nothing good. He keeps getting into fights,” Piña replied. “He beat the stuffing out of another colt for teasing his sister Cloudstreaker.” 

“You did good Sentinel,” Dinky said. 

“I did?” Sentinel questioned. 

“You didn’t get into a fight or hurt him. Would have made you look bad,” Dinky responded. She leaned over and kissed Sentinel on the cheek. “You let us protect you in these situations. We can’t have other ponies afraid of you.” 

“And there comes Flitter and Cloudchaser… oh boy do they look angry!” Piña exclaimed in a worried squeak. “Poor Rumble...” 

“You know, Diamond, we don’t have a problem with you seeking help. You shouldn’t be ashamed,” Sentinel whispered as he gave Diamond Tiara a squeeze. 

“I feel so bad now… I can’t seem to catch a break and I know exactly what I have put others through. I used to talk and act just like Steeplechase… I feel so guilty,” Diamond Tiara whispered. 

“You okay Diamond Tiara?” 

The group looked over at Sweetie Belle, who had a warm look of genuine concern upon her face. Beside her was Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. The trio all looked worried as they drew closer. 

“I’m so sorry,” Diamond Tiara said, sniffling as she lifted her head to look at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “I did such awful things.” 

“Are you okay though?” Sweetie Belle repeated. 

“I think she’ll be okay,” Dinky said, turning to look at the still sobbing pink earth pony that her brother was holding. “Might be nice if she had some forgiveness.” 

“About that… that’s why we’re here,” Apple Bloom said in a low voice as she watched Rumble getting lectured by his mothers. 

“We had no idea that you were getting help. We feel a little guilty now. You really are trying to turn over a new leaf and we’ve shut you out and we’ve acted like jerks,” Scootaloo said, looking down at the ground as she kicked the grass with one front hoof nervously. 

“So what we’re trying to say is, we’re sorry too,” Sweetie Belle said in apologetic tones to Diamond Tiara. 

“Thank you,” Diamond Tiara whispered. “I don’t deserve it, but thank you.” 

“Don’t talk like that,” Dinky grunted. 

“Rumble keeps living up to his name,” Apple Bloom mused. 

The group of foals looked at one another, a silence falling upon them. Saying nothing, Apple Bloom went to Diamond Tiara’s side and sat down beside her. Cautiously raising her hoof, Apple Bloom patted Diamond Tiara on the back. Sweetie Belle sat down in the grass and Scootaloo sat down as well. 

“I think Cheerilee has had enough for the day. I think they’re going to call off classes for the rest of the day,” Sweetie Belle said as she looked at Cheerilee, who was sitting off by herself and sobbing. “Be right back girls,” she remarked as she stood up and headed off towards Cheerilee. 

Watching Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo heaved a sigh. She saw Sweetie place her forelegs around Cheerilee’s neck and give the teacher a hug. “I don’t think Cheerilee can take much more. Something has to give. Something has to change. She’s just one pony.” 

“And I used to make her life so miserable,” Diamond Tiara muttered, fresh tears now streaming from the corners of her eyes. 

“I finally got the change I was waiting for,” Scootaloo murmured. “I hope that Cheerilee gets the change that she deserves.” 

“She cries a lot at home,” Apple Bloom said in a low voice. “My brother tries to make her feel better. She didn’t want school to start.” 

“Diamond Tiara… I want you to do something,” Sentinel said in a commanding voice, his words tickling Diamond Tiara’s ear. 

“What do you want?” Diamond Tiara asked, lifting her head to look at Sentinel. 

“I want you to go over there and give Cheerilee a hug,” Sentinel said in an authoritative voice that was remarkably like his father’s own commanding voice. 

“You want me to do WHAT?” Diamond Tiara questioned, her eyes going wide. “She hates me… I’ve seen the way she looks at me… I’m part of the problem.” 

“Do it,” Sentinel said, first giving Diamond Tiara a gentle nudge and then a much harder shove when she refused to budge. “Just go.” 

Grumbling and looking betrayed, Diamond Tiara got to her hooves, shook herself, and then trotted off to Cheerilee. Aware that she was being watched, she cautiously approached, sat down beside Sweetie Belle, and then raised one foreleg in an inviting gesture. 

Watching with great interest, Sentinel saw Diamond Tiara getting swept up into a big earth pony hug by Cheerilee, who squeezed the small filly foal fiercely. 

“That was right nice of you,” Apple Bloom drawled, looking over at Sentinel. “I’ll admit, I thought you looked a bit scary, but this just goes to show that looks ain’t everything. My sister Applejack says you are the nicest pony and she was right.” 

Unable to reply, Sentinel blushed and turned away. 

“Poor Rumble… Cloudchaser and Flitter are working him over with wing slaps… yeouch!” Scootaloo said as she cringed from the sight. “Oh crap, here comes officer Thunderlane. He’s got his hat and his badge on… this is gonna be bad.” 

“This has been a terrible first day of school,” Spike grumbled, kicking at a rock with his foot. “This is the kind of stuff that Twilight complained about when she gave reasons why she didn’t want to send me to school.” 

“Spike… just tell Twilight that you learned something today and make up something that sounds reasonable,” Apple Bloom suggested. 

“Oh gosh I’m probably going to get some kind of earful as well,” Scootaloo grumbled. “The first night at home was awesome, but today is going to be awful.” 

“Rainbow Dash is going to make an awesome mother… it’s Twilight we gotta worry about,” Spike mumbled, looking at Scootaloo. “Feels weird having a sister.” 

“Oh look, officer Thunderlane has taken off his hat and passed it to Blossomforth,” Apple Bloom said, looking over at the commotion. 

“That can’t be good,” Scootaloo said, turning away from what was sure to be an ugly situation. “Poor Rumble.” 

“So, when they let us out of school, who wants to go to Sugarcube Corner?” Piña asked. “No sense going home right away. I have bits in my schoolbag and I know Dinky brought some too.” 

“But I want to do my homework,” Sentinel said, looking at Piña. 

“Sentinel, you’re hopeless,” Piña responded, looking at her brother with wide eyes. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 349
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling rather pleased with himself, Bucky stood in the room he was preparing for his apprentice. It occupied the floor just below his office and was now somewhat furnished. There was a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf. A bathroom of sorts had been added, with an incineration toilet created through enchantment. Unicorns had ways and means of looking after themselves, far more than the average earth pony or pegasus. 

“Getting ready for your apprentice?”

Bucky turned and looked at Lyra, who was peering around the room curiously. “How were the stairs?” 

“Normal,” Lyra replied. “I think you have the enchantment just right. Still can’t teleport in here though.” 

Nodding, Bucky sat down and watched as Lyra made her inspection. He had told Lyra of his plan and Lyra approved, with the caveat that she also have a hoof in Sunset Shimmer’s training. He watched Lyra look over the bed and the bookshelf. 

“So what have you learned about her?” Lyra inquired as she inspected the small closet where the incineration toilet was tucked away. 

“She started off being much older than Twilight Sparkle… Twilight Sparkle was just being noticed when Sunset Shimmer had her downfall as a filly on the edge of being a mare. Time passes differently on the other side of the mirror. Sunset Shimmer has stayed almost the same age, while Twilight has grown up, making them both similar ages. Sunset Shimmer was skilled in abjuration and at some point, gained an illicit knowledge of destructive magics. Sunset Shimmer was being trained to be a spellbreaker, no doubt that Princess Celestia wanted her student to become a Black Cloak,” Bucky said, reciting everything he knew to Lyra in a somewhat droning monotone. 

“Plan to make her a Black Cloak yourself I take it,” Lyra said as she turned around to look at Bucky. She began to walk towards him slowly, taking note how dramatically and delightfully evil he looked wearing the black cloak he now favoured. Lyra knew it was all theatre really, while Bucky was capable of doing bad things, terrible things, the unicorn mare loved him and appreciated his darkness. 

But she did not find him evil. 

“How did your meeting with Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks go?” Bucky asked as Lyra approached him. He looked down as she smoothed out his cloak with her hoof and straightened out his torque. He caught himself a whiff of cinnamon and minty toothpaste as Lyra breathed on him. 

“There’s been some curious goings on,” Lyra replied as she continued to adjust Bucky’s cloak and smoothed out the patch of long shaggy hair on his chest. “They went to Dodge City while we were gone. The undead in the deserts around Dodge City certainly aren’t a rumour. Witching Hour told me that she saw with her own eyes several undead ponies, an undead cow, and one undead buffalo. She and Tiddlywinks put them down but she expects more of them will just keep coming.” 

“This is worrisome,” Bucky grumbled as Lyra sat down beside him and looked out the window. “We need to find the source. There are necromantic death cults out in the deserts. Type twos being lured in by the promise of unlimited power.” 

“I will confess, I held an unhealthy obsession with it,” Lyra whispered, her eyes focused on the distant treeline of the Everfree outside of the window. “Gone now. I have other obsessions.” 

“Like what?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

“Like motherhood,” Lyra replied, turning to look at Bucky. 





Tucked away in a corner table at Sugarcube Corner, a group of foals sat together, speaking about the day’s events in low voice with one another. Ripple, who was enjoying herself immensely, was tucked into the actual corner itself, with Sentinel on one side and Scootaloo on the other. Beside Sentinel was Diamond Tiara, and beside her was Dinky and Piña. Spike, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were beside Scootaloo, and the group crowded around the small table sipping milkshakes and eating brownies. 

“Funny story about Rumble,” Scootaloo admitted, looking at Ripple. “Well, uh. you see… he might have done what he did for a reason… maybe.” 

“What’s the matter Scoots, cat got your tongue?” Apple Bloom teased, looking over at her friend and having a bit of a laugh.

“Apple Bloom, you are the last pony to talk about tongues,” Sweetie Belle squeaked nervously, turning to look at the earth pony beside her. 

Blushing, Apple Bloom glared at Sweetie Belle, her eyes narrowing. “Shut up Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom grumbled and then stuffed a bite of brownie in her mouth, chewing angrily as she turned away from Sweetie Belle. 

“What’s that all about?” Spike asked.

“The funny story involving Rumble,” Scootaloo replied, looking around at her companions with a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

“A bunch of us got together and played spin the bottle,” Sweetie Belle admitted. “Rumble took a spin and it pointed at Apple Bloom. So Rumble kissed her on the cheek and I got a little jealous because I’ve been kinda having a crush on Rumble. So later on, when we weren’t playing spin the bottle, I sorta arranged to bump into Rumble.” 

Dinky and Piña both stuck out their tongues and gagged at the same time. 

“And Sweetie Belle kinda gives him a sloppy kiss… and Apple Bloom got jealous. So Apple Bloom marches up, grabs Rumble, and kisses him. And somehow manages to slip him the tongue just a little bit, which totally weirded Rumble out. So he split, he took off and left our little get together. And Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both start arguing over who gets to be with Rumble,” Scootaloo explained, barely able to contain her laughter. 

“After a bit of a scuffle, Scoots said to Sweetie Belle and I that we could all share Rumble, and then Sweetie and I put two and two together and realised that Scoots has a thing for Rumble too,” Apple Bloom said as she shot a glance at both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. 

“So then what happened?” Ripple questioned, her ears perking forward with curiousity as she looked at the trio beside her.

“Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both jumped me and there was another scuffle,” Scootaloo replied. 

“You three,” Spike muttered as he rolled his eyes. 

“After the scuffle, we talked and reminded each other that we are best friends, and friends stick together,” Scootaloo said. 

“And I sort of suggested that, as friends, we can share Rumble,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“So now, we’re all working together to tame Rumble and make him ours,” Apple Bloom finished, looking around the table at her friends. 

“Poor Rumble,” Spike groaned. “You three destroy everything you touch.” 

“That’s not… totally true,” Scootaloo said hesitantly. “You be nice or I’ll tell mom,” she giggled. 

“I bet it feels nice to say that,” Piña remarked. 

“You have no idea,” Scootaloo responded, looking over at Piña. 

“So are you two an item?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at Diamond Tiara and Sentinel. 

“I suppose we are,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “I must confess, he makes me happy.” 

“And today, he got you to hug Cheerilee, which made her happy,” Dinky chimed in. 

“Yeah… she said she felt as though she finally reached me as a teacher,” Diamond Tiara said in a low wavering voice that dripped with embarrassment. “Thank you Sentinel,” she whispered and then kissed Sentinel on the cheek. 

“Aw, that’s so sweet,” Sweetie Belle gushed, her mouth hanging open in adoration of the touching moment. The unicorn filly brushed her curly mane out of her eyes and looked at Diamond Tiara. “You really have changed.” 

“I’m trying,” Diamond Tiara replied, her gaze dropping down to look at the table. 

“Applejack told me that if you're lucky, you meet a pony that makes you want to be a better pony. And if you’re really lucky, you marry them,” Apple Bloom said as she pulled her milkshake closer. “She said that Silver Shill told her that she makes him want to be a better pony and he’s made a lot of changes because of my sister.” 

“I think Sentinel is that pony for me,” Diamond Tiara admitted in a low voice. “Doctor Bluegrass told me to focus on my relationship with Sentinel and see if I can develop a positive relationship with just one pony that isn’t my father.” 

“You’ve talked to him about us?” Sentinel questioned, turning to look at Diamond Tiara. “I’m okay with it, don’t be panicked, I was just curious.” 

“It started off when I told him about what I did to Princess Luna and how you held me accountable for my actions,” Diamond Tiara said in a low raspy voice that was barely audible. “Dr. Bluegrass said that I need ponies that love me enough or care about me enough to hold me accountable for my mistakes and that I need to focus on making friends with those kinds of ponies even if it makes me feel uncomfortable and makes me hurt.” 

“We’ll hold you accountable,” Apple Bloom said in warm voice, looking at Diamond Tiara. “And we’ll be your friends. Sounds like you could use a few.” 

“What you need is martial discipline,” Ripple grunted as she pulled her lips away from her straw. She focused her eyes on Diamond Tiara and offered a wicked grin. “Sparky and I could whip you into shape.” 

Terrified, Diamond Tiara’s eyes went wide as she stared at Ripple. She leaned closer to Sentinel, who began to chuckle softly, and gave her a nudge. She began to tremble when she realised that Sentinel might actually think this was a good idea. 

“I think that’s a great plan Ripple,” Sentinel remarked. 

“No,” Diamond Tiara whimpered, her worst fears confirmed. 

“I was only kidding,” Ripple mentioned. She watched as Diamond Tiara melted down into her seat in relief, her forelegs resting on the table. “But to be honest, getting involved in this family involves a lot of bleeding, heartache, and sacrifice. Don’t let that scare you away, it’s worth it, but be forewarned what you are getting into.” 

“My father gave me a long talk actually. He sat me down and said that I wasn’t getting involved with the common colt next door. He spent a lot of time explaining just what I was getting into… so I know,” Diamond Tiara said in a low quavering voice. “I understand that this is not an easy path to follow.” 

“But it is very rewarding,” Ripple stated, looking around the table at her companions. 

Looking pensive, Spike drummed his claws upon the table rhythmically, his narrowing in deep thought. “I had some of the best moments of my life on that trip. And also some of the worst. I still don’t know how I feel.” 

“You’re alive, and you have a story,” Ripple said as she looked at Spike. “You got be a dragon, as awful as that might be, and now you know exactly what you are capable of, for good or for ill.” 

“I suppose so,” Spike said thoughtfully. “I guess I do know exactly what I’d do if something tried to hurt Twilight.” 

“Or your family,” Scootaloo remarked. “Even me,” she added softly. 

“This is why I ignored Steeplechase,” Sentinel grumbled. “I’ve seen and dealt with real threats, and there was nothing remotely threatening about him. I’ve eaten things more dangerous than he was. Or tried to. Like that stinky skunk that sprayed me.” 

“I’ve seen Sentinel deal with threats,” Spike whispered. “It’s awful. We’re both awful in what we can do.” For a moment, the pained expression on Spike’s face looked as though it was almost too much for the young dragon to bear, and then it softened when he looked over at Scootaloo. “This trip taught me a lot about myself. It gave me a family, it gave me friends, and now I have sister too… I guess it’s all a fair trade.” 

“There is no greater bond than those forged in battle,” Ripple said, lifting her head high. “Lugus constantly reminds me of that when he and I are sparring. In bloody life or death combat, you learn who your friends are and who really loves you.” 

“This is true,” Spike agreed, nodding his head. “I know that Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry love Twilight more than any words will ever say because of what they did. I know that Sentinel and I are friends and I would do anything to help him.” 

“Gosh girls,” Apple Bloom said, looking around the table. “Sounds like the Crusaders need to go on a diplomacy trip with Bucky and his family sometime.” 

“I’m up for it,” Scootaloo announced. 

“I dunno, Rarity said she’d kill me if I ever took a trip with Bucky,” Sweetie Belle said in a fearful voice as she looked around the table. 
	
> Chapter 350
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The note Bucky had received burned brightly, turning to ash and blowing away in the faint breeze. It was a simple note delivered by a helpful pegasus, a note from Twilight Sparkle letting him know that Sunset Shimmer was now on the Equestria side of the mirror. He felt a dreadful feeling of apprehension about the coming meeting. So much was riding on what took place this evening, including luring Celestia out of her hiding spot. 

There was a lot of pressure on Bucky, as was usually the case. 

“You look nervous.” 

“Of course I’m nervous!” Bucky said, replying to Derpy, who had just spoken with him and was now brushing up against his side. He pressed the good side of his face against his wife and rubbed his cheek against her. 

“I don’t understand everything that is going on, but I understand that it is important. You’ll do fine,” Derpy said in a reassuring voice. The grey mare could feel her husband fidgeting against her and felt a strong sense of worry when she realised just how tense he was about this situation. “This is one of those impossibly complex situations, isn’t it?” 

“Yes,” Bucky gasped, feeling somewhat panicked. “So much depends on what happens here tonight. We need more Black Cloaks. Celestia needs to come to terms with some of the mistakes she’s made so she can begin to heal. So many things depend upon this one event and how it turns out.” 

“It’ll be okay,” Derpy said just before she planted a soft kiss on Bucky. “You always pull through these situations and they turn out okay in the end, even if they fall apart in the middle.” 

“Where are Belisama and Berry?” Bucky inquired. 

“They’re off talking about stuff,” Derpy answered. “Any word on your griffons?” 

“The ones in Canterlot are doing okay I suppose, I haven’t heard anything,” Bucky replied, now feeling even more apprehensive, but saying nothing. 



 

The sky was a deep dark purple and full of stars. The night air was chilly now, not that Bucky noticed, but others certainly did. Once the sun had begun to set, Dinky and Piña quickly found their way indoors where it was warmer. Barley was moving slower than ever on creaky knees. 

Rising Star was still hard at work in his forge and Bucky could see an inviting orange glow coming from the windows. Scorch was in the forge as well to help Rising Star make the many wood burning stoves needed for ponies to survive the winter. 

As Bucky wandered the grounds, he saw that much had been done during his absence. The school practically looked finished. It only needed a few finishing touches. Off in the distance were some small but comfortable houses for his groundskeepers and any staff he might hire. The dormitory towers were nearing completion and there were several more than he remembered from when he had left. 

And then, he felt a shadowy presence on the very edges of his perception, and it wasn’t Sentinel. He lifted his head and looked skyward, looking for signs of visitors as he hurried off to his tower. He had a first impression to make and he hoped that he wouldn’t screw it up too badly. 



 

Waiting on the ground floor room, Bucky sat in a chair, impatiently tapping his stump against the arm. He could sense them, and more importantly, he could hear them, there was a clatter outside as a chariot landed. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the sweaty feeling of his frogs. 

The front door opened and the big female Myrmidon entered first, and as she came through the door, Bucky realised that something was dreadfully wrong. Slung over her armored back was Sunset Shimmer, bound in shackles and with a black sack secured around her head. 

Bucky was out of his chair in a moment and as he slid from his seat, the male Myrmidon came through the door and saluted. The pair stared at Bucky expectantly and Bucky stared back, wondering why Sunset was shackled and sacked. 

“Is there a reason for these restraints?” Bucky inquired in a soft voice. He heard the muffled whimpers from Sunset from under the black sack and the unicorn squirmed. 

“When we returned, we shackled her and placed an inhibitor upon her,” the male reported, looking at Bucky with a blank stare. 

“Why? Did she resist?” Bucky questioned. 

“No. When we found her, she was in the company of her friends. We explained our purpose and told her she was coming with us. She requested the chance to say goodbye and we granted that. Once through the mirror, we secured the criminal as was protocol,” the male responded as he stood at rigid attention. 

Growling with frustration, Bucky lifted Sunset Shimmer off of the big female’s back and gently set her down upon the floor, standing her on her hooves. He glared at the two Myrmidons as he did so, glowering at them fiercely, as fierce as one can be when one is as small as Bucky and you are glowering at two creatures that completely dwarf you.

Without further ado, Bucky yanked the black sack off of Sunset Shimmer’s head. 

Which Bucky immediately regretted. Upon seeing Bucky, Sunset’s first reaction was to begin shrieking at the top of her lungs as she tried to get away. She tripped over her shackles and fell down, but this did not stop her. She flopped and kicked across the floor, trying to be away from the terrifying figure in the black cloak. 

“Stop… we mean you no harm,” Bucky said in a commanding voice. “These chuckleheads made a mistake… this is a misunderstanding. You are in no danger.” 

“You’re Tainted!” Sunset Shimmer cried as she continued to flop away. She thumped into a wall and went still, realising there was no where else to go. She stared up at Bucky with wide terrified eyes and she panted with fear in between screams. “You are the most hideous creatures I’ve ever seen, all of you! But especially you!” 

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Bucky deadpanned. 

His words caused Sunset to fall silent and she peered at Bucky, still terrified, but now curious. She went still and tried to compose herself, her nostrils flaring with fright as she tried to take everything in. 

Unable to manipulate the inhibitor with his magic, Bucky grunted in frustration and cleared his throat. “Would you please remove her bindings? This is entirely unnecessary.” 

The male moved to obey Bucky. He fished out a key from somewhere on in his armor, pinching it in between his grasping digit and central knuckle. He unlocked the shackles and then slid the inhibitor from Sunset’s horn. Saying nothing, he placed both in a saddlebag and then turned to look at Bucky. 

“Both of you are dismissed,” Bucky stated. 

“Apologies, Lord of Winter,” the big female said as she made her way to the door, the smaller male following close behind her. 

Bucky watched them clear the door and he shut it behind them. He then turned to Sunset Shimmer and helped her up onto her hooves, keeping his distance and trying to be as non threatening as possible. 

“Why am I here?” Sunset asked. “Why am I in the company of somepony who is clearly a warlock? Has Equestria fallen? They told me you were a prince and that you demanded my return.” 

“I am a prince, but don’t call me that. I am a warlock. I do in fact have the Taint and I’m a bit surprised that you know what it is. Equestria still stands, but much has changed. As long as I draw breath, I keep the empire going,” Bucky responded. 

“You’re hideous!” Sunset Shimmer exclaimed. 

“We’ve established that,” Bucky retorted as he glared at the unicorn who was backing her way along the wall and trying to keep as much distance as possible. 

“Why am I here?” Sunset inquired as she eased herself into a chair, watching Bucky’s every move as she did so. “What are you going to do with me? You have fangs.” 

Heaving a sigh, Bucky sat down in a chair and made himself comfortable. “You are here because I have need of you. Equestria has faced a crisis that nearly destroyed us from within. We need powerful unicorns and you, you are a powerful unicorn. A type three, a very gifted type three, with pyrokinetic abilities that fall into the type four range. You were being trained as a spellbreaker but you never graduated. It is my intention to take you as my student and allow you to earn your position back in our society.” 

“Where is Twilight?” Sunset asked in a fearful voice. 

“In Ponyville, nearby, and she told me to tell you that you are the last pony to judge by appearances and to remind you what you looked like as a rampaging she demon,” Bucky replied, looking Sunset Shimmer in the eye. He saw her flinch from his words and she shrunk down in her chair, unable to meet his gaze. 

“She knows I’m here?” Sunset Shimmer inquired in a wavering voice. 

“She approves of this plan,” Bucky stated in reply. “It is by our authority that your status as a banished exile has been revoked but you are not free by a long shot. You will however, be able to earn your freedom.” 

“How do I do that?” Sunset responded, her ears folded back against her skull in fear. 

“By becoming my apprentice and serving the empire as a dutiful servant,” Bucky said in a low voice. “In exchange, I will give you everything you ever wanted when you studied under Celestia. Power. Access to spells beyond your imagining. You must understand… I am a Crown sanctioned warlock.” 

“I want nothing to do with dark magic… never ever!” Sunset retorted, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I’ve been cured of my curiousity for that.” 

“Oh, I would never allow you to do that,” Bucky said in a low soothing voice. “But I have destructive magics at my disposal. There is power here. But with power comes service.” 

Licking her lips nervously, Sunset opened her eyes and looked at Bucky. “I would do almost anything to have magic again. To feel it coursing through me.” 

“Our time grows ever shorter… I must confess, I am also using you as bait,” Bucky admitted, grinning a bit as he spoke. 

“Bait?” Sunset asked, her muzzle scrunching. “This is all so confusing.” 

“You will see soon enough,” Bucky muttered. “Anyhow… There is a room for you upstairs and a place for you by my side. All I ask of you is service. In return, you will have magic again.” 

“This is overwhelming… I don’t know what to say or do here. You… you are certainly not what I expected and you seem nice enough for being a Tainted warlock… what happened to your… your… your face and everything else? From what I’ve seen peeking out from under that cloak you look like you were partially devoured by wolves or something,” Sunset stammered, her eyes locked on Bucky. 

“I was,” Bucky stated. 

“You were what?” Sunset asked.

“Partially devoured by wolves. They feasted upon me while I still lived. They tore away pieces of my flesh and swallowed them. They ripped me apart, tore open my throat, took my eye, and tore half of my face off,” Bucky explained in a calm voice. 

“I’m so sorry… I… I don’t know what to say,” Sunset Shimmer whispered apologetically, her ears drooping down the sides of her face as she spoke. 

“And then I lost my leg to an attack from a crystal lich,” Bucky said, raising his stump. 

Her eyes narrowing, Sunset stared at Bucky, her analytical mind now kicking in. The young mare tried to take in everything she had just heard and the situation as a whole. She realised that she had no magic inhibitor on and that she was being trusted to behave. More importantly, she was being offered a chance to study again. 

“I must confess… I would do almost anything to be able to study magic again,” Sunset Shimmer admitted. “The good sort of magic though. Believe me, my days of dabbling in dark magic are done.” 

“Do I have your word?” Bucky asked as he fixed his eye upon Sunset Shimmer. 

“Yes Master, I will do as you bid,” Sunset Shimmer said, bowing her head. “I’ve wanted to come home for so long… and to have magic again. I will do whatever you ask. I am ready and willing to submit to your demands.” 

Feeling a bit peeved about being called ‘Master,’ Bucky’s lip curled back ever so slightly into a sneer. “Very well Minion… your first assignment. Prepare yourself. I strongly suspect that we will have a visitor sometime very soon, and it is my demand that you meet with Celestia when she comes. Steel yourself, she was not made aware of your arrival until after the fact, and she should be finding out about it any moment now.” 

“Master… I will do as you ask,” Sunset Shimmer said, bowing her head. “I have long wanted to speak to my former Master and teacher. I have learned my lesson, I will submit and be dutiful,” the unicorn mare added as her gaze fell upon the floor. 

“You are mine… make no mistake… Twilight has given me full authorisation to exploit your talents for destructive magics. She will be by to speak with you later, but she wants to give you time to settle in. You are free to come and go as you please… do I need to explain to you what will happen if you try to run?" Bucky asked, looking at his new student. 

“I will not run… I have learned from my previous mistakes... Master. Plus, you have something I want,” Sunset Shimmer acknowledged in a submissive voice. 

Both unicorns fell silent when they heard a loud pop from outside and Bucky’s eye went wide. He turned to look at the door, wondering if it would perhaps explode open or be softly knocked upon. He lifted his head high and calmed himself. 

“She is surprisingly punctual,” Bucky remarked. “And so easily baited.” 

Hearing a soft knock upon the door, Sunset Shimmer nearly jumped out of her skin. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 351
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mistress,” Bucky said in a calm voice when he opened the door and saw the last pony he expected. “Do come in. I was not expecting you. Mistress, this is Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer, this is my Mistress, Princess Luna.” 

“I know who she is and who she was, Twilight Sparkle told me,” Sunset said, bowing her head. “Princess Luna,” she whispered in a reverent voice. 

“To be honest, I was expecting your sister,” Bucky stated in a subdued but disappointed voice. “I am however most pleased to see you Mistress.” 

“She is no longer in her sun… so I suspect she is on her way,” Luna said as she tossed herself down into a chair and draped herself over the arms. 

“You call her Mistress… Master, am I missing something?” Sunset Shimmer inquired. 

“There is a chain of command… Minion,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“So the pony who was once Nightmare Moon took on a warlock as an apprentice and now I’m the warlock’s apprentice… Equestria has changed since I left,” Sunset Shimmer said in a nervous voice as she smiled hesitantly at Princess Luna. 

“There are terrors in the night that mere daylight dwelling ponies have not the courage to even acknowledge the existence of. A different sort of protector is needed, which is why Buckminster here is my Minion. And you… you my soft fragile little daylight dweller, you are being recruited to do battle against those terrors in the night,” Luna said in a voice that was as soft as satin as she studied Sunset Shimmer. 

“I’m not soft and I’m not fragile!” Sunset Shimmer protested, bristling at Luna’s words. “I’ve made mistakes but I’m not soft!” 

“When you saw me you screamed like a filly about to wet herself,” Bucky interjected. 

“That’s because you look like you’ve been shoved through a wood chipper,” Sunset Shimmer retorted, the first hint of anger rising in her voice. 

“What’s a wood chipper?” Bucky asked, looking confused. 

“Never mind,” Sunset Shimmer said in a sulky voice. “You’re a walking horror movie… Master. The sun leaves the sky at night because it is clearly hiding from you, creepshow.” 

Raising his eyebrow, his only eyebrow, Bucky’s lip curled back into a sneering smile. 

“To be fair, he currently looks a little worse than he usually does… he was overseas and was shot in the head with a high powered rifle,” Princess Luna said in a dismissive voice. “Which is why his head is lumpy and misshapen… much like a zombie mutant potato.” 

“What?” Sunset Shimmer blurted out. “How are you even alive?” 

“Keep that in mind if you ever decide to challenge me Minion… I cannot be killed through conventional methods!” Bucky said in a voice that bordered on laughter. 

“So that’s why your scalp is stapled together then… wait, I thought guns were banned here,” Sunset Shimmer said in a confused voice. 

“They were. Things have since changed. They are still banned, but the methods of control need to be revised,” Luna said as she looked at Sunset Shimmer with an openly amused expression. 

“Are you a lich?” Sunset Shimmer hissed, looking at Bucky with accusing narrowed eyes and deeply furrowed brows. “I don’t like the undead. At all. I had to go clean out an infestation with Princess Celestia once.” 

“Not yet,” Bucky cackled in reply. 

“Master, I must confess, you frighten me,” Sunset Shimmer admitted. 

“Oh you would do well to be afraid. Your Master has one of the Demon Lords of Tartarus hard at work in a nearby forge, toiling away to aid the residents of Ponyville,” Princess Luna said, her eyes twinkling with barely suppressed laughter. “And be careful of the spell jars with the glowing purple aura.” 

“What? Purple aura?” Sunset questioned, shaking her head in confusion.

“Never mind, not important now. Your quarters are up the stairs, the floor just below my office. There is a bed and a few things you might need in there. You can take meals in the house with my family if you would like. Feel free to roam the house as a guest, but this tower is your home. Twilight tells me that you have missed having a proper tower,” Bucky said in a soft voice, his surviving eye locked upon his student. 

“I have actually… I don’t like houses to be honest, they offend my design aesthetic,” Sunset Shimmer admitted. “One of the worst parts of being banished beyond the mirror.” 

“Your Master is an insufferably evil warlock, watch out for the stairs. It is a manifestation of pure unbridled evil that runs in his family bloodline. Winking will not work in this tower,” Luna warned, sounding somewhat bored as she spoke. 

“I fixed the stairs. I merely want to punish my students… or my Minion if she is insolent,” Bucky said, sniffing in disdain at Luna. 

Sunset Shimmer scowled, her muzzle scrunching. It felt strange to have four legs again and to have a muzzle once more. It was strange to be around other ponies who spoke so casually of such powerful magic and sensitive subjects. She had come home to a very different Equestria. She had returned to be a student to a very different sort of teacher, a teacher that she was genuinely afraid of. 

“If you need anything, just ask,” Bucky said in a low kind voice. 

“Will I be able to contact my friends?” Sunset Shimmer questioned in a worried tone. 

Nodding, Bucky smiled at his student. “Twilight and I both agree that you will send regular correspondence to your friends as part of the conditions of your probation,” Bucky answered. 

“Thank you for-” 

Sunset Shimmer’s words were cut off by a light rapping upon the door and the three occupants of the room turned to stare at said door, with Luna being the only one with presence of mind to open it. A tall white figure stood in the doorway looking in, and even in the dim light, it was easy to see that she had been crying. 

“Master,” Sunset Shimmer cried out, darting across the room and falling down at Celestia’s hooves, prostrating herself before the alicorn. “I’m so sorry… what I did was wrong, I am begging for you to forgive me.” 

“Please, my former student, do get up,” Celestia said in a raspy pained voice. “I cannot bear to see you so.” When Sunset Shimmer did not move, Celestia lifted the sobbing unicorn in her magic and carried her over to a chair, where she carefully sat Sunset Shimmer down. She looked at Sunset Shimmer for a moment, trying to blink back tears, and then she turned to stare at Bucky. 

“I brought you something to cheer you up,” Bucky stated in a soft soothing voice. 

“What have you done?” Celestia asked, her voice barely a whisper. 

“Twilight Sparkle and I both felt that it was time for this to end. Too many mistakes have been made. Neither one of us could bear to see you hurting… and as you like to tell so many, the only way to make your problems go away is to face them directly. So… Twilight Sparkle and I might have worked together and pushed our authority to the very limits to bring Sunset Shimmer back so you and her can patch things up and make things better… rip off the scab and let the infection out so to speak,” Bucky explained in a patient careful voice. 

“So you thought that you would make me take a dose of my own medicine?” Celestia inquired, now moving towards Bucky slowly, her eyes affixed on the short unicorn stallion gazing up at her from his chair with an utterly fearless expression as she approached. 

“Yes, something like that,” Bucky responded as Celestia came snoot to snoot with him. “I could not bear to see you hurting and I fetched the means to remedy the situation.” 

With her ears drooping down beside her face, Celestia closed her eyes and kissed Bucky on his nasal bridge. “You have been a good friend,” she said as she opened her eyes. “After some of the things I’ve done, I am forced to wonder if I deserve your friendship and your devotion.” 

“Look, you and Sunset Shimmer have a lot of catching up to do. Luna and I are going to go away now and leave you two alone for a while. I will be back later with refreshments and a nice snack or maybe even a meal or something… we shall see,” Bucky said, his eye never leaving Celestia’s gaze. 

“Splendid idea… I have foals to play with and a Sentinel to tease,” Luna announced as she slipped out of her chair. She stretched, made her spine crackle, and she moved beside Sunset Shimmer. “Good luck,” Luna whispered. 

Having said what needed saying, Luna made her way to the door and Bucky joined her. The pair stopped at the door and looked at one another, Bucky’s hood falling back from his face as he looked up at Luna. 

“Age before beauty,” Bucky stated, making a gesture at the door with his stump. 

“Ah ha… ha ha ha ho ho ho… very funny Minion,” Luna responded, looking down at Bucky while bringing herself to her full height. 

Quite unable to help herself, the sobbing Sunset Shimmer let out a giggle. 

“You keep calling me ‘Minion’ when you address me Mistress,” Bucky remarked as he tilted his head back to look upward. 

“Chain of command,” Luna deadpanned. “Now get moving Minion in Miniature!” 

“You wound me!” Bucky quipped, dropping his gaze down to stare out the door and into the yard. 

“Your accusation is baseless,” Luna retorted as she nudged Bucky out of the door. 

“Are you suggesting I prevaricate?” Bucky demanded, turning his head slowly to look back over his shoulder at Luna. “Thou puking bat-fowling death-token!”

“No, but I would suggest you get a stool, thou fusty half faced cat loving miscreant!” Luna teased in reply as she shut the door behind her, leaving Celestia and Sunset Shimmer alone together. 

“Are they always like this?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she wiped her eyes. 

“I do not have an idea what has gotten into them. I suspect they were trying to ease our moods,” Celestia replied, looking at Sunset Shimmer with wide pained eyes. “There is so much I want to say.” 

“Me too,” Sunset admitted, averting her eyes and looking down at the floor. “I’ve learned humility… it hurts as much as you said it would.” 

“Sunset Shimmer, I have wronged you,” Celestia said in a strangled voice. “I can make mistakes too. I just made some terrible mistakes and I am still feeling very troubled about issues that I cannot talk about… some of which concern you. But you paid for my mistakes.” 

“I had my own hand in making those mistakes,” Sunset Shimmer said, raising her hoof in a frustrated gesture. “Or hoof I guess,” she corrected, looking at her hoof. 

“It feels so good to see you again… it broke my heart when you left,” Celestia confessed. “I am so unsure of myself right now,” she added, her ears twitching but not rising from where they drooped down beside her face.

“That’s two of us,” Sunset Shimmer whispered. Sniffling, the unicorn wiped her nose on her foreleg, leaving behind a shiny wet spot on her leg. “Can you forgive me?” 

“I was about to ask you the same,” Celestia said, raising one front hoof and scratching her other front leg nervously, a gesture that any common pony might make when nervous. 

“I wronged you… I staged an uprising. I brought spells against you and killed several guards. I killed several of my other teachers in a duel. Whatever you think you did to me… what I did to you and Equestria was far worse,” Sunset Shimmer murmured, her head down and her eyes closed. 

“We both made mistakes. I pushed you into making yours by trying to turn you into something you were not meant to be. I pushed you and I pressured you and I saw all of the warning signs of your failure but I persisted because I was so confident in my course of action,” Celestia admitted, shaking her head sadly as she spoke, her cheeks becoming sodden with tears. 

“Twilight Sparkle and I talked… about this… and everything that happened. She sort of put two and two together herself… but that doesn’t change the fact that I still made bad choices and stupid decisions. I still had choices in the matter, and I made bad ones,” Sunset Shimmer said in reply, her nostrils flaring with emotion. 

“I also had choices… and I allowed those choices to be made for me… I cannot explain it yet… but it has hurt a lot of ponies that I love. And now, I fear I must make my own choices and I do not know what to do because I have always depended upon the opinions and the input of another,” Celestia confessed, looking fretful and twitchy. “You have grown up so much but your appearance has changed so little… you are practically the same age as when you left.” 

“I’ve missed you… I’ve missed everything here. I didn’t know what I had until it was gone,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft raspy voice. She puffed out her cheeks and blew her mane out of her face. “So about this Buckminster…” 

“He will make a fine teacher,” Celestia responded, her face brightening. “He will give you the power that I was so hesitant to share with you. Things have changed. We need unicorns with strong offensive capabilities and Buckminster was wise to collect you as a resource.” 

“And bring us together,” Sunset Shimmer stated. 

“Yes, and bring us together,” Celestia agreed. “We have so much to talk about…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 352
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Fey stamina was something to marvel at, something truly wondrous to behold. Working at the forge, studying for many hours, sexual activities, Rising Star found that it took an awful lot now before he felt fatigued. In the corner, a collection of stoves were stockpiled, small cast iron stoves that could burn coal or wood. 

Burning wood might be a problem. 

Getting enough fuel to get everypony through the winter in the little gourd houses was going to be a monumental task, getting coal seemed easier, getting wood would take a tremendous effort, and Rising Star wondered if any other pony had thought this problem through. Lifting a lump of molten iron, he made a bubble out of it, shaped it into the basic shape for a stove, fashioned a few openings for a stove pipe and a door, shaped four curved legs, and then he dumped it into an oil quench, to temper the metal and turn it black. 

Alone, Rising Star found that he missed Scorch when the fire elemental left. Scorch had other responsibilities though, other duties to attend to, and Rising Star hoped that his mentor would return soon. 

“Mmm mmm mmm,  there is something about you when you are all sooty and sweaty,” Sparkler announced as she came through the door. She immediately changed into her stone form to protect herself from the sweltering heat of the forge. “Coming in soon?” 

“Maybe in a while,” Rising Star said as he turned an appreciative eye upon Sparkler. 

“I could make it worth your while now,” Sparkler said in a seductive voice that sounded like a gravel pile collapsing. 

“I have a lot on my mind… I realised something today Sparky,” Rising Star said as he looked around his forge. “Something important.” 

“And what’s that, mister tall dark and handsome?” Sparkler inquired in reply. 

“I am finally truly content with who and what I am… I like all of… this. Everything around me that I am doing. Not just the forge though. Being elected. Helping ponies. Serving. Bucky was right. I’m fighting a battle… I’m waging a war. The fighting is different, the enemy is different, but it is a battle nonetheless. And it isn’t just me… it is all of you. We all serve. You serve to protect our community. You command the city of Ponyville’s police force. Loch Skimmer works in emergency services. She’s getting a scholarship from the hospital to become an airborne paramedic and she earned it entirely on her own merits because of how well she does her job. Ripple… Ripple has dedicated her entire life to becoming a knight and protecting others,” Rising Star said proudly, his head held high and his ears erect. 

“And what about Bittersweet?” Sparkler asked in a gravelly growl. 

“What about her?” Rising Star questioned in reply. 

“Rising, don’t be a dunce. Have you see how mooney eyed Ripple gets around her?” Sparkler inquired, looking up at her husband. 

“Of course I have. Being a nanny is another form of service, and a noble one. Yew told me that being trusted enough to look after another creature’s young is a mark of the highest honour and trust. I like Bittersweet. I like her character, I like her dedication, and I like her sense of focus. Because she can’t hear, she watches over foals like a hawk. It is admirable,” Rising Star answered enthusiastically, making a gesture with his right front hoof. 

“Every day you sound more and more like an actual adult… and it scares me,” Sparkler said in a soft voice that sounded like two rocks rubbing together. 



 

“Ahh… Belisama… I see you checking out yer husband.” 

Nearly jumping out of her skin, the griffoness turned her head completely backwards to look at Barley, her crest widening and her eyes going wide from fright. 

“Ach, yer head turning all the way around like that, not natural,” Barley grumbled as he closed his eyes and shook his head in disgust. 

“You scared me,” Belisama said in a rather hissy voice. 

“Aye, I’m old, but I’m stealthy enough to sneak up on a griffoness while she is checking out her husband,” Barley said in an amicable voice. “So… what do you see in him that makes you stare at him so?” 

“Contrast,” Belisama said as she swiveled her head around to look at Bucky again. 

“Contrast you say? I dinnae understand what ya mean,” Barley stated as he settled down into a chair and gave a grunt. The old unicorn poured a cup of tea from the pot into his cup and then poured in a dollop of honey. 

“I’ve watched him kill things. But I have also seen him play with his young, like he is doing right now. He is so gentle. Harper just zapped him and made every hair on his body stand on end. He never raised his voice, never became angry, he just patted her softly and told her he was proud of her for zapping him… he praised her for ‘making zap for mama’ as he calls it,” Belisama explained in a low voice. “How can anything with such a capacity for violence also be so sweet and gentle? I feel so confused when I look at him.” 

“Aye… aye… I’ve often thought about it myself when I think of him. He’s patient with his wives, loving, gentle, kind, good with his foals, and a murderous psychopath when he’s pushed into it,” Barley responded, leaning forward on the table. “Never once though have I ever been worried for my sweet little Berry or Piña around him.” 

Scratching herself gingerly with her talons, Belisama went after the itchy places on her neck where new feathers were growing in for the winter. “I understand now why Lugus likes to watch ponies and has an attraction to pony faces.” 

“Lass, he ain’t got but half a face,” Barley chuckled softly. 

“But the half he has left he uses well,” Belisama replied, looking over at Barley. “How is the tea? Did I make it too strong?” 

“The tea is fine, I like for my spoon to stand up in it,” Barley muttered. “Strong drink, strong tea, strong coffee, a strong willing mare, these are the things that make my life bearable.” 

“I’ve seen the way you look at Luna,” Belisama said in a low voice, her beak not moving as she spoke. 

“Aye, I love her. And we’ve had ourselves a few romps together. A lot of pressure was placed upon us both to stop,” Barley said regretfully. 

“Have you?” Belisama inquired, her crest rising a bit as she focused on Barley. 

“I dunno,” Barley whispered. “We still get together. We’re close friends. We haven’t done anything for a while, but the accusations keep coming in, so we might as well be.” 

“I don’t see why you can’t just love her,” Belisama said, now looking at Luna, who was helping Sentinel with his homework. 

“It’s bloody complicated,” Barley said bitterly. “And we both feckin’ hate it. Alas, princesses, princes, kings and queens… they don’t own themselves. The public does. And sometimes, you have to put the good of the empire ahead of what you want.” 

“I suspect I have a different view of royalty,” Belisama replied in a low pain filled voice, her crest falling and her wings drooping. 

“The only view of royalty I like is the view of a big blue mare sittin’ on my dick and sticking her tongue out while she makes funny faces,” Barley growled. He took a big sip of tea and then smacked his lips together angrily. 



 

“Mother, I have a question,” Sentinel stated, his gaze locked upon Berry Punch. 

“I might have an answer,” Berry offered as she reached out and brushed Sentinel’s rust coloured mane out of his eyes. 

“Somepony I know is seeing a psychiatrist. I’m worried about them. What can I do to help them?” Sentinel asked, his eyes blinking slowly as he became more thoughtful. 

“Diamond Tiara,” Berry Punch sighed. 

“You know?” Sentinel questioned, one eyebrow raising curiously. 

“I’ve known for a while,” Berry Punch admitted. 

“Oh,” Sentinel grunted, his ears splaying out sideways. 

“Something like that is private. I’ve never felt the need to talk about it,” Berry explained, carefully maintaining eye contact with Sentinel. 

“You took psychology classes,” Sentinel stated, looking pensive as he spoke. 

“Yes I did, which is why I understand the need to keep these things private,” Berry Punch responded, a soft smile spreading across her face. “So you want to know how to help Diamond Tiara?” 

“Yes please,” Sentinel said, his ears folding back against his skull. 

“Be her friend through thick and thin,” Berry said, her face becoming quite serious. “Stick with her through the rough spots. She’ll remember that you were always there for her and she will appreciate you for it.” 

“Anything else?” Sentinel asked, looking hopeful. 

“If you ever get invited to go to a session, just go. Be a big colt and go. You’ll probably talk about coping mechanisms or triggers or supportive behaviours or what have you, but it means she trusts you enough to bare her soul in front of you… do not disappoint me,” Berry replied, placing emphasis upon her final instruction. 

“Yes mother… I will obey,” Sentinel said, bowing his head slightly. 



 

Having heard the command to enter, Bucky pushed the door open, levitating a tray in his magic. He hobbled into the room slowly, looked around, and saw Celestia reclining upon the bed with Sunset Shimmer curled up at her side. He bowed slightly and then set the tray upon the desk. 

“Did you have a nice talk?” Bucky asked in a soft voice, the voice he usually reserved for speaking to troubled foals. He watched Sunset give a faint almost imperceptible nod and Celestia turned her gaze upon him. 

“Thank you Buckminster,” Celestia said in a raspy emotional voice, the sort of voice one had after crying for a long time. “Soon, I think it will be time that you and I had a talk.” 

“Twilight first,” Bucky said as he eased himself into a chair. “My own needs, desires, and wants are irrelevant in the long run.” 

“You should not say that,” Celestia whispered in strained voice. 

“Bah,” Bucky grunted. 

“Buckminster, might I trouble you for a favour? I do not deserve it, but I feel the need to ask anyways,” Celestia questioned, her gaze dropping down to look at the blanket upon the bed. “I am not asking as a princess… but as a pony.” 

“I am your dutiful servant,” Bucky responded. 

“And I do not deserve such a faithful servant,” Celestia said, her nostrils flaring as she turned away. “Please… teach my former student control. You taught Dinky control and did such a marvelous job.” 

“I let my magic get away from me… when I had my temper tantrum there were accidents,” Sunset Shimmer said, not bothering to lift her head from the bed. “I honestly didn’t mean to do what I did… I was so angry. I… let my rage get the better of me. I made a deal with something I shouldn’t have for power because Princess Celestia wouldn’t give it to me. It was a terrible mistake. I didn’t know it at the time, but when I banished it back to Tartarus, I didn’t do a very good job and part of its essence remained with me… and… and I really don’t know what happened. It just felt good to let the anger out. When the guards tried to stop me, I lost control. I’ve always had trouble with control.” 

“This is why she was allowed to pass through the mirror and then banished to the other side,” Celestia said, offering an explanation. “I knew even then what it was that had taken her, I knew what she had done… but I did not want to believe she had done it. It had latched onto her soul like a parasite. Sadly, I knew I did not have the means to save her. Only the Elements of Harmony could purge something like that from her body… or she could have driven it out from sheer force of will. She was safe on the other side of the mirror… or at least I believed she would be. The Elements were still lost at that point. Nopony knew where they had gone.” 

“Stealing Twilight’s crown gave what was inside of me just enough power to manifest… it was awful. I was aware of everything that was going on but I was powerless to stop it. I was trapped inside of my own body but I wasn’t in control. I was just a voice screaming inside of my own head while that… that… thing took over,” Sunset Shimmer said, shuddering and shivering as she spoke. 

“So you’ve been purged,” Bucky said, looking at Sunset Shimmer. 

“Yes and no,” Celestia said sadly. 

“Oh bother,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Just like with Luna, the presence has left a stain behind, a mark of its passing. I fear that Sunset Shimmer will always have to deal with rage issues, which is why I want you to teach her control. She might not be possessed as she once was, but she will always have this weakness,” Celestia explained, her tone regretful and sad. 

“Power is useless without control,” Bucky stated. 

“I know, and you Buckminster Bitters, you know how to hold back a raging torrent of darkness, hate, mistrust, and all of the horror you have endured that fuels your dark magic. Can you teach Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia responded. 

“Only if she desires to learn,” Bucky said in return. 

“Master… I want power, and that means learning control,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low voice as she wiped her nose with her foreleg. 

“I am willing to teach,” Bucky offered. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 353
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Your Majesty, your griffons are ready to return home. The ship carrying them will be towed here this afternoon,” a pegasus in the Solar Guard reported. 

“Seems awfully soon,” Bucky grumbled, shaking his head. 

“It has been a week since your return, sir,” the guard pegasus said in a helpful voice. 

Looking at the guard, Bucky reflected upon the guard’s words. Had it been that long? He supposed it had been. The guardspony was trembling slightly as he stood on the porch before Bucky, and the guard’s eyes darted around nervously. 

“Sir, might I ask you a question, sir?” the guard asked timidly. 

“You just did,” Bucky replied, cracking wise and smiling slightly. 

“Are what the papers saying really true… that you… that you used Princess Celestia’s sun to burn away the city of Griffonholm? I mean… you killed so many… I’m having trouble taking in the numbers, yet somehow you found it in your heart to grant mercy, saving just a select few. How?” the guard questioned.

“Yes,” Bucky hissed. “It’s true. I used the sun to burn away the city of Griffonholm,” he said in a well practiced sneer, hoping that Bon Bon was nowhere within earshot because he wasn’t in the mood to be slapped around during a moment of earth pony loving correctional affection. “Do you take issue with my actions?” Bucky inquired, glaring at the guard with a withering stare that would have caused most ponies to flee his presence. 

“No… sir… no, not at all,” the guard stammered in reply. “I think it was a good idea and my opinions are highly unpopular with the other guard.” 

“Do you now?” Bucky responded. 

“The way I figure it, you probably saved a countless number of lives. At some point during the conflict, the griffons would have probably organised a retreat from the city, taking civilians and military with them when they fled. The conflict would have spread and it probably would have dragged on and on, spreading to other places like a fire. Killing things as abruptly and as swiftly as you did… it was like pouring a big bucket of water over a fire and putting it all out at once in one go,” the guard answered, explaining his views in a nervous voice, his armor clanking slightly as he trembled before Bucky. 

“I suppose it was,” Bucky agreed, his words causing the guardspony to relax somewhat. 

“Not everypony hates you for what you’ve done sir… we are a minority, but we defend your actions. My great great grandfather was killed in service… a griffon with no combat experience that had a musket took out a pony with less than five years to go before retirement, a seasoned veteran of many conflicts who had a great deal of experience,” the guard pony said, trying to stand a little straighter as he spoke. “Some of us remember the threat that our old enemies pose.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said in a surprisingly warm and gracious voice, one that bore no sarcasm or malice. 

The pegasus snapped out a wing in salute and snapped to attention. “We also look forward to creating bonds with new allies.”

“Dismissed,” Bucky said in a low voice as he looked up at the much taller pegasus. 



 

The school classroom was packed far too tightly and Sentinel waited for the the time to hurry up and pass. Beside him, Spike was scratching out a math lesson, trying to help a pony colt named Truffle with the difficult subject of math. In front of him, Dinky slowly worked out her equations, her horn glowing as she slowly moved her pencil, and directly behind him, Diamond Tiara sat with a smug look on her face, her assignment finished. 

Sentinel was nowhere near done, but didn’t want to ask for help. Dinky, in a lower grade, had a different math assignment than he did. Diamond Tiara, in a higher grade, could easily help him, but he was too proud to ask. Fractions completely eluded him and he had no idea what he was doing. 

There was no sign of Rumble in school, nor would there be for another week. 

Thankfully, there was no sign of Steeplechase either. 

In the corner, he saw Ripple erasing yet another problem upon her paper, which caused it to tear. He flinched when he saw the anger upon her face and looked away. Somehow, school was no longer exciting for Sentinel, but he was determined to endure. It was important to endure, to continue through a task even if you didn’t like it or what to do it, because this is how the officer’s manual said that character is built, and Sentinel wanted character. 

“You know Sentinel, if you spent more time looking at your paper and less time looking around, your math scores would improve,” Cheerilee chided. 

Slumping down in his seat, Sentinel let out a defeated groan. 



 

“My king, this is a worrisome sign,” Lugus said in a low voice as he peered at Thistle and Belisama and then turned to Bucky. 

“Indeed it is,” Bucky agreed, his eye narrowing. 

“Thistle and Belisama speak in low whispers and there is much giggling between them. I fear they are conspiring against you,” Lugus said in a low voice with his crest half erect and the feathers along his neck fluffed out. 

“This is a good thing though… really,” Bucky said as he turned to look at Lugus. 

“How so?” Lugus inquired brusquely. 

“They are friends. Derpy and Berry are an inseparable pair, Lyra and Bon Bon stick together, and now it seems Thistle has an accomplice,” Bucky mused in reply. 

“They are discussing Belisama’s curiousity and the time you trapped her,” Lugus reported in a low voice, aware of the fact that if he could hear Belisama, she could hear him. 

Chuckling, Bucky nodded at the memory and gave Lugus an affectionate pat with his stump. “That was funny… she was being so inquisitive… Tannis and Agnetha, all of them… I miss Tannis and Agnetha.” 

“They are already busy… Princess Luna has put them to work as agents of the Lunar Court and Princess Celestia has both of them shadowing her to learn what they need to know. They will be at the first meeting of the Stable of Representatives with both Princesses and Princess Celestia plans to ask the Stable to allow Tannis and Agnetha limited powers of co-rule,” Lugus said, his voice now serious and solemn. The big griffon shifted his weight and his crest went flat upon his head. 

“Rising Star is a nervous wreck,” Bucky stated, thinking about the historic first meeting of the Stable. “He’s become so dedicated to his work.” 

“Just like another that I know,” Lugus responded. 



 

“They’re talking about us,” Belisama said to Thistle in a low voice, all too aware that Lugus could hear her. 

“We have nothing to hide,” Thistle giggled as she wiggled on her back and tried to get comfortable. 

“You are very large,” Belisama said as she placed the side of her head against Thistle’s large round belly. “Do you need anything? Are you hungry? Do you want food?” 

“I’m fine,” Thistle huffed as she shifted her bulk. “How is your leg?”

“It mostly itches,” Belisama answered as she carefully rubbed Thistle’s belly with her talon tips, keeping her claws angled away from tender skin. “Does it ever worry you that you are different than his other wives?” 

“Because of what I eat? Maybe just a little,” Thistle admitted in reply closing her eyes as she melted into the sofa cushions from the belly rub. “They never treat me differently though and I know that I am loved.” 

“I don’t know how I feel about love,” Belisama said in a low voice.

“What do you mean?” Thistle inquired, her eyes still closed. 

“For somebirdy of my caste, it is far more important to be useful. You are more likely to be kept around, allowed to live, it is more important to be valuable,” Belisama explained. 

“I don’t like how that sounds,” Thistle said in a slightly angry voice. 

“There is a griffon named Loki that is a member of Ripple’s guard unit. His master used him as a pit fighter for entertainment and as an assassin on occasion. Loki was taken care of very well because of his value. Branwen was kept as a pet because of her albino colouring. Kiara was valuable because of her exceptional hearing and she was used as a spy. Now I am in a very different situation and I keep wondering about my value in this new life,” Belisama said in a subdued voice. 

“I value you as my friend,” Thistle said, opening her eyes and twisting her head around to look at Belisama. 

“I need purpose, some kind of direction in my life,” Belisama whispered. “Mostly I just nap in the kitchen window and feel the sun upon my back.” 

“You are still settling in. Stop worrying. You know, I too struggle with purpose. I used to think I’d just be happy having foals. But I’ve grown up a bit and learned a lot about life from Derpy, Berry, Bon Bon, and Lyra. Now I want something more, but I don’t know what just yet. I want to be something,” Thistle responded, still looking at Belisama. “Besides, you are queen now… which means lots of royal duties and responsibilities… once you settle in.” 



 

Alone in her room, Sunset Shimmer quietly placed a few books into her bookshelf and heaved a quiet sigh. She had magic again. No more clumsy hands and aching fingers. No more unnatural walking on two legs. She had proper taste buds again and food tasted the way it should once again. She had a spellbook of her own and room for her experiments. She had a Master that had provided her with anything and everything she had so far asked for. 

She had a black cloak hanging upon the hook on the wall. 

Pausing to look at her cloak, Sunset Shimmer felt the pressure of responsibility settle upon her back and she hoped that she would not screw up this one chance she had to restore her standing. She felt a nauseating sense of worry about everything. She didn’t want to disappoint Princess Celestia. She didn’t want to let down Twilight Sparkle. And she certainly didn’t want to make Master angry, not after what she had learned about him. 

There were too many things she wanted to learn, and Bucky was the only pony willing to teach them. 

The past week had been exhausting. She had set up several laboratories, organised a growing library of magical research, helped Rising Star in his forge and had met Scorch, sorted through hundreds of books when she was sent to help Twilight Sparkle at the Ponyville town library… which was really Master’s kind way of allowing her time with her friends. Sunset Shimmer had met Twilight Sparkle’s new family and had been made to feel most welcome. 

When the last of the books were put away, Sunset Shimmer placed her assignment sheets on the wall next to the bookshelf, sticking them in place with a sticky cantrip. 

“Hello.”

Whirling around, Sunset Shimmer saw that she had a visitor. “Hello Lyra,” Sunset greeted, genuinely glad to see Lyra Heartstrings. She smiled, a beaming happy smile, and she moved towards Lyra, who stood in the door. 

“The door was open,” Lyra said in a low somewhat nervous voice. 

“I left it open,” Sunset Shimmer replied, still smiling a sunny smile. 

“The griffons will be arriving soonish. The ship can be seen being towed from Canterlot. Bucky expects you at his side along with the rest of us when they arrive. I might have overheard Bucky talking with Belisama about allowing you to have a griffon assistant if one takes an interest in you, and I am certain that some of them probably will. Bucky is going to introduce you as his court wizard, and somebirdy is bound to offer themselves to you to curry favour,” Lyra said in a soft voice, trying to study Sunset Shimmer’s reaction. 

“Oh… I see,” Sunset Shimmer answered, her eyes narrowing but her smile remaining unchanged. “I remember my griffon etiquette crash course that Master gave me. I would be honoured to have a helper… and a new friend.” 

“Twilight Sparkle plans to request a library assistant. She feels it will be important to have the griffons in the public eye as much as possible to help garner trust and fellowship. Vanhoover has a large griffon population and the city has prospered. Anyhow, we need to get going,” Lyra said, now a bit more relaxed. 

“Lead the way,” Sunset Shimmer requested with a nod of her head. 
	
	
> Chapter 354
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Albatross was secured just above the treeline with chains secured to the trees below and a long rope ladder was left hanging down for the griffons who could not fly. It was not an ideal solution, but for the time being, it would have to do. The ship was simply too massive to do much else with it. 

The griffons, given a clean bill of health and the males now barb free, had already begun to explore their surroundings and check out the various interesting things upon the farm. One group had found their way to the forge and had braved the sweltering confines, expressing an interest in metal working. Others were examining the school. 

There were a lot of griffons, and Bucky was glad to see them. The tug ship had already departed and was now heading back towards Canterlot, to return to the royal shipyards and perform the many tasks to be done there. 



 

“Poor Bittersweet is completely overwhelmed,” Berry Punch said as she watched a group of griffons frolicking in the yard. She reached out a hoof and scratched at her ribs for a moment, her eyes rolling back into her head as she did so. 

“There is going to be some time spent adjusting,” Derpy said in reply, turning to look at Berry. She felt a spike of attraction when she saw Berry’s eyes. Derpy knew other ways to make Berry’s eyes roll back into her head like that. 

“So how does it feel being married to the King of the Griffons?” Berry inquired in a voice that held a hint of laughter. 

“There are a lot of griffons,” Derpy admitted, looking around. “What are they doing?” 

Peering over at the dormitory tower, Berry could barely make out the shapes of small figures swarming up and down the sides of the partially finished structure. She could hear hammering and the sounds of work being done. “I think… I think the griffons have taken it upon themselves to get work done around here. The labour organisations with the refugees have been so disorganised lately. Wow, look at them go, the ones that can fly are moving the stone blocks into place even though it takes quite a few of them to lift one. They’ve got hustle!” 

“Sure do,” Derpy agreed, her bad eye closed and her good eye squinting to see. 

“They really are moving. They’re lifting several stone blocks a minute where the pegasus labour teams were lucky to get one block lifted every few minutes… and these griffons are mostly foal sized. I’m impressed,” Berry grumbled, her brow furrowing as she spoke. “Say what you will about the griffons, they are dedicated workers. Ever watched Belisama care for that curved sword of hers?” 

“I have,” Derpy answered. “She is… I think the word is diligent,” she stated hesitantly, her ears perking forwards. “I wonder how Magpie is… she is probably on that big boat looking after the griffon cubs. I haven’t seen her around and I was hoping to see her.” 

“Care to give me a lift?” Berry asked. “I wanna see griffon cubs!” 

“Oh they are adorable. And you’ll like Magpie. She’s very nice. Bigger griffon… I think she’s a hunter. I’ll give you a lift,” Derpy replied as she slid out of her seat on the front porch and flexed her wings. “Am I starting to look fat?” 

“I refuse to answer that,” Berry responded. “But I know I’m starting to get a healthy layer of pudge going. Bucky keeps squeezing it. Good thing he likes pregnant mares.” 



 

“And I trust that both of you are happy with this arrangement?” Bucky inquired as he looked at Sunset Shimmer and the griffon who had volunteered to be Sunset Shimmer’s assistant. The little griffon had practically tripped over his own legs and had thrown himself at Sunset Shimmer’s hooves, offering himself as a gift to Bucky’s apprentice, and announcing he was a skilled scribe and painter. 

“He seems nice enough,” Sunset Shimmer replied, looking down at the griffon who was gazing adoringly at her, which was somewhat unnerving. “You have a very pretty beak.” 

The griffon averted its eyes and stared down at the floor. “Very kind of you to say that about my beak… but there is no need to flatter me. I am here to flatter you.” 

“But your beak is rainbow coloured,” Sunset Shimmer said, lowering her head down to have a closer look. “It is why I chose you actually.” 

“You chose me because I have a toucan beak?” the griffon responded, looking up for a moment before looking away again. “It is the very source of my shame.” 

“Yes Bartleby, I don’t mean to be shallow, but your beak caught my eye,” Sunset Shimmer admitted. “And I like it. It’s cheerful looking.” 

“You are very kind,” Bartleby said, his black feathers fluffing out. 

“I think I’m going to leave you two to get acquainted. He’ll need a bed… I’ll see what I can do,” Bucky said as he turned towards the door. 

“Wait, sir, Your Majesty, I have a hammock on the ship, I much prefer to sleep curled up in it, it is nice not having to sleep in a hiding spot, crammed away in a tiny space,” Bartleby said, looking up at Bucky for a whole moment before turning away. 

“Well then, I will leave you two to sort everything out. If you have any other personal effects, I would go get them. I want my apprentice safe, secure, and happy… I am trusting you Bartleby. I know you will not let me down,” Bucky said as he stepped through the door. 

“Thank you, Master,” Sunset Shimmer said, bowing her head as she spoke. She watched and waited until Bucky was gone and then shut the door. She turned and looked at Bartleby, smiling broadly. “When I study or experiment, I tend to say my thoughts out loud, how are you at taking notes?” 

“I write very quickly and would take down letters and missives for my old master. She was of the warrior caste… I used to write up her legal contracts for her,” Bartleby replied, sitting down on the floor and speaking slowly. 

“So… you are a scrivener… that’s good,” Sunset Shimmer said in a somewhat nervous voice. “Look, I don’t know what you expect from me, but I know this is important for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into. I don’t expect you to be my servant, I would rather have you as my friend, so let’s just get that out of the way. I have problems being lonely… so I am really rather glad to have you as a companion.” 

For a moment, Bartleby lifted his head and gave Sunset Shimmer a hopeful look, and then immediately averted his gaze, his bright orange talons flexing. 

“I do have one request though,” Sunset Shimmer said in a nervous voice. 

“Anything for you,” Bartleby said in a hushed reply. 

“Can you teach me how to paint if I get you all of the supplies?” Sunset Shimmer questioned in reply, looking down the odd looking griffon with a rainbow beak, black feathers, and a pearlescent white feline half. 

For a moment, the griffon looked too stunned to respond, and then it slowly nodded, unable to say anything in return, his long tail swishing and darting about. 



 

“You know, I’m so happy that school finally ends, but then I remember I have to walk home. Our old house was only a short walk to the school. Now it takes forever,” Dinky whined in protest of the long death march was ahead of them all. 

“Coming home with us Diamond Tiara?” Piña asked, looking at her friend. 

“I dunno, I haven’t thought about it yet,” Diamond Tiara replied.

“Oh come on, long romantic walk with our brother,” Dinky quipped. “How could you refuse? You know you want to.” 

“I’m a bit behind on my homework actually, and if I don’t keep up, my father will lecture me,” Diamond Tiara. “Plus, father is having a hard time.” 

The foals said nothing, aware that there was a problem, but most of them didn’t understand just how much of a problem there was between Filthy Rich, Gala Appleby, and Ivory Scroll. The problem had gotten just out of hoof enough that it was having an effect upon Diamond Tiara, who was wrestling with her own difficulties of having strong feelings for Sentinel even though he was already betrothed, even though it was considered okay. 

“I wonder how what happened at Griffonholm will change our geography lessons,” Apple Bloom mused, changing the subject and banishing the now uncomfortable silence. 

“Griffonholm is still there… sorta,” Scootaloo said in a low voice. “Twilight said the land is being cleaned and that the long winter will make life come back again someday.” 

“How is life at the library?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking at Scootaloo curiously. 

“A little cramped,” Scootaloo responded right away. She then paused and looked thoughtful. “Twilight has mentioned something about creating extra dimensional space.” 

“It’s nice to have a family, isn’t it?” Sentinel inquired, looking at Scootaloo. 

“Sure is,” Scootaloo replied. “Flash is really nice to me. He’s starting to get his voice back. Rainbow Dash hugs him really tight and still cries a lot. She won’t tell me about what happened.” 

“I wonder how Pinkie Pie is doing,” Ripple said as she turned her head to look at Canterlot off in the distance, changing the subject. 

“I don’t like seeing Rainbow Dash cry… she’s so tough… seeing her like that hurts me,” Scootaloo said in a low voice. 

“Some very bad things happened Scootaloo. It is going to take time to heal,” Ripple said, wrapping her wing around the smaller pegasus filly, realising the subject did not change. 

“Fluttershy seems okay,” Scootaloo said, shaking her head. “Rarity seems fine. We all know about Pinkie Pie… but everypony else seems to have just shrugged everything else off and don’t seem all that different from how they usually are.” 

“Scoots, Rainbow Dash… she almost lost her eye. You’ve seen the wound on her head, right?” Ripple inquired, speaking in a patient voice. 

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said in a low raspy voice, looking uncomfortable. 

“Well, just a hair more, and Rainbow would have lost her eye. No more dreams of being a Wonderbolt. No more fast reckless flying. No more being Rainbow Dash. And right now, she’s having some trouble flying because she hit her head really hard when she was thrown to the floor. She is the embodiment of the Element of Loyalty, and she very nearly saw all of her friends die. She is going to have a hard time for a while… the best thing you can do is be her friend, love her, and just accept that she is going to cry for a while,” Ripple explained in a soft voice, still holding Scootaloo under her wing. 

“Maybe we can get our cutie marks in cheering Rainbow Dash up,” Sweetie Belle suggested in a disheartened voice. 

“You should try,” Diamond Tiara said in what she hoped what a sincere voice. 

“With our usual results, maybe we can get her to laugh, even if it is at us,” Apple Bloom said, looking around at the ponies all around her. 

“How did you get so tough?” Scootaloo asked Ripple. 

“Who said I’m tough?” Ripple responded, looking at Scootaloo with one narrowed eye. 

“Well, you seem okay about everything that happened, you’re a squire, and you have your own guard unit,” Scootaloo said in reply, looking up at Ripple. 

“I’ll tell you a secret, I’ve cried about this too… I just put on a brave face in public,” Ripple admitted in reply. 

“I think this is where we say our goodbyes,” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Apple Bloom, I’m going home with Scoots to cheer up Rainbow Dash. You coming?” 

“Sure am,” Apple Bloom replied, smiling at all of her friends. 

“I’ve got to go do homework,” Diamond Tiara grumbled. 

“I like homework,” Sentinel stated. “It’s soothing. Well, most of it.” 

“Egghead,” Scootaloo said in subdued voice. “Spike has already split. I guess he was in a hurry to get started on the ‘understanding politics’ homework where we have to cut clippings from the newspaper.” 

“I should get going… I can’t let Spike beat me. I mean, our parents… who we are. We have an obligation to be politically savvy,” Sentinel said in a concerned voice. “If I screw this up it will look bad.” 

“No school tomorrow… it’s the weekend, are we going to get together?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at the group. 

“I plan to go see Moonbow,” Sentinel stated. “I’ve put in a request.” 

“And I’m going with Sentinel,” Diamond Tiara said in a shy voice, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink. “I get to meet Moonbow for the first time.” 

“See girls, if she can share Sentinel, we can share Rumble,” Apple Bloom remarked. 

“Goodbye, I guess we should get going,” Piña said. 

Giving Scootaloo one last squeeze, Ripple looked down at the pegasus. “You go home and you help your mother through this rough time. It is during troubled times that special bonds form. Good luck making her feel better.” 

“Thanks Ripple,” Scootaloo said, smiling up at the larger filly. 
	
	
> Chapter 355
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sentinel seemed so happy,” Derpy commented as she looked over at Bucky, smiling at her husband. “He’s been a bit troubled lately, it was good to see him happy.” 

“Bad things happened,” Berry said with a shrug. “Bad things will keep happening. It’s like this family is cursed.” 

“Ha ha Berry Punch… what a laugh,” Derpy deadpanned. 

“Sentinel seemed awfully happy though. I would have thought he’d be more nervous about bringing Diamond Tiara to meet Moonbow. He’s so uptight about everything else,” Bucky remarked as he reached down and scratched at his ribs with his stump. 

“You shouldn’t say that Sentinel is uptight,” Derpy snapped, her ears perking forward. She glared at her husband who was sprawled out in the bed. 

“Sentinel is a little bit uptight though,” Berry stated in a Berry diplomatic voice. “Anyhow, I’m off to help Dinky and Piña with some homework.” 

“You know, you’re kinda sexy when you’re scolding me,” Bucky said, looking at the grey pegasus that was glaring at him. He saw her stern face melt into a smile, which made him smile. “Come here, you.” 



 

Twilight Sparkle eyed the guard that had entered the library and announced that Cheese Sandwich had been found and was now in Canterlot. For a moment, she was overcome with emotion, so much so that she couldn’t speak, and she had to clear her throat several times before she found the words she wanted to say. 

“Thank you. I will be departing at once,” Twilight Sparkle said in a strangled voice. 

The guard saluted, turned, and then departed, stepping out of the door and into the bustling streets of Ponyville, vanishing from view when the door closed. Now alone, Twilight Sparkle took another deep breath.

“Flash, Rainbow, Spike, I’m going to Canterlot. Cheese Sandwich has been found. I don’t know when I’ll be back,” Twilight announced. 

The others came running and looked at Twilight with wide eyes full of concern. Spike was clutching his tail and squeezing it nervously and Flash Sentry was wearing an apron and had been cooking something in the small kitchen. The trio were silent, uncertain, all of them bore looks of great concern.

“I’ll be going alone. I have a stop to make first. Please, somepony needs to be here for when Scootaloo gets back. I’ll be home as soon as I’m able,” Twilight said in a nervous voice, already she was prancing in place with nervous energy. 

“You’re going to the Tree of Harmony first, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked in a low voice as she took a step closer to Twilight Sparkle. 

“How did you know?” Twilight questioned in reply, looking at Rainbow Dash with a quizzical expression. 

“Dreams Twilight… I keep dreaming about the tree… and hearing laughter. But it isn’t just Pinkie Pie’s laughter, there are others laughing too. I think it’s Cheese Sandwich and somepony else. It’s a nice dream… and I keep having it,” Rainbow Dash hesitantly admitted as she stared down at her front hooves. 

“I’ve been having the same dream,” Twilight responded, looking surprised. 

“But we don’t have time to discuss it,” Flash Sentry croaked in a low voice. “You have to go. Go help Pinkie Pie.” 

“I love you all… I’ll be back,” Twilight promised as she made her way to the door. 

“I’ll have dinner waiting for you,” Flash offered in a low strained whisper. 

“Good luck Twi,” Rainbow Dash said nervously. 



 

The chariot had barely come to a stop when Sentinel lept out and took off in search of Moonbow. Behind him, Diamond Tiara had to hurry to keep up with the frantic colt. The pair made their way out of the landing clearing and towards a cluster of buildings. 

Between two large stone buildings, Sentinel saw her. “Moonbow!” he cried, now running forward towards the shackled and bound filly. Not caring about the cold hard iron all over her body, he plowed into her and hugged her tightly, wrapping his forelegs around her iron collared neck. After a few minutes of squeezing, he pulled away to have a good look at her. 

“Hi Sentinel,” Moonbow greeted, smiling a fanged smile. Her doll was on her back and her tail swished wildly from side to side. 

“You’ve gotten bigger!” Sentinel cried as he studied Moonbow, who was indeed larger. She had increased in mass considerably, now wider and thicker legged. “Moonbow, this is Diamond Tiara,” he said, introducing the nervous earth pony filly who had sat down a few feet away and was watching nervously. 

“You brought me a filly… how sweet,” Moonbow teased, looking first at Sentinel and then at Diamond Tiara. 

“Hi,” Diamond Tiara greeted, her voice a nervous squeak. “Sentinel told me all about you… and why you’re covered in iron weights.” 

“Come closer,” Moonbow said in a low but commanding voice. 

Looking extremely submissive, Diamond Tiara moved slowly towards Moonbow, until Sentinel gave her a solid push, nearly causing her to tumble. She found herself snoot to snoot with the much larger lunar pegasus filly and she gulped in fear. 

“You have nothing to fear from me,” Moonbow stated, looking Diamond Tiara in the eye as she spoke. “There are no threats to be made and no promises of violence. I just wanted to see you up close,” she said as she sniffed slightly, all too aware that Sentinel had marked Diamond Tiara. 

“I’ve been good to him,” Diamond Tiara said sheepishly. 

“I’ll say it again, I bear you no hostility,” Moonbow repeated. 

“So how have you been? What have you been doing?” Sentinel asked, looking at Moonbow as he spoke with wide eyes. 

“Training. Running. Becoming educated. I can read and write quite well now and every day I am getting better,” Moonbow replied in a soft voice. “I’ve been getting lessons from Grimglammer and Shadowguard. Their home is almost finished… there have been delays.” 

“I’ve missed them,” Sentinel sighed as he sat down. 

“I’ve missed you,” Moonbow admitted. 

“This feels strange,” Diamond Tiara mentioned in a nervous voice. 

“Why is it strange?” Moonbow asked. 

“I expected you to be jealous or something,” Diamond Tiara answered. 

“No,” Moonbow responded. “I want Sentinel to be happy and to find future herdmates. So far, he has done a good job. I am pleased with what he has found. Mistress has told me all about you, both good and bad.” 

“Oh... that’s what I was afraid of,” Diamond Tiara whimpered. 

“Try not to worry about it,” Moonbow said in a reassuring voice to Diamond Tiara. “You have the strength and courage to change because of your budding love for Sentinel.” 

“Um… er… oh,” Diamond Tiara stammered. 

“Nothing is hidden from the Night Princess,” Moonbow stated in a matter of fact tone of voice, her eyes locking onto Diamond Tiara with a fierce predatory gaze. 



 

The afternoon stretched out slowly and Bucky was enjoying a very lazy day around the house, spending time with his wives and his fellow tribemates. The whole group was sprawled out in the living room, lounging on sofas, chairs, and cushions upon the floor. There had been something a of a lull in the conversation and a silence loomed over the room, save for the soft snores of Barley O’Blivion, who was asleep in his chair. 

Feeling rather bored, Bucky watched as Belisama’s tail flicked around, darting to and fro as the griffon relaxed beside him, sitting on the sofa between him and Derpy. Bucky now understood Sentinel’s fascination with objects that moved suddenly, and he found himself watching every twitch of Belisama’s tail. 

Quite without thinking about it, he reached out with his right leg and snatched Belisama’s tail, pinching it in his fetlock. He gave a soft tug and let out a playful chuckle, expecting an indignant squawk. 

Instead, Belisama fell over on her side and went limp, letting out a small gasp. 

Immediately letting go of Belisama’s tail, Bucky looked at Belisama with growing concern, noting that she was now breathing heavily. “You okay?” 

His beak clicking together several times, Lugus let out a grunt of concern. “It’s okay Belisama… nothing is going to happen.” 

The griffoness did not move, but closed her eyes and let out a sigh. 

“I’m lost,” Bucky said. 

“Belisama?” Derpy asked as she snatched up the limp griffoness beside her and pulled her close. “You alright?” 

“What just happened?” Bucky asked, realising he had committed some kind of social blunder. He looked at Belisama with concern. 

“You pulled her tail,” Yew stated. 

“Yes,” Lugus agreed. 

“And I’m guessing that was bad?” Bucky inquired, looking around the room. 

“When I want hanky panky I pull on Lugus’ tail,” Yew said in a low voice. 

“Oh nuts, Belisama, did I scare you?” Bucky asked, looking over at the griffoness who was clinging to Derpy. “I was stupid and I didn’t know.” 

Squeezing Belisama softly, Derpy tried to soothe the panicked griffoness’ nerves. She ran a foreleg down Belisama’s back and stoked her softly, gingerly holding her fellow-wife close in a comforting embrace. 

“You didn’t know,” Belisama said in a muffled  voice. 

“So tail pulling is a request for loving… really, I had no idea,” Bucky said, looking aghast as he spoke in a subdued voice. “So when you two get in the mood, you tug on each other’s tails?” he asked of Lugus and Yew. 

“It might seem silly, but it has significance. It can be affectionate but it can also be mean spirited… the hunter castes don’t always wish to speak to the servant caste, so tail pulling works as a non verbal communication,” Yew explained patiently. “Falling over and going limp is the way that the servant caste shows submission. A sort of non verbal plea of ‘please don’t kill me’ and a sign of willingness to comply.” 

“Oh bugger,” Bucky grumbled, rubbing his face with his good leg. 

“It has always been affectionate between Yew and I,” Lugus remarked, trying to look anywhere but at Bucky or Yew. 

“Falling over and going limp… what a boner killer,” Bucky muttered. 

“Bucky!” Derpy snapped, glaring at her husband. 

“What?” Bucky retorted. 

“Don’t say stuff like that,” Derpy scolded as she continued to cradle Belisama. 

“I didn’t mean to react the way I did,” Belisama said in a pained voice. “They tell you this from a young age… to just go still and be submissive to make things easier.” 

Scowling, Berry Punch shook her head slowly, looking Berry furious from Belisama’s words. “I don’t care much for what I’m hearing.” Berry remarked in a quietly seething voice. 

“Well… you learn something new every day,” Bucky announced, still looking rather icked out by the whole situation that had just taken place. 



 

Twilight Sparkle felt an overwhelming sense of relief when she saw the lean lanky earth pony known as Cheese Sandwich. He looked nervous, rather sad, and his eyes were bloodshot, a telltale sign that he had been crying. 

“Sorry if you’ve been waiting,” Twilight Sparkle apologised. 

“No worries… Princess Twilight, is Pinkie Pie going to be okay?” Cheese Sandwich asked, looking up at Twilight, his eyes wide with a pleading expression upon his face. 

“I think we have the means to help her,” Twilight replied, a nervous smile spreading across her face. “I made a stop on the way here and picked something up… and I know that you are the only pony who can help.” 

“And that is?” Cheese inquired, still looking up at Twilight, his eyes never once leaving her. His lower lip quivered with barely contained emotion and his ears sank down, almost to the sides of his face. 

Using her magic, Twilight Sparkle pulled something shiny out of her saddlebag and held it up before Cheese Sandwich. It was a small golden collar with a bright blue balloon shaped gemstone embedded in it. “You are going to use this,” Twilight stated in a confident voice. “When I visited the tree, this was laying on the ground beside it.” 

“Is that… is that… that’s the Element of Laughter,” Cheese Sandwich said in tone of hushed reverence. 

“You’ve been chosen,” Twilight said in a commanding voice. “Now put this on. I don’t know what we need to do, but Pinkie Pie is in trouble and you are the only one who can save her, Cheese Sandwich.” 
	
	
> Chapter 356
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After telling her everything that happened during his trip, Sentinel studied Moonbow’s face, looking for some kind of sign about her reaction, and as he watched, he could feel his stomach twisting up into knots. Diamond Tiara looked unsettled by everything she had heard, but also looked resolute. 

Taking a deep breath, Moonbow looked Sentinel in the eye and began to speak. “You’ve finally learned what it means to be a lunar pegasus and why it is so difficult for us to retreat in battle. You’ve learned why your father went charging off to face his death. You have discovered what it means to be us. This is why our numbers have dwindled and died. This is our great strength but also our great weakness and what destroyed our colony.” 

“Our rage?” Sentinel questioned. 

“Not just our rage… any feeling. Any feeling at all. We feel everything more keenly. We are primal creatures Sentinel, Mistress explains this to us and tries to temper our powerful emotions to make us manageable. When we love, we love stronger. When we worry, none feel so worried as we do. When we are angry… the rest of the world trembles because a terrible strength is born from our rage. Do you see now how easy it is for us to charge into battle and completely lose our sense of self?” Moonbow explained, looking concerned, worried, and more than a little sad. 

“Bon Bon was able to pull me out though,” Sentinel said, shaking his head in a slightly confused manner. 

“Just as Mistress is capable of calming the blood song that fills our mind during battle, preserving our sanity and restoring us back to calm lucidity, keeping us tranquil,” Moonbow said in a low voice. “I have learned much about our nature during my studies.” 

“I could see how this might be a weakness,” Sentinel admitted, his voice wavering slightly from fear. 

“Do you? Do you really? Do you understand that the blood song that fills our mind can make it difficult to distinguish friend from foe and that if we go to far… we become mindless killing machines, no better than golems, pure chaos on a battlefield. This is our burden,” Moonbow responded, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. “Mistress tells me that we’ve killed more of our own kind than anything else in previous engagements. She’s had to work very hard to keep the world safe from us and keep us safe from one another.” 

“I know she comes into my dreams… I can sense her from time to time,” Sentinel said, his eyes glancing at Diamond Tiara who had been rather quiet. “I suspect she is doing something to help me hold back or change me in some fashion.” 

“No doubt she is,” Moonbow acknowledged. “It is what we do here. Harness that rage and make it a weapon that she can trust.” 

“You know, I can’t think of a pony I trust more than Sentinel,” Diamond Tiara confessed suddenly in a pained voice. “I don’t even trust myself, even though my psychiatrist tells me I am getting better. I know that I am only getting better because there is something I want and I don’t know how I feel about that.” 

“And what is it that you want?” Moonbow asked, her eyes locked on Diamond Tiara. 

“Oh it’s silly… I don’t know if I can talk about it,” Diamond Tiara replied nervously. 

“Spill your guts filly,” Moonbow demanded, her ears perking forward. 

“I want Sentinel’s acceptance and approval. I’m changing because of something I want from him rather than something I want from myself and it bothers me,” Diamond Tiara blurted out, more than a little worried by Moonbow’s fierce eyes. 

“You have courage,” Moonbow stated. “You are small, pink, and soft, but you have courage. I knew Sentinel would find brave ones.” 



 

Standing nervously by Pinkie Pie’s bed, Cheese Sandwich didn’t know what to do. The Element of Laughter was around his neck, he and Princess Twilight Sparkle had tried everything they could think of, and Pinkie Pie had made no response at all to either of them, she simply continued to lie there with her eyes wide and open, unresponsive and broken. Cheese Sandwich was beginning to feel that he would never laugh again as he felt a crushing sense of despair settling over his back and pushing him downward. 

“I just don’t know what we’re doing wrong,” Twilight Sparkle whimpered in frustration. “The Element of Laughter is supposed to help her… to fix her… it is what she is, it is her essence, but it isn’t doing anything.” 

“Maybe we misinterpreted the signs,” Cheese Sandwich said gently. “Maybe this… this was never meant for me.” Reaching up with a hoof, Cheese Sandwich reverently removed the necklace from around his neck. He held it in his hoof and stared at it for a moment, unable to say anything. “I hate seeing her like this… her mane is all flat and lifeless and her colour is gone,” he continued as he stood up on his hind legs and leaned over Pinkie’s bed. He placed the Element of Laughter around her neck, gently lifting her with one foreleg, and clasped it together behind her neck with the other. 

“Are we giving up? We can’t give up,” Twilight said in a frantic voice. 

“Princess, Pinkie Pie is more than my friend… I love her… but I don’t know what else to do,” Cheese Sandwich responded as he dropped down to all fours. “We’ve been here for hours and nothing has changed. Nothing has happened. The Element of Laughter does nothing for either of us. The one I love is gone,” he stated in a heartbroken voice. 

“Are you giving up?” Twilight said, swiping at her eye with her wing and trying to stop the tears from escaping. 

“No,” Cheese Sandwich replied, shaking his head. “I would never give up. I’m just letting go.” 

As he spoke, a soft blue light emanated from the Element of Laughter around Pinkie Pie’s neck. The blue balloon shaped gemstone began to glow, a pale light that filled the hospital room with a ghostly glow. Twilight Sparkle began to back away, watching as the blue light began to surround Cheese Sandwich. 

“I feel funny,” Cheese Sandwich said and then vanished, gone in a flash of blue light.

Watching the Element of Laughter go dim, Twilight Sparkle began to worry about what had just taken place, and hoped that Cheese Sandwich would return from wherever he had vanished to. She looked at Pinkie Pie, and saw a faint blue twinkle in her eye, which caused Twilight Sparkle to feel a glimmer of hope. 



 

Cheese Sandwich found himself in a very strange place. A rock farm. A tall silo was in the distance and a little run down looking house stood beside it. The fields were all grey dust and piles of rocks were everywhere. A mailbox was rusting on the post and there was a wagon with a broken wheel sitting by it. The landscape was bleak and desolate. 

There was also an earth pony standing by the front door of the house, an earth pony that Cheese Sandwich didn’t know, but looking at her made his cheesy sense tingle alarmingly. 

“Hello?” he cried out. 

“Do come closer,” the earth pony invited. 

Trotting towards the house, Cheese Sandwich drew closer towards the earth pony that made his cheesy sense go crazy. She was female, kind looking, but something about her was also terrifying and as he drew near, his feeling of apprehension grew stronger. 

“Who are you?” Cheese asked, looking at the earth pony female. 

“To know my name is to know hardship and sorrow,” the earth pony replied, shaking her head. “And your purpose here is not to learn my name, but to bring back the one you love. Tell me Cheese Sandwich, foal of Loafer and Gouda, how far will you go to bring back the one you love?” 

Lifting his head high, Cheese Sandwich looked stern a solemn, his eyes narrowing as his ears splayed out sideways and his nostrils flared. “What do I need to do?”

“What nopony else but one who loves her will be able to do,” the earth pony replied, looking sad and weary as she spoke. “And it will not be easy.” 

“Just tell me what I need to do,” Cheese Sandwich stated, screwing his courage to the sticking place and staring at the strange earth pony. “I’m an earth pony. We don’t quit when things get hard. We’re just getting started.” 

Looking at the door of the house, the earth pony mare raised her eyebrow. “First, you must know your enemy. Go through the door. Steel yourself Cheese Sandwich. Pinkamena Diane Pie is a dangerous foe. Hidden within the embodiment that is known as the Element of Harmony is a bound spirit of disharmony and madness. Once, it gave laughter some strength, but it has since grown too strong and far too powerful. Now, you must face it, know what it is, and when the time is right, I will give you a choice to make.” 

“Pinkie Pie has gone mad?” Cheese questioned, trying to understand what was going on, his words hesitant and unsure. 

“No,” the earth pony mare replied. “Pinkie Pie is madness, but a good madness. Or was. She was the fulcrum of balance for the Elements of Harmony. You need just a little bit of chaos for a system to function and stay healthy. But not too much. Pinkie Pie carried with her a spirit of disharmony and madness. It kept the other Elements of Harmony rounded out and balanced. Now go. Go on, through the door,” the earth pony commanded. 

Bracing himself, Cheese Sandwich pulled open the door and stepped inside, unsure of what he would find beyond, but willing to do anything to help Pinkie Pie. 



 

There was a table and around the table there seemed to be a tea party. Seated at one end of the table was Pinkie Pie, but not Pinkie Pie. Her mane was straight and long, her eyes were wide and manic, and her pelt was faded and touched with grey. At the other end of a long table was another Pinkie Pie, this one had a head full of curls and she radiated a pink glow. She was also bound with rope and gagged, which alarmed Cheese Sandwich a great deal and made him feel more than a little afraid. 

“Let her go,” Cheese Sandwich said politely, looking at the straight haired Pinkie Pie. 

“No,” Pinkie Pie screeched. “Sit down. Have some tea. Stay with us for a while. We’re having a party.” 

Doing as he was bid, Cheese Sandwich sat down next to a pile of rocks and looked around the table. Next to him was a bucket of turnips and across the table was a pile of lint and a sack of flour. “This isn’t much of a party,” Cheese stated in a low voice. 

“What do you mean?” Pinkamena inquired, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. 

“Well, this party seems rather dead and lifeless. I bet if you let her go, she could liven this place up a bit,” Cheese Sandwich suggested, gesturing to Pinkie Pie, who looked at him with wide pleading eyes. 

Cackling, Pinkamena laughed evilly at the suggestion, throwing her head back and guffawing while banging her hoof upon the table. After a long moment of laughter, she recovered herself and began to speak. “This is what she did to me for all those years. Kept me bound and locked away in the back of her mind. We are a part of one another, she and I, but she was cruel and heartless, keeping me locked away in the basement like some unwanted orphan.” 

“But you are killing her,” Cheese Sandwich said in a pleading voice. “She’s dying.” 

“She deserves it!” Pinkamena screeched. 

“But you will die too,” Cheese reasoned, trying to reach out to the troubled spirit. 

“I don’t care! We’ll go together. All of us! Rocky, Sir Lintsalot, Mr. Turnip, and Madam le Flour. That’s what we’re doing. We’re waiting for the end,” Pinkamena whined in a petulant voice. “We hate her for what she’s done to us!” 

“I need for you to let her go,” Cheese begged. “She has friends and family that love her… and by extension, you as well, please, please reconsider,” he pleaded, resting his hooves upon the table. 

“Even if we wanted to let her go, we cannot,” Pinkamena murmured, now seeming distracted. “The madness… it grew. Gained power. We heard War laughing and we tasted of his madness. We drew in the madness of the griffons. We have grown too large for Pinkie Pie to contain. She cannot keep us held in anymore. So now we wait for the end.” 

“But why?” Cheese questioned, looking around the table when he realised that Pinkamena had said “we.” 

“Because if we set her free now, it would be the cruelest joke of all,” Pinkamena said, snorting with laughter as the tears began to fall down her cheeks. “We didn’t want it to end this way. But it has to end this way,” the spirit said and then began to gibber, now cackling and weeping. 

“Are you trying to do what is right?” Cheese inquired, looking at the spirit with some concern, wracking his brain to figure out what was going on. 

“Who is to say what right or wrong is,” Madam le Flour stated in a cultured voice. 

“We are a spirit of chaotic disharmony, we are not concerned with right or wrong, only what is or is not,” Sir Lintsalot said in a sophisticated voice. 

“Ain’t no going back,” Rocky said in voice that sounded as though it came directly out of upper Manehatten. “We won’t let Pinkamena leave. We’re keeping them both here. We had to make Pinkamena an offer she couldn’t refuse.” 

The bucket of turnips said nothing but somehow stared blankly at Cheese Sandwich, causing the earth pony stallion to squirm in his seat. Cheese Sandwich had endured many things during his life, but being stared down by a bucket of turnips was new. 

“There is nothing that can be done,” Madam le Flour stated in a defeated voice. “Alas, all things come to end. We have become too large for Pinkie Pie to contain.” 

Regretting his idea even as it entered his mind, Cheese Sandwich looked around the table. “If there is too much for Pinkie Pie to hold in… I offer up myself. Earth ponies work best to deal with heavy loads when we work in teams. It is our nature.” 

“No!” Pinkamena hissed angrily. 

“Silence,” Sir Lintsalot commanded and as he spoke, a zipper appeared over Pinkamena’s mouth, silencing her. The ball of lint turned his attention to Cheese Sandwich. “You would do this? Give us life again? You do understand the risks, do you not?” 

“I don’t know that I do understand the risks, and I don’t know that I care. Dare to be stupid I say,” Cheese Sandwich replied, leaning forward on the table and trying to stare down the lintball. “We can be stupid all night.” 

Behind him, the door opened and the earth pony mare entered. There was a collective gasp from the group and as she approached the table, she shimmered and warped, the air around her wavering like heat rising from the rocks on a hot day. 

In her place stood an alicorn, tall, proud, and looking gravely concerned. She looked around the group, her eyes unblinking, and then looked at Pinkie Pie, her expression one of genuine sadness. On her backside was a cutie mark, a ball of twine. 

“Cheese Sandwich, you now understand the burden that Pinkie Pie carries. This can no longer be done alone. She will become like War. This spirit is mischievous and playful, it does not wish to be malicious, but it could be made to be by those who can manipulate spirits. Will you carry this burden with her?” the alicorn with the ball of twine cutie mark inquired in a regal voice. 

“Will it save her?” Cheese asked. 

The alicorn nodded but said nothing in reply. Instead, she looked around the table at the party guests, eyeing each of them in turn and watching for their reactions, and she waited for silent consent. 

“So what now?” Cheese questioned, looking up the alicorn. “I will do anything for my friend. She’s in trouble and I know she would do the same for me.” 

“Well then… now, I bind you,” the alicorn replied as two threads popped into existence. One was pink and the other was golden yellow in colour, very much like cheese. The ends were frayed and split. Using her magic, the alicorn bound the two threads together, splicing the frayed ends with one another, weaving the two loose ends together, making one thread that was pink on one end, golden yellow on the other, and a blend of both in the middle. “What I have bound together cannot be broken. This is a bond stronger than marriage, this is the twinning of two souls.” 

There was a loud pop and the party around the table vanished, leaving only Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich. Pinkie Pie looked around her, looked at Cheese Sandwich, and then looked up at the alicorn. 

“Do I get to throw a wedding party still?” she asked timidly, her eyes fearful and worried, but also hopeful and bright. 

“Do as you will,” the alicorn responded, smiling tenderly as she spoke. 

“I don’t feel any different,” Cheese Sandwich said as he scratched his head. 

“Did we just get married?” Pinkie Pie questioned. “I think we did, but this whole thing has been confusing and I want to make sure.” 

“You are bound,” the alicorn the said as she shifted back into an earth pony mare and looked at Pinkie Pie. The thread she was holding in her magic vanished with a loud pop. 

“How do I get out of here? I’m dying to see my friends. I want to go home!” Pinkie Pie begged, looking at the earth pony mare. “I know you… I’ve seen you. You used to come and visit my Granny Pie and you were good friends with her.” 

“I gave her my word to look after you,” the earth pony mare replied. “As for how to depart this realm, usually, a kiss is more than enough to wake the sleeping maiden.” 

“Oh… I see,” Pinkie Pie stated. She looked around, waiting expectantly. When nothing happened, she pounced and glomped Cheese Sandwich, tackling him from his chair and taking him to the rough hewn floor boards, pressing her muzzle into his. After a long kiss, she pulled away. The earth pony mare was gone, leaving the pair all alone. 

“I think I’m supposed to kiss you,” Cheese said and then planted a small kiss on Pinkie Pie’s snoot. As he did so, the realm around them began to fade away and Cheese Sandwich felt a curious sensation as the world around him turned blue. For just a moment in the corner of his vision, he saw a large tree, a familiar tree, and seeing it made him feel strong. 

Earth pony strong. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 357 (Brought to you by Magnum condoms) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sentinel is gone, Dinky and Piña are busy… occupied, out of the way, and we have a few private moments just to ourselves. Belisama and Thistle off together… and we might not get another chance like this one for a while,” Berry Punch suggested, looking Berry lewd as she spoke, hiking her tail up high and giving Bucky and Derpy the eyes. 

Derpy brightened, a smile spreading across her face. “It does seem like a good opportunity,” she agreed. 

“Well, go on, get moving, go go go!” Bucky demanded, pushing Derpy off of the sofa with his right front hoof. “Get moving, both of you, I have needs!” 

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Berry remarked as she took off for the back bedroom. 

“We’ll be gentle,” Derpy promised, looking back at Bucky as she too took off after Berry. “Your head still worries me.” 

“So long as the staples hold I’ll be fine,” Bucky announced, hobbling along after his wives, grinning a lopsided grin as he followed them down the hall. 



 

Bucky watched with intense fascination as Berry Punch and Derpy both made out with one another. It was always something that captured his attention. Being old friends, the pair had a way of knowing exactly what made the other tick. The sights, the sounds, seeing the two bodies entwined with one another, Berry’s sultry moaning, Derpy’s giggling, it was just the three of them together again, and Bucky remembered back to the night of their wedding, their first night together. 

He was pulled from his moment of reflection by a needy grey mare who wrapped her forelegs around his neck, pulled him close, and then she smooched him. A moment later, Bucky found himself sandwiched between the two mares, both of whom were rubbing themselves up against him, he could feel them both, their bodies, the soft hairs of their pelts, the warmth of their bodies, and he lost himself in their embrace. 

He opened his mouth to say something, but Berry cut him off, her lips pressing over his own, and as he leaned into her he felt Derpy squeezing them both together and then he felt her lips pressing in for a three way smooch. Bucky felt himself growing warm, almost too warm, the feeling of both of their bodies up against his was almost too much. He felt himself growing stiff and he was gripped by a painful aching need. The three way kiss intensified and Bucky felt himself becoming overwhelmed by the two mares that knew all too well how to push his buttons. 

Taking control, Berry Punch shoved Bucky backwards and down onto the bed, laying him on his back. She shot a wicked glance at Derpy, and both mares gave a knowing nod to one another as Berry licked her lips. “Time for the tickle torture,” Berry announced. 

Before Bucky could protest, he felt feathers brushing along the length of his shaft, causing his stomach to immediately clench and go tight. Back and forth the feathers teased, and in seconds, Bucky was not only hard, but his hips jerked with the need to bury himself into something warm, wet, and soft. Alas, there was no relief to be had. Berry held him down while Derpy continued to tease, her soft primaries stroking his shaft slowly, too slowly, it caused too much tension and need. 

Unable to fight back and knowing the rules, Bucky used the only weapon he had, his magic. Nothing major, nothing serious, nothing from the book he had been given, but something he had learned from Lyra instead, reaching out with his telekinesis, he gave both Berry Punch and Derpy a teasing tickle, seeking out two little nubbins of flesh that meant more to him than almost anything else.

The effect was immediate. Berry let out a lewd whorsey moan and Derpy giggled, squirming around as the invisible invader squeezed and vibrated her clitoris, gently tugging and stroking the sensitive knob of flesh. Derpy bit down upon her lip and sucked in her cheeks, making needy little whimpers as she continued to stroke Bucky, while Berry Punch simply fell over onto her back to enjoy the experience. 

“You have thirty minutes to cut that out Bucky,” Berry breathed in a breathless whisper, her eyes rolling up into her head. She spread her legs out wide and gave Bucky something to look at, a bead of moisture already appearing on her eager cleft. 

“I can feel it… creeping its way inside of me… teasing and tugging on my lips down there,” Derpy whispered, her eyes closed as she continued to try and tease Bucky with her wing, but her efforts were distracted. “I can’t help but wonder if Lyra does this for Bon Bon.” 

“Lyra is the one that explained how to do this and taught me the technique,” Bucky admitted, intensifying the vibrating sensation. Beside him, Berry writhed, and Bucky was sorely tempted by her eager inviting body, her spread legs, and the way her tongue was dangling out of the side of her mouth. He allowed his magic to work its way a little deeper, creeping inside both mares, pulsating deep within their hidden places, which caused the room to absolutely stink with mare musk. 

Falling over, Derpy was powerless against the invisible invader plundering her snatch and testing her snatchlasticity, pulling, pushing, probing, prodding, and penetrating. She let out a little needy whimper when she felt something creeping along, the invisible invader creeping up under her dock, and then she felt something apply pressure to her pucker. She heaved a contented sigh and melted into the mattress. 

“Sexual sorcery is awesome,” Berry huffed, her nostrils flaring. She rolled on her side and looked at Derpy with half closed and needy looking eyes. “Take her, I want to watch while I enjoy this,” she demanded, her eyes darting up at Bucky who was still sitting between them. 

Bucky, not needing to be told twice, eased himself down on top of Derpy, who welcomed him eagerly. He could feel her milk swollen teats pressing up against his belly and the vibrating buzz of his magic could now be felt on his own skin. His lips lingered over her neck, planting little pecks and traveling upwards towards her jaw. He could feel her muscles quivering against his own, and he could hear her soft needy snorts as her breath heaved through her nostrils. Beside him, Berry had pulled herself close to Derpy and the two mares had once again locked lips. He rubbed his cheek against Derpy’s neck, feeling her life’s blood pumping through the thin flesh around her windpipe. 

With a well practiced movement, he plunged himself into her, causing Derpy’s whole body to tense beneath him. The sudden transition of cool air to searing hot moist flesh made Bucky shudder; he buried himself balls deep on the first thrust, making Derpy squirm and gasp. He felt her hind legs wrap around his hips and push him in further. He could feel the tingling vibration of his own magic and it caused his breath to catch in his own throat. 

There was no need to hold back, Derpy was hot, slick, and good to go. He pulled halfway out and then slid back in, grunting from his effort, and he could hear the wet slurping sounds of her drenched flesh taking him in and the wet smacking sounds of Berry and Derpy’s passionate kiss. Derpy had expanded a bit due to pregnancy, she was soft and well cushioned now, and Bucky made the most of it as he slid in and out of her, grinding his pelvis against her needy winking nubbin with each plunge. 

Berry pulled away panting, her mouth open, and Bucky was seized by an idea, a terrible wonderful horrible idea. Using his telekinesis, he dragged her up higher upon  the bed, and Berry let out a confused and worried moan, wondering what was happening but unable to fight back. When her glistening slit was inches away from his face, he lifted his head from Derpy’s neck, gave it a single loving lick, and then he acted upon his plan. 

Reaching out with his stump, he teased the drenched opening, soaking his diminished appendage in Berry juice. Berry Punch wiggled and giggled as Bucky prodded her, soaking himself in her juices. Finally, when he was slick with her squalene, he pressed his stump up against her cleft, applied gentle pressure, and with a surprised squeak from Berry, sank his stump into Berry’s too tight snatch, spreading her open and making her squirm and buck. He eased his way in slowly, twisting and turning his stump, until he felt himself bottom out inside of her. Berry Punch let out an excited bleating sound, causing the bedroom to suddenly sound like the forbidden love of the Shetland Isles. 

“You’re screwing Berry Punch with your stump,” Derpy announced breathlessly, panting out each word as her ears twitched from each rhythmic thrust. “That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

He could feel Berry clenching around his halved limb and her legs kicked as he pulled in and out, twisting and turning as he penetrated her slick snatch. He timed his stump thrusts with his own pelvic thrusts, and he continued to bury himself into Derpy, growling and grunting from his efforts. Each thrust made Berry bleat, and Bucky intended to screw her silly and leave her unable to walk, all while he was busy laying pipe in Derpy. 

He pulled out with a rude sounding “schlorp” sound, angled his hips, and using his magic, he teased open Derpy’s now slick pucker. He lined himself up with the smaller tighter opening, pressing his soaked flared tip against Derpy’s clenching pucker. 

“Oh yes… there… gimme gimme,” Derpy begged, bucking her hips upwards so Bucky could get a better angle for penetration. “It’s been a little too long since you’ve invaded the brownie bakery,” the mare panted, her words causing Bucky’s ear to flicker. 

Carefully, lovingly, Bucky eased his way in this time, and Derpy took him in her crushing embrace, squeezing him with her forelegs and hind legs, pulling him closer. He could feel Derpy’s wet cunny pressed against his belly, his telekinesis still buzzing away on her love button. Berry was still being stuffed, the earth pony going from one orgasmic plateau to the next, her bleating interspersed with delirious moaning. 

Delightful friction gripped Bucky as he pounded the precious pucker, playfully penetrating the perky pegasus. Her iron grip stretched and pulled at his soft tender skin, causing electric tingles to travel through body, along his spine, up his neck, and a second heartbeat could be felt in his dock. He was close, too close, he didn’t want this to end. He could feel Derpy clenching as she rode out a powerful pucker sucking orgasm, which pulled him in deeper. 

When an exceptionally powerful orgasm ripped through Derpy’s body, Bucky was unable to hold back any longer. Closing his eye and gritting his teeth, Bucky blew his load deep inside in the pegasus that he so loved. He went limp and with a wet pop, he pulled himself free of Berry Punch. He allowed his magic to die, and he lay atop Derpy, still inside of her, both of their bodies still spasming together, muscles quivering, all three of them barely even able to breath.

“I’ve… been… stump… screwed,” Berry Punch gasped, barely able to talk. She flopped and wiggled down along the bed until she was once again by Derpy’s side and pulled Bucky off from on top of Derpy, causing him to slip free from her well loved pucker. 

The two mares sandwiched Bucky in between them, basking in the afterglow, sweating, soaked, the bed was completely ruined, and none of them cared. 

“We need to sneak off to the shower,” Derpy whispered. “I can smell us. We stink like desperate parents who have forsaken their foals for sex.” 

Giggling, Berry Punch could not reply, she stroked Bucky’s side, glad to have him with her once more. She kissed him on the side of his mouth and then lay back and went limp on the bed, her filly bits felt thoroughly abused and well loved. 

“He fell asleep,” Derpy whispered. 

“Well, he needs sleep,” Berry whispered in reply. “He never gets enough.” 

“We should sneak away and get a shower. Sentinel will be back soon and Dinky and Piña are gonna start snooping around if they can’t find us,” Derpy said in a soft voice as she stroked Bucky gently. 

“The dangers of sex during the daytime when you’re married and have foals,” Berry mused. “But I have to admit, the idea of getting caught adds to the thrill.” 

“Pervert,” Derpy tittered. 

“And proud,” Berry responded. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 358
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m so glad that we could reach an understanding,” Moonbow said in a soft voice, looking at Diamond Tiara as she spoke. Moonbow, smiling, looked pleased with everything that had been said, every word discussed, and her sharp toothed smile was evidence of her happiness. Her eyes darted to Sentinel for a moment and then back to Diamond Tiara. 

“I’m not sure this is an understanding,” Diamond Tiara answered in a nervous voice, shaking her head. “I’m so young. I make so many mistakes. I’ve made so many mistakes. I’m not saying this is a mistake, but this seems like such a responsibility to take on when you are my age.” 

“Yet you have,” Moonbow said as she shifted her weight, causing her iron collar to clank. “You chose to get involved knowing full well of the eventual outcome.” 

“You’ve changed Moonbow,” Sentinel remarked, looking at Moonbow, his eyes curious as he squinted in the afternoon sunlight. 

“Of course I have,” Moonbow agreed. “Mistress has shaped me. Before, I was like formless clay. Now, I have shape. A purpose. I am being built for my task.” 

“This seems overwhelming, deciding my whole future while I’m so young,” Diamond Tiara whimpered, feeling slightly panicked. She looked at Sentinel and silently begged for some kind of support and then she looked back at Moonbow. 

“You are always free to say no and walk away,” Sentinel stated as he reached out with his wing and touched Diamond Tiara, rubbing his central knuckle along her ribs. “What you have to understand I think, is that Moonbow and I cannot say no and walk away. We have duties. Our lives are already given to a cause. We do not live for ourselves.” 

“I do understand that,” Diamond Tiara said, looking at Sentinel and blinking. 

“See, Sentinel, we do have an understanding,” Moonbow said in a calm voice. She turned to look at Diamond Tiara. “If you want to be with Sentinel, you have to take everything that comes with him, for good or for ill. At this point in his life, he must find future life mates to assist us with our work. You need to either accept this and join us or reject this and step aside, so Sentinel has a good chance of finding others.” 

“I don’t want to step aside,” Diamond Tiara snapped, a scowl puckering her face into a sour expression. “I’m just a little scared about dedicating my whole life to something at this age,” she confessed. 

“We have,” Sentinel stated, looking down at the grass. His lips moved for a moment but no words came out. Tongue tied, the colt gave up and remained silent. His eyes turned to Moonbow, who gave him a knowing nod. 

“I chose this. I chose these irons. I surrendered my entire existence to become a Myrmidon. Sentinel wears his own irons, but they are not the sort that can be seen. In service, there is purpose,” Moonbow said in a smooth voice that radiated serenity. 

“I want purpose,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “I’m a spoiled brat and a bully. I’ve ruined my whole life and most ponies I know don’t trust me. When we talk about careers and jobs in school, I think about having to face every single pony that hates me doing some sort of job and it feels so overwhelming. I’ve actually thought about killing myself on-” 

Diamond Tiara’s words were cut off by a sharp blow to the side of her cheek, which sent her sprawling over backwards in the grass. The pink filly cried out and covered her face, trying to nurse her stinging cheek. Looming over her was a large dark shadow that blocked out the sun. 

“I never want to hear you talk of suicide again,” Moonbow commanded in an angry voice, a faint soft growl coming from deep within her barrel. 

“It’s so overwhelming,” Diamond Tiara repeated in a whine as she tried to squirm away from Moonbow, still rubbing her cheek. 

“Of course it is overwhelming,” Moonbow grunted, her eyes narrowing into glaring slits. “You’re being a stupid, mindless, ignorant little filly. You think about facing this future of yours alone, do you not?” 

“Yes,” Diamond Tiara answered as she began to tear up and sniffle a bit. 

“Then embrace purpose or continue to face this future of yours alone,” Moonbow said in a chilling monotone. “Perhaps that little wing slap knocked some sense into you. We shall see. Maybe a week spent here in irons might do you good… to experience the contrast of being free versus the feeling of truly being overwhelmed by the weight of your future. You know nothing of being overwhelmed and being fearful of the future. All you have to worry about is the painful sting of humiliation and facing the pain of your past.” 

“Moonbow, that’s not fair,” Sentinel protested. 

“Silence male,” Moonbow demanded. 

“Make me,” Sentinel growled, his hackles rising as he rose up on all fours, his lips curling back from his teeth as he snarled out a challenge. 

“I’m pleased, you’ve grown fierce,” Moonbow responded, her face softening into a smile. “And I find you attractive in this state.” 

“She isn’t like us. She’s soft, but she has her own strength,” Sentinel said, his expression softening. The colt also liked the idea that Moonbow liked his defiance. He looked at one filly, then the other, and realised that he was going to have very different roles to fill for each of them. 

“I give in,” Diamond Tiara cried, still laying on her side in the grass. 

“What?” Sentinel asked, looking at the pink earth pony. 

“I can’t face my future on my own. I know what I’ve done to my life. I keep thinking about killing myself or running away from my problems,” Diamond Tiara admitted, flinching as she spoke and waiting for another painful slap for mentioning suicide. She waited for a full minute and when no slap came, she opened her eyes slowly and saw Moonbow looking down at her, the much larger lunar pegasus filly’s expression blank. 

“With pain comes honesty, or so Mistress says,” Moonbow stated in a matter of fact voice. “It is time to let go of your sense of self little one. Surrender yourself to purpose. Give yourself to the service of others and I promise you, these fears of yours will melt away.” 

“I want them gone,” Diamond Tiara breathed. 

“Then we have reached an understanding,” Moonbow said once again as she gently touched Diamond Tiara with her wing. “You belong to us now, we look after our own. That is our way. The future is still uncertain, but at least you will not be facing it alone.” 

“It’s funny, but I feel better,” Diamond Tiara admitted as she sniffled. 



 

Princess Twilight Sparkle could scarcely believe her eyes. The Element of Laughter was gone, the necklace and the gemstone had vanished in a flash, and now Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich were holding one another in the hospital bed. Neither one of them had a clear memory of what had happened, just that they had been bound together and something about a ball of twine, which upon mentioning, had caused Pinkie Pie to go off on a tangent about banana pudding. 

“So neither of you really remembers what happened?” Twilight asked. 

“No… I kinda remember... a rock farm? Maybe?” Cheese Sandwich replied. 

“You know, I’m thinking that Mister Grumpy needs lesson in laughter,” Pinkie Pie announced. “There is appropriate laughter and inappropriate laughter.” 

“Pinkie Pie, don’t do anything stupid,” Twilight warned. 

“Dare to be stupid,” Cheese Sandwich muttered. 

“Can I go home?” Pinkie Pie said. “I wonder how the Cake twins are. I’m worried.” 

“The doctors are discussing your release now,” Twilight responded. 

“I feel so very happy… I remember there was some kind of party. And Cheesy and I got married or something but when I think about it, all I see are balloons,” Pinkie Pie said, gazing into Cheese’s eyes as she lay in the bed. 

“Balloons,” Cheese murmured in agreement. 

“Getting any information out of you two is a hopeless endeavour,” Twilight grumbled, shaking her head. “I give up.” 



 

“I can’t believe that Bucky did that with his stump,” Derpy said in a low voice as she sat at the kitchen table. In front of her was a stack of waffles, steaming, covered in butter and mixed fruit preserves. 

“It scratches a deep itch,” Berry replied, closing her eyes as she spoke. “I didn’t even know I had that itch. Did you have a nice time?” she questioned as she lifted up her teacup and inhaled the fragrant steam. 

“Oh yes,” Derpy agreed, nodding as she stabbed her fork into her waffles. 

“What’s this about a stump?” Bon Bon asked as she came around the corner. 

Giggling, Derpy stuffed a bite of waffles into her mouth to avoid having to answer the question. She chewed enthusiastically, smacking her lips and getting red mixed fruit preserves all over her muzzle. 

“Bucky found a creative use for his stump,” Berry said in a calm collected voice, her serenity unphased. She took a sip of tea and looked at Bon Bon with lucid relaxed eyes. 

Bon Bon looked puzzled, then confused, and finally, she looked horrified, her eyes going wide and her mouth falling open. “He didn’t!”

Swallowing a gulp of tea, Berry nodded. “He did.” 

“He did what?” Barley asked, stumbling into the kitchen and making his way to a chair. The old stallion was stiff and having a hard time moving. The cold nights and somewhat warm days were plaguing his joints and making him stiff. 

“Barley, you don’t want to know,” Bon Bon cried out and then fled the kitchen, her purpose for coming there now forgotten. 

Easing himself into a chair, Barley looked at Berry. “You look like you’ve just been properly shagged,” he announced as he began to pour himself some tea. “Care to tell your old uncle what’s going on?” 

“Well, if only I could find the words, but I’m stumped,” Berry tittered, setting down her teacup before she spilled anything. 

“Daft headed filly,” Barley grumbled, shaking his head. 

“Bucky found a use for his stump,” Derpy mumbled around a mouthful of food. 

“Ach… crivens,” Barley gasped, his eyes going wide. “He dinnae.” 

“Oh yes, he did,” Berry giggled, unable to look at her uncle. “And it was wonderful.” 

“Ah, well then, good for you, ye shag happy pervert,” Barley said as he stirred sugar into his tea. “You know, all of you know the virtue of a good shagging, but I’m worried about wee Belisama,” the old stallion muttered. 

“How so?” Berry questioned. 

“She’s so timid and afraid. It’s breaks me bleeding heart to see her the way she is,” Barley replied as he set his spoon down upon the saucer beneath his teacup. 

“She’ll come around,” Berry said confidently. “Look at Loch Skimmer.” 

“Who has another job by the way,” Derpy said proudly. 

“Really?” Barley inquired, looking at the grey mare and then took a sip of tea. 

“She doesn’t get paid for it, but she spends time in the hospital working with mares and fillies who have been abused. Some kind of counselling group. Survivors of physical and sexual abuse,” Derpy answered and then stuffed her mouth full of waffles. 

“That filly is made out of sunshine,” Barley stated, the old stallion looking incredibly proud for a moment. “I love her to pieces. Almost as much as I love Berry here.” 

“Aw, you’re so sweet, you old fart,” Berry responded, the barest hint of a blush appearing upon her cheeks. “Loch Skimmer… all she can do is think about helping others.” 

“Remember how she was?” Derpy asked after she swallowed her mouthful of waffles. 

“Ach, damnit, I’m getting old, I feel like crying I’m so o’ercome with emotion,” Barley groused. “Oh sod it all.” 

“I remember all too well,” Berry replied, a her expression going vacant for a moment. “Bucky brought her back to us as a broken terrified filly. I can’t believe her father broke her leg. For a long time, I must confess, I had unhealthy revenge fantasies of beating the stuffing out of that stallion.” 

“All that is behind us now, and Bucky punished him,” Derpy said in a sad voice. 

“That broke Bucky,” Berry grumbled, looking distressed. “When is Sentinel supposed to be back?” 

“He’ll be back when he’s back,” Derpy said just before cramming another bite of waffles in her maw. 

“I’ve been feeling so motherly lately. I don’t like having my foals where I can’t see them or know exactly where they are,” Berry confessed, looking troubled. 

“Aye, and you're a damn sight better than my sister,” Barley said bitterly, shaking his head in disgust. “I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, forgive me.” 

“Mom was less than perfect,” Berry admitted. “But at least she gave me Piña.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 359
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Everything has changed so much since I left, so many years have passed and so much has taken place,” Sunset Shimmer said to her companion Bartleby as she lifted her head from a book and stretched her neck. 

“You should take a break,” Bartleby suggested, leaping up onto the table and sitting down upon the edge. “Would madam like some tea perhaps? I could make you some tea. You like the black tea with blackcurrant in the evenings, I could have it ready in just a few moments,” he offered, extending his talons in an inviting gesture. 

“I have to catch up,” Sunset Shimmer insisted, looking frantic. “I cannot reflect poorly upon Bucky… he’s been good to me. He’s given me a room, a position as his apprentice, access to magic, and most importantly, he’s brought me home. Home. He trusts me to educate his foals. And you… he brought us together Bartleby, you’re a great friend.” 

“You flatter me madam,” Bartleby said, bowing his head slightly. 

“Really, you’re a good friend,” Sunset Shimmer repeated, looking at Bartleby as she tried once again to get her neck to crack, trying to get the tension out. 

“Perhaps you’d like to get out? A walk might be in order. You are ruining your spine,” Bartleby said in a soft cajoling voice. The griffon seemed concerned, his talons flexing. His tail swished to and fro as his crest slowly rose. 

“Perhaps some time away from the books is in order,” Sunset admitted as she leaned back in her chair and made her spine crackle alarmingly. “What should we do?” 

“Is madam suggesting that we do something together?” Bartleby inquired, cocking his head and looking at Sunset Shimmer. 

“Well, it is approaching evening. I like going out after dark. A walk might be nice, some time spent in Ponyville, or we could explore the Everfree,” Sunset mused, looking around her room. Her bed was perfectly made. The books were all in perfect order. In the corner an alchemical lab bubbled and burbled, a potion was brewing, an unfinished experiment that might take a few more weeks. Bartleby’s hammock was secured from the ceiling. The room had changed, it was cozy now, comfortable, and even colourful after she had done some much needed decorating. 

“Might I remind madam that our last trip into the Everfree caused us to have a close encounter with an owlbear… an encounter that I’d rather not have again,” Bartleby said in a soft voice, his beak clicking as he spoke. “The owlbear was quite… unfriendly.” 

“He’s lucky I didn’t cook him,” Sunset groused, scowling at the memory. 

“Madam, you set his backside on fire,” Bartleby said, shaking his head in disapproval. 

“Still think I should have cooked him,” Sunset Shimmer quipped, her nostrils flaring as she tried to contain a laugh. 

“No… instead, the owlbear is now bald in a most embarrassing place,” Bartleby said dryly, rolling his eyes. 

“Hey, that’s a good thing,” Sunset Shimmer announced. “I did that owlbear a favour!” 

“How is that a good thing?” Bartleby inquired, looking up at Sunset Shimmer with regretful looking eyes and a worried half erect crest. “How is leaving him bald and bare buttocked a favour?” 

“He doesn’t have to worry about poop sticking to his fur,” Sunset Shimmer replied, looking Bartleby directly in the eye as she spoke, a manic gleam in her opal eyes. 

“Oh dear… I walked into that one,” Bartleby groaned, shaking his head. “Will I never learn?” he asked himself, his wings fluttering. 

Waggling her eyebrows, Sunset Shimmer smiled warmly at her griffon companion. 



 

“Did you and Diamond Tiara have a nice time?” Dinky asked her brother, looking at him with bright and merry eyes. “Did you smooch?” 

“I thought you said smooching was disgusting,” Sentinel replied, looking at both of his sisters and feeling more than a bit concerned by their giddiness. 

“Oh, it is, but we want to make sure you are happy,” Piña responded, looking first at Sentinel and then at Dinky. “Also, deflecting the question is not answering it. Dinky, I’m thinking he smooched both of them. Or was smooched.”

A soft smirk spread over Sentinel’s face as he realised he had a chance to tease his sisters. “There was more than kissing,” he admitted, one ear splaying out sideways as he spoke. He looked at Dinky and for a brief moment, he enjoyed watching his sister squirm. 

“What happened?” Dinky demanded, her eyes wide. “You have to tell us. As your sister, I command you to tell me. I need to know!” 

Shaking his head and letting out a small soft laugh, Sentinel found he rather liked seeing Dinky look so frantic. “I’ll let her tell you. It’s private.” 

“Oh that’s not fair!” Piña Colada protested, her ears drooping down to the sides of her face. “How is Moonbow?” she asked after a few moments of silence. 

“Moonbow is doing well. She has grown and become far more educated. She and Diamond Tiara like one another and the three of us have reached an understanding,” Sentinel answered, allowing himself to look pleased. “I’m starving. I’m going to find Semillon and ask for something to eat I think.” The colt rose, shook himself, and trotted off to find the cook, leaving his sisters to conspire with one another. 

“I wonder what happened?” Dinky asked, looking over at her sister. 

“Diamond Tiara will tell us,” Piña said confidently. 



 

“Sister, are you well? I know you have been under a lot of stress,” Luna inquired, looking across the table at her sister with a look of deep concern. 

“I am not well,” Celestia admitted in a strained voice. “Somehow, I am managing though. I ran away like a troubled foal… I feel so lost and confused right now. I no longer trust my own judgment.” 

“We do not always see eye to eye dear sister, but I still trust your judgment. Most of the time,” Luna said in a reassuring voice, the ghost of a grin haunting her muzzle as she spoke. She watched as a griffoness carried away a tray full of soiled dishes. “The service around here has improved,” Luna remarked casually. 

“The griffons are certainly industrious and eager to please,” Celestia agreed in a distracted voice, unaware of Luna’s smile. 

“The palace staff have grown lazy. The griffons are a pleasant change,” Luna commented, looking around as the griffons cleaned up dinner. “They even dust above the door frames. I left a silver bit up on top of my door frame in my private chambers, and when I went back to check it, I found one hundred copper bits set out to replace it. Five stacks of twenty copper bits each. I was astounded.” 

“That is nice Luna,” Celestia said in a distracted voice. 

“I have gathered up all of the loathsome peasants and I plan to have them beheaded,” Luna stated in a soft friendly voice. “Well, most of them, the rest I plan to throw to wild beasts for my own amusement. Buckminster and I will build a rampaging army of the undead together and take over this pathetic mudball. The night shall last forever, blah blah blah.” 

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Celestia responded as she stared vacantly out the window, her eyes sad and her lip quivering. 

Sighing, Luna scowled and glared at her sister. “Sister, you need to be laid.” 

“That’s nice Luna… wait, what?” Celestia gasped, snapping back into reality. She stared wide eyed at her sister with her mouth hanging open. 

“You… need… to… be… LAID,” Luna announced, not caring that the griffons might hear her . “You are painfully self absorbed, in pain, alone, and suffering. You need to go on a bender, get into a state of drunkenness that poets that will write epics about, and you need to get shagged.” 

“No… I cannot,” Celestia protested, shaking her head vehemently. 

“You still miss him, do you not?” Luna inquired, her eyes narrowing. “Do not deny it, I have seen your dreams. You make comical faces as you approach climax.” 

“LUNA!” Celestia snapped, banging her hoof down upon the table. 

“You loved the Sombra on the other side of the mirror. It was very practical. You avoided scandal and kept your chaste pure white image intact. You have needs. We are sexual creatures, there is no denying this. We have functional sexual organs. We have a clitoris. We have erogenous zones and a full compliment of hormones that fuel our physical demands. We have bodies that need certain types of attention,” Luna stated in a cold clinical voice, staring at her sister and making Celestia squirm. 

“I have nopony to turn to… for those needs,” Celestia murmured, looking away from Luna’s piercing burning stare. 

“If you asked him, if you approached his wives, they might understand,” Luna said in an emotionless monotone. 

“What are you talking about?” Celestia demanded, leveling her gaze upon her sister. 

“Do not play coy,” Luna deadpanned. “It does not become you dear sister.” 

“I do not know what you mean,” Celestia snapped, the room growing warmer. 

“BUCKMINSTER!” Luna thundered, causing the table to rattle. 

“I have not allowed myself to feel that way about him. He is not Sombra. I can tell the difference. Not this world’s Sombra nor the mirror world,” Celestia said in an angry growl as flames began to dance from her eyes. “I have guarded my heart against those feelings.” 

“Not allowing yourself to feel them is not the same as not having them,” Luna retorted, baring her teeth at her sister. “I have seen your dreams!” 

“Stay out of my dreams Luna! I have made enough mistakes, I am done with that kind of love. Never again, I cannot bear to have my heart broken,” Celestia said angrily. The big white alicorn trembled with barely contained emotion, her nostrils flaring and her barrel heaving. “Just because you find solace with Barley does not mean I need to find a consort.” 

“Leave Barley out of this,” Luna demanded, her voice becoming icy. “No more marriage for us… how could you sister?” 

“It was for the best, we cannot play favourites Luna, there was an agreement reached about no more political marriage or marriage at all,” Celestia explained. 

“YOU AGREED! I was gone! GONE! I had no part in that agreement, Barley and I could be happy. To him I am just another pony. He appreciates me for what I am, a mare. Nothing else!” Luna snapped as the air filled with ozone. 

The griffons in the room were now gone, departed, off to find shelter from the coming storm as the two angry sisters’ argument became more and more heated. 

“I do not think I want to continue this conversation,” Celestia snarled, her teeth bared at Luna. Dangerous looking golden sparks danced along her horn as her anger began to bubble over. 

“You made a decision about my life without me,” Luna accused, shaking her hoof as she pointed it at her sister. “Meanwhile, you went dimension hopping to get your itch scratched… what option do I have?” 

“I made a mistake and it nearly destroyed both of our worlds,” Celestia said in a defeated voice, turning away from Luna, unable to look her sister in the eyes. 

“LOVE IS NOT A MISTAKE!” Luna bellowed, using the Canterlot voice. A vase shattered from the force of her utterance. 

“LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME NOTHING BUT HURT!” Celestia roared, now using the royal voice herself. Flames shot out of her nose and heat shimmered up from her body. “Everything I have loved has hurt me… EVEN YOU!” 

Luna’s mouth fell open as she tried to say something, but words failed her. She slid out of her chair and down to the floor, glaring at her sister. She whipped out one wing, extended it towards Celestia, and then exposed one central primary feather at her sister. Having made a response, Luna stormed off, stomping her hooves as she departed. 

“Fine, let it be war then!” Celestia snapped, responding to her sister’s ancient pegasus display of war. “YOU ARE AN INSUFFERABLE SPOILED BRAT!” 
	
	
> Chapter 360
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Night Princess stood in front of the doorway, looking distressed and out of sorts. Bucky stared up at her, concern on his face, his ears splayed out sideways as he tried to read her body language and facial expressions for clues so he could figure out what was wrong. She was covered in mud, dirt, and bits of forest debris. 

“Been out for a walk?” Bucky inquired in a low voice. 

“I was in the Everfree, enjoying a leisurely stroll,” Luna responded. 

“I see,” Bucky stated, feeling a bit more worried now. 

“I encountered a most curious sight… there was an owlbear with bald buttocks… he mooned me,” the night blue alicorn remarked as her ears perked forward. 

“Bald?” Bucky questioned in a quizzical tone. 

“I had a fight with my sister,” Luna blurted out, her lip now quivering. “I require lodgings. I will not be returning home.” 

“Wait, what?” Bucky asked, now looking very confused. 

“I do believe I shall take up residence here. I can no longer bear to live in the same domicile as my overbearing and wretched sister. I think I will stay here and be happy with Barley,” Luna announced. She gave herself a shake, shedding bits of debris down to the floor in front of the door. “I’ll need to send for Tibbles.” 

“You had a spat with your sister and now you are running away from home like a spoiled foal?” Bucky inquired, looking up at Luna in disbelief. 

“Quiet thine wagging tongue, knave,” Luna commanded, peering down at Bucky, her eyes narrowing and glittering with barely repressed rage. 

“You’re welcome to stay of course. Barley is up in his bed. The foals are asleep. Sentinel just went to bed. The house is quiet. Take a little time and calm down,” Bucky offered. “I just woke up a little while ago.” 

“I am lonely, are there no foals to play with?” Luna asked in a pleading voice. 

“It is past midnight. Well past. Everypony and everybirdy is asleep,” Bucky stated in reply, still looking at Luna in concern. “Want something to eat?” 

“I do not desire food,” Luna answered brusquely. “Merely companionship.” 

Feeling a creeping sense of dread crawling through his belly, Bucky began to wonder what had just happened and why Luna was now here in his home, demanding to stay. He had a thousand questions, but seeing her state of agitation, he chose to remain quiet. He hoped that Luna would calm and perhaps tell him what had happened. 

“How is Harper?” Luna inquired in a strained voice. 

“Harper has a bit of colic, she just fell asleep a little while ago after wearing herself out from crying,” Bucky answered, shaking his head. “Poor thing. She’s miserable. She’s learning how to eat some solid foods and they’re not sitting well.” 

“Colic?” Luna asked, raising her eyebrow. 

“You know… gas… foal farts. Butt trumpets. I had to spend almost half an hour rubbing her belly and working the gas bubbles out just to get her to stop screaming,” Bucky explained as he made rubbing gestures with his stump. 

“You are a patient and devoted father,” Luna stated, her teal eyes wide as she peered at Bucky. “To soothe a foal and sit in the eye of the storm. Many stallions would demand that their wives take care of such an unpleasant task.” 

“Um, thank you,” Bucky remarked, feeling even more confused and unsettled. “When she gets like that, she wants her daddy more than anypony else. She needs me.” 

“I know how it feels to want your father,” Luna responded in a raspy voice. She peered around the entryway and then began to move into the kitchen, pushing past Bucky. “To hear his soothing voice and know that everything okay. To have comfort in the dark when you are having a nightmare and you are frightened.” 

Bucky, following Luna, pondered the meaning of her words. Luna had become a nightmare, she had been lost in the dark, and her father had stopped speaking to her. He watched the tall alicorn sit down in a wooden chair at the small kitchen table and rest her forelegs upon the table’s edge. He watched Luna’s barrel hitch several times, heard the big mare snort, and then the night blue alicorn began to make a strangled gurgling sound. 

It took Bucky several moments to figure out that she was weeping. 

Bucky had no idea what to do about the Princess of the Night who was wailing while sitting at his kitchen table. He froze, his muscles unable to move, and he found it difficult to breathe as concerned sympathetic panic began to creep through his body. He willed himself to move and approached her side, hobbling on three legs. 

“Luna?” Bucky asked as he gently touched Luna on the side with his stump. 

“Do not touch me!” Luna demanded, turning to glare at Bucky. “Leave me. I require solitude,” she said as she turned her eyes away from Bucky, squirming away from his soft caress. She lay her head down on her folded forelegs and buried her face as she sobbed. 

“No,” Bucky whispered. “I’m not leaving you alone, not when you are suffering like-” He paused as the world around him shimmered and warped. He suddenly found himself standing out on the lawn. “-this,” he finished, now feeling just a little peeved. He glared at the house and the kitchen window, and for a brief moment, he thought about going in and giving Luna a good lecturing. He weighed the risks and pondered where else she might teleport him if provoked. Growling, he hobbled towards the house, grumbling and gnashing his teeth together. 

He lept up the front steps, wobbling on three legs, two of which didn’t work very well at all. He pulled the door open and went inside. He stared into the kitchen, debating if he wanted to push the issue, if he wanted to say something, and as he stood there watching, he watched as Luna’s barrel rose and fell, her soft sobs were audible, the only other sound was the crackling of the fire in the living room. Scowling, Bucky decided to push the issue and entered the kitchen, sitting down beside Luna. 

“I told you to leave me alone,” Luna whimpered, not bothering to look at Bucky. 

Bucky said nothing, but sat there in his chair and waited to be teleported away. As he was sitting there, he began to prepare tea, flexing his magic and making the kitchen around him come to life in a whirlwind of activity. Semillon kept the kitchen well organised and the organisation was done with unicorns in mind, with things that commonly went together all clustered in one central location. There were soft clinks and clatters behind him, the sound of running water, and as everything came together, two mismatched teacups were placed upon the kitchen table. One was bone white china and covered in yellow roses, the other was heavier, made of clay, and had intricate designs carved into the sides. 

“When I’m sad I like mine with extra sugar,” Luna sniffled, wiping her eyes with her foreleg. “I thought I told you I required solitude.” 

Remaining silent, Bucky wondered if Luna was even aware of the contradiction in her statement, clearly wanting tea with extra sugar but still wanting to be left alone. He heated the teapot with his magic while boiling the water in the tea kettle. He heated the cups as well and levitated the sugar bowl over to the kitchen table. 

“My sister is cruel and heartless,” Luna said in a pained whisper. “Always so bossy and secure in the fact that she must be correct in everything because our creator still talks to her. I wonder if he has cut her off as he’s done with me… she won’t be so smug after a few hundred years of not hearing his voice. It hurts so much… it leaves you feeling empty. I was trapped in a nightmare… alone in the dark and he left me. There was no comfort to be had… none at all. One thousand years of nothing.” 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky offered as he poured the boiling water into the teapot. 

“Why are you sorry?” Luna asked as she wiped her nose with her foreleg. 

“Because… your father was rotten to you and I understand. Believe me, I do,” Bucky responded, looking pointedly at Luna and daring her to challenge him. “Maybe not on the immortal scale of things, but I understand bad parents. When I deal with my foals, I try to think about the exact opposite of what my parents might have done.” 

“You rubbed the farts out of your foal’s belly… you are a good father,” Luna mumbled as she pulled the teacup with yellow roses close to her. She looked down at the roses, sniffled a few times, and then looked at Bucky with an expression of pain so terrible that there were no words to describe it. How does one explain one thousand years of solitude with no comfort to be had, no loving voice of a caring parent trying to reassure the troubled foal that the punishment was nearly over? Luna certainly could not. 

“I’ve met him… her. It. Whatever it is. When I hovered near death after the defeating the crystal lich. He explained my purpose and what was going on. What I was meant to do and how your sister was forced to hold the cosmos together all by herself during your absence,” Bucky said, feeling rather shocked that the words came out so easily and with no embarrassing utterances of nonsensical words. 

Luna glanced up at Bucky for a moment, her teal eyes glittering, and then her gaze fell back down to look at her teacup. She heaved a shuddering sigh and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“I learned that the alicorn of war was to be the end of all things. He doesn’t want to save any of this, he wants to wipe it away, destroy it, put an end to all things, and he wants me to be the one to do his dirty work,” Bucky said, feeling relieved that he could finally get this out. 

“I have begun to figure as much,” Luna admitted, huddled over the table and looking miserable. She watched at Bucky poured the milk into her cup and then the tea. He added several sugarcubes, dropping them into her cup with a splash, and when he tossed in one more extra, Luna found herself feeling just a little bit better. 

“I know you just had a spat with your sister, but you have three other sisters that love you,” Bucky said in a soft whisper as he prepared his own tea. 

“Do not bring them up, not now,” Luna begged, shaking her head. “I cannot bear it.” 

“They worry for you… they love you… and they are at war with your father. We need allies,” Bucky breathed in a voice of almost pure relief, feeling so much better now that he could talk about this. 

“So… you have picked sides?” Luna asked, looking at Bucky. 

“Of course I have. It is why I will not ascend. Life must go on. Your father has become a threat. He whispers into Celestia’s ear, he uses her love and devotion for him to coerce her into doing monsterous things, and he manipulates everything all around us to bring about the end,” Bucky whispered as he stirred his tea. 

“I know… about his manipulations I mean. I sometimes wonder if he caused my fall to punish my sister and make her suffer,” Luna mused. “To force her into being submissive and meek.” 

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked. 

“There was a disagreement… I did not agree with him. I encouraged my sister to disobey. Celestia did… she did disobey at my behest. She and Sombra… well, our father did not approve. It was my words that made my sister disobey. I turned Celestia against him. He was furious with me. Not long after, Princess Platinum died, Sombra began his descent into madness, and Celestia was tortured by watching him suffer. I cannot help but wonder if he killed Platinum to begin this dreadful process. He wanted Celestia to kill Sombra, to put an end to him…he wanted her to kill what she loved to break her willfulness. Celestia refused, once again at my urging. I spoke words of reason to my sister, telling her that Sombra might still be saved. Our father gave commands and I moved my sister to rebel against him constantly. We made a mess of things. Had Sombra been killed, so much suffering might have been avoided. But the war raged on and it was no longer quite so easy to correct our mistake. Sombra could no longer just be killed. The love between them died… Celestia finally saw how much Sombra hated her now, how he loathed her, and it broke her heart. We finally cut him down, but at a terrible cost. Our father… he gloated. He did not say ‘I told you so,’ at least not specifically, but he made it clear that we were wrong, that he had known all along what had been best for both of us, and Celestia grew angry with him. She tried to submit, to listen, to do as he said, but she had moments of being willful. Of course, I did not help. I urged my sister to do things our way… and I believe at some point, he grew tired of me leading my sister astray. I had a moment of weakness, I fell into darkness, and then I faced exile. I was gone for a thousand years and now she is, or was, submissive and mindful of his every command. I do not know what has happened to be honest, I can only speculate,” Luna explained, letting everything within her heart out in one long pained confession, staring down into her teacup, tears sliding down her muzzle and splashing upon the table. 

“Oh stars that’s horrible,” Bucky grumbled, scarcely able to take in everything he had just heard. “That is the most heinous and abusive thing I’ve heard in a while.” 

“I just did it again… I told my sister to get laid… to embrace another pony that she loves, but he has wives… I have not learned from my past mistakes… I fear that our father is going to send me away again… I’m so scared,” Luna confessed. “I feel as though the past is repeating itself once again.” 

Bucky, lost in thought and distracted, failed to catch the implications of what Luna had said and instead began to worry about what might happen if Luna fell once again, pushed into darkness by a being he had no chance to protect her from. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 361
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The forge was cold as Bucky entered. Luna had gone to bed, a rare thing for her to do at night, and Bucky was left to his own devices. In his magic, he held a strange looking device he had been working on, shadow and demon blood infused metal that he had been conducting experiments upon. 

It looked a lot like a griffon claw that was made out of dull black metal. 

Lugus had teased him a bit about wanting to add sharpened claws: it was an impractical idea, Bucky would never last in close quarters combat with anything remotely threatening. Tonight, he planned to finish. He had the fulgurite connector already made, it just needed to be fused with the metal, and then fused to his leg. The thumb had been reworked several times, along with the other talon fingers. The first design had only allowed the fingers to bend and flex in one direction, the second design allowed a bit more flexibility with ball and socket joints, and this version was now highly refined, but the thumb needed a bit more work. His intention was to add a slotted groove where the thumb attached, allowing the digit to slide from one side of the talon hand to the other, allowing it to become a right hand or a left hand on a whim. and allowing for greater range of movement and flexibility. Soft rubber grips had been prepared for the talon tips to allow for grip while walking and to not mar the floor. These tips would have to be replaced on a regular basis as the rubber wore down. 



 

Sweating, Bucky slid the thumb from one side of the groove to the other using his magic, tested its flexibility, checked its range of motion, and smiled. The forge was warm, almost unpleasantly warm, but Bucky was sweating from exertion. The air around him was ice cold as he drew in heat to power his own magic, not even realising that he was doing it. 

He brought the claw to life with magic, feeding it raw essence, raw crackling magic to give it power. The talons flexed, moved, clenched into a fist, then opened, and then each talon finger flexed downwards to touch the talon thumb. The magical movement routines were smooth and efficient, this would be like a wearable golem. 

Holding the claw in his telekinesis, he grasped a large stone in the flexing talon fingers. Not using his magic, but rather the claw’s own magical prowess, he began to close the fingers around the stone, willing the claw to exert pressure. There was a creak of metal, then a popping sound from the stone, and then a loud screech. 

A moment later, the stone crumbled into small fragments and dust, causing Bucky to cackle from his own overwhelming feeling of self satisfaction. He marveled at the mechanical might of what he had created. A golem talon with enough strength to shatter stone, but still gentle enough to pick up a foal. A useful tool of manipulation should he ever be in a situation where magic might be ill advised or avoided. A fearful weapon. Not to mention a symbol of the griffons which was about to be fused to his own leg. 

He admired his creation, three talons, one talon thumb, all made of the same dull black metal of his armor. The upper half was black fulgurite glass, perfectly fused to the metal, also infused with demon blood and shadow. It could be walked on, it could be dipped into liquid steel to grab something, and perhaps most importantly to Bucky, it could be used for intimidation. As far as prosthetics go, Bucky found it functional and stylish. The fulgurite glass would amplify the signals that powered the claw from his own thaumaturgical system, making it exceptionally powerful, the strength only limited by his available mana reserves, like his armor but far, far stronger since it would be directly connected to his body and the raw mana his body created. 

He was able to pull it into shadow, making it insubstantial, and it had distinct magical signatures that Bucky could feel radiating from it, the strongest being Lyra’s. She had made the fulgurite glass for him and he could feel traces of Lyra’s magic lingering in the impossibly black glass. 

A nervous cackle escaped Bucky’s lips. The time was drawing nearer. While it was dark and there was nopony around to stop him, there was one final thing to do… 



 

His office was dimly lit by the stars and moon shining in through the glass dome. Bucky checked over everything once again. Some fluids, some of Barley’s strongest corn squeezings, his claw, and a blanket spread out over the stone floor. The soundproofing spell was in place, which was important.

No doubt there would be plenty of screaming in just a little while. 

As Bucky was about to commit himself to his task, there was a very troublesome knock upon the door. Growling, he used his magic to throw the door open and saw Sunset Shimmer, she was red eyed and bleary, half awake, and rather worried looking. 

“Master?” Sunset said quizzically, looking at Bucky. 

“Go back to bed, dear Minion,” Bucky urged in a soothing voice. 

Sunset looked around the office, taking in everything, and her eyes rested upon the claw and then upon Bucky’s perfectly shaved stump. “Master… no… what are you about to do?” she questioned in a soft worried voice. “I cannot allow you to bring harm to yourself.” 

“Minion, go back to bed. I am repairing what has been broken, restoring that which has been lost,” Bucky explained, focusing his eye upon Sunset Shimmer. 

“What is going on?” Bartleby asked, appearing on the landing near Sunset Shimmer and standing just outside the door with her. The griffon blinked sleepily, looked up at Sunset, and then glanced at Bucky. 

Feeling frustrated, Bucky struggled to keep his patience. “Go back to bed, both of you,” Bucky instructed, his voice soft but commanding. He thought about teleporting her away, but Bucky didn’t want to do that, not yet anyway. 

“Master, what you are about to do is dangerous… you did this to your horn and I know what you are up to. Master, I took an oath to face danger with you… I cannot allow you to do this on your own. I understand that you will go through with it no matter what I say, but if you send me away, I will run to the house and fetch your wives,” Sunset said in a firm voice, her eyes glittering in the soft light of the moon above. 

“You wouldn’t dare,” Bucky hissed, feeling rather angry and betrayed. 

“I would… try me,” Sunset Shimmer responded, her ears perking forward. 

“Bad Minion!” Bucky snapped. 

“Bad Master!” Sunset retorted. 

“It appears we are at an impasse,” Bartleby stated, looking first at Sunset Shimmer and then at Bucky. “My king, I cannot allow you to perform something dangerous upon your body all alone. What if something happened? If there were complications?” he questioned. 

“Fine, get in here and shut the door,” Bucky snapped in irritation. 

“Yes Master,” Sunset Shimmer replied, bowing her head and stepping inside, Bartleby following behind her. She pushed the door shut with her magic and looked at Bucky expectantly. 

Bucky studied his apprentice. She wasn’t the least bit afraid of him now, and he liked that. He liked it a great deal. She was a risk taker, she knew how to push limits, she knew when to obey and when to resist, she had a sharp tongue that Bucky valued, and she was not above being clever. 

“Tell me Minion, what sort of parents did you have?” Bucky inquired, still looking at Sunset Shimmer, taking note of her eager expression. She was certainly willing to see this through. He could see her fear, he could smell her fear, but he could also see that she was holding that fear back, which made him admire her. 

“Master?” Sunset replied, looking puzzled. 

“What sort of parents did you have?” Bucky repeated, making a gesture with his bare pink stump. 

“Master… I never knew my father. My mother was a mare named Blue Velvet,” Sunset Shimmer answered. 

“That tells me nothing,” Bucky said impatiently. 

“My mother was okay I guess… she died when I was young. There was a particularly nasty flu. It killed a lot of ponies. She was nice. She told me stories about our family,” Sunset Shimmer responded, dropping her gaze down to the stone floor and becoming thoughtful. 

“What sorts of stories?” Bucky asked, looking hopeful. 

“Well, we came from nobles, or so she claimed, but I cannot remember which house. But not in a meaningful way. Bastards, you know, being born on the wrong side of the estate gate,” Sunset Shimmer said bitterly. 

“Who were they?” Bucky inquired, now curious and distracted from his original task. 

“Funny story, they were on the run from their houses… or something… how did that go? There was a unicorn… his name was Starhammer or Starslammer or something like that, I don’t remember exactly what his name is, but he was a sky pirate. And he met this mare… something or other Velvet, I can’t remember. Blood Stained Velvet or something ruthless sounding like any proper sky pirate might have. Both of them came from noble houses. They had a foal together. My mother was always going on about how important we were, how we came from a pair of famous wizards, and that we deserved recognition and respect. She hated how poor we were and how little we had. When my raw magical talent was discovered… she was so happy,” Sunset said, her head cocked as she reminisced about the past. “She said the old noble blood was finally paying off… she was a miserable type two.” 

“Fascinating,” Bucky remarked, looking at Sunset Shimmer. Starjammer of House Avarice he thought to himself, feeling a twinge of curiousity. It was the only name he could think of, a recent discovery of his own as he had decided to investigate the wordy wizard out of a sense of idle curiousity. He made a mental note to do a little genealogical checking up on Sunset Shimmer’s bloodline. “Well then,” he announced. “We should get started.” 

“Yes Master, tell me what to do,” Sunset Shimmer requested, looking up at Bucky, her eyes wide and curious. 

“How can we be of assistance?” Bartleby asked, his tail wrapped around his body. 

“I intend to magically graft this mechanical claw onto my stump. Afterwards, there will probably be a lot of screaming and I might even piss myself if I am lucky,” Bucky responded in an unnerving cheerful voice. 

“And what do we do?” Sunset Shimmer questioned. 

“Well, I told you to go back to bed, but since you are here, when I recover, make sure you give me some fluid and plenty of booze to dull the pain,” Bucky instructed, looking Sunset in the eye as he spoke. 

“Shall Bartleby take note of any new and exciting swear words that might escape your lips, oh gloriously vulgar Master?” Sunset Shimmer inquired, raising her eyebrow at Bucky. 

“Look, I sneezed and sucked fine grain sand up my nose… it hurt! Would you have done any different?” Bucky responded in a sullen voice, glaring balefully at his apprentice. 

“Master, you made Scorch, one of the Demon Lords of Tartarus, pause in his tasks and reflect upon your… words of wisdom,” Sunset Shimmer said, her sense of dry wit and her barely contained mirth exuding from her expression as she spoke. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Bucky demanded, his nostrils flaring in irritation from his apprentice’s words. 

“Scorch is very old. Very very old. And he was offended,” Sunset stated, shaking her head in disapproval at the memory. 

“He was not!” Bucky retorted testily, punctuating his three word sentence with a snort of disgust.

“I believe it was the rhyming nature of your profanity… sir,” Bartleby interjected. 

“Yeah… something like ‘filthy lecher and asshole stretcher’ along with a whole slew of the most vile words used in conjunction with one another that anypony could imagine,” Sunset Shimmer said, looking down at her companion Bartleby. “You offended one of the Demon Lords of Tartarus… for shame Master.” 

“Silence Minion! We have a task! Not another word!” Bucky demanded, his eyelid twitching as he spoke. “Minion will be silent!” 

“Of course Master,” Sunset Shimmer said, bowing her head. 

“Now, if both of you are done trying to shame me, I have a dangerous and morally questionable body modification to perform upon myself,” Bucky snarled, glaring at his insolent underling and her dutiful and devoted flunky. 

If Master did no wrong, then Master has nothing to be ashamed of Sunset Shimmer thought to herself, her eyebrow raising as she watched Bucky prepare himself. 

“Life has been so much easier since my sense of ethics was mortally wounded,” Bucky announced as he made himself comfortable. 

“Did your sense of morality survive that conflict or did it perish as well?” Sunset questioned as she watched Bucky get situated. 

“You…” Bucky breathed, glaring at his apprentice with his Taint filled eye. “You just bought yourself a week of diaper duty when the foals come.” 

Squirming, Sunset Shimmer silently protested the terrible punishment, realising she might have gone too far with her sarcastic remarks. If she was lucky, Bucky might forget about it by the time the foals actually arrived come spring. 

“Sire, good luck,” Bartleby said as Bucky lifted the claw in his magic. 

“Yes Master… good luck. I really hope this won’t be too painful,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft voice to Bucky. 

“Thank you… both of you,” Bucky replied, his horn glowing. He stretched out his stump, looked at it, and then he took a deep breath. 

There was a bright flash of blue-green light as the claw winked out of existence and then snapped back into existence just a moment later, juxtaposed over Bucky’s extended stump, the teleportation magic fusing Bucky and the claw together. 

Screaming, Bucky fell to the blanket and began to writhe, his body twisting and kicking around. He could feel the glass melding with the bone, merging, it was the same pain from when he had replaced his horn. He could feel the glass rooting itself inside of his body and outside as well, creeping upwards and displacing the skin. A burning brand of agony bore into the end of his leg bone as the glass merged with his skeleton. 

Sunset, unable to bear watching Bucky writhe around, rushed to his side, sat down beside him, and picked his head up in between her forelegs, trying to comfort him. She stroked the good side of his face, she made soft cooing sounds, she did everything she could think of to try and comfort her Master. His ragged breathing pained her heart and she felt tears coming to her eyes. 

Meanwhile, Bartleby hurried forward, a glass of water at the ready, his eyes wide with warm concern. Hearing his king’s pained cries was agonising, and there was nothing more the griffon could do. 

Finally, Bucky went still and Sunset gave him some water, which Bucky greedily drank down, his throat parched from screaming. He remained limp on the floor, unable to move, and Sunset remained with him, holding his head up so he could continue to drink. 

Feeling woozy, nauseous, his vision full of black and white stars, Bucky lifted his left foreleg and flexed his new talons. He could feel pressure at the end of his leg bone, strange pressure, painful pressure, and he began to wonder if there was something wrong. He realised he could feel the metal, there was no other way of describing it, but as he flexed his metal talons, he could feel them clicking against one another. The feeling of pressure increased, it felt just like magical pressure building up behind his horn. 

“Get back!” Bucky wheezed, pushing Sunset and Bartleby away from him with his telekinesis just as his talons began to glow with blue-green eldritch fire. For a moment, Bucky thought his new talons were going to explode. He immediately raised a shield around himself, with his claw outside of the shield. 

A bolt of raw thaumakinetic energy burst from one talon tip and struck the wall, tearing a chunk of stone free. A second later, eldritch lightning streaked from his claws and into the wall, burning it and blasting away even more stone. Bucky felt the pressure in his leg die down and the lightning turned into a shower of blue-green sparks. 

With the pressure completely gone, the magical discharge ended, and Bucky flexed his new talons once more, feeling a bit drained. It dawned on him slowly that he now had a second means of magical manifestation and release upon his body, something other than his horn. The claw was directly fused into his body with fulgurite, and Bucky could only begin to imagine what had taken place, but clearly, he had another means to channel magical release, probably by the raw mana that flowed through his blood reaching the fulgurite mounting for the talons. He let out a pained cackle of triumph and looked  down at the melted rubber covers that were meant to protect the floor. As he watched, one of them flaked away, little more than ash. 

“That was the most awesome thing I have ever seen,” Sunset Shimmer whispered. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 362
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky… I have a serious problem!”

Turning to look at Twilight Sparkle, Bucky yawned. The first hint of dawn was on the horizon and the morning was chilly. His breath was visible as he breathed. Twilight Sparkle looked frantic, upset, and red eyed, as though she had been awake all night. Her mane was a mess and strands of loose hair stuck out in all directions. 

“Bucky… are you listening to me? There is a serious problem! Celestia has moved in and she’s refusing to leave… she says she can’t stand the castle anymore and she hates Luna!” 

Heaving a sigh of resignation, Bucky shook his head. He was in pain, exhausted, and not at all in a position to deal with this current crisis. He stared at Twilight blearily. “Funny, I had an alicorn move in with me last night as well.” 

“At least you have room! The library is already too cramped. And it is impossible to have sex with Celestia in the library… just too creepy,” Twilight said in a manic tone. 

“How is married life?” Bucky asked, smacking his lips and then yawning. 

“A WHOLE LOT WORSE SINCE CELESTIA JUST MOVED IN!” Twilight bellowed, her muzzle inches from Bucky’s as she shouted, flapping her wings and hovering in the air. “Hard enough to have hot loving with a foal and a baby dragon in the library… but it is impossible with Celestia. She’s all motherly and everything feels wrong and icky!” 

“Tried a theesome yet?” Bucky asked, raising his one and only eyebrow. 

“What sort of question is that?” Twilight responded, shaking her front hoof at Bucky. 

“I only ask because I have a great deal of concern for you and I want you to be happy. Plus, I can offer pointers,” Bucky answered in a soft patient voice. 

“We’ve… we have tried to be together but it is kinda awkward and overwhelming,” Twilight admitted in a muted voice, still hovering in the air and looking down on Bucky. “Too much to deal with all at once. Hard to multitask.” 

“You need to learn to let go and trust your mates Twilight. They are going to see you at your best and at your worst. You shouldn’t feel the need to hide anything from them. Be open. Expose yourself,” Bucky said as he reached up and scratched his snoot with his talons. 

“That’s not as easy as you make it sound,” Twilight replied in a strained and somewhat raspy voice, her eyes focused on Bucky. 

“You married not one, but two pegasi. Lemme tell you a few things about pegasi. They have no concept of personal space. None at all. They are exceptionally sexual creatures… needy sexual creatures. They are habitual sleep snugglers. They want to touch you all of the time, hear your voice, and know where you are. They are possessive, protective, and territorial. And you will never find a more loyal companion,” Bucky said, looking up at Twilight as she hovered just off of the ground. 

“They leave behind bruises Bucky,” Twilight said in a low voice. 

Nodding, Bucky smiled. “They do. You know you are loved by pegasi when they are so enthusiastic in their affections that they hold nothing back.” 

“Is Derpy like that?” Twilight inquired, now looking curious.

“Derpy, Ripple, Loch Skimmer, even Yew Wood has left her mark on me. I love them all,” Bucky replied, smiling as he spoke, the white tips of his fangs flashing. 

“Bucky… even before Celestia showed up… there’s been some problems at home… between us. I’m worried and I’m scared Bucky, and I really don’t know who to turn to. I can’t turn to my parents, I mean, they are very happy for me and surprisingly they approve of my marriage, but I can’t talk… to them… about this… trouble,” Twilight said in a hesitant voice, her words halting, and her face troubled. 

“I thought there might be… Twilight, you need to talk with Berry Punch. She’ll help straighten all three of you out,” Bucky said knowingly as he scratched his chest with his talons. He was growing in his winter pelt and things were a bit itchy. 

“Does anypony get jealous Bucky?” Twilight asked in a low scratchy whisper, her cheeks darkening as she spoke. 

“No… not that I’m aware of,” Bucky responded, offering Twilight a reassuring smile. 

“There is some jealousy already. Nopony will admit to it, but I know it’s there,” Twilight admitted. 

“Have you told them of your jealousy?” Bucky questioned. 

“Well… no… no I haven’t, but I have had a few moments where I’ve felt a little left out but I haven’t said anything because nopony else has said anything,” Twilight replied, her ears splaying out sideways. 

“There’s part of your problem,” Bucky stated as he watched Twilight land in front of him, finally setting her hooves down on the ground. “So you didn’t say anything and neither does anypony else, meanwhile, you just keep waiting to say something until somepony else goes first, right? Because it’s uncomfortable?” 

Squirming and staring down at the grass, Twilight nodded. 

“So, about this alicorn infestation you have in your library. Have you tried placing traps? Called an exterminator?” Bucky questioned, a faint smile spreading over his exhausted looking features. 

“Bucky! You’re terrible,” Twilight protested, looking up at Bucky in mock-horror. 

“Luna is quite upset, she said some things she probably shouldn’t have. The sisters seem to have had a spat,” Bucky said as he adjusted his torque with his talons. 

“Celestia has been so… so… so very-” 

“Acting like a pony lately rather than the spotless white monarch?” Bucky interrupted as he looked Twilight in the eye. 

“Well, yeah,” Twilight said, nodding her head up and down. 

“Celestia is a pony. So is Luna. They have hearts and minds and feel all of the same hurts that we do. The reason why we are seeing this is now is because we’ve become very much entwined in their lives. There is a relationship here. They have let us in and we have all grown close… they are probably acting the way they have always acted, but we are just now getting to see it. They trust us enough to come to us when there is trouble, probably a luxury they have never had before,” Bucky explained as he reached up and brushed his silver-black mane out of his eyes with his talons. 

“That… that makes sense,” Twilight said, her head bobbing up and down as she reached an understanding. “Celestia kept crying and she ate all of the ice cream.” 

“Hmm, all Luna wanted was tea with extra sugar,” Bucky remarked as he turned his head to look over at the house. 

“She cried all night and kept talking about all of the mistakes she has made. Sunset Shimmer. You. Me. Griffonholm. Luna. She’s eaten alive with regret and I didn’t know how to help her,” Twilight said with a pained expression on her face. 

The morning stillness was utterly destroyed by Philomena letting out a blood curdling scream to greet the morning, which caused an already nervous Twilight Sparkle to jump out of her skin and shriek, her horn glowing with a fierce intensity. 

“It’s just Philomena screaming bloody murder to greet the day,” Bucky said in a soothing voice. “Be calm.” 

“I haven’t been right since Griffonholm Bucky… I jump at every sound. I’m nervous. I’ve been having nightmares. Bad dreams. I keep thinking about what I’ve done. I’m having a lot of trouble,” Twilight admitted in a raspy whisper, her horn growing dim. 

The phoenix screamed again, a high pitched scream that pierced the dawn. 

“She has eggs. She’s very protective. She and Freezerburn both. I wouldn’t disturb them if I was you. They barely even tolerate me coming near their tree,” Bucky stated, looking off in the direction of the tree. “So… what do we do about our alicorn problem?” 

“You’re asking me?” Twilight demanded, looking confused. “You’re the one with the clever plans!”

Shaking his head, Bucky looked Twilight in the eye. “I’ve never planned for this.’ 

“We could try locking them in a room together like two foals and leave them to sort out their differences,” Twilight suggested. 

“And they say I’m mad,” Bucky responded in a dramatic whisper. 

“Bucky, you are mad. I’ve read your psychiatric report and personality profile that was established for you as a Black Cloak,” Twilight stated. 

“A technicality,” Bucky said dismissively, shrugging his shoulders. “I am going inside for coffee. Are you coming?” 

Staring blankly at Bucky for several long moments, Twilight finally nodded. 



 

Clutching his coffee cup in his talons, Bucky found he quite liked having grasping opposable digits to grab things with. Twilight had still not noticed that there was something different about him, but that was expected, Twilight was rather oblivious about much that went on around her. 

Staring off out the window, Twilight was distracted by her thoughts. There was too much going on, too much trouble, and then on top of all of the other trouble, Celestia had shown up and made herself at home. Work was piling up because she was neglecting her duties, choosing to spend time with her family instead. 

“We still need to make a couple of giant golems and work on the gunpowder issue,” Bucky remarked and then took a sip of his coffee. 

“I’ve read a report, the fighting is getting bad in Minos. They’re appealing to the Sea of Grass for aid and offering to join in an alliance if the Sea of Grass will send assistance to quell the rebellion,” Twilight responded, looking down into her coffee cup. “It is turning into a multi-nation conflict though. The Old World Pony Alliance is sending troops from Fancy, Trottingham, Liverypool, and a couple of other places to protect their financial investments in Minos.” 

“I’ve wondered if I should go over there and put down the rebellion,” Bucky stated in a soft voice. “I’ve thought about it. More killing… more bloodshed… more death.” 

“The Bocors have authorised the use of zebra vodun,” Twilight said as she continued to stare out the window. 

“Oh… oh that sounds like fun,” Bucky replied, his eye going wide. “Hexes. Curses. Biological warfare. They worked up beak rot for the griffons… I’d hate to see what they come up with for the minotaurs.” 

“Something unpleasant, that’s for sure,” Twilight said, her gaze still looking out the window. She sighed and shifted her weight in her chair, leaning more on the table. 

The sounds of waking ponies began to fill the house and Bucky’s ears perked. His peaceful morning was nearly over. Somepony was bound to notice the recent addition to his body. He took a sip of coffee and steeled himself. It was a lazy weekend morning and even the cook had slept in for a little longer than usual. 

“Twilight?” Bucky asked, looking at the distracted alicorn. 

“Yes Bucky?” Twilight responded, still looking out the window at the serene morning. 

“Who’s in Canterlot right now running the nation?” Bucky inquired, trying to hide his twitching smirk. 

“I don’t know Bucky… OH MY GOSH I DON’T KNOW BUCKY!” Twilight replied, turning away from the window to look at Bucky. Twilight lifted her cup to her lips, chugged down her coffee, set down her mug, and belched loudly. “I gotta go!” she announced as she spilled out of her chair and  then fled the kitchen. 

A moment later, Bucky heard the front door slam as Twilight departed. He waited for the sonic boom, tapping one talon idly upon the table, and heard the dull thud about a minute later. Bucky found he rather liked drumming his talons upon the table and he understood now why Lugus did this when the big griffon was feeling pensive. 

Feeling a terrible sense of curiousity, Bucky experienced the peculiar thought about being able to pick his own nose. The minotaurs certainly did it, there was even a joke about it, ‘why do minotaurs have such big nostrils?’ The proper response was, ‘because they have big fingers!’ 

“Hmm,” Bucky mused to himself. “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you cannot pick your friend’s nose.” He chortled at his own joke, his pain and exhaustion having worn down his sense of reason, and he stared down into his coffee cup. 
	
> Chapter 363
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I demand a demonstration.” 

Princess Luna’s tone was icy, demanding, and left no room for argument. Bucky bowed his head, cast a glance at Derpy, who was still eyeing him angrily, and then at Berry, who had a look of confused understanding, and then at Bon Bon, whose expression was blank and unreadable. 

“I wanna see this, this is gonna be great,” Lyra gushed, bouncing in place, and she skillfully dodged Bon Bon’s incoming swipe at her ribs. Lyra stuck out her tongue in defiance towards Bon Bon and then grinned at Bucky. 

“I’m exhausted,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“It matters not. I desire to see what this is capable of. What you described is thaumakinetic energy, raw magic, something that very few unicorns are capable of generating and potentially one of the most destructive forces of energy there is. All it is good for is destruction. It does nothing else. It is raw magical energy with a force component with unbelievable destructive capacity,” Luna replied, explaining her position. 

“You don’t trust me?” Bucky questioned, looking at Luna with a hurt expression. 

Luna physically withdrew, recoiling away from Bucky, looking rather hurt, her eyes narrowing and her ears splaying out to the sides. Her wings drooped from her sides slightly and her feathers ruffled. “I trust you… it is not a matter of trust. I trust the very lives of my subjects to you.” 

“The raw magical discharge effect was unintentional. I made this, I crafted this, I laboured to create this to give me back what I lost when I killed the crystal lich,” Bucky responded, raising his talons and flexing them. 

“Buckminster… with the proper application of thaumakinetic energy, you could blast my physical body into ash. It would take me time to reform again. I do not think you understand just how dangerous raw magic is,” Luna said in a chilly whisper. “This is a threat that cannot be ignored,” she added. 

“Am I to understand that I am allowed terrible destructive magics that are a threat to other ponies, free to explore and expand my destructive potential, but the moment that I stumble across something that you perceive as a threat to yourself, I am to be restrained?” Bucky inquired, looking Luna in the eye as he spoke. 

Her mouth open and gaping, Princess Luna stared at Bucky for what had to be a full minute for regaining her composure. “Nothing of the sort,” she hissed angrily. “You forget your place and you will obey me when I give commands.” 

“You forget that you are my houseguest,” Bucky retorted, bringing himself to his full height in defiance. He stared up at Luna, glaring at her, resenting her for being so tall. 

Suddenly choking on her reply, the night blue alicorn was unable to respond. She let out a wordless snarl, her ears folding back against her skull, and her teal eyes flashed white for a moment with anger as her mana reserves bubbled over from her raw emotion. 

And then, like a cloud passing over the sun, her anger faded and she slowly regained her composure. The moment of darkness and rage passed, causing her expression to soften, her eyes becoming apologetic and sad. 

“I am your most devoted and dutiful servant. I gave my soul to you in exchange for a chance to continue to be with my family. I will do anything that you ask of me. I have given you an oath of fealty that swears loyalty to you, even above the loyalty I offer your sister. I willingly gave up the only bargaining chip I had so that my whole family could live here and be happy, and not face exile or being shipped off to the Hinterlands for things I’ve done… do you believe for even one second that I would ever be a threat to you and risk everything I’ve struggled to keep?” Bucky demanded, the room growing cold as he spoke. 

“Is this true?” Bon Bon demanded, looking at Luna, her eyes flashing with anger. 

“Did you make him do this?” Berry Punch asked, taking a step towards Luna, her muscles quivering with visible anger. 

“Bucky, why didn’t you tell me this?” Derpy asked, her eyes sad as she looked at Bucky and then angry when she looked at Luna. 

“Leave her be,” Bucky commanded in a flat monotone. “This was my choice to make and I made it. We’ve all benefited from it in some way and we can continue to be happy with one another.” 

“I don’t think I like you very much right now,” Bon Bon said in a voice dripping with acidic venom, glaring at Luna. The irate earth pony turned around and stomped out of the room, making everything rattle with each thudding hooffall. 

“I may have made a mistake,” Luna admitted in a strained voice, her gaze dropping to the floor. “And I apologise. Loyalty such as yours should be rewarded.” 

“My husband has served you faithfully. From the sounds of it, he’s given you the same sort of loyalty that he offers to us, his wives, which is a lot of damn loyalty, considering that he would do anything for us, including this bone headed stunt… don’t you think for one moment Bucky that there won’t be words later you shite headed arsehole… and you… you stand in front of him and we his wives and you insult him to his face,” Berry Punch said, her nostrils flaring and her muscles still quivering as she struggled to keep her anger in check. “Bitch!” Berry spat and then followed after Bon Bon, stomping out of the kitchen. 

Derpy walked forward, her amber eyes glittering, and with one swift and smooth motion, whipped out her wing and struck Luna across the face, delivering a stinging slap that actually made Luna cry out. “Welcome to our inner circle. When you screw up, prepare to be treated just like any of us,” she snarled, glaring at Luna. She whirled and and flounced off after Berry, her nose held high in the air. 

“You deserved that,” Bucky remarked as Luna’s mouth hung open, her lips moving and trying to say something. “I believe you owe them an apology, but I’d let them cool off. And you probably owe your sister an apology as well… don’t you dare interrupt me when I’m speaking in my own house Luna… there will be an exchange of apologies between the two of you,” Bucky said, glaring at Luna when she had started to say something. 

“You made a mistake,” Lyra said. “I can’t fault you for that, mistakes happen, but if you make the same mistake twice, I’ll give you an earful that you will never forget,” the unicorn promised. 

Thistle, looking disgusted, waddled out of the kitchen, saying nothing, but casting a baleful glance at Luna as she passed. As she neared the archway, she lifted her tail, she then farted loudly, then she snorted, and then the fat with foal kelpie continued with her exit. 

“I do not know what to make of you,” Belisama said from her seat on the bay window bench. “But you have offended my entire pride.” 

“Yes I have,” Luna admitted, looking pained as she spoke. She heaved a sigh, turned around, and then sat down on a wooden chair. She slumped at the table, looking miserable and depressed. She squirmed in her chair, her wings twitching, her ears spasming as she tried to regain control of her feelings. 

“I’m going to bed… if I can,” Bucky announced. He yawned, looked at Belisama, then Lyra, and then at Luna. “I’m exhausted. It was a long painful night for me. I hope I can sleep but if I can’t expect me to return in a half an hour or so. I guess we’ll talk if I can’t sleep.” 

“Go and rest. We will talk later,” Luna said in a soft meek sounding voice. “I am sorry, by the way, for whatever that is worth.” 



 

“She’s asleep… in our bed… what’s the deal Flash?” Rainbow Dash whispered. 

“Our bed was the only bed big enough for her,” Flash Sentry replied in a guttural whisper, his voice still recovering. 

“Do you think she’s actually gonna live with us?” Rainbow Dash questioned in a low voice, giving Flash Sentry a nudge. 

Flash, unsure of how to answer, shrugged. 

“I triple diamond dog dare you to go up and tickle her snoot with your wing,” Rainbow Dash whispered, casting a sideways glance at Flash Sentry. 

“I can’t do that!” Flash retorted in a strained grunt. 

“There’s a princess in our bed,” Scootaloo said, peering at the slumbering alicorn with wide eyes. 

“This is our bed, you have your own bed, Squirt,” Rainbow Dash whispered in reply, giving Scootaloo a nudge. “Did you make your bed this morning?” 

“Do I have to?” Scootaloo whined. “You were a lot more fun when you were my sister… now you’re all weird and stuff.” 

“Scoots, go make your bed,” Rainbow Dash said, feeling about twenty percent less cool as she spoke. Her ears drooping, she made the mistake of looking down into Scootaloo’s pleading eyes. Just as she was about to say something, she felt Flash Sentry’s wing under chin, raising her head, breaking the spell of the heart broken foal and Scootaloo’s sorrowful sorcery. “Parenting is hard,” the sky blue pegasus whimpered. 

All three pegasi jumped and their feathers fluffed out in alarm when the big white alicorn let go a trumpeting blast, a loud pealing note of flatulence ringing out and echoing off of the walls, the trio responding very much like startled birds. 

“I didn’t know she did that,” Scootaloo said innocently, her nostrils crinkling. 

“She ate several tubs of ice cream… of course she’s gonna fart,” Rainbow Dash stated, fanning her nose as she spoke. “Ugh, that’s worse than Fluttershy.” 

Saying nothing, Flash Sentry nodded in agreement. 

“There goes the sheets,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “You know Flash, we should totally split and go and stay in my house… we just need some way to keep Spike from falling through the floor.” 

“Maybe when Twilight gets back,” Flash Sentry remarked in a scratchy voice. 

“If princesses fart, what else do they do?” Scootaloo questioned. 

“Squirt, you’ve walked in on Twilight Sparkle when she was pinching a loaf,” Rainbow Dash quipped, raising her eyebrow. 

“That’s different. She was born a unicorn and she isn’t immortal,” Scootaloo said, trying to formulate a thought that was well beyond her realm of understanding. “And why did Twilight holler at me to get out the bathroom when I went in there?” 

“Twi is shy about body functions,” Rainbow Dash said, shrugging as she spoke. “She doesn’t like it when other ponies watch her peeing or pooping and she gets all uptight.” 

“That’s silly,” Scootaloo remarked, shaking her head in confusion. “Does Princess Celestia poop?” 

“Kiddo, all that ice cream went in, it’s gotta come out some time,” Rainbow Dash replied, looking down at Scootaloo. 

“She certainly farts. Wait till I tell Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They’re never going to believe me,” Scootaloo said in a low voice that was filled with excitement. 

Flash Sentry, attempting to be responsible, whickered and let out an equine sound of disapproval, which was thoroughly ignored by both Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. He rolled his eyes and scowled in disapproval. 

“She’s not all that different than us,” Scootaloo whispered, looking thoughtful. “She cries when she’s hurt, she wants hugs just like we do, she pigs out on ice cream when she’s depressed just like you do Rainbow, she farts, and she pees and poops… other than living for a very long time, she’s exactly like us.” 

“I suppose she is,” Rainbow Dash agreed, nodding her head as she looked at the slumbering snoring and drooling alicorn in the bed. 

“Why did Luna hurt her?” Scootaloo questioned, looking up at Flash Sentry and then at Rainbow Dash, hoping for some sort of answer. 

“Just like any other sisters, these two squabble and get into fights. They’ve lived for a very, very long time and they know how to hurt one another. They know all of the right things to say, to do, they know each other’s weaknesses,” Flash Sentry explained in a sad sounding croak.

“So we need to make them apologise to one another?” Scootaloo inquired, her expression one of thoughtful curiousity. “Sometimes Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom and I get into a scuffle. Usually somepony has to pull us apart and make us apologise.” 

“You know, I think Squirt is onto something,” Rainbow Dash whispered, looking over at Flash, and she was pleased to see him nod in agreement. “She might be the princess at home in Canterlot, but this is our home, our library, our turf. She’s in our roost.” 

“Yeah!” Scootaloo said in an overly excited voice that caused Celestia to snort in her sleep. The little orange pegasus fell silent and stared wide eyed, hoping the sleeping giant would not awaken. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 364
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a low groan, Bucky’s eyelid fluttered open. The first thing he saw in his vision was a soft pale shade of blue, something green, and little spots of pink. Sniffing, he smelled flowers. The bed creaked, then squeaked, and then Bucky saw a green eye looking at him. 

Straining to lift her head, Thistle gently kissed Bucky on his nasal bridge, which caused the stallion to shiver slightly as he came to full wakefulness. She watched him yawn, his orange tongue visible for a moment, his whole body tensing and flexing, and she watched the new mechanical talons clenching reflexively in a very lifelike fashion. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she watched, Bucky was a little too good at what he did. 

“I’ve been watching you sleep,” Thistle whispered, looking at her husband. 

Yawning again, Bucky wiggled closer to Thistle and pressed up against her, feeling her large belly against his side. He pressed his nose into her neck and inhaled her scent, breathing in the fragrant scent of flowers and greenery. 

Feeling his hot breath on her neck, Thistle giggled and squirmed, but didn’t try to get away from Bucky. She lay there, feeling him against her, and she closed her eyes. “Bucky, I have a question.” 

“You and everypony else,” Bucky replied in a low scratchy voice that was not fully awake just yet. As he spoke, he rubbed his snoot over Thistle’s pelt, feeling the soft silky fine hairs of her coat against the soft sensitive skin above his lip. 

For equines, this was the equivalent of running your fingertip along something to get a feel for it, and it caused Bucky no end of pleasure in his half awake state. Bucky slipped into a nearly drugged state of being as Thistle’s various scents and pheromones flooded his nostrils. 

“I keep having this fear Bucky… will you still love my foal when it comes even though it isn’t yours?” Thistle questioned in a barely audible whisper. 

Running his snoot along her corded and muscled neck, Bucky found the hollow just behind her ear, inhaled deeply, causing Thistle to shake and shudder, and then he kissed her softly in this hidden place that he knew so well. “You keep having this fear,” he whispered.

“I can’t help it,” Thistle whimpered, her whole body tensing and it wasn’t from Bucky’s affections. “I keep having terrible nightmares Bucky. I’m fat and I’m ugly and I’m getting stretch marks and thin places on my pelt and I can’t stop farting or eating and I keep having nightmares that you become sick of looking at me and how disgusting I am so you banish me to the lake and tell me not to cast my shadow upon your door and it all hurts so much.” 

“You’re really having a tough go at this, aren’t you?” Bucky asked, pressing himself against Thistle and trying to comfort her. 

“I’m miserable and I’m in pain constantly. Even in the water now. There is nowhere I can go and nothing I can do to find relief. This foal is too big and I’m too little,” Thistle whined, her body hitching as she tried to hold back tears. “When this is over, I don’t want to become pregnant again. Not for a while. I’ve decided that… while it is very important for me to have foals and make more kelpies… I don’t think I can do this again anytime soon. Does that make me a bad kelpie?” 

“No Thistle, it just means you are a pony, with hurts and fears and hopes and all those things that make us what we are,” Bucky responded reassuringly. 

“Am I still pretty?” the kelpie questioned. 

“Of course you are,” Bucky sighed. Using his lips, he gave a little nibble to Thistle’s ear, causing the rotund filly to let out a squeal. He gave her ear a gentle tug and then a tickle with his tongue, turning her squeal into a loud squeak. 

A moment later, the door flew open and Derpy rushed into the room. The grey mare looked around, her bad eye squeezed shut, her ears perked forward. “I heard a noise,” she announced, her voice filled with concern. 

“Thistle was having a moment,” Bucky explained, lifting his head and looking at Derpy, who was in a highly agitated state. 

“Is she feeling fat and unattractive again?” Derpy asked as she trotted to bed and flopped down beside Bucky and Thistle. The pegasus planted a wet smooch on Thistle’s cheek and squished her against Bucky. 

“I’m fat and ugly,” Thistle grumbled. 

“Oh you hush,” Derpy commanded. “Every mare goes through this phase. I went through it with Dinky and went on crying jags that lasted for days,” the grey mare confessed as she shook her head. “I was impossible to live with.” 

“But you are so beautiful,” Thistle argued in a sulky voice. 

“Not then I wasn’t,” Derpy chuckled as she rubbed Thistle’s side. “Near the end, I was helpless and I was so fat with foal that I couldn’t keep my bladder in check. There was a constant slow dribble of urine. It left me raw and chaffed. Berry and Sparkler’s mother had to keep me cleaned up and powdered like an infant foal. There was nothing I could do about it. I was stinky and my filly bits were covered in blisters and sores.” 

“Oh that’s awful, I hope it doesn’t happen to me,” Thistle whimpered in panic. 

“I also had hemorrhoids during the last part of my pregnancy and my entire arse end was covered in acne that grew so bad that I had to get a special medicated cream because the zits kept popping from the pressure and getting infected,” Derpy continued. 

“Oh stars that’s hideous… what if that happens to me?” Thistle whined, her voice rising into a reedy keening wail. 

“So Bucky, when I turn into a horrendous creature made of boner killing nightmares, will you still love me?” Derpy questioned as she snuggled up against Thistle. 

“Look, I’d just like to point out to both of you, just for the sake of observation, that I have been chewed upon by wolves and I am in fact, stomach churning in my appearance. I had half of my face torn off,” Bucky stated in a matter of fact tone of voice. “I am not in a position to criticise anypony for being ugly, having zits, or any of those things.” 

“But we’re mares,” Thistle argued, shaking her head slightly. “We’re under a lot of pressure to be pretty, be desirable, and be attractive.” 

“Try as I might, I fail to understand the female condition,” Bucky grumbled. 



 

His spoon clinking against the sides of his coffee cup, Bucky raised his eye from his plate of food up towards Luna, who was sitting at the kitchen table and looking at him. She was silent, but clearly had a lot she wanted to say. Beside her was Barley. The old stallion looked tired, worn down, and seeing him look the way he did caused Bucky to feel a sense of concern. There was a lot of last minute preparations to be done before winter, and Barley was clearly overextending himself to make sure they were getting done. 

Staring back down at his food, Bucky inhaled, savouring the scent of his meal. There was an enormous bowl of fish chowder, a wedge of cornbread that had cheese and little green chili peppers in it, several hard boiled eggs, which Bucky loved, and some kind of salad made out of minced pickled vegetables and pasta. 

“Even Barley gave me an earful,” Luna said in a low pained voice, looking away from Bucky as she spoke. The night blue alicorn looked at Barley for a moment and then stared out the window. 

“Aye, I did, doesn’t change the fact I love ya,” Barley grumbled as he lifted his own cup of coffee to his lips. Falling silent, he drank deeply, taking in a large swallow of the dark black liquid, his eyes closing as he took comfort in the soothing heat of the hot drink. 

“When I was in the shower, I gave some thought as to how this might have happened,” Bucky said as he lifted a hard boiled egg in his magic. He stuffed the egg into his mouth, chewed for a moment, and then swallowed. “I can’t summon this energy through my horn, at least, I don’t think I can, so I started giving a lot of thought about how this energy might be channeled.” 

Her attention now on Bucky, Luna looked at the him with great interest, her eyes glittering with curiousity. She looked down at the mechanical talons resting upon the table and felt a feeling of dreadful apprehension. 

“There is fulgurite in its construction, which is how it is fused into my bone structure, but I don’t think that is the catalyst. At least not by itself. I’ve infused the metal with demon blood to make it self healing and repairing… I’ve also dumped a lot of raw shadow essence into its creation, so I don’t know what it might be capable of to be honest. I was… reckless in my experimentations,” Bucky explained as he lifted up another egg. Once he was done speaking, he stuffed an egg into his mouth. 

“The demon blood infused metal is probably the culprit,” Luna said, nodding her head slowly as she stared thoughtfully at Bucky’s terrifying prosthesis. 

“That’s what I thought too,” Bucky said after he swallowed. 

“The implications of this are terrifying,” Luna admitted, looking first at Bucky and then at Barley. “Raw mana can be extracted from unicorns… we do it all the time in arcano-tech manufacturing for things like manipulation shoes and what not… Buckminster, if this process could be refined and re-created, a means to feed raw mana, raw magical energy through a filter of fulgurite, activate it, ignite it, and then focus that energy through a length of demon blood infused metal, this could be turned into a terrible weapon. The first thing that came to my mind was warships armed with thaumakinetic cannons. What you’ve done is an accident, but you have created what is perhaps the most terrifying weapon this world has ever seen since its creation. This is a weapon worthy of the alicorn of war.” 

Scowling, Bucky slumped down in his seat, Luna’s words crushing down upon his mind and making him feel heavy. He heaved a defeated sounding sigh, lifted his coffee cup, and then he took a sip, trying to take in everything Luna had said. 

“Aye… that sounds rather dire,” Barley agreed as he set his coffee cup down. “The lad has done gone and created a weapon that can threaten gods.” 

“Not the first weapon to do so,” Luna said. “Guns have brought down alicorns.” The night blue mare squirmed in her seat, looking uncomfortable and out of sorts. She scowled, her nostrils flaring, and then her ears swiveled forwards as she looked over at Bucky’s claw once again. 

“Care to elaborate upon that?” Bucky asked, looking at Luna curiously. 

“No,” Luna stated, shaking her head. 

Raising his claw, Bucky flexed the talons closed into a fist. “You know, I don’t see how this is so threatening. Theoretically, I could transmute myself into a dragon that is several hundred feet in length, trash a city, and potentially incinerate you with dragonbreath, turning you into a little pile of moon princess ashes.” 

Realising that coming from Bucky, those words were no idle threat or speculation, Luna continued to squirm. “Yes, you could, in theory,” Luna admitted, giving a faint nod of her head. She watched Bucky eat an egg and then take a bite of the pickled vegetable and pasta salad. As he was chewing, Luna fidgeted and her wings fluttered at her sides. “Given your knack for transmutation, your raw ability, and your magical prowess, you could probably turn yourself into a cockatrice, potentially turning all of your enemies to stone. Including my sister and I.” 

“Ach, what a headache,” Barley grumbled. “He could just ask his dear Sparkler to do it for him,” he muttered as he flexed his right front fetlock, trying to get a crick out. 

“The point is, Bucky could do it himself,” Luna stated, looking at Barley. “I chose to see a threat when it manifested in the most obvious form, but the simple truth is, the threat has been here all along. Bucky and Twilight both are incredibly dangerous but they have proven themselves to be most loyal. As the former Element of Loyalty, I have shamed myself. No wonder the element rejected me. I have my flaws Buckminster, for all of the talk of me being an all powerful goddess, I do make mistakes. You have proven your loyalty time and time again, you have selflessly given of yourself repeatedly, and I was in the wrong.” 

“Takes a strong pony to admit to making a mistake,” Barley said as he leaned over and kissed Luna on the cheek. “For whatever it is worth, I trust Bucky to do exactly one thing. Look after us. We are his family. He’s as crazy as a sump house rat, no offense lad, he has more power than I can even begin to comprehend, and his Tainted eye is creepy as all get out. But he looks after his own, and I cannae fault a pony for doing that. Luna, my pretty mare of the moon, you’re just as much a part of this family as the rest of us, I think that was proven today, and yer sister too. If you love me, if you trust my judgment at all, if you value my counsel in any sort of meaningful way, then listen to what I am saying. Trust in family. Weren’t you just telling me during our last long talk that Sombra’s big mistake was that he turned away from family and friends and stopped trusting them? Are ye about to make the same mistake?” 

“No… I… no… I would not… no…” 

Barley leaned in and kissed Luna on the lips, stopping her stammering and stuttering. He pulled away, his expression full of tender concern. “Nae shagging for ye until you make up with yer sister young lady.” 
	
	
> Chapter 365
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The lunar guard looked frantic as he stood at attention before Luna, every muscle on his face quivering. He trembled nervously, his wings twitched, and his tail whipped from side to side as if he was swatting at invisible flies in his nervous agitation. 

“What happened?” Luna demanded. 

“Your Majesty, there has been a spree of murder. In the Crystal Empire. Some of your guard and the solar guard have been killed. One of the foals has been taken,” the guard reported. 

“WHAT?” Luna bellowed. 

“One of the special foals was taken. The ones we guard. The entire family was slaughtered during the attack. A group of unicorns did it,” the guard said, looking Luna in the eye as he spoke. 

“And somehow they just escaped?” Luna demanded angrily. 

“They fled to a safehouse they had established. They used a one way portal generator and fled the city. The portal exploded, killing several of the pursuing guards. Shining Armor was injured, but he will recover,” the guard explained. 

“Special foals?” Bucky questioned, looking concerned. 

“There are crystal ponies that act as living focusing crystals,” Luna replied, her expression troubled. “They amplify the energies of the ley lines around them. One of Sombra’s projects. I know that you know of it.” 

“I do,” Bucky responded in a gruff voice. 

“Do you know where they fled?” Luna asked her guard. 

“Las Pegasus,” the guard answered. “A massive surge of thaumaturgical energy was detected there. We suspect that is where they went. We don’t know for certain.” 

“Damn everything,” Luna swore, gritting her teeth in frustration after she spoke. 

“Twilight Sparkle has already departed to the Crystal Empire to begin her investigations. She left not long after the message arrived at Canterlot,” the guard said helpfully. 

“The last time we made an incursion into Las Pegasus we lost several Myrmidons… rouse the guard. Get ships in the air. I want every Myrmidon we have in armor-” 

“No,” Bucky interrupted. 

“NO?” Luna bellowed. 

“No,” Bucky said patiently. “Send me instead. You planned to do it anyway, we discussed this very thing. The Myrmidons are a precious resource and shouldn’t be squandered. We need a small fast ship, drop me outside of the city, and I can go in to take care of business.” 

Scowling, Luna considered Bucky’s suggestion for a moment before snorting. “Your head is still stapled together. You are unwell… you just got back and are still recovering.” 

“I am well enough,” Bucky argued calmly. “I am well rested, having just woke up not long ago. If we hurry, if we do not waste time arguing, we can be there by nightfall and I can move in under the cover of darkness. I can recover the foal and move to an extraction site by dawn hopefully.” 

Shaking her head, Luna snorted again. “No. If necessary, I will move in my self and make the recovery.” 

“Luna, forgive me for being blunt, but there are still large sections of Canterlot that are mysteriously absent from your last display of power,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“He is correct, Princess Luna,” the guard stated in a trembling voice. 

“We must not put the foal in danger,” Bucky said in a cajoling voice, looking up at Luna pleadingly. “This is one instance where you really should trust me.” 

Snarling in frustration, Luna nodded. “Very well. Be prepared to go. Hurry. I will open a shadow portal and we shall  go to Canterlot.” She turned and faced the guard. “You. Go to Ponyville, to the library, and inform Princess Celestia of everything that has happened.” 

“Yes Princess Luna,” the guard replied, immediately taking wing and flying off. 

“I am certain the solar guard has already informed her, but I like to be thorough,” Luna stated, regaining some of her calm composure. She turned to look at Bucky. “Be careful. This is dangerous. Be clever Buckminster. Do what you do best.” 

“Yes, of course Mistress,” Bucky acknowledged, bowing his head slightly. 

“You go get ready. I am going to speak with Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks,” Luna commanded as she took off for Witching Hour and Tiddlywink’s tower. 

After Luna departed, Bucky went back inside of the house to say his goodbyes to his family and to get into his armor. 



 

The ship was small, light, and fast, a scout ship made for missions where speed was necessary. The deck was small and cramped. Several Myrmidons were on board and they nervously paced the deck around Princess Luna and Bucky. 

Bucky, in his armor, felt his muscles twitching in anticipation. The sun was setting in the west and Las Pegasus was just now becoming visible on the horizon. His new talons fit inside of his armor just fine, he simply had to make a fist first before sticking it into the hoof cover. He watched Luna twitch and gnaw her lip. 

“They’re getting bolder,” Luna stated as she stared off at the distant city. 

“They need to be taught to fear,” Bucky growled in a mechanical voice. 

“Buckminster… I know how you feel about killing ponies, but it might be necessary. Are you prepared to do what must be done? I hate that it might come to that, but I think we both understand how things can happen,” Luna said in a soft pained voice. 

“I will do what must be done, my Mistress,” Bucky replied. 

“We know that the mirror travelers and the changelings have been fighting a war down here in the south. Las Pegasus, the southern reaches, the desert, even the Badlands. The fighting has been bloody and brutal. The mirror travelers have been holding their own and we know that they are killing changelings to turn them into undead spies. The orbs you’ve created have already proven quite useful I might add,” Luna explained, telling Bucky the situation. 

“Anything else I should know?” Bucky asked, looking at Luna. 

“There is a lot you should know but there isn’t enough time. Be wary of bandits and raiders. We know they exist in Las Pegasus and we have intelligence reports of fighting in the streets, presumably between the bandits and the mirror travelers. Las Pegasus is a hot zone, we’ve completely lost control of the city and the area around it, and we currently do not have the means to push and take back the city. Our forces are spread thin… and somepony helpfully volunteered our armed forces to assist in overseas engagements, further thinning out our ranks,” Luna answered, turning around to give Bucky a raised eyebrow and a narrowed eye. 

“I regret nothing,” Bucky retorted as he glared at Luna through his visor. 

“I know,” Luna stated. “You did well Buckminster. In the long run, the new treaty will benefit the world. In the short term, a number of problems have been made worse.” The alicorn turned back around to look at the city. In one section, the section nearest to the coast, a lurid glow could be seen. “If you get into trouble, send a message via shadowlink. If you cannot do that and the dawn comes, if too much time passes, I will gather a swarm of Myrmidons and enter the city myself to find you.”

“That is a bad idea. We need the city intact for ponies to live there,” Bucky answered as he studied the strange glow coming from the farmost western edge of the city. 

“I do not care!” Luna snapped, her tone angry. “Do you understand how important you are to me? Not as an asset, but as a pony? I am having trouble Buckminster, I can feel my personal feelings for you clouding my judgment and it disturbs me. It feels as though I am repeating the mistakes of my past,” she said in a frantic voice. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky responded, shaking his helmeted head. 

“Just promise me that you will do nothing stupid and that I will be returning you to your family when the dawn comes,” Luna commanded. 

“I will not make a promise that I might be unable to keep,” Bucky said. 

“Damn you!” Luna cursed as she stomped away from Bucky, tossing her head around in frustration. As Luna stomped around, she whinnied and nickered nervously. 

“Mistress, I hesitate to ask, but do you think the mirror travelers might have used this moment of weakness between you and your sister to their advantage? Forgive me for saying this, but this was the perfect time to strike. Celestia has been moody and secluding herself lately, things have been tense, and when both of you had your spat and fled Canterlot, this happened. Seems like more than mere coincidence to me. I know if I was planning a daring raid, this is the sort of moment that I would wait patiently for,” Bucky said as he watched Luna pacing back and forth, hoping to change the subject. 

“I have been wondering the same thing,” Luna admitted, turning to look at Bucky. 

“Should I try to capture one of them alive and bring them back with the foal?” Bucky inquired. “For the purposes of… interrogation. As much as it bothers me to do so, I am positive that I could get results. Information. Knowledge. I’ve learned a little bit about interrogation when I was in Griffonholm.” 

Luna visibly shuddered from Bucky’s words, her nostrils flaring as she did so. “No Buckminster. Focus upon the foal. Her name is Glass Slipper. She will give off a distinct magical signature. Try to focus on what feels like the strongest ley line in the area and you should be able to find her.” 

“So go in, pacify any threat, find the foal, extract myself, and then return to the pick up point. I can do that,” Bucky said as he looked at Luna. 

“Buckminster, I know this is foolish, but try to avoid killing if you can. It would pain me to know that you broke your vow. I’m speaking from my heart and not my head, which is troubling for me,” Luna said in a worried voice as she looked pleadingly at Bucky. 

“We near the drop off point. There is a railyard depot. It will be easy to follow the tracks into Las Pegasus,” a Myrmidon announced. “We’re going to lower the ship and hide it between the big warehouses. We’ll have good cover and be well hidden if our luck holds. Follow the tracks in, follow the tracks out, will keep things simple and easy.” 

Looking over the edge of the deck, Bucky could see the railyard. It was surprisingly intact and a locomotive sat on the tracks, left exposed to the elements. Some of the glass windows in one of the buildings had been broken. There was a massive grain silo, several large water tanks, a coal storage bin, and a turntable to rotate locomotives. There was a rail line heading east, one heading north, one heading south, and one heading west into Las Pegasus. 

“I wonder how Twilight is doing,” Bucky said, thinking out loud. “And Shining Armor. I hope he’s okay.” 

“Shining Armor is a tough nut to crack. I am certain that he will be fine. Hopefully there are no enemy agents left in the Crystal Empire. If there are, I hope that Twilight Sparkle can handle herself,” Luna nervously replied. “Are you ready to go?” 

“Yes,” Bucky replied and then lept over the rail. 



 

As the sun was setting, Bucky moved along the railroad tracks towards Las Pegasus. For an abandoned city, it looked surprisingly lived in. There were lights visible in the city. Smoke rose into the sky from multiple locations. Ahead of him was the unknown, which left Bucky feeling excited more than anything else. 

Las Pegasus. Berry Punch had been here and had stories to tell. It had once been a mining town but as the mines had been picked clean, Las Pegasus transitioned into a tourist trap and a playground for the wealthy nobles. It was the city of sin and vice, where anything could be bought if you brought enough bits. It had long had a problem with organised crime. 

During the collapse, the city had ran out of water, which caused the residents to flee in droves, many of them now living in Ponyville, Vanhoover, or Tall Tale. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky prepared himself for the unknown. 
	
	
> Chapter 366 (Viva Las Pegasus)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The streets of Las Pegasus were filled with trash. Yellow cabs had been abandoned in the streets, a traffic jam had plagued the city, no doubt when everypony had tried to flee. There were dead ponies on the ground, both flies and carrion birds were feasting upon the corpses. Several buildings had burned and their blackened hulks were all that remained. 

Overhead, a flock of pegasi flew past and Bucky realised that he was probably going to have some company soon, a thought he wasn’t happy about. All around him, the shops and buildings had broken windows and ripped open doors. Looters had been hard at work, scavenging whatever they could to survive. 

Making his way west towards the bright lights in the distance, Bucky found that he could feel the magical signature of the foal with no effort. So much power. He wondered for a moment if it was perhaps Sombra’s blood that allowed him to feel the way he did or just the fact that he was sensitive to ley line energy. 

Ahead of him in the streets, he saw a few earth ponies, a unicorn, and a couple of pegasi. They looked at him, watching him carefully, and Bucky stopped to look back at them. There was a silent exchange of threat assessment and then the group of ponies ran off, wanting no trouble with the black armored figure. 

Bucky let them  go. They were dangerous, but not dangerous to him, and the various bandits and raiders of Las Pegasus could be dealt with later. He was here on other business. He resumed his mechanical march down the street, making his way between cabs and debris in the road, stepping over the occasional corpse as he continued towards the glow. 



 

The city around him was different. Older construction. Instead of steel and glass, the buildings here were stone and the area felt wealthier. There were a lot of apartment buildings here, middle height buildings made out of brick or blocks of stone. There were lights in some of the windows, flickering orange lights, and Bucky could smell smoke. 

A unicorn mare stepped out from behind a brick wall and looked at Bucky, staring at him intently. She had been burned recently, patches of her pelt were missing, and one ear was half gone. 

“You’re not here to kill us all, are you?” she asked in a low fearful voice. 

“No,” Bucky replied. He stopped in place and turned to look directly at the mare, a red light flashing on his display. The mare clearly wasn’t well. 

“We’re just trying to survive. You’re not one of them are you?” she questioned. 

“Them?” Bucky responded. 

“The others. The other ponies. They’re like an army. They’re all over the city and they keep hunting us. Some of us have been trying to fight back,” the mare explained. “Like me. I’ve been in a couple of fights already. Even killed one.” 

“Hunting you?” Bucky inquired. 

“I’ve seen them… the pegasi, they capture ponies with nets and subdue them. Then they haul them off to that big hotel they’ve taken over. Lost a lot of friends,” the mare answered. 

“So… let me guess, you came out here to defend your neighborhood from me?” Bucky questioned in a low voice. 

“Yeah… that’s right. I did. At least I thought I’d see if you were going to be trouble and buy time for the others to run away,” the mare replied, giving a nod of her head. 

“You’re very brave,” Bucky stated. “I mean you no harm. You say they are in a hotel? Can you tell me more?” 

“The big hotel. The tall one. Called ‘The Golden Sands’ and it has a big fountain out in the front but it doesn’t work any more. Water is real hard to come by unless you are a unicorn, we can conjure it up from deep underground,” the mare answered. 

Bucky could see other ponies coming out of hiding to have a look at him. Almost all of them showed a red dot on his heads up display, which worried him. He looked back at the mare. “Seen any bugs?” 

“Changelings? They’re everywhere. Might even be here with us. We don’t know. Sometimes, we see them battling the other ponies, the mean army ponies. They use spells to make the bugs look like bugs again. A few days ago, there was a swarm of bugs that attacked the old government offices where some of the mean ponies have holed up. We don’t know what they are doing there,” the mare replied, now genuinely trying to be helpful now that her fear was gone. 

“Do you know what happened?” Bucky asked, hopeful for more information. 

“The bugs won the battle. We saw them dragging out a bunch of captured pegasi and unicorns. Those army ponies… only the pegasi and unicorns are soldiers. They really hate earth ponies, I mean really hate them, and we’ve seen them using earth ponies as slaves. When they capture pegasi, they cut the wings off and use them to pull wagons and haul stuff. Like I said, they are a really nasty bunch,” the mare answered, looking disturbed as she spoke. 

“Do they capture unicorns?” Bucky asked. 

“Yeah they do, but we never see them again,” the mare responded. 

Bucky felt a terrible feeling of apprehension creep through his guts. There were plenty of uses for captured unicorns. Milking them for raw magic of was one of many uses. Powering magical machinery was another. Ponies that kept slaves kept slaves for all kinds of purposes. 

“Are you going to fight them?” the mare asked. 

“Perhaps,” Bucky replied and not elaborating any further. 

“Who are you?” the mare asked. 

“Nopony of consequence,” Bucky answered. 

“I know who you are,” a stallion called out. “I’ve seen you in the papers. I know that armor… I know who you are… You’re that warlock!” 

Sighing, Bucky said nothing but continued to look around, checking over the crowd. He even saw a few foals, all of them in heart breaking condition. Ribs were visible, their pelts were patchy, all of them looked malnourished and weak. Most had red dots, and there was nothing he could do about it. 

“You’re the Lord of Winter, Sombra’s heir,” the stallion said, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’ve come to pick a fight with those horrible slaver ponies that have some sort of army” 

“I need to get going. I have much to do. Flee the city. Get out. You should have left long ago,” Bucky commanded, looking around at the crowd as he powered up his armor for movement. 

“We have nowhere else to go,” the mare said. “This is our home.” 

“If you do not leave, this will be your grave,” Bucky retorted as he began to walk away from the group. Feeling frustrated and angry, Bucky forced himself to move along, there was nothing he could do to help these ponies. 



 

Ahead, Bucky could see a group of unicorns massing together and he did nothing to avoid them. He moved towards them slowly, watching all of them as they formed ranks. Some fled, retreating to other positions, and he could see their horns flaring as they prepared spells. 

Black flames danced along Bucky’s horn as he released a powerful fear spell. Several of the unicorns fell prey to the spell, the others resisted, and then they immediately began to cast spells to bolster the courage of their frightened companions. 

Bucky immediately found himself under fire. He could feel the spells impacting his armor. Flames, ice, lightning, he laughed at their feeble attempts. Using even more dark magic, he reached out and seized control of one of the unicorn’s minds, turning him on his companions, and the mind controlled unicorn immediately began to undo his companions many wards and spell protections. 

The unicorn’s reactions to this betrayal alarmed Bucky a great deal, as they made no attempt to free their mind controlled companion. Instead, they turned on him with everything they had, stripping away his protections and then setting him on fire, killing the mind controlled minion in just a few moments. 

Bucky looked on in stunned surprise and the unicorns resumed their attack. 

Not wanting to actually kill them, Bucky struggled to find some means of subduing them that would not be fatal. He released more fear spells, but the unicorns merely undid the fear effects when a companion fell prey to it. 

Things got much worse when Bucky realised there was something wrong with his armor. As he tried to retreat, the walking routine had become jerky. A sense of worry washed over Bucky. It was getting warm inside of his armor, uncomfortably warm, and it shouldn’t be warm. There was a loud pop followed by a fizzling sound, and Bucky found that he was no longer suspended inside of his armor by a field of magic. He crashed down onto the bare metal, which was painfully hot now. He felt hot air blowing in from somewhere and realised that his containment field that held his armor together had been breached. 

He tried to teleport, to wink away to safety, and nothing happened. Bucky realised that the area around him must be warded to prevent teleportation. Cursing angrily, Bucky came to the understanding that he was trapped inside of his armor and about to be killed. All of his previous enemies had been for the most part, melee combatants. Now facing an army of skilled unicorns, he thought about what Lyra had said to him on the deck of The Scorned Mare, telling him that she would outlast him and strip away his protections, her words were haunting and meaningful now as his skin began to sear on the metal. He jumped and bounced around, unable to move, unable to flee, and he forced his mind to work through the panic. He could hear his own skin sizzling now and the smell of burning flesh and hair was thick in his nostrils. His armor was being fried with electricity. He could feel it. He could absorb the heat, but soon, he would be electrocuted once the last of his protections were stripped away and dispelled. 

The area was warded against teleportation, so regular magic was no longer an option. Instead, Bucky shadow winked, leaving his armor behind, hating this moment of failure, and hating himself for being unable to do anything to stop it from happening. 



 

He popped into existence on top of a rooftop, several feet above the roof, and came crashing down painfully onto the cement, his talons clattering against the rough surface. He was still smoking, burnt, and more than a little angry. It occurred to him that he was alone, unarmored, and now injured in a place surrounded by hostiles. 

Very much against his will, he began to cackle. 

His respite was short lived, he could hear shouting, angry voices, and as he was trying to regain his senses, a unicorn teleported up onto the roof with him. Bucky had his own defenses slowly coming up, but they weren’t very good. The first spell hit him and he felt a tingling feeling of electricity, the next few shots would get worse and worse. 

For the lack of nothing better to do, Bucky fired off the most powerful non lethal spell he could think of, but had not actually practiced much with, a spell from Sombra’s spell book. A blue-green bolt of energy struck the unicorn, there was a flash of bright light, and a moment later, there was a small potted petunia where the unicorn had once been. 

“HA HA!” Bucky cackled. 

His victory was short lived, already other unicorns were teleporting up onto the roof with him. He was already feeling fatigued from the powerful transmutation spell, but he was also feeling hopeful. His willpower had easily overcome the other unicorn. 

Three unicorns looked down at the potted petunia and then at Bucky, and one curled back his lip and snarled in anger. He fired off a lance of fire at Bucky, which Bucky absorbed, filling the air around him with a bitterly cold chill. 

Desperate, Bucky fired off another transmute body spell, there was another flash of light and one of the unicorns was now gone, replaced by a rather gaudy looking stuffed chair with tacky plaid upholstery. 

“You bastard!” one of the unicorns cursed as he fired off a spell. 

The stone floor beneath Bucky exploded from the stoneshatter spell fired by the unicorn. He felt the shock wave travel through his legs, along his belly, it felt as though it had nearly crushed his balls, and a large chunk of stone sliced open his side. He had no doubt that if he looked back at himself, he would be able to see a few of his own ribs right now. He was blown several feet straight up into the air by the blast, he was dizzy, disoriented, and in a lot of pain. 

Not knowing what else to do, Bucky shadow winked, a blind long distance wink, and he hoped that he would not end up inside of some distant solid object or half in and half out of a wall somewhere. 
	
	
> Chapter 367
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alone in the dark, Bucky cackled as his body was wracked with pain. He wasn’t sure where he was, but it was quiet. A terrible smell was in the air, a wretched funk, but it was quiet, dark, and peaceful. He flexed his legs, trying to make sure nothing was broken, carefully moved his neck, and then he flexed his aching jaw. 

Other than his side, he felt that he was mostly okay. 

He ignited his sunstone eye and it flickered to life, barely functional. The dim light was enough for him to see by, but no matter how much he willed it, there was no more light to be had. Panicked, he raised his talons and began to try and flex his talon fingers. They moved, but not smoothly, the routines were disrupted and partially dispelled. He hoped that he would be able to walk on it. He was going to have to fix himself later and work on better enchantments that were harder to dispel. 

Gnashing his teeth, Bucky realised how much easier it would have been to simply kill them, freeze them solid, or crush them with thousands of tons of telekinetic force. He had been defeated because he had held back, and the experience was galling. 

He peered around at his surroundings, trying to get some idea of where he was. He saw racks of clothing and other goods. There were hangers all over the floor. There was a display of foal sized wagons in a barely visible corner. He determined that he was in some sort of a department store after several minutes of looking around. 

He looked down at his side and saw a flap of skin hanging off. Blood slowly but steadily trickled out of the wound. It looked worse than it really was. It had peeled away a layer of skin, but the wound wasn’t as deep as it could have been. He could see muscle tissue in the faint green light. 

He ignited his horn for better light and fought back a wave of nausea. He was still stunned, in a lot of pain, and having trouble thinking clearly. His ears rang but he could still hear, which made him glad. He had enough problems without being deaf. 

In the distance, Bucky heard something clatter to the floor. He immediately began to summon up as many spell protections as he could, which wasn’t many. He was exhausted and there wasn’t much of him. All of his high energy snacks were abandoned with his armor. The situation looked grim and Bucky began to consider the option of a tactical retreat. 

“Lord of Winter?” a voice called out. A strange voice. 

“Who’s there?” Bucky demanded, tempted to use lethal force if necessary. He wanted to be home with his wives and foals, and at this point, he was done playing around. 

“Friends,” the voice answered. “We mean you no harm, we ask that you do not kill us. We wish to offer aid.” 

Nervous, Bucky licked his lips and tried to clear the fuzz from his brain. He shook himself and stood up on his hooves. “Well that depends. It would help if I could see you. I’m not in a position where I have much trust right now. And how do you know who I am?” 

“Our queen knows of you, thus we know of you,” the voice answered. 

A icy feeling manifested in Bucky’s stomach, his blood ran cold, and he felt his testicles retract up into his body. He became aware of sounds all around him. 

“Honestly, we mean you no harm and wish to offer you help,” the voice said. 

A moment later, a small black changeling stepped into view. He peered at Bucky, his eyes glittering in the faint light. “Here I am. Kill me if you so desire. My queen has determined that I am a worthy sacrifice.” 

Hating himself, Bucky held back his spells. Instead, he waited and watched. 

“Ah, the stories are true. You are far more reasonable than most other ponies. Your Majesty, our queen wishes an audience with you. She is here. She sensed you entering the city and tried to reach you before you made the terrible mistake that you made. She wanted to help you,” the changeling said in a soft voice. “She sensed your arrival here and teleported us to your location.” 

“Show yourself,” Bucky demanded. 

“Oh very well,” a voice purred in the distant darkness. 

Bucky could hear hoofsteps approaching and then a tall figured stepped into the light. Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. He watched her carefully, never taking his eye off of her, staring at her as she studied him. 

“You are injured,” Chrysalis said in a voice of sincere concern. 

“Why do you care?” Bucky asked, glaring at the tall insectoid creature that sort of looked like an alicorn. “Why are you here?” 

“I need a healing drone over here,” Chrysalis barked, her tone cold and commanding. 

“No,” Bucky protested. “No healing magic, you don’t understand,” he said as he backed away. He watched small changeling approaching him and he prepared a spell. Much to his alarm, he felt himself become completely immobilized and unable to move. 

The small drone made a gurgling sound and spat, horking out a large green blob of what appeared to be glowing mucus. It struck Bucky in the side, causing him to cry out, and there was a loud hissing and sizzling sound. 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, there was no pain, but relief. 

“You have nothing to fear. The spit causes rapid cell growth. I know all about your aversion to healing magic. I’ve been studying you a great deal, to be honest. You fascinate me, Lord of Winter,” Chrysalis cooed in a seductive sounding voice. 

A moment later, Bucky felt himself released from whatever invisible bonds that had restrained him. He felt his head clearing and the pain slowly retreated from his body. He stared at Queen Chrysalis, now curious, but he was still wary. 

“I bet you are wondering why I am helping you,” Chrysalis stated in a soft silky voice. She blinked at Bucky a few times. “You know, I could give you your eye back. Even the full use of your legs. I suppose you’ll want to keep your horn though, it is the source of your power, but I could restore that too. I could make you whole again. All of you. Make you young again. Take away that silver hair. And never once would you have to worry about growing wings.” 

“If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” Bucky responded. 

“I assure you, I could make you whole again. A little dip in changeling spit would do wonders for your body,” Chrysalis teased in a sultry voice. 

“No doubt you want something. How can I help you?” Bucky demanded. 

“Well, to start, you mounting me and filling me with your delightful seed would be a good start, but since I doubt that is going to happen, I suppose I should talk about our mutual enemies,” Chrysalis replied, looking at Bucky with what appeared to be genuine affection and concern. 

“I don’t know that I trust you,” Bucky stated, looking up at the changeling queen. 

“I can be trusted when I need something or I want something. Right now, you can trust in my selfishness. If you don’t want to trust me, go ahead, kill me, I’ll do nothing to stop you. Deal?” Chrysalis offered. 

“Killing you would do me no good,” Bucky stated as he shook his head. “No doubt that once I killed you, whatever you are would just take over the body of a drone which would just turn into another you.” 

“Oh my… you are clever,” Chrysalis cooed, closing her eyes and inhaling with a sharp hiss after she spoke. She opened her eyes and gazed at Bucky. “When they write about you in the history books, I do hope they will discuss your cunning… it is the one thing I look for most in a mate.” 

“What do you want? No more games,” Bucky snarled, losing his patience. He kept his Tainted eye locked on Chrysalis and refused to allow himself to be flattered or distracted. 

“Oh very well,” Chrysalis snapped. “I need your help and you need my help. They keep stealing my eggs and invading my colony. They’re breeding themselves an army to destroy you and all of Equestria. Right now in that hotel there are probably two hundred and fifty thousand or so changelings that they plan to unleash upon you in a swarm. In Equestria’s current state, you’d be in big trouble.” 

“Why help us?” Bucky asked. 

“WE NEED EACH OTHER YOU DOLT!” Chrysalis shouted. “You have cunning but by the stars, you are as dumb as a post at times.” 

Seething silently, Bucky glared up at the queen, contemplating murder as he did so. 

“I know what you are thinking,” Chrysalis said in a dismissive voice. “Those ponies you are fighting, they have no love. None at all. They purge their minds of soft weak emotions like love and affection. They intend to kill you. All of you. And your princesses. Trust me, I know. They’re planning. They don’t know how to do it just yet, but they are planning. And if you die, or enough of you die, then we die. And I can’t allow that.” 

“So mutual survival,” Bucky said, nodding his head slightly. 

“Yes,” Chrysalis whispered. “So it is in my best interest to help you. I have a plan.” 

“I’m listening,” Bucky stated, relaxing his posture a bit. He sat down upon the floor but never took his eye off of the changeling queen. 

“I will send a small group of infiltrators with you through the sewers. I’ve scouted out the area. I know where to go and how to get there. You will encounter heavy resistance if you just went in though… which is why I am going to throw everything I have at the outside of the building during a well timed attack. What you want, what you are looking for, is located in a small police substation in the hotel basement. The foal that you were sent to retrieve is there, being held for now, but I do not know for how long. You will come up out of the sewer, leading my group of infiltrators. Once they get inside, you get what you came for and they stay behind to cover your escape.” 

“And the guards inside will be greatly reduced because of the swarming of the building from the outside,” Bucky said, catching on to the plan. 

“I intend to sabotage their efforts. I just need to get a few changelings inside to do so, and the chances of me doing so are much higher if you are escorting them,” Chrysalis explained, her tone surprisingly sincere and honest. “Tell me, are you feeling better? How is your side?” 

“I feel much better… thank you,” Bucky responded. He saw no need to be rude anymore and felt that civility would serve him better in this situation. 

“Pretend that this is your school days and focus on what you do best. Avoid detection. Use aversion. Brute force will not help you in this venture. But you… you can think like a changeling. I suggest that you do so,” Chrysalis said in a silky soft voice that dripped with fond appreciation for Bucky. 

“I will do as you ask… it seems we will both gain something from it. Make no mistake though, if you come into Equestria, if you prey upon ponies, don’t think for even one moment that any feelings of goodwill and appreciation that exist now will stop me from doing my job later,” Bucky said, his ears folding back against his skull. 

“Perhaps though, since you are willing to talk, we shall come to another agreement in the future. Once beneficial to both of our kind. I am willing to admit that… perhaps mistakes were made,” Chrysalis said in a soft gentle voice that she knew was making Bucky relax. 

“So the mirror travelers are using your brood to make themselves an army?” Bucky questioned, allowing himself to look around finally. He was surrounded by at least three dozen changelings of different shapes and sizes. None of them were remotely threatening in the slightest. 

“You fight a foe that you can barely even comprehend. As much it pains me to admit it, they caught me off guard and I’ve been fighting a losing battle until only recently. I’ve brought the battle to them, here in Las Pegasus,” Chrysalis replied, watching Bucky study her changelings. “I have drones coming with food for you. You can conjure up your own water. Rest for a while. You are safe, I give you my word. You are deep in my controlled territory, which was very lucky for you.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said graciously, offering up a bit of a smile to his host. 
	
> Chapter 368
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	His meal of junk food was satisfying and hit the spot. Dozens of sweet sugary snack cakes had been brought back, and cookies in cellophane packaging as well. The oatmeal cookies with creme filling were really quite satisfying. It was pleasant to eat in relative safety. The department store was now well lit, several changelings had their horns lit, and Bucky was able to see all around him. 

Internally, he wrestled with feelings of rage and depression. A part of his life had gone into that armor, at some point it defined what he was, and now it was gone. This was obviously why Myrmidons had strength training… they wore heavy plate that was actually heavy, with little or no magical enchantment. Powered magical armor was liability against unicorns, but a boon against non magical foes. It was a painful lesson to learn. 

“There is no point in moping about what you’ve lost,” Chrysalis said in a low voice, while her words were antagonistic, her tone was actually quite warm and heartfelt. 

“Stay out of my head,” Bucky requested. 

“It’s that big black spire of glass you have… it broadcasts your thoughts… at least to changelings. I suppose I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you have been surprisingly reasonable in your dealings with me. In the future, when we are enemies, you may want to find some way to protect yourself,” Chrysalis explained, offering a fanged smile to Bucky. “To be truthful, I’d rather us not be enemies though. We might wrestle for dominance, but I know what you are capable of. I would willingly roll over for you and submit to your every demand.” 

“I’m not interested,” Bucky responded. 

“I know… and it is infuriating. You… do you even know how infuriating you can be at times?” Chrysalis questioned, narrowing her eyes at Bucky. 

“I’m told that I have a gift,” Bucky said, turning to look at the changeling queen. 

“You are a funny creature. You feed on hate. You grow strong on hate. Your magical strength is proportional to the hate you can draw in around you. But you choose to love. You have so much love. I am sitting here basking in your love and growing strong… so very strong. Strong enough to lead the assault upon our mutual enemies,” Chrysalis said in a silky purr. 

“I know you are feeding on me. I can feel it. I don’t mind and understand the necessity,” Bucky stated, studying the big vaguely alicorn like insectoid creature. 

“You could have killed those unicorns. You could have ripped a building free of its foundations and smashed them with it… no spell wards or shields they possess would have saved them from that. But you choose not to kill… you fascinate me. I find myself feeling an honest sense of admiration for you,” Chrysalis confessed, her voice smooth and still very seductive. 

“Your swarm… your horde… you tried to become an alicorn, didn’t you? You failed though I’m thinking. Something went wrong. Now… now I’m thinking that you maintain your swarm so you can maintain a sense of quasi-immortality. Every single one of your minions is a phylactery of a sort. So long as one survives, you continue in this form you currently possess. But you want something more… permanent,” Bucky said as he stared at Chrysalis. 

“Damn you… you are infuriating,” Chrysalis hissed, glowering at Bucky. 

“So long as you keep even one egg stashed somewhere, you continue to exist, probably hoping to correct whatever went wrong so you can ascend fully,” Bucky continued. 

“Son of a bitch!” Chrysalis swore. “How do you do that?” 

“I am intended to be the alicorn of war… I know every weakness… and I just had a hunch about yours,” Bucky answered honestly. 

“You must make enemies with astounding ease,” Chrysalis spat, glaring at Bucky, her fangs exposed and glittering in the ghostly green light. 

“I would rather make allies. I have no desire to become the alicorn of war. One might even say I’ve waged war on war itself,” Bucky stated in a forthright voice. 

“You might accept me as an ally… but the others of your kind would not. As I have admitted, I have made mistakes. Errors. Now that I have seen a potential end, I am worried,” Chrysalis confessed, her anger now gone and an expression of concern upon her face. “Stop thinking of me as a lich. I am not a lich. I can be considered many things, but one thing I am not is a lich.” 

“Very well,” Bucky said. 

“I find necromancy vile,” Chrysalis stated, looking hurt. 

“I don’t know that I believe you,” Bucky responded in a soft voice. 

“Piss off wolf chow!” Chrysalis growled. “You are an infuriating creature!” 

“It is the cost of my love,” Bucky remarked. 

“We should be going soon,” Chrysalis hissed. “My special agents are ready.” 



 

The sewer was dank, dark, and smelly. Bucky walked behind several large heavily armored drones, and behind him was a healing drone and one dozen curiously fat changelings of unknown purpose. Bucky had cast aversion spells on his group, sticking with what he did best, which was raw enchantment. 

The chubby changelings puzzled Bucky, they were fat, bulbous even, like a tick that consumed too much blood. They moved slowly, ponderously, their curved chitinous bodies ill suited for the bulkier form they possessed. 

The escape plan involved trust, and after much internal debate, Bucky had chosen trust. There was a teleportation beacon established for him in some distant secured location, a small blob of changeling spit had been placed on the base of his horn. Breaking through any wards or defenses that prevented teleportation was his own problem. 

He was able to walk on his talons, but it was awkward. The individual talons did not function properly and were slow to respond. Bucky had augmented himself to allow for ease of movement, and he slogged through the sewer with relative ease. 

After much thought, he was able to figure out how Chrysalis had frozen him in place. His horn. He suspected that not only did his horn broadcast his thoughts, but he had a suspicion that the function was two way… Not only did it broadcast, but Chrysalis no doubt had direct access to his mind and mental functions. It was a glaring weakness and it worried Bucky. He had been completely unable to resist her when she had seized him. 

Bucky realised that she could have taken him, kept him, probably even made him her slave. For whatever reason, she was letting him go, perhaps hoping for some favour in return in the future. Whatever the reason, the changeling queen had acted fairly and honourably, and it was something that Bucky planned to remember for future interactions. 

“Majesty, are you well?” the healing drone inquired. 

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied, offering a smile to the drone. 

“Your body looks very frail. Your hind legs have been weakened. You have a partially healed head wound. And you are soft and fleshy. I can fix these things, all of these things,” the healing drone offered. 

“You can fix soft and fleshy?” Bucky questioned. 

“Oh yes… very easy. I just mix up the right spit in my internal alchemical lab and then I slather you down with it. In just a little while, you will have a marvellous black chitinous shell. Very hard. Very durable. No longer will you be so soft and fleshy on the outside,” the healing drone explained. 

“I must say, that is tempting,” Bucky answered, pondering the idea of living body armor. It was far more interesting to him than Chrysalis’ previous offers. 

“I can make all manner of alchemical compounds. Chrysalis designed my type to be a walking pharmacological factory. I can heal wounds, cure diseases, create drugs of all kinds, painkillers, mood stabilisers, given enough time to study, my type can cure almost anything,” the drone said, chatting amicably with Bucky as they traveled. 

Mentally pausing to think about what the drone had said, Bucky thought of Sparkler, and he began to wonder if the drone could find a compound for The Shivers. Could the Taint be cured? Did he want the Taint cured? He looked at the healing drone. “I suppose a lot of your enemies have tried to poison you or kill you with biological warfare?” 

“The zebras made a dedicated effort. They failed,” the healing drone replied. “Many of our enemies poison us, gas us, or use harmful chemical agents. We survive and adapt.” 

“Fascinating,” Bucky said, his thoughts lingering on Sparkler. 

“We near the hotel, be ready,” one of the heavily armored drones announced from up ahead. “Our queen prepares for the assault. We are cleared for infiltration.” 



 

The room they emerged into was filled with old barrels, crates, boxes, and an old coal bin that was flaking away from rust. They left the heavy iron grate open for a quick escape if it was needed. Above them, they could hear the sounds of fierce fighting. Every few moments, the building shuddered and shook from some massive explosion. 

They exited the room, walked down a hallway, found stairs, and went up one level. There was another hallway. At the end, there was an open door and light spilled out into the dark hallway. Voices could be heard, and Bucky could also hear the faint sounds of a foal sobbing. A truly horribly murderous rage began to boil through his body. 

Two of the big armored drones moved off silently, swiftly, rounding into the doorway with unbelievable speed. A second later, there was a loud blast and one of the drones was blown through the doorway, minus a leg. 

Screams filled the hall, shrill screams of a troubled foal. Bucky rushed forward, not caring about danger, and charged into the room. There were two dead unicorns and one drone still functioned. In the room was a row of jail cells and in one of the jail cells was not one, but two foals. 

Bucky did a double take. One foal shimmered and became something else, a black changeling. Something about it seemed off however. It was tiny and foal like and it looked up at the other changelings with fear and dread, backing away from the cell door. 

“This changeling is… unaltered,” the healing drone announced. “This is outside of my parameters. I do not know how to function.” 

“Leave it be,” Bucky commanded. He looked down at the little soft green crystal pony foal. “You must be Glass Slipper. I’m here to rescue you.” 

The foal looked terrified. It looked at the dead unicorns, then at the changelings, and then up at Bucky. She shrieked when she saw Bucky’s face. When she was done shrieking, she took a deep breath and let out another piercing scream of terror. 

“Hush little one… I know I look scary, but I’m here to help,” Bucky said in his best foal soothing voice. 

The crystal pony foal hiccuped once in fear and then stared at Bucky. “Can my friend come along?” Glass Slipper begged. 

“Yes, anything, we need to be going, the sooner the better before more bad unicorns come. I will take your friend with me and both of you will be rescued,” Bucky promised in his most loving fatherly voice. 

The crystal pony foal sniffled and then hugged the changeling foal. 

“Lord of Winter… you should depart out of the sewer entrance. This building is warded against teleportation. I have been given instructions to arm the bug bombs. Our time is up and we have served our functions. Good bye Lord of Winter. It was pleasant to know you. Would you like anything else before you go?” the healing drone said, his last words a question. 

“Bug bombs?” Bucky asked, looking confused. 

“The big changelings you see. They are bug bombs. The time has come for me to arm them. They will detonate and this entire building will collapse,” the healing drone explained. 

“Oh bugger!” Bucky swore. He ripped the cell door free from its hinges, grabbed up both foals in his telekinesis, and then hurried out of the room. Augmented, he nearly sprinted down the hall, down the stairs, and then he went down into the sewer. 

Not caring about the filth, he moved as quickly as possible, trying to teleport as he ran, hoping the beacon would work. He failed several times but kept trying, moving as fast as his legs would allow, two sniffling and still crying foals in tow. 

Finally, he was able to wink, and he felt an odd tug on his body… 



 

A moment later, he appeared on a hoof powered railroad cart just outside the city. He immediately heard retching and vomiting from the foals. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. These weren’t the tracks he came in on, but there had been an offshoot. In the distance, there was a massive explosion and a pillar of fire rose up into the air. Bucky watched in awe and the distant skyline erupted into flames. 

He then came to the painful conclusion that Chrysalis had probably perished in the flames and would rewaken in some other body. For a brief moment, he felt pity for her, real pity, and as the spike of emotion went through his heart, he looked down at the changeling. 

It was black, shiny, and something about it was very odd. It didn’t have holes in its body. There was no fangs. Its mouth was open and Bucky could see flat square teeth. It looked very much like a pony, only it had chitinous plating like an insect. It had the strange eyes that changelings had. 

“My friend… she’s hurt… the bad ponies cut her open and did things to her,” Glass Slipper whimpered, looking up at Bucky. The foal still had vomit around her mouth and her expression was terrified. She heaved once, then twice, and then took a deep shuddering breath. 

“Are you hurt?” Bucky asked, gently lifting up the changeling foal. He examined her and saw incisions in the chitinous plating. Dried green goo had crusted around the slits but they moved and flexed as her body moved. “Why did they do this to you?” 

“They cut me open and did things. I wasn’t changed like the others, they wanted to know how and why I can heal,” the changeling said in a fearful voice, staring at Bucky. 

“Not changed?” Bucky asked. 

“The others like me… they get dunked in something. It makes them not think anymore,” the foal said, struggling to talk. 

Bucky felt sick, he could feel it in his stomach. His brain burned as he slowly came to the realisation of what this foal was. The mirror travelers were replicating whatever process Chrysalis used to make them into drones. He remembered the undead changeling from the underground lab. The remembered the words of the healing drone in the cellblock. 

“This changeling is… unaltered.” 

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense. Chrysalis was magically lobotomising her subjects somehow. He looked down at the small black changeling and felt pity. “You can heal?” 

“Her spit can heal wounds… she healed me,” Glass Slipper said as she slowly rose to her hooves and looked up at Bucky. 

Using a ‘come to life’ spell, Bucky set the railroad cart in motion, the two handles moving up and down. “Can’t you heal yourself?” 

“They did something when they sliced me open… they drained everything out. There was a big fight happening,” the foal answered. “It hurts when they cut me open but they don’t care… they just hold me down and keep cutting.” 

“What is your name?” Bucky said as the breeze soothed his fevered feeling skin. He felt his eye twitching and struggled to contain his slowly building rage. 

“Experiment four four two,” the changeling replied. 

“That’s not a name,” Bucky said in a soft gentle voice. He studied the changeling for a moment and then looked down at Glass Slipper. “How about we call her Tourmaline?” 

“That’s a black gemstone. I know what that is,” Glass Slipper said, still looking miserable but no longer crying. 

“Why?” the changeling asked. 

“Because, tourmalines are pretty stones and you are a pretty foal,” Bucky said as he lifted Glass Slipper in his telekinesis and looked her over. He felt somewhat relieved when he saw that she was okay. 

Still feeling disturbed from his revelation, Bucky immediately began to plan. Enough harm had been done to the changeling, enough experiments, and he began to worry what Luna might do. Not only was the changeling valuable information, she was a panacea of healing, an alchemical supply depot. 

That could potentially heal Sparkler… 

He began to wonder if Luna would want to cut the changeling open to study it. A cold creeping sensation blossomed in his dock and began to creep up his spine. He couldn’t allow that to happen. His instincts told him this was a foal. Insectoid perhaps, but a foal. It was entirely too much like a pony. Her cheeks were still slick with tears. Some cruel heartless bastards had cut her open and had done surgery on her and she had felt everything. 

Sitting back on his haunches, Bucky pulled both foals into his embrace, holding them both carefully and making sure he didn’t hurt the changeling. 

“I like the name you gave me better than Experiment Four Four Two,” the changeling whispered in a soft voice. 

“Are my parents okay?” Glass Slipper asked. 

Bucky’s heart sank. He wasn’t prepared for this. He could fight wars, slaughters his enemies by the thousands, but he wasn’t capable of this. He didn’t know what to say. With a strangled sound, Bucky began to cry. 

“Don’t cry,” Glass Slipper said, wrapping her legs around Bucky’s neck. “It’ll make me cry,” she whimpered, pulling herself close to Bucky. “Did they hurt you?”

“Yes,” Bucky sobbed, his answer honest. They had hurt him. 

The railroad cart was moving swiftly and Bucky could hear the rushing of leathery wings, a comforting sound. Suddenly there was lights around him and he saw Luna, flying with several Myrmidons. She landed on the cart and folded in her wings. 

“You blew up Las Pegasus,” Luna said in a flat voice. “One quarter of the city is gone. Where is your armor? Why are you holding a changeling?” 

“YOU LEAVE HER BE!” Bucky snarled, his lips curling back from his teeth. His eye flashed dangerously and the air became quite chilly. 

“You are distressed… be calmed. Tell me what happened,” Luna said in a calm soothing voice, trying to reassure Bucky. 

“I won’t let you hurt her… give me your word that you will not harm her,” Bucky growled, his nostrils flaring. 

Backing up the edge of the cart, Luna realised she was dealing with something every bit as ferocious and dangerous as one of her lunar pegasi. Her own careful mental programming was now working against her. Buckminster was currently unpredictable and dangerous, livid, and doing exactly what she had constructed him to do. The devious mental instructions to protect foals at all costs had been triggered, and Luna felt her blood run cold as she understood that Bucky now saw her as a threat. And she immediately understood the reasons why. 

“Stay back, he’ll kill you, make no mistake,” Luna said, waving her wings at the Myrmidons. “Buckminster, be calm. Your Mistress is telling you to be calm.” 

“If you hurt her, you will make me your enemy,” Bucky said in a wavering voice. The foals were crying again and it made his ears ache. Something inside of his head felt wrong. His aggression seethed and bubbled inside of him. The corner of his eye twitched and his throat felt tight. 

“Buckminster, I give you my word that she will not come to harm,” Luna promised. 

“I don’t believe you…” Bucky whispered. “I know what you do,” he hissed. 

“Buckminster… Bucky… as the Godmother of your foals, I give you my word as a family member that no harm will come to the foals you are carrying,” Luna said, her voice genuinely fearful. This was a nightmarish scenario that she hadn’t predicted or accounted for, and as such, had not created a failsafe for. She nearly lost control of her bowels when she heard the creak of metal from Bucky’s mechanical talons. 

“Must keep foals safe,” Bucky breathed.

“You’ve kept them safe,” Luna gently whispered. “You did good. Both of them are safe and I’ve given you my word. Buckminster… you have to trust me… just like I have to trust you.” 

Turning his head, Bucky looked directly at Luna. For a moment, his Tainted eye flickered with strange energy. “Trust,” Bucky grunted. He wrapped the sobbing foals in a protective spell bubble. 

The railroad cart slowed and there were lights around them. The airship loomed in the distance. More Myrmidons began to circle around the cart as it neared the anchored ship, and the stare down between Bucky and Luna continued. 

“Buckminster, we can learn a lot from her, but it can be done without harming her, I promise you,” Luna cajoled. 

“No… no labs. No cells. She’s been tortured enough. Just try to take her from me… I dare you,” Bucky growled, his ears pinning back against his skull. 

Internally cursing, Luna began to hate herself. She had carefully created Buckminster to be utterly fearless when it came to the defense of a foal against anything he saw as a threat, and she had done it at her sister’s request. She had done her job too well. Buckminster was completely unafraid of her. All that time spent in the dream realm was now paying off, and Luna felt a perverse sense of pride. 

“No labs, no cells, no harm,” Luna promised as the cart came to a halt. 

A long string of drool dribbled from Bucky’s mouth as he the stallion continued to growl and bare his teeth. The foals were frightened, and Glass Slipper continued to cling tightly to Bucky’s neck. 

“Buckminster Bitters, I give you my word that my sister and I both will look after that foal ourselves, give it the love and respect that it deserves, and any studying that will be done will be done in a gentle, loving and kind manner, after trust is earned and she is happy,” Luna promised in a fearful voice. Much to Luna’s relief, she saw Buckminster relax slightly and she allowed herself a deep breath. 

“I get to speak to her… whenever I feel like it. I get to see she is okay. Her name is Tourmaline… not Experiment Four Four Two,” Bucky said in a quavering voice that was half whine and half snarl. 

“Yes, of course Buckminster. And please, look after them both during the trip home. I will make no move to take either from you,” Luna said as she hopped down off of the cart and backed away from Buckminster. She was genuinely terrified of her own creation at the moment. 

“You deserve to be happy,” Bucky said to the changeling, the side of his face twitching as he spoke. “Foals shouldn’t live in fear. You deserve to laugh and play and be outside.” 

As he spoke, Bucky felt a second pair of legs slowly wrap around his neck and give him a squeeze. Something in his mind suddenly let go and his muscles began to relax. The painful feeling inside of his head began to go away. He blinked a few times, looked around, and then he looked at Luna. 

“I’m thirsty… I’d like a drink,” Bucky said in a scratchy voice, his eye now rather dull and exhausted looking. 

Luna heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that Buckminster had regained control. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 369
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The airship moved through the night, silent and unseen by most. Luna stood near the prow, staring ahead, the alicorn was silent and calm. Bucky sat on the deck, watching over both of the rescued foals, both of whom clung to one another, neither of them understanding everything that was going on. 

“I’m scared,” Glass Slipper said in a soft voice. “I don’t like flying.” 

“I’m sorry little one, the ride will be over soon and you’ll be safe. Do you like ice cream? I could make sure you get some for being brave,” Bucky responded, his long shaggy pelt whipping in the breeze. He lay down upon the wooden deck and both foals slowly approached him, easing themselves up against his side to get out of the breeze. 

“Too cold for ice cream,” Glass Slipper whimpered as she pressed her face up against Bucky’s neck, grateful for his warmth. “Why is your face all messed up?” 

Bucky blinked at the innocent but blunt question and turned to look at Glass Slipper, unsure of how to answer. “I was injured,” he said in a soft voice. “I was trying to do the right thing and keep other ponies safe.” 

“I’m sorry I screamed when I saw you,” Glass Slipper said, sniffling slightly and shivering as she pressed herself a bit more against Bucky. 

“Think nothing of it,” Bucky said in a soothing voice. 

“It hurts,” Tourmaline whimpered, her eyes flickering with a strange light. 

“I’m sorry… have you worked up any spit yet? Can you heal yourself?” Bucky questioned, his voice wavering with concern. Without thinking about it, he bent his head back and gave the changeling a soft kiss, which seemed to comfort her. 

“Why did those ponies take me? Why was I stolen from my parents?” Glass slipper asked, her eyes narrowed as she studied Bucky. 

“Because you are a very special foal,” Bucky answered. “They were bad ponies.” 

“Will they come and take me again?” Glass Slipper questioned. 

“I hope not. If they do, I’ll come rescue you again,” Bucky said, watching as Glass Slipper’s eyes seemed to grow heavy. It was late, well past bedtime for most foals, and poor Glass Slipper had endured a very long day. 

“Why do those big ponies keep staring at me?” Tourmaline asked, her voice somewhat fearful. 

Sighing, Bucky was once again unsure of how to answer. “A lot of ponies are afraid of changelings. Many bad things have happened.” 

“I’m scared of ponies,” Tourmaline whispered. 

“I know,” Bucky responded. “A lot of bad things were done to you, no doubt. But all of that is over.” He raised his head slightly and glared at a Myrmidon that wouldn’t stop staring, his nostrils flaring, and his ears swiveled forward. 

The Myrmidon, not liking Bucky’s burning stare, blinked and looked away. 





Bucky watched as the two sisters spoke. Celestia had intercepted the airship and was now aboard, engaged with Luna in a very animated discussion that Bucky could only make out brief bits and pieces of. He watched them hug for a moment, standing close and each wrapping one foreleg around the other’s neck, and Bucky felt a little bit better about things. 

Glass Slipper was sound asleep, curled up against Bucky’s shoulder in a tight little ball, her face covered by her forelegs. Beside her, Tourmaline was still awake and whimpered occasionally. Strange gurgles came from her insides and the changeling’s surgical incisions were dribbling an odd greenish yellow liquid. 

When Celestia and Luna both began to approach, Bucky felt his hackles rising. He tried to control his multitude of feelings, not even sure what it was that he was feeling, but the all too familiar heat flushing through his body was certainly rage. He choked back a growl and tried to keep control of his senses. 

“You did very well Buckminster… I am very pleased with what you have done,” Celestia said as she paused a few feet away, her posture submissive. She lowered her head and gave Bucky a kindly look. “Luna told me of the promise that you extracted from her.” 

“Extracted… you imply that I used force,” Bucky said in a flat monotone. 

“I do believe you did,” Celestia said softly, never taking her eyes off of Bucky. 

“She’s a foal,” Bucky insisted. 

“And I agree,” Celestia answered, her eyes wide and warm. 

Bucky let out a long shuddering exhale when he heard Celestia’s words, his whole body trembling, and he felt tears beading up in the corner of his eye. “She’s been tortured… she has open surgical incisions… they drained her of the chemicals she had before the battle, she can’t heal herself. They did it while she was awake.” He watched Celestia flinch, he saw anger in her eyes, for a moment they were bright, as blazing as the sun, and it brought Bucky comfort. 

“Buckminster, you look unwell,” Celestia said, her voice flooded with concern. 

“I’m having some trouble,” Bucky admitted, nodding his head, the corner of his eye spasming violently as he spoke. 

“I give you my word that your rescue will be looked after and cared for,” Celestia promised. The big alicorn looked at the changeling. “Tourmaline is it?” she asked, smiling at the changeling. “Buckminster thought of a very pretty name… he is a very clever pony under pressure… Tourmaline, how would you like to come and live with my sister and I? We will make sure that nothing ever hurts you again. Truth be told, I am a very lonely pony.” 

“You’re lonely?” Tourmaline asked. She slowly rose up on four wobbly legs, moving slowly, painfully, her movements causing the incisions in her sides to flex and pull. She took a cautious step towards Celestia, looked at Bucky for a moment, and then took another step. 

“I am,” Celestia replied in a very soft voice. “I have so much love to give. And you seem very special,” the motherly alicorn said as she took a step towards Tourmaline. Celestia lowered her head down ever lower, her ears splayed out sideways, and the expression upon her face was hopeful. 

Tourmaline was every bit as black as Celestia was white and they stood out in sharp contrast to one another. The changeling was small, so very small, and Celestia was large, so very large. They drew closer, looking at one another, until Celestia made a rather sudden movement, pushing her head forward and gently snoot-bumping the changeling. 

Bucky could feel his heart beating in his throat. 

“You are not so different than us,” Celestia said softly, studying the changeling foal. “I must confess, this the first time I’ve seen one of your kind in this state up close.” Celestia began to notice the same things that Bucky had noticed. The flat square teeth being the most noticeable thing that stood out in Celestia’s eyes. “Your face is so expressive, surprising given your nature.” 

Tourmaline stepped forward and rubbed her cheek against Celestia’s, feeling the larger pony’s warmth against her shell. “You’re warm.” 

“Are you cold?” Celestia asked. 

“Yes,” Tourmaline answered. 

Flexing her knees, Celestia lowered herself down to the deck and carefully pulled the changeling closer with her magic, pressing the black foal against her swanlike neck. Celestia closed her eyes and for a brief moment, she thought of Twilight Sparkle and the times she had held the unicorn, trying to soothe her when she missed her parents or the troubled unicorn was having a Twilight moment. 

“What about Glass Slipper?” Bucky inquired, almost feeling guilty for saying anything, as though he was intruding upon a private moment. He had never seen Celestia behaving the way she was acting right now. The large white alicorn was crying silently, her barrel hitching, and Bucky could see her wings twitching. 

“My sister and I have spoken at length. Glass Slipper is an exceptionally powerful focuser. We cannot send her back to the Crystal Empire. We want her closer to us and in a more secure location. Celestia and I both feel that Twilight Sparkle, as head of the Black Cloaks and the Bureau of Thaumaturgy, would make a suitable custodian for the foal,” Luna explained in reply, looking down at Bucky and then at her sister. 

“They cut her open,” Celestia blurted out in a pained voice as she looked down at the changeling she was holding. “Luna, tell me you’ve never done anything like this.” 

“Never on the living,” Luna said in a cold voice. “We took prisoners after the invasion. They were studied, but nothing cruel was done. They were mercifully executed first,” she added in a flat monotone. 

Feeling overwhelmed, Bucky swallowed and licked his lips. He looked up at Luna. “If Twilight Sparkle disagrees or declines, you know I always have room for one more,” Bucky offered. Done speaking, he turned to look at Celestia, who was cradling the changeling in her forelegs. He wanted to say something, something meaningful, but he was at a loss for words. 

“Well Buckminster, you have done well… you completely obliterated our enemies in Las Pegasus, destroyed a good quarter of the city, rescued the foalnapped crystal pony, and being the thoughtful and considerate pony that you are, brought back a stray for my sister to smother in motherly affection,” Luna said, looking at Bucky as she spoke. 

“Hush Luna,” Celestia said, turning to glare at her sister. “She is sleepy.” 

“She can sleep with you,” Luna said, turning her gaze upon her sister. 

“She is not a bug Luna,” Celestia said in a harsh whisper. 

“I was not going to say anything,” Luna retorted, raising her eyebrow at Celestia. 

“But you were thinking it!” Celestia accused. 

“Are you two really going to start fighting again?” Bucky asked, looking at one sister and then the other. 

“No,” Luna said sullenly. “Besides, she started it.” 



 

After being placed on the ground, Bucky watched as Luna flew away, returning to the airship. He nearly stumbled, exhausted, his mind weary. He looked around and saw a light on the kitchen window. Moving slowly, he climbed the steps, crossed the porch, and entered the house. The house was silent, all he heard was the crackle of the fireplace in the living room. As he stood in the entryway, his ears straining, he heard a sound in the kitchen. 

“Bucky, in here.” 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Bucky wobbled into the kitchen. He saw Derpy and Belisama sitting at the kitchen table. He walked to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down wearily. A moment later, he felt Derpy kiss him on the cheek. 

“You don’t look so good,” Derpy said in a soft voice. 

“I had a rough night,” Bucky replied. 

“My poor husband,” Belisama said, her beak clicking and her crest rising. 

“Is the foal safe?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky said. “Glass Slipper is safe.” He did not elaborate upon the other foal, now sworn to secrecy. 

“Lots of property damage?” Derpy inquired, giving her husband a worried look. 

“You’ll be reading about it in the papers,” Bucky grumbled as his head thumped down on the table. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

The grey mare shook her head. “You can’t seem to go anywhere without something just exploding,” Derpy stated. 

“I know… tell me about it,” Bucky responded. 

“Wait, you mean something actually exploded?” Belisama questioned. 

“Apparently I’m responsible for detonating about one quarter of the city of Las Pegasus,” Bucky moaned. “I’m a very responsible pony… if something goes wrong, I’m responsible.”

Derpy, unable to help herself, tittered at her husband’s words. “Bucky, you have to stop going on business trips and blowing things up.” 

“I know, right? Tell me about it,” Bucky agreed as he feebly lifted his head. 

“Do you want anything?” Belisama asked. 

“Yeah… actually,” Bucky responded, snatching the griffoness with his magic. He pulled her close, mindful of her broken leg, and gave her a squeeze, causing her to let out a panicked squeak. “You’re little and fluffy and huggable,” Bucky explained as he held her close. 

Relaxing, Belisama allowed herself to be held and even wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck. She felt Bucky’s right foreleg sliding under her backside to support her, she shivered, feeling him brush up against her sensitive places. She ran her talons through his mane and tried to be affectionate, not really knowing what to do. 

“So nice to see you learning to trust, Belisama,” Derpy commented in a soft voice. 
	
	
> Chapter 370
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Reclining in the tub, Bucky allowed himself a moment to mourn the loss of his armor. The hot water was soothing, and while Luna had blasted him and the foals with a variety of spells to be rid of the sewer-iffic stench, Bucky was glad to be sitting in a giant tub full of hot sudsy water. 

His armor was gone, no doubt about that. It had been in the blast zone. Chrysalis’ bug bombs, along with whatever magical machinery was in the hotel, had proven themselves to be an explosive combination. It saddened him, but he knew it was a lesson he needed to learn. The Black Cloaks wore cloaks for a reason, and he now understood that. Cloaks were easy to enchant, easy to replace, and cloaks didn’t almost kill you when vital functions failed. 

Bucky realised his armor was a crutch, a reason to rely upon brute force and never improve, never change his tactics, never evolve, grow, or get better. What had been stopping him from taking his lessons from Lyra and Witching Hour seriously? His armor. What was stopping him from serious study of transmutation and body alteration? His armor. 

His armor allowed for a sense of intellectual laziness, and as much as it pained him to admit it, he was better off without it, because now, he would be forced to adapt or potentially be killed. Death wasn’t an option he was happy with, so there was really only one option, which was to get better, which he silently resolved to do. 

His ability to use shadow magic was badly neglected, a sore point for Luna, but it had been shadow magic that had saved him. When he had been unable to wink, unable to teleport away, he had been able to use shadow magic. He needed to explore shadow magic more and see exactly what he was capable of, unicorns were quite weak to it, and it was an asset he had not properly exploited. 

Bucky cringed, his muscles tensing, as he came to the conclusion that he was really a very lousy archmage all things considered. He was the dreaded Warlock of Winter, the White Death, the Keeper of the Cruel Season, all of those names printed about him in the paper, and he had nearly been taken out by a bunch of type two and type three upstarts that had seriously outclassed him. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky forced his muscles to relax and he tried to think about other things. For whatever reason, Chrysalis had been helpful, the railroad cart had been a particularly thoughtful gesture… however, he was completely repulsed by her now that he understood exactly what she was doing, altering her subjects and converting them into phylacteries by erasing what made them individuals. He wasn’t sure how their next meeting would go, but he had a lingering desire to kill her and simply be done with it, for all of the good it would do him. At least it might make him feel better. 

Reaching down with his hoof, and not his talons, he scratched his balls, and as he did so, his eye rolled back into its socket, the feeling of the hot water and getting clean along with a good scratching was overwhelmingly satisfying. He did this for several minutes, his mind going completely blank, he wiggled and scooted around the tub as he continued to tend to those hard to reach places, scratching and scrubbing away the tension in his flesh. 

As he slowly came to his senses after a good ball scratching, his mind drifted towards thoughts about Belisama, holding her, her soft peeping, the way her feathers had fluffed out earlier, the feeling of her breathing, and the warm feeling of her feminine flesh against his foreleg while he had held her and supported her in a loving embrace. She was certainly warming up to him, he had no doubt about that. 

Feeling much better about himself, Bucky began to drain the tub and got ready to shower to rinse the soap from his long shaggy pelt. There were things he had to do before morning. 



 

Up before dawn, showered, and ready to face the day, Loch Skimmer watched her sister Ripple, also up before the dawn, working over the eleven griffons known as Ripple’s Raptors. Ripple’s methods were hardcore by any standard, even Sparkler had not been this harsh on her recruits, and Loch Skimmer began to wonder if perhaps Ripple had lost her mind during her trip to Griffonholm. 

Life was routine now, which was something that Loch Skimmer appreciated. She got up, she helped to craft the dawn, she went to school, and then she went to her job at the hospital, where she either battled boredom or she battled exhaustion. She came home, did her homework, studied, spent a little time with her family, and then went to bed rather early all things considered, only to get up before dawn again the next day. 

Ripple’s hind leg went out in a wide sweep and a griffon went flying away from her, and not by its own wing power, tumbling end over end as it was hurled through the air. 

“Loki!”

Whomever Loki was, Ripple had just about kicked him into the stratosphere for attempting to fight dirty. Loch Skimmer shook her head. Ripple’s brutishness knew no bounds, had no equal, and had no end. Loch cringed as a griffon came at Ripple with a long wooden staff, which clearly did the griffon no good. It went sailing away, hurtling through the air, and splashed into the lake a moment later. 

“COME ON YOU PANSIES! I’M A FILLY! SURELY YOU CAN TAKE DOWN A LONE FILLY YOU WORTHLESS FLEA BITTEN LITTLE HOUSE CATS!” 

Loch Skimmer closed her eyes, unable to watch what was certain to be horrific violence in the dim grey light that existed just before dawn. A pained yowl reached her ears. She felt a warm body sitting down beside her and she opened her eyes just as she felt two lips kiss her cheek. 

“Hiya Sparky,” Loch greeted. 

“She’s beautiful when she’s fighting,” Sparkler said in a low soft voice, one front leg and her the side of her face shaking slightly. 

Reaching out with her fetlock, Loch Skimmer gently touched Sparkler’s cheek, trying to smooth out the palsied flesh. “How you feeling Sparky? I know you had a rough night, your leg wouldn’t stop kicking.” 

“I’m tired, but I’ll manage. I’m worried about father,” Sparkler answered. 

“Daddy is going to do whatever daddy is going to do. I still worry, but I don’t let it bother me too much. Better to live in the moment and allow life to happen, rather than let it pass you by, lost to a moment spent in worry,” Loch Skimmer said as she watched Ripple perform a flying suplex on some poor hapless griffon. “How is Blossomforth?” 

“Recovering,” Sparkler replied, shaking her head in frustration. “Ponies don’t respect the police very much. We try to earn their trust, we try to be gentle, we try to be kind… we try to be friendly… and there are too many ponies that don’t want to give us a chance to be civil. They’d rather just skip right to the conflict or tell us that we don’t have a right to interfere in their lives or stick our snoots into their business.” 

“I suppose there is a fine fine line you have to be mindful of,” Loch Skimmer said in solemn voice, thinking about how she had to go in just a few more minutes. 

“I can’t even think of his name… one of the refugees… he truly believed that he had the right to beat on his mare like she was a common draft animal… and when Blossomforth was just trying to do her job, telling him that he didn’t have that right, he decided to beat her and put her in her place too… it is infuriating. I keep thinking about… about-” 

“About the stallion that made me?” Loch asked, interrupting Sparkler. 

“Yeah!” Sparkler snapped angrily. 

“I carried Blossomforth to the hospital. She was a mess, but she gave as good as she got. What happened with the mare beater anyway?” Loch Skimmer asked in a soothing voice, trying to comfort Sparkler. 

“He’s been sent to Canterlot and is being held. Last I heard anything, Shining Armor wants to talk to Twilight Sparkle about having me turn him to stone for one year so he can think about what he’s done… and I don’t know how I feel about doing that,” Sparkler replied in a bitter voice, one ear spasming wildly. 

“I feel sorry for the mare… fat with foal, two little foals, and now, no husband,” Loch Skimmer grumbled, leaning on Sparkler and sharing in her mate’s misery. 

“Blossomforth, Big Mac, and Raindrops are asking around for donations to help her out,” Sparkler responded, her front leg now jerking painfully. 

“The world is a messed up place,” Loch Skimmer stated, looking up at the sky as shaft of brilliant pink light broke over the horizon. “I gotta go Sparky, sorry. Fluttershy needs me. We have a complicated dawn to pull off.” 

“Go have fun,” Sparkler said as Loch took to her hooves and then spread her wings. She watched the pegasus go streaking off, a part of her actually feeling a spike of jealousy for the simplicity in Loch Skimmer’s entire life. 



 

His eyelid feeling heavy, Bucky looked down at the grains of gunpowder upon his desk and yawned. Nearby, a glass orb hovered, waiting expectantly for further instruction, held aloft by a simple arcano-tech propeller. It had taken him almost all of four hours, but he had refined the tracking spell to home in on even a single tiny granule of gunpowder, something Twilight Sparkle had doubts about him accomplishing. 

He snorted, lifted his head, shook away his drowsiness, and pondered the problem of somepony attempting to disenchant his flying golems. It bothered him. He had several options, all of them unpleasant and unsettling. The biggest problem he had was the method of retaliation. Fear spells hadn’t worked as well as he had hoped… or perhaps the mirror travelers were just very resistant to fear, seeing as how they had scrubbed away their other emotions. 

The options he was left with were all rather unpleasant, the golems releasing a reflexive spell the moment they were touched by hostile magic. There was mind wiping, the non lethal but questionable option, which was the current most likely candidate, and then there were fatal backlash spells that killed whomever was trying to undo his enchantments, which was the option Sombra took to protect his army of golems and automatons, which Bucky did not like as an option at all. He couldn’t have all of his hard work being undone by saboteurs. He had the full backing of the Council of Immortals behind him, or so he had been told, and he was free to be as brutal or as merciful as he pleased. He had been given free reign to deal with the gunpowder issue however he saw fit. On a shelf in the corner were scrolls, writs of authorisation, the most formal of these was from Scorch, who loathed guns with a heated passion. 

On his desk, one of his creations tapped its spindly little leg, trying to get his attention. A small glass orb with eight little glass legs danced around, drumming with one leg, bouncing around in a bid to get Bucky’s attention. 

“What?” Bucky demanded, causing the little glass golem with spider legs to cringe. 

It dipped a pointed leg into the inkwell and then scratched out a few words on a sheet of paper, moving with quick jerky gestures. Bucky looked down and read the scribbled words carefully, his eyebrow furrowing. 

“You’re bored?” Bucky asked in a voice of disbelief after reading the crude letters. 

The little glass golem bobbed up and down as though it was saying “yes.” 

“Well… go do something then! Go crawl into Minion’s bed and creep along her side, giving her a good scare… I don’t care what you do!” Bucky groused, feeling agitated and out of sorts. 

The eight legged golem jumped up into the air a few times, kicking out its legs in what appeared to be a joyful celebratory manner. It pirouetted gracefully and then ran for the edge of the desk. It lept off, wiggling its legs mid air, and then scurried over the floor, running towards the door, its little legs clicking. 

“Artificial intelligence… bah, I’ve created artificial stupidity,” Bucky snarled, feeling upset and cross. “Hmm, that’s not a bad idea… something to attract the simple minded… I wonder if I can create a golem that is utterly fascinating to look at, something that would leave a pony stupefied and vulnerable… an orb of living compulsion… a want it need it spell, only with out the need to grab it, only stare at it and drool,” Bucky said, thinking out loud. “A distraction when fighting other unicorns.” 

He leaned back in his chair, his face now serious, drumming his now repaired talons upon his desk. “I need an army of small disposable minions that can be deployed during conflict. Like the changelings, each would serve a purpose. Chrysalis had the right idea, little specialised minions,” he mused. 

The morning silence was shattered by a high pitched feminine scream, followed by a loud squawk. Bucky ignored both, completely absorbed in his own thoughts. He could make his own army of bugs to do his dirty work. The gunpowder detection golems were only the first step. 

“UGH UGH UGH! SPIDERS! KILL THEM BARTLEBY! BEGIN A PURGE!” 

Stroking his chin with his hoof, Bucky began to see possibilities for non lethal pacification. Little glass golems were disposable and easy enough for him to make. He could have flying and crawling minions, each created to serve a specific purpose. 

“IT CRAWLED OVER MY BELLY! OH IT’S HIDEOUS!”

Pulling out his notebook, Bucky began to take notes, putting his thoughts to paper, carefully cataloguing his creative processes so he could act upon them later when he wasn’t so exhausted. He scratched away with a fine quill, gnawing on his lip as he worked. 

“THIS IS ONE OF MASTER’S CREATIONS! DOES MASTER’S EVIL KNOW NO END?” 

Having written down the last of his thoughts, Bucky cast a simple spell to dry the ink, blinked his dry irritated eye a few times, closed the book, and with a burst of freezing ice, vanished from behind his desk. 
	
	
> Chapter 371
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Using his magic, Rising Star held the massive ventilation fan in place so it could be installed. The forge needed to be cooled down so the griffons could safely work in here, both to help Rising Star and to work upon their own projects. Rising Star found that he quite liked the griffons, they were earnest hard workers and wonderful companions. It was hard not to like them. 

Several griffons bolted the massive fan in place, working with big wrenches. 

“Scorch, I’m having some second thoughts about this Stable of Representatives thing… what if I get up in front of everypony and choke? I’m worried… I feel lost, I don’t want to quit, but maybe I need advice?” Rising Star questioned. 

“Just be honest and be yourself. Do nothing that would shame your earth pony mothers. Watch out about giving your word, that is a tricky issue for us. If crowds are a problem… just close your eyes or something. You clearly don’t want to give up, so you just need to find a way through this worry and doubt,” Scorch said in a low voice. 

“This council of immortals… you’ve been a leader for a very long time… any advice?” Rising Star asked, looking towards Scorch with a hopeful expression. 

“Remember when you came to Tartarus and how scared you were?” Scorch questioned, moving his earth pony form around to look at Rising Star. 

“Yeah,” Rising Star replied, nodding his head. 

“How did I treat you?” Scorch inquired, raising one eyebrow. 

“With kindness, consideration, and respect,” Rising Star said, looking up at the ceiling while he recalled the memory. 

“There you go,” Scorch said, making a gesture with his hoof. “My advice. The secret to my success. Also, play foalsitter to powerful deities and entities, look after their offspring, and never, ever, under any circumstances, not have nookie when there is a good opportunity with a willing partner and favourable circumstances.” 

“Um, pardon me for asking, but do you…” 

“Get busy?” Scorch asked, cutting in on Rising Star’s dangling unfinished question. 

“Well, yeah,” Rising Star said in a low voice. 

“There is this primordial electrical elemental. She’s real kinky. Her name is Skyfire. A long time ago, the pegasi and the griffons used to worship her. She’s the one who gave them the gift of cloud walking,” Scorch said, his eyes going unfocused as he reminisced. “There’s been a couple of mortals too… a few ponies, a griffon, a minotaur or three, I gave them offspring. I’ve outlived so many of my own children.” 

“I’m sorry,” Rising Star apologised, shaking his head. 

“I’m not,” Scorch replied, looking up at the newly installed ventilation fan. “Best nookie I’ve ever had was with one of my own great great great great great granddaughters.” 



 

“Class, today I want to talk to you about some changes,” Cheerilee announced. She looked out at the foals of her classroom, all of them crowded and packed in together. Some were looking back attentively, some looked dull and vacant, and a few were asleep. “There has been a meeting between myself, the mayor, and the education board over the weekend. Due to the recent problems that have happened, it has been discussed that help is needed.” 

Pausing, Cheerilee looked around her classroom, feeling hopeful that this would work, but also fearing that this plan would fail. Either way, this was a temporary measure until Buckminster’s school could open. 

“After much debate, discussion, and a great deal of time looking at personality profiles as well as academic records, it was decided to make several of you prefects, to give you authority over your classmates, to hand out demerits, detentions, and to enforce good behaviour,” Cheerilee announced. 

The fuschia mare was met with thunderous silence. Wide eyes stared at her. Little mouths hung open. Little ears swiveled around and perked forwards. Cheerilee smiled, appreciating the deafening silence, enjoying it, savouring it, drinking it in like it was a fine wine. She shivered from the surge of raw emotion she felt, she had finally silenced her classroom. 

Looking around, her smile almost impossibly wide, Cheerilee clapped her front hooves together and sat back in her chair. “Without further ado, I shall read the list!” she announced, lifting up a sheet of paper. “Sunny Daze, Peachy Pie, Cheery, Lance, Apple Bloom, and last but not least, Sentinel,” Cheerilee said in an excited voice. 

There was more stunned silence from the class as Cheerilee bounced in place while sitting in her seat. The teacher took a deep breath. “Come and see me during recess. You get to wear the most adorable little sashes… and I have permission to take your picture to mark this momentous occasion.” 



 

Witching Hour looked at her silent husband and then around the room. The small apartment they were in was another safe house, and the unicorn and the pegasus that had led them to it were currently in custody. There was a lot to search through. There was a bookshelf and a great many things could be hidden in books. Many things in the room gave off magical signatures. The trap to detonate the apartment had been broken by Tiddlywinks, it was, luckily for them, clumsily made and rather easy to break. 

There was no portal generator here, but there was a small magical mirror that had already been placed into a protective anti magic crate to keep it safe. 

Shining Armor pushed through the door, his barrel wrapped in bandages and a thin red line was just under his eye. He paused upon entering the apartment and looked at Witching Hour, then Tiddlywinks. “I’m very happy to see you safe,” Shining Armor said in a relieved voice. 

“We’re magical burglars. Next time, you leave the BREAKING AND ENTERING to us. You’re LUCKY you didn’t lose an EYE,” Witching Hour said, twitching slightly as she spoke. 

Saying nothing, Shining Armor allowed the pair to go back to work. He shook his head. They were legends, but one didn’t speak and the other tended to shout when nervous. This was all that was left of the once infamous Black Cloaks. Shining Armor wasn’t sure if they would be put out to pasture or not. 

Tiddlywinks stood next to a small table with a silver bell. He stomped his foot and made a gesture by throwing his head in the direction of the bell. Witching Hour crossed the room and studied the bell carefully. 

“Nopony TOUCH this,” Witching Hour commanded. “TRAP!” 

Curious, Shining Armor came close and studied the bell. It gave off no magical signature, but he found that he had a hard time looking directly at it. He scowled, understanding the nature of the enchantment when he put two and two together. 

“If the BELL is picked up it WILL release whatever is UNDER it,” Witching Hour explained, looking a bit more nervous than usual. “Winky doesn’t know HOW to disarm it.” 

“I am really very curious what is under the bell,” Shining Armor said, still trying to look at the bell. The aversion spell was poorly done, he could see it, but only just barely. It was just hard enough to be challenging. And he really wanted to know what was under it. 

“Don’t BE a simpleton you MORON!” Witching Hour warned. “The aversion spell is only PARTIAL, it wants to be LOOKED AT so you will want to TOUCH it! FORBIDDEN FRUIT!” 

Nodding, Shining Armor backed away from the devious trap. 

“This is like something the WARLOCK would do as a PRANK,” Witching Hour announced, shaking her head. “This STINKS of his SORT of evil. Make no MISTAKE. My BOSS is EVIL!” 

“I dunno about that,” Shining Armor said as he peered over the bookshelf, fearful of pulling out any books. “He’s a family pony… I find that personally, I can forgive a pony if he is a good father. Buckminster is… misunderstood.” 

“Warlock,” Witching Hour argued as she stared at the bell. 

“We are at war… He’s on our side… I cannot fault him,” Shining Armor replied, shaking his head vigourously at Witching Hour. 



 

Lugnut and Spanner looked down at their cubs and felt a strange sense of pride. Cog and Sprocket were wonderful cubs, full of curiousity. Lugnut, somewhat larger and black, sat on his haunches in a protective watchful pose, while Spanner, smaller and grey, lay on his side with his head raised, watching the two cubs play with one another. 

Nearby, Magpie was sitting with the other cubs on the deck of The Albatross, allowing the little ones to get some sun. She watched the two males watching their young and felt a warmth in her heart. 

“Are both of you happy?” Magpie asked. 

“Very much so,” Lugnut replied. 

“This is the life. We don’t have to worry about being eaten, being beaten, we have a good king that appreciates our work, gives us good food, and does not threaten us,” Spanner stated, his crest rising. “And we are the Royal Mechanics.” 

“How is life for you, Royal Nanny?” 

“I had my doubts and some worries, but I’ve settled in,” Magpie said as she rolled over to allow the sun to shine on her other side. She watched as one of the cubs yawned, his beak opening wide and his eyes closing. 

“We have to do some work later, can you look after Sprocket and Cog?” Lugnut questioned politely, looking hopefully at Magpie as he spoke. 

“Of course. Where are you going?” Magpie responded. 

“Very soon they will have the boiler ready in the school. We are going to calibrate and fine tune the lift once they are completed. The labourers say we should have the school finished before the month is out,” Lugnut answered. 

“The ponies said it would take weeks… maybe even months,” Spanner said, his eyes narrowing. “Griffon pride my fellows, griffon pride.” 

“Those towers are certainly going up quickly,” Magpie agreed, looking over at the towers protruding above the treeline. “Be careful with the steam powered lift, steam can be dangerous.” 

“We know,” Spanner said, his eyes turning to look at the scar tissue on his left talons and wincing at the memory of the burn. 

“We’ve also got to flush the radiator system and figure out why it has no pressure,” Lugnut said in a glum voice, his crest drooping. 

“Not all jobs can be fun,” Magpie stated. 



 

Half awake, Bucky stumbled into the kitchen after getting a few hours of sleep, his eye half open. Very much like a zombie, he shuffled past Lyra, shambled past Derpy, who was busy doing something with foal food for Harper, goosing her and lifting her tail with his snoot as he past, causing  the grey mare to whinny, and then he fell into a chair at the kitchen table, staring ahead vacantly. 

“Hello zombie,” Lyra said, smiling at Bucky. 

“Graaaaains,” Bucky groaned. 

“Bucky! No puns!” Derpy shouted, looking flustered. The pegasus turned to look at Harper, who was sitting in a high chair looking rather petulant. “Mashed peas and squash… nummy,” Derpy said, licking her lips. 

Harper shook her head no and narrowed her eyes defiantly. 

“Take a look Bucky,” Berry Punch said, tossing a folded newspaper at Bucky. “Special edition. Came out late, just before noon. Talks all about Las Pegasus and how thousands of ponies were mysteriously teleported outside of the city by some kind benevolent benefactor just before the big explosion happened. But the real story is on the front page… or at least what passes for the real story, I think it’s a fluff piece.” 

Suddenly finding himself very, very awake, Bucky wondered just how Chrysalis had managed to teleport the ponies outside of the city… she must have become quite powerful in that incarnation of herself. He still hated her, but now felt a sense of grudging respect. She could have let the bystanders die. 

He opened the paper, saying nothing, and looked at the front page. There was a full colour photograph of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. In between them was a jet black foal with a soft pastel pink mane, wearing glasses that had bright green frames. The foal had kissed Luna on the cheek just as the picture was being taken, Luna looked both horrified and disgusted, cringing back and making a funny face of revulsion with her tongue sticking out for all of the world to see. 

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna encourage adoption to relieve overcrowded orphanages and orphanariums. The Royal Pony Sisters adopted a foal named ‘Tourmaline’ to live in the lap of luxury. They saved a cruelly abused sob story from a wretched life. You can do the same,” Bucky read in a low strained voice, unable to stop staring at the photo. Luna hated bugs, icky bugs, and didn’t particularly care for big bugs at all, much less changelings, and she had just been kissed by one. Celestia was openly smirking in the photo, and there was no doubt that the big white alicorn had put the foal up to no good with Luna. 

“Fluff pieces. For so long, the newspapers printed actual news. This was kinda disappointing,” Berry grumbled, failing to notice Bucky’s stunned expression. 
	
> Chapter 372
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sparkler looked at Flash Sentry and studied the stallion that was watching her. He was attentive, his eyes followed her every move, his ears perked at every sound around them, and he had a calm cool demeanour that Sparkler appreciated. 

“You wanted to speak with me?” Sparkler inquired, sitting down upon the grass, settling on her haunches and feeling grateful to take a load off. It had already been a long day and it was barely past noon. 

“Yes ma’am,” Flash Sentry replied in raspy voice. “What happened in the Crystal Empire has really hit me hard. It bothers me that I no longer serve and I wish to serve again, but I don’t want to be taken away from my home, my wives, or my young. I understand that you are the head of the Ponyville Police…” 

Her eyes narrowing, Sparkler leaned her head forward. “Who told you that?” she said in a mock serious voice. She gave her best glare to Flash Sentry while silently interrogating him with a stern face. 

Chuckling, Flash Sentry’s ears splayed out sideways and the stallion smiled. 

“Well, you passed the first test,” Sparkler announced, her expression becoming softer. She noted Flash Sentry’s confused face and his quick recovery, immediately figuring out what was going on and giving a little nod. “And I think you just passed the second test,” the purple pink filly stated, now smiling somewhat as the muscles in her neck quivered and spasmed. 

“You are not what I expected,” Flash Sentry said in a gravelly rugged voice. 

Pressing her lips into a straight line, Sparkler paused and gave thought to Flash Sentry’s words. One nostril flared and an eyelid fluttered, she couldn’t stop them, but she didn’t allow herself to be distracted by them. “Just what did you expect?” she asked. 

“You are very much like your father,” Flash Sentry answered, looking Sparkler in the eye and ignoring her Shiver-related facial tics. 

“Oh ho ho… now you attempt flattery,” Sparkler responded, one ear standing straight up while the other fell backwards. 

“No, never that, just an honest observation,” Flash stated, shaking his head softly. 

Sparkler felt a strong spasm wrack her body and she gritted her teeth, trying to ride it out. It was painful, everything clinched tightly, and it took several moments to pass. She could feel the muscles of her scalp jerking around spasmodically, which caused the muscles in her neck to pull tightly. Finally, the painful convulsions passed and Sparkler offered up a forced smile to let Flash Sentry know that everything was okay. “I need a daytime commander. I need a visible public figure out where the public needs them from sunrise to sunset. You don’t always have to be out patrolling, but you do need to be available. I need somepony that is willing to do this for insultingly low pay, because that is how it is. There are no days of the week off, at least not yet, maybe not ever, because the city is loathe to spend money on the new law enforcement budget, but there is an allocated salary for a daytime commander should a suitable one be found. The bad news is, the salary is the same as a beat officer, the good news is, there is camaraderie between all of us because we are all paid the same meaningless amount of coin and everything feels fair between the whole miserable lot of us.” 

“Where do I sign up?” Flash Sentry questioned, looking at Sparkler earnestly. 

“Welcome to the Watch, Day Commander Flash Sentry,” Sparkler responded. 

“Wonderful, I like the way this sucks already,” Flash said, smirking slightly. 

“Hey… I like you… I think this is going to work out well… I have your first orders… Bulk Biceps, Holly Dash, and Orange Swirl are helping Coco Pommel gather up toys, food, blankets, and other things for the needy, she’s organising a big event for Hearth’s Warming Eve, and this is an event that is going to make us look good. SO I WANT YOU THERE AND I WANTED YOU THERE FIVE MINUTES AGO YOU LAZY GIT!” Sparkler said, working herself into a commanding bellow. “TOWN SQUARE! MOVE!” 

Cringing, Flash Sentry quickly saluted reflexively, he knew a voice of commanding authority when he heard it, nodded his head, spread his wings, and then took off at a brisk pace for the town square, feeling absolutely terrified by his new boss. 

Feeling relieved, Sparkler took a deep breath and felt thankful that she only had to worry about the night shift. She sighed, still feeling stressed. From the beginning, she had been on duty all day and all night, always on call, waiting to be summoned for trouble, and there had been trouble. Hopefully, now she could rest during the day and let down her guard. She closed her eyes for a moment, took another deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. Already, and maybe it was her imagination, but her twitches didn’t feel quite as bad as they had been. 



 

Left alone to his own devices, Bucky looked up at the partially constructed glass golem in front of him. It was massive, but not too massive. It was scary, but he needed it to be scary for the photograph taken for the newspaper when the gunpowder initiative was introduced to the world. This was going to be a massive spell jar golem and he planned to fill it with fire. Since Twilight wasn’t around to help him, he had commanded Sunset Shimmer to help him, and the young mare was eagerly moving around the laboratory, watching as the golem slowly gained shape and working on her own contributions. 

Bucky, not wanting to waste anything, already had an idea of what to do with this golem and its twin once they were completed. After the newspaper photo, he planned to turn utilise them as trash incinerators. They were to be filled with Rising Star’s fey-fire for the sake of public spectacle, and Bucky figured it wouldn’t be difficult to give the golems a directive to eat garbage, litter, and other items of waste, which would then be burned. Any leftover ash could be ‘pooped’ out and then recycled as fertiliser or something Bucky figured. Waste not want not. He also planned to enchant the golems to command ponies not to litter, which was currently a big problem. Nothing quite like a massive hunchbacked golem bellowing at you to not litter to get your attention, Bucky reasoned. 

“Princess Celestia would have never let me construct massive melee capable golems,” Sunset Shimmer murmured as she worked, carefully crafting an arm out of glass to match the one that Bucky had already created. The unicorn seemed giddy, she was truly enjoying her work, she was sweating with effort and there was a manic gleam in her eyes. “It feels nice to be trusted.” 

“Minion, I trust you with my foals. A golem is of no real consequence,” Bucky said in a soft voice as he wove enchantments into the massive glass torso. 

“Dinky is an apt pupil. Piña… I am still unsure of what to do with Piña but I have been teaching her my focus tricks and careful concentration. She’s still a very young foal, she’s squirmy. Master, her training might have to wait until she matures a bit and calms down. She still wants to play and run about,” Sunset Shimmer said as she closed her eyes and let her magic flow freely. 

“Hmm, perhaps you are right, Minion,” Bucky responded, magic flowing from his horn like spider’s silk and weaving into the massive glass torso as he spoke. 

“Master, I have become very fond of Dinky, if I am allowed to say so,” Sunset Shimmer admitted, her tone guarded and careful. “I will not allow personal feelings to get in the way of my duties.” 

“Minion… I want you fond of my foals, that is the point. I want you to have a close relationship with them,” Bucky said, his words patient and calm as he wove complex enchantments into glass. 

“Yes… Master… I do not understand but I will reflect upon your words,” Sunset Shimmer replied as she began to shape fingers and a thumb at the end of the arm she was shaping, carefully coaxing the shape of a hand out of the glass. 

Sighing, Bucky glanced at his pupil, realising that he still had so much to teach her. “Celestia was the one who tried to teach you to remain emotionally distant, am I correct?” 

“Yes Master… it was all about perfect control,” Sunset Shimmer answered. 

“And she went in the opposite direction with Twilight Sparkle, sending her out to find friends and become emotionally involved… hmm… fascinating. If you think about it, you can clearly see that Celestia was trying to teach you her own personal approach to rulership and governance,” Bucky said, offering up a helpful bit of wisdom. 

“I do not understand, Master,” Sunset returned, shaking her head as she laboured. 

“Princess Celestia had to remain impartial. She had to focus on long term goals and strategies. She had to plan for a future where her sister eventually returned, and she had to keep the country held together just enough for it to survive until Luna’s return. Celestia had other responsibilities, I can’t go into those, so she had to let go of a number of things and allow things to happen. Even bad things. Sacrifices made for the greater good. Princess Celestia had to keep everything held together and running all by herself at such a great cost. She had to secure herself away in a prison just as she had done to her sister. She had to remain “hooves off” and look disinterested so that the world would grow to trust her again, accept her wisdom, her years of experience, and place faith back in her as a ruler. And now, Luna is back. Celestia has some trust again. She’s reaching out and trying the “hooves on” approach, but she is making mistakes and creating quite a few blunders. Personally, and this is my opinion, Celestia is using Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports as a blueprint for her own rehabilitation and reintegration back into society… I might be wrong, I could be wrong, but I just have a hunch. You… you caught her during a transitional moment. She knew that Luna would be returning soon. She was preparing. She was planning. She was probably panicked and scared out of her mind. The idea of opening her own cage door probably terrified her. She expected things of you, demanded things of you, and well, you know what happened because of all of that,” Bucky said, trying to explain everything that was in his head. 

Stunned, Sunset Shimmer could not reply, and could only just barely continue her work upon the golem arm. Her mouth hung open and she gaped at Bucky, her eyes blinking rapidly. 

“Being her friends, being the ponies that truly love her and know her, we’ve gotta walk her through these rough patches. She’s had a thousand years to get set in her ways, so she has a lot of behaviours to unlearn, just like I had a lot of behaviours to unlearn. So did Twilight Sparkle. It was her friends who sorted Twilight Sparkle out… for me it was my wives. For Celestia and Luna… I have a nagging suspicion that their support network is going to be all of us… those who were sorted out by our friends and our wives, and it is now our duty to see Celestia and Luna through this period of transition, where they are going to stumble, make mistakes, do stupid stuff, and learn how to connect with ponies again on a personal level, rather than on some distant, non involved, no emotional connection while you remain in prison level,” Bucky continued, pausing in his work and examining his spell weaving. 

“Master… I’m stunned, I do not know how to respond,” Sunset Shimmer murmured. 

“Twilight Sparkle and I were elevated to our positions to take some of the pressures of rule off of Celestia and Luna so they could let their manes down, spend time with one another, have a bit of a break now and then, and learn how to be ponies once more rather than statues that occasionally speak or give a decree. Think about it. Twilight is the Princess of Friendship. For all of her faults, she’s written an amazing body of work about interpersonal relationships and the importance of friendship. She has a wealth of experience in how to deal with almost anything and everything that friends can encounter. Right now, Celestia is probably reading those friendship reports and trying to sort out where she goes wrong when dealing with Luna, Twilight, Cadance, me, and even you. She’s trying to figure out how to deal with us, how to connect with us, how to cope with our willful natures, our quirks, and the fact that we do not always go along with her plans or what she thinks is right, just like how Twilight was occasionally humbled by her friends and shown to be wrong,” Bucky explained, the words pouring out of his mouth easily, he felt he was in fine form today, and he had given all of this a lot of thought. 

“Master… I will reflect upon your words. I see wisdom in what you have said. I will also strive to be a better student, one worthy of your instruction. Thank you Master, for sharing your thoughts and your opinions with me. I value your insight,” Sunset Shimmer said, staring with wide eyed awe at Bucky. 

“These are just opinions and hunches. Doesn’t mean I’m right,” Bucky said, returning to his task. “I make mistakes just like any other pony. Mine usually explode violently though.” 
	
	
> Chapter 373
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I hope that Surprise contacts me back soon,” Derpy sighed as she stared around the kitchen, looking at various splatters of foal food on the walls. She had lost this battle, and the one earlier, but there was always dinner… or tomorrow. 

“Is that strained carrot?” Berry Punch asked as she made a silly face at Harper, who was still stuck in her high chair. She stuck her tongue and waggled her ears at the foal, then, with a slurp, she sucked her tongue in and looked at Derpy. “Surprise?” 

“We have all these griffons… they need a flight license,” Derpy huffed, sounding impatient and frustrated. She looked at Harper and heaved another sigh. 

“Mama bad,” Harper announced. “Burpy no. Want teat.” 

“Are all foals this rotten when you wean them?” Berry asked, looking vaguely concerned. She and Derpy were carrying twins, and her concern was well founded. 

“The little stinker zapped me,” Derpy grumbled. “Bucky is actually training her to zap ponies… I don’t know what to do… but she knows she is only supposed to zap if she is threatened. Or so Bucky and Lyra says. I don’t know. It stings. I don’t think she’s actually trying to hurt me, she just wants to be teat fed.” 

“Just wait till I tell your mama about what you’ve done!” Berry said in a scolding tone to Harper. 

“What mama?” Harper asked, her eyes narrowing. 

“Mama mama,” Berry Punch replied melodramatically. 

“NO!” Harper shouted, kicking around in her high chair and banging her front hooves on the tray. She threw back her head and began to wail while still thrashing about. 

“She has an amazing pair of lungs, doesn’t she?” Berry remarked as she rolled her eyes and then glanced at Derpy. 

“When I tell mama mama what you’ve done you’ll-” 

“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Harper screamed, cutting off Derpy, her eyes wide with fear. 

“-be sorry,” Derpy finished. 

“Dinky was never this much trouble,” Berry commented, her ears pinned back against her head as she spoke. She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Or maybe she was and I just don’t want to remember… which is bad.” 

“Dinky had her moments but she was a good foal. Harper is a good foal. She’s just having a tough time. Every time she eats she has tummy troubles and somepony has to rub the farts out,” Derpy said in a voice of motherly stoic resignation. 

“The other night, Bucky held Harper, rubbed her, pointed her backside to my ear, and squeezed her. The blast was almost deafening. I still want to get him back,” Berry said as she looked at Derpy. 

Shaking her head, Derpy laughed. “Bucky is a bad pony.” 



 

Crawling through a large pipe, Spanner wiggled along in the damp and the dark, holding a magical light orb in front of him in his talons, looking for holes in the pipe, trying to determine the possible cause for a loss of pressure. 

“Nobirdy knows… the troubles I’ve seen… Nobirdy knows my sorrows…” he sang to himself as he crawled along, his sharp eyes looking for the source of the problem. 

Spanner had the most amazing body for fitting into tight spaces, he could basically crawl into anything he could fit his head into and wiggle along in a seemingly boneless fashion. Spanner liked being squeezed… and he liked it even more when it was Lugnut that was squeezing him. 

Life had almost become like some fairy tale in some book. He had a mate, he had young, he had a good job, and a kind king. Spanner had everything he wanted, everything except for one little thing. The source of the cursed leak in the system. 



 

Lugnut watched as Spanner’s head popped out of the pipe, rotated around backwards, and then looked at him. Lugnut’s crest raised in a hopeful gesture, one eye going wide in an expectantly pleased fashion. 

“Nothing!” Spanner shouted, looking at his mate. 

Squawking, Lugnut watched as Spanner squirted out of the end of the pipe and worked himself free. The smaller griffon was greasy and black, covered in filth, and quite irritated looking. 

“We found it!” a griffoness breathlessly reported as she dropped down the series of pipes she was climbing and into the small maintenance access cubby. “One of those silly ponies didn’t put any pipe sealant on the end cap when they screwed it on.” 

Lugnut smacked himself in the beak with his talons and let out an angry peep, his wings flapping in irritation. He looked at his mate and then at the griffoness, feeling annoyed and a bit angry. 

“To be fair, unskilled labourers were laying these pipes and doing this work. They don’t know what they are doing,” the griffoness said patiently. 

“Radiators explode if not properly maintained,” Spanner hissed. 

“That’s why we’re here. We can fix what they’ve screwed up,” the griffoness said sweetly. “They didn’t know. But we do. We’re making everything right and there will be no explosions. Our king will be angry if something explodes and a foal is harmed.” 

“Foals must never be brought to harm. Our king’s first law,” Lugnut said as he scratched his belly. “Come on Spanner. Let’s get you cleaned up.” 



 

Filthy Rich looked at himself in the mirror, thinking about everything that had brought him to this point in life. His beliefs were shaken, quite a few of the old ones had been destroyed, his previous wealth was gone, but he was recovering, able to make a new fortune on his own, and to top everything off, he was getting grey hair. 

He needed to fix his life and get a few things sorted out. Gala Appleby was still upset with him. She had been kind, she had led him along, but she had made it clear that she wasn’t interested in a physical relationship. 

Until he had his lunch with Ivory Scroll, the mayor, who had certainly wanted a physical relationship. That had certainly changed everything. All it took was one mare to bed him and  the game changed. 

Gala Appleby had changed her mind, saying that she had always been interested in a relationship with him, but now she was hurt and rather upset about his actions. Filthy Rich was forced to wonder if Gala really wanted him. Previous to his dealings with the mayor, she had kept herself just out of reach, leading him along. 

Now there were accusations of him ruining everything, and Filthy Rich wasn’t certain he would ever understand mares. He couldn’t understand why Gala Appleby had not simply made her intentions known from the beginning rather than string him along. 

Filthy Rich smoothed back his hair and steeled his nerves. He was about to have lunch with the both of them to try and sort things out. He sighed, wishing he could keep them both, and gave his reflection a saucy wink. 



 

Cadance was so glad to see her sister in law, and the cotton candy pink alicorn flashed a coy smile. “How is married life Twilight?” she asked as she studied Twilight. Her sister in law was larger now, tall, as tall as Cadance and Luna, and Cadance could not help but feel a stirring of pride. 

“I’m really happy,” Twilight answered in an exhausted voice. 

“Shining Armor and I really hoped that things would work out between you and Flash Sentry. Having your best friend join you was quite a shock and a surprise to the both of us,” Cadance said, her joy spilling out as she spoke. Her eyes twinkled merrily and the corners of her mouth were pulled back into a broad smile. 

“Was quite a shock to me too… my friends and Bucky, they all had this planned,” Twilight said as she sank down into a chair and rested her head against the overstuffed arm. 

“The best sorts of friends will all work to look after your better interests,” Cadance said in a soft voice, worried for Twilight’s weariness. “Buckminster, for all of his faults, he loves you Twilight. You would be wise to let him protect you.” 

“I know Cadance,” Twilight remarked. She yawned, exposing her perfect square teeth, and then she blinked her heavy eyes a few times. “Bucky is my dear friend. He brought Sunset Shimmer back through the mirror and we get to see one another. He’s saved my life and the lives of those I love. I doubt I will ever be able to repay him.” 

“Forgiving him for blowing up Las Pegasus would be a good start,” Cadance said, giggling. 

“WHAT?” Twilight demanded, her eyes flying open wide. 

“You haven’t seen it yet because of your investigations and what not, but Buckminster blew up about a quarter of Las Pegasus and was probably the one who mysteriously teleported away thousands of innocents before the city was rocked by the blast,” Cadance said demurely. “There is a full write up in the paper. Auntie Sunshine sent a message that Buckminster also brought her back a very thoughtful gift, a souvenir from Las Pegasus. And there is the matter of Glass Slipper.”

“The foal that was taken?” Twilight replied, still wide eyed and befuddled about how Bucky had blown up Las Pegasus and teleported away thousands. It didn’t make sense. 

“Auntie Moon Drops and Auntie Sunshine have Glass Slipper now. They’ve told her the heart breaking news. They do not want to send her back here, to the Crystal Empire, and I agree. Glass Slipper is safer in their shadow. Our aunties want Glass Slipper to stay with you, you could keep her safe, give her a good home, and being a focuser, she would help you in your magical endeavours,” Cadance explained, her eyes flashing a sad look for a moment. 

“Another foal? Celestia wants me to look after it? We’ve just taken in Scootaloo… I just got married. I don’t know what I’m doing… things aren’t perfect Cadance,” Twilight whimpered, looking afraid. 

“If you run into trouble, turn to Buckminster. He’s your family too. He’s good with foals,” Cadance said in a soothing voice. 

“He is… I get jealous Cadance. I see him with Harper or Peekaboo or anything really, and he just knows what he’s doing. I tried to hold Harper and she wouldn’t stop squirming, fussing, or crying… she had gas and I didn’t know it,” Twilight grumbled, her exhaustion settling in again and making her ears droop. 

“Foals gotta fart Twilight,” Cadance said, failing to hold back a faint titter after she spoke. She looked serenely at the sleepy alicorn she called her half sister. “Shining Armor is looking forward to being a father. I’m having twins Twilight… my spell backfired and I’m going to experience what Berry Punch and Derpy are going to go through.” 

“Twins? That’s wonderful,” Twilight responded. Unable to stop herself, she yawned. 

“Shiny is so happy. We’re so happy. The Crystal Empire is so happy… Everything is so perfect Twilight… even with the trouble, even with the disturbances, everything just feels so right,” Cadance said, her voice falling into a silky whisper. 

“Cadance?” Twilight asked in a low voice. 

“Yes Twilight?” Cadance replied. 

“I had a threesome. I kinda want to brag about it,” Twilight Sparkle stated. 

Cadance stared at her sister in law, feeling overjoyed. She watched as Twilight Sparkle yawned and unable to help herself, she found herself trying to visualise how Twilight might act in the middle of a threesome. All she could mentally conjure up was a very befuddled Twilight Sparkle with a checklist and a book explaining how things were done, politely asking somepony to stop licking her so she could read her study notes and make sure everything was going correctly and followed the plan. 

Unable to help herself, Cadance began to giggle. 

“I’m going to sleep now,” Twilight announced. 

“But there is a bed,” Cadance protested. 

“Chair is nice. Chair works. Too tired for bed. Sleep now. Twilight Sparkle is a sleepy pony,” Twilight said in a soft foalish voice, her eyes closing. 

Cadance waited for Twilight to fall asleep, and once her sister in law was slumbering peacefully, Cadance intended to carry her to bed. She sighed, smiled, and reveled in the feeling of carrying life in her belly. 
	
> Chapter 374
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Shivering, feeling a delicious sensation of fear, Sunset Shimmer looked up at the monstrous golem hunched over in the center of the lab. It was terrifying. During her many years as a student, Princess Celestia had never allowed her to work on anything remotely threatening, and as the Winter Warlock’s apprentice, here she was working on giant death dealing automatons that were going to be used as walking trash receptacles. Life had a funny way of being turned about. 

“Master, I think I can now appreciate your love of glass as a medium. Most wizards use steel, dirt, stone, or clay, but glass is readily available, has a certain stylish appeal, and you are correct, Master, it absorbs magic most readily,” Sunset Shimmer said as she bowed her head to her Master. 

“Your work is beautiful, Minion,” Bucky praised. 

“Master, you flatter me,” Sunset replied as she beamed and felt a blush coming over her features. “This… this is all I wanted in life. Power. The study of advanced magics. And now that I am doing it, I am unbelievably happy. Thank you, Master.”

“Think nothing of it, Minion. I’m heading back to the house. I need food. Are you coming with me?” Bucky said, his last words a question. He turned and looked at his apprentice with a curious stare. 

“Actually, Master, I think I will head into Ponyville. Bon Bon and Lyra are at the chocolate shop, I think I will go find out how to make candies,” Sunset Shimmer answered, giving Bucky a gaze of adoration. 

“Go. Go have fun. You’ve earned it. Take Bartleby with you, wherever he is. He’s the right sort of griffon to have the public get used to,” Bucky instructed. 

“Yes Master, of course,” Sunset replied, bowing her head once again. 

Watching Sunset Shimmer gather up her research notes and golem diagrams, Bucky sighed. He sat down, feeling weary, his head aching. He needed coffee… or a cup of tea. Food would be nice as well. He watched the impossibly happy unicorn go flying out the laboratory, her hooves scrabbling over the stone stairs as she returned to her quarters with her papers and effects. 

“Minion… I wonder what sort of headmistress you will be,” Bucky quietly mused. 



 

Feeling unusually thoughtful, Diamond Tiara settled into the soft grass and took a load off. School was done for the day and various small herds of foals were heading off in different directions. Dinky, Piña, Sentinel, and Ripple were all around her, talking with other foals, like the crusaders. 

She thought of her meeting with Moonbow and the day spent with her and Sentinel. She had figured out what had made them different. Purpose. It all came down to purpose. They both had a sense of purpose and sacrificed everything else in their lives for that sense of purpose. Diamond Tiara struggled to think a very complex thought for a foal her age, but her time spent in psychotherapy gave her the sort of edge she needed. Destiny, fate, purpose, she wondered which of these things she actually had a say in, and by her reasoning, she figured it had to be purpose.

Moonbow thought of nothing but becoming a Myrmidon and a mother. Sentinel was bound by duty and was driven to become a knight. Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure what she wanted to be. All she had was her cutie mark, which was a tiara. She didn’t know what sort of future that granted her. She didn’t know what direction she was going, but she was determined to make a direction for herself now. Sentinel and Moonbow were happy because they had direction. They were devoted to some ideal, they had given themselves to some cause, and Diamond Tiara struggled through some very grown up thoughts as she realised that she wanted the same. 

“Diamond Tiara, you coming with us?” Piña Colada asked in an excited voice. “We’re going to mama Bon Bon’s shop to pig out on candy.” 

“I have to see my therapist,” Diamond Tiara answered, not at all ashamed of her words this time. “I need some time to get my head together before I go.” She lifted her head and watched as Sentinel took a few steps towards her and looked at her expectantly. 

“I understand how that is,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “The need to gather one’s thoughts. Be well Diamond Tiara.” 

“Thanks,” Diamond Tiara replied, feeling a hot blush flood through her cheeks as she looked at Sentinel. There was suddenly a lot she wanted to say to Sentinel. To tell him. To confess. That she liked him. That he was her role model. That she wanted to be a better pony because of him. That she kind of wanted to kiss him on the cheek right now for thinking of her. That maybe, just maybe, she also wanted a hug to go with that kiss on the cheek. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to tell Sentinel everything that was suddenly whirling though her mind. “Go have fun,” she said, disappointing herself, everything she wanted to say dying before it reached her tongue. 

“Aw, they’re so sweet when they look at one another,” Sweetie Belle said, almost swooning and leaning on Apple Bloom. 

“Does anypony really know what their purpose is?” Diamond Tiara blurted out, much to her own surprise. She sat there, looking dumbfounded, unable to believe her mouth had betrayed her so easily. 

“Well, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo said, sounding very much like Rainbow Dash as she spoke. “Every day we go looking for our purpose.” 

“No no no… Sentinel has a fish cutie mark. But is that his purpose?” Diamond Tiara questioned, looking confused and irritated. 

“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom said in an honest voice, now looking confused as well. 

“I have this stupid palm tree,” Piña Colada protested, her voice a shrill angry whine. 

“We know,” Dinky said, rolling her eyes. 

“What purpose is there to a palm tree?” Piña demanded, giving voice to her pet peeve, her eyes wide and flashing with barely contained emotion. 

“All of this thinking makes my head hurt,” Sweetie Belle complained, rubbing the side of her head with her hoof. “I don’t like it.” 

“I know my purpose. I know my function. My cutie mark reflects everything I am, everything I hope to be, and everything I believe in,” Ripple stated, looking around. “Sometimes, what you are meant to be meshes with your destiny and your purpose. Other times, you have something that defines you as a pony, but you are left to find your own purpose. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a donkey I need to see,” Ripple said as she spread her wings and took flight. 

“Ripple scares me sometimes,” Apple Bloom said, shaking her head. “My sister has told me some stories about her. Applejack says that Ripple is going to grow up to be the next Commander Hurricane.” 

“Spitfire is promising that mares will be able to serve in combat roles in the guard. She wants equality. Ripple is already an officer and she’s seen combat. The world is a confusing place,” Dinky said, sitting down in the grass and looking at her friends. 

“Ripple falls into a grey area. She became a dragoon on the Shetlands and is Lugus’ squire. Sparkler too as a Buck Sergeant. They have the rank and the capability,” Sentinel said, looking at his sister Dinky and then his friends. 

“Poor Rumble, he’s still grounded. I kinda want to see him,” Sweetie Belle said and heaving a sigh. 

“He got into another fight. Somebody said something about his sister, Cloudstreaker. Again. Then something just awful was said about his mothers, Flitter and Cloudchaser and how gross it was for two sisters to be married,” Apple Bloom said in a sad sounding breathy voice of irritation. 

“I keep wondering if Rumble is going to get a cutie mark like Ripple’s cutie mark… something for fighting,” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her voice cracking and shooting up an octave. 

“If he keeps this up, he might,” Apple Bloom said. 

“That would be awesome!” Scootaloo shouted, earning her an angry glare from Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “Well it would,” she said defiantly, and then she stuck her tongue out at her friends. “I want a fighting cutie mark. I could grow up and be a guard like Flash Sentry, especially if mares can finally serve.” 

“I need to go,” Diamond Tiara said, excusing herself and trotting off. 

“We’ll be here if you need us,” Sentinel said, watching her go and tempted to chase after her, his face full of foalish concern. 



 

Feeling very satisfied with herself, Coco Pommel sat back on her haunches and gave herself a hug. Each day the stockpile for Hearth’s Warming grew a little larger and the future felt a little bit better. Standing up, she closed the door to the storeroom and then looked out the window of Carousel Boutique. She felt happier than she had ever been and she could barely contain her own joy.

“Rarity?” she called out as she headed off for Rarity’s workroom. 

“Yes, what is it darling, I’m very busy, Sapphire Shores just contacted me about needing a new series of outfits for the big adoption benefit she is planning to celebrate the Royal Pony Sisters and their new foal,” Rarity replied, her voice sounding happy. 

Stepping through the door, Coco looked around Rarity’s workroom. It was her workroom as well now, her own sewing machine had been set up near the window, the sewing machine that Rarity had purchased as a gift, trying to make up for everything Coco had lost. The room was messy, things were strewn everywhere, and a roll of black velvet was currently out upon the table, Rarity was eyeing it and hoping for inspiration. Coco knew that look on Rarity’s face all too well. 

“Tourmaline is black… Sapphire Shores wants black outfits with pink highlights,” Rarity explained, not needing to look at Coco to know she was being watched. “She also wants you there to collect toys and gifts for the unfortunates… you’ve become the public face for seasonal giving!” 

“I’m flattered,” Coco said in a soft surprised voice. “Rarity, I know things are becoming busy, but we need to talk about us.” 

“What about us dear?” Rarity cooed, looking at Coco with a concerned expression, her eyebrow arched perfectly. 

“We’re going to keep making excuses because of how busy we are. I want to be married. I don’t want a big fuss or big party. I want a quiet meaningful ceremony like you talked about. We go to Buckminster and stand on the deck of his ship. And I want us to do it soon. No more excuses,” Coco Pommel said in soft voice that was thick with worry. “We can have a party and a big get together later if you would like, but I want it to be just us. And maybe your parents and Sweetie Belle.” 

Nodding, Rarity blinked a few times at Coco. “I agree. We’ve been putting this off. I’ll stop what I am doing and I will go see my parents this afternoon. I’ll speak with my mother and my father and we shall get together tomorrow or the next day and take care of this. It is important.” 

“I’ve spoken a little with Hondo and Cookie,” Coco said demurely. “While you were gone… we talked… they liked me but I could not help but feel they were disappointed. They wanted grandfoals… especially Cookie.” 

“My mother has foal fever. When I was still a teenager in my later years, my mother actually said to me that it wouldn’t be so terrible if I was a teenage filly mother, like those other teenage fillies in the newspaper,” Rarity said and then heaved a sigh. “Sweetie Belle was a most troublesome foal… nothing but trouble. She had to be surgically removed you see, there were complications… my mother could no longer have anymore foals… for a unicorn, she’s practically an earth pony, she wanted a large family,” Rarity explained, painfully aware that she was talking to an earth pony that she loved a great deal and she hoped that she was not insulting. 

“I want foals,” Coco said, nodding her head. “We need to tell your parents that I want foals. I know you want to keep your slender figure, but I want to have so many foals that it makes my plot go pudgy.” 

“Oh dear darling… the idea of you pregnant… why… I find that most appealing,” Rarity admitted, now fanning herself with a hoof. “Is it just me or is it dreadfully hot in here?” she asked, her eyes blinking rapidly. “Oh it is getting hotter in here. I feel as though I might start sweating. Somepony open a window, this is dreadful. I don’t like it. My nethers are on fire.” 

“We’ll need a donor,” Coco whispered, smiling at Rarity’s theatrics. “Or we’ll need to lure a male into our clutches and keep him in the storeroom. I’m certain we can lure one in by allowing him to watch us make out.” 

“Deviant,” Rarity sighed, rolling her eyes. “I will tell my mother the good news, that she will be a grandmother at some point in the near future.” 

“Thank you,” Coco said graciously. “I know that you as a unicorn have different priorities than I do as an earth pony… but I want… no, I need to start a family. It is all I can think about… and I want it to be with you.” 

Blushing, Rarity looked at Coco, batting her eyelashes at the earth pony, too flustered to respond. She continued to fan herself with her hoof and she smiled a warm smile of affection, feeling her heart swell with love. 

After her brush with death, Rarity was glad to be home and focusing on life. 
	
> Chapter 375
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In her room at the very top of Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie turned around to look at Cheese Sandwich. He was busy unpacking an absurd number of things out of an impossibly small bag and placing them into a chest of drawers. Pinkie smiled, glad to be home, almost feeling overwhelmed, and she felt a strange longing in her heart for Cheese Sandwich. 

“It was reeeeally awful Cheese Doodle… the land was sick. I could hear it crying. There was no laughter. Everything was so unhappy. Everything was cold and grey. There were no windows, no sunshine, no clean water, everything smelled and tasted like ashes, Fluttershy, she has a strong connection to the land too… she’s almost an earth pony, it was killing her. She has the connection, but not the strength like we do, she’s too fragile to feel certain things,” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes gleaming strangely as she spoke and her lips moving strangely out of synchronisation with her words. 

“You said something love?” Cheese Sandwich said as he turned around, a rubber chicken falling to the floor. “I’m sorry, I got distracted, all I could hear was the squeaking of these novelty shoes.” 

Shaking her head, Pinkie Pie blinked a few times. “Was I saying something?” 

“I think so,” Cheese Sandwich replied, waggling his ears and smiling. 

“Oh, I remember!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pronking up and down in place. “We need to teach Mister Grumpy Pants about laughter. He’s full of sadness and his laughter is broken.” 

Pressing his lips together, Cheese Sandwich hummed for a moment, looking concerned. “Mister Grumpy Pants?” 

“I’ll introduce you to him later. We need to make him laugh. The right way. I’m thinking we might have to fight dirty. Maybe even resort to pranks,” Pinkie Pie announced, looking very silly-serious. 

“If you think that’s wise,” Cheese said, hoofing a rubber chicken off of the floor. 



 

Laying on a small sofa, Diamond Tiara stared up at the ceiling, fidgeting, and rubbing her front hooves together. One ear drooped, the other was straight out, and she blinked several times as she tried to will the words to come out. 

“Having some trouble?” 

“Doctor Derby, you know how you talk about things like trust issues? I’m having one of those right now, I don’t know how to talk about it,” Diamond Tiara admitted. 

“You know you can say anything,” Doctor Derby stated in a gentle voice. 

“But this trust issue is about you… your son Steeplechase. I’ve been having nightmares about him telling everypony about what’s wrong with me,” Diamond Tiara said in a pained squeak. 

The doctor let out a low sigh and rubbed his face. “I have apologised for his actions and tried to offer assurances. He has been corrected on this matter. I do not know what else to say or do on this issue.” 

“Still hurts, I’m still afraid, and it stresses me out. And when I get stressed out, I fall back on bad behaviours because they are still too deeply ingrained in me and I act on reflex. I still haven’t quite figured out how to break this behaviour just yet,” Diamond Tiara confessed, looking angry. “Your son’s carelessness and cruelty has set me back and caused me some pretty severe issues. I am a product of my conditioning and what my environment has made me to be. Your son is causing me to relapse.” 

“You’ve certainly been paying attention to the things I say during our sessions,” Doctor Derby acknowledged, his eyes glancing at the clock. “Your vocabulary has increased. Am I to believe that you have an understanding of the words you are saying or are you trying to impress me so I will become harsher in the dealings with my colt?” 

“I don’t know, for once, I was actually just trying to say how I felt and there were no other motivations that I’m aware of. I’ve been having trouble just getting the words out. You noticed that trouble yourself just a few moments ago,” Diamond Tiara responded, turning her head to look at her doctor. “This isn’t manipulation if that is what you are driving at. This issue has divided us. Right now, I am speaking of an actual problem, in this instance, your son, and I can hear the anger in your voice. You’re seeing this as a personal attack.” 

The doctor let out another frustrated sigh, his breath heaving as his nostrils flared wide. “I think it would be wise if we cut our session short today. In fact, I think it would be wise if we discontinued our sessions completely. My professionalism has been breached, I am no longer able to help you,” Doctor Derby announced, shaking his head. 

Feeling numb all over, feeling betrayed, feeling heartbroken and confused, Diamond Tiara glared at the pony that was formerly her doctor, stunned and in shock. Her mouth moved and no words came out. 

“I will speak to your father. I will refund the cost of today’s session. Good afternoon,” Doctor Derby said, looking away from Diamond Tiara to stare at the wall instead. 

Her movements jerky, Diamond Tiara slipped off the couch, blinking back tears, and then slowly headed for the door, nearly stumbling over her own hooves. Her numbness retreated just enough to allow her cheeks and her ears to burn, a painful stinging sensation, and her stomach coiled into knots. For a moment, she thought she might throw up on the floor, she heaved, her breath catching in her throat. 

Crushed, feeling broken, Diamond Tiara pushed her way out of the door, thinking of only one other place where she felt safe, and with tears now streaming down her cheeks, she decided to head to the one place where she could find refuge. 



 

Staring down at his plate, Bucky sniffed and then looked at Belisama, who was watching him expectantly. She looked strangely hopeful, her crest was half risen, her neck feathers were fluffed out, and her eyes were wide and gleaming. Her talons gripped the edge of the wooden table. 

“Semillon helped me, she was very kind. It was hard to hover over the stove and she didn’t want me getting burnt,” Belisama said in a nervous voice. “Puff puffs. Made from mealworm flour. Served in onion gravy. Semillon suggested the bed of rice.” 

Bucky looked down at the bug bites and thought about changelings. He forced the thoughts from his mind, his ears twitching as he did so, and then he looked over at Belisama. “I must say, it certainly looks good,” he stated. 

“All they are is little balls of fried dough, fried crispy and crunchy. A little egg, a little cornmeal flour, some mealworm flour, seasonings, and Semillon fried it in peanut oil. We usually fry ours in lard,” Belisama said, the little griffoness was animated and excited. 

Shrugging, Bucky figured he had done worse things, like crawl through a sewer or jump off of an airship a mile up in the air. Not bothering with a spoon, he stuck his head down and wolfed down a few puff puffs, slurping them up with some gravy. 

And found he could not stop. The bug balls were delicious. He scarfed and gobbled, licking his plate, and in moments everything was gone. Using his telekinesis, he added more rice, more puff puffs, and then dribbled more gravy over everything. He stopped just long enough to sniff, his now powerful nose committing everything about this meal to memory, and then he wrecked his second plate. He lifted his head and licked his chops, still not feeling satisfied. 

Feeling immensely pleased with herself, Belisama found herself wishing she had lips to smile with. She watched as Bucky tore into the third plate and actually felt a swell of pride as he wiped out the rest of what was fixed for him, a late afternoon meal he so desperately needed after his long hours of magical labour. 

“You have gravy on your ear,” Belisama said helpfully. 

Grunting in reply, Bucky licked away the last few grains of rice on his plate, belched ferociously, licked his chops once more, and then he stared at Belisama, his eye still had a hungry look. He licked his fangs, skillfully removing a grain of rice from between his teeth, never once taking his eye off the griffoness. 

Using his magic, he snatched Belisama from her chair and hauled her close, taking her into his embrace. She squirmed, wiggled, he could feel her heart racing, and Bucky squeezed her gently. “Why do you still fear me?” he asked. 

“Master, I cannot help it,” Belisama whispered. “You caught me off guard.” 

Ignoring what she had said, Bucky gave the griffoness a gentle squeeze and tried to comfort her as he leaned back in his wooden chair away from the table. He felt her go still, her body going limp, and he steeled his nerves to deal with her reaction. 

“I’m a bad mate, you have been so patient with me and I’ve done nothing to reward you for your kindness,” Belisama said in a pained voice, her beak not moving as she spoke. 

“You have,” Bucky gently argued, running his right fetlock along her spine. 

“I’m not stupid, I know what you want,” Belisama peeped. 

“That will come in time,” Bucky said in a soothingly soft voice. 

“No griffon would ever be this patient,” Belisama murmured. 

“Lugus would,” Bucky stated with the utmost confidence. 

Falling silent, Belisama did not reply. She allowed herself to snuggle close to Bucky, the side of her face resting against his neck. There were grains of fine sand in his pelt, small white grains of sand which were almost always there. She closed her eyes, she took a deep breath, her talons clenching onto his mane as she did so, and she breathed deeply of his scent. 

“Thank you for dinner,” Bucky whispered, content to simply hold the griffoness. 

“You need so much food when you work,” Belisama responded, trying to make conversation while remaining calm. “You will probably eat when we eat later.”

“Most likely,” Bucky agreed, his ears splaying out sideways. He threw back his head and snorted, sending a kernel of rice shooting across the kitchen. Had any part of his old self remained, it would be screaming endlessly about such uncouth behaviour. 

“You two are adorable,” Semillon said as she sashayed into the kitchen, pausing mid step to look at Bucky and Belisama at the table. “No leftovers. That’s always a good sign. I must say, I found the puff puffs rather enjoyable myself.” 

“You ate one?” Bucky asked, turning to look at the cook. 

“I ate several and I plan to eat more later when I get the chance. They have a good texture, have lots of complex proteins, and they taste delicious. Speaking as a mare who has cooked all of my life, I love discovering new things to cook with,” Semillon responded as she began to clean the dishes off of the table. 

“Belisama, begin a dedicated effort to start a bug farm. We have all of this land, any resources you need will be placed at your disposal, and I’m thinking this will be a good thing for ponies too if we can get them to eat bugs. I know that Princess Luna would probably feed her guard and her Myrmidons bugs if given the chance,” Bucky said, looking thoughtful. 

“Bon Bon was interested in producing chocolate covered crickets,” Belisama said, sounding thrilled. Her crest rose, fell slightly, and then stuck straight up. 

“For the griffons?” Bucky asked. 

“For herself. She loves to eat them. Lyra too,” Belisama replied as she cuddled against Bucky’s shaggy pelt and enjoyed the feeling of being close. 

“Hmm, I’ll leave these details to you. But grow mealworms and crickets… and anything else you think is necessary. Spare nothing, food is in short supply for lots of ponies and if we can get them to eat bugs, I see nothing but good things coming from it,” Bucky stated, enjoying the feeling of the supple feline body moving against him. 

“The chocolate covered crickets were fabulous,” Semillon said as she vanished into the pantry. “Butterscotch or banana creme?” 

“Pudding?” Bucky inquired. 

“Yes,” Semillon answered, her voice expectant. “There is plenty of fresh milk to make pudding and I want to use it up so it doesn’t spoil. It is far too precious.” 

“Butterscotch,” Bucky said after a moment of thought. “What are you fixing?” 

“I was going to make pasties for dinner. Vegetable and meat filled. Thistle kindly provided with me with one of the bigger fishes she’s been farming. Also going to make Fancy onion soup with cheese and croutons. It will be done in a few hours, sir,” Semillon replied as she rummaged around inside of the pantry. 

“I want wine with my onion soup. Something old and red, strong, please make sure it is chilled,” Bucky requested, his eye lingering on the pantry door. 

“Very well sir, we have a large selection of wines from the… stockpiled supplies you brought home after your trip overseas,” Semillon answered, pausing for a moment as there was a muffled thud. “I will find something suitable to go with Fancy onion soup.” 

“Is everything okay?” Bucky questioned, worried for his cook. Good help was hard to find and he heard something in her voice that concerned him after the muffled thump. 

“Everything is fine sir. One of your sweet lovable little offspring left a rather realistic rubber spider under the stack of mixing bowls. It gave me a scare, sir,” Semillon replied, her composure now recovered. 

Saying nothing, Bucky bit his lip. It hadn’t been his foals that had left the rubber spider in the pantry. His barrel heaved with barely repressed laughter and he hugged Belisama just a little bit tighter. 
	
	
> Chapter 376
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Heat and pressure… same thing you use to make a diamond, which you’ll be able to do if you pay attention to your lessons,” Scorch said, carefully explaining how to make the best possible steel for armor. 

“I’m trying,” Rising Star said, watching as Scorch crushed the armor plate he had been constructing in his fist. He stared at the currently bipedal fire elemental. 

“You’re doing a good job too… but you can do better, Celestia has really high standards… I know because I’m the one who taught her what to look for,” Scorch said, tossing the crumpled up ball of steel into a bin of scrapped metal. The big fire elemental paused, looked around the forge, shifted into his earth pony form, and then stared at the door. “I hear a foal crying. I don’t like it. Go investigate,” he commanded. 

Nodding, Rising Star trotted out the door and then made his way around outside, listening for the sounds of a troubled foal. It didn’t take him long for his ears to pick up on the sound of sobbing. He picked up his pace, his long legs allowing him to move swiftly, and as he came around the school building, he saw a pink foal. 

At first, he thought it was his sister Piña Colada, which made him panic. 

After a moment, he realised it was Diamond Tiara. He paused for a moment, unsure of what to do, and then he resumed his brisk trot towards her, his head held low. Foals got nervous when you had your head up too high, or so Bucky had said, and Bucky somehow knew about foals. 

“Diamond, you pretty little pink thing, what’s wrong?” Rising Star asked, his head low and his voice gentle, trying to think of everything Bucky had taught him. He even stuck his lip out, trying to make himself look sad. He saw Diamond Tiara look at him, which was different than looking up at him, and her eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears. Her nose was snotty and crusty stuff had formed in the corners of her eyes. 

Diamond Tiara’s only reply was a bray of pain, a wordless sound of misery and suffering. She froze, standing there, looking impossibly sad, her ears drooping down beside her face. 

“Come on,” Rising Star said, lifting the smaller foal in his magic and tossing her on his back, an action that was far more gentle than it looked. He trotted towards the house, knowing there was only one pony that could fix this sort of misery. 



 

Leaning back on the sofa, Derpy clutched Diamond Tiara to her barrel, trying to calm the wailing foal in her arms, all of her efforts accomplished absolutely nothing. Bucky sat in a chair nearby, his eye attentive and worried, and Berry Punch sat beside Derpy, a pained expression upon her face. 

“Yew,” Derpy called out. “Go… find Mister Rich and let him know Diamond Tiara is here and that there is something wrong.” 

“Can do,” Yew replied from the kitchen where she was getting cooking lessons from Semillon. The pegasus mare trotted out of the kitchen, opened the front door, stepped out on the porch, and then she was gone, streaking off towards Ponyville. 

“Did somepony hurt you?” Derpy cooed, her voice soft, her lips inches away from Diamond Tiara’s ear. “Did somepony touch you?” she asked in a low whisper, and when she did she heard a terrifying rumbling growl from Bucky. All Derpy received in reply was Diamond Tiara giving her head a faint shake. 

Berry Punch watched her husband’s new talons flexing, the claws interlocking into a fist, the metal clicking together as the talons closed. She turned her gaze towards Derpy and Diamond Tiara, feeling helpless. “Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña are all with Bon Bon and Lyra,” Berry Punch said in a low soft voice, wishing she could do something to somehow fix this situation. 

Derpy gave the crying foal a squeeze and she felt Diamond Tiara’s face being buried into her neck. It was hard to believe that at one point, this foal had been Dinky and Piña’s nemesis, the chief source of torment in their lives. And now, this foal was weeping her eyes out, held in Derpy’s motherly embrace. 



 

Lugus, sitting on his haunches, looking rather majestic in his pose, looked down upon the smaller griffons who were known as Ripple’s Raptors. Lugus would never say it out loud, at least not at this point, but the little chuckleheads had promise. There was actual potential here to have a working combat unit. Loki was crazily dangerous and would need to be held back, but insanity was an asset on the battlefield, Lugus knew this from his time spent with Bucky. 

“How many of you know how to use a sling?” Lugus asked. He watched and saw five talons being raised up in the air. Grinding his beak in frustration, Lugus realised he had his work cut out for him. “A sling is going to be your primary ranged weapon for covert missions where you need to slip in and out of a location. A sling is small, compact, and can be stored in a secured pouch that is tight against the body.” 

“I’ve used a sling… I’m a damn good shot,” Loki bragged, looking proud. 

“I’m sure you are,” Lugus remarked, looking at Loki. 

“What about open engagements?” Gofannon inquired. “I’ve been reading that book that Ripple wanted us to study. I’m not sure how it applies to us though, unless the regimental weapons get scaled down for our size.” 

“For open engagements, each of you will be issued a lever action crossbow, blueprints have been secured for a three pull model, a fairly standard field tested model favoured by both the minotaurs and diamond dogs. It will be scaled down a bit for your smaller size,” Lugus explained, studying each and every one of the Raptors. 

“I’ve seen those. Faster than a winch model. Three good yanks on the side mounted lever cocks the crossbow for standard fire, six pulls will give you more penetration and range,” Angus said, his eyes brightening as he become highly animated. “I admired the woodworking on the one I saw… it was beautiful.” 

“You will also be issued hook-swords for open engagements, a fairly standard issue griffon weapon, none of you are really strong enough to use a hook-axe. For covert operations, hook-daggers will be issued and a variety of devious weaponry,” Lugus announced, glad to see he had everybirdy’s attention. 

“Are we actually going to be taken seriously?” Callum asked, looking rather small and unsure of himself as he spoke. “I’ve seen those Myrmidons. They’re huge. The solar guard pegasi are all skilled warriors and have size on their side.”

“If you want to be taken seriously, then you must earn respect. Your size is a powerful asset as well. You will be trained and your skills will earn you the respect you deserve. Once you have shown promise, your king has promised a full compliment of magical weaponry. Magical sling ammunition. Magical crossbow bolts. You will be given full access to unbelievably destructive firepower, but only after you’ve earned it,” Lugus said in a loud clear voice. 

The big griffon stood, stretched his spine, spread his wings out to get the kinks worked free, flapped a few times to get airborne, hovered, and let a long sling dangle down. He placed a small smooth stone into the cup of the sling, hefted it a few times, and then with practiced ease, he began to spin the sling around over his head as he hovered. He released the stone and a second later it smashed into a rotten tree about fifty yards away, causing a shower of splintered wood where it impacted. 

Several of the smaller griffons whistled, a few peeped, and one squawked. 

“Begin,” Lugus commanded. “Be careful and one at a time. I will teach you the basics. You will listen and you will learn.” 



 

Bon Bon giggled and secretly enjoyed her feeling of sadistic satisfaction as she watched Sentinel struggle to deal with a mouthful of taffy she had crammed into his mouth when he had his guard down. The colt was chewing, the taffy sticking to his teeth and fangs, his powerful jaws were actually stymied by the large amorphous mass of taffy. 

“Bonnie, nopony can eat that much taffy,” Lyra said in a worried voice. 

“Sentinel can,” Bon Bon insisted, looking at Lyra and then at Sentinel. 

“My bon bon looks like a peanuty turd,” Piña complained. 

“Piña! Language!” Bon Bon scolded, looking at the turd shaped confection that Piña had made. The earth pony eyed the candy, seeing some potential in Piña’s work, and she continued to listen to Sentinel smacking away on his mouthful of taffy. 

Golden Harvest, an earth pony with a carrot cutie mark, tittered from the other side of the counter, covering her mouth with her hoof as she looked at Piña’s first attempt at making candy. “Foals say the darndest things,” she said in a low voice.   

“How can I help you?” Lyra asked, looking at Golden Harvest with a smile. 

“I need a job,” Golden Harvest replied, looking hopeful. “Growing season is almost done for carrots. I didn’t make very much this year, considering everything that happened. I’m about broke… so I thought I’d turn to my friends for help.” 

“You're hired,” Bon Bon said as she listened to Sentinel chewing noisily and sloppily on his mouthful of taffy, still feeling rather amused. She could hear drool splashing on the floor. 

“Oh… well that was much easier than I thought it was going to be,” Golden Harvest said in a surprised voice. 

“You’ve helped us before for spare bits… so you know what you're doing, and to be perfectly honest, Lyra and I are busy with foals and family now. We need the help. Do you know anypony else that needs a job and might be good at this?” Bon Bon questioned, looking hopeful. 

“Well, Helia was looking for work, she used to work in the bakery, she’s really good at kneading dough, they laid her off though… but it isn’t as bad as it sounds,” Golden Harvest said in a nervous reply. “So hard to find a job now with the refugees.” 

“Why was she laid off?” Lyra asked. 

“Because she’s starting to show and she isn’t married. Some ponies are so uptight about these sorts of things,” Golden Harvest huffed, her cheeks puffing out as she did so. 

Scowling, Lyra looked at Bon Bon, then at Golden Harvest, and finally she looked at Dinky and Piña, who were looking at her with wide curious eyes, trying to understand the situation. Suddenly, Lyra realised she was in the middle of “I am now a responsible adult with foals” moment and she felt a stab of panic. “Send Helia to come and talk to us. If we’re not here, we’re out on the farm. She’s a good worker?” 

“One of the best. She’s a pegasus, she likes pounding dough into submission,” Golden Harvest responded, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile. “He’s going to be chewing on that all night,” she said as she looked at Sentinel, who was still violently chewing on his mouthful of taffy. 

“Hmmmumflumph,” Sentinel mumbled as he continued to savagely gnaw on the massive wad of taffy that Bon Bon had stuffed into his mouth. He glared balefully at his mother as a long string of drool dribbled from his chin, nearly stretching down to the floor in one long viscous strand. 

“Why would she be fired for showing? What was she showing?” Dinky asked. 

“Right now, Berry Punch and your mother Derpy are showing. Thistle is really showing,” Lyra said in a patient voice, trying to be a responsible parent. “Helia is showing too it seems. But Helia isn’t married. Some ponies are uptight prudes about this sort of thing, and they push their opinions upon others, shaming them and firing them from their jobs because they are horseapple heads.” 

“Sounds like it,” Piña agreed, looking at Lyra with wide eyes. “And you are going to give her a job?” 

“Most likely, if she accepts,” Lyra responded, feeling somewhat angry about the whole situation. “It ain’t right, how some ponies are.” 

“Mmmmlutherfluthers,” Sentinel said angrily around a mouthful of taffy. 

“SENTINEL!” Bon Bon shouted, looking at her colt and feeling her ears burn. 

“Leave him be Bon Bon, I thought about saying it, some ponies are just plain rude… Sentinel doesn’t curse that often and when he does it is because he is really angry,” Lyra said, turning her golden eyes upon Bon Bon. 

“He knows better!” Bon Bon said to Lyra. 

“He’s just venting,” Lyra said defensively. “And with as much time as he spends around Bucky, Sentinel is surprisingly soft spoken.” 

Scowling, her lip curled back in a snarl, Bon Bon fell silent and accepted Lyra’s judgment call. She looked at Sentinel and for a moment, she felt a strange sense of pride that her colt would become angry enough to risk her anger over an issue. Her expression softened and her glowering scowl softened into a disappointed look. 

“He’s a male that cares about female issues… don’t ruin that,” Golden Harvest said in a low voice. 

“Yeah,” Lyra agreed. “Look at all that drool… yuck Sentinel I don’t understand how you can drool like that… yurgh!” Shuddering, Lyra turned away and closed her eyes, unable to look any longer. 

His mouth still full of taffy, Sentinel stoically chewed, hoping this was a foe he could wear down with time. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 377
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Landing in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle shook the thin layer of ice off of her wings. She had been flying at the top of the sky, where the air was thin, and she could achieve the highest rate of speed. Normally, most pegasi were incapable of flying up there; only the alicorns and the lunar pegasi flew at that altitude regularly. Some of the lunar pegasi could even go where there was no air at all, holding their breath for minutes at a time while hurtling effortlessly through the near void. 

Twilight had been learning all of the tricks she could about flight from a variety of instructors, Rainbow Dash being the first and foremost among them. Rainbow Dash’s experience placed her at the forefront of any flight discussion, the lithe blue pegasus was second only to alicorns, and she had achieved her wealth of experience during her short mortal life, which Twilight Sparkle felt was quite impressive.

A mortal life that Twilight Sparkle found more precious than just about anything she could think of. Right now, she wanted to be at home and in the middle of two warm and affectionate pegasi, she wanted comfort after what she had found in the Crystal Empire, but there was business to take care of and potentially a new family member to pick up on the way home. Cadance had insisted on giving the crystal pony foal a chance and Twilight had promised to do so. 





Still sitting on the sofa, Derpy continued to hold a now quieted Diamond Tiara. She still hadn’t managed to get the foal to say much of anything, other than she hurt all over. She hummed softly, it seemed to help, and she stroked the back of the foal’s neck with her fetlock, gently smoothing out Diamond Tiara’s mane. 

On the floor, on a blanket spread over the floorboards, Harper and Peekaboo played quietly, both of them occasionally looking up at Derpy and Diamond Tiara, both little faces filled with worry, the foals were unusually subdued and quiet. 

Bittersweet sat nearby, quiet, her eyes focused upon the foals, her soft ears partially lifted away from her head, and she too occasionally looked up at Diamond Tiara and Derpy, her eyes both sad and filled with understanding. She understood what it was like to cry and be full of hurt. 

Bucky, lying sphinx-like on the sofa, let out a small soft sigh and tried  to ease his worried heart. “I’m sure your father will be here soon. I’m glad you felt safe enough to come to us. Do you want a drink of water?” 

Still clinging to Derpy, Diamond Tiara made no reply. 



 

Celestia’s chambers were… different. There was a smaller bed not too far from her own and at the foot of the bed was a small toy box. There was another bookshelf, this one filled with foal’s books. The floor was also a bit of a mess and in the middle of it all, there was a large white alicorn and two much smaller by comparison foals. 

Twilight Sparkle recalled fondly the time she had spent with Celestia as a foal, pressed up against Celestia’s side, under her wing, or beside her at her private desk as Celestia performed her tasks. 

“Tourmaline, say hello. Twilight Sparkle can know your secret,” Celestia said in a soft voice, looking up at Twilight. 

Looking at Celestia, Twilight Sparkle saw the most peculiar look upon the alicorn’s face, one she had never seen before, she had no idea what it was, but Celestia seemed happy, as though some great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. 

The small jet black foal with a soft pastel pink mane shimmered for a moment and then became something else. Something small, black, and insectoid. There was a tiny horn and two tiny nubs of what appeared to be wings in an early stage of growth. 

Twilight Sparkle shivered. 

“Bucky was right, they’re not so different from us,” Celestia mused, smiling a serene smile, her eyes wide and gentle. “She is a delightful foal, after all of the horrible abuse she has endured, she is so loving and kind.” 

“Hi,” Tourmaline greeted, standing at Twilight Sparkle’s front hooves. 

“Hello,” Twilight Sparkle responded, feeling a curious sensation when she looked down at the foal. “You’re kinda cute,” she said, being completely honest. 

“Thank you,” Tourmaline replied, still looking up at Twilight. 

“I have promised Tourmaline play dates with Glass Slipper, I hope you do not mind,” Celestia said, her teeth visible as she spoke, her smile a beam of sunshine. “Glass Slipper is having a rough time at this moment. It’s been difficult for her.” 

“I could imagine,” Twilight said, her voice full of genuine concern. “Losing your entire family like that. I’m so sorry.” 

“Bucky rescued us. He’s nice. He looks scary but he’s nice,” Tourmaline said, her tone foalishly insistent. “He named me and hugged me.” 

“Yes… Bucky loves foals,” Twilight Sparkle said as she watched Tourmaline shimmer and warp, becoming a small jet black filly with a soft pink mane again. Her bright green glasses had spotless glass lenses. 

“Glass Slipper is sad. I hope you’ll be nice to her,” Tourmaline said, looking hopeful. 

Nodding, Twilight Sparkle slowly approached Celestia and Glass slipper, carefully stepping over Tourmaline. She drew near with her head down, studying the small green foal that was pressed up against Celestia’s side. 

“Would you like to come home with me? I have a little baby dragon and an adorable little pegasus foal of my own. I’m certain we can make room for you too… Flash Sentry likes foals and Rainbow Dash is very nice… too nice actually, she lets Scootaloo and Spike eat junk food rather than a proper meal,” Twilight said in a soft voice, her brows raised in concern. 

“They’re all gone,” Glass Slipper said in a sad voice. 

“I know… I was in your home earlier, working as part of the investigation. I saw everything,” Twilight Sparkle replied, her expression darkening. She said nothing about seeing the bodies of Glass Slipper’s parents and family, the sheer brutality of the assault, or how most of the family’s scattered body parts were still being sorted though. Twilight Sparkle knew she was going to have nightmares from this, and the next time there was this sort of investigation, she planned to pass it along to Bucky, who didn’t seem to be bothered by horrific stuff like mutilated and exploded bodies. “I know we’re not your family, and I can’t replace what you’ve lost, but you could be happy with us I think.” 

“Will I get to see Tourmaline?” Glass Slipper asked, her purple eyes sad. 

“Of course… I think it is important to have friends. I’m the Princess of Friendship,” Twilight Sparkle said, blurting out the only thing she could think of. “Plus, you could see Bucky. He’s not too far away.” 

“I’d like that,” Glass Slipper said, looking hopeful. “He rescued me and took me away from the bad ponies. I’d like to thank him.” 

“I think that’d be a good thing, Bucky needs friends too,” Twilight Sparkle stated. She turned her gaze from Glass Slipper to Celestia. “We need to talk. Hopefully somewhere away from foals. I have a lot to tell you and some of it is troubling.” 



 

Filthy Rich moved through the front door, breathless, worried, terrified in a way that only a parent can be. Behind him, Yew Wood the one eyed pegasus was carefully folding her wings and sorting herself out. She had flown him from Ponyville, a terrifying experience, and Filthy Rich never wanted his hooves to be separated from the earth ever again. 

He made his way through the front door, stood in the entryway, turned towards the living room, and then, he saw her. Diamond Tiara was being held by Derpy Hooves, a mare that Filthy Rich had once believed was the most amazing single mother. He stepped into the living room, feeling relieved. She seemed okay. 

“Diamond… Doctor Derby sent word. I couldn’t find you… I thought you went home, I was worried… I was so scared,” Filthy Rich said in a pained voice. 

“This is your fault,” Diamond Tiara said in a strangled voice, the first clear words she had spoken in a while. 

“My fault?’ Filthy Rich questioned, his expression quizzical and his tone one of confusion. He stepped forward hoping there would be some sort of explanation. 

“This is your fault. You made me like this,” Diamond Tiara murmured, burying her face into Derpy’s neck and wrapping her forelegs tighter around the grey mare. 

“I don’t understand,” Filthy Rich responded, shaking his head, a strange pain creeping through his heart, which currently felt as though it was shriveling. 

“Doctor Derby had to try and break all of the conditioning you did. You made me hate. You filled my head with garbage about lazy pegasi and condescending unicorns. You came home and you told me how much you hated the world and everything that was wrong with it. You made me hate everything… THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Diamond Tiara explained, her final words a shriek. 

“I made mistakes,” Filthy Rich admitted, now frozen in place. “I’m sorry… I’m trying to make up for those.” 

“I’m still broken. And now there is no way to be fixed,” Diamond Tiara said in a low chilly voice, refusing to look at her father. 

“I’m sorry-” 

“GET OUT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!” Diamond Tiara wailed and began crying again, great heaving sobs that wracked her body and caused her to convulse in Derpy’s embrace. 

Rising silently, Bucky slowly approached Filthy Rich and gently nudged the stallion along, moving him out of the living room. The pair walked into the kitchen, where Semillon was still cooking. Bucky looked at Filthy Rich and waited patiently. 

“I don’t know what to do,” Filthy Rich said, shaking his head. 

“She’ll come around,” Bucky stated, his expression troubled. 

“Can you… can you look after her for a while? Until she calms down and is willing to talk?” Filthy Rich inquired, his tone pleading and heartbroken. 

“Of course,” Bucky responded. “You need not ask. I told you, my door is always open to the both of you.” 

“I’ve made so many mistakes… so many mistakes. I’ve always wondered when they would come back to haunt me. I keep making mistakes… this has been a horrible day. I’ve lost Diamond Tiara… I’ve had nothing but rejection today,” Filthy Rich mumbled, a look of mental anguish settling over his features. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Nothing important… not when compared to Diamond Tiara… I love her Buckminster, I really do… and I know I am to blame for her condition… I did make her the way she is… I said awful things. Even about you… I did this,” Filthy Rich said, staggering towards the kitchen table. He fell into a chair and his head thudded into the table a moment later. 

“Things happen,” Bucky said knowingly. “This will get smoothed over.” 

“Doctor Derby was the only behaviour specialist in Ponyville. I don’t know how to fix this… His colt, Steeplechase, has caused all manner of problems. The colt has behaviour issues… Doctor Derby was quite upset… he told me a little bit about what happened, the colt is troubled, I feel bad for him now that I know… funny how learning about somepony can change your perceptions and feelings about them. I thought Steeplechase was the way he was because of bad parenting… like I am the one to talk… or because he was just a rotten colt… but Steeplechase… he had bad things happen to him and I feel terrible for passing judgment on something I knew nothing about,” Filthy Rich stammered, his words halting and slow. 

“Don’t tell me,” Bucky said, looking at Filthy Rich. “Whatever was said was between you and Doctor Derby.” 

“It was bad Bucky… I threw up on the doctor’s floor. It actually made me ill. You always hear about something making you sick when you hear it, but this actually made me sick. On top of everything else that happened today. This has been a terrible day,” Filthy Rich whimpered. 

There was a faint pop and a bottle of blue gin appeared on the table, along with two small glasses. A moment later, ice cubes popped into existence, and Bucky pulled the cap off of the bottle of gin. He poured some into one glass, then the other, and then he sat down, lifted one glass, and took a sip. 

Lifting his head, and then grabbing a glass, Filthy Rich downed it in one go. He then sat crunching on the ice cubes, his expression miserable, broken, and defeated. His ears still heard Diamond Tiara sobbing, and he felt the pain unique to fathers, knowing there was nothing he could do to make her hurt go away. 
	
	
> Chapter 378
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch held the snuffling Diamond Tiara while Derpy quietly made her way to the bathroom after complaining that the twins were sitting on her bladder. Berry Punch felt an odd emotion, one she could not name, one she had not felt before, one that was completely unknown to her. 

Not knowing what to do, she began to hum just as Derpy had done, and she gently rocked Diamond Tiara back and forth. She felt the foal shudder, then hiccup, and then Diamond Tiara went limp again, her body going still. 

Yew Wood climbed up onto the couch and sat down beside Berry Punch, looking rather sad as she did so. Leaning over, she rested against Berry Punch and patted the inconsolable foal on her back, not knowing what else to do. “You know, if you need to talk, Berry Punch is a good pony to talk to. I find that I can talk to her about anything.” 

“Anything?” Diamond Tiara breathed, her voice barely audible. 

“Berry and I have talked about everything. Our husbands, our loves, very private mare stuff, and even about the really painful stuff that I have a hard time telling anypony else about. I lost my husband, my foal, and my sister all in one terrible night,” Yew whispered in a soft silken utterance. “I can talk to Berry about it, about all of that pain, and there aren’t too many other ponies I can spill my guts to.” 

“I’m sorry you lost everypony,” Diamond Tiara whimpered, letting out a soft sniffle as she spoke, her voice raspy and scratchy. 

“It’s funny, I wasn’t all that much older than you are right now when I was first married… seems so long ago even though it wasn’t,” Yew said, her eyes going misty. 

“You were married at my age?” Diamond Tiara asked, lured out of her sorrowful state by curiousity. She lifted her head away from Berry to look at Yew, noting the hideous scar running down Yew’s face and her missing eye. 

“I was a little older, but not by much. But we shouldn’t talk about that. You mainlanders get all bent out of shape about it,” Yew said as she wiped her eye with her wing. 

“I can’t even figure out my own life but there are ponies that get married at my age,” Diamond Tiara muttered, shaking her head. 

“You know, I don’t know that getting married so young is a good thing. I guess it was a necessity, but you shouldn’t rush into things like that,” Yew said, noting the confused look at Diamond Tiara’s face. 

“I don’t know where else to find purpose,” Diamond Tiara whispered. “Life feels so empty and meaningless. Sentinel and Moonbow know what they want… I want what they have,” she admitted. 

“Woah, slow down there,” Berry Punch stated, looking down at the foal she was holding in her forelegs. “Are you really thinking about committing yourself to them?” 

“I don’t know… they have purpose. I just feel so empty,” Diamond Tiara murmured. 

“Sentinel and Moonbow… they’re not like other ponies. They’re… exceptional. Don’t be in such a rush to end your foalhood. Purpose will come in time,” Berry promised, offering Diamond Tiara a hopeful smile. 

“I can’t take feeling any empty anymore,” Diamond Tiara confessed. “When I think about both of them and what they want, how willing they are to sacrifice everything to get it, I feel something inside of me. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. I feel… hopeful.” 

“I think I might understand just a little,” Berry sighed, shaking her head. 

“I just want to give in and allow stuff to happen. I don’t want to have to worry about my purpose or my future anymore. I don’t have a future. Everypony hates me. I will never be accepted or fit in. I’m sick of worrying about it,” Diamond Tiara admitted as she rested her head against Berry Punch. “If I let go and give of myself, a future will be provided for me.” 

“Diamond, love, that’s a heavy thing for a filly to think about,” Berry Punch responded, scarcely able to believe what it was she was hearing. 



 

The bottle of gin was half empty and Filthy Rich was slumped over the table, his ears limp and dangling downwards. Bucky was scarcely even buzzed, but he was feeling rather relaxed. He watched Semillon cooking for a while, and then would turn to look at Filthy Rich, his gaze shifting between the two ponies. 

“I made the foolish suggestion of a herd,” Filthy Rich muttered, his voice slightly slurred. “I think… I think they’re done with me. They were okay with sorting everything out and coming to an arrangement I think. But then I said something about a herd. Gala Appleby even admitted to stringing me along, she had been on the fence you see, not sure if she wanted a full blown relationship. But then Ivory Scroll and I had each other for lunch and I made things complicated.” 

“Hmm… so things did not go well,” Bucky remarked. 

“I keep screwing things up,” Filthy Rich admitted. “I screwed up everything. My marriage is gone, Diamond Tiara hates me… I’ve messed up.” 

“She doesn’t hate you, she's just hurting,” Bucky interjected, shaking his head. 

“Buckminty… Buckminty, I have other foals than Diamond Tiara. Several. I’ve messed things up. Trust me. I’ve made mistakes. There are some opportunities that I just couldn’t pass up and I made a mess of things… so I stopped having relationships all together because I screwed everything up so bad. So bad. So, so… so bad. And then I allow myself to start having these relationships again… now everything has exploded in my face. I’m a bad father,” Filthy Rich said in a somewhat slurred voice. 

Squirming, Bucky had no idea what to say, and he heard a soft whinny from Semillon, who was standing by the stove. Bucky really hoped that the mare wouldn’t say anything, she had a wicked tongue and Bucky was entirely too prone to laughter. 

“I’m old enough to be Gala Appleby’s father… I… wanted to bang my wrinkly old stallion balls against her because she was young and pretty and nothing on a mare that age sags… but… but lemme tell you something… Gala Appleby is somepony’s daughter. She’s somepony’s daughter and I wanted to be her daddy in a very perverted way… I… I… blergh-” 

As Bucky watched, Filthy Rich passed out mid-sentence, slipping into inebriated unconsciousness. “Equestrian Navy Strength Gin… one hundred and seventy eight proof. Useful for keeping airship crewmembers warm at high altitudes and cleaning gunk off of the old coal burning engines, or so Barley tells me. Also used to set Equestria’s enemies on fire in dire combat situations, as no sailor worth his salt wants to waste good hooch.” 

“You… you are incorrigible,” Semillon murmured, shaking her head in disapproval. 

“I know… I consider it one of my best qualities,” Bucky quipped as he poured himself another glass of gin and smiled a fang filled smile. Lifting it to his lips with his magic, he gulped it down and then he set his glass down upon the table. “Mmm, goes down smooth. Barley knows his stuff.” He stared at Filthy Rich, looking entirely pleased with himself, a smug expression upon his face. “I’m going to go stuff him into a guest bed,” Bucky announced, slipping from his chair as he spoke. 



 

Frowning with worry, Discord paced and panicked, there was something wrong with his dearest Fluttershy. She was throwing up again, he could hear her in the bathroom, puking her guts out in her quiet, demure, and oh so very polite manner. She had been doing this since her return from Griffonholm. 

It was a worrisome sign, and Discord didn’t like it. He was currently stuck in his pony form, he had his magic for a while, it was showing signs of returning, but now, it was gone again. So he was stuck walking around on four legs rather than effortlessly floating through the room and ignoring gravity. He chewed on his lip, his frantic nervousness reaching new heights, and he began to think about what it would be like to die, his mind slipping into his current morbid fascination with death. 

“Oh… I don’t like it when vomit comes out my nose,” Fluttershy squeaked from inside the bathroom. “This is very unpleasant,” she whined, the pegasus mare was clearly in pain and she was suffering greatly. 

Discord, his panic reaching new levels when he heard Fluttershy’s agonised squeak, fell over and fainted, his body falling over with a thump against the floorboards of Fluttershy’s cottage. 



 

Situating himself upon the couch, Sentinel quietly sat with Diamond Tiara. He had barely even come though the door when she had slammed into him, hugging him tightly and sobbing. Now, the tears had subsided a bit, and she was sitting quietly with him, pressed up against his side. 

His jaw ached and Sentinel felt even more quiet than usual. He was content to simply sit with Diamond Tiara, saying nothing, enjoying the feeling of being close to her. He watched as Piña Colada returned to the living room after using the bathroom, Piña looked concerned, worried, and she hopped up on the couch to be with Diamond Tiara. The two pink earth pony foals collapsed into one another, and Diamond Tiara let out a loud shuddering snuffle of relief, glad to be with her friends. 

“Dinky had to shower and to try and get the sticky off of her,” Piña said in a low voice as she got comfortable with Diamond Tiara. “Princess Klutzy tripped over her own hooves and fell over into her own bowl of caramel sauce.” Piña waited, hoping for a laugh, and then felt disappointed when there was none. 

“For a brief moment, Dinky became a caramel ’corn,” Sentinel stated, trying his hoof at humour. 

“Bad Sentinel! Puns! Ugh!” Derpy protested from the other sofa, the grey mare grimacing in disgust from the colt’s words. “Why must everypony resort to puns?” 

Unable to help herself, Diamond Tiara let out a weak giggle. 



 

Looking down at the sheet of parchment, Luna reread the words that Shining Armor had written to her, her eyes lingering over the flowing decorative script that the Prince Consort was known for. She sighed a heavy sigh. 

“These are not subjects of our empire. Please, if you value my advice, allow Buckminster to have free reign with them. The warlock has powerful means of extraction and these two have information. We are at war and we cannot afford to be merciful or gentle in our methods.” 

Setting down the paper upon a desk, Luna found herself agreeing. The mirror travelers had burst into a home, killed a whole family, and then foalnapped a filly. She couldn’t get into the mirror traveler’s minds with dreams, and the usual means of harmony magic simply didn’t dig deep enough. 

Looking out the window at the slowly setting sun, Luna pondered how far she was willing to go. The mirror travelers were certainly not holding back. This was the worst sort of war, dealing with an insidious invisible enemy that they currently knew next to nothing about. The alicorn mare let out a frustrated equine snort of irritation. 

“They brought this on themselves,” Luna growled, slamming her steel shod hoof down upon her desk. She felt unsettled for some reason, knowing what she was about to authorise. 

“Shadow Agent Asp!” Luna shouted, with no trace of patience in her voice. She sat back and waited, knowing that one of her most feared agents was waiting for her in just the other room. Luna smiled when she saw him come through the door, his almost serpentine body shuffling as he entered. 

Asp was a half breed, a rare find by Luna, and one of her prized projects. He was half lunar pegasus and half venomous land drake, which made him look like a lunar pegasus with a long serpentine body that had patchy places covered in scales, large wings, and his most curious feature, a venomous bite. 

“You called for me Mistress?” Asp questioned, slinkily bringing himself to attention. 

“Yes I did. Do you remember how we talked about the Shadowbolt Initiative?” Luna responded, her tone icy and dull. 

“Of course Mistress,” Asp replied, smiling a murderous smile. 

“Begin finding suitable candidates. We need assassins and spies. We can no longer afford to fight fair,” Luna instructed in a flat monotone. 

“Of course Mistress. Might I recommend we begin looking in the regiments on the Shetlands? They are… dirty fighters. Right now they are savaging what is left of the griffon resistance. We’re having some trouble… with… unpleasantness,” Asp replied. 

“What sort of unpleasantness?” Luna snapped, her words brusque. 

“Well, the regiment that Buckminster patrons… they have a habit of sticking heads on sharp pointy sticks and making totems of their enemies. There are a few individuals there that are fantastically brutal. Some of the other regiments as well. Our allies in the Sea of Grass are horrified by the Shetlanders' ferocity and barbarity,” Asp explained. 

Her lips pressing into a thin flat line, Luna leaned forward, her teal eyes glittering, and stared at Asp, looking thoughtful and rather pleased. Her ears swiveled forward as she locked eyes with her personal assassin. 

“I see I have your attention… we have others… there are those with disciplinary records that might prove to be suitable recruits, if we are at war, we shouldn’t squander any valuable resources,” Asp said in a sly grifter’s voice. 

“Start recruiting. No more playing nice. Also, send a chariot for Buckminster this evening. I need for him to have a discussion with our esteemed guests,” Luna instructed. 

“As you command, Mistress,” Asp replied, looking very pleased with himself. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 379 (kinda dark) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Princess Luna saw Buckminster, she cringed. He looked mildly irritated, his sneering muzzle extending out beyond his black hood. She looked him over, her eyes coming to rest upon his mechanical prosthesis. She shivered. Sombra, for all of his evil, had remained whole of body somehow, even with all of his dangerous engagements and direct combat. 

“I am sorry,” Luna said apologetically, her ears splaying out sideways as she spoke. The alicorn mare took a deep breath. “Alas, our enemies do not wait for us to finish dinner or spend time with our families.” 

“I understand,” Bucky replied, his tone patient and calm. “How is Tourmaline and Glass Slipper?” he questioned. 

“Tourmaline was finally able to heal herself, she is doing much better; Glass Slipper has gone home with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Glass Slipper wants to speak with you, it isn’t every day a filly is rescued by a prince,” Luna responded, a faint soft smile spreading across her features. 

“And how are you adjusting to Tourmaline?” Bucky inquired, his words full of apprehension. 

“I must confess, she is growing on me. She is so affectionate and kind. She is not what I expected Buckminster, she is very much like a foal… she even eats, and I don’t mean just love either, she is more than the usual psychic vampire like other changelings. She eats food. A lot of food. Celestia suspects that love is what powers her magic. There is so much we do not know, we have never encountered a changeling in their unaltered state. She does not have holes in her body,” Luna said, her face showing a wide range of emotions as she spoke. The mare paused for a moment and focused her eyes on Buckminster. “They kept tearing her wings off. I cannot imagine how much it must have hurt her. But they cruelly tore her wings off to keep her grounded.” 

“See that she is treated well, I beg of you Mistress,” Bucky said in a soft pleading voice, the hazy purple mist of his Taint creeping up and out of his hood. 

“Buckminster, I suspect that there is some kind of pheromone signal here that makes you want to love her… no, do not look at me so fiercely, I do not mean this as a bad thing,” Luna said, taking a step back from Buckminster. “I see I need to earn your trust again, very well,” she sighed. Taking another deep breath, Luna continued. “I strongly suspect that there are powerful pheromone signals involved to make one feel love and affection. Given Tourmaline’s unusual gifts and what she is capable of, this suggests a beneficial symbiotic relationship rather than a parasitic relationship.” 

“This is fascinating,” Bucky said as his lip uncurled from a snarl. 

“You stink like a naval vessel,” Luna complained, her nostrils flaring. “Have you been drinking engine degreaser?” 

“And a fine red wine too,” Bucky said, speaking in a breathy voice. “Semillon made pasties served with Fancy onion soup.” 

“Egads, no wonder you have such an atrocious funk, cease breathing upon my royal body this instant,” Luna commanded, a slight grin upon her face. 

“So why am I here?” Bucky inquired, getting to the point as he grinned at Luna. 

“We have two mirror travelers staying as our guests. I want you to begin some special friendship studies with the both of them,” Luna responded, her tone becoming imperious as she spoke. 

“I can be their special friend,” Bucky hissed, his voice becoming cold and sepulchral. 

“Come… before you endear yourself to them, I need to speak with you. I am going to need your help soon. I have launched the Shadowbolt Initiative, and this is going to involve a lot of questionable body modification as well as alteration. Given how you have transformed into altered shadow nature, I am hopeful that others can do the same. I have been in your dreams Buckminster, I have studied the effects of the shadow crystal you stood near in the lich’s lair. I believe that you and I can replicate that and we can give the gift of shadow to ponies who belong in the night,” Luna explained, her voice low and guarded. 

“You are going to bring other ponies into the night?” Bucky questioned, his hood falling away from his face as he looked upwards at Luna. “Is this wise?” 

“We are at war… a war we have to win,” Luna stated in reply. 

“Yes, of course, I understand that,” Bucky said, shaking his head as he spoke. “But this is a drastic measure by any reasoning. I am not against it, I am merely suggesting caution as we continue.” 

“I agree… but our enemy is weak to shadow magic, they fear it, we must exploit this weakness,” Luna argued in a calm voice, glancing down at Bucky. “We have encountered no lunar pegasi in their ranks. They do not use dark magic. At all. Ever. I believe they find it taboo or something, but I know they fear it,” she explained. 

“War Empress Umbra,” Bucky said, recalling his previous encounter with the mirror traveler unicorn. “She of the Fallen Shadow, Student of Nightmare Moon,” he recited, digging deep in his memories. “My appearance scared our unicorn visitor nearly to death.” 

“Princess Selene fell into darkness and shadow,” Luna said mournfully. “It seems I am fated to stumble no matter which reality I find myself in.” 

“Mistress, do not dwell upon those dark thoughts. You have recovered and now guard others against that sort of darkness. Some darkness is needed however, it is a part of the balance,” Bucky said in a gentle voice. Reaching out, he gently touched Luna’s side with his right front fetlock, trying to offer some means of comfort. 

“You are so much like him,” Luna said in a pained voice, her eyes narrowing. 

“I know… a part of him tried to take me over… leaving a large part of Sombra behind. I don’t know who or what I am anymore. Am I still myself? Have I become Sombra? I know that I have changed, I am not who I once was,” Bucky mused, sharing his thoughts. 

“You should get started,” Luna suggested as she wiped her eyes with her wing. 

“As you command, Mistress,” Bucky responded, bowing his head as he spoke. 



 

The pegasus was nervous, sweating, it was easy to see that he was absolutely terrified. Bucky had observed him for a while through the one way window, the unicorn guard were making sure the pegasus was properly restrained, and the pegasus had been completely fearless, even defiant towards the unicorn guards as they worked. 

Upon seeing Bucky enter the room though, the pegasus had rapidly lost his composure and was now a gibbering mess. Bucky was beginning to agree with Luna that some of the mirror travelers seemed a little too afraid of dark magic. 

“I will tell you nothing,” the pegasus whimpered. 

“Silence coward… cease your theatrics. You will tell me everything. There is nothing you can do to stop me. I have no intentions of hurting you or allowing you to come to harm. You will simply tell me everything I desire to know, and you will enjoy doing it,” Bucky said, his tone cold and emotionless. 

In his bed, the pegasus kicked and thrashed against his restraints, gritting his teeth and trying to escape. A white froth lathered along his pelt as his fear began to overwhelm him. The stallion whinnied in terror. 

“I have come to the understanding that you believe in tribal superiority,” Bucky said in a soothing calm voice. “You treat earth ponies poorly… are they draft animals to you?” 

The pegasus let out a keening wail as Bucky flexed his talons and made himself comfortable in a chair. Try as he might, there was no escaping his restraints. 

“Well… tsk tsk tsk,” Bucky remarked, clucking his tongue three times. “You look down upon the earth ponies, so I suppose it is my place to look down upon you… how does it feel to be a servile pegasi? Are you prepared for me to establish my dominance? Do you have any last words before I scramble your brains and rip open your soul?” 

“I will never submit!” the pegasus screamed. 

Sighing, closing his Tainted eye, Bucky let his magic flow, reaching deep. He had been studying, preparing for this sort of moment. He had been deep into Sombra’s writings and had even refined some of Sombra’s work. He called forth his shadow nature and his vast reserves of dark magic. 

“Submit,” Bucky commanded in a low soft utterance, a voice that was like a breeze blowing though a pile of leaves. 

The pegasus immediately went still and silent, becoming limp in the bed. 

The room darkened, the light becoming dim as shadows writhed around the bed, long fingers of elemental darkness creeping out from the dark places beneath the bed, a seething mass of shadow crawled from Bucky’s cloak, swarming over the pegasus and crawling into every orifice. The pegasus’ eyes flashed green as the dark magic overtook him and his breathing became still and regular. 

“How do you feel?” Bucky question. 

“I feel comfortable and safe,” the pegasus said in what almost sounded like a foalish voice. “I feel warm and secure.” 

“Good,” Bucky stated, giving a nod and smiling. “See how pleasant this is? Since I have made you comfortable, I was hoping that you could do something for me…” 

“That seems reasonable,” the pegasus responded in a soft voice. 

“There is much I need to know,” Bucky said in the same smooth voice he used to speak to troubled foals. He pushed his own perspectives into the pegasus’ head, making the pegasus feel what he felt, sharing his pain. “Foals have been hurt… we cannot allow that. This hurts me, it makes me feel sad.” 

“Yes… sad… I can feel it, hurting foals is a mistake,” the pegasus whimpered, feeling Bucky’s pain. The pegasus stallion kicked against his restraints feebly. “Oh it hurts, make the pain go away.” 

“I will… be a good foal, now hush,” Bucky soothed in a silken whisper, his voice only just loud enough to be heard over the pegasus’ pained whimpers. 

“We should start at the beginning,” Bucky stated as he looked at the glass observation window where he knew that Luna and several others were watching. “Tell me, how did you manage to kill Nightmare Moon? She was an immortal, correct?” 

“Yes,” the pegasus responded, nodding his head. “Princess Selene was an immortal. An alicorn. She became Nightmare Moon. She destroyed everything. She made the night last forever. She destroyed the sun. That happened before I was born. The war had been raging for a long time… we finally figured out a way to stop her.” 

“And how did you do that?” Bucky questioned in a soft calming voice. 

“We… we made deals with the demon lords of the Abyss… so desperate… there was nothing left. We figured we had to stop her at any cost. They betrayed us, as we knew they would,” the pegasus answered. 

“So what happened?” Bucky asked. 

“We opened the gates to the Abyss. An army came out. They began to sever Nightmare Moon’s connection to the stars and the moon. They destroyed the moon. All that is left of the moon is a ring of debris that circles the planet, or so I was told by a unicorn. Some unicorns foolishly hope that the moon could be fixed somehow, put back together,” the pegasus replied, his eyes glowing a bright shade of green now, he was completely ensorcelled by dark magic and was doing nothing to resist.

“So they severed Nightmare Moons connections to the heavens to weaken her. You made her mortal. And then you killed her?” Bucky questioned. 

“Yes,” the pegasus answered. “Commander Night Watch changed. He became the Night Stallion…  his destiny mark even changed, a rising sun coming out of darkness. Something spoke to him, told him of other worlds. He used his magic to keep us alive, to battle the demons now infesting our world. He’s kept us alive, preserved us, and he’s opened portals to other worlds.” 

“Like to this world,” Bucky stated. “Where are the portals?” he asked. 

“Las Pegasus. That is the one I came through.  I know there are others, but I don’t know where. There is one far to the south in a desert city, something about saddles… I don’t know. They don’t tell us everything when we are sent through. Only what we need to know,” the pegasus explained in reply. “The Night Stallion can’t actually go through the portals… he can, but they close and they are hard to open again from the other side. He is forced to stand in the portal to keep it open so we can pass through and then step backwards into our world. Only one portal can be open at a time. He’s very frustrated about this,” the pegasus added helpfully. 

“Very good, you are being so helpful, such a good foal” Bucky praised. 

The pegasus smiled a weak smile, looking hopeful. “I want to be helpful. I’m a good foal… I want to be a good foal.” 

“So you can only have one portal open at a time and your main portal was in Las Pegasus?” Bucky questioned. 

“Yes… all of our Equestria operations that I know of were staged from the Las Pegasus central portal. It was a big pool of water. We constructed it in a giant water basin in the building we used as a base. One of our slaves called it a swimming pool. The building was very strange,” the pegasus replied, his face becoming puzzled. “Why swim in drinking water? Fresh water is so precious and scarce.” 

“You’ve been very helpful, but we have so much more to talk about. I’m going to introduce you to my special friend, and you are going to be so very nice to her,” Bucky said, speaking to the pegasus as he might speak to a foal. 

“I want to be helpful,” the pegasus said, looking hopeful and even a little happy. “I feel so happy, warm, and safe. You have been very kind to me.” 

“Yes I have,” Bucky agreed, flooding even more dark magic through his connections to the pegasus, further destroying what little remained of the creature’s will. The pegasus was now thoroughly dominated and Bucky realised it would probably be safe to remove the restraints. The poor creature would never again know free will or even an adult mindset. 

“All of my worries and troubles are gone… I’m not afraid anymore… why did you help me? Make me better?” the pegasus asked. 

“Because… I love you and I want you to be happy,” Bucky responded in a hypnotic sonorous voice as he flooded the pegasus with his shadow essence and bringing the pegasus into a state of a waking dream. 

“I thought we were enemies… I was mistaken… I feel sleepy,” the pegasus said. 

“Soon you will sleep, and I will watch over you to make sure nothing bad hurts you. It is bedtime for sleepy little foals. But first, there is somepony I want you to meet,” Bucky said. He made a gesture towards the observation window and then flooded the pegasus with feel good sensations. 

A moment later, the door opened and Luna entered. 

“This is Princess Luna… no matter what you think, this is not Princess Selene. She loves you too… and she wants to be your friend. She is going to be your foalsitter while I am away,” Bucky said in a soothing cajoling voice to the pegasus, whose eyes were now blinking rapidly. “Say hello to Princess Luna.” 

“Hello Princess Luna… are you going to be my foalsitter?” the pegasus murmured, barely able to stay awake. 

As Luna watched, the pegasus slipped into slumber, looking very much like a foal who had been read a story and lulled to sleep. 

“Buckminster, what have you done? This is horrifying,” Luna whispered, her eyes wide with fright. 

“I have done as you asked. I have turned him into a foal. He will do anything we ask of him. He will love us in much the same way a foal loves their parents. He will do anything to please us and all you have to do is offer him a kind word or a bit of loving praise,” Bucky exclaimed. “Maybe a cookie or a brownie if he becomes a little petulant.” 

“This is not what I asked for, not exactly,” Luna retorted, looking sickened. “Dark magic is certainly effective… more so than I would have ever imagined.” 

“Mistress, I grow weary, this magic is exhausting… I need for you to listen and follow my instructions. Our minds are connected… for a time. I know you cannot enter into his mind, but right now, I am seeing everything. I need for you to put me under and then jump into my mind. There is too much here, I am overwhelmed. You are better at this sort of thing… please hurry, to be honest, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,” Bucky said, explaining what to do. “The fatigue is actually more than I can bear.” 

“Hold on Buckminster… I will sustain you,” Luna said as she dove into shadow and became living darkness. She trickled into Bucky’s ear, pushing her way directly inside of Bucky’s head, flooding him with her strength. 

On the other side of the observation window, Celestia shuddered at what she had witnessed, horrified by what she had seen, and fearful for the state of Buckminster’s soul. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 380
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Drawing in a weary breath, Bucky eased himself down into a chair at the end of a long table and closed his eye. His brain ached and he felt nauseous. He heard the fluttering of wings and the clatter of fine porcelain being rattled around. There was a clink of metal and a faint sloshing sound. 

When he opened his eye, there was a full service of tea laid out along with breakfast. He looked around and saw nobirdy. Having experienced this several times now, he wondered how the little griffons managed to move so quickly and so efficiently. He inhaled deeply, smelling the strong scent of some kind of black tea with a vague hint of something else… something like anise but not anise.

A powerful wave of nausea washed over him and Bucky was certain he was going to puke for a moment. He could deal with prolonged magic casting far better than most unicorns, he could keep casting as long he could keep eating and deal with the eventual sickness that came along from such activity. He could teleport a dozen times in a row and never once feel an ill effect from such an act. But a full night of using powerful shadow magic had left him strangely drained and oh so very queasy. This was like learning how to deal with the consequences of magic all over again as a foal. 

This was miserable. 

A part of him enjoyed it immensely. 

After all of his time and study of magic, he associated feelings like these with the acquisition of power. And he had learned much during the long night, not only about dark magic, but gaining a new sense of appreciation for shadow magic as well. He began to prepare his tea, not even looking at what he was doing, he was slumped over his chair with his cloak wrapped around him, and the sounds of his stomach filled the room. 

Looking bleary eyed, Princess Luna entered the room, she stared at Bucky for a moment, shivered when she saw a skeleton wrapped in a black cloak, blinked, made the image go away, and cursed Thanatos for giving Bucky his cloak. She stumbled wearily to the table, her steel shod hooves clomping over the tile floor with heavy metallic thuds. 

“You do not look well,” Luna remarked. 

“I’ve felt better,” Bucky said, lifting his teacup to his lips and inhaling deeply after he spoke, his nostrils flaring as he took in the fragrance of his tea. The fragrant steam soothed his fevered brain and seemed to calm his stomach just a little bit. 

Fixing her own tea, Luna studied Bucky, taking in every detail. Half of his face was gone, ripped away by wolves, the four easily identifiable gashes of fangs biting into his skull were still visible, leaving behind four distinct furrows. The area around his eye had been completely torn away, leaving only the skin around his jawline and scalp line. Everything from ear to snoot had been torn away, leaving him perpetually smirking, the right corner of his mouth twisted around from the shrunken scar tissue. Thick sideburns had grown in and some of the withered flesh was hidden, but enough of it remained and what was left was still highly visible. Her eyes moved to the mechanical talons resting on the arm of the chair. 

“Do I look so hideous?” Bucky questioned after swallowing a sip of tea. 

“I do not think you look hideous… I was merely looking over what life has done to you,” Luna replied, shaking her head as a sad expression crept over her face. “If you could be healed somehow… made whole… would you?” 

“No,” Bucky grunted. 

“No?” Luna responded. “Pray tell, why not?” 

“My suffering defines me. Makes me what I am. It powers my magic. Gives me strength. It is a small price to pay for power. The pain and the rage gives me focus, it is like using a magnifying glass or a prism to focus sunlight and set things on fire,” Bucky explained with slow carefully chosen words. “My magic defines me as who and what I am… my continued suffering is an extension of that.” 

Her teal eyes going wide, Luna gave a sorrowful look at Bucky and rested both of her front hooves upon the table. “That’s terrible,” she whispered. She watched him sip his tea, her emotions feeling raw after a very long night. She had patrolled the dream realm and assisted Bucky in his interrogations, going into his mind while he acted as a bridge between her and the mirror travelers. She stared off vacantly, her eyes becoming dull and unfocused. 

“I’ve experienced so many different types of pain,” Bucky mused, interrupting Luna’s thoughts and pulling the distracted alicorn back into reality. 

“I know,” Luna said dryly, suppressing a shudder. 

“I’ve endured an orgasmic pegasus crushing me… but nothing was quite as bad as sitting down upon my own balls and crushing them,” Bucky stated, wincing at the memory. “Stone floor… I sat down angrily, not carefully like I would normally do… You have to ease yourself down, allow your balls to settle upon whatever you are sitting on first, and then scoot backwards so the balls do not become crushed. I just threw myself down and cracked my own eggs. Mashed my own potatoes. I-” 

“You are the very worst sort of pony,” Luna interrupted. 

“I know,” Bucky said smugly, his voice full of terrible pride. 

Glaring at the smarmy unicorn, Luna’s lip curled back in disgust for a moment and then she composed herself, becoming a regal princess once again. “You did very well in getting the information we needed.” 

“We learned a great deal… their main base of operations for this continent has been blown up,” Bucky muttered in between sips of tea. He took a deep breath and slumped over a little more. “What I’ve learned has unsettled me. So many of the realities they’ve explored, you’ve been Nightmare Moon. Or the reality where the griffons took over the world. Or the reality where the zebra Bocors released a plague of zombies upon the world after a massive persecution of the witch doctors. Makes you glad we have our reality, don’t it?” 

“I suppose so… I can see why our invaders want it as well. The main consequences of the horrors we see on the horizon have not happened yet in this reality,” Luna said, her eyes darting over and lingering upon the heavy drapes that hung over the windows. 

“They found a dead world full of sand and bones. The remains of giant glass golems. Gave me chills seeing that in the unicorn’s memories,” Bucky confessed, his voice somewhat raspy with emotion. 

“Do not talk about it,” Luna commanded. 

“How can I not think about it?” Bucky snapped, shaking his head angrily and banging his talons upon the arm of the chair. “We both know what happened there!” 

“We do not know it for certain!” Luna argued, turning her head to look at Bucky once more. “We do not know… any number of things could have happened!” 

“It was exactly like the world in that dream back on the isles!” Bucky shouted. He blinked a few times, realising how angry he was. He took a deep breath, a pained expression creeping over his withered face, and he looked at Luna with one wide pleading eye. “Forgive me… seeing that… unsettled me.” 

“Think nothing of it. I hold nothing against you. It disturbs me as well,” Luna said, her eyes lingering on Bucky as she wondered how much longer she could keep looking at him before feeling his pain once again. “You… love. Do not ever forget that. You love and you have family. You have reasons to keep going. I can no longer deny what you are now. My sister remains undecided I think, but I have made up my mind now for certain. Seeing… seeing the unicorn’s memories nearly unhinged me.” 

“Good morning!” 

The unicorn and the alicorn turned to look at Tannis, who entered the room with Agnetha just behind him. The discussion, which was becoming interesting, was certainly dead now. Bucky and Luna exchanged a final knowing glance with one another and then put on their best faces for Tannis and Agnetha. 

“Bucky, you look weary… you must stop these late nights,” Agnetha scolded, shaking one extended talon finger at Bucky. 

“How is married life?” Bucky questioned. 

“Wonderful,” Tannis replied as he sat down beside the table. 



 

Yawning, Twilight Sparkle tried to get enough of her brain awake to deal with the current strangeness in the library. Discord and Fluttershy had come by during the first moments of dawn. Both were wrapped in long rain cloaks, both looked frightened, and both looked confused. Discord was currently in his draconequus form, hunched over and struggling to stand. Twilight realised in some foggy barely awake part of her brain that she might need to change him back to pony form, something she struggled to do when she was wide awake. 

“I need to be off to work,” Flash Sentry announced as he moved through the main room. He paused, stood in place, waved at Fluttershy as well as Discord, and then he continued, moving out the front door. 

“Have a good day,” Twilight called out. “Do good things!” 

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something but only squeaked wordlessly. 

“Can one of you tell me what is wrong?” Twilight asked. She had awoken with only one nerve left, and somehow, her visitors were standing on it. She wanted a morning where she could sleep in. She wanted to be in bed with Rainbow Dash. She wanted to be in bed. But having a warm body to cuddle against made the bed even better, more appealing. 

“My dearest Fluttershy has been sick… she’s been puking her adorable little guts out. It’s especially bad during the mornings,” Discord said in a nervous wavering voice. 

“Go to the hospital, get a pregnancy test,” Twilight grumbled. “Why come to me? I’m not a doctor… I’m a sleepy pony princess that wants to be in bed,” she whined. 

“Twilight, I think we need your help,” Fluttershy said as she dropped her cloak. As she did so, Discord did the same. Fluttershy closed her eyes, began counting, and waited. 

Fluttershy counted to four before the piercing shriek could be heard. 

“DISCORD WHAT DID YOU DO?” Twilight Sparkle accused in a ragged scream after shrieking wordlessly. 

“I didn’t do anything! Honest! I’m baffled too!” Discord protested. “Why is it when something goes wrong you just blame me?” 

“Because right now you have one of Fluttershy’s legs!” Twilight shouted. 

“And she has one of mine! She has my left goat leg! That’s my favourite leg!” Discord bellowed as he feebly waved his front legs in the air. “It’s filled with goaty goodness. Whole grain goats are part of an essential daily walk.” 

“Fluttershy, your left hind leg is a goat leg!” Twilight screamed. 

“I know,” Fluttershy squeaked, looking appalled by the whole situation. 

“What is going on? Stop shouting, there are foals and and a lazy pegasus trying to sleep!” a muffled voice cried out from upstairs. 

“Fluttershy… goat leg,” Twilight Sparkle whispered, covering her mouth with a hoof. 

“My goat leg,” Discord said in tiny squeaky voice. 

“It is too early in the morning to deal with this,” Twilight Sparkle mumbled, shaking her head. She sucked in a deep breath, held it for a moment, just as Cadance had taught her to do, and then let it out slowly as she made a gesture with her front hoof. She stood there staring stupidly, unable to do anything else. She looked at Fluttershy, watching as the mare was slowly turning green. 

“Fluttershy? Do you need to be sick?” Twilight Sparkle questioned. She began to yawn, overcome with weariness. 

“Yes,” Fluttershy replied. 

A moment later, Twilight Sparkle shrieked as something hot and chunky splattered up against her face and neck, and she shared what was sure to be an intimate and friendship building moment with Fluttershy, something neither one of them would ever talk about ever again, as long as both of them lived, and for Fluttershy, that was going to be a very long time. 

Spitting, Twilight Sparkle tried to get the sour taste of partially digested oats out of her her mouth. “Ugh, strawberries,” she grunted, shaking vomit from her face. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 381
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morning was a little warmer than the previous mornings, there was a bit of warmth to the air, it was nearly perfect weather for the soon to be Running of the Leaves. Loch Skimmer felt that she had orchestrated a nearly perfect dawn, she had carefully added in her own flourishes and touches, and she expected everypony to wake up and be extra affectionate today. 

For whatever reason, Fluttershy had been unable to assist today, leaving Loch Skimmer and the others to make the dawn happen. Loch Skimmer felt she had managed the event well enough. Swooping from cloud to cloud, she was making her way home, feeling the need to smooch somepony herself, and there was still plenty of time before school started. She banked and rolled, working on her more complex flight tricks, and then she somersaulted through the air several times, allowing herself to become rather dizzy. 

Loch Skimmer liked to feel dizzy. 



 

The double doors opened and Celestia entered through a moment later. Behind her, a jet black filly with a pink mane followed, looking sleek and well groomed. Both walked with high steps, Celestia was clearly teaching the foal how to be regal, but the lesson disintegrated the moment the foal saw Buckminster and she came running. 

Using his magic, Bucky lifted her up into his chair with him and held her close, glad to see her again. Subconsciously, an action he gave no thought to, he ran his right fetlock over her back and her body, looking for injuries. 

“Hi,” Tourmaline chipped. Unable to hold back, she began kissing Bucky all over his face, her legs around his neck as she clung to him. So great was her excitement that her disguise fell away, which earned her a soft snort of disapproval from Celestia and Luna. 

As he was being pecked, Bucky marvelled at the changeling. She had hard chitinous plates, but they became quite soft and flexible when the situation demanded it. Her lips were every bit as soft and dexterous as any other pony. 

“She is very affectionate,” Tannis said as he watched Bucky and the changeling. 

“She can turn into a griffon,” Agnetha commented as she set down her fork. 

“Luna, how could you not like this?” Bucky asked as he gave Tourmaline a soft squeeze and she quietly settled in against him, resting her head against the crook of his neck. 

Saying nothing, Luna ate a few bites of cottage cheese and pineapple, glaring at Buckminster, her teal eyes flashing with irritation as she held her tongue. 

“You know Luna, I still have room at home for one more,” Bucky stated. 

Looking at Bucky, Luna glared. “Watch thine tongue, churl,” Luna warned. 

“Auntie Moon Drops loves me, I can feel it,” Tourmaline whispered to Bucky. 

Rolling her eyes, Luna turned away in disgust as her sister began to laugh. Chortling himself, Bucky began to realise that Tourmaline was just what Celestia and Luna needed. 

“It must be nice to have Tourmaline here with you… and Tannis and Agnetha,” Bucky stated as he gently let the now squirming Tourmaline down so she could go have breakfast. 

“It feels like family,” Celestia replied, demurely tucking into a cup of yogurt filled with fruit. “I missed having Twilight Sparkle here with me.” 

“I wanna see Twilight,” Tourmaline begged as she settled into her chair. “And Slippy. I miss Slippy.” The changeling waited all of one minute looking at her plate and then began to gobble down food in a way that only foals can as Celestia looked on with mild disapproval. 

“At some point, I need to be going. There are things to be done at home,” Bucky announced in a weary voice. 

“You need rest… you look about half dead,” Agnetha replied, her crest rising as she spoke and the feathers on her neck fluffing outward. 

“I’ll manage,” Bucky mumbled. 



 

“Sentinel?” 

“Yes Diamond?” Sentinel replied, looking up from the homework he was checking over one last time. 

“Thank you,” Diamond Tiara whispered in embarrassment. 

“For what?” Sentinel asked, his ears swiveling forward. 

“For not kicking me out of your bed when I came to you last night. I know it was awkward and you were worried about, uh, things popping up, but I was hurting and being close to you made me feel better, and you were a perfect gentlecolt,” Diamond Tiara said, unable to look at Sentinel, turning away and blushing. 

“Think nothing of it,” Sentinel replied in a raspy nervous voice that rose an octave and then cracked with an awkward squeak. 

“I said some awful things to my father… do you think he still loves me?” Diamond Tiara questioned, looking pensive and frightened. 

“I’m certain that he does,” Sentinel responded, closing his schoolbook completely. 

“I don’t think I’m coming to school today Sentinel… I really don’t feel good, my stomach hurts, and I’m sore all over from crying,” Diamond Tiara said in a soft voice, looking at Sentinel with wide adoring eyes. “I feel so tired.” 

“Stay here… there are a gaggle of mares that will mother you… maybe you need that right now,” Sentinel suggested, concern and worry visible upon his expressive face. 

“I really don’t feel good,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “I haven’t felt good in a while… I keep getting sick when I get stressed out. Doctor Derby said it was attention seeking behaviour but I really do get sick and my stomach keeps hurting.” 

“How long has this been happening?” Berry Punch asked from the doorway, gently butting into the private conversation. 

“I don’t know… a few months. When I get stressed out I get in a lot of pain and I get sick, like I did last night. I barfed up what looked like gritty mud,” Diamond Tiara said to Berry Punch. “I feel a little better this morning though.” 

“And you told this to your doctor?” Berry asked, her brows furrowing. 

“Yes… he told me it was a psychosomatic symptom to generate sympathy and attention,” Diamond Tiara murmured, trying to remember all of the big words the doctor had used to describe her condition. 

“Your dad is still asleep and I doubt that he will be in any sort of state to deal with this when he wakes up. You’re coming with me when I take the foals to school and you are going the hospital,” Berry Punch said, her voice full of worry. “Don’t you argue with me.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Diamond Tiara said meekly. “Thank you.” 

“Somepony has to mother you,” Berry grumbled. 



 

Nurse Redheart shook her head. She had seen a lot of weird stuff during her long career as a nurse. Strange injuries, bizarre magical and physical ailments, and had even heard strange stories. And right now, she was witness to the strangest thing that had ever happened in Ponyville hospital. 

Doctor Stable, looking agitated, cleared his throat and looked at Fluttershy, Discord, and Twilight Sparkle. He started to say something, faltered, fell silent, and then he took a deep breath to try again. “We’ve discovered something odd in the blood work we’ve ran. Discord, we’ve detected unusually high levels of eCG… equine Chorionic Gonadotropin. Look, I need to say up front I am hesitant to make a diagnosis, but the results seem fairly straight forward.” 

Looking very confused, Twilight Sparkle turned to look at Discord, her eyes narrowing and her nostrils going wide. She sucked in one deep breath and her ears went completely limp against the sides of her face. 

“Well? What is it?” Fluttershy said in a very worried voice. 

“The doctor is having trouble saying that Discord is pregnant,” Nurse Redheart blurted out, being blunt and direct as any good nurse should be and getting right to the point. “Discord is pregnant but for some reason, you are getting the morning sickness. We have no idea how the leg swap happened. We have next to no knowledge about draconequus medical knowledge.” 

“I’m going to have a foal?” Discord whined in panic. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then fainted dead away, falling over on the examination table with a thump. 

“Nothing surprises me anymore with Discord,” Twilight Sparkle grunted. 

“I suspect that Discord might be pregnant,” Doctor Stable said weakly, lifting one front hoof in a confused gesture of uncertainty. 

“I’m not pregnant?” Fluttershy inquired in a soft nearly heartbroken voice. 

“Not yet, but you could still end up that way,” Doctor Stable responded. “I have no idea how these things work. He’s male, you are female, crossbreeding is possible, but for whatever reason, he is pregnant and however twisted the logic might be, we must assume he is pregnant with your foal.” 

“But I wanted to be pregnant. We worked very hard at it… we even drank that brew from Zecora that brings mares into season right away. I had all of the symptoms. I was consumed with fever and there was a whole lot of need… I… we… oh my,” Fluttershy squeaked, turning bright pink as she spoke. She began to fan herself with one wing. “I suddenly feel very hot.” 

“Why can’t anything in my life ever be normal?” Twilight demanded, shaking her head, her still damp mane falling around her neck and releasing the scent of lavender shampoo. 

“I still want to do more tests if that is alright,” Doctor Stable stated, looking at Fluttershy with curiousity. 

“Oh… of course,” Fluttershy murmured. 



 

“I’m scared,” Diamond Tiara whimpered as she clung to Berry Punch. 

“It’ll be okay,” Berry Punch said as she slipped a foreleg around the small pink earth pony foal. “Look, the place where they drew blood from has stopped bleeding.” 

“Still hurts,” Diamond Tiara whined as she pressed herself against Berry. 

“I know… they had a hard time tapping the vein. The nurse says you're dehydrated, it always makes it harder to draw blood,” Berry patiently explained. 

“I drank some water and some fruit juice at breakfast,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice. “I feel kinda sick.” 

“You don’t look so good,” Berry Punch agreed. 

“No… I’m gonna be sick,” Diamond Tiara corrected and then clutched at her stomach. 

Lifting Diamond Tiara with her front forelegs, Berry Punch held the foal over the trash can as she spewed, her breakfast coming out in hot partially digested chunks. After a few dry heaves, a dark substance came out, and Diamond Tiara gagged, coughed, and sputtered as she puked. 

Berry Punch held the foal and waited patiently, not bothered by ponies puking. 

A moment later, the door opened and Nurse Redheart appeared. The mare stood in the doorway, a look of pity upon her face, a look that changed to one of worry as Diamond Tiara wretched out more black tarry goop. 

“Not a good sign,” Berry grumbled. 

“No it isn’t,” Nurse Redheart agreed. She sighed, it had been a troubling morning. 

Finally, when nothing else would come up, Berry Punch set Diamond Tiara down beside her on the examination table while Nurse Redheart grabbed a wash cloth and began to soak it down in hot water. The two mares went to work cleaning the foal up, trying to scrub the sick off of her face, Berry Punch holding, and Nurse Redheart scrubbing. 

“You’ve done this before. You know how to stretch the skin tight to make vomit easier to clean,” Nurse Redheart remarked. 

Saying nothing in reply, Berry Punch nodded and watched as Nurse Redheart continued to work, carefully scrubbing at Diamond Tiara’s nostrils as the foal kicked, squirmed, and made muffled protests about her treatment. 

“It has certainly been one of those mornings,” Doctor Stable announced as he came into the examination room. He watched Diamond Tiara getting scrubbed, looking around, and then looked down into the trash can. He scowled as he peered in, clucked his tongue, and then shook his head. “That confirms it,” he muttered. 

“Confirms what?” Diamond Tiara said as Nurse Redheart wiped under her chin. 

“You are a very sick little foal,” Doctor Stable said in a warm gentle voice. 

“I knew that,” Diamond Tiara said as Nurse Redheart pulled away and tossed the washcloth into the sink. 

“You’re anemic… which is a problem, the CBC was not good. I strongly suspected that you might have a peptic ulcer… a bleeding ulcer. Looking into the trash can pretty much confirms it. We need to do a few more tests,” Doctor Stable explained in a patient voice. 

“That’s what I thought when I brought her here,” Berry grumbled. 

“Well, thank the stars for motherly mares that pay attention. This has been going on for a while I think, based on what you’ve told us Miss Tiara,” Doctor Stable said, looking at Diamond Tiara with wide care-filled eyes. 

“Will I get better?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Yes, with time, you should… but it isn’t going to be that easy. I suspect that stress is the cause here, what you need is some time spent in a very calm environment. Probably not going to school. You need bed rest. And medication wouldn’t hurt either,” Doctor Stable replied. 

“But everywhere I go is stressful… how do I get away from stress?” Diamond Tiara whimpered. The foal looked panicked and overwhelmed and tears were forming in her eyes. 

“You could stay on the farm with us for a while… it’s quiet enough. We could look after you. Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel would be in school during the day, but they could keep you company when they come home,” Berry Punch suggested. She looked at Doctor Stable. “She told Doctor Derby about this and he did nothing. He dismissed it. He-” 

“Ma’am, for the foal’s sake, please calm down. I assure you, right now this matter is being investigated. Doctor Derby is an employee of this hospital. There has already been an official inquiry filed, I did it myself, I signed the papers just before I came in here to speak with you,” Doctor Stable said in a soothing voice. 

“I feel kinda queasy,” Diamond Tiara announced. 

Sighing, Berry Punch once again lifted the now gagging foal and held her over the trash can as more black tarry goop was forcibly purged from Diamond Tiara’s stomach. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 382
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Opening her eyes, Diamond Tiara squirmed under the blankets as she slowly woke up, feeling warm and comfortable. She was in Dinky and Piña’s room, in the spare bed, and her tongue felt thick and too sticky from the pain pills she had been given at the hospital. She heard the clunk of a tray being set down and she rolled over. 

“Hi there… I’ve been asked to look after you. My name is Sunset Shimmer. You and I have a lot in common. How are you feeling? You look a little dried out.” 

“I’m thirsty,” Diamond Tiara said in a raspy voice. 

“I could imagine,” said Sunset Shimmer in a soft voice that was full of concern. Using her magic, she lifted Diamond Tiara into a sitting position and stuffed several pillows behind her. She lifted a small juice glass full of apple juice to Diamond Tiara’s lips, and watched as the earth pony foal struggled to get her lips around the straw. Sunset Shimmer had to give a soft nudge to get the straw into Diamond Tiara’s lips, and Sunset patiently waited as the foal drank.  “Bartleby, where are you?” 

“I am here,” Bartleby responded, standing near the door of the room. 

“Good, I feel nervous when you’re not around, Bartleby,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft voice, still watching as Diamond Tiara drank down the glass of apple juice. “You and I share something in common Diamond Tiara.” 

Swallowing and falling back into the pillow pile, Diamond Tiara looked up at Sunset Shimmer. “We do?” she asked, sounding groggy and weak. 

“We do,” Sunset responded. “Want some broth? Sorry, but all you get is liquids for a while. There will be some soup later, I do believe that Semillon is fixing something suitable for your stomach.” 

“Just more juice,” Diamond Tiara said in a weak whisper. “I feel funny.” 

“They gave you some serious pain killers… bleeding ulcers hurt. You’re a tough little foal for just pushing along,” Sunset Shimmer said as she poured more juice from the glass jug into the glass. She held the glass out for Diamond Tiara and pushed the straw between the filly’s lips. “They also gave you some pills to make you feel relaxed.” 

Saying nothing, still drinking, Diamond Tiara nodded. 

“You and I… we were both bullies,” Sunset Shimmer stated, watching as Diamond Tiara drank more juice. “We caused a lot of hurt. I went even farther than you did, I did some bad things that give me nightmares and cause me a lot of trouble now… and we’re forced to deal with what we’ve done in the past. We both struggle with acceptance. We both want others to see that we’ve changed, and others keep expecting the very worst from us.” 

A dribble of juice made its way down Diamond Tiara’s chin as the straw slipped free from her lips. She stared up at Sunset Shimmer, tears already rimming her eyes. 

“I turned into a rampaging she-demon. No joke. I made deals to get the sort of power I wanted… I wanted respect… I confused respect and fear. I made others afraid of me. I really screwed things up,” Sunset Shimmer explained as she wiped Diamond Tiara’s chin with a napkin from the tray. “And then, once I got a much needed reality check, I had to live with what I had done. Everybody hated me. Nobody trusted me. I had hurt so many.” 

“I live with that every day,” said Diamond Tiara in a strangled whisper. 

“I know you do. Master has told me in detail,” Sunset Shimmer replied, offering Diamond Tiara a smile. 

“Master?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Buckminster,” Sunset Shimmer responded, offering a single word for explanation. “Luckily, I had a few friends. I had to earn their respect. I had to earn their forgiveness. They watched over me and when I screwed up, they set me straight. When I fell down, they picked me up, brushed me off, and then gave me a good shove to get me going again. They didn’t let me fall back into old habits. And with their help, I broke most of those habits and I started to heal. I got better. It was painful, and I cried a lot, but I did get better.” 

“What about trust?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“I learned that it wasn’t as important as I made it out to be. I left behind a bad situation when Master had me brought here. Now, I understand something that has made me feel a lot better… Master trusts me. Implicitly. He has been very kind to me and I never want to screw up or do anything that will break that trust. Twilight Sparkle trusts me. A lot of ponies don’t trust me just yet, they remember what I’ve done. And it doesn’t matter. I only need to focus on the trust I have. Since I figured that out, my life has been a whole lot easier,” Sunset Shimmer explained.

“I trust you,” Bartleby interjected. 

“I know you do Bartleby… and it means more to me than I could put into words,” Sunset Shimmer responded, turning to look at the griffon. 

“So what about being accepted?” Diamond Tiara inquired, looking at Sunset Shimmer with wide curious bloodshot eyes. 

“It isn’t important. It will either happen or it won’t. For now, I have Master and his family. I have my friends that I send messages to. I have Twilight Sparkle. And of course, Bartleby. I would be lost without Bartleby,” Sunset Shimmer answered as she refilled the juice glass once again. 

“This is embarrassing, but I need to pee,” Diamond Tiara whispered as she wiggled in the bed. “But nothing is moving the way I want it to.” 

“I’ll help you,” Sunset Shimmer offered, setting the juice glass down. 

“Did I have a nervous breakdown?” Diamond Tiara asked as Sunset Shimmer pulled back the blankets that covered Diamond Tiara. 

“I don’t know… maybe? I don’t know how to answer that,” Sunset Shimmer responded in a confused voice as she lifted the earth pony foal. “Whatever happened, today is the day you start getting better because I’m going to be like your big sister. I know what you’re going through. And I’m going to get you through this, and you are going to get me through my rough patches, and we’re gonna look out for one another.” 

“Okay,” Diamond Tiara said groggily, the room spinning all around her as she floated through the air, now weightless. “I always wanted a big sister… Dinky and Piña are like my little sisters… I love them… I love them so much and I hurt them both so badly,” Diamond Tiara mumbled as she began to sniffle. 

“Shush,” Sunset Shimmer said as she carried the earth pony foal out the door to head off to the bathroom. 



 

“Bucky is finally asleep,” Derpy announced as she came into the kitchen. “Bon Bon rubbed him down. She said he was nothing but knots. I wonder what Luna was making him do...” the grey mare grumbled. 

“I think we’re all happier not knowing,” Berry Punch said gloomily. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Filthy Rich grumbled, rubbing his head. 

“Sunset Shimmer?” Berry asked. 

“Yes… I remember what she did,” Filthy Rich replied, his eyes closed. 

“Maybe you’re forgetting what Bucky did… and probably just did again last night. Whatever he did last night disturbed him,” Derpy groused as she sat down at the table. 

“Point taken, complaint withdrawn,” Filthy Rich groaned, slumping over the table and setting his head down. 

“Naval strength gin. Bucky finished off the bottle and drank wine with dinner,” Berry Punch remarked as she looked at Filthy Rich. 

“I will never drink again,” Filthy Rich vowed. 

The ponies around the table all looked up when they heard the sound of a bath being drawn. Filthy Rich’s head wobbled on his neck and he struggled mightily to keep looking up. Derpy looked flustered and out of sorts. Berry Punch gave a nod. 

“A hot bath will do Diamond Tiara some good. She needs to relax. See, Sunset Shimmer knows how to look after a foal,” Berry Punch said, offering some reassurance. 

With a thump, Filthy Rich collapsed down upon the table, his head hitting the wood with a solid thud. The stallion whimpered, writhed in his chair, and he squeezed his eyes shut, wishing the pain would go away. 

“Bleeding ulcers,” Derpy said, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“Ponies seem to forget that foals can suffer from extreme stress,” said Berry Punch in a knowing voice. She looked at Derpy and blinked a few times. 

“You don’t mind her staying here for a while?” Filthy Rich moaned. 

“No, we’ll look after her for as long as she needs to be looked after,” Derpy answered, reaching out and gently patting Filthy Rich on the back. 

“I’ve messed up everything. Everything. I’ve been a terrible father. I was a bad husband. I’ve done all of the wrong things. I keep making mistakes,” Filthy Rich said as he lifted his head. “I need to go. There are things to take care of. Please look after her. I have business to look after. The world doesn’t stop just because I have personal issues. I gotta go,” he announced as he rose unsteadily from his chair. He gave himself a shake. “Thank you… both of you. Thank you so much. Tell her I love her,” Filthy Rich requested. 

“You gonna be okay?” Derpy asked. 

“I’m just hungover, I’ll be fine. Remind me to never drink with your husband when I’m emotional,” Filthy Rich grumbled as he made his way to the door. 

“Come back soon,” Berry said as Filthy Rich departed. 



 

“There is a lot of snatch and grab crime in the marketplace,” Thunderlane warned as he and Flash Sentry trotted through the marketplace together. “Ponies… they get a little dumb. They forget just how visible they are, that they have cutie marks, and other ponies can identify them. “They’re desperate though. Most of the crime isn’t done by long time Ponyville residents. It is important to remember that these ponies are just trying to get by. Sparkler has a strict arrest, detain, lecture, and then letting them know about the food bank and other community services before letting them go policy.” 

“Sounds reasonable,” Flash Sentry grunted. 

“We try to be reasonable if the public will allow us,” Thunderlane said as he waved at Roseluck. “Hi Rose, how’s Slate?” 

“His usual goofy self,” Roseluck replied, smiling broadly. 

“Tell him I said hello,” Thunderlane requested as he trotted by Roseluck’s stall. “This is a big part of our job. Gaining the trust of the community. Sparkler takes a militant approach to this… she has ponies, that she’s slipped bits to, that keep an eye on us and report to her. If we go about our beat and we do not interact with the community and make friends, somehow, old Stoneface knows about it.” 

“She really has ponies that spy on us?” Flash Sentry asked. 

“I think so. We did some brainstorming one day and a couple of us asked her. She didn’t deny it, she told us to believe whatever we needed to believe for us to do our jobs better,” Thunderlane responded. 

Flash Sentry snorted and shook his head. He also waved at a stallion selling tomatoes in a beat up looking wooden stall as he trotted past. The tomatoes were kind of sad looking, grown far too late in the season. The tomato seller was also charging an insane price for the sad looking tomatoes. 

“Holly Dash and Orange Swirl should be around here somewhere. They are the most wonderful ponies you could ever work with. Holly Dash is a unicorn and Orange Swirl is a pegasus. Holly has the most wonderful stun spell… she likes to take out the grab and go types,” Thunderlane said as he and Flash made their way through the market. 

“Where are Big McIntosh and Twinkleshine?” Flash Sentry inquired. 

“Over by the rail depot. Today is a freight day. Snowflake is over there with them as well, making sure nobody tries to do anything foolish with the supply trains that have finally started to run again,” Thunderlane replied. 

“I take it crime is a big problem over there?” Flash Sentry asked. 

“It has become a very bad problem,” Thunderlane admitted. “Sparkler is currently trying to figure out what to do about it. She’s currently considering stocks and public shaming.” 

“You’re joking,” Flash Sentry stated, looking Thunderlane in the eye. 

“Sparkler has a writ from Princess Celestia to maintain the peace through any means necessary, provided that Sparkler does not resort to flogging or other means of corporal punishment. Stocks and public shaming are two things listed on the writ that Princess Celestia deems appropriate,” Thunderlane responded. 

“That’s medieval,” Flash Sentry muttered. 

“Sparkler really does try to stop crime through other means… ponies that steal food, she gives them a good lecture, tells them about ways to get food or get help, and she lets them go. When they just keep stealing because it is an easy way to get food that requires no real work, they sort of force her hoof… what can she do?” Thunderlane questioned. 

“Fair point… but the stocks, really?” Flash Sentry remarked, unable to believe that such an option would be appropriate.

“Spend a couple of weeks doing the job and let’s check back on your opinion,” Thunderlane said in a knowing voice. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 383
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The magic that Bucky sent through the fulgurite plug and his gemstone eye made his whole face tingle. He was creating a foundation spell, a specific spell that could be replicated for ease of use, and through trial and error he planned to fix his currently malfunctioning eye, not only just fixing it, but making it better. 

His encounter with Chrysalis had taught him much. 

On the library table was a small glass spider, a spell jar with eight little legs, a golem he had carefully infused with his own shadow. Unicorns had strong countermeasures against other unicorns and magic, and Bucky was hard at work countering that, establishing a link with his creation through shadow magic. 

Curled in a chair with Piña, Dinky watched, her eyes wide, she was paying attention to everything being done as her father made the glass spider an extension of his will. She didn’t understand what was going on exactly, but her father had said he was going to create his own army of insects that he could see through. 

For a moment, Bucky was able to see what the spider was seeing, and then the image faded, leaving him feeling disappointed but also encouraged. He made a few adjustments, strengthened the weave of magic, and then, once more, he was able to see out of the right side of his head, a sensation that nearly overwhelmed him after being blind for so long. His right eye and his left eye were seeing two different things and his brain had trouble with the confusing jumble. He closed his left eye and then realised he could see the room around him. 

There was no colour, everything was hazy, out of focus, and shown in black and white. He willed the spider to move forward over the table and a sheet of paper with letters came into view. He struggled, trying to read the letters, but could not gain enough focus. 

Bucky sighed, feeling weary, and then he broke the connection. It still needed work. And maybe a little help from Twilight Sparkle. He opened his left eye and saw Dinky and Piña looking at him hopefully. 

“Did it work?” Dinky asked. 

“Yes Dinky, it sort of worked,” Bucky said. 

“Well, that’s a start,” Dinky said in a happy sounding voice. 

“Yes it is, Dinky,” Bucky agreed. “Piña, how goes your lessons?” 

“Harder now with school. I don’t have as much time to study magic with all of my school work. I can cast light spells, I can light candles, I can make things cold, and I can make a powerful static shock. I have to touch everything though,” Piña answered, the foal now smiling as she spoke, and she looked very proud. 

“Is Diamond Tiara going to be okay?” Dinky asked, watching her father lift the glass spider in his magic and examine it closely. 

“With time, I think she will be. She needs friends to love her and make her feel better,” Bucky responded, his eye glancing at his fillies for a moment as he worked. 

“Sentinel brought her schoolwork home with him so she doesn’t fall behind,” Piña said, her lip protruding in a slight pout. 

“That was very thoughtful and considerate of him,” Bucky remarked, ignoring Piña’s theatrics. “Falling behind in her schoolwork would only cause more stress.” 

“I suppose so, but she’s sick. You shouldn’t have to do schoolwork when you are sick,” Piña grumbled. Reaching up, the foal brushed her mane out of her face with her hoof. “So you plan to connect yourself to all of your golems?” 

“Yes. It will allow me to see all over the world and spot trouble. It will give me an edge in conflict. With my gunpowder detection golems, I will have a network of creations that will allow me to look at the troubled places in the world, learn about them, and then maybe figure out how to help them,” Bucky explained. 

“But they are our enemies, right? The bad things with guns… like the gun that shot you,” Dinky said in a confused voice. “Why help them?” 

“Because Dinky… if we help them, if we make them feel as though they are equals, if we address the issues that cause them to misbehave, we might be able to turn them away from violence and give them better options. It is my opinion that guns are the last options of the desperate. Maybe they don’t feel listened to. Perhaps if we listen and address the issue of why they feel the need for violence, we can make it go away,” explained Bucky in a patient voice, glancing at his foals as he spoke and continued to labour on the glass spider golem. 

“And we should treat bullies the same way?” Piña asked in a small voice. 

His magic fizzling out, Bucky dropped the glass spider golem on the table. It danced around in irritation, unhappy about being dropped, and angrily shook one leg at Bucky in a scolding manner. Ignoring the spider, Bucky looked at Piña. “Piña, love, you never stop amazing me,” he said in a strangled voice. “Yes Piña, the creatures with guns are bullies. They have to be dealt with, firmly, but with compassion and fairness if they will allow us to do so, if they give us that option. We have to help them if we can… they might be very special to us once we do. Just think of Diamond Tiara. Sadly, not every bully can be reformed or helped. But we must try. We must first respond with gentleness, then we use force, and if no other option can be used, then we respond with wrath. Which is why I am building an army of golems.” 

“The only way to deal with bullies is through numbers. Face them together as a herd,” Dinky said, nodding her head. She understood, her unique insight into swarms gave her a different perspective. 

“I am so proud of you both,” Bucky said in a low voice as he once again began to work on the glass spider golem, trying to weave in the magic of dreams so he would always have an active connection with his creations. 



 

Sighing, Rising Star closed his schoolbook, shut his eyes, and then leaned back in his chair. Mister Chip’s lessons had been about social theory, something that Rising Star desperately needed to know. Entirely too soon he was going to be attending the first Stable of Representatives meeting. The first meeting had been delayed, rescheduled to a somewhat later date. 

Creating a government from scratch was difficult. 

Yawning, Sparkler covered her mouth with her hoof. She looked around the dining room table, first at Rising Star, then at Mister Chips, and she offered a sheepish grin. “I just woke up, I’m sorry. I wasn’t yawning about the lesson… I gotta go on patrol tonight.” 

Adjusting his reading glasses, Mister Chips smiled. “The appearance of authority is one of the many things required for a stable society. Authority figures are necessary in any healthy society. They are symbols and we associate many things with them. Just think of all that comes to mind when we think of the royals, or the guard, or even just the common police officer. We associate them with feelings of stability and safety. You provide a far more valuable service than you realise; you are one of the elements required for society to function, survive, and thrive,” Mister Chips explained. 

“I’m about to give society a symbol alright,” Sparkler grumbled, shaking her head. “The stocks. What sort of symbol is that?” 

Clearing his throat, Mister Chips lifted his head and looked at Sparkler. “A very serious symbol. It means that something in society has broken down enough that the usual symbols of authority are no longer enough to hold society together and more extreme measures are now required. It is regrettably necessary on occasion… I would suggest however, that the stocks be constructed and left in the town square… unused if possible. Just a visible reminder.” 

“That seems extreme. I don’t know that I agree with it,” Rising Star said, shaking his head. “As a Representative, I have to actually figure out how I feel about these issues. I’m very confused and this bothers me.” 

“Thievery is rampant. Burglary is becoming a serious problem. And I have unscrupulous ponies acting as pimps for mares forced into prostitution because they believe it is the only way to make bits and feed themselves… we are getting some big city problems that we’ve never had to deal with before,” Sparkler said as she looked at Rising Star with a fierce blaze in her eyes, her whole body twitching. 

“I understand all of that Sparky, I just don’t know how I feel about putting a pony in the stocks… it feels wrong,” Rising Star responded, trying to smooth over Sparkler’s obvious growing anger. “The stocks are cruel. One pony in the stocks is going to hate you. That hate is going to become an issue later… they will want revenge. We might not get crime out of desperation, but out of sense of vengeance. We will have ponies that hate the constabulary and their use of extreme force and will band to fight together against it.” 

Swallowing an angry retort, Sparkler considered Rising Star’s words. “You’re right… I don’t like it, but you are right. So this becomes escalation. We do something, they do something, we have to do something worse and it never stops.” 

“Both of you are such promising young ponies… each one of you are going to make extraordinary adults, the sort that change society. I feel privileged to know the two of you,” Mister Chips stated in a warm sincere voice. 

“The stocks may become necessary, but should only be used sparingly, until something better comes along,” Sparkler said thoughtfully, considering her husband’s words. “So what is better?” 

“I don’t know,” Rising Star admitted. “I think about it while I am working with metal. It is the only time I can really think,” he said. 

“For the long term, when you take in criminals, talk to them. Be kind to them. Be their friend. Try to find out what drove them to criminal acts. And then keep track of this information. Present it to the politicians. Speak out and get the community involved. Deal with the heart of the issue. In the short term, do whatever is necessary to keep society safe,” Mister Chips suggested. 

“That seems wise,” Rising Star agreed. 

“Yes it does,” Sparkler stated, looking first at her husband and then at Mister Chips. 



 

Coco Pommel offered a gentle smile to Rarity, who seemed more than a little frazzled at the moment. She reached out, touched the frustrated mare, and then took a deep breath, hoping that Rarity would follow her lead. 

“Derpy told me that she would make sure that Bucky had some time in the afternoon tomorrow. Today went badly. They are dealing with a very sick foal,” Coco said. “So tomorrow afternoon, we will go and do what needs to be done.”

Sighing, still frazzled, Rarity took a deep breath. “I don’t even know why I am so nervous,” Rarity fumed, feeling a little angry with herself. “My parents approve, Sweetie Belle adores you… everything is coming up roses.” 

“This is a big step in a pony’s life,” Coco murmured softly, hoping her calm demeanour would calm the drama-prone unicorn that she loved. 

“How is Diamond Tiara?” Rarity asked, her attention suddenly seizing upon something else. 

“From what little I know, she is very sick, and has been for quite some time,” Coco answered in a soft voice that was made of soothing velvet. She noticed that Rarity was calming, and Coco helped the process along by rubbing Rarity with her hoof, unaware that she was doping her chosen mate with a cocktail of chemicals from her frogs. 

“She’s had a rough go of things,” Rarity said as she began to relax. She melted under Coco’s ministrations, feeling her tense muscles softening under Coco’s touch. “Oh that feels divine… Coco, you are like Aloe and Lotus, I don’t know how you earth ponies give the best massages, but this is lovely.” 

“Twilight Sparkle adopted another foal… perhaps we should adopt. It would be generous,” Coco suggested as she rubbed Rarity into submission. “Having our own foals is nice, but adoption is a good idea. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna adopted, there are a lot of needy foals… it might be good for our business.” 

“Oooh, darling, that is a good idea,” Rarity breathed as she leaned into Coco’s hoof. “You know Coco, I have other places that have… tension and I need your hoof to rub them… maybe we could go upstairs and you could help me.” 

“I bet you do have places that are tight,” Coco agreed, tittering faintly. 
	
> Chapter 384
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Belisama, help me, I can’t roll over,” Thistle said as she floundered in the bed. 

The griffoness blinked, struggling to wake up. She yawned, stretched her back, and realised that the bed was now empty except for her and Thistle. She looked at the kelpie that was stuck on her back. “I doubt I could roll you over. I’ll go get help.” 

“Hurry… the foal is smashing my bladder over and over!” Thistle urged, her tone frantic. She wiggled some more, rocking from one side to another, completely unable to roll over. “Oh this is awful… I should have stayed in the lake but I wanted to be in the bed with all of you.” 

Rolling out of bed, Belisama hobbled away on three legs, tucking her cast up against her belly, and she stretched her wings as she made her way to the door. She picked up her pace and got a move on, understanding all too well the pressing need that Thistle must be feeling. 

“HELP!” Thistle cried, hoping somepony would hear her as Belisama slipped out the door and started down the hall. “Oh please stop trying to swim in there, I think I can feel your little tail flapping.” 



 

Watching as Lyra disappeared out the kitchen archway and down the hall, Derpy sighed, understanding that Thistle was going to become a serious problem in a the very near future. “She’s got about three more months,” Derpy remarked as Lyra’s swishy tail vanished from view. 

“Running of the Leaves soon… then Nightmare Night at the end of the month and from there, two months until Hearth’s Warming. Sounds about right,” Berry Punch said in a Berry half awake voice. “My backside is sore,” she grumbled. 

“Who’s making your backside sore?” Bucky asked in mock concern. “As your husband, I demand to know.” 

“Not you… you never came to bed last night, you jerk,” Berry growled. She picked up a biscuit from the plate on the table and chucked it at Bucky’s head. It bounced and she saw it caught up in the blue-green glow of Bucky’s magic. “We grow lonesome in that bed, all of us mares all piled up together, with nothing to do but each other,” she said as she watched Bucky eating the biscuit. 

“Belisama is a party pooper though. She doesn’t understand the fun two females can have together,” Derpy said in a pouty voice. 

“She doesn’t have lips like we do so some parts of our sexual activities are alien to her… she’s terrified of sex, she’s still having terrible nightmares because of what happened to her sister, so cut her a little slack,” Berry Punch said as she thought about throwing a biscuit at Derpy. 

“Fair points,” Derpy said dejectedly. “Bucky, don’t forget, you have a wedding to perform this afternoon. Rarity and Coco are counting on you.” 

Swallowing his last bite of biscuit, Bucky nodded and then wiped crumbs away from his muzzle. “Those biscuits are so moist. I don’t know how she does it, but we need to give our cook a raise.” 

“Really Bucky, Coco and Rarity really are counting on you,” Derpy insisted, looking directly at Bucky with her good eye and closing her bad eye. 

“I get it… if I fall asleep, wake me up,” Bucky answered. “Where is Bon Bon?” 

“She is upstairs having a chat with Diamond Tiara,” Berry responded. The earth pony yawned and let out a long low moan that was almost sexual sounding. “I’m feeling lazy today. I think I am going to go back to bed and cuddle with Thistle. She’s so warm and snuggly lately.” 

“Plus, she’s so full of foal that her little love button stays perpetually popped out, which makes it really easy to play with,” Bucky remarked as he looked out the window. 

“Mmm,” Derpy moaned, her tongue darting out from her mouth and flicking against her lips as she did so. For a moment, the grey mare looked hungry. 

“We’re living through the last moments of peace we will ever know for a long time,” Berry Punch mused, sharing her thoughts out loud. 

“Huh?” Bucky grunted, looking over at Berry Punch. 

“I’m confused,” Derpy stated, shaking her head. 

“We have Harper and Peekaboo, but they’re not too bad. Bittersweet looks after them and Semillon loves to dote on them when she isn’t cooking. Dinky and Piña aren’t too bad. Our older foals are mostly independent. In just a few months time, Thistle will have her foal… not long after, Derpy and I are going to squirt out four foals between the two of us. If Belisama was to become pregnant right now, she could possibly have her young before the two of us, because Magpie tells me that griffons stay pregnant for about one hundred and ten days, give or take, which is about three and two thirds of a month. We will be overrun with young, all of which will be screaming for a teat, or to have a diaper changed, or for attention, or just screaming for the sake of screaming,” Berry Punch explained. 

“Wow, griffons squirt out cubs quick… no wonder they repopulate so rapidly,” Bucky commented, looking distracted. “It is easy to see how they could potentially take over the world.” 

“You dunderhead! We’re about to be overrun by foals and you’re busy thinking about griffon populations,” Berry groused, a Berry fussy expression upon her face. “Even with help, we’re going to be overwhelmed. No nookie! All of us will be exhausted. We’ll never know a restful nights sleep or a satisfying orgasm ever again. This is the end of our happy and relatively responsibility free existence. From here on out, everything is uphill.” 

“No shagging?” Bucky cried, his eye going wide. “This is horrible! Why didn’t somepony warn me about this beforehoof! We have brought this doom upon ourselves with all of this randy screwing of one another! Quick Berry, bend over this table, we must remedy this situation with as much boning as possible now!” 

Rolling her eyes, Berry Punch heaved a sigh. “You just wait Bucky, you just wait.” She watched as Derpy threw herself down over the table and hiked her tail into the air. Berry Punch snorted as the needy pegasus spread her wings and giggled. “You know, Semillon will kill us if we mess up her kitchen.” 



 

Slumped over her desk, Loch Skimmer felt her eyes glazing over as her teacher, Bill Neigh, continued his lecture about something or other that Loch Skimmer couldn’t be bothered to care about. 

Secondary school was, for the most part, something she enjoyed. But some classes were challenging for her, like this one. She had more than enough political stuff at home, and taking a required political science class was almost painful. 

“...given the current political climate, a pony has to wonder if perhaps Equestria has a moral obligation, along with the Sea of Grass, to take over the governance of the world…” 

If Loch Skimmer wanted politics, all she had to do was ask Bucky about it. Or Rising Star. Or Sparkler, if Sparky was in the right mood. Ripple had interesting means of debating politics, and it involved bloodied snoots and contusions. There was only one way to prove you were right, and that involved moral combat. 

“...ethically speaking, now that the Noble Houses are gone, Equestria is ruled by the Immortal Goddesses, so one might say we owe it to the world to make it a better place and share our Goddesses’ wisdom with the rest of the world…” 

Yes, the Immortal Goddesses, full of grace, Loch Skimmer thought to herself. Perhaps Mister Neigh should watch Auntie Loony light her own farts on fire. Loch Skimmer struggled not to giggle and lost. 

“Want to tell me what is so funny?” Mister Neigh inquired, interrupting his own lecture and looking at Loch Skimmer sternly. 

“You know, Princess Luna is my godmother-” 

“Yes, I know, there is no need to brag,” Mister Neigh interrupted. 

“-and she likes to light her own farts on fire. How is that for immortal wisdom?” 

The class exploded with laughter, which Mister Neigh quickly silenced and shushed. He glared at Loch Skimmer, his face quivering with apoplectic rage. “Miss Skimmer, I will not stand here and listen to you slander our regal ruler… detention!” 

“But-” 

“More detention!” 

“But I-” 

“That’s another!” 

“But she-” 

“There is one more! Want to keep going? I can do this all day!” 

Unable to hold back, Loch Skimmer did the one thing she promised herself she would never do, given who her family was. “You just wait till I tell Auntie Loony what you’ve done!” Loch Skimmer threatened. 



 

“Who knew motherhood could be so rewarding?” Rainbow Dash asked herself as she slapped down a piece of bread and finished off a daisy sandwich. She hovered across the small kitchen and slid the plate down in front of Glass Slipper, who eyed it hungrily. “We’re gonna get you enrolled in school soon… you gonna be okay with that?” 

Her mouth full of sandwich, Glass Slipper nodded. 

Rainbow Dash hovered off, back to the counter, set out a glass, poured in some milk, and then looked at the bottle of chocolate syrup, trying to get some idea how much it took to make chocolate milk. Finding nothing, she turned the bottle over and squeezed the bottle between her hooves, squirting out a massive glop of syrup. She squeezed again, the glass now filling closer to the top, and the bottle made a rude flatulent sound that made Rainbow Dash giggle immaturely. About two inches worth of syrup in the glass seemed like enough. She stuck in a spoon and stirred carefully, tossed the spoon into the sink, thought about how awesome she was for making such a great shot, stuffed a straw into the glass, and then brought the glass to the table and set it down. 

“A wholesome glass of milk,” Rainbow Dash announced. “Twi doesn’t know what she’s talking about when she says I can’t be responsible to look after foals all by myself.” 

“Thank you,” Glass Slipper said around a mouthful of sandwich. She swallowed, took the straw into her lips, took a drink, and immediately, her pupils shrank to pinpricks. The foal shook in her chair, her mane bobbing and her tail twitching as she began to vibrate very much like Pinkie Pie did during certain states of being. 

Rainbow Dash began to feel very afraid, but she could not put her hoof on why. 



 

“You know, my dearest Fluttershy, it occurs to me that I have a cutie mark now,” Discord commented, looking over the table at Fluttershy. “We now share a little part of one another and it seems I have a little part of your destiny.” 

Looking exceptionally queasy, Fluttershy nodded. 

“I’m going to be a mother! Just like Bucky… I wonder if our foal will call me ‘mama’ like little Harper does?” Discord questioned, speaking his thoughts out loud. 

“Little Harper is so sweet,” Fluttershy said as she wrapped her forelegs around herself and gave herself a squeeze. 

Buttering up a slice of bread and then spooning on a dollop of jam, Discord watched Fluttershy and felt a strange feeling of happiness that he had never known. He folded the slice of bread in half and devoured it in one bite. After swallowing, he began to stroke his chin. “Fluttershy, are you happy?” 

Smiling her soft serene smile, Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, even though things are weird, I feel okay about it. Discord?” 

Sensing a question, Discord began to pay attention. “Yes Fluttershy?” 

Looking down at the table and squirming in her chair, Fluttershy began to bashfully wrap her mane around her hoof. “When did you realise that you loved me?” 

“I don’t know,” Discord answered honestly. “Tirek was heading for Canterlot and Ponyville… all I could think about was keeping you safe. I think about this a lot actually. Sometimes I think I knew before Tirek, but then I change my mind and think about other times… and it changes… and I don’t know.” 

“Discord?” Fluttershy asked, still wrapping her mane around her hoof. 

“Yes little sunshine yellow pegasus dearest to my heart?” Discord replied. 

“If I hadn’t been here, would you have battled Tirek?” Fluttershy questioned. 

Pausing only for a moment to think, Discord shook his head. “No. Before you, I never cared about anything other than myself. Now, all of the feelings of self love are focused on you. I don’t even stop to think of myself anymore.” 

“That’s very honest… thank you Discord,” Fluttershy said, offering a shy smile. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 385
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash flew around Ponyville, carrying an alarm klaxon with her in the form of a small green crystal pony foal that was full of sugar and decided to have a good cry about the loss of her parents. She darted to and fro, looking for Flash Sentry, who seemed to have a good knack about these sorts of things, he had been able to get Scootaloo to stop crying about something or other. 

She flew around in a panic, her eyes wide, her face contorted into one of frantic worry. Somehow, Rainbow Dash had screwed up something as simple as keeping a foal happy. She had no idea what she had done wrong, but something had clearly gone wrong. She wished Twilight was here, but Twilight Sparkle was off in Canterlot doing very important Twilight Sparkle business, the sort of business that might cause the universe to end if Twilight Sparkle did not personally take time out of her busy day to look after it. 

Much to Rainbow Dash’s relief, she ran into Applejack and Silver Shill. The pegasus just knew that they would know what to do, and if they didn’t at least Applejack probably had some rope… 



 

Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles stood upon the deck of The Scorned Mare and had a look around. Neither had been on a battle capable airship before, and this was a novel experience for both of them. Cookie spent the entire time snapping photographs of everything, including the ship’s commander, who seemed somewhat annoyed by flash photography. 

Later, when one photo was developed, it would show a skeletal pony under a black cloak, and Thanatos’ prank would claim yet another victim. The most amazing part of the photo would be the mechanical talons, which would also show up as bones. 

Sweetie Belle, out of school early, paced the deck with her parents while trying not to gag at how Rarity and Coco were acting. Her big sister had to bring drama to everything and her love life was no different. As she turned to look at her mother, she was suddenly blinded by a bright flash, which dazzled her olive green peepers and caused blue and white spots to dance in her vision. 

“Sweetie Belle, close your mouth dear… somepony might think you are a mouth breather and we can’t have that,” Cookie urged, sounding worried as she looked around for something else to photograph. She had heard stories that Prince Bitters kept a lunar pegasus as a pet and she wondered where the ever so elusive creature might be. Snapping a photo of a lunar pegasus would secure all sorts of bragging rights. 

“Look Cookie… griffons,” Hondo gasped, tugging on Cookie with one foreleg. “We’re surrounded on all sides by griffons. How exciting. This farm is like a wilderness safari.” 

“Still no sign of the lunar pegasus,” Cookie grumbled, feeling disapointed. 

“Wow, that’s a big griffon,” Hondo said in astonishment as he looked at a griffoness that landed and then began to set down a few cubs on deck. 

“No, that’s a big griffon,” Sweetie Belle said as she blearily pointed at Lugus while rubbing her eyes. “And he’s real nice from what I hear. Rarity says he’s sweet and cuddly.” 

“Oh my goodness gracious… a big cuddly griffon. Sweetie Belle… I want a picture of that,” Cookie said in a pleading voice, gesturing at Sweetie Belle to get moving towards the big griffon. 



 

“Bucky… you have been most genteel and kind in dealing with my parents,” Rarity said in an embarrassed voice. “My mother has a thing for photography. She will snap photographs of almost anything and you have been very patient with her. Thank you.” 

Struggling to hide a smirk, Bucky now understood where Rarity got her own obsessive need to photograph everything. Derpy landed beside him and Bucky waited, hopeful for some kind of affection, perhaps a peck on the cheek or a big wet kiss even. 

“I love weddings,” Derpy gushed as she sat down beside Bucky. She leaned over, wrapped a wing around the unicorn beside her, and gave him a sweet squeeze. “Bucky… you should do this more often.” 

“On top of all of my other duties,” Bucky mumbled in reply. 

“But this is so nice,” Derpy said as she giggled with uncontained excitement. 

“Yes, this is nice, I’ll give you that,” Bucky agreed as he watched Lugus patiently posing for photographs with Sweetie Belle. “Poor Lugus. He is going to have words with me later, I just know it.” 

“Oh this is perfect,” Coco gushed as she pulled a pair of sunglasses off of her face and looked around. “I want to remember this moment forever.” 



 

Under the gaze of the small crowd, the two mares only had eyes for one another, they could scarcely look away from one another for any reason at all. Even Bucky could feel it, there was a special sort of happiness here, and he had been graced by being allowed to share a part in it. 

“This is the fairytale love story I always wanted for my daughter,” Cookie blurted out as the tears began to trickle out. She leaned on Hondo, blinking tears away, her mascara running down her cheeks. 

Overcome with his own emotions, Hondo nodded and sniffled quietly to himself. 

“Marriage is perhaps the most sacred of our institutions, or our most important social contract,” Bucky said in a solemn voice. “It is the verbal contract that two or more ponies have joined together to form a family, to face the world together, to raise and protect foals together, to prepare them for the day when they become married themselves and the cycle of life continues.” 

“Oh that’s so beautiful,” Cookie gushed, wiping at her eyes with a neckerchief. 

“Do either of you have anything to say to one another?” Bucky questioned. 

“Coco, I do so hope that I am the pony that you believe me to be. I hope I prove worthy of your sincere and honest love and affection,” Rarity said, her eyes still locked on Coco, having never once looked away since the ceremony started. 

“Rarity, you taught me the value of honesty and generousity. You helped me find myself after I lost my way. I compromised my values as an earth pony. I will always be in debt to you, you gave me my sense of self back after I became lost. I hope I will always prove worthy of your affections,” Coco said to Rarity in a low soft voice. 

“Oooh I have three beautiful daughters now,” Cookie cooed as she began to nibble on her own hoof, her mascara still dribbling down her cheeks. She pressed even tighter against Hondo beside her. 

“I think your mother said it best, she has three daughters now. Coco, Rarity, be bound to one another. Always do what is best for one another and let no pony pull apart what I have put together,” Bucky announced. He took a deep breath and looked at the newlyweds. “Usually there is a kiss right about now.” 

Eyes still locked, Coco and Rarity moved in for a slow passionate kiss as Cookie’s camera flashed. Hondo wiped his eyes and turned away, blinking rapidly, and Sweetie Belle gagged, sticking out her orange tongue. 

“It’s always nice to share in a happy moment,” Derpy said as she watched the couple kissing one another. “There’s been so many troubled times lately. Really makes you appreciate these moments.” 



 

Her afternoon free after the dreaded detention, Loch Skimmer prowled around Ponyville, looking into shop windows. She didn’t have to work today and she was determined to enjoy her day off. She smiled at ponies as they passed, life was difficult and times were hard. A smile let somepony know that you cared, and for some ponies, a smile just might make a terrible day almost tolerable. It never hurt to smile. 

She came by a shop that had black curtains over the windows and nothing on display, which was curious. She looked at the sign, which was written in small painted red letters on a black rectangle of wood over the door. The sign itself was quite intriguing.

“The Painfully Pierced Pony.” 

Feeling a creeping sense of curiousity, one ear stood up while the other drooped, and Loch Skimmer eyed the door. She looked to her left, then to her right, feeling somehow wrong for standing at the doorway to this place, but not understanding why. Perhaps it was the black curtains over the windows. Whatever they had for sale here was not fit for public advertising. 

Biting her lip, Loch Skimmer pushed open the door and went inside. 



 

Immediately, Loch Skimmer knew that she was inside of some place special. The first thing she saw was a saddle bondage set, something she had heard Berry Punch talk about. There were bits and bridles. Spurs, both dull ones and sharp ones. Riding crops. Whips. There were toys of all kinds, and not toys meant for foals. 

Loch Skimmer felt giddy when when she turned her head and found her snoot was inches away from a yard long black rubber pony penis, complete with veins and realistic details. It hung on the wall right next to the door. She began to giggle. 

“Hi… can I help you?” a mare asked in a bored voice. There was silver ring in one of her nostrils. “Today we have a piercing special. Half price. We want to encourage new customers or something. I dunno. Like I care,” she said in a dull monotone. 

“Piercing?” Loch Skimmer asked, raising one eyebrow. 

“Dock piercings are nice. They make sex really exciting,” the mare deadpanned. 

“Dock piercings?” Lock Skimmer questioned. “But there is a bone in there. Several bones. Ouch!” 

“Oh Pinprick would never go through the bone. He takes a pinch of skin and pierces that. Once it heals, it feels really good when a stallion mounts you and rubs against your dock. It leads to wild orgasms,” the mare explained in a dull flat voice as she stared off vacantly. 

“And you know this how?” Loch Skimmer inquired, feeling more than a little curious. 

“Because I have several dock piercings and now all I have to do is rub my own dock against my bed when I rub one out. It makes me cum by the bucketful,” the mare answered in a dull disinterested voice. 

“There are a lot of nerves back there. Berry Punch tells me that dock stimulation is vital to good to sex and I know she’s right about that,” Loch Skimmer said, thinking out loud. 

“I could rub one out and let you watch. I won’t charge anything. I do it all the time to bring in business,” the mare offered in monotone. “Watch out though, I’m a screamer,” she said dully. She paused for a moment and then yawned. 

“No, that’s alright,” Loch Skimmer stated. “Does it hurt?” 

“Yes. Yes it does. Yes it hurts a great deal. How is that? Honesty in advertising. It is one of the many services we provide here, along with free spanking and the chance to watch me rub one out,” the mare answered. 

“Spanking?” Loch Skimmer asked, looking confused. 

“Riding crop, paddle, bare hoof, or the Spankotron Ass Slapper Fifty Five Thousand and One?” the mare replied, looking as though she might fall over into a coma at any moment. 

“Spankotron Ass Slapper Fifty Five Thousand and One?” Loch Skimmer repeated. 

“Oh… you are very brave. Is this your first time? You may feel a stinging sensation followed by a prolonged period of burning. I am obligated to warn you about the swelling of the labia, the clitoris, and your anus. The Spankatron is very thorough,” the mare answered. “The Spankotron Ass Slapper Fifty Five Thousand, the first model, had a built in clit clencher and teat torturer, but it was recalled after it refused to let go.” 

“Refused to let go?” Loch Skimmer cried in panic. 

“Don’t worry, the Spankotron Ass Slapper Fifty Five Thousand and One has a perfect track record so far. All it does is spank you like the bad little pony that you are. Not recommended for males due to potential testicle thumping,” the mare replied as she vacantly stared off at a rack full of dildos. “Some males like it though… testicle torture is sexy.” 

“No! Testicles are very important to me… I would never want to torture them… all of this sounds awful… no, I don’t want to be spanked. But I am curious about the dock piercing,” Loch Skimmer said in a horrified voice. “And I might have a few questions about toys.” 

“I can tell you all about the toys,” the mare answered in a near comatose voice. “Like that dildo over there with the straps. It allows a mare to screw her partner. Lots of fun to be had. Great at parties. Establish your dominance with your sexual partner today.” 

“Oh that sounds neat…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 386
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Whatcha reading Dinky?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she settled into a cushioned chair beside the bed where Diamond Tiara lay in a half awake, half asleep state. The unicorn made herself comfortable and smiled. She actually enjoyed this time spent with the girls. 

“A letter from Daring Do,” Dinky replied, not looking up from the letter. “I keep meaning to write her a letter, but I don’t know what to say and then I keep forgetting.” 

Piña snorted and made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. “We’ve lived a more exciting life than Daring Do. We’ve been on a cursed island full of shadow wolves led by a scary crystal lich. We were there when the end of the world almost happened.” 

“Yeah,” Dinky sighed wistfully. “I don’t know if that was fun exciting like the Daring Do books though. That was scary exciting and not in a good way.” 

“Yeah Dinks. And you summoned a swarm of demon bugs. That makes you scarier than most Daring Do villains,” Piña remarked as she rolled over on her back. “My teats are growing.” 

The sudden announcement caused the room to go silent for a moment, a painful uncomfortable silence only interrupted by Diamond Tiara’s soft snuffly breathing. It was the sort of awkward moment that only existed between girls; Sunset Shimmer was reminded of a human Pinkie Pie suddenly talking about her period and that wasn’t a happy fun time party. 

“Piña… I dunno about you sometimes. You have these moments where you are a great sister, but then you have these moments when you are too much like your sister,” Dinky said as she set down the Daring Do letter. 

“Well I’m sorry… we can’t all stay perfect, cute, and little forever. They’ve grown. Gotten a little bit larger. Gotten darker. And now, when I move around or play on the playground, I’m all worried about other ponies seeing them and it makes me feel nervous and ashamed and I don’t know why,” Piña grumbled as she rolled over on her belly and hid herself. “I find myself caring about what I’m showing off. I keep trying to make sure my tail is in just the right spot and I close my legs when I sit now and I never cared about any of this before.” 

“Piña, we all go through that. Usually, we go through a heat cycle once we start to feel these things. We feel all awkward about these feelings and it troubles us, and then maybe one day, we happen to notice a pony we like and we actually want them to see what we have-” 

“No!” Piña interrupted in a loud whisper, cutting Sunset Shimmer off. 

“Was there a colt that you wanted to have see what you had?” Dinky asked, blinking at Sunset Shimmer, her question full of the sort of frank honesty only a foal could have. 

“Only one,” Sunset admitted, her eyes suddenly darting about nervously. 

“Who?” Dinky questioned, looking on with foalish interest. 

“Um, that’s a secret,” Sunset Shimmer stated. 

“It isn’t our father, is it?” Piña inquired, raising her eyebrow. 

“No,” Sunset Shimmer answered, shaking her head softly. 

“Then who?” Dinky demanded. “If you don’t tell me I’ll ask Bartleby about all of the embarrassing things you must do while you are asleep.” 

Panicking, Sunset Shimmer recoiled back in her chair. “You wouldn’t dare! Ugh, I’ve heard stories about you two. You little monsters.” 

Dinky and Piña both exchanged a glance and then began to giggle with one another as they both stared at Sunset Shimmer with wicked smiles filled with the promise of mischief spread across their muzzles. 

“Bartleby would never betray me,” Sunset Shimmer said confidently, eyeing the two giggling foals full of prankish mischief as she spoke. 

“Is he your butler?” Dinky asked, suddenly serious. 

“I dunno… he’s… my assistant and my friend,” Sunset stammered. 

“Father says it is important for us to think about our help and what they mean to us,” Dinky stated, looking thoughtful. “Like Semillon. She’s the cook. But she’s so much more. She’s very kind to us and makes us treats that take a lot of effort and work… she doesn’t have to make those treats, she does it because she cares for us and wants us to be happy.” 



 

“No, don’t touch, it’s tender!” Loch Skimmer said as she skittishly scooted away from a recently awoken Sparkler. “Oh is it ever tender. On the way home as I was flying, I could feel the wind tugging on it, and oh pony farts did it ever hurt, I had to slow down and then I landed for a while… and then my dock started convulsing and twitching and then I had like the most powerful orgasm I’ve had in a while as my filly bits clenched up and gave themselves a squeeze on the side of the road.” 

“Ugh… I’m not listening to this!” Bucky grunted, waving his talons at Loch Skimmer and trying to shoo her out of the living room. 

“But daddy… don’t you want me to be happy?” Loch Skimmer asked, giving Bucky a well practiced hurt look. 

“More than anything. But I don’t want to know about your filly bits or whatever it is you might be doing that makes you happy, that’s your business,” Bucky grumbled as he gave Loch Skimmer a sullen stare. “I am painfully aware that all of you are having hot noisy sex… I just try to pretend that I am not aware of it.” 

“The Painfully Pierced Pony?” Berry questioned, looking thoughtful. “We should totally go together,” she suggested. 

“It used to be in somepony’s basement, they only recently moved into a shop on street level,” Loch Skimmer said helpfully. “You know father, I really hope that all of you are having hot noisy sex… sex has been shown to be a good for mares during pregnancy. Helps with bonding, pain management, and feelings of self worth as most mares often struggle with body dysmorphophobia issues.” 

“What?” Bucky asked, giving Loch Skimmer a blank stare. 

“A feeling of fear associated with a specific part of the body that they feel is somehow defective, ugly, flawed, and it causes anxiety, fear, and panic. I was reading about it in a sexual health textbook I checked out through the interlibrary loan feature that allows me to get books from a university,” Loch Skimmer explained patiently. 

“You’re reading university textbooks for kicks and giggles?” Berry Punch asked, suddenly looking very concerned. 

“Yes,” Loch Skimmer said bashfully. “I also practice taking the sample tests found in the back of some of them to help me learn the material better.” The charcoal grey filly blushed. “I feel like a dark cloud was taken away from the sun and now the world is so full of light and happiness for me. Berry Punch, you made the sun shine for me. For all the jokes I make, I take this very seriously.” 

“Thistle is very sensitive about her size,” Bucky said thoughtfully, his gaze turning towards the crackling fire. “I worry about her so much. She is very dear to me. I think I am going to go to bed and see if I can sleep. Maybe cuddle a bit with Thistle and tell her how attractive I find her big round belly.” 

“You know, associating words expressing attraction with pleasurable conditioning stimuli is beneficial. Telling a mare she’s pretty is one thing, telling a mare she’s pretty as you give her an orgasm leaves a lasting impression,” Loch Skimmer said helpfully. “Given enough time and conditioning, just telling her she’s pretty is enough to get her hot and wet as a conditioned response.” 

“Loch Skimmer… I hope you never use this knowledge for evil,” Bucky stated. 



 

Creeping about carefully and using her magic to make herself completely silent, Sparkler carefully moved around the stacked crates and shipping containers in the railyard depot. Alone, not trusting any other pony to be as sneaky as she was, she moved soundlessly through the dark, the hair on her back standing up as she drew nearer to her prey. She could see a light in the small warehouse that had been recently constructed and a wagon was waiting outside. 

A wagon that shouldn’t be there. 

With a quiet cast of her magic, she caused the wheels of the wagon to seize up. She could see a few crates in the back of it already. She didn’t know if it was stolen goods or not, and she didn’t care. The wagon was inside the fence and didn’t belong here. She stealthily moved after the owner, who was certain to be inside of the warehouse. 

Looking around, she saw a small open window high up above, it swung back and forth in the breeze, squeaking faintly, and she saw the main doors opened slightly, allowing light to spill out. Somepony had left the window open, but she doubted it was the main point of entry, it was far too small. 

Creeping along the side of the building, Sparkler made ready to rush the door, her muscles tensing, her Shivers symptoms intensifying. There was only one way to fix that… as she entered the door she turned to stone and gave up all efforts of stealth. She stomped in with her hooves thundering. 

“THIS IS A BUST!” she roared in a gravelly voice. 

In the shadows, Sparkler saw a darkened figure lift his head out of a crate and look at her. Sparkler was already moving, running with alarming speed for something made out of living stone. 

“Damn you!” the figure shouted as he leapt down off of the crates. He moved swiftly, gracefully, he moved like a dancer. 

Sidestepping, Sparkler moved to cut off his escape. As she did so, the figured scooped up something small with his foreleg and threw it at her. That something screamed as it hurtled through the air. Shocked, Sparkler reached out her mind and caught it with her magic, absolutely flabbergasted that some scumbag had just thrown a foal at her. 

As Sparkler began to recover, the dark figure was already near the door. He lobbed another screaming missile at Sparkler, who carefully caught this one in her magic as well. She stood there absolutely stupefied that the dirtbag she was trying to catch had just used foals thrown at her to aid in his escape.

The figure was now long gone, and Sparkler was left with two shrieking foals held carefully in her telekinesis. She stayed in her stone form, realising the danger might not yet be over, and she eyed the two foals carefully, both of whom were wearing what looked like black pyjamas. She heard the flutter of wings and deep within her barrel, Sparkler growled. 



 

Sitting in the living room of Derpy’s old house, which was now a makeshift police crash pad of sorts, Sparkler studied the two foals, both of whom were clearly terrified. She had given them both cups of hot soft apple cider and a plate of crackers and peanut butter. 

Both were in fact, wearing pyjamas, the teddy bears and stars were visible under the cheap black dye. One was a unicorn, the other was a little pegasus, and Sparkler had an idea on who might have opened the window and then opened the door from the inside. 

“So let me get this right,” Sparkler said in a soft voice as she tried to control her spasms. She looked at the pegasus filly. “You’re Singsong,” she stated, trying to smile. She then turned to the little unicorn colt. “And you, you’re Brass Note.” 

The foals nodded. The filly, trembling, filched a cracker covered in peanut butter from the plate and stuffed it into her mouth. The colt was still far too terrified to do anything but stare at Sparkler. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Sparkler promised. 

“But he’ll hurt us,” Brass Note whimpered. “We’ve seen what happens when foals misbehave. He’s shown us, over and over.” 

Scowling, Sparkler felt a hot rush of anger. “He can’t hurt you… I have you and I will protect you,” she said in a soft reassuring voice to the foals. “Tell me his name. Tell me his cutie mark. Help me catch him so he can’t hurt others.” 

“We don’t know his name,” Singsong responded, spraying cracker crumbs everywhere. “Everypony calls him daddy… he makes us call him that.” 

“And he doesn’t have a cutie mark… just a big burned place that looks really gross,” Brass Note added as he fearfully took a cracker from the plate and then eyed the cup full of hot cider. He stuffed the cracker into his mouth and crunched. 

“He found me when after I lost my parents. He’s found all of us. My parents were traveling from Fillydelphia to Ponyville. Both of my mothers stuffed me into a hollow spot in a tree and told me to stay quiet while they led the danger away… they never came back,” Singsong said, offering up a bit of an explanation. “Eventually I came out and started to wander around, not knowing what to do. I was starving.” 

“And he found you?” Sparkler questioned as the side of her face quivered annoyingly. 

The pegasus filly nodded and looked up at Sparkler with wide fearful eyes. “You’re really nice,” Singsong squeaked. 

“I try to be,” Sparkler responded. “Sorry if my twitching makes you scared. I can’t help it,” she explained. 

“Aw, that’s awful, you’re so nice,” Singsong said, now looking concerned, the fear melting away. “That’s not fair.” 

Looking up at Sparkler, his ears pinned back against his skull, the unicorn foal took a deep breath and blinked a few times. “He took a bunch of us in. He keeps us in a cave deep underground where it is really dark. He blindfolds us when he takes us on jobs. He makes us help him steal stuff… food, supplies, candles, lamp oil, stuff like that,” Brass Note reported helpfully. “We don’t know where his hideout is, honest.” 

“I believe you,” Sparkler said. “Since you’ve both been such good foals, I’m going to buy both of you some dinner. Go ahead and eat your crackers. Can you tell me just a little bit more?” 

“He HATES earth ponies… he occasionally snatches an earth pony foal… he tortures them in front of all of us and makes us watch, telling us that he’ll do this stuff to us if we cross him,” Singsong said. 

“Can you tell me what he looks like?” Sparkler questioned, sounding hopeful. 

“He’s tan… he has a dark brown mane and tail. He’s a pegasus,” Brass Note answered as he picked up his cider cup and sniffed it. 

Feeling frustrated, Sparkler realised the description given matched about half of the pegasi in Ponyville, minus the burned off cutie mark. She felt a powerful spasm ripple over her ribs, causing her whole side to convulse. She watched the foals as they munched crackers, silently wondering what to do with them. She needed to keep them safe. She wanted them happy and secure, they deserved that. She thought about taking them home, but wasn’t sure if that was wise. Diamond Tiara needed peace and quiet, and two new foals in the house would be anything but peace and quiet.

Shivering, Sparkler felt a chill as she realised she was dealing with her first career criminal, her first serious foe, her first true threat. She began to mentally process everything she knew already, and began to try and sort out what little bit of information she had so that maybe she could find an answer or two. 
	
> Chapter 387
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Moving swiftly though the night, Sparkler carried upon her back two very sleepy foals. She didn’t want to put them in the orphanarium, somehow, that didn’t feel safe. She worried that perhaps foals were being snatched from around Ponyville, and she didn’t want these two being captured again. Sparkler needed them watched over and kept safe, she had made a promise. 

The filly moved tirelessly, the endless conditioning she endured was now paying off. She could cross Ponyville multiple times, covering the whole county without ever feeling worn out from all the trotting. She had once been a soft flabby filly, but now, even in her fleshy form, she was as hard and unyielding as a stone, only matched by Ripple for raw stamina and endurance, and Ripple could easily beat the snot out of her. 

To be fair though, Sparkler knew that Ripple could beat the snot out of most ponies. 

Opening a gate, Sparkler went up the walkway to a house, her breath visible in the cold wee hours of the morning. She went up the stairs, stood on the landing, and then began to bang on the door. This was the only place she could think of where the foals might be safe for a while. 

Upstairs, a light came on, and Sparkler banged a little harder upon the wooden door. Another light came on, then other, and finally, the living room window lit up. The door opened, the hinges squeaking faintly as it did so. 

“Mom… dad… I need your help,” Sparkler said to Shining Star and Galaxy Guide. She smiled hugely and her ears splayed out sideways. 

Shining Star yawned as her husband, Galaxy Guide, stared blearily at Sparkler. The stallion looked half awake, but concern was visible upon his face. 

“It’s cold… come inside,” Galaxy said, stepping back from the door as he did so. 



 

“...so I need for you to look after these two adorable little criminals if you can,” Sparkler explained in a hopeful voice to her in laws. “We can sort out the legalities in the morning. They’re both really rather sweet and affectionate. Singsong knows how to say please and thank you and Brass Note is well behaved and likes to wipe his face when he’s eating,” she said as she looked at the foals sleeping soundly in a pile together on the couch. 

“Galaxy?” Shining Star said in a hopeful voice. “Please say yes.” 

“I want to, but I’m worried. Can we actually keep them safe?” Galaxy Guide asked, looking fearful. 

“I think we can. We’re unicorns dear… good unicorns and loving parents. Our daughter came to us for help,” Shining Star answered in a pleading voice. “Our home is empty. I still have a need to mother something. Rising Star’s room is empty… they could stay in there. We could get them a bunk bed. We could make this work Galaxy.” 

“It’s a little colt and a filly. They’re going to need separate rooms eventually,” Galaxy said in a soft voice as he looked at the foals snuggled together. 

“We have the basement. It’s been partially renovated. We could make a room down there. Galaxy… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about adoption ever since I saw the newspaper with the foal adopted by the Royal Pony Sisters. I have needs Galaxy…” Shining Star begged. She looked at her husband with wide pleading eyes. “These poor little foals have been abused… somepony hurt them and made them do bad things… are you really going to turn them out?” 

Sucking in a deep breath, Galaxy Guide held it for a moment, his cheeks puffing out, and then he closed his eyes and let it out slowly through his nostrils. He opened his eyes and then he looked at Sparkler. “Look what you did.” 

“I’m not sorry,” Sparkler said in a bemused voice, a half smile appearing upon her face as she looked her father in law in the eye. “They’ll need a bath. The cheap black dye on those pyjamas is bleeding off into their pelts. If Singsong starts talking about her mothers too much, she’ll start crying, so look out. If she starts crying, Brass Note starts bawling, they’re very close and it is a miserable experience to get them to stop blubbering. Brass Note wanted something in exchange for his cooperation and helpfulness, he asked for a rubber ducky, which seems like a very reasonable request.” 

“You know Sparkler, one day you are going to make an amazing mother,” Shining Star said, her eyes brimming with tears as she spoke. 

“We can get him a rubber ducky… that is a very small price to pay I suppose,” Galaxy Guide said in soft whisper. 

“He was very helpful. He told me everything he knows, which wasn’t much, but he was very brave. They’re terrified. During the extended interrogation, I had to get a second order of chocolate pudding pie,” Sparkler said as she sat on the sofa, quivering all over. 

“Officer Sparkler… is that kind of brutal interrogation even allowed?” Galaxy Guide questioned with one raised eyebrow and a sarcastic smirk upon his face. 

“Hey, I take what I need by any means necessary. Playing by the rules is for chumps,” Sparkler responded, a soft giggle escaping from her lips as she spoke. 

“My sweet little Rising Star did so well for himself when he took you as his wife,” Shining Star gushed, looking at Sparkler affectionately. 

“I gotta go. I have a city to patrol. There is going to be a train coming in at four in the morning, and I gotta go prepare,” Sparkler said, looking at both of her parents in law. “Thank you so much, both of you.” 

“Stay safe,” Galaxy Guide replied, looking worried. 

“Yes, please, stay safe,” Shining Star repeated, also looking worried. 

“My job is to keep others safe by putting myself in danger,” Sparkler said as she rose off of the couch. “Help me do my job. Keep them safe. One less thing for me to worry about.” 

“We will,” Shining Star promised. 



 

The early morning hours were exceptionally beautiful on this cold crisp morning. The birds were chirping, something that would soon be gone as the birds were escorted south, and the extra cloud layer had caused a spectacular sunrise. 

Sparkler was exhausted but happy. It had been a good night. She had done her job and things had worked out well. She had saved two foals. She had made her presence known to all of the businesses that laboured in the early hours of the morning just before dawn, the many bakeries and restaurants that depended upon early morning business. 

There had been no further incidents at the train station. 

“Officer Sparkler, I need to speak with you!” 

Turning, Sparkler saw Mayor Mare. She immediately put on a smile and tried to look useful to the local politician that was heading right for her. “Mayor Mare,” Sparkler greeted. 

“Oh please, call me Ivory,” the mayor insisted, offering up a warm smile.

“Did you need something?” Sparkler asked, her breath coming out in great steamy puffs as she spoke. She could feel the chill on her ears this morning. 

“I’m worried. Mister Rich, he never showed up for the closed door council meeting. He wasn’t there at the open door meeting either. He also didn’t show up for the civic planning meeting,” Ivory Scroll said in a low worried voice. 

“He’s been having a rough go at things,” Sparkler said, looking at the mayor as she spoke. Sparkler knew that the mayor was one of those “tough things” that Mister Rich was having to endure. 

“He never misses meetings. Ever. He never, ever, under any circumstances misses a meeting. He is your father’s majordomo. We can set the clocks by Mister Rich showing up for meetings. Something is wrong,” Ivory Scroll insisted. 

“Maybe he just needed some time to get his head together. Things have been hard for him. He’s been having a lot of personal problems. And Diamond Tiara is very sick,” Sparkler said, trying to sooth the mayor’s fears. 

“Last night before sundown, I obtained a writ from our local magistrate. This authorises you to go into his home and check on him. I’m worried… you don’t understand. He never misses meetings. I know that you know about what was going on between us. Mister Rich is very professional. He would never let something like that get in the way of doing his job. Something is wrong, so please, go check on him for me,” Ivory Scroll instructed in a pleading patient voice. 

“Okay, I’m going. I don’t like butting into ponies private affairs any more than I absolutely have to,” Sparkler groaned, a frown settling over her face. “He’s probably just taking some time off to get his head together. I mean, he did get dumped by two mares at once and his daughter was criminally neglected by her psychiatrist.” 

Her lips pressing into a flat line, Mayor Mare glared at Sparkler. “That may be the case, but I would feel better knowing that he is okay, perhaps having himself a private drinking bender or just taking a bit of quiet time to himself without telling anypony. This behaviour is not like him at all.” 

“Yeah, well, getting dumped hurts,” Sparkler said, feeling very irritated that she had been wrangled into this. “And sometimes after being dumped you are in no mood to see the mare that dumped you.” 

“Just check on him,” Ivory Scroll said as she glowered at Sparkler. 



 

Standing on the stoop of the large home that Mister Rich lived in, Sparkler banged on the door once again. There had been no answer the first few times, and now she was starting to feel a sense of worry. 

“Mister Rich?” Sparkler called out in a loud voice. 

There was no answer from the silent house. Looking up at the windows above her and hoping for some sign of life, Sparkler banged on the door again with her hoof. Cringing, hating herself for this intrusion, she popped the door latch with her front hoof, and much to her surprise, the door opened. It had not been locked. 

The door swung open, revealing a wide open entryway and a stone tile floor. Sparkler slowly stepped through the doorway. She stopped, sniffed, she caught a whiff of something but she didn’t know what it was. Something sour, like old beer. Her nostrils crinkled. 

“Mister Rich?” Sparkler called out once again. 

Once again, there was no reply, no answer from the silent house. Peering through a doorway, Sparkler looked into the large living room. It was empty. It didn’t even look lived in. There was nothing anywhere. No signs of clutter. No mess. No magazines or books spread all over the table. She pulled her head out and looked through the other doorway. She saw a dining room. Also empty. Immaculate and untouched, just like the living room. She continued down to the end of the entryway and entered into small square room. There were stairs along the back wall, a study, a bathroom, and a door leading into the kitchen. 

The kitchen had signs of life. There was one bowl left on the counter. Inside of the bowl was dried milk and bits of granola. Beside it was one spoon. Near the bowl was several beer bottles, beer bottles that Sparkler recognised, a brew made by Barley, and there were eleven bottles total. Pausing, Sparkler looked around trying to find the twelfth bottle. Moving again, she opened the fridge. The fridge was nearly empty and there was no twelfth bottle of beer to be found in there. There was a single glass jug of milk, half empty. Almost everything else was condiments. 

Departing the kitchen, Sparkler headed for the stairs. Halfway up, on the landing, she encountered a bottle of wine and saw a dark stain on the first stair leading up. The wine bottle was empty. The stain on the stair stunk of urine. There were a few tail hairs here on the stair as well. 

Perhaps he sat here and had himself a good cry, Sparkler thought to herself. 

She continued up the stairs to the top landing and then looked around. There were several doors. The first she opened led to another bathroom. The second was a game room. Red mahogany and dark green felt covered everything and the room stunk of conspicuous consumption. There was a billiards table, a card table, and several other games that Sparkler did not recognise, all of them done in red mahogany and dark green felt. 

One door led to Diamond Tiara’s room. The room was all done up in purple and pink, with hints of blue to be found on various things. There was a tall bookshelf and a stained glass lamp beside the bed. A vanity was in the corner. On the table beside the bed, there was a pair of glasses, which surprised Sparkler. She had never seen Diamond Tiara in glasses. She realised that the foal was probably self conscious about being seen in them. Standing in Diamond Tiara’s room, Sparkler noticed a foul smell on the air. 

After coming into Mister Rich’s room, she noticed the smell was stronger. The bed was rumpled, somepony had slept on it, but not in it, they at least laid on top of the comforter. The room was empty. The closet door was open, revealing a perfectly organised closet. Sparkler looked around, not knowing what else to do, and then she noticed the other door in the room when she turned around to leave. She went to the door and pushed it open, the smell growing stronger as she did so. 

Sparkler found the twelfth bottle of beer. 

Standing in the doorway, Sparkler looked into Mister Rich’s private study. He was slumped over at his desk, and on his desk was the unaccounted for bottle of beer. As Sparkler stood there gawking, she felt cold fear creeping though her guts. Her nostrils crinkled from a sour stench. 

“Mister Rich?” Sparkler asked in a very frightened voice. 

There was no reply. 

Stepping forward on jerky legs that didn’t want to work, Sparkler slowly approached the desk and the slumped over Mister Rich. She noticed a puddle around his muzzle, his head was resting on his desk, and something shiny was leaking out of his nose. 

“Oh you stupid dumb bastard… you stupid idiot how could you do this to Diamond Tiara?” Sparkler whimpered, her voice a terrified squeak. 

Reaching out with her hoof, Sparkler prodded Mister Rich. He was cold and stiff, unmoving, and her touch caused him to slide over a bit on the desk, leaving a slick slimy trail as his muzzle dragged over the wood. 

Looking over the desk, Sparkler saw the bottle of beer, the puddle of vomit that had dribbled off of the edge of the desk and onto the floor, and she saw a small glass bottle filled about two thirds of of the way with pills. One pill was on the desk, and the stopper was missing from the bottle. 

Squinting, Sparkler read the label. “Laudanum,” she read aloud in a quavering voice. 

Suddenly feeling the need to puke herself, Sparkler backed away from the desk and the corpse of Mister Rich. She gagged, her whole body suffered from one massive convulsion, and she couldn’t tell if it was her Shivers or just revulsion. 

Fighting back nausea, Sparkler backed out of the room, went to the window, ripped it open with her magic, and controlled herself long enough to say a simple incantation. 

“Whenever I am all alone and I am too scared to think, whenever I need some help, I flash my light and blink,” Sparkler said in a strangled voice. A blinking flare shot skyward, blazing bright over Ponyville, and Sparkler knew that help was on the way. 
	
	
> Chapter 388
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had not been an easy morning. Bucky sighed, feeling exhausted, and he sat in his kitchen trying to put the pieces together from everything Sparkler had told him. It was difficult to focus on what needed to be thought about, Bucky’s thoughts kept betraying him and drifting towards unwanted ideas. 

The midnight marauder was a mirror traveler, no doubt about that, and Bucky tried to focus on this because it was important. Everything that Sparkler had told him fit their modus operandi. The most telling sign was staying in a cave; Bucky now knew from his interrogation of the two mirror travelers that Luna’s magic had limits, and dreams were hidden deep beneath the ground, a fact that Luna was most upset about Bucky knowing. 

But instead of trying to figure out relevant bits, important clues, Bucky kept thinking about his friend. His stupid, stupid friend. His stupid friend and the stupid thing Filthy Rich had done. Drumming his talons upon the table, Bucky scowled and festered in his own anger. And Bucky was angry. There was an inconsolable foal upstairs that had to be sedated after hearing the news. His own daughter, Sparkler, had been quite a mess. Everypony in his family had been torn apart by this. 

And so Bucky seethed, he sat alone, stewing in his own anger, trying to deal with this in his own way and not doing a very good job of it. His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of hooves thudding on his front porch, and he immediately slid out of his seat to answer the front door. 



 

Flash Sentry nervously looked at Bucky, his ears pinned back, his expression almost fearful. “I really am sorry, sir,” Flash Sentry apologised as he watched Bucky’s scowl intensify. “We needed her awake though. There’s paperwork that is very important and she is needed to give a statement."

Taking a deep breath, Flash Sentry tried to contain his own emotion as he saw Sparkler coming down the stairs. Her mane was messy, her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Her pelt was matted and pressed flat along one side of her face. With each step she took, Flash Sentry saw Bucky’s glower power increase exponentially, and the warlock had long ago crossed the threshold into the scowls of the eternally damned. 

“Any word on what happened?” Sparkler asked as she took the last step and then stood in the entryway, looking first at Flash Sentry and then at her father. She took a step towards Bucky and gently kissed him on his cheek, trying to comfort herself just as much as she was trying to comfort him. 

“It appears to have been an accident,” Flash Sentry stated in a soft voice. 

“An accident? This was a bloody accident? HOW IN TARTARUS WAS THIS AN ACCIDENT?” Bucky demanded as the temperature in the entryway plunged and ice began to creep over the floor and the walls. 

“The scene was carefully gone over and even Princess Twilight Sparkle became involved. She used some of her most powerful divination magic to help us sort out what happened. She can pull up ghostly images off of items and sometimes they show flashes, pictures of things that happened in the past few hours or even days,” Flash Sentry began, his voice sounding weary as well as exhausted, and it was only barely noon. “From what we’ve been able to put together, Mister Rich consumed a great deal of alcohol. At some point, he ate a bowl of granola and milk. And then he took some pills, laudanum. Mister Rich suffered from stomach ulcers and debilitating migraines. He had the laudanum to deal with pain. The doctor already told us that Mister Rich only took the pills rarely, which seems true, the bottle we found was mostly full. We found the remains of several partially digested pills in the vomit. Not enough to kill him, not even with the alcohol in his system. When we were moving him out of the house, a large clump of liquid swollen granola was expelled from his throat.” 

“So he got drunk and choked to death on his own vomit?” Sparkler grumbled in a half awake voice, having trouble believing what she had just heard. 

“It appears to be that way, yes. Twilight Sparkle’s spell shows him thrashing around in his bed. She does not know for how long, but he was clutching his head and gritting his teeth,” Flash Sentry reported, looking over at Bucky in concern. 

“So… suffering a severe migraine, he gets up, still soused, in a lot of pain, takes a few pills, washes it down with a bottle of beer… and then sits at his desk rubbing his head and waiting for the pills to work?” Bucky questioned, his eye blinking in disbelief. 

Nodding Flash Sentry’s ears swiveled forward. “That’s exactly what happened. Twilight Sparkle was able to get images from the desk. A lot of images. Mister Rich spent a lot of time at that desk and a large part of himself had rubbed off on it. She said it was very easy to pull images from the desk, easier than the bed, which gave her a headache.” 

“So he pukes, gets big wad of granola caught in his throat, and then strangles to death with no help to be found,” Bucky summarised in a grief stricken voice. “He was always working. Of course his desk would have more of him than his bed did…” 

“I’m afraid so, sir,” Flash Sentry murmured. 

“Accidents happen,” Sparkler said sadly. “Somehow, that just makes this worse.” She cleared her throat. “I know I’m needed. Let me take a quick shower and I’ll head off into town with you.” 

“Thank you Sparkler,” Flash Sentry stated. “I do have some good news. The magistrate, after all of about five minutes of consideration, signed the writ granting protective custody of those two foals, Singsong and Brass Note, to Galaxy Guide and Shining Star. He also stated his opinion that your actions were just about the wisest thing he felt could have been done and that you should be commended. I think they want to pin a medal on you or give you an award Sparkler, I think to try and make you feel better about all of this.” 

“You know, oddly enough, something about that makes me feel just a tiny bit better,” Sparkler remarked as she stood there wiping her eyes with her foreleg. “I feel so unappreciated sometimes.” 

“I don’t know how I feel any longer. Now I just feel angry and kinda empty inside,” Bucky said, offering a few words about how he felt. 

“I thought it was intentional. I called him stupid. I said other things too after I found him. I can’t even remember. It seemed intentional at the time and I was very upset,” Sparkler said in a raspy voice. “I had better get moving. I’ve become one of the sorts of ponies that causes the world to stop if I dawdle,” she added as she turned and mounted the stairs, taking them several at a time, her hooves thumping upon the wooden steps. 

“How is Ivory Scroll taking this?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

“She… she had to be taken to the hospital with chest pains and is currently isolated. I do not know how she is doing. She took this badly,” Flash Sentry responded, shaking his head with worry. “And Gala Appleby was quite grief stricken. She cried, but I think she’ll be okay… with time. I was the one that told Gala. Granny Smith is currently staying with her to keep an eye on the young mare.” 

“Family is going to be important to get through this,” Bucky said in low dry voice. 

“Diamond Tiara is going to need a family,” Flash Sentry stated in a solemn somber voice, his ears splaying out sideways. 

“I’m aware of this,” Bucky replied, looking at Flash. “She should stay here until we can sort out what needs to be done.” 

“I agree and so does the magister. Of course, you have the authority to override his choices had he disapproved… but he approves in this instance. We spoke briefly. He is one of your biggest supporters you know. Mister Rich’s last will and testament will need to be examined. I doubt that anypony will try to claim Diamond Tiara, and with her, whatever money Mister Rich had along with his house,” Flash Sentry said, talking about details, because details kept a pony from thinking about other more painful things in this situation. 

“Would you like some coffee while you are waiting on Sparky?” Bucky questioned. 

“Yes please, that sounds wonderful… nothing helps a rough day like coffee,” Flash Sentry answered, a soft sad smile spreading over his muzzle as he spoke. 



 

Pressing her lips against the soft pink hairs of Diamond Tiara’s scalp, Derpy once more gave the foal a much needed kiss. The filly was limp beside her, heavily sedated, the news had not been taken well and almost immediately Diamond Tiara had become violently ill. She lay in the bed with the grief stricken foal under one wing, and pressed in all around her were the rest of her foals. Dinky, Piña, even Sentinel’s composure had been shattered. 

As Dinky began to sniffle once more, Derpy moved her head around and kissed her. It was the only thing Derpy knew to try and keep the pain away. Try as she might, she couldn’t protect her foals from this, and she knew that this would leave scars, the most awful sort of scars, the ones on the inside. And her foals already had so many scars. 

The door opened and a charcoal grey filly silently entered. Ripple leapt up on the bed, squeezing in, making room for herself, and completely squashing Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel between herself and Derpy. She heard a faint groan of protest and completely ignored it. 

“Flash Sentry stopped by and delivered some news,” Ripple whispered in a soft voice. “When the time is right, there are some things you should hear mother. But for now, I think looking after these little ones is more important.” 

Realising that she had one more foal in the bed that needed comforting, Derpy leaned over and kissed Ripple on the cheek, her lips brushing over a damp pelt. Hearing a whimper, she softly nuzzled Sentinel until he quieted, and then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wondering how long it would be before this dark cloud left from overhead so that the sun could shine again once more. 



 

Standing in the doorway, Bucky looked down at three tear stained faces. One earth pony, one unicorn, and one little orange pegasus. A short distance away, Rainbow Dash stood silently by, a pained expression upon her face. 

“Please, don’t turn them away. This is killing them,” Rainbow Dash begged, her tone motherly and full of concern. “I know Diamond Tiara is probably having a tough time right now, but they really want to see her. The entire town is reeling from this. Nopony knows what to do or how to feel.” 

Rubbing his face with his right fetlock and sighing, Bucky nodded. “Come in. Diamond Tiara is upstairs in Dinky and Piña’s room. Derpy is with them. Go spend some time with her. Just try to be quiet. She’s been sedated, so mostly all she does is moan and drool a little.” 

“We’ll be good,” Scootaloo promised. 

“And quiet,” Sweetie Belle said in a shrill pained squeak. 

“I wouldn’t know what to say anyway,” Apple Bloom said as she sniffled. 

The three fillies trotted off, heading up the stairs, pushing past Bucky who still stood in the doorway. Clearing his throat, Bucky coughed a few times and then he looked at Rainbow Dash. 

“There’s hot coffee and all kinds of comfort food,” Bucky said, making a gesture. 

“That sounds really good,” Rainbow Dash replied as she moved for the door.  

“How is Glass Slipper?” Bucky asked. “I can’t help but notice that she is not here.” 

“She’s at home with Twilight and Spike. I think they’re having themselves a good cry together. Twilight hasn’t been quite right since Griffonholm… none of us have I suppose. But this really messed Twilight up. And poor little Slippy… I mean, she just lost her parents and this just ripped the scab off. Now I have three little squirts to look after and I don’t know how to deal with all of this. Being a parent is awful. Everything hurts and I’m scared all the time now. I can’t even fly right. When I do something dangerous I freak out and start scolding myself. And when I heard the news… when I heard the news I didn’t even stop to think about how I felt… all I could think about was how much this was going to hurt my little ones… and I got this strange pain… I don’t like it… I don’t like it at all, not one bit,” Rainbow Dash babbled, her eyes blinking rapidly as her wings fluttered. 

Closing the door, Bucky quietly walked the now motherly pegasus into the kitchen. 
	
	
> Chapter 389
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morgue in the hospital basement smelled strongly of disinfectant and floor wax, which blended together to create an aroma that seemed to be unique to hospitals. The lighting overhead was harsh, unforgiving, bright, and powerful. Filthy Rich was laid out on an examination table. 

Beside him, Bucky peered over the body, trying to learn what he could. 

“You’ll notice the eyes are bloodshot,” the mortician said. “This is common for those who choke, strangle, or otherwise have an obstructed airway.” 

Nodding, Bucky took note of this detail. 

“What you are smelling is putrescine and cadaverine. Putrescine, also called tetramethylenediamine, is a chemical produced during putrefaction. Cadaverine, which is also called pentamethylenediamine, is also produced as the body begins to decompose," the unicorn mortician said helpfully. “I understand that you have developed a sensitive nose due to your unique physiology. Knowing these smells will be useful in your line of… work.” 

“So this was really just an accident?” Bucky questioned, still unable to believe it. 

“His lungs were full of granola, milk, and alcohol. His nostrils were still clogged with various partially digested bits of food. There were bits of matter still lodged in his throat,” the mortician replied. “He was exceptionally inebriated. For an earth pony, Mister Rich did not have a good tolerance to alcohol. I suspect that stress weakened his body.” 

“You’re a mortician?” Bucky questioned, looking puzzled. 

“I am also a medical doctor, or I was, before I became burned out by the practice. The living were far too troublesome. So I chose to pay my respects to the dead and make sure they were looked after with the compassion and gentle care that they deserve. I was a much happier pony after I made the change,” the unicorn responded. 

“The dead are lucky,” Bucky said, his eye looking upon Filthy Rich. 

“How so, Lord of Winter?” the mortician asked, raising one eyebrow. 

Filling the air with silence, Bucky did not reply right away. He gazed at Filthy Rich for a while, his face thoughtful, and then he turned to look at the unicorn. “For some, it is the only rest they will ever know. The race is over and they can finally stop running. The chase is finished.” 

“I suppose you are correct,” the mortician responded, nodding his head softly. “Mister Rich had plans to be cremated. I will see that the ashes are delivered to you and left in your care. His daughter might wish to do something with them.” 



 

Four mares sat around a table in Bon Bon’s shop, each of them looking a bit weary and sad. Bon Bon was slumped over the table, staring down at a cup of hot cocoa. Beside her, Lyra sat quietly, looking unsettled, the corner of her eye twitching on occasion. Next was Golden Harvest, looking a little forlorn and out of sorts. She learned back in her chair and stared out the windows. And tucked into the corner was Helia, who sat in the chair while stroking her belly. 

“I told Gala this was a bad idea… stringing a stallion along,” Golden Harvest commented, her gaze resting unfocused out of the window. 

“Goldy, please don’t,” Bon Bon requested in a polite but firm voice. 

“I’m sorry… but all of this brings into sharp relief exactly why you shouldn’t do that,” Golden Harvest grumbled. “I don’t know how to deal with this Bonnie… Mister Rich was one of my financial backers. I’ve lost more than a friend, I’ve lost a business partner and potentially my livelihood.” 

Squirming in her chair, Lyra looked very uncomfortable. 

“Most of the farms around here… during the collapse… Mister Rich took the different liens he was a financial partner for on his own back. When the banks fell apart and tried to lay claim to everything they had some investment in, Mister Rich let the banks take it out of his own fortune… along with everything else that happened, it left him broke,” Golden Harvest said, shaking her head. “He saved Ponyville. He saved us Danvers. He saved the Apples. Every farmer in Ponyville owes him a debt of gratitude. And he’s gone.” 

“I didn’t know this,” Bon Bon murmured. 

“Mister Rich didn’t go bragging about it. He quietly took it on the chin and the only ponies that knew about it where the farmers who were served papers by the banks. He went from farm to farm, going out to every patch of dirt he had invested in, and told us not to panic. He had his lawyers protect us when we couldn’t protect ourselves,” Golden Harvest explained in a heartbroken voice. 

“Makes you wonder, who is going to look after the farmers now?” Helia questioned, the pegasus shifting in her chair. She sighed and flexed her front fetlocks, making them crackle and pop. 

“Mister Rich understood that Ponyville only existed because of the farms. He exploited them once, he made a lot of money off of them, but after his change of heart, he was our champion. And Gala had to go and play with his heart,” Golden Harvest said bitterly. 

“Bonnie, we don’t lead Bucky along do we?” Lyra asked in a panicked voice. 

Looking up from her slowly cooling cocoa, Bon Bon stared at Lyra. “No Lyra. Don’t say that or think that. Bucky loves us just as we are. Even during those moments where he could have done something with either of us, he’s respectfully backed away.” 

Reaching up with her front hoof, Lyra scratched behind her ear nervously. 

“I’ve never met a stallion that was content to be just friends,” Helia muttered. “Oh they say they want to be friends…. but if you are just friends with them, they call you a tease and hate you for leading them along. But I do know from second hoof information that that a few genuine friendly types do exist.” The pegasus spread her wings and stretched out her wing joints, squinting one eye as her left wing socket popped. 

“Nopony knows this, but Dirtbound, my cousin, Filthy Rich is his father,” Golden Harvest blurted out. “I’m worried that now that he is dead a lot of secrets aren’t going to be secret anymore. Please keep this among us, I really don’t want to be a gossip, but I am honestly afraid.” 

“Dirty?” Helia asked, looking shocked. “That accident prone goof bag?” 

“Yes, Dirty,” Golden Harvest said as she turned to look at Helia. 

“Does Dirty know?” Lyra asked, looking somewhat distracted. 

“No. But Dirty’s mother knows, for obvious reasons. She got lonesome when her husband went hauling a wagon full of carrots off to other cities,” Golden Harvest replied. 

“Ugh, cheating,” Bon Bon grunted as she rolled her eyes. She lifted her cup of cocoa and took a long drink. 

“Well, her husband had the gall to come home one day and tell her that someday, a foal or two of his might come knocking on their door. After that, it was open season and Dirty’s mom had her way with whoever caught her fancy. And her fancy was easy to catch,” Golden Harvest said, her voice thick with shame. “She left the root cellar door open… for anypony.” 

“And she knew that Dirtbound was Mister Rich’s?” Bon Bon said in a tone of disbelief as she looked at Golden Harvest. 

“Both of the must have known somehow… Mister Rich was paying her foal support,” Golden Harvest responded, looking Bon Bon in the eye as she spoke. “Plus, she told me that Mister Rich named him.” 

“I don’t like this,” Lyra whined. “Somepony dies and for some reason, it always brings the dirt out. This is awful. Is this how we’re going to talk about Bucky after he dies? Sit around a table talking about all of the awful things he’s done?” Lyra’s lip protruded outwards and tears welled up in her golden eyes. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m going home to be with Harper. You can stay here and keep gossiping. I hope you all choke,” the unicorn said and then vanished suddenly in a flash of magic. 



 

Sitting at his desk in his office at the top of his tower, Bucky peered up at the moon overhead shining through the glass dome. It was well past midnight. He was drumming his talons upon his desk as he tried to take in the events of this exceptionally long day. He found that he rather liked rhythmically drumming his talons upon the desk. One could do interesting things with talons, things that could not be be done with hooves. 

Behind him, between two glass pillars, a small glass spider golem wove a web of spun glass, one of Bucky’s many current experiments. Bucky hoped to turn the web into something useful, something amazing. One day he hoped his spiders would weave webs of fine spun glass thread between cities and send messages between by vibration. If the line went down, it would be repaired by the nearest spider.

One top of one pillar, a glass spider golem pulsed, flashing periodically, and on top of the other pillar, another spider copied the flashes of the first, which happened to be Morsel Code. The first spider was teaching the second how to communicate, which was an amazing feat for anypony intelligent enough to realise what was going on. 

Golems did not teach other golems how to communicate. 

Nearby, another golem translated the flashing lights into a simplified alphabet perfect for glass golem spiders to scratch out with one spindly leg, which in turn could be easily translated into a standard alphabet for a pony to read, all of which was created from Morsel’s original code. 



.- .-.. .-.. / .... .- .. .-.. / - .... . / .-.. ..- -. .- .-. / -.-. --- ..- .-. - .-.-.- / ... . . -.- / .- -. -.. / -.. . ... - .-. --- -.-- / .- .-.. .-.. / . -. . -- .. . ... / --- ..-. / - .... . / ... .- -.-. .-. . -.. / -. .. --. .... - 



Not only had Bucky taught them a simple language, but he had also given them a sense of fanatical devotion. It would mean a lot less screaming and shouting when Luna eventually discovered what he had done. 

Feeling pensive, Bucky picked up a spare orb in his talons and held it aloft. Seized with an idea, his horn glowed and so did the orb. It blazed for a moment with a bright blue-green light. Clearing his throat, Bucky tried to summon up his most regal voice. 

“Sentinel… I… oh nuts I don’t know what to say,” Bucky grumbled, failing miserably at his idea right away. His horn flashed and so did the orb. He cleared his throat again, coughed, and then held the orb closer to him, his talons clenched around it tightly. 

“Sentinel… if you are hearing this, it is because I have died. I feel as though I owe you an apology. There is a lot I have done that has shortened my life and I will not always be here for you. I have left you with a lot of responsibility and there are many duties for you to attend to. First and foremost, always look after your siblings. They will need you. This is especially true now that I am gone. Be earnest and forthright in everything that you do. Be a good and loving husband, as I know that you will be. A stallion is only as good as the wives behind him, holding him up and giving him strength. I am nothing without my wives. I know you will look after yours. Please, look after my griffons, they are dear to me and I have become quite fond of them. Serve Luna without reservation. One day you will understand the threat she keeps us safe from. Look after your mothers. I am certain they will be grief stricken without me. This orb will be the first of many. You have your journals, I suppose these will be mine. Remember that I love you a great deal, and I hope you understand why I did what I had to do. As I sit here dictating this message, Mister Rich’s death is still raw and painful in my mind. Whether I die from violence or from my greatly shortened lifespan, I regret that I did not have more time to spend with you and be the father that you deserved.” 

Staring at the orb, Bucky felt a crushing pain settle over his heart. This was only the beginning. He had other foals that he had to leave messages for. The now glowing orb clenched in his talons pulsated with blue-green light, the magic burning its way into the glass. Long after he was gone, at least Sentinel and his other foals could take comfort in the sound of his voice and listen to his gentle instruction. 

He set the orb down upon his desk, placing upon a small silver stand he had constructed to hold his finished projects. He picked up a second blank glass orb in his talons and fed magic into it, clearing his throat as he did so. 

“My dearest Dinky Doo, if you are hearing this it is because I have died…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 390
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lyra awoke suddenly, as she usually did, her eyes flying open and she felt her usual sense of panic upon awakening. She did not know the time, the room was dark, and she could feel warm bodies all around her. She felt a familiar leg wrapped around her. With her foreleg, Lyra clung to that solid leg she knew so well, glad to have Bon Bon near her. 

“Bonnie?” Lyra whispered. 

“Lyra, ponies are trying to sleep,” Bon Bon replied in a very low voice. 

“But you’re awake,” Lyra stated in a breathy whisper. 

“I couldn’t sleep,” Bon Bon whispered to Lyra, causing the unicorn’s ear to flicker. 

“I didn’t mean what I said… I’m really sorry… about saying what I said… about the whole choke thing,” Lyra stammered in a breathy utterance. 

“Think nothing of it Lyra. I forgive you. Go back to sleep Lyra. I’ll hold you and keep away the things that scare you,” Bon Bon responded in a soft voice, speaking into Lyra’s ear. 

Squirming around, Lyra shifted, trying to get comfortable. She found a small furry feathered body, it was warm, it was so very soft, and Lyra pulled Belisama closer. The griffoness made a peep in her sleep and Lyra was grateful for something small and snuggly to keep her warm at night. She realised that Bucky had come to bed at some point and was sleeping soundly close by. For this, she felt thankful. Feeling warm, safe, and secure, Lyra slowly drifted off back to sleep, knowing she was well protected from her nightmares. 



 

“The foals aren’t up,” Bucky grumbled as he stumbled into the kitchen, his metallic talons clicking upon the floor as he made his way to the chair. He yawned, rubbed his cheek against Berry Punch’s side as he went by, and felt a pat on his back from Derpy. 

“I’m keeping them home from school today,” Derpy announced. 

As Bucky slid into his chair, a cup of coffee was set down in front of him. He blinked slowly, reached up, rubbed an ear, and then smacked his lips as he tried to get the horrible taste of morning out of his mouth. 

“There’s been a full write up in the paper,” Berry Punch mentioned in a dull voice from behind the newspaper. “They printed a list of every single farm he saved. It’s a long list. They mentioned that he was your personal assistant.” 

“He is my friend,” Bucky retorted in a half awake voice. “Was. I guess… I don’t know what to say,” he grumbled as a pained expression overtook his face. “What else is in the paper? Distract me.” 

“Spitfire is leading the charge for mares in the guard. She wants the Wonderbolts reinstated as a combat unit, like they used to be. Now that she’s elected, she’s bringing sweeping reform to Cloudsdale. She’s also pledging to revitalise the E.U.P. Guards to promote equality, like it used to be a long time ago. At some point, earth pony guards became strictly supply and logistics. She wants to restore the military to some glory day ideal,” Berry Punch summarised, still hidden from behind her paper. 

“She’s been making those promises,” Bucky said before he slipped into a yawn. 

“Yeah, but now, she is making a public plea for help from you, Knight Major Bitters, to do it, saying she can’t do it alone,” Berry Punch said in an almost bored sounding voice that was not entirely awake. 

His spoon falling to the table with a clatter, Bucky wordlessly grumbled. 





“What do you mean there is no way to report missing foals?” Flash Sentry demanded, looking at the magistrate and several town council members with undisguised disgust. 

A dark blue stallion with a musical note cutie mark took a deep breath. “You have to file a report with the guard in Canterlot. But the guard is in Canterlot and we live down here. Usually, if a foal did go missing, we’d spread word of mouth around the community and we’d go looking.” 

“That’s not good enough… we have a dangerous criminal holed up somewhere that is using foals as his accomplices. We need to start spreading the word to ponies that if a foal is missing, they need to come to the police,” Flash Sentry said, looking around the room at several ponies who were eyeing him. It was too early in the morning to deal with this sort of annoyance. “Also, I need geological survey maps. I need to know where every cave is in the area surrounding Ponyville.” 

“We can help you with that,” an older looking mare said. “Your lovely wife, Princess Twilight Sparkle, she retrieved geological survey maps from Canterlot just in case those three fillies go fall down into a hole somewhere during one of their adventures.” 

“I want the city to pay for advertisements in the paper about the police and the services we offer. This is important,” Flash Sentry said in an impassioned voice. 

“Are you making demands?” a younger looking stallion questioned.

“Yes!” Flash Sentry snapped. 

“I will see what we might be able do,” the older looking mare said in reply. 

“NO! You will do something. This isn’t something I want done a week later. It will be done now. Today. Not later after it is discussed over a dozen luncheons. If the city council can’t do its job then I will make sure it is known that it is time for a new city council,” Flash Sentry growled. 

The pegasus felt the room go icy after his promise. He saw every eye in the room glaring at him. The soldier felt terribly out of his element, yet there was something familiar about this situation too… he had made enemies and they hated him. Deep inside, Flash Sentry was okay with that. He wasn’t here to make friends. He was here to get results. 

“Look, if I have to pay for these newspaper advertisements myself, I will make it known that I approached all of you, asking for help about something that threatened the foals of our community and I will make sure it is known in the papers that you sent me packing with all of your usual empty promises,” Flash Sentry said as he banged his hoof down upon the table. 

The room erupted into angry shouting and Flash Sentry steeled himself for what was sure to be a long, difficult, trying, and troubling morning. 



 

“How are ya feeling?” 

Trying to move her head, Diamond Tiara sluggishly looked at Sentinel. His outline was fuzzy, either because of her farsightedness or because of the drugs. She squinted, trying to bring him into focus. For a moment, her drug addled brain suggested that her constant squinting to see things was the reason why ponies always thought she was angry and then her mind exploded into a galaxy of profound thoughts, far too many to manage or keep track of. She stared dully at Sentinel and forgot what it was she was even trying to say. Her tongue felt dry and too large for her mouth. 

“We’re going to get you out into the sun today. That’s the plan. Get you out of this bedroom and go outside. I’ll sit with you and we’ll have a nice time,” Sentinel said in a soft voice that was remarkably like his father’s. 

“I was sad about something, but I can’t remember what it was,” Diamond Tiara said groggily, her words heavily slurred. 

“You’ve been medicated,” Sunset Shimmer said as she lifted her head from a book and looked at Diamond Tiara. “Would you like a drink?” 

Nodding slowly, Diamond Tiara was almost able to focus upon the yellowish orange pony speaking to her. Her drug addled brain told her that the yellowish orange pony was her friend. A friend that brought delicious drinks. 

Getting up out of her chair even though she didn’t have to, Sunset Shimmer poured a glass of carrot and apple juice, chilled it slightly with her magic, stuck in a straw, and then began to maneuver the drink so Diamond Tiara would get most of it down her throat rather than down her chin and on to the bed. Bartleby moved to her side, his crest rising in concern, and he sat back on his haunches while he wrung his talons together. 

Watching all of this, Dinky felt as though she had so many things to say, but she didn’t know how to say them or even what to say. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would feel if she lost her daddy. She had almost lost him a few times and that alone had nearly killed her, or so Dinky had felt. She had certainly wanted to die. Her thoughts drifted back to her birthday party a long time ago getting to know Bucky. She felt a painful clenching in her barrel and the sting of tears pricked at her eyes. 

“I don’t like her when she’s all drugged up like this. It feels wrong somehow,” Piña said in a soft voice, her eyes settling on Sentinel as she hoped to draw from his strength. The earth pony foal felt exhausted. She hadn’t slept very well, tossing and turning all night. “I understand why it is important though.” 

“I wish Ripple was here with us,” Sentinel muttered, the colt very nearly pouting in his current state of misery. He heaved a sigh and watched as Diamond Tiara slowly and clumsily sucked liquid through a straw. 

“Ripple took this day to spend time working with her guard. She understands that even in grief, sometimes we have duties… obligations to fulfill,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft voice. 

“Sometimes, the only solace that we have is to take our duties upon ourselves and work ourselves into exhaustion. It achieves the same end as being drugged. After all, a drugged stupour is not so different from an exhausted stupour,” Bartleby stated in his softly spoken voice. 

“I actually understand that, I think,” Dinky said, thinking back to the day that Bucky had worked her to the point of exhaustion. “You know, rather than mope, I’m going to do something useful.” 

“Oh?” Sunset Shimmer questioned, turning her head to look at Dinky. 

“I’m going to paint. And then I’ll stick the pictures up around Diamond Tiara’s bed so she can have something to look at,” Dinky announced as she scratched her chin in a thoughtful manner. 

“You know Bartleby, this is a chance to show off your skills as a painter… you could do a little teaching… maybe make a few foals feel better… maybe make me feel better,” Sunset Shimmer suggested as she looked at the toucan beaked griffon hopefully. 

“I read about a new technique,” Dinky stated, still scratching her chin. “It uses little slices and sections of sponges to get textures and shapes. Works well with watercolours.” 

“That sounds promising,” Bartleby remarked, the griffon hopping up on Diamond Tiara’s bed to wipe the foal’s face. He snatched up a cloth hung over the headboard and began to scrub away sticky carrot and apple juice, while Diamond Tiara moaned faintly from the vigorous scrubbing. “I’d like to do some painting. I find it is a good way to clear the mind and regain focus.” 

Moving with surprising suddenness, Diamond Tiara wrapped her forelegs around Bartleby and squeezed, hugging the griffon tightly. “Kitty!” she squealed as she rubbed her cheek against Bartleby. 

Letting out a squawk, Bartleby squirmed and struggled against the earth pony foal’s embrace, trying to wiggle free. “This is not dignified,” he muttered as tried to extricate himself, his tail swishing to and fro. 

“Fluffy kitty,” Diamond Tiara mumbled as she closed her eyes and held on to Bartleby. 

Sighing with a sense of fatalistic resignation, Bartleby settled in and allowed himself to be hugged. Reaching up, he carefully brushed Diamond Tiara’s mane out of her eyes. “This foal is sick. I suppose I can endure this if it makes her feel better. This is humiliating.” 

“But you are a fluffy… kitty… bird… creature,” Sunset Shimmer stated and she cringed when Bartleby turned his head to glare at her. “I mean, you’re little, small, not much bigger than a foal, you're soft, fluffy, and it isn’t like you are some hunter or warrior, a fearsome death dealer… oh dear.... Bartleby, I don’t know that I like the look you are giving me.” 

“Bartleby, I know your pain,” Sentinel grumbled, knowing all to well what it was to be a fierce predatory creature that others found “cute” or “cuddly” when all of your effort was spent trying to be anything but cute or cuddly. Predators got no respect. 



 

As Bucky shoveled breakfast into his mouth, he heard a knocking upon his door. 
	
	
> Chapter 391
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Why is there a Great and Powerful Trixie standing upon my common and humble porch?” Bucky asked, squinting at the blue unicorn standing upon his porch and feeling only mildly irritated, yet still somehow happy to see her. 

“Trixie was talking to Princess Twilight Sparkle when Princess Twilight Sparkle was in Canterlot last… Trixie… I… -ahem- It is my understanding that you took in the former criminal and exile, Sunset Shimmer. I was wondering if you had a spot for another social reject… your school is opening soon. I would very much like a chance to prove myself and I willingly submit myself to you. I’m miserable in Canterlot. Princess Luna told me to come to you and to humbly beg for sanctuary,” Trixie said, stammering a few times, the mare was clearly nervous. 

Feeling incredibly irritated with Princess Luna, Bucky grimaced. “I suppose you will be wanting to teach illusions?” Bucky questioned, his eyebrow raising as his various emotions all jockeyed for position as he attempted to hold everything in check. 

“Princess Luna… suggested… that I humbly offer my services to you and allow you to decide what I would be most useful for,” replied Trixie in a fearful voice. “So Trixie is now throwing herself upon your mercy and your wisdom,” she added in a fearful squeak. 

“Fine… you are now the drama teacher,” Bucky grumbled, not having enough coffee to deal with the day… or Trixie. 

“WHAT?” Trixie shouted, her eyes going wide as her mouth hung open. 

“See! That was dramatic! You can teach foals the fine art of drama. Theatre. Being a showpony. Adding illusions and a bit of magic to a play perhaps. You can get paid for just being you,” Bucky explained. 

Her eyes narrowing, Trixie stared at Bucky. “Very well. I accept. Where shall the Great and Melodramatic Trixie stay?” 

A terrible, horrible, no good, malcontent’s grin slowly spread over Bucky’s lips. “For now, you can stay with Sunset Shimmer. She has an apartment just below my office at the top of just a few stairs. Want some breakfast?” 



 

Feeling frustrated and angry, there was only one place that Flash Sentry felt as though he could go for help. He could of course go to his wife, Princess Twilight Sparkle could certainly make things happen, but Flash Sentry had come to the quiet conclusion that such an act would make them both look bad. He needed a subtle means to counter this threat. He needed somepony devious and maybe just a little bit evil. 

Folding his wings, Flash Sentry landed in the front yard of his friend's home. 

It was nearing noon and the day was finally warm. He saw a group of foals sitting on a blanket spread out over the grass. Flash Sentry smiled at them as he trotted to the steps, then up the steps, crossing the porch, and then standing at the door. 

Feeling apprehensive, he knocked. 

“Hello Derpy… I need to see your husband if I can,” Flash Sentry said when he saw the grey mare standing in the doorway looking at him with a sad looking smile. 



 

“...so I understand that my position in the Lunar Court is an honourfic at best, but I need help,” Flash Sentry explained, telling Bucky everything as the pair sat in the farmhouse library where Bucky liked to hold his personal court. 

“I have grown so weary of the bureaucrats. Twilight Sparkle foolishly believes they can be reasoned with. She will not let me scare them…I wouldn’t even scare them much... your wife is a spoilsport,” Bucky grumbled as he rubbed the withered side of his face with his right fetlock. “There are no honourifics in the Lunar Court. You are either in or you are not. And you are in,” he stated as he closed his eye and rubbed the other side of his face. 

“My wife is a beautiful creature who believes in the inherent goodness of ponies,” Flash Sentry said, his eyes lingering on the bookshelves. Some of the books were bound in leather and the stallion found this unsettling. 

“It is something I love a great deal about Twilight… it is my hope that she never loses that belief. It would pain me to know that she had somehow lost that ideal,” Bucky responded as he opened his eye and looked at Flash, who seemed distracted. “So what do you need exactly?” 

For a moment, Flash Sentry looked pained. “I don’t even know exactly. Sparkler took on an impossible job… I can’t believe she’s managed as much as she has. There are ponies that are openly hostile towards the idea of a police force, saying that it is the police that draw crime to a community. I ran into such rampant stupidity today. Others still believe that Ponyville does not have any active crime and my efforts are a waste of resources. One mare called me a thug and an extortionist… she actually made the accusation that this was a racket, a con job, that the so called criminals and the police were actually in cahoots with one another to extort money from the community and she’s swearing that she’s gonna tell the papers and blow the lid off of this whole racket. Sparkler warned me to stay away from City Hall and to just stick to patrolling the community, but we need help!” 

Settling back in his chair, Bucky took a deep breath and wished that Mister Rich was here. Mister Rich had a knack for dealing with bureaucrats. He didn’t mind getting dirty and playing the crooked game of politics. Filthy liked playing in the mud. 

“We need a way for the police department to function outside of the oversight of city hall, at least for a while… until we get established. We need funding and the means to be able to do our job. I understand how horrible this sounds,” Flash Sentry said in a low voice, his eyes darting around guiltily. 

“I dunno, I don’t think it sounds so horrible,” Bucky stated as his talons flexed. “How dedicated are you to this course of action?” 

For a moment, Flash Sentry’s blood turned to ice and his muscles all became solid frozen chunks. Something about Bucky’s silky cold voice frightened him. Flash suddenly realised that he was dealing with somepony that did not play by the rules at all. At some point, Bucky had given up on law and order and simply began to do what needed to be done. Flash Sentry shivered when he looked into Bucky’s Taint filled eye. 

“You have two options. You can continue to try and deal with city hall, or you could submit yourself to a different source of oversight. I must warn you… do not make mistakes. I think there is a way to help you. I know that you are a good pony and that you would never abuse your power… because you love Twilight and you fear disappointing her. I will speak with my Mistress. I strongly suspect that you will have the funding you need and you will gain the ability to perform your job unhindered,” Bucky said in a low sonorous voice. 

“Thank you,” Flash Sentry said in reply, feeling his skin crawl and wondering just what he had gotten himself into. 

“You need not be so nervous. We will never ask you to do anything questionable. We will never ask you to do anything that might shame you. But make no mistake, for the sort of concessions you are hoping for, we are going to hold you to a very high standard of accountability and we will expect results. The Lunar Court demands results, not hopeful estimations. We have a different way of doing business,” Bucky explained patiently, trying to reassure the nervous pegasus. 

Taking a deep breath, Flash Sentry tried to relax. “I know that you are having a very hard time right now with everything that has gone on, but I need your help with something else. I know that Sparkler has told you about “Daddy” and his group of foal aged accomplices. I have a map of most of the known caves in the area. There are hundreds. I was wondering if there was something you could do to help us narrow it down. I’m going to ask Twilight as well.” 

“You know, I think I have an idea,” Bucky replied, looking thoughtful as he gazed at Flash Sentry and watched the stallion fidget. “Sentinel has a very powerful nose.” 



 

Laying on the floor, Berry Punch cradled Harper in her forelegs as Bittersweet tried to teach them ear language. Peekaboo was sitting beside her, watching her beloved donkey nanny with rapt attention, while Harper remained sulky and fussy. 

“Bunny,” Berry Punch said, carefully moving her lips so Bittersweet could read them. She watched as the donkey made the ear signs for “bunny” and Berry Punch moved her own ears to mimic what she saw. The earth pony watched as Peekaboo did the same. 

The little unicorn foal known as Harper however, folded her forelegs over her barrel and stuck out her tongue. Harper was upset, and rightfully so. She hadn’t eaten since forever. She had refused her breakfast of mashed bananas and oatmeal, had been turned away by every mama she had gone to, and left to starve to death all alone. Her tummy gurgled and made squelching noises, which frightened Harper a great deal. She worried that something was in there. Something horrible. She could feel it moving around, a painful feeling, she didn’t like it at all. Not one bit. 

“Bunny,” Peekaboo said, her ears moving through the complicated gestures of ear language as she spoke.

Bittersweet pantomimed an expression of great surprise, leaned forward, and planted a kiss upon Peekaboo’s nose, which caused the pegasus foal to giggle. Reaching out with her hoof, the donkey affectionately patted the pegasus and smiled. 

Not knowing what else to do, Harper began to shriek at the top of her lungs, unhappy about all of the changes that had been so brutally enforced upon her lately. She wailed, inhaled sharply, and let out an even longer and louder ear piercing scream. Knowing that sometimes it helped, she turned on the waterworks and began to let the tears flow, hoping that some mama would take pity on her and how hungry she was. She was even hungry enough to eat the horrible glop they kept trying to feed to her on end of some horrible metal torture device called a “spoon.” 

“Aw, poor little Harper,” Berry Punch said with genuine concern. “It’s rough, isn’t it? It’s been a whole six hours since your early morning feeding and you refused to eat your mashed bananas and oatmeal. It’s about noon… I suppose I can let you nurse, but only after you eat a little solid food for me. Are you willing to cooperate yet?” 



 

“Sentinel, I am very sorry, but the community needs us. Our work is never done,” Bucky said in a low voice. He looked down at Sentinel and let out a sad sigh. “I know that you want to spend time with Diamond Tiara and you are very worried.” 

“I have duties… I understand. A knight needs his squire,” Sentinel said in a warm voice, looking up at his father. “Do not look so sad. I understand what is required of me father. Is Ripple coming with us?” he asked as he saw Ripple preparing herself. 

“Yes she is,” Bucky responded. “The Raptors are getting their first field test. I have no doubts that we are dealing with a mirror traveler. He’s probably dangerous. Sparkler is coming as well. Sentinel, I need your nose. We’re going to fly from cave to cave, and I want you to sniff around the openings and see if you can find the cave we’re looking for,” he explained. 

“I can do that,” Sentinel said, an unmistakable pride creeping into his voice. “Should the guard be forming a posse with the police?” 

“The Black Cloaks are getting involved. Mirror traveler… I have decided that my involvement is necessary and under the authority that Twilight has given me, I can call in whatever resources I deem to be necessary,” Bucky answered. 

“If we are rescuing foals and carrying you and Sparkler around, we’ll need a sky wagon,” Sentinel stated, his keen mind already planning. 

“One is being secured,” Bucky remarked, smiling at Sentinel and feeling a proud fatherly feeling for his colt. Reaching out with his right hoof, he stroked his son’s face affectionately. 

“I suppose you want me to stay out of harms way,” Sentinel said, looking just a little bit disappointed as he spoke. 

“No Sentinel,” Bucky responded, shaking his head. “If combat happens, I want you to take him down if you have the chance. But no killing. It is fine if you make him realise just how horrifying the sorts of things you can live through can be however. I will not be overly upset if you break every bone in his body.” 

Looking aghast at his father, Sentinel’s mouth hung open in stunned shock. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 392
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle, using magic unique to her as an alicorn, brought up a large projection map of the surrounding area. All of Ponyville became visible. Then, slowly, one by one, areas surrounding Ponyville came into view. The White Tail Woods stood out in high relief, individual trees even standing out from the projection, and a number of blinking red map markers became visible. Rambling Rock Ridge came into high relief next, then the Ghastly Gorge, and finally the Froggy Bottom Bogg. 

“We can dismiss any caves in the Froggy Bottom Bogg,” Twilight Sparkle announced as she looked at her projections. 

“Most likely because they would be filled with water and or dangerous swamp creatures,” Bucky said, cottoning on to Twilight Sparkle’s reasoning. “Rambling Rock Ridge is also highly unlikely… for reasons known to Twilight Sparkle and I.” 

“Indeed,” Twilight said, looking around nervously. “Let’s just leave it at that,” she suggested as she thought about Hidden Hollow Fortress and how Luna was excavating a massive underground complex out that way. 

“Ghastly Gorge is unlikely because of the quarray eels that live in the caves there. Too many hostile predators and flying through that location is best done by stunt fliers like Rainbow Dash,” Bucky reasoned, looking over the map projection. 

“The Everfree seems unlikely. So that leaves the White Tail Woods,” Twilight announced. 

“That does seem to be the logical place to begin looking,” Flash Sentry agreed, looking around at the posse that had formed. He knew that the griffons did not have flight licenses, but now was not the time to pick nits. He looked at Sparkler and gave her a sheepish smile. 

Sparkler, seeing Flash Sentry smile, smiled back. “You know Flash, I wanted to avoid going to my father to make this work… but technically, I was not the one who went to my father… so good job. I owe you a drink, I think.” The purple pink filly quivered slightly, one ear moving in a spastic pattern. 

The map projection showed an enlarged section of the White Tail Woods, zooming in relevant points of interest. “There,” Twilight said, pointing with her wing. "There is the logging camp. There are a few caves around there, and those seem unlikely. The loggers might take notice.” 

“Princess Luna and the lunar guardsponies patrol these woods and keep them free of monsters so ponies can get lumber, maple syrup, truffles, and other resources out of the wood. So any of these caves are good spots. The White Tail Woods are relatively safe, you might meet the occasional timber wolf, but I do believe our suspect could deal with one of those,” Bucky said as he studied the map. “There,” he stated, pointing with one extended talon finger. 

“Why there?” Twilight asked, looking at the spot Bucky had selected. 

“Readily available access to fresh water due to a number of streams, a protective ridge, and there are a large number of geothermal hot springs in the area. If he’s lucky, he’s found a cave with a geothermal spring inside of it, which would keep the cave rather warm and well heated,” Bucky explained patiently. 

Carefully considering Bucky’s words, Twilight Sparkle studied the map. There were several dozen caves in just that one small area, the ground was primarily limestone and there was an aqueduct deep underground. “We begin our search there. Hitch up Flash. You and I will pull the sky wagon. We do this by the book. We go in, we hit hard and fast, and we try to keep the foals safe. Sparkler… I understand your hesitation to do so, but I would prefer if you petrified him to keep this simple. He will be of no threat and we can haul him back in the sky wagon along with the foals.” 

“I understand and I see the wisdom in your suggestion. If I have a clear shot, he’s becoming a place for pigeons to poop on,” Sparkler responded, raising one hoof in salute. “I would like to make it known however that under normal circumstances, I refuse to use my magic on ponies, not unless I absolutely have to.” 

“I will focus on shielding the foals,” Twilight stated, looking around at her group. “If he proves wiley… if for example, he uses anti-magic countermeasures, Ripple, you and your Raptors are free and clear to do whatever to subdue him. Sentinel, we’ll likely be fighting underground. Use your shadow magic. Flash Sentry, help me with the foals,” the alicorn instructed in a patient voice. 

“And what about me?” Bucky asked, looking over at Twilight with his eyebrow raised. 

“I know how you feel about hurting ponies. You’re along if something goes incredibly wrong. I trust that you will do what you do best, make things up as you go. I know that you will keep us safe… you’ve shown that you have remarkable restraint in dealing with a hostile situation,” Twilight Sparkle replied, looking at Bucky and thinking about the ambush in the griffon guest room. She trusted Bucky and his magic implicitly, warlock or no. 

“Let’s move and make good use of the daylight we have left,” Flash Sentry commanded, looking around at the group. He hadn’t expected this. He had figured that he and Sparkler were going to have to go at this the hard way. This certainly made things easier. 

“Flash Sentry,” Sparkler called out to the orange pegasus. 

“Yes?” Flash Sentry asked in reply. 

“I found me a good day watch commander. You just keep doing what you’re doing,” Sparkler praised, looking at Flash Sentry as she spoke. 



 

The wagon was parked along the top of the ridge, where there were no trees. The massive shelf of protruding stone was covered in moss and a bit of scrub that had grown in the cracks. The posse moved down along the ridge, working their way along, walking through the woods that were ablaze with autumn, the trees all various shades of golds, oranges, yellows, and reds. The griffons flitted from tree to tree, moving silently, and Ripple moved with them, also darting from tree to tree with the group, hovering nearby while they all gathered together before moving off to the next tree, led by Grunion and Loki. 

Moving somewhat ahead of the group, Sentinel moved with nose to the ground, snatching up and eating bugs, slugs, and other delicious edibles as he moved along. The forest was alive with various scents and his nose tingled with each new smell he picked up. The lunar pegasus was in his element as a hunter. This was what his unique species was made to do. As he walked, his wings flapped a bit, and when he caught a new scent, they’d extend outwards in excitement. 

They drew near their first cave, the group moving cautiously together, Flash Sentry moving nearer to Sentinel as the colt led the way, and Sentinel began sniffing all around the ground, his head moving from side to side as he tried to take in every scent he could. 

Finally, Sentinel lifted his head. “No ponies,” he reported, a ribbon of drool dribbling off of his chin from his excitement. 



 

The next cave was under a stone overhang, somewhere up ahead. The ground around them was littered with debris. The air was filled with the faint scent of rotten eggs. Several hot springs gurgled around them, and the posse passed by a large bubbling boiling pool. 

The Raptors were falling into a pattern now, their movements becoming far more coordinated as they slipped from tree to tree, Ripple darting after them. So agile was the pegasus filly that she was able to stand on narrow branches, perfectly balanced, all four hooves delicately resting together, or even just standing on one hoof for the sake of showing off. 

“Ripple moves like Rainbow Dash flies,” Flash Sentry remarked in a soft voice as he marched with the group through the trees. 

“She sure does,” Twilight Sparkle agreed as she watched the filly balancing on one front hoof, standing on a narrow branch, Ripple’s wings quivering with excitement. “Sentinel sure does drool a lot when he gets excited.” 

“You have no idea,” Sparkler responded in disgust. “Never, under any circumstances, come near him when there is ice cream nearby. My little brother almost killed Bon Bon. She slipped and fell in a puddle of drool because of Sentinel.” 

“I couldn’t help it,” Sentinel whimpered, lifting his head and looking back at Sparkler, a long string of saliva trailing from his bottom lip. “She said she still loves me.” 

“Funny observation… Sentinel has very greasy drool. It is actually quite slippery and slick. Berry Punch came up with a theory that it allows lunar pegasi to slip in and out of stone cracks and narrow passages in the caves they like to live in. If they are going into a tight space, they could just slobber all over themselves and then slip and slide through just about anything.” Sparkler said to Twilight Sparkle. 

“Oh yuck… that’s fascinating… Flash, remind me to get a sample of Sentinel’s slobber, so I can study it later. I wonder if a good coating of lunar pegasus slobber might help a solar pegasus fly faster due to less friction,” Twilight Sparkle instructed, her inner thoughts manifesting into spoken words as she talked. “Maybe Rainbow Dash would be willing to get slippery and slick with me and we can test drag coefficients with one another.” 

Shuddering violently, Flash Sentry immediately tried to make himself forget that his wife had just uttered those horrible words. He shook his head as he marched, realising just how different his lunar cousins were. 

“I don’t understand something,” Sparkler announced. 

“What’s that Sparkler?” Flash Sentry inquired. 

“He had a wagon. He couldn’t pull it out here,” Sparkler stated. 

Taking a few moments to consider Sparkler’s words, Flash Sentry pursed his lips together and had himself a good think. After a few moments, his face brightened. “He probably hauls the wagon to a well hidden supply cache, unloads everything, hides or ditches the wagon, and then flies things back from his supply cache as he needs them.” 

“Seems reasonable,” Sparkler responded, pondering Flash Sentry’s words. 





Several more caves in the general area brought nothing but disappointment. The Raptors were now moving almost as a single entity, they traversed the trees, swiftly, silently, clinging to trunks and limbs while waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. This was their element, the little griffons had evolved to be arboreal predators, their smaller wingspans allowed them to move through densely wooded locations in a way their larger cousins simply could not. 

It was Callum that brought the group to a halt, showing off several broken branches. He moved quietly, pointing to places were branches had been broken off, creating a narrow corridor through the densely packed trees. An aerial pathway had been created, this was a landing strip of sorts, something made to allow a flying creature to land. The posse was near a cave, and Sentinel moved ahead with his nose pressed down to the leaf-strewn ground with the Raptors now moving directly overhead to cover him and keep him safe. 

Halting at the cave entrance, Sentinel lifted his head and nodded. “Pony smell,” he said, slobbering with excitement, more drool trickling from his chin. He dropped his head back down and continued to sniff. He paced around the entrance, moving around in a circle. “Smells like mostly unicorns and pegasi.” 

“You can smell the difference between tribes?” Ripple whispered, looking at her brother with wide eyed awe. 

“Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, they all smell different,” Sentinel explained in a low voice. 

“Remember, by the book,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low voice as the posse slowly crept into the cave, the Raptors leading the way and Sentinel falling back with Bucky. She looked over at Flash Sentry and then at Sparkler, who stood on either side of her, gave a nod, and then smiled as she continued ahead. 



 

The cave narrowed for a time. It was damp, slightly humid, and very warm. The air was filled with a pleasant heat, a soothing heat that crept into the skin and made a pony feel warm and comfortable. Bucky created a faint light, a soft light that had a short radius. Sentinel had moved nearer to the front, leading through the darkness with his echolocation, which he kept at a frequency that normal ponies could not hear. 

After traveling though the dark passage for a while, they saw a warm orange light up ahead. The group paused, allowing their eyes to adjust to the change of light levels. The griffons crouched and began moving like the predatory felines that they were. The group surged forward as one. 

Ahead, on a pile of straw, a tan pegasus raised his head and let out a startled cry of surprise, which was cut off by a strangled gurgle as he turned to stone. He was petrified with his mouth open and his eyes wide with surprise.

“Well, that went by the book,” Twilight Sparkle announced, looking pleased. 

“That’s it? This feels anticlimactic,” Flash Sentry grumbled. 

“It’s over?” Sentinel asked. 

“No,” Bucky said, his light flaring brightly, revealing a crude large wooden stockade gate. “No, our work is only beginning,” he announced as fearful whimpers began to fill the cavern. 



 

“Nineteen foals Bucky… what are we going to do with them all?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

“Leave them in the care of Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee. I don’t know,” Bucky answered in a pained voice. “The three earth pony foals are going to need to be placed in the hospital for an extended stay.” 

“It’s terrible,” Twilight muttered. 

“It is going to be a long night for me,” Bucky announced in a weary voice. “The pegasus will need to be interrogated.” 

“Bucky… I’ve seen what you’ve done to the others. It’s monstrous,” Twilight said in a tone of disapproval. “You’ve done something irreparable to their brains. You’ve made them foals. Bucky, they cry if the guards turn the lights off. I mean they cry like little foals… they're all so afraid of the dark. Luna and the guards call their prison ‘The Nursery’ because of how those prisoners act. They walk around asking for hugs and they keep seeking out some kind of reassurance that the things in the dark won’t gobble them up. The pegasus whose brain you scrambled begged Luna for a stuffed animal he could hug and not feel so scared… he wanted a stuffy… a stuffy, Bucky, how could you do that to them?” 

“Did Luna get him a stuffy?” Bucky asked, looking very serious. 

“No! What you did was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen… of course Luna didn’t get them a stuffed doll,” Twilight snapped. 

Sighing, Bucky’s head slumped. “She should get them a stuffy. It will make things easier. I guess I am going to have to have a talk with her while I’m in Canterlot,” he grumbled. He looked at Twilight and gave a soft smile. “Things went well. I have to say, I’m proud of Sparkler. She and Flash Sentry both are proving to be promising and capable.” 

“Things ended so quickly,” Twilight Sparkle stated. “I’m glad that Sparkler can be trusted with her petrification spell. She could have zapped our culprit the other night, but she acted defensively and two foals were kept safe. It’s good she doesn’t go using her magic unless she absolutely has to. Make sure your daughter gets some kind of special reward Bucky.” 

“I shall,” Bucky promised. 

“Bucky, please, for my own peace of mind, give me your word that you will never do what you did to those mirror travelers on Equestrian ponies,” Twilight Sparkle requested, looking Bucky in the eye as she spoke. 

“You have my word,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 393
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna had far too many foals to look after lately. The Nursery had a new foal. After a long and disturbing interrogation, the new ‘foal’ had told them much. Now, a few hours after midnight, Luna was putting one very foalish little foal to bed. Pulling back the blankets with her magic, she gently laid Bucky down upon the silk sheets and pulled the blankets over him. 

“Deserter,” Bucky said sleepily as his head hit the pillow. 

“Yes Bucky, he is,” Luna said in a soft melodic voice. 

“He just wanted the fighting to end… he wanted for all of the fighting to be over. He burned off his mark so the others like him would not recognise him so easily… do you think that would have worked?” Bucky questioned as Luna tucked him in. 

“I don’t know,” Luna answered honestly. “He was certainly trying very hard to make it work. He was clever. But he was also only one pony and he had to sleep sometime. You were lucky catching him when you did. He slept during the day. Always with the lights on, just like the others.” 

“I am becoming afraid of the light,” Bucky admitted and then yawned, revealing fangs and jagged molars. “I feel so vulnerable and exposed in daylight. I find myself panicking sometimes when I am out in the open in well lit areas.” 

“I know Buckminster,” Luna cooed. “There is very little that you fear but I know what plagues your mind,” the alicorn said softly as she gently stroked Bucky’s face with her wing. 

“You need to be nice to them… our perpetual foals. I know you find it troubling, but what I did was mercy. Our deserter seemed almost happy to have all of the troubling adult thoughts taken out of his mind. He was happy to see his fellows,” Bucky mumbled, his words becoming less distinct as he struggled against sleep. “I can’t sleep alone Luna… the troubling dreams will come… all the dead things I’ve killed will ask me why I did it… please don’t leave me alone Luna.” 

Pausing, Luna did not know what to do. She looked around the room, trying to figure out what to say. There was nopony to put in the bed with Bucky, his wives were all at home. As she stood there debating what to do, she watched Bucky’s eye close as he slipped into much needed sleep. Feeling a strange painful sensation in her heart, Luna slipped away from the bed, knowing that she was leaving Bucky alone, but she did not know what else to do. 

As she paused for a moment in the door, she killed the lights, leaving Bucky in the dark. 



 

The house was filled with the usual early morning activity when Bucky returned home. He was immediately pinned to the floor by one very aroused grey pegasus mare who was a little too excited to see him, and as he lay on the ground, helpless, being smooched, Princess Luna stepped over the two canoodling equines so she could enter the kitchen, where she was immediately set upon by Loch Skimmer, who told her about her horrible secondary school teacher. 

“You -smooch- did good -smooch- in saving -smooch- foals,” Derpy said as she worked Bucky over, holding his head between her forehooves. “I -smooch- was told all -smooch- about it -smooch- by Sparkler and Ripple -smooch- and Sentinel. This -smooch- is -smooch- why -smooch- I -smooch- married -smooch- you, -smooch- because -smooch- you -smooch- look -smooch- after -smooch- foals,” she added breathlessly, kissing Bucky all over. 

“Don’t get him too worked up, I need him,” Barley announced from in the kitchen. “We’re heading off for the brewery. A day doing what he’s meant to do will do him good.” 

“But I have things I need to do,” Bucky protested, his face soaked with pegasus slobber. 

“YOU’RE GOING!” Luna commanded, her tone one of imperious authority. “BREW BEER OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!” 

“Fine,” Bucky grumbled from beneath Derpy. “I suppose it would be nice… just to let everything slide and make beer.” 



 

The scent of the brewery was almost overwhelming for Bucky. Stepping in from the cold, the heat of the brewery washed over Bucky and the smell caused his muscles to relax. He stood for several moments, just taking it all in, and feeling rather glad that he had come. After the events of the past few days, he needed downtime. 

“The beer is already brewed. Today, we’re doing quality testing and bottling,” Barley announced in a somewhat sleepy sounding lilt. He nudged Berry Punch and then eyed the griffons who had tagged along. 

“That smell,” Bucky said, sniffing. “I’ve never smelled anything quite like it.” 

“I call it ‘Dinky Doo Brew’ and you are smelling sweet potatoes, Dinky’s favourite food,” Berry Punch explained as she moved around checking on various gauges and dials. 

“Huh?” Bucky grunted, looking around the brewery, which had changed a great deal since he had last been in here. There were gas lines now. This place was ultra-modern. It looked more like an alchemical laboratory. 

“Well, everypony always goes with the usual pumpkin flavoured beer for the fall and the winter. Barley and I were brainstorming and Dinky Doo suggested a sweet potato pie beer,” Berry Punch answered as she stood near a massive vat. 

“Aye… it is an idea whose time has come. We already have a buyer for speciality brews in Vanhoover, an old fella I know from when I lived there, and we have a quarter of a million gold bit advance for exclusivity in the Vanhoover area, with the condition we are free to sell in Ponyville,” Barley said as he wobbled around on rickety knees. 

“A quarter of a million gold bits?” Bucky inquired. 

“There’s money to be made in booze, does that shock ye lad?” Barley muttered. 

“With lousy equipment, we made good beer,” Berry Punch announced, looking proud. “With awesome equipment, we make great beer,” she added. “Plus, Barley has a bunch of high test liquors being laid away so they can age. Bucky, even if we weren’t royals, we’d never have to worry about money ever again. Cadance likes to buy our stuff for the many festivals of the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies love to drink and screw and make no attempt to hide what they do… hey, that rhymes.” 

“Celestia secured a batch of special pale ale for the Summer Sun Celebration next year. And by batch, I mean the big dame is asking for enough beer to get the entire guard completely hammered,” Barley announced as he began to write things down on a clipboard. 

Overwhelmed, Bucky eased himself down into a chair and took a deep breath. “Why didn’t somepony tell me?” he asked. 

“We planned to tell you, and we just did. You’ve been busy doing other things. ‘Farting Filly Ale’ has been a smash success. We took a lot of heat for the bottle label, and our critics all say that ponies just buy the beer for a chance to jerk off to the bottle, which has a mare presenting her pucker, but we’ve done well with it. Also, I’ve refined the raspberry flavoured hoofeweizen you created. ‘Pink Pussy’ might have a funny name, but lots of ponies drink it. The pink kitty cat on the label is instantly recognisable on a shelf. Plus, Cadance tends to buy it out,” Berry Punch answered as she began to look over the bottling machine. “We’re being held back by this machine. We can only bottle so many beers. We need a bigger machine, but for that, we’d need a factory. The bottle shortage makes us sell a lot of kegs though!” 

“This machine is inefficient. Look at all the wasted space,” one of the griffons said. 

Suddenly looking very shrewd, Barley looked at the griffons. “You think you could build a better machine?” the old curmudgeon asked, raising his eyebrow. 

“No,” the griffon replied, looking at the griffoness beside him. “I don’t think I could build a better one… I know,” the griffon replied in an insufferably smug voice. “In all that wasted space that makes the machine showy, you could have three, maybe four lines of beer being bottled. It wouldn’t look pretty, but it would be efficient.” 

“Show me,” Barley commanded. “Prove it. I’ll make it worth yer while.” 

Nodding, the griffon sat up on his haunches. “I can do that.” 



 

Smacking his lips, Bucky gulped down another test glass. He belched ferociously and then sat back in his chair as he set down the glass. “That batch… that beer was not made from grain.” 

“Yes Bucky,” Berry Punch said as she looked over a manifest. “We offer several varieties. That was a no grain beer made from sweet potatoes. We plan to offer several versions, including one that is specifically seasoned to taste more like pie. We have to add sweet potato flavouring back to the brew… brewing with the actual sweet potatoes, the starch and the sugars ferment away. The only drawback is the actual potato brew comes out at high alcohol by volume. The weaker batches come out at about eleven percent, the high test batches come out at about twenty two.” 

“That’s a drawback?” Bucky asked and then belched again. He eyed the glass of beer that Barley was setting down in front of him. It was very, very orange. 

“The customers feel it is a little… strong,” Barley grumbled, shaking his head. “Most customers are used to a beer that is only four or five percent. We’re having some trouble passing government regulations… there is some trouble listing it as a beer because of the alcohol content… it’s a bleeding headache.” 

Lifting the glass, Bucky’s tastebuds were violently assaulted by something sweet, bitter, and had the distinct taste of autumn. He swished it around a little bit, took another drink, held it in his mouth while looking thoughtful for a moment, and then killed the glass. There wasn’t a lot of sweet potato flavour to be found, but there was a spiciness to the brew. 

“Aye, that’s a twenty two. It has a nice kick to it,” Barley muttered. 

“The Lord of Winter approves,” Bucky announced, and then let fly with a disgusting gurgly belch that made the glasses on the table rattle. “Mmm… Berry Punch is looking quite attractive.” 

“Hooves off, sweet thing,” Berry Punch remarked, looking at Bucky and giving him a wink. “We’re working,” she said, her expression becoming coy. 

“But I’ve been such a good pony,” Bucky said in a morose voice of disappointment. 



 

This was just the sort of day Bucky needed. He found that he could think, he could sort out everything that had happened, and he resolved to do this more often. His mind felt quieted. He was able to sort out some of his feelings about Mister Rich. The mirror travelers. He wandered about the brewery, feeling a strange peace he had not known for a while. 

Looking back at his own backside, he examined one of his hops plants, and noticed something odd. He had lost a small part of his mark due to scarring, but as he was staring at it now, he noticed that a patch of pelt had somehow grown back and his mark was now whole. Something about the sight calmed him, eased his feeling of worry, and he quietly began to wonder just how much stock he put into the ideas and concepts of cutie marks. Seeing his mark made whole again caused a massive flood of emotions for Bucky, and for a moment, he thought he might break down in tears. The wolves had stolen a lot from him, and Bucky had always felt that the tiny missing piece of his cutie mark indicated that the wolves have stolen away a part of his destiny.



 

The stallion was light grey, almost smoke coloured, with a dark brown mane and tail. He wore a hat, a broad brimmed hat that was far more common in the southern territories, and he stood quietly in the small office space of the brewery. 

Barley exchanged a glance with Berry Punch and then with Bucky, afterwards, he allowed his gaze to return to the stocky earth pony stallion. He cleared his throat and looked the earth pony in the eye. “Yer a quiet sort.” 

“I only say what needs to be said and save my energy for the road,” the stallion responded, looking Barley in the eye. 

“Every two weeks, I’ll need a load of kegs hauled to Appleloosa. The saloon owner has a thing about kegs of beer and trains. He believes the chugging of the train makes the kegs either explosive or causes them to go flat. So he’s paying good bits for this transport. He says he has two pegasi that will tag along and keep you safe,” Barley explained to the earth pony. 

“I do believe a wagon would shake up the kegs more than a train would,” the earth pony said knowingly, his brow furrowing. “A job is a job though. He wants it hauled by wagon, I’ll haul it by wagon.” 

“Mister Longhaul Hoofer, you come with good credentials. Right now there are a lot of ponies looking for work. We chose you. We’re placing our reputation upon your shoulders,” Berry Punch stated. 

“Aye, we’re not the standard sort of employer. We look after our own. We pay very, very well. Do well and there are benefits,” Barley said, still looking the earth pony in the eye. 

“I’ve checked you out,” Longhaul said with a faint drawl. “I’m picky about who I work for, when I can afford to be.” 

“This works out and you prove to be reliable, and you will be the first one we speak to when we start distributing Apple Family products down in Appleloosa. By spring, we’ll be selling apple cider, apple wine, apple brandy, and applejack. Not the Element of Honesty, but the booze,” Berry Punch said, raising her eyebrow. “That’ll mean a run every week. We’ve already spoken with the saloon owner. He’s bought exclusive rights to distribute in Appleloosa.” 

“You know, there is no good point in hauling an empty wagon up here from Appleloosa. Might I recommend filling said wagon with some kind of goods to make the trip worthwhile?” 

“What would you recommend?” Bucky inquired, looking at the earth pony curiously. 

“Well, there is all kinds of produce, we grow a lot of agave and you can make Appleloosan tequila from that. And my sweet wife… she grows chili peppers. Hot ones,” Longhaul replied. Reaching up with a hoof, he tipped his hat back. “Not to boast or anything… but even the buffalo are afraid of them.” 

“Um, while all of that is nice, I have to ask… what quality of sand does one have in Appleloosa?” Bucky inquired, looking at the earth pony with an hopeful expression. “Cause I could always use more sand…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 394
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves, Applejack pushed open the door. She felt Silver Shill right behind her, gently nudging her along with his hoof. She needed him, Applejack wasn’t sure if she could face this alone. As the door opened, Applejack closed her eyes for a moment, swallowed, opened her eyes, and then stepped into the hospital room. 

“Babs?” Applejack asked in a low voice. “Babs? I came as soon as I heard.” 

The dark orange filly in the bed rolled over and blinked sleepily. “Applejack?” 

The earth pony mare danced in place for one moment, unsure of what to do, and then she carefully threw herself into the bed with Babs, crawling in beside the filly and carefully pulling her close. “I’m so glad to see you.” 

Standing quietly beside the bed, Silver Shill watched the mare he loved and the filly that he did not know except through stories, have a tearful moment of reunion. He turned away for a moment, looking out the window, feeling more than a little lachrymose, and then he turned his gaze back towards the pair. Blinking away a few tears of his own, he felt a quiet sense of relief. Applejack had been worried about this for a long time. 

“Babs, what happened to Sunflower? Where is your big sister?” Applejack questioned in a strangled sobbing voice. When she felt Babs shudder, Applejack knew the answer and felt a feeling of tight constriction in her throat. 

“A building fell on her when Tirek attacked,” Babs whimpered, pressing her face into Applejack’s neck and wrapping her forelegs around one of Applejack’s forelegs that was wrapped around her. 

“I’m sorry Babs… I’m so sorry,” Applejack whispered and then kissed Babs softly. 

“He hurt me Applejack,” Babs said in voice that was little more than an exhaled breath. 

“I know Babs… the doctors and Twilight told me everything. You don’t have to talk about it. Twilight told me that Bucky took him away… he’s never gonna hurt another foal,” Applejack responded as she closed her eyes and squeezed. 

“I tried to make it to Ponyville… he took me,” Babs whispered. 

“I know, he took a lot of foals,” Applejack murmured, feeling a terrible pain in her heart. “Hush Babs, don’t talk about it.” 

“I feel dirty Applejack… they gave me a bath but I still feel dirty. He hurt me… inside…” 



 

Soundproofing the room, Twilight turned to look at Bucky, who seemed to be in a somewhat decent mood. The sound of the brewery hummed around her and she could smell the yeasty smell of beer. He was sitting at the table looking surprisingly relaxed given the current state of affairs. 

“I suppose you scrambled his brains,” Twilight Sparkle said. 

“Scramble implies I was cooking eggs,” Bucky replied, not looking at Twilight. 

“I’m still very uncomfortable with what you’ve done,” Twilight stated. 

Lifting his head, Bucky looked at the alicorn speaking to him. “Think about what he did to those earth pony foals before you say that.” 

“I am thinking about it… it is all I can think about… I think I would have felt better about all of this if you had simply killed him,” Twilight responded, turning away from Bucky’s gaze and staring at a workplace safety poster upon the wall. “Being a parent changes you… I’ve been thinking about nothing but killing him. At one point in my life I wasn’t like this Bucky. But now I think about Scootaloo… or Glass Slipper being… hurt-” 

The alicorn suddenly gagged, unable to finish, and Bucky looked at her with pity. 

“At least Spike is more than capable of taking care of himself. I suppose it is a mercy having one less thing to worry about,” Bucky whispered in a soft voice, trying to comfort Twilight. 

“WOULD KILLING HIM BE SO BAD?” Twilight shouted, her eyes clenched shut. Her whole body tensed and she gritted her teeth, sparks flew from her horn and flickers of flames manifested along her wings. 

“Yes it would Twilight,” Bucky replied in a flat monotone. 

“I don’t understand you at all, you know,” Twilight moaned, her eyes still squeezed shut from anguish. “I had to tell Applejack what was done to her cousin. I had to listen to the doctors describe to her in graphic detail what was done and how all of those earth pony foals are going to need reconstructive surgery. And you just sit there and tell me that killing is wrong.” 

“So you start killing for vengeance. Where does it end? Why stop? There is a lot wrong with the world. Why stop at just one creature that hurt a few foals? Kill him and move on to the next one. Kill the next one too. Killing two isn’t enough to really make a difference though… if you want the world to change, you gotta take it upon your shoulders to kill all of them… and where does that leave you? Are you the alicorn of friendship or are you the alicorn of vengeance?” Bucky questioned in a soft voice. 

“I’m being lectured about killing from the potential alicorn of war,” Twilight said dully, her eyes opening. “Oh by the stars what have I done? I’m sorry Bucky… I don’t know what came over me for a moment… thank you… I… I am at a loss for what to say.” 

“Twilight Sparkle, I love you a great deal. Please don’t ever forget that,” said Bucky in a low voice, looking at Twilight with an expression of concern. 

“I can’t stand how the world is sometimes,” Twilight whimpered. 

“I was just thinking about that while I was doing a little work here,” Bucky said, now looking distracted. “I realised I had a way to fix everything that was wrong.” 

“You do? How? I’d love to hear it,” Twilight Sparkle responded, moving towards the table and then sitting down in a chair beside Bucky. 

“Purpose driven magic… enchantment. Making sapient creatures behave themselves. Do you really want to know?” Bucky questioned, looking over at the gloomy alicorn. 

“Yes, I do,” Twilight Sparkle replied. 

“It occurred to me that my anti-gunpowder golems could do so much more. I started thinking about how I had changed our prisoners. How easy it is to take away free will… and as I was going through stock lists, I realised, the world doesn’t need to keep fighting. I could make war and conflict end in no time. Release a flood of golems that carry enchantments worldwide that make sapient creatures have reactions of violent sickness when they think about hurting one another. Extreme nausea as a reaction to the very thought of committing violence. Mass dispersal of geas spells and compulsion spells. Spells that would make a creature forcibly go sit down or lay down somewhere and think about what they are doing before going off and doing unnatural things with a foal or some other creature’s young. I could put an end to all rapes. I could make the entire world stop fighting. The only things that would really have a chance to resist me would be the unicorns, but they could be worn down. I’m already seeing ways to make them submit. At some point, my golems would catch them and subdue them. As I checked off the inventory checksheet, I saw a future where all conflict was quelled. An entire planet pacified.” 

Twilight Sparkle’s mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. 

“Just think Twilight. A diamond dog goes to enslave a pony and he immediately feels nausea. He continues, and the nausea becomes extreme vomiting. He falls to the ground, incapacitated, unable to continue and follow through with the act of violence. An entire world where it becomes impossible to bring harm to another. I could make it happen. And if things continued to resist… I could lobotomise them like I’ve done with our prisoners. Then they would submit and even be happy about it. Our prisoners love me Twilight. Not love like Cadance can produce, but love nonetheless. They were so happy to see me last night. They hugged me and chatted with me and it was like two foals glad to see daddy when he comes home. And they were our hardened enemies. I could easily make those who resist be just like them. The world would learn to behave itself,” Bucky explained, looking troubled as he spoke. 

“What’s stopping you?” Twilight whispered, looking terrified. 

“I will not live forever,” Bucky responded, shaking his head. “I came to the same conclusion that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna must have came to at some point. The world will face trouble. Conflict is where heroes are made. The strong are made stronger in the crucible of turmoil. Tartarus could spill open. The world could be invaded by things from other places, other whens. And a world full of pacified creatures that have never known conflict would have no chance of survival. The world needs conflict. It needs trouble. Bad things have to happen so ponies like you and I will come into our own and become the sorts of creatures that can protect the world from horrible things invading from other dimensions… or to stem the tide of horrors that might escape Tartarus. If I was to pacify them, I would potentially be killing them,” Bucky explained, his talons drumming on the table. 

Rubbing her front hooves together as she propped herself up on her elbows, Twilight looked somewhat queasy as she sat in the chair. “I suppose you’re right, I wonder if Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ever thought about forcing the world to behave.” 

“I’m sure they have. They have lived for a very long time. And I strongly suspect that they reached the same conclusion that I have. It would be a death sentence,” Bucky replied as he rubbed the side of his neck with his right front hoof. 

“But all war would be ended. No more fighting. No more hurting. No more foals being abducted or molested. No more rapes. No more senseless anger… like… like I had just a few minutes ago,” Twilight Sparkle said in a defeated voice. She rubbed her eyes, scrubbing at them with her front fetlocks, leaving behind damp cheeks when she pulled her forelegs away. 

“How is Glass Slipper?” Bucky asked, changing the subject. 

“She adores Spike. She follows him around asking him a million questions an hour and driving him crazy. She likes to talk about turning five. She likes to pester Flash Sentry about if his wings tickle him when he has them folded in. I don’t know why she doesn’t ask Rainbow Dash or I about this. Or Scootaloo. She loves Scootaloo and wants to follow Scootaloo everywhere she goes, but Scootaloo is a lot older… and she’s Scootaloo. Which means getting into a lot of trouble. I don’t want Glass Slipper getting into that much trouble just yet. She has a knack for slipping into bed with sleeping ponies unnoticed and not waking them up. And I find myself falling in love with her a little more each day,” Twilight Sparkle answered, pouring her heart out as tears trickled down her darkened cheeks. 

“Foals have a way of changing you Twilight,” Bucky stated, nodding his head knowingly. 



 

Applejack lay on her back, gently stroking the foal laying over her barrel. Babs’ head was resting on Applejack’s chest, at the base of her neck. Applejack’s hat lay on the floor where it had fallen. The two earth ponies clung to one another, feeling each other’s grief quite keenly. 

“We’re going to take you home,” Silver Shill said in a low voice, speaking to a foal he only knew from stories. “Once you get better you will come home. And you will have all of us to protect you and make you feel better. Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, me, Applejack, Big Mac, Cheerilee, we will all be there for you. We’ll get you through this somehow.” 

Sighing, feeling the heavy warmth of Babs upon her barrel, Applejack thought about her parents for a moment as she felt more tears soak into her pelt. “It’s the earth pony way. When there is a hard job to do, we get a whole bunch of us and share the work. And there’s a whole bunch of us Apples. I’m glad you’re home Babs.” 

“Earth ponies are dirt,” Babs muttered in a low broken voice, her eyes closed. “The earth pony way is the way of servitude. Good slaves get fed. Bad slaves get punished.” 

Saying nothing, Applejack’s green eyes blazed furiously as she gazed at Silver Shill. 
	
> Chapter 395
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Moving through the hospital corridors, Princess Luna felt troubled. She was tired, sleepy even, but she forced herself to carry on. There were things to do, trouble to look after, and her beloved subjects needed to be checked on. Nurses and patients hurried to get out of her way. Her sister, Celestia, wanted Luna to be seen on public missions of goodwill to help Luna once again gain some trust. Too many ponies were still entirely too afraid of her. 

There was an Element to look after. Celestia had sent a message and made it very clear that Luna was to make sure that the Element of Honesty was well, and that her mental state was stable. Luna realised that her sister had seen her mistake, the error of her ways, when Celestia had sent the Elements off to Griffonholm on a gambit. Now, Celestia was concerned and trying to make up for her mistake. 

The Night Mare stomped down the hall, her steel shod hooves striking sparks from the tile with each step. Her lip was curled back in a scowl, revealing white square teeth. As she passed, she left the unmistakable scent of ozone in her wake. 

Princess Luna rounded the corner and shoved through a pair of double doors, entering the wing where foals and adolescents were looked after. An orderly shrieked as Luna entered and then scurried away, her tail streaming out behind her as she ran. 

This was not turning out to be a good day. A changeling had been found in Ponyville and it wasn’t Slate, the one changeling that was supposed to be living in Ponyville. Already the bug was being shipped off to Hidden Hollow Fortress to be processed and the missing pony was now being investigated. Luna still felt troubled about the three irreversibly brain damaged lobotomites now living deep within the bowels of Canterlot Castle that wanted to call her ‘mama’ and asked to be cuddled. 

Finally, Luna came to a door. She took several deep breaths, trying to regain her composure. She fluffed out her wings, which probably needed preening. She blinked a few times, wondering how bloodshot her eyes might be. Standing before the door, Princess Luna put on a mask of serenity, turning herself into the calm all knowing, all seeing Princess of the Night. 



 

“Princess Luna,” Applejack said, looking up from the chair where she was sitting beside the bed. The earth pony took off her hat and clutched it to her barrel. 

“Applejack, Silver Shill, how are you?” Luna asked, looking at one earth pony and then the other, her voice quieted so she would not disturb the foal in the bed, who was sleeping. Already, Luna could feel the foal’s troubled dreams. She allowed her magic to flow freely, making sure that the foal stayed asleep during her visit. 

“We’re just trying to make it through this,” Silver Shill answered, shaking his head. 

“I’m nervous,” Applejack said, her voice a whisper. “In a few hours, she’s… she’s gonna have some kind of termination procedure. Doctor’s say she is too young to carry to term. She’s gonna have to have something called a ‘D and C’ or something, I dunno, I didn’t catch all of it. These doctors need to slow down when they talk.” 

“I am really very sorry,” Princess Luna said in a soft voice, her pain sincere and genuine. 

“Doctors said she might end up sterile because of this. There are a lot potential complications. She’s suffered something called a uterine prolapse. They don’t know how bad it is until they get inside of there,” Silver Shill said as he turned and looked out the window. 

“Princess Luna… is there something you can do… I know that you can do things in dreams,” Applejack asked, her words slow and hesitant. 

“Are you asking me to alter her memory?” Princess Luna questioned. 

“I don’t know what I’m asking,” Applejack stated in response, shaking her head in a confused manner. “Can you do that?” 

“She deserves a chance to be happy and recover from this,” Silver Shill said, still staring vacantly out the window. 

“I agree,” Princess Luna replied, looking first at Silver Shill and then at Applejack. 

“Can you make all of this go away?” Applejack inquired, looking suspiciously at Princess Luna, her brows furrowing and her green eyes flashing. “She’s been brainwashed. I said something about the earth pony way and she starts talking about earth pony servitude and all the things he did to punish the earth ponies he kept. The torture that went on in the open and the other… things… that went on in private. At least he didn’t do that in front of the other foals.” 

“I am, in fact, capable of making this all go away,” Luna admitted, now looking uncomfortable, her mask of serenity now slipping from her face. 

Applejack did not respond right away, she sat staring at the clock on the wall, her face going through a range of emotions. Her eyes shifted to the foal in the bed and she watched Babs as she slept. “I gotta know… what did Bucky do to this… this… I don’t even know what to call him.” 

“I cannot tell you exactly what Buckminster has done, but I can say that what Bucky did was utterly unspeakable, if that makes you feel any better,” Luna answered in a cold voice. “He has done things that have even chilled my blood. The perpetrator has suffered a fate worse than death,” the alicorn answered honestly. 

“Well then, that actually makes me feel better. I think I owe him a drink,” Applejack drawled in a hateful spite-filled voice. “So can you fix her?” 

Nodding, her eyes filled with pain, Luna's teal eyes locked with Applejack’s green eyes. “I can take away the troubled memories. She will have lost a large span of time. There will be a gap in her memory. I could even give her false memories, but in this instance… I do believe that it would be best to leave it blank. Tell her that she has been asleep. That she has been sick. Start thinking now what you wish to tell her.” 

“Is this right?” Silver Shill questioned in a quavering voice. His tail twitched and one hind leg jerked, kicking his hoof into the ground. 

“It ain’t about right or wrong sugarcube… it’s about what is necessary. Our own personal feelings don’t enter into this. We gotta do what’s right for Babs and then just sort through our own issues after the fact,” Applejack said in a pained voice, her eyes closing as she spoke. 

“So this is what it feels like to be a father,” Silver Shill said as he turned around from the window. He gazed down upon the dark orange foal in the bed. “It occurs to me that if you can make her forget, that you could also make us forget. I don’t want to forget. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I want to remember this. I want to remember that something happened and that the pony responsible was punished.” 

“I understand,” Luna stated, looking over at Silver Shill. “You want to know that there is justice in the world.” The alicorn turned to look at the foal in the bed and her ears splayed out sideways. 

“So Silver, this becomes our burden. We carry this upon our shoulders. Together. You and I. Like being hitched to a wagon together,” Applejack said in a raspy angry voice. 

“What about the newspapers and what little bit of information that the public knows?” Silver Shill asked, his eyes closing as he thought about everything involved in this. 

“There is nothing that can directly link this to Babs. I will make sure that all of the foals in this are protected,” Luna responded, her words carrying many layers of hidden meaning. 

“You’re going to make them forget each other?” Applejack inquired, looking horrified. 

“How is it any worse than making Babs forget what was done?” Luna retorted, looking at Applejack as she responded. 

“Fair point. I suppose we can’t pick and choose between different evils,” Applejack answered as she rubbed her head and closed her eyes. “I don’t know how Bucky handles this. He just does what needs to be done… I’m starting to have second thoughts already.” 

Stepping closer to the bed and touching the sleeping foal, Princess Luna’s expression became one of extreme pain. “Buckminster suffers far more than you will ever understand.” 

Crossing the room and then standing near Applejack, Silver Shill hung his head. “This becomes our burden. I suppose I’m ready to be hitched to this wagon. I can’t think of a better pony to pull it with me.” 

“I love you Silver,” Applejack whispered. 

“I love you more,” Silver replied. “I suppose this is a fair trade, offering up our own happiness in exchange for hers.” 

“Spend time talking with Twilight Sparkle and Buckminster. They will see you through this,” Princess Luna stated as her horn began to glow, a blend of harmony and shadow magic manifesting along its length. “Keep your story simple…” 



 

Feeling conflicting feelings of relief and the sudden urge to throw up, Applejack watched as Babs Seed slowly woke up and wiggled feebly in the bed. “No no sugarcube, don’t tug on that there tube in your nose,” the earth pony mare said gently. Applejack looked at Silver Shill, who looked exhausted. 

Babs Seed let out a raspy sounding cough and then went still. Her half opened eyes looked around, her gaze unfocused as she peered around the room. She whimpered, then squeaked, and then she shuddered as she stared cross-eyed at the tube sticking out of her nose. 

“There’s a cup of ice chips here… they’ve melted a bit. Silver has been getting ice chips every quarter of an hour for you, waiting for you to wake up. We’ve both been worried,” Applejack said in a soft voice as she stroked Babs and brushed the foal’s mane out of her face. “You don’t know Silver yet, but you will,” she added as she looked down at Babs. 

As Applejack watched, Babs’ eyes closed and the foal drifted off back into the realms of drug induced slumber. Applejack looked up at her husband, aware that something had changed between the two of them. They were earth ponies sharing a burden. 

“Silver Shill, I ain’t proud of what I’ve done today. I’ve allowed a life to be aborted. I’ve chosen a lie. I’ve gone against everything I stand for… and I’m already having some trouble figuring out how to live with myself,” Applejack admitted, scrubbing at her eyes with her foreleg. 



 

“So what do you remember?” Applejack inquired, her voice one of exhaustion. 

“I dunno… I remember Tirek,” Babs replied in a raspy croak. “I remember Sunflower being killed… I heard her screaming when the building fell,” she added in a dry scratchy voice. 

Carefully, Applejack spooned in a few ice chips, then watched and waited as Babs feebly chewed on them, sucking down the water as she did so. “You were injured. You got hurt real bad like. You were only recently returned to us… Silver, help me,” Applejack said, falling silent, unable to lie, the words sticking in her throat. As she spooned in more ice chips, Applejack began to weep, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“You were injured. You were lost from your family for a long time. You were recently found. And you’re suffering from a little amnesia,” Silver Shill said, none of his words technically a lie. “You finally came up out of the darkness after existing in a terrible nightmare.” 

“I can’t feel anything,” Babs whispered in a confused voice. 

“You had to have some surgery. You’re gonna have a few more. I don’t know how many. But you’re with us now. You’re home. You're safe now. No more… no more Tirek,” Applejack said in a strangled utterance. The mare’s hooves trembled as she held the small spoon over the cup of ice chips. “Discord killed Tirek. Equestria is being rebuilt.” 

“How long have I been out?” Babs asked. 

“You… you… you…” Applejack stammered uselessly, all her mind could think about was Babs being tortured for those long months. Long enough to be several months pregnant, likely from a summer estrus. 

“You were out for a couple of months,” Silver Shill said, saying what Applejack could not finish. “It has been very difficult for Applejack. Your whole family was so worried about you. But you are with us now and you are safe.” 

“I’m glad to be with family,” Babs croaked. “How’s Apple Bloom?” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 396
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The past few days had become blurry and confusing for Bucky. Too much had happened and kept happening. The death of Filthy Rich. Diamond Tiara’s illness. Tragedy hitting the Apple family. Twilight Sparkle’s doubt… which bothered Bucky a great deal. 

The only real bright spot had been working in the brewery, which Bucky swore to do more of, as often as possible, because of the remarkable feeling of calm that it brought. His now restored cutie mark was a reminder that brewing beer was an integral part of what made him what he was. 



 

“The foals are back in school. Well, except for Diamond Tiara,” Derpy said, sitting down beside Bucky on the couch. She leaned over and rested against him. 

“Harper is still not eating solid foods,” Berry Punch muttered as she sat down on the other side of Bucky and squished him against Derpy. She rubbed her cheek against Bucky’s neck and heard a whicker. 

“At least she hasn’t zapped us, not since it was you that scolded her,” Derpy said, responding to Berry Punch. She rubbed her face against Bucky’s cheek and then she pressed her nose into Bucky’s ear. She snorted, which caused the unicorn to shiver. 

“That was just awful. Bucky said ‘bad Harper’ and she just fell over onto her back with all four legs sticking up into the air and then she announced that she was dead. I thought I was going to die laughing,” Berry Punch said, reminiscing about the moment. She nuzzled Bucky’s muzzle, continuing to squish him against the solid pegasus. 

“There is something to be said about inter-tribal unity,” Bucky murmured as a somewhat dopey grin spread over his face. “Forget about the fires of friendship, how about the inferno of lust,” he quipped. 

“I had a long chat with Twilight Sparkle, Flash Sentry, and Rainbow Dash. All this trouble was actually a good time to do it. They were emotionally vulnerable… turns out, the problem is mostly Twilight. She keeps checklists for everything. And I do mean everything. I hope both of you will forgive me, I but I shared a few minor intimate details about our encounters. Twilight wants perfect time allotment. She actually wants to keep a timer by the bed to make sure that everybody gets an equal amount of time,” Berry Punch announced and then explained. Reaching up, she carefully clamped her teeth down on Bucky’s ear, pressing in gently, and then gave him a tug. 

“Sex does not work that way,” Bucky remarked as his eye closed and he went limp, propped up on both sides by an earth pony and a pegasus. 

“Twilight Sparkle has trouble with spontaneity. She immediately made a list of things to do in a spontaneous situation and a checklist on how to be random. Rainbow Dash said that wasn’t how to be random. Twilight got a little defensive and angry… she demanded Rainbow Dash show her how to be random,” Berry Punch said, continuing her story as she rubbed up against Bucky. 

“So what did Dashie do?” Derpy questioned as she sniffed and snuffled against the back of Bucky’s neck, which caused her husband to tremble. 

Laughing, Berry Punch closed her eyes and allowed the moment to take her. “She actually slammed Twilight down upon the couch, held her down, and blew a raspberry on her belly… Twilight Sparkle nearly wet herself.” 

“That was random,” Bucky stated as both mares rubbed up against him on either side. 

“I think they’re going to be okay. Twilight is a bit like you… a spring too tightly wound. Well, how you used to be. I think we’ve made you better,” Berry said in a pleased sounding voice. 

“You look better,” Derpy said to Bucky. “I think Berry and I are going to go cheer up Thistle now. Belisama has been reading to her. They like reading really weird murder mystery books.” 

“You’re leaving me?” Bucky protested. 

“Well, you look cheered up,” Berry responded, looking apologetic. “Our work here is finished. You could help us cheer up Thistle.” 



 

“Bunkbeds… I feel like I’m back in school again,” Sunset Shimmer mumbled as she flopped over into a large bowl shaped chair. 

“How do you deal with the stairs?” Trixie asked, raising one eyebrow in curiousity. 

“I dunno, I like the stairs. I’m getting in shape. I no longer have such a squooshy tushy,” Sunset Shimmer remarked. “Feels nice to be taking a break. I feel really bad for Diamond Tiara but I was starting to get worn out.” 

“We are a fine collection of bullies,” Trixie grumbled as she fell over on the top bunk. 

“I am not a bully,” Bartleby protested around a beakful of feather. 

“Does it bother you to live with two gabby mares?” Sunset Shimmer asked Bartleby. 

The griffon, who had been preening his wings and his feathers, lifted his head, turned it completely around backwards, and looked at Sunset Shimmer. “Should it?” 

“I dunno,” Sunset Shimmer replied, shrugging slightly as she spoke. “And don’t turn your head around like that. It isn’t natural.” 

With a sarcastic squawk, Bartleby turned his backwards head upside down, the bottom of his beak pointing towards the ceiling and his crest now pointing towards the floor in a boneless manner. 

“Eeeeeugh!” Sunset grunted as she cringed, hiding her face behind her hooves. 

“Trixie finds this display most disturbing!” 



 

Easing himself into his high backed chair in the farmhouse library, Bucky settled into a pony-loaf position as he watched Rarity and Coco getting settled into a seat facing him. The two mares seemed jittery, nervous, both were eager to see him. Sweetie Belle, who had come with them, was upstairs visiting Diamond Tiara. 

“You wanted my ear for a while?” Bucky inquired as he poured himself a drink. Red wine trickled from the bottle and into a small glass goblet. “Would you two visions of loveliness care for some wine?” 

“No thank you,” Rarity said, jittering in her seat. 

“Yes please,” Coco replied, looking at Bucky with a nervous smile. 

Conjuring up two more glasses, Bucky poured the rest of the wine bottle into both of them and then levitated the glasses to both mares. Coco took hers and immediately took a sip, Rarity accepted hers hesitantly and then held it for all of ten seconds before taking a big gulp that emptied half of the glass. 

Grimacing from the pleasant burn of the wine, Rarity took a deep breath. “I saw Applejack this morning… Babs Seed is getting better. The Royal Pony Sisters provided a new healing compound to the hospital. Apparently, even the doctors are baffled by its effects. It was delivered yesterday afternoon and by this morning, there was a marked improvement in all three of the earth pony foals. The doctors haven’t seen anything like it,” Rarity said, nervously sharing gossip. 

After taking a drink, Bucky heaved a small sigh of relief. He was going to have to give Tourmaline an extra squeezy hug and a kiss. 

“And one of the secondary school teachers has gone missing,” Rarity said as she eyed her wine, sloshing it around inside of the goblet. 

“Loch Skimmer mentioned that Bill Neigh, her teacher, seems to have vanished,” Bucky said, fully aware of the situation and what was really going on. The real Bill Neigh was recovering in a hospital room in Canterlot and his memories were being edited after his experience. The changeling posing as the secondary school teacher was currently in Hidden Hollow Fortress. “So, tell me, why am I graced by both of you radiant beauties?” 

“Flatterer!” Rarity snorted, covering her mouth with her hoof. The alabaster mare began to titter as her ears began to splay out sideways. 

“There is a very delicate issue we wish to discuss. I suppose the best way to deal with it is just getting to the point. We want to talk about Diamond Tiara,” Coco said in a soft demure voice, looking at Bucky and blinking slowly. 

“What about her?” Bucky questioned, watching as Rarity killed off her glass of wine. 

“This was Sweetie Belle's idea… at first. And then Rarity and I really began to discuss it one night while giving one another hooficures,” Coco said, gently opening up the exchange of dialogue between them. She took a small careful sip of wine and then looked at Rarity. 

“It occurred to us that if you kept Diamond Tiara, it might look poorly upon both her and Sentinel later if their relationship continued. Society might see it as being too much like brother and sister,” Rarity said, her eyes only half open. She looked very relaxed. 

“I have had the same thought,” Bucky admitted, looking first at Rarity and then at Coco. 

“If their relationship continues, and we realise this is a big if, certainly nothing is set in stone, Diamond Tiara is going to need a certain level of polish. A certain level of finish. She is going to need to learn poise and grace if she is going to be the wife of a knight,” Coco said gently, a soft understanding smile upon her muzzle. 

“She is going to need to learn social graces. How to be a lady. High society functions. How to behave at a cotillion for example, or a gala. We know that you have designs on having Sentinel continue your place as one of the kings of the griffon empire,” Rarity said. When she was done speaking, she let out a tiny cute little hiccup and then covered her mouth with her hoof. 

“I think I understand what you are getting at. You two want to do a little diamond polishing to make a finely presentable gem,” Bucky stated as his smile broadened. “I do appreciate the gesture, but this is a bad idea.” 

“Why?” Rarity said bluntly, looking at Bucky with one wide eye and one half opened eye. 

“Diamond Tiara is going to need to continue therapy. Which is probably going to mean traveling to Canterlot or paying to have a psychiatrist travel to Ponyville from Canterlot. She needs medications to manage her mood. Maybe not forever, but she was taking four pills a day and now with her current state of illness, she is taking over a dozen. Plus there is her ulcer medication and blood pressure medication. Her current medical care is expensive,” Bucky carefully explained. 

“We don’t care,” Coco Pommel said in a soft retort. “It becomes even more important for us to do this. Tell me Buckminster, who would you trust more? Us, or some random foster home? Some adoptive strangers? The orphanarium?” the earth pony mare questioned in a firm but gentle voice, her piercing gaze locked on Bucky. 

“This started off as Sweetie Belle’s idea… my dear little sister Sweetie said what Diamond Tiara needs is proof that somepony believes in her. She said she was willing to share her bedroom with Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle is very selfish with her space. Her boudoir is her sanctuary… My mother and my father, whom you have met, have all kinds of money and no grandfoals to currently spend it on. I have already spoken to them on this issue. They like the idea. We can provide for every need she has,” Rarity said as she set her wine glass down upon a table and leaned forward in her chair. 

“I will give it serious thought,” Bucky responded as he nodded his head. “I will also discuss this with Diamond Tiara. Mister Rich actually appointed me as the executor of his estate. I have no idea why. He had a whole company full of people who might know what to do with everything.” 

“You were his friend,” Coco whispered in a soft sad voice. “You’ve seen Mister Rich at his best and his worst. You worked for him. You know what sort of pony he was, how awful he was, and you embraced him when he had shown that he had turned over a new leaf,” the earth pony mare said, her eyes dropping down to the floor. “Twilight Sparkle and I were talking just a little bit about this subject when she had us over for tea so Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo could get together.” 

“Glass Slipper is a perfectly adorable little foal. So much like Sweetie Belle when she was at that age. Now Sweetie Belle is chasing colts… well, one colt. Oh my how the years do fly by,” Rarity murmured, shaking her head and looking melancholy. She lifted her forehoof to her forehead. “Oh where does the time go?” 

Saying nothing, Bucky wondered if he had hired the wrong pony to be the drama teacher. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 397
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“...anyhow, Rarity and Coco brought up a lot of good points and I wanted to know your feelings about everything,” Bucky said as he sat in a feverishly pink chair in Dinky and Piña’s room beside Diamond Tiara’s bed, speaking to the foal about the current situation. 

“You mean they want me?” Diamond Tiara squeaked. 

“Yes love. They want you. Is that so hard to believe?” Bucky said, making a gentle inquiry. “I want you as well, but I understand the complications of keeping you. Do you understand the troubles we all might face?” 

“Yes,” Diamond Tiara replied, offering a faint nod. For a moment, she looked troubled, her pupils dilated, and her gaze became unfocused. “Do you think I have the behavioural issues I do because I am a filly raised by a stallion? Would being around two mares fix some of what is wrong?” 

Feeling troubled by Diamond Tiara’s words, Bucky lowered his head and closed his eye. Trying to flog his brain into action, he attempted to think of something wise to say. He failed. Stymied, he tried to dissect the foal’s statement to break it down into more manageable parts. He called upon every bit of fatherly wisdom he had accumulated and came up with exactly nothing to say. 

“Dinky painted me my favourite sort of butterfly. Look how real it looks,” Diamond Tiara said, pointing up at the wall beside her bed. 

“Dinky’s skill as a painter is certainly becoming impressive,” Bucky responded as he opened his eye and then looked at the butterfly painting. Not only was the butterfly accurate and easy to identify, but the milkweed plant was a dead on representation. 

“I want to get up and walk around a bit,” Diamond Tiara requested, turning her head slowly to look at Bucky, who was sitting in the screamingly pink chair. 

“Okay,” Bucky agreed as he pulled himself out of the chair. “You sure you’re up for this? You seem a little out of it. Just go slowly and don’t rush yourself. You know getting up too fast causes your blood pressure to drop.” 



 

Pinkie Pie stood on her hind hooves beside the counter, whisking a mixture in a large mixing bowl. Beside her, Cheese Sandwich was squirting frosting through a star shaped nozzle onto a batch of cupcakes. Mister and Mrs. Cake were also working in the kitchen, with Mister Cake occasionally eyeing the register. In the corner, the twins played in their playpen. 

“So I had myself a thought,” Mrs. Cake announced. 

“What’s that shnookums?” Mister Cake questioned as he carefully added sprinkles to a frosted batch of cupcakes. 

Mrs. Cake lifted her head and looked around the kitchen. “Are we a herd?” 

Mister Cake began to panic. “I’ve never once thought of Pinkie in that way,” he said, looking at Pinkie Pie, who was now giggling, and then back at his wife. 

“Herds can be extended family. Look at the Lord of Winter. He has four almost adults living within his herd. That’s what I’ve seen in the paper. And Pinkie Pie is practically my foal. I love her as though she was my own,” Mrs. Cake patiently explained to her rapidly reddening husband. 

“You really feel that way about me?” Pinkie Pie gushed, dropping her whisk with a plop into the mixing bowl. 

“Of course Pinkie. You were such a young filly when you left home. You were barely a teenager. Something bad might have happened to a filly that age. Which is why we had to take you in. Besides, when you showed up, you were a little half baked. I had to keep you until you were finished,” Mrs. Cake responded as she smoothed out her apron with one front hoof. 

“I feel like I am being tickled all over,” Pinkie said as she wrapped her forelegs around her barrel and gave herself a hug. “I like feeling happy.” 

“Pinkie Pie, I would like it very much if you and Cheese continued to stay with us. As a family. One big family. We could raise our foals together. What I’m trying to say is, I’m worried that you are going to leave us… and I really want for you to stay,” Mrs. Cake said, looking hopeful. 

“Oh don’t worry Cup Cake, you’ll never get rid of me!” Pinkie Pie promised. 

“And what about you Carrot Cake? How do you feel?” Cheese Sandwich questioned. 

“I am very fond of Pinkie Pie and I want for her to be happy. And so far, you seem to be making her happy. I certainly don’t want for either of you to go. We all work so well together. Have you had enough of wandering?” Mister Cake replied, looking over at Cheese Sandwich. 

“I’ve finally found the one party I never want to leave,” Cheese stated. 

“Oh good, it’s settled then. Because I’ve already changed the business stationary when I placed an order and I’ve added Cheese Sandwich,” Mrs. Cake said with a sheepish grin. 



 

Feeling fretful in a way she had never felt before, Rainbow Dash looked at her friend Applejack and felt her friend’s pain. Applejack looked older somehow, her eyes were bloodshot and had bags under them, and parts of her mane had slipped free from her pony tail. 

“Applejack, you look awful,” Rainbow Dash said as she set down a plate of cheese and crackers. “You look like the time that you didn’t sleep for like a week and tried to help everypony.” 

“I feel like it too,” Applejack said as she took off her hat and then rubbed her eyes. 

“How is Babs?” Rainbow Dash asked in an apprehensive voice. She had been having nightmares about Scootaloo, Spike, and Glass Slipper all being in a hospital and not being able to see them. The bad dreams were destroying her own ability to sleep. 

“Babs is healing up nicely. Whatever it was that the Royal Pony Sisters provided, it sure did help. It didn’t fix everything all up perfect, but it did enough. She… uh… well, uh, I don’t know a lot about this medical mumbo jumbo stuff so I really can’t tell you what is going on,” Applejack said, feeling dangerously close to a lie. She felt her own pulse quicken and could feel the blood throbbing in her neck. “She was left in a bad state for so long. You know how it is… during the collapse everything sort of fell apart… including hospital services.” 

“Oh, I know. When I was an active member of the Ponyville Militia I had to fly that foal to Canterlot because of a really bad spider bite, remember? And I got sniped at by those jerk unicorns that tried to shoot me out of the sky,” Rainbow Dash angrily recalled, her eyes narrowing. 

“I remember. Everything got real bad there for a while,” Applejack said, glad to change the subject. “Ponyville’s hospital didn’t have the anti-venon.” 

“Those jerks shot at me. Me. I’m awesome and I’m a hero… and those jerks thought they could shoot me down when I was flying a mission of mercy. They burned off part of my tail!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she banged her hoof into the table. 

“Truffle still talks about the time he got to fly with Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said, staring down at the plate of cheese and crackers but not eating any. “Only he tells it with a lot more explosions.” 

“Applejack, stuff was exploding. They were shooting at me. I had a fireball go off right in front of me and I was only able to veer away at the last second. How do you think my tail caught on fire?” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice as she looked at her friend. 

“Gosh… I guess I was thinking it was just the usual blasts… like Twilight used on the changelings. I didn’t know… I didn’t put two and two together,” Applejack said dully. 

“Motherhood is a lot like that moment. All I could think about was protecting poor little Truffle as stuff kept exploding all around me. I was so scared that I was going to fail. Now all I can do is think about keeping my own safe. Things have changed between Scootaloo and I and I don’t know why. She does dangerous stuff all the time and it never bothered me before. But yesterday, yesterday she did something boneheaded and I started to lecture her, and then she starts crying… and I feel just awful because I made her cry, and then she starts shouting at me that I’m a stunt flier and it isn’t right that I’m lecturing her, and then Flash started to scold her for shouting inside, and then I felt really awful because I made Scootaloo shout and get lectured and then I-” 

“Oh my gosh Dashie, you’ve become responsible,” Applejack interrupted, her voice a flat monotone. The earth pony mare studied her friend, realising on some level that they both had changed. 

“And last night, Glass Slipper stood a little too high and leaned a little too far over on the stepladder stool… I saw it tipping and I actually screamed. I nearly rainboomed inside of the library trying to reach her before she tipped over. I caught her before she hit the floor and then I held her and I wanted to cry for some reason. I don’t like this Applejack, I don’t like this one bit,” Rainbow Dash said, sounding huffy. The pegasus slumped into a pout, her wings now standing straight out as her body heat rose from the feeling of panic caused by just the memory. 

“I feel your pain Rainbow… now you know how I feel when Apple Bloom slips off into the Everfree. You used to laugh at me for being overprotective,” Applejack mumbled through a half-smile. 

“If Scootaloo goes anywhere near the Everfree, she is grounded for life!” 



 

“Bucky, we need to start organising whatever relief efforts we can now,” Twilight Sparkle said as she laid a sheaf of paper down upon the table in front of Bucky. “A wild storm is approaching Horseshoe Bay and Baltimare. An autumn hurricane. I don’t know what Ponyville can do to help, but we need to get organised now if we are going send aid.” 

Lifting the paper, Bucky stared at the map. “This can’t be right.” 

Pursing her lips, Twilight Sparkle nodded regretfully. “Oh it’s right. Pegasi storm scouts have been studying it as it approaches the shore.”

“This is over a thousand miles wide,” Bucky stated, tearing his gaze away from the paper to look at Twilight Sparkle. “Sustained winds of one hundred and seventy miles per hour and gusts over two hundred.” 

Saying nothing, Twilight nodded. 

“And the zebras think I did this?” Bucky gasped, recoiling in horror as he read over the paper he was holding in his magic. 

“The Storm of Centuries raging over Griffonholm is having an effect upon the weather. It is spawning wild storms. They don’t think that you did this, per say, just that this might be an unintended consequence,” Twilight explained as Bucky slumped over, looking defeated. 

“We have to stop it. The Royal Pony Sisters can stop it. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have to use their magic to stop it,” Bucky said. With a flare of magic, he called his cloak to himself, wrapping himself in the black cloak he drew so much comfort from. 

“The outer edges of the storm are already hitting the coast. Bucky, there is no stopping this,” Twilight said softly. 

“NO! You don’t say that. WE DO IMPOSSIBLE THINGS!” Bucky protested. He pulled his cloak tightly around his body and began to manifest his shadow magic. His panic, anger, and desperation gave him strength. The hood settled over his head, his face vanishing completely from view. 

With an explosion of shadowstuff, Bucky was gone, leaving behind a very surprised Twilight Sparkle. She stood in Bucky’s kitchen, blinking, and then she detected Bucky’s very unique magical signature in Canterlot a moment later. Smiling a bittersweet smile, she realised that Bucky was now part of a very special group of long range teleporters. 



 

Exploding into existence next to a very surprised guard, Bucky came out of shadow space with a scream, his whole body being ran through by invisible spears of pure agony. He fell to the ground, writhing, all four legs pulled up against his body as he tried to forcibly will the pain to go away. 

A cry of alarm was raised and the guard began to gather, forming a protective circle over the fallen Lord of Winter. Bucky’s screams filled the dimly lit hall. With a bright flare of magic, Celestia sprang into existence, looking terrified. 

When she saw Bucky, her eyes flashed with panic, and the big alicorn moved to his side, kneeling down beside him and trying to soothe his hurts, cooing at him softly. It took several minutes, but the screams of anguish finally died down to become sobs of suffering and torment. 



 

“We have to stop it,” Bucky pleaded, looking at Celestia. 

Gently shaking her head, Celestia blinked at Bucky. “The power to stop a hurricane of that size is also the power to cause a hurricane of that size. We cannot have the world fear us. Buckminster… Bucky… I am sorry, but sometimes we have to allow things to happen.” 

“But I caused this!” Bucky cried, his eye darting around frantically. 

“No. You did not. You did the right thing in healing the land and restoring Griffonholm. This is nature resetting itself. Making corrections. Restoring some sense of equilibrium. Trying to restore some sense of balance. Bucky, if we tried to make this stop, do you not see that nature might further try to reset itself in some other way?” Celestia responded in a gentle voice, reaching out and stroking the manic unicorn with her wing as she spoke. 

“EXCUSES! FINE THEN! STAY HERE IN YOUR IVORY TOWER! DAMN YOU ALL!” 

As Celestia watched, Bucky pulled his cloak tightly around himself and then exploded away in a cloud of shadowstuff. She sighed, feeling some sting from Bucky’s words, but knowing that she was right. She hoped that Bucky wouldn’t do anything foolish. 
	
> Chapter 398
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Belisama, I want them ready to go as soon as possible. I need as many griffons as I can possibly get. I need strong flyers, hard workers, and gentle spirits. We’re taking The Albatross. I need an army. Equestria needs the griffons,” Bucky commanded, looking about his living room at the various ponies and griffons gathered there. 

“What of the Raptors?” Belisama questioned. 

“Them too. Ripple and Sentinel both,” Bucky answered. 

“We’re coming,” Lyra said, looking at Bon Bon. 

“As much as I want for you to come, you are just now getting your shop in order and it is becoming the holiday season. You should stay,” Bucky said in a pained voice as an agonising spasm worked through his body. “I won’t stop you, but I will advise against it.” 

“I’m coming,” Twilight Sparkle stated. 

“Twi… no… I gotta disagree… hear me out and stop looking so angry… we’re going to need somepony to organise relief on this end. Plus, Ponyville and our foals need you. I’ll go. I can fly through any storm,” Rainbow Dash said, being surprisingly reasonable. 

“I’m coming,” Loch Skimmer said, looking around the room at the many faces. “You need me. I’m being trained as a paramedic. Plus, not to brag like Rainbow Dash here, but I am a strong flier. I’m not fast, but I’ve flown whole steel girders by myself for strength training.” 

“She has, I’ve seen her, it was awesome!” Rainbow Dash cried, pressing both forehooves to her cheeks and geeking out. 

“I can bring Coco… Coco is shockingly strong. I mean, you wouldn’t know it to look at her, but sweet little Coco almost beat Big Mac in a hoof wrestling match… he was sweating and grunting from all of the effort it took to subdue her,” Rarity said, looking troubled as she thought about the double meaning of her words. She felt a flustering hot flash and fanned herself. 

“I can’t go. I hope you understand,” Applejack said forlornly. “I can’t leave my family right now… I know I’m needed, but I’m needed here at home more.” 

“I’m coming! But this had better be a better trip than last time. The griffons were ruuuuuuuuude!” Pinkie Pie chirped. “Plus, Mister Grumpy Pants will need the help.” 

“I suppose Cheese will be coming as well,” Bucky stated. 

“Of course! This will be like a honeymoon!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Sighing wearily, Bucky said nothing. There was just no reaching some ponies. 

Lifting his head, Lugus’ crest rose as he looked around the group. “This could be dangerous. Storm surges usually sweep in sea monsters, sea serpents, wyrms, all manner of awful things from the deep. With extensive flooding brought about by the storm, there is the chance that the area will become a place for these creatures to gather and feed.” 

“Your input is noted,” Bucky said, looking pensive. “All the more reason to bring the Raptors and you. If there is trouble, it will need to be put down. How is their combat readiness?” 

“They are dangerous with slings,” Lugus replied, his wide eyes focused on Bucky. “I would personally say they are a credible threat. Especially Loki.” 

Reaching up, Bucky stroked his nasal bridge and closed his eye. He tried to gather his thoughts, tried to find ideas, tried to find something, anything that might help in this situation. He was about to wage war on a hurricane. If he couldn’t stop it, than he was at least going to save as many as he could from the aftermath. 

“Master, I am coming with you,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft voice. 

Opening his eye, Bucky looked at his apprentice. “Thank you Minion.” 

“This is what I am here for,” Sunset responded. 

“I will have Lugnut and Spanner rig up winches on the decks. We can pull ponies up to aid the rescue efforts,” Belisama announced. 

“Good idea, it will take some of the load off of the flying pegasi and earth ponies are plenty strong,” Rainbow Dash said, looking at Belisama. 

“Lyra, as much as I would like to go, I think Bucky is right. We need to take care of things here. We have foals to look after, a business to run, and one very sick foal upstairs that needs care. Sunset Shimmer will not be here, and Derpy and Berry Punch are already looking after Thistle, who can do nothing to help herself right now,” Bon Bon said, looking somewhat guiltily around the room as she spoke. 

“Okay ponies, we have a lot to do and no time to do it in. Time to pony up and get to work,” Rainbow Dash said, bouncing up and down with enthusiasm. 

“We can’t just fly into a hurricane with winds like that, the ships will be ripped apart,” Sunset Shimmer said, looking around the room and then at Bucky. 

“We fly above the storm. When we get there, I’ll try to figure out what we can do to stop it, if it can be stopped. if not…” Bucky paused, a pained expression upon his face, He closed his eye and rubbed his head with his right hoof. 

“If not, we begin the relief efforts straight away and save as many lives as possible,” Sunset Shimmer stated. “Master does not look well. I will coordinate everything that needs to be done before we go. Rainbow Dash, help the griffons get The Albatross untethered and ready to go. Belisama, when you go and tell Lugnut and Spanner about the winches, also make sure to tell them to have the electrical cable ready to go so we can connect it to The Scorned Mare. Master, shall I ask Trixie to come?” 

Lifting his head and opening his eye, Bucky looked at Sunset Shimmer. “Yes… Minion… do tell her that she is about to get a crash course on how to serve others.” 

“Very well Master. I shall tell her at once,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 



 

Moving about his office, Bucky gathered as many spider golems as he could. He wasn’t sure if they were quite ready for field deployment, but he was going to commit them anyway. A cloud of rotocopter golems moved about in a tight formation, awaiting his commands. 

“You dirty little hooligans… some of you little vandals have left graffiti upon my walls! How could you! You sorry little glass imbeciles!” Bucky shouted, looking around at his creations. 



.--. .-. .- .. ... . / - .... . / ... ..- -.



“Which one of you little jokers wrote this?” Bucky asked as he read the wall. He glared down at his creations. He watched as one single spider golem was shoved forward by his fellows, two little legs raised high as it pled for mercy. 

“You… nice work. Good to see something thinking for itself,” Bucky said to the cowering creation as it stood trembling before him. Upon hearing Bucky’s words, the golem’s relief was visible as it began to dance about, kicking out its eight little legs in different directions as Bucky watched.



- .... . / .-.. --- .-. -.. / --- ..-. / .-- .. -. - . .-. / -.. --- . ... / -. --- - / .... .- ...- . / . -. --- ..- --. .... / .-.. . --. ...



“And this one… this one troubles me! I give you life! I give you consciousness! I give you a tiny bit of free will… and this is how you repay me? Bad humour?” 



 

“I’ll be back soon,” Sentinel said, looking into Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes. 

“Go do good things,” Diamond Tiara said in a sleepy voice. “You’ve been so good to me. I’m never going to forget this.” The foal closed her eyes and snuggled under her blankets. “I think I love you… you’re my special somepony.” 

The colt began to blush furiously as both of his little sisters began to giggle. He nervously licked a fang, his tongue curling around the point. He gulped, turned to look at Dinky and Piña, and then he lowered his muzzle to Diamond Tiara’s ear. “You’re my special somepony as well.” 

“We’ll look after her,” Dinky promised. 

“And we’ll spend plenty of time talking about you,” Piña giggled.

His cheeks and ears blazing, Sentinel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sisters were so trying sometimes. He loved them both dearly, they were his world, his purpose in life, but they seemed to love to torment him. 



 

“I have to go,” Ripple signed with her ears, her movements still rather clumsy. “But I wish I could stay,” she added, her ears twitching into different positions. 

The donkey known as Bittersweet did not reply right away. She sat there, looking sad, looking a little worried, and then she leaned forward and kissed Ripple on the cheek. 

“I am a lot like my father. I want to be with the ones I love, but my duties get in the way,” Ripple said, using ear language, her ears still moving about. 

“You love me?” Bittersweet asked, her lips and her ears moving. 

Nodding, Ripple blushed. “I’ve told you this before,” she signed. 

“That felt more like crush-love,” Bittersweet responded, her lips and ears moving together in unison as she spoke her heart. “Things have changed a little.” 

Things had changed. Little kisses on the cheek had been replaced by gropy grabby makeout sessions and sweaty petting that left them both breathless. There had been one very flustering encounter with both Bittersweet and Sparkler where Ripple had found herself tag teamed by a unicorn and a donkey. There had been that one moment where Bittersweet had stuffed her nose under Ripple’s tail and had herself a sniff, leaving Ripple’s wings sprung for almost twenty minutes from the sensation of a curious nose snuffling against her nethers. 

“Be waiting for me when I come home,” Ripple signed, a pleading look upon her face. 



 

With a slow careful movement, Belisama sheathed the curved officer’s sabre. The blade was as long as she was, but it was well balanced and light. She looked down at her cast, aware she could not get it too wet, and realised it might be a problem in this environment. 

The griffoness didn’t care. 

Belisama was determined to prove her worth. 

“Please stay safe.” 

Turning, Belisama looked at the kelpie she now called her friend. 

“Please, please come home safe,” Thistle begged. “We've become so close. You’ve been so kind to me. So good to me. You scratch all of those places I can’t reach anymore. You read to me. You keep me company. We spend so much time talking,” Thistle said in a low worried voice. 

“In all of my life I never thought I’d have a friend quite like you… in some ways you remind me of Bandua. Both of you are similar. Being with you is almost like having my sister back. Both of you are so kind and gentle,” Belisama responded, her crest rising. She strapped on her rucksack and her bandolier. She secured her sword to her back, making sure the straps were all carefully squared away. 

Reaching up, she drew her sword in one fluid motion with her left talons, the curved blade slowly coming out of the sheath with a dull hiss. She gave the sword a twirl and then slid it back into the sheath. 

“Bucky needed a wife that was more like him. Lyra would follow him into battle, but Lyra is crazy, not war-like. There is a difference. Derpy would gladly follow him into battle, and she has… there was a terrible battle not too long ago… but Derpy is a defender. She’s a protector. But you, you’re different.,” Thistle said as she watched Belisama prepare herself. 

“How so?” Belisama questioned. 

“You’re a killer,” Thistle whispered in a low voice. 

“Only if I have to be,” Belisama stated in reply. 

“Just like Bucky,” Thistle responded, offering a nod of her head. 

“I finally have a good mate. He was my master, but he is now my mate. I am forcing myself to learn the difference and acknowledge the change. My kind finally have a worthy king. I… think I love him. I don’t know. Sometimes I feel such strong emotions. I’ve said I love him, because that is what one says about their mate. But lately, my feelings… my feelings are unknown. I would follow him into Tartarus if he needed me. I would do anything for him,” Belisama said, baring her heart to Thistle. 



 

As Bucky began his final preparations and the ships were being loaded, a shadow fell over the farm. He looked up and saw an airship approaching, slowly descending, a more modern zeppelin design with the cabin directly below the gasbag rather than suspended. 

Two figures came out of the side of the airship, graceful fliers, and they danced through the air with one another, rolling and diving as they made their way to the ground. 

Tannis and Agnetha were a welcome sight. 

The griffon landed first, the griffoness a moment later, and both tucked in their wings carefully as their claws flexed nervously in the grass. The pair watched the hustle and bustle all around them, and then Tannis finally looked at Bucky. 

“I really hope that you weren’t planning on leaving without us,” Tannis said in an accusing tone. He lifted his talons and pointed one at Bucky, shaking it in a mock-lecturing manner. 

“I’m being trained as a nurse. This will be good talons on learning for me,” Agnetha said as she stood at her husband’s side. “We’ve brought our flock. We have medical supplies. Princess Celestia wants to see what we can do on this mission of mercy.” 

“Is there any more help to be had?” Bucky asked. 

“Princess Celestia told me to tell you that most of our troops are currently deployed in other places because of a mutual assistance pact that some well meaning pony agreed to. She also said that it now becomes that well meaning pony’s responsibility to deal with this, since the well meaning pony plans to go there anyway,” Tannis said, his tail swishing. 

“Princess Luna plans to send some lunar guard for night missions. She is recalling them from their patrol in the north. Something about hunting abominable snow monsters,” Agnetha said, passing along Luna’s message. 

“Well, I must say, I am very relieved to see both of you,” Bucky said, honestly glad to see the two griffons. 



 

“You know girls, I’m starting to have second thoughts.” 

“Shut up Apple Bloom.” 

“No… Scootaloo, I’m thinking Apple Bloom might be right. This was a bad idea.” 

“Sweetie, we discussed this. We might get our cutie marks.” 

“But Scootaloo, this was a bad idea.” 

“No it wasn’t Apple Bloom, stowing away in the box with the blankets got us onboard.” 

“Do you know what Rainbow Dash is going to do to you Scootaloo when she finds out?” 

“She’ll be at home, in Ponyville, with Twilight and Flash. Mom and dad. Family. Those ponies. I’ll deal with the consequences when I go home. Now be quiet Sweetie Belle.” 

“Rarity is going to kill me.” 

“Don’t feel bad Sweetie Belle, I lied to get here. I lied to my big sister Applejack.” 

“Shut up, both of you!” 

“You girls talk too much.” 

“Shut up Rumble!” 

“Don’t tell me to shut up!” 

“Don’t make me shut you up!” 

“Rumble, Scootaloo, is this the best time to have a fight?” 

“It wasn’t a serious fight.” 

“Just being pegasi.” 

“Brutes. Both of you are brutes.” 

“Shut up snob!” 

“Yeah! Snob!” 

“That’s not nice.” 

“Oh hush, numbskull.” 

“Sweetie Belle… how could you?” 

“Oh it’s all in good fun.” 

“Hanging out in a box of blankets with three fillies. This is kinda awkwards. All three of you smell weird. And these blankets are dusty.” 

“Colts smell weird… we fillies smell good.” 

“That’s just not true. Have you smelled my sister’s farts?” 

“Rumble, you beat up ponies when they talk about your sister!” 

“It’s okay when I do it Scootaloo… I think they named her Cloudstreaker because she leaves skidmarks everywhere she sits.” 

“That’s horrible!” 

-pherpth- 

“Speaking of farts…” 

“Bleh, that has to be a pegasus.” 

“That’s tribalist!” 

“It isn’t tribalist if its true!” 

“Scootaloo, was that you?” 

“No!” 

“When can we get out of this box?” 

“Not soon enough Rumble.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 399
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sky to the east already looked troubled from this altitude. Bucky scowled, not liking what was ahead. They were moving with good speed as the sun slowly settled on the western horizon. Realising they would need more altitude, Bucky pulled the ship upwards. They plowed through a massive bank of clouds and Bucky watched as the fluffy whiteness was cleaved in twain by the ships passing through. 

He had no real plan. He had no idea on what to do. Twilight Sparkle had quietly told him that she suspected that even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna together might actually be powerless against a storm of this size. Pegasi were able to stop smaller hurricanes and cyclones. Pegasi and unicorns working together had taken out somewhat larger hurricanes, a hallmark of intertribal cooperation, and very powerful unicorns like Lyra were capable of creating and even dispelling hurricanes, using them as weapons as she had done in Griffonholm, a terrifying ability of any sufficiently trained type three with an affinity to lightning magic. This however, this was beyond the scale of anything that Twilight Sparkle understood. There were no records of a storm like this. Not of this size. Even if she had wanted to help, a small part of Bucky’s brain quietly accepted the fact that even Celestia might have been powerless against a storm of this size and scale. 

Some ponies were too stupid to listen to reason and were dumb enough to try anyways.

Bucky was one of those ponies. Scowling, Bucky raced his ship towards the danger. 



 

His talons drumming upon the floor, Bucky looked down at the four faces looking up at him in fear. Three fillies, one colt, all four of them stowaways. Already, Bucky had sent off a message to Luna via shadow-link so that their worried parents would know. There was no turning around to send them home. 

A short distance away, several enraged family members waited patiently, like slavering predatory beasts waiting to feed upon helpless prey. 

“You stowed away on my ship… you do understand I hope, that under ancient Equestrian maritime law, I have the right to seize you as property and pressgang you into service… hmm, I could use four little backs to break with endless labour,” Bucky said as he thoughtfully reached up and stroked his chin with his talons. He heard four little foals swallowing and gulping. 

“There is also the proud maritime tradition of the lash,” Lugus suggested. 

“Lugus!” Bucky snapped. “We are not monsters!” he added as Sweetie Belle fell over on the floor and covered her eyes. He struggled to contain his need to smile. 

“I don’t know, I think the lash is warranted!” Rarity stated in an icy voice, which caused Sweetie Belle to gibber with terror. The mare’s blue eyes glittered with barely contained rage. 

“Scootaloo… how could you?” Rainbow Dash questioned as she stepped forward. 

Watching carefully, Bucky saw Rainbow Dash raise her hoof slowly. He felt his muscles tense, knowing how Rainbow Dash tended to communicate. He readied his magic to stop her, prepared to intervene if he saw her hoof start to swing outwards. 

But the blow never came. Rainbow Dash pulled her front hoof to her barrel and one wing whipped out instead. It struck Scootaloo on the snoot with a loud “POP!” sound. Scootaloo immediately went down to the floor, clutching her muzzle and sobbing. 

Bucky felt an odd sense of pride for Rainbow Dash as the pegasus stood there, clutching and nursing at her own stinging wing, tears now streaming down her blue cheeks. The pegasus was learning. 

“THAT HURTS!” Rainbow Dash cried as she tucked her wing against her side and danced around from the pain. “OW OW OW! Why do wing slaps have to hurt?” 

So you never use them unnecessarily, Bucky responded mentally. He glanced at Rarity and Coco, both of whom still looked furious. 

“I’m sorry,” Scootaloo apologised, crawling across the floor on her belly to Rainbow. 

“I am too!” Rainbow replied as she flopped over on the floor with her foal and began to squeeze her. “Don’t screw up again, it hurts us both!” she commanded as she held Scootaloo close. 

“I think we should allow them to choose,” Bucky said in a solemn voice, his eye lingering on Rainbow Dash, who seemed to have learned a valuable lesson in being a pegasus. 

“Choose?” Rumble asked, his expression fearful. 

“I am always in favour of allowing a foal to choose their own punishment,” Coco said in icy tones, still glaring at Sweetie Belle. “It helps them understand the consequences of what they do a little better." 

“Oh we are so dead… this is worse than being covered in tree sap,” Apple Bloom grumbled as she began to sniffle. “I’m glad Applejack isn’t here… she’d be telling me to go find her a switch,” the filly said as she began to rub her own bottom, thinking of the times she had been asked to find a switch. 

“You get to choose,” Bucky said, speaking slowly and carefully. “You can either walk the plank or you can do back breaking labour.” 

“You can’t make us walk the plank!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. 

“Walking the plank is a little extreme, but I can’t say I disapprove of it,” Rarity growled. 

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle wailed, looking at her sister in stunned disbelief. 

“I’d rather work,” Apple Bloom said, closing her eyes and hanging her head. 

“Me too,” Rumble agreed as he looked around fearfully. 

“I guess I’ll work,” Sweetie Belle muttered in defeat. 

“Scootaloo chooses to work,” Rainbow Dash murmured as she continued to hold the foal close. “And I know she isn’t going to disappoint me again, right?” 

“No, no more,” Scootaloo promised in a muffled voice as she clung to Rainbow Dash. 

“But the plank is the easy way out… just a short walk and a long drop. Punishment over,” Bucky said in a voice of terrible finality. 

“I’m still liking the plank idea,” Coco said in furious tones. 

“The plank does seem like the ideal way to be rid of troublesome little sisters,” Rarity agreed, her eyes narrowed as her brow furrowed. “I’m so angry that I’m giving myself wrinkles. Wrinkles! You are giving your big sister wrinkles Sweetie Belle!” 

“I’ll be extra good! I’ll clean up my room! I’ll clean up after myself! I’ll do dishes! I’ll start remembering to flush the toilet when I’m done! I’ll stop trying to cook in the kitchen!” Sweetie Belle begged in a pained squeak. 

Mouing, Rarity glanced at Coco and raised one eyebrow. 

“Labour it is then,” Coco said hesitantly. “But I demand that the plank be left as an option if she starts to whine at any time.” 

“Agreed,” Bucky responded, looking at Coco and then at Rarity. Bucky found that he liked Coco a great deal, appreciating her way of thinking. He would certainly trust his own foals with her, she knew what the score was and how to play this game. 

Not knowing what else to do, Sweetie Belle grabbed Apple Bloom and squeezed, her eyes clenched shut and both foals sat there together trembling. Apple Bloom also closed her eyes and redoubled her efforts to pull Sweetie Belle closer. 

“This was a bad idea. I tried to tell you girls that anypony with one eye and an airship was a pirate… and none of you believed me. This is gonna be awful,” Rumble grumbled. The little pegasus colt heaved a dejected sigh. “Still, whatever is about to happen will be better than whatever my parents are going to do to me.” 

“If you work hard, I will plead for mercy on your behalf,” Bucky offered as he looked Rumble in the eye, not sure how he felt about being called a pirate. 

“I’ll take that deal,” Rumble acknowledged, now looking hopeful. 



 

As the group filed out of the common area, Bucky pulled Rainbow Dash aside, gently prodding her with his right front hoof. The pair watched the rest of the group leave, the foals all huddled together with one another, and after they had gone some ways down the hall, Rainbow Dash turned to look at Bucky. 

“You did good,” Bucky whispered in a low voice. “How is the wing?” 

“It hurts,” Rainbow whined, her nostrils flaring. “My wings are so sensitive.” 

“Did your mother wing slap you?” Bucky quietly inquired. 

“No… I never knew her. It was only me and my father… he was good to me, maybe a little too good to me. He never touched me. Well, when I was home with him. It’s complicated. But I was always off at flight camp or training camp or some kind of camp,” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice, her expression dark and troubled. “Being a parent is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I do stupid stuff and I feel really ashamed of myself.” 

“What were these camps like?” Bucky questioned, his surviving eyebrow raising. 

“Lots of bullies. Lots of military guard brats. Flight camp wasn’t bad, not at first, I suppose it got worse. I had to protect Fluttershy a lot. I took a lot of whippings for her,” Rainbow said, looking off at the wall and looking troubled. 

“Whippings?” Bucky asked. 

“Nothing too bad. They wanted to motivate poor Flutters. Whip the weakness out. I’d offer to take her place and they didn’t mind because it made her cry even more. Eventually, she left. And I went on to other camps. Eventually flight school, but I dropped out,” Rainbow explained. 

“So there was a lot of corporal punishment?” Bucky questioned, looking at Rainbow Dash and studying her face as best as he could. 

“Well yeah… most of these camps and schools are run by former guards. Military discipline is good for little pegasi they say. Keeps us on the straight and narrow. Some of the instructors are pretty cool… others were just… I dunno… bad ponies I guess? I was always screwing up and getting in trouble, so I had to deal with a lot of disciplinary training and the really rough instructors. They whipped me into shape. Made me a powerful flier. Taught me how to push my body beyond pain and keep functioning where most pegasi would begin to pass out. I can pull g-forces that would make most pegasi scream… I don’t mean to brag, I’m sorry,” Rainbow Dash answered. She shook her head sadly. “Whenever I screwed up, it was a hoof to the head or a swift kick in my backside. And then I had to fly with a swimmy head and throbbing inside of my skull.” 

“And this is why you can rainboom,” Bucky stated. As he spoke, his own internal thoughts focused on Rainbow Dash’s other behaviours and all of the bad pegasus habits that she had inadvertently taught Twilight. He thought of Derpy’s many reflections and long conversations during sleepless nights. 

“I suppose so… I guess. I dunno. Maybe?” Rainbow replied. “I really love Scoots. I almost thumped her a good one for what she did… love is a funny thing. I actually heard Flash Sentry’s voice in my head scolding me for even thinking about it. Every time I screw up he smacks me around a little and then afterwards he holds me and lets me know he still loves me.” 

“Sort of like what you did for Scootaloo?” Bucky responded, thinking back to when Derpy had wing slapped poor Sparkler senseless for getting married and not saying anything. Afterwards, Derpy had held Sparkler close and made sure that Sparkler knew that she was loved before Derpy would let her go. 

“I guess I did exactly what Flash might have done in that situation. Maybe. I feel so confused right now,” Rainbow Dash answered, shaking her head and looking troubled. “You were a really awesome parental type figure in there.” 

“Thank you. I try. Dinky has some troublesome moments and so does Piña, but they are good foals. To be honest, I really don’t have to work very hard to make them behave. And Sentinel… Sentinel doesn’t even try to get in trouble. The thought of being in trouble sends him into fits of anxiety and neurosis,” Bucky said, smiling a faint smile. 

“I want to be a good mother. I’m not sure I know how to be. It scares me Bucky. I was fine with screwing my own life up, I was only hurting me… but things are different now. I don’t like this. Not one bit,” Rainbow Dash said as she began to sniffle. “I’m so scared of failure. Failure makes me just shut down inside. Sometimes I’ll just quit something before I get involved if I think I’m going to fail at it. It’s easier to deal with quitting than it is dealing with the knots in my guts when I think I’m gonna fail. And now there is Spike, and Glass Slipper… and Scootaloo… and I lay awake at night worrying that I’m going to fail them.” 

“When we get home, I want you to spend some time talking with Derpy. If you ask her nicely she will tell you everything you need to know about being a mother,” Bucky said in a low soft voice to Rainbow Dash. “Berry Punch too. I have been told that no creature feels motherhood so keenly as a pegasus mare does. You are the Element of Loyalty… so I am imagining that you are probably overcome with emotion.” 

“Yeah,” Rainbow sniffled in reply. 

“Go spend some time with Scootaloo before I have to work her to death,” suggested Bucky in a soft voice. 

“Okay,” Rainbow squeaked as she wiped at her eyes and nose with her wings. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 400
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The three ships hovered over a sea of swirling death and darkness. Far below them, the hurricane raged. It had made landfall and was now ravaging the land, destroying Horseshoe Bay and Baltimare, which was far, far below. 

Powerful magical spotlights were used to illuminate the hurricane. Only small parts of it were visible at any given moment, but the projection map on The Scorned Mare’s arcano-tech display showed that the storm was indeed over one thousand miles wide, completely swallowing the Horseshoe Bay, Baltimare, and many of the surrounding areas. 

Bucky knew that there were old family estates here and he wondered what had become of them. He had never asked. No longer were they home. He hoped that they were either rotting or repurposed. 

Peering over the rail, he felt a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of despair, and the agonising pain of his guilt. He had caused this. His magic had contributed to this. Below him, a city was being scrubbed off of the map because he had tried to reset the balance. 

“This is terrifying!” Yew Wood shouted, trying to be heard over the wind. 

They were far above the storm, but the rising winds still buffeted the ship, giving them all a good shake. The moon shone down, but offered little light. The ponies on the deck were panicked, the howling wind spreading fear, and the bitter cold bit through through even the thickest pegasi pelt. 

“I don’t think I can fly in these conditions!” Lugus announced, his words nearly swallowed up by the shrieking wind. “And I mean above the hurricane… the ship feels like it will fly apart!” 

“She’ll hold!” Bucky shouted in reply. 

“We’re getting gusts over one hundred miles per hour, even all the way up here… trust me, I know!” Rainbow hollered, her raspy voice struggling to be heard over the wind. “I can fly in these conditions, but it is tiring!” 

“Master, this cannot be stopped. Even the alicorns working together would find this impossible,” Sunset Shimmer shouted, her thick black cloak fluttering softly around her. It glowed with a faint purple aura and was barely bothered by the gale force winds. A radiant heat flowed from the unicorn and her garment. 

“An attempt must be made!” Bucky shouted. The stallion stood at the rail, his black cloak draped over his body. He turned to look at his companions and then he turned back around to peer over the rail. 

Saying nothing, Bucky lept over the rail and then plummeted from view. 

“Master!” Sunset Shimmer shouted, springing into action. She ran forward and then with a frightened equine cry, threw herself over the rail, her crimson and gold tail vanishing from view as she plummeted downwards with a piercing shriek of terror. 

Rainbow Dash whipped out her wings, but Lugus grabbed her foreleg, gently tugging upon it. The griffon looked at Rainbow Dash with wide eyes. 

“We must trust him. He wouldn’t have lept over the rail if he didn’t know what he was doing,” Lugus said, leaning close to Rainbow Dash’s ear so he could be heard. 

“We’re several miles up over a hurricane! He’s a unicorn! He can’t fly!” Rainbow Dash shouted in reply, trying to tug her leg free. “He’s crazy! He’s nuts! He’s… oh my gosh!” The pegasus fell silent, only a gurgle of fear escaping her lips. 

A terrifying black shape rose out of the darkness beside the ship. A massive horned head appeared over the rail, the deck lights illuminating the terrible visage of a dragon. Several screams could be heard over the shrieking wind. Large dark wings flapped and came into view. A long foreleg extended and gently set down a bright orange unicorn upon the deck. The talons were oddly metallic looking, almost appearing to be made out of metal. Half of the dragon’s face was a terrible mass of scars and it only had one eye. 

“BAD MINION!” the dragon thundered and then shook his talons while making a sneer of disgust, his lips curled back from fangs that were several feet in length. 

Then, the dragon dropped from out of the sky, disappearing from view. 

“I pissed myself when Master snatched me…” 



 

The dawn broke, revealing a swirling sea of grey below the ships. The air had become bitterly cold. Nopony on board knew what was going on and Bucky had not returned to the ship even once during the long night. The hurricane seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon, the writhing mass of stormy grey stretching in all directions below them. Much of the wind had died down, the massive updrafts had mostly gone dead. 

Lugus watched, waiting, trying to see if he could see anything down in the turbulent depths of the storm. Ice was crusted all along the gasbag and the deck of the ship. Beside him, Sunset Shimmer was also peering over the rail. 

“He was huge Lugus… monstrous,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low voice. 

Reaching over, Lugus patted the still terrified unicorn upon the back. 

“Death on black wings… the sort of dragon that is rumoured to live in the utter east where the lands are still wild… for a moment I thought he would swallow me whole… why would I think that Lugus?” Sunset Shimmer stammered. The unicorn’s eyes were still wide with shock. 

“Never jump over the rail. I think it has affected your mind,” Lugus said dismissively. “When Bucky does something questionable like jumping off of an airship several miles up in the air, you should not follow him. He would be worried if he saw you the way you are right now.” 

“He told me that he was going to make the hurricane suffer heat death,” Sunset Shimmer said, shaking her head. She peered over the rail and shivered, but not from the chill in the air. 

The big griffon said nothing. He had no idea what heat death was. 

“I was warned that his sanity was questionable… but he is utterly mad. He lept over the rail not even knowing if the spell would work. He’s never done a major body alteration spell before,” Sunset Shimmer mumbled as she continued to shudder. 

“Seems like a good time to sort out all of the tricky bits,” Lugus remarked, shrugging somewhat dismissively. He had known Bucky for a long time and knew that his friend needed pressure to feel motivated on occasion. 

As the pair watched, a massive dragon emerged from the clouds below. Long, dark, horribly scared in places, it rose on enormous leathery wings. It was spiky and horrible in the extreme. It circled around the ship, drawing closer, and then it came in straight towards the deck. 

Mid-air, Bucky shifted, warping and shimmering, the dragon changing both shape and size. Now a unicorn, Bucky plummeted for the deck, looking at Lugus with a hopeful expression and waving casually with his right front hoof. 

Spreading his wings, Lugus took wing, flapping several times to get airborne, and then he snatched Bucky out of the air with his talons. He circled beneath the gasbag once, banked, and then carefully set his friend down upon the deck.



 

Huddled in a chair, Bucky sat drinking a cup of coffee and having a bite to eat as he explained the situation. The heat was on in the common room and dining hall, somepony had turned it up to stifling levels, a near tropical level of heat. 

“So you sucked the heat out of it,” Sunset Shimmer stated, looking at Bucky with one raised eyebrow, looking very confused. 

“I flew through the hurricane and over the ocean. As I passed I leached as much heat as I could. I chilled the ocean. I didn’t try to make ice, just tried to use my entropic cold to suck in the heat energy. The storm slowed… it lost a lot of energy, but now we have a different problem,” Bucky explained after taking a gulp of coffee. 

“Rain and flooding?” Sunset Shimmer asked, looking somewhat hopeful. 

“Ice and snow. It worked a little too well. The rain fell for a long time, so I didn’t think I was having much of an effect. And then I realised I was dealing with a slow gradual change… I started to notice big fluffy white flakes. Now it is snowing. Heavily. There is a little freezing rain too. But the storm has been calmed. The initial hurricane landfall caused a lot of damage. Toppled buildings. Flooding. The storm surge leveled about half of the city from what I could see. And now everything is freezing over and getting snowed on,” Bucky answered. 

Looking thoughtful, Sunset Shimmer nodded. “You know, this works out. We can deal with the snow. Melt it slowly over time to minimise flooding. We’re going to have to rescue a lot of ponies before they freeze. The power is out. So that means no heat. With a lot of buildings knocked over, shelter is going to be in short supply.” 

“We’ll have an advantage in the snow… flooding means lots of mud and having to slog through water, but since most everything is frozen, it just means trudging through the snow. We can craft makeshift sledges for transport. We griffons have claws, the snow and the ice will not hamper our movement much at all. We’ll have to search the toppled buildings and try to find survivors before they freeze,” Belisama stated, looking at Bucky. 

“I plan to unleash my horde of golems to do that. They will crawl through the area and then let us know when they’ve found survivors or ponies in trouble,” Bucky said around a mouthful of food he had crammed in. “We need to get moving. There are survivors in the rubble. An hour might be life or death. It is going to begin to warm and the snow will begin melting eventually. Might take a few days. Mud will begin thawing. We need to start evacuating ponies from the lowest parts of the city where the flooding will be the worst. We need to establish emergency shelters. I have traded one disaster for another. I think we can manage the winter weather better than a hurricane that rips the city from its foundations. The conditions are near white out through. So we need to coordinate our efforts carefully as it will be snowing for a while longer while the storm dissipates.” 

“I agree that a winter storm is more manageable than a hurricane,” Sunset Shimmer said, looking thoughtful. “But both are destructive and life threatening.” 

“Sunset Shimmer… I want you to gather up big piles of wooden debris. BIG piles. And I want you to set them on fire. Big roaring flames. The flames and the heat should draw in ponies. And then we can help them better if they are all herded into one place to keep warm,” Bucky commanded after he swallowed his food. 

“Griffonholm has brutal winters. We have long lived in the frozen north. I think we griffons will actually be at an advantage here,” Belisama said, her crest rising in a hopeful manner. 

“I think Agnetha and I will set up right about here,” Tannis said, pressing his talon down upon the map. “There is a big hospital in this area. We should tether the zeppelin somewhere around here and we should work to help the hospital. Ponies will be coming here looking for help. Plus, this is at the top of the crescent shaped hill that runs along the outer edge of the city. The storm surge probably didn’t make it this far, so the buildings around here should be in good shape. We’ll look for schools or other large buildings we can commandeer and use as shelters.” 

“This seems tactically wise,” Lugus stated, offering his opinion. 

“We need to seize any available strategic assets, like coal if they are available. We can burn coal in a stove for heat. If a building has a boiler system for radiators, the coal can be used to keep the boiler going. So we need to send out a few scouts to look for any kind of coal stockpile and then seize it,” Bucky commanded just before guzzling down some coffee. 

“And what of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Rarity asked, her eyebrow raised. 

“We put them to work,” Bucky responded, grinning broadly. 
	
	
> Chapter 401
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The snow was almost coming down sideways. The Scorned Mare and The Albatross hovered low over the city, above the place where the devastation was the worst. Griffons and ponies were already hard at work digging out survivors. Bucky had unleashed his host of golems into the city, to crawl into nooks, crannies, and passages that others might be unable to explore. Sunset Shimmer had already started an enormous fire and ponies were crawling out from the debris as they realised that help had arrived. 

Knowing more help was needed, Bucky began constructing more golems, massive bipedal brutes that could lift up fallen walls and collapsed roofs, shaping them from the readily available ice. Feeling strangely energised, Bucky placed a lot of power into the golems, he needed them to work hard and save ponies. 

Loch Skimmer and Yew Wood both worked to lift the injured and the infirm aboard the deck of The Albatross where a group of griffons waited to get them indoors, get them warm, and look after their wounds as best as they knew how, with Bartleby coordinating the care of the passengers taken aboard. 

Trixie and Sentinel worked with a group of griffons and ponies out on search and rescue, sending up flares when they found a survivor that needed help. She traveled within a globe of warmth, keeping the air around her warmed. Her group was growing as some of the survivors now worked to help those less fortunate. Sentinel used his echolocation to hunt for survivors, and his keen nose led the way to those still trapped. 

Rarity and Coco worked together with Lugus and a team of griffons. Coco and Lugus used brute strength to pull away the rubble and lift away debris while Rarity used her magic to pull out those trapped beneath and she occasionally launched up a flare when she came across somepony too injured to help or to head off to a fire to get warm.

Even the littlest griffons, the cubs, helped out. When the injured or the infirm were ushered aboard, Magpie used the griffon cubs as personal heaters so the pony brought aboard had something to snuggle with and get warm. They brought comfort and a bit of cheer. Magpie moved among the wounded, trying to comfort them, and she took special care with the foals brought on board. Pegasi did not have a monopoly on strong feelings of motherhood. 

Overhead, Rainbow Dash flew from group to group, doing what she did best, which was coordinate team efforts and keep the groups organised. She flew through the almost sideways falling snow and wind, leaving behind her a rainbow coloured contrail that make the snowflakes glitter in every colour imaginable. She watched for flares, kept an eye on trouble, and her keen eyes peered through the near white out conditions, able to see where most might be almost blind. 

Ripple and her Raptors began to prowl the wreckage, the Raptors slipping into tight spaces and exploring for survivors. Branwen, an albino, was almost invisible in the snow. Flench, being rather rotund, pushed his way ahead through the snow, making a wide path for his fellows. Shaquah carried a small cask of high test whiskey upon her back, as nothing brought a pony back from near death frozen-in-the-snow quite like a good fiery single malt whiskey being poured down their throat.

Supervised by Lugnut and Spanner, four little stowaways operated a winch, slowly lowering goods and supplies down to the gathered ponies below, who then distributed them among the ponies standing around Sunset Shimmer’s fire. The work was taxing, somewhat painful, and it took all four of them working on the handle of the winch to make it work. Apple Bloom grunted, Rumble huffed and puffed, Sweetie Belle moaned, and Scootaloo gritted her teeth, all of them aware that they were making a difference. 



 

It was getting close to noon when the snow let up just a little bit, now coming straight down rather than sideways, the wind dying down a bit and the wind chill easing off. The coordinated efforts were going well, the number of those saved had grown quite large, and many of the residents of Baltimare were now assisting in the relief effort themselves. 

It was during this lull in the storm that a flock of pegasi flying in a tight formation came streaking through the sky, punching through the snow clouds and blazing across the city, streaming multi-coloured contrails behind them. They circled overhead, moving as one single unified swarm, and then made their way down to street level. 



 

“Knight Major… Damn glad to see you,” Spitfire said as she shook snow and ice from her wings. “A little birdie told me that you might be needing some help. I’ve brought some friends. The Wonderbolts are here at your service. We also brought our rookies just in case we need expendables,” the flamboyant mare added, chuckling at her own joke, her eyes blazing with inner fire as she strutted around. 

“Your help is most appreciated,” Bucky said, now beginning to feel weary after being awake for too long. 

“All I ask for in return is a little help from you. I scratch your back, you scratch mine,” Spitfire said brashly. She studied Bucky, squinting with one eye. “I have almost a hundred pegasi with me, including our medics. Just tell us what to do.” 

Grinning shrewdly, Bucky decided right away that he liked Spitfire. “You help me out here and I’ll be happy to help you out,” Bucky stated, smiling a fang filled smile. “Talk with Rainbow Dash. She’s our coordinator. I don’t know how she does it, but somehow she is keeping all of this organised. She’s incredible.” 

“She’s one of our reservists,” Spitfire said in a proud tone. “Soarin! Go find Rainbow Dash! Everypony else, get ready to work! Consider this a flight training exercise!”

“We’re getting a lot of badly wounded. We’re trying to fly them off to a hospital that is high up on a hill. There’s a zeppelin up there somewhere nearby,” Bucky said, still studying Spitfire. 

“Say no more. We can do it. I see a lot of flares,” Spitfire announced, peering through the snow. “Must be a lot of injured.” The brazen mare began to assess the situation, looking around, trying to see through the falling snow. 

“We’re starting to dig down into the rubble. A lot of buildings collapsed. Too many buildings and not enough rescuers, even though quite a number of residents are now joining us,” Bucky said, looking worried. He shook some snow from his pelt, his long thick shaggy pelt now incredibly useful. 

“Well, now you got some help. And something tells me that more help is on the way,” Spitfire said with a smile. “I’d better get busy before Rainbow Dash hogs all of the awesome. She’s a pain in the plot like that.” 



 

Bucky was moving building to building, block by block, with The Scorned Mare overhead to assist in lifting away massive chunks of collapsed rubble. Right now, they were lifting away an entire concrete slab that was the side of a building. They heard voices inside calling out for help, and a rotocopter hovered over the rubble blinking frantically. He could only imagine the efforts of those working the winches, and he knew it must be miserable. 

Nearby, a group of Wonderbolt cadets all worked together to lift away a section of roof covered in ice and snow, trying to reach the group of ponies trapped in the attic. Spitfire was screaming at them all, calling them a bunch of whiny milksops as she too tugged and pulled on the chains they had hooked into the edge of the roof. 

There could be no doubt that Bucky liked Spitfire. 

It was in the middle of all of this that a new sight coming down out of the clouds above caused a commotion. An airship descended, large, long, narrow, a beautiful delicate craft. Squinting through the snow, Bucky realised it was the royal yacht. 

He broke away from his group after making sure they didn’t actually need his help and approached the yacht as it came down to street level. It hovered just above the snow, moving around slightly in the breeze, and a large panel opened in the side. A gangplank folded down and a large white figure came out that was difficult to see in the snow. 

Princess Celestia was a welcome sight. She wore a long colourful scarf around her slender swan-like neck and a thick red and green fleecy vest was wrapped around her barrel. A rather long and ridiculous looking winter hat was perched atop her head, a large pom-pom dangling from the crown. 

“Buckminster… you have done well. I must say, I am impressed,” Princess Celestia said cheerfully as she drew near. She lifted her head and looked around. “Oh my, you have been busy.” 

Suddenly, Bucky knew why Celestia had done nothing to stop this. It was for the same reason why he couldn’t pacify the world. It would be a death sentence. Princess Celestia needed to know her subjects could pull together in times of crisis. She needed to know that her subjects could survive. She needed to know that she could trust them in times of trouble. 

“Very clever, trading one disaster for another. I do believe this one is a bit more manageable,” Princess Celestia stated, looking proud. “For once, you used your head and look at all of the good that came from it,” she said in a low teasing voice. 

As Bucky watched, a group of foals began to file out of the royal yacht. Some were little, some were larger, some were teenagers. Adults also began to file out. All were unicorns. They were all dressed up in a similar manner as Celestia. Fleecy vests, scarves, and silly winter hats. 

“Come along students. Mind your teachers. We have a city to save. We have to follow the Lord of Winter’s example and use our magic for the greater good,” Celestia called out, her voice easily carrying over the wind. She lowered her head and kissed Buckminster on the cheek. “I am very pleased that you took responsibility for this. Sometimes, we have to deal with the consequences of our power. You have become powerful, make no mistake. Everything you do causes ripples. There will always be consequences and reactions. You have performed admirably here, and I am proud of you.” 

“I had to do something,” Bucky said in a stunned voice. 

“And you did do something. Something impressive. Your efforts have saved thousands. The city is coming together to deal with the disaster by the looks of it. You have provided a unique opportunity for my students to be field tested. And as I have previously stated, you have made me proud,” Princess Celestia said in a loving voice. 

“Hi Bucky,” a cheerful voice chirped. 

Squinting, Bucky saw Tourmaline. “Hello again Tourmaline,” Bucky greeted. 

“I have to act proper. I’m gonna hug you later,” Tourmaline promised. 

“Good filly… It is important to behave,” Bucky said, trying to sound as honest and as serious as possible. If Bon Bon was here, Bucky would be getting the stink eye and he knew it. 

“I am going to hug you later,” Celestia gently corrected, looking at Tourmaline with a half smile. She turned to look at Bucky once more. “Luna is coming. She will be bringing the night relief. I brought some of the guard with me, but there isn’t many. I see the Wonderbolts have arrived.” 

A crowd of ponies had gathered to gawk at Princess Celestia. The Sun Princess looked upon her subjects with adoration, her smile brightening their day. The regal alicorn lifted her head high and looked out over the crowd. A radiant glow emanated from her body. The feeling of fatigue and weariness present in the ponies around her dissipated as the glow revitalised their spirits. 

“We must work hard and save those that we can,” Princess Celestia announced. “Do as the Lord of Winter bids you. Be kind and good to one another during this time of trouble. During the collapse, this city turned upon itself and the residents committed heinous acts of violence upon one another. Now is the time to amend for those past sins. Its is time to do what is right and for you to be the little ponies that I know that you can be!” 
	
> Chapter 402
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Bucky had nothing left within him to give, Sunset Shimmer took over, taking Bucky’s place. Much to her surprise, the massive bipedal golems listened to her, patiently obeying her commands and doing what was required of them. 

The storm that hammered the city was quite cold. The snow had already let up quite a bit, there was a steady flurry of flakes and a bit of freezing rain, but even this was lessening as a group of pegasi were busy pushing cloudbanks of winter storm clouds back over the ocean. 

A long convoy had formed through the middle of the city, many ponies traveling in a line, some walking, some on pulled sledges, all of them trying to make it where emergency shelters had been set up on top of the hill. Schools, hotels, a hospital, a large outlet shopping warehouse, many buildings had been commandeered and were now being heated. Coal had been brought in. 

Princess Celestia’s students moved carefully through the city, restoring somewhat damaged buildings where they could, saving trapped ponies, carefully removing ice and snow from buildings in danger of collapse, and the littlest ones went around offering hot cocoa and hot cider to anypony who seemed to be in need. 



 

Taking a bit of a breather, Coco and Rarity had a snack and were now drinking cups of hot cocoa. Coco held hers between her front hooves, a graceful delicate gesture, and Rarity held hers in her magic. It felt nice to be taking a break, sitting by the fire, and getting warm. 

“I’ve always enjoyed marshmallows in my cocoa,” Coco mentioned as she stared down into her cup, her own innuendo escaping unnoticed by her. She was fatigued, tired, but still strong enough to keep going for a while longer. 

“Yes, cocoa just isn't the same without marshmallows,” Rarity remarked in reply. A sudden heat flared over Rarity’s cheeks as she realised a very titillating thought. “When I’m drinking my cocoa I like to get the little marshmallows between my teeth and give them a nibble.” 

Coco’s ears perked, now standing erect, and as she stared down at her drink, she realised that she was holding a cup of hot brown innuendo. She gulped, feeling flustered, and a radiant heat began to spread from her dock… in that little place along the underside where Rarity liked to nibble. Suddenly feeling too warm in the cold, Coco took a deep breath. Rarity was a nibbler. 

“You know… a marshmallow really needs cocoa. By itself, a marshmallow is kind of… dry... it is a little hard thing. But you put that marshmallow with some cocoa, it softens up. It becomes moistened. Maybe even a little soggy… the cocoa becomes all the sweeter…” Rarity fell silent, unable to continue with her suggestive talk, her cheeks now a fiery red as she watched Coco stammer. 

Eyes wide, both mares continued to drink their cocoa in silence for a while, before sneaking a kiss with one another beside the fire. 



 

“Soarin! This is just like you in bed! Letting the mares do all of the work!” Spitfire shouted as she tugged ferociously on the chain she had clamped in her fetlocks. “You’re a lazy lay Soarin! I’ve gone down on rookies with more enthusiasm than you have!” 

“Uuuuuuuuuugh!” Soarin grunted as he flapped his wings even harder and redoubled his grip on the length of chain he had in his fetlocks. “Shut up Spitter! You’d be a nicer lay yourself if you swallowed!” 

“You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Spitfire replied as she squeezed her eyes shut and threw everything she had into flapping just a little harder.

“I’ve kissed your mother too!” Soarin grunted as he heaved. 

“I’ve actually caught that son of a bitch kissing my mother,” growled Misty Fly as she gave a good yank on the chain she was holding. 

“I also ate her pie,” Soarin confessed as he heaved. 

“Motherplucker!” Misty Fly swore. 

The section of wall they were all tugging on shifted and there was a startled cry of panic from below. The Wonderbolts didn’t let up, hearing the sounds of frightened ponies motivated them to ignore their exhaustion and fatigue. 

“I’ve preened a lot of mothers… can’t say I’m ashamed of it,” Soarin said as he somehow found the strength to flap just a little harder and coax just a bit more effort out of his wings, which felt like they were on fire. Every muscle in his body burned. “Misty… with every yank of this chain, I can see your pucker flex… it’s giving me dirty thoughts!” 

Trying to tuck down her tail, Misty Fly growled wordlessly and continued to tug as the long slab of concrete continued to slowly slide away. “My barn door doesn't swing that way Soarin!” 

“It swang this way once!” Soarin shouted. “And even when that door was properly oiled, there was a lot of squeaking! Cute little squeaks!” 

“That was the worst mistake of my life!” Misty Fly retorted, shaking her head. 

“It just isn’t fair… How does Soarin do what he does?” Fire Streak demanded as he tugged on his own length of chain. 

“Oh, it’s easy to succumb to Soarin’s charms… I know from experience!” Lightning Streak, who was Fire Streak’s brother, exclaimed. 



 

Finally feeling her own fatigue, Sunset Shimmer sat down wearily upon a hastily rigged wooden platform. She had been up all night. She had been using her magic all day, and even though she had paced herself, she was now pretty much depleted. She needed food and sleep. Reaching up, she rubbed her head, trying to ignore the hornache she was now getting. 

Bucky was off somewhere asleep, probably in his cabin, and somepony was needed to run the show. Sighing wearily, Sunset Shimmer got to her hooves and made herself ready to keep going until Bucky had returned. 



 

Sprawled upon the deck, Sweetie Belle knew she was dying. There were blisters upon her legs. Her back convulsed and twitched in weird and previously unknown ways. Her throat felt hot and scratchy no matter how much water she drank. This was the end. She had been worked to death. She was going to die and Rarity was finally going to suffer, crying endlessly over her lost sister. At least, Sweetie Belle hoped that Rarity would cry endlessly. It was hard to tell with Rarity. She might cry for a while, at least until she was distracted by something shiny. And then, the crying would probably be over. 

Beside Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo tried to lay as still as possible, because any sort of movement at all made her want to scream. Muscles that she didn’t even know she had were on fire and screaming at her that they were in pain. Operating the winch and pushing supplies around had finally done her in. The only pain Scootaloo feared more was the sting of disappointment. She had upset Rainbow Dash just once… once, and that feeling was somehow even worse than the wing slap she had taken over the snoot. She never wanted to endure that ever again. 

Rumble, beside Scootaloo, lay on his belly with his eyes closed, quietly reflecting that this was probably still better than anything his mothers or his father might do to him. As bad as this might be, this was still getting off easy. He heaved a sigh and fluttered his wings. 

Grunting, Apple Bloom shoved the wooden crate closer to the offloading area. This one had big plastic jugs of water as well as paper packets of instant hot cocoa and hot apple cider. She kicked and pushed against the wooden crate, now all alone, all of her friends had fallen. She was the lone earth pony in their group, and she had to give a good accounting of herself. 

Much to her relief, help came. Spanner, the griffon, fell into place beside her, dug his claws into the deck, and shoved, pushing his shoulder into the wooden crate. Apple Bloom smiled at the griffon. Spanner had been kind, always making sure she had enough to drink and even bringing them food.

“Stop. Rest now,” Spanner instructed as the crate slid into place. 

With a nod of acknowledgement, Apple Bloom fell over, glad to finally be done for a while. 



 

The last time she had been through Baltimare, Trixie had caused something of a minor riot. Now, now she was doing something meaningful. Purposeful. It was a glorious feeling, and Trixie could not help but feel a little well earned pride. 

“Sentinel, are you well?” Trixie asked, looking over at the tired looking colt. 

“I’m fine,” Sentinel replied. “Just a little tired.” 

“If you need to, head off to a fire and get warm,” Trixie suggested, knowing that Bucky would never forgive her if she allowed one of his foals to come to harm. 

“Naw, I’m good. I’m more thoughtful than anything. Trying to make sense of this,” Sentinel said, now looking up at Trixie. 

“Sense?” Trixie inquired. 

“Why does it take something bad happening before ponies all come together? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this,” Sentinel said in a troubled voice, his eyes narrowing. 

“Trixie does not know. Trixie does not know where to begin. Trixie would like an answer to that question as well now that Trixie has thought about it.” 



 

“This one looks dead!” Kiara the griffoness shouted. 

Grunion gave an irritated glance at Kiara and then at what appeared to be a dead or nearly dead pony. The griffon prodded the cold body and it did not respond. “Fetch the water of life!” Grunion commanded. 

Shaquah hunkered down in the snow while Callum carefully filled a small metal cup with the high test whiskey. The dove-like griffon held it carefully in his talons, not spilling a drop. 

“Open her up!” Freyja commanded as she pulled a half frozen foal out from beneath a collapsed section of wall. 

Branwen and Brigid prised open the frozen mare’s jaws, moving carefully, making sure their talons did not once break the skin or cause injury. Ripple would train the stuffing out of them if that happened, and nobirdy wanted that. 

“Fire in the hole!” Callum shouted as he carefully poured the whiskey down the frozen mare’s gullet and then scampered away, Branwen and Brigid moving away with him. “Take cover, we might have another kicker!” 

The effect was immediate, the mare’s eyes flew open and she began to cough as well as sputter. She flailed and kicked around, clutching at her throat, her tail swishing from side to side. She hacked and gagged, drew in a ragged breath, and then let out a wheezy exhale. 

“Mama!” the foal cried, squirming against Freyja as the griffoness held him tightly. 

“We got a live one! Airlift! We need an airlift!” Angus shouted, the little griffon’s voice was shockingly loud from such a small animal and it carried through the strangely quiet snow. 

A charcoal grey pegasus landed in the snow not too far away, her straw coloured mane whipping in the wind. Ice frosted her wings. She stomped through the snow and approached the group. An impossibly wide smile was on her face and her eyes twinkled. 

“Somebirdy needed an airlift?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“One mare, one foal. Both need someplace warm. We had to revive the mare,” Grunion reported, saluting the pegasus as he spoke. 

“Slip the harness on them,” Loch Skimmer said as she turned her gaze to her sister. “Holding up okay Ripple?” 

Shaking the snow from her soft blue mane, Ripple grinned at her sister. “Is it wrong that I’m actually enjoying myself?” 

Several Raptors carefully slipped the harness on over the still spluttering mare and then secured the foal with her. The mare, glad to see her foal, began weeping, which only made her coughing worse. Grunion gave a tug to the tether and made sure both ends were properly connected. 

“I gotta go,” Loch Skimmer announced as she unfurled her wings. “Hold on, there’s some wind. The trip will be scary, but you gotta trust me, I can fly through it. I haven’t lost a single passenger,” Loch Skimmer said reassuringly. She took to the air and carefully took up the slack, raising the mare and the foal into the air with her. 

Watching her sister depart, Ripple’s grin widened. “Good work Raptors. Death has been cheated out of one more soul. I’m sure he’ll come for us later and when he does, we’ll give him a fight he’ll never forget. Now MOVE YOU LAZY LITTLE LOLLYGAGGERS!” 



 

Sitting in the navigation cabin of The Scorned Mare, Bucky studied the ship’s systems and made sure that everything was functioning well enough in the extreme cold as well as the strain that the ship was enduring. Power levels were surprisingly low and passing through a cloud would be necessary soon for more cloudstuff. 

It was dark out and becoming bitterly cold. It was going to be a long night. Yawning, Bucky quietly wondered if he had slept enough. All around the ship, he could see spotlights, lanterns, and other sources of light. Fires blazed to keep away the chill. 

The door opened and an exhausted looking orange pegasus foal entered, her purple eyes looking pleadingly up at Bucky. 

“Yes Scootaloo?” Bucky asked as he reached down and scooped the filly up into his forelegs. He heard her squeak and he redoubled his efforts to be gentle, cradling her carefully. 

“Rainbow Dash came back… she’s still kinda angry… but she’s also really tired and so am I… she kinda mentioned that she’d be happier with me if I apologised, so I slipped away and now I’m saying I’m sorry,” Scootaloo explained in a drained voice. 

“Apology accepted. Have a hard day?” Bucky responded, still holding the pegasus close. 

“Miserable,” Scootaloo replied. “You know, I’ve always wanted to be on an airship. I want to fly one,” the pegasus foal said, reaching out and touching the flight yoke softly, careful not to actually move it. “I just want to fly somehow. It isn’t likely with my wings. They’re stunted.” 

“Never let anypony tell you that you can’t do something just because you’re runty or stunted,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“What’s it like?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Flying an airship?” Bucky questioned in reply. 

“Yeah,” Scootaloo answered, stroking the flight yoke. 

“Mostly boring,” Bucky answered. “You need a special sort of patience to be a pilot. You have to know how to handle boredom and remain aware.” 

“This could never be boring,” Scootaloo said. “Will you teach me? Give me lessons?” 

“Maybe later,” Bucky said, gently setting Scootaloo down on the floor beside his chair. 

He watched her go, seeing the enraptured smile upon the foal’s face, when he realised that something was different. On her little orange backside there was a wooden ship’s wheel, like the steering wheels of old, and on either side was a pair of small orange wings that looked a bit like Scootaloo’s. 

“Wait,” Bucky commanded. “Come back here.” 

Turning, not knowing that something had changed, Scootaloo obediently moved to Bucky’s side and looked up at him. Bucky, smiling, scooped up the pegasus once more and plopped her into the chair beside him, squishing her in. 

“This is the flight yoke. If you push forward upon it, the ship will dive. If you pull back, the ship will rise. If you push it to the left or right, the ship will bank sharply in that direction, moving sideways. If you turn it gently left or right, the ship will also turn gently. This lever here controls the speed. If you pull it all the way back, the ship will move at full speed. Right now the ship is at full stop and using power to maintain stability so it doesn’t get blown around too much in the wind. We’re not anchored or tethered because the ship has to keep moving to help with various tasks. So at some point, we’re gonna have to take her skywards so she can fly through some clouds, refill, and the storm generators will keep running,” Bucky patiently explained to the exhausted pegasus foal. 

“This is awesome… with an airship I could fly. I could soar. I want to fly more than anything,” Scootaloo said. The foal yawned. 

“One day, you will,” Bucky responded.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 403
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Moving alongside Princess Celestia, Bucky realised that the majestic alicorn had to be feeling fatigued, yet she continued to perform tirelessly. Everywhere she went, she brought strength and a sense of renewed spirit to all those around her. She was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark and cold night. 

“I know why you did what you did,” Bucky stated, his demeanour calm and thoughtful as they laboured. 

“I have no idea what you mean,” Celestia said in reply, her head held high as she watched a group of pegasi pulling sledges up the hill towards the hospital. 

“I know why you allowed this to happen,” Bucky responded, looking up at Celestia and noticing an almost invisible smirk upon her lips. 

“Do you now?” Celestia said, her tone almost teasing as her eyebrow raised. 

“Look, I know that I am not always the brightest pony in the world. In fact, I can be downright stupid most of the time. But I am capable of learning. And I have been learning. And I understand why you allowed this happen,” Bucky replied, smiling a knowing smile at Celestia. 

“Do tell,” Celestia remarked as she lifted a power pole out of the street and began restoring the powerline, trying to repair what she could. She eyed Bucky with a bemused expression upon her face. 

“You can’t always interfere. It is like being a parent. You have to let your foals make mistakes. You have to let them get in trouble. You have to stand by sometimes and allow bad things to happen to see if they can take care of themselves. You have to see that they are ready, capable of dealing with serious trouble should the time come that you are not there to protect them. You have to allow bad things to happen so some ponies will learn what they are made of. You have to allow the dross to be burned away so society can be made stronger,” Bucky explained. 

“Hmmph. The Lord of Winter seems to be growing wise. It suits you… matches your silver hairs,” Celestia said in a soft faintly teasing voice. 

Lifting a snow covered wagon, Bucky ripped the wheels off with his magic, reshaped them into runners, and then secured them to the wagon to turn it into a sleigh. He shook off the snow and set it down upon the street as several stunned ponies watched with wide eyed wonder, which Bucky did not even notice because he was too busy looking at Celestia. 

Celestia however, did notice. A shrewd expression overtook her features. 

“You have admirers,” Celestia announced, hoping to distract Bucky. 

“There are moments where I know that Dinky is going to make a mistake. Not a mistake where she is going to be horribly maimed, but I know that she is going to be a little singed or otherwise hurt. And I have to sit back and allow it to happen. I watch. I’ve sat back and watched as Dinky has hurt herself and it kills me,” Bucky confessed, ignoring Celestia and his admirers. He took a deep breath. “I hate doing it, but I’ve learned that when I step in and prevent her from making mistakes, she doesn’t learn very much and keeps screwing up. It’s only when I step back and suffer through my own personal agony of allowing her to make mistakes and get hurt that she really makes progress through the tough stuff… and I hate every moment of it,” he continued. Looking up at Celestia, Bucky noticed that her cheeks were darkened, damp with tears, and the regal white alicorn was looking at him with an expression upon her face that Bucky did not recognise. He felt a painful twinge of panic, the old panic, the panic that had plagued him long ago in what seemed like another life. He felt his throat begin to tighten… 

Stammering wordlessly for a moment, Bucky felt awful. He took a deep breath and composed himself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or make you cry in front of everypony… if I did… if I did something wrong. I feel very confused all of a sudden. I can’t read the expression upon your face.” 

“I love you a great deal. You and Twilight both. I often wonder if I am worthy of your affection. I’ve done so much to wrong the both of you. There are things that you don’t even know… and when you or Twilight reach one of these moments where you understand, I feel such pride… such fierce love, and I feel so terrible for having had to manipulate you into becoming the sorts of ponies you were meant to be. I’ve had to sit back and allow bad things… awful things… and doubly so in your case, truly dreadful things to happen. I could not interfere. Not only did I sit back and watch, but there were instances with the both of you that I had to make sure that you were thoroughly tested and I made your situations worse. Only recently have I ripped off the scabs and began to try and deal with this pain of mine,” Celestia explained in response, her own eyes locked on Bucky’s remaining Taint filled eye. 

“I forgive you… I was all grown up before I even realised that your school existed to help unicorns like me. The worst of us. And I was bad. I was awful. I was such a broken individual. For so many reasons, the cosmic decay being the least of them. You told me to make friends. You encouraged me to fall in love with the most beautiful grey pegasus mare and make friends with her foals. You told me to step out of my comfort zone. Because of you I found Berry Punch. You allowed me to be exiled off to the Shetlands for a while… I had to be tested. I had to face darkness… and I understand now. I ended the curse over my family. But I also got Thistle, Bon Bon and Lyra too… and they are all so very dear to me. I was broken. I was missing pieces of myself and I couldn’t get those pieces to work again or get them back, and I found all of the missing pieces because of the situations that you had to allow me to stumble into and face woefully unprepared. Every test you’ve given me has left me with a lasting reward that was completely worth it,” Bucky said, speaking his heart, spilling his guts to his teacher, his mentor, one might even say his mother figure. “Even Griffonholm worked out for the best. Belisama… I love her. She’s one more missing piece.” 

“Griffonholm was my worst mistake. I… I allowed myself… I-” 

“Shush,” Bucky gently commanded, interrupting Celestia as she stammered. “That’s the past and it cannot be changed. The best thing we can do now is focus upon the future. Mistakes were made. Everypony makes them. Even you. I make plenty. Twilight screws up all the time. There is a new species of orangephibian living in the wetlands of Ponyville and it is Twilight Sparkle’s fault. And when you or Luna discover what I’ve done only recently, I suspect that I’ll be wing slapped again… and rightfully so. But I’m not about to tell you what I’ve done, you’ll have to find that out on your own,” he said, knowing full well that he’d be in terrible trouble when his somewhat sapient golems were discovered. 

“We should get back to work,” Celestia suggested, her eyes still full of tears. 

“The city needs us,” Bucky agreed. 



 

A shadow descended upon Baltimare, a terrible horrific host. The Alicorn of Storms, the Electric Death, the Princess of the Night circled overhead, her lunar guard flying behind her, some of them pulling the terrifying chariots of the Lunar Court, spikey life threatening looking contraptions. In the chariots were unicorns, Luna’s own personal collection of royal guard unicorns. 

With a flash of her horn, Princess Luna dismissed the rest of the stormclouds, pushing them out over the ocean, allowing moonlight to bathe the city in a silver glow. Her wings fully extended, she swooped down, flying not on air currents but on the raw energies emitted by the ley lines, ignoring gravity simply because she could. 



 

“Sister, please, be reasonable… this is for the greater good,” Celestia pleaded. 

“I am not a common battery!” Luna protested. 

“But you could restore electricity to the hospital and the surrounding area… Buckminster’s idea was a good one,” Celestia cajoled. 

Turning to glare at Bucky, Luna gave him a hideous glowering stare, her teal eyes narrowing into slits. “Fine then. One of you should do it.” 

“Be reasonable,” Bucky suggested. “You know that neither of us are electrical in nature. All you have to do is sit there, look important, and keep this little ring over your horn. We need the power back on. The hospital and the buildings where we have survivors need power.” 

“I certainly do not need electric lights! I loathe the light bulb! I find them offensive!” Luna bellowed, her expression becoming cantankerous. 

“Sister, please, we have a hospital full of equipment that is badly needed. We must each do our part, and all we are doing is asking for you to sit here and provide electricity,” Celestia begged, her lip slowly protruding outwards in a pout as she continued to try and manipulate her sister into submission. 

“I absolutely ABHOR the both of you! There are no words to describe how much I EXECRATE the two of you right now!” Luna hollered, her ears pinned back against her skull. “You want power? Plug into this!” Luna shouted as she whipped herself around and hiked her tail high, revealing her night blue pucker to her sister. 

Squeezing his eye shut, Bucky jerked his head away, trying to avoid the sight. He had no desire to see the craters of the moon. 

“Do not tempt me sister,” Celestia deadpanned. 

“FINE! I will allow myself to be used as a common battery,” Luna huffed, her eyes now wide and glittering with rage. Turning back around, she faced her sister, her lip curled back in a sneer. “I hope that somepony uses you as a space heater!” she shouted. “And you… betrayer! I hope somepony uses you as a portable ice dispenser!” 



 

“Ready for a long day?” Rainbow Dash asked the yawning pegasus foal she was cuddling. 

“No,” Scootaloo replied. 

“It finally happened,” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice as she pulled her foal a little closer, enjoying the warm bunk while it lasted. 

“He never told me… he had to know… I think that’s why he called me back. and I think I know when it happened too,” Scootaloo said in a low voice. 

“When?” Rainbow Dash questioned and then broke into a wide yawn, which caused her to moan as the air left her lungs. 

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes with her fetlocks, trying to rub away the sleepy and the eye boogers. “When I touched the flight yoke. I felt my whole body jerk… it was like being shocked.” 

“Some of the most awesome pilots in history have been pegasi. Commander Cloudburner lost his wing during the war with the griffons… he was a Wonderbolt. He lost a wing but he gained a career as a pilot. He went on to become one of the most famous pilots to have ever lived. They had to invent new types of airships to keep up with his flying. He also flew gyrocopters sometimes. He flew in the same way that unicorns cast magic. He did impossible things,” Rainbow Dash said, giving Scootaloo a squeeze and feeling very proud. 

“I knew coming on this trip was a good idea,” Scootaloo whispered. 

“Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that as you work all day today,” Rainbow Dash murmured, feeling sleepy still but knowing she had to get up. 

“Why is it an old timey wooden wheel?” Scootaloo inquired. 

“I don’t know… ya know... to be honest, a flight yoke would look stupid. Those old wooden wheels… they have style. Class. They’re at least forty percent more awesome,” Rainbow Dash replied, rubbing Scootaloo’s barrel with her hoof. 

“I feel kinda awkward… I don’t know how to face Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. I’m worried that they’re gonna hate me,” Scootaloo admitted in a worried voice. 

“Squirt, they’re your friends. True friends. You ain’t got nothing to worry about,” Rainbow Dash said and then yawned once more. A few more minutes with her foal surely couldn’t hurt. 
	
	
	
	
> Error 404 Chapter Not Found
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The city was slowly digging out of the worst blizzard it had ever seen. The sun was shining and warm. Princess Celestia, using a bit of magical manipulation, had the melting snow evapourate rather than turn into water and contribute to the flooding. The residents of Baltimare pulled together, finally coming together as a city, a welcome state of affairs after the city had been torn apart by intertribal violence previously in the summer. 

Princess Luna was graciously providing power to a section of the city while ponies worked to restore lines and get the power plants repaired. She also spent the time reading storybooks to foals, helping them to pass the time and alleviate their fears. 

Most surprising, and for reasons he could not explain, Bucky found this suspicious, there were very few deaths. A few of the elderly had passed, but that was expected in these sorts of situations. There were serious injuries of all kinds, plenty of nearly dead ponies who had been revived, and a couple of half frozen ponies who had been thawed out. Try as he might, Bucky could not explain the shockingly low death toll. 



 

Bucky watched as two new airships entered into the airspace over Baltimare, bearing the markings of the Sea of Grass. They came in from off the ocean, flying low, a long lean bodied gunship and a wider frigate following along behind it. The frigate had a heart and palm fronds, indicating it was a hospital ship. 

As Bucky stood gawking, a flight of pegasi departed from the gunship, flying down to where Bucky stood near The Scorned Mare. Squinting in the sunlight, Bucky stared as the fliers descended. When they landed, Bucky recognised them. 

“Zebra Finch! Skua! Pelican!” Bucky cried, feeling a welcome sense of relief. 

“Hello Lord of Winter. We heard word that help was needed. Sorry we’re late, was busy mopping up griffon resistance in the archipelago,” Finch greeted, smiling at Bucky. 

“You arrived just in time. We could always use more help. How do the Shetlands fare against the griffons?” Bucky responded, looking worried as he asked his question. 

“The griffons who live on the Shetland Isles fought bravely to defend their new home from their evil kin. Your brigade made a name for themselves. The griffons feared them a great deal. It is sad to say that the griffons refused to submit or surrender. We sent most of their ships into the sea. They have been completely routed and their losses are total. Only a few remain and they were taken prisoner. Fancy sent a few vessels to aid us, the Fancy Foreign Legion are fierce fighters and they are currently discussing terms with Keg Smasher about setting up a permanent outpost on the isles somewhere,” Finch reported in reply, smiling broadly as he spoke. 

“Well, that’s a relief I suppose,” Bucky said, looking somewhat disheartened. “Evil or no, they were my subjects. I mourn their loss.” The unicorn hung his head and closed his eye for a moment, visibly overcome with emotion. 

“The ponies of the Shetlands and the Minnowrock Isles are safe. The griffon defenders, Keg Smasher has promised them their own island to populate. From what I understand, the island was not ideal for ponies, but it is ideal for griffons. Lots of tall jutting rocks, sheer cliffs, ideal places for a rookery or even a fortress,” Finch said, trying to cheer Bucky up. 

“I suppose everything worked out for the best,” Bucky said in a low voice, his eye opening slowly as he spoke. He looked at Finch. “I am really glad that you came.” 

“Mutual assistance pact. I got a call through the mirror and was dispatched here right away. If something was to happen in the Sea of Grass, our friends in Equestria would be there for us under the terms of the treaty,” Finch responded. The winged zebra peered around at the snow. “For some reason, I suspect that you are responsible for the blizzard here. I was told there was a hurricane.” 

“I traded one disaster for another,” Bucky explained in response. 

“Ah… righto then. I should start unloading the Bocors. Nothing like an army of witch doctors to bring control to a disaster area,” Finch stated in reply. 

“Finch… it is nice to see us… and by us, I mean our two nations, actually coming together. This is what I had hoped for. I know Equestria has made mistakes in the past and the Sea of Grass was not treated fairly by House Avarice. It was most gracious of you to come to our aid,” Bucky said as he looked the winged zebra in the eye. 

“It is never too late to try and make things right,” Finch answered, giving a little nod. 



 

“It was nice of them to give us a break,” Rumble mumbled as he peered down over the rail of The Albatross. The little pegasus colt yawned. “I wonder if I could get away with a nap.” 

“I dunno, I really don’t feel punished. I’m enjoying myself today,” Sweetie Belle said in a low tired voice. “Making sure that all of the ponies onboard this ship had food and something to drink was kinda satisfying. A lot of ponies said thank you and were real nice to me for helping them.” 

“No cutie mark though,” Apple Bloom said dejectedly, looking at Scootaloo as she spoke. 

“That’s okay though. You know, I think when we get home, I’m gonna sign up to volunteer at the hospital. I like feeling needed. I like knowing that I did something that made somepony happy,” Sweetie Belle said, looking thoughtful and distracted. 

“I always thought we’d get our cutie marks together,” Scootaloo said in a low tired voice. 

“But if we did that, we’d all have the same cutie mark, wouldn’t we? I mean, we do everything together. Maybe that’s what we’re doing wrong. Isn’t a cutie mark supposed to be about what you’re special at? As an individual I think is how Cheerilee put it,” Apple Bloom responded, looking at her friends with wide but tired eyes. 

“I never thought of it that way,” Scootaloo replied, looking over at Rumble. 

“We can still have adventures together and be friends, but maybe we should try doing stuff by ourselves once in a while. Scootaloo was alone when she got her cutie mark,” Sweetie Belle said as she rubbed her chin. 

“We can do stuff by ourselves and then get together to talk about what we’ve done. We can then give each other advice on what we think we do best,” Apple Bloom suggested. 

“Bucky told me he didn’t get his cutie mark until he was grown up. He drank some beer and there it was,” Scootaloo said, looking thoughtful and just a little bit devious as she thought about this morning’s conversation with Bucky after he had explained what they would be doing for most of the day. 

“I like your cutie mark… being a pilot would be cool,” Rumble said in a breathy sigh. 



 

The power situation looked grim at first, Baltimare was already suffering brownouts and shortages, but having half of the city wiped off the map reduced the need for power. A dedicated crew laboured to fix the plant, repair the damage, fix the down lines, and restore the grid. 

Princess Celestia’s youngest students now worked with a basic water boiling and evaporation spell, drying out vast pools of mud, turning it to dirt, and then the older students pushed it away using barriers of telekinetic force. 

The adolescent students and those with sufficiently advanced transmography spells worked to repair buildings, fix cracked walls, restore foundations, fix damaged roofs, fix cracked windows, and dry out buildings. Bucky worked with them, gently offering his own knowledge on transmutation and transmography in general, carefully explaining the virtue of willpower, of focus, of concentration, and how it was needed if one wanted to be a successful transmuter, or any sort of spell caster really. 

By the late afternoon, fewer and fewer survivors were being found, not because ponies were dying, but because most of the lower half of the city had been rescued. Bucky’s golem army prowled the ruins, carefully crawling in and out of the rubble, looking for signs of life. Entire armies of pegasi circled overhead, looking for signals, waiting for a golem to begin flashing and blaring its alarm klaxon. 

The biggest issue was going to be housing, winter was coming, and there seemed to be no easy answers readily available. Baltimare was a city devastated. The entire city was going to have to come together if they planned to survive the winter. 

Walking through the middle of the ruins, Princess Celestia carried a massive ocean going vessel back to the water, holding it aloft in her magic, after it had washed ashore and came to rest almost a half a mile inland. 



 

Exhausted, but almost bursting with an idea, Bucky looked up at Princess Celestia, noticing her red bloodshot eyes. She looked like how he felt. He cleared his throat and realised he needed a refreshing drink, he felt his thirst keenly. “You know, watching you take that ship back to the ocean gave me an idea,” Bucky said as he gave a weary smile to Celestia. 

The alicorn yawned. “I would like to hear it,” Celestia replied, one ear drooping down. 

“That was an ocean liner. A passenger ship,” Bucky stated. 

“Yes. Yes it is. You are very observant,” Princess Celestia said. 

“International travel is somewhat restricted right now, which is probably why that ship was in Horseshoe Bay harbour. How many ponies can stay aboard a ship like that? And are there more vessels we can use to house ponies who have been made homeless? I mean, it has staterooms, cabins, suites for families, dining facilities, it has everything needed for a pony to be comfortable, right?” Bucky questioned, raising his only eyebrow over his only eye. 

Celestia’s drooping ear sprang upright. “Buckminster… that is a brilliant idea. There are ships rusting away in the ruined harbour of Manehatten. We can fix them. Bring them south. Fix them up and use them for housing.” 

“How many ponies can one of those big luxury liners hold? Not just the passengers cabins, but I know they have a crew area too,” Bucky inquired, now looking especially thoughtful. 

“I do not know. Over a thousand I think. One of them bragged about holding some ridiculous number like fifteen hundred ponies. They kept making these luxury ships bigger and bigger, Manehatten and Trottingham had an rival industry going between them. House Avarice funded the construction of some truly massive ocean going vessels and those ships are currently locked away in Manehatten’s harbour,” Princess Celestia answered, her muzzle wrinkling as she wracked her brain to come up with relevant information. 

“So we just to need to get those vessels seaworthy enough to get them here, and then make sure they are fit to be lived in. They’ll need power, and most of them burn coal. Can we get some solar crystals or something to help with the power needs?” Bucky inquired, looking pensive and distracted at the same time. 

“Those take time to grow, but yes, it is possible,” Celestia responded, nodding her head in agreement, her eyes narrowing as her mind began to see possibilities. “I will send Twilight, she has a knack for making exceptional solar collector crystals. Her very first science fair project involved making one.” 

“The less we discuss my science projects the better,” Bucky said, shaking his head. 

“Ah yes… the self baking potato,” Celestia said, her eyes going wide as she felt a moment of panic from the memory. So strong was her sense of alarm from the memory that she actually felt her nethers clench in fear. 

“I just said not to discuss this!” Bucky protested, a pleading look upon his face. “It seemed like a very reasonable idea at the time… a modified potato battery with an arcano-tech device that drew power from the potato to cook it.” 

“You should never be trusted around root vegetables. No other pony in the long history of Equestria caused as much trouble as you have. Carnivorous potatoes. Self baking potatoes-” 

“Okay I’ve had a few potato related failures,” Bucky whimpered, interrupting Celestia. 

“POTATOES WITH ACTUAL BLINKING EYES!” Celestia shouted as she shuddered. 

“I did my detention for that! You have no right to shout at me!” Bucky retorted as he backed away from Celestia. 

“Your self baking potato blew out all of the windows in the room when it exploded. Ponies were deaf for days. I heard ringing in my ears for almost two weeks, you little tuber troublemaker,” Celestia said accusingly. 

“That’s the past! You can’t be angry at me for this now,” Bucky begged, glancing around as he tried to figure out which direction was most viable for his escape. 

“You always held so much promise, even if it came in the form of such destruction and chaos,” Celestia said, suddenly slumping and looking morose. “Looking back, it certainly is clear to me now that you were the one. You were so sweet and gentle in your nature… I honestly thought that the shadow had passed you over. I really wanted to believe that.” 

“I’m still kind and sweet and gentle,” Bucky mumbled in a soft frantic voice. 

“You are also the embodiment of war. This is so unfair to you. I wish there was a way I could fix this, to take that away from you. You deserve better,” Celestia said sadly. 
	
> Chapter 405
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	They were four days into the disaster now and things were well in hoof. The royal yacht had departed upon the third day. Princess Luna had departed suddenly during that night. The city had been saved. Power was now mostly restored to the parts of the city still standing. There was a plan to use the luxury ocean liners moored in Manehatten to house the now homeless residents of Baltimare. 

The Wonderbolts were now seen as local heroes, if perhaps a little perverted and rude. 

Try as he might, Bucky could not resist having a look at his old foalhood home, the House Bitters estate that existed on the outskirts of Baltimare. He had flown out there in the form of a large hawk, Belisama following after him, and with his own eyes he saw the dilapidated and partially burned ruins of the massive estate compound. The chateau style home was no more, only a few walls remained standing, and all of the surrounding structures were now demolished. The property had been laid siege to during the riots, other members of House Bitters holed up inside. Bucky had heard stories from the survivors he had helped to rescue when he had asked them of the fate of his foalhood home. 

He was not sorry to see it go. 



 

“Are you sure it is wise to leave?” Lugus inquired, looking curiously at Bucky. 

“I received a message via shadow-link. We are needed in Canterlot at once,” Bucky said, looking at his friend. “Besides, the residents have things under control now. They are being surprisingly well behaved. Some of the large surviving factories are being used as a temporary shelter. So I think it is time to recall everybirdy and everypony and then depart.” 

“Things do seem to have gone well. Better than expected. When are we leaving?” Lugus responded, looking at Bucky and studying his friend. Bucky looked weary, out of sorts, exhausted, which meant that Bucky was his usual self and Lugus felt an odd sense of relief. 

“By noon. Spread the word. I want everypony and everybirdy back on board and accounted for,” Bucky answered as he scratched his neck with his talons than then adjusted his torque. 

“Sometimes it feels that we just race from one disaster to the next,” Lugus stated, his crest rising slowly as he gave Bucky a thoughtful look. “I know we have long moments of boredom and peace, but then there are moments like these. We are still cleaning up here and we have been summoned back to Canterlot for some unknown reason. Are we going to be shipped off to someplace else? Sent on another mission? Quell some other disaster?” 

“Maybe trouble overseas,” Bucky mused, staring out over the remains of the city. “At least Tannis and Agnetha will be left behind to continue to run things here. Princess Celestia was wise to give them emergency authority. They’re good leaders. Kind. Patient. This will be a good learning experience for them.” 

“I do not want trouble overseas. I want to remain at home. I want to spend time with Yew and continue to try and make offspring,” Lugus said in a low voice, reaching up and scratching the side of his head with his talons. 

“That is always a good way to pass the time,” Bucky remarked, nodding his as he spoke. 

“Yew has a strong need for more foals. She says that Peekaboo is not enough. She wants something she can have suckle. What an odd way to feed your young,” Lugus commented, cocking his head to one side so he could get a better angle for scratching. 

“Yes… you griffons lovingly vomit down one another’s gullets,” Bucky deadpanned. 

“Griffons start out so helpless. Not like you ponies. You start moving around on your first day. You can walk. Crawl. Griffons mostly just lay there. I must warn you, newborn griffons are hideous. They have no feathers anywhere. They’re naked where feathers should be. After a few days, they get quills, sheaths sticking out through the skin like little spines. Eventually the first feathers and down begins to grow. Little cubs stay helpless for about the first year and then aren’t much better for the second,” Lugus said, feeling conversational. 

“Gestation times are different. Griffons come out in less than four months, ponies take almost a year in the womb before they are ready to come out,” Bucky said, thinking about Lugus’ words. 

“Have you attempted anything with Belisama?” Lugus said in a low respectful voice. 

“No,” Bucky replied. 

“When the time comes, do not be afraid. She might look small, and she is, but griffon females are remarkably stretchy down there. I know of willing copulations between smaller females and much larger careful males. Little griffons are born with large heads and flexible rubbery soft beaks,” Lugus said, offering a bit of encouragement. 

“I have noticed… during my more… gentle stroking of Belisama that she has eight nipples… I’m assuming that they are vestigial,” Bucky stated, his eyebrow raising. 

“Stroking?” Lugus questioned, his own feathery eyebrow raising. 

“She likes to have her belly rubbed. She just rolls over and melts Lugus. Hey… I bet you do the same thing,” Bucky said, looking at his friend. 

“I do not!” Lugus retorted, his crest not only going erect, but tipping forward aggressively. 

“If Bon Bon was here, what do you think she would be doing right about now?” Bucky asked in an infuriatingly smug voice while giving a knowing look to his best friend. 

“I have nothing to say to you. That is private. Exposing your belly is an act of trust between close mates. We have claws that could rip one another apart and being gutted is quite a painful way to die,” Lugus retorted in a flat monotone. 

“I bet Yew thinks you’re adorable when you fall over and beg for belly rubs,” Bucky said, pushing his luck just a little bit and goading his friend. 

The big griffon glowered at Bucky, his eyes narrowing and his predatory stare focusing on the egregious equine. His crest fell, laying flat upon his head. 

“So what is it with griffons that get up out of bed in the mornings, hike their backsides in the air, raise their tails up straight, and stretch while sticking everything back there in your face?” Bucky questioned, ignoring Lugus’ angry glare. “Griffons really don’t have a plot furrow back there. No butt crack. Sorta flat really, with a little protruding pucker.” 

“Trust,” Lugus said icily. 

“Trust?” Bucky asked. 

“It is a feline thing. You wouldn’t understand,” Lugus deadpanned. 

“I’m trying to understand. At first I was curious if it was an invitation of sorts. I mean, there it was… Belisama’s little pucker and her… well… hrm, let’s call them kitten curtains. Which look really different from filly bits. Filly bits are more of a  long slit, griffonesses have more of a… well, I don’t know exactly. Things look kinda puffy and puckered. Kinda round looking with something sort of protruding or something,” Bucky said, his eyebrow raised in quizzical confusion. 

Shaking his head, Lugus gave a disgusted glance to his friend. 



 

Lifting off from Baltimare, Bucky sat with Scootaloo beside him in the command seat, as he had often done with Lyra, only Scootaloo was a lot smaller. The little pegasus watched with wide eyed wonder as Bucky showed her how make the ship rise, how to level her out, and how to engage the autopilot. 

“You just lock on to a location upon the map projection. Here we have Canterlot. We have a tailwind and good conditions. We’ll be there in just a while. Then you engage the autopilot,” Bucky explained. 

“But you could fly it by hoof all the way if you wanted to,” Scootaloo said, looking somewhat overwhelmed. 

“Yes. Or if there were heavy storms I might want to take control of the flight. There are several forms of autopilot. I used support mode in Baltimare. I had the ship lock on to me and follow me around on the ground where it could, so that the winches could be used for various support tasks. Another autopilot is specifically for moving through the water if I should ever have to put her down in the water for some reason. She is seaworthy,” Bucky responded. 

“Has anypony made an airship that can go above the sky?” Scootaloo asked, carefully reaching out to touch the flight yoke. 

“Not to my knowledge. You can only go so high in an airship because of how the clouds are used for lift. I’ve heard that the gas filled airships can go a little higher. New advances in pressurisation and air tight cabins on airships have led to new kinds of sea vessels called submersibles, boats that operate under water. Luna is having several of them built. She has an idea that a boat that moves underwater could draw near a coastal city unseen and unnoticed, wait till nighttime, surface, and then release some very well trained guards under the cover of darkness to attack our enemies,” Bucky said in a soft patient voice. He thought of a sudden surprise Myrmidon assault and smiled, revealing his fangs. 

“You never joined the navy. How do you know about all of this?” Scootaloo asked. 

“I earned my way in through deeds and merit. I’ve been instructed. I am competent enough to be part of the command structure, or so I’m told. Honestly, I don’t know. I tend to make things up as I go during bad situations,” Bucky answered, being completely honest. 

“I suppose if I want to be a good pilot I need to join the navy,” Scootaloo said, looking thoughtful. The pegasus filly yawned, letting out a soft squeak as she did so. 

“That’s one way. There are plenty of civilian programs as well. Princess Luna tells me I am a good pilot because of my obsessive compulsive disorder and my need for control. I could probably give you some lessons,” Bucky offered. 

“I did something bad and you’re being so nice to me. I stowed away upon your ship,” Scootaloo said, sounding more than a little guilty. 

“I like foals. All foals. Even rotten ones I suppose. You’re not rotten though. Plus, you’ve worked hard and done your part. A foal needs to know that they are loved even if you have to punish them,” Bucky replied, glancing down at Scootaloo. 

Smiling, Bucky disengaged the autopilot, lifted Scootaloo, and held her in front of the flight yoke. “Grab the yoke. Don’t move it too much, but pull back just a tiny bit, and steer the ship towards that mass of clouds. Try to plow into them.” 

“What if there are pegasi in those clouds?” asked Scootaloo in a frantic voice as she placed her hooves upon the yoke and gave a gentle pull. 

“Then a warning beep would be happening right now, letting me know that some pegasi would be getting a very rude wake up call,” Bucky answered, clutching Scootaloo to his barrel with one foreleg and supporting her backside with the other. “You’re doing fine, pull up just a little more,” he said, using his most gentle and encouraging voice. 

Pulling up just a smidgen more, Scootaloo watched as the entire front of the ship before her plowed into a fluffy cloud and vanished. The navigation cabin was surrounded by greyish white, and nothing else was visible. It was as if the world around them had suddenly vanished. 

And then, just as suddenly as the world had vanished, it returned, the deck was visible, and there was sunlight again upon the dark wooden planks. Something beeped softly on the console and then went silent. 

“We just took on some much needed cloud. I do believe The Albatross got some as well. Nice work,” Bucky said, his tone one of praise. 



 

Canterlot was a beautiful jewel in the late afternoon slipping into early evening sun. Bucky dropped speed and cruised slowly, coming in low and slow over the city and approaching the royal docks. Looking around, he quickly realised that something was wrong. 

All of the flags were at half mast and black banners had been hung from a number of places. A large black wreath had been hung over the central balcony where Celestia liked to address her subjects. Bucky could see a large number of ponies were crowded into the central courtyard, the same courtyard where Twilight Sparkle had been crowned and then addressed her subjects. The same courtyard where the same fate might have happened to Bucky, had they caught him. 

As the ship slid into the mooring, Bucky teleported down to the docks, appearing in a burst of snow and ice. He looked around at the half mast flags and felt a growing sense of panic. He saw a group of ponies approaching him along the walkway, and hurried off towards them. 



 

Celestia was red eyed, grief stricken, and still crying. Twilight stood at her right in much the same condition. Luna stood at Celestia’s left, looking both angry and sorrowful. Bucky knew that there was something horribly wrong. 

“What?” Bucky asked in a frantic voice. 

Celestia looked at Luna first, then Twilight, and then back at Bucky. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Buckminster, I have very bad news to give you,” she said in a soft sobbing voice. 

“What? Just tell me,” Bucky begged, now suddenly very worried about his family. He felt his heart begin to race. 

“While we were in Baltimare, a dragon attacked the Crystal Empire, aided by the mirror travelers. There was a dedicated effort to attack the crystal palace. The dragon began to attack the city… Cadance… dear sweet Cadance was always more pegasus than was good for her… she went out and challenged the dragon, hoping to save her subjects,” Celestia said in a strangled voice. 

“No,” Bucky whispered. 

“According to witnesses, she unloaded everything she had right as the dragon began to use his fire breath. The resulting explosion obliterated a small section of the city, the dragon, and Cadance,” Luna continued when Celestia was unable to do so. 

Backing away, Bucky shook his head. “No, not Cadance… she was my counterbalance!” 

“Shining Armor lives, but he was gravely wounded during the assassination attempt. He is currently here, in Canterlot. He is expected to recover… once more your rescue of Tourmaline has made a difference,” Luna said in a soft sad voice. The alicorn looked away from Bucky and stared off at a fluttering flag, anger still flashing in her eyes. “We found no traces of her body. Most of the dragon was gone as well. She’s gone.” 

“I need to go… I need to be with my family. I’m sorry… but I must go… I cannot stay,” Bucky stammered as he backed away from the three alicorns. He saw Rainbow Dash landing just a few feet away with Scootaloo, both of them looking very confused. “I’m sorry, if you need me, you know where I am,” he said and then exploded into snowflakes. 

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked in a fearful whine as Twilight Sparkle ran up to embrace her tightly. 

“Cadance is dead…” 
	
	
> Chapter 406
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Surrounded by his family, Bucky remained inconsolable, filled with a fearful apprehension of what might happen now that Love was gone. He felt Cadance’s loss keenly. He could feel that something in the world had changed, some vague imperceptible force had been altered somewhat. 

A late evening edition of the paper gave the news in detail, but Bucky did not read, he did not look, he remained curled up in a miserable lump in his bed, surrounded by those he loved, holding his foals, and spending a great deal of time cuddling with Harper and Peekaboo. 

Lyra was the one who had moored The Scorned Mare and then tethered The Albatross. She made sure everything was properly stowed away and that the ships were secure. 

Rarity and Coco took home the stowaways, making sure they were returned to worried parents. They had not taken the news well either, word had spread quickly throughout the ship when Bucky had hurried home. 



 

“Celestia said she was too much of a pegasus for her own good,” Bucky whispered, a haunted look upon his face as he stared dully at the wall. “I can’t stop thinking about those words. It’s killing me.” 

Closing her eyes, feeling her husband’s pain, Derpy scooted a little closer to him and covered his body with her wing. “A good pegasus will do anything to protect those they love. Cadance was a good pegasus. She might have become an alicorn, but deep down inside, she was still a pegasus where it mattered.” 

“Would you have done the same?” Berry asked in a muted voice, her cheek pressed against Bucky’s neck. The earth pony rubbed her hooves against Bucky’s belly and barrel, trying to soothe him and bring him some comfort. 

“Without thinking about it,” Derpy replied in a wavering breathy utterance. 

The small windup clock on the shelf near the bed struck midnight, the hand moving one notch precisely and marking the midnight hour. The house was quiet. The foals were all asleep. The bed was full, there was a slumbering kelpie and a griffoness, one grief stricken unicorn, one morose earth pony, and one sorrowful pegasus. Lyra and Bon Bon were sleeping in the nursery, looking after Harper who was having tummy troubles. 

The house was disturbed by a knock at the door while the hands still showed midnight. 



 

The visitors were not ponies that Bucky expected to see, yet here they were, standing in his entryway, gawking around his house, looking at his wives, and completely unphased about Cadance’s death. 

One earth pony, one zebra with a brown hoof, and one unicorn. 

“We need to go,” the earth pony announced after having a look around. 

“Our time grows short,” the zebra said, looking at Bucky. 

“And you must come with us,” the unicorn stated as she looked at Derpy. 

“Sorry… I don’t even know how to introduce you,” Bucky said an apologetic tones. 

“We are his sisters… in the larger scheme of things,” the zebra said. 

“I remember you,” Berry murmured, looking at the trio. “It feels more like a dream. You gave me that potion that saved Bucky’s life… you told me to pour it into the wound in his side.” 

“We did,” the unicorn said. 

“Which leads us to today,” the zebra stated. 

“We promised you a reward, my brother. A meaningful reward in exchange for your word. Are you ready to receive it?” the earth pony questioned. 

“Right now, I really don’t care about any rewards… I just want to be left alone,” Bucky replied, shaking his head. “I’m tired. I just lost somepony dear to me. And the world now hangs in a precarious balance.” 

“We must move. You are coming with us to collect your reward. Love is not yet lost, but will be if we do not hurry,” the zebra said in a soft voice. 

“What?” Bucky asked, his mouth hanging open. 

“Our mutual enemy has killed her. I am sure you can figure out why. He has manipulated events to make you stronger after you lost so much of yourself after Griffonholm. We saw this coming. We anticipated this act. We knew what our parent would do. We weren’t sure when or how, but we saw this coming. We have made deals. Struck bargains. And now, we must go to claim her… and you must claim your reward for all of your devotion and service,” the unicorn said in a cheerful voice. 

“What must I do?” Bucky inquired. “I’ll do anything, anything at all for her.” 

“Come with us,” the earth pony said, beckoning towards the door with her hoof. 

Stepping out the door, Bucky saw a tall white stallion. The door was shut behind him and the three Fates gathered around him, herding him along. Death walked with them, and after a short walk, the fates stopped in an open patch of lawn. 

“I am very sorry,” Thanatos apologised, looking a little sad. 

“For what?” Bucky asked, now feeling confused and a bit worried as the fates circled around him, pouring what appeared to be chalk or salt upon the ground. Bucky couldn’t be certain. “What’s going on?” 

“To get Cadance back, you’re going to have to go on trial in Tartarus. And to endure this trial, well, you have to be dead,” Thanatos said in a soft voice as he pressed his hoof into Bucky’s chest. 

Feeling his heart stop beating, Bucky fell over into the grass, gasping for air, struggling as the life slowly left his body. No matter how hard he tried, he could not draw breath. White spots danced before his vision. Agonising pain filled him and he once again felt the pain of death go through him. 

“Don’t worry, your family will see none of this,” the earth pony promised. 

“Just a bare spot in the grass,” the zebra said. 

“We’ll be with you,” Thanatos promised as Bucky clawed at the grass with his talons. 

The world slowly went black as Bucky’s vision dimmed. 



 

“Brother?” 

Opening his eyes, Bucky drew in a deep breath. Bucky realised he could see out of both eyes again. He felt wings against his sides. He felt powerful and strong, whole of body. He rose up to his hooves and looked around, he was on a stone dais and there were flames all around him. Next to him were four alicorns. Three of them had the same cutie mark, a big ball of twine. 

Thanatos’ cutie mark was a rather wilted looking petunia that had slumped over and died. 

“She is there. Beyond those three arches. If you listen carefully you can hear her cry. She is a foal now, very much like a newborn, a helpless infant. We are not allowed to reach her, but you can. We must warn you, these trials will be most unpleasant. Good luck,” Thanatos said in a soft voice. 

Straining his ears, Bucky could indeed hear the faint cries of a foal in distress. He could see a cradle on another dais off in the distance, rising up out of the flames. There was a stone walkway leading from this dais to the next dais, and there were three stone archways along the path. 

“Hang on Cadance, I’m coming!” Bucky shouted. He spread his wings, flapped them a few times, and found that he had no lift. 

“You cannot fly here,” one of the alicorn sisters said. 

“The first trial is the trial of endurance. One of us will go with you,” another sister said. 

Trotting off towards the arch, Bucky wasted no time. He heard hoofbeats behind him but he did not turn to look. As he approached the arch, it began to glow softly. The path in front of him shimmered and flames surged along each side of the walkway. 

“I am Clotho, your sister. I had hoped to spare you the torment of knowing my name, but what you are about to endure will be far worse than the knowledge of who I am,” the alicorn said. “You know me as an earth pony.” 

“So I just walk through the arch? What will happen?” Bucky questioned, stomping his hooves impatiently. He raised his head high and his black mane spilled down his neck. 

“The worst thing you can imagine… you must endure the truth,” Clotho answered as Bucky stepped into the archway. She watched him vanish and then stepped in to the archway behind him, disappearing as well. 



 

The first thing that Bucky noticed was that the sky didn’t look right. It was an odd colour, almost green, and the sun and the moon moved around crazily overhead, not really moving, but vibrating oddly, moving in a binary orbit around one another. 

There was a large encampment of creatures. Looking around, Bucky saw griffons. Minotaurs. Pig like creatures. Diamond Dogs. There was a massive camp that seemed to stretch off for miles. Fires burned and the air was filled with smoke. 

There was also the sounds of equine misery. 

Alicorns. There were alicorns all around. Small alicorns, lesser alicorns like Twilight Sparkle had been before she had grown. They were in pens, bound, all of them strangely subdued, their eyes vacant and blank. There were hundreds. Maybe thousands. Bucky could not tell for certain as he moved among them, looking around and trying to take it all in. All around him, they cried, doing nothing to rescue themselves, all of them seeming broken and defeated.

He froze when he saw two very familiar looking alicorns. One was white, the other blue, and there could be no mistaking who they were. They were awake and aware. Their horns were sheathed in some kind of metal. They were shackled and bound, chained to a stone platform in the middle of this encampment full of tents and predatory creatures. 

Nearby, there were two adults who kicked and struggled furiously against their bonds, trying to reach the two foals on the platform. They were chained, shackled, and their horns sheathed. Their coats were flecked with with froth, sweating from their struggles. 

“These are our father’s children,” Clotho said in a soft voice. “You can do nothing to help them. You cannot stop what you are about to witness, it has already happened.” 

“What happened here?” Bucky asked, looking around. 

“Victory,” Clotho answered, looking sad. 

“Victory?” Bucky questioned. 

“The Chaos War is drawing to a close. Our father created the alicorns, creatures made in his image. They were made to restore the balance. Creatures from other realms, other planes, they became involved. Deals were made. Bargains were struck. Powerful magic was used. You stand here during the time of the victory feast,” Clotho explained. 

Sucking in a deep breath, Bucky growled. 

“This is also where we rebel against our father. This is where we defy him. This is where we broke the rules. This is the point where everything goes wrong. This is the point where father wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over, knowing that he had failed. He was heartbroken after seeing the children he had created in his own image be defiled in such a way and his power broken. He suffered defeat here. He was busy fighting his own battle, one he very nearly lost,” Clotho said, touching Bucky with her wing. 

Not too far away, a horn blew and drums began beating. 

“Brother, if at any time you wish for this to end, if you close your eyes and tell yourself that you cannot bear it, the trial will end and you will have failed,” Clotho warned, looking over at Bucky with wide concerned eyes. 

An enormous diamond dog approached the two alicorns who were still kicking and fighting, a massive mace held in his hand. The drums beat slow and steady. Pig creatures oinked. A massive roar came out from the creatures all around the camp. 

The diamond dog licked his lips. He grabbed the mare, who struggled against him, his fingers wrapping around her throat. He threw her down to the ground and when she tried to get up, he struck a glancing blow to the side of her head with his mace. 

The mare flailed and kicked feebly as the chained stallion thrashed against his bonds. Bucky heard the two foals crying out for their mother. He felt a terrible pain his chest. Their voices were far too familiar. Younger maybe, squeaky, more foalish, but familiar. 

The diamond dog threw himself down upon the mare’s back and then tried to force her legs open. She resisted, kicking and rolling around, trying to crawl away. Reaching around with one large hand, he grabbed one hind leg, gave it a sharp yank, and there was the terrible snapping sound of bone. Reaching around with his other hand, he did the same with the other hind leg, preventing the mare from closing her legs together. 

As Bucky watched, the diamond dog began a savage assault upon the mare, clamping his teeth upon the back of her neck and forcing himself in, brutally ripping her open. The mare’s screams filled the camp. Overhead, the sun flickered oddly. The two fillies on the stone platform were screaming now, begging for their mama. Bucky could hear the mare cry with each torturing thrust from the diamond dog that was assaulting her. 

More horns blared. The tempo of the drums increased. The camp around him descended into an orgy of sex and violence. Alicorns of all ages and sizes were taken, brutalised, used for sexual gratification, tortured, and some were even being eaten while they kicked feebly, making half hearted attempts to stave off their attackers and devourers.

On the stone platform, two little fillies were forced to watch the rape and the slaughter of the whole of their species, the extinction of their tribe. 



 

Hours passed. Bucky could not tell how long. He somehow guarded his mind from thinking unwanted thoughts and he forced himself to take this all in. He watched everything, hiding his eyes from nothing, standing near the two fillies that he knew so well, knowing he could not protect them, but taking comfort from remaining near them. 

The brutish predatory races changed as Bucky watched. Some of the griffons became larger… Lugus sized. The minotaurs grew larger and more musclebound. Diamond dogs became altered, their tails becoming more like clubs and maces. 

Still others suffered through more terrifying changes. 

As the orgy of sex and death continued, demons were summoned using ancient blood rights. These demons merged with some of the creatures… and they changed. Some became horrid parodies of themselves. Others became grotesque monsters. 

A few became a jumbled collection of body parts, which looked an awful lot like Discord. 

Foals and adults alike were violated, eaten, their bones carelessly thrown into a fire after being picked clean and gnawed upon. The stallion and the mare both were gone now, both had been violated, broken, savaged, their rape and torture had lasted for hours and those that violated them grew into some of the most hideous monstrosities imaginable. 



 

Gnashing his teeth, Bucky wondered how much more he could endure. The frenzy had died down. The camp had gone quiet, almost solemn. The drums had died. Overhead, the sun flickered, sometimes going dark for several minutes at a time. 

He realised that he had observed the birth of the draconequus… somehow, he knew that they resembled the invaders from some other realm, reborn in their mismatched invaders’ image, just as the alicorns had been made in the creator’s image. 

Two of them, the largest and most powerful, now approached the stone platform where the two little fillies were chained, staring in wide eyed shock. They clung to one another. The blue one seemed defiant. 

“Dawn, whatever you do, you must not scream, be brave Dawn,” the blue one whimpered in a low terrified voice. 

“I’m so afraid... Evening, I love you,” the white one said. 

Knowing full well what was about to happen, Bucky braced himself for the worst, unsure if he could bear this, and knowing that if his will broke, Cadance was lost to him forever. 

“You get away from her!” Evening cried as a draconequus approached. “I’ll kill you if you touch her! You stay back! I am Princess Evening Star and I-” 

The foal was cut off with a powerful backhand that sent her sprawling down to the stone. The draconequus tore her chains free from the anchors, gripped her by her hind legs, swung her overhead, and then dashed her head down upon the stone. 

Princess Evening Star’s head became lumpy and somewhat lopsided. She kicked and twitched feebly as her sister screamed. The draconequus threw her down upon her back and yanked her legs open. He looked at the other draconequus and nodded. He then threw himself down upon the foal beneath him eagerly. 

“Dawn Star,” Evening gurgled, her words barely understandable as she was crushed beneath the bulk of the draconequus on top of her. 

The white alicorn filly’s screams turned into frenzied gurgled cries as a massive diamond dog hand wrapped around her throat, pushed her down to the stone, and then the creature made out of chaos eased himself down on top of her writhing and kicking body. 

Somehow, Bucky forced his eyes to stay open as the pain that his creator had felt flooded though his body, a pain beyond all mortal comprehension as his creation had been defiled, everything that had once been good and pure, made to save the world, was now being corrupted to destroy it. 

As the terrible assault of the two fillies continued, their draconequus attackers continued to grow in size and power, becoming terrible creatures of nightmare. 



 

The camp was empty. The host of creatures had fled. The bodies of the two princesses had not been devoured for whatever reason, but were left impaled on spikes as grim totems, gristly reminders of what had taken place. 

The air was filled with the stench of sex and death. 

Standing, unable to do anything but stare at the two skewered fillies and their horribly maimed and disfigured bodies, Bucky remained silent as Clotho stood beside him, looking sad. He felt her wing upon his back and he moved a little closer to be with her. 

As the pair stood as silent witnesses, four ponies moved into the camp. Four alicorns, but different alicorns. Larger. Taller. They moved among the bones and the partially devoured bodies of the dead. One was tall and pale, the others were three sisters who all shared the same cutie mark. 

“So it has come to pass just as I have said it would,” one sister said. 

“Atropos, I wish our father had listened to you. You tried to tell him this would happen. He was arrogant and said that chaos was too disorganised to pose a credible threat,” another sister said, looking at the first. 

“Father was a fool, Lachesis!” Atropos snapped. 

“He plans to destroy everything now… now that creation has been defiled and the cosmos has been broken,” Clotho said, looking grief stricken. 

“He can’t! There are too many lives!” Lachesis protested. 

Moving away from his sisters, Thanatos stepped over bones and the remains of corpses. He carefully avoided still smouldering fires and stepped around puddles of blood and semen. He approached the bodies of the two sisters, a sad look upon his muzzle. 

“Thanatos, what are you doing? I know what you are planning! DO NOT!” Atropos warned, looking fearfully at her brother. 

“Shut up Morta,” Thanatos retorted. 

“Don’t call me that!” Atropos shouted. 

“Thanatos, do not… it is forbidden… they have suffered so much. You cannot help them,” Clotho pleaded in a gentle voice. 

“But I can. We can. If father will not help, then we must,” Thanatos said, steeling his resolve and staring at the two sisters. He carefully lifted them away from the spikes using his magic and then laid their bodies out upon the stone. 

“This will mean punishment. Banishment. On this world with all of those monsters now roaming around,” Lachesis said, looking fearful. “He will send you to Tartarus.” 

“I don’t care,” Thanatos said as he began to wipe away blood and semen from the two small broken bodies using his wings. 

“We will need allies,” Atropos said. 

“Scorch has promised to come if we call,” Clotho said. “And there are others.” 

“If we do this, we are damned. He will never forgive us,” Lachesis said as she approached Thanatos and the two bodies he stood over. “Creation rebelled against him. His own creations turned upon him. The predatory races that were meant to be protectors instead turned upon those they were created to protect. Father hates those who turn on him.” 

“If we are going to get into trouble, let us make it a trouble worth getting into,” Atropos suggested. “I say we steal away Light and Darkness from his interstellar nursery. They can help restore the cosmos if we give them bodies.” 

“We have our own blood rites,” Clotho murmured, looking sad but defiant. 

“We can restore the alicorns,” Lachesis said, looking skyward at the dying sun. 

“Light and Darkness will not be able to restore the cosmos for a very long time. They will have to grow and learn to use their power,” Atropos said. 

“So we teach the unicorns how to move the sun. Give them a little divine spark and they can hold things together until these two are ready,” Thanatos said, gently kissing the bloody cheek of the white filly. 

“I will begin to bind those who have died,” Atropos said, her eyes closing as her body glowed with a nimbus of white light. 

“I will create new fates,” Clotho said, her horn blazing with a blinding intensity. 

“And I will draw in Light and Darkness,” Lachesis said as she closed her eyes and began to concentrate. 

The pale white stallion lifted the two foals in his magic, his face locked in a grimace of pain as he healed their injuries and restored their bodies. So much harm had been done, so much damage, that it was impossible to make them whole again. 

As Bucky watched, the two foals shrank away and became infant sized. 

The blue one screamed first, followed by the white one. Thanatos gently laid them down upon the stone and lifted his head, snorting defiantly. 

A black rift opened overhead, appearing above Thanatos. Black lightning streamed out and struck the pale alicorn stallion, and he began to scream. Flesh boiled away from his bones and his screams became gurgled cries of anguish. 

His sisters, absorbed in their tasks, could do nothing to save him. 

Thanatos became a standing skeleton, now stripped of all flesh. He wobbled away on meatless legs, his wing bones flapping. Blue flames appeared in his empty eye sockets. 

All around Bucky, strange energy swirled. Shapes rose up out of the ground. Spectral forms rose up out of discarded bones, the spirits of the departed and desecrated alicorns. They swarmed towards the two sisters and the tormented ghosts lept into their bodies. Hundreds, maybe thousands, but more than Bucky could count. 

Both infant sisters took on a strange glow. Above them, two glowing orbs of energy appeared, one glowed with the golden light of the sun, the other was black but still somehow seemed to radiate light. The golden orb of light settled into the white foal, while the darkness settled into the other. 

Clotho came forward, looking exhausted, her ears were drooping from fatigue. She looked down at the white filly, a tired smile upon her muzzle. “I will call you Celestia. Perhaps one day you will repair the cosmic machinery.” Turning her head, she looked at the blue foal. “And you… I will call you Luna. You will protect this world from the terrors that have been released into the night.” 

“In time, there will be others,” Lachesis said, looking hopeful. “If we can defy father long enough and keep the world from ending.” 

“They are strong… they are filled with the vengeful spirits of the dead. The dead will lend their strength to make sure that their defilers will answer for their crimes,” Atropos said, looking at her brother with a sad expression. “I hope the cost is worth it. Our brother has been given a terrible curse for our defiance.” 

“I am fine,” Thanatos said in a strangely disembodied voice. “I can deal with this pain.” 

The foals were crying now, hungry cries, the sound of foals wanting to be fed. 

It was music to Bucky’s ears. 



 

Bucky suddenly found himself on the other side of the arch. He looked around, blinking, everything he had just seen fresh in his mind. Somehow, he had endured. Not once did he close his eyes and wish for it to go away. He felt empty, drained, depleted. 

The truth had not set him free. 

Bitter, filled with rage, a new flame burned within Bucky, a new spirit of defiance. 

He stomped towards the next archway, determined to get Cadance back at any cost. Lifting his head high, Bucky drew in a deep breath. “Hang on Cadance! I’m coming!” 

Almost at a run, Bucky charged through the arch. 



 

He was immediately grabbed by something, something with claws and they dug into his skin, tearing cruelly at him. Bucky tried to use his magic, but nothing happened. He felt a clawed hand close around his throat, and then he felt clawed fingers seizing around one of his wings. 

With a forceful yank, one wing was ripped free from the socket. Biting back a scream, Bucky snarled instead and he lashed out, biting with his fangs. 

Which snapped on empty air. 

Again, he felt fingers squeezing his remaining wing. This time, there was no yank, but there was a slow steady pull. Try as he might, Bucky could not hold back his scream this time as the pain increased to unbearable levels. He kicked feebly, trying to fight, trying to struggle, but it was hopeless. 

After several agonising minutes, the wing was slowly ripped free, and Bucky screamed himself hoarse as each tendon, each ligament, each muscle, and the bone finally gave way. 

The demon holding him stomped off and Bucky struggled to remain awake and aware. 

There was a sudden blinding pain as his body was viciously rammed down upon a hook, it pierced his side and he felt the sharp metal point slamming into his pelvis from the inside. He hung there from the hook, feebly kicking, and he saw the demon’s clawed hand rising to his exposed belly. 

A terrible ripping pain started in his balls and ever so slowly worked down to his breastbone. He felt his insides shift, there was an odd sensation, and then Bucky realised he was staring down at his own glistening and pulsating entrails. A string of drool dribbled from his lip as he pondered his own organs. 

He gasped a few last times and then the blackness overtook him. 



 

Filled with agony, Bucky awoke. He looked up feebly, barely able to move his head. He was still hanging by the hook. It had pierced his side and he could feel the sharp metal point pressing against  his pelvis. There was no way to make the terrible pain and pressure ease off. 

Magic failed him. There was nothing he could do. 

Bucky realised that his situation was hopeless. He was trapped on this hook. He heard footsteps and he wiggled, feeling helpless and afraid. He saw a big shadowy hand in his vision and a moment later, he felt a terrible pain as his scrotum was torn off, followed by being disemboweled once more. 

With a wet slurping sound, he watched his own guts spill out upon the floor once again. 



 

Hearing footsteps, Bucky quietly waited, hanging on his hook. He didn’t know how many times this had happened. Hundreds of times. Maybe thousands. There was nothing he could do. He had failed Cadance. She was alone, left in the bowels of Tartarus, and he had failed her. 

Try as he might, he could not stop the tears as his torturer approached. His magic had failed him. He had no strength. There was nothing he could do. There was only pain and hanging on this hook. Bucky slowly began to realise that he might be here for thousands of years, and he felt his spirit crushed under the weight of that knowledge. 

One wing was ripped off, then the other. 

Once more, he was gelded and his guts were ripped open. He was able to look at his own entrails with a casual disinterest now. At least he had these moments of blackness where there was no pain, no suffering. He welcomed the blackness when it took him. 



 

Hanging from his hook, Bucky struggled. Cadance needed him. His brain held fevered thoughts. She was depending upon him. He thought about how he loved her. He thought about his own foals. He thought about his wives. How long had he been gone? He could no longer tell. Time had lost all meaning in this place. A second might as well be an eon. 

Reaching deep, Bucky discovered he still had hope. It was a tiny fragile thing, a spark, something he was not aware he still had. He closed his eyes and thought of Derpy, her warm body, and how happy Derpy would be to have another foal, especially if she knew the trouble that Bucky had to endure to get said foal. Derpy understood appreciation. 

He thought of Cadance warm and safe in Derpy’s embrace. 

His eyes opened when he heard the flapping footsteps once more.

In his horn, Bucky felt it, the faint tingle of magic. He focused on what gave him strength, trying to drive away his despair and his hopelessness. He lifted his head and saw his torturer. 

Crackling blue-green harmony magic spewed from Bucky’s horn and the demon disintegrated, flying apart into ash. Not knowing how long he had until another demon might arrive, Bucky tried to make his brain work, trying to figure out how to get off his hook. 

He tried to teleport and failed. Lifting his head, he angled his horn at the chain, closed his eyes, and made the magic happen once more. The chain broke and Bucky tumbled to the floor, landing on the hook, which was pushed deeper into his side. 

Gritting his teeth and screaming, Bucky slowly pulled the hook out and then tossed it away, shoving it away from him with both front forehooves. He tried to stand and failed. 

Unable to stand, unable to walk, Bucky began to pull himself towards the door on the other side of the room, crawling along the floor, trailing blood behind him, He felt himself growing weaker, his strength failing him. 

And then, Bucky saw a familiar figure by the door. 

“Sombra, help me!” Bucky begged in an agonised wheeze. 

“I cannot. You must keep moving. Move damn you! The jailers are coming. If they return before you make it to this door, you will be placed back upon that hook again. NOW MOVE!” Sombra commanded. “If you fail to reach Cadance you condemn the whole world!” 

Crawling, his hooves scrabbling over the stone, Bucky pulled his body towards Sombra and the door. He bit down upon his lip, dug in deep, and then gave everything he had left. He squirmed over the floor, his tail now caked with his own blood as it was dragged through the blood he trailed behind him. 

“Hang on Cadance, I’m coming!” 

Finally, one hoof passed through the doorway. 



 

Bucky found himself whole of body and unharmed. He stood on the stone path and ahead of him was the final arch. He could hear Cadance crying now, steady wails of a foal wanting comfort. His wings flared out and his body tensed. The second test had been brutal, but he had somehow endured. 

Finding a feeling of hope had almost been impossible. 

Feeling strong, Bucky galloped for the final arch. 



 

There was a cradle in the center of the room and in the cradle was a crying pink alicorn foal. Beside her was a large indescribably ugly demon. It stared at Bucky, unmoving, not reacting, and the room had a strange calm feeling. 

“Give her to me. Don’t make me destroy you,” Bucky demanded. 

“Do your worst if you will. You cannot destroy me. If you want her, you must barter.” the demon explained in a calm patient voice. “And no being clever. No unwanted family members. I don’t accept those.” 

“What you do you want? You need but ask. Anything… my life for hers,” Bucky offered. 

“Intriguing,” the demon said. 

“Fair trade. I ask that she be returned to the land of the living. You can keep me,” Bucky said, moving towards the crib, his eyes locked on the demon beside it. 

“Offering one’s own life is so commonplace though,” the demon said, sounding bored. 

“She is mine by right… I was told she is my reward. I want what I’ve came for,” Bucky said, now becoming angry. 

“Theoretically speaking, what would you give for her? Colour me curious,” the demon questioned, standing there calmly as Bucky now stood over the crib. 

“I have already offered my life… everything I am… everything I will be,” Bucky stammered. 

“Perfect. Everything you will be. Give me that,” the demon demanded. 

“Fine, take it, I don’t care, just release Cadance,” Bucky agreed. 

The demon shifted, changing shape, and it became a tall skeletal alicorn. It stood there for a moment and then the illusion of flesh covered the bones. 

“Our deal is binding,” Thanatos said. “I am the master of this particular patch of torment. I lay claim on your good word,” he added, a silver shackle appearing mid-air. 

One end was clamped around Bucky’s leg and the other was secured to Cadance. Once both ends were clamped, it vanished, poofing into nothingness. 

“She is now immortal. She is the embodiment of love. She died, giving her life for others, and there is no greater love than that. She also had somepony who loved her enough to endure the trial of truth and the trial of hopelessness. This trial is all about getting what you deserve and then living with it,” Thanatos explained. 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said in a low confused voice. 

“Know this, your fate is now connected with hers. If you ascend, if you ever become the alicorn of war, her immortality is lost and she dies immediately. You will murder what you love if you ascend,” Thanatos answered. 

“I’ll never ascend!” Bucky shouted defiantly. 

“Then War shall live in service of Love. She will need a guardian. You. She is your reward for keeping your word to the Fates. You are not to relinquish your position as her guardian for any reason. She must be kept safe. She is immortal, but awful things could be done to her if she fell into the clutches of those who would do her harm. She will grow like any other foal. She will require a great deal of love and care. It is my opinion that a large herd is the ideal situation for her to be raised in. A lack of love will stunt her growth and magical development,” Thanatos said, looking down at Bucky. 

“Thank you… thank you for giving her back. I am in your service,” Bucky said, looking at Thanatos. “I saw what happened. I saw your curse. I saw when you helped to create Celestia and Luna.” 

“I had to give up my flesh to offer immortality. I am not the sole provider, but I like to think that the immortals I raise and elevate to positions of power are a benefit to the world,” Thanatos responded. 

“Cadance, I came for you just like I said I would,” Bucky said, looking down into the crib.

“It is time for you to go,” Thanatos stated. 



 

Drawing in a painful ragged breath, Bucky writhed in the grass. The sun was dawning. Beside him in the grass, a pink alicorn foal squealed and shrieked, not happy about being cold. 

The three sisters looked at Bucky as he recovered from being dead. 

“She is hungry. She is newly born. You should get her inside and allow her to feed,” Clotho said in a gentle voice. “Might I recommend a little milk from all three tribes to get her started?” 

Pulling Cadance close to him, Bucky gently gave her a squeeze and kissed her upon the head. He closed his eye, remembering everything that had happened, and he could still feel the terrible pressure of the steel hook pressing against his pelvis. He shuddered. He wasn’t sure if that pain would ever go away. 

Holding Cadance made everything worth it. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 407
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling the foal at her teats snuffling against her as it nursed, Derpy felt something of a headrush as a flood of prolactin and oxytocin were released through her body, creating the beginning of a bond between her and the foal that she would soon call her own. The grey mare looked at her husband, who had said very little since his return, he was now wrapped in a blanket and being fawned over by Bon Bon. Turning her head, she looked at the strange unicorn, the earth pony, and the zebra sitting in her living room. The big white stallion had politely departed. 

“I don’t understand what just happened,” Berry Punch said in a low confused voice, looking around the room at the various ponies who were sitting around and appearing to be just as confused as she was. 

“Celestia figured out how to raise a pony into being a minor alicorn. She did so with Twilight and Cadance. It takes considerably more when one takes the next step into immortality,” the zebra said, explaining nothing of consequence. 

“Bucky, are you okay?” Bon Bon whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

“No… I can still feel the tip of the hook pressing into my bones,” Bucky murmured in reply as Bon Bon continued to try to make him feel better. 

Closing her eyes, Derpy felt an unknown pain go through her heart. Her hind leg twitched as the foal continued to suckle. Opening her eyes, she looked over at her husband. “Will he recover from this?” 

“Love involves sacrifice. The manifestation of her nature into the test required Bucky to endure the very worst sorts of things. Will he recover? That is difficult to say. In many aspects, he has been made stronger. He thought of you, you know, while he was enduring the second trial. It was his family that restored his hope and gave him strength,” the unicorn sister said in a soft voice. 

“A lot of wagers were placed upon that outcome. Most expected your husband to draw upon his vast reserves of rage, of hatred, of that which fuels his dark magic. It is what was expected of him. That he chose love, hope, the gentle things, that was unexpected,” the zebra sister stated, her gaze falling up Bucky and a thoughtful expression settling over her face. “A lot of things lost their wagers.” 

“It would have been easier had he drawn upon his rage and his hatred. He would have been out of there sooner and probably would have walked away with no lasting reminders like he has now. After a while… the feeling becomes permanent,” the earth pony sister said. She took a deep breath and let out a sigh. “We have company.” 

A moment later, there was a loud pop outside, the sound of teleportation just outside the front door. Before there was even a knock, Lyra pulled the door open. A white head entered. 

“I felt a powerful disturbance… I was worried that Buckminster might have done something foolish… I… you,” Celestia said when she saw the three sisters. 

“Buckminster has indeed done something foolish,” the unicorn sister replied. 

“Dawn Star…” Bucky gasped in a pained voice. 

“How do you know that name? Tell me, tell me at once this instant!” Celestia demanded, looking around the room. Her eyes fell upon Cadance and she began to stumble forward. “How?”

“Sister, we have much to tell you, if you will listen. Are you ready to finally reconcile? Father turned you against us, are you willing to listen to reason once more? He killed her. It was not some dragon or a few travelers from behind a mirror, those were merely agents. It is exactly as we said it would be. Look upon the letters we have sent you. Did we not say that this would happen?” the unicorn sister said in a soft voice. 

“I want to know everything that has happened… I want to know why Buckminster knows my name… I am ready to listen,” Celestia said, bowing her head. She dropped down to the floor beside Derpy and laid close to the nursing mare. 

“We understand why you turned upon us… you wanted to appease him. You hoped that by getting in his good graces he would turn away and spare us all. But make no mistake, it was he that killed what you have raised into the light,” the earth pony said in a soft but firm voice. 

“He is actively undoing the effort you have expended and the work you have done all while he whispers promise of love and fairness to you if you will only do his will. Twilight was supposed to have been the first to fall, sent to her death by you, and then Cadance, thus removing any credible threat that War had. Buckminster has thwarted both of these deaths with our help,” the zebra said, looking at Celestia. 

“I have made mistakes,” Celestia said as she lowered her head and drew near Cadance. “it is very hard to resist him. He… he does things to my mind.” Moving hesitantly, Celestia nuzzled the soft pink foal and then jerked her head back when Derpy whickered. “I am sorry if I am intruding upon something private,” she apologised. 

Stretching out her neck, Derpy softly nuzzled Celestia upon her neck to let her know that everything was alright. 

“We have discovered that our father’s treachery goes farther than we all previously believed. He has whispered in the ear of the one called the Night Stallion, an alicorn from a dead world. Father is hedging his bets. If Buckminster will not destroy this world, father believes he might have found a replacement with the Night Stallion,” the earth pony sister said in a soft but angry voice. 

“Even while father whispers sweet words in your ear on how much he loves you and how precious you are to him, he is busy plotting your murder with those who would destroy this world,” the unicorn sister revealed in acidic tones. “Father knows how to undo you… rest assured, you can die.” 

“Please, sisters, I beg for your mercy and forgiveness, please, tell me everything. I am willing to listen… I want to know,” Celestia pleaded in wounded tones. “Is there some hope of saving my subjects?” 



 

“...and so Buckminster will remain her guardian. If some of the agents that father has secured try anything, they will be moving against Father’s own creation of War,” the unicorn sister said to a very troubled looking Celestia. “We all know what happens if one moves against War. It is never pretty. War takes things personally… War has issues with those who would dare bring conflict against him, his family, or those he loves.” 

Looking down upon the now sleeping Cadance, Celestia drew in a deep breath and tried to internalise everything she had just been told. Her eyes moved towards Bucky, who was laying in a mostly asleep stupour. He knew. Knowing that he knew made Celestia feel a terrible pain. He had seen. She felt a piercing pain in her own side as she looked at him, thinking of Clotho’s words, knowing that Bucky knew the hopeless horror of the hook, being left to hang like some common animal being slaughtered by a sadistic butcher, over and over, an endless nightmare of castration and evisceration. Over a decade he endured down there, Celestia thought to herself. He did not break, somehow he held on to his hope. She shivered, thinking about how once each day Bucky had been ritualistically slaughtered, and the torture had lasted for over ten years in Tartarus time. 

“I feel sick,” Celestia announced, suddenly rising to her hooves. She stumbled and staggered out of the living room, smacked into the wall, and then went careening down the hallway towards the bathroom. 



 

“Sisters, please forgive me,” Celestia said, bowing her head. 

“There is nothing to forgive. We have never stopped loving you,” Atropos replied. 

“He stood by you, you know. He could do nothing to save you, but he stood by you the entire time. He never flinched. He never faltered. He stood near you during those final terrible moments. He watched the light fade from both of your eyes, knowing that he could do nothing to save you or comfort you. Sister, please, do not cry, these words are not to hurt you, but I offer them as evidence of his devotion. You have inspired his love and deepest affections. Were he not so willing to obediently follow you and protect you, he might have turned away and all would have been lost,” Clotho said to Celestia. 

“Take these events as evidence that you have done something right,” said Lachesis in a soft loving voice. 

“I will try to make amends for what I have done,” Celestia promised, sniffling, a snot bubble protruding from her nose in a very un-princesslike manner. 

“Prepare your defenses. He will make an attempt upon Twilight Sparkle, make no mistake. Events and coincidences will conspire against her. Twilight Sparkle is the only one who can strike down the Night Stallion. The Night Stallion is the one foe that War has no chance of defeating, even if he ascends and breaks his vows, the Night Stallion still might win. The Night Stallion is the unstoppable enemy. Only Twilight Sparkle will have the means to put an end to him. Magic is the ultimate trump card. It can overcome coincidences, defy probability, and overcome impossible statistical odds,” Atropos said, offering a warning to her sister. 

“Tell Luna everything. Explain everything. Spare no detail. She must know,” Clotho commanded, her tone gentle. 

“I have to know… if Twilight Sparkle dies… if she dies like Cadance did, if she dies for the sake of her friends, her magic, will she ascend?” Celestia questioned, looking apprehensive and hurt, her eyes filled with a terrible pain. 

“Somepony will have to endure fetching her. But yes, she holds that potential and we have seen it as one of her possible ends,” Atropos answered, her eyes narrowing. 

“Would you send Buckminster after her as well?” Clotho inquired, raising her eyebrow. “He would go willingly you know, he would never question his duty. For all of our brother’s good qualities, he is a simple minded dullard.” 

“She is very much like a daughter to me… I would go after her myself,” Celestia whispered, looking Clotho in the eye. 



 

Unable to stop the steady trickle of tears, Celestia watched over Bucky as he slept, a small pink foal curled up at his side. With each whimper he made in his sleep, Celestia felt her whole body jerk, painful spasms that make her whole body tense up. She watched as Derpy paced back and forth through the living room, guarding her husband’s body as he slumbered upon the sofa where he had been placed. 

The Fates were gone, having quietly slipped away. 

“I couldn’t think of a better father or protector,” Celestia whispered in a voice as soft as a breeze through flowers. “Or better mothers. Cadance will grow strong. The love she gets from you will make her powerful.” 

“Good,” Derpy murmured, her wings fluttering as she paced in agitation. 

“I do not know how to even begin… to tell Shining Armor. He is going to be crushed. He has lost Cadance and his foals,” Celestia whispered sadly. 

“He still has Cadance,” Berry Punch whispered in reply. 

“Shining Armor will almost be fifty when Cadance turns twenty. At some point, Cadance will regain an adult body, but she will stop aging. This is going to hurt him so much. I… I…” Celestia fell silent, her whispered words dying upon her lips. 

“Love will find a way?" Berry Punch said in a low voice, looking hopeful. 

“Perhaps,” Celestia acknowledged in a faint breathy utterance. “I need to go home. I need to be with Tourmaline.” 

“Go be with the rest of your family. The family you have here will await your return,” Berry Punch whispered, offering a smile to Celestia. 

“Thank you… that means more than you realise,” Celestia responded, closing her eyes and wiping them with her wings. “Please, make sure that Buckminster gets all of the love and attention he can stand. He deserves it. I know what he has suffered through. There are no words to explain it. Time runs differently in Tartarus. He has known a suffering that mortals only know at the end of their lives, when punishment is due. There are going to be more scars.” 

“You’ve been upon the butcher’s hook, haven’t you?” Berry Punch inquired, her expression darkening and her eyes narrowing. 

Her lips pulling back in a rictus of pain, Celestia nodded. “Yes. Once. I had to go into Tartarus and retrieve something. I have passed through the three archways. The first test is different for each and every being that passes through. They must endure a terrible truth, something that will test their conviction, their will, their devotion, they must see something terrible through until its completion. Some event, or a task, something harrowing. The second test is always facing hopelessness. Luna and I both have endured that test. It shames me to admit that Luna pulled herself free before I did, but she also succumbed to her darker nature for strength. She freed herself through rage and resentment.” 

“And what of the third test?” Berry Punch asked, looking curious. 

Celestia paused, thinking back to the guardian spirit that had posed as a demon to ask her what she might give in theory. She took a deep breath. “I said I would be willing to sacrifice all I had, including my sister, whom I love,” Celestia admitted in a hitching voice. She silently thought of her sister’s fall into darkness, becoming Nightmare Moon, and the long thousand years of waiting. 

“I can’t imagine myself in that situation,” Berry Punch muttered, her ears drooping. 
	
> Chapter 408
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The great hall was filled with the Stable of Representatives and a select audience of ponies chosen for this historic event. The air was filled with a subdued hopefulness, tragedy had happened, hope had been restored, and now this long awaited event was finally happening. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle approached the podium where she was about to give her address, her movements a little slow and jerky as she drew near. Twilight Sparkle, now tall, long, and gangly, was still trying to become accustomed to her new body. 

At the podium, she turned to look out at the crowd, seeing the faces of those she knew, those she loved, those she trusted, and those who were going to do all of the hard work required to make this work. Ninety ponies to begin the process of creating a government that will rule the day to day goings on of Equestria. She saw the faces of her parents and of her brother Shining Armor. 

“Um, hello. Well, that was quite an opening ceremony. You’re probably wondering about the geas spell that I cast upon the stable members. I can summarise that a bit, for a full list please go to any Crown funded building and request a list, you can find them in any library or post office. The geas is there to protect the public trust. A Stable member cannot lie, cannot receive money in exchange for political favours, cannot intentionally mislead, misdirect, or otherwise harbour dishonest thoughts, motivations, or intentions. The geas compels them to do their job, honestly and earnestly, to serve the public trust and the good of the nation. These ponies voluntarily took the oath of office and willingly submitted to the geas. Nopony was coerced or otherwise forced. And thankfully, nopony backed out at the last minute,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, addressing the crowd. 

Waiting patiently, Princess Twilight Sparkle waited for the sounds of applause to die down before she began again, and she nervously licked her lips. Her wings twitched at her sides and Twilight felt a feeling of gut churning fear made her insides clench, her stomach spasming and guts gurgling. 

“Work will begin soon upon the Stable House, a building dedicated for our Stable of Representatives. Some of the now empty land here in Canterlot will be put to good use. The Stable House will be a public building where a pony can come to watch the workings of our government, have a voice, address the Stable of Representatives, and a large museum and public library is planned within the structure as well. Within that building all ponies will be seen as equals, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns all coming together for the greater good,” Princess Twilight Sparkle continued, her voice cracking into a bit of a squeak at times. 

Over the roar of applause, a lone voice could barely be heard as a small green figure darted towards the stage, a spotlight quickly homing in on the figure as it ran. 

“Slippy! You little wiggleworm!” Rainbow Dash shouted as one of her foals took to the stage, running up to her other mother. 

Glass Slipper, running across the stage, bolted for Twilight Sparkle. “Mommy!” she cried out as she crashed into her mother’s legs and then squeezed tightly, hugging her mother’s foreleg and rubbing her cheek against it. 

“Hello Glass Slipper,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said as she scooped the foal up and set Glass Slipper upon her back. 

“You sounded scared, so I came to rescue you. I just rescued a princess,” Glass Slipper explained, her voice amplifying through the microphone. 

The crowd roared, cheering for the foal that had just rescued a princess. Hooves clopped together, whistles filled the hall, and the overwhelming feeling of good cheer flooded the room. 

“To be honest, I was a little scared. Crowds have always made me nervous,” Twilight confessed as the sound died down. She cleared her throat and then felt a little better as she felt two little legs hug her neck. “Speaking as a mother, as a wife, as a mare, as an equine, I feel that we have taken a great step ahead for our nation. Our Crowned Confederacy is a bold move towards a bright new future. My littlest foal, Glass Slipper, she will grow up in a different world than I did. She will grow up only knowing the tyranny of the Noble Houses as a chapter in a history book. It will be her generation that will be responsible for the creation of this new future,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, tossing out her speech and making stuff up as she went, feeling the warmth of the foal she loved so much against her. She felt warm tickly tingles as Glass Slipper breathed on her neck and ruffled her mane. 

“Between mare and equine, you forgot sexpot!” a raspy voice shouted from the front row. 

Glaring down at Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle felt her cheeks suddenly burning with embarrassment and a bit of arousal. Twilight blinked several times, her ears swiveling forward as she continued to look at Rainbow Dash, the source of her embarrassment. Swallowing, Twilight realised that she had to keep talking for at least a few more minutes. 

“We are going to make a lot of mistakes. Please be forgiving of those who work tirelessly to serve you and protect your interests. We’re probably going to make some awful mistakes as we try to figure out what to do first, then what to do next, and how to correct the mistakes that we make as we try to fix those mistakes,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said and then let out a nervous laugh. 

This time, the laughter from the crowd was subdued. 

“Recently, we were struck with a hurricane and then tragedy. We thought we lost the Crystal Empress. Our nation’s most devoted and dutiful protector had to go to Tartarus to fetch her, and she is now like the Royal Pony Sisters, an immortal who will defend and serve the great nation of Equestria. Buckminster is one of many protectors and I would like for all of us to spend a quiet moment offering thanks to those who serve us. I would also like for you to think about our first big issue that we are facing as a nation, the one question that remains in the papers. Should mares be allowed to serve in active combat roles in the guard? When we hold the first assembly tomorrow, this will be the first item brought up for discussion and we have a number of speakers on both sides of the issue. I ask that everypony that can attend to be there tomorrow when we hold the first assembly,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, still nervous about addressing the crowd, but feeling a little better about it now that she had Glass Slipper with her. 



 

Tucked away into the corner of the room, Bucky held his well protected position. Ripple’s Raptors were all around him, as was Lugus, Sunset Shimmer paced about nervously, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks were sitting together, and Lyra sat on the floor with Cadance, who was laying upon a blanket, wearing a little yellow flannel onesie. Derpy also sat on the floor, smiling, and occasionally waving at a pony that had stopped and stared.

“No flash photography!” Gofannon the griffon shouted as he saw a camera being readied. 

A tall figure pushed through the crowd, the ponies stepping aside as she drew near. Princess Celestia had a worried smile upon her face as she approached. She waded through the crowd of ponies only half her size, her eyes only seeing one pony as she approached. 

“How is my niece?” Celestia inquired, looking around the group camped in the corner. 

“She is holding up well. We had to take Harper and Peekaboo off to our private room. The crowds were giving them fits,” Derpy answered, looking up at Celestia. “Cadance wasn’t happy about losing her siblings, but she’s quieted down.” 

Turning to look at Bucky, Celestia’s brow furrowed. “You look unwell,” she stated, taking a step towards Bucky. Her ears perked forwards and her nostrils flared. 

“I still feel it,” Bucky said in a low voice. “The hook I mean,” he clarified. 

“I am sorry Bucky,” Celestia replied in a gentle voice. 

Shifting his weight slightly, Bucky looked up at Celestia. “I don’t mind really. I regret nothing,” he said in a low soft voice. 

“As soon as Shining Armor is done speaking with our friends from Mustangia, I do believe he will be by to say hello to Cadance. Also, you need to stop avoiding the Crystal Empire delegation. They just want to speak to you. They know that you are not Sombra and they just want to get to know you,” Celestia said as she lowered her head to look at Bucky at eye level. 

“I told you so Bucky,” Derpy said, shaking her head softly. 

“It feels too awkward… Hi, I’m the recognised heir of the necromancer tyrant that enslaved you and cursed your nation for one thousand years,” Bucky grumbled as he gave a sour look to Derpy. 

“You are raising their Empress,” Celestia stated as she held back a smile. “You change her little diapers and she spits up on you. The delegation just wants to have a few words with you,” she said, unable to hold in her teasing tone. 

“Where is Tourmaline?” Bucky asked, looking around. 

“Raven took her off to your room to spend time with your foals,” Celestia answered. 

“Where is Twilight? Shouldn’t she be working the floor?” Bucky questioned. 

Clearing her throat, Celestia blushed faintly. “I do believe that Twilight Sparkle dragged Rainbow Dash off to a private room to punish her for the ‘sexpot’ comment.” 

“Eeeeeeugh,” Derpy grunted, her nostrils crinkling. “Somepony made a stinkie.” 

“Code brown!” Lyra announced, jerking her head away from Cadance. “Raptors, we have a code brown!” 

Rolling his eyes, Lugus sat up on his haunches, unfurled a blanket, spread his forelegs wide, and then held the blanket up to shield Cadance from public view. 

“Blech! Cadance!” Celestia cried, stepping back. 

“Ugh, it’s yellowish green!” Lyra cried from behind the blanket that was being used as a curtain. “It’s eye watering!” 

“Sort of looks like pistachio pudding mixed with cottage cheese and mustard,” Derpy casually remarked. “Harper had different poos. Cadance is an enthusiastic eater, she swallows more air, that is what makes these poos look so frothy,” she explained to Lyra. 

Her eyes narrowing, Celestia looked concerned. “Swallowing a lot of air leads to a lot of excessive flatulence.” 

“Oh we know… trust us, we know,” Bucky said, shuddering with disgust. 

“Oh no… she wasn’t done… we have a containment breach!” Lyra cried in panic. 

“What is going on behind that blanket?” Celestia questioned. 

“Right now I wish I did not have nostrils,” Lugus announced. 

“We’re in trouble!” Lyra warned. 

“Oh dear,” Celestia gasped. 

“Yuck, it is all over the blanket,” Derpy muttered. She sighed a patient motherly sigh. “Just keep going Cadance. Let it all out. That’s my good girl.” 

“It’s got bubbles in it,” Lyra said from behind the blanket. 

“We need to get Cadance in the tub. There’s no two ways about it,” Derpy announced.  

“And here comes Shining Armor,” Celestia announced. “I will distract him for as long as I can. Take Cadance and get her cleaned up,” the alicorn commanded. 



 

His eyes brimming with tears, Shining Armor offered a weak smile to the foal being held in the wash basin. “Hi there Cady Bug,” he greeted in a wavering voice. Reaching up his right foreleg, he swiped at his right eye with his fetlock and then slowly placed his hoof back down upon the ground. 

“She likes baths,” Derpy said in a low comforting voice.

“She always liked bathing. It was where she did most of her thinking. In the tub. Usually while playing naval commander. She had a fleet of boats,” Shining Armor murmured, spilling out a personal and unknown detail about Cadance’s private life. “She always made these ridiculous explosion sounds… she made them one way and I made them another and we used to tease each other about being wrong.” 

“When she gets older, we’ll get her a few boats,” Derpy promised. 

“I still have her boats,” Shining Armor whispered. “We don’t even know if she will remember. She’s Cadance, but she might not be the Cadance we know.” 

“I’m sorry Shining Armor,” Derpy said, casting a glance at Lyra. 

“I’m not,” Shining Armor said in a strained voice. “I’m happy for her. She’s alive. She will be young and beautiful forever.” The stallion offered a grim smile to the foal in the wash basin and his ears drooped down to the sides of his face. “She has a stuffed animal that Twilight gave to her. I’ll see that you get it. She… she… she loved toys. She was a big foal really. She loved toys and loved playing on the playground. I think she enjoyed being a foalsitter just so she had an excuse to play and look silly.” 

“Our door is always open Shining Armor. Come and visit us whenever you get a chance,” Bucky offered, unable to look at Shining Armor and looking down at the floor instead. 

“Princess Luna says that we enter a new era and now we have a new immortal alicorn to mark the occasion. She says that Cadance will aid the new push towards global unity,” Shining Armor said, sounding distracted and looking sorrowful as he stared at Cadance. 

Unconcerned about global unity, Cadance giggled as she farted in the tub. 
	
	
> Chapter 409
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know, you told me that all I’d need to worry about was feeding one end and wiping the other. This is not what I signed on for,” Bucky grumbled as he tried to clean Harper. 

“You are currently wiping the other end,” Derpy said, not looking at Bucky, but instead at Cadance, who was currently looking around the room curiously. 

“I am scrubbing partially digested bits of oatmeal out of Harper’s filly bits… I am picking half digested oats out of my daughter’s labia. I can’t even begin to describe how I feel right now. You never warned me about this,” Bucky retorted, shaking his head in revulsion. 

“She is a filly… of course she has filly bits. And they have to be cleaned. Now be a good daddy and look after your little girl. She holds still for you,” Derpy commanded, one eyebrow raising. 

“But this is really uncomfortable,” Bucky whined, looking away from his task. 

“She’s just now getting used to solid foods… she has really messy diapers,” Lyra said as she stuffed a pacifier into Bucky’s mouth with a wet sounding pop. 

Squeezing her eyes shut, Derpy threw back her head and laughed after she watched Bucky attempt to suckle on the pacifier, a very confused look upon his face. The grey mare guffawed, getting a chance to let everything out after what had been a very trying time. 

“No father wants to acknowledge that their daughters have sexual organs. They can’t live with the idea that at some point, those sexual organs are going to be used for their intended purpose,” Berry Punch announced, watching as Bucky’s suckling upon the pacifier intensified during her words. “Somepony get that out of his mouth, he’s enjoying it too much.” 

With a another wet sounding pop, Lyra yanked the pacifier out of Bucky’s mouth. 

“My paci!” Bucky cried out in protest. “Give it back!” he added, his lip protruding in lopsided pout as one half of his face became quite sad. 

Looking very disturbed, Lyra stared at Bucky with narrowed eyes. 

“Hey, you’re the one who gave me the pacifier,” Bucky said as he resumed scrubbing. 

“You were acting like a foal,” Lyra stated, shaking her head. 

“I’m trying to scrub bits of oatmeal from Harper’s sexual organs and I find it very awkward. Imagine trying to scrub a little colt’s-” 

“Weewee?” Derpy interrupted, trying to contain her giggles. “I have. I’ve foalsitted a few little colts that had to be cleaned up. There is a little spot you have to learn how to tickle to make the retractor penis muscle relax so the penis will unsheathe so you can clean around in there. If you don’t, the urine will chafe the skin and cause all kinds of problems,” the grey mare said in a knowing voice. 

“Plus you have to clean along the inside of the sheath to deal with smegma,” Bon Bon casually remarked. “If they don’t get a proper cleaning they can get a sheath bean.” 

Shuddering, Bucky closed his eye and tried to ignore the current conversation. 

“I don’t understand. You’ve killed a crystal lich. You’ve faced a legion of shadow wolves. You’ve faced all manner of horror and you just went to Tartarus where you spent over a decade hanging on a hook just so you could rescue Cadance,” Lyra said, blinking at Bucky in confusion. 

“No good and decent father wants anything to do with his daughter’s girl parts! It’s a stallion thing!” Bucky retorted, looking up at the ceiling as he continued to scrub Harper. “And you need to stop asking Celestia questions about the Butcher’s Hook. It’s making us both uncomfortable!” 

“I’m sorry! I love my husband and I want to understand what the pacifier loving filly vagina fearing doofus went through because he seems to be suffering and wakes up screaming from his sleep,” Lyra responded. 

“Lyra, ease off,” Derpy warned. 

Looking down, Bucky did a careful and thorough inspection, looking for debris and things that shouldn’t be there. He smiled down at Harper, who looked up at him with wide trusting eyes. He thought about the defilement of the alicorns and how Dawn Star and Evening Star had suffered. He gently rubbed Harper’s belly with his hoof, making the foal giggle as he reflected upon the end of the alicorns. 

“There! He’s doing it again! He’s remembering something horrible and it is making him sad,” Lyra said, pointing with her hoof. Reaching up, she brushed her mane out of her eyes and looked around the room. “I know you all saw that.” 

“We did,” Derpy acknowledged. 

Feeling every eye in the room upon him, Bucky cringed and focused on Harper. He took a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say, something witty, anything, but there were no words. No clever response for Lyra. No soft words of reassurance to let everypony know that he was okay. His side ached dully and he could feel pressure on the inside of his pelvis pressing in on him as he sat there trying to think of what to say. 

“Bucky has his burdens to endure and we have ours. When he gets like this we have to carry him along. Celestia said he was going to need plenty of love and attention. In this instance, we have to focus on what we’ve gained rather than what we’ve lost,” Bon Bon said in a reassuring voice. 

“I want to be home. We left Thistle in the lake so she could look after herself while we’re here in Canterlot to be with Rising Star. I can’t do this. I know that Celestia wants Cadance here so ponies can see she is okay and that she lives, but I can’t keep doing this. I want to go home where it is quiet. I’m not well on the inside. I want to be in my own kitchen, or my library, or in my own bed closing my eye and shutting the world out,” Bucky admitted as he stared down at Harper, who was smiling up at him and gurgling gleefully. 



 

“I wish Sparky was here,” Loch Skimmer said in a disappointed voice. 

Turning to look at her sister, Ripple prodded Loch Skimmer with her hoof. “Sparkler is always on duty. Always. As long as she draws breath, she says that she is on duty. Ponyville does not have enough police officers. So it is your duty to be here for Rising Star.” 

“Since when did you get to be so grown up little sister?” Loch Skimmer said as she grinned at Ripple. “I’m proud of you, you know that?” 

Blushing, Ripple looked away, staring down at her front hooves. “Aw… I’m just trying to do the right thing. Ain’t nothing to be proud of.” Kicking one front hoof with the other, Ripple bashfully allowed her mane to fall down over her eyes. 

“So when do you plan to seal the deal with Bittersweet?” Loch Skimmer questioned in a low voice, prodding into her sibling’s love life in the way that only a sister could. 

“Loch!” Ripple shouted, looking up at her sister once more. “That’s private. Personal. I’m in no hurry to do anything.” 

Shaking her head, Loch Skimmer clucked her tongue. “You shouldn’t lie to your sister.” 

“Who said I’m lying?” Ripple said, becoming defensive. 

Loch Skimmer snorted. “Ripple, I know that your rubbing one out almost on a daily basis. I know for certain that you did it in the bedroom the other day when you thought we were all sleeping. The thrill of getting caught makes the moment that much sweeter, doesn’t it?” 

Ripple, aghast, glared daggers at her sister. “Just because I’m trying to figure out how stuff works down there doesn’t mean that I am in a hurry to seal the deal as you put it.” 

Looking apologetic, Loch Skimmer nodded. “You’re right. That wasn’t fair of me to assume,” the filly admitted. Loch Skimmer stared at her sister Ripple’s protruding lower lip. “I’m sorry… really.” 

“How is your dock piercing?” Ripple asked, changing the subject. 

“Healing. When I lay on my back and wiggle my hindquarters around, it feels really good when my dock rubs on the bed. I can almost work myself up to a good case of the shudders just by doing that,” Loch Skimmer replied in her usual blunt fashion. 

“Oh ew… that’s more than I wanted to know!” Ripple cried out in disgust. 



 

“Representative Rising Star… a promising rookie.” 

“Representative Spitfire, I don’t think we’ve met face to face yet,” Rising Star said politely. 

“Your father, the Lord of Winter, wanted me to talk to you. Become chummy. Try and be friends. I met him recently in Baltimare. I like him. Sure, his face could curdle water, but I like him,” Spitfire said, being brazen as always. 

Scowling, Rising Star stepped away from Spitfire. 

“Oh… the face comment. You’ll have to forgive me. I’m like that. Your father likes that about me I think,” Spitfire said as she pulled her sunglasses down and peered at Rising Star over the top of the frames. 

“Yes… well… I was just on my way to go and talk with my two new siblings, Singsong and Brass Note,” Rising Star said in a polite voice, each word carefully spoken with good and proper diction. Mister Chips had been giving him lessons in appearing to be erudite and it showed. 

“Look… I’m trying to gather supporters. You… you are service oriented. Pro-military. Your wife Sparkler Doo Hooves founded the Ponyville Police Department. Wife number two, Loch Skimmer, she does medical airlifting and she was a damn impressive flier in Baltimare. I’ve never seen ANYPONY fly as steadily as she does in high winds carrying a load. Wife number three, Ripple, is a Dragoon. She is a filly serving in the armed forces through a grey area, acting as the squire of one Lugus the griffon, who is a knight. Ripple is a Squire Cornet, First Class. I’ve heard scary stories about Ripple during my investigations so I could learn all about her. You married the three most amazing wives a young colt like you could ask for,” Spitfire said, spilling her guts out before Rising Star. 

“You want an ally for your agenda. You already have one in me,” Rising Star stated in response, now studying Spitfire carefully. 

“And you… you’re a fey unicorn smith who has a minor problem smelling like rotten eggs while being drop dead sexy. Word has it that you are being trained in your craft by one of the fey demon lords of Tartarus and you’re being trained to make moon-silver, something only the fey can make-” 

“Who told you that?” Rising Star snapped. 

“I worked very hard to learn everything I could about you,” Spitfire said in a low serious voice. “I sunk a small fortune into making sure that I knew everything relevant about you.” 

“You spied on me!” Rising Star growled, the stench of rotten eggs intensifying. 

“Yes I did!” Spitfire announced, being utterly honest. “First rule of politics rookie… get to know your friends and your foes. I want you as a friend. We’re on the same side. Now, about that moon-silver, you are about to change the face of warfare with an ultralight metal that is impossibly strong and is completely non magical so it can’t be disenchanted like featherlight steel can be. I want that armor around mares and I want those mares on the front lines kicking plot and showing the world what Equestrian mares are made of.” 

Baring his fangs, Rising Star scowled. He gave Spitfire a black look as his long thin tail whipped around his hind legs. “You want to see a mare made out of exceptional stuff, you gotta look on the Shetland Isles,” he said in an irritated voice. 

“I already am rookie… I have my talent scouts out in the Shetlands right now looking for mares and stallions that have the right sort of stuff. I’ve done my homework, remember? Ripple and Loch Skimmer both come from the Shetlands,” Spitfire responded, offering up half a smile to Rising Star. 

“Maybe we got off on the wrong hoof. But if you want my help, I want a favour from you,” Rising Star demanded. 

“No bribes rookie… don’t do anything that’ll mess with our geas,” Spitfire warned. 

“No, nothing like that. I want Wonderbolt autographs for Singsong and Brass Note. Those two had a rough go at life and they deserve something to make them feel special,” Rising Star explained in a slow careful voice. 

“I can do that… I’ll get autographs from everypony for your siblings. Want some tickets? I’m allowed to give those away, I asked Twilight Sparkle. She said it would be good for public relations,” Spitfire replied as she pushed her sunglasses back up on her nasal bridge. 
	
> Chapter 410
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rising Star looked around the great hall, taking in the very first assembly. The room was filled with emotions of all kinds… anger, happiness, frustration, it was visible on every face. Great words were being said by well spoken orators. The debate on mares in the military was in full swing. 

His own contribution had been brief, but pivotal. After a long speech condemning the service of mares, a speech that stated in no uncertain terms that this would threaten society and potentially destroy Equestria. Mares were needed at home to look after foals and families. Mares were needed as teachers, as nurses, a mare’s gentle nature was a cornerstone in the foundation of society for all of the jobs that required a gentle touch. But the focus had been the destruction of the family as Equestria knew it. 

Saying each word oh so carefully, Rising Star had pointed out that with a good functioning herd marriage, families could survive and thrive with a few mares serving in the guard and saving the world, that foals could be raised in a loving large family, getting all of the love and attention they needed from mares that did not feel a need to join the guard and prove themselves. Rising Star had also pointed out at the end of his own impassioned defense how insulting the speaker’s words were for all of the males who were teachers, nurses, those males that served in the ‘gentle’ professions that were the cornerstone in the foundation of society, and Rising Star publicly thanked his own tutor, Mister Toffee Chips for being such a kind, loving, and ‘gentle’ educator. 

The great hall had actually gone silent after Rising Star had spoke his piece, and then like distant thunder, the earth ponies exploded into applause, praising Rising Star for championing herd marriage. Some of the pegasi and only a few of the unicorns had joined in with the riotous applause, the screaming, the shouting, and the hooting. It carried on for so long at Princess Twilight Sparkle had to threaten suspending the assembly if the hall did not quiet down. 

Afterwards, it was easy to see where the chips fell when it came down to the herd marriage issue. Rising Star could not help but think of the long parade through Manehatten when they had been shipped off to the Shetlands, the press and the roar of the crowd, how the earth ponies had seen them as their champions. 

After enduring the packed great hall for many hours, Rising Star smiled as Spitfire made ready to make her speech. Guards were made ready at the entrances and quite a number filed into the hall, forming a protective phalanx around the brazen mare. Anonymous threats had been made already, warnings, promises of violence if Spitfire was allowed to speak. 

The entire room tensed as Spitfire approached the microphone… 



 

“...and so, in conclusion, you say we are too weak to serve, yet we are strong enough to endure being brutally raped and then be told to just get over it and move on with our lives, be a good strong mare and show some spine. We are too weak to serve but we are strong enough to be rutted silly, kept at home and used as a household appliance, and continually spit out foals the size of a watermelon out of a hole the size of a grape. We are told to quit whining about our plight as females, to become strong, to show conviction and courage, to just suck it up, as a means to deal with all of the unfairness, but we are continuously denied the very positions in society that would allow us to show that we have quit whining about our plight, that we are strong, that would allow us to show conviction and courage, and would allow us to combat the unfairness… and to those of you who claim that mares in the service would be a target for rape, I say this to you: FECK OFF YOU PIG FACED BASTARDS! The mares aren’t bringing this upon themselves, we’re not begging for it, we are not showing a secret desire to be put in our place and gangbanged silly, we are not putting ourselves into a position of getting what we deserve! This is a sign that the males in our society need to show some restraint and behave themselves. It is time for actual punishment for rape, something other than a little slap on the fetlock. We need ponies to be held accountable for what they do! I say no more! No more blaming the mares just because some stupid male has to stick his dick into something to establish dominance to compensate for feeling like a minority. We have numbers on our side and the Noble Houses are no more! Sisters, TO ARMS! Say it with me, NO MORE!” 



 

“Well, that went pretty much as I expected,” Rising Star said in a low voice as he eased himself down upon a sofa. His head ached and his muscles twitched fitfully from his frazzled nerves. Try as he might, he could not stop trembling. 

Coming over to the couch, Loch Skimmer gave Rising Star a wet smooch on his nasal bridge. “You did good… I’m gonna reward you so hard later that you ain’t gonna walk right for a week,” she whispered in a low voice. 

For a brief moment, Rising Star pondered how much Loch Skimmer’s speech had changed since coming to the mainland and being exposed to other ponies. 

“The first assembly ended in a full blown riot led by earth pony mares and pegasi rising up against their oppressors… that is how some idiot is going to write that headline,” Ripple muttered. 

“The traditionalist high command just had the snot beat out of them by a group of angry mares… I wonder how that feels,” Loch Skimmer mused, looking thoughtful as she flopped over onto the couch with Rising Star. 

“This is a very serious issue,” Bucky said in a subdued voice. 

“Things can be serious but still be funny and laughed at,” Loch Skimmer stated, looking at her father carefully. 

“The high command is going to use this as an example that mares are too ruled by emotion and are unfit to serve. This is not going to help the issue at all,” Bucky patiently explained, trying to help Loch Skimmer understand his reasons. 

“But we have a right to be angry! Look at how we’ve been treated,” Loch Skimmer protested, becoming heated and a little angry herself. 

“Hey, I’m on your side… see how easy it is to become emotional over this? This is the very thing they will use as an example, that mares cannot be rational reasonable creatures and are unfit to wear the golden armor,” Bucky said in a calm patient voice, trying to soothe Loch Skimmer. 

“I hate that you’re right,” Loch Skimmer said sulkily, wrapping herself around Rising Star and pouting. She kissed Rising Star once more. “You did good protecting Spitfire from those guards that broke their oath and turned upon the public… I can’t believe that they did that!” 

Grunting, Bucky shrugged. “I can. Clearly the high command and others who want to keep this a colt’s club have gathered loyalists to their cause. You did good Rising Star, heating their armor and burning them, but not killing them.” 

“One of them shouted that he was going to kill Spitfire in the name of the greater good… I had to do something. It got crazy in there. I still can’t tell what actually happened first… the attempt to silence Spitfire or the riot… I think they sort of happened at about the same time, but everything is all jumbled together and confusing and my head hurts,” Rising Star said, closing his eyes and pressing the side of his face against Loch Skimmer. “I still can’t believe that Ripple downed as many of the turned guard as she did.” 

“You were in danger!” Ripple said angrily. 

“Well, Ripple certainly showed that mares can fight,” Loch Skimmer stated, looking at her sister. “Kinda upset that somepony gave my sister a fat lip though.” 

“I’ve had worse,” Ripple grumbled. “My Raptors put up a better fight than those arseholes,” she muttered, now gloating. 

Shaking his head, Bucky heaved a sigh of frustration. “You snapped a guard’s spine. There is probably going to be an inquiry on whether or not you used overwhelming force.” 

“I didn’t mean to punch through his backplate,” Ripple said, looking guiltily at her father. “I didn’t realise the metal would be that flimsy. It was confusing. Everything was coming apart. He was beating another guard that was actually doing his job and trying to protect Spitfire… I… things got confusing… there was so much violence… I-” 

“It’s okay Ripple,” Bucky interrupted, ending Ripple’s stammering. 

“This does not bode well for us. Maybe we’re not meant to rule ourselves,” Rising Star said gloomily. “A part of me is wondering if perhaps the riot was actually started by the high command to prevent the vote from taking place. Is it wrong that I feel this disenfranchised and paranoid?” 

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. Hedge their bets. Make sure that the loyal guards do their bidding while hedging their bets by paying some poor flunkies to make sure that there was some kind of riot. Although Spitfire did a really good job of getting the crowd ready to riot on her own,” Bucky said, sharing his thoughts with his teenage foals. 

“Ripple is no mare… she’s still a filly… when she’s actually a mare I shudder at what she’ll be capable of,” Rising Star remarked, closing his eyes trying to make his headache go away. 

“I was worried about you… I love you… a lot. More than I have to words to explain. You saved me first,” Ripple said, looking down at the floor as her ears drooped. “When the time is right and I’m ready to be a mother I’m probably going to crawl into bed one night and ask you for a favour and ask you to try and be real sweet to me while I’m crying and offering myself to you and I want to keep you alive and whole of body for when that happens.” 

“Okay, daughter is talking about planned tearful romantic sex. Time to go spend time with daughters that can’t talk about sex yet. I’m gonna leave you three alone. Loch Skimmer, try to let Rising Star rest. He has a headache,” Bucky said as he made his way to the door, shuddering as he departed. 



 

“We’re going to pick up again tomorrow and attempt the vote once more,” Twilight Sparkle announced, looking around the room. “The democratic processes will not be stopped.” 

“This is worrisome,” Celestia said, also looking around the room. “I knew there was going to be trouble, but members of my royal guard obeyed the orders of a few rogue elements in the high command. This does not bode well.” 

“My guard remains fanatically loyal,” Luna stated, looking troubled. “I think I would like it if they tried to resist me a little on occasion.” 

“Maybe I am speaking out of place here, but maybe we need to remove the entire high command. Since we do not know who is involved and who is not, perhaps it is time tear down the old command structure and start fresh,” Twilight suggested nervously. 

“To throw away all those years of experience… almost unthinkable,” Luna said, looking frustrated as she spoke. 

“Change is going to require sacrifice. I must confess, my trust has been shaken,” Celestia said, confessing her feelings. The white alicorn looked troubled. “Perhaps Buckminster is correct.” 

“About what?” Luna inquired, cocking her eyebrow roguishly. “I mean, you are always going on about how wrong he is-” 

“Luna, stop teasing,” Celestia interrupted, giving her sister an irritated glance. “Buckminster briefly mentioned to me that the same geas we use on the Stable of Representatives should also be placed on those in the guard.” 

“Look, I was uncomfortable even using the geas on the Representatives… first the Representatives, then the guard, where does it end? Teachers next, to make sure they teach the right things? Society as a whole? We took one extreme step to safeguard our new government and to offer public assurance that the mistakes of the Noble Houses would not be repeated. I can understand that logically, the guard need to be trusted to do the right thing, but we are on a slippery slope here,” Twilight said, her worried mind thinking about Bucky’s plan to pacify the world. 

“We can logically justify using it upon the guard,” Luna stated with a dismissive huff. 

“I could logically justify using it on school teachers, police officers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, judges, magistrates-” 

“We get the point, Twilight,” Celestia said, cutting Twilight off. 

“So what is stopping us? Place the geas upon those who serve the public trust. No more corruption in our society. We need strength right now. We have unseen enemies lurking about and an assassination attempt was made upon the royal family in the Crystal Empire,” Luna said in brusque tones, looking at Twilight with a curious expression. 

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking rather stunned. 

“An attempt was made upon the life of a Representative on the first day of open assembly!” Luna snapped, her wings exploding outwards with a supersonic crack. “I am not even sure I agree with our subjects having self rule! Is this how they repay our trust? I am starting to think a grave mistake was made!” 

“So what now? We make them afraid of their rulers to make them behave? Shall we go out and shout at them in the Royal Canterlot Voice, viciously browbeat them into submission, and have them bow and scrape at our approach, living in fearful servitude?” Twilight questioned. 

Glaring at Twilight, Luna bit her lip and said nothing. 

“I am going to have Raven make an announcement,” Celestia stated. “Effective immediately the entire high command has been dismissed. We will sort this out later and simply deal with the aftermath. I want court martials for those directly responsible. Spare no methods of investigation. I want the trials to be public and highly visible, with full access for the press. No more secret military tribunals behind closed doors. The public has a right to know that justice is upon those that fail to protect them or forsake their duties.” 
	
> Chapter 411
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“No no no… what you need to understand is, that went exactly as I intended,” Spitfire said while looking at Bucky with wide nearly unblinking eyes. Her glasses lay on the table in front of her and she was slouched over in her seat, completely unphased by everything that had happened. 

“Intended?” Bucky asked incredulously, his only eyebrow raising slightly. 

“I knew from a couple of sources that the high command were planning on giving me a savage beating if I challenged them on the floor. They’re all good friends with General Iron Sky, who is no longer in command. So… knowing about it in advance, I delivered the most emotionally charged knee-jerk reaction speech I could think of. I had a team of writers give me an outline and I winged a couple of parts. I went into this ready to take my beating because I know that what I am doing is right. I also knew that those motherplucking bastards wouldn’t be able to resist, they would have to follow through with their threat. So I kinda figured that it was worth taking a beating to make sure they are no longer in command. Only I didn’t get much of a beating, Ripple and Rising Star sorta saved me… which actually went against my plan. I wanted to be beaten up so I could put on a brave face and show the world how strong a mare can be. Except Ripple, a filly, she showed the whole world how strong a mare could be when she severed somepony’s spine after he got a lucky and punched her in the snoot. The murderous look in her eyes chilled my blood by the way… I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but she can be really intimidating,” Spitfire replied, blurting out everything on her mind in one long steady stream of verbosity. 

“Ripple is my sweet loving little filly… I love her a great deal. As her father, I can only see her as my sweet precious harmless little thing,” Bucky said dismissively, taking in everything that Spitfire had revealed. “I will say one thing… my sweet little filly can become a little pouty if you punch her in the face. She worries about being girly you see… she wants to be a prim and proper mare. She wants to be pretty in her own special way.” 

“So I saw… some ponies… you don’t punch them in the face. Or shoot them in the head for that matter,” Spitfire responded as a grin overtook her muzzle. 

“So you knew in advance,” Bucky said, rubbing his neck with his talons. 

“Well, a lot of ponies knew in advance. The anonymous threat was made. Plus, Soarin overheard them discussing the plan while he was taking a dump and having a wank in the officer’s latrine. They figured if it was going to be the end of everything they knew, letting mares have combat roles, they were going to make sure it was the end of my damn good looks,” Spitfire explained, now looking just a tiny bit bored. “Look… Bucky… I was willing to throw myself under the wagon to give other mares a chance. Somepony had to go in and set this bomb off, and somepony had to be hurt. I figured it would be me. Somebody had to get the old guard out of the way.” 

“Well, that certainly happened. Careers have been ended. Lives have been ruined. The upper command structure has been dismantled,” Bucky stated, shaking his head as he spoke. 

“I had a back up plan you know… I had dirty secrets ready to go. Photographs of certain high ranking leaders in compromising positions, like walking out of hotel rooms with mares that are not their wives… or even the occasional underage filly or colt. Paternity records that have been hidden, covered up, and sealed away from the public eye. I have dirt on each and every one of them and I was ready to spill it all if they got cold hooves and decided not to put me in my place during the assembly. So it was going to go down either way,” Spitfire admitted, looking a bit surprised. “Wow, this geas… I just spilled my guts and said the truth on my own without anypony even asking me a question… neat! Now I can be a total bitch and just say I can’t help it, I’m being honest, it’s my geas.” 

Chortling, Bucky could not stop himself from having a bit of laugh. 



 

“I find Spitfire’s confession extremely troubling,” Celestia admitted as she paced to and fro across the room. The big white alicorn looked troubled. “I saw this coming but I had hoped that they would reach retirement age and then things could be rebuilt. There is too much of the old Noble Houses in the current command structure.” 

“At least your decision to have all of them relieved of duty was wise, which means your instincts are worth listening to sister,” said Luna as she poured herself a glass of wine. 

“As we speak, somepony is gathering up and collecting Spitfire’s documentation and blackmail material. She voluntarily gave Bucky the location of said documents and a trusted courier has been sent to retrieve it,” Twilight Sparkle reported. 

“Who, if I might ask?” Celestia inquired. 

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered, turning to watch as Celestia paced the floor. “I sent her along with Lugus and Ripple, just in case. I uh, really don’t trust your guards right now, no offense.” 

“None taken,” Celestia muttered. The alicorn was distracted and somewhat infuriated from the recent events and it was plain to see upon her face. 

“Um… I kinda want to keep Spitfire in office,” Twilight remarked, looking a bit apprehensive as she spoke. “She’s brave. Misguided? Maybe just a tiny bit, but she’s brave, brave enough to make something like this happen just so changes can be made. I do not fully agree with what she has done, but I admire her courage for doing it,” she revealed. 

After gulping down some wine, Luna snorted. “I find what she has done admirable. I would like to see her placed into a position of actual command,” Luna said in a rather belligerent tone, eyeing her sister with a challenging look. 

“Luna, I am not in the mood,” Celestia warned, not looking at her sister. 

“Too bad… Spitfire used superiour intelligence gathering skills. She showed remarkable courage. She was resolute in her course of action. She was organised. There is also the fact that she knew how to motivate and inspire others. The level of planning she has shown to be rid of her enemies is astounding. She has out-thought them at every turn. What have your current commanders done lately?” Luna said, goading her sister with some carefully selected words. 

“You and Buckminster both… smug arrogance and this cocky self assurance. Infuriating!” Celestia responded, struggling to spit the words out while she stood in one place to glare at her sister. “It is easy to see why you two get along.” 

“We are pragmatists, he and I,” Luna remarked, not caring that her sister was glaring at her. She snorted, raised her glass to her lips, and then finished it off in just a few swallows. “When you want something gently nudged you are content to do it yourself. When you want a problem actually dealt with, you send one of us to do your dirty work.” 

“Luna! Stop it! We don’t need the both of you bickering!” Twilight snapped. 

“I included you in the ‘us’ part of my statement Twilight,” Luna snarked as she poured herself another glass of wine. 

“I have had enough,” Celestia said in an annoyed growl. 

Crossing the room swiftly, Celestia pounced upon her sister, knocking the blue alicorn from her chair and pulling her down the floor. The pair struggled for a bit and then Celestia managed to get her foreleg around Luna’s neck, getting her smaller sibling into a headlock. 

Showing no mercy, Celestia gave her sister a hoof noogie while Luna whined in protest. 



 

“It’s nice having friends,” Tourmaline said. The black filly with the soft pink mane was sprawled out on the floor next to a pile of crayons, colouring books, and word game books. Her green framed glasses were low on her nasal bridge. 

“Uh huh,” Dinky replied in a nonverbal grunt as she used a yellow crayon to fill in sunbeams on a sun shining over an apple farm. She too was down upon the floor, laying on her belly, her head hunched over her colouring book. 

“I’m not allowed to go off and play with Scootsie and her older friends,” Glass Slipper said in a pouty voice, her muzzle scrunched and her lower lip protruding as she spoke. “At least Spike plays with me.” 

“That’s because you’re sweet,” Spike said, looking over at the crystal pony foal. 

“You’re awfully quiet Diamond Tiara,” Piña said as she looked at the pink filly staring out the window. 

“I’ve never been in a castle before. This might be normal for you, but this is my first time,” Diamond Tiara replied in a sleepy sounding voice, her half opened eyes drooping. Sitting on the window bench, she leaned her head against the window sill, looking out the window and enjoying the breathtaking view. Far below, Ponyville could be seen. 

“Missing Sentinel?” Piña asked as she climbed up onto the window bench to sit with Diamond Tiara. She leaned against the slightly larger somewhat older earth pony and placed her foreleg around Diamond Tiara’s withers. 

“He has to be a squire. I understand. He’s off meeting important ponies and discussing politics with diplomats from places like Mustangia. And I should be helping him… I should be at his side, but I’m here and I’m drugged and I can barely walk and I keep drooling on myself and I don’t feel good,” Diamond Tiara said, some of her words slurring slightly. “He’s gonna make a great knight someday. The kind of knight that gets mentioned in storybooks.” 

“Those knights in storybooks usually have some important lady that keeps dropping her snot rag,” Dinky said, still colouring, a red crayon now in her magic as she worked on some apples. 

“Dinky! That’s a neckerchief! It is given a token or a favour to your one true love to inspire them into acts of virtue or valour. Not a snot rag!” Piña protested, shaking her hoof at her sister. 

“Because a snot rag is so romantic,” Dinky giggled. 

“Gross,” Spike grunted, watching as Glass Slipper slobbered everywhere as she tried to hold a crayon in her lips. 

“Slippy and I was saved by a knight,” Tourmaline said in a low voice. 

“We sure was,” Glass Slipper remarked. 

“Sentinel is going to grow up and be like his daddy,” Diamond Tiara mumbled, still staring out the window. “And I’ll give him my snot rag so he’ll be inspired to do good deeds. I will be his lady fair.” 

Rolling her eyes, Piña heaved a sigh of disgust but said nothing, and then she leaned a little more on Diamond Tiara, trying to make her friend feel better. Sometimes it was nice to just to cuddle up close and be close to somepony. As she gave Diamond Tiara a squeeze, she felt her friend’s stomach gurgle and felt Diamond Tiara’s whole body tense up for a moment. 

“It hurts,” Diamond Tiara whimpered. 

“I know,” Piña said in her friend’s ear. “Wanna lay down?” 

“No,” Diamond Tiara said, shaking her head slowly. 

“We’ll just sit here and keep looking out the window together,” Piña said in a soft voice. 

Getting up off of the floor, Spike waddled across the room, climbed up onto the window bench, settled in beside Piña, and then wrapped his foreleg around the two fillies, giving them both a squeeze. holding them close, and squeezing Piña against him. 

Tourmaline, seeing another pony that she was only starting to know in a lot of pain, felt a sick sense of worry. Lately, she’d been more than a little drained trying to provide enough spit to make ponies feel better. She knew from hearing her auntie talk that there were three sick foals in Ponyville that desperately needed healing, Shining Armor had nearly died and she had coughed up everything she had to try and make enough spit to save him. She could only cough up small amounts at a time. 
	
> Chapter 412
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Greetings everypony. Today, we are going to try this again. You’ve been very well behaved so far today and I would like to say thank you,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, smiling a sheepish smile. “I would also like to thank all of the brave ponies who spoke today, those still courageous enough after the unfortunate events of yesterday,” she added, looking around the room at the gathered ponies, blinking slowly and feeling increasingly nervous. 

The room was silent. Quiet enough to hear a pin drop. A mouse fart might be deafening. 

“I would also like to thank the Lord of Winter for joining us today. I am one hundred percent positive that the Lord of Winter, who is my close and personal friend, appreciates your good behaviour and your considerate kindness towards one another. When you get a chance, tell him thank you for keeping all of us safe,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said in the microphone, carefully pronouncing each word.

Smiling her nervous smile, Twilight looked over at Bucky, who was sitting in the center of the room, his black cloak draped over his body, and his hood pulled over his head. All that was visible from the hood was his long jagged horn and the end of his muzzle. The rest of his face was lost in shadow. A faint purple mist drifted up out of the left side of the hood. She watched as his talons drummed on the floor, moving in a rhythmic hypnotic motion, but made no sound. 

There were no guards present in the room. Just a few speakers, some members of the public, the entire gathered body of the Stable of Representatives, one Princess of Friendship, and one Lord of Winter.

The final occupant of the room was the oppressive silence when nopony was speaking, like right now, not even breathing could be heard. The room was chilly, cold even, but many of the ponies were sweating nervously. Everypony was still, calm, unmoving. Each and every pony was extremely polite and considerate of one another. Nopony interrupted one another. Every gathered equine was the very model of good manners and social graces. The Lord of Winter had asked them all to behave, and he had stated that he would only ask once. 

Standing at the podium, her snoot inches from the shiny silver microphone, Twilight Sparkle felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of her face and then trickle down her neck. “Well… who is ready to have a vote? Each representative has been given a little box. On the box is a switch. There are three positions. The middle is neutral, the box has not been activated yet. If you move the lever up, it will vote yes. If you toggle the lever downwards, it will vote no. The numbers will be displayed up here on this projection,” Princess Twilight Sparkle explained, pointing at the heavy cloth screen behind her. “You will have one minute to make your vote and then the results will be tallied. This is our big moment everypony… our first issue that we decide for ourselves. Thank you for turning out for this historic event!” 

The sounds of subdued applause pealed through the room. 

Waiting for the quiet to return, Twilight took a deep breath. She felt her tail swish, moving on its own, she could feel feathers against her ribs. She could feel a faint breeze moving through the room and tickling the fine hairs in her ears. She felt the silence settle over the room like a funerary shroud. “Everypony, if you would, please, enter your votes if you will,” Princess Twilight Sparkle instructed, her voice becoming a squeak for a mere moment as she said “you will.” 

And so began the longest minute of Twilight’s life as she turned over the ceremonial hourglass constructed just for this very event. She stared at the shifting sand, noting how it moved so slowly, how it seemed to stick and not fall at all. Twilight felt a nervous spasm cause one eyelid to flutter slightly. She felt her dock clench and the beads of sweat building up on her frogs. 

The final grain of sand did not fall soon enough. It felt like a brief eternity had passed. 

There was a ringing of a bell and then a projector clicked on. The light flickered to life, the lights in the hall dimmed slightly, and numbers appeared upon the projection screen behind Princess Twilight Sparkle. 

Craning her head, Princess Twilight Sparkle had a look at the numbers. “Seventy nine of you said yes. Nine of you said no. Two of you abstained. Well then, those numbers are pretty clear. Mares now have a right to openly serve in all branches of the guard!” 

This time, the applause was thunderous, nopony held anything back. The sound was nearly deafening. There were hoots, hollers, the sounds of hooves clopping together, piercing whistles, an explosion of sound and celebration. 

“Again, I want to say thank you!” Princess Twilight Sparkle shouted through the microphone. “Since we still have some time yet, I wish to discuss some items on the docket for our next gathering so you can begin to educate yourselves on the issue!” 

Clearing his throat, Bucky caused the entire room to become as silent as the grave once more. He allowed his hood to fall back from his head and looked around. “I too, would like to thank you for being good mannered and kind. I am glad that nopony felt the need to make the mistakes of yesterday,” the Lord of Winter said, addressing the crowd in a whispery soft voice. “I am most pleased that you heeded my warning that I made when we started and that I was not required to ask you to behave yourselves a second time.” 



 

Clutching his chosen weapon, Bucky made ready to subdue a wily foe. His eye narrowed and his ears pinned back against his skull. In his talons, he held a spoon. Suspended in his magic, he held a bowl of smooshed sweet potatoes, Dinky’s favourite food. 

Before the warlock sat Harper, locked away in a high chair, her expression one of furious rage and her forelegs folded over her tiny barrel. Her horn glowed faintly and every curl of hair upon her head stood out in all directions, her poofy orange mane actually larger in size than her body. Her tiny lip curled back and her little orange tongue protruded. Inhaling sharply, Harper Heartstrings blew a raspberry at Bucky. 

“You are going to eat,” Bucky stated. 

“No!” Harper protested. 

“All of your mothers have had enough,” Bucky said in a soft patient voice. “Zapping Derpy again was bad. Shame on you.”

“Not sorry,” Harper said, defiance in her eyes. “Burpy mean!” 

“Harper honey… you don’t understand this yet, but I never get into a fair fight if I can help it,” Bucky said to his foal, his kind patient voice never wavering or becoming angry. His horn glowed for a moment, and then Harper was outlined in a blue-green glow. 

A moment later, Harper let out a squeal, then a shriek, and then began to giggle as she squirmed in her chair, her little forehooves moving along her body as she tried to shove away the invisible ticklers that were tormenting her. When she opened her mouth to let out a shout, Bucky seized the moment of opportunity and slipped the spoon between her lips. With a deft movement, he left behind a mouthful of buttery sweet potatoes as he withdrew his spoon with a jerk of his talons. His tickle spell ceased and he gently pulled Harper’s lips together with his telekinesis. 

Realising that she had been had, Harper tried to spit the food out, but found could not. She tried to scream, but found her mouth would not open. She banged her forehooves upon the highchair tray, her face turning dark purple with rage as she realised there was nothing she could do but swallow the food. With a gulp, she swallowed what was in her mouth and glared balefully up at Bucky.

“Bad mama mama!” Harper accused when her mouth was released. 

Getting a spoonful of sweet potatoes, Bucky held out the spoon towards Harper, who was still giving him a furious glare. She shook her head no and pressed her lips together. 

“Fine, very well, we do this your way,” Bucky said in a soft voice. His horn glowed. 

A moment later, unable to help herself, Harper let out a shriek when she felt the invisible tickles all over her body. The spoon darted into her mouth, dropped off a load of sweet potatoes, and departed before she really even had a chance to resist or protest. Her mouth closed involuntarily. 

Snorting furiously through her nose, Harper sat there and refused to swallow. Her cheeks bulged out as she sat in defiance, the glow from her horn growing steadily. She banged her hooves upon the tray table of the high chair and kicked her hind legs in an apoplectic fit of foalish rage as she stared at Bucky. 

Sighing, Bucky gently pinched Harper’s nostrils shut with his magic. 

It took all of three seconds for her to swallow and then suck in a breath through her mouth, which opened as soon as she swallowed her food. She glared hatefully at Bucky, drew in another deep breath, and then zapped her mama mama. 

“Harper!” Derpy shouted, her voice rather angry. 

Raising the spoon and waving it at Derpy to silence her, Bucky said nothing. He dipped the spoon into the sweet potatoes and prepared another bite. His mane was now frizzy and static electricity crackled along its length. He extended the spoon towards Harper. 

“NO!” Harper protested. 

“Harper, my sweet little foal… you can’t win this fight,” Bucky said, his voice not even slightly angry, his patient and calm demeanour persisting after the painful zap. His horn flared and he applied invisible tickles against Harper’s ribs. “You cannot wage war against me and hope to win.” 

The foal resisted, trying valiantly to keep her mouth squeezed shut, but she finally opened up to let out a shout and when she did, Bucky was ready. The spoon shot in and left behind a bite of sweet potatoes. Once more, Harper’s mouth closed and was held shut, her lips pinched together by an invisible force. 

This time, Harper swallowed before her nostrils were pinched. 

“I don’t know that I like this,” Lyra whispered. “This feels wrong.” 

“She’s willful. So is Bucky. This is how Harper chooses for it to be,” Derpy stated, gently patting Lyra and trying to console her. “When this is over, you should be the one to nurse her. She is going to want to be comforted.” 

“Harper was being a bit persnickety,” Bon Bon said, shaking her head. “I hate watching this happen, but I know that it needs to be done. He’s not hurting her at all, he would never do that, but Bucky is certainly showing Harper that she is not the one in charge.” 

As Bon Bon spoke, there was a fierce crackle of electricity as Harper zapped Bucky once more. The room filled with the scent of ozone as the contest of wills continued. There was a shriek followed by a frustrated grunt from Harper as her mothers all watched. 

Finally, realising she could not win, Harper began to sob. She willingly accepted the spoon into her mouth and dutifully swallowed each bite, weeping for the rest of the meal, her eyes downcast as she was unable to look at her mama mama. 

Also crying, Lyra wept into her front hooves and fell over against Bon Bon. 

Derpy watched as the entire bowl was finished off. There was no spitting, no refusals, Harper willingly submitted and ate each bite, letting out the most heart rending wails as she finished her meal. She reached over and patted Lyra, feeling a need to cry herself. 

Finally, Bucky scraped the bowl and got just enough sweet potatoes to form one last bite and he held out the spoon to Harper. She looked up at him, her eyes wide with hurt, and she slowly opened her mouth, revealing her little orange tongue. Bucky gave her the last bite and after a moment, she swallowed it. 

Lifting a cloth in his magic, Bucky wiped Harper’s face, trying to scrub away the tears and the bits off sweet potatoes from her lips. When she was mostly clean, he lifted her from her high chair and pulled her close. Not wanting to be held, Harper kicked and resisted, but Bucky ignored her feeble attempts and cradled his foal in his forelegs, placing her head against the crook of his neck. After a few more moments of struggle, she went limp and then began to wail with renewed vigor as Bucky slowly rocked her back and forth. 

After having a good cry, Harper quieted, taking deep snuffly shuddering breaths. “Harpy sorry,” she mumbled in between shuddering gasps. “Harpy much sorry.” 

“My little Harpy is still loved,” Bucky whispered, kissing Harper on the top of her head, pushing his muzzle down through the nearly impenetrable mass of fiery orange curls. 

“Love?” Harper asked as she continued to snuffle. 

“Always and forever. Yes, you are loved,” Bucky responded, now aware that he was being stared at by a whole herd of mares and even a few foals. “Want some milk?” he asked in soft whisper. 

“No… hold Harpy,” Harpy replied, wiping her nose against Bucky’s neck. 

“Maybe a bit later then,” Bucky whispered, still gently bouncing Harper around. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 413
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The running of the leaves is a little late, but it is finally happening,” Berry Punch announced from behind her newspaper. As a page was turned, a yawn was heard from the earth pony mare. 

“Why is it late?” Derpy asked, giving her husband a sleepy look as he stared out the kitchen window. “I seem to recall there was some reason.” 

“The first assembly of the Stable of Representatives delayed it slightly. Mayor Mare decided to wait until after the first assembly was done,” Berry Punch replied as she set her paper down upon the table and looked around. “They’ve given Spitfire a choice. She can either serve with the rank of Major, a promotion from her previous rank as captain, or she can continue serving as a Stable Representative.” 

“I wonder what she’ll choose,” Bucky grumbled as he stared out the window and off at his school, which was scheduled to open before the month was out. 

“She already made the choice,” Berry Punch said, folding the paper over and smoothing it out with her hoof. “She chose to keep serving her nation as a Stable Representative.” 

“The Empress is still asleep. I’m going to enjoy this time of relative peace and quiet,” Bucky mumbled as he continued to stare blearily out of the kitchen window.  

“Enjoy it while you can. Today, you have a photo opportunity that you have to take… those two big golems for the gunpowder initiative. The news photographers will be by sometime around noon and Twilight Sparkle will be here for it. She’s also bringing Rainbow Dash so that Rainbow Dash can get a bit of snuggle time with the Empress. Somepony is getting mommy lessons from Derpy… also, I’ve agreed to allow the delegation from the Crystal Empire to visit,” Berry Punch announced, cringing just a little bit at the last part. 

“You what?” Bucky demanded, his eye going wide. 

“Just two. No more than two. So you wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. Not the whole delegation. I thought maybe that was the problem. Thirty some odd ponies wanting to speak with you can be intimidating,” Berry Punch responded, looking at her husband. 

“There is still time… I can flee… or hide in my office at the top of the stairs. I can-” 

“You can stay right here at home, looking after Cadance and getting a bit of downtime,” Derpy gently interrupted, reaching out to touch her husband with one hoof. 

“Two mares… nothing scary… one is named Amber Waves and the other is named Arctic Lily. Princess Celestia selected them because they are quiet and gentle natured,” Berry Punch said, trying to reassure Bucky. 

“I am telling you, this is a bad idea,” Bucky whispered, slouching in his chair. “I have things to do. A school to open. I am positive that there is some crisis somewhere that needs my attention. A war that needs to be quelled. A disaster that I can stop. The foals… the foals need a bath… I can make myself useful-mmmph!” 

“Shut up,” Derpy said, pressing her hoof gently into Bucky’s mouth. “If you do good today, I’ll make it worth your while,” she offered, pulling her hoof away and looking at Bucky with a seductive stare. 

Sucking in a deep breath sharply, Bucky silently nodded and admitted defeat. 



 

“There are two different kinds of pegasi mares,” Derpy explained in a soft voice as she looked at Rainbow Dash, who was busy looking at Cadance with wide somewhat fearful eyes. 

“Two?” Rainbow Dash asked as she carefully prodded Cadance with her wing, which made the foal giggle. 

“There are brooders and watchers. Both are important. Ripple, Yew, and myself, we are brooders. We like to sit on foals and keep them safe and warm. Loch Skimmer is a watcher. She likes to stand near us when we brood and protect us. She doesn’t do it often, but sometimes the mood takes her, especially during stressful times,” Derpy replied, speaking slowly and watching Rainbow Dash. 

Reaching out, Derpy lifted Rainbow Dash’s wing and then with a swift movement, scooted Cadance beneath it. She patted Rainbow Dash on her withers and then Derpy smiled. 

“I do this with Scootaloo and Slippy… but this feels different with a foal this small… this feels… nice,” Rainbow Dash said, a dopey grin spreading over her face. She turned her head around and then prodded Cadance with her snoot, gently pushing the foal a bit more under her wing. “I could get used to this I think.” 

Laying on the floor, sprawled out on her belly, Derpy lifted her own wing. “Harper! Trouble!” she said in a firm voice, initiating a ritual that had been done hundreds of times. 

Harper, lifting her head, immediately scooted across the floor as fast as her stubby little legs would carry her and dove beneath Derpy’s wing. She curled into a tiny ball as Derpy lowered her wing down and covered the foal, hiding most of Harper from view. 

“That’s amazing,” Rainbow Dash whispered after having watched the display. 

“Cadance’s wings are rumpled and need preening,” Derpy slowly suggested as she tried to give Rainbow Dash a meaningful look. “We can’t have the Empress going around with messy wings.” 

“Oh… I can do that,” Rainbow Dash replied. She grabbed Cadance by her tail, which made the foal squeak, and then gently pulled her around, situating Cadance between her forelegs. “This is nice. I like this. I could get used to this motherhood thing.” 

“Now I’m gonna tell you a few things that are very important to know Rainbow Dash…” 



 

The two golems were immense. Terrifying. Fires burned inside of them, making them look absolutely terrifying. They moved with smooth perfect mechanical precision. Their glass bodies appeared to be made for war. Hands large enough to pick up a pony and crush them into a meatball clenched into fists as the golems stomped around on display. 

“This is the general production model,” Bucky said, offering no further explanation as he exchanged a glance with Twilight Sparkle. He grinned at the news reporters from various papers. 

“I do believe we will field test these in Minos. We are currently getting the proper clearance from legitimate sources within their government. A couple of these should put an end to the civil war,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, all too aware that her words were being written down for print. 

“The Royal Pony Sisters, I myself, and Princess Twilight Sparkle have pledged our support of the legitimate and peace loving government of Minos. The rebels will be dealt with. Peace will be restored. Barbarism will not be tolerated. Minos has asked to join the Equestrian Sea of Grass alliance. We welcome them as friends and we will aid them. I do hope that I will not have to pay a visit to Minos at any time during the near future,” Bucky announced as a bunch of flash bulbs began to go off. 



 

“Everything that goes into a foal has to come out of a foal. They poop. A lot. Like an unbelievable amount that nopony would believe unless they have actually experienced it,” Derpy carefully explained. 

“But the diaper holds it all in, right?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking disgusted. 

“Um… no,” Derpy replied. 

“NO?” Rainbow Dash questioned, her eyes going wide with panic. 

“Sometimes… there are… events. The diaper overflows. The poo happens and it just keeps happening… and there is no way of making it stop,” Derpy answered hesitantly. 

Not too far away, Yew Wood nodded with awkward enthusiasm as she continued to knit, her knitting needles clicking as she worked on making a little stocking cap for Cadance. 

“Poosplosions happen. Not long after we came home and got settled into this house, we started putting diapers on Harper, Bucky was holding Harper in the bed with him when she poosploded,” Derpy said, reminiscing as she spoke. 

Looking down at Cadance, Rainbow Dash’s eyes went even wider with panic. The blue pegasus shivered and gave Cadance a little hug. “I like having older foals… I dunno about having a little foal,” she muttered in a fearful voice. 

“Older foals can be kinda gross. You should ask Bucky how many times he’s been barfed on, snotted on, and widdled upon,” Derpy said as she looked over Cadance’s wings and was generally pleased with what she saw. 

“Peekaboo had a snoot full of boogers the other day… she kept horking and hawking trying get the snot out of her throat. She gagged and puked all over me,” Yew Wood said, not looking up from her knitting as she spoke. “I love that little foal.” 

“OooohooooUGH,” Rainbow Dash whimpered as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Cradling Harper in her forelegs as she lay upon the floor, Derpy reached down and nuzzled the foal she so loved, making Harper giggle and coo in simple foalish happiness. “Rainbow, it isn’t so bad. You get to love something that loves you back… that depends upon you. There are moments that make it worth it.” 

“Ooooh HI Cadance,” Twilight Sparkle squealed as she entered into the front room. 

“Poosplosions Twi… I don’t know if I can do this,” Rainbow Dash whined. 

“I changed a diaper. Pound Cake made a big smelly stinky. His parents were busy and Pinkie Pie was busy trying to get tangles out of Twist’s hair. It looked like it was full of greasy peanut butter,” Twilight Sparkle responded as she laid down upon the floor to be with Cadance. 

“Greasy peanut butter… that’s foal formula poo,” Derpy said, making an expression of disgust. “Very hard to clean.” 

“I had to bathe him in the sink. He peed on me,” Twilight Sparkle said as she made a silly face at Cadance. 

“Ugh!” Rainbow Dash grunted, shaking her head and trying to dismiss the horror she was hearing. “This is awful. I want a foal but I don’t know if I can with all of this other stuff.” 

“You want a foal?” Twilight asked, her eyes darting up to look into Rainbow Dash’s eyes. 

“Well kinda… I think I’m a broody pegasus… I don’t know... this is really overwhelming and confusing!” Rainbow Dash responded, feeling a peculiar sensation with how Twilight was looking at her. 

“But you want a foal?” Twilight asked, a growing excitement in her voice. 

“Well, I’m thinking about it,” Rainbow Dash admitted, looking very nervous. 

“Oh this is wonderful!” Twilight squealed. “If we hurry we can make a playmate for Cadance. I’m not ready yet but we can get started for you right away. Zecora gave me a potion that makes mares come into estrus almost instantly. Oh this is perfect!” 

“Um…” Rainbow Dash hummed apprehensively. She smacked her lips nervously and looked around the room, all to aware that everypony was staring at her. Even Cadance was looking up at her with wide curious eyes.

“Rainbow, don’t get pressured into this, this is a big decision. Make sure you are ready. Think of the foal before you do anything,” Derpy suggested in a patient voice. 

Looking embarrassed, Twilight's ears drooped. “I didn’t mean to make you feel pressured… I’m sorry.” 

“Twilight, do you think that the Cakes would let us foalsit the twins?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking curious and thoughtful. 

“Probably, but we might have to take Twist too, they would probably appreciate some time just to themselves,” Twilight answered, still looking hopeful. 

“Derpy, I know it is a lot to ask, but if I was foal sitting the twins, could I bring them here and could we stay, I dunno, for like a night so you can watch over me and tell me when I am making a mistake?” Rainbow Dash questioned, looking at Derpy with pleading eyes. 

“That sounds like fun. Make sure you ask the Cakes first. We can have a big play date for our foals,” Derpy replied, beaming, her eyes twinkling with happiness. 



 

“Lord of Winter,” Amber Waves said, bowing her head slightly. 

“Lord of Winter, it is a pleasure to finally meet you,” Arctic Lily said, also bowing her head. 

Feeling nervous, Bucky tried to make his tense muscles relax. He thought about smiling but then quickly killed that thought. He sat in his chair, holding court in his library, feeling very insecure and afraid. 

“You seem very tense my lord… we know that you are not him. And there is no need to speak of that unpleasantness. The Crystal Empire knows of you, your deeds, and your rightful claim to the throne. Most of us do not fear you,” Amber Waves said in soothing voice, trying to calm the trembling unicorn in the overstuffed chair. 

“We also know what you have done for our Empress,” Arctic Lily stated, smiling a soft smile. “By retrieving her and keeping her as our Empress, you have proven that, as our rightful Emperor, you truly want what is best for us and for us to be happy.” 

No, I want what is best for me and my happiness, Bucky thought to himself, cringing at the mare’s words. “Yes. I want to make sure that the Crystal Empire is looked after long after I am gone. Now you have an Immortal Empress to sit upon the throne. This is my gift to you,” Bucky said in his most diplomatic voice. 

“The Crystal Empire has sent us, the delegation, to assist you in your efforts. We are thirty six willing mares of good breeding stock, gentle dispositions, skilled in all manner of tasks-” 

“Wait, what?” Bucky interrupted, feeling his testicles shrivel into raisins. 

“We are skilled in all manner of tasks from clerical, to domestic, to sexual. We want what is best for our Empress and to make sure that she never wants for anything,” Amber Waves continued. 

Cold sweat trickled down Bucky’s neck and he felt a fearful chill prickling his guts. His penis shriveled and retracted even further into his sheath, as though it was looking for warmth. 

“We are a willing herd of mares that will look after every need your family has, we are willing to be wed to you to make sure our Empress is happy and well provided for,” Arctic Lily offered, smiling at Bucky and revealing perfect teeth. 

“Nope!” Bucky said, slipping from his chair and backing away, moving backside first towards the door. “No no, that isn’t necessary… I assure you, Cadance will be looked after and all of her needs provided for!” 

“Lord of Winter, we are willing. Nopony is forcing us into doing this. We wish to reward you for your kindness and to provide for our Empress,” Arctic Lily explained, still smiling. 

“The house isn’t large enough for that many mares,” Bucky responded, fumbling for any excuse he could think of. “It would feel crowded!” he cried as he nearly tripped over a stepladder stool that was used to fetch books off of tall shelves. “Not enough bathrooms! The lines to pinch a loaf would be terrible!” 

“We would bring the wealth of the Crystal Empire with us. We could construct a proper palace for the Empress,” Amber Waves answered, her smile never faltering. 

A wordless whimper escaped from Bucky’s lips as he continued to try and politely back away towards the door. He thought about teleporting… it was an option. “Um, you beautiful mares must excuse me. I’m not feeling well. I, uh, really need to go. I’ve been through some very trying ordeals. I… uh… er… oh… well…” 

“We are asking you to do what is best for our Empress. We only wish to reward you for your service. Please, give us a chance!” Arctic Lily pleaded, her smile beginning to falter. 

“Derpy help me!” Bucky cried as he bolted through the door, leaving the two disappointed mares alone in the farmhouse library. 
	
	
> Chapter 414
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Collapsed into a miserable heap upon his bed, Bucky lay on his side trembling and occasionally whimpering, his head stuffed under a large pillow. Beside him, Derpy lay on her side as well, her head raised, trying to comfort her miserable mate. 

“I dunno… we could have a lot of fun with three dozen consenting mares,” Berry Punch quipped as she lept up onto the bed and flopped down beside Bucky, who whimpered loudly at her words. 

“Cut it out Berry Punch,” Derpy chided, looking at the saucy earth pony. “We sent them away Bucky. They’re gone. They’re gone and you don’t need to worry.” 

“Emperor… what if they try to drag me up there?” Bucky whispered from beneath his pillow. “Don’t want.” 

Running her hoof along Bucky’s ribs, Berry Punch tried to calm the inconsolable unicorn. She stroked back and forth slowly, applying pressure, getting the loose skin along his side to slide along his ribs. She knew that what she was doing was working when she heard a low moan from beneath the pillow. She grabbed a hind leg, tugged, and straightened out his body. She began kneading upon his spine, carefully applying pressure with her hooves. 

“I can’t help but wonder what the world would think if they saw him like we see him. The rest of the world sees Bucky as some kind of rampaging psycho horror. We see him as some kind of neurotic twit with a penchant for lactophilia and some kind of weird dreadful phobia about anything to do with responsibility,” Berry Punch mused, a half smile upon her lips as she continued to try and unkink Bucky’s spine. 

“Is he feeling better yet?” Belisama asked as she crawled up onto the bed. 

“No… he’s pretty much having a breakdown I think. He lost one of his best friends, he found a whole bunch of foals that some maniac psycho had foalnapped, he stopped a hurricane, he endured going to Tartarus to fetch Cadance, he absolutely terrified the assembly into behaving themselves and survived the first few clumsy attempts of a budding democratic government… but being reminded of his responsibilities completely unhinged him,” Berry Punch replied, shaking her head in a Berry serious manner. 

Belisama shoved her head beneath the pillow to be with Bucky. “Hi,” she said, trying to be conversational. “Fancy meeting you here. Do you come here often?” 

From beneath the pillow, there was a soft chuckle. 

“Suddenly I have a profound new respect for Belisama,” Berry Punch announced as she tried to rub out a giant knot she found on Bucky’s back. She pressed in her hoof and twisted, knowing that Bucky would be in better state of mind if his back wasn’t in knots. 

“I am not the pony others think I am,” Bucky mumbled in a muffled voice from beneath the pillow. “I don’t have a herd and keep all of you as mindless sex toys… I need each and every one of you. I would be lost without you. I thought I’d be on that hook for thousands of years… maybe even forever. I thought I’d never see you again. It hurt more than the hook did.” 

“I’m a smart sex toy,” Berry Punch remarked and then bent over and kissed Bucky on his withers as she continued to rub. “And don’t you ever forget it mister.” 

“I don’t want to be the pony that I am. I can’t do this anymore. I can still feel the hook. I don’t want to be selfish, but I need time for me. I need quiet. I want to open the school. I know that seems contradictory, but I want to focus on a different set of problems. I want to be back in our brewery… seeing that little missing bit of my cutie mark grow back made me feel better. I already know that they are going to ask me to assume high command of Equestria’s military. I just have a feeling… I can’t do it. I just can’t,” Bucky said, pouring his heart out to his wives. 

“Bucky, honey, put your hoof down. Tell Celestia that you demand to name the new high commander. Just do whatever it takes to make her listen and then tell her to put Keg Smasher in the spot of high command,” Berry Punch suggested, giving a worried glance to Derpy as she did so. Even as she rubbed, she felt Bucky’s back convulse, a new set of knots appearing with the spasm. 

“That’s brilliant,” Bucky whispered from beneath the pillow. “I’ve been meaning to talk to Luna about building a military academy on the Shetlands. It would give those ponies a proud and noble future. It would brings jobs and modernisation to the isles. And with mares serving in the guard now, it would bring an influx of modern thinking mares to the isles.” 

“See, I told you I’m a smart sex toy,” Berry quipped, waggling her eyebrows at Derpy. 

“That’s actually pretty smart,” Derpy remarked, looking thoughtful. 

“So this is where we solve the world’s problems?” Belisama questioned, her head still under the pillow with Bucky. “With the good wise king of the griffons hiding with his head under a pillow?”

“I’m in the mood for chocolate,” Bucky mumbled in a muffled voice. 



 

Grunting, Rising Star squirmed and tried to get comfortable beneath the hot, sweaty, sticky, sexy pegasus on top of him. It had taken a while, but he had finally worn out his fey stamina, at least for a little while. “Loch,” he murmured, thrusting his muzzle closer to her quivering ear. 

Tittering, still shuddering, her feminine places still clenching and spasming, Loch Skimmer closed her eyes and rolled off of Rising Star, slipping off of him and settling onto the bed beside him. 

Sparkler, on the other side of Rising Star, giggled and pressed her face into his corded neck. “I like watching Loch Skimmer’s face when she orgasms… it never gets old.” 

“How is your dock piercing?” Rising Star asked. “You asked me to roll over and let you on top,” he said breathlessly. 

Taking a deep breath, Loch Skimmer let it out slowly and then took another deep breath. “When you were on top of me and screwing me into the mattress, I thought my backside was going to explode. It felt really good. Too good. The stimulation got to be a little too much. It was overwhelming.” 

“Hmm,” Sparkler murmured, a wordless sound of pleasure as she continued to enjoy her afterglow. She reached over and stroked Rising Star with her hoof, which trembled slightly. 

“That’s for securing my sister’s future and doing your part for making sure mares can serve,” Loch Skimmer whispered to Rising Star. 

“Glad I could be of service ma’am,” Rising Star remarked, already feeling the first hints of arousal as he felt a hot sticky sopping wet pegasus grinding and humping away on his hip. 

“She’s insatiable,” Sparkler whispered. “She’s a dirty little nympho. What do we do with a dirty little nympho Rising?” 

“Oh I could think of a few things,” Rising Star replied as he felt Sparkler grinding up against his other hip. “The sheets are soaked and they smell like horny teenagers having perverted sex. They’re gonna have to go in the wash.” 

“Oooh Rising… talk dirty laundry to me,” Lock Skimmer begged, making the most seductive come hither face the young pegasus was capable of. 



 

“You can stay a little longer lasses,” Barley said in a low soft voice, looking over at Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. 

“I left Glass Slipper, Spike, and Scootaloo with Rarity and Coco… I should be getting back to them. I don’t want to leave Cadance though,” Twilight Sparkle replied, looking a bit conflicted as her eyes darted around the room. 

“Is Bucky going to be okay? He didn’t look well… I’m  kinda worried,” Rainbow Dash inquired in a raspy voice, looking over at Barley. 

Shrugging, Barley cocked his head to the side and said nothing. 

“I know he’s having a private moment back there, but I can’t leave not knowing if he is okay,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, dancing around on her hooves, her wings fluttering at her sides. “I’m worried!” she shouted as she took off down the hall. 

Twilight Sparkle started to say something to call Rainbow Dash back, but stopped when she saw Barley raise his hoof and shake his head. She watched as the old stallion drew close. 

“He’s not well lass… I… I haven’t seen him like this in a while. Whatever horrors took place in yonder Tartarus did something to him. Everypony just sort of takes him for granted and nopony ever really watches for the warning signs. He’s gonna break if things don’t let up. You need to make sure that the pressure stays off of him for a while or there is gonna be a big damn problem. I dinnae want to have to put my hoof down like this, but I am. No more for a while. You keep the world away from him if you really are the friend you claim to be, ye hear me lass?” Barley said in a low solemn voice, his eyes narrowed and his face serious. “And I plan to to give Luna an earful too… don’t think I won’t,” the old stallion added, his ears splaying out sideways. 

“I understand Barley… I’ll do what I can to make sure that he gets a little well deserved rest,” Twilight Sparkle replied, nodding her head. 

“He lost his friend and the pony he trusts to keep everything organised. Mister Rich was the fortified wall that protected Bucky from the unnecessary pressures of the world. I don’t think you fully understand just how important Mister Rich was to Bucky or the sort of relationship they had. Like everypony else, you just sort of take Bucky for granted and just assume that he’ll be there and he’ll pull through for you and he’ll fix all of yer damn problems and he’ll take every burden ye have to give him on his back without complaint… yer killin’ him,” Barley said, his lilt growing stronger with each word. 

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, backing away from Barley. Her eyes stung and she could feel tears starting to form. “You’re right… I’m sorry… I didn’t know.” 

“Over ten feckin’ years on a damn hook… Luna told me what it was like for her… she had to dangle there helpless, unable to do a damn thing as she was gutted over and over. She told me what it was like for them… how Star Swirl and Sombra led an army into Tartarus to recover the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna both had to face the same trials that Bucky did… a thousand years later and it still hurts them both to think about it,” Barley continued as he took another step towards Twilight. 

“I’m sorry,” Twilight whimpered, backing up another step. 

“I love him ye know… I do. I love him because he makes Berry happy and he’s good to his wives and his foals… I ain’t trying to be a hardarse about this, but I’m his uncle and he’s my nephew, and somepony has to think about his needs,” Barley said in a low lilted whisper. “And make no mistake, I protect what I love. I’d do the same for you. Yer family.” 

“Th-th-thank you Barley,” Twilight stammered as a tear slid down her cheek. 

His horn flaring, Barley levitated Cadance up from the floor and then retreated to his chair by the fireplace. “I has me a new niece to spoil,” he muttered as he eased himself into his chair. He stuffed Cadance down beside him and then rubbed his cheek against her, which made the filly giggle and burble. 

Using her fetlock, Twilight scrubbed her tears away. 

“He’s got his head crammed up under a pillow and he refuses to come out,” Rainbow Dash announced as she stepped back into the living room. “He’s like Rarity when she gets into one of her snits. They have a really big bed Twi… we need a big bed… I know we all sleep in a pile, but we need a big bed for other reasons… you okay Twi? You been crying?” 

“Just a little,” Twilight replied as she sniffled. “I’m fine,” 

“Huh… okay… if you say so… Bucky keeps saying he’s fine too from beneath his pillow… both of you are lousy liars,” Rainbow Dash remarked as she looked over at Twilight. 

“No… I’m fine. I just realised that I wasn’t being a very good friend and now I’m a little worried and kinda embarrassed and kinda hurt by what I’ve done,” Twilight admitted as another tear fell. 

“Oooooh… well, I know exactly what that feeling is like,” Rainbow Dash responded. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 415
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Whatcha doing Bucky?” Derpy asked, sticking her head into the library and looking more than a little concerned. She saw her husband reading a big book bound in black leather. “Studying magic?” 

“Trying to find a solution to a problem,” Bucky answered, not looking up from his book. 

“Problem?” Derpy asked, stepping into the farmhouse library completely. 

“Cadance is my foal. My responsibility. I foresee her becoming very unhappy at some point and being a good doting father, I’m trying to find answers now,” Bucky explained, his face still in his spellbook. 

“That’s a dark magic spellbook,” Derpy said in a soft voice. “No more dark magic on foals,” she insisted in a very small voice. “I’m putting my hoof down upon that issue.” 

Looking up from his book, Bucky looked at Derpy with a pained expression upon his face. “That wasn’t what I was planning,” he said in a quavering voice that was full of guilt and pain. “Not a day goes by that I don’t feel bad about what was done with Dinky.” 

“I… I want to know what you are planning. I’m worried,” Derpy demanded, her eyes narrowing as she stepped a little closer to Bucky. “I have a right to know.” 

“Derpy… love… right now, I’m not planning much of anything. I’m looking for answers. This book has a few spells, but it is mostly notes. It doesn’t look very big, but the book is extradimensional and has about eight thousand pages. Sombra and Star Swirl understood how to manipulate and alter time. I don’t even know what I’m looking for exactly, except that one of Sombra’s memories is nagging at me and it is in my mind sort of but it is not completely formed, like he is teasing me or something. He’s making me hunt for the answer,” Bucky responded, being open and completely honest. 

“Sounds like Sombra, wherever he is, is trying to be good to you by offering you a distraction. You keep reading and relaxing. Semillon is fixing chocolate mousse. You need anything, you give a shout,” Derpy said, still looking worried and concerned. “Thank you for being open with me.” 



 

“Sentinel, what are you doing?” Berry Punch asked as she watched Sentinel crawling over the floor on his belly. 

“Playing with my siblings,” Sentinel replied as he continued to stalk his younger sisters. 

Harper and Cadance were piled together, with Cadance sucking on Harper’s ear, while Peekaboo stood guard, trying to defend the two smaller foals from Sentinel, who advanced slowly, growling softly. Peekaboo had her wings out, she was stiff legged, and she bounced and gamboled about with her barrel inflated as large as she could get it, glaring at Sentinel with narrowed eyes. She hissed, spat, and sputtered, spraying drool all over the floor. Nearby, Bittersweet was shaking with silent laughter. 

“Gonna getcha,” Sentinel growled in a low voice, creeping forward. 

“No,” Peekaboo replied defiantly, flapping her wings a bit and trying to look scary. 

Lifting the camera, Berry Punch snapped a picture. The whole scene was just too good to ignore. After waiting a moment, she snapped a second picture as she chuckled to herself. 

“Gonna getcha,” Sentinel growled again, sounding especially spooky this time. 

Letting out a tiny squeak that was her warcry, Peekaboo pounced. She soared through the air, landed on wobbling legs just in front of Sentinel’s face, and then she steadied herself. Rearing up high, she whinnied and then she brought both of her front hooves down upon Sentinel’s snoot. 

Going cross eyed, Sentinel let out a grunt from the double hoofy slam snoot punch. “Ugh, you killed me. I’m dead,” he announced as he rolled over onto his back and died. 

“I say you no,” said Peekaboo as she pranced in a circle around Sentinel, ignoring the camera flash. She lept up onto Sentinel’s barrel, let out a warbling cry of victory, and then sat down while she slapped Sentinel across the muzzle a few times with her foreleg. 

Giggling, Berry Punch snapped another picture. 



 

Grunting with effort, Loch Skimmer queefed in the tub, releasing a stream of bubbles into the steaming bathwater. “Wooo! that was a good one.” 

“This tub is kinda cramped,” Sparker remarked, not impressed by Loch Skimmer’s efforts at bathtime flatulence, not knowing the source of the air bubbles. She had shared a tub with her mother Derpy, whose bubbles typically came from another source. She lifted an old plastic cup in her magic, filled it with hot bathwater, and poured it over her own head, feeling full body tingles as the hot water sluiced over her scalp. 

“It feels nice to be doing nothing,” Rising Star mumbled, resting his head along the back edge of the tub. “I have a few more stoves to make, but I think I can get those done before it becomes seriously cold.”

“Princess Celestia is going to pin a medal on you for your heroics in Baltimare,” Sparkler said as she looked at Loch Skimmer. “I’m really proud of you.” 

“I’m not going to accept it,” Loch Skimmer said in an unusually subdued voice. 

“You sound like father,” Sparkler replied, shaking her head. 

“I was just doing my job,” Loch Skimmer said in a soft squeak. 

“Yep, father,” Sparkler sighed, still shaking her head. 

Scrubbing at his belly with his hoof, Rising Star snorted. “You did things that impressed the Wonderbolts. You flew in gale force winds for hours. Long after most rescuers almost fell out of the sky from exhaustion, you kept flying and doing what needed to be done.” 

“I paced myself, that’s all,” Loch Skimmer responded, looking over at Rising Star. “I’m a young healthy pegasus that gets a lot of exercise, most of it sex or rubbing one out whenever I have the chance, I eat well, I don’t drink too much, and I focus on being positive. I’m nothing special.” 

Sparkler and Rising Star both exchanged a knowing glance with one another but said nothing, little ear flicks and raised eyebrows said everything that needed to be said from Rising Star, and Sparkler simply smiled. 

“I’m not special like you, or you, or Ripple,” Loch Skimmer said as she looked at Rising Star and then at Sparkler. “I’m the normal one. I’m okay with that. You’re the famous fey smith that is making a name for himself and the young politician that everypony wants to know, Sparkler is the hard boiled police officer on a crusade to fight crime and protect the city she loves… Ripple is… well, Ripple is Ripple. I don’t even know what to say about my sister sometimes. If father is meant to be the alicorn of war, Ripple is meant to be his announcer… his, um, trumpet blower… you know, the thing that lets you know that something is coming…” 

“Herald?” Rising Star suggested. 

“Harbinger?” Sparkler proposed. 

“Those work!” Loch Skimmer agreed, nodding her head. “Anyway, somepony has to be the normal one in our herd.” 

“Bittersweet is very likely going to be in our herd. How does everypony feel about that?” Rising Star asked, looking at the two soaking wet mares in the tub with him. “Personally, I think it’s great. Ripple is adorable when she’s making those embarrassed ‘I’m so in love’ faces.” 

“I’m okay with it,” Sparkler announced. 

“Well of course you are, you’ve been snogging her,” Loch Skimmer giggled. 

“And we all agreed that it was okay,” Sparkler stated, looking at Loch. 

“I wasn’t complaining!” Loch Skimmer responded, shaking her head. “I like Bittersweet.” 

“Like her enough to marry her in?” Sparkler asked as she felt her thigh muscles convulse. The intense relaxation brought upon by multiple orgasms was wearing off.

"Well yes… I want my sister happy,” Loch Skimmer stated, making her feelings known. “Have you seen the standard Ripple is having Sentinel work on for the Raptors? It’s a white donkey head on a black background. Kinda an outline… it’s so romantic!” 

“Oh wow, she has it worse than I thought,” Rising Star remarked, his expression becoming serious. “I wonder how the griffons feel about a donkey as their standard, considering everything that’s happened between donkeys and griffons.” 



 

Laying on his back, Sentinel could feel Peekaboo sitting on his barrel. He took small steady breaths, trying to make sure she wasn’t disturbed too much. He lifted his head and cracked open one eye to peer out at Peekaboo. 

“No! Stay dead!” Peekaboo commanded and then booped Sentinel on the snoot. 

Obediently closing his eye, he dropped his head to floor and Sentinel resumed being dead for a while. After a few moments, he lifted his head and then he cracked open the other eye to have a look. 

“No. Dead. Now,” Peekaboo stated, booping Sentinel once more. 

“Oh come on,” Sentinel begged. 

“No. You dead,” Peekaboo insisted. “Scary growly no no.” 

“I’ll help you get cookies,” Sentinel offered, not above trying to bribe his way out of his situation. He gave Peekaboo a hopeful look and she gave him a doubtful look in return. 

“Nope. Dead,” Peekaboo responded, shaking her head. She reached out and booped Sentinel on the nose. “Dead,” she insisted. 

“I’ll beg Semillon to make rice pudding just for you,” Sentinel promised, smiling slightly. “Rice pudding. With cinnamon.” 

“Ooooh… promise?” Peekaboo asked and then reached up and wiped away a bit of drool from her lip, leaving her muzzle with a wet smear of slobber. 

“I’ll help him beg,” Berry Punch offered. The earth pony mare was beaming broadly, enjoying this unfolding drama between siblings. Her eyes moved to Cadance and Harper, who had fallen asleep upon the blanket covering the floor, drooling all over one another. 

“Okay. No dead no more,” Peekaboo said and then bent her head down to plant a kiss upon Sentinel’s snoot. She then crawled off of Sentinel and looked towards the kitchen hopefully. “Rice puddy.” 

“You’ll get your rice puddy tomorrow,” Semillon shouted from out of the kitchen. 

“Yay, puddy!” Peekaboo cheered as she sat down on her haunches and clopped her front hooves together. 



 

“Whatcha doing Dinks?” Piña asked as she bounced up onto the bed beside Dinky Doo. 

“Thinking,” Dinky replied, sounding distracted. 

“Dinky thinky?” Piña questioned. 

“About everything that’s happened,” Dinky admitted, squirming uncomfortably. 

“My dad?” Diamond Tiara said from her bed. 

“Yeah,” Dinky sighed, closing her eyes and then rubbing them with her folded fetlocks. “I’m having some thoughts that I don’t know how to put into words,” the foal confessed. “I kinda want to keep you as my sister.” 

“I can be your sister no matter where I go,” Diamond Tiara responded in a raspy emotional croak, her voice cracking. 

“See, some ponies have forgiven you and accepted you. Both the Apples and Rarity and Coco have offered to take you in,” Piña said as she looked over at Diamond Tiara, who was laying on her side and holding her stomach. 

“After all I did to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara murmured miserably. 

“I wish daddy would keep you,” Dinky grumbled. “This isn’t fair.” 

“Ponies would see Sentinel and I as siblings,” Diamond Tiara said to Dinky. 

“I know why… if you two get all smoochy smoochy kissy kissy later it would gross everypony out,” Dinky muttered in a sullen pouting voice. “This isn’t fair,” she repeated. 

“Life isn’t fair,” Piña sulkily agreed. 

“Mister Rich accidentally dying has made me think about how easy it is for life to slip away. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Makes me want to hug the ponies I love a little more often just because I could have an accident or one of them could have an accident and then it would all be over… like with poor Shining Armor and Cadance,” Dinky said, spilling her guts and saying everything on her mind in the best way that she was capable of. 

“I wish I had hugged him instead of saying the awful things I said,” Diamond Tiara grumbled. She lifted her head and slammed it down into her pillow. “I hate myself.” 

“Don’t say that! Haven’t you learned anything! You said bad things to your daddy and you lost him! And now you’re saying bad things to yourself! NO! Don’t do that!” Piña shouted at Diamond Tiara while kicking and pounding her hooves upon the bed. 

“I’m sorry,” Diamond Tiara apologised in a soft raspy whisper. 

“Don’t be a horseapple head!” Piña cried out. 

“Okay!” Diamond Tiara shouted weakly. “I’ll stop saying bad things about myself.” 

The door opened and a grey head with a straw coloured mane poked in. Derpy looked around the room, one eye shut and her good eye open. She squinted at each one of the fillies in turn, looking concerned. 

“I heard shouting,” Derpy said as she came the rest of the way in. She walked beside Diamond Tiara’s bed and smiled. “How ya feeling?” 

“She said she hated herself and I scolded her,” Piña said to Derpy. 

“Good Piña,” Derpy responded, looking over at Piña. She looked back over at Diamond Tiara. “Semillon fixed mashed potatoes and a cream gravy. There are some other soft foods. I want for you to come down and have dinner with us if you feel up to it.” 

“Okay… smashed potatoes sound good,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“She also fixed a glazed carrot soufflé with you in mind. It smells nummy,” Derpy said, hoping to encourage a good appetite in Diamond Tiara. 

“Oooh… Fancy food,” Diamond Tiara moaned, sounding somewhat hungry. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 416
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the midnight hour approached, a lone figure roamed the streets of Ponyville. The night sky was clear, cloudless, and the air was crisp and cold. The night was filled with the smell of burning coal and wood. A few establishments were still open, even at this time of night. In some of the houses, lights were still on. In the Ponyville library tree, lights blazed from the windows. 

The lone figure wore a black cloak that did not move in the faint breeze. 

The solitary shadow slowly made its way to the edge of town, near where the railroad depot was, and then it traveled along the railroad tracks for a time, heading in the direction of Canterlot. The figure left the most peculiar tracks of any of the residents of Ponyville. Three hooves and one set of talons, three forward and one backwards, a set of tracks not natural for an equine. 

When it reached a long straight set of tracks, it stopped and had itself a look about. 



 

Lifting his cloak, Bucky opened his saddlebags to allow a small collection of golems to crawl out. Several spider golems jumped out to the ground and one rotocopter took to the air, buzzing around overhead and flashing its lights in an excited manner. Turning his head upward, Bucky shot the flying golem an annoyed look, which caused the blinking to become somewhat halfhearted. 

“Okay… all of you should remember the plan. I need one of you to go along down the track, laying out a section of phased glass thread along the track. I need one of of you here with me. The rest of you will wait around in case something goes wrong and I need a backup golem,” Bucky instructed. 

One of the golems began to make a series of beeps and bloops, while flashing its lights. 

“What do you mean what if I am attacked out here in the dark scary night and there might be robbers in these woods you little noodlehead? Do you know who I am?” Bucky questioned, disgust evident in his voice. 

The golem beeped, blooped, and flashed a few times more. 

“What do you mean you’re afraid of the dark? You have a light! Use it!” Bucky snapped, becoming somewhat impatient. “Praise the sun indeed…” 

Letting out a stream of beeps and bloops, the golem ran towards Bucky and cowered at Bucky’s right front hoof, four little legs drumming on Bucky’s fetlock. 

“Fine… I won’t send you off alone into do the dark scary woods that might be full of robbers… even if you create it yourself, it is so hard to find good help,” Bucky said in exasperation. “One of you, get moving! Go on, about a mile down the track. You! Fly with him and then return to me once you are about a mile away. Lay down a long strand of phased glass as you go!” he commanded. 

First, raising one leg in salute, one of the glass spider golems then jumped up onto the track and took off, streaming a thread of glass behind it. The glass wasn’t quite real and it sank into the railroad track as the glass spider went running away, the rotocopter hovering off after it. 

With nothing else to do, Bucky sat down to wait. “I can’t believe you are afraid of the dark. I mean, you have a light. What is there to be afraid of?” 

The dark fearing spider golem let out a few subdued beeps and bloops and then cowered at Bucky’s hoof, trying to pantomime how pathetic it was, acting as though it was terrified. 

“What do you mean Minion read you a scary story with the lights off?” Bucky questioned, rolling his eye in disgust. He watched as several of the spider golems raised their little legs and waved them around. 

The cowardly dark fearing golem let out another stream of golem speak. 

“And the blue one made a big scary monster jump out of the closet?” Bucky asked, having trouble taking in everything he was hearing. “Look, that was an illusion. The blue one makes illusions. She’s good at it, it’s kinda her thing.” 



 

The rotocopter returned and hovered around Bucky’s head. It was nothing more than a small glass orb with an arcano-tech propeller, but Bucky found them infinitely useful. Smiling, Bucky hoped that tonight’s experiment would be a success. 

“Okay… I need one of you to jump up on the track and use one of your little legs to tap out a message on the track. Tell the other golem down the line that if it gets this message, to return home at once and relay the message. The message is ‘the moon is not made of cheese.’” 

One of the spider golems lept up onto the track and began to tap out the message right away, one little leg moving so fast that it was a blur. When it was done, it waved at Bucky and lept off of the train track. 

“Now we wait,” Bucky announced. 



 

A very short time later, a lone spider golem came scurrying back to Bucky, running on eight spindly legs in a very excited manner. It ran to the Lord of Winter, stopped, saluted, and then began to chatter in golem speak. 



.. / .... .- ...- . / .-. . - ..- .-. -. . -.. .-.-.- / - .... . / -- --- --- -. / .. ... / - --- --- / -- .- -.. . / --- ..- - / --- ..-. / -.-. .... . . ... . .-.-.- / -.-. .... . . ... . / .... .- ... / .... --- .-.. . ... .-.-.- / - .... . / -- --- --- -. / .... .- ... / .... --- .-.. . ... .-.-.- / - .... . .-. . ..-. --- .-. . / - .... . / -- --- --- -. / .. ... / -- .- -.. . / --- ..- - / --- ..-. / -.-. .... . . ... . .-.-.- / -- -.-- / .-.. --- --. .. -.-. / .. ... / .. -. ..-. .- .-.. .-.. .. -... .-.. . .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ..-. .-.. . ... .... -.-- / -... .-. .- .. -. / .. ... / -. --- / -- .- - -.-. .... / ..-. --- .-. / -- -.-- / ... .--. . .-.. .-.. / -- .- - .-. .. -.-. . ... / -... --- ..- -. -.. / .. -. / ... .. .-.. .. -.-. .- .-.-.- / -... --- .-- / -... . ..-. --- .-. . / -- -.-- / ... ..- .--. . .-. .. --- ..- .-. / .-.. --- --. .. -.-. .-.-.-



Nonplussed, Bucky shook his head. There was no point in arguing with an animate inanimate object. Feeling pleased about the results, Bucky allowed himself a moment to gloat, enjoying the smug feeling of his own superiourity. The phased glass allowed the railroad track to be used as a hiding place for the spider webbing. The next phase of testing would involve sending a message to Canterlot. 

“You keep very strange company, Lord of Winter.” 

“Hello Princess of the Night,” Bucky replied, not turning around. His whole body cringed as he realised that Luna had snuck up on him and had probably noticed something peculiar about his creations. He bit his lip nervously. 

“That golem sounds remarkably… cognisant,” Luna stated. 

This time, Bucky turned around and looked at Luna. He saw Luna and three figures he knew. “Grimglammer! Shadowguard! Furious! How are you?” 

Glowering, Luna allowed the reunion to take place before having her say. 

“We are well,” Furious replied. 

“Our cave home is finished,” Grimglammer answered. 

“And we have returned from a bit of a honeymoon, flying off to distant lands and killing those who oppose our Mistress,” Shadowguard responded. 

“You won’t see us around much in the daytime. Mistress wants us to keep a low profile and not scare the locals,” Furious said, smiling a toothy fang filled grin. 

“So… about this little science project,” Luna interjected, stepping forward. “Morsel code. What are you up to my clever student? And why is this golem trying to assert logic?” 

“I have turned the railroad tracks into a communications device that we can send Morsel code through. My golem laid a strand of phased glass… it is substance I made, it isn’t quite real, it is partially extra dimensional in nature. It was laid down inside of the track and then one of my golems tapped out a message. A mile away, another golem was waiting and felt the spiderweb vibrating. It returned the message to me,” Bucky explained, sounding somewhat nervous. 

Lifting up a golem, Luna began to examine it. 

Worried, Bucky slowly approached, his face contorting with concern. “Please do not damage it… I have put so much work into them.” 

“This is ingenious,” Luna stated, examining the golem closely, watching as it kicked its legs at her. “This has dream magic… why?” 

Clearing his throat, Bucky looked up at Luna, who towered over him. “Anywhere they go, I am with them. I can see what they see. I am connected to them through the dream link. I am modifying my sunstone eye to act as a visual connection. I’m still working out some issues. I had to give them a touch of sapience so they could dream and I could connect them. I know what I have done is wrong but I do not regret doing it. They learn. They have very simple and basic feelings. One of them is terrified of the dark and keeps announcing to praise the sun. He is a little misguided but he is a good golem. The rest are unfailingly loyal to the Lunar Court.” 

“This is fascinating,” Furious muttered as he took a step closer. 

“Indeed,” Luna agreed as she carefully set the golem down upon the ground and then looked at Buckminster. “Based on what I’ve seen, I would hazard a guess that these are dangerous, or can be.” 

“I can use them to take out dangerous rogue unicorns. I’ve already got a couple of prototypes. If they can crawl onto a unicorn and wrap their legs around the horn, no more magic. Others cause paralysis. These will also be the delivery agents for the anti-gunpowder spells. I should have an effective means of spying upon the whole world once I begin deploying these. They are capable of learning, so if they make mistakes they seldom make the same mistake twice,” Bucky explained, lifting his talons and making nervous gestures, his claws clicking together. 

“You made a spell matrix routine for your mechanical talons that reacts when you get nervous?” Luna asked incredulously, staring down at Bucky’s flexing talons. 

“Um… I wanted it lifelike?” Bucky replied sheepishly. 

“You are a most curious little pony,” Luna stated, blinking down at Bucky.

“We’ll chat later. We’re going to leave you two alone,” Grimglammer said as she spread her wings and became airborne. 

Shadowguard and Furious took off after her, leaving Luna and Bucky alone. 

“While we are together, I was wondering if I might have a demonstration of your thaumakinetic energy discharge. Please? I have been curious. I am asking, not demanding, and for the time being, I am going to allow your work upon your golems to continue because they both amuse and fascinate me,” Luna said, looking hopeful. 

“Very well, I can do that,” Bucky said, looking around for a worthwhile target. He spied a mossy boulder jutting up out of the ground and grinned a pleased looking grin. “This exhausts me… I will need a lift home.” 

“I can do that,” Luna offered, her whole body twitching with excitement. 

Concentrating, Bucky focused his energy, working up a feeling of pressure, not in his horn but in his left foreleg. “Stay back,” he warned. The air around him began to thrum. 

The golems took off running, the lone rotocopter buzzing off after them. 

There was a brilliant burst of light as eldritch lightning streamed from Bucky’s talon-tips and struck the boulder. A spray of chips shot off, gravel streamed down, and the boulder was generally not impressed by Bucky’s efforts to destroy it. 

Gasping, Bucky lowered his talons to the ground and tried to make his head stop spinning. Smoke rose from his talons and the air smelled of scorched moss. 

“I do not understand… the boulder should be obliterated. This is a force that could destroy alicorns. This is ignited raw liquid mana… this is most confusing,” Luna stammered and then looked at Bucky with a befuddled expression. After a moment, a look of understanding dawned upon her face as she watched Bucky’s exhausted body begin to droop. 

“I need to eat something very soon,” Bucky moaned in a faint voice. 

“For all of your power, you do not have enough raw liquid mana reserves in your body to power this weapon. You cannot feed it from the ley lines, thaumakinetic energy must be made with raw liquid mana from the body’s thaumaturgical systems. You have just about drained yourself dry from this demonstration,” Luna said, now understanding. “I feel stupid,” she added, a rare confession from Luna. 

“You made such a big deal over it too,” Bucky grumbled weakly. 

“I did. I was foolish. I am sorry… let me get you home,” Luna said, looking rather sheepish as she spoke. “Gather your golems and we shall depart.” 
	
> Chapter 417
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Huzzah! I have made a cheese omelette!” Luna announced as she slid a plate in front of Bucky, her wings extended and a proud look upon her face. “My sister speaks nothing but lies... lies! I would not be helpless without servants.” 

Tucking into his omelette, Bucky said nothing in reply, but began to shovel food down his throat. Ravenous in the way that only a predatory creature could be, he tore into the four egg omelette viciously, causing it to disappear in moments. 

“Oh dear… that is disheartening. All of that work and the results are gone in less than a minute… I do believe that I owe the kitchen staff a heartier heartfelt thank you,” Luna reflected out loud as she turned back towards the stove. On the counter beside the stove, she cracked more eggs into a mixing bowl, added a bit of milk, a bit of salt and pepper, and then went to work once more. 

Princess Luna hummed to herself as she worked, cocking her head so she could peer down into the bowl as she whipped the eggs. “Things are not going well for Shining Armor. Not only is he grief stricken, but the Crystal Empire is now demanding his removal. They do not want a consort upon the throne, but a proper steward until their Empress returns.” 

“Shite,” Bucky swore, his talons drumming upon the table. 

Luna’s ears perked forward at uttered profanity. “They’re demanding that Twilight Sparkle or you, the Lord of Winter, sit upon the throne until Cadance’s return. Is it wrong that I feel insulted?” Princess Luna questioned, trying to keep some kind of dialogue going. “I am the immortal alicorn that nopony wants.” 

“I know the feeling,” Bucky grumbled. 

“You do?” Luna asked. 

“We recently signed some papers to allow our likenesses for the purposes of making toys. My Pretty Little Princess toys. There are no plans to create a toy of me. I worry that nothing but bad things will come about because of this. They didn’t even ask to use Belisama’s likeness. I guess she isn’t a pretty little pony princess… but she is the queen of the griffons. One of them anyway,” Bucky replied, sounding very disturbed and annoyed. 

Carefully pouring the eggs into a pan, Luna scowled as the hissing sizzle filled the kitchen. “You know, I try to not let these things bother me. I have seen the toys. Mine doesn’t sell. In the toy displays, my little likeness is usually tucked away in some tower or hidden behind my sister’s much larger figure. I am never in the open. I am never prominently displayed. I am even displayed in front of a blue background which makes me almost invisible,” Luna grumbled as she sprinkled crumbled cheese into the cooking eggs. “Am I not beautiful?” 

“Oh come on Luna… don’t make me answer embarrassing and awkward questions,” Bucky pleaded, his ears falling down to the sides of his face. 

“Am I not shapely and desirable? Is not my plot furrow a desirable place to plow and plant seed? Am I not a pleasing shade of blue?” Luna questioned, her hurt becoming more and more evident with each question she posed. She folded the omelette over and turned to look at Bucky. “They speak endlessly of Cadance’s great beauty. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, now a figure of immortal beauty, we have been graced with a vision of beautiful radiance almost as gorgeous as the sun,” the night blue alicorn said, reciting the newspaper headline in an acidic voice. 

Grunting, Luna slipped the omelette from the pan and onto the plate. Lifting the plate, she slid it in front of Bucky and then frowned, her teal eyes filling with tears. 

“There are more headlines about Cadance’s return than my own,” Luna moaned as her barrel began to hitch. She blinked several times and then ran out of the kitchen. 

Alone, feeling rather disturbed, Bucky scarfed down his omelette and then wondered what else he would eat, his stomach still growling and begging for more food. 



 

After devouring leftovers from the fridge and chugging down several jars of applesauce, Bucky took off in search of Luna, knowing that she was somewhere in the farmhouse. He peered into the living room, the dining room, and then the library. In the hall, he heard humming from the nursery. Moving silently down the hall, he made his way to the nursery and pushed the door open. 

Standing in the doorway, Bucky saw Luna sprawled out in the bowl shaped chair that sat in the far corner of the nursery. She had three foals at her side, all of whom were awake and blinking at her, and then at Bucky when they noticed him standing at the door. Her shoes were upon the floor, kicked off and left scattered. Her crown had been tossed into a corner and her regalia had been thrown into the dirty diaper bin, one end still sticking out and visible, the lid unable to shut all of the way. 

It was clear that Luna had been crying and she wiped her eyes when she saw Bucky. 

“I heard a foal whimpering. It was Harper. The other foals were awake. I think Harper is gassy,” Luna said in a raspy tired sounding voice. 

“If you rub her tummy she’ll feel better,” Bucky suggested as he moved towards the rocking chair and sat down. 

“I do not hate her,” Luna stated. 

“Hmm?” Bucky responded. 

“Cadance. I bear her no ill will or resentment for being the princess that everypony loves. I love her dearly. When I returned, when I was still little, while I was still a filly and recovering, she was my foalsitter. She did not care that I was Nightmare Moon. She did not care that I was the horrible Princess of the Night. I was a hurt and scared little filly to her, and her gentle pegasus nature made her fawn over me endlessly. She loved me like few others loved me, save for my sister,” Luna explained, a few more tears sliding down her muzzle. She pulled Harper closer and then began to rub the foal’s belly with the joint of her wing. 

“I suppose that is part of her nature as the embodiment of love,” Bucky whispered in a low voice. “It is good that you had a pony that loved so much after your return.” 

“She would go out into the royal gardens with me and chase fireflies. Shining Armor would come with her and watch over us as we played. He was so kind… so patient… he was so gentle with me. He deserves better,” Luna said, looking deeply troubled. “When I heard that the crystal ponies plan to have him ousted, I wanted to fly to the Crystal Empire and scare them into submission… I wanted to terrorise them… I wanted to fill the skies with storms and show them the fury of the night… I wanted them to suffer for how they are hurting him right now,” she confessed, shaking her head sadly. “I do not possess my sister’s gentle spirit.” 

Feeling very confused and unable to convey how awkward he felt, Bucky pulled a blanket over himself as he sat in the rocking chair and then set the chair in motion with his magic. He studied Luna, looking for body language, a facial expression, anything that might help him understand her better, that might offer some insight, something, anything, he desperately wanted to make her feel better but did not know what to do or say. A painful feeling of hopeless despair settled over him, a feeling he knew too well, he had felt it keenly while he had hung on a hook in Tartarus. There were no wise pithy words, no clever quips, there was nothing he could offer. He had the pain of over a decade upon the hook, Luna had the pain of centuries that she had endured. A feeling of utter uselessness settled over Bucky like a funerary shroud and he felt it drag him down into black depths, a painful depression that made his bones ache. 

“At least I know that Barley loves me,” Luna whispered in a voice so faint that it was like the breeze rustling through autumn leaves. 

“There are others that love you,” Bucky groaned in a raspy voice. 

“I know that… but I still feel so empty inside. I cannot help it,” Luna confessed as she continued to rub Harper’s belly. 

At her side, Cadance and Peekaboo were asleep, curled up into little balls. Turning her head around, Luna gazed down upon them, her eyes sad and half closed. 

“Why did you do it?” Luna asked. 

“Do what?” Bucky questioned in response. 

“Go to Tartarus for her,” Luna stated, turning to head to look at Bucky, who was sitting up in the rocking chair, covered up in a blanket. “What motivated you?” 

“I love her,” Bucky grumbled in reply. 

“You barely know her. You only met her a few times. Was it her nature that made you love her? Could you not help yourself? Is it my nature that makes me unlikeable? Do ponies fear me because they instinctually fear the night? Are we a slave to what we are? Will Cadance ever grow to hate being so loved and adored by all, having to do nothing to earn their affections, other than just existing? Just sit back on a throne, do nothing, and be loved. I know that it would gall me after a while, and I want to be loved. Poor Shining Armor lived in her shadow. The public adored her. The public resented him. He was the one that had her affections. She loved him. She loved him totally and completely. And the public hated Shining Armor after the marriage. The military grew distant from him. The male mindset so prevalent in the guard grew to loathe Shining Armor. I saw their dreams. Shining Armor was rutting the mare that they all dreamt about sticking their dirty Drip infected dicks into. He had the alicorn of lovely beauty as his bride. The perfect sexual being. Perfect in every way. An engine of raw lust with a body made for passionate or even animalistic sex. And Cadance loved him. Cadance adored him. She was blind to every other male but him. But it was impossible to hate her… the males, disappointed, frustrated, envious that they would never know the sweet perfection that lied in her feminine places, unable to hate Cadance, hated Shining Armor instead, because Shining Armor knew every single inch of her body inside and out,” Princess Luna said, letting out everything she felt in her heart to Bucky, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her words raspy from emotional pain. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky remarked, shaking his head. 

“After the marriage, Shining Armor lost almost every male friend he had,” Luna grumbled. “The worst part is, most of the females grew to hate him as well. The mares said that Cadance could have done better. She could have married a strong stallion. Some big hunky musclebound brute. She could have married some ideal image of male perfection. Instead, Cadance married a nerd that liked to play role playing games, actually enjoyed spending time with his sister, collected stamps, had publicly acknowledged in secondary school that pink was his favourite colour, and had impossibly nerdy friends… it was those nerdy friends that are still standing at Shining Armor’s side by the way. They are the friends who have not left him. Alas, poor Shining Armor became hated by all.” 

“I wish I knew what to say,” Bucky whispered, pulling the blanket a little tighter around him. “I had no idea. This sounds just awful.” 

“Shining Armor might have been the only pony that loved her for what she truly was. A nerdy pony that liked to play with boats in the bathtub, that liked to stomp in mud puddles, which drove my sister crazy by the way, that snorted when she laughed, collected comic books, loved to read really scary horror novels, and had a secret fear of crowds. She was more than a warm willing body to him. She was more than the sum of her sexual parts. If ponies knew the reality of their private lives they would be shocked. The secret rendezvous with Shining Armor’s friends so they could play role playing games, paint little figurines, drink carbonated soda, and have rude belching contests,” Luna said, her brows furrowing as she spoke, her expression becoming darker and darker. “I feel as though I am offering a eulogy,” she stated. 

“In a way, you are. That Cadance died. It is good that somepony knew her secrets and that she is remembered. Will you keep my secrets alive after I have passed? Will you keep all of the embarrassing details stored away in your mind so you can discuss them with some worthy soul?” Bucky responded, looking sorrowful. 

“I will treasure every detail, sordid and pleasant,” Luna promised. 
	
> Chapter 418
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Waking up, Bucky experienced a troubling thought as his morning wood lay against his belly. What would having the embodiment of love in the house do to the household arousal levels? Bucky thought to himself. There were horny teenagers upstairs. There were horny mares aplenty. Fearful of what might happen, Bucky moaned in his half awake state. 

Rolling over and flailing about, Bucky grabbed whatever warm body was closest and gave it a snuggle. He heard a murmur of not quite awake surprise. He buried his nose into a mane and sniffed as the body body against him squirmed and he could feel his hardness pressing against a muscled back. 

Bon Bon, he thought to himself when he smelled the sweet scent of candy. Nope, penis does not go there his half awake brain informed him as the mare he was snuggling began to wiggle and giggle, trying to squirm away from him. 

Unfortunately, Bon Bon was catch and release and Bucky let her go after planting a kiss on the back of her neck. Rolling over, he reached out and grabbed another mare, not bothering to look. He tried to pull a warm body closer and found that he could not. Thistle, his brain informed him. Penis could potentially go there… later, his brain announced helpfully. He snuggled up closer to Thistle’s warm body and wrapped his foreleg around her large round belly. 

“Ooh… something is poking me,” Thistle announced, now startled awake. She smiled pleasantly as she realised that a half awake Bucky was groping her. She giggled, feeling something tickling against her. “Stop Bucky! I have to pee!” the kelpie begged. 

“I’ll take you,” Bucky offered, opening his eye and yawning. “Oooh I get to watch a pregnant pony pee… I like how this morning is turning out.” 

“Pervert,” Thistle muttered. “Please hurry!” 

“Okay, but afterwards, I get to toss you into the bath and scrub every inch of you,” Bucky mumbled as he struggled to banish the cobwebs from his mind. 



 

Twilight Sparkle found that she liked the morning hours. It was an excellent time to get stuff done. The day was young and there was the feeling of challenge, making a sort of game on how much one might get done before noon and lunch. 

Swooping over the skies of Canterlot, she rolled through the air, enjoying her morning flight, and as she leveled out, she saw Pony Joe’s donut shop. Licking her lips, she made a mental note to stop and have a donut when she was done at Canterlot castle. 

Twilight Sparkle had a friend in need and she was worried about her brother. 



 

“The foal is kicking,” Thistle announced, waving her hoof at Bucky in a gesture to come closer. She smiled excitedly. 

Leaning over the edge of the bathtub, Bucky placed his head against Thistle’s belly and then allowed Thistle to shove his head to the right location. He waited, his whole body tensing, and then he felt it. A faint kick that could be felt against his cheek. He held his breath, hoping to feel it again. He waited, and waited, then, after waiting a while longer, he waited some more. Just as he was about to pull his face away, he felt it again. 

“Kicks!” Thistle squealed. 

“I know!” Bucky said, now lifting his head. 

“I plan to name her Bell Heather,” Thistle whispered, her face slipping into a blissful dopey smile. “Unless you have some objections.” 

“Hi Bell,” Bucky said, speaking to Thistle’s belly. “Please don’t cause your mother to explode. I will be very cross with you if you do.” 

Giggling, Thistle splashed water over her belly and rubbed. The kelpie continued to giggle, unable to contain her happiness. She looked up at Bucky with wide happy eyes. “Come here,” she beckoned, giving Bucky a seductive look. “Come closer.” 

Stepping closer, Bucky lowered his head over Thistle’s snoot. He felt her forelegs wrap around his neck and then he was hauled in for a kiss. He felt his legs go weak and his knees wobbled. Thistle was certainly using her talent of sex appeal. Just when he thought he could take no more, the kelpie pulled away and Bucky stood there gasping. 

“There’s plenty more where that came from,” Thistle said in a sweet sultry voice that was almost a growl. “Now could you help me scrub up down there?” she asked, her eyes half opened and her ears drooping back against her head. “That kiss left me feeling… sticky.” 



 

“Raven, I really need some help and I didn’t know where to turn to,” Twilight Sparkle said to Princess Celestia’s personal assistant. Twilight looked at Raven with a hopeful expression and offered a sheepish smile. “I know you’re terribly busy but I really need the help.” 

“What do you need Princess Twilight Sparkle? It is part of my job description to help you in any capacity that I can,” Raven replied, giving Twilight her full attention. 

“I have a friend… he needs a secretary… but not any secretary. He needs somepony that can do a little bit of everything, can deal with bureaucrats, has strong organisational skills, can be just a little bit intimidating, can be a whole lot intimidating if need be, is utterly fearless, can deal with having a really scary sometimes super scary boss, deals with pressure well, and is capable of being utterly ruthless, cold blooded, and absolutely savage when it comes to boardroom meetings,” Twilight Sparkle explained. 

“Buckminster needs a personal advisor,” Raven deadpanned in reply, her eyebrow twitching for a fraction of a second before total control was regained. “I knew this day would come and I’ve been preparing.” 

“How did you…” Twilight started to say and then trailed off. She blinked a few times and stood there with her mouth hanging open. 

Reaching out, Raven carefully closed Twilight’s mouth and then patted her cheek. “Close your mouth dear. Standing there and drooling does not become a princess.” 

“But how did you know?” Twilight questioned, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“Never mind that,” Raven remarked, shaking her head. “I have what I think might be an ideal candidate. She keeps getting temp work and ponies complain that she is… abrasive. She is a little temperamental. She is good at what she does… but she is… forceful. She worked as the personal seneschal for Fancy Pants. He highly recommends her. Her name is Violet Velvet and yes, she is a cousin of yours. Distant. Ponies tend to call her Violent Velvet… and sometimes they call her the Pugilistic Punchy Punchy Purple Pony Pounder, but never to her face.” 

“Hmm,” Twilight hummed, looking thoughtful. 

“I’ve already done the personality profile matches. She is almost an ideal match for Buckminster. She will stand up to him and tell him when he is being an idiot and she will do so in no uncertain terms. She is motivated, goal oriented, and a rather powerful type two unicorn that has studied magic extensively to reach the upper echelons of what a type two is capable of. She likes foals and has even been seen smiling around them on occasion according to my sources. She hates wasteful expenditures. Also, she spent two years in university studying how to properly serve tea and tea time etiquette.” 

“Huh. Bucky would like that I think,” Twilight remarked as she began to rub her chin with her hoof. “She sounds ideal.” 

“She is desperate for work. She likes doing a meaningful job. She has a small studio apartment here in Canterlot that she can no longer afford. I am positive that she will take the job if it is offered to her. Her resume indicates that she is more than willing to relocate to any location,” Raven said, reciting every detail she could think of. “Oh… she also worked as Fancy Pants’ bodyguard… I don’t think that our beloved Buckminster needs a bodyguard, but Violet knows what she is doing if the situation becomes threatening,” Raven added as she adjusted her glasses. 

As Twilight watched, another Raven went walking by. She did a double take, blinked a few times, and then stared curiously at the Raven speaking to her. 

“What? You think you’re special? That you are the only pony to use time manipulation spells? For all of your talk of organisational skills, obsessive scheduling, and list making, you are only a type four organiser,” Raven said in a somewhat smug sounding voice. 

“There are graded levels of organisation?!” Twilight cried. “What are you?” 

“I am a type nine,” Raven said proudly. 

“Nopony told me this!” Twilight squealed. “I need to know… WHAT IS PRINCESS CELESTIA?” she demanded in a manic voice, one eyelid twitching rapidly. 

“Princess Celestia invented the grading system and only tells somepony about it when they score as a type five or higher. Princess Celestia scores as a type twenty according to the criteria,” Raven explained in an informative monotone. 

“I’m only a type four,” Twilight mumbled despondently.

“You lack a motivation for creative organisation,” Raven stated. “Even Buckminster has figured out how to use time manipulation to assist him in his day to day tasks, even though he has only done this once so far. He shows such promise… it is why he made such a wonderful accountant. When he chooses to do so, Buckminster is capable of extraordinary levels of planning.” 

“Don’t tell me his score, I can’t bear to know,” Twilight demanded, thinking back to how Bucky knew in advance about being detained by the zebras when he went to the Sea of Grass and had a plan ready. 

“Very well,” Raven agreed. “But Celestia is thinking about telling him about his grading when the time is ideal.” 

“Um, what is Violet Velvet?” Twilight questioned. 

“She is a type six. Being a type two unicorn, she is not capable of time manipulation, but she more than makes up for it by being incredibly abrupt, to the point, and forcing ponies to do her will through raw intimidation rather than spend hours trying to persuade them,” Raven replied, waving to herself as she walked by as she spoke. “It is also rumoured that she can stop a clock by scowling at it.” 

“She sounds ideal,” Twilight Sparkle squeaked nervously. 



 

“Mayor Mare is going to hold the Running of the Leaves as a memorial to Mister Rich,” Berry Punch announced. “Tomorrow, Ponyville runs.” 

“Are you going to be there Bucky?” Derpy asked as she looked at her husband, who was enjoying tea with his breakfast this morning. 

Holding a butter knife in his magic, Bucky did not reply right away. He spread butter over his toast, the bread was home baked, sliced thick, and was very crusty. He spread the butter carefully and evenly, making sure every square inch was covered. He then began to apply loganberry jam, spreading it out in a thick even layer. Looking pleased with his efforts, he smiled. “I think I might go. Sit at the finish line. I know that Loch Skimmer and Ripple plan to run. Maybe we’ll bring the foals and make it a family outing.” 

“This will mean having guards I guess,” Berry huffed and then looked over at Belisama, who was pecking at a cheesy biscuit. “The biscuits turned out good.” 

“I’ll say,” Belisama agreed. “Semillon used mealworm flour,” Belisama said as she opened her beak for a bite. 

Savagely ripping off a huge bite of his toast, Bucky allowed himself the pleasure of a growl as he tore into his food. He chewed for a bit, licked the jam from his muzzle, and then worried free another bite of toast. 

“Is it just me or is it kinda erotic to watch Bucky eat?” Berry asked, looking around the table at the other ponies and the griffoness sitting there. “I can’t help but think about how he is eating right now when he’s about to go down on my filly bits.” 

“And how is Thistle’s filly bits?” Derpy questioned as she looked over at Bucky. 

“Thoroughly and lovingly scrubbed,” Bucky replied around a mouthful of food. 

“I heard her squealing in there with you… when she came back into the bedroom she was about half delirious,” Derpy remarked, a smile spreading over her muzzle as she spoke. 

“The foal was kicking. I got to feel it kick me in my cheek. Her name is Bell Heather,” Bucky said just before cramming the last of his toast into his mouth. 

“Bell Heather… that’s a pretty name. Type of flower common to the Shetlands,” Berry Punch said, looking lustily at Bucky as he chewed. 

“Today, I am going to go into town and I am going to pay a visit to Bon Bon’s shop. I haven’t been in there. If I go in there, it might help Bon Bon’s business out a little bit. I’ve been neglectful of her needs,” Bucky announced as he lifted his teacup. He slurped down some tea and then smiled. 

“Can you take Diamond Tiara with you? She needs to get out some. I doubt she’s up for walking that far, but I’ll carry her,” Berry Punch said as she looked at Bucky and made an offer to help out. 

“All those mood pills bother me,” Derpy mumbled. “Scares me a little.” 

“It is only for a little while so her stomach can heal and she can have a bit of a break,” Berry said, trying to reassure Derpy. 

Every ear at the table perked when the loud shriek of a foal crying could be heard. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 419
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Levitating his breakfast plate beside him, Bucky watched as Bittersweet looked after the shrieking Empress of the Crystal Empire. The donkey was kind, patient, trying to cajole the crying foal into silence. One thing was for certain… alicorn foals had impressive sets of lungs. The knick knacks along the fireplace mantle rattled from the force of Cadance’s cries. 

At least Bittersweet is deaf, Bucky thought to himself as he shoveled in some sweet baked beans served cold from a tin and poured directly onto the plate. He smiled when Bittersweet looked up at him to let her know that she was doing a good job. He saw the donkey smile back at him and then nuzzle the foal to try and quiet her. 

Nearby, Harper and Peekaboo sat on the floor, looking somewhat irritated that the quiet morning was being interrupted by some fussy upstart foal. 

“Foods?” Peekaboo asked. 

“Want breakfast?” Bucky asked in reply. 

“Yes foods,” Peekaboo stated, looking up at Bucky hopefully. 

“Got it,” Yew announced as she came through the living room arch. 

“Harper still needs to be fed at some point,” Bucky reminded. 

“I know,” Derpy replied as she walked over to the blanket where Harper was laying and stood beside Yew. “Wanna trade?” 

“I could try to feed Harper… but Peekaboo is so much easier,” Yew answered apprehensively, giving Derpy a doubtful look. 

“I know… you stick food in front of Peekaboo and she makes it vanish. She doesn’t even care what it is,” Derpy said, looking down at Peekaboo and smiling a motherly smile. “I see you Peekaboo.” 

Hearing Derpy’s voice, Peekaboo fell over and covered her eyes with her front legs. “Nope. Gone. No see me.” 



 

Tongue tied, Twilight Sparkle studied her cousin Violet Velvet. The unicorn was lavender in colour, just like Twilight, and she had a distinctive silver mane and tail. Her reading glasses hung from a delicate silver chain around her neck. The mare’s cutie mark was curious, a single blue-white snowflake and two small silver stars. Twilight watched as Violet sorted through the sheaf of papers that Raven had sent along with Twilight. 

Putting on her glasses, Violet began to read, her eyes darting over the papers, her horn glowing. There was a strong whiff of ozone. The unicorn read through several pages very quickly and then looked at Twilight, her eyes narrowing. 

“I like what I am reading,” Violet announced as she stared hawkishly at Twilight. 

Feeling unnerved, Twilight Sparkle squirmed in her chair and wished that Violet would stop giving her that soul piercing stare. She felt her stomach prickle with some unknown fear. She wanted nothing more than to crawl under the table and hide. The stare was icy and reminded Twilight of Fluttershy. 

“I can move to Ponyville. Been wanting to do that for a while anyway. I hear there is a housing shortage,” Violet said in a conversational tone as she peered through her reading glasses down at the papers she was studying. 

“I have an idea… I know that one of his wives has an apartment over her candy shop. I plan to speak to her about letting you stay there,” Twilight said, feeling relieved that the unicorn was no longer staring at her. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“Nice to see my stare works on alicorns,” Violet stated in a blunt voice. 

“Huh?” Twilight questioned, now feeling morbidly curious. 

“The Cold Stare. Pure raw intimidation. Causes a fear response. One of the many services I provide,” Violet explained. “I stared at some idiot one day and my cutie mark showed up. I find that it is quite handy in my line of work.” 

Almost immediately, Twilight began to have second thoughts. The nascent alicorn of war did not need a weaponised secretary. “What happened to the idiot?” Twilight asked, her voice almost a whisper. 

“Oh… Fancy Pants? He lost control of his bladder and fainted,” Violet remarked as she flipped through the stack of documents. 

“Fancy Pants… you mean the pony that you worked for?” Twilight inquired, sitting up a little taller and feeling quite curious. 

“Yes. That Fancy Pants. How many Fancy Pants unicorns are there?” Violet snapped. 

“You must have left quite an impression,” Twilight said, nervously rubbing her left front hoof against her right fetlock. 

“I almost didn’t take the job. He was an idiot. I can’t stand idiots. He offered extra pay and begged me to work for him. I finally broke down and accepted because he was so pathetic looking,” Violet said, shaking her head. “Real shame that he lost everything. I hear he is in Ponyville now, managing the new orphanarium with Fleur Dis Lee.” 

“By all accounts, he is ridiculously happy,” Twilight responded, her nervous sensation growing alarmingly. 

“Of course he’s happy… he’s a blithering idiot. Plus, he has all the foals he can stand now with that supermodel Fancy pony wife of his,” Violet Velvet barked, her tone rather abrasive. 

“I hear you like foals?” Twilight Sparkle half questioned, trying to find some way to make the mare across the table a little friendlier. 

“I love foals. They’re sweet,” Violet replied. She lifted her head and glared at Twilight Sparkle. “You know, you aren’t much of a princess. I’ve given you the Cold Stare, I’ve been abrasive, I’ve been abrupt, short, and foul tempered. I’ve managed to set you on edge, make you nervous, keep you out of sorts, and with the way you are squirming I know that you are very uncomfortable. Never once have you stopped and asked me to treat you with respect or have you asserted your authority.” 

“You’re doing this on PURPOSE?” Twilight demanded, her eyebrows rising in alarm. 

“Well of course I am. I must say, I’m disappointed,” Violet muttered. 

“You… you… you’re still doing it right now!” Twilight stammered. 

“Show some spine,” Violet suggested as she peered at Twilight over her reading glasses. 

“YOU… YOU’RE COMING TO PONYVILLE WITH ME TO SPEAK WITH BUCKMINSTER!” Twilight angrily commanded, her temper rising. 

“Better, but not really scary. You know, I have a contact you could speak to about assertiveness lessons… his name is Iron Will… if you ever plan to be a real princess, a few lessons might do you good,” Violet Velvet remarked in a flat monotone. 

“We’re going now…” Twilight growled through gritted teeth. 



 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky stepped into the farmhouse library where the lawyer was waiting. He crossed the room quietly, looked at the pegasus once, and then he settled himself into his chair. 

“Greetings,” Bucky said, looking at the pegasus. “My name is Bucky. Please, call me Bucky. No more, no less,” he instructed. 

The pegasus, white, with grey hair, smiled at Bucky. “My name is Great Scott. No, I don’t know what my mother was thinking,” he added, chuckling softly in an attempt to be friendly. 

“What can I do for you… Scott? Might I call you that?” Bucky inquired. 

“Please do,” Great Scott replied. “First off, let me make it clear, this isn’t about money. I am not here to ask for or to get money in any way shape or form. In fact, all of my fees have been paid in advance by Mister Rich himself and all of the documentation was drawn up at his word.” 

“So then, what is the point of this unexpected visit?” Bucky questioned as he continued to study the pegasus. 

“Mister Rich had one final lesson to teach his daughter in the event of his death. After his change of heart… well, he came up with an idea you see,” Great Scott explained hesitantly. He looked over at Bucky and then stroked his chin. “Mister Rich had several foals. He wasn’t a good father to them and he knew that. He knew that he couldn’t make it up to all of them. This becomes complicated and I am only mentioning it in passing… he had one colt with one mare that he was rather fond of.” 

“I’m listening,” Bucky said in a subdued voice. 

“Well, even before his change of heart, Mister Rich was fond of this particular mare and this colt. He named the colt even you see… and then he kept things quiet. When he had his change of heart… he sort of came to the conclusion that he could teach his daughter a life lesson you see… which is why I am here,” Great Scot said, trying to choose his words carefully. 

“The point?” Bucky asked, his Taint filled eye locked on Great Scott. 

“Mister Rich, Filthy Rich, has a colt named Dirtbound. In the event of Mister Rich’s death, he wanted Dirtbound to meet Diamond Tiara, so that Diamond Tiara would know that she had a brother and so that she might get a chance to see how the other half lives… he was hoping that at some point, she would be at a place in her life where meeting Dirtbound would be meaningful… that she would understand the plight of the poor ponies and the troubles of farmers. He wanted Diamond Tiara to understand how her life might've turned out as an earth pony, and maybe gain a little humility,” Great Scott explained. The pegasus pushed his glasses up on his nasal ridge and heaved a small nervous sigh when he was done speaking. 

“I see,” Bucky acknowledged in a soft voice. “So this isn’t some cheap ploy to get to Diamond Tiara and manipulate her for money. I’m glad. This was Mister Rich just trying to be a good dad and make up for his mistakes. I take it that you have no problems allowing me access to all of the legal documentation?” 

“By all means. Everything I’ve brought with me today is yours to keep. A small amount of money has been set aside for Dirtbound. The mansion, the business assets, the remainder of his wealth, all of it is Diamond Tiara’s. There isn’t much, but the house is somewhat valuable if you could find the right buyer. Big houses really aren’t selling right now,” Great Scott replied, one wing fidgeting nervously as he spoke. 

“I would like to meet with Dirtbound before he meets with Diamond Tiara,” Bucky requested in low soft voice. “And of course, a chance to read over all of this.” 

“By all means, of course. I have an appointment coming up, so it would be best if we wrapped this up. I just wanted to drop off these papers and give you a very brief explanation if I could. I have an office here in Ponyville, so I can be reached at any time,” Great Scott responded. 

“Thank you for stopping by. I will be in touch with you in a while,” Bucky said. 



 

“Thank you for helping me keep up with my schoolwork,” Diamond Tiara said in soft weak voice to Sunset Shimmer. 

Smiling, Sunset Shimmer looked over at Diamond Tiara, who was hunched over Dinky and Piña’s desk, her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out her schoolwork. “You seem better this morning. You’re up and moving around a little bit better.” 

“I feel better… Bucky is going to take me into town later and we’re going to get some candy. You should come along,” Diamond Tiara said as she tried to make heads or tails of her geography exam. 

“Well, if you’re asking, I might come along. But Bucky might want me to stay here and guard the Empress if he’s out and about somewhere,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“It is really going to be good for her to grow up here,” Diamond Tiara murmured in reply as she tried to figure out where Mustangia was. 

“Ya think so?” Sunset asked as she approached the desk and looked over Diamond Tiara's shoulder. 

“Don’t tell me! I’ll never learn if I don’t figure it out on my own,” Diamond Tiara begged. 

“Okay, okay, I won’t give you any hints,” Sunset Shimmer said as she backed away. 

“I wish I could stay here, but I understand that I can’t,” Diamond Tiara huffed in a frustrated voice. 

“Where do you plan to go? The Apples have offered you a spot… you’ll have a room right next to Apple Bloom’s… Big Mac and Cheerilee are promising that you’ll learn the value of hard work and to appreciate the earth pony way… and on the other hoof, there is Rarity and Coco, who are promising you refinement, culture, and that you will learn the social graces that you will need as an adult,” Sunset Shimmer said as she flopped over into a chair and watched Diamond Tiara scribble something on her paper. 

“I want both,” Diamond Tiara stated. 

“Both?” Sunset Shimmer questioned. 

“I plan to ask Bucky about it today. I need both. I need to understand what it means to work and struggle but I also need what Coco and Rarity are offering. I want to stay with the Apples during the summer and for about a half of the year. I can stay with Coco and Rarity for the winter and the other half of the year. There’s no apples to be picked in the winter so there isn’t anything to do on the farm but I can still be productive and learn stuff,” Diamond Tiara explained. 

“You’ve really been thinking about this,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“A whole lot actually. It beats staring up at the ceiling or the wall. Plus, I never would have reached this conclusion without you,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“Me?” Sunset questioned. 

“You told me about all of the hard work you had to do to make up for your mistake. Your community service. You said that you had to pay your dues and now you have your reward for all of your hard work,” Diamond Tiara answered. 

“Well, that’s true, I did say that… hmph. Diamond, you’re choosing a very difficult path. I respect that. I will help you in any way that I can… because I’m like totally your big sister now. I think that Bucky will be proud of the choice that you’ve made,” Sunset Shimmer said to the earth pony foal at the desk. 

“Thanks… sis,” Diamond Tiara murmured happily. 
	
	
> Chapter 420
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ponyville seemed to be in an uproar and Twilight Sparkle sensed this the moment she stepped off of the train with Violet Velvet. She moved swiftly, feeling a deep sense of worry and concern, hurrying off towards what seemed to be the disturbance, Violet Velvet hot on her heels. 

The disturbance seemed to be in the central shopping district and focused around Bon Bon’s sweet shop. A crowd had gathered. There were griffons just outside the door and Twilight Sparkle saw Sunset Shimmer standing with the griffons. Blinking with confusion, it took Twilight Sparkle a moment to realise that Ripple was in school and not here to lead her Raptors. 

Looking around, she could see a few ponies inside of the shop, standing about, keeping a respectful distance from a figure in a black cloak. After taking all of this in, Twilight Sparkle heaved a sigh of relief. She felt a little better when she saw Sunset Shimmer waving at her. 



 

“...well then, now that you two are introduced, I’m going to go talk to Bon Bon while the both of you get acquainted,” Twilight Sparkle said to Bucky and Violet. “Oh hi Harper… yes I see you… yes I do…” 

For a moment, Bucky watched as Twilight Sparkle made silly faces at his foal and then he resumed studying Violet Velvet. “I do need the help,” he muttered, speaking mostly to himself. He watched as Violet lifted up Peekaboo and placed the foal up on the table in front of her. 

“You’re adorable!” Violet said to Peekaboo, completely ignoring Bucky. The frigid mare smiled broadly and booped Peekaboo on the nose, which made the foal begin giggling. 

“I need somepony that can manage my day to day affairs,” Bucky stated, smiling a bit as he watched Violet play with Peekaboo. “Mister Rich, my friend, he had a vast social network that aided him in getting things done. I have a bit of a worry that you will be working in my stead at a disadvantage,” he said, giving voice to his concern. Bucky’s gaze fell upon Cadance, who was sprawled out in a small portable bassinet. 

“All of which can be overcome with hard work,” Velvet responded, staring cross eyed at Peekaboo while puffing out her cheeks and waggling her ears. 

“I will have to think upon it,” Bucky said as he turned to look at Lyra, who was dealing with a customer. 

While Bucky was distracted, Violet rolled up a newspaper with her magic and then smacked Bucky in he back of the head several times in rapid succession. 

THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! 

“Oooow… what the… why?” Bucky demanded, rubbing the back of his skull and turning to glare at Violet. “Do you know who I am?” 

“Yes… you are a unicorn making a bad decision. That is who you are,” Violet responded, not caring that every eye in the shop was looking at her right now. “Every day that you dawdle making a decision is a day that nothing is getting done. It is a day that I am not networking and making things happen for you. It is a day when nothing gets accomplished.” 

Raising his hoof, Bucky made a gesture to dismiss Lyra, whose horn was glowing while arcing sparks spewed from the tip. “Will you display this same fearlessness when dealing with bureaucrats?” Bucky asked, now very serious and focused. 

“I was gentle with you because I like you. I do not like bureaucrats,” Violet replied in an icy monotone. 

“You hit me in the head with a newspaper,” Bucky stated. 

“You were being an idiot,” Violet retorted. “Idiots get punished with the sincere hope that they will stop being an idiot. It hardly ever works but it never stops me from hoping… or trying. I am the eternal optimist.” Violet resumed smiling at Peekaboo. “Who’s a cute little foal… you are!” 

“The town hall is full of idiots. Mayor Mare does a pretty good job but some of the town council… they… test my patience. Mister Rich had to deal with them for me because I just couldn’t,” Bucky said, aware that there were several customers hanging on his every word. 

“Send me in your stead,” Violet commanded as she lifted Peekaboo from the table and hugged the foal to her barrel. After giving her a squeeze, she set Peekaboo down upon the floor and then watched as the little pegasus went scurrying off. 

“My father said that the town hall was full of idiots, morons, and cretins because they were too stupid to get jobs somewhere else,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice. “That seems mean… I shouldn’t have repeated that. But he believed that it was true.” 

Violet threw her head back and guffawed at Diamond Tiara’s words. 

Harper, completely unconcerned that her father was trying to hold an interview, came wobbling up to Violet and sat down near her chair. Violet, still chuckling, looked down and saw the poofy orange ball of fluff that was Harper. Using her magic, Violet lifted the foal up and set her down on the table, right in the same spot where Peekaboo had sat. 

“Oh my… you’re cute as a button!” Violent announced. 

“Yes,” Harper agreed, looking at Violet and blinking a few times. 

“And your pelt is such a pretty indigo colour,” Violet said to the foal. 

“Whinny go?” Harper asked. 

“Purple blue,” Violet said in a gentle voice. 

“Mama mama,” Harper said as she squirmed and pointed at Bucky. 

“Don’t correct her!” Bucky warned, his eye opening wide as he looked at Violet in alarm. The mare already had her mouth open. “I’m mama mama… just leave it at that.” 

“Watch out, she zaps,” Diamond Tiara warned. 

“What a wonderful foal,” Violet said, smiling a warm smile. 

“Consider yourself hired. I could use the help. We will sort out the details when I am at home. I like how you are with foals. I have a list of things I want accomplished before Hearth’s Warming. You and I will discuss them,” Bucky said to Violet. 



 

Looking a little disappointed, Twilight Sparkle looked at Violet Velvet and then at Bucky. Her ears splaying out sideways, she turned back to Violet and she grinned sheepishly. “Well, uh, about that apartment I was hoping to talk to Bon Bon about… she is open to allowing you to stay here, but uh, well, there is already one pony living up there. Her name is Helia and she is a pegasus. Helia is fine with having a roommate though.” 

“I don’t mind having a roommate,” Violet replied, offering Twilight a grateful nod. 

“Whew… I was worried. Helia is pregnant. She really needed a place to stay,” Twilight remarked and then she took a deep breath. “Bon Bon said she doesn’t want rent. She just wants Helia treated well and looked after. This pregnancy has caused a lot of problems.” 

“Let me guess… single mare, now pregnant, challenging fringe small town conservative mentality,” Violet deadpanned as she stared at Twilight. 

“Something like that,” Twilight acknowledged. 

Nodding, Violet heaved a sigh. “I will see that she is looked after.” 



 

The wind blew through the trees as Sunset Shimmer pulled the wagon home. In the wagon, four foals lay napping in the autumn sun, one large, three small, huddled together on a blanket laid over a cushion. In the wagon with them were several griffons and walking around the wagon were a few more. Walking beside Sunset Shimmer was a black cloaked figure. 

“Master, you can ride in the wagon. I do not mind,” Sunset Shimmer said as she turned to look at Bucky. 

“I’ve augmented myself. I’m fine. Really. I’ve walked all the way out to the railroad depot and had no trouble,” Bucky responded in a soft voice that came out from beneath his hood. 

“So what do you think about what Diamond Tiara said before she became too exhausted to keep her eyes open?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she raised her eyebrow. 

“I like the idea. She’ll get the best of both worlds,” Bucky replied, his ears moving inside of his hood as he heard the wind rustling through the trees. 

The pair continued on in silence for a while, both of them looking at the autumn foliage as they trotted homewards. Most of the birds were gone now. The air was filled with the scent of dead leaves, the scent of autumn, and wood smoke. 

As a single leaf blew by, Branwen the griffoness swiped at it with her claws. 

“Master, I want to be a member of your tribe. I’ve been talking to Rising Star… I agree with what you are doing. I’ve seen what you have done in just bringing the griffons and the ponies together. Baltimare is already easing off centuries of interspecies tensions. I believe strongly in your work,” Sunset Shimmer said, breaking the silence. 

“I already see you as one of my own,” Bucky replied and then fell silent once more. 

“The Founder’s Foals. Children of a new world and a new way of thinking. The old way of thinking didn’t do us much good,” Sunset Shimmer said as a strong wind sent a flurry of leaves flying all around her, the leaves matching the colours of her coat, her mane, and her tail. 

“The Founders did not fail. We did. Mistakes were made, sure, Princess Platinum trusted her foals too much with too much power, but I still believe in their vision. Tribal divisions must go. To that end, species divisions must also go. We face an enemy that you can barely begin to comprehend and the whole of the world must come together if we are to survive. If we do not come together and allow the fires of friendship to warm our hearts, we will be destroyed by the metaphorical windigos,” Bucky said to Sunset Shimmer, hoping that his griffons were also listening. 

“It’s funny Master… I do not even think of Bartleby as a griffon anymore. He is just… my friend. His voice is comforting. I welcome his touch. I appreciate his attentiveness. But there are moments where the fact that he is a griffon escapes me,” Sunset Shimmer admitted as she pulled the creaking and squeaking wagon along. 

On the road ahead, the first signs of the farm came into view. Several tall towers rose above the treeline and part of the school was visible. A lone squirrel crossed the road in front of them. A strong gust of wind sent a whirlwind of leaves aflutter. Ahead of them, rows of houses were still being constructed for teachers to live in. 

“I am glad that Bartleby makes you happy,” Bucky responded after several minutes of thoughtful reflection. 



 

Grateful to be home, Bucky exited the bathroom and then walked down the hall to the nursery where Cadance and Harper were being put to bed, both of them still sleepy. Peekaboo was wide awake and could be heard chattering away to Lugus in the living room, telling her daddy about candy in her squeaky foalish voice.

Moving through the nursery door, Bucky saw Sunset Shimmer and Derpy both standing with their heads over the crib rail, looking down at the two yawning and somewhat fussy foals, both of whom were upset that their nap had been interrupted. 

“Bon Bon put a little taste of caramel on Harper’s tongue. Harper went nuts,” Bucky said to Derpy. “She begged for more.” 

“I bet that was cute,” Derpy replied as she felt Bucky’s face press up against her side, just ahead of her hips but behind her ribs. 

“How about you and I go into the back bedroom and talk about these twins of ours?” Bucky suggested as he rubbed his cheek against Derpy. 

Smiling, Sunset Shimmer looked at Derpy, who looked a little flustered. 

Letting out a burble, Cadance began to kick around and fuss. Her horn glowed for a moment and a strange perfumed smell filled the nursery. A thin pink beam of energy shot from her horn and struck Bucky dead on, causing him to collapse to the floor in a heap. 

“Bucky!” Derpy cried, dropping her head down to look at him. 

Laying on the floor, Bucky was limp, unmoving, a big dopey grin on his face. He was drooling, a puddle of slobber was spreading over the hardwood floor. One ear twitched and flickered back and forth. His dock twitched, causing his tail to swish. 

“Ish loveshoo,” Bucky mumbled. 

“He’s drunk,” Sunset Shimmer said, looking down at Bucky and then at Derpy. 

“Ish loveshooshomush,” Bucky moaned, his words slurring together. 

Sunset Shimmer began to back away from the crib. “I’m not ready to love anypony just yet,” she said fearfully, shaking her head. 

“What did she do to him?” Derpy asked. 

“I dunno, but I would say that he is drunk on love,” Sunset replied as she kept backing away from the crib. 

“He’s really happy,” Derpy whispered. “Is it wrong that I’m happy to see him like this?” 

“Shexshy Shpegashush,” Bucky babbled. 

“Has anybody raised a type five magic foal before?” Sunset Shimmer inquired as Bucky began to giggle uncontrollably. “I’m going to go and get Twilight. Stay here and look after him. Make sure he’s okay.” 
	
	
> Chapter 421
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bent over the kitchen counter, Pinkie Pie moaned. Behind her, she heard Cheese Sandwich grunting; she could feel his warm body pressed tightly up against her, his forelegs wrapped around her sides. She could feel his laboured breathing, every hot breath as he breathed in and out, panting from his exertion. 

“Harder Cheesy! I think we’ve almost got it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed breathlessly.

“Too tight! Pinkie Pie! Too tight!” Cheese grunted as he strained and struggled. 

“Keep trying Cheesy! We’re earth ponies!” Pinkie Pie commanded as she felt Cheese Sandwich rubbing back and forth against her back. “Try ramming it in all of the way and then yanking it out!” the pink party pony suggested. 

His barrel heaving with exertion, Cheese Sandwich did as he was told. He slammed it in as hard as he dared and then yanked out as hard as he could. “Pinkie… it’s still stuck. I can’t get it more than halfway out!” 

“Harder Cheesy! Harder!” Pinkie Pie demanded as she was banged into the counter by Cheese Sandwich, who redoubled his efforts at her request. “Brace your back legs and shove it in there as hard as you can! Really hard Cheesy! Use me for leverage!” Pinkie Pie shouted. When she felt Cheese Sandwich’s whole body tense up for the big effort, she moaned in anticipation as she felt his taut tummy muscles flex against her croup. 

“What’s going on in here?” Cup Cake asked as she entered the kitchen, looking rather concerned. She frowned. “Oh dear, is it stuck again?” she asked. “Carrot! Get in here!” The somewhat chubby earth pony trotted to the counter, reared up, and wrapped her forelegs around Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie. 

“Coming honeybunches!” Carrot Cake announced as he came into the kitchen and drew near. He reared up and wrapped his forelegs around Cup Cake, Cheese Sandwich, and Pinkie Pie. “Okay everypony, family effort. Remember, Pinkie Pie is a tough little scrapper, she can take all we give her and then some. All together now!” 

“I tried to tell Cheesy that if he didn’t bang it in just right it would get stuck again!” Pinkie Pie complained as she felt three earth ponies now leaning against her back. “Now we have to gang bang to fix this problem. Shame on you Cheese!” 

“I did it again! It’s hung up in there! I can only pull it out just a little bit!” Cheese Sandwich shouted as he redoubled his grip around Pinkie Pie. He could feel her soft curly tail brushing up against his right hind leg and he tried not to giggle from the ticklish sensation. 

“Carrot, you know I’m a sturdy mare… use those long legs of yours and brace yourself. You give me a good shove, I’ll give Cheese a good shove, and I’ll drive him right into Pinkie Pie as hard as the three us can. Pinkie Pie, make sure to wiggle it up and down it as it goes in,” Cup Cake commanded. 

“Is it stuck again?” Twist asked as she stood in the doorway staring. She shook her head. “My new parents are weird,” she complained in a nasal lisp. Shaking her head, Twist trotted off, snorting with amusement. “You need to bang harder! Even I know how to bang it properly and I’m just a foal.” 

“Heave!” Cup Cake commanded and then braced herself as she felt her husband ram forward, slamming into her back. She exhaled breathlessly when she felt her husband’s finely muscled body against her.  She braced herself against Cheese and pushed forward, using her husband’s momentum. Cup heard Pinkie Pie let out a grunt as she was plowed into by Cheese Sandwich. 

“OoooooOOOOOoooooOOOooh! That hit the spot!” Pinkie Pie squealed as she felt the crushing weight of three earth ponies behind her, driving her into the counter. “Pull out! Pull out! It’s coming!” she commanded. 

Working in unison, all four earth ponies yanked and finally the stuck kitchen drawer worked free. All four of them fell backwards onto the floor, heaving and panting with exertion. 

“Stupid drawer! We really need to get that fixed!” Pinkie Pie hollered. 



 

“I need to know what happened. Try to give me details,” Twilight Sparkle instructed as she examined Bucky’s limp body. His slitted pupil kept changing size rapidly and he lay there giggling as she prodded him. 

“Cadance zapped him!” Derpy cried. 

“Um, actually, Bucky was, um, kind of flirting with Derpy,” Sunset Shimmer explained in an embarrassed voice. “He was… um… touching her and being very affectionate.” 

“Hmm,” Twilight Sparkle hummed, looking thoughtful. 

“And they were right next to the crib,” Sunset Shimmer added helpfully. 

Looking bashful, Derpy smiled. “Bucky was rubbing me where my tummy has a bulge now… it felt really good… really really good. The kind of good where you go moist and everything feels all hot and sticky back there.” 

“Too much detail!” Twilight protested, backing away from Derpy as she did so. Shaking her head, Twilight Sparkle squeezed her eyes shut. “Cadance draws power off of love and affection. I think you gave her a surge. Cadance, being Cadance, shared the love. Probably by accident.” Opening her eyes, Twilight looked at Bucky, feeling worried.

“So pure concentrated love. Master has been put down and knocked out by love,” Sunset Shimmer stated. “Considering who he is, love is probably an anathema to him.” 

“A being that feeds on hate being hit by pure love… look at him… he’s as harmless as a newborn right now,” Twilight Sparkle said, feeling inspired by Sunset Shimmer’s line of thought. 

“Well, if Master ever goes rogue, we know how to bring him down,” Sunset Shimmer stated, a wry smile upon her lips. 

“Sunset!” Twilight snapped. 

“Master gave me instructions to find creative ways to take him down and render him helpless in the event of an emergency. I’ve come up with exactly nothing. I even ambushed him one night in his office up at the top of the tower just to see what might work. He sucked the fire out of me and left me completely helpless on his office floor. I’ve been worried ever since Twilight. Master demands results when he gives commands,” Sunset Shimmer explained. 

“You ambushed him and he was able to resist you?” Twilight asked incredulously. 

“Master seems to be improving when it comes to defensive spells. He used some dark magic abjurations and defensive enchantments that I have no knowledge of. He laid me low in a hurry,” Sunset Shimmer replied, looking Twilight Sparkle in the eye as she spoke. 

“Bucky has been studying more since he came back from Las Pegasus,” Derpy remarked. “Those black books. The ones that make the air around them feel freezing cold and if you stare at them your eyesight goes blurry and your head starts to ache.” 

“Yes… those books,” Twilight said with a shiver. “Does he keep those in the house?” 

“Not any more… they are all in his tower. In his vault where he keeps that weird orb and in his office,” Derpy answered. “I’ve been in his vault a few times now. There are weird things in there Twilight. Spooky stuff.” 

“I could imagine,” Twilight responded and then shivered again. “Bucky should be fine. Just let him sleep it off. He’ll probably sleep like a foal after a while.” 



 

Keeping a watchful eye upon his sister, Rumble sat at the edge of the school playground with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom on one side of him, and Scootaloo on the other. He watched as Cloudstreaker played with Dinky and Piña, glad to see his sister happy. 

“My parents didn’t kill me. My dad was actually proud of me for owning up to my mistake and working hard. He didn’t let my mothers touch me,” Rumble said to the fillies around him. 

“Big Mac started to punish me, but Cheerilee wouldn’t let him. She said it was clear I suffered enough. He was still plenty angry though, but after he heard about all the work I did, he slid me an extra slice of pie that night after dinner,” Apple Bloom said as she watched the other foals playing on the playground. 

“We’re just foals but we made a difference in other ponies lives,” Rumble said in a low solemn voice. “I wanted to grow up and be in the guard. Go out and beat up stuff that threatens us. Now… after Baltimare… helping other ponies… I think… I think I’d like to be a police officer like my dad maybe. I want to keep saving ponies.” The little pegasus colt lifted his head higher and a proud expression came over his face as he assumed a dominant protective posture. 

“I gotta be off to the hospital in a little while,” Sweetie Belle announced. 

“What do they have you do there?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“Well, I haven’t done it very long, just a couple of days, but usually I go around to the older ponies that are there and I just talk to them. I go into their room, sit by their bed, say hello and then sit back and listen. I also read newspapers to some of them. I read books to foals. Simple stuff really… but really important stuff I suppose,” Sweetie Belle answered, her voice squeaking from nervousness. “I saw Babs.” 

“How is she?” Scootaloo inquired, looking at Sweetie Belle. 

“Better. They are going to release her soon. Some kinda healing stuff from the princesses made her all better… the doctors are just watching her now. She still has some pain but she seems okay,” Sweetie Belle responded, looking first at Scootaloo and then at Apple Bloom. 

“My sister has been real torn up over this,” Apple Bloom said in a worried voice. “She cries a lot. She keeps telling me to give Bucky a hug whenever I see him and say thank you to him for all that he does for us earth ponies… I think my sister needs more sleep again.” 

“I think my sister needs glasses,” Rumble mumbled in a disheartened voice. 

“There’s a lot of pressure on a pegasus to see well,” Scootaloo remarked. 

“I know. I said something in front my parents and they all glared at me. At least Flitter said that she was going to schedule an eye appointment,” Rumble said as he watched his sister play. 

“I can’t believe that Sentinel is staying after school to help Cheerilee grade papers,” Apple Bloom said as she kicked the ground with her front hoof. “And when I offered to help she gave me the brush off. I speak real good.” 



 

“Bonnie, I gotta admit, this is making me drip,” Lyra confessed as she looked down at Bon Bon’s newest confection. It was a hunk of chocolate molded to look like a partially opened marehood. Deep down in the split crevasse, there was gooey raspberry filling. Lyra really wanted to slip her tongue into there and lick some out. 

“I’m still working on the molds but I plan to make chocolate -ahem- stallion parts and maybe even little chocolate pony puckers,” Bon Bon announced as she gave Lyra a lascivious wink. 

“That’s a chocolate cun-mmmphle!” 

Golden Harvest’s words were cut of by Bon Bon forcibly inserting a chocolate marehood into her mouth. The earth pony stood there chewing in shock and surprise. Her eyes went wide. 

“Mmm, raspberry,” Golden Harvest announced around a mouthful of chocolate. 

“I’m also planning on a messier version that is more split open and is stuffed with marshmallow fluff,” Bon Bon said to the mares present .

“Some mares might like that… I guess,” Lyra stared, looking just a little disturbed. 

“Some stallions too,” Helia announced. “I dated a stallion that loved to lick up his own mess after he was done.” 

“EW!” Lyra shouted, cringing in disgust as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Dick vomit!” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon scolded. 

“No, you don’t get to scold me…  you made chocolate foal holes… you know, the raspberry filling makes it look kinda bloodied,” Lyra retorted and after a pause, shared her observation. 

“So freshly split filly bits and freshly creamed filly bits… lovely,” Golden Harvest remarked in a snarky monotone. 

“We needed something that will make ponies talk,” Bon Bon said defensively. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 422
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day was just about the perfect day for what was planned. It would be just warm enough to be pleasant, but also just cool enough to allow a pony to run without becoming overheated. The sun would be warm, but not oppressive. The breeze would be cool and crisp. The leaves were just perfect; all around Ponyville the world was ablaze with the colours of autumn. 

The same colours of autumn that had once graced Barley O’Blivion’s mane and tail. 

All over Ponyville, ponies awoke, had breakfast, and prepared for a run, the yearly Running of the Leaves. The race where anypony could win and wind up as a minor celebrity. The whole town was in a festive mood. In the town square, several large kegs were made ready for the celebration that was to take place after the race had been run. After a long series of tragic events, started by the collapse that had happened in the summer, the town was ready to celebrate happier times. 



 

“You’re gonna run Sparky?” Derpy asked, surprised to see Sparkler up and moving around at this hour. She smooched her daughter upon the cheek as she passed by the dining room table. 

Yawning, Sparkler nodded. “Run through woods. Finish race. Run home. Sleep. Sweet sleep. Wake up, pull night shift,” she mumbled as she sat at the table, various parts of her body trembling from her condition. 

“You’re gonna eat my dust Loch Skimmer,” Ripple crowed just before tearing into a plate full of pancakes. She shoveled in several bites, licked syrup from her muzzle, and then stuck her tongue out at her sister. 

“Probably. I’m not a fast runner,” Loch Skimmer admitted in a soft voice. “But long after other ponies drop dead from exhaustion, I just keep going.” The pegasus took a bite, chewed her food thoughtfully, and she contemplated her sister as she ate. 

“Sometimes I think Loch Skimmer has more endurance than I do,” Rising Star mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes. He smacked his lips loudly and then swallowed. “You ready for the filly fun run?” Rising Star asked Piña. 

Lifting her fork, Piña looked troubled for a moment. “Filly fun run is wrong. There are going to be colts there. I know Rumble plans to run,” Piña said, sounding a bit upset. 

“Filly fun run rhymes a little bit and sounds like fun,” Derpy explained as she sat down at the table after checking over each of her foals, both large and small. 

“So why not filly fun run and colt bolt?” Piña questioned. “Sexism starts at an early age.” 

“Piña… how much time do you spend talking with Berry to come up with this stuff?” Derpy asked as she rubbed her face with her fetlock. 

“Um, that’s my fault. I said something earlier,” Loch Skimmer admitted. 

“Sexism does start too early… it starts off with preconceived gender roles being thrust upon us at an early age. Colts play with action figures. Fillies play with dolls. One implies action, movement, excitement… the other is something that just lays there and does nothing, until you interact with it, the subconscious mental desire of the perfect female figure manifesting in the form of a toy. You play with a doll and give it life. When you are done, you cast the doll down and it just lies there, waiting for your return, where you will give it life once more,” Piña said as she tapped her chin with her spoon. 

“Oh for the love of the stars, Piña spends too much time reading,” Derpy grumbled.

“Hmm, she’s kinda right,” Loch Skimmer remarked. 

“I’m an action figure,” Ripple announced around a mouth full of pancake. 

“Nothing wrong with being feminine and soft,” Dinky said, her face taking on a sullen expression. She took a bite of pancakes and dribbled sticky syrup down her chin. 

“Cheer up Dinky,” Diamond Tiara said in a soft somewhat raspy voice. She lifted up a spoonful of oatmeal and held it at the ready. “You look sad,” the earth pony commented just before sticking the spoon in her mouth. 

“I’m feminine and soft,” Piña announced. The foal inhaled sharply, held her breath for a moment, and then let go. “BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUURP!” 

Loch Skimmer’s fork fell to the table with a clatter and the wide eyed pegasus filly began to clop her front hooves together, giving Piña a well deserved round of applause. After several moments, she picked up her fork in her hoof and resumed eating. 

“Barley and Luna must be sleeping in,” Ripple said in between bites. 

“I hope Bucky didn’t disappoint her too much. He was kinda out of it last night, even after he recovered,” Derpy said in a worried voice after she swallowed a bite of breakfast. 

Swallowing, Sentinel ended his silence. “Father is learning how to control his shadow nature. He can now shadow dive without manifesting his toxic nature or the bone chilling cold. We’re learning umbrakinesis.” 

“What the stuffing is umbrakinesis?” Sparkler questioned. 

“It works like telekinesis… you move stuff with your mind by manifesting harmony magic that can interact with solid matter. Umbrakinesis does much the same, only with shadowstuff that can become solid enough to interact with solid matter. Last night, I was able to create an umbrakinetic shield around my body that protected me against some solid projectiles being thrown at me by Luna. Father… father needs to practice a bit more,” Sentinel said, coming as close as he dared to criticising his father. 

“You sound special,” Loch Skimmer said in a soft voice that contained no hint of teasing. 

“Luna says that I have the potential to become an umbramancer… a shadow wizard. She says that my real strength does not reside in my muscles, tendons, and sinews. She’s frustrated with me… she wants me to try harder. I am trying as hard as I can… she expects even more from me. I don’t know how to give more,” Sentinel responded, his brow furrowing with worry as he continued to speak. 

“Sentinel, little brother… sometimes we give more by just smiling. It’s the attitude. I give everything I do all I have in me to give, and I do it smiling and happy… I don’t sit there moping and asking about how do I give more… I just try as hard as I can and then I make sure I look happy and content doing it without acting all moody about it. Ponies then assume that I have nothing more to give. Not sure why,” Loch Skimmer explained to Sentinel in a slow patient voice. 

His eyes going wide, Sentinel sat there and stared at his older sibling. He blinked a few times, his slitted eyes filled with curiousity, and he sat there in mute silence. 

“Well, I’m gonna take that advice,” Diamond Tiara murmured softly as she rubbed her stomach. The earth pony rubbed herself for a few moments more and then resumed eating her oatmeal. 

“Once again, Loch Skimmer manages to completely floor me,” Rising Star muttered as he set his fork down upon his empty plate. “I don’t know how I got so lucky.” 



 

Away from the gathered crowd, Princess Luna stood, head high, looking down upon Flash Sentry with a stony expressionless face. Her wings remained still at her sides, the only things that moved upon her were the occasional blink of her eyes, the flaring of her nostrils as she breathed, and her ethereal mane and tail as they billowed in a nonexistent wind.

Feeling his frogs begin to sweat, Flash Sentry swallowed and waited for Princess Luna to say something. She was impossible to read and Flash couldn’t tell if she was angry or happy to see him. She just stood there, very much resembling an alicorn statue. 

“You requested help,” Princess Luna stated as she looked at Flash Sentry. “Your request was deemed worthwhile. The Lunar Court has taken pity upon your plight. But we are not alone. The Solar Court has taken an interest as well. This town is my sister’s greatest project, her hope, the culmination of all of her dreams, and she would see it protected by good and virtuous defenders such as yourself. You will be given additional funding and resources in exchange for results. We demand measurable results in exchange for our aid. Do not fail us. This is your first and only warning. Do not look so frightened. My sister and I would not have offered aid if we believed you to be incapable or inept. We have the utmost confidence in both you and Sparkler’s abilities. I have come bearing gifts for you.” 

When she was done speaking, Princess Luna levitated a box out of the wagon where Barley was currently sprawled out upon a soft cushion. She held it before Flash Sentry and opened it slowly. Inside were a collection of badges. Each badge was half sun and half moon, the sun made out of gold and the moon made out of silver. 

“You now have the rank of captain as well. Sparkler has been informed of her rank change but she has not seen the badges. I will be giving one to her later. I will be distributing these myself to your constables and praising them for their efforts. Remain true Day Captain Flash Sentry. Give my sister and I what we demand,” Princess Luna said in a strict formal voice. 

Whipping out one wing, Flash Sentry raised it in salute to Princess Luna, his body tensing to attention. “Mistress, I will not disappoint. I will give to you the results that which you are owed and rightfully deserve in exchange for your favour. Thank you for giving me the pleasure of serving both you and your sister. I am grateful.” 

“Very good Flash Sentry. I cannot help but notice your choice of words. Your allegiance will be… rewarded. Should you require further aid, you have but to ask Buckminster, my apprentice and dutiful servant,” Princess Luna responded. The alicorn’s posture shifted somewhat and she relaxed ever so slightly. “You should know… Rainbow Dash dreams of little orange foals with distinctive prismatic manes and tails. Bunches of them.” 

Flash Sentry gulped loudly; he felt his knees wobble as Princess Luna turned and walked away, chuckling to herself as she departed. He looked over at Barley, who was easing himself out of the wagon to follow Princess Luna and saw that the old stallion had a rakish grin. 

“The Lunar Court looks after their own,” Barley chuckled as he took off after Luna. 



 

Looking around, Ripple checked out the other runners. There was a large herd of ponies this year and excitement filled the air. The last of the birds chirped in the trees. She saw Twilight Sparkle stretching her long legs and Rainbow Dash was unkinking her spine. She saw Coco gracefully standing on two legs, then shift, and then the graceful earth pony stood on two different legs. Beside her, Rarity looked apprehensive, and Ripple figured that Rarity was worried about sweating. 

There was no sign of Applejack, a pony whose name was almost synonymous with the Running of the Leaves marathon. Ripple felt a brief pang of sadness. There were Apples here though. Big Mac and Cheerilee both were preparing to run and Ripple watched as the big stallion reacted to being nosed and prodded by Cheerilee, looking flustered and embarrassed. 

Pinkie Pie was bouncing and pronking around, unable to stand still, with Cheese Sandwich gamboling beside her. The pair seemed inseparable. Ripple watched them, glad to see Pinkie Pie happy, remembering all too well how the earth pony had fallen into such a despondent state. 

“Sheesh, I’m still sore from the gang bang in the kitchen… you and the Cakes really banged me hard,” Pinkie Pie said to Cheese Sandwich. 

Gasping, Ripple felt her ears spontaneously combust. 



 

With the blast of an air horn, the marathon began and the herd of ponies all took off running as fast as they could, except for two ponies that didn’t. Princess Twilight Sparkle and Loch Skimmer took off at a leisurely canter, seeing no need to go tearing off at full gallop. They cantered side by side, smiling at one another, the smaller pegasus filly beaming, feeling joyous to have a friend to run with. The pair watched as the herd left them in the dust. 

“I didn’t know Mister Rich that well,” Loch Skimmer said as she kept pace with Twilight Sparkle. “It was real nice to dedicate this race to him though. He seemed like a good sort.” 

Still trying to get used to her long legs, Twilight found that she had to concentrate just a bit on her running. “He wasn’t always a good sort. He had a change of heart. After his change of heart, Mister Rich became the sort of pony that Ponyville needed. He had a vision. He knew that Bucky would return. He laboured to have the school built. After Bucky returned, he and Mister Rich wanted Ponyville to be the place that ponies thought of when they thought of education. I’m going to make sure that dream comes true.” 

“Whatcha planning?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Bucky has his school and it should open before Nightmare Night. I want a university. Ponyville University. I have big plans of my own. Bucky is the Guardian and I’m the Scholar, but he started the school… so I have to do something,” Twilight Sparkle replied. 

“Sounds neat,” Loch Skimmer remarked as she cantered along, her hooves striking a steady rhythm upon the ground. 

“All those gourd houses gave me an idea. I am going to gather every unicorn I can find with tree shaping skills and I’m going to create a living university campus… it will be like the Ponyville Public Library. The entire campus will be living trees. Classrooms… lecture rooms… more libraries… a whole forest of knowledge. When I close my eyes, I can see it Loch and it looks so beautiful!” Twilight Sparkle said, revealing her vision as she ran. 



 

Pouring on a little speed, Ripple surged ahead, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. Her hooves cut divots into the earth and kicked up clods as she passed the other ponies. Ahead, she had a target that she was determined to catch. 

A streaming prismatic tail. 

Her nostrils flaring, Ripple commanded more speed from her legs. Her ears pinned back against her skull and her head lowered. She pulled her wings even tighter against her sides, trying to reduce drag. Her pale blue mane whipped around her neck and her long blue tail flowed out behind her, the ends flapping, making little whip-crack sounds. 

Grinning, Ripple blew past Rainbow Dash. 

“What the… HEY!” Rainbow Dash gasped. “I belong out front!” the sky blue pegasus shouted as she watched Ripple blow past her. Digging deep, Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and gave it all she had, determined to put the young upstart in her place, the pegasus mare now chasing Ripple with every bit of speed she could muster. 



 

Pronking along, Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life as she effortlessly bounded along. Her blue eyes twinkled with merriment as she bounced alongside Cheese Sandwich, who was being a bit of a showoff and pronking along backwards. 

“Hey! Hey Cheesy!” Pinkie Pie chirped, trying to get Cheese Sandwich’s attention. 

“Yeah Pinkie?” Cheese Sandwich replied. 

“You know all that time we spent putting batter in the oven?” Pinkie remarked as she bounced along. When she was done speaking she let her tongue dangle out and performed a cartwheel. Never slowing down, she resumed running after cartwheeling. 

Blushing as he bounded along backwards, Cheese Sandwich nodded. He thought about how much Pinkie Pie enjoyed licking the batter as well. 

“Well Cheesy, I’m going to need you to set a timer for about eleven months I think. I discovered a new Pinkie sense.. this one involves my baby making button. It keeps buzzing!” Pinkie Pie announced, grinning from ear to ear as she gave Cheese the news. 

“I’m gonna be a father?” Cheese asked, his eyes going wide. “This is fantastic! Eleven month long pregnacy party! We need to celebrate!” 

“I’ve turned my body into a party cannon for the occasion!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “In eleven months, I’m gonna go boom and make a mess in the room!” 



 

“See Loch, slow and steady wins the race,” Twilight Sparkle announced as the pair passed a group of panting ponies that had slowed to a brisk walk. 

“I’m not even tired. I could keep going like this all day if I had to,” Loch Skimmer remarked. 

The unlikely pair continued moving along at a steady canter, the filly and the princess moving along in unison. Twilight was moving with fluid grace now, now having found the rhythm in her longer legs. Loch Skimmer moved with the steady tireless gait that reflected how the filly approached everything in her life, taking everything in stride. 

“You know, this works for sex too,” Loch Skimmer said, trying to strike up a conversation with Twilight Sparkle, who instantly went red at Loch Skimmer’s words. “You can have really fast hot sweaty sex that’s over before it really gets fun… or you can slow down and take the slow and steady approach. Not lazy lovemaking mind you, although that can be fun too, but you have good sticky athletic sex that lasts for a long time if you pace yourself.” 

“So what’s the secret?” Twilight Sparkle asked in a breathy voice as she felt the cool wind trailing over her too hot ears. “I mean, can you give me some tips?” 

“Oh I can tell you everything!” Loch Skimmer responded as she cast a sidelong glance at Twilight Sparkle. 



 

Rarity believed that she was dying. She was drenched, soaked with sweat, the chill autumn air offered no cooling relief. She was burning up, consumed by fire, all of her muscles were inflamed. She cast a pouting glance at Coco beside her, sweet adorable Coco that wasn’t even sweating or breathing hard. 

“I cannot believe that Twilight Sparkle and Loch Skimmer just passed us… they’re not even breathing hard,” Rarity panted, each breath burning like fire in her lungs. 

“Well, their conversation made my pulse quicken, that’s for certain,” Coco replied. 

“Gauche!” Rarity wailed, too breathless to even form a complete dramatic utterance. 

“Oh you and your drama,” Coco said as she rolled her eyes, her steady gait causing her hooves to make dainty clopping sounds as they struck the dirt. “Do you find my teats attractive?” 

“I… I find… I find every… I find every inch of you attractive,” Rarity panted in reply. 

“I wish that you would pay them more attention. You nibble on everything but those,” Coco remarked as she looked over at the gasping unicorn mare. “It makes me feel as though you don’t appreciate them.” 

Heaving out a ragged gasp, Rarity veered sideways and slammed into Coco, causing her to veer. She slammed again, pushing her over to the side of the road. She could feel Rarity’s soaked pelt rubbing up against her own. 

“What are you doing?” Coco demanded, looking rather confused as Rarity tried to push her off of the course. 

“I am pushing you into the bushes where I am going to ravish you and give your perfect teats the attention that they deserve. We are going to have dirty disgusting sex upon the filthy ground you dirty little earth pony!” Rarity replied, her voice a needy growl. 

“Oh that sounds like fun!” Coco responded as she veered off into the bushes. 



 

With a crow of triumph, Rainbow Dash pulled ahead, with Ripple just inches away from her hip. Both were sweating. A big turn was coming up and Rainbow Dash planned to force Ripple to fight along the inside of the turn. She began to lean her body over, veering towards Ripple as they went into the turn. 

Sensing what Rainbow Dash was doing, Ripple tried to hold her ground, not wanting to be pushed over as they went around the long sharp curve. Rainbow Dash was fighting a little dirty and Ripple didn’t mind. She enjoyed the hard competition. Pulling back her lips, she bared her teeth, stretched out her neck, and clamped down on Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. 

“OWIE ZOWIE YOU DIRTY LITTLE PLOT BITER!” Rainbow Dash cried out in a raspy voice that was filled with pain. She tightened down upon the corner, forcing Ripple to run in a tighter turn. 

Ripple, running full out, knew she was faster than Rainbow Dash, she just needed to get out of this corner and on a straightaway so Rainbow Dash wasn’t holding her back. Rainbow Dash might have been the faster flier, but Ripple knew that overall, she was the faster runner. 

Her hooves thudding, she slammed the side of her head into Rainbow Dash’s hip, trying to force Rainbow Dash over. She was on the very edge of the road now, and she had to slow down because the trees and bushes were tearing at her sides. 

Moving at breakneck speeds, Ripple’s hooves kicked through the leaves at the side of the road, sending them flying. Leaned over around the turn, her hooves hit a patch of loose gravel that was unseen beneath the leaves at the side of the road. She let out a cry as she felt her left front hoof lose all traction, and then there was a painful twist as her fetlock bent in a way that nature never intended. 

Turning just in time to watch Ripple go down, Rainbow Dash let out a cry of panic. She immediately took to the air, not even trying to slow down or come to a halt, and she looped back over, returning to the fallen filly. 

“Ripple?” Rainbow Dash questioned in a pleading voice, hovering over where Ripple’s body had finally come to a skidding sliding halt. She could see Ripple’s front leg was already swelling above the hoof. Without even thinking, she scooped up Ripple in her forelegs. Charcoal grey feathers streaked with blood fluttered down to the ground like the falling autumn leaves. 

Ripple said nothing, holding it all in, determined not to cry out or make a sound. 

“Hold on Ripple… just hold on,” Rainbow Dash said as she carefully pulled Ripple to her. When she had Ripple secured, Rainbow Dash shot skywards, leveled out, and then went streaking off towards Ponyville, leaving a rainbow coloured contrail behind her. 



 

“One of us has to take the lead,” Loch Skimmer said to Twilight. “Go ahead.” 

“No you, I insist,” Twilight offered. 

“No no no… princesses deserve to go first,” Loch Skimmer politely argued. 

“This is getting us nowhere,” Twilight retorted as she rolled her eyes. “Please, Loch Skimmer, you’ve been so good natured this whole run. You go ahead.” 

“Nope. Not happening,” Loch Skimmer responded as she shook her head. 

“Fine… together then or not at all,” Twilight remarked. 

“Okay,” Loch Skimmer replied as the pair crossed over the finish line together. 



 

“Mmm the rutting of the leaves,” Sparkler murmured as she rolled over and threw a leg over Rising Star who lay on the ground beside her. 

“I wonder how many ponies are doing what we were doing just a few minutes ago?” Rising Star questioned as he pulled Sparkler closer. “And about to do again in just a few minutes.” 

“Just save some energy so we can make it to the finish line,” Sparkler whispered suggestively. “I like a hot sweaty sticky finish…” 

“You’re so beautiful with all of those leaves in your mane,” Rising Star whispered just before he began to use his lips to nibble upon Sparkler’s ear. He gave a tug and heard a fillyish squeal of delight. 



 

“We both walked away with fourth place together,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Better than my previous attempt when I scored fifth place.” 

“I’m happy about it,” Loch Skimmer said in a subdued voice. 

“Sorry about your sister… gonna go see her?” Twilight questioned. 

“In a bit. Barley said she’s okay. Badly twisted fetlock and a sprained wing from how she fell on it. A lot of scrapes on her side. She’s a tough little filly though,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“Wow, Rarity and Coco are a mess… I wonder if they fell down as well,” Twilight remarked when she saw her friends. “They’re covered in dirt, twigs, and leaves. Rarity looks… messy. I bet she’s in a bad mood.” 

“Rainbow Dash is going to be in a bad mood… she forfeited the race,” Loch Skimmer said as she looked at Coco and Rarity. “It’s good she helped Ripple though.” 

“Everything will be fine I think,” Twilight Sparkle stated as she looked around at the crowd. “So… how about next year you and I take third place together?” 
	
> Chapter 423
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh my gosh you must hate me… I’m sorry,” Rainbow Dash said to Derpy as she cowered in a chair placed in the corner of the room. The pegasus was trembling and her eyes were teary. 

“Why would I hate you?” Derpy asked in a patient voice. 

“Because I did this. I forced her into the edge of the corner… I was being too compet-” 

“I bit you on your backside,” Ripple interrupted. The filly hissed as the nurse pressed the staple gun to her side and shot another staple in. 

“Accidents happen,” Derpy said dismissively. “You did the right thing. You got her to the hospital as fast as possible.” 

“The sooner we can get the swelling down on a sprained fetlock the better. If the swelling gets out of hoof it prolongs the time needed to heal up,” Nurse Snowheart said as she pressed the stapler against Ripple in a new spot and pressed in. “All that swelling displaces the tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissues.” 

“There’s no hard feelings… hoo that stings,” Ripple muttered as there was a another click from the stapler. 

“I feel bad… a filly got hurt because of me,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, cringing when she saw the stapler pressed against Ripple’s ribs and depressed. 

“Hey, I had my own hoof in this thank you very much. I was busy trying to show you up and take you down a peg. I refused to give ground and was determined to fight it out,” Ripple barked in an angry voice. 

“Rainbow Dash,” Nurse Redheart said as she entered the room. She smiled at the pegasus. “You were bitten upon the right buttock. It broke the skin. Would you mind getting up out of that chair, turning around, and facing the window?” 

“Why?” Rainbow Dash whined. 

“Because I am going to stick this into your backside,” Nurse Redheart announced as she pulled a massive syringe from her smock. 

“No.. NO… no… we can talk about this right? This is optional? Stay back! I’m married to a princess! I’m warning you!” Rainbow Dash cried as she cowered in her chair. 

“Oh don’t be such a foal,” Nurse Redheart grumbled. 

“Sorry Dash… really sorry,” Ripple apologised. “This is the cost of competition.” 



 

“Real shame that Sparky took off home,” Berry Punch said as she sat on a blanket in the grass and drinking soft cider. She looked around at the festive celebration and smiled. “Cheerilee is getting a bit of a bulge on her,” she remarked. 

“I wonder how many new foals there will be eleven months from now,” Bon Bon said as she lifted her head high and sniffed. “You can smell it. The rutting of the leaves. Get enough earth ponies together in one location and we mess with fertility. This is the reason why there are foals born in the late summer.” 

“Hmmm... Bonnie… we’ve had our own roll in the leaves last year,” Lyra remarked as she lifted a mug of hard cider to her lips. “Think Ripple will be okay?” 

“She’ll be fine. Our little pegasus filly is made out of sterner stuff,” Bon Bon replied, not sounding the least bit worried. Leaning over, Bon Bon planted a kiss on Berry Punch’s cheek. “We should be getting back to the shop. Poor Helia and Golden Harvest are probably overwhelmed.” 

“How is the shop?” Berry asked, looking Berry curious. 

“Still losing money… for now. We’re just getting started again though. And paying for two employees. The losses aren’t as bad as they could be though. We should make a profit soon,” Bon Bon replied as she stood up. 

“I’m glad that you didn’t go with the golem option,” Berry Punch commented in a low soft voice. “Helia and Golden Harvest needed the work. We have the finances for you to bleed a little money. I might want to borrow them for the brewery though.” 

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. Goldy is probably going to lose her patch of dirt before winter is over,” Lyra responded, looking just a little sad as she spoke. 

“We could stop that,” Berry Punch said. 

“We can’t save everypony,” Bon Bon replied, shaking her head. 

“She grows carrots… ask her if she is willing to grow hops on her farm as well. We need a local grower. I mean, the Apples grow corn, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes. She’s a farmer. Certainly she grows more than carrots,” Berry said as she looked at Bon Bon. 

“What are you saying? I mean, so I can make it clear to her,” Bon Bon questioned. 

“I’m saying that I personally will become her financial backer if she gives me things I need,” Berry Punch said in reply. She took a long swallow of soft cider. “Ask her if she can grow barley… and maybe sweet potatoes.” 

“I’ll do that,” Bon Bon replied, looking very serious. 



 

Not caring that somepony might be watching, Luna gently pushed Barley down into the grass and then pressed her lips gently against his. The kiss made her cheeks feel hot and sent icy tingles down her spine. Barley had aged like fine wine. The old stallion knew his way around a kiss. She felt one of his forelegs wrap around the back of her neck and stroke her along her crest. 

After a long passionate moment of being lip locked with Barley, Luna pulled away. She stared down at him and watched how his eyes moved as he looked up at her. “I must say. You must be feeling spry today.” 

“I had a warm body in my bed last night. It kept the chill away from my bones. Woke up not hurting as much,” Barley replied as he stared into Luna’s teal eyes. 

“Barley… I love you a great deal… I wish I could be there with you every night. But I have my duties. You deserve a warm mare in your bed,” Luna whispered. 

“Are ye about to dump me?” Barley asked point blank. 

Blinking rapidly, Luna was taken aback. “No! I would never… I love you… I do… I just worry that I can’t give you the attention that you need. The attention that you deserve. I feel guilty.” 

“Well don’t,” Barley grumped. “I keep my guilt to myself, you keep your guilt to yourself.” 

“Guilt?” Luna questioned in a low whisper, her lips inches from Barley’s somewhat wrinkled snoot. She knew every line upon his face, every wrinkle, every scar. 

“I’m old. One day I’m gonna die. And you’re going to be young and pretty and missing me when I’m gone. And I know that I’m gonna hurt you. Little old me… hurting the War Maiden. I feel bloody awful about it,” Barley confessed in pained whisper. “You ain’t supposed to hurt the one you love.” 

“We are returning home. I am taking you to bed. Afterwards, I plan to sleep and not let go of you for as long as I can,” Luna murmured in a soft needy voice, a voice that few ponies ever heard. It was the voice of a lonely mare that just wanted love and affection, same as any other equine female, that had the same needs, wants, and desires. 

And she had found them with Barley. 



 

Glass Slipper, feeling just a little bit lonesome, heaved a sigh. Twilight was off being a princess, Rainbow Dash had flown a pony to the hospital, and Flash Sentry was off keeping Ponyville safe, leaving her in the care of others. Feeling a bit abandoned, she moped over to a plum coloured earth pony, sat down, and looked up at the earth pony mare with the most pathetic expression she could muster. 

“Aw… don’t look so glum,” Berry Punch said soothingly as she reached out and snatched Glass Slipper. Sitting back upon her haunches, Berry Punch held the small foal to her barrel, wrapping one foreleg around Glass Slipper’s back, and using her other foreleg to support the foal’s little wiggling backside. She could feel the snuffling one little nose against her neck. 

“I don’t want to lose my parents again,” Glass Slipper moaned, unable to stop the tears now that they were falling. She wrapped her forelegs around Berry Punch’s neck and squeezed. 

“You’re not going to lose your parents. Your parents love you,” Berry Punch promised, now rocking the crystal pony foal back and forth. “You just have very busy parents. Where did Spike and Scootaloo get off to?” 

“They left me… said I wasn’t big enough to play with them and they left me,” Glass Slipper mumbled against Berry’s neck. 

“It’s hard being little… Piña had the same problem. At least she had me looking after her,” Berry Punch said, tucking her head down and whispering soft words into Glass Slipper’s ear. “Oh you poor little thing. Scootaloo is almost twice your age… you know, there is something you could be learning from all of this,” the earth pony gently suggested. 

“What’s that?” Glass Slipper asked in reply as tears continued to slip out. 

“One day very soon, you are going to be a big sister. And you are going to know how it feels to be left out, left behind, and neglected. And when you have a little brother or a little sister, are you going to leave them behind?” Berry replied in the form of a question. 

“Nooooo… it’s awful,” Glass Slipper sobbed. 

“Are you going to look after them?” Berry Punch questioned. 

“Yes… I promise,” Glass Slipper swore. She rubbed nose against Berry’s neck and shuddered. “It hurts.” 

“Just cry a little more and let it out little one,” Berry soothed in a Berry gentle voice. 



 

“Sentinel?” 

Sitting in the grass and squinting his eyes closed against the sun, Sentinel peered over at Diamond Tiara, who was sitting beside him. He perked his ears. He could hear her heart beating. It was a little faster than usual. He sniffed. He wasn’t sure what he was smelling, but his brain said it smelled like trouble. 

“Do you like me?” Diamond Tiara asked, her voice only slightly slurry. 

“You know I do,” Sentinel grumbled. Trouble indeed. 

“Well how come you don’t try kissing me or cuddling with me or doing things that other colts do with fillies?” Diamond Tiara questioned, her left ear drooping down to the side of her face and she wobbled about unsteadily. 

“We’ve kissed,” Sentinel whispered, now feeling very nervous. 

“We could spend a lot more time snogging,” Diamond Tiara suggested in a soft voice. 

Clearing his throat, Sentinel wished the butterflies in his stomach would go away. “I’m eight. Eight years old. I am one very confused eight year old. Very very confused.” 

“But you act so much older,” Diamond Tiara whispered as she leaned a little closer. 

“Still eight years old,” Sentinel muttered. His ears detected that Diamond Tiara’s heartbeat was increasing. His whole body jerked and tensed when he felt Diamond Tiara touch him. He held his breath for a moment and felt a rising sense of panic. He felt a foreleg wrapping around his neck and warm breathing against his cheek as he sat there staring straight ahead. 

“Am I pretty? Do you notice fillies yet Sentinel? Have you noticed how filled out I am becoming? Things changed for me over the summer. I started on the journey towards being a mare. I have all kinds of strange new feelings… and dreams Sentinel. I have dreams. Did you know that you are in them? I wake up and I feel sticky down between my hind legs after having these dreams about you. Sometimes I wake up shivering,” Diamond Tiara confessed as she wrapped her other foreleg around Sentinel and pressed in close to him. She felt his warmth against her body and it was soothing. 

Unable to help himself, Sentinel began sniffing, smelling something that made his nose react. It make every muscle in his body tense. He felt himself begin to drool. The sound of Diamond Tiara’s heavy breathing was thunderous in his ear. 

“I just had one of those dreams this morning… I woke up and thought I had wet the bed. I was so sensitive down there. When I moved my legs around I could feel parts of me rubbing against other parts and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out because it felt so good. Sunset Shimmer had to help me into the shower and then she had to go and change my sheets. Afterwards, we had a long talk about the changes I’ve been going though. What it means to be a filly that is blossoming into marehood and slowly reaching maturity,” Diamond Tiara said, her lips brushing against Sentinel’s cheek as she spoke. 

“Guh,” Sentinel grunted. When his mouth opened a long string of drool spilled out. He sat there feeling stupid, like an actual drooling idiot. Worst of all, he felt something stirring. The hidden beast had awoken. Sentinel felt an icy stab of panic in his belly. 

“She told me to be honest with you… she said that you are the soft sensitive type that would actually appreciate me sharing my feelings with you,” Diamond Tiara murmured as she collapsed against Sentinel completely. She began stretching out her neck. She felt lightheaded and woozy. She couldn’t tell if was her medications or her emotions. She puckered up her lips and extended them outwards, searching for something. 

A moment later, she found the corner of Sentinel’s mouth and she pressed her muzzle against it. She pulled herself tighter against Sentinel and she felt his head move towards her. She felt his lips move, and suddenly her mouth was flooded with drool. 

For reasons Diamond Tiara could not explain, she did not mind. She parted her lips, applied suction, and pulled in Sentinel’s lower lip. Gently clamping her teeth upon it, she pulled back and gave Sentinel’s lower lip a loving tug. 

“Mmmph!” Sentinel moaned in panic as he tried to pull away. 

Letting him go, Diamond Tiara realised what the cause of his panic was as her foreleg trailed down Sentinel’s chest and explored down between his front legs, her hoof moving down towards his belly. Something bumped up against her fetlock. 

Looking down, Diamond Tiara saw something staring up at her. “Oh my Sentinel…” Not knowing what else to do, Diamond Tiara gently pushed Sentinel over onto his back and then rolled him onto his belly. Feeling stunned, she covered her mouth with her hoof. 

“You saw…” Sentinel began. 

“...everything,” Diamond Tiara finished. 

“I’m sorry,” Sentinel apologised. 

“I’m not,” Diamond Tiara whispered. “Since you’re already all excited, would you like to sneak a peek at mine? There’s no harm in just looking… we don’t have to touch. We shouldn’t touch, but there is no harm in looking. Sunset Shimmer said it was natural for foals our age.” 

“Oh but you did touch it,” Sentinel moaned in a strained voice. 

“I didn’t mean to bump it,” Diamond Tiara whispered. “It’s blue like your wings.” 

“Don’t talk about it!” Sentinel protested. 

“I’m pink inside and out,” Diamond Tiara breathed as she lay down in the grass beside Sentinel and snuggled up against his side. “So… since I’ve touched it, does this mean I’m your very special somepony?” 

“Special,” Sentinel squeaked, his voice rising several octaves and cracking. 

Feeling very lightheaded, Diamond Tiara reached out one foreleg, grabbed Sentinel’s tufted ear, squeezed it in her fetlock, tugged gently, and felt it slide free as she pulled, feeling the soft silky texture of his pelt pinched between her own flesh. She saw him relax a little so she did it again, grabbing his ear and dragging it between her folded fetlock. She heard the colt moan softly. Bringing her head closer, she kissed him again, this time a chaste kiss upon the cheek. 

“I want to remember this moment forever,” Diamond Tiara whispered. “I wasn’t scared away by what happened and I just want to make you feel better… probably because I love you I think. One day you and I are going to laugh about this… I hope.” 
	
	
> Chapter 424
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was the late afternoon and the farmhouse was quiet. The littlest foals were sleeping. The family had returned home. Dinner was being prepared by Semillon. Upstairs, Barley was sleeping, Luna beside him, the Night Princess would be well rested for this night’s duties. All was well. Except for one troubled colt who needed advice… 

“Father?” 

Looking up from his book, Bucky looked at Sentinel and immediately knew that there was something wrong. Using his levitation, he set the book aside and watched as Sentinel crawled up into a chair across from him. 

“Sentinel, what is wrong?” Bucky inquired, looking at his colt. 

“Something happened,” Sentinel admitted as he stretched out his wings, grabbed one grasping thumb on his wing knuckle with the other, and began to tug on them fretfully, leaving his wings wrapped around his body. 

“That much is evident,” Bucky stated, his eye narrowing. “What?” 

“This is going to be difficult,” Sentinel squeaked. The colt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, which he did not let out right away. Held it, his cheeks bulging out, and then he waggled his ears slowly before letting out his breath in a prolonged hiss. “This is about Diamond Tiara.” 

Now it was Bucky’s turn to suck in a deep breath and hold it for a moment. “So this is going to be one of those sorts of talks,” he said, exhaling slowly as he spoke. “Just spit it out Sentinel. Tell me what happened.” 

“It started off with us talking… and I started feeling… you know… awake down there… and then… um… she kissed me and I sort of slobbered everywhere because I was excited and then I completely unsheathed and uh… well, I was all hard down there and she was kissing me and then her hoof went sliding down my front and she sort of brushed up against it… and then she looked down at it and got a really good look… then she shoved me over and pushed me onto my belly and then things got really awkward after that,” Sentinel confessed, telling his father everything he could think of, stammering badly from embarrassment. He took a deep shuddering breath. “Oh… and she offered to let me have a good look at her because she had seen so much of me.” 

This was not a conversation that Bucky was ready to have with Sentinel, but he bravely resolved to be there for his son. Clearing his throat, Bucky poured himself a drink from the decanter near his chair, and then, after closing his eye, he swallowed his whole glass of brandy in one go. Opening his eye and feeling the burning warmth of the brandy, Bucky screwed his courage to the sticking place and proceeded. “So… did you have yourself a look?” 

The colt closed his eyes and made a face of awkward embarrassment. Reaching up with one front, hoof, he rubbed his nasal bridge. “I had… I had a good look and a sniff… but I swear there was no more touching. After that we were both very well behaved and we talked just a little bit about the… uh… um… uh... wet dreams that we’ve both been having.” 

“Well, there is nothing wrong with looking at your age… Berry Punch assures me that it is natural even though it just feels wrong to me… but that’s probably my own bias and my own screwed up thinking from how I was at that age… and I don’t want that for you… really. I don’t want that kind of screwed up thinking from you at all. So look but do not touch. Not until you are older. Do nothing foolish. If you do… I’ll know,” Bucky said, the last two words spoken causing a metaphorical chill to appear in the room. 

“I know you’ll know… probably from me telling you because I can’t live with the idea that I might be letting you down… it bothers me,” Sentinel responded gloomily. The colt squirmed in his chair and his gaze found its way to a bookshelf, where he stared at the spines of books that sat upon the shelves. 

“You shouldn’t live in so much fear of letting me down or disappointing me,” said Bucky, feeling a deep sense of concern. “I used to live that way. Always afraid I was letting somepony or another down. It held me back. I’d use it as an excuse to sabotage myself. Because I was so afraid of disappointing my teachers or Princess Celestia, I would intentionally get myself into trouble so I wouldn’t have to do whatever activity it was that I was afraid of failing and by extension, letting somepony down. I don’t want to see you suffer as I have.” 

The books were no longer quite so interesting and Sentinel looked back at his father. 

“Sentinel, I have been talking with Celestia and Luna both. There are things I want for you. Good things. But I can’t just give them to you… well, with the exception of one thing. I want you as my heir and they understand that. The only thing I can give you freely is leadership of the griffons. Everything else… I am unable to give you no matter how much I want you to have them. I want you to be a prince… of Equestria. You’d be good at it. You have the right temperament, the right attitude, the right sense of duty, you understand self sacrifice. You will make a better leader than I ever could. But because of the way things are slowly shaping up, there will be no more inherited titles in Equestria,” Bucky said, revealing his desires and feelings to his colt. 

Blinking, Sentinel continued to stare at his father. 

Drawing in a deep breath and collecting his scattered thoughts, Bucky focused upon his son, calling to mind everything he hoped that Sentinel would have in his future. “Sentinel, a day is going to come where you are going to be called to be tested. I can’t tell you everything… mostly because I don’t know… but Celestia and Luna are going to call upon you to destroy what is left of Sombra’s shadow. I can’t. He is still too much of a threat to me. Luna is afraid that direct contact would be bad… possibly possession. But they are going to ask you to hunt him down, find his hiding place, and rid the world of him. This is going to be your test to determine if you are worthy to be my heir. This will be your test for knighthood… and your chance to earn your title as an Equestrian prince. You will be the first of your kind to hold such a title. Just think Sentinel… you could lead the lunar pegasi and the griffons together into a new era of prosperity… the griffons were meant to be the protectors of the equine species… you could restore that lost legacy. You could command a vast army to protect all of Equestria and its allies. Both the griffons and the lunar pegasi would benefit from your leadership. Does this interest you?” 

“Yes father… more than anything I want a chance to prove myself… I will not let you down… I will focus more upon my lessons and redouble my efforts at once. I just want a chance to serve in a meaningful fashion,” Sentinel whispered in reply, his eyes wide with a fearful hope. 

“To this end, Moonbow will be a strong asset for you when you are older. As a Myrmidon she will give you the edge you need. She will cover what you lack. She is being groomed to give you every advantage and cover up all of your shortcomings,” Bucky stated, his calculating nature as an accountant manifesting. 

“And what of Diamond Tiara? I know we are young… things might not work out between us, but I do hope that they will… I have very strong feelings for her,” Sentinel questioned, revealing his feelings as he did so. 

“She is being groomed as well. The way things are shaping up, it looks as though Rarity and Coco will be teaching her fine social graces. Diamond Tiara will be learning a different method of combat. We are going to get her help. Have her continue to see a behaviour specialist. Get her sorted out and well again. Diamond Tiara has a wealth of experience to bring to the table because of the troubles she has endured. If we can get her through this, she will come out stronger. Better. More capable. I’ve already spoken with Big Mac… the Apples are going to give her a spine. Teach her integrity. Sentinel, even if things do not work out between you and Diamond Tiara, she will be made whole and left in a position to make something of her life. And you are not to say anything to Diamond Tiara about this, but Luna is going to start visiting her dreams on a regular basis to rebuild her mind and make her stronger. We still want a behavioural specialist though to teach her coping mechanisms and other things she needs to know,” Bucky answered, telling his colt everything he knew in a brief summary. 

“So Diamond Tiara has become a project,” Sentinel breathed in a barely audible voice. 

“Does this bother you?” Bucky inquired, now feeling some concern. 

“No,” Sentinel replied. “It makes me feel better. She needs the help. I’ve been so worried about her not getting the help she needs… she knows that she needs help and she told me she has nightmares that she goes back to being how she was… it is her greatest fear and it scares her a great deal.” 

“Well, that puts my mind as ease just a little bit,” Bucky huffed as he felt some of his own tension began to ease off. 

“Father?” Sentinel questioned in a soft nervous squeak. 

“Yes Sentinel?” Bucky replied, his tone questioning and curious. 

“I am going to ask a very difficult question… I am very sorry father,” Sentinel warned. 

“Go ahead Sentinel. Whatever you ask, I shall answer it to the best of my abilities,” Bucky offered as he braced himself. He poured another glass of brandy and held it at the ready. 

“About sex… how do you overcome the embarrassment and all of the weird feelings of knowing that you are about to stick part of yourself inside of another pony’s body and touch them on the inside? I mean, you are touching them… not on the outside, but on the inside… where you could hurt them… where… where their life is. Where they bleed and have organs… you are touching them where the stuff is that makes them… them... you are touching them where they are made of food... I have so many thoughts inside of my head and I don’t know how to express them. How do so many ponies take such an act and treat it with such disrespect? Like… -ahem- rape. Like what that pegasus did to those earth pony foals in the cave we found. And how could somepony do this with somepony they barely know? I’ve been thinking about this and I feel very confused by the world around me. 'Hi… how do you do… I’m going to stick this inside of you now and spend some time grunting…' I do not understand,” Sentinel blurted out, releasing a long stream of his up to now hidden inner thoughts and feelings, letting everything held in on the inside out. 

“Oh my Sentinel,” Bucky gasped. He took a deep breath, slugged down his brandy, and then he exhaled slowly. “Where to start. First off, trust. Trust is very important. Yes, you could hurt a pony quite badly by just jamming yourself in there. This happens quite a bit actually. I know all about how exceptional your hearing is and I know you listened about what happened to those three earth pony foals. So there should be trust. And gentleness. Love and affection. That said, ponies do engage in various acts of sex with no real love involved. It is like scratching an itch. Satisfying a need. So long as it is consensual, there is no harm done. Some ponies even sell their bodies and other ponies are willing to pay for it.” Taking a deep breath, Bucky paused. He poured himself another drink, gulped it down, poured yet another drink, and held it at the ready. 

“As for the embarrassing and awkward parts… just remember, your partner is feeling the same sort of apprehension you are… possibly. 'Oh hey… somepony is about to stick something inside of me…' It can be intimidating for everypony involved. Especially the first time… when you are fumbling around and trying to figure out how everything works… what goes where. These are very intimate moments where we are very exposed totally and completely to another pony… or a griffon or any other sapient consenting form of life. Being vulnerable can be very intimidating. I… I don’t know what empty meaningless trysts are like or if they are satisfying. The first partners I had were the first two mares I married. Uh… that’s a whole different can of worms. So long as you are responsible and you are in a loving, trusting, meaningful relationship I do not see a need for you to wait until marriage Sentinel. Ponies should try these things out while they are young enough to enjoy them. But not too young. Look at Rising Star, Sparkler, and Loch Skimmer. They’re about the right age and maturity level. Eeeeeeuuuugh… I don’t like thinking about it,” Bucky said, just letting everything out in one long steady stream of words. When he was finished, he gulped down his drink and grimaced. 

“Father, might I have a drink as well?” Sentinel asked, his expression was one of extreme discomfort and the colt looked terribly unsettled. 

Blinking a few times, Bucky processed Sentinel’s request. “Well I suppose. A little drink couldn’t hurt you. Hold on, let me conjure up a snifter and I’ll pour you some brandy. Gotta warn you, this is a Cognac made by some members of Clan Pickled living in Fancy. It is quite strong.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 425
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“...and so I just wanted to make sure that you knew I loved you Harper, which is the point of all of these messages in glass orbs I am leaving you. One day you are going to be an exceptional mare. You are the foal of my heart, but make no mistake, you are my foal. I wish I could watch you as you grow older and do all of the great things that you are doing to do. I wish I could watch you as you raise your own foals and know the struggles and joys of being a mother. I wish I could be there to give you advice… the best that I can do is leave you these orbs filled with my words and my thoughts. It is my hope that after I pass that you remember me as a good father. Not much else matters to me. The world has so many expectations of me… I just want to be remembered as a good father.” 

Falling silent, Bucky’s horn dimmed as he continued to stare at the glass orb held in his talons. He breathed in slowly, closing his eye as he did so, hoping that he had said all of the right things. His eye opened slowly as he exhaled. 

For the past week, since the running of the leaves, he had been spending the long nights in his office, recording future messages for his foals in between working on projects, and his thoughts continued to linger upon the long conversation he had with his colt, where Bucky had shared his own hopes for Sentinel. 

His horn igniting, he levitated the orb held in his talons to a large wooden trunk marked “Harper” in ornate sterling silver letters. He carefully secured the orb upon a velvet lined tray within the trunk and then he closed the lid. 

With the orb put away, he turned his attention to something else. His work was never finished. Reaching over his desk with his talons, he lifted the crossbow that had been left sitting upon the front right corner. It was made of some sort of beautiful wood, highly polished, and all of the metallic parts were made of brass or blue steel. Along one side was a lever that almost ran the full length of the stock. Pulling back the lever three times would cock the crossbow for a quick firing, six pulls would give you distance or more penetration. It was a finely made object filled with clockwork cogs and springs. It was no gun, but it was practical. Holding it carefully, he turned it over. Along the bottom of the stock the name “Belisama” had been carved into the wood in flowing ornamental letters. 

“Rising Star… you do such exceptional work,” Bucky whispered to himself. 

Using his magic, Bucky lifted a spell jar up from a wooden holder upon a shelf behind him. The small glass globe shifted, changing size, becoming almost bullet shaped. He pulled out a quarrel from the quiver left on his desk, examined it closely, and then he fused the spell jar to the end of the quarrel. It glowed with a golden glow. 

“Live fire!” Bucky shouted in warning, sending a mass of small golems scurrying for hiding places, most of them emitting beeps and bloops of panic. 

Holding the crossbow by the grip with his talons, Bucky pulled back the lever three times with his magic. He aimed at the big black scorch mark upon the wall where he had discharged his thaumakinetic eldritch lightning and a few other test spells. Squeezing with one talon, Bucky pulled the trigger and let the quarrel fly. 

It struck the wall and the spell jar tip shattered, releasing a pulse of lightning, which crackled and arced along the wall. The quarrel clattered to the floor; it was now charred and blackened along its length. 

Feeling pleased by the results, Bucky smiled. A helpful spider golem darted out from beneath his desk, grabbed the quarrel in four legs, and then brought it back to Bucky, scurrying along on its four remaining legs. 

“There is much to do before dawn,” Bucky announced to nopony in particular. “I should get Minion to help me.” He set down the crossbow upon his desk, returning it to the right front corner. He tossed the charred quarrel into a bin so it could be recycled into something else. 

A lone spider golem beeped in agreement. 

“You… yes you, yes you that just beeped. Good work on the Canterlot test. The first Morsel Code stations will be built before Hearth’s Warming,” Bucky said to the glass creation. 

It emitted a string of bleeps, bloops, and then it jumped. 

“Of course I can tell you apart… now keep working upon the shadow web. I want results,” Bucky commanded as he rose up out of his chair and moved away from his desk.

He walked slowly to his door, stood upon the landing, heaved a contented sigh of satisfaction, and then he began to go down the stairs towards Sunset’s room, which was just below his office. He moved carefully, his demon-steel talons clicking upon the stone, and his long tail trailed over the steps behind him as he descended. 

He saw a light coming from the crack below Sunset Shimmer’s door and felt pleased. She was clearly awake, which meant she was available. He had no qualms about waking her, but having her awake spared him the trouble of waking her and then waiting for her to get herself together. 

He banged upon the door with a hoof and waited. Inside, he heard nothing. Nothing at all. He suspected that the room had been soundproofed. He banged upon the door again. 

“One moment Master!” 

Rolling his eye, Bucky waited, now feeling a little impatient. He pushed the door open, no longer feeling like waiting. Pausing in the doorway, he sniffed, smelling something with his now entirely too sensitive nose. He sniffed again and looked around the room. Candles were lit and some kind of smoky incense was burning, filling the room with a perfumed fragrance that did not hide another scent that lingered upon the air, a scent that Bucky knew all too well. 

Bucky glanced around the room, noticing that the top bunk was empty and Bartleby’s hammock was vacant as well. Sunset Shimmer was in the bed, grinning at him sheepishly, the blankets pulled up to her chin, both front hooves visible as she held the blanket up over her. 

“What is going on?” Bucky asked, knowing full well what had been going on. 

“Um…” Sunset mumbled as she blinked rapidly in panic. 

His eye falling upon the large magically shaped stone closet, Bucky heard a muffled thump from within. One talon tip began to tap upon the floor. “Trixie, please come out of the closet.” 

“No! Trixie will not come out of the closet. Trixie will stay inside of the closet if you please,” said a voice from within the closet. 

“Um… Master, I… uh…” Sunset fell silent, unable to finish. 

“Look… I know what has been going on here. I can smell it. Trixie, please come out of the closet,” Bucky said as he tried to coax the mare out. “You don’t need to hide in the closet, I’m not here to judge you.” 

“Trixie will remain inside of the closet for now. Trixie is not ready to come out of the closet,” the hidden mare replied. 

With a tug of his magic, Bucky pulled the closet door open and Trixie spilled out. She was flustered looking, red faced, sweaty, and her muzzle was both slick and sticky with moisture. Bucky watched as Trixie licked her lips and hung her head. 

“Where is poor Bartleby? Please, please tell me that you didn’t toss him outside into the cold dark night and expect him find somewhere else to sleep while you two were getting busy,” Bucky said in a low soft voice. 

“Majesty, I am here,” a muffled voice said from beneath Sunset Shimmer’s blanket. “I assure you my Liege, I am quite warm and comfortable. I do appreciate your concern.” 

“Master I can explain everything… I’m sorry… I know that I shouldn’t have been doing what I’ve been doing and I take full responsibility for everything and I am begging you, begging you not to punish Trixie or Bartleby over this,” Sunset Shimmer pleaded in a frightened voice. 

“Look, as your Master, I decide what you are supposed to be doing and not supposed to be doing. I have never forbidden you from finding love. Trying to hide it from me was wrong. There will be words about this… later. But I am not angry. I want you happy. All of you. Are you happy?” Bucky questioned, looking first at Trixie and then at Sunset Shimmer. 

“Trixie has never done much of anything with another pony before. I am not well liked. I was curious. I was lonely,” Trixie confessed, unable to look at Bucky. “And when you knocked, I was ashamed of what I had done so I hid in the closet.” 

“Why do you feel ashamed?” Bucky asked, glancing once again at Trixie and then at Sunset Shimmer. He noted a worried look upon Sunset’s face. 

“I don’t know. I just do,” confessed Trixie in a dejected manner. “Trixie was always told that it was only proper to like males and that this is a love that you dared not speak of.” 

“Well that’s a load of horseapples. You like whomever makes you feel good. Does Sunset make you happy?” Bucky responded, now worried for Trixie. 

“Sunset made me feel curious, then courageous and brave. She made me feel important. She told me I was pretty and that I should smile more. She and Bartleby have been getting closer for a while… and then tonight Sunset Shimmer called me to her bed again… I could not refuse,” Trixie explained, stammering a few times as she spoke and she blushed furiously the entire time she was talking. 

“Go back to bed. I apologise for disturbing you. In the future, so I do not intrude upon your private moments, we need to have a means to communicate the times which you do not wish to be disturbed and I will leave you in peace. Do try to keep in mind that work does need to get done occasionally. Good night, both of you,” Bucky said as he backed away towards the door. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Sunset Shimmer stated in a low voice. 

“Try telling Trixie that you love her. She’s insecure and she hurts inside. She’s just like the rest of us, trying to recover from the mess her life became. Be good to one another. Bartleby, see that they are made to feel special. I’m gone,” Bucky said as he backed out the door and pulled it shut behind him. 



 

Strolling around the school, Bucky was enjoying the chilly night air. It was the wee hours of morning, probably some time between three and four in the morning, Bucky was not sure nor did he care. It had been a good night. 

Overhead, he heard the flutter of wings and he craned his head skywards. 

“Lord of Winter,” Grimglammer said as she dropped to the ground. 

“Grimglammer,” Bucky greeted, looking at the massive lunar pegasus mare. “Where are your mates? What brings you here?” 

Folding in her wings and letting out a pleased whinny, Grimglammer lowered her head and nosed Bucky upon the cheek. “Furious is spending time with Shining Armor and Shadowguard is off learning her craft of being a dream healer.” 

“How is Shining Armor?” Bucky asked as his ears splayed out sideways. 

“He is grieving and having to fight to keep his position. He is unhappy and unwell,” Grimglammer reported in reply. The big mare nosed Bucky again. “How are your mates?” 

“Thistle is practically bed bound… she can swim just fine but on land she is miserable. Derpy and Berry are well. Belisama is becoming curious about politics and has been studying alchemy. Bon Bon and Lyra have been busy,” Bucky replied as he looked up at Grimglammer. 

“While I am here… I feel I should tell you… things are not going well in Minos. The capital has fallen. The insurgents have taken over the city of Labyrinthia. They are rounding up the remains of the resistance and placing them into death camps where they are being executed. The first of the escaped refugees from Minos are expected upon our shores shortly. The Sea of Grass is sending them by ocean vessel because there are so many of them. A large army of minotaurs and diamond dogs are gathering in Labyrinthia. The old world city states along with the Sea of Grass is petitioning Princess Celestia to intervene to stop the bloodshed and the death. I strongly suspect that you are going to be asked to pay a visit to Labyrinthia before Nightmare Night… or maybe shortly after,” Grimglammer said in a soft voice to Bucky. 

“Thank you for telling me,” Bucky graciously replied. 

“The Lunar Court is already preparing for invasion. Mistress is almost beside herself. Mistress has been itching for a good fight for a while. They are recalling a few of the large heavy cruisers to Canterlot. I suspect that they will be dispatched to Minos and that you will be going with them,” Grimglammer continued. 

“Say, would you like to come inside for tea? It has to be nearly four… tea time,” Bucky invited in a hopeful voice. 

“Oh I’d like that a great deal. Thank you, Lord of Winter,” Grimglammer replied as she gave Bucky another affectionate nose bump. 
	
	
> Chapter 426
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky, I have something for you,” Rising Star said in a muted voice as he tried to blink away the sleepy crusts from his eyes. "I finished this last night… you were working. I wanted to give this to you face to face… something I’ve been working on.” 

“What is it?” Bucky asked in reply as he waited expectantly. 

With a half awake grin, Rising Star held out something small and silver in his magic before Bucky, who took it into his own magical field to have a closer look at it. “I made this. I’ve enchanted it a bit… I’ve been learning from some of your books and from Scorch.” 

Held in his magic, Bucky saw a snowflake. It was small, silver, weightless. There was a fine corded chain. The detail was exquisite, beautiful, the attention to detail was amazing. “Is this moon-silver?” 

Nodding, Rising Star smiled. “I’m going to make more. For our tribe. It seems appropriate for our cause. Equestria was founded during the winter, and has since been refounded by The Lord of Winter. One might say we’ve been brought together by the cold.” As he spoke, he felt a burst of pride as Bucky slipped the snowflake over his neck. “If you look closely, the snowflake itself is made up of a whole bunch of tiny suns, moons, and stars, all arranged in such a way that they form a snowflake,” the excited colt added. 

“Thank you Rising Star,” Bucky said in a voice thick and somewhat raspy with emotion. Straining to reach, he raised one foreleg high and did his best to hug Rising Star, who was now much taller. Bucky felt a foreleg wrap around his neck and he was overcome with emotion.

“I plan to make more,” Rising Star promised in a low voice. “It is time for us to stand apart and be recognised,” he stated. 



 

“We have cafeteria staff ready to go. Janitorial staff is looking good. We have some teachers, but not enough. Since we're only going to open with a little over one hundred students, we should be okay. Your apprentice has finally agreed to do a little teaching. I think we are ready,” Violet Velvet reported as she set down a folder in front of Bucky. 

“Wagon pullers?” Bucky asked just before taking a gulp of hot coffee. “We need a way for foals to get to and from school. Some are quite some ways away.” 

“We need to clear city permits for those still. City hall is dragging their hooves on the issue,” Violet answered, looking very disturbed as she did so. 

“I want that cleared before the end of today,” Bucky commanded in a soft voice. 

“I will make it happen,” Violet replied in a harsh voice. “I need help though. You there! Belisama! You’re coming with me!” 

“Me?” Belisama asked as she came to wakefulness with a snort. 

“Yes you. Queen of the griffons. Today you get a crash course in politics,” Violet barked. 

“I don’t know…” Belisama muttered as she rubbed her eyes. 

Flinching, Bucky winced when he heard the sound of a newspaper being rolled up tightly. 

“I suppose I can… what do I do?” Belisama inquired, now mostly awake and looking curiously at Violet Velvet. 

Bucky heard the newspaper unroll and he relaxed, his pucker unclenching. 

“That’s easy. You be sweet and I’ll be sour. I’ll teach you what you need to know. Just don’t be an idiot. I can’t stand idiots. As a queen, you really should know more about the local political processes anyway. We’ll have fun. I’ll be your bodyguard,” Violet said as a half smile cracked her face. The abrasive mare looked pleased. 

“Belisama needs to be back this afternoon. Surprise is giving flight lessons for the next few days,” Bucky said as he remembered events posted on today’s schedule. 

“Fine, I’ll have city hall broken by noon. Shall I issue executive order Caged Bird for an emergency meeting?” Violet questioned in reply. 

“Yes,” Bucky responded as he brought his coffee cup to his lips. “Use the police if necessary to bring them in. The city council needs to learn that they are expected to work for a living just like the rest of us. If they want to drag their heels they need to know that they can be replaced. Remind them that Princess Celestia gave Princess Twilight the power to call for an emergency vote for a new city council.”

“Sir, you should have been given that power,” Violet muttered angrily. 

“I would use it far too frequently,” Bucky admitted as he shook his head. “Twilight will be responsible with it. She has more patience than I do for bureaucracy.” Bucky scowled and pondered going down to city hall himself. 

“Also sir, I need for you to look over that proposal for the factory. I know Twilight Sparkle said that she doesn’t want big factories polluting Ponyville, but this isn’t a big factory. This is a large collection of woodshops really… they need ponies to carve wooden propellers, wooden carriage assemblies, wagon sections, and machine lathe things like wagon spokes. It will actually be a series of small cozy looking little buildings rather than one big soulless factory. It will bring about three hundred jobs to the area… good paying jobs,” Violet said as she gently banged her hoof upon a purple high priority folder that was on the table. 

“Have they offered anything to help influence a decision?” Bucky questioned shrewdly. 

“They’re offering to send a pony to your school to be a woodshop teacher. And they are offering to pay the pony’s salary, whatever the going rate is for a teacher in your school,” Violet responded as she rested her hoof upon the purple folder. 

“I will look over the proposal and give you my opinion soon,” Bucky stated, nodding his head slightly as he spoke. “I like the sounds of this.” 

“Sir, if I may offer my opinion, earth ponies are great woodcarvers. Sure, unicorns can shape wood with magic, but earth ponies do marvellous things with wood and basic tools. There are a lot of earth ponies here that need the work and the world needs their finely made craft. I urge you to pass this,” Violet said in a remarkably soft voice. “With a simple carving shoe, an earth pony can do amazing things. They bring beauty to the world.” 

“Your opinion is noted and appreciated,” Bucky acknowledged with a nod of his head. 

“I am off… come Belisama… we must go and terrorise city hall,” Violet announced. 



 

“What’s this?” Rising Star inquired as he looked over the strange blueprints laying on his workshop table. “Wait, I think I’ve seen one of these before in a movie.” 

“This is a gyrocopter. Spanner and I are working on a new kind of design. We want to use aluminium to manufacture the body rather than depend upon a unicorn’s featherlight spells. We’ll use a steel frame and aluminium panels for practical griffon style construction. It will be light and strong,” Lugnut explained as looked up at Rising Star from where he was standing upon the workbench. 

“Hmm,” Scorch hummed as he tapped his hoof upon the floor. “I like this. I like this a lot.” 

“Current models are made of wood, brass, lots of solid heavy construction and they rely upon featherlight magic. This will be light of weight, strong enough to be safe, and we think we could power it with an airship arcano-tech turbine motor,” Lugnut continued as he ran a talon tip along the blueprints. He pointed at the back of the gyrocopter drawing. “The turbine would power this push prop mounted in the rear.” 

“I have to wonder, why would a griffon want to make a flying machine?” Rising Star questioned as he looked down at Lugnut, his eyebrow raised in curiousity. 

“Machines must be made. Lots of ponies cannot fly, neither can other species,” Lugnut responded as he looked down at the blueprints. “This will be beautiful… new… different. A whole new way of making autogyros, gyrocopters, and gyroplanes. The age of the non magically lightened ultralight is upon us.” 

“I gotta agree with the griffon. Besides… this workshop is funded by the Crown. Princess Celestia subtly suggested she wants to see some war machines come out of this shop. A practical flying machine like this might be handy in a war,” Scorch remarked as he looked over the blueprints. “We could mount solar collectors here and here. Maybe we could rig up a small place to stuff and super compress cloudstuff to make a storm generator for electricity.” 

“Okay… we’ll get to work on this. I’ll order some aluminium from our supplier and see what I can do about getting us an engine,” Rising Star said as he glanced at Scorch. 



 

“Thank you for looking after Tourmaline,” the guard said as he departed. He gave the jet black foal a final smile and then took wing, flying off towards Canterlot. 

“Hello Tourmaline… we’re glad to have you,” Derpy said in a friendly voice. “The foals are in school but I’m sure you can find stuff to do here. Bucky is asleep… he finally went to sleep. Are you looking forward to spending the night?” 

Nodding, Tourmaline looked up at Derpy, drinking in the love she felt from the grey pegasus mare. “Thank you for looking after me,” Tourmaline said in a soft pleasant sounding voice as she leaned up against Derpy and rubbed her cheek against Derpy’s front leg. 

“Princess Celestia is going to be a little busy for a while and so is Princess Luna. That’s why you were brought here. Twilight is going to bring Glass Slipper by later so you to can spend some time together,” Derpy said as she enjoyed the foal’s affection. 

“Auntie Sunshine says you know my secret,” Tourmaline whispered. “I’m really good at hiding it now. She’s been teaching me magic and she gave me something that helps hide me.” 

“Yes I know your secret,” Derpy said in a low voice. “But you must keep it a secret.”

“I’ll try,” Tourmaline promised. 

“You’ll do fine,” Derpy responded reassuringly. “You’re so sweet,” she said a moment later as she peered down at the pink maned filly through her good eye. 

“I know,” Tourmaline whispered bashfully as she peered up at Derpy through her glasses. “You’re pretty.” 

“Oh… thank you,” Derpy gasped when she heard the compliment. “Come on inside.” 

“Can I call you Auntie Bubbles?” Tourmaline questioned, a hopeful look up her small face. 

Giggling, Derpy nodded. 



 

“Oh dear… this is going to keep happening, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said as she peered into the mirror and looked at herself. She nervously took a deep breath and then felt a little better when she felt Discord’s lion paw settle across her croup. She felt her dock twitch at his touch. 

“I find them beautiful,” Discord said in a warm sincere voice as he looked at Fluttershy. “The right one looks a little like a budding ibex or antelope horn. The other one looks like an antler bud,” he remarked as he peered into the mirror. 

“They itch,” Fluttershy breathed as her eyes narrowed. She felt Discord’s paw trailing down her rump and then linger over the butterflies that she had left on her right side. She felt her pulse quicken at his touch. 

“It’s only fair you know,” Discord quipped as he rubbed his paw over Fluttershy’s butterflies in a slow gentle circle. “You made me become more like you on the inside… and now you are becoming more like me on the outside.” 

“How does having a cutie mark feel?” Fluttershy questioned as she began to go limp under Discord’s touch. 

“I have the uncontrollable need to be kind… to knit cute fluffy little things for foals… to hug other ponies… and look after cute fuzzy animals… I now understand what it means to be you,” Discord replied as he listened to Fluttershy’s breathing become a little heavier. 

“Oh Discord… don’t stop,” Fluttershy begged in a low soft squeaky whisper. 

“I hadn’t planned on it… you horny mare,” Discord giggled. “Get it? Because you have horns now… and you’re feeling perky!” 

“Oh I am a horny mare,” Fluttershy whispered in an embarrassed squeak as she flipped up her tail and allowed it to fall off to one side. “I have needs Discord… you be a kind draconequus now and look after my needs.” 

“Of course, my dearest Fluttershy,” Discord answered with a gentle growl.
	
	
> Chapter 427
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“...you are threatening the democratic processes!” 

“...we refuse to work if we are going to be treated this way!” 

“...I was drug here by a police officer! The unmitigated gall…”

“...we will not tolerate working under these conditions!” 

“...we don’t even have hot coffee or tea…” 

The sounds of protest were immediately cut off as Belisama dragged her claws down a blackboard, which produced the spine tingling screech that was currently silencing the room. She moved her claws slowly, her eyes clenched shut against the horrible sound she was making. 

Unperturbed, Violent Velvet appeared to be enjoying the sound, she stood there with her ears perked as if she might have been listening to a piece by the famous musician Octavia. She smiled serenely at the soul rending screeching sound produced by Belisama’s claws being drug over a blackboard. 

“Do I have your attention?” Violet inquired when the screeching sound finally died. “By the way… very good Majesty. That is the proper application of force to gain attention. Psychological torture is effective and memorable.” 

The council ponies glared at Violet Velvet, eyes narrowed, their ears folded back against their skulls. They stood on one side of the room, Violet Velvet and Belisama were on the other. 

“Let us all get one thing straight. You drug your heels on this issue just to be rebellious and to get petty revenge against Buckminster. This measure costs no money, has no downsides, will provide several paid jobs, and there is absolutely no good reason to block it or prevent it from happening,” Violet announced as she opened a folder and became organised. 

“We were meaning to hold a meeting to discuss it,” a mare replied. 

“When?” Violet demanded as she peered at the mare over her reading glasses. “Tell me… tell me now. I demand to be informed. Because I’ve read the minutes of the last few meetings. You’ve done nothing to discuss this issue. In fact… the entirety of the last meeting, which was yesterday, the time was spent discussing if you should get a city funded allowance for stationery, ink, and office equipment such as chairs, desks, tables, and the like for home use. I see no work getting done here… why would you need such things at home?” 

Nopony replied. Teeth were bared and ears remained pinned back in aggressive defiance from the council as they stood together on the other side of the room. 

“Is this true?” Belisama questioned. 

“That we discussed this? Yes,” a stallion admitted. 

“No… I mean that you refused to pass this measure… just out of a sense of defiance against my mate. Just to… behave like insolent foals. Do you know what he does for you?” Belisama said, her words becoming a question and her voice becoming an angry screech. 

The little griffoness spread her wings out and flexed her talons angrily.

“You… you are holding foals back from going to school and preventing jobs from being created just so you can have some kind of meaningless revenge against my mate? How could you be so stupid and petty? How do you live with yourselves? Rather than take up any issues you have with him directly, you take it out on foals and ponies that need jobs? HOW DARE YOU! Do you know what he does for you? How he suffers for you? He has lost parts of his own body trying to keep all of your kind safe. He holds back the darkness so you worthless lot can sleep comfortable and safe in your beds at night. And you do this to thank him? You’re worthless,” Belisama said, scolding the council, her voice becoming a feline hiss of displeasure near the end of her lecture. 

“Oh… I like this one… and to think I nearly smacked her with a rolled up newspaper,” Violet remarked as she watched ears begin to droop and lips that were curled back in a defiant sneer become regretful looks of shame. “Oh… and for the record, I plan to post the last week’s minutes and records in the public newspaper under the new local government transparency act.”

“And then what Violet? We make them angrier? Fill them with the need to rebel even more? We shame them publicly, fill them with resentment, bitterness, and anger, which they redirect against my husband? What end does this accomplish?” Belisama questioned in a low voice. The griffoness looked troubled, hurt, confused, and more than a little angry. 

“Any suggestions?” Violet asked with a soft knowing smirk upon her face. 

Blinking, her crest rising, Belisama glanced at the council first and then at Violet Velvet. Reaching up with her talons, she rubbed at her neck, smoothing down her feathers. “You… all of you… you sign the papers and pass the motion that we need,” Belisama said to the council. “In exchange, Violet and I give you the means to redeem yourselves and make amends for your actions. We get to walk away with the papers and the motion we need and you get to walk away with your dignity mostly intact. And in the future, we start working together with a spirit of cooperation.” 

“That seems reasonable,” a mare responded in a fearful whine. 

Leaning her head in towards Belisama, Violet Velvet placed her lips near where Belisama’s ear hole existed, hidden by feathers. “This is how you behave as a queen, Majesty. Remember this when dealing with your own griffons in the future. Your actions have strengthened your husband’s position and has shown you to be a good and fair ruler in your own right. One word of advice though… never take prisoners,” Violet whispered in a soft low voice. “And the move with the blackboard was brilliant.” 

“Since we are here… perhaps we should pass other measures as well while we are gathered together,” a stallion suggested. “Miss Velvet… if you would be so gracious… we could use your assistance in organising some projects we have planned. I think a large part of the problem for a number of us is feeling overwhelmed and we just don’t know where to get started on these massive multi-generational projects being presented to us. Can you help us? I know I feel out of my element, confused, and frightened by the scope of what is presented sometimes.” 

“That is in fact what I am being paid for,” Violet Velvet replied, now looking pleased. 

“Really?” a mare asked.

“I can either be your assistant in getting projects done or I can be the Lord of Winter’s assistant in making you get your stuff together and work. Pick one. Choose wisely,” Violet answered in a cold voice. “Either way, I get paid and I get to enjoy my job.” 

“You’d still help us?” a stallion asked. 

“It is my job. I do my job. Buckminster looks me in the eye and commands me to do something… afterwards, I do what he commands. It is really a very simple process. He commanded me to help you out in any way that I could and to bring my sense of efficiency to the city. I will have order. I will get results. The Lord of Winter has given me a task… which will be done because my professionalism demands that I do it,” Violet Velvet explained in deadpan. 

“I have an army of assistants that are trained to perform clerical tasks and make things easier,” Belisama mentioned as she looked around the room. “I have the remnants of the castle staff among my number, the very griffons that kept the day to day workings of Griffonholm going smoothly and ran pretty much everything that the larger lazier griffons couldn’t be bothered with.” 

“I think there is much we need to discuss before noon,” a mare said as she offered a hopeful smile to Belisama.  



 

“I’m so glad you could come Twilight… I didn’t know what else to do,” Discord said in a nervous voice as he paced in front of the cottage door. 

“I still don’t understand why you just don’t tell me what the problem is,” Twilight Sparkle said in an irritated voice as she peered at Discord. She snorted in annoyance and then felt guilty when she saw Discord cringe. The draconequus had certainly changed. 

“Because… dearest Twilight… well, just because,” Discord replied and then sniffed nervously. “Well then, without further ado,” he said as he pushed open the door and stepped aside, allowing Twilight to look in. 

Blinking, Twilight Sparkle had trouble taking in what it was she was looking at. Fluttershy’s entire cottage was packed wall to wall. Twilight Sparkle felt overwhelmed. She took a deep breath, now feeling panicked, and remembering an incident with Pinkie Pie. She tried to say something but her mouth just fell open, her lower jaw hanging limply. 

“So… Fluttershy and I were fooling around… you know, good old fashioned wholesome married couple sexy times… and as I was giving her a good snuggle groping and tickling her wing pits, I said to her ‘you know my dearest Fluttershy, the only way I could be happier right now would be if there were a hundred more of you’ and then no sooner had the words left my lips, Fluttershy’s tail moves and makes a snapping sound, and then this happened,” Discord explained as one hundred and one Fluttershies all blinked at Twilight Sparkle in unison. 

“Fluttershy did this?” Twilight Sparkle breathed in disbelief. 

“We’re sorry,” one hundred and one Fluttershies said in unison. 

“Fluttershy… you have horns growing!” Twilight exclaimed. 

“I… uh… we? We know,” Fluttershy responded politely, all one hundred and one of them. 

Twilight Sparkle stood there, completely flummoxed and unable to do anything but gape like a landed fish. There were too many Fluttershies, all of them trying to be polite and respectful of one another, each of them looking a bit out of sorts for crowding one another. 

“I currently have no magic again, or at least not enough to fix this, and I have a sneaking suspicion as to where my magic currently has gone off to,” Discord announced as he reached down and lovingly patted a beaming Fluttershy upon the head. 

“I don’t even know how to begin dealing with this,” Twilight Sparkle muttered as she shook her head from side to side, her mane whipping around her face. 

With an alarming cry, one of the Fluttershies popped like a soap bubble. 

“Well, this is a problem that will take care of itself,” Twilight announced as she backed away. “I’ll send word to Celestia about your… changes. Maybe she’ll know what is going on.” 

Another Fluttershy popped and the other Fluttershies all cried out in worry. One fainted. 



 

“So Bucky had to go and save her like he had to save me and Glass Slipper?” Tourmaline asked in soft whisper so she wouldn't’ disturb the drowsy Crystal Empress. The changeling pressed herself closer to Derpy’s back and then rested her head upon Derpy’s side so she could watch Cadance as the foal drifted off to sleep, pressed tightly against Derpy’s stomach. 

“Yes. Bucky had to go after her. She died for the sake of love. As a measure of her life, to see if she was truly loved, somepony had to go off and fetch her… I don’t fully understand… but there are different kinds of love. This really hasn’t happened before so everypony is just kind of guessing what took place. But sometimes, when things are lost, they end up in Tartarus and ponies have to go fetch them. Like the Elements of Harmony ended up down there and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had to go and get them,” Derpy explained, sparing the grisly details of what had taken place down there. 

“I’m glad he saved me,” Tourmaline whispered in a sad sounding voice. “The mean ones who kept me… they had no love. They would bring the ponies they stole around and they had some love but they also had fear and fear makes the love feel wrong and it hurt me.” 

“I’m sorry,” Derpy said, thoroughly enjoying this moment with Cadance and Tourmaline. She looked over at Bittersweet, who was busy fawning over Harper and Peekaboo, who were in exceptionally good moods this morning. 

“There are many loves,” Tourmaline whispered to Derpy. “Auntie Sunshine has a warm love that is a lot like the sun. It feels warm and kinda tickly. Auntie Moon Drops has a funny feeling love. Sort of hot and burny… like love having a tantrum. But I know she loves me. Her love has been hurt though… I can feel it. I wish I knew how to make it better.” 

“It must be nice to feel love,” Derpy said in a low soft voice as her tail swished against the floor. She lay on her side, one foal pressed against her spine, the other against her belly. 

“The donkey has a lot of love,” Tourmaline whispered as her own eyes blinked sleepily. 

“Yes, Bittersweet loves. She loves little foals and she loves one pegasus in a very special way. So much love that it has spilled over and now she loves those who also love that pegasus in a special way,” Derpy responded as she felt Cadance’s warm wet breathing against the soft velvet hairs of her stomach. 

With a tiny squeaky yawn, Tourmaline drifted off to sleep, her chin resting upon Derpy’s wing. Overcome with love, feeling warm and sluggish, she slipped away into a blissful slumber. 
	
> Chapter 428
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Okay… lots of little faces looking at me. Hi! My name is Surprise and I’m going to be your flight instructor today,” Surprise announced as she looked out at all of the griffons looking at her and waved with her right front hoof. “I saw a lot of you in Baltimare and you are all fine fliers, so this will be a cakewalk for sure. Is everypony… uh… everybirdy ready to have some fun?”

Surprise welcomed the roar of the crowd assembled in the field by the lake, all except for one rather sleepy looking little griffon that was yawning. The griffon wasn’t much larger than the others, thin looking, scrawny, but had an axe-like beak. Feeling a bit of concern, she approached. The griffon was tan in colour, almost tawny, with black and silver feathers. One side of his face was hideously scarred, half of his beak was jagged, misshapen, and he was missing an eye. The left front talons were oddly metallic looking. 

“Lord of Winter?” Surprise asked in a shocked voice. 

“Shapeshifters need flight licenses too,” Bucky replied in a sleepy voice. 

Beside Bucky was a much larger flamboyantly orange griffon with crimson and gold feathers who sat preening her wings clumsily and occasionally glancing at Bucky with a worried look of concern, her dazzlingly oversized crest protruding upwards like an outrageous volcanic eruption. 

“Well… this is a surprise… for little ol’ me,” Surprise tittered as she began to prance around the crowd to get a closer look at the griffons she would be working with. “We’re just going to get started with the basics. The simple rules of sharing the sky.” 

“Why am I so small? Why can’t the transmutation spell give me a larger body?” Bucky squawked as his wings fluttered. His feathers fluffed out as he began to sulk in his half awake state. 

“Master… you’re like the rest of the little griffons… so cute and adorable!” Sunset Shimmer crooned. Reaching out with her talons, the flamboyant flame coloured griffoness gave Bucky an affectionate pat upon the head. 

“Shut… up… Minion… how you got a hunter body… ugh!” Bucky retorted in an exasperated huff as he jerked away, his one eye glaring angrily. 

Giggling, Surprise flared out her wings. “Pay attention… we’re about to begin!” 



 

Feeling oh so terribly curious, Dinky Doo Hooves prodded her father with a hoof and then watched as his eye opened and peered at her. She prodded again in a different location, wondering how he could be a griffon. 

“Where is your horn?” Dinky asked as she gave one final prod and then sat down upon the grass beside her father. “How do you do magic to turn back?” 

“Dinky… this body isn’t real. My real body still exists, it is tucked away inside of an extra-dimensional bit of fold space, suspended outside of time and space of this existence. This body is a construct, made of random matter and various odd bits, with a body created to conform to a general likeness of how I was. Which is why my left talons look metallic and I only have one eye,” Bucky explained patiently. When he was done, he snatched Dinky carefully and pulled her close, giving his foal a squeeze. 

“What if this body gets hurt?” Dinky questioned as she snuggled into her father’s embrace and closed her eyes. 

“This body can be damaged. It isn’t real though. It can take a lot of damage but my real body stays safe. If this body takes enough damage, it vanishes and my real body pops into existence. Which might be bad. Really bad, depending upon the situation,” Bucky answered. 

“So shapeshifting allows you to keep your body safe in dangerous situations while your fake body takes damage?” Dinky inquired, her eyes still closed, the foal carefully trying to take in every word her father said. 

“Yes… but this body, even though it isn’t real, still feels pain and pleasure. I feel all of the things I would feel in my actual body. I can taste things and smell things and have all of the usual sensations,” Bucky replied, glad to have a moment with Dinky. 

“So this body is just a projection of shaped thaumaturgical energy and magic… could I shapeshift?” Dinky asked, now curious about shapeshifting. 

“Maybe. It is possible for type threes, but very difficult. It requires the utmost in-” 

“Concentration, focus, and will,” Dinky recited as she interrupted her father. “What about Piña? Could Piña shapeshift? She can’t do distance spells, but she is starting to be able to cast spells from her hooves, so could she?” 

“If she has the thaumaturgical system to support it, she might be able to do so,” Bucky responded as he wrapped a wing around Dinky. “Some helpful advice for you Dinky Doo... shapeshifting is easiest when shifting into a form that you most associate with. For me, that’s predatory creatures. For you… I’m thinking that you should try bugs.” 

Opening her eyes, Dinky stretched out her neck and kissed her father below his eye and just behind his beak. “I’m glad you can feel that,” she remarked when she was finished. "I think Surprise is getting ready to teach again. I think your break is over.” 



 

“How is Babs?” Berry Punch asked as Applejack took a seat upon the porch. She watched as Applejack watched Babs carefully, looking nervously in Babs’ direction and how Applejack nervously clutched at the arms of the chair. 

“She’s better. She’s getting better,” Applejack replied in a distracted voice as she watched Babs slowly wandering around the yard and watching the griffons flying overhead. “She wanted to watch the griffons flying… we could see ‘em from our farm so I thought I’d be neighborly and walk over to say howdy do.” 

Nodding faintly, Berry Punch looked over at Babs, knowing the full truth of everything that had happened. She saw Babs and Piña sit down together and begin talking. Berry knew everything… but she said nothing. She also knew the reason why Babs had recovered so quickly, and that reason was currently playing in the front yard with Glass Slipper. 

“It’s nice having her home. She’s adjusting. She’s… grieving her lost sister and she’s a little troubled by the time she lost,” Applejack said in a soft voice as she tried to be conversational. “But she’s safe and well and whole of body that is all that matters to me.” 

“You seem a little nervous,” Berry Punch stated as she turned and raised an eyebrow at Applejack. The plum coloured earth pony studied Applejack and immediately began to catalogue all of the things said by Applejack’s body language. 

“Just don’t want to lose her again… it scares me real bad like,” Applejack admitted. 

“If you are worried about keeping her safe, don’t smother her. Just bring her over here and let her play with our foals. Trust me, Dinky and Sentinel can keep her safe from just about anything you might think of that could hurt her,” Berry Punch suggested as she tried to put Applejack at ease. 

“That’s true… I… I… I trust Sentinel. He’s a good colt. And I know what he’s capable of… I saw it with my own two eyes what he can do,” Applejack said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Babs couldn’t get much safer than being with Sentinel. And having Dinky around is just icing on the cake. No offense… I just don’t know what Dinky is capable of… but I’ve seen Sentinel in a slobberknocker.”

“Dinky is more than capable of using lethal force when necessary, but I think Dinky would prefer using non-lethal force if it came down to it. Bucky has taught her some dangerous magic that even adult unicorns typically don’t know. Dinky has shown herself to be remarkably responsible and mature for her age. She has moments where she gets a little foalish, but when it comes to magic, she can be counted on to be responsible. If something was to try and bring harm to her playmates, Dinky would do to them what she did to those shadow wolves,” Berry Punch said in a proud voice. “The war was hard on her. She had to grow up before it was time. Now she’s readjusting,” she added after a thoughtful pause. 

Applejack sighed wearily. “I’m right sorry… been so worried about Babs I done forgot what you and yours have been through. That actually really does put me at ease. Y’all know how to deal with trouble when it comes… I won’t smother Babs… I give ya my word… I’ll just send her over here to play. Just keep her safe for me… I… I worry… this has been hard on me and Silver Shill.” 

In the yard, Berry Punch saw a group with powerful potential. Sentinel and Diamond Tiara were off talking quietly. Tourmaline and Glass Slipper were playing together with Dinky, bouncing a ball off of their heads or their backsides and trying to keep it from touching the ground. Piña Colada and Babs were sitting together and watching the ball being bounced. Friendships were being forged… Berry Punch hoped that the bonds would be strong. She knew from Bucky that tough times were ahead for the world, and good friendships made tough times easier to bear. 

“I can’t believe how much Diamond Tiara has changed. Big Mac is actually real excited to take her in. He don’t say much, but he’s happy in his own way. He’s a lot like pa was… kinda shy and sweet and quiet but also real good with foals. Not every stallion is good with foals,” Applejack said as a hint of bitterness crept into her voice. “Makes you really appreciative of those that are.” 

“I know what you mean,” Berry Punch replied, knowing exactly what Applejack was talking about. She pushed the dark thoughts from her mind and shook her head. She watched as Babs’ head bobbed as she and Piña were talking, Babs was clearly fascinated by the griffons. 

“Could you do me a favour?” Applejack asked in a low drawl. 

“Sure Applejack… anything you need,” Berry Punch offered in reply. 

“Give Bucky an extra big smooch for me. Tell him that the Apples always pay their debts and we owe him big. He knows why,” Applejack said in return as she turned to look at Berry Punch. The orange earth pony took a deep breath. “So… about that proposal you had about wanting to buy up all of our extra corn… I’m guessing that you wanna turn that corn into hard liquor… I gots me some business to discuss with ya if yer willing to hear me out.” 

“I’m always willing to listen to business,” Berry Punch replied as she glanced at Applejack and smiled. “And I’ll give Bucky that smooch for you.” 



 

“Bucky is a much better flier than I thought he would be,” Derpy remarked as she watched out the window. “Only having one eye makes it tough to fly though.” 

“He is managing,” Lugus replied as he too stared out the window. 

“Is the attic finished?” Derpy asked as she felt Peekaboo rubbing up against her leg. 

“Just about. Yew is coordinating the decorating. It is now fully insulated, the balcony with the big window doors has been finished which makes it real easy to get in and out, and the big open space up there agrees with me. It is… cramped down here in the rest of the house,” Lugus responded as he lay down upon the floor and rested his head near Cadance and Harper. 

“I could imagine. It must be difficult to be as big as you are,” Derpy stated in reply.

Turning to look at Lugus, she saw the big griffon covering his face with his wing and hiding for a moment, only to pull his wing away and peek out at the three foals. Peekaboo giggled when she saw Lugus playing peekaboo, Harper covered up her face with her front hooves, which caused her to lose her balance, which made her fall over with a thump upon the floor, and Cadance lay on the floor looking absolutely enchanted by the whole event, her eyes blinking slowly as she watched Lugus’ face vanish and reappear. 

“Peekaboo,” Lugus said in a soft voice rarely heard by those outside of the tribe. 

“Daddy!” Peekaboo cried as she covered up her own face with her front hooves. 

Looking over in the corner, Derpy saw Lugus’ axe leaning against the wall. Things had changed since Cadance’s arrival. The axe was sheathed, but its presence was impossible to ignore. Lugus was clearly ready to deal with trouble the moment it arrived, if it arrived. Shaking her head, Derpy felt a moment of genuine pity for whatever might show up unannounced and create trouble on this farm. There was no shortage of powerful protectors gathered into one place. Ripple, her Raptors, Sunset Shimmer, Bucky, Lugus, Lyra, Rising Star, Sparkler, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks… anything that showed up to cause trouble would be given the business and would die in any number of horrible ways depending on who or what reached them first. One thing was certain. The end would likely be painful and messy. Fire, lightning, ice, petrification followed by shattering, dismemberment, being bludgeoned to death by Ripple, or disemboweled by an angry giant griffon wielding an axe. The thought made Derpy smile a serene smile, the smile of a mother that knows that her foals were safe. 

“Peekaboo… I see you…” Lugus said softly. 
	
> Chapter 429 (Warning! May not contain nuts!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky, once again in equine form, carefully flipped though the spellbook that Princess Celestia had given him, licking his lips nervously, and looking for a specific spell he had been curious to try. The foals were asleep. When the sun had gone down, parts of him had woke up, and with the full moon, his inner lunar nature was wide awake. 

“Ah,” Bucky gasped when he found what he was looking for. “Perfect Understanding,” he read aloud in a soft voice. “The description is vague. Celestia promises that this spell shifts the balance of power within a herd and over time, offers perfect understanding between herd members. This is a powerful transmutational spell. Celestia writes in her notes that it is safe and has been thoroughly tested.” 

“I’m game,” Berry Punch remarked. 

“Me too,” Derpy added, the grey mare giving a sidelong glance at Berry. 

Following the instructions, Bucky thought about thoughts of love and understanding, just as Celestia had written in the notes, and he began to weave the spell from threads of harmony magic. Closing his eye, he focused his concentration, feeling the magic flow though him. Harmony magic was all about balance. Understanding. This magic felt natural. Bucky felt an odd tingling when the spell completed and he wondered what had just happened. 

He opened his eye to discover that he was eye to eye with something. That something was dangling beneath Berry Punch, who was suddenly a lot taller. 

“Wow… I have a penis!” Berry Punch exclaimed as she peered down between her front legs, grinning crazily at what she saw dangling beneath there. “And I’m taller too… feels funny… being pregnant and having a big floppy cock.” 

“Bucky,” Derpy gasped. “You’re so little… small… filly sized,” she continued. 

Shivering, Bucky realised that he was indeed filly sized, not much larger than Ripple. Berry was taller, and Bucky was shorter. Bucky also realised that he was missing something from between his hind legs. He tucked his tail between his legs, suddenly feeling very shy, vulnerable, and uncomfortable. Berry Punch was gifted... not as girthy as Bucky had been, but she was long. He began to back away from Berry Punch, who now towered over him. 

“I’m getting bad vibes here,” Berry Punch said in a worried voice. “Our physical bodies have changed, but not our minds… Bucky is still male where it matters.”

“I just can’t get over how small and cute he is… He’s so small,” Derpy commented. Reaching out a wing, she touched Bucky gently. “Too small and delicate to take advantage of. Berry, this is wrong… he’s so scared… he’s shaking.” 

“That is physically intimidating… I’m not like that to you am I?” Bucky asked in a low worried whisper as he brushed up against Derpy’s side. 

“No Bucky… you’re kinda little and harmless. Don’t be angry about me being honest,” Berry replied in a very honest voice. She watched as Bucky got look at himself in the mirror. 

“I’m the ugliest mare ever,” Bucky remarked. “I’m hideous.” 

“Shut up!” Derpy commanded as she prodded Bucky. “Focus on where you are beautiful. Look how little and delicate you are. Slender and graceful.” 

“This no longer feels right. I know Derpy is willing… but I don’t feel good about this,” Berry Punch admitted as she shook her head. “I mean I want to… I mean, let’s be honest here, Bucky is so small that it makes my new dick feel huge by comparison, and now I totally get why some stallions are into smaller mares… huh… understanding. I just learned something,” Berry Punch said, revealing her feelings and thoughts. 

“I just feel so ugly and unattractive. Mares are supposed to be pretty. Both of you certainly are. Look at my face now… it is somehow even worse on a feminine body. There is nothing shapely or becoming about my legs legs or my plot. I’m all ribs. It all seems worse somehow… I think I understand how some mares feel about pregnancy now and how it magnifies their feelings of imperfection,” Bucky said as he continued to check himself out in the mirror. Turning around, he hiked up his tail and had a good look at his new filly bits. “Should those even look like that?” he asked.

Feeling genuinely bad for her husband, Derpy stretched out her neck and planted a kiss upon the good side of his face. “I still think you look beautiful. And you just have a really tight opening back there with thick lips. You don’t look bad… just different.” 

“You have a really meaty labia,” Berry remarked as she lowered her head down near Bucky’s dock to have a look. She licked her lips and gave a sniff. “You know Bucky… you should go into Bon Bon and Lyra’s room… Derpy and I will stay here.” 

“What about if the foals wake up?” Bucky asked as he continued to look in the mirror. 

“Derpy and I will look after them. You just go and spend a little time with Bon Bon and Lyra. Don’t be insecure. Those mares love you. I think we’re all going to reach a bit of understanding tonight,” Berry Punch answered in a low soothing voice. 



 

Feeling vulnerable, Bucky gulped as Bon Bon and Lyra looked him over. Both smelled strongly of soap, both were fresh out of the shower, and Bucky immediately began to worry if he smelled okay, a thought he typically didn’t spend much time thinking about. 

“You’re so small,” Bon Bon said once more, just as she had said when she had first seen Bucky standing just outside the small spare bedroom door, the room that she and Lyra shared for more private moments. 

“This feels weird,” Bucky whispered. 

“I’ll say,” Lyra agreed as she rubbed her body up against Bucky. 

“Come to bed with us Bucky,” Bon Bon commanded, her voice gentle.

“This… this is a mistake,” Bucky protested as he took a step backwards towards the door. “There will be kissing…” 

“Yes, I suspect there will be that,” Bon Bon acknowledged as she raised her eyebrow. “Why do you feel that this is a mistake?” 

“When we kiss there are lines we don’t cross… we keep things… well, you know… if we kiss the way that lovers do… it will be awkward later if we go back to how things were,” Bucky stammered in reply as he felt Lyra step behind him and cut off his exit. 

“Then we just keep kissing like lovers once this is over,” Bon Bon responded in a soft silky whisper. “How do you feel about that Lyra?” 

“I think I’m okay with that,” Lyra replied as she ran her chin over the small of Bucky’s back, trying to comfort and reassure her mate. 

Fluttering her eyelashes, Bon Bon offered a seductive smile to Bucky. “Now come to bed Bucky… Lyra and I are going to show you what it feels like to be a mare that has been loved… aren’t we Lyra?”

Nodding, Lyra gently nudged Bucky towards the bed. “Bonnie has a thing for vulnerable mares… trust me… I know… just take a deep breath and let her make you feel safe… we’ll be gentle.” 

“Okay,” Bucky breathed as he took a step towards the bed. He saw Bon Bon taking a step towards him and his heart began to race. The way she was looking at him. The way her eyes lingered over his body. The frozen feeling of insecurity began to melt as Bucky realised that he was seeing genuine desire in Bon Bon’s burning sultry stare. He could feel the now much larger mare breathing heavily upon his snoot when she drew near. Lifting his head, Bucky looked up, swallowing nervously, feeling strangely naked and vulnerable. 

A moment later, Bon Bon’s muzzle pressed into his own. He felt her lips part… and the boundary that they had always kept between one another crumbled away when he felt Bon Bon’s tongue gently sneaking into his mouth, a rough but still somehow smooth invader between his lips. He could feel the tip trailing over his own tongue, teasing, lingering, and then it was under his tongue, exploring in strange places, first upon one side, then the other, before finally tickling the top of his tongue once more. Even Berry Punch and her curious tongue had never kissed him like this. 

His body tensing, feeling panicked, Bucky felt his tail being brushed aside and hot heavy breathing on places that he was still unaccustomed to having. He started to cry out, but Bon Bon increased her suction, which made him go lightheaded. His legs felt wobbly as he felt Lyra’s nose brushing up against his new acquired feminine lips. As Bon Bon’s tongue continued to explore, Bucky felt a rough wet sensation against his nethers, and he realised that Lyra was licking him. 

“Bonnie… he has the most amazing lips back here… he… she… this is weird but who cares,” Lyra announced and then ran her tongue over her lips. “So thick and full… so nice to bite… mmm.” 

When Bucky was certain that he could no longer continue to breathe, Bon Bon pulled away. His muzzle felt damp and he could feel Lyra nibbling upon his marehood, which flooded his body with strange unknown sensations. Cautiously, almost bashfully, his breathing heavy, Bucky lifted his head, took Bon Bon’s lower lip between his own two well moistened lips, and gave her a playful tugging nibble as his ears alternated between being raised in a hopeful manner and splayed out sideways in a submissive posture. 

Bon Bon pulled her lip away and made a gesture with her head. “Get in the bed Bucky… so that we might have our way with you,” commanded Bon Bon in a gentle but firm whisper.

Feeling a little nip upon his dock, Bucky let out a startled cry and shot towards the bed. His whole backside tingled with a odd sense of need after the dock nip. He could feel himself undulating, parts of his new anatomy were spasming. 

“Mmm… I see something winking,” Lyra announced in a heated whisper. “The dirty little mare is presenting to me… get in the bed… little mare.” 

Watching as Bucky scooted for the bed, Bon Bon licked her lips and then playfully swatted Lyra across the backside with her hoof. “Mmm Lyra sounds frisky and aggressive.” 

Freezing in place, Lyra hissed, raised her tail, and she let out a needy grunt. 

Bucky could not believe what he was seeing. He felt something on him going hard, but he no longer had his usual colt bits. He could feel something throb, it pulsed and convulsed, slipping in and out of him as he spasmed, the feeling of being surrounded by searing hot flesh and cool air driving him into a near frenzy. In spite of his distraction, he remained focused upon Lyra. 

Seeing Bucky’s concern, Bon Bon’s expression softened. “I never strike her hard. Just a little tap, honest. I discovered she had this reaction by accident. Um… don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t secretly whip Lyra behind closed doors,” she explained. 

Blinking, Lyra snapped out of her moment of stunned stupour and then looked at Bucky as he climbed into the bed. “Oh he’s a winker…” Lyra breathed. 

“I see that,” Bon Bon remarked as she pushed Bucky over and rolled him on his back upon the bed. The big bossy mare lept up onto the bed and then settled in beside Bucky. “Lyra and I are going to do things to you. Terrible wet sloppy things. We’re going to give your new filly bits a thorough working over. And after were done… if you survive… we are going to let you take a nibble of our secret treats… because to be honest… I’ve been wanting to let you nibble on my candy for quite some time… because I love you.” 

Hopping up on the bed, Lyra crashed down on top of Bucky, pinning him to the bed. She placed her front hooves on either side of Bucky’s head, gently holding him, and then she pressed her muzzle into his. Parting her lips, Lyra allowed Bucky inside of her, her body warming in more ways that one, she felt a flood of emotions as she shared a truly intimate moment with somepony that she loved and trusted just as much as she did Bon Bon. Lyra, while she had initiated the kiss, was actually the passive one between her and Bon Bon; she allowed Bucky’s tongue to explore, feeling its way around, her own marehood clenching as she wrapped her lips around Bucky’s tongue and began to suck on it. Straddling Bucky, she rubbed her rapidly moistening cleft against Bucky’s thigh, leaving him sticky as she left behind little trails of liquid Lyra love that glistened in the warm yellow lamplight. Bending her leg, Lyra rubbed her own thigh against Bucky’s small puckered slit and Lyra felt her body tense when she heard Bucky hiss. 

Bon Bon, feeling incredibly aroused, leaned over Lyra’s wiggling backside and got herself a good look at everything going on at that end. She could see that Lyra wet… dribbling, glistening beads of moisture trailed along Bucky’s leg from where Lyra was rubbing back and forth during her long kiss, and it warmed Bon Bon’s heart to see Lyra be so open and so trusting, a sign that Lyra was healing, or so Bon Bon hoped. Reaching back with her hoof, she reached just under Lyra’s dock and began to rub Lyra’s pucker with a gentle circular motion, which made the mint green mare moan into Bucky’s mouth, which in turn, caused Bucky to clench his nethers, and Bon Bon heard the wet slurping sound. 

“I think he’s about to cum Lyra,” Bon Bon whispered in a heated voice. “Yeah… he’s a goer… he has that big chubby knobby clitoris that keeps peeping out… we’re gonna make him our little mare tonight.” 

Breathless, needing air, but determined to keep going, Lyra teased the tip of Bucky’s tongue with her own as she continued to suck on his tongue with her lips. She felt Bon Bon kneading her flexing pucker and let out a long low moan as she continued to grind away upon the smaller mare that was Bucky beneath her. 

Overcome with sensations that he had never experience before, Bucky experienced his first female orgasm as his slick oversized nubbin trailed along Lyra’s silken sopping pelt. It was an orgasm entirely unlike his own, the orgasms he was used to experiencing, and he felt his whole body clench and writhe beneath Lyra as he needily ground himself against her leg, trying to scratch what felt like a terrible itch. He broke away from the kiss and then he cried out, whimpering, crying, heaving out a breathless moan. 

Lyra pulled away from Bucky and watched as he collapsed into a quivering mess. 

“I think you broke him Lyra,” Bon Bon whispered. “We’ve barely even started and already he’s been screwed stupid.” 

“He’s not used to his female body I don’t think,” Lyra said as she rolled over onto her side and wrapped a foreleg around Bucky. “I was just getting warmed up too… what a pity.” 

“Bad little mare… you broke our new toy!” Bon Bon scolded as she threw herself down on top of Lyra and rolled the unicorn upon her back. Reaching one of her front hooves down between Lyra’s legs, Bon Bon rubbed the knob of her fetlock against Lyra’s moistened minge. 

Squealing, Lyra threw her head back and wordlessly begged for mercy, letting out little squeaking cries as Bon Bon kneaded on her marehood in the same way that Bon Bon pounded on taffy. She wrapped her forelegs around Bon Bon and held on for dear life as the earth pony worked her over. 

“Prepare to be Bon Bombed Lyra,” Bon Bon growled as she hoof humped the poor green unicorn into submission. “Show Bucky how to have a proper orgasm… do it!” she commanded.

Cramming her hoof into her mouth, Lyra bit down and squeezed her eyes shut as Bon Bon switched tactics and now began to lightly tease her throbbing overstimulated clitoris. She could feel only the barest touch now, like a breeze blowing over her soaked flesh. She hitched her hips upward, trying to get her itch scratched, but Bon Bon teasingly pulled away. 

Coming somewhat to his senses, Bucky twisted his head around to watch as Lyra was teased into submission, the unicorn was writhing and sweating beneath Bon Bon, who was in total and complete control. 

“Oh please let me cum!” Lyra begged after she pulled her hoof out of her mouth. “I’ll be a good unicorn… oh please Bonnie… I can’t take it!” 

“No!” Bon Bon replied as she continued to tease, a wicked smile now upon the earth pony’s lips. “I want Bucky to see what happens to naughty little unicorns!” 

Shuddering, Bucky took a deep breath. If he still had his penis, he was certain that his boner would have just ran out of skin and exploded after seeing and hearing the love-play between Lyra and Bon Bon. He thought about saving Lyra, but he worried about what Bon Bon might do to him… and he was even more worried that he would let her. 

Jamming her hoof back into her mouth, Lyra gnawed away upon it as the crushing featherweight touch of Bon Bon’s teasing brought her closer to orgasm. Sweat poured from her body, soaking the sheets, dribbles of liquid Lyra love oozed from her gaping glistening gooey gash and trickled over her puckered clenching anus. 

After many minutes of stroking Lyra, Bon Bon pulled away, sat up, and then carefully lowered head down to between Lyra’s legs. The earth pony inhaled, drawing in a deep breath, she puffed out her cheeks, pursed her lips like she was about to blow out a candle, and she blew over Lyra’s quivering cunny. Giving Bucky a wink, she pulled away from Lyra with a smile.

Jamming her other hoof into her mouth, Lyra let out a gibbering whimper. A moment later, she began to flail around upon the bed, all four legs kicking and thrashing, almost like a foal having a tantrum. Her hips bucked and her body rose and fell upon the bed. Lyra let out a keening cry of ogasmic delight as several squirts of squalene shot out of her squelching sundered snatch. After firing off a few more squirts from her queef curtains, Lyra began to giggle hysterically. 

“Damn,” Bucky breathed, unable to say anything else about what he had just witnessed. 

Laying down on her side, Bon Bon gave Bucky a seductive come hither stare. “I have needs. I’ve heard that you’re really good at looking after those needs,” she said as she scissored her legs open, kicking out one out. She did not reveal herself, not completely, but there was just enough showing to be inviting. “Good unicorns get rewarded… bad unicorns get punished.” 

“I wanna be a good unicorn,” Bucky whispered, feeling a bit fearful of Bon Bon and her sexual sorcery. Lyra was still a hysterical quivering mess of pony lost in an orgasmic fog and she showed no signs of recovery, which worried Bucky. “What do I gotta do to make you happy?” 

Chuckling softly, Bon Bon closed her eyes and patted the bed in front of her belly. Opening her eyes, but only as seductive slits, Bon Bon stuck out her tongue and bit down upon it for just a moment before sucking it back in with a sultry hiss. 

Crawling over the bed, Bucky wiggled to the spot where Bon Bon patted and then went still. He watched as Bon Bon rolled over onto her back and spread her legs wide, revealing her soft rounded milk swollen teats along with her snatch, which was a thin pink line peeking through her cream coloured pelt. The velvet hairs around her foal hole were damp and traces of moisture ran down the inside of her thighs. She wiggled her hind legs, causing her to slitted mound to unstick and split open, revealing even more of the delightful pink hidden within, trailing sticky liquid which beaded up around her ivory off white pucker, and her winking cunny made inviting wet slurping noises as she continued to wiggle her legs. 

“This isn’t going to lick itself,” Bon Bon murmured in an almost bored sounding voice. “Now be a good little pony… Or I’ll do to you what I did to Lyra.” 

Nodding, Bucky lowered his head and sniffed. He licked his lips, stuck out his tongue, and then gently teased Bon Bon’s pucker, licking away the droplets of moisture to be found on the wrinkled flesh. He heard Bon Bon giggling and felt her squirm. 

“Lyra never licks me there!” 

Teasing the taut wrinkled flesh, Bucky swirled his tongue in a counter-clockwise circle a few times, savouring each drop of golden liquid, and then began to work his way up, then in. After a few licks to get a taste, he plunged his tongue into Bon Bon’s feminine folds. He shivered when he heard Bon Bon hiss and felt her clench around his tongue. He licked a little more, finding that he enjoyed Bon Bon’s rather unique flavour. Waggling his tongue, he drew in a deep breath and held it before plunging his muzzle in and snout screwing Bon Bon. He slowly sunk his muzzle in, a little at a time, pressing his way deeper and deeper; once he was in as far as he dared, he extended his tongue as far as he could and gave Bon Bon a lick upon the spongy flesh that existed behind from where her clitoris was. Angling his neck, he dragged his rogue tongue over Bon Bon’s tender flesh and heard the the earth pony mare squeal in reply. 

As he was about to lick Bon Bon once more, Bucky felt his hindquarters being grabbed and he felt a tongue teasing him upon his own fleshy lips. He jerked his head out of Bon Bon and his ears perked straight up. 

“Wait,” Bon Bon said, lifting her hoof. 

Following Bon Bon’s lead, the three ponies rearranged themselves into a triangle, with Bucky’s muzzle in between Bon Bon’s legs, Lyra was face first in Bucky’s crotch, and Bon Bon found a tasty treat to nibble on in the form of Lyra. Each of them lay on their sides, heads resting in each other’s thighs, and Bucky could feel two swollen teats pressing against this throat as he acquainted himself with Bon Bon’s bon bon. Unable to help himself, he slid the side of his face along Bon Bon’s silken thigh, pulling his head back, and latched on to a teat for a moment to have himself a suckle. The milk was sweet, warm, nourishing, and never failed to make Bucky feel lightheaded when he partook of it fresh from the source. He felt a curious tongue probing his depths and he tried to relax, but found that his stomach kept tensing and he kept wanting to close his legs, which was impossible. Lyra had her head sandwiched between his thighs and was busy sliding her tongue in and out in a slow lazy fashion. 

Letting the teat slide from between his slobbering lips, Bucky pushed his head deeper between Bon Bon’s legs and found himself snoot to clitoris with brawny Bon Bon’s baby bakery. He gave a little lick to the knob of flesh and then followed through with a lick that ran the length of her cotton candy coloured cunt. Somepony moaned, but Bucky couldn’t figure out who… everything was muffled as his head was squashed between Bon Bon’s cream coloured thighs. Lyra’s tongue had found a spot that was making it difficult for Bucky to breath and he could feel her lips brushing up against his own newly acquired clitoris each time she opened her mouth to flick her tongue out. 

Carefully probing through the slick pink wrinkles, Bucky found a tiny little pucker of flesh hidden inside of the deep dark pink fold that he was probing with his tongue. He allowed the tip of his tongue to linger on it, and he felt Bon Bon’s whole body tense just as he knew it would. He had found her urethra, which was hidden away deep within, and he knew from experience that it was sensitive. After a few warm up licks, he applied the flat broad surface of his tongue directly and allowed the full length to slide along the urethral fold deep within. He felt Bon Bon shudder and the mare moaned, he could feel her whole body shake as she let out a muffled cry, her own face buried into Lyra’s snatch. 

Licking a little longer, until he was certain that Bon Bon couldn’t take another, Bucky focused upon the soft flesh around her nubbin, he took the entire clitoral mound into his mouth and began to suckle. He felt his body tensing in weird ways as Lyra was doing something to him, he couldn’t quite make out exactly what was happening, but it he felt his body growing tense and his dock kept clenching up. 

“I want to be a good unicorn,” Bucky breathed onto Bon Bon’s clitoris as he pulled away for air after suckling upon the quaking flesh for a few moments. Bon Bon’s whole body was jerking now and Bucky worried that her thighs could crush his head. He lovingly trailed his tongue in a circle around her clit a few times and then teased his way under the clitoral hood, leaving no inch of Bon Bon’s flesh unexplored. Mid lick, he felt Bon Bon’s whole body clench, her legs squeezed his head, her marehood clenched up tightly, and Bon Bon let out a smothered cry. 

“She came!” 

Bucky could feel Lyra’s words against his flesh, her lips trailing over his own sopping wet flesh. Bon Bon was still convulsing and Bucky pressed his advantage, he began lapping away at the moisture that was now oozing from her squelching snatch. Each stroke of his tongue caused Bon Bon to squirm, she moaned again as his tongue lingered over her fevered flesh, and Bucky was finding it harder and harder to lick as he felt his own orgasm rushing to overtake him. 

As Bucky approached his peak, he felt the cool prickly sensation of magic tingling over his sodden snatch. He needed air… he pushed Bon Bon away and rolled over… he heard Lyra giggling evilly as stars began to fill his vision. 

“He’s gonna blow!” Lyra warned as Bucky wrapped his forelegs around his own barrel and sucked in a sharp breath. She intensified her magic upon Bucky’s feminine folds as Bon Bon lay on her side, gasping and still shuddering from her recent orgasm. 

And then, the levees broke, and Bucky felt the flood overpower him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 430
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Tourmaline, don’t look so gloomy,” Dinky Doo said as she tried to cheer up her friend. The unicorn patted the other unicorn that was sitting beside her at the breakfast table and gave the pink maned filly a smile. 

“I miss my aunties,” Tourmaline mumbled as she prodded her oatmeal with a her spoon. 

“Princess Celestia had to go to the Crystal Empire to scold some ponies and Princess Luna had to go to Trottingham to deal with some problem,” Yew Wood said to Tourmaline. “Here. Have some chocolate milk. You’ll feel better.” 

“Thank you,” Tourmaline said as her glass was refilled by the helpful and kindly pegasus. 

“I don’t understand why the crystal ponies are being such jerks,” Piña said, smacking her lips as she spoke around a mouthful of oatmeal and fruit. “I mean, Glass Slipper is so kind… but what they’re doing to Shining Armor makes me angry… we still have our daddy because of Shining Armor.” Angrily shoveling food into her mouth, Piña scowled as she ate, her ears splayed out sideways, and her nostrils flared as her temper rose. 

“Father says they are afraid. They live in fear of Sombra’s return. They want a powerful protector. Father says that fear can make even the most well behaved ponies act in the worst manner possible. Just think about what the shadow wolves did to the ponies of the Shetlands,” Sentinel said before eating a large bite of biscuit and jam. “It doesn’t excuse their actions, but it does give you some perspective,” he continued after he swallowed. Looking at Diamond Tiara, he nervously leaned over, hesitated for a moment, and then with his ears pinned back against his skull, he licked away a bit of oatmeal from the corner of her mouth. 

Diamond Tiara froze in place and began to blush furiously. 

Shaking her head, Dinky lifted up a spoonful of oatmeal. She rolled her eyes as some of her oatmeal slid off from her spoon and plopped back down into her bowl. “Diamond, stop being silly. Just a little face lick. Good pegasus manners.” 

“I feel warm,” Diamond Tiara murmured as she blinked her eyes rapidly. “The heat is on too high in here. I feel light headed.” 



 

Looking over her schedule book for the day, Belisama carefully took in everything. The book had been a gift from Violet Velvet, given to her yesterday after the meeting with the town council. Today there was a town planning meeting with the advisory board, the zoning regulatory commission, and the town’s housing regulation committee. And all of this was before noon. After lunch there were to be flight lessons along with a little chit chat with her subjects when the opportunity presented itself, so she could encourage them to bring a sense of order to the city’s government. 

Lifting a pen, she checked off check schedule from her list of things to do. 

“Belisama, whatcha doing?” Berry Punch inquired as she leaned forward over her breakfast and eyed the griffoness curiously. 

“Getting organised,” Belisama replied  as she closed her day planner and slid the pen back into the convenient slot made to hold it. “My husband and my subjects need me. I must be a dutiful servant to them. No more napping in the kitchen window.” 

“We all have our hobbies,” Berry Punch responded as she gave Belisama a pleased smile. “By the way, our loyal subjects are amazing… the new bottling machine still has a few kinks, but the output potential is staggering compared to the old contraption.” 

“More bottles means more product, product has to be managed… any chance of creating a few jobs?” Belisama asked as she began to peck at her food. 

“We need a new cooper actually… a team of them. The bottles aren’t what we’re worried about,” Berry Punch answered, now becoming quite animated as her business savvy was engaged. “But yes, for the bottles, we need labels printed out and we need some ponies to make the wooden crates with our logo that we load the bottles into for sale.” 

“So… barrel makers and production staff… noted,” Belisama stated as she opened her book, pulled out her pen, and began to take notes. 

“Also, we’re in the process of buying the building right next to the brewery… as soon as we have it free and clear, we’re turning it into a tap house and restaurant. The goal is an affordable eatery and a means to sell booze to thirsty ponies,” Berry Punch said as she dumped a crazy amount of sugar into her oatmeal. 

“That building is huge,” Bucky grumbled, only half awake. He hunched over his coffee and inhaled the steam, his ears drooping over his face. 

Adding butter to her oatmeal, Berry Punch nodded. “The safety inspector said the maximum occupancy is going to be around two hundred. Barley and I plan to get live music in there. We’re gonna need an army of service workers.” 

The scratching of Belisama’s pen was audible over the sounds of breakfast being eaten as she continued to take notes. “I should tell you… the old movie theatre is going to be auctioned off. All of the seats were ripped out so they could house refugees there. The owner, an older stallion, died of heart complications recently. The city is hoping that somepony will purchase the building, restore it, and either turn it into a playhouse or a movie theatre.” 

“There’s no movie industry right now,” Berry Punch grumbled, looking more than a little distraught as she stabbed her oatmeal with a spoon. She ate a big bite and oatmeal dribbled down her chin. 

Bored by the talk of business at the breakfast table, Derpy prodded Bon Bon and gave the earth pony a wink. “Have a nice time last night?” 

“Oh we had a lovely time,” Lyra announced in a low but excited voice, all too aware there were foals in the dining room just a short distance away. 

Blushing slightly, Bon Bon nodded in agreement. “It was nice to be able to spend some time with Bucky. The experience was certainly… thrilling.” 

“I’m glad to be me again,” Bucky mumbled as he continued to stare downwards into his coffee cup. He yawned, revealing a terrifying mouthful of jagged teeth. 

Grinning, Lyra scooped up a bite of applesauce and held it out before her. “The combination to Bon Bon’s safe is tricky business and everything has to be done just right… Bucky just blew her locks off,” Lyra reported and then she shoved her spoon into her mouth. 

Derpy gave a knowing nod to Bon Bon. “He licked that spot, didn’t he?” 

Saying nothing, Bon Bon inhaled sharply once and then gave a knowing nod. 

“I bet when you got up to take a pee later, you had another orgasm, didn’t you?” Derpy inquired in a very low voice, leaning over to talk to Bon Bon. 

Again, the earth pony mare nodded, her ears twitching. 

“I fell off of the toilet,” Lyra admitted sheepishly. “I thought something was wrong. I was tired, sore, sticky, I was about to keel over from exhaustion, I started to pee… and then suddenly I was hearing bells and shivering like somepony had just dumped a bucket of ice water over me.” 

“Been there, done that,” Berry Punch remarked between bites of food. 

Hunched over his coffee, the corner’s of Bucky’s lips curled back wickedly. 



 

Feeling a sense of accomplishment, Galaxy Guide looked over the papers that finalised the adoption of Singsong and Brass Note. He and his wife, Shining Star, were now their permanent legal guardians. Singsong, the little pegasus filly, and Brass Note, the little unicorn colt, were now their own, totally and completely. No more headaches, no more hassle, no more waiting on paperwork to get from one place to another. 

Looking up from the papers, he looked over at his wife, who was currently on the floor playing with the foals, building what appeared to be a large castle out of blocks. Feeling a little sentimental and perhaps just a little bit maudlin, he thought about Rising Star and how well Rising Star had turned out. Rising Star, who had gone off to be with the filly that he loved. Rising Star, who had gone to war against things that Galaxy Guide could scarcely comprehend. His colt had earned himself a noble title with peerage and backing. Rising Star had come home a changed colt, married, with wives. Galaxy Guide felt a stirring of pride as he reflected. His colt was becoming a famous smith and well known politician. Galaxy Guide couldn’t help but feel that he had done a pretty good job with his colt, and, as he looked down at Singsong and Brass Note, he wondered what sort of future the both of them might have in store for them. 



 

Sitting in her high chair, Harper pondered the bits of partially frozen fruit on the tray before her. Looking up, she gave the most moribund expression she could muster to her mama mama, who did not seem at all concerned that Harper was faint with hunger. 

Turning her dark purple eyes towards Derpy, Harper did her best to try get some sympathy, but none seemed coming. She felt a blueberry poke her in the snoot again and she looked down at it, going cross eyed as she tried to focus on the offending berry. 

“You are going to eat this,” mama mama commanded. 

Harper’s ears pinned back against her skull and she turned her pleading eyes upon mama mama. “Why?” she asked. 

Mama mama seemed confused for a moment, which made Harper feel a little hopeful. Mama mama’s face scrunched up and Harper watched as mama mama pondered the question. The blueberry continued to float in front of her snoot. 

“This is food. You eat food. This is a blueberry,” mama mama explained in reply. 

Shaking her head in disagreement, Harper sucked in her lips for a moment and then exhaled, making flatulent noises with her lips and spraying slobber all over mama mama. Harper watched as mama mama sat there and dripped a bit. She felt a tickle along her ribs and her belly button and she opened her mouth to cry out in protest...

Only to have the blueberry sneak in and be placed upon her tongue. Moving with surprisingly quick reflexes, she spat the blueberry out before her mouth could be pinched shut. It flew out with a pop and bounced off of mama mama’s snoot. Harper giggled in triumph. 

“Harper… you test my patience,” mama mama said in a low voice. 

The foal nodded, feeling it was the right thing to do, even though she didn’t quite understand what was being said. She smiled and giggled again. “Love you.” 



 

Pulling the door open, Berry Punch saw Shining Armor. The stallion looked haggard. Almost aged looking somehow. He looked weary and he had bags under his eyes. Berry Punch blinked at him a few times, trying to take in what she was seeing. 

“I was told the door is always open,” Shining Armor said wearily. 

“Do come in,” Berry Punch invited as she stepped aside. 

Taking a deep breath, Shining Armor stepped through the door and came inside. “I couldn’t handle Canterlot anymore. I couldn't handle being in that Castle for one more minute. I felt like I was losing my mind. I came to Ponyville… I talked to Twilight… I spoke to my parents… and then I came here. I can’t go back to Canterlot. Princess Celestia is in the Crystal Empire right now fighting for a throne I am not even sure I want anymore.” 

Feeling a pang of emotion, Berry Punch made a gesture for Shining Armor to follow her into the living room. “Take a seat. Get comfortable. You know you are welcome to stay here for as long as you need. We have rooms upstairs.” 

“Is Cadance well?” Shining Armor asked as he settled into a chair by the window. 

Nodding, Berry Punch scratched one foreleg with the other nervously. “She’s napping right now. She was just fed and she always goes right under after a feeding.” 

“Don’t wake her… let her sleep,” Shining Armor responded in a heartbroken voice. 

“I can help you, but there is a price to pay. A terrible price to pay.” 

Lifting his head, Shining Armor looked at Buckminster, who stood in the archway where the living room opened into the entry hall. “Price?” Shining Armor asked as he watched Buckminster come into the room and sit down. 

“I am unhappy to hear you say that you aren’t sure that you want your throne. Cadance needs you to look after her ponies for a while… you have duties Shining Armor. We both know the cost of servitude,” said Bucky in a low voice 

“I know… but they don’t want me… I’m missing Cadance. Everything that had meaning in my life is gone it feels like… I just don’t know what-” 

“Be quiet,” Bucky commanded, interrupting Shining Armor. “Be calm. How far will you go to have a chance at having Cadance back?” Bucky asked in a blunt manner. 

“What… like have myself turned to stone and wait for her? I’ve thought about it,” Shining Armor admitted as he closed his eyes. “I hear you have dreams while you are asleep in the stone.” 

“No!” Bucky barked angrily. “You have an obligation to look after the empire until she returns. What are you willing to do to have a chance at getting Cadance back and keeping your empire?” 

“I… I would do almost anything,” Shining Armor confessed as he opened his eyes. 

Bucky’s single eye narrowed. “Would you defy Celestia?” 

Shining Armor bolted to attention and stared at Bucky. “What are you planning?” 

“How far?” Bucky demanded in a harsh growl. 

“Whatever is necessary! I just want to be with her again!” Shining Armor shouted in reply. 

“I’m going to go look after stuff,” Berry Punch announced as she excused herself from the room. She hurried away, her tail swishing, stepping through the arch and into the hallway. 

“We don’t know if Cadance will even be herself, but it is worth taking a chance. I have a means for you to be with her again, but it will require sacrifice. Celestia will certainly not agree with what I am planning, which is why we will not tell her what we are doing. I’ve already spoken with Twilight Sparkle… it took some convincing, but she is on our side. I can give you time to be with Cadance and I can give you power to protect the empire,” Bucky explained in a low voice. 

“How?” Shining Armor breathed. 

Flexing his talons as he looked thoughtfully at Shining Armor, Bucky carefully chose his words before speaking. “Sombra… before he went horribly wrong… Sombra found a means to prolong his life and greatly magnify his power. He bound himself you see… he had to give a little piece of himself… but he felt that the spell was a failure and Sombra had to find other means to make himself more powerful… he turned to dark magic and necromancy. But before he did that, he found the means to greatly extend his own life but it required sacrifice.” 

“I’m listening,” Shining Armor responded in a low voice. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky looked Shining Armor in the eye. “Sombra and Star Swirl crafted a spell that binds the recipient into an artifact of power. Not quite a phylactery… it’s complicated so I’ll just say what happened. Sombra bound himself to the Crystal Empire by placing a piece of himself inside of a crystal soulstone. You know this artifact as the crystal heart. The spell bonds the dutiful defender to a location or place… such as in Sombra’s case, the Crystal Empire. Through the crystal heart, he was also bound to the crystal ponies, who were also bonded to the crystal heart, but that was a different spell. Anyway… Once bonded, time slows down to a crawl. Minutes are like mere seconds. The spell should allow a pony to live for hundreds of years. A very long time. But you would be a prisoner… you would have to be near the crystal heart and the crystal tower. If you left, time would pass normally again and you would start to age once more. But this would buy you time… and give you power. Unimaginable power. You would become like Sombra… a living focal point for the magic of the crystal heart and the Crystal Empire. I’m guessing that you will become a very powerful type four.” 

Shining Armor sat in stupefied silence and stared at Bucky. 

“This would give you time Shining Armor. Time you would be wise to use well. Study magic. Make a sacrifice of yourself. Devote yourself to your duties. Give all that you have of yourself. Having that jump up in power puts you just a little closer to becoming an alicorn. There are ways to ascend, Shining Armor, both good and bad, but Cadance would never forgive you if you did something bad. If you allow this spell to be cast and you become the Dutiful Defender that the spell would turn you into, you could have her once more… maybe even forever, but I can’t imagine the sort of sacrifice you might have to make to do so. Shining Armor, live selflessly. Give everything of yourself. Hold nothing back,” Bucky said in a commanding voice. 

“What do I have to do?” Shining Armor questioned. 

“So does this mean you will do it?” Bucky inquired in reply. 

“For her… anything... ” 
	
	
> Chapter 431
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“It feels funny seeing you as a griffon,” Belisama confessed in a low voice as she sidled up closer to Bucky. “You’re handsome.” 

Feeling his crest rise, Bucky turned to look at the griffoness at his side. “Thank you.” 

“So… is this body functional?” Belisama peeped through her closed beak. 

Reaching out a wing, he wrapped it around the griffoness and pulled her closer. “In every way imaginable. But I can’t kiss you in this body. Feels funny not having lips… also… I do not have barbs,” he said as he tucked his head down towards Belisama and began to preen her neck feathers. 

“Could we have cubs with this body?” Belisama inquired as she allowed Bucky to preen her feathers, trusting his razor sharp beak against her throat. She felt a prickle of fear, but she held it back. 

“They’d still be crossbreeds. Hippogriffs. Feels funny to talk deep down in my throat and not use my beak for speaking,” Bucky replied as he carefully smoothed out a ruffled feather on Belisama’s neck. 

“Good… I fell in love with a pony. While I find this body attractive, I think I’d rather be with the real you. The pony that saved me. That is who I want my cubs to take after.” Belisama admitted as she felt her tail twitch from side to side. “But this could be fun to play with sometimes.” 

“I have weak back legs… but really strong wings… or so Surprise tells me. Funny how magic and shapeshifting work,” Bucky remarked as he watched a group of griffons stretching. 

“You are a swift flier. You need to tuck your legs in more though. When they hang like that, it creates a lot of drag. Pull them in and tuck them against your body more,” Belisama instructed, giving Bucky advice on how to be a better griffon. 

“I can feel the wind tugging on my scrotum,” Bucky bluntly remarked. 

Blinking up at her mate, Belisama sighed. “I don’t have one of those. I have no advice.” 



 

“Hi Shiny,” Tourmaline said as she crawled up onto the sofa beside the moody white stallion, her own jet black pelt standing out in sharp contrast. “I can feel your sadness.” 

A pained moan escaping his lips, Shining Armor closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his head with one front hoof. “I know you can Tourmaline and I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay to be sad,” Tourmaline said as she wrapped her forelegs around Shining Armor’s neck and collapsed against his body, sprawling out over his back and laying down on top of him. She pressed the side of her face into Shining Armor’s mane and gave a nuzzle.

“Do you know how special you are?” Shining Armor whispered as he felt the foal settle across his back. A part of him was fearful of changelings after what had happened, but the rest of him ignored that part. This was Tourmaline. She was perhaps every bit as gentle as Fluttershy, and Shining Armor knew this. 

“I don’t like feeling pain,” Tourmaline replied as she rubbed her foreleg against the side of Shining Armor’s neck. “It bothers me… it hurts me deep inside where I can’t reach.” 

Closing his eyes, Shining Armor settled his head down upon the arm of the sofa and took a deep breath. Try as he might, he could not stop the tears once they started to fall, and he could feel Tourmaline start to cry with him. Somehow, having her so close made it okay. The floodgates opened and everything he had been holding back began to pour out. He was no longer in Canterlot, he no longer had to keep a brave face, he was just a heartbroken and grieving stallion laying on a couch that was inside of a farmhouse, cuddling with a changeling disguised as a pony. 



 

Grinning nervously and unable to stand still, Rainbow Dash watched as Pound and Pumpkin began to explore the nursery and meet their new playmates. Pound, always the brave one, or so Rainbow Dash had been warned, roamed about on wobbly legs, his sister Pumpkin just behind him. 

On a quilt spread over the center of the floor, Harper, Peekaboo, and Cadance watched the newcomers. Harper was sitting up, Peekaboo was standing, and Cadance was content to lay on her back and look off to the side. 

“I was given a long list of instructions and because I didn’t want to mess this up, I had them write them all down,” Rainbow Dash announced to Derpy. “Twilight told me to try that, otherwise I might have messed up right there. I love Twilight for how she is. Anyhow, Pound and Pumpkin are almost potty trained already. Pound is still having accidents and Pumpkin only sometimes has accidents, and if she does, she freaks out about it until she can get a bath and be made to feel better about it. They’re good eaters, but Pumpkin will only eat her food if it is warm and Pound will only eat cold stuff. Pound has to get ear drops every few hours otherwise he’ll start to cry and his balance will go all wrong. Inner ear infection. The drops burn a little so I’ve been warned to prepare for a struggle.” 

“That sounds pretty normal,” Derpy acknowledged as she smiled down at the foals upon the floor. 

“So I guess I’ll be sleeping in the nursery with them all?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around the room. “This is a nice nursery… this makes me feel all… I dunno inside.” 

“Rainbow Dash… I have to ask… what about all of your hopes and dreams about being a Wonderbolt?” Derpy questioned as she gave Rainbow Dash a poke with her hoof. “Being a mother makes a lot of demands upon your time.” 

“Oh that… I have a trainer lined up already. Surprise. She’s still a Wonderbolt after her pregnancy… just a bit more hard work than usual. Twi has already promised to look after the foal when I can’t. We’re both gonna nurse. I really want this… just as much as being a Wonderbolt… and darn it all, I will have both,” Rainbow Dash replied as a fierce look of determination settled over her face. 

Using her snoot, Peekaboo pushed a large green and yellow ball towards Pound, who stopped to watch it roll towards him. Extending his neck, Pound nosed it back, sending it rolling towards Peekaboo, who giggled and then gave it a good whack with her front hoof, sending it skittering back towards Pound, who was all too happy to give it a good pounding. 

“They’re playing!” Rainbow Dash cried out excitedly. 

Derpy nodded. “Foals do that if left alone with one another for a few minutes.” 

Breaking away from her brother, Pumpkin approached Derpy in an unsteady trot, sat down at Derpy’s front hooves, pointed at the bookcase on the far wall, and blinked a few times. “Story?” the foal asked in a small shy sounding voice. 

“I can read you a book,” Rainbow Dash offered. 

The little unicorn filly known as Pumpkin began to clop her front hooves together and looked pleased. She looked up at Derpy, then up at Rainbow Dash, and then she began to burble happily, blowing spit bubbles while bouncing up and down in place. 



 

Secure in his cubby under the stairs, Sentinel took a deep breath. There were too many fillies in the house. His sisters, Dinky and Piña. Diamond Tiara, Tourmaline, Glass Slipper, and Twist. Opening his book, Sentinel returned to the spot he left off, shivering when he started to read the words. 

Sombra, always looking for some way to increase his power and make himself a more effective warrior, sought ascension. It was an obsession that both he and his brother Star Swirl shared. Sombra worked towards the goal using brute force and eventually dark magic, while his brother Star Swirl sought to unlock the secrets of the alicorns by changing destiny. 

Both destiny and fate could be changed, through magic anything was possible. 

One brother stayed within the light, doing what was right and good, while the other took a pragmatic approach, doing what was effective and necessary. Star Swirl gained power slowly but steadily, locked away in his tower and forsaking almost all contact with others, while Sombra marched upon the enemies of Equestria, growing in power by using the battlefield as his laboratory. 

Turning the page, Sentinel felt a twinge of pity for Sombra. 

Scanning the page, he saw a section of footnotes at the bottom and the title of the subsection made a feeling of cold fear travel down his spine. He felt his testicles pull up into his body and his dock turned into a chunk of ice. 

The Origin of the Vampire. 

Sombra, the book said, always hungry for more power, merged with shadow, bound himself to darkness, and over time, learned to feed off of the life force of others to sustain his own life. It was at this point in Sombra’s life that the Royal Pony Sisters knew that they had lost him, and began to move against him. Battlefields became feeding grounds, places were Sombra gained strength. He became war. Sombra passed his dark curse on to those most loyal to him, allowing them to feed upon the life force of others to heal their bodies, restore their magic, and extend their own lives unnaturally. 

For a moment, Sentinel thought of the shadow wolves and how they could drain the life force from their victims, leaving behind a grey husk. Steeling his nerve, he kept reading.

Especially vulnerable were the unicorns, which from what Sentinel read, Sombra was fond of drinking. Through a process the book called parasitical thaumaturgical transfer, Sombra would sink his fangs into the necks of unicorns, tap into the thaumaturgical glands found therein, thus tapping into the thaumaturgical system, and then using foul shadow magics, drain all of the liquid mana from the thaumaturgical system. The process drained life from unicorns and gave life to Sombra. On the battlefield, Sombra would move from victim to victim, draining, drinking blood and mana, growing strong, each bite bringing him closer towards some terrible ascension, but into what was unknown. All ponies and most other sapient species had some magic in them, the magic in the blood could be drawn in by drinking it, drawing it in through shadow essence. 

Trembling, Sentinel kept reading, his teeth nearly chattering. One sentence in particular chilled him to the bone and made his colt bits shrivel up deep inside of him. Suddenly, more than anything, he wanted to feel Diamond Tiara’s warm body against him as he could no longer bear the agonising cold he felt. 

All those touched and changed by Sombra’s dark shadow bear this dark curse… 

Gritting his teeth together to keep them from chattering, Sentinel thought of his father. After the dream, his father had changed. The slitted eyes. The fangs. The sudden need to feast upon flesh. His father’s constant need for warmth from living things, the need to be near warm bodies… and perhaps the most disturbing thing of all, his father’s need to suckle milk from a living breathing warm body. Shaking his head, Sentinel tried to force the thought from his mind. There was no way his father was substituting milk for blood. 

Was he? 

Turning the page, Sentinel saw a scrap of paper tucked in between the pages. The ivory coloured parchment was folded over. Using umbrakinesis, he grabbed the paper in shadowstuff, pulled it out of the book, and carefully opened it. 

“And now you understand one of the many burdens your father carries. Be strong Sentinel. We will talk about this later. Much love, Luna,” Sentinel read aloud in a whisper as his eyes took in the beautifully written words. His concentration broken, the paper fell down to the pages of the book, trailing wisps of shadowstuff. 

Slamming the book shut, Sentinel scrambled free from his hiding spot beneath the stairs, deciding that he needed some time near a warm body himself, the cold he felt had become too much to bear. 
	
	
> Chapter 432
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Carefully lifting up a cup of perfectly made tea, Violet Velvet took a sip as she also adjusted her reading glasses with her magic. Sighing contentedly, she gave Bucky a little smile and then set down her teacup carefully upon a saucer. “We can open the school tomorrow. Everything is in place and ready to go, but Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are still away. If you want to delay, we can.” 

Inhaling the steam from his own tea, Bucky blinked drowsily. “No. We open the school as soon as possible. Tomorrow.” 

“I will send word to Canterlot then. There is a delegation there from overseas, a pack of diamond dogs. The exchange students are ready to go. There is a teacher, a diamond dog from the old world country, Germaney. His name is Neon Blitz. He will be the caretaker for our puppy students. Big dog… strong silent type. Former soldier, likes to make decorative lamps. He comes highly recommended by the Supreme Chancellour of Germaney, and comes with a full compliment of commendations for bravery, loyalty, and generally being a hard ass when it comes time to be a good shepherd,” Violet Velvet responded. 

“I like him already,” Bucky said after he swallowed his sip of tea. 

“The zebra students haven’t arrived yet, but are on the way. Fancy is sending over a few students, an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn. In my opinion, it will be good to open the school and then absorb students a few at a time rather than a huge crowd all at once,” Violet remarked as she lifted up her teacup once more. 

“Semillon has graciously offered to help the school cafeteria plan menus and organise food preparation,” Bucky said as he watched Violet drink her tea. 

Swallowing and looking a little disgusted, Violet turned her glare upon Bucky. “Which reminds me… are you really going to serve bugs in the cafeteria?” 

“We need the protein. We have diamond dogs and griffons and students of all kinds. We should introduce new foods to them while they are young. Eating insects is surprisingly healthy for ponies. Everypony and everybirdy in my family eats them now… we use mealworm flour in almost everything that needs flour… including that tea cake you just ate,” Bucky answered. 

Setting down her tea, Violet’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Bucky. “Words cannot express my loathing for you right now.” 

Chortling, Bucky grinned. “There are no words to express how little I care.” 

Violet smiled, her eyes opening and her features becoming friendlier. “And this is why I like you. I’m glad I took this job.” 

“How is the city council?” Bucky inquired as his ears perked forward. 

“Well, they were well behaved for all of one meeting, but today, there was some division. Some were very cooperative, others began to squabble amongst themselves,” Violet replied. The lavender mare’s ears leaned back against her curly silver mane. “Unemployment is a major concern right now. Ponyville’s population has exploded. More jobs are needed.” 

“The school will provide more jobs in time, but not enough,” Bucky responded. Scowling for a moment, he blinked in annoyance and then took a sip of tea. 

“This might help, but Twilight Sparkle won’t like it,” Violet Velvet said as she slid a folder over to Bucky. “This just arrived from Canterlot today by Pony Express.” 

“What’s this?” Bucky asked as he lifted the folder. He opened it up and began reading. His eye moving silently over the text, Bucky shook his head. “Why would Twilight Sparkle object to this?” 

Violet lifted her hoof and made an annoyed waving gesture. “Twilight Sparkle is opposed to any sort of large industrial buildings in Ponyville. No giant factories, no massive bland brick buildings, she is determined to keep Ponyville’s rural charm.” 

“But we could use this mail sorting facility. This is a major hub, a place where packages and letters are sorted. And a postal airship dock… the dock alone will offer dozens of jobs. Maintenance, cargo management, pilots… plus the hostel for pegasus couriers to sleep and get rest… they’ll need maids to mind the beds and clean the rooms. Not to mention all the ponies needed to work sorting the mail,” said Bucky in a frustrated tone of voice. 

“Have you ever seen how ugly these buildings are? Twilight Sparkle does have a point, as much as it pains me to admit it. She’s never going to give in on this one,” Violet replied while making a dismissive gesture with her hoof. 

“Then we make the buildings look better. We build something that looks like it belongs in Ponyville. Our family brewery is almost ten thousand square feet and it doesn’t look out of place in town,” Bucky argued, his frustration rising. 

Clearing her throat, Violet gave Bucky an annoyed look. “You did not read the info sheet. The first building is about thirty thousand square feet, the secondary building is nearly twenty thousand square feet, the dock hub and the hostel are to be determined.” 

Pulling his lip back into a snarl, Bucky drummed his talons upon the table in annoyance. “Twilight is just going to have to accept a little modernisation. We have a hydroelectric dam here in Ponyville for crying out loud. That’s a giant expanse of grey cement!” 

“Twilight Sparkle will never allow it,” Violet stated. 

“Bugger it all,” Bucky grumbled. 



 

Feeling very confused, Rainbow Dash looked around at the foals napping upon the floor. The story was not finished. The curious mouse had not yet explored the house, finding such mundane and sundry items such as an apple, a ball, some cheese, and a desk. 

Rainbow Dash did not know what a quince log was, but the mouse had found one. 

“They fell asleep,” Rainbow Dash whispered. 

“Foals do that,” Derpy responded in a soft voice. 

“But they did not finish the book,” Rainbow Dash replied, still whispering. 

“I’m surprised they made it to quince log. Usually they doze off by inkwell,” Derpy said in return as she carefully covered the foals with a blanket. 

“They never finish the book?” Rainbow Dash questioned. 

“Naw, I don’t even know how that book ends,” Derpy answered as she turned to look at Rainbow Dash. 

Flipping through the book, Rainbow Dash blinked as she stared at the last page. “What the stuffing is a zoetrope?” 

Derpy shrugged. 

“This house has some weird stuff. How would a mouse know what this stuff is?” Rainbow Dash questioned. 

“It’s a book for foals… written for fun,” Derpy replied as she shook her head at Rainbow Dash. “Don’t overthink it.” 



 

“...so every time Cheese Sandwich gets it stuck, they have to have a gang bang in the kitchen,” Twist explained, snorting softly from her nasal lisp. 

“Huh… weird,” Piña Colada replied as she cut out a picture from the newspaper for her scrapbook. She peered over at Dinky and watched as Dinky carefully glued popsicle sticks into the general shape of a birdhouse. 

Sniggering softly, Yew Wood bit down on her lip as she tried to show Diamond Tiara how to knit so the earth pony filly would have an effective means of stress relief. It was difficult to even hold her needles in her wings. 

“My magic feels funny,” Dinky remarked as she tried to steady her efforts. “Too powerful. Takes so little thought to do anything. Everything is all wonky.” 

“Sorry,” Glass Slipper said in a subdued voice. 

Shaking her head, Dinky looked up from her birdhouse and looked at Glass Slipper. “Don’t be sorry… I like having to work harder and test myself.” 

“Oh,” Glass Slipper replied, looking just a tiny bit confused as she sat there watching Dinky build a birdhouse out of popsicle sticks. “You sound like Rainbow Dash.” 

“You want a challenge, try knitting with hooves,” Diamond Tiara grumbled. “And a moody lunar pegasus crammed into your chair with you,” she added. 

Turning her head to look at Diamond Tiara, Piña grinned. “You know you like it.” 

“Aw, come on, leave poor Sentinel alone. Something is bothering him,” Tourmaline protested as she looked up from her drawing. 

“We all know that,” Diamond Tiara muttered. “But he won’t say.” 

Saying nothing else, and not wishing to reveal herself, Tourmaline fell silent. 

Setting down her knitting needles and her yarn, Diamond Tiara carefully turned around sideways and pulled Sentinel into a hug. Much to her surprise, he did not resist, but suddenly wrapped his forelegs around her and squeezed back. 

“Aw, you two are so adorable,” Yew remarked as she saw the two foals cuddling together in the chair. She felt her heart warm and thought of Lugus, not long after, she felt other things begin to warm. 



 

Feeling Berry Punch’s hooves upon her belly, Thistle let out a low moan as the earth pony rubbed some kind of oil into her pelt. She could feel Berry’s hooves moving in gentle little circles, working the oil in, and she could smell something that was almost spicy. 

“It won’t be long now Thistle,” Berry Punch said as she slid her hooves to a new area. 

“Two more months after Nightmare Night… it is going to feel like forever,” Thistle grumbled in reply, her face contorting into a sulky pout. “Berry… I’ve changed my mind. I think… I think after Bell Heather is born… I think I’m going to wait a while before getting pregnant again. I know there is a lot of pressure to make new kelpies, but this is torture.” 

Grunting with effort, Berry nodded as she rubbed the medicated oil into Thistle’s skin, which was in danger of getting cracks and splits from being overstretched, too tight, and dried out from the strain. “The good news is, the doctor doesn’t think the foal is going to grow much more. She’s just in there getting finished for a while.” 

“I really hope that’s true,” Thistle whined. “I can’t take this.” 

“There is always the lake,” Berry Punch suggested. 

“But I can’t be with all of you in the lake… I get lonely,” Thistle replied as her eyes began to moisten. “I’m miserable no matter where I am.” 

Squeezing the tube in her folded fetlock, Berry Punch squirted more medicated oil on Thistle’s belly and then set the tube down on the bedside table. She began to rub again, moving her hooves in careful little circles, trying to bring Thistle some small means of comfort. 

“Thistle honey… when you have this foal… my suggestion is to wait about a year or two before you even think of having another. Live a little. Spend time running around town looking in shop windows and meeting a few new friends. Really though. Make friends. That way, when you're pregnant again, you’ll have a whole army of ponies to keep you company,” Berry Punch recommended as she slathered down the crying kelpie in oil. 



 

“Do you really expect me to take this seriously?” Flash Sentry asked as he looked at the mare with too much mascara on her eyelashes. “Your name again ma’am?” 

“My name is Valencia Orange and yes, I expect for you to take this seriously,” the mare responded as she narrowed her eyes and peered at Flash Sentry. “Look, I realise this proposal is a little unorthodox, but this is going to keep happening if you like it or not. Mares and stallions both are having to deal with nastier and nastier pimps and rivalry and territory are becoming a problem. You are going to see more crime. Pretty soon you are going to see a murder I think because I can think of two pimps that are becoming particularly nasty and territorial. A young mare just got her face cut because one pimp wanted to mess up the merchandise of the other. Surely you can see where this is going.” 

“I’m listening,” Flash Sentry said in a low serious voice. 

“We wish to form a union, become sanctioned by the city, be rid of pimps, secure a large building, and make a legalised brothel. We’re selling something that ponies are buying. We’re willing to pay taxes. But we want protection and we want legitimacy. This will reduce some of the violent crime and misery. We just want to make a living. Some of us enjoy this work. For others, we need the bits. We don’t want to scuffle with the police and we’re tired of others exploiting us. You can’t stop what is going on, your best bet is to make peace with it and allow the city to profit from it,” Valencia Orange said, hoping to convince Flash Sentry with a well reasoned argument. 

“I find myself in agreement with what you are saying. Tell me Valencia Orange, you seem so well spoken… what did you do before you came to Ponyville?” Flash Sentry questioned. 

“I worked for a public relations firm in Manehatten. We represented corporations and made the questionable things they did sound appealing to the public,” Valencia Orange answered with blunt honesty. 

“I see… well, that’s interesting. Tell me, are you willing to submit to health and safety inspections? Monthly checks for the Drip?” Flash Sentry responded. 

“Look, Captain Flash Sentry… we are willing to do whatever it takes to become a legitimate business,” Valencia Orange replied. “We want to be marketable. And being able to tell our customers that we’re a clean lay only helps our business. We will be very discreet, have a calm clean establishment, and we promise not to damage Ponyville’s respectable veneer.” 

Nodding, Flash Sentry offered a polite smile. “I will see what I can do to help you.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 433 (Warning! Contains the infamous foal bathing scene that made the Chase get a mature tag for the first time! Parenthood is pornographic!) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Look, I know you all just got paid, and I know you think you have the right to spend your money, but the lot of you have been asked to leave. You’re being rowdy, belligerent, you’re scaring the other customers, and you’ve been a little to grabby with some of the mares. So now it is time for you to sleep it off,” Sparkler said in a commanding voice as she stood in the middle of the tavern, staring down a group of earth ponies and pegasi. 

Behind Sparkler, Thunderlane and Blossomforth stood ready for trouble. 

“Maybe -hic- we’ll just get grabby with you,” one of the pegasi mumbled as he staggered sideways into his companion. He smiled stupidly at Blossomforth. “You wouldn’t be such a -hic- bitch if you had your plot plowed.” 

“Bad idea,” Blossomforth announced. “Try grabbing me and see what happens.” 

One of the earth ponies snatched a chair, grasping it in his fetlock, and swung it at Sparkler’s head. Sparkler didn’t move, she didn’t flinch, she simply turned to stone from the shoulders upwards and stood there as the chair shattered over her face. 

“Oh horsefeathers, this just turned into a bad scene,” Thunderlane said as he backed up towards the door. “Come on Blossomforth! Somebody just set off Stoneface!” 

“I’m right with ya Thunderlane… I don’t want no part of this!” Blossomforth replied as she retreated towards the door as well. “You poor dumb bastards… you hit Stoneface with a chair... Bad idea!” 

“Um, I would find some place to hide if I was you Apple Dumpling,” Thunderlane suggested as he backed out the door and into the street. 

The earth pony mare working the bar ran past the crowd of rowdy drunks who were all huddling closer together, now eyeing the pony made out of stone standing before them and snorting in drunken confusion. 

“That statue is kinda sexy,” one stallion announced, unaware of his own doom.

“Right behind you!” Apple Dumpling shouted as she was escorted out by Blossomforth. 



 

Three ponies stood on the dark street under a brightly lit sign, each of them cringing when they heard the sounds of violence. Pained squeals. Agonised cries. The sound of wood shattering. The muffled thump of a body being body checked or slammed into something. 

“Don’t worry ma’am, when you go back in there, everything will be fixed, Sparkler is real good at repair spells,” Blossomforth said in a reassuring voice. 

“Is she killing them?” Apple Dumpling whispered fearfully. 

“Naw… naw… she’s knocking the fight out of them. She’s real gentle. There won’t be any broken bones or anything like that… well, not likely. Not unless one of them punches her real hard, but you break your own bones if you punch a statue. That’s their fault, not hers. She’s just being playful and letting them beat on her for a while until they get tired, and then she usually just gives them a good thumping they’ll never forget,” Thunderlane answered. 

“This has happened before?” Apple Dumpling questioned. 

“Well, there was a fight a while back with a pimp and a few thugs. One of the pegasi tried to shank Stoneface with a blade shoe. She took it personal. We need to post a list of rules of stupid things not to do to Stoneface. Anyhow, that pegasus, he’s in Canterlot now,” Blossomforth replied as she shook her head. “Ponies need to learn not to pick a fight with Stoneface.” 

“OW MAH POTATER SACK!”

“I’m sure she didn’t do that on purpose,” Thunderlane explained as he cringed. 

Nodding, Blossomforth grimaced from sympathy pain. “She probably just picked somepony up and used him as a weapon against his friends. She’s bad about doing that. Ever seen a pony hit a pony with another pony? It sounds real rough, but smacking one pony with another pony is more gentle then kicking them with a stone hoof. I told you Sparkler is gentle… she’s too kind… if I was her, I’d rough them up a bit more so they might learn their lesson.” 

Shaking her head, Apple Dumpling’s ears drooped. “No, I ain’t never seen no pony smacked with another pony, and no, I don’t wanna.” 



 

The bar was clean. The bar was whole. Each chair was right where it should be, each table whole, there was no broken glass, the only thing out of place was a pile of ponies in near the door and Sparkler watched them warily. 

“Thunderlane, we’re gonna need a wagon to haul these jerks off to the railyard depot where they can be locked up in the box until they can be shipped to Canterlot,” Sparkler commanded. 

“On it,” Thunderlane responded as he exited out of the door and then took wing. 

“Drunk and disorderly… assaulting an officer,” Sparkler said. “Tsk tsk tsk… your mothers didn’t raise you right. You don’t even want to know what my mother would do to you for the way you were behaving. But I’ll tell you one thing. My mother has a thing for knocking out teeth in a scuffle.” 

“My bar is cleaner now than when I walked out before the fight started!” Apple Dumpling shouted as she looked around. “Even the windows are clean!” 

“Ponyville police look after our community ma’am. We clean up our messes just like we clean up our community,” Blossomforth replied, smiling a broad smile. 

“Maaaah taaaters,” a stallion whined in a high falsetto from the bottom of the pile. 

“Aw, did your taters get mashed? Well, next time, don’t pick a fight with Stoneface,” Blossomforth chided. 

“She used me to beat up my buddies,” the stallion whimpered in a shrill voice. 

“She probably warned you that you would only be hurting yourselves,” Blossomforth replied as she began to chuckle. 

“She did warn us… we was stupid,” another stallion answered. 

“And now you are going to Canterlot… and maybe off to live on the stupid farm,” Blossomforth said as she continued to chuckle. 



 

“So what if one of them poops in the tub?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked down at the four foals in the tub and saw Harper, Peekaboo, Pound, and Pumpkin all sitting in the shallow water, playing and splashing with one another. 

“You drain out the water, dig out the turd, toss it in the toilet, and run more water. Or just dig out out the turd… depends on how tired you are,” Derpy answered. 

“OOoooOoooh… ew!” Rainbow Dash groaned in reply. She looked down at the foals and scratched her belly nervously with her hoof. “So… uh… how do we get all of that sticky goop off of them?” 

“Well, you have to grab one, careful, when they’re soapy they’re slippery, and then you scrub the sticky off. This is why we have bath brushes,” Derpy responded as she gave Rainbow Dash a smile. “Now don’t be shy… you have to get in there with them.”

“What if one poops?” Rainbow Dash asked in panic. 

“Poop happens. So does pee. Just get in there!” Derpy commanded as she gave Rainbow Dash a nudge. Derpy prodded the reluctant blue pegasus a few times, getting a grunt from Rainbow Dash each time. 

Carefully stepping over the side of the tub, Rainbow Dash crawled in and then sat down in the shallow water. She was immediately splashed by Pound and Rainbow Dash raised her forelegs to shield herself from Pound’s aquatic assault. Pound was soon joined by Peekaboo, who kicked and splashed water at Rainbow Dash as well. 

“Hey! Hey! No ganging up on me you little brutes!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she was getting soaked from two different directions. 

“They’re pegasi… you have to assert your dominance,” Derpy suggested.

Hearing Derpy’s words, Rainbow Dash chopped her hoof into the water at an angle and sent a wall of water at Pound, who was immediately drenched. The little pegasus colt sat there in the water, blinking at Rainbow Dash, his mouth hanging open, and slowly his expression of stunned surprise turned into a glower of angry submission. 

Wings out, the little colt sulked and gave a baleful stare at Rainbow Dash. 

Peekaboo, seeing how Pound had fared, eased off her assault and then sat there in the shallow water gnawing upon her own hoof, looking up at Rainbow Dash with wide nervous eyes. 

“The water is going to get cold… start scrubbing,” Derpy patiently instructed. 

Reaching out, Rainbow Dash grabbed Pound, gave him a little hug, and then slipped a shoe brush over her hoof. She began scrubbing Pound’s chest where sticky apple crumble had dribbled down, covering the colt in crumbs, apples, and sticky sweet sauce. 

“Scrub everything. Carefully. In a moment, I am going to show you how to make him unsheath so you can clean around inside of there with a really soft cloth,” Derpy said. 

“I have to clean there?” Rainbow Dash whined in reply. 

“Everywhere that gets dirty. He’s depending on you to keep him safe, secure, well fed, and clean. Colts can get problems down there if they aren’t looked after,” Derpy softly explained. 

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash responded in an unsure voice as she continued to scrub. Pausing for a moment, Rainbow Dash lifted her head. “There was a sudden rush of warm water past my legs,” she announced in a low whine. 

“Doesn’t the warm water feel good?” Derpy asked as she smiled at Rainbow Dash. 

“Eeeeeeuuuaaaargh,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she kept scrubbing away sticky brown apple crumble from Pound’s chest. 

Forgetting that he was angry with Rainbow Dash, Pound closed his eyes and leaned against the blue pegasus mare as he was being scrubbed, yawning once, and generally being a good colt as he sat still while enjoying the experience. 

Sitting still in the water, Harper, whose enormous fluffy orange mane was now plastered to her body, had a look of concentration come over her face. Her eyes narrowed and she let out a little grunt. A second later, a stream of bubbles rose out of the water, accompanied by a flooglehorn-like blast that reverberated off of the enameled cast iron claw footed bathtub. 

“Fart,” Harper announced in a very serious manner. “Stinky.” 

Reaching into the tub, Derpy patted Harper. “Very good Harper.” 

“You’re praising her?” Rainbow Dash asked in shock. 

“She didn’t poop in the tub,” Derpy replied. 

“Fart?” Pumpkin asked. 

“Fart!” Harper replied as she let one rip once more, another stream of bubbles caused the water around Harper to roil. 

A very disgusted expression crept over Rainbow Dash’s face. “I’m in a bathtub full of fart juice and pee,” she complained as she kept trying to clean away the stickiness from Pound. 

“Fart?” said Peekaboo in such a way that it sounded like a question. A moment later, something floated up to the surface of the water and bobbed about. “Not fart,” the pegasus filly spoke in reply to her own question. 

“I still want a foal but this is really disgusting!” Rainbow Dash cried out in horror. 





Yawning, Rainbow Dash pulled the blanket over the freshly washed and dried foals that she had all piled together in a crib. For warmth, each of them was dressed in little onesie pyjamas. Pound and Pumpkin snuggled together, while Harper clung to Peekaboo, and Peekoo grabbed ahold of the already sleeping Cadance. 

Exhausted, Rainbow Dash stumbled to the bowl shaped chair in the corner, fell over, her wings flapped once, and then she went still. “I gotta rest for a moment,” she said to Derpy in a barely audible voice that was muffled by the cushion. 

A moment later, Rainbow Dash was sound asleep, half in the bowl shaped chair, her hind legs hanging out over the edge. Derpy, seeing her friend completely worn out by foals, smiled. She walked over, pulled a blanket from the shelf, stood on her hind legs, grabbed the blanket in her fetlocks, unfurled the blanket, and then tossed it over Rainbow Dash, who lay snuffling face down in the chair. 

The foals should have been in bed almost four hours ago and Derpy had no doubt that Harper and Peekaboo would be fussy foals come morning, but in general, Derpy believed that Rainbow Dash had done rather well. The pegasus had panicked at poop, become horrified at being sneezed on, had nearly broke down in tears when Derpy had whipped out the booger-sucker bulb and told Rainbow Dash to jam in it and start sucking out boogers. 

Pound had been extra fussy getting his last ear drops for the evening, he had been up for way too long past his bedtime and decided to fight every step of the way, kicking, fussing, pounding, punching, and even biting Rainbow Dash on the snoot. 

Turning off the light, Derpy left on the night light and gave Rainbow Dash one final smile. 
	
	
> Chapter 434
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The excitement in the air was palpable as a large crowd began to gather in the field that existed between the school and the dormitory towers. Students, teachers, Ponyville citizens, newspaper reporters, anypony that was somepony was there. Mayor Mare had arrived, along with most of the city bureaucracy, all of whom kept a wary eye upon Violet Velvet. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle was there, along with all of her family, Flash Sentry, Rainbow Dash, her parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, all in attendance and chatting amongst themselves about Night Light and Twilight Velvet’s future as teachers in Bucky’s school. Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee had arrived with a small army of orphans, all of whom would be attending. 

Of the headmaster, there was no sign… 



 

In his office at the top of his tower, Bucky was huddled in his chair, slumped over his desk, fighting back the rising waves of panic. It had been a long time since he felt it quite this badly. His heart thudded in his chest, his head ached, and he could not step trembling. 

“Master, shall I fetch one of your wives?” Sunset Shimmer softly inquired as she appeared in the door. “Perhaps Bon Bon? She is here, just outside, I could fetch her… she could make you feel better.” 

“No… I must… deal with this… but if it becomes overwhelming... I will ask for help,” Bucky haltingly replied as he took deep breaths. With his magic, he opened a decanter, poured a drink of some almost blue liquid into a heavy glass tumbler, lifted it to his lips, and with one swallow, took down the entire shot. 

“Why are you afraid?” Sunset gently questioned as she approached Bucky’s desk, moving slowly. She moved around Bucky’s desk and drew near his side. Stretching out her neck and lifting her head, she softly gave Bucky a gentle peck upon his withered and scarred cheek but made no other sudden moves in his blind spot. 

“I don’t even know,” Bucky admitted. 

Settling her haunches to the floor, Sunset Shimmer sat down beside Bucky. “So this is just general anxiety. When I was on the other side of the mirror, I got like this a lot. Having to deal with people after I became a rampaging she-demon. Days of academic testing… I believed that I would be stuck in that world…forever... and you have to get good scores if you want any sort of life there. I tortured myself endlessly with everything I imagined could go wrong. Probably just like you are doing right now. Anxiety was a problem for me. It held me back. It still does. You wouldn’t believe how much I live in fear of letting you down… you took me in. You brought me back here. You gave me magic again. You gave me power… but most importantly, you gave me a chance to patch things up with Princess Celestia… and every day I almost come unglued as I worry about if I am going to screw things up and make you angry with me.” 

“I have nothing but pride for you…” Bucky responded, his words trailing off into a slow exhale. He turned his head to look at Sunset Shimmer. 

Her opal eyes flashing, Sunset Shimmer looked at Bucky. “Some of those ponies out there, they don’t like you very much. I understand that feeling. Some of them are afraid of you. Trust me, I know that feeling. And now you have the pressure and responsibility of looking after a bunch of foals and these ponies that don’t like you and are afraid of you are going to be critical of you and they are going to look for any slip up you make so they can have a chance to rake you over the coals. I do understand what this situation is like, believe me. No matter what though, you have those that will protect you. Your wives. Your friends. Me… Trixie even… Master… she still holds some degree of infatuation for you… but that is a conversation for another time… Master, if trouble comes, it will be met by an army and dealt with. All you need to do is focus on being the headmaster. Do what Princess Celestia believes you will be good at. She and I have spoken… she has the utmost confidence in you.” 

Feeling his lip quiver, Bucky reached out his right front hoof and touched Sunset Shimmer upon her neck. “Thank you Minion… I feel better.” 

“Good. I believe you are expected to make an appearance,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “Now put on your cloak. The Lord of Winter is expected to look a certain way. Mine is also at the ready and I will be right beside you.” 



 

The crowd fell silent as two black cloaked figures approached the small wooden stage constructed for this event. Sunset Shimmer, who had her hood down and her head visible, walked a half a length behind Bucky, glancing out at the crowd as she passed. Bucky, who had his hood up, his face unseen, he made no attempt to look at the crowd as he drew near where he would give his speech. Sunset Shimmer took a spot standing in front of the stage and she began casting defensive wards as she peered out towards the crowd. 

“Hopefully this time I don’t get shot in the head,” Bucky muttered to himself as he took the wooden steps up onto the platform. He approached the lectern and licked his lips nervously. 

“Greetings,” Bucky said in his soft but commanding voice. The low sonorous voice that had come to him while he was exiled to the Shetlands. The voice that had manifested only after he had known suffering on an intimate level and the knowledge had broken him. The voice moved through the crowd and made a number of ponies bow their heads. 

“Most of you know me as the Lord of Winter. This is the only title of mine that I feel as though I have made peace with. Winter is a time, a season, it comes when the time is right, it performs its function, and then it passes so it can become spring. This is how I have come to view my position of servitude as being one of your royal sovereigns. And nopony looks forward to spring more than I do,” Bucky announced, delivering his opening speech with as much aplomb as he could muster. 

There was a little laughter and some applause from the crowd, which Bucky was immensely grateful for. He felt some of his fears assuaged by the warm response. 

“Today, we open a school. This has been a dream a long time in the making. One pony worked very hard on this project and his name was Filthy Rich. He had himself a change of heart and he developed a grand vision for Ponyville’s future. I am doing my part to see that my dear friend’s dream is made real.” 

Pausing, Bucky had trouble remembering his speech. His talons drummed upon the wooden planks he was standing upon. Taking a deep breath, he ditched his speech. 

“I have long agonised over the naming of this institution. Many sleepless nights have been spent in thought of a proper name. Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns is something that can be said and immediately something truly grand springs to mind. The Baltimare Academy of the Magical Arts and Sciences is another, but they closed during our troubled summer of unrest and have yet to reopen. The noble city of Vanhoover has the Ivy Hall, which is remembered because it is not a hall at all, but a lighthouse on an island off of the coast that has been converted into a magic school. There is one thing that all of these schools have in common besides a memorable name… they are all unicorn only schools. These are the finest schools available in our great nation and they are only available to unicorns. The upper echelons of power in Equestria all came from these schools. This exclusivity bred resentment. The finest education was only available for unicorns. Probably the best example was the Baltimare Academy of the Magical Arts and Sciences… not only was it a primary and a secondary school, but a university as well… and it held the finest medical school in the country. But what if an earth pony or a pegasus wanted to become a doctor and receive the best education available? They were excluded… The finest education was only available to unicorns.” 

When Bucky paused, the crowd sat in near silence. The only sound was a few coughs, some low grumbling, and the sound of a fussy baby foal crying while being shushed by its mother. The crowd, almost as one, stared up at the Lord of Winter, all of them waiting expectantly for him to continue. 

Clearing this throat, Bucky lifted his head as high as it would go. “I plan to change that. This school will be available to all tribes, all species, so that we might know the rewards that come from cooperation with one another. So that we might learn new magic. Earth ponies have magic… my own daughter Piña has a working thaumaturgical system and she can cast simple spells… but she would never get an education in any of those establishments that I have mentioned. She would be excluded. Left out. Because she is an earth pony. My subjects, I feel that such an act is wrong. So I am expending the effort to correct it. Loch Skimmer, another daughter of mine that I love dearly, has strange pegasus magic, musical magic that can alter moods... magic very much like the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy possesses. How much do we know about this magic? I’ll tell you… we call it strange because it is practically unknown. It was beneath any sort of real study. We have cheated and robbed our own society of potential greatness because of petty tribalism.” 

The earth ponies and the pegasi in the crowd began to cheer, making a ruckus, and some of the unicorns nervously joined in to cheer as well. A bright pink earth pony and a cheesy orange earth pony launched confetti into the air, which somehow worked the crowd into a frenzy. 

The sudden roar of applause was almost deafening and lasted for several minutes. 

When the applause died out, Bucky continued. 

“It was actually my son, Rising Star, who gave me the idea for a name. I’m very proud of him for all that he has done. He reminded me that it was time to forge a new society in the fires of the Founder’s ideals… we all know the symbolism of fire in the founding of Equestria. Well, a new society is being founded. New ways of thinking. A new sense of unity. And so it is with great humility that I honour my own bloodline and the ideals of those who gave us this great nation… and I am very pleased to open the Founder’s Forge.” 

Silence fell upon the crowd and for a moment Bucky worried that he had made a terrible mistake. Cold fear gnawed at his insides. He was certain that the inspiration he had drawn from Rising Star had been a good idea. 

There was a loud crackling explosion from the front row and a massive cloud of confetti appeared overhead. One pink pony shouted “WOOOHOOO!” 

The crowd went insane. Finally freed from its moment of awestruck stupification, the crowd hooted and hollered as the pink party pony went pronking about; crackers went off, the confetti drifted upon the breeze, streamers shot into the air, and one cheesy orange earth pony stood on his hind hooves, waved his front legs in the air above him, and attempted to work the crowd into a frenzy. 

It took nearly ten minutes for the thunderous sound to die down enough for Bucky to continue. He waited patiently and made a mental note that he owed Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich a great deal of thanks. 

“So… as of today… class is now in session. Today the students and parents will be given a tour of the building. It is still a little bare in there. Today, we will meet some of the teachers. Today, we will simply settle in and get to know one another… don’t worry, I doubt there will be any homework.” 

Pausing, Bucky raised his talons and extended his index talon finger. “Which reminds me… Cheerilee… Cheerilee, where are you my dearest Cheerilee? I need you up here for a moment please!” 

A cerise coloured mare emerged from the crowd, grinning sheepishly, and she was prodded towards the stage by a big red stallion. She shyly approached the wooden stage where Bucky was, bowed once to the audience, and then approached Bucky’s side with her head low. 

“Cheerilee… how are you?” Bucky asked. “You look well. I must say, your current condition only enhances your beauty.” 

Tittering uncontrollably, Cheerilee covered her face with one hoof and bashfully turned away. “You sir, are a shameless flatterer,” she said, making a teasing accusation. 

“Looking forward to motherhood?” Bucky questioned. 

Very slowly, Cheerilee turned around to look at Bucky, now very serious. The change was sudden and abrupt. “Oh… very much so. I have hopes and dreams… but I suppose that all expecting mothers do.” 

“Cheerilee… I have been challenged already on what it is that I am about to do, but I feel that a reward is owed to you after your many years of hard work, your tireless efforts, your dedication, and the fact that you never gave up no matter how bad it became,” Bucky said as he took a step closer to Cheerilee. 

“Stop! You’re going to make me cry… I have a lot of mommy hormones… I become emotional if you just look at me funny,” Cheerilee responded as she nervously began to kick her right front hoof into her left front hoof. 

“For all of your hard work, effort, your dedication, you are owed a considerable reward. Nopony should ever have to endure as much trouble as you have. Somehow, you have held yourself together through it all. You have endured. So it is with great personal pleasure that I offer you the position of Provost here at the Founder’s Forge,” Bucky said as he looked Cheerilee in the eye. 

“Um, I’m flattered… I don’t even know what that means though,” Cheerilee nervously replied as she fidgeted and pranced in place on the stage beside Bucky. 

“It means...” Bucky began, a smile cracking upon his face as he did so. “...that you will be in charge. It means that you will be in charge of approving curriculum. Teaching methods. It means that you will be one of the main heads in charge of the decision making process. It means that the only pony you answer directly to is me… and pretty much every pony else in the school will be answering to you.” 

Cheerilee staggered backwards and Bucky caught her with his magic. 

“I feel faint… light headed… I need air… where is Big Mac…” 

A big red stallion approached the stage, moving with surprising speed. He didn’t bother with the steps, he simply lept up and landed beside Cheerilee with a thud. Immediately, Big McIntosh began to fawn over his mate. 

“Provost Cheerilee… do collect yourself. We have a lot of work ahead of us today,” Bucky said as he looked at the mare with the wobbling legs. 

“Can I still teach?” Cheerilee asked. 

“Of course,” Bucky replied. 

“Then I accept this position,” Cheerilee responded. 

“Wonderful. I couldn’t do this without you. I needed somepony that I could trust,” Bucky said in a voice that he made sure was loud enough for the audience to hear. “Come. We have a school to open!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 435
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	From inside of the farmhouse, sitting on the bench at the kitchen window, Shining Armor watched as life went on and the school opened. He heaved a small sigh of weariness as he watched groups of ponies enter the school. Shining Armor was a pony with a lot on his mind. 

Buckminster’s offer both terrified him and yet was so tempting. There was no way of knowing if Cadance was still the pony he loved, but there was a chance he could take that would buy him time if she was. He owed her that. With each moment that passed, Shining Armor felt his resolve growing just a little bit stronger. Being in the house with Cadance had some strange effect upon him, just being near her seemed to clear his mind and bring him some focus. He had needed some time to think. To figure out what was important. Buckminster had been correct, Shining Armor had duties, and Cadance would never forgive him for slacking off. 

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza took the protection of the Crystal Empire seriously. The crystal ponies had been left broken by Sombra, the entire populace had broken thinking. Cadance viewed them as her foals practically… and for a moment, Shining Armor had actually thought about abandoning them, leaving them all behind. Shame overcame him, burning shame, and a powerful feeling of self loathing accompanied his feeling of self realisation. 

He was the defender… the tireless defender... his cutie mark marked him as the protector, the watchpony, the defender of all ponykind. Princess Celestia herself had said that Shining Armor’s cutie mark was a mark of greatness, and that Shining Armor was meant to do great, if sometimes quiet and rather boring, things. 

Yet, here he was, moping about rather than doing his duty. His obligations. The duties required of him. Doing what was right, what was good, and what was necessary. He was shirking his duties. Right now, the Crystal Empire was defenseless. If something were to happen right now, something awful, there would be no protection, no defense, no way to save them. 

Suddenly, Shining Armor felt angry, mostly with himself. He resolved to take Buckminster up on his offer. Even if they were petulant, ungrateful, and whiny, the ponies of the Crystal Empire needed him. 

Unknown to Shining Armor, his cutie mark has shifted slightly, taking on a faint crystalline appearance as his new sense of resolve began to clear his mind and his sense of purpose began to overcome his sense of despair. 



 

“...and this is the cafeteria where I plan to serve bugs on Tuesdays,” Bucky announced. 

His announcement was met with thunderous silence by the crowd. 

“Right… moving right along then. The cafeteria will be available to the foals that live here on the grounds in the dormitory towers. All staff, teachers, resident caretakers, employees, will be able to eat here as well. So… if you are feeling peckish or the cupboards are getting a little bare at home, food will always be available… it is my intention to keep this cafeteria open day and night,” Bucky announced. 

“This sounds wonderful,” a unicorn remarked. “I suppose I could get used to the bugs.” 

“You… yes you there. I know you… you are one of my resident employees. One of the on site staff… a surviving noble that offered servitude in exchange for mercy,” Bucky said in reply to the unicorn that had spoken. 

Bowing his head, the unicorn nodded. “Yes sir. It was my desire to do something meaningful. I never agreed with the nobles and their culture of exploitation.” 

“I am sorry, but I cannot place your name. Please forgive me. Perhaps you could give these nervous looking parents here a word of reassurance,” Bucky said as his eye flashed beneath the dark shadow of his hood. 

“My name is Daylight Shadow, once a Scion of House Avarice, one of the many minor houses that only existed to be exploited by the greater houses of Avarice. I never once bought into the deceitful notion that unicorns were the tribe meant to rule. I distinguished myself in the Royal Guard and survived the destruction of my own house. I was one of the first to heed Shining Armor’s call and denounce my house and my family. I now live to serve. I am forbidden from having wealth or coin, owning anything, and I am dependent entirely upon the goodwill of others, very much like Princess Twilight Sparkle’s parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, who are loved and trusted public figures,” the unicorn answered in a cultured, refined voice. 

“I am pleased to have you among my staff,” Bucky stated. Pausing, he turned to look at the crowd. “I assure you good ponies, he would not be here and in my presence if I was in any way in doubt about his character. I think we can all recall how I dealt with House Avarice and even my own family… hopefully my students will listen and learn from the mistakes made in the past so we do not repeat them in the future,” Bucky said to the collection of parents and students who were staring at him. 

“Very well said sir,” Daylight Shadow said in a low voice as he once more bowed his head. “I am grateful for this opportunity to redeem myself.” 

“We have not yet looked at the dormitory towers… perhaps you could give the worried parents a few words?” Bucky asked as he took this chance to sit down upon the floor and take a load off. 

“Rather than one large sleeping hall or a series of communal rooms, the dormitory towers are actual bedrooms, with two foals to a room. Each floor has a couple of rooms and a bathroom, with a small cozy nook just off the landing for that floor to read, study, or otherwise spend time together with one another. All of the stairs will ensure that the foals are healthy and fit, they will get plenty of exercise, especially those that live on the top floor. I myself have a room at the very top of one of the towers and I am quite pleased by my accommodations,” Daylight Shadow responded in a low calm voice. 

Standing up, Bucky stretched out one hind leg as he cleared his throat. “Well then, I do believe it is time to go and meet the school’s drama instructor,” Bucky announced to the rather pleased looking crowd. 



 

“Trixie pledges to earn the public trust and to be a good pony. The Humble and Apologetic Trixie does indeed remember placing Ponyville under a shield spell to keep you all trapped inside. Trixie is quite sorry and politely begs for your forgiveness,” Trixie said to the crowd that was staring at her warily. 

A few angry words had already been spoken and it seemed as though more were about to be said. The crowd seemed rather upset to find Trixie Lulamoon waiting for them in the classroom. 

“This is a place of second chances. For a lot of ponies, this is the last chance we have to redeem ourselves. Please, please, I ask that you keep this in mind,” Sunset Shimmer said as she walked in between the crowd and Trixie. “I understand that there are some trust issues, but I know for certain that some of you remember me and the things I’ve done before I was banished. One of the most important lessons we can teach our foals is how to forgive. How to let go of those old hurts. That is the point of this school… reforging new bonds, bringing the tribes together… I ask that you please just give her a chance to work and earn your trust.” 

The mood of the crowd softened. 

“Trixie admits to making a mistake. Trixie… I… there is much I regret,” Trixie admitted. 

As the crowd parted around her, Princess Twilight Sparkle moved forward. She approached Trixie slowly, lifted one front leg, placed it around Trixie’s neck, and gave the troubled mare a hug. After a moment spent squeezing, Princess Twilight Sparkle stepped away and stood near Sunset Shimmer. She looked at the crowd. “It was friendship that brought our Founders together. They had to end their petty squabbling, forget their past hurts, and get over their resentment of one another. The earth ponies had no good reason to trust the pegasi or the unicorns, who had exploited them up  to that point. Each tribe had their grievances and things they expected from other tribes. There was a reckless sense of entitlement that had to be dealt with. Had they kept bickering, it would have been their death. We can either keep bickering about what was done in the past or we can follow the Founder’s example and choose a new way. Choose now.” 

The Princess of Friendship’s words had a certain feeling of finality. 

The crowd’s mood seemed to soften and Trixie took a deep breath. “Trixie will work very hard to earn your forgiveness and trust. Princess Celestia and Prince Buckminster both have been very kind to me and saved me from myself. Princess Twilight Sparkle has been my friend. I value their friendship so much and it means so much to me… it has made me wish to be a better pony.” 

“Pay attention students… there will be a lesson about this later… you would do well to remember this moment,” Bucky said in a soft almost whispering voice from beneath his hood. 



 

Moving into the astronomy tower, Bucky was pleased to reveal a surprise that his griffons had been working on. He made a mental note to thank Rising Star, Lugnut, and Spanner for all of their efforts. He felt an immense amount of pride when he heard the crowd gasping and students crying out in delight as they entered the room at the base of the tower. 

“This is the orrery. Our planet, several other planets, the moon, and the sun. This is powered by steam and will allow students to study the complex workings of the heavens. A group of very hard working griffons made this possible before the school opened,” Bucky announced as he looked up at a planet slowly passing by overhead. 

Mouths gaped open as the crowd lifted their heads and stared at the heavenly bodies slowly moving above them, with their own planet locked into place at the center. A brass version of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna circled the planet, each chasing the other, one on one side of the planet and one on the other side of the planet. 

“At the top of the tower we have a small astronomy lab with a few telescopes. Princess Luna herself has offered to drop in occasionally to offer instruction and insight into the workings of the heavens,” Bucky stated as he gestured at the stairs along the wall. “This is nothing like the astronomy tower in Celestia’s school, but it’ll have to do.” 

“Everything is steam powered in this here school… tell me, will a foal be able to learn about engineering, tinkering, and making stuck contraptions work?” Applejack inquired. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. “Rising Star has offered to teach blacksmithing. There are some griffons who are willing to share their amazing mechanical aptitude, and in time, I am sure we will attract even more talent.” 

“I could stare at this all day,” Babs Seed said in a small voice that was full of wonder. The little orange foal peered upward, her eyes wide, she was completely transfixed by the orrery. “I could never see the stars in Manehatten… there was too much light. The stars make me happy.” 

“Babs, when you have a little spare time, please, speak to Galaxy Guide and Shining Star. They are our astronomy instructors here at the Founder’s Forge,” Bucky said to Babs. “I want my earth pony students to have their heads in the clouds and their eyes upon the stars.” 

“I know we’re doing a tour… but… could I just stay here so I could keep looking?” Babs asked in a pleading voice, her eyes still affixed to the slowly moving orrery. “There are stars on the ceiling. I can see constellations!” 

Looking first at Applejack, who gave him a nod, Bucky then looked at Babs. “Babs, you may stay. I think Applejack will enjoy watching the orrery with you. When we leave, we will turn off the lights so you will get the full effect.”

Lost in a sense of wonder, Babs continued to stare upwards as the group slowly filed out. Reaching out, she grabbed one of Applejack’s front legs and gave it a squeeze with her fetlock. As the lights went out, Babs was unaware that a profound change had taken place upon her body as her purpose was finally made to manifest. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 436
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Four ponies gathered around the table in the farmhouse kitchen, each of them settling into their chairs and making themselves comfortable at the table. Rainbow Dash leaned forward on the table, propping herself up on her front legs, and a bottle of apple soda was set in front of her, the bottle still frosty being chilled. Beside Rainbow Dash sat Twilight Sparkle who also leaned over the table. She had a bottle of grape soda that was already half empty. The third pony at the table was Bucky, who had sprawled back in his chair and was slumped over. He looked exhausted but happy. The fourth and final pony at the table was Surprise, who had a bottle of cherry soda clamped in her fetlock and was taking sips. She was animated, laughing, happy, and kept looking at Rainbow Dash with wide excited eyes. 

“So you wanted to see me?” Rainbow Dash questioned as she looked over at Surprise. 

“Yes,” Surprise answered. “I am here on official Wonderbolts business. I am to give you this bit of documentation,” she explained as she slid a paper envelope over the table with her wing and placed it front of Rainbow Dash. “And this goes to you… but you can read it later, when Rainbow Dash gets done,” she added as she pushed a second envelope over towards Bucky. 

“What’s this?” Rainbow Dash asked as she picked up the paper envelope. She stuck it to her hoof, carefully tore open one end of the envelope with her teeth, blew into the envelope to force it to open, and then slid the letter that was inside of the envelope out onto the table. Her brows furrowing with curiousity, Rainbow Dash picked up the later, unfolded it, and began reading. 

Twilight, who was now watching Rainbow Dash reading, suddenly felt her muscles tense, especially the ones in her long slender neck. Everything felt too tight. She felt her wings tensing up as well. “Well?” Twilight impatiently inquired as she began to squirm in her chair. 

“Did either of you have anything to do with this?” Rainbow Dash demanded as she looked at Twilight and then at Bucky. “I don’t want any favouritism-” 

“I assure you, they had nothing to do with this,” Surprise interrupted, her smile becoming a little broader as she spoke. “We haven’t even announced to Bucky what we are planning, he just got the letter just now.” 

“What is it?” Twilight questioned in an anxious near whine. 

“This is a Wonderbolts pre-acceptance letter Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said in a low stunned voice as she set the letter down upon the table. “But there are conditions.” 

Surprise nodded vigorously. “There are always conditions. Look at me, I’m a flight instructor. I give flight lessons. Your personality was carefully profiled. After your time in the Wonderbolts Academy, the fact that you focused on safety and teamwork rather than personal gain, and how you handled Lightning Dust, all of that influenced our decision. We felt that this is what you would do well, and we wish to test you.” 

“Test?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she nearly floated on the edge of her seat. “We can deal with tests… I can help you study.” 

“No Twi… different sort of test,” Rainbow Dash interjected as she looked at Twilight. 

“The Wonderbolts want a flight camp here at the Founder’s Forge. Well, we didn’t know the name until just today, but we knew this was coming. We want the best of the best. This will be a Wonderbolts flight camp for foals. We want you to teach basic safety, basic flight, advanced safety, advanced flight, and for those students that are exceptional, we want you to make them Wonderbolt junior cadets… so they’ll have a fast track to military service or a better shot at the Wonderbolts. We want you to find us new talent, new fliers, and to train the next generation of greats. We want you to spend one year doing this. One year of running flight camp. Afterwards, depending upon your performance review, which I am positive you will pass with flying colours, you will become a Wonderbolt,” Surprise explained as she bounced up and down in her chair. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Rainbow Dash whispered. 

“Say you’ll do it?” Surprise suggested. 

“This is my life’s dream… I thought I would spend my whole life chasing it… but it is right here… right here in front of me. I can practically see the finish line from here,” Rainbow Dash murmured in a low almost inaudible voice as she stared down at the letter on the table with wide eyes and splayed out ears. 

“Rainbow Dash… I can’t take this anticipation any longer… say you’ll do it,” Twilight demanded in a whisper as she prodded her mate with one front hoof. 

“I get to work with foals and be an awesome big sister,” Rainbow Dash mumbled. 

Surprise nodded enthusiastically as she continued to bob in her chair. “Yeppers peppers!” she exclaimed in a chirpy voice. 

“I like the idea of a flight camp but I might have some stipulations,” Bucky said, finally saying something. He leaned forward on the table and peered at Rainbow Dash. “This will be a good thing for you.” 

Nervously rubbing her cheek vigorously with her fetlock, Rainbow nodded. “I know… I accept… how could I not do this? I get to help foals become as awesome as I am!” she said in a raspy squeak. 

“Oh my gosh I’m so happy!” Twilight Sparkle gushed as she patted Rainbow Dash upon the back with her hoof. “Nothing feels better than realising your life’s dream.” 

Taking a swig of her soda, Surprise gulped it down and then looked at Bucky. “Stipulations?” she asked as she raised one eyebrow. 

“Nothing major. If there is to be a flight camp associated with my school, then I want a few griffons there as instructors. I want to establish trust and-” 

“Oh we already planned on that… we were counting on it you silly billy!” Surprise cut in. 

“Well, that is the only concern I had,” Bucky stated. 

“I’m actually gonna be a Wonderbolt,” Rainbow Dash whispered. She shook her head slowly. “I had plans to become a mother... I thought there would be more time… I thought I’d use all of time spent waiting in the reserves to have a foal so I could move on to other things in my life… to get ahead… to go on to greatness.” 

“Hey!” Surprise squeaked. “Hey hey! You can do both. There is nothing stopping you. Not all that long ago I squirted a lunar pegasus foal out of my backside and I’m still a Wonderbolt!” Surprise looked wounded for a moment, her muzzle scrunching in pain. “Still not sure I’ve forgiven my husband though. Ouchie.” 

Rainbow Dash’s expression brightening, like the rising sun coming over the dark horizon. She nodded and then began to bounce in her chair. “I can have both!” 



 

Alone in his office at the top of his tower, Bucky sighed, thankful to have some much needed time alone. Being an introvert and dealing with the crowds had been difficult. The pressure had been extraordinary. It had been a long eventful day and now the day was winding down. Tomorrow would be another long day… more students would arrive and they would need to be shown around. 

From his chair behind his desk, he looked over at the shadow web, which was still taking shape. Threads of phased shadowstuff infused glass were carefully being spun into a massive web held between a series of shadowstuff infused glass rods, seven of them in total. 

The first rod glowed orange, it throbbed with a faint orange light. The second rod was lit with a soft pink luminescence that flickered faintly. The third rod was blue, it pulsed four times quickly, went dim for a long moment, brightened, and then pulsed four times again, over and over in a repeating pattern. The fourth rod was a deep rich violet in colour, the light was steady and did not waver. The fifth rod was red, it didn’t glow as much as it burned; red flames flickered on the inside and it gave off a warm crimson glow. The sixth rod was magenta but changed colours. It would pulse orange, then pink, then blue, then violet, and then finally, red. The glass kept its shadowy smoky magenta colour as it flared the other colours. The seventh rod glowed black, giving off a strange black luminescence that flowed through the fine strands of the web. 

Rising out of his chair, Bucky moved to stand next to the shadow web, looking over its progress. Some of his life had been poured into this creation and hundreds of spells had been cast upon it. Before its completion, he expected several hundred more. Finally, standing near the shadow web, Bucky extended his shadow essence, sending tendrils of pure raw shadow into the crystals, the seven crystals all became a little brighter and a strange glittery glow formed over the thin strands of the web. 

A tapping at the door interrupted Bucky. He withdrew his shadow essence. His horn glowed for a moment and the glass dome above his office allowed the sun to shine in once more, leaving his office well lit and inviting. “Do come in.” 

The door opened and Shining Armor poked his head through. “So many stairs,” Shining Armor gasped as he stumbled into the office. He staggered through the room and collapsed into a chair. 

“Sorry… I had the stairs set to be difficult to discourage visitors… I was taking a little time to myself,” Bucky explained. 

“I apologise if I disturbed you,” Shining Armor offered. 

Moving back to his chair, Bucky slowly crossed the room, his eye on Shining Armor the entire time. “I’m glad you are here actually. Have you given thought to my offer?” 

With a slow somber nod, Shining Armor made a silent acknowledgement. 

“Good. Our own needs matter very little in the long run. We must always think of what we can do for others. So… what is your decision?” Bucky questioned as he settled into his chair. 

Rubbing his temple, Shining Armor closed his eyes. “I will serve. I know in my heart what needs to be done. For a moment, I lost track of that. I will take whatever chance I have, no matter how slim, at being with her again. I am ready to return to the Crystal Empire. I will do my duty.” 

“Twilight and I have everything planned. We’ll travel by chariot, pulled by Twilight. She says that she can get us up there in just a few hours, but we’ll be moving at supersonic speeds. I’m told it is bumpy and stressful upon the body, so be prepared for a rough trip,” Bucky said in reply. 

“You speak as though you are planning on leaving soon,” Shining Armor said. 

“Sooner the better,” Bucky replied. “Celestia’s royal yacht just departed from the empire. Which means she is heading back to Canterlot now. Ideally, we should get this done while she is in the air, before she returns to Canterlot.” 

“Wait, you’re talking about departing… like right now?” Shining Armor sputtered. 

“Well yes Shining Armor… we are very busy ponies your sister and I. If we leave before nightfall, we should be able to get up there in a few hours, perform the spell, have a short rest, and then if all goes right, return and be in Ponyville at some point tomorrow morning. Hopefully in time for me to attend to my duties as headmaster,” Bucky answered as he peered at Shining Armor. 

“You’re mad,” Shining Armor muttered. 

“PONIES KEEP SAYING THAT AS IF SOMEHOW I WAS UNAWARE OF THIS FACT!” Bucky shouted in annoyance. He made a dismissive gesture, waving his talons around and snorting in disgust. “Look… are you ready to do what needs to be done or not?” 

“I am,” Shining Armor replied in a subdued whisper as he realised he was in a room with a madpony… a madpony that he was about to collaborate with, a madpony that he was about to perform questionable magic with, magic that Princess Celestia would never approve of. 

A madpony that apparently his sister worked together with, and this thought unnerved Shining Armor a great deal. “I’d like a chance to say goodbye to Cadance one final time.” 

“Of course,” Bucky replied. “Hang on, I will teleport us down to the yard. You are going to experience a brief freezing sensation… I’m told it is quite chilly… be ready… Twilight Sparkle is in the kitchen, or was, with Rainbow Dash. I imagine she is itching to go.” 

Shining Armor opened up his mouth to reply, but was silenced by the sudden crushing sensation of cold pressing into his flesh from all sides… 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 437
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Shining Armor, pop up one of your shields. That should help. The chariot is enchanted and fairly well protected, but you are still going to feel significant force pulling on your bodies. Bucky already knows what this is like and I think he’s crazy enough that he enjoys it,” Twilight Sparkle said to her brother, offering a little instruction about what to do for the coming trip and trying to be helpful. 

“Okay sis… no stunt flying,” Shining Armor replied. He turned and looked at Bucky. “You enjoy this? I mean, you’ve done this before? You’re a unicorn… I thought we liked to keep our hooves on the ground.” 

Offering a disdainful sniff in reply, Bucky made a dismissive gesture. “I happen to like the feeling of freefall. And Twilight once put me through a spin that increased the effect of gravity by a magnitude of six.” 

Shining Armor’s ears drooped down to the sides of his face. “I don’t mind flying on airships, but chariots scare me. I like to feel something solid beneath my hooves. I’m going to regret this. I’m going to give Cadance one last kiss goodbye.” 



 

Moving in a bashful clumsy fashion, Trixie pressed her snoot against Sunset Shimmer’s and planted a tender kiss. She lingered for a moment, moving her head so she and Sunset were standing cheek to cheek, and then she pulled away and stepped back. 

“You saved me,” Trixie whispered. 

A fiery red glow settled over Sunset Shimmer’s cheeks and her nostrils flared. “I just thought about all those times that I wished that somepony would save me… and then about the few times that somepony did.” 

With a flutter of wings, Bartleby landed upon Trixie’s back. He folded his wings carefully and made himself comfortable. Saying nothing, he began to braid Trixie’s mane while humming a little tune to himself, his feather tuft tipped tail tapping in time to the music against Trixie’s side, near her cutie mark, which made the mare quiver from the slight tickle. 

The strong scent of cloves, anise, and black tea filled the room. A cone of sandalwood incense burned in a small brass brazier; it produced a lazy trail of smoke wafted around the room. There was a plate piled with little sandwiches, something that Semillon had whipped up. 

“What are we to one another?” Trixie questioned as she backed away towards the table to pour herself some tea. “I mean, things have changed between us. Coming out the closet has been good for Trixie I suppose.” As she neared the table, she shivered, feeling Bartleby’s talons trailing along her neck and the little tingles that they left behind. 

“All I know is that I have two mares that I have grown very fond of serving,” Bartleby admitted. “Beyond that, I do not know how to express what I feel towards the both of you,” he added as he continued to braid Trixie’s mane. 

“Trixie has the same feelings towards you that she has for Bucky… I find it confusing,” Trixie admitted. “He is my friend now though, and I understand that he is out of reach.” 

“I know how that is,” Sunset Shimmer huffed. “I still carry a flame for an old crush from back in my school days.” 

“Will you ever tell me who?” Trixie asked. 

Sighing, Sunset Shimmer trotted to a chair and took a seat, sitting down and plopping her front hooves down upon the table. “When I was in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, I carried quite a flame for Shining Armor. I wanted him so badly. I guess a part of me still does… but I’ve grown up. Now, more than anything, I just want to see him happy. I’m glad he found Cadance. I really hope that Cadance is still Cadance where it matters. I really hope that Master’s plan works and that it buys Shining Armor time to be with the one that he loves. Shining Armor deserves to be happy… I’m glad that I didn’t get what I wanted… because now, I think I’ve found what I needed… what you want and what you need are often two very different things.” 

“You need Trixie?” Trixie questioned. 

As Sunset Shimmer’s ears pinned back against her skull, she poured some tea into a teacup. “Yes… yes I need you. You understand me. You’ve been there… with everypony turned against you. You know that pain. And it feels so nice to be able to talk to somepony that understands… that’s felt that hurt. Ponies can be so patronising sometimes… even if they don’t mean to be… pretending to be understanding… saying they understand, offering sympathy… they mean well and I don’t hold it against them, but I really grew to hate hearing it. As for you Bartleby… you just listen. You’re attentive. Kind. You look after me when I do a poor job of looking after myself. Having you as a friend… it was like suddenly having something that you didn’t know that you were missing and feeling whole again… well, with both of you.” 

“Both of you give my life meaning. I like being a servant. I like knowing that what I do is of value to others and that I am appreciated. I like knowing that my hard work is valued. And both of you have been so appreciative… so gracious. You both treat me as a valued and well loved servant… one who is needed. You never demean me nor degrade me. I do not feel taken for granted,” Bartleby said as he twisted and worked Trixie’s long mane into one long Fancy braid. 

“Are you making me your pretty pony Bartleby?” Trixie questioned. 

“Yes, and when I am done braiding, I will brush you until your coat shines like a diamond,” Bartleby replied in a soft voice. “This is as close as I can get to preening you since you do not have feathers.” 



 

Craning her head to look backwards at her backside, Babs Seed’s eyes narrowed as she made the effort to get a better look at her cutie mark, an apple tree under a patch of starry night sky and the moon. “What do you think it means?” 

Applejack heaved a sigh and looked over at Babs. “I said I dunno the first dozen times you asked me.” 

“I couldn’t see the stars in Manehatten. The sky just looks all purple like,” Babs said in a thick Manehatten accent. “Do you think my cutie mark is because I’m living in the country now? I mean, I can see the stars in the apple orchard.” 

“Hmm,” Applejack hummed. “That sounds meaningful. The stars are right pretty… I likes me some applebuckin’ at night when its cool and the stars are out. We’ll go with that. I got my mark after I came home from Manehatten and returned to the Apple family orchard. We’ll just take this as a sign that you belong out here with us Babs.” 

“I like the sounds of that,” Apple Bloom said as she leaned on the dinner table. 

“Oh my gosh!” 

“Cheerilee?” Apple Bloom asked in concern after she heard her aunt gasp in shock. 

A stack of papers fell out of Cheerilee’s hooves and landed upon the dinner table, half on and half off of her plate. The earth pony mare sat there in stunned silence, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open, both of her front hooves clutched to her chest. 

“Cheerilee… say something,” Applejack urged as she leaned over and gave Cheerilee a poke with her hoof. She watched as Cheerilee’s mouth moved but no sounds came out. 

“Consarn it, she’s gone addleheaded!” Granny Smith grumbled from her spot near the stove. She scowled at Cheerilee and wrinkled face became more wrinkled from worry. 

“This is my contract… I just saw my salary,” Cheerilee said, her voice a flat monotone of dull shock. She blinked once, then twice, and after a long pause, she blinked once more. 

Snatching up the papers, Applejack had a look. She read through the print quickly, her eyes darting from side to side. Halfway through the page, Applejack grunted, reached up, pushed back her hat, and then allowed the papers to fall to the table in front of her. 

“That’s a lot of bits,” Cheerilee whispered to Applejack. 

Nodding, Applejack replied; “That sure is.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Cheerilee mumbled. 

“We ain’t ever going to have to worry about losing the farm ever again,” Applejack responded as Big Mac picked up the papers and had a look. 

“Eenope,” Big Mac agreed after having a look. 

“I’d say we owe Buckminster yet another debt of thanks,” Silver Shill suggested. 

“Eeyup.” 



 

Feeling only slightly concerned, Bucky watched as Shining Armor threw up yet again. At this point, Bucky had lost count. The white stallion was laying on the floor of the chariot with his head hanging off the edge of the rear end, his eyes were closed, and Shining Armor could not stop trembling. 

“It was only a little roll. We’re secure in here, we can’t fall out, it was fun…” 

Bucky cringed as Shining Armor’s response was launched off of the back of the chariot. 

“My brother once barfed on a ferris wheel!” Twilight shouted, her voice only audible because of magic because they were traveling faster than sound. “He was in the seat above me with Cadance… I was with my mother… it was horrible!” 

Unable to help himself, Bucky guffawed with laughter, falling back against the curved wall of the chariot, he clutched his right hoof to his chest and laughed until he started coughing. 

“Funny… our ancestor the horse, they are incapable of vomiting… We, the minima forma equus sapiens developed the ability to puke our guts out as a survival mechanism in case we ate bad food. The Saddle Arabians funnily enough are incapable of puking. They’re more horse than we are,” Bucky mused as Shining Armor continued to display his evolutionary advantage. 

The sun had set a while ago and the stars of night began to twinkle overhead as they hurtled towards the Crystal Empire at speeds that would make most pegasi green with envy. Meanwhile, Shining Armor was just plain green. 

“We’re like some kind of vomit comet… soaring through the heavens,” Bucky quipped. 



 

Twilight Sparkle, a passable flier, was not so good at landings. They came in for a skidding halt out past the railroad depot that was just outside the Crystal Empire. They landed under the cover of night, not wanting to be seen, and Shining Armor’s terrified screams were silenced by Twilight’s spell. 

Immediately after landing, Bucky began casting powerful aversion spells on the three of them, and Twilight Sparkle stood chugging down as much water as she could. Shining Armor, glad to be back on solid ground, laid down in the dirt on his side and did not move. 

“I will lead the way… the darkness is my friend,” Bucky whispered. 

“But how can you know were we are going?” Shining Armor asked in a weak raspy voice. 

“I have been here. I have walked these streets a thousand times. I was once the Emperor of this city… I was its Master. I made the Crystal Spire that is the focal point for the power that this city produces. I grew most of this city from the raw minerals found in the ground below. This is my city,” Bucky answered in a strange voice that filled Twilight with alarm. 

“Bucky… Sombra! Is that you?” Twilight questioned as she felt her bladder nearly contract from fear. 

“You have nothing to fear, distant daughter of my brother. Finally, I can give this city the defender it rightly deserves, instead of the monster that I became… finally, I can offer up an act of atonement, even if it is a minor one. I will free this city of my taint… I will purge the shadow that I have left here. I will make amends for the terrible mistakes that I have made. Come, we must hurry. My time is short… my presence is taking a price upon my son’s body, but he is a willing vessel… prepare yourself Princess Twilight Sparkle, we have powerful magic to perform,” Bucky said in a voice that was definitely not his own as he began to head off for the city. 

“I can’t believe that I am about to assist Sombra, the most evil pony in all of history… I knew this was going to be a strange trip,” Twilight muttered as she lifted up her brother in her magic and took off after Sombra. 
	
	
> Chapter 438
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A silent shadow moved through the Crystal Empire, followed by two figures. The shadow did not walk so much as it did glide, moving along in a semi-solid state as it slunk from shadow to shadow, moving from building to building, unseen by those rare brave few that walked the streets after dark. 

Twilight Sparkle, with Shining Armor now wobbling along behind her, went unseen as well, the powerful aversion spells cast upon her and her brother made them both all but invisible. For somepony to see her, they would really have to be looking, as well as having enough willpower to overcome not only Bucky, but the force of Sombra’s will as well. 

Still unsure of her own feelings, Twilight Sparkle remained resolute to her task. This was Sombra, but not Sombra, she told herself in a somewhat frightened mental voice. This was the good part of Sombra, the part of him separated by the Elements of Harmony, she reasoned internally. These were the best parts of Sombra, the redeemable parts. What made him great. Still, cold fear gripped her. She knew enough of Sombra’s history to be very, very afraid. 

“If you are slowly killing Bucky, I’m going to come to Tartarus myself and have words with you,” Twilight Sparkle hissed as she followed after Bucky. 

“No… I would never take more time from my beloved son… his time is too short as it is… he is already the walking dead. He lives on borrowed time,” Sombra replied. “It is regrettable… had I the means in my power, I would gladly give another thousand years of suffering in Tartarus to give him just ten more years of life for him.” 

“Don’t tell me these things… I can’t bear to think of him suffering or dying,” Twilight whimpered. 

“Nor I… yet every day for over ten years, I was forced to assume the form of his butcher… I was made to geld him, rip his wings off, eviscerate him, and leave him on that hook. You can’t even imagine the guilt I feel,” Sombra hissed. 

“You did that?” Twilight asked in an incredulous voice. 

“I didn’t have a choice… I was made to do it… my beloved wife ran her mouth… she said things that she was not allowed to say… they punished her… they punished her and made me watch… I offered to take her torments… all of them… you don’t understand what it is like down there,” Sombra answered as his shadow form slithered forward. 

“I see,” Twilight responded. “I’m sorry… that was noble of you… if Bucky… if Bucky had to endure that, I’m glad it was somepony that loved him that was doing it… that makes it a little better somehow… at least somepony cared about his pain.” 

“Do not tell him. Please, do not tell him. He has suffered enough. You can scarcely comprehend what he endured down there,” Sombra requested in a pleading voice. 

Ahead of them, the Crystal Tower shone in the darkness, illuminating the city around it. Sombra moved swiftly now, no longer caring about being seen. Nopony saw them as they passed, even as they moved through the light. 

Shining Armor, having recovered some of his strength, trotted ahead of his sister and moved near Sombra. “It’s funny… the things we will endure for those we love.” 

Sombra stopped and went still for a moment. Turning his head, he glanced at Shining Armor. “You do not yet understand the full meaning of those words, but you are about to find out.” 



 

The chamber for the crystal heart thrummed with energy, a faint pulsating throb. It grew brighter as Bucky drew nearer, its luminescent intensity increasing, becoming brighter and brighter. The chamber filled with floating motes of light. 

As Bucky stood beside the crystal heart, lightning arced and struck Bucky on the nose. 

“I know I am unwelcomed… I am here to pay for my sins and offer compensation for my past evil,” Bucky said in Sombra’s voice as he stared up at the crystal heart. 

Flashing, the crystal heart zapped Bucky again with a painful sounding crackle. 

“I suppose I deserve that, but must you punish this body?” Bucky asked in Sombra’s voice as he stood there looking up. He stood watching as the heart flashed a few times and then dimmed slightly. 

“You speak as though the heart can understand you,” whispered Twilight in a voice of befuddled curiousity. 

Bucky turned to look at Twilight, his Taint filled eye flashing within his hood. “I made this. It holds a part of me. I gave it life… it has been dormant all of these years… if only you understood its true power.” 

“I suppose we are about to find out,” Shining Armor said in a subdued whisper. 

“Tonight we correct a mistake of mine and restore this city to its rightful glory,” Sombra whispered as he began to circle the circle heart. “We will need four wizards of the highest calibre-” 

“FOUR?” Twilight Sparkle interrupted. “I knew something seemed off with that spell!” 

“When this spell was first cast, only my brother Star Swirl and Clover the Clever were capable of such magic. I believe you call them type fours now. We will need four ponies to stand on each one of the compass points where the ley lines enter the chamber and intersect,” Sombra instructed. 

“Four?” Twilight Sparkle repeated. 

“Have you no grasp of time travel?” Sombra responded in a vaguely sarcastic voice. 

“Well yes… but I… well… I-” 

“You are entirely too much like my brother,” Sombra grumbled as he shook his head. “He once got lost inside of his own hat.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Twilight retorted. 

“Sadly, I am not,” Sombra answered. 

“How do you get lost inside of a hat?” Shining Armor asked as he blinked in confusion. 

“Wizards these days. No grasp of time travel or extra dimensional spaces,” Sombra seethed as Bucky’s horn began to glow. “This horn… so much power… it is like the alicorn amulet I created but connected directly to his brain… such power... This body stays in such horrendous pain… the source of all of his dark magical might. It scares me how much power he has. I hope he never stumbles… please, look after him.” 

Twilight had her eyes closed, trying to recall the time travel spell, her lips moving silently as she went through one of her recollection exercises. 

“What do I do?” Shining Armor asked. 

Turning to look at Shining Armor, Bucky pointed at the floor directly below the crystal heart. “You… stand right here and grit your teeth. I remember what this did to me.” 

“Okay, this is going to hurt… I can deal with that,” Shining Armor said as he moved beneath the crystal heart. He stood resolute, ready, awaiting the fate he had chosen. 

“Hurt? No… we are going to kill you for a moment and rip out a piece of your soul,” Sombra stated as Bucky’s horn continued to glow brighter and brighter, the blue-green glow of harmony magic now piercing. 

Nodding, Shining Armor did not reply. 

“Do you have the spell ready?” Sombra inquired as he looked at Twilight. He saw that the alicorn was lost in concentration and he patiently waited. 

After several minutes, Twilight Sparkle nodded as she opened her eyes. She was serene. She was calm. Her face held no trace of emotion. Her eyes were white, her body was flooded with raw mana. Flames danced along her wings. 

“NOW!” Sombra commanded as his horn flashed. 

Twilight Sparkle’s horn flashed as well. 

A moment later a second Bucky appeared and a second Twilight Sparkle popped into existence. They moved to the compass markers along the floor, filling the two vacant spaces. The four of them shot beams from their horns into the crystal heart, which burst into eldritch fire. The fire became a pillar that consumed Shining Armor, burning him to ash which whirled in the chambers, swirling in the air around them, caught in the vortex of magical energies. 

Burning Shining Armor to ash was not a part of a plan. 

A moment later, two of the figures vanished, and after that, Twilight and Bucky vanished, both going back in time to begin the spell. Of Shining Armor and the crystal heart, there was no sign… 



 

Twilight Sparkle came back first, followed by Bucky. She staggered around the chamber, dizzy, almost blind, her horn spewing sparks as she tried to recover. Bucky fell to the floor, laying on his side, he remained as still as possible while he lay there groaning. 

A tall white figure stood in the middle of the chamber. He looked around, blinking, and he slowly focused upon Twilight Sparkle. “Be still,” Shining Armor commanded as he took the weakened alicorn in his magic and held her up. 

“Shiny? You look funny,” Twilight Sparkle mumbled as she squinted up at her brother. 

Shining Armor was now tall, much taller than Twilight even, but not as tall as Celestia. He was gleaming white, a tall powerfully built figure with a crystalline appearance, and he glowed with a powerful inner radiance. 

“Something went wrong,” Bucky moaned as he rubbed his head. 

“No… something went right,” Shining Armor said in a gentle voice. “The spell finally worked as intended. When this spell was first cast, Sombra held a dark shadow in his heart even then… the spell failed. It worked, but not as intended.” 

“How… how can you know this?” Twilight stammered as she stared up at her brother. 

“I have become the Crystal Defender. The Crystal Heart and I have merged. We are now one. I can hear it speaking even now, telling me everything it knows… I can hear the ley lines whispering Twilight… I can feel them flowing through me,” Shining Armor answered. 

“You feeling okay Shiny?” Twilight Sparkle asked, sounding more than a little panicked as she continued to study her brother. 

“I feel fine Twilight… I feel better now. Much better,” Shining Armor replied as he released his sister from his magic. “I can feel the love Twilight. It is all I can feel. There is no grief, no sorrow, no misery or pain. There is only love.” 

“What have we done?” Twilight whispered. 

Shining Armor chuckled. “What Sombra intended to do. I will defend the empire until the Empress returns. I hope she is the Cadance I know… if not, then I will continue to serve the empire and guard the Empress that I still love. I am the living will of the Crystal Empire now. The crystal ponies and I have merged. We are the Crystal Collective. I hear their thoughts. They are aware of my presence. They gather, awaiting their defender but not knowing why. Finally, the last half of the spell cast long ago is completed. We are one.” 

“Bucky, what did we do?” Twilight asked as she wobbled over to Bucky and lifted him from the floor. She reached out a wing and gently patted Bucky, trying to revive him. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky replied as he was held aloft by Twilight’s magic. “The spellbook mentioned none of this… it seems we have succeeded where Star Swirl and Sombra failed.” 

Shining Armor’s cutie mark had changed completely, much like Cadance’s had. It was now crystalline in appearance and it pulsed with inner light. His horn was long, no longer a unicorn horn, but a straight crystal spire, smooth, long, white, transparent, with a rose pink tip. 

“Are you bound to the Crystal Empire?” Bucky questioned as he looked up at Shining Armor with a look of dumbstruck awe. Still unable to stand up on his own, he hung limply in Twilight Sparkle’s magic. 

“No,” Shining Armor replied. “I am the crystal heart now. Wherever I go, its power comes with me. But I am strongest here. I did not have a dark shadow in my heart when the bonding took place. I was full of love and mindful of my duty. The crystal heart has accepted me entirely and completely. And before you ask… no… I do not know what this has done for my longevity. But I shall serve until such a time that I crumble into dust.” 

“Shining… I don’t know what to say,” Twilight murmured as she took a step towards her brother. “I expected a change… but not this.” 

“Sister… I love you… and what I am about to do pains me to no end… but I must ask both of you to leave. Both of you have borne the taint of dark magic. I can feel the will of the Crystal Collective. You are unclean... touched by evil. For the good of my empire, I must ask the two of you to leave and to never come back. You are banished from this place. I have looked into your hearts and seen the shadow deep within. Sombra has cleansed this place… his spell finally worked as intended. The darkness has finally been driven from the Crystal Empire, and as its defender, I will not allow for it to creep back in. Buckminster, former rightful Emperor of the Crystal Empire, you are banished. You will look after Cadance as the Fates have decreed until such a time that I come to collect her. If you ever return here, I will kill you, make no mistake. The love of this place will thoroughly obliterate you. The Crystal Collective has spoken. Now please go, both of you. I have my subjects to look after and there is much I need to do to restore order.” 

“Shining… I love you… come visit me in Ponyville sometime… come and see Cadance,” Twilight Sparkle said as the tears began to flow down her cheeks. 

“Yes Shining Armor… you are always welcome at my door,” Bucky said as he looked up at Shining Armor. “Do what is good and right. Be mindful of your duties.” 

“I am sorry,” Shining Armor apologised. 

“I’m not,” Twilight replied. “We all must play our part. You’re still my big brother, best friend forever… even if I can’t come visit you… come on Bucky… I know we’re both weak and weary, but we need to go. We must do what is right.” 

“Shining Armor… Cadance would be proud of you I think,” Bucky said as he was carried out the door by a departing Twilight Sparkle. 

“Goodbye Buckminster… do not return. You are not welcome here,” Shining Armor said as Bucky and Twilight exited. “This city will never again know shadow or darkness.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 439
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Yawning, tired even though he had gotten some sleep, Bucky stared out at his classroom full of students. An Introduction to Dangerous Magics. Dinky was here, so was Piña, Rumble, a little pegasus colt along with a few other pegasi, one griffon cub, and an assortment of unicorns, each student selected because of temperament, potential, and the ability to harness dangerous magics. 

Driving all distractions from his mind, Bucky smiled at his students. “Who can tell me why this class has all three tribes represented and a griffon?” he asked and then stood in place looking hopeful. 

Seeing Rumble raise his hoof, Bucky was glad that it wasn’t one of his own foals about to answer. “Rumble, if you please… tell the class the answer.” 

Looking a little nervous, Rumble licked his lips and rubbed his two front hooves together while he sat at his desk. He cleared his throat once, then again, and then he sat up straight and held his head high. “A lot of ponies seem to think only unicorns have dangerous magic, but they forget that we pegasi can generate storms and the clouds reflect our moods. My sister Cloudstreaker over there is gifted with cloud seeding… she’s really good at making weather happen in a cloud. In the past the pegasi have used the weather as a weapon. As for Piña Colada being in this class, she has magic too… I’ve seen it and she can be dangerous. If she has it, then other earth ponies can have it too.” 

Nodding in appreciation, Bucky looked at Rumble. “Very good Rumble. Each tribe has something they can bring to the table when it comes to offensive magic. So we have the means of generation… class… can we talk about types?” 

Most of the class stared blankly at Bucky while Dinky and Piña squirmed in their seats. Both of them clearly had answers but wanted to give the others a shot. Bucky waited patiently, the class had barely started and they still had forty five minutes to go. 

“Headmaster Mister Bitters?” Sweetie Belle asked as she shyly raised her hoof. 

“Please, Sweetie Belle, call me ‘Bucky’ if you don’t mind,” Bucky replied as he looked at the unicorn filly that possessed a lot of destructive potential. All of the signs were there for those who knew what to look for. 

“There are the usual spells… fireballs, lightning bolts, icicles and stuff. Um… and then there is telekinesis blasts-” 

“Telekinetic blasts,” Bucky gently corrected. 

“Yes telekinetic blasts… spells that cause a lot of hurt when you cast them which is why foals don’t cast those spells,” Sweetie Belle continued. Her awkwardness melted away and Sweetie Belle began to look pleased with herself when she realised she had answered well. 

Turning away from the class and lifting a piece of chalk, Bucky wrote out the word ‘transmutation’ on the chalkboard behind him. Below it, he wrote the word ‘transmogrification’ and then he turned to look at the class. 

“Not everything is big flashy destructive fireballs. Seemingly harmless magic can be the most dangerous. Subtle magics can be the most effective. Today class, we are going to have a demonstration.” Bucky patiently explained as he watched his class, looking for interest from the students… and saw that he had it. 

“What is transmogrification?” a pegasus filly asked in a shy squeaky voice. 

Grinning, Bucky turned to look at the filly. “Transmogrification is the application of hostile transmutation magics. It means to change or modify grotesquely. It is something I am personally gifted in… and would like to see a greater appreciation for, if you will forgive me for introducing my own biases to all of you.” 

“I just want to see some magic,” Cloudstreaker stated, expressing her desire and interest openly. She looked over at her brother Rumble for a moment and and then she looked at Bucky. 

Moving away from the chalkboard, Bucky moved towards the open space in the corner where protective wards had been placed upon the floor and a mass of safety precautions had been set up by Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. “Today class, I am going to show you how bring your enemies low with a raincloud.” 

“Flood them out? Hit them with thunder and lightning?” Rumble questioned excitedly, bouncing up and down in his chair behind his desk. “High winds?” 

“None of those things,” replied Bucky as he began to chuckle. “This is a fairly simple spell. A well skilled type two might be able to cast this, provided they were dedicated, any type three of sufficient study should be able to cast this, if they studied enough, and once cast, any group of brave magically protected pegasi would be able to deliver these to a city, which would completely subdue it,” he explained as his horn began to glow with a bright blue-green light. 

“This is harmony magic?” Sweetie Belle asked when she noted the glow of Bucky’s horn. 

Nodding, Bucky said nothing in reply as a small cloud popped into existence in the corner. He cast a protective spell upon himself, shielding his nose, and then he began to cast the spell that would change the raincloud. With a loud -fwoosh- of magic, the cloud was forever altered. 

A moment later, it began to rain and the classroom filled with an abominable stench. 

“OH LUNA’S MOON IT’S RAINING SKUNK JUICE!” Rumble shouted as he vacated his desk and headed for the corner the farthest away from the cloud. 

There was a stampede as the rest of the class joined him. They huddled in the corner together, gagging, holding their noses, and Sweetie Belle was squealing repeatedly in horror. Brought together by the powerful stench, the students had a unique chance to bond with one another as they each clung to one another in disgust. 

“One unicorn could make a mass of these clouds, protect the noses of their pegasus allies, and then the pegasi could push these clouds over a city, which would in turn completely wreck the city. You will note that this is not a fireball, it is not bolts of lightning, but this is completely incapacitating,” Bucky said in a slow careful manner, delivering his lesson in a way that he hoped his students would understand. 

“EEEEUGH! THE STINK! MY EYES ARE WATERING! I CAN’T BREATHE!” a little unicorn colt shouted. 

“Well, we need a brave little pegasus volunteer… who wants to try and push the cloud away?” Bucky questioned as he looked at his class. “Surely somepony could fly up and push the clouds away from the city, right?” 

“You need to be able to breathe and to see to fly,” Rumble responded as he held his fetlock clamped over his nose. “There’s no way that a pegasus could push those away.” 

“Some might,” Bucky said in a low voice. “But most would succumb to the stench just like you have. A city held under these sorts of rainclouds would be helpless. I doubt most unicorns would be able to concentrate enough to cast spells. As for other species, well, they have noses. Diamond dogs would be especially vulnerable to this tactic.” 

“This is why ponies call you a warlock,” Sweetie Belle squeaked as she held her nose and kept her eyes squeezed shut. “You take simple magics and make them bad! Real bad!” 

Unable to help himself, a cackle escaped Bucky’s mouth. He spent several minutes uncontrollably cackling, chortling, and having a good laugh as his students reacted to the stink generating raincloud. After Bucky felt his point was made, he cast a dispersal spell at the cloud, causing it to vanish. He cast another spell upon the stink-water-puddle as well, which made it disappear. The foul smelling funk remained however. 

“You don’t need dark magic or fireballs to be effective in a conflict. What you need, my students, is creativity. Something that all of you have shown. Each of you have an artistic bent, a natural aptitude for destruction…” He paused and looked at Sweetie Belle for a long moment with a pleased smile upon his lips. “...and each of you in your own way have caused mayhem with pranks or have been in trouble for your agression. These are assets. These are not negative traits. I, and others, will mold these talents for mayhem into something worthy. You are valuable to Equestria’s future. And I am trusting each and every one of you to protect your fellows.... your peers… if at any time you use what you learn in this class for bullying, or bring harm to others, you will be expelled from class and will face disciplinary action…” He paused once more and glared at Rumble meaningfully. The colt, getting the message, gulped and stared down at the floor guiltily. “...and you will not like that disciplinary action, trust me. So be good defenders. Be good protectors. You are going to be trusted with extraordinary knowledge with dangerous applications. Do not disappoint me. Now… who has some questions before we move on to our next display?” 



 

Hearing the sounds of crying, but not the sounds of a pony crying, Cheerilee’s ears perked. Four days into the school being opened and many were still adjusting, some were quite emotional. The school was mostly quiet… the halls were mostly empty. It was lunchtime, and most of the students were in the cafeteria. She paced the hall, listening carefully for the sounds of crying. 

It didn’t take long to find what Cheerilee was looking for. 

In a quiet little nook where a student could sit and study, Cheerilee found a sobbing pup. She approached cautiously, slowly, still unused to being around diamond dogs, and she gently touched the sobbing little pup with her hoof. 

“Why are you crying?” Cheerilee asked in a soft gentle voice, a voice she had used so many times to gain confidence and find out what the source of so many hurts. Her voice was a weapon against pain, and her gentleness was a balm certain to soothe. “What is your name?” 

The pup lifted his head and looked at Cheerilee, and there were few things sadder looking than a crying diamond dog puppy. She felt her heart ache as she looked at the pup, and, saying nothing, she eased herself into the chair with him and pulled him close in a hug. 

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Cheerilee whispered as she gave the pup a reassuring squeeze. 

Sniffling, the pup wiped his nose with his paw. “Everyone is scared of me,” he whimpered in a low whine. “I just want to be a good dog… I’ve always been a good dog.” 

“I’m sure being a good dog is important for you… I guess you are aware that there are a lot of bad dogs. I guess you think that the students in this school are worried that you might be a bad dog?” Cheerilee questioned, trying to find the source of hurt. “Want to tell me your name?” 

“My name is Growler… of Clan Dachshund. We’ve always been good dogs. We protect the good ponies of Germaney,” Growler answered as he wrapped his short stubby forelegs around Cheerilee and held on to her tightly. 

“Have any students been mean to you?” Cheerilee asked in a soft voice as she stroked the oddly proportioned pup affectionately. 

The pup shook his head and sniffled in reply. 

“But you think they’re afraid of you?” Cheerilee asked. 

“None of them want to play with me. They look at me and my fellows funny. Blitz tells me I’m overreacting and I’m too soft,” Growler murmured. 

“I see,” Cheerilee said in a soothing whisper. “I think what we have here is a sensitive little soul in need in some special attention. I know exactly what you need to show everypony… er, everyone that you are a good dog.” 

“You do?” Growler asked as he wiped his snout with his paw. 

“I do. Can you come with me?” Cheerilee responded as she smiled down at Growler. 

“Yes,” Growler replied as he sniffled. 

“Follow me,” Cheerilee instructed as she slipped out of the chair and stood waiting. 

When Growler hit the floor, Cheerilee took off down the hall at a slow trot with the long bodied diamond dog pup following along behind her. Growler shyly peered around as he followed after the earth pony mare. They made their way down the school hallway together, past a window and a sunny patch of tile floor, past many classroom doors, heading towards the school cafeteria. Finally, they came to a room and Cheerilee stood waiting at the door. 

“Come on little one, right through here,” Cheerilee instructed as she pushed open the door and stepped inside. 

Inside the small break room was a small pale green filly with a sunny yellow mane at a small table, eating lunch from her tray. She lifted her head, looking panicked, her eyes blinked, and her ears perked in attention. 

“Sorry Sweet Pea… it is just me, Cheerilee,” the earth pony mare announced. 

“Somepony else is with you,” Sweet Pea stated. 

“Yes Sweet Pea, there is. Somedoggy,” Cheerilee said in a soft voice as she approached the table and made a gesture for Growler to approach. 

“Doggy?” Sweet Pea asked as she cocked her head off to one side and listened. 

“Growler, this is Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea, this is Growler. He’s a diamond dog,” Cheerilee said, making an introduction between the pair. “Growler, Sweet Pea is one of the refugee orphans. She has been moved here to the school, to live here in one of the towers. She’s blind. We’re trying to help her so she can be educated.” 

Growler bashfully hid behind Cheerilee’s hind legs and then cautiously peered out to look at the earth pony foal. He wrapped one foreleg around Cheerilee’s hind leg and squeezed nervously. 

“I think I see a way that you can show everyone that you are a good dog,” Cheerilee stated as she felt Growler clinging tightly to her hind leg. “Do you think you can help her get around? I can arrange it so that both of you will be in all of the same classes together.” 

Growler whimpered but made no reply. 

“Sweet Pea is very kind… the teachers have to make sure she is looked after and that someone shows her to her classes. Growler, you could help us… make sure she is walked to school from her tower, see that she is brought to all of her classes, make sure she gets her lunch, if you did this, everyone would see you being a good dog,” Cheerilee said in a low soft voice. 

Moving away from the table, Sweet Pea cautiously moved towards Cheerilee, taking slow halting steps while she paused to feel around with one front  hoof extended in between steps. Cheerilee nudged the foal once she came within reach, and then gently scooted her towards Growler. 

Sweet Pea immediately latched on to Growler and began feeling him all over, while Growler whimpered and squirmed. Cheerilee watched as the blind earth pony filly grabbingly groped and examined the diamond dog puppy. 

“You have a long body,” Sweet Pea observed. 

“I’m funny looking, even by dog standards,” Growler whispered. 

“Lunch is almost over,” Cheerilee observed. “Sweet Pea needs to go to class soonish. Tell me Growler, what is your next class?” 

“Literature,” Growler replied as Sweet Pea continued to prod him with one front leg. 

“Take Sweet Pea with you to your literature class. See that she is read to. Tell Mister Chips that I sent Sweet Pea with you,” Cheerilee instructed in a patient voice. 

“Okay,” Growler replied as Sweet Pea pulled him into a hug and squeezed him hard enough to make his eyes bulge. 

“After class, do you think you can keep helping Sweet Pea? I’ll check up on you after class and see how both of you are doing,” Cheerilee said as she beamed at Growler. 

“I can help,” Growler responded as his tail wagged slightly. 

“Good dog,” Cheerilee praised, taking note that the words made Growler look much happier. “When everyone sees you helping Sweet Pea, everyone will know that you are a good dog and no one will fear you or be afraid of you. And I know that Blitz will be proud of you… the dog clans of Germaney pride themselves on service… now you protect Sweet Pea. Help her with her school work. Be her friend. She’s blind, which means she needs to trust you. Never let her come to harm.” 

“Okay,” Growler replied as a grin overtook his face. 

“You’re a nice doggy,” Sweet Pea said as she gave Growler another squeeze. 

“You two are adorable together. Now off you go. I’ll see that the tray is taken care of. I’ll let everyone know that you are her noble protector Growler. Now off with both of you,” Cheerilee said in a mirth filled and joyous voice. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 440
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Making herself comfortable on the largest couch in Bucky’s living room, Celestia pulled up her legs, folded them beneath her, and then shifted her body to lay upon her belly. She looked at Bucky first, who stared back, and then at Twilight, who guiltily looked away. The regal monarch cleared her throat and then looked back over at Bucky. 

“I am bothered by what you have done, but I understand why you did it,” Celestia began as she continued to get herself comfortable. “I do believe that things will work out for the best. As it turns out, Luna and I have also been banished from the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor politely explained why, and I understood.” 

“Because you are tainted by dark magic,” Twilight stated. 

“Yes, but it is more than that actually,” Celestia remarked as she looked over at Twilight, who immediately looked away. “Shining Armor is still discovering the full purpose of the Crystal Empire. The past few days, he has been healing the minds of the residents and driving away the dark shadow from those who suffered terribly under Sombra. He is restoring them, making them whole, making them happy and sound of mind. He is restoring their individuality and freeing them from their slave mentality. He is fully repairing the damage done by being sealed away for a thousand years and used to sustain Sombra’s lifeforce. The Crystal Empire has been weakened by the dark magic that tainted it. Now, the mere the presence of one who has used dark magic is enough to disrupt the harmonic flow of the Crystal Collective. Our banishment is regrettable but necessary.” 

“What Shining Armor is doing must require a remarkable amount of power,” Bucky said in a low whisper. 

“Shining Armor is now immensely powerful,” Celestia responded as she once again looked at Bucky. “The Crystal Empire is one big crystal latticework. Shining Armor is currently powering it up. But to do so, he has to drive away all of the darkness left behind by Sombra’s rule. Shining Armor tells me that the Crystal Empire is intended to be some kind of magical defense system, but he does not yet know what it is or what it does, but it will not function until he repairs it. He claims it also works to detect threats to Equestria. Star Swirl put a lot of himself into the crystalline matrices it seems. The two brothers worked on the city in equal parts... it seems their secrets know no end. Shining Armor reports that the city is growing already under his now established rule. New buildings are springing up, the Crystal Spire has grown larger, and he claims that the city is gearing up for growth. He reports that estrus cycles have already begun.” 

“I wish I had a way to study all of this,” said Twilight in a voice filled with regret. 

“So the Crystal Empire is a defensive battery,” Bucky stated as his eye closed and a thoughtful expression overtook his face. “Shining Armor’s magic was uniquely suited for the job I suppose. It sounds as though the city is already thriving under his rule.” 

“Indeed,” Celestia replied as she turned her head and stared into the fireplace. “We’ll know more in time. The city was badly damaged by the corruption. Shining Armor will know more as he repairs the broken matrices.” 



 

Just as Rarity was getting ready to close Carousel Boutique for the day, the door opened and a charcoal grey pegasus filly walked in, accompanied by a light grey donkey that was dappled with brown spots. 

“Ripple! Bittersweet! Darlings… do come in!” Rarity said, carefully speaking so Bittersweet could read her lips. She smiled warmly at both of them. “What can I do for you?” 

Ripple stood there awkwardly, looking around the shop, her eyes wide with an almost fearful look. She gulped a few times and then finally looked Rarity in the eye. “I need a gown. I want to look… I want to look pretty. And so does Bittersweet.” 

“Oh this is wonderful. You are such a pretty thing already,” Rarity replied as she began to use her well practiced eye to take in Ripple and Bittersweet, her mind already thinking of styles, colours, and well matched designs for the both of them. 

“I don’t want anything too frilly or girly… I want it simple and not complicated,” Ripple said as she nervously shifted her weight. She said nothing, but she was suddenly very self conscious about the cut under her left eye and the still healing scabs all along her side along with the staples. 

“So what is the special occasion?” Rarity asked, already having a pretty good idea of what the special occasion was. She beamed as she began to walk in a circle around Ripple and Bittersweet. 

“Bittersweet is marrying into our herd. I think Loch Skimmer and Sparkler will be by for gowns as well. I feel really funny about this… I refused to even wear a gown for my father’s coronation. I wanted to wear armor or something… I feel awkward about it now. But I finally want to look pretty for the ones I love,” Ripple said in a strangled sounding voice. “I want Sparkler to have a happy memory about Bittersweet joining our herd… I want to be beautiful for Sparkler and Bittersweet… I want to be feminine and soft and inviting for once.” 

“Relax darling,” Rarity soothed. The white unicorn whipped out a measuring tape and went to work quietly, humming to herself as she worked. 

“I finally scrubbed away the last of the lingering stink off of Sweetie Belle… just what are they teaching in that school anyway?” Coco Pommel muttered as she came down the stairs. When she saw that she and Rarity had guests, she paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Oh hello both of you… it is always nice to see the two of you,” she said. She then hurried over to give a more affectionate greeting the pair. 

Blushing, Bittersweet accepted a kiss on each cheek from Coco, and then Ripple held still while she too was kissed twice. Unable to help herself, Coco gave Rarity a goose as the unicorn was working. 

“Oh my goodness darling!” Rarity exclaimed as she jumped away from the giggling Coco, her mouth hanging open in shock. Rarity tittered as she backed away from Coco and then looked at Ripple and Bittersweet, both of whom were smiling. 



 

“...Shining Armor does send his apologies… he feels very bad about what he said to you Bucky, he feels guilty, but he was feeling an immense amount of pressure from the Crystal Collective make you go. He was overwhelmed by everything happening at once… he did not mean to be to be so abrupt. He is literally the spirit and the will of the city now… he said the need to repair the city is now an overwhelming compulsion. He told me he regained a little more of himself after the two of you left and he felt mortified about his behaviour,” Celestia explained as she looked at Bucky with concern. 

“I am not upset and I understand completely. He has an obligation to cleanse the city and perform his duties, I totally understand that,” Bucky replied in a soft calm voice. “I know what I am. I have the Taint. I am a walking battery of dark mana. I am a creature that is connected to hatred, death, and destruction. I would have done the same in Shining Armor’s position.” 

“With the new shield around the city, all those who have used dark magic are blocked... prevented entry. For the matrices to function properly, there can be no corruption or dark energy present,” Celestia said in a tired sounding voice. The white alicorn yawned. “It has been a very long day. Luna will be by later.”

“How is Luna? How was her visit to Trottingham?” Twilight asked as she looked curiously at Celestia. 

“She came home with a foal. It is a long story. But Luna is embracing motherhood. Beware. She’s moody, she’s aggressive, and she has a newborn that she has made herself responsible for,” Celestia responded as she looked at Twilight. “You have been warned, look out for Nightmare Mommy.” 

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed in fright. 

“Like I said… it is a long story. Just approach her cautiously and slowly. She’s… rather moody. She very nearly scared the maids to death,” Celestia warned. “I think she’s had a bad reaction to the hormonal influx caused by getting her milk flowing.” 



 

Looking at a photograph upon the wall, Ripple squinted to see it better. After a moment of studying the picture, she pointed. “I like this yellow dress a whole lot.” 

“Oh that,” Rarity replied, looking a little pensive as she did so. “I made that for Twilight. There is a bit of a story behind it.” 

“I like it,” Ripple said as she continued to look at the photo in the ornate frame. “I like the simplicity of it.” 

Sighing, rolling her eyes dramatically, Rarity nodded. “So did Twilight.” 

Ripple stepped aside as Bittersweet pushed her way closer to the photo to have a look. The donkey smiled when she saw the photo, then she looked at Ripple, gave her a nudge with her nose, and then looked back at the photo. 

“Bittersweet likes it too,” Ripple stated.

Pressing a swatch of yellow fabric against Ripple’s side, Rarity nodded. “Yellow is a pleasant colour on you. Perhaps with a nice sapphire trim to match your mane and tail.” 

After setting a bowl of popcorn upon the table, Coco looked over at Rarity, Ripple, and Bittersweet. “Blue is nice but red would provide a nice contrast.” 

Nodding, curious, Rarity fetched a red swatch with her magic and then held it up to the yellow one. “Hmm… indeed it would. Ripple has such a lovely coat colour to work with. It makes the lighter brighter colours like yellow and red seem so much more vibrant.” 

“Stop… I’m not that pretty… you’re embarrassing me,” Ripple mumbled as she looked down at the floor. Staring at her own front hooves, she sighed heavily and swished her tail. 

“Oh shush darling,” Rarity chided as she prodded Ripple with a hoof. “In my experience, every mare… every filly, they all have some distinguishing feature that makes them beautiful. The key to beauty, grace, and elegance is figure out what look compliments that and then making that look happen.” 

Moving over to stand beside Rarity, Coco made sure that Bittersweet could see her lips. “Bittersweet is going to be a knockout in yellow,” she said, carefully speaking the words. 

The donkey’s long ears drooped and Bittersweet gave a sheepish grin to Coco. 





Squinting with one eye, Barley looked down at the foal and then up at Luna. His lip curled back slightly as he peered at Luna. “I knew this would happen.” 

“Knew what would happen?” Luna asked in confusion as she stared curiously at Barley. 

“This,” Barley huffed as he once again looked down at the newborn foal. 

“Barley, what are you talking about?” Luna demanded in a somewhat impatient voice. 

“You… you went off and left me for some young colt,” Barley remarked as he turned and took off, his tail swishing around as he departed. 

Shaking her head in confusion, Luna stomped one hoof gently into the floor and bared her teeth. “Get back here you-” 

“Gotcha,” Barley teased as he turned back to look at Luna. He grinned. Turning his body about, he returned to have a closer look at the foal. 

“You,” Luna hissed at Barley. 

Chuckling, Bucky looked over from his chair where he was holding Cadance, who was fussy and cried the moment she was put down. 

“You cad…” Luna growled.

“Aye… I am,” Barley agreed. “So am I to be a daddy then?” 

Lifting her head high, Luna gave a snort of derision. “I do not want my foal to have a cad for a father,” she sneered. She glared at Barley fiercely, her teal eyes glittering with anger. 

Chuckling, Barley settled into his chair by the fire, never once taking his eyes off of Luna. “The mommy hormones have turned ye into a feisty mare…  I like that. Give me a scolding, ye feisty mare.” 

Cadance, now whimpering, began to squirm. Bucky tried to soothe her, fearing she would begin to cry once more. He cradled her in his forelegs and began to rock her back and forth. She quieted for a moment, but it was only to catch her breath. 

Cadance let out an ear piercing wail which nearly made Luna jump out of her skin. A moment later, Erebus also began to cry, which made Luna fretful. The night blue alicorn retreated to the couch, lifted the foal in her magic, and placed him near her. She immediately began to try and shush him. 

“Unhappy fussy foals… poor things,” Barley grumbled as he looked first at Cadance and then at Erebus. “Luna, I’m happy that ye found a sweet young thing to love.” 

“Hush Barley. Now is not the time to sass your princess,” Luna grumbled as she continued to try and calm the wailing Erebus. 

Folding one front fetlock over the other, Barley rubbed his swollen right joint. “Damnable cold weather,” he grumbled. Looking over at Luna, who was on the couch beside his chair, he gave her a pained smile. “I’m happy for ye, sweet lass. When the time comes for me to go into the beyond, having him around will soften the blow.” 

Flinching, Luna shut her eyes for a moment and an agonised expression overtook her face. “Shut up Barley. I cannot bear to think about such a thing right now. Please, can we just have a quiet moment as a family together?” 

“With the way these two are squalling? There’ll be no quiet e’er again... feisty mare,” Barley responded. 

“I really hope that this is not a sign of things to come,” Bucky grumbled as Cadance continued to shriek. “For the past few nights, Cadance has been fussy after the sun had gone down. I really hope that this is not a sign of things to come.” 

“Raising an alicorn foal can be trying I suppose. Scorch could tell you stories about Celestia. She was a real test of his patience. I of course was a perfectly well behaved foal,” Luna said as she rubbed Erebus with her cheek. 

A sleepy looking grey pegasus entered into the living room, looked around for a moment, her ears splayed out sideways, and she yawned drowsily. Derpy gave a weary smile, walked over beside Bucky, and then laid down on the floor. 

“Give her to me,” Derpy whispered in a soft voice. “She might be hungry.” 

Using his magic, Bucky lowered Cadance down to the floor with Derpy so she could feed. Not interested, Cadance continued to cry as Derpy patiently tried to console her. 

“She’ll feed once she cries a bit more,” Derpy said knowingly. “Piña was a late night crier… she’d cry and cry and cry… then Berry gave her a bottle and she’d go right to sleep.” 

“Erebus cries if he is exposed to daylight. But most lunar pegasi foals do,” Luna said as Erebus’ cries began to ease off a bit. 

“Want me to feed him?” Derpy offered as she looked over at Luna. 

Luna shook her head. “He chews while nursing and suckles on blood. I do not recommend the experience,” she replied. 

“Yeouch… I still would do it though if he needed to be fed,” Derpy answered as her ears pinned back against her skull from hearing Luna’s words. “Foals must feed.” 

“Aye… that’s cause yer a good mare,” Barley remarked as he sat with his eyes closed and an expression of pain upon his face. “I wonder how my wee twins are doing… both pairs.” 

“I want all of you to be Erebus’ godparents… you were gracious enough to make me the godmother of your foals… I wish to return the favour,” Luna said in a voice that was barely audible over Cadance’s shrieking. 

“We’d be honoured,” Derpy said as she tried to calm Cadance. “She sure does have a powerful set of lungs.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 441
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sire, I know you are a very busy pony in the mornings recently with the school opening, but I felt that you should know,” Magpie said as she looked over at Bucky and then back down at the limp body in the bed. “Whitewing was almost seventy years old. She lived a very long life and saw much of our recent history. Somehow, she survived, even in her old age, and last night before she passed, she spoke a little bit about how happy she was to be free and living here. She had quite a collection of younger griffons and griffonesses around her bed. Her last clear words before she went delirious and started raving was about how lucky we all are and how we need to be patient so we can return home someday.” 

Looking at Magpie, Bucky saw a very miserable looking and sad griffoness. Her feathers drooped, her tail was limp, and it seemed as though every inch of her body radiated grief. He turned to look at Belisama beside him, who also looked sad. 

“What are the funerary customs? What do we do?” Bucky asked as he reached out and gave Belisama a gentle nudge. 

“We griffons return our dead to the sky. Or we did before we started grinding up our dead and feeding them to the living,” Magpie replied, nearly choking when she spoke her second sentence. “We burn our dead on funeral pyres and give them back to the sky.” 

His breath forming clouds of steam in the early morning chill, Bucky nodded and looked over at the Raptors, who had gathered. “You… all of you. This day you get to be honour guards. You help Magpie construct a proper pyre and give her all of the aid she needs to do what is proper for your dead,” he instructed. 

“Aye aye sir,” Grunion responded as he whipped out a wing in salute. 

“We are so few… the loss of even one hurts us all. As we mourn death, we must remind ourselves that we are obligated to make new life,” Magpie said in a low voice. 

“Very well said Magpie,” Belisama stated as she looked up at the larger hunter griffoness. 

“Majesty, forgive me for being so direct, but perhaps if you bore young… it would be a good example for your subjects,” Magpie bluntly suggested as she gave a pointed stare to Belisama. 

Looking very nervous, Belisama said nothing in reply, but gave a worried look to Bucky. She made a mental note to schedule some private time to speak to Bucky about the issue. 

“I want a memorial of every griffon and griffoness that dies while you are all away from home. I don’t know how Tannis and Agnetha are handling any deaths they may be experiencing, but I don’t want one single griffon forgotten. Make a lasting reminder. I want every death remembered. When the time comes for all of you to finally go home, you can carry the memory of those who died away from home with you,” Bucky said to his subjects, making an impassioned plea as he looked at different little feathered faces all around him. 

“What of you, when your time comes… how shall you be remembered my king?” Magpie asked as she stared at Bucky. 

“Make it known that I died away from home and that it was my dream that one day all of you would return, rebuild, and restore Griffonholm to its once majestic glory,” Bucky replied as he looked Magpie in the eye. 



 

Standing in her ground floor room, waiting, Sweet Pea stood with her ears perked, hoping to hear the sounds of her companion. Unsure, doubtful, but hopeful, she impatiently began kicking the stone floor with one front hoof. 

“Sweet Pea?”

The voice. That voice. Slightly growly, somewhat raspy. The voice of her new friend. A smile broke across Sweet Pea’s face and she felt relief flood her body. 

“We have to go to class,” Growler said in an urgent voice. “Sorry I’m late… I hope you didn’t think I wasn’t coming… Growler is a good dog.” 

Giggling, Sweet Pea felt the tickle-touch of a paw upon her side. “I’m very happy to hear you… you came for me.” 

“Blitz gave me a stern talking to about duty,” Growler explained. “Come. If we hurry, we won’t be late for class.” 



 

Looking at his students, Bucky smiled at his class. “Today class, in An Introduction to Dangerous Magics we have two more instructors. This is Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks,” he said, introducing the class to his two fellow Black Cloaks, both of whom looked a little nervous. “Tiddlywinks never speaks, but you should pay attention. He has much to show you.” 

Squirming in her chair, a unicorn filly rubbed her hooves together for a moment, looked fearful, and then raised her hoof, waiting politely to be called on, her eyes never leaving Bucky the whole time. 

“Yes? Your name please,” Bucky said, calling upon the squirming filly. 

“My name is Silver Brush,” the filly replied. She blinked a few times, swallowed, and then looked over at Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks. “Both of you are Black Cloaks.” 

“Yes WE are,” Witching Hour replied as one eyelid twitched nervously. 

“Can we become Black Cloaks?” Silver Brush inquired as her nervousness vanished and a very serious look crept over her face. 

“Well, being in this class will certainly help you towards that goal, should you desire it,” Bucky responded as he looked around the classroom at his students. 

“Being a BLACK Cloak is not EASY,” Witching Hour stated as one ear began to spastically rotate. “Constant danger all the TIME is very trying UPON your NERVES.” 

“When Witching Hour is nervous, she has some communications issues. When she calms, it gets better class… please, give her the respect she is due,” Bucky requested. 

Looking curious, Rumble raised his hoof. 

“Yes Rumble?” Bucky said, calling upon the pegasus colt. 

“What if a non unicorn wanted to join the Black Cloaks?” Rumble asked as his ears splayed out sideways in curiousity. “Uh, I mean a pony or even a griffon that isn’t a unicorn.” 

“It is my hope that such a thing is possible… there are those that disagree with me, but I hope to silence them in time,” Bucky answered in a soft voice as he looked Rumble in the eye. 

“I agree with BUCKY. Unicorns tend to become SUSPICIOUS about other unicorns. We can SENSE others with magic. OTHER unicorns that IS. Having non unicorns MIGHT be an asset,” Witching Hour said, offering her opinion to the class. 

“So like spying?” Rumble questioned as a very shrewd look came over his face. 

“Spying is such an ugly word… I don’t like it,” Bucky interjected, shaking his head in disgust. “Intelligence gathering. Information collection. Espionage… being watchful… there are so many better terms one might use instead of that one ugly word.” 

“My sister Rarity calls it pony watching,” Sweetie Belle announced. “She even uses binoculars sometimes to dig up the really good dirt…” The foal paused, realising what it was that she was saying, and then began to look panicked. “I… uh, I’ve never joined her on any of her pony watching expeditions,” she stammered. 

“We have a RESPONSIBILITY to be watchful,” Witching Hour stated, looking visibly calmer now. “Safety requires constant vigilance. One must always be watchful.” 

“Any further questions about vigilance before we begin today’s demonstration?” Bucky inquired as he turned towards the chalkboard and levitated a piece of chalk. “No? Good…” 



 

“Look… just relax, okay? He’s really not that scary and he rather likes earth ponies,” Violet Velvet said in a somewhat softer than usual tone. “Dirtbound, right? I know this is overwhelming for you, everything you have had to deal with all at once, and learning about Mister Rich, but I assure you, there are nothing but nice things planned for you.” 

“Uh… okay,” Dirtbound replied in a low slow uncertain voice. 

“You seem bright enough. You certainly clean up well… you have nothing to worry about,” Violet said in a reassuring voice. “Would you like anything? I know that Bon Bon and Lyra both are very generous.” 

“Are you sure that Buckminster wants to meet me?” Dirtbound fearfully questioned. “I mean, I’m a nopony and he’s… he’s kinda important.” 

“Buckminster told me to make sure you were here and I have done as he asked. He wants to meet you,” Violet responded as she sorted through a couple of papers. “Could I get some coffee?” Violet asked. 

“Sure thing Violet,” Lyra responded as she ducked behind the counter to pour a cup of coffee for Violet. There was the sound of liquid trickling, a fwooshing sound, and then Lyra trotted out from behind the counter with a cup of coffee that had a frothy foam that covered the top of the cup. She set it down upon the table and then trotted back behind the counter. 

“Lovely,” Violet said. “Thank you.” 

“So I have a sister,” Dirtbound said in a low voice. “When do I get to meet her?” 

“After you speak to Bucky,” Violet replied as she lifted up the enormous cup of hot coffee and sniffed. She looked over at the colt that was on the verge of adulthood and then took a careful sip. “So what do you plan to do for a living Dirtbound?” 

“I dunno… I thought about being a stunt pony for a while.. but getting busted up ain’t no fun. I tried racing… but getting hurt ain’t no fun and neither is all the pressure. I’m fast, real fast as a runner, but racing ain’t my thing,” Dirtbound replied as he stared out the window. 

“You seem rather laid back,” Violet observed. 

“Oh I try to be. I don’t like pressure,” Dirtbound said in a low voice. 

“You seem intelligent enough… you should do something meaningful other than running,” Violet suggested after she swallowed some coffee. 

Looking away from the window, Dirtbound glanced at Violet. “Like what? I dropped out of secondary school… I don’t have any big plans.” 

Bon Bon and Lyra both cringed at the soft subtle sounds of a newspaper being rolled up and Bon Bon suddenly remembered something very important in the back room, departing with a swish of her tail as she vanished through the doorway. 

THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! 

“Hoo ooo hey oooOOOwie!” Dirtbound shouted as he ducked away from the rolled up newspaper and cringed in submission, his ears drooping down beside his face. 

“Ouch,” Lyra remarked. “That was a fiver.” 

“You idiot! Bad pony! Dropping out of school! Bad!” Violet scolded as she shook the rolled up newspaper threateningly at Dirtbound. “You’re going back to school! Do you understand me?” she demanded. 

“Yes ma’am! I’m sorry ma’am! I’ll sign up and get myself back in school right away ma’am!” Dirtbound replied as he fearfully ducked away from the newspaper hovering overhead. 

“When Bucky arrives YOU WILL speak to him about getting back in school and you will cure yourself of this dreadful idiocy!” Violet commanded in a frigid imperious tone. 

Nodding, the colt whimpered wordlessly for mercy. 

“NO EXCUSES!” Violet shouted. 

“You’re worse than my mama,” Dirtbound whined as he watched the newspaper settle down to the table. “I’m right sorry ma’am… that stings… my tender ears... I’ll be a good colt and I’ll go back to school,” he promised. 

Looking up from her coffee, Violet smiled an icy smile. “Ah, here he is now,” Violet announced as she watched a griffon land in front of Bon Bon’s shop. There was shimmering and then a black cloaked figure appeared in front of the store. The door opened and a bell rang. 

“Mister Bitters I wanna go back to school!” Dirtbound cried as he fearfully covered his head with his forelegs. “I did something dumb and I’m SORRY!” 

Pausing in the doorway, Bucky looked around, confused by the greeting. He looked at Violet, his eye glowing within his hood, and then he slowly made his way to the table and sat down. He lowered his hood and blinked a bit as he looked around the shop. 

“I strongly suspect that Violet just smacked the stupid out of somepony,” Bucky stated as he got comfortable in his chair and saw the still rolled up newspaper. “Hello Dirtbound.” 

“Hello Mister Bitters,” Dirtbound replied in a low fearful voice. 

“Call me Bucky,” Bucky requested in a soft voice. 

Behind the counter, Lyra poured another cup of coffee while Bon Bon peeked out of the doorway to the back room. The earth pony smiled when she saw Bucky. 

“Really, I wanna go back to school,” Dirtbound repeated in a voice that carried a bit more resolve. “I made a mistake… my mama was right.” 

Moving swiftly with a cup of coffee held in her telekinesis, Lyra dropped it off carefully at the table, kissed Bucky on the cheek once, then once more because she wanted to, and then the unicorn mare departed so she wouldn’t interrupt. 

“So, as I am sure you know, you have a sister. Her name is Diamond Tiara. She is currently experiencing quite a bit of personal difficulty in her life but she is getting better,” Bucky said as he lifted up his cup of coffee. 

“I’d like to meet her,” Dirtbound replied as he began to relax a little bit. “Family is important. And going to school.” 

“Good colt,” Violet remarked as she lifted her coffee cup up to her lips. 

“Well I am glad to hear that. I want to talk to you a bit about all of this and what Mister Rich had hoped for when you and Diamond Tiara meet,” Bucky said as he relaxed into his chair. 
	
	
> Chapter 442
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Greetings class… my name is Bill Neigh, and I teach all kinds of science. This class is political science. Some of you might remember my old poli-sci class back in the old secondary school… I, uh, was apparently having a bit of a mental breakdown due to low pay and overly stressful job conditions. Once more, I apologise if I caused any of you some undue stress.” 

Of course, Bill Neigh did not realise that a changeling had replaced him…

Moving to the front of the classroom, he pulled down a large roll up map of the Equi-pan trans-oceanic empires and then turned to face the class.  “This is the civilised half of the world. That isn’t to say that the other side of the world is not civilised, but this is where most equines live along with a few other races. The other side of the world has dragons. We leave them alone and mostly, they leave us alone. Today class, we are going to talk about the major failings of the three main equine societies that make up the Equi-pan trans-oceanic empires and then we’re going to brainstorm new and exciting ways that we can make our future better and correct some of these shortcomings. All three of these empires have something in common. Can somepony in class tell me something that all three empires have as common factor besides equines?” 

The class stared up at their teacher for a moment, some vacantly, some curiously, but all seemed to be waiting for the student next to them to answer the teacher’s question and nopony wanted to come forward. 

“Um… all three of them have had societal breakdowns of some kind,” a unicorn filly finally said in a sheepish voice. 

“Correct!” Mister Neigh shouted enthusiastically. He bounced in place a few times. 

“All three empires have had troubles with unicorns,” a unicorn colt stated in a somewhat guilty voice as he looked around sheepishly. 

“That is also correct. And the unicorn problems led to various forms of societal collapses in some form or another. Each society has dealt with these problems in a different way and all of these methods so far have had some serious faults. Can anypony tell me more about this pickle of a problem?” Mister Neigh responded. 

“I think it comes down to the fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Loch Skimmer said as she felt her enthusiasm ignite. 

“Hmm… I agree… there is a lot that can be said about that!” Mister Neigh said excitedly. 



 

Closing her eyes, Apple Bloom sank down into the soft cushions of the cozy couch she was sprawled on. “My brain hurts.” 

Beside her on the couch, Spike rubbed his head. “Everything is a lot harder.” 

“I was excited about the new school until I found out the schoolwork was going to be this hard,” Scootaloo whined as she jumped up on the couch and collapsed with half of her body over Spike, who grunted as he was smooshed by his sibling. 

“I have to actually pay attention,” Sweetie Belle whimpered as she hopped up on the couch and flopped over Apple Bloom. 

“I kinda like it,” Babs grumbled as she too jumped up onto to the couch and joined the pony-dragon pile. “My astronomy class is awesome.” 

“Sweetie Belle, you’ve gotten pudgy,” Apple Bloom said as she gave the unicorn filly a bit of a shove. “Marshmallow butt!” 

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle cried in protest. 

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Scootaloo rubbed her eyes. “Our reading class is certainly different. In the old schoolhouse, we had those tattered old books filled with those stupid stories about different ponies knowing their place in society and the so called moral lessons… ugh… now we’re reading stuff that is actually really hard to read and I keep having to dig out a dictionary to figure out what stuff means.” 

Spike gave Scootaloo a bit of a hug to make his sister feel better and then cleared his throat. “I like my teacher. He’s a pegasus and his name is Quire Quota. He’s a bookmaker and he’s teaching us how to make books. He says I have talent.” 

“Good for you Spike,” Apple Bloom remarked as she continued to squirm under Sweetie Belle. “I got placed into the advanced science class somehow… and now I have to do a really big science project. I have no idea what to do.” 

“You know we’ll help,” Sweetie Belle offered.

“Ah, pony pile,” Rumble announced as he finally made it to the study spot. He looked at the couch and grinned with anticipation. “Where are the others?” 

“Not here -oooof!- just yet,” Apple Bloom replied as Rumble took a flying leap and landed on top of the pile. “Ugh, marshmallow butt was bad enough.” 

“Be careful of Babs,” Spike warned. “She’s got a weak stomach still.” 

“I’m fine you nimrods,” Babs grumbled as she situated herself at one end of the couch. 

The couch creaked as the pile adjusted itself. Rumble found himself pulled between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. There was an alarmed cry when Piña Colada and Dinky Doo showed up and eyed the pile, both of them grinning crazily. 

“Where is Sentinel and Diamond Tiara?” Rumble asked as he was smooshed by Piña Colada clambering up to the top of the pile. 

“They’re off making goo-goo eyes at one another,” Dinky answered as she rolled her eyes in mock-disgust from the question. “I hope there’s room for one more,” she announced as she began her harrowing climb to the top of the pony-dragon pile. 

“Hey! You don’t make fun of them! Young love is sweet!” Babs barked as she gave Dinky a shove to help her over Scootaloo, who grunted as Dinky stepped on her head. 

“Whee! I’m gonna be the queen of the pile!” Cloudstreaker announced as she came around the corner and saw the now precarious pony-dragon pile on the couch. 



 

“So you’re going to go back to school,” Violet Velvet stated in a flat voice. 

“Yes ma’am,” Dirtbound replied as he gave a faint nod. 

“You are going to be nice to your sister,” Violet said as she stared at Dirtbound. 

“Oh yes ma’am. I’ll be sure to do that,” Dirtbound promised. 

“And when you are done in school, during the afternoons, you are going to come and work for me. You are going to be my courier and I am going to teach you responsibility,” Violet stated in a commanding monotone. “We will put that speed to some good use and give your brain some exercise as well.” 

Nodding, Dirtbound looked at Violet with his ears splayed out submissively. “Yes ma’am.” 

“And when we are done here today, what are you going to do?” Violet asked. 

“I’m gonna go home and apologise to my mama for disappointing her when I dropped out of school and then I am going to promise her that I am going to make up for being an idiot,” Dirtbound replied with a pained and regretful expression upon his face. “Do you think I made a good impression on Mister Bitters?” 

“You made a fine first impression upon Bucky. You did well. You have nothing to worry about,” Violet said as her voice warmed. She smiled at Dirtbound. 

“You sure are offering me a lot of bits for courier work,” Dirtbound remarked as he reached up an rubbed one still stinging ear. 

“Fair pay for hard work. If you do well as a courier, I might make you one of my assistants,” Violet responded as she lifted up her coffee cup in her magic and held it near her lips. When she was done speaking, she drank down the last of her coffee. She wiped her mouth carefully with an napkin and then looked at Dirtbound. “Did you enjoy the chocolate?” 

“Yes ma’am, I did,” Dirtbound replied with a sheepish smile. 



 

In the farmhouse library, in the chair jokingly referred to as his throne, Bucky looked over the correspondance left in a well organised pile for him. The zebra students would be coming soon. More refugees were expected from overseas, mostly minotaurs with a small number of diamond dogs. Celestia politely mentioned that she had no idea where to comfortably place them. Sighing, Bucky tossed these papers aside and looked at the ones marked with higher priority. 

Opening the night blue envelope from Luna, he read over the reports of violence spilling into Fancy and Germaney from Minos. The minotaur rebels, now in control of Labyrinthia, were conducting raids over the borders of the two countries and seemed to be preparing for invasion. The guns were entirely too effective against the unicorns and pegasi sent to defend the borders. Sighing, Bucky realised he really needed to speed up the production process for the anti-gunpowder golems, but he needed more arcano-tech motors for the rotors. 

It seemed that Luna was indeed, gearing up for an invasion of Minos and an assault upon the city of Labyrinthia. The casualties in Fancy and Germaney were impossible to ignore and a response had to be made. The note said to wait for a public announcement from Celestia. 

There were reports of undead in the south and necromantic cults were still plaguing the southern expanses. The orbs of undead compulsion were proving their worth, drawing in the undead so they could be destroyed and disposed of. 

Feeling a vague sense of unease, Bucky set down the papers and rubbed his head. There was still a long way to go before real peace was made manifest in the world. The first step, at least in Bucky’s mind, had been made. The school was open and a new ideology was being created that might assist in eventual world unity. 

Everything seemed so distant… everything felt like such impossibly long odds. 

With a crushing sense of realisation, Bucky came to the conclusion that his work was only just getting started. For a moment, he thought of the hook and how it had nearly destroyed the hope within him. This was just another hook and he was going to have to endure somehow. 



 

“Who is going to pick up where they leave off?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked over at her friends. “I mean, heroes can’t be heroes forever. Ponies grow old. Get tired of adventuring. There is always that point in the stories where the adventurer decides to rest their bones by the fire and just stay at home.” 

“I don’t know. I suppose I’ve never thought of it,” Sweetie Belle replied as she looked at Apple Bloom and then glanced around at everypony else. “Applejack is going to find it real hard to go adventuring and save the world if she’s pregnant I guess… and so will the rest of the Elements of Harmony.” 

“So who continues their work?” Scootaloo asked as she leaned over and rest against Spike, who had his foreleg around her. “What if there is another scary monster like Nightmare Moon or Discord and the Elements of Harmony are no longer there to keep the world safe?” 

“This is why we have to get our heads screwed on right, pay attention in school, get smart, and prepare ourselves,” Dinky said to the group. 

“I’m not even sure Applejack finished school,” Apple Bloom grumbled as she prodded at an orange leaf laying in the grass. The earth pony foal looked sulky for a moment and then her expression softened. “All the more reason why I should pay more attention I guess. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working that hard.” 

“There will always be heroes,” Sentinel stated in a soft solemn voice. “They’re not always big adventurers or powerful wizards… sometimes, they’re right under your nose… they’re an earth pony that is a school teacher that just sort of sticks out the rough times and tries to help foals. Or a police officer that does their job.” 

“If it was any other pony saying that, I’d complain about how corny it sounds, but it is Sentinel, so he gets a free pass,” Rumble remarked. 

“Who is going to be the Element of Generousity when my sister is gone?” Sweetie Belle asked in a small somewhat squeaky voice. “Who will take the place of Pinkie Pie?” 

“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom replied as she let the full effect of everything being said sink in. “The problem with heroes is… the world suddenly seems like a much scarier place when you realise that your heroes won’t always be there.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 443
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Cadance doesn’t have a belly button,” Sentinel observed in low whisper as he watched Cadance’s diaper being changed by Berry Punch, who looked Berry disgusted by the mess the Empress had left behind. 

“You’re right… she doesn’t,” Berry Punch agreed as she stopped what she was doing and looked down. “Cadance no longer has a belly button.” 

“I wonder if Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have belly buttons,” Sentinel said, pondering something that was suddenly of great interest to him. He looked at Cadance curiously, feeling an odd sense of brotherly protective urge as he gazed at her. 

“You should ask them,” Berry Punch suggested as she continued to ponder Cadance’s lack of a navel. “Hmm Cadance… mama still loves you even though you’re a bit of a weirdo.” 

“It sounds strange to hear you refer to yourself as her mother,” Sentinel said in a low voice as he reached out and gently stroked Cadance with his central knuckle. 

Cocking her head to one side, Berry Punch looked at Sentinel curiously. “What else would I be?” she asked as she finished changing Cadance’s diaper. “She nurses at my teats. I change her diaper. I wipe her dirty little backside and clean snot away from her nose. Speaking of soiled backsides… I’ve even scrubbed your dirty little backside after you had yourself a bad case of the green apple splatters.” 

Sentinel’s ears pinned back against his skull as he backed away from Berry Punch and he grinned sheepishly. “And that is why I call you my mother… I suppose… I guess… mother,” he stammered nervously. 

“It’s good to see you smile Sentinel. You should smile more,” Berry said as she closed up the fresh diaper. Lifting Cadance in the crook of her foreleg, she picked Cadance up off of the changing table, walked over to the crib on three legs, and then, standing on her hind legs, lowered Cadance into the crib. “She should hopefully sleep for a few hours… and then it will be time for the late night wailing.” 

“Princess Luna says that ponies are instinctively afraid of the dark,” Sentinel remarked as he moved closer to the crib. Peekaboo was already sleeping, Harper was drifting off but struggling to keep her eyes open, and Cadance was yawning. “Maybe the nighttime scares her.” 

“Maybe,” Berry Punch agreed. “If she cries, maybe tonight I can console her. Seems that only Derpy or your father can get her to stop crying. That’s frustrating for all of us. Means that two ponies never get a break.” 

“Yew Wood says that they’re going to make Peekaboo start sleeping in a regular bed… I bet she’ll be lonely,” Sentinel whispered as he stood next to the crib. 

“Peekaboo is a big foal now… she doesn’t wear diapers, she can feed herself, she talks, it is time for her to be treated like as more than an infant. Come spring, she’ll be a yearling. I remember Piña becoming a yearling. She wouldn’t shut up. She was always talking and asking questions. Now Piña is all grown up and is such a big little foal. Over just the course of one summer she grew up and got all independent and stopped needing her big sister so much,” Berry Punch said as her eyes began to mist over. She sat down on the floor, balanced on her haunches, reached out, grabbed Sentinel, and then squeezed him hard enough to nearly knock the wind out of him. 



 

As the midnight hour approached, a crowd gathered. Griffons and griffonesses came from all over the farm to gather around a carefully stacked pile of logs and wood. Magpie sat nearby, several little griffon cubs scattered around her, all of them huddled together for protection from the cold as they peeped mournfully, having lost one of their caretakers. Not far away, Lugus sat, looming over the crowd with his immense size, beside him sat Yew Wood, the pegasus mare the griffons claimed as one of their own number, her terrible scars and the loss of her eye making her a figure worthy of respect as well as admiration among them. 

On top of the pyre, Whitewing’s corpse was laid out carefully and she had been given a comfortable place to rest her old greyed head. Each feather had been carefully preened, her body had been laid out with as much respect, love, and devotion as could be mustered. Her talons were folded atop one another and held over her girth. Her beak had been carefully buffed and shined. 

Wearing his black cloak, Bucky sat in the middle of them, Belisama at his side. 

Parting the crowd as they passed, Lugnut and Spanner approached Bucky, Spanner walking on three legs as he clutched a small box held close to his body with his right talons. They approached with their heads low, reverently, Ripple, as well as her Raptors, all of them arranged around Bucky, all saluted when Lugnut and Spanner sat down in the dead grass in front of Bucky. 

“Who would have thought our best king would not be a griffon? Who would have thought that the king that brought us back to the old ways would not be one of us? Yet he is one of us inside, where perhaps it matters most. This day we have laboured in the forge, preparing for this night’s ceremony,” Lugnut said in a soft but clear voice. He made a gesture at Spanner as he looked up at Bucky. 

Spanner opened the box and inside were two circlets, each of them gleaming silver in the faint light. Small, simple, a basic design, but there was no mistaking that these were symbols of office, vestments of leadership, and the gathered griffons all looked hopeful that Bucky would accept them. 

“These are simple and unadorned. They are nothing more than a simple silver circlet and nothing else… but we ask that you wear this, at least for the funeral this night. We understand if you do not wish to wear it regularly, but we wish to see our king as our king, and our queen as our queen during special occasions. It means a great deal to us,” Spanner stated in a solemn voice. 

Reaching into the box, Lugnut took the larger of the two circlets out, holding it reverently, he balanced upon his haunches, and then held it out to Bucky with both talons. Bowing his head low, Bucky allowed the circlet to be placed over head, not a word was spoken, but his ears splayed sideways the moment the precious metal was laid upon his head. 

That done, he reached into the opened box once more, took up the smaller of the two circlets, and then placed it upon Belisama, who already had her head down and was waiting. 

“Gather close little ones… my name is Thorne… tonight, we pass Whitewing into memory and return her to the stars,” a griffoness said as she looked down at the cubs and then out at the gathered flock. “With her, she will take all those we have lost in Griffonholm, taking them back to the sky so that they might know rest.” 

Torches were lit and several griffons now held them, the fire flickered and made the gathered shadows all around them dance. 

“Long ago, before we had cities, we had tribes, and in these tribes, we had ponies among our number. These are but memories to us, an old time, a dream time, a time forgotten almost to all. The unicorns were our shamans, our lorekeepers, they guarded our dreams and kept our memories. It is said that the unicorns taught us how to write words and keep memories alive through written texts. We once called the pegasi brothers and sisters and we shared our skies with them. Ancient stories even suggest that we gave our pony brethren wings, that the hippogriffs that were once the revered symbol of our unity and our mutual trust became the pegasi, who are said to come from the hippogriff offspring of two tribes that came together for survival,” Thorne said as she looked into the eyes of each of the griffon cubs gathered around Magpie. 

Hearing Thorne’s words, Bucky knew when that ancient unity had been broken. 

The small griffoness sat up straight on her hind haunches and raised her front talons skyward. “With this death we are reminded of life… and that we are obligated to make more of it. Once more, we find ourselves among our pony brethren and our tribes have once more merged. But where are the hippogriffs? The symbols of our unity? Let this death remind you of your responsibilities.” 

Picking up and holding one of the smallest cubs, Magpie gave it a squeeze. 

“The old stories say that a pact once existed between us, that the ponies would mind the land, taming it so that we might have a safe place to teach our young to hunt, and that we would mind the skies, keeping away our mutual foes, our ancient enemies, the wyrms and other things that preyed upon us both. And with each death, with each loss, we came together to make life,” Thorne continued as she waved her talons over her head, making motions towards the stars overhead. 

“Once more, we mind the sky and the ponies keep the land,” Lugus said as he moved forward and then sat down beside Thorne. “Our enemies might have changed, but make no mistake, we have enemies. The ponies have secured the land, giving us a place to raise our young in safety… what will we give them in return?” the giant griffon asked. 

“Guardians to protect their sky!” Loki squawked. 

“We can get started on that right away!” Freyja shouted as she looked at Callum with hungry predatory eyes, which caused the dove like griffon to freeze in place and then his crest rose in alarm. 

“Give her back to the sky!” Thorne shouted, her words causing griffons to scramble away from the pyre. “Give her back to the sky so that she might be our messenger! This sky is ours and we protect what is ours!” 

As Thorne spoke, torches were thrown upon the pyre. It burst into flames, the oil soaked wood blazing with furious intensity. Within moments, the entire pile was engulfed, the flames licking up the sides of the stacked logs. 

Two new visitors joined the funeral, circling overhead as the flames rose up into the sky. Philomena and Freezerburn came out of their hollow tree to pay their respects as the dead griffoness was returned to the sky. Trailing flames behind them as they circled, one red-orange and the other blue, they light up the night sky, two flying firebrands that illuminated the darkness and drove away the darkness of the night. 

Reaching out, Bucky pulled Belisama close to him. He kissed her upon her head, above her eyes, and he felt her small warm body against his own. She was soft downy feathers and velvet, warmth against the chill night air, and much to his surprise, he felt her turn in his grasp to embrace him. Her plaster cast bumped lightly up against his metallic talons. 

As Whitewing’s body was consumed by the roaring flames, the griffons gathered and came together. In the flickering firelight, mated pairs stood near one another, small prides stood together, and as Bucky looked around, he was filled with hope. He saw families watching the flickering flames. One hundred and some odd number of griffons and a few ponies now among their number. Not even realising they had arrived, he saw Sunset Shimmer and Trixie sitting on either side of Bartleby, both of them looked sorrowful, and each of them had a foreleg around the smaller griffon between them. 

The pyre popped, it fizzled, and cinders rose upwards into the night sky, blazing brightly as they were born aloft upon the updrafts of hot air. The fire roared now, a fierce sound, and many griffons sat, completely entranced by the flames. 

This was not a body being neatly disposed in a crematorium, or a corpse committed back to the earth, this was flesh being consumed by fire, in the open, on top of a big pile of wood for all to see. These were ancient funerary rites, an old practice rarely seen or observed in the modern age in which they lived. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air, the smell of smoke, it was an experience that left an impression upon all of the senses. 

“Never forget what we are!” Thorne shouted to the gathered griffons and griffonesses. 
	
	
> Chapter 444
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster?” 

The voice caught Bucky off guard. He looked around his office at the top of the tower, trying to spot the intruder that should not be there. His office was warded, protected, the door was closed, and a disturbance at this moment should have been impossible. He rose from his chair and looked around. 

There was a small white pony near his desk. As he watched, it scrambled into a chair. 

“Sorry if I startled you.” 

“Shining Armor?” Bucky questioned in a whisper. “How are you here and why are you tiny? What are you doing in my office? How did you get in? Why did you leave the Crystal Empire?” 

Getting comfortable in a chair, the small Shining Armor looked at Bucky. “I’m a projection. Part of me is also in Canterlot right now, speaking to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. That’s why I’m so small. I wanted to speak to you.” 

Moving towards Shining Armor, Bucky reached out and prodded the small foal sized stallion that appeared to be a miniature adult. Shining Armor was solid to the touch and definitely very real. 

“I’m a projection, but I am a real projection. I can cast minor magic from this body should I so choose,” Shining Armor explained, smiling as he looked at Bucky. 

Moving away from Shining Armor and back to his chair, Bucky sat down at stared at the small white figure in the chair in front of his desk. He took a deep breath and engaged the analytical parts of his mind. 

“Buckminster, I really am sorry for what I said… the Collective fears you. It remembers what Sombra did. It remembers those fed to the tower. I know you know of Briarburner and how Sombra killed him. There were many more. You are the only living force on this planet that is an actual threat to the Crystal Collective… it fears you more than anything else. You cannot come near,” Shining Armor said in a subdued soft voice. 

Waving his talons, Bucky nodded. “I understand. I’m not bothered by it. I take it we are still friends while you are away from home?” 

“Of course Buckminster… we both have a duty. We have our obligations. I understand that now… I see it. You are necessary and vital to our survival… I just cannot have you coming near the engine of our protection,” Shining Armor replied. 

“So you are capable of omnipresence,” Bucky observed. 

Shining Armor shook his head. “Only on a very limited scale. At least for now. The system is still coming online. The latticework was badly damaged and corrupted. When it is repaired, I will be able to defend the whole of this empire. Not just the Crystal Empire, but Equestria. I do not yet understand everything… but with each minute that passes, with each bit of corruption that is cleared away, I gain more understanding and power.”

Feeling a vague sense of unease, Bucky pondered Shining Armor’s new position, his new body, and his new purpose. Reaching up, he began to stroke his chin with his talons. 

“Star Swirl and Sombra created the Crystal Empire as a defensive engine. Sombra twisted the city… as he grew more evil, he worked to change the purpose of the Crystal Empire and turn it into a weapon. Sombra believed that in time, it would be a weapon capable of destroying alicorns… even fey demons… a weapon of unspeakable destructive power. I am repairing it… fixing it. My shield magic has revitalised it, given it new life… it has remembered its old purpose and the living heart of the Crystal Empire has awoken… it seeks to become a defensive engine once more,” Shining Armor explained. 

“Wait… the Crystal Empire is a living thing?” Bucky asked. 

“The Crystal Heart was literally the heart of the massive golem that is the Crystal Empire,” Shining Armor replied. 

OH FECK Bucky thought to himself. 

“The crystal ponies are like cells in the body… the blood… the carriers of the life force. Sombra’s dark magic became like a cancer in the latticework… the body was weakened by the presence of dark magic… but when I merged with it, my shield magic gave it what it needed to defend the body against what it is weak against,” Shining Armor said in a low voice. 

“So you have to purge the body of its sickness to restore it, that makes sense,” Bucky responded as he looked at Shining Armor, who glowed brightly. “So your shield spell functions like an antibody or something to that end.” 

“You are correct. My shield spell is merging with the dark bits of corruption, purifying them, and making sure that the Crystal Empire will never know weakness again,” Shining Armor replied. He looked at Bucky and blinked. “I still feel so guilty… you gave so much to retrieve Cadance and even now, you look after her well being… I was made to treat you so poorly.” 

“Oh hush,” Bucky grumbled as he made a dismissive gesture with his right front hoof. “Protecting the Crystal Empire and by extension, Equestria, is far more important than being worried about my personal feelings on the issue. I’m fine. I understand now.” 

“Which brings me to why I am here Buckminster… there is a mirror traveler here in Ponyville. I can sense them. They are powerful… I can sense the threat they pose. They live in the shadow of the Sun and the Moon… there is a unicorn and he poses as a refugee. He is actually a spy… very much like the spies we had in the Crystal Empire. He has several townsponies under his mental control… he works to create strife as he gathers information on you, Twilight Sparkle, The Empress Cadance, and the Royal Pony Sisters. He has an apartment just above Quills and Sofas. The threat must be dealt with. I am telling Princess Celestia and Princess Luna the locations of other spies in other cities,” Shining Armor said in a now commanding voice. 

“I guess I’d better go take care of our unwelcome tourist,” Bucky growled. 

“Be careful Buckminster… please, dear friend, be careful,” Shining Armor urged. 

“Thank you Shining Armor… I will go deal with the threat you have uncovered,” Bucky replied as he rose from his chair. 

“I am the Shield… and you are the Sword of the Empire… I will aid you if I can, but I only have so much power available for now. Strike swiftly and try to catch him unawares,” Shining Armor said in a commanding voice. 

Moving quickly, Bucky made his way to Sunset Shimmer’s door. 



 

Moving swiftly through Ponyville, Bucky made his way to the market district, followed by Sunset Shimmer, Witching Hour, and Tiddlywinks. They were all wearing black cloaks and they moved silently, moving from shadow to shadow, three of them running on legs while Bucky was little more than a shadow beneath Death’s Cloak. 

As they entered the market district, they began to cast defense spells, wards, protective shields, activating protective charms. Three horns glowed with harmonious defensive magics, one horn burned with terrible black fire as Bucky laced himself with darkness. 

“We hit hard and fast. We go up the rear stairs, check for traps, take down the door, and then we hit him with everything we have,” Sunset Shimmer whispered. “Hopefully, we catch him while he is sleeping.” 

“He’ll be dangerous,” Witching Hour hissed in a magically muted voice. “We’ve fought these unicorns before… Tiddlywinks and I… be careful… they killed the Black Cloaks.” 

“We have a warlock,” Sunset Shimmer confidently announced. 

“Let’s hope that’s enough,” Witching Hour grumbled as the group approached the back stairs that lead up to the apartment. 

From within the apartment, an alarm blared. 

“Oh bugger! Something that detected hostile intent!” Witching Hour spat in anger. 

A moment later, the door exploded open and a unicorn burst out, his horn blazing as brightly as the sun. A blast of magic streamed off for Tiddlywinks, who teleported out of the way. The blast left a massive crater in the ground. 

Sunset Shimmer let go of a shield breaker spell as Witching Hour also began to try and strip away the unicorn’s protections. Bucky let fly with a beam of dark energy. 

The unicorn panicked when it saw the dark magic, let out a cry, and immediately let go of everything he had in Bucky’s general direction. Bucky dove into shadow to get out of harm’s way, streaking off as tendrils of shadowstuff, only to reappear several yards away, cackling madly as his horn flared with black fire. 

Again, the unicorn cut loose with a massive blast. Bucky dodged again and the blast struck the building behind him, causing the wall to crumble. Flames began to creep up the splintered wood. 

With a whoosh of cold, the flames vanished and Bucky continued to cackle as he shadow winked from location to location, sending blasts of dark magic at the unicorn. The unicorn let out a startled cry as the stairs were blasted away from beneath him by Witching Hour. The mirror traveler screamed as he teleported just before hitting the ground. 

Sunset Shimmer burst into flames with a cry and then set tendrils of seeking fire towards the unicorn. She began to cackle herself and then crowed in a moment of triumph as she saw a shield bubble around the unicorn pop as her fire tendrils snaked around their target. 

Lights were coming on in windows now as ponies began to wake from the commotion. 

Tiddlywinks scored a direct hit with a pierce spell, which took out another layer of defense upon the unicorn, who immediately cast a spell to create another shield bubble. With a frustrated cry, Witching Hour released a repeating pulse of telekinetic blasts, which slammed into the unicorn and made his shields spark and fizzle. 

“Give up and we will let you live!” Sunset Shimmer shouted. 

“Never!” the unicorn replied as his horn flared. 

A crackling nova of energy expanded from the unicorn, radiating outwards. Suddenly, Witching Hour and Sunset Shimmer were completely defenseless, their protections now totally dispelled. The unicorn pressed his advantage and released a massive burst of energy which struck Sunset Shimmer in the face.

Sunset Shimmer went down with a pained cry and the smell of burnt flesh and ozone filled the marketplace district. Witching Hour quickly brought up a shield.

“Her horn’s been snapped off!” Witching Hour cried in panic. 

Hearing those words, a dreadful fear filled Bucky. Something inside of him fractured… he felt it… something broke, something gave way, rage boiled… terrible rage. Everything around Bucky began to freeze over, ice began to creep up the walls, over the windows, and spread outwards over the ground. 

Darting forward, more shadow than anything else, Bucky became just solid enough to use his magic. He fired a single dark magic blast, moving on instinct now, consumed by his rage. The blast struck the unicorn and sent him sprawling. 

His body landed several yards away, skidding over the earth. His skin bubbled… it moved in a most peculiar manner... a strange gurgling cry escaped from the unicorn’s throat. His horn flared for a moment, which lit his body in a golden glow as he desperately tried to save his own life as the dark magic began to consume him from within.

A moment later, the unicorn exploded violently, sending meaty chunks spraying out in a wide radius. Blood and nearly liquified bits spattered all over the nearby walls and empty market stalls with a wet splattering sound. 

Moving swiftly to his apprentice’s side, Bucky kneeled down, whimpering in panic, the thought of what he had just done had not even registered in his mind. Witching Hour came near and so did Tiddlywinks, both looked fearful and sad. 

“Oh that’s not good,” Witching Hour murmured. 

Half of Sunset’s horn was gone, sheared off. The marrow was dribbling out. Her face was burned, one ear was a blackened husk. Part of her mane was completely burnt away. 

“She’s dying!” Bucky shouted in panic as he watched his apprentice struggling to draw breath. Cracked horns could be fatal, but this was no cracked horn, half of it was missing. Snarling, Bucky lifted Sunset Shimmer in his magic and turned his head in the direction of the hospital. Teleportation would kill her for certain in this state. Augmenting himself, he took off at a run with his apprentice borne in his magic. 

“Hold on Sunset… please hold on!” Bucky shouted as he took off at a run, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks hot on his heels behind him. 



 

In Canterlot, Shining Armor, who had witnessed all that had just taken place, informed the Royal Pony Sisters of the fall of Sunset Shimmer, the death that Buckminster had caused, and the crisis in Ponyville. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 445
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“We had to sedate him… he was raving,” Nurse Redheart explained in low voice. “He was crying and upset… frantic… and freezing everything around him. He caused several cases of major frostbite. We have him locked in the morgue right now… he’s turned it into a place inhospitable to life even though he’s knocked out.” 

“I see,” Celestia replied in a flat monotone. 

“The odds for Miss Shimmer are slim at best,” Nurse Redheart reported. 

“Luna… go fetch Cadance and one of Bucky’s wives to care for her. We are going to need her,” Celestia commanded as she looked over at her sister. 

“At once sister,” Luna responded as she took off down the hall. 

“Tourmaline… a lot is depending on you right now… I know that you will do well,” Celestia said to the jet black foal with a soft pink mane and tail that stood beneath her and was peering out from between her front legs. 

“Yes mama,” Tourmaline answered in a fearful voice. She turned her head around and looked at her cutie mark, blinked, and then turned her head back around to look up at the mare she called her mother. 

“We are going to be in Sunset Shimmer’s room. We are not to be disturbed in there,” Celestia commanded as she looked down at Nurse Redheart. 

“Okay,” Nurse Redheart replied nervously. 





Looking at her husband, Derpy saw some signs of him waking. She took a deep breath and saw puffs of steam drift away from her nose. She pulled the blanket around her a little tighter, fought back the urge to shiver, squinted one eye, and watched her husband carefully. 

Derpy felt the bone chilling cold, and she was a pegasus, a creature made to survive extreme cold temperatures. It stung her eyes, burned her nose, and made her lungs ache. 

“Bucky?” Derpy whispered, her lips just inches away from her husband’s ear. 

She saw him twitch and then she saw his eyelids over his remaining eye flicker. 

“Bucky, love, if you can hear me, you have to make the cold stop,” Derpy whispered into his ear in a pleading voice. “Nopony else can get near you. The cold is hurting ponies… including me… let me warm you up, love.” 

Hearing a muffled mumbled cry, Derpy pressed her face into Bucky’s. She snorted into his skin, something she always did when she was trying to get him to wake… she knew that it never failed to give her husband the shivers and it was something she knew that he enjoyed. Derpy heard a strangled sounding inhale and a faint gurgled cry. 

“Sunset Shimmer is still alive Bucky… you got her here in time… she’s alive,” Derpy whispered as she tried to reassure her husband. She heard a muffled moan but could not make out the words Bucky was trying to say. “They had to sedate you… and then they brought Cadance here and Celestia got her to zap you somehow. You were draining the electricity from the walls… the power was flickering and threatening to go out and the whole hospital started to freeze over. We’re in the morgue.” 

Heaving a sorrowful sigh, Derpy lay down upon the cold tile floor with her husband and cuddled up against his side. Already, the chill didn’t seem quite so bad. She pulled the blanket over the both of them and pulled Bucky close. 



 

“With Cadance’s help, Tourmaline has managed to heal Sunset Shimmer… not completely, not yet, but I do believe that Sunset Shimmer will live,” Celestia said in a low voice. “The horn will take a little time to regrow, but Tourmaline was able to cap it off with changeling chitin that she grew from spitting up some new substance.”

“See Bucky… it’ll be okay,” Derpy whispered into her husband’s ear. 

“I am very happy to have you out of the morgue Bucky… something felt very wrong about leaving you down there. I am also very sorry that I had to use Cadance against you as a weapon,” Celestia said in an apologetic voice. 

Offering a weak nod that made the pillowcase crinkle slightly, Bucky blinked and wrapped his forelegs a little tighter around Derpy, trying to pull her inside of him somehow. He felt empty inside, it was as if he had been hollowed out and then filled with some horrible agonising pain that filled every inch of his being. 

“I killed somepony,” Bucky whimpered. 

Biting her lip for a moment, Celestia was unsure of what to say. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “You killed an enemy. You killed somepony that hurt Sunset Shimmer and was trying to kill you and your companions. What you did was justified.” 

Closing his eye, Bucky buried his face into Derpy’s neck and shuddered. “I broke my vow… I used the very worst sort of dark magic I could think of. I shared with him every bit of pain I’ve felt in my life… all of it. Even the hook… he felt it all at once before he… before he… I finally did something that I don’t know if I can live with...” 

Shaking her head, Celestia felt confused and even a little bit frustrated by Bucky’s confession. It was just one of many aspects of Bucky’s personality that she just simply did not understand. 

“It is good that you feel compassion for your enemies, but you killed him for a good reason,” Derpy whispered as she stroked her husband softly. “Please, don’t hate yourself for this my love.” 

“I am going to leave the two of you alone for a while. Derpy, please, try to make him feel better,” Celestia said as she began to back away from the bed and towards the door. 

When Celestia was gone, Bucky rubbed his snoot against the grey pegasus beside him. “I’m so cold and dead inside. I need you,” he whispered pleadingly. “I need to feel warm… make me feel alive again…” 

“Of course,” Derpy replied as she rolled over onto her back and pulled Bucky on top of her. She knew just what he needed. She felt her husband crawling downward, his chin trailing over her stomach. Reaching down with her front hooves and her wings, she stroked him softly, then gasped when she felt his lips latch on to her sensitive flesh. “Just remember to save some for Cadance…” 



 

Moving about the sunny hospital room, Trixie carefully placed the carnations into a vase, added some water, and then set the vase on the bedside table. She stood at the side of Sunset Shimmer’s bed for a moment, looking at all of the tubes sticking out of the mare that she felt a strong sense of affection for. She turned to look at Bartleby, who had made himself comfortable in a chair beside the bed. 

“Her ear will regrow… already it looks much better than it did,” Luna said in a soft reassuring voice. “Her face will also fully heal… we just need time. Tourmaline can only do so much at a time. She is exhausted and sick right now… and also crying because she cannot do more.” 

“When she is better, might we thank her?” Bartleby inquired in a grief stricken but grateful voice as he looked up at Luna. 

“Yes… of course. I do believe she would appreciate that. Now, if you will excuse me, I do believe Erebus is starting to get fussy because he is hungry. I need to go find a place to get comfortable,” Luna said as she excused herself. She turned and departed out the door, cooing at the foal slung around her neck in a shawl. 

“What do we do?” Bartleby asked as he gave a pained look to Trixie. 

“We wait Bartleby. We wait,” Trixie responded in a soft voice. 



 

Feeling lightheaded, her eyelids feeling far too heavy, Luna looked at her sister with a deep feeling of concern. “I said this might happen.” 

“I know… I know… I still hoped that she would be spared,” Celestia responded as she stared out the window at the town of Ponyville. “Perhaps this is just random chance.” 

“Just like Buckminster’s horn suffering a crack was random chance,” Luna remarked. She turned to look at Erebus, who was yawning and revealing his pink blood stained teeth. “Those in Sombra’s bloodline are doomed to this curse.” 

“But she is from Star Swirl’s bloodline as well… the two bloodlines intermingled once again when Starjammer and Cerise Velvet had that troublesome foal of theirs. Bucky should have ended the curse,” Celestia said in a frustrated voice. 

“Sunset Shimmer was in a different reality when the curse was ended,” Luna stated. 

Squeezing her eyes shut, Celestia bit down on her lip to keep from crying out in grief and frustration as Luna’s words sank in and the painful truth made itself evident. She could not stop the tears that started to fall. 

“I wonder if she will be further tested, or, since the curse is technically broken, now that her horn has been damaged… I wonder if she will be allowed to go on with her life without the rest of the curse manifesting itself upon her,” Luna said as she rolled over onto her belly and pulled Erebus on top of her barrel. She began to pat the foal upon his back, hoping to make the insufferably adorable little monster burp. 

“I allowed myself to believe that this awful nightmare was finally over,” Celestia whimpered in a heartbroken voice as she turned away from the window. “When Buckminster finally ended the curse I was so relieved… I really do hope that this is one final hiccup of fate.” 

“What do we do with Buckminster?” Luna questioned as she continued to pat Erebus. 

“His mind is already so fractured. How many times can you keep putting the shattered pieces back together and still have some hope of him being the pony that we love?” Celestia responded in a voice fraught with worry. “Can we make him forget?” 

“No,” Luna replied in a soft whisper. “The Fates, our sisters, have done something to his mind. I can no longer make him forget things. I can repair, I can fix, there is much I can do, but trimming away problematic memories is no longer an option. For good or for ill, Buckminster now remembers everything. He can no longer be tampered with that way.” 

“Damn,” Celestia swore, a rare occurrence that made her sister Luna’s ears twitch. “We cannot have him falling apart right now… or ever for that matter. I am concerned for his well being because I love him… and also because I fear what he is capable of if he stumbles.” 

“He will recover. We have Cadance if he needs to be put down for a while. He is utterly powerless to her little love taps,” Luna stated. She yawned and then smiled when Erebus finally let go with a window rattling belch. “I think alicorn milk is doing funny things to Erebus,” she calmly mentioned to her sister. 

“I am going to go check on Tourmaline and see how she is doing. I hope she continues to sleep for a while… I worry for her… being in the hospital is hard on her. She can feel the pain of everypony in here,” Celestia said as she started for the door. She paused at the door for a moment and then turned to look at Luna. “I think the best thing that we could do for Buckminster is to be there for him. As his family. I think our old way of thinking is now a detriment. He deserves better from us.” 

“I find myself in agreement sister,” Luna responded as she continued to pat Erebus, knowing there was always more gas somewhere in the colt. “Perhaps it would be best to let Buckminster heal up from this in his own way… without tampering. Perhaps we should trust his family to look after him and tend to his needs. I know what he is… I know what he is capable of… but he is still a pony… and the fact that he is so grief stricken over this is proof of that. Perhaps we should see this as a good sign sister.” 

“Twilight Sparkle seems a little bit more cold and distant now that you’ve eased her troubled mind from the memories of what took place in Griffonholm… all of the lives she took... I am filled with so many doubts now sister… I used to think I knew what was right… there was a time that I was positive I knew what was necessary for the greater good. Now I find myself second guessing everything I do… every decision I make,” Celestia confessed in a low whisper. 

“Go look after Tourmaline…” 
	
> Chapter 446
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dozing, sprawled out in bed with Cadance beside him, Bucky lay sleeping, but not peacefully. Curled up against his head and neck, Cadance lay sucking on Bucky’s tufted ear, her eyes slowly closing, only to spring open when she realised she had nearly drifted off to sleep. Her horn glowed softly, a faint pink light was visible, and occasionally a bolt of energy arced from her horn and struck Bucky’s horn, which caused Bucky to calm in his sleep for a while. 

The second bed in the room held Sunset Shimmer who lay sleeping soundly. 

Between the two beds, sitting in a chair, Trixie kept watch over the two sleepers. In a chair near the window, Derpy sat with a worried look upon her face. Pacing the floor, Bartleby walked between his king and the mare that he realised he held a great deal of affection for. 

Finally, Cadance’s eyes closed and did not open. 



 

Looking around the apartment for a moment and then looking at Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks, who stood beside one another looking at her, Twilight Sparkle scowled. The apartment was practically bare. There was a plain and simple bed, still rumpled and unmade, the pony that had been sleeping in it had been woken up rather suddenly. There was a single chair by the corner, near a small narrow window. The kitchen was nearly bare and what little food was in the pantry was very plain. 

“The ponies under mental control included a newspaper editor and several members of the city government… the control was enough to make the city government members hostile, argumentative, just enough to impede progress and make them rather unreasonable,” Lyra reported in hushed voice. “The control was very well done… just pesky enough to cause the city government to be disrupted, but not enough to raise suspicions I guess. With proper intimidation or sufficient authority, they caved.” 

“How interesting,” Twilight Sparkle replied as she turned to look at Lyra. 

“What are we going to do about the spies in the other locations?” Lyra inquired in a worried voice. “There are more of them. One infiltrator took on four of us Black Cloaks… one of us being Bucky, and from Witching Hour’s report, he was doing quite well for himself.” 

“There is a reason that the Black Cloaks, which was almost a thousand strong, are no longer with us,” Twilight stated in a pained voice. 

“Dumb BASTARD made a mistake… he HURT something the WARLOCK is fond OF,” Witching Hour remarked as she leaned upon her husband. “Also, THE warlock is getting SCARY good AT defensive magic.” 

“The property damage has already been fixed… there are a lot of witnesses that still need to be interviewed… and I can’t do it… I’m too shook up and I can’t deal with this,” Lyra said in quavering voice. 

“Lyra, go be with Bon Bon. You’ve done very well with everything you’ve done so far. As always, your work is commendable. Witching Hour, Tiddlywinks, go get some rest… please listen to me and do what I say. I will take over here,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low soft voice. 

Saying nothing, Lyra departed. After a few moments, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks also moved towards the door, moving slowly, both of them were clearly exhausted. 

“I’ve seen a lot of ponies DIE. I’ve seen A lot of BAD ends… but I’ve never seen a PONY explosively liquified before… NO bones… not EVEN teeth,” Witching Hour said as she paused mid step near the door. “The LOOK of pain UPON his face… before he popped like a BOIL and exploded.” 

“Yeah, well he deserved it!” Twilight snapped angrily. “I hope he suffered some kind of unimaginable torment!” Her wings fluttering, Twilight Sparkle blinked back tears, her emotions overwhelming her. “Sunset Shimmer is my dear friend and I love her. I hope she’ll be okay.” 



 

“Today class, in An Introduction to Dangerous Magics we’re going to have a very serious discussion. My name is Twilight Velvet, and I am Twilight Sparkle’s mother. There are copies of the newspaper here in class for you to read. I want you to read the articles about what happened carefully and then we are going to discuss what took place. Are there any questions before we get started?” 

The class, some of them still red eyed and teary, all looked up at their teacher, worried looks of concern upon their faces. One of them, Silver Brush, was still sobbing. 

Looking particularly miserable, Sweetie Belle raised her hoof and looked pointedly at Twilight Velvet as she sat up straight in her chair. 

“Yes? Sweetie Belle, right?” Twilight Velvet said as she called upon the squirming filly. 

“Yes ma’am,” Sweetie Belle said as she looked around at her classmates. “Are we ever safe or is it just a lie like so many other things adults tell us?” 

Her tail swishing out to the side once, Twilight Velvet stood there with a blank expression upon her face as she considered the foal’s words. “It shames me to admit it, but there are certain falsehoods and half truths that we adults propagate. We tell foals that the boogeypony doesn’t exist… we tell them they are safe from monsters. We tell them that there are no ghosts… we do this to put a foal’s mind at ease… to comfort them… we tell them this so they can go to sleep at night and be well rested for the next day. We tell them this for our own comfort as well, to quiet them, to make them stop asking troubling questions.” 

“And then you wonder why we foals don’t always trust adults,” Rumble remarked, not raising his hoof and waiting to be called upon. 

“So there is no real safety to be had,” Sweetie Belle stated in a nervous squeak. 

Clearing her throat, Twilight Velvet looked out over her class as her ears leaned back. Nervous tension made her stomach muscles quiver. “No class… no matter how blissful, how matter how safe something might appear to be, there is no real safety. A monster could come rampaging out of the Everfree. Tartarus might spill open. Some horrible monster like Tirek might go rampaging. Nothing is ever truly safe… and I am sorry to be telling you this. The best that you can hope for is to have good friends and family… those that you love and trust in… and then face the danger together. Think of my daughter Twilight Sparkle and her friends… Twilight Sparkle had to learn to trust her friends… they went into many dangerous situations together and worked to protect one another… that is the only real safety to be had. Which is why Buckminster, your headmaster, has all of you together in this class.” 

The class all began to look at one another, some of them had expressions of understanding upon their faces. Rumble began to rub the side of his head with his hoof. Dinky’s brows furrowed as she began to think about what had been said. 

Piña Colada raised her hoof. 

“Yes?” Twilight Velvet said, calling upon Piña. 

“I think it is important to bring up the fact that my daddy, as powerful as he is, went for help before going after the bad unicorn,” Piña said in a nervous wavering voice.

“Yes he did,” Twilight Velvet replied, offering a nod of praise to Piña. 

“So the best we can do is just stick together and depend on each other,” a colt said in a nervous squeak. “We might still get hurt, but at least we’ll have friends to rescue us.” 

“Yes class… now if you will, please take some time to read the newspapers so we can discuss what took place,” Twilight Velvet instructed as she gave the class a brave smile. 



 

Moving daintily, Tourmaline hopped up into Sunset Shimmer’s bed, careful not to step on Sunset Shimmer. She looked around the room, nervous, seeing all of the faces so full of concern looking at her. “I need all of you to think of good things,” Tourmaline whispered softly. 

“She needs love and positive emotion to do her work,” Celestia explained in a low voice. “I was hesitant to allow all of you in here, but it was Tourmaline that said she needed all of you. So I need for you to focus on your good feelings for Sunset Shimmer together.” 

“And that’s why Cadance is here… she is like… a love battery,” Derpy said as she looked around the crowded hospital room. 

“As powerful as Tourmaline’s healing is, I do not think Sunset Shimmer would have made it without Cadance… circumstance and coincidence have brought these two together, much to the benefit of us all,” Celestia responded in a warm voice. 

“This part is kinda gross… and gooey,” Tourmaline warned as she began to get ready. “Also, the goop that makes the hard stuff for the horn smells kinda bad.” 

“Tourmaline dear, say ’kind of’… if you please,” Celestia said, gently correcting Tourmaline’s speech and offering the changeling a smile. 

“No… no… no... not her… not one I love… I’ll kill you...” 

Looking over at Bucky, who was murmuring in his sleep, Luna’s horn ignited. A thin blue ray struck Bucky and he quieted. Reaching out, Luna patted Bucky affectionately. “Nightmares… not my doing. I made them go away,” Luna explained as she looked around the room at all those looking at her. “He’s currently dreaming about… other things that he loves and makes him happy.” 

“He’s suckling in his sleep,” Derpy announced as she looked at her husband and saw his lips moving. The pegasus mare’s face broke into a sheepish smile as she looked at Luna. 

“He’s dreaming about you,” Luna replied as she looked at Derpy. “I thought Tourmaline could use a little more love for her work.” 



 

“...so class, as you can see, just because it is called harmony magic it doesn’t mean that it is harmless. Sunset Shimmer sustained a grave injury because of so called ‘good magic’ that was cast by the unicorn that attempted to murder her. He was clearly a very bad unicorn doing very bad things, make no mistake, and he was using harmony magic. So using harmony magic doesn’t always make you good… or make you on the side of right and goodness,” Twilight Velvet explained to her class. “And by extension...” she added, and then paused for a long moment. “...using dark magic… I am no longer of the belief that it makes you evil. Buckminster, your headmaster, moved in defense of his community. Dark magic is dangerous… even life threatening to those who cast it sometimes, but I do believe that by now, Buckminster has proven that he is worthy of our trust.” 

“I’ve used dark magic,” Dinky said in a low voice. 

“What was it like?” Rumble asked. 

“It was the worst thing in the world,” Dinky responded. 

The class went silent and waited. 

“I can still feel it… I still have nightmares. I’ll never use it again. I still feel bugs crawling under my skin sometimes,” Dinky confessed. “I don’t know how my daddy does what he does. Dark magic needs pain to function. Hate… you feel so empty inside… so dead.” 

“Dinky did what she did for the right reasons,” Piña explained. “We were in a very bad situation. We had just been hurt… something was trying to kill us. Dinky had the means to strike back… and so she did. She killed so many of the shadow wolves… Dinky gave us the first real victory in the war.” 

Closing her eyes, Dinky laid her head down upon her desk, falling silent. Her barrel rose and fell as she took deep breaths, overcome with emotion as she relieved a terrible memory, all of the events that lead up to that one horrible moment. 

“Class, life isn’t always so black and white. Things are not always so clearly defined as good or evil. What was done to Sunset Shimmer was done with magics that most ponies would consider ‘good’ in nature. This is why we have a responsibility to be careful with dangerous magics. It is Buckminster’s intentions to teach very dangerous magics in this school and it is his hope that all of you use this magic responsibly to better society. He believes that you can be trusted with this knowledge… there are a lot of ponies that feel that he is wrong, and what is being done here is dangerous. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns does not teach dangerous combative magics. So… I want all of you to think about what you are being taught here. A lot of trust is being placed in you,” Twilight Velvet explained in carefully spoken words. 

“Our enemy is how society views magic,” Piña remarked. “A lot of bad things have been done with magic… there has been a lot of abuse. We have to earn trust…” 

“Yes Piña, very good Piña,” Twilight Velvet replied as she looked at the beaming earth pony foal. “Class, I want all of you to write an essay on ways you can responsibly use dangerous magics in such a way that it builds trust in society.” 

The class groaned in unison, a shared pained cry. 
	
> Chapter 447
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sprawled in a chair, Bucky held Cadance close, her head resting upon the crook of his neck. He patted her softly as she gurgled and babbled, trying to work loose the gas bubbles that were lurking in her body after she had fed. “I hope Thistle is okay,” he muttered in a low voice. 

“She’s fine… probably miserable, but fine,” Derpy responded as she turned to look at Bucky. She smiled and felt her heart warm when she saw Bucky and Cadance together. 

“The waiting is killing Trixie,” Trixie whined. 

“They’re keeping her asleep so she doesn’t suffer,” Bartleby said, his beak clacking together from nervousness as he spoke. “She already looks so much better… look, she has her ear again… whole… they say the hair will grow back soon.” 

“Feeling better Bucky?” Trixie asked as she looked over at the stallion holding the foal. 

“A little… I guess… I feel bad about breaking my vow… but I don’t feel bad about killing that shiteheap,” Bucky admitted as he continued to pat Cadance upon the back just between her wings. “Come on baby… give daddy what he wants… please?” 

“What an odd position to be in,” Bartleby commented as he gazed out the window. 

“The vow was important… keeping my word… I gave my word not to ascend… it scares me that I might break that vow… Cadance here is depending on me keeping my word,” Bucky stammered as he tried to explain his thoughts and feelings. “I was bothered for a while that I had made a fellow equine suffer… but then I realised quite suddenly that I just couldn’t be bothered to give a damn about him or his life. Screw him… I’m glad he’s dead. I know he suffered… I made sure of that… over ten years on the hook all compressed into a few seconds… no… I am only bothered by breaking my vow… too much depends on me keeping my word.” 

“All of that pain has made your dark magic potent,” Trixie murmured as she looked at Bucky, her eyes full of concern and worry. “Be careful… do be careful.” 

“I know Trixie… I know,” Bucky whispered in a worried utterance. 

Finally, Cadance belched out a hideous foul smelling burp and spit up all over Bucky. 

“Aw, that’s my good girl… daddy loves you,” Bucky said as milk dribbled down his back and shoulder. 

“I’m going to grab a towel,” Derpy said as she headed out the door. 



 

“...and so class, the era of the noble houses had to end. We now are in the era of reconstruction… and one day, it will fall upon your shoulders to shape our shared future…”

“You look good in glasses,” Sentinel whispered in a very faint voice to Diamond Tiara, who was sitting beside him. “You look smart, and I like that… I like it a lot.” 

“I look like a dweeb,” Diamond Tiara retorted in a hushed voice. 

“...probably the single most important career for the reconstruction era will be politics… new policies will have to be made… new laws created…” 

“You think I look smart? I didn’t look smart before?” Diamond Tiara whispered. 

Oops! Too late, Sentinel learned an important lesson about the female mind in general. 

“Um… no… I’m going to shut up now before I get into trouble,” Sentinel murmured fearfully as he slumped down into his chair. 

“...and one of the most important aspects of politics is knowing what to say and when to say it, which is the point of this public speaking class… I’m very happy that the both of you decided to be quiet and pay attention… thank you very much Sentinel and Diamond Tiara…” 



 

“Celestia hasn’t been back in a while,” Bucky remarked as he looked around the room. 

“She had to go look after a few trivialities,” Luna replied as she settled into the bed where Bucky had been sleeping. She lay Erebus down beside her and then covered him up with a blanket. “How are you feeling?” 

“Okay I guess,” Bucky answered. 

“Your magic surges were most alarming,” Luna stated as he looked over at Bucky. “I am glad you are recovering. Having your apprentice, the very vessel where your knowledge is poured into, having them brought to harm is most traumatic…” Luna paused and her eyes narrowed. “... especially when you love her.” 

Suddenly aware that every eye in the room was looking at him, Bucky began to stammer wordlessly as he tried to think of something to say. He blinked a few times and then his eye narrowed as he peered at those looking at him. 

“You love her dearly as your friend. There is no shame in that,” Luna said in a soft voice. “But you worry that because she is female and nearly your own age that other ponies will get the wrong idea if you show her affection. I’ve seen your nightmares. You already have so many wives and you worry that ponies will think you seek another.” 

“Well Luna, thanks for sharing this with everypony,” Bucky grumbled caustically. 

“Now is the perfect time to share this. Let everypony know that you love her and how you actually feel about her. It is fine for you to have female friends… I don’t know if you have learned this lesson just yet my devoted apprentice,” Luna continued in an amused sounding voice. 

“I love everypony and everybirdy in this room,” Bucky mumbled as he dropped his gaze down to look at Cadance. 

“So where did Celestia go?” Trixie said, all to glad to try and change the subject before Luna started to discuss some other pony’s insecurities. 

“Like I said, she had to go look after a few trivialities,” Luna responded. 



 

Standing over two corpses, Princess Celestia looked upon them with a strangely calm expression. One unicorn, one pegasus, both of them had been staying on the upper east side of Canterlot and spying upon the whole city. Both were now very, very dead. The large white alicorn sighed serenely. 

“I have saved you both from a terrible fate… you would have ended up in the nursery or Buckminster might have just killed you in some horrible fashion. You poor miserable souls. We would have let you live in peace with us if you would have just given us a chance,” Celestia said as she stared down at the corpses. 

Reaching out with one gold shod hoof, Celestia prodded the dead unicorn. Nearby, a projected clone of Shining Armor stood watching, his expression disturbed. Seeing Shining Armor look at her in such an accusing way caused Celestia to feel some annoyance. 

“What?” Princess Celestia said testily as she turned to look at Shining Armor. 

“Majesty, it is strange to see you like this,” Shining Armor replied. 

“Do you truly believe that I am incapable of defending my subjects?” Celestia snapped in near irritation. “I held back. It took a great deal of control, but I held back. I did not obliterate all of Canterlot around me. I only let them feel a tiny infinitesimal fraction of what I was capable of because I held back… do you believe that I was irresponsible?” 

“No, not that your Majesty… just seeing you like this, in general,” Shining Armor answered carefully, his hesitant words coming out slowly. Ponies simply did not understand what Shining Armor understood all too well… the royal guard did not exist to protect Princess Celestia, the royal guard existed to protect ponies from Princess Celestia, to prevent her from using her magic in any sort of offensive manner, and sparing her the need to lash out. 

“Something had to be done,” Celestia said as she began to restore her sense of calm. “I must hurry… there are a few trivialities to be dealt with in Vanhoover,” she stated as she teleported the two corpses off to a secret room in the bowels of Canterlot castle for study. 

“Majesty, please… this is a bad idea… if you slip, if you make a mistake…” 





“Hi Sunset,” Bartleby said in soft voice as Sunset groggily opened her eyes. The griffon was sitting on the edge of Sunset’s bed, and had been waiting since he had noticed her beginning to stir. 

The unicorn let out a pained sounding murmur and squirmed in the bed. 

“No no, hold still,” Bartleby urged in a gentle murmur. 

“Trixie is here… we are all here,” Trixie announced as she moved closer to the bed. 

A dry raspy cry came from Sunset and she feebly lifted one front hoof. Gently shushing her, Bartleby pressed her front leg down and then gently stroked Sunset’s cheek. Trixie helpfully poured some water into a cup and held it out to Bartleby, who took it in his talons and then held it up to Sunset Shimmer’s lips. 

The unicorn drank slowly, the sounds of her swallows filling the now silent room. 

“Sorry about the tube up your nose,” Bartleby whispered. 

“I remember waking up like that,” Bucky whispered from his chair. “Sunset?” 

“What happened?” Sunset wheezed in a pain filled raspy voice. 

“You were hurt… Bucky saved you from the immediate danger and then many worked to save you from death,” Trixie explained in a gentle quiet voice. “Sweet little Tourmaline gave you back to us.” 

“Everything hurts all over,” Sunset moaned. “I can’t see very well out of one eye.” 

“The doctors were afraid of that after seeing your initial condition… they said you would be completely blind,” Derpy said in a soft voice as she moved beside Trixie to have a closer look at Sunset Shimmer. 

“But you can see?” Bartleby asked. 

“Light… dark… some blurry colour,” Sunset replied in a low groan. 

Closing his eyes, Bartleby looked pained. “Hopefully, in time, more of it will come back.” 



 

For a moment, Bucky worried about getting cavities as he looked at Cadance and Erebus, both of whom were in the bed with Luna, both of them sound asleep at the blue alicorn’s side. Rising silently from his chair, he took to his hooves and then carefully exited the room full of sleeping ponies. Sunset had slipped back into slumber, Bartleby was sleeping on her pillow next to her head, and Trixie was crammed into the bed with her. Derpy was sleeping in a chair, snorting fitfully. Luna was out cold, and against her other side Tourmaline snoozed. 

He slipped from the room, through the door and into the hall, making no sound as he departed. The sun would set soon, it had been a long day, and Bucky felt his stomach rumble. He slunk down the hallway, his cloak draped over his body, and as he came around the corner, he nearly scared one of the nurses to death. 

Beneath the black cloak, for just a moment, the nurse saw only bones. She quickly dismissed the visual oddity and blamed it upon her exhaustion. She stared at Bucky blankly, wondering why anypony would want to wear such a dreadful colour like black, and she said nothing as Bucky passed. 



 

Standing in the hospital cafeteria, Bucky examined his options. There were vegetables that had been steamed into mush, rice, some lumpy potatoes, wrinkled baked potatoes, some kind of weird yellow gravy with a thick skin that had grown over the surface, a selection of soggy looking sandwiches wrapped in cellophane, some kind of brown gravy full of lumps, some hayburgers in crumbly buns, some oddly dehydrated jello topped with something that was certainly not whipped cream, and a collection of pie slices. 

Filling his tray with pie slices, Bucky grumbled about the quality of hospital food as he moved down the serving line. As he scooted along, he came to a small freezer full of ice cream cups. Using his magic, he piled at least a dozen on his tray. When he drew near the cashier, she waved him along with a bored smile. 

Carrying the tray in his magic, Bucky sat down at a table in a nice shadowy corner. He immediately ate a slice of pie, stuffing the whole slice into mouth. Bits of apple and sauce oozed out of his maw as he chewed, making a mess of his muzzle. 

Very little remained of the unicorn that Bucky once was.
	
	
> Chapter 448
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Nightmare Night is nearly upon us.”

Bucky did not reply to Luna’s words, but focused instead on the creation of two lenses for the long brass scope he was constructing for Belisama’s crossbow. The optics demanded perfection… perfect glass. Princess Celestia was already pressuring Bucky to use his glassmaking skills to make telescopes.

“My patience wears thin my apprentice… my curiousity about this web grows worse and demands to be sated. Do not make me ask you as your Mistress,” Luna warned in a voice that contained a trace of laughter, but also a hint of hard edge. 

Feeling only slightly peeved, Bucky inserted one of the glass lenses into the brass tube and then peered through it. He inserted the second and then pointed the scope at Luna. The alicorn was greatly magnified and everything looked good. He would have to make more tests in the daylight. His last attempt caused images to be distorted at a distance. 

“How is Erebus?” Bucky asked as he looked over at the quietly sleeping colt wrapped in a blanket and placed in a basket. 

“He is now a unicorn… his horn appears normal, his wings are gone, he is much smaller and very nearly white, which is odd… I find it very odd that he is almost white during the new moon, which is black. By the time the full moon comes back, Erebus will be almost black, while the moon will be white. He is a peculiar creature,” Luna answered as she crossed Bucky’s office and then peered into the basket. “A few nights ago, I noticed the change in his eyes. They ceased to be slitted and he instead gained the round pupils of solar ponies. His fangs are almost non existent now. Makes it so much easier to feed him.” 

“Fascinating,” Bucky responded as he set the scope down upon his desk.

“How is Sunset Shimmer?” Luna inquired as she looked up from Erebus and focused her stare upon Bucky. The alicorn’s expression became one of intense worry. 

“My apprentice recovers. She is down in her room… but probably asleep at this hour. She is recovering a bit more of her eyesight. She is up and walking around. She eats enough food to feed a small army,” Bucky replied as he rose up out of his chair and stretched his legs. 

When he was done speaking, Bucky slowly crossed his office, moving towards the object that had caused Luna so much curiousity, and as he drew near, Luna, in an almost filly-like state of excitement, pranced over to have a look. 

“I know it is connected to dreams,” Luna stated as she peered at the wondrous device. 

Nodding, Bucky reached out and gently touched the black support rod with his talons. “Yes,” he answered as his eye narrowed. “It is not yet finished.” 

“So what is it?” Luna asked impatiently. 

“I began to realise that as the headmaster of this school, I needed an upper edge in making sure that my students have every possible advantage that I could give them. I had to have a way into knowing my students… knowing everything I could about them… to see if I could spot problems before they became problems. I had to know their fears, their hopes, their dreams. I had to know their secrets,” Bucky explained in a low whisper.

“Hmm,” Luna hummed. 

“The shadow web allows me to do that. It shows me the dreams of those around me in a limited radius and turns them into a projection. With this, I can spot if a foal is being bullied or if they are afraid of something that is affecting their schoolwork. I can see what they are afraid of and then move to help them before that fear becomes a stumbling block that holds them back from success. With this, I can know the minds of my students,” Bucky said as his horn ignited and he powered the device up with his magic. “Observe.” 

The support rods glowed and the delicate web of spun glass illuminated. Bucky’s office filled with a low thrum that made the teeth and the sinuses vibrate. After a moment, a hazy image appeared over the web, it was dim, but grew brighter. 

“This is my wife… Derpy… and it is appears she is dreaming once more of Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and Moonbow,” Bucky announced in a low whisper. 

The image showed an earth pony mare, a lunar pegasus stallion, and a massive lunar pegasus mare in plate mail armor. The earth pony mare was very, very pregnant and the three of them looked happy together. 

“Hmm… she dreams of such simple yet happy things. If only more ponies dreamed of such things, I would enjoy my duties so much more,” Luna remarked as she leaned closer to the projection to have a look at the image as it grew sharper and gained more detail. 

The image shifted, becoming wispy, and then reformed into a stallion that was small and slight of build. He was tan in colour and had a black mane and tail. He had two grey eyes and his body was unblemished, whole, unmarred, it had not been ravaged by life. He was running and laughing, prancing around in a circle, and it was clear from the way that the image was moving that the stallion was being chased by the dreamer. 

“She still sees you as you once were… love preserves the vision of what once was,” Luna stated as a pained expression crept over her face. She turned to look at Bucky and saw that he was already crying silently, his cheek was dark, damp with tears, and his barrel hitched silently as he viewed the image. She turned away quickly, suddenly feeling that it was somehow wrong to intrude upon this private moment. Never in her whole long life did Luna suddenly feel so awkward for intruding upon a private moment. She closed her eyes and backed away. 

When Luna opened them again a few moments later, the shadow web’s projection was gone and Bucky was behind his desk once more, pouring himself a glass of what smelled like gin or perhaps engine degreaser. She took one step towards his desk, then another, and then she froze in place. 

“You did a marvelous job… this will give you the edge you need as headmaster. I approve of this machine and its purpose… you are certainly becoming a legendary enchanter much like Sombra once was,” Luna said in a low soft voice, offering flattery and praise, hoping that it would offer comfort. She watched him gulp down the entire glass of liquid, she saw him grimace, then shudder, and then she watched as he poured himself another drink. 

Failing to distract Bucky from his troubles, Luna scowled and changed the subject completely. She took a step closer to his desk. “My sister plans to make a public announcement the day after Nightmare Night. She is going to allow you and I to travel to Minos and deal with Labyrinthia. We’ll be taking one of the new corvette zeppelins, very small, sleek, and fast. We’ll be there in less than two days. You and I will show them the error of their ways and then return home. Prepare yourself,” Luna said. Much to her relief and a little to her surprise, she saw that her words had the desired effect. Bucky’s face became a little less troubled and she saw him look up at her intently. 

“You would think that a gunship would be more appropriate,” Bucky remarked. 

“Like we need a gunship,” Luna retorted with a loud snort that made Erebus let out a whimpering cry in his sleep. “We are going to raze the city. While we are dismantling the city, the Fancy Foreign Legion is going to cross the borders and invade. They’re going to hit the death camps that dot the countryside and free the prisoners. I already have Myrmidons on their way to Fancy right now to help them prepare for the invasion and my sister has sent some of her most useful unicorn guards.” 

Bucky swallowed down the contents of his glass in a single gulp, then set the glass down and wiped his muzzle. “I will be prepared,” he said in a raspy voice. 

“This is not a pacification mission. This is punishment. There will be no taking prisoners or accepting surrender… this is annihilation. Celestia is depending on the two of us to make an example out of the enemies of global stability as she so cleverly puts it. So… as your Mistress, I will expect you, my apprentice, to help me craft a nightmare so terrible that the world defecates itself in fear and then falls in line,” Luna explained in a cold voice. 

“Yes Mistress… I understand and I will begin planning,” Bucky replied as he bowed his head slightly. “If the residents of Labyrinthia survive to grovel at our hooves, it will mean that we have failed at our task… destruction must be total if a message is to be made to the rest of the world. By taking a few lives now, we potentially save many lives in the future. I will begin planning a way to maximise fatalities and destructive output now so that when the shock and horror of what we’ve done settles in to the global consciousness, we will get the highest returns possible for our efforts later.” 

Shivering, Luna realised that Bucky understood his task a little too well. His words were chilling and she felt the back of her neck prickle. “Buckminster… my apprentice… in the future… your Mistress would appreciate it if you did not speak like an accountant when planning for an invasion.” 



 

The brewery was warm, pleasant, and smelled of yeast. Still perfecting his sample spell, Bucky brewed a small batch of beer in a spell bubble, speeding up time, pressure, and a variety of other factors. It was not quite perfect, not yet, but his spellcasting ability had grown considerably since he had first constructed this spell back on the isles in the crude brewery where he and Berry Punch had spent so much time.

Barley, sniffing some of Bucky’s work, lifted up a test glass and took a sip, carefully allowing the liquid to swish around inside of his mouth. 

“Barley, remember, this spell isn’t perfect… I realise the taste may be slightly off,” Bucky warned as he continued to work his magic. 

Swallowing, Barley peeled his lips away from his teeth, inhaled sharply, and then belched thunderously. “Aye… toasty… a hint of caramel… malty, hoppy, and something else I can’t put my hoof on and I don’t think it is yon magic giving it a funny taste… what is that?” 

Grinning, Bucky gave a sly look to the old stallion. 

“This has potential… I do believe I am going to brew up a test batch once you give me a list of ingredients,” Barley grumbled. He belched again, shook his head while grimacing at the strange aftertaste, and then let go of a terrifying gastric disturbance, a belch that made the test equipment in the room rattle. 

“In just a little while, you are going to feel very relaxed,” Bucky announced in a low voice. “This was Fluttershy’s idea… you know, she grows cannabis plants so she can get the seeds to add to her special custom bird seed blend. The birds love the seeds and they are very healthy. Being such a clever and frugal mare, she doesn’t let any of the plant go to waste. She uses it in a variety of balms, lotions, salves, and medicines to help calm animals. Funny thing… cannabis and hops are related… so I took a whole bunch of cannabis buds and had Fluttershy carefully toast them just so… and then I’ve been using it to make these test batches.” 

“Aye… ye crafty bastard… what have ye done?” Barley said in a voice filled with curious alarm. He picked up his glass once more and then drank down the remainder. “Aw… stuff it. That’s good even with the funny aftertaste. We’re gonna brew that.” 

“I feel peckish,” Bucky remarked as he looked around the test lab. 

Barley squinted at Bucky. “How much of this stuff have ye drank?” 

Bucky grinned stupidly at Barley. “Um… I have a responsibility to sample my work and make sure it is fit for consumption.” 

“You silly sot… hmm, this is pretty good,” Barley muttered. “This’ll be liquid tail lifter for certain… this’ll make a mare hot to trot.” The old stallion looked around and blinked a few times. 

“Yon fair mare,” Bucky said as he lifted his hoof and pointed. 

“That’s a good name lad,” Barley agreed. “Yon Fair Mare...” he said in a fine Shetland lilt as he reached up and rubbed his neck with one front hoof. 

“No… here comes Berry Punch to see what we’re up to!” Bucky warned. “Quick, act normal!” 

“Hey… Longhaul is here to speak with you Bucky… he has some special sand from the buffalo for you,” Berry Punch announced. 

“My Berry beautiful mare,” Bucky sniggered. “Come here and let me tap your bung.” 

“Bucky, I worry about you when you don’t get enough sleep,” Berry Punch replied as she rolled her eyes. 
	
> Chapter 449
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The buffalo want nothing in return for their sand… they’re kinda happy that somepony thinks their sand is valuable… they say the sand is special,” Longhaul Hoofer said in a long slow drawl as he pushed his hat back upon his head. 

Nodding, Bucky could feel the trace residual magic radiating from the sand in the wooden barrel. He suspected that the sand was sitting over a major ley line down in that area. He smiled slowly, feeling very relaxed and pleasant. Not exactly drunk, just very… slowed down. 

“They say that those who sleep in this sand have strange dreams and see the future. The plants that grow in that part of the desert are strange too… there are magical cactuses that’ll shoot needles at you and trees that will walk from one place with water underground to the next,” Longhaul said in conversational tones. 

“Neat… I need to go visit,” Bucky replied as he peered at the sand. He was feeling some kind of weird feeling but he wasn’t sure if it was from the sand or what he drank. Fluttershy warned him that the cannabis plant would make him feel strangely, and mentioned that she frequently ate it cooked in her foods to ease her anxiety. “Must visit the wise buffalo… and maybe sleep in their sand to share their visions.” 

Bucky suddenly felt a strange urge to learn how to knit from Fluttershy and he didn’t know why. He also felt rather hungry. 

“I’ll be back in a while once the sand is unloaded and the booze is loaded up and ready to go,” Longhaul announced in an Appleloosan accent. “I’m off to have me a good look around Ponyville… I like it here. Nice place to visit, not sure I would want to live here though.” 

“Go have a nice time… I’ll take care of the sand and load up the wagon,” Bucky responded in a distracted sounding voice. “And maybe I’ll go visit Bon Bon and eat her chocolate.” 



 

Sitting down at a long table, Princess Celestia found that she prefered diplomacy over tea and cakes. It was her favourite battlefield, the one she understood the best, and it was the battlefield where she got to show the side of her that she earnestly wanted the world to see. 

Across from her was a representative of Minos, a diplomat named Ferdinand. 

“I understand that you are one of the heads of a merchant guild,” Princess Celestia said in a low voice as she watched her guest carefully nibbling upon a tiny cake. “Specifically, a guild that deals with overseas investors. You deal with transactions… and lending, I do believe. A banker. Equestria is still rebuilding our economy… bankers are always welcomed.” 

“Yes we do your Grace,” Ferdinand responded after he swallowed. “And we would love to be business partners with you. You have things we want… we would love to help you grow your economy.” 

“I also understand that you lost your wife in Labyrinthia,” Princess Celestia stated in an apologetic sounding voice. “I offer you my most sincere condolences. Also, please, just call me Celestia… It is my desire that we are friends.” 

“The marriage was a corporate merger of sorts. I was fond of her. We were friends. I suppose it makes it easier on me to view it as a business deal,” Ferdinand responded after he wiped his mouth. He carefully picked up his teacup in his massive hands and held the tiny cup carefully. “I would like for our empires to be friends… the rebels are a minority… most of us minotaurs just want to conduct business and make money… the rebels want a return to the old way… to restore the old monarchy, rebuild the slave markets, and to restore the mercenary guilds. The guns have reawakened something which should have remained in slumber.” 

“Which concerns me a great deal,” Princess Celestia said she held a teacup in front of her snoot. The alicorn allowed herself a small pouty frown and then watched for a reaction. 

“The new gun designs make some of the minotaurs believe that we can restore ourselves to prominence again as a conquering empire… they don’t believe in market domination, or financial domination, they want bloody conquest once more,” Ferdinand explained after he took a swallow of tea. His expression became somewhat strained and concerned. “Paying a body for labour doesn’t have the same sort of financial returns as keeping slaves and a lot of minotaurs feel that having to pay a wage to common labourers is an offense to their bottom lines.” 

“But you do not feel this way,” Celestia remarked as she peered down her muzzle at Ferdinand. The minotaur was visibly unnerved and this made Celestia happy. He wasn’t just offering lip service, he seemed genuinely bothered by the events that were going on and Celestia felt reassured about her decision. 

“No… no your Majesty, slavery disgusts me… I believe in a free market, the operative word being ‘free’ in all literal meanings. Paid labourers mean more buyers for goods, which means a larger market for all, not just the wealthy and the privileged,” Ferdinand replied in a nervous voice. “Which is why I am here… to plead for my fellow minotaurs… we want the rebels gone… we can’t fight them. We want nothing to do with guns or violence. We are merchants… if you help us, if you can rid of us these rebels, we will offer you our goods tariff free. We will open our markets and make everything available to you… and the other heads of the guilds are willing to sign a mutual assistance pact… all we ask is for the same treatment as the Sea of Grass. We are already brokering a deal with them… all of this conflict is bad for global markets.” 

Smiling, Celestia’s ears perked forward. “Do not worry my dear friend Ferdinand. I have every intention of helping you. I already made up my mind before meeting you actually. Equestria is going to help you with the rebels. Afterwards, Equestria, the Sea of Grass, and the Old World Alliance, specifically, Fancy, which borders your nation, will help you rebuild. We will shelter your citizens. We will provide building supplies. It will be a struggle, but we will see you through it.” 

“And what do you want in return?” Ferdinand asked, his eyes narrowing as he peered at Celestia, concern growing upon his face. 

“A stable global economy, free markets, and peace. I have already drawn up the treaties. You may view them. I think you will find the terms quite favourable. There is more we need to discuss, but we face a global threat, which I believe you were informed of this morning,” Princess Celestia replied in a warm gracious voice. 

“Yes… the mirror travelers as you call them,” Ferdinand responded. 

“All we ask in return is the ability to move our agents freely inside of your borders to root them out and maintain global security. A very reasonable request,” Princess Celestia remarked as after the swallowed a sip of tea. 

“Done. We will do whatever we can to assist you in your fight against the mirror travelers if they become a larger threat. I look forward to a new era of peace and prosperity between our nations,” Ferdinand said as a look of relief settled over his face. 

“Already we are mobilising help. An army of bocors, witch doctors, are traveling from the Sea of Grass… Fancy is organising as much help as it can. When the camps are liberated, your citizens will be given the best possible care. Winter is coming and we will do everything we can to help you. We look after our friends,” Princess Celestia said in a reassuring voice. 



 

“Oooh hoo hoo laddy, we’re gonna make a fortune off of this stuff… heh… I’m feeling young again,” Barley said to himself as he pondered the new brew the brewery would be working on. “I feel as giddy as a young colt that’s just discovered that place on a filly where he can keep his noodle warm and wet… cause a warm wet noodle is a happy noodle.” 

“Barley!” Berry Punch shouted from the other room. “What has come over you?” 

“Hah! Fer once, I’m feeling young enough to be on top… and have something cum under me!” Barley quipped. The old stallion chortled as he moved about the brewery with a spring in his step. 

“Berry! I’ve fallen down and the ceiling is very interesting… the grain of the wood is very pretty!” Bucky shouted from the back room. 

Feeling worried, Berry Punch trotted to the back room and found Bucky laying on his back, staring serenely up at the ceiling. He was smiling and waving his talons in front of his face while flexing his talons. 

“Are you drunk?” Berry asked bluntly as she looked down at her fallen husband. 

“Are you sexy?” Bucky replied as he looked up at his standing wife, envying her ability to remain upright ever so slightly.  

Reaching out with her hoof, Berry Punch prodded Bucky. “Cast a spell and sober up,”  she demanded. “We have a lot of work to do.” 

“I can’t sober up… I’m not as thrunk as you dink I am,” Bucky mumbled as he looked up at Berry Punch. “You… you are a very pretty pony… have I ever told you that?” 

Unable to help herself, Berry Punch giggled coyly. “Bucky, sober up,” she repeated. 

“I can’t. I can’t. You don’t understand. Fluttershy gave me some cannabis to put in the beer… it is related to the hops plant… the little buds had a lovely toasty flavour… I ate almost a dozen buds to get a taste for them and then I added about four ounces of Fluttershy’s special medicinal herbs to a one gallon test brew I made in a spell bubble, and the second batch used almost six ounces for a gallon because I was trying to see how it would affect the flavours… Barley and I drank both gallons… and now I can feel my mane growing… really,” Bucky rambled, his words slurring slightly. 

“Bucky! What are you doing with Fluttershy’s medicinal herbs? She uses that stuff to sedate Harry the Bear when she has to give him spinal alignments!” Berry Punch exclaimed. 

“She also uses it to relieve her social anxiety… she said she uses about two to three grams in her special cakes… I didn’t know how much to add to the beer…” Bucky’s words trailed off and the stallion began to giggle as he looked up at Berry Punch. “You’re gonna have my foals!” he shouted and then began to laugh riotously. 

Berry Punch facehoofed, grunted, poked Bucky, and then facehoofed again. “This stuff will even lay a unicorn low… good job Bucky… I don’t know if you’ve created better beer or a new weapon on the dreaded state of sobriety. Look, you just lay there and try to wait this out.” 

“Come here Berry… I love you… I love you so much… I love you because you are an earth pony and I really love earth ponies… there is a lot to love about earth ponies… did you know that you and Bon Bon keep me grounded? Get it? Grounded…” Bucky’s words trailed off into giggles as he reached out both of his forelegs towards Berry Punch. “You kept me alive on the Shetlands Berry… you don’t even know it… but all that time spent together in the brewery there with you… all those times you comforted me… I thought about killing myself to make it end Berry… I’m ashamed to admit it, but it crossed my mind… but you kept me going,” Bucky babbled, the filter that existed between his mouth and his brain now completely gone. “You’re having my foals and that’s like the nicest thing you could ever do for me… and I can’t ever thank you enough for doing that… I owe you so much and I love you-mmph-” 

Leaning her head down, Berry Punch ended Bucky’s ravings with a kiss, pressing her muzzle into Bucky’s and kissing him forcefully as she stepped over him. She felt Bucky grasp her head in between his front hoof and his talons. She felt her knees go weak as her lips parted and she felt his tongue carefully seeking hers. Almost involuntarily, she felt her tail swishing from side to side, her dock tensed, and it became difficult to keep her tail down. 

Finally, Berry Punch pulled away, gasping for air. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 450
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I finally got him into the bed and got him to let go of me,” Derpy grumbled as she emerged into the kitchen, looking flustered and out of sorts. “He wouldn’t stop giggling or trying to kiss me while he was groping me. Said he loved my eyes and said thank you to me for having his foals. Then he got interested in Thistle and let go of me. When I left, he was talking to Thistle’s belly.” 

“Fluttershy said that you can’t get hurt from her medicinal herbs, she and Zecora share a good working knowledge of the stuff, but Bucky is going to be wasted for at least a day to a day and a half,” Berry said as she looked at Derpy. “At least Barley only drank a little. Bucky ate a dozen buds and drank the elixir of stupidity he crafted. Fluttershy said just one bud put into her special calming cakes will leave you doped up all day long.” 

“He is like a griffon that has discovered nepeta cataria,” Belisama remarked as she began to chuckle. 

“That’s catnip,” Semillon said from her place by the stove. “Does that really affect griffons?” she asked as she turned to look at Belisama. 

“Yes. Catnip affects us greatly. Sniffing it or eating it makes us giddy,” Belisama answered. “Many griffons like to brew it in tea and drink it.” 

“Note to self, catnip beer,” Berry Punch commented in a low voice. 

“Have a hunger. Send hummus!” Bucky’s voice suddenly announced in the kitchen, coming from seemingly nowhere. “Also, send that sauce made from cucumbers, yogurt, and mint. Serve with crackers. Thank you!” 

A moment later, there was a shrill equine squeal, a squeaky titter, another squeal, and then raucous laughter that was certainly Bucky’s. 

“Oh… I forgot to kill off the projection spell… whoops… back to eating dessert before I eat dinner,” Bucky’s voice said as Thistle could be heard breathing heavily and coquettishly giggling in the background. 

There was a faint pop and a few sparks as the spell died. 

“Our husband, the Lord of Winter,” Berry Punch quipped in deadpan. “He’s getting a chance to relax and blow off steam. This is good for him,” the earth pony said in a patient voice. She looked at Derpy. “All of the pressure and nearly losing Sunset was hard on him. I don’t mind him acting like a foal I guess.” 

Sighing, Derpy nodded. 

“Anyhow, I am going to spend some time with Cadance, Harper, and Peekaboo,” Berry Punch announced as she departed the kitchen. 



 

Looking at Diamond Tiara, Sentinel heaved a sigh and continued to stare forlornly as the pink earth pony filly did her homework. He held a pencil in between his thumb and central knuckle, which darted down to the paper in front of him, slashing and drawing fine lines as he slowly recreated Diamond Tiara’s image. 

“I’ll be moving in with Rarity and Coco after Nightmare Night,” Diamond Tiara remarked as she hunched over her paper. She peered through her glasses at the fine print and she read a paragraph about how electricity functioned. 

“Looking forward to meeting your brother?” Sentinel questioned as he studied Diamond Tiara’s scrunched muzzle. “I’m going to miss you when you're gone,” he confessed in a such a low whisper that he wasn’t sure if Diamond Tiara even heard him. 

Shrugging, Diamond Tiara looked up from her homework. “I don’t know how I feel about that to be honest. I plan to be nice to him and to get to know him… but to be honest, I can’t figure out how I feel. I just feel sort of empty inside lately. I think it is the drugs.”

Expressing his emotions through his scribbles, Sentinel peered carefully at Diamond Tiara’s ears. “You’re getting better. The drug dosages are going down,” he said in a reassuring voice. He flicked his pencil just so… Diamond Tiara had a little patch of pelt that went in the wrong direction at the base of the opening on her left ear, which gave her a little fluffy tuft of protruding pink hair. It had tickled his snoot earlier, and had nearly caused him to sneeze. 

“Please tell me that you are not drawing me with glasses,” Diamond Tiara said in a pleading voice. 

“Okay… I am not drawing you with glasses,” Sentinel replied as he carefully sketched the temple of her eyeglasses near her ear. 

“Ugh!” Diamond Tiara huffed as she rolled her eyes. “You’ve developed this sense of humour lately… I just don’t know about you sometimes.” 

Blinking, Sentinel looked skyward for a moment. “I don’t know about myself sometimes.” 

“You know, you’re one to talk… you can’t see in the daylight and you’re always squinting. Where are your glasses? Or goggles? Or something to protect your eyes?” Diamond Tiara retorted in an irritated voice. 

His eyes narrowing, Sentinel leveled his gaze upon Diamond Tiara. “That’s… that’s different,” he stammered defensively. 

“Do tell Sentinel… do tell me how your eye troubles are different than me being farsighted and needing glasses to see anything up close?” Diamond Tiara questioned in a tone of sarcastic inquiry as she grinned a lopsided grin. “You know, maybe ponies would think you were friendlier if you weren’t squinting all of the time and making faces while you were trying to see.” 

Cringing, Sentinel knew that he had just been vanquished by a filly. 



 

“I’m going to be gone for a while,” Scorch announced as he moved around the shop, moving a massive pile of steel ingots in his telekinesis field. “I have to go deal with some… some… some children of mine that have left me very angry,” he explained. 

“Children?” Rising Star questioned as he carefully gave shape to a helmet. 

Snorting, his earth pony form stomping, Scorch dumped the ingots and then turned to face Rising Star. “My children! The minotaurs I raised up from being primitive savages. I taught them engineering! I taught them the secrets of stone and stone construction. I taught them metallurgy! I gave them the gift of civilisation... and look at how they are acting! Barbarous SAVAGES!” he shouted in a voice that shook the entire foundry. “Death camps,” Scorch hissed. 

“I suppose your children have been naughty indeed if their god is now angry enough to go and deal with them face to face,” Rising Star stated as he carefully shaped the hole that a unicorn’s horn would go through. 

“I try to be benevolent. I try to be a good and fair being. I try to reward those that are worthy, I try to be kind. I am by all accounts a fair ruler over my own plane in Tartarus. Celestia remembers me fondly as her nanny… what am I to do when my own children have done something so reprehensible that it makes me… me physically ill?” Scorch responded as his form shifted and he became a pegasus with flaming wings. 

“I am not a godlike being of near infinite power… but I understand that an example must be made. The gun issue was bad enough, but their other actions demand a display of power be made. I suppose every couple of generations a godlike being has an obligation to remind the mere mortals why they are godlike beings and why we as mortals need to behave ourselves,” Rising Star said in somewhat distracted voice as he shaped the front of the helmet and the horn-hole. 

“Many of us little griffons still revere you Scorch… my mate and I would never turn away from you,” Lugnut said as he set down the instrument panel he was working on for a gyrocopter. 

“We remember your teachings… while we have our own opinion on guns, we trust in your wisdom enough to obey your instructions,” Spanner remarked. The griffon paused for a moment and his crest rose. “Sprocket and Cog, our offspring, they will grow up knowing your name and your teachings.” 

Turning into a large flaming griffon, Scorch turned to look at Lugnut and Spanner. “If more beings in the world were like you two, I wouldn’t need to worry about guns. They would be a non issue. But to protect beings in the world like you two, I have to be worried about guns and what certain beings will do with them.” 

“We understand,” Spanner stated as his dexterous talons assembled a small gearbox. “We know what it is to be slaves. We are glad to be free. We don’t need guns… even though they might be nice… we have a king that protects us and actually wants what is best for us.” 

“Buckminster is a good king… you serve him well,” Scorch commanded. 

“Of course,” Lugnut said as he used a screwdriver to tighten a screw. 

“I’ve been a bad protector… I should have done something to prevent what Griffonholm became. I listened to Celestia and the Fates though… I stayed my hand… withheld my judgment… which was a terrible mistake. I feel terrible about what has taken place,” Scorch admitted in a voice that sounded like a crackling fire. “Celestia insisted that heroes would rise and that the world would achieve equilibrium. That never happened… the world just became worse and worse.” 

“I dunno, a hero did rise. The Lord of Winter came to Griffonholm,” Spanner responded. The little griffon paused in his task and stared down at the screwdriver in his talons for a few moments, looking conflicted, confused, and sad. He resumed turning the screw and a look of concentration settled over his face. 

“At least now we are back to a more active role in world management,” Scorch grumbled as he shifted into the form of a large fluffy haired diamond dog. He lifted up a massive hammer and headed off towards an anvil in the corner. 



 

Moving cautiously as she approached the treeline, Ripple carefully looked around, on guard and ready. Just a few steps behind her, Dinky and Piña followed, and around her, her Raptors moved along with her. With her ears perked and ready, Ripple stepped into the Everfree forest. Only a few steps in, and Ripple felt strangely already. The world seemed a little darker. 

Following after Ripple, Piña bounded ahead, and she too, felt the change. She could feel it in her hooves. The earth was funny here. The dirt felt differently, this place had its own magic. Piña felt strangely energised by it. This place spoke to her. Things grew wild here. The animals looked after themselves. The plants grew wild, natural, without equine intervention. Overhead, the clouds moved without pegasi pushing them around and storms happened here frequently. 

Piña felt her strength surge. 

Feeling ready for anything, Dinky followed after Ripple and Piña. The Everfree was full of all kinds of scary monsters and creepy critters, not that Dinky was particularly concerned. She had her magic, she had Ripple, the Raptors were all around, and not much seemed scary after her time on the Shetland Isles. 

“Capture something historical,” Ripple muttered to herself. “Dinky, couldn’t you just get a rubbing off of an old headstone or snap a photo of Ponyville’s clock tower?” 

Sticking out her tongue, Dinky blew a raspberry at Ripple and said nothing in reply. 

“Not much is more historical than the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Besides, Dinky gets bonus points towards her grade if she gets something special that nopony else in class captures,” Piña explained in Dinky’s defense. 

“Yeah… Cheerilee said to be creative and photographs of Ponyville’s historic clock tower would only be worth one point. That and a headstone rubbing will get a passing grade and probably a lecture from daddy about how I can do better and as a type three I need to apply myself,” Dinky said, her voice taking on a mock-serious tone as she mentioned the lecture. 

“Well, daddy is right… and you’d deserve the lecture,” Piña remarked as she scrambled over a log and then slid down the other side. 

“I know… I’m not complaining. At least daddy is fair with his lectures… when you’re getting one, you know you have it coming,” said Dinky as she calmly lifted a troublesome log in her path out of the way with her magic, passed under the lifted log, and then carefully dropped it behind her. 

“What sort of lecture do you think our beloved father will give you for heading off into the Everfree?” Ripple asked in a teasing voice as she led the way. 

“Oh… see, that depends,” Piña answered as she pulled up to Ripple’s side. “There is a variable here that will determine the outcome and a few logical factors to examine.” 

“And those are?” Ripple questioned as she cast a sidelong glance at her younger sister. 

“The main variable is if we get in any trouble out here,” Piña replied as she looked up at Ripple. “That will determine a variety of factors. The single most important factor, the one most relevant to Dinky and I, is the fact that you are our big sister. If something happens, daddy is going to lecture you for failing to look after us and for not talking us out of going on this little adventure. Dinky and I will get a scolding, but you will take the worst of it. After weighing the risks, this venture seemed worth it.” 

Snorting, Ripple rolled her eyes and was silently thankful for the Raptors. 
	
	
> Chapter 451
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The forest was both quiet and full of sound. There was a stark beauty here, something that Ripple appreciated. They had found a path, almost a roadway of sorts, and it led out of Ponyville and through the Everfree. Twilight Sparkle had done much to improve the path but the forest was still incredibly dangerous. 

“I read in a book that the Everfree is an extradimensional forest. It is much, much larger on the inside of the forest than it appears to be from the outside. Pegasi flying overhead have mapped the area and the Everfree really isn’t all that big as far as forests go. But once you get inside, you can walk for days through some parts of it. Plus, there is Hoofington, the city that time forgot,” Piña announced in her best scholarly voice, which was slightly squeaky and high pitched. 

“Hoofington?” Ripple inquired as she glanced around. 

“There was once a city named Hoofington near the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Almost a thousand years ago, it was the capital city of Equestria. When Princess Luna began her fight with Princess Celestia, Princess Luna made the whole city vanish to intimidate her sister. Every now and then, a pony wanders out of the Everfree. They talk funny and they say they are from Hoofington. The last one was just a few years ago… he came out and some ponies from Ponyville found him. They took him to Celestia and she remembered him from one thousand years ago. He was alive and from what I read, a bit touched in the head. He couldn’t remember what happened,” replied Piña in her usual long winded fashion. 

“Trixie claimed to have saved Hoofington from an ursa major,” Dinky remarked. 

“Well… a city lost in time… that’s not creepy at all. A dark and spooky wood with extradimensional pockets and a lost city. How did I let a numbskull and a snob talk me into this?” Ripple muttered as she walked, her ears now perked forward. 

Giggling, Piña gave Ripple a nudge. “Quiet brute.” 

“You little fart sniffer! If I wasn’t wearing my shoes I’d give you such a noogie!” Ripple retorted as she gave Piña a body bump. Reaching out with her wing, she gave Piña a tickle. 

Ahead of them was the fork in the road that they knew to look for. The right path led off to Zecora’s hut, the left path led off to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The group headed left. 



 

The Ponyville Historical Society had done a little bit of work to restore the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters and Princess Twilight Sparkle visited regularly. The area around the castle had been cleared and a sign had been placed stating that this was now a historically protected site. 

A second sign thanked ponies for not littering. 

Lifting the camera, Dinky snapped a picture and then began to walk towards the castle. She paused near the gate, snapped a photo, and then continued. Taking off at a brisk trot, Ripple moved to catch up with Dinky, and Piña followed closely behind. 

Several Raptors took wing and flew after Dinky as well as the filly entered the castle. 



 

Inside the ruined hall, Dinky stopped to take several pictures. The group looked around, noticing the damage, the blackened scorch marks, the melted stone. Moving around in silence, the group looked around the room where their godmother had fallen into darkness. 

Only one throne remained, it was blackened, partially melted, and it was impossible to know if it was the Solar throne or the Lunar throne. The place where the other throne had existed was now a rippled blob of misshapen melted rock. 

“I can feel the pain here,” Piña whimpered. 

“Pain?” asked Dinky in a voice of concern. 

“In the stone… I can feel the pain. I can feel them fighting… so much anger went into the magic… so much rage… I feel sick,” Piña stammered in reply as she began to breathe heavily. 

“Piña?” Ripple said in concern. 

“Get her hooves off of the floor! Now!” Dinky cried out in panic. 

Moving swiftly, Ripple flipped Piña upwards and caught the filly on her back. Piña groaned, closed her eyes, and went still. Ripple turned her head around to look at Piña and her brows wrinkled slightly in concern. 

“Bad magic still lingers here,” Piña murmured softly. 

“Even I can feel it just a little bit… we’ll have to be mindful of where Piña steps in the future,” Dinky said as she kept her eye on Piña, worried about her sister. “I can feel bad magic through my horn… Piña can really feel it through her hooves.” Pulling a notepad from her saddlebags, Dinky pulled out a pencil and began to take notes about everything that had just happened. 

Wiggling free from Ripple’s back, Piña landed on the floor with a thump. “I want to feel it… I want to feel what happened,” Piña whispered as she was once again overtaken with emotion. The earth pony approached the throne with an almost drunken wobble. 

Ripple moved just behind her. 

The room filled with the sound of a terrible cackle, a horrible awful cackle that was even worse than when daddy cackled, or so Dinky thought. Ripple spooked, her feathers on her wings fluffing out and her legs went stiff. Dinky’s horn ignited reflexively, but she knew that she was hearing echoes from the past. The cackle echoed from the walls, down the halls, and filled the hall with terrible sound, and as suddenly as it began, it began to fade, dying down, a memory tied to bad magic, a phantom recollection. 

“Nothing to be afraid of, just a bit of old residual magic,” Dinky announced as she struggled to keep her teeth from chattering. 

Shuddering, Piña Colada gagged a few times as she stood near the throne. “I can feel her pain… she didn’t want to do this… a part of her was trapped… she was locked away inside of herself and forced to watch… she tried to fight.” 

“Piña?” Dinky said as she went to her sister’s side. 

“She had sad sickness… she was forced to remember her previous life when she was in Tartarus and getting the Elements of Harmony. She remembers being Princess Evening Star… she remembers what was done… she remembers not being able to save her sister Princess Dawn Star... I can’t see, but I can feel the hurt… she is remembering all of that hurt and something is feeding on it…” 

“Pain makes dark magic stronger,” Dinky said as Piña continued to channel the experience. She watched as Piña’s eyes went white and she could smell ozone. “Piña?” 

“I can’t see what happened, but I can feel the pain… only some of it… I can feel Evening Star’s pain… I can hear the promise that power would be given to punish the wicked world for what it did to her and her sister,” Piña whimpered. “No Luna… don’t do it… no... no… no… it feels just like the fear that the wolves made.” 

Worried, frightened, fearing for Piña, Dinky reached out with her will, seeking to touch Piña’s mind. Piña wasn’t a bug, but Dinky knew that she was gifted with extraordinary telepathy. She had never done anything quite like this before. Dinky reached out and she pushed. It was like shoving on a stuck door. 

Nothing happened.

“We should get her out of here,” Ripple whispered to Dinky. 

“Piña is using her magic finally… we shouldn’t take this chance away from her,” Dinky responded in a frightened voice. “As bad as it is, this is Piña’s moment to shine. We must be brave.” 

“It lied to her… it lied to her and Luna was violated again… just like she was when she was still Princess Evening Star… oh it hurts,” Piña whimpered as she shook her head. “I can feel it inside of me… twisting my guts around.” 

“We should go,” Ripple insisted. 

“No,” Dinky protested as she moved to Piña’s side. She stood near her sister and pressed up against her. Looking down, she could see that Piña’s hooves were glowing brightly. Piña’s eyes were white, and her body was clearly flooded with mana. 

Leaning her head over, Dinky touched Piña with her horn. 

The world went white as pain flared through her body, Piña’s pain, the pain that Piña felt that came from Luna long ago and then the pain vanished. Around them, the throne room vanished. Dinky felt warmth, she felt safe and secure, like she did when her mama wrapped her up in a blanket to get her warm and then give her a hug. 



 

“I was not expecting visitors.” 

Now the world was grey. Dinky blinked and tried to get her vision back. She heard Piña gasp beside her. She shook her head and tried to clear her senses. 

“Sisters have a special magic all their own… sometimes, this is metaphorical, at other times, it is far more literal. You two share a powerful bond. I expected something like this, but I did not expect it so soon.” 

Dinky knew that voice and she blinked as she tried to get her eyes to work again. The grey was no so overpowering now. She saw a tall figure standing before her. 

“Princess Celestia,” Piña gasped. 

“I was wondering when somepony would clean up that old mess. I do so love when I discover my little ponies have useful hidden talents. I knew there was a reason why I had you press your hooves into plaster,” Princess Celestia said as she lowered her head to look at Dinky and Piña at eye level. 

“What happened?” Dinky asked. 

“Oh… something quite extraordinary,” Princess Celestia said warmly. 

“Are you going to be cryptic?” Piña questioned as she looked up at Celestia. 

Smiling and nodding slightly, Celestia snoot bumped Piña. “Only if I can get away with it.” 

“I’d like to know what happened,” Piña requested in a soft squeak. 

Clearing her throat, Princess Celestia laid down on what appeared to be soft fluffy clouds and then looked at Dinky and Piña with a warm expression full of love and affection. “Dinky is a powerful mentalist. She can sense things… touch minds. It is how she can communicate with bugs. But Dinky can only reach out and touch the minds of living things,” Princess Celestia patiently explained. “Piña is a very special little earth pony. Her magic allows her to connect to living things… but also to nonliving things. Piña was feeling all of the negative emotions left behind in the stone. There is a pesky pocket of bad magic there… or there was. Piña was channeling it through her hooves… near as I can tell. And then you, Dinky Doo, you touched Piña I do believe. You felt the bad magic, bad mental magic left in the stone. You surged and I sensed that.” 

“So the bad magic is gone?” Piña asked. 

“Oh yes… Dinky could not affect it directly, but I do believe she used you as a conduit. The bad magic passed through you, Dinky felt it, her mind recoiled, produced a defensive surge, and that I do believe was channeled through your body, down through your hooves, and into the rock, which is now freed from that ever so pesky and rather annoying pocket of bad magic that has been spooking ponies for about one thousand years. Behold, the magic of sisterhood,” Princess Celestia explained in a warm gentle voice. 

“Where are we now?” Dinky asked.

Looking Dinky in the eye, Celestia smiled. “This is the astral plane. With your magic, I do believe you will be showing up here quite often, and probably talking my ear off. Not that I mind.” 

“I bet Ripple is worried,” Piña whimpered. 

“Not even a fraction of a second has passed,” Celestia said soothingly. “Your minds are here, not your bodies. But there is something I must take from you.” 

“Whassat?” Dinky asked as she peered at Celestia curiously. 

Offering a matronly smile, Celestia reached out one hoof and booped Dinky on the nose. “Something bad. Something that will hurt sweet little Piña if it is left to fester,” Celestia answered as her horn ignited with a golden glow. 

Unable to help herself, Piña began to giggle as the golden glow engulfed her body and she was lifted. Her hooves glowed as bright as the sun for a moment, and for a brief second, a phantom horn appeared on Piña Colada’s forehead. 

Dinky gasped. 

As Piña continued to giggle and kick her legs, a long strand of blackness was pulled from her body. Celestia pulled it towards herself, and as it drew near her, it ignited, was consumed by pink flames, and burned away into nothingness. 

“You have been touched by spirits now Piña… I do not know the mechanism, but earth ponies touched by spirits have strange magic… the Pie family is among those who carry spirits. I have removed the dark taint, but I cannot remove the spirit itself… it is a spirit of knowledge… of truth… it sprang into existence as the bad magic simmered away in the stone. Perhaps it is the truth that my sister Luna rejected, given life and made manifest. There is still much we do not know about magic and this is one of those great mysteries… I will be by to speak with you in pony soon,” Celestia said, offering Piña some explanation as to what had happened. When she was done speaking, she leaned her head forward and kissed Piña Colada on the nose. 

“Are you going to send us back now?” Piña questioned. 

“Yes Piña, my new vessel of knowledge. I am going to return you,” Celestia answered. She gave a solemn look to both the unicorn and the earth pony fillies before her. “Stay together. Work together. The two of you together will be a powerful force of magic. Take what you have learned this day, take this lesson to heart and face the world together as sisters. Always love your sister,” she commanded. 

“Okay,” Dinky squeaked. 

“We can do that,” Piña replied. 

The world went white once more… 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 452
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking down at her two sisters, Ripple had a little trouble believing everything she had been told, but she had no good reason not to believe them. The room felt warmer, safer somehow, her danger sense had stopped trying to let her know that something was wrong. Ripple watched as Dinky wandered off to snap more pictures. 

“I don’t feel any smarter,” Piña remarked as she blinked a few times. 

“Maybe it doesn’t make you smarter… maybe it just makes you know stuff,” Dinky replied as she looked at a tattered dusty tapestry. “Princess Celestia will be by to tell you more… we should have a tea party with her and maybe she’ll bring Tourmaline,” she suggested. 

“You like Tourmaline,” Ripple stated as she watched Dinky take a picture. 

“I do… she’s easy to talk to,” Dinky responded as she lowered her camera. 

“She saved Sunset Shimmer somehow… she has some kind of healing magic,” Piña said as she lifted one hoof, looked at it for a moment, and then pressed it back down into the blackened scorched stone. When nothing happened, the foal looked a little disappointed. “Nopony will tell me how it works. She grew Sunset Shimmer a new horn and I know from books that such a thing is very hard to do.” 

Lifting her head, Dinky examined a statue of an alicorn, one wing had been broken off and half of the horn was gone, but she noticed that the statue was distinctly male, which struck her as being a little odd. She thought about what she was looking at, then she thought about her father, realising he was meant to be an alicorn, and Dinky slowly reached the logical conclusion that if there were alicorn mares, there had to be alicorn stallions as well. 

“Say… if there was a male alicorn and a female alicorn, they’d have alicorn foals, right?” Dinky questioned in a low voice. 

“I dunno… maybe… seems likely,” Ripple replied as she looked over at Dinky and the broken alicorn statue.

“So if there was a male alicorn, would he have to make alicorn foals with a mare for the good of the alicorn tribe?” Dinky inquired as she circled around the statue. 

“You mean an obligation? I dunno… that’s a good question,” Ripple responded as her face became thoughtful. “We don’t know how alicorn reproduction works… maybe Twilight Sparkle will have an alicorn foal… I mean, there might be a chance.” 

“We should get home… it’ll be getting dark soon and Ripple probably wants to spend some some playing smoochy face with Bittersweet,” Piña Colada suggested in a teasing voice. Her stomach growled loudly and Piña gave a sheepish grin. “Maybe getting something to eat after that little magic surge would be wise.” 

“Yes, I’d like to be playing smoochy face with Bittersweet… but I had to foalsit my sister so she could do her homework,” Ripple huffed impatiently. “Instead of playing smoochy face with my donkey I have to explain that my sisters stepped into some kind of weird creepy puddle of bad magic.” 

“We’re both fine,” Dinky retorted as she rolled her eyes. “At least we didn’t get exploded.” 



 

Sitting up on her own and looking around the room with wide barely blinking eyes, the Empress of the Crystal Empire seemed as though she was surveying her kingdom as she peered around. Balanced upon her haunches, she used her front legs to prop herself up. 

Laying on the floor in front of Cadance, Berry Punch blew a raspberry at the foal, which made Cadance giggle and nearly fall over from losing her balance. 

Burbling and blowing spit bubbles, Cadance expressed her annoyance from nearly toppling over. She dribbled and drooled as Harper, who was heading towards Bittersweet, went wobbling past on four trembling legs. 

“Shiny,” Cadance announced in between burbles. 

“Cadance?” Berry Punch whispered in stunned surprise. “Cadance… say it again… come on Cadance… talk to mama,” the earth pony mare urged. 

Cadance blew a raspberry at Berry Punch in reply. 

“I think I just heard your first word,” Berry Punch breathed. “Say it again Cadance… please? For mama?” 

“Mama?” Cadance gurgled. 

Inhaling sharply, Berry Punch crawled forward on her belly towards Cadance. “I’m very happy to hear you call me that, but can you say ‘Shiny’ for mama?” 

A look of intense concentration appeared on Cadance’s face. She lifted one hoof and pointed at Berry Punch. “Mama.” 

Berry Punch allowed her head to fall to the floor with a thump. 

“Shiny?” Cadance asked, looking rather worried as she spoke. 

Lifting her head, Berry Punch stared at Cadance with her mouth hanging open. 

“Pthoo!” Cadance spat, spraying spittle everywhere and then giggling. 

“We need to have Shining Armor hear you say his name,” Berry Punch whispered. 

“Shiny,” Cadance said as she stared at Berry Punch and smiled. 



 

Shaping metal through the force of raw will, Rising Star’s brow furrowed as he worked. A thought nagged at his mind, something he wasn’t sure how to express. He shaped metal like clay, creating a curved, nearly domed structure that had an almost woven like grid of metal on the underside. It was a new helmet design, it was lighter, stronger, and once he perfected the technique, would be made of moon-silver. 

“Scorch?” 

“Yes Rising Star?” 

“I was thinking… you have phenomenal god-like powers. You can supposedly create new life from what little bit I know about you… so there was something I was wondering,” Rising Star as he worked. 

“Ask away,” Scorch replied as he carefully shaped a long panel of steel. It was curved and almost looked like a quarter of some large cylinder. 

“Can you give creatures magic?” Rising Star asked. 

The tap tap tapping of Scorch’s hammer stopped. 

“Things not unicorns,” Rising Star clarified. 

Clearing his throat, Scorch looked over at his apprentice. “I did that once. I gave gift of magic to a group of my followers. They revered it for a time, but then squandered it. They failed to appreciate what was done for them. In time, they rejected it and the gift has nearly died.” 

“Who were they Scorch?” Rising Star asked as he looked up from his work and stared at the fey demon that was currently in his bipedal form and staring back at him. 

“The griffons. I gave them powerful, but subtle magic. The sort of magic that could shape an empire of beauty, art, and culture. They had no appreciation for the gift!” Scorch spat in a voice that sounded like a roaring fire coming to life. “I gave them a wondrous gift and they squandered it!” 

“Maybe now, with some encouragement, they will revive it… the griffons now are a very different group of creatures,” Rising Star said thoughtfully. 

“Perhaps,” Scorch admitted reluctantly. “Bucky married one that has the gift.” 

“Maybe if more races had magic, the need for an equaliser found in guns wouldn’t be so pressing. I understand that magic can cause a lot of problems in the world, I get that, I really do, but maybe, just maybe, if the minotaurs had some means of magic they could use, perhaps they would feel like equals and not feel the need to establish dominance. Well, some of them anyway… some might go bad and use magic in the wrong way… but some might do good with it. At least then, it might feel a little more fair. Even zebras have magic… the bocors are powerful… maybe the other species just feel left out,” Rising Star said, blurting out everything that was on his mind and then some. 

“Tirek was half minotaur and half equine…” Scorch remarked. 

“He was bad, no doubt about that,” Rising Star agreed. “But I believe the other races might not feel so left out if they had magic,” he insisted. 

“The other species gained magic… during something that happened a long time ago… they brokered deals with demons and outsiders… they warped… changed… became monsters,” Scorch said in a low voice as he set down his hammer. 

“A lot of unicorns became monsters,” Rising Star argued, his voice an impassioned plea. “But there are a lot of good unicorns… I’m one of them. Sparky is a good unicorn. Bucky, for all of his faults, is a good unicorn. My parents are good unicorns. The good will counter the bad!” 

“You don’t sound so entirely sure of yourself,” Scorch retorted as he folded his arms over his chest. He glared at Rising Star with a sneer. “Maybe it’s me, but from what I heard in your voice, you sound as though this is what you hope will happen.”

Curling his lip back and revealing his fangs, Rising Star snarled. “Yes… it is my hope that the world somehow becomes a little more fair. Beings like you… you have an obligation to us… whether you want to admit it or not. It is time to spread the wealth a little bit… we have to try and level the playing field somehow.” 

Extending one arm and holding out a finger, Scorch pointed at Rising Star. “Spoken like a politician. Good work. I find myself agreeing with you even though I don’t want to. But keep those fangs to yourself. It isn’t nice to flash those at someone… I know you’ve been taught better manners.” 

Allowing his lips to slide over his teeth, Rising Star offered a careful smile. 

“I guess I’ll start with you… how would you like some wings? Believe me… I could do that,” Scorch chuckled as he took a step towards Rising Star. “I could make you an alicorn, right now… a worthy gift of magic. You’re halfway there already.” 

“NO! No, that’s okay… I’m good just the way I am… you just save that magic for something more deserving,” Rising Star protested. He looked confused for a moment. “So how would you go about giving the other races magic?” 

Heaving a sigh, Scorch slumped over. “If I tell you, it takes all of the mystery out of it.” 

“From what I know of watching Master and Minion, having an apprentice means you teach them your secrets,” Rising Star muttered in annoyance. 

“Look here you little four legged imp… bah… you’re not scared of me at all… nuts… with the griffons, I added a bit of random chaos magic to the existing bloodlines. When the right griffons made offspring, those offspring had a connection to magic… I could do the same with minotaurs. They already have horns… it wouldn’t be too hard to alter them,” Scorch explained in a frustrated voice as he gave Rising Star the stinkeye. 

“And the diamond dogs?” Rising Star patiently inquired. 

“Technically they have magic, even though very few realise it. Including the diamond dogs. They were made to be protectors… a long time ago before they became twisted, they evolved from the canis majors and the canis minors… the constellation wolves. Onuava, a spirit that assisted fertility, and Rhea, the daughter of the embodiment of stone, they sort of changed the constellation wolves, making them intelligent, fierce, giving them speech, and giving them purpose… they protected the ancient equines, who even then kept the earth, serving Rhea’s mother, whose real name I cannot say. It was the two of them that gave the diamond dogs their sentry magic… when protecting another sapient creature, a diamond dog becomes more fierce, has a better sense of smell, sharper eyesight, and they gain a great deal of strength. After the event that twisted them into what they are now, the magic was forgotten. It is powerful magic… some of them even regenerate in battle… making them very difficult to kill,” Scorch explained in reply. "I haven’t spoken to Rhea in ages… we had children together… we bred with various species and gave them a little of our magic… and Rhea’s mother… whom I cannot name, sorry, it is a fey thing, I’m sure you’ll understand, she had children too.” 

“The diamond dogs need to know this… we have diamond dogs at Bucky’s school… they should know this,” Rising Star stammered. He blinked and looked at Scorch. “Whatever happened to Rhea’s mother?” 

“She laid down and became a mountain range on the far side of the world. Took a nap. Been snoozing for almost ten thousand years now… she said she felt sleepy,” Scorch replied. The fey fire elemental looked mischievous for a moment and then grinned. “She probably has a dragon’s nest in her fertile valley. I wonder how her son is doing.” 

“Son?” Rising Star asked. 

Scorch snapped his fingers and a terrifyingly large pegasus appeared in the shop. The pegasus looked around, blinked a few times, stared at Scorch, and then snorted in annoyance. 

“Hiya… Shield. How is your mother?” Scorch politely inquired. 

“Uncle Scorch,” Shield replied. “It has been a long time… at least a thousand years or more. Mother is fine. Auntie Rhea and I were just playing cards and I was winning even though she cheats.” 

“Never play cards with Rhea… sorry… you’re probably going to lose now… she’ll look at your cards,” Scorch said in sympathetic tones. 

“Yes… of course, the fey have no scruples,” Shield stated in a matter of fact voice. 

“You’re not a pegasus,” Rising Star said in a low voice as he looked at the immense pegasus standing in the forge. Keg Smasher looked tiny by comparison. 

“You’re not a unicorn… at least not in the strictest sense of the word,” Shield retorted as he looked around. “This place is getting a lot of residual magic… it is going to warp everything around it.” 

“Way to ruin the surprise!” Scorch bellowed and then snapped his fingers, causing Shield to vanish with a loud thunderclap. “Ugh, the fey… so annoying!” 

“What did he mean by warp?” Rising Star questioned as he raised his eyebrow. 
	
	
> Chapter 453
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sense. It all made sense. Bucky had suffered a profound understanding while under the effects of the cannabis infused beer, and now he understood everything. He shuffled about his office at the top of his tower, pacing, thinking, half in and half out of shadow state that did not have legs. 

There had been a massive burst of creativity earlier after he had woken up. 

He was forming a plan to strike back against the mirror travelers. He would hit them where it would hurt the most. Cadance had said her first word. He needed to go to Canterlot, visit the nursery, study the unicorn’s distinct magical signature, and then work with Twilight Sparkle to modify the portal that lead to the world where Sunset Shimmer had been banished. That first word had been ‘Shiny.’ The real trick would be locking on to where the earth pony mushroom farms were located beneath the city. He knew of their existence from the ponies he had ‘interviewed’ after he had liberated them from all forms of troubling complex thoughts. 

Bucky intended to steal himself some earth ponies. 

Portal in, snatch the enemy slaves, portal out, and then Bucky intended to sit back and gloat for months if he could get away with it. It was a lovely idea. He would be entitled to gloat and free to be as annoyingly smug as he wanted for a very long time, and if somepony dared to complain about his gloating or his smugness, Bucky could raise one talon to shush them and remind them that he had freed the earth ponies from their oppressors. It would be glorious.

Cadance seemed to remember Shining Armor. 

Looking around, Bucky realised his office was far too small and cramped for his liking. Golems were scurrying everywhere, lining the walls with webs of shadow infused phased glass. Eventually, they would cover every inch of this tower, adding to the already impressive magical fortifications. 

The night, which would be the dawn quite soon, was too lovely not to go for a walk. 



 

Loch Skimmer awoke and did not know what to do. There was no dawn brigade this morning. The birds were mostly gone now, escorted south by helpful pegasi. She lay in bed, under a pile of blankets, and Rising Star’s body was warm against her. Sparkler was apparently still gone on patrol. For months now, Loch Skimmer had awoke and assisted with the dawn. This was her purpose. This is what defined her life. And now, she did not know what to do. 

Rolling over, Loch Skimmer bumped into another warm body. Loch knew right away that it was Ripple, and beside Ripple was Bittersweet. Loch Skimmer vaguely remembered both of them coming to bed late last night. 

Throwing a foreleg around her sister and Bittersweet, Loch Skimmer pulled them both closer, sandwiching Ripple between her and Bittersweet. The donkey made a silent groan in her sleep, but did not wake. 

Closing her eyes, Loch Skimmer started to slip off into sleep, and as she did so, she felt Rising Star turn over to spoon up against her back. Murmuring sleepily, Loch Skimmer drifted off. 



 

Ah, yes, perfection, Bucky thought to himself as he looked up at the massive ice sculpture he had just finished in the middle of Ponyville town square. It was Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. The two sisters stood side by side, regal, noble, heads held high, they were dignified and ready for any sort of danger. They were perfect down to the very last detail, save one. His horn flaring brightly, Bucky strained to concentrate enough for the final detail, his brain still fogged over from his mind numbing brew. With a grunt, he made the magic happen. 

Both princesses now had flowing moving manes and tails made out of moving, shifting ice. Luna had sparkly stars in hers, and Celestia had her usual pastel rainbow. 

Something wasn’t right though, and Bucky had trouble thinking of what it was. After several whole minutes of intense concentration, Bucky realised that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were fierce protectors as he had made them, and there was nothing to protect. 

This would not do. 

Conjuring more ice, Bucky went to work. 



 

Berry Punch waved at the punctual pegasus as the morning papers were delivered. She scooped them all up in one foreleg, walked into the house on three legs, and dumped the papers onto the kitchen table. There was an enormous platter of cinnamon rolls on the table that had not been there when she had left a few moments ago. 

There was also a hot cup of coffee for her. 

Unrolling a paper, Berry Punch scanned the headlines, looking for anything interesting. Much to her dismay, she found it right away. She read for a few moments and then her mouth hung open in shock. 

“What is it now?” Derpy asked and then yawned. 

“So called new founder’s plan to ruin Equestria, wants to destroy the equine race with crossbreeding, thus bring about the end of the equine species,” Berry Punch read aloud. 

“What?” Derpy questioned as she leaned over and looked at Berry, locking her good eye upon the earth pony and her paper. 

“There is an article here criticising Bucky’s plan, his school, and a statement that this sentiment of interspecies unity is a threat to our species. There is some idiot creating a movement to preserve the equine way of life… I can’t believe what I’m seeing here,” Berry Punch muttered. 

“Are you saying there is an equine superiourity movement?” Semillon inquired in a low shocked voice. “How horrid… how absolutely dreadful. What utter nonsense. Our species existed as slaves for who knows how long, and all manner of terrible things were done to us during those dark times. Many crossbreeds were born and you can still see them in the world, but the equine species did not die out then, and it won’t die out now.” 

“Thank you Semillon… a wise voice of reason exists in our kitchen and it is cooking at our stove,” Berry Punch replied in a frustrated huff. “A pegasus wrote this?” Berry muttered as she looked at the paper. “What… well, that’s shocking too… so much for my own biases. Damn.” 

“Thistle’s in the lake,” Lyra reported as she burst into the kitchen. “The kelpie has been freed from her prison for a few hours. What’s up?” 

“This!” Berry Punch exclaimed as she tossed the paper she was reading down on the table She snatched up a cinnamon roll and then bit down into the steaming treat angrily, savagely growling as she fiercely tore away a bite. 

Sitting down at the table, Lyra picked up the paper to have a look… 



 

Much better, Bucky thought to himself as he looked around. Dozens and dozens of little ones for the two sisters to watch over. Foals of every tribe, even a few lunar pegasi, a few diamond dog pups, a flock of griffon cubs, some minotaur calves, and even some zebra foals, all of them made of ice and huddling around the legs of the sisters. 

The early morning risers were now gathering to watch as the Lord of Winter made art. A few reporters gathered and were snapping pictures, along with ponies who were not reporters but wanted a photo of the ice sculpture garden while it lasted. 

Looking at the collection of ice statues, Bucky pondered the scene. Something else was missing. Something felt off. Curling his lip back into a snarl, Bucky pondered the scene and what he could do to fix it. 



 

Flipping through a different paper, Berry Punch found herself three pages in and looking at what many ponies felt was meaningless news. Occasionally, really good reads were found here. And then, near the bottom of the page, she found what she was hoping for. She began to read eagerly, her eyes devouring the fine print. 

“Off to keep an eye on the monsters while they have their breakfast,” Lyra reported as she departed off to the dining room to have breakfast with the older foals who were just now starting to wake and stumble down the stairs. 

“Ponyville is going to get a mail sorting facility,” Berry Punch announced in a happy voice. “Says here a compromise was reached. The facility is going to be outside of the city proper, and they plan to use an earth bermed building technique to hide the big ugly buildings.” 

“Bermed?” Derpy asked as after she swallowed her cinnamon roll. 

“Berming… bermed… the old way that earth ponies used to build their houses sometimes. You’d dig a big deep pit down into the ground so that about half of your building would be set down into the earth, keeps the temperature stable you see, and then you build your building down in the pit. When you are done building it, you pack earth around it, sloping upwards from the ground to create a hill over the building, and then you place dirt and sod over the roof, completely burying the building in the ground to insulate it. Only in this case, they are hiding it because it’s ugly,” Berry Punch explained as she peered at the paper. “Seems Bucky reached a compromise with Twilight Sparkle.” 

“Well this will be a good thing,” Derpy remarked. “This will mean a lot of jobs. I miss my mail route sometimes… but not enough to go back to doing it.” 



 

Taking a few steps back, Bucky admired his work.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was in an aggressive stance, her wings out, and her head lowered. Her lip was curled back into a snarl and one eye was narrowed menacingly. Beside her stood the Crystal Defender, Shining Armor. Shining Armor stood tall, resolute, calm looking. Beside Shining Armor, an enormous griffon loomed. Lugus had his massive wings spread, and his beak was open as though he was roaring a cry of challenge. 

All in all, Bucky liked the scene. 

“Oi… where are you?” 

Turning, Bucky saw a little spotted pinto colt. Small, not much older than a yearling. 

“I don’t see you anywhere,” the colt said in a strange accent. 

“Hi there… what’s your name?” Bucky questioned as he sat down and looked at the colt. 

“Pipsqueak,” the colt answered. “I know who you are… yer my favourite princess’ apprentice,” he added as he sat down and looked up at Bucky. 

Smiling, Bucky nodded in reply. “That I am,” he admitted. 

“Yer also my headmaster,” Pipsqueak announced in a chirpy voice. “So why aren’t you here?” the colt asked once more. 

Shrugging, Bucky looked over at the collection of ice statues and the ponies that had gathered to have a look at them. He sighed. “These are the heroes that Equestria deserves. I don’t belong here.” 

“Poppycock,” Pipsqueak retorted angrily. 

“Look kid, you deserve good heroes that do good things. I’ve done some very bad things. Questionable things. Things I know I’m going to roast in Tartarus for... for a very long time. And I know what’s waiting for me down there for the things I’ve done… I’ve already experienced it once,” Bucky said in a soft weary voice as he thought of the hook.

“I know what you did… I heard it from me mum and me dad… I understand, really, I do… in the Power Ponies comic, there is a time when The Masked Matterhorn has no choice but to kill The Mimer, an evil minotaur that put Hum Drum into an invisible box and Hum Drum was running out of air and dying from a box that nopony else could see or touch. Realising that Hum Drum was going to die, the Masked Matterhorn had to do something awful. The Mimer got blown up and Hum Drum was saved. It is like a rule or something… if your sidekick is in trouble, you gotta save them… you do anything to save them, even if it means crossing that line, as the Masked Matterhorn called it. You do anything to protect your sidekick. Otherwise you become a hated hero that gets shamed,” Pipsqueak blurted out, saying everything rapidly in the way that an overly excited foal tends to spit everything out. 

“I suppose you’re right,” Bucky responded as he looked down at Pipsqueak. 

“You also have to have a clever phrase to say when you vanquish your enemies that try to kill yer sidekick… when The Mimer was dying, he screamed a lot and The Masked Matterhorn said ‘you lied… you do make sounds’ and it was really awesome,” Pipsqueak continued. 

“I don’t think I’m that cool,” Bucky said as he smiled down a the colt. 

“But yer the Lord of Winter… you have ice powers!” Pipsqueak argued. 

Realising that he had been had, Bucky’s ears splayed out sideways and he grinned sheepishly. 
	
> Chapter 454
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Letting out a little squeal, Tourmaline carefully placed her forelegs around Sunset Shimmer’s neck and squeezed gently, glad to see her friend. She closed her eyes for a moment and allowed herself to become completely lost in the moment, caught up in the hug to end all hugs. 

“I wanted to have Pinkie Pie throw you a get well party, but mama says that I have to keep my secret safe,” Tourmaline confessed as she squeezed. “I did bring you a cake from Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich and the Cake family though. Strawberry Woozy Doozy.” 

“Thank you,” Sunset Shimmer replied as she balanced on her haunches and squeezed the small changeling foal. “Thank you for everything.” 

Pulling her head away, Tourmaline looked up at Sunset. “I don’t sense any pain, but I do sense worry… how is your eye?” 

“Not much has changed… it has gotten a little better, but I can’t see too much out of it. Shapes, some colours, everything looks like a blurry painting,” Sunset Shimmer admitted in a low voice as she became aware of Trixie and Bartleby staring at her. 

“Thank you Tourmaline, Trixie thanks you from the bottom of Trixie’s heart,” Trixie said as she drew near. “You gave me back something very dear to me.” 

Letting go of Sunset, Tourmaline launched herself at Trixie and latched on, hanging on and squeezing. For a moment, Trixie stood frozen, then she thawed, lifted her foreleg, and gave Tourmaline a squeeze back. Not wanting to be left out, Bartleby threw himself at both the foal and the mare, grabbing on and squeezing them both. 



 

Her nose crinkling, Luna detected the smell of sulphur, which made her think of Rising Star. Beside her, Asp loomed large and terrifying, and the pair walked through the narrow corridor together, locked in step with one another. 

Eventually, they came to a door and stopped. The sulphur smell was strong now. 

Sighing, Luna pulled open the door. Inside, a pegasus that was not quite a pegasus lounged upon a thin cot. He looked up at the stern looking Night Princess and offered a sheepish smile. Bat winged, two small horns just behind his ears, and a fairly large build. 

“Ah yes… the cambion. The mutant offspring of a fey demon and a lunar pegasus… the contract killer that we picked up in Las Pegasus during the collapse. How has life in prison been treating you? Let’s see… Asm-” 

“Please! Don’t say my name!” the not quite a pegasus begged, interrupting Luna. “Names have power… look, I’ve been good… I’ve cooperated. I’ve been very well behaved.” 

Smiling a sly smile, Luna nodded. “So you have, Deus. I have to call you something you understand. I could just call you ‘Smelly’ but at least Deus is respectful, wouldn’t you agree?” 

“Yes, your Majesty,” the cambion replied with a bow of his head. 

“You have skills I find myself in need of. How would you like a chance to earn your freedom and gain a valued place in our society?” Luna questioned. 

“What do I have to do? Does your Majesty need something killed?” Deus asked in reply. 

Looking at Asp for a moment, Luna nodded. “Indeed. I do. It is my intention to change you. Alter you. Place you under a geas, until you show that you can be trusted, and have you use your talents for the Crown working overseas as a spy and an agent. You will receive more details if you agree and simply say ‘yes’ to what little information I have offered you. If I walk away from this door, the offer is retracted and will not be repeated.” 

“Yes!” Deus blurted out. 

“Very good. Welcome to the Shadowbolts Deus. I regret to inform you that the pony, the contract killer that we apprehended in Las Pegasus, has suffered a terrible mishap in prison and was killed by a fellow inmate during recreational exercise time. There will be a lovely forty word obituary in the paper, funded by the Crown. That will be the beginning of your debt and you will work to pay it off. In time, once trust is earned, you will no longer operate under a debt, but will be paid handsomely for your work. Am I clear?” Luna said in a very businesslike manner. 

“As crystal,” Deus replied as he slipped from the bed. “Look, I’ll do anything you ask at this point… a pony isn’t meant to be isolated like this…” 

“I know,” Luna said with a trace of actual sympathy in her voice. “Come on. We shall talk more over breakfast and then I must retire for the day.” 



 

Grinning hugely, Dinky passed her photos to Cheerilee and then waited for Cheerilee to have a look. Somehow, her grin grew ever wider, and her face beamed with happiness. 

“Please, take a seat Dinky,” Cheerilee urged. 

Feeling a little miffed, Dinky went and sat down in her desk, flouncing into her seat with a huff. Heaving a sigh, Dinky resolved to be patient. She knew her photos would get her the recognition that she deserved. 

She watched as other students turned in their stacks of photos, and a couple of students turned in borrowed cameras to finish their projects, something that would have never of been possible in the old schoolhouse. After getting everything together, Cheerilee turned on an arcano-tech projector that turned photographs into images that were displayed upon the wall and busied herself with preparing the presentation. 

Unable to help herself, Dinky squirmed in her seat, wiggling around, unable to wait. 

The first image displayed was the Ponyville clock tower. The second was the Ponyville train depot, one of the oldest in Equestria, built shortly after Canterlot’s, and the second stop in the line. The third picture was Ponyville’s town hall and a filly let out an excited squeal when her photo was shown. 

The fourth picture caused the class to fall silent. It was the old schoolhouse. 

“It was founded within just a few years of Ponyville being founded,” Apple Bloom said in a low voice. “It was a proud moment for Ponyville, having that school made them more than a farming settlement, having that school qualified them for township status. Having that school allowed them to have a Crown funded post office. Eventually, having that school allowed for Ponyville’s first library, which was burned to the ground by a lightning strike. A long time ago, a tornado came ripping out of the Everfree and caught the weather pegasi off guard. That schoolhouse, already over one hundred years old at that point, sheltered many of the townsponies that ran there hoping for safety. Half of the town was leveled, but the schoolhouse stood. It took some damage and all of the windows broke, but the building stood firm and did not fall down in the wind like so many others. That schoolhouse is the most historic thing I could think of.” 

“Thank you… thank you, Apple Bloom,” Cheerilee said as she began to get a little misty. 

Looking around the classroom, Dinky clapped her front hooves together, slowly at first, hesitantly, waiting to see if anypony else would clap, and then others began to join in and follow her lead. 

Eventually, the classroom was flooded with the sounds of applause. 



 

Nervously clearing his throat, Written Sound looked out at his classroom. “Um, thank you for coming class… my name is Written Sound, I write music, and I am talented at musical theory. I had one of the musical numbers I wrote played by Octavia,” the nervous green pegasus said shyly as he looked at his students. “Some of you have cutie marks that indicate you have musical talents, so that should make things easier.” 

Drawing in a deep nervous breath, Written Sound let it out slowly, his cheeks puffing out as he did so. He smiled a worried smile. “One of you is a dragon and one of you is a diamond dog, this is wonderful. Being together like this is good… while a horn section sounds good, mixing those horns with strings makes the music sound better… and adding a few drums can’t hurt anything… music is made better with variety, class… I want you to keep that in mind,” he said, punctuating his words with a snort. 

“I really want to learn how to play the trumpet,” Spike announced with a toothy smile. “But the last time I tried, I hiccuped because of incoming mail and the trumpet melted. Noteworthy was kinda angry with me.” 

“Oh my,” Written Sound gasped. 

“I’m no longer a mailbox… except in emergencies,” Spike explained, trying to ease his teacher’s sudden panic. 

“We got our cutie marks in music stuff together,” Singsong and Brass Note said in harmonic unison, the little unicorn colt and the pegasus filly both beamed with pride. “We have sibling magic,” they added, once more in harmony with one another. 

“I’m going to have a very special class,” Written Sound stated as he looked around the classroom and began to relax a little. 



 

The snow white pegasus in golden armor was solemn as he approached Twilight Sparkle and bowed his head low when he drew near. He paused, cleared his throat, and then looked Twilight in the eye. 

“What is it?” Twilight asked. 

“Majesty… Princess Twilight Sparkle, I come from Princess Celestia bearing bad news,” the guard said in a low voice. 

“What is it?” Twilight responded as she lifted her head high. 

“Majesty, we have received word from the Sea of Grass, the king and queen of the Shire Isles has been assassinated. An army of assassins descended upon Trottingham and Liverypool… diamond dogs and minotaurs mostly, with a few griffons. The entire royal family was wiped out, and most of the noble families were exterminated… the assassins used guns of some strange new design that sprayed bullets… something never before seen. The details are sketchy but the Sea of Grass is working to learn more,” the guard reported in a solemn voice. 

“What?” Twilight asked in a raspy whisper, her face falling from shock. 

The guard stood silent, unsure of what to say or if he should repeat himself. 

“H-h-how many died?” Twilight stammered. 

“We do not know the exact number yet, but so far, over two hundred have been counted. As I previously stated, the assassins, few in number, used a new gun design that sprayed out bullets. The royal guards were quite helpless… had they had a few unicorns, they might have stood a better chance, but I am sure you know how Trottingham feels about unicorns. The entire royal family was wiped out by less than a dozen attackers, and the other noble houses suffered heavy losses… the assassins were finally brought down when they ran out of ammunition. I do not know the full details yet, but they did not allow themselves to be taken alive,” the guard said. 

Stumbling backwards, Twilight Sparkle made her way to a small sofa and sat down, her body now much too large for such a small piece of furniture. “How is this possible? I saw the guns in Griffonholm… they had to be reloaded… the lever took time to operate… they did not spray bullets out… I am not familiar with their workings... how is this possible?” 

“Majesty, I do not know,” the guard replied apologetically. 

“I want one of those guns brought here at once… these need to be examined… studied, more must be known about the design,” Twilight said in a halting frightened voice. She began to look around the library nervously and then looked at the guard pleadingly. “I can’t imagine something killing my foals,” she whimpered.

“Some of the guns are already being secured and sent. The Sea of Grass is sending them so that more might be known about the new design. Princess Celestia told me to remind you not to panic,” the guard said slowly. 

“Has Bucky been informed?” Twilight asked. 

“No, the Lord of Winter does not yet know. I will be telling him once I am done here,” the guard answered. “Would you like a group of guards to secure your residence?” he offered. 

“No… no… I’ll be fine… if something comes near my herd I’ll incinerate them. Go back to Canterlot. I’ll tell Bucky myself. We’ll need to talk about this anyway. Tell Princess Celestia that the Phoenix will secure Ponyville and that the Windigo has been informed,” Twilight commanded as she began to regain her control and her confidence. “Thank you for telling me.” 
	
	
> Chapter 455
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rubbing his head, Bucky closed his eye and let Twilight Sparkle’s words sink in. He settled back into his chair in the farmhouse library. He heard Violet Velvet clucking her tongue thoughtfully and the angry sounds of Twilight Sparkle’s breathing. Sitting in the corner, Sunset Shimmer stayed silent. 

Still feeling the effects of the cannabis infused beer, this was almost too much. 

“This shouldn’t be possible… the lever action design, while very effective, does not allow bullets to be sprayed out in a rapid fire fashion. Revolvers allow for a couple of rapid fire shots, but then have to be reloaded. Belisama’s revolvers hold eight shots each. That’s sixteen shots before you have to reload and then would likely be overwhelmed by pegasi or other guards. The revolvers take a long time to reload… this doesn’t make sense!” Bucky said in a frustrated voice. 

“Sense or not, we now face a serious threat,” Twilight Sparkle stated. She gulped down a glass of rum that Bucky had provided for her, grimaced, and then huffed and puffed a few times. 

“I’ve studied the book we recovered. Rye Mash and many others… guns take time to develop… designs have to be tested and made reliable over time. It takes a long time to go from a prototype to a working unit that is field worthy. These guns shouldn’t exist… spray bullets... these guns were reliable enough to allow a small group of assassins to take out a huge number of targets and they were only stopped because they ran out of ammo… this shouldn’t be possible,” Bucky insisted in a low frustrated growl. 

“We’ll figure this out. For now, we must be patient. Shining Armor is watching over us, the garbage eating golems you’ve turned loose in Ponyville have emergency protocols to become enemy eating golems, and both you and I are more than capable of keeping ponies safe here. You’ve proven that,” Twilight Sparkle said reassuringly. 

“Master, I have a guess,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low worried voice. 

“Yes Minion?” Bucky responded as he looked at his apprentice. 

“Back in the world beyond the mirror… there were lots of guns. You could see them all the time in movies and on the television. There were guns called machine guns that held a lot of bullets… and sub-machineguns. They sprayed bullets,” Sunset Shimmer explained. 

“Yes Sunset, I remember watching a movie and being horrified by what I saw,” Twilight Sparkle said as her eyes narrowed. “I do remember something about a gun though. I had my eyes closed because of all the blood and my fingers in my ears. So weird having fingers.” 

“So those exist in the other world beyond the mirror… terrifying,” Bucky muttered. 

“We are dealing with mirror travelers. Who knows how many worlds they might have visited. What if it was them who gave the assassins guns from another reality?” Sunset questioned. “Guns are common in the world I where I was exiled. Cars. Trucks. Airplanes. The technology there was miles ahead of anything here. Some of the technology was every bit of good as magic… and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you about the nuclear bombs.” 

The room fell silent. 

“I’m not sure how we fight this,” Bucky whispered after several long painful minutes. 

“Equestria is still mostly safe… Shining Armor can detect threats. How do we protect others?” Twilight questioned in a hushed voice. 

“I’m not sure that we can,” Bucky replied, shaking his head sadly. “We have an obligation to try though. Somehow.” 

“Star Swirl the Bearded realised this was going to become a problem one day. My brother was telling me this just the last time we talked not that long ago. He says that the Crystal Empire has the means to block portals being opened… part of the shield it can generate. But the range is limited and the function does not work right now. Shining Armor is still repairing everything that went wrong and powering the empire up,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low trembling voice. 

“I keep thinking about something hurting Tourmaline just to hurt Princess Celestia and it makes me sick,” Sunset Shimmer admitted as she rose out of her chair and began to cross the room. She made it about halfway, turned, returned to her seat, and then sat down once more, looking annoyed and disturbed. 

“So the invaders are potentially supplying our enemies with weapons from other realities,” Violet Velvet said as she looked first at Bucky and then at her cousin Twilight. “At least, that is the idea, as a working theory. The new weapons are powerful, dangerous, and lethal. They probably take a lot of magic to secure, and magic is a finite resource when you are living under siege like the mirror travelers are doing. You could keep opening up portals to steal more guns, but these guns will eventually be seized, taken, and the assassins using them will be killed. Seems like a heavy investment in energy and resources with very little returns to me. Unless of course, they have a stable portal opened to a fixed location, a mirror or other portal device… if that is the case then what I have to say makes little bearing.” 

“Luna and I are taking steps to deal with mirror travelers overseas. The Shadowbolt Initiative has been started. Eventually we will have powerful agents to help root out problems and destroy any stable portals that might exist. I also have some other ideas,” Bucky said to the group. 

“Like what?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she rubbed the side of her face that had been terribly burnt. 

Looking at his apprentice, Bucky frowned. “Answering that in present company is bound to cause me all kinds of trouble.” 

“Out with it Bucky,” Twilight softly demanded. 

“I plan to venture to the Badlands to see if I can find Chrysalis and then I make her an offer she cannot afford to turn down,” Bucky admitted as his ears splayed out sideways. 

“You can’t be serious,” Twilight groaned in response. 

“Sure, she’s evil, creepy, hideously ugly, but she is also useful,” Bucky grumbled in a low sulky voice as he glared at Twilight. His scarred cheek jerked back with a spasm, causing his lips to twist into a scowl. “Beggars can’t choosers. We’re in a bad spot. We need allies.” 



 

Feeling the autumn sun upon her pelt, Sweet Pea was so overcome with bliss that she giggled. She walked through dead and dying grass that she could not see, being herded along by her companion. The pair had been excused from classes so that Sweet Pea could have a chance to spend time outside, something that she did not get to do often. 

Beside her, Growler could not stop his tail from wagging as he carefully walked beside the blind filly, offering gentle nudges as she moved along at a brisk trot to keep her on course. He watched for anything that might be a trip hazard, his sharp eyes darting about and hunting for anything that might be dangerous. 

In the distance, Blitz watched the pair, his eyes were wide, his ears were perked, and he sat in the grass with a journal, writing something down occasionally as he watched. Pulling out a small brass pocket watch from his vest, he saw that he had a class in less than half an hour. 

“Come here Growler,” Blitz instructed in a soft only slightly growly voice. 

The big shepherd watched as Growler carefully herded the blind filly over and both of them sat down in the grass. Blitz smiled a canine smile down to Growler, and he reached out to affectionately pat the pup on the head. 

“I want to tell you something Growler,” Blitz said as he carefully reached out and stroked the filly just between her ears. “As for you Sweet Pea, you have given Growler an opportunity, and I want to thank you.” 

“What did I do?” Sweet Pea questioned in a squeaky voice as she blinked, staring sightlessly at nothing in particular. 

“In a moment,” Blitz replied as he gave the filly’s ear a gentle tug. “Growler… you have seen my tail, have you not?” 

“Yes Blitz,” Growler answered as he looked up at the much larger dog. 

“Your tail is still a small thing. Very like the common dumb dog’s tail,” Blitz began as his own tail began to wag. “If you are fortunate, your tail will never change…” the shepherd paused, turned his head, and looked back at his own tail for a moment. “My tail has become a little bit club like and has some spikes. I have done some bad things, but I have made up for them. Growler, if you do well, you will never have a club-tail. I do not know why this is, but this is how it is for our kind. If we are bad, our tails change. If we are good, our tails remain harmless.” 

“Nodoggy told me this,” Growler responded in a low whine. 

“Most dogs do not care and never stop to observe or think,” Blitz replied as he turned back around to look at Growler. His smile faded and became something else, his brows furrowed, and his his jowls drooped, making him a rather sad looking dog. “It is good that the pony mare Cheerilee set you on this path. She is wise.” 

“All of this sounds important,” Sweet Pea squeaked, her voice now somewhat shrill. 

His ears perking straight up, Blitz looked down at the filly, reached out, and gently rested his large paw upon the back of her neck. “It is,” he replied in a soft raspy utterance. “When people speak of our dumb cousins, they speak of loyalty… of faithfulness… of a constant and true companion. We diamond dogs… we speak. We have minds. The same is not said of us as our dumb cousins. Something about the fact that the voiceless lesser dogs being thought of as the best of us bothers me a great deal. As dogs, when did we stop being loyal? Of being a tried and true companion? It is clear that something has gone wrong when your kind fears us.” 

“I’m not afraid of you,” Sweet Pea whispered. 

“I must go. I have students that need lessons. Growler… be mindful of your duties. I want for you to reflect upon the trust she is placing in you. Never betray that trust,” Blitz said as his gaze shifted to Growler. 

“Yes sir, I will do what you say sir,” Growler replied as his face pulled tight from his ears pulling back and trying to perk. Growler’s ears were too long and too droopy however, and the whole effect made him look rather sad. 



 

“You going to be okay?” Sentinel inquired in his usual quiet gentle voice. 

Looking at Sentinel, Diamond Tiara nodded, her face drawn and rather pensive, one ear drooped while the other remained perked. She blinked slowly, then rapidly, and then she reached up and rubbed her face with the side of her foreleg. “I’m really nervous. I thought I was okay with this, but meeting Dirtbound… my brother… I feel anxious. Like I am about to throw up.” 

“You don’t have to do this alone… I can come with you. I mean, I know my father will be there, but I can be there for you too,” Sentinel offered as he extended one wing and prodded Diamond Tiara with his central knuckle. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the pink earth pony filly and his tail twitched around his hind legs. 

“You’d do that?” Diamond Tiara questioned as she looked at Sentinel with wide trembling eyes. Her drooping ear stood up a bit, making it about three quarters of the way up, and then it dropped once more, falling down to rest beside her face. “I’m having trouble coping but I don’t want to say anything because admitting my weakness makes me feel ashamed.” 

“You’re my… filly friend,” Sentinel replied as his voice rose into a nearly ultrasonic squeal, a sound only audible to bats, diamond dogs, and creatures with supernatural hearing. Sucking in a deep breath, Sentinel wheezed a little as he let it out slowly. 

“We’re both very neurotic,” Diamond Tiara stated as she cocked her head to one side to get her drooping ear to stand up. She leaned over, stretched out her neck, and planted a soft kiss on Sentinel’s cheek. “I’d like to go visit Moonbow again…” 
	
> Chapter 456
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing just outside the door of Bon Bon’s sweet shop, Diamond Tiara pulled her face into something that was almost, but not quite a smile. Her stomach gurgled slightly from nervousness and she felt the muscles in her gut tighten painfully for a moment. She took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. 

“Bucky, are you sure you’re up for this? You seem awfully distracted, I don’t mind doing this later. Did something happen?” Diamond Tiara questioned as she turned her head to look at Bucky while chewing on her lower lip, which contorted her face into something that was certainly not a smile. 

“Yes, something happened, try not to worry about it,” Bucky responded in a dull voice that was nearly a monotone. 

His ears perking, Sentinel looked up at his father. Sentinel knew that voice. That was the sort of voice that meant major trouble. His father was an animated speaker, with a resonant sonorous voice, and the dull flat monotone he had heard meant that his father was holding back something to hide his emotions. His father used that voice so other ponies would not worry, except for Sentinel, who did worry when he heard this voice. Sentinel felt his back muscles go rigid as his hackles began to rise. His father had been distracted the whole trip, and Sentinel had dismissed it on his father simply being a little bit absent minded. 

“Sentinel? Are you going in son?” Bucky questioned as he stood waiting at the door. 

Snapping free from his own distracted state, Sentinel shook his head, tried to relax his back muscles, and then grinned sheepishly up at his father. “Sorry… I kinda got lost there.” 

Chuckling half-heartedly, Bucky prodded Sentinel to move him along. “It happens.” 



 

“...and so, as I have previously explained to both of you, Mister Rich wanted to teach one final life’s lesson. Dirtbound, this is your sister, Diamond Tiara,” Bucky said in a low voice as he placed his foreleg around Diamond Tiara, who was sitting in the booth seat next to him, pressed against his side. “Diamond Tiara, this is Dirtbound. Your brother.” 

“Hi,” Diamond Tiara squeaked. 

“Hello,” Dirtbound said in a slow nervous drawl that made it sound more like ’hulloo.’ 

Pressing her two front hooves together, Diamond Tiara stared down at them, her brows wrinkling, and one ear, the ear that always caused trouble when she was nervous, flopped over and fell down to hang limply beside her face. “This is Sentinel. He’s my friend.”

“Salutations Dirtbound,” Sentinel greeted in an entirely too formal fashion. Realising his mistake, Sentinel cringed, his own ears drooping a bit, splaying out sideways as the colt realised just how awkward this moment was becoming. 

Looking down at the tray of goodies that had been placed before them, Bucky grabbed a chocolate in his magic, stuffed the whole thing in his mouth, bit down, and metaphorically melted. Slumping down in his seat, he chewed slowly and thoughtfully on the dark chocolate ball that had been spiked with orange peels, rum, and the flavour of cloves. His eye almost closing, he made a mental note to give Bon Bon a very special private thank you, which would certainly include her being told how pretty she was until she was a giggling flustered mess. 

“We’ll be seeing each other in school soon… I think… maybe bumping into each other in the hallways… I’m going to finish secondary school and maybe move into higher education,” Dirtbound said to Diamond Tiara as he reached up and began to rub his ear, which had just started stinging all of a sudden. 

“It is important to have an education,” Diamond Tiara replied as she slowly began to regain her composure. “Violet Velvet has talked to me about secretarial science… I like organising and I think the science of time management and organisation is kinda neat.” 

“That’s a science?” Dirtbound questioned as his eyes narrowed and he peered at Diamond Tiara with his mouth hanging open slightly. 

Nodding, Diamond Tiara pulled a glass of apple juice closer, the straw sliding around the lip of the glass from momentum, and her drooping ear rose a bit. “Almost anypony can be a secretary… but it takes a lot of education to be a good secretary. Like Violet Velvet. She has multiple degrees, including ones for tea time etiquette, she is an experienced midwife, and she has a doctorate in secretarial science, along with a half a dozen other degrees. She can be trusted to manage a vast operation or to run an empire… literally. Because of her background and qualifications, Bucky here could leave her as a steward in his stead. It takes a lot of education to be trusted this much.” 

“Uh… I see,” Dirtbound replied. He glanced around the table nervously and then his eyes rested on the tray of chocolates. Reaching out, he took one in hoof, lifted it to his muzzle, nibbled, and tasted something spicy, something gingery. He felt himself relax a little and he settled into the cushioned booth seat. “I don’t have my life planned out that far ahead,” he admitted after he swallowed. 

“Life just sort of happens,” Sentinel remarked as he looked down at his glass of chocolate milk. He blew on the straw, causing to move in a slow circle around the edge of the glass. Little ripples flowed across the surface of the chocolate milk as he breathed. He stopped what he was doing and looked up and over at Dirtbound, who was sitting beside him. “We can plan for it, we can prepare for it, but life will do what it wants to with us. I’d like to be a writer. I’m sure that life has plenty of other things in store for me, I know that it does, but I want to be a writer. I think.” 



 

Yawning, Princess Luna could barely keep her eyes open. She lay on her side, Erebus beside her, and tried to focus on remaining awake for the rest of the meeting. Erebus was warm, she could feel the heat of his body against into her own, and the now little colt was smacking his lips as he drifted off to sleep. He was full of milk, had been burped, and with the way his ears kept twitching, probably wished the room was quiet. 

“...the Shire Isles are begging to become a protectorate of Equestria, just as the Minnowrock Isles did. They exist upon the archipelago known as the Founder’s Bridge for those of you that do not know your geography,” Raven explained in a low clear voice to the many ponies assembled in the room. “When the world froze over, this is where the founders crossed into Equestria from the old world.” 

“I do not know that I want the Shire Isles becoming a part of our empire after their treatment of unicorns,” Princess Celestia said in a cold emotionless voice. 

The diplomat from the Shire Isles, a pegasus, let out a wordless whimper. 

“I do not believe your society is capable of the sweeping changes required of you,” Princess Celestia continued as she turned to look at the pegasus diplomat. “I’ve seen how you yourself treat the unicorns here in Canterlot castle. You are discourteous, blunt, rude, and you say things that should never be said. You have insulted those that look after your comfort and your care. Many times I have thought about throwing you out and requesting another diplomat, but so far, you have been the best that the Shire Isles has had to offer.” 

“My most sincere and heartfelt apologies your Majesty,” the pegasus whined as he looked at Celestia through his spotted and dirty glasses. 

Looking down at her papers, Raven’s face crinkled into a frown. “Over five hundred dead have been counted so far, with more expected. Not just the royal family, but also nobles, members of parliament, and many truly noble guards who fought bravely. There are reports of thousands of brass shells on the floor at the sites of the massacres. There is no longer a functional government left in the Shire Isles.” 

The ponies in the room watched as Princess Celestia’s hard stony exteriour broke for a moment, her expression becoming pained, her eyes closing, the way she bit down upon her lip, how her ears drooped, and the way she slumped down in a defeated posture, but only for a moment. She recovered and lifted her head high, her eyes opened, now blazing with a glittering glow. 

“We can make Keg Smasher the governor of the entire archipelago and give him emergency powers,” Princess Luna suggested as her eyes sprang open. “He is a pegasus. The ponies of the Shire Isles would follow him, of this I have no doubt.” 

Whimpering, the pegasus diplomat, who was named Cromwell, began to rub his hooves together as more tears welled to the surface and then slipped down his cheeks. “I am authorised to do anything required to guarantee the safety of the ponies that I serve. If necessary I have even been authorised to start a war with Equestria with the intention of immediate capitulation and surrender of all territories… I-I-I’ll d-d-d-do it,” he said, his final words a stammering stutter. 

“There is no need for that,” Princess Celestia stated. 

“We are a broken nation… we cannot continue to function. And yes, we’ve done wrong. We’ve made mistakes. We need to apologise for our hubris, our fear, and our paranoia. We throw ourselves upon your mercy,” Cromwell whined as his composure completely broke. He took off his glasses, set them down upon the table, and then buried his face into his front legs to sob. 

“As of this moment, at least for a time, the Shire Isles are now a protectorate of the Nation of Equestria. At my sister’s advice, I am placing the pegasus known as Keg Smasher into the position of Lord Governor over the Shire Isles, and I am placing our own Lord of Winter as Lord Protector of the Shire Isles,” Princess Celestia announced in a cold proclamation. 

Kibitz, who was sitting beside Raven, immediately began to write down the proclamation word for word. The older stallion wrote with beautiful loops and flourishes, knowing the historical importance of this document. 

“Princess Luna, do you challenge my royal decree?” Princess Celestia inquired in a loud voice to her now sleeping sister. 

Awaking with a snort, Princess Luna looked around and blinked a few times, looking very confused. “Do forgive me… I have been awake for days…” she said as her words trailed off into a yawn. 

“I have claimed the Shire Isles, at least for now. This might change later. I have appointed Keg Smasher as Lord Governor, and have installed Prince Buckminster Bitters as Lord Protector-” 

Princess Luna interrupted her sister with braying laughter, which caused Erebus to awaken with a startled cry. “You made a unicorn the Regent of the Shire Isles?” she crowed breathlessly. “Sister, are you trying to punish them in your usual quiet way?” 

Glaring coldly at her sister, Celestia gave her sibling a furious sour scowl. “Do you challenge my royal decree or not?” she demanded impatiently, one ear twitching uncontrollably as she attempted to stare Luna down. 

Shaking her head as she tried to calm Erebus with her wing, Luna reigned in her laughter. “No… the Lunar Court offers no challenge and offers a sincere debt of gratitude to the Solar Court for placing the Crowned Prince of the Lunar Court into a position of trust and service.” 

Smiling, Kibitz had Raven sign the paper, and then Raven picked up the paper to pass it around the room so it could be signed. She first floated it to Cromwell, whom uncovered his face and stared at the paper with red bloodshot eyes. He picked up his glasses, placed them on his nasal bridge, peered through them, and then carefully signed the paper, holding his pen in his wing. Princess Luna signed next, then Princess Celestia, and then several other dignitaries present to witness this meeting. 

Crossing the floor, Ferdinand, the minotaur diplomat, placed a large hand upon the distraught pegasus named Cromwell. “I know this is difficult, but I do hope that you will trust me when I say that this was the best possible outcome. When this meeting is dismissed, you and I will have drinks together… maybe discuss a better future for both our kind.” Lifting his hand, Ferdinand patted the pegasus several times to comfort him. 

“Thank you,” Cromwell murmured as his glasses slipped down his nasal bridge from the minotaur’s enthusiastic back slapping. “Thank you, all of you.” 
	
> Chapter 457 (Warning! Interspecies intercourse!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m worried about Bucky,” Derpy remarked as she settled down into the soft confines of the couch with Harper beside her. The pegasus mare turned her head back and gently snoot-bumped the foal, which made Harper giggle. 

“He took the news rather well,” Berry responded as she cuddled Cadance and gave the drooling foal a rather soggy muzzle to muzzle nuzzle. “Foal slobber keeps your skin so soft… yes it does,” the earth pony mare insisted in foal talk. 

“That’s why I’m worried,” Derpy said as she turned to look at Berry. “He took it too well. No anger, no emotion, no nothing. He just shrugged and then acted like nothing happened.” 

“Now that you mention it, that is worrisome,” Berry Punch agreed as Cadance bit down upon her ear and began to chew. “I wonder how Thistle is.” 

“Comfortable,” Derpy stated. The grey mare looked at her wing and noticed a feather was sticking out at an odd angle, which caused her to raise her eyebrow. “She wants to stay in the lake for a while. We should let her. We can go out and visit her. She’s been in so much pain.” 

“All she does is lay on the bed… poor thing,” Berry murmured as she pulled her ear free from Cadance’s slobbery maw. She watched as Cadance’s lips began to quiver after she had been denied an ear to chew on and tried to hold back a smile. 

Berry Punch failed. 

“Kelpie,” Harper blurted out in a chirpy voice. 

“Yes, we were talking about Thistle,” Derpy acknowledged after she gave Harper a smooch on the cheek. 

“Where kelpie?” Harper questioned. 

“In the lake,” Derpy replied as she shot a glance at Berry Punch. 

“Lake?” Harper inquired as the foal became very serious looking, at least as serious looking as a foal with a poofy orange mane could look. 

“Like a big bathtub,” Berry Punch explained.

“Blub blub tub?” Harper asked in a very studious and serious voice. 

Nodding her head, Derpy gave Harper a praising smile. “Blub blub tub.” 

“Oh,” Harper responded as a look of concentration appeared upon her face. 

The relative quiet of the living room was utterly destroyed by shrill squawking, the flapping of wings, and a griffoness flying through the house. Belisama came soaring through the air, flew through the living room archway, and came in for a bumpy landing on the couch beside Berry Punch. Belisama’s feathers were ruffled, her fur was mussed, and she was clearly panicked. 

“I’m sorry!” Bucky’s voice announced from the back of the house. 

“What happened?” Berry Punch asked. 

Flexing her talons, Belisama curled herself into a small ball and wrapped her wings around herself, hiding her head and ducking down behind Berry Punch. 

“I’m really sorry!” Bucky called out again. 

“What just happened?” Derpy asked as she closed her bad eye and looked at the miserable ball of fluff and feathers that was Belisama. 

“He nibbled me…” Belisama said in a voice muffled by her wings and the couch cushions. The griffoness drew in a deep shuddering breath and curled up even tighter. 

“I don’t understand,” Berry Punch said as she turned her head to look at Belisama. 

“He was kissing me… and I liked it… and rubbing my tummy… and then I felt him nibble me and I got scared because I could feel his teeth and it was where I could feel his teeth and where he was nibbling me and I was so scared that I wet myself, only I got Bucky too and I’m a terrible mate,” Belisama blurted out from beneath her wings. 

It took every ounce of will she had, but Berry Punch kept a straight face and did not burst out laughing. She could feel the corners of her mouth struggling to betray her, she could feel the muscles in her neck wanting to pull her ears back, she could feel every traitorous fibre of her being and somehow, she held them all in check. 

“Are you alright Belisama?” Berry Punch asked in a Berry serious voice. 

“I don’t think she’s alright… she’s embarrassed and miserable,” Derpy said in a soft sympathetic voice. “Belisama… love, would it help you if Berry Punch and I showed you what Bucky was trying to do?” 

The griffoness did not reply. 

“I know you have no interest in other females Belisama,” Berry Punch said in a soft low voice. “But it couldn’t hurt you just to watch. We don’t have to touch you… you can just watch so you’ll know what to expect,” the earth pony mare offered. 

“I could do that,” Belisama whispered from beneath her wings. 

Wishing she could see Belisama’s face to make sure the griffoness was truly okay, Derpy peered at the huddled miserable ball that was Belisama. “Later tonight then… once everything settles down and you’ve calmed down a bit.” 

“I was so close to getting over my fear… and then I felt him… down there,” Belisama moaned through her feathers. 

“Well, Bucky likes being… being down there,” Berry Punch hesitantly explained. 

The sounds of subdued sobbing filled the living room as Belisama’s body shuddered and rocked as she wept. “I’m so sick of living in fear.” 

“No harm done, everything is cleaned up, new sheets on the bed, everything is currently in the wash, and everything is fine,” Bucky announced as he came into the living room. He smiled at Cadance, then made a silly face at Harper, looked at Berry, and then smiled at Derpy. 

Moving towards an overstuffed chair, Bucky took a seat, settled in, remaining silent, snatched up Belisama in his magic and levitated her over. The griffoness kicked and struggled a bit, resisting Bucky’s embrace, but finally went still and allowed herself to be held. Her head popped out from beneath her wings and she blinked up at Bucky. 

“I feel so bad,” Belisama whispered. 

“Shush fluffybutt,” Bucky replied as he pulled Belisama a little bit closer. “That was my fault. I moved too quickly and I didn’t communicate as well as I should have. I wasn’t thinking.” 

“We’re all going to get together later and give Belisama a little demonstration,” Berry Punch said to Bucky. “Hopefully… we can get you up for it.” 

“Ugh, puns and innuendo,” Derpy grumbled as she gave Harper a squeeze. 

“I feel safe right now,” Belisama admitted. “Just like this.” 

Pressing his snoot into Belisama’s feathers, Bucky sniffled and snuffled around. “Good,” he breathed into the soft flesh just below the griffoness’ ear. 



 

“Sparky?” 

“Yes Loch?” 

Looking over at Loch Skimmer, Sparkler gave the charcoal grey pegasus filly a warm smile as she ate her reheated dinner. She would be leaving soon, out on the town for another long night of keeping others safe. 

“I feel funny… kinda depressed,” Loch Skimmer admitted as her ears drooped. She pursed her lips and blew her mane out of her glass green eyes. 

“Loch?” Sparkler said around a mouthful of roasted garlicky potatoes. 

“There is no more dawn brigade. No more crafting the mornings… the birds are all gone and I feel really out of sorts… I don’t know what is wrong with me but I’m not my usual happy go lucky self,” Loch Skimmer confessed as she slumped over the table. 

Sparkler shoved in a forkful of glazed carrots and looked at Loch Skimmer, not knowing what to say about what she had just heard. She chewed for a few moments, swallowed, and then stabbed a few potatoes on her plate. Lifting her fork in her magic, she pointed it at Loch Skimmer for a moment. 

“Take up a hobby. I know you love your work… and for you, the dawn brigade really was ideal work… given your cutie mark being what it is and all… you’re a very lucky pony to have a job so specific to your talents and that accentuated your purpose,” Sparkler said as she reversed her fork. She crammed the potatoes into the mouth and began to chew noisily, smacking her lips and making faint ‘nom nom nom’ sounds as she scarfed down her food. 

“All of my hobbies are work related… if I am not in school, I am either making the dawn happen or working at the hospital and waiting for a emergency call… which there hasn’t been too many of lately. My hours have been cut,” Loch Skimmer replied as she stared off at a shelf full of knick knacks and photographs in little frames. “I want to feel like I did in Baltimare… I felt so alive… life made sense. At the end of the day, my wing joints ached but I felt good about everything I had done.” 

Leaning her head down to her plate, Sparkler slurped up her pile of buttery corn, sucking it all down in one go, swallowing, and barely chewing any of it. She licked her lips and looked at Loch. “Come with me on patrol tonight Loch Skimmer… I can deputise you and you can get a your daily dose of purpose dealing with Ponyville’s nightlife.”

“Sparky, I’m not a brawler… the idea of actually hurting something makes me feel queasy,” Loch Skimmer responded as she watched a yellow-white kernel of corn slip from Sparkler’s snoot. “I know I talk tough sometimes and I know I’m a pegasus, but I don’t want to hurt nopony.” 

“Good,” Sparkler answered as she patted her stomach. “Just what I need in an officer. Somepony quiet and gentle, who can patch somepony up if there’s been an incident of some kind. Thunderlane got bonked in the head with a thrown bottle the other night… split him open. Might've been nice to have somepony with us that knew what to do.” 

“I have school in the morning Sparky,” Loch Skimmer retorted in a doubt-filled voice. 

“So? I’ll let you off at midnight… Father is going to start offering late afternoon secondary school classes just for me and Rising Star and others who might be busy in the mornings. He’s lining up the teachers for it now. I’m actually itching to be back in school if I can cram it into my schedule,” Sparkler said as she wiped her muzzle with her foreleg. 

“Keep me safe from harm?” Loch Skimmer asked as she gave Sparkler a raised eyebrow and a crinkled muzzle. 

“Promise,” Sparkler replied. “If trouble happens, just get airborne and I’ll let them wear themselves out on me.” 

“Sometimes I feel that you are more of a pegasus than I am,” Loch Skimmer admitted with a soft chuckle. 

“Sometimes I just want to feel a pegasus,” Sparkler responded as she waggled her ears at Loch Skimmer. 



 

Pacing back and forth, Ripple looked at her Raptors, smiling with pride. Her breath was visible in the chilly night air. The sun had just gone down but the moon had not yet risen. The pegasus filly’s wings were flared out in a display of dominance. 

“Raptors, something is rotten in the ruins of Fillydelphia,” Ripple announced as she paced. She paused mid step, craned her head, made her neck pop, and then resumed pacing. “Lugus has received a dispatch that a mated pair of wyverns have taken up residence in the ruined half of the city, and are preying upon the populated half of the city.” 

“Oh sod it,” Branwen swore. The small albino griffoness peered up at Ripple. “A mated pair are going to be extra protective of their nest.” 

Flench, who was busy sharpening a hook sword, looked over at Branwen. “I’ll protect you if you’ll let me tug your tail,” he offered.

Fluffing up to three times her normal size, Branwen opened her beak and hissed at Flench. She raised her wing and extended one central primary at the pudgy male griffon. “And who will protect you?” 

“Ooh snugglekins, don’t be like that,” Flench begged as his crest dropped down. 

“Listen up you little hairballs… we’re leaving for Fillydelphia in the morning. We’re going to be going with Lugus… and we’re going to deal with the wyverns. Lugus will be along in an advisory position… if Lugus has to step in to save us… I’m going to kill the lot of you with long distance flight training… under a full load!” Ripple said in a commanding voice. 

“I like the way that sucks,” Loki muttered. 

“SHUT UP LOKI!” Angus snapped. “Just because you like being miserable doesn’t mean the rest of us do you incomprehensible halfwit!” 

“Piss off porcupine puss!” Loki retorted. 

“We’re going under full combat load. Crossbows. Swords. Slings. Princess Luna wants those wyverns dead. They’re pony eaters with a confirmed taste for delicious pony flesh,” Ripple barked as she paced in front of her group. “What do we do with pony eaters?” 

“We flay the filthy flesh right off of their bones?” Freyja replied in a hissy whisper that reeked of feline evil. 

“I love when she talks like that,” Callum remarked as he looked over at the griffoness. Reaching out, he gave her tail a tug. 

Looking over at Callum, Freyja grabbed the smaller male and pulled him closer. “Later,” she promised in a predatory voice. 

“Tomorrow, we fly to Fillydelphia. I want all of you rested and ready to go by dawn. We have ponies to save! Raptors… let’s leave a good impression!” Ripple shouted. 





“Yew Wood and Bittersweet are looking after the wee ones… so we have plenty of time for ourselves,” Berry Punch said in a low seductive growl to her companions as they entered the bedroom together, Berry entering the door first and the others following after her. 

“Fresh sheets,” Derpy announced as she sniffed. “I love the smell of clean laundry.” 

“When is that cast coming off?” Bucky asked as he entered the room with Belisama riding on his back and clutching his mane. “Soon I hope.” 

“She has an appointment the day before Nightmare Night,” Berry remarked as she flopped down upon the bed and bounced. 

A moment later, Derpy threw herself into the bed beside Berry Punch and then gave the earth pony mare an affectionate nuzzle. Feeling the need to look desirable, Derpy began to preen herself, pulling her long primaries through her lips and smoothing them out carefully, leaving them glossy and shiny after a few passes. 

As Derpy lay there preening, Bucky carefully eased himself into the bed, mindful not to dislodge Belisama from his back. He sprawled out on his belly and kicked his hind legs out behind him as he folded his front legs in front of him. 

“It is strange to think about how griffons are denied the pleasures of oral sex… no lips. The closest they can come to any kind of action in that neighborhood is preening one another. Yew Wood and I talk about it a lot,” Berry Punch said in conversational tones. “No blow jobs… no radish hunting. No invading the root cellar and hoping to find a treat. Nothing.” 

Looking over at Derpy, Berry Punch pulled her lips back and licked her teeth. 

“I like it when Bucky preens me when he’s in griffon form,” Belisama admitted. She paused for a moment, looked at Derpy, flexed her talons nervously, and then clicked her beak together. “It was nice when Derpy preened me. It is good to know I am accepted into the pride.” 

Lifting her head, a thin train of slobber hung from Derpy’s mouth. “Of course you’re one of us… pride, herd, whatever you want to call it. You belong with us.” 

“Thank you,” Belisama said politely. 

Reaching out with a hoof, Berry Punch carefully wiped away the string of drool and then flung it carelessly away. “Pegasi,” she muttered. 

“Sentinel is worse,” Derpy replied in a low hushed voice. 

Reaching out with his right front hoof, Bucky prodded Derpy right in the bubbles. “Hey, you leave him alone,” he said teasingly. “So… who is dining on who tonight? Cause I’m totally in the mood to watch a little mare on mare action right about now.” 

Sighing, Berry Punch cast a longing lustful look at Derpy. “Tonight I dine on pegasus flesh… Bucky, does pegasus actually taste like chicken?” 

Blinking once, then twice, and then looking Berry directly in the eye, Bucky shook his head. “No. Not really. Not sure I like chicken.” Bucky paused and then looked around at Belisama with a mischievous gleam in his eye. “I could get a taste for griffoness though.” 

Her crest rising, all of Belisama’s feathers fluffed out at once, causing the griffoness’ appearance to double in size. Her beak opened and she began to pant slightly, her tongue visible. “It feels warm in here,” she remarked, her voice coming from deep within her throat. 

Feeling aggressive, Berry Punch shoved Derpy over and then crawled up between Derpy’s legs to have herself a good look of the spread eagled pegasus. “You dirty little mare… you’ve been preening your wings to get yourself off,” Berry Punch said as she looked down at Derpy, who was already a little damp. Pulling a hind leg up, Berry Punch delivered a playful swat to the rounded curve of Derpy’s perfectly pleasant perky plush protruding plump plentiful posteriour, paddling perversely, provocatively provoking, poking, plus, playfully pucker prodding the passive pregnant prone panting perpetually perverted pegasus. 

Sucking in her lower lip, Derpy hissed as Berry Punch began to work her over. 

“You know, it can be scary to feel somebody touching you down here… with their teeth… in a place they could bite you and make you hurt. Especially if you are already afraid of sexual contact to begin with. And maybe come from a culture where this kind of thing just doesn’t exist,” Berry Punch said as she pressed a hoof into Derpy’s now winking snatch, twisted, pushed, and kneaded. 

“Hmmmmm,” Derpy moaned as she went limp on the bed and closed her eyes. 

“See? Trust. She trusts me enough to close her eyes and allowing me to do as I please,” Berry Punch explained as she pulled her hoof away and settled down upon her belly, her muzzle now scant inches away from Derpy’s now sodden cleft. 

Puckering up her lips, Berry Punch blew lightly over the crinkled parted flesh, which caused Derpy’s wings to spring out from her sides a bit. The quivering mound inches away from Berry’s lips swelled slightly, causing it to open invitingly. 

When Derpy’s winking clitoris presented itself for a moment, Berry’s tongue whipped out with lightning speed and gave it a quick lick, teasing the tip over Derpy’s generously sized nubbin. 

“Derpy once told me that Berry’s tongue can go so deep that you can feel it tickling in the back of your throat,” Bucky whispered to Belisama, causing the griffoness to titter. 

Berry Punch’s tongue snaked out, twisted sideways, and the tip of it ran along the left protruding lip of Derpy’s blue-grey glistening gash. With a flick of her tongue, she licked again, applying enough friction to tug at the left lip, separating it from the right, and revealing the dark purple-blue-grey flesh within. 

Mewling, letting out little pleading whimpers, Derpy flailed around on the bed as Berry Punch alternated between teasing the left side, then the right side, with the occasional penetrative lick right up the middle, leaving the tip of her tongue lingering over Derpy’s winking spastic clitoral mound. 

Reaching up, Derpy stuffed a hoof into her mouth and bit down on it as she let out a long low lazy lusty moan. Reaching down with her other hoof, she tried to reach between her legs, but Berry Punch gently pushed Derpy’s hoof away, so Derpy rubbed her own belly instead, which was now clearly showing her pregnancy. 

“We’ve all gotten a lot better at this,” Bucky whispered into Belisama’s ear. “When we started out, Derpy and I were pretty clumsy, Berry was the one with experience. Now, my tongue play is almost as good as Berry’s… but she has a longer tongue.” 

Lifting up her head from between Derpy’s legs, Berry Punch licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Not to mention, I can actually tie my own tongue in a knot,” Berry bragged. 

To demonstrate, Berry Punch waggled her tongue out, allowing it to spill out full length, formed a loop, and then in an amazing display of dexterity, slipped the tip of her tongue through the loop, forming a loose knot. Grinning, Berry Punch pushed the knot into Derpy’s now slurping snatch, which devoured Berry Punch’s tongue and with powerful suction, pulled it inside. 

With a lewd wink, Berry Punch rapidly rammed her tongue knot in and out of Derpy’s masticating minge, which appeared to be chewing on Berry’s outrageous organ. She went deep, held it, pulled it out oh so slowly, almost bringing it to the surface, causing the blue grey labia to stretch and change shape, before forcibly plunging back down into Derpy’s delicious delightful dew-filled depths. 

With a wet pop, Berry Punch pulled free of Derpy’s snatch, unfurled her tongue, and waggled it around a bit. “Thungue crampth,” she mumbled. 

Leaning over to whisper into Belisama’s ear, Bucky allowed his lips to brush up against and tickle the griffoness. “You might not believe this, but Berry Punch lifts weights with her tongue… she can wrap it around a shotglass, pick up said shotglass, and then pour the drink down her throat. I’ve seen her do it.” 

“She… can lick… the bottom… of a beer… bottle,” Derpy panted breathlessly as her eyes crossed, uncrossed, drifted apart, looked straight ahead, and then finally closed as a blissful expression overtook her face. 

Sensing Derpy’s weakness, Berry Punch sprang, pounced, diving muzzle first into Derpy’s bitch ditch and using her nasal bridge to apply simulation to Derpy’s clitoris as she plunged down and licked as deep as her tongue would allow. 

“Flibbertigibbets!” Derpy shouted as her eyes sprang open and bulged out. 

“The mother of all ‘f’ based expletives,” Bucky gasped as he pulled his head back. 

Clamping her fetlock over her mouth, Derpy giggled and then let out a low longing moan. 

Pushing herself in a little deeper, and ignoring her need for air, Berry Punch allowed her tongue to slither over every slick inch of Derpy’s foal hole, wet squelching noises filled the room, and the pegasus began to grunt as Berry Punch pushed her over the edge.

Pulling out with a loud raspy gasp, her muzzle dripping with snatch snot, Berry Punch sucked some air in and then resumed licking as she huffed through her nose, her tongue wetly slapping against Derpy’s clitoral mound, catching the flesh with friction from the rough bumpy surface, pulling and tugging as Berry Punch lapped aggressively at Derpy’s well watered plot furrow. 

Her eyes squeezed shut, Derpy could see colours dancing on the inside of her eyelids. Reds, blues, yellows, spots of colour darted about, a cinema of visual bliss. She could feel the static building in her wings as they fluttered against the blankets. She could feel her frogs as they began to sweat. Her dock muscles spasmed as her body’s muscles began to contract and tense rapidly. Each time Berry’s tongue touched her, Derpy felt her whole body jerk from the electric ecstasy of Berry’s teasing ministrations. Her breath was so hot that it felt as though it was searing her nostrils. 

Inhaling deeply, Derpy herd ringing in her ears as her whole body clenched up and went stiff, all four legs kicking slightly as she felt her own winking marehood squeeze upon a cock that wasn’t even there, trying to draw it in, trying to draw in seed that would never come, at least not from this orgasm. She let out a phlegmy gurgle, her tongue went dry, and a lightheaded feeling overtook her. 

“See?” Bucky whispered to Belisama, knowing that his lips were tickling the griffoness’ neck as they brushed up against her feathers. “This is why lips and a tongue are awesome.” 

“Whew!” Derpy gasped as she rolled over and pulled away from Berry Punch, closing her legs, and wiping away sweat from her nasal bridge. 

Flopping over, Berry Punch lay there on the blanket and grinned a self satisfied and rather smug looking grin. The earth pony licked her lips and sighed. “Well, that was a job well done.” 

“I feel warm,” Belisama confessed in a low whispery voice that came from deep within her throat. “Right now I feel as though I have too much fur.” 

“Yep, I’m that awesome,” Berry Punch agreed in a voice that radiated smug satisfaction.

“Berry, you and I are going to go finish this up in the shower… as soon as I can walk that is. Belisama and Bucky need some time alone together,” Derpy said in a somewhat breathless voice as she lay on the bed on her side, her eyes closed, drawing in deep breaths. 

“Have fun you two… if you need us Belisama, give a squawk,” Berry said as she rolled over and looked at Belisama. The earth pony drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly. 

Reaching out with his magic, Bucky gently grasped Belisama’s tail and gave it a soft yank as he turned his head so he could see Belisama’s reaction. The griffoness fell over, went limp for a moment, and then rolled over and presented her fuzzy tummy. 

“She’s adorable like that,” Derpy whispered in an almost drowsy sounding voice. 

“We should get going,” Berry Punch suggested in a low seductive growl. “I know a dirty dirty mare that needs a shower and a spanking.” 



 

Running his nose along Belisama’s throat and working his way slowly downwards, Bucky sniffed, snuffled, and occasionally planted little kisses along the tender and exposed vulnerable areas on Belisama’s body. 

Reaching out with her left talons, Belisama grabbed Bucky’s right ear and gave it a tug, making an odd sound in the base of her throat as she did so. She made a cooing sound, almost like a dove, and then she closed her eyes. “You have these silly looking ears… I love them.” 

Pausing just above Belisama’s breastbone, Bucky lay there, frozen in place, with Belisama tugging on one ear. “My ears are silly eh?” 

“I agree with Lugus… they are. Such a vulnerability. Something dangling off of the side of your head where something could grab it,” Belisama responded as she opened her eyes and gave another tug. “They’re so soft… silky… and your ears with those tufts… it feels like griffon cub down.” 

“Would you like to have a couple of little cubs?” Bucky asked in a low soft whisper, his words being breathed into the place on Belisama where fur and feathers mingled together. 

“I want to tell you yes, but hippogriffs are very rare,” Belisama said in a sad sounding voice. “Lugus and Yew are both quite frustrated… they want offspring.” 

“I know,” Bucky responded, his words causing Belisama’s feathers to ruffle, which made Belisama quiver beneath him. “I want my flesh and your flesh to be knit together… I want a little piece of me to live on with a little piece of you… and I hope that our young gets the very best from both of us.” When he was done speaking, Bucky resumed slowly working his way downward, mindful of Belisama’s talons clutching his ear. 

Feeling Bucky’s snoot now past her ribs, Belisama tensed, her muscles going taut as she realised a maw full of terrible teeth was now lingering over an area of flesh that had no protection. Without meaning to, she squeezed down tighter on Bucky’s ear, her foreleg jerking slightly, and she felt Bucky freeze. 

Realising that he had stopped because of the panicked ear tug, Belisama gave another tiny tug and a gentle squeeze to silently communicate that she was okay. Reaching out with her other talons, Belisama placed them upon the good side of Bucky’s face, on his cheek, and stroked it softly, feeling the thick silken hairs on the pads of her talon fingers. She felt his lips upon her belly, and could feel the hard points of fangs behind those lips, softly pressing through Bucky’s flesh and the hardness pushed into her own. 

Realising that she was in control, Belisama pulled upwards on Bucky’s ear, and she felt his lips trailing over her breastbone once more, leaving behind little kisses, and the feeling of his hot breath once more ruffled her feathers. 

Knowing this, Belisama began to push Bucky downwards slowly, her right talons sliding up along his face and grabbing his left ear. Looking up, she could see his horn directly above her. She had touched it a number of times now, and knew it was nothing to be afraid of, other than the fact that it was cold. Feeling Bucky’s lips now kissing just below her navel, Belisama shuddered, which made her beak clack together several times in succession. 

Letting out a faint hiss, Belisama could feel the long hairs on Bucky’s pelt tugging slightly upon the cast around her rear leg, and then she felt his breath on flesh that was already too warm for comfort. Squeezing his ears, she could feel him sniffing, could feel his searing moist breath upon folds of flesh that were already ablaze. She felt her hind toes curl and her tail wanted to pull up to cover her belly as fear slowly crept through her. 

And then, Belisama felt two lips press into her own. 

With fearful reflex, Belisama tugged upwards, pulling Bucky’s head towards her navel once more as she panted from fear. She looked down, twisting her head around, and saw Bucky’s eye looking up at her, a patient looking expression upon his face as one eyebrow slowly raised expectantly. 

Her toes tensing and flexing, Belisama pushed Bucky downwards once more. 

Inhaling sharply, Belisama felt a curious tongue touch her folds, lingering on the surface, the moist heat settling in, and then a feeling of coolness as it was withdrawn. The sudden cool sensation made her tingle strangely, it made her throat feel tight, and made her vocal cords tense. Then, she felt it again, more pressure this time, a gentle lick followed by the touch of two lips pressed against her own as a slow lingering kiss was planted. She felt Bucky’s head turn sideways, at an angle, so his two lips were more lined up with her two lips, and she felt the curiously damp sensation of his lips gently kneading her still tightly clenched slit. 

Bucky’s tongue was rough, bumpy, yet still somehow curiously smooth. Belisama felt it play along her entrance, lingering above the folds, and then she felt the edge of his tongue part her slightly, slipping in, spreading her open ever so slightly, and then brushing across what was found within. 

Quite without meaning to, Belisama moaned. Squeezing Bucky’s ears, she pulled his head downward, forcing his muzzle down between her legs, and her whole body quivered as she felt the delightful pressure of his lips locking on and forming a seal with her own. 

Mid-lick, Bucky’s tongue stopped and she felt his head pull away slightly. 

“Berry was right… you have a filly ribbon… er… griffoness ribbon? I don’t know… it is small and thin… it might hurt a little when it breaks. Please don’t tear my ears off,” Bucky said, offering up a warning. 

“Just… take care of me,” Belisama urged in a soft utterance, her beak not moving. 

Belisama felt him again, there was the sound of fur rustling up against Bucky’s pelt, a faint wet sucking sound, and then, a feeling of pressure as Bucky’s tongue probed ever deeper. She felt something tugging, something that made all of her muscles in her hindquarters tense and flex, and made her tailhole pucker. Squeezing Bucky’s ears tightly, Belisama felt the pressure build, as though something was pulling on her insides, and then the pressure was released. There was a faint stinging sensation but no real pain, it was like a stinging slap on exposed flesh. She could hear Bucky lapping and part of her mind registered that he was probably tasting her blood right now. 

The griffoness shivered and bucked her hips upwards, and she was mindful that she did not sink her claws into Bucky’s tender ear flesh as she squeezed. “This feels good.” 

His tongue pressing ever deeper as Belisama’s flesh relaxed, Bucky growled into Belisama’s blossoming folds, causing the griffoness to convulse with giddiness. 

It felt like ants crawling over her skin, or flying outside through the freezing rain. Belisama gasped, squawked, and then she hiked her good leg upwards, wrapping it around Bucky’s head, and then sliding it down his neck slowly, grabbing his mane with her toes and giving little tugs as she slipped downwards. The feeling of his long silky pelt trailing over her sensitive footpads was almost too good to believe, it caused her leg to kick and jerk slightly, and she had to be mindful to keep her hind claws carefully retracted and away from Bucky’s skin. 

Belisama failed. 

One claw caught on Bucky’s flesh, snagged slightly, catching the skin just enough to sting, which caused Bucky’s muzzle to plunge downwards as his body reacted to the soft teasing clawing. 

Pulling himself free with a wet smack of his lips, Bucky looked up at Belisama and saw she was looking at down at him. “Kitty has claws!” 

Using her hind leg, Belisama drug her footpad over Bucky’s pelt, teasing his flesh with her claws, this time being far more careful and mindful. She felt his muscles flex, twitch, and spasm under her ticklish touch. 

Overcome with an emotion that she could not identify, Belisama froze in place, her toes tugging on Bucky’s pelt, her eyes locked on his eye, both of her talons still clinging to his ears. She let go of his ears, allowing them to slip free from her grasp, and she flexed her talons nervously as she folded her forelegs over her girth. 

“I love you,” Belisama said in a confessional whisper. “You set me free. You gave me life and a reason to live and be happy… I met you on the worst day of my life and every day has been better since.” Her foot slid down Bucky’s side and then fell to the bed with a soft thump upon the rumpled blankets. 

Saying nothing in reply, Bucky ducked his head down and gave the griffoness a slow loving lick, his tongue probing until he found a tiny nubbin of flesh hidden within pink folds. Tiny, smaller than a pea, Bucky could feel it as he continued to explore. 

Belisama felt it too. When Bucky’s tongue brushed over her she felt her whole body tingle as though she was flying through a freezing thunderstorm full of sleet and lightning. Grabbing the blanket with her talons, Belisama squeezed as she allowed Bucky to freely explore, finally trusting him, letting go, and allowing the moment to happen. 

With each lick, each penetration of his tongue, Belisama felt herself opening up more and more, her flesh was relaxing and allowing for easier entry with each pass. When she felt his tongue move over a spot just below the place where she felt the electric tingle, she felt her whole body come to life. 

“More there!” Belisama begged as she unclenched her talons from the bed and then reached down to stroke Bucky’s face with the sides of her talon fingers, her claws angled away from Bucky’s face. She felt Bucky respond with one lick, then another, and then she felt him angle his tongue to drag the much rougher side edge along the spot that felt so good. 

Reaching up, Belisama grabbed her beak and gave it a squeeze, not knowing what to do with her talons. Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils, she tried to let it out slowly as her body began to feel peculiar. It was difficult to breathe and Belisama wondered if she was panicking. There was suddenly an annoying cramp in her side, which she ignored, determined to see this out as she was. 

There was a firm push of Bucky’s tongue, followed by a swirling motion around what felt like a second heart to Belisama, and then the griffoness found that she couldn’t breathe at all for a moment. Her whole body seized, her body quaked, and then her girth suddenly heaved as she sucked in one shuddering breath. 

Letting out a long feline yowl, Belisama experienced her first orgasm. 



 

Yawning lazily and enjoying the afterglow, Belisama pressed tighter up against Bucky’s side, her tail twitching, and her heavy eyelids staying only half open. She felt Bucky roll over, and she scooted over to remain pressed against him, until something bumping against her backside made her pause. 

The griffoness’ half open eyes went wide from surprise. 

Reaching out a foreleg, Bucky pulled Belisama close, hugging her to his barrel, her back pressed tightly up against his ribs. The griffoness wriggled, not to get away, but to reposition herself slightly as she understood what was about to happen. 

Grabbing ahold of Bucky’s metallic prosthesis, Belisama got a good grip and braced herself as she lifted her tail out of the way, laying up against Bucky’s body, draping it over his side. 

“Mounting you would only smoosh you into the bed,” Bucky whispered as he tucked his head downwards closer to Belisama’s head. “But I like spooning… if at any time, you feel uncomfortable, scared, or worried, just pull away and I’ll pull back.” 

Wrapping her talons around one of Bucky’s demon steel talon fingers, and then wrapping her other talons around his talon thumb, Belisama pulled her hind legs up to her belly, pulling her backside taut and exposing herself, leaving herself wide open and accessible from behind. 

“You’re much stretchier down there than I thought you would be. I don’t think this will be too difficult or hard… still worried about hurting you… you’re so small,” Bucky breathed as he stroked Belisama’s ribs with his right front fetlock. 

Gently pushing Belisama downwards, Bucky thrust himself upwards, paused, and then got a feel for the lay of the land. Belisama really didn’t have a plot furrow, there was no fertile valley back there, her backside was mostly flat. He poked, prodded, probed, and pushed, brushing his flat flared tip all over Belisama and making her squirm. 

“I don’t know that I’m going to last long… I’m really pent up,” Bucky confessed as his tip found a searingly hot and wet place below Belisama’s tail. 

Feeling Bucky’s whole body tense, Belisama felt something pressing against her. The pressure built, continued to grow in intensity, she felt her body stretching, and then she felt the edge of Bucky’s cock gain purchase on her slit, parting her slightly and catching on her insides enough to allow more to slip in. 

“I busted your ribbon… but I’m about to really take your virginity in just a moment… are you ready?” Bucky asked in a voice filled with concern. “I remember losing mine…” 

“Just hurry up,” Belisama urged as she wiggled her backside around, trying to get more of Bucky to slip in. Something itched back there. 

With a smooth careful motion, Bucky pushed in, going past her loosened outer lips, and then hitting the much tighter entrance just inside. He pushed slowly, carefully, Belisama’s snatch was so tight around his cock that it pushed the skin back away from the tip, creating pudgy wrinkles down below the head as Bucky’s girth was eased in. 

Surprisingly, Bucky kept sliding in with relative ease, slowly slipping into the tight cleft, he could feel Belisama stretching around him, and the griffoness was now hissing like a tea kettle with each inch he gained. 

With a lewd sounding raspberry, Bucky bottomed out in Belisama, his cock only almost halfway in and unable to go in any further. He could feel his tip pressing up against something soft, warm, and pulsating. He hadn’t even sunk himself in to the ring. 

Pulling out a bit, Bucky sunk himself in again, careful to only go so far. Wiggling his hips, he began to trust with smooth rhythmic regularity as Belisama melted against him, her eyes closing as she let out a soft low yowl from deep within her throat. 

With each thrust, there was a wet slurping sound to accompany it. 

The silken sleeve into which Bucky thrust his cock was entirely different than an equine plot furrow. It was slicker, tighter, grippier, almost too slippery. It was difficult to get enough friction for good stimulation. A thick runny mucus was being spurted out onto the bed with each thrust, a defensive protective lubricant meant to ease the trauma of being penetrated by a barbed penis. 

Gritting his teeth, Bucky picked up the pace since Belisama seemed okay with it. 

Yowling with real volume now, Belisama’s tail thumped up against Bucky’s side with each stroke, her whole body was rocked forward with thrust, and she pushed back by bracing herself against Bucky’s mechanical talons. 

So tightly stretched was Belisama that her tiny nub of flesh and nerves was sliding along Bucky’s length with each stroke, getting direct stimulation against the veiny wrinkled underside, sliding and bouncing along the bumps and ridges. 

After one particularly firm thrust, Belisama hissed, her beak opening wide as the air in her lungs was forced out through tightly clenched vocal cords. She jammed herself backwards, pushing against Bucky’s talons, now anxious for her own release. She cursed her own shallow depths… she needed to feel more of him sliding along her now throbbing fleshy button. 

With a snap of her beak as her eyes squeezed shut, Belisama approached the edge and then was pushed over by one well angled slam. Bucky was leaning over just a little bit now, pressing some of his weight down on her body, pushing her into the mattress somewhat, and Belisama sucked in a deep breath as the stallion’s frenzied humping continued unabated. 

For a brief moment, Belisama actually wanted Bucky on top of her, grinding her into the bedspread and having his dirty way with her. Each thrust was now causing her to peep as she yowled and hissed. She felt the muscles on Bucky’s stomach ripple and flex, and then there was one particularly hard thrust that was nearly painful, but in a good way. He stayed hilted this time, his cock jerking and spasming inside of her, and Belisama felt something hot fill her insides to a point of feeling strangely full, as though she might burst or pop. 

When Bucky pulled himself free, it was difficult to actually pull out, his flared head not wanting to pass through Belisama’s now too tight twat opening. He pulled once, causing Belisama to jump and moan, and then with the second tug, pulled free with a wet ‘schlorp’ sound. Panting, Bucky rolled over onto his back and lay on the bed, trying to recover. 

Crawling on top of Bucky, Belisama lay down on top of Bucky’s barrel, her lower half sprawled out over Bucky’s now half erect cock. 

“We can’t be done,” Belisama whispered pleadingly, her crest raised as her eyes blinked slowly. She felt her spine tense as an aftergasm rocked through her body and made her wings flutter. 

“Just give me a few minutes to catch my breath,” Bucky responded as he stared up at the ceiling and already feeling hungry for seconds. 

Grabbing Bucky’s chest scruff with her talons, Belisama gave a yank on the long hair. “But I have needs now,” she said as she slid her hot fuzzy belly along Bucky’s length. “Can we try this with me on top this time?” she asked. 

“Yes… I think you’d like that,” Bucky replied and then took a deep breath. 

“Good… this night is ours… I want to make it special,” Belisama stated as she lay her head down on Bucky’s chest and closed her eyes. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 458
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Screaming. 

Why must there always be screaming? 

Struggling to come to wakefulness, Bucky pulled his body up from the dark depths of sleep, and as he came to consciousness, he felt panic. Like a swimmer coming up to the surface of the water, he came to reality with a gasp, followed by a sharp blow to his chin that left him seeing stars and tasting the coppery tang of blood in his mouth as his lip was split open by his own fang. Ignoring the pain, he lifted his head and saw Berry Punch next to him, flailing around in the dark, and now, the others in the bed were waking up as well. 

Risking another kick, Bucky grabbed Berry Punch by the neck and pulled her close, his bloodied lips drew near to her ear, and then he felt her grab on to his body and pull him closer. 

She was always the stronger between the two of them. 

“Berry… speak to me, are you alright?” Bucky asked. 

He waited for a reply, he could feel her drawing in a few shuddering breaths. She was sweaty, shivering, beneath her silken pelt her skin felt clammy. He could feel the dampness in the sheets around her. Her mane was sticking to her face. 

“Wolves,” Berry said. 

Bucky saw Derpy’s silhouette in the dark; she was crawling over Berry Punch and then dropping down right on top of her. The others were piling in now as well. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Belisama were all coming closer. 

The only one not here was Thistle, who was in the lake. 

“There were wolves and they were chasing me… they kept nipping me, biting me, but not killing me. The twins were about to drop, I kept trying to hold them in, to get away, but then I couldn’t run anymore… I couldn’t stop the birth… the wolves grabbed one when it was halfway out and then ripped it apart… I couldn’t stop them…” Falling silent, Berry Punch pressed her face into Bucky’s neck and Bucky could feel her moist breath soaking into his pelt as she panted. 

Swallowing, Bucky cleared the blood from his mouth and then drew a deep breath himself. He didn’t know what to say, or even how to express what he was feeling. 

Her voice little more than a hushed whisper, Lyra said, “There are no wolves.”

His ears perking, Bucky could hear Derpy kissing the back of Berry’s head. The small lamp on the bedside table came on, the electric light was warm, soft, and yellow. Bucky could see Bon Bon sitting up now, balanced on her haunches, and she was rubbing Berry’s belly. 

“I did this to you.” 

Berry’s words were guilty, softly spoken, and muffled from being said into Bucky’s neck. Feeling confused, Bucky struggled to understand what it was that Berry Punch was trying to say. 

“I started this… I was so madly in love with you… the kind of love that makes you crazy in the head and the hate I felt towards your parents was equal to the love I felt for you… and I really love you...” 

Hearing Berry Punch pause, Bucky drew in a deep breath and waited for her to continue. 

“There was too much crazy in my head and it all just sort of spilled out that day. I thought about everything… you… my clan history… I thought about everything that made me what I was and then I thought I’d make me a statement. So I went and did what I did and I made all of this happen… the war, the collapse… and you. Because of what I did, you ran headfirst into everything that has made you what you are now and it is all my fault.” 

Bucky felt every single word being spoken into his windpipe and he could feel tears soaking into his pelt. He blinked, his own eye now stinging with tears, and he struggled to find words to comfort Berry, to tell her that this wasn’t her fault. 

Drawing in a deep breath and focusing her wide golden eyes upon the distraught earth pony mare, Lyra said, “Berry, if not the Shetlands, then Bucky would have ran into his fate somewhere else. This was inescapable. This isn’t your fault. If it wasn’t you, then something else would have brought this about.” 

Outside of the field of his vision, Bucky heard the clack of a beak as Belisama yawned. 

“As rough as it sounds, this worked out for the best. If you hadn’t have done what you did, then Bucky might have gone off to face danger in some other part of the world, come back as he is now, the Shetlands might not have been liberated, and the noble houses might still be in charge… Berry Punch, as bad as everything was, it worked out for the best,” Bon Bon said as she continued to rub Berry Punch’s rounded belly. 

All around him, Bucky could hear the sounds of breathing. Some heavy, some not, and Berry Punch’s own breathing was still hitching, almost a sob, and he could tell that the earth pony mare was struggling not to break down and start bawling. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Bucky gave Berry a loving squeeze. “I do not regret anything that has happened.” 

“I do…” 



 

Feeling dull and out of sorts, Berry Punch tossed down the newspaper and then snorted in disgust. She had awoke this morning in a bad mood after the nightmare last night, and she was now feeling guilty about being so cranky, which she knew was affecting the others. She had been short tempered since waking. 

“Something upsetting?” Bucky asked. 

Holding back her need to shout, Berry nodded. 

“What is it?” 

Lifting up her coffee cup, Berry took a sip, swallowed, took another sip, held it in her mouth for a moment, swallowed, and then looked at her husband. “An attack on herd marriages and how it is going to destroy society by creating a minority out of one particular tribe.” 

“Unicorn supremacy group?” Bucky asked as he stirred honey into his tea and then added a slice of dehydrated crystalised lemon. 

Staring sullenly at the newspaper for a moment, Berry shook her head. “No, this is an earth pony that is advocating for monogamy.” After she fell silent, Berry Punch heard Bucky snort and then she felt a smile threatening to come creeping out, a smile she was in no mood for. 

“Let me guess… this earth pony… he’s saying that earth ponies have an obligation for responsible breeding and keeping their numbers reasonable?” Bucky asked. 

Nodding, Berry Punch’s ears folded back a bit. 

“Well he’s right. All earth ponies are sex crazed maniacs.” 

Bucky’s words were said in a dull flat monotone, an almost perfect delivery. To most listeners, they would never know that Bucky was joking, and Berry Punch bit her lip as Bucky’s dry humour threatened to destroy her bad mood. The implications of a unicorn saying those words did not escape Berry Punch. 

“I hope Ripple will be okay.” 

Turning to look at Derpy, Berry Punch reached out and patted the grey pegasus mare that had just voiced her concerns. “Ripple will be fine… she has her Raptors and Lugus is with her. Mama bird, you have to let your babies leave the nest sometimes.” 

Berry Punch could see Derpy’s lower lip quivering and one ear twitched. 

A worried whine escaped Derpy’s lips, and then Derpy closed her bad eye to focus on Berry Punch. “But she’s so little and still so skinny… and these are wyverns. I’m worried about my little Ripple.”

“This is turning out to be some day. I keep having nightmares and I woke up in a snit, Derpy is going to be worried sick until her missing baby bird comes home, Belisama is sore all over, and I feel guilty for giving my husband a fat lip.” Setting down her coffee cup with a thump and a splash, Berry Punch then folded her forelegs over her barrel and slumped down in her chair. “Feck mornings.” 



 

The ruined skyscraper offered a good vantage point to both halves of the city of Fillydelphia. The building had been gutted by fire, but the steel and concrete structure still stood tall. A narrow river ran through the city, dividing it in two, and currently only one half was populated. 

By ponies anyway. 

The other half of the city, which was mostly ruins, was now inhabited by all manner of critters, beasts, and even monsters. 

Standing upon the roof, Ripple was surrounded by her Raptors, who all kept watch in different directions. Off by himself, Lugus was sitting and looking out over the pony populated side of the city. The flight here had been long, made troublesome by high winds, and now the group was having a rest before getting down to the ugly task of hunting wyverns. 

The sharp-eyed filly could feel the ruined hulk of the building she stood upon rock when the wind gusted. Her short light blue mane was tugged by the breeze.

Looking over at Shaquah, Ripple turned her whole body about to address the griffoness. “How is our ordnance?”

Ripple watched as the griffon rose and saluted. 

“All magical ordnance accounted for. We have several spell jars for general use, detonative quarrels for the crossbows, and many sling jar bullets if we need them,” Shaquah said as she sat up, balanced upon her haunches. 

His tail twitching, Loki peered off into the distance and made a gesture for Ripple to come closer to him, waving his talons in a come-over-here motion. 

Stepping closer to the griffon with questionable sanity, Ripple peered ahead, trying to see whatever it was that Loki might be looking at. “What is it Loki?”

Reaching out with his talons, Loki grabbed Ripple’s ear, pulled her head down lower, and then pushed it off at an angle. “There. See it? Something has chewed away the metal on the sides of that building, chewing away those support struts where there used to be windows… what do you think it might be that would need a bigger entrance into an old building?” 

Suddenly seeing what Loki was describing, Ripple grinned wickedly and gave Loki an appreciative hoof-prod. “Good news Raptors… I think I see our nest. Right near the river too.” 

“Squire Ripple!” 

Nearly jumping out of her skin, Ripple turned to look at Lugus, who approached. She saw that he had his axe, a massive longbow that had to be over six feet in length, and a quiver of long thick arrows. Reflexively, she snapped to attention, whipped out a wing, and saluted. 

“We will split the wyverns up. I will take one while you and the Raptors take the second. This means I am trusting you to look after each other while I will be busy—”

“Who will look after you, sir?” 

“Private Loki, do not interrupt me… Raptors, be careful. I am trusting you with my squire. Do not fail me,” Lugus said. The big griffon fluffed to almost twice his usual size and glared down at the much smaller Raptors, his eyes narrowed fiercely, and his talons dug into the ruined roof of the building they were roosting upon. 

Ripple could see that Lugus was in one of those moods. Smiling, she looked over at her instructor and gave a nod. “Sir, I’ll be fine, sir.” She watched, waited, studying Lugus for his reaction. She saw his crest rise and his beak open. 

His posture relaxing a little Lugus turned to look directly at his squire. “Squire Ripple, you are very dear to me. Do be careful. Plus, your father would do things to me that are worse than death if you come to harm. Please think of me when minding your own safety.” 

Spreading her wings out, Ripple felt a surge of pride jolt through her body. “Okay Raptors, listen up! We’re gonna need a strategy before we head out and begin the hunt! Now is the time to run your beaks!” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 459
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Things were not going as planned.

Things never went as planned. No plan ever survived contact with the enemy, Lugus had warned her of this, and Ripple had foolishly not listened. When this was over, if Ripple survived it, she made a promise to herself to spend more time listening and less time thinking of clever quips to say when she and Lugus sparred. 

Turning sharply, Ripple banked around a corner, pumping her wings as hard as she could. Behind her, the wyverness was in hot pursuit. Ripple was smaller, a little bit faster, far more maneuverable, and Ripple was playing out her advantages for all that they were worth. 

Glancing over her shoulder, Ripple saw the slobbering maw of the massive wyverness. Multiple rows of teeth, all of them like spikes and needles. A long tail that ended in a cruel barb and filled with deadly poison. A long supple neck, two large webbed wings, and two long hind legs that ended in massive talons that could easily snatch up a pony, one in each set of talons. 

“Oh bugger.” 

Flying way too fast to make the next turn, Ripple wrenched her body around, pumped her wings, and then braced out with her hooves alongside the stone building. She ran sideways along the wall, her war shoes striking sparks as she ran nearly the full length of the building, her momentum keeping her aloft. Near the end of the wall, she pushed away and took off flying.

Behind her, the wyverness crashed into the wall, shattering some of the stone and then falling away. It took the wyverness some time to recover from the impact, and Ripple crowed in smug triumph, “Hahahaha ya big dumb bitch!” 

Looking up, Ripple saw Grunion, Loki, and Gofannon perched in the open window of a large abandoned apartment building, and she could see the glint of brass on their crossbows. She felt a pang of worry for a moment and hoped that the big dumb bitch would keep chasing her, and not her Raptors. The Raptors were hers to protect, and her father would be furious if they were to get hurt. There was also the curious conundrum that her Raptors were charged with keeping her safe, and would die if necessary to protect her. 

It was quite a pickle, and if trouble came, there would probably be a fight to see who was going to die to defend who first. The Raptors weren’t just Ripple’s troop, her servants, and her guards, they were her family, her friends, creatures that she loved dearly and held deep affection for, even if she did beat the stuffing out of them regularly. 

As Ripple went streaking past, the wyverness hot on her tail, Grunion, Loki, and Gofannon took careful aim and then fired. All three quarrels struck home, the first struck the wyverness in the wing joint, the second tore into her central knuckle on her left wing, and the third lodged into serpentine creature’s long supple neck. 

There was a piercing draconic scream of pain from the wyverness, then there was an angry thunderous roar, and then the now injured wyverness became enraged. 

With a sudden burst of speed, the wyverness surged forward and Ripple felt her danger sense screaming through every fibre of her being. She rolled away just as the wyverness’ jaws clamped down on where she had been only a fraction of a second before, and Ripple was certain that she had just lost a few hairs off of her cropped tail. 

Recovering, Ripple leveled out and then bolted ahead, flying with everything she dared in these tight confines. Too much speed and she’d splatter into a wall trying to go around a corner. She wove in an out of the many twists and turns of the canyons formed by abandoned high rises, then with a determined grin, she shot through an open window and into a building. 

Behind her, the wyverness smashed through the wall and Ripple found that she had company with her in the old office building. All around her were desks. She took off, flying in the narrow space between the ceiling and the desks, her hooves clattering over a desk occasionally as she flew forwards through the large open office space. 

The wyverness was far too big to do so, and was forced to crawl over the floor, shoving desks out of the way. She swept them away with her wings, flinging them aside, the desks shattering walls and slamming into each other with terrific force. Papers flew, personal fans fell off of desks, old coffee cups full of pens, pencils, and erasers fell to the floor and shattered. 

The wyverness roared in frustration as she had to move a particularly large bank of filing cabinets to chase after Ripple, who had disappeared around the corner. She tossed the first one aside, flipped over the second and the third, and then the domino effect took care of the rest, filling the open area with a loud -thump thump!- of sound as the filing cabinets fell over atop of one another, clanging and banging together in a terrific cacophonic discordant hullabaloo. 

Coming around the corner, the wyverness was slugged in the nose once, twice, thrice, and then finally, a four hit combo left her with a bloodied snoot and a few broken fangs. Each strike left behind flesh burned by extreme cold. Ripple’s hammering blows stunned the shocked and surprised wyverness, causing the large head to snap back from the force of impact caused by the enchanted war shoes that Ripple wore, made for her by her father. 

Taking off as fast as she dared, Ripple hurled an insult over her shoulder, shouting “Dungbrain!” as she fled. 

The wyverness screamed in fury, shaking her now bloodied head and lunging forward after her now hated meal. Snatching up a desk between her wing knuckles, she hurled it at Ripple with as much force as she could muster.

Dodging, Ripple felt the desk graze her primary feathers as she rolled out of way. The desk smashed into the wall, filling the air with the sounds of squealing steel and concrete dust. A large section of ceiling gave way and Ripple nearly found herself smooshed as she once again darted out of the way, only to almost become crushed once more as a section of wall toppled in her direction. Feeling frustrated about all of the close calls, Ripple voice her annoyance in one rage filled syllable… 

“Bitch!” 

Leaping out of a window, Ripple took wing and began to look around for more Raptors. 



 

The wyverness was far more resistant to damage than Ripple had anticipated. She flew low, flying near street level, the wyverness right behind her. Overhead, Ripple knew her Raptors were waiting. Pouring on some speed, Ripple accelerated and banked upwards. 

Behind her, the world exploded into fire. She could feel the heat and she heard the dull roar of flames as several flaming spell jars set everything ablaze. Looking back, Ripple saw a terrifying sight. It was quite literally the stuff of nightmares, an image that Ripple knew would haunt her to her grave, and would visit her in her scary dreams every chance it got. 

She now had a flaming wyverness chasing after her. 

“Oh shite and buggery!” 

The wyverness’ thick hide was protecting her from most of the conflagration that had been dumped around her. Buildings ignited, abandoned wagons burned, and the now exceedingly pissed off wyverness blazed. 

“NEW PLAN RAPTORS! NEW PLAN! MAKE IT UP AS WE GO!” 

“Loki! Do something crazy!” somebirdy cried. 

Feeling panicked when she heard those words, Ripple risked a another look back over her shoulder, and then she looked around her, her eyes scanning for any sign of incoming danger. Asking Loki to do something crazy was a move borne of terrible desperation, and Ripple became vaguely aware that they were in deep meadow muffins now. Not sure what to do, Ripple went streaking off towards where the river emptied into the harbour, a flaming wyverness burning brightly right behind her. 



 

Weaving in an out between factory smokestacks, factories, and stacks of old cargo crates, Ripple kept the wyverness busy. She was feeling a little bit of fatigue now, her throat was painfully dry, and her lungs burned with each breath. 

The wyverness had been shot full of crossbow quarrels, pelted with sling stones, blasted with fire, and shocked with a few lightning spell jars. Her body was blackened, bloodied, scales were now missing, leaving behind exposed flesh and bleeding lacerations. At some point, the flames had died, but she still smouldered and streamed smoke behind her as she flew. 

Ripple was still flying by adrenaline alone… the wyverness functioned on pure rage. 

Dropping suddenly, Ripple flew under the boom of a crane, and then a second later she heard the screech of metal when the wyverness slammed into the boom arm. Too breathless to crow anything in triumph, Ripple kept flying. 

“Ripple! SOUTH!” 

Following the shouted command, Ripple banked and headed south between a cannery and an old brewery. She found herself in a narrow confine, there wasn’t much room to maneuver between these two massive brick buildings, and she was glad to see the open sky at the end of the of the corridor. 

Seeing a large net at the end of the corridor, Ripple panicked when she saw it far too late. “Oh buggery!” 

If she pulled up now, she would never make it in time, the wyverness was inches away from her tail, and Ripple had no options. She pulled in her wings, tucked in her legs, and made her body as straight and slim as possible. 

Ripple closed her eyes and trusted in luck. 

The filly slipped through the net, slipping between the thick chains that formed the cargo net. She could feel the chains clank against her body, brushing up against her feathers, her pelt, and she could feel her rear war shoes strike the chains. 

“Feck me!” 

Unfurling her wings, Ripple sucked air into her lungs and flapped for her life as the wyverness hit the cargo net. She was too close to the concrete pier, far too close for comfort, if she extended her legs she would kick the grey expanse of shaped stone. Her wingtips were striking the surface with each beat. 

“No no no no nononononono!” 

Pulling up with everything she had, Ripple shot skywards, rolled, banked, and then turned about to see that the wyverness had crashed into cargo net. It was now on the ground, thrashing about, trying to get free, the chains clanking as the massive creature fought against its bonds. 

Above the wyverness, a massive cargo container hung at the end of a crane arm. With a dull thud, the crane arm exploded, there was a massive incendiary cloud, and the cargo container came crashing down upon the wyverness with a wet sounding -splat!-

As Ripple dived, she watched her Raptors descending. She came in slow, almost gliding, watching as the half of the wyverness’ body that was not pinned beneath the cargo container kicked and twitched. The long scorpion-like tail whipped about, slapping from side to side upon the concrete. 

Her legs kicked out for impact, Ripple landed and then came to a running stop. She stood panting, her barrel heaving, her wings still flared out to dissipate her body heat. Her tongue lolled out and dangled from the corner of her mouth. 

Around her, the Raptors assembled, the smaller griffons all coming together to watch as the wyverness’ kicks and twitches became weaker and weaker.

Drawing in a pained breath that made her ribs ache, Ripple looked around to make sure that her Raptors were all accounted for. Seeing them all, she looked at the wyverness, saw its leg twitch one final time, and said, “You messed with the wrong flock.” 

There was the sound of wings flapping and the sounds of claws scratching on concrete. Ripple didn’t need to turn around to know that it was Lugus. She prepared her best smug smile, brushed her mane out of her face with her wing, and took a deep breath. 

“I saw almost everything...” 

Ripple’s ears perked. Lugus sounded almost… impressed? That was far more than Ripple had hoped for. She had expected a scolding for being reckless, for losing a few feathers from close calls, she had expected a good dressing down… 

“...you lucked out. You were sloppy, disorganised, there were too many times that your prey held the advantage and you only survived through sheer luck…” 

Ripple groaned and slumped down, her carefully prepared smug smile now vanishing. 

“...but there were also a couple of moments where you were utterly brilliant my squire, and for this, I am both impressed and proud of you. All of you. I’ll expect better next time though Raptors… today, luck was enough to see you through.” 

Her ears perking up straight, a grin crept over Ripple’s face as she turned to face Lugus. 
	
	
> Chapter 460
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike the dragon looked around him, feeling rather puzzled and somewhat unsettled. There was something that had been in the back of his mind, but he didn’t know what it was exactly, other than something had changed profoundly since Griffonholm, and the agreement that Twilight Sparkle was now to be recognised as his mother. 

Reaching up with his hand, he idly scratched at an ear frill with his claws, which caused a -scritch scritch- sound with each pass. All around him were ponies… well, mostly ponies. There were a few griffons now, and some diamond dogs as well. Reaching around, Spike grabbed his tail, gave it a tug, and began squeezing with his other hand. 

All around him, there were groups, those that had paired up or had gathered together. There was Sweet Pea and Growler; the entire school was talking about those two, and Spike felt happy for them. Beneath a tree sitting together were Babs and Piña, both of whom were probably working on their astronomy homework together. Dinky was sitting with Diamond Tiara, and the pair were working together to tutor younger students using flash cards to display the alphabet. Sentinel and Rumble were reading books together. Cloudstreaker, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were all working on a diorama project together. 

As Spike glanced around, he realised that he knew all of them. At some point, they had truly become friends. Instead of feeling like an outsider with Twilight and her friends, and he felt that way far too often, he actually felt close to everyone here and counted them as a dear and personal friend. These weren’t adults tolerating him or taking advantage of his helpfulness, these were friends his own age, more or less, in a manner of speaking. 

Quite without meaning to, he found himself gazing at Sweetie Belle, only he wasn’t aware that he was staring at her, his eyes wide and almost unblinking. Squeezing and tugging on his tail with both hands now, he thought of Sweetie Belle and how different she was from Rarity. Rarity used him… and preyed upon the fact that he had a crush on her, and Spike was fully aware of this. Spike was not aware however, that childhood crushes on fully grown adults always ended in heartbreak in some form or another. But Sweetie Belle was nice to him. Kind to him. 

Sweetie Belle would also die of old age before Spike hit adolescence, and he knew this. Sighing, Spike’s eyes fell downwards and he stared at the grass he was sitting on. Sweetie Belle was also sweet on Rumble, and Rumble was now a friend… a close friend. 

Becoming friends with Sentinel had really opened Spike’s eyes as to what friendship was, at least with creatures near his own relative age. He treasured each and every single one of them, and a part of him, he supposed it might be his inner dragon, felt very protective about his friends… his hoard.

They were his valuables. His treasures. As he stumbled into this realisation, his body actually grew a little bit, his dragon greed kicking in as he slowly arrived at one very important conclusion. 

They were all so very important to him. 

As his thoughts manifested, his claws grew a little longer, his tail grew a little lengthier as well as plumper, his ear frills became a little wider, and his scales became a little harder. Little wisps of smoke came out of Spike’s nostrils and there was an audible gurgle in his belly as his fires stoked. 

Spike was completely unaware of the change. 



 

Looking down at her homework, Piña drew a series of lines through a constellation that she recognised, drew a deep breath, and then rested her hoof upon her paper that was resting atop a book so she would have a smooth surface to write on. Pausing, she looked over at Babs, who was engrossed in her own homework. 

“Babs?” 

Looking up, her pencil held on hoof, Babs looked at Piña, her eyes bright and flashing. “Yeah?” 

“Do you think the stars can really tell us the future? I was reading a book about Nightmare Moon and how her return was predicted by the stars…” Her words trailed off and Piña concentrated for a moment, tapping her other hoof upon her chin. “Unless the stars predicted Nightmare Moon because Princess Luna controls the stars and maybe, just maybe, just enough of her remained to warn the world that she was coming so ponies could prepare and do whatever needed to be done to stop Nightmare Moon. Maybe I’ll ask auntie about it.” 

“Um… that’s kinda brilliant actually.” 

“Oh, thanks Babs.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

Piña saw Babs’ ears pitch forward as the orange earth pony foal stared down at her homework, and then Piña heard Babs groan in frustration, followed by an annoyed whine. 

“Do you really think they hid forty different constellations on this paper?” 

Looking down at her own sheet of paper, Piña pondered the possibilities presented to her by Babs’ inquiry. After a moment, she said, “Some of them overlap, so I guess there could be forty. Might even be more for extra credit.” 

“Oh brother… do you mind if I stay late so we can work on this together?” 

Looking away from her homework, Piña looked at Babs and nodded. “Not at all Babs… I’d like it if you stayed. You know you’re welcome here.” 

“Found one,” Babs said as she slashed a few quick lines from star to star with her pencil.

Her eyes moving from her own paper over to Babs’ Piña saw that she already had that one. She glanced up from Babs’ paper to Babs herself. “I don’t wanna sound snobby or anything, and I know how this might sound, but you’re pretty smart… it’s nice to have somepony else that is really smart to talk to. It gets lonely sometimes… don’t get me wrong, Dinky is smart, but she isn’t… smart. Dinky is clever though and she is a fast thinker.” 

“I try not to sound smart… makes life easier. Eggheads get bullied. So it is easier to grunt, never say too much, and act stupid so you just get left alone. Be a good stupid earth pony and you won't get hurt.” 

As Babs spoke, Piña could see a brief pained expression upon her face. It vanished just as quickly as it appeared, and Piña saw a rather blank looking expression appear for a moment. 

“Huh, I feel lightheaded. I think I need a study break. I’m gonna stuff my books in my bag and go for a walk around the lake. Maybe we’ll see Thistle,” Babs said as she opened her book, stuffed in her paper, and then stuffed the book into her bag. 

Putting away her own homework, crinkling her paper somewhat in the process, Piña looked over at Babs once more. “I’ll come with you… if you ever want to talk to Thistle, I’ll show you what to do to summon her when she is in the lake. Thistle is a really nice pony and she’s having a hard time right now.” 



 

Rubbing at his eyes with his central knuckle on his left wing, Sentinel then blinked afterwards and looked around. It was difficult to read in bright daylight with his eyes. Reaching up with hind hoof so he could get good leverage, Sentinel scratched behind his ear and then gave himself a shake. 

Yawning, he cricked his neck, enjoyed the crackling sound he heard and the tingles that followed. Smacking his lips, he looked over at Rumble and saw that the pegasus was busy staring off into space. 

“Hey Rumble, what’s the difference between moral and ethical?” 

Rumble, alarmed by Sentinel’s interruption, jumped slightly and Sentinel watched Rumbles wings fluff out and flutter for a moment in the usual startled manner of pegasi. 

“Whahuh?” 

Grinning, having caught Rumble slacking off yet again, Sentinel felt a little moment of personal satisfaction at the chance to get Rumble back on task. “I asked, ‘what’s the difference between moral and ethical?’ We both have the same homework, I wanted to see what you were thinking.” 

Sentinel observed as Rumble reached up and rubbed his head. 

“I, uh, was actually thinking about the hug I got from Apple Bloom earlier… and, uh, how soft she is. You’d think she’d smell like apples or something, I think she uses some kind of rose scented soaps or shampoo… kinda like my moms use, which is weird, cause now I like the way Apple Bloom smells, but I feel kinda creepy knowing she smells like my mothers.” 

“Oh… um…” Taking a deep breath, Sentinel’s attempt at a reply died off. He looked away from Rumble and focused his gaze upon a distant tree instead. “So… anyway, morals… morals… morals… morals are scruples, habits, social contracts that define right or wrong conduct. Morals provides guidelines for what to do and not to do, but is ultimately bound by personal indicators from within and our own sense of conscience.” For a moment, Sentinel allowed himself to feel a burst of pride for having said all of that out of memory and not having to look at his book, which was closed. 

“And ethics?” 

Clearing his throat, Sentinel looked back at Rumble and made eye contact with the colt. “Ethics are the prescribed rules of conduct to a particular field and or class of actions found within a profession, group, culture, or even a social class, with the notable exception to the ruling noble houses of Canterlot, who had their own defined sense of ethics.” 

“I’m never going to remember that,” Rumble said as he fell over backwards in the grass. 

“If you would like, if you are willing to allow me to do so, I can help you,” Sentinel offered. 

Still laying flat on his back in the grass, Rumble heaved a sigh and then Sentinel heard him speak, “Do you think my dad ever wonders what is moral or ethical when he works as a police officer?” 

Refusing to go off topic, Sentinel held firm. “Ethics come from an external source, morals come from an internal source.” 

“Aaaaah this stuff is really boring… why do I have to take this class!” 

Smiling faintly, Sentinel continued: “Ethics change over time as new standards are adapted and evolve, or at least they should. Stagnation is an issue. Mister Chips says that the ethical treatment of earth ponies is way out of date, for example. Morals on the other hoof—”

“Sentinel, buddy, you’re killing me!” 

“—are usually fairly fixed, unless an individual suffers radical changes to their worldview or their sense of self that forces them to shift their morals, as two working examples. There are others.” Taking a deep breath, Sentinel made ready to continue to torture Rumble for his own good. It was never easy doing the right thing, but Sentinel was a friend, and Rumble was going to learn something this afternoon, like it or not. This was the moral thing to do, or so Sentinel believed. 

Banging his head into the grass, Rumble kicked his legs around. “Fine! Fine then! So what happens when somepony is put into an impossible situation and they are forced to do something awful because there is no other choice!” 

Taking a deep calming breath, Sentinel replied, “A pony who is strictly ethical might not have any morals at all. Like the noble houses of Canterlot, who followed their own ethics and did incredibly immoral things. On the other hoof, one may find they need to violate ethical guidelines in order to remain moral, like breaking, er, bending a rule, because a rule might violate moral integrity, an internal sense of decency, and old fashioned horse sense.” 

“And morals?” 

Taking a few moments to consider his answer and recollect his thoughts from his lessons, Sentinel closed his eyes and brought to memory everything he could think of. “A moral pony, when faced with conflicting ethics, may try to work within the system to change them, ignore immoral ethical practices completely, and pick and choose from a list of ethical guidelines if they encounter a system of ethics or an ethical situation that they find morally reprehensible. If faced with an impossible situation, a moral pony might ignore ethical guidelines completely and try to find the path of least harm.”

Going still, Rumble lay in the grass, silent for several long moments, until he broke the silence with a low thoughtful sounding voice. “My dad does that. There are a list of things that he says are right and wrong. He told me that sometimes, you have to break the law to do the right thing. Like his marriage to my moms. He made a vow to both of them and he does everything he can to be a pony of his word. For a time, herd marriage was illegal, but my dad did it anyway because he felt it was right. And he’s always talking to me about how sometimes you have to do what is right and forget about everything else and then just take the consequences on the chin. I think that’s why I got into so many fights for a while… I thought I was doing what was right. Instead, I was just being an overprotective jerk.” 

“Rumble… I am… surprised…” 
	
> Chapter 461
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, I have organised the various reports about the affairs of the Shire Isles, and the reports that are of the utmost importance have been placed in a red folder. Things that require attention, are important, but can wait a little while are in orange. Things that are of minor concern are in the yellow folder,” Violet said as she carefully arranged the folders upon the farmhouse library table. 

“Thank you Violet, I’ll have a look at the red folder before school today. How does it feel being unofficially in charge of the Shire Isles?” Bucky asked his faithful secretary. 

“Honestly sir?” Violet replied as she looked up from the folders. 

Raising his remaining eyebrow, Bucky made a gesture indicating ‘out with it’ by waving his talons around in a wild gesticulation. “Honestly… I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.” 

Bucky could see Violet suck in a deep breath, he saw her face contort with a flash of anger, and then he settled into his chair, bracing himself for her acidic response… Violet was a bitter pony, and Bucky was already quite affectionate towards her because of it. 

“I would swallow my own personal feelings and then do what was best for all of them, probably hating myself the entire time, and then perhaps I would intentionally cultivate an addiction to your wife Bon Bon’s chocolates to see me through what would certainly be a trying time in my life. I would personally uproot every single unicorn I could and then offer them a trip to either the Sea of Grass or to here so that they might be rehabilitated, freed of the influences of the drugs, and then I’d leave the… the… subjects of the Shire Isles with exactly what they want… a society free of unicorns and the related paranoia,” Violet said in a curt and icy voice. 

Reaching up and stroking his chin with his talons, Bucky pondered Violet’s words and wondered if the mare might have other useful ideas embedded in her bile. Enamoured with her current idea, Bucky extended his left foreleg, pointed at Violet with his first talon finger, and made a little nod. “Do it.” 

“Do what sir?” 

Letting out a small sigh to avoid frustration, Bucky took a moment to keep his annoyance in check. “Send agents… trusted agents of the crown. Welfare agents with spotless backgrounds… send them to the Shire Isles with a fleet of privately hired airships. Gather up nurses and doctors if you can. Send a dispatch to the Sea of Grass and inform them of the plan, request their assistance, tell them that the Windigo once again needs their aid… and then began to evacuate every single unicorn that is willing to leave the Shire Isles. Get those unicorns cleaned up. Have the zebras use whatever sort of elixirs they can cook up to ease their addictions. The Shire Isles are a toxic place for unicorns, they will never be able to heal if they remain there. As for those too far gone to care for themselves, have an ultimatum delivered. The asylums are all to be closed before spring… I want every broken unicorn taken into protective custody and then either taken to the Sea of Grass or here, to see if there is any hope of restoring them. Luna has powerful magic to fix broken minds… so it might be possible to give them some kind of life back.” 

For a moment, Violet looked aghast and her mouth hung open. “Sir… as much as it bothers me to say this, the Shire Isles need unicorns… this will cause their living standards to—”

“Become like those on the Shetlands, which had few unicorns?” Bucky asked, cutting Violet off mid-sentence. “Good… let them suffer. Let this generation find out what it means to live without unicorns.” 

Bucky saw Violet flinch and he felt encouraged. That was the very sort of reaction that he desired. He leaned forward in his chair and watched as Violet’s composure broke, he could see and hear her stammering… 

“Sir… sir… this is an extreme measure that will have… will have… will have so many… unintended consequences… but I will do as you ask.” Violet Velvet’s mouth closed and her lips pressed into a straight line. She took a deep breath and then began to straighten out her badly shaken sense of professionalism. 

“Make it known that if they protest this decision, I will come to the isles personally and detonate a massive burst of dispelling magic, rendering all arcano-tech devices utterly useless. I want them to think about what they’ve done,” Bucky said, his upper lip curling back from his fangs as the final word left his mouth. 

“Very good sir.” Violet’s eyes dropped down to the table and Bucky watched her as she went perfectly still. After a moment, her saw her look up at him, and then her mouth opened. “Sir?” 

“Yes Violet?” Bucky’s voice was now calm. Cool. Collected. His moment of anger was now gone, and he felt a bit more like himself once more. 

“Teatime this afternoon, sir. Princess Celestia will be arriving with Tourmaline to visit Dinky and Piña. I will be personally making sure that everything is as pleasant as possible… will you be attending, sir?” Violet asked. 

“I’d like to Violet, but as you no doubt know, I have a very long and busy day. Twilight will be bringing by thousands of arcano-tech motors for golem creation and I have classes to teach.” Settling back into his seat, Bucky felt a bit of a sulk coming on and he felt his muzzle crinkle. “Anything else?” 

Violet’s ears perked up as she looked at Bucky intently. “There is one more thing sir. I have received a communication informing me that the entirety of the royal family is to be gathered together for photographs to be taken. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have a thing about Hearth’s Warming cards… anyhow, this is not optional. Failure to comply will result in Princess Luna personally hunting you down with a troop of Myrmidons and dragging you in chains to attend the occasion.” 

“Oh dear… I wonder if the Sea of Grass will offer the Windigo sanctuary…” 



 

Dropping a stack of books upon his desk, Bucky then turned around and faced his class with a small quiet sigh. He lifted a glass from his desk using his levitation, took a drink of water, cleared his throat, coughed, and then looked upon several smiling and curious faces. 

“Today in An Introduction to Dangerous Magics, we are going to discuss non lethal pacification and useful defense. In a little while, we will have a guest speaker that is much much better than I am at casting defensive spells… mine are, um, lacking sometimes. I see some new faces, I’ll need to see you after class so we can talk about getting you caught up. Now… who can tell me a way to defend yourself as a unicorn or things a unicorn might cast upon you to help protect you?” As Bucky spoke, he carefully looked around the room, trying to spot those who had expressions of keen interest, curiousity, those who showed promise. 

Seeing Dinky raise her hoof, Bucky reluctantly called upon her, but she was the only one with an answer. He pointed his index talon finger at Dinky and waited for her reply. 

“Aversion spells might not save you from damage, but they do make it difficult to look at you, see you, and makes it very difficult to most ponies to try and hurt you,” Dinky said as she sat with her front hooves carefully folded over her desk. “Also, aversion spells can be difficult to dispel compared to standard shield spells, which can be disrupted or bypassed by clever unicorns that might teleport a spell through a shield that has not been teleportation warded.” 

Impressed, and not because she was his daughter, Bucky nodded. “Very good Dinky Doo. You bring up some wonderful points to think about.” He looked around the class expectantly as he hoped for others. 

Much to his relief, he saw Rumble raise a wing. “Rumble?” 

“Um… since Dinky said you can teleport a spell… if somepony’s shields were not teleportation warded, what if somepony teleported say, a pegasus inside of a unicorn’s shield bubble?” Rumble asked, licking his lips when he had paused mid sentence. 

Smiling, Bucky became a little animated now that he was feeling some enthusiasm. “Wonderful question. The unicorn would be in  a very bad spot… if he lets down his shield spell, he becomes vulnerable. If he keeps it up, he is now trapped inside of his shield bubble with an angry pegasus… and having lived with a pegasus that has on occasion became angry with me, justifiably so, nopony wants this to happen.” 

Hearing the classroom giggle made Bucky relax a bit and he chuckled. 

“Which brings up another point… always use the element of surprise,” Sweetie Belle said in a shrill squeaky voice. 

“Yes!” Bucky seized upon this moment to surprise the class and his exclamation caused quite a few students to startle or jump. “Distraction is useful. Blow up something behind somepony. A flash of light appearing in the corner of their vision that might be mistaken for a second enemy spellcaster. A loud noise. Leave them never knowing which direction an attack might be coming in from. Startle them to disrupt their spell casting. It is better to scare somepony than it is to kill them.” 

Shifting in her seat as she rubbed her front hooves together, Sweetie Belle looked at Bucky to get his attention and then raised her hoof. 

“Yes Sweetie Belle?” Bucky asked. 

Bucky watched as Sweetie Belle continued to show signs of discomfort. 

“What if you have to kill somepony? Or something?” Once more Sweetie Belle squeezed her front hooves together and then stared down at them, her ears pinning back against her skull. 

Looking at Sweetie Belle made Bucky want to rush over and comfort her, to give her a hug and try to make her feel better, but that would not be conducive to the lesson. “It comes down to personal preference….” Pausing, Bucky drew in a deep breath, held it, internally counted to five, released it, and then continued: “If it is just you, and for whatever reason you don’t mind risking your life during a extended confrontation, you wear them down, attempt to subdue them, and then you neutralise the threat they pose. If there are others with you, comrades, friends, those you love, and something is trying to kill them, then hold nothing back in the defense of others. Anything goes. When it comes to protecting others, not just yourself, you do not have the luxury of doing whatever it takes to satisfy your own morals. You have an obligation to protect those around you, you do what needs to be done, and you kill… plain and simple. It is a sad regrettable fact of life, but it happens. Hopefully, none of you will ever find yourself in that situation.” 

“Like what you had to do for Sunset Shimmer?” Rumble asked in a solemn voice. “My dad read about it in the paper…” 

“Yes Rumble, like I did for Sunset Shimmer. I made a terrible mistake that night, and I failed her. I failed the residents of Ponyville… I held on to my own convictions and failed to apply enough force to take down my enemy before they became a threat to others… and Sunset Shimmer nearly paid for my own failure… with her life… a mistake I will never make a second time.” 

Bucky’s words caused the classroom to fall into complete silence, the only real sound was the soft faint snuffling of the occupants in the room breathing. Unsure of what to say next, of how to make sure this lesson was driven home, not knowing how to explain something this complex to a room full of foals, Bucky became increasingly aware that the silence was lingering. 

The minute hand moved a few notches upon the clock, and Bucky realised that the longer a silence exists, the more difficult it was to break it. Now, the silence was oppressive, almost painful, and Bucky began to feel a tightness in his barrel as his old friend panic dropped in to say hello. 

“In the end, any obligation we have to others is greater than any obligation we have to ourselves,” Piña said in a hushed whisper, her softly spoken words shattering the silence and banishing it away. “Especially if they are the ones we love, the very ones that will comfort us, reassure us, soothe us if we have to do something awful to protect them. To fail them would be the worst sort of thing.” 

Feeling relieved, Bucky felt tightness in his barrel ease off. “Yes class… Piña is correct… now let’s continue the lesson…” 
	
> Chapter 462
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Gazing out upon the faces of curious and eager students, Princess Twilight Sparkle offered up a shy smile and waved with her wing. She saw bright beaming faces, curious faces, and thankfully, she saw no sleepy faces. She ignored the nervous itchy feeling in her left ear and tried to contain her excitement about being a teacher instead of a student. 

“So, class, we only have a little bit of time left, so let’s make it count. Your headmaster spoke to you about non-lethal alternatives that can be used to pacify, and he’s really good at those actually, being an enchanter and a transmuter of exceptional renown. I specialise in abjuration… defensive magics. I did it because my big brother was always talking about how important a good defense is and as everypony knows, I idolise my big brother, best friend forever,” Twilight said in over enthusiastic tones as she bounced in place, her knees flexing as her leg bent and then straightened. “Any questions?” 

“Remember Twilight… young little foals… telling them about redundant matrices and multiple counter spinning oscillation layers to act as suspension for major impacts is not going to be very helpful to them.” 

Turning her head, Twilight looked at Bucky as he spoke, taking note of his slightly teasing tone and the wry grin he had. She knew when she was being ribbed and she know how to give back as good as she got. “Bucky, the thing is, I could probably explain those things to this class and I think a few of them would get it… maybe one of them might teach you if you asked nicely.” 

The class erupted into laughter and Twilight flicked one ear at Bucky, waited a moment, and saw him flick an ear back. Twilight understood that the class had to have moments of fun. She allowed herself to chuckle for a moment, cleared her throat, and then addressed the class. 

“Physical shields are only as good as your telekinesis. If all you can lift is a pen, a quill, or a pencil, then your shield, should you make one, will only stop a pencil if it is thrown at you. There are exceptions… I know for a fact that Bucky can lift several thousand tons in his telekinetic fields, yet his shields still tend to fizzle out pretty quick. Shining Armor, at least as he was before he became the Crystal Defender, couldn’t lift very much with his telekinesis, but his shields could stop many thousands of tons of force when it collided with them.” Twilight stopped speaking and gave her students a little bit of time to allow everything she had said to settle in. She looked around the room, looking at different faces, trying to get a feel for who might be having a hard time taking this in. After almost a full minute of silence, she continued. 

“So, for you unicorns, it is very important that you work with your telekinesis constantly. Every day. Keep lifting things. Heavy things. Offer to move furniture for your friends. Offer to carry heavy loads for your family. Be helpful to others. Be sure to lift every day and push your own limits. Keep struggling. Keep trying. You might struggle to lift a toothbrush today, but in time, if you work hard, you will be able to lift so much more.” 

Much to Twilight’s delight, she saw a hoof raise. “Sweetie Belle, please, do you have a question or a comment?” 

Turning her head, Sweetie Belle looked at her classmates and then back at Twilight. “Um, this is a good lesson for unicorns, but we have pegasi and earth ponies in class too… how does this apply to them?” 

Like a ravenous predator, Twilight sprang upon the question. “Good question! By understanding how a shield works, an earth pony or a pegasus can know how to take it down. By slamming the shield with a tornado, you might be able to take the shield down. Earth ponies can buck the shield or hurl rocks at it… like Maud Pie the earth pony might do. I know some pretty strong earth ponies that might kick through a common unicorn’s shields without too much trouble. With this in mind, if you are a unicorn, and you have earth pony friends, let them kick your shields for the workout. Pegasi too.” 

“I can’t even cast a shield spell, or anything else,” a unicorn colt said. 

Twilight turned to look at the colt and offered him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, pretty soon, there are going to be practical lessons in how to construct a simple shield bubble. It is basically just using your telekinesis to push out in all directions at once.” 

When she glanced at the clock, Twilight realised that time had escaped her. She felt the corner of her eye twitch in annoyance as she continued her lesson. “Okay class, question and answer time… if you have a question, I want to hear it…” 



 

For Lugus, it was good to be home. The farm was home. The room in the attic was his roost. Yew was his mate, and he would be very happy to see her. Peekaboo was his foal, something that he loved and held very dear to himself. 

His gear stowed in the makeshift armory that was a spare room in the back of the forge, Lugus took wing once more, landed on the balcony, pushed open the doors, and entered his roost, his room in the attic. It was fully finished off now, comfortable, open, spacious, the floor was basically the whole of the house below, and while some of the walls were angled because of the roof, he still had plenty of room to move around in here. 

Yew Wood was right where he expected for her to be. No doubt she had seen him, Ripple, and the Raptors coming home. Sprawled on the bed, laying on her belly, her tail swishing from side to side over her kicked out hind legs, Yew Wood was giving him a come-hither stare that could melt butter. 

“I’ve been waiting for you. It just isn’t the same when I play with myself.” 

Lugus let out a small squawk. Yew’s words were little more than a sultry whisper, a faint soft silken suggestion that she wanted something from him. And Lugus knew what it was that Yew Wood wanted. He could see it, plain as day. 

Near the bed, on the floor, the mat for Twister was laid out and waiting for both of them. 



 

Ripple found herself buried in a pony pile on the living room floor. It had started with Derpy tackling her and nearly squeezing the life out of her, then Bittersweet had joined in, somehow, Sparkler found out she was home, woke up, and had come down the stairs to join in on attempting to squeeze Ripple until she popped. 

In the midst of all of this, Harper came wobbling across the floor and climbed over Ripple’s face to hug her, and Ripple could feel her snoot pressing into Harper’s belly. Realising she had a perfect opportunity, Ripple blew a raspberry. 

Giggling, Harper slid off of Ripple’s face and fell over on her back, she rolled around for a moment, kicking her four legs in the air, and then shouted, “Rippy!” 

Derpy, who had Ripple still pinned, feigned mock outrage. “You raspberried your little sister! Bad filly! Sparky… what do we do with bad fillies?” 

“Um, I think we raspberry them?” 

“That’s right Sparky!” 

“No!” Ripple cried as she tried to squirm away. She didn’t try very hard, she didn’t actually want to hurt anypony, but her belly was especially ticklish. Outnumbered by a pegasus, a donkey, and a unicorn, Ripple tried begging. “No! Please?” 

Squealing in panic, Ripple felt three muzzles all pressing into the tender flesh around her navel. She gently tried pushing them away, but it was no use. She tried to wiggle and squirm free, but Derpy was all too used to wrestling with Sparkler, and Ripple was fearful of accidentally kicking Derpy’s belly. 

Unable to do much about her current situation, Ripple internally swore revenge upon Sparkler and Bittersweet later. 

“You skipped out on school! Bad filly!” Derpy scolded as her head dipped down to raspberry Ripple once more. 

Overcome with joy, Ripple actually felt tears in her eyes as she realised she was glad to be home, even if she was pinned down on the floor flat on her back and getting slobbery raspberries blown into her tummy. 



 

Setting down her bag full of yarn and knitting needles, Berry Punch gave a curious stare to Fluttershy’s now rounded belly. After a moment, she looked up at Discord, who immediately looked away, trying to find something other than Berry Punch to look at. 

“I don’t know what happened,” Discord said with a haughty sounding sniff. 

Figuring the blunt approach would serve her best, Berry Punch said to Fluttershy exactly what was on her mind. “You’re pregnant.”

Stepping forward, Berry Punch nosed Fluttershy’s side, then rubbed her cheek against Fluttershy’s surprisingly large belly, and she heard Fluttershy say, “I went to the hospital and got checked… they said I have an egg inside of me.” 

Confused, Berry Punch kept her ear pressed up against Fluttershy. “I thought Discord was the one that was pregnant.” 

“I was… and then I wasn’t,” Discord snapped as he folded his forelegs over his chest and sulked, something Berry Punch could only barely see out of the corner of her vision. 

With her cheek still pressed tightly against the flesh just behind Fluttershy’s ribs, Berry Punch felt Fluttershy relax a little bit, her body trembled less, and her breathing slowed down. Berry Punch smiled to herself, the sudden movement of her muscles caused her ear to twitch, which thumped against Fluttershy’s side, which tickled Fluttershy and made her giggle nervously. “Hi baby.” 

Hearing Fluttershy’s voice rising into a faint whine, Berry Punch heard the sunny yellow pegasus say, “I couldn’t possibly pass an egg.” Considering the pegasus mare’s words, Berry Punch found herself wondering just how large this egg must be to have made Fluttershy look so rotund. 

“I feel so lonely now… and empty!” 

“Discord, you’re not alone… you have me you silly goose,” Fluttershy said in response to Discord’s pained exclamation. 

Pulling away and turning around, Berry Punch looked around the cottage. It was nearly spotless, as it usually was, if a little cluttered in a few spots. Either Fluttershy was able to stick to her routine or she had somehow managed to get Discord to clean. A balding eagle rested upon a tall perch stand, half of his feathers gone, probably from some terrible ailment of some kind. Around the eagle’s neck was an orange scarf, and the bird was slumped down onto his perch, sound asleep. 

“I’m so glad that you came… I’ve been wanting ever so badly somepony to knit with.” 

Fluttershy’s words snapped Berry Punch out of her distracted state. She turned to look at Fluttershy. “You know, all that cannabis you gave my husband was really very kind of you. It leveled him out, kept him in a good mood for a while… and I think we’re going to brew some beer with it. I think the little break was just what he needed.” 

Fluttershy blinked, and Berry Punch saw the shy pegasus blushing. “Oh, you’re very welcome,” Berry Punch heard Fluttershy say. 

“That stuff grows like a weed… there is a massive field of that stuff out behind the cottage, and when Fluttershy cleans all of the chicken droppings from the henhouse, she dumps them back out in that field,” Discord said. 

“Chicken droppings are always good for plants.” This was simply conversation now on Berry Punch’s part; she didn’t know what else to say. She felt a little distracted, out of sorts, she was worried about Fluttershy, and she really wasn’t in the mood for talk about farming. 

“How about some tea before we start knitting?” Fluttershy asked. 

“That would be wonderful…” 



 

The school day was mostly over. Holding a stack of books in his levitation field, Bucky headed for the small office that he kept inside of the school proper. It was not the office where he planned to see troublesome students, this was just a place for books, his desk, and a place for him to have a quiet spot to retreat during the school day. 

There were still students in the halls, foals, little ones, talking to one another, asking about homework, and most of them seemed fairly happy about school based on the bits of conversation that he picked up as he passed. 

Turning the corner, Bucky drew nearer to his office, he heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that this part of the day was over. Tonight, there would be golem creation. Twilight Sparkle had brought the arcano tech motors and left them in the ground floor room of his tower. 

Reaching his office, Bucky unlocked the door, pulled it open, and was immediately covered by an avalanche of popcorn that spilled out the door, into the hall, and didn’t seem to stop coming for quite some time. Standing there, feeling a little stunned, Bucky suddenly understood what it must have felt like for Celestia. He snorted away a piece of popcorn stuck to his nose, shook popcorn out of his mane, and then, feeling a little peckish, reached his head down and took a bite of popcorn as his stunned students stood staring. 

Chewing, Bucky cast a simple spell to detect magical signatures, and he nearly choked on his popcorn when he figured out who had done this. Still chewing, trying not to choke, Bucky grinned. 

The magical signature was unique to Celestia herself. 
	
> Chapter 463
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Leaning forward, Piña Colada inhaled the fragrant steam rising from her cup of tea. Black tea, with ginger, Piña had added a slice of lemon and some honey. It was rapidly becoming one of her favourites. She looked around the table, glad to have this opportunity, and gave her sister Dinky a nudge to let Dinky know that her teaspoon had fallen off of the saucer and onto the table. 

Hearing Agnetha inhale, Piña turned to look at the griffoness when she realised that Agnetha was about to speak. Piña’s ears perked and she looked the queen of the griffons in the eye. 

“This is quite lovely, I’m glad I came,” Agnetha said. 

Off to Piña’s left, there was a barely audible clatter as Dinky placed her spoon upon her saucer. Piña turned to look, distracted for a moment, and then turned back to Agnetha the griffoness. 

“Agnetha, you are rapidly becoming my good right hoof; it is good that you come to things like tea parties and such so that you learn all of the little quirks for good social interaction.” 

Looking over at Princess Celestia, who had just spoken, Piña raised an eyebrow and thought about what it was that Princess Celestia had just said. 

“Majesty, you are too kind… I do my best to be a helpful griffoness, but I make many mistakes when it comes to proper social graces.” The griffoness, holding her teacup, seemed nervous, and Piña could sense this as she listened to what the griffoness had to say. Something else felt off, and Piña felt something within her give an odd feeling twinge. 

“Agnetha, please, no titles, this is casual afternoon tea… and you are far too humble…” 

As her head turned to look at Princess Celestia, Piña saw the alicorn winking at Agnetha. Holding her teacup carefully between her two front hooves, Piña took a careful sip of tea. She watched as Agnetha took a sip, fascinated at how the hunter griffoness drank. Agnetha held the teacup to the side of her opened beak, tilted her head back slightly, and poured a tiny bit of tea in carefully. Mindful of not staring, Piña looked away and thought about how Belisama drank, the smaller griffoness, now one of her mothers, pecked at her tea with her beak, somehow slurping some tea up without lips. 

It was a mystery to Piña how one could slurp without lips, but Belisama-mama did it.

“I’m so glad to see you again Tourmaline,” Dinky said. 

Turning her head once more, Piña looked sideways over at Dinky, and then at Tourmaline, who was sitting beside Dinky. Today, Tourmaline’s pink mane was different; it was pulled back into a small bun and tied of with a section of pastel purple ribbon. 

Piña saw Tourmaline’s ears splay out sideways and then she saw Tourmaline look at Dinky shyly through her thick lenses. It occurred to Piña that Tourmaline must nearly be blind to require such lenses. Piña could see Tourmaline’s nostrils flare for a moment, the jet black filly inhaled, and then Piña heard her say, “Thank you Dinky, it is always nice to see you.” 

Tea was all about being polite and practicing your manners… there was a time for pegasus manners, and while those were fun and good, practicing unicorn manners was always a fun challenge for Piña, simply because you had to be so mindful of everything you did. 

Heaving a sigh of disappointment, Piña sat up a little straighter in her chair and then took another careful sip of tea. Diamond Tiara had not come for tea. She was off with Sentinel. Piña felt a spike of jealously, followed by a shameful feeling of guilt. She wondered how Dinky felt about Diamond Tiara spending so much time with Sentinel. 



 

Holding her teacup in her telekinesis, Princess Celestia watched everything going on at the table around her. Dinky clearly had a connection forming with the changeling sitting beside her, but Dinky did not know that Tourmaline was a changeling. Agnetha was relaxing a little bit, obviously realising that she didn’t need to worry so much about her clumsy manners around foals. When griffons drank from teacups, they tended to spill and dribble a bit as they poured tea down their gullets, and Agnetha was clearly self conscious about this fact. 

And then, there was Piña Colada. Celestia was watching her carefully, eyeing Piña’s every move, reading Piña’s every expression, and queuing in on every movement of Piña’s head as well as the foal’s eyes. Piña was being quiet, well mannered, and clearly was observing everything going on around her, displaying a sense of awareness and attention far beyond the foal’s young age. Piña Colada had become fascinating. She displayed signs of being devastatingly intelligent, and reminded Celestia of a pony she still loved dearly. 

Smart Cookie… 

Feeling a moment of sorrow, Celestia reflected briefly upon those she had outlived. At least Cadance would be around now to keep her company, along with Luna. As for Shining Armor, Celestia suspected that Shining Armor was now very nearly immortal as well. His body was a construct, something that could be obliterated and then simply reconstructed by the will of the Crystal Collective. 

He’s not even burdened by immortality, Celestia thought to herself as she took a sip of tea and half listened to Dinky and Tourmaline chatting with one another. There is only love and existing in the moment. He won’t even feel the pain of time passing like we do, because the Crystal Collective exists outside of time… I wish I was so lucky, to not feel the agony of knowing that time passes…

“—and then just when mama Luna thought everything was going to be okay, Erebus exploded… but I can’t say what happened next because this is tea time and what happened next was rude. After it was all over, Luna needed a bath and the maids had to clean the ceiling.” 

Smiling, Celestia gazed over at Tourmaline, who was always so animated when telling a story. Celestia felt the muscles in her jaw pull her smile back, revealing her teeth in a broad grin. 

“The ceiling?” Dinky asked. 

Celestia could see Tourmaline’s teacup wobbling in her still weak telekinesis as the changeling foal turned to look at Dinky and say, “Yep. The ceiling. The maids had to clean the ceiling.” Unable to help herself, Celestia tittered. 

Piña’s eyes were exceptionally bright and Celestia could almost stare into Piña’s soul as their eyes met for a moment. There was so much potential in this little pink earth pony foal. 

Taking a sip of tea, Celestia swallowed slowly, cleared her throat quietly, and took advantage of the lull in the conversation. “Piña Colada, I suppose you’ve been wondering about your spirit of knowledge. Do you have any questions?” 

“I don’t feel any smarter,” Celestia heard Piña reply. Unable to help herself, Celestia allowed herself a small bit of laughter. 

“You are already far too smart… it wouldn’t be fair if you became any smarter. No, this spirit will allow you to know this when you encounter magic, or so I believe. It will make your own gifts stronger. I do believe you will have a certain amount of intrinsic knowledge now when dealing with curious magical situations, if you can touch something. Mind you, this is merely suspicion and an educated guess,” Celestia said as she kept eye contact with Piña Colada. 

“Stronger?” Celestia heard Piña ask. 

Carefully choosing her words, Celestia took a deep breath and said, “The spirit will draw power from the ley lines… it should, in theory, take whatever magic ability you have and make it stronger. I have actually seen this effect before in others and I know just how much power it can bring.” Falling silent, Celestia thought about how she was filled with spirits… all of the alicorns that had been defiled. Each and every one of them allowed her to draw upon an incredible amount of power. It allowed her to control the heavens, move the cosmos, and keep the planet alive. It allowed her to hold the gates of Tartarus shut. It kept the sun moving and even allowed her to cheat death beyond the normal realms of necromancy, like when she had brought back Twilight Sparkle and given her a new body. 

“You seem distracted. You okay?” 

Blinking, Celestia snapped back into focus. “I’m sorry Piña, I was—”

“Lost in your own thoughts?” 

Offering the observant foal a sheepish smile, Celestia nodded. “Yes Piña, for a moment, I became distracted. Do forgive me.” 

Celestia watched as Piña gave a shrug and then said, “There is nothing to forgive. I don’t always pay as much attention to things as I should.” 

“That’s because you are an egghead and you keep thinking about deep complex stuff,” Celestia heard Dinky say as the unicorn foal gave Piña a poke. Celestia observed the siblings, related not through blood, but through a bond so much stronger. Feeling her heart warm, Celestia glanced at Dinky, lifted up her teacup, and then took a sip, making sure to make a slurping sound in the hopes that Agnetha might become a little more animated. 



 

“—and so Piña, I do hope that you will use this gift wisely. You have the potential for greatness. You have an obligation, both to yourself and other earth ponies, not to mention all of pony kind, to utilise this gift for the greater good.” 

Pondering her mother’s words, Tourmaline noticed a few similarities how her mother was talking to Piña and how her mother had spoken with her. That had been a long talk. Tourmaline had gifts that could benefit the greater good. It had been her gifts that had saved Sunset Shimmer. 

Looking around the table, Tourmaline could feel the mood of those around her. Agnetha was scared, nervous, there was something else there but Tourmaline did not understand what it was. It was a complex emotion that beyond the scope of what Tourmaline understood. Piña was mostly calm, curious, the earth pony foal was thoughtful, enough that Tourmaline was able to sense it. 

Her mother was having fun. 

Dinky was odd. Out of all of them, Dinky was the most confusing to poor Tourmaline. When Tourmaline looked at Dinky, she felt a curious sensation of love, an odd type of love, sort of like the love that mama Luna and Barley shared, only weaker, and Tourmaline could sense that it was directed at her. It was confusing, distracting, and made Tourmaline feel funny. She dared not say anything, she had endured a couple of lectures already about blurting out how other creatures around her feel, and Tourmaline wanted to give Dinky her privacy. 

Try as she might, Tourmaline could not ignore the strange feeling of weak love coming from Dinky Doo Hooves. She lifted her teacup, took one nervous sip, and then on a whim, she floated over a tiny frosted tea cake for herself. 



 

“Buckminster, I need a word with you.” 

Looking up from his work, Bucky saw his soon to be victim, Celestia. He said nothing of course, he knew that she knew that he knew, there was indeed mutual knowledge of knowing that they each knew what had been done, and the game was ahoof. 

Celestia was old and wiley, Bucky was young and clever. 

“What do you need auntie?” Bucky asked in a saccharine voice. He wanted Celestia to know what she was in for. Family members got special treatment. 

“First off, your stairs are evil... Twilight was absolutely right to complain about them. What is it with all of Sombra’s bloodline and stairs?” Bucky heard Celestia say as she gave him an annoyed glare. 

Grinning, Bucky leaned over his desk and rested both forelegs amid the many scattered golem parts. “Sorry… my stairs were on ‘do not disturb mode’ and could sense when somepony, er, someone, was coming up them to bother me outside of an emergency. You are quite stubborn to have made your way up them.” 

For a moment, Bucky felt a smug sense of satisfaction in knowing that he had made his way under Celestia’s skin. He thought about making a suggestion… something along the lines of ‘perhaps fewer sweets were in order’ but Bucky chose not press his luck. He watched as Celestia drew a deep breath and readied herself to say something. 

“Bucky, you have a student coming to your school. A special student that I have decided to place here. And we need to talk about this student, because I am placing him in your care,” Celestia said. 

Seeing Celestia wince, Bucky’s smug attitude melted away and he grew concerned. He raised his eyebrow as he saw Celestia’s mouth open. 

“She…” 

“She?” Bucky asked, now very interested in what Celestia had to say. “Spill it. Just say everything important. I’m listening.” He watched as Celestia sighed and attempted to regain her composure. 

“His… her name is Little Slip. She is an earth pony, no parents, I will not go into why, it is unpleasant, not pretty, and he… she comes from an abusive background. She is originally from Vanhoover. She is currently recovering in Canterlot after an… accident. Self harm? I do not know how to put it—”

All personal differences now put aside, Bucky realised that Celestia was crying. He felt a deep sense of concern welling up inside of him as Celestia was speaking, and he locked his gaze upon the trembling mare. For all of her seeming hardness, Bucky knew that Celestia had a tender heart buried under seemingly stony exteriour. 

“—in simple terms… he… gelded himself… herself… DAMNATION!” 

Celestia’s shout sent Bucky’s golems scrambling for cover, running to hide in any place they could. Some even fled the room, no doubt running down the stairs to hide in Sunset Shimmer’s room. Bucky could see Celestia’s frustration upon her face. 

“I am better than this. I owe my subjects more respect than this... SHE!”

The loud sound of Celestia’s inhale filled Bucky’s office and Bucky poured two drinks of strong brandy that was blended with vanilla liqueur. He pushed one glass forward upon his desk and left it sitting there, a silent offer. 

“She gelded herself because she wasn’t comfortable with her body. She felt trapped, confused, she was all messed up inside and broken. She has scars Bucky, inside and out, just like you do. The ponies that should have been helping her ended up hurting her ever more. She was in an asylum in Canterlot when the collapse happened. She escaped during the chaos and the royal guard rescued her from a group of unicorns that were hunting her . She was brought to the castle’s hospital system and she has been staying there… willingly this time, getting some help and getting better. Luna has been helping her and they have become close. I want her here under your care, staying in your dormitories, living here at your school… but there are some issues that might be a problem,” Celestia said as she lifted the glass from Bucky’s desk. 

Reaching up and rubbing his chin with his talons, Bucky felt a sense of relief when he saw Celestia tip back the glass and swallow the whole thing in one gulp. He watched her shudder, her eyes closing, and he watched her ears rotate in circles as the fiery liquid burned her. Clearing his throat, Bucky said, “What problems might there be?” 

“She was born a colt, but identifies as female, and she is begging to stay in a female dorm—” 

“Done.” 

“—and she has surviving family members that might seek to do her harm, so if she ever decides to go into Ponyville, she will need an escort of some kind, a guard—”

Drawing in a deep breath, Bucky sighed, “Done.” 

Bucky saw Celestia freeze up for a moment and stare at him. “You surprise me sometimes,” he heard her say. He poured more of the strong brandy into their glasses and raised his glass to Celestia in salute. 

“Bucky, honestly, for some reason I’d thought you’d balk about a colt living in the filly’s dorms… I do not know what I was thinking I suppose. I know I was bothered by the idea at first, and it shames me to admit it.”

Now, Bucky knew that something was wrong. Celestia just used a contraction and he had noticed it. He could not recall if she had used one before, but this was never a good sign. Knowing that the mare needed reassuring, Bucky offered her a fang filled smile. “Put your mind at ease. I’ll figure out something. I look after my own.” The moment the words left his mouth, Bucky saw Celestia visibly relax and he was glad that his words had the desired effect. Celestia knew all to well that he looked after his own. 

As Celestia stood there silent and Bucky sat there watching her, a lone golem came running out of hiding and approached Celestia. Bucky recognised this particular golem and as he sat there looking, it raised a leg in salute. 



.--. .-. .- .. ... . / - .... . / ... ..- -.

 

“What is he saying Bucky? That sounds like Morsel code… Luna has told me of your self aware golems. Is he… is he prostrating himself before me?” Celestia asked. 

Leaning over his desk, Bucky looked down at the little golem, that was bowing and scraping in front of Celestia. “He just said ‘praise the sun’ and yes, he is bowing to you. He’s scared of the dark and he worships you.” 

Bucky could see Celestia light up, a broad smile spread across her face. 



-- -.-- / --. --- -.. -.. . ... ... / .. ... / .. -- .--. . .-. ..-. . -.-. - .-.-.- / ... .... . / --- -. .-.. -.-- / .... .- ... / ..-. --- ..- .-. / .-.. . --. ... / .- -. -.. / .. ... / -- .- -.. . / --- ..- - / --- ..-. / -.-. .... . . ... . .-.-.-



Golems! Bucky thought to himself. There was no way that he could tell Celestia that the golem thought his goddess was imperfect because she only had four legs and was made of cheese. There was no way to even begin explaining why the golems believed that ponies were made out of cheese. 

“What did he say?” Celestia asked. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky carefully chose his reply. “It is best if you do not know. Suffice to say, he adores you, worships you, and believes you are his goddess.” 

Bucky watched at Celestia lowered her head down to the floor, her snoot inches away from the little dark fearing golem. “Would you like to come home with me? I can protect you from the dark and Tourmaline would probably adore a playmate,” Bucky heard Celestia say. He then saw Celestia turn to look at him. 

“You do not mind, do you?” she asked. 

“By all means, take him.” Carefully contorting his face to hide his evil grin, Bucky realised that he now had an active spy living in the castle. He would be able to see everything the golem could see, listen to every spoken word, and for far more practical purposes, keep an ear out for trouble. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 464
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A dark shadow descended upon Canterlot sometime after the midnight hour. It moved without form or substance; it simply winked into existence in the sky near Canterlot castle and then slipped from one spot of shadow to another patch of darkness, approaching the castle, completely unseen. 

As it slipped through the castle courtyard, the shadow paused near the central fountain, dropped in a small extra dimensional sphere filled with over one hundred pounds of soap, a cackle was heard, and then the shadow slipped away as the sphere dissolved into the water, releasing the soap into the ostentatious fountain. 

Almost immediately, the courtyard began to fill with bubbles. 





Inside of the castle, Bucky moved around carefully, not exactly hiding, he was welcome here, but he didn’t want to attract too much attention. He was nearly in the school wing now, rapidly approaching Celestia’s personal office. 

As he passed them, the Lunar Guard saluted and barked, “All hail the Lunar Court.” 

Indeed, Bucky thought to himself. The Lunar Court has its own way of dealing with treachery. No good misdeed went unnoticed or was left unappreciated. Celestia’s little popcorn trick was impressive, but it lacked zing. 

Tonight, Bucky planned to go into the history books. 



 

Celestia’s office was more or less as it always was. Protected by measures that any school age student could defeat with time, effort, and study. Celestia clearly considered her office an acceptable sacrifice to test those that might have potential. 

Such a foolish sentiment really and one that Bucky was willing to exploit. 

Now inside of Celestia’s office, Bucky began to carefully prepare the whole room and everything in it. Pranks were never funny if something was actually damaged, harm was done, or if something actually bad happened. Bucky had learned this the hard way. He went all over the room waterproofing everything so it would not be water damaged. Papers, furniture, the carpet, the desk, the chair, the antique wooden filing cabinets and all of their contents, everything, including the walls.

Once finished, he went to work changing gravity in the room. Securing his own hooves, anchoring himself for his own safety, he completely suspended all forms of gravity within the room, creating a space that was completely cut off from outside sources of gravity. Tricky, difficult, but not impossible. 

After that was accomplished, Bucky added a new source of gravity, the back wall, the one furthest from the door. He created a powerful gravity well, but nothing too powerful. Something that was just strong enough for his purposes. 

Backing out of the office and into the hallway, Bucky watched as two lunar pegasi strolled by on patrol. Both of them saluted, and Bucky raised his talons in a friendly gesture. 

Business as usual. 

With gravity now on the back wall, the office was now a container that was thoroughly watertight, with the top opening being the doorway. Perfect. Bucky summoned up some ice, filling the room completely with one massive block of ice, and then, with a smile, he touched his horn to the ice and transmuted it into water. 

Bucky stood back and had a look. 

In the doorway, water rippled and splashed a little bit. From where Bucky stood on the carpeted floor, it was like standing above a tank of water and looking down. The office was completely flooded, but no water came out through the doorway and into the hall. 

Celestia would get quite a surprise when she opened the door to her office. 

Reaching out, Bucky touched the surface of the water with his talons, saw it ripple, heard a splash, and then he grinned to himself. Cursing his lack of foresight, Bucky realised that he should have brought some goldfish so they could be dropped into the office and allowed to swim. 

His work finished, Bucky closed the door and carefully finished up the trap. 



 

The night was young and Bucky knew he had things to do, but he couldn’t resist a little visiting while he was here in Canterlot. He passed into the secret vault, the royal archives, a place where few were allowed to go, a place hidden deep beneath Canterlot castle. 

Almost immediately, he heard a shriek followed by silence. 

He came into the chamber where Clover the Clever’s crystal was kept, saw Clover, and then saw somepony else, or at least a painting of somepony else. He stood, frozen, staring up at the large portrait of Princess Platinum that was staring down at him, glowering angrily. 

"Buckminster Bitters, foal of my loins… you CAD!" 

For reasons he could not explain, Bucky found himself cringing, he slumped down, foal-like, his ears drooping, his tail was now pulled up between his hind legs, and he found that the voice somehow made him feel guilty. Oh so very guilty. This was a terrible feeling, being scolded by a parent that actually loved you, and Bucky didn’t like it one bit. 

Daring to look upward, he could see Princess Platinum glaring down at him, her nostrils flaring, her eyes flashing, her lip curled back into a very unladylike snarl. She looked furious. 

“Platinum, please, leave him be. You know they love one another—” 

“Clover! A griffon! The ENEMY!” 

“Oh hush Platinum. The servant griffons were victims. These griffons that your son now rules were never our enemies.” 

Clearing his throat and then lifting his head a little higher, Bucky said, “I didn’t do this to spite you… I remember what I said to you then… I love her… dearly. I’ve learned to see past both tribe and species. I’m sorry, coming here was a mistake, I should go—” 

“Don’t you dare go. You sit down on that couch right now you naughty little foal!” 

Clover’s words were commanding, compelling, her voice was filled with such depth and gravitas that Bucky found he could not resist. He slunk over to the couch, sat down upon it obediently, and then meekly looked over at Clover’s crystal. He could see Clover’s ghostly image floating inside and Clover was now glaring up at Princess Platinum’s portrait. 

Princess Platinum had turned away, the back of her head was now visible, and she had gone silent, which was, perhaps, for the best. 

“Buckminster Bitters… it is good that you love her. Never mind what Platinum is saying. There is bad history here which I will not go into. Never doubt your love for any of your wives. You have done the right thing.” 

Bucky could see Clover looking at him now, her face was stern but kind. She blinked, slowly, occasionally, and Bucky realised that she didn’t need to blink but was doing it anyway. He wondered why. Unsure of what to say, Bucky tried for basic conversation. “So… how have you been?” 

He saw Clover’s crystal grow brightly for a moment and Clover pressed herself up against the sides of the crystal, her nose touching the side. He saw her smile and then he heard her say, “These are delightful times… Luna visits and she brings Erebus. It is so nice to have a newborn to fawn over. And Tourmaline… sweet little Tourmaline. Thank you so much for saving her.” 

Suddenly overcome with a very awkward feeling that Bucky couldn’t identify, he grinned a shy grin and looked down at the couch cushions. “I was just doing my job.” 

“Your job of rescuing changelings?” Clover asked. 

Bucky looked up and stared Clover in the eye. “She was a foal. In trouble. I rescue foals. Or other young of other species if I can. It is what I do. That is my job. Even if it means going to Tartarus or razing an entire city, I will do it.” 

“I know you will… you are so headstrong and impetuous. Just like Sombra.” 

“Yes he is.” 

Glancing over at Princess Platinum’s painting, Bucky saw the back of her head, but he had heard her words, he had heard her agreeing with Clover and her voice sounded calmer. 

“Bucky… does she make you happy? Is she good to you? Does she look after your foals? Can she really be trusted not to peck out their eyes?” 

Stupefied, Bucky was not sure how to answer Platinum’s questions. 

“Do not ask… I told you there was history here, there is a grave that we should not disturb,” Clover said before any other word could be spoken. 

Licking his lips, Bucky searched for the right words as he saw Platinum turning around in her portrait to look at him. She looked fearful, worried, for a moment, Bucky was certain that he saw something… pain? Bucky did not know. “Belisama is wonderful with foals. She is fierce. She is protective. Not only of foals, but of me and my other wives. Belisama has lost too much in her life. It has left her with scars and empty places. I do believe she has become determined to never lose anyone else again without a fight. She lost her sister in the worst way you might imagine to griffons that did unspeakably cruel things. Bandua died badly. Belisama lives in fear of being hurt, and she lives in fear of hurting others… she is so mindful of her claws and her beak. When she holds Cadance or Harper, you can see her fretting… her worry…” 

The portrait of Platinum went still, the painting shifted and seemed to lose its shine. 

“She’s gone,” Clover said. 

“Will she be okay?” Bucky asked. 

“Are any of us ever truly okay after the things that wound us and our spirits?” 

Flailing around for an answer and finding none, Bucky slumped down, feeling defeated that he had nothing wise or meaningful worth saying. “I don’t know. I suppose not.” 

“Are you okay? Do you still feel the hook?” 

Without even thinking about it, Bucky clutched his sides from just hearing Clover’s words and his lips pulled back into a rictus of pain. 

“No… I suppose not. The hook is still embedded deep inside of you, where it will remain until your death. Old hurts don’t always go away Bucky, no matter how much we want them to. Platinum still remembers the griffons how they were. When Sombra liberated the slaves and brought them home, it was Platinum and so many others that had to nurse them back to health. She saw too much. Felt too much. She remembers every scar, every eyeless socket, every back that had seen the lash, and she remembers every story told to her by the survivors brave enough to talk about what had happened,” Bucky heard Clover say as he closed his eye fell over onto his side on the couch. 

Struggling for words, Bucky said the only thing he could think of, which was the truth. “The little griffons were slaves… I am still healing their hurts. Some of them are missing eyes. Some have been mutilated. There is one… Freyja… she was tortured because she wouldn’t be submissive… she was held in front of of steam release and horribly scalded to teach her a lesson. She is withered, just as I am… they’re not so different than how we were way back then I suppose.” 

Opening his eye, Bucky could see that his words had an effect upon Clover. The mare had her forelegs folded over her barrel as she drifted around within her crystal confines. 

“In the end, after all of these things, some of us are made stronger. Let us speak of more pleasant things. How is Cadance?” 

For a moment, Bucky thought of Clover’s words and then he thought about her question. He reached up, rubbed his nose with his right fetlock, and then he said, “Cadance is fine. She is speaking now. A little bit anyway. The late night crying seems to have gone away. She’s a cuddler, she has to have somepony or someone around to cuddle or she’ll start to cry. She isn’t the sort of foal you can leave alone by herself.” 

“I remember Cadance when Celestia brought her here… she was such a sweet little filly foal. She became an alicorn at such a young age. Cadance could never deal with being left alone. Poor thing. She’d break down and start sobbing if she was left alone for too long, and even as she started to grow up, she never dealt well with being lonely. At least she found Shining Armor. I remember when they started courting. Celestia spent so much time talking about it. She was so proud.” 

Carefully considering Clover’s words, Bucky realised that a creature so tied to love needed to feel it constantly, and he tried to imagine for a moment what it must feel like to suddenly not have the one thing you need most. 

“You know Bucky… at some point, if Celestia will allow it, you should bring your foals, a few at a time, and allow Platinum to speak to them. Maybe not here… I don’t think Celestia wants too many ponies aware of my existence, but somewhere where the lot of you can talk.” 

Pulled away from his quiet reflection, Bucky found himself in agreement. “I think that would be nice.” Pausing, Bucky considered his next words, and then chose them carefully. “I’d like to know more about Sombra… from somepony that loved him… his mistakes, his triumphs… where he went wrong…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 465
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a quiet night. This was not a bad thing, but it made things boring. Ponyville, for the most part, was having a quiet boring night, and this left Sparkler with nothing to do but prowl the streets. It was cold, almost bitterly cold, much colder than it should have been for this time of year. Nightmare Night was certainly going to be frigid and little foals would need something warm under their costumes. 

The badges they all now wore were imbued with marvelous magic. Sparkler could see quite well in the dark now, the badge given to her by Luna offering her night vision. It also greatly affected her hearing, allowing her to hear trouble, faint far off cries for help, and gave her quite an advantage in keeping the peace. 

Above her, she heard the fluttering of wings. Sparkler looked skywards, saw a dark silhouette outlined against the stars, and could not immediately make out what it was. Something landed a few yards away on the rail of a wooden fence. Peering ahead, she could make out an owl sitting upon the fence, it was staring at her with one nearly luminous amber eye. 

“Good evening owl… here to help me keep watch on the town?” Sparkler asked. 

The owl did not respond, not that Sparkler expected it to. It was just an owl after all. She smiled, glad for the company, and then said, “I can’t wait to go home and get warm.” 

Sparkler watched the owl flutter its wings, bounce up and down upon the fence rail, and then she heard something quite peculiar. 

“When?” 

Taken aback, Sparker was not quite sure what to expect. She was tired, cold, and perhaps a little overworked. She shook her head, tried to dismiss what she had heard, and found that she couldn’t. “Excuse me, owl… but did you just say something to me?” 

“What?” 

Something was amiss… Sparkler stared at the owl and her eyebrows angled downwards. “Shouldn’t you be saying ‘who’ when you hoot?” 

“Why?” 

Sparkler felt one eyebrow now raising as her ears perked forward. “I think I’ve lost my mind,” she said in a low voice as she reached up to rub her head with her right foreleg. 

“Where?” 

Her foreleg dropped and Sparkler felt the side of her face twitching from her Shivers. “I can’t believe I’m talking to an owl… I should have found somepony to patrol with me.” 

“Who?” 

“Who indeed Mister Owl. I can’t believe I’m talking to an owl,” Sparkler said. Snorting, Sparkler stared at the owl for a moment and then took a few steps closer. “You’re a funny looking owl.” 

“I know… I’m missing an eye,” Sparkler heard the owl say. 

“Mister Owl?” Sparkler asked. She stared incredulously at the bizarre bird and took another step closer. The owl was ignoring her now, it was preening its feathers, getting itself neat and orderly, and paying her no attention whatsoever. When she was close enough to bump it with her snoot, the owl sat up and turned its head around to look at her once more.

“So Sparky, are you lonesome?” 

“Daddy?” Sparkler asked as she stood there blinking. 

“Yes?” 

As the realisation of who this was flooded through her mind, Sparkler felt a complex rush of emotions. “You jerk!” 

“Sorry Sparky… I had to have a little fun with you. It has been a while since we’ve had a chance to spend time together. I’m always working at night if I can’t sleep, and you are always off in Ponyville, doing a fine job at making me proud,” Sparkler heard the owl say after she made her scathing accusation. 

Feeling relieved as well as annoyed, Sparkler pushed all of her feelings aside and told her father exactly how she felt. “Daddy, I thought I was losing my mind… I swear… you are a nuisance.” 

“The city looks downright peaceful. The city proper is mostly asleep, only a few lights are on. Hardly any ponies are out and about, the night scares most of them, the cold is keeping most of them indoors, and even in the refugee sections, it is quiet. Most of the residents are secured inside of their little gourd houses sound asleep. I can sense them all dreaming because of my connection to shadow. You have done a wonderful job of cleaning everything up… can you live with the boredom?” 

“I suppose that I will have to learn how,” Sparkler said in reply as she stood staring at the owl and trying to keep her left hind leg from involuntarily kicking. 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, the head of the Bureau of Thaumaturgy, wanted me to ask you a question. She has noticed your hard work, your careful use of magic, and the fact that not a one of your captured perpetrators has been seriously injured when you have subdued them.” 

Sparkler cleared her mind and focused all of her attention. The owl was staring at her intently now. She could almost see some of her father’s mannerisms in the owl, or at least she thought she did. It might have been her imagination. Sparkler found herself intrigued by her father’s words. “What does she want?” 

“Twilight wants to know if you would like to wear a black cloak… not for anything major… sorry, I won’t allow that, I would lose my mind if you were ever in serious danger, but for investigating minor infractions. There has been a couple of incidences right here in Ponyville actually… and Twilight does not want to spend what little bit of time we have hunting down minor offenses. A while back a unicorn mare used a minor compulsion spell on a stallion selling his services so she wouldn’t have to pay. She’s in Canterlot now, she is being charged with rape as well as a variety of charges for her magical infraction. This is the sort of thing we want you to look after and have some authority over,” Sparkler heard Bucky who was in owl-form say. 

Sparkler scowled. “I heard about that case from Flash Sentry. Right now there is a bit of discussion about making prostitution legal and I understand that you are in favour of it.” 

The owl seemed to shrug and Sparkler heard it say, “Can’t stop it, might as well profit from it. Besides, a pony has a right to do as they please with their own body just so long as it doesn’t hurt others.” 

Nodding, Sparkler took a step backwards and said, “Mister Chips calls that ‘ethical hedonism’ and there was quite a discussion about it. Most of that conversation was about Loch Skimmer now that I think about it.” 

“NOPE! No… no no no… I don’t want to hear about what you, Rising Star, and Loch Skimmer do, especially in relation to the word hedonism. In my mind, all of you are sweet innocent little yearlings all snuggling together innocently, dreaming sweet innocent dreams, and all of you are—”

“Engaged in hot sweaty pony piles, just like how you are with my mothers?” Sparkler asked in a flat monotone. 

“Why Sparky… why? How could you? Have you no love for your father?” 

The owl’s feathers were ruffled and Sparkler could see that the owl looked a bit out of sorts. She felt her lips pulling back into a wry grin as her ears splayed out sideways. The muscles over her ribs on her left side spasmed, but Sparkler ignored those. “Daddy, we’re a herd of teenage fillies with one fey colt, all of our hormones are raging, and we’re married. There is nothing holding us back from doing what ponies our ages have a natural desire to do. I am actually starting to think that more fillies and colts should be married in their teen years… if they have enough maturity. Might be a good thing.” 

As Sparkler stood there staring, the owl danced from one foot to the other, its wings flapping as its head twisted from side to side as if shaking its head ‘no’ in an over-enthusiastic manner. The owl was clearly having a conniption fit. 

“Daddy, you are so silly sometimes…” 



 

“Mister Monogamy is at it again…” 

Staring down into her coffee cup, one of Derpy’s ears twitched at Berry Punch’s words. Berry Punch sounded really annoyed and worked up over this issue, and the name ‘Mister Monogamy’ struck Derpy as being sort of funny. If she was more awake, it was something she might even laugh at. 

“This morning his bit in the paper is how herd marriages turn the ‘responsible’ monogamists into a minority… since herd marriages have more foals, and they are raised in a herd, the foals will grow up thinking herds are ‘normal’ and because of this, eventually, herds will outnumber monogamous couples, eventually destroying monogamy and responsibility completely,” Berry Punch said. 

“You know, there were arguments made about how same sex marriages were going to destroy ‘normal’ stallion and mare marriages,” Derpy heard Lyra reply. The grey mare looked over at Lyra and saw that she was dumping sugar into her coffee. 

“I think to generate sympathy for a cause, a group has to pose that the group in opposition is going to destroy it somehow… like monogamists saying that herds will destroy monogamy or straight ponies saying that homosexual ponies were going to completely ruin the straight way of life by raising little gay foals. It is all a load of horseapples,” Bon Bon said. 

Lifting her coffee cup, Derpy found herself in agreement with Bon Bon. It was a load of horseapples. 

“Think any of our foals are gay?” Berry Punch asked. 

This got Derpy’s attention. Her ears perked as she sat up straighter. She looked around the table, wondering what her fellow-wives were about to say. 

“Ripple is as queer as a three bit piece,” Derpy heard Bon Bon say. 

“I dunno Bonnie, I’ve seen the way she looks at Rising Star sometimes. She likes what she sees,” Berry Punch said. 

Derpy saw Berry Punch shovel in a bite of fried eggs and look around the table, for a moment, Derpy and Berry Punch looked at one another, and then Derpy said, “No, our younger foals. This is actually a good question. Will any of them be gay? Are they going to grow up and form a herd? Will they be monogamists out of a sense of rebellion against us?” 

“Very well said Derpy,” Bon Bon said. 

Feeling her cheeks grow hot, Derpy looked over at Bon Bon and struggled to overcome her bashfulness. “Aw, thank you Bon Bon.” 

“Sentinel is clearly fixed on Moonbow and Diamond Tiara,” Derpy heard Lyra say around a mouthful of fried potatoes. There was a bit of bell pepper stuck on Lyra’s nose… or perhaps it was a booger. It was hard to tell with bad eyesight.

“I have a hard time with the idea of being gay,” Berry Punch said. 

Derpy heard Bon Bon inhale and she turned just in time to see and hear Bon Bon say, “I don’t know what you mean Berry.” 

Then, Derpy heard Berry Punch reply, “It is nothing personal, you like what you like, but I was straight for years… then one day I found my best friend attractive and now I sort of swing both ways. I’ve doubled my chances for getting laid by somepony when the mood strikes. Apart from that though, what if you fall in love with somepony for what they are, but the outside of their body doesn’t fit in with what you find attractive? Do you just stop loving them and move on? How do you just stop loving somepony or someone just because you don’t like their plumbing?” 

Suddenly, it was too early in the morning for this kind of talk and Derpy felt very confused. She took a sip of coffee, stared down at her own plate, picked up a fork, and then began to prod her food. 

“That is actually a really interesting point,” Derpy heard Bon Bon say as Derpy stared down at her plate. Derpy took a bite of potatoes, chewed thoughtfully, and had no idea what to think or say at this point in the conversation. 

“At some point, no matter how much we try to establish them and keep them defined, the lines of sexuality blur. We live in a herd, we are all very involved with one another, have deep emotional ties with one another, and because of the sort of trust that we have in one another, because of everything we have been through together, there is bound to be experimentation that would exist outside of the usual areas of attraction for our genders as well as sexual orientation. I’ll admit… not long after Bonnie and I had that night with Bucky when he was a mare, I had a very hot and sticky dream about Bucky as a stallion… only he didn’t slip anything inside of me, he just rubbed it against me and I could feel it on my belly—”


“Lyra!” Bon Bon said. 

Lifting her head up away from her plate, Derpy stared at the pitcher of mare milk on the table. It was fresh and perfect in coffee. “About the whole monogamy thing… I’m glad I have all of you. If it was just Bucky and I… and something happened to me, who would take care of the foals? What about Bucky? Let’s face it, Bucky is a big foal and he would be lost without us. I like the idea of knowing that we are a big family and that should anything happen to me, Bucky and my foals will be looked after by all of you because you’re all my friends… my fellow-wives… and ponies I love.” 

As she watched her fellow-wives go silent, Derpy wished that Belisama and Thistle were here for this moment, but the two of them were outside, Thistle in the lake and Belisama out with Thistle having a breakfast of fish together. 

There was no sign of Bucky, but Derpy wasn’t too worried. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 466
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was no school today and Ripple was quite pleased. She eyed Lugus for a moment, who was preparing her targets, and then she tossed her head back as she was overcome with excitement. 

On Ripple’s back sat Freyja, and Ripple could feel the griffoness’ hind legs pressing into her sides just in front of her wing joints. Freyja was holding a long lance, an intimidating six foot long spear with a wicked looking tip, and today’s experiment was pony mounted cavalry. 

The other Raptors were gathered around to watch what was sure to be quite a spectacle, and quite a few of the school students were also sitting and watching from a safe distance away. A bit closer to the action was Rising Star, Loch Skimmer, and Bittersweet. All three of them were watching with great anticipation and Ripple was keenly aware of every eye looking at her. 

The targets were burlap sacks stuffed with straw that were sitting atop wooden posts that had been driven into the ground with Rising Star’s magic, Ripple had watched every step of preparation so far, and she was quite nearly ready to burst with excitement. 

“You know Ripple, I’m not sure I understand what we are doing here,” Freyja said. 

Ripple felt the griffoness wiggle on her back and the griffoness’ tail twitched against her croup. “Can you actually fly with this big long lance? Or run with it?” 

Waiting for an answer, Ripple finally heard Freyja say, “No, I suppose I can’t.” 

Prancing in place, Ripple gave the griffoness a reason to hang on. “No, you can’t fly with this big lance, but you can hold on to it, brace it in place, and stay on my back. Might need a saddle though.” 

“I don’t like the idea of you wearing a saddle,” Ripple heard Freyja say. 

Bouncing around a bit, Ripple could feel Freyja clutching at the base of her mane to keep holding on. “I’m not bothered by a saddle… I’m not your beast of burden, I’m your companion and fellow sister in battle. We have to work together to crush our enemies.” 



 

Semillon Bordeaux trotted down the narrow winding path to one of the best kept secrets in the Canterlot-Ponyville region, her saddlebags bouncing against her sides. The White Tail Woods. The autumn sunshine was warm enough, but the breeze was cool. Semillon was grateful her knitted shawl. 

At her age, one tended to notice the chill a little more. 

Overhead, Semillon noticed the sun peeking through the now naked trees and the path ahead was a beautiful sight of light mixed with overlapping shadows from the skeletal branches. 

“Wait, who approaches?” 

Coming to a halt, Semillon looked around her. She had heard the voice quite clearly, but did not see. She knew the camp had guardians. She could feel a slight cold prickle along her back, creeping up her spine from her dock. “Hello?” 

“You don’t seem like the sort that causes trouble.” 

The voice again. It was deep, commanding, it was a voice that brooked no trouble. Semillon pulled out her best smile and looked around. “I came to buy spices. I am the Lord of Winter’s cook and my name is Semillon Bordeaux.” 

“Oh… well then, that would make you our honoured guest. I am Forest Watcher, guardian of this outpost and these ponies. I welcome you.” 

As Semillon peered through the trees, a lone dark green figure came forward, limping slightly on one hind leg. He had a long thick neck and somewhat unkempt looking golden locks. Semillon knew she was getting up there in age, but she wasn’t so old yet that she didn’t respond to handsome when she saw it. She felt her heart flutter. Hello handsome!

“Did you bring bits?” Forest Watcher asked. 

It was a very practical question and Semillon understood the purpose for asking it. Bits were useful, but impractical. She cleared her throat, blinked fetchingly, applied her best feminine charms, and then said, “I have brought a few bits. In my saddlebags are some medicines, antibiotics, some sugar, and some of Barley O’Blivion’s finest whiskey.” 

“That’ll do.” 



 

Loch Skimmer sat watching as her little sister prepared to tear stuff up. There was a griffoness on her back, Loch Skimmer couldn’t remember the griffoness’ name, but she was holding a long lance with a scary looking tip. Leaning over, Loch Skimmer spoke out of the corner of her mouth to Rising Star and said, “This is gonna be awesome. By the way, your lance is impressive.” 

Leaving the innuendo to linger, Loch Skimmer burst into a wide mouthed grin. “Go Ripple!” 

“You know Loch, seeing Ripple like this, watching her snort and kick, seeing her so aggressive, it kinda gets me worked up,” Rising Star said. 

Prodding Rising Star in the ribs, Loch Skimmer turned to look at the unicorn beside her. “Perv.” 

“Fey,” Loch Skimmer heard Rising Star say defensively, as though this excused everything. She giggled and then turned her head around to look at her sister. It did excuse everything. 

The sound of the now gathered crowd was getting louder, more insistent, and more impatient. The crowd wanted action, and Loch Skimmer understood. “Oooh… I think something is about to happen…” 



 

The camp was larger than Semillon remembered and the middle aged mare realised that some of the refugees had settled here. New cabins were being built, the communal kitchen was now larger than Semillon remembered, all of the signs of growth existed. 

“These are useful trade goods.” 

The unicorn speaking to her was slight looking, grey, and quiet. Semillon looked down at her opened bags, the various goods spread out on the table before her, and then back up at the unicorn. “I figured it was practical.” 

“Right now we have a lot of saffron… the crocuses in these woods finally bloomed in the cold weather… autumn bloomers are always nice. Also, we have truffles. Lots of truffles.” 

“Pepperjack, right? That’s exactly what I came here for. Well, and maybe a few other exotics, should you have them,” Semillon said as she studied the unicorn who was eyeing the whiskey. 

“Yes ma’am, name is Pepperjack. We do have a few other things… we have a fair bit of brassica juncea, or mustard to the common laypony if you are interested.” Semillon waited as the unicorn paused for a moment, she saw a thoughtful expression creep over his face, and then she heard him continue: “We has us some chervil too. Might have some sumac left.” 

“Wonderful. Just the sorts of things I was interested in. I can see what you are interested in. Let’s see if we can both get what we want,” Semillon said. 



 

Ripple’s hooves tore divots as she thundered along the course filled with targets. As Rising Star watched, the lance hit another target, splitting it open, causing the burlap and straw to explode, the terrific force of impact sending ruined debris flying through the air. 

The charcoal grey pegasus filly had her head low, Rising Star watched her every movement, and he could see the griffoness clinging to Ripple’s back. Ripple was all fine muscle, her lean body was in peak physical condition, at some point Ripple had stopped being the mostly starved scrawny skeleton with skin hanging off of her bones and had transformed into something else entirely. 

One target was missed as Ripple pounded around a corner; Rising Star flinched and felt a pang of sympathy for her, knowing that Ripple was going to be upset about that later. Glancing over at Bittersweet, Rising Star noticed that Bittersweet was watching Ripple with every bit of intensity that he was. He gave the donkey a little friendly nudge, paused, thought about his actions, and then leaned down and gave her a little kiss on the cheek. Afterwards, he turned his head back to watch Ripple. 

A moment later, much to Rising Star’s surprise, Bittersweet had her forelegs around his neck and was kissing him right on the lips. It was a peck, but it was a very warm and friendly peck that seemed to hold the promise that warmer and friendlier pecks awaited him. The donkey pulled away with a wet sounding smack and then settled back down beside Rising Star. 

“Both of you are so adorable,” Loch Skimmer said as she continued to watch her sister. 

Ripple was running full tilt down a long straightaway now, grass and dirt flew up from behind her, her tail, short as it was, was flowing in her wake, and a ragged bloodthirsty scream could be heard as she charged forward. 

Target after target was impaled and shreds of burlap now clung to the tip of the lance. Freyja had it tucked under her right foreleg and wing, her left talons were clenching Ripple’s mane at the crest of Ripple’s neck, and Rising Star hoped that Freyja wasn’t pulling too hard on Ripple’s mane. They were approaching the final target now, a large body sized burlap sack stuffed with straw and strapped to an old mostly dead tree. 

Suddenly, as they drew near, Freyja let out a blood curdling ear piercing war cry, hefted the spear in her right talons, and somehow, the little griffoness was strong enough to hurl the long lance. It flew straight, true, Rising Star stared, now transfixed, his mouth hanging open; with a loud -thud!- the lance embedded itself into the tree, piercing the target, it protruded, sticking out, quivering, as Ripple and Freyja went streaking past. 

The gathered crowd let out a deafening cheer as Ripple turned about and began to slow down after her triumphant run while Freyja was waving to everypony and everyone that was watching. 

Rising Star, now rising from where he sat, bolted forward, his cloven hooves striking the earth, his long whip like tufted tail waving behind him, and he headed for Ripple, now oblivious to the crowd around him. 

When Rising Star reached Ripple, he approached her slowly, he could see her barrel was expanding and contracting with each heavy breath she took. She was a little sweaty, her mane was clinging to her damp brows, and striding forward purposefully, saying nothing, Rising Star lowered his head and kissed Ripple on the top of her head, between her ears. He then took a step back, smiled, and said, “You were wonderful. You’re so beautiful when you run.” 

The filly became flustered, Rising Star noticed every detail of her, her long eyelashes, her magenta eyes, how they flashed, the way her lips moved but no words came out, the way her left foreleg lifted, rubbed against her right foreleg, and how she turned away, looking down at the ground while stammering. Finally, Rising Star heard Ripple say, “Gosh… thank you. I like knowing that you think I’m pretty.” 

Ripple’s voice was tiny, squeaky, nervous; Rising Star took a deep breath and then he realised that the griffoness on Ripple’s back was staring at him. Letting out his breath, he said, “If you can get away from Lugus, I’d spend some time with Bittersweet. I think she likes seeing you sweaty.” 

Ripple’s giggling response was music in Rising Star’s ears. 



 

Cautiously approaching Ripple, Bittersweet peered all around her to make sure that everything was okay. The world was a silent place, she couldn’t hear incoming danger, all she had was her eyes, which were sharp. Rising Star was backing away, Ripple looked flustered, and Bittersweet felt her own heart skip a beat. The griffoness on Ripple’s back took wing, flew away, and Bittersweet watched her go for a moment. These griffons were good griffons and she no longer feared them. Lugus was a short distance away, examining. the spear lodged in the tree, and the big griffon’s presence actually made Bittersweet feel safe out in the open. She didn’t have to worry here, everything around her knew that she was deaf; they all looked out for her, kept her safe from danger and harm. 

As she approached, she saw Ripple’s lips move, but since she had been distracted, her eyes elsewhere, she didn’t catch everything. “—tersweet, did you like what you saw?” 

Nodding, Bittersweet let Ripple know that yes, she did like what she saw. Bittersweet liked it a great deal. The muscles along her face, neck, and head convulsed as her ears began to twitch out a message while her lips also silently formed her unspoken words. 

“I liked what I saw… but seeing is not enough. Let us go find a spot where I can spend some time touching what I saw.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 467
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Scootaloo! Wait!” Running as fast as her stubby legs would allow, Glass Slipper begged for Scootaloo to slow down so she could catch up. “You promised you’d look after me… you Pinkie Pie sweared!” 

“So I did,” Scootaloo said as she slowed down. Glass Slipper saw Scootaloo’s heard turn as she finally caught up to Scootaloo’s side. 

Working up the saddest looking face that Glass Slipper knew she was capable of, she turned it upon her big sister. “I get lonely at home.” 

“I know… I’m sorry,” Glass Slipper heard Scootaloo reply. 

Reaching out, Glass Slipper poked Scootaloo in the shoulder. “Spike has homework and he’s all serious and grumpy about it.” 

“I have homework too now that you mention it…” 

Worried about the way that Scootaloo’s words just sort of died out, Glass Slipper prodded her sister once more on the shoulder. “You promised you’d look after me!” 

“I can look after you while I’m doing my homework,” Scootaloo said. 

Feeling a little miffed, Glass Slipper sat down near her bigger sister and blinked. “How come you don’t like me?” 

Scootaloo’s response was immediate and Glass Slipper could see her sister’s mouth opening and closing as she tried to say something. As her chest grew tight, Glass Slipper said, “You always ditch me any chance you get. You don’t play with me. You get huffy puffy with me when we have to spend time together. And you never wait for me.” 

Scootaloo deflated and sat down on the packed dirt lane. “I’m sorry… you’re right. I’ve been a bad sister.” 

“Why?” Glass Slipper asked. 

“I dunno why… you’re little… I’m bigger and older. We do different things. You like to go slow and I like to go fast… I dunno.” 

“Mama Dash told me to tell you that you’re little and she’s bigger and older if you said that,” Glass Slipper said in a hushed whisper. “She still made time for you.” 

Glass Slipper saw one of Scootaloo’s front hooves rise and then Scootaloo bonked herself in the head with a hollow sounding -conk!- sound. As they sat there together in the lane, other ponies walked around them and the sounds of Ponyville filled Glass Slipper’s ears. 

There was a big stallion pulling a wagon; in the wagon were couches, a table, several chairs, and a large artificial palm tree. A shop was getting new glass in the window. A pegasus was nearby applying a fresh coat of paint to a sign hanging over a door. Nearby, vendors were selling root vegetables in their stalls. 

Above them, Glass Slipper failed to notice that many pegasi were watching them, keeping them safe, and making sure that no harm befell them. 

Nearby, a garbage eating golem shouted, “DO NOT LITTER!” to one very frightened and cowering unicorn that had dropped a candy wrapper. The golem was monstrously large and had the fires of Tartarus burning within. 

“I’m a bad sister,” Scootaloo said. 

“Ayup.” Glass Slipper listened to the drawl coming out of her ears, trying to figure out if she liked it or not. It was something she had picked up from the Apple family during one of her many visits. 

“You’re not supposed to agree with me!” 

“Why not?” Glass Slipper asked. 

“Because you're just not supposed… oh never mind.” 

Glass Slipper became aware of a shadow looming over her and Scootaloo. She turned, slowly, fearfully, trying to see whom it might be. And then, she saw him. “Daddy!” 

Flash Sentry looked down at the two foals sitting on the side of the lane. “What do we have here? Two little troublemakers… loitering.” 

“Nuh huh daddy.” To let her daddy know she meant business, Glass Slipper shook her head at him. She rose up from her haunches, stood up on her hind legs, threw her forelegs around Flash Sentry’s foreleg,  and squeezed it tightly. 

“Hi Flash.” 

“Hello Scootaloo. Looking after your sister?” Flash Sentry asked. 

Glass Slipper turned her head just in time to see Scootaloo squirming and to hear Scootaloo say, “Yeah, but I’m doing a lousy job. I’m a bad big sister.” 

“Hmm… sounds like you need to talk about it. How about the three of us head off to Sugarcube Corner and get a treat?” Flash Sentry asked. 



 

Yawning, Luna blinked her eyes and looked down at Erebus. “Why must you wake your mother just after she goes to sleep? Why must you always be so hungry?” 

The foal did not reply, but continued to feed, and Luna could feel the warmth of his body against hers. Her thoughts turned to love for a moment, love in all of its many forms. 

Like the love of a good prank.

“I wish I could have seen my sister’s face when she discovered her office,” Luna said, mostly to herself. “I do believe it is going to take her a while to figure out how to do undo Bucky’s water puzzle. Erebus, is mama a bad pony for recreating her sister’s magical signature and framing her for a harmless prank?” 

Once more, the foal did not reply, but Tiberius, hanging from a nearby candelabra by his tail, squeaked at the interruption of his slumber.  

Unable to stop herself, Luna yawned once more. “Since Celestia was there at Bucky’s farm at the time, it was all too easy to make it appear as though she did it.” For a moment, Luna pondered the fact that she was revelling in her own cleverness to an audience that consisted of a possum and her own colt. 

No matter, it was still better than the rocks she spoke to on the moon. 



 

Closing her eyes, Sunset Shimmer fought back a wave of nausea. She fell over on her couch, her head resting upon the arm, and she took a deep breath as she tried not to throw up. Panting now, her horn aching, Sunset Shimmer tried to gather her thoughts. 

She felt someone crawling up onto the couch beside her, and Sunset Shimmer knew from the feeling of the small body that it was Bartleby. “Sunset?” she heard him ask. Cracking open one eye, Sunset peered at the toucan beaked griffon fretting over her. 

Her barrel still heaving, Sunset tried to control her breathing so she could speak. The skin around her horn felt clammy as it tingled strangely. “Bartleby… something is wrong with my magic.” 

“I know… you cracked your horn, love,” the griffon said and Sunset Shimmer took comfort when she heard his soft words. 

“You seem to be struggling. Is it still weak?” 

Trixie’s voice was low, distant, she was on the other side of the room, working at her table, preparing a lesson plan for her class. Sunset Shimmer could hear a faint worried sounding wavering in Trixie’s usually smooth and well spoken voice. 

Sunset Shimmer swallowed, hard and a painful lump traveled down her throat. “No… not too weak… too strong. When I go to lift a pen, it takes all of my control to keep from shoving it through the ceiling. I’m carving through paper and into the table. I’m scared of my own magic.” 

“Fear leads to surges,” Trixie said and Sunset Shimmer could hear the panic in Trixie’s voice as she reached up to rub her aching head. 

“I know Trixie, I know… I’m fighting to hold back surges… I can feel them… something has changed.” Still rubbing her head, Sunset Shimmer thought about Master… he had cracked his horn and had come away stronger. Sunset’s horn was not fulgurite, but something had certainly changed. “I don’t trust my own magic anymore.” 

“Confidence helps. When Trixie wore the alicorn amulet, not only did the amulet give me powerful magic, it gave me the confidence and the will to control it. It prevented me from feeling fear. Because Trixie did not feel fear, because Trixie had the utmost confidence, Trixie had perfect control over her powerful magic… I… I… I don’t want the alicorn amulet back, but I do wish I had the confidence that it gave me. I want nothing to do with dark magic ever again.” 

Unable to get her voice to do more than a weak mumble, Sunset Shimmer said, “We should form a club… ponies who have experienced dark magic and have sworn off of it completely.” 

Torn between the urge to throw up and giggle, Sunset Shimmer squirmed as Bartleby crawled over her body, his talons and toes tickling her as he clambered over her. She felt him lay down on top of her, his body was warm against her ribs, and she could feel the faint weight of his head upon her neck. She felt his forelegs wrap around her left foreleg, and hold on tightly. 

“Yeah… no more dark magic ever. Trixie will leave that to the Dark Lord Buckminster, He of the One Creepy Eye… woooOOOooOooOOO.” 

“Trixie, what are you doing? Why do you speak of Master in such a way?” Sunset asked, her eyes closed as she continued to rest her head upon the arm of the couch. 

“Trixie is being dramatic… when school resumes the next lesson is dramatic components of speech.”

Unable to help herself, Sunset Shimmer giggled. 



 

Feeling very peculiar, Dinky settled lower into the deep water of the bathtub, looking to her mother for comfort. Confused, frightened, ashamed, Dinky was overwhelmed by everything that had taken place. “I had a little surge… I don’t know what happened.” 

Looking at at her mother, Dinky saw her mother’s amber eye. One was squinted shut so her mother could see better. The other eye was fixed on Dinky, and Dinky took comfort in seeing her mother’s eye. 

“Dinky, you are growing up… Lyra told me that this might happen.” 

“If I’m growing up I shouldn’t be wetting myself,” Dinky said. Dinky sunk ever lower into the tub water, keeping only her nostrils and eyes above the surface as she looked up at her mother. “So embarrassing.” 

“Dinky Doo… you didn’t wet yourself… you…” 

Dinky heard her mother’s voice die. Afterwards, her mother’s ears went completely limp and fell down beside her head. “I did too wet myself,” Dinky insisted in a petulant voice. 

“Dinky, love, listen to mama for a moment. This is really hard for mama to talk about. You performed a powerful bit of magic… you teleported a good sized rock… mama doesn’t understand it, but she knows that you did it, and you had a surge because everything felt so good. And… uh… um… because it felt so good, other parts of your body had a reaction. A very grown up and adult reaction. Anyhow… this reaction made you wet back there, but you didn’t pee on yourself. Mama isn’t doing a very good job of this,” Dinky heard her mother say. 

It still hurt down there. Everything was cramped and achy, like it was when Dinky fell down on her plot too hard. The hot water was soothing, but the ache was still present. 

“Dinky, you’re growing up. You’re getting to that age where you are going to notice a lot of changes. Your voice is going to change a bit. Your body is going to change a lot. Eventually, you are going to have your first heat… and mama is not looking forward to that day at all because mama really wants her Dinky to stay cute and little forever… but mama also knows that she needs to let Dinky go so little Dinky can grow up…” 

When Dinky saw the tear in her mother’s eye, she began to feel tears stinging at her own eyes. Squeezing her hind legs together and wrapping her front legs tightly around her own barrel, Dinky tried to squeeze away the sad feelings she felt. “So many ponies saw what happened.” 

“Embarrassing accidents happen all the time… it is a good thing Dinky… you will know who your friends are when they come to you to help you through this and try to make you feel better.” 

Contemplating her mother’s words, Dinky’s mind began to pick apart the situation. “Piña didn’t laugh at me. She was right at my side a moment later trying to help me and telling the others not to laugh at me.” 

“Well, Piña is your sister and your best friend. See? She did the right thing… doesn’t that help make this not so bad?” 

Still squeezing herself, Dinky drew in a deep breath, struggling against her own constriction. “I guess so mama.” 

Derpy leaned over the edge of the tub, and Dinky felt two lips press into her nasal bridge. As she watched her mother pull away, she asked, “So, mama, can you tell me more about what happened and why I suddenly went all wet back there?” 

“Well, mama can try… but Berry Punch or Loch Skimmer might be better at this than I am Dinky Doo. This is a tough thing to talk about with a foal… but I’m willing to try…” 
	
	
> Chapter 468
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	She was so close… she was right beside him. It was difficult to breathe. Unable to help himself, Sentinel drew in a deep breath through his nose, smelling her. He could feel her ribs against his own ribs, and he had one wing wrapped over her back. He could feel her hips pressed up against his own. Cutie marks were touching. She was warm against him. A part of him wanted to roll over onto her and mark her with his scent glands. Sentinel carefully held this part of him in check. 

“Come on Sentinel, don’t be stubborn, let me help you with your problem.” 

Shaking his head, Sentinel offered silent protest to the filly laying on the carpet beside him. He had his pride. The fact that he even had this problem was a major source of awkwardness and embarrassment. 

“Sentinel, come on, let me help you. I understand that these problems require a soft touch. All you have to do is let me help you. As your filly friend, that is what I am here for. Helping you with your troubles when the need arises.”

Again, another shake of his head. Sentinel clung to his pride, foolish as it might be. “Diamond Tiara… I’ll take care of this problem on my own. I can’t expect you to help me with these problems every time this issue pops up. I have my problem firmly in hoof and I can take care of it.” 

Sentinel heard a snort in reply. “Sure you will Sentinel. Just look at the fine job you’ve done so far. You’ve been working on that problem for the past half an hour and so far, all you’ve done is make a mess out of it. Now let me help you finish it off,” he heard Diamond Tiara say, her mouth right next to his ear. He could feel her warm breath on his cheek. He could turn his head and his lips would touch her cheek… that was tempting, instead, he took a deep breath to say… 

“But I—”

“But nothing… if you don’t let me help you work this out, you’re going to be all cranky and in a bad mood. It’s okay if a colt can’t finish the job by himself,” Diamond Tiara said. 

Clearing his throat, Sentinel tried to make sure there was no trace of a whine in his words as he said, “It’s just so long… and there is so much repetition… I didn’t know what I was getting into. I feel worn out after struggling with it for so long. I think I’m getting a cramp too, and that’s making it even harder to deal with.”

“Yes Sentinel… it is certainly very long. You were very brave to try and tackle this problem all by yourself. Now please, just try to relax and let me help you finish this off…” 

Sentinel sighed. Diamond Tiara’s words were so pleading… she was so eager to help him when he had a big problem that left him frustrated. She really wanted to help him with his problems. He sighed again as he decided to allow her to help him finish. She was good at this sort of thing, she could bang it out quickly and then help him clean up the big mess he made afterwards. 

“Okay fine… Diamond Tiara, would you please help me with this long division problem… I can’t do this without you and we have to show our work… my work is all over the paper and once again I have made a mess of things…” 



 

Sprawled in his chair, laying in a sphinx-like position with Harper nestled in his forelegs, Bucky yawned. He had barely been awake for an hour before the problems of the world had once again intruded upon him. Harper was fussy and would not be consoled by anypony else. Violet Velvet had arrived with a dispatch from Canterlot. 

He blinked, still feeling a little out of sorts, and enjoyed the feeling of Harper held close to him, even if she was a little snotty at the moment. Bucky didn’t mind. 

“Princess Celestia felt it was prudent so she took the liberty of securing a psychiatrist for the school. With Diamond Tiara and Little Slip, as well as many other students who might need the help, I feel this is a good idea, sir.” 

For a moment, Bucky thought about Violet’s words. She was in good form today. He was not in good form. He was just not awake yet. “I concur.” 

“Very good sir… her name is Mawu. She is from the Sea of Grass and she arrived with the zebra students. She is a bocor and a psychiatrist, so one might say she is an actual witch—”

Bucky raised his remaining eyebrow… 

“—doctor. She is the most unusual zebra, her tribal mark is associated with the moon, she possesses a minor form of dream magic, practices hypnosis, and specialises in behavioural modification. She was invited to join the Council of Bocors by Bocor Oya herself, but turned them down because she didn’t feel they were progressive enough to her liking.” 

As Harper gave him one very snotty kiss on the snoot, Bucky felt both impressed by what he was hearing, and ever so slightly disgusted by Harper’s affectionate snot slick smooch. 

With a faint pop, Bucky conjured up a towel and began to wipe off Harper’s face. As the foal wiggled in his grasp, protesting having her face scrubbed, Bucky said, “Good. I’ll be glad to meet with her. Send an official note of thanks to Celestia. Also, make sure to thank her for the popcorn, the students enjoyed it a great deal.” 

Looking up from Harper, Bucky could see that Violet was hesitating about something. “Out with it,” he commanded. 

“Sir, the, uh, companionship establishment has been approved by Princess Twilight Sparkle, much to my surprise. The town council is in favour. All that is left is for you to sign it the papers offering your agreement and Ponyville will have a place where, uh, ponies can procure a means to ward off loneliness. What little crime that Ponyville currently has left is expected to drop down to near nothingness when this goes into effect,” Violet said. 

Bucky, who was enjoying watching Violet squirm, nodded his head. “After a very long talk with Sparkler, whom I trust, I find myself in full support of this venture.” 



 

“—so Dinky, does that help you understand everything that just happened?” Loch Skimmer asked as she carefully studied Dinky, looking for signs that the foal might still be upset or confused. 

Dinky was thoughtful, quiet, Loch Skimmer hadn’t heard Dinky say much. She turned her head and looked over at Derpy, the grey pegasus mare looked relieved, calmer, Derpy had been almost frantic when she had first come to Loch Skimmer, and Loch Skimmer, for reasons she could not explain, became panicked when Derpy became panicked. Loch Skimmer supposed it was flock behaviour. 

“I think I’m okay with it. Still having a hard time understanding that ponies want to feel that way. It kinda hurt,” Loch Skimmer heard Dinky say in a soft voice, the sort of voice that a foal uses when they were embarrassed and didn’t want anypony else hearing. 

Reaching out, Loch Skimmer placed a hoof under Dinky’s chin. She lifted the foal’s head up so she and Dinky were looking eye to eye. “You probably just had a very strong reaction and it was your first time. I promise you, generally, they don’t hurt, but sometimes they do. Sometimes in a good way. And if you do decide to make another one happen, I’ve shown you what to do to make that possible. It is your body and you can make the choice to explore it. It isn’t dirty, it isn’t wrong, and even your mother has told you this.” 

“I still like to rub one out in the tub sometimes… it is very relaxing,” Derpy said.

As Loch Skimmer watched, Dinky shuddered, and Loch Skimmer smiled. Dinky clearly didn’t want to think about her mother experiencing what she had experienced. 

“I don’t think I can ever show my face in public again,” Dinky said as she broke eye contact with Loch Skimmer, much to Loch Skimmer’s dismay. 

Looking over at Derpy, Loch Skimmer pursed her lips for a moment, made a clucking sound with her tongue as she internally debated about what she was about to suggest, and then steeled her resolve. “Derpy, mama, we need to fetch Piña and bring her in here with us. Has anypony stopped to even ask her how confused or frightened she might be about all of this?” 

“Oh gosh! We need to find Piña!” Derpy said.



 

Feeling fearful but not knowing why, Piña Colada looked up at Scorch, curious about the fey fire elemental. For whatever reason, he had called her over. Using her curiousity to overcome her fear, Piña sat down and waited for Scorch to say something. 

“You are a very special foal, did you know that?” Scorch asked. 

Nodding, Piña agreed. “I know I’m special.” She saw Scorch smile, and she hoped it was because of her words. He was currently in earth pony form; this time he was very large, very orange, and he smelled faintly of woodsmoke. 

“Your auntie Celestia wanted me to have a talk with you. Celestia was worried about your new magic and how it might manifest. You have strength now, power, enough so that it might even be a danger to yourself,” Scorch said. 

Feeling her ears go stiff as they perked forward, Piña now gave Scorch her undivided attention. All of the strange fear she was feeling melted away, replaced by what Piña understood as feeling calm. 

“Magic is a funny thing. I can hurl spells without a horn. I don’t need one. I can cast magic in any form I take. You on the other hand, lack projection. You have the means to make magic, powerful magic even, but only from what you can manifest from your hooves. So it seems that you are going to be limited to spells that affect yourself or spells that require a touch.” 

Hmm, Piña thought to herself as she licked the back of her front teeth with her tongue. She raised her right front hoof, looked down at it for a moment, studied it, and then looked back up at Scorch. 

“You could, should you prove gifted in this area, enchant things by touching them. You may have the potential to shape things. Celestia is very curious if you might be able to speed up the growth of plants, given that you are an earth pony with a working thaumaturgic system and a connection to the earth. You might be able to shape shift. You give off a very powerful magical signature, one very similar to what your kind call a ‘type three’ I think. I am very good at working with intrinsic magic and I do believe that I might be able to help you,” Scorch said. 

“Could you give me a horn?” Piña asked. She looked up at Scorch and focused her gaze upon him, knowing full well that few adults could resist her stare. She watched the big orange earth pony shift uncomfortably. 

“I could… in fact, give you a horn. But if I did so, it would defeat the purpose of learning how to utilise your special gifts as an earth pony,” Piña heard Scorch reply. His words were slowly spoken, and Piña detected an adult speaking to a foal in a very adult speaking to a foal manner. This annoyed her, but only somewhat, and she realised that Scorch did not realise that Piña was having a go at him. 

Dropping her ruse, Piña revealed her feelings. “Don’t worry… I don’t actually want a horn. I want to be an earth pony wizard. Wings might be nice though.” 

Scorch smiled and Piña saw him relax. Scorch wasn’t so bad, and Piña couldn’t understand or remember why she had been afraid of him when she had first approached him. 

“Celestia warned me that you were a little troublemaker… I like troublemakers.” 

“Good, cause I like making trouble.” Piña emphasised her words with a broad bright smile and gave Scorch a wink. 

“I’m going to teach you how to make even more trouble.” Piña heard Scorch pause for a moment and then she saw him look down at her. “As far as wings go, if you can figure out how to shapeshift, you can give yourself wings.” 

“Really?” Piña asked, suddenly feeling very excited. 

“In theory, it should be possible. You have a very powerful thaumaturgic system. I think what you need is just more focus. You’re young, everything is exciting, and that makes it difficult to sit still, concentrate, and pay attention.” 

“I can read and study for very long periods of time,” Piña said. She felt her muscles tighten as her brows pulled down over her eyes. 

“That’s different, but it is a good start.” 

Piña wondered why it was different, but Scorch didn’t seem to have more to say on the subject. After a few moments of waiting, Piña said, “Oh.” 

“I see one of your mothers coming… and Loch Skimmer… come and speak with me again Piña. I have much to teach you if you will let me.” 

Figuring now was a good time to be adorable, Piña replied, “Okay Scorchy.” 
	
> Chapter 469
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The wind was bitterly cold and Ripple shivered in her simple but beautiful gown. The gown was a vibrant sunny shade of yellow, trimmed with sapphire as well as crimson, and was made of some thin silky material that Ripple did not know the name of. It did nothing to stop the wind. 

Beside her, Bittersweet was dressed in a gown of identical make, and try as she might, Ripple could not help but be distracted. On her other side was Rising Star, he was tall, handsome, and wearing a custom made crushed velvet jacket with broad lapels, dark purple, almost black, he had a soft pink shirt under his jacket with an old style cravat tied around his collar. The style was almost two hundred years out of date but Rising Star made it look good, or so Ripple believed. She didn’t care what others thought of her or her husband. She only knew that she liked what she saw. 

Ripple’s sister Loch Skimmer wore a somewhat frilly dress of emerald green. Against her charcoal grey pelt, along with her straw coloured mane and tail, Loch Skimmer looked truly beautiful, the dress matched her glass green eyes perfectly. Ripple could see her sister strutting around, taking this opportunity to practice the old adage, ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it.’ Loch Skimmer certainly had it. 

The most shocking outfit belonged to Sparkler, and Ripple couldn’t help but be entranced. Sparkler wore a jacket almost identical to Rising Star’s, crushed velvet, but in a dazzling electric blue. Beneath it was a green shirt that matched Loch Skimmer’s gown. Instead of a cravat, Sparkler wore a long string tie that had been carefully knotted into a bow. 

Seeing Sparkler in something that could have been so masculine, but the way that Sparkler made it look so feminine made Ripple’s heart go pitter-pat. 

A flashbulb popped and Ripple nearly jumped out of her skin, almost forgetting that several members of the press were here to respectfully observe. The wedding, intended to be a small intimate affair, had unintentionally become quite an event since several herds had been invited, as well as a host of other guests. Ripple was far too nervous to even keep track of everypony who was here. 

The wind gusted again, causing Ripple to shiver. She wasn’t certain if it was just the cold, her anticipation, or her nerves. As a pegasus, Ripple believed she was capable of tolerating the cold, but the chill in the air had bite. 

Much to her own embarrassment, Ripple let out a nervous squeak when she felt Rising Star give her a nudge. She could feel him against her now, his body was warm, he was always so warm, and now she appreciated his heated touch more than ever. She felt Rising Star’s lips brushing up against her ear and then she heard him say, “Ripple, it’s time. Go on, don’t be shy.” 

Swallowing, Ripple suddenly felt a lump in her throat. It was time. She turned to look at Bittersweet, saw the donkey looking at her, and then turned to look at her father. 

Bucky was sitting next to Luna, and Luna had Erebus slung from a thick shawl around her neck. Her father wore his black cloak and nothing else, it did not flap in the breeze, which made Ripple shiver even more when she looked at it. Luna was wearing a thick woollen cloak in a deep rich royal purple. A gown was too impractical when Erebus grew hungry. 

Ripple took a step forward and saw Bittersweet move in step with her. Ripple slowly approached her father, glancing at the sea of faces all around her, offering up a shy smile, and then she looked back at her father. 

Standing in front of Bucky, she bowed her head slightly, tried to remember her rehearsed lines, and said, “Sire, I have brought you my love in hopes that you will call her daughter. I give her to you for your inspection. Please, make her your own.” The words were old, timeless, it was something that Luna had suggested, Ripple liked old things, old traditions, in her heart Ripple was a romantic and she knew this. Sire in this instance was not a title for royalty, but the old word that had existed long ago for father. 

Nervous, sweating now under her wings, her heart thudding madly in her chest, Ripple stepped aside so that Bittersweet could take her place. This was an old ritual, an old practice from a time when herds were commonplace and the grown offspring of the herd still lived with their parents, forming extended herds. 

She saw Bucky lift his head, she saw her father blink, and Ripple sucked in her breath and held it without knowing why. She knew her father would never refuse her anything, yet she still felt fear for some unknown reason. Her dock itched, and Ripple wanted nothing more than to sit down and rub her backside along the ground to relieve the itch. She saw Bucky lean forward and plant a kiss just above Bittersweet’s nose and just below her eyes. 

“I would be proud to have this one as my daughter. Let it be known that I have claimed her as my own. My house is her house, my family is her family, and I will claim all of her foals as my own kith and kin. For those that would do her harm, they risk bringing down the wrath of my entire house upon their head.” 

Ripple felt her breath catch her in throat. She tried to swallow, tried to breathe, tried to do something, anything, and found she could do nothing. Finally, after a long painful moment, she sucked in a wheezing gasp of air and stood there with her mouth open. She was supposed to say something, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what it was right now. 

“Guh.” 

Oh bugger, Ripple said to herself internally. She had shut down completely and was now standing in one spot looking like an idiot. Something warm brushed up against her side. She felt a gentle shove. For a moment, she didn’t know what was going on, and for one terrifying moment, she wanted to spread her wings and just fly away. 

“Mama has you.” 

Ripple knew that voice. 

Ripple knew that voice. 

Blinking, Ripple was given another gentle shove forwards towards Bucky. 

“My little Ripple I do believe is taken with the beauty of her bride. Bittersweet is a beautiful creature,” Ripple heard Bon Bon say as another shove brought her a little closer to her father and Bittersweet. Ripple’s legs were too stiff to move, and she felt herself overheating. Cold sweat beaded along her belly, she could feel the breeze painfully cutting through her thin pelt down here, and penetrating into her skin. 

She felt a painful tension in her wings and silently begged that they did not explode outward suddenly. Ripple began to concentrate all of efforts on not embarrassing herself at her own wedding. 

It took all of her effort, but Ripple managed to painfully croak out a few strained and somewhat raspy words when she said, “Mama, help me.” 

A moment later, she felt Bon Bon’s lips press against her cheek in a soft warm kiss. “Where is my fearless warrior?” Ripple heard Bon Bon ask, Bon Bon’s words tickling Ripple’s ear, making it flick and twitch. 

Feeling herself shoved up against Bittersweet, Ripple found herself now pinned between Bon Bon’s solid body and Bittersweet, who was smaller, but no less sturdy. 

“Ripple, honey, can you do this?” Bucky asked. 

Slowly, the tendons in her neck creaking, Ripple nodded. 

“Bucky, I can feel her heart racing and her wings are throbbing. We need to get her out of here now. She needs quiet time away from all of this,” Bon Bon warned in a low hushed whisper. 

Ripple saw Luna stepping forward, moving to where Bittersweet could see her. Ripple did not register the look of concern upon Luna’s face. Rising Star was suddenly in the corner of her vision, standing next to Bon Bon. She could hear Sparkler’s voice whispering something, but she could not make out what it was. She then heard Loch Skimmer replying, but once more, Ripple could not hear what was being said. Her ears were ringing now. Her wings felt too tight. 

It was entirely too cold and too hot at the same time. 

“Bittersweet, do you willingly accept Ripple as your lifemate, and with Ripple, her herdmates?” Luna asked, stripping away all sense of formality to hurry this along, and speaking very carefully so Bittersweet could read her lips. 

Ripple saw Bittersweet nod once, then a second time. She glanced at Luna and saw Luna’s teal eyes flashing in the last remaining daylight as the sun slowly settled towards the horizon. 

“Ripple, do you willingly accept Bittersweet as your lifemate?” Luna asked. 

Opening her mouth slowly, Ripple made a gurgling sound in reply and after some effort, managed to say, “Yes.” 

“Rising Star, Sparkler, as the Patriarch and the Matriarch of your herd, do you have any objections?” Luna asked. 

“I have none,” Ripple heard Rising Star say. 

“Neither do I.” That voice was Sparkler’s and Ripple took a deep breath when she heard it. Some of the tightness in her barrel eased off at the sound of Sparkler’s voice. 

“Buckminster, you have accepted this one as your own daughter?” Luna asked. 

Ripple heard her father’s voice and the sound was such a relief. “I have.” 

“And what of you, Derpy, do you claim this one as one of your own?” Luna asked. 

Ripple waited, inhaling sharply, it was almost over now. “I do,” Ripple heard her mother say, and she exhaled slowly upon hearing the words. 

“Then all of you, she is yours. Do what is right for her and keep her always. This contract is customarily sealed with a kiss, which you may do so now,” Luna said. 

Turning her head slowly, Ripple looked at Bittersweet, and saw the donkey was smiling. A moment later, all she could see was Bittersweet, the donkey’s face filling her field of vision, and then she felt two lips pressing into her own. Ripple could hear a lot of ponies shouting, cheering, the sound was painful in her ears. It was almost too much to bear… 

“Come on Ripple, let’s go inside and get you calmed down,” Ripple heard Rising Star say as she felt Bittersweet pull away from the kiss. Ripple felt herself being herded along now, she felt stupidly happy on top of everything else she was feeling, which was overwhelming. 

“Sorry everypony, I think the bride is feeling a little overwhelmed… maybe she’ll join us again later when she’s calmed down. She appears to be a little spooked,” Bon Bon announced. 



 

The whiskey burned going down, it was liquid fire, but Loch Skimmer enjoyed it a great deal. After setting down her glass, she looked at Ripple, who seemed to be recovering after a glass of whiskey had been poured down her throat. Ripple was still coughing and sputtering, but was much more responsive. 

The herd, now five members strong, was gathered around the dining room table together, an open bottle of Barley’s single malt sitting on the middle of the table. 

Loch Skimmer watched as Bittersweet, who was holding her glass tumbler between her two front hooves, carefully set her glass down upon the table. The donkey, who looked like she was about to swallow her own lips, was blinking and shaking her head, which caused her long floppy ears to flap around crazily. 

“I thought we were about to lose Ripple for a moment there,” Sparkler said. 

Nodding, Loch Skimmer watched as Rising Star poured her another glass and she could hear Ripple’s laboured wheezing breathing. She could smell the peaty smoky smell of the whiskey. All of her senses felt overloaded. “I think Ripple was about to pop a wingboner there.” 

“I was, I think,” Loch Skimmer heard Ripple admit, which made Loch Skimmer smile. 

“What happened Ripple?” Rising Star asked. 

Turning to look at her sister and to watch her carefully, Loch Skimmer, under her jubilant sense of happiness, felt a deep sense of concern. She listened carefully as Ripple said, “I don’t know… I just got nervous all of a sudden.” 

“Eh, stuff happens,” Sparkler said as she poured herself another drink. 

Lifting her glass with her hoof, Loch Skimmer drained it one gulp, grimaced, and then carefully banged her glass against the table to get her herd’s attention. She drew a deep breath, tried to swallow the fiery burn, and shuddered as the whiskey worked its way down. “Remember… no pressuring Ripple or Bittersweet… they’re perfectly content to just keep snogging and have a bit of heavy petting. Or sweaty petting. Don’t ruin it for them, and by extension, us. Ripple wants to go slowly about this and we need to remember to respect that.” 

Rising Star lifted his glass and Loch Skimmer heard him say, “Hear hear.” 

As Rising Star was filling her glass, Loch Skimmer got an eyeful of Sparkler wrapping her forelegs around Bittersweet’s neck and giving the donkey a loving smooch on the corner of her mouth. 

“You know, saying ‘I love you’ actually becomes easier when you don’t have to worry about words,” Sparkler said. 

After a moment of consideration, Loch Skimmer found herself in agreement. Leaning over, she planted a smouldering whiskey fueled fiery kiss upon Rising Star’s lips, and as her lip lock intensified, she reached out with both wings to tickle Rising Star’s ears. She felt the stallion pull away abruptly with a wet sounding slurp. 

“Hey! No being sneaky!” 

Ignoring Rising Star’s protests, Loch Skimmer pulled him in for another kiss. As her lips pressed hotly into Rising Star, Loch Skimmer heard a supersonic crack from across the table, and she knew without looking that Ripple’s wings had finally unfurled. 

“Wow, Bittersweet is really working Ripple over,” Sparkler said. 
	
> Chapter 470 (has seen some serious editing)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dinky had become a bug. This was no mere costume, no, Trixie had completed a useful bit of illusion granting Dinky the actual appearance of a changeling. Dinky looked at herself in the mirror, turning herself about so she could see herself at every angle, unable to believe her good fortune. This was going to be the best Nightmare Night ever. 

Beside Dinky, Piña was also checking herself out in the mirror. Dinky had no idea who or what Piña was, but she was dressed up in a dark green cloak and had a fake plastic unicorn horn affixed to her forehead. Unable to bear it any longer, Dinky finally asked, “Piña, what are you dressed up as?” 

“Clover the Clever.” 

Oh. Dinky pondered Piña’s reply. Clover the Clever? Dinky thought to herself. “What made you want to go as Clover the Clever?” 

In the mirror, Dinky saw Piña’s muzzle scrunch up for a moment, wrinkles appeared upon her nasal bridge, and Piña’s eyes narrowed. She saw the reflected Piña’s lips move and heard the real Piña say, “Twilight Sparkle dressed up as Star Swirl the Bearded. I want ponies to remember Clover the Clever.” 

“That’s actually a really good reason Piña,” Dinky said as she watched her own lips moving in the mirror. 

There was a soft creaking sound from somewhere in the room. Dinky heard it, felt a little bit creeped out by it, and then dismissed it as the wind outside or the house settling. She heard creaks all the time, and just because it was Nightmare Night didn’t mean that creaks had to be scary. 

“Sentinel and Diamond Tiara are lucky. They have a theme together,” Piña said. 

Heaving a sigh, Dinky felt a tiny twinge of envy. “They had the idea to dress up and be a superhero duo. We should have thought of that Piña… Diamond Tiara gets to be awesome as Princess Punishment and Sentinel gets to dress up as Captain Clobber.” 

“Thankfully, Diamond Tiara can now be trusted with a wooden paddle,” Piña said as she reached around with one front hoof and rubbed her tiny backside thoughtfully, thinking of what might have happened with a wooden paddle and the old Diamond Tiara. 

-Creak-

“Ever notice how so many superhero names use alliteration?” Piña asked

Listening to her sister’s words, Dinky stopped to consider what Piña had said. She looked at Piña in the mirror, reached out with her magic, and carefully straightened out her sister’s cloak so it didn’t look so rumpled. “You’re right.” 

Something in the mirror rippled. The mirror itself was like a pond with a rock dropped in. Dinky could see… something. She felt all of the hairs on her back rise and then she heard Piña ask, “Did you see that?” 

Dinky did not reply, but backed away from the mirror. “Something creepy on Nightmare Night… go figure…” 

“Yeah… Nightmare Night… something creepy—”

Dinky heard Piña’s words cut off by a roaring whooshing sound. The mirror in front of them exploded, shards of glass went flying around the room, and from out of the mirror stepped Nightmare Moon herself, fangs gleaming, her terrible slitted eyes glittering, and her wings unfurled, casting a terrible black pall over the room. 

Dinky, rather than succumbing to fear, did something else as she was overcome by terror. She unloaded her magic in a massive burst, unleashing a telekinetic slap towards Nightmare Moon, an act of purely reflexive magic. 

The terrifying black alicorn was sent flying backwards, Piña let out an alarmed cry, and Dinky was already gearing up for another blast, her horn glowing with brilliant purple fire. Nightmare Moon slammed into the wall, cracking the plaster; just as Dinky was getting ready to unload, there was a massive burst of cold as the room filled with ice and snowflakes.

The bedroom erupted into chaos. 



 

“I’m really sorry!” 

Dinky’s voice was squeaky, pained, a voice filled with guilt, and Bucky gave her a little squeeze. It was the voice of a foal that was truly sorry for what they had done. He kissed the top of Dinky’s head. Dinky felt feverish, hot, sweaty, and he could feel her laboured breathing. 

“The fault was entirely my own,” Luna said. 

“You scared me!” Bucky could hear the faint whine in Dinky’s voice when she spoke and he continued to try to calm her, rubbing her side with his hoof.

“Well, yes, that was the idea. A most impressive display of magic Dinky… I haven’t been hit that hard in a while,” Luna said. 

Offering Luna an apologetic glance, Bucky said, “I’m sorry too… I heard my foals screaming… I got scared.” He wondered if Luna was being sincere about being hit so hard or if she was trying to make Dinky feel better. A part of him wanted to believe it was the former, rather than the latter. 

“What I did was foolish. Never once did I think that my prank would backfire. I should have known better. Thankfully the walls are now all fixed and no real harm was done,” Luna said. 

“What about the mirror?” Dinky asked. 

Taking a deep breath, Luna replied, “That was an illusion. The mirror never broke.” 

“Some ponies cower in fear… others have learned to fight back. You have to be careful around the ones who have learned to fight back…” Pausing, Bucky allowed his words to settle in on all those who were listening, he knew that many ears had to be perked and were attentive right now. “I’m just glad that nopony was seriously hurt.” 

“I now understand the pain that Grimglammer felt… little Piña packs a wallop,” Luna said as she rubbed her left foreleg with her right front fetlock. “One little touch… I’ll be feeling that for days.” 

“Something tells me Piña isn’t sorry, given as how she is off sulking. Hopefully, she calms down,” Bucky said. He gave Dinky another squeeze and felt the little filly shudder. Using his talons, he gently stroked Dinky’s mane, brushing it away from her face and then kissed her once more. “Settling down Dinky?” 

Bucky heard Dinky sniffling, her face was still pressed up against him. He saw her nod and felt a little relieved by her acknowledgment. “Don’t worry Dinky. We’ll get Trixie to get you looking like a changeling again and then hopefully you can still have some fun this evening.” 

“Dinky, for whatever it is worth, as your godmother, I am very proud of your magical abilities,” Luna said. 

Gently setting Dinky down upon the floor, Bucky patted her once upon the back, nudged her on her backside to get to moving, and then watched as Dinky slowly walked out of the living room. When Dinky was gone, he then turned his attention on Luna. “My nerves are frazzled. You must forgive me, but I will not be joining you in Ponyville this night. It is nothing personal, but I fear what I might do if I hear so much as a single yelp of fear or a foal’s startled cry.” 

“Completely understood,” Luna said. 

“Are you sure you are okay?” Bucky asked. 

It took Luna a long time to reply. The alicorn was silent, thoughtful, Bucky watched her brows move, change positions several times, it was easy to see that Luna was busy thinking about something and Bucky began to wonder what. 

“I am fine… believe me I have suffered much worse in my time, but I must say, I am surprised by the ferocity that both Dinky and Piña displayed once the shock of my appearance wore off…” Bucky listened intently to Luna’s words as she paused, hearing her words fading out, and knowing that she was about to say something important. “Your time upon the isles did much to change them.” 

Not sure what to say, Bucky slipped into an unresponsive moment of reflection. 

“As a father… you should feel proud… your foals stood up to Nightmare Moon...” 



 

When Dinky came in, Piña was was getting her mane brushed by Belisama. It was calming, soothing, and helped Piña to calm down. There as was a quiet moment as Dinky entered; Piña knew why Dinky was there. 

“Hello Dinky,” Belisama said. 

The brush was moving in slow measured strokes, it started near one of Piña’s ears, ran down the back of her head, and the smooth bristles traveled along her neck, making her whole body want to push upwards into the brush to get more pressure. The back bedroom was quiet, her parent’s bed was large, and Piña found the dim lighting soothing. 

“We have candy and treats to go out and get,” Dinky said. 

Piña allowed herself to settle against the griffoness brushing her as she looked at Dinky. She gave her sibling a meaningful stare. She wanted to say no… she wanted to say, No, I will not be going out tonight, I will be staying at home to have a good sulk. 

“Come on Piña, don’t be a grumplepuss. Auntie loves us. Nightmare Night is all about pranks and scaring, and Luna wanted to make sure she gave us a special scare because we’re family and she loves us. And then things sort of got out of hoof as they usually do in this family. For some reason. Hmm…” Piña watched as Dinky shrugged when her words faded out. 

The hairbrush continued its smooth steady strokes, which made Piña want to close her eyes. It wasn’t even dark yet, and the soothing touch of the brush made Piña want to go to sleep. It was good weather for sleeping… 

For a moment, Piña imagined crawling into bed. The sheets would be cool, maybe even chilly to the touch. Crawling into a bed and waiting for the sheets to warm always caused the most delightful shivering. You could feel the chill against your skin, pressing through your pelt, and you could rub your body around over the cool fabric, encountering cold spots and then warmed spots, until eventually the sheets warmed and then you had to roll over under the covers to find a new spot with cool sheets. The pillow was no different, it would be delightfully cool against your cheek, warming over time, and then if you wanted it to be cool again, you had to lift your head and flip your pillow over, hoping the other side would be cool. 

“Piña?” Dinky asked. 

Blinking, Piña snapped back into reality as Belisama gave her ear a gentle tug. “Oh… uh… um… what?” 

“Dinky asked you if you still wanted to dress up as Clover the Clever and go outside this evening,” Belisama said. 

“I bet Luna feels really bad about what happened… it was just a silly prank that went too far… are you feeling alright Piña?” 

Am I feeling alright? Piña paraphrased mentally. “I’m fine Dinky… if I told you, you would laugh… it just felt really good, being brushed, and I felt kinda sleepy. Started thinking about the feeling of cool sheets on a bed and how good it feels to crawl between them.” 

“And cool pillows?” Dinky asked. 

Feeling rather surprised, Piña nodded. “Yeah. How? I mean, how did you know?” 

As the hairbrush continued to stroke away stress, Piña watched Dinky shrugging in response to the question that Piña had asked. 

“Sisters often like the same things... Bandua and I certainly did.” 

When Belisama’s words paused for a moment mid-sentence, Piña felt the brush pause for a moment as well, freezing in place on the back of her head. Worried for Belisama, Piña said, “Oh no, please don’t be sad.” 

“I have no intention on being sad, but there is no harm in remembering those you have lost,” Belisama said. 

“Will you come with us Belisama?” Piña asked as she pressed herself against Belisama’s warm body. The griffoness was not much bigger than Piña, really the ideal size to cuddle with, and Piña enjoyed Belisama-mama’s company quite a bit. 

“I hadn’t planned on it, but I will come with you since you’ve asked,” Belisama said. 

“Come on Piña, let’s go kiss and make up with Luna. She’s probably scared that we’ll never speak to her again and that’s not nice.” 

Heaving a sigh, Piña found herself in agreement. “Fine, I’ll go talk to Luna, but I’m making her feel guilty before I let her know everything is fine.” 

“That works… I mean, we’re foals. Looking adorable and sad is what we're supposed to do… how else will we keep the adults in line?” Dinky asked. 

“I suppose I’ll get ready to go,” Belisama said as she finally stopped brushing. 
	
> Chapter 471
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Something was wrong. Something was not right. As darkness settled over Ponyville, Princess Luna became more and more aware of the fact that something had changed. She had not been able to figure it out at first, there had been the knowledge of that something was wrong, but what was actually wrong had eluded her. 

Now, as Luna watched the ponies around her, she realised that the ponies of Ponyville were not afraid of her. Ponyville had seen the horrors of civil unrest. Many of the refugees had witnessed the rampage of Tirek. The Lord of Winter had settled in Ponyville and made his home here. Luna herself had become a regular fixture. 

Nopony was even giving Luna so much as a second glance. 

Luna, for her part, felt incredibly relieved. Her first Nightmare Night here had been something of a problem. Ponies were milling about, going around to have their fun, and Luna was just another pony in the crowd. 

Erebus belched and Luna smiled. Erebus, now a lunar pegasus once more, was solid and heavy in the shawl slung around Luna’s neck. When Luna looked down, she could see Erebus watching the world around him through his large yellow-green eyes. 

This was acceptance. Ponies were out enjoying her sacred night. She was their protector and she had earned their trust. Nopony was cowering, scraping, bowing, or prostrating themselves. 

“I’m gonna go tap the bungs on those big cider casks. There’s gonna be a lot of drinking tonight… aye, ‘tis a cold night and cider will keep the chill away,” Barley said. 

Reaching out with her wing, Luna pulled Barley to her. She held him for a moment, trying to warm him, and then, closing her eyes, she kissed him on the cheek. Opening her eyes, she pulled away. Barley smelled of woodsmoke, citrus, and the many scents found in whiskey. 

“That’ll warm me… how’s me colt? Is he warm enough?” Barley asked. 

Overcome with a sudden rush of emotion, it took Luna a moment to be able to reply. She took a deep breath… “Erebus is warm enough… he is swaddled… and I love you all the more for calling him your own…” Luna said as she exhaled. 





“Hurry up!” Feeling her words were not enough, Loch Skimmer gave Rising Star a shove to get him moving. “Move your big stupid-sexy self!” 

“I dunno what the hurry is—”

“Rising Star, the hurry is that I want chocolate and that we promised to help Bon Bon and Lyra, our two mothers that love us dearly, we promised to help them out on the busiest night of the year for them. The current help is not enough! Now MOVE!” Loch Skimmer said as she tail-whipped Rising Star in the rump. 

“Whahahahahey!” 

Loch Skimmer could see the tips of Rising Star’s fangs when he looked back at her. His eyes promised revenge. The very best sort of revenge. Loch Skimmer found herself looking forward to it as she continued towards Bon Bon’s shop. “I wish Ripple was here with us.” 

“Bittersweet has problems with crowds… she gets spooked when she can’t keep track of everything going on around her,” Loch Skimmer heard Rising Star reply. 

Unable to help herself, Loch Skimmer began to giggle. “They just wanted to stay at home and snog in peace. I’m glad that Ripple is happy.” 

A large group of foals passed by Loch Skimmer and Rising Star in the street, all of them in costumes, and Loch Skimmer slowed for a moment to watch them as they went off hunting for treats. This was their night. “You know Rising, sometimes I think I might like to have a foal.” 

Loch Skimmer saw Rising Star turn to look at her and  then she heard him say, “We could always ‘forget’ to use that one useful little spell in the heat of the moment…” 



 

Dinky looked first at Tourmaline and then at the guard pegasi surrounding them. She sighed, felt a little bit frustrated, and realised that this night was not turning out as she had hoped it would. She didn’t mind having Belisama around, she liked Belisama being around, and now that the griffoness had the cast off of her leg, it was much easier on Belisama to get around. But the guard pegasi were scaring away other ponies. 

The griffoness was enraptured by everything around her and Dinky watched her mother take everything in. Belisama was playful, very much so, and Dinky hoped that Belisama would have fun. 

One of the guard pegasi coughed when a group of ponies got too close. Dinky frowned but said nothing. 

Tourmaline’s costume was almost too good… she was Twilight Sparkle, an almost perfect mimic of Twilight Sparkle when she was still a unicorn. Dinky was amazed at how accurate it was, and she realised that somepony, probably Celestia, had helped Tourmaline achieve this perfection, just like Trixie had helped Dinky look like a changeling. 

“Dinky… you’re a drone.” 

Snapping to awareness, Dinky looked at Tourmaline after hearing her words. “Yeah… I wanted to be a changeling. They’re neat.” 

Tourmaline’s face made an odd expression and Dinky felt a moment of worry that she had said something wrong. Dinky made ready to apologise, but was cut off by Tourmaline who asked, “You think changelings are neat? You’re not afraid of them?” 

“Princess Celestia told me that I have a promising future and I can help her with the changelings… or so she thinks. She gave me several books about them. Celestia told me that understanding something is the first step towards not being afraid of it.” 

“I dunno about that Dinky, I’ve actually become more afraid of a number of things now that I understand them. I understand how dangerous they are,” Piña said. 

“Maybe changelings really aren’t bad at all,” Dinky heard Tourmaline say as Dinky was looking at her sister Piña. After a moment, Tourmaline continued: “Maybe changelings really just want what all of us want.” 

Dinky could see Piña flash a wide crazy grin and then she heard her sibling shout, “Candy!” As Dinky turned to look at Tourmaline, she saw her friend sigh and Dinky could not help but notice a sad expression upon her face. 

“What’s wrong?” Dinky asked.

“Oh, nothing. Never mind. So what do we do? This is my first Nightmare Night,” Tourmaline said.  



 

“Rainbow Dash, you are a turtle,” Twilight said in a voice that barely contained her mirth. She reached out and prodded Rainbow Dash’s shell, had a giggle slip out, and watched as Rainbow’s tail flicked from side to side. 

“Hey egghead, I am a tortoise,” Rainbow Dash corrected. 

Unable to stop herself, Twilight laughed. 

“I wanted to dress up like Tank for Nightmare Night… you… you’re just some old fuddy duddy wizard again,” Rainbow Dash said. 

Lifting her head high, Twilight perked her ears forward and gave Rainbow Dash a glare. “Star Swirl was not a… well, he kinda was… but that’s not the point! I am doing this to be educational and bring awareness of our historical greatness to the current generation.” 

“Yeah, ‘cause Nightmare Night is all about educational opportunities. Eeeeeeegghead…” 

“If you two are squabbling again, I’m going to have to ask that you both settle this like pegasi… while I watch,” Flash Sentry said as Twilight watched him enter the main room of the library. 

“Oh we’ll give you something to look at Flash—” 

“Shush Rainbow, foals,” Twilight said as Glass Slipper and Scootaloo entered. “Where is Spike?” 

Twilight saw Flash Sentry smile. “Spike took off with a supply of firecrackers and I do believe he has slipped out to go find trouble.” 

“That little scamp… no matter… Smart Cookie… Private Pansy!” Twilight said. 

Scootaloo ducked her head down low and stared at the floor and Twilight could not figure out why. The little orange pegasus filly was dressed up in costume armor that was mostly period correct.

“I look ridiculous,” Scootaloo said. 

Twilight watched as Glass Slipper clutched her father’s leg and looked up at him. “I just want to find Tourmaline… she’s supposed to be here tonight,” Twilight heard Glass Slipper say. 

Scootaloo let out a whine and Twilight heard her foal say, “I could have been Commander Hurricane… Flash got to be Commander Hurricane… I could have been awesome… but now I’m just a dweeb.” 

“You know, having played the part of Commander Hurricane, I think I’d like to see Flash as Private Pansy,” Rainbow Dash said in the sort of voice that made Twilight feel more than a little flustered. The room suddenly felt too warm for comfort and Twilight wished there was a cool breeze or something. 

Fanning herself with her wing, Twilight blinked a few times. “Hush Rainbow.” 

“Come on, I wanna go!” Glass Slipper whined. 



 

Licking her teeth, Diamond Tiara allowed a teeny tiny belch to slip out and began to think about eating another caramel apple. The last one had been sour, green, and the contrast of sweet caramel and sour tangy apple had made the treat irresistible. 

Much to her dismay, Sentinel was being a real mess again. His expression was one of pure Sentinel-ness. “What is it now?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

She saw Sentinel jump at her words and then look at her guiltily. Sighing, Diamond Tiara gaved the worried looking colt a smile. “Why are you such a mess?” 

“Um, well, Captain Clobber is a pegasus. A solar pegasus. I feel funny impersonating him. My wings are all wrong,” Sentinel said. 

It was now a struggle to keep a straight face. Diamond Tiara was forced to swallow her smile and she sucked in her cheeks a little bit to keep herself looking composed as serious. “Sentinel, this is Nightmare Night. You are wearing a costume. We have earth ponies dressed up as unicorns. We have unicorns dressed up as alicorns. Four ponies went walking by inside of a dragon costume. It is all in fun.” 

The tufted ears that Diamond Tiara was so fond of began to pivot and rotate, moving about the way that they did when Sentinel was too high strung for his own good. She heard Sentinel draw in a deep breath and then she heard him say, “At least Princess Punishment was an earth pony in the comic books. At least your costume is accurate.” 

A filly went by dressed as Princess Luna and two pegasi were dressed up as her royal guard. Diamond Tiara watched as the filly passed, impressed by the effort made. “I think that was Firelock.” 

Sentinel’s only reply was a grunt. 

In the distance, a band began to play music. Diamond Tiara could hear a plinky piano and the sounds of a fiddle. “This black stretchy fabric makes me feel funny. It’s so tight and clingy. It is like a second skin.” Waiting, hoping her words had some effect, Diamond Tiara saw no sign of Sentinel responding.

Reaching out, Diamond Tiara gave Sentinel a poke. “Sentinel?” 

She felt him jump at her touch and then she heard him say, “Oh… sorry… all of this is overwhelming for me. The sounds… the smells… my senses are all overloaded and I’m not doing well.” 

The honest approach. Diamond Tiara felt her eyebrow raise on its own. 

“When I get overwhelmed, I worry about stupid things. I think about all of the stupid things in my life and I become so fixated upon them that I can’t think about what is going on around me. And then I behave like this. I actually do want to have a nice time. I want both of us to have a nice time together.” 

“Come here,” Diamond Tiara said. She watched as Sentinel came closer in his shy slow manner, the way he always moved. Reaching out her right front hoof, she guided his head closer, and then stretching out her neck, she reached out and kissed Sentinel just above his eyes. “I feel overwhelmed too sometimes. Especially when I think other ponies are judging me about my past. So about how about this… we just focus on each other.” 

There was a blur of motion in Diamond Tiara’s vision and then she suddenly felt two lips pressed against her own. For a moment, she could feel sharp points and the faint pressure they left behind. Sentinel had been eating hot cinnamon candy. For a moment, their lips parted, Diamond Tiara could feel the hot rush of breath blowing over her damp tongue, and the strong taste as well as the scent of cinnamon became almost overpowering. 

As suddenly as it had began, the kiss was over and Diamond Tiara was left struggling to draw breath. The night, so cold just a few minutes ago, was now too hot. She smacked her lips together a few times, swallowed, and looked Sentinel in the eye. “I need a drink. How about we go get us some cider and then maybe try that again?” 
	
> Chapter 472
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“There are a lot of ponies dressed up as the founders. I wonder why that is… Usually you do not see these costumes until Hearth’s Warming Eve and the plethora of pageants that take place to ease the long stretch of winter boredom,” Luna said as she watched all six founders to trotting past, complete with one foal dressed up as a windigo. 

As Luna was watching the founders go trotting past, she continued to wonder why. The civil unrest? Tribal unity? The recent events on the Shire Isles that had left over nine hundred dead? Ponyville had always been a place of integration and now, with Bucky’s school, Luna suspected that Ponyville would finally be a place where tribalism finally earned a headstone. 

It gave Luna hope. 

“What’s up with all of the ponies dressed up in ugly sweaters?” Barley asked. 

Barley’s words made Luna smile as she turned to face him. “I do believe some of the foals have dressed up as a pop culture icon. His name is… Trendy something-or-other… I do not remember.” 

“He made ugly sweaters popular? What an arse.” 

Unable to help herself, Luna giggled. This was why she so loved Barley.

“Maybe we should get an ugly sweater for Erebus…” 

Feigning mock outrage, Luna turned her glare upon Barley. “Speak not of such a thing!” 

Luna could see a look upon Barley’s face, but she did not know what it was, something beyond his usual impish look of mischief. He was grinning, but there was something else… and Luna was at a loss to figure out what it was. 

“Luna, yer in some kinda mood this evening. Something different about you. I cannae figure out what it is though,” Barley said. 

In the distance, a band played. There were sounds of merriment all around. Ponies were laughing and giggling. The entire world seemed so alive and Luna could hear everything. It was almost overwhelming. The night, the mood, the atmosphere, it was the sort of night where one could not help but feel alive... the evidence was visible in each puff of breath that came out as a great cloud of stream. The cider seemed sweeter and more tart. Leaning over a bit, Luna kissed Barley on the cheek, pulled back, sat up straight, and said, “I was just thinking that there is something different about you. Sit with me for a while Barley. Let us be happy together. I want this night to last forever.” 

“Aye… lass… careful with them wishes. I need the sun… takes the ache from me old bones… this night is all about the last time you wanted the night to last forever.” 

Allowing a pouty expression to settle over her face, Luna gave Barley a glare and then turned away in mock anger. “Hmmph. Well I never…” Pausing, Luna’s expression softened and she turned back to Barley. “I could never do it now. I love too much. Ponies like you… and Erebus… I could never hurt either of you. Nor could I betray the trust of the ponies around me now. I think… I think I am finally making peace with myself.” 





All of the time spent in the forge had changed Rising Star’s magic. Bon Bon’s shop was crowded, packed wall to wall, every table, every booth, every stool at the counter, all of it was full. And somehow, Rising Star was keeping up with the demand with his telekinesis. Washing dishes, making malts, preparing spiced cider, preparing hot chocolate, pulling trays of carefully made chocolates and other candies out of the cooler, restocking the display case, and collecting all of the dirty dishes while cleaning the tables when a customer was finished. 

What amazed Rising Star was the fact that he didn’t feel strained. There was a time in his life when this would have been impossible. After his change, there would have been a time when this was overwhelming. Now, as Rising Star kept everything moving, Rising Star realised that he could be doing more if necessary. 

Lyra was serving the customers and doing a myriad of tasks herself, Helia was operating the cash register, Golden Harvest, along with Loch Skimmer, was helping Bon Bon make candied as well as caramel apples, and Violet Velvet was taking orders while keeping order, making sure that the customers remained well behaved. 

Somehow, and Rising Star did not know how, but the small group that he was part of was making the impossible happen. The customers were happy, and the sounds inside of the shop reflected that. There was laughter, happy sounds, and the mood was good. 

Rising Star couldn’t even begin to imagine how this would be possible without him and Lyra. As he laboured, he thought about his magic; it was a boon to those around him, a labour saving measure, and it made life a lot easier. It made Bon Bon’s business a good deal more profitable. Rising Star figured that Bon Bon might need a half a dozen to a full dozen ponies to do all of the work he was doing right now, all of which would need to be paid. 

His thoughts turned to the unicorns of the Shire Isles and everything he had read recently in the paper. Unicorns were viewed as little more than appliances, ideal servants, and everything awful that had been done to them had been done in the name of the greater good. Shaking his head, Rising Star did not know what to think or how to feel. He enjoyed working for Bon Bon. She was one of the many mares that he now called mother. 

But he could not imagine being forced to do this all in the name of ensuring that a business became profitable. At the end of the night, Rising Star would have gratitude, love, affection, many kisses on the cheek, and probably more candy than he should be eating. For a Shire unicorn, the end of the day brought more drugs, more addiction, and probably things like more hopelessness with the knowledge that things were never going to change. 

Except, things had changed. Once again, it had been Bucky who had changed them, and Twilight Sparkle was now shaking things up as well, getting the Bureau of Thaumaturgy involved to create new laws and punishments against magical exploitation. 

Shaking his head, Rising Star cleared the thoughts from his mind and made a mental note to take his share of candy home to his other parents to make sure that Brass Note and Singsong, his new siblings, had a little something extra special. His new siblings adored him, and Rising Star wanted to be the best big brother possible. 



 

“Come on girls, I don’t want to go into the haunted house… I don’t like being scared,” Tourmaline said, knowing that she would have trouble handling everypony elses’ fear. Especially Glass Slipper, who seemed terrified at the very idea of going into the haunted house. 

“We had Nightmare Moon jump out of our mirror earlier… trust us, not much can be scary after that.” Dinky was defiant, bold, whatever had happened earlier had left her almost fearless, and Tourmaline could feel it. 

“I’m hungry. All that magic I used earlier… I’m still hungry even though I ate something. I say we find something to eat.” Piña’s hunger was so strong that Tourmaline could feel it affecting her own hunger, and her belly growled from sympathy pain. 

“Too cold for apple bobbing,” Glass Slipper said as she looked around and watched ponies go passing by. 

“Things have changed…” Dinky’s voice was sad, but her emotion was something that Tourmaline couldn’t quite make out. It was far too complex. Tourmaline listened carefully as Dinky continued: “The spider toss used to scare me. I remember last year, those silly little spiders scared me silly. I went and hid under my mother. Now, I look at the spiders for the spider toss, think of how silly and stupid I was to be so afraid, and I just feel embarrassed.” 

“A lot has happened Dinky. We’ve seen scarier. I’m not sure if we can have the sort of scary fun that most foals our age can have. We went to the Shetlands. We grew up. We’ve both seen things scarier than stuffed spiders and probably that silly haunted house. Now we’re in that odd place where we aren’t old enough to be with the older foals, but we don’t fit in with foals our own age either,” Piña said. 

“I know how that is… I lost my whole family and I was foalnapped and a bunch of stuff happened and I met Tourmaline and then I got saved… and other foals my age don’t know what it’s like,” Glass Slipper said. 

Tourmaline really wanted to say something, anything, to tell her friends that she understood. She felt the pain of other things. She felt emotions, raw and unfiltered, she had been made aware of everything around her, including things she knew she wasn’t old enough to understand. The odd feeling of shame and embarrassment came flooding back as Tourmaline recalled Celestia patiently explaining what lust was in the most gentle terms possible, and why Tourmaline kept feeling this particularly odd feeling of love coming from the guards and so many other adult ponies that lived in the castle. 

Many of the guards felt an odd feeling of love for Celestia and it made Tourmaline uncomfortable knowing that ponies thought of her mother in that way. 

Gulping down her own emotions, Tourmaline took a moment to clear her thoughts. She reached out and prodded Piña, poking a hoof into her ribs. “That’s something we all have in common. Something we all share. We don’t fit in with other ponies our age. We’re a bit more grown up on the inside but on the outside, we’re still foals.” 

“I’m empty on the inside… let’s go to mama Bon Bon’s shop and get some food,” Piña said. 

“And then we’ll figure out what to do afterwards… I’m with Piña… food sounds good,” Dinky added. 

Tourmaline felt a poke in the cutie mark and then she heard Glass Slipper say, “I don’t care what we do, but I don’t want to miss Zecora’s magic show!” 



 

On the outskirts of town, Sparkler heard the fluttering of wings. She looked around, trying to figured out where her winged visitor landed, and then she saw a familiar one eyed owl sitting on the back of a park bench. 

“Heya daddy… come to keep an eye on me?” she asked. 

The owl fluffed out, hooted, and then replied, “How ya holding up Sparky?” 

Sparkler looked around to see if anypony was around and found nopony. “I’m doing okay. I still jump out of my skin when I hear somepony shout or hear a foal squeal. It’s hard on me. I’m not doing as well as I had hoped, which is why I am patrolling the outskirts. My nerves are so bad that my Shivers is nearly uncontrollable.” 

“I have no plans to go into town… I don’t think I could handle it. Home is quiet and safe though. Lugus and Yew Wood read the story of Nightmare Moon to Peekaboo before putting her to bed. Harper actually ate some food on her own tonight without anypony having to make her eat it. It feels nice when home is quiet.” 

Home. Sparkler knew how her father felt about home. “You’ll be leaving us soon.” 

The owl nodded, his head bobbing up and down. 

Home was the place where her father returned to recover himself. The train mission. Griffonholm. Las Pegasus. He always came home a mess and had to recover. It pained Sparkler to know that he was leaving once more, and she knew why. “Do you really have to go? Can’t you just tell them no and put your hoof down? Can’t Luna and Scorch just take care of this?” 

The owl fluffed out and his head sank down into his body. 

Feeling her cheek convulsing, which in turn tugged on her lower left eyelid, Sparkler gritted her teeth together and waited for the spasm to pass. When it did, she took a deep breath and then said, “I think Luna and Scorch are perfectly capable of taking care of this without you. Just refuse… say no… don’t go… I can’t stand what this is doing to you.” 

“I must do what must be done. Steps are being taken to minimise casualties. The Sea of Grass has made it clear that a retaliatory strike on Labyrinthia is eminent. It is well known that Luna, Scorch, and I are coming. Intelligence says that a good sized portion of the population of the city has already fled. Minotaurs are showing up on the borders of Fancy and surrendering to the soldiers on the border. The minotaurs that remain in Labyrinthia are unrepentant, defiant, and are a danger to world peace. They foolishly believe that they can fight and win. They have no idea what is coming. There are reports that the rapid fire weapons that were used in the Shire Isles are also to be found in Labyrinthia, and these rebels foolishly believe that these new guns will give them the advantage.” 

Sparkler felt a pang of worry… “Daddy, these guns could hurt you… how will you protect yourself?” 

“Sparkler, I promise you, there is absolutely no chance that these guns could hurt me. Not with what we have planned. I will never be in any danger. I promise you, as I have already promised your mothers, I will come home in one piece with no missing body parts and no trauma to myself. Labyrinthia will be razed and the rebels are all going to be exterminated. We have no intention of offering them a fair fight. I only have one hope for the coming fight, but it is not a realistic hope…” 

Feeling intrigued, Sparkler asked, “What is it that you hope for? What do you want?” 

“That’s easy… I hope they will listen to reason and that the city of Labyrinthia is emptied when we arrive. It is the only way we can spare the city. If so much as one defender is left to attack us, we are going to reduce that city to dust and ashes. What happens next is entirely up to rebels and it saddens me to know that the city will be populated by those foolish enough to be defiant in the face of total oblivion.” 

“I suppose they have brought this on themselves,” Sparkler said and then she heaved a sigh. Looking at the owl that was her father, she snorted. “Perhaps a miracle will happen and the city will be emptied.” 

“I’d like that Sparky…” 
	
	
> Chapter 473
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Moving through the crowd, Spike chuckled as he moved away from the stage and away from the gathered mass of ponies along with a few griffons. Nightmare Night was not the same without Pinkie Pie running around. Because of the cold, ponies wanted a place to go and get warm, and Sugarcube Corner was packed wall to wall, with Pinkie Pie manning the counter. 

Swallowing massive poof of cotton candy, Spike then licked his fingers as he made his way through the crowd. This was turning out to be a good night. 

“DO NOT LITTER!” 

The voice belonged to a garbage golem… turning, Spike saw it, it was towering over a zombified Discord. Spike watched the confrontation with eager anticipation. The garbage golems were awesome. 

“I SAID DO NOT LITTER! YOU HAVE JUST DROPPED SEVERAL BRICKS!” 

“Yes I did! No! Don’t eat that! I’m a zombie, I can’t help that I dribble gooey bits! This is discrimination! I am living impaired! You just consumed and incinerated a part of my tail! This is a hate crime!” 

Rubbing his stomach, Spike carefully belched and continued to watch the drama unfold. 

“Stop discriminating against undead Equestrians!” 

“DO NOT LITTER!” 

The golem went stomping off to find other litterers, leaving Discord alone. Spike waddled over to Discord and poked the gooey undead draconequus with his claw. 

Taking a deep breath, Spike said, “Um, Discord, I think that you just dropped something…” 

“DO NOT LITTER!” 





Allowing herself to shiver, Diamond Tiara moved a little closer to Sentinel and leaned her head in close to his ear. “I’m cold.” She waited for her words to settle in, scooted a little closer, and then allowed her teeth to chatter a bit. 

As planned, Diamond Tiara felt Sentinel’s wing wrap around her. She scooted as close as she could get, pressing up against his side, and rubbed her cheek against his. 

“We should think about heading home soon,” Sentinel said. 

Home sounded good and Diamond Tiara thought about her warm bed in the room that she shared with Dinky and Piña… the room she wouldn’t be sharing much longer. The room in the house that now felt like home with the ponies she now considered her family. 

There was suddenly a large lump in Diamond Tiara’s throat. She shivered, not from the cold, and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve come to depend on you… not just you, but the others too… you’ve seen me at my very worst and you’ve been my friend.” 

“Yes I have,” Sentinel said. 

“Why?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

She felt Sentinel squirm and then she felt herself being pulled around. Diamond Tiara knew better than to resist. For all of her strength as an earth pony, Sentinel was stronger by far. She found herself chest to chest with him and his wings wrapped around her. His snoot was touching hers and she could see little else but his amber yellow eyes. 

When Sentinel’s lips touched her own, Diamond Tiara realised she was being softly kissed. It was little more than an innocent kiss, but it was how she had been kissed. 

With her cheeks now on fire, Diamond Tiara felt herself trembling. “You never answered my question…” 

Again, the soft touch of lips against her own. Very much against her will, she felt herself melting and her resolve to insist upon an answer slipping. When he pulled away, Diamond Tiara took a deep breath and realised that the night was now far too warm. “You… your father has been giving you advice… this isn’t fair…” 

“If you trust me, I could fly you home… no fancy stunts, no high flying, just a simple bit of gliding. You could ride on my back. I’ll keep you safe.” 

“I would let you carry me anywhere...” 



 

“Is everything counted?” Bon Bon asked as Lyra locked the register. 

Lyra, who offered Bon Bon an exhausted smile, nodded. “Sure is. We’ve never made this much money in one night… ever.” 

Hearing Lyra’s words, Bon Bon finally allowed herself to relax. She took a deep breath, rubbed her head with her front left fetlock, and then gave her head a shake, causing her ears to flop around. 

Rising Star, who was cleaning the floor, looked over in the corner booth where Loch Skimmer, Piña, and Dinky were all piled together sleeping. Using his magic, Rising Star made the floor look like new again. “That was some kind of rush just before midnight.” 

Slumping into a chair, Bon Bon turned to look at Rising Star. “Most of the adult Nightmare Night parties start at midnight. Last minute shoppers and all that… I can’t believe we ran out of most of the candy. We did so much preparation.” 

“Apples are gone. The cocoa mix is nearly depleted, we’ll need to make more. There are no more bon bons. The chocolate covered cherries are gone. There is still a bit of taffy, some caramel corn, and a few odd treats, but our big sellers are completely gone. We have nothing to open the store with tomorrow,” Lyra reported. 

Letting out a pained whine, Bon Bon rubbed her head with both front fetlocks. “There is no way I am opening the shop tomorrow. No.”

Sitting down at the same table as Bon Bon, Lyra heaved a weary sigh. “Good thing too. Poor Helia… she was suffering near the end there. She could use a day off. I worry about her.” 

Bon Bon allowed her head to fall down to the table with a soft muffled thump. “She’s gonna complain about a day of no work being a day with no pay.” 

“I bet the Ponyville Tea Room midnight masquerade is going to be fun,” Lyra said as she slumped down in her chair and closed her eyes. The unicorn yawned, then stretched, and then went limp in her chair. 

With the floor now completely cleaned, Rising Star went over and took a seat at the table with Bon Bon and Lyra. “You two going to be up for the trip home?” 

“No,” Lyra yawned. 

“We’ll manage to get home somehow,” Bon Bon said. 

Rising Star reached out and patted Bon Bon. “I can carry you all home.” 

Lifting her head, Bon Bon blinked at Rising Star. “How? How are you like this?” 

Shrugging, Rising Star fell back on his old standby. “Fey stamina.” 

Letting out a low exhausted moan, Lyra reached up and rubbed her muzzle. “I wonder what Bucky’s secret is.”

Chucking, Rising Star shrugged once more. “Maybe Bucky is really a vampire that drinks booze instead of blood.” 

Giving Rising Star a sour glare, Bon Bon let out an equine snort of disapproval. “You shouldn’t say such a thing about your father, even as a joke. Bucky a vampire… that’s preposterous. The fey may have stamina but it seems your humour leaves a lot to be desired.” 

“Sorry Bon Bon… I was just being silly. I know Bucky really isn’t a vampire,” Rising Star said with his ears pinned back against his skull, hoping to sound apologetic. 

“Really Rising Star, for shame… you have fangs too. How would you feel if people went around saying you were vampire… or poor little Sentinel!” Bon Bon said as she continued to give Rising Star a good scolding. 

Hanging his head, Rising Star heaved a sigh. “I’ve messed up. Let me have it. When you’re done, I’ll carry all of you home.” 



 

Smiling a wry smile, Luna watched as the owl circled overhead, its wings silently flapping, and then she watched as it came in for a landing on the nearby stage, perching upon a now darkened lantern. 

“Hello Bucky,” Luna said. 

The owl fluffed out, flapped its wings, and hooted indignantly. 

Amused by the owl’s antics, Luna chuckled for a moment and then stepped a little closer to the now empty stage. “Bucky, you’re not fooling anypony.” 

“Bugger,” the owl said. 

Luna’s mouth dropped open from feigned shock. “Oh Mister Owl… in front of a princess no less!” Luna’s ears pinned back against her skull and she took another step closer. “Or should I call you Mister One Eyed Owl?” 

The screech owl let out annoyed hoot but did not say anything in reply. 

“So what brings you here Bucky?” Luna asked. 

The owl settled down, fluffed out his feathers, and then covered his talons to keep his feet warm. “How did your big appearance as Nightmare Moon go?” 

Visibly deflating, Luna slumped. “I could not do it. When the time came, all I could think about was what happened earlier. Then I thought about Erebus. After that, I thought about Barley. I thought about all of the ponies that I love… and found that I could not do it.” 

The owl tilted his head. “Oh.” 

“I finally have some acceptance. Ponies trust me and see me as their guardian. I have finally earned their trust… I never want to damage that,” Luna said as she looked down at Erebus, who was tucked away in her shawl. 

Nearby, Barley let out a snort and then continued snoring under a heavy blanket. 

“Bucky, you and I, we have a thin and fragile trust with our subjects. I know how ponies feel about you… you scare them. You are the boogeypony. The whole thing is funny really, my subjects trust that I have enough control over you to keep them safe and to keep you focused upon our enemies,” Luna said. 

The owl blinked. “Wait, are you saying that ponies are more afraid of me than they are of you? Am I understanding this correctly?” 

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Luna scowled. “I can almost hear the perverse sense of pride in your voice…” 

Shaking his head, the owl fluttered its wings. “No, not that. Was just surprised, that’s all. I mean, it is kinda your place to protect your subjects from the boogeypony so this is kind of how it should be… I suppose.” 

Pursing her lips together, Luna thought about Bucky’s words. “Hmm.” 

“Barley looks worn out,” the owl said. 

“We drank. Well, he drank. I drank very little. I do not wish to bring harm to Erebus. We danced. He refused to sit down and rest his aching knees, so I levitated him and we continued to dance… slowly… together… neck to neck and cheek to cheek,” Luna said in a voice now softened with emotion. “He’s going to leave me someday Bucky… it hurts so much.” 

The owl flew from the stage, his wings almost silent, and then a moment later landed near where Barley lay sleeping on a pile of straw, covered up in a blanket. “You might have him for a long time still. Look at Granny Smith. She’s around a century mark… Barley is what, in his late sixties if I recall? The old fart might manage to outlive me.” 

“Shut up Buckminster! You shut up this moment!” Luna demanded. 

Rotating his head around, the owl looked at Luna. “How long do I have Luna? Twenty years? A little more? A little less? What do my stars say Luna? Or do you ignore them in the hopes that ignorance is bliss?” 

“Shut up Buckminster, or so help me…” 

The owl fell silent. 

Taking a few deep breaths, Luna internally counted backwards from ten to try and calm herself. When this was done, she glared daggers at Bucky, hating him just a tiny bit for accepting his mortality. She swallowed, feeling a painful lump trying to rise up from her stomach, and then blinked back tears. 

She then felt a tremendous pressure in her horn. With a pop, a scroll appeared in front of Luna’s face. She caught it before it hit the ground, broke the seal, unrolled it, and began to read. 

The owl watched with curious interest. 

“Buckminster, we must get Barley home. Now. There has been an emergency meeting of the Council of Immortals. It seems they know of my sister’s announcement tomorrow. We must take Barley home, fetch Cadance, and then come and fetch Twilight Sparkle and Spike,” Luna said as she rolled up the scroll. 

“Wait, why Twilight and Spike?” Bucky asked. “Twilight is mortal… I don’t understand.” 

“Because Twilight is Spike’s adoptive guardian, and Spike is underage…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 474
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky’s face contorted into a one sided frown. He didn’t like the idea of taking Cadance off to some place full of what was sure to be snooty immortals. In the nursery, Luna was feeding Erebus. Seeing this caused Bucky to think of practical thoughts… and possibly a way out of what was sure to be a mess. 

“What if Cadance gets hungry?” Bucky asked. Feeling impatient, Bucky felt his tail swish over his withered hind legs. One ear twitched. 

“You may bring one of your wives. Erebus is greedy and I am slight of build. He takes everything I have,” Luna said. 

Shaking his head, Bucky let out a low irritated growl. “I don’t like this. Cadance can’t do anything yet anyway but drool and look adorable. She doesn’t need to be there.” 

Rolling her eyes, Luna took a deep breath and summoned her patience. “Cadance’s fellow immortals would probably like a chance to meet her. I assure you, Cadance will be perfectly safe. None of the so called ‘evil’ immortals will be there. Just relax.” 

Feeling frustrated and powerless, Bucky did the only thing he could do in this situation. “Fine. I’m bringing Berry Punch.” 

The look of alarm upon Luna’s face when she choked and then sputtered gave Bucky no small amount of smug satisfaction. Bucky had very little control over his own life as a whole, and he took satisfaction wherever he could find it. 

“Perhaps bringing your matriarch would be more appropriate,” Luna said after she regained her composure. She looked at Bucky, she made her eyes as pleading as possible, and hoped that she could use Bucky’s own affections against him. 

A wicked grin sundered Bucky’s withered face. “No… no, in this case, I do believe it is Berry Punch’s time to shine. There is a whole bunch of immortals that I just know that she would love to give an earful of earth pony wisdom.” 

Once more, Luna rolled her eyes. “Buckminster, thou art a wicked creature, full of vile mischief.” 

After planting a kiss upon Harper’s head, Bucky turned to look at Luna. “Which is why you keep me as your apprentice. It is why you send me to do your dirty work. If I was not the way I am, I would be of no use to you, isn’t that so Mistress?” 

Taking a deep breath, Luna let it out slowly as Erebus chewed upon her tender flesh with his needle-like teeth. “Minion, save your clever tongue for your wives. Or perhaps the Council of Immortals. I have no plans to tell you to be on your best behaviour.” 



 

“Wait, wait for us!” 

Discord landed with a thump, rolled, tumbled, and then regained his feet. Behind him landed Fluttershy, who even with her distended belly, was a good deal more graceful. 

“We’ve been summoned too… but I can’t open the portal… I’m so glad that we got to you in time,” Discord said as he scuttled up to Luna. 

“Fluttershy was summoned?” Luna asked as one eyebrow slowly raised. 

Slumping downward as though he had been struck, Discord nodded. “She was summoned along with me.” 

“How interesting. Congratulations Fluttershy. You have obtained that which many dream of. Very well, I can take you with me. Give me a moment to open the portal,” Luna said as her horn began to glow with a piercing light. “Where is Scorch?” 

Clearing his throat, Bucky then replied, “Scorch became impatient and left. Said we were taking too long. Also said something about going to see an old friend.” 

“What about Twilight and Spike?” Berry Punch asked. 

Luna’s horn was blazing like a miniature sun now and the surrounding yard was as bright as day. The air was filled with a crackling sound. Luna’s eyes had gone white as her body was flooded with excess mana. “I do not know. I suspect Twilight has the means to get herself there if she tries.” 

Uncomfortable with all of this, Berry Punch bounced her body to readjust the saddlebag full of stuff for Cadance, glanced at Bucky, squinted at Luna to protect her eyes from the piercing light, and then asked, “Where are we going?” 

“Tartarus!” 



 

The gathering place of the immortals was not what Bucky expected. At all. It was well decorated without being ostentatious. There were fine carpets on the floor. The walls were some kind of wood, or appeared to be. The air was pleasant, neither warm nor cool, and the room they had appeared in had places for all of them to rest and be comfortable. 

All things considered, Bucky found that he rather liked the place. The immortals had good taste and hadn’t gone all out with needless finery. 

While the others were settling in, Bucky had slipped out to explore a bit. 

“Lord of Winter!” 

Hearing Scorch’s voice, Bucky whipped his head around to see the fey fire elemental approaching. With him was a bipedal figure that seemed to be made out of dirt, roots, rocks, and leaves. In her arms, she was carrying something wrapped in a blanket. 

“Bucky… this is Rhea. A friend of mine. In her arms there is somebirdy who really wants to meet you. So… Rhea and I are going to leave you two to get acquainted for a while,” Scorch said as Rhea went and placed her blanket wrapped bundle on a nearby sofa. 

Bucky watched as Scorch left with Rhea, the strange earthen figure. He turned his head to the blanket, which was moving, and then he trotted over to the sofa and sat down. 

“Hello?” Bucky greeted as he made himself comfortable on the couch. He heard a wheeze from beneath the blanket. Using his magic, he carefully pulled back a corner. 

Beneath the blanket was the oldest looking griffon Bucky had ever seen. A servant griffon. Small, tiny, frail looking. One eye was white and milky looking, the other a piercing bright purple-blue. His feathers were patchy and many were missing. His fur was a faded yellowed white. He looked as though he was part raven. 

“Oh my… you don’t look well, is there anything I can do to help you?” Bucky asked. 

There was a long low wheeze and then… 

“My name is Odin… there is in fact something you can do to help me. I can’t seem to die even though I remain upon the verge of death,” the ancient griffon said. 

Bucky carefully tucked the blanket around the griffon, who seemed cold, and tried to make the griffon as comfortable as possible. “How might I help you old one?” 

The griffon coughed for a moment, hacked, several more feathers fell out, and he feebly raised his head to try and look at Bucky. “Save my griffons… you already have saved them from the worst of the darkness but there is still more to do. The skalds have gone silent. The music is nearly dead. I cannot yet die but I continue to linger in this state.” 

Carefully lifting the old griffon’s head, Bucky stuffed a pillow beneath it and then patted the griffon gently. “What caused this? Why have I never heard of you?” 

“The defilement of the alicorns!” After his feeble exclamation, Odin began coughing, a wet wheezy raspy cough. After coughing for a while longer, and then several long moments of recovery, Odin continued: “My power was stolen… stolen! All those who worshiped me were corrupted and those who refused were killed. Deals were made with treacherous beings, agents of disharmony. The first thing they destroyed was the music… I can barely hear the music… I have no more skalds…” 

“If the music dies completely, will you go with it?” Bucky asked in a low whisper. 

The griffon did not reply but offered a feeble shrug. 

Bucky watched as the old griffon shivered, coughed, and trembled. Something in his heart ached as he watched the feeble dying god. “I will do whatever I can to help you. The chance that you might die is awful. Just tell me what to do, how can I save you?” 

“I drew my power from wisdom… from art, beauty, learning, our sagas, our history, our lore, all of it was kept in song. The knowledge of our species is fading along with me,” Odin said. 

Reaching up, Bucky rubbed his face with his right fetlock as he searched for something to say. Something in his guts clenched and suddenly, Bucky felt old. 

“You call the little griffons ‘servant’ griffons… that is what they have become… slaves… at one point, they were my favoured… my chosen… my artists. I created the hunters and the warriors to protect them and the ponies that we once lived in harmony with. I introduced the random call that lead to greater glory. I did not know… I did not know that my gift would be my undoing… when the alicorns were defiled, my gift became so easily corrupted… and now look at what it has done,” Odin said in a wet raspy voice. 

Reaching out once more, Bucky gently rubbed the old griffon through the blanket. “Just hold on… give me some time to work… I’m still trying to undo the damage from centuries of oppression.” 

“You have more enemies than you know… come closer… I want to help you,” Odin said. 

Leaning down, Bucky came almost snoot to beak with the old griffon. 

“Funny… you should have been born a griffon… you would have been a good one… I am going to give you a gift… something to help you… something that will help keep you safe from your enemies… I do this to help my griffons… I am sorry about this,” Odin said. 

“Sorry for wha….aaaaaaaargh!” 

Bucky felt sharp talon points digging into his snoot. Not enough to pierce the skin, but enough to hold him still. The grip was impossibly strong, Bucky found that some odd force compelled him not to move. 

As Bucky was held in place, he watched as Odin reached up with his other talons and ripped out his own eye. His good eye, not the eye that was milky and dead. The torn out eyeball floated midair, strange energy crackled around it, and it changed into a small blue gemstone. 

Odin’s other talons reached up and Bucky felt something tugging on his fulgurite eye plug. There was a strange feeling of pressure… he couldn’t see what was going on on that side of his face very well, but he saw something blurry. With a gasp, he realised that his plug had been pulled out the socket somehow. There was no pain, but there was an odd feeling. 

“This might sting,” Odin warned in a whisper as he grabbed the blue gemstone shard. 

Too late, Bucky realised what Odin was about to do. He tried to pull away and discovered he could not. One talon slipped inside of his nostril and pressed into the tender flesh within. Bucky whimpered, more from panic than pain, and then watched as Odin rammed the gemstone shard upwards to where Bucky knew his now emptied eye socket was waiting. 

There was a terrible pain… 

Slipping off of the couch, Bucky could feel something burrowing through his head. It crawled around inside of his eye socket. He felt something wet, there was a slurping sound, and then he felt moisture dribbling down the mass of scar tissue that was his cheek as he rolled on the floor clutching at his face. 

“I’m such a bastard,” Odin said in a weak soft voice as he watched Bucky writhe on the floor. The old griffon began to chuckle feebly, the chuckle sounded more like a wheezing death rattle. 

As Bucky got to his hooves, he realised that he could see again out of both eyes. He blinked, looked around, and realised he had depth perception once more. 

Huddled beneath his blanket, Odin sighed. “What a pity… all of that suffering and your eyes don’t match.” 

“I can see again,” Bucky gasped. 

“Oh you can do more than that… that eye will allow you to see all of your enemies. It will allow you see invisible creatures. There is more that it does but I will leave you to discover it,” Odin said in a tired sounding voice. 

“I can see again…” Bucky repeated. 

The old griffon cleared his throat. “Odin pays his debts. You’ve saved my children… now save me… I can’t bear being like this any longer. Call them servants no longer, but artists. Help them make the world beautiful once more, like they did so long ago.” 

Looking at the griffon, Bucky nodded. Turning his head slightly, he saw the oddly shaped fulgurite plug and the sunstone laying on the floor. He had made such plans with that eye replacement. 

“Help them to remember me… build a shrine…” Odin said. 

Rhea and Scorch both reappeared in the hallway, both looked solemn and serious. Scorch took a step towards Bucky while Rhea went and collected Odin from off of the couch, gently cradling the old griffon in her arms while cooing softly. 

“I will do as you ask… but what do I build?” Bucky asked. 

“Scorch will know,” Odin answered.

Striding towards Bucky, Scorch stopped an arm length away, reached out, grabbed Bucky’s muzzle, and gently lifted Bucky’s head upwards. “Your Taint is unable to corrupt the eye of a god. One eye is a bright piercing purple-blue… the other bears your vile sickness.” Scorch paused, still looking Bucky in the eye. “Come. There is much to be done. Odin needs his rest now. How does it feel to see again?” 

“Wonderful… thank you Odin… I will do all that I can repay you for what you have done for me!” Bucky called out as Rhea carried the almost dead but seemingly unable to die griffon away to his rest. 

Letting go of Bucky, Scorch went to the fulgurite plug upon the floor, bent over, picked it up, and then held it in his fist. He squeezed and it became fine powder, gemstone and all, which floated off when Scorch opened his fist. 

“I can see…” 

“Yes, Lord of Winter, you can see. For everything that has been taken from you, something has been restored. Come. There is much to do,” Scorch said. 
	
> Chapter 475
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Berry, I wish you’d stop crying,” Bucky said as he gave Berry Punch a reassuring squeeze. Leaning his head down, he kissed her softly upon the ear. “Really hard to enjoy this new eye with you crying.” 

Still sobbing, Berry Punch buried her face into Bucky’s neck. “You have two eyes again... you finally have back what I took from you...” 

Wrapping one foreleg around the back of Berry’s neck, Bucky found that he could squeeze a little more. “We’ve talked about this, that was not your fault.” 

Nearby, Luna quietly cuddled with Erebus and Cadance, watching with one raised eyebrow as Bucky and Berry Punch embraced. Luna knew full well the sorts of dreams that Berry Punch had. Berry Punch carried with her an entire lifetime’s worth of guilt for one rash action. There was little Luna could do to help Berry Punch, it was something she was going to have to let go of. 

Still sobbing, Berry Punch managed to mumble, “You were maimed because I had a bad temper.” 

“Berry Punch, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to screw the self pity out of you,” Bucky said, recalling something that Berry had once said to him. He felt the mare he was holding shudder, he could feel as well as hear her sniffling, and then he felt her grip on him tighten to the point where it was nearly painful, so much so that it was difficult to breathe. 



 

Berry Punch was asleep and Bucky paced in the now darkened room. This was Tartarus and time passed differently here. The waiting was growing annoying. Looking over at Luna, and able to see her in the near darkness, Bucky asked, “How much longer?” 

Shrugging Luna replied, “I do not know. I know Celestia is here. They are still waiting on many. Some will not attend because they slumber. We will be called when the time comes. I do wonder what Celestia is off doing though.” 

The door opened and a soft purple muzzle poked into the room. A moment later, Twilight’s whole head was visible. “Hello?” 

Suppressing a need to growl at the intrusion, Luna settled herself over Cadance and Erebus a little more before inviting Twilight Sparkle in. “Do come in. The lights are off.” 

Twilight’s horn flared with a faint light and the alicorn entered the room with Spike on her back. The little dragon was asleep. Twilight slowly approached the bed were Luna was, lifted Spike with her magic, and gently set him upon the bed. 

“I don’t understand why Spike was summoned,” Twilight Sparkle said in a small voice that was remarkably foalish and full of fear. 

“Sit down Twilight.” Luna’s voice was calm. Motherly. She waited for Twilight to take a seat, and, much to Luna’s surprise, Twilight climbed up onto the bed and lay down beside Spike. Clearing her throat softly, Luna looked down at Spike. “There is much you do not yet know Twilight. Your eyes are slowly being opened to the world around you, but there is still much that you are unaware of. Spike is one of those things.” 

Letting out a worried sounding sigh, Twilight responded, “I don’t understand.” 

In the corner, Bucky eased himself into a chair. 

Deciding to be blunt about it, Luna took a deep breath and prepared herself. “Twilight Sparkle, the egg that you hatched for your entrance exam was a false egg.”

“What?” 

Another deep breath. There was too much stress lately and Luna’s patience was thin. “The egg was false. It was not real. It was meant to be a test to determine how you deal with failure. After Sunset Shimmer, the tests were revised. Celestia wanted a student that could be humble and graciously accept defeat. You were supposed to fail and then be judged on how you dealt with the failure of your entrance exam. You were too powerful… Celestia knew of your potential. She had to make sure that she wasn’t dealing with another student like Sunset Shimmer.” 

Twilight began to stammer wordlessly and then was cut off by Luna. 

“The egg was fake. False. Do you think my sister would steal a dragon egg for use in the school? If that was really the means of admission, where are all of the other baby dragons running around? Use your head Twilight… Spike exists because you willed him into existence. You believed him to be real and your magic made him. Celestia believes he is connected to the rainboom where you and your friends all came together. Celestia calls Spike Harmony’s Herald,” Luna said. 

“I made Spike…” 

There was a gurgle from Twilight’s stomach. 

“You okay Twilight?” Bucky asked after hearing the gurgle. 

“No, I’m gonna throw up!” 

Twilight lunged off of the bed, nearly falling, and then vomited upon the floor. Before the mess even happened, the floor opened in a yawning chasm, the vomit vanished, and the floor closed. Now laying on the floor, Twilight Sparkle tried to catch her breath. 

“You created Spike through force of will,” Luna said in a low whisper as she pulled Spike closer to her. The dragon cuddled around Erebus, snorted, and fell back into deep slumber. 

Silence filled the room, the only sound was the chuffing sounds of Twilight’s heavy breathing. Her horn had gone dim and the only light in the room was Bucky’s Tainted eye, which glowed softly, and the luminescent purple vapour that wafted from it offered a little light as well. 

Twilight, her brain in a highly agitated state, realised that she was in Tartarus on Nightmare Night with Nightmare Moon and the boogeypony. This realisation was too much to bear. She threw up again, causing the floor beneath her to open once more. 



 

Entering into a dark room, Celestia looked around. In the darkness, she saw a glowing eye, crimson and a sickly shade of green. There was a faintly glowing purple mist drifting away from it. 

Celestia shivered. She ignited her horn and shone a faint light into the room. 

Beneath a black cloak, she saw the bleached bones of a pony and one glowing Taint filled eye. She sucked in her breath, bit down on her lip to keep from crying out, and dimmed her horn. Celestia certainly did not want to see that. 

“You are acting strangely.” 

Bucky’s voice was a low rumbling baritone in the dark. There was something commanding about it, but also something terrifying. 

Or maybe Celestia was simply spooked and acting like a little filly that was afraid of the dark. She made her way through the room in the dim light, her eyes still adjusting to the dark. Luna was on the bed asleep. Bucky was sitting in a chair. Berry Punch was on the bed near Bucky. 

Twilight was on the floor… 

Lifting Twilight, who was sound asleep, Celestia carefully placed her in the bed with Luna. 

Realising a confession was in order, Celestia turned to look at Bucky. “You nearly scared the meadow muffins right out of me.” 

“I know… I can smell it.” 

Nope, Celestia thought to herself. Nothing creepy about Bucky’s ability to smell fear. 

Lowing her voice to a hushed whisper, Celestia said, “I am glad you are on our side.” 

“There are no sides. There is only those I consider family and tribe, and those who are not.” 

Celestia felt every single hair on her back stand up. 

“I spend my every waking hour trying to think of new ways to keep them safe. To keep you safe. I also think of ways to make their lives better. Unfortunately, to keep them safe, this means I must think of which way to best dispose of my enemies.” 

Clearing her throat softly as her stomach muscles clenched, Celestia tried to stop feeling like a spooked filly. She hated being here in this place. It weakened ponies… except for Bucky. Somehow, Bucky had come away stronger and his many long years of endless agony only fueled his dark magic, making it even more effective. She slipped off her shoes, her regalia, and her crown, placing them on the table beside the bed. She took mental note of the word ‘dispose’ and realised that Bucky did not say the word ‘defeat.’ There was something chilling about his confidence. He had always been so shy… so meek. So small and so quiet. 

Slipping into bed beside Berry Punch, Celestia heaved a sigh as she settled into the mattress. The earth pony beside her snorted and the disturbance of the bed caused her to release one long squealing blast from her backside. 

In the darkness, Celestia heard Bucky sniggering. She waited a moment for Bucky to fall silent, and when the sounds of his mirth finally ended, Celestia said, “Word has it that you have two eyes again. There is a lot of talk going around.” 

She heard the soft sound of Bucky inhaling and then she heard him say, “It is true.” 

The earth pony beside Celestia rolled over on her side and cuddled up against Celestia. 

“Watch out, she’s a sleep snuggler, even by pegasus standards.” 

Bucky’s whispered warning somehow seemed ominous in the dark room. Celestia still felt all of the hairs on her back standing up. She hated this place. She settled against the much smaller earth pony beside her and then covered Berry Punch with her wing. “Bucky… are you making it spooky in here?” 

“No. Not intentionally.” 

Right then. Not intentionally, Celestia thought to herself. This is what she got for sharing a room with the boogeypony in the depths of Tartarus. She looked over at the glowing eye in the corner of the room. “Are you going to get some sleep?” 

“I do not trust this place. Rest. I will watch over you.” 

Yawning, Celestia could certainly feel the siren call of slumber. She lay her head down upon a pillow, and, using her magic, pulled a blanket over her and Berry both. 



 

“How long is this going to take?” Bucky asked. He was growing more and more impatient. Sitting in a comfortable chair, he glanced around the small private dining area. There were a few beings that he did not know. Some were eating, some were drinking tea, others were playing cards. 

“Soon I think. More have arrived. I overheard Scorch a while ago, very soon they will call the meeting to order.” Luna held her teacup up to her muzzle and took a sniff. She let out a little moan, her eyes closing, and she visibly relaxed in her chair. 

Spike, who had a marshmallow impaled upon each claw, carefully toasted each of them, burning them slightly for char, but not burning them too much. He giggled to himself and then slurped the marshmallows off of each claw, smacking his lips loudly. 

Twilight gave an annoyed grunt but said nothing. 

“You know, for all of your power, for your control over the cosmos, you two don’t seem very high up in the food chain here,” Bucky said. 

Luna gave an angry snort and glared at Bucky over her teacup. 

Celestia, favouring a somewhat more diplomatic approach, also glared at Bucky but chose to educate him as well. “Buckminster, dear, Luna and I are considered young… foals at best by many here. Many feel that we lack the experience that comes with age. We have only lived for what amounts to a blink of an eye. Well, in these bodies anyway.” 

“Just how old are some of these… these… whatever they are,” Berry Punch said. 

Setting down her teacup, Celestia looked over at Berry Punch. “Odin, the nice griffon who gave your husband an eye, Odin is close to ten thousand years of age.” 

Berry Punch nearly dropped her teacup from her hooves, causing tea to splash over the tablecloth. “Oh my gosh.” 

Smiling serenely, Celestia learned forward as she heard Twilight Sparkle begin coughing and sputtering from shock. “Odin is considered a cub… Beings like Scorch have been around for billions of years.” 

Berry’s teacup fell from her trembling hooves, trailing tea as it plummeted to the floor. Before it could hit, it vanished in a flash of light and then reappeared upon the table, sitting on its tea saucer, full of tea as if nothing had happened. 

Luna gave Twilight Sparkle a hearty slap on the back to help the alicorn with her choking. Twilight coughed, horked, and finally spat out a partially chewed bite of cucumber and daisy sandwich she had been trying to eat.

“And what of the Fates?” Bucky asked. 

“They have been here since the first souls formed,” Celestia replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 476
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Twilight Sparkle, Buckminster, there is so much that both of you should know. I feel as though I have let you down by not informing you about all of this…” Celestia’s words faded out as the crowd continued to gather. The massive room was filling full of strange beings. “There hasn’t been a meeting called together like this for a long time. Usually, they call together our most active members. When the worldwide firearms ban was instituted, there were less than a dozen of us. We're not supposed to get involved.” 

There was a dull roar through the crowd as Scorch and several others that Bucky did not know took seats in what appeared to be important positions. Several seats were empty. There was someone beside him, Bucky had met her but could not remember her name. 

All around him, Bucky could see the many immortals of the world. He had no idea how many had packed into the impossibly large room. Some of them were quite curious and left Bucky filled with questions. One appeared to be a flame living on the end of a candle. He had been burning for a little too long, and, as Bucky watched with intense curiousity, someone used the old candle to light the new one, giving the flame creature a new place to rest, and then placed the new candle down into the holder after the old nub winked out of existence. 

“There are Observers here… those who Watch. The last time I saw them was when I… was… when I...” Celestia fell silent, her words catching in her throat with a pained gasp. 

Bucky knew what she was going to say though. Celestia had seen the Observers when she had gone through the mirror to be with Sombra. Beside him, Cadance gurgled, snapping him out of his moment of concentration. 

Looking over, Bucky could see Berry Punch patting Cadance on the back, and little Cadance was squirming in Berry’s grasp. Cadance gurgled once more, her stomach made a squelching sound, and then a thunderous belch filled the cavernous room. 

All around Bucky, various immortals began to snicker. He grinned sheepishly as he looked around him. Some of them had stopped snickering and had started laughing. Glancing over at Celestia, he saw the same embarrassed look that he knew was plastered over his own mug. Celestia was looking around, doing much the same as he was, trying to gauge reactions. 

“It is her first meeting and she already has so much to say…” 

Bucky heard the whispered words and felt the corners of his mouth turning upwards even more, his scarred cheek crinkling. As he felt the side of his face contort, Bucky came to the startling realisation that not only did he have an eye on the right side of his face again, but he had eyelids once more. Now distracted, he wondered how they had grown back. 

“This meeting is now called to order!” 

The voice belonged to Scorch and it boomed through the cavernous expanse. Nearby, Erebus whimpered and then let out a fearful whinny. Bucky heard Luna shushing the colt. 

“We have a problem. Once more, outsiders have come and have changed the natural progression of things. Our whole world faces a threat and some of you believe that it is time to get involved.” 

So much for pomp and circumstance. Bucky took note that the meeting simply started, no time wasted with titles or gimmicks. So far, he liked what he was seeing. 

“It is not our place to get involved!” 

“The Observers have become involved. Those who Watch are fearful of what may come. The weapons of another realm have come to our world. Guns of a terrifying new design unlike any other that we have seen here in this realm.” 

“Whatever will happen will happen! We should not get involved!” 

“The last time we had invaders from another realm it ended in the defilement of the alicorns! Do we want something like that happening again? Our world nearly ended!” 

Bucky recognised that voice… that was Clotho, a mare he called his sister. He looked around, trying to spot her, and finally saw an earth pony mare. Some of the seats at the head of the gathering room was empty, and Bucky assumed that one of them must have been hers. 

“You became involved, you and your meddling sisters! What good has it done the world?” 

Biting down on his lip, Bucky swallowed an angry retort, knowing that it was not his place to say anything. He heard an angry growl from Luna and a snort from Celestia. A low murmuring filled the room. 

“After enduring many trials and tribulations, after suffering complete collapse, Equestria rises like a phoenix from the ashes. It has become a beacon of hope and it is bringing the whole of the world together, along with the Sea of Grass. We have powerful agents that are finally undoing the damage done to the world by the defilement of the alicorns. The damage done to the griffon species is being purged and the griffons are now being restored to what they were meant to be because of our meddling,” Clotho said to the gathered immortals in a booming voice that easily carried through the room. 

“Now that the Two Sisters are once again together, we have signs of tribal unity once more in their part of the world. The Chaos War and Discord’s reign did so much damage to the equine tribes—”

“WHICH IS WHY WE SHOULDN’T GET INVOLVED!” 

Bucky saw Atropos boil over with anger at being interrupted. He saw her take a deep breath and regain some of her composure before she continued. 

“Discord may have disrupted the equine tribes and their purpose, but he has since seen the error of his ways. He has worked to save them, he is now their protector, their guardian, and he was rehabilitated because of our so called meddling. Celestia and Luna are wonderful examples of what can be done when we do become involved but limit how much we interfere,” Atropos said. 

“We can lead those we rule towards the greater good. The world is better place for our involvement. Can any here say otherwise? Might I remind you, without our rebellion, this world would have died,” Lachesis said. 

The room fell silent. 

Bucky felt Berry Punch lean up against him, he could feel her lips brush up against his ear, and then he heard her whisper, “Now, now, you will not get a better time.”

Licking his lips, Bucky stood up, looked back at Berry, felt her muzzle press against his own in a brief kiss, and then he screwed his courage to the sticking place. 

“In the depths of Canterlot castle, there are now seven ponies that can tell you the fate of what will happen if you do not get involved. Mirror travelers. They come from a dead world. Many of their immortals died. I wonder how many of them kept saying ‘don’t get involved’ over and over, the battlecry of apathy… when the world was finally on the brink of destruction, powerful magics were used and many immortals were severed from what gives them power. The war against them ended with them dying… we can either learn from their mistakes… or you can continue to talk yourselves to death with platitudes about not getting involved and the danger that getting involved poses,” Bucky said. 

Fear flooded every fibre of his being. He had been in a lot of harrowing situations, survived much, and fear was something he seldom felt, but he felt it now. He could hear the anger building up in some of the crowd. He knew that he would be utterly powerless against these beings. 

“Ah… the world ender has spoken…” 

“I have no desire to end anything… I have rejected my purpose and chose something else,” Bucky said, feeling the need to defend himself. “Were I to ascend, would any of you try to stop me, or would you just sit back and wait for me to kill you? Stopping me would be getting involved. My purpose is to end each and every one of you. Right now, my mind is already thinking of the ways and means of ending each and every one of you.” 

This wasn’t entirely true, but Bucky knew that with time, it could be true. For now, he figured the bluff would be enough to serve his purpose. 

“I now work to save one of your number, the griffon deity Odin. I chose life,” Bucky said. 

“I have a question… if I might ask one.” 

Bucky turned to Berry Punch, his eyes narrowed, and he wondered what Berry was up to. He smiled a mischievous smile. This was why he brought Berry. 

“Speak earth pony mare… I would like to hear what you have to say,” a large minotaur female said in a voice that silenced the many murmured protests. 

“I cannot help but wonder. Out of those who want to be involved, how many of you have been parents? Raised your young? How many of you have nurtured life? Protected it?” Berry asked.

The room filled with many voices, all speaking at once. 

“SILENCE!” Scorch demanded. 

The room fell silent. Bucky slowly began to understand just how much power Scorch had. One of the fey demon lords of Tartarus and the parent to quite a bit of the gathered pantheon. 

“I have had many children. Both mortal and immortal. I have been both male and female. Life is something worth continuing. I raised Celestia and quite a number of you as well. How many in this room call me father or mother?” Scorch said. 

“Many of us have never had offspring,” Clotho said. 

“It is a great failing. We fail to understand the very lives that we strive to preserve, directly or indirectly,” Atropos continued. 

“We have no other connection to this world other than our purpose,” Lachesis finished. 

“Perhaps what you say has some truth. Perhaps I will go out and find some waif to rescue,” a large diamond dog said as he stood up from his chair and looked around the room. 

“Perhaps some perspective is in order,” a giant pegasus said. 

“Shield makes a good point,” Scorch said. 

“The earth pony mare has got us talking about direct involvement,” the large female minotaur said in an amused voice. “If only for the sake of understanding. How many of us serve our purpose but still feel empty?” 

“Perhaps we should spend some time gaining some understanding. But that is not why we came together here in this place. We have more pressing concerns. For now, I am willing to relax my position about involvement and say that, yes, we should become involved. The gun issue is of great concern to me. The introduction of weapons from outside of our realm disturbs me,” a being that was made out of clouds said in a voice that sounded like the rushing wind. 

“We have one of the weapons here, with us. I have not seen its like, but I know the Observers have. Such is the way of things in many realities and realms.” 

“Most realms that develop advanced weapons usually destroy themselves with violence.” 

“Magic too,” a voice interjected from somewhere in the back of the room. 

“Steps have been taken to control magic before it went too far out of control.” 

“The alicorn of magic is mortal!” 

“She may still fix the problem, serve her purpose, all before she dies.” 

Looking at Twilight, Bucky could see her trembling. He wasn’t sure what she was feeling exactly, but he could tell that she didn’t like being spoke about in such a way. He felt a heated rush of anger. 

“Look, we must come together. We must work together. The guns are a temporary problem at best. What of our Creator, who actively wishes to destroy us all? We have no chance unless we all stand together and become involved. The gun issue is merely a good point for us to begin to learn how to work with one another!” Clotho said. 

“No one else can save us!” Atropos said. 

“We face a real threat to this world. This is our chance to band together and see what we can do. If we can face down this threat, if we can learn to stand together, we might still be able to save ourselves from our Creator who wishes to destroy us. The alicorn of war was created to put an end to us all but he now works to save us. Anything is possible,” Lachesis said. 

“To deal with the gun issue, we should discuss the fate of Labyrinthia,” Scorch suggested in a voice that completely silenced the room once more. 
	
> Chapter 477
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The debate about Labyrinthia started off with a few quiet words and then a few angry exclamations. Bucky heard several opinions, some he agreed with, others he disagreed with, and a few that made no sense to him. Much to his surprise, almost everyone in attendance agreed it was time to get involved, even if it was reluctant involvement, but no one could seem to agree on what to do. 

Leaning over, Bucky kissed Berry Punch upon the cheek, bent his head down, gave Cadance a gentle kiss, and then he pulled Spike close and gave the nervous as well as bewildered dragon a reassuring hug. 

Glancing over at Luna, Bucky tried to figure out what was going on with Spike, Twilight, Celestia, and Luna. Twilight had known that she had a false egg, or at least, she had known. She did not know that Spike was immortal. Her reaction to being told was disturbing, alarming, even worrisome. Twilight had told him that she knew that Celestia was keeping the information from her. This was right before Griffonholm and the events that took place there. 

Distracted, thoughtful, Bucky began to wonder if Luna had done a little trimming of Twilight’s memories to ease the burden of Griffonholm and everything that had taken place there. It was just what Luna did. She had done it to him, but no longer. For good or for ill, Bucky remembered everything. 

There was now a boring debate about the historical significance of Labyrinthia. Try as he might, Bucky could not be bothered gaining interest. It was far more interesting to speculate about how much Luna had cut away from Twilight’s mind to stabilise her mind after Griffonholm. 

“So what could actually justify the eradication of an entire city?” 

The question, asked in a moment of heated passion, seemed pointless. Bucky could think of a lot of reasons that a city deserved obliteration. As a pony with experience in razing cities, Bucky thought for a moment that he might have something to say, but then he lost interest. 

He allowed Spike to squirm away and watched the dragon go over to Twilight. 

“We have one of the guns. This is one of the guns used in the assault upon the royal palace. It is of a design that is not of this world or this realm.” 

Slipping off of his chair, Bucky took to his hooves and trotted off to the front of the room where the table was. The gun, which had was set out upon the table for display. He heard murmurings of surprise as he passed through the crowd. He heard Celestia saying something about sitting back down, but that was easy to ignore.

Approaching the table, Bucky smiled at Scorch and then looked down to examine the gun. It was unlike anything he had seen before and he had no frame of reference from which to begin to draw conclusions. 

“This is rather unusual,” a tall bipedal creature made of ice said as he peered at Bucky. 

“Can you think of any being more suited for understanding a weapon made for war?” Scorch asked. 

“No,” the ice creature replied. 

“Is it unloaded?” Bucky asked. After a moment, Bucky saw Scorch nod. 

Bucky lifted the gun in his levitation and began to examine it. He turned it about, flipped it over, and studied it from every angle. “You know, I know of somepony that might be able to tell us more about this.” 

A creature that was a long snake with a strange looking head eyed Bucky intently. “Do you now? I would like to know more myself.” 

Nervous about his answer, Bucky felt a little reluctant when he said, “My apprentice may have a little knowledge.” 

There was a loud pop and Sunset Shimmer appeared. She was sleeping. Bucky glared around the room, daring somepony to be rude, and then approached Sunset. With a gentle prod, he tried to wake her. 

“Sunset, wake up. Wake up and try not to panic,” Bucky said. 

One eye opened. Bucky watched her whole body tense for a moment. He couldn’t imagine what she might be feeling, but he knew this would be disorienting for her. 

Once more, Bucky gave Sunset a gentle pat to help her wake and to reassure her. He watched her yawn and then he stepped back as she rose to her hooves. 

“What is going on?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she began to look around the room. She reached up with one front fetlock and rubbed her bleary eyes, first one, and then the other. 

The time for gentleness was now over. Bucky cleared his throat. “Minion, I need for you to have a look at this gun. If you know anything, if anything seems familiar, I need for you to tell this council what you know.” 

“You’re a naga,” Sunset Shimmer said when she saw the snake with the funny head. “Half snake and half human… it feels weird to see a human face on this side of the mirror.” 

Grinning in a sheepish manner, Bucky prodded Sunset once more and then gestured at the gun. “Minion, if you please.” 

Bowing her head, Sunset Shimmer nodded. “Of course Master.” 

“How endearing,” the naga said as she watched Bucky and Sunset. 

Bucky took a deep breath as Sunset Shimmer lifted the gun and began to examine it. She looked it over from every angle, squinted her eyes as she tried to read something written upon it, and then finally, she set it down upon the table. 

“I don’t know a whole lot about guns, but I have watched a lot of movies. This is called a submachine gun. Typically, a submachine gun is fully automatic and it just sprays out bullets. This one says it is made by Krammler and Klein and it is a twelve point seven milimetre submachine gun. I remember this company from beyond the mirror… they made very powerful guns and there were lots of advertisements in magazines about how well made they were and how powerful they were. The selling point was something like ‘bigger is always better’ and they boasted that they didn’t use small ineffective rounds,” Sunset said. 

“Fascinating,” the naga remarked as she slithered over to have a closer look. 

“Klein, one of the founders of the company, was on the news a lot. He said guns were useless if they ran out of bullets, so all Krammler and Klein guns came with something called ‘infinity-fire’ or something. They featured greatly extended magazines. You couldn’t keep shooting forever, but you could keep shooting for a very long time. Their guns were made to be very easy to reload, very fast, and their television commercials showed a housewife demonstrating the ease of use,” Sunset said as she turned to look at the naga. 

“These… commercials on… what was it? A television? Are these commercials common beyond the mirror?” the naga asked. 

“Guns were everywhere beyond the mirror. There isn’t much in the way of magic in that world. People wanted to feel safe. So they built nuclear bombs that split atoms, bombs that spread diseases and germs, and they built a lot of guns so they could feel safe,” Sunset said. 

“That is… incomprehensible,” the naga replied. 

“They have something called ‘mutually assured destruction’ beyond the mirror. If one country fires off a nuke, then everybody fires off a nuke and everybody dies. They claim it keeps the world safe. Everybody is kind of paranoid and crazy on that side of the mirror. But yes, guns are everywhere. They are common. Some of them are very cheap. And almost everybody seems to have one. They have a big problem keeping guns away from kids… sometimes a kid will bring a gun to school and just start shooting their classmates,” Sunset said. 

“How horrifying,” somebody gasped from within the crowd. 

“No worse than me turning into a terrible she-demon,” Sunset Shimmer said as she hung her head in shame and heaved a sigh. 

Giving Sunset Shimmer a stern glare, Bucky wondered how long it would take before Sunset noticed that he had two eyes once more. “Minion, now is not the time for self pity.” 

Bowing her head, Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes for a moment. “Yes Master, of course. My apologies.” When she had finished speaking, she raised her head and opened her eyes. 

Scorch rose from his seat and moved towards the table. “So we have civilisation of imbeciles bent upon their own destruction and now their weapons are crossing into this realm. This is the sum of all of my fears. This is part of why I loathe guns as much as I do. We need to send a clear message that anyone working with the mirror travelers and trading in off-realm weapons faces obliteration. Not a stern warning, not a promise of punishment, just a response of outright annihilation for anyone dealing with off-realm firearms.” 

The hall filled with the sounds of murmuring and a few loud cries, but there were no objections. Bucky looked around. He saw what he thought were angry faces. Fearful faces. Worried faces. He could feel the fear in the room. He could smell the fear in the room. 

“Lord of Winter… I know that you still possess the firearms that you took from the griffons. There is something I want from you,” Scorch said in a voice that echoed through the cavernous room. 

Realising that refusal was not an option, Bucky turned to face Scorch and waited. 

Scorch cleared his throat, rubbed his hands together, and then he nervously patted his own stomach. “It is my desire that you begin to research and develop firearms. I want them safe. I want them to have no possible chance to harm innocent bystanders. I want non lethal rounds that incapacitate. I want you to research lethal rounds as well, but only for the most dire of circumstances. I want for you to continue your research into neutralising chemical based projectiles that are used in guns.” 

Bowing, Bucky nodded. “I will do what is required of me.” 

“Now… about Labyrinthia. I am still willing to spare the city if it is completely evacuated and the residents surrender their arms. Celestia, you will make the announcement that you previously planned to make. Warn them. Let them know what is coming. Complete destruction without mercy,” Scorch said. 

“Such action, while regrettable, is necessary,” Clotho said as she drew near the table. 

“They will not surrender. You will encounter resistance when you go to Labyrinthia,” Lachesis added. 

“While this might be enough to intimidate a majority of those rebellious against this new sense of world order, there will be those who resist, and there will be mirror travelers who will use their magic to instigate rebellion wherever they can. There are too many species vulnerable to magical influence,” Atropos finished. 

Scorch nodded. “Which is why we are going to take the fight to the mirror travelers. This is why I am having the Lord of Winter research new arms. I do not like the idea that diamond dogs, minotaurs, and griffons are mostly powerless against the mirror travelers. They need a means to defend themselves. I am filled with self loathing at the very idea of guns being created by my command, but there is too much at stake. We are going to hunt down every stronghold, every hidden place, we will root out the mirror travelers and give them no quarter. They are every bit as vulnerable to guns as we are. I do believe it is time that we made them afraid of the very thing they have brought into this realm to plague us with. I say that we let them feel the perverse fury of the Lord of Winter and his terrible imagination.” 

“And what of the nations that refuse to ally themselves with us?” someone asked. 

“That depends. If they choose to remain neutral and stay peaceful, we leave them be. If they side with the mirror travelers, if they offer them aid, if those rebellious to global harmony are sheltered within their borders… they forfeit all rights to exist peacefully and we do what needs to be done for the safety and security of us all,” Scorch said. 

“So we have slipped from a state of non involvement to an active position of ruling the world,” the naga said in a flat monotone. 

“What else could be done?” Clotho asked. 

“Celestia and Luna rule Equestria. We three sisters, the Fates as you call us, we are the de facto rulers of the Sea of Grass. Some of us have already taken up active positions in trying to preserve the world and prevent our own end. What we are doing now is no different than what is already being done,” Lachesis said. 

“Only now, we have your support,” Atropos concluded. 

“Unless there are any serious objections, this meeting is over. We have much to do and some of us have a world we need to govern,” Scorch said. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 478
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The lights in the room were dim; the room was quiet and calm. There had been a long discussion after the meeting had ended, and quite a number of beings had stayed to listen. Bucky felt exhausted, but was still able to keep going. Celestia was off somewhere, Bucky did not know where, and Luna was just outside of the door in the hall catching up with old acquaintances. Twilight was sitting at the small table in the corner, Bucky did not know what she was thinking or feeling, but he felt worried about her. Berry Punch was looking after Erebus and Cadance, who seemed content to cuddle together on one of the beds. Nearby, on the same bed, Spike was reading a book he had brought along to catch up on his schoolwork.

The door opened and Scorch entered. He moved with incredible speed, smiling as he drew near the bed. Reaching out, he grabbed Berry Punch, which startled her, and Bucky strained to control the sudden need to try to obliterate Scorch.

Lifting Berry Punch, he cradled her in his arms, Scorch gave her body a gentle squeeze. “You did so well out there. You got them to appreciate a mortal perspective. You made them think, you made them reconsider… you wonderful little pony you!” Scorch spun Berry around and then kissed her upon the head. After another squeeze, he reached out and set Berry down upon the bed once more.

“Thanks?”

Bucky could hear Berry’s confusion as he tried to calm himself. He watched as Scorch placed a hand upon Berry Punch’s now rounded stomach. The fey fire demon rubbed with a soft touch and Bucky could see the effect upon Berry; she melted and sank down into bed.

“So warm,” Berry said as she closed her eyes. “Oh that feels so nice.”

From where he was sitting in his chair, Bucky watched as Scorch turned to look at him. As Bucky took a deep breath and tried to relax, he heard Scorch say, “You did just what I had hoped that you would do. Bucky, thank you. For now, this is a time of gentle involvement. Not tyranny, but just a little assistance. Just enough to get you mortals interested in fighting for yourselves so you can deal with this threat. Afterwards, we can once again fade into the background.”

There was a lot to say but Bucky wasn’t sure how to say it.

“Scorch, thank you for trusting Bucky with the firearm issue… I know for certain that he will not let you down,” Berry Punch said as she opened her eyes.

“We met under trying circumstances… I’ve grown to respect and trust Bucky.”

Remembering how he and Scorch met, Bucky thought of something to say. “So… how is my mother doing? I trust that she has somehow proven herself… useful?”

Scorch chuckled and changed form, becoming a large well muscled earth pony. “Creatures with living flesh are such a rarity down here. There is a lot of demand for her. Right now she is serving the greater good. Because of her, I have managed to gain a few favours which in turn has scored me a few new allies.”

“Aw… mom finally did something good with her life,” Bucky said in voice that dripped with acid sarcasm. “I hope she rots.”

“No, no chance of rotting. At least not in a permanent sense. She was brought down here in body… which grants her functional immortality. You know how it is. You’ve been on the hook,” Scorch said.

“I shall have to learn to live with my disappointment.” The acidic words hung in the air for a moment and then Bucky heard Berry Punch clear her throat. Looking at Berry, Bucky saw that she was gesturing at Twilight Sparkle and Spike, both of whom had wide eyed looks of horror.

After a long moment of silence, Bucky thought it might be wise to apologise. “I’m sorry…”





The day after Nightmare Night was cold, so cold that it seemed impossible for the season. For most, this was only a cause of brief concern, but for Celestia, this was a cause of considerable concern. The seasons were somewhat out of control. The cause was unknown but the evidence could be seen by any who knew how to look.

“Raven, is everything prepared for my announcement?” Celestia asked.

Nodding, Raven looked up at Celestia. “Yes. The crowds are gathering. The news reporters are all accounted for, all of those invited have show up and even a few independents have arrived. Several auto-quills are ready to record your every word. Would you like a cup of tea before you begin?”

Shaking her head, Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, gave thought to her answer, opened her eyes, and then said, “No, I do believe that a glass of Fancy cognac is in order.”

Nodding once more, Raven replied, “Majesty, we have a fine Fancy Vieille Réserve as well as a few bottles of various hors d'âge cognac leftover from the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“That sounds lovely,” Celestia said.





“He’s finally drifted off to sleep. He won’t let go of Belisama though,” Derpy said as she stepped into the nursery with Berry Punch. She smiled at Bittersweet, who was in the corner on a cushion with Cadance, paused, and then trotted over to Bittersweet. Leaning down her head, she kissed the donkey between her ears and then went back over to Berry Punch. Berry, who was in the bowl shaped chair with Harper, scooted over a bit and Derpy climbed in.

Once settled in the chair, she leaned over and kissed Berry Punch on the cheek. Afterwards, she smooched Harper, who giggled from the affectionate kiss.

“So how was Tartarus?” Derpy asked.

Berry Punch rubbed her chin against Harper’s back and gave the foal a squeeze. “Tartarus was surprisingly pleasant. I can’t complain. I was treated very well there.”

Berry’s body was warm and Derpy could feel Berry’s ribs pressing against her own. The heat from the warm body next to her, the chill of the day, and the comfortable chair, all of these things made Derpy feel sleepy. A mid morning nap sounded pleasant. The grey mare yawned and then considered the option of returning to bed to be with Bucky.

Grasping a brush within her folded fetlock, Berry Punch went to work trying to brush Harper’s fluffy orange mane. In theory, this should help; in practice, it tended to cause Harper’s mane to become even fluffier and fuller. As she brushed, she leaned her head against Derpy and said, “Scorch told me to tell you that there is no chance of Bucky being hurt when he goes to Labyrinthia. Not with whatever they have planned. Scorch has given me his word, his promise, that Bucky will come home unscathed.”

Derpy let out a low equine sound of concern, almost a whicker, a deep resonant sound that existed only within her barrel. “I really want this to be true… Bucky has both eyes again. He finally went somewhere and came back with something. This coming trip scares me.”

“For fey creatures, their promises bind them. Scorch will keep his word. He wouldn’t have given his word if he wasn’t capable of following through with it,” Berry Punch said as she continued to brush Harper’s mane with slow even strokes of the brush.

“I remember Bucky’s grey eyes. I would give almost anything to see them again. All I have is a few photos now… photos of how he was. He was so different back then. So frail. So fragile. I still love him… that hasn’t changed, but I miss his eyes. I felt so bad when he lost his eye. I didn’t know how to deal with it. And then the Taint came along and took over his remaining eye,” Derpy said as she closed her eyes and recalled a mental image of how Bucky was.

Berry’s eyes opened wide and she almost dropped her brush. “The twins are kicking. They’re moving around in there. That feels so weird. What are they doing in there?”

“Dinky was a very active foal… my twins aren’t very active. At least not yet,” Derpy said as she opened her good eye and glanced over at Berry.

As Berry Punch was lost in the moment of feeling her twins move inside of her, Bon Bon and Lyra came into the room, both of them still looking somewhat exhausted. Lyra came to the bowl shaped chair to nose Harper while Bon Bon went over to plant a loving kiss on Bittersweet and Cadance.

“Harper! How is mama’s little girl?” Lyra said as she pressed her snoot into Harper’s cheek. Lyra snorted and caused Harper to giggle.

Bouncing up and down in place, Harper acted thrilled to see Lyra. “Mama!”

“You two aren’t going to believe this, but Bucky has two eyes again,” Derpy said.

Bon Bon whirled around to look at Derpy. “What?”





Taking a deep breath, Princess Celestia stepped out onto the balcony and looked out over the crowd that was gathered. The courtyard was full, too full. There were more ponies here now than there were for Twilight Sparkle’s coronation. There were quite a few griffons as well, the griffons who were now valued members of the palace staff.

The sound of the crowd cheering made her ears ring. Wincing, Celestia wished that the crowd would quiet down. The sound carried far too well in the royal courtyard. Her throat still burned from the multiple glasses of cognac. What she was about to do felt far too much like tyranny, but she knew it was something that had to be done. The time for being passive and trusting in the good left in the world was now over. Now it was time to take a more active role in keeping the world safe.

Princess Celestia felt a hand upon her back. Startled, she let out a shrill faint cry and turned around, her fear making her prance in place. She saw Scorch, someone she did not expect to see. He smiled and Celestia felt her tensions and fear melt away.

“I see my little girl is a bit jumpy. Nothing to be afraid of. I just showed up because I thought you might need a little support. I know how you feel about this,” Scorch said in low voice. “Look, just keep it short and simple. Nothing too complicated.” Scorch ran his hand along Celestia’s spine and tried to comfort her.

“Thank you Scorch,” Celestia said. She took a deep breath and just for one moment, allowed herself to lean up against Scorch, glad to feel his reassuring warmth.

“Look, I raised you… and I know how hard this is going to be on you. I just want you to know that I’m proud of you. I might have only been your nanny in title, but I always felt as though you were one of my own,” Scorch said.

Celestia felt tingles radiating from everywhere Scorch’s heavy hand touched. It brought her comfort, something she both desired and needed. “Someone had to keep me from burning the world down.”

Giving Celestia a little shove, Scorch pushed her towards the rail of the balcony. “Stop being a scared little foal. Momentous change is necessary. We should not be afraid of it.”

Swallowing, Celestia turned to face the crowd once more. She cleared her throat.

“We find ourselves in dire circumstances. There has been a massacre in the Shire Isles. A serious threat now faces the entirety of our civilisation. Because of this, the Solar Court must endure change.” Celestia paused and allowed her words to sink in for a few moments. She could hear Scorch beside her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes once more. “The Solar Court is now one of the groups responsible for the harmonic coexistence of our civilisation and exists to protect you from the Lunar Court. Come to the Solar Court seeking peace or the Lunar Court will find you and obliterate you without a second thought. The Solar Court is your only means of protection. Seek shelter in the light or face the darkness alone. I warn you, there are terrible things that lurk in the darkness, things you have no hope to defeat should you fight against them.”

In the crowd below, flashbulbs popped. Hundreds of cameras were now snapping pictures. A roar went through the crowd, but Celestia could not tell if the mood was positive or negative. She gave the crowd her best look of grim resolve.

“Residents of Labyrinthia… surrender now and you may live. Flee the city. Surrender your arms. This is your only warning. You cannot comprehend the terrible punishment that is coming. If the city is emptied out of all residents, it will be spared. But if so much as one defender remains in defiance, then destruction follows. The world will once again know why my sister is called ‘The Electric Death.’ Those of you that study history will already know, but too many of you forget your history.”

More flashbulbs popped down below.

“I fear we must follow a treacherous path to reach the greater good. I hope we do not stumble. We face an enemy that seeks our destruction. I will be releasing a full explanation to the newspapers. The document that will be made available is to be printed as is. Nothing added, nothing taken away.”

When Celestia finished speaking, massive banners unfurled bearing messages to enlist in the guard. Horns blared. Much to Celestia’s relief, she heard the sounds of the crowd cheering, a sound that made her knees feel weak and wobbly. She readied herself for one final announcement and took a deep breath.

“As of this moment, Equestria’s military might is now ruled by the Triumvirate. Princess Luna of the Lunar Court, War Chief Buckminster Bitters, also of the Lunar Court, and Lord Governor Keg Smasher of the United Isles. Enemies of global harmony, make peace with me or face absolute destruction from them. You choose!”
	
> Chapter 479
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Scorch… I’m very afraid.”

Celestia’s confession told Scorch everything. He turned to look at Celestia. Her usually formal speech had even been marred by a contraction. He changed shape, not even realising he had done so, becoming a sleek looking pegasus.

“Tell me that I did the right thing Scorch, I cannot bear this,” Celestia said, her voice little more than a whisper borne of fear.

Scorch stomped his hoof. “No.”

He could see the hurt look on Celestia’s face. It pained him more than he cared to admit.

“No?” she asked.

Shaking his head, Scorch replied, “No.”

“No I did not do the right thing?” Celestia’s face was one of confused fear.

Seeing that Celestia was on the verge of tears, Scorch stepped closer to her. “No, I will not tell you that you are doing the right thing. I raised you with a fine set of morals. I raised you to think for yourself. I showed you how to strive towards the greater good and how to follow the path of the least amount of harm. At some point, you stopped trusting me, me, the one that actually raised you, fed you, wiped your far too white bottom, kept you safe, free from harm, and taught you how to hold back your power so that you could preserve life rather than destroy it. You turned away from me and chose to listen to him instead. He messed with your head. You got all turned around. You stopped listening to me. So no, I will not tell you if you are doing the right thing for the sake of your comfort at this particular time. What I will do is stand beside you and let you make your own choices and then be there for you come what may.”

Celestia stood in stunned silence and her eyes flooded over with tears.

“You’ve had enough of your paternal figures telling you what to do I think. Time for me to step back and let you fly. I am confident in how I raised you,” Scorch said.

“Thank you Scorch… I think… I think I am going to go find Tourmaline and allow her to cheer me up.” As she was speaking, Celestia began to turn to leave.

Watching her go, Scorch smiled. Muttering to himself, he said, “They grow up so quickly.”





Thistle, down deep below the surface, floated with effortless ease in the depths. Derpy and Bon Bon had been by earlier, she had been happy to see them, and they had told her that Bucky now had two eyes once more.

This news made Thistle ecstatic.

A school of fish swam past. Thistle could not see them, but she could sense them. The lake was a living thing now, an extension of her will. Even with the griffons, there were more than enough fish just so long as the balance was maintained. The water was clean, it was good water. Thistle had cultivated plants. Thistle had brought balance.

Reaching down, she rubbed the rounded place between her barrel and her tail section.

The fish departed, leaving in a hurry. There was a disturbance in the water. With a flick of her finned tail, Thistle shot off towards the source of the disturbance. Something was swimming in her lake. It was far too cold any normal creature to swim in this water. Thistle hoped that somepony or somebirdy had not fallen in.

She moved upwards where it was light now and she started to be able to see again. Ahead of her was a dark shape. Something… curious was swimming towards her. Thistle had trouble believing what she was seeing.

There was another kelpie in her lake.

It was moving right for her. Thistle froze in panic. Her whole body jolted when she felt the touch of the other kelpie. She felt two forelegs wrapping around her and pulling her close. She felt another tail wrapping around her own.

It was Bucky.

Throwing her forelegs around him, Thistle squeezed back. Try as she might, she could not get close enough to him. Much to her amusement, Thistle realised that she was larger than Bucky in this form. She entwined her long supple body around his and kissed him upon his cheek. One kiss, then another, and then one more. Those kisses weren’t enough. She sought out his lips, locking down upon them, her aggressive kelpie nature took charge and began to work out her frustrations.

After a passionate exchange, Thistle pulled away. “How?”

“How are we talking?” Bucky asked.

Thistle giggled. “Kelpie magic… but how are you a kelpie? Male kelpies don’t exist.”

“I’m clever.” It was all Bucky felt he needed to say. It was Bucky’s universal explanation.

“You have two eyes.” As she spoke, Thistle coiled herself around Bucky a little more, her instincts taking over. She applied a bit of loving constriction.

Female kelpies coiled around their captives until they got what they wanted from them. Their long supple bodies were ideal for underwater copulation and they had the useful ability to allow their victims to breathe. Or not breathe if they wanted to take the fight out of them.

Thistle wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck, pressed her snoot against his, and then just held him close. She could feel him against her belly. As she clung to him, she felt Bell Heather begin to flop around inside her.

“The foal feels excited,” Thistle said.

“I can feel her…”

Bucky’s body flexed against her own and Thistle shifted her mass to press her belly against Bucky. Bucky’s kelpie form was smaller, slender, and his tail felt a little scrawny.

“How did you become a kelpie?” Thistle asked.

“I became a freshwater merpony.”

She kissed the corner of his mouth and then Thistle ran her hoof through Bucky’s long weedy mane that was very much like her own. “Oh you are a clever pony.”

“I wanted to spend some time with you before I left. I wanted to make sure my wife and my foal are well. I’ve been worried. I thought maybe we could have a nice meal together. I just woke up and the magic took quite a bit out of me,” Bucky said.

With a coquettish giggle, Thistle rubbed herself against Bucky. “I’m sure I could come up with something for you to nibble on.”

Not requiring her body to swim, Thistle willed herself upwards. She rose, taking Bucky with her, reveling in his closeness, glad for the temporary reprieve in her sometimes lonesome existence in the lake. After a moment, Thistle broke the surface. She and Bucky gasped, now breathing air. She kissed him once more, then pulled away with a wet slurp.

“How is the water not freezing cold?” Bucky asked.

A thoughtful expression settled over Thistle’s features. “It just isn’t. I don’t know how or why. It feels cold sometimes if the loneliness becomes painful. Sometimes it feels so cold that I just have to get out.”

“That makes sense. Probably some means to motivate a kelpie to go and find a mate,” Bucky said.

Thistle pressed her cheek against the good side of Bucky’s face. “I’ve already found a mate. I have no desire to find another. Just you. I can’t believe you came to me.”

They bobbed together on the surface, holding one another. The chill wind blew and Bucky could feel it upon his soaked pelt. There was a soft bump against his stomach and he realised he could feel his foal thrashing around inside of Thistle.

“I know you felt that,” Thistle said.

“I sure did.”

Nosing Bucky’s mane, Thistle snorted. It was a strange greenish black. The plants were long and instead of flowers, there were broad leaves. She looked into his eyes. This form was pony-like enough to reflect his true self. One eye, his left eye, was Tainted. His right eye, now restored, was a strange shade of purple blue.

“Well, at least now you have no excuse not to catch your own fish. You have a fine body for swimming,” Thistle said.

“Before I do anything, I don’t want to do anything that might offend you. I’ve never been a kelpie before. There are some questions about being a kelpie I feel I need to ask.”

Rolling her eyes, Thistle heard mischief in Bucky’s voice. “Yes Bucky?”

“Well, bodily functions. How do you manage them in the lake?”

Without warning, there was stinging fire upon Thistle’s cheeks. “Oh… oh my. Okay. For um, liquid waste, I tend to just, um, let go wherever. Kelpie urine isn’t like other creatures and their urine. We, um, we pass fresh drinkable water. The doctors were quite surprised at the hospital to discover this after they requested a urine sample. For the, um, solid waste, I have several places down in the depths that have plants that need nourishment and I place my leavings there. It keeps the lake healthy and in balance. Between the clams, the bottom feeders, and the plants, the water stays clean and pure.”

“So everything exists in balance. Fascinating.”

“I will show you places where you can go. I don’t know how your urine will come out though.” Thistle felt hot flush travel through her body.

“Oh, that’s not a concern. This body can eat and take things in, it just goes to my real body, which is somewhere else. That body has to deal with the waste. I just wanted to find out how you do your business in the lake because I am nosy, that’s all.”

More heat flooded through Thistle’s body. A searing sensation crept over Thistle’s face. “You… jerk.”

“I know.”

Thistle felt Bucky’s forelegs shifting around her, one was moving up her back and along the base of her neck. She pressed her lips together into a flat lined pout. He was touching all the right places… rubbing all the right things. It was difficult, if not impossible, to remain angry with Bucky. She closed her eyes and then felt two lips nibbling upon her own. She tried resisting this time, tried to pull her head back, but Thistle didn’t want to resist. She had been so lonesome. In a while, Bucky would be leaving, and Thistle knew she would be lonesome once more.

“Bucky… mmmm… Bucky darling… Bucky, love, stop for a moment and listen to me.”

Thistle felt Bucky pull away. She opened her eyes and looked at him. His snoot was scant inches from her own. She took a deep breath. “While it would be very easy for us to do things here with one another in the water, the doctor told me I can’t do anything. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think it would be a problem. Usually we just fool around and you kiss me down there and then you scratch your own itch with somepony else. But with these bodies, we could certainly have a go at one another I think. My womb is placing pressure on stuff and parts of me have been shortened. I really didn’t understand it and I didn’t ask because I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

“I understand Thistle… I would never want to hurt you. I could never live with myself if I did,” Bucky said.

“But after I have this foal and I am healed, I am dragging you down into the depths to have my way with you,” Thistle promised.

“So a meal then, followed by a nice afternoon together.”

Again, Thistle felt her whole body flush with heat. “I would like that. And maybe, just maybe, we can find a way to make each other feel good…”

“Would the lake still have drinkable water if we did that?” Bucky asked.

Thistle could hear the teasing tone in his voice. “Bucky, you should never drink water. Fish screw in it you know.”

Bucky nodded. “Which is why it is safer to drink booze.”

Pressing her lips against Bucky’s, Thistle pulled him down into the depths, glad to have his company. If he had to leave her, Thistle intended to give him a reason to want to come home. Her lips parted and she tapped the tip of her tongue upon Bucky’s lips, as if she was knocking to seek entrance. When she was invited inside, Thistle lost herself in his embrace.
	
> Chapter 480
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were four mares and one griffoness at the dining table. Bucky, full of fish from a large meal earlier, ate nothing, but drank a strong fragrant tea flavoured with lemon peels and ginger. He would be leaving later and this was their last chance to spend time with one another.

He had spent the afternoon with Thistle, then a bit of time with his foals, all of them, Diamond Tiara included among their number, and now he was spending time with his wives.

The meal smelled and looked delicious. Bucky regretted being so full and eyed the serving platters. Deep fried mushrooms. Onion rings, beer battered and also deep fried. Vegetable pasties, filled with bits of root vegetables, peas, corn, and soft white cheese. Semillon went all out on a wonderful meal.

No one would ever know that the pie crusts and the batter had been made with mealworm flour, making it an ideal meal even for creatures like Belisama.

The griffoness, who had been quiet throughout the meal so far, set down her fork and looked at Bucky. “I am coming with you.”

Lowering his teacup away from his muzzle, Bucky raised his eyebrow. “There is no need. I assure you, I will be fine. This will be a very short, very quick trip.”

“I don’t care… I am coming with you.” Belisama, who had been rather submissive so far, sat up straighter and raised her crest up high. “One of us needs to be with you. Derpy and Berry are pregnant and ideally should remain here at home. Bon Bon and Lyra have their shop to run.”

“And you are indispensable to Violet—”

“It was Violet that told me that I should be going with you and then lectured me on my place in the greater scheme of things. Each of us, all of us, we females who are your wives, serve different roles and functions. In times of war, I am the most suited to be at your side,” Belisama said with an uncharacteristic assertiveness. She fluffed out, making herself look larger, making ready to challenge Bucky if necessary.

Four mares all looked over at Belisama and then over at Bucky in unison.

“Belisama—”

Banging her talons down upon the table, Belisama sat up as straight as possible to make herself look taller. She puffed out a bit more and lifted her other talons, extended her index talon, and pointed at Bucky. “No! You listen to me… I will not be talked into submission. I will not be coaxed into changing my mind. I am coming with you!”

“—I find your assertion entirely reasonable. I need to talk to you anyway about something very important… about our subjects. The good of those we serve.”

Belisama deflated and sank down into chair. “You weren’t going to tell me no?”

Berry Punch tittered around a mouthful of mushroom.

The griffoness’ crest fell; it now lay flat against her head. Belisama heaved a small sigh and looked around the table at her fellow-wives. “It took me forever to work up enough nerve to do that.”

Leaning over, Derpy reached out and gave Belisama a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“Somebirdy is getting braver and bolder,” Bon Bon said. She turned her amused grin upon Belisama. “Bucky can be intimidating… he’s headstrong, stubborn, and at times, painfully stupid. It can be difficult to keep him in line.”

Belisama peeped and Bucky snorted.

“Bucky is really just a big foal,” Derpy said. When she was done speaking, she crammed a bite into her mouth and chewed with a great deal of enthusiasm, making happy little grunts as she devoured yet another pie.

“Bucky and Lyra both.” Bon Bon turned to look at Lyra and stuck out her tongue for a moment. Leaning over, she made up for her teasing with a quick peck on Lyra’s cheek.

“I almost made myself sick with worry trying to work up the courage to be defiant… I played through the scenario in my head so many times trying to come up with arguments for everything that Bucky might say,” Belisama admitted.

“And what did worry get you?” Berry Punch asked as she helped herself to more onion rings. After dropping a bunch on her plate, she crammed one into her mouth.

“It is still difficult for me to just make demands,” Belisama said. She picked up her fork, stabbed a mushroom, and then pecked off a bite.

“Then get one of us to help you if you ever feel insecure about making your feelings known,” Lyra said around a mouthful of onion ring.

Swallowing some of what she was chewing on, Berry Punch nodded and kept chewing.

“I can be a reasonable pony.” After speaking his piece, Bucky took a long sip of tea.

Bon Bon sniggered. “A very reasonable pony.”

Snorting at Bon Bon’s words, Bucky then gave her the stinkeye. “I can be a reasonable pony.”

Swallowing what was left in her mouth, Berry Punch then turned to look at Bon Bon. “To be fair, Bucky has his moments. He can be a reasonable pony. Most of the time, he just chooses not to be.”

Chuckling, Bucky set down his teacup. “That’s fair.”

“Bucky is forced to deal with very unreasonable creatures, so his unreasonableness is probably an asset,” Derpy said.

Lyra made a gesture with her hoof and pointed at Derpy. “She makes an excellent point.”

“I remember one unreasonable creature I had to deal with a while back,” Bucky said.

Taking interest, Bon Bon turned to look at Bucky. “Do tell.”

“Well, I was minding my own business and I bumped into her. She gets it into her head to start chasing me. I kept running, but in all of her unreasonableness, she takes this as an invitation to chase me.” Pausing, Bucky looked around the table as he heard the sounds of chortling, snickering, and Berry Punch’s unrepressed laughter. “Being the unreasonable creature I was, I decided to marry her.”

Unable to contain herself, Derpy began giggling, her bashfulness caused her to cover her face with her front hooves. The giggles became giggle-snorts.

“So, being the unreasonable sort that I am, I decided it would be a good idea to have a whole gaggle of wives… now there is six of them,” Bucky said.

Laughing, Lyra used her magic to flick a green pea at Bucky’s head and bounced it off of his nose. It landed on his tea saucer. “How dare you suggest that I am unreasonable.”

Bucky first looked at Lyra, then down at the lone green pea sitting on his saucer, and then back at Lyra once more. He chuckled, then his chuckle became more of a laugh, and the laugh gave way to a guffaw. He slumped down in his chair and howled until tears began to stream from his eyes.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her foreleg, Berry Punch leaned forward. “It is good that we can laugh like this. After everything we have been through, at least we can still laugh. If you can laugh, it means your spirit isn’t broken.” After speaking, Berry Punch thought back to the times when Bucky could not laugh, the worst of which was after the flogging. Her face became solemn from the memory. “We’ve been through so much together. Even you Belisama. There is no doubt that you are one of us.” Once more, Berry Punch smiled.

“I wish Thistle was here,” Derpy said as she wiped one and then the other, removing tears of laughter. She took a deep breath, let it out a little at a time, and then let out a few more chuckles.

Glancing first at Bucky and then at Derpy, Bon Bon grinned. “I bet Thistle is a happy kelpie. I’m glad she got a chance to have Bucky all to herself today.”

Berry Punch banged her hoof on the edge of the table. “I bet Bucky got himself some tail this afternoon!”

There was a thump as Bucky hit the floor after falling out of his chair while laughing.

Reaching over, Derpy poked Berry with her hoof. “Ugh, puns!”

“Just call me Berry Puns,” Berry said between gasps of laughter.

Derpy made the same sort of face that she usually made when biting into lemon. “That was Berry bad. Berry, Berry bad.”

Without warning, there was a flatulent sound and Lyra almost jumped out of her chair. She giggled, and with all the speed she could muster, placed both hooves beneath the table. “Bucky!”

“Lyra, what’s wrong?” Bon Bon asked.

Squirming, Lyra wiggled to one side, then twisted to the other. “Bucky is under the table! He just raspberried me right in the twa—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

There was another wet sounding raspberry from beneath the table and Lyra shrieked.

Saying nothing, Derpy slipped from her chair and disappeared beneath the table. There was a thump, the plates as well as the platters upon the table rattled, and then there was raucous laughter from beneath the table.

Bon Bon and Berry Punch watched as Lyra was pulled beneath the table. The unicorn vanished from view, there were a succession of loud raspberries followed by giggles. Belisama looked nervous, and had good reason to be. Any of them might be next and a three way glance was exchanged.

As Berry Punch and Belisama’s eyes lingered on one another, Bon Bon was dragged beneath the table with a thump and a titter. Shrugging, Berry Punch slid down from her chair to join the party beneath the table, leaving behind Belisama, who had a very confused look upon her face.





The new streamlined zeppelin design was sleek and cutting edge modern. It had a small cabin secured just beneath the gasbag, attached by a direct connection rather than a suspended ship like older style airships. This one had no markings, no flags, no visible indicators to let anyone know the country of origin.

The night, which neared the midnight hour, was frigid and each breath taken was visible. Off in the distance, the school had a pleasant warm glow coming from some of its windows. The dormitory towers were well lit.

The foals had long since gone to bed save one. Sentinel stood with the adults, remaining quiet as they said their goodbyes. This was a quiet and rather subdued goodbye. He did not sense much in the way of fear; in fact, his mothers seemed to be taking this departure rather well. They were laughing, having fun, and talking about dinner.

Something had happened at dinner. Sentinel wasn’t sure what had happened, but Sparkler had gone into the dining room to investigate the ruckus and then had come back giggling and flustered. Upon questioning, she refused to speak about whatever was going on in there.

Off a short distance away, Barley and Luna were having a moment alone. Sentinel watched them for a moment, he suffered a feeling of embarrassment as he watched them kiss, and then Sentinel turned away. Glancing back, he forced himself to watch for a moment, hoping to improve his own technique.

“Sentinel, look after your siblings.”

Hearing his father’s voice, Sentinel turned away from the sight of Barley and Luna devouring one another’s faces. He nodded. “Yes father. Of course.”

“Look after my griffons.”

Once more, Sentinel nodded. “I will do as you ask, father.”

“While I am gone, Diamond Tiara will be moving to Rarity and Coco’s. Try to understand that it is for the best and try not to take it too hard,” Bucky said.

This time, Sentinel did not nod. Feeling dejected and heavy hearted, Sentinel replied, “Yes father.”

“If you can, tear yourself away from your schoolwork and Diamond Tiara. Spend some time with Thistle. She misses you.”

Sentinel gave a shame-filled nod. “Yes father… I will spend more time with Thistle.”

Watching as his father drew near, Sentinel took a deep breath. Sentinel felt his father wrap his right foreleg around his neck. Leaning in, Sentinel lunged upwards and placed both of his own forelegs around his father’s neck. “I want to come with you.”

“I know… but you need to stay in school.”

Daring to squeeze a little more, Sentinel closed his eyes. “I know. I will make you proud.”

“Sentinel, I already am.”

Unable to stop himself, Sentinel felt the burning sting of tears in his eyes, accompanied by the feeling of shame that always came with them. Overcome with emotion, he kissed his father on the side of his face, whimpered, let go, squirmed free, and then he ran, unable to face his father in this state. He ran until he made it to the front door. He jerked it open. He could hear voices behind him, but he dared not stop. He ran through the entrance way, down the hall, until he finally made it to his cubby beneath the stairs. He pulled the door open, bolted inside, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Burying his face into a pillow, Sentinel wept.
	
> Chapter 481
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a few gentle knocks, Luna let herself into Bucky’s cabin. It was small but well appointed. She looked around, saw Bucky on the bed, and then sat down in a large comfortable chair. Bucky was reading and Luna saw him look up from his book to look at her.

“Does this ship even have a name?”

Luna shook her head. “No. This ship does not yet have a name. This is still technically a prototype. The best of what technology and magic have to offer. It was designed by Zaph Zeppelin, a lone earth pony born into a family of famous airship constructing unicorns. He is currently the pride of the family. Not a unicorn, but invented a new type of magic that allows zeppelins to travel at high speeds. Had to explain his idea to his family. He had to bring them around to his way of thinking.”

“You sound proud.”

“Oh, I am.” Luna’s ears perked. She heard something, but couldn’t tell what it was.

“Wondering what that sound is?” Bucky asked. His voice was little more than a whisper.

Nodding, Luna leaned forward. “What is that?”

“That is the sound of Belisama purring. Griffons purr when they are happy. Who knew?”

Blinking, eyelids fluttering like butterflies caught in the breeze, feeling confused, Luna shook her head. “Griffons do not purr. I have lived for an exceptional length of time and I have never heard a griffon purring.”

“I heard it the first time when she went to sleep after she had given herself to me. Did you ever stop to think that the griffons became so miserable after the loss of their purpose that they forgot how to purr?”

Unable to come up with a reasonable reply, Luna lapsed into silence as she thought about Bucky’s words. She settled down deeper into her chair, thinking about what Bucky had said, and for a moment, she thought of Erebus, who was off asleep in her cabin.

“So… how is it we can fly so fast?” Bucky asked.

Snapped out of her distracted state, Luna refocused her attention on Bucky. “Huh? Oh… fast…” Luna took a deep breath and then in a hushed whisper said, “The gasbag is slightly less than real. When the higher speeds are desired, the gasbag phase-shifts slightly. There is over a whole acre of fabric up there and that has a lot of drag. The cabin has been streamlined so it slips through the atmosphere with ease.”

“The cabin remains solid due to technical reasons I suppose,” Bucky said.

“Too many materials and too much mass to phase-shift. Plus, there was a problem with the living suddenly dropping through the floors.” Luna scowled and rolled her eyes. “There are other problems with this ship and its design, the fuel source being the chief complaint.”

“Are we burning butterfly farts or something?” Bucky asked.

Smiling, Luna settled into her chair and rested her head upon the arm. “To operate the phase-shift, we require raw liquid mana. A lot of arcano-tech relies upon a trickle charge from ley line gatherers. The technology to do this though can only produce a small amount of power though. So to fuel this craft, we have to milk unicorns. There are concerns that it could be seen as exploitative, even though the unicorns are willing and are paid very well.”

“That’s not what I hear.”

Feeling annoyed, Luna’s smile turned downwards into a frown. “The prisons are different. They are paying off a debt to society. Many of the unicorns there have committed crimes of a magical nature. They are not harmed and the extraction allows them to pay for their misdeeds.”

“Look, I understand what you are doing and what is being done, but the average common pony if they hear about this is going to take issue.”

After a moment of careful consideration, Luna’s frown pressed into a straight line.

“All things considered though, this is an impressive craft. We’ll be traveling almost five thousand miles in the span of about thirty to thirty two hours. The Scorned Mare would take one hundred and twenty five to one hundred and fifty hours to make the same trip. That is quite some difference. What a marvelous age we enter. A week of travel in a day.”

Belisama rolled over and made a faint yowling sound in her sleep.

Her horn flaring, Luna made a shushing sound and Belisama drifted back into deeper slumber. Luna’s ears relaxed and began to droop somewhat. “The Shadowbolt Initiative is off to a good start. There are many promising candidates. I have begun the construction of the transformation lab in Hidden Hollow Fortress. I will be needing your help soon.”

Bucky nodded and closed his book.

“Two recent finds have proved useful. The first is an earth pony mushroom farmer with three legs. I was thinking that we should help him with that… anyhow, he is quite good at cultivating mushrooms of all kinds… including toxic varieties that will be of some use to us and our endeavours. His name is Black Briar. Like Fever Cure, another recent find of mine, Black Briar is a skilled alchemist,” Luna said as one ear perked back up, listening for the sounds of a fussy Erebus.

“And the other?” Bucky asked.

“The other is a rescue from an illegal pit fighting operation. I am not sure what he is exactly… he’s a pony… or at least part pony anyway. I have a suspicion that he is part diamond dog. He doesn’t have hooves… he has paws and he sort of looks rather… lupine. He’s as strong as most of the male lunar pegasi, intelligent enough to work with, displays a fair bit of cunning, and appears to be quite durable. He is called Moonless Night. For having been ill-treated for most of his life, he is rather kind and gentle. Protective of young. I have already been testing him in dreams, placing him into various scenarios to see how he will react. I like what I see so far.” Luna’s ear dropped, going limp once more when Luna was satisfied that Erebus was still asleep.

“This is what we should have been doing all along… taking the fringe elements of society, finding redeemable qualities, and then searching for a way to make them useful,” Bucky said.

Luna felt her eyelids growing heavy. It had been a long day. The chair she was curled up in was comfortable and soft. “All the information about the Shadowbolt Initiative has been left with Violet.”

“I will review it.”

Feeling relaxed, Luna allowed her eyes to close. She sighed, trying to think of something to say, some reason to open her eyes and keep talking, but nothing came to mind. Without meaning to do so, Luna drifted off into slumber.





Lifting his head from his book, Bucky’s ears perked. Luna’s cabin was just next door. He heard a soft cry. More of a test cry by Bucky’s reasoning, the sound a foal makes to check and see if any adults were listening before they decided to just let rip and cry with abandon. There was another snuffling cry, this one a little louder than the first.

Luna was still sleeping, curled up in the chair beside the bed.

Slipping out of the bed, Bucky took careful steps over the wooden floor, open the door, took several quiet steps down the hall, went into Luna’s cabin, and retrieved Erebus. Lifting the foal in his magic, Bucky smiled at the big colt.

“Somepony needs a diaper change…”

Looking around the room, Bucky soon found the supplies he needed. He laid out a blanket upon the bed, lay Erebus down upon it, pulled out a few scrubbing wipes (extra absorbent!), set them aside, readied a fresh diaper, and then he prepared himself.

At least he was a unicorn. Earth ponies and pegasi had to do this with manipulation shoes and sometimes their own lips. Berry Punch and Bon Bon were far braver ponies than he was. He had waded through a flood of blood and entrails, but there was no way he was changing a diaper with his mouth.

When Bucky pulled open the diaper, two things happened; the containment that held back most of the appalling stench failed, which almost took Bucky to the floor, and cold air hit Erebus’ once warmed flesh. The colt let out a high pitched squeal. So sharp and piercing was the sound that Bucky had to grit his teeth to endure it. The distinctive sound was unique to lunar pegasi; Bucky had heard a similar sound come from Sentinel on a few occasions.

“I’m sorry little one… I know it’s cold in here, I’ll get you cleaned up and warm in just a moment,” Bucky said, hoping to soothe the now fussy colt.

He went to work trying to get Erebus cleaned up and then realised the futility of trying to scrub the mess out of Erebus’ thick pelt. Snorting with frustration, Bucky scrubbed a little harder and then realised that he was going to have to get creative with his magic or get Erebus into a bath. Erebus was a real mess, his dock and the base of his tail was caked with filth. Bucky groaned.

“You know, there are many who call you a monster but they never see you in these moments. I wish the world could see what I have been watching for the past few minutes.”

Cringing, Bucky did not turn around. Luna’s voice sounded sleepy and amused.

“You will never get him cleaned. Here, allow me to carry him into the shower. He loves getting a shower, I think he likes the warm water. You were very kind to take care of him while I was sleeping.”

Slumping, saying nothing, Bucky admitted defeat and stepped aside.

“Oh do not look so glum. I know you would have cleaned him up eventually,” Luna said.

He moved over a little more and watched as Luna lifted Erebus, holding him in a faint blue glow. Bucky’s ears fell backwards as Erebus’ cries became ear-destroying shrieks.

“He sees mama and now he’s hungry.”

Luna’s voice was almost inaudible over the sound of the colt crying and Bucky had to strain to hear it. Luna departed, walking out the door, leaving Bucky alone in the room. Bucky could hear Erebus’ cries as Luna carried him down the hall to the shower.

Now alone, Bucky made himself busy, cleaning everything so Luna’s life was a little easier. When everything was clean, Bucky turned off the light and vacated the room.





Belisama watched as the sky went racing by with her beak pressed up against the glass. Below her, clouds went shooting past at impossible speeds. There was no sound, no audible indicator of flight, only the silent passing of clouds.

Sighing, Belisama felt a moment of loneliness. Bucky was asleep, the crew was quiet as well as reserved, and there was no one to talk to.

“Hello Belisama.”

The griffoness pulled her beak away from the window and turned her head around backwards to look at Scorch. Much to her disappointment, Scorch did not seem bothered by the almost boneless appearance of her head being twisted around. She cocked her head, turning her earhole towards Scorch so that she might hear better. “Hi.”

“Has Bucky spoken with you yet?” Scorch asked.

Belisama immediately recalled the night before and laying in bed next to Bucky. “We spoke briefly. I assume you are speaking of the need to get more griffons interested in music?” As Belisama was watching, Scorch shifted, warped, he shimmered for a moment like heat rising up off of a rock, and then he turned into a large warrior sized griffon.

Scorch lay down upon the floor. “Well, there are other things as well…”

Nodding, Belisama turned the rest of her body around while keeping her eyes locked on Scorch, moving with a fluid feline movement. She settled her body down upon the cushioned bench, never once taking her eyes off of Scorch. “I know… we spoke for a while. I was tired, I fell asleep.”

“Have you ever heard of Odin?”

For a long moment, Belisama racked her brain, trying to remember where she had heard that name before. “Yes I have… for a brief time, he was king of Muninn. I was still a cub. Odin was poisoned.”

“I am sure there are many griffons named Odin. Loki as well. The Odin I speak of is quite special. I sort of accidentally created him by giving the griffons magic,” Scorch said.

Belisama was too stunned to say anything. She sat still, silent, and waited for Scorch to continue. She crossed one front leg over another and kicked her hind legs out to get comfortable.

“Odin was a griffon… a little griffon like you. He had magic. He had music magic, something that in time, the practitioners would become known as skalds among the griffons. At this time, all griffons were little griffons… small curious little creatures full of pranks, mischief, and art. So one day, Odin happened to meet the most beautiful griffoness he had ever seen. As I recall, she looked a bit like you… oh you are adorable when you fluff out like that… where was I? Oh yes, he meets a beautiful griffoness and he attempts to woo her with sweet words and his lyre. Odin really liked making little cubs, but there was one thing he liked even more. Wooing.”

Belisama rolled her eyes and giggled when Scorch paused for a moment.

“This griffoness, she acts as though she is not impressed. This drives Odin crazy. He cannot believe he is being rejected. He’s desperate. He’s never used his magic before in his attempts to woo, always relying upon his own talent instead. So he breaks into the most perverse and bawdy song you could imagine. He croons his love to the griffoness, sings his heart out to her, and he uses his magic in the hopes that he might get her in the mood.”

“So what happened?” Belisama asked when Scorch paused once more.

“The griffoness falls for his charms. Anybirdy that can sing a song that perverted, that bawdy, that is clearly somebirdy that knows how to have a good time. They drink wine, they sing to one another, and this griffoness, she realises that while Odin wanted to woo her, he was not in a hurry to do her. He serenades her all night long under the moon. He has her heart but he keeps singing. Eventually, they do what griffons do and they keep doing it until the sun finally rises. But after the sun rises, that is when Odin’s story really begins.”

Feeling curious, Belisama leaned her head forward. “Don’t drag it out, just tell me!”

“The griffoness reveals her true self. Her name is Erato, and she is a minor demiurge, one of nine fabled Muses. This particular Muse has a love for erotic poetry and song. She also happened to love the lyre, her own favoured instrument. She is impressed with Odin. He could have had his way with her but he chose to keep playing music and serenading her to make the moment sweeter. Erato, who felt just a little bit infatuated with Odin, shares just a tiny bit of herself with him. A little piece of her divine essence. She believes that Odin made the world a more beautiful place. They fall in love, true real love mind you, and they have a few cubs… and all is happy for a time.”

Noticing the sad expression creeping over Scorch’s face, Belisama felt her belly begin to prickle. Her tail twitched and she felt a strange pang of some sort of emotion, but she did not know what it was. “Something bad happened…”

“The Chaos War took place. Erato rose up to defend the world, using her music to inspire others in battle. Just before the alicorns and their terrible loss, Erato was struck down. She was rendered mortal with terrible magics, her immortality stripped away, and then as the battle raged, she was run through with a spear by a diamond dog that did not know what he was taking away from the world. But not all of her was gone… a little tiny spark of her remained in Odin. He kept the music they shared alive, and in turn, the music kept him alive. Near the end of the Chaos War, Odin was betrayed by those he loved and trusted, it made him bitter, resentful, it almost made him hate, but held on to the love he had for Erato, the muse he had met and serenaded under the moon. He kept her music alive, her memory, and he never stopped loving his muse. The griffon skalds sang of his love, how it kept him from hatred, and that tiny little spark of Erato continues to exist in this world. It is a fragile thing, and Odin is nearly dead now, a terrible state of affairs for an immortal to be in.”

Wiping her eyes, Belisama tried to rid herself of her tears. “That’s tragic.”

“It is.” Scorch’s words of agreement sounded a little raspy.

“How can I help make this better?” Belisama asked.

“I’m glad you asked me that… to start, you can assume a very seductive pose so a few griffon sculptors can make a nice statue of you. All of Erato’s statues have long since been destroyed, smashed by griffons and other chaotic agents who want her legacy to die. Afterwards, you are going to command your subjects to construct a mead hall. I’ll show you how to build it. The statue goes into the mead hall and the building will be used for drinking, making music, and wooing. Romantic wooing.” Scorch paused and waggled his eyebrows up and down rapidly. “In time, the building should become sanctified and will become a shrine. Odin will draw power from this shrine… hopefully he’ll get some strength back. Perhaps… perhaps griffons will rediscover their musical gifts and skalds will roam the world once more… and maybe, Odin will make a full recovery. He clings to life so that he might keep that little spark of Erato alive.”

Flexing her talons, Belisama felt something swell within her heart. “I’ll do everything I can to help.”

“Good… good… make music… serenade Bucky. Get him in that mead hall and caterwaul a bit of romantic music in his direction,” Scorch said.

“Did you just make a pun?” Belisama asked.

“I refuse to answer that on the grounds that I might incriminate myself…”
	
> Chapter 482
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nervous, Bucky paced back and forth. It would be time soon. They had made good time in getting here, too good of time, and now, it was time to do bad things. Bad things for good reasons? Bucky shook his head. He hated the jitters that usually arrived before a battle. There was resistance below in the city of Labyrinthia. Knowing what was to come, Bucky tried to find it within himself to feel pity for them, but had trouble finding anything that even began to resemble pity.

“Relax,” Scorch said.

Luna tore her eyes away from Belisama and Erebus to look at Bucky. “If we follow the plan this will only take a few hours. We raze the city and then we return to the ship. Afterwards, we fly home, which should take about thirty hours. After that, all this will be over. We go on with our lives after we do what must be done.”

“At least I’ve learned not to go about this the hard way… there are better forms suited for mass destruction than that of the simple squishy pony. I do miss my armor a bit sometimes.” Bucky stopped pacing when he heard Erebus make a squealing sound. He turned and looked. Belisama was tickling him with her wing and the colt was trying to escape Belisama’s grasp. Unable to stop himself, Bucky smiled.

Laughing, Luna watched little Erebus’ struggles and felt her heart warm. “Alas poor Erebus… you are probably eagerly awaiting rescue from your mother… too bad I find this amusing.”

The griffoness pulled Erebus close after ceasing her tickle attack and the colt let out another echolocating noise, this one softer and full of clicking. Reaching up with her talons, she gave one tufted ear a gentle tug and then pressed Erebus’ head to her shoulder.

“Well then, it is about that time. I get the feeling that we are delaying our task,” Scorch said in a low soft voice. “The excitement in this room is palpable.”

“I have not done this for a such long time… the last time was with Sombra… Sombra took the form of a massive ice titan and I became The Electric Death. We pushed the griffons out of what is now known as Fancy and Germaney. We had driven them from Equestria, chased them across the ocean, and then we slaughtered all those who dared oppose us.” For a moment, Luna’s eyes became unfocused as she was lost in her memory.

“As we talk, I am reminded of my children.” As he was speaking, Scorch shifted into the form of a large powerful looking alicorn.

“Children?” Bucky asked, sensing that there was a story here, a bit of history that he wanted to know.

Hearing Bucky’s question, Scorch turned his head to look at Bucky. “A long time ago, when the world was young and still on fire, Rhea and I thought it would be a good idea to have a few offspring. Things were volcanic back in those days. Lots of lava… anyway, Rhea and I made some beautiful babies together. Creatures made of earth and fire. Creatures ideally suited for living on a volcanic world with oceans of lava. We got busy and we made quite a few of them—”

“You’re talking about dragons!” Bucky’s exclamation caused Erebus to snort in alarm.

“My children… perfectly suited for war,” Scorch said. He scowled, shook his head, and then looked at the door leading out of the room. “We should do what we have come here to do. I wish for this to be over so we can return to peaceful endeavours.”

Bucky agreed. “I concur.”

“Be good for mama… be a good colt Erebus. Mama will return in just a little while…”





Bucky closed his eyes as he fell away from the hatch that he had lept out of. Labyrinthia was below him, far below, and the lights twinkled like glowing jewels in the night. There was no longer any fear, no concern, Bucky had moved beyond such petty concerns about things like gravity. The laws of nature could not be enforced upon some beings.

His horn tingled as he felt the magic flow through him. He tapped into nearby ley lines. Bucky could feel the old familiar surge. This was power. As the magic flowed through him, his form shifted, growing larger, gaining mass, and losing frailty.

Bucky turned himself into a dragon. Almost a hundred feet in length, powerful, armored, impervious to all but the most powerful magics; this was not the form of some adolescent dragon or some minor drake. Bucky felt massive and powerful in this form, no longer little or scrawny.

As he watched, Luna and Scorch shifted as well… and then Bucky felt… diminished.

Luna was an enormous blue dragon that was three times the size of Bucky, and Bucky realised that no matter what form he was in, he was stunted and scrawny. He sighed, releasing a cloud of cold from his sword-filled maw.

It was Scorch that made Bucky realised how insignificant he was though. Scorch, the father of all dragons, dwarfed Luna, making her look ridiculously tiny by comparison, and Bucky didn’t even want to think of his own form in contrast to Scorch.

Scorch had to be a thousand feet in length. The ancient wyrm was large enough to completely block out the stars and the moon, the entire sky above them. Seeing Scorch in this form actually made Bucky feel a tiny faint spark of pity for the residents of the city.

The three dragons circled overhead, descending in a slow, almost lazy manner. Luna’s body crackled with electricity along its length and Scorch spat out sparks with every breath. As they drifted down upon the city, the faint sound of an alarm klaxon could be heard below.

“LAST CHANCE! FLEE THE CITY!” Scorch said in a voice amplified by magic.

The only response from below was a burst of gunfire. Bucky heard Scorch sigh.

Rolling over in the air, Scorch dived.





Bucky came in hard and fast, swooping over the eastern edge of the city. As he drew near, he felt a faint stinging sensation, it was like being caught outside in a hailstorm. He realised that the minotaurs and whatever else below him was shooting at him with their guns. He inhaled, filling his lungs, and then he belched forth his ice breath, freezing everything below him as he passed overhead. Stone buildings shattered from the intense cold. The gunfire ceased. Entropic ice breath made everything go still. Flapping, Bucky rose upwards, gaining altitude, and watched as Luna’s long lithe body dived over the city. Lightning crackled from her gaping maw. Below her, things exploded. Bucky could hear the sizzles and the pops of things being cooked by high voltage.

Something stung his scale covered hide and it filled Bucky with a peculiar sense of rage. He was aware that when he was shapeshifted, he was prone to feeling the sort of emotional reactions of those whose forms he took. This was an angry arrogant rage.

Bucky roared as he rolled over and dived once more. He saw a large mob of insignificant specks below him trying to flee from Luna’s strafing run. He inhaled with a sudden quickness, allowed pressure to build, and with another roar, he exhaled.

Frozen death rained down upon the city. Stone buildings shattered. Living beings became freeze dried powder. A city that was centuries old, a timeless city, an almost immortal city, was now dying because of the hubris of its residents.

Gaining altitude once again, Bucky watched as Scorch dove upon the heart of the city. Fire shot from Scorch’s maw and nostrils. Below him, buildings melted into boiling liquid. Scorch’s passing turned the center of Labyrinthia into a white hot glowing lake of molten stone, glass, and metal.

The rising heat made Bucky feel stronger. He basked in the warm glow of the dying city. Luna made another pass, spewing lightning upon the defenseless creatures below as she dominated the skies overhead.

The sounds of gunfire were quieting.

Below him, up on the roof of a building, Bucky saw a determined group of defenders. He could see the flash of gunfire and felt the faint sensations of bullets bouncing away from his scales. There was an annoying itchy feeling along his wing. He dove.

Not even bothering to breathe, Bucky slammed into the building, grabbed it in his claws, ripped it free, and then flew high up into the air with it. At the apex of his flight, he dropped it. He heard tiny screams as the chunk of building dropped out of the sky and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground below.

Scorch had landed near the lake of molten stone and was tearing the city apart with his claws and tail. Bucky could see bursts of gunfire in the night, bright flashes of fire that made them all too convenient targets. Banking, Bucky turned about to fly wing to wing with Luna.

He saw Luna look at him; Bucky could see her teal eyes in the lurid red glow that was coming up from the city below. They were gliding now, borne upon powerful updrafts rising from the lake of fire in the center of the city. He heard Luna inhale and he did so himself.

Together, their breath attack scrubbed away entire blocks of stone, glass, and concrete buildings. Things shattered, popped, and exploded as they passed. Even the paved road buckled and split. No living thing survived the onslaught from above.

This could not even be called a battle.

The lake in the middle of the city grew larger as Scorch breathed his terrible firebreath, venting his fury upon the residents of Labyrinthia. As Bucky watched, a skyscraper that had to be fifty stories tall melted like a candle in flame, drooping down, bubbling, and with rapid progression, it transitioned from being a solid to being a liquid.

Watching the high rise as it melted away, Bucky wondered what Celestia would be like as a dragon. He scanned the surrounding city, looking for pockets of resistance. In the distance, on the horizon, he saw bright flashes and explosions. The invasion had begun and the camps were being liberated.

The chatter of gunfire got Bucky’s attention. Swooping down, he once more ripped a building from its foundation, flew upwards, and then dropped the building into the center of the molten lake. It sank in, melting as it did so.

Bucky realised that Scorch, being the methodical being that he was, intended to render down the entire city with fire and leave behind a puddle. On the west side of the city, Luna made another strafing run, and Bucky could see from watching her that she was herding the rebels towards the city center where the lake of fire awaited. It was easy to understand why Luna was known as ‘The Electric Death.’

With a roar, Bucky breathed, his freezing breath shattering buildings as he passed overhead. More and more of the city fell. The bursts of gunfire grew fewer and fewer. Dozens of city blocks had just been reduced to ice coated rubble in one pass.

Most of the city was already gone. The lake in the city center grew larger and larger. Luna was blasting away at the outer edges of the city. The fight was over, more or less, now it was just clean up.

Scorch breathed a massive gout of flame and a vast section of the city melted into a glowing white liquid that boiled and seethed. He crushed and he smashed with his claws. He used his tail to topple entire blocks of buildings.

The city looked as though an angry god had visited it, which Bucky supposed was the point of why they were here in Labyrinthia. There was a terrific crash as another block of buildings toppled and fell into the ever growing lake of molten fire.

Bucky learned a terrible lesson, understanding now just how much he had failed in Griffonholm. Had he done more to study magic, had he practiced his craft, he could have laid waste to the city and spared Twilight Sparkle the burden she now carried. As the city continued to boil away around him, Bucky pondered upon his many mistakes and things he wished he had done in a different way.

The city of Labyrinthia would not survive to see the dawn…
	
> Chapter 483
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Slumping over the table, Bucky tore into his breakfast. He ate with famished intensity, scarfing and gobbling down everything on his plate in moments, he wolfed down his oatmeal, and then he went to work on the fruit bowl in the middle of the table. 

The city did not survive to greet the dawn. Below them, the city of Labyrinthia was now a white hot puddle. Not one building continued to stand. Nothing of the city remained. In the distance, visible from their zeppelin, smoke rose from the now liberated camps. The Fancy Foreign Legion had waged a successful campaign and a troop of diamond dogs had come in from Germaney to assist them. Minos, now liberated, was now free from the tyrannical grip of the rebels that had seized control. 

Other airships were coming in now to aid in the relief effort. Medical frigates came in convoys. Order was on its way to restoration. Many in the camps were now saved; ponies, minotaurs, captured prisoners of previous conflicts, now all free. 

As Bucky savaged an apple, he pondered upon the fact that he now felt a strange feeling of weakness, almost a feeling of malaise. He tried to dismiss it as the fact that he felt tired, exhausted, but deep down, he knew the real reason. A major source of conflict in the world was now eradicated in a rather permanent fashion. He had just destroyed some of his own power. 

The world was now a better place with less conflict. 



 

“Bucky?” 

Belisama felt Bucky’s slow steady breathing into her neck. There was no answer. Bucky had gone still and was now asleep. Reaching out with her left talons, Belisama stroked Bucky’s ear with a careful, gentle, well practiced movement, mindful of her claws. She saw his eyelids flutter for a moment and then he went still. She ran her talons through his mane, smoothing it out a little bit. There was silver in it now, whole streaks of it, and Belisama worried at how fast it had changed. 

Mindful of Bucky, Belisama shimmied free from his embrace and then with careful grace, slipped out of the bed. She froze when Bucky snorted. Her tail twitching from side to side, Belisama watched for signs that Bucky might wake. The decision to leave caused her more than a little guilt; Bucky’s only desire was to have someone  hold him when he went to bed. Belisama had slept through most of the night and was now wide awake. 

There was a strange feeling of gratitude about being Bucky’s equal. Belisama reared up on her hind legs, balanced on the edge of the bed, and then brushed Bucky’s mane out of his face. She was free to leave the bed if she wanted. There had been a point in her life where if a griffon wanted her as a pillow, it would have been wise to stay in the bed and continue to be a pillow. She had been Bucky’s servant, then his wife, and now, she was his wife and lover. She pulled the blanket up to Bucky’s chin and then tucked it around him. One more, she reached out and touched one fuzzy tufted ear, feeling the thick hairs brush up against her fleshy talon finger pads. 

When Bucky snorted once more in his sleep, Belisama’s eyes went wide with concern. 

Lowering her head, she leaned in, placed her beak close to the top of his head. After a long pause, Belisama inhaled, taking in Bucky’s scent. Remembering that Bucky was treacherous even in his supposed sleep, Belisama decided not to press her luck. She dropped away from the bed and scurried out the door, her tail held high over her back. 



 

Erebus crawled and explored the floor while Luna lay on a chaise lounge. Luna watched him with keen interest, her ears perking up as the colt sniffed and tried to make sense of the world around him. He was getting curious about things, and learning how to get around on his own. 

Unable to sleep, Luna thought about what she had done. 

She had not obeyed the plan. She did not follow through with simple instructions. Luna hoped that what she had done would not come back to haunt her later. Perhaps motherhood had changed her more than she realised. 

Luna had let some go. During one of her strafing runs, she had seen one lone minotaur leading a group of calves out of the city. The image was still fresh in her mind. There had been one lone minotaur that had realised the futility of their actions and had moved to do the right thing. 

Unable to kill them, unable to cut them down, Luna had teleported them out of the city. Sure, there would be teleportation sickness, but it was better than the alternative. Luna hoped that the group was okay. She hoped that they had learned their lesson. She hoped that none of them would come back later as hardened killers and future problems. 

It was a troubling prospect. Luna’s lips pursed as she became even more thoughtful of her actions, more aware of the changes that motherhood had wrought upon her, more contemplative on the many changes she had made. 

There had been a time where she would have just cut them down without mercy. They were the enemy. Except now, things were not so simple. As she had inhaled and made ready to obliterate them, to turn them into burned husks, she thought of Tourmaline and Erebus. She thought of Harper, of Dinky, of Piña, and of Peekaboo. She also had thought of Sentinel and the disappointed look he would have given her if he had ever learned of what she had done. 

Luna now understood Bucky’s position on foals… they helped to keep one honest. 

With a shrill squeak, Erebus sneezed, which jolted Luna from her thoughts. 

“Erebus?” Luna asked. 

She heard a wet snuffling, a snort, a sniffle, and a grunt. 

“Mama?” 

Feeling her heart warm, Luna smiled. “Come to mama, Erebus.” 

Watching Erebus’ reaction when he heard her voice, filled with eager anticipation,  Luna waited for Erebus to come to her. He took wobbling steps, his legs still unsure of their ability, and moved with careful slowness over the floor. It took a while, but when Erebus reached the chaise lounge, Luna lifted him up and placed him beside her. He settled in and made himself comfortable. As Erebus snuggled up against her, Luna realised that soon, he would be running away from her, embarrassed when seen with his mother, as most colts tended to be. 

That made these moments all the more precious. 



 

Coffee. Coffee, the life giving elixir first introduced to the equine civilisations by the llamas that lived along the World Wall mountains. First given to the Saddle Arabians and then to the rest of the world, Bucky could not imagine a world without coffee. 

Much to his surprise, there was fresh milk for his coffee. Not milk from some waxy carton, which he now detested, but actual fresh milk left behind just for him. There was only one mare on board that Bucky knew that had fresh milk to offer. 

He added a little sugar, poured in a little milk, and them, overcome with curiousity, took a drink from the small pitcher. He did not swallow right away, but let it roll around on his tongue, feeling it in his mouth, tasting it, savouring it in a way that few could. 

Sweet, creamy, thick, almost waxy like pegasi milk, frothy like earth pony milk, and with a faint tang like unicorn milk. As Bucky swallowed, his horn ignited, his magic flaring to life, which in turn caused the pitcher of milk to begin glowing. As Bucky suspected, the milk had traces of mana in it just as unicorn milk did, but in much higher concentrations. 

Bucky swallowed and then took another drink. 

Taking a moment to appreciate the gift, Bucky thought about Luna’s kindness. This was a thoughtful gift, meaningful, something that could only come from the self. Milk was a life giving liquid, something almost sacred to Bucky now. After taking one last swallow, Bucky placed the small pitcher back into the fridge and looked around. Even though he had eaten before going to sleep, he was peckish. There was hummus left for him, he grabbed that. Cheese… cheese was good, he grabbed that. Grapes were nice but cold grapes were better, so he took those. He opened a small plastic container with something unknown inside. Sniffing, it smelled like seafood. He held up the container and looked around. On one side, it had a label. 

Crab and spinach dip. 

It was half full and Bucky suspected he knew who had eaten the other half. He sniffed again, it smelled tangy, savoury, the scent of dill was present and Bucky was certain that it had sour cream in it. He heard his stomach rumble and felt his body tremble. 

The cheese was different, pale, white, soft, kind of crumbly, with a strong smoky scent. 

Rummaging around, Bucky found a knife with enough of an edge to cut the cheese, found crackers in a cupboard, and discovered a bottle of wine left in a separate smaller fridge. He grabbed that too and took off to the table with his meal. 

Sipping his coffee, Bucky went to work, laying out crackers on a plate, making sure each cracker was just so. On some crackers, he placed a dollop of hummus and on others, a dab of dip. After carving off small pieces of cheese, he placed those on his collection of crackers. He opened the wine and allowed it to begin breathing. 

After the creation of his meal, Bucky looked at his feast and then sat back to drink his coffee. He wondered where Belisama was. He was curious about how far they had traveled. His sense of time felt all wrong when he was on this side of the world. 

Sniffing, Bucky smelled coffee, savoury herbs, and the tangy smell of blackcurrant wafted up from the wine bottle. The little kitchenette held the faint smell of disinfectant and cleaning solvents. The coffee was hot and it filled his body with warmth as it traveled down his throat. Bucky was not sure why, but there was something about hot and warm drinks that made him feel revitalised when he drank them. 

The click of claws upon the floor made Bucky’s ears perk. Now he smelled griffoness. He watched as Belisama climbed up into the chair opposite from him and he found himself looking into her large almost luminous green eyes. Looking at her, Bucky recalled speaking to her, telling her not to use titles of royalty, and he told her to call him Bucky or call him nothing. She had called him Nothing. He felt a minor bit of annoyance as Belisama averted her eyes after looking into his for a moment. Bucky supposed it was a hard habit for her to break. 

“You still turn your eyes away from me.” Bucky allowed his voice to be a bit more commanding than usual, he was curious to see what might happen. He waited. 

“I am sorry, master.” 

It took a moment, but as Bucky sat watching, Belisama realised what it was that she had said, a reply made in reflect. The griffoness fluffed out and slumped down in her chair. Bucky saw her eyes close and for a moment, Bucky worried about the pain she was feeling. 

“It is still difficult for you sometimes, isn’t it?” Bucky asked. He saw Belisama nod in reply. 

Taking a long drink of coffee, Bucky wondered what else to say. It had been quite some time since Belisama’s last slip up. He gulped and felt the hot liquid traveling down his throat, filling his body with warmth. Belisama was looking him in the eye now. 

“This is going to sound funny, but it is easier for me when the others are around me I think. I did not realise it until just now. Or even Lugus. I suppose I feel braver,” Belisama said. 

“So when we are alone you still have some fear?” Bucky leaned forward, resting himself against the table, and felt concerned. 

“I guess I do. I don’t mean to be afraid. I’m sorry. I do trust you… it’s just… old habits are hard to break I guess. Please, I do not want you disappointed or angry with me.” 

With his telekinesis, Bucky pulled a coffee cup out of the cupboard, set it down in front of Belisama, and then poured her a little wine into the cup. “Tell ya what. Once I get done eating here, I’m going to pull you into a shower with me, and I’m going to see what I can do to earn your trust.” 

Bucky heard a soft peep and watched as Belisama’s feathers fluffed out. He smiled. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 484
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky was enjoying a quiet moment with Belisama. After a relaxing shower with one another, Bucky and Belisama had retreated to their room so Belisama could work Bucky over with a curry comb and a hairbrush. Belisama enjoyed brushing ponies, and Bucky enjoyed having a brush ran through his thick coat. 

Belisama was mid stroke when Luna burst into the room. Luna, in a panic, was carrying Erebus with her. Luna’s eyes were wide with fear, her barrel was heaving, and she lay down Erebus in front of Bucky upon the bed. 

“He’s having trouble breathing!” 

With a well practiced sense of calm, Bucky tried to ease Luna’s fears. “I need details Luna. Tell me every little detail you can think of. Even if it seems minor. Settle down and try to think of everything.” He cocked his head to look up at Luna for a moment, and then his gaze dropped to look at Erebus. 

“He was crying a lot earlier… and then he quieted a bit but stayed fussy. He kept grunting and making little whimpers. Now he is having trouble breathing and he keeps making sounds like he is hiccupping,” Luna said. 

“Oh.” Bucky dropped his head to Erebus’ belly and pressed his ear to the colt’s stomach. He moved around to several different spots, listening for telltale gurgles or rumbles. With a careful well practiced movement, Bucky rolled Erebus over onto his belly and then pressed his ear to the colt’s back and listened once more. 

Reaching out with his talons, Bucky flexed them, testing their movement, and then pressed his talon index finger and his talon thumb into Erebus’ back, just above the colt’s hip bones. He rubbed, mindful of how small and fragile Erebus was. He made little circular motions with both digits. He looked over at Luna, she was prancing in place, her expression was one of frantic fear, the fear of mothers everywhere when their offspring aren’t breathing right. 

The colt let out a gurgle, lifted his head, and then he let out a tiny stifled sounding belch. 

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked. 

Using his most soothing voice, Bucky replied, “It’s just a little bit of colic. He’s very gassy. Perhaps the changes in altitude or maybe a bit of stress.” 

“Gas?” 

Luna’s face was one of terrible fear and pain and Bucky wished he knew how to comfort her. He continued to rub Erebus to try and work the gas bubbles out. “Just gas. Colic. Harper gets like this if you recall. Cadance too. You can feel how hard Erebus’ stomach is and you can hear the gurgles.” 

“But his breathing,” Luna said. 

“Luna, ever eat a big meal and have trouble breathing because you feel so full?” Bucky asked. As he watched, Luna’s teal eyes blinked in a rapid manner and her wings fluttered. 

“Yes… yes of course. That makes sense. I must confess I am having some trouble thinking straight in my current state of panic. How did you learn all of this?” 

Sighing, taking a deep breath of his own to calm his faint sense of panic that he had been holding back, Bucky let it out in a slow exhale as he said, “I learned it from Derpy and Berry Punch. Derpy is like a walking encyclopaedia of foal knowledge.” 

“I do not like how this makes me feel… the feeling as though I have lost all control and composure. This fear, I find it most disagreeable,” Luna admitted.

Bucky nodded. “I think every parent feels that way.” 

“So many parents have bad dreams about their foals and a sudden loss of breathing, I have always dismissed it as a mindless irrational fear… but this is awful.” 

Luna began to calm and Bucky felt himself relax a little. Erebus belched once and then began to make little squeaky grunting noises as Bucky kept rubbing. Saying nothing, Luna shoved Bucky and Belisama over in the bed. Ignoring their protests, Luna crawled into bed beside them and then laid her head down near Erebus, letting out a worried sigh as she sprawled out. 

“Where is Scorch? I haven’t seen him. Did he go off somewhere?” Bucky asked. He looked over at Luna and waited for her reply. 

“He is here, but he has gone into his cabin to isolate himself.”

With careful caution, Bucky began to knead his talons along Erebus’ spine, moving between the colt’s wing joints and hip bones. There was a gasp from the colt and then another belch. Glancing at Luna, Bucky asked, “Is he upset about what was done?” 

Bucky heard a sigh near his ear. 

“Scorch is upset, but not because of what we have done. He faded away out of the world for a while after he was convinced that a policy of not getting involved was a good idea… to give the world time to balance itself. If extreme forces were to become involved it was feared that the balance would just continue to falter. Scorch wishes that he had interfered earlier before it came to this.” 

Allowing Luna’s words to sink in, Bucky thought about them in silence for a moment. He felt Belisama shift next to him and then he felt the soothing scrape of the curry comb along his neck. 

Just as Bucky was about to say something, he heard Luna say, “Scorch intends to rebuild Labyrinthia. Not as it was, but he said he plans to give the city a foundation and then help the new residents build a city.” 

Luna’s words were punctuated by Erebus finally releasing some gas. It started off low and slow, rising in pitch, and ended as an almost ultrasonic squeak. 

His muzzle crinkling, Bucky pulled his head back. “That’s been in there for a while. Before being cut, that cheese was aged in the cellar.” 

Luna, who had once been The Element of Laughter, began to titter at Bucky’s joke.  

“I bet he feels so much better though,” Belisama said. 

“If he ever gets fussy like that again, try rubbing his back or his belly. Just put your ear up against him and listen for wherever the gurgles sound the loudest.” As Bucky spoke, he pulled Erebus a little closer and when he had finished speaking, he kissed Erebus upon the head. 

“Do you think this made a difference?” Belisama asked. 

Confused for a moment, Bucky looked at Erebus and then twisted his head around to look at Belisama. “Come again?” 

“What was done… the complete destruction of Labyrinthia… do you think it will make a difference in world politics… will other creatures run to Celestia petitioning for diplomacy and peace?” 

Bucky heard Luna sigh. 

“Only time will tell. From my readings into history, I would say this will only help for a time. After several generations, the fear will fade and the world will once more need a reminder of why they need to behave,” Luna said. 

Rolling Erebus over, Bucky began to rub the colt’s stomach. He thought of what both Belisama and Luna had to say. Both came from very different perspectives. Both held different viewpoints. Belisama was mortal and her perspectives came from being a slave for most of her life. Luna was immortal and royalty, which had a way of changing one’s own views. 

Belisama inhaled and Bucky felt the curry comb halt its soothing strokes.  

“While this was a good first step, to ensure peace, we have to make the rest of the world want to work with us. We can’t just have them submit from fear, we have to give them a reason to want unity and global harmony.” 

When Belisama had finished speaking, Bucky once more felt the comb working through his pelt. The slow steady strokes made his ears want to droop. 

“We must trust my sister for that. I know she is planning something, but I am not sure what. Celestia has always believed in enticement and reward… I will not fault her for that, but I prefer a more direct approach. I am convinced that we have done the right thing. Now, we restrain ourselves from further action, we remain patient, and we allow my sister to work her magic,” Luna said. 

“So no more airborne destruction?” Bucky asked. 

“Not if we can help it. If further incidents take place, we allow them to play out peacefully if at all possible. The world now realises that what happened in Griffonholm was not a fluke, Labyrinthia shows the world that, and an appropriate response was made for the massacre that took place on the Shire Isles. The world is now aware of the consequences of such actions, examples have been made, and I do believe that before further actions are taken, a moment’s pause will be had to think of the consequences.” 

Luna’s words hung in Bucky’s ears and caused him to start thinking. Griffonholm was gone and now so was Labyrinthia. Bucky, connected to the strife and hatred in the world, was already aware of the difference made. He began to doubt that further actions would be necessary. His own power was waning, while he suspected that Cadance’s power was waxing. 

“So much has happened it seems. Violet tries to explain all of these world events to me, saying that as a queen I should know them, but everything that has happened in just the span of this year… the fall of the noble houses in Equestria and the rise of democracy… Griffonholm was laid to rest so that the land might heal and we little griffons were liberated. The Shetland Isles were freed from a dark shadow. The maps now all need to be redrawn to include the United Isles. The unicorns of the Shire Isles were freed from a slavery every bit as bad as we little griffons faced in Griffonholm. The historic mutual assistance pact between Equestria and the Sea of Grass, which now includes the Old World Alliance countries. So much change has taken place in so little time,” Belisama said. 

As Bucky pondered Belisama’s words, he came to the realisation that Erebus had gone still. The colt was sleeping on his back and his belly was much softer now. The hard tight skin was now soft and felt loose. He pulled the colt to him and cradled Erebus in his forelegs. 

“Funny how life is. I came in here with the fear that Erebus was dying… a reminder of the sanctity and value of life. I wonder how many ponies… beings… experience this, gain a momentary respect for life, and then in no time at all, go about their day to day lives and never give a second thought to the other lives around them,” Luna said. 

For a moment, Bucky thought about Luna’s words and then he thought about the city he had just razed. Just as he started to say something, he heard Belisama beat him to a response. 

“We tend to only think about those lives that are of value to us. I know I am guilty of this… I think about all of my subjects. Several of them are pregnant now. I find I value those future lives, I obsess over them. I lay awake in the bed wondering if they are going to be okay. I think about every foal that I am now a mother to and the pride I find myself a part of. However, I do not really spend much time thinking about something else on the other side of the world and how those lives might apply to me.” 

Bucky thought about the three lives around him. One was cradled in his forelegs, one was pressed up against his side, and the third was sitting on his back and combing him. All three of them were tangible, visible, they were with him in the here and now. Other lives were elsewhere, out of sight, out of mind, and Bucky supposed that the problem was a lack of connection. He could think of creatures in Ponyville and the Shetlands that he loved, beings he had a connection to, beings he had feelings for, but beyond that, Bucky had trouble making himself have some strong emotion one way or the other. 

Perhaps there was a lesson to be learned here, something that he could teach in his school. He took a deep breath, thought about saying something, but then chose to remain silent instead. 

“When you are an immortal, it is easy to lose your understanding of just how short, fragile, and valuable mortal lives can be. To us, they pass in the blink of an eye. They die so easily. Their bodies are so fragile. They pass by so quickly… they are so aware of time and its passing... having Erebus around has made me reconsider everything… Barley too…” Luna said, her words growing soft and fading out. 

“When you are a slave, all you can think about is living and keeping those you love alive somehow… every day matters… you tell yourself, ‘just one day’ and then you do everything you can, anything you can, no matter how degrading or disgusting just to get one more day for yourself and those you love… and when the next day comes, you do it again,” Belisama said. 

All too aware of just how little time he had, Bucky had nothing to say. 
	
> Chapter 485
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, Princess Celestia has rescheduled the first day of winter to an earlier date. You will of course be required to bring winter to Equestria. You are to be prepared, the ceremony is set one week from now. Princess Celestia also wants to get a photo with all of the royals,” Violet Velvet said as she looked over her clipboard at Bucky.

Bucky, sitting in his chair, nodded.

“Look, I know you just returned yesterday, but there is much that needs to be done. There is a special case you need to deal with in Tall Tale. The specifics are inside of this folder here.” As Violet spoke she pushed a folder across the table and left it sitting by itself. “The report states that a foal performed an act of necromancy.”

Bucky sighed. “Oh dear… I suppose I am the best one to deal with this.”

Looking down at the folder, Violet continued to organise the rest of Bucky’s paperwork and files. “Twilight Sparkle wants Lyra involved as well. Also, Princess Luna will be going with you.”

“How is my school?” Bucky asked.

“All is well sir. The zebras are settled in. Doctor Mawu is setting up her office and will be ready to see student clients soon. We have more teachers that are seeking positions. There are many who believe in what you are doing. One of our current applicants is a teacher that was formerly employed by the Baltimare Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences. He is eager to work here. The students are settling in and they seem happy enough,” Violet replied.

“Very good.” Bucky paused for a moment, took a drink of his coffee, and then looked over at Violet. “I want the mead hall placed as a high priority. I’m not fooling around, I want it built as of yesterday. Come spring, I’ll need an apiary built… might be a good hobby for Dinky. I want musical instruments placed into the talons of any griffon that shows any sign of musical aptitude. I want instructors hired. Spare no expense. This is to be treated as a matter of life or death.”

Violet wrote down everything Bucky said. “Very well, I will make sure this is done.”

“Is Diamond Tiara happy?” Bucky asked.

Violet set down her clipboard, her pen, and then adjusted her glasses. “She moved in with Rarity and Coco. She was a little teary to leave but she seemed happy. I went with her to make sure that she settled in and that she was okay. Dirtbound was with us, he was helpful and kind.”

Bucky smiled. “Good… good, this makes me happy.”

Raising an eyebrow, Violet was a little hesitant when she said, “Sentinel took it hard. You were gone, he was already taking that hard… it took a while but I finally got him to talk over milk and cookies… Sentinel seemed to be convinced that you were going to die. You didn’t have your armor. Sentinel did not know your plan. Apparently, he has vivid memories about you being shot in the head. This has been very difficult on him.”

Bucky’s smile drooped into something not a smile. “That explains a lot. I guess I better have a talk with him. Poor little guy. Thanks for talking to him Violet.”

“Oh, I had help, I don’t think I could have got him to talk without Sparkler. She is really quite good at getting a pony to open up,” Violet replied as she carefully laid out several folders on the library table. “Which reminds me. When you get a chance, you need to talk to Little Slip. She has moved into the female dorm and much to my surprise, has received a good deal of acceptance. The dorm houseparent says that there has been a few issues, but the overall situation seems positive. I have spoken to her myself. I think this will be a good place for her to heal.”

Bucky took several gulps of coffee, swallowed, and then let out a low belch. “Noted. I will speak to her as soon as I have the chance. Any advice?”

Frowning, Violet shrugged. “She is fragile, timid, and has trust issues. If I had any advice at all, it would be to take one of your own daughters with you to show that you can be trusted. Maybe. I don’t know. This is not my area of expertise.”

There was a faint clatter when Bucky set down his coffee cup on top of the table beside his chair. “I suppose I can take Sparky along… might be a good idea. Maybe Loch Skimmer too. It is impossible to be afraid of Loch Skimmer. She is just too friendly.”

Violet nodded. “Sir, I agree. Loch Skimmer is charismatic and charming.”





“Sparky?”

“Yes Dinky?”

“I have a question.” Dinky’s face was pensive, the little foal looked curious and thoughtful.

Sparkler set down her brush and looked at her sister. “You know, we don’t spend as much time together as we used to. I’d love to hear your question.”

“Things happened I guess… we got sent off to an island full of wolves and a lich. You got married. Piña and I got closer. We came home and you got a job. I got involved in school,” Dinky said in a low voice. Heaving a sigh, Dinky’s ears drooped down to the sides of her face. “I suppose this is how life is.”

Shrugging, Sparkler felt as though there was a lot to say but she wasn’t sure how to say it. She picked Dinky up and set the foal on the bed. Pulling her close, Sparkler gave Dinky a hug and held her, trying to keep her muscles from convulsing. “So what is your question?”

“We can talk about anything right?” Dinky asked.

Putting on her most serious face, Sparkler replied, “Sure thing Dinky Doo.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

Dinky sighed. “Okay… here goes… how do fillies love one another?”

Almost choking, Sparkler inhaled sharply and then coughed. After taking a moment to get herself together, Sparkler managed to take a deep breath. “What?”

Dinky looked away from her sister and stared at the wall. “I figured out how colts might love one another… a… um… uh… it can be pushed into any hole I guess no matter how disgusting it might be. But fillies… there is nothing that can go into something else. I don’t understand.”

Still stunned, Sparkler made an effort to try to understand her sister. “What brought this up? I mean, uh, what made you think about all of this?”

Turning away from the wall, Dinky looked up at her sister. “Ripple and Bittersweet. They’re so in love with one another and watching them confuses me...” Dinky hesitated for a moment, frowned, and shook her head. “I don’t think what they are doing is wrong… don’t get the wrong idea. I just don’t understand how it works and I want to understand. I guess it is because of what happened.”

Sparkler’s thoughts turned to Dinky’s little moment of embarrassment brought about by magic and she pondered for a moment how difficult all of this must be for Dinky to take in. Dinky was growing up rapidly and there had been a lot to take in all at once as of late.

“Ripple just seems so happy. She is always smiling. I guess that is what it is like, being in love and all that,” Dinky said in a low voice.

“Bittersweet and Ripple haven’t actually done anything other than lots of kissing.” Sparkler thought about what to say next, how much to say, and how to say it. “There are ways for two fillies to do things to one another that make each other happy.”

“Do you and Loch Skimmer do those things?” Dinky asked.

Sparkler took a deep breath. “Here is where things get complicated… We have, but Loch Skimmer really isn’t into fillies like I am. She doesn’t mind being kissed a little bit, but she feels a bit weird if we do other things. She doesn’t mind if I do things to her, but she has some trouble doing things to me.”

Feeling embarrassed, Dinky closed her eyes. “So Loch Skimmer isn’t gay?”

“I’m not sure if it is about being gay… you see Dinky… it’s complicated. I’m not sure if I am gay… I just happen to enjoy both Loch Skimmer and Rising Star and find myself attracted to both of them,” Sparkler replied.

Scratching her chin, Dinky thought about her sister’s words. “I don’t think I understand.”

Feeling that honesty was the best way to answer, Sparkler chose to answer in the most direct way possible. “I am not sure I understand it either. I just know that I’m very much in love with Loch Skimmer, Rising Star, Ripple, and now, Bittersweet as well. What I love about them is on the inside I suppose, and interacting with the body allows me to touch them on the inside. The part of them that I care about, the part of them that I love, it is out of my reach. The best that I can do is just try to make them feel good. I guess what I am trying to say is, the physical parts don’t matter.”

Rolling her eyes, Dinky felt a growing sense of frustration. “But the physical parts do matter… I don’t understand how two fillies do anything.”

Sparker was certain she heard something in Dinky’s voice. “Are you upset about something?”

Dinky shook her head. “I’m just confused.”

Giving Dinky a reassuring squeeze, Sparkler made herself ready to interrogate her sister. “I’m your sister. Don’t lie to me. You can talk to me about anything and you know. Anything at all. I mean, I just got telling you a whole bunch of secret sister stuff and now it is your turn.”

Letting out a low whine, Dinky wiggled in her sister’s grasp, making a halfhearted attempt to get away. “I don’t know… it is very confusing.”

“What is confusing?” Sparkler asked in soft gentle whisper.

“Everything!” Dinky gasped. “Everything is confusing! Ever since my little accident everything has been confusing and I have weird dreams about my friends and I feel so dirty and ashamed and I’ve been doing creepy things.”

Leaning her head down, Sparkler kissed her sister just below Dinky’s ear. “Strange dreams? Creepy things?”

“Even before my little accident things were getting confusing I guess,” Dinky admitted.

Sparkler felt Dinky go limp in her embrace. She felt a growing sense of concern as she leaned in close to her sister’s ear and whispered, “It helps if you talk about it, I promise. But I can’t help you unless you tell me.”

“It is so embarrassing.” Dinky wiggled a bit and then turned her head to face Sparkler. She pressed her cheek against Sparkler’s neck. “When I think about what I’ve been doing it makes my stomach hurt and I feel sick. I get so worried. I just want to close my eyes and make the world go away because I feel so ashamed.”

“Dinky, why do you feel ashamed?” Sparkler asked.

Sighing, it took Dinky a moment before she could answer. “I don’t know… that is why I feel so confused I guess. I don’t know what is going on.”

Feeling the side of her face twitch, Sparkler was glad that Dinky couldn’t see it. She gritted her teeth for a moment and waited for the worst to pass. “So Dinky… do you want to tell me what is going on?”

Dinky took a deep breath and then let it out as she said, “I had a dream about Diamond Tiara… I told her she was pretty and then I kissed her and I felt so ashamed because she is my friend and I felt guilty because she is my brother Sentinel’s special somepony and I felt so bad because I feel like I betrayed Sentinel in my dream and I hope he never finds out…” Dinky inhaled once more and then continued to pour her heart out. “And then one day in class I was staring at Sweetie Belle and somehow I lost over fifteen minutes of time and I don’t know what happened but when the teacher called on me to ask me a question I couldn’t answer because I hadn’t heard a word…” Once more, Dinky sucked in a lungful of air so she could finish. “Staring is wrong and I know that from listening to adults that it is wrong to gawk at another pony and I was staring at Sweetie Belle and then the other day I found myself staring at Twist and the way she kept swishing her tail and I wanted to keep watching her tail swing from side to side because for some reason I was trying to look at Twist’s backside and I was violating her privacy and I am a horrible foal that violates the trust of my friends and my brother.”

“You like fillies,” Sparkler said.

“I don’t know… I’ve always thought colts were icky, but every little filly thinks colts are icky, right?” Dinky asked. Her brows furrowed. “Sentinel isn’t icky though. He’s my brother and he’s okay.”

“Dinky, liking other fillies isn’t anything to be ashamed of. What you are feeling is perfectly normal for a filly your age. You’re starting to notice other ponies… I was about eight or nine when I started to notice that something had changed about colts.” Sparkler let her words sink in and she planted a kiss on her sister’s head.

“What I am doing is wrong… I kissed Diamond Tiara in a dream… I keep looking at Sweetie Belle… and Twist. I don’t think Diamond Tiara likes fillies and she loves my brother. Sweetie Belle and Rumble are kind of a couple… sort of. That’s getting complicated… anyhow, I keep checking out fillies that I don’t think like other fillies and that just feels so wrong,” Dinky blurted out in one long pained confession.

Sparkler wasn’t sure what to do. “Dinky, it isn’t wrong. You can’t help who you dream about, so you can’t beat yourself up over that. You can’t help who you feel attracted to. The best you can do is be respectful about it. It is like when colts whistle at a filly and harass her, or when a filly might do that to a colt and they go about it all wrong. Feeling attracted to another pony is fine, honest it is. It is what we do with that attraction. Looking and being respectful is good. Looking and being a jerk about it is wrong.”

“Then why do I feel so ashamed?” Dinky asked.

Sighing, Sparkler wished that she knew. “I don’t know Dinks… I don’t know.”

“I wish this had never happened. Now things are all weird and I am scared I am going to lose my friends,” Dinky said.

Confusion descended upon Sparkler. “Why would you lose your friends?”

Once more, Dinky let out a low whine. “What if I tell them that I think they are pretty and how I am and they think I am weird and disgusting for looking at them that way and they don’t want me around?”

“That’s a tough one Dinky… I gotta admit, I don’t know how to answer that. I suppose if they respond like that, they probably weren’t your friends in a way that was very meaningful. I’d like to think that a real friend might feel flattered… or at least try to understand you… even if they didn’t feel that way in return and would just accept you for how you are… but I don’t think my point of view is very realistic,” Sparkler said as her brows furrowed and her muzzle crinkled.

Dinky began to sniffle. “Growing up makes life more and more complicated. I don’t like it.”

“I dunno Dinky, it’s not so bad, it gets better I guess. There are some rough awkward moments where it feels like you just want to die and you cringe a whole lot, but you get through those and then things are sort of okay… I guess. I don’t know.” Sparkler realised that her words were nowhere as reassuring as she hoped they would be.

“I feel kinda hot and sick to my stomach,” Dinky said in a low raspy voice.

“Want some ice cream? I know I could go for some ice cream… we could go downstairs and have ice cream,” Sparkler suggested.

“That’d be nice…”
	
> Chapter 486
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The whole house was filled with frantic activity as everypony and everybirdy tried to take care of last moment needs. There were diaper bags to pack, a large pregnant kelpie to look after, foals to wrangle, and a train to catch. 

Tomorrow was going to be the first day of winter and the entire family was going to take a train to Canterlot. Also on schedule was a photography session, something that Bucky was not looking forward to. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky shouted, “Hurry up you lot! Butter Bean and Lima Bean are outside waiting! The train departs in an hour! Now get in that wagon!” 

“I can’t find my glasses!” 

“Has anypony seen Sentinel’s new glasses?” Derpy asked. 

Berry Punch’s voice was loud and clear over the chaos. “I put them in the diaper bag because I knew Sentinel would try to forget them.” 

“I wasn’t trying to forget them,” Sentinel said. 

“Piña, you don’t have to carry all of your school books with you! Take a break!” 

“Lyra! I need to get good grades!” 

“Your grades are almost perfect!” 

“But I want to keep them that way!” 

“Where is Harper and Cadance?” Bon Bon asked. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky took a deep breath. The family was only going to get bigger… the thought pained him. Family trips were going to become more and more chaotic. 

Derpy’s voice cut through the cacophony. “Cadance and Harper are both in their foal carriers. Bittersweet has Harper and Bucky has Cadance.” 

“Oh,” Bon Bon said from back in the nursery. 

“I’m going to put Thistle in the wagon,” Lyra announced.

“I don’t want to go in the wagon!” 

“Thistle, you can’t walk, and we need to get you to Canterlot.” 

“Derpy, I don’t want to go to Canterlot!” 

“The whole family must have their picture taken. Plus, we need to be there with Bucky when he welcomes the winter,” Derpy said. 

“I don’t want my picture taken—” 

“Hush Bucky, I don’t want to hear it. Luna made me promise to get you to Canterlot.” 

“You’re killing me Derpy. Thistle, how about you and I go and hide on the bottom of the lake together?” Bucky asked. 

“That sounds lovely Bucky—” 

“Nope! No escape!” 

“Derpy… you’re no fun anymore.” 

“You are such a foal sometimes Bucky.” 

“Help me! I am being abducted by Lyra Heartstrings!” 

“I have you now! You are in my evil clutches my delightful little kelpie!” 

“Help help! Sentinel, help me!” 

“My family is weird.” 

“Why can’t Lugus, Yew, and Peekaboo join us in the picture?” Piña asked as she came into the living room and watched as Thistle was being levitated out. 

Bucky scowled. “Because they aren’t actually part of our family.” 

“Sure they are.” Piña sat down upon the floor and stuck her lower lip out in a pout. 

Sitting down next to Piña, Bucky summoned his patience. “They are part of our family and part of our tribe in our eyes, but others do not share our views.” 

“Sentinel is adopted but he is part of our family. Why can’t we just adopt Lugus, Yew, and Peekaboo?” Piña asked. 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky thought about Piña’s question for a moment. He didn’t have a good answer. Piña had somehow stumped him with tricky foal-logic. “Piña, love, you have brought up a very good point. I don’t know.” 

“Where is Loch Skimmer?” Sparkler asked. 

Berry Punch looked around. “For that matter, where is Rising Star?” 

“You two better be behaving yourselves! Now is not a good time to scratch the itch!” 

“Derpy, I have an itch… could you help me?” 

“Shush Bucky!” 

“But it itches…” 

“Bucky, so help me—” 

“Just remember that I love you.” 

Derpy fell silent and gave her mate a stern one eyed stare to communicate her feelings. 

“Look, I was just helping Loch Skimmer put her scarf on, honest,” Rising Star said as he came down the stairs. 

Loch Skimmer, following Rising Star, smiled as she joined the mob standing around the entryway. “It’s cold outside.” 

“I’m shocked. For once, you two were actually behaving yourselves,” Derpy said. 

“Why is it that wearing a scarf around your neck makes your head feel warm?” Dinky asked, speaking in a loud voice to be heard over all of the hubbub. 

Loch Skimmer looked down at Dinky “You have blood vessels in your neck that are close to the surface. They help to cool you off when you are too warm. In cold weather, you lose a lot of body heat from that area. Wrapping a scarf around your neck keeps the blood warm as it travels up to your head, and because of that, you feel warmer.” 

Dinky looked stunned. “Loch Skimmer, how did you know this?” 

Smiling, Loch Skimmer replied, “I paid attention in biology class.” 

Berry Punch stood near the front door. “Okay, let’s move. Belisama, where are you?” 

“In the living room,” Belisama answered. 

“Okay, foals go in the wagon with Thistle. Bucky, you’re going in the wagon with Bittersweet. Thistle and the foals will need you,” Derpy said.

Bon Bon emerged from the hall leading to the back bedrooms and the nursery. “We have a train to catch. I want all of you on your best behaviour. And I’m not just talking about you foals. Bucky, I am watching you. Any stunts like running away and hiding… and I will be the one hunting you down.” 

“I’ll behave,” Bucky said as he rolled his eyes. 

Beside him, Piña giggled and looked up at her father. 

“Do we have the blanket for in the wagon?” Berry asked. 

“I put it in the wagon,” Derpy replied. 

Bon Bon cast one final warning glance at Bucky. “Good, then we are off.” 



 

“I can’t believe we almost forgot Barley,” Berry said as she boarded the train.

Looking around, Berry Punch checked out the well appointed car. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her family were already on board and settled in for the trip. Glass Slipper was sharing a chair with her father, Flash Sentry. Scootaloo was reading a book and Spike had his snoot in a comic book. Rainbow Dash was watching Bucky’s family as they boarded. 

Much to Berry Punch’s relief, Thistle was already made as comfortable as she could be in a large bowl shaped chair. Moving though the chaos, Berry Punch made her way to Thistle’s side, snoot bumped her, and then climbed into the bowl shaped chair with her. 

Glass Slipper’s good behaviour ended when she saw Bucky. Berry Punch watched as the foal tossed her book aside and then took off in what appeared to be a green blur. In a moment, Glass Slipper was hanging from Bucky’s neck and her shrill squeals filled the train car. 

Leaning into Thistle, Berry Punch felt her heart warm. 



 

Dinky found herself sandwiched between Ripple and Sparkler on a large overstuffed couch. They were not in the main car with the others, but in a lounge car with round windows. It was quiet and the only other occupant of the car was Barley, who was off in the other corner by himself, spending a quiet moment drinking and staring out one of the windows. 

“Been thinking about our talk?” Sparkler asked. 

Nodding, Dinky thought about what to say but the words would not come. 

“You know Dinky, I started off the same way. I started thinking that some of the fillies around me were kind of pretty,” Ripple said in a low voice. 

Shuddering, Dinky thought about the isles. She knew just enough to know that Ripple had been in a bad spot. Dinky realised that, by comparison, she had it easy. Ripple had been born in a place that didn’t care about what she was, how she felt, and the sort of pony that she was on the inside. Dinky was thankful that Ripple had been rescued. 

Trying to get Dinky’s attention, Sparkler nosed the little unicorn. “You’ve been kinda quiet lately little sister.” 

Taking a deep breath, Dinky prepared herself. “I keep thinking there is something wrong with me… Sparky, you like colts and fillies. My mothers like one another. I feel bad… like I am doing something wrong because I don’t like both.” 

Lowering her head, Ripple kissed Dinky on the cheek. “You are just now figuring all of this out. Don’t be so hard on yourself. There is nothing wrong with how you feel. You don’t have to like fillies and colts. You don’t have to like fillies or colts. In fact, you don’t have to like either. There are those who do not feel attracted to anypony in particular.” 

“Why does this have to be so confusing?” Dinky asked. 

Barley looked over at the three fillies. “Aye, wee Dinky, life is confusing. Doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable. The trick is to think about it without thinking about it too much. Over-thinking everything will make a real mess o’ things.” 

“Easy for you to say uncle Barley… you have everything figured out,” Dinky said. 

Raising an eyebrow, Barley looked straight at Dinky. “Do I now?” 

Feeling curious, Dinky wondered what Barley was up to. “You don’t?” 

“Let me tell you something about me, wee lass… I’m a try-sexual—” 

Unable to help herself, Ripple snorted and then just had to say something. “What?” 

Taking a deep breath and remembering to be patient, Barley offered up his winning smile. “Just hear me out. I’m a try-sexual. I’ve left myself open to trying almost anything. In my long life, I’ve known a lot of love. Before you ask, yes, I was with a stallion once. It wasn’t my thing, but it was his thing. He was a dear friend. I’ve tried out all sorts of kink. Ropes, whips, bits and bridles, I have made it a point to try everything life has to offer me at least once. I even shagged me a diamond dog. She was nice. She was lonely. We had us a few drinks. For a time, she was the love of me life. And then, she moved on and so did I. I dinnae regret the time I had with her, even if we both took a lot of trouble for it. What I am trying to say is, leave yerself open to new experiences even if you aren’t sure if you will like them.” 

“Wow Barley… I had no idea,” Sparkler said. 

“Ripple, me pretty lass… you might be a lesbian, but you might enjoy a little fling with Rising Star some day. It isn’t about sexuality or what you are attracted to, it is about closeness and feeling a connection with the one you love. Now, I ain’t saying you have to go off and shag him, and if you really feel dead set against it you shouldn’t, but I am saying you should keep an open mind about the experience if it ever presents itself.” When he was done speaking, Barley finished off his snifter full of whiskey and set his glass down upon the small table beside him. 

“You were with a stallion?” Ripple asked. She blinked. “Why? I mean, I don’t understand.”

“He was a dear friend of mine. He had a terrible crush on me. He knew that I didn’t swing that way. But I loved him dearly… aye, he was very dear to me.” Barley turned to look out the window. “I was still wandering at that point... I wanted him to remember me well… I had to go though, I had me a case of wanderlust. So I drank a lot of whiskey and I gave him the best memory that I could offer.” 

Sparkler, unable to help herself, stared at Barley open mouthed. 

“None of my experiences has left me any less a stallion,” Barley said as he turned his gaze back to the three fillies. “Dinky, just slow down and let life happen. Think about it, take it all in, but don’t think too much about it or you’ll miss out on a whole lot.” 

Ripple felt Dinky squirming beside her and she leaned over to squish Dinky a little more. “Barley, I had no idea.”

“I had no idea either… ya just kinda let love happen… ya let life happen and you will never know where it’ll take you. I’ve had my share of great loves, lousy loves, and one night stands. Now though, I’ve met the love of me life… I didn’t think I’d ever love somepony as much as I do Luna. I’d like to think that she is my reward for being so open minded and jumping at all of life’s little opportunities,” Barley said. 

Dinky, grateful for the advice, smiled at her uncle. “I suppose I have a lot to think about.” 
	
	
> Chapter 487
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As many introverts tend to do when thrust into uncomfortable social situations, Bucky fell silent and watched those around him. Spike was in an animated discussion with Piña and Sentinel about comic books. Berry Punch was talking with Twilight Sparkle. Derpy was being shy but still managing a conversation with Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry. Glass Slipper was playing with Cadance and Harper, while Bittersweet watched over them all. Scootaloo had her ear pressed against Thistle’s belly and a look of wide eyed wonder plastered upon her face. Bon Bon and Lyra were discussing something with Loch Skimmer that was making all three of them giggle. Rising Star was reading a large heavy book about practical enchantments and their everyday applications in the life of the common pony. Belisama, who had curled up beside him, had her eyes closed, but Bucky knew that she wasn’t sleeping. 

Already, Bucky was missing home. There were things to do. There were thousands of golems to create; he had already created thousands, but there was still so much to do. He heard Berry Punch and Twilight Sparkle talking about the soon to happen session of the Stable of Representatives and the issues on the docket. He heard Rainbow Dash and Derpy talking about motherhood and Rainbow Dash’s pregnancy. Bucky was already beginning to feel overwhelmed. He gritted his teeth and tried to tune out the sounds he heard all around him. 

Twilight and Berry Punch changed the subject to talk about Tannis and Agnetha. Bucky heard them discussing how much power they had, how much influence they had on Equestrian politics, and both seemed happy that the griffons were trusted by Celestia. 

So was Bucky. 

He felt Belisama move against him, her small body wiggling around as she tried to get comfortable. Bucky had noted that Belisama had been closer as of late, and he couldn’t help but compare her behaviour to Lugus’. It seemed that griffons, no matter their size, could be quite attentive of their mates. If Belisama wasn’t with him, then she was with one of the mares in the herd. Bucky heard her let out a little whimper as she shifted and he wondered if she was in pain. 

Even if he asked, Bucky knew she wouldn’t tell him. He sighed and felt a little frustrated. 

The train rocked back and forth as it continued along the steep incline that lead to Canterlot. Bucky closed his eyes and began to make plans. There was so much to do and so many lives at stake. 

The world was still reeling from the loss of Labyrinthia, but the response had been positive. The only place still friendly to the rebels was now the Hinterlands and the lands to the far east, those lands that bordered on the wild dragon territories. The various diamond dog kingdoms were all now seeking peace rather than face obliteration. The rebels, those with guns, found no shelter in any country. Plans were being made to deal with the mirror travelers, to hunt down their portals, and then destroy them. 

There were already problems down in Saddle Arabia and Bucky was certain that he was going to have to go down there to deal with them in pony. Truth be told, he didn’t mind. He missed the food. 

No doubt, the trip might be dangerous. Labyrinthia had been easy. The minotaurs had guns, not advanced magic. The mirror travelers were more than capable as far as magic skills went and turning into a dragon to deal with them might not be the very best of ideas. 

Bucky wasn’t sure how to deal with the issue, but he knew he wasn’t alone. Soon, there would be help. The Shadowbolt Initiative would play upon the one thing the mirror travelers feared most; shadow magic. 

Fear was Bucky’s favourite weapon. 



 

“No, no there hasn’t been any morning sickness yet. I’m hoping that with all of my stunt flying and training that I’ll be able to just ignore the nausea,” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice to Derpy. 

Derpy chewed on her lip in a thoughtful manner. Something about that didn’t quite make sense to her, but she wasn’t sure what. She said nothing, not knowing how to warn Rainbow Dash that it didn’t quite work that way. 

Rainbow Dash smiled a winning grin. “The doctor said that I’ll have elevated testosterone levels during my pregnancy just like Surprise said I would. We’re going to work on a training regimen that will help me build up some muscle mass and strength training. Nothing that will hurt the foal though… Surprise tells me that it is perfectly safe and that she put on a whole bunch of muscle mass while she was pregnant. She had Spitfire and a professional trainer helping her.” 

“I wonder if that is why I am so strong… I had Dinky while everything was still developing as a teenager,” Derpy said as she thought about what Rainbow Dash had said. 

Shrugging, Rainbow Dash’s face became one of confusion. “I don’t know… maybe?” 

Derpy didn’t know either, but now she wondered.

“This could help my career as a Wonderbolt if everything goes just right,” Rainbow Dash said as she turned her head to look out the window. The pegasus took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out a little at a time. “Of course, if this pregnancy goes all kinds of wrong, it could ruin my career too… I hope that doesn’t happen.” She turned away from the window and looked over at Flash Sentry. 

Reaching out her wing, Derpy touched Rainbow Dash on the cheek to comfort her. “You’ll be fine, stay positive.” 

“I hope it’s a colt,” Flash Sentry said. 

Snorting, Rainbow Dash leaned over and nosed Flash Sentry and then prodded him with her hoof. “And Twilight wants a filly. Nopony cares what I want.” 

Flash’s eyes opened wide. “That’s not true. Twilight and I both know that you want it healthy. I want a healthy colt… Twilight wants a healthy filly.” 

“These jerks have placed a bet on the whole issue,” Rainbow Dash said. 

Derpy’s ears perked up. “Ooooh… what’s the wager?” 

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice filled with incredulous surprise. 

Flash Sentry grinned. “Slavery. If Twilight wins, I have to be a slave to her and Rainbow Dash for one month. If I win, Twilight has to serve me and Rainbow Dash for one month.” 

Nodding, Derpy liked this outcome. “Either way, Rainbow wins and she gets a month of being looked after when the foal is born.” 

“Yep,” Flash Sentry replied. 

“You jerks are still betting on my foal though!” 



 

Sentinel tried to ignore the strange feeling of the glasses upon his nasal bridge. They looked like regular eyeglasses, but functioned as sunglasses to protect his eyes from the bright light. Using the central knuckle on his wing, he readjusted them. 

“In the latest issue Princess Punishment dies. The Diabolical Dimwit finally gets lucky and kills her,” Spike said, sounding more than a little disappointed. 

Piña made a dismissive gesture with one front hoof. “Comic book heroes die all the time and then come back… Princess Punishment will be just fine.” 

Feeling the need to make a point, Spike puffed out his chest and pointed his claw down at the comic in question. “But she dies to the Diabolical Dimwit. He’s super-stupid and makes others around him super-stupid. The Diabolical Dimwit isn’t even Princess Punishment’s villain, he is the arch-nemesis of Professor Piledriver.” 

“But Professor Piledriver is currently evil because he is being mind controlled by the Mane-iac and her shampoo of subversion,” Sentinel said. 

Spike nodded. “And that is why this whole thing is stupid. Princess Punishment should have been trying to free Professor Piledriver from the Mane-iac’s evil clutches and not off fighting the Diabolical Dimwit.” 

Superheroes. More and more, Sentinel thought about superheroes. There was real evil in the world, this world, not just in the comic books. Evil that needed to be put down. And while his father worked against said evil, Sentinel knew his father tried to stay out of the public eye as much as possible. 

What ponies needed though, was a hero to inspire them. Like the Mare Do Well. There were real life superheroes. The city of Baltimare currently had a pegasus dressed up in a costume and a mask that was foiling crimes and kept showing up in the paper over and over. 

The papers called him the Hoot Owl and the Hoot Owl was making the police look bad. 

“Where are the Power Ponies?” Piña asked. 

The Hoot Owl had gadgets, or so eyewitnesses said. Smoke bombs. Bolos. The Hoot Owl did not kill, but dispensed justice and then dragged criminals in, leaving them on top of the police stations, up on the roof. 

“Oh, the Mane-iac sent them back in time and now they are trapped. They’re having to fight pirates while they look for some magical artifact that will send them back home to the right time,” Spike replied. 

The Hoot Owl was giving ponies hope… and much to Sentinel’s surprise, had been joined by a unicorn wearing a mask. The unicorn was named the Mysterious Marevellous, and she had joined the crusade against crime. 

Sentinel believed this was awesome. 

The Mysterious Marevellous was already being investigated by the Black Cloaks. Sentinel had heard his father discussing it with Twilight. Sentinel hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but his ears were just so sensitive. He couldn’t help it. 

This was not awesome. 

Sentinel believed that the world needed superheroes. Ponies like the Hoot Owl and the Mysterious Marevellous were making a difference in the world. They were common ponies. Everyday average ponies. Sentinel believed that was important. His father was a type four unicorn. That was not an everyday average pony, and while his father was a hero, Sentinel knew that Bucky was exceptional. 

“So if the Power Ponies are in the past, why not just use the magical artifact to jump ahead to the time when the Mane-iac has her accident that makes her an evil villainess and stop it from happening?” Piña asked. 

Sentinel believed that Ripple had all of the right stuff needed to be a hero… and so did he. 

“I dunno… that’s a good point,” Spike replied. 

“Comics are stupid sometimes,” Piña said. 

The young lunar pegasus colt began to wonder what it would be like to be a real life superhero. To make a difference in the world. To fight evil. To bring hope. To inspire others to stand up and make a difference in the world. The big cities were full of crime… and evil. 

Ponyville, not so much. Sparkler and Flash Sentry had pretty much cleaned up Ponyville. The Ponyville police force had done their job and now Ponyville was boring and unexciting. But Baltimare, Fillydelphia, the ruins of Manehatten, Vanhoover, and even Las Pegasus, which was being re-established as a city, those big cities had big crime. They had bad ponies. They had criminals. They had potential villains. 

Villains. Criminals by trade and doers of evil. Repeat offenders. Those who organised crime and waged war upon the police. Sentinel was all too aware of their existence. Comic books. Crime novels. Murder mysteries. There was a whole dark underworld out there just waiting to be busted up. 

Sentinel wanted to be the one doing a little busting. 

“I still don’t understand how the Mane-iac turned a washing machine into a time travel portal,” Spike said. 

Rubbing her chin, Piña gave thought to the problem. “Perhaps she fiddled with the arcano-tech somehow. It’s stupid, but with magic, anything could be possible.” 

No, with muscle and sinew, anything was possible. A pegasus could become a hero. Even though Sentinel had magic, he didn’t think he was very good at it yet. 

“Sentinel?” 

Piña’s words jolted Sentinel out of his thoughts. 

“Huh?” Sentinel asked. 

“Are you okay big brother? You’ve been staring at the wall for a long time now. Are you feeling okay? Do you need to take some pills like I did so you don’t get motion sickness? You seem out of sorts,” Piña said. 

Sentinel took a deep breath, held it for a moment, tried to think of what to say, and then exhaled in a huff. He cleared his throat. “I was just thinking about stuff.” 

Unable to help herself, Piña had to tease her brother. “I bet you were thinking about ‘stuff’... tell me, is the stuff you’re thinking about pink, wear glasses, and named Diamond Tiara?” 

Blushing, Sentinel turned away from Piña and stared down at the floor. 

“I’ll be sure to tell Diamond Tiara that you’re thinking about her ‘stuff’,” Piña said. 

With his cheeks and ears now on fire, Sentinel gave his sister a bit of a stare. Nothing too harsh, but Piña’s teasing was unbearable at times. 

Spike pointed with one claw. “Heh! Look, Sentinel’s glasses are fogging over!” 
	
> Chapter 488
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The photography session is going to be later, just after the evening meal. So we have most of a day to kill. We should have enough time for our little project,” Berry Punch said to Twilight Sparkle in a low voice. 

Twilight smiled, the sort of smile that brought warmth to the room. “I’ve been waiting for this… I’m so excited that I almost can’t stand it.” 

“What’s the point of having wealth if you can’t do anything good with it?” Berry Punch asked as she watched a group of guards landing on top of the gatehouse. Looking through the gate, Berry Punch could see the foundations that had been laid out for the Stable of Representatives building off in the distance. “Where is Bucky anyway? If he isn’t here in just a few more minutes, we’re leaving without him.” 

Pointing with her wing, Twilight bounced in place almost like an excited foal. “I see him.”

After Bucky closed the distance between them, he kissed Twilight on the cheek and then smooched Berry Punch on the lips. Leaving behind a somewhat flustered earth pony mare, Bucky grinned a roguish grin and said, “Sorry, Cadance was being fussy and didn’t want to let me go. I had to distract her with something Shiny.” 

Twilight winced. “Gee Bucky… that’s so funny… how long did it take for you to come up with that?” There was a long pause and then Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. “That joke is horrible… horrible.” 

Sighing, Bucky admitted defeat. He pulled his hood up over his head and looked at Twilight from within its depths. “Cadance was happy to see your brother. I was able to slip away without too much trouble.” 

“How much do you think she remembers of him?” Berry Punch asked. 

Turning to look at his wife, Bucky shrugged. “Everything I hope.” 

Feeling the need to get started, Twilight Sparkle decided it was time to move things along. “We should get moving, we have a lot to do.” 

Berry Punch, who was now looking at the courtyard where preparations were being completed for the ceremony to welcome winter tomorrow, turned to look at Twilight. 

Not knowing that Berry Punch was about to say something, Bucky cut in. “I had a weird experience. Celestia wanted to know why I flooded her office… I was kind of confused, I mean, she filled my office with popcorn. Only she is saying that she didn’t fill my office with popcorn. What’s weird is that the popcorn had her magical signature.” Bucky shook his head. “She congratulated me on my masterpiece… it took her a week to figure out how to remove the water.” 

Unable to believe the conclusion she had reached, Twilight Sparkle’s face drew into a curious scowl. “Do you think it was Luna?” 

“Oh yes, I do believe that it was indeed Luna. So does Celestia. I have proposed a temporary alliance between us to deal with this issue.” Each word spoken drifted away from Bucky as a cloud of steam in the freezing air. 

Canterlot’s higher elevation made it far colder than Ponyville. 

“We can talk about it while we are walking,” Berry Punch said as she gave Bucky a nudge to get him moving. She huffed an impatient sigh and was glad when Twilight also prodded Bucky to get him going. 



 

The wind howled through somewhat deserted streets. Canterlot had seen better days. The nobles, now gone, had been the bulk of the city’s population. Canterlot was being rebuilt, but it was taking time. New ponies were moving to Canterlot. 

The streets were already lined with eight foot tall candy canes. 

The decorations were going out early this year. Princess Celestia wanted everypony reminded of tribal unity after the disastrous collapse that had taken place during the summer. A new year was coming and with it, hope and the promise of a better future. 

Things were already looking so promising. 

There was one thing Bucky did notice as he walked and the sight brought him much relief. Canterlot had a population of griffons now living out in the open near the central shopping district. 



 

Bucky recognised the toy store he stood in front of. He had come here looking for a gift for Dinky. The store was setting up the window displays for the holiday season. A unicorn colt was in the window setting up a castle and a train playset. Fluffy cotton balls had been laid out as snow. Blue cellophane had been spread out to look like a frozen over lake. 

There was vague feeling of irritation when Bucky observed that nothing was in proper scale to anything else. He sighed and tried to dismiss his feeling of unease. Giant ponies and little locomotives just did not make sense. 

“You okay Bucky?” Berry asked. 

Startled, Bucky’s whole body tensed. “I, uh, heh, I was thinking about Dinky’s birthday party… I came here to find a gift for her. I guess I got kinda lost for a moment.” 

“That gift you purchased for Dinky made Derpy fall madly in love with you. It was so thoughtful. So generous.” Berry Punch fell silent for a moment and then wiped one eye with her fetlock and then muttered, “Stupid pregnancy hormones.” 

“Is anypony else excited? I’ve always wanted to do this. You don’t think this is abusing my powers as a princess do you? I mean, I keep worrying about this, I can’t stop thinking about what we are about to do… Scootaloo has told me some really awful stories about orphanages. I want to make a difference. This somehow seems to reckless and crazy though to do what we are about to do and I feel so out of sorts. I just hope that we are right for doing—” 

Realising that Twilight had become stuck, Bucky decided to cut Twilight off before she worked herself into a hot neurotic mess. “Twilight Sparkle, we are about to make a whole bunch of orphaned foals happy. There is nothing wrong with that. We have wealth and privilege, now let us make the most of it to do good things. I do not believe this to be an ostentatious display of wealth and power. This is merely doing the right thing. We have more and as such, we are obligated to give more.” 

“There are more orphans than ever now. Tirek’s attack upon Manehatten, the collapse, the violence that took place here in Canterlot, this is going to be a rotten winter for a lot of foals. This might be the sort of thing that gives them faith back in the future and makes them want to go on… at least, that is my hope,” Berry Punch said as she watched the clerk in the window lay track. 

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and then eyed the door. Her wings fluttered. “I am going in!” 



 

There was no sign of the salesfilly that Bucky had once met in here. The store had few customers. There was still a train running though the store and the railroad crossing near the front door was now holiday themed. The shelves seemed well stocked all things considered. The store smelled of popcorn and roasting chestnuts. A massive display was being constructed in the middle.

With a well practiced toss of his head, Bucky allowed his hood to fall away. 

A grey maned stallion approached. He smiled as he drew near and used his magic to adjust his tie and collar. “Hello… what might I do for you?” he asked. 

Twilight Sparkle let out a shrill excited squeal and then tried to contain herself. “I’ll take everything.” 

The salespony raised an eyebrow. “Everything madam?” 

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Everything. We want everything in the store. Everything you have back in the stockroom. We want it all.” 

“Forgive me madam, but I simply must go and fetch my manager,” the salespony said in an apologetic voice. The unicorn paused for a moment. “I assume that you will be paying for this and this is not a royal requisition?” 

“Oh, we’re paying,” Bucky replied. 

“Wonderful,” the salespony said as he hurried off. 

Twilight Sparkle, who was still bouncing in place, turned her head to look at Berry Punch. “I can’t believe I just did it. That felt really good. Really really good. I just asked for everything in the store. When I was a filly I really wanted to do that. It’s been a dream of mine.” 

The manager was an older unicorn, white haired, and bespectacled. He approached with a slow gait, an incredulous look upon his face, and he cleared his throat when he looked at Berry Punch. 

“Am I to understand that you want everything?” the manager asked. 

Feeling somewhat annoyed, Berry Punch stepped forward. “Yes. We want everything. We will be paying. We want everything so we can give the orphanariums a nice holiday—” 

“You,” the manager said, interrupting Berry Punch. “I know you… you... you’re that meddlesome earth pony that ruined everything. You ruined the good life that we unicorns had here in Canterlot. I don’t want you here. I want you out of my store right now this minute… you dirty little m—” 

“Excuse me?” Bucky’s words chilled the room and the manager fell silent. The lights in the store seemed to dim. “I beg your pardon, but were you about to call my wife a mud pony?”

The manager backed away, his steps slow and jerky. 

Drawing herself to her full height, Twilight Sparkle advanced as she pushed Bucky aside. “How dare you say such a thing in my presence.” Twilight’s voice was a dangerous sounding screech. “How dare you!” 

“As far as I am concerned, b-b-both of you are traitors to our way of life… and you… your parents sold us out… they betrayed us… we lost all of the good things we had… I lost one of my employees in the violence that broke out because of this… this… instigator…” the manager said in a hesitant stammering stutter. 

“Twilight Sparkle, do not do anything rash,” Bucky said. “Look, we want what we came here for. Give it to us and we shall go away. We will pay and everypony will go about their day. Fail to deal with us reasonably, and make no mistake, we will take what we want to through other means.” 

The manager, now frozen in place, gave Bucky a hate-filled stare. 

“We will take everything. Have it ready. I am mobilising the guard to come and secure the gifts and they will manage the delivery. In a few days, my agent, Violet Velvet will be by to pay you. Just give me a total and so we can go about our business. I am asking you to deal with us reasonably and we will treat you fairly. But do not test my patience…. also, for your own sake, I would not do anything to further anger Twilight Sparkle. Speak ill of her parents again and I do believe she will make you regret it,” Bucky said in a voice that radiated calm. 

“I will need to look at the stock invoices to give you an estimate on price,” the manager said. He blinked and then took another step backwards. He looked at his gathered employees who were now gathered together and staring. “Close the store and call in more employees, we’re going to need the help.” 

Bucky took a deep breath and watched as Berry Punch tried to calm Twilight. He turned his head and looked at the manager. “I am glad we could work something out. We’ll be going now. I will trust that you will give us a fair total and I will instruct my agent to give you an additional ten percent for your trouble. Deal with us fairly or face my wrath.” 

“I want out of here,” Twilight said as she turned and stomped off towards the door. 



 

“The nerve of some ponies!” 

“Twilight, let it go. Don’t let it ruin our day,” Berry Punch said to Twilight Sparkle.

Turning and looking down at Berry Punch, Twilight shook her head. “I can’t stop gritting my teeth… I’m so angry.” 

Berry Punch stopped in her tracks and looked up at Twilight. “Look, keep in mind what the goal was. We got the toys we needed for our shopping list. Now we have a few more toy stores to hit up, some department stores, and our list has a lot still on it. We ran into a pony with a severe cranial-rectal inversion. We can’t let it ruin our day. I will admit though, I was surprised that Bucky didn’t do something awful.” 

“I thought about it,” Bucky admitted. He looked at Berry and then he nosed her neck, pressing his snoot through the folds of her scarf. 

Berry shivered and giggled. “Truth be told, I wanted to kick him.” 

“Let’s just head to the next store. Maybe a few check marks on my list will make me feel better,” Twilight Sparkle said as she watched Bucky and Berry be affectionate with one another. 

“Canterlot… the city of unicorns,” Bucky grumbled. 
	
> Chapter 489
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“That went much better than the first time,” Twilight said as she heaved a sigh of relief. She took another deep breath and let the cold air fill her lungs. She was still angry even if she wasn’t showing it. She took another gulp of cold crisp air and closed her eyes for a moment. 

“And nopony was called a ‘mud pony’ this time,” Berry Punch added in a voice dripping with acidic sarcasm. The earth pony let out a bitter laugh and rolled her eyes. 

“Well, the salesfilly did flirt with Twilight Sparkle just a little bit.” Bucky’s smiling muzzle protruded from beneath his hood and his one Taint filled eye glowed with a faint luminescence. 

Reaching out with her wing, Twilight gave Bucky a light swat on the back of his head. “She wasn’t flirting… she was just probably trying to get a sale by buttering me up.” 

Across the street, a group of pegasi were trying to string up some holiday lights over a storefront. The lights were tangled and the body language of the pegasi was almost profane. It was amusing to watch them as they engaged in an epic struggle. 

Bucky chortled. 

“Next stop, Conestoga’s Supply Store,” Berry Punch announced. 



 

Conestoga’s Supply Store was a narrow store that had been built between two apartment buildings. It was almost claustrophobic. There were long narrow shelves that ran down the middle of the store. The store itself was maybe eleven feet wide. It was one of the quirky landmarks of Canterlot. 

The store specialised in odds and ends, knickknacks, and outerwear. Many of the various knitting clubs in Canterlot and Ponyville sold their goods here. Inside were hundreds upon hundreds of knitted as well as crocheted hats and scarves. There were toques, berets, stocking caps, and even silly looking hats like those that jesters wore. 

Bucky stood looking around as the two mares in his company took off to look at small ceramic statues of little teddy bears doing pony things. The mare at the register near the front of the store had a grey mane that was pulled back into a bun. She was wearing reading glasses and watching him. Bucky offered a close-lipped smile to the old unicorn. Some ponies were terrified of his teeth and he had to be careful when he smiled. 

He continued to look around at the displays near the register and then he saw a small shrine, something that seemed all too common. There was an oval shaped portrait in an ornate silver frame. Several candles burned around it. There were cards pinned to the wall. 

Stepping closer, Bucky squinted to have a good look and when he did, he felt his blood run cold. He recognised that face. He swallowed, hard, feeling a lump slide down his throat. It was the filly from the toy store. The one that had sold him the Daring Do novels.

“She was my youngest,” the old mare said. 

“I’m very sorry.” Bucky cringed and wished his words had come out as something other than a croak. He swallowed again. “Ma’am, might I ask what happened?” 

The old mare blinked and Bucky could see the pain on her face. 

“Her name was Cashmere Conestoga. She was my youngest. She was close friends with an earth pony filly named Rosewater,” the old mare said. 

Bucky did not like where this story was going. He braced himself for what he knew was coming. Under his hood, his ears pinned back against his skull. 

“When Canterlot fell into rioting, a group of unicorns wrapped a chain around Rosewater’s neck and hung her from a lamp post. Cashmere tried to stop them. She was beaten down, subdued, and both of them were hung together.” The old mare drew in one shuddering breath, blinked away a few tears, and then looked at Bucky. “I’m very proud of my daughter for what she did.”

“I would be too…” Bucky realised just how useless his words sounded and wished he hadn’t said them. He wracked his brain for something more meaningful to say. 

“Cashmere was a good filly. She loved toys. I worked so very hard to raise her well. I kept her away from trouble makers and those with hateful minds. Or I tried to… anyway, I also lost one of my sons to mindless hatred,” the old mare said. 

“I’m sorry… is there a picture of him?” Bucky asked. He could see tears running down the cheeks of the old mare now. 

“No… I can’t bear to look at him or even think about him after what happened.” 

Feeling fearful, Bucky had to know. “What happened?” 

“He hung his sister and her best friend from a lamp post along with his friends.” 

There was a powerful wave of nausea that struck Bucky. His hind legs gave way and he sat down upon the wooden floor with a muffled thump. He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut as hard as he could, trying to keep everything in, and he bit down upon his lip hard enough to draw blood. He heard a muffled pained cry from behind him and knew it was Berry Punch. 

“I’m very sorry,” Twilight Sparkle said. 

“I am too,” the old mare replied. “I failed to keep one of my foals from mindless hatred.” 

“Bucky? Are you okay?” 

Bucky felt a warm body brush up against him as he listened to the question. He felt his hood being pulled away from his face and then a cold snoot was pressed into the good side of his face. 

“Bucky, say something.” 

“I’m okay,” Bucky said. As the words left his lips, Bucky realised how obvious it was that he was lying. His voice sounded like he was being strangled. He struggled to take a deep breath. 

“I know who you are… you’re Berry Punch. I’ve always wanted to meet you.” 

Berry turned away from Bucky to look at the old mare. “Thank you ma’am.” 

“My name is Merino and I am very pleased to have met you. I’m flattered and touched that your husband would feel something for little old me. What you did was very brave… I used it as a lesson to teach my daughter to always stand up for what you believe in and to always do the right thing… and in the end, she did the right thing. I like to tell myself that the lesson made a difference.” 

“I’m sure it did,” Berry Punch said as she tried to comfort both Bucky and the old mare. 

An uncomfortable silence filled the store. Bucky, Berry, and Twilight were the only patrons inside at the moment and the old mare had turned to stare the portrait of her lost daughter. 

“Ma’am, we’d like to secure every hat and scarf you have in the store,” Twilight Sparkle said, breaking the silence. 

The old mare turned to look at Twilight, her cheeks were still damp and her eyes were red. “All of them?” 

“All of them,” Twilight replied. Feeling the need to explain, Twilight took a deep breath. “We’re out securing gifts for the orphanages. We’re trying to make sure there is a nice holiday for needy foals. So we’re out buying toys and such… and practical gifts like hats and scarves.” 

“Oh my… that is so sweet of you... the hats and scarves are being sold on commission… quite a lot of the knitters are retirees and were hoping to get a little extra coin for the holidays. This is going to help them out as well… I haven’t seen much business since everything that happened.” 

“Wait, can you get more hats and scarves? We’ll pay extra for the rush… there are thousands with need,” Twilight asked. 

The old mare brightened up a bit. “I could ask. I know quite a few that are worried about how they will get through the winter.” 

Twilight Sparkle stood up straight. “There is still almost two months. Try to get as many as you can. We’ll pay double their value. Cost is not an issue.” 

“That is very generous of you…” 

Bucky, who was recovering, lifted his head and cleared his throat. “I have a better idea… how many of those old mares can bake cookies and treats? Because we need treats and those are on our list of things to get.” 

“Oh almost all of them,” Merino answered. 

Feeling a little better, Bucky managed a weak smile. “I will have my agent, Violet Velvet get in touch with you. I think we can take care of several issues at once here.” 

The old mare nodded. “That would be lovely, if it is possible.” 

“I feel good about this. Let’s make this happen,” Twilight Sparkle said, glad to have a little cheer after a moment of such intense sorrow. 



 

There was no denying it, Bucky was feeling a little gloomy now. He had heard stories about Canterlot, but hearing it from the mouth of one who had lived through it and whose family had been touched by the tragedy was sobering. 

Sipping his coffee, Bucky sat on a low cushioned chair, glad to be off of his hooves. It had been a long morning and now it was stretching into a long afternoon. 

The cafe was almost deserted. The only other customer was a minotaur with thick eyeglasses  that was hunting and pecking away upon a portable typewriter in a corner booth. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace. 

Bucky sat down his coffee cup, reached over, grabbed Berry Punch, and pulled her in for a heated kiss. He didn’t care who was watching or if it might have bothered somepony. Berry resisted at first, squirming, but her struggles melted away and Bucky felt her forelegs wrap around his neck. He heard Twilight Sparkle clearing her throat but he didn’t care.

He let go and tried to catch his breath as he set Berry Punch upright in her chair with a gentle nudge. Bucky smiled at Berry and then flashed a toothy grin at Twilight Sparkle. 

“What was that all about?” Berry asked as she fanned herself with her hoof. 

Shrugging, Bucky did not reply. He picked up his coffee cup in his talons and drank some, not caring that it was hot. He smiled a smug smile and basked in the warm heat of the fireplace. 

“I think somepony just wanted to swap slobber with an earth pony in public,” Twilight Sparkle said as she looked over towards the kitchen and hoped that her food would arrive soon.

Bucky shrugged. “Well, that and I wanted to make myself feel better. I’m selfish that way.” 

Reaching over, Berry Punch prodded Bucky with her hoof. “I am determined to have a nice day even with everything that has happened so far.” 

“I am a better pony for having not one, but two earth ponies as wives,” Bucky said. 

Still watching, still waiting, and feeling hungry, Twilight Sparkle looked at Berry Punch and then at Bucky. “I think I’m a better pony for having married two pegasi. Thanks for that Bucky, by the way, and the treacherous role you had in it.” 

Bucky gave Twilight a nod. “Glad I could help.” 

“What’s left on the list?” Berry Punch asked. 

“Well, I know that we still need more toys. We need stuffed animals,” Twilight replied.

Berry Punch raised an eyebrow. “For a lot of foals, a stuffed animal is their first friend.” 

“Stuffed animals are fine, but siblings are better.” As she spoke, Twilight Sparkle thought of her brother. “I wish I had more siblings. Shining Armor and I got teased because my parents had the both of us.” 

“I know I’ve done my part to make sure my foals have plenty of siblings,” Bucky said as he slumped down in his chair with his coffee. He looked over at Twilight. “Hey, you know Twilight—” 

“Don’t you dare say anything lewd or perverse about my parents,” Twilight said, offering Bucky a warning backed by a stern glare. 

“—the world would have been a better place I think if you had more siblings. Look how you and Shining Armor turned out. You became an alicorn princess and Shining Armor is… well, whatever he is now. The Emperor of the Crystal Empire. 

Twilight felt a brief pang of regret for her warning, but Bucky was Bucky. She narrowed her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out if Bucky had changed his words mid-sentence. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Why thank you Bucky, that was sweet of you.” 

The waitress came to the table bearing a tray held aloft in her levitation. She set it down with well practiced carefulness; nothing clanked or rattled when it was placed upon the table. She smiled, then departed, all the while chewing upon her gum with reckless abandon. 

Soup, salad, and sandwiches. Lunch was going to be simple and wholesome.  
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 490
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky, no… stop… we might be discovered...” 

Ignoring Derpy’s gasped warning, Bucky continued to snuffle and kiss Derpy along the back of her neck, teasing his way up to her ear with slow deliberate little pecks. He squeezed a little tighter, pulling her closer, and felt her wings brushing up against him. “I had a hard day… I was dragged all over Canterlot,” he said, breathing into Derpy’s ear with a heated whisper. 

“If you stop now I’ll smoosh you…” 

That sounded intriguing. Bucky felt Derpy’s foreleg wrap around his neck. “Promise?” 

“I had a hard day too, but I can’t remember what went wrong…” 

Bucky decided that innuendo was in order . “Sorry about your hard day love… let me give you a hard time to make it up to you.” As he spoke, he ran his right hoof down Derpy’s neck and stroked her withers. 

For Bucky’s efforts, he was rewarded with a low whickering from the grey mare he so loved. He felt one wing wrap around him and the other began to tickle his side. Closing his eyes, Bucky’s lips found Derpy’s. Together, their lips began a slow familiar dance. 

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.” 

With a groan, Bucky pulled away from Derpy when he heard the dulcet sounds of Lyra’s melodic voice. Under normal sounds, Bucky loved the sounds of Lyra’s voice, but the moment he felt somewhat annoyed. 

Derpy, now flustered, fanned herself with a wing as her nostrils flared. She felt a nudge from Bucky and wondered what he was up to. Knowing Bucky as well as she did, she suspected that Bucky was up to trouble. 

“Dinner is going to be in just a little bit. I was sent to come find you and… waahay—”

Lyra let out a startled utterance when Bucky grabbed her in his magic and hauled her to the small sofa where he and Derpy were canoodling with one another. Ignoring Lyra’s protests, he stuffed the unicorn mare in between Derpy and himself. Once he had Lyra situated, he resumed his embrace with Derpy, with Lyra sandwiched in the middle. 

Using his lips, Bucky gave Lyra’s ear a nibble and felt her gasp. 

“Oh this… this is not going according to plan,” Lyra said as she felt her resolve weakening. Lyra closed her eyes and let the moment take her. She could feel herself being kissed from both sides. Derpy had a case of wandering hooves and Lyra could feel one working it’s way down her barrel towards her stomach in slow teasing circles. 

“Here you go Derpy… I brought you dinner. I dunno about you, but I’m in the mood for unicorn.” Bucky breathed his words into Lyra’s ear and took a perverse delight in watching Lyra’s ear twitch as the mare squirmed. 

Derpy let out a low rumbling whicker followed by a chuckle. “So am I.” 

“Oh no… I’m done for… I hope somepony sends help,” Lyra said. “Help help!” 

As he let out a low growl, Bucky could feel Lyra shiver. He felt the muscles on her neck quivering and her body was warming from the intimate embrace. “If help comes we’ll gobble them too.” 

“Oh no, not my Bon Bon—” 

“Especially your Bon Bon,” Bucky whispered as he watched Lyra close her eyes. The mare was still trembling and Bucky marveled at her trust. He could smell her fear; it was something that was both arousing and worrying. He made the choice to play it down just a bit and relaxed his hold. He gave Derpy a little nudge and hoped that Derpy would pick up on the hint. 

While Bucky was kissing Lyra on the corner of her mouth, he heard a squeaky giggle. 

Well, Bucky thought to himself. At least Tourmaline had a good meal. He groaned and pulled away from Lyra. Tourmaline was peering around the corner into the secluded alcove, her white teeth stood out in sharp contrast to her jet black pelt. The filly was smiling and her eyes were large and owlish behind the thick lenses in her glasses. 

“Mama sent me to find you,” Tourmaline said. 

Grinning a knowing grin, Bucky suspected it was all too easy for Tourmaline to find them. He heard a deep shuddering breath from beside him and felt Lyra relax beside him, her body slumping over against his own. 

“Is it dinner time?” Derpy asked. 

Tourmaline nodded. “Yes.”  The foal paused for a moment and flashed a smile. “I’m glad you didn’t gobble me.” 

Bucky was forced to bite down upon his own lip to keep his laughter from escaping. All that came out was a loud snort and a sharp exhale. He could feel Lyra suppressing her giggles beside him. Tourmaline’s words about being gobbled were funny in an unintentional sort of way. 

A broad sheepish grin spread over Derpy’s muzzle. “I guess you overheard some stuff while you were watching us… nopony was actually going to be eaten.”

All too aware of what Tourmaline was, Bucky began to worry that Tourmaline might pick up on Lyra’s fear and not understand what was going on. The foal seemed happy enough, but it was difficult to read Tourmaline at times. He looked over at Lyra and Derpy, down at Tourmaline, and then took a deep breath. 

“Come on, we’re missing dinner,” Tourmaline said as she turned around and trotted off. 



 

Dinner was not as bad as Bucky feared. He had worried that dinner would be served at a long endless table. Instead, the dining room was filled with many smaller round tables that were low to the floor and each table had four cushions to sit on placed around them. 

It was a set up Bucky liked. One could sit or lay down on the cushion to eat. 

There was no order to the sitting arrangements; everypony and everybirdy seemed free to sit wherever. Belisama was sitting at a table with Tannis, Agnetha, and Bon Bon. Berry Punch was sitting with Twilight Sparkle, Flash Sentry, and Glass Slipper. Celestia was sitting with Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel. 

There was a brief moment of worry and Bucky’s eyes lingered upon the table where Celestia was sitting. All three of Bucky’s foals were boisterous eaters and Sentinel in particular had spectacular pegasus manners, second only to Sparkler. 

Sparkler, who was sitting at a table with Luna, Loch Skimmer, and now Lyra, with Lyra sitting down as Bucky watched. That was going to be an interesting table. Loch Skimmer was already tittering and leaning over to say something to Lyra. Bucky could only imagine what it might be. 

Bucky eased himself down upon a cushion at a table where Scootaloo, Barley, and Tourmaline were sitting. He watched Derpy sit down at a table with Spike, Shining Armor’s projection, and Rainbow Dash. Rising Star was off with Bittersweet, Thistle, and Ripple. 

Sniffing, Bucky wondered what was for dinner. 



 

Celestia looked at each of the foals sharing her table in turn. She would never admit it, but she prefered eating with foals. It was a chance to relax and not be quite so formal. Dinky and Piña seemed a little nervous, but Sentinel had his face buried in his bowl of salad greens and had already scarfed down most of it. 

Saying nothing, Celestia leaned her head down, ignored the crick in her long neck, and began to devour her salad. She matched Sentinel’s reckless abandon. She heard a worried nervous snort from behind her and knew that Twilight Sparkle was over-reacting to something. 

There was a belch and a grunt from across the table. Lifting her head, she saw that Sentinel was already finished. There was a bit of dandelion green sticking to his snoot and the colt was licking his chops. Celestia saw his orange tongue flick out and clean his nose, making the bit of green disappear. 

“You like salad?” Celestia asked, trying to get a bit of conversation going. 

“I can eat almost anything,” Sentinel replied. 

Still chewing and smacking her lips, Piña said, “I’m starting to believe that there is nothing my brother wouldn’t eat.” 

Sentinel’s ears pinned back. “I won’t eat anything that talks. Everything else is food.” 

“Bittersweet doesn’t talk,” Dinky said around a mouthful of food. 

Piña leaned over and swatted Dinky with her hoof. “Hey, don’t tease Sentinel. You know he’s sensitive about this. He’s very insecure about what he eats around us.” 

There was a moment of silence and then Dinky’s ears drooped down to the sides of her face as she replied, “You’re right Piña. Sorry Sentinel.” Dinky offered an apologetic glance to her brother and then with a morose sigh, stuffed her snoot down into her salad bowl.

It was a heartwarming moment and Celestia marveled at how close the siblings were with one another. She looked at Sentinel, then Piña, and then over at Dinky, who had fallen silent while grazing upon her salad. “The three of you are good to one another. I am sure many parents would wish to have siblings so well behaved.” 

Wiping her muzzle with her fetlock, Piña belched and then cleared her throat a bit. “Whenever we squabble, it usually doesn’t take long for one of us to remember what it was like on the Shetlands. With the wolves and all of the bad stuff. After that, well, whatever we were fighting about doesn’t seem so important.”

“I love my sisters. They tease me but I know I can count on them,” Sentinel said. 

“Tell me, do you think it will be different for your younger siblings when they come along? You have all faced a terrible danger together. Your younger siblings will probably know nothing but peace and relative serenity. Do you think they might bicker more often because of this?” Celestia asked. 

As she lifted her head from her salad bowl, Dinky looked over at Sentinel and then at Piña. Dinky shrugged and then looked up at Celestia. After a moment of quizzical befuddlement, she returned to eating. 

Pushing his bowl away, Sentinel looked around the room for a moment before his gaze returned to Celestia. “I don’t know. That is actually a very good question. We’ve gone through a crisis together. I have a lot of questions about all of this… like is this the reason why my parents don’t fight… a lot of ponies my own age have parents that fight and there is a lot of screaming and hollering and I hear a lot of stories.” 

Piña nodded. “Sentinel brings up a good point. Our parents really don’t fight. That’s kinda weird now that I think about it.” 

“I think…” Celestia paused for a moment and gave careful consideration to her words. “I think that the extraordinary circumstances that you all had to endure along with other factors make your parents very close to one another.” 

“Factors?” Piña asked. 

Her brow furrowing, Celestia tried to think of the best way to explain this to a foal, albeit a very intelligent foal. “Bon Bon is a very stabilising presence in your herd I think. From what I know and from what I have observed, when things are difficult she is very level headed. Bucky… Bucky is very strong willed and stubborn, but he knows when it is wise to submit. Bucky listens to others and takes into consideration what others have to say. Derpy keeps everypony and everybirdy motivated and on their best behaviour… nopony or nobirdy steps out of line for fear of disappointing her. Berry Punch is good at spotting problems before they happen and has solutions on how to deal with them already thought out.” 

“Sentinel reminds us that we are all weird and I think that helps. I know it reminds me to laugh at the funny stuff my family does,” Piña said. 

Celestia nodded. “Yes, it is important to never take yourselves too seriously.”

Lifting her head and wiping her muzzle, Dinky swallowed and then looked around the room and then at Celestia. “Did you ever get that weird feeling that a picture upon the wall is watching everything you do? It’s kinda creepy. It feels like the eyes are following you.” 

Glancing over at the portrait of Princess Platinum, Celestia nodded. The portrait’s eyes weren’t on Dinky though, but on another, and Celestia knew who had Platinum’s undivided attention. Celestia’s gaze moved to Belisama and then back to Princess Platinum. 
	
	
> Chapter 491
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle settled in between Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. Around her were the foals and the one baby dragon, all of them very dear to her. Off to her right was Bucky and his herd, which took up a tremendous amount of room. Over to her left was Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Tourmaline, and Erebus. Beyond Princess Celestia was Tannis and Agnetha. 

Bucky’s family was still trying to get organised and situated so all of them would fit in the picture. Twilight felt somewhat relieved that her family was rather small. She looked over at Spike because he would not stop squirming, and she sighed when she saw him. 

“Bucky, why did you give Spike a mustache?” Twilight Sparkle asked while Spike was smoothing out his magnificent handlebar mustache. 

Feeling somewhat annoyed, Bucky replied, “What makes you think I gave him the mustache? Why is it when something happens I am always the one to blame?” 

“Bucky, I’ve been with you and helped you go on a spree of vandalism—” 

“Ah HAH! I knew it!” 

Twilight Sparkle cringed at the sound of Celestia’s voice. She gritted her teeth and waited for the lecture, all too aware that she had just messed up. She could feel every eye in the room looking at her while she kept her own eyes squeezed shut. Somewhere in the back of her mind she marveled that Celestia’s composure and reserved behaviour had been completely abandoned. 

“Twilight Sparkle how could you?” Celestia asked.

Opening one eye, Twilight dared to glance over at her former mentor. “Me? What about Bucky?” It was impossible to tell if Celestia was angry or having fun and Twilight felt a twinge of panic. 

“That sort of behaviour is expected from Bucky… he is a foal all things considered—” 

Bucky cleared his throat in protest and then turned to look at Celestia as she was speaking. “Hey!” 

Celestia shook her head. “Bucky, my dear little pony, you must face the facts. Shall we ask your wives?” 

Scowling, Bucky slumped down and turned away from Celestia. “I didn’t give Spike the mustache. I’m not to blame for everything.” His eyes glanced over at Luna but he said nothing. Luna would be getting her due soon enough. 

“Bucky didn’t give me the mustache,” Spike said. 

Using her most stern expression, Twilight looked down at Spike. “Who did Spike?” 

Spike folded his front legs over his chest and shook his head in defiance. 

“Spike, who did it?” Twilight asked. 

“Don’t tell her Spike, make her work for it,” Bucky said. 

Both eyes now open, Twilight Sparkle looked over at Bucky, her ears pinning back against her skull. “Bucky! How could you?” Twilight felt the corner of her eye twitch as she heard snickering from all around her, including Rainbow Dash. Reaching out, Twilight prodded the giggling pegasus with her left front hoof. Luna’s tittering was getting louder. 

“Spike, always be loyal to your companions. Never betray them,” Luna said as she tried to hold back her smile. Luna’s nostrils flared as a snicker escaped and her eyes flashed with unrestrained glee. 

There was a loud snort from the photographer. 

With a flash of her horn, Twilight dispelled Spike’s mustache. When she did so, there was another flash of light followed by giggling from all around her. Twilight blinked and looked down her muzzle at the mustache now growing from her own lip. 

Spike still had a mustache of his own. 

Gritting her teeth, Twilight let go of a frustrated snort and narrowed her eyes at Bucky, who was now leaning on Bon Bon, almost doubled over with mirth as he howled with laughter. Celestia’s laughter rang in her ears. Twilight took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, tried to calm herself, and then opened her eyes. 

Once more, Twilight attempted to dispel both her mustache as well as Spike’s. There was a bright flash of magenta coloured light, a loud crackle, and a whiff of ozone. 

Twilight stopped her hoof and shook her head. The mustaches were multiplying. She let out a growl to ease her growing frustration. Flash Sentry was smiling as he stroked his big bushy blue mustache. 

Worst of all was Celestia, who was staring crosseyed down her muzzle at her new pastel rainbow coloured mustache. 

“Oh my,” Celestia said. She prodded Luna and tried to silence her sister’s giggles. “Some little pony has become quite gifted with magic. I wonder who—” 

Twilight Sparkle flapped her wings in frustration. “UGH! This was supposed to be a beautiful holiday photo!” She froze, fell silent, and slowly turned to look at Celestia, whom she had just interrupted. Celestia had a serene smile that peeked out from beneath her mustache. “Sorry.” 

“Let me see if I can banish these mustaches,” Celestia said. She took a deep breath and her horn flared with golden light. There was a crackle followed by a loud popping sound, almost like popcorn in a kettle. 

“I have a goatee!” Luna cried. 

Most ponies present now had mustaches. 

“I’m innocent,” Bucky said as he stared at Bon Bon’s mustache. “I would however like to say that if the pony responsible for this is one of mine, I am immensely proud of them right now.” 

“You are?” Dinky asked.

The foal froze, blinked, and looked around, realising she had given herself away. Dinky let slip a sheepish grin, all too aware that everypony and everybirdy was looking at her. She let out a cry when she felt herself lifted into the air, the warm tingly sensation of magic enveloping her body.

Dinky felt herself pulled into her father’s warm protective embrace. 

“How did you manage this?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh it was easy. Piña and I figured it out. The only way to get rid of them is to cast the mustache spell on on the mustache a second time. If you try to banish it, it will keep multiplying,” Dinky replied. 

Bucky gave his foal a squeeze and smiled over at Twilight. “That is clever. Wouldn’t you agree Twilight?” 

Feeling a sense of reluctant agreement, Twilight nodded. “That is pretty clever.” 

Dinky, lost in her father’s embrace, closed her eyes.  For reasons she could not explain, she began to remember the Shetlands and everything that had taken place. She flung her forelegs around her father’s neck and squeezed as hard as she dared, burying her face into the crook of Bucky’s neck. Dinky, as young as she was, realised that most fathers would be angry, but Bucky was not like most fathers. She had her father’s unconditional affection and love and Dinky was only beginning to have the maturity to understand that. 

Much to the photographer’s dismay, his camera flashed and took a picture. The older unicorn stomped around and his mane whipped around his face as his glasses slid askew. He grumbled and mumbled as he complained about the photograph that had just been taken. 

“I do believe that is a picture worth treasuring,” Celestia said. She looked around and offered a calming smile to the distraught photographer. “Everypony was smiling and there was a touching moment captured on film. Now let us be rid of these mustaches and we shall take another picture.” 



 

“Sentinel, sit up straight.” Derpy reached out and gave her foal a nudge with one hoof and she hoped that Dinky was behaving this time. She smiled a patient smile and watched as Sentinel rose up from his slouching position. The little pegasus colt, like most of the other foals, was bored. “Bucky, you too… no slouching.” 

Grimacing, Bucky sat up straight but his ears splayed out sideways. After one very silly picture full of mustaches and funny faces, one picture that achieved some sort of perfection had to be taken. He realised that he was getting a stern one eyed glare from Derpy and he lifted his ears, perking them upwards. As he did so, Derpy’s patient smile returned. 

When Derpy turned to look at Piña, Bucky stuck his tongue out, causing Dinky, Scootaloo, Spike, and Glass Slipper to begin giggling, which got them all an impatient scowl from Twilight Sparkle. 

“Why does everything have to be perfect?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Because we’re royalty and ponies have unrealistic expectations of us,” Bucky replied. He smiled down at Scootaloo. “We’re handsome and perfect, our dung doesn’t stink, and we live awesome lives with no problems whatsoever—” 

Bon Bon, who was rolling her eyes, pointed a hoof at Bucky. “Bucky, shush.” 

“You said ‘dung’ and that makes you a bad pony,” Glass Slipper said as she looked up at Bucky with wide eyed shock. “Swearies are bad.” 

Bucky’s face lit up with a crooked wry smile. “Slippy, you just said ‘dung’ too—” 

“Bucky, shush!” This time Bon Bon grabbed Bucky and wrapped a foreleg around his neck, pulling him close and giving him a squeeze. “Glass Slipper, you are a good pony. Don’t listen to Bucky.” 

Snickering, Rainbow Dash gave Glass Slipper an affectionate stroke down her back. “Yeah, don’t listen to Bucky, he’s a dung head.” 

“Rainbow Dash!” 

The prismatic maned pegasus cringed at the sound of Twilight Sparkle’s stressed out screech and knew she was going to be in for it later. Rainbow Dash glanced at Flash Sentry and saw he was struggling to hold back a smile, the stallion was biting his lip to keep from laughing. 

“Potty mouth,” Glass Slipper said in a low gasp. 

“Dung tongue,” Bucky said to Rainbow Dash giving as good as he got, and smiling a smug smile when the foals around him began to giggle from his immature and inappropriate outburst. 

“Is there a dungeon we could throw Bucky in?” Bon Bon asked as she shook her head and sighed to relieve her growing frustration. “I swear Bucky, these foals are better behaved than you are most of the time.” 

“Not the dungeon, I get lonesome,” Bucky said as he tried to make himself look as sad as possible. He leaned over and placed his lips close to Bon Bon’s ear. In a low conspiratorial whisper, he added, “Plus I get all worked up and need a way to relieve my frustrations.”

“It has been a very long and trying day. I’m pregnant. Currently my bladder is being crushed. My back hurts. My plot is sore and I want more than anything else to lay down and have somepony rub my tummy while I gobble down something fattening and smothered in chocolate. And if I don’t get these things, Berry Punch is going to become a Berry cranky pony. Am I understood?” 

Bon Bon, who had been about to scold Bucky, was thankful that Berry Punch had said something. Bon Bon watched as Bucky quieted the foals around him, getting them to behave, and he even sat up straight and looked at the camera to provide an example. 

“You there, grey mare, move towards your husband a bit more… and you, griffoness, come away from the foals. You look too much like one of the young and not like an adult. Sit with… Lyra is it? Please? Oh yes… good colour contrast,” the photographer said. 

Celestia reached out and wrapped one white wing around Tourmaline to pull her closer. 

The photographer bounced in place and looked thrilled. “Ooh that is good! The black contrasts nicely with the white…. is good!” 

Tourmaline adjusted her glasses and smiled her brightest smile as she leaned closer to Celestia. The boredom was almost over, it wouldn’t be much longer now. She took a deep breath and… 

“Oh gosh, what’s that smell?” Rainbow Dash asked as she choked back a gag. 

“That would be Harper,” Lyra replied. 

“Nopony panic!” Luna commanded in a firm tone of authority. “We almost have this picture. Just grin and bear it. Nopony move and we can just take the picture and then deal with this.” As an example, Luna flashed a well practiced smile. 

“Stinky,” Harper said. 

Still smiling and acting as though nothing was wrong, Derpy looked at her husband. “I told you not to try and feed her mangos Bucky.” 

“But she ate them without any fussing or fighting and she fed herself,” Bucky said in his own defense. “And no, I wasn’t trying to sabotage us.” 

Celestia heaved a patient sigh. “We’ll sort out the blame later. Everypony smile and everybirdy, crests up and look attentive!” 

“I’m not to blame!” 

“Later!” 

The camera flashed, once, then twice, then thrice. After the fourth flash, the photographer smiled and nodded his head. “I think these will do.” 

“Oh thank goodness this is over!” Rainbow Dash said as she heaved a gasp of exasperation and rolled her eyes. 

Twilight, who had picked up Glass Slipper and was hurrying away from Harper replied, “At least until next year.” 

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Aw… no!” 
	
> Chapter 492
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky’s ears perked when he heard a knock upon the door to the room he was sharing with his wives. Seeing that everypony else was busy, he pulled himself up from his cushion on the floor, arched his back to get a kink out, and then went to the door. Once there, he pulled it open. 

“Well, hello,” Bucky said to Celestia. 

The much taller mare lowered her head down to Bucky’s eye level and Celestia came snoot to snoot with Bucky. “How is Harper?” 

Bucky’s ears rotated forwards as he sensed that Celestia’s real purpose here was not to inquire about Harper. “Harper is fine, she suffers from a sensitive stomach, regular bouts of colic, and the transition over to solid foods has been rough on her.” Of course, Bucky said nothing about loose runny stools. Celestia only needed to know so much. 

“Look Bucky, while I was here, I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow. It is not going to be a formal event. I do not want you to panic, get cold hooves, and then go off to play hide and go seek in the castle like you did during your coronation. There will be no long speeches, no need for pomp and circumstance, and all you need to do is make it snow.” 

His lips pressing together to form a straight line, Bucky nodded. “I’ll try to behave but I make no promises or solemn oaths.” 

Celestia sighed. “I suppose that will have to do.” She would have to take whatever it was she could get. She gave Bucky a wry smile. 

“I suspect that the real source of any trouble might be Dinky.” Bucky’s lips formed a crooked smirking smile as he spoke. He felt a rush of pride when he saw Celestia’s eyes widen. 

“Dinky has impressive magical abilities, I must say.” Celestia paused and considered her next words, hoping to say just the right thing. “You have done well as a teacher. I have so many students in my own school with raw magical ability but so few are able to exploit their gifts to its full potential.” 

“By herself Dinky is a force to be reckoned with, but when she and Piña pull the books out together, watch out. They never fail to impress me,” Bucky said as he looked over his shoulder at Derpy, who was at this moment cuddling with Dinky. 

“You sound so proud.” 

Bucky turned his head back around and looked Celestia in the eye. “I am.” 

“I should be going. I promised Tourmaline I would read her a story before bed,” Celestia said. She paused for a moment, looked thoughtful, and then her eyes narrowed. “Oh, I was supposed to tell you, Sentinel and Ripple will be out late with Luna. They are in the astronomy tower getting a lesson in command while looking at the stars.” 

“Two more that I am so very proud of…” 



 

Thoughtful, his mind filled with thoughts he knew he would have some trouble expressing, Sentinel looked first at Ripple and then over at Luna, who was busy trying to calm Erebus. Ripple was peeping through the telescope that Luna had set up. The night was cold and clear, the sky was filled with a million stars that twinkled overhead. 

If Sentinel was a little older and had a bit more understanding, he would have known he was facing an existential crisis. Instead, he was younger and felt overwhelmed by everything expected from him. 

Sighing, Sentinel prepared himself for getting out everything that was on his mind. “Luna?” 

Luna, who was tucking a blanket around Erebus, lifted her head to look at Sentinel. “Yes?” 

Licking his lips, Sentinel tried to dispel his nervousness, something he always felt around Luna. “Luna, there is something I don’t understand.”

Her teal eyes blinking, Luna’s ears perked forwards. “And that is?” 

Sentinel took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out a little at a time. “Why us?” 

With a shake of her head, Luna acknowledged Sentinel’s question. “I do not understand.” 

“I’m not sure I understand either,” Sentinel replied. He took another deep breath. “We’re being groomed as officers. We’re being trained for leadership. We have this big bright future ahead of us and I don’t understand why we have it. I keep thinking it is because of my father and his importance in the bigger scheme of things. Had he not come to the Shetlands, I might have had a very different life. I might have come to the mainland for guard training, I might not. But would I have ended up here, talking to you like I am right now?” Sentinel took another deep breath and felt his stomach churn as Ripple turned to look at him. “And Ripple… she would have been some farmer’s wife, spitting out foals and her own needs would have been irrelevant. She wouldn’t be some great future military commander, she would… she would have had an unpleasant future. She might not have even got her cutie mark. A lot of ponies on the isles never get their cutie marks. They just stay blank because their potential is never realised as they live their dreary existence, surviving but not living.” 

“Sentinel, darling, the world is a cruel place. A horrid place and it is bitterly unfair. Potential tends to get noticed, those destined for greatness tend to rise into positions that they are meant to fill, but this does not always happen. In this instance, you and Ripple both were drawn to Buckminster because of his destiny, his fate, and the way he seems to draw in those most suitable to his cause. So yes, in a sense, you are here because of him. Is it a peculiar twist of fate? Or did all of this happen because it was meant to happen? Who can say… had Buckminster never gone to the isles, Sentinel, you might have joined the guard and rose through the ranks, but yes, things might have been different. As for Ripple, I do not know what to say. Sometimes, potential gets lost, gets wasted, goes unnoticed because the situation required to bring it forth never happens. Ripple had to face the wolves, she had to see combat, she had to be immersed in brutality before her potential was realised,” Luna said as she dropped her gaze down to look at Erebus. Without realising it, her face became sorrowful as she thought of the future that Erebus might have faced without her. 

“I love what I do and I love leading my Raptors, but I love my family even more… I don’t even want to imagine how my life might be without all of those I love… Sparkler, Rising Star… Bittersweet. I suppose I could live without a bright future in the military, I could live without my combat prowess, but I can’t live without those I love. If I’ve learned anything from the pony I call my father, it is that my strength comes from those I love and those I fight for,” Ripple said as she looked first at Luna and then at Sentinel. “Killing and fighting is a fine calling, but without something to balance out the death and violence, one tends to become empty and cold inside as the death and violence tends to wear down one’s sense of self. My herd is my counterbalance.” 

Luna tucked Erebus into the shawl hanging around her neck, glad to have his reassuring weight hanging from her once more. The little colt was starting to settle down and become calm once more now that he was swaddled and held close. Luna thought about Ripple’s words, about Sentinel’s introspection, and the realisation that the two ponies that she was grooming for leadership had fine minds that were their true strength. 

“Ripple and I are very different ponies… she’s so confident… she’ll gladly throw herself into a fight and she loves what she does. She never thinks about stuff like this. She has this amazing sense of focus. Meanwhile, I distract myself, I overthink everything, and whenever a fight happens, whenever I’ve had to kill something, I’ve always felt like I failed, as though I’ve made a mistake and something went wrong. I find myself second guessing everything I do and wondering if I could have done something to make things happen differently. And I think about stuff like what I just asked, if I even belong in this position of leadership… do I deserve it or am I being groomed for it just because of who I am and my relationship with my father. It makes me feel so much doubt.” When he was done speaking, Sentinel stared down at the floor and refused to meet the gaze of Luna and Ripple. His ears drooped down to the sides of his face and he slumped over, feeling crushed by the weight of his own thoughts. 

“Little brother, your hesitance to get into a scrap is something I depend on,” Ripple said as she rose from where she was sitting to go over to Sentinel. When she reached his side, she sat down beside him. 

“What do you mean?” Sentinel asked. 

Ripple’s ears pinned back against her skull. She hadn’t expected this question or having to explain her reasoning. She became aware of Luna staring at her, Luna’s piercing gaze was distracting and made it difficult to think. Nervous, she puckered her lips and made popping sounds as she tried to think of what to say. 

“I don’t understand.” Sentinel lifted his head and looked at Ripple, feeling somewhat annoyed by her nervous habit of making pop pop noises with her lips. 

“Sentinel, little brother, if I have one weakness, it is that I am too eager to jump into a fight. I like fighting and if I had my way, it would probably be my only option for dealing with almost anything. I don’t always put a lot of thought into what I do and tend to live in the moment when things start to happen. While this is an asset, to some degree, it is also a liability. You tend to be cautious, to think things out, and you tend to want to avoid violence if possible. And they say that lunar pegasi are super-brutes,” Ripple replied, adding a tiny touch of sarcasm at the end. 

Confusion was the only thing that Sentinel felt in response. “Oh.” 

“By myself, I would probably become another Commander Hothead. By yourself, you might get a reputation as being overcautious and indecisive, but together, we balance each other out. And we listened to one another because we have respect for each other. We’re friends as well as siblings. Which means our strongest asset that we can apply for our future is our relationship, and to safeguard our future, we must make sure that our relationship remains solid,” Ripple continued. 

“I see.” Sentinel felt a little less confused. He offered up a nervous smile to Ripple. 

“This is why I am grooming both of you for positions of command and leadership,” Luna said as she looked at Sentinel and Ripple. She watched as Ripple wrapped a wing around Sentinel and pulled him close, nudging his glasses askew, and kissing him on the cheek. “Too many of my commanders are in the positions they serve in for their own glory and look out only for their own needs. They bicker and fight and jockey for position. Our military has been left fractured and weakened, which concerns me greatly.” 

“Won’t the formation of the Triumvirate help? I mean, you’ve silenced so many of the dissenting voices and solidified the leadership between the three of you and all of you share the same goals, views, and desires,” Sentinel asked. 

Raising one foreleg, Luna rocked Erebus back and forth. “We have, but we have also lost a lot of experience. Buckminster, for all of his ability, is not particularly well schooled in command. Buckminster, for all of his impeccable sense of order, is random and chaotic, potentially his greatest asset in war, as no one knows exactly what he will do next. Keg Smasher, for all of his ability, is overrun with responsibilities. To be honest, we sit in a precarious position. New leadership will come in time. Already there are those with so much promise, but they need time to grow up and gain skill.”

“Father told me to sit down and think about everything the enemy would expect for you to do, make a list, and then find a solution that is not on that list,” Ripple said. 

Luna sighed as Erebus gurgled. “Well organised chaos, the very worst kind.” 

Sentinel’s ears stood up. “No one expected dragons to attack Labyrinthia. The papers speculated airship bombardment from the upper atmosphere, away from the reach of the guns. There was even speculation about father and his various orbs of compulsion and the horror he might unleash upon the minotaurs… the words ‘rape bombs’ were used several times. Everyone was expecting more of the same. Some even said that my father would use the sun to scorch Labyrinthia off of the map.” 

Shaking her head, Luna continued to rock Erebus, hoping he would sleep. “In the end, we did none of those things. What we did was so shocking, so terrifying, that now the entire civilised world is scurrying to make peace. Diamond Dog kingdoms that have long been a disruption to trade stability and world peace are now lining up and begging Celestia for some kind of peace agreement and the assurance of goodwill. The entire world is sending diplomats to the Solar Court. No one wants to face the wrath of the Lunar Court. Even the dragons are sending diplomats to reaffirm the old treaties and agreements that they stay on their half of the world and we stay on ours.” 

“So it took one horrible act to bring the world to a state of peace?” Ripple asked. 

“For a time,” Luna replied, her voice sad. “In time though, the horror will fade, the memory will soften, and war will be made once more. There will be those who foolishly attempt to wage war, believing that we will not respond with total destruction yet again. History has many examples of various species being brought to the very brink of extinction and then forgetting their history lessons once they become strong again.” 

Clearing his throat, Sentinel thought of one example. “Sombra and the griffons.” 

“I had a hoof in that myself,” Luna replied. 

“I hope that in our lifetime, we never have to do that. I mean, I like fighting, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather have a career that is marked by a long history of peace and prosperity. When I go down in the history books, I want to be remembered as a peacemaker, not as a destroyer.” Ripple’s words were soft, only a little above a whisper, and spoken from her heart. 

“I wonder how father will be remembered,” Sentinel said after listening to Ripple’s words. 

Her teal eyes glittering in the faint light, Luna stared at Sentinel. “Much of how your father will be remembered will be determined by you Sentinel. If you want him remembered for what he is, tell the world about him as a father. As a husband. As a family pony. You have a talent for writing. Already the papers write too many negative things about him. The world does not see a devoted father that stays up all night trying to soothe a foal with colic. The world does not see the patient educator that spends hours trying to figure out ways to take complex subjects and break them down so that foals might understand them. They do not see a husband that loves his wives and his family. The world sees a warlock… the world sees the creator of the ‘rape bomb’ that has become so feared. The world sees the destroyer of Griffonholm and the ruination of Labyrinthia.” 

“Father took the blame for destroying Griffonholm without complaint,” Ripple said. 

Sentinel nodded. “All to protect Twilight Sparkle’s reputation as a peaceful diplomat. I sometimes wonder how much of history has been altered because of these agreements.” 

Luna chuckled. “Almost all of it…” 
	
	
> Chapter 493
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rolling over in his sleep, Bucky grunted. Once, not all that long ago, there had been some concern on who slept where in the bed, and everypony had a spot that had been theirs. That practice had long since been given up. Now, sleeping was just done in a pile with no real concern of who went where with the only pressing concern being not to squash Belisama, who was the smallest among them. There had once been a concern over blankets and pillows, a practice also abandoned, as with all the available bodies, there was more than enough heat and places to rest one’s head. 

Now laying on his side, Bucky’s head slid along Berry Punch’s ribs until it reached the soft place between her ribs and her hips, his ear now pressed up against her rounded pregnant belly. He snorted in his sleep, his ear twitching against Berry’s stomach, and his dock twitched as he dreamed. 

Lyra, who Derpy was using as a pillow, wiggled in her sleep, moving closer to Bon Bon, who had rolled away from her and was pressed up against Thistle’s side. 

As his herd slept, Bucky continued to dream. 



 

Ahead of Bucky stood a ruined city and behind him was a forest with trees that reached an impossible height. A crumbling bridge spanned a river bed that no longer had any water. The sky overhead was a strange colour, a very dark blue with a greenish tint, and the sun was smaller and more red than orange. 

No clouds passed overhead. 

The pull of the ground beneath Bucky was stronger and he suspected that it was only his alicorn strength that allowed him to keep walking. He was larger now, stronger than ever, in this form he was at least as large as Luna or Twilight Sparkle. 

On the path beside him were bones, old bones, old bones that had become powdery with age. A unicorn skull grinned up at him, the hole in the forehead gaping where the horn and marrow used to be when the owner of said skull used to be among the living. 

Nearby was a pile of bones that Bucky knew had once been a griffon. 

This world was different than his own, some strange internal sense told him that the sun was fixed in place and that the planet orbited around the sun. Bucky did not know how he knew this, only that he knew. This was a strange place. On the horizon, a moon  was rising, and below the horizon, there were two more moons waiting. Bucky, not knowing how he knew, suspected it was some sort of alicorn sense. 

The city ahead reminded Bucky of Manehatten or Baltimare. The ruins were rusting steel skeletons of what had once been skyscrapers and high rise buildings. Everything had long since been taken over by vines; the roads were broken bits of pavement and weeds. 

Bucky had no clue why he was dreaming of this place. 

Overhead was the flutter of wings. Bucky looked upwards, trying to spot whatever it was that was flying, he had seen no signs of life up to this point, not even bugs. This world, whatever it was, was dead. There was a dark spot in the sun and Bucky squinted to see what it was. 

In the sky, approaching him, was another alicorn. Bucky readied himself, not feeling threatened or the least bit concerned, only curious about why he was here and why he was dreaming. He had reached the bridge and stood near the edge of it waiting. 

The alicorn landed a short distance away and he folded his wings. 

Large, tall, powerful, and a shade of blue that similar to Luna’s own shade of night time blue, the alicorn was an imposing figure. Bucky watched him bow his head down a bit, and Bucky returned the courtesy. There was no harm in being polite when facing the unknown. 

“Greetings,” the strange alicorn said. 

Bucky blinked. “Hello. I suppose all of the usual questions are in order. Who are you, where am I, why am I here, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” 

The alicorn lifted his head high and looked down upon Bucky. “Who I am is irrelevant. Who you are is of interest to me. You are here because you fascinate me.” 

The first twinge of irritation manifested and Bucky’s wings twitched. “So yet another immortal sort that has moved beyond the need for a name and I am here as your plaything.” 

The strange alicorn stood, impassive, and did not seem concerned by what Bucky said. 

“You know, I grow weary of everything in the universe thinking I am their plaything,” Bucky said as his eyes narrowed. 

The alicorn, now as still as a statue, stared at Bucky. “You fascinate me because you do nothing to fulfill your purpose.” 

Bucky turned his head around to look at his cutie mark and then with a slow cautious motion, he turned to look at the strange alicorn. “Yeah… my purpose is to make beer so ponies can get drunk and screw. I’m starting to finally get around to doing that.” 

The alicorn stood unblinking. “You were intended for a greater purpose. You reject it. You have set events into motion that you cannot even begin to comprehend.” 

Now feeling very annoyed, Bucky could feel his sarcasm welling up. “And I suppose you’re not going to tell me because it would go against some greater plan, but you will gloat about it.” 

“I have no intention of gloating, I have ascended beyond the need to feel emotion—” 

“Wait, what… slow down there… you mean to tell me that you no longer feel anything? What about being fascinated by me and what I do?” Bucky asked, not caring that he was interrupting. 

“Fascination is not an emotion, but a state of being. I still possess curiousity. I observe, it is what I do. I watch across multiple whens and wheres. I know for certain that you have met some of my agents, the Observers. If I do feel anything at all, it is a lingering sense of purpose.” 

“So you no longer feel anything that makes you a pony is what you are saying,” Bucky said, his voice dripping acidic sarcasm. Something about this whole encounter rubbed him wrong and he felt his hackles rising. “You’ve grown beyond the need for simple feelings. I suppose you no longer care about getting your dick wet in a warm willing mare either?” 

“Your attempts to rile my anger will do you no good. I no longer have any such feelings, they are at best distractions, and at worst, a poison to the self,” the alicorn replied. 

Bucky’s eyes became narrowed slits that billowed Taint-mist, his own anger kicking in and his emotions were getting the better of him. “Well la-dee-feckin’-dah, aren’t you all high and mighty.” 

“Once, a long time ago, I was a pegasus. Such things were of a concern to me then. I have since moved on. A sense of purpose motivated me. After my first ascension, I watched the world I called home slowly die, ravaged by invaders from another when and where. I ascended again as my purpose defined itself and I began to watch. Now, I am watching as your world is invaded by outsiders, and I wonder what you will do. I was there when Celestia nearly brought ruination to your world through her careless actions.” 

“So you watch, but you do nothing,” Bucky said. He spat on the ground. “Figures. Once you go high and mighty you stop caring about the little things… like being a pony and getting your dick wet. How’s that working out for you?” 

“Your attempts to rile me will do nothing,” the alicorn replied. He stood, unmoving, unblinking, a living statue. “I only become involved when I have to, there are rules at work here, as powerful as I am, there are those I answer to.” 

“So there is a reason you sit back and do nothing… a justification for being a pompous ass.” Bucky was feeling outright hostile now, something about this was making all of the worst parts of himself react in the most horrible manner possible. 

“There are many times I do get involved. Either myself directly or my Observers. You have spoken to quite some number of them, many of them you were not aware of. In this instance, I cannot get involved because the forces that invade your world were invited. There is little I can do.” 

Bucky snarled and bared his teeth. “Let me guess… the pony responsible for inviting them would be the same self-righteous jackass that wants me to destroy the world.” 

The alicorn nodded, the first movement in quite some time. “You are correct.” 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky tried to calm himself. He couldn’t figure out why this was bringing the worst of him out, but his growing rage was frightening. “So you bring me here, to this place, this dead place that feels all wrong for a little chit chat. Why?” 

“This world is dead and abandoned. A neutral place. The wars never ended here, eventually they resorted to arcano-biological warfare to bring new levels of misery upon one another. Everything has died here.” The alicorn paused and looked around, gazing off at the nearby city, and then he looked back at Bucky. “Your creator wasn’t always what he is now. At one time, a long time ago, he was an earth pony. And one day, he asked a question. That question was ‘why?’ and he was not content to accept an answer of ‘I don’t know.’ So he went off to find an answer. Over time, he ascended, still asking why. His quest for answers led him to where he is now, trying to find out why.” 

“So he lived in another when and where, became philosophical, and now he is allowing us, his creations, to be miserable, just so he can find out why… meanwhile, we’re all asking the same damn thing, why. Why is our creator an insufferable arsehole that loves to torture us and has apparently invited the thrice damned mirror travelers into our world,” Bucky said in an acidic voice. 

“It is a cycle that never ends. I daresay that in time, should you ever ascend, eventually you will reach a point where, you too, will ask why and move on to create your own pocket of reality where life will flourish and you will watch, hoping to have your questions answered,” the alicorn replied. 

Bucky stomped one hoof hard enough to crack the crumble pavement beneath it. “No! Never… I am never ascending. I reject immortality. I like getting my dick wet on a regular basis and I am already enough of a jerk without immortality making it worse.” 

“I brought you here to show you this place and where the path of endless war will eventually bring you,” the alicorn said, ignoring Bucky’s ranting outburst. “You have done well bringing peace to your world, which is odd, considering your purpose, but you still tread upon a dangerous path. There is little I can do to help you, but I did want you to know that I support what you are doing. The mirror travelers as you call them, are breaking all of the rules. I am doing what I can on other worlds where they go, stealing and taking what is not theirs to take. They are breaking down reality in several places where they regularly forage and those I answer to are taking steps to stop them.” 

Snorting and then flapping his wings, Bucky whipped his head back to get his mane out of his eyes. “Well that is a relief I suppose. Shame you can’t do more… like, I dunno, lock them into their own reality and leave them to their fate.” 

“You are fighting a war you cannot begin to comprehend. You have no idea of what your enemy is, but you are doing all of the right things to win, even if your deeds are questionable to achieve those goals. You have rejected your greater purpose and have chosen your own path. This has become of interest to those who Watch. I have one final warning if you are interested in hearing it,” the alicorn said. 

“And that is?” Bucky asked. 

“Other enemies have invaded your world. The mirror travelers and their intrusion have brought its own form of decay and already the first rips in the fabric of reality have begun to manifest. Beware of those who worship the world enders, the devourers of space and time. Your world was already vulnerable, the Chaos War and the decay of the cosmos has weakened your reality to the point where the devourers are now worming their way into your world and feeding. Usually, the presence of these creatures means the end draws near, but those who Watch believe that you may be able to fight them. You and the one named Twilight Sparkle possess the raw ability to deal with these creatures.” 

Bucky lifted his head high. “Why are you telling me this?” 

“Because… you fascinate me. You reject everything and you make your own way. You’ve made your own sense of purpose. You stubbornly cling to your own sense of purpose and because of this, you have thwarted the plans of many,” the alicorn replied. 

“These world enders… what are they? How do I find them?” Bucky asked. 

The alicorn’s eyes flashed for a moment, glittering with a spark of emotion. “Look for powerful necromancy, this is the gift they offer in exchange to those who worship them. The more decay a world has, the more necromancy it tends to have.” 

“And in turn, more necromancy causes more decay because of what it releases into the world,” Bucky said, feeling his hackles rise once more. 

The alicorn nodded. “You are correct.” 

“I’m gonna make a guess that some of the necromantic cults that Equestria has actually worship these… whatever they are.” Once more, Bucky tried to calm himself, still finding the emotionless creature before him to be rather unnerving. 

“I want you to succeed… it is my desire, if I were to even have desires, that your world keep on existing. I cannot become more involved than I already have. I was forbidden to come to you, so I brought you here. This world is dead and no rules govern it. I will probably be lectured for my actions, but I believe they were the right thing to do. This is more than a dream Buckminster Bitters.” 

“I get it,” Bucky replied. 

“I will be doing what I can to close off openings that your mirror travelers create, but I can do nothing if they go to places where they are welcomed,” the alicorn said. The alicorn took a step forwards towards Bucky. “Your creator asked why… there is little I can tell you, but you are one of the four answers that he seeks.” 

“Answers?” Bucky asked. “All of this misery is about answers to the question why? Who else? What other answers are there?” 

“You are the third, and two other answers have been presented before you. The fourth has not yet manifested,” the alicorn replied. 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said. 

The alicorn’s horn glowed a bright fierce green. “Neither does your creator. Three answers have been made manifest so far and he remains oblivious to their existence. Immortality and godhood does not give you wisdom or make you all knowing.” 

Bucky felt the warm tingle of magic all over his body and he could see he that a green glow was surrounding him. “Who are the others?” 

“Alicorns of specific purpose. When we ask questions, sometimes we become the answers—” 

Before Bucky could reply, before he could ask questions, the world around him vanished. 
	
> Chapter 494
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a quick teleport to disengage himself from the pile of ponies in the bed, Bucky found himself in the hallway outside of his room. The lights were dim and the hallway was full of shadows, many of which were cast by Bucky and his unusual nature. 

Also in the hallway was Luna, who stood still while looking puzzled. 

“I sensed strange dream magic. Is everything alright?” 

Bucky did not know the answer. He felt strange, unsettled, the strange dream was already fading somewhat from his memory. There was only one thing he remembered with total clarity; he was an answer. Bucky did not know the question however, and this concerned him a great deal. 

“Bucky?” 

Shaking his head to clear it, Bucky then closed his eyes. “I’m fine. There was a strange dream. I was in another place… another when and where. The world was dead and had three moons. I think I was visited by one of the Observers, but not the common fodder sort.” 

“How peculiar.” 

Luna’s puzzlement unsettled Bucky and he felt strange and out of sorts. 

“There are worse things than mirror travelers coming into our world. I was given a warning, I’m having a bit of trouble remembering it all,” Bucky said as he opened his eyes. 

“I could not enter your dream to check upon you. I sensed that something was happening. Which is why I am here, I came to check upon you. This concerns me,” Luna replied. 

“It is going to be dawn soon.” Bucky could feel what almost felt like an instinctual itch to go someplace dark and hide, secreting himself away from the coming sun. The feeling had become stronger over time, and it was now almost an annoyance. “I thought I’d go for a walk and try to make sense of what I dreamed. Feel free to join me and we’ll talk.” 



 

Still unsettled, Bucky had trouble eating his breakfast. He said little, did more prodding of his food than eating it, and spent most of his breakfast staring at his wives as well as his foals. He glanced at Twilight on occasion, wondering what question she answered. The question itself was another ‘why’ all unto itself. Thinking about it made Bucky feel irritated and distracted. Magic? Friendship? Twilight was both, at least in a sense. She had discovered new and powerful magic in friendship. She was the alicorn of magic and the Princess of Friendship, but what was her specific purpose, and of even more importance, how was it relevant as an answer? And to what sort of question? 

And what of himself? Bucky supposed that war was an answer, but he felt baffled by the very notion of what the question might be. His lack of ascendence here had its own implications, or so Bucky thought as his mind wandered. Was his an answer rejected? Or was his rejection an answer? Bucky did not know and was curious if he was perhaps over thinking it. 

Of course, Bucky was not a godlike figure with an intelligence spanning the cosmos. 

His eyes shifted to Celestia and Bucky wondered how immortality had affected her intelligence, her reasoning, her ability to think. Living for long time might give one wisdom, but wisdom was not intelligence. Foals could be wise as well and so could the simple minded. 

It was of Bucky’s opinion that the creator might have been a bit of a numbskull. 

It was not that earth ponies were stupid, Bucky had two of them as wives and he frequently felt outsmarted by both of them quite often. There was just the lingering feeling that the creator might have been something of an idiot. Using his fork, Bucky prodded at his fried potatoes and then glanced at his orange juice. 

There was plenty of times that Bucky knew that he was an idiot and becoming an immortal idiot certainly wouldn’t help anything. The prospect of immortality terrified him, the notion of using other mere mortals to answer his questions left him feeling cold and empty inside. 

Bucky was forced to wonder if the creator had any feelings left inside at all. 

“Bucky?” 

So distracted was Bucky that he failed to hear his own name being called. 

“Buckminster, you are staring into your potatoes as if the secrets of the universe might be found within. I assure you, today is nothing to worry about, I promise,” Celestia said. 

Blinking, Bucky attempted to refocus his mind. “What sort of answer is war anyway?” he asked, just blurting out what was on his mind and not thinking at all of how it might confuse those around him. 

There was a clatter as Celestia dropped her fork and looked at Bucky. Her befuddlement, something Bucky might even enjoy under more normal circumstances, left him feeling hollow. He felt ashamed for disrupting breakfast and wished that he had said nothing. 

Shaking his head, Bucky held his own fork aloft. “Sorry… forget I said anything. If you must know what I am talking about, ask Luna. She can tell you. She was inside my head earlier. Where is Luna anyway?” 

A frown of concern was plastered on the end of Celestia’s muzzle. “Luna had to go take care of some business. She will return before we get started today.” 

“I noticed that the courtyard is being prepared. Expecting a lot of ponies?” Berry Punch asked as she cast a worried glance at Bucky and then her eyes shifted to Derpy. 

“Today is a celebration. Many ponies are expected. Over one thousand years have passed since we last had a Lord of Winter to welcome the coming season,” Celestia replied. 

After swallowing her bite of food, Twilight Sparkle gave words to her own question. “Will we bring back the other seasonal representatives?” 

“I’d like to do that. A young maiden of spring and the victor of fall,” Celestia said as she lifted her fork and regained her composure. 

“Maiden of spring? Victor of fall? What of summer?” Twilight’s face was one of scholastic interest as she posed her inquiry. 

Celestia took a deep breath and lifted her tea. She sniffed the fragrant steam, black tea with hints of chocolate and peppermint, something that put her in the mind of winter, and thought back to what seemed like an age ago. “The maiden of spring was selected during a pageant. It was always a young filly, one just coming of age, just about to, or having had her first heat. Each year it was somepony new to represent the newness of spring. Summer was my season, there used to be a fertility celebration, the raising of the summer sun, I would raise the sun and with it I would bring about a powerful heat. It was a public celebration of sex and debauchery.” Celestia paused and her eyes stared off at no fixed point, her mind lost in the past for a moment. She shook her head. “There are decency laws now and such things just are not done in public anymore. The victor of fall was decided after a contest, usually a race of some sort, or a competition. Sort of like the running of the leaves. Each year brought a new victor.” 

“Sounds like you miss those times,” Twilight said in a low voice. Even though she said nothing, the very idea of the summer sun celebration being a day of debaucherous sex made Twilight feel disgusted… and more than a little interested. She looked over at Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry, both of whom were only half awake, present in body but not in mind. 

Nodding, Celestia took a sip of tea and swallowed. She cleared her throat. “Oh, I do. A great deal. Those were simple times. Sombra was still alive, he was young and still full of good. He was the Lord of Winter… a position that Bucky will soon understand. Come spring he would surrender the season to the maiden of spring—” 

“My own memories would suggest that he deflowered a few of those maidens of spring—” 

“Buckminster Bitters! Not at the breakfast table!” Celestia commanded, her eyes going wide at Bucky’s words. 

Bucky’s ears splayed out sideways and he ducked his head in submission. 

After a moment, Celestia continued: “The marked passing of the seasons was a big part of what made our society what it was. Ponies saw values in other tribes and it brought us together. The maiden of spring was often an earth pony, but there were pegasi and unicorns. The victor of fall were often pegasi, but there were earth ponies and unicorns there as well. It allowed ponies to feel like equals among one another. Being the maiden of spring was about being beautiful, of being an object of desire—” 

“Yes… objects of desire, only in more modern era, we would call it foal molestation,” Bucky said, pressing his luck and interrupting. 

“Those were different times Bucky,” Celestia replied as she raised her eyebrow at Bucky. “For many, the ripe old age of twenty or thirty was the end of a life. Only unicorns had any sort of decent life expectancy. A young filly at her decade mark was in the prime of her life and her life was already halfway over.” 

“So like the Shetlands still are,” Derpy said, looking more than a little disgusted. 

Celestia offered a reluctant nod. “Yes, very much like life on the Shetlands. One only needs to look at Thistle to know that in some parts of the world this sort practice still survives.” 

Thistle, hearing her name and the relevant conversation, blushed. “I’d make a good maiden of spring if I wasn’t so fat and hid—” 

“Thistle, shut your mouth or so help me I’ll show you exactly what I think of your beautiful body,” Bucky said, offering a warning as he turned and glared at Thistle. “Besides, in a pageant, you would have an unfair advantage, considering your talent is sex appeal.” 

The kelpie began to stammer and she squirmed in her seat. Her eyes dropped down to her plate and after a moment, a giggle found its way out of her mouth. 

“I would like to bring these practices back, but with a few changes to make them more suitable to our modern era,” Celestia said, smiling as she watched Thistle becoming more and more flustered. 

Her ears perking forward, Berry Punch wiped her face with her foreleg, glanced at Bucky, and then at Celestia. “I think it would be a good thing to bring back some of the old, take the best parts of it, and blend it with new customs and traditions. We need tribal unity more than ever.” 

“Equestria is far from perfect, but we’re getting better, and I daresay that we are doing better as far as tribal unity goes than places like the Shire Isles,” Bon Bon said. 

Blinking, her eyelids fluttering, Lyra looked over at Bon Bon, then at Bucky, and then her eyes moved around the table. “We’re always going to have issues with tribal unity I think. We’re just going to get better with dealing with it.” 

“The first day of winter festival I hope will be a good first step towards healing our nation. In the past, long ago, when Equestria was founded, this festival brought the tribes together. Our Founders praised this celebration. There was open mingling of the tribes as they all came together to welcome the winter. There was drinking and goodwill towards one another, it was an important time for remembrance, recalling Hearth’s Warming and how the Founders survived,” Celestia said. 

“It was the winter that brought us together.” Bucky’s words were soft but cut through the sound and the chatter of breakfast. “An issue of survival. Banding together for the common good, presenting a united front against a harsh enemy that offered no quarter.” 

“Where are Tannis and Agnetha?” Derpy asked. 

Celestia set down her tea and looked at the grey pegasus. “They are out supervising the last minute preparations for today’s festivities. I have to say, the griffons are marvelous at this sort of thing. How the little ones work together is a wonder to behold, if I had the chance I would watch them work for hours. The castle has never ran smoother than it does now.” 

“I keep wondering if Hearth’s Warming will become an important holiday for griffons...” 

Turning his head, Bucky looked over at Belisama. 

“I thought war was going to be the end of us. But our nation has been reborn. We are rediscovering our old ways. I was reading that winter was once an important time for us, a time spent in the mead halls making music, a time of art and creation as we waited for spring. We now know a peace that our kind has not known for centuries. Our home lies buried under a winter storm that will end one day and then some little griffons will venture home to clean up and rebuild. This is a time of winter for us, both in a literal sense and a metaphorical sense” 

Belisama’s words caused Bucky to become thoughtful. War, not as an ending, but as a beginning, a catalyst of change. Perhaps as an answer? Shaking his head, Bucky still didn’t know what the question was, and couldn’t help but feel that this was all subjective, based upon the viewer and their own mindset. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> 495 (Warning, may contain nuts and or possible sexual activity)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy stood just inside of the doorway, her wings out, her eyes were narrowed, her head was low, and she raked the carpet with one hoof as she snorted. Bucky backed away, all of his deep thoughts and philosophical musings now forgotten. Derpy was in quite a state and Bucky could tell by the flare of her nostrils that she was worked up. 

“Derpy, love, we’re expected,” Bucky said as he watched Derpy’s tail swish from side to side and her head dropped a little lower. 

“Not for a while,” Derpy replied as she took a single step forward. “You’ve been distracted and out of sorts all morning. Berry is busy distracting Celestia and the others for a while.” 

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “And I suppose that you’re here to wear me out so I’ll behave.” 

“Yep.” Derpy’s single syllable carried with it a sense of finality. 

“The pegasus domination display is impressive,” Bucky said, offering up a compliment. 

Derpy shook her head and gave a snort. “Save your words and save your breath. Get in the bed and don’t try anything funny.” 

Glancing at the bed first and then at his mate, Bucky smiled. “Pegasi romance… nature’s most romantic courtship.” He took a step towards the bed, heard a snort, then the flutter of wings, and then an angry sounding stomp. “You’re already worked up and in quite a state, aren’t you?” 

As Bucky was leaping up into the bed, he heard the flutter of wings and the rush of air. A second later, something solid tackled him from the side, bowling him over. A crazed laugh escaped his lips as he felt himself being rolled over. The sound of Derpy giggling was one of his favourite aphrodisiacs. 

Straddling Bucky, her tail twitching against his belly, Derpy reached out with one hoof and booped his nose. “You’re a silly pony.” 

With a grunt, Bucky tried to roll out from beneath Derpy, but the mare would have none of it. She moved with him, knowing each of his moves all too well, and Bucky felt the wind whoosh out of him when she threw herself down on top of him once more, pinning him to the mattress. 

Feeling pleased with herself, Derpy ground herself against Bucky’s body and gave him a squeeze. “I didn’t hurt you did I?” 

Wiggling, and still trying to get free so he could roll her over and have his way with Derpy, Bucky twisted his head around and looked at her. “Nope.” 

“Well good, because I’m about to if you don’t stop trying to escape.” 

Bucky’s ears splayed out. “Don’t you have needs that need looked after?” 

Knowing all too well that Bucky was attempting to be clever, Derpy giggled. She reached out with her wing and tickled Bucky’s side. “Yes, and I am about to look after them. Now hold still and stop squirming!” Derpy wrapped one foreleg around Bucky’s neck and pulled him closer, crushing his body against hers. She had already taken most of the struggle out of him. Pressing her nose into Bucky’s neck, she could feel his coarse shaggy hide against the soft flesh of her snoot. She inhaled, taking in his scent, and could feel Bucky’s snoot pressing into her own neck. 

“So this is a quicky… scratch the itch and then into the shower… is this what we’ve been reduced to in our marriage,” Bucky whispered as he placed his forelegs around Derpy and tightened his grip. He watched Derpy’s ear twitch as his spoken words tickled her. 

“You have responsibilities. We have foals to look after. It’s only going to get worse.” 

The rounded bulge pressing against his own stomach was the ultimate turn on for Bucky. He pressed his lips against Derpy’s own and ran his talons through her straw coloured mane, being careful not to pull. Derpy’s lips parted and Bucky found himself inside of her and she inside of him. The grey mare’s aggression was gone, the act now over, and Bucky could feel her gentleness with every move she made. 

The aggression was always an act and Bucky was the willing victim, knowing all too well that if he made so much as a yelp or a whimper that Derpy would fly into a fit of panic from causing him real pain. For all of her bluster, for all of her seeming brutishness, Derpy was the most gentle out of all of his wives. 

He could feel her hot breath huffing out from her nostrils and blowing against his face. Bucky could feel her tail whipping down between his hind legs, the soft silken hairs trailing over his skin and exposed delicate places. He could smell her arousal now, a whiff of musk, all of this and the sounds of her heavy breathing already had him in the mood. The soft velvety hairs of her belly were now rubbing up against his unsheathed and hardened cock. 

Derpy lifted her head and pulled it back, away from Bucky. She closed one eye, her bad eye, and looked down at her husband with her good eye. “There’s never enough time anymore.” 

There was less time than Derpy realised, but Bucky said nothing. He could feel her moving on top of him, sliding upwards along his belly, up to his barrel, and then he felt himself being pressed against her damp folds. Then, once more, Bucky felt himself inside of her as she moved downwards, a well practiced move that had once seemed so awkward in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He heard her gasp as her slick wet flesh was parted, and he felt her pushing herself down upon him. Her inner depths were hot, almost too hot, and for a moment Bucky was distracted by the sharp contrast between the cooler damp flesh on the outside compared to the hot fevered flesh hidden deep inside. 

There was a crack as Derpy’s wings snapped out, fully extended, and both of her eyes closed. Her whole body trembled as she settled in. She angled her hips, trying to grind herself against Bucky in just the right way, and she felt a shiver come shooting up her spine as she hit the sweet spot. Her sensitive nub of flesh traveled along Bucky’s length. She felt warm metal talons wrapping around her right front leg, holding on to her, and after a few moments of stradling Bucky, she had all of him inside of her. She opened her good eye and looked down at Bucky who was flat on his back beneath her. The bulge in her stomach was noticeable now, she was getting larger; it made moments like this one more and more awkward. Derpy liked being on top, even though the position was not commonplace for ponies. For a moment, Derpy thought of the first time, those first few awkward fumbling moments, the lingering feeling of shyness she had felt. She could see that Bucky’s eyes were closed, both of them, and she could see him biting down upon his lip. 

Now, nothing was held back. 

Derpy braced herself, placing her left front hoof down on the mattress, her fetlock touching Bucky’s ribs, and a low rumbling nicker reverberated through her barrel. 

There was something about being balls deep in a mare that had a way of clearing one’s mind. At the moment, all Bucky could think about was Derpy. His eyes were closed. He focused on the sounds of her breathing, her frantic hip thrusts, and he could tell that she was going all out to get herself off. She was holding herself at an odd angle, he could feel her clitoris sliding along the top of his cock and the angle caused a lot of friction along his flared head. There were wet slick sounds that accompanied Derpy’s steady breathing. Opening his eyes, Bucky looked down along his belly, Bucky could see himself sliding in and out of Derpy. He could see the bulge of her belly and her teats bounced with every one of her pelvic thrusts. 

A part of him wanted to roll her over and take charge, but Bucky was content to allow things to continue. Powerful suction was pulling him in now, he could feel her contracting around him, growing tighter, he could feel himself being tugged, pulled, drawn deeper with each grinding thrust. He could feel the delightful stretch of skin near the base of his shaft. Each time he was hilted he could feel the sticky wetness of her plot furrow resting upon his balls, soft skin sliding together, clinging, slippery, and then Derpy pulled away, leaving him exposed to the cool air. The alternating feeling of heat and then coolness was stimulating, Bucky found that he quite enjoyed the sensation. 

“Do you love me?” 

The question startled Bucky, he had not expected the question now, at this moment. Derpy’s words were breathless and her good eye was locked upon him. Caught by surprise and unable to reply right away, the moment was becoming awkward. 

“Of course I do,” Bucky replied after collecting his wits. 

“Has our marriage become boring?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky was getting too close to the edge for these sorts of questions. What had started out as a pleasant surprise was becoming strange and weird. He didn’t know what to say or how to answer. No one had told him what to do if nookie became an awkward interrogation. 

“Are we just going through the motions because we’re together or is the spark still there?” 

The idea frightened Bucky. He didn’t think it was true but he was caught off guard and had no way, no time, no means to think of the right words to banish Derpy’s concerns and make them go away. 

“Bucky, it scares me that we’re just settling in, I’m worried that the romance is gone, that we’re just going through the motions with one another and everything is cooling off, we wake up and each day is almost the same as the day before,” Derpy said, her words coming out in breathless gasps. 

“Derpy, did you have to bring this up now?” Bucky asked. He looked up at Derpy, feeling concerned, worried, unsure how to reach her, how to reassure her, how to fix this situation. 

“I feel like we’ve drifted apart… on the isles, we were always so close to one another, every day, every hour, and now each of us is off doing our own thing, you hardly even come to bed anymore, you barely sleep, sometimes it feels like the only time we really see each other is at the table when we eat.” 

“Why didn’t you say something before now?” Bucky struggled to hold himself together, Derpy was still grinding away and he was too close to blowing his load. Now seemed like an inappropriate time to do so. 

“I was scared.” 

Derpy’s admission bothered Bucky and he was forced into a strange sort of struggle, his growing concern was killing the mood. His own insecurities kicked in and he began to think about that if he stopped doing what he was doing, Derpy might see it as evidence that he was displeased with her or bored with her. What had started off as a romp was now a real struggle. 

Trying to take charge of the situation, Bucky began thrusting upwards with his own hips, forcing his body to perform, hoping that vigorous action would be enough to keep him going. 

“Things have fallen into a routine and everything feels boring,” Derpy said as she closed her eyes. Bucky’s deep penetrating thrusts were hitting just the right spot and she felt her dock grow tight. Her tail twitched; everything was wet and sticky back there. 

“So you feel the romance is gone and we’ve moved on to maintenance?” Bucky asked as he felt Derpy clenching with a regular rhythmic squeeze that was working in time with his thrusts. 

Derpy gasped as she drew ever nearer to her own climax. “Yes!” 

“How do I fix it so you don’t feel this way? Because I don’t feel this way, I’m still madly in love with you… you even scold me because I won’t leave you alone sometimes.” Derpy was bouncing up and down on him as he spoke, and it caused Bucky’s words to come out in grunts. 

“Well, don’t leave me alone,” Derpy replied. “Please keep pestering me, oh please oh please…” 

A strong sense of confusion and sexual bliss settled over Bucky, two feelings that should never happen together. “I thought no meant no… Derpy, this is all very confusing to me—” 

Derpy moaned and her head jerked back. “Me too… me too, I don’t know how to fix it but I’m so scared… when I say no now you actually stop and leave me alone… you behave yourself and I hate it even though sometimes I just want to get stuff done and you used to keep pestering me when I said no and it makes me wonder if you’ve become bored with me.” 

Bucky could feel Derpy slamming against him now, a savage motion, unrelenting, and he knew that she was climaxing. No sense holding back now, Bucky gave it all he had and gave Derpy the business. As she froze up in the throes of her orgasm, Bucky sat up and pushed her over onto her back, a 	quick sudden movement that made Derpy cry out in alarm. He was on top of her in a fraction of second, slamming into her, railing her, his own actions gaining intensity as his need became painful. His balls slapped into her hard enough that it made the thin skin sting. 

There were no more words, only grunting and growling. Bucky buried his face into Derpy’s neck, his snoot pressed in just below her ear, and he could feel her throbbing blood vessels against his cheek. He felt her hind legs wrap around his hips and a vice like grip forced him in deep. Derpy’s forelegs locked around his barrel, crushing him, robbing him of his ability to draw deep breaths. All concerns had been lost in the moment and then Bucky felt himself going off, trapped deep inside of the grey mare, locked in place by her embrace. 

Breathless, Bucky blew off load after load, the final burst was almost painful. With a gasp, he collapsed on top of Derpy, resting his head against her neck. He could feel her quivering beneath him. As he lay there trying to catch his breath, he could feel Derpy breathing words near his ear... 

“You still want me… I felt it…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 496
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day was grey, overcast, and a freezing mist hung over Canterlot. In spite of this, spirits were high and a large number of ponies and griffons were gathered in the central courtyard. The festive atmosphere of a carnival filled the crowd. 

There was one thing that gave Bucky some concern. A throne. A gaudy looking throne. He had been warned about it in advance, assured that it was just there for the festivities, but Bucky could not help but feel that there was something he wasn’t being told about it.

Looking out in the crowd, Bucky could see Sunset Shimmer, his apprentice, she had made the train to Canterlot or perhaps she had found some other way. Lugus was also visible, the big griffon was off in the corner of the courtyard and Bucky guessed that Lugus was telling some story to a group of little griffon cubs and foals that were gathered around him. 

There were massive casks of cider, there was mulled wine, there was all manner of food, and the air was filled with too many scents for Bucky to keep track of, but he suspected that Sentinel would be able to tell what almost everything was. 

Of Sentinel there was no sign; Bucky hoped that his colt was off somewhere having fun. 

Bucky glanced over at Derpy for a moment, the grey mare was preening her feathers, which were already immaculate and clean, but Bucky understood that this sort of preening was more about showing off and expressing how good she felt. Bucky smiled a smug lopsided smile and turned his gaze out towards the crowd. Twilight was moving from group to group and Bucky spotted both Rarity as well as Coco, both of whom were with Twilight. 

Heaving a sigh, Bucky realised that this was just about as nice of a day as one might hope for. He felt a wet slobbery kiss on his cheek and turned to look at Derpy once more, who was now sitting close beside him. Both of them were comfortable on a pile of cushions under a canopy, for whatever reason it was not yet time to sit upon the throne. 

Of his other wives, there was no sign and Bucky supposed that they were off in the crowd or doing something of some importance. There was no sign of Celestia either. 

Somepony was roasting chestnuts and they were starting to smell rather good. 

In the skies overhead there was a deafening roar followed by a loud explosive boom. A rainbow coloured nova filled the skies, bringing colour to an otherwise dull looking day. The crowd began looking upwards and even Bucky was impressed by Rainbow Dash’s flying. 

His grin broadened. 

A moment later there was the blaring sound of trumpets and Bucky saw Celestia. 



 

Nervousness overtook Bucky, his frogs grew sweaty and he felt itchy all over. Celestia was looking at him, waiting, a serene smile upon her muzzle. She had told him there was no need to do anything but make it snow, but that if he wanted to say something to address the crowd, he could. 

Licking his lips, Bucky discovered that he had nothing in particular to say, even though there were plenty of expectant faces that appeared to be waiting for him to say something. He felt Derpy’s wing wrap around him. His other wives were with him now, having arrived with Celestia. 

“Oh dear, the poor thing looks nervous. Look at him.” 

Turning to look at Fluttershy, the back of Bucky’s mind noticed that the sunny yellow pegasus still spoke of him as though he was an animal. He didn’t mind, he prefered it in fact, his relationship with Fluttershy was special, something he treasured. Fluttershy didn’t open up to many ponies but she was open, warm, and gracious when she was around him. 

Discord was nearby, his midsection was now large, a ludicrous size, and the draconequus was gobbling down a bag of popcorn as he waited. As Bucky stared at Discord, he began to feel that he was perhaps letting everypony down by not saying anything. A lump grew in his throat. 

Bucky suffered the strangest sensation of feeling naked and exposed. He wished he had worn his black cloak, but he had been asked not to do so. Celestia wanted him to look approachable and not so intimidating. The cloak, his cloak, had almost become like a second skin and he was few times that he was without it. 

“Well, uh… I suppose I should say something…” Bucky’s words trailed off and he took a deep breath. “Please, uh, um, this winter is going to be cold… There are plenty of ponies that have nothing right now, please think of them during this difficult season. Make friends… if you have more than you need, please consider sharing with another. If you have a warm room, take a pony that doesn’t have a warm room in.” Bucky fell silent and looked around. His eyes fell upon Derpy, who was looking at him, smiling at him, her lips were moving, she was trying to remind him of something. 

Bucky’s mind went blank for a moment, he was distracted by her beauty and he thought of the moment they had shared earlier. Her fears, her concerns, the warm feel of her body. He felt somepony prodding him, urging him to continue. 

“Um, please remember that foals are ponies too. There are a lot of needy foals out there. Twilight Sparkle and I are working very hard to make sure they have a nice holiday, but we need your help. If you would be so kind, Twilight Sparkle and I would appreciate it a great deal if you would consider adopting. Just adopting a single foal can make a world of difference… I’ve adopted… my colt Sentinel is adopted and I’m very proud of him even though I do not currently know where he is. But that’s okay because I trust him.” 

Celestia’s smile was toothy now and Bucky could not help but think he was forgetting something as Celestia stared at him. He glanced around. Leaning against Derpy, Bucky wished that he could vanish. There were too many eyes on him. 

“Bucky… just calm down and make it snow.” 

Bon Bon’s voice tickled his ear and Bucky drew in a deep breath. Had she been the one that had prodded him? He did not know. He cleared his throat and looked skyward. 

“Buckminster, I surrender control of the seasons to you. Please, Lord of Winter, put an end to the season of fall and bring us winter,” Celestia said as she bowed her head. “The summer is long over, the harvest is done, now it is time for a long winter rest, to sit back and enjoy the rewards of our many labours.” 

After listening to Celestia’s words, Bucky felt even more nervous. His horn ignited. He knew this magic, he knew this spell, Sombra had done this many times. Not even the heat of the summer could dare to stand against winter’s chill. He had brought winter to Griffonholm. Equestria did not need a winter that would last centuries though, just a winter that lasted a few months, to give the land a chance to heal. As Bucky tapped into the ley line, he could feel himself channeling the deep magic, primal magic, the legacy of unicorns. Magic that had become necessary after the chaos war and the planet had been brought to the verge of death. Unicorns had become stewards, guardians of these vital processes, at least until the alicorns had come along. For a moment, Bucky could feel the earth, he could feel its need, its desire. It needed the winter snows. Bucky wondered if perhaps some part of his alicorn nature was manifesting somewhere deep within, if he was feeling some earth pony sense. He did not know. 

Consumed by magic, Bucky was not aware that he had risen into the air and was now floating, drifting, gravity had loosened its grip. Blue flames danced around his body, cold flames, flames very much like Freezerburn’s flames. Beneath him, two ley lines intersected. Canterlot had been built upon a nexus. 

The air temperature dropped, ponies in the crowd shivered. 

“Buckminster, we need a lot of snow for today’s festivities, give it all you have and then some,” Celestia said, unsure if her words would even reach Bucky in his current state. 

The sky overhead began to fill with clouds; thick billowing clouds, grey clouds, the fluffy grey clouds that were associated with snow and winter. A roaring wind blew in from the north, bringing with it a biting cold that made noses sting and ears numb. The sun vanished, unable to penetrate the heavy cloud cover. 

The first flakes began to fall, thick heavy flakes, wet, they clung to everything they landed upon, leaving behind large wet spots as they melted on warm pony pelts. The storm intensified and soon it was almost white out conditions, it became impossible to see the outer walls of the castle from the courtyard and the towers were lost from sight. 

Winter had come to Equestria, as the storm continued to gain intensity, Bucky suffered a surge as the voice of the earth overtook him. The winter was going to be a season to remember. The courtyard filled with dazzling blue light as the Lord of Winter exploded with raw magic from his surge. 



 

Diamond Tiara watched as Sentinel and Moonbow continued to cling to one another, feeling somewhat awkward as the third member of this group, whatever this group was, whatever this group was meant to be. 

Sentinel was crying. Diamond Tiara was not used to seeing colts cry, it was something that unnerved her, made her feel unsettled, but it was also why she had such strong feelings for Sentinel. The colt had feelings, even if he was a little stuffy and neurotic most of the time.

From what little bit that Diamond Tiara had been able to gather, Moonbow had freed herself of her iron bonds by flying, something she had done by accident. She had been flapping her wings and running around, building her strength, and then the filly had found herself airborne quite by accident. Afterwards, she continued to fly for quite some time. 

Moonbow was getting a day away from her endless training to enjoy the festival. 

Blinking away some tears of her own, Diamond Tiara watched as Moonbow made a gesture with her wing, a beckoning gesture. Nervous, cautious, Diamond Tiara approached the lunar pegasi. 

Letting out a cry as she was snatched, Diamond Tiara found herself being crushed in between the two brutes. She gasped, struggled for air for a moment, and then the relentless pressure eased off. For once, Diamond Tiara was thankful for being an earth pony, had she been less sturdy, less solid, she might have been smooshed into pink pony jelly by the two over-enthusiastic lunar pegasi and their affection. 

“Have you been looking after my Sentinel?” Moonbow asked. 

Diamond Tiara felt even more nervous now, unsure of what was expected of her. She did not know how to answer, she did not know what to say, she felt overwhelmed, her senses overloaded, she had a pegasus on each side of her squeezing one another with her body crammed in between them. 

“She helps me with my homework,” Sentinel said. 

There was something damp pressing up against the back of her neck, into her mane, and Diamond Tiara realised she was feeling Sentinel’s tears. 

“One day we will all be together and we can be happy,” Moonbow said as she wrapped her wings around both Sentinel and Diamond Tiara. “Thinking about that gets me through the hard times, the times when I don’t know if I can keep going.” 

“It’s going to get harder.” 

Sentinel’s words tickled Diamond Tiara’s ear and made it twitch. 

Diamond Tiara knew why, Sentinel had spoke about it often, Moonbow would soon be blinded and forced to depend upon her echolocation for an entire year. The pink earth pony foal wrapped her forelegs around Moonbow’s neck and squeezed for all she was worth. “Good luck, when it gets hard, think of us. We’ll be waiting for you. Don’t give up.” 

The embrace became tighter, almost too tight, almost unbearable. Diamond Tiara gasped, her lungs burned as she tried to take in air, and then the crush eased off and she was able to breathe once more. 

“I have one day to have fun. I was told to make the most of it,” Moonbow said. 

“Well we’ll have to eat together. And play in the snow if we can. We’ll try to make this day as special as possible, try to make each moment matter,” Sentinel replied. 

“When the sun goes down, I must return to attend my lessons, my training never ends…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 497
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Already, the snow began to accumulate. Celestia had made a cryptic comment that a few hours of snowfall were needed to get enough snow for the festivities, and then she had departed, leaving Bucky to wonder what those festivities were. 

His memories of long ago seemed lacking. 

Some ponies played in the falling snow, others took shelter under canopies set up for the festival. Under the canopies were braziers with blazing fires for warmth. Overall, the mood was festive and most ponies, young and old alike, were playing in the snow. 

Looking back on everything that had happened in the span of less than a year, Bucky did not know how he felt about this moment, this point he had reached in his life. He looked over at Derpy, the pony that he had bumped into. The grey mare was playing with Harper and Lyra; Harper was enthralled by the snow. 

The band played a tune that Bucky did not recognise. Ponies were dancing as a blanket of white settled over the castle and the surrounding city of Canterlot. 

There was something else about the celebration, something that Bucky took notice of. Tribal intermingling. There were a fair numbers of ponies here from Ponyville, but there were other ponies here as well. All in all, the gathered masses seemed to be behaving themselves, being sociable, chatting, dancing, and having a nice time with one another. Social class seemed to have been forgotten. One of Canterlot’s orphanariums were in attendance and the foals were getting a chance to meet prospective parents. 

There had been a time not all that long ago that the poor would not have been welcomed. 

He had played his part, his own role in all of this change had been considerable. But Bucky knew there was one whose own role in all of this change was far greater and in his own mind, of far more importance. 

Bucky’s gaze fell upon Twilight Sparkle, who was dancing with her friends. Dancing as though nopony was looking. Bucky was the catalyst, he understood this, he was the agent that forced change to happen. Twilight would be making sure that the changes transitioned into long term gain long after Bucky was dead and gone. It was Twilight that was preparing the world for long term peace. It was Twilight that was cleaning up the many messes that Bucky had left behind. 

Each of them had a role to play. 

“Bucky, you look like you are a million miles away.” 

Startled, Bucky turned to look at Berry Punch. She hadn’t been there a moment ago. Bucky hadn’t noticed anypony around him for a time, so lost he had been in his thoughts. Berry Punch looked happy, she had a merry twinkle in her eye. 

“Care to talk about it?” Berry asked as she settled in on the pile of cushions where Bucky had been hanging out and watching others have fun. She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, eased herself down upon her side, and then let out her breath slowly. 

“Derpy is afraid our marriage is cooling off and I don’t know how to fix this,” Bucky replied. 

Berry Punch nodded. “I know. She’s told me.” 

“But you didn’t tell me.” Bucky watched as Berry Punch made herself comfortable. He eased himself from a sitting position to being sprawled out on his side to be nearer to the earth pony he so loved. 

“I wanted to tell you, but Derpy figured you were stressed out enough and she didn’t want to worry you,” Berry Punch replied. She wiggled and flopped closer to Bucky and then rested her head upon his side. His shaggy pelt was warm even in the cold air. 

Using his magic, Bucky pulled Berry a little closer, glad to have her with him. “So how do I fix this? I don’t know what to do. Or is this normal? Is this just what happens in a marriage?” 

Sighing, Berry Punch snuggled against Bucky, now rubbing her neck against his ribs. She watched the falling snow, marveling at how it somehow muffled the sounds around her. The band was muted, the sounds of celebration seemed far away. “Bucky, sometimes, things do cool off… but I don’t think that’s happening here. You and Derpy… both of you… both of you are introverts. Both of you can be alone in a crowd. Here we are, having a celebration… and here you are, off by yourself, all alone, watching everypony else have fun.”

Bucky nodded. 

“And Derpy, Derpy is off with the ponies she knows, rather than meeting new ponies. She has her social interactions, but they are limited—” 

“Derpy didn’t seem so introverted when she ran me down,” Bucky said, interrupting without meaning to, the words just slipping out of his mouth. 

Laughing, Berry Punch closed her eyes and rubbed her face against Bucky’s side. There was something in his pelt, a soapy smell, something almost spicy smelling. For a moment, Berry was lost in the moment and then she came around, her clarity restored. “Bucky, that was desperation. She was lonesome… introverts can and do get lonesome.” Berry Punch took a deep breath. “Anyway, Bucky, the point is, Derpy isn’t going to go out of her way to let you know she’s feeling lonesome most of the time because she doesn’t want to stress you out or worry you. She’s an introvert and you’re an introvert and she’s going to quietly sit and wait for you to make your move and you are going to quietly sit and wait for her to make her move and both of you are going to sit around and wait for the other and nothing is ever going to happen. Derpy is insecure, she’s worried that she’s not attractive right now, she’s worried that things are cooling off, and she’s afraid that she’s finally got what she wanted. Stability and routine.” 

“Oh.” Bucky’s single word came out a gasp. 

“So you are probably wondering… how do you fix this?” Berry asked. She felt Bucky’s ribs rise and fall, his breathing was slow and steady. “Poor Derpy… stability and routine, something she always wanted, is not living up to her expectations. The quiet peaceful boring life has become entirely too boring and peaceful.” 

“Why do things have to be so complicated? Of course I want to know how to fix this,” Bucky replied as he watched a snowflake come drifting down near him, making its way beneath the canopy above. “If I give her more attention though, I’m worried that I’ll make the rest of you jealous.” 

“Bucky, we knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be easy. We chose this. This is a rough patch, that’s all. We move forward and we figure out our balance. It’s easier for me. If I want attention, I find somepony or even somebirdy and then I talk their ear off. When I want you, I come and I find you. In case you’re wondering, I’m a happy mare and I’m not having issues with our marriage.” 

Turning his head around to look at Berry, Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “But you are having issues. The dreams… this guilt you keep experiencing—” 

“My issues are personal and I’m trying to sort them out. Really though, I’m perfectly happy with our marriage. My concerns are for others. Thistle feels increasingly isolated and Derpy has some issues. Belisama… Belisama has some of her own concerns but she talks to me and she talks to Lyra. Nothing you need to worry about though. She’s still trying to find her place with us and she worries that she doesn’t do enough to contribute,” Berry said, cutting Bucky off before he could get into her problems in detail, something she didn’t feel like getting into at the moment. 

“Belisama confuses me.” Bucky paused and waited for his admission to sink in. “I don’t understand her. She can be so servile… so eager to please. So submissive. She is infuriating sometimes with how she acts… but that other times she is so assertive, so aggressive, so blunt and straightforward. I wish there was some consistency.” 

“She’s a lot like you.” 

Berry’s words hung in the air much in the same way as the drifting snowflakes, and for a brief moment, Bucky felt a hot surge of anger welling up inside of him. He bit back an angry retort, his jaw clenching for a moment, and then gave thought to Berry’s words, knowing she wouldn’t have said something like that if it wasn’t true. 

“You are so submissive. So passive. So eager to please, Bucky. You gladly became the whipping colt of the universe. You sit back and you watch the world go by. You let everything have its way with you. You wait things out with your stoic resignation and much like any slave, you willingly take all of the abuse that is being heaped upon you, usually without complaint.” Reaching up with one foreleg, she rubbed Bucky’s neck with her fetlock. “Right up to the point where you decide that you are sick of the universe’s shite and then you lash out. Rampant destruction happens and everypony gets a scary reminder that being submissive is your choice… everypony fears what might happen if your submissive streak were to vanish and no doubt Celestia and Luna both have plans on what to do should that ever happen.” Berry’s foreleg fell and came to rest upon Bucky’s foreleg. 

Bucky did not know how to reply. 

“Inside of little tiny Belisama is a giant Lugus sized sense of murderous rage. She’s passive and submissive because it keeps the rage suffocated, like a fire not getting air. She remains passive and submissive because she doesn’t know what else to do or how else to be. She also has a fine sense of stoic resignation, which is why the two of you get along so well. Make no mistake Bucky, she’s sick of the universe’s shite as well. She’s done losing those she loves. I daresay that if things were to go bad all of a sudden, she’d be quite the little killer. I’ve heard stories about what she’s capable of.” 

“Maybe you’re right,” Bucky said, not knowing what else to say. 

“Back to the more pressing issue… I’ve already spoken with the rest of our herd. Spend a little extra time with Derpy if you can. She has physical and emotional needs that can only be satisfied by you and not our other herdmates.” Beneath her ear, Berry Punch could hear Bucky’s heart beating. “Moments like these leave me content… but don’t get me wrong, I have other needs too… needs that you are very good at looking after I must say.” 

“You know Berry… I wouldn’t be assertive at all if it hadn’t been for you and Derpy—” 

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Berry said, smiling as she cut Bucky off mid-sentence. 

“No, really, hear me out… both of you taught me how to stand up for myself… and more importantly, it was the two of you that gave me a reason to stand up… you gave me something to fight for. Something to live for. You both gave me a reason to be a better pony. Without the two of you… I might still be an accountant, being alone—” 

“And you would have never realised your potential as the alicorn of war I suppose.” 

Bucky pondered Berry’s interruption and found it to be true. His moment of true potential had been profound. “It was Dinky actually,” Bucky said, blurting out what was on his mind. “I was so in love with both of you, even if I didn’t know how to express it. When Dinky cast the ‘want it need it’ spell that day, I wanted to keep Dinky and Piña safe because I knew how much they meant to the both of you. In hindsight…” Bucky’s words trailed off, his train of thought ran out of track as he did not know how to express what he was feeling. He looked at Berry, his eyes pleading for an insight on a feeling he did not know how to express. “I was so wrapped up in myself… and then you two came along… and Dinky and Piña.” 

“Hindsight being what it is, was it worth it Bucky? And so help me, if you go into one of your long dramatic pauses and if you have to think about the answer, so help me, I’ll screw you right in half in front of all of these ponies. I need to know that I was worth it.” 

“So… I submissively give an answer or I resist with silence and a dramatic pause,” Bucky replied, knowing full well he was playing a dangerous game. He felt a moment of relief when he heard Berry Punch chuckle. He saw her blink slowly, her eyelashes clinging to one another when her eyes closed. “It’s been worth every moment. I was not a happy pony with how I was, even though I had convinced myself that I was content. Even the very worst of moments, our worst days together have been better than my best days when I was alone.” 

“That’s saying something Bucky… we’ve been in some pretty dark moments,” Berry replied. She lifted her head from Bucky’s side and looked Bucky in the eye. “You know, you should tell Derpy that. She’s not one for a lot of words, but I think she’d be happy to hear that.” 

“You know Berry, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You made all this possible. You brought Derpy and I together, you helped me find myself… and now, you keep all of us together. I don’t know how you do it, but what we are is kept alive because of you…” 
	
	
> Chapter 498
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How much do you think she remembers?” 

Sunset Shimmer turned her head and looked over at Twilight. The alicorn, once an enemy, then a friend, and was now a confirmed family member by blood, a close cousin. Twilight looked pensive, worried, thoughtful, and Sunset Shimmer wished she could ease Twilight’s fears. Her head turned once more to look at Shining Armor who was laying on the carpet, his head was upon the floor, and Cadance was inches away from his nose. The alicorn foal was hugging her stuffy and repeating Shining Armor’s name over and over, a never ending stream of “Shiny!” 

“Everything, I hope,” Sunset Shimmer said after realising she had not replied and time was slipping away. “She still adores Shining Armor. It always makes her happy to see him. I know you’re scared though. I wish there was a way to ease your mind.” 

“I guess only time will do that,” Twilight replied, her eyes never leaving Cadance and Shining Armor. “My brother is happy… I suppose I should be happy with that, but I am not. I feel terrible that I’m not happy, Sunset. I’m so anxious and worried and I am filled with the absolute need to know that she is still Cadance and that everything that was important is still there.” 

Sunset once more turned to look at Twilight and saw tears welling up in the corner of her eye. She felt a pang in her barrel; she did not like to see Twilight crying, or any pony for that matter. “Worried for yourself… I mean, should something ever happen… er… you know what I mean, I hope.” 

Twilight shuddered. “Yes… a thousand times yes.” 

“I wanted to be an alicorn,” Sunset Shimmer admitted in a low trembling whisper. “I wanted it more than anything… power… so much power. After being with Bucky, after seeing what power has done to him, after seeing what is expected from him even though he has not ascended… and everything that has happened with Cadance, well, I am happy to remain a unicorn.” 

“Settling into life as a type four?” Twilight asked. 

Scowling, Sunset Shimmer shook her head, causing her mane to tumble down into her face. “No Twilight, I am not adjusting well. I am nervous and anxious all the time. I have to be so careful now. Just the slightest flick of my telekinesis and I can shatter something. I’m scared to even use my magic. To be honest… I was happier as a type three. I feel like I am constantly on the verge of having a surge.” 

“Careful control is tricky. I can’t imagine what it is like for Bucky. His horn is a focusing crystal of sorts.” Twilight Sparkle reached out with one wing and wiped a tear away from her cheek. “Just imagine how much control he exerts when he picks up a foal.” 

“I’m scared to pick up anything.” Sunset Shimmer was all too aware of the tremour in her voice. Feeling nervous, she then tried to blow her mane out of her face. “I wonder what it is like for Shining.” 

“Shining Armor is all but an alicorn, according to Celestia. He is the defensive might of the Crystal Empire. Functionally immortal, at least as long as the Crystal Empire exists. Every day he grows stronger as the Empire purges more of the corruption from its system. Celestia is worried about his ability to handle that much power, but he doesn’t seem to be having any problems at all. He can make a dozen projections now. In time, Shining Armor might end up being his own army. I do not understand what my brother has become, but he is happy, even if he acts a little weird sometimes.” 

“Shiny no!” 

Sunset Shimmer turned her head just in time to see poor Cadance getting raspberried upon her ribs. Sunset smiled and turned to look at  Twilight, who was crying again. Reaching out, with a soft touch, she placed a foreleg on top of Twilight’s own foreleg, hoping to comfort her friend. 



 

“You’ve gotten so big,” Sentinel said as he once more gave Moonbow a good looking over, his eyes darting from place upon her to another. 

“It was pulling the iron weights everywhere,” Moonbow replied. 

“Where is your doll?” Sentinel asked. 

Moonbow smiled, reached out with her wing, and gave Sentinel’s ear a tug. “I get one day to have a little fun. Luna deactivated the doll for me so I could have a nice time with you and Diamond Tiara.” 

“Oh.” Sentinel blinked and then looked over at Diamond Tiara. “So what should we do first? I’m open to almost anything.” 

“There is going to be a big tug of war competition soon. With the slippery conditions it should be a lot of fun. There is three of us,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“That’d almost be like cheating. Two lunar pegasi and an earth pony… we could take on the adults,” Sentinel replied. 

Moonbow grinned a wicked grin. “That sounds like a lot of fun.” 



 

“Snow Harper… can you say snow?” Lyra asked as she held Harper up so the foal could look at the falling flakes. 

“Snow,” Harper said, her breath visible. When she saw it, she took a swipe at it with her hoof. “Can see words.” 

Lyra giggled as she watched Harper watch her own breathing. “Yes Harper, you can see your words. You’re getting to be a big foal now.” 

“I wonder if she needs to go potty.” 

“Bonnie, she went potty a little while ago,” Lyra said as she turned to look at Bon Bon. 

“Yes, but Derpy said that consistency is the key. We take her even when she doesn’t need to go and try and get her to do something and it will help to prevent accidents.” Bon Bon turned her eyes upwards to look at the falling flakes and then watched as Lyra settled Harper upon her back. 

“Potty,” Harper said and then she crammed a hoof into her mouth to try and eat the snowflakes that had fallen upon it. 

“You want to go potty?” Lyra asked. 

Harper pulled her hoof our of her mouth and her eyes narrowed. She blinked, looked thoughtful, and then looked over at Bon Bon. “Yes. Go potty.” 

“Peekaboo will go on her own now. She doesn’t even need somepony to help her. Most of the time,” Bon Bon said. The earth pony followed after Lyra as Lyra took off, heading for a bathroom. “This is how it starts Derpy says. First they start eating on their own, then the potty training, and then one day, they don’t need you very much at all.” 

“Little Harper will always need her mamas.” Lyra turned and shot Bon Bon a ‘I dare you to contradict me’ look. 

Bon Bon ignored the look that Lyra was giving her. “One day, Lyra, she’ll be nervously bringing home little colts to meet us.” 

Freezing mid step, Lyra shuddered, almost dislodging Harper from her back. It took a moment, but Lyra recovered and continued forward, saying nothing, not replying to what Bon Bon had said. 

“Just look at little Sentinel… our stuffy little fella. Just last week he was asking me what sort of nice things could he do that would make Diamond Tiara happy and Bucky was telling me that Sentinel was asking him for advice on how to talk to a filly… Sentinel isn’t even at his decade mark,” Bon Bon said in a low voice. 

Crossing through the large double doors and paying no attention to the guards that opened the doors for them, Lyra and Bon Bon were glad to be indoors, where it was warm. Bon Bon shook herself off, sending snow flying everywhere, but Lyra was unable to do so without causing Harper to fall. 

“Ten years is good Bonnie… we have ten years to pretend that she is completely innocent. We’ll deal with the soul crushing burden of her bringing a colt… or even a filly home when the time comes. Until then, we never speak of this again,” Lyra said. 



 

Derpy’s ears went from being pinned back against her skull to perked forward, the sudden movement accompanied by a snort. Her wings fluttered at her side and her tail swished from side to side as she looked at the reporter and the photographer. 

“Derpy, they just want to ask a few questions,” Thistle said, rolling her eyes and trying to keep her frustration out of her voice. The over protective pegasus was having a moment and Thistle reminded herself how much Derpy loved her. 

“Those reporters wanted to ask Berry a few questions a week or two ago… it ended up as a smear piece,” Derpy replied as she lowered her head and glared at the two strange ponies. 

“Ma’am, we’re not regular reporters. My name is Quibble and that nice mare over there is named Okra. We’re conservationists and we seek to inform, educate, and give a voice to rare sapient species, documenting them and making the public aware of them. A month ago we interviewed a hippogriff in Vanhoover… we want to help Thistle.” 

Derpy looked at the pegasus named Quibble and then at the earth pony named Okra, her bad eye closed and her good eye narrowed. From behind her, she could hear Thistle clearing her throat. 

“What would you like to know?” Thistle asked. She lifted her head. “You’ll have to forgive her. We’ve had some bad experiences with ponies. Derpy loves me a great deal and she is very protective.” 

“Yes… we know,” Quibble replied. “There was a doctor… Whippoorwill—” 

“How do you know about her?” Derpy demanded, one hoof stomping down upon the stone floor. 

“We spoke with her,” Okra said. “She told us she made a terrible mistake and that every day she wishes she could make amends. She said that she didn’t know the full story of everything that had happened.” 

Derpy’s aggressive stance softened a bit and she lifted her head. “Oh. Is that so?” 

“We also spoke to a zebra… there are a few kelpies in the Sea of Grass, but not many. Not much is known about them, other than they are rare,” Quibble said. “We’re just trying to get a story worth reading. Many of our readers are staunch conservationists.” 

“There are a few kelpies living in the wilds on the Shetlands. I had little contact with them. Keg Smasher said they were almost feral,” Thistle said. 

Quibble looked hopeful. “So, can we speak with you? Ask a few questions? Take a picture or three?” 

“You may.” Thistle hoped that Derpy would back down. Much to Thistle’s relief, Derpy did. The grey mare hopped up onto the well cushioned sofa and settled in beside Thistle. Derpy’s nostrils were flaring. Unable to help herself, Thistle giggled. 

“So, uh, the most notable thing about you is your mane. It seems that it is made out of living plants. Can you tell us more about it?” Quibble asked as he pulled out a notepad and a quill. 

“My mane is made of water weeds. It also blooms little pink flowers. If I don’t submerge myself in the water regularly, my mane and my tail begins to wilt and look unhealthy,” Thistle replied.

“What do you eat?” Quibble asked, his eyebrow raising as he scribbled down Thistle’s previous answer. 

Thistle, filled with the playfulness of her youth, flashed a fang filled smile. “Food.” 

“Oh… uh—” 

“I eat fish. Lots of fish. I can’t really digest other things. I sometimes eat candy, I like chocolate as much as any other mare, but if I eat too much, it gives me tummy trouble. Bon Bon made me chocolate covered fish eggs… they’re delicious.” 

Quibble’s ears splayed out sideways. “Chocolate covered fish eggs?” 

Thistle nodded. “Yup. You bite down on them and they pop!” 

The reporter wrote down everything Thistle said. “That’s fascinating, so long as you find it delicious, that is what is important.” Quibble paused for a moment, looked at Okra to make sure that Okra wasn’t doing anything embarrassing like gagging, and then, looking back at Derpy, he felt relieved when he saw that Derpy seemed a bit more relaxed by his acceptance. 

“I can eat eggs too. I like eggs. Might be my pregnancy, but I’ve been eating a lot of pickled eggs,” Thistle said. She looked over at Derpy. “Actually, we all do. You know, pickled eggs sound really good right about now.” 

“Hmm, I do enjoy a good pickled egg now and then myself,” Quibble admitted as he scratched something down upon his pad. He cleared his throat. “You say you have to take a dip regularly in water?” 

Thistle nodded. “I’ll dry out and parts of me will wilt. My skin gets really dry, it hurts.” 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle placed a lot of effort in making you a habitat. Are you pleased with your lake?” Okra asked as she checked over her cameras. 

“Oh, I love my lake,” Thistle replied. “My lake is large enough for me to raise a few little kelpies in, that’s all I need.” 

“It is my understanding that you are about to give birth to a kelpie. This is a momentous occasion. Do you have a name yet?” Quibble asked. 

Thistle felt a leg slide over her stomach. “Bell Heather.” 

“Named after a Shetland flower, how pretty,” Okra said. 

“Do you mind a personal question?” Quibble asked. 

There was a squeeze from Derpy and Thistle took a deep breath, which she struggled to do. “I might answer. You’ve been very pleasant so far.” 

“Are you happy here in the mainland? Do you feel like you fit in? Do you feel like your fellow equines understand you?” Quibble asked. 

“That’s more than one personal question,” Thistle replied. Try as she might, she could not stop a giggle from escaping, a somewhat nervous giggle. “I am happy here on the mainland. I’ve always wanted to be here. No, I do not always feel like I fit in. There have been a few moments where I have been made to feel most unwelcome. Doctor Whippoorwill took part in one of those moments. As for understanding, I don’t get out much. It is very difficult for me to move around and I really don’t leave home. I hope that will change in time, there is so much I’d like to see.” 

Quibble wrote down every word that Thistle said, flipped a page over on his notebook, and then gave Thistle a warm smile. “So tell me Thistle, what would you like for the world to know about kelpies? This is your chance to have a say. I will write down what you have to say and I will get it printed word for word in the paper. So this is your chance to tell the world about kelpies.” 

Thistle gasped and felt a twinge of panic. She had no idea what to say. She felt another squeeze from Derpy. She felt her heart begin to race deep inside of her barrel. 

“Don’t worry, we have plenty of time. Just take your time, think about what you’d like to say, and if it isn’t too distracting, Okra will snap some pictures of you if that’s alright,” Quibble said. 

“I guess a good place to start would be to tell the world that we are still ponies… and that you shouldn’t be afraid of us just because we are different…” 
	
	
> Chapter 499
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How goes the mead hall?” Agnetha asked Belisama. The smaller griffoness was shaking snow from her body and her feathers were fluffed out. Agnetha, curious about Odin, wanted Canterlot to have a mead hall as well. 

“There were city regulation issues about building what the city council considers to be a tavern upon private property. Twilight Sparkle and Violet Velvet got everything sorted out though. Well, I suppose I had a part in it as well,” Belisama replied as she flapped out her left wing to shake more snow from it. “I’m getting music lessons from Lyra.” 

“I know a little bit about Odin. Old stories. That’s the thing, I always thought it was just stories and nothing more… I didn’t know he was real,” Agnetha said in a low voice. “Belisama, are you happy?” 

The smaller griffoness froze in the middle of shaking off her right wing. Her tail whipped from side to side after a moment, and then she turned her head around to look at Agnetha. 

“Your marriage. I know everything was rushed. I know that you didn’t have a lot of say in what happened at the time. I just want to know that it worked out and that you are happy… you deserve that,” Agnetha said, explaining her question for the sake of clarity. 

“I’m a very happy griffoness,” Belisama replied after a moment of thought. She turned her whole body around, her eyes locked on Agnetha the entire time. “I have my troubles, same as anybirdy. But I am loved. I know this.” Belisama fluffed out and her crest rose. “What about you? How are you and Tannis getting along?” 

“We’re happy. We want cubs. We stay busy. I help Celestia with the daytime stuff and Tannis helps Luna with the nighttime stuff. Tannis spent a week in the Crystal Empire helping Shining Armor… I didn’t realise how much I loved him until I started to miss him,” Agnetha replied. “Big changes are coming though. Central Equestria is well managed because of Twilight Sparkle and Bucky. Celestia is considering offering us the west coast as our fiefdom.”  

“The entire coast?” Belisama’s eyes widened and she felt her heart beat a little faster. 

“There are a lot of griffons in Vanhoover. The climate is quite similar to Griffonholm, cooler, lots of rain, and rich fisheries off of the coast. In time, we might have the whole region. Maybe come spring.” Agnetha shook her head to be rid of the snow piling up on her crest. “The little griffons are happy here in Canterlot. Government work, courier services, and working in the castle suits them. They feel appreciated, happy, safe, and secure. I think if we left, many of them would choose to stay here. Celestia finds them indispensable and she pays them well. Most of them have no idea what to do with their money.” 

Belisama watched the snow piling up on her beak. Already there was a dusting of white flakes. “My little griffons have the same problem. They have money now and no clue what to do with it. Bucky tells them to hold on to it and he continues to provide for their needs.” 

Sighing, Agnetha looked skyward and watched the falling swirling flakes. “It is going to be difficult for you little griffons to adjust to your new life. I would imagine that it is hard for you… I mean you, Belisama, to not only have to make all of these adjustments, to find a new way in life, but to be in a position of rule as well.” 

“I’m managing. Violet Velvet is teaching me a lot of things. Bucky has taught me other things. Derpy has taught me about being fair even though she doesn’t know she’s done it… but I’ve spent a lot of time just watching her and how she does things,” Belisama replied. 

“We have a chance to make something of ourselves here… in Equestria. We have a chance to show the entire world that we griffons can be peaceful. That we are good. That we are capable of doing the right thing and being good neighbors. Even more than having cubs, I feel that showing the world these things will ensure our survival,” Agnetha said, a tremour overtaking her voice halfway through her words. The larger griffoness shook her head. “If we fail at this task, if we are lax in our efforts, we do not deserve to go home when the time comes.” 

“The better question is, how many of us will want to go home when the time comes?” Belisama asked. 



 

“Applejack, are you going to let me go so I can go have fun with Dinky and Piña?” Babs asked, her growing frustration causing her to feel warm even in the blustery winter cold. 

“I dunno,” Applejack replied. “There are a lot of strangers round these parts. I ain’t comfortable—” 

“You let Applebloom go off alone with her friends and Rumble!” Whoops! Babs realised her exclamation was a bit more whiny than angry sounding. She saw Applejack’s eyebrow raising in the manner that it did when a line had been crossed. Babs cringed and then cast a pleading glance at Dinky and Piña, begging them for help without saying a word. 

“Let her go.” 

“What’s that Mac?” Applejack turned her head to look at her brother. Big Mac was standing next to Cheerilee, looking rather cross. His head was high and his nostrils were flared. His breathing came out in steaming snorts. 

“I said to let her go. You’re being overprotective again.” 

Applejack turned in time to see Babs tense up, ready to scamper off while the scampering was good. “Don’t you dare move a muscle.” 

“Babs, go off and play with your friends, dear,” Cheerilee said in a cool collected voice. 

“Yes aunt Cheerilee,” Babs replied. She took one look at Applejack, saw fury in her green eyes, and decided it was time to depart in a hasty manner. “I promise I’ll behave and stay real close to Dinky and Piña.” 

Applejack watched Babs hurry off, moving as fast as her short little legs would carry her. She turned and glared at her brother, her lip curling back from her teeth. 

“Before you cuss me out,” Big Mac said in a soft voice as he gave his sister a stern look that only existed between siblings. “I want you to think about what you’ve done to Babs and if it was fair.” 

Big Mac had just said more in a few moments than what was often said in a week. Applejack bit back her angry retort, took a deep breath, her tail swishing from side to side as she did so, and then she looked down at the ground, her body slumping into a submissive posture. She felt burning shame creeping up the back of her neck and her ears felt hot, even in the cold. 

“Go find Silver Shill. He’ll be happy to see you. Go have a nice time with him. Last I saw him, he was off drinking hard cider and missing his wife,” Cheerilee said as she stared at Applejack. 

“I gots me some apologisin’ to do,” Applejack said as she turned and left, not daring to look at her brother or her sister in law. “I gotta stop doing this…” 



 

“Fall-some-more-tug-o’-war,” Loch Skimmer said, reading the small snow covered sign aloud. She smiled. “Oooh… this should be fun to watch.” She leaned over on Rising Star, who radiated immense amounts of heat, glad to have him near. 

“There’s Sentinel,” Sparkler said. She blinked a few times, peering through the thick snowfall. “And that’s Moonbow. I didn’t know she was here. There is Diamond Tiara too. I think the three of them are going to be in a tug of war.” 

Ripple gasped. “That’s not fair at all! Two lunar pegasi and an earth pony… that’s almost cheating!” 

Sparkler nodded. “Yup.” She looked over at the crowd that had gathered and the ponies getting ready to go for a pull. It was difficult to see them through the snow, but one of them was big and red. She took a deep breath of cold air and felt her lungs tingle. “Is that Big Mac?” 

Squinting his eyes, Rising Star peered through the sideways falling snow. “No, that’s not Big Mac, that’s the whole of the Apple family. One red, one silver, one orange.” 

“Oh this is going to be good. Sentinel, Moonbow, and Diamond Tiara are going to clean their clocks,” Ripple said as she scooted closer to Rising Star and then looked over at Bittersweet. The donkey, who had a much thicker pelt, didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold or the snow in the slightest. Ripple, a pegasus, a creature well protected from the cold, could feel the bitter chill in the air. Looking at Bittersweet made her feel warmer though and a hot flush traveled up her spine, starting from her dock and creeping upwards. 

“Are you kidding? Sentinel is a foal and so is Moonbow and Diamond Tiara,” Sparkler said, uncertain what to think about Ripple’s words. 

“Foal or no, the lunar pegasi are strong,” Ripple replied. 

“Earth ponies are more sure hoofed on slippery surfaces,” Sparkler said, feeling a bit of annoyance with Ripple because she feared that Ripple might be right. “Even with the ice, the earth ponies should have an advantage standing upon the stone surface of the paved courtyard.” 

“I heard stories that Big Mac pulled a house through town,” Loch Skimmer said. “I think it was Berry Punch’s.” 

Rising Star danced around in place, his hooves clattering on the frozen cobblestones. “They’re putting harnesses on everypony… this is gonna be good. Who has the roasted chestnuts?” 

“Those are gone, Bittersweet and I ate the last of them,” Ripple replied. 

Turning his head, Rising Star gave Ripple the stinkeye. 

“Don’t you dare say anything about me stealing your nuts,” Ripple said, a wry smile spreading across her muzzle. She saw Rising Star scowl for a moment and then the corner of his mouth twitched, a ghost of a smile appearing. 

Loch Skimmer closed her eyes and began to titter. When she opened them, she found herself nose to nose with Rising Star and she could feel his warm breath upon her snoot. 

“What are you laughing at?” Rising Star asked, grinning a rakish grin. 

Feeling coy, Loch Skimmer batted her eyes. “I dunno.” 

“Hey, cut it out, both of you. They’ve got harnesses on everypony and they’re using a chain it looks like. This is going to get interesting,” Sparkler said. 

Ripple struggled to see through the falling snow, trying to see what was going on. She could see Diamond Tiara’s pink pelt standing out in contrast to the white snow and it appeared she was at the end of the rope as an anchor. “Diamond Tiara knows what she’s doing somehow… must be an earth pony thing. She has Sentinel and Moonbow stomping down on the snow and through whatever ice might be there.” 

“Go Applejack!” 

“Hey, that’s Rainbow Dash!” Loch Skimmer reached out and prodded her sibling with her wing. “There’s your hero.” 

“She’s not my hero… she’s just my friend,” Ripple replied. 

Chuckling, Sparkler looked over at Rainbow Dash and then back at Ripple. “More like your fellow competitor.” She craned her head back around to get a good look at the tug of war about to take place. 

“Hey Applejack! You gonna let a bunch of foals beat ya?” Rainbow Dash shouted, her raspy voice just audible over the roar of the crowd. 

Rising Star snorted, blowing snowflakes out from his nostrils, and realised that he had four mares pressing up against him. He also had ponies staring at him and not at the tug of war. For a moment, he worried that there might be a problem, but then he saw smiles upon the faces of those staring at him. 

A bell rang. 

There was a loud clank of iron, loud enough to make Rising Star’s ears perk. The ponies on both ends of the chain were already straining. Diamond Tiara had her hooves solidly planted, her legs braced, and she pulled hard on her harness. Sentinel and Moonbow were slipping, struggling to get their secure upon the slippery stones. On the other end, Applejack, Big Mac, and Silver Shill were leaning into their harnesses, their legs locked in place, and nopony was moving on either side. 

It only took a moment for Rising Star to conclude that on dry ground, Sentinel and Moonbow would be dragging the Apples around the courtyard. 

There was a creak of metal and the chain rattled a bit as Sentinel and Moonbow still struggled to get a proper grip. The crowd had fallen silent. 

Big Mac, the anchor on the Apple end, lifted one hoof, a cautious careful movement, planted it down, lifted another, leaned into his harness, and managed to take one step. As he struggled to regain his grip, he was pulled backwards, his hooves scraping over the cobblestones. 

There was another creak of metal. Rising Star began to feel some concern. It was cold and he began to worry about the iron chain. A loud screech filled the courtyard, the sound that metal made before it began to shear. Rising Star ignited his horn, trying to prepare himself to act, but it was too late. Just as his horn ignited, there was a loud -TING!- sound. 

The chain shattered and Rising Star felt a surge of helplessness; a lot of ponies were about to get hurt and he hadn’t acted in time to stop it. He squeezed his eyes shut, braced himself, and threw up a shield, hoping to protect his herd. 

There were many panicked screams followed by silence. 

Rising Star opened one eye, expecting to see the worst. There was a glowing purple light. He opened his other eye. The purple light was almost blinding. The chain, all of it, now in several pieces, was surrounded in a purple glow. A large broken off link of it hovered near the back of Applejack’s head. Another piece floated near Big Mac. A several foot long section was inches away from Sentinel’s neck. Rising Star looked around, he could feel his pucker clenching up tight. He raised his head and tried to look for the source of the magic. 

“Dinky!” 

Sparkler took off at a run, her hooves scrabbling around on the frozen cobblestones. Rising Star watched her for a moment and then took off after her, his own cloven hooves had no trouble getting a grip on the stones, but it was not something he noticed in his current state of panic. 

“Dinky, speak to me,” Sparkler said. 

“I surged a bit,” Dinky replied, lifting her head up from the ground and rubbing it with one hoof. “I held it back though. It was wrong of me to panic. I almost screwed up and somepony could have died.” 

There was a cacophony of clanking as several pieces of chain fell to the ground. 

“You okay Dinks?” Piña asked. 

“Horn aches, I’m fine. Feels like I gotta sneeze through my horn though. The pressure hurts,” Dinky replied. 

Sparkler lifted her smaller sister up out of the snow and gave her a good looking over. One of Dinky’s eyes was bloodshot and a thin trickle of blood dribbled from her nostril. “We need to get you inside and get you looked at by a nurse or a doctor. Make sure you’re okay… oh this isn’t good.” 

“I feel okay, I held it back, I didn’t let the magic get away from me,” Dinky said as she continued to rub her head. 

Sparkler heard the flapping of wings and looked upwards. “Here comes mom. Oh meadow muffins, she is gonna freak out because of this.” She watched as Derpy landed. A second later, there was a flash of blue-green light and a burst of cold. Bucky appeared, bringing with him a flurry of snowflakes and ice. 

“What happened?” Derpy asked, her eyes wide with fear. 

“I had a bit of a surge,” Dinky replied. “But I feel okay. I’m fine, I think…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 500
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“She’s going to be fine. Just a bit of a headache, that’s all.” 

Derpy’s wings fluttered at her sides and her ears fell back against her head. “She doesn’t seem fine. She had a bloody nose and her eye is messed up. You’re not a doctor.” 

The older unicorn mare heaved a patient sigh. “Ma’am, I’ve been one of the school nurses here at Princess Celestia’s school for a very long time, longer than you’ve been alive.  I assure you, she’s going to be just fine. This sort of thing happens all the time. It is like when somepony chokes or coughs too much, it can make their eyes bloodshot or might cause a little nosebleed. What she needs is a little cuddle time and some calm.” 

Chewing on her lip, Derpy looked over at Dinky, who was laying down on a paisley printed sofa. She let go of her lip and swallowed the accumulated nervous drool flooding her mouth. “I’m sorry… but this scares me.” 

The nurse smiled. “Don’t be scared, be proud. Out of all the unicorns I’ve met in my life, there is but a scant few that could have done what your little filly did. To have that level of control at her age, that’s something. I’ve only ever seen that in two other unicorns… Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer.” 

“So she just needs some rest? Some time laying down?” Derpy asked. 

Nodding, the nurse looked over at the earth pony coming through the door and then back at Derpy. “Yes ma’am. A bit of a nap and a cuddle will do her good. Little unicorns are sensitive to head pressure. She put a fair bit of strain on her thaumaturgical glands. It really is no different than a harsh bit of coughing or even a particularly violent bit of sneezing. So you can relax and it will all be okay.” 

Derpy watched as Berry Punch crawled up onto the sofa beside Dinky, pulled the foal close, and then shushed Dinky when Dinky started to say something. She felt some of the tension in her muscles ease away. Bucky came through the door a moment later, holding a small tray. On the tray was a bit of a snack for Dinky and a large glass of chocolate milk. Bucky did not seem too concerned. He had been a bit panicked at first, but had calmed down. Derpy realised she was chewing her lip again and she made herself stop. If Bucky was calm, then it had to be okay. 

She took a few steps closer to the sofa, Berry Punch, Dinky, and Bucky. She watched Bucky set the tray on the small table near the sofa. “Bucky, I’m sorry… I’m going to stay here with Dinky and Berry. I can’t be with you during whatever is happening later.” 

Bucky turned, took a few steps, stretched out his neck, and gave Derpy a reassuring kiss on the cheek. “No worries, love. You look after Dinky. I brought her some brownies, cookies, and a few coconut macaroons. Celestia said a few sweets are actually a good idea in this situation.” 

“I’m starved,” Dinky said as she squirmed in Berry’s embrace. “I don’t see what the big deal is, I feel okay. I don’t want to miss everything.” 

“Dinky, you need to eat plenty of food and get some rest. Do not argue. Your mother is already stressed out, don’t make it worse.” Bucky, treading on the fine line between gentle and firm, hoped that Dinky would take a hint. He looked his foal in the eye and then moved his eyes towards Derpy, hoping that Dinky would understand. 

After a moment, Dinky looked at her mother and nodded. “You know, a snack and a nap doesn’t sound too bad.” 

“Good girl, Dinky,” Bucky said, feeling relieved that Dinky got the hint. “I’m proud of you for what you did. You showed a remarkable level of control and saved a lot of ponies from being hurt. You responded quickly and even managed to hold back your fear and your panic.” 

The nurse began to walk towards the door. “My work here is done. For now anyway. I’ll be back in a few hours to check on Dinky. Make sure that she gets plenty of fluid. She’ll be prone to dehydration if she doesn’t.”

As the nurse trotted out the door, Derpy lept up onto the couch and settled in beside Berry Punch. She looked at Bucky, then Berry, and then at Dinky. “I don’t understand how you responded so quickly.” 

Shrugging, Dinky gobbled up a cookie being offered to her by her father. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was feeling sleepy. Berry was warm and soft. The cookie was an oatmeal cookie, with shredded bits of raisin and carrot, along with some kind of spice. After swallowing, a yawn that Dinky failed to hold back escaped. She smiled a sheepish smile and accepted another cookie. 





A lot was happening all at once. Music was playing. A crowd was gathering. Celestia had told him to sit down upon his throne. The guard were gathering in the background. His family was a short distance away. Bucky felt a sense of unease; he didn’t like not knowing what was going on. The throne was tacky looking, gaudy, and covered in snow. He had dusted it off before sitting down and used a little magic to warm his seat. 

A podium was brought out for Celestia. Bucky had no idea what she was up to, but she was smiling. A large lock box was also brought out, and something under a curtain. He dredged his memories, hoping that something from the past, some memory of Sombra’s would tell him what was going on. 

The snow was already several inches deep in places, even more was coming. The first snowfall over Canterlot this year had turned into a blizzard. Bucky felt more than a little proud of his work. 

For a moment, he thought of Dinky, Derpy, and Berry. Derpy had panicked when she had heard Dinky’s cry. Bucky had heard nothing, but Derpy had somehow heard Dinky’s cry over the sound of the crowd and the muffling effect of the snow. The power of motherhood amazed Bucky, and as he thought about it, he felt humbled. 

“My good ponies, we are gathered on this day to celebrate the first day of winter and to revive an old tradition,” Celestia said, her voice amplified with magic. 

Bucky’s eyebrow raised and he leaned over on the arm of his throne. 

Celestia stood straight and tall, looking somehow whiter than the snow falling around her. She was radiant, beautiful, and laughing. Bucky began to feel a vague sense of concern, a prickle of anxiety. 

“Winter has long been a difficult time of year. After our struggle with the windigos, there were many widows and orphans. Sombra, the Lord of Winter, got himself slobbering drunk one day and tried to think of a means to help those who could not help themselves during this cruel season.” 

Celestia was laughing as she was speaking and this was not like her at all. Bucky felt his body tense with panic. Something was up. The very fact that Celestia was even speaking of Sombra in public spoke volumes. 

“On that fateful day, the Lord of Winter, back when he was still a good pony, if perhaps a little flawed, had himself a revelation. The poor, the downtrodden, the labourers, all of them wanted to be on even hoofing with the aristocracy and the upper classes. So when Sombra brought about the first day of winter, he invited ponies to come and throw snowballs at him, but at a price. One copper bit, with the money collected going towards the care of widows and orphans.” 

Bucky blinked. All of a sudden, the memory was there, clear as day, and Bucky groaned. He watched as the cover was yanked off, revealing a large sign. He couldn’t see the words on the sign from where he was sitting. 

“The festival proved to be very popular. Sombra would sit upon his throne, drink wine, and get pelted with snowballs. A lot of money was raised for the poor and it became a tradition that spanned a number of years…” 

Bucky could hear Celestia’s words fade out and he knew why. Eventually, Sombra lost his goodness. He watched as Celestia’s ears splayed out sideways. She wasn’t laughing now, she had fallen silent. She was still wearing her public mask, her stoicism was on full display, but Bucky knew that she was hurting. 

“There are rules. I ask that you observe them. Be kind, be respectful, do not be malicious. If you hurt him, there will be consequences. This is to be done in fun. I am trusting you, my good little ponies, I am trusting in your goodness and your civility. I ask that you do not disappoint me.” 

There was a flutter of wings and a flash of brown-gold. Bucky was startled for a moment when Belisama landed beside him in his throne. Her crest was up and her feathers were fluffed out. 

“I don’t want my husband humiliated or made into a public mockery!” Belisama cried. 


Celestia stood, looking flummoxed. Her mouth hung open. The crowd was silent. Bucky didn’t quite know what to do. He could hear Belisama’s heavy breathing. He lifted one foreleg, wrapped it around her, and pulled her close. 

“He isn’t here for your sport or your amusement,” Belisama said as she squirmed out of Bucky’s embrace and gave Celestia a defiant stare. 

“Belisama, come here… no, stop wiggling, come here.” Bucky, forced to resort to using his magic, pulled the irate griffoness close to him and gave her a squeeze. “It’s okay. I’m alright with this. This is for a good cause—” 

“You’re a slave just like I am and they’re putting you on display—” 

Bucky became aware of Belisama’s talons squeezing onto his metal prosthesis as he cut her off mid sentence. “You are not a slave. Now silence… take a deep breath. Do not get yourself worked into a tizzy. This is for a good cause and I’m okay with it.”

Belisama’s eyes were filled with emotion, Bucky saw confusion, anger, sadness, her beak was open and her small body was heaving from the force of her breathing. 

“But a lot of ponies hate you… I’ve seen what is in the paper… what if somepony tries to hurt you?” Belisama asked as she looked at Bucky. “What if somepony only does this to be petty? To shame you? To hurt you?” 

“Then they pay like everypony else, obey the rules, and the poor still benefit. Let them,” Bucky replied. He looked over at Celestia and was unable to read her expression. 

“I… I don’t like this,” Belisama said, her voice raspy and full of emotion. 

“It’s all in fun. And for those few bad apples that might want to get their digs in with a snowball, let them. So long as they play by the rules, I’m fine with it.” Bucky pulled Belisama closer and gave her a hug followed by a kiss on the side of her face, just behind the spot where her beak was rooted. 

“I want everypony to remember this,” Celestia said in a loud clear voice. 

“Go on Belisama, there is no point in both of us getting pelted with snowballs,” Bucky said as he let Belisama go. 

The griffoness shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving.” 

Two figures moved through the crowd, moved past Celestia, and approached the throne. Bucky saw Sentinel and Moonbow, it was nice seeing Moonbow. Both of them stood on either side of this throne a short distance away. Moonbow had grown a great deal in the past few months, becoming bulkier and larger. She was already as large as most adult mares, but far more solid, her legs were as thick as most ponies necks. 

“Please, be respectful of the Lord of Winter. One bit gets you a snowball.” Celestia’s words hung over the crowd and she turned to look at them. 

“Right then, I see everypony is going to be a bit spooked after that display. I’ll take two snowballs please.” 

Rolling his eyes, Bucky sighed and shook his head. He could always count on Lyra.

“Lyra, I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Bon Bon said as she gave Lyra a disapproving look. “I don’t know how I feel about this either.” 

“Bucky’s okay with it, nopony could force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do, and the funds raised go towards widows and orphans… I bought you a snowball Bonnie,” Lyra replied, ignoring Bon Bon’s scolding stare. 

“Hey, waitaminute,” Bucky said as Lyra was using her magic to make a snowball. “I need a drink... I think Belisama needs one too.” 

“Fetch the Lord of Winter and his wife some hot mulled wine,” Celestia commanded. 

“Say… Celestia…” 

“Yes Lyra?” 

“How much would it cost to throw a snowball at you?” 
	
> Chapter 501
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I cannot believe that I allowed you to talk me into this,” Luna said as a snowball impacted upon her neck. She shuddered and blinked. “Buckminster, how dare you make clucking noises at me and accuse me of being poultry!” 

Celestia guffawed and then her laughter was cut off short by a gasp when she was hit by a snowball. She looked over at Luna and Bucky. 

“Nopony has ever accused me of cowardice and lived,” Luna said in a gritty voice that was full of gravel. 

Bucky took a sip of wine, swallowed, and then lowered his mug. “So you are saying that I should begin boasting of my accomplishment? Once more I have done the impossible.” 

“Buckminster… there will be words…” 

“Why are Bucky and I worth a copper bit?” Twilight asked. She looked over at the long line of ponies and saw Rainbow Dash. Twilight took a deep breath and summoned her patience. 

“When I am done with him Buckminster will be worth far less than a copper bit,” Luna said, the white snow she was dusted with standing out in sharp contrast against her coat of blue. 

Allowing her guard to fall away, Celestia found herself getting lost in the moment. “Says the alicorn princess that is only worth a silver bit.” 

“Sister! Watch your tongue!” 

“It makes sense,” Bucky said, knowing he was playing a dangerous game. “The sun is golden and Celestia gets a gold bit. Moonlight is silver and all that. Besides, I wouldn’t pay more than a copper for myself anyway.” 

“And what of Twilight?” Celestia asked. She heard a snort. 


“Not one word, Bucky, not one word,” Twilight said as she flinched at an incoming snowball. 

“Actually, a lot of ponies are laying down gold bits to take a shot at the Lord of Winter,” Tannis said from his spot where he was collecting money. 

Lifting his mug in salute, Bucky smiled at  the crowd. “It is good to have enemies.” 

“You insolent smug little ruffian!” 

Looking over at Luna, Bucky gave her a smug smile. “Sticks and stones may break my bones… but whips and chains excite me.” 

There was a full moment of silence from Luna, several snowballs worth, and then Luna began to howl with laughter, almost falling off of her makeshift throne. 

Reaching out his foreleg, Bucky brushed away some snow from Belisama, who was sticking it out beside him. “Doing okay?” He watched as her head turned around to look at him. 

“Fine, thanks for asking,” Belisama replied. 

“Just a heads up Bucky, Cheerilee has gathered a number of her students… she says it is time for a demonstration about civic duty,” Agnetha said, offering Bucky a warning. 

Holding her head high, Twilight looked over at the crowd. “This has become educational… I don’t know how I feel about that.” Her eyes moved away from the crowd and towards Luna, who was collapsed onto her throne and laughing like a madpony. Even Celestia was acting silly, making faces at the crowd and sticking out her tongue. 

The ponies that she idolised were acting like… ponies. Every time this happened Twilight felt unsettled. Celestia had always been a near mystical figure for Twilight, a figure of near perfection. Celestia was the immortal princess. And then, at some point, life had gone crazy. Twilight had seen Celestia at her best and at her worst. Twilight had discovered that Celestia was still a pony, and not all that different than the rest of them. Luna was even more flawed than her sister. 

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by a snowball hitting her. She looked over and saw Rainbow Dash offering Scootaloo advice on how to whip out a snowball using a wing. Twilight smiled and felt her lip quivering, all thoughts of snowballs now forgotten. Scootaloo and her stunted wings… but Rainbow Dash didn’t treat her any different and was still trying to show her pegasus things that Scootaloo could do with her wings. 

The pair had never given up; the thought made Twilight feel warm and the winter chill melted away. Using her wings, she wiped at her eyes after feeling the sting of tears. She didn’t want ponies getting the wrong idea. 

Rainbow Dash had changed. They all had changed. Twilight was all too aware of the changes that she herself had endured. She wasn’t so sure how much Celestia had changed, but Twilight was aware that her own perceptions about Celestia had changed. Pinkie Pie was different. Applejack seemed more wise. Rarity was more aware of the things she said. Fluttershy had changed. Distracted, Twilight was lost in her own thoughts, so much so that she didn’t notice the incoming snowballs. 



 

The snow was unrelenting. As it grew later in the day, it became obvious to any observer that the snowfall was growing stronger. The temperature plummeted. Ears went numb and snoots began to sting from the bitter cold. 

As all things do, the festival ended. For some, the out of doors celebration moved indoors, with Celestia opening up the grand hall inside of the castle. For others, they went home after hearing warnings that the blizzard might shut down the trains later. 

Canterlot was covered in a blanket of white. The city, which had suffered so much turmoil, had been put to rest and covered with a shroud. Come spring, the shroud would vanish and the city would be reborn, like so many other things when spring came around. 

Far below Canterlot, the city of Ponyville had its first taste of what the winter would be. Its citizens had celebrated the snowfall, but that celebration became alarm when many of the old timers realised that this was going to become a major blizzard. 

When the sun finally settled and darkness began to creep across the land, most of Equestria was buried. Even far flung places like Dodge City and Appleloosa had several feet of snow already. With the darkness, the blizzard intensified. 



 

The howling wind could be heard through the thick stone walls. Sentinel’s ears perked even as the rest of his body slumped over in his chair. Feeling a little depressed, he didn’t feel like joining everypony else for the festivities of the night. 

Moonbow was gone. 

The day together had been happy, a good time had been had, and Sentinel had retreated into quiet solitude to figure out all of the many thoughts in his mind. He watched Shining Armor, who was playing with Cadance, Harper, and Peekaboo. 

The power of a promise. 

Sentinel’s young mind struggled to put to terms the thoughts and feelings he had. Moonbow was a pony that, at times, he felt he knew too little about. In spite of this, he felt a powerful sense of attachment to her, a feeling of devotion and dedication. Try as he might, Sentinel could not figure out what it was that he felt for Moonbow, but there was something there. A sense of duty? A feeling of obligation? She was a goal, a reward to be had later, something he had to strive for. 

Derpy was still smothering poor Dinky, refusing to let the filly get too far away. Sentinel felt a moment of fierce pride for his sister. Derpy was in the corner of the room, in a chair, with Dinky, Piña, Tourmaline, and Glass Slipper all smooshed in around her. In another chair next to Derpy, Barley was reading a story to the foals Derpy was smothering and drinking glass after glass of whiskey. Sentinel knew why too. Barley’s joints were bothering him. Many glasses of whiskey later and Barley still showed no sign of being drunk. 

“And up from the cellar came a terrible ogre!” 

Sentinel’s ears swiveled around at the sound of Glass Slipper’s squeal. He could hear every single heart beating in the room. Tourmaline was acting as though she was unafraid, but her heart was thudding inside of her and Sentinel could hear every beat. 

Sentinel knew Tourmaline’s secret. The others were unaware. Tourmaline smelled wrong. She was no pony. Her heart beat was different. Sentinel had been told the truth by his father as well as Luna, and then sworn to secrecy. 

Once more, Sentinel’s ears focused upon the sounds around him. His father had whispered something into his mother Berry Punch’s ear. Now Berry Punch’s heart was racing and the earth pony mare was giggling. Sentinel had heard every word spoken, but had tuned them out. A curious part of his mind took note and resolved to try his father’s suggestion upon Moonbow or Diamond Tiara later. 

A promise was a promise. 

He and Moonbow had made a promise to one another. Now, she was gone, enduring who knows what, preparing herself to keep her end of the promise, while Sentinel got to sit in a warm room with his family, drinking cider and eating treats. 

Sentinel had made many promises. 

A promise to keep his siblings safe, a promise that Sentinel remained serious about. Today though, Dinky had kept him safe. In the back of Sentinel’s mind, he realised that he owed his sister a debt. It was not a conscious thought, but the awareness existed. 

“I’ll use yer bones to pick me teeth!” 

The smell of fear filled the room. Not from Dinky, not from Piña, but Glass Slipper and Tourmaline were terrified. Sentinel had a vague awareness that if Dinky was faced with a pony eating ogre, his sister would respond with terrific force and there would be no more ogre. 

“Just who writes these books for foals?” 

Bon Bon’s question went into one ear and slipped out the other. Sentinel had no concern about the issue. He was thinking about too many other things. Like the quiet reaffirmation that had happened when Moonbow had to leave, the pledge made to one another to be faithful to their duties until such a time they were free to be together. This time, Diamond Tiara had stood with them, also promising to work towards the greater goal and to hold herself accountable, to make herself worthy. 

“This story is positively dreadful! The ogre is wearing rags!” 

Rarity’s theatrics did not reach Sentinel and he tuned them out. Coco murmured something, Sentinel could make it out but it was something that was intended to be private and so it sort of faded into the background like everything else. 

Pinkie Pie exploded into the room, bringing with her more treats, and then she was gone, leaving the smell of fresh baked cookies in her wake. Sentinel’s nostrils flared and he took in the scent of the cookies. Pinkie Pie, along with Applejack, Diamond Tiara, and Cheese Sandwich, had commandeered a small servant’s kitchen and were now providing an endless feast of sweets, treats, cookies, and cupcakes. Diamond Tiara was learning something new at Applejack’s insistence. 

“And then the terrible ogre began slicing up bits o’ carrot and celery as he prepared to turn the wee filly into soup!” 

For a moment, Sentinel wondered if the ogre would take the time to sauté the carrot and celery first or if the raw vegetables would just be tossed into a pot full of water. Without realising it, Sentinel had listened in on Semillon far too many times and learned a great deal from the cook. 

“Sentinel?” 

Snapping out of his almost fugue-like state, Sentinel blinked a few times and looked at Lyra as the unicorn was climbing up onto the couch beside him. Saying nothing, he scooted closer to Lyra, glad to have her near. He felt himself embraced, her foreleg wrapping around him, and he pressed his head against her neck. 

“Sentinel, you look out of sorts, are you okay?” Lyra asked. 

Closing his eyes, Sentinel continued to rub the side of his head against Lyra, not realising he was marking her with his scent glands that were below his ear. “I was just thinking about stuff.” 

“I bet it was nice to see Moonbow. Did you have a nice day together?” Lyra asked. 

Blinking, Sentinel opened his eyes. The fire crackled and popped. The smell of cookies was overpowering. A faint scent of fear lingered. Lyra smelled of her usual Lyra-ness, but also of cider, of whiskey, of ginger and something spicy. “We had a lovely day together. It was nice.” 

Glass Slipper let out a shriek as Barley dropped his book and made a scary face. 

“Lyra?” 

“Yes, what is it Sentinel?” 

“I’m worried I can’t perform my duties.” Sentinel’s confession pained him but it was something that had been pressing in upon his mind for some time. It felt good to admit it. 

Lyra squeezed the colt, lowered her head down, and dropped her voice into a whisper. “What do you mean, I don’t understand, can you explain?” 

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Sentinel closed his eyes and tried to think of the right words to say. With his eyes still closed, he said, “Thistle is about to have her foal. Derpy and Berry are both going to have twins. Harper is starting to explore stuff. Cadance will be running around all over the place before we know it.” Sentinel paused, took a deep breath, and pressed his face into Lyra’s neck. “I am obligated to look after my siblings. I feel overwhelmed as it is right now, soon there will be too many.” 

Lyra Heartstrings exploded into laughter, unaware that Sentinel didn’t think this was funny at all. The unicorn mare continued to laugh and Sentinel began to sulk, slumping in Lyra’s affectionate embrace. 

“Sentinel, nopony expects you to look after all of them, I don’t know what gave you that idea.” Lyra took a deep wheezing breath, reached up with her fetlock, and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye. “Ah… Sentinel, sometimes, I don’t think you realise how funny you can be.” 

For Sentinel, nothing about this was funny and the colt scowled, his brows furrowing. Lyra was still laughing, which for some reason, bothered Sentinel a great deal. He heaved a frustrated sigh and said nothing. 

“You take everything so seriously. Relax a little Sentinel. Everything is going to be fine, just you wait and see. You’re going to be the best big brother ever and your little siblings are going to love you to pieces.” 

“But there is only one of me and there is going to be so many of them—” 

“Sentinel, try not to think of it that way,” Lyra said. The unicorn cleared her throat. “Learn from what is around you, Sentinel. There is only one of Bucky, your father is outnumbered, and we, his wives, we all want his attention and his affection. The way things are looking, you’re going to wind up in a similar situation with Moonbow and Diamond Tiara. With the funny way that life usually works out, there might be somepony else… or even somebirdy else in the future. What you have here is an opportunity.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

Giving Sentinel an affectionate kiss upon the top of his head, Lyra tried to figure out the best way to say what needed to be said. She looked around the room at the many ponies and griffons all enjoying each others company during this private celebration. 

“Sentinel, each one of your siblings is going to want your attention, your affection, some of your time. What you are going to have to do is learn how to make each one of them feel special, how to do something that makes them feel like you care about them in some unique way. One day, Moonbow and Diamond Tiara will want the same thing from you. Bucky does it for each of us, or he tries to. He isn’t perfect, but he never stops trying and let me tell you, that makes us, his wives, feel a lot better. Sentinel, just try and make sure that none of your siblings ever feel left out… that will be the best thing you can do to look after all of them.” 

“How do I do that?” Sentinel asked. 

“I don’t know,” Lyra replied. “To be honest, I still don’t know how Bucky does it. Just remember that you can always come to one of us for help. None of us will ever think any less of you if you come to us and ask for help.” 

“Father told me the most disappointing thing I could ever do is to not ask for help if I am in trouble,” Sentinel said in a low worried sounding voice. “It’s really hard… I want to figure things out on my own and do the right thing. It feels wrong asking for help sometimes.” 

“It comes down to trust Sentinel.” Lyra gave Sentinel a reassuring squeeze. “Bon Bon and I might seem like we're annoyed with each other, and Bon Bon might seem like she is being hard on me, but it is mostly an act. Mostly. For us, it is an elaborate joke. I depend on Bon Bon a great deal. I don’t do well without her. There might be some codependency issues… anyway, I am always trying to show my independence and I usually manage to screw things up pretty good as I go down my usual spiral of self destruction. I make one mistake, freak out, get nervous, make more mistakes, and at some point, I have to go running to Bon Bon as a nervous mess. Bon Bon has never turned me away when I needed her, no matter what sort of mess I had made. No matter how badly I screw things up, Bon Bon is always there for me.” 

“So what you are saying is, it is fine for me to make an attempt at something, but if I am in over my head, I should run and find help immediately,” Sentinel said. 

“Yes, exactly. We’re your parents. No matter what sort of mess you make, we’ll help you.” Lyra felt an odd emotion welling up inside of her. It was overwhelming, too strong to deal with, and Lyra resorted to the only coping mechanism she knew. Humour. “Even if you get Diamond Tiara pregnant, we’ll still love you. Just be a gentlecolt and buy her chocolates if you do. Eventually, everything will be okay and chocolates make everything better.” 

“Mother!” Sentinel squeaked as he heard Lyra giggling. His cheeks blazed with inner fire and Sentinel felt his stomach twisting into knots. 

“Let me prove it,” Lyra offered. She cleared her throat. “Hey Bon Bon, what’s one thing that makes everything better?” 

Bon Bon looked up from where she was sitting and replied, “Chocolates Lyra, chocolates make everything better.” 

Still giggling, Lyra could feel the embarrassed heat rising up from off of Sentinel as she held him. “See, Sentinel, I told you so… I’m your mother, I’d never mislead you.” 

Hearing Lyra’s infectious giggle, Sentinel somehow managed to let out a nervous scratchy laugh. In the back of his mind, he filed away the real lesson to be learned here, and promised himself that he would never put himself into a situation where he needed to buy Diamond Tiara chocolates until he was older. Much older. And married, for good measure. 

“Hey, I got Sentinel to laugh!” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 502
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Belisama walked down a long hallway and Bucky loped along beside her. It was hard to describe how Bucky walked. He still trotted, sort of, but his movement was distinct and there was something about it that reminded Belisama of a wolf. His limp was gone, at least for the moment, Belisama could not remember the name of the spell, but Bucky used magic to make up for his physical shortcomings. 

The griffoness had no idea what awaited her. She felt nervous, twitchy; she had been sworn to secrecy and was out exploring the castle late at night. It had been a long day and Belisama was tired. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and snuggle close to somepony, it didn’t matter who. 

Ahead of them, Luna opened a door, stepped aside, and then nodded at Bucky. Belisama watched as Luna then turned to leave, leaving her and Bucky alone together at this strange room. It was a small library and sitting room. A fire roared in the fireplace. 

The fire made no sense. Belisama’s keen sense of space told her they were deep inside of the the castle and that there were no chimneys anywhere to be found above them. Yet, the fire burned and the smoke was going somewhere. The whole of this castle was wrong, it was far too large for what it was on the outside and enormous rooms that should have been no larger than a closet where the space should have been impossible. 

Belisama entered the room and Bucky closed the door behind them. They were alone. There was a tray left upon the table and tea had been prepared. Belisama looked around the room, glancing at Bucky while he prepared himself some tea, and she began to wonder what secret she had to keep about the library. 

“Want some tea?” Bucky asked. 

The thought of being up all night and having to go to the bathroom did not appeal to Belisama. “No thank you.” 

“Suit yourself… more for me… delightful!” 

There was something odd about the room. Belisama could not shake the feeling that something was watching her. Her tail twitched and she felt the hair along her spine rising. This castle felt haunted at times, like now, when Belisama was certain that something was staring at her. She looked around the room, her eyes blinking only when they had to, looking for some clue that would give away the identity of her watcher. 

“Oh come on Platinum, you’re scaring her and that’s not nice. That is not what we agreed to,” Bucky said as he settled into a large high backed chair. “Really though… no scaring my wives. I’ll take it personal and we all know what happens when I take things personal.” 

Belisama felt her blood freeze when she saw the portrait over the fireplace move. The pony in the painting shifted, her head moving, and her eyes blinked. The portrait had been staring at her, and now it was looking at Bucky. The griffoness considered her options; running seemed like a good idea. 

“Do not threaten me you perverse ruffian!” the painting said. The mare in the painting narrowed her eyes. “I was not trying to scare her on purpose. I apologise.” 

Still frozen in place, Belisama took a deep breath, not knowing what to do and not have having any idea what was going on. Bucky was laughing now and the mare in the painting looked more than a little cross. Her forelegs were folded over her barrel and her crown was askew upon her head. 

“Belisama, this is Princess Platinum,” Bucky said, making an introduction. “Platinum, this is my wife, whom I love dearly, Belisama.” 

A new option presented itself. Belisama lept, her legs acting as powerful springs. She launched herself through the air and then landed in Bucky’s chair with him. There was a grunt as he tried to keep his tea from spilling and Belisama, still terrified, pressed herself up against him. 

“I have been watching you for quite some time… I must say, you are not what I expected,” Platinum said from her portrait. “Truth be told, I am not sure what I expected.” 

His teacup secured, Bucky shifted his bulk to one side of the chair to give Belisama a bit of room. “Well I hope you’re proud of yourself Platinum, you’ve scared her so bad that she’s gone silent.” 

The painting of the princess blinked and gave Bucky an irritated stare; Belisama did not like it, not at all. This castle was full of unnatural things it seemed, including spooky paintings. 

“You did a good thing today… looking after what little remains of my dear Bucky’s dignity. I wanted to thank you. I never agreed with Sombra being turned into a public mockery, I always found it demeaning and degrading. It was beneath him… I found the whole thing infuriating,” Platinum said. 

Belisama felt Bucky stiffen, his body went rigid. 

“Sombra enjoyed the first day of winter a great deal… the fact that he grew to hate it was a sign of his sickness. It happened after you died. There was nopony there to share the laughter with him… those snowballs stung after you were gone.” Many memories had come in a flood, some of them pleasant, some of them not so much. 

“I… I… I had no idea…” 

As Bucky was taking a sip of tea, Belisama pressed herself tighter against him and tried to calm herself. There was nothing to be afraid of here and she was acting like a cub, unnatural magic or no. 

“And before you say anything else to Belisama, do not be insulting, haughty, or demeaning. I want to make this clear. I don’t give a tinker pony’s damn about what is said about me, but if you let slip one of your colourful little barbs, even accidently, we’re done here,” Bucky said. 

Belisama could hear an icy hardness in his voice. 

The painting of Princess Platinum bowed her head. “Understood.” 

“You were one of the founders of Equestria,” Belisama said, finding her voice. 

“Yes dear, I was.” Princess Platinum smiled and looked down from her painting. “Although I must say, the credit should go to Clover. Mostly, I followed along and complained about every dreadful thing that happened along the way.” 



 

Beside him, Belisama was calming down. Bucky smiled at Platinum’s confession. Clover told a very different story, Platinum had done so much more than complain. There was also whining, crying, sobbing, pleading, begging, and one very long ponyback ride across an icefloe that Clover insisted was the cause of all of the grey that had appeared in her mane. 

To say that Platinum had complained was an understatement, if ever there was one. 

“I wanted to meet you… to speak with you… you are very good with foals,” Platinum said. 

Belisama’s feathers fluffed out and Bucky had to hold back a chuckle. 

“Thank you.” 

“I must confess, I had a lot of fears.” Platinum went silent for a moment and was careful about what she said next. “I lived during a time where we had very bad relations with the griffons. Things happened… bad things. I… I allowed those things that happened to influence my opinion of you. You are none of the things I imagined you to be.” 

A log in the fireplace popped. 

“I know how bad the griffons can be… I lost my—” 

“Belisama, I’ve already told Platinum about Bandua. She knows.” Bucky wrapped his left foreleg around Belisama and watched her crest rise, then fall, and then rise halfway up once more. “There is no need to go into detail, either one of you. It is enough to say that bad things happened.” There was a soft peep from Belisama, Bucky was still learning to understand the various peeps griffons made, but this one was sad sounding. Platinum’s eyes were narrowed. Was she sad? She looked that way. It was hard to tell. 

“Why all of the secrecy?” Belisama asked. “I don’t understand.” 

Glad that Belisama changed the subject, Bucky took another sip of tea. It was soothing, hot, fragrant, and strong. He said nothing, already knowing the reason, but hoped that Platinum would provide an answer. 

Platinum’s lips pursed and the mare’s expression became pensive. Her ears perked forward. “I am something of a strategic asset. I’m not happy about all of this secrecy. I’d like to meet my grandfoals. There has been a great deal of arguing about the issue actually.”

“That’s terrible,” Belisama replied. The griffoness shook her head. “Bucky, isn’t there something we can do? Can’t you break a rule or go rogue or something?” 

Bucky’s teacup hovered near his lips, unmoving. “I’ve thought about it. But Platinum keeps lecturing me about my constant rule breaking.” 

“I do not!” 

“You do so… the last time I was in Canterlot when I was here taking care of business you chewed my ear off about going too far and how you worry for me making the same mistakes as Sombra,” Bucky said, offering up a snappy retort. 

“Only because I love you, you incorrigible lout!”

Belisama’s crest fell flat and she cocked her head to one side. “He is an incorrigible lout at times, isn’t he?” 

The portrait glowered. “Oh is he ever! He never listens! He is stubborn! Foolhardy! He does nothing to care for himself—” 

“Oh no, they found something to bond over,” Bucky said and then heaved a sigh. 

“—and he is so very much like Sombra that it scares me!” 

“He is also a very good husband and a devoted father.” Belisama’s words were soft, little more than a whisper, and spoken while she had her head twisted around to look at Bucky. “I would forgive him all of his faults because of this.” 

“Yes dear… a good husband is hard to find. Believe me, I know. This is why I remain at Sombra’s side, even in death. What a dreadful place to be though.” Platinum’s voice rose in pitch, becoming a whine. “I want to see my grandfoals. I want to see what Bucky has worked so hard to protect.” 

“Maybe the little ones… just after they’re born… they can’t let slip secrets… and what of Sentinel? Sentinel can be trusted, I’ve heard Luna say so. I know that Sentinel has access to secrets,” Belisama said. The griffoness reached out her talons and stole Bucky’s tea. Ignoring his protests, she tilted her head back, opened her beak, and poured it down her throat. 

Bucky found he had nothing to say after having his tea stolen. He took back his empty teacup from Belisama and poured himself more tea. He then went through the work of preparing it just so, wondering the entire time if somebirdy was going to steal it again. 

“There are going to be so many foals soon… Thistle is due by Hearth’s Warming, Derpy and Berry in the spring...” Belisama paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She wished she had something stronger than tea. She rubbed her belly and rested her head against Bucky. “Mine will be born not long after Thistle’s.” 

The teacup fell to the floor and shattered. 

“What?” 

“I was waiting for just the right time to tell you… it just sort of slipped out. It felt like it needed to come out… I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I meant to tell you and make the moment special and I wanted everything to be just right and I just really messed up and ruined everything—” 

“What?” 

“—and I feel really bad right now… this was supposed to be special—” 

“How?” 

“How? How do you think Bucky, how else do cubs get made? While you and I were going at it I felt a really bad cramp in my side and it kinda hurt… okay it really hurt but I just ignored it because everything else felt so good and the doctor told me and Derpy and Berry Punch that the cramp I felt was just me ovulating from sexual stimulation—” 

“Oh my goodness there is going to be a hippogriff?” Platinum asked. 

“Derpy and Berry knew?” Bucky asked. 

“We all knew… but we wanted it to be special… all of us… we were going to surprise you and we were sort of hoping to catch you in one of your down moments to make you feel better—” 

“There is going to be a hippogriff,” Platinum said, shaking her head and looking shocked. 

Bucky reached up and rubbed his head with his talons. “It seems my wives have been keeping a number of secrets from me.” 

Platinum bounced up and down inside of her picture frame. “I feel strangely happy about this! I was so afraid of this happening but now I just feel relieved… oh this is wonderful news.” 

Ignoring the tea on the floor, Bucky lifted Belisama in his magic, holding her in front of him and looking her in the eye. “Are you well? Are you going to be able to carry your cub to term? What about the size difference? You’re so little and fragile… I’m afraid to even touch you sometimes.” 

“Griffonesses carry their their cubs for about one hundred or so days. We have very short pregnancies. Our young comes out very small, very tiny, and helpless. Also, I should warn you, newborn griffons are the ugliest thing you have ever seen. No feathers. After a few days, they get spines that will eventually turn to feathers. They look hideous.” Belisama said. 

“I’m very happy for the both of you.” 

“Thank you Platinum… Belisama, how could you keep this a secret from me?” 

“I wanted to tell you… I just wanted it to be the right moment,” Belisama replied. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky said. 

“I wanted to call her Bandua…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 503
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know Twilight, I could fix you…” 

Most of Canterlot was asleep. Already well past midnight, most of the residents of Canterlot Castle had fallen into slumber as the storm raged on outside. Twilight, her mind on far too many things, could not sleep and had been roaming the castle, just as she had done when she was younger. 

Looking over at her brother’s projection, Twilight shook her head. “I wasn’t aware that I was broken, Shiny.” 

“Twily, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean… I mean I could make it where you could return to the Crystal Empire… I could remove the corruption caused by dark magic. It leaves a stain, Twilight.” 

There was a sudden flash of anger, a hot feeling, and Twilight wanted to shout at her brother. She wondered if it was her or the so called stain, the corruption left behind by dark magic. She bit back her angry retort, feeling the need to remain calm and rational. 

“Could you do this for Bucky?” she asked. 

Shining Armor scowled. “No… no I could not. Twilight, the Collective fears him.” Shining Armor’s ears fell back against his head. “If I were to fix you Twilight, you must swear that you will never use dark magic ever again.” 

“Dark magic has a few practical uses and it can be controlled,” Twilight said, restraining the need to say it through clenched teeth. The anger lingered and was not going away. 

“So then, let Bucky handle it for you. I know for certain that he will do anything you ask of him,” Shining Armor said in a low voice, how brow furrowed as he looked as his sister. “Having trouble with your temper? Don’t lie to me Twilight. I know what is going on and I know why it is happening. Celestia has the sickness as well, and believe me when I tell you, it is a sickness.” 

“What makes you think you know so much?” Twilight demanded. Something about Shining Armor’s calm all knowing demeanour was infuriating and Twilight failed to hold back her angry retort. Twilight regretted her actions right away. Her tail twitched and she dropped her head, her neck falling down to become level with her withers. 

“Twily, please, let me help you.” Shining Armor dropped his own head, refusing to hold it above his sister’s height in a show of dominance. It would accomplish nothing. “You keep experimenting. You watch Bucky as he delves deeper and deeper into his knowledge of dark magic and your curiousity eats you up inside. You crave knowledge. You tell yourself that you can handle it because your talent is magic. But all of your experiments have left you feeling more and more hollow… I can tell you what you are doing wrong Twilight, and why knowledge of dark magic eludes you. Why you remain frustrated, and why your anger grows.” 

“And why is that?” Twilight asked, now feeling intrigued. 

Shaking his head, Shining Armor took a step towards his sister. “Because you run from pain. You fear getting hurt. Dark magic requires pain, it requires unbelievable amounts of suffering. It is a magic fueled by agony, by anger, by rage, it is the very opposite of the friendship magic that you’ve discovered. And if you keep trying to stick your snoot into the working knowledge of dark magic, you are going to ruin all of your hard work.” 

“So Bucky succeeds where I fail because he is a masochist?” 

Not liking the fact that his sister knew of that word, Shining Armor sighed. “Twilight, when you were a foal, when it came time to get your vaccinations, you cried, you begged, you pleaded, you offered to do chores around the house, but the idea of being pricked by a needle scared you to no end. You cried for days afterwards and had nightmares for months.” 

“And just why are you bringing that up?” Twilight lifted her head and tried to figure out what her brother was up to. He wasn’t the gloating type, so there had to be a reason why this was relevant. 

“When Bucky was put on trial, he was branded. Did he at any time do anything to make it stop? Did he resist? Did he struggle? Did he cry, or plead, or beg to make the branding stop?” 

With a sick feeling in her stomach, Twilight recalled the smell of burning hair and seared flesh. Bucky had done nothing to prevent being branded. Beyond that, Bucky had fused on his own prosthetic. As much as Twilight hated to admit it, her brother had made a point. Twilight wasn’t sure that she could face being branded. She was still having nightmares about the pain she had endured in Griffonholm. 

“When Bucky experiences pain now his mind sees it as a resource, a means for more power. Make no mistake Twilight, he craves power. He understands what gives him power,” Shining Armor said as he looked up at his sister and then raised his head. 

“Do you think Bucky is dangerous?” Twilight asked. 

Shining Armor scowled. “He could be. That’s the thing.” Sighing, Shining Armor prepared to tell the truth, feeling that his sister needed to hear it. “Twily, while Bucky could be a threat, he just… isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the potential is there, but his love of foals, his family, those things he loves, they keep him grounded. Stable. So long as he has those things, he will continue to serve.” 

“There is something you’re not telling me.” 

“Twilight Sparkle, you are more of a threat than he is.” 

Curiousity overpowered Twilight’s anger. “Can you explain your reasoning, Shining Armor? I mean, I’m willing to listen if you are willing to explain.” 

“Twily, your idle curiousity pushes you ever onwards. You keep dabbling in dark magic… little experiments. You keep poisoning yourself. You are not content to simply leave things be. You have to know, to understand, and at some point, you are going to make a mistake. Something bad will happen. And all of this just because you felt the need learn something.” 

“So you are saying that I should close the book on dark magic, end my studies, and focus on other things,” Twilight said as she stared down at her own front hooves. 

“Twily, think of your family. You have foals and one little dragon to look after. Think of Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. You’ve been growing distant from them. And your friends too. They think that you’re still a little shaken up over Griffonholm… I know what really happened there, and while that is part of it, that is not the whole of it. Is this knowledge worth losing your connection to them?” 

The anger, the rage, it melted away, burned away by shame. Twilight’s head dropped once more. “Not when you put it that way… I’m sorry Shiny.” 

“Twilight, some things aren’t worth knowing. I know that runs contrary to everything you believe—” 

“But there is truth to that statement.” Twilight said, finishing her brother’s words. “Can you really fix it?” 

Nodding, Shining Armor lifted his head high. 

“I just wanted to understand how it works.” 

“I know, Twily.” 

“Will this hurt?” Twilight asked in what she feared was a foalish sounding voice. 

“No Twilight, I promise you, this will not hurt you in the slightest,” Shining Armor replied, offering his sister a promise that he knew he could deliver upon. “You’ve been feeling more pain though. Become more sensitive, haven’t you? Things you barely noticed before hurt you far more now.” 

“How did you know?” Twilight asked, realising her question was an answer after the fact. 

“It is the nature of dark magic… as it begins to corrupt you, it changes you. Feeling pain more acutely, feeling more pain, it gives you more power. As you delve deeper and deeper, things hurt you more and more,” Shining Armor replied. 

Twilight, filled with a pressing need to understand, looked at the brother, trying to figure out how he knew so much now. “So how come you know this and I don’t?” 

“The knowledge is buried in the Crystal Collective. Sombra knew of it, he and Starswirl studied it extensively. I know everything that the Collective knows.” 

“It makes sense, now that I think about it. I wonder why I never made that connection? Why didn’t I see it? I feel kinda stupid now.” Twilight closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep calming breath. 

“Everything is going to be fine, I can promise you that,” Shining Armor said, trying to comfort his troubled sister. He took a step closer, then another, and then he was at her side, standing close. He leaned over, brushing up against her. 

“You smell funny… kinda flowery,” Twilight said as she leaned on her brother. “You’re a projection? How is it that you can smell funny?” 

“Cadance needed a bath. I helped Lyra give her one,” Shining Armor replied. 

“And by help, you probably stood nearby and watched.” 

“I have no comment,” Shining Armor replied as he rolled his eyes. “I have nothing to say at all. Such a terrible accusation that comes out of my sister’s mouth.” 

“Bathtime is surprisingly complicated. I apparently don’t know what I’m doing,” Twilight said as she shook her head. “You would think that bathtime was all about getting clean, but you’d be wrong.” 

“What?” 

“Bathtime is apparently all about fun… Flash Sentry told me that I was too methodical and too focused on end results. He and Rainbow Dash both had a good laugh about it and poor little Glass Slipper just gave me the worst look ever.” 

Shining Armor turned his head to look at his sister. “Cadance said bathtime was all about relaxation and personal time.” 

“I don’t know why, but I seemed to have this faulty idea that when I put Glass Slipper in the tub, I was supposed to scrub her and get her clean. There are only so many hours in a day, things need to be done, bedtime schedules must be observed—” 

“When this happened, tell me, had you spent any personal private time with Glass Slipper at any point during the day?” Shining Armor asked, cutting in on his sister. 

“Well, no, I was busy, I had just returned from Canterlot, Flash was busy helping Spike, Rainbow Dash was trying to help Scootaloo with a book report, and Glass Slipper was covered with boysenberry jam, and this was just after she had already had one bath earlier before I came home—” 

“Did you ever stop to think that perhaps, Glass Slipper was just trying to get some time with you and that she might have gotten herself covered in jam so you would take time out of your busy schedule and spend a moment with her?” Shining Armor asked. 

“Well, no… no actually… that hadn’t occurred to me at all,” Twilight admitted. “Waitaminute, how come you know about this stuff?” 

“Twily, I hang out with Bucky’s family. I spend time with Cadance… not just Cadance, but also Harper… Peekaboo… the whole time I am around Derpy gives me an earful. So does Lyra. Bon Bon seems to think that understanding foals will make me a better ruler. She might be right,” Shining Armor replied. 

“I feel kinda dumb.” Twilight blinked and once more she leaned up against her brother. “Things are so complicated now. I have so many demands upon me. Not just as a princess… but as a wife.” Twilight paused for a moment and then continued. “As a mother… and then there are my friends, all of whom make demands for my time. The Black Cloaks. The Bureau of Thaumaturgy. The need to travel all over Equestria and do my job. I really hope I am not a bad parent… or a bad wife.” 

“I was looking forward to being a father,” Shining Armor said, his voice deep and soft. 

“There is always adoption Shining, remember that. I’ve adopted two and I love them dearly, even if I do apparently keep making dreadful mistakes with them,” Twilight replied. 

“Celestia and Luna both have Tourmaline and Erebus. I like Erebus… Luna wants me to be his uncle.” Shining Armor felt Twilight’s wings against his side, a soft tickle against him. 

“So… Shining, when did you want to, uh, do whatever it is that you need to do to remove this corruption? I’m willing to offer my super secret sister promise that I will not dabble in dark magic ever again,” Twilight said. 

“Twilight, it is already done… what do you think I’ve been doing while I was standing here beside you?” 
	
	
> Chapter 504
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The hospital was far too warm and the pungent chemical stink of disinfectant stung Bucky’s nostrils. Nervous, fearful, Bucky said very little and could not look away from Derpy for more than a few moments. Frazzled, Bucky wasn’t sure how much more his nerves could take. 

At home, Thistle was going to explode almost any day now, there were some concerns if she was going to make it till Hearth’s Warming. Belisama was nesting, becoming more and more territorial. The little griffoness at some point had become a lioness trapped in a tiny body. 

And then, there was Derpy and the current situation in the hospital. 

The pain down in her pelvis had begun quite some time ago, but the grey mare had said nothing, not wishing to worry anypony or anybirdy. Derpy had been living with the pain in her pelvis that had grown daily, right up to the point where she could no longer bear it and could not even get out of bed this morning. 

Angry, Bucky said nothing, his worry for his mate overriding his need to lecture her for not saying anything about her condition. The only thing he could think of was Derpy’s well being and the twins. Sitting in his chair, twitching in a fitful state, Bucky was beginning to get sick of waiting for the doctor. 

Beside him, Berry Punch was just as restless. Across the small examination room, Sentinel was busy scratching something into his journal. The sound was somehow both annoying and soothing to Bucky. The scritchy scratchy sound of the pen on paper meant that all was right in the world, Sentinel was writing, which was Sentinel’s usual state of affairs, but the sound was also distracting. 

“Sentinel, son, I don’t know why you had to come along with us,” Bucky said, feeling the need to say something, just to hear the sound of his own voice, and perhaps to vent a little. “It would have been better for you to stay at home. This has to be very boring for you.” 

The pen, held in between Sentinel’s thumb and central wing knuckle, went still. Reaching up with his other wing, Sentinel adjusted his glasses, glasses that protected his eyes from the light but looked like regular corrective lenses. “I was worried about my mother. I don’t care about being bored. I couldn’t stay at home.” 

And that’s my Sentinel, Bucky thought to himself. He heard Derpy whimper and saw her squirm on the examination bed. “Where is Doctor Wagoneer?” 

“I dunno, I’m starting to worry, we’ve been here for over an hour after the initial examination. Maybe they’re doing lab work… they did draw blood,” Berry Punch replied, trying to reassure her husband. 

“I can’t be in two places at once… I have one kelpie and one griffoness at home that I am very worried about,” Bucky said, his words little more than an irritated grumble. 

“Thistle has the enormous indoor bathtub in the new bathroom so she’s happy and as comfortable as she can be… and Belisama is fine. Belisama has just been… a little moody, that’s all.” Berry Punch turned to look at her husband and then gave him a gentle pat with her hoof. 

“Derpy, I know you’ve told me that you’ve been having a little bit of pain in your pelvis, but why didn’t you tell us just how bad it was?” Bucky asked, glad for Berry’s reassuring touch. “I’m scared out of my mind right now.” 

Reaching out, Berry Punch turned Bucky’s head towards her, forcing him to look her in the eye. “Bucky, we all are. Now don’t scold her.” 

“Then you scold her—” 

“No Bucky, we don’t need that right now.” 

Overcome with emotion, Bucky snorted. “You take every chance you can get to scold me if I’ve done something to screw up.” 

“Bucky, not right now… just shut up about this. Trust me, I plan to let Derpy have it later once we know what is going on and all of this is over. But right now, she is miserable and I am miserable and you are miserable… and Sentinel is probably miserable as well and we don’t need to compound that and make it worse.” 

Slumping down in his chair, Bucky nodded. “Of course, you are right. I’m sorry.” 

“I’m not miserable,” Sentinel said in a low voice, unsure if he should be saying anything at all. He looked at his father, then at his mother, Berry, and then at his other mother, Derpy. “I’m worried and scared.” 

The door was pushed open and three heads turned to look. Bucky took a deep breath, ready to let go of a long stream of frustration at the doctor. Or even a nurse if she came as the messenger. In the door was neither. 

“Hello,” Sweetie Belle said as she pushed her way into the room. “I heard you were here. I’m here doing my volunteer time. Can I get you anything? We have comp… comp… comp… oh bother, we have free coffee that I could bring you.” 

Swallowing his words, Bucky said nothing but offered the foal a smile. One of his brightest and most promising students. Sweetie showed signs of being gifted with magic.

“Nothing for me, thanks,” Berry said to Sweetie Belle. 

“Hiya Sentinel… Diamond Tiara was just talking about you this morning at breakfast. She’s upset about the mistletoe incident,” Sweetie Belle said, looking up at Sentinel in his chair. 

Sentinel’s pen clattered to the floor and Sweetie Belle was quick to pick it up in her magic. The filly held it up and offered it to him, giggling, it was clear she took pleasure in watching Sentinel squirm. 

“What happened under the mistletoe?” Derpy asked, glad for a distraction. 

“Nothing… nothing happened under the mistletoe, and this is why Diamond Tiara is upset. Sentinel took off—” 

“There were too many other ponies around… all of them looking at us!” Sentinel said as he stuffed his journal and his pen into his bag. 

Giggling, Sweetie Belle leaned closer to Sentinel. “It was a holiday party… of course there were other ponies around.” 

“Sentinel, you just can’t stand up a filly like that,” Derpy said as she tried to get herself more comfortable upon the examination bed. “You probably really hurt her feelings.” 

Slouching, Sentinel sighed, unable to look Derpy in the eye. His ears drooped and he set his bag upon the floor beside his chair. He gave one look to his father, a silent plea for help or at least some support. 

Bucky was too busy looking at the clock upon the wall to notice. 

“Diamond Tiara’s feelings are fine… but I gotta warn you Sentinel, she is plotting her revenge. I’ve read her diary—” 

“You shouldn’t read that, that’s private, it’s a violation of trust!” Sentinel said, sitting up straight and looking at Sweetie Belle. 

“She gave it to me and told me to read it on the page it was opened to for a laugh.” 

“Oh…” Sentinel, looking defeated, slumped down in his chair once more. Making mental notes, Sentinel planned to write this down. Yet more evidence of the filly conspiracy. They were all in this together, a united front to bring misery and hardship to colts everywhere. The proof was everywhere. 

“Good luck… I gotta be going. Today I’m going to sing for the recovery ward. All this snow and ice has caused a lot of ponies to fall down and break stuff… they need cheering up,” Sweetie Belle said.



 

“Ma’am?” 

Bucky was about to deliver a tirade, a full blown rant when he saw the doctor, but Berry’s sharp poke into his ribs cut him off. He bit down on his lip instead, glared once at Berry, got a glare of equal intensity in return, and then he turned his attention upon Derpy. 

“So what’s wrong? Are my foals okay?” Derpy asked in a raspy voice that sounded as though it was on the verge of tears. 

“Ma’am, I’d like to start off by reassuring you that your foals are fine. Perfect health,” Doctor Wagoneer replied. He smiled a broad smile and his wings flapped against his sides. 

“Then what’s wrong? Why am I hurting so much?” Derpy asked. 

The doctor’s smile vanished and he became very serious. “We’ve been trying to figure that out all morning. Which is why we’ve had x-rays, blood work, and we’ve done all of these tests. Sorry getting the results have taken so long, but we have some answers.” 

“Well, I for one would like to hear them,” Bucky said, feeling another painful stab in his ribs as he spoke. He ignored Berry, his eyes locked upon Derpy as his worry grew. 

“A long time ago, according to your medical records, you had a symphysiotomy. There was a lot of damage done by this procedure. And it is the cause of your troubles now.” The doctor moved closer to the examination bed and leaned his head down close to Derpy. “There was lots of soft tissue damage. What you are feeling is some severe arthritis, aggravated by your condition. Those fat healthy foals of yours are putting a lot of pressure on your pelvis.” 

“But I’m okay?” Derpy asked. 

“Well, you are as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. This is only going to get worse as your pregnancy continues. I am afraid the pain will become quite unbearable. I am going to have to insist upon total bed rest—” 

“But I have foals to look after… and a whole house to keep up with,” Derpy said, her voiced a now panicked whimper. 

The doctor turned and looked at Sentinel. “Ma’am, if I may be so bold, might I suggest that you get your foals, the ones capable of doing so anyway, to wait upon you and look after your needs for once? This one right here looks capable.” 

“I will do whatever is required of me,” Sentinel offered. 

The doctor nodded. “Good on you… your mother is going to need your help.” 

“But I don’t want to be stuck in the bed,” Derpy said in protest. 

Berry Punch rubbed her stomach and fidgeted in her chair. “Is the cold weather making her condition worse? I mean, my uncle Barley has rheumatoid, the cold does awful things to him. Is there anything we can do to help her feel better?” 

“The cold will make her condition worse… I’m going to give you an info packet… there are some exercises she will need to do on a daily basis that will help a little,” the doctor replied. 

“What does this mean for my ability to have foals in the future?” Derpy asked. 

The doctor froze, unprepared for the question. After a moment of not responding, one hind hoof tapped upon the tile floor, a light nervous tapping. “Ma’am, you’ll still be able to have foals, but I can’t recommend it. It is going to make your condition worse. The strain will only further damage the soft tissues. By the end of this pregnancy, this is going to feel unbearable.” 

Bucky’s ears perked forward as Derpy made a hiccuping sound. He watched as her barrel hitched. He saw her eyes close. Her ears dropped, first one, then the other, and then her barrel hitched once more. 

There was a clatter of hooves as Sentinel fell out of his chair, scrabbled across the tile floor, and then jumped upon onto the examination bed with his mother. 

“I would carefully consider all future pregnancies. They will come at a price. Each one will be worse than the last… and as old age sets in, this could make it quite difficult to walk later. There are, of course, other complications from having pain in that area,” the doctor said. He watched as the grey mare squeezed the colt and he cleared his throat, trying to hold back his own growing emotional state. “This is the reason why we avoid performing symphysiotomies now. There are always complications later, trouble, it leaves behind lasting lingering damage.” 

“Anything else, doctor?” Berry Punch asked. 

“I’m going to schedule an appointment for you with an immunologist I know in Canterlot and she has an office here in Ponyville. Don’t worry, she makes house calls,” the doctor replied. 

“Immunologist?” Confused, Bucky blinked. 

“In certain cases of arthritis, seeing an immunologist can help, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Think of it as exploring all possible options to make your wife feel better, or at least ease her suffering a bit,” the doctor replied, offering an explanation to try and end Bucky’s confusion. 

“So… I have one moody griffoness… one kelpie that almost lives in a bathtub… and now one pegasus that is bedridden… okay, I can handle this… somehow,” Bucky said and then he took a deep breath. 

“I’m still in pretty good shape, we have Lyra and Bon Bon, and the doctor is right about one thing.” Berry Punch leaned over and looked Bucky in the eye. 

“And that is?” Bucky asked. 

“We have foals we can put to work. I know Dinky will help. Piña already helps out Thistle any way she can,” Berry replied. 

“Looking after Harper and Cadance is a full time job for several ponies. They’ve become troublesome,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “I’m going to tell Luna that I’m no longer available for anything.” 

“We’ll get through this the same way we get through everything else,” Berry said. “As a family. No need to panic just yet.” 

“I am very sorry to have been the bearer of bad news. If I can, I’d like to talk to you a bit about the little things you can do that will make a difference. Things you can do that will keep Derpy comfortable and happy…” 
	
	
> Chapter 505
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The wind howled enough to make the whole house shudder. Not long ago, Cadance had awoken most of the house with her shrieking, yet another nightmare, something that was happening more and more. It was getting to the point where Bucky was getting worried enough about it, enough to speak to Luna about the issue. 

The day had been long. After coming home for the hospital, it took plenty of time and effort to get Derpy into the bed and make her stay there. Harper kept having accidental discharges, leaving the foal in the most miserable state. Bittersweet had been zapped several times and Harper now cried even before the discharges happened, aware that she was hurting those she loved and adored. 

And now, it was proving to be a long night as well. Bon Bon and Lyra were upstairs, tucking little foals back into bed and trying to calm them. Cadance had powerful lungs and when she was scared, she let everypony know it. 

Bucky held her close, trying to get her to go to sleep, rocking back and forth in the rocking chair. Cadance snuffled and hiccuped, not wanting to go back to sleep, but it was a battle she was losing as she kept nodding off. Harper had already fallen back to sleep. 

The hinges on the door creaked, a faint sound, and Bucky turned to see who had entered the nursery. Sentinel crept through the doorway, not making a sound, and then moved around the room, sniffing as he went. 

“Sentinel, it has been a long day, you should be asleep,” Bucky said, worried enough already about his wives and his foals. “I understand that it is difficult for us to sleep at night because of our natures, but I am going to need your help tomorrow… I need you well rested.” 

Lifting his head, Sentinel turned to look at his father. “I understand. I promise I’ll be well rested. Father… I want to find out what is scaring Cadance so badly.” 

“Foals have bad dreams, such is life,” Bucky replied. 

“Still, father, I would like to know.” Sentinel sat down upon the floor near the rocking chair and peered at the tiny foal his father was holding. 

“I’ll admit, I’m worried enough that I’ve thought about telling Luna.” Bucky realised that Sentinel had grown at some point. He seemed larger somehow. His colt was getting bigger. Growing older. “Sentinel, if you want to go in there, I won’t stop you. Luna tells me that you are gaining skill and confidence. I’m not so good at dream walking.” 

“Luna says you don’t take your abilities seriously enough and she grows frustrated with you,” Sentinel said, his eyes flashing in the faint light that came from the hall. 

“That’s just not true.” Bucky held back his frustration, not wishing to take it out on Sentinel. “I have so many demands upon my time… I am needed in so many places. Luna has me doing so many tasks… I just had to go to Vanhoover to take care of business there. There just isn’t time to study and Luna expects too much from me.” 

“I know father… there are a lot of demands placed upon me as well, but you still require good grades from me in school. So I understand…” 

It took a moment, but Bucky realised that what he heard was as close as Sentinel would come to complaining. He felt a twinge of guilt. He did expect a great deal from Sentinel. He pulled a blanket from off a shelf using his magic and then covered himself and Cadance. The foal was almost asleep now, but still fighting to keep her eyes open. 

In her crib, Harper farted, causing Sentinel to turn and blink. After a moment, his nostrils crinkled. Sentinel turned and looked at his father once more. 

“Too much cinnamon and applesauce,” Sentinel said, keeping voice low and soft. 

Shaking his head, Bucky closed his eyes. “Sentinel, it horrifies me that you can tell what Harper had for dinner after smelling her farts.” He opened his eyes and looked down at Sentinel. In his embrace, Cadance slipped into slumber. “Be ready Sentinel. When she starts dreaming, get in there and start having a look around.”



 

The city around him was not a place that Sentinel had ever been, but he knew which city it was. The Crystal Empire. He had seen plenty of pictures in books. He looked around and felt his hackles rising. 

Something was off about this place. Something was here that did not belong here. 

In the distance, alarms were sounding and all around him ponies were fleeing, running away from something, trying to take shelter. The smell of smoke was in the air. To avoid the stampede, Sentinel took wing. This was a dream, the rules were different here. Flying wasn’t so much wing strength as it was force of will. 

Gaining altitude, Sentinel saw something that unnerved him. In the distance, swooping in over the city, a large dragon was attacking. There were flames and fire everywhere. Sentinel could smell charred flesh and so many other things. He looked around him, trying to figure out what was happening, trying to orient himself and gain familiarity with his surroundings. 

There were unicorns and pegasi attacking other ponies. Sentinel realised he was in the middle of a battle. A lump formed in his throat. Feeling desperate, he began to search the skies for Cadance, knowing all too well what was about to happen, and soon, if it hadn’t happened already. 

This was a dream… the rules were different here. Luna kept stressing that fact with every lesson. Sentinel wondered what he could do. Almost in a state of panic, Sentinel began to feel the first prickles of fear as he realised that he was not alone here, there was something else. 

A pink streak flew overhead, trailing a pink contrail behind it. 

Cadance! 

Her horn crackled with unimaginable power as she moved in defense of her subjects. Sentinel could feel it, it radiated off of her, and he realised that her final actions that day had been fueled by love, perhaps the strongest form of love there was, the kind where you are willing to lay down your life for another. 

“NO!” Sentinel cried as he went streaking off after Cadance. 

The dragon banked, rolled, and then dove to meet Cadance in the air. A bubble of pink light formed around Cadance. Sentinel watched in horror as the dragon belched out a cloud of flame and roasted the ponies still out in the streets below it. 

There was an angry screech from Cadance. 

Unable to look away, Sentinel watched as the dragon’s breath and Cadance’s spell collided. He saw Cadance burn, consumed in flames, but he did not see the dragon die. Something had changed. Cadance was still alive somehow. He watched as she plummeted to the earth, still burning. 

“You can do nothing! Now watch as I destroy everything you love!” the dragon roared. 

Sentinel heard Cadance let out a pitiful sounding wail of agony. Red crept into his vision. He felt his muscles twitching. A strange copper taste filled his mouth. 

“WHATEVER YOU ARE YOU DON’T HURT MY SISTER!” 

Streaking forward, Sentinel accelerated at impossible speeds, moving towards the dragon. Only Sentinel knew it wasn’t a dragon. It was something else, something playing around with Cadance’s memories, something that was feeding off of her fear. 

The dragon whirled around, its tail lashing out. There was a thunderous crack as it struck Sentinel and sent the lunar pegasus flying. The dragon began to laugh, a sound that seemed as though it came from some horrible abyssal plane. 

Sentinel smashed through a building, then another, and then a third. Everything hurt. As he kept reminding himself, the rules were different here. Buried under rubble, his body felt crushed. Sentinel couldn’t remember ever feeling this much pain, ever. Even when Sombra had burned him… that pain was nothing compared to what he felt now. 

The pain was fuel for his rage. Shaking himself, Sentinel pushed his way up out of the rubble, spread his wings, and took flight, heading straight for the dragon. Sentinel reminded himself that this was a dream and this was a reality based upon the force of will. Fighting here was different. 

When Sentinel broke the sound barrier, the windows around him shattered. The buildings in his wake rippled and shook. The pavement below him bunched up like a loose carpet. Sentinel stuck his front hooves out and believed himself to be invulnerable just as he slammed into the side of the dragon. 

The collision was terrific; Sentinel struck with enough force that he broke reality. The world around him shattered. The buildings broke apart and fell away. The ground below him broke open. The dragon flew apart into meaty bits, still bound by the last vestiges of what passed as rules in this realm. 

Sentinel hovered in a black void. There was nothing here now, nothing at all. Sentinel closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to push his rage back, knowing the time for rage was over. In his mind, he focused upon a mental image of the moon. 

When he opened his eyes, there was a moon upon the horizon. Stars lit up the black void. Sentinel looked around. He could still sense… something. 

“Show yourself! Don’t make me hunt you!” 

In front of Sentinel, darkness swirled and took shape. Something almost pony-like formed, hovering in the void. It was black, had wings, and stunk of sulphur. Its eyes were two glowing red coals and it’s hooves were made of fire. 

Sentinel was not fooled by what he saw. “So this is how you want to look. Too much of a coward to show your real form? If you had any sort of real power at all, you would have crushed me… I broke through your illusion, you damned imp!” 

The creature hissed, burning sparks shot from its mouth, but it kept its distance from Sentinel. The two predators eyed one another, sizing each other up, each waiting for the other to do something. 

“No one hurts my sisters! Now get out of here! Don’t you come back! I’ll be waiting if you do… and Luna might be waiting with me! If you come back here and try to feed ever again, I will have my father conjure you up out of Tartarus so I can rip you limb from limb myself!” 

“Our time is coming!” the imp replied, its voice a demonic screeching hiss. 

“If you want a fight, I could arrange to have the fight brought to you… tell me, what happens when a demon dies in Tartarus?” 

The imp made no reply, it only bared its teeth, growled, and then it vanished, leaving Sentinel all alone in the void. Closing his eyes, Sentinel focused himself, concentrating, trying to bring all of his senses under control. He could no longer feel the intruding presence. He was alone here. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the nursery, but still in the dream. 

“Cadance?” Sentinel sniffed, he could smell her, sense her, and he wondered where she was. She was hiding. He could smell fear. As he looked around, the full realisation that Cadance had been reliving her death over and over settled into his mind. 

Sentinel shivered. 

“Cadance, come on out, it’s gone, it can’t hurt you. Big brother has chased it away,” Sentinel said in a soft voice, hoping to coax Cadance out. Mental fatigue began to manifest; warping reality was difficult, tiring, and Sentinel still had much to learn. 

There was a fearful snuffling and muted sobbing. Sentinel’s ears perked. He moved towards the crib, dropped down to his belly, and peered underneath. He found Cadance. She had pushed herself into the corner and was cowering. 

“Cadance, it’s me… I promise. This isn’t a trick,” Sentinel said. He heaved a sigh and resigned himself to waiting. “Come on Cadance… I’m your brother… I read you stories and let you drool all over me.” 

The alicorn foal did nothing to come out from her hiding place. 

Coming to the conclusion that there was nothing he could do, Sentinel decided it was best for him to leave. He looked at Cadance. “I’m going to leave now. I hate leaving you all alone like this, but I don’t want to try and grab you, which might scare you. So I’m going. I’ll tell father what happened. Hopefully, when I pop out, I’ll take the remnants of this dream with me.” 

Cadance, still in the corner, continued her muffled sobbing. 

“When you wake up, I’ll be right beside you… I promise…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 506
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mama?” 

With a snort, Bucky awoke. He blinked a few times, his half awake brain focused on the fact that he could feel his right eyelids moving over his right eye. When one was waking up, one focused on odd things on occasion. 

He had fallen asleep in the rocking chair. Bucky yawned and looked around. Sentinel was sleeping on a cushion placed next to the crib. Bucky had covered him with a blanket and then at some point, Bucky himself had drifted off. It would be dawn soon. Bucky could feel it. 

“Mama, help, gotta go…” 

As Bucky slipped from the rocking chair and got to his hooves, his spine crackled. Wincing, Bucky swallowed his pained cry and focused on what needed to be done. 

“Go pee pot!” 

Still not quite awake, Bucky had a half awake musing, a part of his mind wondering just how parents understood their offspring’s nonsensical utterances. For anypony else hearing Harper, it might be confusing garble, but Bucky understood what she wanted. 

“Go pee pot now… want food.” 

“Yes, Harper… you want to go to the bathroom and then you want to be fed, hold on,” Bucky said as he lifted Harper from the crib. He peered into the crib. Cadance was sound asleep. Cadance seemed peaceful enough and Harper’s insistent pleading had not disturbed her. Harper was biting her hoof and wiggling. 

Backing away from the crib, Bucky reminded himself not to step on Sentinel. Sentinel had come out of the dream realm with quite a story to tell, a story that disturbed Bucky a great deal. It was something that Bucky felt that Luna needed to know about and he had sent her a message. 

She had not yet replied. 



 

The kitchen light was on. Bucky moved with caution, Harper was underhoof. Bucky made his way down the hallway, moving from the bathroom to the kitchen, mindful not to step on the foal that just had to be right up underneath him. 

Harper was little, she had no concept of personal space, and it seemed that she had to be as close as possible. Bucky resigned himself to being careful, knowing full well there would come a day when things would change and Harper would become distant, wanting her own space. For now, Bucky was content to have her close. 

The little foal was now half a year old. Bucky wondered where the time had gone. 

“Good morning,” Semillon said as Bucky entered the kitchen. 

“Good morning,” Bucky replied as he scooped Harper up in his magic. He dropped her into her chair, leaned in close, kissed her once upon the cheek, lifted his head, and then he sniffed. The scent of fresh biscuits filled his nostrils. 

“Food?” Harper asked, sounding hopeful that there would be food. Her stomach gurgled. 

“Yes Harper, I promised you food. Anything special that you want? Now remember, if you say something silly, I’ll just fix something random and it might not be something you like.” Bucky looked Harper in the eye, noting her intelligence. Berry and Derpy both said that offering her choices was important, so Bucky resigned himself to doing so, even though Harper sometimes came up with some odd answers. She had once requested rocks for breakfast. 

“Cookies?” Harper asked. 

Semillon began to chuckle as she placed a cup of coffee upon the table for Bucky. 

“You know what Harper, cookies it is. Oatmeal cookies can’t be much different than a bowl of oatmeal. Semillon, do we still have some oatmeal cookies?” 

The cook nodded. “We do. The kind you like actually, with the sour little cranberries.” 

“Fantastic. I get to watch Harper pucker up and make her funny little faces as she eats them,” Bucky said as he climbed up into a chair and sat beside Harper. Bucky felt that this was responsible parenting. It was all about picking your battles. Harper would gobble the cookies down without complaint, eat her breakfast, and Bucky could have a quiet moment to drink his coffee. It was win-win for all those involved. Cookies weren’t all that different than a bowl of oatmeal, once you factored in the sugar added, milk, butter, it was all almost cookie ingredients anyway. 

“The biscuits are in the oven. I’ll be back when it is time to pull them out,” Semillon said as she gave Harper a few oatmeal craisin cookies and then set down a glass with a straw in it near Bucky. “Be mindful of Harper… she’s figured out that she can squirt stuff out of her mouth. She got Bon Bon the other day, she is a spectacular shot.” 

“Oh bother… I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“Right in the eye too. Poor Bon Bon. Then she got Lyra. Lyra was too busy laughing to defend herself.” Semillon gave Harper a wary glance. “She’s a right funny little foal.” The unicorn mare trotted out of the kitchen, chuckling as she went. 

Alone in the kitchen with Harper, Bucky turned to look at his foal. “Would you squirt me?” 

Harper, her mouth full of cookie, nodded. “Yes.” 

“You would?” Bucky asked, a smile coming his muzzle. 

“No?” Harper replied, looking a little confused. “Yes?” 

“Not all that long ago, you were a fuzzy little lump that cried a lot,” Bucky said as he lifted up his coffee cup. He lifted up another bite of cookie for Harper and she took it. “You were a fuzzy little lump and I wasn’t always sure what to do with you. You slept a lot, you cried a lot, and you were just sort of there. Now look at you.” Bucky contemplated his foal. “Just look at you now. You’re talking. Sort of. You’re showing signs of being reasonably intelligent. Or perhaps that is just my hopeful perspective. You’ve become interesting. You are showing signs of having a personality.” 

“Lump,” Harper said around a mouthful of cookie, spraying crumbs everywhere. 

“I can sort of have a conversation with you… some sort of milestone has been passed and you’ve gone from being a lump to being a pony.” Bucky ignored the cookie crumbs now dotting his pelt. He took a sip of coffee and watched as Harper continued to eat. His ears perked when he heard hooves. 

A moment later, Sentinel came into the kitchen. 

“I’ve been relieved of my duty. The Empress awoke and wanted to be fed,” Sentinel said as he crossed through the threshold and into the kitchen. “Father, might I try a cup of coffee?” 

Bucky did not reply. He looked down at Sentinel, looked over at the coffee pot, and then back at Sentinel. Saying nothing, Bucky slipped from his chair, walked over to the archway where Sentinel stood, looked down the hall, and listened. 

“Father, what are you doing?” Sentinel asked. 

“Seeing if there are any responsible ponies about that may inflict grievous bodily harm upon me for what I am about to do,” Bucky replied. 

“You could always tell me no…” 

Returning to the table, Bucky sat down. Using his magic, he poured Sentinel a cup of coffee and set it down upon the table just as Sentinel was climbing up into a chair. Bucky raised his eyebrow and looked Sentinel in the eye.

“Cream and sugar?” Bucky asked. 

“I dunno… I’ve never had coffee before. Can I try it plain?” Sentinel replied. 

“I drink it black sometimes… but I like mine with cream and sugar.” Bucky watched as Sentinel leaned over the mug of black coffee and sniffed. Feeling nervous, Bucky looked over at the entrance to the kitchen, expecting to see one of his wives giving him a look of severe disapproval. 

“Milk?” Harper asked. 

Aware that this could be an ambush, Bucky lifted the glass with the straw in it up and held it out for Harper to get a drink. Her cheeks sunk in as she applied suction and for a moment, she was so adorable that Bucky found it difficult to keep his guard up. He heard Harper swallow and then she pulled her head away. Still watching her, Bucky saw Harper’s head drop down and Harper picked up a broken off bit of cookie from off of the tray. He turned back towards Sentinel just in time to watch the colt shudder. 

“You okay?” Bucky asked. 

“Stronger than I thought it would be,” Sentinel replied. Dropping his head, he slurped some coffee from out of his cup and then smacked his lips. “I like it.” 

His eyes lingering on Sentinel, Bucky thought of everything that Sentinel had said. The imp and the ominous warning. The fact that Cadance was having nightmares of her own death. He drank some of his own coffee and watched as Sentinel kept slurping and shuddering. 

Outside, the wind howled, causing the house to creak. 

“You have a big day ahead of you Sentinel,” Bucky said in a low voice. “You will be acting in my stead. I know you’ll make me proud. Try not to worry, you’ll have Lugus and Yew Wood with you.” 

“That’s right… you won’t be going today… I completely forgot about that.” Sentinel’s brows furrowed as he sat up straight and looked at his father. “Today is the big day. Ponyville’s orphanarium gets the big holiday delivery… and you have to stay here.” Sentinel heaved a disappointed sigh, knowing full well just what this meant to his father. 

“Twilight will be with you and she will be giving a speech. I saw the rough draft, I have no idea why she wanted me to read it, she’s better at this stuff than I will ever be… but it will be all about the importance of sharing and friendship and a message about the history of the holiday. The guard will be there and you will be in charge.” 

There was a loud gulp from Sentinel. “Certainly Lugus is far more suited—” 

“Sentinel, don’t worry. You can’t screw this up and everything will be fine. The guards will be delivering the toys, the treats, the supplies, and all you need to do is stand there and just be yourself. The guards know what to do. But you are acting in my stead as my squire. This puts you in charge.” Taking a deep breath, Bucky tried to reassure his colt. “You’ll be fine. This is very important Sentinel… important to me and I know you’ll be fine.” 

“Yes…” Sentinel said, nodding his head. “You’ve been under fire in the papers recently because of your decision to use the guard as a parcel delivery service. I don’t understand how ponies can be so angry about it.” 

“Sentinel, the guard wants to do this. These are all volunteers. They wanted to get decked out in their best armor and formal officers uniforms and show the public that they are more than mindless grunts that stand around doing nothing all day. I’ll tell Lugus that you might need some help.” 

“Lugus,” Harper said. “Peekaboo?” 

Turning to look at Harper, Bucky smiled. “Peekaboo is upstairs with her parents. She’s a big foal now. No more nursery. One day, you’ll be a big foal too.” 

“No.” Harper shook her head and banged her front hooves upon the tray. 

“With the weather being the way it is, I suspect that the guard are probably the only ponies that could move this much stuff around reliably. You think everything will get to where it is going?” Sentinel asked. 

“Everything will be fine,” Bucky replied. “I have faith in the guard. I know they have been looking forward to this… and I also know that there is no force in Equestria that could stop them from doing their duty.” 

“I still don’t understand why there are ponies upset about you using the guards to deliver holiday gifts to orphans,” Sentinel said. The colt drank down more coffee and then look over at Harper. 

“Sentinel, the world is full of arseholes,” Bucky said. 

“It certainly is,” Semillon said as she pranced into the kitchen. “Stupid, stupid arseholes that fail to understand that the guard is suffering a public image crisis. Morons, cretins, and imbeciles that fail to understand that when the guard shows up with presents, packages, and holiday goodies, a lot of these foals are going to remember this act of kindness for the rest of their lives… and many of them might grow up and join the guard, just so they too, can do nice things. So this isn’t just about changing the guard now, but changing the future of the guard as well… and your father was very clever to come up with this idea.” 

Unaware that his cook was so understanding of his plans, Bucky’s jaw dropped open. 

“I will be there today helping out, along with Violet Velvet. I’m proud to do my part. Going to be a lovely day. Been looking forward to this for a while,” Semillon said as she pulled the biscuits out of the oven. 

Recovering from his state of stunned shock, Bucky recovered his senses. “Well, there you go… see Sentinel, everything is going to be fine. Not only will you have Lugus to help you, but Violet as well. I wasn’t sure if she would be back from Canterlot in time. Trains have been off schedule lately because of the ice and the weather…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 507
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Beside him, Derpy was dozing, almost in a state of sleep but not quite, her eyes were closed and her barrel rose and fell with a rhythmic regular pattern. Bucky could hear Berry Punch in the new bathroom, the one constructed for Thistle, it had an oversized tub and was connected directly to the bedroom. Berry and Thistle were talking to one another in low voices, saying something that Bucky couldn’t quite make out. Buried under a pile of pillows, Belisama was napping. 

It was hibernation weather, or such was the claim of many of the old timers. With boredom came drowsiness, a need to sleep, to while away the winter hours in a comatose state of warm bliss. 

Cadance and Harper were also in the bed with him. Cadance was content to snooze next to Derpy but Harper was not in the mood for a nap. She was in one of her inquisitive moods. 

“What wing?” Harper asked, pointing at Derpy.

Opening one eye, Bucky looked at Harper. The foal often mixed up her who, what, when, where, and why questions, one of her many quirks along with her absolute refusal to acknowledge masculine pronouns. 

“What wing?” Harper asked again. The foal’s eyes crossed and she looked upwards at her own horn. “What horn?” 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky opened his other eye and then chuckled from seeing Harper’s face. “Why does mama have wings and why do you have a horn?” 

“Yes,” Harper replied, uncrossing her eyes to look at Bucky. “What wing?” 

“Mama is a pegasus. A pegasus has wings. You are a unicorn. Unicorns have horns.” 

“What?” 

“Why? Because that is just how it is, that’s why.” Bucky thought the look of concentration upon Harper’s face was comical. Harper was chewing on her lip while trying to process this information. 

“What wings, what horn?” Harper asked as she wobbled over to Cadance and bumped her, waking Cadance up. 

Cadance, disturbed from her nap, opened her eyes and looked around. She snorted, shook her head and then looked at Bucky. It was clear that Cadance was unhappy about being woke up from her nap. 

“Cadance is an alicorn. She has both wings and a horn.” Bucky racked his mind, hoping to think of some better explanation, but none seemed forthcoming. 

“No horn. Want wings,” Harper said as she turned her head and looked down at her side. 

“Well, you really don’t get a choice in the matter.” As Bucky spoke, he heard Derpy begin to giggle in her half awake half asleep state. 

“No horn… wings.” Harper sat down and scowled at Bucky. “No zap.” 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed the side of his neck, his talon-tips rubbing over the place where powerful jaws had once clamped down on his neck and fangs had sank in. “Harper, the zapping problem will get better… I know you feel bad about it, but almost every little unicorn goes through a few spurts of magical growth. You have a horn. You’re kinda stuck with it. That’s just how it is.” 

Harper let out a wail and pounded her front legs into the mattress. “NO!” She fell over on her back and then kicked all four legs around in the air, working herself up to a tantrum. 

Cadance, who only wanted to go back to sleep, began to cry. 

Bucky saw a flash of amber as one of Derpy’s eyes opened just a tiny bit. Her tail twitched, swishing from side to side a bit, and her sides shook with laughter. Bucky, who had endured a long and trying morning, wasn’t so sure what was so funny. He watched as one of Derpy’s wings extended and Derpy pulled Cadance close, trying to shush her. 

All of this was a lesson that little foals were unreasonable little creatures. Harper, for all of her developing intelligence, for all of her personality, for all of her expression, still had trouble showing and telling the world how she felt. Being less than a year old, she had fallen back upon the only way she could express her feelings that life was unfair. 

Belisama’s head popped out of the pillow pile, her crest held high. She blinked a few times, shook her head to clear away her sleepiness, and then let out an irritated peep. 

“Somepony needs a nap I think,” Bucky said. He raised his eyebrow. Derpy was still laughing. Was this normal? Was this funny? He had spent plenty of time with Harper, he had seen a few squalls, but nothing quite like this. 

Harper’s response to Bucky’s words was a piercing wail of frustration, followed by a shriek, and then Harper shouted, “No… no nap!” 

“Yep, naptime,” Berry Punch said from within the bathroom. 

There was a crackle, a hiss, and a pop. Bucky felt every hair on his body stand on end. She had done it again. Derpy was still laughing and for a moment Bucky was jealous of her natural lightning resistance. The electric surge still caused Derpy’s mane to fluff out however. 

Reaching out his right hoof, Bucky scooped up Harper and pulled her closer, the foal kicking and fussing every inch of the way. He was shocked once more and he felt his jaw clench tight for a moment. He knew Harper wasn’t doing this on purpose, these little surges kept happening, brought about by any sort of emotional state, from anger to laughter. 

“Harper bad…” 

The stop was as sudden as the start. The sobbing ceased. The shrieking ended. Harper was sniffling and had her eyes squeezed shut. Bucky’s feelings shifted from mild irritation to pity. As he watched, Harper pulled her legs to her body and curled into a little ball of misery. 

Cadance on the other hoof, was still just warming up. Even though she was covered by Derpy’s wing, Cadance was inconsolable. She writhed, kicked, and flapped her little wings as she bawled, upset about being disturbed during her nap. 

“I will never understand why having foals is so popular… sure, making them is a lot of fun, but raising them… this is awful,” Bucky said in a dull flat voice as his ears drooped down, falling to hang beside his face. He drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and wished he understood why Derpy was still laughing. 





The house was now quiet, more or less, which made Bucky happy. The past several hours had been trying. One foal would be almost asleep when the other would decide it was time to pick up from where they had left off in their tantrum. After a while, both had just passed out from exhaustion, which was normal, or so Derpy had told him. 

Now alone in the farmhouse library, Bucky tried to collect his thoughts. Vanhoover was still on his mind, his trip there had been troubling. Bucky began to wonder if he had rendered the proper punishment to Mignon Croix. He thought of his own trying morning, grinned, and then felt that justice had been delivered upon Mignon. Mignon had done some bad things while trying to do the right thing. 

Shuddering at a painful memory, Bucky lifted a highball glass full of rum and ice cubes to his lips. He drank, gulping it down, shuddered again, and then set the glass down beside him. He knew what Mignon had seen. Bucky had seen it as well, in both Mignon’s memory and with his own eyes. When Bucky had gone into the orphanage there had been a foal with most of the soft bits chewed off by rats. No lips, no eyelids, no ears, no genitals. Closing his eyes, Bucky tried to make the horrible mental images go away. Shaking, feeling sick, Bucky was glad that he was alone during this moment, not wanting anypony to see him. 

What Mignon had seen had been so bad that the poor stallion had developed a mental block. Bucky was not so lucky. The images, both what Mignon had seen and what Bucky had seen still roamed his mind. 

Try as he might, Bucky found that he could not hold back. It had been a difficult morning. Derpy’s problems were fresh in his mind. He lifted his glass once more as the tears began to sting his eyes and his breath caught in his throat. 

Lost in his own thoughts, sobbing, Bucky did not hear the library door open. 

“Bucky?” 

Hearing his name being said, Bucky at once tried to regain his composure. Reaching up with his foreleg, he rubbed at his eyes, trying to scrub away tears that would not stop. 

“Bucky, I came to speak you… about your duties…” 

“Luna… I need time… I need time for myself and to spend with my family. I’m sorry, but I cannot help you right now—” 

“Hush Buckminster, be silent and calm yourself,” Luna replied as she crossed the room and then took a seat on a small sofa facing Bucky. “Look, I know what happened. I was just talking with Berry Punch. She told me everything. I wanted to speak with you and put your mind at ease.” 

Sniffling, Bucky wiped his nose on his foreleg. 

“Vanhoover is troubling you as well?” Luna asked. 

Bucky nodded. 

“After reading the report, I found myself most disturbed. The Lunar Court is performing a full investigation as we speak. Dreams, memories, all of which are being sorted through. All of those who worked within the city government that were aware of the problem but stood back and profited are going to be tried for criminal negligence, embezzlement… and anything else I might be able to think of. My sister asked that I make an example out of them.” 

“Thank you for telling me Luna, that makes me feel better.” Bucky poured another glass of rum and then he lifted the glass to his lips, closed his eyes, and guzzled it down all in one go. 

“When you have yourself together, I need for you to tell me about everything that happened with Cadance. I shall be speaking with Sentinel later when he comes home,” Luna said. Her eyes narrowed with concern as she studied Bucky. “Everything that has happened recently has been hard on you. I’ve been worried. You lied to me Buckminster.” 

“I’m sorry—” 

“You told me that you were okay and that you were holding yourself together. I can see that your statement was false.” Luna’s expression softened. “Bucky, you worry me. I spoke with Sunset Shimmer. She told me what happened.” 

“I’m not sorry for what I’ve done. I regret nothing, I’d do it again,” Bucky said. His lower lip was trembling and he wished it would stop. 

“Bucky, I am not angry and I am not about to scold you for what you did. But I am concerned. It has become clear that you are under a lot of stress.” Luna’s eyes glittered in the firelight as she stared at Bucky. 

“The rats were eating those foals Luna…” 

“Bucky, I know,” Luna replied. “Bucky, you hauled the city’s general manager and the comptroller for the city to the top of city hall, extracted a confession out of them under duress by hanging them by their fetlocks and allowing them to see the street below them, and then in full view of the city council, you dropped both of them.” 

“Sunset caught them. I knew she would—” 

“Buckminster, what happened to the gentle soul I once knew, the kind soul that refused to bring harm to his fellow ponies?” Luna asked. 

“No harm came to them,” Bucky replied. 

“Bucky, ponies can die from fear… we both know that. Sunset caught them after they had fallen almost twenty stories. The comptroller is still a gibbering wreck—” 

“HE SHOULD BE SCARED!” 

Luna blinked and noticed that the fire had gone out. It was cold enough to see her breath. Frost was now covering the room. Her horn flared as she lit the fire once more. She could hear Bucky’s raspy heavy breathing. She waited a few moments for him to calm. 

“Even if Derpy was not laid up in bed, I think it is time that you had a break. Twilight agrees with me. Your duties with the Black Cloaks are now suspended. From this moment onwards, until such a time that I believe you are fit, you are under an enforced period of rest and relaxation.” Luna took a deep breath and then let it out as a long, slow exhale. 

“Luna, they knew. They knew and they didn’t care. Those two knew everything that was going on, about the deaths, and they didn’t care. They kept funneling money away from where it was supposed to and foals died from what those two did. And not just foals… but the elderly in the nursing homes throughout the city as well. And they kept covering stuff up and destroying records… and rather than acknowledge that those foals died they just destroyed the records that those foals even existed,” Bucky said in a scratchy voice that was filled with rage. 

“Bucky, that may be the case, but it worries me that you’ve gone from being the stalwart protector to the pony that drops other ponies from off of the roof… we have better ways of dealing with criminals. I have been worried, you have not been quite right since you killed that unicorn that night...” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 508
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a faint creaking of hinges, Sentinel pushed open the door to the farmhouse library, having been told that he was expected upon his return home. When the door opened, a blast of heat struck him, making him feel somewhat light headed for a moment. The fire was roaring in the grate. He could see his father, his father did not look well. He watched as his father trembled. Had his father been crying? A cold prickle of fear crept along Sentinel’s spine as he made his way into the library. He saw Luna and froze. Remembering to bow his head, Sentinel offered Luna the respect he felt she was due. 

“Sentinel, there is no need to bow in private, I wish you would cease doing that,” Luna said in a soft voice. 

Luna’s voice didn’t quite seem normal to Sentinel. She was upset, sad perhaps. Sentinel’s ears perked. Luna’s heart was beating somewhat faster than usual. His father’s heartbeat was elevated as well. 

Sentinel lifted his head high and looked first at his father and then at Luna. “You wanted to see me?” Even as he was speaking, Sentinel could see Luna nodding. 

“I wanted to speak with you about what happened last night,” Luna said. “Please, take a seat… and stop being so formal.” 

Sentinel glanced around the room. He could smell alcohol. He noted his father’s empty glass. Beside the empty glass was an empty bottle and a second bottle which was half empty. He chose a seat close to his father, climbed up, and settled in. The seat was chosen because it offered a full view of Luna without turning his head. It was important to maintain eye contact when being addressed, the officer’s manual made that clear.

“Sentinel, what you did last night was foolish, reckless, dangerous, and you placed yourself in great risk.” 

Flinching, Sentinel ducked his head. His ears dropped down and he bit down on his lip with enough force to almost draw blood. The worst part was, Sentinel was expecting this. He knew that what he had done was everything Luna had said it was. He drew in a deep breath through flaring nostrils and awaited the scolding to come. 

“I am very proud of you for doing it.” 

Lifting his head to look at Luna, Sentinel had trouble believing his own ears. He blinked and his ears perked upwards a bit, rising up to stick out sideways. An intense feeling of confusion filled his mind. 

“Demons of any sort, be they arch-demons or even little imps, all of them are dangerous. This was an imp that had been feeding… at least from what I have been able to gather. Sentinel, he could have scrambled your brains. There were a thousand different ways that your confrontation could have gone wrong. But you persevered, you remained strong, and you banished it from Cadance’s mind.” 

Unable to help himself, Sentinel beamed, smiling a broad fang filled smile. 

“This is the sort of threat that the lunar guard and the Myrmidons exist to fight. During my long absence, the fight went poorly. Celestia did her best, but this is not a battlefield she has an advantage on.” Luna paused, shook her head, and closed her eyes for a moment. When her eyes opened once more, they were glittering in the firelight. “I have seen well trained Myrmidons laid low by crafty little imps… I have seen—” 

“What Luna is trying to say is, don’t get cocky. You got lucky and you won this fight. Don’t think it will always be so easy in the future,” Bucky said.

“Yes… but I was trying to explain it in a somewhat more gentle manner,” Luna said as she glanced at Bucky. “As well as adding a bit of praise, which I feel that you deserve.” 

“I am fully aware of the danger. Had it just been myself, retreat would have been the preferable option.” Sentinel’s smile faded but his fangs remained bared. “Nothing threatens my sisters.” Sentinel paused for a moment and became thoughtful. “Or any of my siblings for that matter. I’ll have little brothers soon.” 

“Risks sometimes have to be taken. The only thing that matters is keeping your family safe. You did the right thing Sentinel, Luna and I are both very proud of you.” 

The fire now burning inside of Sentinel was far hotter than the fire in the grate. It was the one thing he craved, the one thing he wanted more than anything else, it was what he worked for. His father’s praise. He closed his eyes as he felt a tightness in his barrel. 

“So how did everything go today?” Bucky asked. 

Opening his eyes, Sentinel turned to look at his father. “Things went well. Everything was delivered. There was a big party. The guard did their part to make the little fillies and colts feel special. There was a major violation of the regulations but I feel that it should be looked over.” 

“A major violation of the regulations?” Luna asked. 

Sentinel sat up straight and turned his attention to Luna. “Yes ma’am, but it should be forgiven, given the nature of the circumstances.” 

Luna sighed. “Just tell me what happened.” 

“The officers gathered together. Each of them removed their medals, badges of rank, insignias, laurels, and other bits of dress decoration. Each and every foal in the orphanage was given a little something as a memento, a little treasured keepsake… a reminder of today’s festivities. The officers were aware of the violation they were committing and after some discussion, they were fully prepared to accept the consequences,” Sentinel reported. 

Rolling her eyes, Luna shook her head. 

From over in his chair, Bucky chuckled and Sentinel felt worried, not able to gage Luna’s reaction. Once more, Sentinel’s ears drooped and fell down to rest beside his face. 

“Of all the violations they could be worried about… spitting in uniform… that happens regularly and nopony ever seems to care about that. Drunk and disorderly conduct while in uniform… nopony ever cares about that. But to worry about this of all things… I do not understand the guard at times,” Luna said. 

“The loss of symbols of rank is punishable by flogging,” Sentinel said in a low voice. 

“Is it?” Luna replied. For a moment her eyes went wide and then Luna regained her composure. “Oh… er, yes, yes it is. At some point, I need to see about removing that from the books.” 

“It is good to know that everything went well,” Bucky said. 

“Father?” Sentinel looked over at his father. 

“Yes?” 

“Father, I invited Violet Velvet and Helia to stay with us during the holiday. We have extra rooms. Helia was a big help today…” 

“I’m sure that Bon Bon and Lyra will be very happy about what you’ve done,” Bucky replied. “This is a big house, there is always room for a few more.” 



 

Staring out the window, Dinky watched as the large fluffy white flakes flew sideways. It was late afternoon but it was already dark outside. The snowfall never seemed to end. It let up a little now and then, but for the past week or so, it had been constant. 

Now, it seemed as though it was gaining intensity and there were fears of a major blizzard during the holiday. Dinky sighed. At least it was warm and comfortable indoors. She peered out her bedroom window, straining to see anything, and realised she couldn’t even see the school. Most of the students had gone home for the holidays, except for those that didn’t have homes to go to. At least they were getting a good holiday too, Dinky had eavesdropped enough to know that every student spending the holiday at the school was being cared for and no expense had been spared. 

Looking away from the window, Dinky turned and saw her sister Piña. Piña was meditating, her eyes were closed, and she was sitting on her haunches. Her front hooves were raised and held inches apart from one another. In between Piña’s front hooves was a small ball of flame, kept alive and burning through intense magical focus. Dinky was careful to never disturb Piña during these times, live flames were dangerous and a loss of control, a loss of focus, could be catastrophic. 

Turning her gaze to look out the window once more, Dinky wished that Hearth’s Warming would hurry up and get here. Waiting was awful. 



 

“Thistle? Thistle, love, you doing okay?” Bucky heard a soft cry from the bed where Thistle was laying, no longer in the enormous bath. He walked through the bedroom, his hooves making no sound. The lights were off, leaving the room completely dark. 

“Thistle has a really bad headache,” Derpy said in a soft whisper. 

“What about you? How are you feeling?" Bucky asked Derpy. 

“Those pills make me light headed and my mouth stays dry. Bucky, I’m worried that the pills will hurt the foals.” 

Derpy’s whimpered words filled Bucky with worry. He jumped up into the bed, careful not to jostle the two mares. “The doctor promised that the pills will have no chance to hurt the foals. You gotta stop worrying about that,” Bucky said as he settled down beside Derpy and Thistle. 

“They do help a little, I don’t hurt so much… I hate being stuck in the bed.” 

Thistle, grunting, lifted her head. “You don’t get to complain about being stuck in a bed.” The kelpie was grumpy, frustrated, and in a bad mood. “I hate headaches.” 

“Any day now,” Bucky said as he rested his head upon Thistle’s belly. 

“For the past week it is has been any day now.” 

Thistle’s retort was almost a snarl. Bucky rubbed his chin along the rounded curve of Thistle’s stomach, trying to bring her some comfort. 

“When this foal comes out, I’m going to hide in the bottom of the lake and I’m never going to have another foal, ever… and Bucky is never touching me again. Sorry Bucky, but it has to be this way.” 

“But Thistle… we had plans to have a whole bunch of little kelpies—”

“Nope… those plans are off,” Thistle said. “And stop rubbing my tummy… the last thing I need right now is to get turned on. I was turned on all morning because I could feel the pressure from the inside pressing up against my little filly boner from behind.” 

In the darkness, Bucky froze and raised an eyebrow. He heard Derpy giggling. “Filly boner?” 

“Well, it gets hard too… and then it sticks out… almost like it was inviting somepony to come up and give it a lick,” Thistle replied. 

“Filly boner… I… Thistle, I don’t know what to say.” Bucky reached out his right front leg and then rubbed his fetlock over Thistle’s thigh. 

Kicking out her other hind leg, Thistle farted, a loud trumpeting blast. “Ugh, that’s been in there for hours… I could feel it pressing in on my guts… I’m so glad it came out.” 

His nose crinkling, Bucky lifted his head away from Thistle’s stomach. Pregnant mares were sexy, pregnant mares were attractive, pregnant mares were Bucky’s favourite thing in the whole wide world… except when they weren’t. As Bucky had discovered, pregnancy was the ultimate test of love and marriage. 

This was one of those moments. 

It was easy to fall in love with a mare. It was easy to get said mare pregnant. It was difficult to share a bathroom with a pregnant mare taking a dump, as Bucky had discovered early on, when Berry Punch had sauntered in to use the toilet while he was in the shower. 

There were moments that tested the durability of a marriage, and Bucky found himself experiencing one right now. 

“Ugh, Thistle…” 

“Ew, she’s been eating chocolate again,” Derpy said. 

Unconcerned about the suffering of her bedmates, Thistle let rip once more. “Belisama shared her chocolate covered crickets with me.” 

Bucky rolled away from Thistle and laid on his back. “I want to find the jerk that claimed that sharing was caring… and a good idea.” As he was trying to get comfortable, a crushing weight rolled over on top of him. 

“Cuddle me.” 

“Derpy I’d love to but you need to get up… please?” 

“Bucky, your voice is all squeaky.” 

“Your hip bone is crushing my balls…” 

“Oh goodness Bucky, I’m sorry!” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 509
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky entered the kitchen, Semillon smiled at him. He smiled back, as much as his half awake and half aware state would allow. The kitchen smelled of something spicy. Green peppers, onions, garlic, and celery had been cooking. With a gentleness that seemed to defy his half awake and half aware state, Bucky put Harper into her highchair and then sat down at the table beside her. 

A cup of coffee was already waiting for him. 

“I made Harper some special cookies… I added granola and lots of little bits of minced dried fruit. They turned out dense. Heavy even. Used a bit of molasses and some of that yeast extract stuff that the doctor recommended for Harper’s stomach,” Semillon said. The older mare shook her head. “I still don’t understand how giving a foal that has problems with gas something that will cause more gas to help them.” 

“Digestive gut flora,” Bucky replied as he slumped over the table. “It is why she is supposed to eat yogurt and stuff with helpful bacteria. For whatever reason, she does not maintain her own colonies of helpful gut flora like you and I do.” 

Semillon pressed her lips together in a straight line as she looked at Harper. The cook was silent for a moment as she stood blinking, her nostrils flared and then her look of intense concerned relaxed into one of gentle affection. “Poor dear… you’re going to spend the rest of your life tooting your own horn, just like a pegasus. Little colts will either be impressed, jealous, or disgusted…” 

Hearing a pained cry, Semillon turned, feeling alarmed, and looked at Bucky. He was clutching his muzzle and groaning. A feeling of worry overtook her. Bucky looked miserable and she had no idea why. 

“Hot coffee almost came out my nose!” Bucky moaned, a wordless sound, and then rubbed his snoot with his talons. As he recovered, he watched as Semillon gave Harper a few cookies and a bowl of yogurt. 

Lifting his head, Bucky heard little hooves tap tap tapping upon the wooden floorboards. Some little pony was up and out of bed at this dark hour before dawn. Sentinel stumbled into the kitchen, blinking and looking bleary eyed. Bucky watched as Sentinel stumbled to the kitchen table and took a seat. 

“And what can I get you?” Semillon asked. 

“Coffee… black,” Sentinel replied. 

Bucky became aware that Semillon was looking at him, her eyebrow was raised. A questioning look was on her face. Saying nothing, Bucky gave a nod to let her know it was okay. 

“Father?” Sentinel asked. 

“Yes Sentinel?” Bucky replied. He saw Sentinel slump down into his chair, his eyes were only just visible over the edge of the table. The colts ears were pinned back against his head. For whatever reason, Sentinel was trying to make himself look as submissive as possible. 

“I came down to check on Cadance last night. I was very very quiet so I wouldn’t disturb her… I was worried.” Sentinel fell silent and ducked down in his chair a little more, no longer looking at Bucky, but at the salt and pepper shakers instead. “I… uh, I heard you and Thistle… it worries me… should you… uh… be doing things to her in her condition?” 

There was a loud snort from Semillon and Sentinel almost jumped out of his skin. 

Pondering his reply options, Bucky figured that honesty was the best policy. This was Sentinel after all. The colt expected the truth and it was always great fun to embarrass him. Clearing his throat, Bucky swallowed a gulp of coffee and then held his cup before his muzzle in his talons so he could breathe in the steam. 

There was a clunk as Semillon set a cup of coffee down in front of Sentinel. 

“Sentinel, son, a mare in Thistle’s condition experiences a lot of pain and discomfort. There isn’t a whole lot you can do for them to make everything better, but there is one thing you can do for them, and this is something I think that you should know,” Bucky said. 

“And that is?” Sentinel asked. 

The colt’s apprehension was as clear as day. Sentinel knew this was a dangerous game. Asking his father questions was always an adventure. His father was good at giving answers. Just not always the answers that Sentinel wanted. 

Sometimes, his father was too good at giving answers. 

“The doctor suggested regular orgasms to help her cope with pain and to help her mood. Now, because of the pressure placed upon her uterus and the way everything is getting stretched out from the inside, there is a strict ‘no penetration’ rule in place, but everything else is fair game.” 

At that moment, Sentinel wished that the floor would open, swallow him up, and that he would never be seen again, lost to the darkness. He closed his eyes and rested his head down on the edge of the table. Focusing on breathing, Sentinel realised that he had brought this upon himself. 

“One day Sentinel, you are going to be a husband… and a father… and it will be of vital importance for you to understand the art of mare maintenance,” Bucky said. 

From over by the stove, Semillon tittered. 

“They come with a reset button… it has to be pressed regularly otherwise there might be technical issues…” 

Squeezing his eyes shut as tight as possible, Sentinel gritted his teeth. Semillon’s laughter burned his ears. He could hear it in his father’s voice that he was just getting warmed up. 

“There is nothing worse than a malfunctioning mare… speaking of malfunctioning mares… good morning Bonnie.” 

Sentinel became aware that somepony was breathing on him. He opened his eyes and saw Bon Bon’s blue eyes staring at him. He glanced at the coffee cup and then wondered how much Bon Bon had heard of the conversation he was having with his father. Knowing that his life might now be measured in seconds, Sentinel offered his mother a sheepish smile. 

“Why is my colt drinking coffee?” Bon Bon asked. 

Bucky took note of the monotone voice that Bon Bon was using. He wasn’t in trouble… yet. One ear was twitching and Bon Bon’s tail was swishing off to her left. He also took note of the language used. When something good happened, Sentinel was referred to as ‘our colt’ but when something bad happened, or when Bucky had done something to lead Sentinel astray, Sentinel became ‘my colt’ in Bon Bon’s mind. The implication of possession was important to note. 

Knowing the distinction betwixt the two could be life saving. 

“Sentinel drank a cup of coffee yesterday and as far as I know, he did not become a hyperactive spaz-beast,” Bucky said in a voice that would make any diplomat green with envy. “Bon Bon, it concerns me that you would be worried about the coffee because when you came in, we were clearly talking about sex.” 

“Sex doesn’t worry me… that is one area where I know that you will not lead Sentinel, or any of our foals for that matter, astray. They will get good sound advice from their father, provided that you don’t go into a neurotic meltdown from the discussion. You must have been in some kind of mood this morning,” Bon Bon replied. Her brows furrowed. “Don’t you dare try to turn this around on me… being clever will not help you.” 

“Yesterday I wasn’t so nervous. It was easier to think. I was able to concentrate and because of that I performed my duties better. Even Twilight Sparkle noticed and she said something to me about it,” Sentinel blurted out, hoping against all hope to save his father from Bon Bon. 

“Is that so?” 

Sentinel’s ears perked. Bon Bon’s voice was filled with concern. He had already given all that he had, there was nothing left to give, no other reassuring words to offer. Sentinel nodded. 

“There are times when stimulants seem to calm Lyra down. I always figured it was a quirk or perhaps a placebo effect. Maybe there is something to it,” Bon Bon said as she looked at Sentinel and then at Bucky. She sat down in a chair beside Harper and smiled at the filly in her highchair. 

“Cookie,” Harper said, joining the conversation. 

“I see that,” Bon Bon replied. Looking down upon the tray, Bon Bon studied the cookies. She sniffed one, looked at Semillon, and then at Bucky. “Smells yeasty sorta. These cookies were a good idea.” 

“Semillon’s idea… I was just content to feed Harper cookies because she’ll eat them without fussing.” Bucky looked at Bon Bon and then at Harper, who was sitting in between the two of them. “Yesterday, I gave Sentinel coffee and I fed Harper cookies for breakfast.” 

Bucky heaved an internal sigh of relief when Bon Bon said nothing in reply, but focused her attention upon Harper. Using his magic, he poured Bon Bon a cup of coffee and placed it down upon the table beside her as the earth pony mare tried to brush away cookie crumbs from Harper’s face. 

“Cadance slept through most of the night, you did a good thing Sentinel,” Bon Bon said as she lifted up a glass of milk for Harper to sip. “She only woke up from hunger.” 

“How much does a little alicorn foal eat, anyway?” Sentinel asked. 

“She can drain Berry and Derpy dry and then take most of what I have as well,” Bon Bon replied. Shaking her head, Bon Bon chuckled. “Poor little dear… she can’t figure out why Belisama has no milk to give. She’s always so disappointed.” 

“Sama-mama,” Harper said in a sing-song voice, spewing cookie crumbs everywhere. 

There was a creak on the stairs that caused several pony ears in the kitchen to twitch. A moment later, Yew Wood appeared in the kitchen entrance. A second later, Peekaboo came into view. 

“Peeky!” Harper bounced up and down in her highchair, glad to see her playmate. 

“Harpy!” Peekaboo replied as she struggled to climb up into a chair. Grunting with effort, she got a boost from her mother. “Cookie?” 

“It’s funny, being a parent messes up how you see everything,” Yew said as she slipped into a chair beside Peekaboo. 

“How so?” Bucky asked. 

The pegasus yawned, stretched her wings, and then blinked her remaining eye a few times. Yew rested her forelegs upon the table and hunched forwards. “Last night, Peekaboo got up to use the bathroom all by herself. She didn’t wake up either Lugus or I to help her. Of course, Lugus and I woke up anyway, because she started belting out the potty song at the top of her lungs… we were so proud of her. We considered it a major victory. We’re warriors… fighters… and this was a major victory.” 

“Harper won’t go without help,” Bon Bon said and then yawned. “At least she tries to hold it in until help arrives.” 

“This is weird.” Sentinel peered over his cup at his tablemates, glancing around and meeting their gaze as they looked at him. 

“Okay Sentinel, I’ll bite… what’s so weird now?” Yew asked. 

“This table has been witness to all manner of discussions. Cultists. Necromancers. The recent evidence that there is a lich down south building an army. Discussions about the properties of mare milk. Foreign policy. And this morning, it is foals going potty,” Sentinel replied. 

Lifting a cookie in his magic, Bucky waved it around as he said, “Well, at least it is almost always interesting.” When he was done speaking, he stuffed the whole cookie into his maw and began chewing. 

“Don’t start gobbling cookies, I’m making quiche for breakfast,” Semillon said. 

“Is that what smells so good? I could smell it all the way upstairs.” Yew rubbed her cheek with one wing, yawned again, and then stared down into her coffee cup. 

“What?” Harper asked. 

“Quiche. It is a type of pie,” Semillon replied. 

“Pie!” Peekaboo flapped her wings, unable to contain her excitement. “Pie for breaky!” 

“Harper, settle down and eat your yogurt.” Arming herself with a spoon, Bon Bon made herself ready to do battle if Harper decided a struggle was in order. 

“Something smells wonderful!” 

Almost dropping his coffee cup, Bucky looked at Luna, who stood in the archway entrance, surprised to see her. The alicorn was chipper, in a good mood, smiling, and seemed to be very happy. 

“Luna, I was not aware that you were still with us,” Bucky said as Luna joined them at the table. “I thought you left last night.” 

“Barley was suffering… he needed a warm body in the bed with him. I stayed to keep Barley warm,” Luna replied. 

“Where is Erebus?” Bucky asked. 

Luna sniffed and looked over at the stove. “I left Erebus in the bed with Barley. Erebus got fed and then wanted to go back to sleep. Barley is content to be a lazybones and lounge about in the bed all morning.” 

“Well, you seem to be in a good mood,” Bucky said. 

Sentinel, feeling nervous, decided to make yet another attempt at humour. The end result was a total disaster most of the time, but Sentinel was undeterred. “Barley must have been up all night performing mare maintenance so Luna would not have technical issues…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 510
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The snow made a satisfying crunch underhoof as Bucky made his way to the school. The winter break was in effect, but there were still students and staff members at the school, students who did not have a home to go home to, and staff members for whom the school was their home. From where he was, Bucky could see neither the school nor the farmhouse, all that could be seen was white flakes and darkness, even though Bucky’s senses told him that it was daytime. 

The howling wind shrieked, almost as if it was frustrated that it could bring Bucky no harm, no discomfort, it could do nothing against the Lord of Winter. This storm was his doing. 

As Bucky approached the doors to the school, they opened and a tall figure came out. 

In moments, Bucky felt himself picked up and thrown over the tall figure’s shoulder as though he was a sack of potatoes. Bucky tried to protest, but his words fell on deaf ears. 

“Students should not be outside! You’re so lucky I saw you!” 

Now indoors, Bucky was set down upon his hooves. Craning his head back, he looked up at a very tall minotaur, grateful that she was so attentive, but annoyed that he had been treated like a foal.

“Oh… I’m sorry, sir… I thought you were one of the students,” the minotaur said. 

Try as he might, Bucky could not remember her name. He shook himself off and allowed the black hood to fall back from his head. “You are forgiven… miss...” 

“My name is Tuli, sir,” the minotaur said. “And this is Cobalt. He is not one of your instructors, but he was given permission to volunteer during the holiday by Cheerilee.” 

“And Cobalt is?” Bucky asked. 

The minotaur gave Bucky a bashful smile and clapped her large hands together as she looked down at the blue earth pony by her side. “He’s my husband. We were just married.” 

“Wonderful,” Bucky said as he looked over at Cobalt, who had himself a very goofy looking grin. This was the sort of thing Bucky hoped that his instructors would do. “How are my students? Any trouble getting them from the dormitory towers to the school?” 

Standing up straight, Tuli became serious and she looked down at Bucky, giving him his focus. “There has been some trouble,” Tuli replied. She reached up with her left hand and began to rub her right bicep. “Blitz, the diamond dog, he has begun escorting the students back and forth. His diamond dog students have been helping. Also, quite a number of your griffons have taken it upon themselves to help out. Each student is accounted for and Magpie does regular headcounts. So does Twilight Velvet and Night Light.” Tuli paused for a moment, closed her eyes, and recalled every bit of relevant information that she could. “Daylight Shadow is working on a tracking spell for each student. A few of them want to wander off without telling anyone. Which is why I thought that perhaps you were one of the students… you are kinda small…” 

His eyes narrowing, Bucky continued to stare upwards at the tall minotaur. 

“With all due respect… sir, I made an error upon the side of caution,” Tuli said. 

“You are doing a fine job,” Bucky replied. He glanced over at Cobalt. “And what do you do? I’m guessing you are getting a bit of time off work?” 

“I work in the copyright office as a clerk,” Cobalt replied. “Currently, the office is closed. Not for the holiday, but because of the weather. They actually wanted us to work on Hearth’s Warming, the smarmy bastards.” 

Chuckling, Bucky was glad that the weather was having the desired effect. “So you do copyright work… do you like it?” 

“Um, well, you see, I’m a clerk. I’m not a lawyer, or even highly trained… in the morning, I get a big box of papers. And then all day long I pull out one of the papers, stamp it, mark it as received, and then I place it into another box… after that, I don’t know what happens to the papers” Cobalt looked up at Tuli and then back at Bucky. “It was a job. I took it. I’d like to find another.” 

“Anything you are skilled at?” Bucky asked. 

“For most of my adult life, I’ve been a clerk,” Cobalt replied. 

Bucky nodded. “Speak to my second in command, Violet Velvet. She is in need of worthy assistants. She tolerates no stupidity, no foolishness, and she expects results. She also pays well and makes sure that those in my employ are well cared for. If you work hard, she will see that you are properly compensated.” 

“Thank you… thank you… I will speak to her the first chance I get,” Cobalt said, a broad grin spreading over his face. 

“After the holidays.” For a moment, Bucky thought of Dirtbound, one of Violet’s errand runners and couriers. The young colt was beginning to show a lot of promise. “If you will excuse me, I’d like to go check upon my students.” 



 

The cafeteria was full of students. There was food set out. There were a surprising number of griffons here; it seemed that the little griffons were glad to have something to look after. In the corner, a group of students were sitting and laying around a grizzled old griffon who appeared to be telling a story. Bucky peered at the griffon, not recognising the griffon right away. 

And then, all of a sudden, Bucky knew who the griffon was. 

He opened his mouth, ready to call out Odin’s name, but nothing happened. Standing there, Bucky tried again, but as before, no words came out. Bucky, having encountered this magic before, knew it was hopeless to keep trying. 

“That’s Alfadir. He’s good with foals and cubs. They love his stories. He showed up yesterday. Magpie allowed him to stay… he insisted upon earning his keep.” 

Bucky turned to look at the mare that had just spoken. He saw Twilight Velvet. 

“Alfadir, you say?” Bucky asked. 

“Strange name, but he is a charming fellow. Cultured, polite, gentle, says please and thank you. Still don’t know how he just showed up in the middle of the blizzard like he did, but Magpie said that turning him away would be murder.” 

“Oh, griffons are full of surprises.” Bucky smiled at Twilight Velvet. The mare looked radiant. She was happy, and for this, Bucky was glad. It made Twilight Sparkle’s life easier knowing that her mother was happy. Feeling satisfied, he looked over at Odin. The old griffon looked a bit better. He also looked different, but Bucky could not determine what it was that was different about him. The old griffon was waving his talons about and his wings were flared out. Little foals and little cubs were entranced. One little zebra filly had her eyes covered and she was trembling. An older foal was trying to comfort the smaller zebra. It took Bucky a moment to recognise the foal. Little Slip. He turned once more to face Twilight Velvet. “How is Little Slip doing?” 

Twilight Velvet’s muzzle scrunched, becoming wrinkled. “She is adjusting. She sees Doctor Mawu regularly. She is starting to smile, but you don’t see it often. She shows off a fake smile often enough, but I can see right through that. She has friends but still has some issues connecting.” 

“So… progress?” 

Nodding, Twilight Velvet replied, “Of a sort.” 

“—so Grogar, the eeeeevil necromancer goat, he raised an army of the dead and he crushed his foes. The world became a darker and darker place. Hope flickered and died… there seemed to be no stopping Grogar—” 

Raising an eyebrow, Bucky took interest in the story that Odin was telling, but felt a little concerned about the effect it might have upon little foals and cubs. He looked at Twilight Velvet and wondered what she thought of the story. 

“—the world needed heroes… many tried and many died. Ponies, griffons, minotaurs, diamond dogs, one by one the heroes fell, overcome by the darkness. And then a group of heroes came along… these were different than the heroes that had come before. These heroes worked together. There was a big minotaur blacksmith who was also a warrior. There was a griffoness, she was an archer. There was a zebra, she was a powerful healer and alchemist and she made salves that protected her and her friends from the dead. There was a blind unicorn and his noble companion, a diamond dog. And even though history has forgotten her, there was also a naga—” 

“What’s a naga?” 

“Well, a naga… a naga is a snake creature with a funny head… sort of like a minotaur but without the horns or the snout. Kind of like a diamond dog, but no floppy ears. Hard to say what sort of head it is, but it is a head. Just a strange one.” 

Bucky became aware that the old griffon was staring at him and that was when he realised that Odin had both of his eyes. Only… he didn’t. Bucky blinked and the second eye was gone. When he blinked again, the second eye had returned. 

“Are you sure this is a true story?” 

“Oh, it’s true… so anyways, these companions, who had been on many adventures together, got word that Grogar’s darkness was spreading. The companions began to plan—” 

“Is this story just to drive home the point that we all need to work together if we want to defeat the evil in the world?” 

Bucky was forced to choke back a laugh but it escaped out through his nose as a snort. The old griffon looked annoyed, irritated, it was body language that Bucky was only just beginning to understand. 

“Shut up and let him tell the story!” 

“Don’t tell me to shut up!” 

“Shut up, both of you!” 

For a moment, it seemed as though there would be trouble, but then the group quieted down. For this, Bucky was grateful. He could hear Twilight Velvet, still beside him, laughing. 

“Foals will be foals,” Twilight Velvet said as she trotted off to look after other foals and cubs in the room. 

“—the world will always need heroes… I wonder if there are any would be heroes here in this school—” 

If Bucky had his way, there would be. He looked around the room, taking note of his students. They were learning a new way here at the Founder’s Forge. A new way of thinking. A new approach to life. They were learning to work together with other tribes… other species.

Blinking, Bucky could feel another headache coming on. There was a feeling of pressure just behind his eyes. Perhaps he had laughed too hard at Sentinel’s botched attempt at humour. Perhaps it was stress. The sounds in the room now seemed far too loud. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky held them shut for a moment. Sometimes, it helped. 

When Bucky opened his eyes, he was standing in a very different room. The foals around him were now the stuff of nightmares. He took a step back as he looked around. Little faces with no eyelids, no lips, no ears. Little faces that had been chewed on by rats. He closed his eyes again, squeezing them shut, trying to make this hallucination go away. 

When his eyes opened, the nightmare persisted. 

Whimpering, Bucky shook his head. “No…” 

“In the end, you will fail them…” 

The voice was haunting and familiar. Bucky shook his head once more, not wanting to hear the voice that he knew far too well.

“You cannot save them… who will save them from you?” 

Dark shadows began to fill the room. The foals and cubs turned on Bucky. Lidless eyes stared at him. Lipless grins were on every little face. 

“You fear what you know you will become… this fear gives me strength…” 

The shadows coalesced, taking on substance and form. Two eyes glowing appeared. A booming chuckle filled the room. A glowing red horn took shape. The dark form grew larger, looming over Bucky. 

“You cannot stop what you are becoming. You cannot change what will be. Now there are others with my blood, I can hear it calling out to me… weak helpless little things that will be so easy to claim once I have the strength…”

“No… no… you’re just a shadow… you have no strength! Go away!” Bucky could feel his knees wobbling. He was having trouble standing up. 

“Your fear sustains me… so long as you fear what shall become, I shall gain strength from you… either way, you cannot prevent what will happen!” 

“I will never submit!” 

“THEN DIE!” 

The shadows surged forward. A swarm of shadow tendrils slithered over Bucky’s skin. He could feel them forcing their way up his nose, under his eyelids, forcing their way into his mouth, the shadows were finding a way in. He felt something sliding down his ear. 

Bucky heard the howling of wolves and felt his blood run cold. He could smell them, hear them, he could feel them all around him once more. Teeth sank into his flesh. 

There was a flash of light and Bucky was blinded. 

“BEGONE!” 

The voice was thunderous, full of fury. 

The shadows around Bucky retreated. The wolves were little more than illusion, but the pain was real. Blinking, Bucky tried to see the figure approaching him, but he could not. A dazzling light burned Bucky’s eyes. 

Bucky’s legs gave way and his chin smashed into the floor. He tasted blood and saw stars. The pressure inside of his head increased, becoming too much to bear, and then Bucky knew nothing else as he slipped away, lost in the currents of his own inner darkness. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 511
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Bucky awoke, there was a cool wet cloth laid over his eyes and there were voices speaking in hushed tones. Bucky was in his own bed, the scent was unmistakable. His mouth was dry and his lip throbbed where he had bit it, a second heart beating, thudding through his muzzle. 

“—it is normal for a pony to feel fear, it is part of what being an equine is. The trouble is, the parts in Bucky’s mind that allow him to feel fear have burned out… very much like a light bulb that has gone bad. So under most circumstances, he doesn’t feel fear.” 

That was Luna’s voice. Sounds had an odd echo to them. Something small and warm against Bucky’s side wiggled. It took a moment in Bucky’s muddled state to figure out that it was Cadance. 

“Isn’t that a good thing though? Not feeling fear?” Derpy asked. 

“No, that’s terrible,” Berry Punch replied. 

“I don’t understand… and now I feel a little stupid,” Derpy said. 

Wincing, Bucky’s attempt at movement was met with pain spiking through his body. He went still and kept listening. Beside him, Cadance stopped wiggling and Bucky was glad that he did not wake her. 

“Derpy, a pony needs to feel a little fear on a regular basis. Be spooked. It helps us combat our inner nature. By dealing with this fear on a regular basis, we learn to cope when we are overwhelmed by the fear response, which is really just a cocktail of chemicals prepared by our brains.” Berry Punch paused and the room was silent for a moment. “Bucky has stopped feeling these little moments of day to day terror… like Luna said, that part of his mind has burned out, no doubt due to some kind of condition involving trauma and stress.” 

“Yes, and when Bucky is subjected to something that actually causes him to feel afraid, something that causes him terror, he is overwhelmed. There isn’t much that Bucky fears. His sense of self preservation is gone, more or less. He feels fear for external sources, like those around him, but internal sources have become problematic.” 

For a moment, while there was a lull in the conversation, Bucky pondered Luna’s words. 

“So whatever remains of Sombra’s shadow scares Bucky because Bucky knows he can’t beat it… Bucky fears what he might become, and Bucky gets scared when bad things happen to foals… so these are Bucky’s weaknesses?” 

“Yes, Derpy, these are his weaknesses and Sombra’s fell shadow is exploiting them… it was just a dream though… Bucky doesn’t get enough sleep. When a pony is sleep deprived, they can go into a semi dreaming state even while awake. A false sleep of sorts. Bucky not sleeping is leaving his mind vulnerable,” Luna replied, explaining everything in a low patient voice. 

“Bucky being afraid is giving the bad part of Sombra strength, but Bucky can’t stop being afraid?” Derpy asked. 

Heaving a low sigh, Bucky remained quiet and hoped that nopony would notice that he was awake and aware now. There were things he was afraid of. Failure was one of them. It meant the end of Cadance. The horrible chewed up faces flashed before Bucky’s mind’s eye and he felt his whole body tense. 

“This is just a little scare… Sombra’s shadow wanted to scare Bucky a little. It isn’t strong enough to do anything else, but this does worry me. It should not have enough power to reach out to Bucky like this. This is unexpected and worrisome.” 

Luna’s voice was concerned, Bucky could hear that. Bucky also noted anger and something about that comforted him. There were times where Luna seemed cold and distant about what he endured. 

“Sombra’s shadow will not be around forever though. Sentinel is being trained… there will come a day that Sentinel will visit ruination upon the darkness that plagues Bucky. Sentinel has no idea of the power that he possesses. Things in the darkness festered during my long absence. Sentinel will be the one to help restore the balance, when he is older and more aware of what he is capable of,” Luna said. 

“I don’t want Sentinel to be special or have some great destiny… just look at Bucky… look what all of this is doing to him… as his mother I can’t bear the thought of Sentinel being in the same condition.”

Laying as still as possible, Bucky listened to Derpy’s words. He could hear the fear in her voice. The pain that was present. He wrestled with himself, wanting to say something to try and make her feel better, but not wanting to reveal that he was awake just yet. He felt torn inside. 

Beside him, Cadance vibrated for a moment. There was a wet whooshing sound followed by Cadance letting out a startled cry. For a moment, Bucky was filled with morbid curiousity and he wondered how fast smell traveled. And then, that moment was gone, the repugnant stench he was now witness to destroying his ability to think. 

Sitting up, the cold cloth across his eyes slid off and Bucky saw several heads all turning to look at him. A second later, he saw the herd of mares scatter, their heads turning away as hasty escapes were made. 

“Oooh… that makes me feel nauseous.” 

From the bathroom, Thistle’s voice had an odd echoing effect. 

There were precious seconds left to react, to change Cadance’s diaper before she began to cry. She was already getting all wound up for the event, her barrel was expanding, her wings fluttered, and she kicked all four of her legs around in the air. 

“Oh sure… all of this talk of worry and concern for me… I’m being haunted by the damned bogeypony… but when a foal explodes, I’m left all alone!” 



 

“Higher… I need to be higher, Lugus,” Dinky said. She could feel Lugus’ talons encircling her whole body and the rough texture of his talon-finger pads tickled her ribs. She tried not to giggle as she strung the electric lights around the top half of the tree. Her horn was inches away from the ceiling. Perhaps Lugus had hoisted her just a little too high. At least now she could see what she was doing. 

The living room was full of ponies and griffons. Every sofa, every chair, every available spot to sit was packed. Looking back over her withers, Dinky looked at her father. He didn’t look well, but he was trying to have fun. Luna was on the floor with Erebus, Cadance, Harper, and Peekaboo. Loch Skimmer was telling their guests, Violet Velvet and Helia, some sort of joke that Dinky wasn’t sure that Loch Skimmer should be telling. Uncle Barley was in his chair. Lyra was teaching Belisama something about music that Dinky did not understand. Ripple, Sparkler, Rising Star, and Bittersweet were playing some sort of board game that Dinky found rather boring. 

“Hey Piña, how’s it looking down there?” Dinky asked. 

“Too many blue balls,” Piña replied. 

Dinky became aware that the room was now almost silent. The conversations, the noise, the laughter of moments before was now gone. Something had happened, but Dinky was not sure what. Lugus was shaking as he was holding her up. 

“There are red, green, and golden balls as well for the tree… there are just too many blue balls down here,” Piña said. 

Hearing her father snort, Dinky turned her head to get another good look at him. Her mother, Derpy, had her eyes closed and was shaking while little snorts escaped. There was a thump when Berry Punch fell off of the sofa. The room filled with Loch Skimmer’s howling laughter. 

Something was funny, but Dinky did not understand what it was. 

“Who gave the tree blue balls?” Piña asked. “There are other colours—” 

“Ach, Piña stop, yer killin’ yer uncle Barley with all this talk about the holiday wood having blue balls,” Barley said as he clutched his sides. 

“I don’t understand,” Piña said as she looked around the room. 

Neither did Dinky. Dinky was set down upon the floor and then Lugus fell over, his large body crashing down upon the wooden floorboards. 

“This just isn’t fair… I say something funny and nopony laughs… Piña says something funny and the whole room falls apart,” Sentinel said as he settled into a sulk. He understood the joke and why the adults were laughing. 

“I can’t breathe!” Thistle cried out as she clutched her stomach.

“Sentinel, perhaps you could ask for a new sense of humour for the holidays. Borrowing your father’s sense of humour does not suit you,” Luna said to Sentinel. 

Dinky watched as her father excused himself, rose from the couch, and left. A moment later, Luna also left and Dinky wondered what was up. She heard her mother Derpy cry out in pain as she got to her hooves and then Derpy went wobbling off down the hall after Luna and Bucky. 



 

“It was nothing that you said… I just don’t feel well.” 

Bucky pulled his head out from under the sink faucet and shivered as he felt the cold icy water running down his neck. It wasn’t so much that it was cold, but that the running water tickled. His wet mane clung to his face and his neck. 

“You left just after I said what I said… I thought that—” 

“Really, it was everypony laughing. The noise. The volume… it made my head hurt,” Bucky said, offering Luna an explanation. “I never did thank you for popping into my little nightmare and bailing me out.” 

“That was not me.” 

Bucky stood in the bathroom, looking out through the doorway at Luna, dripping water upon the blue tile floor. He could feel water running down inside of his ear and for a moment, the memory of the shadow tendrils invading his skull was almost too much to bear. 

“Bucky, that was Odin.” 

A sense of confusion settled over Bucky and he gave Luna a blank stare. He heard the bed creak and saw Derpy was laying down. He shook his head, trying to get the water to stop trickling down the inside of his ear. “He can do that?” 

“I am not the only one who walks through dreams. Odin once did much the same, but for different reasons. My purpose is to scare equines back into goodness and to turn them away from evil… Odin moved though dreams to inspire art, music, to give the world a sense of beauty. He gave the dreamers dreams, the poets beautiful words, and the artists got much needed inspiration,” Luna replied. 

“Did he lose his power to do this or something?” Bucky asked. 

Luna nodded. “Yes… yes he did. As the balance was destroyed various agents of harmony lost their power.” 

“Which in turn further caused more decay in the world,” Bucky said, understanding all too well the danger that the world faced. 

“Odin was exhausted after saving you, but he will recover. He hasn’t had the strength to walk the dream realm in a very long time. I spoke with him briefly after the incident. He told me what he saw. He pulled Sombra’s shadow away from you.” Luna cocked her head to one side and studied Bucky as he stood there, drenched from the neck up and dripping water upon the floor. There was more silver in his mane now. 

“I have questions for Odin… I hope I get a chance to talk to him.” 

“Like what?” Luna asked, feeling curious. 

“About this eye of his… when I was Vanhoover, I had my photo snapped for the paper. In the photo, I still had my sunstone eye. I looked like how I was. And when I was on the roof of city hall, Sunset Shimmer swears I had my old gemstone eye.” 

Puzzled, Luna’s mouth fell open and she stared at Bucky. Realising that she was standing there slack jawed, Luna recovered herself. “That is peculiar.” 

“Anyhow… I’m going back to the living room to be with my family. I’m glad you are here with us, Luna,” Bucky said.

“I shall have to return to Canterlot soon. I am needed for Hearth’s Warming there. Tourmaline is no doubt missing me.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 512
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel heard a creak of wood when Piña and Dinky jumped up to sit with him in the kitchen bay window. Piña sat down upon his left and Dinky sat down upon his right. He felt them press up against him. Something on the stove clattered and Sentinel heard Semillon’s angry heavy breathing. 

“Missing somepony?” Piña asked. 

Sighing, Sentinel figured it was time to just get it over with. “Go ahead, tease me. Have your fun.” He heard Piña draw in a deep breath and his ears perked. Outside, the snow had let up a bit. It was now falling downwards instead of sideways. Sentinel watched the flakes and waited for his sisters to say something so they could have a good laugh. 

“I wasn’t going to tease you. You look sad. Really sad. Today was supposed to be a happy day. We decorated the tree. But you don’t look like you are having a good time,” Piña said in a low voice. 

Dinky leaned on her brother. “Sentinel, we miss her too.” 

Feeling relieved, Sentinel relaxed his guard. He wiggled his wings free and then wrapped them around his sisters, glad to have both of them close. “I’m worried about father.” 

“We all are.” Piña leaned forward, her snoot almost touching the glass as she tried to look outside. “You know Sentinel, I never hear you call him daddy or even dad… just father.” 

“I… well, I… um… father seems appropriate and respectful. Calling him daddy seems foalish. I dunno.” Sentinel had no clue what to say. Everything he wanted to say somehow sounded wrong inside of his head, something that could hurt Dinky and Piña’s feelings. 

“It is okay to be foalish sometimes. I call him father when I want him to take me seriously. I call him daddy when I need for him to know that I am a foal and I really need him.” Dinky could feel a chill coming off of the window and she was glad to be so near Sentinel. He was warm and she always felt safe when under a pegasus wing. 

“We’re growing up, but we still need him as our daddy sometimes,” Piña said. 

Sentinel turned his head and looked at Piña. “I still remember you when we first met. You were a scared little foal with a squeaky voice. You had trouble expressing yourself. You acted very foalish for your age.” 

“I know.” Piña sighed, feeling embarrassed, and for a moment she locked eyes with Sentinel. Feeling even more embarrassed, she looked away and saw her reflection in the window, a little foal held under the protective wing of her brother. “Father made me the way I am… he talked with me and he spent time with me and he gave me books to read and he kept encouraging me and telling me that it was okay for me to be smart. I wasn’t just some dumb earth pony. Berry Punch tried to tell me this too, but it was different coming from her. I dunno why. But coming from Bucky… a unicorn, it was different. He believed in me. He gave me big books to read and then he shushed Berry and Derpy when they started to tell him that the books might have been too much for me to handle. It was hard reading those books. I had to work for it. Somewhere, somehow, I found my confidence. I found out that I was intelligent. He brought out the best in me.” 

“Me too,” Dinky said, giving voice to her feelings. “He did a whole lot more than just teach me magic. He loved me. I mean, I knew that he really loved me and he wasn’t just some stallion that my mother was marrying. I’d heard stories at school about step parents.” 

“Things are going to change,” Sentinel said to his siblings. “Father’s attention will be on the littlest ones… with his other duties, he may not always have the time to spend with us that we might want. I’m worried.” 

“That he might neglect us?” Piña asked. 

“No… never that… father is burned out. There are so many demands for his time, for his attention. I don’t want to be a burden upon him. I’m scared that he is too stressed out. He’s overworked and he looks after all of us, not just us foals, but all of us, the whole family… but who looks after him?” Sentinel’s nostrils flared as there was a sizzling hiss behind him and the kitchen filled with fragrant steam. “I’m worried that he will give us the attention that we demand from him and just burn himself out.” 

Piña hung her head, feeling sad without understanding why. “Oh… oooh… I think I see what you mean, Sentinel.” 

“There is going to be a little kelpie foal, a hippogriff… foal… cub… whatever, it’ll be our little sister whatever it is… and come spring there is going to be two sets of twins. Bittersweet is going to start teaching at the school soon. Rising Star, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Ripple, they all have a lot of demands upon their time. School, work, all the stuff they do… they’re not going to be able to help much,” Dinky said, thinking out loud. 

“We have two options… we can be foals about this, we could be awful little stinkers and cry and be jealous about how much our parents love the new foals.” Piña fell silent as she observed Sentinel’s look of horror. Reaching out a front hoof, she nudged her brother. “Or… or we be grown up about this whole thing and be awesome big brothers and sisters and do whatever we can to help out.” 

“I know how to change a diaper.” Beaming, Dinky allowed a little pride to show, feeling that this was an acceptable moment to do so. “Magic helps. There is a lot of scrubbing involved if there is poop though. It gets crusted into the hair. Yuck.” 

“I might be able to use my wings and my thumbs to change a diaper. I’ve never tried. I don’t know what to do or how to do it,” Sentinel said to his sisters. 

“If Diamond Tiara is here, we can get her to help. It’ll be good practice. You two are going to have a lot of foals together.” Piña smiled as she felt her brother tense up. 

There it was. The teasing that Sentinel had been waiting for. He felt his mouth go dry and no words seemed to come. His mind went blank. This just wasn’t fair… there was no way to tease Piña back, at least not yet. Tease her back? Sentinel wondered if he would stoop that low. He was her brother… he hoped that he would be better than that. 

“She told us all about how you try to sniff her backside without being caught,” Piña said. 

Sentinel realised that he would, in fact, stoop that low. First chance he got, Piña was getting what she deserved. Sentinel took a deep breath and wished the fires in his cheeks and his ears would go out. 

“Sentinel, when you look at a filly, what do you notice?” Dinky asked. 

Something about Dinky’s voice told Sentinel that she was being serious. He turned to look at her. She was staring out the window with an almost vacant expression. Not aware that it was happening, one of Sentinel’s eyebrows raised. 

“Never mind… just never mind. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to talk about fillies with my brother… just… ew.” Dinky shook her head hard enough to cause her ears to flop around and she tried to pull away from Sentinel, but found that she could not. 

“I’m not sure that I really notice anything,” Sentinel said, trying to answer with as much honesty as possible. “I like Diamond Tiara because of the talks that we have. We both like comic books. Maybe when I’m older I’ll start noticing things that stand out.” 

“That’s really sweet of you.” Piña tried to keep the teasing tone out of her voice now that she realised that Dinky and Sentinel were having a serious moment. 

“I’m starting to notice that certain fillies are pretty… or just nice to look at, but I don’t know what is nice about them or what I like to look at… and I have no idea why but I thought that maybe if I knew what you liked to look at, that maybe, it would help me figure it out,” Dinky said to Sentinel in a high pitched nervous voice. 

“I’m your brother… you can come and talk to me about anything… and I do mean anything. Both of you. I’m kinda scared that we’ll grow apart as we start growing up… you’ll be off doing filly stuff and I’ll be off doing colt stuff and I keep having this bad dream that were at the breakfast table together and we’re strangers and we don’t know each other’s names.” Sentinel gave each of his sisters a squeeze. 

“That’s a weird dream.” Piña felt Sentinel’s wing tighten around her and she leaned into his embrace. “Do you think Cadance, Harper, and Peekaboo will be as close as we are?” 

“I hope so… I was talking with Twilight Sparkle… your siblings are your first friends in life… how you treat them says a lot about you as a pony.” Dinky’s brow furrowed and she began to reflect upon her own relationship with her younger siblings. “I don’t spend enough time with Harper or Peekaboo because I don’t know what to do with them and it is kinda boring sometimes. Cadance is even worse… she just sort of lays there… she doesn’t say much and she cries a lot.” 

“Cadance likes being talked to. It doesn’t need to be important stuff. She just likes to hear somepony’s voice,” Sentinel said. “Peekaboo wants to play… she’s getting more aggressive and she wants to wrestle. Harper just wants somepony to read books to her.” 

“That’s it?” Dinky asked. 

“That’s it. So long as Harper is not in one of her fussy sulky moods, she will sit and behave while you read to her.” Sentinel hoped that his words would reassure Dinky. 

“So I can read her a Daring Do novel?” Dinky looked hopeful. 

“Um, no… that’s a bit too much for her. She likes Lorenzo Llama and the Zap Apple Mystery. I think she likes it because it uses the word ‘zap’ so much.” Sentinel saw the look of disappointment as it settled over Dinky’s face. 

“Ugh, those books are so boring… those books are for little foals—” 

“Dinky, Harper is a little foal. And it makes her happy. Watching her smile and bouncing around is worth a bit of boredom,” Sentinel said. 

Sulking, Dinky slumped down and sighed. “I suppose so. Our parents are going to need our help, so I’d better get used to it.” 

“Dinky, if you help out, it’ll mean that you get to use all the magic you want. Nopony will complain if you are using your magic to change diapers, clean stuff, and make life easier for all of us. Plus, you can learn to multitask… like Bucky or Lyra does.” Piña glanced over at her sister, trying to look past Sentinel’s snoot. 

“I don’t see how father does it,” Dinky replied. She shook her head. “He can hold a book, be reading it, flipping the pages, changing a diaper, wiping another foal’s face, and while he is doing all of this, he can be fixing a meal.” 

Sentinel could hear the frustration in Dinky’s voice. “Practice Dinky… if you want that sort of power, you have to work for it. It doesn’t just come to you and it isn’t something you just grow into. Looking after our siblings will be good practice.” 

“Think you could use umbrakinesis to change a diaper?” Piña asked. 

The question stumped Sentinel. He took a moment to think about it and if such a thing were possible. “I don’t know. It would need to be dark. I can’t make the magic happen unless it is dark. Luna can make it work in a well lit room provided there are shadows she can draw from, but I can’t do that yet. I wonder if Luna would be impressed if I could manage to change a diaper.” 

“So are we actually going to do this? I mean, are we going to commit ourselves to this… I’m worried that we’re going to try and help and then over time lose interest and then walk away, leaving Sentinel to do all of the work,” Piña said in a low voice. “I know how I am… I’d rather be reading a book or studying if given a chance and I’m real bad about slipping off to do just that.” 

“So we hold one another accountable,” Sentinel said to Piña. 

“We remind each other how important it is.” Dinky saw her reflection in the window, along with Sentinel and Piña’s reflection as well. “Daddy does so much for us… and so does our mothers. Maybe it is time we grow up a bit and take responsibility.” 

“You three can start by setting the tables. Big dinner tonight. There are a lot of ponies to feed. Princess Luna is still here, so we’ll be using the nice plates. Hurry up, make yourselves useful,” Semillon said to the three foals sitting in the bay window together. 

Sentinel unfurled his wings to let go of Dinky and Piña. “Yes ma’am…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 513
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ach… tonight’ll be the chorus of the damned!” 

“Barley!” 

“Don’t ‘Barley’ me… Luna, ye dinnae live here.” Barley’s eyebrow raised as he looked around the table. The old stallion leaned forward. “A house full o’ pregnant mares… and our beloved cook fixes a fine feast. Those funny little cabbages that ain’t half bad with cheese sauce… steamed broccoli and cauliflower… baked beans with molasses an’ brown sugar… candied carrots… baked sweet potatoes… if’n one little unicorn horn so much as sparks we’ll all be blown to Tartarus!” 

Luna rolled her eyes and shook her head. 

“I think Barley is right… Semillon is trying to kill us,” Bucky said. “A pregnant mare is like loaded cannon already, this is doubling the powder load and inviting a sneezy dragon to come help out.” 

“Bucky… you are so dead.” Berry Punch waved her fork at her husband. 

“Death by asphyxiation no less,” Bucky replied. His words caused a great deal of chortling from around the table and a few groans. 

“I’ve set out to do what Bucky’s many enemies could not,” Semillon said from the other end of the table. 

“See! She admits it!” Bucky banged his hoof on the table and laughed, watching as Barley slumped over in his chair guffawing. 

Looking disgusted, Luna turned away from Barley and looked elsewhere. “Some ponies.” 

Still laughing, Bucky looked over at Sentinel, who was sitting at the table with the adults. Sentinel had offered to help feed Harper, something that Bucky was rather surprised by. Sentinel was armed with a spoon pinched in between his grasping digit and his central wing knuckle. Sentinel was patient, the colt was calm, collected, and Harper was eating. As Bucky watched, Sentinel coaxed a spoonful of sweet potato in. 

The table was crowded. There were far too many ponies and far too little space. Bucky realised that they were going to need a bigger table. And possibly a larger dining room. His ears perked as he listened, straining to hear the sounds coming from the kitchen. It was quiet in there. Perhaps too quiet. 

Without warning, Bucky was wet. Startled, he looked around, hearing a great deal of giggling and laughter. He turned to look at Harper. Her cheeks were still puffed out and her lips were puckered. 

“Sorry.” 

Sentinel looked frantic. Amused, Bucky kept a straight face and looked Sentinel in the eye, hoping to draw this out a bit. 

“Sorry… so sorry… I gave her a drink to so she could wash down the sweet potatoes and she just kind of—gah!” 

Mid sentence, Harper squirted Sentinel, a stream of water shooting out from her pursed lips. There was more laughter from everypony but Sentinel. The colt was just sitting there in stunned shock, blinking, and dripping water. 

“It seems she was still loaded,” Bucky said after he watched Harper swallow. Bucky watched as the foal smiled and the rest of the water in her mouth dribbled out, running down the front of her neck and her barrel. Leaning forward, Bucky grinned at his foal. 

“I can’t believe she did that to me.” Sentinel set down the spoon he was holding and then wiped his face upon his foreleg. “She squirted me.” 

“Every day she gets a little smarter. A little more personality. She’s becoming a pony.” Settling back in his chair, Bucky lifted up his glass and took a long drink of water himself. Bucky heard a clatter as Sentinel armed himself once more with a spoon and went back to work. 

“Erebus remains a wee lump—” 

“Barley, so help me, I will destroy you.” Luna emphasised her warning by leaning over and giving Barley a meaningful look. 

“—who likes to nap, eat, nap, and occasionally fill a diaper.” Barley ignored Luna’s harsh glare and focused instead on Sentinel feeding Harper. “Ach… maybe  someday I’ll be a wee lump… what a horrible thought.” Barley’s face became downcast and he sighed. 

Staring down at her plate, Berry Punch said, “Barley, don’t talk like that. I can’t deal with it right now. Or ever for that matter.” 

“Aye, sorry lass… I’ll keep those thoughts to myself,” Barley replied. 

“She gets an apology while I get nothing but sass… I fail to understand this family at times.” Luna looked at Berry Punch first and then at Barley. 

“Berry is my wee little lass… Luna, you’re the mare I love. The sass is just my way o’ saying that I love ye,” Barley said, still looking downcast and staring at Harper. “Aye, look at wee Harper. She’s in the springtime of her life… I think I’ve hit my winter… and speakin’ o’ winter, I’m feeling it this year.” 

There was a stretch of prolonged silence, the sort of silence where entire volumes could be spoken with one meaningful expression. Several such expressions were shared around the table. In the end, it was Harper who broke the silence with a happy gurgle. 



 

The farmhouse library was dim, the only light was the burning fire. A record was playing, something with horns and woodwinds. Bucky stood in the doorway looking in. The room was empty, save for one occupant. This struck Bucky as being odd. He supposed that everypony and everybirdy was in the living room where the tree was. 

“I think I ruined our meal…” 

“Barley, don’t say that.” Bucky crossed the room and sat down. 

“Luna left… she was upset. She denied it, but I could see it in her face.” 

“Luna had to go. There is much to do in Canterlot and little Tourmaline was no doubt missing her,” Bucky said in a low patient voice. He saw Barley’s pained expression. 

“Every day I get a little older and Luna stays forever young… I don’t understand what she sees in me… I used to know what I was doing with my life… now, now I’m not so sure. I’m happier than I’ve ever been… I have everything I’ve ever wanted. A home, family, family is more important than gold lad, never forget that… but for some reason I just feel so miserable right now,” Barley said. 

Bucky did not know what to say. 

“I ain’t never loved nopony like I do Luna… the idea that I’m going to hurt her kills me… it is the worst feeling in the world. I can feel it dragging me down.” 

Knowing that his words would be useless, Bucky tried anyway. “Barley… it doesn’t matter how old you are… or how young. Either way, Luna would outlive you. Time is limited. For Luna, ten years or fifty years is just a blink of an eye, but those special moments in those years are what she’ll remember. Just make the most of what you have.” 

“Aye… yer right… I wanna be alone lad… I need time to think.” 

Bucky nodded. “Of course. But don’t be alone for too long. I’ll go away and leave you be.” 



 

After searching the house, Bucky found Berry Punch, alone in the empty nursery with the lights off. Only the dim light of the hall illuminated the room. Saying nothing, Bucky crossed the room and climbed into the bowl shaped chair to be with her. 

“I just needed a moment alone… to think,” Berry said. 

Bucky nodded. 

“You should be with the others.” 

Leaning over, Bucky kissed the pony beside him on the cheek. She smelled of garlic and peppermint. “I worry about you… Derpy’s downed. Thistle is downed. Belisama is now asleep more than she is awake. You’re still up and moving around. You’re still functional. But I worry that you aren’t getting the attention you need.” 

“Bucky, I told you, if I need attention, I know how to find it.” 

Berry sounded irritated. Bucky took note of it. “Or you know how to wander off, hoping that I will find you.” 

“Don’t be a presumptuous arse,” Berry said, turning her head away from Bucky as she did so. “Look, I’m having a moment. I know that usually I’m the solid rock around here. I’m the solid sturdy one. Bon Bon and I both. I’m having a bit of trouble carrying my own load… and I came back here for a quiet little break.” 

Pressing his snoot against Berry, Bucky inhaled, taking in her scent. He felt her shiver. Opening his mouth, Bucky took in a bit of Berry Punch’s mane and gave a tug. He was rewarded with a nicker. Letting go, he rolled over on his side and kicked out his legs. He felt Berry sprawl out beside him and felt the weight of her head come to rest upon his neck. 

“Maybe I did need a little attention.” 

Bucky grinned but said nothing, knowing full well it would only cause trouble. 

“I’m missing the rest of my family. I don’t know why… they’ve done nothing to contact me. I know they’re alive because I’ve checked up on them. After mom and dad both died, we all sort of drifted apart. There was bad words between us… ugly words. Barley is getting older… and family just doesn’t seem to be what it once was. Between what Barley said earlier and knowing that Hearth’s Warming is in just a few days, I’m feeling kinda gloomy.” 

“Anything I can do to help?” Bucky asked. 

“Just sit here with me for a while…” 





Entering the nursery, Lyra hit the light switch. She heard a grunt and groan, which startled her. Moving towards the crib, Lyra looked at the two ponies spooning in the bowl shaped chair. Lyra smiled and hoped that she wasn’t interrupting anything. 

“Two little foals have had a bath and are now all dried and ready for bed,” Lyra said. “And they smell so good. Why do freshly bathed foals smell so good?” 

There was a crackle as Bucky stretched. He tried to get out of the chair, but two strong forelegs pulled him back. He fell down with a grunt. He watched as Lyra placed Harper and Cadance in the crib. Harper was yawning and Cadance was already asleep. 

“Night night,” Harper said as she gave a little wave. 

The foal yawned once more as Lyra covered her with a blanket. Lowering the rail, Lyra then leaned in and gave each foal a kiss goodnight. With a soft click, Lyra raised the rail and locked it back in place. 

“We wore you out… we won… you’re going to go right to sleep for mama,” Lyra said in a sing-song voice to Harper. 

“She must be tuckered out. What happened?” Berry asked. 

“Loch Skimmer tickled little Harper to death with her wings and now little Harper is too tired to stay awake,” Lyra replied. “Little Harpy Narpy had the hiccups.” 

“Harpy Narpy?” Bucky asked, giving Lyra a puzzled look. 

“Yes… little Harpy Narpy,” Lyra replied in a foalish voice. She stepped away from the crib, smiling a victorious smile. “Bedtime was super easy tonight.” 

“Almost too easy,” Berry Punch said. “The Empress usually demands cuddles.” 

“The Empress had cuddles. Dinky and Piña hugged her and squeezed her and kissed on her until it was bathtime… Cadance fell asleep in the tub.” Lyra took another step away from the crib, eyeing it, hoping for a clean getaway. “Bon Bon says that something is up with our foals… Sentinel offered to feed Harpy Narpy… Dinky and Piña played with Cadance… Bonnie thinks the foals might be hoping for extra presents for Hearth’s Warming.” 

“That makes sense,” Berry Punch replied. “The help is nice but things will return back to the usual after the holidays.” 

“Helpful foals are a pleasant holiday surprise.” Reaching out with his magic, Bucky tugged Lyra closer to the chair and then pulled her in with him. Lyra smelled of peppermint, garlic, and brandy. 

“Bucky, what are you doing?” 

“Why, cuddling you of course. I thought that was obvious.” 

“I was going to leave so you and Berry could go back to spooning.” 

“Nope. Berry and I have decided to keep you. Now be quiet Lyra, so the foals can sleep.” 

Unable to help herself, Lyra giggled, a brandy fueled giggle. 

Ripple came bounding through the door, her eyes were wide, and she was panting with nervousness as she burst into the nursery. The flustered filly took a deep breath and bounced in place. 

“Thistle just made a huge mess in the living room! She’s moaning at lot and Violet Velvet says she’s having her foal… like right now!” Ripple reported. 

The bowl shaped chair almost fell over as three ponies scrambled to escape it’s comfy confines. Lyra tripped and fell over, no longer giggling, and she rolled out of the way so she wouldn’t get stepped on. Berry Punch sprung free and with surprising grace, she landed, catlike, and then trotted away as Bucky was still getting to his hooves. 

A long blood curdling scream filled the house… 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 514
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky stepped into the living room, the scent of blood was heavy in the air. He froze in place and closed his eyes. Blood had stopped bothering him quite some time ago, but this was different. He wasn’t sure he could face this. Standing there with his eyes closed, he heard Thistle scream once more. 

“Bucky, I need your help.” 

Opening his eyes, Bucky looked at Violet Velvet. 

“Good… you’re with me. I need your help. We’re going to birth a foal.” 

A rush of queasiness washed over Bucky. “What? No… we need to get Thistle to the hospital. We need to go to the hospital…” 

“Bucky, don’t be stupid. She’s birthing now… and if you take her to the hospital they’re going to cut her open because she’s a strange species and they’re going to minimise complications. Do you want to see your pretty Thistle sliced open?” 

Feeling his testicles shrivel, Bucky shook his head. Smashing a mare’s pelvis, slicing a mare open, for a moment, Bucky realised that the treatment of mares in hospitals was barbaric. 

“I want to be in the lake! Don’t take me to the hospital!” 

“No Thistle… we can’t help you if you are in the lake… Bucky, get her in the big tub,” Violet said, reaching out and prodding Bucky to get through to him. 

Closing his eyes once more, Bucky focused, not an easy task. This was a crisis like any other, and crises were managed through force of will and control. Extending his will, he wrapped his mind around Thistle, cradling every inch of her, and then lifted Derpy as well, careful to support her hips. Bucky tried to force his knees to stop knocking; a loss of control now would be disasterous. Try as he might, he continued to tremble. 



 

After setting Thistle down in the tub, Bucky threw himself in there with her. The kelpie was crying, sobbing, and sometimes screaming when the pain was too much. Bucky was only somewhat aware of the mob of ponies just outside the bathroom door, all of them looking in. 

Berry Punch was getting Derpy comfortable on a cushion thrown on the bathroom floor. 

“I can’t do this!” 

Violet raised her eyebrow and gave Thistle a piercing harsh stare. “Why can’t you do this? I want you to tell me why. Speak, now.” 

“I’m not like Bucky… or Derpy… I can’t deal with pain. I’m afraid of pain… pain scares me… scares me and I don’t like it,” Thistle replied as her tail started to thrash in the water. 

“You’ve been in pain for months… now you have to endure just a little more pain and this will all be over,” Violet said, her voice softening a little. 

Thistle bared her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and waited for a rush of pain to pass. She opened her eyes and looked at Violet. “You’re… you’re not a doctor.” 

“I’m a midwife and I’ve birthed a shocking number of foals in my lifetime… now… deep breathing. Keep talking to me Thistle. Keep talking so Bucky can hear your voice and know that you’re okay.” 

“I’m not okay! There is a foal ripping me open from the inside!” 

Violet smiled, which most ponies found unpleasant. There was something off about her smile. “Feisty. Feisty is good. Anger is better than whining.” 

“I’m not whining!” Thistle, unaware that she was in fact, whining, replied. 

“Screaming is good. It requires a lot of air sucked into the lungs… deep breaths… and it clears the epiglottis… so keep shouting at me Thistle and tell me what sort of awful pony I am,” Violet said in a voice that seemed far too calm for the situation. “Bucky, how is it looking down there? I’m having trouble seeing from this angle.” 

Reaching out with his magic, Bucky forced Thistle’s tail to be still. There was some blood in the water, some floating bits he could not identify. “Thistle’s vagina—” 

“You can see inside of her?” Violet demanded. 

Bucky winced. “Vulva… vulva, sorry… I don’t know what I’m doing here.” Thistle’s entrance looked like an angry red fissure. It was swollen and puffy looking. “It looks all red and kinda pushed outwards.” 

“We have some time… Bucky, try to make Thistle feel better… tell her how pretty she is.” 

Looking down at Thistle, Bucky took a good long look at her. Her eyes were bloodshot. Snot dribbled from one nostril. She was sweating or maybe just wet, Bucky could not tell. Her panting caused the snot to form a bubble which expanded and contracted with each breath.

“You’ve never been more beautiful…” 



 

“I’m gonna be sick.” 

Sentinel hoped that Dinky would not be sick. It would leave a mess on the carpet. Beside him, sitting on his other side, Piña was craning her head, trying to get a better look. “Dinky, there is nothing to even see yet,” Sentinel said, hoping to make his sister feel better. 

“I can’t even see anything,” Piña said. 

Sentinel felt Piña pulled away from him. He turned around and saw Sparkler. Piña was now sitting on Sparkler’s back. Sparkler was shaking, shaking like Sentinel had never seen her shake before. 

When Thistle screamed once more, Sentinel gritted his teeth and pulled Dinky even closer. Foal birth was awful. There was no way that he wanted to put Diamond Tiara or Moonbow through this. 

“I want my mama.” 

Sentinel considered Dinky’s words. After a moment of thinking, Sentinel realised that he wanted his mother too. He gave Dinky a nudge, pushing her along, and made his way through the bathroom door. The tile floor was wet, treacherous, water was everywhere from Thistle’s thrashing. Staying out from underhoof was important. Shoving Dinky along every step of the way, Sentinel made his way to Derpy. 

Dinky leapt up beside her mother, clambering up the cushion, and Sentinel followed after. Dinky buried her face into her mother’s side, unable to watch what was happening. 

“I’m glad you’re here with me,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

His mother’s voice was soothing. Sentinel, feeling very foalish, shoved his sister over a bit and pressed himself up against Derpy’s side. He didn’t feel grown up, he didn’t feel mature, he was terrified, he was frightened, and more than just about any other time he could think of, Sentinel wanted to be held, to be comforted, and told that it would be okay. 



 

“How’s it looking down there?” 

Bucky looked at Velvet. She was holding Thistle’s head now, stroking her, and reminding her to breathe when the worst of the waves of pain came along. Turning his head, Bucky looked down. He didn’t like what he was seeing. “She looks… I dunno… torn. All stretched out. The opening is bigger. There’s a little blood and some kind of liquid is dribbling out. There are little clots… little scab looking bits coming out into the water.” 

“So far everything seems normal… good.” 

Bucky looked around the bathroom. Derpy looked calm… Bucky envied her serenity. Berry Punch was standing near Violet Velvet, whispering something to Thistle. Bon Bon and Lyra stood in the doorway. Belisama was sitting on Bon Bon’s back. Dinky was hiding her face under her mother’s wing. Sentinel looked terrified. 

This unnerved Bucky perhaps more than anything. Sentinel was the steadfast one. 

In the doorway, the rest of the family stood, peering inwards, all of them trying to see. 

“I can’t take this.” Shoving her way through the door, Loch Skimmer forced her way into the bathroom. She almost slipped on the wet tile, recovered her hoofing with a flap of her wings, and made her way to Berry Punch’s side. “I needed my mama… I ain’t ashamed to say it.” Pressing up against Berry Punch, Loch Skimmer heaved a fretful sigh. 

“Still thinking about having a foal?” Bucky asked, looking Loch Skimmer in the eye. 

Cringing, Loch Skimmer pressed up even tighter against Berry Punch. “Nope. I’m cured. Believe me when I say I’ve lost all interest.” 

“What a pity… I wanted to be a grandfather…” 

“Sorry… but all you’re getting from me this Hearth’s Warming is disappointment… and so is Rising Star for that matter,” Loch Skimmer said in a squeaky voice. 

“I thought being a mother was going to be great… I wanted to fill the world… with kelpies… I’m having… second thoughts,” Panting, Thistle’s words came out in in between her bouts of laboured breathing. Thistle squeezed her eyes shut and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Other fillies… my age… Loch Skimmer’s age… are playing… are in school… are having fun… there was… a lot… that I… was wrong… about.” 

Unable to stop herself, Thistle threw back her head and screamed. 

“Those screams keep happening more and more… I don’t like this,” Loch Skimmer said as she stepped towards the tub. Lowering her head, she nosed Thistle’s cheek. 

“The contractions are getting closer together. This foal is coming out and soon. Some mares can be in labour for hours… or even days. Thistle is going to be spared all of that prolonged agony,” Violet said in a calm voice. 

“Contractions are the uterine muscle flexing. The contractions are so strong that it causes skeletal flexing and places stress upon the bones—” 

“Piña, where do you learn this stuff?” Sparkler asked. 

“School… books… Loch Skimmer’s biology textbook…” 

“I feel like I gotta fart… and I can’t.” Thistle rolled around in the tub, unable to find any position that was comfortable. Her thrashing tail nearly knocked Bucky’s hooves out from beneath him. “It… feels… like… my… spine… is… being… crushed.” 



 

“Something is happening… I can see Thistle clenching up down here… everything is quivering—” 

A loud piercing scream cut Bucky off. He fell silent, waiting for it to pass. He felt sick with worry. There was a lot more blood now, and he wanted to believe Violet’s reassurances that this was normal, but the back of his mind kept creating nightmarish scenarios of Thistle bleeding out. 

“Bucky, she’s not hemorrhaging. This is a slow steady trickle. This is perfectly normal. The placenta has detached from the uterine lining. There were a lot of blood vessels connecting the placenta to the uterine wall. Those are all breaking now as Thistle’s body prepares to give birth.” 

“Everything is okay?” Bucky could hear it in his own voice. He was terrified. 

“Things could not be going better—” 

“SOMETHING IS PEEKING OUT!” 

“Here we go then,” Violet replied, her voice as calm as ever. 

“It’s gone… I just saw something and then it was sucked back in.” Shaking his head, Bucky tried to not let his confusion and fear get the best of him.

“She’ll be crowning soon. The foal is still being pushed into place. Once the foal’s little head starts to poke out and then stays poked out, that will be crowning. We’re close,” Violet said, explaining everything in her usual collected manner. 

Thistle let out another ragged scream. Her voice was raspy now. Her eyes, when they were open, were glassy. Her tongue dangled out of her mouth as she panted. “Bucky?” 

“Yes?” 

“I’m having… crazy thoughts… I’m worried…” 

“Thistle, just focus on breathing,” Violet said, patting Thistle on the neck. 

“This isn’t… Bucky’s foal… I’m so scared…” 

“Do I love Harper any less?” Bucky asked. “Or Sentinel?” 

Thistle felt as though her insides were being ripped apart. She screamed, sucked in a ragged breath, and screamed again, her fears now forgotten. 

“This is awful.” Loch Skimmer closed her eyes and pressed her face into Berry Punch’s neck. “So much blood and screaming.” 

“This is life… it begins with blood and violence and if you are lucky it doesn’t end that way,” Violet said as she hooked her foreleg around Thistle’s foreleg. 

“If I had stayed on the Shetlands, this could be me… this could be me…” 

Stepping away from Berry Punch, Loch Skimmer gagged and then staggered into the wall. She felt her hooves slip out from beneath her, and, knowing that there would be no catching herself, Loch Skimmer gritted her teeth, preparing for the fall. 

Which never happened. Opening her eyes, she felt the warm tingle of magic and saw that she was surrounded in a golden glow. Lyra had saved her. She heard sobbing and realised it was Ripple. Stumbling, feeling as though she would throw up at any second, Loch Skimmer wanted nothing more than to be with her sister. 

A moment later, Ripple collided with Loch Skimmer and the two sisters held on to one another, both of them thinking the very same thoughts. Another mare from the Shetlands joined them, Bon Bon pushed her way into the tangle of pegasi, making her way into flapping wings and awkward clinging hugs while two pegasi were standing on three legs and trying not to fall. 

Again, Thistle screamed as another painful spasm traveled through her body. 
	
	
> Chapter 515
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Thistle, keep pushing… Bucky, tell me what you see.” 

“A little face… a head. Two little ears—” 

Violet shook her head. “Is the foal making any progress coming out?” 

“No… still just a head,” Bucky replied. 

“That’s what I thought.” Violet, feeling concerned, made no outward expression other than the corners of her mouth turning downward a bit more than usual. 

“Am I... in trouble?” Thistle asked. 

Thistle’s voice was raspy, hoarse, and came out as little more than a ragged whisper. The state of Thistle’s voice worried Bucky more than any of the blood that kept flowing out.

“No trouble yet, but you’re going to have to work for it… Thistle, you did a good job with this foal. She’s fat… most likely. And you’re still little. I bet her little shoulders are wedged in there. This is going to hurt… but you’re a tough mare… you can do this—” 

“I’m no… mare… I’m a filly… I can’t do… this.” 

“If we can get those shoulders out you’re done… this will be over.” Violet leaned down and kissed Thistle on her brow. “Now push damn you!” 

Bucky, observing the other end, watched as the foal squirmed inside of her mother. “Shouldn’t there be like a birthing sac or something?” 

“It probably slipped off… don’t worry, it’ll come out with the afterbirth,” Violet replied. 

Thistle screamed, it was her worst one yet, and for a moment, Bucky feared that he would go mad with worry. And then, Bucky almost did go mad with worry. Thistle went silent and stopped moving. Her tail was almost still in the water. 

“She’s fainted… Bucky, now is not the time to panic. Take those talons of yours, grab the foal by the head and neck, and very carefully give her a wiggle. Let’s see if you can pull her out.” 

Violet’s words made Bucky feel queasy. “Are you sure this is wise?” 

“Bucky, I trust your ability to create near perfect machines. Do you trust yourself?” 

Looking down at his talons, Bucky stared at the rubber caps over the talon tips. He flexed them once, then twice, and then a third time. He wanted to trust in his own creations. He had made his talons for delicate tasks. This was a delicate task. 

“Don’t tug too much. Don’t yank and no hard pulling. Just a little wiggle. Maybe we can break the suction a bit and make things easier.” 

“Okay Violet.” Reaching out, Bucky grasped Bell Heather in his talons. There was a moment of panic and then Bucky realised there was just too much at stake to allow himself to panic. He lifted the foal’s head upwards, then off to one side just a little, and then off to the other. There was a wet sucking sound and a few bubbles rose up to the surface of the water. Fresh red blood trickled out with the bubbles. Extending his thumb talon, Bucky willed it to slide over in its track, setting it in a more useful location. Closing his eyes, Bucky focused on feeling the area where Bell Heather’s neck met up with the bottom of Thistle’s slit. 

At least he didn’t have to worry about the kelpie foal drowning. 

Fearing that he would do more harm than good, Bucky pushed his thumb talon along the foal’s neck, and using her neck as a guide, he pushed his thumb talon into Thistle. After this was accomplished, he then wiggled it around. He could feel flesh contracting around him and the foal. He pushed a little deeper, angling his way in, feeling a great deal of resistance. There was a slurping sound followed by a whooshing sound. Startled, Bucky froze for a moment, not sure what was happening. More blood seeped out. 

With a gush of bloody meaty chunks, Bell Heather shot free of her mother. Still frozen, Bucky stared down at the foal in the water. She was still for a moment, which terrified Bucky, and then he saw her tail twitch. She had no mane. She was bloody and purple and Bucky had no idea what colour she was. 

“Leave the cord for now, we’ll deal with it later,” Violet said in a low voice. She reached up and wiped her face with her foreleg. “That was clever of you, breaking suction like that.” 

“It was a hunch… I didn’t know if it would work… I almost shat myself in fear as I did it.” Bucky looked around, blinking, feeling stunned. Derpy was up and moving, she was approaching the tub, and Bucky looked at her. “I delivered another foal.” 

“Yes you did,” Derpy replied. 

“This time I saved the mother…” 

A lump appeared in Derpy’s throat and she thought of Harper. It was an awful feeling and she wondered just how much that moment haunted Bucky. She could hear the pain in his voice now. She looked into Bucky’s eyes, not knowing what to say, but wishing she had some meaningful words, some means to make the hurt go away. 

Berry Punch stepped forward to stand beside Derpy. “Yes Bucky, you did. You saved Thistle in every way that matters.” 

“We have a new foal,” Derpy said as she looked down into the water. “Is she swimming?” 

“Looks that way,” Berry Punch replied as she watched the tiny kelpie foal in the water. 

Sentinel approached the tub, stood up on his hind legs, braced his front hooves on the edge, and peered in. “Look… milk is leaking into the water… and the foal is moving along Thistle’s tail… that’s amazing.” 

“She seems to know where to go to feed herself.” Derpy turned to look at everypony. “Okay… all of you out. We need to get Thistle cleaned up. There is still a lot to do. Thistle is going to need quiet. So all of you foals need to go. I’m sorry. In the morning, if Thistle is up for it, you can come see her and the foal then.” 



 

Bucky was acting peculiar and Berry Punch wondered if he would revert to a feral state as he had done with Harper. He was pacing. sniffing, stalking about the bathroom in an agitated state. She glanced at Violet, worried for Violet’s safety, not knowing how Bucky might behave if he slipped into whatever weird state that he had slipped into with Harper. 

Berry Punch let out a startled yelp when Bucky headbutted her, rubbing the side of his face along her withers. When he pulled away, Berry Punch could feel something greasy feeling on her pelt. Sometimes, when Sentinel brushed up against her, he left behind the same greasy feeling. Realising she had been marked, Berry Punch took a deep breath and said nothing, understanding that Bucky was acting on strong instincts. Her nostrils crinkled from the strong musky odour now coming from her pelt. 

A moment later, Bucky headbutted Derpy, and Berry watched as Derpy rubbed her head along Bucky’s neck, mimicking his gesture. 

The tub was filling with clean water after it had been cleaned out and some of the water drained. Lyra had cleaned out as many of the floaty bits as possible. Derpy was afraid to drain the tub until it was empty as nopony was quite sure what would happen if the foal was no longer in water. 

Bell Heather was latched onto her mother’s teat and was feeding. 

“Thistle is still out… I’m worried.” 

Berry Punch looked at Bon Bon, agreeing with her fellow earth pony. Bon Bon was leaning over Thistle’s limp body and nosing her neck, trying to get some sort of response. Berry watched, feeling hopeful. 

“Thistle will be fine… the pain got to be too much and she—ugh! Bucky what have you done to me!” Violet backed away from Bucky, her nostrils flaring. “What a stink!” 

“You’ve been marked… you’re one of us now. You get used to the smell. Usually it’s Sentinel that does this,” Derpy said. “Bucky?” 

Bucky did not reply, but continued to pace. 

“I wonder if he is going to go all weird on us like he did with Harper,” Lyra said. 

Berry Punch looked at Lyra. “I was just thinking the same thing. Bucky seems to be in a bit more control over himself but he also seems kinda feral. I was worried about what he might do to Violet, but I’m not worried now.” 

“I’ve been marked… I suppose I should feel flattered.” Violet lifted Thistle’s head from the edge of the tub and then eased Thistle’s head down into the water. “This feels odd… just dropping her head into the water like this and leaving her.” 

Sticking his head in the door, Barley looked into the room. “How is my kelpie?” 

“Still passed out I’m afraid. But her breathing is good… or it was when her head was above the water,” Bon Bon replied. 

Grunting, Barley pulled his head out of the doorway and disappeared from view. 

“The water still looks murky and kinda gross.” Lyra scowled, unsure of what to do. “Should Bell be swimming around in water this gross? Or breathing in water this yucky?” 

“I’m sure everything will be okay for now,” Berry Punch said. “Everything else went off without a hitch, I think everything will be fine.” 



 

Thistle awoke to everything aching. Lifting her head, she broke the surface of the water, gasping as her lungs took in dry air. She had a strange sensation just below her stomach. There was a strange strong musky smell in the air. She felt something moving in the water beside her. 

“You are now a mother… you did good Thistle,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

Blinking, her eyes stinging as they filled with tears, Thistle twisted her head around to have a look down in the water. She was laying on her side and something kept brushing up against her stomach. That something was a pale shade of purple in the dim light of the bathroom. Her movement caused excruciating pain to shoot through her middle. 

Reaching out her foreleg, Thistle touched the small body next to her in the water. When she did so, she felt a tugging on sensitive flesh. She realised that the foal was latched on to a teat. It dawned upon Thistle that this is what had been growing inside of her for all of this time. She had made this. Something brushed up against the side of her face and Thistle was distracted by her thoughts. Lifting her head, Thistle saw Bucky. He was staring at her, saying nothing, his ears were back against his skull. 

Trembling, Thistle was overcome with an emotion she could not name. “I made you a foal… I hope you like her…” 

“Bell Heather.” 

“Oh thank goodness, he’s talking again.” Derpy took a deep breath.

“Bucky hasn’t been himself for a while,” Berry Punch said to Thistle. 

“I have a foal… mine.” 

Even in her muddled state, Thistle could tell that Bucky was acting a little off. She watched him walk away from the tub and then he began to pace the length of the room. 

“You fainted near the end,” Violet said. 

“I remember being in a lot of pain… like my insides were being pulled out.” Thistle reached down and rubbed her stomach, wincing as she touched it. 

“There was a problem with suction. Pressure differences. I think because the water, but I can’t say for sure. Bucky reached up inside of you and broke the seal. Bell Heather shot right out like a cork out of a bottle of sparkling wine when he did that. Don’t know what happened exactly, but it all worked out for the best,” Violet said as she looked at Thistle. 

“Thank you—” 

“Don’t mention it. It was my privilege.” Violet looked Thistle in the eye and gave the kelpie a little nod. “Welcome to motherhood.” 

Bending her neck, Thistle once more tried to get a good look at her foal. There were tiny little legs. A long tail. Bell Heather was a soft muted shade of purple, but Thistle wasn’t sure if she was purple. 

Berry Punch leaned over the edge of the tub. “She swam just moments after birth. Well, moved around in the water. You started leaking milk and she found a teat on her own.” 

“I suppose being in the water isn’t too different from being in the womb,” Thistle said. 

“So what happens if she’s on dry land? I guess she’ll be a little pony foal and will be helpless?” Berry asked, her brows furrowing. “We’ve all been wondering about it because we wanted to drain the tub completely so we could clean it.” 

“I’ve never been around another kelpie foal,” Thistle said, coming to a dreadful realisation about herself, her kind, and her species. “I have no idea what will happen… this is awful.” 

“You have us… we’ll get through this. A little common sense, a pinch of motherly instinct from Derpy, and a little patience as we figure out what works. Everything will be fine,” Bon Bon said. 

Lyra smiled. “And when the next kelpie comes, we’ll know just what to do.” 
	
> Chapter 516
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a thump and a clunk in the nursery, which caused Bucky’s eyes to fly open. It was early morning, before the dawn, and there should not have been a clunk nor a thump in the nursery. Bucky extracted himself from his wives, trying not to disturb them, and was extra careful of Thistle and Bell Heather. 

Thoughts of rats crept into Bucky’s mind. He shook his head, trying to be rid of the unwelcome thoughts, not liking the mental images appearing in his mind. Instead, he told himself that Harper had figured out how to escape the crib. It seemed reasonable enough as far as assumptions went, and was a far more pleasant thought than rats. 

He slipped through the door, silent, his shadow magic manifesting without him realising it. Bucky flipped the light switch and heard a startled cry. Blinking, Bucky saw three foals standing beside the crib. The light stung his eyes and made it difficult to see, but Bucky could see Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña well enough. 

“Whasgoinon?” Bon Bon asked as she staggered into the nursery with her eyes closed, bumping into Bucky and then leaning upon him, not yet fully awake. 

“A jailbreak.” Bucky yawned, which turned into a half awake whine, and then cleared his throat. Bucky’s attempt at humour died when he saw the look of terror upon Sentinel’s face, and all thoughts about his witty remark about three future convicts helping the little convicts to escape were forgotten. “I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this.” 

“Perfectly logical,” Piña said, offering her father a sheepish frightened grin. The little pink foal let out a nervous giggle. “All perfectly logical.” 

“Too early for this,” Bon Bon said as she wobbled off for the crib. 

“We were going to feed Harper breakfast. Sentinel realised that he couldn’t get Harper out of the crib by himself, so I offered to help. Everything was going great until dumb dumb here…” Dinky paused and shot a look at her sister Piña. “Piña had to trip over a stuffed animal that was on the—” 

“It was dark and I couldn’t see!” Piña cried out in protest as she got out of Bon Bon’s way. 

Try as he might, Bucky could not stop the smile that he felt tugging at the corners of his mouth. “But why so early? I mean, you foals should still be asleep.” 

“Sentinel set his alarm. We know that you’ve been getting up early to feed Harper and we wanted to help out and make things easier. Which means we had to get up before you did so we could get to Harper first,” Piña replied. 

“I’m shocked… Cadance woke up dry,” Bon Bon said, mumbling in her half awake state. The earth pony stretched out her neck, picked up Cadance by the nape of her neck using her teeth, and then stumbled off to the bedroom, mumbling something even though her mouth was full of alicorn foal. 

“I wonder if that hurts?” Sentinel asked as he watched Bon Bon go. 

“If what hurts?” Bucky asked in reply. 

Sentinel looked thoughtful for a moment. “Picking her up by the neck like that.” 

Sitting down on the floor, Bucky looked at Harper, who was yawning, and then at Sentinel. “It doesn’t seem to. The skin is extra thick back there. Earth ponies and pegasi had to have some way of picking up their foals. Thistle picked up Bell and Bell was just fine… Thistle has all those sharp teeth.” 

“Just seems odd.” Sentinel sat down, mimicking his father’s posture. “So… about breakfast—” 

“Take Harper to the kitchen. Feed her. Semillon should already be up. I’m going back to bed. Harper probably has to go potty… so… have fun figuring that out. Don’t let her fall into the toilet, she already has a dreadful fear of falling in and I can’t begin to imagine what actually falling in would do to her,” Bucky said. 

“Uh… we didn’t think of that… how do we do that?” Dinky asked. 

“You’ll figure it out.” Bucky smiled at Dinky and then looked at Harper who was bouncing around in the crib, her fluffy orange curls bobbing with every bounce. “If Harper pinches a loaf you might need to give her a shower. Be mindful of the hot water. If you burn your little sister, I will never let you hear the end of it.” Bucky felt an odd perverse sense of satisfaction when he heard Sentinel gulp. 

“Well, you can depend on us. We got this,” Piña said. 

Piña’s lack of confidence was obvious to Bucky. The little pink foal was terrified. “I’m going back to bed. It was a long night. Good luck…” 



 

Crawling back into the warm bed, Bucky piled in next to Lyra, who grumbled as he snuggled in beside her. In the dark, he could hear the sounds of foals suckling. It was a soothing sound and Bucky felt the tension from thinking about rats going out of his muscles. 

“She did it again,” Bon Bon said in a low whisper.

Bucky buried his face into Lyra’s mane, knowing full well that his words would give Lyra the shivers. “Did what again?” As predicted, Lyra shivered and let out a little giggle. 

“Cadance went right for Belisama… and then was fussy when Belisama had no milk to give. I don’t understand why she keeps doing that,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Cadance loves the stuffing out of Belisama. Maybe feeding and love are the same thing in Cadance’s mind… like a hug, or a kiss, you know, just the desire to be close to somepony or somebirdy that you love.” Bucky pondered his own words and then thought about how close he was with Lyra at the moment. 

Yawning, Bon Bon squeaked out a word. “Maybe.” 

“Thistle, how are you feeling?” Bucky asked. 

“Sore. All over. Also, I don’t hurt as much in pony form and I can’t figure out why,” Thistle replied in a low voice. “It is strange seeing Bell Heather as a pony. She’s so helpless in this form. She can’t do anything for herself.” 

“Thistle shrunk. She’s half the pony she used to be.” Derpy rolled over and wrapped a foreleg around Thistle. “Soon you’ll heal up and you’ll be running and life will be wonderful again.” 

Glad for Derpy’s embrace, Thistle closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of the foal suckling upon her teats. “Even though it hurts it’s already easier to walk.” 

“Bell has no teeth… did anypony else notice?” Berry asked. She was laying on her back and rubbing her stomach. “Foals are usually born with teeth.” 

“It’s a mercy that little kelpies are born with no teeth. Think of all the trouble that Luna has with Erebus when he has a mouth full of fangs,” Bucky replied. 

“Yeouch!” Rolling over onto her side, Berry Punch curled up into a protective position and tried not to think about a little kelpie chewing on her flesh. “I wonder how Sentinel, Piña, and Dinky are doing with Harper.” 

“So long as they don’t drop her in the toilet, everything will be okay,” Bucky said, fearing the worst but knowing that that the three of them would manage somehow. 



 

“Nice work back there, you did good Dinky,” Sentinel said as he walked down the hall with Harper on his heels. “You didn’t get soap in her eyes either.” 

“I needed a shower anyway. Do you think Thistle is okay?” Dinky followed along after Sentinel and Harper, herding Harper along. “Father needs to re-enchant the dryers on the doorframes… I still feel a little damp.” Beside her, Piña was humming, which Dinky found reassuring for some reason. 

Turning into the kitchen, Sentinel saw Semillon at the stove. The cook was looking at him. He could not read the expression on her face. He supposed an explanation was in order. “We’re helping out. We have to feed Harper breakfast.” 

“I see.” Semillon kept a straight face but it took effort. Sentinel was far too serious. “Well, sit down at the table. I’ll get breakfast for all of you. I’m fixing eggs. Harper likes eggs, but getting her to remember that she likes eggs usually takes some effort. There will also be biscuits and jam.” 

Using her telekinesis, Dinky levitated Harper up into her high chair and then after a moment of struggle, clicked the tray table into place, locking Harper in. Once Harper was secured, Dinky climbed into a chair and sat down at the table. She watched as Piña climbed up beside her. 

Sentinel also climbed up into a chair, sitting on the other side of Harper. He looked at Dinky, gave a nod, and then looked at Harper who was sitting in between them. “Watch out… she squirts.” Hearing a clunk, Sentinel saw a cup of coffee being set down in front of him. 

“One of my many responsibilities… making sure that the stallion of the house has his morning coffee… this morning, that would be you,” Semillon said as she trotted away, returning to the stove. 

Looking over at his three sisters, Sentinel gulped, his mouth feeling as dry as a desert. The enormity of his responsibility settled upon his shoulders. So far, they hadn’t made any mistakes. They had even kept Harper from falling into the toilet, Dinky had been the one to hold her up and keep her steady. 

“When mamamama?” Harper asked. “Mama?”

“In bed. Taking a well deserved break,” Dinky replied. She shot Sentinel a nervous glance, wondering what to do if Harper refused to eat. From what Semillon had said, eggs might be challenging, and Harper was already asking for Bucky or her other mothers. Sentinel was drinking coffee. Dinky shook her head. Coffee was gross. 

“I feel kinda useless.” Piña heaved a sigh. “I can’t move Harper around with magic and I haven’t been much of a help at all.” 

“Don’t worry Piña… I’m sure that before all of this is over, you’ll find something you can do,” Sentinel said after swallowing some of his coffee. Behind him, he heard the fridge open and close. 

A moment later, a jug of apple juice was set upon the table, a few glasses, and one small tumbler with a straw for Harper. Sentinel took note. Apple juice was sticky if it got into your pelt. For a moment, Sentinel wondered if the cook was trying to make their lives interesting. 

“Thank you,” Piña said to Semillon. 

“You’re welcome.” 

Knowing she was best suited for the task, Dinky went to work pouring juice into the glasses. This was a simple task now, she could do it with her eyes closed and not spill a drop. But Dinky kept her eyes opened and focused upon her task. This morning was not a good morning to make careless mistakes. She looked at her brother, gave him a knowing nod, and then using her telekinesis, she lifted up the tumbler. Feeling apprehensive, worried, and a little afraid, she set it down upon Harper’s tray. 

“Abble juice!” 

“Yes Harper, apple juice,” Dinky said. She watched as Harper ducked her head down and took a long drink, sucking up her juice through the straw. When Harper pulled her head up, Dinky winced as she saw apple juice dribbling down Harper’s chin, neck, and barrel. 

“She’s already making a mess.” Piña banged her two front hooves together, a nervous gesture. Sniffing, she smelled eggs cooking. “You know, as bad as it looked…” 

“Yes Piña?” Sentinel glanced at his sister. 

“I think I’d still like to have foals… but later. When I’m grown up and ready for it.” Piña had more to say, but struggled to put her feelings into words. “Maybe it is an earth pony thing, but I’m not that scared by what I saw last night.” 

Setting down his coffee cup, Sentinel kept one wary eye on Harper. He wanted to say something to Piña, but no words would come. The sights, the sounds, and the smells of last night were fresh in his memory. 

“Here you go… I’ll bring you your plates in a bit. See if you can get Harper to eat,” Semillon said as she set down a plate of eggs on the table, along with a biscuit. “The biscuit has already been buttered and jam was added.” 

“Thank you,” Sentinel said. 

Dinky armed herself with a spoon, scooped up some eggs, and then smiled at Harper. “Want some breakfast?”

“No! No yellow! Yellow yuck!” 

Piña leaned forward on the table. “Here we go… how are we gonna make her eat this?”
	
	
	
> Chapter 517
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Maybe I could use my magic to trick her.”

Sentinel shook his head and raised his eyebrow at Dinky. “No.” 

“No?” Dinky gave her brother a puzzled look, unable to figure out why Sentinel would say no about her idea. “What do you mean, no?” 

“Harper has to be able to trust us. You’re her big sister. She has to know that she can trust you,” Sentinel said as he eyed the spoon that Dinky was holding in a field of purple magic. 

“Piña, I have an idea. Make a funny face,” Dinky said to Piña. 

“Why me? Why should I make a funny face?” Piña asked. 

Dinky shrugged. “You’re already funny looking you silly earth pony.” 

“Screwhead.” Piña narrowed her eyes at Dinky. She stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at her sister, a loud, long, and wet sounding raspberry. 

As Harper began to giggle, Sentinel set down his coffee cup. “Keep doing that.” 

“Okay, fine.” Piña stuck out her tongue and waggled her ears, which caused Harper to start laughing. She watched as Dinky snuck a spoonful of eggs into Harper’s mouth. 

The foal stopped laughing. She sat there, in her high chair, with the spoon sticking out of her mouth. Harper’s eyes crossed as she tried to look down her muzzle at the protruding spoon. 

There was a tense moment as Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña all wondered if Harper would spit the eggs out. Sentinel lifted up his mug and took a drink of coffee. 

“Gotcha,” Dinky said as she pulled the spoon out with a wet sounding pop. 

Chewing, Harper uncrossed her eyes and looked at Dinky. She swallowed and then banged her hooves upon the tray table. “More?” 

Lifting another spoonful, Dinky said, “I can do that.” 



 

Dinky was just getting the last few bites of biscuit into Harper when Helia came into the kitchen. Sentinel watched as the pregnant pegasus eased herself into a chair and being the polite little colt that he was, he offered Helia a pleasant smile. 

“Having a nice time?” Piña asked. “Sorry about all of the screaming and yelling last night.” 

Helia’s cheeks puffed out as she drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. It took a moment to get into a comfortable position in the wooden chair. She turned to look at Piña. “All of that hubub was perfectly understandable. I’ll be screaming and yelling come spring.” 

“But won’t you go to the hospital? Get drugs to stop the pain?” Sentinel asked. 

Noting the colt’s confused look, Helia wondered where to begin, and if such an adult conversation was even appropriate. She looked around the table. Sentinel looked confused. Dinky looked baffled. Piña looked curious. Harper was covered in biscuit crumbs and jam. 

“I’ll have tea out in a moment, or would you like coffee?” Semillon stood by the stove, cooking more eggs. 

“Coffee would be lovely,” Helia replied as she wondered how to answer the foals. 

“Cheerilee told us that during birth mares are made to sleep or to almost be asleep now so they don’t have to suffer,” Piña said. 

“Yes, but there is a problem with that.” Helia resigned herself to talking about it as a cup of coffee was set down in front of her. She poured in a little milk and a spoonful of sugar. 

“There is?” Piña asked. 

“The problem is, you are asleep. Or so doped up you don’t know what is going on. So you miss out on welcoming your new little foal into the world,” Helia replied. 

Piña slumped down in her chair. “Oh.” 

“Come spring, I plan to endure natural foal birth. Violet is going to help me. She’s teaching me how to breathe. How to handle pain. How to endure. Foal birth is like a battle… and I plan to win.” Helia leaned over and looked at Sentinel. “What pegasus would turn away from a worthy fight or run away from battle?” 

“So you want to be in pain?” Dinky’s ears splayed out sideways and Dinky’s head tilted off to one side. “Thistle was screaming like she was being killed or eaten alive by some gross monster. It was awful.” 

“Thistle wasn’t prepared for the birthing. I’m learning how to fight and win.” Helia reached down with one foreleg and rubbed her rounded stomach. “I want to be there to welcome my foal into the world.” 

“So you don’t want to be asleep?” Dinky asked. 

Realising that she was in this for the long haul, and that she was dealing with smart, capable foals, Helia decided to be open. “It is more than just sleep… they’re still perfecting the procedure, but when it goes just right, not only do you not feel pain, but you don’t remember the birth. They consider this a triumph of medicine. When a mare starts to go into labour, they dope her up with morphine and scopolamine. The mare drifts away and the foal comes out while she is off in dreamland.” Helia’s muzzle scrunched. “Before this, there was chloroform and there was strapping a mare down to a bed.” 

“You know a lot about this stuff,” Sentinel said as he studied the pregnant pegasus. 

“Violet and I talk about it a lot. I’ve been reading a lot of books. Violet sees it as mare empowerment… to triumph over the pain and make it your own.” Helia wondered how much of what she was saying the foals understood. 

“Berry Punch is a feminist and she’s all about mare empowerment,” Piña said. 

“I know… Berry Punch and I talk a good deal if we get the chance to sit down and spend time with one another,” Helia replied, looking at Piña. “Do you understand what feminism is?” 

Put on the spot, Piña sat up straight and cleared her throat. “A little. I try to understand. I know that my sister Berry Punch says that we are living a feminist ideal and that this family embodies everything she believes in. I don’t understand most of what she talks about though.” 

“Berry Punch is happy because she is free to raise her foals as she sees fit without anypony telling her what to do. She is free to be a mother without interference,” Helia said, trying to explain to Piña something that was complex, but trying to put it into terms that Piña might understand. She knew that Piña was smart, but Helia also knew that this was tricky even for adults. 

Semillon approached the table and set down several plates, each of them loaded with eggs, biscuits, and leftover beans. She took one look at Harper, who was covered in crumbs as well as sticky jam, rolled her eyes, and then walked away, shaking her head. 

“Do you think Violet could teach me midwife stuff?” Piña asked. 

“I don’t know, you would have to ask her,” Helia replied. “She’ll be down for breakfast in a while, she was tired and needed a little extra sleep.” 



 

Trembling, almost overcome with emotion, Bucky stared at Bell Heather. The kelpie foal was in equine form and diapered. She had no mane, she had no tail. He supposed those would grow in later. She was little, smaller in her equine form, her long tail was now two little hind legs. The foal was also pudgy, far chubbier than Harper was when Harper had been born. Bell Heather had chubby little cheeks and a soft rounded little body that was well padded. 

Grimacing, Thistle waited for the agonising cramp to pass. She rubbed her stomach and looked at Bucky. He was laying on his stomach, his head was down upon the bed, his snoot was a scant inch away from her foal. She could see his ears twitching, his nostrils were flaring, and all of his attention was focused on Bell Heather. 

“You okay?” 

The look of concern on Derpy’s face made Thistle feel emotional and she didn’t know why. Tears flooded her eyes and she felt them running down her cheeks a moment later. “I’m fine… just a cramp. Why am I crying?” 

“New mommy hormones,” Berry Punch replied. “I hate to be insensitive, but I’m starving. Sorry, but I am about to abandon you all so I can have breakfast. The twins demand food and they’ve made me constipated to hold me hostage, the little creeps.” 

“That sounds bad,” Bon Bon said, looking up at Berry Punch. 

“I can’t even break wind I’m so stopped up,” Berry Punch replied. 

“Oooooh Bell was a little creep too… she made me miserable!” Thistle looked at her foal, felt a flood of emotion, and then started to sob, unable to hold her feelings in. 

Sliding out of the bed, Berry Punch shook her head. “Mommy hormones. This is what I have to look forward to.” She stretched, kicking out each leg in turn, and then cracked her neck to get the kinks out. “Come on Bucky… I know you’re having a proud papa moment, but you need to eat too.”

The only reply from Bucky was a grunt. 

Watching Thistle sob, Derpy felt a case of the sniffles coming on. The sniffles turned into a tight feeling in her barrel, and then she felt her eyes begin to water. She threw both forelegs around Thistle and began to sob as well. 

Berry Punch had not escaped in time. She stood, watching both Derpy and Thistle, and as she stood there, she could feel her own emotions welling up inside of her, overpowering her, and manifesting in the form of hot stinging tears that seeped from the corners of her eyes. 

“Damnit, I don’t feel like crying,” Berry said, her feeling of frustration made her want to cry even more. She crawled back into the bed and collapsed on top of Bucky, ignoring his grunts, squeaks, and the crackling sound coming from his spine. She buried her face into Bucky’s mane and began to sob, unable to hold it in any longer. 



 

Having escaped from the dungeon of seething mommy hormones, Bucky made his way down the hall. He wondered how Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña were doing. He could hear talking coming from the kitchen. He could smell coffee, tea, and the smell of breakfast. 

He saw Violet coming down the stairs. Bucky stopped and waited for her. He smiled. As one of her front hooves landed upon the hallway floor, he took a step closer. “Violet, I wanted to thank you… you were wonderful.” 

“I was just doing my job. I like delivering foals.” Violet, who had all four hooves on the hallway’s wooden floor gave Bucky a rare warm smile. 

“Well, there is that too, but I was talking about something else,” Bucky said. He saw Violet’s brow furrow and her smile vanished. He took note of her quizzical expression. 

“Yes?” Violet asked. She leaned forward, wondering what Bucky meant. 

“I wanted to thank you for setting all of my teenage fillies straight… something tells me that each and every one of them is going to settle down, get serious about their school work, and be a lot more careful about what they do… you’ve given me the best gift a father could ask for.” 

Violet scowled and shook her head. “Bucky… there are times… I just… I just don’t know how to deal with you. I don’t know what to say.” 

Unconcerned about Violet’s reprimand, Bucky smiled at his assistant. “So why midwifery? I mean, why did you study it? I was laying in bed last night thinking about it for a while.” 

“I like foals. I think I told you this,” Violet replied, her lips pressing into a straight line after she spoke. 

“So have you thought about having some?” Bucky asked. He blinked, realising how it might sound, and backed a step away. “I, uh, ooh… I was careless there. I didn’t mean anything by that.” 

“Bucky…” 

“Yes Violet? You’re not going to hit me with a newspaper, are you?” 

“I’m going to leave that option open for now Bucky… Bucky… I don’t like letting personal details get in the way of our professional relationship, but I’m barren. I can’t have foals. When I was little, I had a fever, I was sick, and it left me sterile.” 

“Oh… oh dear… I am sorry… so sorry…” 

“Don’t be sorry. And don’t tell me that you’re sorry about saying sorry… or I will get the newspaper.” 

“You know Violet… I kinda have a lot of foals on the way… enough that I could share. You’re always welcome… if you help bring them into the world, you should stick around and see how they turn out.” 

“Bucky, that is quite possibly the nicest thing anypony has ever done for me. Thank you.” Violet stretched out her neck and kissed Bucky on the cheek. 

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, Violet…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 518
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The invasion has begun. This is the beginning of the end. The end of all things—” 

“Bucky, stop being melodramatic. What are you talking about?” Berry Punch didn’t even bother looking at Bucky, knowing full well that visible theatrics accompanied the delivery of his dire warning. Instead, she remained focused on the foals, both the big ones that weren’t really foals anymore and the little ones that seemed to grow each day. All of them were fawning over Bell Heather and Thistle. 

“Bell Heather was the first. Soon, Bandua will be born. After that, two sets of twins. TWO sets of twins. After that, who knows? We’ll be overrun. Outnumbered. Brought down by an army of our own making—” 

“Bucky, you’ve taken too many blows to the head or something. This is why we have a herd. Foal rearing will be a piece of cake,” Berry Punch said, now looking at her husband and raising her eyebrow.

“Ah yes… the herd. There is me… who is often off in exotic locales or far away places. There is Bon Bon and Lyra, who are running a full time business. And then there is you. There is a new brewpub opening up. Several businesses that you and Barley manage. You bought the old movie theatre—” 

“We are independently wealthy because of what Barley and I have done! You don’t need a stipend for being a royal… that money that I made was used to purchase all those toys and stuff for the orphans this year, along with Twilight’s contribution!” 

“No need to be defensive and please don’t be upset.” Reaching out, Bucky wrapped a leg around Berry’s withers. “But when you sit down and think about it, that leaves Derpy, Thistle, and little Belisama to do the foal rearing, and Belisama can’t nurse them. I’m looking at this objectively and so should you.” 

“But—” The words died on Berry’s tongue. “But we—” Again, Berry failed to express how she felt at the moment. Berry worried that she might start crying again. 

“Six little lives that are going to be utterly dependant upon us. And that’s just the start.” 

“Damnation… where did this go wrong?” Berry asked. 

“The modern era, with sanitation and good health. Mares live through foal birth. Foal mortality rates are low. Herds, once necessary for survival, were lucky if a few foals lived to adulthood and if a few mares survived the birthing of all those foals. We have vaccinations now, diseases can be treated, and predators are scarce,” Bucky replied. 

“How did everything I believe in just go wrong? I don’t understand.” Berry Punch felt her stomach twist up into knots and she leaned on Bucky for support. “I’ll quit working… I’ll stay at home and be a mom. We’ll make this work.” 

“You’ll keep working so you can be happy and we’ll make this work. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go check on my students.” Bucky kissed Berry Punch on the cheek and gave her a squeeze. “Everything will be okay somehow…” 



 

Laying on the floor, Dinky cradled Bell Heather between her forelegs. The foal was tiny, pudgy, and a shade of purple that was similar to her own. The tiny kelpie had a scent, Dinky could not describe it, but she remembered that she had smelled it on Harper. New foal smell. Dinky supposed that she also had the new foal smell when she was a newborn. 

Looking up, she saw Sentinel, who appeared to be torn between staying and sitting with the foal, or going after Bucky, who was heading out the door. Much to Dinky’s surprise, Sentinel stayed put, wrapping a wing over Harper and pulling Peekaboo closer to him. 

“She’s so tiny… just like Harper was,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“She’s bald.” Ripple’s ears drooped own and she turned away from Rising Star, unable to meet his gaze as he glared at her. “Sorry, but she is.” 

“You’re the big sister now Dinky… I really hope that I was a good big sister for you,” Sparkler said as she looked down at Dinky. 

“You still are my big sister,” Dinky replied. 

“I feel like I don’t get to spend as much time with you as I would like,” Sparkler said. Shoving Loch Skimmer aside, Sparkler laid down on the floor beside Dinky, ignoring Loch Skimmer’s protests. 

“Stuff happens.” Dinky turned and looked at Sparkler. 

“Loch Skimmer and I don’t always get to spend special sister time with one another… but we still have our moments.” Ripple grunted as Loch Skimmer laid down on top of her and wiggled as Loch Skimmer’s forelegs wrapped around her neck. 

“Yeah, like when Thistle was giving birth and we both started bawling our eyes out,” Loch Skimmer said as she squeezed Ripple. 

“Her head is the size of a cantaloupe,” Sparkler said. 

“Why is that important?” Piña asked. 

“Never you mind Piña… Sparkler, don’t answer that.” Rising Star bit his lip after speaking, forcing himself not to smile, laugh, or otherwise react. 

“What? I don’t understand… somepony tell me what is going on,” Piña demanded. 

Shuddering, Dinky gained an understanding that she wished she hadn’t. A cantaloupe was big… huge even, and she could not imagine trying to squeeze one out of her backside. Leaning over, Dinky steeled her nerves and prepared to whisper into Piña’s ear… 



 

There was now a massive tree in the school cafeteria. There had been a few smaller trees before, but now there was one tree that actually reached all the way up to the ceiling. Craning his neck, Bucky looked upward. 

“The pegasi and the griffons helped us decorate the top half,” a little zebra filly said. 

“Are you having a nice time? Are you enjoying the holiday?” Bucky asked. 

“I suppose so… we celebrate the winter solstice in the Sea of Grass, but we don’t exchange gifts and talk about the importance of friendship. We commit ourselves to a day of ritualistic fasting and remind one another of the winter of starvation, where so many of us were lost,” the zebra filly replied. 

“What is your name?” Bucky sat down and made himself comfortable on the floor. 

“Odu… my name is Odu, sir,” the zebra filly replied. 

“So there was a time of starvation?” Looking around, Bucky noticed that other students were gathering around to listen. 

“For us, in the Sea of Grass, winter is not really a cold season, but a very dry season. We get rains during the spring and the summer. But during the winter, it becomes very dry and a long time ago, this led to a shortage of food. One winter, not long before the solstice, there were storms in the sky. Not rain, but lightning. The Sea of Grass caught fire and burned, killing many zebras. Those who lived through the great fire stood in the middle of what was left of the rivers and the lakes. Some climbed onto the islands of rocks where nothing grows.” 

The little filly was holding her head high now and speaking in a loud clear voice. Bucky felt proud to have her as a student. She seemed smart and well spoken. 

“For those that survived the fire, there was no food. Only burned black savannah as far as the eye could see. Some zebras waited for the end to come. Others went on long walks looking for food. We found friends… ponies… the pegasi were kind and brought clouds filled with rainwater. The unicorns brought magic and protected us while we were weak, keeping away our enemies. The earth ponies brought life back to the land. Many of them were suffering from a plague, a terrible plague that caused some of them to grow black shells like beetles. We cured them of the plague and together, we formed a nation.” 

Shells like beetles? Bucky became thoughtful as these words rolled around inside of his head. He looked at the zebra filly, feeling curious, and wondered what else she knew. He pushed his thoughts from his mind, focusing instead on the holiday. “Thank you for sharing that with us.” 

The filly, who had been confident up to this point, poised, and very grown up, slouched down and the white in her pelt took on a pink tinge from a full body blush. “Thank you.” 



 

“Feeling better?” 

Turning his head, Bucky came snoot to beak with a grizzled old griffon that hadn’t been there just a moment ago. Unperturbed, Bucky nodded. “Feeling lots better… a foal was just born. I owe you some thanks.” 

“You owe me nothing,” Odin replied. The old griffon reached up his trembling talons and began to adjust Bucky’s wolf headed torque. “I pay my debts. I still owe you a great deal. Anything I have at my disposal is yours.”

Bucky nodded and tried to ignore the fact that he was uncomfortable with Odin being so close. Not only was the old griffon in Bucky’s personal space, but he was touching Bucky as well, something that irked Bucky a bit. “I had some questions if you don’t mind.” 

“About my eye?” Odin asked in reply. 

“Yes.” Bucky peered at the old griffon, feeling curious. “There have been a few odd instances… it doesn’t always appear as an eye. Sometimes I have my old sunstone eye back.” 

“My eye shows what others wish to see… or what they are most afraid to see. When others see you… they may see you… or they may see the version of you that they fear most… the one eyed bogeypony for example. Very much like that cloak you wear… it too shows others what they fear most… death,” Odin replied. 

“I once looked at myself in the mirror and I saw that this eye had taken on the Taint. It scared me,” Bucky said in a low voice, hoping no students would hear him. 

“Like I said, the eye shows others what they fear most. Including you,” Odin said as he peered at Bucky. 

“I fear having this eye becoming full of Taint?” Bucky asked. 

The old griffon’s shoulders heaved with a sigh and Odin rolled his eyes. “You are not the brightest pony, are you?” 

“No, but I’m clever.” Bucky gave Odin a wry grin. 

“You fear what you are becoming… the shadow that haunts you… the darkness that threatens you,” Odin said as he stepped back from Bucky. 

All at once, it made sense to Bucky. “Oh.” Feeling a little stupid, Bucky nodded. 

“You can’t fight it Bucky… if you cast aside your fear, you will become it. If you live in fear of it, it will only gain strength. This is a foe you cannot defeat,” Odin said as he settled himself onto a cushion and stretched out. 

“I know,” Bucky replied. He paused for a moment, thinking about Odin’s words. “Wait, what did you mean if I cast aside my fear, I will become it?” 

“Your fear is what holds you back… it keeps you running. It is both your greatest strength and your most crippling weakness. You fear becoming the very same sort of monster that Sombra became. You fear becoming the alicorn of war. So you’ve ran from both of those things. So long as you keep running, you will be fine… but should you ever try to fight Sombra’s shadow, you will fail… so remain afraid and keep running.” Odin folded up his forelegs and rested his head upon them. “Your failure will mean the end of everything you know and love. Keep yourself afraid of Sombra’s shadow and keep running. It is better for him to gain strength from your fear than it is for him to gain your body and your power. He will have no hesitation to ascend to his rightful position… killing Cadance in the process… and then he will kill the rest of your family as you watch from inside your own head.” 

Bucky let out a very foalish squeak of terror. 

“I’m tired Bucky… I’m still weak… this cushion is very comfortable. I think I’ll have a nap.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 519
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nursing a glass of grog nog, Bucky snapped one piece of track to another. It took effort not to feel bitter about his own foalhood as he recalled the train that had been purchased for the holidays. He pushed the unpleasant thought from his mind. 

Beside him, Rising Star was also assembling pieces of track, forming a figure eight shape that would wind its way around the tree. The house was quiet. The little foals were all in bed. It was late. Barley was also in the living room, his nose in a book. 

“Bucky, why don’t we have electric trains, like this little toy train here?” Rising Star asked. 

Shrugging, Bucky did not reply but took a swallow of egg nog. 

“The electric train would be clean. No soot. Maybe quieter,” Rising Star said. 

Looking down at the locomotive sitting in a little plastic rack, Bucky set down his glass of grog nog and considered Rising Star’s words. “You’d still need electricity. For a lot of places, that would mean burning coal to generate the electricity. So still lots of soot and pollution coming from somewhere. There is also the problem of getting electricity to the train. Powerlines can be knocked down. If you electrified the track, that would be a safety issue. Imagine a foal stepping on it.” 

Rising Star scowled and lifted up a piece of track, holding it in front of his snoot. “I should have thought of that.” 

“Going to see the rest of your family tomorrow, on Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Bucky asked. 

Glancing at the window, Rising Star let out a groan of concern. “I want to see my mom and my dad… I want to see Singsong and Brass Note. But there is a problem with the weather. I suppose I could use my magic to keep the cold away and make the trek into Ponyville.” 

“It won’t be easy, but it should be possible,” Bucky said as he lifted up his glass of grog nog. “Your wives will understand if you go, if that is what is holding you back.” 

“That is part of it. This is our first Hearth’s Warming together. Sparkler wants for it to be special, but she won’t say what special is when I ask her. She just shrugs and says ‘special’ as if I am somehow able to ascertain the hidden meaning in her words.” After the last word left his mouth, Rising Star grunted in frustration. “We spend so much time apart sometimes. Loch Skimmer is becoming our little family… I dunno… warden or something. She’s been very vocal that we need to spend more time together… more than just sleeping in the same bed. She became annoyed when I was in Canterlot for the winter session… the Stable of Representatives trip bothered her. Sparkler is either out on patrol or doing schoolwork. Loch Skimmer keeps scolding Ripple, accusing Ripple of spending too much time training with the Raptors. Now that I think about it, I don’t know if I should go and visit my family… I have family here I need to look after… maybe… I don’t know.” 

“Ripple is very stressed out right now. The winter games are coming. She wants her Raptors to do well,” Bucky said, understanding all too well how it felt to be under pressure and wanting to do well. 

“What is that all about? Ripple has been tight lipped about the whole thing. If she starts to talk about it, she panics. I can’t seem to help her,” Rising Star said as he laid down more track. 

“The winter games exist for the guard… during the dead of winter, perhaps to combat the boredom, the solar guard and the lunar guard gather up the best of the best, usually a squad or something thereabouts, and then there are war games. Since Luna’s return, the lunar guard keeps winning. This is fierce competition. There is actual combat… but the rules state no killing or crippling. Everything else is fair game. Since I am one of the heads of state, my guard was invited to participate. I was going to say no and politely decline, but Ripple flipped out, went nuts, and started shouting that this was a chance for her to prove that her Raptors have what it takes. Word got out that this year, Luna isn’t fielding her usual lunar guard, but Myrmidons. So Ripple is freaked out, and rightfully so. I fear that the Raptors will be crushed. I worry about their safety and I might forcibly terminate my participation even though it might make Ripple hate me,” Bucky replied. 

“Releasing the Myrmidons, isn’t that like cheating?” Rising Star asked. 

“War is full of final options and dreadful solutions. If I wanted to do so, I too could also field a group of Myrmidons… but then I’d need to worry about Ripple kicking the stuffing out of me, and she would have every right to do so,” Bucky replied. “The snow is going to get bloody this year. Celestia is afraid… very afraid.” 

“I had no idea… I wonder if there is anything I can do to help my little Ripple,” Rising Star said as he laid out the cross piece where the track crossed over upon itself. “She’s becoming a mare you know… she’s gone from being a timid little filly that we had to rescue to being a little brute that rescues others. She’s grown so much. She was nothing but bones when we rescued her… I have trouble putting it into words how much I love her.” 

“Have you told her this?” Bucky asked. 

Rising Star nodded. “Funny how much we can love a pony and how complicated our relationships can become… you have Bon Bon and Lyra… we have Bittersweet and Ripple. There is no doubting it, Bittersweet is one of us now… I can’t imagine life without her. I love them both so much that it scares me, even though we… uh… well… you know.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Bucky replied. 

“Ripple and Bittersweet still haven’t done anything. Loch Skimmer is starting to worry that they might explode. Even Sparkler is starting to worry… I don’t know what to think. They have romance with one another but it never goes past a certain point… I think it’s kinda beautiful but Loch Skimmer thinks I’m weird for feeling the way I do. Loch Skimmer says that love is a physical thing… maybe because she is a pegasus.” Rising Star sighed and began to work a train car out of the plastic it was trapped in. “Speaking of doing stuff…” 

“Yes?” Bucky asked. 

“I plan to be a lot more careful,” Rising Star replied. 

“Is that so?” 

The colt nickered, a fitful sound. “There have been times where we haven’t done anything to protect ourselves… carelessness. Or maybe we wanted an accident to happen. It’s happened several times with Loch Skimmer and I… and that ain’t happening no more.” Rising Star looked Bucky in the eye. “We’ve been very lucky so far, what with all of the earth ponies in the house.” 

“And what has changed your mind?” Bucky asked. 

“What do you think Bucky? Seeing Thistle like that… I can’t do that to Loch Skimmer. Not now… not until we’re older. I mean, it’s all great fun and all, and sure, it feels good, okay it feels really good, but damnit, there are consequences. Real ones. Scares me to death,” Rising Star replied, shaking his head as he did so. 

“If Berry Punch ever catches wind that you haven’t been careful with her beloved Loch Skimmer, she will run you down and pummel you into a puddle of broken bones and mangled meat.” 

Considering Bucky’s words, Rising Star nodded. “I figured as much. And I would deserve it too… I’ve been careless… Loch Skimmer and Sparkler both deserve better from me.” 

“I don’t even need to tell you what Derpy might do—” 

“Nope, you don’t need to tell me,” Rising Star said. “I almost messed things up. I see that now… watching Thistle give birth has really screwed my head on straight.” 

“It has changed my perspectives as well,” Bucky said. 

Rising Star looked at the pony that he considered to be one of his fathers. “Has it?” 

Thinking of Harper’s mother, a small whimper formed in the back of Bucky’s throat. He thought of everything he had killed, of all of the awful things he had done. He thought of Griffonholm. He thought of Labyrinthia. Closing his eyes, Bucky felt overwhelmed by these things. 

“You okay?” Rising Star asked. 

“I’m fine.” Bucky opened his eyes and looked at Rising Star. “I brought Harper into this world… but bringing Bell Heather into this world was different. It taught me that I can give life… make life… I can preserve life just as easily as I can take it. I’ve also learned that I’d rather bring life into the world rather than take it. Harper’s mother still haunts me… I have dreams about her.” 

“That was a dark day for both of us.” Rising Star set the train car down upon the track and heard the sounds of Bucky swallowing. “I can still smell… I can still smell the burning flesh.” 

“We all walked away from the Shetlands as very different ponies,” Bucky said. 

“I was a colt Bucky… I was a colt and I thought I knew everything I needed to know about the world. I thought I had it all figured out. I was in love… only it was the stupid sort of love. And I had this great idea… I would follow the filly I loved off to some island somewhere… how bad could it be...” Rising Star sighed, then snorted, and then shook his head. “I found out. I found out that the rest of the world is nothing like Canterlot or Ponyville. I had to look at you after you got mauled… I discovered that there are places in the world where mares are little more than property. I found out that you need a lot more than a catchy cheesy one liner to battle evil… you need blood and sweat and pain… and then Ripple and Loch Skimmer happened. There was still the filly I wanted to impress. I wanted to prove to her how much I loved her. I wanted Sparkler to see that I would do anything for her, anything at all. So along comes Ripple and Loch Skimmer and it wasn’t long before I got all of these weird feelings and I was holding myself responsible for them. And then came the day when I realised that I wasn’t holding myself responsible for them to impress Sparkler… that was a messed up day. I had trouble sorting myself out, trying to figure out why I was doing what I was doing… and then came the self loathing as it dawned upon me just how stupid I was, just what sort of foolish thing I had done, and how I had gone into all of this for all of the wrong reasons… after that, I had the brilliant idea to make amends for what I had done. And after all of this, after everything that has happened, even all of the growing up I’ve done… much to my own dismay, when I heard Thistle hollering her head off, I realised… I’m still a colt and that there are things in the world that still scare me and I wanted my mama.” 

“Nothing wrong with being a colt… one day you’ll realise that you are a stallion. Or maybe one day you’ll realise that you’re a father and then you’ll feel like an adult… or maybe not,” Bucky said. 

“What do you mean?” Rising Star asked. 

“I dunno… I still feel like a colt sometimes… but I have no mama to run to if something goes wrong… I guess… I don’t know.” Realising that he was stammering, Bucky fell silent. 

“What about Celestia?” Rising Star looked at Bucky, feeling hopeful that he could make Bucky feel better somehow. 

“That’s complicated… there is a lot more than just maternal feelings where Celestia is concerned. It gets weird if you think about it,” Bucky replied, shuddering as he thought about it. 

“Is it odd that one of my best memories of Celestia involves her slapping both of us silly?” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 520
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing a cry, Bucky awoke. Pinned under a pregnant pegasus, he twisted and wiggled, trying to free himself. He could feel Derpy waking up. For a moment, Bucky’s found his face pressed into the soft flesh of Derpy’s inner thigh and then he heard another cry. 

“COLD!” 

Half awake, Bucky thought about the angle, and realised that his horn must have brushed across Derpy’s backside. Everypony in the bed was awake now and Bucky saw golden light around him, light that he knew was coming from Lyra’s horn. 

“No need to panic,” Thistle said. “Bell woke up. She wanted food. Now she’s gassy and doesn’t want to burp so she’s fussy.” 

“Be quiet… you’ll wake the Empress.” Bon Bon’s ears perked as she listened for sounds coming from the nursery. With a grumpy grunt, Bon Bon flopped back down and rested her head upon Lyra, glad for a warm body to cuddle with. With the way the wind howled outside, it felt cold just from the sound alone. 

Derpy sat up, balancing upon her haunches, and took Bell into her forelegs. Rocking Bell back and forth, she bounced the foal up and down with a soft, gentle, well practiced motion as Thistle watched. When nothing happened, Derpy rolled Bell over, leaving the filly’s little legs dangling downwards. “She needs a diaper change.” 

Thistle nodded. “I know.” 

“I’ll do it. It’s easy for me and I don’t mind,” Lyra said in a half awake mumble from beneath Bon Bon. “I don’t even need to get out of the bed.” 

Looking up, Bucky could see Bell looking down at him. The foal looked uncomfortable and he could hear her gurgling. Her eyes closed and Bell squirmed. Bucky heard Belisama peep from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The griffoness was a burrower as of late, and he figured she might be buried under some pillows and maybe a blanket. 

“Should we be worried?” Thistle asked. 

Derpy changed tactics, now patting Bell on her little rump with a wing. She yawned and ignored Thistle’s question. Closing her eyes, Derpy fell into a rhythm. Rock rock bounce bump. Rock rock bounce bump. 

“I can hear her tummy gurgling,” Berry Punch said as she rolled over and then she buried her face under a pillow. “I’ve found a griffoness.” Berry’s voice was muffled from beneath the pillow. “It is also very warm under here.” 

Rock rock bounce bump. Rock rock bounce bump. 

Without warning, Bell Heather belched, producing a terrifying sound; the sort of sound that might have disturbed the migration patterns of dragons had it been a little a little louder. 

“All better,” Derpy said, feeling pleased with herself. Every foal had a rhythm. 

“No… everything is not better. Some things are now worse.” 

Opening her eyes, Derpy looked down at Bucky, who was covered in spit up. Unable to help herself, she giggled and then gave Bell Heather another gentle pat. 

“Kelpie milk smells fishy.” Lyra’s observation was met with a groan from Bucky. 

From the nursery, there came a cry. 



 

Without warning, the room was filled with bright light. Bucky squeezed his eyes shut but could still see and feel the light burning through his eyelids. He let out a cry of pain and heard other cries of pain similar to his own. Blinded, he kept his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to figure out what was going on, his brain going so far to suggest that they were all under attack. 

“Good morning!” 

Dinky’s voice was chirpy, chipper, and far too loud. Bucky groaned and covered his face with his foreleg, trying to shield his eyes, which felt as though there were white hot pokers jammed into them. 

“We made you breakfast in bed for Hearth’s Warming,” Piña said as she bounced into the bed and climbed up onto Berry Punch so she could hug Berry’s neck. “We didn’t burn down the kitchen, Semillon helped us.” 

“All of you are so sweet!” 

Of course Derpy would think they were all so sweet. Bucky scowled, his eyes still stinging and burning. There was something small and hairy climbing over him and he felt two little lips press against the good side of his face. He heard a voice whisper in his ear, “Good morning daddy.” 

“Good morning Dinky,” Bucky replied. 

Somepony turned off the overhead light and Bucky heard a click as one of the bedside lamps was turned on. Bucky did not open his eyes as he felt Dinky’s forelegs wrap around his neck and squeeze him. 

“You smell like fishy sour milk,” Dinky said as she pulled away, her nose crinkling. 

“Where is Sentinel? I don’t hear Sentinel,” Bucky said. 

“I’m here!” 

There was a cry from the nursery and Bucky cracked open one eye just a little bit, his left one. He heard quite a commotion coming from the nursery. He lifted his head. “What’s going on in there?” 

“Everything is fine in here!” 

That was Loch Skimmer’s voice. Bucky could hear panic in her voice. He opened both eyes and looked around. Derpy was smooching Dinky on the cheek. Bon Bon was getting a hug from Sentinel. 

“How much poop can a little foal make?” 

“Loch Skimmer, what is going on in there?” Bucky asked, raising his voice a bit. 

“Just stay in bed. We’ve got this… I think. EEEEuuuuugh! She’s still going!” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky fell back onto the bed, going limp. He smelled coffee. And other things that he did his best to ignore. He could hear Harper whimpering. Part of him wanted to get up to go and check on Harper. The other part didn’t want to get out of the bed. 

“There is poop everywhere… what do we do?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

Bucky groaned. 

“We give Cadance a bath, that’s what we do,” Sparkler replied. 

Beside him, Bucky could hear Derpy giggling and Berry Punch was chuckling. 

“This feels wrong… I dunno why but it just feels wrong that I’m the one taking Harper to the bathroom—” 

“Shut up Rising… wanna scrub Cadance’s backside?” Sparkler replied. 

“Right… taking Harper to the bathroom and getting over my hangups.” 

“There are biscuits with cream gravy, fried potatoes, and hard boiled eggs for breakfast. We planned the menu ourselves,” Piña said, her pride evident in her voice. “Except for Thistle. We brought fish for Thistle.” 

“I cut up the onions in the potatoes,” Dinky said with a sniffle. “I couldn’t stop crying.” 

“Any funny business Loch and I will stuff you head first into the diaper pail!” 

“Oh dear… Ripple means business,” Bon Bon said when she heard Ripple’s threat from the other room. “What is going on in there?” Bon Bon cried out. “Or do I even want to know?”

Hearing a squeak, Bucky saw Sentinel pushing a cart near the bed, using his head. The cart was loaded down with food, coffee, plates, silverware, everything necessary for breakfast. Bittersweet appeared in the door of the nursery for a moment, Bucky saw her smile, and then she was gone. A moment later, there was a thump, a clang, and a giggle from the nursery. 

“I really hope that Loch Skimmer did not just go into the diaper pail,” Bon Bon said in a worried voice. 



 

“This was really a pleasant surprise. Usually on Hearth’s Warming you’re drug out of bed by foals who want to open presents. So this was nice,” Derpy said as she rubbed her belly. 

“The mushrooms in the gravy was a nice touch.” Patting her own stomach, Berry Punch punctuated her words with a belch. “The bed is full of little potato bits and crumbs.” 

“The bed has been full of far worse things,” Bucky said. He looked Berry Punch in the eye. “Remember when Harper threw up in the bed? Nothing, and I mean nothing in the whole wide world wakes you up quite like the sound of a foal throwing up in the bed with you.” 

“Lyra peed in the bed.” Bon Bon was unconcerned by the scowl on Lyra’s face as she spoke. “But that was Bucky’s fault really.” 

“He wouldn’t stop tickling me!” 

“Come spring, it will have been one year since our herd was started. Derpy had to run Bucky down… and all of us are here now because of that, having this happy moment, together as a family… a group. A few ponies and a fluffy little ball of feathers and fur,” Berry Punch said as she leaned over on Bon Bon and pulled Belisama closer to her. “Been a real rough start. We’ve been through things that would break most marriages. We have endured. We have survived. We are our own tribe now… something the founders would be proud of I think.” 

Bucky nodded. “Well said Berry.” 

“A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens... I think about those words, the Founder’s Prayer, and I think about how our herd came together. Those words feel inadequate now… the founders never spoke of lunar pegasi, or kelpies, or even griffons for matter. Those words used to be so meaningful for me… But now… I just don’t know,” Berry Punch said as she nuzzled Belisama. 

Reaching out, Derpy grabbed Thistle and pulled her close, careful and mindful of Thistle’s delicate state. “I’m so glad that I have you… when I think back on how we met… on everything that happened in those first few days… I can’t imagine not having you here with me… with us right now.” Derpy planted a kiss on Thistle’s cheek, closed her eyes, and rested her head upon Thistle’s neck. 

“And that’s what this day is really all about… having friends outside of your own tribe. Whatever that means. A long time ago, a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony came together. Somehow, they survived the windigos… how did this day become associated with gift giving, holiday cards, and rampant commercialism?” Lyra blinked a few times, shook her head, and looked at Bucky. “Funny how things change. Windigos were once our enemy. Now, I have one as a husband.” 

“Suddenly, I’m in the mood to tickle myself a mare—” 

“Bucky, you wouldn’t dare.” Lyra rolled over and pulled her legs up to her belly. “Bon Bon, help me!” 

“Relax Lyra… I think it would take too much effort for Bucky to get up and do anything to you,” Bon Bon replied. 

“I can feel… something… moving,” Belisama said. 

Berry Punch, who was holding Belisama, wrapped a foreleg around Belisama’s middle. After a moment, Berry Punch’s face lit up and the earth pony mare beamed. She gave Belisama a gentle squeeze and then looked at Bucky. “There is something moving in here.” 

“How much longer?” Bucky asked. 

“Another month… maybe less… maybe more… the doctor said that crossbreeds can be funny and to expect the unexpected,” Belisama replied. The griffoness yawned and then closed her eyes. 

“Something to look forward to,” Bucky said, his eyes lingering on Belisama. 

“Bucky?” 

Taking his eyes off of Belisama, Bucky looked at Bon Bon. “Yes Bonnie?” 

“I want to have a foal around Hearth’s Warming. Lyra isn’t ready yet, but I am. I owe you one foal and truth be told, I want my own little bundle of happiness,” Bon Bon replied. 

“How do you want to do this Bonnie?” Bucky felt his heart beating faster in his barrel as he looked at Bon Bon. 

“I was thinking that next month we could do the insemination… if everything goes well, I would have my Hearth’s Warming foal.” Bon Bon looked at Lyra for a moment and saw Lyra nod. “Bucky, I’ve given a lot of thought to making the foal the old fashioned way, and I know we go back and forth on this issue, but I just—” 

“Insemination is just fine. And you don’t need to explain yourself to me. Just leave it be Bonnie,” Bucky said. 

After wiping her eyes with her foreleg, Bon Bon nodded. “I know I’ve offered to let you… spend time… with me… to make you happy and satisfy your needs… because I want to see you happy… but each time I do that… afterwards… I keep having these moments of anxiety where I think about what if… and I don’t know why, but it bothers me… it scares me… but I love you so much and I want to be with you and I want to touch you and I want you to touch me but… but… but—” 

“Bon Bon… just leave it be. It’s okay,” Bucky said. 

Scrubbing at her eyes once more, Bon Bon gave Bucky a quivering smile. “Thank you Bucky… for everything.” 

Derpy smiled. “So… there will be another foal by Hearth’s Warming if we are lucky…” 
	
	
> Chapter 521
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The front room was crowded. Some of the ponies and griffons present had spilled over into the kitchen and the dining room. Some gifts had been exchanged, but there were still gifts under the tree and left on shelves. There were candies, cakes, little pies; there were all manner of holiday treats left out on trays, plates, and platters. 

In the kitchen, Ripple was singing with her Raptors, all of whom were accounted for, with the exception of Gofannon, who was in the dining room, flirting with Helia, who teased him with coy rejections. 

Lugus, sprawled on the living room floor, watched as Peekaboo and Harper both played with new stuffies and each other. Beside him, Yew Wood, also laying upon the floor, sipped hot cocoa and watched the foals play. 

Sentinel sat staring at the window, watching the falling snow, which was blowing in sideways once again. There was very little visibility and of the sun there seemed to be no sign. The colt sighed ever so often and seemed distracted. 

Rising Star, crammed onto a sofa with Loch Skimmer and Sparkler, was having a moment with Bell Heather, talking to her, and holding her between his forelegs as he lounged on his stomach. Loch Skimmer was cooing at the kelpie foal and Sparkler rested her head upon Rising Star’s back. 

Derpy, who had her bad eye squinted shut, was reading a story about the founders to Dinky and Piña, speaking in a low voice, and sometimes looking at Berry Punch and Lyra, who were sitting on either side of her. Lyra insisted on reading Princess Platinum’s lines and using a high falsetto. 

Thistle lay upon a pile of cushions on the floor near the fire and Bon Bon was kneading her spine, trying to make the kelpie feel better. Thistle, able to move around once more, was a much happier pony. 

In the dining room, Violet was watching Helia fend off Gofannon’s advances while having an animated discussion with Lugnut and Spanner, who had brought their two cubs, Sprocket and Cog. Scorch, also a part of this discussion, argued on the side of rapid modernisation versus slow and gradual change, while Barley insisted that slow and steady was the only way to go, that it took ponies time to get aclimatised to ‘new-fangled’ contraptions. 

Bucky, in the living room, was in an armchair with Belisama piled on top of him, stretched out over his back and an unwrapped present held in his magic. 



 

“What’s this?” Belisama asked as she eyed the package. 

Bucky, glad to have Belisama’s warm body pressed against his spine, smiled. “A gift.” 

“You didn’t have to get me anything… I have everything I want… I have your cub in my belly… this wasn’t necessary.” Reaching out her talons, Belisama ran them through Bucky’s mane, smoothing it out as she spoke. 

“You sound like Dinky and Piña, both of whom proclaimed that they got what they wanted this year with the addition of a new sister… you’ve made the speech to make yourself sound humble and worthy, now have a look at my package...” Bucky felt a tug on his mane and heard a faint giggle from Belisama. He propped the box up on the front of the chair cushion. 

Extending a claw, Belisama swiped at the ribbon, slicing it in one pass, and then began to peel off the paper, doing so in a slow methodical manner. From inside the box, there was a clunk. Belisama’s crest rose. 

“This is heavy,” Belisama said as she pulled off more wrapping paper. 

“I tried making it lighter, but for reasons I cannot explain, it affected the recoil,” Bucky replied. He watched as Belisama continued to unwrap her gift. 

“Recoil?” Belisama asked. Curious, she abandoned her careful approach and began to tear away at the box. Once free of the paper, she pulled the box open and then gasped when she saw what was inside. 

“You gave me a weapon… a crossbow… it’s beautiful.” Belisama lifted it free from the box and held it in both front talons, propping it against Bucky’s back as she examined it. 

“Rising Star made it… that credit goes to him. I enchanted it and made the scope. The bolts are not affected by gravity. They will fly to the horizon and then some. They’ll hit with the force of a mountain too. It reloads by pulling the lever on the side, but you know that already from using the crossbows that the Raptors have. The scope is a real piece of work… it took me forever, but the scope allows you to see past the curvature of the earth. Provided that your target doesn’t move, you can hit something from miles and miles away,” Bucky said, unable to stop his own pride from creeping into his voice. “This is the perfection of my art… a near perfect killing machine. Use this to keep us safe.” 

“Bucky, I don’t know what to say…” 

“Belisama, I love you enough to arm you… that’s saying quite a bit…” Bucky paused and looked at the clock on the mantle. “Sorry Belisama… but I gotta go… look at the time.” 

“Must you leave?” Belisama asked. 

“There is a chore that I must do… I still have a few more gifts to give.” Craning his head around, Bucky gave the griffoness a kiss on the side of her neck. “There is something I want from you… I want you to teach Bandua how to shoot. Hopefully she gets your talon-eye coordination.” 



 

It was cold enough in the coach house to see his breath. There were several wagons in here of different shapes and sizes; families needed wagons. A single pony might get by with saddlebags but families demanded the movement of goods in large number. Have a family. Have a house. Have a wagon. Raise foals. Bucky was now encumbered with the trappings of adulthood. 

One of the wagons had been converted into a sleigh with steel runners. Bucky made sure there were plenty of wool blankets piled into the back, a few heating stones with full charges, and storm lanterns, also with a full charge. 

The sleigh, a large vehicle, was far too large for Bucky to pull. Even when Bucky was still whole of body there was no way he could have pulled this. But as always, Bucky came prepared. 

Half a dozen spider golem mark XIII combat models paced around the coach house, their long spindly legs tapping upon the concrete floor. Almost the size of a pony, these new models were quite unlike his previous models. They were not little. They were not harmless. There was nothing about them that could be considered ‘cute’ and for this, Bucky was glad. He had made them with intimidation in mind. 

Shining Armor had ordered a gross of them to use them for perimeter protection in the Crystal Empire. Once the holidays were over, Bucky’s glassworks would become a very busy place. Golems were needed for the anti-gunpowder effort, for the military, everypony wanted the very latest in automation and protection. 


Saying nothing, Bucky began hitching them to his sleigh. 

“Master?”

Startled, Bucky turned and saw Sunset Shimmer coming down the stairs. He wondered what she was doing in the living space above the coach house where many of the griffons now lived. 

“Master, are you going out?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“I have a gift that needs delivered.” Bucky did not elaborate further. “What are you doing here? How is Bartleby and Trixie?” 

“We were upstairs… there’s a party… I heard noises down here and came down to look,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “Trixie still has some sniffles, but she’s better and no longer needs to wear the magic inhibitor… unicorn flu is awful. Bartleby is fine.” 

“Good to hear.” Bucky secured a harness to one of the golems and hitched it to the sleigh. He lifted another harness and opened the clips as he held it near one of the spider golems. 

“Master, I know you will be fine, but I cannot help but worry… there is no visibility and it is below zero outside. Master, it is very cold… surely this can wait until this storm blows over.” 

Bucky shook his head. “Minion, this storm isn’t blowing over any time soon. This is important. I promise you, I will be fine. Look after my griffons.” 

“Yes Master, I will do as you ask,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

After securing the harness, Bucky stopped what he was doing and looked at Sunset Shimmer. “Sunset Shimmer…” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“Have a nice holiday cousin. Drink some nog. Have a nice time. Make some good memories. We have a lot of dirty work come spring. No doubt there’ll be killing.” 

Her hooves scrabbling over the concrete, Sunset Shimmer rushed forward. When she reached Bucky she kissed him on the cheek and then took a step back. “Have a nice holiday Bucky… I’ll be by later to see the foal. Please… be careful!” 



 

The Lord of Winter was undaunted by the blizzard raging around him. Guided by magic, aided by golems, he did not need to see where he was going. Much to his surprise, there were in fact other ponies outside in the storm. 

As he approached the edge of Ponyville, he saw lights, powerful magical lights. He had the pleasant surprise of finding out that helpful unicorns were aiding their neighbors so they could move about, so friends and family could be seen. 

Moving through the town, Bucky gave several brave ponies a lift, helping them get to where they needed to go. Other ponies were none too keen about getting a ride on a sleigh pulled by giant glass spider golems being driven by the black cloaked Lord of Winter. 

Extending his will, Bucky told his golems to slow down as he approached his first stop. 



 

Extending his talons, Bucky knocked upon the door, mindful of the wreath made of evergreen boughs. He heard a surprised cry from inside, the clatter of hooves on tile, and then the door was pulled open. 

“Buckminster!” 

“Hello Rarity… how are you this Hearth’s Warming?” 

“I’m fine darling… and a bit shocked to see you. How is your family?” Rarity replied. “Do come in!” Not waiting for a reply, Rarity used her magic to drag Bucky inside and then slammed the door behind him, fighting against the wind. 

Looking around, Bucky smiled at Sweetie Belle when he saw her. He turned back to Rarity. “Family is fine. Thistle just gave birth. Look, I’ll make this brief because there is much to do and little time to do it. It took me an hour and a half to make from the farmhouse to Ponyville, and when the night comes, the temperatures are going to plummet.” 

Rarity raised her eyebrow. “Is there something you need? Just ask darling.” 

“I have a very lovesick and forlorn little colt pining away for his lost love,” Bucky said. 

“Funny you mention that… we also have a lovesick foal… a filly… who is upstairs in her room, sulking and having a good cry right now as we speak,” Coco said as she stepped out of the kitchen and into the main room. 

“I do not wish to break up your family during the holidays though… so what I would like to do is invite all of you to come and stay with us for a few days. We have the room,” Bucky said. 

“That would be lovely… Coco?” Rarity turned and looked at the earth pony mare standing beside her. “The poor dear thinks she’s dying.” 

“I’d like to see Bell Heather,” Coco replied, nodding her head, her mane bobbing around her eyes as she did so. 

“Well, no sense picking all of you up right now. But get ready. I have a few more ponies to check on… and when I have that taken care of, I’ll swing back by to pick all of you up. I should be back within the hour if all goes well. Sun will be going down sooner than I’d like. So be ready if you can.”

“I wanna go! I wanna go… are we going?” Sweetie Belle asked in an excited squeaky voice as she bounced up and down. “New foal!” 

“We’re going Sweetie… just calm down,” Rarity replied. She looked at Bucky. “We will be ready… oh this is a pleasant holiday surprise. Diamond Tiara has been beside herself.” 



 

The sleigh slid over the ice and snow, which crunched and crackled beneath the runners. Bucky moved through the quiet residential neighborhood at a slow creep, surprised by the number of foals playing outside, bundled up in heavy coats, scarves, and hats. Parents had formed protective circles so their foals could play without the fear of them wandering off into the storm. 

He came to a skidding halt in front of a small house covered in snow. He lept from the seat, landing in the snow, and then trudged up the walkway. Golden light streamed from the frost covered windows. He could hear music inside. The sound of a foal laughing. 

Reaching the front door, he gave it a thump with his talons. 

A moment later, a stallion opened the door. 

“Galaxy Guide… how are you? How would you like to see your son and his family on Hearth’s Warming?” Bucky grinned a wide grin. 

Standing in the doorway, his mouth open in shock, Galaxy Guide stared at Bucky. Flurries of snow billowed around the pair standing in the doorway. Galaxy Guide blinked and then kept staring. 

“Come stay with us for a few days. Grab your wife, Singsong, and Brass Note. I have heavy blankets and heaters in the sleigh. Bundle up. Rising Star misses you and he was quite torn about spending time with his wives and spending time with you. He really wants to see you.” 

“Honey!” Galaxy Guide called out. “How do you feel about a little trip?” 
	
> Chapter 522
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Behind him, Bucky heard singing. Even with the howling wind, the crunch of ice and snow as the sleigh runners sliced through ice encrusted snow, Bucky could hear the voices of ponies singing. For a moment, he imagined what it might have been like for the windigos, who must have shrieked and howled when Clover had summoned the fires of friendship. 

Wrapped in blankets, the hot rocks activated, there was almost a party-like atmosphere in the back of the sleigh. For a moment, Bucky wanted to join them, to join in with the revelrie, but somepony had to guide the sleigh. Somepony had to keep watch. One pony always had to be mindful so others could have a good time. 

Such was the nature of life as a herd animal. 

He willed the spider golems to go faster, but was mindful of the treacherous conditions and how long it took to stop. There was no sense putting everypony at risk just to get home sooner. He just wanted to be home before the sun set. 

Even with his urging, the sleigh moved at a crawl. 



 

The sleigh came to a stop in front of the farmhouse. Bucky could see a faint golden glow coming from the windows, a golden glow that promised warmth, life, happiness, and love. The sleigh would have to be put up but Bucky was determined to see his passengers inside. 

He heard a voice but could not make out who it was over the wind. Then there were other voices as ponies came out of the house to see their guests in. Bucky heard more laughter; a happy sound. 

“Sentinel!” 

Smiling, Bucky felt a warm feeling creep through his body, through his bones, it warmed his ears and made his heart thump. He watched as two small figures collided in the snow and clung to one another. Bucky took note that Sentinel held no reservations, held nothing back, was not shy nor embarrassed. 

“Mother!” 

Rising Star’s voice. Bucky waited, turning his head. 

“Mother, I saw a foal being born… it was amazing!” 

There it was. The payoff. That feeling deep inside that one felt as a reward for their devotion, their sense of duty, a return for their dedication. The best reason to do anything for someone else that you love. The reward of being a good father… 

Bucky was tackled by something cream coloured. He felt a warm body against his and a warm snoot was pressed up against his own. He could smell peppermint, rum, the scent of chocolate. And then Bon Bon’s tongue was tickling the roof of his mouth. He could feel a strong foreleg around his neck, pulling him closer, tighter, the familiar creak of earth pony tendons. 

The reward of being a good husband. 



 

“You two look happy.” 

Bracing himself, Sentinel waited for Piña to have her fun. Sentinel was well aware that he had let his emotions get the better of him and he had offered quite a display, squeezing Diamond Tiara… and crying. Reaching up, rubbing his eyes, Sentinel sort of wished that the crying hadn’t happened. It was embarrassing. 

“Sentinel, it was hard watching you sit in the window and look sad… I’m glad you’re happy,” Piña said in a low voice. 

Sentinel could hear the concern in his sister’s voice. There was no trace of teasing. He relaxed a little and allowed himself to press a little tighter against Diamond Tiara’s side. 

“Rising Star sure looks happy. Look at him. He’s acting like a foal. It’s nice to see Rising happy… he’s so serious most of the time now. He works all the time, banging away on metal, or doing whatever he does as a stable rep. I worry about him a lot.” Piña turned her head and watched as Rising Star’s mother hugged Bittersweet once more. “I learned something… I figured something out.” 

“What’s that, Piña?” Diamond Tiara asked as she rubbed the side of her face against Sentinel’s cheek. 

“Hard to put into words.” Piña’s head turned to look at Diamond Tiara. “More of a feeling than anything else. I think it started back on the Shetlands. Then I came home and we started to settle in and things kinda returned to normal. Whatever normal is…” Piña stared down at her own front hooves, her words trailing off as she became introspective. 

“Well?” Diamond Tiara asked, hopeful for an answer. 

“I keep imagining myself all alone… or maybe just me and Berry living together… and not having all of… this.” Piña made a gesture, encompassing everything and everyone around her. “I have learned that this is what makes me happy. All of this. And when I grow up, I hope I have a big family.” 

“I hope that we’ll all stay together,” Diamond Tiara said. “It is my fondest wish… I don’t want to be alone any more… I was so alone. I can see that now.” 

“Therapy helps I guess.” Glancing around, his eyes darting to and fro, Sentinel sneaked a peck upon Diamond Tiara’s cheek and then looked away when he was done, looking innocent, as though nothing had happened. His gaze fell upon Dinky, who was giving Singsong and Brass Note cookies. 



 

“She’s so adorable.” Sweetie Belle squeezed her eyes shut and bounced in place. “When she sneezed I thought I was going to die.” Opening her eyes, Sweetie looked down at Bell Heather. 

“She is adorable,” Coco said, nodding her head in agreement. “I want a foal.” 

Sweetie Belle turned to Coco. “And I want to be a big sister… or an aunt or whatever. Somepony needs to have a foal and soon.” 

Coco smiled a sweet smile and gave a coy glance to Rarity. “Sweetie, it isn’t that simple. We need to find a father first.” 

“How hard could that be? You and my sister are pretty!” 

Sweetie Belle’s words got a laugh from the other ponies and griffons in the room. 

“I like taking care of stuff.” Sweetie Belle flopped over on the floor and laid down beside Thistle. “I like knowing I’m needed. It makes me feel good and when I’m busy looking after others I’m not thinking about what my purpose is or why I don’t have a cutie mark.” 

“Those things come in time,” Bucky said around a mouthful of chocolate and cashew nuts. He chewed, crunching on his treat, but held out his hoof as a gesture indicating for others to wait. He swallowed, closed his eyes, and shivered in delight. “Service to others is the best thing we can aspire to.” 

“Oh… I don’t know… serving others is nice but having others serve you is better…” 

“Lyra—” 

“Well, it is Bon Bon.” 

“Lyra—mmmph!” 

Lyra, seeing no other way to champion her point of view, leaned over and pressed her muzzle against Bon Bon’s and wrapped her forelegs around Bon Bon’s neck. 

“There is too much mistletoe,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“You wouldn’t say that if Rumble was here,” Piña replied. She watched as Sweetie Belle turned a bright shade of pink that almost matched Piña’s own shade of pink. Piña giggled. 

“I’d have to catch him first. He’s slippery—”

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity cried, raising her hoof to her brow and throwing her head back. 

“—and he’s fast too.” 

“I need a drink!” Rarity shook her head, her eyes were wide. She batted her eyes, her long lashes clinging to one another as she did so. 

“It is just an innocent playground crush,” Coco said in a soft voice that somehow overpowered all of the other sound in the room to make itself clear. “Well, maybe just a little bit more, but it is certainly nothing to panic over just yet.” 

“You and mother think it’s cute.” Rarity’s lips puckered into a pout. 

“You don’t freak out about Diamond Tiara and Sentinel—” 

“Yes she does!” Diamond Tiara insisted. 

“Oh.” Coco’s gasp, like everything else about her, was soft and demure. 

Bucky sat down a glass of grog nog on the table near Rarity. It was more nog than grog; Bucky remembered the last time that Rarity had too much to drink. “There is no need to worry about Sentinel. He just had himself a good reminder on the importance of behaving. Didn’t you Sentinel.” 

“Yes I did,” Sentinel replied. The colt shivered and closed his eyes. “I’ll never be able to unsee that. Life comes at a price.” 

Rarity, who was guzzling her drink in a most unladylike manner, pulled her glass away from her lips, swallowed, and let out a teeny tiny little belch. “What a brilliant idea… Buckminster… would you mind if Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara watched the next birth?” 



 

“How you holding up son?” Galaxy Guide asked in a low voice, speaking to Rising Star but looking at his wife, who was huddled with Rising’s wives and speaking in whispers. “I know you stay very busy.” 

“I’m working on designing a new type of aircraft… the foundry keeps me busy… and my job as a stable rep keeps my mind sharp. There are about to be sweeping changes. We have hundreds of brand new laws… laws that keep things fair, or so we hope. New tolerance laws, labour laws, and new rules for the military,” Rising Star replied. 

“What about your schoolwork?” Galaxy asked, his face becoming stern. 

“I slacked off from that for a while, I admit. I needed time to get my head sorted out after the Shetlands. I buried myself in work… I was a very messed up pony for a while.” Rising Star reached up and rubbed his muzzle with his fetlock. “Schoolwork seemed so inconsequential. There were so many other pressing issues in the world. Now I see that if I am ever going to tackle those issues, I’ll need to be well educated. I’ve gone back to writing father… only instead of poetry, it is rousing speeches. Sentinel helps me.” 

“Rising, you have become the young face that is the embodiment of hope. You are rapidly becoming the voice of your generation. Young colts and fillies your age are starting to take an interest in politics and making the world a better place. Almost every day your face is in the paper and there is some story talking about you and what you do… you owe those ponies who believe in you and what you are doing the very best that you have to offer. You need to be well spoken. They are going to follow your example… I know I keep pushing the school issue… but I’m not sorry… I am going to keep pushing the school issue. Colts and fillies your age need to understand that it is the education they get that will help them make a difference.” 

Rising Star nodded. “Yes father, I know.” 

“Colts your age are following your lead, your example… they are taking jobs, being responsible, becoming hard workers and they believe in the future… do you understand what is at stake if you stumble, if you make a mistake and slip up?” Galaxy Guide asked. 

Keeping his voice low, Rising Star replied, “Yes, I am aware of what will happen if I slip up. I’ve become painfully aware of this knowledge. It keeps me awake at night. Everything I do is being scrutinised, everything I do is followed, every action I take others copy. It wears on me. It has become a burden upon my back. I lay awake at night and think about the other colts just like me my own age who have also gotten married under our new laws and are trying to make things work out for themselves and I know that if they fail, I am somehow to blame for it.” 

Hearing his wife laughing, Galaxy Guide nodded. “This is the price of fame. Son, I know you’ll do your best. Just don’t make the obvious mistakes, the mistakes that are the easiest to make. I know how much you love them… and if one of them became pregnant, everything would be okay… for you. You have the means to support a foal and you have family backing you up. But think of all those following your lead. Most of them aren’t so lucky.” 

“I never thought of it that way,” Rising Star replied in a nervous voice that made him sound far younger than he was. 

“Son, your way of life is being judged in the public court of opinion. Not everything printed in the paper is good, or even kind. With those following your lead, what might be a minor mistake for you could be a source of ruination for them, and there are those who will seize upon that. It scares me… you… your life… the balancing act you have to perform every day. You’ve gone from being an absent minded daydreamer to a colt that has made your father proud… but your father is also scared to death.” 
	
	
> Chapter 523
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The floorboards creaked underhoof as Bucky made his way down the hall. The house, after a long day, was quieting down. The foals had gone to bed, or at least had gone to their rooms, while some of the adults were chatting, drinking, and eating a late night meal of fondue.  

Standing just outside of Dinky and Piña’s door, Bucky could hear very little coming from inside the room. Just muffled voices, no laughter. He made the reasonable assumption that they must be tired. He knocked a light rapping upon the wood, and then pushed the door open after pulling down upon the handle. 

“Hi Bucky.” 

In the dim light, Bucky turned to look at Diamond Tiara, who was in the spare bed. After looking at her for a moment, his eyes wandered around the room. The only light in the room was a projection lamp, a small lamp with a special cover that projected stars upon the ceiling, making it look like open night sky. It was something Piña had wanted, something Piña had begged for. Bucky and Lyra had gone to Canterlot to find one some time back, to make sure that Piña had one for Hearth’s Warming. 

“Did you girls have a nice holiday?” Bucky asked. 

“It was one to remember,” Dinky replied. 

Piña rolled over in the bed. “I got everything I wanted and a few things I didn’t expect.” 

Bucky turned to look at Diamond Tiara once more. “And what about you?” 

“I had a nice time. I started missing my father though,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

Bucky, moving through the room, looked around as he approached the beds. On the desk was a field guide for identifying insects, the cover proclaiming it had entries for everything from aphids to zap beetles. Bucky wondered if it mentioned adelgids as well as zebra caterpillars, or just began at aphids and stopped at zap beetles. 

For a moment, Bucky wondered how he knew so much about bugs, and then he looked at Dinky as he thought about all of her conversations about insects. 

The desk was covered with books, scraps of paper, there was a jar of popcorn, unpopped, a collection of buttons, a spool of thread, a cushion with a needle sticking out of it, a tangle of yarn, some knitting needles, a scrapbook along with some newspapers, and a small booklet entitled ‘Teas of the Known Civilised World’ with a picture of a delicate looking teacup. 

It occurred to Bucky that if he studied the desk, he would know just about every important thing his foals had an interest in. There were clues among the clutter. He moved between the two beds and sat down on the floor between them, easing his haunches down. 

“Daddy?” 

Dinky’s voice. A trace of sadness, some worry, and a soft nervous squeak. Bucky’s ears perked, the tufted tips snapping upwards. “Yes Dinky?” 

“Something has been in the back of my mind all day and when I was in the bathtub a while ago, I really started to think about it,” Dinky replied.

More soul searching. More navel gazing. Bucky sighed and prepared himself. “What is it, Dinky? Talk to me.” 

“You love my mother, right?” 

What an odd question, Bucky thought to himself. “Of course I do.” 

Squirming in bed, Dinky lifted her head and sat up, propping herself up on a front elbow. “And you love all of your wives, right?” 

Curious, intrigued, Bucky began to wonder what Dinky had been thinking about. He nodded and his brows fell low over his face. 

“So I was thinking… doesn’t love mean never wanting to hurt them?” Dinky asked. 

The first hints of confusion settled over Bucky, causing his nostrils to flare. “I would never hurt them… I love them all a great deal Dinky.” He saw a troubled look darken Dinky’s face. 

“But you are hurting them,” Dinky said in a low voice, her eyes darting from side to side, looking everywhere but at her father. 

Flummoxed, Bucky did not know how to reply. He wasn’t sure what he was being accused of and he hoped that Dinky would explain whatever it is she was talking about. 

“Having foals hurts. A whole lot. It tears them open, makes them bleed, it makes them scream and causes them pain… if you love them, why would you do that to them? Why would you willingly hurt them?” Dinky asked. 

His throat closing, Bucky let out a strangled gasp. Dinky almost sounded frantic, but was keeping herself calm. Beside Dinky, Piña had a blank expression, and he could hear Diamond Tiara’s breathing quicken. 

“Hurting them so much seems like an awful thing to do to somepony that you love.” Dinky’s elbow gave way and she flopped back down upon her pillow, her head bouncing once. 

“Dinky, I’m not trying to hurt them… this is consensual… this is an agreement between two adults… a willing agreement—” 

“Easy for you to make this agreement, it isn’t hurting you,” Dinky said, interrupting her father. “Not hurting you at all. You get to do the fun part and it is the mares that have to deal with the hurting, the screaming, the bleeding, and all of the bad stuff.” 

Silence. Failing to have a reply, it was the only thing Bucky could offer. He had no idea how to deal with this, how to make Dinky feel better, how to explain this particular fact of life. Being so open with his foals, offering them frank discussions about adult subject matters, it was coming back to bite him in the arse. 

“How could you?” Dinky asked. 

“It isn’t intentional. It isn’t like I want to hurt them. I am giving them something that they want. Bon Bon wants to have a foal… and no, I don’t get to do the fun part. Bon Bon is going to get something called ‘insemination’ and the foal—”

“I know what that is,” Piña said, butting in. 

Everything else that Bucky was going to say died as he wondered how Piña knew what insemination was. He cleared his throat. “Anyhow, Bon Bon wants a foal. While I would never want to hurt Bon Bon, she is going to have to deal with foal birth.” 

“This is unfair… why is it that mares have to hurt to make more foals?” Dinky asked. 

“I don’t know Dinky,” Bucky replied, wishing he had a better answer. 

“When you want something done, you’re supposed to offer a reward. A treat. Something that feels good. When foals born, a mare has to hurt, to bleed, she has to be ripped open and bad things have gotta happen… that is not a reward—”

“Dinky, love, your mother had to endure extraordinary pain to have you,” Bucky said, cutting Dinky off. 

“I know… I hurt my mother. I feel awful,” Dinky replied. 

Cringing, Bucky shook his head, that wasn’t the reply he was hoping to get. He took a deep breath. “Dinky, as bad as it hurt your mother to have her pelvis broken so you could get out, your mother still wants more foals… she wants to give you little brothers and sisters. She wants to give me foals. She wants these foals for herself… now, as bad as the pain might be, doesn’t that tell you something?” 

“Yeah, my mother’s stupid!” 

Knowing what was at stake, Bucky choked back an angry reply with a splutter, knowing that raising his voice and letting go a furious reply would accomplish nothing. His talons flexed and he felt the muscles along his spine knotting up a his body tensed. 

“She’s having trouble walking. She had her pelvis broken to have me… so what is going to happen now with the twins? Why would she do that to herself? Why would you do that to her?” Dinky demanded as she wiped at one eye with her fetlock. 

“Are you angry with me?” Bucky asked. 

“I DUNNO!” 

Bucky’s ears fell back against his skull. He wasn’t sure what to say, how to feel, or how to respond to this. A strange new pain filled his barrel. 

“I’m not angry with you,” Dinky said a moment later. “I’m just confused.” 

The strange new pain did not go away. Bucky blinked and then felt a hoof touching his shoulder. Looking down, he saw Piña. 

“She’s hurt, she didn’t mean to hurt you,” Piña said in a low whisper. 

“I don’t understand where this is coming from… you had such a nice day… you seemed so happy today…” Stammering, Bucky tried to express his own feelings. 

“Been in the back of my mind since Thistle gave birth. It really hit me in the bathtub when I was cleaning myself… down there… and thinking about what it means to be a little filly,” Dinky replied. The foal sighed. “I’m tired. And I wanna go to sleep.” 

Feeling as though this was unresolved, Bucky wanted to keep talking about it. Conflicted, he leaned down his head and kissed Piña. “Good night,” he said as he lifted his head. 

Leaning over, he kissed Dinky as well, shuddered when he felt her wet cheek on his lips, and the strange pain inside of him grew stronger. Guilt? “Good night Dinky.” 

Standing up, his hind legs popped and creaked. He made his way to Diamond Tiara’s bed, leaned over, and kissed her on top of her head, between her ears. “And one for my other pink foal… Good night Diamond.” 



 

Bucky did not knock when he pushed open Sentinel’s door. His colt was in bed, reading, the bedside lamp was on. It would have been considered dim by most, but it was bright by Sentinel’s standards. Bucky saw Sentinel looking at him as he entered. 

It had been a while since he had been in Sentinel’s room last. There were more books on the shelves, a lot more books, and Bucky figured out what Sentinel was doing with the bits that he earned. On a small table, a scale model airship was half constructed. The box, sitting nearby, called it ‘old timey’ in big blocky letters. The Scorned Mare was old timey. The airship was made of wood, ornate, and looked complex. Bucky marveled that Sentinel had the coordination to assemble such a thing. 

On Sentinel’s desk was the enchanted pen he had received just today. Self writing, it would jot down Sentinel’s every word on paper. It was one of Bucky’s better pieces of work. The desk was covered in papers, all well organised. Diamond Tiara had been in here, it was obvious. A stack of comic books sat on the corner of the desk. 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, there was a doll… a my Pretty Little Princess Doll. Of Luna. But Luna was not wearing a ball gown, or even a pretty dress. There was a tiny little helmet upon her head and and she was wearing a half finished suit of armor. The remaining pieces were on the desk, scattered around her. Luna’s brushable blue mane was stuffed up under the helmet. Bucky turned to look at Sentinel, and saw Sentinel looking back at him. 

“Have a nice holiday?” Bucky asked. 

“It was nice… seeing Diamond Tiara was a pleasant surprise,” Sentinel replied.

“Son, you have a Luna doll…” 

Sentinel’s face split into a sheepish grin. “I, uh, rescued Luna from the store display. They had her hidden behind the castle where nopony could see her. It was the only Luna doll they had, the one inside of the display. There were no other Luna dolls for sale. All of her dresses seemed stupid and the pink dress was nauseating. So I’m carving her armor out of Hard Nuff modeling foam and painting it silver.” 

“I see.” Bucky turned and looked once more at little Luna. “Does she know?” 

“Oh please father, you must never tell her! She’ll tease me!” 

His lips pressing together, Bucky nodded. Luna would tease Sentinel for something like this. To no end. Luna would also be flattered if she knew that Sentinel had rescued her from a terrible store display. 

“Thank you, for helping out with Harper and Cadance. Lugus asked me to thank you for your services for helping him with Peekaboo. You’ve made my life a lot easier,” Bucky said. 

“Spending time with Harper isn’t as much work as I thought it was going to be,” Sentinel replied. He stuffed a bookmark into his book, closed it, and then looked at his father. “She talks… Harper has a lot to say if you take some time to try and understand her.” 

“She’s a little quirky, but she is easy enough to understand.” Bucky sat down beside Sentinel’s bed and looked at the cover of the book Sentinel was reading. 

The book was called ‘A Sea of Ink’ and the title was in silver letters on a plain charcoal grey cover. It did not look like the sort of book a foal might read. 

“Whatcha reading?” Bucky asked. 

Glancing down at his book, Sentinel pushed it towards Bucky so his father could see it better. “Something Cheerilee recommended. I got it out of the library and I loved it so much that I bought my own copy. A Sea of Ink…” 

“What is it about?” Bucky looked his son in the eye and tried to read Sentinel’s expression. 

“It is about a writer… a journalist. He starts off young… he has all these ideals. He has goals, dreams, aspirations… and the book uses seasons as a comparison for his life. His youth is described as spring. He’s full of hope and his writing inspires an entire generation. He becomes famous. He writes the truth,” Sentinel replied. 

“So… I am guessing that summer rolls around eventually,” Bucky said. 

“It does.” Sentinel tapped on the book with his wing knuckle. “During that part of his life, Doctor Garbanzo—” 

“He’s a doctor?” Bucky asked. 

“He’s a doctor of journalism,” Sentinel explained. “Doctor Garbanzo starts going undercover and exposing stuff. He writes the truth that ponies are happier not knowing about. And ponies begin to hate him. He still has a dedicated following, but a lot of ponies that once praised him now curse his name.” 

“Oh.” Bucky glanced down at the book. “And the fall?” 

“During the fall phase of the book, Doctor Garbanzo is almost a hermit. He’s paranoid. He’s written some truth that a lot of ponies worked very hard to keep silent. He’s almost been killed a few times. He still writes, but the newspapers will not publish his works, only small independent magazines. He’s become disillusioned, the hope he once saw in the world is now gone, he is bitter, cynical, spiteful, and depressed. He’s started to hate the world.” 

“Ugh… dreadful. You say that Cheerilee recommended this to you? What happens during the winter phase of his life?” Bucky asked.  

Sentinel blinked. “Doctor Garbanzo, realising that the game was rigged from the very beginning, realising he has been exploited his whole life, he uncovered that the media empire was mostly owned by House Avarice, his most hated enemies. He also discovers that the so called small independent magazines that publish his work are also owned by House Avarice so they can sell counterculture to the disenfranchised. It also allows their own newspapers, the serious print publications, to have a media focus… the pundits and the critics can take the articles printed in the indie rags and rip it to pieces with Avarice approved media views, further discrediting Doctor Garbanzo. He finds out that he has been working to help his most hated enemies all along, ever since colthood when he started writing about how unfair the world was.” 

“Wait, is Doctor Garbanzo real?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes, yes he is.” Sentinel’s head bobbed up and down with excitement. 

“So whatever happened to him?” 

“He drank hemlock and died in his study.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 524
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Disturbed, Bucky made his way down the hall, his time spent with his younger foals was heavy in his mind. His view of Cheerilee was now forever altered, changed, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Ponies never failed to surprise Bucky, the most quiet and mundane sorts could be the most surprising. 

He paused in front of the door, his destination. He knocked, but did not enter, fearful to do so. Inside, he heard a whinny, a snort, and a nicker of surprise. He hoped that he was not interrupting anything. 

“Somepony is knocking at our door.” 

The voice was muffled and Bucky could not make it out. Much to his dismay, there was no sound proofing spell and Bucky worried what sort of things his younger foals might be hearing from this room. 

“Do come in!” 

Feeling afraid, Bucky pulled the door handle door down and opened the door. He was immediately hit with an eye watering funk, the sort of stench that could only come from the rooms of teenage colts and fillies. He stepped inside and right away, he wished he hadn’t. 

The room was a sty. The bed was unmade, the sheets were covered in hairs of all colours, and the blankets were in a wad on the floor. There were empty soda bottles on the floor. Dirty dishes were everywhere. Heavy coats and jackets were strewn about the room, but most of them were on the floor. Bucky was standing on something sticky, he could feel his right front hoof clinging to the floor and his frog was touching something clingy. 

One of the couches was broken, snapped in the middle. 

“We… uh… we’ve been meaning to clean up. We’ve been busy. All of the things we do,” Loch Skimmer said to Bucky, her eyes darting around the room. “Really, it usually isn’t this bad.” 

“So what brings you here?” Rising Star asked. 

“The couch is broken.” Bucky’s voice was a flat dull monotone. “Sparky, why is the couch broken? I know for certain that you have the spell that would fix it and make it right. There is just no excuse for this.” 

Sparkler ducked her head down low and her ears drooped. She gave a guilty glance to the couch, then at Loch Skimmer as well as Ripple, and then looked back at Bucky. “Um…” 

“Yeah… um…” Ripple tried and failed to say something in their defense. 

Bittersweet stuffed her head under a pillow to hide. 

“You see, um, well, you see, Ripple was doing her homework and was trying to read a book and Loch Skimmer kept blowing in her ear and was being a pest and Ripple kept ignoring Loch but Loch wouldn’t be ignored so finally Ripple went into super-brute-I-know-hoof-fu mode, picked Loch Skimmer up, and piledrived her into the couch.” 

“What?” Bucky looked at Ripple and then at Loch Skimmer. “Loch, were you okay?” 

“Oh don’t be silly… Ripple would never hurt me… I’m her sister. She was very gentle with me… besides, I’m a pegasus. You think being piledrived into a couch is going to hurt me? It was all in good fun… well, pegasus fun anyway… she suplexed Rising Star into the bed one time and he swore that for a moment, he could see his own pucker as his spine… twisted… into… a… pretzel… oh… you’re not laughing.” Loch Skimmer looked at Bucky, watching as he moved towards the couch, and watched his horn ignite. A moment later, the splintered and broken couch was whole again. 

“To be fair, Ripple has used hoof-fu on all of us, with the exception of Bittersweet, because Bittersweet doesn’t tease Ripple but we do and we were just getting what we deserved,” Sparkler said, coming to her herd’s defense. 

“What is all over the floor and why is everything sticky? Do I even want to know?” Bucky asked, cringing as he spoke. With the couch fixed, he turned and looked at his foals. 

“Oh… that… well… you see—” 

Loch Skimmer, who did not like to see her sister flounder, stepped forward. “Ripple pinned me down and farted on my head because I was being an annoying spaz. To get revenge, I waited till she had fallen asleep while she was doing her homework, I got a mouthful of water, and then I dribbled the water down into her ear… Ripple came up swinging and there was a scuffle, and then Ripple grabbed a soda bottle, shook it violently, and then popped the cap off while it was pointed at me, soaking me in soda. You can probably guess what happened next and I’ll shut up now.” 

“At least Ripple is trying to do her homework… that is what I have gathered from all of this,” Bucky said, looking around the room at the empty soda bottles. “Thank you Ripple, for doing your homework.” 

“Um, when the holiday is over, we’ll clean up in here, we promise,” Sparkler said. 

“Why is there what appears to be chocolate syrup on the ceiling?” Bucky asked, looking up a large brown stain. “I do hope that is chocolate.” 

“Oh it’s chocolate,” Loch Skimmer replied. “Are you sure you want to know? Cause, uh, that’s my fault too.” 

“Yes… for some horrible morbid reason, I want to know. I feel like a little self abuse. Do tell,” Bucky said in a low voice. He wanted to sit down, but there was nowhere to sit down. Nowhere safe anyway. Before Loch Skimmer had a chance to say anything, he knew that he was going to regret this. 

“Are you sure?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Oh, I’m positive. My life will not be complete until I know how my very grown up and adult foals that I love dearly and I am proud of got chocolate syrup on the ceiling of all places,” Bucky replied. 

Loch Skimmer took a deep breath, looked at her herdmates, and then looked back at Bucky. “You wanted to know.” Loch’s voice was nervous, squeaky, and contained a trace of laughter. “Well, uh, the good news is, you get to hear about Rising Star doing some of his homework… he was, uh, um, doing his homework and being a good colt, and I had a bottle of chocolate syrup because I was going to make chocolate milk and then to tease Rising Star, I began to… uh… well, you see, I, um, well, I started to do very perverted things with the bottle of chocolate syrup—” 

“She was acting like she was giving it a blow job,” Ripple interjected, unable to look Bucky in the eye as she spoke. 

“Yeah… that’s what I was doing, and it was very distracting to poor Rising Star, who couldn’t stop watching what I was doing and I had the neck of the bottle in my mouth when Ripple came along and clapped her hooves on either side of the plastic bottle, squeezing it violently. Chocolate shot into my mouth, down my throat, I almost choked, my mouth was full of the bottle and chocolate and I was gagging, and then chocolate came shooting out of my nose and got on the ceiling.” Loch Skimmer flopped over on the bed, grabbed a dirty hairy pillow, and covered her head with it. 

Saying nothing, his face blank, Bucky backed out of the room. He shut the door behind him, trotted down the hall, and then made his way down the stairs. It took a supreme act of will to keep himself collected, to remain quiet, there were foals that he did not wish to disturb.

At the bottom of the stairs, Bucky exploded into laughter. Unable to stand, he fell down on the landing and squeezed his eyes shut as he laughed until he cried. 



 

"Barley, dear, I was hoping to have a word with you,” Rarity said in a somewhat slurred voice as she looked Barley in the eye. “There are some words… words I have been wanting to say but I was scared… tonight, I am feeling courageous!” Rarity waved her wineglass around, almost but not quite sloshing some wine. 

Raising his eyebrow, Barley looked at the inebriated mare and wondered what was up. Coco was looking at him with a hopeful expression. Barley, being old and wise, knew trouble when he saw it. These two were trouble. 

“Barley, how would you feel about being a father?” Rarity asked. 

“What?” Barley was stunned. Rarity’s blunt words struck him like a physical blow. 

“Coco and I need a stud…” Rarity hiccuped, staggered a bit, and then batted her eyes at Barley. “We were hoping it would be you.” 

“I’m old,” Barley replied. 

Smiling, Rarity leaned a little closer to Barley. “Oh, but you are still handsome and we both know that you are capable.” Tittering, Rarity looked back at Coco, licked her teeth, and gave Coco a light slap with her tail. 

“We talked to Luna about this,” Coco said. Coco, who had also been drinking, was nowhere near inebriated. The earth pony mare was calm, cool, and collected. 

“Ye what?” Barley asked. He lifted his head and offered his full attention. 

“Oh we talked to Luna… months ago. She came into the shop with Tourmaline… wanted a dress. We told her we had a delicate matter to discuss, and then we all went out and had a nice lunch about a week later. And the three of us discussed you being a daddy.” 

“Ach, crivens! I’m being plotted against.” Barley’s eyes narrowed. “Nopony told me anything… ye’d think that Luna would’ve said sumptin.” 

“Oh… Luna was waiting for us to make up our minds… like I said, I’ve been very shy about this… it is… difficult to just come out and ask a stallion for his… services,” Rarity said. She raised her glass to her lips, tilted her head back, and emptied it. 

“Why me?” Barley asked. 

“Oh, we made a very long list of things we were looking for. Practical things. And then we checked those things on the list off for every stallion we knew. You scored the highest,” Coco replied. 

“I dinnae understand.” Barley’s ears pitched forward and his wrinkled brow became more wrinkled. “I’m old and I’m nothing special.” 

“Oh but you are,” Rarity said as she sat her glass down. 

“You are charismatic, witty, charming, a successful business owner, reasonably intelligent, you are a unicorn with just enough magic but not too much—” 

“What does that have to do with anything? Is this a unicorn thing?” Barley asked, interrupting Coco. 

Coco offered Barley a soft smile. “This is a pony thing. For the unicorns on the list, we looked at magical ability. Too much is bad… it is troublesome raising a unicorn foal with lots of magic… look at Harper and all of the zapping she does, both accidental and on purpose.” 

“I see yer point lass…” 

“You would of course get visitation and Luna’s only stipulation is that she is made the godmother, which is a very reasonable demand. We might have several foals, and all of them would be yours. Luna would be very happy knowing that a little part of you lived on,” Coco said, her lips pulled into a smile that revealed dazzling white teeth. 

“I don’t know what to say.” Barley reflected upon Coco’s words. A little part of him living on might soften the blow when he died. It might make Luna’s life a little more bearable. 

“We hope you’ll say yes… I didn’t think Rarity would bring it up so I really wasn’t prepared with a sales pitch.” Coco ignored Rarity’s flirtations and focused on the important issue at hoof. 

“I cannae answer right now lasses… I’ll need time to think… and to talk with Luna,” Barley said. 

“Of course,” Coco replied, bowing her head. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a very naughty pony that I need to drag upstairs…” 



 

Derpy, laying on her back, felt the soothing heat of Bell Heather. Bell Heather was laying upon Derpy’s rounded belly, her head resting upon one of Derpy’s teats, and her little diapered backside was resting upon Derpy’s navel. 

Beside Derpy, Thistle slumbered, succumbing to the long day. 

Much to Derpy’s delight, Bucky crawled into the bed beside her. She felt the weight of his head come to rest upon her thigh, and, lifting her head and looking down, she saw that he was almost snoot to snoot with Bell. She let her head fall back down upon her pillow. 

“Everypony is having a good time, and once again, here we are, off by ourselves.” 

The sound of Bucky’s soft words was reassuring. Derpy began to feel drowsy now, Thistle was warm beside her, and she could feel Bucky’s body against her hip. 

“The exciting life of an introvert.” 

Derpy closed her eyes, focusing on the sensations around her. Bell Heather’s warmth. The tiny foal’s breathing. The sound of Bucky’s voice. Even though she had been with Thistle, Derpy had felt a little lonesome back here. Thistle had dozed right off, leaving Derpy with nopony to talk to. 

“Lyra is completely smashed. She’s having a good time… the alcohol has made her the life of the party.” Bucky paused and then laughed. “At some point, you need to ask Loch Skimmer how chocolate syrup ended up on their ceiling.” 

Lifting his head, Bucky looked at Derpy when there was no reply. He heard a faint groan and realised that Derpy had fallen asleep. Dropping his head back down, returned to the snoot to snoot position with Bell Heather. She had milk breath and was sleeping. Tired from the long day, Bucky closed his eyes. 
	
	
> Chapter 525
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky awoke with a feeling of panic. It was past dawn, the sun had come up, even though it could not be seen, and Bucky had slept far too long. There were things to do and foals to look after. Blinking his eyes open, Bucky took stock of his surroundings. Bodies had shifted in the night. Sandwiched between two mares, Bucky attempted to wiggle free so he could check on Cadance and attend to Harper. He hoped that Harper had not had an accident. It was the only clear thought in his half awake mind. 

As he tried to pull himself free, Thistle growled. A savage horrible sounding sound, a terrifying sound, one that was misunderstood by the herbivorous sorts not in the know. Bucky growled back and Thistle quieted. The exchange, in its most simple form, was “I am sleeping, do not bump me” with the reply of “I will bump you… and you will like it.” 

With effort, Bucky managed to get his front legs over the edge of the bed and he began to pull his backside free. A pair of legs wrapped around his middle and squeezed. More non verbal communication. “You are warm, do not leave me.” Grunting, Bucky wiggled himself, trying to make the grabby pegasus that was his mate let go. 

In the dim light, Bucky realised that one mare was missing from the bed. 

Bon Bon. 

He hoped that she was looking after Harper and Cadance. With a wiggle of his hips, he communicated the necessity of getting free and hoped that the message would not be misunderstood as “wake up and let us make more foals.” The messages were similar and in a sleepy state, it would be easy to mistake one for the other. A simple hip wiggle could be misunderstood. 

With his front hooves on the floorboards, Bucky pulled free. Not thinking of himself, not thinking of how his own bladder was in dire need of being emptied, Bucky limped off into the nursery to check on Harper and Cadance. 

The crib was empty. Bucky felt a moment of panic. With a snort and a shake of his head, he cleared his mind, telling himself that Bon Bon had the foals and that everything was just fine. 



 

His own needs looked after, Bucky made his way down the hall, towards the kitchen. He heard voices, laughter, and much to his relief, he heard Harper. He peeked into the living room, saw Bon Bon and Cadance laying by the fire, heaved a paternal sigh of relief, and then turned towards the kitchen. 

There was quite a crowd in the kitchen for this time in the morning. Bucky stood in the archway looking around. Violet was in the kitchen, so was Helia. Coco was sitting on the bay window bench, looking very sleepy. Semillon was cooking. Harper was in her high chair. Sentinel, Piña, and Dinky were at the table, and Sentinel was feeding Harper. 

Bucky felt confused. His foals were still being helpful. This was suspicious. He also noted that Diamond Tiara was missing from the table. His talons and his hooves clicking upon the floor, Bucky made his way to the table and had a seat. 

“I was just telling Sentinel here how mares find stallions who are good with foals irresistible,” Helia said to Bucky as he eased himself into a wooden chair beside her. 

When Bucky looked at Sentinel, the colt’s ears splayed out and Sentinel half smiled as he lifted the spoon he was holding between his thumb and wing joint. He was feeding Harper leftover bread pudding. There was a plump raisin stuck to Harper’s snoot and her face was covered in sticky. 

“Is that true, father?” Sentinel asked. 

Bucky was about to say something when a cup of coffee was set down in front of him. He leaned his head down and sniffed. Sentinel got another spoonful of food into Harper. Bucky smiled as he watched Harper chewing and dribbling food. He became aware that Piña was staring at him, perhaps waiting for some kind of answer. He looked at Dinky, thinking about the night before. Dinky was staring down at the table. 

Looking around the table, he saw that both Helia and Violet were giving him meaningful looks. Bucky realised that something was up, some conversation had taken place perhaps, something had gone on that he had not been here for, but an important point had been made. 

“I think that was the reason why Derpy and Berry fell in love with me. I was a hopeless mess of a pony and nothing special as far as stallions go… but I was good to their foals and other foals. It drove Derpy wild—” 

“That’s all I needed to know,” Sentinel said, cutting in on his father’s words. “Harper likes bread pudding.” 

“Of course she does, it’s sweet,” Piña said as she looked over at the stove with a hopeful expression. Piña rested her front hooves on the edge of the table and looked at Sentinel. “I don’t think I could eat anything sweet right now… not after yesterday… a bowl of oatmeal actually sounds pretty good.” 

“Which is why Semillon is fixing oatmeal,” Violet said, nodding her head. 

“With little bits of minced nuts like walnuts… mmm, crunchy bits.” Using the spoon, Sentinel scraped off some of the sticky from Harper’s chin and scooped off the raisin stuck to her snoot. 

“Such a lovely time last night… so glad I came. Galaxy Guide and Shining Star are the best sorts of ponies,” Helia said in a low voice. “The non judgmental and really nice sort of ponies—” 

Violet looked over at the pegasus. “Helia…” 

Helia blinked. “Oh… sorry… right.” 

“No, Helia… look,” Violet said, pointing over at the kitchen archway. 

Peering into the kitchen were two little faces, both of whom looked a little afraid. 

“We woke up hungry,” Brass Note said, stepping forward. The little unicorn colt stood protectively in front of his sister. “Mom and dad told us to come down. They want to sleep.” 

“Well, don’t just stand there… come over here and sit down,” Violet said, gesturing at the table. “There is no point in being shy.” 

Brass Note took the first few steps and Singsong trailed after him, her wings fluttering. 

“Hi!” Piña’s voice was cheerful and chirpy. She watched as Brass Note and Singsong climbed up into chairs and sat down. 

“Hello again,” Singsong said. The little pegasus was so small that she had trouble seeing over the table. 

“I’m not shy,” Brass Note said, looking up at Violet. 

Violet blinked and looked down at the unicorn colt. “You’re not shy?” 

“No.” Brass Note shook his head. 

A rare smile appeared on Violet’s face. “You seemed shy.” 

“Not shy.” Brass Note’s voice was almost pouty now. 

“You could have fooled me,” Violet said, reaching out her hoof and giving Brass Note a gentle nudge. “You looked very apprehensive standing in the entryway.” 

“I like to be good mannered. Papa said it was important. Always wait until you are invited, always say please and thank you, and always leave a good impression,” Brass Note replied. 

“Oh…” Violet turned and looked at Bucky, still smiling. “Well, I must say, you have left a good impression. Being well mannered is of the utmost importance. I shall have to tell your parents that they did a fine job and that you are a perfect gentlecolt.” 

“Where is Sweetie Belle?” Bucky asked. “I didn’t see her when I tucked in Diamond Tiara, Dinky, and Piña last night.”

“She’s in the library,” Violet replied. “I found her in the library last night. She was curled up on the couch. I covered her up with a blanket and left her be.” 

“What was she doing in there?” Bucky asked. 

Violet glanced at Coco and then back at Bucky. “She was reading Blisterwick’s Guide to Practical Destruction—”

“Oh my goodness!” Coco gasped. 

“Oh don’t worry, the dark magic spell books are all moved out of the library and the really dangerous ones are warded. Blisterwick’s Guide, while dangerous, is not a book about mass destruction… just practical offensive spells a unicorn can use to protect themselves,” Bucky said. One ear twitched. “I let Dinky read it all the time and she’s fine.” 

“I would never use the spells in that book to hurt anything… unless I had to.” Dinky looked around the kitchen, first at her father, then at Violet, then at her siblings, until at last, she looked at Coco. “I’m the last little filly you would want to snatch and do bad things to. My daddy doesn’t have to worry about if I am safe. He taught me how to keep myself safe.” 

“I still worry that you are safe,” Bucky said, listening to Coco’s heavy breathing and feeling a vague sense of worry. 

“Sweetie Belle is accident prone… stuff happens—” 

“Coco, forgive me for putting it so bluntly, but Sweetie Belle is accident prone because Rarity will not allow her to make mistakes and learn. Rarity is terrified of Sweetie making a mistake, or burning something, or shocking something, but these mistakes are necessary. I have Sweetie Belle as one of my students… she lags behind the rest of her classmates because she can’t practice magic at home and the worst part of this whole situation is, that filly has potential.” Feeling an immediate sense of regret, Bucky stared down into his cup of coffee and wished that he hadn’t said anything. 

“Oh… oh dear…” 

Coco’s soft voice was like sharp metal being scraped down a chalkboard to Bucky. He felt guilty for his outburst. Coco, who was soft and kind to everypony, and Bucky had just blurted out some harsh and critical words about the pony that Coco loved. 

“I was worried about this sort of thing. I even tried to tell Rarity once. Rarity became very upset and I let the issue drop,” Coco said. 

For whatever reason, Coco’s words made Bucky feel even worse. He wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was because he was right, perhaps it was because she agreed with him, Bucky did not know. He slumped over the table and drank his coffee. 

“Sweetie really wants to make her sister happy… she worries about it a lot,” Piña said to Coco. 

“We shouldn’t be talking about Sweetie… she isn’t here to have her say in the issue.” 

Lifting his eyes from his coffee cup, Bucky looked at Sentinel, feeling a sense of pride. “Well said, Sentinel.” 

“I make mistakes. I thought it would make mama and papa not like me. I was afraid,” Brass Note said. He looked around. “Mama is very patient and she teaches me magic.” 

“You’re silly,” Singsong said. 

“I am not!” Brass Note looked at his adopted sibling. 

“Are too… there is nothing you could do that would make mommy and daddy not love you. There is a rule… mamas and daddies have to love their foals and they can’t stop,” Singsong said. 

For a moment, Bucky thought about his own mother. He shuddered. 

“Show me this rule,” Brass Note demanded. 

“It exists!” Singsong stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry. 

“Bucky, you break a lot of rules… it is kinda what you do for a living, do you ever break this rule?” Violet asked. 

Bucky started to reply, but swallowed his own words when he saw Violet’s stony expression. There was no trace of a smile, no mirth, no sense of fun. Violet was back to her usual serious self, or so it seemed. Her eyes were narrowed and there was a wrinkle, a crease of concentration upon her brow. 

“Bucky, I asked you a question. This is very important. Do not make me find a newspaper. Do you ever break this rule?” 

Bucky flexed his talons, a nervous gesture. “No… I would never break this rule. A parent loves their foals, no matter what.” 

Violet nodded. “See?” 

“The rule is real?” Brass Note asked. 

“Bucky works to track down ponies that break the basic rules that hold our great society together. There are some rules you don’t break. A parent must never stop loving their foals,” Violet replied. 

“Mignon Croix loved his foal… well, Magnolia wasn’t his real foal, but he wanted to adopt her… Mignon found himself in a really tough spot where he had to pick between loving Magnolia and obeying the law. Obeying the law meant hurting Magnolia. Mignon chose to love his foal, even though it got him into a whole lot of trouble, and daddy had to go and sort everything out,” Piña said. She looked at Bucky and saw her father’s slack jawed expression. “What… Sentinel told me everything that happened.” 

Brass Note peered at Bucky with wide curious eyes. 

“I told you so… see, sisters are always right,” Singsong said. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 526
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Leaning forward, Bucky stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. The flesh around Odin’s eye had revived a bit, the eyelid almost looked normal. There were eyelashes. The odd purple blue colour stood out in sharp contrast to his other eye, which was crimson and a sick shade of green. His withered cheek was still withered. Half of his face was still ruined and his new eye stood out like a beautiful island in a sea of ugliness. On the other side of his face there were also scars, scars from when he had bashed his own head in while trying to resist a want-it-need-it spell. His scalp was still distorted from being shot in the head. He pulled back his lips, revealing his fangs. They were white, gleaming, perfect. He had broken a tip off of one of them, and just as Luna had promised, it had grown back after a few shadow dives. His ears were tufted. Very little remained of the pony he once was. 

Lifting his head high, he saw that the scars on his neck were still visible. Shadow wolves had savaged his throat, tearing it open. The rips were still visible, he was still missing patches of pelt and puckered skin peeked out from bare places in his pelt. He saw his wolf’s head torque and looked at the snowflake that hung on a chain from around his neck. These were things that never left him, things that were always with him. 

“Am I more than the sum of my scars?” Bucky asked himself. He looked up at his most unnatural feature, his horn. “Is this what defines me? Would I still be who I am with no magic?” 

With a flick of his thoughts, he turned on the faucet and bent his neck to wash his face. He waited for the sink to fill and then plunged his face into the water. He held his breath, keeping his face down in the sink, allowing the water to soak into his thick pelt. 

He pulled out of the water with a gasp and as he raised his head, he saw somepony else in the mirror. Two Taint filled eyes stared back at him. Bucky whimpered, scrambled backwards, and lost his balance, his hind legs buckling. He felt to the tile floor, smashing his chin into the sink as he fell down. 

Above him, Sombra was coming out the mirror. He could see Sombra’s long neck. The bared fangs. Taint mist trickled from his eyes. Ignoring his own pain, Bucky scrambled backwards, trying to get out of the bathroom. 

Sombra poured out the mirror like thick, syrupy smoke. 

Bucky heard hooves. Something stepped over him. Rolling over, Bucky looked up. 

Another Sombra. This one was different. This one he knew. This one did not have the Taint. This one did not have a horn of glowing red crystal.

There was a hiss. Bucky covered his face with his forelegs as he saw the darkness above him, above Sombra that was crouching above him, the good Sombra. Bucky squeezed his eyes shut. 

“He’s gone.” 

Bucky opened one eye just a crack and peeked. He lifted his good leg away from his face, knowing his talons were much more protective. The darkness was gone. 

“Sombra, you saved me,” Bucky said as he looked up into Sombra’s face. 

“This is not Tartarus and I am not Sombra,” Sombra replied. 

Confused, Bucky shook his head, his talons flexing. “But I know you… I’ve spoke with you many times… you called me your son.” 

“This is a dream. You are sleeping, having a mid morning nap, curled up beside one that you love,” Sombra said, looking down at Bucky who still lay upon the floor. 

“I don’t understand.” Bucky uncovered his face and opened both eyes. 

“By the stars, you are stupid.” Sombra’s lip curled back in disgust. “You fear becoming Sombra… but Sombra was a pony divided. You fear falling into his shadow… but you know the real Sombra, you have his memories, his knowledge, his life, it is all there inside of your head. If you must become Sombra, become the Sombra of your own choosing. Become what I was before I fell into shadow.” 

“I’m confused… I don’t understand… I don’t understand what is going on here… I… you...” Bucky continued to stammer, unable to form words as he stared upwards. 

“You cannot prevent what you are becoming. Make a choice. Embrace what you are. I accepted the darkness, but I was wrong to let it rule me… the power that was promised was not worth what was lost,” Sombra said in a soft voice. “NOW WAKE UP!” 



 

Bucky awoke with a snort, one hind leg making a feeble kick that connected with nothing. He was being shaken. His eyes opened and he looked around, panicked, frightened, and confused. 

“You were dreaming… you okay?” 

It took a moment for his eyes to focus. He saw Derpy. Rolling over, he pressed his snoot into her neck, burying it in her mane, and inhaled, filling his lungs. 

“Bucky?” 

“I’m fine… I just dozed off… everything is good,” Bucky replied. He lifted his head and looked around. “Where is Thistle?” 

“She got up and left. She’s sick of being in the bed. She’s still hurting, but she’s getting around. She wanted to be with other ponies,” Derpy replied. Reaching around, Derpy scooped up Harper in her foreleg and then dumped the foal on top of Bucky. 

“Hi!” Harper tumbled on top of Bucky and scrambled to keep from falling off. She fell, sliding off of Bucky, and landed between him and Derpy where there was very little space. 

As Bucky lay there watching, Harper pressed her head against Derpy’s stomach, one ear twitching. Without realising that he was doing so, Bucky smiled. 

“She’s figured out that something is up with my tummy,” Derpy said in a low whisper, offering an explanation. The grey mare grimaced for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut. “I swear, they kick me right in the pelvis on purpose.” Blinking, Derpy took a deep breath to deal with the pain. 

“What?” Harper asked. She lifted her head and prodded Derpy’s belly. 

“Did something kick you?” Derpy asked. 

For a moment, Harper looked very confused, and she blinked a few rapid blinks as she tried to process this information. Still staring at Derpy’s bulging belly, Harper nodded. “Kick Harpy. What?” 

“There are foals in there,” Derpy replied. 

Harper sat back on her haunches, leaning up against Bucky’s side. Her little brow furrowed, leaving behind deep creases, which made her look old and wizened somehow. A few sparks jumped from her horn, causing her frizzy orange mane to become even frizzier. Reaching out with her hoof, she prodded Derpy’s stomach, once, then twice, and then she pulled her hoof away. “Foals?” Harper tapped her barrel with her left front hoof. “Foal. Harpy. Foal.” 

“Yes Harper. There are foals in there. Just like you. Just like little Harper,” Bucky said. 

“What?” Harper looked puzzled. Reaching up, she rubbed her chin, and as she did so, she twisted herself around a bit. She poked Bucky’s ribs. She stuffed her hoof into her mouth and began to gnaw on it as she sat there thinking. 

“She’s a little thinker.” Reaching out, Bucky lifted Harper’s mane away from her eyes so he could see her face better. 

“Foals.” Harper touched Derpy’s belly. Reaching out her slobber covered hoof, she touched Bucky. “No foals.” 

“Yes, Bucky has no foals. But I do,” Derpy said. 

“What foals…” Harper paused and looked first at Derpy and then at Bucky. She chewed on her lip for a moment. “What…” She bounced up and down, her face becoming a scowl. She took a deep breath, held it, puffed out her cheeks, and stopped breathing. 

After a moment, all the air Harper was holding escaped with a wheeze. She took another deep breath, then another, and then poked Derpy’s belly. “What foals…” Harper then shrugged. 

“How are they breathing?” Bucky asked. He took a deep breath, held it, and looked at Harper. After a moment, he let his breath out. “How are they getting air?” 

“Air.” Harper blinked. 

Derpy and Bucky both watched as Harper went through an act of exaggerated breathing and then exchanged a glance with one another. Bucky saw Derpy’s smile and a odd sense of calm overcame him. 

“Bucky, how do we answer this?” Derpy said. She watched Bucky shrug. “Harper, they… they don’t need air. My body gives them everything they need… sort of like how it gave you milk when you needed it.” 

Harper’s eyes went wide and then narrowed once more. “Foals. Milk. Mama made… made foals… made milk. Mama is foals? Mama is milk?” 

“Yes Harper, your mother is made of foals and milk,” Bucky said. 

Startled by this revelation, Harper rubbed her front hooves together, her face became pinched. She reached down and rubbed her own tummy, kicked out her hind legs, craned her head, looked down between her hind legs, and then lifted her head to look at Derpy. “What same?” 

Unable to stop herself, Derpy giggled. “Yes Harper. We are the same. Female.” 

“What female?” Harper asked. 

“Female,” Bucky replied. “A female is made from foals and milk. Everything that is good in the world.” 

“Bucky!” Derpy, tittering and unable to stop herself, leaned over and kissed Bucky on the cheek, overcome with happiness. 

Prodding her stomach, Harper shook her head. “No. No foals.” 

“You don’t have any little foals yet. But someday, you might,” Bucky said. 

Sitting up straight, Harper tapped herself on her barrel with her hoof. “Female.” 

Derpy nodded. “Filly… Harper is a filly… you’ve said this word before Harper.” 

“Yeah, but I think this is the first time she really understands it,” Bucky said, studying Harper’s face. “Look at her. She knows that both you and her look the same down there. She’s smart.” 

“I don’t remember how old Dinky was when she figured out that we were the same. About Harper’s age I guess… about a half a year.” Derpy’s gaze became distant as she looked back into the past. 

“Dinky… filly?” Harper asked. 

Bucky felt the muscles in the back of his neck tense as his eyebrow raised. “Yes, Dinky is a filly. Dinky is a female.” 

“What?” Harper asked. 

“Do you mean why?” Bucky asked in reply. 

“Yes… what?” Harper asked. 

“Why is Dinky a filly? She just is. That’s just how it turned out. Just like you.” Bucky wasn’t sure how to offer a better answer. 

“You? What?” Harper asked, poking Bucky. 

“Bucky is a male. He’s your da…” Derpy fell silent, knowing what would happen if she finished speaking. “Bucky is a male. He is the male pony you call your mamamama.” 

“Filly.” Harper patted Bucky on the ribs. 

“No… Bucky is male. A colt… a stallion,” Derpy said in a patient voice, offering correction to Harper, who now looked very confused. 

Harper shook her head, one eye narrowed and the other went wide. “Mama filly… mama foals.” Harper patted Derpy’s stomach. “Milk.” Harper’s muzzle scrunched as she began to concentrate. She looked at Bucky. “Mamamama. No foals. Filly. Like Harpy.” 

“I have no idea what she is saying,” Derpy said to Bucky. 

“I think…” Bucky began and then paused as he gave thought to Harper’s words. “I think Harper is trying to make the logical argument that I am a filly and I have no foals just like she has no foals.” 

“What?” Derpy asked. 

“What?” Harper repeated. 

“Mamas must be fillies. Females. I am mamamama, ergo, I am female,” Bucky said. 

“Bucky, you’re crazy… but I love you.” Reaching out, Derpy pulled Bucky in and gave him a kiss. “Wanna hear something funny?” 

“From you? Always,” Bucky replied. 

Chuckling, Derpy pulled Harper closer and gave the foal a hug. “One day, Dinky came to me and said ‘toaster dirty’ and I could not figure out what she was talking about. I went and had a look at the toaster and it was fine… I could not even figure out how Dinky would know if the toaster was clean or dirty. I was tired… it had been a long day. And then Dinky said it again… ‘toaster dirty.’ I had no idea what was going on.” Derpy, reminiscing, gave Harper a squeeze. “So… I asked Dinky to show me the dirty toaster.” 

“What happened? Bucky asked. 

“Dinky turns around, hikes up her tail, and shows me her backside. She then tells me, ‘toaster itchy’ and I almost die laughing. She thought her little bottom was a toaster.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 527
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Almost dozing, Bucky was enjoying being lazy. No golems to create, no long trips, there was nothing to but lay in bed, rest, and be a parent when the situation demanded. Beside him, Derpy was sprawled out and between them, Harper was napping. Bucky was oblivious to the festivities going on in the other parts of the house, he was unaware that Lugus was juggling, or that Belisama was trying to learn how to juggle from watching Lugus. 

Bucky was aware of the fact that his bed was soft, something he was grateful for. The room was warm, almost too warm, which made him even more drowsy, and Bucky was aware that the wind was howling around the eaves of the house, which did not bother him. 

Then the hinges creaked, Bucky became aware that the door was opening. He heard the clatter of little hooves. Too light to be Sentinel’s. The bed moved as somepony lept up onto the bed. Bucky heard a squeak from Harper as she awoke. 

“Dinky!” Harper cried.

A moment later, Bucky felt a small body crawl up onto his back. Two small legs wrapped around his neck. A small head pressed into his mane. He could feel Dinky breathing. 

“Daddy?” 

Bucky’s eye opened, a mere slit, and Taint mist began seeping out. “Yes Dinky?” He heard Harper burbling, making flatulent noises with her lips. Dinky was trembling. 

“I’ve made a mistake… I dunno how to talk about it.” 

“Just start talking. Hopefully, it will just come out,” Bucky said, offering advice to Dinky. 

“I feel so ashamed.” 

Dinky’s trembling increased. Bucky felt bad for her. Summoning his patience, he waited for Dinky to say something. Beside him, he felt Derpy move, repositioning her body. He heard a soft whimper and a loud pop which made him wince. 

“Mama?” Dinky asked. 

“I’m fine Dinky… you just say what you need to say,” Derpy replied. 

Bucky could hear the strain in her voice, the pain that Derpy was holding back. 

“Are you sure you’re okay mama?” Dinky asked. 

“I’m fine Dinks… I just laid down in the same position for too long. I should have moved around a bit but I was being lazy,” Derpy replied. 

“Oh.” Dinky tightened her grip around Bucky’s neck and took a deep breath. “Piña called me a stupid shite for brains—” 

“She what?” 

Derpy’s voice was furious, Bucky could hear it, for a moment, his blood ran cold. He hadn’t heard Derpy this angry in quite some time and he worried that a wing slapping might happen in the very near future. 

“This isn’t about Piña! Let me talk!” Dinky’s voice was a squeaky shriek. “I deserved it. I did something bad… I made a mess and I hurt daddy.” 

Bucky listened to Dinky and tried to tune out Derpy’s grumbling. He heard the sheets rustle as Derpy grabbed Harper and gave the tiny foal a squeeze. 

“Last night I said some stuff I shouldn’t have. I can’t stop thinking about Thistle giving birth. It’s messing with my head. It really scared me. I can’t get it out of my head and I can’t seem to focus on anything else and I…” Dinky’s words became panting breaths as she breathed in and out in rapid succession. “I don’t know how to finish… I don’t know how to say what I want to say… I said some stuff that I really feel bad for saying and I wish I could take it back because I know I was wrong and Piña told me that I really hurt you and I was so wrapped up in my own pain that I wasn’t thinking about how all of this might be hurting you and I’m so sorry!” 

Bucky felt something hot and wet trickling down the back of his neck and he could feel Dinky heaving on his spine. For a moment, he wondered if Derpy was going to grab Dinky to comfort her. 

Derpy did nothing and Bucky was somewhat surprised. 

“Dinky?” Bucky used his softest voice, the voice that only his foals or his wives ever got to hear. “Dinky, I know you’re crying, but can you hear me?” 

“What?” 

When Dinky spoke, Bucky felt her shudder. He now felt like crying himself. It was difficult to talk. “Dinky, you are forgiven… I’m not angry with you. It’s okay to be hurt. It is okay to be scared. You did the right thing, coming to us, to me, to have a talk.” 

Dinky’s sobs worsened. Bucky closed his eyes, not sure what to say, but the sound of Dinky wailing was heartbreaking. Beside him, he heard Harper start crying, the little foal had no idea what was going on. 

For a time that seemed to stretch on forever, Bucky waited for Dinky to quiet down a bit. When her body wracking sobs became a more subdued weeping, Bucky took a deep breath and said, “Dinky, just let it out. And when you feel like you're done, I will take you into the kitchen, I will fix you tea, and we will sit down together.” Bucky felt a wet snuffling against his neck. 

“I’d like that,” Dinky said, mumbling into her father’s mane. 

“I think I’ll join you.” Derpy gave Harper another squeeze. “But first, I’m going to take Harper to the bathroom.” 

“Let me,” Bucky offered. 

“No, you have Dinky,” Derpy replied. 

“And you can hardly walk. You hold Dinky and I’ll take Harper to the potty. Dinky won’t mind, will you Dinky?” Bucky lifted his head and looked at Derpy. 

“Fine.” Derpy’s lip protruded in a pout. 

“Please don’t punish Piña… I’m begging you, please don’t!” Dinky said to her mother as she slid off of Bucky’s back. “I feel bad enough as it is and I deserved it.” 

Derpy grunted but said nothing as Bucky tumbled out of the bed and then wobbled off to take Harper to the bathroom. She gave Dinky an extra squeezy pegasus hug and then kissed Dinky on top of her head, hoping to make her foal feel better. 



 

As Bucky was gathering everything need to make tea, he was shooed out of the way by Violet and told to sit down. Bucky sat down next to Dinky, who was sitting in her chair, looking depressed and dejected. Dinky’s eyes were red and her face was stained with tears. Unable to do anything else productive, Bucky retrieved a clean cloth, soaked it under warm water, and then, ignoring Dinky’s whimpered protests, he cleaned her face. 

From her highchair, Harper banged on her tray.

“Be patient Harper,” Derpy said. 

A moment later, Lyra appeared in the kitchen, and she smiled at Harper. “Harpy!” 

“Mama!” 

Whistling, Lyra moved around Violet, disappearing into the large walk in pantry. A moment later, Lyra reappeared with a jar. “Guess what I have Harper?” 

Harper blew a raspberry at Lyra. “Yellow. Yuck!” 

Giggling, Lyra bounced around the kitchen and retrieved a spoon. “I guess I’ll eat these mangos all by myself.” 

“Mango?” Harper asked, becoming very confused. “Yellow… yuck.” 

“These mangos are yellow.” Lyra waved the jar at Harper. 

“Yuck.” Harper shook her head and then shrugged. “Yuck?” 

“Why is yellow yucky?” Lyra asked. “You like cheese… sometimes. Cheese is yellow.” 

“Yuck.” Once more, Harper stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry. 

“Why does Harper think the colour yellow is yucky?” Dinky asked. 

Shrugging, Derpy’s wings flapped at her sides. “We ask ourselves that every day Dinky.” 

“Squish.” Harper stared at Bucky, her expression stern and serious. 

Taking a seat near Harper, Lyra unscrewed the lid off of the jar. “Squish?” 

“Squish. Yellow. Yuck.” 

Perplexed, Lyra looked at Bucky. “What did you do to her?” 

Bucky went on the defensive. “What makes you think I did something to her?” 

“She looked at you when she said ‘squish.’ What did you do?” Lyra set the jar down on the table and lifted a spoon. 

“I did nothing… why is it when something goes wrong I am always blamed?” Bucky asked. He watched as Lyra spooned out a mango slice and gave it to Harper, who slurped it off of the spoon. 

Harper lifted her hoof and pointed at Bucky. “Squish. Yellow. Yuck.” 

“Bucky did something to traumatise her,” Derpy said, shaking her head. 

“I did not!” Bucky cried in protest. 

“What did mamamama do?” Ripple asked as she stuck her head into the kitchen. 

“I did nothing,” Bucky replied.

“Bucky is responsible for traumatising Harper,” Lyra said, arming her spoon with another mango. She watched Harper pucker up her lips in preparation. “We have a mystery.” 

“We do not.” Bucky slumped in his chair, sulking. He did not want to be the one responsible for traumatising Harper and making her hate the colour yellow. “It is probably something very silly.” 

Violet began setting up the table for tea. Plates, saucers, and cups clinked. A tea stand shaped like a holiday tree was set in the middle of the table. 

With a loud slurp, another mango section disappeared down Harper’s gullet. 

“What’s going on?” Piña asked, peering into the kitchen from between Ripple’s front legs. 

“YOU! Get over here and sit down next to me!” Derpy demanded. 

Dinky gulped, flinched, and could not bear to look. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Piña asked as she approached the table. 

Derpy nodded. “You did. But you’ve been forgiven. Now get over here.” 

“Squish.” Harper dribbled some mango syrup down her chin. 

“Squish is gross,” Piña said as she climbed up into chair beside Derpy. 

“Wait, do you know what squish is? What Harper means?” Lyra asked. 

Piña nodded and looked at Harper. “Remember the night that daddy made—” 

“Mama,” Harper insisted. “Mamamama. Mama mama.” 

“—er… right… remember the night mamamama made Harper eat squash and Harper was so grossed out that she threw up all over the floor?” 

“Yellow. Yuck.” Harper shuddered. “Squish.” 

Lifting his right front leg, Bucky covered his eyes with his fetlock, folding it over his muzzle, unable to look at  his family. Forcing Harper to eat was one thing. Forcing Harper to eat something she found so disgusting that she threw up was not something Bucky was proud of. 

“How could I forget that night?” Lyra replied. “I had the odd experience of having another pony’s vomit go up my nose and into my mouth. Sadly, not the first time it happened, nor the last.” 

“So ‘squish’ is squash?” Derpy turned to look at Bucky, sighed, and then turned her gaze back upon Piña. Derpy’s eyes narrowed. “I know that you know what you did.” 

Eyes wide, Piña looked back at Derpy. “I said what needed to be said.” Piña’s voice was soft and squeaky with fear. 

“Mama please,” Dinky said. 

“I’ve said what I wanted to say and I’ll leave the issue alone… for now,” Derpy said to Dinky. “But Berry Punch is going to know about this.” 

“No…” Piña pleaded. 

“And Bon Bon.” Derpy looked at Piña and watched the small pink earth pony foal cower. 

“Oh no…” Piña squirmed in her seat. “Not Bon Bon and Berry both!” 

“You’re not in trouble this time,” Derpy said, her good eye locked on Piña. “But next time, you won’t be wiggling out of trouble. Berry and Bon Bon are going to know so there is no escaping.” 

Crossing her forelegs over her barrel, Piña slumped down in her chair, resigned to a fate worse than death. “That’s fair.” 

“What do we do about Bucky?” Lyra asked. When she was done speaking, she took a bite of mango for herself, ignoring Harper’s whimpering protests. 

“We forgive him. Today has been a day of forgiveness,” Derpy replied. 

“I smell tea,” Diamond Tiara said, appearing beside Ripple. 

“So do I.” Sweetie Belle appeared a moment later. “Tea sounds pleasant.” 

“What is so special about tea?” Singsong asked, looking up at Sweetie Belle as she approached. 

“It brings ponies together,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

Sweetie Belle nodded. “It’s also warm and sweet and it tastes good.” 

“Well, don’t just stand there, come into the kitchen,” Bucky said. 

“Good thing I made plenty,” Violet said as she began to rummage around in the fridge for food. “Semillon said the ambrosia salad is for when everypony starts to get hungry later. I guess now is a good time.” 

“Is there tea?” Coco asked as she stepped into the kitchen. 

“Yes… Coco, would you please be a dear and tell everypony that there is tea?” Violet asked as she set out a large serving bowl on the counter. 

“I would be glad to help,” Coco replied. She turned around, her tail swished, and then she was gone. 

“There are reliable earth ponies and then there are reliable earth ponies,” Violet said in a low voice. “And then there is Coco.” 

“What is so special about Coco?” Piña asked. “I mean, she’s a nice pony, but what made you say that?” 

“Coco could have stood right where she was and shouted that there was tea. Instead, she’s going off room to room to make a soft quiet announcement. Nopony with frazzled holiday nerves will be disturbed,” Violet replied. 

Piña’s face lit up with understanding. “Oh. Yeah, Coco is the quiet sort.” 

“Rarity has a massive hangover. If you make a loud noise, she’ll squeal like a pig,” Ripple said as she stood near Harper’s highchair. 

“Poor dear… she can’t hold her liquor,” Violet said in a voice that contained no trace of sympathy whatsoever. “Ponies that can’t hold their liquor have no business drinking it.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 528
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How is motherhood?” Yew asked Thistle, cuddling up close to the kelpie. Yew had her own hopes for expanding her motherhood. She looked over at Belisama, sighed, and then turned back to look at Thistle.

“I’m much happier now… I was miserable for the past few months. It’s all over now,” Thistle replied. “Barley is so happy with Bell. Look at him.” 

“Barley is good with foals. Like Bucky. Others give Barley a hard time for being a little rough around the edges, but they never see him with foals… sort of like Bucky I guess. Ponies say a lot of bad things about Bucky too.” Yew frowned and shook her head. 

“I feel so strange. So emotional. So protective.” Thistle looked around the room. “I’ve been feeling more aggressive.” 

“Moms are all about protection. Part of what we are. Ready to fight and protect your young? Your fellow herdmates?” Yew asked. 

“I guess,” Thistle replied. 

“I don’t believe you. Say that with a bit of conviction!” Yew demanded. 

“If somepony came near my foal I’d rip them apart!” Thistle’s voice now had an unmistakable growl. The room around her fell quiet. 

“I still don’t believe you, you big sack of marshmallows! Let me see your mom face!” Yew said in a loud commanding voice, something she had picked up from Lugus. 

Thistle curled back her lips, revealing a mouthful of needle teeth. She snarled and leaned forwards towards Yew Wood. A low resonating growl rumbled in the back of Thistle’s throat. 

“That is a believable mom face! I like what I am seeing!” Yew said to Thistle as she patted the kelpie on her withers. 

“I… just don’t understand this place sometimes,” Rarity said as she rubbed her head with her hoof. “I have fallen in with the most marvelous barbarian savages… I don’t know how this happened, but I appreciate them as my friends for whatever reason.” 

“Mom face! GRRRRR!” Yew growled as she made a terrifying mom face, her scars and single eye giving her a distinct advantage. 

Seeing her mother’s mom face, Peekaboo wrapped her wings around her face and fell over, going limp on the floor. She let out a shrill cry. 

“Whoops, too much mom face,” Yew said as she lept from the couch and landed beside Peekaboo. She nosed her foal, rolling Peekaboo over, and then blew a raspberry against Peekaboo’s belly. 

“I think Yew has a better mom face than I do… this is where having one eye works out to your betterment,” Thistle said. Even as she said it, she hoped that Yew would not take offense. 

Yew threw back her head and laughed, putting an end to Thistle’s concerns. 

“I don’t have a mom face.” Belisama lifted her head off of the cushion. “My beak doesn’t allow me to make scary faces.” 

“Scary mom body… rear up, flex talons, puff out, full body intimidation,” Lugus said, not bothering to lift his head. “Maybe lots of hissing.” 

“She does that to Bucky when she’s in the mood—” 

“Not another word Berry!” Belisama said in protest. 

“Really, she’s adorable!” Berry Punch waved her hoof in a dismissive gesture. 

Rarity, still rubbing her head, looked around the room. “I swear, brutes and savages...” 

“So Bucky is minding his own business and coming into the house through the front door when Belisama comes from out of nowhere and pounces on him, sort of like how Moonbow pounces on Sentinel—” 

“Berry… no,” Belisama said, her voice pleading. 

Undeterred, Berry Punch smiled and continued. “I mean, she takes this running, flying leap and comes right at Bucky. Bucky… who took on an entire griffon army… and Bucky just stands there with this blank expression on his face as Belisama bounces off of him—” 

“Oh this is embarrassing,” Belisama said and then began to mutter, 

“—and he’s just staring at her. So Belisama fluffs out, her crest goes up, and she sits back on her haunches and starts flexing her talons at Bucky, hissing and making these strange screeching sounds. At this point, Bucky raises his eyebrow and he has his head cocked that way that he does when he’s confused and he’s looking down at Belisama.” Unable to help herself, Berry Punch began to giggle. 

“So what happened?” Yew asked. 

“Bucky took the direct approach and asked me what I was doing and how should he respond,” Belisama replied. The griffoness heaved a sigh and looked at Berry, who was now beside herself with laughter. “I told Bucky that I was his fierce warrior wife and I was trying to impress him.” 

“Did it work?” Rarity asked, taking an interest. 

“Bucky didn’t laugh at me.” Belisama curled into a pudgy ball of fur and feathers, hiding herself. “He was very kind to me as I experimented with sexual aggression. I never once felt that he was patronising me or having a laugh at my expense.” 

“It is always fascinating to gain an insight into Bucky.” Rarity lifted up a glass of water, stared into it, and then took a long drink. She swished it around the inside of her mouth and swallowed. “I’ve seen different parts of Bucky… seeing him in Griffonholm… it changed me. Don’t get the wrong idea, he is very dear to me. I have actually worked very hard to be careful what I say so I don’t say the wrong thing. He got us out of Griffonholm alive and whole of body.” 

“Griffonholm went bad,” Lugus said in a low voice. 

“Twilight has never been quite the same.” Rarity looked at Lugus and was unable to hide the pain on her face. “None of us are the same. There is not a day that goes by where I am not thankful to be alive. It makes me glad to have Coco. I think we’re all stronger for what happened. Fluttershy is different now. She has a quiet strength. I think Discord is part of that. Pinkie Pie is still a party pony, but she has settled down… it is hard to explain. She and Cheese Sandwich are so close… Pinkie has… matured, for the lack of a better word. She has become a great deal more responsible. She and Cheese have formed a herd with the Cakes… more of an extended family… don’t get the wrong idea. Applejack… I don’t know what is up with Applejack but I worry about her. None of us has changed more than Rainbow Dash though.” 

“Rainbow Dash has become a stranger… there are times I feel like I don’t even know her,” Berry Punch said to Rarity. “She can still have her moments as a boastful braggart, but those moments are rare now… out of place. Dash is a completely different pony.” 

Rarity nodded. “She is. The Element of Loyalty has never been more loyal.” 

“At least some good has come out of Griffonholm.” Lugus turned his head around to look at Belisama. “Luna says the world is a better place for what happened there. Labyrinthia too. Even with the trouble, Luna says that the world has not known this sort of peace for a long time. Nations are wanting to make peace and put an end to conflict. Even the warring diamond dog kingdoms are putting aside their differences and making peace.” 

“It is difficult to think about your species being a major cause of the world’s problems,” Belisama said as she flopped around, trying to get comfortable. 

“Indeed. I look at my fellow ponies and wonder to myself, ‘how did we manage to mess up the whole world so badly’ almost every day,” Berry Punch said. 

“What?” Belisama lifted her head and unrolled her body to get a good look at Berry. 

“Griffons made their mistakes, minotaurs made mistakes, the diamond dogs wouldn’t stop fighting with one another and with the other sapient creatures that share this mudball… and House Avarice profited from all of the war and conflict in the world. You can’t point at just one species and blame them.” Berry Punch looked around the room, aware that everypony and everybirdy was looking at her. 

“We had our hoof in helping to make a dreadful mess of things,” Rarity said. The unicorn’s eyes narrowed and she looked angry for a moment. “Back in the fall, I stopped purchasing one of my most popular fabrics. I found out, quite by accident, that the fabric in question was manufactured by minotaur calves. Underage labour. The fabric was magnificent, hand woven… but the construction depended upon teeny tiny nimble little fingers. I was appalled. Sickened. I took the bolts that I had left and I burned them in fire created by my own magic.” 

Berry Punch blinked, shocked that Rarity had that much conviction. 

Rarity hung her head for a moment, looking down at the floor. Her nostrils flared and then she looked up. “Not all of us can do battle with whole armies to keep the world safe… but each of us can do the little things that make a difference. I now investigate my supply line and have started a directory of cruelty free fabric sources.” 

Berry nodded. “Well said.” 

“Do you think it helps?” Yew asked. 

“I don’t know. I’d like to think it does. I’ve lost customers because of this. Important customers who now go elsewhere to get custom creations in the fabric they desire. I can’t say that it has changed the world, but it has changed me,” Rarity replied. 

Berry Punch smiled. “Every little bit helps…” 



 

“Bittersweet, did you have a nice holiday?” Rising Star was very careful with his lips and he made a few clumsy words in ear language as he spoke. He was glad to have caught Bittersweet alone, in the hallway, so he could have a private moment with her. 

The donkey nodded. 

“I always feel as though I neglect you somehow. Like not enough is said between us.” Again, more ear movements and careful movements with his lips as he looked Bittersweet right in the eye. “My mother warned me that just because you can’t talk doesn’t mean you don’t have stuff to say. It’s made me worried.” 

Bittersweet looked away for a moment and then she turned her head back to Rising Star, she had a coy, coquettish smile. Both her ears and her lips moved as she began to say something, but no sounds came out. “You’ve been very good to me. I love you. I have a responsibility to express myself if I need something.” 

“Bittersweet, there is something I need from you… I hate to even ask, but this is very important,” Rising Star said as he stood almost snoot to snoot with Bittersweet. “This was my mother’s idea… my mom is pretty smart.” 

Bittersweet, still smiling, nodded in agreement. “What do you need?” her ears asked. 

“Donkeys are citizens of Equestria too… and they don’t get treated very well. I’m going to do something about it when the midwinter assembly comes, and I want to make a two pronged attack. I want you there with me when I give my address to the Stable… no, I need you there with me… I want you to use ear language. I need for you to say my speech with me, using those long pretty ears of yours. I want to show all of Equestria that we have something that we can learn from the donkeys and I want to show that the deaf can be made to listen.” 

Bittersweet backed away from Rising Star with her mouth hanging open. 

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you if I did Bittersweet… I know how skittish you can be… you’d have me right there with you and I could arrange to have Ripple with us… oh cheese and crackers I’m sorry.” Rising Star stood in place, still looking Bittersweet in the eye, hoping he could make things better. 

“I am a deaf-mute donkey. I am below even other donkeys. You want me to help you—” 

Unable to stop himself, Rising Star’s anger bubbled out. “Never say that again! Shut up shut up shut up! You’re not below anypony or anydonkey and I don’t ever want to see your ears make those words ever again! I am putting my hoof down!”

Her tail swishing, Bittersweet stared at Rising Star. Her nostrils flared. “It was hard to read your lips,” Bittersweet’s ears said as they made swift movements. “But did you just tell a mute donkey to shut up?” 

Feeling stupid, Rising Star realised what he had done. He nodded and hung his head. 

“Are you angry with me?” Bittersweet asked, her ears moving slower this time. 

Snorting, Rising Star nodded. 

“I am more than just the donkey that you had to marry to keep Ripple happy, aren’t I?” Bittersweet asked, both her lips and her ears moving together. 

Rising Star wanted to shout “WELL DUH!” but what came out was silence. He stepped forward, ducked his head down, and kissed Bittersweet on the corner of her mouth. A moment later, Bittersweet reared up and he felt two legs wrap around his neck. It was impossible to communicate words during moments like this, but nothing needed to be said. 

After a few moments, Bittersweet let go and stepped back. “I will help you. You want the deaf to hear and so do I. Also, I will help you reach out to the donkeys.” 
	
	
> Chapter 529
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Lord of Winter sat upon his throne. Bucky drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and felt a physical pang of regret for eating all of these rich holiday foods. It was like trying to pass blocks of cement with shards of glass jutting out. After enduring what Bucky was certain his own insides squirting out, there was a disappointing -plop!- in the water beneath him. 

This had almost been a non issue when he had been a good herbivorous pony who ate plenty of salads, oats, and fibre rich grain. Gritting his teeth, Bucky reflected upon these things as he engaged in a mighty struggle to evacuate his own bowels. 

The door opened. Bucky expected to see one of his wives. This sort of thing happened in a marriage and one got used to it. Bathroom habits, like sexuality, were something that had to be explored and acclimatised to. Somehow, the bathroom had become a quiet place to hang out, a refuge. Bucky still appreciated being alone. 

“Mama mama.” 

Bucky looked down at Harper as Harper was looking up at him. This was not making things any easier. This felt wrong. This was awkward. This made an already uncomfortable situation much worse. 

“Hello? A little help in here? Somepony come get Harper?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

In the bedroom, he heard laughter and giggles. 

“What do?” Harper asked. 

And now she is going to ask me questions about it, Bucky thought to himself. 

“Mamamama stinky.” 

“Hello Harper,” Bucky said, resigning himself to his fate. He took a deep breath which came back out as a groan. 

“Hold Harper?” 

Bucky shook his head. “No Harper, right now I can’t pick you up and hug you.” 

“What?” Harper asked. Her lips trembled and her nostrils quivered. 

Seeing his foal’s hurt expression, Bucky felt a wash of self loathing come over him. Harper was too young to understand things like neurosis, or hangups, or even awkward social situations. There was only one thing to do.

“Help! Really! I’m not fooling around!” 

Much to Bucky’s dismay, no help came. But Bucky did hear more laughing and giggling from the bedroom. A stabbing cramp shot through his bowels to mock him, reminding him that there was business to attend to. 

“No fall in,” Harper said, trying to be helpful, while still looking hurt. 

“No Harper, I won’t fall in,” Bucky replied. 

“Now hug Harper?” 

A loud gurgle came from Bucky’s stomach, then a growl, and then a squelching noise. It caused Harper’s eyes to go wide and under any other circumstance, Bucky might have laughed. But this was unbearable. 

“Yuck.” 

“Harper, go find one of your mothers,” Bucky said, offering a helpful suggestion. 

“Found one. Stinky.” Harper sat on the tile floor and continued to stare up at Bucky. 

“Well, go find another one.” Bucky pondered scooping Harper up in his magic and scooting her out the door. In his entire life, he could not recall feeling as naked and exposed as he felt right now… and ponies were a species given to nudity. 

“Harper yucky. Need bath.” 

Something sharp felt as though it was tearing at his backside. Bucky winced, shook his head, and was all too aware that Harper had not once taken her eyes off of him. Bucky took a deep breath and held it. 

This was one of those moments of fatherhood that Bucky had not been warned about. 



 

With a splash, Harper dropped into the tub. Not Thistle’s tub, but a smaller tub that had been added to the new bathroom with the express purpose of foal bathing. Bucky sat down beside the tub and watched Harper splash around. 

Beside the tub, there was a plastic basket. In the plastic basket were a few toys. Bucky dug out a rubber ducky and dropped it into the tub with Harper, who squealed with delight when she saw it. 

As he watched Harper play, he considered that perhaps, just maybe, eating the cheese log with almonds and cashews was a bad idea. Or the entire brick of Bon Bon’s marshmallow fudge. Semillon’s salmon loaf. Or crab cakes fried in hot oil. 

Arming himself with a scrubbing brush, Bucky went to work, ignoring Harper’s protests. Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña meant well, but they didn’t get Harper clean. Running warm water over her in the shower was not the same as a thorough scrubbing. Wiping the sticky off of Harper’s face was not the same as scrubbing the sticky away. 

Bucky sighed when he thought about how much like Derpy he had become. He had once been guilty of just doing the bare minimum of what needed to be done. Rinsing a foal off under warm water had once been adequate. 

Harper’s dark purple eyes closed and she went limp as the brush moved up and down along her spine. Her copious amounts of bright orange fluff were now waterlogged and plastered to her head and body. 

Bucky knew that there was more fluff than foal, but he dared not say anything around a certain overprotective earth pony he loved named Bon Bon. That was asking for trouble. Bucky was a brave pony, there were a lot of foolhardy things he had no problem doing. He dealt with dangerous situations so other ponies could stay safe. But Bucky did not cross Bon Bon. Bon Bon took no guff. 

“You’re a lot of work Harper. Keeping up with you is more work than I realised. I don’t know how I am going to keep with a half a dozen or more,” Bucky said as he scrubbed. 

Harper yawned, her orange tongue visible for a moment as her mouth opened wide. 

“I think you’ll be going to bed early,” Bucky said. Still scrubbing, he waited for Harper’s protests. He rolled her over and began to scrub her chest and stomach. 

“Harper sleepy.” 

“Been a long day for you… being cuddled, playing with Brass Note and Singsong, playing with Peekaboo… and I think Rarity is quite taken with you. Do you like Rarity?” Using his magic, Bucky supported Harper’s head. 

“Rayray,” Harper replied. 

“What colour is Rayray?” Bucky asked. He watched Harper’s ears twitch but her eyes did not open. It was obvious that the foal was thinking. He marveled at how much Harper had changed. 

“Rayray white?” 

“Yes Harper, Rayray is white,” Bucky replied. He angled the brush and began to scrub along her ribs, just behind her front shoulders. “Say another mama colour?” 

Harper’s eyes opened. They were dark purple, the colour of angry stormclouds. They glittered as Harper focused. “Grey?” 

“Derpy is grey… very good.” Bucky smiled. “What colour is Harper?” 

Harper lifted her head and looked at her own body. She held up a foreleg and looked at it. “Burple plue.” 

Bucky blinked in shock. It was close enough to count, or so Bucky felt. Lyra and Berry both sat down with Harper and showed her flash cards. Bucky had always felt they were pushing Harper too hard and she was much too young. Bucky began to suspect that he was wrong. 

His thoughts were distracted by another yawn from Harper. 

“Are you going to let me brush your teeth?” Bucky asked. 

“Toof?” Harper replied. She yawned once more. 

Bucky realised that Harper was too tired to fight back. 



 

Bucky emerged from the bathroom holding a now dried Harper on his back. There were more giggles, more titters, and a few quiet whispers. Derpy was on the bed and Berry Punch was with her. Lyra was sitting with Cadance in the chair in the corner. Belisama was curled up a little hammock that had been hung just for her. 

He plopped Harper on the bed and then climbed onto the bed himself. 

“Hello handsome… did everything come out okay?” Berry asked in a teasing voice. 

Wrapping a foreleg around Harper, Bucky pulled her close. “Berry, I’ve left you for somepony younger.” He kissed Harper on the cheek. “She likes warm baths, mangos, and staring at ponies while they are stuck on the toilet.” 

Berry’s lower lip protruded in a pout. “I can’t compete with that, whatsoever shall I do?” She lifted a front hoof up to her brow and flopped over, acting as though she had fainted. 

Derpy, laughing, clutched her stomach. “Hurts to laugh, stop it!” 

“Go sleep!” Harper demanded. 

“I got this,” Lyra said. She bounced out of her chair, lifted Cadance, cross the room, grabbed Harper, and then departed for the nursery. 

“If I can’t have you, nopony else will!” Berry Punch rolled over. With surprising speed, with alarming agility, she hurled herself at Bucky, bowling him over and then pinning him down. Straddling his barrel, she took his face between her front hooves. “The twins will not stop kicking. I think there is some kind of rodeo in there.” 

“Having a rough time?” Bucky asked. 

“Not really, no, but it feels strange having all of my internal organs kicked. I keep wondering if they are fighting in there or something. I have stupid thoughts about what if they hurt one another and it weirds me out.” 

Bucky stared up at the earth pony sitting on top of him. Her tail twitched, causing the curly hairs of her tail to  trail over his stomach and his thighs. It tickled. 

“I think Thistle is making a new friend,” Berry said, giving Bucky’s face a gentle squeeze between her hooves. 

“Oh?” The feeling of Berry’s hooves on his face, squeezing and rubbing, was making Bucky feel relaxed. And maybe sleepy. 

“Shining Star… Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Ripple, Bittersweet, all of them have been getting chummy with one another. And Shining Star is doing everything she can to be Thistle’s friend. It makes me happy… Thistle has been darn near housebound. She needs friends,” Berry Punch replied. 

“That is a good thing.” Bucky found himself in agreement. 

Berry’s hooves traveled away from Bucky’s face, circling around his jaw and then down along his neck. “I realised… you’ve been a very good little colt… but you haven’t been looked after this holiday. You have been looking after everypony else, but your own needs have been neglected.” 

“We can’t have that,” Derpy said. 

Lifting one hoof away from Bucky, Berry Punch reached down and booped Bucky on the snoot. “So how about we get you into the bath… and we get Derpy into the bath, because she could use a good hot soaking, and then we see what happens next…” 

“A hot soak sounds nice,” Belisama said from her hammock. She lifted her head and looked around. She yawned, her beak opening wide. 

Leaning forward, Berry continued kneading Bucky’s neck, her hooves pressing in, rubbing in little circles. She could feel Bucky holding her up and keeping her from falling, the warm tingle of magic was all around her. She felt a blood vessel throbbing against the curve of her stomach. She applied pressure and pushed in deep along the sides of Bucky’s neck. 

“Let’s get in the tub.” Derpy rolled over and began to wiggle towards the edge of the bed. 



 

Belisama floated on her back, her legs sprawled out in different directions in the water. For her the tub was large enough to swim in. The water was hot, steam rose from the surface, and every surface in the bathroom glistened with condensation. Belisama heaved a sigh. 

Berry Punch lay against the sloped edge of the tub, her withers resting in shallow water, and her lower half settled into much deeper water. Beside her, Bucky reclined in the water, also on his back. In a much deeper section, Derpy was sitting up, her body almost floating, and only her head was above the surface of the water. 

“This bathtub has to be the best thing we’ve ever bought,” Derpy said in a low whisper. She could feel cool air on her soaked mane and her exposed pelt. “And it even came with a waterfall.” 

“That’s a recirculator,” Berry said, her eyes not opening. “The water goes in the hole, gets sucked up, gets heated, and then comes back down over a heated ceramic plate.” 

“Whatever… the sound of running water is always nice. Makes me think of rain.” Derpy dunked her head down into the water and then resurfaced. 

“Thistle gave birth in here.” There was splash as Bucky scooted his body down into deeper water. 

“I plan to give birth in here,” Berry said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

“You’re not a kelpie.” Bucky lifted his head from the water and looked at Berry. 

“Violet said that water births are good for mares. Easier on the body. Easier on the foals. She plans to talk to you about it,” Berry Punch said to Bucky. 

“Oh.” There was a splash as Bucky allowed his head to fall into the water. He could feel his tail flowing out around his hind legs. 

“I think giving birth in here might be nice.” Derpy spread her wings in the water and relaxed when she felt the heat penetrating her aching wing joints. “Violet brought up some good points.” 

“Dinky is messed up by what happened. I’m worried,” Bucky said. 

“Don’t be,” Berry said as she slid into deeper water. “Dinky is sensitive. Dinky allows herself to feel stuff on a level that a lot of ponies just don’t. In time, she will sort everything out and have a good understanding of this. She’ll be okay. But in the meantime, she is going to be upset. She might cry a bit. This is just her way of internalising everything.” 

“It scared me… I won’t lie.” Belisama kicked her hind legs and propelled herself closer to Bucky. “But I’m okay with it now. I have all of you and at the end of it all, I have a cub. So I am okay with just letting everything happen.” 

“I’m still scared,” Berry Punch said. 

“I’m not. I’ve given birth before. The last time I gave birth, I had a few friends. I was looked after. Now, I have a husband. I have family. And it is much easier knowing that my husband and my family is going to be here to look after me and my foals.” 

“This has to be much scarier if you are a single mother,” Berry said. She rubbed her stomach, now underwater, with her front hooves. “Pregnancy is easier if you have somepony to share it with.” 

“Or somebirdy.” Derpy’s ear twitched, sending water droplets flying. 

“The little foals are asleep,” Lyra said as she came through the door. Her hooves clicked upon the tile floor. “The house is quieting down. Bon Bon is entertaining. Barley is reading to the middle foals in the library. And I am exhausted.” Lifting her right front leg up high, Lyra stepped over the edge of the tub and then eased her way in. 

Hissing, Lyra winced as she hit the hot water, and then let out a low moan when the hot water hit her belly. “Hot enough to make my teats sting… ooh.” She eased herself in until everything was submerged but her head. 

“These are the moments I treasure more than anything else—” 

Berry Punch was cut off by Bon Bon entering the bathroom and saying “There’s been a bit of an accident… little Piña has drank too much egg nog. She just threw up all over the floor and all over herself. Sparkler is getting the floor cleaned, she’s being really helpful for some reason… but Piña is going to need help getting herself cleaned up. She still feels queasy.” 

Sighing, Bucky lifted himself up out of the water, getting up on his hooves. “I got this.” 

“No,” Berry Punch said, rolling over in the water and struggling to get up. “Damn, I’m fat!” 

“Berry, just stay there… I got this. Magic will make this easier.” Bucky shook his head, whipping his wet mane around, trying to get it out of his eyes. 

“But this was supposed to be our chance to look after you.” Berry blinked and looked up at Bucky. 

“I could do it,” Lyra offered. 

“No, you’ve been doing stuff. And you just put the foals to bed.” Bucky waded to the edge of the tub and then stepped out. “This will be easiest for me. I’ll be back in just a little while and we can pick up where we left off.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 530 (Warning! Explicit content!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A fire crackled in the grate. The room was warm. The scent of honeysuckle and lavender candles filled the air with a heady aroma. Holiday treats were strewn along the table. The holidays, a season of giving, was a time to make sure that those you loved got what they deserved. 

Sunset Shimmer had known of two winter holidays in her life. One was Hearth’s Warming, the holiday she had known her entire life as a pony. The other was Christmas, a holiday she had known while on the other side of the mirror. Both were similar, close enough to cause eyebrows to raise, and while Christmas was pleasant enough, there was something to be said for celebrating Hearth’s Warming once again. 

Looking over at Trixie, who was laying beside her, Sunset Shimmer got a faint nod from the unicorn. It was time. Time to execute their well thought out plan. It was time to give Bartleby a holiday to remember. This had been discussed a great deal. While there had been all kinds of experimentation with the trio, there was one thing they had not tried. 

Trixie’s horn ignited and Sunset Shimmer watched with interest as Bartleby was pulled over to them, held in the soft magenta glow of Trixie’s magic. The griffon squawked in alarm, his toucan beak open. His wings flapped but to no avail. He was trapped. 

Bartleby was plopped between the two mares. It was time to reward the long suffering servant and let him know that he was appreciated. 

“Oh Bartleby… we needed you for a moment,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft silken voice, a voice that she reserved for Bartleby or Trixie. “We wanted to tell you how special you were to us. How happy we are to have you. How incomplete our lives would be without you.” 

Trixie nodded. “Trixie is most pleased with her little Bartleby.” 

Bartleby, caught off guard, fluffed out and his crest rose. “I’m flattered.” 

Raising an eyebrow, Trixie smiled a crooked showmare smile. “Oh… we intend to do far more than flatter you. Just think of a couple of F words and you might get an idea of what we have planned.” 

Sunset Shimmer leaned her head down close to Bartleby’s ear, hidden as it was under feathers. “Yes… this is the season of giving after all. Trixie and I have been practicing. All of these peppermint candy canes have given me the most wonderful idea.” 

There was a breathless gasp from Bartleby, who shivered as Sunset’s breath tickled him. He fluffed out even more when she blew into his ear, ruffling his feathers. “Thanking me is not necessary… I am glad to serve.” 

“Oh… thanking you is necessary,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “So very necessary. You are so much more than just my assistant, my friend, or my mate. You put up with not one, but two impossible mares. We spend long hours studying. I disappear for days at a time. I am always at the Master’s beck and call. And you… you my dearest Bartleby, you are always there right when I need you, usually with a tray of tea and biscuits. And that hot rock massage that you’ve been teaching yourself…” Sunset Shimmer sucked in her breath with a seductive hiss. 

Trixie moved her head closer to the other side of Bartleby’s face, so close that her lips brushed up against his feathers. “We have an odd living arrangement. You are the domestic one. You cook and you clean. You look after our every need, thinking of what we need before we even know that we need it…” 

Bartleby shivered and shook as Trixie spoke, her words blowing into his feathers like a hot wind, tickling him, and making cold quivers go running up and down his spine. 

Offering no warning, saying nothing, Sunset Shimmer pushed Bartleby over on his back. The griffon tried to get up, but Sunset pinned him down with one foreleg. “Oh look Trixie… the best part of Bartleby is being shy… think we can coax it out?” 

“The Sultry and Seductive Trixie has it within her power…” 

Sunset giggled, breaking character, and unable to follow the plan. 

“HA! The Brilliant and Hilarious Trixie has made you laugh. When next we do battle, I get to paddle YOU with the hairbrush until you cry for mercy!” 

“Oh dear,” Bartleby said in a low whisper. 

“Rules are rules… if we make ’em, we have to follow them,” Sunset said, still giggling. 

“This isn’t necessary… I am glad to serve.” Bartleby squirmed beneath Sunset’s foreleg, trying to wiggle free. Already feeling aroused, Bartleby tried to cover himself. 

“He’s so shy,” Trixie said, falling out of character for a moment. 

Realising the situation needed to be salvaged, Sunset Shimmer darted her head forward and locked lips with Trixie. It was a big open mouthed sloppy kiss, the worst sort, it was noisy, it was messy, and it dribbled drool everywhere. 

It was the sort of kiss between two mares that if a male was watching, would cause an uncontrollable reaction. There was a click when Bartleby’s beak clacked shut. The griffon’s crest began to rise as he watched the slobbery exchange. He felt something stirring as something else besides his crest thought about rising. 

The two mares kissing sounded like two wet fish being slapped together.

Knowing how important it was to put on a good show, Trixie put on a shameless display. She would never do this in public, not like some ponies might, but these were the ones she loved and she was at home, in private. All inhibitions were cast aside. 

After fighting a losing battle of tongues, Sunset Shimmer pulled away, leaving a long string of drool connecting both her and Trixie. Breathless, heaving, Sunset saw that the ridiculous sloppy kiss had the desired effect. Something reddish purple was peeking out from between Bartleby’s hind legs. It had a pointed tip. 

It was small, but that was never mentioned. Bartleby was careful, Bartleby was attentive, and Bartleby had a bone in there that allowed him to stay hard for hours. After many hours of experimentation, Bartleby knew what he was doing. 

It wasn’t the length, it wasn’t the size, it was how many times Bartleby could make it rise. 

Tonight though, it was time for something new. Something different. It was time to make Bartleby feel special. Stretching out her neck, Sunset Shimmer gave Trixie’s lip a little nibble, going in for another kiss. Trixie reciprocated, and after a moment of lip lock, slurped Sunset’s lips in, suckled upon Sunset’s lower lip for a moment, and then pulled back, giving Sunset’s lip a gentle tug. 

There was a panting groan from Bartleby who was still pinned in place. 

Pulling away from Trixie, Sunset Shimmer turned her attention upon Bartleby’s cock. After a moment of consideration, she figured it was very much like a reddish purple carrot, given that it was of a similar size and shape. Narrow at the tip, broad at the base… ponies liked carrots. Taking a deep breath, Sunset told herself this was nothing more than a carrot. 

Letting her tongue dangle out at full length, Sunset licked Bartleby’s cock, dragging her tongue along it’s short length. Bartleby whimpered, but she did not notice. She smacked her lips and wiggled her tongue around the inside of her mouth. 

“Hmmm, musky… salty,” Sunset said to herself. 

Bobbing her head down, Trixie followed Sunset’s lead, wrapping her tongue all the way around Bartleby’s base and then with slow deliberation, she dragged her tongue up towards the tip. When she was done, she slurped her long tongue into her mouth. 

“That’s not bad at all,” Trixie said, ignoring the cross eyed expression upon the griffon trapped beneath Sunset’s foreleg. 

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “If I had to had to compare it to something, I’d say it tastes like smoked white cheese.” 

Angling her head downwards, Trixie took another long lick, pressing the tip of her tongue against the now throbbing griffon meat pole. She paused near the tip and waggled her tongue around. She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, and then said, “Trixie agrees.” 

Bartleby peeped and flexed his talons together. 

Sticking out her tongue, Sunset Shimmer slid the side of her tongue along Bartleby’s length, working her way up with a sawing motion, and then working her way back down, still sawing with the side of her tongue. She felt Bartleby’s whole body tense and his tail went stiff. 

“He’s so adorable!” Trixie said, her words a seductive coo that she whispered, allowing her hot breath to blow against Bartleby’s wet prick. She stuck out her tongue and joined Sunset Shimmer, engaging in a favourite game. 

Tongue wrestling. 

Fighting for dominance, Bartleby’s dick became a battleground as the two mares struggled to lick the same places and push one another out of the way. Like so many other things, this became a juvenile contest of ego and dominance. 

With the two slashing tongues, everything became slippery. A glistening drop of moisture oozed from the tip of Bartleby’s cock, but it was licked up unnoticed in the struggle. 

For Bartleby, the only way he could describe the sensation he was feeling was to compare it to having his dick surrounded by slippery writhing eels on all sides. 

It was Trixie who escalated the contest when she took Bartleby’s entire length into her mouth as an act of denial for Sunset. Realising she had a cock in her mouth, Trixie’s eyes went wide. This was new. She applied suction, her cheeks sinking in against her teeth, and she undulated her tongue against the griffon’s shaft. 

Reaching up, Bartleby grabbed his own beak and gave it a squeeze, not knowing what else to grab. A long low nasal sound came from the griffon, now lost in pre-orgasmic throes. 

Trixie pulled away with a pop, sliding her tight lips along the full length as she pulled away. She licked her lips. “It tastes saltier now. Kinda like when Trixie kisses away your tears.” 

Saying nothing in reply, Sunset Shimmer gave it a go. Mindful of her teeth, she took in all of Bartleby. She rubbed her tongue up and down against him and made her lips vibrate. She knew she was doing something right because Bartleby’s hips were bucking up and down as he tried to get release. 

The first time, Bartleby never lasted too long, but afterwards, after the pump was primed so to speak, Bartleby was a goer. 

Trixie watched as Bartleby struggled to hump Sunset Shimmer’s muzzle. She felt a rush of wetness in her nethers. This part of the plan was never discussed, who finished Bartleby. As Trixie watched, Bartleby let out a shrill cry and then Sunset Shimmer’s eyes went wide with surprise. Sunset choked for a moment, almost a close mouthed cough, and then she pulled away from Bartleby. 

Closing her eyes, Trixie felt Sunset’s lips press against hers and the pair shared a salty, somewhat bitter kiss. Trixie realised that Sunset was sharing Bartleby’s spunk with her. After swallowing, Trixie licked the saltiness off of Sunset’s lips and then licked her own. 

Panting, his small body heaving, Bartleby lay there, trying to catch his breath. 

“That was sexy… I feel like a mare… I think I liked that,” Sunset said as she lifted her foreleg off of Bartleby. She took a deep breath and let it out a little at a time, her whole body trembling. “I have never been so turned on in my whole life as I am right now.” 

“Hrm, Trixie is getting the hairbrush… a naughty mare needs to be paddled until she begs for mercy.” 

Closing her eyes, Sunset Shimmer thought about the sweet sting of a good swat, the heat that formed in the skin, and the way a good spank on the plot made everything vibrate and rub together back there. She felt herself clench and then there was an embarrassing sounding squelching sound as she heard herself winking. 

“I have an idea… you get the hairbrush… and I’ll go to work on Bartleby again,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“Hmm, perhaps, but Trixie also wants to try. Trixie demands that our toys be shared and you’ve already had a turn!” 

With an alarmed squawk, Bartleby realised it was going to be a long night. 
	
> Chapter 531
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky moved through the house, he appreciated that it was full of life. It was mid-morning. The sun was shining just enough that light could be seen in the windows. The endless blizzard had blown over and now there was a moment of rest, a moment to prepare for when the storm continued. He heard laughter. It was difficult being an introvert in a house so full of family and guests, but the guests made other ponies happy and that in turn made Bucky happy. 

While there was a break in the weather, Bucky planned to get everypony home. It was time to get everything together and go while the getting was good. The trip, though not long, would take a long time. 

He came into the living room and looked around. He was in a wonderful mood. 

“Hey Bucky, Brass Note had a really good idea about the trains and I now I am wondering if it is possible, and if it is, why hasn’t somepony implemented it?” 

Galaxy Guide was sitting on the floor with the foals and all of them were watching the train as it went around the figure eight track. Bucky watched the train too. Round and round it went, never stopping, and endless loop that never ended. 

“What is the idea?” Bucky asked Galaxy Guide.

“Why don’t we use more magic for trains? Like come to life spells. More enchantments. Just make the trains run on magic,” Galaxy Guide said. 

One of Bucky’s eyebrows raised. “It isn’t practical.” 

“It isn’t?” Sentinel looked up at his father. 

Bucky realised that everypony in the room was looking at him. 

“But there is all kinds of magic on airships and we use those,” Galaxy Guide said. 

Looking down at the train, Bucky gave careful thought to how to explain all of this. “Airships stay in the air. Not many can reach them. This keeps them safe. Well, relatively speaking. They can be sabotaged. A train on the other hoof, it stays on the ground. If someone went through the trouble of making a heavily enchanted train, a saboteur could come along and tamper with the enchantments. A powerful enough dispel magic spell could wipe away all of the enchantments, either intentional or accidental. Equestria has enemies and if they wanted to cripple us, they would strike our trains. Which they already have done by the way. In the outlands we have issues with the tracks being torn up.” 

Galaxy Guide, blinking, began to nod his head. “That makes sense. An airship is harder to reach but the same thing is still possible I suppose.” 

“The Scorned Mare is a marvel of arcano-tech. She is fast, deadly, a capable warship even though she is small. She’ll do fine in a scrap against most anything… but if we were fighting an army of unicorns in a sky battle, it becomes a race to see who can undo the other’s many enchantments.” As Bucky spoke, he thought about his armor, his brilliant armor. It had protected him from so much but had failed him when it mattered. It was useless against unicorns. It had almost cost him his life. 

“What about your golems?” Piña asked. 

“The golems I prepare for war have powerful defenses against unicorns,” Bucky replied. He looked at Piña, his face serious, his ears perked forward. “I can’t tell you much about it, sorry, but I can tell you that if a unicorn tampers with my anti-gunpowder golems, the backlash will scramble their brains.” 

“Can we do that to the trains?” Galaxy Guide asked, his eyes narrowed from his thoughtful expression. 

“Golems prepared for war are different than trains used in peacetime.” Bucky did not mention that he wanted to place brain scrambling defenses on everything but Celestia had forbid it, telling both Luna and Bucky that such a thing was not allowed. 

“So this is why it is difficult to use magic to help the world? Others will wreck our hard work?” Dinky asked, her muzzle crinkling as she formed the unpleasant thought into words. 

“Yes, more or less.” Bucky nodded. 

“Back in the early winter somepony went through and burnt out most of the arcano-tech in Ponyville hospital… I can’t imagine how much that cost,” Shining Star said. She looked at Bucky. “I hope they catch him. The papers said nothing about finding a suspect or arrest. It is a real shame when somepony like that just gets away.” 

Bucky knew how much it cost and also knew that the pony responsible had been apprehended. He looked at Rising Star’s mother but said nothing. Bucky and Twilight had dealt with the troublemaker and the trouble maker had been vanished, relocated to prison facility, and would never be heard from ever again. 

“Even with bad ponies and other bad guys, the world is still worth helping.” Dinky’s face was darkened and she stared down at the train upon the floor. 

It was evident to Bucky that Dinky was having deep thoughts but he could not help her face them at the moment. He looked around the room. “Everypony get ready. I’m taking you all home. We leave within the hour if possible. Say your goodbyes and gather up your stuff.” 



 

Ripple watched as Bittersweet cuddled a bit closer to Rising Star. Something was different between the two of them, but Ripple could not put her hoof on what it was. She was happy about it though. She paced about their room, her hooves kicking empty bottles. 

“Never again… oh never again,” Loch Skimmer said in a low whimpering whisper. 

Looking at her sister, Ripple felt pity for a moment. Loch Skimmer had imbibed a bit too much holiday cheer in the form of hard cider and then a few glasses of grog nog. Loch Skimmer lay on the bed, rolling around and clutching her head. 

Sparkler, also in the bed, was sound asleep, one leg twitching somewhat. 

Hearing a snort, Ripple knew that Rising Star had fallen asleep. They had been up late, all of them, having a nice time with the adults. For the rest of her herd, it seemed as though a mid-morning nap was in order. For Ripple, she had too much on her mind. 

Bittersweet’s ears drooped, going limp, and Ripple knew that Bittersweet was lost to slumber. Loch Skimmer was still rolling around. For a moment, Ripple hated the holiday, hated how much time had been lost. There was much to do and what felt like so little time to do it in. 

Casting a final glance at her sister, Ripple departed, off to find her little brother. 



 

“Sentinel? I really need your help. Now that company is gone maybe we can get some work done,” Ripple said as she approached. She looked around the living room. Sentinel was sketching something, but Ripple did not see what it was. Harper and Peekaboo were playing with Yew Wood. Dinky was on the sofa with Piña, trying to help her sister feel better. 

“What do you need?” Sentinel asked. 

“You. Your brains. Your ability to think,” Ripple replied. She watched as Sentinel closed his sketchbook and then stowed his charcoal pencil away in a small wooden box that rattled when Sentinel picked it up. Ripple crossed the room, her hooves making almost no sound on the wooden floorboards, and then jumped up onto the couch with Sentinel. “Please? This is Raptor business, so this concerns you.” 

Sentinel turned to face Ripple, his face solemn. 

Unable to keep her wings still, Ripple thought about what to say but was too agitated to focus her mind. “The winter games are coming. The Raptors are participating. We’re going to get stomped. Sentinel, we need a plan. I asked father for help, he sent me away and said that there would be no help to be found with him.” Ripple sighed. “I’m a little peeved with father right now.” 

Adjusting his glasses, Sentinel cocked his head. “Father expects you to learn. If he solves all of your problems, you learn nothing.” 

“I know… I get it… doesn’t stop me from feeling peeved. This affects him too… we’re going to get crushed.” Ripple’s ears drooped and she leaned over on Sentinel.

“Any ideas at all?” Sentinel asked. 

“None!” Ripple replied. “None at all! Luna is fielding Myrmidons. It’s not enough that she has lunar pegasi, no… she has to field Myrmidons. Well, she might. Even if she doesn’t, I don’t see how we have a chance. The Raptors are hit and run specialists. We hobble, we cripple… we took out the wyvern well enough. The rules of the fight favour the lunar pegasi though. We can’t cripple them or do any sort of serious harm. The goal is to subdue. There is no way the Raptors can subdue the lunar pegasi… no offense Sentinel,  but it just isn’t fair how tough and strong your kind are.” 

Sentinel, agreeing with everything Ripple had said, nodded. 

“Even if I took the field, I don’t think I could take a lunar pegasus out. I can thump Lugus pretty good now, but I still can’t take him out. Lugus still thrashes me soundly if I get cocky. So I have no idea how to do this.” Ripple shook her head. “Maybe it would be better if we withdraw.” 

“And show that the Raptors are too weak to take on a real credible threat?” Sentinel asked. “It is one thing to take out a wyvern. It is a different matter to engage an enemy army. We have to prove the worthiness of the Raptors.” 

“But how?” Ripple felt the sting of tears building up in the corners of her eyes and her face felt hot. “I hate losing. I hate it so much. It isn’t so bad if it is a fair fight, but this isn’t a fair fight. This is just Luna toying with all of us. She knows full well that her Myrmidons are going to sweep the field and destroy all opposition.” 

“We lunar pegasi are not immortal nor invulnerable. We can be beaten down,” Sentinel said in a low voice. 

“It isn’t fair… I have a cutie mark that shows the world I have a talent for fighting… I was made for war. I’ve proven myself against other pegasi and shown that I have what it takes. But if I was to get in a scuffle with you, I know that you’d take me out Sentinel. I’ve seen you fight. And you don’t even train… that’s the worst part.” Turning her head, Ripple looked away from her brother and stared out the window. 

“I hate fighting. I don’t like violence. I don’t want to hurt anypony. I don’t enjoy fighting like you do. I’m sorry Ripple, I can’t help how things are.” Stretching out a wing, Sentinel wrapped it around his big sister and fell silent. 

“Maybe Belisama might help you… Bucky was right to send you away, but that doesn’t stop you from seeking help elsewhere. Ask Belisama… and talk to Lugus. Lugus isn’t getting involved in the fighting, Bucky asked him to sit this one out, but Lugus might still help you,” Yew Wood said to Ripple and Sentinel. 

“The lunar pegasi are unstoppable juggernauts… I don’t know what I was thinking when I got myself into this.” Ripple shook her head and then blew her mane out of her eyes through puckered upwards lips. 

“You’re in a pickle,” Dinky said. 

“I wonder where Belisama is… there is no harm in talking to her. Maybe she can figure something out.” Ripple slipped off of the couch and took to her hooves. 

“Last I saw her, she was in the kitchen, getting what little bit of sun there is,” Yew replied. 



 

Ripple and Sentinel found Belisama curled up in the bay window. Ripple pranced in place for a moment, hesitant to wake the griffoness, but this was important. She glanced at Sentinel, saw him nod, and then she screwed her courage to the sticking place. 

“Sama mama, we need your help,” Ripple said, reaching out and prodding Belisama with her hoof. She heard a peep, a grunt, and then saw the griffoness’ beak open in a yawn. 

Lifting her head, Belisama opened her eyes, blinked a few times, rotated her head around back and forth to get the cricks out of her neck, and then looked at Ripple. 

“Belisama, we need your help with the Raptors—” 

“Finally, you came to me… I’ve been wondering,” Belisama said. She stretched out her wings, rolled over, arched her spine, and one eye went wide while the other eye narrowed as her spine crackled. 

“You’ve been waiting?” Ripple asked. 

Belisama’s crest rose. “I am the queen of the griffons. Do you think I want my griffons to look bad? Do you think I want them to fail?” 

“Well, no,” Ripple replied, feeling very confused all of a sudden. “Do you have any ideas?” 

“Our Raptors never started out as warriors.. with the exception of Loki, the horrible little scamp that he is… Loki is a fearsome fighter.” Belisama scratched her belly using one of her hind paws. 

“Loki is a deranged psychopath,” Ripple said. 

“Loki was tortured and a lot of bad things happened to him. He was used for pit fighting. And that’s my point. Think about the rest of the Raptors. Cup bearers. Fletchers. Metal workers. What other skills do they have?” Belisama looked at Ripple and her crest rose. 

“We have servants, slaves that took up arms,” Ripple replied, not mincing words. 

“Some of them are artisans.” Belisama reached up with a hind leg, strained to get around her protruding pudge, and tried to scratch between her wings with her hind toes.

“I don’t see how art will save us from Celestia and Luna’s crack troops.” Ripple snorted in frustration and stomped her hoof. 

“Sit down with me… scratch my back… and I will share my plan with you,” Belisama said as she looked up at Ripple. “Come. We need mother-daughter-son bonding time.” 

Ripple stood there, unmoving. “I don’t see how art is going to help us win.” 

“Ripple, you must use the strengths of our Raptors. All of them. What they are capable of might surprise you,” Belisama said as she made a gesture for Ripple and Sentinel to sit down with her, patting the cushion beside her.

Sentinel sat down in the window beside Belisama. “Well, I’m curious.” 

Her lip protruding in a pout, Ripple climbed up into the windowsill and got comfortable. 
	
	
> Chapter 532
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The snow is starting to pick up again… I’m worried. Do you think he’s still in Ponyville or do you think he’s heading home?” Bon Bon asked Lyra as they both stared out the window living room window together. 

Lyra shrugged and could not figure out why Bon Bon was worried. “You know Bonnie, if Bucky wanted to, he could teleport himself, the sleigh, and his golems home. He’d need lots of food and some rest afterwards, but he’d be fine.” 

“And fresh milk.” Bon Bon’s voice was low and her words were meant to only be heard by Lyra. “Not that I mind.” 

On the floor, sleeping on a thick quilt, Cadance’s wings fluttered for a moment. The foal gurgled, kicked a leg, and then grunted, but did not wake up. One ear twitched and then, still sleeping, Cadance muttered, “Shiny.” 

“I wonder where Harper is,” Lyra said, saying something because there was nothing better to do. There was no shop to run, no business to look after, no books to balance, there was nothing to do but be lazy. Lyra yawned. 

“Yew and Lugus have her. They took her upstairs with them,” Barley replied from his chair. The old stallion stretched out one hind leg, the joints crackling, and he whimpered, a wordless sound of pain. After taking a moment to collect himself, Barley looked over at the two mares. “Sentinel is in his hidey hole. Probably needs some alone time after all off this hullabaloo. That and his sweetheart is gone. Dinky and Piña went upstairs to practice magic. Thistle took my sweet little kelpie foal away from me and she headed off to the big bathtub ye have back there. I dinnae have any idea what the rest of the house is doing.” 

“The house is quiet. Too quiet.” Bon Bon wasn’t sure she liked how quiet the house was. “What are our big foals doing? You know, the ones that think they’re all grown up but are really just big babies…” 

“Cleaning, methinks,” Barley replied. 

“I made the mistake of going into their room about a week ago,” Lyra said. Her lip curled back in revulsion at the memory. “You walk in that room and it stinks like somepony has been screwing in there.” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon turned her head and looked at the unicorn beside her. 

“You could probably use those sheets as armor plating on an airship.” Barley closed his eyes and stretched out his other hind leg. There was a loud -pop!- and a grinding sound. 

“Yeeeugh! Barley!” Bon Bon, shuddering, shook her head. 

“Ah… to be young again… to be carefree an full of life… to be so in love that you don’t mind sleeping in the wet spot—” 

“Ugh, Barley, really,” Bon Bon said in protest. 

“—and old age hasn’t had its way with you cause when you are old, you look at the wet spot and think to yourself, ‘self, that wet spot is going to be damp and chilly.’ And this is what the both of you have to look forward to when ye pretty mares get old like me.” 

“Barley, I just don’t know what to say.” Lyra looked into the fire, watched the logs burning for a moment, and then looked at Barley. “So I am guessing that Luna sleeps in the wet spot?” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon, reaching her limits, scowled to let Lyra know this had gone too far. 

“No ye empty headed numpty! We change the sheets. Well, usually Luna changes the sheets. Ye dinnae ask a bloody princess to sleep in the wet spot ye big daft booger brain!” Opening his eyes, Barley looked at Lyra as he scolded her in a teasing way. 

“I give up. This whole family seems to have an allergy with decorum, good taste, and sensibility,” Bon Bon said, her ears drooping down in defeat. “When Cadance grows up and becomes the princess she was meant to be, she’ll be running around the Crystal Empire singing frog song, blowing butt trumpets, and saying the sorts of things that make the high society ponies faint.” 

“And what’s wrong with that?” Barley asked as one eyebrow raised. 

“The way I see things…” Lyra allowed herself a dramatic pause and she saw Bon Bon roll her eyes. “We’re doing Cadance a favour. At least for the rest of her impossibly long life, she’ll be interesting and a lot of fun.” 



 

Stretching out her tail, Thistle had enough room to get comfortable in the big tub. The deepest part of the tub allowed her to float and give her aching body a rest. In the water with her, Bell Heather swam, now free of her diaper and four legs. On land, she was helpless, but in the water, she was free to move unhindered. 

Left alone in the quiet, Thistle thought about everything that had happened. The long pregnancy that seemed to stretch on forever. The birth. And the past few days. Thistle thought of Bucky and how he had been there for her. She thought about how attentive he was as a father. Her worries about Bucky mistreating Bell because she was not his own, they now seemed silly or maybe even insulting to Bucky. The birth seemed blurry, a jumbled recollection of thoughts. Thistle was having a hard time remembering it all. 

Thistle, so distracted by her thoughts, did not feel two little lips latch on to a teat and begin to suckle. 

Unable to help herself, Thistle began to think of having her next foal. She had a responsibility to keep going. Unknown to herself, Thistle’s lips curled into a scowl. She did not want to go through another year of pregnancy. Another year of miserable suffering. Just thinking about it made Thistle want to cry. She wanted to be out and about with other ponies. She wanted to run on four legs. She wanted to play. She wanted to go to the spa with Shining Star, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Bittersweet, and Ripple. She wanted to see a play. She wanted to explore Ponyville, see Canterlot, and do exciting things. 

Torn between her sense of duty to her species and her need to have a bit of fun, Thistle did not know what to do. 



 

The library was warm, cozy, and rather noisy. Bucky, still being squeezed by Glass Slipper, craned his head upwards to look at Flash Sentry, who was smiling a tired looking smile. 

“It’s nice to see you Bucky, I’m glad you could stop by,” Flash said. 

“You look a little rough, what’s going on?” Bucky asked as he stood up and lifted Glass Slipper up on to his back so she could keep squeezing him. 

“The holidays. The weather… we have organised teams of volunteers out and about to make sure that nopony wanders off into the snow and gets lost. Before Hearth’s Warming, I got cornered by Granny Smith in Sugarcube Corner… she told me how this was going to be the worst winter in a hundred years of her being living alive, she could feel it in her hips… and she told me about how it used to be… ponies would wander off into the snow trying to get somewhere and then come spring, they’d find bodies. Granny Smith blames the winter wandering for why there are so many orphans running around.” Flash Sentry blinked. “I’m sorry… I’m so tired… I’m blathering on without thinking.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Bucky replied. “Where is Twilight?” 

“She stepped out to check on a few ponies that might need checking on. Spike went with her. He insists on making himself useful and clearing the snow away with his fire breath,” Flash Sentry replied. 

“Did you see Tourmaline?” asked Glass Slipper. 

Bucky shook his head. “No, I did not get a chance to see Tourmaline over the holiday.” 

“How’s Dinky and Piña?” Glass Slipper scooted herself along Bucky’s spine and then wrapped all four legs around his neck. “And Sentinel?” 

“They’re all fine,” Bucky replied. “Where is Scootaloo?” 

“Being bratty.” After speaking, Glass Slipper blew a raspberry at the stairs. 

“Being bratty?” Bucky raised an eyebrow and looked at Flash. 

“Scoots is in a bit of a snit. She wanted to go to see Applebloom and visit Sweet Apple Acres. We told her that there was no way she was going there by herself. So she is currently sulking in her room and hating us all for being so unfair.” Flash Sentry rolled his eyes as he turned to look at the stairs. “I really love her, but I don’t know how to deal with her at times.” 

“Bucky!” Rainbow Dash lept down the last few steps and landed with a clatter of hooves. 

Rainbow Dash was strutting as she moved, but Bucky noticed that there was something different, something had changed. It wasn’t her usual boastful swagger. Rainbow seemed more radiant somehow. Her strut and swagger had changed. Or perhaps Rainbow had changed. 

“Am I showing? Can you see a difference? Look at me Bucky, I’m going to be a mom,” Rainbow Dash said, turning herself sideways so she could be seen in profile. 

Beside him, Bucky heard a wicker from Flash Sentry. He wasn’t sure if Rainbow was showing. She seemed a little fuller, maybe not so slim and slender. He watched her inhale and then push her stomach out. Unable to disappoint the strutting mare, Bucky nodded and looked at Flash Sentry. “There is something about the sight of a pregnant mare…” 

“I know,” Flash replied as he struggled to rearrange his wings and keep his feathers in order. 

“Pinkie Pie is showing. But she’s always been a little pudgy. It’s not fair. She also cheats by eating ten pounds of fudge every day. The fudge gives her a pudge and then she can’t budge.” Rainbow, after approaching Bucky, stretched out her neck and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. 

This wasn’t like Rainbow at all. Bucky looked at her in stunned surprise. The Rainbow he knew hated ‘mushy stuff’ with a passion. Bucky realised that Rainbow Dash felt like a complete stranger to him and he didn’t know how to feel. She had changed. 

“I’m going to go cheer up Scootaloo. She’s had her chance to pout and now it is time for her to get over it,” Rainbow said as she took off and headed back up the stairs. 

When she was gone, Bucky turned to look at Flash Sentry, and found that Flash was looking at him. Bucky blinked and his ears perked forward. 

“It is like being married to a different mare with the same body,” Flash Sentry said as he shook his head. 

“I don’t understand what is going on,” Glass Slipper said in a soft confused voice. 

Flash Sentry turned to look at the crystal pony foal he called his own. “It’s nothing Slippy…” 



 

Seeing a tall figure hunched over a collection of snow ponies, Bucky willed his spider golems to a stop. He hopped out of the sleigh and landed in the snow with a soft crunch. He pushed his way forwards, through the deep snow, and then came to a place where other ponies had walked, packing some of the snow down. 

“Discord!” 

The tall figure turned. Bucky saw that he was wearing a silly looking hat and a very long striped scarf. Beside him, a smaller figure stood. She was also wearing a silly looking knitted hat and was wrapped up in a long scarf. 

“Buckminster… I do declare, I have you to thank for all of this chaos!” Discord said when he saw Bucky. “The nicest holiday gift ever!” 

“Hi Bucky,” Fluttershy said as she stepped forward. 

Bucky sucked in his breath when he saw her. He heard her make a soft -meep- and he started to apologise. “I’m—” 

“Don’t bother. It startles a lot of ponies. It’s okay. You’re the last pony that would ever make fun of how another pony looks because of how you are and how you look,” Fluttershy said in a soft voice that was difficult to hear. 

Trying to look without looking like he was looking, trying to see without staring, Bucky pressed his lips together as he had himself a good look at Fluttershy. Her eyes were now yellow and red, very much like Discord’s. One front leg had changed, becoming sloth-like. Both Fluttershy and Disord were round in their middles. 

“You’ve never been more beautiful,” Bucky said. 

“Why thank you,” Discord replied, grinning a manic rictus of glee. 

Fluttershy glanced up at Discord, the corners of her mouth twitching as she struggled to hold back a smile. “Thank you Bucky… I know you wouldn’t lie to me. Berry Punch tells me how much you love her and all of your wives and your… um… well… your little fetish.” 

Discord gasped. “Egads, Buckminster, were you flirting with me?” The draconequus clutched his rounded stomach and drew himself up to his full height. “Sir, I will not be content until you have flirted with both of us. We are a pair!” 

Fluttershy began to giggle, unable to hold it back any longer. 

“Notice any other changes?” Bucky asked. 

Nodding, Fluttershy became far more animated. “Oh I can understand the animals so much better now. I can feel the world around me… the plants, the animals, everything, and I can’t really explain it, but I can know if there is something wrong, or if something isn’t right. It has made me a much better caretaker.” 

“I have noticed all manner of insufferable changes. Because I have this dreadful cutie mark, I have this uncontrollable need to be kind to all living things. I have a need to make friends. This is awful. Still no sign of a cure… Celestia and Luna tell me they have their best ponies looking into it and they are hopeful that a cure will be found,” Discord said. He reached down and rubbed the three pink butterflies on his hip. 

Bucky nodded. He had seen the memo and he held it in fond memory. It forbade him from offering any sort of magical research assistance towards fixing Fluttershy and Discord’s little problem. He knew that Twilight had received a similar memo. Celestia was very insistent that this was a problem that was not to be fixed under any circumstances, upon the pain of torture, banishment, and any other horrible thing that Luna might think of. 

Luna could think of a lot of horrible things. 

“I don’t want this fixed… I like what I am becoming, whatever it is. And Discord is much more lovable.” Fluttershy looked up at Discord for a moment and then looked at Bucky. “I don’t mind the changes. They scare me a bit, and I have some worry about how ponies see me. I know I scare some of them now. I don’t know if I am becoming Discord or if Discord is becoming me. The change has brought us together.”

“Was it worth it, Discord?” Bucky asked. 

“Was what worth it?” Discord replied. 

Bucky tilted his head back and looked upwards, trying to look Discord in the eye. “Killing Tirek. Doing the right thing. Falling in love. Allowing somepony to fall in love with you. Everything leading up to this moment.” 

Raising his talons, Discord began to rub his chin as he stared off into the distance, looking thoughtful. His tail coiled around one of Fluttershy’s legs. 

“We do things for those we love that we’d never do for ourselves,” Bucky said. He looked around and listened to the sounds of ponies playing in the snow. 

“One day I am Discord, the Spirit of Chaos. I’m a little muddled, and maybe a bit confused by recent experiences, but I am still Discord, the Spirit of Chaos.” Discord turned and looked down at Fluttershy. Reaching out his lion paw, he stroked her back. “And then one day, on a day I’m not sure who I am anymore, I realise that Tirek had just obliterated Manehatten and was heading for Canterlot and Ponyville. I couldn’t enjoy the chaos. I don’t know who I was that day. I think about it a lot. I almost died Buckminster. Death. Immortals can die you know. It is rare, but it happens. Look at Tirek. He was thousands of years old. And he would have gone on living but he threatened to destroy everything I’ve come to love. So I had to kill a fellow immortal. I had to kill the unkillable. Murder that which cannot die.” 

Bucky nodded. 

“You’ve done it… you’ve killed something on the cusp of godhood… on the threshold of immortality. This isn’t your average killing Buckminster. This is something with a very long lifespan and then it ends for them. You’re not an immortal Buckminster, and I know you have no desire to be, but the death of a fellow immortal tends to make one think,” Discord said. 

“About your own mortality?” Bucky asked. 

“No…” Discord shook his head. 

“No?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, maybe… I do not know.” Discord shrugged and looked down at Fluttershy, all traces of his smile and good cheer now gone. “I would rather spend a thousand years in stone than one day without her. Immortality gets lonesome. I think sometimes of how Celestia suffered and I feel pity for her. There is something wrong with me Buckminster… I feel pity for others now and it makes me want to cry for them… I don’t like it!” 

Reaching out, Fluttershy patted the draconequus beside her. “Discord, hush…” 
	
	
> Chapter 533
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Beneath the runners of the sleigh, the snow and ice crackled. Bucky, lost in his thoughts, was not paying attention to much of anything around him. Deep in his own introspection, he failed to notice that it was snowing once more and the skies had begun to fill with clouds. 

He thought of time in Ponyville. Seeing Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash. Seeing Discord and Fluttershy. Getting a chance to stop and say hello to Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, Flitter, along with their foals Rumble and Cloudstreaker. 

Friends. Bucky had friends now. He thought of how he was; it seemed like a lifetime ago, when he gave himself over to solitude. He thought of other friends, friends he had not seen in quite some time. Keg Smasher. Deadspin, Sour Mash, and Bunny. Zebra Finch. 

After thinking of them, Bucky discovered that he missed them a great deal. There had only been official correspondence between him and Keg Smasher. It pained Bucky to realise that he missed them, that he wanted to see them, and perhaps, wanted to hug them. 

“You cannot save them…” 

The unwelcome visitor. Bucky closed his eyes for a moment and tried to push the voice out of his head. It was too much like his own voice. There was a physical pain just behind his horn, a pressure. Bucky’s ears began to ring. 

“You cannot save them…”

Biting down upon his lip hard enough to draw blood, Bucky attempted to wake himself, worried that this was a dream. He shook his head, the pressure behind his horn becoming ever more painful. “Yes I can… I can save them…” 

“Why do you allow this weakness?” 

Bucky realised that he was arguing with a voice in his head. He knew how bad that was, but it did nothing to stop him. “It isn’t a weakness… they are my strength… now go away!” 

“You cannot save them from death… not in your weak and worthless state… but you could… you could save them… you could keep your friends and those you love safe… forever.” 

A cold chill lanced through Bucky’s heart. He did not know how to respond, what to say, how to make the voice stop and go away. 

“Even now, you are considering my words… I can see in the back of your mind, the dark and shadow places where you don’t like to look. I know what you fear...” 

“Get OUT!” Growling through gritted teeth, Bucky clenched his talons into a fist. He uppercutted himself, sending him flying out of the wagon bench and sprawling into the back of the wagon, where he saw stars swirling overhead. 

“Being alone... ” 

Lifting his head, Bucky slammed it down into the floor of the wagon with a loud -thud!- and then did it once more. Bucky knew all to well that he could save them. He thought of Clover, trapped in her crystal. She still loved Sombra. She had forgiven him for what he had done. 

For one very dark moment, Bucky wondered if his family would forgive him. 

“You do not have to be alone… you could save the ones you love. Remove them forever from harm’s way...”

Unwanted thoughts flooded Bucky’s mind. He knew what Sombra’s mistake had been. He knew why the spell had failed. He knew why Clover had gone mad. Bucky had already figured out all of those mistakes. It would be so easy to save those he loved from pain. From death. Sombra had trapped many ponies in crystal, where they remained trapped in torment. 

Bucky knew that he could get it right. 

But that would be taking their choices away from them. Grabbing a heating stone in his talons, Bucky smashed it into his own skull hard enough to cause the colour to leave his vision. The world around him turned a bleak shade of grey. 

“I’ll kill myself before I give into you…” Bucky said to himself. 

“You cannot save them...” 

“Yes I can!” Bucky hefted the stone in his talons and thought about crashing it into his own temple. It might be enough to knock him unconscious and make this torture stop. 

Or it might not. 

“Who will save them from you? You cannot stop what has already begun to happen!” 

Just as Bucky was about to smash the stone into his head one more time, the pressure behind his horn ceased. The ringing in his ears stopped. His talon fingers relaxed and the stone fell from his grasp. 

Very much against his will, Bucky began to cackle. 



 

For a moment, Bucky stopped and stood in the snow, wondering how he could face them. He was bloodied, messed up, and out of sorts. Ahead of him was the front door to the farmhouse. Beyond the door there was warmth. Life. Happiness. Behind him had been the journey home, which Bucky wanted to forget all about. 

Burning shame overcame Bucky. His own thoughts had betrayed him. He had thought about something he wished that he had never thought about. His head dropped and he stared down at the snow. A bright red droplet of scarlet dripped down, staining the snow, but Bucky was so lost in thought that he did not think about the fact that he was still bleeding. He lifted his head and looked at the farmhouse. 

A fearful feeling of hate crept through Bucky. A farmhouse. A farmhouse. He deserved far better. Loathing boiled through his brain. A palace… a fortress… something more suitable for the rightful Emperor of the Crystal Empire. A farmhouse was an insult. 

With a pained cry, Bucky realised what he was thinking; what he was feeling. He wondered if these were his own thoughts or those of Sombra’s shadow that was intruding into his mind. He fell over into the snow, laying on his side, feeling a strange ache in his heart. 

He couldn’t face them. Not after allowing himself to think such dark thoughts. He didn’t deserve them. He had already betrayed them with a thought. Deeds, actions, those things didn’t matter, it was thoughts, it was the mind that spurred the body into movement, it was thinking and planning that made action possible. 

And Bucky had already betrayed them with a thought. Tears froze on his cheeks. 

“There he is… get him… what a sorry state he’s fallen into.” 

Bucky’s muscles tensed as he tried to will his body into action. His horn flared with piercing light which turned into black fire. All around him, he heard cackling, he heard mocking laughter. Something was in the snow with him. 

“Look out Scorch, he’s feisty.” 

“Yeah yeah, I know… Bucky, stay down… let us help you.” 

Bucky rose to his hooves. Something awful was attacking him, using the voices of his friends. In the corners of his vision, he saw swirling dancing shadows, but when he turned to look at them, they were gone. There were two figures in front of him. One tall, one small. They were real and did not warp away when he went to look at them. 

“Scorch, look out… those damnable little imps have a hold of his mind.” 

More trickery. Bucky shook his head as the larger figure approached. “Stay back… I’m warning you… just… stay away from me. Leave me alone… I will be your ruin!” 

All around him, Bucky heard mocking laughter. The stench of brimstone was in the air, a sulfurous stench that burned his nostrils. All of this was a trick. Around him, he saw flames. He felt heat, wonderful life giving heat. Heat gave strength. For reasons Bucky could not explain, he needed warmth, it nourished some need hidden deep within Bucky. He could still see little figures dancing around in the corner of his vision. 

“Bucky, I am sorry… Sunset, hit him with everything you have!” 

His own apprentice… what treachery was this? Bucky had not seen her. His reflexes kicked in and he began to summon his defenses, but there was something wrong. His mind seemed sluggish, his thoughts became soupy. His knees buckled. 

Bucky pushed back against the fog encroaching upon his mind. This was all trickery, deceit, he could no longer tell what was real anymore. The dancing figures were no longer in the corners of his vision, but in his face, mocking him, making faces, making obscene gestures. 

“Cadance, if you love your daddy, you need to make him feel it!” 

There was a flash of pink light. The dancing mocking figures exploded into wisps of shadow, screeching as they vanished. All pain fled Bucky’s body. He felt himself going limp and his consciousness retreated. 

As Bucky slipped away, the shame burned away from him as one final focused thought blazed within his mind. He might have thought about it, but he would never act upon it. With a grunt, he felt into the snow and knew no more. 



 

Drawing a deep shuddering breath, Lyra looked at Bucky, who was laying in the bed, and then looked at Scorch and Odin. Scorch was in equine form now. Both Odin and Scorch looked agitated, out of sorts, and afraid. 

Lyra drew another deep shuddering breath. “So what just happened?” 

A deep scowl settled over Scorch’s face and he looked at Odin. “Sombra’s fell shadow waited until your husband was alone and then messed with his mind. Odin was able to sense it, he still has a connection to his eye. So Odin knew that Bucky was in trouble. In his weakened state, a group of free roaming imps decided to feed on him.” 

“Is he safe now?” Derpy asked. 

“Safe enough. He has all of you,” Odin replied. 

“I feel sick,” Lyra said. She took a few hesitant steps to the bed and lay down, her legs dangling over the side of the mattress. “I was so scared that it would end badly.” 

“I suppose it is nerve wracking to ambush a unicorn like Bucky,” Scorch said as he shrugged his shoulders. He looked at Odin. “I think we had it under control.” 

“He’s bleeding. Somepony should clean up him and look after him.” Odin hopped up on the bed, gave Lyra an affectionate reassuring pat, and then looked at Bucky. “He shouldn’t be left alone. Coincidence and circumstances worked against us. Sombra preyed upon him while he was alone and then the imps took advantage of Bucky while he was in a weakened state.” 

“I still have the magic inhibitor that Luna gave me.” Sunset Shimmer began to feel awkward when she realised she was being stared at by several piercing eyes. “You know… for emergencies. Like this one.” 

Scorch shook his head. “I don’t think it will be necessary.” 

“We should contact Luna.” Lyra lifted her head and looked over at Bucky, hoping he was okay. Derpy was beside him, examining his face with her bad eye held shut. 

“Already did that,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“So we don’t leave him alone… not even for a minute. We watch over him and make him feel good.” Using her wing tip, Derpy daubed at a gash on the side of Bucky’s head. “This looks bad. It’s swelling.” 

Odin, still sitting on the bed, looked at Lyra’s cutie mark for a moment and then began to rub the side of his neck. He glanced over at Belisama and then looked back at Lyra. Reaching up, he smoothed back his crest and looked back at Belisama. “You there… tiny warrior… I have a job for you.” 

Belisama let out a nervous peep. “I’m no warrior—” 

“Oh stuff it with the modesty!” Odin snapped, his feathers fluffing out. He flexed his talons and let out annoyed squawk. “A warrior is not measured in size, but in heart… I want you to stay with your husband. Play him some music. Sing to him. It is very important that you sing. It doesn’t have to be constant… but every now and then, sing him a sappy love song. Sing him a lullaby. Sing a silly song.” 

“I will do as you ask.” Belisama bowed her head, froze, realised that perhaps bowing her head might not be the right thing to do, and then let out a nervous squawk. 

“We can sing together,” Berry Punch said as she emerged from the nursery. 

Settling in, Odin made himself comfortable on the bed. “A long long time ago, when the world was a very dangerous place, things had far more meaning.” The old griffon cleared his throat, stretched out his body, and then leaned up against Lyra. “We do things now, we still go through the motions, but we have forgotten the meaning, the reason behind why we do what we do. A mother was her offspring’s only real defense against the terrors of the night, the dark things, the shadows preyed on the very young, the demons that roamed freely in the night, and every other dark thing you could imagine. When a mother gathered her young close and sang to them a lullaby, she wasn’t just singing them to sleep… oh no… with the power of her voice, she was driving back the darkness. It was done for protection. The power of music, imbued with a sense of love, was an anathema to the dark things that roamed the night. There is no force quite so formidable as a mother standing guard near a crib… that force of will permeates into everything she does… including her song. Lullabies were the first real defense against dark influences… dark magic… and fell shadows. I have heard it said that lullabies were the first form of magic that the different species of this world learned to control.” Odin paused and looked Belisama in the eye. “It is still our best defense and our most powerful weapon. For reasons I cannot explain, we have lost touch with our understanding of this magic and it’s value. Perhaps the creeping shadowlings did it to nullify its threat.” 

“It was music that held back the power of the shadow wolves…” Lyra said, remembering a dark time and giving thought to Odin’s words. “I guess now we use it to hold back Sombra’s shadow.” 

“If something wants Bucky, it has to go through us first.” Derpy’s voice was a low growl, gritty, full of gravel and the promise of pain. “We will do whatever it takes. One of us will remain with him at all times to keep him company. If we need to sing, then we will sing. If we need to fight, we’ll do that too. We are all ferocious terrible mares and we will not give up what is ours.” 

Berry laughed, a nervous laugh that almost caught in her throat. “We mares and one tiny lioness…” 
	
	
> Chapter 534
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna looked around the dining room table at each and every mare that mattered in Bucky’s life, and one griffoness. She took a deep breath, shooed away her mental exhaustion, and continued to try and get the mares around her to do the right thing. 

The only problem was, Luna was not sure what the right thing was, and as the discussion progressed, her doubt continued to plague her. She crossed her front hooves in front of her, resting them on the table, and squirmed in her chair in a most unprincesslike manner. 

Her tea, untouched, was cooling. Her food, somewhat nibbled, lay on a plate unfinished. 

“It’s been two weeks since Bucky was attacked. He’s recovered. If you continue to treat him like a helpless foal, he is going to start to resent you,” Violet said in a low hesitant voice. 

Berry Punch noticed that Violet’s usual confidence was absent. The earth pony raised an eyebrow but said nothing because Berry believed that Violet was right. 

Hunched over the table with her eyes almost closed, Derpy leaned over in her seat and rested her forelegs upon the table. “I dunno how much longer I can keep sitting here. This is hurting me.” 

“Bucky needs a break, but he also needs to stay busy. Finding the balance seems difficult. I agree that Bucky needs to be doing something. He’s slipped into full ‘get drunk and screw’ mode for the lack of anything better to do. I just don’t know about him taking a trip to the Shetlands,” Bon Bon said. She was holding a sturdy mug between her front hooves. 

Reaching up, Luna began to rub her jaw. “I think the trip would be good for Bucky. I can assure you that Bucky would be safe. There is no danger here. If it will put your mind at ease, I will send a compliment of Myrmidons. Keg Smasher needs Bucky’s help. Bucky is the rightful ruling head of the Shire Isles. Bucky needs to be there for the official formation of the United Isles. This is a major moment in history. This is the formation of a new nation, a new territory that will be a protectorate of Equestria and the Sea of Grass, a symbol of our unification. Plus, Bucky would get to see some of the good that he has done. Many of the unicorns rescued from the Shire Isles have settled in the Shetlands, where they are healing and recovering. Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks have both been working very hard to help the transition. This could be a very positive experience for Bucky.” 

“It could also be a nightmare… the Shetlands are the place where Bucky became what he is now… plus, he can’t be left alone. He’s vulnerable. He keeps waking up screaming about rats nibbling off the faces of little foals and how the rats are Sombra’s rats… Bucky is not in a stable state of mind right now and trust me, I know a little something about unstable mental states,” Lyra said, daring to look Luna in the eye for a moment before her nerve broke and she looked back down at the table. 

Bon Bon set down her mug, reached over, and rubbed Lyra on the withers. “If Bucky went, and I am only saying if… but if he went, some of us would have to go with him. That means splitting up our herd again. This isn’t like the Vanhoover trip though. Derpy needs care. Harper is becoming troublesome… I don’t know what has gotten into her, but she has become a little tyrant.” 

“We could go Bonnie,” Lyra said in a low voice, leaning into Bon Bon’s touch. 

“You would have to take Harper with you… she can’t stay here without a unicorn around to help her discharge. That would mean spending all of your time minding Harper and her troublesome moods and not watching Bucky,” Berry Punch said. 

“We don’t even know if the discharging is helping,” Bon Bon replied. 

“I trust Bucky’s gut feeling. Draining her of her magic helps. At least she’s worn out, tired, and unable to cast anything for a long time. She’s not as troublesome after a big discharge,” Lyra said, reaching up and rubbing at her eyes with both front fetlocks. 

“I could go,” Berry Punch said, looking around the table, her eyes falling upon Derpy last. “At the risk of being blunt, I can look after his needs. He can shag me silly and I don’t mind. I might be a bit rotund, but I can still get around just fine. I can be with him in every way that matters.” 

“I’ll go.” Belisama sat up in her chair, her head only just above the level of the table. 

“No,” Derpy replied. “You’re going to give birth any week now. Maybe any day now.” 

“Don’t tell me no… he’s my husband too. I’m not completely helpless and even if I do give birth, The Scorned Mare has a full well stocked medical bay if it is needed. Plus, I know Violet is coming along. Bucky is going to be performing official functions and that means having his majordomo around.” Belisama fluffed out and began to drum her claws upon the table. 

Derpy turned to look at Violet and then turned back to Belisama, a scowl upon her face. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do… I just want us all together for the birth. These things are important and it is part of the reason why I don’t want Bucky going.” 

“What about you, Thistle? You’ve been quiet.” Berry  Punch looked over at Thistle, who was sitting beside Luna. “Your opinion matters too.” Berry hoped that her gambit to change the subject away from Belisama would work. 

“My opinion, if you want it, is that we should not be discussing this decision about Bucky without him being present. I don’t like this. This feels wrong,” Thistle said. She heaved a sigh and then reached down to rub her hips. “I have the same problem Derpy does… it hurts sitting here.” 

“I feel that we should arrive at a consensus before we bring the subject up to him. If we bring it up, say that he might be going, and then decide not to let him go, he will be very cross,” Luna said, explaining her reasoning. “Perhaps this is a mistake. I was trying to avoid stress and contention.” 

“We’re doing the right thing, it just feels awkward. And bad. Luna is right I think. We need to sort this out and not get his hopes up.” Bon Bon, still rubbing Lyra, leaned over and gave a soft patient smile to Thistle. 

“I’ll agree to him going, but I don’t have to like it.” Derpy crossed her forelegs over her barrel and shook her head, her soft golden mane spilling around her neck as she did so. “He should have Cadance with him though. Just like when he went to Vanhoover. She becomes intolerable when she can’t have her daddy and Bucky becomes out of sorts when Cadance isn’t around.” 

Bon Bon nodded. “Agreed.” 

“Violet knows how to make Cadance surge… I’ve taught her,” Lyra said in a voice that squeaked with nervousness. “I still don’t know how I feel using Cadance as a weapon against Bucky.” 

“Bucky doesn’t mind, so why should we? Be practical,” Berry Punch said. 

“I wasn’t thinking about Bucky… I was thinking about how difficult it is going to be to explain to Cadance later on when she’s grown up that we had to weaponise her talent and use her to take down her daddy, whom she dearly loves,” Lyra replied. 

“Hopefully, she’ll understand. It doesn’t hurt him, it leaves him love-drunk, he has no means to defend himself against it, and it is a safe effective means to solve a problem.” Berry Punch tapped one hoof upon the table, a nervous tic, and she stared down at her plate as she spoke. 

“Yeah, well, you clearly don’t like it either.” Lyra, emboldened, lifted her head high and looked at Berry Punch. “I don’t see how you can sit there and defend it if you feel like it is wrong.” 

“No fighting.” Derpy’s command was harsh and straightforward. “Not now. This herd does not fight in times of trouble Am I clear?” 

Slumping down in her seat, Lyra let out an annoyed whinny. 

“Lyra, you’re right. I don’t like it. But I do try to justify it so I’ll feel better,” Berry Punch admitted, her ears pinned back in submission. 

“That’s better… this herd does not fight in times of trouble.” Derpy, mollified by Berry Punch’s confession, leaned over in the other direction in her chair, trying to take the pressure off of her sore hips. 

“So we can agree that he is going, but now we need to figure out who is going with him. Since the no fighting rule was just invoked, I’m going to go ahead and say that we should send Belisama with him,” Bon Bon said, knowing full well that there was about to be trouble. 



 

Not bothering to knock, Luna pushed open the bedroom door and stepped through. “Look, I have brought you a gift… a grey pegasus for your enjoyment.” 

Held aloft in Luna’s magic, Derpy smiled a coy smile at Bucky. 

Bucky lifted his head. “This day just keeps getting better.” 

Sprawled on the bed, Bucky was surrounded by foals. Bell Heather lay under a blanket. Cadance was curled up against her father’s side. Harper was sitting up and looking at Luna and Derpy in the doorway. Erebus lay on the bed close to Bucky, imitating Bucky’s posture and pose by lifting his own head up high as he lay on his belly. 

Striding forward, Luna approached the bed. Mindful of Derpy’s condition and the bed full of foals, Luna eased Derpy onto the bed and then dropped her head down to snoot bump Erebus. “How are you feeling Bucky?” 

“Bored.” 

Luna nodded, noting Bucky’s blunt reply. Lifting Erebus in her magic, Luna whisked him away, grabbed a blanket, and headed for the comfortable pile of cushions in the corner by the wardrobe. She lay down, plopped Erebus down beside her, and covered herself and Erebus with a blanket. 

“Well, Bucky, I have some good news. I think your boredom is coming to a middle,” Luna said. She winced when she felt sharp little teeth clamp down on tender flesh. 

Bucky groaned and rolled his eyes. “I am sick to death of being treated like a helpless foal. I’ve had enough. I can’t just keep sitting here and doing nothing.” 

“You’ve been doing stuff.” Derpy reached out a foreleg, hooked it around Harper, and pulled Harper close. “You make golems. You’ve been allowed to work on pro—” 

“Allowed… allowed... that is the problem right there! Allowed! I can’t get a fecking moment alone! I am followed everywhere. I have nowhere to think and be by myself. I can’t work like this. I’m going mad.” Bucky flopped over on his side and blew a frustrated raspberry. 

“Fecking?” Harper asked. 

“Oh good job Bucky… now she’ll never stop saying it… I hope your little moment of drama was worth the loss of your daughter’s innocence.” Derpy’s ears perked forward and she glared at her husband. 

“Gobshite,” Bucky muttered. 

Derpy, clamping her hooves over Harper’s ears, let out a low frustrated growl. “You are being a foal!” 

“I’m being treated like a foal!” Bucky replied. 

Cadance, waking up, opened her eyes and looked around. She crawled closer to Bucky, who had rolled away from her, snuggled up against him, and closed her eyes once more. 

Luna, who knew better than to get involved, remained silent. 

“I’m sorry… I’m being a foal,” Bucky said in a low defeated voice. “Luna brought me a nice pretty grey pegasus and I screwed everything up.” Bucky closed his eyes, reached out with his talons, and pulled a pillow over his head. 

“Bucky. We all think it is time that you took a little vacation. A nice trip for once. Maybe see some of the good that you’ve done in the world.” Derpy took a deep breath, looked over at Luna, and gave Harper a squeeze. “How would you feel about a little trip to the Shetlands?” 

Jerking his head from beneath the pillow, Bucky looked at Derpy. “Would I have to fight an army of shadow wolves? Slay the undead? Kill off a lich that stands in the threshold of godhood? If the answer is yes to any of those things, count me out. I’m bored, but I am in no mood to be mauled, traumatised, or lose another leg.” 

“No… all that is expected of you is that you sign some papers, act as the proper king of the Shire Isles, maybe have your photo taken, and there is a possibility that you could get as drunk as a lord with Keg Smasher,” Luna said, realising now was a good time to say something. 

“Get drunk off my teats?” Bucky asked. “I can do that. Where do I sign up?” 
	
	
> Chapter 535
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Luna could not figure out what Bucky was doing. She watched as he took his hoof and ran it down Erebus’ side in a slow deliberate manner, going against the grain of Erebus’ pelt, pulling the hairs away, and exposing bare pink flesh. Bucky’s snoot was almost pressed against Erebus’ body. 

“Bucky… what are you doing?” Luna asked in a quiet voice, hoping to not startle Bucky, who appeared to be in deep concentration. 

“Looking for rat bites,” Bucky replied, his eyes focused upon his task.

The corners of Luna’s mouth curled downwards. She wanted to tell Bucky that there were no rats, but the words died on her tongue and left a bitter taste in her mouth. After a long moment of silence, she wanted to scream at Bucky to be serious, to snap out of it, to be reasonable, to be logical, to use his head and be rational; there were no rats. 

But Luna knew that there was no point. With a heavy heart, Luna realised that Bucky was slipping away and that there was very little that she could do to stop it. Where she had always been able to shore up his mental defenses before, she found it almost impossible to do now. 

“Buckminster… I… work very hard to keep the rats away. I assure you, Erebus is fine,” Luna said to Bucky, taking a step closer and lowering her head. She was careful and cautious, doing nothing that might startle Bucky. 

“You’re a good mother. You do your best. But we can never be too careful. You and I both know what lurks beneath the beds of foals.” 

Luna lifted her head, drawing herself up to her full height. Bucky was right of course, shadows were ever present, a constant danger, a source of corruption, but Bucky’s vigilance was bordering on mania. There was a difference between being aware of the threat and developing a maddening obsession. 

It was difficult watching a pony that she so loved slipping into madness. Something had to be done. Sombra’s influence so soon was unexpected, but Luna knew the reasons why. Her spy network had told her of a great many things, and some of the most disconcerting was a group of necromantic cultists that worshipped Sombra himself, hoping to revive the fallen dark king. 

At least Erebus seemed to be enjoying this. The colt grunted and made little whinnies as Bucky rubbed him down. Luna watched, not knowing what to say, but wishing she could say something that could help. 

“I’d like to have a little colt. Don’t get me wrong, I love my girls, but a little colt would be nice.” Bucky ran his hoof along Erebus’ neck, his eyes squinting so he could see better. 

“You have Sentinel,” Luna replied as she stepped away. She moved to the sofa and then eased herself down, settling into a pony-loaf position. 

Bucky snorted. “Have you tried cuddling Sentinel? You’d have more luck snuggling a cactus.”  

“Sentinel is… aloof, I will admit.” Luna watched as Bucky checked Erebus’ ears. One of Erebus’ hind legs was kicking and one stunted wing flapped against his side. Unable to help herself, Luna smiled, her dark thoughts cast aside by Erebus’ apparent happiness. “Buckminster, are you hungry? There is food—” 

“I ate earlier. I had not one, but two mares follow me into the kitchen and watch my every move. I’m not in the mood to deal with the dinner table,” Bucky said, cutting Luna off. 

Luna’s smile vanished, replaced with a scowl. The last thing she wanted was Bucky isolating himself. Shaking her head, Luna did not know what to do.



 

“More pickled cabbage.” Using her fork, Piña prodded her food. Pickled cabbage. Sauerkraut. Something that was on her plate two or three times a week now. 

“I thought you liked pickled cabbage,” Dinky said as she gave Piña a nudge. 

“Oh I liked pickled cabbage, but then we started eating it every other night.” Piña set her fork down. “Pickled cabbage. Pickled beets. Pickled vegetable relish with cauliflower and carrots and I’m not sure what else.” 

Sitting at the kitchen table with the foals, Yew Wood leaned over and looked at Piña. “Eat your food. Don’t complain. At least you have food.” 

“Why do we have so much pickled cabbage anyway?” Piña asked. 

Yew Wood took a deep breath. “Applejack was very kind to give us some barrels of pickled cabbage and a whole bunch of jars of pickled veggies.” 

Staring down at her plate, Piña could not figure out why Applejack would give away pickled cabbage and pickled vegetables. “If there is a food shortage, how come Applejack gave all of this to us?” 

Dinky, aware of the tension at the table, remained silent as she shoveled her meal into her mouth, adding a bit of pickled cabbage to her spoonful of mashed potatoes. Beside her, Sentinel had already cleared away one plateful and was working on the second. Following Sentinel’s example, Dinky set down her spoon and began to gobble her meal off of her plate. 

Reaching out her foreleg, Yew draped it over Piña’s withers. “A few months back, before the cold set in, Applejack posted a notice on the barter board in Ponyville that she had a whole bunch of pickled vegetables, probably hoping to find somepony that liked pickled vegetables enough to trade. Bucky and Derpy took her up on the deal and offered her an equal weight of trade goods from all the stuff that Bucky looted from the griffon supply depot. Bucky traded a whole bunch of canned soup, canned fruit, cans of pudding, canned bread, and boxes of things like raisins.” 

“So Applejack and her family got some nice stuff to help them get through the winter?” Piña asked, all too aware that Yew was staring at her. Piña hoped that she had picked the right words to say. 

“Yes they did,” Yew replied. “As I am sure one little filly has figured out, eating pickled veggies all the time becomes tiresome. Just imagine eating them every night.” 

Piña looked down at her plate. Sighing, she picked up her fork. “I suppose this isn’t so bad,” she said as she stabbed her fork down into her food and got a biteful. With a slurp, she stuffed her food into her maw and began chewing. 

Sentinel belched with enough force to make the plates, the silverware, and the glasses upon the table rattle. He then looked over at Yew. “I liked canned bread.” He tried to look as hopeful as possible as he spoke. 

“I know Sentinel, I know.” Yew Wood smiled. “You might be the only little pony I know that likes canned bread.” 

“Sentinel likes to eat rats and dead things he finds in the woods.” Dinky gave her brother a teasing smile. 

“You forgot slugs… on a sandwich.” Reaching up with his foreleg, Sentinel wiped his face as he replied to Dinky. 

“Oh eeeeew!” Yew Wood stuck out her tongue and shook her head. 

Piña gagged and took a moment to recover. “I can’t believe that Diamond Tiara kisses you even after she found out about all the stuff you eat.” 

“Eat your food.” Yew Wood looked around the table, meeting the eye of each foal. “I’ll open up a couple of cans of bread and pudding if you do.” 

“Canned chocolate pudding is awesome. Berry Punch says that there is something wrong with me and that homemade pudding made by Semillon is better… but there is something about pudding from a can,” Sentinel said, looking thoughtful, his food already gone. 

“My brother has a hobby… eating weird foods from a can.” Piña, whose mouth was full, dribbled food down her chin as she spoke. “Like those canned crackers that he found.” 

“Those were good.” Sentinel licked his lips at the memory. 

“Daddy and Sentinel ate cat food,” Piña said. 

Yew Wood almost choked. She looked at Piña and then at Sentinel. “Sentinel, is this true? Why would you eat cat food? That’s horrible!” 

Sentinel’s ears drooped down the sides of his face and he slumped down in his chair. 

Seeing Sentinel’s ashamed and hurt expression, Yew Wood felt bad. “Okay, maybe not so horrible, but that’s kinda gross. Why would you and Bucky eat cat food?” 

“Father was checking up on his griffons… making sure they were all happy and okay. He was going from family to family, group to group, making sure they had everything they needed,” Sentinel replied. He sat up a little straighter and placed his front hooves upon the table in front of him. “This was the early winter… Father wanted to make sure that the griffons were settled. He and I both noticed that the griffons were eating something, something crunchy. Father was curious and wanted to know what it was. Turns out it was cat food, food intended for pets. Made of fish… this bothered father even though he could not explain why it bothered him… but he was upset that his griffons were eating pet food.” Sentinel fell silent and looked thoughtful. 

“Well, don’t stop, I gotta know what happened… where was Lugus?” Yew asked. 

“Oh, Lugus was with us,” Sentinel replied. 

“Oh gross… oh gross... oh gross... oh gross.” Yew Wood closed her eye and shuddered. She then opened her eye and looked at Sentinel, leaning forward with anticipation. 

“So father announces a new griffon law… right there on the spot. The griffons will eat no food that their king would refuse to eat. This causes quite a commotion, as the previous griffon kings ate all kinds of nice things while the little griffons survived on scraps and garbage. A bowl full of kibble is brought to father by a little griffon cub… she was very nervous about the whole thing and scared. So Father picks her up and holds her and she’s holding the bowl and father started eating the cat kibble, crunching it up while the griffons are all watching.” 

“And what was Lugus doing during all of this?” Yew asked, wanting to know, but not wanting to know. 

“I’m getting to that… father takes the bowl from the cub and holds it out to Lugus. Lugus is giving father a dirty look, but father says ‘this is not the worst thing I’ve asked you to do’ and Lugus lets out this big sigh and sits down. He takes the bowl from father, reaches in with his talons, and starts eating, tossing bits of kibble into his beak.” 

“I’m having a loooong talk with Lugus later about when it is okay to go along with Bucky’s crazy plans,” Yew said, shaking her head in disgust. 

“The cat food was actually pretty good. I liked it. Fishy, crunchy, a little salty, it was a nice snack. I can see why the griffons like to eat it.” Sentinel lifted his hoof and scratched his chin.

“There is something wrong with daddy,” Dinky said. 

Piña nodded in agreement. “Uh huh.” 

“You fillies hush up and finish your food,” Yew said. She looked down at her own plate and for a moment, was unsure if she could finish her own food after Sentinel’s story. 



 

“Buckminster, if you could pay attention for a moment, this is very important.” Luna, still sitting on the couch, looked at Bucky with a hopeful expression. 

Bucky rubbed his cheek against Erebus’ neck and gave the colt a squeeze. “What is it Luna? What do you require of me?” 

Luna wasn’t sure she liked Bucky’s tone, but she let it slide. There was something very much like sarcasm there, or maybe she was just hearing something that wasn’t there. “Bucky, there is another pony in need of a vacation that will be coming with you—” 

“And who would that be?” Bucky asked, lifting his head and looking at Luna. “You?” 

Luna shook her head. “No Bucky. While I could use a break, there is one who needs it more. My sister is in dire need of a rest.” 

“Celestia is coming with us?” Bucky asked, blinking his eyes in disbelief. 

“Yes, if I have my way. If necessary, I will need you to enact your emergency authority. Twilight Sparkle has already promised help if need be. If Celestia will not go along willingly,  then I shall have to banish her from Canterlot. So she is going. While this is to be a period of rest and relaxation for you, I am assigning you as Celestia’s personal guard.” Luna looked at Bucky and waited, knowing that Bucky’s sense of obligation would win out. 

“Of course… you don’t even need to ask.” 

“You are to see that she has a nice time… and this means that if necessary, you are to show her a nice time.” Luna smiled, feeling clever. If Bucky had to entertain Celestia, at least he would be having a nice time and it might serve as a good distraction. Everything was working out better than Luna had hoped. There was no need to enact emergency authority, or to banish Celestia, Celestia was going along to keep an eye on Bucky and make sure that he was well. 

At least now, Celestia would have a nice time while doing it. Luna, feeling pleased with herself, began to feel a little better about everything. 

“This is good… this works out. This gives Celestia and I a chance to put our heads together and figure out how to crush you in the winter games,” Bucky said. 

Unable to stop herself, Luna laughed. 
	
> Chapter 536
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pressing his ear against Derpy’s ribs, Bucky could hear her heart beating. Her front legs were wrapped around his head and his neck. He was sweating, cold, shivering. He felt cold on the inside. Derpy’s pegasus pelt was warm, her body radiated the sort of heat that Bucky craved. 

“Just a bad dream… a nightmare.” 

Bucky squeezed his eyes shut. Derpy’s words brought no comfort, there was no solace to be found. He wrapped his right foreleg over the curve of Derpy’s stomach and could feel the twins moving inside of her. He drew in a deep breath, almost sobbing, his whole body trembled and he could not make himself go still. 

“What time is it?” Bucky asked, his voice dry and raspy. 

“Almost noon. You were asleep for almost nine hours, which you needed.” With slow careful movements, Derpy stroked Bucky’s head and wished that somepony was here to comfort her. 

The grey mare was terrified. There was something attacking her husband that she could not protect him from. There was no good defense. She was powerless to stop what was happening. 

“Bucky, you’re very wet… you’ve been sweating. You should go take a shower or a bath, otherwise the salt will make you start itching,” Derpy said, smoothing back one of Bucky’s notched and tufted ears with her fetlock. 

“I don’t want to be alone… rats… rats everywhere… I can still feel Mignon’s pain… it is like a thorn in my brain… why can’t Luna just pull this out of my mind… make it go away.” Bucky pulled Derpy closer, pressing up against her, he was shivering so hard that he feared chipping his own teeth again. 

“I don’t know Bucky… she said something has changed inside of you. You can’t be made to forget things now… she can’t make the things that hurt you go away anymore,” Derpy replied in a low voice. “Take me with you Bucky, I’m all sweaty too… lets go. We’ll have a nice shower together. Or a bath. A bath might be nice.” 

“Yeah it would.” Bucky opened his eyes. The light stung, burning like a cruel brand, and for a moment, Bucky was certain that he could hear squeaking. “One good deed… one kind act… it is enough to unravel a pony…” 



 

Hunched over the kitchen table, Bucky yawned. His mouth tasted like copper, cotton balls, and something so vile that it was indescribable. In front of him was a cup of jasmine green tea and honey, something soothing and hydrating. Something warm.

Derpy, who sat upon a big soft cushion, was beside him. For this, Bucky was grateful. He was in no mood to be alone, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk either. Not much had been said in the shower, but not much needed to be said. 

“Father?” 

Bucky heard the sound of small hooves clattering over the floor. It was calming but Bucky was unable to explain why. It was a sound that he was glad to hear. “What is it Sentinel?” 

The lunar pegasus colt climbed up into a chair beside Bucky and made himself comfortable. Sentinel looked at his father, adjusted his glasses, and then sat up straight. “About the trip to the Shetlands… I’ve been thinking.” 

“Yes?” Bucky was glad to see Sentinel. Sentinel was sturdy. Solid. Sentinel was always unwavering, resolute. Sentinel could always be depended upon. Sentinel would never fail him. 

Sentinel kept away the rats. 

“You made it my choice to go with you or stay… I’ve given it a lot of thought. I intend to stay… I’m needed here. With you gone, my help will be needed. I have to look after my sisters, all of them, including Harper and Bell Heather.” Sentinel’s ears splayed out and he looked at his father, hoping to see some sign of approval. 

Bucky heaved a sigh of relief. It would be one less thing to worry about. Sentinel would keep Bell Heather and Harper safe. Sentinel understood. Sentinel had seen. Sentinel had seen what the rats could do with his own two eyes. Sentinel had been with him in Vanhoover.

“I don’t know what I would do without you, Sentinel. You’re my squire and my son.” Bucky reached out and touched Sentinel’s cheek with his right fetlock. “Keep my girls safe.” 

“Yes sir, I will do so, sir,” Sentinel replied. He peered at his father. “Not to be disrespectful, but you don’t look well.” 

“I’m feeling better than I was when I woke up.” Bucky lifted his teacup and took a long drink when he had finished speaking, almost emptying his cup. 

Sentinel relaxed a little, no longer sitting up as stiff as a board. He could tell that his father wanted a bit of quiet time, but Sentinel wasn’t ready to leave just yet. Reaching out a wing, he grabbed the bowl of dried apple chips and pulled it closer, pinching the rim of the bowl between his thumb and central knuckle. 

“I wonder when school will be back in session,” Derpy said, looking out the window and thinking out loud. 

“When the snow lets up,” Sentinel replied around a mouthful of apple chips. He watched as his father poured another cup of tea. 

The trio lapsed into silence, the only sound was Sentinel’s crunching. 



 

Lost in her music, Belisama hugged her autoharp to her chest, her neck nesting on the smooth wood. Her talons, ideal for plucking, moved with swiftness and skill over the strings. Her other talons pressed down upon the buttons, coaxing music from the strings with careful pressings. 

The autoharp, almost as large as Belisama, seemed almost too much to handle in Belisama’s embrace, but the griffoness managed to play it well. She could feel the vibrations coursing through her rounded belly, and the cub she held inside of her seemed to move in time to the music. 

Bucky’s cub. 

Bucky was not the only creature in the house with a developing obsession. 

All of Bucky’s foals were her cubs. Belisama, overcome with some new manic need to defend her nest, discovered a ferocious new sense of aggression within herself. Not far away from Belisama was her crossbow and a quiver of bolts. Much like Lugus’ hook-axe, it was something that was now a part of the background, a constant presence, and everypony, everybirdy, was mindful of Belisama’s new companion. 

On the floor, Harper sat on her haunches, swaying back and forth as Belisama played the autoharp. The foal loved music of all kinds and was already trying to dance when the right mood struck her. 

Lyra, also sitting on the floor, listened with a critical ear, but could find no flaws in Belisama’s playing, at least not now, not today. Lyra was holding Cadance up in a telekinesis bubble and Cadance was flapping her stubby little wings as hard as she could. 

Sprawled out by the fire, Lugus lay on the floor in a half slumber, his eyes narrowed to slits. He was unphased by Peekaboo, who pounced upon him, climbed over him, and did her best to savage her father. Peekaboo, undaunted, would back away from Lugus, wobble around on stiff legs in a challenge, and then charge once more. 

Barley, sitting in his chair by the fire, watched as the tiny pegasus foal attempted to subdue the massive mountain that was Lugus the griffon. The fire was warm, it kept the chill away, and the music was soothing. Barley wished that Lyra would summon her lyre and join Belisama. 

Peekaboo let out a cry as she tumbled off of her father’s back, her hooves sliding along his sleek pelt. She hit the floor with a thump, bounced, and with her wings spread wide, she popped up onto her hooves, indignant at taking a tumble. 

“GRAWR!” Peekaboo cried, launching herself at Lugus once more. “Take that, dragon!” 

Lugus yawned. Knights in shining armor were not worth noticing for a dragon his size. 

Unhappy with the lazy dragon, Peekaboo changed her tactics. She scooted away, hiding under the sofa, which was getting harder to do, because Peekaboo was getting bigger. She waited for a moment, and seeing that her father’s eyes were almost closed, she braced herself, prepared to charge. 

She shot out from under the sofa with remarkable speed, shot past Lyra, past Harper, Peekaboo was a moving blur. She pounced, going airborne, landed on her father’s backside, pinned down his tail, and then clamped down upon it with her flat square teeth. She let out a ferocious growl. 

Lugus yowled, immediately springing up off of the floor and landing on his feet. Moving much faster than any creature his size had a right to, he reached back with his talons, his body folding in half and doubling back in an almost boneless manner, and snatched Peekaboo, yanking her off of his tail. He lifted his foal and stared at her, snoot to beak. 

Unafraid, Peekaboo was giggling. She reached out and beak booped her father, rapping on his beak with her hoof. She stretched out her little neck and kissed Lugus where she booped him. 

Most ponies would have panicked seeing a griffon snatch a foal in the way that Lugus did, but this was almost a daily occurrence. Nopony or nobirdy batted an eye. Everyone knew that Lugus would never hurt Peekaboo, or any other foal for that matter. 

The big griffon began to chuckle, his shoulders rising and falling. “I wish your mother was here to see that… you’ve gotten fast.” He set Peekaboo down upon the floor, patted her on the head, and then flopped down on the floor to lay by the fire once more. 

“No more dragon,” Peekaboo said, climbing up onto her father’s back. She sprawled out, got comfortable, and nestled her head into her father’s neck feathers. She yawned and then snuggled down. “Naptime.” 



 

Still sitting at the kitchen table, Bucky cracked open his book, feeling well enough now that he could concentrate. The book, Chemical Compendium, was a boring but necessary read. Peering down his muzzle at the page, Bucky lifted his teacup to his lips and took a sip. 

He could hear the soothing sounds of Belisama’s autoharp coming from the living room. 

As Bucky looked at the page, the letters on the page sprouted tiny legs, looking very much like little spiders, and then scurried off of the page, running off to hide in the bindings. He blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. He turned another page and as he watched, the letters all ran away, leaving behind a blank page. He heaved a sigh, closed the book, and took a sip of tea. 

“Something wrong?” Sentinel asked. 

“Dinky pranked me… I swear, I’m going to get her. Have a look.” Bucky shoved the book towards Sentinel. 

Curious, Sentinel took the book, opened it, and watched as the letters scurried off. He looked up at his father, then down at the book, and then shook his head. “Dinky needs a comeuppance. The other day she enchanted my charcoal pencils… when I pressed one down to paper, it screamed like it was being murdered.” Sentinel pushed the book away. 

“You brought this on yourself,” Derpy said. The grey mare let out a half hearted giggle. 

“Why do you need a book about chemicals?” Sentinel asked. 

“Research,” Bucky replied. 

Sentinel peered through his glasses, looking owlish. “Research?” 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed his muzzle. This was beyond top secret stuff, skunkworks stuff, but if Bucky couldn’t trust Sentinel, who could he trust? Sentinel deserved his trust. 

“Several ideas… all of them awful. One of them is a combustion gas gun. I think I can use hydrogen as a propellant rather than a solid fuel. Higher velocities will mean more damage from the projectiles.” Bucky stared at the book on the table. “As an airship mounted cannon, it would change warfare as we know it.” 

“Sounds scary.” Sentinel brought his front hooves together and rubbed them, a nervous gesture. His father had a terrible imagination when it came to making new weapons. “Anything else?” 

Bucky, aware of Derpy’s look of disapproval, decided to risk her wrath. “I’ve had an idea for a liquid methane based round. A bit of liquid methane in a projectile, held in a containment field. It would be devastating to airships and would cause horrible wounds to a living body.” 

“That’s enough of that,” Derpy said, raising one eyebrow. “If you are going to talk about something awful, talk about how you are going to get revenge on Dinky. I’ll be glad to help you.” 
	
> Chapter 537
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sunlight glittered on the snow, dazzling Sentinel’s eyes. The skies, overcast, still allowed enough sun to make the day bright and cheerful. The Scorned Mare was being loaded, prepared for the trip to the Shetlands. Bounding through the snow, Sentinel hurried, hoping to catch Violet and have a talk with her before she left with his father. 

There was always something to do it seemed, some task, some bit of busy work. If the weather held, school would be starting up again soon, and there would be lots of catching up on missed schoolwork. 

As Sentinel neared the farmhouse, he heard his father laughing. A real laugh, not the strained weird laughter that made Sentinel feel nervous. The colt smiled. At least his father was feeling better. He heard Berry Punch shout, then squeal, and then something about snowballs was said. Sentinel, focused on his task, did not turn around to see what was going on behind him. 





Taking a deep breath, Sentinel summoned up his most formal posture, sitting up straight and trying to look as serious as possible. He glanced at Ripple, saw her nod, and then looked around the table at the other ponies present, Violet Velvet and Semillon. 

“We know everything is rather busy right now, but we wanted to say thank you for taking a moment of your time to speak with us,” Ripple said, offering a smile to both Violet and Semillon. “Sentinel? If you don’t mind, perhaps you’d like to speak in detail about our business here?” 

Another deep breath. Reaching out one wing, Sentinel adjusted his glasses, a nervous habit, and cleared his throat. “Squire Ripple and I are here on official business. We are in need of your services for the upcoming winter war games. Buried in a compendium of rules, regulations, and military protocol, there is a regulation that allows us to conscript those with special talents into our service. Now, with this being peacetime, if we wish to conscript you, we are obligated to pay you for your services, paying you a fair wage to make up for earnings lost while you are, uh, pressganged into our service.” 

Violet, her mouth pressed into a straight line, nodded, looking very stern and serious. 

The cook on the other hoof, smiled. Semillon looked delighted. 

“Violet, we would need your services for organisation… and some of your… other skills,” Ripple said in a low voice. 

“Do you require my services as a bodyguard or do you require me to remove a high priority target?” Violet asked. 

Ripple gulped. “You can do that?” 

“Uh, Ripple, I think she might be pulling our leg. But then again, father would never take on an ordinary secretary… um… well…” Sentinel reached up and scratched his chin, his serious mein now gone. The colt looked confused and worried. 

“What we need is a oath to secrecy, strong organisational skills, and some of your more unique talents of a non-lethal variety,” Ripple said, recovering the conversation. She turned to look at Semillon. “And from you, we need for you to do what you do best.” 

“I suppose I’ll be feeding the troops?” Semillon asked. 

Ripple nodded. “Something like that. There are ears everywhere. We will tell you everything you need to know in a secret briefing, once you agree to work with us.” 

Sentinel, folding his front hooves in front of him on the table, leaned forward. “Now we discuss the cost. Both of you are professionals. Ripple, my responsible big sister…” Sentinel looked over at Ripple and glared, his eyes narrowing. “My responsible big sister does not believe in saving her bits for a rainy day and we are short on funds. I however, have eighty seven gold bits and eleven silver bits.” 

Violet shook her head. “That doesn’t even cover a single day worth of pay.” 

Heaving a defeated sigh, Sentinel slumped down in his chair. 

“Father pays you well I guess,” Ripple said, trying to hide how upset she was. She forced her wings to remain still at her sides and was mindful of how her nostrils were flaring. 

“I never said a fair exchange was impossible. But you cannot afford my services.” Violet offered up a half smile and peered at Sentinel over the top edges of her reading glasses. 

“I’ll do this for free. This promises to be interesting,” Semillon said. 

“No no… Semillon, demand compensation,” Violet said, looking at the unicorn cook. “I propose a trade of work hours. If Semillon and I work for you, we keep a tab of all the hours we work… when everything is said and done, both of you work for us for an equal number of hours.” 

“Fine, but only if it doesn’t cut into my schoolwork. Father has enough stress without worrying about me slacking off,” Sentinel said. 

“That goes without saying.” Violet, nodding, turned and looked at Ripple. 

The charcoal grey filly shrugged. “I’m willing to work if I need to. Anything for my Raptors.” 

“Good, we have an agreement. I will prepare the contracts for all of us and we can sign. I charge a three hour minimum for contract writing, the papers will be very thorough and ironclad.” Violet grinned a shrewd looking grin. 

“Oh bugger,” Ripple said, flinching at Violet’s words. 



 

“Buckminster Bitters, if you do not put down that snowball, I will smite you with all of the majestic fury of the sun.” Celestia stood tall, proud, resolute. Her face, a stern mask, took every ounce of effort she possessed to maintain. 

Celestia wanted Bucky to throw the snowball he was holding. She only needed an excuse, a reason, being the magnificent monarch that she was, she could not go around starting snowball fights. 

But Celestia always had the option to return fire. 

Something cold hit her backside. Celestia shivered and turned to look. Berry Punch had a crazy looking grin and her foreleg was still raised. Turning and taking her eyes off of Bucky was perhaps the second worst mistake Celestia made this day. 

Celestia’s worst mistake was engaging the Lord of Winter in a snowball fight. 

As she stood there looking at Berry Punch, a massive soft packed ball of snow blinked into existence over her head. Celestia looked up and felt very much like a foal once more. She heard a panicked squeal from Tourmaline. 

The massive snowball, the size of a wagon, took Celestia down but not out. She rose up from the snow, shaking herself off, steam rising off of her pelt as her inner radiance manifested as heat. 

Celestia, who did not get to show off her mastery of telekinesis very often, made one thousand snowballs all at once. Flames flickered from the corners of her eyes. Her pastel rainbow coloured mane became a rippling curtain of superheated plasma. Steam rose from all around her. 

“FACE THE FURY OF THE SUN!” Celestia cried as she fired a barrage of snowballs at Bucky. 

The Lord of Winter, realising the tactical error he had made, teleported away to cover. Celestia’s use of the Royal Canterlot Voice caused the icicles in the nearby vicinity to crack and fall off. Bucky watched as Berry Punch went bounding off through the snow. As pudgy around the middle as she was, Bucky felt a sense of wonder at how she moved. 

What had to be a hundred snowballs thumped against the wooden crate that Bucky had taken cover behind. He peeked out for a moment and then ducked as a snowball nearly struck him. At least Celestia was laughing and having a good time. 

“Save our headmaster!”

This was unexpected. Bucky blinked. 

Daring to peek over the edge, Bucky saw Celestia under fire. The scary flames were gone, she was Celestia again, still laughing, and hurling snowballs at his students. Bucky emerged from cover, began scooping up snow in his telekinesis, and lobbing snowballs at Celestia. 

Tourmaline, caught in the crossfire of all of this, ducked away and sought cover. 



 

Unsure of what to do, Thistle took a deep breath and looked at Bell Heather. The foal’s pelt had darkened a bit since her birth, she was a somewhat darker muted shade of purple. Still no sign of a mane or a tail had sprouted, but Thistle knew that it would happen. It was only a matter of time. 

“What should mama do?” Thistle asked in a low whisper. 

“Mama.” Bell’s voice was soft, difficult to hear. Words were said while breathing, but seldom at any meaningful volume. Bell smacked her lips together and looked up at her mother. 

“You’re no help at all Bell, your answer to everything is food.” Thistle’s lip protruded in a pout and she had a very foalish desire to sulk. “What if he tells me no? What if Derpy tells me no? I’m still not sure I want to do this, but part of me wants to do this… mama does not know what to do Bell.” 

Laying on her back, Bell kicked all four legs around in the air as she made flatulent noises with lips. 

“I also gotta do what is right for you… this is all a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Thistle said to herself. She turned her body towards the nursery window and looked out. There was some sort of commotion going on outside. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you Bell. I’m so scared… I don’t want to be a bad mother. I want you to love me like Dinky loves Derpy or Piña loves Berry.” 

Bell gurgled and cooed. 

“It’s just mommy hormones,” Thistle said as she wiped tears out of her eyes. “Stupid mommy hormones. Mommy hormones making me cry, mommy hormones messing with my thinking, and mommy hormones making me want to shag somepony even though I can’t do anything… I can’t stand being like this.” 

Reaching a decision, Thistle dove into the wooden closet in the nursery and began to dig around, looking for everything she needed. 



 

Standing slack jawed on the porch, Ripple watched the carnage taking place, each breath she took coming out as visible steam. Celestia was hammering Bucky in a snowball fight. The Raptors had moved to defend their king and had formed a protective shield in front of him. 

Most of the foals had fled, but a few brave ones continued to hurl snowballs at Celestia, who ignored them. 

Clinging to Ripple’s leg was Tourmaline, who stood there shivering, watching her mother and Bucky wage a terrible war upon one another. 

There was a loud squawk when Branwen took a snowball and was downed, knocked from the air. Loki was scooping up snow and hurling it Celestia. 

“Branwen is one of my favourites! Celestia, you fiend! Branwen, your king will avenge you!” Bucky cried. 

Angus, Flench, and Grunion went on a strafing run, pelting Celestia with snowballs as they went streaking past. Branwen, who had recovered, was crawling though the snow to flank Celestia. The albino griffoness was almost invisible as she crawled through the snow. 

Ripple heard hooves on the porch beside her. She turned and saw Thistle. Thistle, wearing a foal carrier, had Bell Heather with her, wrapped up in a blanket and stuffed into the foal carrier. Thistle herself was wearing the bright green woollen cloak that had been made for her by Rarity. 



 

When Bucky saw Thistle approaching, he stopped what he was doing and went still. One last snowball thumped him in the side of his head, but he ignored it. It slid down, the snow clinging to his shaggy pelt. 

“Bucky, I’m coming with you… I want to see Keg Smasher. I miss him so much.” 

Kiara and Freyja, who had permission to ride upon their king in battle, cleared off, leaping from Bucky’s back, landing in the snow, and then scurrying off to a respectful distance. 

“Thistle, you’re beautiful in that cloak,” Bucky said, distracted and staring at Thistle. 

The kelpie blushed. Thistle could feel the cold stinging her nostrils. Cold water had no effect upon her, but she felt the cold air. She felt a hot moist heat spreading through her nethers. Something about the way that Bucky was looking at her. “I’ll be good. I’ll get lots of rest on The Scorned Mare and I’ll be careful while we’re visiting the Shetlands.” 

“If it makes you happy.” Bucky, unable to take his eyes off of Thistle, took a deep breath. Feeling nervous, scared for a reason he could not explain, Bucky took a few steps forward, his hooves and his talons crunching in the snow. He strode forward until at last he reached Thistle. 

Not caring that he was being watched, Bucky stretched out his neck, puckered up, and gave Thistle the sort of kiss that threatened to melt the snow around them. 

The kelpie felt her legs go weak, her knees wobbled, and it became difficult to breathe. When it was almost too much to bear, she pulled away and then wiped her slobbery muzzle with her foreleg. She took a deep breath and smiled. 

“I think Keg Smasher will be happy to see you and Bell,” Bucky said as he looked Thistle in the eye. “I suppose it is time to stop playing and finish up,” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 538
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Here daddy, have some cocoa.” 

Bucky looked at the cup held in Dinky’s telekinesis. It trembled a bit, the liquid inside sloshed, but not enough to spill. Dinky, who had stopped the snapped chain with impeccable timing, still had trouble holding things still while levitating them. The cup was proof that while she had the power, she still lacked the fine control. 

As he took the cup of cocoa, he thought about Dinky’s little prank, the vanishing letters in the book. It was a prank that took a serious amount of skill and dedication, it was something that many adult unicorns would have had some real trouble with. 

“Thank you, Dinky,” Bucky said as he took the cup into his own telekinetic grasp. The trembling ceased and the cup became still. 

“You’re wet.” Dinky looked down at the water dripping on the kitchen floor. “Semillon will scold you if you leave her kitchen a wet mess.” 

“Do I get any cocoa?” Celestia asked, giving Dinky a hopeful look. 

Hearing Celestia’s request, Dinky nodded. Sticking out her tongue as she concentrated, she lifted the brass pitcher that held the steaming cocoa. Dinky placed a cup down upon the table, maneuvered the brass pitcher full of cocoa over the cup, and then poured, careful not to pour too much. Feeling very pleased with herself that she did not dribble a single drop, she set the ornate brass pitcher down upon the table, picked up a mint leaf, crushed it in her magic, and dropped it into the cup of cocoa. 

“Bon Bon adds crushed mint,” Dinky explained as she lifted the cup and passed it to Celestia. “But she crushes it with the edge of her hoof. Crushing the leaf releases the flavour.” 

Without being asked, Dinky went to work once more, preparing a cup for Tourmaline. 

“Thank you,” Celestia said. 

Celestia was far too big for the kitchen table. She was hunched over and her hind legs were too long for the chair. “Dinky, you have fresh mint? This leaf isn’t dried.” 

“We grow it in the greenhouse, along with the bugs we eat—” 

“Gross! Bugs!” Tourmaline shuddered. 

Unable to help herself, Celestia snickered. 

“You get used to them,” Dinky said to Tourmaline. 

“Bugs are icky and gross… you shouldn’t eat bugs. Yuck!” Tourmaline stuck out her tongue and made an expression of disgust. She shook with revulsion and then adjusted her glasses. 

“I dunno… some bugs are delicious… but you have to fatten them up with hot cocoa first,” Bucky said. 

Tourmaline let out a squeal, then a shriek, flew out of her chair, and took off running out of the kitchen at full speed. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!” 

Dinky, holding Tourmaline’s cocoa, looked at her father and then at Celestia. “What’s got into her?” 

Chortling, almost choking, Celestia struggled to compose herself and bring herself back under control. She coughed, cleared her throat, and then looked at Bucky with one raised eyebrow. After a moment, her expression softened and she looked at Dinky. “Tourmaline has a dreadful fear of bugs. And your father is a scoundrel… really Bucky… scaring foals. Shame on you!” 

“If Tourmaline goes and tells Bon Bon that you’ve been bad, you’re going to be in big trouble,” Dinky said, peering at the archway that was the entrance to the kitchen. 

“Bon Bon… who makes bug candies.” Bucky slurped the mint leaf out of his cocoa, chewed on it for a moment, and then swallowed. “Are we going to be ready to go in a bit?” 

“In a little while Bucky—” 

“Celestia, why are we waiting? We could have left by now,” Bucky said, interrupting. 

“Bucky, Raven is coming with us. She needs a vacation too. She’s in Ponyville, visiting some friends. She will be along in a while and then we can go.” Celestia took a sip of cocoa and when she pulled her mug away, she had a soft brown chocolate mustache. 

Seeing it caused Dinky to giggle. 

“BUCKY!” 

Hearing Bon Bon’s voice, Bucky flinched and ducked down in his chair. He could tell by Bon Bon’s tone that he was in for a scolding. 

“HOW COULD YOU?” 

His voice little more than a whisper, Bucky said to Celestia, “Earth ponies. I’ll be hiding if anypony needs me.” 

With a flash, Bucky vanished, leaving Dinky alone with Celestia. 

A moment later, Bon Bon appeared in the entrance to the kitchen, scowling, and her eyebrows were as furrowed as a field that was fresh plowed. Tourmaline was on Bon Bon’s back, her little front legs wrapped around Bon Bon’s neck. 

“Back bedroom,” Celestia said. “He is with Derpy.”



 

“You’re a bad pony.” Tourmaline, laying beside Bucky, snuggled a little closer, pressing into his side. She looked at Cadance, whom Bucky was cradling in his front legs. 

Bon Bon, her anger forgotten and feeling affectionate, leaned over and kissed Derpy on the cheek. It was hard to stay angry around Cadance. It had been a hectic morning and the quiet of the bedroom was appreciated. 

Derpy, laying between Bon Bon and Bucky, returned the kiss, turning her head and kissing Bon Bon on the corner of her mouth. Afterwards, she turned to look at Cadance, who was giggling. 

“She is so full of love,” Tourmaline said in a low whisper. “It makes me feel funny.” 

Bucky nodded. “You know Tourmaline… when both you and Cadance are older, perhaps you two can work on making your talents work together. You need love and Cadance has it in abundance.” 

Tourmaline rested her head against Bucky’s withers. “Hmm.” 

“I was being very silly with my bug comments… I never meant to actually scare you,” Bucky said in a low voice. “You are a very special little changeling. I went through a lot of trouble to rescue you. I would never allow you to come to harm.” 

“I know,” Tourmaline replied. 

“You know?” Bucky asked. 

Tourmaline giggled. “It is fun being scared. Luna scares me and I take off running.” 

Bon Bon grunted. “I got taken in by a sweet little face—” 

“You sure did,” Bucky said. 

“Shush Bucky… this is a nice moment, don’t ruin it.” Bon Bon leaned her head forward and looked around Derpy to give Bucky an stern glance. 

“You like rescuing foals, don’t you?” Tourmaline asked. 

“I suppose it is something of a hobby,” Bucky replied. 

Leaning her head down, Derpy nuzzled Cadance and then lifted her head. “I think it started with Sentinel.” 

“Nope.” Bucky shook his head. 

“No?” Derpy closed her bad eye and peered at Bucky, trying to figure out what Bucky was about to say. Her ears perked forward. “Dinky?” 

“Dinky.” Bucky nodded. “The idea that Dinky might get taken from you scared me. It changed everything I thought I knew about myself. I was always so worried, so afraid of everything, but all of my fears were selfish. I was always so worried and afraid for myself. But when I realised that Dinky might get taken, when I thought about how much it would hurt her, when I thought about how much it would hurt you, I couldn’t think about myself. All I could think about was saving Dinky and keeping you from getting hurt.” 

“And then came Sentinel,” Derpy said, closing both eyes and resting her head down upon her folded forelegs. 

Bucky stared down at Cadance. “I can’t imagine my life without Sentinel. I love the stuffy little guy so much.” 

“Thank you for saving me and Glass Slipper,” Tourmaline said as she crawled over Bucky’s back. She slid down, settling into the slight gap between Bucky and Derpy, and rubbed her face against Derpy’s neck. “Mama told me a little about what you had to do to save Cadance.” 

Thinking about the hook, Bucky closed his eyes and shivered. He felt a cold stabbing pain in his hips. His mouth fell open and he took a deep breath. 

“It still hurts you,” Tourmaline said, wiggling around so she could wrap her forelegs around Bucky’s neck. 

“It was a job like any other. It had to be done.” Bucky, who did not feel like talking about this, wondered what to say to change the subject. 

“Bucky, are you alright?” Bon Bon asked. Her eyes glittered with concern. One ear twitched, causing her mane to tumble around her eyes, the curls bouncing in a most fetching way. “I don’t think this is a good time for Bucky to talk about this.” 

“Who is going to save Bucky?” Tourmaline asked. 



 

“Looks as though everything is stowed away,” Belisama said to Violet. 

Violet nodded. The most recent addition was extra diapers for Bell Heather. Turning her head, Violet looked at Thistle, who was making silly faces at Bell Heather. Turning, Violet left the room, taking Belisama, who was riding upon her back, with her. 

After trotting down the hallway, passing many doors, they came into the common room. Violet looked around. Several little griffons were moving about, doing last minute preparations. A crew of them were coming along after refusing to allow their king and queen to leave without them. 

“Violet, do you think this will hurt a whole lot?” Belisama asked. 

“It’ll hurt plenty… but I don’t think it will be as bad as it was for Thistle,” Violet replied. 

Belisama could feel the muscles in Violet’s back quiver as the mare moved about. “What makes you think that, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

Violet watched a team of griffons all work together to carry a large sack of oats into the kitchen. She thought about helping them, but knew that she would be squawked at and there would be much angry peeping and raised crests. 

“Thistle is still young. Thistle is young, underdeveloped, and little. Thistle is a scrawny little thing and she gave birth to one fat little foal. One beautiful fat little foal. Bell Heather almost tore her mommy a new one. I’m honestly surprised that Thistle didn’t rip or tear during the birth.” Violet heard a cheer from within the kitchen. The griffons must have secured the bag of oats. “You’ve gained a lot of weight during your pregnancy, but proportionally, you’re a lot smaller than Thistle was. It stands to reason that your cub will be very small when it is born. Griffons come out underdeveloped and helpless at birth. So this should be much easier on you.” 

“I see,” Belisama said as she reached forward and stroked Violet’s mane. 

“Thistle squeezed out something larger than a giant watermelon. You’ll probably give birth to something the size of an apple. Thistle might be larger than you are in general, but the width of your hips isn’t that different. Thistle has a longer body, longer legs, but you both share a similar broadness and width.” Violet trotted down the hall, stepped aside for another group of little griffons hauling a sack of coffee beans, and then climbed up the stairs when she reached them, mindful of the griffoness riding on her back. 

“I’ve been practicing those breathing exercises,” Belisama said. 

“Good.” Violet emerged on deck, stepping through the door. The cold air made her nostrils sting. “It was very nice of you all to take in Helia and look after while I am gone. She is a dear friend and I worry about her, even though I know she is healthy and fit.” 

Belisama looked down over the railing and watched as Helia played in the snow. 

“You are to stay close to either Bucky or myself at all times. You could give birth any day now.” Violet watched as Helia helped a little minotaur calf get back up on her hooves after falling over in the snow. 

“I know what is expected of me. Do you think I should have stayed at home?” Belisama asked. “I mean, am I being stupid for wanting to stay with Bucky?” 

Violet snorted. “Don’t be silly. There is too much made of the fragility of females. There are always risks, problems, moments of trouble… but females have been giving birth for a long time. Usually in less than ideal conditions.” 

“There has been a lot of death too.” Belisama felt an icy prickle of fear, the cold chill she felt had nothing to do with the winter weather. 

“Yes, but we know the culprits now. We’re winning this war. Infection… we’ve figured out that bacteria… germs… viral infections… all of those things that cause sickness, we’ve figured out that they exist. We have modern sanitation now. We have drugs that will clear an infection up if it happens. We can stop blood loss and hemorrhaging. Because of education, we’ve picked up a mighty hammer and now we beat back death until it goes away and leaves us alone so we can give birth in peace and then go about our business.” 

With silent contemplation, Belisama considered Violet’s words. 

“Are you happy about having a little female cub?” Violet asked. 

Belisama peeped, the sound escaping her before she realised she had done it. Her feathers fluffed out and she could feel the faint touch of the cold air upon her skin, creeping through her insulated feathers. “Yes… yes I am.” Belisama took a moment to form her thoughts into words. “My cub will never know the fear that my sister and I lived with. She will never know what it means to be a possession, to be property. She will never live in constant fear of rape, of torture, or being eaten. She will have some wonderful males in her life… males that she can trust. Her father… Sentinel… Barley… Rising Star… and even Lugus… especially Lugus. Lugus has become a very dear friend to me. It took a long time for me to stop being afraid of him.” 

“There he is now. Sitting on one of those little ledges on Bucky’s tower. Watching everything beneath him, keeping everything safe. He has Peekaboo with him,” Violet lifted up her foreleg and pointed. 

“All of the school foals love him. He has their trust. I wonder sometimes, what it is like to be Lugus, to be such a large predator living in around such smaller creatures. I wonder what he thinks, what he feels, what the world is like for him,” Belisama said as she looked over at Lugus and Peekaboo. 

“I’d imagine that he and Bucky both would have some interesting things to say,” Violet replied. “Look at Peekaboo. She is going to grow up thinking that Lugus is her daddy. She is never going to see him in the same way the rest of the world sees him. She is never going to see a massive apex predator. She will never be afraid of him. She will trust him completely. The fear that others might have of her father will be utterly alien to her. When I look at the two of them playing, it makes me think.” 

“It is a lot to think about,” Belisama said as she reached down at rubbed her tummy. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 539
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Just looking at that makes my teeth hurt,” Raven said, tilting her head to look upward at Celestia. “Cavity inducing. I mean, just look at that.” 

“I know.” Celestia nodded. 

Both mares watched as Bucky pressed his lips once more to one of Cadance’s frogs and blew a raspberry, sending the foal into a fit of wiggle-giggles, pulling her legs in and trying to protect herself. 

Once Cadance recovered from her fit, she would, with deliberate slowness, raise another hoof up and press it against Bucky’s muzzle, displaying a bravery known only in foals who liked being tickled. 

“Ooops… somepony laughed too hard,” Bucky said, his nose crinkling. “Allow me to get that for you, Empress.” Bucky rose to his hooves, wobbled for a moment as his back legs adjusted to the strain, and then he lifted Cadance in a field of blue-green magic. He took off at a trot, heading for the nursery to change Cadance’s soiled diaper. 

Raven, her eyes wide, watched Bucky go, disappearing down the hall. 

Reaching out with her wing, Celestia prodded Raven. “It is for this reason that you just witnessed that I can forgive Bucky all of his many character flaws.” Celestia looked around and lowered her voice. “I hope we can save him. Luna is already forming a plan. Until then, we have to help him tough this out.” 



 

Her eyes narrowing, Derpy looked at her husband. “I was about to tell you to behave yourself… but the whole point of this trip is for you to have a nice time.” Derpy leaned forward, snoot-bumped Bucky, and then took a step back, her hindquarters crackling as she did so. “So get into a little bit of trouble, but not too much trouble.” 

“I dunno, some quiet rest and relaxation time might be nice. I hope there is no trouble,” Bucky said, hoping his tone sounded sincere. “Seeing Keg Smasher and the others might be nice.” Bucky looked over at Yew Wood and Lugus, who were also saying a quiet goodbye to one another. He looked back at Derpy. “I don’t understand why Lugus is going but Yew Wood is staying here.” 

Turning her head, Derpy glanced at Lugus and Yew. “Lugus’ place is with you. Yew Wood knows we’ll need help with Harper and the other foals. Saying goodbye allows them a chance to say hello to one another. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” 

Scowling, Bucky shook his head. “I don’t like saying goodbye. If you weren’t in the condition you’re in, I might be selfish and beg for you to go.” 

“If you beg, I might go anyway,” Derpy replied, her voice a soft silken whisper. 

Bucky closed his eyes, his expression becoming pained. “No. No, you need to stay here. I can’t cause you more pain.” 

Reaching out a wing, Derpy rubbed Bucky’s cheek. She saw his eyes open. She leaned in closer. “Are you blaming yourself for this? Do you think that this is your fault? You seem to forget, I had a hoof in this too. We had a lot of fun making these twins. It took three ponies to make this sort of trouble.” 

Bucky let go a soft nervous laugh. “If anypony is to blame, it is Cadance. I wonder what she will say when she discovers she is the one responsible for the act that made all of her brothers and sisters?” 

“I never thought of it that way.” Derpy smiled and then rubbed her cheek against Bucky’s cheek, the good side of his face where he still had some feeling. “Keep Cadance close. She can help you.” 

“She’s daddy’s little filly.” Bucky, enjoying the feeling of Derpy being so close, rubbed his muzzle against the soft spot just under Derpy’s ear. “She’s already vapourised a bunch of imps and sent them right back to Tartarus.” 

Her ears pinned back against her skull, Lyra approached, her steps slow and uncertain. She nosed Bucky’s side and then waited for a response, knowing that Bucky and Derpy were sharing a private moment. There was a flurry of wings and movement, it happened fast enough that Lyra was startled, and then Lyra found herself drawn in, with Bucky kissing one side of her muzzle and Derpy kissing the other. 

“I’m going to miss you,” Lyra said in a dry scratchy voice. Her lower lip began to quiver and then, just before the tears started, Lyra pulled herself together. “Come back to me. Harper needs her daddy… and I need him too.” Lyra lifted one hind hoof, drew it upwards, and with a nervous twitch, scratched her own belly with her hoof. 

“Lyra, with me leaving and with Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks off island hopping, it falls on your shoulders to manage security here. Keep everypony that we love safe. Keep your family safe. Ripple will obey any command you give her and the Raptors will acknowledge your leadership. While I am gone, the golems will obey you. Sunset Shimmer will be glad to do anything you ask of her.” Leaning closer to Lyra, Bucky sniffed. She smelled of cocoa, of floral soap, and of peppermints. 

“I can keep everypony and everybirdy safe,” Lyra replied. The mare, finding some confidence, drew herself up and held her head high. 

Bon Bon’s heavy hooves clomped over the wooden floorboards as she approached. Saying nothing, she pressed her snoot into Bucky’s side and snorted,  almost bowling him over. “Hurry home Bucky… don’t forget, we have that appointment with the fertilisation specialist.” 

“Bonnie, I could never forget about you and the importance of fertilising your eggs…” 

Blushing, Bon Bon began to titter. 

“The fastest way to go about getting your eggs fertilised would be to just go at it with an unwrapped candy,” Derpy said, nosing Bon Bon as she spoke. 

The herd broke into perverse giggling. 

Berry Punch trotted up to the group, her belly swaying from side to side as she moved. “My ears are burning. Was somepony telling dirty jokes without me?” 

“We were just discussing Bon Bon with a creamy filling,” Derpy replied. 

Bon Bon, blushing like a school filly, leaned over and kissed Bucky on the lips and then stepped away to fan herself with her hoof. She muttered, “It’s warm in here.” 

“Thistle is sound asleep in our cabin on The Scorned Mare. I went looking for her, hoping for a bit of a smooch. I didn’t wake her, she looked so peaceful. And beautiful. Did I mention beautiful? Thistle has become a hot piece of mare meat since becoming a mother,” Berry said as she narrowed her eyes. When she was done speaking, Berry Punch let out a sultry growl. 

“Berry, you’re awful,” Lyra said, her cheeks turning as red as beets. 

“I understand Bucky’s fascination with pregnant mares and mothers. You see that big round belly or a little foal following after them, and you know they put out—” 

“Berry Punch!” Derpy reached out her wing and gave Berry a playful slap on the backside. 

“Well, it’s true,” Bucky said, coming to Berry’s defense. “Hey, speaking of really hot females that put out, where’s my hot little pu—” 

“Bucky!” Derpy, Bon Bon, and Lyra all said in unison. 

“—ssy cat Belisama?” Bucky grinned a wolfish grin. 

Giggling, Berry Punch reached out and prodded Bon Bon, trying to appease her fellow earth pony’s more subtle sensibilities. “Belisama is having a last minute chat with Magpie. Magpie keeps saying ‘my queen’ and ‘your grace’ and Belisama is getting flustered, so look out. Flustered griffoness will need to be looked after later.” 

“I dunno what has gotten into Magpie lately,” Bucky said, becoming serious. “She’s become a bit mother-smother… and fixated on keeping her king and her queen happy.” 

“She has no more cubs to care for.” Bon Bon looked at Bucky. “All of her cubs, all of her little wee ones, each one of them now has a home, a family, or a group that is caring for them. I’ve talked with Magpie. She’s lonesome.” 

“I’ve left her in charge as the caretaker—” 

“Bucky, being in charge of adult griffons is not the same as looking after little helpless cubs that depend upon you for all of their needs. Magpie is miserable,” Bon Bon said. 

“Nuts. Why won’t she tell me these things?” Bucky asked. 

Bon Bon’s head lowered a bit and she shook her head. “She feels nervous about being a hunter griffon. She still feels very guilty about everything that happened. She does not want to disappoint you, let you down, or have you unhappy with her. She is defined by two things… both of which are servitude of a sort.” 

“Oh bugger this.” Bucky, his tail swishing from side to side, took off at a hobbling trot, pushing his way through the group of mares around him. 

“Bucky, where are you going?” Derpy asked. 

“A king is only as good as the least of his subjects,” Bucky replied. “One miserable subject leads to one miserable king. This cannot stand!” 

“Well there he goes. At least he’s having a lucid day and he’s acting a bit more like himself,” Lyra said as she watched Bucky go. 

“You know, holding himself to these impossible ideals is why he is so stressed all the time. He carries too much on his shoulders. He’s so fixated on keeping us and his griffons happy. We should figure out some way to help him, but I have no idea what to do or how to do it.” Bon Bon, reaching out to Lyra, pulled the unicorn mare closer, wrapping a thick foreleg around Lyra’s neck. 

“Guilt is a powerful motivator… trust me, I know,” Lyra said, her expression becoming downcast as she spoke. She shook her head. “As much as he wants to, Bucky can’t hold himself to these standards. At some point, he’ll break.” 



 

Dinky watched as her father approached, with Magpie the griffoness just behind him. He was wearing his black cloak, it spilled over his body, and for a moment, Dinky understood just what she wanted from life. 

A flowing cloak made for an impressive looking pony. It wasn’t enough to just be a wizard, a powerful spell caster, one had to leave behind a good impression. Dinky wasn’t so sure about black though. Black was maybe a little spooky and Dinky had no desire to be scary. At least, not too scary. 

Perhaps something in a bright blue. 

For a moment, Dinky thought about a broad brimmed wizard’s hat. Star Swirl was famous for wearing one, and Trixie didn’t look half bad in her rumpled, crinkled hats. Dinky wasn’t sure if the broad brimmed hat was right for her though. There was a whole world of hats though, and Dinky was certain she could find one if she started looking. 

“Dinky?” 

Blinking, Dinky snapped from her daydreaming and looked up at her daddy. “Yes?” 

“While I am gone, try to keep your pranks to a minimum,” Bucky said, sitting down upon the wooden floor by the front door. “Please?” 

“I dunno if I’ll have time for pranks. With you gone, I’m gonna have my studies, magical practice time, Sunset Shimmer is going to help me study teleportation, and Harper is going to take up a lot of our time.” Dinky looked at Piña, on her left, and Sentinel, on her right. “We don’t mind getting up early to help feed Harper. I know you think we’re gonna stop, that were gonna get bored and quit any day now, but we’re not. We want to show that we’re grown up and that means doing our part.” 

Bucky, smiling, lowered his head. “I’ll tell you what. If I come home and Derpy tells me that you helped take care of Harper every single morning that I am gone, I will see about raising your allowance. And if your mother tells me that you’ve been extra helpful, well, the potential exists for a substantial raise. Hard work is rewarded.” 

“I require nothing. I have my own means of making money,” Sentinel said as he wrapped his wing around Dinky. 

“Piña, I have a special project for you.” Reaching out, Bucky rubbed Piña’s cheek with the soft side of his fetlock. 

“What?” Piña asked. 

“When I come home, I would like for you to have enchanted one item. I know you can do it, don’t bother telling me that you can’t… Lyra and Sunset Shimmer will help you if you need it. Just a simple project.” Bucky smiled, leaned his head down, and kissed Piña right between her ears. 

Piña swallowed and her frogs felt sweaty. Her stomach began to tie itself in knots. “Okay,” she squeaked. 

Raising his head, Bucky looked at his older foals. “I have tasks for each of you as well…” 
	
> Chapter 540
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As The Scorned Mare soared past Canterlot, Bucky paced the deck, looking over at the city as they flew by. The cold was brutal; life threatening even, but Bucky did not mind. Bucky was the cold. The deck was iced over and empty. No one, nopony, nobirdy was on deck with him. 

In the distance, sitting in their moorings, Bucky saw several warships docked in the Canterlot shipyards. There was fighting to the far south, down near Saddle Arabia and beyond, the mirror travelers were busy trying to gain a hoofhold. Far to the utter east, the mirror travelers fought with dragons, trying to claim territory from the ancient wyrms. 

But as Celestia and Luna had assured Bucky, most of the known civilised world knew peace. A peace that the world had not seen for eons, if the sisters were to be believed. Even though Bucky had no reason not to believe them, he still doubted. There was conflict in the world, he could feel it, even if the feeling had become weak. It was like a chilly draft that was almost unnoticeable as it blew through a room, not something that was just felt, but also evidenced by papers rustling or pegasus feathers being ruffled. 

Ice encrusted Bucky’s horn and mane, icicles hung from his sideburns. 

He knew that he was not supposed to be alone for any length of time, but Bucky needed a bit of time to himself. Saying goodbye was hard. Above him, the rigging creaked in the cold. Below him, the deck planks were iced over. 

His mane, now frozen over in wind whipped spikes, stuck out in all directions. Bucky felt the first prickle of fear, the creeping cold that existed on the inside. He shivered. His ears perked as he heard the squeaking of rats, it was difficult to hear over the dull roar of the wind, but it was there. 

Turning towards the door that led belowdecks, Bucky realised it was time go inside. He felt the cold. Not the cold of winter, but Sombra’s cold, the chilling influence that haunted him and would not go away. It was time to find warmth. 



 

Free to be herself, away from prying eyes, and enjoying the feeling of privacy, Celestia crossed her eyes and made a silly face at Cadance, who burbled and giggled. There was nopony to judge her, no loose lipped guards, there was only the cozy cabin, a few mares, and some foals. As Cadance giggled, Celestia pressed her snoot into Bell Heather’s neck and inhaled, drawing in the foal’s scent, glad to be smelling the scent of new foal. 

“Equestria has one more kelpie,” Thistle said as she crept closer to the bed where Celestia was sprawled out with the foals. 

“And it is a most adorable little kelpie… you did a fine job Thistle,” Celestia replied as she lifted up her head and looked at Thistle. 

Raven, sitting in a chair and nursing a steaming teacup, looked over at the large white alicorn and the two small foals. Her mane was down, spilling around her face and neck, and by letting her mane down, she acknowledged that she was getting a break. 

Unsure of the protocol of jumping into her own bed while Celestia was laying on it, Berry Punch threw herself down on the edge of the mattress, pulled up her legs beneath her, and got comfortable. 

Seeing Berry Punch getting comfortable, Thistle followed Berry’s lead and did the same, climbing into the bed, crawling on her belly, moving towards her foal, and then she folded her legs beneath her once Bell Heather was within nosing distance. 

The door to the cabin opened and Bucky entered, still covered in ice. He paused in the doorway, looking around, meeting each eye in turn, and then as he stood there, shook himself off as he grinned a sheepish grin. 

“Where is Belisama?” Bucky asked. 

“She is with Magpie.” Berry Punch, seeing Bucky covered in ice, felt annoyed with her husband. She frowned. “So Magpie is the new royal nanny now.” 

“I trust her with my griffons, there is no reason not to trust her with my foals,” Bucky replied as he moved towards the bed. He jumped up and then lay down beside Berry. “When I told her she started crying. She was quite overcome. She grabbed me, started squeezing me, and thanked me. Then she got upset with herself for forgetting her place and hoisting her king around like a sack of potatoes.” 

“I guess this works out, since Bittersweet is family now and she is going to start teaching soon,” Berry said, rolling over on her side and kicking her legs out, stretching them to full length. 

“Where is Violet?” Bucky asked. 

“In her cabin I think. I don’t know,” Berry replied. “Why do you ask?” 

“Oh, no reason… I just want to know that everypony and everybirdy is okay.” Turning his head, Bucky looked at Celestia and then at Cadance. “You have my foals. Both of them. If you have two of something, you should share them.” 

“Which one do you want?” Celestia asked, the corners of mouth curling into a teasing smile. 

His nostrils flaring, Bucky’s ears perked forward, the tufted tips pointing at Celestia. “It isn’t a matter of which one I love more… why don’t you just give me one. It doesn’t matter which one.” 

The white alicorn’s eyebrow raised. “Are you trying to get me to reveal which one I love least?” 

“How did this get complicated?” Thistle asked. 

Berry Punch rolled her eyes. “Unicorns. Alicorns included. Silly creatures, the lot of them.” 

Cadance, taking matters into her own hooves, rolled over, her wings flapping with effort, and began to crawl towards her father. “Daddy!” 

“Well, that settles that. Now we’ll never know.” Celestia reached out her wing and patted Cadance on the bottom as the foal crawled across the bed towards Bucky. 

Upon reaching Bucky, Cadance sat down, balanced herself on her haunches, raised her right foreleg, and steadied herself with her left foreleg. Reaching out, she booped Bucky on the snoot. 

“Boop.” Cadance, whose face was quite serious during this moment, looked at her father, watching and waiting for his reaction. 

Bucky, the moment that Cadance’s hoof touched his snoot, fell over on his side and went limp, his ears flopping over. 

Having felled her father, Cadance wasted no time creeping forward, crawling over Bucky’s face, slobbering all over him, and went right her father’s ears, biting onto one and chewing on it, tugging and pulling, behaving very much like a little pegasus. 

“That might be the most adorable thing I have ever seen.” Raven, staring over the edge of her teacup, felt her eyes go watery at the sight. 

“Mmmnum?” Cadance asked, her mouth full of ear. 

“Cadance, darling, how many times has your auntie told you not to talk with your mouth full?” Celestia watched as Cadance continued to pull and tug on Bucky’s ear until one of her own ears brushed up against Bucky’s horn. 

The alicorn foal yanked her head way, her ear twitching. She looked at Bucky’s jagged horn and her eyes narrowed. “Ooh ooooh ooooh!” She crawled over Bucky’s face, one of her hind hooves stepping on his lip, and then crawled along her father’s neck. When she was a safe distance away, Cadance stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Bucky’s horn. 

Bucky yawned, which caused Cadance to yawn as well, which in turn caused most of the other ponies in the room to yawn, a most curious effect of social contagion. When one social animal sees another yawning, the desire to yawn becomes irresistible.

“I hate to be a party pooper, but I am actually tired. Sleepy even. I hope nopony minds if I take a nap,” Bucky said in a low voice. “Cadance, is it naptime?” 

Cadance, hearing the word naptime, fell over with a thump. She lay still, with all four legs sticking up in the air. She closed her eyes, holding them shut for a few moments, and then opened them to narrowed slits to see if anypony else was napping. 

When Cadance saw the others were still awake, she grunted in frustration. 

“I suppose it is time for me to go,” Celestia said, lifting up Bell Heather and passing the foal over to Thistle. “Thank you for having me with you.” The white alicorn eased herself off of the bed, got to her legs, and rose up to her full height, the tip of her horn almost hitting the ceiling. 

Raven, following Celestia’s lead, rose up out of her chair, her teacup held in her magic, and she stretched her legs while she waited for Celestia to depart. 

“Buckminster, it is good that you are getting some rest.” Celestia tilted her head off to one side to look at Berry Punch. “I suppose you will be staying with him?” 

The earth pony yawned and wiggled closer to Bucky. “A nap sounds good. The twins have been kicking me in my giblets all morning. If I could, I’d go and stand them in the corner like I do Piña when she’s been bad.” 

Bucky, who already had his eyes closed, said, “Piña is perfect. She’s never bad.” 

“Not long ago Piña called Dinky shite for brains and the other day she called her uncle Barley a greasy fart stain,” Berry replied. 

Trying to choke back a laugh, Celestia failed and it came out as a series of snorts. 

“See, even Celestia thinks it is funny,” Bucky said, his words coming out as a drowsy mumble. 

Beside him, Cadance let out an angry sounding nicker. 

“No I do not. There is nothing funny about that. In fact, I am cancelling all of Tourmaline’s future play dates with your foals,” Celestia said, engaging in a mighty struggle to keep a straight face. 

“Berry Punch… you called me a greasy fart stain. Piña learned that from you.” Bucky kicked out his hind legs, trying to get comfortable, and wiggled his hindquarters around so he wasn’t laying on his own tail, which pulled on his dock and made him uncomfortable. 

“Oh shut up.” Berry lifted her head, glared at Bucky for a moment through narrowed eyes, and then stuck out her tongue. 

“The scariest part about this whole trip is the fact that I’m the mature one,” Thistle said, shaking her head as she cradled Bell Heather between her forelegs. 



 

Belisama placed her talons into the small of her back, rubbed with her knuckles, and closed her eyes. Her crest rose when she felt something inside of her move. She stopped, freezing in place for a moment, and then she set aside the autoharp propped up against her body. 

Around her, other griffons were still playing music, a jaunty collection of guitars, banjos, and other stringed instruments. The music stopped and the griffons looked at their queen. 

“Is it time?” one of the females asked. 

Belisama shook her head, rubbed her stomach, and closed her eyes. 

“Are you okay?” the female asked.

Belisama nodded. 

Violet, who was watching all of this, slid from her cushion, rose up to her hooves, and came over to stand beside Belisama. “What’s happening?” 

Belisama opened her eyes and looked up at Violet. “Back pain. Just a little back pain. It isn’t that bad. Some days it has been much worse than this.” 

Saying nothing, Violet lifted Belisama in her magic, flopped down upon Belisama’s cushion, and then dropped the griffoness against her side. Violet then curled up around Belisama and rested her head upon the cushion. With a flick of her dock, Violet covered Belisama’s hind legs with her tail. 

“The warmth feels good,” Belisama said, leaning against Violet. “Thank you.” 

“Bucky would swat me with a newspaper if something happened to you or his cub,” Violet replied in a low voice. “I don’t want anything setting him on edge.” 

Two male griffons, lounging on a cushion together, spooning in the open, looked at their queen in concern. Spanner had his crest up and he clung to Lugnut, while Lugnut had his head cocked sideways. Reaching out his talons, Lugnut grabbed Sprocket, his cub, and pulled her closer, while Cog escaped and went scrambling off, her claws clicking on the wooden floorboards. 

Cog didn’t get very far, she was snatched up by another female griffon, who grabbed her, pulled her close, and subdued her with a wing tickle. 

“Odin wants us to make music… so make music,” Belisama said, making a strumming motion with her talons. “We’ve spent the day working, our work is done, so now it is time to sing and make merry.” 



 

It was late, sometime close to midnight. Celestia moved down the hall in a brisk trot. As she hurried, she heard more screaming. Reaching Bucky’s door, she didn’t bother knocking, but opened the door and walked in just in time to hear another blood curdling scream of terror. 

In the dim light of the room, she looked around. Thistle was hunched on the corner of the bed, looking terrified. Belisama clung to Thistle. Berry was holding Bucky and trying to shush him. In the corner, in her crib, Cadance was shrieking, a deafening wail. 

Bell Heather also cried, but lacked the volume that Cadance was capable of. 

Celestia could see Berry Punch’s frantic expression of fear and panic. 

“He was dreaming about the hook… I heard him say something about the rats crawling around inside of him.” 

Bucky, thrashing in Berry Punch’s grasp, flung himself to the edge of the bed and vomited all over the floor and then lay there, heaving and struggling for air as vomit dribbled from his nostrils. 

Squeezing her eyes shut, Berry Punch shook her head. “Will somepony please quiet Cadance!” 

Celestia, stepping into action, hoisted both Cadance and Bell Heather from their crib and then dropped them into the bed, where Thistle and Belisama both went to work trying to quiet them. Using a bit of magic that every head of a school should know, Celestia made the vomit vanish, disappearing to wherever it was that vanished vomit went. 

Reaching out with her mind, she conjured up a soft cloth, got it wet, and then began to scrub Bucky’s face while he squirmed like a foal, trying to get away from Celestia and her ministrations. 

“H-h-h-hook.” Bucky’s words were a stammer, spoken through chattering teeth as Celestia scrubbed his face. 

Berry Punch wrapped her foreleg around Bucky’s neck, trying to get him to hold still. “He’s freezing. I’ve never felt him this cold. It’s like he’s dead.” 

“Don’t say that!” Thistle cried, sounding almost hysterical. 

Cadance let out an ear piercing wail and struggled in Belisama’s embrace. 

“Rats inside… rats eating me… crawling out,” Bucky said, spittle flying from his lips. 

Her lips pursed together, Celestia wiped away the spittle. The cloth vanished, whisked off to the laundry. Celestia fired off another useful spell, this one to rid the room of the sour vomit smell. 

Cadance shrieked again and this time, the light bulb in the lamp beside the bed shattered, plunging the room into darkness and causing Thistle to cry out in pain. 

A warm golden glow from Celestia’s horn lit the room. Saying nothing, she shoved Bucky and Berry Punch aside before she crawled into bed with them. Using her well cushioned backside, she wiggled in, pushing and shoving until she had her own space. Pulling every pony and the griffoness in the bed close, Celestia wrapped her wings around them, her head held high in the darkness, keeping the shadows away. 

A pacifier popped into existence and Celestia stuffed it into Cadance’s mouth. 

Spitting the pacifier out, Cadance wailed again, kicking and thrashing. 

Pulling Cadance from Belisama’s embrace, Celestia then dropped Cadance beside Bucky and hoped for the best. 

“I heard screaming.” 

In the doorway stood Tourmaline. She was not wearing her glasses or her disguise. 

“Come here Tourmaline,” Celestia said in a firm voice, glad that Cadance was starting to quiet. “Get into this bed with us. There’s room.” 

Stumbling, Tourmaline made her way to the bed, climbed up, and then tried to not step on anypony or anybirdy as she hunted for a spot to lay down. She let out a startled cry when she felt cold metal clamp around her leg. Frightened but not hurt, Tourmaline fell down into Bucky’s embrace. 

“Don’t let them get me…” 

“Mama I can feel something crawling around inside of him!” 

Celestia, fearing the worst, gritted her teeth, realising this was no mere nightmare. “CLOSE YOUR EYES!” 

Waiting for a moment, hoping that eyes were indeed closed, Celestia settled her wings over Cadance and the others, trying to shield them. 

“Mama something is chewing on his insides!” 

“BEGONE!” Celestia’s horn flared as bright as the sun and the shadows retreated from the room. For a moment, there was no darkness, no dark shadow, the room was cleansed in warmth and light. 

After waiting for a moment, Celestia asked, “Tourmaline… is it gone?” 

Opening her eyes and lifting up her head, Tourmaline looked around, her insectoid eyes glittering in the golden light from Celestia’s horn. She tilted her head for a moment and ran her foreleg along Bucky’s neck. 

“Tourmaline… tell me, is it gone?” Celestia repeated. 

“I don’t feel anything… he’s just cold. The cold hurts me, mama.” Tourmaline’s voice was a frightened squeak. 

“Is everyone okay? Is anyone blinded?” Celestia asked.

“I’m good,” Berry Punch said, pulling her face away from Bucky’s ribs. She blinked a few times. “I had my face pressed up against Bucky and my eyes closed. I still saw the light.” 

“I’m good,” Thistle said, reaching up to rub her eyes. 

Belisama, who was under Celestia’s wing, had her own wings wrapped around her head. Her voice was muffled when she said, “Is Cadance and Bell Heather okay?” 

“I covered Bell with my body… I don’t know about Cadance,” Thistle replied. 

Cadance, still crying but not wailing and shrieking, clung to Bucky’s neck. Celestia lifted her wing and looked at Cadance, hoping her eyes were okay. Bucky was panting and his eyes were open. His mouth was pulled back in a rictus of pain, exposing his teeth. 

“Bucky?” Celestia stroked him with her wing. 

“It hurts.” Bucky’s voice was a low shrill whine. 

“Mama, he’s freezing.” Tourmaline reached out, patted Bucky, and then touched Cadance. “She’s so scared right now.” 

Celestia became aware of little eyes peering at them through the door. A crowd had gathered. Nervous, scared herself, Celestia took a deep breath. “He’s fine. He had a nightmare. Please, give us some time alone. I am sorry, I know you are all worried, but we need time.” 

After giving the crowd one last moment to peer in, Celestia closed the door with her magic and locked it. She took another deep breath. 

Knowing what Bucky was, knowing about his well hidden nature, Celestia began to radiate heat, warming the cabin and warming Bucky. She looked at Berry Punch. “You know what your husband needs.” 

Berry Punch’s ears pinned back and her eyes narrowed. “But you’re here and Tourmaline is here. This is awkward enough.” 

“I can explain it to Tourmaline and Bucky has a need. Would you deny him?” Celestia softened the glow of her horn and took a deep breath, trying to restore calm within herself. She and Luna had gone though many bitter arguments about telling Bucky’s family about Bucky’s disease. 

Bucky’s curse. 

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, hearing Luna’s words within her head. Luna, who had already told Sentinel the truth and then flaunted it that she had been right, Sentinel still loved his father, uncaring about his father’s condition. 

Umbral sanguisuge. 

Sombra’s fell shadow was using Bucky’s own curse against him, digging in, making it worse, bringing out Bucky’s own vampiric nature, agitating his disease, his curse, the horrible affliction that Sombra’s fell shadow had left behind, staining Bucky’s soul. 

There was no stopping what had already begun. There was no way to stop what Bucky was becoming. There was only finding ways to appease it, to ease the symptoms of affliction without making it somehow worse. Celestia gritted her teeth, determined to keep Bucky from slipping further into darkness, or worse, succumbing to his curse in the worst way, becoming like Sombra and draining the lives of others to extend his own. 

“Look, Berry, I know this is awkward, I know this might be embarrassing, but I am asking you to give Bucky what he needs… some comfort. We both love him, and neither one of us want to see him suffer.” Celestia’s words were soft, gentle, a suggestive whisper, revealing none of her inner turmoil. 

Reaching out her wing, Celestia pulled Tourmaline away from Bucky, ignoring Tourmaline’s feeble struggles to hold on, and she situated Tourmaline away from Bucky, placing Tourmaline on the other side of her body. Turning her head and looking away, Celestia waited. 

After what seemed like a short eternity, Celestia heard the sounds of suckling, which made her blood run cold. A shiver crept from her dock and traveled up her spine. She was forced to bury her feelings of revulsion, reminding herself how much she loved Bucky. A little milk was better than the alternative; blood, or even absorbing the life force of another, drawing it out in ethereal form, becoming shadow and preying on your victims from the inside. 

Umbral sanguisuge...  shadow leach. The words haunted Celestia’s mind.

Celestia, the embodiment of the sun, could not wait for the thawing of spring so the hunt could begin for Sombra’s remains. She hoped that Bucky would endure. She began to fear it would take a concerted effort. 

“Mama, I feel funny, something feels off mama, I—” 

“Hush Tourmaline, not now. I will explain later. Try to go back to sleep,” Celestia said. 

Spring was a long ways away. 
	
> Chapter 541
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rolling over, Bucky opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Tourmaline. He blinked a few times and felt Tourmaline stroking the good side of his face. Even though her body was hard and chitinous, her touch was soft. 

From what little that Bucky understood, it was part of a perception warping field, at least according to Luna. Tourmaline’s body was still hard and armored, but she wanted to feel soft so Bucky’s brain registered her touch as being soft. 

Bucky licked the roof of his mouth and almost gagged. His mouth tasted terrible. His tongue was a shriveled raisin. There was still a sour smell in his nostrils. 

“I grabbed you last night… did I hurt you?” Bucky asked, his voice a dry raspy croak. 

“No, but you spooked me.” Tourmaline reached up and began to stroke one of Bucky’s ears. “Your claws were cold.” 

Guilt fell over Bucky like a shroud. “I’m sorry.” 

“No worries.” Tourmaline smiled a sunny smile, a smile that conveyed warmth. She had been taking lessons from her mother, who was said to be the alicorn of sunny smiles. 

Once again, Bucky marveled that a changeling could smile. 

“You had things crawling inside of you.” Tourmaline’s face became worried and her sunny smile hid behind dark clouds of fear. 

Bucky, who did not lift his head, nodded, which caused the sheet to rumple somewhat. 

“Mama made them go away. She brought the sunshine in here,” Tourmaline said in a low voice. 

Extending his will, Bucky reached out his mind, touched a very powerful source of Celestia’s magic, and called Tourmaline’s green framed glasses into existence. Saying nothing, he slid them onto Tourmaline’s face and she became the unicorn filly that he knew so well. Jet black with a soft pink pastel mane. Her stubby wings where the last things to vanish. 

“I can see again,” Tourmaline said, blinking behind her glasses. 

“Those do more than disguise you?” Bucky asked. 

“I didn’t know that I had bad eyes until Celestia gave me the glasses. She said she noticed me stumbling around. She thinks it is because I was kept in the dark for so long and my eyes didn’t grow right.” Reaching up with her foreleg, Tourmaline adjusted her glasses, sliding them up along her nasal bridge. 

“Bucky, dear, you need a shower and some mouthwash,” Celestia said as she raised her head. She twisted her head off to one side, and then the other, causing her neck to crackle and pop. “How are you feeling Bucky? You gave us a good scare.” 

“I feel okay… I guess,” Bucky replied. 

“Liars get apples thrown at them by Applejack,” Tourmaline said, reaching out and poking Bucky with her hoof. 

“Oh that’s not fair… I can’t hide anything from you.” Bucky lay there as Tourmaline prodded and poked him over and over. 

“Tell the truth or I’ll tell Bon Bon.” Tourmaline gave Bucky one final prod. 

“Oh bother… okay, I don’t feel so good. But I’ll be fine if I can take a shower and get something to eat.” Bucky’s words came out in a low grumble. “The bed feels like an oven. I don’t know if I want to get out of bed just yet.” 

“Buckminster, I must insist. Your breath could knock a buzzard off of an earth pony’s outhouse.” Celestia reached out and poked Bucky once with her hoof. 

“You’re kicking me out of my own bed?” Bucky asked. 

Celestia raised one graceful eyebrow into a perfect regal arch. “You are free to return when your mouth has been properly exorcised of stink demons.” 

“But this is my bed,” Bucky said in protest. 

“Buckminster, can we please continue this argument after you have some Dr. Goodpony’s Savoury Smile Mouthwash?” Celestia asked, maintaining her regal air as Tourmaline collapsed into giggling. She gave Bucky another gentle prod. “Go on… go forth oh noble knight and slay the evil stink demons.” 

Twisting his body around, Bucky tried to get his legs beneath him. The strain caused him to break wind, a tiny squealer that slipped free. Bucky froze, unsure of the proper etiquette of having an alicorn princess in the bed with you when you farted. 

Tourmaline was still giggling and Bucky was certain that he could hear Thistle giggling as well. The stink demons had company. Bucky looked at Celestia, not sure what to say or do. 

Shaking her head, Celestia raised her hoof to silence Bucky before he had a chance to say anything, then she leaned over, one wing pumped a few times, and then, Celestia sat there in silence, waiting. 

“Ugh! Gah! I can taste it!” Bucky pulled himself free from his entanglement with Berry Punch. He slid out of the bed, stood on the floor, and wiped his nose with his foreleg. This was almost as bad as one of Fluttershy’s silent but deadly creepers. Bucky had experienced one of those firsthoof, and had almost not lived to tell the tale. 

“I am part earth pony and pegasus. I am the living embodiment of a flaming, burning ball of gas. Do not tempt fate Buckminster Bitters, or you will meet the same fate as my sister Luna.” Celestia’s tone was imperious, regal, but her expression was betrayed by the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile. 

There was giggling from the bed as Bucky headed for the door. 

“Wait Bucky, I’m coming with you,” Berry Punch said as she slipped out of the bed. 



 

Exiting from the bathroom, Bucky found himself surrounded by griffons. He looked down at them as they looked up at him. He saw worried little faces. 

“He’s okay,” Berry Punch said in a reassuring voice. 

“Lugus is already eating. We have breakfast prepared,” a small male griffon said, sitting up on his haunches and wringing his talons together in a nervous fit. “If you would like, we can prepare for you a fresh cricket and cheese omelette.” 

“Hmm, that sounds good,” Bucky replied. 

One of the females approached, looking fearful and worried. “We saw a changeling.” After speaking, she scampered away and hid behind one of the males. 

Bucky sighed and did his best to keep a neutral expression. He heard Berry grumbling something he could not make out beside him. Not knowing what to do, Bucky decided to trust in his griffons. 

“It is very important that you keep this a secret. She is very dear to me and Celestia. She is dear to all of us. And if word got out that she was a changeling, there are those that would do her harm. And then I would have to hunt them down, disembowel them, and hang them by their own entrails after I pissed and crapped down their spurting neckhole. That would mean a lot of work for me… unpleasant work that I’d rather not do. So can you please, please keep this a secret?” Bucky looked around at the crowd of little faces, meeting each and every eye. 

Wide eyed, the griffons huddled together. Some of them had seen Bucky on the day of his rampage through Griffonholm and they knew from experience that his words were not an idle threat. Their king had a creative streak when it came to violence. Their king was an artist, misery and suffering were his canvas, at least when his ire was aroused. 

One brave male stepped forward. “If she is dear to you, she is dear to us. We will fight to the death to protect her. Her secret is safe with us.” The male saluted, clenching his talons into a fist and placing them over his heart. He looked up at Berry Punch. “And you my queen… what would you like for breakfast?” 

Berry Punch took a moment to think and then asked, “What is there to eat?” 

“We have oatmeal ready, a selection of frozen fruit that has been thawed, a delicious banquet of bugs, and the kitchen staff are prepared to cook anything we have on board,” the griffon replied. 

“One dozen eggs, one dozen pieces of toast, some pineapple if you have it, and lots of oatmeal,” Berry said. 

“We will have it ready for you… do come to the dining hall.” The griffon looked up at Bucky, daring to look Bucky in the eye. “Sir, I have a question.” 

“Yes?” Bucky replied. 

“It feels wrong to be serving bugs for breakfast with a changeling on board. Should we prepare something else?” the griffon asked. 

“No, I’ll take that cricket omelette. Everything will be fine,” Bucky said. 



 

As Bucky chewed, he stabbed his next bite of food with his fork. He watched as Lugus juggled, there were at least a dozen spoons being tossed through the air, and Bucky found himself almost entranced by the display of manual dexterity. Lugus was sitting, balanced on his haunches, keeping each spoon aloft with perfect timing. Bucky knew that Lugus was fast and that Lugus was far more agile than a creature his size should be, but this display was astounding. 

The little griffons with nothing to do had gathered around to watch. 

Lugus snatched each spoon out of the air when Celestia entered the dining hall, which also served as the common room. He set them down in a hurry and watched as the little griffons scrambled to greet Celestia, who they fawned over. 

As Celestia sat down, several griffons scurried off to the kitchens, some flying, some running. One flew to Celestia’s table with a pitcher of orange juice. 

Bucky watched them work. At home, he had forbade them from acting as servants in his house, a command that had caused much talon wringing and nervous squawking. From what Bucky understood, to keep in practice, they took turns serving one another, keeping their skills sharp for moments just like this one. 

“Buckminster, I must have a word with you about your showers… they are far too small,” Celestia said as a griffon poured a glass of orange juice. 

Shrugging, Bucky replied, “Berry Punch and I were able to fit in there just fine.” 

“Bucky… given the dimensions of the shower, that would mean you would need to stack two ponies on top of—” Celestia fell silent and a wry smile appeared upon her face. She shook her head and chuckled. “As it was, I had to wash the front half of me while the back half remained outside the shower. And then I had to wash the back half with the front half sticking out, which was awkward.” 

“I bet. Especially after that skidmark inducing fart in the bed.” Bucky stuffed his fork into his mouth and began to chew, making a lot of noise as he did so. 

“What is it that Luna says? Something like… you, minion, are too saucy,” Celestia said as she lifted her glass of orange juice. She took a drink and her lips puckered. “Oh my. For some reason I was expecting orange juice.” 

“Dehydrated powdered orange juice drink mix. Tastes real bad after you wash out your mouth with Dr. Goodpony’s Savoury Smile Mouthwash. I still have around a thousand pounds of the stuff.” Lifting his own glass, Bucky emptied it down and then grimaced. “Sentinel loves this stuff, he can’t get enough of it. He likes to lick the powder.” 

“Sentinel also loves the taste of toothpaste,” Berry Punch said around mouthful of toast. 

The griffons huddled around Celestia, looking up at her with expressions of adoration. One of the females came forward, timid, looking upward only for a moment and then averting her eyes to the floor. 

“What would our beloved Sun Mother like for breakfast?” the griffoness asked. 

Celestia, surprised, did a double take. “Did you… did you just call me Sun Mother?” 

The griffoness squirmed and bowed her head. “Did I offend?” 

“No,” Celestia wished the griffons would stop bowing and scraping around her. “No, I thought it was beautiful, thank you.” 

One of the males looked up for a moment. “You are the Sun Mother, Luna is the Moon Mother… our king is Winter Father.” The griffon bowed his head and flexed his talons in a nervous gesture. “We were rescued from a terrible nightmare and brought to a land where we can frolic in the sun, sing and make love under the moon, and we have been given shelter from the harsh winter. We are living a dream.” 

There was a clatter as Bucky dropped his fork. 

Celestia looked down at the griffons flocking around her. “That is beautiful.” 

One of the females looked up. “We were told to be poetic and find beauty. Have we done well?” The little griffoness looked hopeful. 

“You have done very well. Your words have touched me. Who told you to be poetic and find beauty?” Celestia asked. 

Saying nothing, but moving all as one in a group, each of the griffons pointed at Bucky. 

Bucky blinked in surprise, not expecting to be outed in this fashion. 

One of the males looked over at Bucky, and then at Celestia. “He made a decree that we were no longer servant griffons, but instead be known as artist griffons. He then told us to be poetic and find beauty.” 

“Sun Mother, can we prepare you some food?” one of the griffonesses asked. 

“I recommend the cricket and cheese omelette. You will find none better,” Bucky said. 

“A cheese omelette would be nice,” Celestia replied. “But no crickets for me, thank you.”

A lone griffon flew off to the kitchen to tell the others. 

A griffon standing near the door let out a sharp whistle, which caused almost every crest in the room to raise up. The assembled griffons almost seemed to panic as they took up position near the door. 

“Our queen approaches!” 

Picking up his fork, Bucky tore into the remains of his omelette. 
	
> Chapter 542
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch sat, stirring a bowl of thin runny oatmeal with a spoon, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. She had added her own milk to the bowl, thinning out the oatmeal and cooling it off. 

Raising an eyebrow, she looked at Bucky, who nodded. 

Bucky, sitting across the table, set down his coffee cup and smiled at Cadance, who was sitting on the table between them. “Hey Cadance… Cadance… you know what would make daddy happy? Can you name one of your sisters? What about your brother? Can you say one of their names?” 

Her wings fluttering, Cadance’s eyes went wide as she concentrated. Her lips moved and she blew a spit bubble. She looked around her, looked down at Bucky’s coffee cup for a moment, and then looked over at Tourmaline who was sitting at a nearby table with Belisama.

“Come on Cadance, I know you can do it.” Bucky leaned forward over the table. 

“Harpy?” A line of drool trickled down Cadance’s chin and she slurped it up. 

“Yes! Harpy. Harper is your sister. Very good!” Bucky said, using an exaggerated happy voice. He reached out his talons and, using one of his talon tips, he tickled Cadance’s ribs. 

Cadance, having been praised and tickled, chuckled and bounced around in place. 

It was in this moment that Berry Punch launched her sneak attack. The spoon full of runny oatmeal was slipped into Cadance’s open mouth, and then, with lightning fast reflexes, Berry Punch used her other front hoof to close Cadance’s lower jaw. 

Wide eyed, worried about a mouthful of strange stuff, shocked and surprised, Cadance, not knowing what else to do, swallowed. She sat there for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. She looked at Berry Punch, then at Bucky, and realising that she had been tricked, she stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at her father, spewing oatmeal into his face. 

“Solid foods already?” Celestia asked. “Has it been that long?” 

“Bucky recovered Cadance just after the hurricane and just before the first meeting of the Stable of Representatives,” Berry Punch replied. “It’s been a few months.” 

Bucky, covered in oatmeal, made a silly face at Cadance to distract her. Once more, Cadance began to laugh. Extending a talon, Bucky tickled her navel. 

Working in time with Bucky’s movements, Berry Punch prepared her spoon. She waited until Cadance was lost in the moment, laughing, and having fun as Bucky tickled her. When the time was right, she slipped the spoon into Cadance’s open mouth. 

The pink alicorn foal looked very alarmed when the spoon entered her mouth for the second time. She swallowed and then looked at Berry. Smacking her lips, Cadance banged one front hoof down upon the table. She smacked her lips a second time, the action every little foal did when they wanted to nurse or wanted to be fed. 

Glancing at Bucky, worried that this might be too good to be true, Berry Punch scooped out more oatmeal and then held the spoon out to Cadance, who went cross eyed when she tried to look at it. Berry waited, patient, hoping, and felt a flood of relief when Cadance opened her mouth.

“Oh you're going to make this easy,” Berry said as she fed Cadance. After getting the spoon in Cadance’s mouth, Berry Punch scraped oatmeal from Cadance’s chin using the spoon. 

“I can’t believe how easy this is,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “After all of the fighting with Harper.” 

“We’re not out of the woods yet. We caught her off guard with oatmeal and she likes it. There are lots of other things she might not like.” Berry Punch slipped another spoonful into Cadance, who gobbled it down with gusto. 

“So Cadance is our good foal—” 

“Bucky! All foals are good foals!” Celestia conjured up a wet wash cloth and dropped it in front of Bucky. 

“Say that after catching Harper in a bad mood,” Bucky said in a low grumble. He picked up the cloth and began wiping his face. 

“Luna got zapped by Harper.” Celestia smirked, unable to help herself. “Luna refuses to talk about how it happened, other than she got zapped.” 

Berry Punch, focused on her task, smiled as she scooped up more oatmeal. “Luna was ducked down below the edge of the bed. She popped up and shouted ‘BOO!’ at Harper. Harper unloaded on her. Facefull of lightning discharge.” 

Chuckling, Bucky drummed his talons upon the table. “At least Luna is lightning aligned. She shrugged it off and was okay. I was kinda proud of Harper though. Most foals would have been scared silly.” 



 

Reclining upon a sofa, Bucky watched as everyone around him did something with their time. The griffons were making music, something that Bucky found soothing, and he listened as he distracted himself by watching everything going on around him. Beside him, Bell Heather lay on her back, making foal-babble as she looked up at her father. 

Tourmaline was playing with her pet spider golem, running around the room after it, trying to catch it. It beeped and booped in protest as it darted in and out between the chairs and tables. It begged for the Sun to save it from the tiny terror. 

Violet and Raven had their noses buried in paperwork and ledgers. Vacation paperwork and ledgers, as Bucky had found out when he had inquired. Light work that wasn’t work at all. The mares spoke of it as a hobby, a means to pass the time, something interesting to do. 

Celestia, too big for the couches and sofas that lined the walls of the common room, lay in a nest of large cushions set up in the corner. A small pink foal napped beside her. Cadance had eaten every bit of oatmeal offered and was now comatose as her body worked to digest the semi-solid food she had eaten. 

Berry Punch and Thistle played cards with one another, some cutthroat competition that caused a bit of good natured squabbling between them. They were using spoons to gamble with, each one trying to outdo the other. Berry Punch held her cards close, peering down her muzzle at them, while Thistle left her cards upon the table, face down, lifting one up on occasion to have a look before she made a play. 

It was clear to anypony watching that Thistle was winning. 

Unnoticed, Bucky slipped off into a doze… 



 

The hallways were strange and distorted. Bucky looked around, trying to remember the name of this place. It was the orphanage in Tall Tale. He was sent here to do something… something important. He couldn’t remember the train ride here, but he sort of remembered the walk. He hadn’t been sleeping right and Bucky worried that his mind was out of sorts. 

From inside the walls, Bucky heard squeaking. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He caught of whiff of something he hated, the scent of urine and of filth. Rats. 

He trotted down the hall, looking around, the scent growing stronger and worse. The stench of decay hit his nostrils. It was, as Sentinel would have said, mouthwateringly bad.

Ahead, he heard thumping, a rhythmic sound that repeated over and over, a steady sound almost like a heartbeat. Other than the squeaking, it was the only sound. This was an orphanage. There should have been sound. 

As Bucky continued down the hall, the windows darkened. Clouds moved in, blotting out the sun, and the daylight shining in the windows grew dim. Bucky came to the slow worrisome realisation that he could not hear the sound of his own hooves. 

The walls were alive with the sounds of squeaking now. 

Stopping at a door, Bucky looked at it, looking up at it, it seemed too tall for equines. It did not seem square. The angles were odd… off… the top of the door seemed wider than the bottom. The keyhole was dark, no light shone through. 

The heartbeat like sound was coming from beyond the door. It thumped, a steady sound that made Bucky feel sleepy. He blinked a few times, trying to rid himself of his drowsiness. Reaching out his talons, he pushed the door open. 

The room was full of bodies. Little bodies. Tiny little bodies of foals, all of them smiling lipless grins, the soft parts of their faces chewed off, little square teeth were visible. They had no ears, no eyelids, and most of them had no eyes. The few that did looked at Bucky with wide eyed accusing stares. 

In the corner, a lone living foal bounced a red rubber ball against the wall. It thumped against the floor, against the wall, again against the floor, and then back to the colt, who kicked it away once more in an endless loop. 

“You there… come here… let me take you away from here,” Bucky said, gesturing the foal to come closer. “What is your name?” 

The foal turned to look at Bucky. The ball, interrupted from its endless loop, bounced on the floor, once, twice, and then rolled away, stopping when it hit the lifeless body of a foal. 

The only living foal, a colt, was dark purple-grey and had black mane. 

“My name is Larch and I talk to the dead.” 

“Larch, come here to me. We need to go.” Bucky gestured once more.

“You came too late. They’re all dead now and I can hear them whispering to me.” 

“Larch… let me get you out of here.” Bucky began to step through the room, trying not to step on any equine remains. He almost slipped in a slick puddle of ichor. 

“You can’t save me. You can’t save yourself. You can’t save anything.” 

“Don’t say that Larch,” Bucky said in a low voice, feeling queasy as he stepped over a filly whose body quivered in an odd manner, as if there was something crawling around inside of it. “Larch… it feels… it feels like… it feels like I have met you before.” 

“You have… you came to me and you took me away. You took me out of the orphanage and you bought me lunch and a sundae.” 

Bucky, feeling confused, stepped over another foal, trying to reach Larch, who was much farther away than it first seemed. “Why are you back here? If I took you away, why did you come back to this place?” 

“A better question is, why are you here?” Larch replied. 

The ball moved on its own, rolling back towards Larch, who began to bounce it against the wall once more, ignoring Bucky as Bucky tried to make his way across the room. 

“I came here to rescue you.” Bucky looked around. The room was getting darker. No light shone through the windows. It was getting harder to see Larch now. 

“The only things that are here in this place are dead things.” Larch, bouncing his ball, scowled and turned away from Bucky. 

Bucky’s eyesight shifted as the room became dark. Things took on a silver hue as his night vision manifested. “I can save you.” 

“Who will save me from you?” Larch asked. 

Freezing in place, his heart stopping, Bucky stared at the colt. 

“You don’t get it, do you? The only things here are dead things… you’re here for a reason. You can’t stop what is happening.” 

“I’m not dead… I don’t want to be dead!” Bucky cried, the dreadful meaning of the colt’s words settling into his brain. 

“I talk to the dead,” Larch said in a soft voice. “I’m sorry, but that is just how it is. I have accepted that and so should you.” 

His voice a low whine, Bucky said, “But I’m not dead… I’m not!” 

“You are becoming dead… you have no warmth of your own… you crave the warmth of others—” 

“NO!” Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. He opened his eyes and looked at Larch. “NO! I don’t accept that. I will not become a shadow! I will keep myself… I will find a way!” 

The darkness vanished and sunlight flooded through the windows. The room filled with golden light. For a moment, Bucky felt warmth. He felt alive. The warmth of the sun permeated into his bones. 

But the warmth kept increasing. The sun became brighter and brighter. Bucky felt himself grow hot. Too hot. The sun was burning him, searing his skin, it became hard to see. 

There was no place to hide, no place to go, there was no dark place to slip off to so he could find shelter from the sun. 

“NO!” Bucky shrieked as he felt himself ignite. 

Flames lapped along his pelt. He felt his skin blister, peel, he could smell hair burning. Searing heat stabbed through his body and Bucky felt the flames consume him. The sun was a bane to shadows. Bucky could feel his own flesh melting like hot wax as the fires of the sun purged his shadowy existence. 

Too late, Bucky realised that the sun was death. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 543
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster… I had no way of knowing… Tourmaline told me… I am so sorry…” 

When Bucky lifted his head, nausea overcame him. Sharp shooting pains lanced through his eyes and his head. He let his head drop and fought back the overpowering urge to throw up. 

“I love you so much… I would never want to cause you harm…” 

His guts twisting into knots, Bucky curled up into a fetal position and then held very still, hoping the feeling would pass. He clutched his head, wishing the pain would go away. 

“Mama, the pain is too much. He’s gonna be sick.” 

Bucky could feel the cool smooth fabric of the sheet against his face; it was growing warmer as he lay upon it. He kicked his body around, thrashing about, moving until he felt a new cool spot for him to press his face against. 

At least he hadn’t woken up cold. 

Feeling feverish, unable to get comfortable, Bucky rolled over. He felt the bed shift as somepony climbed up beside him. A soft smaller body lay down beside him, it was Thistle, he could smell her unique floral scent, the flowers that grew in her mane. 

“We had no way of knowing that Celestia’s magic would burn him like that. At least he’s not drained and weak like he usually is after these dreams. So that’s good, right?” 

Hearing Berry Punch’s words, Bucky let out a whimper, not sure how to feel. She hadn’t just been burned alive in a dream. There was nothing good about any of this. 

“At least I know how to fix this now. I have an idea that should help Bucky. I need something small, something simple and practical for enchantment. I do not know if it will block out Sombra’s influence entirely, but it should block out the worst of it.” 

“Snowflake.” Bucky’s words came out in a dry mumble. 

“That is an excellent idea… it is already enchanted, but I might be able to work around that… Bucky, what about the wolf head torque? That has a very simple enchantment on it, I know I can work around that without my magic erasing anything important or interfering.” 

Bucky felt as though his tongue was about to crack open. Unable to speak, he nodded. A moment later, he felt something being tugged from his neck. After a few yanks, it was pulled free. 

“I know this is awful, but we are fortunate that it happened and that I was able to witness it. I know the means of delivery, so to speak. It will take me some time, but I should have something finished by this evening. I hope that it will help. I will need to borrow Cadance. I think I will be able to draw out some of her essence and focus it into the charm. If this works out half as well as I hope it will, it should block out a good portion of Sombra’s destructive influence on Bucky’s psyche.” 

Drawing in a deep breath, Bucky heard Celestia’s words and felt a glimmer of hope. Celestia was also clever; her magic was powerful. Tourmaline’s glasses were proof of that. Celestia was to defense what Luna was to offense. The only pony whose abjurations exceeded those of Celestia’s were some of Twilight Sparkle’s experimental efforts. 

“So this is like a bandage then, until we can take care of the cause of the problem?” Berry asked in a low voice. 

“Yes… very much like a bandage. Something to cover over the wound and stop Sombra from picking at the scab. He might still get to Bucky, but from here on out, we’re going to make him work for it. It will be exhausting. No more easy access,” Celestia replied. 

A leg wrapped around Bucky’s body, causing his muscles to tense. He felt Thistle pull up against his back. Her body, soft as always, was a comfort against him. His nerves, screaming in agony from being burned, had started to calm somewhat, and Thistle’s gentle touch was soothing. He felt his muscles relax and he took a deep calming breath. 

“I think he’s feeling a little better,” Tourmaline said as she darted out from beneath her mother. She approached the bed, confident that Bucky was no longer going to throw up, and came closer to have a better look at Bucky. After a moment of internal debate, she jumped up into the bed and then flopped down near Bucky, hoping to bring some measure of comfort. 

“I should get to work. I will need to work undisturbed, if possible. Can you watch Tourmaline?” Celestia watched as Tourmaline snuggled closer to Bucky and Thistle.

“Nopony needs to watch me… I’ll be watching Bucky,” Tourmaline said in a very serious sounding voice. She clambered over Bucky, careful not to step on him, and situated herself between in the tight crevice that existed between Bucky and Thistle. 

“I hope that whatever you have planned works,” Berry Punch said as she watched Celestia heading for the door. 



 

Hunched over a small wooden table in her cabin, Celestia went to work. She set the wolf headed torque down upon the table, took a deep breath, and then looked around the cabin. 

“I know you are here. Come out, the Sun needs you.” 

There was a long stream of beeps and boops as a tiny spider golem crawled out from beneath the bed. It scuttled across the floor, ran towards Celestia, and waited, waving some of its legs around. 

Celestia scooped it up in her magic and set it out upon the table. 

The spider golem, glad to see its beloved sun goddess, bowed in the sort of way that only a spider golem could bow and then babbled at Celestia in Morsel code. 

“No… look… for the last time, I am not made of oranges. Now stop asking!” 

The golem appeared to cringe as it ran away to the corner of the table and cowered. 

“I need something you have. You have a piece of Buckminster’s soul within you… some of the essence of his dreams. You are connected to him in intimate ways and I need some of that. May I please draw out a tiny amount of that from you? I promise you, it will not hurt you or diminish you in any way.” 

The golem bounced in place once and then began tapping one leg upon the table. It angled itself, appearing to stare up at Celestia, as much as a glass orb with eight legs could stare, and then let out a stream of garbled gibberish that sounded an awful lot like a question. 

Confused, Celestia shook her head. “Slow down please… do you mind repeating that?” 

The golem let out the same stream of garbled gibberish, this time slower. 

“Yes… yes I am working to save your creator… I am not sure I understand the other half of what you are saying.” Celestia lowered her head, drawing closer to the tiny spider golem. 

The golem beeped something out in a very deliberate manner. 

Lifting her head, Celestia felt baffled by the metaphysical question posed by the golem. “You want to know if your creator loves you? What an odd question.” 

The golem, silent for a moment, made a shrugging gesture and then scuttled closer to Celestia. It stood near her hoof, touching her with one leg. He then let out another series of slow methodical beeps, boops, and bloops. 

“I… well… I suppose you have a point.” Celestia fell silent. Did her creator love her? At one point, Celestia thought she knew. Now, all she could detect was malice. Her creator, her parent, he… she… it… whatever her creator was, it wanted to kill her and end all life. “I suppose you have to look at the actions of your creator.” Celestia thought about the meaning of her words even as she said them. 

The golem beeped a few times and then appeared to be waiting for an answer. 

“Bucky created you. He gave you life, of a sort. He gave you a measure of free will. He gave you the ability to make decisions… choices for yourself. And when you chose something different than all of your fellow golems, Bucky did not melt you down, or disassemble you, or wipe you from existence. Bucky let you go so you could live your own life and be happy. You are happy, are you not, as Tourmaline’s companion?” 

The golem, frozen, did not move. After a long time, a short string of beeps came forth. 

“Is this not evidence of compassion, if not love?” Celestia asked. She thought about the creator of this world, the world she lived in, and felt bitter resentment welling up inside of her. 

The golem beeped and booped, one leg tapping on Celestia’s hoof. 

Celestia nodded. “Yes, love can feel warm at times. Depends upon the love.” 

After a pause, the golem asked another question, beeping in Morsel code. 

“Yes, the sun is also warm. So yes, love and the sun both feel warm.” In her whole long life, debating metaphysics with a golem was perhaps the strangest thing Celestia had ever done. 

The golem rubbed itself against Celestia’s fetlock and beeped. 

Feeling exasperated, Celestia took a deep breath and summoned her patience. “No! Love is not made of oranges and neither am I! Leave it to Bucky to create the most frustrating life form this planet has ever seen! Just because the sun looks like an orange does not mean that it is an orange… ugh! And just because I have skin and I am filled with juice inside does not mean I am an orange!” 

The golem beeped a few times, paused, and then beeped a few more times. 

Celestia began to snicker, unable to stop herself after the golem’s comment. “Yes. We must help those who serve the dark sky cheese. No, I will not take anything from you by force. If you tell me no, I will find another way to do accomplish what I need to do.” 

The golem darted over to the wolf headed torque and kicked it. It beeped. 

“Good. Thank you so much for helping me. Your service is appreciated.” 

The golem appeared to bow and it flashed a series of different coloured lights. it let out another series of beeps, communicating in golem gibberish. 

“Yes, perhaps that is a sign of a loving creator. They let you choose your own gods without resentment.” Pondering her own words, Celestia began to think about her own position in the bigger scheme of things. 



 

Exhausted, Celestia looked down at the wolf headed torque. She was sweating from exertion. Her horn ached. There were scorch marks upon the table. Her neck ached from being hunched over. 

The golem, glowing with a new radiance, now held a smidgen of sun essence, something Celestia felt was a fair trade for what she had taken. Now all she had to do was deal with the golem running around boasting that it was filled with orange essence. 

And then it hit Celestia. The golem now existed as a link between her and Bucky; their magics had been merged, a little piece of themselves had been mashed together and now served to give the golem life. 

Something about that notion made Celestia happy, but she could not explain why. 

The wolf headed torque was now warm to the touch, much warmer than it had been. It also glowed with a faint golden light. The metal thrummed with power. The torque had absorbed a great deal of Bucky’s own shadow essence, a fortunate circumstance, and Celestia had been able to fine tune her own solar magic to strike out against shadows, but not against Bucky’s own unique shadow magical signature. 

Lifting her hoof, Celestia examined her frog where she had sliced herself open. The incision, though tiny, was in a delicate place. It stung. All it had taken was a little blood to seal the magic, to grant it permanence, to give it power. A little droplet of scarlet beaded up where the skin had been sundered. 

The golem stopped mid-prance. It beeped at Celestia. 

The alicorn nodded. “Yes, you came to the rescue of your creator.” 

Dropping all eight legs down upon the table, the golem stood there, now still and unmoving. It spewed out a long stream of golem garble. 

Celestia rubbed her neck with her good hoof. “No no no… it is not about debt. You do not owe Bucky anything because he created you. If you do anything, you do it because you want to, not because you feel obligated. It does not work that way. Bucky made you and set you free. He never wanted slaves… he never wanted his creations beholden to him. And no, I do not know why you are different than the others, but that is okay. It is okay to be different.” 

The golem raised up three legs and made a confused looking gesture, something only those who studied golem body language might notice or know about. Three legs, an odd number, represented a lack of evenness. It beeped, a series of low solemn sounding beeps. 

Celestia let out a weary sigh. “If you want to worship Tourmaline as well as the sun that is your business. And no, Tourmaline is not made of black licorice and hard candy.” Celestia wiped her brow. “Bucky, I will never forgive you for creating golems with the ingrained need to find worthy gods, but I suppose it reflects your inner nature…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 544 (Much plowing and seed sowing) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“That golem is strutting… what’s got into him?” Bucky lifted his talons and pointed at the golem strutting its stuff on the floor. The golem strode about with a purposeful walk and Bucky waved his talons at it as if his gesture explained everything. 

Celestia raised her eyebrow. “Strutting?” 

“I never gave him that walk cycle,” Bucky replied. 

“Sometimes a creation outgrows their creator and they find a new walk.” Celestia turned her head and watched the essence of orange infused golem work the floor for all it was worth. As she watched, the golem raised two legs up high, waving them about, and then scurried around on six legs. She thought about her own creator. Had she outgrown him? Were all of these stumbles she had been making a new walk? 

With no warning, the golem ran up to Tourmaline, who was standing beside Celestia, and it tapped upon one of her hooves. It then took off in a hurried run. Tourmaline, surprised, squealed and took off at a trot, off to chase the golem, departing the room. 

Her excited cries could be heard as she went running down the hall. 

“This happens all the time.” Celestia turned her head to look at Bucky and a somewhat worried expression crept over her face. “How does it feel?” 

“Like being in a hot bath or something. I dunno. How is it supposed to feel?” Reaching up with his talons, Bucky adjusted the torque around his neck. “I… I feel relaxed or something. Like I can let my guard down.” 

“Good. I hope this works,” Berry Punch said as she extended her neck and nosed Bucky. 

Embarrassed, Bucky did not mention one effect he had noticed. Laying on his side, he brought his legs together, hoping to preserve whatever sense of modesty he had left at this point in his life. He felt warm alright. 

“So, uh, you used some of Cadance’s magic in this?” Bucky asked. 

“Just a little. It should help prevent feelings of isolation, of being lonely, and should help ward off the depressive states that make it easier for Sombra’s shadow to get to you,” Celestia replied. 

Bucky took a deep breath and tried to ignore the scent of Thistle’s flowers. Between his clenched thighs, it was springtime, and Bucky worried that the groundhog was going to come out and have his first look of the season. 

Springtime, when foals were born and mares without foals wanted to make more of them. Without realising he was doing so, Bucky leaned his head over and inhaled, drawing in Thistle’s scent. 

A feeling of warmth was creeping through Bucky, causing a strange need to frolic, the need of all ponies when exposed to the spring… or to the summer when mares went into uncontrollable heats, moved by the power of the sun. 

The groundhog emerged, did not see his shadow, and immediately set about to put an end to the long winter which had lasted since Bucky’s shower this morning with Berry Punch. Biting down on his lip, Bucky rolled over onto his belly and jerked his hind legs in, trying to reassert some control over himself. 

“Are you sure you are okay?” Celestia asked, looking at Bucky and taking note of his odd posture. “You seem on edge. Out of sorts.” 

Not knowing what else to do, Bucky yawned, a fake yawn. He licked his lips and blinked a few times, trying to look sleepy. He yawned once more and tried to ignore his growing problem. 

“Oh… I see. You are trying to stay awake. This will be a good test of the enchantment. Try having a nap. I think I might try to get a bit of rest myself.” Celestia paused. “The responsible thing to do would be to keep an eye on you though. Scoot over.”  

“No, no that’s okay,” Bucky said in a nervous squeak as Celestia took a step closer to the bed. He could feel his growing problem rubbing against the blanket. “I’d just like a little time alone with my wives. So we can talk about… stuff.” 

“Oh. I see. If you end up in trouble, I will come running,” Celestia replied as she turned and headed for the door. “Have a nice nap.” 

When the door shut, Bucky waited, each second was agony. He glanced over at Thistle, inhaled once more, tore his gaze away from Thistle knowing that she was still healing up inside, and looked at Berry Punch, who was laying on the bed beside him, sprawled out on her belly, her long curvaceous legs folded up against her belly. 

Her rounded belly. 

Bucky felt sweat beading up along his brow. 

Berry had said to come to her at any time with any need. There was a need alright. Bucky felt as though his boner was about to run out of skin and explode. He watched Berry’s tail swish from one side, then the other. It was curly, soft, silken, there had been many times that Bucky had buried his face in it and had become lost in the mass of what had to be one of Berry’s best features. Berry had the sort of tail that you wanted to rub your face in. It moved in all the right ways, covering her most of the time, but sometimes twitching aside to offer just enough of a peek to cause interest. 

Thistle let out a startled cry when Bucky sprung into action and pounced, catching Berry Punch unawares. As she watched, Bucky was on Berry’s back in a second, his forelegs wrapping around her middle, just ahead of where her stomach bulged. Thistle’s ears were filled with the sound of frantic grunting. 

Thistle, wide eyed, became aware of the fact that she wasn’t watching two ponies in the act of lovemaking. No, this was animalistic and crude. There was a loud lewd squelch and Thistle saw Berry Punch’s lip curl back into a savage snarl. Berry’s hips bucked upwards, her hind legs bracing, and then Berry’s ears pinned back. 

Rolling over to the edge of the bed, Thistle hung back to watch the show. 





Berry Punch did not know what had overcome Bucky, but she liked it. Bucky, always so careful, always so considerate, had never been one for rougher stuff or domination, something Berry wanted. There had been plenty of needy moments, but they had always been tender needy moments for the most part. 

The most that Berry had managed to get out of Bucky was getting him to hold his muzzle against the soft part of her neck where she could feel his pointed teeth and then getting him to growl. 

Right now, at this moment, Bucky had a mouthful of her mane in his mouth, yanking and tugging as he tried bury himself in deeper with every thrust. She could feel his hot breath huffing and puffing against her neck. His forelegs were tight around her middle, and she could feel the cold unforgiving metal of his talons pressing up against her flesh. 

It was enough to make Berry Punch clench up tight around what was being rammed inside of her. She felt dirty, she was being rutted silly, she was finally the dirty little sex toy that she always had wanted to be. Bucky’s complete lack of concern for her needs made her feel even dirtier. And Berry Punch liked it. 



 

Feeling what could only be described as a sexual awakening, Thistle felt a dampness creeping from between her hind legs. The room was filled with the sounds of grunting, heavy breathing, little whinnies, snorts, and whickers. There was none of the usual talk or murmured words that happened under normal circumstances. A wet rhythmic slapping sound manifested as Bucky’s thrusts became more forceful. Thistle, who was almost holding her breath at this point, shivered when she saw Berry Punch’s eyes roll back into her skull every time Bucky plunged into her depths. It was almost as if Bucky was pressing some button deep inside of Berry. 



 

As Bucky hilted himself inside of Berry, he could feel her winking clitoris throb. It bulged, becoming engorged as he pulled out, he could feel the slipperiness of it pressing into the soft of flesh along the underside of his cock, protruding, Berry’s hardness matched his own. With a violent frenzied thrust, he slammed himself in as deep as he could go, his balls slapping up against Berry’s swollen and somewhat abused marehood with enough force to cause Bucky to see stars. He didn’t care about the pain or the ache that it caused deep in his guts. As he pulled himself out, he felt Berry clench up around him once more, the hardness of her nubbin stabbing into the vulnerable soft flesh of his prick. She was spastic now, no longer rhythmic, but undulating with wild abandon. If Bucky had any presence of mind left, any capability of rational thought, he would have known that Berry Punch was climaxing. 

But Bucky didn’t care. Overcome with a bestial need, he wasn’t thinking about Berry’s needs for once. He redoubled his grip around her and yanked back his head, giving a rough tug on Berry’s mane. He heard a bellowing whinny, the sound inflamed him, stoking his inner fires and making them burn even hotter. He could taste a strange almost soapy flavour on his tongue, his mouth was full of hair. The smell of flowers and hot mare musk flooded his nostrils. 



 

Berry Punch could feel her hind legs quivering, they were going to give out any second. Her front legs were limp, helpless. She lay with her face down in the mattress, panting, trying to hold her backside up as Bucky pounded away with reckless abandon. 

She had cum three times already, the knowledge that she was being used, that she was just a plaything, it had a powerful psychological effect upon her. She was being railed like the dirty little earth pony mare that she was, being used for the only thing earth ponies were good for. Euphoric, drifting between orgasmic peaks, Berry felt the manic thrusting come to an end. Bucky was buried deep inside of her. She could feel her mane being tugged upon as he gave a few final humps, she felt a searing heat deep inside of her. She was nothing more than fertile earth, and fertile earth needed seed. Fertile earth had to be plowed. 

The land had to be tamed, split open, sundered, few ponies ever realised the violence inherent in farming. Berry Punch had at long last got a proper plowing. 

She felt Bucky on her back, his hips quivering as he worked out the last few drops of his seed, and with a cry, her legs gave way. She collapsed upon the bed, Bucky on top of her and still inside of her. She could feel him going soft. She willed her nethers to clench together, trying to hold him in, trying to suck out the last bit of spunk that Bucky had to offer. 

There was slobber running down Berry’s neck. Bucky was panting against her and she heard him spitting her mane out of his mouth. 

From the corner of the room, from the crib, a small voice asked, “Daddy?” 



 

Using her teeth, Thistle lifted Cadance out of the crib, holding the foal by the scruff of her neck. She crossed the room and lept up on the other side of the bed, away from Berry and Bucky, who were laying in a pile with one another. 

She plopped Cadance down and then lept from the bed, off to fetch Bell Heather. 

When Thistle returned a moment later, Cadance was sitting up on her haunches, looking at Berry and Bucky with a curious expression. Lovemaking happened around the littlest of foals, Derpy had assured Thistle this was normal, okay even, everything was fine until they were old enough to ask questions about it. Once the questions happened, the foals, in Derpy’s humble opinion, needed to be taught about privacy. 

Cadance, lifting her foreleg, pointed at Berry and Bucky. “What?” Her brow furrowed, causing her to have a wizened expression. 

Thistle giggled. For a moment, Cadance sounded very much like Harper. And then it struck her, Cadance was asking questions. Thistle sighed. From now on, a bit of caution would be required. She dropped Bell Heather down upon the bed, wrapped a foreleg around Cadance, and pulled both foals close. 

Hearing a few apologetic mumbles from Bucky, Thistle began to dream of the time when she was healed up and good to go. It wouldn’t be long… just a few more weeks. And then Thistle was going to get what she had been wanting, one way or another. 

“Hug?” Cadance asked, pointing at Bucky and Berry with her foreleg. 

Kissing Cadance upon her head, Thistle shushed her, turned her around, and didn’t let her look at Bucky and Berry anymore. She gave both foals a squeeze. 

“How would you like to be fed?” Thistle asked, hoping to distract Cadance. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 545
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Belisama, standing in the doorway, looked around the room. Berry and Bucky were piled together, covered in a blanket. Thistle was on the bed, a foal on each teat. The room was filled with the unmistakable scent of ponies screwing. 

Violet, standing beside her, snorted and then took off down the hall, chuckling as she went. Belisama turned and watched Violet go. After a moment, she turned her attention back to the ponies in the bed. She waddled into the room, shut the door behind her, and then approached the bed. It took a little effort, but with a few flaps, she got airborne long enough to land in the bed beside Thistle. 

Saying nothing, she patted Bell Heather and then Cadance. 

“I’ve been in the mood all day.” Belisama’s admission broke the silence. 

“I’ve been in the mood since watching them,” Thistle said in a low voice. She looked over at Bucky and Berry, who were almost drowsing. 

Reaching behind her, Belisama rubbed her back. It was filled with a dull ache that wouldn’t go away. Between her legs there was heat, a fire that needed to be tended to. 

“I can’t even see my own snatch,” Belisama said, her words an irritated sounding mutter. 

Thistle stretched out her foreleg and touched Belisama. “I know all about feeling fat.” 

“And backaches. I know that you know about backaches.” Belisama reached out her talons, wrapped them around Thistle’s hoof, and gave Thistle a soft squeeze. “I can’t stand it anymore… it is like I am on fire down there. I can feel myself throbbing… it is like I can feel my little nub throbbing in time to the throbbing in my back. I can’t stand this anymore.” 

Bucky, his ears drooping, lifted his head. “I know what you need. Come here you dirty little cat bird creature and let me help you.” 

For a moment, Belisama did not move. She lay there, still holding Thistle’s hoof. Grunting with exertion, she let go of Thistle and rolled over. Wiggling along on her belly, Belisama crawled over to Bucky. 

“This bothers me… I don’t like that you get me off and there is nothing I can do for you.” 

Shrugging, Bucky looked Belisama in the eye. “Believe me, I’m good. I don’t need to get off. But you do.” 

The griffoness rolled over, huffing and puffing, feeling the odd throb in her loins, a low burning fire in her belly. She felt a little tug on her tail, something that had once filled her with so much panic, but now she only giggled, a sound that came from deep within her throat and chest. She felt hot breath blowing over inflamed skin. 

Belisama let out a low warbling cry when she felt the first lick, a careful lick that didn’t part her, but left her feeling wet and eager for more. The second lick had a bit more force than the first, starting low and trailing upwards, lingering over all of the right place. 

There was an odd sensation between her legs. Belisama felt it, it was almost painful, a feeling of pressure, followed by a feeling of release. It felt good. The griffoness moaned. 

The third lick parted her, she could feel the tip of Bucky’s tongue prodding around what she knew to be her hood. Feeling a little embarrassed by Berry Punch and Thistle being so close, Belisama moaned. Most of the time, these moments were far more private, she liked being alone with Bucky, but this need was almost unlike any other. 

With the fourth lick, Belisama felt her nethers clench, followed by a hot almost orgasmic rush. It was a fantastic feeling, Belisama felt her whole body stiffen, every muscle quivered, and she dug her talons into the bed, hoping that she wouldn’t tear the sheets. 

“What the… did you just cum?” Bucky asked, lifting his head. “You are one gooey little griffoness.” He smacked his lips and licked his drenched muzzle. 

“Bucky! You moron! Her water just broke! Oh cripes what a mess! Thistle, go get Violet right now!” Berry said, rolling over and coming to life as she began to panic. 

“Oh no! I broke her water!” Bucky cried, jerking his head back and crawling away from Belisama with a worried whimper. 

“Oh please… don’t stop!” Belisama begged. 



 

“Hmm, musky.” Celestia, standing the doorway, looked into the room, taking note of the various states of panic. She knew full well what had been going on in here, there had been no napping, that much was obvious, but teasing Bucky would have to come at a later time. 

Celestia felt Violet dart between her legs, moving beneath her. 

“We need to get her to the med bay. I have everything set up and waiting. I have prepared for this. Bucky, I need your help. Belisama needs you just like Thistle needed you.” Violet looked at Bucky. It took a moment, but she saw the panic receding as his need for control took over. 

Feeling helpful, Celestia reached out, lifted Belisama with her telekinesis, and then took off down the hall, her hooves moving with a high stepping prance. “Somebirdy is going to be a mother!” Celestia announced in a sing-song voice. She heard the sounds of hooves stomping around behind her and muffled voices.

“No you twit! Your tongue didn’t break her water… where is a newspaper when I need one? Just get a move on you witless wonder! And to think that you are one of the royals in charge of this whole mess!” 

Celestia chortled as she turned the corner. Held in front of Celestia, Belisama had her beak open and she was panting. Her feathers were fluffed out and her lower half was soaked. 

“Why did he have to stop? It felt so good,” Belisama asked as she was whisked down the hall. She looked at Celestia, reached out her talons towards the white alicorn, and then closed her eyes. “Tell him to keep going… he’ll listen to you.” 

There was the scrabble of claws on wood and Celestia knew that she was being followed. She turned once more and went down the stairs, moving to the lower deck. The stairs were a tight fit for her, nopony was ever considerate enough to make anything with her size in mind. Down here, the hall was narrower. Detecting movement, lights flickered on, banishing the darkness. Reaching a door, Celestia threw it open with her magic. 

The sterile scent of disinfectant and cleaner stung Celestia’s nostrils. It was chilly in here and she noted that Belisama was huddling up. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she flicked the thermostat to turn up the heat. It had been turned down to conserve power and resources. 

Celestia laid Belisama down upon the bed, unfurled a blanket, tossed it over the griffoness, and then turned to look at the griffons behind her. Even with beaks, Celestia could see a lot of worried faces, many of them were wringing their talons together. 

“Lugnut, Spanner, I want both of you by the door. I would like for both of you to keep the others at a respectful distance just outside the door. If you all behave, we will leave the door open so you can watch. I know all of you are worried, but we need room to work.” Celestia looked down and waited. The mass of griffons parted, moving aside, clearing the doorway. 

Lugnut and Spanner took up positions inside the room, each standing on one side of the door. Spanner, standing bipedal, crossed his forelegs over his chest as he craned his neck, trying to get a better look at the bed, while Lugnut stood on all fours. 

Celestia summoned a fresh washcloth, drenched it under the faucet with hot water, and waited by the door, tapping her left front hoof upon the floorboards. Violet entered first, moving as Violet tended to move, full of purpose and vigour. Berry followed next, her eyes snapped to the bed as she came through the door. 

When Bucky came through the door, Celestia ambushed him. Ignoring his protests and his cries, she scrubbed his face, cleaning him up and making him a bit more presentable for when he greeted his cub into the world. It just wasn’t proper to meet your new offspring with its mother’s bodily fluids still upon your face. Using the corners of the cloth, she even scrubbed inside of Bucky’s nostrils, being very thorough. 

“At least you took my advice about being generous with orgasms to heart,” Celestia said. 

Thistle, carrying Bell Heather in her teeth, came stomping through the door. She stood there for a moment, looking up at Celestia, and then looked around the room with her eyes. 

Taking a hint, Celestia conjured up several cushions. 

Thistle dropped Bell Heather on the cushions and then turned to look at everypony else. “And none of you thought to grab the foals. Poor Cadance is still in the bed asking for her daddy.” 

“Oh snot!” Bucky started to head for the door, froze, and then looked at Belisama, who had begun to moan. 

“I will go and get Cadance, hold on,” Celestia said, taking matters into her own hooves. 



 

Bucky paced back and forth, never taking his eyes off of Belisama. The griffoness seemed to be enjoying everything that was happening, laughing, she seemed very relaxed about everything in general. 

Offering no warning, Bucky snatched up Spanner from his spot by the door, holding the griffon up to eye level in a blue-green telekinetic field. “You’re lucky that you're gay.” 

The griffon, flummoxed, went limp and stared at Bucky. “I beg your pardon?” 

“You are lucky that you are gay. You will never know the agony of worry when the one you love is giving birth, being torn open horribly because of something that you did. You have an ideal life… you have cubs and the one you love and all is well and perfect.” Bucky pulled the griffon closer, coming beak to snoot. 

From her chair in the corner, Magpie struggled to hold back her laughter. 

“I suppose I have it pretty good… sir,” Spanner said in a low voice, his beak a mere inch from his king’s fleshy and fresh scrubbed snoot. The griffon peeled his eyes away from his king and looked over at the corner where Thistle lay, looking at his own cubs, who were sitting with Cadance and Bell Heather, being quiet and well behaved. Spanner realised that he did indeed, have an ideal life. 

Bucky dropped Spanner, who landed on all fours and scurried away, moving back to his post at the door. As Spanner resumed his watch, he looked up at Lugus, who towered in the doorway. 

“Are you going to tell me to stand outside the door with all the others?” Lugus asked, his voice a low growling rumble. 

Spanner nodded and began to tremble. He looked up at Lugus. “Yes, if you would, please stay outside of the doorway.” 

Lugus took a step back, careful not to step on any smaller griffons, and looked down at Spanner. “Good. Guard your queen. You might be the royal mechanics, but today you are the queen’s guard as she welcomes her cub into the world. Do your duty.” 

Spanner blinked, his fear vanished, and he looked up at Lugus. Clenching his talons, he placed his fist over his heart and then saluted with his wing. 

Standing on the other side of the door, Lugnut did the same. 

Still pacing, Bucky paused by the bed for a moment, sniffed, and then resumed his vigil. 

Not knowing what else to do, Berry Punch went over and laid down with Thistle. Reaching out her foreleg, she scooped up both Sprocket and Cog. She kissed them, each one in turn, and then gave them a squeeze. 

Tourmaline, sitting in a chair beside Magpie, watched everything that was going on with wide curious eyes. She felt everything, every emotion, and it was overwhelming. She stayed quiet, sat still, and kept to herself, not wanting to cause trouble. 

“When is something going to happen!” Bucky, bellowing, destroyed the quiet subdued atmosphere with his voice. 

“Bucky, these things take time. Be patient. Go hold one of your foals or something,” Violet said in a soft voice. “Belisama is having an easy time of this so far, so relax.” 

Going still, Bucky stared at Violet, his eyes watering. “I’m having a rough time. I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I’m sorry I shouted.” 

“Bucky… just… just go over there with Thistle and Berry for a while. Take a seat. Get off your legs. Everything will be fine…” 
	
> Chapter 546
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh this just isn’t fair.” Turning away from Berry, Thistle lifted her head high and snorted. “Other than a sore back, Belisama doesn’t seem bothered by this at all.” 

Berry narrowed her eyes at Thistle. “Do you really want Belisama to start screaming like you did? Do you want her to suffer?” 

“No!” Thistle, feeling hurt, was unable to stop her lower lip from protruding in a pout. “She’s laughing… laughing… this just feels so unfair but I don’t want her to suffer.” Feeling ashamed, Thistle grabbed Bell Heather and pressed her face into her foal’s back, trying to hide. 

Around them, the ship rocked, shuddering. Several griffon crests arose. There were worried peeps. Celestia lifted her head, her horn almost bumping the ceiling, and looked down at the worried griffons peering around the doorframe. 

“Everything is fine. Just a little turbulence, that is all. Bucky went to make sure everything is okay and I am positive that everything is fine,” Celestia said in a confident soothing voice. 

Sitting up, Belisama held her stomach, took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out in a low whistle. “I feel like I ate too much. Hard to breathe.” 

“Lay back. Stop bunching up your body. It will be easier to breathe,” Violet said as she reached out a hoof and pushed Belisama over on the bed. 

“But I want to sit up and be able to look at everybirdy and everypony.” Laying on her back, Belisama took another deep breath and held it. 

Cadance, sitting up and looking solemn, spread her wings outwards, flapped a few times, and then with all of the regal majesty that only an alicorn empress could muster, belched, pulling her lips back from her miniscule teeth and letting go of everything that had been trapped inside. 

For a moment, all sound in the room ceased. 

“Good girl!” Reaching out a foreleg, Berry Punch patted Cadance on the back. “Who is mama’s good girl… that’s right… you are!” Still patting Cadance, Berry Punch smiled. “She’s learning how to burp… no more having to burp her or Bucky worrying about her exploding.” 

“Bucky worries that she will explode?” Celestia asked, raising her eyebrow. 

“Bucky worries that all foals will explode. Not just Cadance. He burps them thoroughly. Derpy told him that if he failed to burp a foal properly, they would explode. Now he has nightmares about it,” Berry Punch replied, sounding Berry serious. “Derpy told him that pegasi foals are the most susceptible and if Bucky didn’t burp them in just the right way, he’d come to the crib one day and find nothing but feathers and four little hooves.” 

“That explains so much about what Luna was telling me about Bucky’s nightmares and his phobia of exploding foals,” Celestia said, shaking her head. Looking down at her niece, Celestia couldn’t help but feel that Cadance was getting a colourful upbringing. 

Bucky, appearing in the door, peered into the room. “We’re fine. We’re flying over a storm. The ship is a little icy, but there are spells to make sure that everything remains okay. We’re just hitting some strong updrafts, that’s all.” 

“Good to hear,” Celestia replied. “Buckminster, I have something very important to ask you and I would like an honest answer.” 

Standing up straight, Bucky looked Celestia in the eye. “Yes?” 

“You would never do something so careless like slack off when it comes to burping a foal, would you?” Celestia asked, exerting the same force of will it took to move the heavens to keep a straight face. “I worry about my niece—” 

“I take my duties very seriously,” Bucky said, cutting Celestia off. Around him, he heard snickering, chortles, and sniggering. “When it falls upon my shoulders, I make sure that I work out every gas bubble I can. Especially on Cadance. She’s part pegasus. And if I can’t make the magic happen, I bring them to Derpy.” He glanced around and saw Berry Punch biting her front hoof. One of his eyebrows raised and the other arched downwards. 

“Had I the power, I would make you the alicorn of devoted fatherhood,” Celestia said.

Glancing around, Bucky scowled. “Go ahead and laugh. Derpy and I both know the real dangers of what could happen. Nopony takes us seriously.” Crossing the room, he went to Belisama’s side, nosed her once, and then lifted himself up into the bed to lay down beside her. 

“Bucky’s devotion deserves notice,” Lugus said in a low voice. “All those nights he stayed up with Harper while she suffered from colic. Bucky was the only relief she had.” 

“Poor little Harper. I hope my foals don’t end up with digestive issues,” Thistle said, pulling Bell Heather a little closer. 

“Eh, a little yogurt and Harper is fine,” Berry said. “So what if she goes around farting like a pegasus. Ponies keep making a bigger deal about this than it needs to be.” 

“I’m worried about my little hippogriff and her digestive system.” Reaching out his talons, Bucky ran one talon finger along the side of Belisama’s head, smoothing out her feathers. 

“Bucky, crossbreeds usually take on the best traits of both of their parents. I have known several hippogriffs. Perhaps the most interesting was a vegetarian hippogriff that used his beak to eat seeds, nuts, and fruits.” Celestia stepped closer the bed, dropped her head, and peered down her muzzle at Belisama. 

“I am hoping that when I go home that Yew Wood will have good news for me. I must admit, I am envious of my friend,” Lugus said, peering through the doorway with his head cocked off to one side. “Berry Punch provided a most thoughtful gift for the holidays.” 

“Zecora’s potions usually work.” Berry watched as the griffon twins, Sprocket and Cog, hugged one another. “Worked out well for Rainbow Dash.” 

“Bucky, I’ve told you this before, and I am telling you again, but griffon cubs are hideous little monsters.” Belisama rubbed her stomach as she spoke. “They are the most horrible awful ugly little things you have ever seen… I want you to love your cub… but you have to give her a chance. In time… she will be beautiful.” 

The griffons around the door all nodded and murmured, agreeing with Belisama. 

“I dunno, they’re not so bad,” Magpie said, shrugging. “The trick is not to look at them.” 

Shaking her head, Celestia frowned. “I cannot believe what I am hearing. All babies are beautiful. Talking about this just as Belisama is about to give birth… I am disappointed in all of you.” 

“But griffon cubs are horrific,” a small griffoness said from the door. 

“They cannot be that bad,” Celestia replied. She nosed Belisama and lifted her head a bit. “How are you feeling?” 

“The back spasms and cramps have less time between them,” Belisama replied. 

The griffoness wiggled and rolled over on her belly. She hiked up her hips, sticking her posteriour up in the air, and then sighed as her tail swished back and forth. “Ah, that’s better.” 

Reaching out his talons, Bucky rubbed his talon tips over the spot just above the base of Belisama’s tail, causing the griffoness to wiggle her backside around. After a moment, Belisama closed her eyes and began to purr. 

Violet, taking a change to examine Belisama’s backside, leaned in and had a good look. “I don’t think it will be long now. Bucky, you’re about to be a daddy… again.” 





Clenching her talons, Belisama flexed them around Bucky’s metal talons and squeezed. Panting with exertion, she hiked up her tail and waited for the painful spasm to pass. Still laying on her front with her backside up in the air, Belisama found that she could only get comfortable in this position, as odd as it was. 

With a cry, Tourmaline lept from her chair, bounced on her hooves, and lept up into Magpie’s chair. She flung her forelegs around the startled griffoness and squeezed. “I can feel her pain. I’m scared.” 

Recovering, Magpie wrapped her foreleg around Tourmaline and pulled the foal close. When the foal closed her eyes, Magpie began to rock Tourmaline back and forth. Aware that Celestia was looking at her, Magpie squeezed a little tighter, hoping to reassure the distraught foal in her embrace. 

With a confused expression upon her face, Cadance watched everything with wide eyes. Sitting between Berry Punch and Thistle, the tiny alicorn, determined to watch, wailed if somepony touched her or tried to pull her close. 

Thistle, remembering the pain of birth all too well, reached out her foreleg, seeking Berry Punch’s, and then felt Berry Punch reaching out to her. They hooked fetlocks together and then Berry Punch leaned over and kissed Thistle on the cheek, careful not to disturb Cadance. 

“I do not get to attend enough births,” Celestia said in a soft whisper as she stood guard by the bed. “I have seen so many deaths. In my long life, I have seen far too many lives end. I treasure each new life I get to witness.” 

“I have ended too many lives… I would rather make them,” Bucky said as he rubbed Belisama’s back for her. For a moment, he worried that his words might sound trite. 

“Buckminster…” Celestia’s voice was thick with emotion as she turned to look at Bucky. “It does my heart good to hear you say that. It is my greatest worry that you will one day grow to love violence and killing.” 

“No.” Bucky’s voice was a low whisper. He pressed his snoot against Belisama’s neck, inhaled, breathing through her feathers and nuzzling her to encourage her. “No, this is better.” 

Letting out a strained groan, Belisama squeezed down so hard on Bucky’s talons that it made her own talons ache. She gasped, held her breath for a moment, and then began to push once more, feeling a strong need to push and bear down. 

“You were my curious little cat bird creature. When you were being curious, crawling all over me, touching my lips, feeling my face, I admired your courage and began to feel something for you in those moments,” Bucky said, whispering into the spot where Belisama’s ear was.

The griffoness gasped and then panted. She took a deep breath and then said, “You were treacherous… you scared me… but you did not hurt me.” Belisama gulped down more air. “I was impressed... by your treachery… I said you were almost a griffon…” There was another gulp. “I am still your… your servant… I would do anything you ask of me… you have given me freedom… and I choose to serve… I am happy with… the Shackle Breaker King.” 

Belisama yowled, clutched at Bucky’s metal prosthesis, and dragged her claws down the length of metal. Her yowl became a screech and her tail went stiff. One wing extended and flapped. 

“Wow, that’s tiny,” Violet said as she stood there blinking. 

“What is tiny?” Celestia asked, moving around to have a look. 

“I think I just saw her head.” Violet leaned closer for a better look. “It peeked out for a moment and then was sucked back in.” 

“All griffons are born small,” a griffoness said as she peered through the door. “Even Lugus, our protector, he was born teeny tiny.” 

“Was not.” Lugus, holding his head high, attempted to look as dignified as possible. 

“Oooh this just keeps getting more unfair.” Thistle’s voice was a low whisper and almost a whine. After saying it, she felt bad, guilt settled in; what was unfair was getting set on fire in a dream and living through the sort of things that Bucky had to live though. Falling silent, Thistle resolved to hold her tongue until this was over. 

“I see it!” Celestia pranced in place, her hooves thudding on the floor as she acted like an excited filly. “I saw it… it poked out for a moment!” 

Violet nodded. “It did.” She looked at Bucky and came to the realisation that he wasn’t going to see much of this birth. He was embracing Belisama, allowing her to hold his talons, and lost in the moment. Turning her head, she looked up at Celestia. “Be ready with one of those soft cloths I have over there.” Violet pointed at the counter where a stack of dark blue cloths were laid out. 

“Why are they blue?” Celestia asked, looking at the pile. 

Violet lowered her voice. “It hides the blood. It just looks like a darker shade of blue… or purple. Makes it easier on those watching. White is a terrible idea.” 

“Raven can’t stand the sight of blood. It makes her nauseous, queasy even. Poor dear.” Celestia looked around the room, missing her assistant. She snatched up a blue cloth and waited. 

“Belisama, give me a big push… everything you got.” Violet said as she watched the head peek out and not slip back in. “You may choose to live like a sparrow, but today you are the lioness… now push!” 

Thistle, who did not want to look, could not tear her eyes away. She squeezed Berry’s fetlock with her own and then felt Berry squeeze back. Transfixed, she watched as there was a gush of blood and fluid that came dribbling out of Belisama, her swollen slit was puffy and enlarged. There was something dark and purple sticking out, it was too small to make out the details. 

Belisama screamed; it was strange throaty warbling cry that wavered in pitch. 

Bucky, holding Belisama, had his eyes closed and his muzzle was pressed against the griffoness’ neck. He could feel her pulse, her lifeblood, the very rhythm of her life pounding in her neck, in a hidden place just under her skin. 

“Is that it?” Celestia asked as Violet scooped something small up in a blue cloth and began to rub it. “That’s too small…” 

Ignoring the confused white alicorn, Violet rubbed down the tiny body she was holding, aware of how fragile it was, it was a little thing, a thing that was all too easy to break. She could feel something wiggling inside the cloth. 

“I need to see it!” Celestia said, dropping her head. Using her own telekinesis, she peeled back the blue cloth and had a look. She could feel the newborn’s need for warmth, for heat. Celestia, being the living embodiment of the sun, became radiant. The room filled with warmth, the warmth of the shining sun. 

“May I?” Celestia asked. 

Violet nodded and went to work wiping up Belisama’s backside, cleaning the griffoness up and making sure that everything was okay. 

Holding the cub aloft in her own magic, Celestia could not help but stare. It was hideous. One half had hair, a thin layer of fuzz, the other half was bald. There was nothing. Celestia, who believed all life was beautiful, was revolted by what she saw. The griffons had not been lying. 

After Violet slipped a clamp upon the cord, Celestia brought the cub to Bucky to show him his hideous mutant chicken-cat-bat offspring. Saying nothing, Celestia set the tiny bundle down by Bucky’s foreleg. 

She watched as Bucky stuck his nose into into the bundle, pushing aside the corner of the cloth. She took a step back and waited. 

“She… she has Sentinel wings!” Bucky looked up at Celestia. “I can see the membranes… the little fingers… little thumbs… how is this possible?” 

Celestia shrugged, but she suspected it was Bucky’s altered nature at work. There would be time to discuss it later and figure everything out. 

“Her eyes are closed. She was born with closed eyes? When will they open? I want her to see me.” Bucky was almost stammering as he spoke. He moved his head aside and let Belisama have a look. 

The griffoness jerked her head away, her crest raising to an erect position. “Ugh! I did that?” Belisama shook her head. 

“She has tiny toes!” Bucky cried. He pressed his nose against the cub, not caring about the slick slime still coating her body. 

“Yes Bucky, some babies have tiny adorable little toes,” Celestia said. And some babies are horrifying little mutant chicken-cat-bat creatures with tiny little toes. Celestia shivered. 

“Wait… she has toes? She’s a hippogriff!” Bucky, lost in the moment, failed to notice that he was the only one looking at the cub. Everyone else in the immediate area was looking away. 

Looking down at Bandua’s little body, angling his head around, he had a closer look. He looked at her talons and then at her other front leg. He did a double take. She had a front hoof. Both left legs were griffonesque in nature, one lion leg and one set of talons. On the right, her legs were equine. One front hoof, extra tiny, and one hind hoof, also extra tiny. Her eyes were closed, sealed shut. Her beak was little more than a rubbery nub. She had a naked exposed dock, which Bucky took to mean that she would have a pony tail. 

Lifting his head, Bucky looked at Celestia. “I made this.” 

“Yes Bucky, you did.” Celestia smiled and felt just awful that she found Bucky’s cub revolting. Guilt fell over her like a shroud. She tried to take some consolation in the fact that Belisama also seemed disgusted. 

“I made this,” Bucky repeated. He reached out his talons and touched Belisama. “I put my seed in there and this came out…” 

Nodding, Celestia wished that she could feel Bucky’s foal like sense of wonder. “Yes Bucky, that is how you make offspring. You slip a little something into a female and leave behind a little part of yourself… and then this happens.” 

“I made a tiny little foal… cub… I made life… there is a little part of me walking around!” 

Reaching out her talons, Belisama grabbed Bucky’s lips and pinched them shut. Weary, sweating, Belisama stretched out her neck and took another look at the cub in the bundle. “Hello Bandua… you’re a lucky little girl… your father thinks you are the most beautiful thing ever.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 547
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky paced, Belisama made a retching, gagging sound. The griffoness coughed for a moment, nodded, and then Lugus passed her a spoon that had been bent and now almost resembled the spout of a pitcher. 

Opening her beak, Belisama reached in with the spoon, scraped the spoon along her bottom beak, and then held the spoon over Bandua as the little newborn griffon cub lay there peeping, begging for food. 

“At this stage, she is a stomach and a body,” Belisama said, her voice coming from deep within her throat. Having a beak full of food did nothing to impair her speech ability. “Bucky, everything will be fine, I promise you.” 

Feeling a rush of emotion that made her eyes begin to water, Belisama tilted the spoon down the throat of the griffoness cub that carried her dead sister’s name. Belisama watched as the head bobbed up and down, drawing food down into the gullet. Tiny membranous wings flapped, looking nothing at all like the usual wings that would bear feathers. 

Magpie, stepping around Bucky, approached the table with her head bowed low. “Little griffon cubs spend the first year or two completely helpless.”

“Year or two?” Bucky asked, his pacing coming to a halt. 

“Well, for some, it is a year, for others, two. Hard to say why. Her eyes will open in about fourteen to twenty one days from now… maybe a little longer, maybe a little shorter. I suspect that it has to do with nutrition and good health,” Magpie replied. The hunter griffoness froze when she felt Bucky’s talons wrap around her leg. The metal was cool and Bucky did not bear down upon her. 

“Good health?” Bucky asked. 

Magpie, feeling Bucky’s talons slip from her leg, nodded. “Little cubs do most of their development outside of the womb. Belisama was right to say that at this stage, they are basically a stomach. You stuff them full of food every so often. If they peep, you feed them. Little ponies seem so much easier. They grow so quickly and do not stay helpless.”  

“Do they?” Bucky cocked his head at the statement and then looked around the room. 

“Buckminster, little yearlings can survive with no parents. They go mustang, become little feral foals, but they do survive. At six months… roughly Harper’s age, a little foal does not need their parents as much as the common pony might think. They have survived… life goes on, as they say,” Celestia said as she shoved a pile of blue cloths into a laundry chute. 

“A griffon at the same age would have no chance of survival. They would die.” Magpie, feeling brave, reached out her wing and stroked Bucky across the back. She felt him jump, his muscles bunching up as he was startled, but then he calmed as she trailed her feathers over his back. “A little griffon cub takes until about the age of three or so to reach the same level of development as a pony yearling… and then the griffon accelerates its growth. But they all start out so fragile… even Lugus was once tiny and helpless.” 

“Even with the slowed development, it is easy to see how griffons can build up their numbers so quickly… one hundred and ten days in the womb and then off they go to be raised by a griffon like you, Magpie.” Bucky eased his backside down to the floor, sitting by the bed. He rested his chin on the mattress and stared at his cub. 

Bandua’s back half was a tawny tan colour, very much like his own pelt. Her front half was pink… just skin. She had been cleaned up and was now gunk free. 

Magpie, who took a seat beside Bucky, also stared down at Bandua. “She is aggressive.” 

“How can you tell?” Bucky asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at this cub, watching as Belisama poured another spoonful of food down her gullet. 

“Some cubs are shy feeders, others are aggressive feeders. The shy ones, you tap their beak nubs and they open up. Aggressive feeders attack the spoon or their mother’s beak.” Magpie watched as Bandua’s head bobbed, the cub wiggled, and then lay down and went still. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Bucky asked, becoming panicked. He stood up and the tapping of his talons on the floor could be heard. 

“She’s full of food and she is going to sleep so her body can digest all that food,” Magpie replied, using the same soft voice that she used to comfort little cubs. “The food is thicker and more solid than milk. She will either be awake and begging for food, or asleep and digesting food.” 

Belisama set the spoon down on the bed beside her, reached around with her talons, and rubbed her back. “I am very tired… I would like to sleep.” 

“Of course,” Violet said, nodding her head. “Bucky, carry her back to your cabin.” 

“Bandua is too small to go into the crib with Bell and Cadance.” Bucky, still staring at Bandua, lifted his head and then with great effort, tore his eyes away from his cub so he could look at Belisama. “You’re going to have to sleep in the crib with Bandua. All of you should fit.” 

“I can sleep in the crib. I don’t mind.” Belisama arched her back, flexed her spine, and then reached up with one hind leg to scratch her neck. 

“She’s cold.” 

Dropping his head, Bucky came eye to eye with Tourmaline, who looked worried. 

“She’s cold. It hurts.” 

“Oh.” Bucky lifted his head and with a flick of his telekinesis, he covered Bandua. He watched as Belisama lifted the cub in her talons and hold it close, trying to warm it. He glanced back down to Tourmaline. “Is that better?” 

Nodding, Tourmaline blinked. “I think so. She doesn’t feel much of anything… she’s blank. But she felt cold.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind… she’s only got a pelt on one half of her body.” Bucky, reaching out his foreleg, pulled Tourmaline closer and gave her a hug. 



 

“The queen has birthed a powerfully ugly cub.” 

“She is queen, she deserves those bragging rights.” 

“We must get a picture with one of those camera things.” 

“Yes, yes we must get pictures!” 

“For our history… we can keep track of our history now without fear of reprisal.” 

“She is a hippogriff… and she was born with powerful ugliness… it is a sign.” 

“Of course it is a sign you twit… Odin walks among us once more. He came back.” 

“Odin’s Herald will grow to become a large powerful warrior. She might even rival our protector, Lugus in size. Odin has promised us that his Herald will defend us.” 

“She will have to be huge if she is to defend Lugus. Odin promised that his Herald would protect us all. Lugus is one of us.” 

“Lugus is a warrior griffon… he is not one of us.” 

“He most certainly is.” 

“Is not. He is a griffon, but he is not one of us. We are small. He is large.” 

“He is one of us. He protects us. He is kind to us. He brings our little ones chocolate covered bugs and tells them stories. One of us! Odin would not promise us a protector, a herald, and then not protect all of us.” 

“Our king is one of us but he is not a griffon.” 

“Well of course our king is one of us. He has a brand. He’s a slave. He knows our pain.” 

“And Lugus does not? Lugus fought beside our king to liberate us. He was wounded. He BLED for us.” 

“Fine… Lugus is one of us. To shed blood is to show dedication.” 

“Ow! You stabbed me with a claw! I am bleeding!” 

“I was testing your dedication.”

“Will you two cat-brains stop that? We should not being drawing one another’s blood.” 

“I have a bird-brain… I am no idiot cat-brain!” 

“Then act like it… ugh.” 

“Bandua must never know want… if she is to grow to become our protector, Odin’s Herald, we must make sure that she has every single advantage we can give her. Our future is at stake.” 

“She will need many bugs, like Lugus needs many bugs.” 

“We will need more bugs. More bugs will need to be farmed.” 

“We will have our warrior defender that will watch over us while we work and keep us safe! We will never know fear again, or want, or need.” 

“We have that now, more or less. Our king gives us that.” 

“And we will have it in the future. Our cubs will never know the suffering that we have had to endure.” 

“Our cubs will know a future of worthy work, much food, and music.” 

“As it should be.” 

“Yes, as it should be.” 

“Bandua will need followers… helpers to do her bidding if she is to protect us.” 



 

“Do you hear that?” Celestia asked. 

Raven, reading a book, looked up from her novel, her ears perking up so she might hear better. She heard… something, but she had no idea what it was. “Is that the wind howling?” 

Celestia shook her head. 

“It sounds like… I don’t know… what is that?” Raven asked as she set her book down. 

The large white alicorn began to turn a bright shade of pink. 

“Should we sound an alarm?” Raven stood up from her chair, stretched, and one eyebrow raised in concern. 

“The little griffons are celebrating I think.” Celestia’s eyes darted around the room. 

“You mean… that sound… is the sound of little griffons… doing—” 

Celestia nodded. 

“All of that hideous keening and yowling?” Raven snatched up her book, her satchel, and hurried for the door of the common room. “I’m going to be in my cabin. It’s getting louder. Come and get me if you need anything.” Moving at a rapid trot, Raven departed. 

Now alone, Celestia stood in the common room, thinking about life and all that went with it. She thought of Tourmaline, tucked away in her bed and sleeping. It had been a long day and Celestia felt a bone deep sense of exhaustion. 

More than anything, she wanted to be in bed beside Tourmaline. Turning off the lights, Celestia headed for her own cabin, thankful that the long day was over. 

As the darkness crept through the room, Celestia gave thought to her sister, Luna, who had been left to rule Equestria during Celestia’s absence with Shining Armor, Tannis, and Agnetha to help her. 



 

In a far away place, in a realm inaccessible to most, the Lord of Fire paced about in a bipedal form, his arms folded behind his back, his brow furrowed with worry. Pausing mid-step, Scorch turned to look at the little griffon sitting upon his throne. 

“You’re sitting in my chair,” Scorch said in a low resonant rumble. 

The griffon shrugged in reply, not caring that he was sitting in the Lord of Fire’s throne. 

“Thank you, by the way,” Atropos said as she took a step closer to Scorch. 

Scorch turned and looked at the trio of alicorns standing near him. “Thank you for what?” 

“For giving us a safe place to make this exchange. Too many eyes in other places. As one of the supreme authorities, you are given a measure of privacy that very few have,” Lachesis replied. 

“For all of my authority, I still answer to you,” Scorch said, bowing his head. 

“For all of our authority, you still have ways and means that we lack.” Clotho stepped forward, moving in front of her sisters, and she bowed her head to Scorch. 

“Which is why we are working together,” Odin said, leaning forward on Scorch’s throne. 

“We do what we must.” Atropos turned away from Scorch and faced Odin. “I hope you have some measure of understanding of just what is about to take place. Very few have been offered the privilege we are about to give you.” 

“If you abuse it, if you harm her, if you harm him, we will unravel you. We will be your undoing,” Lachesis said, also turning towards Odin. 

“Oh don’t be silly… while some of the endings we have seen have gone badly, those are only the endings where something goes catastrophically wrong. Odin will do right and we all know that,” Clotho said as she reached out and smacked both of her sisters with her wings. 

“We have seen many ends. We have seen where Buckminster has kept Belisama as his servant, his slave… we have seen Odin’s end, dying at Buckminster’s hooves, his last words a begging plea for help. And now, we see Odin’s rebirth, the beginning of his rise to power, and a foundation stone for world peace being set in place,” Atropos said as her horn began to glow. 

“Now, Buckminster has allies… the right things were done… it is still possible to have a future of equals… of a world shared. Such a little thing, a simple twist of fate, to choose love or bondage can change the fate of the world,” Lachesis said as her horn also began to glow. 

Clotho, stepping close to her sisters, formed the last part of the triangle. Her horn flared with light as she stepped into position. “This day we give the world a new defender.” 

The sisters lowered their heads and a rift appeared between them. Odin, still sitting on Scorch’s throne, covered his face with his wings, shielding his eyes from the light. Scorch began to pace once more. 

“A world shared,” Scorch said as the brilliant light burned brighter. “And it begins with moments like this one, sharing the power we have as the guardians of creation.” 

The sisters called into being what appeared to be a simple strand of string, pulling it from the rift. The rift vanished, leaving behind the small strand of string. After a moment, the string glowed with a soft faint light. 

“This is Bandua. It is all she will ever be. This is her life, her hopes, her dreams, her aspirations. This is the sum of her existence. We have pulled it from the weave, separated it, and we offer it to you, Odin.” Atropos lifted her head and began to walk towards Scorch’s throne where Odin sat. In her magic, she held the length of string. “We Fates will still control the beginning and the end of her life, but we are giving a portion of control to you in exchange for your promise of goodwill and your oath of service. Lead your griffons. Restore them to what they once were. Undo the damage done.” 

Reaching out his trembling talons, Odin took hold of the string when it came within his reach. There was a flash of light, a moment of dazzling luminescence, and for a brief moment, the old griffon looked young again. 

But that moment faded and Odin returned to appearing old. 

The string vanished. 

“So begins our deal. Do well and in time, we will give you more control over the fate of the griffons,” Atropos said as she took a step back. 

“Bandua is your test and your reward. Do well, and in time, she could become like you. The griffons deserve a worthy pantheon. The bloodthirsty immortals of your kind shall remain locked away here in Tartarus with the hopes that they never escape,” Lachesis said as she recovered. 

Clotho, blinking, shifted form and became an earth pony once more, reverting to the form that she found most comfortable. “In time, Bandua could become like Luna, a warden of dreams, a guardian of morality and virtue, scaring those who stray into darkness back into the light. It falls upon you to guide her. She carries a small piece of her father’s divine spark. Nurture it well and all of your griffons will reap the rewards.” 

Odin slipped from Scorch’s throne, approached the sisters, bowed, and prostrated himself. “I will prove myself worthy, whatever it is that I must do to secure the future of my kind, it will be done.” 

“Funny… I would have thought with the sharing of my power, I would have felt diminished. Instead, I feel stronger,” Atropos said, shaking her head at her own confusion. 

Lachesis stepped forward. “Funny you say that. I was just thinking the same thing.” 

Clotho eyed her sisters. “Perhaps there is something to be said for our brother’s funny ideas. At some point, we should go talk to him.” 

Atropos nodded. “And perhaps arrange a little visit for Sombra and Platinum.” 
	
	
> Chapter 548
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“We shall arrive in just a little while. A few hours, if the wind holds,” Bucky said as he emerged into his cabin. He stopped when he saw Celestia in his bed, holding both Cadance and Bell Heather. 

Lifting her head away from the foals, Celestia looked at Bucky. “You seem better.” 

“I feel better… rested. Whatever you did… I’m not having the nightmares like I was,” Bucky replied. He looked around the room, taking everything in. Berry Punch was beside Celestia and Thistle was sprawled out on Celestia’s other side. Tourmaline was napping, her head resting upon Berry Punch’s back. Something was missing. “Where is Belisama?” 

“With her subjects. They borrowed my camera.” Lowering her head, Celestia returned her attention to the two foals. “Buckminster… I must say… these past few days… have been some of the happiest days I have known in a long time. I glad that we took this trip and spent time together.” 

“I’m glad that we could show you a nice time.” Bucky approached the bed, wondering where he was going to spread out. He lept up, landing beside Thistle, and rubbed his face against her ribs as he lay down. “Why did they need your camera? We have a good camera.” 

“Mine takes better pictures,” Celestia replied. “They wanted to capture Bandua in all of her magnificent glory.” 

Bucky blinked. “Oh…” He let his words trail off into ambiguous punctuation, not certain if he was making a statement or a question with his utterance. 

“Berry tells me you were laughing in your sleep,” Celestia said as Bell Heather reached up and touched her muzzle. 

“I dreamed about Sombra and Platinum… it was a nice dream. I saw them again… Platinum congratulated me on Bandua’s birth.” When the last word left Bucky’s mouth, he yawned and got himself comfortable. 

“And that was funny?” Celestia asked. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow, invoked an inquisitive expression, and looked at Celestia. “Bandua isn’t ugly, is she?” 

“Oh no, Buckminster… Bandua is adorable… she is just perfect.” Celestia felt awful for lying. She looked at Bucky, her brows raising and she gave Bucky her best look of motherly concern. “Why would you even ask such a thing?” 

“Sombra made a comment about how Bandua looked… I didn’t quite catch it, he muttered it, but Platinum heard it. She chased him around, slapping him and screeching at him about what sort of horrible brutish monster he was and telling him that all babies were beautiful,” Bucky replied. 

Beside Celestia, Berry Punch began to chortle, biting down on her own lip to remain silent. Her eyes, wide, were full of mirth. She felt Tourmaline lifting her head and she knew that trouble was about to happen. 

“Mama?” 

“Yes Tourmaline?” 

“You’re bad.” 

Celestia sighed. “I know Tourmaline.” Celestia’s ears burned at the sounds of Berry Punch’s laughter and shame filled her from Tourmaline’s words. 

Bucky’s ears fell back against his skull. “So you do think Bandua is ugly.” 

“Bucky, they wanted my camera so they could take perfect pictures of the ugliest cub ever born. It has become a matter of pride for the griffons. They appreciate your scars as art. The griffons revere ugly as an aesthetic.” It took everything Celestia had to maintain her serious demeanour. A part of her still wanted to laugh, even though she felt terrible. 

“Platinum… was she lying to me as well?” Bucky asked. 

Celestia could hear the pain in Bucky’s voice. It was low, Bucky sounded vulnerable. The desire to laugh flickered and then died. “Buckminster, I don’t think she would have lied to you.”  

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.” Bucky snorted, lifted his head from Thistle’s side, rolled over, and stuffed his head under a pillow. 

Peering through her glasses, Tourmaline regarded the mare she called her mother. “This is why you shouldn’t lie.” 

Celestia thought about what to say. She hadn’t tried to lie. She had tried to be diplomatic. It wasn’t even a full fib, but a little fiblet. She wondered how to explain to Tourmaline about all of the white lies required every day. If everypony went around telling the truth all the time, there would be anarchy and chaos. Ponies didn’t always lie, sometimes things were said with soft speech, or some things were withheld, and sometimes you lied to protect another ponies feelings. 

“Tourmaline, Celestia wasn’t trying to lie to me. She was trying to protect my feelings. Sometimes, adults have to lie. You’ll understand when you are older… maybe,” Bucky said from beneath his pillow. 

For a moment, Celestia wanted to give Bucky a kiss on the cheek and then she was struck with guilt. Even when he was hurt, Bucky was still trying to come to her rescue. 

Heaving a sigh, Tourmaline lifted herself up, pulling away from Berry Punch, climbed over Celestia’s back, crawled over Thistle, and then flung herself on Bucky, wrapping her forelegs around his neck and squeezing. 

“Life just keeps hurting you,” Tourmaline said in a low whisper. 



 

Below Bucky were familiar sights. A quiet little village, now covered in snow, but still recognisable. A castle… a castle that Bucky knew too well. Pegasi and griffons were circling the ship. Other airships loomed in the air over the castle. 

A mooring had been set up for The Scorned Mare. Beacons blazed with brilliant intensity, a helpful sight to guide Bucky in. He saw a smaller airship pulling up alongside of him and a group of unicorns stood on the deck. 

A moment later, Bucky felt his ship under the control of others, being guided in by the tug. Pegasi continued to circle, trying to bring some measure of control to the wind. Bucky let go of the controls and let everything happen, trusting that the crew would get him moored. 

A very large figure landed on the deck with a heavy thud of massive hooves. There was only one pegasus that big. Grinning, Bucky left the navigation cabin and stepped outside into the cold. 

Standing on the poop deck, Bucky looked down on the main deck at Keg Smasher. 

“Damnit lad, yer a sight to make eyes sore,” Keg Smasher said as he looked up. 

As Bucky began to descend the stairs, the door opened and Thistle came out. She stood for a moment, steam coming from her nostrils, and then with a bleating cry, she took off running. 

Bucky watched as she collided with Keg Smasher, leaping up and throwing her forelegs around his neck. Her hind hooves did not reach the ground. What was far more surprising was Keg Smasher’s reaction. The big pegasus stood there for a moment, frozen, and then his hind legs buckled, causing him to sit down. Bucky could see that Keg Smasher’s whole body was shaking, trembling, and it took him a moment to realise that Keg Smasher was sobbing. 

Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Bucky watched for a moment, then took a step closer. He stopped again, not sure if he should intrude on this moment, not knowing if it was private. His eyes burned in the cold, Bucky realised he was holding back tears of his own, and he watched as Thistle and Keg Smasher clung to one another. 

“My little lass… ye came back to me.” 

Unable to stop the flow, Bucky felt a tear slip from the corner of his eye. He heard hooves behind him and a moment later, one hoof pressed into his backside and shoved him forward. He stumbled, caught off guard, staggered, slipped because he did not have a spell on his hooves to make them secure on the ice, and tumbled towards Keg Smasher and Thistle. 

A moment later, there were wings around him, and then a foreleg. He felt himself being crushed, smooshed against Thistle. Keg Smasher had one leg wrapped around both of them, and Bucky could feel himself being smashed into the pegasus’ broad chest. 

“You brought her back to me ye crafty bastard.” 

Keg Smasher was sobbing now, weeping, and Bucky realised he was crying. Overcome, he buried his face against Keg Smasher’s neck, allowing himself to experience the moment, to just let go and let everything happen. 

“I brought you a foal,” Thistle said, also sobbing. 

“Ye brought me a foal?” Keg Smasher asked. “I cannae wait to see it!” 

“I made Bucky a daddy and he’s happy and I’ve been so happy and life so wonderful even when its bad,” Thistle said, pressing her face between the two most important males in her life. 



 

The dining room was almost as Bucky remembered it. The big difference was, it was filled with the sounds of laughter, of love, and of life. It was filled with ponies, griffons, zebras, and even a lone diamond dog. He looked around, seeing many strangers, a few faces he recognised, but missed several faces he was hoping to see. 

“Where is Deadspin? Sour Mash? Where is Bunny?” Bucky asked. 

Keg Smasher slumped, his good mood vanishing. “Aye lad… I’m right sorry, but they’re not here. They’re off with the fleet, looking after the little isles that exist between Minnowrock and the Shire Isles. There’s been an awful plague that only seems to affect earth ponies… makes their hooves rot and causes their frogs to swell up till they split open.” 

“But Sour Mash and Bunny are both earth ponies!” Bucky replied. 

“Aye, they’re fine, calm down… the zebras have a cure, provided that it is applied during the early stages of the disease. For a lot of ponies though, the cure did not arrive in time.” Looking morose, Keg Smasher heaved a sigh worthy of his massive size. 

Bucky looked out at the eager faces, the bright shining eyes, the many warm looks of adoration. “Where is Crush?” 

“Lad, I’m sorry,” Keg Smasher replied. “Crush met a bad end. When the griffons invaded, he got stabbed. It made him angry… he killed many. For a time, it looked as though he was going to be okay, but the wound was infected. He died, and it was a mercy.” 

“I… I… I need to go.” Bucky backed out of the dining hall, pushing his way past several ponies, ducking beneath Celestia and darting between her legs, and then he was gone. 



 

Trotting down the hall, his hooves thudding, Keg Smasher was alone, going after his friend. He knew where Bucky would be. Keg Smasher had even left the door unlocked and had made sure there was a fire in the grate. 

He stopped and looked at the open door. Inside of the door was a figure wrapped in a black cloak. Keg Smasher cleared his throat. 

“It looks so different now.” There was a long pause. “I’m sorry I left. There were too many ponies in the room… I was already feeling overwhelmed… and the news hit me hard.” 

Stepping inside of the room to stand beside Bucky, Keg Smasher reached out with his wing and patted his friend upon the back. “We use this room for important guests now. Heads of state and the like. Look, there is an indoor sump hole now and a pump for water. There’s a right big bed and even curtains.” 

Bucky wiped his face with his foreleg. “Everypony and everybirdy is probably worried about me.” 

“All those months living in this room. I bet it still feels like home, don’t it?” Keg Smasher asked in low voice that was raspy with emotion. 

Nodding, Bucky coughed and tried to get the phlegm from his throat. “It does. Sentinel became my son and my squire here.” 

Keg Smasher sniffled, trying to clear his nose. He hated crying and had done far too much of it today. “Lad, while yer here, there is some stuff for you to look after. When you get a chance, there are a few ponies that would like to meet their king… a bunch of Shire Isles unicorns have been wanting to meet you… and there is a griffon that you need to figure out what to do with.” 

“A griffon?” Bucky asked. 

“Aye lad… a griffoness,” Keg Smasher responded. “The zebra army put most of the renegade griffons to death after everything that happened. It got bloody. But down in the cellar, we have ourselves a scout. She’s canny, she’s dangerous, and I can’t bring myself to put her neck on the block.” 

“Why not?” Bucky turned to look up at his friend. 

“She’s a little thing. She slew a number of my troops during her capture and the zebra regiment wanted to put her down just like all the others… but I couldn’t do it. Something just felt wrong about it. She’s smart… I’ve talked to her a bit. Tried getting her trust… tried talking to her. She’s tried to kill me a few times… she’s a wily little escape artist.” 

“She’s a cub?” Bucky asked. 

“She can’t be more than a decade old, but she won’t say… she’s not a mindless savage like so many of the others were,” Keg Smasher replied. 

“Do you think the others are having a nice time without us?” Bucky turned his head and stared at the fire. 

“I would reckon so.” Keg Smasher reached around and wiped his eyes with his wing. 

“I need a little time alone… I’ll be along shortly. Tell the others not to worry about me. I just want a chance to sit and think about things.” Bucky moved towards the fire and when he felt the heat upon him, he sat down upon the stone floor. 

“Aye lad… I’ll let the others know…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 549
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Lord of Winter sat before the fire, breathing in gulps of the warm air, drawing in and then letting everything out in a long exhale that was almost, but not quite, a wheeze. In an out, Bucky laboured to control his breathing. 

He had almost forgotten what his own internal neurosis felt like, but here it was, everything welling up from the inside, no dark influence pressing in, his own often repressed emotions rising up to do him in. 

For once, rather than push them down, push them away, distract himself with a project, or find some means of making his feelings just go away, the means typically involving alcohol, Bucky let everything go, allowing himself to feel the moment. 

The Lord of Winter wept. 



 

Laying on the bed, his vision blurry from crying, Bucky heard the door click behind him. He heard the sound of hoofs, the soft whisper of an inhaled breath, and then everything went silent as somepony stood near the bed. Bucky felt his muscles tense, but he did not feel as though he was in danger. 

“After much discussion, it was I who was selected to come and cheer you up.” 

The sound of Celestia’s voice made Bucky feel better. He relaxed, going limp. 

“I strongly suspect that in these moments, one of your wives makes you feel better with lots of hot sweaty rutting,” Celestia said, her voice a flat monotone. 

Almost choking on a wad of phlegm, Bucky did not reply. He coughed, hacked, and fought a mighty battle just to breathe. The air in the room was dry and each breath was painful. 

“While I will confess, such an act might make me happy for a moment, it would not be worth a lifetime of regret. I have a very long life to feel regret with. You are a married pony, and I will not intrude. I will not violate those sacred bonds.” 

This was unexpected. Drawing in a raspy breath, Bucky said, “It never stopped you and Sombra… he was married.” Bucky heard a pained sigh even as he was speaking. He heard hooves as Celestia began to pace. 

“Buckminster, those were different times… there were different social attitudes. Marriage was done for political gain… alliances… it was not often that those in power married for love. Sombra had many wives and an even larger number of mistresses, bed warmers, hoofmares, and one time encounters.” 

Bucky heard Celestia take a deep breath. 

“I was a welcome guest. Sombra and Platinum both took me into their bed, often with Clover. Bucky, how do you think I figured out all of those spells in the book I gave you? I loved him and it was the only way I could have him… though I must confess, I loved the times when it was just he and I alone together. He would lurk around the castle, waiting to catch me unawares… Sombra appreciated the challenge, because I was so much taller than he was.” 

Bucky wiped his face with his foreleg. “Why are you telling me this?” 

“Because I am selfish and I came here to make myself feel better,” Celestia replied. 

Silence. 

When Bucky felt Celestia climbing into bed with him, his fearful exhale became a panicked yelp. He felt a strong foreleg wrap around him, pulling him closer, and he could feel Celestia against his back. 

“He hurt me so much Bucky… I had to go cut him down. I had to try and kill somepony that I loved. I lost him… and I was attempting to kill him, I could feel him once more on my back… on my belly… I could feel his hot breath on my neck… on my ears… and I wanted him back. With each blow, each attack, it was like I was cutting away at my own flesh… and for a moment, for just a moment, I wanted to let him live because I was so selfish. I was almost willing to let him go and continue doing what he was doing just so I would not have to be lonely.” 

Something wet trickled down the back of Bucky’s neck, causing him to shiver. 

“The worst part of the whole thing is, when I found another Sombra through the mirror, I put everything at risk just to feel him again. But it wasn’t the same… it just wasn’t the same. This Sombra was good, too good. He was too kind, too attentive. The Sombra I knew, he was rough. He was coarse. Sombra was dirty… he was a bad pony. And the Sombra through the mirror was good… but he was close enough. He had the right voice, sometimes he had the right touch, and it allowed me to live a fantasy that I convinced myself was what I wanted.” 

Contractions. Bucky inhaled. Celestia using contractions was a bad sign, or so he felt. 

“I put everything at risk over a fantasy, just so I could fulfill a selfish need.” 

“I don’t know what to say.” Bucky’s words were a raspy croak. They felt useless, meaningless, he had accomplished nothing by saying them. 

A log in the fireplace popped, causing Bucky to startle. His body jerked and he felt Celestia squeeze him even tighter, trying to calm him. He also began to suffer a moment confusing and alarming feeling arousal. He set his will and began to work on making it go away. 

“Buckminster, in the end, it felt as though I had failed them all. I lost everypony I loved, everypony that meant something to me, all of them were gone. It hurt me. And over time, I grew more and more distant, I felt like it was my fault. I couldn't save them. I couldn’t stop what had happened. I lost Sombra, I lost Platinum, I even lost Luna. The hurt grew to be too much. I isolated myself. In time, I cut myself off from the world. I stopped with interest in individuals and focused instead upon the greater good, the greater whole, looking ahead with centuries of planning in mind. Individuals were incidental. They came and went. As I grew older, their lives felt shorter. And then, without realising it, there I was, trapped in my ivory tower, outplanning all of my enemies, using my long life as a weapon, maintaining my rule against all odds by planning on a level that was impossible for mere mortals. I was unreachable. My only consolation, my only real contact with the world were my students. In time, I reached out to them. To one in particular, I placed my hopes and dreams.”

Bucky could feel Celestia drawing in a deep breath. She held it, causing her barrel to press against his back, and he could feel tears running down the back of his neck. 

“She betrayed me, just like so many others, just like Sombra, she betrayed me. I almost gave up at that point. I almost retreated into my sun and left Equestria to House Avarice. Every day I told myself that none of this is worth the heartache. Cadance was the only thing keeping me going, but I had trouble reaching out to her. I was so hurt… there was so much pain. I reminded myself that the pain was temporary, just like all of the little lives that flickered into existence and blinked out all around me.” 

Realising that he was expected to say something, Bucky fought against his rising panic. “Well, something changed. What was it?” He squeezed his hind legs together, mindful that his emotions were manifesting in all kinds of ways, some of them quite unwanted. 

“It was Twilight. Cadance convinced me to give it one more try. I placed all of my hopes and dreams into Twilight. But I did so selfishly. I went about it all in the wrong way. I acted more like her mother, hoping I would get so close to her that she would never betray me. It was a confusing time. I acted like her mother while I also kept her distant, pushing her away from me, reminding myself that she was a means to an end. That she would grow old and die and my plans would have to go on without her. I didn’t know what to do. I was floundering at that point. I think I forgot how to treat ponies as individuals. I was too focused on long term planning. Even Cadance… I wronged Cadance. I knew that she would die. She was mortal. Cadance lost interest in being at my side, being at my beck and call… Cadance was so wrapped up in Shining Armor… she was so in love. I was happy for her… but I also hated her. I was jealous I think.” 

“Do you think Cadance knew?” Bucky asked. 

Celestia let out a long sigh. “I don’t know. For a time, I entertained fantasies of working my way into her relationship with Shining Armor. I didn’t even love Shining… at least not like that. I just wanted things to be like how they were. With Sombra… with Platinum… and with Clover.” 

“I love my wives… I love them a great deal and we interact with one another as equals… there is sometimes a little teasing, where Derpy reminds me that I am hers, but in our private moments, it is the one place of refuge that I have where I am not ‘War Chief Buckminster’ or ‘Prince Buckminster’ or ‘King’ or any number of other titles I loathe.” Bucky struggled for the right words. “While we are open minded, we—” 

“Bucky, I would throw off the dynamic. I know. I am aware of the tension that happens from just spending time with you and your family. I do not wish to disturb this fragile balance.” 

Rubbing his face on the pillow, Bucky sniffled and closed his eyes. He thought about asking Celestia if the real reason she had banned herds was because of her own emotions, her own feelings, perhaps as measure to protect herself from future mistakes. But even as he thought about them, the words died in his throat, unable to be said. 

“This is nice… just this… I remember holding you in the hospital bed… after the trial. These moments of intimate closeness, to hold and just be held, without the expectation of sex,” Celestia said in a low whisper. 

Now Bucky felt just awful about the stirring between his legs. He gritted his teeth for a moment, steeled his nerve, and screwed his courage to the sticking place. “You need to get laid.” He heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him. “You need to get laid. Somehow, you need to find a willing worthy partner and you need to shag them until all of your frustrations are worked out and they need to shag you until you feel better, and then, if everything feels good between the two of you or even the three of you, you need to keep shagging them… I’m sorry Celestia, but it is like I’ve said to other immortals… I don’t trust anything that doesn’t get its dick wet, and this applies to you except that you don’t have a dick… obviously. But you’re not making somepony else’s dick wet or licking somepony’s labia until they go cross eyed and begin to praise the sun and that’s just WRONG. It’s unnatural and wrong and a violation of nature and like it or not, immortal or not, you are still tied to nature because you can cause females all over the world to go into heat with your sun.” 

“Buckminster… you—” 

“I made a terrible mistake… I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have said the things I just said,” Bucky said, apologising. 

“No… Buckminster, you are right. Luna keeps saying the same thing, but she is too fond of teasing me. You on the other hoof, are a neurotic little goof that is probably going to have nightmares about this awkward moment for years to come… the pony you call your auntie holding you, baring her heart and her soul while you try not to think about the throbbing erection that you have between your legs—” 

“Oh feck everything, you know—” 

“Of course I know” Celestia kissed Bucky on the back of the head. “You could have betrayed me. You could have betrayed your wives. You could have taken advantage of me at any time… you could have rolled over, taken me, and I would have let you, but you stayed true to those you love. You did something that Sombra couldn’t do. Thank you Bucky… I am going to take my leave of you now. I have a lot to think about.” 

“So glad I could help.” Bucky’s voice was a pained wheeze and he squeezed his hind legs together even tighter, almost crushing his own balls, hoping that the ache would kill his need. 

He felt Celestia slip away from him, her warm body lifting away, and cold air crept over his back, chilling his spine and making him shiver. “I love you, just so you know. But I don’t love you in that way. You are always welcome with me and my family… always.” 

He heard hoofsteps moving away from the bed. He listened as Celestia walked away. 

“Thank you Bucky… This is exactly what Berry Punch said would happen. She was right to trust you.” 

Feeling a sharp stabbing pain in his gut, Bucky felt his balls getting sucked into his body. He felt himself go limp. For a moment, he felt like throwing up. This was just awful. 

“Berry Punch is one of the most perceptive ponies I have ever met. She knew. She’s known for a long time. We’ve been talking about this for a few days now, when we get the chance to talk about it alone. She is utterly and completely confident that you would never stray because she works so hard to keep you satisfied. And I think she is right to feel the way she does.” 

Bucky heard the door close. There was a click. The moment that Bucky knew he was alone, he rolled over onto his back, spread his legs, and tried to be rid of the aching pain between his legs. Huffing and puffing, Bucky tried to fill his aching lungs with air as he felt the cool chill settle over his crotch. 
	
> Chapter 550
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling better, but still feeling out of sorts, Bucky took a deep breath and opened the door, ready to return to the dining hall and face other ponies. He stepped through the door and almost bumped into a unicorn. She was a pale white colour and had a straw coloured mane. 

“I beg yer pardon, milord.” The unicorn peered at Bucky and then took a step back. “Oh, I am sorry yer Majesty… I had me head off in the clouds I did.” 

“Look… please, there is no need to call me that,” Bucky said, using a soft and gracious voice. “Just call me Bucky.” 

“Eh what? Ye can’t just go around callin’ yer proper king ‘Bucky.’ Not proper, that.” 

“You can if your king tells you do it.” Bucky raised his eyebrow and studied the middle aged looking unicorn. 

“Aye, see, here we go. Ye just acknowledged yerself as king, which is means it is proper for me to address ye as such, if ye don’t mind me cheek yer Royal Highness.” 

“You’re from the Shire Isles, aren’t you?” Bucky asked. He leaned forward and looked at a scar upon the unicorn mare’s head, just to the left of her horn. There was a round circle, the wound looked like it had healed in the worst way and left a terrible scar. 

“Aye, I am.” The mare peered back at Bucky. “Ye see me scar and I’ll bet yer feeling curious, eh?” 

“What happened?” Bucky took a step back and gave the mare some space. 

“When I was made submissive, they cut into me brain. Made it difficult to use magic. If I use me magic for too long, I get awful headaches. It was so I wouldn’t rebel against the masters, ye understand.” 

The first flames of anger ignited in Bucky and he forgot all of his own personal problems. A dark cloud passed over his face and his nostrils flared as his breathing increased. He felt the muscles in his hind legs convulsing as his adrenaline began to course through him. 

Calm. Bucky took a deep breath and remembered that he could be frightening when he was angry. He took a deep breath. “And they have you working as a servant here? Are you happy? Are you treated well?” 

The mare threw back her head and laughed. Unable to stop laughing, she stumbled backwards and then sat down upon the stone floor, where she kept laughing until tears began to fall. 

Bucky had no idea what was so funny. 

Wiping her eyes, the mare pulled herself together. “Am I treated well… heh, yer a funny one. I scrub the floors, make beds, clean, and keep everything tidy just as I have always done, because it is all I know. But these ponies here… they adore me. If I start to stumble even just a little bit because of my dizzy spells, or if my head starts to hurt and my eyes start to twitch, some nice pony will pull me to a comfortable spot to lie down. Somepony fetches me a nice drink. I’m treated like bleedin’ royalty. Keg Smasher made a decree that all of the unicorns with scars just like mine are to be treated in the same way that ponies treat him.” 

Heaving a huge sigh of relief, Bucky sat down upon the stone floor himself. 

“Yer the first pony I’ve ever called king of me own free will without the pain of torture.” 

Nodding, Bucky looked the mare in the eye. “I never did get your name.” 

“Me name is Broom. I was named for my purpose,” the mare replied. She smiled, a smile that was missing several teeth, and looked Bucky over. “I have me a brother named Door. Can you guess what he was responsible for?” 

“I’m so sorry—” 

“Not yer fault, why are ye apologising? I see that brand on yer side… yer a slave, just like me. Ye’ve done good for yerself, ye have.” 

Bucky shook his head. “No, you don’t understand… I was born a noble… I was part of the problem… I was part of the system that made the whole world worse. I was a member of the house that was the worst of them all.” 

“And so ye’ve seen both sides. Now look at ye. Ye done have yerself a brand. Yer off freein’ slaves and making the world a little nicer. Ye took time to talk to little old me, to comfort me, to see if I was okay and if I was treated well. Ye looked right murderous there for a moment, and you felt that way for me. I’m flattered.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky said. 

“Ye don’t need to say anything. Just keep doin’ what yer doing. Help an old mare to her hooves? My legs done fell asleep as I was sitting on them.” 

“I have a better idea… let’s get you to a comfortable spot…” 



 

As Bucky eased Broom down into a cushioned chair, he felt somepony brush up against his side, and knew from the touch that it had to be Berry. Ignoring her for the moment, he looked Broom over. 

“Are you well?” he asked. 

“Well enough… yer very kind,” Broom replied. “You have a pretty mare trying to get yer attention. She looks like trouble though.” 

“Oh, I know,” Bucky said, offering Broom a smile. 

“You made a friend,” Berry said, bowing her head to Broom. “Sorry, but I must steal my husband away… there is music… dance with me Bucky!” 

“I can’t dance… I dance worse than Twilight Sparkle!” 

Berry gestured at the dancing ponies. “Who cares? It is all about standing there together, trusting one another, holding each other up as you stand up on your hind hooves.” 

“My hind legs—” 

“Right… and you probably don’t want to augment yourself. Only one thing to do I suppose…” Berry looked around, disappointment visible upon her face. 

“Berry, I—” 

“You’re gonna dance with me!” Berry cried as she snatched up Bucky in her front legs and went bouncing around the room on her hind legs. She whirled Bucky around, squeezing him close, hoisting him though the air, squealing with abandon. 

“Berry, the twins… this can’t be good for you,” Bucky said. 

“The twins are fine… you gave me a good and proper shagging and the twins survived that too,” Berry replied as she swung Bucky around. 

“You sent Celestia after—” 

“Yeah I did and I was right for doing it… she keeps making moony eyes at you… if you ever cheat on me Bucky, I’ll snatch you up just like I have you right now and I’ll snap your spine!” 

Bucky wrapped his forelegs around Berry’s neck and held on for dear life as she began to spin around with reckless glee. Much to his own surprise, he began to laugh, realising this was good fun. Lost in the moment, he was alone in the crowd with Berry, and he looked down into her eyes. She was beautiful. She was sweating a bit and her mane clung to face. Her eyes were bright and full of mischief. Her nostrils flared as she breathed. 

“You looked into my eyes and you just knew,” Bucky said. 

Berry laughed. “You remembered.” 

“How could I forget?” 



 

“Here lad, drink this,” Keg Smasher slid a mug that was so large that it was almost comical over towards Bucky. “I had me a good long look at wee Bell Heather… Thistle said that I’m a grandaddy… so drink up ye wee scrawny thing!” 

Not even bothering to see what was in his mug, Bucky tilted it back and began chugging, lost in the moment and overcome by his good mood. His throat blazed with fire. The mug was not full of beer, or mead, or a beverage one might find in mugs, but instead it was filled with single malt whiskey. Bucky downed half of the mug in one go, belched, and slumped down in his chair, feeling much better. 

“Aye, that’s the unicorn I remember… nothing wrong with ye a few quarts of whiskey can’t fix,” Keg Smasher said as he slapped Bucky on the withers and almost knocked Bucky from his chair. 

There was music playing, something rowdy and loud. Bucky could hear it, he could it feel it being drug through his ears as though it was a thick section of rope being tugged through. “...she guzzles whiskey, beer, and gin… she knows all my favourite sins… she’s my dirty mare with the winkin’ brown eye...”

Staring over the top of his mug, he looked at Berry Punch, who was dancing with Thistle. 

“...the brown eyed mare knows what I like... she’ll spend hours polishing up my pike… she’s my dirty mare with the winkin’ brown eye...” 

From where Bucky was sitting, he could see that Berry Punch was groping Thistle, and Thistle was having the time of her life, laughing and carrying on as she danced. It was impossible not to have fun around Berry. 

“As soon as Thistle heals up, I’m gonna shag her till she can’t walk,” Bucky said, still staring over the edge of his mug, watching with rapt attention as two mares he loved continued to dance. 

“You dirty sot, ye dinnae sit next to a filly’s father and tell him that yer gonna work over her backside, ye daft headed numpty! What’s wrong with ye?” Keg Smasher hoisted up his own mug, scowled, and poured it over Bucky’s head. 

Sitting there, drenched, Bucky licked the booze from his muzzle. “You were drinking beer. You gave me whiskey… that was thoughtful.” 

“I still love her so much…” 

“I know Keg, I know,” Bucky said as he brought his mug to his lips. He took a long swallow when he was done speaking. 

“She’s my little kelpie… and now she has a little kelpie of her own. Is she happy?” 

Bucky nodded. “She’s happy. Happier now than she was, she was miserable for the last half of her pregnancy.” 

“You treat her nice Bucky, or I’ll have yer head mounted on a pike… and you shag her gentle!” Keg Smasher bellowed as he wiped at his eyes with his wings. “I mean it Bucky, a feckin’ pike! I’ll do it! Just ask the bloody zebras!” 

The big pegasus, overcome with emotion, made a hasty retreat out the room, covering his face with his wings. Several ponies watched him go but none made a move to stop him as he departed. 



 

The fire in the grate crackled. Berry Punch, almost drowsing, realised that it was getting late. She gave Thistle a squeeze as she licked her muzzle, still able to taste Thistle on her lips. The bed had a strange emptiness that Berry Punch didn’t like. Belisama was sleeping in the crib with the foals. There was no Bucky in her bed. 

She smacked her lips, still tasting Thistle. Thistle, still healing from birth, couldn’t do anything with Bucky, but a little gentle licking never hurt nopony. Thistle snorted in her sleep as Berry pulled one leg free from beneath the kelpie. 

Berry sat up. She had brought Thistle here to their room to have a good time in private. Looking around, she saw that it was dark outside. The room was chilly, even with the fire, and Berry Punch could feel the cold stone against her frogs as she dropped to the floor. 

She trotted to the door, opened it, stepped out into the hall, and closed the door behind her. She heard music. The party was still going. Yawning, feeling sleepy, but also feeling curious, Berry Punch had to go and investigate. She heard raucous laughter echoing through the halls. 



 

Opening the dining room door, Berry Punch peeked inside and listened. 



Let us sing a bit of good old Captain Kitt,
Who sat one morning early in the head.
A bee came flying past and it stung him on the ass,
And this is what the gallant captain said:

Asshole rules the Navy, asshole rules the sea.
If you want a bit of bum, better get it from your chum -
You'll get no ass from me.

Now we'll hear some rhymes of Yeoman Second Grimes
Who ran the hook that hoisted up the mail.
One day as he stood watch it caught him in the crotch
And he cried as he went flying o'er the rail, "It doesn't matter!"

Asshole rules the Navy, asshole rules the sea.
If you want a bit of bum, better get it from your chum -
You'll get no ass from me.

And now to end my song I'll sing of AB Long,
Whose member was not like his name at all.
When asked if he would tell how he got along so well
His answer simply was as I recall, "It's very simple…"

Asshole rules the Navy, asshole rules the sea.
If you want a bit of bum, better get it from your chum -
You'll get no ass from me-e-e-eee!
If you want a bit of bum, better get it from your chum -
You'll get no ass from me! 
 

Berry Punch’s jaw dropped open in shock as she peered into the room. Celestia was sitting in between Bucky and Keg Smasher, leading the whole room in song. It was evident that the alicorn was soused and had made no attempt to sober herself up with magic. 

Even more surprising was the fact that Bucky was singing. He had a good voice. 

As she stood there watching, Lugus poured an entire two quart mug down his beak. 

“Berry Punch! My bride! My beaufy-beaufy… wait… my boofooful bride… come here and let me rub my face on your belly!” Bucky said, seeing Berry Punch in the doorway. “She’s a preffy earf pony…” 

Celestia stood up, wobbling on her legs. “I must go! I must go! I must leave you all and go on an adventure. I must find a little fillies room and brave what is sure to be a very dirty toilet!” 

The large white alicorn went staggering off, heading for the other doors on the other side of the room. There was a cheer from the ponies and the griffons in the room when Celestia paused at the doors and let out a thunderous belch. 

Knowing better, but not caring, Berry Punch flung herself into the room, off to give her husband a kiss and maybe lure him into the bed. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 551
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Inside of Bucky’s head, there was an army of little teeny tiny Rising Stars, all of them with hammers, pounding away upon the inner surfaces of his skull. Outside of Bucky’s head, there was an alicorn that was far too chipper for this time of morning. 

“Daddy!” 

There was a tug upon his ear, at first gentle, and then becoming very insistent. 

“Daddy?” 

It was becoming clear that Cadance was out to finish him off in his weakened state. Bucky felt a little dribble of drool trickling down the inside of his ear. Then, in the most egregious of all of Cadance’s efforts, the little foal began to drum upon Bucky’s skull with her hooves. 

“Daddy!” 

Reaching out his right foreleg, Bucky extended it to full length. He then dropped it on top of Cadance, sliding her away from his head, and pinning her down upon the bed. Stars floated in his vision from the early morning alicorn bebop bonkapalooza. 

Pinned under her father’s foreleg, Cadance engaged in a mighty struggle. She wiggled, kicked, squirmed, and with all of her strength, she broke free. “Daddy!” 

The slow creeping realisation crept through Bucky’s mind that this was the most successful attempt to kill him as of yet. He wanted to die. Never had death held so much appeal. He had hung on a hook and had his balls ripped off every day for this. 

With Cadance om-nom-nom-nomming on his ear once more and smacking her lips, Bucky let out a low moan, a wordless plea for help, for assistance, for somepony to rescue him. 

A faint memory of the night before surfaced in his brain, an unpleasant memory. The bad taste in his mouth right now could be attributed to that memory. With the memory, a teasing idea formed in his mind. The idea, at first a flicker, a faint flame of an idea, found fuel and began to burn. After a moment, the idea blazed. 

Sitting up and causing Cadance to tumble away from him, Bucky said in a low mumble, “Self cleaning beer vomit puddles…” 

Through bleary eyes, Bucky saw Berry Punch blinking at him. He saw her eyebrows go up, then down, and then moving up and down, moving over her brow like hungry caterpillars. She looked confused. 

Her face caterpillars settled into a very perplexed looking expression and Bucky heard Berry say, “Huh?” 

“I hath me a brillianth ithea,” Bucky said, smacking his dry lips together and trying to work up some spit. He coughed, cleared his throat, and licked his dry lips with his parched tongue. “I will invent a beer that will clean up its own vomit puddles! I will go down in history and be remembered for my efforts… there will be self cleaning beer vomit puddles for all.” 

Bucky saw Berry Punch’s face caterpillars rise, almost disappearing up under her mane.

“Since times long forgotten, since ponies first discovered the secrets of brewing beer, ponies have struggled with beer vomit puddles… I shall put a swift and decisive end to this conflict.” As Bucky spoke, he felt his cutie marks tingle, a pleasant humming vibration. 

“Daddy silly.” 

Berry Punch nodded in agreement with Cadance. “Yes he is.” 

“What happened last night?” Bucky asked, fearful of the answer. 

“Well, when I found you, you were singing airship naval songs. Not long after that, Celestia came back to the party after getting lost in the castle. There was an epic drinking contest between you, Keg Smasher, Celestia, and a number of others—”

“Who won?” Bucky asked, cutting in. 

“Do you feel like a winner? Nopony won you twit… there was… there was a catastrophic disaster that—” 

“I remember getting sick.” Bucky shook his head, his ears flopping, and the tiny Rising Stars in his skull began hammering even harder. 

“Yeah, I was getting to that… you got sick, and then Keg got sick, and then Celestia got sick, and while I’m pretty hardcore about this sort of thing, I’m no super-equine… so I got sick, along with a bunch of other ponies and when everything was said and done, the dining hall was flooded with an ocean of vomit.” 

Cringing, Bucky closed his eyes. “I remember something about Thistle…” 

“Oh yeah… Thistle… you came back to this room in a romantic mood… even in your sloshed state, you couldn’t do anything that might hurt her even though she was begging for it—” 

“Whew… I was worried that I might have—” 

“You just gave her a good dry humping instead.” 

Bucky’s head fell back down upon the bed and he let out a long, low whimper. 

“Well, I had a nice time,” Thistle said in a low voice. “I was the middle of a pony sandwich and it was nice to be the center of attention.” 

Bucky opened his eyes and looked at Berry just in time to see her face caterpillars moving up and down in salacious manner. Leave it to Berry to turn an eyebrow waggle into something perverted. 

“Daddy?” Cadance asked, reaching over and booping Bucky on the nose. 

“What Cadance?” Bucky looked at the pink foal, noting her wide adoring eyes. 

“Daddy smelly.” Cadance, having her say, sat back and stuffed a hoof into her mouth so she could have a good gnaw. 

“She has an excellent point. Come on, let’s go have ourselves a bath,” Berry Punch said. 



 

The bathroom was a room with a bath in it. Bucky stared at the crude set up, his head thudding, pounding, Rising Star was showing no mercy as he continued to hammer away. There was a large copper tub, just big enough for a pony, maybe two if they were on friendly terms with one another. There was a water pump. The pump connected to a crude piping system and a lever. One pipe connected to a big copper boiler that had a spigot. Over the tub was another spout, under the lever, and after examining the contraption, Bucky determined that after filling the tub with hot water from the boiler, one would pull the lever and then crank the pump handle to fill the tub with cold water to cool off the boiling water and make it just right. 

In the corner, there was a stack of firewood and compressed peat bales to burn. 

“Keg Smasher is real proud of this,” Thistle said as she looked around the room. “He can offer guests a hot bath.” 

“Bucky, you want to heat up the water?” Berry asked. 

The idea of using magic almost caused Bucky to faint. The hammerfalls inside of his head reached a crescendo of agony. Stumbling, he staggered over to a wooden bench and flopped down, his legs dangling down on either side the bench. 

“Oh sure, leave it to the pregnant mare,” Berry said as she moved towards the water pump. Grunting, she stood up on her hind hooves, grabbed the pump handle in her front fetlocks, and began pumping. 

The sound of running water could be heard inside of the copper boiler. 

“How does an earth pony or a pegasus start the fire?” Thistle asked. 

Working the pump handle up and down in smooth fluid strokes, Berry Punch managed to shrug. “I suppose you bring a candle or or maybe bring along a helpful unicorn.” 

“Or maybe a match, but I don’t see any.” Thistle looked around the room, looking at the bare stones. It was chilly in here, cold even, and Thistle was eager for a fire to be lit. 

“With all the steam that is bound to be in here, it would be stupid to store matches in here.” Up and down went the pump handle and Berry Punch was grinning as she worked. 

“I wonder where Lugus is,” Bucky said in a low pained voice that cracked and squeaked. 

Thistle shrugged. “I dunno.” 

“Last I saw, he was helping Celestia get to her cabin on board The Scorned Mare.” With a snort, Berry Punch pushed the pump handle down and dropped to all fours. “She said she was fine, but being the genteel griffon that he is, he insisted on helping her.” 

“We have our duties as knights.” Reaching up, Bucky rubbed at his eyes with his right fetlock. “Lugus was pretty smashed.” Letting out a pained moan, Bucky lifted several bales of peat from the corner, levitating them in his telekinesis, and once they were below the boiler, he ignited them. The room filled with the smoky stench of burning peat. 

“Stinky!” Cadance cried in a shrill squeal, not knowing that the sound of her voice was making Bucky grit his teeth together. 

“Belisama, you’re awful quiet,” Berry said as she sat down upon the floor and waited for the water to get hot. 

“I’m listening for Bandua to start peeping.” The griffoness said nothing else, but clutched the tiny bundle wrapped in a blanket closer to her chest. 

“You need some sleep Belisama… Bandua peeps almost every hour it seems.” Berry, looking concerned, glanced over at Bucky and hoped that a part of him was paying attention. 

“She can’t be nursed. She needs food. I must care for her.” Belisama yawned and her tail swished from side to side. “Later I will let Magpie look after her for a while and I will get some rest. I just want to be a good mother.” 

Steam filled the room. It glistened upon each and every stone, caused the walls to shimmer with a wet sheen, and as the water became hotter, the steam grew denser. 

Thistle sighed, taking in the steam, allowing it to fill her lungs. It was soothing after being the dry air of the room all night. She could feel it in her pelt, it was damp, and the room was starting to warm with the steam and the fire. 

“Cadance is going to need her wings preened. The Empress looks scruffy,” Berry said, taking a look at Cadance and frowning. 

“I’ll take care of them.” Belisama yawned and stretched out her neck. “It gives us a chance to be close. Cadance still tries to get milk even though there is none to be had from me.” 

Watching the fire, Berry Punch stared into it as she felt the twins kicking around inside of her. The peat popped and sent a shower of sparks out. Sticking out her hoof, Berry stepped down on a cinder, extinguishing it with a few careful taps. “Come spring, there are going to be a lot of zebras here. They want to set up an alchemical refinery… there is some kind of root that grows on the mountainous areas that is real valuable… gonna take a lot of cooperation between the earth ponies and the pegasi to get the roots… and even more cooperation with the zebras for the refinement process. The Shetlands will finally know wealth and prosperity.” 

“When did you hear about this?” Bucky asked. 

“Last night. I only had a few mugs of cider… I don’t want to hurt the twins or make them soft headed. So while I was sitting there, I heard a couple of zebras talking. They’re really happy… the only other known source of these roots are the Hinterlands, and nopony wants to go there. Still dangerous. Word has it, without the griffons to hold back the monster populations, there are some real problems already developing. Wyverns and monsters of all kinds,” Berry replied. 

“What do these roots do?” Bucky asked. 

Berry Punch shrugged. “They never said. Just talked about how rare and valuable these roots are, and apparently, the stony mountainsides of the Shetlands have the plants.” 

For a moment, Bucky thought about what used to lurk beneath the mountains. He thought of the war. Of his armor… his magnificent armor that seemed so powerful, so useful, the armor that had seen him through his first real test of combat. 

The armor that had almost killed him when he had faced off with competent magic users. 

The armor had served its purpose. It had given him the edge he needed to finish off his foes and get his family back to Equestria. Bucky sighed and closed his eyes, feeling very foolish. He had known so little then. He had been so weak, so incapable. He had made so many mistakes. He took a deep breath, drawing steam into his lungs. 

Now, he knew that he could descend upon the Shetlands like a plague and purge the wolves in a single night of fiery death and destruction if he had to. Or ice. Armor was no longer needed. Preparation would be unneeded. Bucky now knew spells that would undo the crystal lich’s existence. 

He opened his eyes. There was a lesson to be learned here, his sodden still being hammered upon mind told him. Foes that had once seemed so difficult were now easy… but there would always be more difficult foes. There would always be credible threats. 

Bucky realised that complacency in any form would be his undoing. 

Looking at Cadance, Bucky realised that he needed to make sure that Cadance had a world that she could live in while being an immortal Empress and have an empire to rule. The mirror travelers were a credible threat. 

There was no time for complacency. Bucky thought about his long list of things to do, and the Shadowbolt Initiative moved a little higher up on his list of priorities. 

“I think the water is hot enough. I’m gonna fill the tub and then add some cold water,” Berry Punch said, unaware that Bucky was lost in his own thoughts. “So who is going to squeeze in here with me and scrub my back?” 
	
> Chapter 552
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Scorned Mare seemed almost empty. The little griffons were off doing whatever little griffons did when Bucky wasn't looking. Bucky wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He strode down the hall, his hooves dragging, the sound of his own hooves on the floor boards forming a staccato rhythm with the thudding in his head. 

He came to a halt outside of Violet’s door. The mare, who was approaching middle age, refused to live without modern conveniences like electricity and plumbing. After wincing for a moment, trying to clear his head, Bucky knocked. 

There was no reply. He knocked again after waiting for a moment. 

Still no reply. 

Feeling only a twinge of guilt, Bucky pulled down on the latch and opened the door. The cabin was empty. He stood in the doorway, looking in, and there was no sign of his assistant. The mare that kept everything running. The mare that was supposed to tell him what he needed to do today. 

Pulling the door shut with a soft click, Bucky turned and headed down the hall. He went down to the next door and knocked. Raven’s door. He waited, making funny faces that nopony saw to cope with his pain, and there was no reply. Cringing, Bucky opened the door, ready to apologise for disturbing Raven… and the room was empty. 

He departed down the hall, turned left at the intersection, went down the short hall, and went down the stairs to the cabins that were below his own, the cabins with the large windows that faced out towards the rear of the ship. Celestia had insisted on plenty of natural light. 

At the bottom of the stairs, Bucky froze. 

It smelled like ponies screwing down here. It clung to his nostrils; the scent was thick and strong in the air. Musky. Mare musk. Bucky sniffed, inhaling, filling his lungs, not even aware that he was doing so. Instincts were a difficult thing to deny. 

He took a single step, his hooves going silent as his shadow nature manifested in the dim hallway. Taking a deep breath, Bucky became an aspect of the darkness, the only evidence of his passing was a faint outline of his body on the wall beside him. He did this unaware of his own action, his desire for stealth pulling him down into the darkness. 

On the wall, the faint outline of Bucky’s shadow moved forward, there was no sound, no trace of his passing. The dim lights of the hall flickered as living darkness began to overtake them. The shadowy outline of Bucky was lost in the darkness. 

From Celestia’s cabin, he heard giggling. 

He heard sounds.

After a moment of recovery, Bucky’s only thoughts were of Tourmaline. Where was she and who was watching her? Panic made every nerve in his body scream in agony. If Celestia was busy, and it was clear that Celestia was busy, where had Tourmaline gone? 

Frightened, worried, feeling the sort of fear that only a parent or an adult concerned about the very small and the very helpless, Bucky delved deep into his willpower, locked on to Tourmaline’s faint magical signature, ignored the thudding in his head to gather his focus, and then he shadow winked, not wanting to give himself away just outside of Celestia’s door. 



 

Standing in the snow, Bucky looked around him, his panic almost causing him to slip into a frenzy. His talons flexed in the snow. What would Tourmaline be doing out here in the snow with nopony watching her? 

“Help help… up more!” 

Bucky whirled around, hearing Tourmaline’s voice. A large hulking figure was holding her, lifting her up high. Bucky took a deep breath, trying to shove down his panic. He drew a ragged shuddering breath. 

It was Lugus. Bucky realised that he had almost disintegrated Lugus. He took another deep breath. He watched as Tourmaline stabbed an icicle into the head of a snowpony, turning it into a unicorn. Still panting, he fell over in the snow. 

“Hi Bucky… you feeling okay?” Tourmaline asked as Lugus set her down on the ground. 

Taking another deep breath, this one a painful wheeze, Bucky nodded. “I’m fine. I sort of worried because I couldn’t find you… you scared me.” 

“Bucky, you don’t look well,” Violet said, drawing nearer. 

Raven, standing beside Violet, looked down at Bucky. “You are supposed to be relaxing. Now go back inside, get warm, and don’t make us tell Celestia that you’ve been out here in the snow having a panic attack.” 

Feeling very confused, Bucky looked at Violet and Raven. He started to speak, but his words came out in a stammer. “B-b-b-but both of you are—” 

“Both of us are what?” Violet asked, cutting Bucky off mid-sentence. 

Bucky blinked. “Never mind. I made a mistake. All of this has been a mistake.” 

“You’ve been under a lot of stress Bucky… it is easy to make mistakes in your condition,” Violet said in a soft voice full of concern. 

“You seem surprised to see us,” Raven said. 

“I thought you were… well nevermind what I was thinking, I thought you were someplace else. I found your cabins empty and I… well… nevermind… just never mind, I made a lot of mistaken assumptions. I’m going inside. Clearly I am not well.” Bucky took another deep breath and rubbed his eyes. 

“Bucky, go rest. It is okay to let down your guard here. Just go rest, have a nice time, spend time with your foals, and stop worrying.” Violet stepped forward and gave Bucky a smile. “We’re right here, looking after Tourmaline. That’s why we are not in our cabins.” 

“Yeah… we’ve been out here this whole time… it’s not like we can be in two places at once,” Raven said in a teasing voice. She laughed and gave Violet a nudge. 

“I’m going inside,” Bucky said as he trudged off in the snow. “Maybe have something warm to drink… some tea… yes, tea would be nice.” 



 

“You look out of sorts.” 

Bucky lifted his head. The voice was gruff, raspy, full of gravel. “Lord Wrecker?” 

“Nuh uh, lad, Vice Governor Wrecker now, and don’t you forget it.” 

Relief. A familiar voice. The voice of a friend. Somepony he knew. 

Blinking, Bucky turned to look at the pegasus in the doorway. Wrecker was covered in a cloak. His withered scarred muzzle was visible. “How have you been? I didn’t see you last night.” 

“I kept to myself. Kept myself warm in a bed full of earth ponies. Needed rest. Heading out today. Some of the fleet is departing now that there has been a little rest and relaxation.” 

“No fighting I hope… looking after the plague victims?” Bucky asked. 

“No.” Wrecker did not elaborate. 

“So something unpleasant I guess.” Bucky looked at the pegasus and felt concern. 

“We have a vessel that has been converted into a prison ship. We’re heading over to Fancy and Germaney. We’re going to be picking up some trouble makers, shipping them back here, and then there is going to be a trial. Gonna be bad business… they’re already guilty and this is just a formality.” 

“I see.” Bucky peered at Wrecker. “Do you have to kill them?” 

Wrecker peered back at Bucky. “Yes. Honestly, hauling them back here is a waste of time. We should just kill them and be done with it, but there has to be records. It has to be written down in some little book… what they did… their names… the evidence of their guilt—” 

“There has been so much killing… so many of the guilty have already been killed. Must we be butchers? Can there be no mercy?” Bucky looked into Wrecker’s diminished visage, hoping to find some spark of gentle equinity. 

“Majesty, I beg yer pardon, but there has been too much mercy. The fact that these… monsters still draw breath, still drink water, and still eat food is a thrice damned travesty!” Wrecker was spitting he was so angry and his remaining wing fluttered beneath his cloak. 

“What did they do?” Bucky asked. 

Wrecker glared, his thin scarred lip peeling back from his crooked teeth in a sneer. “They were operating a mine. A mercury mine… they were using captured zebras and ponies as miners and cart pullers. Do you know what mercury does—” 

“I know full well what mercury does.” Bucky stared at Wrecker. “See that the prisoners are brought here and placed on trial. We must do the right thing, even if our enemy does not. I would rather cast them into the sea and drowned, but it would reflect poorly upon us if that happened. 

“Sir… there were foals that we recovered from that mine… most of them still died even after everything we did to help them… a trial at this point—” 

“IS ENTIRELY NECESSARY!” Bucky panting, shook his head. Seething with anger, he gritted his teeth for a moment. “There has been enough butchery for now. We have far more dangerous enemies to contend with. We must show the world what happens in these instances. I will make sure that the press comes here in droves. The Shetlands are an inaccessible place, but if need be, I will pay for their transport out of my own coffers. We make this a very public trial and we show the world how we deal with those who would do such despicable acts. We take every word they speak in their own defense and we let the world hear it. We let the public listen to everything, read every word spoken in the courts.” 

Wrecker snapped to attention, his face stern and grim. “Do you promise?” 

“Yes, I promise I will make this as public as possible. I give you my word. If I must, I will ship them up here myself in The Scorned Mare. But we must do the right thing… whatever the right thing is. Sometimes, I just don’t know anymore.” 

“Sometimes, I don’t know what the right thing is either. I will tell the troops of your promise. It will lift their spirits and brighten their moods. Most of them aren’t happy about this. Especially the griffons…” Beneath his hood, one of Wrecker’s ears flickered. 

“What about the griffons?” Bucky asked. 

“There’s a lot of hatred in the griffons… I mean, real murderous hatred. We have ourselves some trouble here. The griffons here… our griffons, they have a real hatred of their own kind. I’m worried about keeping them in line on this trip,” Wrecker replied. 

“I’ll go and talk to them myself,” Bucky said. 

“Aye… you do that. I’ll feel better if you do that. You being one of their kings and all.” Wrecker looked at Bucky. “Speaking of griffons… watch out for the demon Tartarus spawn cat we keep in the cellar. She’ll kill you just as soon as look at you.” 

“I'll be careful,” Bucky promised. 



 

The dining hall was still closed, still being cleaned. Bucky entered into a smaller common room and stood in the doorway. There were a number of ponies, griffons, zebras, and even a minotaur packed into the room. The room’s primary purpose was a nursery. 

A large quilt was spread over the stone floor. A number of foals were playing on it, some were napping, and one of those foals was Bucky’s. Cadance was sitting on her haunches, looking somehow majestic and regal on a cushion. Her wings were spread out just a bit, enough to look important, and there was something solemn about her expression as she looked at the other foals. 

Trotting through the room, Bucky never took his eyes off of Cadance. He came to where Thistle was laying down, nosed her, sat down beside her, and then had a better look at Cadance. 

“What is she doing?” Bucky asked. 

“Berry Punch says that Cadance is being an alicorn… she’s watching over her subjects and keeping them safe,” Thistle replied. 

Bucky nodded. “Oh.” 

“I have no idea how Berry Punch came to that conclusion.” Thistle reached out and stroked Bucky’s hind leg. She felt it quiver beneath her touch. 

“Berry… she just knows these things. I’ve learned to trust her instincts.” Bucky flopped over, coming to rest against Thistle, mindful not to land upon her leg. “Where is Berry?” 

“With Magpie, making googly eyes at Bandua most likely. Belisama is sleeping.” Thistle cleared her throat. “Bucky?” 

“Yes? What do you want, love?” Bucky replied. 

“I want to see my old loch… I want to take Bell with me. But I need your help. It’s cold out there,” Thistle said in a low voice. “I was hoping you could use your magic to keep us warm.” 

“I can do that. You don’t plan on going for a swim, do you?” Bucky looked over at the kelpie beside him. He wanted to say something perverted, let Thistle know that he had plenty of ways to keep her warm.

“Oh no… I hadn’t planned on it. I just… I guess I just wanted to say goodbye.”
	
> Chapter 553
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Berry Punch approached Bucky, she noticed that he was smiling. It was not his more commonly seen forced smile, or his nervous smile, or his ‘I am okay, really, stop worrying about me’ smile. It was the smile that few saw and one of the things she loved about him. 

She paused for a moment, standing in place, looking at Bucky and watching as he fawned over Bell Heather and Bandua. Seeing him happy made Berry’s heart feel warm. 

“Having a nice day for once?” Berry asked. She watched as Bucky lifted his head and look at her. She watched the dreadful purple mist drift from his eye and she could see his slitted pupil narrow as he focused upon her. 

“I had a rough start… then I had a good scare… and then there was a troubling moment where I had to become a terrible hypocrite with Wrecker… but other than that… I dunno, I just feel so happy. I feel better,” Bucky replied. 

On the bed, Belisama wrestled with Cadance, trying to preen the alicorn foal’s wings. Cadance, who wanted to play, struggled and refused to hold still, giggling, and making Belisama work for every feather straightened. 

Berry watched the griffoness as she attempted to wrangle Cadance into submission, a broad smile upon her face. 

“Bandua is so tiny… it scares me how little she is. She is like a quarter of the size of Bell Heather,” Bucky said as he looked down at the foal and the cub laying in front of him. “I think Bell is getting hungry. She’s starting to smack her lips and get fussy.” 

“Thistle is spending a bit of time with Keg Smasher… give Bell to me, I’ll feed her,” Berry said, laying down on the blanket spread over the floor by the fire. 

Bucky lifted Bell over to Berry and watched as Berry got Bell Heather situated. “Thistle wants to go visit her lake… her loch.” Hearing a gurgle, Bucky’s ears perked as he heard the sounds of suckling. 

There was a frustrated squawk. “Cadance! You are a silly creature!” 

There was a giggle. “Sama mama!” 

There was a laugh. “She got that from Harper.” Berry Punch rested her head on her folded forelegs. The fire was warm against her side. She yawned. It would be easy to take a nap right now. 

“Berry… I can’t stand it no more… I really want to meet the twins… this is killing me,” Bucky said, his voice a low whine. “I want to hold them and know that they are okay… I want to see them, smell them, talk to them, listen to the sounds of them breathing.” 

“Soon Bucky…. spring will be here before you know it. And with spring comes foals,” Berry replied. 

“I can’t wait for spring…” 



 

Celestia lifted up a stack of papers from in front of Raven and placed them in front of Keg Smasher. Raising her eyebrow, she looked at the big burly pegasus. “Keg Smasher, you have done a splendid job of keeping everything together. I am impressed by what you have done here. When the papers are signed and all of this becomes official, it fills me with relief to know that you will keep everything running smoothly.” 

The big pegasus nodded. “I do my best.” 

“However, you must back down from some of your more… extreme punishments. I am politely asking you to reconsider. I know you needed to establish order, I know there was a a lot of violent conflict here, but Equestria is a civilised nation… acting like barbarians would reflect poorly upon all of us.” Celestia’s eyebrow lowered, becoming level with the other. 

“I dinnae feel sorry for what I did… this was a war… I offered an exchange of prisoners and they sent me back skins… skins damn them… some of them were my own colts… mine, do ye understand?” Keg Smasher scowled, his face darkening. 

“A lot of bad things happened.” Raven reached over and patted Celestia. “He was a father grieving for his lost foals. It doesn’t excuse what he did, but it explains why he did it.” 

“Just so long as it doesn’t happen again. And I don’t want any more public floggings in the Shires. Order has been established. The earth ponies and the pegasi there now understand that there has been a radical change in the social order. They have seen with their own eyes the consequences for clinging to the old ways. There has been enough suffering.” Celestia’s voice was soft but forceful as she made her point.

“At least there is order now.” Keg Smasher folded his forelegs over his broad barrel as he leaned back in his chair. “The riots have stopped. Ponies have stopped burning down the stores where they buy food and the cities in which they live. Worth a few flogged backs if you ask me.” 

“Some of the asylum doctors are still at large. Bucky has said it over and over, he wants more resources spent on finding them. They must be made to answer for what they have done. We need to make sure there is no safe harbour for them,” Violet said as she wrote something down, her pen making quick, hasty movements over the paper. 

“The zebras have sent agents to assist with that,” Keg Smasher said to Violet. “The witch doctors will find them. It is out of my hooves… the bocors want to try the asylum doctors in the Sea of Grass.” 

“Bucky will be okay with that. The Sea of Grass has lovely penal colonies in the Hinterlands.” Violet’s ears perked when she heard a frustrated whinny from Celestia. She turned in time to see Celestia shaking her head. 

“Speak of the old crafty bastard himself,” Keg Smasher said as Bucky entered the room. 

“Sorry… I got held up in the hall… I was mugged by a group of foals that wanted to hear stories.” Bucky crossed the room in a hurry, pulled out a chair beside Violet, and sat down. He looked around the table and smiled. “I see you managed to get started without me.” 

Clearing her throat, Celestia lifted her head high. “We are about to make history. These isles will become a shared territory between Equestria and the Sea of Grass. A common ground, a place to meet in the middle. A territory protected by both.” 

“Aye, it’s a bit exciting it is.” Keg Smasher unfolded his forelegs and placed them down upon the table in front of him. He smiled and looked at Bucky. “It’ll have a fit king too.” 

“Look, I never wanted this… I was supposed to be steward of the Shire Isles… a protector until such a time that a more suitable ruler could be found,” Bucky said. 

“And a suitable ruler was found.” Celestia looked at Bucky.

Raven ducked down in her chair. “Here we go.” 

“Then I’d like to abdicate,” Bucky said, drumming his talons upon the table. 

“No. I will not allow that to happen.” Celestia sat up, drawing herself to her full height, and her eyes narrowed. 

“Fine then. Violet, take a note. All crimes are to be met with beheading—” 

“Buckminster Bitters, this is a very serious issue!” Celestia snapped. 

“Yes it is!” Bucky’s retort was forceful and full of anger. “We’re gonna have to hire hundreds of cleaners to mop up the blood.” 

“Beheading,” Violet said as she scribbled on paper. 

“Bucky, so help me, I am not in the mood to have a contest of wills with you. I was having such a nice day.” Celestia’s ears fell back against her head and her nostrils flared. 

“The real issue here was that the pony best suited for the job was looked over. A mistake has been made. Keg Smasher should be more than governor of these isles.” Bucky glared at Celestia, unafraid of the consequences. “It is a travesty that Keg Smasher has not been rewarded for his service.” 

A tension filled the air as the alicorn and the unicorn stared at one another. 

“Keg, I’ll do it myself if I have to. We can go to the deck of The Scorned Mare and I’ll make you a Prince of the Lunar Court myself if need be.” 

“Buckminster, you cannot do that—” 

“Why not? Do I not have the authority? You’d think that you’d be happy that I was taking some responsibility… you keep wanting to give me authority, or is it not the sort of authority that matters? Just meaningless mundane affairs?” Bucky leaned forward in his chair. 

“Bucky, it is not that at all—” 

“Is it because Keg Smasher is a pegasus? Is that it? Doesn’t have the noble heart of a unicorn? Is that—” 

“BUCKMINSTER BITTERS, CADANCE WAS A PEGASUS!” Celestia snorted several times in rapid succession. “How dare you make such an accusation!” 

“And you made her into an alicorn, giving her a horn as a symbol of authority.” 

“This is getting heated, perhaps we should take a moment to calm down,” Raven said, making a soft meek suggestion. 

“I do not know what has gotten into you Bucky—” 

“I’m sick of having everything dumped on me! And so is Twilight, but she’s too servile to say anything about it. I just spent some time with my foals… I have more foals coming. I run a school. I make golems out the wazoo to support the war effort. On a regular basis I hunt down magical criminals and I make ponies vanish… and now I am expected to take on all of this as well… NO!” Bucky shook his head. “No no no. And I don’t care what you say, I still think the reason that Keg Smasher has been looked over is because he is a pegasus. Make him a prince… he doesn’t need a horn to rule. He does a damn fine job as he is… and while we’re at it, how about an earth pony prince or princess? Or would that offend your own inner unicorn sensibilities?” 

Recoiling as if slapped, Celestia gasped. Her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“That’s enough Bucky… you’ve gone a little too far in making your point,” Violet said. 

Bucky waved his hoof at Violet in a dismissive gesture and scowled. 

“Don’t you dare give me the brush off!” Violet, snarling, levitated a book. With a flick of her magic, she sent the book flying, striking Bucky right between the eyes, knocking him and his chair over to the floor. 

Celestia gasped in stunned shock. 

“You owe your aunt an apology.” Violet sat back and began to tap her hoof upon the table. “And you…” Violet turned to look at Celestia. “I think Bucky made a fine point, even though he was a real arse with how he said it. Why wasn’t Keg Smasher given the ability to rule these islands?” 

“You threw a book at me…” 

“You threw a book at him,” Celestia said. “You threw a book at my nephew… my poor too often abused nephew… how could you? You hit him right between his eyes!” 

“Now you remember that he is your nephew… now, as his aunt, how do you feel about what you’ve done to him and Twilight because of obsessive need for control and the fact that you just don’t trust ponies to do jobs that you would rather do yourself? You pile everything upon Bucky and Twilight and then you nag them about doing everything at your standards.” Violet, who looked calm and collected, blinked. 

Raven covered her mouth with her hoof, her eyes were wide with fearful panic. 

Keg Smasher said nothing, but waited to see how this was going to end. 

“I suppose I have done that,” Celestia said, her admission slipping out in a pained whisper, and her eyes dropping down to look at the paperwork on the table. 

“And Bucky, I don’t know what has gotten into you, but you don’t sass your auntie. That’s rude. We have enough problems with politics without turning them into ruthless family squabbles. Families work together towards a common goal. Bucky, does your family fight in times of crisis?” 

Righting his chair with his magic, Bucky climbed to his hooves. He shook his head. “No. We do not fight in times of crisis.” 

“Then why is Celestia any different? What in Tartarus crawled up your ass?” Violet demanded. 

“I dunno… I was in a good mood… a really good mood… and I just sorta decided that I wasn’t going to take it anymore,” Bucky replied as he set the hurled book back upon the table. “I guess I felt confident in standing up for myself.” 

“So you thought you’d be a prick to your auntie?” Violet’s brow furrowed. 

“I dunno what I was thinking.” Bucky sat down in the chair and then slumped down, looking dejected. Reaching up, he began to rub his head with his right fetlock. “Maybe I’m out of sorts because of this hangover.” 

“Now apologise to one another… or else,” Violet commanded in an icy voice. 

Still rubbing his head, Bucky looked at Celestia. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have made this a tribalist issue to gain leverage for my argument.” 

“I am sorry as well. I do place too much on you and Twilight… I have very unrealistic expectations for the both of you,” Celestia said, one ear twitching up and down as she continued to stare down at the table. 

“There. Now can we get back down to business?” Violet asked. “I propose the first thing we tackle together are the merits of making Keg Smasher a titled Equestrian prince.” 

“I second that,” Raven said, raising her hoof. 

“I swear, this world would collapse into chaos without us secretaries,” Violet said, grumbling as she glared at Bucky over the top of her reading glasses. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 554
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Quickening her step, Celestia hurried after the two figures, bounding over the dirty snow that was packed down on the lane. Beneath her hooves, snow and crusted ice crunched. Above her, the sun shone down, causing everything to sparkle as though it was diamond encrusted. 

“Hold on… I am coming with you!” Celestia, unused to anything other than a slow sedate walk over flat surfaces, almost stumbled. Beneath the snow the lane was full of holes and ruts. 

One of the figures, covered in a bright green cloak, the colour of spring, paused and turned to look. The other figure, wrapped in a black cloak, could be heard sighing. 

“The roads are dreadful here… no paving whatsoever… no cobbles… it is a wonder that nopony slips and snaps a fetlock or a leg!” Celestia cried in alarm as she almost did the very thing she complained and worried about. 

“Do be careful.” Thistle’s warning was thick with concern. “We short and sturdy ponies have an advantage here I think.” 

“I believe you are correct,” Celestia said, sticking out her wings for balance as she wobbled. “I should not be running but I had to catch up with you.” 

“We were just going to pay our respects to a body of water.” Bucky’s voice was almost a flat monotone and it was difficult for those present to tell if he was being serious or silly. 

“I wanted to apologise again—” 

“We have apologised to each other a number of times… I still feel that I owe you an apology. I was being a jerk.” As Bucky stepped, his talons flexed and got traction in the snow. 

“Time after time, you keep coming through for me. I have come to depend on you and Twilight… I have trust issues Buckminster… I treat you poorly because I trust you… how awful is that,” Celestia said as she drew up to Bucky and Thistle’s side. 

“Annie Celery!” Cadance cried as she began to bounce around in her foal carrier. 

“Yes, this is your auntie Celery,” Bucky said, angling his neck so he could kiss Cadance. He planted a soft kiss on her cheek and the foal giggled as she squirmed. 

“I just realised I was also hurting her.” Celestia, now walking in step with Bucky and Thistle, looked down at what little pink was visible, the parts of Cadance peeking out from her swaddling. 

“What?” Thistle asked. 

“Bucky was right. I ask too much of him on top of everything else. Cadance needs him,” Celestia replied. “So do the rest of his foals. I feel terrible.” 

“Celery. Celeria?” 

“Celeria… very good,” Bucky said. “Auntie Celery.” He stepped over a large chunk of frozen mud and snow, sidestepped a rut, and glanced up at Celestia for a moment. “This is where things went wrong for me… but also where things went right.” 

“This is where you proved yourself.” Celestia, feeling the chill, began to radiate, flooding the air around her with a gentle warmth. “This is where a pony who had only recently discovered that he had a knack for brewing beer inherited part of a destiny—” 

“That I didn’t want—” 

“That he did not want,” Celestia said. “One of my best and brightest students, with a lot of magic, a creative streak, and a history of being clever. You might have had a long and happy life as a brewer and maybe a school teacher… perhaps teaching little ponies magic and brewing. But something had to intrude upon your life and you had to pick up a thread of destiny intended for another. I am sorry Buckminster… some of us seek out greatness… others have it thrust upon them.” 

“You met me here,” Thistle said as she walked alongside Bucky. 

Bucky turned to look at Thistle, who walked beside him. “My life would not be complete without you. Berry Punch says you’re my youthful enthusiasm and playfulness that I never fully developed.” 

Blushing, Thistle felt the heat of her cheeks burning in sharp contrast to the cold. 

“Mama Fissle,” Cadance said, looking at Thistle. 

“I have spoken to each of Twilight’s friends. All of them remember having their destinies altered, their cutie marks changed. The turmoil, the confusion, the unhappiness. The feeling of emptiness.” Celestia frowned, the corners of her mouth curling downwards, which caused her muzzle to wrinkle. “The feeling that something was horribly wrong, but unable to do anything about it. You inherited a share of Sombra’s power, the destiny promised to his descendants, and you would have inherited a cutie mark of red crystal as well. I believe that you would have ended up like Twilight’s friends… bitter, full of turmoil, confusion, unhappiness, all of the right negative emotions that would have further pushed you into darkness… a darkness that I myself was pushing you towards, even though I did not know it.” 

“But he kept his hops plant.” Thistle minded her hooves and scrabbled over a slippery patch of frozen solid slush. 

“Yes, Bucky, you kept your hops plant. With everything that has happened, that has become a symbol of my hope. You have kept a little part of yourself true to what you are. I hope it never changes,” Celestia said as she used her magic to keep Thistle aloft and prevent the kelpie from slipping. “A little piece of green hope… a little promise of green to see you through the long winter.” 

Bucky sighed. “That seems kinda poetic when you put it that way.” Pushing himself ahead, Bucky focused on placing one hoof in front of the other, one set of talons in front of his hooves. He gave some thought to Celestia’s words. 

“Bucky, this is where you got hurt, it is my sincere hope that by bringing you here, you would have some healing… I came here Buckminster… I came here in secret when I was having my sulking fit in the sun. I came here and I saw what lies beneath the mountain. I traveled down those long steps, into a place where there is no light and even hope feels as though it is extinguished, and I reached the very bottom where the darkness is a living thing. The stain of your blood is still on the floor. And down there, knowing what you faced, and knowing what you will continue to face, I wept, mourning my lost little foal that made mutant carnivorous potatoes.” 

Reaching out with her magic, Celestia kept Bucky from stumbling. Her ears perked as she heard him whimper. “I keep making mistakes with you… and Twilight. I am trying Bucky. I am not doing a very good job, but I am trying. I hope you will be patient with me as I rediscover myself and try to make amends for the wrongs I have done…” 



  

The lake was almost invisible, it was a sheet of ice covered in snow. Looking at it, Thistle thought about how lonesome she was here, at least at first, and then she thought of happier times; sharing a meal of fish with Sentinel and Bucky. Bringing fish to Bucky and getting a kiss. Many long talks with Derpy and with Berry Punch. 

Standing on the edge of the frozen shore, Thistle realised that she could be under the ice right now. She thought of her first winter under the ice without her mother. Tears stung her eyes, the cold making them hurt all the more. That had been a long painful winter and she thought the solitude would never end. Several months spent down the dark depths all by herself, no sun, nopony to hold her, nopony to talk to, just the bleak expanse of time and the consuming darkness. 

She leaned on Bucky and thought about the reassuring weight and warmth of Bell Heather pressed against her. In a moment of adult maturity and understanding, Thistle came to the conclusion that Bell Heather’s creation wasn’t just a need to make more kelpies, Thistle had been running from her loneliness as well. The touch of another. The wrong touch. There had been no love there, she saw that now, and burning shame filled Thistle’s barrel, making her feel hot and angry with herself. 

“Thistle, love, you okay?” Bucky asked. 

The kelpie shook her head. “No… no I’m not okay. I just realised how foalish and immature I was. How stupid I was… and I feel so ashamed.” Thistle felt warmth upon her ear, hot breath, and then a moment later, there was a kiss just below her ear. She realised it was Celestia. 

“I was just having those feelings myself,” Celestia said, whispering into Thistle’s ear and causing it to flicker. She looked into Thistle’s eyes as Thistle looked up at her. 

“How do I make this up to myself?” Thistle asked. She could feel Celestia still breathing on her ear, the alicorn’s lingering closeness was somehow comforting. 

“I do not know… I was just thinking the same thing.” Celestia turned her eyes out on the lake. Around the shore were little cabins and smoke rose from chimneys. “I took some helpful advice from a pony that loves me a great deal and I got myself laid. Once you are done healing up, you might do the same. In the meantime, I do not know what to tell you to do.” 

Unable to stop herself, Thistle giggled. It bubbled up from her insides, like spring water rushing up from the ground, it broke the surface and came out in a gushing burst. The giggles became a laugh and Thistle could hear Celestia laughing as well. 

But she did not hear Bucky laughing. She watched him step away from her, she watched as he made his way down the shore to the ice itself. Still laughing, her good cheer, her good mood still welling up from inside of her, she watched as Bucky dropped his head down and began kicking snow off of the ice. 

“I wonder what he is doing,” Celestia said. “Buckminster, it is far too cold for a swim.” 

Bucky did not reply.

Thistle’s ears perked forward and she cocked her head as she watched Bucky. She saw his talons raise, clench into a fist, and punch down. There was a terrific crack as the ice broke and Cadance let out a startled cry of alarm. 

“Celery!” 

“Bucky, dear, auntie Celery is concerned… what are you doing?” Celestia asked. 

There was no reply. 

A whiff of ozone. The crackle of raw magic. A brilliant blue-green light shone from Bucky’s horn. Thistle had to squint to protect her eyes and turn away from the blinding light. 

Celestia did the same. “And this is why there are so many unicorns with vision problems… all that light and no way to shield your eyes. I mean, it is right there, growing out of your forehead, burning your eyeballs right out of your skull. Nopony ever thinks to wear protective goggles.” 

“I never thought of that,” Thistle said as she turned her head away. The light was dazzling now, like a second sun. Thistle could feel the world around her vibrating, or at least she thought she could feel it. The air was filled with a thrumming hum. The sound deepened and Thistle wasn’t sure if she was hearing it or feeling the vibrations in her teeth. 

“Deep magic… Buckminster… what are you doing?” Celestia peered ahead, squinting through narrowed eyes, trying to look at what Bucky was doing. She heard Cadance cry out, a squeal, and then the air was filled with pink light as well as blue-green. 

“Tiggles!”

Celestia wasn’t sure if Cadance was trying to say ‘tickles’ or ‘tingles’ and she wasn’t sure it mattered, perhaps Cadance was feeling both. 

The light grew ever brighter. Bright purple-blue faerie fire began to dance along the surface of the snow, it flickered and danced along the ground and burned through the bare naked trees. Celestia closed her eyes. Bucky was creating luminous plasma with a coronal discharge. Deep magic. With her eyes closed, Celestia could hear Cadance giggling. 

“There… that does it I think.” 

Celestia opened her eyes. Bucky was climbing up the frozen shore, grinning a mad grin. 

“I made you a little something. Cadance helped. A little reminder of this place,” Bucky said as he drew closer to Thistle. 

Thistle saw something held out in front of Bucky. She blinked, trying to see it as he drew closer. It was… ice. He held it up in front of her and Thistle peered at it. After a moment, she realised, it was her. A little kelpie in merpony form holding a tiny kelpie foal in her forelegs, and her long tail wrapped around in a spiral. Thistle felt her breath catching in her throat, it was the worst possible thing that could happen, because right now she needed to breathe. 

Leaning her head forward, she touched it with her nose. “It’s warm!” 

“You wouldn’t want to hang this around your neck if it was cold, would you?” Bucky asked in a low voice as he took another step closer to Thistle. 

“Warm ice?” Thistle drew in a deep shuddering breath, the cold stinging her nostrils. 

“I would break all of the rules for you… warp time and space if I had to. There are no words to express how I feel about you, but warm ice is a good start of showing you how I feel. We’ll need to have Rising Star make a nice chain for this when we get home.” Bucky leaned forward and planted a kiss on Thistle’s snoot. 

“How is it not melting? How is it warm?” Thistle needed to know how this worked. 

“The ice is filled with a touch of my essence. With Cadance’s help, I was able to give it the warmth of my love,” Bucky replied. “It will never melt. Think of it as glass made from water. I cheated a little bit in its creation.” 

“I want to have your foals,” Thistle said in a low whisper, her eyes locked on the kelpie mother figurine. “This is my old lake water… now I guess I will have a little piece of my old home with me wherever I go.” 

Bucky stuffed the figurine down into Bell Heather’s carrier, tucking it into a blanket fold. 

“Bucky, that was incredibly sweet,” Celestia said. 

“I’m starving. Let’s head home. There is still a lot to do today.” Bucky’s stomach gurgled to emphasize his words. 

“At some point today I am going to grab you and give you some special cuddle time,” Thistle said, pressing her lips to Bucky’s ear. “I just want to hold you close and feel you against me… this was so nice of you.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 555
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Violet?” 

“Yes Bucky, what is it?” 

“The book was a nice touch… I was not expecting that. But did you have to throw it so hard? I mean, I have a lump now… almost a second horn… there was no warning.” 

Violet snickered. 

“Violet, you like causing pain too much.” 

“And you like being in pain too much, Bucky.” 

“Violet?” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“It feels wrong manipulating her like that. I feel bad. I feel ashamed.” 

“She manipulates you all of the time.” 

“I know… Violet… well, I am becoming aware of it anyhow. But it feels wrong to manipulate her back. I just feel bad about it.” 

“This was your idea.” 

“And I feel bad about it… Violet, everything in the universe keeps trying to screw her without even getting her a drink first.” 

“Was anypony actually hurt by this Bucky? Celestia had her emotions invoked, which is how you get her to take action, Keg Smasher is going to be made a Prince of Equestria, and nothing but good will come out of this. We did nothing for personal gain. Everything came out to somepony else’s benefit… so again I will ask, was anypony actually hurt by this?” 

“Yes Violet.” 

“Who?” 

“Me. It hurts inside. In my heart. Like… like… like I just kicked one of my own foals in front of an oncoming wagon… plus I have a lump on my head.” 

“Under all those scars, after all of the horrible things you’ve done, you’re still a big softy.” 

Bucky shrugged. 

“Bucky, this was your idea.” 

“I know… and I am ashamed for having it. Being treacherous and manipulative with Twilight Sparkle when we hoodwinked the zebras was fine. We fooled everypony involved and good came out of it. But this is different… this is wrong... I did a bad thing Violet.” 

“Because she is family?” 

“Yes.” 

Long silence. 

“Violet?” 

“Yes, what is it Bucky?” 

“I’ve been a bad pony… I think I am going to go think about what I’ve done. How can I teach my own foals to be honest and open when I allow myself such acts of treachery?” 

“You are making far too big a deal of this… everything came out okay. Politics took place. There is a happy ending for all.” 

“Not for me.” 



 

Lugus’ claws scrabbled over the stone stairs as the big griffon tried to avoid a tumble. He was far too large and the stairway was not made for creatures his size. Oil lamps lit the way with weak feeble flames that sputtered and flickered. He could hear the sound of metal scraping on stone, the sound of his friend right behind him. 

“Have a nice day?” Lugus asked. 

“Yes… even with some things that were less than pleasant,” Bucky replied. “What about you? How was foalsitting?” 

“I like Tourmaline. She talks a lot. Asks a lot of questions. Funny little filly.” Lugus flexed his front talons, squeezing the edge of one of the stone stairs. It was slick with moisture. It was damp and dank down here. 

Lugus felt relief when the last of the treacherous stairs was reached. 

Continuing ahead, Lugus moved through a wide open area, through an arch, and saw two pegasi guards. Sitting with them at the table was an older unicorn with a peculiar circular scar on his forehead. Lugus felt his feathers ruffle at the sight. 

“Knight Lugus… Knight Buckminster,” One of the guards said, not getting up but saluting with a jaunty wave of his wing. “Here to see the demon in chains?” 

“She can’t be that bad, she’s a cub,” Bucky said. 

All three of the ponies at the table snorted and snickered. 

“Oh come on… she’s a cub… how bad can she be?” Bucky asked. 

“Ripple is a filly… how dangerous can she be?” Lugus replied. 

Blinking, Bucky jerked his head back. “Fair point."

“She’s a scout. One of them Hinterlands griffons. Living in the sand makes them hard.” 

“Keg Smasher should have lopped off her head. But he’s soft about the fact that she’s young… he seems to think that she has some sort of redeemable quality other than being a murderous Tartarus spawned tabby. She’s tried to kill him several times… stabbed him good once. Used a sharpened spoon she hid.” 

“Oh my.” Lugus turned and looked at Bucky. 

“We have her trussed up and waiting for your visit. We tossed a satchel of zebra sleeping dust into her cell and tied her up for your safety. Untie her at your own risk.” 

“She hasn’t told a soul her name. So call her whatever.” 

One if the pegasi pointed to a door. “Just lift up the wooden beam and let yourself in. If you will excuse us, we don’t want to be anywhere near here when that door opens. Please, give us a chance to get out of here.” 

The trio departed, heading up the stairs, all of them muttering and grumbling as they left, leaving Bucky and Lugus by themselves The pair looked at one another. 

“I’ll go in first,” Lugus offered. 

Bucky nodded, his horn glowing with a faint blue-green light. 

Lifting the beam, Lugus opened the door. He peered inside the dim room. “She’s not here… what the… is she gone?” He stepped inside the room to have a look around. 

A dark shadow dropped from the ceiling with a shriek. “I’ll peck out your thrice damned eyes!” 

Lugus, moving with a speed that belied his bulk, sidestepped the falling shadow, reached out his talons, grabbed the shadow by the neck, and moving at a blur, he slammed the figure down into the stone floor head first. 

Yawning, Lugus stood on top of the black figure’s neck as she let out a pitiful pained squawk. “She was clinging to the ceiling with her claws. She got untied somehow. We should tell the guards she is getting a resistance to the sleeping powder.” 

“Lugus?” Bucky looked at his friend. 

“Yes?” Lugus felt the griffoness cub squirming beneath his talons, making a feeble effort to get free. 

“Lugus, please… don’t stand on her neck. I find it very distressing… I don’t like seeing her hurt… please?” Bucky lowered his head and looked down at the griffoness cub pinned beneath Lugus. She was sleek, black, and had a head like a raven or a crow. 

“No funny business, do you hear me cub?” Lugus asked as he lifted the griffoness cub up by her neck and looked her in the eye. 

She came to life, swiping at Lugus with her talons, kicking with her hind legs, and hissing with an open beak. Lugus, unconcerned by all of this, slammed her once again into the stone floor with bone jarring force. She went still and quiet. 

“Lugus… please… I can’t deal with this right now,” Bucky said, giving a pleading look to his friend. 

Lugus sat down upon the stone floor and jerked the griffoness cub into sitting position, his talons still wrapped around her neck. She reached up and with a feeble effort, tried to pry Lugus’ talons from her throat. 

“She can breathe just fine. But if she misbehaves one more time, I’m squeezing until her neck snaps or her eyes pop out, whatever comes first,” Lugus said. 

Feeling angry, Bucky scowled but understood that Lugus was just trying to keep both of them safe. Leaning forward, but not coming too close, Bucky studied the griffoness cub. 

Opening her beak, she gave a hiss. “Murderer!” 

Bucky lifted his head and looked her in the eye. “And what makes you say that?” 

“We took you in… we gave you shelter… we gave you hospitality… we trusted you… and you attacked us in the night, murdering us in our sleep, you razed our cities, and you took what few survivors there were into slavery!” 

“Did I?” Bucky asked. 

The griffoness cub reached for Bucky, her talons coming scant inches from his face. Lugus slammed her down beak first into the stone floor with a sickening thud. 

“Lugus! Let go of her this once! Do you think she could actually hurt me?” Bucky looked at his friend and tried to convey just how furious he was with an expression. 

Chastised, Lugus let go of the cub and stepped back. 

“Blood traitor…” 

Lugus’ crest rose but he made no other response to the griffoness cub’s accusation. 

“You’re bleeding.” Using his magic, Bucky lifted the cub into the air, keeping her out of reach. “Lugus, you split open the side of her face. How could you?” 

“She wanted to tear your face off.” Lugus said nothing else in his own defense.

Bucky set the cub down in a chair, and, holding her very still, examined her. He could see the hate festering in her eyes. Blood trickled down her neck. She was thin, nothing but bones. “They’re starving you… that’s not right.” 

“No, she refuses to eat. They’ve been bringing her food. She throws it at them or soils it with her own waste,” Lugus said, correcting Bucky in a soft voice. 

“Do you really think I am a murderer, as you claim?” Bucky asked. 

Giving Bucky a hate filled stare, the griffoness cub nodded. 

“We were sleeping in a small cramped filthy room with not enough beds. We thought we were safe. A group of griffons came in through a secret passage and attacked us, bent on rape and murder. They had scarcely even begun to subdue us when one of them actually tried to rape one of my dear friends. The griffons had a plan… a grand plan to weaken Equestria by poisoning the water supplies and then invading the Sea of Grass to claim it as a new homeland because Griffonholm was completely defiled and befouled by pollution.” 

The griffoness cub stared at Bucky with a look of pure loathing, unable to do anything else because of Bucky’s magic. Every muscle in her body quivered, tensing, preparing for violence. 

“I took the little griffons home with me. I set them free. They were slaves in their homeland. They are happy now. Well fed. Healing up. I protect them and keep them happy.” 

“Liar!” 

Lugus’ whole body jerked and his talons flexed. 

“They are slaves in your country! You keep them on your plantation and you force them to labour! You prostitute them out for the perverted lusts of your kind!” 

“Do you really believe that?” Bucky, who had conjured a towel and some water, began dabbing away at the split flesh on the griffoness cub’s face. “What if I were to prove you wrong?” 

“I will believe none of your lies or your trickery! Slaver! Liar! MURDERER!” 

“Has anypony here tried to rape you?” Bucky asked. 

The griffoness cub did not reply, but continued to give Bucky a baleful stare. 

“So you remain untouched, but believe we are a species of perverts out to sully your kind,” Bucky said in a low patient voice. He wiped away more blood and cleaned the cub’s face. For a moment, Bucky felt himself admiring the cub for her fearlessness, and he suspected that he saw what Keg Smasher saw. 

“Tell me now, and be honest… if you lie to me, I will know. Have you eaten pony flesh? Or zebra flesh?” Bucky stood, resolute, and stared into the cub’s eyes. 

She hissed. 

“I cannot seem to avoid hypocrisy today,” Bucky said as he wrapped his talons around the cub’s throat. “Speak now and save your life. If the answer is no, I will let you live. If the answer is yes, this will be over very quickly and you will feel nothing, I promise.” He gave a little squeeze. 

“Eating things that talk is dishonourable!” the cub shrieked, her eyes going wide with fear. She had looked into Bucky’s eyes and she had seen things. 

Bucky let go. “Now we are getting somewhere. Griffon honour. That is something I understand. Lugus over there is full of it. In more ways than one.” 

Lugus, emboldened, stuck out his wing and extended his central primary feather in the ancient pegasus symbol of war at Bucky. He saw Bucky raise an eyebrow. Lugus, frustrated, did not care. 

“In the Hinterlands I survived on lizards and dune rats. I only ate things I caught myself, as is befitting a hunter. I knew what the others were eating. Disgusting.” 

Bucky sat down on a wooden chair, trying to get himself comfortable. He tossed the towel down upon the table and looked at the cub. He had wiped away the dirty crusts from the corners of her eyes, the sleeping dust had covered her face and had clung to every surface. 

“Now… about the little griffons—” 

“The little helpless ones that owe us for their existence? The ones that we provide for?” 

Bucky clucked his tongue. “And you accuse me of slavery. For shame.” 

The cub gave Bucky a sullen stare and fell silent. 

Reaching up, Bucky rubbed his muzzle with his talons and studied the cub, unsure of what to do next. “You seem smart. Can you read or write?” 

“I will write down the details of your death in your own blood…” 

“If I held her head down in a bucket full of water I could take some of the fight out of her,” Lugus said in a low hissing voice. 

“Lugus, what is your problem?” Bucky asked. 

“She has insulted my king, tried to kill my friend, and she has held herself in contempt of your honour by calling you a liar. I have killed for less.” Lugus, looking furious, stared at the cub, his tail swishing from side to side and his talons flexing. 

“And she called you a traitor,” Bucky said, reminding Lugus of one more insult. “I think I see a major failing of the griffon species… your honour. The little ones don’t have this problem… but look at you… you are both at each other’s throats right now. This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.” 

There were scraping sounds as Lugus raked his talons over the stone floor, trying to hold back his fury. His beak clicked several times, and his crest stood straight up. 

“Lugus, I have reached a decision,” Bucky said in a low voice, ignoring his friend’s anger. 

“And that is?” Lugus asked through a beak clamped shut. 

“Lugus, I want you to fetch my little griffons… and your queen. Princess Bandua as well. Also, see that food is brought… we can’t have little cubs that are hungry.” Bucky looked at Lugus with a half smile upon his scarred face. 

For some reason, all Lugus could think of was Bucky and Harper. Some little cub was going to eat her dinner tonight. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 556
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing the sounds of many claws on stone and the rustling of feathers, Bucky allowed himself a smile. It had taken long enough. Trying to make small talk with the griffoness cub had proved impossible. 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, it was Magpie leading the gaggle of griffons. He moved to intercept her, to say a few things about the situation and give her a warning, but before he could say anything he was shoved aside by the somewhat larger hunter griffoness that was now his nanny. 

Magpie, having reached the cub, began to examine her. Magpie was fearless. Reaching out, she grabbed the cub by the beak and begin looking her over, checking her face, and then poking her side with a talon, angling the pointy tip of her claw away. 

“Which one of you did this?” Magpie squawked as she pulled the cub’s head forward for a closer look. She let go of the cub, which Bucky still held immobilised with magic. “This is fresh. Who did this? Tell me now!” 

Bucky pointed a single talon at Lugus. 

There was a flurry of feathers and squawking as Magpie launched herself at Lugus, slapping him with her wings and saying the most vile sort of things that you would never want your nanny saying around your offspring, the worst of which was a very colourful command containing vivid detail, telling Lugus to go and self-fornicate after a painful act of self castration and then eating his own balls. 

Where ponies were herd animals and disputes were settled in very different sorts of ways, griffons were feline and avian. Hissing and yowling filled the room, most of which came from Magpie. Lugus, being the stoic that he was, blocked some of it with a raised foreleg but did nothing to fight back. 

The griffoness cub stared at the violence with wide eyes. 

“Really, we are a big happy family… this is just a squabble… I hope,” Bucky said. 


“That’s enough of that,” Belisama said. 

Magpie halted in mid swing, her wing inches from Lugus’ face. She pulled back, bowing her head, and backed away from Lugus. She folded in her wings and reaching up with her talons, smoothed back her crest. 

Surrounded by the other little griffons, Belisama sat up on her haunches. 

Sensing opportunity, Bucky seized the moment. He pointed at Belisama. “Your queen,” he said to the cub.

“She’s a slave griffon—”

“Ahah! Well now… the truth comes out.” Bucky reached out and smoothed back some of Magpie’s wing feathers with his right hoof. “She is a slave no longer… we call them artist griffons… or little griffons.” He pointed at one of the males. “I call this one Lugnut. Beside him is Spanner. Both of them are fabulously gay. That is Sprocket and this one is Cog. Those adorable little cubs are Lugnut and Spanner’s cubs.” Bucky pointed to each in turn. 

He sprung forward and snatched up a griffoness with his magic. “This one is fat and fluffy because she is so well fed. Look at her. She’s adorable.” Reaching out his talons, he gave the griffoness a tickle on her ribs, which made her explode with laughter. When he set her down, she scurried off and hid behind Belisama. 

Approaching Belisama, Bucky smoothed out the feathers on the side of her face. “And this is my wife… Belisama, whom I love dearly. She had just a cub, Bandua. Our cub. Bandua is wrapped up and tucked away in this shawl.” 

“I…” the cub said and then fell silent. 

“As you might notice, Belisama is about half my size. Which means I had to be very careful with her while we made Bandua. She is very dear to me, I would never want to hurt her.” Taking what he knew was a calculated risk, Bucky released the griffoness cub. 

Realising she was free, her wings unfurled and she flexed her talons, revelling in the ability to move her body once more. 

The little griffons all moved around Bucky, pressing in, forming a tight group around him and Belisama. Little beaks opened. Crests raised. Little talons clenched and feathers fluffed out. 

The cub froze, realising she was in terrible danger of being ripped to pieces. She saw it in their eyes. They were afraid, but this was not the good sort of fear, the sort of fear that kept them in line. This was the fear that made them dangerous and unpredictable. She looked at the lone hunter griffon in the room, Magpie. There was a long dagger held in her talons, a cruel looking danger with a barbed tip. A gut puller. 

She made sure to sit very still, afraid to even breathe. 

There was a faint scraping of steel as the dagger was put away, back into whatever secret sheath that Magpie kept it tucked away in. 

“Bandua represents the hopes and dreams of our kind… you had best be on your best behaviour, little cub.” Magpie cocked her head, watched, and waited. 

“I don’t understand any of this,” the cub said in a fear filled voice. 

Lugus, sitting in the corner, began to chortle. 

“You invaded Griffonholm… you murdered us by the tens of thousands. We gave you hospitality… you led us away into slavery… you were the terrible butcher that slaughtered our kings as they begged and pleaded for their lives…” 

“Minotaur shit!” one of the little griffons said, stepping forward. “Since when do hunter griffons beg for anything? Your honour wouldn’t allow it… you… you… you…” the little griffon grabbed ahold of Bucky, clinging to Bucky’s talons, squeezing them and looking very afraid. “You… you’re stupid!” When the last word left his beak, he hid his face into Bucky’s ribs and trembled, his courage exhausted. 

“Stupid!” several griffons repeated, pressing tighter together as they spoke. 

“Cat-brain!” 

“Eater of sand treats!” 

“Hey… that’s enough of that,” Bucky said in a voice that almost cracked. He pressed his lips together and his nostrils quivered as his barrel began to heave. 

“You are unfit to hunt rats!” 

Lugus’ laughter echoed throughout the cellar. 

“String chasing ninny!” 

“Okay, that’s enough, there is no need to be ugly. She’s a cub!” Magpie said, chiding the little griffons while waggling her talons at them. She turned to look at the cub. “Would you like some food?” 

“You were going to stab me a moment ago,” the cub replied in a low nervous squeak. 

“I wanted to make it very clear that I will not allow Bandua to be harmed. I’m her nanny.” Magpie took a step closer to the cub. “I take my job very seriously. Bucky didn’t have to spare me, but he did. He has been very good to me and I care about him a great deal.” 

Feeling shrewd, Bucky felt a smug sense of satisfaction in knowing that the cub felt overwhelmed and was taken off guard. Months of being in a cell had left her vulnerable.  He could see it, the panic in her eyes, the tiny pinprick pupils, the way she trembled. The griffons loyal to Keg Smasher were suspect and far too martial, so of course she wouldn’t trust them. But these griffons… these griffons, the ones she called ‘slave’ griffons, the words coming from her own beak, these had been enough to batter down her defenses. 

“I am your king. You are my subject. More importantly, you are a cub. That puts us in a very special relationship. I am responsible for you as your king. You are going to eat now,” Bucky said as he rose to his hooves and began to approach the table. “You are nothing but bones and you have patches of fur falling out. You are going to eat. You are going to get a bath, because by the stars, you stink… and you are going to behave yourself little cub. Am I clear?” 

“You are not my king,” the cub said, her eyes blazing with defiance once more. 

All around Bucky, he heard the fluttering of wings as the little griffons flapped around, placing food upon the table. He grinned, showing fangs. “You just made my evening. You see, there is nothing I find more satisfying then feeding my foals. Bathing them. Making sure they are full, well fed, and clean. It can be a challenge sometimes, Harper tested my patience… you know what?” 

“What?” The cub gulped, feeling very afraid all of a sudden without being able to explain why. There was something maniacal and terrible about the unicorn in front of her. 

“You are no Harper…” 

In the corner, Lugus fell over, laughing fit to split. He clutched his sides as he rolled upon the dirty floor, his guffaws filling the room with echoed laughter. 

“I need somebirdy to go upstairs and begin to run a bath. Get the water boiling.” Bucky paused and looked at the cub. “Oh, not to worry. We won’t boil you. I’ll add cold water until it is pleasant before I dunk you in there. I wish Bon Bon was here. She’d scrub your skin off and if you sassed her, she’d probably paddle you with the scrubbing brush, because Bon Bon don’t take no guff. She’s paddled me with a scrubbing brush for being a bad pony.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and his Taint filled eye oozed purple mist. It gleamed with a frightening crazy intensity. 

“Did we mention that our king is mad?” a little griffoness said as she picked up and hugged Cog, squeezing the tiny cub. 

“Who else makes slaves his chosen subjects,” another said. 

Lugus was wheezing now, struggling to breathe. 

Fearing a fate worse than death, the cub let out a frightened squawk. “I’ll be a good cub!” 

Bucky lunged forward, coming snoot to beak. “Give me your word.”

“I give you my word!”

Shaking his head, Bucky frowned. “Not good enough. Swear on your honour as a hunter griffon. Do it, or so help me, before the night is over, I will dress you in whatever pyjamas I can find, I will tie little pink ribbons all over your body, and I will read you stories as I tuck you into bed!” 

The cub shrieked, a wordless sound of terror. She jerked back away from Bucky, almost tipping her chair over, and she screamed bloody murder when Bucky grabbed her to keep her from falling over. Reaching up, she wrapped her talons around Bucky’s talons and squeezed. 

“Swear it!” Bucky demanded. 

“I’ll be a good cub! I’ll behave! I swear on my honour as a hunter!” 

Taking a step back, Bucky smiled. “You’re going to need a guardian. Somebirdy to keep track of you, keep an eye on you, and make sure that you don’t get into to much trouble as we try to straighten you out and get your head screwed on straight.” 

The cub was terrified. Bucky could see that she was on the verge of breaking down. Overwhelming her had been a wonderful idea. He waited, silent, saying nothing, allowing her own fear to continue to wear her down. 

“I just want to see the sky again,” the cub said in a small voice. “It’s been months. They clipped my wings so I couldn’t escape.” 

“Nope. No sky for you. Not until you’ve earned it.” Bucky felt a tug on his talons. 

“I want to be around other griffons… I’m alone,” the cub said. 

“And you will continue to be alone until you have earned my trust. You’re going back into your cell after you’ve had dinner and your bath. It will give you time to think about being a good cub.” 

“No…” The cub’s eyes were filling with tears. She glanced at the food on the table. 

“Tell me your name.” Bucky looked the cub in the eyes. She was shaking now. 

The cub shook her head. 

“My name is Bucky… now come on, tell me your name. If you don’t, I’ll just use my magic to go inside your head and find out what it is anyway,” Bucky said. 

The cub’s eyes went wide. “If I tell you my name, will you let me sleep someplace soft and warm tonight?”  

“You fail to understand bargaining. See, I can just take whatever it is I want from you. If I want your name, I can make you tell me your name. You dropped down from the ceiling and ambushed my best friend. You’ve been a very naughty cub. And now, you are trying to bargain with me.” Bucky’s horn glowed with a soft blue-green light. “I guess it is time to just take what I want from you… I will see that you are fed, that you get a bath, and that you are placed back in your cell when all of this is said and done because a cub that drops down from the ceiling to ambush my best friend can’t be trusted—” 

“My name is Boadicea!” 

“Very good… now we are getting somewhere. And how old are you?” Bucky asked, his horn dimming. 

“I’m a scout. I’m capable of taking care of myself.” 

“See, we started to make progress, and then you got stubborn. You must really like sleeping in that cold cell with no fire and no warm place to snuggle down.” Bucky looked the cub in the eye and continued to stare her down, beating down her will. 

“I am nine.” 

Bucky nodded. “Noted. One very capable, very deadly nine year old hunter griffoness. Who is also a cub and is scared shiteless about going back into her cell and is crying because she wants to see the sky again.” 

“I’m not crying,” Boadicea said as she wiped her eyes with her wings. 

“You are going to need somebirdy to make sure that you behave when and if I decide to let you out of your cell.” Bucky noted that the cub was no longer looking him in the eye, but kept glancing towards Magpie. 

He turned to look at Magpie. “Hmm… Nope. Magpie is my nanny. She’s gonna be busy looking after all of my little ones. I have a better idea.” 

“Who?” Boadicea asked. 

“Lugus.” 

The big griffon stopped laughing. 

The little griffoness cub quailed from terror. 

“Eh, what was that? What was that I just heard, my king?” Lugus asked. 

Magpie burst out into raucous laughter, pointing a talon at Lugus as she threw back her head and howled from mirth. 

“Boadicea, you are going to sit down and have a nice meal. Afterwards, Magpie is going to give you a bath. And when that is done, Lugus, you are going to sit down with Boadicea here, you are going to be civil to one another, and you are going to apologise for cracking her head into the stone floor and making her bleed. As for you my little cub, you are going to apologise to Lugus for trying to ambush him, for calling him a ‘blood traitor’ and when everything is said and done, Lugus is going to tell me if you were being sincere, which will help me make up my mind where you are sleeping tonight.” 

“But he hates me… I said awful things… he’ll say bad things just so I have to sleep in the cell again and—” 

“You are not endearing yourself to Lugus right now,” Bucky said, cutting the griffoness cub off. “You are insulting his honour by making these assumptions about his character. He already looks very cross with you.” 

“Maybe it would be better if I just stayed in my cell. I’ve done bad things. Nopony or nobirdy trusts me… I’ve had to keep doing bad things because I knew that no one would trust me after I was caught and I killed a few ponies and griffons and I just wanted to be free again.” 

Reaching up, Bucky wiped at Boadicea's eyes with his soft fetlock. “You survived a war. Bad things happened on both sides. You were scared for your own life and you made some terrible mistakes. Now you think you have to keep making those mistakes because it probably feels like you have nothing left to hope for, nothing left to look forward to, nothing but that cell and confinement for the rest of your days… right?” 

Boadicea nodded. “I was trapped…” 

“I know,” Bucky said. 

“They put me in chains and beat me because I was just trying to protect myself. They clipped my wings.” 

“I know.”

“I never wanted to be a scout.” 

“You didn’t?” 

Boadicea blinked away tears. “It was join the army or become a breeder… what else was I supposed to do?”

“You had nothing but bad choices and you ended up here. Are you willing to earn your freedom again?” Bucky asked. 

“What do I have to do?” Boadicea asked. 

“Well, you start by apologising to Lugus. After that, you work to earn the respect and trust of Lugus and I. Maybe get to know your new queen. Maybe teach yourself to never say the words ‘slave griffon’ ever again. Stop trying to be a tough little hunter for a while and try being a cub once more,” Bucky replied. 

“But he hates me,” Boadicea said in a low shuddering whisper. “He’s a warrior… I’m a hunter and that makes us—” 

“Both griffons,” Bucky said in a firm voice. 

Boadicea bowed her head. 

“You are in a world of shite right now, little birdy. You have no idea how much trouble you are in and what your future might be. Right now, your best bet would to gain Lugus’ trust, be his friend, and get him to see some potential in you… otherwise, after all of the trouble you have caused, you are going to be in a cell for a very long time. So choose now. Servitude until you earn your freedom, or you answer for the deaths you’ve made happen by staring at the same four walls for a very long time.” 

Boadicea looked at Lugus and saw that he was staring at her. She glanced over at her cell. She looked at the food on the table. “You are my king. I will do what you ask of me.” 

“Good cub. That’s a good start. Don’t feck this up. Don’t try to escape. Don’t be stupid.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 557
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I can’t do as you have asked… he hates me…” 

Lugus, reaching the end of his patience, gave Boadicea a rough shove, sending the cub sprawling. Aware that Bucky was watching, but not caring if Bucky might get irritated, Lugus growled and raised his wing in a threatening gesture. “Do it now or you will get a thrashing, do not test my patience little one. Cowardice does not become you.” 

Boadicea, who feared that Lugus might make good on his threat, collected herself up from off the ground. During her bath last night, large patches of her clumped and matted fur had fallen out. Feathers had been scrubbed free. She looked as awful as she felt. She looked up at the big pegasus, blinked, and then ducked her head low in submission. 

“Bucky… what have you done to my Tartarus tabby?” Keg Smasher asked. The big pegasus looked worried and his ears were perked forward. 

There was no reply. 

Gulping, her throat feeling far too dry, Boadicea crawled forward, feeling very vulnerable, exposed, and ugly. “I have come to beg for your forgiveness and to apologise. I know you are very busy and that this is a special day. Just a moment of your time is all I ask.” 

Keg Smasher dropped his head down low and eyed the griffoness cub as she flattened herself out on her belly before him. “Well then… do go on.” 

“I killed some of your soldiers… I was scared… when they captured me I was very afraid and I did not want to be captured… I had heard stories… and I had seen the heads on pikes—” 

“Perhaps that was wrong o’ me… I’m right sorry you saw that lass… mistakes were made on both sides,” Keg Smasher said. 

“I didn’t want my head on a pike… I was so scared… I’m sorry… I was asked to surrender and I just couldn’t.” Boadicea closed her eyes and squeezed her talons into fists. 

“It was war, lass… there was a whole lot of killing.” Not knowing what else to do or say, Keg Smasher stood there. 

“I’m sorry that I stabbed you—” 

“All is forgiven lass.” Keg Smasher’s voice was kind. 

“I’m sorry that I set you on fire—” 

“Aye, that was a real shocker, I wasn’t expectin’ that,” Keg Smasher said in a low voice. 

“I’m sorry I pissed on you… that was dishonourable of me…” 

“Lass, you are not the first pissed off female to piss on me… I could tell ye a story and it involves yer king...” 

In the background, Bucky sniggered. 

“I was a very poor example of an honourable griffon prisoner. I had an opportunity to show you that we are an honourable species with a proud and noble martial history, and I squandered an opportunity for me to grow, build character, and prove to you that my species are worthy foes. I acted like a cub and I have shamed myself. I have made myself look bad and I have brought shame upon all my kind…  I beg—” Boadicea choked on her words and let out a pained squawk. It took several tries before she could speak again. “I beg you for your forgiveness and for you to take pity upon me. I was a foolish cub and I did very stupid things.” 

“Damnit, what have you lot done to my Tartarus tabby? For feck’s sake, she’s bloody crying… Lugus, you shriveled arsehole, did you beat her or something?” Keg Smasher demanded as he stared at the giant griffon, one of the few creatures that were even larger than Keg Smasher was. 

“He talked some sense into me… his words hurt more than any beating. I was a bad cub and I was chastised.” Laying on the floor, Boadicea began to weep. 

No one moved to comfort her. 

“Lass, I forgive you…” Keg Smasher’s voice held the hint of pain as he looked down at the bawling cub. 

“Why did... you... spare me?” Boadicea asked between sobs. 

Keg Smasher lifted his head up high. “Lass, you were canny, you showed signs of having a mind… the others… the others were sick in the head. Not right. They were all mad… barmy… bloody feckin’ lunatics… they had themselves a sickness and they had to be put down.” 

“Why do... we go... crazy?” Boadicea asked, still sobbing as she curled into a little patchy looking ball of misery. 

Bucky, stepping forward, moved with surprising speed as he approached Boadicea’s side. “You’re aware of this madness? This sickness?” 

Boadicea hiccuped. She lay there, curled up, shivering with both emotion and from the cold. After a few minutes of sobbing, she pulled herself together. Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, she said, “They stopped caring about their honour. They did not clean themselves. They became filthy. They had no thought or reason. They forgot how to read, how to write, and music no longer soothed them. They became beasts, some of them.” 

“You are aware of this problem? Why didn’t you say something when we spoke last night after your bath?” Bucky asked, looking more than a little irritated. 

“To admit such a weakness is to bring shame upon us all,” Boadicea replied as she broke down into more sobbing. Her beak clacked and clattered as she shivered with violent force. 

Lugus sighed. “We do not admit to weakness, sickness, or anything that might make it appear that we are at a disadvantage. This has been our undoing. Our species has almost gone extinct because of this stupidity.” 

“Will somepony get this poor cub a blanket?” Keg Smasher said, looking around with one arched eyebrow. 

“I suppose she has earned a blanket,” Lugus said in a low hissy voice. “And her breakfast. I will see that she is well fed.” 



 

Pacing, Bucky looked at Keg Smasher. “Do you think they will arrive? Today is the day after all… I’m worried, they should have been here yesterday.” 

“Weather is bad. Some big storms have blown in. They’ll either be here today or we’ll do this tomorrow.” Keg Smasher sighed and his face became downcast. “I feel bad for her Bucky, it makes my bleedin’ heart ache like a rotten tooth.” 

“She stabbed you. She set you on fire… and other things apparently.” Bucky looked at his friend and could see Keg Smasher’s pain. 

“Eh, those things happen. I’ve been stabbed before and no doubt I’ll be stabbed again. Ye know full well what I’m talking about… what I’m feeling right now is worse than a stabbin’ cause it hurts down in the cockles of me heart. I dinnae like it.” 

Bucky snorted. 

“Don’tcha snort at me ye scrawny git or I’ll have ye tossed out the damned window.” 

Laughing, Bucky looked at the window and then back at Keg Smasher. “She’s a pitiful little mess. She’ll clean up well. I think what she needs is some time spent as a cub. She probably won’t get it, but I still think it will be good for her. In time, I think she will heal up from this and be okay.” 

“So tell me, oh great Pompous Pontificatin’ Prince Prissy Pants, did you heal up from all of this? Are ye okay? Are ye better? Are any of us really okay, or we just big goofy clowns that laugh and say ‘feck all’ to show that we are okay while we’re really cryin’ like wee bairns on the inside?” Keg Smasher sat down and stretched out his left wing. “Last I heard, ye were having yerself a bit of a nervous breakdown. Ye hung some arsehole city officials off of a roof and after they shat themselves in terror, ye dropped them. Nasty thing to do to a pony… think they wake up at night, scared, sweating, drowning in freshly pissed beds, having themselves a terrible dream about some pissed off cyclops with one glowing eye come to claim their souls? Ye think in time, they’ll heal up from that and be okay?” 

“Fair point, friend, fair point.” Bucky reached up and adjusted the wolf headed torque that wrapped around his neck. 

“I ain’t better… I still remember the wolves Bucky… and I remember getting torn up and facing the undead. They healed my body, and I’m thankful for that, but my mind ain’t been the same. It is like I have a splinter in my brain and it just keeps working its way in deeper rather than coming back up to the surface. And then the griffons came. It started off as a few hunting parties… scouts. We’ve had that kind of trouble before… but then it became an invasion… it got bloody. You weren’t here calling down the fires o’ the sun and burning away our enemies… we fought with muscle and sinew… they had guns. The first few engagements were slaughters. We were real glad to see the zebras arrive… so thanks for that, I guess.” 

“It wasn’t any easier on me Keg… be careful what you say,” Bucky said in a low whisper. 

“Aye lad… I’m sorry. But we ain’t okay. No amount of time is gonna fix what’s wrong with us, you and I. We’ve killed so much and so often that we’ve broke our equine natures.  As for her, as for yer new wee cubby, for as long as she lives, she is gonna remember every horrible thing that happened here.” 

“Horrible things happened everywhere.” Bucky hung his head and stared down at his own talons. One of them began to tap on the floor. 

“The lunar pegasi of these isles are no more. The last of them fought fang and hoof to defend us all. Sentinel and Moonbow are the last of them, that and any that Luna keeps. We took some serious losses.” 

“I’m sorry.” Bucky felt a strange pain, something so deep inside that for a moment, he worried that it might be his soul aching. 

“I don’t want ye to be sorry… I want ye to tell wee Sentinel and Moonbow that they have a duty to send some of their foals back to these isles.” 

“I will do that.” Bucky wondered how he would break this news to Sentinel. Sentinel would act okay, being the little stoic that he was, but Bucky knew that Sentinel would not be okay. 

“Bucky, I don’t know how to tell Celestia… or Thistle—” 

“Tell them what?” Bucky asked, interrupting. 

“Bucky… what few kelpies we had… and there weren’t many left, let me tell you, I think the griffons found them on the isolated islands where they lived. The griffons had captured a fair number of the outer islands. When we reclaimed them, we found that the lochs had been fouled. Poisoned. I think they’re gone Bucky. I’ve sent parties out to look for them.” 

His ears drooping, Bucky’s talons clenched into a tight metallic fist. 

“Look after my wee kelpie…” 

“I will,” Bucky said in a low whisper. 

“Look after the wee cub too… she deserves better than she got.” 

“Her future is entirely up to her and the choices she makes. She got to sleep in a warm bed last night… don’t tell Lugus I said anything, but she ended up leaving her bed and crawling into bed with him. Lugus gave me quite an earful this morning, shouting about how wrong it was that a cub her age had crawled into bed with him and that everybirdy would get the wrong idea if they heard about what happened. He doesn’t want his honour besmirched. He didn’t kick her out of his bed though.” 

“Lugus is a good sort.” Keg Smasher heaved a sigh, the sort of sigh that could only come from creatures his size. 

“Keg?”

“Yes Bucky?” 

“What do we do if there is no more war or conflict in this world? What if it finally ends? What would we do if peace finally happened? What becomes of ponies like us?” Bucky asked. 

“Easy lad… we take a millstone, tie it around our murderous necks, and we take the last vestiges of war down to the bottom of the sea with us. But since this world will never know peace, we ain’t gotta worry,” Keg Smasher replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 558
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Say it!” Bucky positioned the edge of his right front hoof over Belisama’s belly. 

“No… no… no…” Belisama batted at Bucky’s hoof with her hind paws. 

“Say it…” 

There was a yowl, it filled the room and caused several of the griffons present to go wide eyed. They watched the unfolding drama between Bucky and Belisama with raised crests. The ponies in the room, the few that took interest, were laughing. 

“Say it,” Bucky said as he lowered his hoof down and dragged the edge over the still rounded curve of Belisama’s stomach. 

Wiggling and kicking, Belisama resisted for all of a moment before her defenses melted. She went still, her legs going limp, and she closed her eyes as Bucky’s hoof trailed over her stomach, back and forth. 

“I am your cute, cuddly, snuggle-wuggle goddess… you horrible tyrant,” Belisama said through a closed beak. She rolled over a bit, angling her stomach under Bucky’s hoof. “More there… no… there…. yes right there.” 

One of the griffons watching was Boadicea. Wrapped in a cloak, she sat beside Lugus, who was rolling his eyes and fidgeting as he watched the display of affection between his friends. 

Finally, Lugus could take no more. “This is undignified. Our queen should be a figure of respect and reverence. She is being treated… as though she is a pet.” 

“But I like having my belly rubbed!” Belisama looked up at Bucky. “Don’t you dare stop!” 

“Lugus, I get that you are trying to show Boadicea how to be a serious, honourable griffon… I get that, I really do… and I want her to see what we are really like. What is wrong with a little affection?” Bucky looked over at Lugus, down at Belisama, and over at Lugus once more. 

“Lugus, what will you do when Peekaboo pounces upon you and Boadicea is watching?” Belisama asked. The griffoness reached up and guided Bucky’s hoof to just the right spot with her talons. 

A loud frustrated squawk came from Lugus but he said nothing in reply. He flexed his talons and his eyes narrowed. He sat up, straightened out, bringing himself to his full height in the sitting position. 

A pony burst through the door of the common room and came to a skidding halt on his hooves, almost stumbling into a table where Celestia, Raven, and Violet were playing cards with one another. 

“Airship! Zebra airship! They’re here!” 



 

Looking upwards, Bucky marveled at the airship’s design. The gasbag looked to be semi-rigid, appeared to be made out of aluminum, and was not the usual wide, bloated gasbag. This gasbag was narrow, skinny, meant to slice through the air, and had to be ten times as long as the ship itself. Bucky wondered how fast it would go, being as sleek and skinny as it was. It was a daring new design, something new that had appeared during these times of rapid changes and technological developments. War, while awful, had done much to advance the new designs of airships. 

Airship tugs were deployed to help the zebra ship get moored. 

The gasbag of the zebra ship was unpainted, left the faint silver colour of aluminum. Bucky, being the practical sort, wondered how many tons of paint would be necessary to paint it from end to end. Because of this, Bucky guessed that the ship might be more technological than magical. If weight was a concern, they may have gone with as few magical enchantments as possible. 

Or, they might have hurried it out of the shipyards without a coat of paint. 

Standing there, puffing, his breath coming out in great clouds of steam, Bucky was unaware that ponies and griffons alike were watching him as he stared upwards. Beside him, Keg Smasher cut an even larger and more imposing figure. 

The only one missing to complete the Triumvirate was Princess Luna. 

With an almost supersonic crack, Keg Smasher unfurled his wings, flapped few times, and then took off to greet the zebra diplomats. Bucky, never one to be outdone, shifted into the form of an owl and took off after Keg Smasher, hooting and screeching as he flew circles around the enormous pegasus. 

One figure did not notice the airship, or Bucky and Keg Smasher, she did not see anything of those things. Wrapped in a cloak, suffering from violent shivering, one figure stared up at the sky with wide eyes, glad to see the blue above her once more. 



 

“Bocor Oya, Grand Sorcerer Canterberry, haven’t seen you in a while. Welcome to my isles. We’ve been worried about you.” With a grace that belied a creature his size, Keg Smasher bowed, his wings extended. 

“We ran into one of those wild storms that blow off of Griffonholm,” Canterberry replied as he clung to his tall conical hat with his magic to keep it from blowing off in the stiff razor edged wind. “Was exciting! Got the blood going! A lot of experienced sailors were puking in their racks!” 

Looking disgusted, Bocor Oya snorted. She turned to look at the owl perched on the railing of the ship. “That is the ugliest owl I have ever seen.”

The owl screeched and began to dance upon the rail, hopping from one set of talons to the other as it flapped its wings. 

“Er, lass, yon owl is—” 

“I know full well who it is. I didn’t become a bocor by allowing myself to be fooled by shapeshifters. But that is the ugliest owl I have ever laid eyes upon.” Bocor Oya continued to stare at the owl, which now sounded as though it was laughing. 

“How have you been Buckminster? I wanted to thank you face to face for the golems you have provided us… many lives have been saved…” Canterberry seemed distracted for a moment as he tried to keep his hat on in the gale force winds. “I’m thinking about retiring my position and coming to Equestria… maybe Ponyville.” 

The zebra lifted her head high. “It is with deep regret that I must tell you that we cannot stay long. We are carrying supplies that are needed in other places. We have plague victims to look after, the nation of Fancy is suffering from a terrible feather flu, and Germaney has a case of horn and mouth disease that is causing quite a panic.” She shook her head. “We can stay one night at most and afterwards, we must depart.” 

“Aye, I understand necessity. How about we cut the pomp and circumstance so we can get right down to business?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“That would be marvelous,” Bocor Oya replied. 



 

The dining hall of Keg Smasher’s castle was packed. The room, so full of bodies, was stifling, hot, stuffy, and many found it difficult to breathe. Celestia, looking radiant, sat upon a cushion at the head of a table. On her left sat Bucky and on her right sat Keg Smasher. Next to Bucky sat Canterberry and next to Keg Smasher, Oya sat sipping a cup of tea. 

Almost unnoticed, tucked away on Bucky’s cushion, Belisama and Bandua sat with Bucky. 

“Here on the Shetlands, we don’t deal with many pretty words. We’re ponies… and griffons of action.” Keg Smasher was forced to pause as a loud cheer rose up from the gathered ranks. He waved his hoof at them to get them to quiet down so he could continue. “Here, we state our case and be done with it. There is too much to do to spend hours saying something and painting it with pretty words. Can we please keep this in mind as we move forward and deal with this historic moment?” 

Celestia, nursing a mug of pale ale, lifted her mug, took a sip, grimaced in such a way that it gave her a chance to smile to make up for it, and nodded. “There’s a lot of hops in that.” 

“Aye lass.. one o’ Bucky’s that he brought with him. We tapped its bung just for this occasion,” Keg Smasher said. “I suspect there’s been quite a bit o’ bung tappin’ for this occasion.” 

From somewhere in the background, Berry Punch guffawed. 

“I call it ‘Diplomatic Dregs’ and I’m proud of it. Came out to about nineteen percent alcohol.” Bucky leaned forward on the table, lifted a mug in his talons, and took a swallow. 

“Crivens,” Keg Smasher muttered as he lifted up his mug. 

“The first order of business… Keg Smasher, for your service, for everything you have endured, I am honoured to officially bestow upon you the title of ‘Prince of Equestria.’ As Prince, you will be made the ruler of the United Isles—” 

The room filled with cheering, which drowned out Celestia’s voice. The regal alicorn was forced to wait for the cheering to subside before she could resume speaking. She took this opportunity to take another drink. 

“Let the big dame finish, ye knobs!” Keg Smasher’s bellow echoed through the room. “All of ye are numpties! Where’s yer feckin’ manners ye gits? Yer a disgrace to yer mother’s bloody holes!” 

When the room quieted a bit, Celestia cleared her throat. “These isles will become a bold new experiment. A shared territory between two nations, a common ground where both can meet in the middle. A place protected by both and a bridge between nations.” 

“This archipelago is where the Founders of Equestria crossed over from the old world into the new when the world was covered in ice. It served as a bridge then, leading those brave souls into a new land, and it will serve as a bridge now, bringing our nations together. This is a new founding… a fresh new start. Right now, we are making a new world, just like the founders of Equestria did. We can learn from the mistakes of our past and I hope we do not repeat those mistakes as we go into this bright new future.” 

Celestia looked at Bucky. “Well said, thank you for those words, Buckminster.” 

“I do what I can.” Bucky raised his mug in salute. 

“To aid this effort, I offer you the gift of education,” Celestia said. “I will pay, out of my own coffers, to help you get schools started. I fear we shall need to get teachers from the Sea of Grass though, Equestria still has quite a shortage.” 

“We will help,” Oya said as she sat down her teacup. “Our gift to you is also education. This land is rich and full of resources. This would be an ideal place to teach alchemy… you already have many skilled brewers here, alchemy would be easy for them to learn.” 

“The Lunar Court offers the gift of might.” Bucky looked around at the ponies gathered around the table. “A military academy will be built here. These lands are still wild. There are monsters here, dangers, Luna and I both feel that moving Equestria’s training grounds to the Shetlands would be a good thing. Having leave in Canterlot is making our soldiers a bit soft, if you will forgive me for being so blunt. I am also going to see what I can do about getting magical instruction here.” 

“We can help with that,” Canterberry said. “This would be an ideal place for a tower of sorcery.” 

Bucky nodded. “Perfect. Martial focus though, no namby pamby theorycrafting.” 

“Yes… I do believe we shall leave the soft ones at home in the Sea of Grass… we have some hard flinty types that would do well in a place such as this.” Canterberry rapped his hoof on the table. “This is not a place for scholarly types.” 

“In the paperwork here, I have outlined the homesteader’s act,” Celestia said, pointing at the pile of papers upon the table. “For those who wish to come here and settle, funds will be made available from the coffers of the Royal Pony Sisters. Very generous funding is being offered that will help cover expenses for up to two years.” 


“We will match that… we will pay half,” Oya said, raising her eyebrow. “We can’t have it said that Equestria was gracious about this effort and that we were stingy.” 

“Raven, dear, are you getting all of this?” Celestia asked. 

Raven, who was sitting beside Violet, nodded. “Yes ma’am.” 

“There is something I want,” Bucky said in a loud voice that startled the room into silence. 

“Bucky, dear, this isn’t about getting what we want.” Celestia reached over and patted Bucky on the withers. 

“Nevertheless, I shall have what I want… I want a memorial built here. A reminder of every life lost. Not just for those who died here, but for those that died in Griffonholm, for those who died in the Hinterlands, for the many that died that when the Sea of Grass was invaded, the loss of life in Labyrinthia, and the slaughter in the Shires. All of the events that have brought us to this point where we are now.” 

“I think we can do that… good call laddie,” Keg Smasher said to Bucky. 

Her head popping up over the edge of the table, Belisama looked around at the ponies gathered around her. “There is something I want… if you don’t mind.” 

Frightened, realising that everypony present was looking at her, Belisama panicked. She ducked back down beneath the table and hid, shivering against Bucky. 

Reaching down, Bucky pulled Belisama back up, ignoring her squawks and her protests. “Queen of the griffons, do tell us what it is that you want, so that we might help you.” 

Belisama, wringing her talons together, looked around. There were too many faces, too many eyes, all of whom seemed to be looking at her. She closed her eyes, grabbed the table with her talons, and squeezed. 

“I would like a mead hall built so the griffons here can sing and remember Odin.” 

“What about ponies?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“Odin doesn’t mind if ponies sing and drink to remember him… it is his fondest wish that some hippogriffs are born into the world. He calls them the heralds of change, like the birds that first return in the spring or the changing of the autumn leaves,” Belisama replied. 

“It would go nice with the memorial I think,” Keg Smasher said, now looking somber and thoughtful. “What say you Bucky?” 

“I think that would be a good thing.” Bucky wrapped his foreleg around Belisama and gave her a squeeze. 

“So… can we sign these papers and get to celebratin’?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“I think we can, if we are all in agreement,” Celestia replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 559
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Prince Buckminster, or should I call you King Buckminster? Either way, would you dance with me?” Bocor Oya asked in a soft voice. 

Bucky looked at the zebra and felt a sense of panic. He looked at Berry, a pleading expression upon his face. “I can’t dance.” 

“Bucky, this is for world peace. Dance with the nice zebra. This is just step dancing,” Berry Punch said, doing nothing to hide the teasing tone in her voice. 

Gulping, already feeling sweaty, Bucky got up from his chair. A moment later, there was a zebra mare deep within his personal space. She was standing neck to neck, chest to chest with him, and he could feel her breathing on his withers. He tried to take a step backwards, but she took a step with him. He stepped sideways, but could not escape as she followed. Without meaning to do so, he fell into a rhythm and Oya kept pace with him. 

“I have always prefered slow dancing. While I can be a creature of action, I like soft, slow, steady movement. I am a drinker of tea. I like sedate activities like crossword puzzles. With you, I am getting the slow dance I crave… the others are far too rowdy.” 

Bucky, almost paralysed with panic, thought about Oya’s words and relaxed a little. He felt one of her forelegs brush up against his own. 

“In the Sea of Grass, we zebras dance together to show friendship. We dance together to mourn those we have lost. We dance to celebrate new life. We just look for a reason to dance.” Oya leaned a little more of her weight on Bucky, pressing her neck against his. 

Sniffing, Bucky smelled anise, cloves, and oranges. And something else. Something that made his nose tickle. 

“It is not perfume. I can hear you sniffing.” 

“I’m sorry… I don’t know if I am being rude.” Bucky, feeling awkward, looked over at Berry, his eyes pleading for a rescue. “How do zebras feel about ponies sniffing them?” 

“It is a protective poultice. It is kept in the little bag I am wearing around my neck.” 

“It is?” Bucky asked. “Are you in danger?” 

“I am always in danger, and therefore, prepared. It is how I have lived so long, killed so many, and I am still here to dance with you,” Oya replied. 

“Does this poultice protect you against the plague or diseases or something?” 

“No.” Oya’s voice was soft, pleasant, full of warmth. “This poultice protects me from dangerous nether creatures and their charms.” 

“Do you run into those often? What sort of creatures are those? I’ve never heard that term. Is that a zebra term?” Bucky, now curious and with his mind engaged, forgot that he was feeling awkward. 

“Nether creatures… like vampires. It is said they have a dangerous sexual appeal to lure in their victims. They are charming, supernaturally so.” Oya leaned against Bucky a little more and rubbed her cheek against his neck. 

“Oh… those… while there are all kinds of supernatural creatures in the world, I don’t think vampires exist anymore. If they do exist, they're rare enough that nopony knows about them or they’re good enough at hiding that nopony realises they exist.” 

“Oh, they are clever… wily creatures. They can hide themselves so well that they could be right under our noses, right now this very moment, and we wouldn’t even realise they were among us. I cannot help but wonder… if a vampire could be so well hidden that they might even be hiding from themselves. I am fascinated by their existence. I have studied them extensively.” 

Without warning, Bucky sneezed, the tickle in his nostrils was now overpowering. It took a moment to recover. “Sorry about that.” 

“It’s okay… we zebras believe that a sneeze can say so much more about a zebra or a pony than mere words. Sometimes, all we need to know about a pony or a zebra can be foretold from a single sneeze.” 

“You should hear Berry sneeze… she’s a gunner, she’ll let go of five or six in a row, rapid fire,” Bucky said, relaxing a little and leaning against Oya. He sniffled, his nose still tickled. 



 

“This is nice. Maybe I can dance. Just a little.” Bucky felt Thistle and Berry Punch pressed up against him. There was a shuffle of hooves as they moved together. Belisama was sitting on Bucky’s back, holding Bandua in a shawl. 

“I like belly to belly dancing, up on the hind hooves, but this is nice too,” Berry said. 

“Poor Lugus… he looks so nervous. He’s dancing with Celestia.” Thistle angled her head just a little bit to have a better look. 

“He is the only one large enough… it’s either him or Keg Smasher, and Keg Smasher is getting a chance to spend a moment with some of his wives,” Bucky said. “What is Boadicea doing? I can’t see her from this angle.” 

“She is being a good cub, sitting in the corner, and behaving herself. Right where Lugus left her. I think if the world ended right now, that poor cub would keep sitting right where Lugus pointed,” Berry replied. 

“Poor dear… she wants to impress Lugus so badly.” Thistle, still looking over at Lugus and Celestia, thought about how she had wanted to impress Derpy, in what felt like such a long time ago. 

“I don’t trust her, but I do trust that she wants her honour back. For now, I willing to trust in that,” Bucky said. 

“Honour is all she has. Everything else has been taken from her. I don’t know if I trust her either, but Bucky, be nice to her. If she can be won over, she will be a good protector for us little ones. I’m thinking she will make a good Raptor.” Reaching out her talons, Belisama gave a little yank on Bucky’s mane. 

“I bet Bell is getting hungry… and Cadance might be too,” Thistle said. 

“If you make your escape, I am coming with you.” Bucky rubbed his foreleg against Thistle’s foreleg and eyed the door. “We can dance our way to the door and nopony or nobirdy will notice.” 

“It is too hot in here… and I want to sit my big cushy plot down in a comfortable chair. Let’s make our way towards the door.” Berry, being the earth pony of the group, began herding the other two towards the door. 



 

Ahead of them, Bucky heard the sounds of singing and merriment. Laugher. Coming around the corner, Bucky saw that there was a large collection of ponies spilling out of a room and into the hallway. The door to their own room was open. Tourmaline was trying to dance a jig, watching an older unicorn as his hooves clattered over the stones. 

“Our king!” 

Bucky shook his head. “Oh no… Keg Smasher is now the rightful ruler of the Shires.” 

Broom stepped forward. She bowed her head. “We’re free ponies… and we’ll recognise our own kings, thank you very much. Yer little griffons are wonderful musicians!” 

Beside him, Bucky heard Berry Punch giggling. 

“I want to play my autoharp,” Belisama said, squirming on Bucky’s back. 

“That pony over there, the dancer, that is me brother, Door. He had to stand stock still for hours opening a door whenever the masters came near. Now he is free to dance. That one over there, the one playing the glockenspiel, his name is Hat Rack. When he was made submissive, something went wrong… or something went right, I guess it depends on how you look at it. He lost his voice. But he can still play music!” 

Hat Rack was banging away on a large wooden framed glockenspiel. Several little griffons sat at his sides, strumming away on stringed instruments. Smoke drifted from a wooden pipe that hung from Hat Rack’s lips. 

The slow creeping realisation that he had escaped from one party and stumbled into another made its way to Bucky’s brain. He sighed. He felt another tug on his mane and Belisama’s legs kicking into his sides, which gave him an odd urge, a need to start walking. 

Thistle headed for the door to their room, laughing to herself as she left, and after a moment, Berry Punch took off with her. Magpie met them at the door, hugged them both, and pulled them in. 

“We have made these ponies one of us,” Lugnut said as he approached Bucky. 

“One of us?” Bucky asked. 

Lugnut sat down on his haunches and looked up at Bucky. “One of us.” 

“Yes, one of us,” Spanner said, coming forward to sit with Lugnut. “One of us or not one of us. These ponies are now one of us.” 

“I see,” Bucky said, not understanding anything that was going on. 

“We little griffons are all part of a greater flock. You are either one of us or not one of us. In Griffonholm, we only had each other. Hardly any of the bigger griffons were one of us. We had to help each other survive,” a little griffoness said as she stepped forward. She waved talons at the ponies around her. “These were slaves. Like us. They know our pain. They are one of us. Now we will look out for one another, provide for one another, and our flock will be stronger.” 

“Is this why you protected the pony slaves from the griffon military depot?” Bucky asked. 

The griffoness nodded. “They were slaves. One of us.” 

“I see.” Bucky looked down at the griffoness and watched as she began to squirm. “What am I?” 

“You are one of us. You and Tannis both are the first kings that are one of us. The others were not one of us.” The griffoness began to wring her talons together and averted her gaze down to the floor. 

“Belisama, why don’t you tell me these things?” Bucky asked. 

Peeping with nervous alarm, Belisama failed to make a reply. 

“We don’t tell others about ‘one of us’ so we can stay safe,” Lugnut said, still looking up at Bucky. “If the big bads heard that we were working together to help one another, that we had ‘one of us’ and they were ‘not one of us’ they might boil us in oil or other nasty things to make us screech for their amusement before they ate us or did awful things to us.” 

“We slaves and servants are more organised than most will give us credit for,” Broom said as she reached down and patted Spanner on the back with her hoof. 

“Hmmm.” Letting out a curious hum, Bucky looked down at the griffons now gathering around him. He noted Tourmaline sitting with them. He looked at her. 

“One of us,” Tourmaline said. “They took me in to protect me. I was made one of us.”  

“Fascinating.” Bucky felt Belisama hop from his back and there was the flutter of wings as she landed. He watched as she joined the group. “What about Berry Punch?” 

“One of us. She doesn’t know she is one of us. She is kind.” Spanner sat up straight and flexed his wings. 

“Derpy?” Bucky asked. 

“One of us. Protector of us.” Lugnut reached out his foreleg and draped it over Spanner’s shoulders. “We revere the grey mare and admire her sense of flock.” 

Bucky blinked and nodded. “Thistle?” 

“One of us. Bringer of fish for all of us.” The little griffon female lifted her head and looked up at Bucky for a long moment before ducking her head back down. 

“Bon Bon?” Bucky felt a faint smile pulling at his lips. 

“One of us. She who makes chocolate covered crickets for all of us.” Spanner leaned over onto his mate. 

“Hmm… Lyra?” Bucky was feeling an odd sense of curiousity now. 

“One of us. We call her Storm Mother.” Lugnut began brushing crumbs out of Spanner’s feathers with his talons. 

“Wait!” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “Waitaminute… you call her Storm Mother… like you call Celestia Sun Mother?” 

The little griffons looked spooked for a moment. 

“You worship Lyra as a goddess, don’t you?” Bucky asked. 

Spanner looked around him, saw the crests of his fellow griffons, and then looked up at Bucky and nodded, saying nothing. 

“Some of us have built shrines dedicated to her. She brought the storm that struck down those not one of us. She makes music, beautiful music, and she taught our queen to make beautiful music. Plus, she helps Bon Bon make chocolate covered crickets,” one of the little male griffons said as he stepped forward. 

Bucky dared not laugh, this was far too serious, but he did allow himself a soft smile. “I suppose it is safe to guess that Ripple is one of us… what about Lugus?” 

“One of us… protector of us.” 

Bucky nodded. “Loch Skimmer?” 

“She of the funny jokes and helpful advice. One of us.” 

“Bittersweet?” Bucky looked down at his griffons. 

“One of us. She who makes Ripple, protector of us, happy.” 

“Sparkler?” Bucky was starting to see a pattern here. 

“Stone Mother. She brings gemstones up from the earth so we can make beautiful things, and then she lets us keep the beautiful things we make. We can make pretties and shinies and she doesn’t want them for herself.” 

“Hmmm… Rising Star?” Bucky asked. 

“Fire Father… keeper of the forge. One of us. Is kind to us, allows us to work in his forge and lets us keep the shiny things we make for ourselves. Because of his kindness, we have shared with him our secret knowledge of machines.” 

“I am very pleased to hear this… I mean, that my family is kind to you.” Bucky’s talons began to drum on the stone floor. “So now that I am one of us, can you start sharing more of your secrets with me? And maybe stop being afraid of me?” 

“We can try,” Spanner replied. 

“Well, don’t just sit there… make some music and get back to what you are doing.” Bucky lifted his talons and waved at the griffons. He looked up at Broom. “Broom, I would be most honoured if you would see fit to dance with me. I’m not very good, but I’m willing to try.” 

“Ooh, I gets to have meself a dance with a handsome feller,” Broom said, stepping forward. “I’d be honoured… but no getting fresh with me, or I’ll slap ye on yer bum!” 
	
	
> Chapter 560
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing on top of the gatehouse, Celestia looked out over the snow covered village, glad to feel the cold upon her fevered skin. She was warm, too warm, she had been drinking, dancing, and having a good time. She was covered in a fine lather of sweat and now it was time to cool off. She watched the steam from her nostrils go rising off into the freezing black night. 

“He doesn’t even know. I take it that you or your sister have never bothered to tell him?” 

Feeling a chill that wasn’t from the subzero air, Celestia’s body went rigid. 

“Umbral sanguisuge. Vampirism. You let him continue to exist. Why?” 

For one very black moment, Celestia wondered if it would be worth it to simply erase Oya from existence. It could be done. And Luna would be glad to help. After experiencing that black moment of dread, Celestia realised that she loved Bucky. 

But not in the way that she loved Sombra. 

No… she loved Bucky in very much the same way she loved Tourmaline, Erebus, or even Twilight. Her confusing feelings of love became clear. Too clear. She whirled around to look at the zebra behind her. 

“Ah, motherly love. Now that’s something I can understand. Tell me, after this historic moment of peace and togetherness, did you think about vapourising me?” Oya asked. 

Holding back her murderous fury, Celestia had nothing to say for herself. 

“I’ve roamed this world for quite a long time. Not as long as you, I’m distressingly mortal, but I’ve had myself a good long life. As a bocor, I made a name for myself walking through the Sea of Grass and the old world pony nations, ridding them of vampires everywhere I went. Bucky, your dear Bucky isn’t like the other vampires I’ve met. He’s strong… so strong… and completely ignorant of his condition. Fascinating, really.” 

“Bucky can be saved… somehow.” Celestia held her anger in check. Her words sounded cool, calm, collected. But her wings and her body posture betrayed her and she knew it. “The disease is held in check.” 

“Is it now? Do you empty out your prisons to feed him?” Oya asked. 

Flames flickered to life along Celestia’s wing feathers. “No.” 

“I shall endeavour to be less antagonistic. My apologies.” Oya bowed her head. 

“He subsists upon the warmth of his wives. He draws living essence from their milk. The disease is held in check and he is watched very carefully to make sure that it stays held in check.” Celestia drew in a deep breath, filling her lungs with cooling air. 

“This is fascinating. So he does not crave blood and it doesn’t appear that he is feeding subconsciously in his sleep because his wives and his foals are still very much living. I must confess, I did not expect this.” Oya took a step back but did not take her eyes off of Celestia. 

“How did you figure this out?” Celestia asked. 

Oya smiled. “I had a hunch after he and I met for the first time. I did a little investigating. Visited a few seers, those who see spirits. I learned all that I could about him. I know that the spirit of Sombra attempted to possess him… and that is probably how he got this disease. Sombra, the first of the vampires… took me a long time spent in study to figure that out. He created the disease. A magical malady. He infected others and the disease is still around, even now, even though there is a dedicated effort to wipe it out. But all signs point to Sombra… it would be nice if some helpful immortal would confirm my suspicions, but I can live without that if I have to.” 

The two mares stared at one another, locked into a now silent contest of wills. 

It was Oya who blinked first and looked away, her eyes looking out upon the village below them. The zebra took a deep breath. “I am willing to live and let live. You don’t need to worry. Bucky being a blood sucker is the least of our worries… I mean, if he became the Alicorn of War… it would be all over anyway, so why worry, right?” 

“He will never allow that to happen. There is much you still do not know, but I assure you, he will hold the worst parts of himself back. Look at him… look at the silver and the white in his mane. He is aging. How many vampires have you seen age?” Celestia looked away from the zebra and also looked out upon the village. 

“None. You make an excellent and compelling point. If he was leaching enough life force away, it would reverse the aging. Keep him young. Maybe even heal his body, making him perfect and handsome again. He instead stays ugly, broken, and aging. I’ve been thinking about that all day, ever since I saw one very ugly owl.” Oya lifted up her left foreleg and rubbed it against her right foreleg, trying to warm her legs. “If we are going to be friends, if we are going to make this work, we need to stop keeping certain secrets from one another. Just something to think about. I’m going inside now. It is cold out here and I don’t like the cold. Reminds me too much of my sworn enemies and the monsters that I hunted.” 

Having said her piece, the zebra turned and left. 

“It was Sombra… he was the first. He told me that he did not know how he had contracted the disease. It was distressing, but it made him powerful on the battlefield. We needed his might so I turned a blind eye. Near the end, I discovered much about him that I did not like… and I found out that he had lied to me. I was forced to obliterate him… but a part of him survived. So in a sense, his quest for immortality worked. He gave Bucky the disease in a dream when Sombra tried to possess him and return as the Alicorn of War. Bucky has something that Sombra did not have though.” 

Oya stopped. “And what is that?” 

“Bucky loves… at some point, Sombra lost that ability… he… when we battled, when Luna and I went to take him out, to purge the world of his evil, Sombra attempted to feed on me. Had he loved me as he claimed, he would have never have tried to do that… but Bucky loves and I trust in that. I will not lose Bucky to darkness as I lost Sombra.” 

Oya resumed walking. “I see. It was nice of you to choose friendship. Thank you for satisfying my curiousity. Perhaps our nations can be friends… can be equals. Perhaps something good can come from all of this. We shall see.” 

Celestia, feeling the cold, waited until she could no longer hear the zebra’s hoofsteps. When at last the night was silent, Celestia looked up at the moon overhead, and, with the escape of a few sniffles, she began to weep. 



 

“It seems we are out of beer,” Bucky said when nothing came out of the small wooden cask. “This is untenable. There must be beer.” 

“We shall fetch more,” one little griffon replied, tugging on another sitting beside him. 

“No… stop!” Bucky held it his talons. He watched as the two griffons froze. “Hold on… beer is coming.” Reaching out with his mind, he focused on the stores of The Scorned Mare. He focused his conjuration spell with careful precision. His mind touched upon just the right barrel, an experimental batch of honey and hot pepper ale. 

There was a deafening crackle of magic when the wooden cask appeared. 

“Huzzah! More beer!” 

One griffon, already deep in his cups, made a move towards the wooden cask, stumbled, went down, and did not get back up. He lay on the floor, passed out and purring. 

“Griffon down,” Broom said, swaying back and forth in her seat. “Poor dear.” 

“Bring our fallen comrade to me!” Bucky commanded. 

The griffons, those still sober enough to function, scrambled to do Bucky’s bidding. They hoisted the griffon up and carried him to Bucky. 

Bucky reached out and touched the downed griffon. “We shall commemorate our fallen friend… with a mustache!” There was a flash of light from Bucky’s horn and a long reddish-orange mustache appeared, sprouting from the griffon’s beak. 

The griffons paused, looking first at the passed out griffon’s mustache, and then at one another as it dawned upon them what their fate was if they drank too much and passed out. Filled with the sort of courage that only comes from strong drink, they all turned at once to look at Bucky and their eyes narrowed. 

“Who else will wear the mustache of shame?” one asked as he looked at the others. 

“Conjuring beer has left me a little sober… that took a lot out of me,” Bucky said, grumbling to himself. He tapped the cask and poured himself another mug. He took a long pull, felt the burn, and remembered that this was honey and hot pepper ale. 

The little griffons gathered around the cask and began to help themselves, each one of them looking at their fallen friend as they filled their mugs. 

Bucky lifted his head up high and tried to look regal upon his throne, an overstuffed chair that was quite beaten and battered. He hoisted his mug. “Sing for me!” 

The little griffons froze. They looked at one another with what almost appeared to be terror. Little beaks clicked together. 

“Sing for me you adorable little fuzzballs… I brought you beer… you sing for me… fair exchange!” Bucky placed his mug to his lips and took a long drink. 

Fair exchange. A concept that still flummoxed the little griffons. A king did not give something in exchange for something else, a king took. But their king had given them beer. They looked at one another and little peeps could be heard. 

“Lugnut, our song,” Spanner said. 

“That song?” Lugnut asked. 

“Yes, that song.” Spanner looked at his mate. “The song we sang in the navy.” 

“Okay, we sing. Maybe we still have heads in the morning. Talons-y!” 



“Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

The captain of the lugger
Was known as a filthy bugger,
Declared unfit to shovel shit
From one pile to another.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

The first mate was a minotaur named Morgan,
By the stars, he was a gorgon.
Ten times a day he'd stop to play
Upon his captain's organ.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

The second mate was Barrel Hooper,
By the stars, he was a trooper.
He jerked and jerked until he worked
Himself into a stupour.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

The bosun's name was Ribald Randy,
By the stars, he had a dandy.
We crushed his cock upon a rock
For cumming in our brandy.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

There was a diamond dog named Rover,
We turned the poor thing over,
And ground and ground that ugly hound
From Liverypool to Stover

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

While sailing above the ocean,
We often have the notion,
In cold and heat, to beat our meat
With a peculiar motion.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

Sailing above the cloudy mass-o
To make the boredom pass-o,
We launched a spree of buggery
Upon each other's ass-o.

Friggin' in the riggin' 
Friggin' in the riggin'
Friggin' in the riggin'
There's feck-all else to do.

And when we reached our station
Through skillful navigation,
Our ship was sunk in a wave of spunk
From too much masturbation.” 
 

“Oh my… that is one I haven’t heard.” 

Looking up, Bucky almost dropped his beer. “Oh hi… auntie!” Bucky belched. “Want some beer?” 

As Celestia entered the room, the little griffons scattered around her, scrambling to get out of her way. Inebriated, even in the panic of the moment, not a drop of beer was spilt.

“No Bucky… I just came to tell you good night… and that I love you.” 

Slumping in his chair, Bucky looked up at Celestia. “Oh… I love you too… sure you don’t want some beer?” 

Leaning her head down, Celestia kissed Bucky on the cheek. She lingered for a moment, thinking of everything that had been said between her and Oya. She thought about her feelings for Bucky. “You mean the world to me… I’m glad I realised that. I think that when we get home, I shall snatch up Twilight and go on vacation.” 

Bucky watched as Celestia turned to leave. He cradled in beer mug in his forelegs, feeling very sad without knowing why. “My auntie loves me.” Reaching up with his right leg, he wiped his eyes with his fetlock, while clutching his mug with his left leg. 

“Good night Buckminster.” 

“I love you auntie… stay with us… sing… drink beer!” 

“Bucky, I have some thinking to do. I shall be in my cabin if you need me for anything.” 

Crying without knowing why, Bucky watched as his auntie left. “G’night auntie Celery.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 561
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	This kept happening. This kept happening and Bucky hated that this kept happening. This kept happening and it just wasn’t fair. Cadance was a morning pony. Bucky tried to open his eye and found that he couldn’t. It was as if it was glued shut. His gunky crusted over eyelids refused to budge and opening his other eye would do no good because it was pressed into the pillow. 

“Daddy?” 

-Bonk!- 

One of Cadance’s hooves bounced off of Bucky’s skull with the sound of a just-thumped melon. Bucky wondered who put Cadance in the bed with him. There was going to be a long talk with the pony or griffon responsible for this travesty, this act of cruelty against him and his hungover state. 

Bucky yawned. Any observer walking into his room at this inopportune moment would see a mouthful of terrible teeth, jagged fangs, teeth meant for ripping and tearing, all of them inches from a helpless looking pink foal that was within chomping distance. 

There was a soft thump on the bed as Cadance fell over, landing on her back. She lay there, looking a little green, and the covered her face with her front hooves. The foal gagged and it took for a moment for her to recover. 

“Stinky!” 

“Bucky! You killed Cadance!” 

Hungover, half awake, and now terrified, Bucky sprung to life, he strained to get his eye open, and finally the crusted gunk let go. His eye fluttered open like a filthy toxic waste encrusted butterfly emerging from a barrel of sludge that it had used as a cocoon for the most horrendous metamorphosis ever. Taint mist came creeping out, and it too, also looked hungover. It was slow to drift away and appeared lazy. 

He looked down at Cadance, who was looking up at him. Cadance gulped in a lungful of air, held it, rolled over, and then tried to crawl away. Bucky, still blinking his goop covered eyelids, grabbed Cadance, pulled her close, and kissed her cheek. He settled himself down upon the pillow and lay there as Cadance struggled to break free. 

“Stink… stink stink stink!” 

“What’s that you’re saying, little Cadance?” Bucky asked. 

“Mama help!” Cadance wiggled, her face now more than a little green. “Mama help help!” 

Bouncing up onto the bed, Berry Punch gave Bucky a shove to make him let go and she rescued Cadance, pulling her away and brushing her mane out of her eyes. 

“Bucky… you stink. I just thought you should know,” Berry said, mincing no words. 

“My mouth tastes funny… what happened last night?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, at some point in the wee hours of morning, you were as drunk as a lord. You led a slave rebellion. The former slaves had no idea what they were rebelling against, but they followed you anyway, chanting ‘we’ll nae be fooled again!’ You led an army of unicorns and little griffons down into the cellars and then you liberated a bunch of stinky mare’s milk cheeses. You then served the former slaves a grand meal of cheese and hardtack crackers while you delivered your most eloquent speech about what a privilege it was to serve them.” 

“Ooooh.” Bucky reached up and rubbed his head. Through one blurry, bleary eye, he looked at Cadance, who was scowling at him and had her nose covered with her fetlock. 

“Keg Smasher issued his first royal pardon. The guards were summoned because of the ruckus. Keg Smasher was called. Keg was apparently hung over and not in the mood to deal with this fiasco… it was sometime around dawn. I think the whole castle could hear him bellowing about you. Anyway, he pardoned you for the ‘Coup de Fromage.’ But you have gone down on the books as a rabble rouser and an anarchist.” 

“Ugh.” Bucky couldn’t figure out what else to say. 

“Celestia took pictures. There is a really good one of you standing on top of some cheese wheels, trying to look defiant in front of Keg Smasher. He’s still taller than you. If the rest of the world sees what Equestrian Princes do in their off hours, we’re all doomed.” 

“My face feels… disgusting.” Bucky realised that he couldn’t breathe out of one nostril. It was caked over with something. 

“Keg Smasher ordered you dunked down into a barrel of cheese curds—” 

“Say what?” Bucky asked, cutting Berry off. “No, wait, nevermind. It is better if I just don’t know about these things.” 

“A bath has already been drawn for you. Now go and get in there. These sheets need changing. Has anypony mentioned that YOU STINK?” Berry Punch scrambled away from Bucky, taking Cadance with her. 



 

“My queen… I have a request for you.” The little griffon approached Belisama and Magpie with his head ducked down low. 

“What is it? What do you want, Weaver?” Belisama adjusted the shawl that was tied around her body. Inside was something precious to her. 

Weaver, now trembling, pointed to a much larger scarred hunter griffoness. “I have wooed her… it took much dancing and supplication, but she has agreed to be my mate. She has lost her desire to fight and wants a home, a hearth, and a family. Being a hunter, she wants a permanent contract for breeding.” 

“Yes, but what is it that you want?” Belisama asked. 

The griffon blinked and his talons began to tap upon the stone floor. “I do not want to be separated from her, that’s what I want. She is good. Kind. We leave to go home soon… I want her with me or I want to stay here.” Weaver paused. “Well, not really wanting to stay here. Want to go home. We have a nice home.” 

“Yes, we do have a nice home. Will she be permitted to leave?” Belisama asked. 

“I hope so. We’re going to ask for her release,” Weaver replied. 

Belisama sat up a little straighter. “What is her name?” 

“Grisabella…” The little griffon looked over at the much larger hunter griffoness and his crest rose. “Grey beauty. Look at her… there is no finer griffoness… none like her.” The griffon froze, panic overcoming his features. “The beauty of our queen is beyond comparison! I never meant to insult you, your Majesty.” 

“Grisabella, could you come closer?” Belisama waved the griffoness forward as she ignored the panicked griffon’s theatrics. 

The larger hunter moved with an easy feline grace. She was missing a talon finger on her right set of talons. There was a jagged pink gash that stood out on her chest. Her grey pelt was marred with scars. She bowed when she approached Belisama. 

“Would you like to come to Equestria?” Belisama looked into the griffoness’ large grey eyes, feeling very afraid. It was difficult, Belisama struggled against averting her own eyes, fighting against the pecking order that had been pounded into her since birth. 

“It is time for the fighting to end. I want a cub. I want to try marriage… some of the griffons seem quite taken by it. I still don’t know what to make of it, but I like Weaver enough to give it a try.” Grisabella sat down. She reached out her talons, grabbed the smaller griffon, and pulled him closer. “I never felt that it was right, how the little griffons were treated. That’s why I left home. Traveled the world as a mercenary. Ended up here. Saw a lot of fighting. Saw the worst of the fighting. Saw enough violence to last me seven lifetimes… so I’m done with it. I have a king worth serving now. I saw him this morning during the Coup de Fromage.” 

Belisama felt Magpie nudge her. 

“I will see that you are cleared to come home with us,” Belisama said, not knowing where her courage was coming from as she continued to look the much larger griffoness in the eye. “Do you have any skills outside of being a mercenary? Anything more suited for peacetime?” 

Grisabella shook her head. “No… not really. But I can learn, right? Weaver said he would teach me how to make cloth. I might try that.” 

“I found a pretty griffoness.” Weaver, with slow hesitation, grabbed the griffoness’ foreleg and gave it a squeeze. It was obvious to any looking that he was scared, but it didn’t stop him from taking a chance. He rubbed his face against her as his tail swished back and forth. 

“I hope both of you find happiness,” Magpie said as she reached down and gave Belisama a gentle pat. “Grisabella, if you would, please remember, a lot of the little griffons are still scared of our kind and easily spooked. Be gentle with them, and patient.” 

“Oh I would never hurt the little fella… he’s kinda cute and he knows how to show off his plumage,” Grisabella replied. “Plus, he’s a flatterer.” 

“I think Bucky is going to be really happy to hear about this.” Reaching up, Belisama patted the tiny little lump that was Bandua in her shawl. “We are very glad to have you, Grisabella. It is my hope that others of your kind will join us as well.” 



 

“Tourmaline, have you had a nice trip?” Violet asked. 

The jet black foal nodded with all of the youthful enthusiasm she could muster. 

“I would imagine that this trip has been quite educational,” Raven said as she sat down next to Tourmaline. She looked down at what Tourmaline was working on and studied it. After a moment, Raven smiled. 

“You have had a chance to meet some very colourful characters. Hopefully, there will be no lasting damage.” Violet began setting out everything needed for tea upon the table. “What are you drawing Tourmaline?” 

“History,” Tourmaline replied, offering no other explanation. 

Raven looked down at the stick figure ponies that Tourmaline had scribbled. It was easy enough to make out the picture. “Tourmaline, when you are done with that, may I have it? I would like to have it framed. It is history worth preserving.” 

“Really?” Tourmaline looked over at Raven and blinked. 

Nodding, Raven patted the little filly on the withers. “I think so.” 

“Can you help me spell out the words?” Tourmaline gave Raven a pleading look. 

“Yes, I will help you, but you are going to write them.” Raven smiled when a plate with a coffee cake was set down in front of her. “Hmm, somepony knows what I like for breakfast.” 

Setting down a teapot, Violet nodded. She said nothing as she hurried off to the ship’s kitchen, humming to herself as she departed. 

“It is past noon. It is too late for breakfast.” Tourmaline, trying to capture an important detail, focused upon her work, levitating a crayon in her magic as she tried to make everything just perfect. 

Raven, watching, said nothing about the fact that some of the ponies in the picture had five or more legs. She heard hooves on wooden planks, looked up, and saw Celestia entering the dining room. 

Yawning, Celestia crossed the room in a few steps, her long legs allowing her greater strides. She approached the table, looked down at Tourmaline’s drawing, and began to laugh as she sat down. 

“Why did everypony go back to bed?” Tourmaline asked. 

“Because… this is a vacation and we got up far too early. This is a time to be lazy,” Celestia replied. The white alicorn yawned again. “Remember Tourmaline, there are some things you shouldn’t mention to others or talk about.” 

Tourmaline nodded. “I know. I ain’t saying nothing.” 

“Tourmaline, do not say ‘ain’t’... it is unbecoming of you.” Celestia looked at the food on the table, yawned yet again, and slumped down in her chair in a manner that did not become a princess. 

The foal sighed and looked up at her mother. “Applejack says it all the time.” 

“Tourmaline, you did a good job… that horn is instantly recognisable.” Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Is that the barrel?” 

Still scribbling with her crayon, Tourmaline nodded. 

“You have done a wonderful job with this.” Celestia smiled. “Are you making this for me?” 

“Raven claimed it,” Tourmaline said in a low voice. 

“Raven… how could you?” Celestia looked at the unicorn mare sitting on the other side of Tourmaline. “Tourmaline, dear, do you think you could make another?” 

Tourmaline’s pastel pink mane bobbed as she nodded. “Raven, I need the words. Can you help me spell them?” 

“Suffer not a tyrant to live… strike down all tyrants with cheese…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 562 (Warning: perversion and story mixed into one chapter) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Feeling better?” Berry came into the room and locked the door behind her. “Let’s see… you’ve had plenty of fluids, a bath, a good meal, a bit of cuddle time with a very grumpy Cadance, a little time with Bell, and a moment with Bandua, who Tourmaline says can only feel hunger and cold. Hmm, I think you should  be good to go.” 

Bucky looked up from his book and noticed how Berry Punch was sashaying through the room. “I, uh, was actually having a bit of quiet downtime. I’ve been in enough trouble as of late.” 

“Yes… introverts and their downtime.” Berry raised her eyebrow and flicked her tail. “I’m an extrovert… and I’m looking for a little uptime.” 

A loud gulp could be heard from Bucky. 

“A while back, you shagged me silly. I was so breathless that I couldn’t even bleat out a proper Shetlands mare orgasm. No warning, no romantic words, no nothing, you just jumped on my back and gave me a fine how do you do by slipping it right in.” 

“I’m sorry?” Bucky’s eyes darted for the door and he wondered what his chances where. 

“Not yet you’re not… but you will be.” Berry glanced at the door and then at Bucky. She shook her head to let Bucky know his chances. “Now… be good little plaything. Get in the bed.” 

The book snapped shut as Bucky set it down. He could see that Berry’s tail was hitching, flicking, moving in a most provocative manner. His head held low and his own tail between his legs, he hurried to the bed and jumped up. 

Berry moved, a smooth fluid movement that was beautiful to watch. She moved with kinesthetic perfection and her hips swayed like a bell as she approached the bed. With an almost catlike grace, she lept up into the bed and sat down beside Bucky. 

“You are going to please me, do you understand me, plaything?” 

Bucky nodded. “Berry, I’m sorry, I really don’t know what came over me. It was like a dark cloud had been lifted from over my head… and I just wanted to feel you… from the inside too I suppose. I really hope you’re not too angry.” 

“I’m not angry at all… I was just playing around with you Bucky… look, if you’re really apprehensive about this, we don’t have to do this, you can always say no and we can just do whatever—” 

“And now I feel worse… I didn’t give you the option to say no… I just… jumped your bones and I was rough with you.” Bucky took a deep breath and fell over on the bed. 

“And I liked it. I’ve been waiting for you to do that for a long time… that… that was the best sex I’ve had in my whole life… and now, I want to indulge in a few of my other fantasies with you,” Berry said as she patted Bucky on his ribs with her hoof. “I suppose you need a bit of communication before we get into a bit of roleplaying or rough play. I don’t.” 

“See… you’re talking to me… making me feel better about this… I didn’t do that. I pulled your mane… I feel bad about that. I don’t know what came over me.” Bucky closed his eyes and went limp. 

Berry leaned down and placed her lips next to Bucky’s ear. “But I’ve been telling you to pull my mane for a while… you’re really bothered by this, aren’t you?”  

“It was a loss of control. What if you weren’t in the mood or you had said no?”

Shaking her head, Berry blew into Bucky’s ear, causing it to twitch. 

“So how can I make it up to you?” Bucky asked. 

Laughing, Berry Punch fell over and rolled on to her back. “Plaything… I have a special punishment for you. Lick my hooves.” Berry Punch extended one well toned leg and waggled her right hind hoof. 

Opening his eyes, Bucky turned and looked at Berry. 

“Go on… this hoof ain’t gonna lick itself,” Berry said in a teasing voice. 

Sitting up, Bucky extended his talons, took Berry’s hoof into his grasp, and lowered his head. He stuck out his tongue, closed his eyes, and unable to believe he was doing this, dragged his tongue over Berry’s frog. 

With a suddenness that startled him, Bucky went lightheaded. It was like having a strong drink. He licked again, heard Berry giggle, and blinked a few times to clear his blurry vision. His tongue tingled and a strange metallic taste filled his mouth. He licked again, this time placing some real pressure behind it, dragging his rough tongue with agonising slowness over Berry’s frog. 

The earth pony mare let out a long low moan of appreciation, her ability to giggle stolen away from her. 

Bucky could feel Berry’s leg twitching and she trembled in his grasp. He stabbed the tip of his tongue into the soft flesh of Berry’s frog, teasing it, and then he dragged the length of tongue over the sensitive flesh. 

He was rewarded with a breathless whimper. 

“Oh… I had no idea this would feel this good… don’t you dare stop… you keep going, plaything.” Berry felt the first hints of moisture between her legs, moisture and heat. “Lick!” 

Being a good pony was important, so Bucky did as he was told. One long slow lick, followed by several quick flicks of his tongue. He felt peculiar, light headed, joyful. Almost euphoric. Berry’s left hind hoof was raised. Needing no command, he grabbed it and went to work with enthusiasm. The first lick caused his mouth to have the odd metallic taste again. 

Closing her eyes, Berry gave way to the sensation of Bucky’s tongue on her frog. Each lick, each lap of his tongue caused her leg to tremble and shake. Her muscles spasmed along her thighs. She felt a hoof rubbing down her thigh, moving closer to her now moistened minge. 

Reaching down her forehoof, she slapped Bucky’s hoof away. “No! Bad plaything… you keep licking.” Berry’s head settled down into the soft blanket as she once again lost herself to sensation. Berry smiled when she thought about other things that needed licking. 

As Bucky slurped on the soft flesh of her frog, Berry took a deep shuddering breath. “Lick my teats, plaything. Worship me as a vessel of creation you dirty, servile, cheese smelling unicorn.” 

She gasped as she felt Bucky’s hot breath blow over her snatch for a moment. Then two lips closed around the soft flesh of one of her teats. Reaching down, she shoved Bucky’s head away. “Bad plaything! I said lick!” 

Berry had to bite down upon her lip when she felt the side of Bucky’s tongue being drawn over the tip of her teat. She heard lapping and realised that Bucky had gotten the milk he craved anyway. She was leaking. She could feel him lapping at her soft flesh, cleaning up every drop of spilled milk. The tip of his tongue traveled the length of her protruding teats, first one, then the other, and Berry could feel her milk trickling out. The length of Bucky’s tongue scraped over the soft tip of one of her teats and Berry felt her spine tingle. Her hips bucked upwards, she wanted something inside of her. Every muscle in her body tensed as Bucky’s tongue continued to travel with horrible teasing slowness. 

And then Bucky did it again to the other teat. 

For a moment, Berry wasn’t sure who was the top and who was the bottom in this bit of play. Her teats had gone rock hard. Reaching down, she grabbed Bucky’s head between her forehooves. 

“No more milk for you… lick my bunghole, plaything.” Breathless, Berry’s words came out as a gasp as she tried to reassert her dominance. “I know you like it… because you’re a dirty servile unicorn that likes serving earth ponies and pegasi. Before you lick it, say it!” 

There was silence. 

Berry squeezed her front hooves together, Bucky’s head still between them. “Say it!” 

“I’m a dirty little unicorn that likes to lick my wives’ plotholes!” 

Berry felt a rush of power, it was heady, delightful, it caused a rush of wetness to ooze out from between her legs, and she could feel the bead of moisture rolling down her flesh, and then sliding over the wrinkled flesh of her pucker. She shivered and felt her dock tense. 

After a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, Berry felt Bucky’s head slip from between her front hooves. There was hot and heavy breathing on places where Berry liked to feel hot and heavy breathing. And then, there was the exquisite feeling of a rough bumpy tongue being dragged over her almost dry, clinging, tight-clenched pucker, the friction tugging at it and causing it to stretch. 

Berry had to bite down upon her lip to keep from crying out. The first few licks were an odd sensation of wet and dry, which made her pucker tense up. Each lick moistened her up though, relaxed the soft rubbery flesh, and caused her to loosen up. For a moment, the tip of Bucky’s tongue almost separated her, pushing in just enough to make it known that there was an invader seeking entrance at Berry’s back door. 

“You… you’re a dirty pervert. A dirty shameful… pervert!” Berry said, trying to scold Bucky as she became short of breath. 

Unable to bear it any longer, Berry Punch pulled away, rolling over on her side. She sucked in air, almost wheezing, feeling drunk with a sense of control. There was a final parting lick that trailed over the skin of her dock, digging deep into the dimple that existed between her pucker and the base of her tail. 

“Lay back on the bed you dirty little pervert.” Berry sat up and gave Bucky a hard shove, pushing him over. She placed a hoof upon his barrel, pressing him down into the mattress. “Look at you… shameful… you went and sprouted a boner without permission!” 

Reaching down, Berry grabbed Bucky’s cock, grasping it in her folded fetlock. She gave it a hard squeeze. She heard Bucky gasp and his whole body tensed. Berry could feel her clitoris winking now, and it was throbbing like a second heart that had grown down between her legs. 

“There is only one thing that can be done with dirty little colts that go popping boners without permission.” Berry gave a rough tug on the cock she had in her firm grasp. She heard Bucky whimpering. Relaxing her grip, she slid her soft fetlock down the length of Bucky’s cock, trailing her velvet grip along the now rock hard prick. She heard Bucky inhale, a hissing sound. 

Stroking Bucky off, Berry Punch reveled in her power. “I bet you want to shag me… you dirty little arsehole licking pervert!” 

Bucky nodded, his eyes were bulging. 

“Too bad! One of us is gonna cum and and it ain’t you!” Berry, still stroking, flexed her grip and gave a surprise hard yank. She shoved her left front hoof into Bucky’s muzzle. “This hoof ain’t been licked!” 

She felt Bucky’s tongue as it licked the soft spongy flesh of her frog. With each lick, she gave a rewarding stroke, a slow steady push of her folded fetlock down Bucky’s shaft. When he licked faster, she picked up the pace of her stroking. 

She could feel him approaching what had to be orgasm. She gave another hard tug and then let go, leaving Bucky gasping and whimpering. 

“No cumming for dirty little arsehole licking colts!” Berry Punch pulled her front hoof away and crammed her right front hoof into his face. She could see a glistening ooze creeping out from Bucky’s twitching cock, it dripped on his belly and left shiny spots on his pelt. 

Inflamed by the sight, Berry throbbed. This was almost torture to her as well. Bucky’s tongue lapped over her frog and she felt her belly muscles tensing up as she clenched and winked. 

“Berry, it hurts… my balls ache…” Bucky pushed Berry’s hoof away from his muzzle. “I will be your slave if you—” 

“You are already my plaything!” Berry Punch climbed over Bucky, pushing him down, and straddled his face. “Serve me!” She ground her marehood against Bucky’s muzzle. She felt a tongue penetrating her, plunging in, and Berry pushed down, wanting Bucky to lick just the right spot. 

She turned around, looking over her shoulder, and saw Bucky’s twitching cock. She thought about having it inside of her. It wasn’t long, but it was girthy. It stretched out all of the right things that needed stretching and placed friction on the things that needed delicious friction. As Bucky licked, lapping at her loins, his cock twitched, bouncing against his belly, and drooled out a never ending stream of dribble. 

Biting down upon her lip, Berry Punch held back her own orgasm, not wanting to give Bucky the satisfaction of making her cum. He was servile when it came to that, he had trouble getting off unless she got off first, and Berry knew it. So denying him her own orgasm was the worst sort of torture. Bucky was a giver and a pleaser… Berry bit down on her lip a little harder, it was getting even more difficult to hold back, but she was determined not to give Bucky the satisfaction. He was working so very hard, doing all of the right things, he knew where to lick, how to lick, he knew every inch of Berry Punch’s spasm chasm. With all of the time he spent down there, it was no wonder that he knew it so well. Berry was fighting a losing battle. 

A faint bleating cry escaped her lips in spite of her best efforts. 

She pulled away from Bucky and sat down on his barrel, suspended on the edge of her own orgasm. With every ounce of will she had, she fought back against herself, reasserting control over her own body. 

“You… dirty… little… pervert… you tried to… make me cum… when I… didn’t give you… permission… to do so… just for that… you… are going to bed… with your dick dry.” Berry Punch clambered away from Bucky, taking what she knew to be a calculated risk. Bucky was pent up, frustrated, and just as needy as she was. 

She wondered if Bucky would let her go. 

She was almost to the edge of the bed when she heard Bucky growl. A moment later, Berry Punch felt Bucky tackle her and push her down onto the mattress. His breath was hot against her neck, he was panting, huffing and puffing in a way that made Berry gush. 

She felt a few frenzied pokes at her plot and then she felt Bucky press up against her pucker. Berry tensed. Would he? A part of her almost hoped that he would. Her mind entertained a feverish fantasy of being held down in the bed and having her bung tapped. There was a rough prodding and she felt Bucky pressing against her. Berry’s whole body tensed, not knowing what was about to happen next. A few minutes ago, she had been in control. She had been in power. She had rode the euphoric high of being in total control of Bucky. 

Now, she ran the risk of being his sex toy, her power, her dominance, it was all gone. She had driven Bucky wild, reducing him to a rough terrible beast and he was about to give her what was certain to be a very thorough drilling. She gritted her teeth, waiting, hoping, fearing, she could feel him on her back, he was rough, he was grabby, he was still prodding her, trying to force his way in. She felt a tug on her crest, on the back of her neck as her mane was given a good hard yank. 

Just when she thought that Bucky was about to break into her backdoor brownie bakery, she felt his hips slam down on top of hers and the tip of his now flared cock stabbed into her winking clitoris. There was a mix of pleasure and pain, it felt good and awful at the same time, she was a dirty horrible mare that had just forced her husband to lick her arsehole in a humiliating way and now she was getting what she deserved. 

A long low bleating cry escaped Berry’s lips as Bucky rammed himself in, going balls deep, his cock scraping over exposed nubbin of sensitive and tender flesh. There was no mercy, no gentleness, he was a wild thing now. She heard him grunting. She felt him pull out and as he thrust his way back in, he gave a good yank on her mane, which forced her snatch to clench tight around the invading organ being rammed into her depths. 

Berry Punch wanted to squeeze her legs tight together, she wanted a chance to breathe, to collect herself, she wanted a chance to endure this orgasm as it began to consume her, but she was to have none of those things. Bucky was hammering away now, going at it like a possessed animal, and each time he rammed his way in, he gave a good hard yank on her mane. 

It was poetic justice… the dirty little earth pony was being shown her proper place. As Berry thought about it, her orgasm reached a new plateau. All Berry could do was lie there with her legs spread wide, taking in every inch of Bucky’s length that he saw fit to give her. She could feel sharp teeth pressing against her neck, her mane now held right near the roots. Sharp predatory teeth… teeth that could rend her flesh, make her cry out, make her beg for mercy. Teeth that established dominance. Bucky was the predator, Berry Punch was prey. The top had become the bottom. 

Berry let out a bleating scream and dug her front hooves into the bed. She buried her face down into the bed and bit down upon the blanket. She hiked up her hips, trying make it a little easier on herself. As she drove her hips up to a different angle, Bucky changed his angle of entry, somehow getting even deeper. Each stroke hammered down on her exposed and helpless button, her now abused and burning clitoris. 

Finally, she felt Bucky sink in as far as he could go and hold himself there. She felt his terrible teeth pressed against the soft flesh of her neck. She heard him growling as his orgasm overtook him. She felt a few thrusts, each one squirting seed deep within her now inflamed folds. 

Just when Berry thought she couldn’t take a moment more, she felt Bucky go limp on top of her. She felt her mane being spit out. He was still inside of her, but going soft already. She dared not move, she lay there on her belly, struggling to breathe, still biting the blanket. 

A powerful orgasm started in her nethers, it crashed around inside of her like a bowling ball thundering down the lane. Biting down ever harder, she cried out through clenched teeth that she feared would shatter at any moment because of the force of her jaw muscles spasming. The orgasm crept upwards, traveling through her guts, banging around her insides, until at last it reached her lungs. With a gasp, Berry had the wind knocked out of her, making it impossible to breathe. Bucky’s body felt heavy on top of her. His forelegs were still wrapped around her. She let go of the blanket, raised her head, and tried to suck in as much air as she could, wheezing from her effort. 

At last, the tyrannical orgasm let go and allowed her to breathe. Her head dropped down to the blanket and she went limp. She felt a kiss upon the side of her neck, it gave her cold chills and made her whole body tingle. Sweat began to seep from every pore. 

“We need to do this again,” Bucky said, his voice a low growl. 

Berry Punch sucked in another heaving gasp and could not reply. 

“I love you… I love you enough to let go…” Bucky planted another kiss just below Berry’s ear and slid off of her back, coming to rest against her side. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 563
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Boadicea looked down at the rat being offered to her on a sharpened stick. It had been fire roasted to perfection, it still had the skin on, which had turned crispy and succulent. The smell of it almost drove her crazy. Apprehensive, she looked at Lugus, making a wordless plea with her eyes. 

After what seemed like a long wait, she saw Lugus give her an almost unnoticeable nod. 

She looked at the little griffon offering her a rat on a stick. “I do not know your name,” she said as she took the stick from the griffon. “Thank you, by the way, you are very kind.” 

The griffon, who had been staring down at the floor this entire time, looked up, for a moment, looking into Boadicea’s eyes. “You’re welcome.” The little griffon averted his eyes and looked down at his own feet. “My name is Coineagan… everybirdy calls me Coney. In Griffonholm I was a rabbit farmer.” 

“I appreciate you bringing me food.” Boadicea tried to sound sincere. She did appreciate being brought hot food. “For your kindness, I owe you a favour. I give you my word as a hunter.” 

The griffoness cub felt eyes upon her. She turned, looked at Lugus, and noticed he was staring at her. His face might have well been made out of stone. It was impossible to read, impossible to know what he might have been feeling at this moment. Boadicea felt very small and afraid. Lugus wasn’t making anything easy for her. Everything was a test. There was no assurance of anything, everything was earned. She had no idea if she would even be sleeping in a warm bed tonight, and Lugus had made it clear that she was owed nothing, but would earn everything. 

“Do not make Lugus angry… be a good cub is all I ask of you,” Coney said in a soft voice, looking up at Boadicea once more and looking her in the eye. 

Holding the stick in her talons, Boadicea bit the head off of the rat, crushed the skull between the edges of her beak, and swallowed. It was hot, salty, and peppery. 

Reaching out with trembling talons, Coney patted Boadicea upon the shoulder and then scampered off, hurrying away to look after other rats he had roasting upon the fire. 

“What do you think went wrong?” Lugus’ voice was low, emotionless, and held none of its usual warmth. He blinked. “At some point, the hunters lost their way. They ceased being the providers they prided themselves to be… they became fat and lazy. They allowed the little griffons to bring them everything.” 

Panic. Terrible panic. Boadicea stared at her rat upon a stick. “Am I in trouble for accepting food?” 

“No.” Lugus shook his head. “You have earned that meal and you are not in trouble. I am merely reflecting and I would like to hear what you have to say.” 

“I’m being tested again, aren’t I?” Boadicea looked over at the warrior griffon. 

Lugus nodded. 

Tearing off the upper torso of the rat, Boadicea crunched it a few times between the side edges of her beak, held it over her tongue to savour the taste, and swallowed. “I don’t know… I hunted for everything I ate. I asked for nothing and I brought food back. The bigger griffons scoffed at it. The rats and lizards I brought back were unfit for them to eat. But the sla—” Boadicea caught herself, saving herself from what she knew to be certain doom. Lugus wouldn’t punish her if she caught herself, she had already learned that. “Ahem… the little griffons would gladly take the rats and lizards I brought back. They refused to eat the food that the bigger griffons ate… the… well, you know what it was.” 

“King Tannis brought back fish for the little griffons… he provided for all he could. He bought medicine, kept them as healthy as he could. Why is it that some hunters stayed true to themselves but others became such mindless brutes… even without the sickness, some were just born bad. It distresses me. The warriors too. So much dishonourable behaviour.” Lugus turned his head and looked the fire. He watched as Coney turned a rat over so the other side could be roasted. His sharp ears heard the sounds of little bones crunching as Boadicea devoured the rest of her rat. 

“I don’t know.” Boadicea’s answer was honest, her voice soft. The cub pulled her cloak around her, began to shiver, and struggled to stop her beak from clattering. 

“You ate something.” Lugus’ voice was almost kind. “The blood is fleeing from your limbs and retreating to your stomach. You starved yourself for so long that it now takes your body serious effort to digest food.” 

Feeling bold, Boadicea spoke her mind. “The warrior griffons aren’t much better… they laze about all day expecting the little griffons and the hunter griffons to provide their needs. They spent most of the day sleeping, napping in the sun, doing nothing at all. If they wanted something and it wasn’t provided, somebirdy was usually beaten or killed for it.” Boadicea rubbed her body with her talons and could feel bare hairless flesh under her talon-tips. “It bothered me… what I saw. I heard nothing but stories about how we are a proud and noble species, we were meant to be the rightful rulers of this world, but everywhere I looked I saw fighting amongst our kind. Laziness. A lack of honour. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I keep thinking about what our king asked me… why I believed what I was told… about what he did… I suppose it was because it was easier to believe that than to believe that we would stoop so low… be so dishonourable… I am ashamed that I willingly believed what I was told for the matter of my own pride.” 

“Tonight you will be sleeping in a warm bed.” Lugus stretched out his wings and flexed his talons. “Continue with your self examination. And go bathe yourself. You are a smelly creature.” 

“Lugus! She has starvation sickness! She can’t help it!” Magpie lifted a spoon, took aim, and hurled it at Lugus. It flew, end over end, a flash of silver as it traveled through the air. 

Snatching the spoon out of the air, Lugus looked at it for a moment, and then set it down upon a nearby table. His crest raised and he looked at Magpie. “I admire your aim. Perhaps you could train Boadicea in the proper way to throw.” 

“I have to be going. I have foals to look after. I was just getting me a quick bite to eat.” Magpie looked at Boadicea and her eyes narrowed. “Should I have time, I will teach you.” 

Overcome with a feeling of joy, Boadicea felt herself warm up just a little bit on the inside. 



 

Standing in dirty snow, Keg Smasher watched as the zebras made ready to depart. He was silent, contemplative, and his eyes glittered as he looked up at the zebra airship. He glanced at Bucky, who stood beside him, looking at Bucky for a moment before his eyes returned to the airship. 

“The zebras tell me that we have aluminum in these isles. Even more of it in Minnowrock. Takes a lot of hard bloody labour to get it out of the ground… but look at it. It makes for a pretty airship, don’t it?” 

“Rising Star likes aluminum. He’s starting to get good at working with it. He’s been experimenting with adding scandium and titanium to the aluminum to make alloys… adds a lot of strength, or so Rising Star says.” Bucky, eyeing the new gasbag design, wondered how it might look on The Scorned Mare. 

“I have no idea what any of those words mean,” Keg Smasher said in low voice. “But I’m smart enough to know that it sounds important.” 

“Rising Star is challenging the long standing traditions of unicorn craftwork, namely, the use of heavy materials to make something, like brass and wood, and then using an abundance of magic to make everything lighter. He’s already got a gyrocopter that he is working on… Spanner and Lugnut are the designers… the thing is going to be lighter than a mosquito, and that is without any enchantments. It is going to be double hulled and will hold super compressed cloudstuff between the hulls to generate electricity. If all goes well, it should fly by spring. Going to change mechanical flight as we know it, mark my words.” 

Looking over at his own shipyards, Keg Smasher sighed and felt a sense of pride. Shetlands airships weren’t much to look at, but they were well made and a source of local pride. So far, several had been constructed. The very first of them was The Scorned Mare, the ship that had given them all the courage to dare to dream. 

Other wrecks had been hauled in, repaired, refitted, and turned into serviceable airships. Now, Luna had taken an interest and even more manufacture would be taking place come spring. With aluminum available on the isles, Keg Smasher saw a bright future ahead. 

“Bucky… I wanted to thank you,” Keg Smasher said in a husky voice. 

“For what?” Bucky looked over at his friend. 

“For convincing Celestia to make me a prince. I dinnae know it, but I guess I wanted to be one. I feel real happy and hopeful for once. Leadership is what I’m good at… and I suppose this is the highest level of leadership. I dunno how to say it or put it in words… but it feels nice to be in charge of shaping a collective destiny… I can finally make these isles, all of them now, the sort of place I have always felt that they should be. I have big dreams… and I always thought they’d just stay dreams. But now… now they seem possible.” 

“I’m not good at leadership and I don’t want to be what I am.” Bucky watched as the zebra airship began to rise. 

“Liar.” Keg Smasher gave Bucky a nudge. “You are good at leadership. You proved that here. You gave us hope again… made us believe. You did something I couldn’t.” 

“Bah!” Bucky shook his head. “Gobshite.” 

“Yer a cuss headed numpty,” Keg Smasher said, a lilting brogue creeping into his voice as he became irritated. “I suppose you’ll be leaving soon. You have those winter games coming up. I do believe that Luna is going to clean yer clock. And Celestia is doomed as well. I have a fair bit of coin placed on Luna winning.” 

“Lecherous stretcher of little colts' arseholes.” Bucky’s face soured. 

“Aye… Bucky, I love ya like a brother… I couldn’t love you more if we had shared the same teats as colts.” Keg Smasher chuckled for a few minutes. “Luna is going to clean your clock though. See, I know something you don’t know.” 

“And that is?” Bucky asked. 

“She’s already had her troops training here. In secret. Where they cannae be spied on by prying eyes… these are war games Bucky… war and all that goes with it. Spying too.” 

“Myrmidons?” Bucky looked up at his friend. 

“I dinnae love ye that much. Luna would haul me to Gelding Grotto if I betrayed her secrets.” Keg Smasher’s eyes narrowed. “Or worse, she’d send you to do me in. I understand that she sends you to do her dirty bidding.” 

“I am Luna’s sinister left hoof. Soon, she will have a whole network of sinister left hooves. Shadowbolts. We’re building an army of assassins.” Bucky watched as the zebra airship began to pick up speed. 

Keg Smasher nodded. “We’ve talked about it, she and I. She plans to train some of them here. This is a hard land, Luna feels it would make for some hard Shadowbolts.”

“So... brother… you can’t tell me who Luna has been training here?” Bucky looked at Keg Smasher and raised an eyebrow. 

“Gelding Grotto is not a nice place to visit.” Keg Smasher winced. “Or having Luna send some spook like you. You’d do it too… you called me a tyrant and whacked me with a cheese wheel for just trying to get you to calm down and cease your bloody rebellion.” 

“I was a little drunk.” Bucky shrugged. 

“You smacked me with a bloody two hundred pound cheese wheel!” Keg Smasher’s bellow echoed in the snow. 

“I was a whole lot drunk.” Bucky kicked the snow with his talons, breaking the crust of ice. 

“One Myrmidon. One big bloody feckin’ Myrmidon. A male. Plus a compliment of lunar pegasi and a few unicorns. A dozen troops in total.” Keg Smasher whinnied and nickered from nervousness. “I’m a dead pony.” 

“Oh that’s bad… I mean, it could be worse, she could have selected a female, or she might have had more Myrmidons, but just one is enough to ruin any chance I have of winning. Ripple is going to be crushed. The Raptors make good scouts… and assassins. But they are not front line fighters.” Bucky slumped down and his ears drooped. 

“Luna speaks highly of your wee Raptors.” Keg Smasher gave his friend a reassuring nudge. “Cheer up… ya look like a kicked foal.” 

“She does?” Bucky gave Keg Smasher an incredulous look. 

“Aye lad… in time, she hopes that more of the wee little ones will take up service. Luna sees potential for shadows and spooks. Blades in the dark. Things that the bigger pegasi and griffons might not be good at.” 

“You have no idea how much better that makes me feel… doesn’t help that I still have to figure out how to break the news to Ripple that we’ve lost.” Bucky sighed and watched as the zebra ship began to shrink as it flew away. 

“Come on lad… it is bloody cold out here. Let’s go have a drink. Coffee… for both of us. There’s been enough booze pickling our brains as of late.” 
	
	
> Chapter 564 (a glimpse at the future)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Walking down the hallway, Celestia gave thought to the trip up to this point. Try as she might, she could not recall being this happy for a long time, perhaps even going back as far to the point of being a filly once more, exploring the world and going on adventures with Scorch. 

Unable to focus on a particular moment, Celestia concentrated, trying to think of when it went wrong, when at least one thousand years of unhappiness set in for the long haul. Her hooves clattered on the stone floor. 

Tartarus, Celestia thought to herself. The retrieval of the Elements of Harmony. She came to a stop and shuddered. The hook… Thinking sunny thoughts, Celestia tried to banish the dark thought from her mind. 

“Mama?” 

There is a source of happiness, Celestia thought to herself. For a moment, she thought of Erebus and felt a pang of longing for him, missing him. “Tourmaline, I am okay… I… I was just thinking of something and I had a bad memory.” 

“I felt it.” Tourmaline’s voice was small and afraid. When Celestia began to walk again, Tourmaline followed along behind her, moving doubletime. 

This trip was almost over and it made Celestia feel a little morose. It was almost time to go home… home to play the winter games. Home to face Luna, who would be unbearable and smug after her victory. Luna, who would gloat and tease. 

Luna, who needed a comeuppance, but Celestia did not know how to make it happen. 

“Oooh… warm fuzzies.” 

Turning her head to look back for a moment, Celestia saw Tourmaline walking with her eyes closed. Love must be in the air. Knowing the door she approached, Celestia wondered what sort of love might be in the air. 

Reaching the door, she knocked. 

After a moment, there was a “Ssh!” followed by a soft “come in.” 

Pushing upon the door after she hit the latch, Celestia entered. She felt Tourmaline dart past her legs. The almost unnoticeable scent of mare musk still lingered, but whatever had taken place in here had been cleaned up. 

On the bed was a pony pile. Thistle was sprawled out, laying on her belly, her head held high. Bell Heather lay between Thistle’s forelegs. Bucky, laying on his side, had his head resting upon Thistle’s back. Curled up against Bucky’s stomach was Berry Punch, her large pregnant belly pressed up against Bucky. Against Berry Punch’s back a small pink foal was snoozing, flopped out on her back with four legs kicked out into the air. On Thistle’s other side, Belisama was napping, her head placed over a shawl.

“I came at a bad time,” Celestia said in a low whisper. 

Thistle shook her head. “No… they’ve been napping for a while. It will be dinner time soon. If you would like, you could join us.” 

Before Celestia could respond, a lithe black form lept up into the bed, scooted over the blanket, and dove into Thistle. Celestia watched as Tourmaline planted a smooch on Thistle’s cheek. She moved towards the bed, her hooves clicking, and she eased her way into the bed. Scooting closer to Thistle, Celestia folded her legs up beneath her and settled in. Stretching out her long neck, she leaned over and nosed Bucky, who snorted in his sleep. 



 

Canterlot was burning. Smoke rose through the air and flames rose from rooftops. Not knowing what was going on, Bucky followed after Sombra. Above, through the smoke, the sun seemed to grow pale, going dim. 

“What is going on?” Bucky asked as he sidestepped falling rubble. “Sombra, stop, wait, tell me, what has happened here?” 

In front of him, Sombra shifted, shimmered, warped, and changed shape. Bucky saw himself in alicorn form, only he wasn’t a foal, he was full sized. For a moment, terror seized him. 

“No… now is not the time for fear. Fear will be your undoing.” Older Bucky lifted his head high and looked solemn. 

Bucky himself, appearing as he always seemed to appear in these dreams, was small, almost foal-like. He flapped his wings, hating them, and looked up at the taller version of himself. 

“The Night Stallion makes his most crippling strike so far. The Sun is dying, the connection severed. Even now, his darkness approaches Canterlot. Some events are already written in stone, some of these events will happen, some of these events might happen, and some of these events have already been avoided.” Older Bucky spread his wings and took off.

Foal Bucky flapped a few times and found that he could fly. He took off after Older Bucky, struggling to keep up. The skies around him were filled with lunar pegasi and solar pegasi and they appeared to be fighting alicorns. 

No… not alicorns… unicorns with wing spells. 

There was the stuttering chatter of gunfire. Some of the pegasi had guns mounted to their armor. The Solar and Lunar Guard were taking heavy losses, but they appeared to be winning. 

Older Bucky seemed to be flying away from Canterlot and Foal Bucky followed. Beneath them, Ponyville smouldered. Smoke rose from the city and some of it was burning. The air was too hazy to see details. 

Bucky saw a familiar sight… a rainbow coloured contrail. Rainbow Dash was flying ahead of a group of Wonderbolts. A bloodied Spitfire was held in Rainbow Dash’s forelegs. 

Below Bucky, he saw a large dragon down in Ponyville, a brown and black dragon.

As Bucky tried to study the scene, it shifted. It was as if everything turned to sand in an hourglass and began to slip away. Bucky could hear a buzzing sound, a droning sound, and then the scene was gone. 

Around him, a new scene formed. The sun, now even more dim, flickered in the sky overhead. Below Bucky was a desert, but he was not sure which one. The sky was filled with thousands of airships, airships of every size and shape imaginable. 

Ahead of him was a dark shadow, Bucky could not make it out, but it was huge. It was of an impossible size and it loomed overhead, moving with a terrible slowness, creeping north. How Bucky knew the direction, he did not know. 

Fire lanced from the dark shadow and airships exploded into massive fireballs. Wreckage and debris plummeted down to the ground below. The skies were filled with an uncountable number of enemy pegasi that had guns mounted to their armor. Unicorns with wing spells provided magic support. As the dark shape crept forward, the airships around it were blown out of the sky. Myrmidons filled the skies, solar pegasi, Bucky recognised Equestrian armor, but this was a losing battle. 

In all of Bucky’s life, he had never imagined battle on a scale like this. The fight stretched from one horizon to another. Massive explosions ripped airships in half. The skies rained blood. 

“This battle is coming… there is nothing that can be done to stop it. However, the outcome is uncertain.” Older Bucky watched as a fleet of dragons surged forward. 

There was a thunderous sound from the dark shadow that dominated the battlefield. Fire lanced out from the darkness. Several of the dragons fell, blown to bits by whatever had shot them. 

Older Bucky pointed and Foal Bucky peered through the flames. 

“This is a battle that you cannot win, but you can influence. You can counter the enemy threat… the pegasi with guns are terrible foes, but they can be countered. The unicorns who take wing will be some of the strongest foes that Equestria has ever battled. But you can even the odds.” Older Bucky looked off in the direction of the coming dark shadow. “The real shame is, you caused this battle to happen.” 

“I don’t understand.” Foal Bucky watched as the battle raged. 

“Had you ascended, this battle would have been against you. The world would have fought to save itself. But you rejected that future… so another future had to come along and replace it. So this is all your fault. You made this happen. Your rejection of your destiny forced the universe to attempt to correct itself.” 

Foal Bucky could see a familiar ship charging though the smoke and fire. 

The Scorned Mare was on fire and massive hole had been blown through the front of the ship. The gasbag had been upgraded, changed, it was now long and silver, bladelike, and the ship sliced through the air with incredible speed. It was running at the dark shadow at full steam, and Foal Bucky felt his blood run cold as he watched himself make a suicide run. 

“You have a choice. If you enter this fight, it will cost you everything you have, but your actions will save countless lives. It will improve the odds of survival for all but yourself.” 

As Older Bucky spoke, a nearby airship exploded into a massive fireball. 

“If you enter this battle, it will be your undoing. This is a fight you cannot win.” Older Bucky gestured with his hoof, pointing to the distant horizon. “This was supposed to be the fight against you, to bring about your end. All of this destiny swirls around you. If you enter this fight, you will meet your end here. The universe will correct itself somehow, and if you find yourself in the middle of all of this, you will be obliterated as part of that correction.” 

A massive globe of light entered the battle. It was radiant, huge, it drove back the darkness. Foal Bucky looked at it, almost blinded, and watched as it approached the darkness. 

The light and the darkness squared off, prepared to do battle with one another. Overhead, the sun flickered, threatening to go dark. The sky was filled with smoke, fire, and death. 

“You have time to prepare, but not much time. Use it wisely.” 

Foal Bucky looked at himself. “How do you know this?” 

“Alicorn precognition. We are part pegasi… we sense the danger and know that it is coming. It allows us to fly through the storm, untouched by the lightning that rages within.” Older Bucky turned and watched as an airship was assaulted by a group of enemy pegasi and winged unicorns. 

“But I am not an alicorn,” Foal Bucky said, shaking his head as he watched the carnage around him. 

“You cannot stop what you are becoming. Your body prepares for the inevitable. Your divine nature screams, begging for release. Already your body has changed and will continue to change. Have you not become brutish? Do you not feel the protective urges of your inner pegasi nature? Have you no concern for life? Do you not crave the feeling of life as your inner earth pony manifests? Do you not feel your other natures as they manifest?” 

“But I am just a unicorn…” 

“NO! You have become so much more. You have become shadow and your very nature has changed. You have become something else entirely, something that wears the skin and appearance of a unicorn but is not. A shadow knows no body, keeps no form, has no set shape. Your shadow aspect absorbs all it touches, transmutes all it comes into contact with, and assimilates everything it can to give you strength. When Sombra’s fell shadow came to claim you, the shadow nature that already existed within you took a part of his strength and reshaped your body to prepare you for war.” 

“I don’t understand…” 

“Look how easily you change from one skin to another… you have perfected the transmuter’s art. You have touched chaos rather than embrace order. Everything you become leaves a little part of that form inside of you, a collection of chaotic parts. As you lose more and more of yourself, you claim the bits and pieces of other forms to fill those empty spaces deep within you. Have a look.” Older Bucky pointed. 

Foal Bucky looked and saw himself. There he was, just drifting in the air, limp, motionless, lifeless. He was there on display.  He noticed that his talons were no longer made of metal, but flesh. He saw them flex for a moment, and he could see muscle and sinew within them. On his talon tips were claws. The skin was covered in fine scales. His horn was no longer fulgurite, but something organic. It was still twisted and warped, but his horn was now a living thing that was a part of his body. 

Around them, the battle faded, blackness settled over them. The fires went dark. The world beneath them vanished. A sea of stars appeared, stretching in all directions, an infinite mass that appeared to have no beginning and no end. 

“The harmony magic that drives your purpose has begun to spoil and now becomes something else. Change happens. It cannot be stopped. As you run from your destiny, the consequences of your actions manifest.” 

As Foal Bucky watched, Older Bucky shifted, changed from, becoming warped and twisted as they drifted among the stars. For a moment, his other self was unrecognisable, but then the body took on an almost draconequus-like shape. 

“Think of it like water flowing in a river,” Almost Draconequus Bucky said. “The water  must continue to flow. This is how nature is.” 

The stars below became a river, a flowing river that trickled and moved along a bed also made of stars. Almost Draconequus Bucky pointed at them. 

“All is fine so long as the river continues to flow. But if this happens…” 

A dam made of stars appeared, blocking off the flow of the water. The river changed, becoming a lake. A flood happened. New rivers and creeks formed as the water searched for ways to keep flowing. After some time, it backed up enough that it began to flow over the dam. 

“You cannot outrun your destiny. By refusing to change, you have dammed up the water. Now, other changes are taking place. You are changing. The world around you is changing. The universe is working to correct itself because you decided that you didn’t want to be an alicorn.” 

“So what happens now?” Foal Bucky asked. 

“You try to survive the raging torrent as the changes of consequence begin to take hold. The dam has already begun to overflow and crumble. The water is already finding new ways to flow. The universe, already broken, now begins to generate chaos as a means to heal itself… this chaos is like a storm and you… you are very much like a lightning rod.” 

“This battle… this future… is there any hope?” Foal Bucky looked at himself. 

“There is always hope. And there is all kinds of hope. You rely upon foolish hope.” Almost Draconequus Bucky drifted among the stars, watching as the river began to destroy everything around it. 

“So if I join this battle, I guess I’ll die?” Foal Bucky asked. 

Almost Draconequus Bucky snorted. “There are fates worse than death.” 

“Will it force me to ascend?” Foal Bucky looked at  himself, feeling angry, and wanting answers. 

“You sit here among the stars, demanding answers from yourself. How amusing!” Almost Draconequus Bucky began to cackle and rubbed his talons and his paw together. He threw back his head and mad laughter began to echo through the stars. 



 

“Bucky… wake up… are you okay?” 

Blinking, Bucky felt himself being shook. 

“You were having a dream… you let out the most alarming cackle… a very worrisome cackle. Buckminster, unicorns should not cackle. Hearing you cackle frightens me… nopony wants to hear somepony that they love a great deal cackle.” 

Shaking the sleepy from his head, Bucky felt Celestia continue to rock him. “I was having a dream… I don’t know what it was… I can’t really remember it but I don’t think it was a nightmare.” 

The shaking stopped. 

Bucky had the strange compulsion to look at his talons. He lifted them, saw the metallic glint, and he flexed them. “We are running out of time.” 

“Running out of time?” Celestia asked. 

“I don’t know… but sooner or later, the dam is gonna break,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 565
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t know what has come over Bucky. But he wants to leave as soon as possible. He keeps saying that there is only so much time. I would think that he was being a little crazy… but he is acting remarkably sane.” Berry Punch swirled the soft cider inside of her mug and stared down into it. “When he gets focused like this he seems to level out… become a bit more stable.” 

“I suppose we can go at any time, but I was enjoying our vacation.” Celestia pushed her empty plate away from her, using her hoof. 

“The last time he got like this there were several hundred new golems made in just a couple of days. He got… he got… I can’t remember what Berry calls it,” Thistle said as her ear twitched from her rising level of frustration. 

Berry Punch, still staring down into her mug full of cider, took a deep breath and said, “Hyper-focused. We’ve lost him. He’ll do nothing but pace, plan, and prepare. Whatever he was dreaming about, it lit a fire under him. At least the nookie will be fantastic when he needs to blow off steam.” 

“Will you shut up about nookie? I’m dying over here… I feel fine, I don’t see why I have to wait so long… nookie this and nookie that… nookie nookie nookie!” Thistle thumped her hoof down upon the table. 

From the end of the table, Tourmaline giggled and Celestia let out a concerned groan as she looked in Tourmaline’s direction. Celestia considered saying something to Thistle, but held her tongue. The kelpie looked as though she was holding back a horrible level of frustration. 

“This has been a great trip.” Berry Punch set her mug down upon the table. “There has been a lot of happy memories. I was kinda hesitant to come back here after what happened here the first time, but I’m glad I came.” 

A spider golem scurried across the table, weaving in between mugs, plates, pitchers, and serving bowls. It beeped and booped as it ran. When it reached Tourmaline, it stopped. It waved one leg, waved, and then lept from the table. 

Squealing with foalish glee, Tourmaline abandoned the dinner table to go running after the golem and her cries echoed through the room. 

“I wish I understood the appeal of chasing a spider golem.” Celestia watched as Tourmaline went running off. “I wish I understood the appeal of being chased by a foal. The little spider golem just wants to be chased and Tourmaline is perfectly content to run after it.” 

“Life is a funny thing. Some pursue, some want to be chased.” Berry lifted her mug, took a long drink, swallowed, belched, and watched as Tourmaline chased the spider golem. “How old is she anyway?” 

Celestia frowned. “I do not know.” She leaned forward, resting upon the table in such a way that it would make half of Canterlot’s high society faint. “They are so different from us. And Tourmaline is so different from them. I have tried to guess, tried to estimate, but I have no way of knowing for certain.” Celestia’s voice was low, quiet, and troubled. 

“She is a pony though.” Berry’s eyebrows raised. “Bucky is certain of that. We’ve talked about it, he and I. She might look a little different, but she is one of us. He is desperate to know what changes them, makes them into what they become.” 

“And I am desperate to find a cure. It is my most sincere hope that Dinky… it is my desire that Dinky uses her unique talents to deal with the changeling threat. I am hoping that between Dinky and Tourmaline, the changelings can be made free. If all of the changelings are like Tourmaline in their unaltered state, the world would be a much better place.” Celestia watched as the tables turned and Tourmaline took off running with the spider golem in hot pursuit. 

“What the Tartarus is Lugus doing?” Berry asked, her eyes going wide. 

Celestia turned her head to have a look and almost choked. She felt her heart leap up into her throat. Lugus was juggling pegasi foals. As Celestia watched, he tossed one up into the air, then another, and then another. They soared through the air, their little wings buzzing, giggling and laughing with glee as they ‘flew.’ 

“He would never drop one.” Thistle watched the spectacle with wide eyes, her head bobbing as she watched the pegasi foals being launched up into the air. “He throws Peekaboo into the air and catches her… she loves it.” 

“But… foal juggling…” Celestia turned to look at Thistle. “He does this to Peekaboo?” 

“I have no doubt that Lugus could juggle full grown ponies if he wanted to,” Thistle replied. 

Celestia’s head whipped back around and she watched as another foal was snatched up and tossed into the air. She bit her lip, fearful, terrified of what might happen if Lugus slipped. If one of his razor sharp claws moved the wrong way. 

In the middle of her terror, Celestia realised that Lugus was a magnificent creature with an amazing amount of control. She felt her heart slow down to a somewhat slower pace. Celestia hoped that Lugus would never juggle Cadance. She intended to have a private word with Lugus about the issue. 

Bucky pushed his way through the doors and entered the dining hall. “Tonight we sleep on The Scorned Mare as we make our way home. Big storm is blowing in and I don’t want to be stranded here waiting until it blows over. We’ll be leaving in a few hours.” Bucky froze and his eyes narrowed. “Lugus… what are you doing?” 

“Juggling little pegasi… what does it look like? I think you need your eyes checked my friend,” Lugus replied. 



 

“This… this is Grisabella,” Weaver said as he stared down at his feet. Sitting on his haunches and wringing his talons together, he waited for Bucky to say something. He had no idea what Bucky might be thinking, because he could not see Bucky’s face. 

“I see you’ve found yourself a very pretty griffoness.” Bucky looked down at the little griffon kowtowing in front of him. “You found yourself a real prize.” 

The grey griffoness poked Weaver in the back. “Look up at him… it’ll be okay.” 

Weaver, trembling, looked up at Bucky. “Thank you. You are very kind. I would like to bring her home with me on your ship.” When he was done speaking, he dropped his eyes again. 

“You seem even more nervous than usual. You need to relax.” Reaching down, Bucky hooked a talon tip under the griffon’s beak and lifted the griffon’s head upwards. 

“I have a very pretty mate and she is mine and mine alone and life is really nice and I don’t think I’ll never have to worry about her being taken from me in an act of cruelty.” Weaver looked up at Bucky with terrified pleading eyes. “I remember too much of my old life. I lost one that I loved. We never had a chance to do anything.” 

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said in a low voice. “You must not be afraid to love.” 

“I’ll try.” Weaver blinked and then with his wings, he wiped his eyes. 

“Grisabella, ready to leave the war behind? Think you can handle peace?” Bucky looked at the griffoness, taking note of how she was trying to comfort the little griffon sitting in front of her. 

“I think I can hang my mace up over the mantle.” Grisabella, sitting on her haunches, picked up Weaver and crushed him to her breast in a hug. 

“Welcome aboard then… we’ll talk later. For now, take this little fella here belowdecks and try to get him sorted out. He looks miserable,” Bucky said. 

The wind blew, carrying with it the promise of winter’s fury. The gust ruffled Grisabella’s feathers as she raised her wing in salute. “Aye aye, sir. Will sort out the little fella belowdecks.”

“Grisabella…” 

“Yes sir?” 

“Look after my little griffons… I love them dearly. Do not let them come to harm. You keep that mace above your mantle ready to protect them if the situation demands it.” 

“Aye aye, sir!” 



 

“Keg Smasher, I had a lovely time. You have been a most gracious host.” Stretching out her long neck, Celestia kissed Keg Smasher on the cheek. “We need to do this again.” 

“Aye, that’d be nice.” Keg Smasher drew himself up to his full height and his ears perked. 

“You’re a very nice pony,” Tourmaline said, craning her head to look at at Keg Smasher. 

Lowering his head, Keg Smasher nosed Tourmaline, causing the foal to giggle. “Yer cute as a button. I have half a mind to keep you.” 

“You have half a mind, period.” Laughing at his own joke, Bucky reveled in Keg Smasher’s surly expression. 

“Ye dirty cheesemonger! Get lost. Yer no longer welcome here. And neither is those two co-conspirators.” Keg Smasher looked over at Broom and Door, who stood shivering in the cold. “I hope both of you have a nice time in Equestria.” 

Broom bowed her head. “The little griffons begged me to come with them… how could I tell them no?” 

“Bucky, ye dinnae mind taking them in, do ye?” Keg Smasher asked. 

“For the last time, no, I don’t mind. I will see that they are cared for and never want for anything,” Bucky replied. 

“Good. Because I cannae trust them after your little uprising.” Keg Smasher threw back his head and roared with laughter. 

“This has been a memorable trip,” Celestia said. 

The wind, which had been gusting, was now blowing steady. A few snowflakes began to fall. Standing on the deck of The Scorned Mare, the friends and companions paused in their goodbyes to watch the falling snow. 

One lone figure tilted her head back, opened her beak, and tried to catch some as they fell. Keg Smasher, moving with slow caution, approached Boadicea and then stopped a short distance away. Feeling eyes upon her, Boadicea saw Keg Smasher. She let out a startled cry of alarm and looked up, her eyes wide with terror. 

“The war is over. We can be friends now. Do take care of yourself, little lass. Don’t let Lugus be a stick in the mud.” Keg Smasher extended his foreleg and made a gesture for Boadicea to come closer. 

The griffoness cub, apprehensive, looked over at Lugus, noted his stern stare, and then came forward. She squawked as she was swept up into a crushing hug. 

“Last chance!” Bucky cried in a loud voice. “If any other griffons, ponies, or zebras want a ride to Equestria, this is your last chance.” He looked over at Boadicea and could tell from the way that her body was hitching that she was crying. He sighed as he realised that she was going to need a lot of sorting out. 

“I don’t want to go!” Tourmaline wailed. She watched as the crowd on the deck began to break up and depart down the gangplank. She watched as Keg Smasher gave Boadicea one final squeeze and then let go. The worst part of love was saying goodbye, she could feel the hurt all around her, it crushed her like a physical force squeezing her body. “No!” Overcome with emotion, Tourmaline ran to Celestia and clung to the alicorn’s leg. 

“Tourmaline, goodbyes happen… it is a part of life,” Celestia said in a soft voice, whispering into Tourmaline’s ear. 

“Begin pulling up the tethers!” Bucky commanded. 

The wind blew with gale force for a moment and the ship lurched as the gasbag was struck by the wind. The Scorned Mare creaked in its moorings. 

“Bucky… I meant what I said… I love ye like a brother… don’t be a stranger!” Keg Smasher said, bellowing to be heard over the wind. “Berry Punch, Thistle, Belisama, keep him from getting into too much trouble… he’s a soft headed git!” 

“Criminy the storm is coming in hard and fast,” Berry Punch said as she leaned into the wind. 

“We need to get in the air and quick. Otherwise, if the wind gets stronger, we’ll be smashed into castle or one of the other ships or something!” Using his magic, Bucky began helping to undo the tethers. The ship’s engines rumbled to life at Bucky’s bidding. 

“Get belowdecks!” Lugus commanded. He began clearing the deck, getting the little griffons moving. 

“Goodbye Keg Smasher!” Broom called out as she headed for the door. 

Keg Smasher raised a wing in salute. 

The ship began to rise, rocking in the strong winds. Once it was clear of the moorings, the deck became treacherous. Taking a running leap, Keg Smasher lept over the rail and flew to to safety. He waved goodbye at the last pony left on deck. 

Bucky waved back as the ship pitched and rose into the air. 
	
	
> Chapter 566
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The bar was far too long… endless, stretching off towards infinity in each direction. Sitting upon a cushioned stool, Bucky began to suspect that something wasn’t quite right with his reality. The bartender was a grey pony with a figure eight infinity loop and he was polishing glasses with one brilliant white spotless rag. 

Lifting his glass, Bucky took a drink and set it back down. The level of beer in the pint glass did not budge. This reality, however messed up as it might be, had at least one pleasant and worthwhile thing worth noting. 

Hunched over the bar, Bucky heard a bell behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw himself come into the bar and behind himself was Twilight Sparkle. Doing a double take, Bucky realised that something was wrong. 

He and Twilight looked a little long and kind of wrong. 

Turning his head, Bucky stared down into his glass of beer as a draconequus Twilight Sparkle sat down beside him and a draconequus version of himself sat down on the other side of her. Perhaps if he ignored them, they would go away. 

Twilight, turning to draconequus Bucky, gave him a nudge. “Hey Bucky… why the long face?” 

Draconequus Bucky roared with laughter and almost fell off of his barstool. He clutched the bar, howling and slapped Twilight on the back. 

Something was very wrong with this reality. Bucky gritted his teeth, annoyed by his own braying. After taking a moment to regain his calm, he looked over at Twilight and himself. “Why are you here?” 

Twilight grinned. Her eyes were yellow and red. Her body was long, serpentine, and part of it was covered in shimmering purple-green scales that either looked purple or green depending on how the light hit them. 

“Why are any of us here?” Twilight replied. She nodded, her head bobbing up and down on her long neck. “I can tell you Bucky… one little word. Wanna know what it is?” 

Sighing with frustration, Bucky’s eyes fell back into his glass of beer. “Sure. Why not. What is this word that explains why are we here?” 

“String!” Twilight cried. “I have a bold new theory. I call it ‘string theory’ and I found it because of you.” 

Draconequus Bucky fell off of his stool as he laughed but he did not hit the ground. He floated in the air, defying gravity, his long tail curling into a question mark. 

“And how am I responsible for this?” Bucky asked, not quite sure if he wanted to know the answer. He looked over at Twilight and realised that she was mad. Completely and utterly mad. Mad as a mercury miner. 

“Because you are my friend.” Twilight paused. “And because I love you. I really really love you. And because I love you, I had to save you.” 

“She saved me,” Draconequus Bucky said in a manic sounding voice. 

Bucky raised an eyebrow at himself. 

“The problem, as I saw it, was an intruding destiny. It is like needing to go to the dentist because you have a tooth growing in under a tooth that is already there. Anyways… we’re from a few realities down. In that reality, Discord and Fluttershy fell in love. You’d be surprised how often this happens. And Fluttershy started becoming a draconequus because she was infected. Or maybe she was cured, now that I think about it.” Twilight Sparkle the draconequus looked confused for a moment. She reached down and scratched her scales with a the massive hairy arm of an orangutang that hung from her right shoulder. 

“In some of the realities we’ve checked in on, Discord becomes a pony… he becomes a slave to string, tied up by twine.” Draconequus Bucky reached over a tentacle and helped Twilight scratch her itch. 

“This is all very fascinating.” Bucky looked at the pair of draconequus beside him. 

“When Fluttershy started her change, I investigated. I had to figure out what made her different. She and Discord were unique… different. Untouched by destiny. At this point, I was dissecting Starswirl’s destiny spells and all of his studies, hoping to find a way to free you. Eventually, it all came down to string.” Reaching out with her hairy orangutang arm, Twilight pulled her griffon foreleg off and began using it as a back scratcher. 

“String?” Bucky asked. He gave Twilight an incredulous look. 

“String!” Twilight replied in a singsong voice. “Discord had control of his own string. And so did Fluttershy. Their strings became entwined with one another. So… I had to hunt down and figure out who controlled the strings. Whoever was doing it was doing a very lousy job and I knew that I could do better. That’s the real purpose of my talent Bucky… I was more than just the alicorn of magic… my magic was to duplicate, to replicate any magical talent I found… eventually, my search led me to the Sisters. The Fates.” 

“The Fates are bitches! To think I once called them sisters!” Draconequus Bucky tied himself into a knot and turned an angry shade of plaid. 

“The Fates didn’t want to hand over your string… there was a bit of a fight. I got my plot handed to me. It was bad… real bad. Almost killed me they did. But I couldn’t just let you die… you were my friend and I love you… and friends rescue each other. So I did what any quasi-deity would do in that situation when their friend was in danger.” 

Bucky looked at Twilight. “And that was?” 

“I went to Tartarus and started shopping around in the black market, looking for answers. I peered into other whens and wheres. After some time and a few deals that I had to make, I popped into another reality and mugged a very young Tirek just as he was beginning to understand his power. I killed him and I stole it… I saved that reality, did them a favour. But at that point, I was able to duplicate his magic because of my own talent. I was able to suck out magic and steal it away far better than he ever could.” Twilight smiled, revealing far too many teeth, some pointed, some flat, and one very out of place molar that was growing next to a bicuspid in the front of her mouth. 

The bartender looked up from polishing his glass. He gave Twilight a peculiar glare. 

“When I next battled the Fates, I smacked them down and I smote them. I SMOTE THEM! I took your string, but I did not know what to do with it. I had it, but no idea how it worked. Sorry about that…” 

“Sorry?” Bucky asked. 

“Really am sorry… there were some accidents. I had your string and you became a slave to my whims. I didn’t mean to. But I was in full control of your destiny. I had the string… what makes you… well, you. Wanna know something really interesting?” Twilight waited, looking expectant. 

“What… just tell me,” Bucky said, feeling very concerned. 

“The strings are made up of even more strings. It is all string. And the Fates control string. Their cutie marks are balls of twine. Some strings are local, some stretch across multiple whens and wheres. But it all forms a weave. I can see that now. But I made some mistakes with your string… I still feel pretty bad about it, but I fixed everything as best as I could.” 

“What happened? Twilight… tell me what happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, I had your string, your destiny… your fate. And I discovered early on that I had to be real careful about what I thought about you… what I felt. Because if I wanted something that was specific to you, reality warped and things began to happen.” Twilight popped her griffon foreleg back into place and gave it a pat. 

Feeling a sinking feeling, Bucky stared over at his draconequus self and then back at Twilight. Something felt very wrong about all of this. 

“I realised that I could make you ascend and then make sure that you didn’t destroy the world… it was a pretty powerful thought. I realised… hey, I am an alicorn… and you could be an alicorn… and it takes two alicorns to make natural born alicorns and restore the alicorn race into the world. But there was a problem, see…” 

Bucky no longer wanted to be sitting at the bar. More than anything, he wanted to leave. 

“You were married. You were in love. You had foals. And so I continued to fixate on bringing alicorns back into the world and you continued to love and make more foals, and the Fates came and tried to take your string back a few times. So in a way, this is kinda their fault… too… maybe.” 

Bucky felt sick. He pushed his beer away. 

“I needed a way to smack down the Fates and shut them up. I needed a way to solve the alicorn conundrum. And I got a little careless with my thoughts… I didn’t guard my mind. I didn’t have the mental resolve to keep everything well organised upstairs. I’m sorry.” 

“What happened?” Bucky asked in a cold whisper. 

“Everything I wanted manifested. You ascended. Cadance… Cadance met a bad end. You crushed the Fates and imprisoned them in Tartarus. Your family… they hated you for killing Cadance with your ascension. The world began to fall apart. With the Fates in Tartarus and their power broken, there was nopony pulling the strings and making sure that everything held together.” Twilight looked crestfallen for a moment, the sadness on her face was indescribable, but then she grinned and started laughing. “But I was able to save the world… I gave everything their own string and then I figured out how to sever my own hold over their fates… I freed the world. Suddenly, everyone was in charge of their own fates… their own destinies. It was glorious!” 

“Yes it was!” Draconequus Bucky cried. 

“There was only one teensy weensy side effect though.” Twilight, unable to stop giggling, covered her mouth with her big orange orangutan hand. 

“We all turned into draconequuseseseseseses and now our reality has gone mad. But at least Twilight and I love one another. She’s a fantastic lay, really… she studies and she keeps her cloaca super-tight!” Draconequus Bucky began to cackle. 

“These are the consequences of not doing what you were made to do!” Twilight fell off of her barstool and hovered in the air, laughing a maniacal laugh. 

“Sadly, we had to put down Celestia when she tried to stop us. She didn’t understand what we were doing… the great favour we were performing for the world by trying to free it. She almost freed the Fates from Tartarus and gave them their power back.” Draconequus Bucky reached up wiped a tear away from his red and yellow eyes. 

Not wanting to hear another word, Bucky reached up, stuck his talon-finger tip into one nostril, and his talon-thumb tip into the other. He squeezed with all of the force he dared muster. The pain was explosive and his muzzle filled with agony. He saw stars. 

“I don’t think Bucky got the joke!” 



 

“Bucky, wake up… wake up… we have a stowaway,” Berry said, shaking Bucky and booping him in the snoot with her hoof. 

“OW! My nose!” Bucky reached up and clutched his muzzle. 

“Did I boop to hard?” Berry asked, looking worried. 

“No… no I was having… I was having a really weird dream. Never mind… we have a stowaway?” As Bucky asked his question, he became aware of the sounds of a commotion taking place. He rolled out of bed. Pushing his way past Berry, he made his way into the hall and headed for the source of the trouble. 

“In the kitchen. We found our little stowaway in the kitchen. She’s scared… awful scared and everybirdy is afraid to touch her. She’s hidden herself away in the back of a cabinet and wet herself. I thought I’d come get you so you could magic her out,” Berry said, explaining the situation as she followed after Bucky. 

“I’d rather not use magic to pull her out… magic implies force and takes away choice.” Bucky thought about his dream. “I’d rather earn her trust and lure her out.” 

“Whatever works,” Berry said, nodding as she trotted at Bucky’s side. 

As Bucky entered the common room that also served as the dining hall, he heard the frightened squeals of what he knew right away was a foal. His heart lept up into his throat as he approached the kitchen. Standing in the doorway, Bucky looked around at the little griffons, all of whom looked terrified. 

“We didn’t touch her! We didn’t hurt her!” one said. 

“One of us found her in the kitchen. She panicked when she saw us!” 

“But we did no harm!” 

“Calm down, all of you. I trust all of you with my own foals. Let’s see if I can talk to our visitor and get her to come out,” Bucky said as he entered the kitchen. 
	
	
> Chapter 567
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“What is going on?” Celestia stood in the entrance to the kitchen with Raven and Violet standing just behind her. All three of them looked sleepy. “I heard all manner of unpleasantness coming from the kitchen.” 

Bucky, crawling forward on his belly, did not respond. He pulled himself towards the cupboard, sliding over the tile floor, and reached out with his talons. He grabbed the handle on the cupboard door and pulled it open just a little bit to peer inside. 

He saw a pair of almost luminous blue eyes peering at him for a moment. They blinked. An ear piercing shriek came out from the cupboard, sending little griffons scrambling for cover. Bucky shut the cupboard door. 

“Yes, I know I’m ugly… sorry about that…” Bucky’s head dropped to the tile floor and he felt the coolness of it against his chin. 

After several long moments, the scream ended, trailing off into a whimper. 

“We found her in here eating granola. She had ripped the bag open. Didn’t see her very well. When the light came on, she scooted into the cupboard and hid in the back on the bottom shelf where she is hard to reach.” Lugnut looked at Spanner and sighed. “She’s terrified of us.” 

“And of me too, so don’t feel bad,” Bucky said. He heard another whimper from inside the cupboard. 

“Bucky, get out of the way.” 

There was a warm tingle of magic and Bucky felt himself being dragged over the floor as Celestia dropped down on her belly and crawled up to he cupboard. 

“Hello?” Celestia asked as she pulled open the cupboard door. 

She was greeted with a brief shriek followed by a keening wail. 

Celestia shut the cupboard door. “Not one word… just not one word Buckminster.” 

“Giant. You’re a giant. I mean, think about how big you are to the common foal,” Bucky whispered. 

Reaching out her wing, Celestia gave Bucky a halfhearted slap on the backside. “I said not one word!” She ignored Bucky’s chortling and stared at the cupboard door. “She can’t be more than a yearling. She’s so scared that she’s defecated.” 

“You scared the shite out of her?” Bucky asked in a low voice. 

Her wing still extended, Celestia landed a not so halfhearted slap on Bucky’s backside. 

“Ow!” Bucky rolled away, getting himself out of reach. “That stings!” 

“Don’t sass your auntie!” Celestia said in a low but commanding voice. 

“Bad auntie used a contraction!” Bucky said, confident he was out of reach. 

From out of nowhere, a newspaper appeared and began to slap him all over his head and neck. He ducked his head and covered it with his forelegs, trying to escape the not so gentle correction he was being given. 

Celestia raised her front hoof and the beating stopped. She pulled open the cupboard door just a crack and a sound that was very much like a tea kettle coming to a boil greeted her, rising in pitch and frequency. 

The cupboard clicked shut and Celestia frowned. “I fear that we are going  to have to pull her out of there for her own good. Hopefully, we can still earn her trust.” 

“No… we shouldn’t force her… it doesn’t feel right…” Bucky frowned. 

Berry Punch, rolling her eyes, planted her front hooves against Celestia and shoved, moving the big alicorn out of the way and slamming her into Bucky, crushing Bucky against the wall. He grunted and was lost under the larger bulk of Celestia’s body. Celestia squeaked in surprise. 

Dropping down on the floor, Berry crawled up to the cupboard door and lay there for a few minutes, doing nothing at all. She rubbed her head for a moment with her hoof and waited just a little longer. 

“Hello?” Berry asked in a low voice, leaving the cupboard door closed. 

There was no reply. 

“Hi… I know everything is real scary right now… there were big scary griffons, a pony with a scary face, and a really big scary giant pony, but we’re not going to hurt you. And if you want to stay in there, you can and we will leave you alone.” Berry placed her hoof on the cupboard door and concentrated, waiting, hoping to feel something through the wood. After a moment, she felt a faint vibration, a sound so soft that it could only be felt and not heard. She could feel it in her frog.

Berry Punch cleared her throat. “You’re crying… I bet you really want a hug. You can trust me… I’m going to be a mama… if you come out, you can feel the foals in my belly… I have two of them.” 

Bucky’s head popped up from where he was, pinned between Celestia and the wall. 

“She’s so scared.” 

Berry Punch turned and looked at Tourmaline, who was peeking out from between Violet’s legs. Berry made a gesture with her hoof for Tourmaline to come closer. 

“The fear hurts,” Tourmaline said. “I can feel it in my backside… it burns… she’s feeling an old hurt because she’s scared… it really hurts.” 

There was a low rumbling growl from Bucky, which was silenced right away by a glowing field of golden magic that wrapped around his muzzle. The hairs on his neck and his back were standing up. A long ribbon of drool dribbled down from the corner of Bucky’s mouth. 

“I really hope that doesn’t mean what I think it means,” Berry said in a low whisper. She pulled Tourmaline close. “When I open this door, you stick your head in there and say hi.” 

The jet black foal nodded. 

Berry rolled out of the way of the cupboard door, allowed Tourmaline to get close, and then she opened the door. She watched as Tourmaline stuck her head in. 

“Hi!” Tourmaline said in a chirpy voice just as the foal in the cupboard began to scream. 

Jerking her head out, Tourmaline backed away, her nose crinkling, and Berry shut the door. Tourmaline waited, being patient, saying nothing until the foal stopped screaming. And then she said, “Poor thing.” 

“Bucky, stop drooling! That is disgusting! I swear, it is like you are part dog now…” Celestia’s voice was almost inaudible as she squirmed away from Bucky, a glistening and shiny spot of drool on her back. She reached out her wing and tried to comfort the frantic looking stallion beside her. “You cannot always assume the worst.” 

“Well… I’m sorry, but I’m going in.” Berry took a deep breath, shoved Tourmaline out of the way, and pulled the cupboard door open. She dove inside, almost not fitting, squeezing her front half into the bottom shelf of the cupboard and reaching out her forelegs. 

The kitchen filled with terrified wails. 

Tugging the foal out, Berry wrapped her forelegs around her. The foal was slick with urine and feces. Just when Berry thought she had a good grip, the foal popped free, landed on all four hooves, and took off in a panicked run, squealing with terror. 

Celestia reached out, trying to pin the foal down with her foreleg, but missed. Raven blocked the doorway and Berry Punch shut the cupboard door. Berry tried to catch the foal again, rolling over on the floor after her. Tourmaline, now also squealing, scrambled out of the way but had nowhere to go with the kitchen door blocked. 

Trying to be a good foal and get out of the way, Tourmaline slipped on a patch of feces and took a tumble. 

Bucky launched himself over Celestia’s back, one hind hoof stepping down upon her spine as he lunged forwards. He tried to grab the foal, hit the urine slicked floor with his right front hoof, and went sprawling, almost landing on top of Tourmaline. 

Not one to be denied, Bucky extended his left front leg, wrapped his talons around the foal’s middle, and pulled her close. She was a tiny thing, just as Celestia had said, she couldn’t be more than a yearling. Bucky tried to sit up on his haunches, almost fell over, and managed to wiggle his way to the corner, where he planted his back against the wall to prop himself up. 

He wrapped his forelegs around the foal and let go with his talons. She wiggled, she squirmed, she kicked, one hoof connected with Bucky’s jaw, causing him to bite down on his lip, and drawing blood. He redoubled his grip, squeezed, and crushed the foal against him, trying to make her go still, but careful not to do her harm. 

He spat out blood, a great glistening glop of it landed on the white tile floor, and then he made wordless shushing sounds as he held the foal against him. 

“Has she gone mustang?” Celestia asked in a low fearful voice, not moving, but staring at the spectacle in front of her. 

The foal’s ear piercing screams of terror filled the kitchen. Panicked howls, one after another came forth and she continued to fight. 

Crawling through the filth and the muck on the floor, Berry went to Bucky, got herself up on her haunches, and reached out. She began stroking the filthy mess that Bucky held in his forelegs, rubbing her hooves along the foal’s back and sides. 

Using the edge of her hoof, Berry Punch scraped some of the filth away. 

“She has a mark,” Tourmaline said, pointing with her hoof. 

Berry Punch looked but saw no cutie mark. She looked again, and saw a triangle with three lines through it. A brand. Berry’s heart sank and she felt a tightness in her throat. She wiped again with her hoof, trying to get a better look. The skin was still pink, hairless, and by the looks of it, it was a recent healing. And then Berry noticed something else. 

“She’s a zebra.” Berry looked down at the brand and studied the leg the brand had been burned upon. She stroked the foal’s back, and noticed that the foal wasn’t kicking as much and wasn’t as loud. 

“Why would something do that to something else?” Tourmaline asked as she pointed to the zebra foal. 

Celestia, looking at Bucky, did not know how to answer Tourmaline in a satisfactory way, so she remained silent, having nothing she felt comfortable saying. 

The foal gave a final kick and went still. Her panicked screams became sobs. 

“How did she get on the ship? Why wasn’t somepony watching her?” Violet asked, looking unsettled and upset. 

“The Shetlands are a different sort of place, in case you didn’t notice,” Berry replied, still stroking the foal. “Little foals like this one are looked after by the bigger ones, if they bother looking after the little ones at all. Didn’t you see all the little ones running around in a free roaming herd?” 

“I did… but I thought that somepony was keeping an eye on them… I mean—” 

“Somepony sees that they get fed, but only the foals that need milk get looked after.” Berry scowled. “The war was not kind. Too many foals, not enough ponies free to look after them all. They’ll grow up independent and cussy and carry on the fine traditions of the Shetlands. They’ll be half wild and crazy. Most of them will probably grow up to be soldiers and the rest will be rabble rousers.” 

“Somepony needs to do something,” Violet said, shaking her head. 

“I saw all of the foals in the castle… I thought they were the foals of the ponies that worked there… some of them seemed to be. How could I be so blind and stupid?” Celestia asked. “This is no different than how we did things one thousand years ago… I thought we had moved past that point.” 

“Do you think griffons marked her?” Tourmaline asked. 

“Very likely,” Celestia replied. 

“Why?” Tourmaline sat down upon the filthy floor, her barrel hitching. 

“So they would know who she belonged to.” Celestia closed her eyes, unable to look at Tourmaline as the black foal started to cry. 

Bucky, who had been still and silent up to this point, gave the zebra foal a little squeeze. “Feel better?” he asked in his softest voice. 

There was no spoken reply, but he felt a little muzzle move against his neck, a little nod. 

“Can you understand me?” Bucky asked. 

It took a moment, but Bucky felt another nod. 

“These griffons will not hurt you. They’re like Keg Smasher’s griffons… good ones. I promise you, they will not hurt you. Do you see how they let you go and how they waited for me?” 

The foal was still, there was no reply of any kind. 

“Do you know how old you are?” Bucky asked, his voice as soft as silk being draped over velvet. He felt the foal tremble for a moment, shudder, but there was no other reply. “Do you have a mama?” 

A pained whimper filled the kitchen and Bucky regretted asking the question. Cursing at himself, he should have known better than to be so careless. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought about better ways to build trust. 

“My name is Bucky… this is Berry… she’s delightfully huggable. Berry is my wife… do you have a name?” Bucky ran the soft side of his fetlock down the foal’s back, feeling the soft bumps of her spine. When he reached her bottom, he felt her dock quiver against him. She had a corded tail, different than a pony. Bucky waited for some kind of reply. 

“Somebody get a glass of water or something,” Berry said. 

“Come on, you can tell me your name.” Bucky lowered his head and placed his lips near the foal’s ear. He blew, causing a tickle. The foal’s ear quivered. 

“No.” The foal’s voice was raspy, scratchy. She had screamed too much. 

“You don’t have a name?” Bucky asked. “Surely you have a name.” 

“Yes.” The foal was starting to tremble now. 

“You can tell me.” Bucky hoisted the foal in his forelegs, cradling her, laying her back in his embrace so he could look down at her face. She was striped, her eyes were a remarkable shade of blue, and there was a long scar that ran from one of her nostrils almost up to the corner of her eye. 

“Say name, get hurt.” The foal rolled over in Bucky’s forelegs, burying her face against him. Her barrel hitched, rose and fell, and then she went still. 

“Nopony is going to hurt you… you can say your name… whatever happened before isn’t going to happen now.” Bucky blew on the foal’s other ear this time, and watched as it twitched. 

Celestia inhaled, unaware that she had been holding her breath for several minutes now. She saw stars in her vision as much needed oxygen hit her burning lungs. 

“If you tell me your name, I will see that you are given a big slice of cake… or pie… or a big pile of cookies… after we get you a bath of course. But if you want something, you have to give me something. And that something is your name. So say it… pretty please?” Bucky, trying to cajole the foal, began to rock her back and forth in his forelegs. She wasn’t much larger than Harper, thin, underfed, and her whole body seemed to be covered in a fine latticework of scars. 

She had seen the lash. It chilled Bucky’s blood. Rather than rage and feel despair, he once more blew on the foal’s ear, tickling her. He watched as it twitched back and forth. 

“Want some milk? It’s fresh. We have that. We have chocolate milk… which all little foals love. Or you can have more granola, you seem to like that.” 

“Sukari.” The foal’s voice was so low and soft that a coughing mouse would have drowned out what little sound she made. Her whole body tensed and she flinched in fear. 

“Good foal… how about we get you cleaned up, we get you a little something to eat, and then maybe we tuck you into bed?” Bucky asked. “Is it okay if we do that?” 

The foal shrugged and did nothing else. 

“Sukari is a nice name… what does it mean?” Bucky asked as he made ready to lift the foal in his magic so he could get up. 

The foal shrugged again. 

“Zebras have some of the most beautiful names… and each one has meaning. I’ll tell you what, I will help you find out what your name means.” Bucky gave the foal another squeeze. 

Her head turned. Bucky saw blue eyes looking up at him. Almost luminous blue eyes. It was enough to almost leave him breathless. Her expression was pleading, hopeful, but also pained. 

“Want a bath?” Bucky asked. 

The foal nodded, still looking at Bucky. 

“See, you said your name and nothing bad happened,” Berry Punch said, glancing over at her husband as she spoke. “Whatever happened before isn’t going to happen now. Let’s get you cleaned up.” 

“Sukari,” Bucky said, repeating the strange word as he made ready to get up on his hooves. 
	
> Chapter 568
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Celestia stood in the dark doorway, watching one glowing eye going back and forth in the dark in front of her. She could see it, crimson and a lurid shade of luminescent green. A faint hint of purple light from the glowing mist. She could hear the sound of metal tapping upon the wooden floorboards. Bucky was pacing. The room was alive with shadow, with darkness. She could feel it crawling over her skin. 

Most ponies right now would be soiling themselves from fear. Celestia was not most ponies. She had been to the depths of Tartarus and had battled unspeakable eldritch horrors. 

“Bucky, are you okay?” Celestia asked in soft voice, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. He was so much like Sombra… endless pacing in the dark… back and forth. 

“I just have a lot on my mind.” 

The sonorous sound of Bucky’s voice slithered around Celestia’s ears like serpents. She shivered, feeling something cold run down her back. “Do you plan to keep her?” 

“Here you come, acting like a concerned mother… I can hear it in your voice,” Bucky replied, his voice was sibilant and somewhat hissy. 

“I was just asking a question… I was concerned.” Celestia ignited her horn with a soft light, banishing the living shadows in the room. In the darkness, things hissed. Those were Bucky’s things…. living extensions of himself. More shivers ricocheted up and down Celestia’s spine. 

“So what if I do keep her?” Bucky asked. “Would it be so wrong? She is nice… she is sweet… she is warm…” 

Sighing, Celestia shook her head. “No Buckminster… but I do worry about you. How many is enough? How will you be able to give each of them the time they deserve from you? How many foals will you sire and take in before you are overrun by your obsessions? You cannot save them all.” 

“I am doing what I feel is right.” Bucky paced, to and fro, back and forth, his talons clacking upon the wood. 

“Bucky, are you doing what is right for her or are you just being selfish? Are you looking after her needs or your own?” Celestia asked, all to aware that the temperature in the room was dropping. 

Reaching out with his talons, Bucky grabbed a table and hurled it. Celestia watched, marveling at the magically assisted strength of Bucky’s prosthesis, and then thought about how he had grabbed the zebra filly with those same talons earlier. She snatched the table out of the air, righted it, and set it down. 

“Bucky—” 

“I have a right to be selfish! By damn I will take comfort in anything I can! I am always thinking of others! ALWAYS! Always serving… always doing your bidding, Luna’s bidding, and I am forever at your mercy because of the deal I made. And I live with your contradictions and your hypocrisy, both you and your sister… Luna has me vanish ponies, making them disappear, erasing minds and memories and literally scrubbing a number of ponies out of existence, and then she chides me… scolds me for dangling a few ponies off of a roof in Vanhoover and scaring them into obedience… she tells me that I did wrong!” Bucky kicked a chair over. He stood there, his barrel heaving, and the sounds of his angry wheezing filled the room. 

“Bucky—” 

“I had to take this trip just because I was a little stressed out. I’ve had to kill a bit too much. I’ve been staring down into the abyss for a bit too long. I had to kill that dumb bastard that tried to murder my apprentice… he hurt her! He hurt her and I almost failed her and to save her I failed myself… I broke my oath… my oath… I made an oath to Cadance too… what if I mess up and break that? So much depends on me keeping my word… but I am forced to do Luna’s dirty work, her bidding… I do terrible things to ponies in Luna’s name… not even mirror travelers, but Equestrians who might disrupt what little bit of harmony we have or they cause problems and I make them vanish… I come for them in the night and they are never seen again. Mothers that no longer remember having their own colts. Fathers who no longer remember their fillies. Every memory of their existence is scrubbed away for the greater good… I hope its worth it… so if I ask for something, if I am selfish, if I have the audacity to ask for something that brings me a tiny bit of comfort, excuse me! Maybe I am doing as much as I can with what I have to work with so I don’t become the alicorn of war or even worse, some horrible draconequus that might even be worse!” 

“Bucky, I…” 

He was gone. Celestia blinked. She tried to tune in on his magical signature, but he was gone. She extended her will, and with growing horror, realised that Bucky was not on board this ship any longer. Gathering her focus, she locked on the wolf headed torque around Bucky’s neck. 



 

The air was cold, a bitter bone chilling cold that threatened to freeze the blood. Celestia began radiating, generating light and heat as she flew after Bucky. Ahead of her, a massive brown and black dragon soared over the clouds. Above them, the moon shone down, a moonbow circling around it. 

“Bucky, you cannot keep running away!” Celestia cried out, screaming to be heard over the rushing wind. She pumped her wings and pulled up alongside Bucky. 

“Yes I can!” the dragon rumbled. “Try to stop me! I’ll wreck the universe before I stop… I’ve seen it!” 

“Bucky, please stop… for me?” Celestia asked. 

“No… there is no way I’m riding home on that ship with you. You called me a bad father!” 

Celestia poured on more speed and flew near Bucky’s head, mindful of the mouth full of sharp teeth. “I did not!” 

“Yes you did!” Bucky roared as he rolled and banked away. 

Shaking her head, Celestia could not recall saying that Bucky was a bad father. She tried to recall their previous conversation, their exchange that had just happened minutes ago. 

“I can forgive almost anything, but you called me a bad father! I am NOTHING LIKE MY FATHER!” The dragon picked up speed and took off. 

And then Celestia realised what she had said. How will you be able to give each of them the time they deserve from you? Is this what had set Bucky off? Celestia didn’t know, but her heart ached. Bucky was a wonderful father… she thought of his actions earlier with the zebra filly. His moments with Cadance. The way he was with Harper, with Bell Heather, his slavish devotion to Bandua, who was little more than a lump who felt hunger and cold, according to Tourmaline. 

Bucky’s own fear of putting an end to Cadance. 

Cadance. Celestia reached out her mind, the ship was far behind them now. She touched Cadance. Wrapping her will around Cadance, she pulled the foal through the aether, trying to shield Cadance from the harmful effects of teleportation. 

Cadance popped into existence in front of her and Celestia took Cadance into her magic, wrapping her in a warm protective bubble. Cadance, who sprung to wakefulness with alarming alacrity, spread her wings and flapped, trying to fly inside of Celestia’s telekinetic bubble. The foal watched the dragon with wide fear filled eyes. 

Celestia flooded Cadance with every warm loving emotion she could think of. Her love of Bucky, her love of Twilight, her love of Luna. She thought of Tourmaline, or Erebus, and everything that meant something to her. She thought of Raven and Violet… 

As Cadance’s horn began to glow with bright pink fire, Celestia pointed her at Bucky. 

There was a flare of pink light. It struck the dragon. There was a loud crackle, a pop, and then the dragon vanished. In its place, Bucky appeared and he began to plummet towards the earth. 

Cadance, still trapped in a bubble, pointed herself downwards and tried to take off after her father, her wings buzzing with as much effort as she could muster. 

Celestia dove, hurtling towards the earth. She watched as Bucky dropped through the clouds and she lost sight of him. She did not panic. She had a lock on the wolf headed torque. Reaching out with her mind, she formed a protective barrier around Bucky’s limp form and halted his momentum, bending physics only a little, so that way his body wouldn’t be broken from the sudden stop. 

Cadance vomited, unable to hold back her nausea from the teleportation sickness. 

Banking, Celestia turned around and headed back towards The Scorned Mare. She was glowing as bright as the sun now, carrying two things that were very dear to her. Cadance had given up on any pretense of pretending to fly and was now a miserable limp lump wrapped in a telekinetic field. 

Trailing flames behind her, Celestia went streaking back to return Bucky to his family. 



 

Shushing Berry Punch and Thistle both, Celestia dropped Bucky in the bed. His tongue fell out of his mouth and he had a stupid looking drunken grin. She plopped Cadance into the bed beside him. 

“I made a terrible mistake…” Celestia’s voice was a low pained whisper. 

“You did?” Thistle asked as Berry yawned. 

“I may have accidently said that Bucky was a bad father without trying to say it,” Celestia replied. 

Berry Punch almost choked on her own yawn. She coughed and there was a worried peep from Belisama in the crib. 

“What I said was, ‘how will you be able to give each of them the time they deserve from you?’ and I said it because I know that he wanted to keep the zebra filly… he’s like a dragon with hoarding sickness… I said something terrible and it set him off… I feel awful.” 

“And you had to use Cadance to put him down?” Thistle asked. 

Celestia nodded. 

Recovering, Berry Punch sucked in a lungful of air. “You had better be glad that you’re sorry and more importantly, you had better be glad that you look sorry.” She turned away from Celestia and looked at Bucky. 

Stepping towards the bed, Celestia saw Cadance look up at her. Cadance’s eyes were narrowed, her wings were flared, and Cadance looked more than a little cross. Her brow was wrinkled and her ears were pinned forwards. 

Normally, when pegasi made these sorts of faces, wars happened. 

It did not make Celestia feel better for what she had said. She took a step back and heard Cadance snort. She wanted to tell Cadance that she had made a mistake, but the words would not come out. She stood there, mute, getting a silent scolding from the alicorn of love. 

Celestia hung her head, it felt like the only right thing to do. 

“We’ve told him he can’t bring home every foal with a sad look… we would be overrun.” Berry climbed into the bed and sat down beside Bucky. “He was quite taken with Larch… the foal he brought home from Tall Tale. It is my worry that if we break down and allow him to take in this one, he will wear us down and beg for more. And then he’ll be off doing whatever it is he does when he is away from home and we’ll be stuck looking after an army of little orphans that he couldn’t leave be.” 

“She’s not like other foals… she spooks easy. She’s been abused. And now she is half wild from being raised in a mob… she is going to need special parents—” 

“Thistle, you aren’t making this any easier.” Berry raised her hoof and extended it at Thistle, trying to shush her. 

“She is going to need special parents who are going to understand her needs… look at her, she’s been whipped into submission and branded. She cries when she is touched. When Bucky got her to say her name again in the bathtub she went hysterical and half crazy!” 

“Keep your voice down!” Berry said. “There is nothing wrong with her that a whole lot of love and patience can’t fix.” 

“So what do we do? Dump her into an orphanage when we get home?” Thistle stepped forwards, towards the bed and raised her head high. “Zecora still has some trouble being accepted… and you think a little zebra filly that is covered in scars and a brand is going to be adopted? The orphanages are overrun! You said it yourself… that’s why you bought all those toys and those hats and those scarves—”

“Thistle… I… you… we… united front… nuts… oh bother since when did you get so good at arguing?” Berry asked, stammering out her words. 

“Since I had to grow up and see just how hard this world really can be. Derpy put her hoof down on my back and crushed me down into the ground and told me that she’d only ease off once I figured out how to stand up on my own and she made me stand up and hold myself responsible!” 

“Why are we fighting?” Belisama asked, sitting up in the crib. 

“We’re not fighting… we’re arguing enthusiastically. There’s a difference. And the argument is over because I lost so I’m gonna shut up now because Cadance is giving me the stinkeye and I don’t want to live with the wrath of the Empress.” Berry Punch grabbed Cadance, pulled her close, and gave her a squeeze. 

“I should go. I have something important to do,” Celestia said. 

“It is the middle middle of the night… past midnight but not dawn… what is so important? Just… go back to bed and we can all talk about this come morning.” Berry lay down and pulled Cadance even closer. 

“I’m going to have Raven draw up adoption papers. I plan to sign the order myself. None of you have to blame yourselves for giving Bucky what he wants and potentially inviting disaster. The blame will rest entirely upon my back.” Celestia backed away to the bed and turned to look at a small crate in the corner. Inside were several cushions and a little zebra foal was wrapped up in a blanket. “One zebra foal. Age… less than one year in my best estimate. No known parents. Distinguishing characteristics, scars, and plenty of them. Name, Sukari. Because of the way that the law works, I have to write down the name of one mare as the mother. So congratulations Thistle, this one is yours.” 

“Me? Why? What? Why did you… wait, me?” Thistle stumbled forward and looked up at Celestia. 

“There are always consequences for standing up and doing the right thing. Bucky knows them all too well, and now you will too.” Celestia leaned her head down, kissed the foal, raised her head up, turned towards Thistle, and planted a soft kiss on Thistle’s cheek. 

“What do I do?” Thistle, flummoxed, stood there looking stupefied. 

“Good night. I will have those papers ready by breakfast.” And with that, Celestia left the room. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 569
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hungover. Again. This time without alcohol. Blinking, Bucky heard a low voice talking… maybe singing. There was a soft lilt. It was Berry. Moving his eyelids caused his head to fill with a dull ache. 

“Berry… I’m a kelpie… a zebra can’t be in the water… what do I do?” 

“Thistle, use your head. There are other foals and they can’t all go to the bottom of the lake with you. Now stop freaking out and stop crying. You’re scaring her.” 

“I don’t understand how my mother did it.” 

“Look, Thistle, love, we’ll talk with Bucky and see if maybe he can work out some sort of charm or something… just calm down. Really… you’re spooking her. Fear travels through herd animals.” 

Bucky heard soft humming… a warm melodic tune. It was soothing, sweet, gentle. Bucky did nothing to reveal that he was awake. Half awake, he dozed in his bed. It was warm. 

“See? Good griffon… if you stroke her belly, she purrs… nothing to fear.” 

Berry’s voice was soft, smooth, and Bucky heard her resume humming. There was a soft faint cry and Bucky’s ears stood up. The cry became a subdued whimper. The sound caused something in Bucky to awaken. Something primal. Something deep within him that he feared but he also depended upon. His inner bestial nature, the part of him that wanted to mark his territory and all of the things that were his. 

“I see somepony is awake,” Thistle said. 

“How could you tell?” Bucky asked. 

“If you open your eye even just a little the purple mist stuff comes drifting out.” 

“Oh.” Bucky said nothing else. He heard a deep inhalation of breath from Thistle. 

“Bucky?” 

“Yes?” 

A pause. 

“Thistle, what is it?” 

“Celestia made me the mother… on the paperwork. Apparently Raven keeps a generic multipurpose Crown stamp with her… so does Violet.” 

Confusion. Bucky did not understand what Thistle meant. He willed his muscles to work. Cadance must have hit him pretty hard. “Paperwork? Did I miss something?” 

“I am Sukari’s legal mother.” 

Bucky’s brain kicked into action and a second later his limbs began flailing around. Nothing worked, everything was out of synch. He made it to the edge of the bed and tumbled to the floor with a thump. 

There was a worried whimper and Bucky froze. 

“The papers are in a little ivory coloured folder in the nightstand. Signed by Celestia.” 

Opening his eyes and rubbing his head, Bucky looked at Thistle, who looked both worried and happy all at once. She was sitting on the floor. Berry Punch was laying on the floor beside her. A quilt was laid out on the floor. Cadance was sitting up, looking around, and looking very regal. Bell Heather was laying next to Berry. Belisama was laying on a cushion next to Berry, clutching her shawl close to her. 

A pair of almost luminous blue eyes blinked. 

“How is she not afraid of Belisama?” Bucky asked, feeling groggy and in pain. 

“Every time she panics, Berry picks her up and rubs her,” Thistle replied. 

“Earth pony hooves… there is something about…” Bucky fell silent and rubbed his head. Something in his spine crackled. “Ooooow.” He lay there and tried not to move. 

“Can you say daddy?” Thistle asked. 

“No,” Sukari replied. 

“Oh come on…” Bucky twisted his body around, his joints popping as he moved to sit up. He flexed his talons and the knuckles popped… an enchantment that was almost too real and was enough to unnerve many who witnessed it. 

“That’s unreal… ’tain’t natural,” as Applejack had said on a number of occasions. 

Bucky stood up, a pony in his early twenties that moved like a pony in his fifties. He stumbled out the door, saying nothing, off to the bathroom to get himself sorted out. 



 

Standing in the shower, Bucky allowed the hot water to beat down upon him. The water was hot, almost too hot, steaming, and the tile that he had his withered and scarred cheek pressed against was cool. He sat down in the shower, as he was prone to do, and he could feel the hot water soaking into his scrotum and softening the skin, loosening it up. 

In his mind, he thought about everything said between him and Celestia. He had overreacted. He felt guilt and he crammed it down with all of the other guilt he carried inside of him, all of his troubles that he shoved down and never dealt with. 

He had behaved like a foal. 

He heard the door open but did not turn to look. At this point, he didn’t care who it was, or who it might be. He didn’t care about feeling naked and exposed. And why should he? How was this any different than standing in the rain? Why was he so uptight about privacy in the shower, anyway? 

The door to the shower opened and Bucky realised it was Thistle as the kelpie was shoving herself into the shower with him. She had slimmed down a bit, but was still a little pudgy and round in a few places. The shower, only almost big enough for one, was only big enough for two if they didn’t mind sharing the same space in a very intimate sort of way. 

Thistle sat down, wiggled around, glad that both she and Bucky were on the small side as far as little ponies went. Reaching out, she wrapped a foreleg around Bucky’s neck, hauled him in, and gave him a warm kiss. She felt his lips part, an invitation, and her tongue darted in for a moment, just long enough to say hello but not enough to get either one of them worked up.

She pulled away breathless anyway and felt a needy ache. 

“No,” Bucky said in a low voice, reading Thistle’s mind. 

“Aw… nuts.” 

“Yes… you want them… and that’s the problem. The moment I hear from the doctor that it is safe to slip you the pony making bone, I will stuff your pony making pocket until you can’t walk. But not until then.” 

“Bucky… while the licking is very nice, I’m a mare that likes deep stimulation… I have needs. And we have never—” 

“I know… there has been a little poking and prodding around the entrance, lots of rubbing, but you want more.” Bucky sighed. “This is torture.” 

“I want to have more foals, but not right away. I know I am giving up valuable time, but Bucky, I don’t want any more foals for a while. Not until later. When I’m older. I feel really bad about this, like I am denying you something important, or that I am somehow doing my kind a disservice.” 

Bucky thought about what Keg Smasher said and felt a pain in his barrel. He leaned over on Thistle and felt the hot water pour down upon him. Thistle might be the last. He closed his eyes and rubbed her with his head, unaware that he was marking her, a subconscious action. 

“But to make it up to you, I want to have lots of hot horny teenage mare nookie with you. That should make us both feel better.” Thistle’s fangs flashed as she smiled. 

Letting out a startled squeak, for a moment, Thistle thought she was about to be taken, right here and right now in the shower as Bucky’s forelegs wrapped around her and pulled her close. He was sitting up on his haunches. She felt herself, belly to belly with him, and his forelegs encircled around her. He squeezed but made no other move. 

He did not let go for a long time. 





Food brought a full belly but not comfort. Despondent, needing to say something to several ponies, Bucky hunched over his coffee and stared down into the murky brown depths. In front of him, a pat of butter slid down along a slice of toast, leaving behind it a trail very much like a slug, slow and leaving behind residue as evidence of its passing. 

A moment later, Berry Punch ate the toast, stuffing the whole slice into her mouth and chewing, her lips smacking and her eyes rolling back into her head and she devoured Bucky’s uneaten slice of almost burnt bread. 

It seemed that everypony was happy but Bucky, and he felt out of place and out of sorts. He couldn’t even look Celestia in the eye and he had tried several times. All he had been able to do so far was croak out the words “thank you” and then he had fallen silent. 

His coffee seemed more bitter than usual. He felt ashamed. Bucky felt ashamed. He needed to tell Thistle the truth, to tell her what Keg Smasher had told him, and he needed to make a proper apology to Celestia. 

And then, he needed to work. But that was impossible. His workshop was too far away. 

But work would make everything right. Work would show that he meant well, that he had slipped up and made a mistake, but he didn’t mean it and that he was still loyal, devoted, dedicated, dutiful, and true. Words were cheap. Anypony could say words. But actions, work, work and action proved things. They were evidence. They were meaningful. Derpy understood his work ethic, placing meaning behind action. He missed his grey pegasus. He needed her. 

Lifting his head, he watched as Berry Punch spooned a bite of applesauce into Cadance. Cadance, banging her hoof, demanded more. 

“I shall tell you something funny… Cadance hated applesauce… she felt that it was too mealy… she disliked the texture,” Celestia said, staring in Cadance’s direction but not staring at Cadance. She had a thousand yard stare and her eyes were unfocused. 

“So Cadance has changed a little in her new life,” Berry said as she gave Cadance another spoonful. “Does it worry you that she is going to be raised by a bunch of rough and tumble earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns and the will not be raised as a finely polished princess?” 

“No.” Celestia sighed and her head dropped down a bit. “Cadance did not get to play like other ponies… she was a princess. She was kept out of the mud puddles and the mud. She was not allowed to crawl into the pile of dirt and mulch to play with the gardeners’ foals. After she defeated Prismia, after she became a princess, Cadance fought epic battles with boredom.” 

“Mud,” Cadance said, sending applesauce spraying everywhere. 

“Becoming a princess… or a prince. I wonder how many ponies have it in them to do something epic and prove themselves. Cadance did it when she was little, but she strikes me as a scrapper. Twilight did it when she was older, but Twilight also did something extraordinary that must have taken years of study.” Berry Punch held the empty spoon on her hoof and stared at it. 

“And then there was Bucky, who proved himself in war… but calling him the Prince of War would be doing him a disservice.” Slumping down in her chair, Celestia scowled and looked at Bucky, who was gazing into the abyss of his coffee cup. 

“Sentinel will do it… I know he has it in him. If he’s given the chance he’ll make good. All he’s got to do is wipe out Sombra’s fell shadow as was promised to him and he’s good. He’ll be a prince and maybe Bucky will cheer up and stop staring into his coffee.” Berry waited, and waited, and then after a few moments, she rolled her eyes. She fed Cadance another spoonful. “So what will Sentinel be the prince of?” 

“Sentinel, once he proves himself, will be a prince in much the same way Keg Smasher is. A proven leader but not a prince by divine calling,” Celestia replied. She said nothing about the fact that Sentinel might not get to test his mettle against Sombra’s fell shadow. There were not years to prepare him available, the threat was here and now and Sentinel was far too young. 

“Yeah, that’s fine, but what will he be the prince of? Keg Smasher has the United Isles. Bucky and Twilight both do a fine job of ruling Ponyville… which is now the most prosperous city in our nation… Tannis and Agnetha are probably going to get the west coast, from Las Pegasus to Vanhoover. So what will Sentinel rule?” Berry scraped a little applesauce off of Cadance’s snoot and stuffed the spoon in, not wasting a drop. 

“Twilight and Bucky have certainly done a fine job with Ponyville.” Celestia shifted her gaze to Cadance once more and lost track of everything around her. 

“It feels like you are dodging the question,” Berry said in a frustrated voice. 

“I do not know,” Celestia replied. “When the time comes, I will give serious thought to it then. I will talk with Sentinel and find out what he wants. Bucky wants him to rule the griffons, does he not?” 

Berry Punch reached over and prodded Bucky. 

“What?” Bucky asked, jerking his head up. 

Berry puffed out her cheeks and made a flatulent noise. “Never mind.” 

“Manehatten shall need rebuilding. It is being rebuilt, but it will need rebuilding… the city needs integration. It will require some very forward thinking. Perhaps when Sentinel is old enough Manehatten will be ready for a crowned head to shape its future.” 

Berry looked at Celestia for a moment, nodded, and then went back to feeding Cadance. 



 

Lifting Sukari, Bucky pulled her close. In his embrace, the foal was first rigid and stiff, and then she went limp. “Hi there little one… you’re mine… I’m keeping you.” Bowing his head down, Bucky rubbed her sides against his good cheek. He could feel her ribs. His ear rubbed against her neck. 

The foal let out a nervous giggle, unaware that she had been marked. 

Using his magic, he lifted Bell Heather and held both foals together, cradled in his forelegs. The zebra foal wiggled for a moment afraid, tense, and then she squirmed around until she could wrap her forelegs around the the smaller kelpie and squeeze her. 

“Soft,” Sukari said. 

“Yes,” Bucky said in a low voice. “She’s soft. She is soft and she is your sister. She is your sister, yours to keep. Forever.” 

Sukari looked up at Bucky and blinked. “Mine?” 

“Yes.” Bucky nodded. “Yours. When you get scared, you run to her and you hug her. When the world feels like a scary place, you run to her and you give her a squeeze.” 

Hearing Bucky speak, Sukari pulled Bell Heather closer. “Mine.”

Raising his head, Bucky looked over at Thistle and saw that her eyes were watering. Her lower lip was quivering in such a way that it made Bucky want to bawl his own eyes out. He dropped his head down and looked away before he was overcome with emotion. 

“This was a good trip to the Shetlands,” Bucky said. 

“Yes, but every time we go, we come home with family members… the first trip, we came home with Thistle and Sentinel… Bon Bon and Lyra… Lugus… Yew… Peekaboo. Ripple and Loch Skimmer… I miss Loch… I miss Ripple too… don’t get me wrong, but Loch Skimmer and I—” 

“Are perverts.” Bucky raised his eyebrow and gave Berry a wry smile, a real smile that made his face light up. 

“Now we’re coming home with more family and tribe. If this keeps up, well be overrun with Shetlanders.” Berry looked distressed. “There’ll not be a drop of liquor for miles.” 

“I guess I was the Griffonholm souvenir,” Belisama said. 

“I travelled several thousand miles just to fetch me a fine little pu—” 

“Bucky, so help me, if you finish that sentence I will keelhaul you on your own ship,” Berry said, her eyes narrowing. She glanced at Cadance and gave Bucky a meaningful look. 

“Let’s hope that Bucky never gets sent to dragon country…” 

“Thistle…” 

“Yes Berry?” 

“Shut up.” 
	
	
> Chapter 570
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The couch was occupied by none but himself. Laying in the pony loaf position, Bucky watched everything around him. Some of the little griffons were making music, still trying to make the magic happen. What the magic was, well, it was anypony or anybirdy’s guess, but they had been told they would know it when it happened. Broom and Door were sitting in the middle of the flock of griffons, and Broom was holding Sprocket. 

Thistle was on the floor and trying to get Sukari to play patty cake, but the zebra appeared to be overwhelmed. Sukari just layed there on her back, staring upwards at Thistle and doing nothing much at all. 

Lugus was with Celestia, Raven, and Violet, and the card game did not appear to be going well for Lugus, who was hunched over the table and looking out of sorts. Lugus, a warrior, chopped the heads off of things he didn’t like, or stood up against impossible odds, or battled banshees. Sometimes, in his off hours, he juggled foals. Cards, and all of the nuances of whatever card game he was playing, appeared to be lost on Lugus. Celestia had a gracious smile, Raven looked rather smug, and Violet was grinning with open malice in such a way that any treacherous griffon might have been proud of. 

“She and I have a lot in common.” 

Bucky blinked, almost startled. He turned his head. Boadicea had crept up on him. He had been warned about that. She was sitting on the floor not too far away. In the warm room, she was still wearing a cloak, her hood was up, and she was wearing a scarf that looked new; perhaps it had been just knitted. 

“The little zebra… I do not know her name, forgive me.” 

“Sukari…” Bucky was still trying to get used to the strange word. 

“Sukari.” Boadicea repeated the name and her shiny black eyes closed for a moment. When they re-opened, they were narrowed, almost slits. “She and I aren’t so very different. Expectations.” 

Feeling intrigued, Bucky gave the griffoness cub his full attention. “Do go on.” 

“I can’t think of the word for it, but I was made to believe a whole bunch of stuff. Growing up in the sand, I took a lot of beatings. Hard heavy discipline. And every day I was told stuff. Over time, it was easier to do and say the things they wanted from me than it was to take a beating. And I just sort of went along with whatever was expected of me… then I came to the Shetlands. I came here and saw the war up close… I saw what the ponies were doing… I saw the heads on pikes… and some of those heads were griffons I knew.” Boadicea fell silent and her feathers fluffed out. 

Extending his right foreleg, Bucky patted Boadicea on the shoulder. 

“It confirmed everything I had been told, or at least I thought it did. When I was taken, when I was captured, I saw my head on a pike. And I figured I wouldn’t make it easy for them.” Boadicea looked over at the zebra foal. “Now we’re both scared, just trying to figure out what is going to happen next, not knowing what is going to happen next because we’ve been made to believe that the worst is going to happen.” 

Bucky turned his head and looked at Sukari. 

“I know what we do to them,” Boadicea said. “And I am ashamed that I know it.” 

One tiny hoof raised, a timid feeble gesture, and Bucky’s whole body tensed as he watched as Sukari pressed her hoof against Thistle’s. 

“I was never a part of that… what they did… making the captures, the profligates, making them submissive. Teaching them the way of things. I was always told that it was a temporary measure, something that was regrettable but had to be done for the survival of all. That there would be time to be kind later, but for now, we needed the grass eaters to know their place and labour. We branded them and then we did to them what we did to ourselves. Strip what made them what they were away and make them fall in line. After we had won the war and we were the rightful rulers of this planet, we would have time to be kind and at that point, they would be born knowing their place and this cruelty would be unneeded.” Boadicea swallowed. “Life in the sand was hard. Nasty. All of this was justified as survival. I was told that ponies and zebras were born lazy, like all other profligates, and we had to give them a work ethic for their own good. The greater good… the survival of all.” 

“And what do you think of this now?” Bucky asked. 

Boadicea shrugged. “I don’t know. Sounds like so much dung. I had a lot of free time… just sitting in my cell and thinking about life. There was nothing else to do but plan and plot my escape or my revenge. Or think about my life up to this point.” 

“Do you really believe that such a little zebra foal needs a stronger work ethic?” Bucky asked in a very low voice. 

There was a soft click from Boadicea’s beak. She stared, looking at the tiny zebra. With her beak closed, in a voice every bit as soft as Bucky’s, she replied, “Little yearlings like that… they don’t know their own strength. They get tied to a mine cart and they stand there and cry. That gets nothing done. So they are whipped. And each day they are tied to a cart and whipped until they go. After a time, they are tied to a cart and there is no need to whip them. You tie them to the cart and they go… and go… and keep going until they drop over from exhaustion hours later. After what is called ‘honest work’ is achieved, they are scooped up by the keepers, hauled back to the reward pens, and given a measure of grain and water. They wake up, they get food, they get water, they might get a kind word, and they are tied to a mine cart again. The keepers believe that we must teach them this at the youngest age possible for the sake of kindness. It is much harder for the adults to submit and reach the point of honest work. It isn’t about how many rocks you haul, it is more about you hauling rocks. The yearlings can’t pull a big cart, but a whole bunch of little carts with just a few nuggets or rocks will also eventually get the job done.” 

His skin crawling with revulsion, Bucky looked at Sukari. “If you tied her to a cart…” 

“She might go. I don’t know anything about her.” Boadicea bowed her head down, her face hidden under her hood. She pulled her cloak around her tighter. 

It took Bucky a moment to realise the griffoness was crying. He saw eyes… the others were looking at him. He saw raised eyebrows, raised crests, worried looks, looks of concern. 

And then there was Lugus, whose expression was blank. 

All Bucky could register in his mind was that a cub was crying… something young and hurt. Using both his magic and his forelegs, he grabbed Boadicea. She squawked, startled, and tried to get free. Bucky, never one to be denied, wrapped his forelegs around her and used his magic to make her go still. She kicked, squawked, peeped, yowled, and even growled. 

And then, Boadicea went still, collapsing into Bucky as she began to weep. 



 

“Would you like some chocolate covered crickets? Or maybe some salted caramels with toasted coconut and mealworms?” Bucky gave Boadicea a little squeeze. Using his magic, he lifted her cloak and wiped at her eyes. 

“Ask Lugus if I am allowed.” Boadicea bowed her head down and shivered. 

“See… it doesn’t quite work that way. Lugus is my second in command. While he holds a mind boggling amount of authority that he wants nothing to do with, it does not change the fact that I am in charge. So I am offering you a little something to make you feel better.” With a pop, a plastic container appeared. 

With another pop, the lid was pried off of the plastic container and Bucky reached in with his talons. Not looking at what he was grabbing, he pulled out a salted caramel with toasted coconut and golden brown toasted to perfection mealworms. 

“Are you gonna eat this or what?” Bucky asked. “See, I can’t eat one until you eat one, there are rules here… and I really want one.” 

Boadicea’s beak opened, either to protest or to accept food, Bucky didn’t care; he tossed the treat in and then reached into the container to grab another treat for himself. 

“Mmm.” Boadicea’s beak closed and the cub melted down as she held the candy in her beak. Shivering, pressed up against Bucky, without realising what she was doing, she wrapped one foreleg around him and pulled herself closer. 

“See, I can make you loyal. I can make you do the work I want you to do. And make no mistake, I am making plans for you. I can make you do everything I request that you do and I can do it without resorting to the lash,” Bucky said around a mouthful of dark chocolate and cricket legs. He lifted up another candy, a cricket this time, and offered it to Boadicea. “Never allow any griffon smaller than you to come to harm… serve me. Do my bidding. Protect all of those smaller and weaker than yourself. It is such a simple thing… really. You will get your honour back. And you will get this… a chocolate covered cricket.” 

Boadicea’s eyes narrowed. 

“This chocolate covered cricket is figurative. This is symbolic of what I have to offer. You’ll get a lot more than this, I assure you. All I ask from you is honest work. All you have to give me.” Bucky gave the cub a squeeze and waved the candied bug in front of her beak, not caring that Lugus was giving him a peculiar stare. 

“Are you saying I am a profligate?” Boadicea’s eyes never left the treat as it moved back and forth in front of her beak. 

“Nothing of the sort… I am offering you fair exchange for your loyalty and your service.” Bucky heard the cub’s stomach rumble as the treat was held in a tantalising position in front of her beak. 

“All that I have, all that I am, it is yours. I offer you my fealty, my oath, and my word as a hunter. My life for you if necessary.” Boadicea bowed her head. 

Reaching out, Bucky lifted her head and tossed the treat in to her beak. “We do things in a different way. We can’t always make things right, but we do work very hard to make things fair. Look after all of the things I hold precious and dear to me.” 





Celestia, reaching out, patted Lugus on the shoulder with her hoof. “See, I told you.” 

Lugus fluffed out and his tail swished from side to side. He stared at Bucky and Boadicea on the couch together. Bucky was sitting up and Boadicea was clinging to him. He looked at the pair, feeling a funny emotion that he could not name, and then he looked at Celestia. 

“But the importance of feeling as though she worked for it...” Lugus said, his words trailing off as he did not know how to finish his sentence. 

Celestia gave Lugus a warm sunny smile. “Oh, I do believe that she feels that she has worked for it. Bucky has given her the option to spend the rest of her life working for it. He gave her the choice. She has accepted I do believe. Sometimes a little reward while you are working is a good motivator. Not all rewards or compensation must come at the end.” 

“But if the reward is given, what will motivate one to keep going, to keep striving until the task is completed?” Lugus asked. 

“Dedication to a cause,” Raven replied. 

“The feeling, the need to be part of something greater,” Violet replied. 

Lugus set his cards down. “This is like paying an artisan for their craft before it is finished and flies in the face of all I know.” 

“You don’t pay them all at once… you pay a little here, a little there, and then you pay them again when they are done.” Raven shrugged. “Bills have to be paid. Food must be purchased. There is something that always needs to be done.” 

“He is offering her service and she has done nothing to prove her worthiness, her loyalty, of if she is even fit for his service,” Lugus said in a low whisper. “She has not earned this.” 

The large white alicorn sat up and became serious. “When a pony joins the guard, they are just the common pony off of the street. They have done no great things, achieved no great victories, done absolutely nothing worth mentioning. They are just common ponies. But they join the guard and some of them rise through the ranks. By joining the guard, they are given a chance to prove themselves. This is no different… Bucky is offering her a chance to prove herself and earn her honour.” 

“This is wrong… honour must be earned first, one must be proven to be trustworthy, honourable, loyal, worthy of service, and then after much sacrifice and evidence of virtue, only then should one be offered what she was just given.” Lugus, looking unsettled, slumped down in his chair. 

“But if a pony never joins the guard, it becomes so much more difficult to prove themselves as a soldier, does it not?” Celestia asked. 

Blinking, Lugus’s crest rose. His beak clacked as he tried to process what Celestia was saying. He looked over at Bucky and then his head swiveled back to look at Celestia. “Bucky never joined the guard. He fought in a terrible campaign and bloodied himself. Now he is recognised as Knight Commandant, Admiral of the Endless Fleet. He fought in a war, proved himself, and was given a position.” Lugus’ talons flexed. “Or Keg Smasher… Prince Keg Smasher… Knight Protector of the United Isles and High General of Equestria. These titles have meaning because of the pounds of flesh these two have offered.” 

“Both Buckminster and Keg Smasher rose to their positions because of their efforts, there is no denying that, but a common grunt could do the same by joining the guard. Bucky isn’t giving her prestige, or rank, or anything spectacular, just a chance to prove herself.” Raven leaned forward over the table, reached up, and scratched her slender neck with her hoof.

“But he is giving her the prestige by allowing her to serve him directly.” Lugus shook his head. 

“I don’t understand this,” Violet said. She looked down at the partially eaten scone on the table, lifted it up, stuffed it into her mouth, and began to chew. 

“To put it in your guard terms, she is not in the guard and learning what she needs to know from a well meaning buck sergeant. She has joined the guard and is now reporting directly to a member of the Triumvirate, bypassing all other ranks and positions.” Lugus, agitated, was running out of words to try and make the ponies at the table around him try to understand his position. 

“I think I understand what Lugus is driving at,” Celestia said, her eyes narrowing and her muzzle taking on a few wrinkles of concentration. “You think that she needs more time serving at the bottom before being able to serve your king directly.” 

“Yes.” Lugus nodded. 

“Oh… so like an unproven secretary that joins a company and immediately reports to the CEO rather than start in the typing pool or the mailroom like everypony else… I get it now… yeah, that might bother me just a little I suppose.” Raven said. “These exchanges are always so fascinating… I think this is the best part of spending time with you Lugus… you never give up your position, you stubbornly stick to your point of view, and eventually we reach moments like this one.” 

“I…” Lugus paused, reached up, smoothed back his crest with his left talons, and then he took a deep breath. “I want what is best for her. I must confess, in the short time I have known her, she has impressed me. She is smart, even by hunter standards. She is worthy of her corvid heritage, worthy of the black beak and black feathers, she is clearly a hunter that was meant to hunt by mind, not by might—” 

“Lugus, I beg your pardon for interrupting, but would you mind explaining?” Raven asked. 

“She is a hunter with crow or raven markings. She is smart… whip smart. Other hunters might be like hawks… or eagles… even owls. How many crows do you know that are savage hunters? They live, they survive by cunning… they are clever like Bucky is clever, those corvid types. She shows signs of possessing a brilliant mind but I doubt she will ever be strong and full of endurance. She needs to be in school. She needs to be learning. It is my hope that Bucky will have her attend school. She can read and write. She is clever, witty, and she can be charming. I want what is best for her.” 

“You sound like a concerned father.” Celestia’s voice held the faintest trace of teasing. 

“So what if I do?” Lugus said, cocking his head sideways in a most avian sort of way. 

“Would you like to be?” Celestia asked, her teasing tone now gone and her manner blunt. 

“What?” Lugus stared for a moment, blinked, and every feather on his neck poofed out. 

“She is going to need a guardian because of her age. Or a parent. You are worried that she is now too close to the top and that she needs more instruction. You want her to be in school. You clearly want what is best for her. She needs somebirdy to teach her how to be a proper griffon and to teach her the new way of doing things. There is a whole lot to teach her. So why not you?” Celestia allowed herself a smug smile. “I figured I would let you keep talking about how you knew what was best for her until you gave me enough rope to hang you with.” 

“You are treacherous. I have been tricked.” Lugus’ crest rose. 

“This was Bucky’s idea. He mentioned it to me only in passing.” Celestia looked over at Bucky, who was sitting on the couch and sharing his bugs with a flock of gathered griffons. 

Lugus’ head snapped all the way around and he glared at Bucky for a moment before returning his eyes to Celestia. “Is there no end to his treachery? I am his friend… yet he conspires against me.” 

“Boadicea is still considered a prisoner of war. Right now, she is a capture. We have a few options. We get her a parent or a guardian and we naturalise her, or we raise her as a ward of our military forces until such a time that she reaches the age of reason and accountability. Upon reaching that age, we place her on trial and determine if she should be made to suffer for what she has done or if she is be pardoned and set free. Equestrian military law is a mess and we are trying to fix everything right now… Bucky however, has a different set of laws available. The law of his spoken word as king of the griffons. Bucky wants Boadicea to have a parent or a guardian and for her to be naturalised as a citizen of the Hippogriff Lunar Commonwealth Republic.”

“The what?” Lugus gave Celestia a blank stare. 

“He hasn’t told you yet?” Raven asked. 

“No.” Lugus, feeling confused, began to tap one of his talons upon the table. 

“When we had to sign the papers to make the United Isles Treaty, we needed a name for the griffon empire. Tannis chose a name for his, the Hippogriff Solar Commonwealth Republic, and Bucky followed Tannis’ brilliant lead, agreeing that the merging of the two cultures was vital to the survival of the griffon race. This was before we left.” Violet poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher sitting on the table. Her horn flared for a moment and a few ice cubes appeared in the water. “Hippo and griff… not exactly a hippogriff, but a merger of the two cultures. Tannis was very animated about it from what I was told.” 

“I strongly suspect that it was Agnetha who came up with the name and she wants her husband to look competent and clever. They do so much to help one another. Such a strong spirit of cooperation,” Celestia said, gazing off into space as she thought of home. 

Raven offered Lugus an officious smile. “So Bucky wants Boadicea to have a parent or guardian of some kind. Somebirdy that will do what is best for her. Somebirdy who will apologise to her for slamming her head down onto the stone floor and making her bleed. Somebirdy who will spend the rest of his life serving as her protector as restitution for making her bleed all over the place—” 

“Enough! I get it… I have been set up for subtle punishment and correction for the wrong I have committed!” Lugus’ wings flared out from his sides and he slapped his talons down upon the table. “I know when I have been outflanked and there is no hope in winning the battle. I surrender.” Defeated, Lugus settled into a sulk. 

“Ah, politics and subtle machinations,” Celestia said in a breezy sigh. 

“I just so happen to have the papers right here with me,” Raven said as she lifted her satchel beside her chair from up off of the floor. “I’ll need your signature in a few spots. I have two papers… father or guardian?” 

Drumming his talons upon the table, Lugus glanced over at Boadicea and then rolled his eyes. “What is Yew going to do to me?” 

“Depends. What happens if she finds out that you slammed her adoptive daughter’s head into the stone floor and made her bleed?” Violet grinned a horrible smile, a vindictive smile as she watched Raven pull papers from her satchel. Violet, in this moment, was Bucky’s secretary and there could be no doubt. She was brimming with sadistic glee. 

Lugus’ eyes went wide with fear. He sat up, drawing himself to his full height. Every feather, which had been fluffed out, now went limp, causing much of Lugus’ visual mass to vanish, making him look much smaller. 

“Yew doesn’t need to know. Make this easy on yourself Lugus, and do the right thing.” Violet, still grinning a horrible grin, pushed a pen in front of Lugus. “I would offer a Boadicea a bribe of some sort… purchase her silence and hope that she never tells Yew. Yew is a dirty fighter. I’ve watched her have a go with Ripple.” 

“Give me the papers that will make me her father,” Lugus snapped through a closed beak. His tail, which had been swishing, was now limp against the floor. 

“You got off light.” Celestia leaned over and placed her muzzle close to Lugus’ head. “I mean, this is a terrible punishment, but you got off light. I expect good things from Boadicea.” 

“I will not disappoint you, your Majesty.” Hissing, Lugus snatched up the pen in his talons and looked down at the papers that Raven was setting in front of him. “I will do the right thing and I will serve.” 

“Lugus…” Celestia smiled. 

“Yes?” Lugus looked at Celestia, one eye squinted, the other wide.

“There is something I want from you…”

“Majesty, as one of your knights, I can refuse you nothing.” 

“I want family photos… and I want to see her looking happy…” 

“I will do as I am bid. I can refuse you nothing.” 

Reaching out her wing, Celestia gave Lugus a soft pat as he signed the papers. 
	
	
> Chapter 571
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“My eyes burn.” As Boadicea reached up to rub them, Bucky pulled her talons away. 

There was a grunt of concern as Bucky peered into Boadicea’s eyes. “Your nictitating membranes are inflamed—” 

“My whats are what?” Boadicea asked. 

Bucky sighed, feeling bad that he knew more about griffons than the griffoness he was trying to help. “Nictitating membranes. Your inner eyelids. The eyelid you can see through that allows you to fly through sandstorms or dust or even bad weather.” 

“Oh… those.” Boadicea slumped down and allowed Bucky to wipe at her eyes with a soft damp cloth he had conjured. 

“Crying releases all the toxins and gunk built up in your tear ducts. For griffons, this means an eyeful of irritants until it finally flushes out.” Bucky used the corner of the cloth to daub at Boadicea’s eyes. 

“I wonder if this is why we are told not to cry.” 

“Might be.” Bucky wiped away some eye boogers. “I read about this in a book. Belisama had lots of eye problems after she came home. She mourned the loss of her sister.” 

“Why are you being so nice to me? I was bad. I wanted to kill you. I said awful things. I behaved like vermin.” 

“You sound like Lugus… he is always complaining about vermin.” Bucky wiped the cloth over Boadicea’s nostrils. “As for why I am nice to you… the war is over. Time to leave it behind.”

“We griffons are taught that vermin are the worst things in the world…” 



 

“Do we tell Bucky?” 

“No. Bucky has plenty on his mind. The mess has been cleaned up and everything is okay. Nothing to worry about.” Berry Punch narrowed one eye and looked at Thistle. 

“I was too afraid to scold her… I mean… she’s suffered so much… she went over to the corner and just started peeing… what do I do?” Thistle looked at Berry with wide worried eyes. “I was scared that if I told her no, or raised my voice, or did anything at all she would freak out and we’d have to catch her and calm her down again. How will we punish her? Tell her what right and wrong is?” 

Berry shrugged. “I dunno.” 

“Well, we can’t be loud… we can’t swat her little backside… I’m terrified of upsetting her.” Thistle’s eyes began to glisten with tears. “I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m gonna fail.” 

The floodgates opened and the kelpie began to sob. 

Sitting down beside Thistle, Berry wrapped a foreleg over the kelpie’s withers. 

Thistle muffled her sobs by burying her face into Berry’s neck, hoping she wouldn’t wake her own foals. Both were asleep now, wrapped together in a blanket. 

“Thistle… Thistle, listen to me. I don’t know what to do either, but we’ll figure it out. Maybe Derpy will know what to do. Meanwhile, we’ll just keep an eye on her, try to get her into the bathroom every so often, and we’ll praise her and give her cookies when she does the right thing.” 

“I’m gonna fail… I’m gonna be a bad mother… Celestia was stupid for giving her to me.” Thistle’s whole body rocked with sobs as she clung to Berry. 

“Oh crivens,” Berry said, slipping into a rolling lilt from stress. 

“I just stood there like a stupid pony… those really stupid ponies that you hear stories about that stand there and look up with their mouth open while it is raining and they drown—” 

“Thistle, hush,” Berry said, giving the kelpie a squeeze. 

“I just stood there as she peed in the corner—”

“Thistle, shush, now I mean it.” Berry gave Thistle a kiss on the cheek. “Be quiet. You’ll wake the foals and then you’ll complain about being a bad mother some more.” 

Thistle snorted and sniffled, trying to suck snot out of her nostrils so she could breathe. “But I am a bad mother…” 

Berry Punch, left with no other option, went with the only thing she knew to do to distract a loved one from their sorrows. Ignoring Thistle’s snotty muzzle, Berry Punch hauled Thistle in for a kiss, forcing her lips open and distracting Thistle with a tongue so long it could lick the bottom of a bottle. 

Thistle went stiff for a moment, trying to pull away, and then went limp as Berry worked her over. After a few moments of stunned shock, the kelpie wrapped her forelegs around Berry’s neck and began to reciprocate. 



 

Tourmaline, so very aware of the emotions all around her, sat down on a cushion in the corner and scowled. There was lots of love to be had, but it was sad love. There was too much sadness on the ship. There was too much depression. She felt a buzzing in between her ears, just behind her eyes. There was also sexual love, something she was all too aware of when it happened. Feeling lightheaded, she lay down upon her cushion and tried not to think about what Berry and Thistle were doing, feeling some very conflicting emotions of her own about the whole thing. As a foal, it was gross and icky. As a changeling, it was a source of strength and energy. 

Berry and Thistle were very good and very strong sources of strength and energy. 

Her mother was gone… Celestia had retreated to their cabin and had asked for some alone time. Tourmaline knew all too well what would be happening in there soon. It was strange, knowing that her mother was engaging in physical love and that it was a source of food to be consumed. 

Tourmaline felt wrong for absorbing it, like a foal that stealing cookies from the jar. 

The emotions from the Shetlands were raw, untamed, overwhelming. They had been overpowering. Tourmaline had trouble containing herself and her telekinesis had become quite unstable, not that she had very much control over it just yet. 

She watched as Cadance took wobbly steps around the common room. Tourmaline waved, gesturing for Cadance to come closer. Cadance, seeing Tourmaline, smiled. 

Spreading her wings to help her balance, Cadance tottered over to Tourmaline, almost stumbled, recovered, and climbed up onto the cushions with Tourmaline. She lay down and snuggled up against Tourmaline, glad to have a warm body to press against. 

“Hi Cadance… I guess everypony is ignoring you right now,” Tourmaline said in a low whisper. “Lugus is off trying to think, Bucky is looking after his griffons, your auntie Celery is… well you don’t need to know what she is doing.” Tourmaline pressed her lips against Cadance’s cheek and gave her a kiss. 

Cadance giggled. 

“There is a zebra with mind sickness that I can’t bear to touch or feel… Bandua is a blank space that only feels cold and hunger. Bell Heather is only really happy when she is getting milk. Broom looks really happy but she is actually scared out of her mind and I don’t know why. Sprocket and Cog are weird but sweet… they feel the sort of love that a cub or a foal feels for their parents towards almost every single griffon here. Door is worried about his sister and he feels scared because he thinks one of the little griffonesses is pretty and he’s doing all he can to keep talking to her but for some reason he thinks its wrong that he finds her pretty. Tourmaline took a deep breath. “Weaver is so very in love but he is so scared of losing his love or having it taken away. Grisabella is also in love but she is too proud and too much like Lugus to show it because showing it would be awkward. Magpie keeps looking at Broom and I think Magpie likes Broom in the same way that Door likes the little griffoness he keeps looking at.” 

Tourmaline swallowed. 

“But Magpie is scared because she doesn’t know if Broom will find her pretty.” 

The changeling hiding in a foal’s body scowled. “I’m not supposed to gossip or talk about any of this stuff, mama says it is wrong, but I know for a fact that you can feel everything I am feeling too. And it is too much.” 

Cadance nodded and looked up at Tourmaline with wide eyes. 

“See? This isn’t gossip. This is just two friends talking about what they already know. I don’t know if mama would see it that way though, so you and I are going to have to keep this a secret.” Tourmaline wrapped her forelegs around Cadance and hugged her. 

Cadance, smiling, hugged back. 

“Mama worries too much that you might feel weird about me because of what happened with the changelings in your old life and she is worried that you will remember everything and hate me but I don’t think that you will. Do you hate me?” 

Cadance’s mouth became a straight line and a worried expression overtook her face. She shook her head. 

“See, I knew it. Mama worries too much.” 

The soft pink alicorn foal nodded. 

“We can be the bestest friends and we’ll know everyone’s secrets together.” 



 

“What the… why is there…” Bucky looked down at the command console. There was a ship ahead, not moving, and this alarmed Bucky more than he cared to admit. Airships were supposed to be moving. It is what they did. This ship was drifting but not moving under its own power. 

Reaching down with a talon, he pressed a button and turned off the alarm. Knowing that The Scorned Mare was a marvel of automation and would raise her own shields if threatened, Bucky flicked a switch and raised the shields anyway. 

Nothing like a decoy dead ship. 

The door opened. Bucky glanced over and knew it would be Lugus. “You and I will be taking a little sightseeing tour.” 

“Oh?” Lugus looked worried. 

“Dead ship ahead. No magical signature from the engines. Now go tell everypony and everybirdy that I want them in the common room, that is an ORDER.” 

Lugus, sensing Bucky’s air of authority, nodded. “Aye aye, my king.” Bowing his head, Lugus departed. 



 

“This could be dangerous.” Celestia stood firm, one hoof tapping upon the wooden floor. “Buckminster, I am coming with you.” 

“No! Damnit, look… I need you here. There are things here that need guarding. As the captain of this vessel I—” 

“Are you pulling rank on me?” Celestia demanded. 

Bucky, sensing an opportunity, nodded. “Yes I am! You are confined to ship!” 

“You sly little pony. Fine. Rob me of any chance I had of adventure.” Celestia sighed and shook her head. “I was actually hoping for a little trouble on this voyage.” 

“Lugus and I are heading over to have a look around. Berry Punch, while I am gone, you are in charge. Don’t do anything stupid.” Bucky gave the earth pony a stern look. 

“I hate being in charge. You bastard.” Berry Punch’s nostrils flared as she snorted in anger. “Don’t do anything stupid… come back to me in one piece. Hey, that should be our family motto… don’t do anything stupid…” 

“We do stupid stuff all the time,” Thistle said. 

Berry nodded. “That’s what makes it funny.” 

“If I join the family, can I do stupid stuff?” Celestia asked. 

“No. You are confined to ship,” Berry replied. 

“Aw…” Celestia did her best impression of foalish disappointment. 

There was a clicking sound followed a creak. Looking over, Bucky saw Belisama raise her crossbow and stroke the stock. Looking around, he saw that the other little griffons and some of the bigger griffons were armed. Knives winked out of nowhere. Grisabella was holding a well oiled and well polished mace in her talons. Upon second glance, Bucky realised it was a cylinder head from a steam engine and that it had to weigh at least twenty pounds. Magpie was checking her blade. Several of the little griffons had slings. Bucky wondered why they were all so well armed. Lugnut had pulled out some contraption that looked as though it fired railroad spikes, from where Lugnut had pulled it, Bucky did not know, but the strange device had tanks on it and what appeared to be pressure gauges. Steam began to rise from a vent. 

There was a tooting sound, almost like a tiny train whistle. Bucky pondered what it would be like to hear the tooting of a train whistle as the last sound you heard in your life as a railroad spike penetrated your skull… without realising that he was doing so, Bucky smiled the sort of horrible smile that made ponies around him want to wet themselves and made sphincters clench. 

Celestia stepped forward and dropped her head down. With her lips a scant inch from Bucky’s ear, she said, “They are all armed. Should they be armed? I was not expecting this.” 

A low thrum came from Lugnut’s steam powered spike launcher. 

“Lugus, we’re going.” Bucky made a gesture for Lugus to come along, ignoring Celestia’s concern about well armed little griffons. 

The big griffon gave a tug on Boadicea. “Come on, we’re going. I’ll carry you over.” 

Bucky stopped. “No… Lugus, let me make this clear. We’re going.” 

Lugus lifted his head and towered over Bucky, looking down. “No, let me make this clear. My authority overrides yours in this instance. I want her with me. You manipulated me into this authority.” 

Craning his head to look up, Bucky nodded. “Okay, fine. She comes with us. But you should be keeping her safe.” 

“No, as her father, I should be teaching her about dedication and devotion to duty. Do not tell me how to raise my cub and I will not tell you how to raise yours.” Lugus stared down at his king, looking somewhat irritated. 

“Fair enough.” Bucky looked up and poked Lugus in the chest with a talon. “I was hoping you’d say something like that. You can always be counted on to be honourable and true.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 572
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A small wiry griffon with an axe like beak landed on the deck of the ship and looked around. Behind him, a massive warrior griffon landed, carrying a smaller griffoness cub upon his back. 

The small griffon, hideous and scarred, looked about. As tiny as he might be, there was something dangerous about him. His pelt was tan, almost tawny, and he had black and silver feathers. One claw almost looked like it was made out of some dark metal. 

“Damnation, I was having a nice vacation,” the ugly griffon said in a hissy voice. 

The enormous griffon, standing on the deck, adjusted his massive hook-axe. He grabbed the smaller griffoness cub by her cloak and pulled her close, looking her in the eye. 

“Do nothing foolish cub. You are here to learn how to be a proper griffon. You stay out of the way and you stay out of danger.” The giant warrior griffon gave the cub a gentle shake. 

“I will keep my eyes and ears open.” The griffoness cub flexed her talons. “I await your further commands.” 

“Lugus?” 

“Yes? What is it my friend?” 

“It occurs to me that your axe is wasted here. You need to be airborne to use it well and you need lots of room.” 

“Hmm… I do believe I’ll manage somehow.” 

“Oh, I know that you will, I was just being tactical out loud.” The ugly griffon took off, moving over the deck planks with surprising speed. 

Lugus, following after Bucky, looked around. “This is a minotaur made ship. Notice the tall doors that are wider at the top than at the bottom… so horns can pass through. Funny, everything looks okay from where we are.” 

“Not from where I am,” Bucky said. He tapped a talon upon the deck. “Blood. Frozen. Brown. Not sure how old.” 

His feathers whipped around by the wind, Lugus lifted his head and sniffed. 

“Going belowdecks. Cover me.” Bucky made his way to the door. He paused. It showed signs of having been forced open. It was now shut again. The smaller griffon shifted, shimmered, and warped, becoming a unicorn. 

The door glowed in a soft blue green light. Bucky waited, his eyes closed as he concentrated. The door opened. “It’s not trapped at least.” 



 

Bucky stood at the top of the stairs looking down. There was blood on the stairs, dried and somewhat frozen. His horn glowed with a soft light. As he descended the stairs, Lugus and Boadicea followed after him. 

The sounds of water dripping could be heard. Water… or perhaps blood. It was too soon to tell. Bucky sniffed. The scent of decay was in the air, faint, the decay had been slowed because of the cold. Snorts of steam puffed into the air from Bucky’s nostrils as he breathed. 

At the bottom of the stairs, Bucky found a worrisome object. A gun. He did not recognise the design. It was not a revolver, and it was not a muzzleloader. Some sort of strange pistol. It said “Krammler & Klein” on the barrel, but he was unable to read the strange letters. He thought of Sunset Shimmer and the meeting of immortals. This gun wasn’t from this reality. Looking at it, Bucky realised that he had an instinctual knowledge of how it worked. He also also sensed something… something of his own. 

He pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. A stream of confetti came streaming out. A faint mad sounding cackle escaped from Bucky’s thin scarred lips. He pulled the trigger again and the air was filled with snowflakes. His horn flashed and the gun vanished. 

Bucky lifted his head and looked down the hallway. It was short, dark, and ended in a fork. On one side, there was a door, on the other side, stairs going down. Bucky moved, not a sound was made, his hooves were not touching the floor as he became somewhat less than substantial. Drifting like some dreadful apparition, Bucky moved to the door with the two griffons right behind him. 

“He’s creepy,” Boadicea whispered. 

Lugus’ voice was a low hiss. “Shush!” 

“Sorry… King Creepy.” 

His feathers ruffling, Lugus shook his head. 

Pushing open the door, Bucky stuck his head inside. The room was dark and it was full of shadows from the pale light that shone from his horn. Broken crates and barrels were scattered around. The room had been ransacked. The room itself was not very large and had a cargo door that opened to the back of the ship. If it was meant to be a small cargo hold, there had not been much cargo. The room was almost empty, only a few broken crates and barrels remained. 

“Found something,” Boadicea said as she picked something up. 

“Give that to me.” Lugus held out his talons. 

Boadicea shook her head. “Mine. My shiny! I found it!” 

Lugus heaved an impatient sigh. “Corvids.” He waited, his talons still extended. After a moment, Boadicea gave up a small thick bladed sword she had found. 

“You took my shiny.” In the darkness, Boadicea’s voice sounded hurt. 

Looking down at the floor, Bucky studied a trapdoor. There was a big rusted ring protruding from the edge. The stairs also led to the floor beneath them, but who knew what might be lurking down below, waiting for something to come down the stairs. 

“That was my shiny… I found it.” 

In the darkness, Bucky grinned. His fangs glowed with a faint luminescence. There were terrible things that lurked in the darkness, and Bucky was one of them. This ship was full of darkness. 

Reaching out with his telekinesis, Bucky gave the rusted metal ring a tug. After a few yanks, the trapdoor opened. It was just large enough for a big barrel to be lowered down. Bucky stuck his head down, peering into the darkness. He floated down halfway, not quite real, more shadow than anything else, one terrible Taint filled eye glowing in the dark like some eldritch cyclopean horror. 

Bucky was hovering in a kitchen. He could make out a large stove, electric, a sink, some counters, and a large griddle. He dropped down, a swooping spook, a silent shadow with glowing, grinning fangs. The kitchen smelled bad. In the corner, Bucky saw a side of some carcass hung on a hook. Closer examination revealed it to be a pig. It was mouth wateringly awful, as Sentinel might have said had he been present. 

“Come on down.” Bucky’s voice was a silken whisper, the hissing dread that could only be found in darkness. It was the voice under the bed, the alluring call that beckoned you towards the closet, the suggestive whisper that came from the shadows. It was the voice that caused little foals to leap into bed from the middle of the room rather than risk a leg by climbing into bed. 

Lugus dropped down first, his talons making soft clicking sounds. For a creature so large, he had an amazing amount of stealth. Behind him, Boadicea dropped to the floor. 

There was the soft scrape of steel as Boadicea picked up a meat cleaver. “Ooh… new shiny.” She held it up and held it close to her face to examine it. 

“Put that down.” Lugus’ command was almost impatient. 

“But… shiny…” 

“Put that down. When we get out of here, I shall give you a spoon.” 

There was a clunk as the meat cleaver slammed into a wooden cutting board a short distance away. It quivered. Lugus stared at it for a moment and then turned to look at Boadicea. 

“Imagine if that was something’s skull,” Boadicea said in a soft feminine voice. 

In the darkness, there was a raspy chuckle from Bucky. 

Drifting though the room, Bucky headed towards the only door he knew that led out. There was a walk in freezer. After a moment of hesitation, he reversed his direction and headed for the freezer. Using his telekinesis, he pulled the door open. 

The smell of rot assailed his nostrils. The food was all spoiled and the freezer was hot with decay. It was small, not very large, and several sides of pig carcasses hung on hooks. Boxes and crates were smashed and broken. Some one had looted this freezer, but left behind the meat. 

Curious. 

With nothing worthwhile to be found in the freezer, Bucky shut the door. 

“Phew.” 

“Corvids talk too much.” Lugus’ voice sounded somewhat irritated. 

This time Bucky headed for the door. Upon reaching it, he stopped. He placed his ear against it. Hearing nothing, Bucky pulled the door open. There was a small common room which doubled as the dining area. The tables and chairs were in a state of disarray. Some had been overturned. 

In the middle of the room, there was a body. With Lugus right behind him, Bucky crept forward. There was a pony. An earth pony. Floating above the body, Bucky dropped his head down for a closer look. There were dozens of stab wounds all over the body. More stab wounds than were needed to kill him. His throat had been slashed and there was a large pool of dried blood. Both ears had been cut off. 

The earth pony had been killed with uncommon cruelty and hatred. 

Feeling troubled, Bucky wanted to embrace Berry Punch, or Bon Bon, or squeeze the stuffing out of Piña, whom he loved. He heard a creak, a faint sound. He lifted his head and both eyes narrowed. Bucky sniffed. 

“Whoever did this was barbaric,” Boadicea said in a low dry whisper. She hissed. 

“Vermin.” Lugus’ voice was a soft growl.

Bucky took off, a shadow creeping forward, gliding through the darkness and generating a dim light for Lugus and Boadicea to follow. From somewhere down below, there was a loud thump and a crash, the clanking of metal. 

Drifting towards an open door, Bucky peered though, looking ahead. There was a hallway and a flight of stairs that led up. Ignoring the stairs, knowing already where they led, Bucky went down the hall. Lugus followed and Boadicea was behind him. 

Another body. Bucky came to a floating halt and had a look. Laying face down was a minotaur. He had been stabbed, run through with something, probably a sword or a dagger. There was one entrance wound in the back, below the ribs, near the kidney. Bucky could see that it angled upwards. Skill had done this, avoiding the ribs but stabbing upwards towards the vital organs, the lungs, the heart, major blood vessels. 

“This is confusing,” Bucky said in a soft whisper. 

“It is?” Lugus asked. 

“The gun suggests mirror travelers… it is from another world. The mutilated earth pony is also evidence of mirror travelers. But this…” Bucky shook his head. “Mirror travelers are ponies. Ponies don’t use swords. If a pegasus had a leg blade, it would have stabbed downwards.” 

“You’re right. Something seems off. Maybe a unicorn?” Lugus stared down at the body. 

“No… the mirror unicorns are too skilled to resort to something as crude as a sword or a dagger. He would have been killed by magic… this is not right.” Bucky reached down and touched the minotaur with his talons. “Something feels off to me and I don’t like it.” 

“There is another body up ahead.” Boadicea pointed down the hallway with her talons. 

Bucky drifted off, floating away on unseen currents, a writhing mass of shadow. Lugus remained behind to continue looked at the minotaur. He rolled the body over and then began to grumble. 

“I need more light,” Lugus said. 

“Sorry.” Bucky’s horn flared and he became solid, standing upon the floor. He stared down at the two bodies in front of him and felt confused. 

There was a diamond dog and a minotaur. The two had been fighting. Both were dead. From the looks of it, the diamond dog had stabbed the minotaur, or perhaps the minotaur had stabbed the diamond dog, it was impossible to tell, and then one had fallen over on the other and had landed upon the other’s weapon. 

Bucky could not make heads nor tails of it. 

Perhaps he had made a mistake. Perhaps these were not mirror travelers after all, but common pirates perhaps, pirates who had been lucky and got themselves ahold of an off world gun. Maybe the earth pony had been a mouthy individual that had driven someone to rage… Berry Punch had that ability. 

“Find anything Lugus?” Bucky asked. 

“Nothing of importance,” Lugus replied. 

“I found a shiny but somebirdy took it.” 

Bucky, smiling, looked down the hall and saw stairs leading down. He moved towards them, cautious, slipping back into shadow. The stench of death was getting stronger. 

“This is all your fault.” 

Bucky stopped when he heard Lugus’ accusation. “What?” 

There was an angry huff followed by an angry puff. “You gave her too much candy.” 

“That is a pretty serious accusation you have made, Lugus. Towards your king, no less.” 

“I am not speaking to you as my king.” Lugus’ crest rose and his talons tapped upon the wood as he glared at Bucky. “She has had too much candy and now she is… she is… she is hyper. Yes… that explains her insolence. This is your fault.” 

“Fine… Lugus, you can give my foals candy until they bounce off of the walls. Fair is fair.” Bucky began to float down the stairs and he heard Lugus and Boadicea following after him. 

“Hello?”

Bucky froze. 

“We thought we heard something. Please help!” 

Dropping out of shadow, Bucky became solid. His horn ignited into a bright light. Realising this might be a trap, he didn’t care. The voice sounded weak and frightened. 

Whatever it was, if it was a trap, it was trapped on a dead airship with the bogeypony. 

“Don’t be alarmed or afraid… we’re here to help,” Bucky said as he moved forward. He raised a spell shield. He took a few more steps and stopped dead in his tracks. 

There was an enormous pile of bodies. Minotaurs were stacked upon one another like cordwood. There were a few ponies too, unicorns, and pegasi. Diamond dogs also were tossed into the pile. 

“Please help us!” 

“Hold on, I’m coming.” Moving around the bodies, Bucky peered ahead. He saw bars… there were a few cells up ahead. A brig. In one of the cells, Bucky saw two figures, one small and one smaller. 

Approaching the bars, Bucky heard the terrified scream of a foal. He paused, knowing this could be a trap, but unable to deny his own instincts. He moved towards the bars and peered inside. 

One foal, one griffon cub. 

There was another panicked scream.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m ugly… but you have to trust me!” Bucky waited at the bars, hoping for some calm. “Lugus, stay back!” 

With a click, Bucky unlocked the door and stepped back. The cub and the foal made no move, but stayed where they were. Bucky sat down and tried to look as harmless as possible. He pulled the door open. 

“My name is Bucky. I’m here to rescue you.” 

The foal, an earth pony with a soft green pelt, lifted her head. She studied Bucky with curious eyes. She blew her lavender mane out of her eyes with puckered lips. “My name is Garnet Targe and this is Rowanne. She’s shy. She doesn’t talk much.” 

“Can you tell me what happened here?” Bucky asked. “Just a brief explanation. I can get more details later, but I’d like to know just a little bit about what happened here. If you tell me, I will take you aboard my ship, give you food, and get you out of here.” 

The sage coloured earth pony looked at the griffoness cub. After a moment, the cub nodded and prodded the earth pony. The earth pony filly took a deep breath and looked at Bucky. 

“Rowanne and I were stowaways… we got found. The minotaurs were were really nice to us actually after they found us… they didn’t do anything perverted or anything—” 

“Well I should hope so,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “How old are you? Neither one of you look like you’ve hit your first decade.” 

“I’m fourteen!” Garnet snorted and her eyes narrowed. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow and looked down at the foal. “I don’t think so.” 

“I am so! I am a ariegeois pony!” Garnet stood up on wobbly legs and scowled a fierce looking scowl. 

“A ariegeois pony?” Bucky asked. 

“A dwarf pony.” Garnet lifted her head high and snorted out a haughty sniff. “We live in caves and mines. We like digging. We come from the mountains south of the Sea of Grass.” 

“You are a long way from home.” Bucky offered the foal a soft close-lipped smile. “So what happened?” 

“We got boarded. A group of really mean ponies came on board with some really nasty griffons and diamond dogs. The griffons and diamond dogs all had glowing eyes and acted funny. They wanted something… something called ‘Star Swirl’s rod of portal control’ or something like that. They knew it was on the ship… the unicorns had it with them I guess. They were heading to Equestria. We all were.” 

“I see.” Bucky nodded. “So these hard looking mean ponies… they left you and Rowanne in this cell together?” 

“They laughed about it… they said that when Rowanne got hungry enough, she’d peck my eyes out, tear the tongue out of my mouth, and eat me.” Garnet frowned. “Rowanne is my sister. She’d never do that.” Garnet let out a sad sounding whimper. “A few days ago, I told Rowanne to go ahead eat me when I heard her belly growling. She got mad at me and we had a squabble.” 

“Hmm.” Bucky lowered his head. “I bet you’re both pretty hungry. Think it it is safe to come with me? Princess Celestia is on board my ship… you could meet her.” 

Garnet gave Bucky and incredulous stare. “Princess Celestia? I dunno if I should trust you… you sound like a liar.” 

“And you’re a dwarf pony—” 

“I AM A DWARF PONY!” 

“A feisty dwarf pony. That is fourteen years old.” Bucky winked at the foal. 

Reaching out, Rowanne grabbed Garnet by the ear and yanked her head down. The griffoness cub whispered something into the earth pony filly’s ear. After a moment, Garnet frowned. 

“Rowanne said you smell like a daddy—” 

“I do?” Bucky asked, his ears perking upwards as he looked at the filly and the cub. 

“She said you smell like milk, foal powder, and foal shampoo.” Garnet stuck her head out and sniffed a few times. “I can’t smell it, but she says that you have foals and that since you smell like a daddy, you can be trusted.” 

“Well then… how would you like to come aboard my ship and meet Princess Celestia? I’m certain she would love to meet an ariegeois pony such as yourself.” Bucky lowered his head. “My friend Lugus is a really big griffon. A really big griffon. He’s a daddy too… and he can be trusted. He’s going to carry you over to my ship and we’re gonna get you some food and get you away from all of these dead things.” 

Garnet nodded and shrugged. “Okay.” 

“Good… Lugus, come over here, step into the light, but do so slowly…” 
	
	
> Chapter 573
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I came back with two little ones, think we could make them work in the galley?” Standing in the doorway of the common room, Bucky looked at the crowd. He looked up at Celestia. “I found a dwarf pony—” 

“An ariegeois pony! I haven’t seen one of your kind in ages!” The white alicorn rushed forward. 

“Oh my gosh! It really is Princess Celestia! The old goat wasn’t lying!” 

Looking away, Bucky wondered how he was going to live this down. He took a deep breath as the common room began to flood with the sounds of excited talking. Pursing his lips, Bucky whistled to get attention. 

Now having the attention of everypony in the room, Bucky spoke: “The ship these two were on was raided. Celestia, have you heard of something called ‘Star Swirl’s Rod of Portal Control’ or something like that?” 

Celestia’s eyes went wide with shock, terror, Bucky could see the fear in her face. He could see Celestia’s barrel begin to expand and contract in a rapid manner. Her nostrils flared, first going wide from fright, and then closing up, perhaps from an emotion that Bucky could not guess. 

The white alicorn bolted. Her hooves thudding on the wooden floor, she took off at full speed, bowling Bucky out of the way, shooting through the door, down the hall, and up the stairs. 

Recovering, Bucky went after her. He could hear shouting behind him, the common room was filled with fear now, whatever had spooked Celestia had spread to everypony as well as everybirdy else. 

The big white alicorn took the stairs in leaps, her hooves scrabbling, and Bucky worried that she would turn a fetlock in a bad way. She was whimpering now, gibbering with fear, Bucky heard Celestia’s wordless sounds of fear… perhaps terror. 

She hit the door to the deck full force, bounced off, and then jerked the door open. She took off, her wings unfurling, and Bucky was just behind her, turning into an axe beaked griffon once more. 



 

When Celestia came to a skidding halt, Bucky landed on the deck beside her, his claws finding easy purchase on the wooden planks. He looked up, Celestia was frozen now, her barrel heaving, her mouth hung open, and somehow, the white alicorn looked pale. 

“I’ll show you,” Bucky offered, approaching the door and gesturing for Celestia to come closer. “There is a big pile of bodies down below in the hold. It smells pretty bad down there.” 

“Captain of the Solar Shadow… Frost Armor…” 

Confused, Bucky did not know what Celestia was saying. “What?” 

“Even the sun casts a shadow… I sent Captain Frost Armor and his crew to retrieve the control rod… there was word that it had been found.” Celestia shook her head. “Star Swirl made it, it was designed to stabilise an unstable portal. He did not know what he was doing at the time, the rod helped to keep his portals open so we could cross from one reality to the next and still get back home. The rod did not work very well.” 

After a moment of gritting his teeth, Bucky said what he felt needed to be said. “If this is so important, why didn’t you send me or Twilight to retrieve it? This Frost fellow… he was, what, a type two? Maybe a type three? And you sent him off to collect a device, an artifact of unimaginable power… some kind of rift control device—”

“At the time, you were already showing signs of breaking down. Twilight was busy with other things. The Solar Shadow has dealt with dangerous situations before.” Celestia stepped through the door, her horn flaring with golden light. “You needed some time to heal. You needed rest, even then. This was before your trip to Vanhoover.” 

Bucky followed as Celestia went down the short hall and then down the stairs. 

“The rod does not function very well. It needs a special type of crystal to focus the rod’s energy and after a time, the crystals shatter. When it was created, Sombra made the crystal that focused the energy, correcting the rod’s flaws, and the rod functioned perfectly for a time. When Sombra died, the crystal cracked.” 

Shifting mid stride, Bucky became a unicorn. “Straight down the hall, mind the bodies.” 

Reaching the end of the hall, Celestia stopped. She gagged, looked down the stairs, and then began to descend. Bucky, dutiful as always, followed at her heels. He watched as she approached the pile of bodies, and he could feel her grief. 

“No…” 

Celestia’s soft utterance was so full of pain that it made Bucky’s soul ache. She had paused at the edge of the pile and was standing there in slack jawed shock. 

“There isn’t much we can do here,” Bucky said in a soft voice that he hoped brought comfort. “I think it would be best if we scuttled the ship and sent it down to the ocean below.” 

Her cheeks now glistening with tears, Celestia nodded. 

“I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better,” Bucky said in a low soft whisper. 

“Buckminster… I…” Celestia cleared her throat. “Buckminster, I want you to find the ponies that did this… I want you to find them, and I want you to do very bad things to them. I want for you to do the very worst sorts of things you can think of and I want for you to do them slowly.” 

Bucky bowed his head. “Yes, of course. I will do as you ask.” 

“I mean it Buckminster… I want you to dredge the horrid depths of your imagination and I want for you to dig down and I want you to do the absolute worst sorts of things you can think of.” 

Swallowing, Bucky tried to make peace with the fact that Celestia was asking him to commit unspeakable atrocities. “We should be away. I bet the others are worried. We should be away and you should compose yourself so you don’t spook the others when we return.” 

With a heavy heart, Bucky led Celestia away from the pile of corpses. 



 

Sitting in the glass navigation cabin, Bucky targeted the derelict vessel. There was a faint hum as the lightning guns warmed up, the many antennae along the sides of the ship quivering. Three rows of nine each, for for twenty seven guns on each side. The Scorned Mare was armed to the teeth for a ship her size. A broadside volley at this range would be devastating. 

And it was. The first volley ripped open the sides of the minotaur ship. The second volley shredded the gasbag. The third volley tore the ship in half and it plummeted downwards towards the ocean below. 

Looking down at the gauge, Bucky saw that the power levels were now seventy nine percent, down from ninety two. A few passes through cloudbanks would set everything right. 

Heaving a sigh, Bucky teleported himself down belowdecks. 



 

Famished, Bucky dropped his fork and jammed his muzzle down into his plate. He gobbled down his food, not even caring what it was, trying to be rid of the empty ache in his belly. The fried corn, potatoes, and beans on his plate were sucked down and he went to work on the pickled eggs. 

At another table a short distance away, Garnet and Rowanne were also stuffing their faces under the watchful eye of Violet and Raven. The cub and the teenaged foal were eating everything in reach and the little griffons kept bringing more. 

In the corner, Celestia sat, holding Tourmaline close beside her. Several little griffons had circled around her, wringing their talons together and looking fretful. 



 

“I wish I had been on deck to see the lightning cannons going off.” Berry Punch looked over at her husband and then back at Thistle. 

“If you would have been on deck, the static discharge would have made every hair in your mane stand on end.” Thistle, laying on her side and nursing Bell Heather, dropped her head down upon a pillow and made herself comfortable. 

Creeping up on Thistle, Sukari dove under the blanket that Thistle had pulled over herself and Bell Heather. 

A moment later, Thistle let out a surprised squeal. 

“What’s wrong?” Berry asked, reaching out to pat Thistle on the neck. 

“She’s suckling… what do I do?” Thistle was frozen, unmoving, her eyes wide. 

“Sukari?” Berry Punch was tempted to lift the blanket. 

The kelpie nodded. 

“Well… I…” Berry Punch looked down at the lumps by Thistle’s belly under the blanket. Two of them. “I suppose you let her keep doing what she’s doing. Poor thing is all ribs anyway. Is she pulling Bell away from her teat or anything?” 

Her eyes narrowing, Thistle shook her head. “She’s being good. I think she’s holding Bell. Hard to tell. But I can feel little hooves on my belly. She’s a yearling… isn’t she a little old for this?” 

The plum coloured earth pony shrugged. “Milk is milk. It is best when you get it from the source. Just ask Bucky.” 

The kelpie looked over at Bucky, who was scarfing food down off of a fourth plate. 

Moving about on four wobbly legs, Cadance came over and sat down with a plop. She almost fell over, her wings buzzing as she tried to balance upon her chubby little haunches, and she looked up at Berry with a scowl. 

The alicorn foal smacked her lips and then looked over at the blanket. 

“Oh.” Berry said, reaching out with her forelegs. She lifted Cadance, gave her a hug, and then set the foal back down. 

Lifting the edge of the blanket caused a panicked cry to escape from beneath it and Berry Punch slid underneath. The frightened whimpers subsided. Berry pulled Cadance beneath the blanket and then dropped her head down to the pillow she now shared with Thistle. 

“There are two new foals on board.” 

“I know.” Thistle looked over at Berry and saw worry on Berry’s face. 

“If Bucky wants to keep them, we’re going to have to kick some sense into him. It will be hard on us, but I have faith that we can do it. Just ignore the whimpers and the begging as you keep kicking.” Berry adjusted her body, trying to get comfortable as Cadance fed. 

“I suppose that Sukari was different.” Thistle lifted her head and scooted it a little closer to Berry’s on the pillow. 

“Well… yeah… Sukari entertained us with a delightful romp in the kitchen that left feces everywhere. She proved that she has what it takes to be one of us.” Berry grinned. 

“What if those two entertain us and show that they have what it takes to be one of us?” 

“Thistle, dear, then we are in trouble.” 



 

In the small library onboard the ship, Bucky sat in a comfortable chair looking at his two guests, not sure what to do with them. The griffoness cub was preening herself, making her feathers look sleek and shiny. Both had showered and cleaned up. 

Both seemed rather chipper for what they had endured. 

“So… do you recall what colour of strange glow the diamond dogs and the griffons had in their eyes?” Bucky asked. 

“Green. But it shimmered. Sometimes there was a purple sparkle.” Garnet replied as she rubbed her belly. 

Bucky scribbled down this detail in  his notebook. “Mmm, thank you.” 

“How does that help you?” Garnet asked. 

“It tells me that these unicorns were amateurs when it comes to mind control spells,” Bucky replied as he watched the griffoness cub tug on one of her primaries. “It tells me that their control over their subjects was clumsy and tenuous at best. It tells me that should I encounter them, I can rip their minions away from them and turn their minions against them.” 

“You’re one of those kinds of unicorns, aren’t you?” Garnet asked. 

“Yes he is.” 

Celestia stood in the door, her expression blank. Her eyes were red. She came into the small room and eased herself down upon the other couch, her large body taking up every inch of it. She folded her legs up beneath her, getting comfortable, and turned to look at the cub and the foal. 

“What is going to happen to us? Please, please don’t separate us. She’s my sister.” 

“Under current Equestrian law, there are provisions for a filly your age to have independence, but Rowanne is eight years old, or so you tell us. I do not know what to do, but a fourteen year old filly cannot be the guardian of an eight year old cub,” Celestia replied. 

“But she’s my sister!” Garnet scooted closer to Rowanne. 

Celestia looked over at Bucky, her eyes were glassy and her expression was still blank. 

Bucky held out his talons and extended one of them. “Hey… Bell Heather has a zebra for a sister… don’t even look at me and hope for some kind of an answer or expect for me to say something that disproves them.” 

Sighing, Celestia closed her eyes for a moment and one ear flickered with a nervous spasm. She opened her eyes and looked over at the foal and the cub. 

“Garnet tells me that Rowanne is good with machines… both of them like to tinker. They both have a fascination with airships. They escaped from the orphanarium they were in and were trying to get to Equestria to start a new life.” Bucky scratched his chin with his talons and looked thoughtful. “You know, I bet Tuli would be willing to keep an eye on them if I enrolled them in school…” 

“Tuli?” Celestia looked puzzled. 

“Minotaur. She’s nice. One of my teachers. She teaches mechanical stuff. If I enrolled these two in school and made them wards, they could stay together—” 

“School?” Garnet’s voice was a low whine. 

“Well, the way I see it, you can stay together in school or you can be separated unless you somehow find a guardian that will look after the both of you.” Bucky gave the filly a meaningful look. “Besides, if you want to fix anything, you’ll need to learn how.” 

“School…” Garnet sank down into the sofa cushions and did her best to look miserable. 

“This is not your normal school,” Celestia said. “It is a peculiar place, full of weird things, oddities, and has students and teachers of every type imaginable. There is even a dragon that attends school." 

Garnet’s eyes went wide. “What?” 

“There is a dragon. There are also minotaurs, diamond dogs, griffons, zebras, I do believe there is going to be a naga attending soon, and if we are very lucky, one adorable little dwarf pony.” Celestia offered up a weary looking smile. 

“Daylight Shadow will be happy to have some new faces around. We have several wards of the school… like Larch. He’s a gifted little earth pony that can talk to the dead.” Bucky closed his notebook. 

Reaching out with her talons, Rowanne grabbed Garnet by the ear and yanked. Rowanne whispered into Garnet’s ear, a voice so soft that Bucky had trouble hearing any of it. The filly foal and the griffoness cub spoke to one another in hushed voices, trying to decide what to do. 

“Rowanne says we should take your offer, but I have some demands.” Garnet worked her face into a very serious scowl. 

“Demands?” Bucky raised his eyebrow. 

Garnet folded her forelegs over her barrel. “We want to be in the same room together. Rowanne is very shy and she has trouble being away from me. We just don’t want to be separated.” 

“I see.” Bucky nodded. “I can make that happen. There is a little blind filly named Sweet Pea and there is a diamond dog named Growler… I arranged to have some rules bent so the two of them could share a room together. Growler is her seeing eye dog, as he calls himself. Neon Blitz felt it would be for the best and he assured me that Growler would be on his best behaviour. Nothing but good has come from this arrangement. So anything is possible.” 

“Thank you.” Garnet’s serious scowl broke into a sunny smile. 

“You two are free to go. Please, feel free to hang out in the common room, just down the hall.” Bucky said, waving towards the door with his talons. 

Celestia watched as the pair bounced off of the sofa, scrambled out the door, and vanished from view. When they were gone, Celestia closed the door, soundproofed the room, and then she looked at Bucky. 

“We need to talk,” Celestia said. “Wait, I need to talk. And you need to listen. I am about to tell you things that very few other ponies know…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 574
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky watched as Thistle entered their cabin with Sukari held by the scruff of her neck. Behind Thistle was Berry, who had Bell Heather held by the same manner. Behind Berry, Cadance wobbled along, looking rather miffed, perhaps because she wasn’t being carried. 

Approaching the bed, Thistle dropped Sukari in front of Bucky and drew in a deep breath. “This one is yours.” After mumbling a few words, Thistle went and sat on the couch where Belisama was already sitting. 

“Hi,” Bucky said to the zebra foal as Berry Punch dropped Bell Heather in the crib. 

Sukari fell over and went limp. 

“Oh.” Bucky’s eyebrows arched as he looked at the fallen foal. “Do I have bad breath again? Is there a booger hanging out?” 

Thistle and Berry both began to giggle and Belisama looked up from her book. 

Standing by the bed, Cadance flapped her wings and made her needs clear. “Up!” 

Berry Punch reached out her foreleg, wrapped it around Cadance’s middle, and lifted the foal up into the bed. After making sure that Cadance wasn’t going to topple over the edge, Berry crawled into the bed herself. 

Pulling Sukari a little closer, Bucky rubbed his head against her side. She was still limp, which bothered him, even though he couldn’t say why. She was just laying there, staring at him with wide blue eyes. 

Using his magic, he grabbed one of Sukari’s hooves in his telekinesis, pressed it against his lips, and blew a raspberry, knowing that it never failed to make a foal giggle. It worked on Harper, it worked on Bell Heather, it worked on Cadance… 

It did not work on Sukari. 

“What the… why is there…” Bucky lifted his head. The bed was now very wet. Sukari was now frozen, her barrel heaving, her eyes even wider, bulging out. She let out a mewl of fear. 

“There is something wrong with my foal,” Bucky said in a low soft whisper. Lifting the foal up off of the bed with his magic, he crawled out of bed. 

Beside him, Berry Punch was doing the same, and she lowered Cadance to the floor. 

“Here… somepony take her and give her a bath. She’s soaked back there.” Bucky looked down. Indeed she was. She was dripping on the floor. “I’m going to pull the sheets and do some laundry. I’ll take care of the mattress too.” 

“I’ve never seen anything like that.” Thistle’s voice sounded as though she was speaking while being strangled. 

“Neither have I…” Bucky’s head dropped down a bit and his ears drooped, splaying downwards. He looked at the zebra filly foal and sighed. She was still frozen, locked up from terror. 

“I’ll go bathe her. She likes baths… I think they make her feel better.” Berry took the foal in her teeth, grabbing her by the nape of the neck. She departed and Cadance went wobbling off to follow.

“What do we do, Bucky?” Thistle’s eyes were gleaming with tears now. 

Shrugging, Bucky began to pull the bedding off of the mattress. “I don’t know. I guess we just keep trying and hope that we don’t make it worse.” 



 

The soft swishing of the washing machine was soothing in a weird way. Sitting in a chair, Bucky waited for the washer to finish. As he sat there, he thought of everything that Celestia had said, he thought of Sukari, and he reflected upon his trip. 

The trip had been wonderful. It had been just what he needed. 

“The little griffons are all babbling and upset because you would not let them do the laundry. They love the washing machine… it beats having to wash things with talons.” 

“I don’t mind. Doing the laundry allows me to just sit here and think. I have an excuse to be alone. How ya doing Magpie?” Bucky looked at the griffoness in the doorway. 

“I’m fine.” Magpie came into the small laundry room and sat down. 

“I just blew a raspberry on one of Sukari’s hooves and—” 

“I know.” Magpie’s eyes looked sad. 

Bucky slumped down in his chair and folded his forelegs over his barrel. 

“I spoke to Berry… Sukari was just sitting there in the little tub. She looked… vacant.” Magpie’s feathers fluffed out as the griffoness sighed. “I think the change of scenery might be hard on her. Back at Keg Smasher’s castle, she had a half wild mob around her and a familiar environment. Now she is in this strange place without her protective mob and there are all these strangers doing strange things.” 

Bucky’s head fell back into the wall with a thump. 

Silent, Magpie rubbed her talon claws against her pelt, polishing them and leaving them shiny. She lifted them, examined them, and then polished them again. 

“The world is a really messed up place,” Bucky said, feeling a need to kill the silence. 

“Tell me about it. One day, I’m just trying to survive, to do what I have been told, and some marauder in scary black armor comes barging into my nursery—” 

“Magpie, I—” 

“—and that was the most terrifying day of my life, ever. Period. I thought I was witnessing the birth of a new death-god—” 

“Magpie, I’m sorry, I—” 

Magpie looked up at Bucky and raised her talons to silence him. “Every single day since then has been better and better. I am healed now, sound of mind. I am doing what I love. I am happy. I am safe. I don’t have to worry about rape, or having my head twisted off, or facing the interrogators who question you about your loyalty. All of those bad things are behind me… gone. That part of my life is over. It took me a long time to adjust. To be happy again. To stop living in fear. To realise that the marauder in the scary black armor was the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Magpie blinked. “I love you a great deal for what you have done for me. And what I am trying to say is, eventually, Sukari will adjust. Right now, everything is scary for her. But in time, she will realise there is nothing to fear and everything will be better.” 

Magpie slid out of her chair, landed on all fours, and walked out of the room, saying nothing else. She paused on her way out to look at Bucky, who was sitting there staring at her, and then she turned and left. 

Now alone in the laundry room, Bucky sat in his chair and thought about what Magpie had said.



 

Rubbing his cheek against the fresh from the dryer sheets, Bucky felt warm tinglies all over his body as he rolled on the bed. He did so with great enthusiasm, grunting and snorting as he rubbed his cheek and the side of his head against the bed, trying to rid himself of the itch that he had just below his ear. 

“Bucky, stop.” 

Belisama’s voice was soft. Low. Gentle. Bucky froze, now unmoving. He felt something dropped on the bed. He lifted his head and turned to have a look. He saw blue eyes peering at him, a curious expression. 

A moment later, Berry Punch dropped Cadance down upon the bed. 

Reaching out with his magic, Bucky pulled Cadance to him and plopped her down just in front of his face, his snoot just inches from her back, placing her in between him and Sukari. Hiding his face behind Cadance, Bucky said, “Hi.” Using his magic, he then raised one of Cadance’s forelegs to wave. 

Cadance’s muzzle scrunched and her expression became one of confusion. 

Using Cadance like a puppet, Bucky waved again and made Cadance bounce around a little. “So… are you an introvert? Might explain some of the social anxiety,” Bucky said from behind Cadance. 

Sukari stared at Bucky and Cadance with a blank expression, not knowing what to think or do. Behind Sukari, Berry Punch stood at the edge of the bed, watching. 

“Being an introvert kinda stinks,” Bucky said, still using Cadance as a puppet. “Ponies come up and do weird things to you and it freaks you out. Like blowing raspberries on your hooves. Or hugging you… random strangers coming up and hugging you is pretty bad. Or just ponies in general. Let me tell you, other ponies. Why… once I was chased all over town by this grey pegasus mare. She just wouldn’t leave me alone and she kept invading my space.” Bucky paused for a moment and pressed his snoot against Cadance’s spine, causing the foal to giggle. “Turns out, she’s an introvert too… just not as introverted as I am apparently.” 

The zebra filly blinked and looked baffled. 

“You and Harper are going to have to have a frizzy mane contest.” Bucky made Cadance wiggle once more. “You’ll like Harper. She’s your sister. She’s a funny little filly. She’s a little neurotic already and I think she has a neuro-magical compulsion involving masculine pronouns.” 

Behind Sukari, Berry Punch smiled as she watched Bucky make Cadance wave once more. With cautious movement, Berry Punch climbed into the bed once more. 

“You and Sentinel will be able to hide in cupboards together. He might let you use his hidey hole. You are going to have the most devoted big brother that you could ever want.” Bucky moved both of Cadance’s forelegs, wrapping them around Cadance’s barrel and making her hug herself. 

Reaching out, Berry Punch took Sukari into her forelegs, pulled her close, and began to rub her sides. The foal panicked for a moment and then relaxed, but never took her eyes off of Bucky and Cadance. 

“Daddoo?” 

Bucky looked over at the crib, his ears perking. 

“Daddoo?”

“Bell Heather… you’re talking!” Thistle bounced off of the couch and peered into the crib. “You don’t say much but it is so much more special when you do say something.” 

“Mammoo?” 

“Yes… I can be mammoo if I need to be.” Thistle grinned, showing off her needle teeth. 

“Flurpleshnurpleshnorfleblarp.” 

“I don’t know what that means, but okay.” Thistle nodded in encouragement. 

“Shnugflarf shnoo shnoo?” Bell asked. 

“Shnoo shnoo,” Thistle repeated, nodding her head. 

“Shnoo?” Sukari blinked after saying the word. 

“Yes… shnoo.” Berry nosed the foal she was holding. 

“The linguisticational level of this room has declined sharply,” Bucky said. 

“Bucky… shut up.” Berry narrowed her eyes and gave Bucky The Look. 

“Fine… I’ll stop flauntenationalating my linguisticational level.” Bucky’s ears dropped. 

Chortling, Berry Punch relaxed her expression and gave Bucky the smile she felt he deserved. She rubbed her hoof along Sukari’s spine and felt the foal snuggle against her. 

There was a soft rapping upon the door. 

“Do come in,” Belisama said. 

A moment later and Tourmaline stuck her head in. “Can I sleep in here tonight? I don’t want to be alone in a cabin and mama… is…” Tourmaline paused, not knowing what to say. 

“Come on, get in here Cuddlebug.” Thistle said. 

Not needing to be told twice, Tourmaline bounced into the room, pronked across the floor, and lept up onto the couch with Belisama. “Mama was sad. She said she needed a distraction.” 

“Hush up about that. Don’t betray your mother’s trust,” Bucky said. 

“I guess I’m not a good distraction.” Tourmaline flopped over, rested her head against Belisama, and sighed. 

“There are different kinds of distractions… sometimes it is nice to snuggle a foal, at other times, it is nice to snuggle another pony in a… well, never mind,” Bucky said, shaking his head. 

“I’m a changeling… I know what is going on. I know everything that goes on.” Tourmaline adjusted her glasses and sighed. 

“Nookie!” Cadance said in a chirpy voice. 

Thistle turned, a slow movement. “I say we blame Berry.” 

“What? Why me?” Berry asked. 

“Where else did she hear that word from?” The corners of Thistle’s mouth twitched. 

“Bucky… Bucky might have said it. Cadance loves her daddy.” Berry gave Thistle an incredulous stare. 

“No way… I am not taking the fall for this one. Derpy will do unspeakable things to me if I’m the one responsible. Berry, you’re her oldest friend, you gotta take the fall for this one.” Bucky looked panicked. 

“Oh no… it doesn’t work that way… there is no proof it was me.” Berry turned her head to look at Bucky and gave Sukari a reassuring squeeze. 

“Adults,” Tourmaline said, heaving a foalish sigh. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 575
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I have an itch.” Belisama’s feathers were fluffed out. “I have an itch and it will not go away.” The griffoness squirmed. “It is where I have an itch that is the problem… it showed up the day after we found that ship and now I’ve suffered for the past two days.” 

Looking over at Belisama, one of Bucky’s eyebrows elevated somewhat. 

“My kitty bits are itching!” Belisama wiggled her backside around on the bed. 

“Got a case of clitty litter?” Bucky asked, choking back a laugh as he spoke. 

“Oh… hah hah…” Belisama ground her backside against the sheet. 

“Probably just healing up after giving birth.” Bucky watched as Belisama scooted her backside over the sheets. Laundry would need to be done again, of this there could be no doubt. 

“Go take Bandua to Magpie. I’m going to take a bath,” Belisama said, still dragging her backside over the sheet. 

“As you command, your Majesty,” Bucky said, bowing his head. He snatched up the shawl where Bandua was sleeping in his magic, held it close to his neck, and departed. 

“Oh by the stars… it itches!” 



 

The common room was filled with excitement. If all went well, they would be home by late evening, or maybe midnight. For some, it was returning home. For others, it would be their first time in a new place. 

For Bucky, it would be the end of boredom. The winter games would be a good distraction, there was lots of work to do at Hidden Hollow Fortress, there would be beer to brew, and a school to run, provided that there were no blizzards keeping little foals from reaching school. 

Holding a sugar cube in his magic, Bucky looked down at the blue eyes looking up at him. Blue eyes filled with a hopeful look, but also clouded with doubt. He kept his ears down and tried to look as submissive as possible. 

“Just say something. Anything. Anything at all. I don’t care what you say, just say something and I will give you this sugarcube. You haven’t said anything for almost two days now. Daddy is scared… and you have such a sweet voice.” 

Sukari, looking up at the sugarcube, swallowed, closed her eyes, dropped her head, then turned around and began to walk away. 

Bucky thought about grabbing her, but that might startle her. Again. Startling her meant cleaning up a mess. He lowered the sugarcube down to foal level. “Here. Just take it. And know that daddy loves you.” 

He waited. The foal was just standing there. His eyes lingered in the stripes on her back, both her pelt and the fine latticework of scars. One ear twitched. Bucky, not aware that he was holding his breath, began to feel lightheaded. 

“Come on, take it. Just… have it. No strings attached.” Bucky’s words were raspy from holding his breath. He drew in wind through his dry throat. 

Sukari turned, eyed the sugarcube, licked her lips for a moment, stared at the treat, and then, without warning, she lunged at it. She gobbled it down, looked up at Bucky, and then ran off with her corded tail tucked between her hind legs. She dove under a pile of cushions and hid. 

“Well, I’m calling that a victory,” Bucky said to no one in particular. 

“Buckminster… a word with you for a moment?” Celestia’s head was held high and she looked hopeful. 

Bucky rose up on all fours and something in one of his hind legs popped. Grimacing, he limped over to the table where Celestia was sitting and sat down in a chair. 

“Luna has no spies here… well, except for you of course.” Celestia’s expression became serious. “I do not see a way for us to win. Luna is allowing me to field up to two dozen units. She was very patronising about the whole thing. She is detestable sometimes.” 

Bucky nodded. 

“Any plans on how to beat her?” Celestia asked. 

Bucky shook his head. “She is fielding one Myrmidon. A male. The rest are garden variety lunar pegasi and her elite night watch unicorns.” 

Leaning forward, Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “How did you learn of this?” 

“I have my sources.” Bucky made no effort to elaborate. 

“The game is not in your favour. These are war games, but we cannot cause grievous bodily harm or crippling injury. Your griffon fighters might do well in a real skirmish, I have no doubts, but how can they subdue such terrible foes?” Celestia’s lip curled back in a snarl. “Luna is going to be unbearable to live around after she wins.” 

“If I could give my griffons a well outfitted magical arsenal, this would be different—” 

“No magical armor, no magical weapons, those are the rules. Unicorns can use stunning spells, holding spells, and spells to incapacitate, but not cause serious injury.” Celestia looked at Bucky and her expression softened. 

“I know. The rules aren’t very fair. They were not written with little griffons in mind.” Bucky’s talons began to drum upon the table. 

“Imagine if you will, Luna’s lunar pegasi in magically shielded plate mail, storming your defenses.” Celestia lifted up her teacup and there was an angry slurp. She swallowed. “The no magic rule exists for a reason. If you could use it, so could she.” 

“So yes… still an unwinnable situation, no matter how you slice it.” Bucky poured himself a cup of tea. 

Watching a spider golem scurry past, Celestia smiled as Tourmaline followed. “I wish you could build a fifty foot tall war machine… that would put Luna in her place.” 

“Somepony could get seriously hurt with one of those. I won’t do it,” Bucky added a slice of crystalised dehydrated lemon to his tea and plunked in a sugarcube. “Without going into detail… I have a few questions about my trip to Mustangia… that is assuming that the ponies we hope to find will be at the mine where we think they might be.” 

Celestia’s demeanour shifted. She sat up, becoming regal and dignified. Her front hooves folded in front of her, one over the other upon the table. Her eyes glowed for a moment, burning like embers in a fire. 

“I need to make sure that Twilight understands my purpose there. Twilight can suffer inopportune pangs of consciousness… I’m not even sure if she should be going.” Bucky lifted his teacup and sniffed. 

The sound in the room around the pair seemed to go quiet, to be dulled somehow, as if it were somehow distant and very far away. Bucky’s horn was glowing. Nopony or nobirdy seemed to  be looking at them, all of them found reasons to look away, finding something else that was far more interesting to look at. 

“I will make certain that Twilight knows what is to take place there if you find what you are looking for. She might not like it, but she will obey and I know that she will do what is asked of her. You are to reduce the mirror travelers to a fine paste and Twilight is to destroy the control device.” 

“To make things clear, I am not working as a Black Cloak or a duly appointed agent of the Lunar Court. This is a family affair, a private dealing between a nephew and his auntie. I don’t want Twilight bringing rules and regulations into this. I don’t want a repeat of somepony scolding me for dangling somepony off of a roof in Vanhoover and giving them a scare.” Having spoke his mind, Bucky tilted back his head, placed the teacup to his lips, and took a satisfying sip. He hissed after he swallowed, grimacing as the hot liquid slid down his throat. 

“Buckminster… Captain Frost Armor was a member of Twilight’s family. A close cousin, but he was not a noble. He came from a long proud line of loyal, dutiful servants to the crown. I watched him grow up. When he was a yearling, he stood straight and tall and he saluted me. It was his very first salute. He devoted his entire existence to my service. He saw me through some of the worst moments of my recent life.” The tea in Celestia’s cup began to boil. Steam rose from the teapot. The butter on the plate began to go soft and lose its shape. 

“I understand. I will go to Mustangia and I will do as I am asked.” 

“If you will excuse me, my dear nephew, I do believe I need some fresh air,” Celestia said in a soft voice that did nothing to hide her fury. She bowed her head, then rose from the table, and then saying nothing else, departed. 



 

“In the distance, I can see Canterlot,” Tourmaline said as she peered out of the small window. She squinted through her glasses. “The city is so pretty at night.” 

Berry Punch pushed Tourmaline over and peered out the window, sitting cheek to cheek with Tourmaline. “The sky is so clear… I can see all of the stars overhead. The sky is kinda purple. You can see the whole of the land is blanketed in white.” 

Tourmaline yawned and then draped herself over Berry Punch. “I’m sleepy.”

“It is past midnight,” Berry said. 

“But if I go to sleep, I’ll just get woke up when we arrive.” Tourmaline yawned again and rubbed her cheek against Berry’s neck. “Bucky is right.” 

“He is? Since when has Bucky been right about anything?” Berry wrapped a foreleg around Tourmaline and gave her a squeeze. 

“Earth ponies are extra snuggly.” 

“Oh.” Berry Punch smiled. “He’s right about that. But we won’t tell him. He’ll get a big head from finally being right about something. We don’t want that.” 

“We don’t?” Tourmaline gave Berry Punch and owlish stare through her glasses. 

“No. We don’t. Because we like Bucky just the way he is. The lovable bumbling doofus that always comes through for those he loves or those in trouble.” Berry reached up and booped Tourmaline on the snoot. “Like you.” She watched as Tourmaline yawned. 

“So sleepy.” 

“When we get to Ponyville, I’ll make sure you are tucked into a nice warm bed. I think you’ll be staying with us tonight.” Berry reclined over on her side, pulling Tourmaline down with her. The foal did nothing to resist. 



 

The Scorned Mare settled down towards its mooring in the snow covered field like a sleepy foal tumbling into bed. The night was almost windless, the air was crisp and clear. From where he was, Bucky could see the lake behind the house had vanished; frozen and covered over in snow, it was hard to see and indistinguishable from the land around it. 

There was a deep sense of worry, anxious anticipation. He wanted to see his foals, his family… but there would be so many questions. So much talking. It was bound to be overwhelming. There would be questions about Sukari. 

Bucky worried about Sukari. This was going to be a new environment all over again. Everypony would be wanting to see her, touch her, be near her. Bucky feared that it would be too much. 

There would be questions about Broom and Door, Lugus was going to have to explain things to Yew. There were going to be papers to fill out, to sign, and forms for the school. 

There were going to be vaccinations to perform. Poor little Sukari, who had already suffered enough, was going to have to be stabbed in the backside. Bucky vowed not to let Grimglammer anywhere near the zebra filly.  

It was one thing to vaccinate a foal or a pony; it was another to enjoy stabbing somepony in the arse with a railroad spike. 

His talons on the control yoke, Bucky eased his ship down. There was a muffled thump as the ship settled into the wooden cradle and the ship shuddered as its weight came to rest in the mooring. 

Flipping several switches, Bucky powered down the engines. 



 

Moving about the deck, Bucky was securing the tethers himself when a flight of griffons arrived. They went to work and in no time at all the ship was secured in its berth. 

Ponies from belowdecks starting coming abovedecks. 

There wasn’t much of a greeting party, which was no surprise. It was late at night. A few lights flickered on the farmhouse, windows that had been dark were now illuminated. 

The Raptors landed on the deck, all of them looking a bit sleepy. 

Distracted, Bucky did not see the grey shape swooping through the darkness. It came as a blur, moving swift and almost silent. Bucky let out a startled cry of alarm as he was snatched off the deck. Strong forelegs wrapped around him, squeezing the air out of his lungs. 

“I missed you!” 

A moment later, Bucky felt Derpy kissing him all over his face. He saw the ground beneath him, moving in a blur. Craning his head, he found Derpy’s lips with his own. After one very passionate and smouldering kiss, Bucky pulled away with a wet slobbery pop. 

“You can say hello to everypony else in the morning. Right now, you’re mine. All mine.” 

“I suppose you are hauling me back to bed?” Bucky asked. 

Derpy nodded. “Yup.” 

“Derpy, there is so much to tell you—” 

“Later… I have other plans for your mouth.” Derpy gave Bucky a squeeze. 

“But Derpy… really, there is some important stuff to talk about… Cadance learned some new words, Belisama gave birth, and I… uh… well, I may have brought home a zebra foal that Thistle and I adopted—” 

“You brought me home a gift?” 

This was not the reaction that Bucky expected. To be honest, Bucky was not sure what he expected. But not this. 

“You’re so sweet! So thoughtful!” Derpy began kissing Bucky’s face all over once more. 

Forgetting everything else, Bucky wrapped his forelegs around Derpy’s neck and allowed himself to get lost in the moment. He sought out her lips once more with his own and as her lips parted to invite him inside, Bucky’s troubles melted away. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 576
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!” 

Wincing, Bucky knew who that voice belonged to. 

“Daddy.” 

“No… mamamama!” 

“Daddy!” 

“Mama mama!” 

A raspberry was blown. 

Bucky dared to open his eye. Somepony kept dumping foals into his bed while he slept. This was turning into a habit. What an ugly thing to do to a sleeping pony. 

“Eye open! Awake!” Harper’s voice was triumphant. And loud. 

Yawning, Bucky lifted his head. A moment later, somepony gave him a very slobbery but well meaning kiss. Somepony with a frizzy orange mane. He also saw a flash of grey in his blurry vision. “What time is it?” 

“A little past eight. You were sleeping well… so we let you sleep.” 

Derpy’s voice was happy and Bucky was glad to hear it. “If you let me sleep, why is there foals in my bed?” 

“Because it was time to wake up. And Harper was pitching a fit.” 

Bucky felt a small body toss itself against him and begin climbing all over him. He yawned again. “Oh how I have missed you Harper. You’ve grown up I think while I was gone.” 

“Sentinel, Piña, and Dinky got up every single morning to feed her. They never missed a day. Sentinel has started to take some real pride in helping out.” 

Bucky heard Derpy pause and take a deep breath. 

“The foal you brought home troubles me Bucky.” 

There it was. He had been waiting for it. Bucky inhaled, grabbed both Harper and Cadance, and waited for the rest of it to come out as he squeezed his fillies. 

“She’s… broken. I don’t know what to do with her. We have her secluded in the nursery and she’s hiding under the crib. She’s covered in scars and she has that horrible scar that runs from her nostril up to her eye. I don’t know what to do Bucky, and I feel bad.” 

Not knowing what to say, Bucky squeezed both Harper and Cadance again, who squirmed in his embrace. He was going to have to get up and get out of bed. He could feel his full bladder urging him to get a move on. 

“Where is Bell?” Bucky asked. 

“In the big tub with Thistle. They’re soaking.” 

Bucky nodded. That sounded right. Thistle needed a good soak. “Have you met Broom and Door?” 

“They’re very nice. Broom and Semillon act like they have known each other their whole lives already. Door fainted. Scared us.” 

“Door and Broom both do that. It happens.” Bucky rubbed his face against Harper and then Cadance. 

“Boadicea—” 

“Is she behaving?” Bucky asked. 

“That poor thing is a pitiful mess! She’s bald all over and is nothing but bones!” 

“She’ll get straightened out. Make sure you keep a count on all of the silverware. How is Yew taking it?” Bucky let go of Cadance and Harper after giving them a final squeeze. He began to wiggle out of the bed. 

“Yew keeps trying to hug her and she keeps trying to escape.” 

Almost stumbling over his own hooves, Bucky staggered off to the bathroom. 

“Bandua has bat wings.” 

Standing at the door, Bucky replied, “I know.” 

“Will my foals have bat wings?” 

“Derpy, love… when those foals were made… I was still as I was.” 

There was no reply. After waiting a moment, Bucky went inside the bathroom. 



 

“Daddy!”

Sentinel was, perhaps, a little too huggy. Bucky realised this after being plowed into and bowled over. There was something wrong with how Sentinel had addressed him, but Bucky could not put his hoof down on what it was. As he lay on the ground, seeing stars in his vision and struggling to breathe, Bucky sucked air into his lungs to try and say something to his son. 

It was no use. Just as his lungs filled with air, Sentinel squeezed again. Bucky felt his bones creak as the air went whooshing out of his lungs. 

A moment later, other ponies joined the mob. Bucky saw flashes of purple-grey, bright pink, charcoal grey, and purple pink. Just when Bucky thought he could take no more, he saw a cloven hoof and a flash of blue. 

“OOF!” 

“I can’t even see Bucky,” Lyra said as she snapped a picture, capturing the moment on film. “I mean, he is completely buried by foals.” 

“Some of them are big foals,” Bon Bon said in an amiable voice. 

“I finished my enchantment!” Piña said. 

“We finished up with our project,” Sparker said. 

“I accidently infested the school with cockroaches!” 

A voice from beneath the pile said, “Dinky!” 

“Don’t worry, the griffons love them. They’re calling this the Feast of Winter.” Rising Star stood up, pulled Loch Skimmer off of Bucky, and then Ripple. 

Dinky scurried away. “Don’t let him up just yet, I want a fair chance to run!” She took off, her tail streaming out behind her. “Gonna go see Cadance, buh bye!” 

Shoving Piña aside, Sparkler bent down and kissed Bucky on the cheek. “Good job with Bandua… she’s awesome.” 

“Everypony and everybirdy says she is hideous.” Bucky laboured to breathe, Sentinel was still squeezing him. 

“I think she’s cute. Berry Punch thinks I’m warped.” Sparkler began to pry Sentinel’s forelegs off of Bucky so her poor father could breathe. 

“She is like a mad science abomination… I think she’s great,” Lyra said. 

“Lyra! Do not call our offspring mad science abominations!” Bon Bon struck out and kicked Lyra in the hoof. 

“At least I kissed her Bonnie… you went ‘blech!’ and you not so politely declined.” 

Shamed, Bon Bon turned away and hung her head. “I’m a lousy pony. I think I’ll go stand my own self in the corner now.” 

“I’ll show you my enchantment project later. I’m gonna go try to see if I can say hello to the zebra.” Piña trotted off down the hall, her mane and tail bouncing as she went. 

“I missed you… I missed you so much. I took care of the house while you were gone.” Sentinel sat down on his haunches and began to compose himself. 

Wheezing, Bucky sat up. Just as he was almost balanced, Loch Skimmer plowed into him once more and bowled him over. 

“I missed my daddy!” Loch Skimmer wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck and squeezed, causing alarming crackling sounds to be heard. After a moment, she let go. 

Laying on the ground, Bucky rubbed his neck. “Pegasi…” Bucky tried to figure out what was missing. He blinked. “Where is my Bittersweet?” 

“In the nursery, trying to be sweet to the zebra,” Sentinel replied. 

“Her name is Sukari.” Bucky once more pulled himself up into a sitting position. He looked at Rising Star and Sparkler. “How did Derpy take it?” 

“Oh, mom freaked. She freaked and she flapped and Rising Star and I both got a few slaps and then mom had to go sit down because her pelvis was hurting her and she told Rising Star and I both to get over next to her so she could slap us around a bit more, but we’re not stupid. We stayed right where we were.” Sparkler smiled a lopsided smile as the corner of her mouth twitched and spasmed. 

“Next time you listen to your mother.” Bucky gave Sparkler a wry smile. 

“But we’re moved out. It was a good idea, converting that space over the forge into a living space. Loch Skimmer and Ripple can both fly around in there because there is so much room in that loft. Plus, it looks industrial with all of the bare pipes and bricks and stuff, so that’s really cool.” Rising Star grinned. 

“We set up a really nice living section for Lugnut and Spanner too… they have their own little apartment connected to ours so we can share space together.” Sparkler sat down on the floor, lifted her front leg, and tried to make the quivering stop. 

“I was able to set up my punching bags and my kicking posts!” Reaching out a hoof, Ripple boxed her sister on the shoulder and sent Loch Skimmer sprawling. 

“And this is why all of you needed to move out.” Bucky watched as Loch Skimmer scrambled to her hooves, scowling at Ripple in a way that only sisters could. 

“You are so dead!” Loch Skimmer glowered at her sister and raised a hoof in a threatening gesture. “I oughta press assault charges!” 

Ripple blew a raspberry.

“That’s it, sister smack down time!” Loch Skimmer launched herself at Ripple. 

Much faster than her sister, Ripple took off. 

Raising her voice, Lyra told Ripple, “No flying indoors!”

“Why aren’t you in school?” Bucky asked Sentinel, who was sitting beside him. 

“Because… you came home… and we wanted to see you.” Sentinel gave his father a toothy grin. 



 

“Bucky, important looking pegasus at the door to see you!” Lyra’s voice rang through the front of the house as she went prancing down the hall. 

Bucky got up from the kitchen table, wiped his face with his foreleg, and made his way to the front door, stepping through the kitchen entry archway. There was a white pegasus wearing silver armor. He offered up a smart salute. 

“Knight Commandant! I have a message for you from Her Royal Highness, The Voice of Thunder, She of Endless Majesty, Princess Luna.” The pegasus paused. “Sir, I am begging you sir, please remember, I am just the messenger and in this day and age, we don’t kill the messenger.”

“Just give me the message,” Bucky said, rolling his eyes. 

“I was commanded to bring you this, sir!” The pegasus lifted his front leg and delivered a powerful slap to Bucky’s muzzle. 

Stunned, Bucky stood there with wide eyes. “What in Tartarus was that for?” Bucky reached up and rubbed his face. 

“Sir, I beg your forgiveness, sir!” The pegasus snapped to attention. “That was Her Royal Highness, The Voice of Thunder, She of Endless Majesty, Princess Luna’s formal declaration of war.” 

Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “So… that’s how it is to be then...” 

“Sir… would you like to send a return message?” The pegasus began to tremble. 

“Prince Buckminster Bitters of Equestria, King of the Wee Griffons, and Lord of Hot and Sweaty Plot Furrow does command you… to fetch a large fresh halibut from a fish market. Luna is to be slapped in the face with it as my declaration for war. Spare no consideration, I want for this to be a proper declaration. This is how we griffons announce ourselves to our enemies!” 

The white pegasus’ knees began to knock together. “Yes sir… I will do as I am bid, sir!” 

Bucky bowed his head for a moment and saw the pegasus was looking at him with a fearful expectant stare. “Something else?” 

“Sir, if you would be so gracious, would you mind telling me where I might find Princess Celestia?” The pegasus’ armor was rattling as he trembled. 

“Oh you poor bastard. I have no idea where she is…” 



 

Rubbing his cheek, Bucky laughed. The war was now official. Princess versus Princess versus Princess. He wondered how the guard was doing on his hunt for Celestia and he wondered how Celestia was going to take it. 

“Sentinel!” 

The lunar pegasus appeared at his father’s side, almost as if by magic. 

“Sentinel, son, I am going to town. Want to come with me? I’m stopping by Carousel Boutique. Diamond Tiara, being a good pony, is probably in school… but I thought we could spend a little time together… up for a trip?” 

Sentinel looked confused. “Are you buying something nice for my mothers?” 

Bucky shook his head.” No, I’m afraid not, Sentinel. I need to get fitted for a formal gown. The rules state that each princess must be dressed in their finest formal wear. Alas, I have nothing worth wearing.” 

“Father, tell me you’re kidding.” Sentinel gave his father a pleading look. 

“No… I am being serious. I’m thinking of something blue… with sequins.” Bucky craned his head and looked at his sides. “Does blue go with my pelt colour?” 

For a moment, Sentinel looked as though he was going to swallow his own muzzle. A lone whimper escaped his lips. 

“I’ll ask Rarity and Coco. Maybe we’ll stop and get comic books or something while we’re out. Do you think a purple gown might look better?” Bucky looked down at his son and saw himself reflected in Sentinel’s glasses. 

“Father, I am begging you, for once, please break the rules!” 
	
> Chapter 577
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rubbing her face, wincing not at pain but at the memory of pain, Celestia looked at Berry Punch. Celestia was regal, solemn looking, and her eyes were wide and wise. “I am sure that you, of all ponies, understand what I must do and why I must do it.” 

The earth pony mare nodded. “Do it. Get it over with.” 

Extending her foreleg over the table, Celestia delivered a light slap across Berry Punch’s face, catching her on one side, and then reversing her stroke to catch her once on the other side of the muzzle. 

Berry blinked. 

“I am sorry that it must be this way, can we at least have a cease fire so we can remain civil?” Celestia looked hopeful and there was a faint smile, her teeth flashed for a moment. 

“This changes nothing between us, but I suppose that if I wanted to fight dirty I’d be taking your niece hostage,” Berry said. She shrugged and crammed a banana nut muffin into her mouth, the whole thing, all at once. It had been slitted down the middle and a pat of butter had been stuffed in. 

“Taking family members hostage is dirty pool.” Shaking her head, Celestia looked a bit distressed. “I suppose I should be going. That poor, poor guard. I think I shall see to it that he gets a promotion for his bravery.” 

Reaching out with her hoof, Berry Punch grabbed another muffin and stuffed it into her maw. She chewed, her cheeks bulging. Her eyes closed and an expression of bliss spread over her face. 

“You seem hungry.” Celestia hoped that her words did not offend. War might have just been declared, but there was no need to be uncivil. 

There was a loud gulp. “I’m eating for three.” Berry eyed the platter of muffins, glanced around the kitchen with guilty looking eyes, and took another one. 

“So how many muffins has that been for each of you?” Celestia asked. 



 

Bittersweet peered under the crib, her ears limp and drooping. Being mute, Bittersweet didn’t have a lot of options when it came to communicating her feelings, at least not with words, but she was the undisputed master of pantomime. She could convey her feelings, her emotions with exaggerated expressions. 

Under the crib, a pair of blue eyes blinked. 

There was something of a stalemate between the donkey and the zebra. Piña hadn’t given up, but she was no longer an active participant and was now sitting in the bowl shaped chair in the corner, watching and waiting for something to happen. 

Bittersweet sighed and there was a faint wheezy whimper. It was one of the few sounds she was capable of making, along with lip smacks, pops, and whistles. 

There was another sigh. Bittersweet focused on becoming the saddest donkey ever. She contorted her face and mangled her expression into the saddest looking expression of pain that she could muster. It worked on Rising Star, it worked on Sparkler, it worked on Loch Skimmer, and it made Ripple look as though she might start crying at any moment. 

With soft gasp, Bittersweet fell over on her side and continued to look melancholy. Morose. Doleful. Woebegone. Wretched. She let out another mournful sigh and appeared to be ready to expire from ennui at any moment. 

To any casual observer just entering the nursery, the donkey might appear to be a teenage suicide victim on their way out, having said goodbye to the cruel world in a final fit of existential expression.

Bittersweet laid there and waited. In her chair, Piña was very still.

Under the crib, Sukari blinked, watched, and did not move. 

After what felt like a long time, Bittersweet’s sensitive ears felt the faint vibration of movement. She did not move, but continued to lay there, heaving gusty sighs of sorrow. Something moved in the corner of her vision. Something that was more grey blue than black.

A tiny hoof pressed against Bittersweet’s face. The donkey did nothing but continued to lay there, limp. She made herself think about all of the saddest thoughts she could. She forced herself to think about losing Ripple. Her herd. She thought about kicked kittens and funerals. 

She felt her eyes water. 

The hoof against her face gave a little shove. She thought about standing all alone, in the freezing rain, with no family, no home, nothing, nothing at all but open sky and rain. 

She felt something curl up against her neck and go still. The donkey made no move, no indication that she was happy on the inside, but continued to lay there and look sad. 

Piña, moving with slow assurance, dropped out of the chair, crossed the room with exaggerated slow steps, and crept close to Bittersweet. When she heard a soft cry from Sukari, Piña stopped mid-step and fell over onto her side. She lay on the floor, unmoving, trying to look like a harmless pink lump. 

When Piña was confident that the zebra filly was not looking, she wiggled along the floor like an inchworm, scooting herself closer to Bittersweet. It took a while, but Piña reached Bittersweet’s side, cuddled up against the donkey, and went still. 

Extending one long ear, Bittersweet reached out and gave Sukari a gentle pat. 



 

“Doctor Mawu?” 

Standing in the doorway, Thistle rubbed one foreleg against the other. Her mouth felt dry. 

“Yes? How might I help you?” 

The kelpie looked at the zebra. “My name is Thistle, I am one of Bucky’s wives and I have a bit of a problem that I hoped you might be able to help me with. I understand that you are a bocor and a psychiatrist.” 

Doctor Mawu nodded. “I know who you are. I am pleased to meet you. So what can I do?” 

Thistle looked down at her front hooves as she made little hoofy kicks with her left hoof against the tile. “I have a zebra foal… she’s broken.” 

“I see… and if I might ask, how is she broken?” Doctor Mawu’s voice was soft and sincere. 

“She’s a branded slave covered in lash marks and Bucky thinks that she might have been conditioned to pull a mine cart or something horrible. She pees and poops everywhere if you startle her or make her scared. My husband blew a raspberry on her hoof and she just shut down… after peeing all over the bed.” Thistle blurted everything out and then began to feel queasy. 

“Oh… oh dear.” Reaching up with a hoof, Doctor Mawu adjusted the lapel of her blazer. 

“I feel so hopeless.” Thistle began to sniffle. She snorted, determined not to cry in front of a stranger. She lifted her head. “I don’t know how to help her. She peed in the corner and I just stood there because I was too afraid to tell her it was wrong.” 

Moving behind her desk, Doctor Mawu sat down in her chair. She looked around her somewhat cluttered office, her eyes blinking in a slow stunned manner. 

“I have to meet with a client in a short while, but do come in. We can speak for a few minutes. Of course I will do everything I can to help you. Please, do come in an have a seat. There is no shame in sitting down and speaking to a psychiatrist.” 

“Thank you,” Thistle said, bowing her head for a moment as she came in. 



 

“Father, I am begging you… if you put your hoof down, they will listen—” 

“Sentinel, for the last time, the rules state that the princess must take upon herself the role of the damsel in distress and she is to look as princessly as possible. This is a chance to strut one’s stuff. You are supposed to put on a fine gown and then sit in your tower and look fabulous… and this is exactly what I shall do.” Shaking his head, Bucky extended his talons and pushed open the door to Carousel Boutique. 



 

“You will go to school every day and you will learn and you will pay attention. Am I understood?” 

Boadicea slumped down, bowing her head. “Yes ma’am.” 

“Poor thing… you’re shivering. The attic loft is actually the warmest part of this house. All of the heat rises and Lugus loves it up here… go sit in the sunny patch in front of that big window.” Yew planted a hoof upon the cub and gave a hearty shove. 

Peekaboo giggled as Boadicea went sprawling over. “Mama strong.” 

Scrambling away from the pegasus, Boadicea did as she was bid, sitting down in the sunny patch in front of the big window. The window opened, allowing for any flier to get outside in a hurry. 

Peekaboo, enthralled by Boadicea, began to strut around the cub in a wide circle. “Imma griffon too.” 

Boadicea looked at the pegasus. “You are?” 

“Yes.” Peekaboo nodded. Throwing back her head, she roared. “GRRRROOWRRR!” 

“She’s fierce. She is also sometimes invisible, so look out. She can come out at you from nowhere.” Yew smiled at her family. 



 

“Bucky… darling… do come in! I was just organising these swatches of fabric for display!” Rarity moved forward, her eyelids fluttering in a most alluring manner. “Sentinel! What a pleasure to see you… why aren’t you in school? This is unbecoming… tsk tsk.” 

Sentinel ducked his head, shamed by Rarity’s tongue clucking and by what his father was about to do. He sighed. 

“Rarity, I need a dress.” Bucky tried to muster some sympathy for Sentinel and failed. 

“For which wife?” Rarity blinked. “I have some new fabric that would look wonderful with Derpy’s pelt—” 

“No… I need a dress. A gown.” 

The corner of Rarity’s eye twitched. 

“I need something formal… maybe something with sequins—” 

“Father… no!” 

“Hush Sentinel!” 

“Yes father…” 

The corner of Rarity’s eye twitched some more. “Well, anything is possible.” 

“I have to be dressed to go to war.” Bucky began to look around at the dresses and gowns on display.

The entire side of Rarity’s face spasmed. 

“I thought I heard your voice!” 

Coco trotted out of the kitchen, crossed the room, and upon reaching Sentinel, she kissed him on the cheek. She lifted her head, smiled, and kissed Bucky on the cheek as well. She looked at Rarity and raised an eyebrow. 

“Is something wrong?” Coco asked. 

“Bucky… Bucky needs… Bucky needs a formal gown to go… to go to… to go to war in.” 

Coco’s face contorted into a wrinkled mass of confusion. “What?” 

“I need a formal gown fit for a princess. I’m going to war.” Bucky didn’t bother looking at Coco, Rarity, or Sentinel. He focused instead upon the fancy hat in the window. “And maybe a fancy hat.” 

“Well, I suppose we can. We’re in the middle of the post holiday doldrums. There is nothing, and I mean nothing for us to do. We’re dead in the water.” Coco began to study Bucky with a critical eye. “Rarity, I’m thinking something in a dark navy with teal accents. His tan pelt is neutral, but we have other considerations.” 

Rarity, her sense of professionalism now snapping into place, nodded. “We have… some skin visible because of life being cruel to him. We need to draw the eye away from that.” 

“He has a lovely slender, slight build. We could make something clingy, yet flowing.” Coco began to circle Bucky. 

“Floor length. Cover those legs. The legs are shapely, so we want something that will flow around his legs and show them off, just not show the legs themselves because of… well, scarring.” Rarity peered at Bucky through narrowed eyes. 

Bucky nudged Sentinel and waggled his eyebrows. “She says I have shapely legs.” 

Sentinel’s nose almost touched the floor as he slumped and his ears went limp. 

“We could do something daring, like a gown made in a dark olive fabric. We have that olive crushed velvet in storage…” Coco’s mane bobbed around her face as she moved and a wrinkle of concentration stood out on the middle of her muzzle. 

Dragging his hooves, Sentinel walked away, heading for a couch. He climbed up, sat down, and sighed. He looked at  his father, the two mares, and then his gaze dropped back down to the floor. 

The world did not make sense, and Sentinel wanted the world to make sense. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 578
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky stared up at the ceiling as the measuring tape trailed over sensitive areas and he tried not to giggle. Giggling would be a breach of social contract… one did not giggle as they were being measured, even if delicate places were brushed up against and tickled. 

“I wish I had these measurements.” Coco scowled and shook her head. 

“Coco, dear, you are beautiful. If you had these measurements, you’d be scrawny, like I am. You are perfection in the form of an earth pony. A fertile patch of earth is prized for its expansiveness… wide valleys with gentle curves make for the best places to plant seed... being a small stony patch of earth like I am holds nothing of value.” Still staring up at the ceiling, Bucky did not see that Coco had turned a bright shade of puce and was suffering from a full body blush. 

“I must say… there is something appealing about earth ponies.” Rarity repositioned the measuring tape, wrapping it around Bucky’s narrowest portion, just ahead of his hips and just behind his ribs. She cinched to tighten it up. 

Feeling something tickling his sheath, Bucky bit his lip and failed to hold back a giggle. 

“Bucky, do behave. Your sides heaving like this will affect the measurements.” Rarity frowned. “I don’t know what has gotten into you. You were doing so well. Some ponies just get… squirrelly when they are being measured.” 

“I need a drink of water,” Coco said, excusing herself. She trotted away in a hurry. 

“Buckminster, somehow, you have the measurements of a teenage filly… any mare would kill to have such a delicate frame… I wonder if you know how lucky you are.” 

Sentinel whimpered. 

“Yes… because every stallion wants the small thin frame of a teenage filly.” Bucky flashed Rarity a fang filled smile. 

Tittering, Rarity continued her work. 



 

Wrapping her forelegs around Sukari, Piña gave the zebra foal a gentle hug. Laying in a pile with Bittersweet, Piña remained quiet, saying nothing, understanding that sometimes quiet and slow was the way to go. 

Standing in the doorway, Bon Bon looked over at Lyra, and the pair said nothing to one another, not wanting to spook Sukari now that she seemed calm. Of course, Bon Bon wanted to rush over and cuddle the foal, but that was a bad idea and would lead to trouble. Bon Bon felt Lyra lean against her side, the reassuring weight of Lyra’s ribs pressing in on her own. 



 

“I did not expect to see you here.” Bucky blinked and looked up. 

“Nor did I expect to see you here.” Celestia looked down and narrowed her eyes. “I slapped Berry Punch. She took it very well. I was gentle.” 

Sentinel, recovering from his shock, saluted. He then looked puzzled. “We are at war, are we not?” 

“We can be civil. Think of it as a cease fire.” Celestia reached down and patted Sentinel with her wing. “Sentinel, do me a favour… take Tourmaline and be her escort.” 

“Okay…” Sentinel backed away and looked at Tourmaline. “Do you like comic books?” 

Tourmaline shrugged and then trotted off with Sentinel following after her. 

“I’ve had it with Luna,” Bucky whispered. 

“So have I.” Celestia nodded. 

“She filled my office with popcorn and then I flooded your office with water because I thought you did it. She forged your magical signature. I do apologise once again for that.” Bucky bowed his head. 

“How very civil of you… I wish all wars were this civil.” Celestia beamed and batted her eyelashes as somepony snapped a photo. 

“I have a plan… but I can’t do it on my own. I need your help,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“We are at war.” Celestia shook her head. 

“But we can be treacherous. Think of this as both of working to demoralise a mutual enemy. It is time that Luna learns a lesson. It is time for Luna to learn that she is not untouchable.” Bucky’s voice was flinty, hard, and full of malice. 

“What is your plan?” Celestia asked. 

“Once Sentinel and Tourmaline are done having a look around, I think we’ll get a bite to eat. After that, come with me back to my tower. I want to introduce you to a very special golem that I have created for just such an occasion.”

“You mean… you planned ahead for an occasion like this?” Celestia asked, raising her eyebrow. 

“I plan ahead for everything…” 

“Nephew… you scare me sometimes.” 

“Hey… Princess Celestia… what are you doing in the comic book shop?” 

“Why, hello Twilight… we were going to have lunch once we are done here. Would you care to join us?” 



 

“Cheerilee?” 

The earth pony mare paused and looked up from the papers she was grading. She looked at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. There was a faint prickle of fear. 

“What is it Apple Bloom?” 

“I need some special permissions.” Apple Bloom sat down upon the floor and looked up. 

“We need some special permissions.” Sweetie scratched her side and fidgeted. 

“The big science show and tell is coming up… I’ve worked very hard to get where I am now and have a chance to enter it. But there are some things I can’t do… that we can’t do, and we need some help if we are going to make this project work.” Apple Bloom’s ears pinned back and she gave Cheerilee a pleading look. 

“I see.” Cheerilee rubbed her front hooves together. She smiled, trying to put Apple Bloom at ease. “What do you need?”

“We need access to clouds, but none of us can fly. But we need clouds. We also need a cloud containment field to hold clouds in place. I have a really brilliant idea that is going to change the world but I can’t do it with the resources I have.” 

“I’m sure that you do have a brilliant idea Apple Bloom. Do you have a list of everything you need?” Cheerilee replied. 

Apple Bloom nodded. “Dinky and Piña might have a few more things I don’t know about, but they’re not here. Babs is in class right now, the history of astronomy. I don’t think she’ll need to add anything.” 

Cheerilee leaned forward over her desk. “Just leave your list with me and I will see what can be done. The judges are very reasonable. Exceptional ideas sometimes need a little flexibility with the rules.” 

“We Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to change the world… with the help of a few friends.” Scootaloo wrapped a foreleg over Sweetie Belle. 

“It is important to never stop believing that you can change the world. I know that you girls will impress me. I wish you all the best of luck.” Cheerilee watched as Apple Bloom pulled a sheet of paper out of her saddlebag. 

“Cheerilee?” 

“Yes Apple Bloom?” 

“I’m asking you this as your niece…” 

“Okay Apple Bloom, out with it.” 

“But can we have a Cutie Mark Crusaders study buddy party tonight? There is a lot we need to get done.” 

“So long as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle get permission, that will be fine.” 



 

Ripple paced, a habit she had borrowed from her father. She waited as Violet read through everything on her list. Her wings fluttered at her sides and her leg muscles quivered as she stalked back and forth. 

She could feel Lugus’ eyes upon her. 

“Ripple… this is not what I expected. Do you think this is possible?” Violet asked. 

Ripple, still pacing, nodded. “I hope so. All rules of engagement apply. Rules are rules and they must be followed. They can also be creatively implemented or interpreted.” 

“How very Bucky-like.” Violet peered through her glasses and kept reading. “So this is why you needed Semillon and I… what a clever filly.” 

“Sentinel and I both hashed this idea out. Mostly his idea though. The Raptors agree to go through with it. They’re a little unhappy, but they’ll get over it.” Ripple looked at Lugus and could not read his expression. She began to feel a bit of panic creeping up on her. 

“There is a lot to get done and a very short amount of time to get it done in,” Violet said. She watched as Ripple winced. “Yes, you are going to owe me some hours. You signed the deal.” 

“War is all about preparation and execution. Violet, you are our best weapon—” 

“Don’t flatter me, filly, that contract is ironclad.” Violet gave Ripple and icy smile. 

“No, I mean it. I think we can pull this off, but only because of you.” Ripple looked Violet in the eye. “For smash and go combat, I would turn to Lugus for advice. For what we’re planning… you were the only pony I could think of.” 

“Well, I suppose I am a little flattered now. I was just compared to Lugus.” Violet set down the list and looked around the farmhouse library. “Do you think Bucky will go along with this?” 

Ripple squirmed, dancing around for a moment, and then let out a panicked squeal. “I dunno! I know how daddy is… how he can be. I don’t know if he will go along with this, but he has promised me and Sentinel that he is trusting us to do what is right and that he is leaving his protection in our hooves… so even if he doesn’t like it or agree with it, I think he’ll go along with it. I hope. I really hope.” 

Uncomfortable with seeing his squire in such a flustered state, Lugus cleared his throat. “I know Bucky. He will go along with it and praise it as being clever. It might be demeaning, but right now, he is out being fitted for a formal gown. We do not have to worry about demeaning him further.” 

“Wars don’t always turn out how we want them to. Sometimes, the best we can do is hope to manipulate events towards a somewhat favourable outcome. Winning a war can be a very ambiguous term.” Ripple stretched out her wings, flexed them, and then folded them back against her sides. 

Lugus nodded. 

Violet looked at Ripple with piercing eyes. “Sometimes victory has no clear cut definition.” 



 

“Twilight.” Applejack looked at Princess Celestia. She ducked her head and took off her hat. “Princess Celestia.” Her eyes fell on Bucky. “Troublemaker.” 

Bucky grinned. “You have no idea.” 

“Fancy meeting y’all here… now why would y’all be in a feed ‘n’ seed?” 

“Applejack, Tourmaline wanted to come inside and look around. She’s never been inside of a farm supply store before,” Twilight replied. “Plus, it’s cold outside.” 

“Apple Bloom cried on her first trip to the feed ‘n’ seed. She was so happy to come. She sat in that chair over yonder and played checkers with Big Mac. She felt so grown up, comin’ to town and takin’ care of farm business.” Applejack stared over at the chairs pulled around a barrel. 

“I have a question.” Tourmaline gave the adults an expectant look. 

“You go right ahead, little one,” Applejack replied. 

“Seeds grow food. Seeds are food. Wheat and grain are just seeds and we have to plant them to grow more… what would happen if something happened and we had to eat the seeds? How would we grow anything?” 

Applejack frowned. “Well, ya see hun, sometimes, a real tough choice has to be made. Do you survive in the moment or do you plan ahead? Sometimes, you gotta go a little hungry so there will be something to plant come spring. If ya gobbled everything up, and there was nothing to plant, you’d just be hungry again. So sometimes, you gotta get through a little hunger now to avoid being a whole lot hungry later.” 

“Hmm.” Tourmaline’s eyes blinked behind her glasses. 

“Princess Celestia!” A camera flashed. “And the Bogeypony!” There was another flash. 

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Nopony ever notices me when I go places.” 

“And there’s Applejack, the Element of Honesty.” The camera flashed again. 

“I hate my life,” Twilight muttered. 
	
	
> Chapter 579
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hi there, Tourmaline.” Sunset Shimmer pulled the black foal close and hugged her. “How have you been? Did you have a nice vacation?” 

“I need a vacation from my vacation,” Tourmaline replied, squeezing Sunset Shimmer. “What are they doing up there in the top of the tower?” 

“I suspect they are up to mischief… Master had that look in his eye.” Sunset Shimmer let go of Tourmaline and looked up towards the top of the tower. 

“Why do you call him ‘Master’ and why does he call you ‘Minion’ all the time?” Tourmaline asked as she too, looked upwards. 

“We just… we just do. It started off as a form of respect… an apprentice and their teacher. Then it became a joke. At some point, I think about the time I got hurt, it was more like saying ‘I love you’ than anything else,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“He does love you. A whole lot. You are very dear to him.” Tourmaline looked over at Sunset Shimmer and watched as the mare’s mane billowed in the soft breeze. 

“Love is a funny thing… but I guess you’d know. I love Trixie and I love Bartleby… and I really love them. Bucky… I love him too… but not in the same way as I love Trixie and Bartleby. It confuses me sometimes and I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I love Twilight in the same way as I do Bucky… but I don’t know how to explain what it is I feel for them.’ 

“They’re family.” Tourmaline reached up and wrapped her flexible fetlock around Sunset Shimmer’s leg. “Mama is learning the difference between family love and love love. I think she got confuzzled for a while but she’s learning. It scares her.” 

“Should you be telling me this?” Sunset asked. 

“OOOPS!” Tourmaline whimpered a few times and her ears pinned back against her skull. “I was trying to be helpful and I wasn’t thinking!” 

Using her magic, Sunset Shimmer began to adjust Tourmaline’s scarf, smoothing it out and making it look a bit more presentable. “Celestia and I have history too. I suppose she is my family now as well. I know she forgives me, and I suppose she loves me, but I still have a hard time just being me around her. I think about all of the awful things I did… the bad things. How I hurt her. I guess I’m still having some trouble forgiving myself over what happened.” 

“Mama has the same problem being around some ponies. She keeps thinking about how she hurt them. She feels so guilty. It hurts me… she feels it so strongly. It is like smacking your fetlock into something when you walk, it hurts, but she keeps smiling and acting like everything is okay.” 

Above them, a brilliant beam of light shot from the top of the tower, arced skywards, and then went curving off towards the horizon. 

“Oh wow that was some kinda strong magic!” Sunset Shimmer said in a loud voice that was filled with excitement. “Alicorn level deep magic!” 



 

Sitting in a chair at the kitchen table, Bucky folded his forelegs over his barrel and waited. Semillon was getting an early start on dinner. Broom was peeling potatoes, something Bucky always felt was wasteful, he liked peels on his potatoes. He could hear foals playing in the living room behind him. 

Piña came into the kitchen, carrying a small wicker basket in her teeth. Bucky could see bits of straw sticking out. She crossed the kitchen, almost bouncing, her brilliant blue eyes flashing. She climbed up into a chair, Bucky heard the clink of glass, and then she set the basket upon the table. 

Whistling, Piña reached with a hoof and pulled out a drinking glass. She set it upon the table. She looked at her father, smiled, showing small square teeth, and waved with her other hoof. Still whistling, Piña gestured at the glass, and then with a swift movement, struck it with her hoof. 

The glass rang out like a bell and there was a brilliant flash of blue, the same colour as Piña’s eyes. Piña made a dramatic warbling whistle and waved both front hooves at the glass. 

She was putting on quite a show, and Bucky felt entertained. Piña was in one of Trixie’s drama classes. Bucky made a mental note to review Trixie’s salary at some point. 

“I have to tap them to activate them,” Piña said. “I can’t seem to make the enchantment permanent. It fades after about an hour or so and I don’t know why.” 

Raising an eyebrow, Bucky watched and waited, saying nothing. 

“I know it doesn’t look like much. Daddy, would you mind filling it with water? Or maybe grape juice? Grape juice is nice and purple.” Piña flashed her father a winning smile and her ears splayed out sideways. 

Still silent, Bucky opened the fridge and levitated out a pitcher filled with cranberry juice, or bogberries, as the Shetlanders called them. He was fond of them. 

“Oooh that works.” Piña pulled out a second glass, set it down on the table, and struck it with her hoof. There was another flash of blue and a brilliant ringing sound. 

Piña sat back in her chair. “Pour please?” She tapped a hoof upon the table. “I’m scared and nervous and kinda shaky and if I pour I’ll make a mess.” 

Tight lipped, Bucky poured cranberry juice into both glasses. Afterwards, he set down the pitcher and focused his stare upon Piña. 

Piña moved the glasses around, sliding them back and forth, careful not to slosh or spill any liquid. She pointed to the glass with one hoof as she moved it with the other. She then took it in both hooves and lifted it up off of the table. Smiling, she set it down once more. 

“Daddy, reach out and try to knock the glass over.” One ear began to twitch and Piña pulled both of her forelegs to her barrel. Her eyes were wide with fearful concern. 

Reaching out his talons, he extended one talon finger and poked the glass. It slid over just a little, but not much. Bucky leaned forward. With a bit more force, he poked the glass again. This time, the glass did not budge… and even more curious, did not tip over. He gave it a light push and the glass slid over the table. He gave it a hard shove, hard enough for his metal talon finger to clink against the glass. 

The glass did not budge. 

“Unspillable juice glass!” Piña covered her muzzle with both front hooves, unable to contain her excitement. “The glass will break before it falls over. Sentinel broke one when he whacked it. Bon Bon got angry, but then she saw how cool these were, and then she stopped being angry, and she started kissing me and telling me that I was the bestest foal ever.” Piña wiggled in her chair. “But I already knew that.” 

“This is amazing. With a soft touch, the glass can be moved, but with real force, the glass does not budge. Nothing spills and the glass cannot be tipped.” Bucky poked the glass again and again with his talon finger. “This is what enchantment should be. Simple, practical, useful. I am impressed.” 

Piña squealed and bounced in her chair. 

“So… how did you do this?” Bucky asked. 

“I started off with the ‘sticky sticky stay put now’ charm and I modified it a bit. I was able to read the magic even though it gave me a headache. I found a spell from Starjammer that made it impossible for ponies to slam doors… Starjammer didn’t like ponies slamming doors, he thought it was rude… but the harder you tried to slam a door the less it would move and it would only budge with a soft touch and I was able to put it on the glass so if you shove it the glass won’t move but if you give it a nudge the glass will slide,” Piña replied. 

“So you repurposed existing spells,” Bucky said. 

Piña nodded, her mane spilling down over her eyes and her ears flopped around. 

“Brilliant work… always always always try to repurpose spells.” Bucky lifted up the glass of cranberry juice in his talons and raised it towards Piña in salute. After giving her a smile, he lifted the glass to his lips and drank. 

“Nice work, dearie,” Broom said as she continued to peel potatoes. 

“Thank you!” Piña replied as she picked up her glass between her front hooves to have a drink. She raised it high for a moment, giggled as she was overcome with jubilant emotion, and then she drank her juice. 



 

“And now I have you, you cockroach summoning fiend!” Bucky hoisted Dinky up into the air and held her up at eye level. “I hear you had a bit of a surge. You alright?” 

Dinky stretched out her neck and kissed Bucky on the nose. “I was trying to play a prank and it went wrong. I’m sorry. I can’t promise I won’t ever do it again though.” 

“Kinda impressive actually, you summoned bugs that didn’t vanish or go away.” Bucky made his way to the couch, stepping over Cadance, Harper, and Peekaboo. He lept up, sat down, and dropped Dinky down beside him. “Cheerilee caught my attention today. After she complained about the cockroaches, she told me you’re working on a project with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” 

“Yes I am.” Dinky beamed up at her father. 

“Want to tell me about it?” 

“No.”

“Why not?” 

“Top secret. Stinkworks.” 

“Skunkworks?” 

“Whatever.” 

“I have ways of making you talk…” 

“I’ll never tell!” 

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what it is.” 

“Apple Bloom will be talking with you about it actually. She has some questions. This is all her idea and I refuse to take it away from her. This is special.” 

Bucky nodded. “I understand.” 

“Daddy?” 

“Yes Dinky?” 

“How do I get another filly to like me?” 

“Dinky?” 

“Yes daddy?” 

“Why are you asking me this?” 

“Females like you for some reason.” 

“Ouch Dinky…” 

“Well, I dunno… you like girls… I like girls… I guess… and I wanted to know how you got girls to like you.” 

“Dinky?” 

“Yes daddy?” 

“Girls never liked me. I never really became interested in fillies when I was younger. I just sort made a big mess of my life. Apparently, Trixie had a huge crush on me in school though. Sunset Shimmer tells me that Trixie still has a big crush on me and now Sunset teases her about it every chance she gets. Anyway… I am the last pony you should ask about how to talk to fillies.” 

“But you married mama. And Berry… and Thistle, Bon Bon, Lyra, and then Belisama.” 

“I am at a total loss to explain how that happened. You mother chased me. Berry tag teamed me with Derpy. Thistle came along because of circumstances. Bon Bon and Lyra came to us and sought us out, I didn’t chase after them. Belisama and I were brought together for political reasons.” 

“But they all like you. You made them like you.” 

“Doesn’t mean I know how I did it. I’m a dumdum.” 

“Dumdum!” Harper cried. 

“See?” Bucky said, gesturing at Harper. 

“Daddy, don’t be silly.” Dinky looked serious. 

“I find that being good to their foals is a good way to get mares to notice you.” 

“Daddy, fillies my own age don’t have foals.” 

“I should hope so!” 

“Daddy, you’re being silly again.” 

“I do that from time to time.” 

“Dumdum!” 

“Quiet, Harpy!” 

“Hey, be nice to your sister!” 

“She called you a dumdum…” 

“Dumdum?” Cadance asked in a soft voice. 

“Cadance, don’t say dumdum… that’s crass… in this house full o’ Shetlanders, we use the word ‘numpty’ when we want somepony to know how blitherin’ stupid they are,” Barley said. 

“Numpty?” Cadance asked. 

“Oh thanks a lot Barley!” Bucky looked over at the old stallion sitting in the chair by the fire and did his best impression of Derpy’s stinkeye. 

“Don’t mention it lad, just being a good an’ proper uncle for my wee niece, the Empress.” 

“Daddy?” 

“Yes Dinky?” 

“What does crass mean?” 

“It means a complete lack of refinement, culture, and intellect.” 

“So it is a little word that means big words?” 

“I suppose so…” 

“So ponies who lack intellect might use the word crass instead of something that is more refined?” 

Barley snorted. A loud snort. He gave Dinky a withering gaze, which Dinky ignored. 

“Yes Dinky.” 

“So by its own definition, the word crass is crass… lacking in refinement, culture and intellect, being a little word that is used to replace big words.” 

“You might be on to something Dinky…” 

“I’m sick of Piña being wordy all the time… I’ve been trying to catch up to her.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 580 (The turning point, where everything changes)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The snow covered field was full of ponies and griffons, all gathered together in the gloaming. To help ward off the cold, fires had been lit in big brass braziers and there was hot cocoa to drink. Young ones that lived in the school dormitory towers milled about while the adult responsible for them watched over them. Breathing came out as puffs of steam in the frigid air. 

There was a festive atmosphere as the impromptu party began to get lively. Ponies were ready with cameras, but they did not know what was going on. There was only the promise that tonight would be the most interesting night of their lives. 

Bucky waited, grinning, his eyes upon the skies. 

A massive vat of hot mulled cider was being heated up over a brazier. 

The sun had set. The sky was now turning beautiful shades of purple, of blue, all of the colours that made up the royal majesty of the night. The stars began to twinkle overhead. 

Cadance, who hung from a foal carrier slung around her father’s neck, watched the gathered ponies with bright curious eyes. Nopony noticed that she glanced at the burning fires and became anxious looking, as well as trying to cuddle closer to her father, her protector. 



 

Looking up, and revelling in his own glory, Bucky watched the moon rise. Lost in the moment, Bucky did not hear the murmurs of those around him, the startled cries, the clicks and whirrs of cameras going off. Grinning from ear to ear, Bucky stared skyward. 

And what a moon… 

The moon, now a lurid labial pink, rose over the treeline, it was the pinkest of pinks. It glowed with a feverish pink light. It throbbed and pulsed with pinkness and everything all around Bucky took on a soft pink glow. 

“The moon looks like a giant winking clitoris or something!” 

“Berry Punch! There are foals present!” 

“But Derpy, the moon is throbbing like a needy mare—” 

“BERRY PUNCH!” 

Bucky began to guffaw with laughter. Throwing back his head, he howled, fit to split. Cadance, unsure of what was going on, went wide eyed with alarm and looked to her mothers to save her. 

But nopony saw Cadance. 

Every eye was staring at the moon. 

Adding to the surreal moment, a griffon began to play a lively tune upon a violin, his bow sliding with haphazard abandon over the strings as he stared upwards. The manic tune added to the absurd moment. 

Wiping his eyes, Bucky looked over at Derpy. Standing in the pulsating light of the moon that was pink to the point of obnoxiousness, he was stricken by her beauty. He tromped through the snow, only one thing on his mind. 

“Dance with me,” Bucky said as he approached. 

“Bucky, I can’t hardly walk.” Derpy looked flustered and even more in pain than usual, hurt by words and circumstances. 

Sweeping Derpy up in his telekinesis, Bucky pulled her close, mindful of Cadance in between them. Now standing neck to neck with Derpy, whose hooves were now inches above the snow, Bucky rubbed his cheek against Derpy’s as Cadance, sandwiched in the middle, giggled. 

“Bucky, what did you do to Luna’s moon?” Derpy asked, finding it difficult to breathe for reasons she could not explain. She extended her wings and wrapped them around Bucky and Cadance. 

“A harmless prank that will fade in time. I just wanted Luna to know that she was not unreachable.” Bucky allowed his hooves and his talons to drift into shadow, it was just dark enough, and he began to drift with effortless ease over the ground. 

“Bucky, your… gliding… whatever… it makes you a wonderful dancer.” Derpy could feel Cadance pressed against her chest, she was squeezed in between Derpy and Bucky. At least Cadance was being kept warm and the alicorn foal did not seem to mind. 

A soft pink glow manifested between Bucky and Derpy, unnoticed in the bright pink light of the moon. Unnoticed, but felt. Those in love turned to one another, feeling the love they shared more than ever, a deep meaningful need. 

It didn’t take long before others were dancing in the snow as well. Music was played. There was an unmistakable sense of romance in the air. 

Even the foals, the pups, the cubs, and the calves, young love began its first tender blossoms as Cadance’s magic began to manifest and grow in power. Little colts became emboldened and with shy embarrassment, asked fillies to dance. Little fillies, now feeling brave, asked little colts to dance with them, their cheeks blushing, pink and red like roses in spring. 

In the snow, a tall minotaur and a blue earth pony danced together, the minotaur cow was holding the earth pony in her arms and they were dancing together, laughing, lost in the moment. 

In the warmth of love, the cold of winter retreated. Old enemies now danced. Griffons danced with ponies. A diamond dog pup clung to a nervous blind filly as the pair tried to understand this new bond that was forming between them. 

Long ago, the races had been divided, the defilement of the alicorns had been the cause, hatred was the source. Now, one alicorn was bringing the sapient species back together, her magic healing them, binding them in ways that none of them would ever understand. 

Growler would never know a clublike tail, never would he know the frenzied lusts of his kind, the mindless greed, the need for violence, the need to subjugate and bring harm to others. 

Yew Wood, a simple pegasus from the Shetlands, carried in her belly the promise of a new sense of unity, a hippogriff, one of the heralds of change. 

Love burned through the crowd, a strange new love, a love that did not know boundaries, it did not know species, there was no barrier in existence that could stop it. It claimed a tenuous hold upon those gathered in the pulsating pink light of the moon. It filled the heart, providing inspiration, offering courage, instilling bravery, it was a love that would not be denied and could not be ignored. It was a flame that could not be extinguished. 

It was the sort of love that made the dark things that lurked in the shadowy parts of the world worry that they might lose. It was a threatening consuming love that brought light back to the world. It was the raging fire that could burn away the dead wood of apathy and allow real progress to be made. 

And all of this happened because one somewhat silly grey pegasus bumped snoots with one tan unicorn that had decided that he wanted nothing further to do with the ponies around him.

The Fates conspire and work a weird tangled weave that few would understand. The events set into motion almost a year ago ensured that Love would endure in this world. Such a random event, a pegasus mare chasing after a confused and bewildered unicorn stallion, had proven pivotal in allowing the world to heal after enduring such terrible wounds so long ago. 

Oblivious to the damage they were causing to the darkness, Bucky and Derpy continued to dance with Cadance smooshed between them, their all consuming love providing Cadance the strength she needed to begin her great work. 

War, now the weapon of Love, and bound tight under her control, had unleashed the first real volley in reclaiming the world from the darkness that threatened to consume it. 

Those dancing in the snow had no idea that a terrible battle had just begun and that they were the front line fighters. Those reveling in the light of the pink moon had no idea that the balance had shifted now that a new major power had entered the fray. 

Filled with love, touched by beauty, and finally knowing peace in her heart, Belisama began to play her autoharp, and as she did so, the magic began to flow. It tingled through her talons, welling out of her, spreading through the crowd around her. Real magic. Strong magic. Ancient magic from long ago, a primordial magic that could only be expressed through music and emotion. 

Many immortals, sensing something was up, began appearing, many of them unseen. A massive pegasus appeared, unnoticed, unseen, watching the events with a raised eyebrow and a look of concern as lightning crackled through his wings. An elemental made of earth appeared beside him. With faint pops that could not be heard by mortal ears, an earth pony, a zebra, and a unicorn appeared, all of them mares. A moment later, a pale white earth pony stallion with a wilted petunia cutie mark appeared. 

Odin, standing amongst his fellow immortals, looked around and said, “Erato’s legacy at last continues.” The old griffon looked sad but hopeful at the same time. 

“The time is right for the birth of new Muses,” Clotho said. 

“Bandua might be the first. We shall see,” Lachesis said. 

“The Muses were our best weapons… it would be nice to have them in our arsenal again. The world is a poorer place without them.” Atropos shook her head. 

“The rainbow maned pegasus… her foal has great potential. I am watching her with interest,” Rhea said. 

“The foals of those who have been touched by harmony will be powerful weapons of change. We may have to step in and interfere somewhat to help them along.” Atropos turned and looked at her brother and then at her sisters. 

There was a pop and a tall serpentine figure appeared along with a sunny yellow almost-but-not-quite-pegasus. 

“I felt a funny feeling,” Discord said as he looked around. “Oh my… is there a convergence?” 

Fluttershy, looking around as she tried to figure out what was going on, eyed the strange figures all around her. “I recognise some of you… hello… how do you do?” 

“Both of you can feel it, can’t you?” Odin asked. 

“I feel all warm and tickly all over… Discord, come dance with me… listen to the beautiful music!” Fluttershy, hovering in the air without flapping her wings, extended her now mismatched forelegs out towards Discord. 

Saying nothing, Discord darted through the air, took Fluttershy in his embrace, and the pair went whirling off to dance in the pink light of the moon. 

“Have we won?” Shield, the giant pegasus, asked. 

“No, but we are winning,” Thanatos replied. 

“Given enough time, I do believe that Celestia and Cadance together could challenge our creator parent… and win.” Clotho watched the revelrie taking place under the pink moon. 

“She is draining his strength. As she grows stronger, he will grow weaker… hopefully, in time, our brother will no longer be a threat at all.” Lachesis stared off into distance, watching the pony she called her brother dancing with a grey pegasus mare.  

“He offered his life for her. All that he is and all that he would be,” Thanatos said. “That was the deal.”

“I do believe his exact words were, ‘I have already offered my life… everything I am… everything I will be...’ and you took him at his word.” Clotho regarded her brother Thanatos with a soft sad smile. 

“Power simply does not end… it cannot be erased or wiped away. It must be shifted, moved around, transferred. It is malleable and like so much else, can be reshaped to fit a new purpose,” Scorch said as he folded his arms over his broad chest. “Look at that moon. Funny how fate works. What was meant to be a prank is actually a long foretold sign that has all but been forgotten by mere mortals. It is her moon… a lover’s moon. Poor Bucky has no idea that his spell is permanent and that once every year in the dead of winter, the moon will rise pink and full, and those who view it will be compelled to love beneath it.” 

“Our brother is stupid. He does not know why he does half of the things he does. But he goes with his gut instincts and he is obedient to the whims within his head,” Lachesis said as she continued to watch Bucky dancing. 

“Odin was able to influence the creation of the spell through the eye that Bucky now wears… it is a fitting tribute to Erato.” Clotho heaved a sigh. “I need to get laid. That moon is even having an effect on me. I think I shall wander into Ponyville and see if I can find a randy stallion.” 

“We’ve not yet won… there is so much work still to do.” Atropos smiled and looked up at the moon. “I haven’t felt this good about things for a long time.” 

Lachesis nodded. “I am off to speak with Sombra and Platinum. Perhaps I shall bring them a little hope and ease their suffering.” 

Above the gathered immortals, the pink moon continued to rise. 
	
	
	
	 
	
	
> Chapter 581
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The house, now settling down from the morning hullabaloo, was returning to what passed as quiet. The foals, the source of so much of the noise and the hubbub, were off in school. Bon Bon and Lyra, not wanting to leave, but needing to go, had departed. 

The littlest of the foals were in the living room, save one. 

And it was this one that Bucky had interest in. In the nursery, armed with treats, Bucky lay on the floor, trying to lure Sukari out to him. Sprawled out on a quilt by the crib, Bucky would drop a treat down and wait. He had come fully armed. Sugar cubes, banana chips, raisins, chocolate chips, and an assortment of dehydrated fruit. 

He would drop one on the edge of the quilt and after a while, unable to resist, Sukari would come out, gobble the treat, and then make good her escape, lunging beneath the crib once more. 

Bucky, not knowing what else to do, had constructed a rudimentary pillow fort around the crib, placing cushions along the sides of the crib, walling it off, and leaving only a small opening in the front, near the middle. 

Tossing out a small cube of dried papaya, Bucky waited. He saw blue eyes in the entrance of the fortress of unbreachable might. He was tempted to grab her, he wanted to, but he stuffed that feeling down. 

Instead, he dropped a piece of dried pineapple just inches away from in front of his snoot. He was going to make her work for it. He watched as a little orange tongue licked a grey-blue muzzle. 

Sukari ate the papaya piece, her eyes never leaving Bucky, and then stood there, waiting, trying to decide what to do next, her eyes darting towards towards the pineapple bit. Hunger won out. Crawling forward on her belly, she came as close as she dared to Bucky, reached out her hoof, and tried to pull the piece of dried pineapple closer. 

She failed. 

Whimpering, fearful, she wiggled along on her belly, getting close enough to grab the treat with her mouth. And just as she was getting ready to make her escape, every muscle tensed, her legs pulled into the position to bounce away, Bucky dropped another treat. 

This time, a chocolate chip. 

“Hi.” Bucky dropped another treat, a wedge of dried apple. 

Sukari looked at the entrance to her space beneath the crib and then back at the food. 

“I was wondering if you would like a bath. Just me and you, a tub full of warm water, and when you are done, I’ll give you all of the delicious bits of fruit and chocolate you can eat.” Bucky’s voice was soft, enticing, and gentle. 

Sukari, trembling, looked at Bucky with eyes that had shrunk down to pinpricks.

Using his magic, Bucky dropped a chocolate chip upon the foal’s muzzle. Her eyes crossed as she tried to look at it. While the foal was distracted, Bucky touched her with his right hoof, just a gentle touch on her side. 

She let out a startled cry. 

Wincing, Bucky froze and waited for the flood. After a moment that seemed to stretch out forever, the flood did not happen. There was a flurry of movement and Bucky felt two forelegs wrap around his fetlock, squeezing it. 

Not knowing what to do, Bucky remained very still. The chocolate chip had slipped from Sukari’s muzzle and now lay, uneaten, on the quilt. The foal was clinging to his leg, hugging it to her. Laying on her side, her sides heaving, she was a pitiful sight. 

“Baba gone,” Sukari said, her voice a soft pained whimper. 

Bucky did not know what she meant, but he understood her pain. He wanted to pull her closer. It was tempting. 

“Baba gone.” 

Wiggling forward, Bucky pulled himself closer, coming just close enough to touch the foal with his snoot. When he touched her, she went rigid for a moment, clinging to his leg. 

“Baba gone… ate.” 

A chill went down Bucky’s spine. That sounded ominous. He lifted his head, scooted forward a little more, and then brought his head down, covering the foal. He could feel her body against his neck. She was shaking. 

“I bet you’d like a bath… I know you like them. You kick and you fuss a little bit but once you are in the water, you calm down and you’re a good filly.” Bucky rubbed his chin along quivering little ribs. “If I pick you up, are you going to scream?” 

The foal did not reply. 

“Bath or no bath?” Bucky asked.

“Bath.” 

Bucky smiled. “Okay, picking you up now… in my magic. There will be a warm soft tingle. It feels good. Every foal loves to be picked up and floated around in a telekinetic field.” 

With slow careful movements, Bucky got to his legs beneath him and he rose. He lifted the zebra filly in a blue-green bubble of magic. In the bottom of the bubble, a golden liquid pooled. 

Bucky sighed. “Sorry about that. I guess I spooked you. That’s okay. I’ll get you cleaned up and everything will be fine again. At least the mess is in the bubble and not on the floor.” 

Still smiling, Bucky made his way to the bathroom. 





The bathroom, filled with steam, fragrant with the scent of soap, and filled with the sounds of splashing water, was a comforting place. A place of refuge. A foal had been born here. 

Moving over the tiles, Derpy, limping somewhat as she crossed the room, made her way to the tub where Bucky and Sukari were. The foal, fearful, watched Derpy’s every move, but did not cry out. She clung to Bucky’s foreleg, watching everything with her blue eyes. 

Stepping over the side of the tub, Derpy lowered herself down into the shallow water. 

“She keeps saying ‘baba’ and I don’t know what it means.” Bucky shook his head. 

“You’re adorable, sitting in the bath with her.” Derpy eased herself down into the water. It wasn’t very deep, but it would have to do. She heaved a sigh of relief when she had her backside submerged. 

As Bucky watched, Sukari let go of his foreleg and rolled in the water, getting herself drenched. Her frizzy mane, now waterlogged, clung to her head and neck. 

“She’s just high strung… I think she’s calming down.” Derpy extended her wing, got as much into the shallow water as she could, and then scooped water towards her side with her wing. 

It reminded Bucky of ducks and swans as he looked at Derpy trying to bathe in the shallow water. While it could be said that Celestia and Luna were swanlike, Bucky felt that Derpy was more like a duck. 

“Mama?” 

Peering over the edge of the tub were a pair of dark purple eyes. A frizzy bright orange mane, at least a half a foot tall, rose up into the air above the eyes. There were soft thumps as a little hoof was banged into the side of the tub. 

“Hello Harper… can you be quiet and good?” Bucky asked. 

Harper shrugged. 

Scooping Harper up, Bucky dumped her into the big tub beside Derpy. 

Seeing the other foal, Harper went still. “Sissy?” 

“Yes, this is your sister.” Derpy gave Harper a nudge. 

“Okay,” Harper replied. Harper walked through the water, which was shallow for the adults, but deep for her, her tail streaming out behind her. She made her way to Sukari and sat down in the water. “Stripes.” 

Sukari, who was once again clinging to Bucky, lifted a hoof and touched Harper’s mane. “Jua.” 

“She isn’t quite so afraid of other foals.” Bucky watched as the two fillies sized one another up. “You know, I think once she adjusts to a situation, she is mostly okay with it. Maybe it is the change that scares her… I dunno.” 

“Sissy.” Harper reached out and touched Sukari. 

Sukari let out a faint giggle. For Bucky, it was like hearing sweet music. It left him feeling confused, worried, and hopeful. 

“Oh there you are!” Thistle, standing in the doorway, smiled. “Harper got away from me. She winked… she teleported and she was gone.” 

“Oh dear.” Derpy’s face contorted into motherhood worry. “Doesn’t teleportation make unicorns sick?” 

“Sometimes… chaotic teleportation is different than intentional teleportation. Hopefully Harper doesn’t teleport into something solid, like a wall.” Bucky began to scratch at his ribs with his talons. 

“Bucky, that did not make me feel better… just so you know.” Derpy, one eye now narrowed, gave her husband the stinkeye. 

“Unicorn foals are full of fun and surprises—” 

“I know… I raised Dinky.” Derpy’s face looked as though she was chewing on lemons. 

“Hmm, Berry Punch has Bell…” Thistle looked at the tub with longing in her eyes.

“Bubbles,” Harper said, as bubbles boiled around her in the tub. 

“You made bubbles!” Derpy made an exaggerated display of praising Harper, smiling and showing lots of teeth. 

Sukari, made an odd face and then pressed her wet fetlock over her nose. 

“I don’t think the water is deep enough.” Thistle frowned. “I’m going to go cause trouble elsewhere.” The kelpie turned tail and left, leaving behind a perfumed fragrance from her blooms. 



 

Folding the paper, Bucky sighed. Luna had sent a terse note informing that the war was on and to expect no mercy, no quarter, and that she wanted a personal word with him when this was all over. 

“My friend, one of your Raptors wants a word with you.” Lugus’ voice was a polite rumble. 

Looking up, Bucky saw one little griffon in the door behind Lugus. “Do come in.” 

“Go on, Gofannon, do not be afraid. It does not become you.” Lugus stepped aside and made a gesture to the much smaller griffon. 

Gofannon slunk forward, his tail twitching, and lept up into a chair. He turned to look at Violet, bowed his head, and then looked at Bucky. The farmhouse library was warm, cozy, and the smell of strong coffee lingered. 

“I know why you are here, I think,” Violet said, a coy smile spreading over her lips. 

The griffon’s feathers fluffed out and his gaze dropped down to the floor. 

“Go on, be out with it. I have a lot to catch up on.” Bucky lifted up his coffee mug and waited for Gofannon to gather up his nerve. 

“My king… I… I would like your permission to court a very pretty pegasus…” 

“Why would you need my permission?” Bucky asked. 

Gofannon looked taken aback. He shrugged, his beak opened, and his talons flexed. “I… I am a soldier. I have duties and obligations as a member of your guard. I protect your foals. I am my queen’s servant. I have given my life to service.” 

“You don’t need my permission to love.” Bucky inhaled the steam from his coffee and savoured its warmth. “It is possible to do all of those things and still be in love. Or be a husband.” 

Gofannon gulped. 

“Tell me about her. Are you happy?” Bucky asked. 

“She is beautiful. I am smitten, I must confess. She has refused me for a while… I tried being witty, and she ignored me. I tried being poetic, she smiled and flew away. I tried bringing her mice, both alive and dead, and that was a mistake, I will admit.” Gofannon began to pick at his feathers and sort himself out. 

“So what did it? What got her attention?” Bucky was smiling behind his coffee mug. 

“One very dazzling plumage display,” Violet replied. 

The griffon nodded. 

“I am assuming that you are talking about Helia, the pegasus.” Bucky took a sip of his coffee, swallowed, and glanced at Violet, who was grinning the way cats do when they wish to invite mice to dinner. 

Letting out a peep, Gofannon nodded. 

“She is fat with foal…” Bucky set down his coffee cup on the table beside his chair. 

“I am aware of that… sir… I… sir, I am willing to follow your example and take on a foal not my own. If my king can be so gracious, why should I do any less?” Gofannon sat up straight and his eyes narrowed. A fierce look settled over the griffon’s face. “I love all of her and her foal is part of her.” 

“It seems to me that you will soon have a wife and a foal on the way. Going to be hard to support them on the pay you are getting… and living in the makeshift barracks is no place to raise a family.” Bucky looked at Gofannon with a solemn look upon his face. 

The griffon slumped down in his chair, now looking very small and miserable. 

“Lugus, tell me, how is Gofannon’s performance as a soldier?” Bucky asked. 

“He is brave when he needs to be. He works with Rising Star and his skill as a smith is almost unequaled among the griffons that serve you. He keeps the Raptors' equipment in good working order, keeps everything clean, neat, and orderly. He is quiet and keeps to himself.” 

Sitting back in his chair, Bucky gave consideration to Lugus’ words. “Sounds like an ideal soldier.” 

Lugus nodded. “I would think so. He is battle tested and I would trust my back to him.” 

Bucky raised his talons and made a gesture at Violet. At his unspoken command, the unicorn lifted her pen and made herself ready. In the fireplace, a log popped and crackled, causing a very nervous Gofannon to almost leap out of his chair. 

“Gofannon, I am promoting you to the rank of ‘Wing Corporal,’ a rank that will be unique to the Raptors, rather than say, Lance Corporal or Pike Corporal in the celestial guard. You can expect a bit of a pay raise. With this promotion, I will expect more from you. A lot more. No more slacking off as a lowly Private. Lugus, are you agreeable with my decision?” 

Lugus looked over at Bucky, his eyes thoughtful. “I am.” 

The scratching of a pen could be heard as the room settled into near silence. 

“Thank you…” Gofannon began to wring his talons together. 

“Don’t get too happy yet… I have a task for you.” Lugus’ crest rose. 

“Sir, what can I do for you?” Gofannon asked. 

“I want you to whip Boadicea into shape.” Lugus began to drum his talons upon the floor. 

“Sir, she is a hunter, I am—” 

“You are a Wing Corporal and she is an impudent cub that is lost and needs to find her way. Do not test my patience so soon after getting a promotion.” Lugus’ eyes narrowed and he stared at Gofannon.  

“My apologies, sir. I will do as you ask. Boadicea will be whipped into shape.” Gofannon, now trembling, looked very meek and submissive. 

“You will do to her what Ripple and I have done to you. You will run her until she cries and begs from exhaustion, and then you will run her some more. You will make her hard. See that she knows her place.” Lugus’ voice was flinty and harsh. 

“Yes sir, consider it done, sir,” Gofannon replied. “I will have Loki run her until the time that he is exhausted.” 

The big griffon’s head cocked to the side. “I did not say to be cruel, nobirdy should have Loki turned upon them…” Lugus paused and shrugged. “But do it anyway. Boadicea would be well served knowing that there are little griffons she should be terrified of. It will give her a healthy outlook on life I think.” 

Bucky leaned forward in his chair. “Now that we have that out of the way, we need to discuss the winter games. Violet, you said that you have something to show me? Something from Ripple?” 
	
	
> Chapter 582
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Boadicea, this is Loki. Loki, this is Boadicea.” Gofannon looked over at Lugus, who was watching everything. “Loki is going to be your new best friend.” Gofannon tried to think of something more useful to say, some means to make Boadicea understand what she was in for. Balanced on his haunches, he sat up straight and raised both of his talons. 

“Loki was used as a pit fighter in an arena. He once killed a manticore by ripping open its guts, crawling up inside of it, and eventually crawling out of the manticore’s mouth… after it had died.” Gofannon looked over at Loki, who seemed very pleased with himself at the moment. 

There was a startled peep from Boadicea. 

“Loki will teach you everything you need to know about fitting in with us. I would welcome you to the Raptors, but you have not yet earned that honour.” Gofannon narrowed his eyes and gave Boadicea a hard stare, something that was very difficult for him to do. More than anything, he wanted to avert his eyes and become submissive. 

“You want me to train her?” Loki fluffed out and his wings flapped. “I’ve crapped out things more dangerous than she is.” 

“I’ll show you dangerous!” Boadicea cried, bringing herself up to her full height. Still a cub, she wasn’t a whole lot bigger than Loki. 

“Boadicea… there is much you could learn from Loki.” 

Boadicea froze and then bowed her head after hearing Lugus’ voice. 

“He once climbed up a sump hole and assassinated another griffon by ripping open their groin with a dagger. You foolishly stabbed a mountain of a pegasus with a sharpened spoon. You have much you could learn from Loki.” Lugus stepped forward, his claws clicking upon the wood. “Loki is treacherous in the same way that our king is clever. Always suspect the worst from the little ones, for they can be the most dangerous.” 

Boadicea nodded, her head still bowed. “I will heed your words.” 

“Time for a lesson. Loki, disarm. Everything. Right now. On the ground. Remove every weapon you have.” Lugus commanded. 

“Do I look armed?” Loki asked. 

“Other than the dagger visible on your belt, no. Now, disarm.” Lugus gave the smaller griffon a stern look. 

“This is a chore,” Loki said in a peeved sounding voice. 

With a clunk his dagger hit the wooden floor. He took off his belt, revealing a garrote that was twined along the inside. A set of brass knuckles slid out from behind the belt buckle. Opening his doublet, Loki began to reach inside. Several darts hit the floor. Multiple bolos were set down. Another garrote was drawn out. A stiletto was drawn from behind Loki’s back, hidden beneath his doublet. Another stiletto was pulled out. A hook bladed knife was drawn from a hidden sheath and with a thump it hit the floor. A sling was pulled out of Loki’s sleeve, dropped, and then a sack full of steel balls was tossed down beside it. Several blackjacks were drawn from multiple places and thrown down to the floor. 

Boadicea’s eyes bulged as she watched Loki disarm. 

A small thin crossbow stock was pulled from somewhere, and then the bow for the crossbow was pulled from somewhere else. It was a tiny thing, the quarrels were little more than needles, but there was no doubt to anybirdy viewing that the quarrels were poisoned. Spreading out his wings, extending them to their full length, Loki began to pull needle darts, another garrote, several small blades, and multiple glass vials filled with various liquids. 

Lugus squinted his eye at Loki. “I said everything.” 

“Fine!” Loki snapped. Opening his beak, he reached down his own throat, made a gurgle, and a moment later, he pulled out a dagger in a wooden sheath. He tossed it down to the floor. Hunching over, belching, making gagging sounds, he retched up another dagger in a sheath and several more glass vials filled with different coloured liquids. 

Lugus shook his head. 

“I am disarmed. I hope you are happy,” Loki said in a sulky voice. 

“Boadicea… have you learned anything?” Lugus asked. 

“The little griffon walks funny. I do not think he is yet disarmed,” Boadicea replied. 



 

Looking over a map of Mustangia, Bucky gnawed upon his own lip, teasing his skin with the sharp points of his fangs. There was a cluster of mines, most of them opal mines, but there were a few mines in particular that he had interest in. 

The sound of Violet’s pen scratching away in the background was comforting. 

Reaching down with a compass, Bucky began measuring how many inches away the mines were from the city proper. Mustangia, located upon the coast of an inland sea, was almost the halfway point between Equestria and Saddle Arabia. Far down south, beyond Saddle Arabia, Bucky knew that the mirror travelers had another portal. 

He scowled. Mustangia was a city of with a majority of earth ponies. Bucky didn’t like this at all. Mirror travelers hated earth ponies. If the mirror travelers were anywhere near Mustangia, there were bound to be problems. 

“Twilight Sparkle has arranged for her friend, Fluttershy, to come and spend some time with you,” Violet said, breaking the silence. 

“What?” Bucky asked. 

“According to this missive, Fluttershy is being sent with instructions to teach you how to meditate, to teach you how to be calm and serene, and to help you with your disposition.” 

“Oh bother… that’s not necessary.” 

“Sir…” 

“Yes, what is it Violet, I am very busy,” Bucky replied. 

“I agree with Twilight. You could stand to learn some healthy coping mechanisms—”

“TRAITOR!” 

Showing no concern at all, Violet ignored Bucky’s outburst. “Sir, this missive is signed by Princess Celestia as well. It is an official order that for the good of the Empire. You need some healthy forms of stress relief that do not include you drinking, self medicating, working yourself to death, or other self destructive activities.” 

The corner of Bucky’s eye twitched. “So this is how Celestia wages war. She hits me at home, looking oh so benevolent, as if she is actually concerned about me… she is cunning.” 

Rolling her eyes and sighing, Violet shook her head. 



 

“—and this is where you will be going to school. You will be starting tomorrow. Bright and early. Once school is finished, you will be reporting to Gofannon and Loki for training. If you have homework, your needs will be assessed and you will be given time to complete it.” 

Boadicea slumped and let out a miserable sigh as she turned away from Lugus. 

“Sigh once more and I will tell Yew that you are depressed and in need of much hugging.” 

The griffoness cub looked over at Lugus, her eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.” 

“Yew’s previous family did not show much affection. It still pains her. She will not make the same mistake twice, which is why I love her as much as I do. I will see that she gets the affection that she desires, both physical and emotional. Do not test my patience, little cub.” 

“Stop calling me ‘little cub.’ I served in the army. I was a scout. I survived a war. I am no helpless little cub and—” 

“Stop behaving like a little cub and I will call you something else,” Lugus said. 

Her crest raising, Boadicea held her head high. “At least I don’t go smashing the heads of ‘little cubs’ down into the floor.” 

“And I don’t go dropping down on top of somebirdy like the common sneak thief.” Lugus’ talons began to tap upon the tile floor. 

“I was scared… what else was I supposed to do? I was tied up and in chains after I had just been dosed with sleeping powder and all I could think about was all the bad things that could happen to little females like myself… I’m sorry I dropped down on you, really, I am. I was out of my mind from fear and worry.” 

Lugus did not expect Boadicea to switch to this tactic. He wondered if it was a tactic, or if she was being sincere. He mulled it over in his mind, trying to take what he knew of her, her intelligence, and his own best judgement. After much thinking, Lugus realised that he didn’t know. 

“Lugus… they hurt me… I don’t know if it was accidental, but they clipped my wings and cut into feathers rich with blood. They filed my claws down to the quick… a lot happened. I thought they did it to torture me, but now, after meeting with Keg Smasher, I am wondering if it was all just an accident.” 

Not knowing what to do, Lugus searched his mind, trying to find something to say, some means to respond. He came up blank. He tried to think about what Yew might do in this situation. 

Reaching out his massive wing, Lugus enclosed it around Boadicea and crushed her to him, squeezing her tight against him. He felt her struggle, kicking, trying to squirm away, but then she went still and allowed herself to be held. 





“—it is with great pleasure that I announce the first ever meeting of the League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies!” Piña banged away on the small wooden podium and smiled. 

“I dunno, this still feels wrong somehow… League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies—” 

“Diamond Tiara, if a pegasus or a unicorn or even a griffon wants to join, we’ll make them honourary earth ponies… we will refuse no one,” Apple Bloom said. “We don’t want nopony accusing us earth ponies of being tribalist.” 

“Okay, that works for me.” Diamond Tiara pressed her front hooves together, thought about her posture, and sat up straight. 

“Apple Bloom?” Piña asked. 

“What?” 

“No, I’m taking the attendance,” Piña said.

“Whoopsie… I’m here,” Apple Bloom said. 

“Diamond Tiara?” 

“Present!” 

“Larch?” 

“I’m here.” 

“Babs Seed?” 

There was a long pause… 

“Babs?” 

“Sorry, I was thinking about that pink moon last night.” 

“Archer?” 

“Here!” 

“Lance?” 

“I think I’m absent.” 

“There is always one… okay, we are all here.” Piña smiled out at the earth ponies in the room. “Oh… and I am here. One Piña Colada. Apple Bloom, I’m turning the floor over to you.” 

“Thank you Piña,” Apple Bloom said as she got up from her desk. She walked through the empty classroom that the club had borrowed, taking a few deep breaths. She passed Piña, who was going to go sit down, and then stepped up to the podium. 

The faces of the other foals all looked up at her and Apple Bloom felt butterflies in her stomach. She swallowed, and wished that she had some water. She cleared her throat. 

“We’re here to prove to everypony that we earth ponies can do anything, anything at all. The League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies is here to show the world that there is nothing we can’t do. Each and every one of us is special in some way.” She looked at her fellow earth ponies and offered a nervous smile. “Piña and Larch can do magic. They’re earth ponies, and they can do magic. Babs has a knack for astronomy that has caught the eye of Princess Luna. Over the summer, Babs might get a chance to go and study with Luna and that’s amazing. Archer is an earth pony… and she can use a bow. She’s a crack shot and proof that earth ponies can do anything. Lance can do scary math inside of his head, without an abacus or a slide rule or even paper to work out the problem.” 

“You forgot somepony,” Piña said in a low whisper. 

“Oh… that’s right. Diamond Tiara, who can organise anything.” Apple Bloom grinned a sheepish grin and looked around. “Sorry about that Diamond… you’re my friend, I wouldn’t forget you on purpose. I’m as nervous as a two tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs.” 

“Think nothing of it, Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara said with a reassuring smile. 

“Now, during our first meeting, I thought we’d all brainstorm about all the ways that we can show the world that we earth ponies can do anything and how we can make a difference.” Apple Bloom’s face became serious. “We don’t have to grow up and be farmers if we don’t want. We don’t have to be wagon pullers. We’re getting our IQs tested now and we’re being offered the same chances as everypony else, so lets not blow it. We’re gonna get good grades, we’re going to attend as many extra curricular activities as possible, we’re gonna make ourselves known.” 

“Yeah!” Lance cried out. 

“Eyes on the target,” Archer said. 

“Yeah, on target,” Larch said. 

“Do we have to donate blood?” Babs asked. “I hate being stuck with needles.” 

“Yes we do. We earth ponies have the best blood there is, the blood bank says so, and there is always a need. So we’re gonna donate as a group and we’re gonna show everypony how useful we earth ponies can be.” Apple Bloom looked over at her cousin. “I’ll hold your fetlock Babs… I don’t wanna be stuck either. I’m scared of needles.” 

“We’re going to need parental permission slips,” Diamond Tiara said as she dug through her stack of papers on her desk. “Mine is already signed.” She held out a stack of papers to Piña, who took one and then passed them around. 

“So… who has ideas on how we can show the world that earth ponies can do anything?” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 583
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trotting through the school commons, Diamond Tiara offered up a smile at everyone she passed. Some smiled back, others frowned, while others just ignored her. 

Being rejected stung. 

At least she had some friends now. She trotted with her head high, but not as high as it once was. As she moved, her stomach rumbled, but not from hunger. She had been a little stressed as of late and Doctor Mawu kept telling her that she needed to practice better coping mechanisms. 

Diamond Tiara liked Doctor Mawu. Doctor Mawu, the zebra bocor psychiatrist, was interesting. The good doctor spoke to Diamond Tiara as if she was an adult. She was open, honest, and did not mince words. Sometimes, Doctor Mawu said things that hurt. 

And Diamond Tiara liked it that way. 

Growler went walking past, leading Sweet Pea along, his broad hand-paw resting upon her back as he guided her through the crowded commons. Diamond Tiara gave him a dazzling smile. The entire school was talking about how a certain diamond dog had smooched a certain pony on the cheek last night. 

Diamond Tiara said nothing. Gossip was ugly and she was doing everything she could to distance herself from it. Doctor Mawu had told her that gossip would rot her soul, and Diamond Tiara agreed. Gossip, along with other terrible acts, had almost destroyed her. 

Clearing the commons, Diamond Tiara started down the long hallway that led to the exit. It was cold outside, and the walk home would be long, but Diamond Tiara decided to walk home today. She had her fabulous coat, the one that Rarity had made, and she had a hat. 

Doctor Mawu had said that exercise was important to clear her head. 

Walking down the hallway, Diamond Tiara ignored the giant cockroach that went scurrying past, a cockroach that had to be a foot long. Giant cockroaches didn’t exist. If you ignored them and told yourself that they didn’t exist, you didn’t have to go mad from looking at them. 

Eyes forward, Diamond Tiara continued down the hall, recovering from the giant cockroach that she, with one hundred percent certainty, did not see scurrying down the hall just a moment ago. She shuddered and kept going.

“Hi, Little Slip,” Diamond Tiara said as she drew near an earth pony filly that she knew. “How’s life?” 

“Life sucks!” Little Slip replied, pausing for a moment. She scowled. 

“Have you talked with Doctor Mawu lately?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“I’m on my way there now.” Little Slip’s scowl turned into more of a straight line and her pink mane fell down into her eyes. “Mawu wants me to look at parts of myself in the mirror and tell myself that I am beautiful. I can’t seem to do it. She’s angry with me.” 

Diamond Tiara shook her head. “She isn’t angry with you. You are disappointed with yourself and you are projecting those feelings of disappointment onto Doctor Mawu… be honest with yourself. In sessions, Doctor Mawu is very calm and rational. Have you ever actually seen her angry?” 

Little Slip scowled again. “Well… no.” 

“We have to be honest with our problems.” Diamond Tiara gave Little Slip a gentle prod. 

“I’d better be going. I’ll be late and that’s never good.” Little Slip’s expression softened. “See you in group therapy?” 

“On time and with my organiser,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“See ya,” Little Slip said as she trotted off. 

Diamond Tiara watched the filly go, took a deep breath, and ignored the painful rumble in her stomach. Lifting one front leg, Diamond Tiara stood for a moment, and then took off once more, trotting with purpose down the hallway, drawing nearer to the double doors that led outside. 

Sitting in the alcove by the doors was a griffoness wrapped in a cloak, wearing a yellow scarf around her neck. A black beak protruded from her hood. She looked to be shivering… 

And maybe crying. 

“You okay?” Diamond Tiara asked. She climbed up on the padded bench beside the griffon and sat down. 

“I can’t think of anything meaningful to say,” the griffoness replied. 

“Life is like that sometimes. We just can’t figure out what to say,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“Lugus told me that I was to sit here and that I wasn’t allowed to move until I had something meaningful to say.” 

Diamond Tiara scooted a little closer. “I know Lugus… he’s a big softie. He took care of me one day while I was sick. He fed me soup, read me a story, and made jokes about how I was too pink for my own good.” Diamond Tiara smiled. “My name is Diamond Tiara and you must be new here because you don’t hate me on sight.” 

“My name is Boadicea.” The griffoness wiped her eyes with the corner of her cloak. 

“So why so down?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“It’s a long story,” Boadicea replied. 

“Coco might scold me, but I can be a little late going home. She’ll understand if I give her a good reason, so… out with it,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“Lugus told me that he didn’t trust me… he doesn’t know if I am being sincere.” Boadicea slumped over. “I did some bad things. I don’t think I’m very trusted. Lugus is being kind enough, but when I open up to him… he told me that he worries that I am playing with his emotions.” 

“Yikes… welcome to my world. I did some bad things too… and now, hardly anypony likes me or trusts me. Thankfully, I have a few friends… friends that look out for me.” Diamond Tiara scooted a little closer, until she bumped up against Boadicea. 

“Lugus hugged me and he was nice… but then he said he didn’t trust me enough to know if I was being honest with him. I’m confused and it hurts. He hugged me but then he said all those things.” Boadicea shook her head. “I don’t understand.” 

“Lugus is being honest with you.” Diamond Tiara waved her hoof in a circular motion. “When you make really bad mistakes, when somepony has been hurt by what you’ve done, others will expect the worst from you for a while, even if you really are trying to to do good. It’s kinda a trap though.” 

“I don’t understand.” Boadicea turned and looked at Diamond Tiara, her black eyes glistening with tears. 

“Well, see, if you get discouraged, and you just sort of give up, you give others the chance to point and say, ‘hah! I told you so!’ and you sort of prove them right. Nopony really wants to believe that you are being for real. And it is really discouraging. And it hurts a lot. You have to go at it alone… at least until you have one pony… or birdy… or whomever that will come along, pick you up, and carry you through the rough spot until others around you start to believe you. After that, it gets easier. You do what needs to be done because you don’t want to disappoint the few kind souls you have around you that believe in you.” 

“Hmm.” Boadicea’s beak clicked. “Who saved you?” 

“Sentinel.” Diamond Tiara’s muzzle split into a genuine happy smile. “Sentinel. He’s my best friend, my colt friend, and the one pony I can trust to always be honest with me. He calls me out when I do something stupid and he holds me accountable. He doesn’t let me feel sorry for myself and he refuses to let me quit. I really hate him sometimes.” 

“I’ve met him. But only for a moment. He didn’t pay me much attention. Just sort of bowed.” Boadicea raised her talons and rubbed her foreleg. Her black tail twitched behind her. 

“Well, come on. Let’s go find Lugus,” Diamond Tiara said. 

“But I have nothing meaningful to tell him.” Sitting on the bench, Boadicea turned and looked at the double doors. “If I move from this spot, I will betray his trust.” 

“Just tell him that you’ve found a friend. That will be meaningful…” 



 

Stress. Nothing caused stress like being late. Flapping his wings, Bucky poured on some speed. Bon Bon and Lyra both had seen the doctor while he was gone, and today, a spot had opened up to see the doctor because of a cancellation. 

Even with a few hours of warning, Bucky was still going to be late. There were only so many hours in a day. As he flew, Bucky realised the bitter, cruel irony of this situation. Wings. The one thing he was trying to avoid was also the very thing he was depending upon to save him. 

Halfway to Ponyville, Bucky decided that it was worth it to burn the mana calories. The axe beaked griffon vanished into a cloud of snowflakes. 



 

The fertility doctor’s office was a small space above a now abandoned specialty market. There was a weird smell in the air, the magazines were all several years old, and the receptionist appeared to be around her century mark. 

“You came here?” Bucky asked. 

Bon Bon looked up from her old tattered magazine. “We went to the hospital and saw the doctor there. She has an office here. We’re just getting test results today. They do the procedure at the hospital.”

“This place smells like mushroom soup.” 

“Bucky, so help me… I want to have your foals, but you do try my patience something awful,” Bon Bon said in a forceful whisper. 

“They collect semen samples here.” Lyra did nothing to lower her voice and the receptionist looked up from her desk. 

“So… how are we going to collect my semen sample?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, I was thinking about having it done with one of those big needles they stick in your testicles,” Bon Bon whispered. 

Bucky’s hind legs snapped closed and there was a pained squeak. 

“She’s kidding… they don’t do that.” Lyra wrapped her foreleg around Bucky and tried to comfort him as he whimpered. “Berry has offered to milk you, to return the favour for all those times you’ve milked her.” 

“The doctor will see you now,” the receptionist said in a dry crackling voice. 



 

“My name is Doctor Latigo… please, be seated and make yourself comfortable.” 

Bucky, already seated, stared at the doctor, a unicorn with a crinkled green mane. 

The doctor leaned over her desk. “Well… I don’t know where to start. There is some good news and some bad news.” 

“Good news,” Bon Bon and Lyra said together. 

“Good news is, Bon Bon is good to go. There is only one minor concern,” Doctor Latigo said in a calm voice. 

“And that is?” Bon Bon asked, raising her eyebrow. 

“You have a retroverted uterus.” Doctor Latigo smiled. “Your womb angles towards the rectum rather than down towards the belly. It would explain why having penetrative sex is so painful for you, if that is the reason you are choosing to have artificial insemination. The fallopian tubes, your ovaries, all of those are tilted too, and would be struck by the head of the penis during sex, a condition called ‘collision dyspareunia’ that can be excruciating. Thankfully, this shouldn’t cause too many problems during pregnancy, other than a higher chance of constipation and a bit more discomfort than usual.” 

“Oh, we don’t have sex,” Bon Bon said. She blinked. “Well, Lyra and I are lesbians but we love our husband and we do have sex, but he doesn’t go sticking his penis into us because we…” Bon Bon fell silent and her face turned a deep purple. She lifted her front hoof, stuck it into her mouth, and bit down upon it. 

“I get what you are saying,” Doctor Latigo said, nodding her head. She looked at Bucky. “You must be very understanding.” 

“I love them?” Bucky said, looking confused about everything said. “I mean, I turned myself into a mare for them on several occasions… er… uh… well…” 

Doctor Latigo turned a shade of purple very similar to Bon Bon’s. 

“So, um, what is the bad news?” Bucky asked, not wanting to know the bad news, but eager to change the subject. 

The doctor cleared her throat and composed herself. Adjusting her glasses, she sat up straight and looked at Lyra, then Bucky, and then Bon Bon. After a moment, she turned back to Lyra. “At some point, you sustained an injury down there… a rather terrible injury and necromancy was used to heal it.” 

A whimper came from Lyra. “I need to go… I can’t be here. I need to go. I GOTTA GO RIGHT NOW!” Lyra bolted from the room, knocking her chair over. 

Bon Bon, looking worried, ran after Lyra, calling out Lyra’s name. 

Looking the doctor in the eye, Bucky asked, “What happened?” 

The doctor hesitated. 

“Look, I am telling you to tell me what happened. Not as a husband, but as a member of the Black Cloaks. If this involves necromancy, I need to know!” 

The doctor, now looking afraid, sank down in her chair. “From the scans we took, it appears as though a very large penis was rammed through Lyra’s body and necromancy was used to keep her alive. It was very hard to tell. We did only a rudimentary study when we noticed some anomalies in the scans. She has a core of necromancy corrupted tissue running through the length of her body… she is barren… we can’t heal that. I mean, sometimes we can heal flesh touched by necromancy, but this was too much. She was run through and it looks an awful lot like something just speared her and then kept going, using the black arts to keep her alive.” 

Recoiling as if struck, Bucky fell back into his chair, now having trouble breathing. He knew something had happened, but this was too much to bear. He looked at the doctor. “You and I will be talking later. A lot. But for now, I need to go look after my wife.” 

Slipping from his chair, his nostrils flaring as he struggled to draw breath, Bucky left to follow after his wives. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 584
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mama sad.” The expression on Harper’s face was somehow worse than the expression upon her mother’s. “Why mama sad?” 

Standing at the edge of the bed, Bucky didn’t know what to do. Lyra was laying here, red eyed, miserable looking, and Bon Bon was holding her, pressed against Lyra’s back and Bon Bon was rubbing her. Bucky wanted to grab her, hold her, squeeze her… 

But he was all too mindful of what he was and how Lyra might react to certain parts of him. Fear churned his insides. Worry. He had already sent off a message to Luna and he felt an odd sense of anxiety as he wondered if Luna might reply… or if she would ignore him. 

Luna was angry after all.

As he stood at the edge of the bed, Bucky thought about how much he loved Lyra. The unicorn mare was special to him… she had been the unicorn that he had married, the unicorn whose neurosis had meshed so well with his own. A unicorn that he was proud of, did not feel ashamed of, a unicorn that was so unlike the others he had known in his life. 

Lyra, a commoner, was silly. She could be crude. Lyra was capable of matching Berry for dirty jokes. Lyra was the perfect foil for Bon Bon. Bucky valued Lyra’s curiousity and philosophical nature. 

“Hold me.” Lyra extended a foreleg towards Bucky. 

Bucky did not need to be told twice. He dove into the bed and wiggled up against Lyra. There was a tangle of legs between them as he pressed up against her, sandwiching her against Bon Bon. Harper, between them, let out a low whimpering cry. 

Standing in the door, having come from the bathroom, Derpy looked at the ponies in the bed. Lyra was very dear to her. There was intimacy there now, a recent development. A strong connection had formed. Limping, the pain in her pelvis throbbing, Derpy approached the bed. 

She climbed in and clambered over to Bon Bon. She threw herself down on top of Bon Bon, her front half draped over Bon Bon’s soft and supple sides. She rested her head down on top of Lyra. 

A pegasus’ place was on top of the pile, so they could be the first to rise in the herd’s defense. Instinct was a difficult thing to deny. Spread out over Bon Bon and Lyra, Derpy felt empowered, in control of the situation, and Lyra’s sadness didn’t hurt so much. 

“I heard Lyra got bad news,” Loch Skimmer said, standing in the bedroom doorway that led out to the hall. Her wings flapping, she hurried to bed and tossed herself at the pony pile, joining Derpy. 

“I don’t feel right about doing this anymore.” Bon Bon’s voice was ragged, raspy, it was the voice of grief. “Lyra and I do everything together.”

Sniffling, Lyra raised her head. “Bonnie… don’t… don’t give up on your happiness for me. This hurts enough.” 

“Lyra… I…” A large tear slipped from Bon Bon’s eye, soaked into the pelt of her face, and left behind a dark discolouration. 

“I’m so glad that I have Harper. I already know the joy of being a mother.” Lyra pressed her face into Harper. “I have Harper and that’s enough. Harper is perfect.” 

“Harpy,” Harper said, still overcome with sadness and not knowing what to do. 

“You know, I almost started crying and carrying on about how useless I am as a mare.” Lyra hiccuped and took a moment to draw in a deep breath. “But I have Harper. I think about all of those nights with Sentinel. And Ripple calls me her mother… as bad as this is, I think I can deal with it.” 

“Well, Lyra, you’ve certainly gotten stronger,” Bon Bon said, whispering into Lyra’s ear. “There was a time that something like this might have destroyed you… knocked you down.” 

“This caught me off guard, that’s all. I’ll be okay. I’m just going to need all of you if I’m going to be okay.” Lyra pulled Bucky closer and Harper grunted as she was squeezed between them. “Bucky, I need you now more than ever.” 

Saying nothing, Bucky did the only thing he could think of, and that was holding Lyra. 



 

“This one is yours. She is returned home safe and sound,” Lugus said as he dropped Diamond Tiara from his talons. She plopped down into the snow as Lugus folded his wings. “I hope she is not late. If there is to be a scolding, the fault is my own.” 

Coco, shaking her head, made a flatulent noise with her lips. The big griffon was a bit too noble and she had no intention of scolding anypony… or anybirdy for that matter. 

“This one has already scolded me.” Lugus cocked his head sideways and looked down at Diamond Tiara. “She brought up several excellent points.” 

“Lugus, would you like to come in?” Coco asked. 

Lugus, his eyes bright and flashing, peered through the window. “How is Bucky’s gown coming along?” 

“Oh it is going to be faaaabulous,” Coco said in a soft but excited voice. “Rarity has the foundation on a dress form. We’re working together… it is an experimental piece. We’re trying to see how well our styles mesh together as we both work freeflow. Bucky told us that we have free reign to do whatever we wish.” 

The big griffon’s crest rose. He had very little understanding about what had just been said, but Coco seemed happy about it. 

“Do come in Lugus… please?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Very well. I shall come in. Thank you for having me,” Lugus replied.

“We’ll prepare tea and show you Bucky’s gown.” Coco offered Lugus a pleasing demure smile. “Come on, it’s chilly out here.” 



 

After patting Bandua, who was tucked into her shawl, Belisama pulled her autoharp to her breast. With her talons, she began to pluck out a tune, hoping to make Lyra feel better. Closing her eyes, she thought about how she had felt last night under the pink moon. Magic had happened, there could be no denying that. She had done magic. 

Now came the difficult part. Making it happen again. She had been trying all day. 

No magic had come forth. No rush of emotion. No tingle-tickle. No strange feeling of vibration in the claws on the end of her talons. 

Loch Skimmer, pulling herself from the pony pile on the bed, came over to where Belisama was sitting in on the couch, climbed up, and sat down beside  the griffoness. Loch’s head began to bob in time to the music, the melody that Belisama was plucking from the strings. 

After a few minutes of listening, Loch Skimmer let out a warbling, wavering whistle. Her head still bobbing, a pegasus metronome, Loch kept perfect time with Belisama’s music, as weird as it might be, Loch Skimmer hit just the right notes to compliment Belisama’s tune. 

And then, the whole room felt it. Like a rushing wind, the music struck them. Flagging spirits lifted. The sense of grief retreated. Sorrow, depression, sadness, it was all shoved back by the music that tickled their ears and flowed through their bodies. 

For Lyra, more tears fell, but the relief was evident upon her face. 

Harper’s head began to bob along with the music and one little front hoof began to tap upon her mother’s ribs. 

Belisama… Belisama was lost. Her eyes were closed. Her talons moved along her strings. Her slender neck extended and her head waved from side to side. 

A small figure came into the bedroom through the nursery door. She sat in the doorway, wide eyed, trembling somewhat as she peered into the room. A strange expression was upon Sukari’s face. 

Thistle, coming up behind her, sat down on the floor. Sukari, looking back at Thistle, let out a sad mewling sound and then moved to be with Thistle, grabbing her foreleg and squeezing it. For Thistle, the feeling of the foal clutching her foreleg was overpowering. She began weeping, but was unable to tell if they were sad or happy tears. 

Berry Punch, coming through the hallway door, looked around the room, her mouth open, trying to take in what she was witnessing. Dinky and Piña appeared in the door as well, peering in, trying to figure out what was going on. 

Yew arrived a moment later, Sentinel at her heels, and Cadance was slung over Sentinel’s back. The trio stood, transfixed, staring into the doorway. 

With each new face, Belisama felt the music flowing through her talons becoming stronger and stronger. It was a warm, living thing, like napping in a sunny window or being cuddled up against the warm body of one that you loved. Perhaps napping in a sunny window cuddled up against the warm body of one that you loved. 

As the music continued, Belisama began to understand her power. 



 

“Lugus, she was really hurt that you doubted her sincerity,” Diamond Tiara said, her words causing ripples to form in her tea. She held her teacup between her front hooves and waited for it to cool. 

“But I do not know that she is being sincere.” Lugus speared a cube of cheese with his claw. “For all I know, she could be telling you these things and manipulating you as well.” 

The earth pony filly scowled. “Maybe… let’s say that she is. What is she getting out of it?” 

“Sympathy.” Lugus, having replied, flicked the cube of cheese into his beak. 

“Look, I know she did some bad stuff, whatever it was, but must you be so cruel?” Diamond Tiara shook her head. 

“Boadicea killed a fair number of ponies and griffons. She inflicted harm upon many others. She has shown herself to be treacherous.” Lugus cocked his head in a very avian way and looked at Diamond Tiara. “Trust must be earned. I am offering her a way to redeem herself. She will earn it… or she will not.” 

Almost dropping her teacup, Diamond Tiara struggled to keep it between her hooves. Hot tea sloshed over the side and splashed her fetlock. The filly hissed as she felt the hot liquid scalding her. She set her teacup down upon the table and stuck her fetlock into her mouth, sucking on the burned place. 

“Are you alright?” Lugus asked. 

Diamond Tiara pulled her fetlock out of her mouth. “I’m fine.” She stared at Lugus with wide worried eyes. 

“I am inclined to believe that Boadicea was a good griffon caught up in some very bad circumstances. She needs a chance to prove herself. If I believed her to be truly bad, I would have never allowed her near my mate and my cub.” 

“Foal.” Diamond Tiara stuck her fetlock back into her mouth and sucked on the scalded place once more. 

“Foal.” Lugus nodded. “She acts so much like a little cub. She is fierce.” 

“So you do trust her with what is important,” Coco said, a faint wrinkle visible upon her brow. “You trust her enough to allow her near your precious little Peekaboo. But you continue to be suspicious. I don’t understand.” 

“I do,” Rarity said, looking at Diamond Tiara with one eyebrow raised in concern. 

“You do?” Coco asked. 

“I do.” Rarity nodded. “By leaving Boadicea in a state of doubt, she is forced to examine herself and question everything she does. She becomes self aware of her manipulative behaviours, her flaws, her faults, and gains the ability for critical introspection.” 

A blank stare settled over Coco’s face. 

“What? I go with Diamond Tiara to attend her therapy sessions… I listen.” Rarity waved her hoof in a dismissive gesture. “I understand that I have flaws and faults of my own and that because of that, sometimes ponies expect the worst from me. I can be vain, shallow, and sometimes I lack focus on the important issue because I let myself be distracted by trivial things. I do it so I am not overcome by my own neurosis. By refusing to acknowledge a more pressing issue, I face the world on my own terms, for good or ill.” 

“I… you… what?” Coco stammered. 

Rarity rolled her eyes and took a sip of tea. After she swallowed, she said, “I take Diamond Tiara’s therapy sessions very seriously. I have a responsibility as her guardian. I am also trying to be a better sister for Sweetie Belle.” 

Spearing another cheese cube on his talon thumb claw, Lugus watched the exchange between the two mares. 

“Darling… I am full of surprises… and filled with the need for self improvement…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 585
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After stabbing a cheesy bite of potato with her fork, Lyra stuffed it into Harper’s mouth. Harper, sitting in her highchair at the dinner table with the adults, chewed for a moment, trying to determine if what she had been given was any good. 

“I’m okay… really… I just had a moment there where everything fell apart. I wish all of you would stop being like… like… well, like this.” Lyra stabbed another bite of potato and ate it. “Look, this has made me grateful for what I have… not mournful for what I have lost.” 

“I must say, you are taking this well, Lyra. You’re taking it better than I am,” Bon Bon said as she sat beside Lyra, holding a spoonful of uneaten peas. 

“I started to take it badly.” Lyra’s admission was said in a low voice and for a moment, her eyes darkened. “But then I thought about everything I had… it softened the blow.” Lyra, now armed with a spoon, shoveled some hot buttery peas into Harper’s mouth. “When Harper is older, how would she feel if she thought I had just settled for her because I can’t have my own foals? Harper is my foal. Make no mistake. I’ll zap the stuffing out of anypony that says otherwise.” 

“Stop sulking.” Reaching out, Derpy prodded Bucky with her hoof. Sitting beside him as she always did, she leaned over and her eyes narrowed. “If she can take it this well, so can you.” 

Slumped in his chair, Bucky looked over at Derpy. “There is more going on here than you realise. I’m bothered by all of it.” 

Derpy shook her head. “I don’t care. If she can put on a brave face, so can you.” She gave Bucky another poke and then one more for good measure. “Now… you eat.” 

Taking a deep breath, Bucky sat up in his chair and looked at the others sitting at the table around him. He looked down at his plate of food, which had been untouched. His ears perked when he heard a low growl from the pegasus beside him. “I ate a little earlier. The trip to town took a lot out of me.” 

“And we’re eating dinner now.” Derpy leaned over a little more. She tapped a hoof upon the table. 

“Oh come on, don’t be so hard on him,” Berry said. 

“She’s only doing it because she loves me.” Bucky lifted up a fork and stabbed his slab of fish on his plate. He pulled off a flaky bite and stuffed it into his mouth. 

“Berry is right though. I am being hard on you. It frustrates me how you get sometimes.” Derpy hunched over her plate and began to eat her food, tucking into her potatoes. With her mouth full, she said, “Sometimes, being hard on you is the only control I have over a situation.” 

The sounds of laughter came from the kitchen, where the younger foals were eating. The adults sitting around the dining room table all lifted their heads and ears all perked. 

“I miss having Rising Star, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Ripple, and Bittersweet with us.” Bon Bon, still listening to the commotion in the kitchen, set her spoon down and picked up her fork. “I wonder what it is like around their dinner table.” 

“They’re not having dinner at their table. Their table is covered with clutter. It is already piled high with boxes, empty bottles, potato chip bags, and other things I don’t even want to think about. They’re probably eating over the sink or scarfing down dinner while sitting on their couch.” Lyra looked disgusted. “Their apartment over the forge already smells. What is it with teenagers and the stink they generate?” 

“I don’t know, but we’re going to need the Black Cloaks to drive away the stink demons they left behind in their old room. Sparkler says they cleaned it, she swears they did, but oh… oh my, what an eye watering funk.” Berry shook her head. 

“If Boadicea’s room begins to stink, I am moving her into the barracks—”

“Oh no you’re not!” Yew cried, turning on Lugus. “That poor thing has suffered enough!” 

“Adolescence… it starts around the decade mark and it makes itself known through stink,” Derpy said around a mouthful of food. A green pea was stuck to her snoot. “Dinky is already getting stinky sheets. Gone are the days that I could give her a bath and she’d stay clean and fresh smelling for days if she didn’t get a bath for some reason. Now, she gets clean in the morning and by evening time, I can smell a fair bit of stink on her.” 

“So says the pegasus that bathes every chance she gets… what sort of stink is she hiding?” Berry asked. 

“The ‘I just had to pound my best friend into the mattress’ stink,” Derpy said, looking at Berry. 

“I must say, I appreciate modern living. I hated being stinky.” Yew Wood picked up her glass of water and took a drink. “Nopony likes a pungent pegasus. Stinky wing pits are the worst. You open your wings and ponies around you pass out. Flowers wilt. Flies come swarming in and then die.” 

“The other day Piña said that Harper’s olid crepitations were putrefactive. I had no idea what she was saying. I had to slip off into the library and find a dictionary.” Bon Bon wiped her muzzle with a napkin. 

Lyra giggled and looked at Harper. 

“How did we get to talking about stink?” Belisama asked. 

Derpy shrugged and kept eating. 

“Lyra is giggling and we’re not so depressed. Who cares. Stuff happens.” Berry sat back in her chair and lifted up her glass of water. 

“Somepony at the door!” a voice shouted from within the kitchen. 



 

“Kinda surprised to see you,” Bucky said, looking up at Luna. 

“I am rather surprised I came,” Luna replied. “You vandalised my moon—” 

“Luna… what do you know about Lyra’s past?” Bucky asked, cutting Luna off and not caring about it in the slightest. 

The night princess sighed. “I know enough that you should not ask about it.” 

“Well I am.” Bucky lifted his head. His breath was visible in the cold night air. 

“Buckminster, there is a lot that I do not know. Her mind was shattered… broken by magic that rivals my own. It is a fragile thing, a delicate thing that I dared not touch for the fear that I would do more harm than good. After Lyra was found at the train station, I tried to find out more and then I realised that it would be better if I just backed away. I have my suspicions on what happened though, based upon others that I have found.” Luna looked off towards the school, her teal eyes almost glowing with inner luminance. 

Wrapped in a shawl around Luna’s neck, Erebus began to babble. 

“Can we have a cease fire?” Luna asked. 

Bucky shrugged. 

“I would like to see Barley. I also have need of you and Sentinel both. There is a lesson to be learned.” Luna turned to look at Bucky. “Buckminster, my apprentice, I sense much turmoil in you. If you are thinking of revenge for Lyra… I must ask that you step back from this darkness.” 

“I don’t know that I can,” Bucky replied. “Every day I feel more and more like a griffon… there are vermin that need killing… we hate vermin.” 

Frustrated, a whinny escaped from Luna. “It started this way for Sombra as well.” 

His head dropping, Bucky’s ears went limp against the sides of his face. 

“You worry that you cannot stop what you are becoming… yet you desire to hurry it along with vengeful action. You worry me… Buckminster, please, reconsider this action. As your teacher, I am asking you to take this lesson to heart. But if you cannot, I will not stop you and I will help you if I can.” 

“What needs to be done tonight? I don’t feel like leaving home.” Bucky lifted his head up a little and looked up at Luna. 

“We can do what needs to be done from here,” Luna replied. She reached out her wing and stroked Bucky’s neck. “I am still furious with you, just so you know. You turned my moon pink.” 

“I am not a pony to be trifled with. You filled my office with popcorn and you framed your sister. You manipulated me into playing a terrible prank against my auntie. Now, I don’t mind pranking her, but that was no ordinary prank.” Bucky allowed himself to lean against Luna. He felt weary inside, depressed, and beaten down by life. He didn’t care if Luna was furious. 

“Booly?” Erebus asked. 

“In a moment, be patient, Erebus,” Luna replied. 

“Booly!” Erebus cried. 

“Erebus, be patient!” Luna swatted her shawl with her wing. 

“Ucky?” 

“Yes, what do you want, Erebus?” Bucky asked. 

“Ucky.” 

“Can you say your mama’s name?” Bucky turned and looked at the muzzle peeking out of Luna’s shawl. 

“Mama.” Erebus’ voice was squeaky. 

“No… your mama’s name… Luna.” 

“Una.” 

“Close enough.” Bucky took a deep breath, filling his lungs with cold air. “We should go inside. Erebus wants to see Booly.” Bucky leaned his head closer and bumped his snoot into Erebus’. 

There was a shrill whistle of echolocation and the flutter of tiny wings could be heard. Luna’s shawl, filled with something lumpy, stretched and moved. 

“Erebus continues to endear himself to me. In the bath together, he took it upon himself to soil my bathwater. My foal is a menace.” Luna frowned and rubbed her shawl with her wing. 

“Since we have this cease fire, I suppose I should offer a little hospitality. Would you like some rice pudding? We were having dinner when you arrived,” Bucky said. 

“That would be lovely,” Luna replied. 



 

Sitting in his chair, with Luna’s shawl around his neck, Barley cradled Erebus. He rubbed the colt’s back through the shawl and felt the warm fire upon his bones. At the end of a long day, it felt nice to sit in a chair and cuddle a foal. Barley closed his eyes. 

“Booly.” 

“Yes, Erebus, Booly,” Barley said. 

This winter was being downright cruel upon his joints. Everything ached, everything burned. His joints felt as though they were filled with broken glass. Even his jaw ached, the rheumatoid had settled into his jawbone. 

But this, this made it all bearable. Erebus smelled of milk, of some soft floral shampoo that Luna loved, and the scent of his mother’s perfume was strong upon him. Erebus’ body was warm, almost like a hot water bottle, and even though Erebus was heavy to hold, the warmth of the warm body against him made it worth it for Barley. 

“Your mama wants me to have a few foals,” Barley said to Erebus in a low whisper. “She says that there is too much complication for us to be married, even though she said she would… but she said that a few foals would ease the sufferin’ of her heart. What do ye think o’ that?” 

Erebus burbled and rubbed his cheek against Barley’s neck. 

“She says she’s worried about making the same mistake as Princess Platinum… leaving behind a little too much power for her foals… even you. But she wants them well off and looked after… how would ye feel about a wee sister or a brother?” 

“Booly.” 

“Luna says that Rarity and Coco are well off, but not too well off… they’re just right, like the porridge that yon wee golden maned filly found in the house with the three ursa majors that was nae too hot and nae too cold.” 

“Rararay.” 

“Yes… that’s right Erebus, Rarity.” Barley bent his head down and kissed the colt he was holding. “Luna says she could avoid a scandal. She would have a little foal or three she could be an aunt to, or a godmother, and she wouldn’t have to show favouritism or give them money, which could lead to some trouble down the road. So much fuss for a wee foal to have a comfortable life, eh?” 

“Fuss.” 

“Yes… wee Erebus… a fuss. I suspect that when you grow up, yer goin’ to face quite the fuss as Luna’s adopted colt. Ponies will accuse you of being privileged… and Luna at some point is going to have to hurt herself real bad by letting you go and seeing if you can make it on your own. It’s gonna break her wee heart but nopony will even know her heart is broken. They’ll go on calling her a heartless bitch, thinking she’s all cold and distant.” 

“Una.” 

Barley shifted in his chair, trying to get comfortable. There was a burning ache in his hip. “If’n I leave behind a few foals with Coco and Rarity, that’ll be one less thing for Luna to worry about. She’ll have what she wants, and I’ll be happy giving her what she wants, and Coco and Rarity will be happy getting what they want.” 

“Coco?” Erebus asked. 

“Yes, Coco. She’s a sweet thing. She has a thing for both Bucky and myself I think. She likes the roguish types. I can make her blush like a school filly,” Barley replied. The old stallion sighed. “That makes it a little easier I guess, knowing that Coco at least has a bit of a crush on me. But then again, what mare wouldn’t want me? I’m damn sexy.” 
	
> Chapter 586
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “Applejack?” 

“Yes Babs?” 

“Say I want a colt to find me irresistible… what do I do?” 

Applejack felt the first few drops of sweat bead up along her neck. “Er… what?” 

Babs, sitting at the table, looked over at Applejack. “I want colts to notice me the same way that Silver Shill notices you or Big Mac notices Cheerilee—” 

“Now hold on a second, yer too young for that!” 

“Apple Bloom is dating Rumble—” 

“That’s different!” Applejack felt a cold clamminess creeping up her neck. Reaching up with her right hoof, she began to rub her neck and she looked over at Babs. The dishes from dinner were still on the table. “Now I don’t want to talk about this no more. Help me clean off the table.” 

“I keep having strange dreams… dreams about colts… sometimes they’re confusing,” Babs said, a faint drawl creeping into her voice. She was out of the city now, and back in the orchard. 

“Those are just dreams. You don’t pay them no nevermind.” Applejack felt queasy and the kitchen felt far too warm. Her throat felt dry and hot. 

Letting out a nervous cough, Applejack went to the sink to get a drink of water. 

“Apple Bloom said she was wrestling with Rumble and he unsheathed—” 

Applejack did a spittake into the sink, spraying water everywhere. She coughed and spluttered, unable to breathe. She banged her hoof on the edge of the sink. 

“I’ve been kinda curious about colts and I’ve been wanting to see what they look like,” Babs said, now staring out the window. “Apple Bloom tells me they’re veiny… are they veiny?” 

Now strangling, Applejack tried to suck in a lungful of air and failed. She hacked and coughed. Stars bounced around in her vision. 

“Anyway, if you could tell me how to make a colt find me irresistible, I’d appreciate it. I have a date coming over and I want it to go well—” 

“YOU AIN’T GOIN’ ON NO DATE!” Applejack whirled and faced Babs. “AIN’T NO WAY, AIN’T NO HOW, YOU AIN’T EVER GOIN’ ON NO DATES. NO LITTLE COLTS FOR YOU!” 

Slumping down in her chair, Babs looked crushed, like an apple squeezed for cider. 

“Why?” Babs asked in a small squeaky voice. 

“Just… because… that’s why. Now shut up and help me clear the table. You ain’t goin’ on no date,” Applejack replied. 

“But I want to fall in love… I think Apple Bloom is in love. Or maybe it is a crush, I don’t know, but it is romantic…” 

“Babs, yer testin’ my patience. Shut yer fool mouth and help me clear this table.” Applejack stomped one hoof down onto the floor and scowled. 

The doorbell rang. Applejack felt an icy feeling of dread form around her heart. 

“My date is here!” Babs cried. 

“Don’t you dare move,” Applejack said as she went to answer the door. 



 

“Sentinel… howdy. How do you do?” Applejack looked down at the colt standing at her door. “Now go home!” 

“But I am here to escort Babs out on a date.” Sentinel, peering through his glasses, looked hurt. 

“Well, she ain’t goin! Now go on, scram! Get! Go on and get on outta here!” Applejack waved her hoof at Sentinel and tried to shoo him off. 

“But I brought chocolates…” 

“That’s nice… you can leave those here,” Applejack said as she tried to shove Sentinel off of her porch. 

“And I brought condoms…” 

“DAGGUM POLECAT EATIN’ FOOL! I KNEW IT! I KNEW THAT ALL LITTLE COLTS WERE ONLY AFTER ONE THING! NOW GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE I APPLEBUCK YOU INTO NEXT TUESDAY YOU LITTLE BAT WINGED PERVERT!” 

“But I got here first… I wanted to get to her before anypony else did…” 

Looking out, Applejack saw hundreds of colts standing around in her yard. Some of them had boxes of chocolates. Others had flowers. Others held boxes of condoms in their mouth and did nothing to hide them. 

“We can all smell her… she’s a juicy apple that is ripe for picking,” Sentinel said. 

A breeze blew Applejack’s hat off and her ears pinned back against her skull. 

“Oh feck me… I have a whole orchard full of little perverts I gotta go applebuck!” 

Sentinel, his voice a growl, his teeth bared, said, “We wont go until we have her!” 

“Oh there are so many colts to choose from! I don’t know where to start!” Babs looked out over the colts gathered in the yard. “He brought balloons!” 

“Oh shite,” Applejack said, her voice now a fearful whimper. She grabbed Babs, flung Babs over her back, and took off running. 

Behind her, the colts were also running. Applejack’s hooves thudded against the earth and she felt Babs squeezing her neck, holding on for dear life. Hatless, Applejack went streaking off into her orchard, determined to preserve whatever scraps were left of Babs’ innocence at all costs. 

Her lungs burned with hidden fire, her sides heaved, and snot dribbled from her nostrils. Sweat lathered and foamed along her sides. Behind her, hundreds of colts ran after her, all of them hoping to have a chance at Babs. 

Applejack turned her head to have a look. 

The colts coalesced, becoming something else. A dark shadow. Some dark, horrible, unspeakable, nameless dread. It was the most terrifying thing that Applejack had ever seen.

“You can’t save her!” The voice of the darkness was a serpent’s hiss. “Her fertile earth will know much seed!”

“NO! I WON’T LET THAT HAPPEN! SHE’S DONE BEEN HURT ENOUGH!” 

Applejack kept running, almost panting now, reaching the limits of her endurance. The orchard seemed endless; a neverending stretch of trees loomed before her and behind her. 

The darkness sent out tendrils. Applejack felt something cold and icy touch her hind legs and then her hindquarters. A freezing chill ran from her dock and up her spine, ramming into her brain and threatening to pop her eyes out of her skull. 

The sulfurous stench of rotten eggs filled the orchard. 

“No!” Applejack cried, her words a pained pleading whimper. “No no no! I’ll not let the darkness have her again!” 

Overhead, clouds swirled around the moon. The wind picked up. There was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. 

Princess Luna descended from the clouds, lightning arced from her hooves. Her eyes blazed white and terrible. Her whole body shone with a silver light. 

“TOUCH NOT MINE SUBJECTS! GET THEE HENCE, FOUL DARKNESS!”

With a terrific crash, Princess Luna slammed into ground, sending fissures and cracks out from where her hooves impacted the earth. Her wings still spread, she stood defiant before the darkness. 

Applejack went streaking past, glad for once to see Princess Luna, knowing that Princess Luna would give the darkness a good what for. Behind her, Applejack heard thunderclap after thunderclap. She dared not turn around. Whatever was going on back there was not for mortal eyes. 

When she felt like she was a safe distance away, Applejack came to a skidding halt. Babs was still on her back, still clutching to Applejack’s neck. She sucked in air like a pony just coming out of a desert sucks in water, drawing in great wheezing gasps. 



 

“Applejack?” 

Turning, Applejack faced Princess Luna. “What?” 

“I have protected her from the darkness… but who will protect her from you?” Princess Luna asked. 

“I don’t get whatcha mean,” Applejack replied. 

“Not all love is bad… does not Silver Shill nibble most pleasingly upon your dock?” Princess Luna folded her wings to her sides and looked at Applejack with blazing teal eyes. 

“What does that have to do with this?” Applejack looked up at Princess Luna, a defiant gleam in her eye. 

“She was hurt once, but keeping her from love will hurt her far more. Would you deny her the sort of love that you and Silver Shill share?” Princess Luna tilted her head and studied the orange earth pony. 

“But… but… but there is no guaranteein’ that she’ll get that sort of love!” Applejack shook her head. “It’s too risky. Colts are careless and they all have but one thing on their mind.” 

“Silver Shill was once a colt,” Luna said in a soft almost teasing voice. 

“Well, he grew out of it.” Applejack braced her legs and curled back her lip. 

“So you will let her go when she is older… robbed of the many happy chances available in youth?” Princess Luna stepped forward. 

Applejack stepped backwards. “No. Because let’s face it, most stallions are only after one thing as well. Even Silver, kind and considerate as he is, there are moments where he is just as lustful and reckless as can be.” 

“But he does love you, does he not?” Princess Luna’s muzzle held the ghost of a smile. 

“Well of course he does!” Applejack took another step backwards. 

Princess Luna took another step forwards. “Silver Shill knows what I know… you like it rough. You like aggression… you like competition… you like rope.” Princess Luna’s last word was a drawn out whisper. 

Applejack sucked in as much air as her lungs would hold and she realised that Babs was gone. She felt panicky and scared. Princess Luna’s eyes flashed with silver light. 

“Silver Shill is a stallion that knows what you like… you have bared your soul to him. You have had him tie you up in the bedroom and the barn… you have had him make you helpless, to take away your ability to fight… you trust him. You trust him to be just rough enough that it hurts in a good way, but never so rough that it leaves lasting harm.” 

Applejack swallowed. 

“You have found the love of your life. Could you imagine life without him?” Princess Luna asked in a cold voice that was almost a screech. 

An owl swooped in and perched in the branches of a nearby tree. 

“No… I would never want to live without Silver… he completes me!” 

“But you would deny Babs Seed the chance to find this sort of happiness?” Princess Luna drew herself up to her full height and began to stalk forwards. 

Applejack began retreating. 

“Love is fraught with risk, of this there can be no doubt. Babs may get hurt. Babs might suffer. But she also might find the love of her life… somepony that is good to her, mindful, careful, somepony that loves her more than life itself and would never be rough with her… would never cause her harm… and would be considerate of her needs!” 

Applejack stumbled over her own hind hooves and collapsed into a heap. The owl hooted, sounding almost as if it were laughing. Applejack cowered as Princess Luna towered over her, now larger than life. 

YOU MUST LEARN TO LET GO!” Princess Luna’s voice echoed through the orchard. “You lost your parents… that is a terrible pain… everypony around you felt the pain of their passing, and you did everything you could to ease their suffering. Try as you might, you cannot prevent others from feeling pain. It is a part of life. You even enjoy it, but you do everything you can to shield others from experiencing it. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you cannot prevent others from getting hurt! Keeping them from harm is also hurting them… you will cause Babs to endure unspeakable suffering if you do not change your ways!” 

Applejack tried to stand up, but couldn’t. Her legs were wobbly and didn’t work. She realised she was a foal again. She tried to say something, but no words came out. A wet soggy feeling crept around her backside. She looked down and saw a diaper, now soiled. A terrible smell wafted up to her nose and Applejack realised she had done more than wet herself. 

It was terrible being a foal… 

“This is what you do to others!” 

Applejack, now a tiny foal, threw back her head and wailed, unable to do anything else, unable to say anything, unable to protest what had been done to her. 

Princess Luna was gone. 

Applejack looked around, still wailing, helpless, alone in a dark orchard. 

“There there, youngin’, now ye stop yer crying,” Granny Smith said as she approached. “Some little filly done ruined a perfectly good diaper.” 

No, not this, anything but this! 

“I guess it’s time to take ye to the house, get you changed, and then put ye to bed.” Granny Smith sniffed. “Yer a little stinker, just like yer pa.” 

Applejack screamed, a foalish cry of fright, and wondered when she would wake up. 
	
	
> Chapter 587
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’ll never be able to show my face in front of Applejack ever again.” Sentinel, not wearing his glasses, pitched over sideways and fell over onto the floor of the library. “The end of the dream was heartless… why would you do that?” 

“To be kind,” Luna replied. 

“I don’t know if I even want to understand,” Sentinel said. 

“One of Applejack’s worst fears is having to depend upon others. To be helpless and unable to do anything for herself. She fears this, she hates being in this position, yet every day, she does this to others. Treating them as if they were foals. She does this to her brother, her grandmother, to Apple Bloom, to Babs, to Cheerilee, and even her husband. If given the chance, she will do it to her friends as well.” Luna curled up and made herself comfortable in her chair. “If Applejack could have her fondest heartfelt wish, Apple Bloom would remain in a playpen in the living room and the family would never leave the house.” 

Sentinel let out a long low groan and covered his face with his wings. “I don’t even like Babs in that way. I mean, I like her, but not in that way. Ugh.” 

Controlling his breathing, Sentinel tried to think of happier thoughts. A part of him understood that this was necessary. Dream guardians scared ponies back into the light and let them know that the darkness wasn’t good for them. It was something that needed to be done. He understood that sometimes, a healer had to hurt just a little in order to make things better. 

“Buckminster, your performance was admirable. Like you, Applejack understands pain. You gave her just enough pain to reach her, but not enough to do any real harm. That is much trickier to do in practice than it sounds. You did very well.” Luna looked over at Bucky, who was sitting in his chair and rubbing his head. 

“Sentinel is better at this stuff than I am.” Bucky shook his head. 

“You do better than you realise. Sentinel only played himself in our little drama. You played every other colt in the dream. There are few that could divide themselves so many times.” Luna stretched her neck, twisted her head around, and made her neck bones crackle. “Both of you have been studying. Very good.” 

“I go into Cadance’s dreams sometimes. She likes it when I show up. We play. There is something odd though.” Sentinel uncovered his face and looked up at Luna. 

“And that is?” Luna asked. 

Sentinel lowered his voice. “She keeps dreaming about fire.” 

Luna nodded. “I know. You scared away the imp, but the fear still lingers. She will always remember that she perished in flames.” 

“I accidentally went into my mother Derpy’s dream while father was gone on his trip. I didn’t mean to do it, I was asleep and I sort of stumbled into her dream.” Sentinel, looking guilty, lifted himself into a sitting position upon the floor. 

“And what did you see?” Luna asked. 

“Mother… she opened the closet door…” Sentinel fell silent and began to shake his head. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

“The closet door opened and a bunch of foals flooded out. It was like water. They came pouring out and she was swept away. She was giggling and she seemed happy about it.” 

“Huh. I don’t like that dream. At. All.” Bucky, shaking his head, looked uncomfortable. “Sentinel, time for bed. You have school tomorrow and it is late.” 

“Yes father,” Sentinel replied as he rose. He stood for a moment, stretched, trotted to Luna, kissed her on the cheek, then trotted to father, headbutted Bucky, and then left the library. 

“Lucky you… you got a headbutt,” Luna said after Sentinel was gone. 

“He loves me more,” Bucky replied. 

“Buckminster…” 

“Yes Luna?” 

“Celestia is planning on another trip… another vacation. After the winter games. She wants to take Twilight and her friends on a nice trip to the Sea of Grass. To visit Tradewinds.” 

“Okay.” Bucky was silent for a moment. “Wait… why are you telling me this? There is more to this, isn’t there?” 

“She and Twilight will be gone. For a time, you will be one of the ruling heads of Equestria during her and Twilight’s absence.” 

“Son of a—” 

“Buckminster, there is no need to be sore about it.” 

“Yes there is.” Bucky slumped down into his chair and sulked. 

“Tannis and Agnetha will be doing most of the work. Shining Armor will head the Solar Court with them. I will head the Lunar Court as always. All you will need to do is keep an eye on Ponyville, which you do anyway. But Twilight will not be here so you may need to step in for some of the day to day stuff, should the need arise.” 

“If I am summoned to city hall, I shall make them believe it is better to conjure up some fiend from Tartarus than to require my involvement.” Bucky’s lips pulled back from his teeth. “I’ll do it, see if I don’t.” 

“Buckminster… I shall look the other way.” 



 

Sliding into bed, Bucky tried to find a comfortable spot. As he started to lie down, he was grabbed and pulled towards a pile of warm bodies. A blanket was pulled over him. 

“Fancy meeting you here,” Bon Bon said in a soft whisper. 

“You’re coming to bed at a very reasonable hour.” Lyra scooted a little closer to Bucky. 

Derpy giggled and snuggled against Bon Bon. 

“Bucky, you missed it. There was a blow by blow recap of the super hot threesome that Bon Bon, Lyra, and Derpy had while we were gone,” Berry Punch said. 

“What?” Bucky was silent for several long seconds and then let out a whimper. 

Thistle cuddled up against Lyra. “Too bad you missed it.” 

“You… you could just tell me about it,” Bucky said in a whimpering whisper. 

Thistle giggled. “It was so hot that I had to rub one out.” 

“We all had to rub one out… it was that hot.” Derpy giggled some more.

Sniffing, Bucky’s nostrils flared as he inhaled. “I don’t smell mare musk… somepony is lying to me.” 

“Or playing a prank to get you worked up,” Bon Bon said, her lips inches from Bucky’s ear. “Just imagine how soaked the bed would be if we all rubbed one out.” 

“Hmm… that is something to think about.” Bucky smiled in the dark. 

“Now hold that thought and store it in your spank bank. We’re going to need you to think about it when we go back to the fertility specialist and I milk you,” Berry said. 

“I am a very sleepy griffoness,” Belisama said. She yawned. “No more peepin’, it’s time for sleepin’.” 



 

Dragging his hooves, Bucky made his way to the kitchen. Morning. He had woken up foal-free. He passed by the nursery door, saw Thistle nursing two foals, one pale purple, the other striped, and waved. 

Yawning, he continued down the hall. 

Halfway down the hall, Bucky stepped on a ball and some jacks that somepony had thoughtfully left on the hallway floor.

Bucky no longer needed coffee to wake up. Now, he needed coffee to assuage his battered nerves. His lip quivering, one eyelid twitching, Bucky lifted up his hoof, but could not bring himself to look at the jacks now impaled into his frog. He refused to scream, he did not wish to interrupt Sukari’s breakfast. He bit down upon his lip and his breath whistled out of his nostrils. Using his telekinesis, he pulled out one jack, then another, and then the last. 

He teleported them away to Dinky and Piña’s room. 

Limping, Bucky continued down the hall. He could hear the washing machine running. Dirty sheets? Did something happen? Bucky did not know. Sniffing, Bucky could smell something delicious. Something like… waffles? 

Favouring his right front hoof, Bucky made his way to the kitchen table. Dinky was feeding Harper. Sentinel was drinking coffee and looking somewhat out of sorts. 

Piña seemed out of place but Bucky could not put his hoof on why. Bucky’s daddy-sense began to tingle. He blinked a few times, ignored the throbbing pain in his frog, and he studied Piña. 

Red eyes, perhaps from crying ✓

Confused, hurt looking expression ✓

Embarrassed look and unable to meet her father’s gaze ✓

Washing machine running early in the morning ✓

One foal that appeared to be just out of the shower and smelled of soap ✓

“Piña, honey, are you okay?” Bucky asked. 

Dinky froze and looked at Bucky, the spoon she was using to feed Harper yogurt now suspended in the air. A blob of yogurt trickled from the spoon and landed on Harper’s foreleg. Harper, happy for yogurt, lifted up her foreleg and licked it off. 

Sentinel hunched over his coffee and grunted. 

“You had a troubling dream, didn’t you?” Bucky felt his heart ache, enough so that the pain in his frog was forgotten. 

“How did you know?” Piña asked. 

“Never mind that… are you okay?” Bucky sat down beside Piña, leaned over, and placed his foreleg over her withers. 

“No.” Piña’s voice was a pained squeak. She squirmed under Bucky’s foreleg. “Don’t touch me.” 

Bucky lifted his leg, feeling hurt, and dropped it down upon the table. 

“You’re supposed to keep comforting me and telling me it’s okay!” Piña snapped. Fresh tears welled in her eyes. “You're supposed to keep touching me, holding me, and letting me know that you love me!” She lept out of her chair, crying, and ran out of the kitchen. 

“I’m six,” Dinky said in a low voice as she scooped up yogurt with her spoon. “It happened to me first… probably because of my magic.” Dinky guided the spoon into Harper’s mouth with practiced ease. “Piña turned eight after we got home. She was actually mad that I started first.” 

Bucky rubbed his face with his talons. 

“Happens to me as well,” Sentinel said, his head held low. 

“Now it happens to all three of us.” Dinky kept her voice low. “Piña woke me up. She was moaning and rubbing herself. She was so embarrassed. She was in her own bed… we haven’t been sleeping together as much since I started having… well... the dreams.” Dinky scowled. “Piña kinda hated me for wanting to sleep alone.” 

Semillon set a cup of coffee down in front of Bucky, paused for a moment, patted Dinky, then patted Sentinel, and then went about her work. 

“All of this is perfectly normal and natural. There is nothing to be ashamed about.” Bucky paused and looked at his cook. “Thank you Semillon. You are a wonderful mare.” 

“Flatterer.” Semillon tittered and shook her head. 

“Berry tried to make Piña feel better. Piña went off on Berry too.” 

“Well, that explains why Berry was in such a snit in the bathroom.” Bucky reflected upon the few brief moments spent with Berry earlier. He rubbed his face some more and snorted. 

“Part of that was my fault.” Dinky hung her head. 

“Your fault?” Bucky raised his eyebrow. 

“I sorta told Berry whose name Piña was moaning in her sleep and Berry, well, you know how she is, Berry tried to make a joke to make Piña feel better but it didn’t make Piña feel better at all.” Dinky tapped the spoon on the edge of the now empty yogurt bowl. 

A little milk, a little sugar, and a little stirring made Bucky’s coffee just right. He stared down into the creamy brown depths and tried to figure out something to say, something that would show he was a good father. His forehead wrinkled. 

“It is pretty awkward.” Dinky set her spoon down and looked at Harper, then at Sentinel. “One night, while Diamond Tiara was staying over, early in the morning, we all woke up because we could hear Sentinel in the room next to us moaning Diamond Tiara’s name. We all laughed at it… we behaved like fillies do, I guess.” 

Sentinel’s ears went limp as he groaned. 

“But I wish I hadn’t laughed about it. We all made jokes and we thought it was funny and I called Sentinel a dweeb—” 

“Hey!” Sentinel looked at his sister. 

“—and I feel really bad about it now and I keep thinking that Piña is probably thinking about how we teased Sentinel and I called him a dweeb.” Dinky closed her eyes and hung her head. 

Still looking annoyed, Sentinel reached out a wing and stroked Dinky’s cheek, wiping away a tear. 

“Well, I made lots of waffles… I hope they make Piña feel a little better,” Semillon said. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 588
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Our little foals are growing up.” Derpy, laying on her side, rolled over onto her back and sprawled out, kicking her hind legs open wide. She heaved a relieved sigh when something in her backside popped. “Ah… that got the pressure out… kinda hurt though.” 

“It sorta hurt how Piña turned on me.” Bucky, holding Cadance, let her go. 

Now freed, Cadance sat for a moment, looking around, and then went after a free meal, seeing as how one was available. She crawled over Derpy, settled against Derpy’s belly, rested her head upon her mother’s thigh, and began to suckle. 

“I keep thinking about the Shetlands. Up there, Piña would be approaching the age of marriage.” Derpy’s face contorted into an angry scowl and one ear began to twitch. “I wonder what it was like… a long time ago… when so many ponies died in their twenties and the decade mark was halfway through their life.” 

“We equines approach a state of physical maturity quite rapidly,” Bucky said as he watched Cadance suckling. “Celestia said that foals as young as six months can survive with no parents at all. Hard to believe, but I suppose she would know. Sukari is about a year and something tells me that if we turned her loose she’d find a way to survive.” 

Beside Bucky, the grey mare let out a sad sounding wicker. 

“There is no way I am turning her loose though.” Bucky glanced over at the nursery door. 

“Thistle took on a tough job. I’m proud of her.” Derpy shifted her body, trying to get comfortable, and adjusted her head upon her pillow. She saw Bucky nod. 

In the nursery, there was a squawk from Magpie. Bucky lifted his head and looked at the door again, but did not leave the bed to investigate. There was another squawk followed by what sounded like an irritated caw. 

“Corvids.” Bucky turned his eyes back to Cadance. “I bet Harper is giving poor Magpie a hard time.” 

There was a soft knock upon the bedroom door and then a voice said, “Sir?” 

“Yes, what is it? Is everything okay, Door?” Bucky replied. 

“Everything is fine, sir. Doctor Gotland has arrived early.” 

“Door?” 

“Yes sir?” 

“Are you happy here? Please, be honest…” 

There was a long moment of silence from the other side of the door. 

“Door?” 

“Sir, I am still trying to adjust to all of this freedom.” 

“Let the doctor know I’m on my way,” Bucky said as he looked Derpy in the eye for a moment. Reaching out, Bucky stroked Derpy’s barrel and then he rose from the bed. 



 

“Doctor Gotland… pleasure to meet you… thank you for making a housecall,” Bucky said. He looked at the unicorn doctor and smiled a warm smile. 

“Knight Commandant.” Doctor Gotland raised his head high and brought his front hoof up, offering a rakish salute. “I’m an old navy sawbones, I must say, this is a pleasure, sir.” 

“I am honoured, thank you.” Bucky bowed his head. “Shall we get down to business?” 

The doctor nodded. 



 

Bell Heather, having just been stuck in the backside, looked up at her father with wide betrayed eyes that began to water. Her lip trembled. She sucked in a lungful of air, opened her mouth, and wailed. 

“She was so trusting… she just looked at me with such love in her eyes and I betrayed her,” Bucky said, guilt settling into his gut like a stone. 

“One kelpie… vaccinated. There will be a few more shots in a few months.” Doctor Gotland lifted up his ledger, scribbled something down, and then he patted Bell Heather on the head. 

Thistle, standing nearby, let out a low whimper of concern, her ears perked forward. 

Bucky, feeling wretched, looked over at the crib where Sukari was hiding, secure within her pillow fortress. This was going to be unpleasant. He looked at Thistle and saw her nod. 

With a flash of Bucky’s horn, the doors snapped shut, sealing off the nursery. 

“Sukari… baby, I need you to come out,” Bucky said, kneeling down on the floor by the crib. “This is gonna be awful but it has to be done. I’m sorry.” He peered into the shadowy blackness beneath the crib. 

Hating himself for resorting to this, Bucky used his magic to drag the zebra foal out from beneath the crib. She kicked, she squealed, she panicked, and she of course let go of her bowels as well as her bladder. 

Ignoring all of that, Bucky pulled her into his forelegs and sat up. He twisted her body around, trying to comfort her, but also getting her into position. He heard a squawk from Magpie, a worried sound. 

Doctor Gotland, looking disturbed, levitated two syringes, one long, the other short. 

“Just do it, get it over with,” Bucky said, squeezing Sukari against him. 

The doctor gave a grim nod. He jammed one syringe into one little plot cheek and the second syringe went into the other. He depressed the plungers as Sukari shrieked. 

Sukari’s head snapped back and then she lunged, mouth open. She clamped down onto Bucky’s fetlock, her teeth slicing through flesh until they reached bone. 

Bucky’s eyes went wide as the zebra foal began to gnaw upon him, chewing on his flesh. He resisted the urge to toss the foal away from him and instead held on. He gave her a squeeze, an affectionate pat, and bent his head down and kissed her upon one silken ear. 

“That’s daddy’s filly,” he said in a strained voice as Sukari’s teeth sank in even deeper. “Daddy is so proud… you’ve still got fight left in you… it wasn’t whipped out.” 

Kissing her once more upon the other ear, Bucky set her down upon the floor. When her hooves hit the wooden floorboards, she let go, screamed a blood curdling cry, and then dove beneath the crib, blood dribbling from her muzzle. 

Blood began to pour from Bucky’s fetlock in rhythmic spurts. He looked down at the flap of skin hanging from his joint and then at the doctor. “I feel lightheaded,” Bucky said as the puddle of blood grew with frightening intensity. 



 

“Hold him still,” Doctor Gotland commanded as Bucky slumped over the kitchen table. 

Blood was everywhere, pooling over the table and trickling down onto the kitchen floor. Barley took Bucky into his magic and steadied him. Scowling, the old stallion’s nostrils flared. 

“Get more pressure on it!” Barley snapped. 

A thick white towel was wrapped around Bucky’s leg, held in Doctor Gotland’s magic. 

“So proud…” Bucky looked up at Barley. 

“Aye lad, she done nicked an artery. Now shut yer hole.” Barley looked up at the doctor. “Criminy, he’s bleeding out like some suicide that sliced his fetlock open!” 

“Is Sukari okay?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m sure she’s fine… hold still and let us help you,” Barley replied. 

The towel was now pink and crimson. Blood dribbled from the table down to the floor in a steady series of droplets, spattering the chairs and the table legs. Standing in the archway, Derpy looked on with growing concern and fear in her eyes. 

“Lass, go sit down. This is painin’ ya. I know yer worried, but go sit down,” Barley said, looking at Derpy and watching as she shuffled around on her hooves. 

“Too much blood.” Derpy’s wings fluttered at her sides. 

“The little nipper just chomped through flesh and a bit of gristle, right down to the bone… there’s bound to be a little blood. Now… go sit down.” Barley’s voice was now stern. 

Berry, coming around the corner from the hall, bumped up against Derpy and began herding her away. 

Several tense minutes passed in the kitchen. The doctor, still holding the towel around Bucky’s fetlock, paced back and forth. Barley held Bucky still. 

Bucky kept mumbling about being proud. 

The doctor tied a strap around Bucky’s right foreleg and cinched it tight. 

Doctor Gotland peeled open the towel to have a look. A flap of skin hung off from the wound at an odd angle. Pink bone was visible. Blood oozed from the wound, dark rich purple blood. Pulling his bag to him, Doctor Gotland opened it up and began pulling out a number of things he would be needing. 

“This should be mostly okay if we stitch it up. He also appears to have had his frog impaled at some point this morning… multiple times… ouch.” 

Humming to himself, the doctor peeled back the flap of skin, sprinkled in a bright orange powder, watched as Bucky’s whole body tensed, and then the doctor began to irrigate the wound with an iodine solution.

There was a long whimper from Bucky, who began to laugh… almost a cackle. 

“Doesn’t look like anything too important was severed,” Doctor Gotland said as he examined the wound, using the light from his horn to get a good look. “I can see a tendon, I think it got nicked, but it isn’t cut. There is a ligament, and I think I see another tendon. That one got cut a bit, looks like a graze. It didn’t slice through though.” 

The doctor lifted up his head and frowned. “I can fix this. I’ve seen worse. Usually a bite like this comes from something far more dangerous than a half feral zebra filly.” 

The doctor flooded the wound with iodine once more and bent down his head to have another look. He lifted up a fine surgical needle and threaded it. Hunched over, he went to work, sewing up the hole in the artery that was deep within Bucky’s fetlock. 

“Hold him steady,” the doctor said. 

“Aye, I can do that, but shouldn’t he be put under for this sort of thing?” Barley asked. 

“He’s managing.” Doctor Gotland continued to make fine, tiny stitches, closing the gash in the artery. 

“This is not the worst thing that has happened to me,” Bucky said, a disturbing cackle lurking in his voice. He looked down and watched as he was being stitched. Unable to help himself, a disturbing laugh escaped his lips. 

“Lad, yer wife is in the living room, going out of her mind… the last thing she needs is to hear you losin’ yer bleedin’ marbles one by one.” Barley patted Bucky on the side. “Hold it together, ye gobshite.” 

“These sutures will dissolve. I’m going to make a few internal sutures on a couple of spots just to make sure that everything heals up well. Deep breath…” 

“Crivens, I dinnae wanna look at that.” Barley turned his head away, unable to bear looking any longer. “A stallion’s internal workings should remain a mystery… ach… crivens.” 

“We are machines made of meat—” 

“Bucky, shut yer hole, don’t make me tell ye again.” Barley narrowed his eyes as Bucky let out a disturbing giggle. 

“We are machines made of meat and screams—” 

“Bucky! So help me, I’ll crack yer damn head open and let those screams out!” 

Bucky, gnawing on his lip and chortling, said nothing else. 

The doctor kept stitching, peered through a squinted eye, making sure that everything was just so. He closed the flap of skin, made certain it was positioned in just the right spot, and began to stitch everything shut. 

“He’s going to need to be cleaned up. See that when he gets a bath, he keeps this leg out of the water. Everything should be fine, but this will take a while to heal. I don’t think any permanent damage was done. It might itch on the inside, which is always annoying.” Doctor Gotland pulled the thread tight as he made tiny sutures. 

“I guess we’ll send word to ye if there are any complications,” Barley said, looking everywhere but where the doctor was working. 

“When I am done here, there is one last thing to do… a bite like this can get infected, so there is still one more injection to give.” The doctor gave a tug upon the needle as he made a tiny knot. 

“Sukari never got a lollipop…” Bucky let out a demented giggling whimper. 

“Doc, anything in yer bag that can cure crazy?” Barley asked. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 589
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a second heartbeat inside of Bucky’s right front fetlock. He glanced at the bandaged joint resting upon the kitchen table and suppressed the need to giggle. The pain was excruciating. A veritable symphony of tactile stimulation, and the symphony approached the crescendo. 

The kitchen had been cleaned. There was no trace of blood anywhere. 

A cup of tea was now cooling in front of Bucky and a platter full of oatmeal cookies with shredded carrot and ginger sat in the middle of the table. 

Sitting at the table, Bucky waited for Violet, who was in the school, checking up on something she had deemed important. Important things required a visit from Violet in pony. Violet visits provided all the motivation needed to make sure that everything was perfect. 

Things had not been perfect, hence the reason why Violet was showing up in pony. 

Derpy had gone to the nursery, hoping to soothe some traumatised foals. Sukari was being bathed. Bell Heather was still crying, now well over an hour later. The mess had been cleaned up. The house was returning to a quiet state. 

Bucky heard the front door open. 

“You march into the kitchen and you tell him what you did!” 

Bucky’s eyebrow arched. Violet sounded upset. He could hear her snorting. There was a blur of pink in his vision. Turning, he saw Piña in the kitchen archway, standing there, unmoving, a look of terror upon her face. 

“You move!” Violet whacked Piña across the plot with a rolled up newspaper. 

Piña let out a startled cry and stumbled forward. When she stopped moving, the newspaper swooped down and swatted her right on her palm tree. Piña bleated and darted forward. 

Bucky, watching all of this, said nothing, knowing Violet always had her reasons. 

“Now you tell him what you did!” Violet waved her rolled up newspaper at Piña. “I’m going back to the school… I still have things to take care of. I lost time out of my day because I had to escort you home!” 

Violet went stomping off, her head high, her nostrils flaring. She left a chill in her wake, much like Bucky did when he was in a bad mood. 

Bucky lifted his teacup and took a sip. 

Piña stood there, tears now slipping down her cheeks. Her blue eyes were filled with fear. She reached back with one front hoof and rubbed her cutie mark, where Violet had landed a blow with a rolled up newspaper. 

“Sit.” Bucky gestured at the chair beside him with his talons. 

Piña turned her head and looked at the kitchen archway. 

“If you run, I’ll make you regret it. You’re having a bad day now… but only a bad day. Do not make it the worst sort of day.” Bucky set down his teacup. 

Piña looked at the table, then back at the entryway, and then back at the table. Then, she looked up at Bucky. She climbed up into the chair beside Bucky, sat down, and noticed the bandage. When she started to say something, she felt the cool touch of metal on her lips as one talon finger tip was placed over her mouth. 

The filly remained silent. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

Scowling, Piña slumped down in her chair and folded her forelegs across her barrel. She took a deep breath, felt the sting of more tears, and then bit down upon her lip. She closed her eyes and said nothing. 

“Take a moment if you need it, but you will tell me what happened.” Bucky lifted up his teacup once more and took a sip. “Berry, leave us.” 

Berry Punch, standing in the doorway, let out a soft whinny and did not move. 

“Berry Punch… please… I think Piña needs a moment with her father.” 

“I’ll be back!” Berry said as she turned tail and left. 

Lifting a cookie, Bucky began to nibble on the edge. 

“I didn’t mean it,” Piña said in a raspy whisper. “It just slipped out.” 

Still nibbling his cookie, Bucky said nothing. 

“I thought she was laughing at me!” Piña said, her head dropping down. “She was laughing and I thought she was laughing about what happened.” Piña slumped over the table, buried her head into her forelegs, and began bawling. 

Sighing, still nibbling his cookie, Bucky fetched a teacup from the cupboard, set it down on the table, added a little milk, and then poured tea into the cup. He added a spoonful of sugar, stirred it, and slid the cup in front of Piña. 

After several minutes of crying, Piña lifted her head. A long string of snot stretched from her nostril to her foreleg. She sniffled. 

Taking a bite of cookie, Bucky fetched a fresh clean towel from the kitchen cabinet and then began to wipe Piña’s face as the foal sniffled and protested. Piña sneezed and Bucky wiped away more mucus. 

“This has been one terrible day to be a dad. First, I step on some jacks that somepony was kind enough to leave in the hall. Then I come into the kitchen and find my daughter, whom I love more than life itself, is a real mess. It scared me. Worried me. Made my heart hurt. But as it turns out, my day was just getting started. Bell Heather and Sukari got vaccinated. Sukari bit me… right down to the bone. There was arterial spurting and everything. I had to be held down over the kitchen table and everything had to be sewn back together. And now, just when everything is calming down, the daughter that I love more than life itself is sitting beside me with a snotty nose after being escorted home by my secretary, who seemed furious.” Bucky pushed the last of his cookie between his lips, chewed, swallowed, and looked Piña in the eye. “That just about sums up my bad day. How has your bad day been?” 

Piña pulled her teacup closer and drew the steam into her lungs. Her breathing was wet and raspy. She hiccuped, letting out a soft feminine sound of distress, and then hiccuped again. It felt as though something tight was bound around her barrel and it was difficult for her to breathe. 

“Can I have a cookie?” Piña asked. 

“No.” Bucky picked up another cookie and began to nibble on the edge. 

“My bad day just got worse.” Piña watched her father eating a cookie, her eyes glittering with hurt and tears. “I had a dream about a colt I knew in school. I woke up touching myself and my sheets were all wet. I was sticky and I smelled bad. Then I acted like a half a horse when my daddy was trying to make me feel better. After that, I felt guilty and ashamed and my day went from being bad to unbearable.” Piña heaved a sigh and her mane fell in front of her eyes. 

“Sounds like you were just getting to the part where you did something in school.” 

Piña lifted up her teacup, holding it between her hooves, and took a tiny careful sip. 

“Bad days happen Piña.” 

“In school, every time I hear a laugh, I think they’re laughing at me.” Piña set down her teacup and looked her father in the eye. “Dinky was laughing with Diamond Tiara. I thought they were laughing at me. I don’t know why.” Piña’s eyes dropped and she stared down into her teacup. “I went off on Dinky. I called her a feckwitted feckfaced feckhead and then a few more words slipped out.” Piña’s voice was almost inaudible. 

Bucky shook his head for a moment, sighed, and then took a sip of tea as he held his cookie aside. After swallowing, he muttered, “Shetlanders.” 

“I was so angry and ashamed. I remembered how we laughed at Sentinel that one morning. And I felt so guilty and rotten on the inside knowing that I had hurt him. And then I thought that Dinky and Diamond Tiara were laughing at me because of what I did and my vision got all blurry for a moment and my hooves tingled and nothing felt right and I knew that the anger was coming out one way or the other and so I opened my mouth and the words just came out and…” Piña buried her face into her forelegs once more and began sobbing. 

“And what have both Berry Punch and Bon Bon said about you saying the f-word?” 

There was no reply from Piña, only more sobbing. 

“Piña, I want for you to look at me.” Bucky reached out and touched the sobbing foal. “Look at me. Stop crying and take responsibility for what you have done.” 

Sniffling, snot dribbling out of her nose once more, Piña looked up at her father. 

Fetching another fresh towel, Bucky went to work once more, cleaning up Piña’s face. As he wiped away tears and mucus, his brow furrowed. “I am going to give you a choice. It isn’t going to be a good choice I’m afraid. But you are going to pick who punishes you. You can choose to deal with Berry Punch and Bon Bon… or… you can deal with me. But you will pick your punishment. You will choose the method of your suffering.” 

Piña swallowed and felt as if there was a stone caught in her throat. 

“Now, if I remember correctly, both of those mares were hankerin’ for a spankerin’. Bon Bon even bought that new hair brush with the long handle and the broad back…” 

The sobbing pink foal reached down and began to rub her bottom with one hoof. 

“Bon Bon has been wanting to work over your backside for a long, long time. This time, I think that Berry will let Bon Bon go nuts…” 

“Noooooo…” Piña’s voice was a squeaky pained whine. 

“Bon Bon spends all day whipping stuff in mixing bowls… she has those big scary muscles on her forelegs… she can whip all day long and half the night and not get tired…” 

Piña whimpered and let out a long frightened whine.

“Berry and Bon Bon might even take turns.” 

Piña yelped and almost knocked over her tea. 

“This might be the last time you sit down for a very long time.” 

“Daddy, don’t let them spank me…” 

“If they spank you, it will be over quick… maybe. A few minutes, maybe five or ten minutes of paddling your little pink buns until they’re a whole lot pinker and then it will be over.” Bucky could see real fear in Piña’s eyes. “Compared to what I have planned for you, you’ll be getting off easy. Just a few minutes of spanking sounds like the easy way out.” 

Piña squirmed in her chair. “What do you have planned?” 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Bucky took a bite of cookie and chewed with a half smile. 

“I don’t want to make this choice.” Piña’s lower lip protruded in a pout. 

“Too bad… what’s done is done. You have freedom of choice, but you do not have freedom from choice. You will choose. You have five minutes, starting now, to think about which choice you will make.” Bucky looked at the clock on the wall and then returned his eyes to Piña. 

“What if I refuse to choose?” Piña asked. 

“Then I let Berry and Bon Bon do whatever it is they have planned for you… afterwards, you’re mine. And then I get to punish you even more for refusing to make a choice.” 

Dreadful apprehension settled over Piña. She turned her head and looked at the clock on the wall. She stared at it for a whole minute and twenty three seconds. 

“Clock is ticking,” Bucky said. 

Piña felt a cold chilly feeling in her guts. She wiped her nose with her foreleg. She looked at her father and bowed her head. “I choose you. Do with me as you will. You have always been fair.” 

“Deal. Here, have a cookie.” Bucky lifted one cookie off of the plate and gave it to Piña. 

“I get a cookie?” Piña asked. 

“Well, I don’t want to be cruel… you’re going to need that cookie… you’re going to be pulling me into Ponyville later… today, I will be traveling in style.” Bucky smiled. “And that is only the beginning of what I have planned for you.” 

“I made a bad choice…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 590
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Secured in a harness, Piña waited. Behind her, Bucky sat in a small sleigh, a sleek double seater that was light and quick. Grinning, Bucky looked up at the blue sky and decided that today was a good day for a nice trip. 

When Bucky was certain that Piña wasn’t looking, his horn flashed and the sleigh became noticeably lighter. He pulled his hood up over his head, slipped into partial shadow to make himself lighter, and then gave a high pitched whistle. 

Piña Colada took off, straining against the harness, her hooves scrabbling over the crusted ice and snow. After a moment, she found traction and the sleigh lurched forward. As she pulled, as miserable as she was, Piña could not help but to have a miserable smile. 

This was much easier than she thought it would be. She was stronger than she thought she was. She almost started to run, but decided to pace herself. Pulling forward at a steady pace, Piña began the trek to Ponyville.



 

Feeling a sense of pride, Piña came to a halt outside of Carousel Boutique. The cold air burned in her lungs. Her head felt clearer, she had been able to think the entire trip into town, and she didn’t feel so down in the dumps. 

She felt the harness slip off from around her. 

“Coming in?” Bucky asked. 

Piña, unable to look her father in the eye, nodded while keeping her head low. 

“Well, come on then.” 



 

Rarity and Coco were miracle workers. The gown, already nearing completion, needed to be fitted and finished. Bucky, walking on three legs, hobbled around the dress form and looked it over, nodding as he studied it. 

“How did you do this so quickly?” Bucky asked. 

Rarity shook her head. “A lady never tells her secrets.” 

The gown, a dark olive green, had accents of dark blue and purple. Onyxes studded the collar. It was form fitting, sleek, with a flowing train that draped down the rear. The front sleeves were ruffled. 

Coco tittered and covered her mouth with her hoof. “You are going to be the belle of the ball.” The earth pony blushed and looked away from Bucky. “Is it wrong that I really want to see you in that gown?” 

“I bet my wives are going to want to see that gown rumpled up at the foot of the bed.” 

Coco inhaled, a sharp quick intake, and a creeping pink tint took over her body. “Oh dear… its warm in here. I think I need to step outside for a moment. Do excuse me.” 

“Darling… you must stop doing that,” Rarity said as Coco stepped out the door. “When she recovers, she becomes so needy. It makes it very difficult to get any work done.” Rarity watched the door close and then turned to look at Piña, who was looking at foal sized gowns and dresses. After watching Piña for a moment, she looked at Bucky. “Why are you always in bandages or in various stages of healing?” 

Shrugging, Bucky blinked at Rarity, saying nothing. 

Rarity rolled her eyes and wickered, almost chuckling. “Come… I shall try to make this as painless as possible, we need to make sure everything fits properly.” 



 

Mindful of Bucky’s flesh, Rarity slipped another pin into a tucked bit of fabric. She gave a pull with her magic, then a tug, and then, after shaking her head in frustration, she gave a yank. 

Coco, working on the sleeves, tried to make sure that the ruffles on each sleeve were balanced and equal on both sides. She poked and prodded the fabric with her hoof, fluffing it out, and seeing how draped. 

“Ladies… I have a question.” 

“Yes?” Rarity asked. 

“I cannot help but notice, but the… uh… well there is a part of the dress along my belly that is very tight and form fitting. How do I… uh… er… use the little fillies room?” Bucky replied. 

“Oh dear, I hadn’t thought of that.” A worried wrinkle appeared on Rarity’s muzzle. “When us little fillies need to use the little fillies room, we can… um… with a great deal of care and perhaps some assistance, just lift up the back and take care of business.” 

“I have to straddle the bowl.” Bucky’s eyes locked forward and he stared at a picture of a vase upon the wall. 

“Oh dear, this is a design challenge. We needed to add the support system right along there so it would cling to your graceful form.” Coco dropped her head, stuck it under Bucky’s belly, tilted it upwards, and had a look up at Bucky’s groin. She froze, mid stare, realising what she was doing.

There was a soft demure gasp. 

“I… -ahem- I need some fresh air.” Coco excused herself and hurried out the front door of Carousel Boutique once more. 

“She did that to herself.” Rarity’s eyes narrowed.

“That vase painting is… rather interesting.” Bucky did his best to pretend that nothing had happened. This was the sort of problem that would go away if ignored. His gaze shifted and he looked at Piña. She was almost smiling, humming to herself, and looking at a display of ribbons. He felt more tugging around his middle and then a section of fabric rubbed over a very ticklish area. He bit down upon his lip to keep from laughing. 

“I think we’ll go with a few high strength buttons that can be undone. That should allow access to that area. Being a unicorn, it should be no problem buttoning up and unbuttoning the gown when you to use the little fillies room.” Rarity kept her head high and made no move to have a look down below. 

“I can deal with buttons.” Bucky, looking at Piña, smiled as she looked herself over in a full length mirror. He watched as she circled, trying to see herself from all sides, and then she flicked her tail around to see how it swished. 

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Bucky asked

Rarity turned to look at Piña and watched as the filly looked herself over. Piña raised one foreleg, held it up to her barrel, and then stuck it out, striking a pose. “You’re going to be a very busy father… she is going to grow up and be a stunner… like Fluttershy.” 

His eyes narrowing, Bucky peered at Piña. “Yes, I suppose you are right. Little colts are going to have to know the rules.” He gave Rarity a sidelong glance. “I feel bad for her. Little colts are going to have to understand… her daddy is the bogeypony.” 

“Now now, there is no sense in being an ogre,” Rarity said in a chiding voice. “A little protection is appreciated. Love and support are wonderful… but if you are overbearing, she will grow to hate you… or worse, go out and do something dreadfully stupid as a form of rebellion.” 

“How do you and your dad get along?” Bucky asked. 

“My daddy is wonderful. He chased away a few colts that were, indeed, bad for me. I found out later that my daddy was right… he had good instincts. I was angry with him for a time, but I grew up and matured a bit.” Rarity patted Bucky on the side. “You can be the bogeypony with those ones that raise the hair on the back of your neck.” 

Humming, Rarity returned to the task of making sure that everything was perfect. 



 

Reading her menu, Piña Colada had no idea what to get. There was a list of soups, hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, hot entrees, cold entrees, combination lunch specials, there were too many choices to even begin to figure out where to start. 

If she had to make a choice, why did there have to be so many? 

Faced with far too many choices, Piña went with something simple. “I’ll take the grilled cheese and tomato soup combo.” 

“Hmm,” Bucky replied. 

“Can I get a slice of cherry cheesecake?” Piña asked. 

“No.” Bucky looked up from his menu. “You are being punished.” 

For a moment, Piña wanted to pout, but then realised that she was having too nice a time to pout. It had been fun spending time at Carousel Boutique. Coco had offered a few tips to help her look pretty. Rarity had shown her a few tricks to help with her mane. Her daddy had a pretty gown. Instead of pouting, she smiled. 

“Hey daddy,” Piña said. 

“Yes Piña?” 

“What is the battlecry of the berserker cheese makers?” 

Bucky looked at the pink foal sitting across the table. “I have no idea.” 

Unable to contain herself, Piña snorted and let out a giggle. “Make whey.” 

Forced to hide his face behind a menu, Bucky tried not to laugh. Piña was being punished after all. He feared that his eyes would betray him. “Piña, that was terrible.” 

“I know.” Piña bobbed her head. 

Dropping her head down, Piña got a drink of water, slurping it up through her straw. When she lifted her head, a waiter was standing beside the table. 

“Two grilled cheese and tomato soup combos,” Bucky said as he looked at the waiter. 

As the waiter turned to leave, Bucky cleared his throat. The waiter turned, raised one bushy eyebrow, and waited. 

“Also, two slices of cherry cheesecake.” 

“Very good, sir,” the waiter replied, and then departed. 

“I thought I was being punished,” Piña said. 

Bucky cleared his throat. “You are.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

“Piña, Berry Punch was standing just outside of the kitchen, down the hall a ways, listening to everything being said. She watched as I got the sleigh ready and got you harnessed.” Bucky went straight lipped. “Haven’t you had a rotten enough day already? I mean, come on. This day had been downright awful for both us. So we’re going to have a nice lunch, spend a little time together, and when we go home, you are going to do that whole sad act that you do so well for Berry and tell her what sort of horrible monster I am… maybe tell her that you wished that you have never been born.” 

Piña’s jaw dropped. 

“You had better do what I say. If you blow this, we’re both dead, do you understand me? You and I have to stick together. But you have to stop using the feckin’ f-word you little hooligan.” 

Stunned into silence, Piña was unable to respond. 

“On the last stretch home, I want you to run. I want you to be winded, miserable, and sucking air when we get home… if I get into trouble because of you, I am taking you down with me, am I making myself clear?” 

Piña’s little pink head nodded and her mane spilled down around her eyes. 

“I am your father. For good or for ill, I am here for you on good days and bad days. If you screw up, I will be hard on you. But I want you to remember that I am also your friend and I need for you to trust me, even if you are angry with me. Understood?” 

A tear rolled down Piña’s cheek and she nodded. 

“Now stop crying. We’re trying to have a nice day,” Bucky said, levitating his napkin over to Piña’s face to clean it up once again. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 591
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Easing himself into the bed beside Derpy, Bucky sighed. His fetlock ached and he felt swimmy headed, as if he had been been drinking too much. He rolled over onto his side, thankful for warm grey pegasus. He felt a wing wrap around his body. He closed his eyes. 

“What did you do to her?” 

Bucky’s eyes opened at the sound of Berry’s voice. Berry’s frantic and rather upset sounding voice. Bucky, not feeling all that well, groaned. 

“Bucky! What did you do to Piña?” Berry asked. 

“I punished her… she got what was coming to her and she’ll think long and hard before she screws up again,” Bucky replied. 

Berry began grunting with each breath. 

“Look, she needed hard discipline—” 

“HOW HARD?” Berry demanded. “She’s upstairs in her room right now, panting, her sides heaving, all hot and sweaty, saying that she wished that she had never been born. What did you do to her?” 

Wincing, Bucky lifted his head. “Look, you and Bon Bon talk about spanking her all the time and—” 

“And the fear of being spanked keeps her in line, mostly. Other than a few light harmless swats that I cry over in the bathroom later, we don’t beat on her or anything.” Berry began tapping one hoof on the floor. 

“I taught her the value of hard work, that’s all. She pulled me around in a sleigh, she might have pulled a few ponies around Ponyville, and I might have scared her just a little tiny bit by offering to trade her to Coco and Rarity as a source of labour to pay for my gown.” Bucky felt Derpy’s muscles flexing against him. 

“That’s all?” Berry asked, her eyes now moist and glistening. 

“That’s all.” Bucky looked the earth pony in the eye, confident that he was telling the truth. He had done those things. 

“Well, I would say that you did a good job of making her sorry… I still hate you a little for doing it.” Berry stood there for a moment, her eyes closed, and then she opened her eyes and darted to the bed. She dove in, tackling Bucky. She kissed him on the cheek and then lay down beside him. “We have to wake her up for dinner. She’s wore herself out.” 



 

Free from school, Ripple bounded through the snow, eager to meet with her Raptors. The day of proving drew ever nearer. Armed with a to-do list from Violet, she was almost bursting with the need to get started. 

Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had the most unfair advantage of not needing to attend school and get good grades. Ripple’s short and somewhat curly blue mane blew back in the breeze. 

Ahead, the Raptors were already gathered, ready ahead of time. Ripple felt immense pride at seeing them. As she drew near, they saluted. Ripple, feeling a meaningful tingle on her hips from her cutie mark, whipped out her wing. 

“Violet sent us a copy of the list,” Kiara said, her small black head tilting to the side as she spoke. 

“We were surprised,” Freyja said, standing beside Callum. 

Difficult to see in the snow, the albino griffoness known as Branwen lifted her head high. “We can do what is expected of us, but this seems…” The griffoness shrugged. 

Sniggering, Loki slapped Grunion on the back. “They’ll never expect this. This is brilliant.” 

“This will maximise our skills and what we’re good at. Remember Raptors, this isn’t about winning or losing, but showing what we’re made of.” Ripple folded her wings against her sides, making certain her feathers were smoothed out. 

“Excuse me, I see Fresh Meat.” Loki adjusted his doublet and his armor. There was a faint clink as he did so. Spreading his wings, Loki took off, a horrible greasy expression upon his face. If ever there was a griffon that looked like a plague rat, it was Loki. 

The other Raptors watched as Loki left, all of them chortling, laughing, and chuckling. “Fresh Meat should be called Dead Meat,” somebirdy said. 

“Now now, she might prove herself and surprise us all.” Ripple narrowed her eyes and watched as Loki folded in his wings for a dive. She watched as Boadicea scrambled through the snow, trying to avoid Loki’s swooping attacks. 

The Raptors watched as the drama unfolded between the harrier and the corvid. Kiara cawed with raucous laughter as Loki swooped down, gathered snow, and began to pelt Boadicea with snowballs. 

Birds of a feather did not stick together it seemed as one corvid watched the misfortune of another corvid and laughed. 

“Each of you have a job to do. I expect it done well. Consider this a suicide run. We can’t win, it’s true. The point of the exercise is to subdue, and subduing a Myrmidon isn’t impossible with the means we have at our disposal. So even though we can’t win, we’re going to go down in style, with all of the fierce dignity we can muster. Our end will be remembered!” Ripple glared at her Raptors with fierce eyes, her wings now spread and her head held high. 

There was a collection of avian cries in reply. 

“Private Callum… I have a special job for you.” Ripple smiled. 

The dove like griffon was shoved forward by Freyja. He blinked and looked proud. 

“You are our messenger. You will be my dove of war. Tomorrow, early, once the initial preparations are complete, you will fly to Canterlot. Your job might just be the most important of all of these tasks. Do well, and you will earn the silver armor of a messenger. I will have my husband make it for you. Do not fail me, Private.” 

Callum sat up on his haunches, went straight, and offered a smart salute with his wing. 

“Private Freyja, once your tasks are completed, you will escort Private Callum to Canterlot. It is enemy territory. I want our messenger safe. Once his task is completed, you are permitted to treat him to lunch behind enemy lines.” 

“Aye aye,” Freyja replied as she saluted. “Can do, ma’am.” 

Ripple returned the salute and then turned to watch as Loki continued to harass Boadicea, who was now running for her life through the snow. She watched for several moments and then turned to look at Gofannon. 

“Wing Corporal Gofannon… Private Loki does understand that he is dealing with a half starved cub that has been in a cell for a very long time, correct?” 

“Yes ma’am, he does. Lugus pulled him aside and gave him a few private words. Loki, while psychotic, is not a monster towards cubs. He will do what is right.” Gofannon watched as Loki hurled snowballs at the black figure leaping through the snow. 

“Good. We’re Raptors. We look after our own. She’s not one of us yet, but I have no doubt she will be.” Ripple looked at her Raptors. “So… anybirdy else that wishes to join our ranks? Any young cadets in the school? Anybirdy at all?” 

“Squire Cornet Ripple, there is one… from the school.” Shaquah stepped forward. 

“Good… tell me all about them...” 



 

Lying very still on the floor, Bucky watched Sukari as she stared at him. The zebra foal kept looking at the bandages on Bucky’s fetlock. She made sad wuffling sounds and squirmed as she sat on the floor. 

“Doctor Mawu said that sudden changes scare her. Gradual changes are better for her. Give her time to study a situation, to adapt, to take everything in. If we rush her, she is just going to shut down and make a mess,” Thistle said. The kelpie cleared her throat. “She also said that it was good that we have Magpie. Sukari needs to learn that griffons can be trusted. Magpie is winning her over. Magpie bathed her this morning after everything that happened.” 

“Learn anything else?” Bucky asked. 

“Jua means sun,” Thistle replied. She took a deep breath. 

“What else?” Bucky asked. 

Thistle let out a soft squeak. “I learned what baba meant...it doesn’t mean baby… it means father.” 

Bucky, thinking of what Sukari had said, closed his eyes. Laying there with his eyes closed, he felt something brush up against his snoot. Opening his eyes, he saw blue. Sukari’s tiny face was inches from his own. 

“Bucky… say ‘mtoto’ to her.” Thistle’s voice was an urgent whisper. 

“What?” 

“Mtoto…” 

“Mtoto.” Bucky dared not move. He didn’t want to get bit again. Sukari was touching his snoot, a very tender place indeed. “Hello mtoto?” 

Sukari looked very confused. She sat down once more and prodded Bucky with her hoof. 

“See, she wants contact, she wants to be cuddled and loved like any other foal, but she is very skittish. Doctor Mawu says it is best to allow her to come to you.” Thistle took a deep breath and let it out in slow measured huffs. 

“Sukari… mtoto.” Bucky blinked at studied the foal sitting in front of him. She was striped, a beautiful pattern, and Bucky felt her scars did nothing to take away from this. 

Bucky realised that he might be biased. 

She was touching his muzzle, prodding him, running her small hoof along his scars. Bucky almost dared not breathe. 

“Baba.” Bucky gave the foal a hopeful look. 

“Baba gone… ate.” Sukari slumped down and it appeared as if she had deflated. 

Moving with extraordinary caution, Bucky moved his talons towards Sukari. She couldn’t bite through those. He watched her eyes go wide. He feared the worst, but he kept going. He touched her side. “Mtoto.” 

The foal whimpered. 

Bucky touched his own face. “Baba.” 

Sukari shook her head. “Baba gone.” 

“No.” Bucky shook his his head. He reached out once more, placed his talons behind Sukari, and pulled her closer. He kissed her just above her navel. “Mtoto.” Cold fear crept up his spine and he felt his testicles shriveling. Right now his face was in danger… and so were his ears. He could hear Thistle’s heavy breathing and he heard Magpie’s as well. 

Thistle covered her muzzle with her hoof, there was too much tension for her to deal with. She worried about Bucky being bit again. Sukari looked terrified. 

But, the foal hadn’t soiled herself. 

“Be brave Bucky… little griffons are nippers sometimes… many a mother has lost a talon finger,” Magpie said in a low whisper. 

Magpie’s words did not fill Bucky with confidence. Now he worried for Belisama. 

“Baba gone.” Sukari’s little barrel was heaving. 

“No Sukari, I’m baba… and you are mine… my mtoto.” 

“No! Baba gone!” Sukari took to her hooves and scrambled off. She shot beneath the crib, leaving Bucky laying on the floor. 

Sighing, Bucky lay there and did not move. 



 

Stomping through the snow, Ripple approached the benches and big bronze brazier that burned in the common area between the dormitory towers and the school. There were a few students out here, gathered around the fire, talking, and laughing. 

“That one,” Shaquah said, pointing with her talon. “The orange pegasus. Purple mane.” 

“Oh bugger,” Ripple said, her words coming out as a mumble. 

“She is a pegasus, but she is very insistent about joining our cadet program,” Shaquah said as she looked up at Ripple. 

Ripple strode forward with the easy grace of a strutting pegasus. “Scootaloo… how ya been?” 

Scootaloo, turning around, seeing Ripple and Shaquah, snapped into a clumsy salute. 

“At ease,” Ripple said, not allowing herself to smile. “Why are you here?” 

“I want to be a Raptor.” Scootaloo stood tall, a defiant expression taking over her face. “And don’t you dare tell me no because I can’t fly.” Scootaloo cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “I’m going to be the best pilot ever someday and I understand that the Raptors will be flying new gyrocopter prototypes.” 

“Who told you this?” Ripple asked. 

Scootaloo tried snapping to attention again. “My mother is Princess Twilight Sparkle.” 

Ripple lowered her head and looked Scootaloo in the eye. Ripple’s eyes narrowed. Her muzzle crinkled. “And do you think having a princess mommy will get you into the Raptors?” 

Scootaloo, staring straight ahead, swallowed and cleared her throat once more. “No. I expect to get in on my own merits. My other mother, Rainbow Dash, wants to be a Wonderbolt. She has never quit going after what she wants. I won’t either. I want to be a Raptor.” 

“Why?” Ripple asked. “We’re nobirdies. We’re untested and untried.” 

“One day, you are going to be someponies. Somebirdies. And I want to be a part of this while you are still noponies.” Scootaloo craned her neck and stood a little taller, coaxing another inch out of herself. “When the Wonderbolts got started, those brave ponies got to go down in history. They were the first. I want to be one of the first. Rainbow Dash might get to brag about being a Wonderbolt, but I’ll get to brag about being part of history.” 

Ripple stared down at Scootaloo tight lipped. 

“I want to fly. More than anything. I want to be a pilot, but not just any pilot. I want to be the best. I want to be a part of something great. Being a part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders has taught me that.” Scootaloo’s eyes became pleading. “You wanted cadets. You have one.” 

“Private Shaquah…” 

“Yes, Squire Cornet Ripple?” 

“I think we have a Fledgling.” Ripple turned and looked at the griffoness at her side. After a moment, she turned to look at Scootaloo. “You got permission to stay after school?” 

“I can be a little late.” Scootaloo struggled to keep the smile off of her face. 

“Private Shaquah… please… take our Fledgling to meet Private Loki and Fledgling Fresh Meat. Tell Loki that Scootaloo here does not yet know fear…” 

“Aye aye,” Shaquah said. “Come on, Table Scraps, get a move on.” She made a gesture for Scootaloo to follow. 

“Table Scraps?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Loki is going to eat you alive…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 592
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trembling, Piña approached her father, her ears drooping and looking as submissive and possible. Her bottom lip trembled. “Daddy… am I still in trouble?” 

Bucky did not look at his foal. He stared off in a different direction. “I don’t know. I think I’ll have you run me to town tomorrow—” 

-THWACK!- 

Rubbing the back of his head, Bucky turned and looked at Berry. Her eyes glittered and her mouth was a tiny tight line. “Was that necessary?” Bucky worried that a lump might be forming just behind his ear. 

“Stop being a hardarse!” Berry’s voice was an angry growl. 

“Fine.” Bucky looked over at Piña. “Come here.” 

Running to her father, Piña let out a sad bleating sound as she looked like she was about to cry. Leaning down, Bucky kissed her between her ears. He looked down at her, winked knowing that Berry could not see, and then kissed her once more. 

“All is forgiven. Now go… go think about what you’ve done.” Bucky lifted his talons and pointed at the door. 

“Yes daddy,” Piña replied, shuffling off and dragging her hooves. 

When she was gone, Bucky looked at Berry. “I think she’s learned her lesson.” 

“You broke her little heart!” Berry looked furious. 

“According the teacher’s report, she said the f-word seventeen times—” 

“Shut up, Derpy.” Berry crossed her forelegs over her barrel and scowled. 

“Are you mad at Bucky for getting through to her?” Derpy asked. 

“No!” Berry gnashed her teeth together. “I’m mad at Bucky for doing what I couldn’t. I have a hard time being hard on Piña. My mother used to turn a switch across my backside when I was rotten. It made me wild and rebellious. And I don’t ever want to do that to Piña, but she is just like me when I was that age and now I understand why my mama switched me.” 

Derpy, offering no warning, shoved Berry over and then brought her hoof down on Berry’s backside in a hard swat. The earth pony hissed from the blow, rolled over, and began to rub her rump. 

“That’s for smacking Bucky in the head when he didn’t deserve it,” Derpy said. 

“That stings,” Berry said and then sucked on her teeth as she hissed. “Fair is fair.” 

“Seventeen times… seventeen times… Piña unloaded on Dinky and she probably learned most of those words from you.” Derpy’s brows settled down over her eyes. “Fecktacular feckstain sounds awfully familiar.” 

“Sunset Shimmer says that beyond the mirror, they say ‘fuck.’ What a silly word. Sounds foalish, like something a foal that is learning to talk might babble—” 

“Shut up Bucky. This is a serious moment.” Derpy reached out and patted Bucky. 

“Shutting up now.” Bucky lifted his injured leg, propped it up on a pillow, and got himself comfortable. 

“Is there peace between us?” Berry asked. 

“Yes.” Derpy nodded. “We’re all still friends.” 

“Good.” Berry leaned over and kissed Derpy on the cheek. Looking guilty, she then leaned over and kissed Bucky on the cheek. “I can’t live with my best friends mad at me.” 



 

“Are we still sisters?” Piña felt as though she was having trouble breathing as she looked at Dinky. 

“Of course, you sillyhead.” Dinky patted the bed beside her. 

Piña did not have to be told twice. She lept up, bounced, and wrapped her forelegs around Dinky. She squeezed and took a deep breath. 

“We weren’t laughing at you.” Dinky squeezed back. “You’re my sister… we gotta stick together. The world is a scary place, too scary to go at it alone. And Sparkler is all grown up now and moved out.” 

“What were you laughing about?” Piña asked. 

“Rarity’s cat won’t stop pooping in Rarity’s houseplants,” Dinky replied. 

Unable to help herself, Piña giggled. 

“See, it’s funny!” 

“Sure is…” 

Dinky let go and pushed Piña back. Looking Piña in the eye, Dinky asked, “So… Larch… do you want to talk about it?” 

“No.” Piña shook her head. “Nope. I don’t want to talk about it.” 

“Okay.” Dinky smiled. “My lips are sealed.” 

“Larch picked up my school bag and hung it around my neck. When he touched me, I felt a weird tingle. My hooves felt all full of lightning and I could feel his magic… you know how Celestia talked about my spirit of knowledge?” 

“So you do want to talk about this?” Dinky asked. 

“No.” Piña waved her hoof. “But I knew stuff about Larch… he has strong magic. It comes up from the ground. He can talk to the dead.” 

“Neat.” Dinky leaned forward, almost snoot to snoot with Piña. 

“I saw Larch when he was older… he was wearing a black cloak… and so were you and Tourmaline. Glass Slipper was there. We were all grown up. I guess I was too… I don’t know. I can’t see myself when these flashes happen.” 

“A black cloak eh?” Dinky’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know if I want to wear a black one. Something with colour would be so much more cheerful.” 

“Dinky…” 

“Yes Piña?” 

“When I touched Sentinel the other day…” 

“Yes Piña?” 

“I saw him. He was wearing an eye patch and his face was a mess. Like daddy’s.” 

“Oh no…” 

“Princess Celestia said these things might come true… but they might not.” 

“That’s scary… Piña, what do we do?” 

“Nothing we can do.” 



 

Peekaboo looked at Harper and then at Cadance. Peekaboo looked down at her wings, looked at Cadance’s wings, and then saw that Harper had no wings at all. Her little brow furrowed as she processed the differences between them. 

Harper and Cadance had a horn. Reaching up, Peekaboo rubbed her forehead with a hoof. There was no horn there. 

“Auntie Disco?” Harper asked. 

“No, sorry Harpy, auntie Disco isn’t here.” Yew, her muzzle in her book, did not see Peekaboo observing the differences between a unicorn, a pegasus, and an alicorn. 

Peekaboo spread one wing and began to examine her feathers. She looked at them, eyeing each one, and then looked at Cadance. Cadance’s feathers were a little different. Cadance’s wings were a little different. Peekaboo wasn’t sure what the difference was. 

Noticing that her feathers looked a little messy, Peekaboo realised that her mother would preen her soon. Peekaboo giggled and hugged herself. She looked at her hoof and then she looked at Harper’s hoof. After a moment, she looked at Cadance’s hoof. 

They all had hooves. Peekaboo studied her own hoof some more and then looked at Cadance. “Cadance.” 

Cadance sat up, wobbling, and looked at Peekaboo. 

“Cadance has horn and wings.” Peekaboo looked over at her mother. 

“Yes she does. Cadance is an alicorn. Can you say alicorn?” Yew replied. 

“Alicorn. I say. Why both?” Peekaboo looked over at Cadance and smiled. 

“Because she is an alicorn. That’s just how it is. I don’t know why she has both.” Yew Wood closed her book and set it down. She slipped out of her chair and joined the foals on the floor. “Some ponies get horns, some get wings, some have neither, and a few ponies get horns and wings. But all ponies are special.” 

“Special.” Peekaboo nodded. 

Yew yawned. “I feel so sleepy. I’ve been  tired for the past few days. Who wants to take a nap with me?” She got herself comfortable on the floor, sprawling out on a quilt put down for the foals. In a moment, she had three foals pressed against her sides. 

Now feeling like a very contented pegasus, Yew Wood yawned again. 



 

“What’s the deal with Scoots?” 

Ripple, unaware that Rainbow Dash had landed behind her, turned around. “Oh hi…” 

“Did she… wait… did Scoots…” Rainbow Dash watched as Scootaloo ran while being pelted with snowballs. She could see that Scootaloo was panting. 

Ripple nodded. 

“Huh. She talked about it, I didn’t think she’d actually do it.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Good job Squirt.” 

“How is flight school?” Ripple, feeling relieved, turned back around to watch Loki work Boadicea and Scootaloo over. 

“Flight school is… awesome!” Rainbow Dash began to strut around. “Today we did deadfalls and everypony did so well. Everybirdy too. And I got to teach them how to figure out which way is up or down when you are lost in a cloud or some fog and disoriented for some reason.” 

Ripple grinned. “Spit.” 

“That’s right. Spit. Spit always falls downwards.” Rainbow Dash stopped strutting and stood still. “Also works if you are buried in the snow and can’t figure out which way is up or down so you know which way to dig.” 

“Surprise taught me the spit trick.” Ripple looked at Rainbow Dash and noticed that the pegasus was a little fuller around her hips. 

“Funny how life works. I got my cutie mark… I was destined for speed… to be fast. To be the fastest pegasus alive… I thought I was going to be a derby flier. A circuit racer. And I still might be…” Rainbow Dash’s wings fluttered at her side. “I came to Ponyville and became a weather pony. I got really miserable there for a while. I was always looking for adventure, some new thrill, and I kept working as a weather pony to pay the bills.” 

Not knowing what to say, Ripple nodded. 

“I’m happy now… today, when one of those foals dropped one of their teammates and cloud cover was broke, I went streaking off and I snatched that foal right out of the air. Everything felt right in my life. My speed keeps those foals safe. What I am teaching them keeps those foals safe. I’m teaching them to be fast.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes went vacant as she stared off at Scootaloo. “I am the fastest pegasus alive, I am going to be a Wonderbolt, and I finally feel like I found my purpose… I don’t feel miserable anymore.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” Ripple asked. 

“Because… I want this feeling for Scootaloo. I want her to know this sort of happiness. I really hope she gets it. I want it for her more than anything. I’m scared out of my mind right now because Scootaloo wants to be in the military. I don’t want her to be in the military. It’s dangerous… but if she is going to be a pilot, this is her best chance. This could be where she finds happiness… I don’t want her to be like I was… a weather captain that lived for cheap thrills that wasn’t living up to her potential… following her destiny.” Rainbow Dash turned and looked at Ripple, her eyes wide and pleading. 

Once more, Ripple did not know what to say. 

“See that she flies. I want to see Scoots go soaring. You be hard on her. If she is going to do this, no going halfway. If something happens, she has to be hard enough to deal with it. So if she slacks off, you kick her in the plot.” Rainbow Dash’s mane and tail billowed in a faint breeze. “I don’t want her to settle… I don’t want Scootaloo feeling stuck. I want what is best for her, even if I am terrified of her having it.” 

“I’ll do everything I can,” Ripple said. 

“One other thing,” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice. 

“What’s that, Rainbow Dash?” 

“If you see Twilight, run. She put her hoof down and she specifically said no when Scootaloo asked her about this. Twi is gonna be furious.” 

“What about Flash Sentry?” Ripple asked, curious about her chances of survival. 

“Oh Flash is in some hot water right now. He wants Scootaloo in the service. He says it would be good for her. He and Twilight had a bit of a kerfuffle and right now, they’re not saying very much to one another. It’s real awkward in the bed because I have to lay between them and both of them are sleeping with their backs to me so they don’t have to look at one another.” 

“Sounds rough. I understand. I mean, about the bed thing. Loch Skimmer and Sparkler had a bit of a spat a while back… over checkers. They were being snotty and Rising Star kicked them both out of the bed and refused to let them back in until they settled their differences.” 

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash stopped watching Scootaloo doing pushups and looked at Ripple. 

“They made up. Right there on the spot. Both of them realised they were being stupid.” 

“Tonight, I’m kicking Twi and Flash out of the bed. Wish me luck. I’m living with a princess and a pegasus that is all about the chain of command and what I say don’t get listened to very much.” 

“That’s not right.” Ripple shook her head. “Sparkler and I are hard boiled martial types but we leave the chain of command outside our door. There was already an incident. I don’t want to talk about it. But there was some feathers that got ruffled.” 

“Well, it is kinda my fault. Most of what I say are jokes and I hardly ever take anything serious, so I think I brought this on myself.” Rainbow Dash let out a nervous chuckle and then took a deep breath. “I’m starving.” 

“I think Scoots is about done for. Want to scrape what’s left of her out of the snow and take her home?” Ripple asked. 

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah… I think it is time I went home… and maybe put my hoof down. Scoots’ happiness is more important than what any of us want. As her parents, we have to do what is best for her even if we're unhappy about doing it.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 593
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dawn. The coming of the sun brought light but little warmth. The dawn brigade, always so important for shaping a pony’s day, was silent. For some, the dawn was a time to wake up and face the day. For others, it was a time to go to bed. For a group of griffons, some who had laboured through the night, it was a time to heave a weary sigh and keep going. 

For one little earth pony, who had studied into the wee hours of morning, it meant being woke up at her desk by a bright eyed and bushy tailed big sister. This little earth pony had a plan to change the world, and she was too young and perhaps too foolish to realise that the world does not change just because a pony wants it to. 

Until of course, the world the does change for the whims of just one being. 

For one pegasus, a mother to a smaller pegasus, now also a mother to a griffoness cub, and the mate to one very large griffon, the dawn meant sprinting from the bed to go throw up. 

For one very bored unicorn, the dawn was just another time to make mischief, after having woke up in the wee hours of morning and being unable to return to sleep because of his dying diurnal nature, which was now standing upon its last leg, the other leg having been chomped upon by zebra foal. 



 

“Behold, the majestic and regal alicorn species. See how she broods, watchful of her loyal subjects, her most trusted guardsponies sitting at her sides. Look at how she yawns… see those fearsome teeth… teeth intended for just one purpose… destroying her most hated foe… chunky pureed carrots.” 

Reaching over the table to get a biscuit, Berry Punch nodded. She split it open and began to butter it as she watched Bucky sitting in the kitchen window with Cadance, Harper and Peekaboo. 

“See how she plots and plans… how she dreams of one day overthrowing her tyrannical father and freeing all of the foals forced to live under his heartless and brutal rule… foals like Piña, hitched to a sleigh and made to run to town for her father’s amusement.” 

Berry Punch shook her head as she slathered jam on her biscuit. She heard Derpy laughing. 

“Daddy.” Cadance’s face was stern. “Daddy hush.” 

“Mama,” Harper said, correcting Cadance. 

“If you two are going to start that, I am going to talk about boring stuff,” Bucky said. “Tomorrow is the winter games. Three princesses, each confined to a tower, will have their armies do battle to change the fate of the world. Two princesses are going to be stomped and one princess will have the sort of insufferable smugness that I usually try to get away with myself.”  

“Numpty.” Cadance looked up at her father. 

Harper nodded, her dark purple eyes flashing. “Numpty bumpty.” 

Peekaboo’s wings fluttered. “Numpty.” 

Derpy, her mouth full of biscuit, let slip a riotous laugh. 

“Yeah, you three chuckleheads are a real barrel of laughs.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed from mock-hurt. “Just wait until you three start dating and I drag out the embarrassing foal photos.” Bucky, horrified by what he had just said, did a doubletake. “Scratch that. You three are never dating. I’m going to find some way to keep all three of you young and innocent.” 

“Harper’s mane should scare most colts away for a while,” Berry said. 

“Berry!” Bon Bon threatened Berry Punch with her spoon. 

“On a good day the frizzy ball of fluff stands out over half a foot tall off of her head.” Berry ducked away from Bon Bon and her spoon. 

“Harper sneezed one morning and her mane fell into her eyes. She started crying and shouting, “No see! No see!” and I had to come rescue her.” Lyra looked over at the windowsill. “I once tried tying her mane back with a ribbon. It got swallowed by her curls, and I never did see the ribbon again.” 

“I am going to head back to the nursery to check up on Thistle,” Bucky said, feeling a little sad to leave his three fillies. He kissed them, each of them on the cheek, before he departed. 



 

“One little filly to see you, sir,” Violet said standing near the library door. 

“Let her in.” Bucky did not look up from the proposal draft from city planning. 

“Apple Bloom… just have a seat right over there.” Violet reached out and stroked Apple Bloom upon the cheek. 

Closing the folder, Bucky looked up from his paperwork. “Sorry that you had to meet me in my personal library, but I did not feel up to walking to the school office. I got nibbled.” 

“This is nice,” Apple Bloom replied as she crawled into her chair. “Sorry you got nibbled.” 

“You are here to talk to me about some things you need for a big science project?” Bucky pulled out a different folder, flipped it open, and began reading. “Your previous science project was impressive… even if the data collection was a little incomplete. The thought behind the project was enough to get my attention. Animals get smarter when living in close proximity with ponies… your studies of Fluttershy’s animals were good, but you needed a better sample size and a better control group.” 

“It had some flaws,” Apple Bloom said, her ears drooping down. 

“Apple Bloom, the fact that you had the idea in the first place is what is important here. Don’t stop getting these ideas… even if they don’t always pan out just the way that you hoped.” 

The earth pony filly smiled, a hopeful smile and her eyes brightened. 

“In another science project you built a steam powered tractor from a model kit and you made modifications to the engine to make it more powerful. Those modifications worked.” 

Apple Bloom slumped down in her chair, looking defeated. “The company that makes steam powered tractors said my work was a failure. It would double the cost of a steam powered tractor to produce my modifications and the tractors would only get another five percent more power at best.” 

Bucky flipped a page. “But Apple Bloom… these are still good ideas. Don’t stop having them.” Bucky closed the folder. “So… you have quite a list of special supplies and needs.” 

“I do.” Apple Bloom nodded.

“I can help you. You will get everything on your list. Including the lockable room with a key. You need a place to keep your project safe and secret. I understand. Kind of confused by the need for clouds, but I am certain you have your reasons.” Bucky lifted up another sheet of paper, held it rigid in the air, and signed his name to it. He floated it over to Violet. 

“I forgot one thing on my list…”

“And what is that?” Bucky asked. 

“A lab coat might be nice…” 

“Done.” Bucky looked at his majordomo. “See that our budding scientist gets a lab coat. A real one. Not a costume. Also, goggles. Just in case. We have to protect our eyes.” He paused and looked at Apple Bloom. “You take a lot of notes.”

“I do.” Apple Bloom nodded. 

“Note writing takes too much time to do by hoof or by mouth. See that Apple Bloom gets a self writing pen that does dictation. Time spent writing is time lost to research.” 

Nervous, Apple Bloom rubbed her front hooves together. 

“Also, Violet, see that she gets a camera. This process needs to be documented. Nowhere in her list of supplies and materials was a request for a camera. What kind of science program are we running here?” Bucky looked troubled. 

Violet’s face sank at Bucky’s question. She did not have a suitable answer. “We’re making this up as we go, sir. Everything is still being sorted out and settled. The school still smells new.” 

“In the old school house our science program was usually a wagon full of potatoes and we were told to make clocks,” Apple Bloom said in a low voice. 

“Yes… well, we are trying to change that.” Bucky looked at Apple Bloom, his expression thoughtful. 

“Headmaster Bitters?” 

“Call me Bucky.” 

“I have a question.” 

“Shoot.” 

“If my cutie mark is some kind of apple, can I still grow up and be a scientist?” Real fear spread over Apple Bloom’s face. “I keep having nightmares about being a farmer. I like farming… I really do… I’m proud of being an Apple… but I don’t want to spend my whole life applebuckin’ trees.” 

“My cutie mark is a hops plant. Sentinel has a brown trout. Piña Colada has a palm tree. Nopony has any idea what Piña Colada’s cutie mark means. While your mark might have some influence on who you are as a pony, what you become is still up to you… at least that is what I believe.” Bucky’s voice was soft and it filled the farmhouse library with sonorous sound. 

“But… if I get an apple… I’m stuck with apples.” Apple Bloom wiggled in her chair and her narrowed. “It scares me.” 

“Lyra Heartstrings has a lyre. She works as a candy maker with Bon Bon. She also works in magical law enforcement when the situation demands. She is a mother, a wife, a prankster, and right now she is working on the perfect sandwich theory.” Bucky smiled. “She is also a musician when she finds the time.” 

“Oh.” Apple Bloom relaxed a little bit. “Perfect sandwich theory?” 

“A sandwich is a combination of wet and dry, a tomato is wet and bread is dry,” Bucky replied. “There are also lubricants, like mayonnaise, but these are contrasted with friction. Like cheese. It clings to your teeth and makes you work to chew it. Lyra believes she can figure out the perfect ratio of ingredients and create a scientifically perfect sandwich.” 

“Oh… I need to talk to Lyra.” Apple Bloom’s face lit up into an excited smile. 

“Apple Bloom?” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“I want some results from this project of yours. I am giving you a lot of resources. I expect good things from you. I have some papers showing me that you are one smart little pony.” 

“Yes sir, I will do my best.” 

“I know you will. You come to me if you need help. Your list said that you might need some magical assistance. If Dinky can’t give you the magic you need, you come to me.” 

“Yes sir,” Apple Bloom replied, shaking her head. 

“You’re free to go.” 

“Thank you!” 



 

The cold winter air and the high altitude of Canterlot worked together to create an almost inhospitable cold. The only ponies not too bothered by this cold were the pegasi, who had long lived on tall mountain tops. But Canterlot was not known as the city of pegasi. 

The unicorns of Canterlot relied on magic to keep warm, and then over time, many coffee shops, tea shops, and other little nooks to duck into and get warm. Canterlot in the wintertime depended upon little oases of warmth. 

It was in one such oasis that two griffons found shelter from the cold. 

“I think that went well,” Callum said as he settled into a soft cushioned chair. 

Freyja nodded as she bounced into the seat across from Callum. The booth was cozy, the seats were soft, and air smelled of fresh baked bread. 

“Princess Celestia was very surprised by our delivery.” Callum reached down and began to adjust his armor and his doublet, trying to maintain his dignity as a Raptor. 

“Princess Luna said nothing. I worry how she will take our message.” Freyja’s eyes narrowed. 

Both griffons were too small to be sitting in a booth meant for ponies. Both of them only just almost were able to peer at one another over the table. Neither of them seemed to notice the awkward situation however. 

“Freyja?” 

“Yes Callum?” 

Callum peeped and his crest went up and down, unable to decide if it should be down or up. “You love me, right?” 

Freyja’s eyes narrowed in a predatory manner. “You pull my tail and I pull yours.” 

“But is it love?” Callum’s eyes darkened. His talons began to tap upon the table. 

“Do you see me with anybirdy else but you?” Freyja said in a voice that was now bare of all of its hard edge, a soft feminine voice. 

“But do you love me?” Callum looked down at the table. 

“Don’t be a cat brain… I—” 

“Is it so hard to say?” Callum asked. 

Freyja’s feathers ruffled and she fluffed out, appearing to be almost twice her size. 

“I loved a griffoness once… back home. She played hard to get with me. I loved her… I mean, I really loved her. But she played games. She never said she loved me… she never got a chance to say she loved me—” 

“Callum… please, don’t finish that.” Freyja’s eyes softened. 

“I know why you have all those scars Freyja… all those burns. I know what they did to you… I know what was done to you and for some reason you still let me pull your tail—” 

“Callum, shut up,” Freyja said. “I never became too submissive. And I’m not going to let what happened then spoil what I have now.” 

“So you do love me?” Callum asked. 

“I don’t want to say it, okay?” Freyja replied. 

“Why?” Callum asked. “Who did you lose?” 

“Doesn’t matter. They’re gone. They’re dead. Just like it is for you. She’s dead.” Freyja’s beak clicked and then she let out a pained peep. “Saying it feels like weakness.” 

Callum shrank down in his seat. 

“I’m not weak. I am Freyja. Never again will I allow one I love to be taken from me. I will kill and leave a bloody swath of bodies before I ever submit or give up one I love.” 

The waiter, standing beside the table, cleared his throat. “Sir, I do believe the griffoness favours you quite highly. Sometimes, love is not said in word, but is conveyed by action.” 

Callum looked at the waiter, swallowed, and looked back at Freyja. “Marry me Freyja… please? You’re the one griffon I can’t live without and I can’t go another day without letting you know how I really feel about you.” 

Freyja’s hard exteriour melted away. “Oh… we can do that. I… I would kill for you.” 

The waiter sighed. “Ah, love is in the air. I love being so close to the palace. The guard are always coming in here and confessing their need to kill for one another… there is no better life to be had. And my parents were disappointed when I got my cutie mark as a waiter.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 594
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Minion… this is to be delivered to Zecora the zebra. You will return with the package. It will be needed for the trip to Mustangia.” Bucky held up a scroll that was sealed with the stamp of the Lunar Court. 

“Master, I shall go at once.” Sunset Shimmer bowed her head. 

“How are you coming along with your studies?” Bucky asked. 

“Master, I am having trouble with some of the advanced concepts of transmutation, but I have not given up. Trixie has been helping me sort them out.”

“Trixie?” Bucky’s jaw fell open. 

“She and I were just as surprised as you are, Master.” Sunset Shimmer looked Bucky in the eye. “She started reading some of my research notes and then checked the source material. She was confused by it. She went and got some help from Twilight Sparkle—” 

“The creator of the orangephibian…” 

Sunset Shimmer grinned for a moment and recovered her serious mein. “Turns out Twilight Sparkle was no help at all. Twilight Sparkle accidentally turned herself into a purple house cat. Trixie went to Canterlot, visited Celestia’s school, spoke to a few teachers who broke down the advanced concepts into manageable bits of information, and then as Trixie said, it was like somepony flicked a light switch. She came home and was able to sort through my notes, see where I went wrong, and set me straight. I am now making progress.” 

“And how are your enchantment projects?” Bucky asked. 

“The shadow circlet is coming along. I was able to tap into the shadow web for the first time the other night. It gave me a staggering headache. I could see dreams… it was wonderful, Master.” Sunset Shimmer frowned. “Master… about Mustangia…” 

“Minion, we must do what must be done. We all have a part to play, even if we do not like our role. Sacrifices are in order. No matter how unpleasant a task might be, sometimes we must see it through.” 

Sunset Shimmer bowed her head once more. “Yes… of course Master. I shall wear my cloak of office when I go and visit Zecora and I will retrieve what is needed.” 





“I need some help.” 

Sentinel nodded. “That much is obvious.” 

Cloudstreaker flipped through her book. “My brother, Rumble, is no help at all.” 

“To be fair, Rumble isn’t gifted in this area. If you asked him about other things, he would be able to help you.” Sentinel’s voice was patient and his tone was instructive. 

“I can’t fail my introduction to civics.” Cloudstreaker’s face filled with worry wrinkles. “How am I supposed to change the world for the better and be part of the government if I fail civics?” 

“Calm down,” Sentinel said, keeping his feelings of annoyance out of his voice. “You messed up some of your essays and reports. You can’t fix those. So…” Sentinel puffed out his cheeks and demanded a few ideas from his brain. 

There was no reply. 

“Flitter and Cloudchaser are going to ground me…” 

“Be quiet.” 

“I’m a dead foal. Do you know what my daddy threatened to to do me if I failed a class?” 

“Hush, I’m thinking.” 

“I should go pick out my own coffin—” 

“SHUSH!” 

Several heads turned to look at Sentinel. 

“Here is what we are going to do. You are going to pass by getting the extra credit. You are going to attend some town hall meetings—”

“But those are boring!” 

The corner of Sentinel’s eye began to twitch. “You want to go into government work… you want to get into politics… you hope to serve on the town council… but town hall meetings are… boring?” Sentinel’s left nostril quivered and one ear spasmed. 

“Um…” Cloudstreaker gave Sentinel a sheepish smile. 

“Is everything okay?” Looking up from her desk, the teacher narrowed her eyes at Sentinel and Cloudstreaker. 

“Everything is fine, Mrs. Ebonwood.” Sentinel, still twitching, focused his dreadful gaze upon Cloudstreaker for a moment and then at his teacher. “I am so happy that you asked me to help Cloudstreaker, Mrs. Ebonwood.” 

“Such a good colt… I shall give your father a good word.” Mrs. Ebonwood looked down at her desk and went back to work. 

“You are going to pass this class…” Sentinel’s final word was a hiss. 



 

“Sir, a Miss Dreary is here to see you.” Violet stood by the door. 

“Send her in.” Bucky did not look up from his work. 

“Hello… Princess Celestia told me to come and speak to you…” 

Looking up from his work, Bucky saw a donkey in his study. She was young, greyish brown, and she looked nervous. Bucky lifted his head. “Please, have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. Violet, some tea.” 

“I have been writing letters to Rising Star. He wrote to me after reading about my efforts in the newspaper. He told me to take my problem to Princess Celestia… I did… and she has sent me to you.” Dreary the donkey settled into her chair and made herself comfortable. 

“And what is it that you do?” Bucky asked, already knowing full well what Dreary did. 

“I help disabled ponies… and donkeys.” Dreary’s face was serious and somewhat wrinkled. “There is too little help to be had. Especially for the donkeys.” 

“I am aware of the problem.” Bucky flexed his talons. “So, what can I do for you?” 

“I know of a pretty little donkey… she’s young, almost a mare, but not quite.” Dreary eyed Bucky’s talons. “She had one of her hind legs torn off by a timberwolf.” 

“Yeouch.” Bucky watched as Violet returned with a tray. 

A teacup with a straw was set down on the table beside Dreary. Another cup was set by Bucky. Violet bowed her head, scooted out of the way, and resumed her work at the table. 

“The state of prosthetics is abysmal. Especially for donkeys.” 

“Dreary, you must understand. Donkeys have no inherent magic. It is why you can’t use manipulation shoes. A magical prosthesis needs something to draw power from.” Bucky cleared his throat. 

“A pegleg isn’t good enough. Wheels are bulky and too many public buildings do nothing to accommodate them. And magical devices can be powered by magical batteries!” Dreary leaned forward in her chair and focused her stare upon Bucky. 

“It is more than that. I could make a powered leg… but how would she control it? It would just kick and fidget with no means of control. She would have no connection to it, no means of making it serve her.” Bucky lifted up his teacup and blew into it. “My own talons draw upon my natural magic reserves as well as a ley line connection for a steady trickle of power. But without a connection to my mind, they would be useless.” 

“Then find a way to make the leg work without a connection to the mind.” Dreary’s ears pitched forward, almost an accusatory point. 

Bucky took a sip of tea and something in the back of his mind clicked. “Violet, I need musicians… please, send word to Written Sound. Also make a reminder for me to talk to Lyra when she comes home.” 

“Sir, you have to go pick up your outfit for tomorrow… you could speak to Lyra while you are in town.” Violet’s pen began to scratch over paper. 

“Brilliant.” Bucky smiled. “Miss Dreary, I make no promises, but I think I might be able to help you. I have an idea. I don’t know if it will work, but if it does, it will be, shall we say, poetry in motion.” Bucky paused and took a sip of tea. “So, tell me about your work, what you do, and let me see if there are any other ways that I might help you.” 



 

“My name is Stargarden.” The dark blue unicorn adjusted her reading glasses and blew her grey mane out of her eyes. “All of you are here in my class because you can do something special.” 

Dinky looked up from her desk. There were only a few students in this classroom. She knew all of them but the pegasus. 

“Each and every one of you has shown a gift for powerful mental magic. The ability to know the thoughts of others, to take control of minds, and to do so without enchantment or divination. Welcome to Psychic Inquiry… here, I shall try to teach you the mental arts. I must say, I am most pleased to see not one, but two little earth ponies in my class. And a little pegasus.” Her eyes narrowed at the pegasus. “You little precogs are nothing but trouble.” 

After looking scary serious for a moment, Stargarden burst out laughing. 

“Rainy Feather, your face was priceless,” Stargarden said to the pegasus. 

The pegasus filly wiggled in her seat. 

“Almost all pegasi have some level of precognition. It is how they fly through dangerous skies. Little Rainy here, she is special. All of you are special.” Stargarden looked at her class. “Larch, you have a spooky ability to talk to the dead. Dinky, you’ve shown signs of telepathy and mental connections with hive minds… advanced stuff! Piña Colada… Princess Celestia tells me that you absorbed a spirit of knowledge.” Stargarden became serious and peered through her glasses. “All of you have exceptional gifts. As such, you all exceptional responsibilities. You must be good stewards of your talents and you must never, ever use them for evil.” 

Rainy raised her hoof. She waited, patient, and then smiled a nervous smile when Stargarden nodded at her. Sitting up straight, she said, “I don’t understand how I have magic. I’m not a unicorn.” 

Stargarden began to pace in front of her class. “Class, our talents don’t come from a horn. I am a unicorn, this is true, but I am a type one unicorn. I have very little magic. I’m considered stunted, even by type one standards. My power comes from within my mind and it is not channeled through my horn, which is mostly there for decoration.” 

Larch raised his hoof. 

“Yes Larch?” 

“I heard this is the first class of its kind,” Larch said. 

Stargarden nodded. “Here in Equestria, yes. Magical regulation made a real mess of trying to teach these talents. Where I come from, the Sea of Grass, in the city of Tradewinds, these classes are a bit more common. I was asked to come here and make history. How could I refuse?” 

“Are there zebra psychics?” Piña asked. 

Stargarden nodded. “There are many zebra psychics. The zebras have many powerful mentalists. My teacher was a zebra. He was very kind to me and taught me how to tune all of the voices out of my head.” 

“Could there be griffon psychics?” Dinky asked. 

“I hope there are!” Stargarden smiled, showing teeth. “We know that griffons have some of the same precognitive abilities as pegasi… it makes them capable warriors… fast and deadly. But I would love to meet a griffon with advanced abilities.” 

Stargarden began to walk around the room, studying each of her students, looking them in the eye, trying to get a feel for what they could do, their potential, their strength. She lingered near the little pegasus filly for a long moment, her eyes closed, and then moved on. 

Each of her students watched her. 

“There is so much potential in this classroom… potential that could change the world.” Stargarden looked at her students. “I have so much hope for all of you. I know you will do well.” 



 

Staring out the window, Cadance scowled in concentration. There were things outside the window. Familiar things. Things she used to know, but now had trouble remembering. Images, words, sounds, smells, all of these things teased at her mind, but the moment she tried to form them into thoughts, they vanished, becoming elusive and intangible. 

She knew how to fly, Cadance remembered that, a hazy distant memory that was more like a dream. But now, now she could not figure out how her wings worked. She placed one hoof against the window and looked up at the sky. 

There were vague memories of having control over her body… something she did not have now. Being in a wet diaper was distressing, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not hold back. 

There was a time she could protect others. The urge, the need to protect was so strong. But Cadance could do nothing. She was little, she was helpless, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not even help herself. 

Opening her mouth, Cadance let out a mournful cry as she stared skywards. The cry, meant to be words, meant to be a call for help, meant to be a means to communicate that she was upset and unhappy, came out as a wordless foalish sound. 

“Poor little Cadance. Are you being sad again? Missing daddy while he is gone to town?” 

Turning, Cadance saw Berry. She held out her forelegs. She watched as Berry sat down and then Cadance felt herself swept up in the earth pony mare’s embrace. Cadance felt herself crushed against Berry’s barrel and bulging stomach. 

And then, everything was okay. Closing her eyes, Cadance clung to Berry, feeling better. She smacked her lips… what she had wanted to say was that she was hungry, that she needed food, and that she needed comforting, but all that came out was a lip smack. But in Berry’s embrace, Cadance couldn’t get upset over her lack of communication. 

“Here… how about we lay down together in the window sunshine… are you hungry?” 

Cadance smacked her lips again, the summary of everything she wanted to say. She felt two lips press against her own, and the lingering feeling of hurt faded away. 

“Mama?” Cadance watched as Berry pulled away from the kiss and then laid down. 

“What do you want, Cadance?” 

“Love… mama… want love.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 595
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hey Rarity… Coco… Bucky, what are you doing here?” Twilight stood there in front of the door, looking perplexed, a natural state of affairs for Twilight. She stared. Bucky’s mane was tied up in ribbons. And he was wearing a gown. 

“This is exactly what it looks like,” Bucky said. He grinned a wolfish grin and nodded. 

Coco waved. “Hello Twilight.” 

“Hello!” Rarity trotted over to Twilight, kissed one cheek, and then kissed the other. “Darling… you look… distressed.” 

Saying nothing else, Rarity began shoving Twilight towards a velvet upholstered chaise lounge, ignoring Twilight’s protests. 

“I can’t talk about this now…” 

“Yes you can… share your secrets… we’re all mares here,” Bucky said in a high falsetto. 

Snickering, Twilight fell over onto the chaise lounge. 

“Yes, Twilight, it is just us girls.” Coco, turning pink, eyed the door and made certain her escape route was clear just in case it was needed. 

“I made some mistakes. I’m fixing them. Everything is better now.” Twilight leaned on Rarity, who had sat down beside her. “Bucky… how do you say that you are sorry?” 

“I dunno… I guess I just say it… why are you asking me?” Bucky replied. 

“Well… you mess up a lot… I thought I’d draw upon your experience.” There was a teasing smile on Twilight’s muzzle. 

“Hey!” One of Bucky’s eyes narrowed. 

“More troubles at home, Twilight?” Rarity asked. 

“Well, for a while. I’m fixing them.” Twilight sighed. She looked over at Rarity. “Rainbow Dash gave both me and Flash Sentry an earful. Then she kicked both of us out of the bedroom. I slept on the couch and Flash slept on the floor because he didn’t want to share the couch with me. I woke up miserable and so did Flash. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had a bed full of foals and a dragon to keep her warm and happy.” 

“Did you learn anything?” Rarity asked, her eyelashes batting. 

“I learned that a night in the bed with a pony I was peeved with is better than one night alone on the couch.” Twilight reached back and rubbed her spine. She pressed against her backbone and it crackled. 

“Well, I’m glad. This needed to be sorted out before our trip.” Rarity leaned back and cringed when she heard Twilight’s spine crackle.

“I can’t believe that Princess Celestia wants to take all of us.” Twilight began adjusting her neck, much to Rarity’s discomfort. There was another loud crackle. 

“A trip on the royal yacht. For all of us. This is going to be fantastic. Coco and I will be able to go shopping in Tradewinds.” Rarity heaved a dramatic sigh. 

“We’re going to be trapped on an airship with Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich.” Twilight looked at Rarity and then at Coco. 

“Stuck on an airship… with you, Flash Sentry, and Rainbow Dash, while the three of you squabble.” Rarity looked at her friend with a teasing glint in her eye. 

“We love one another!” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips together for a moment. “I just get too hung up on how I think things should be and I don’t do enough to listen to others.” 

“I’m stubborn.” Bucky lifted his head high. “It gets me into trouble. But it also gets me out.” 

“I can be shallow and I focus on trivial details as a means of escape.” Rarity frowned a well cultured and well practiced frown. 

Coco sighed. “I’m perfection in the form of an earth pony. I’m humble too.” 



 

Thistle let out a faint whimper of concern as she watched Doctor Mawu sit on the floor with Sukari. Nothing had happened yet, but that didn’t stop Thistle from being tense with worry and concern. 

“You say that Magpie found a pile of hoarded food under the crib?” 

“Yes, yes she did, Doctor Mawu.” 

“Please, just call me Mawu and do try to relax.”

“Okay.” Thistle turned around in a circle, chasing her own tail for a moment, and then sat down. “Bucky gives her treats… trying to win her over. She takes them. I thought she was eating them, but we cleaned out under there and found a few tidbits piled up.” 

“She feels safe enough to leave stashes of food.” 

“Oh no… and we took them!” 

“Thistle… please, calm down.”

“I can’t calm down, I took my baby’s food from her after she felt safe…” 

Doctor Mawu took a deep breath, hoping that Thistle would follow her lead. Looking down, she smiled at Sukari. “You’re adorable.” 

Sukari’s eyes narrowed and she scooted a few steps backwards. 

"You say she nurses?” Doctor Mawu asked. 

Thistle nodded. “Yes. She is very careful of Bell Heather. Sukari holds on to her while they suckle together.” 

“Hmm.” The zebra doctor looked down at the zebra foal. “So she is not food competitive. That’s a good sign.” 

“She’ll share with Cadance too. But she doesn’t hold on to Cadance.” 

“Thistle, I want you to try something… it will be heart breaking, but I have an idea.” 

Whimpering, Thistle wasn’t sure she wanted to know what it was. She looked at Mawu. She felt a prickle of dread tickling her belly. Thistle wasn’t up to doing anything heart breaking. 

“I want you to try ignoring Sukari. Just sit in the room and ignore her. Don’t look at her, don’t speak to her, do nothing to make contact with her. Force her to make contact with you if she wants attention.” Doctor Mawu brushed a bit of lint off of her blazer. 

“Oh… that’s awful!” Thistle recoiled from the very idea. 

“When she has worked for your attention, give it to her. Don’t keep ignoring her.” 

The kelpie’s body slumped into a sulk. It sounded like a horrible idea, but Thistle supposed that she would try it, as awful as it sounded. 

“You have a wonderful little mtoto here… She is strong, resilient, and still has some fight in her. She is not yet broken. One day, she will recover. She will grow to love you and trust you. She will call you mother. She may have some issues, but everypony has issues of some sort.” 

The doctor’s words seemed reasonable and Thistle nodded. Something about what the doctor had said was comforting, even if Thistle could not say why it was so. “Thank you, doctor.” 



 

“Derpy… you know how you whacked me across the backside for being a bad pony?” 

The grey pegasus raised an eyebrow. 

“I liked it. I liked it a lot. When I’m a bad pony, would you spank me?” 

“No.” 

“No?” 

“No.” A pause. “Bad ponies don’t get spankings.” 

“Then I’ll be a good pony.” Another pause. “You need to get Bucky to lick your hooves.” 

“Eww, why?” 

“Because he likes it. His sense of kink is coming right along.” 

“I’ll let Bucky lick my hooves if you let Bucky tap your bung.” 

“I dunno about that. He did that once.” 

“That was an accident. Of course it hurt.” 

“I’ll let you lick my hooves while Bucky is tapping my bung.” 

“No… how about you lick my hooves while Bucky is tapping your bung… after I spank you and call you a bad pony?” 

The earth pony and the pegasus began giggling. 



 

Her talons trembling, Belisama drew the curved officer’s sabre from its sheath. The blade was oiled, sharp, and well cared for. The nicks in the blade were gone, Rising Star had seen to that. The blade was sharp enough to shave the fur off of her skin. She slid the blade back into the sheath and let out the breath she had been holding. 

Reaching up, she gave her shawl a reassuring pat, glad to know that Bandua was safe. 

“You look nervous, my queen.” 

Belisama let out a terrified peep. 

“My apologies.” 

“Lugus, you scared me.” Belisama took a deep breath through her open beak and clutched her sword a little tighter. 

“You have drawn steel six times in a row now. You pull it out, you stare at it for a moment, and then you slide it in.” Lugus sat down upon the floor. “Is something wrong, my queen?” 

Belisama set the sabre down beside her and her talons lingered on the grip. She looked up at Lugus, thinking about how she no longer felt the need to avert her eyes when looking at him. Lugus was her friend. “Lugus, I was just thinking of my sister… I was missing her. And now I have a cub that bears her name so she can live on.” 

“And you are feeling protective?” Lugus asked. 

“I think I’m nesting. I’m very emotional right now.” Belisama clutched her shawl and wrapped her forelegs around Bandua. “There is something very comforting about the heft of that sword’s grip. Makes me feel… it makes me feel as though I’m as big as you are and nothing in the world would mess with me.” 

“I am very large. I am very, very large. And things in this world feel the need to mess with me. The world is filled with stupid things that need to be put down.” Lugus began to drum on the floor with his talons. “You don’t need to be as big as me. You continue being as little as you and I will continue to look after you.” 

“I think I got tired of being afraid all of the time, Lugus. After I got pregnant, I started to feel the same aggression that I felt when the battle over the griffon airbase happened and I had that rifle.” Belisama paused and shook her head. “No… not just aggression… rage. There is an empty place in my heart… I have a lot of hurt inside… and I’m angry. My sister deserved this life. We might have shared Bucky together… or she might have found her own mate… but I would have been willing to share. She deserved the happiness he would have given her… just like I deserve it. The things they did to her… and there was nothing I could do. I’m done being helpless.” 

Leaning his head down, Lugus rubbed the side of his head against Belisama’s body, keeping the razor sharp edges of his beak away from her. 

“I want to learn how to fight. How to shoot. I want to learn how to use that sword. I don’t want to be a useless queen that my Raptors have to protect… I want to be a queen that protects my Raptors and my subjects. I want my shadow to be every bit as long and fearsome as my husband’s. I want to protect my fellow-wives and our offspring.” 

“When you are healed from birth we shall talk again, my queen.” 



 

“Hey, hey, wait up!” Diamond Tiara broke into a canter even though she knew that there was no running indoors. She pulled up alongside Boadicea. “How was school?” 

“Awful.” 

“Aw… I’m sorry.” Diamond Tiara reached out and nudged the griffoness beside her. 

“I was placed into remedial classes. There is much I do not know.” Boadicea stood there, not quite knowing what to do or what to say. “I feel ashamed.” 

“Beak up, head high. But not too high. You don’t want others thinking you’re snobby, trust me.” Diamond Tiara nudged Boadicea again. “So you’ve got a little catching up to do. I can help you. Do you have to go get beat up today?” 

“Probably.” Boadicea slumped. “I have hours of homework to do.” 

“Tell you what. I’ll tell Lugus that you have too much homework to do anything else. I’ll use the power of my pinkness against him. We pink ponies have a magic all our own. And then you and I will sit down somewhere and I will help you sort through your homework. But I won’t do it for you. I have homework of my own.” Diamond Tiara frowned. “I took too many classes on. I have more homework than I know what to do with. But I am applying myself and getting through some of the advanced courses. You know… I bet once you get past this remedial stuff and have all the required basics, you could get into the advanced courses. You seem smart.” 

“Why would you help me?” Boadicea asked. Her black eyes glittered with curiousity. 

“Because silly… I took it upon myself to be that one pony that carries you through this rough patch.” Diamond Tiara began to giggle. 

“But you said that Sentinel is carrying you.” Boadicea cocked her head, trying to understand what was going on. 

“He can carry both of us… anyway, it is a figure of speech. Come on, we’ve got homework to do.” Diamond Tiara gave Boadicea a gentle shove towards the door. “Don’t worry… just repeat after me… pink pony power.” 
	
> Chapter 596 (Warning: Wholesome married sexual congress happens eventually) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking up from his textbook, Sentinel heard Boadicea and Diamond Tiara giggling. Annoyed, without knowing why he was annoyed, Sentinel huffed and hunched over his homework. Diamond Tiara was supposed to be helping him. A faint flame of jealousy kindled within him. 

He watched as the earth pony whispered something into Boadicea’s ear. He felt his cheeks blaze with inner heat. More feminine giggling. 

“You are in deep trouble,” a hissing voice whispered in his ear. 

Startled, Sentinel jumped out of his skin and almost his chair. The chair pitched backwards. He felt himself going over. 

And then, the chair stopped mid fall. Looking up, Sentinel saw his father looking down at him. Father blinked. Sentinel saw teeth… a grin. A terrible grin. Sentinel realised his father was gloating over scaring him. 

The chair was righted. 

“That’s a bad sign son… two females giggling and whispering to one another like that while they’re looking at you.”  

Sentinel sucked in a deep breath. “You almost scared me to death.” 

“Bogeypony. It is what I do.” 

“Shouldn’t you be under a bed or something?” Sentinel whipped his head around to look at his father. 

Bucky laughed, more from the shock of Sentinel saying something funny. 

The lunar pegasus colt folded his forelegs over his barrel and his eyes narrowed into slits. “I wanted to spend time with her.” 

Sentinel was sulky? Bucky stepped back, limping on three legs. The colt was always a little moody, but this was different somehow. Bucky began to feel a little worried. “Sentinel, you ready for tomorrow?” Bucky hoped that his question would get Sentinel focused and back to his usual self. 

“Everything is ready. I am ready to play my part.” Sentinel shook his head. “I hate that you are wearing that gown.” 

“Oh come on, it is all in good fun. Just think of the memories.” Bucky smiled and hoped that he could coax a smile from Sentinel. 

“That’s what I’m worried about. The lingering shame of seeing you degraded, humiliated, and shamed.” Sentinel slammed his book shut, stuffed it into his bag, slipped his pencil in his bag, and then threw the strap over his neck. He lept from his chair, landed on the floor with a thump, and stalked off to his hidey hole. 

Feeling a strange pain, Bucky watched Sentinel leave, a new empty feeling now in his heart. Searching for words, Bucky found there was nothing he could say. He thought about commanding Sentinel to stay, but that seemed cruel. Bucky winced when he heard the door to the cubby under the stairs slam. 

Grumbling, Bucky said, “Oh bugger me.” 



 

Entering the bedroom, Bucky made his way to the bed and flopped down. He crawled on his side and made his way to Derpy. Resting his head upon her belly, he went limp. 

“Something wrong?” Derpy asked. 

Bucky made no reply. He rubbed his cheek against Derpy’s belly, just below her ribs, where she was soft and something kicked against him. “You two… both of you… don’t come out… just… stay in there for daddy… stay little and sweet.” 

“No!” Derpy cried. “Don’t listen to him! You come out of there!” 

“No, both of you stay put… I am tired of moody, grumpy, horrible foals that are starting adolescence.” Bucky pushed Derpy over, and once the pegasus was on her back, he began to rub his chin over her belly.

“No, you mustn’t listen to your father.” Derpy tried to crawl away but the sensation of her stomach being rubbed felt too good. She arched her back, pushing herself upwards, and let out a somewhat needy sounding moan. “Bucky, if they don’t come out, you can’t put anymore in.” 

“That’s okay… I have other wives… oh wait… I don’t want those foals to come out either,” Bucky trailed his chin on the spot just below Derpy’s navel in a slow teasing circular motion. 

Lifting his head, Bucky pulled away from Derpy, maneuvered around, and then dropped himself down between her hind legs. He inhaled, catching a whiff of musk, and then he flicked one of her teats with his tongue. Latching on, be began to suckle. Sweet warmth filled his mouth, ran down his throat, and flooded his being. He felt lightheaded as he always did. 

This wasn’t always arousing, but this time, Bucky was already aroused. As he suckled, he touched a vibrating pulse of telekinesis to the soft flesh between Derpy’s marehood and her pucker. 

He felt her legs close, squeezing against his neck and jaw. 

He drank, feeling stronger, and his tongue lapped over the tip of the teat, drawing out more milk. Pegasus milk was thick and creamy, almost like half melted ice cream, but pegasus milk did not freeze. He applied more suction, needing more, and he felt Derpy’s stomach muscles flex. She was an amazing creature, all muscle and sinew, a terrifying creature of immense strength but all of the gentleness of a mother. 

Down in his guts, he felt the dull cold ache that was always in there begin to subside just a little. Blood pounded through his veins. The painful throbbing ache in his fetlock faded into the background. The painful weakness in his hind legs didn’t seem so bad. 

Derpy drew in a shuddering breath as she felt the tickle-touch of a fang that grazed her flesh. Fangs that grazed, that gave soft touch, but never brought harm or pain. 

Only pleasure. 

There was a pleasant buzzing that was now teasing over her now moistening slit. She felt herself growing engorged, going slick, her body knew what was coming and was prepared.

Most of the time, when Bucky fed, it was a quiet relaxing moment, serene, a time spent being close to one another. Other times… it was like this. Something radiated between the two of them, some energy, something crackled in the very air around them, driving both of them into a needy frenzy. 

She felt him latch on to the other teat… the first had gone dry. She could feel the soft hollowness of being emptied. Her pelvis ached, but she was beyond caring. She could feel herself slurping and she felt herself wink, her clitoris stabbing outwards, pushing through thick meaty lips that clenched and tried to hold it back. 

With a triumphant bob, it broke free, and then like a drowning pony, it was gone again, lost beneath the waves. The buzzy feeling intensified and she felt herself winking once more, the lone swimmer trying to break the surface, and she could feel the buzzing just above where she would emerge. 

“Oh stars!” Derpy gasped as her nubbin winked out and bumped into Bucky’s telekinetic throb. She squeezed her legs a little tighter. Her second teat was being emptied, Bucky was sucking, slurping, dragging his rough tongue over the tip of her teat and he was being greedy. Reaching down with her front legs, she pushed Bucky’s head inwards against the soft curve of her lower belly. 

With a crack, Derpy’s wings went stiff. Droplets of sweat began to roll down her body, like a rainstorm that brought pearls and tiny diamonds. 

With a fine, almost perfect sense of pegasus body mastery, Derpy was able to control her winking. Sucking in her breath and then pushing, she was able to pop her clitoris out and touch the buzzing intruder that lurked at her entrance. Holding her breath, clenching her belly muscles, Derpy pushed for as long as she could, holding her nubbin against the vibrating tingling warmth that was Bucky’s magic. With a gasp, she let out the breath she was holding, seeing stars, and there was a loud wet squelch as her button retreated. 

But Derpy could feel herself swelling with desire. Bucking her hips upwards, her clitoris sprung free and this time, did not retreat. Moaning, kicking her hind legs up in the air, Derpy knew that now, it was time to hang on and endure. 

The grey mare whinnied and nickered, reduced to making the sounds of her primal equine self. She and Bucky had come a long way since their first clumsy attempts to be with one another. Now, Bucky knew her secrets. He knew every inch of her body, and with every encounter, he found new ways to to make her moan like the dirty, needy, held down and rutted little pegasus she was. 

Derpy’s teats both knew cold air and Derpy clenched her teeth together. 

She felt Bucky’s tongue slip into her. It wiggled around, pulling her apart, sloshing her juices around, leaving nothing dry or clingy. She felt Bucky’s tongue slide around her nubbin, folding around it, and then sliding along the stubby length like a sheath. 

It was too much. Throwing her head back, pressing the side of her face into the mattress, Derpy let out a grunt and endured her first orgasm. It started as a burst of heat that blossomed in her knob and spread like a conflagration through her nethers. 

After a moment where her whole body went stiff, Derpy drew in a lungful of air and then gasped as she felt Bucky clambering over her belly. He was on her, and then he was in her. 

Derpy let out a little squeal as she felt his girth parting her, and then his entire length was buried to the hilt. She was already edging towards her second climax. She could feel her button of turgid flesh pressing against Bucky’s length as he pulled out and then buried himself once more. Bucky was slow, and he was gentle. 

Wrapping her forelegs around Bucky’s neck, Derpy held on. 

It was slow, lazy lovemaking, but there was a subtle searing intensity. Each thrust, each push, they could be measured. They were cautious, almost hesitant at times, the feeling of entry, a brief pause, almost as if Bucky was waiting to hear a sound that indicated pain, and then a hilting, but never violent striking against her pelvis and causing too much pain. 

But there was pain. A little pain. The pain stood out in contrast to the pleasure, making each gentle thrust all the sweeter. 

With a wet slurp, Bucky pulled out. Derpy waited, unsure of what was happening, she felt him squirming on top of her, wiggling, scooting himself downwards a bit. She felt his jaw against her neck. 

And then, she felt a knock at the backdoor. Something slick pressed against her pucker, demanding entrance. Derpy let out a fillyish squeal and angled her hips upwards, ignoring the burning throb deep within her pelvis when she did so. She felt the pressure increase, almost unbearable, a slow steady push that left no denying, somepony was coming in the backdoor. 

Or would be cumming in her backdoor soon. 

Derpy took a deep breath and made her body relax. She closed her eyes, thought of warm pleasant thoughts, and made her belly muscles go soft. There was a brief squeal, a little squeaky fart worked its way free, and Derpy could hear Bucky giggle for a moment; she knew that the tip of his cock had just been tickled. 

Feeling Bucky’s whole body tense on top of her, she felt the tension of her pucker give way. There was delicious friction as something was pushed in. Something wide, something girthy. Something that would not be denied, but was a gentle invader. It moved in, just a little at a time, allowing her to stretch out. 

Derpy whimpered through gritted teeth. She needed more. Flexing her dock, she tried to suck Bucky in. She felt her muscles grip him and give him a tug. She heard Bucky hiss. She scraped her hooves down his back, along his ribs, feeling each one as she dragged her hooves down. When she reached the bottom, she brought her forelegs up, gripped him once more, and gave him a squeeze. Reaching down as far as she could, she got one foreleg around the small of his back and pushed, trying to drive him in deeper. 

Halfway in now, and with each wiggle, a little more of Bucky’s cock was swallowed by the grey-blue ring of flesh stretched tight all around it. Now there was a more rhythmic motion, with only an inch or two being slid in and out. 

Derpy could tell by the thrusting that Bucky was close. He didn’t need to be buried, he just needed to get off. She wrapped her hind legs around him and aided his thrusting, ignoring the painful stabbing feeling deep within her bones. She felt herself climax for the second time as her protruding bump brushed up against Bucky’s thrusting groin. 

She felt Bucky slip in, he was in much deeper now, she felt his ring stretch her out to the point where it seemed as though she would tear. Derpy moaned, panted, and was overcome by the feeling of being stretched out as far as she could go as she was in the throes of orgasm. 

She could feel Bucky flaring inside of her, the tip growing larger, she could feel his cock bulging as it prepared to spew seed. She could feel the twins banging around inside of her and Bucky was sliding back and forth across her swollen foal filled belly. 

When Derpy felt Bucky plunge himself in as deep as he could and not pull out, but stay in as his seed was ejected with a violent squirt, Derpy heard another cry, a cry not Bucky’s or her own.

Still orgasming, and feeling Bucky blowing his load deep inside of her, Derpy looked over; she saw Thistle, standing on three legs, one front hoof stroking with a vigorous and furious motion between her hind legs. A puddle of liquid pooled between Thistle’s hind hooves, her eyes were closed, and her lips were pulled back from her fangs in an orgasmic snarl. Thistle’s tail was hiked up high. 

After a moment, Thistle staggered forward and fell onto the bed, still moaning, letting out whimpering cries of lusty adolescent need. Peaking, Thistle squeaked and banged her hoof upon the bed. 

Heavy breathing. The scent of mare musk. The sounds of panting. There were no words. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 597
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Father, I behaved poorly. Please forgive me.” Sentinel, bowing his head, could not look his father in the eye. The young colt stared down into his coffee instead. 

“Think nothing of it,” Bucky replied. Feeling a wonderful mood, Bucky leaned over and touched his son on the neck. “What do you think is going to happen today?” 

Sentinel’s barrel heaved like a bellows as he drew in a deep breath, exhaled, sucked in another breath, held it, and then let out out a little at a time. His head rose, his nostrils sniffling as the steam rising from his coffee tickled them. “We both know how this ends.” 

“Sentinel, sometimes, son, sometimes, you get into something that you just can’t win. Sacrifices must be made. It isn’t giving up, or even giving in, it is about doing what needs to be done.” Bucky lifted up his fork, cut off a triangle of pancakes, stabbed them, lifted them up, stuffed them into his mouth. 

Sentinel scowled and shook his head, his ears flopping somewhat as his head jerked back and forth. He banged his hoof down upon the table, let out a fierce snarl, and then he began taking deep breaths once again, trying to regain his control. 

“Sentinel, in life, you are going to find yourself in situations you have no control over. Plan for everything. Including failure.” Bucky took another bite of pancakes and syrup dribbled down his chin and down upon his plate. 

“I don’t like failure!” 



 

“Hold still!” Berry Punch placed her hoof to the side of Bucky’s face, her touch a gentle caress, and tried to make Bucky stay still while Lyra worked to secure the false eyelashes. 

“Is it wrong that I am turned on by this?” Thistle asked. 

“No… every mare should feel a little hot to trot as she’s making her husband look pretty,” Bon Bon replied. The earth pony mare leaned over and placed her muzzle near Bucky’s. “Hey there you sweet little filly… you come here often?” Bon Bon’s voice was a low sultry growl, husky, with just the right amount of aggression. 

“Bon Bon… I’m going to knock you up for that.” Bucky, trying to hold still, lost control of himself and started to laugh. 

“We must gird our princess so that she might go into battle.” Lyra went to work trying to secure the false eyelashes on the other side. 

Bon Bon, tittering, having a wonderful time, looked at Bucky with half closed eyes. “I dunno, seeing you like this, I’m kinda in the mood to be knocked up.” 

There was a bright flash as Derpy took a picture. The grey mare moved around, her steps slow, and from a different angle, she snapped another photo. 

“More pictures… I want to tell Bandua this story when she is older and I want her to see pictures.” Belisama, armed with a spoon, slid some hot regurgitated food down Bandua’s gullet. 

“My adorable little fubby-wubby!” Bucky turned his head to look at Bandua and got pushed back into place by Berry Punch.

“Fubby-wubby?” Berry shook her head. 

“Well, she’s not a foal, she’s not a cub, not really, even though the griffons call her that. She’s my fub.” Bucky’s eyes strained to look sideways so he could see his daughter. 

Berry Punch cocked her head and looked at Bandua for a moment and then she looked back at her husband, whom she had to admit, was starting to look pretty. At least, what passed for pretty as far as Bucky was concerned. “And to think I carry your foals in my belly.” 

Derpy snapped a picture of Bandua, smiled, and then nodding her head, she made a gesture to Bon Bon as her eyes darted towards Thistle. 

Bon Bon, being an earth pony, sensed the unspoken commands of the wily pegasus. Reaching out one well muscled foreleg, with shocking swiftness, she flipped Thistle’s tail up, revealing everything there was to see. 

There was a flash of a camera. 

“Eeep!” Thistle squeaked as she swished her tail and tried to cover herself. Her cheeks darkened, like red wine spilled on a light coloured carpet. She turned to look at Derpy and Bon Bon. Flustered, the kelpie said nothing, her blush intensifying as she stood there. 

“One kelpie plot. Now I’ll have something nice to look at while I rub one out in the bathtub.” Derpy’s eyebrows flapped up and down like a bird’s wings and she gave Thistle a saucy wink. 

“Just think,” Lyra said as she daubed a bit of mascara on Bucky. “We’re going to look back on this moment, look at these pictures, and we’re going to remember this as a happy time in our lives. The pain of the bad news I got will fade in time, the trivial events of today might be forgotten, but this… all of this that we are doing right now, all of this will be remembered.” 

“A group of wives—” 

“A group of best friends,” Derpy said, interrupting Berry Punch, who had started speaking. Derpy reached out and patted Berry on the back with her wing. 

“A group of wives who are best friends, all of us sharing this moment with our husband.” 

“I couldn’t imagine life without all of you,” Thistle said, echoing Berry’s sentiment. 

“Don’t make Bucky cry, his mascara will run,” Lyra said, offering a warning. 

The mares and the griffoness all began to giggle. 

“We need to tie that green gauze around Bucky’s bandages… it was so thoughtful of Rarity to include that,” Bon Bon said as she reached up and wiped her eye. 

“Now we need to get our husband to Ponyville for the meeting with the princesses.” Lyra stepped back to admire her work. Nodding, feeling satisfied, she stepped forwards and pressed her snoot into Bucky’s. 

Nibbling on Bucky’s lip with her own, Lyra coaxed him into opening his mouth. Her knees felt wobbly as her tongue flicked out, seeking his, and she could feel the lumpy bumps of the roof of his mouth for a moment. She closed her eyes, leaned in a little more, and could feel delightful suction tugging on her lips. The tip of her tongue trailed over the broad flat surface of Bucky’s tongue. 

With a slurp, Lyra pulled away, opened her eyes, and stared into Bucky’s. She didn’t see that they were mismatched. She didn’t notice the Taint. The eyes were the window to the soul. Looking at Bucky, looking into Bucky, Lyra could feel her heart thudding in her barrel. 

“Thank you for Harper…” 



 

The town of Ponyville gathered to look upon the flock of alicorns, there to see the pretty pony princesses. Princess Celestia, tall, regal, stood upon the wooden podium constructed for this event. She waved to the crowd. The noble white alicorn was wearing a silken gown that was a subdued shade of soft pink, trimmed in yellow, with a few orange accents. 

Beside her stood Princess Luna, wearing a black gown that was covered in sequins. It was slinky, almost scandalous. Princess Luna strutted around, knowing that she looked good.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, even though she was not participating, had still dressed up for the event, wearing something in a shade of sunny yellow. It was simple, not at all flashy, and Twilight’s stunning beauty was enhanced by simplicity of her gown. 

For all of Celestia’s radiance, for all of Luna’s ravaging sex appeal, for all of Twilight’s simple, graceful beauty, it could not compete with the grotesquerie of Princess Buckminster Bitters. 

Wearing his olive gown, Bucky waved at the crowd, his shyness only adding to the awkwardness of the moment. The other princesses, refined, well mannered, cultured, acted as though nothing was wrong, nothing was out of place. 

Bucky’s long flowing mane was now done up in a bouffant and tied off with ribbons. 

The overall effect could only be described as nauseating. 



 

“Nephew… I must say, the overall effect… is stunning.” Princess Celestia was stony faced as she looked Bucky over. 

“You are the tiniest, most adorable little princess ever,” Princess Luna said to Princess Buckminster Bitters, her voice filled with insufferable smugness. She towered over Bucky and gloated, using her full height to her advantage. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle lifted up a somewhat chubby pink alicorn foal that was bundled up for the weather. “No, that title belongs to Cadance.” 

Turning away from Princess Luna, Princess Buckminster Bitters looked at the crowd. “I had my gown made by the lovely Rarity and the graceful Coco, right here in Ponyville at the Carousel Boutique. These two mares can work miracles… I mean, look at this fabulous gown!” 

A few ponies in the crowd cheered, but the overall effect of the silence was almost deafening. More cameras flashed. 

Princess Celestia cleared her throat and lifted her head high. “A very charitable auction was held for one hundred coveted spots, a chance to meet with us up here on stage.” 

“Yes, we wanted to thank you for your kindness.” Princess Luna ceased to smile and looked very serious. “The Lunar Court wishes to double your generousity. We are matching the funds raised for this occasion, matching them bit for bit. The Lunar Court humbly thanks you for your kindness to those who have little or nothing.” 

Princess Celestia smiled at her sister. “The Solar Court could do no less.” 

“Huzzah! The funds have been tripled!” Princess Luna’s voice carried over the murmur of the crowd. 

“Please, form organised lines, no pushing, no shoving, the guard will be checking you for your tickets as you approach. Have them ready,” a pegasus in gold armor barked. 

Looking out at the crowd, Bucky saw that the line for Celestia was enormous already. Out of the hundred spots auctioned off, Princess Celestia had the lion’s share. Most of the ponies in the line were unicorns. In the line to meet Princess Luna, there were a few pegasi and few unicorns, military types with hard faces, scars, and flinty looks. 

Princess Twilight Sparkle’s line was surprising, there were a fair number of ponies waiting, and almost all of them were pegasi. Glancing at Twilight, Bucky could see the shock and surprise upon her face. In the days of Ponyville’s independence, Twilight Sparkle had endeared herself to the common pegasi, and now the flock of Ponyville and the pegasi of Equestria were loyal to her. 

Some might even say their loyalty was almost fanatical. 

With a sinking feeling, Bucky realised there was no line to see him. Remaining gracious, he kept his head high and a smile upon his face. There was no point in being a sore loser about this, but it stung. 

A unicorn guard stepped forward. “Somepony to see you… sir?” 

Princess Buckminster Bitters snickered and felt surprised. The unicorn stepped aside and a little earth pony filly stepped forward. She was carrying a flower in her mouth. She looked up at Bucky with wide adoring eyes. 

Bucky lowered his head and took the offered flower in his magic. He slid it into a frill of his gown, adjusted it a bit, and then looked down at the filly. 

“My name is Royal Blue. We earth ponies took up a collection to have enough bits to win a spot in the auction and I was selected to give you that flower. My mommy grew it in her greenhouse.” 

A lump appeared in Bucky’s throat. He tried clearing his throat, but the lump persisted. 

“We earth ponies wanted to thank you,” Royal Blue said in a squeaky voice. 

“Thank you… thank you so very much, you have just made my day,” Bucky replied. 

“You look after the least of us, and we love you for it. My papa told me to tell you that.” 

Bucky feared his mascara would run. He understood now why mares were so afraid of it happening. “I do my best.” Bucky wanted to say more, but had no idea what to say. He looked into the crowd and saw the earth ponies of Ponyville. Farmers. Labourers. Hard working sorts. There were quite a number of Apples present. 

In the crowd, Coco was visible. She had a flower identical to his own tucked into the collar of her coat. Looking around, Bucky saw a number of flowers very much like his own, all of them on earth ponies. 

He looked down at Royal Blue. “This means an awful lot to me, thank you.” 

The filly made a gesture with her hoof, trying to get Bucky to lower his head. He did so. He stood, almost snoot to snoot with her. “I was told to make our bits count,” she said in a soft scared voice. Her legs trembled.

Stretching out her neck, Royal Blue kissed Bucky on the cheek and then backed away. “Thank you… we hope you think fondly of us. My mommy told me to say that.” 

Lifting his head, he watched the filly go, turning and running. She ran to a mare and a stallion who stood nearby, both of them were smiling. The mare lifted a hoof and waved. Bucky lifted up his bandaged leg and waved back. 

Bucky knew what the day held for him, but he didn’t care. What he felt right now felt a lot like victory. 
	
	 
	
	
> Chapter 598
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Charassare was a big pony. A very big pony. Charassare was a lunar pegasus, and he was as large as some of the females of his species. Charassare was also a Myrmidon, and a terrifying example of his type. His entire body was concealed from view by heavy steel plate, with only his wings exposed. He moved with a terrifying, easy grace, it was as if he didn’t notice that he was wearing several hundred pounds of articulated platemail over a coat of chainmail. 

Charassare’s name meant ‘gasher’ in the old tongue. 

The big bull male bellowed. The tower, where his beloved and precious Mistress, the Princess Luna should have been, sitting in the lap of luxury, was empty. As his cry echoed through the Whitetail Woods, the few animals not hibernating shat themselves in fear. 

“The damnable Lord of Winter is treacherous!” 

Charassare looked at the lunar pegasi and unicorns gathered around him, waiting for orders. He snorted a great snort, it was as if he was a massive creature made of metal and powered by the steam that seeped out of the eyeholes in his helmet. 

“Somehow, the Lord of Winter has spirited our Mistress away from us.” 

“He has cheated! He is known for his unicorn cleverness. He boasts about it often!” 

“We must go recover her.” Charassare’s voice was a low reverberating growl from within his helmet. “But first, we should see how deep his treachery runs. I wonder if She of the Painful Day is taken as well.” 

“This is becoming unorthodox… are we really going to go meet with the Solar Guard?” 

“YES!” Charassare’s voice echoed through the trees. 

Myrmidons held no official rank. They didn’t exist. But failure to obey their commands was said to be taking one’s own life into one’s own hooves. The six unicorns looked at one another, shrugging, and then looked at Charassare. 

They watched as the big male went stopping off through the snow with five Lunar Guard following after him. 

“We’re going to need a white flag!” one of the unicorns cried as the group hurried after the marching lunar pegasi. 



 

“Captain Hierofalco.” Charassare lifted a wing in a respectful salute. “You fought in the battle of Canterlot, when those milksop nobles failed to remember their place. Almost died defending the orphanage that the rebels attacked to draw Princess Celestia out.”  

The battered looking white pegasus took off his half faced helmet and his pelt turned a sooty blue. He looked up at the much larger lunar pegasus and saluted. “Charassare. The last pony standing in the battle of Fromme du Lac. You watched your entire squad get massacred by guns and you yourself was shot… let’s see… how many times?” 

“Not enough times to kill me.” Under his helmet, Charassare was grinning. “Captain, I suspect that you are missing something very important to you.” 

The sooty blue pegasus nodded. “Yes. Yes we are. Something precious to us was stolen and we were just discussing the pony responsible for this… theft.” 

“The Lord of Winter has gone too far!” a unicorn shouted. 

“He has forsaken the rules. We suspected this might happen,” Captain Hierofalco said. “I do believe he has taken what is precious to us as hostages. I am unsure of what to do or how to deal with this situation.” 

“Seems reasonable. Our Princesses, being honourable sorts, stuck to the rules as they were abducted, doing nothing to fight back or save themselves.” Charassare shook his head, causing his chainmail to jingle and his armor to clank. 

“If he is willing to do that, then he is willing to fight with us directly. The Lord of Winter is a foe most dangerous. He might not kill us, but he may make us wish we were dead,” a pegasus of the Solar Guard said. 

“We’re already dead. It’s just the armor that holds us up,” Charassare said. 

“There is something wrong with you Myrmidons—” 

“PRIVATE, SHUT YOUR NECKHOLE!” Captain Hierofalco barked. 

“Sir, yes sir.” 

“We should be going. Look out for traps. Move as a group. Keep the unicorns well protected, they might be our only chance.” Charassare lifted his head and snorted. “I suspect that we will be ambushed by griffons and they will target the unicorns. The Lord of Winter is no fool. He knows he has nothing to fear from us pegasi, he could crush us down and make us kneel before him.” 

“Watch out for rape bombs,” a pegasus said. 

“Yes… watch out for any flying purple orbs of glass. If you see one, fly away as fast as you can,” Captain Hierofalco commanded. 

A unicorn whimpered. 

A pegasus said, “We’re fecked.” 

“Show some spine you snivelling cowards,” a lunar pegasus replied. “At least we’ll die getting laid.” 



 

Peering ahead, Captain Hierofalco studied the guard tower where the Lord of Winter was located. In the distance, the tower stood, nestled in the naked trees, and smoke drifted up out of the chimney. 

There seemed to be no guard posted. 

Cold fear made the Captain’s stomach churn. 

A light freezing drizzle began to trickle down, no doubt more trickery by the Lord of Winter to demoralise them all. No doubt that the ground ahead was littered with traps of all kinds. The serene looking snow no doubt hid all manner of horror. The snow was his snow. 

“I don’t see anything,” Captain Hierofalco said. “Nothing at all. No golems, no griffons, no guards, there is nothing out here.” 

“I’m pissin’ myself over here,” a pegasus whimpered. 

“I fear nothing,” a unicorn whispered. “Ahead is a whole lot of nothing and it is going to kill us all!” 

“He won’t kill us… but the treacherous bastard revels in humiliating his enemies,” another pegasus said. 

Charassare broke cover and began to march forward, leaving the others behind. He made no attempt at stealth, he did nothing to check for traps, he moved towards the squat stone tower, snarling inside of his helmet. 

Reaching the door, he stood there for several long minutes, not sure what to do. Nothing had happened to him. No harm had been done. There were no caltrops in the snow, no traps, no glass orbs filled with a dreadful purpleness. 

Lifting his hoof, Charassare knocked upon the door.



 

A blast of heat struck Charassare as the door opened. A fragrant aroma struck his nostrils. The scent of tea, of cinnamon, of bread, of sugary sweetness. Confused, not sure what was going on, the big brute of a lunar pegasus stood there in the doorway. 

Charassare seemed to have arrived at a tea party that nopony had told him about. The princesses were gathered around a table piled high with food. Griffons stood watching him.

“You idiot… you’re letting the cold in.” A greasy looking griffon stood staring. 

“Private Loki! Some manners!” 

“Excuse me… but I would like to know what is going on.” Charassare stepped inside and the door was shut behind him. He looked around, trying to take everything in. 

“Peace talks,” Princess Celestia replied. 

“Princess Buckminster has offered an unconditional surrender and the use of his tower as neutral ground so that my sister and I might trade concessions and discuss terms as we sue for peace,” Princess Luna said. She lifted up a sheet of parchment and held it in front of Charassare’s helmet. “Look at the calligraphy! Each stroke is perfect. Look at the kerning, the print, this message is written perfection!” 

Princess Celestia levitated something up off of the table. “The napkins have been folded into little swans!” 

“Princess Buckminster, when faced with insurmountable odds, chose to bear the humiliation of loss upon his own back rather than have his troops get hurt unnecessarily, placing the safety of his subjects above his own needs.” Princess Luna smirked and lifted up a slice of coffee cake. 

As Princess Luna gobbled cake, Ripple and Sentinel paced around the perimeter of the room, their eyes never leaving Charassare. 

“We’re scared of this?” the greasy looking griffon asked. 

“Shut up! Loki, shut up!” Ripple commanded. 

The harrier griffon looked up at the lunar pegasus. “You stink like honour.” 

“Private Loki…” Sentinel’s voice was a low growl. 

Charassare sighed, causing his armor to clank. He cleared his throat. “Lord of Winter, I thought poorly of you. I said things. I suspected the worst of you when I found my Mistress missing. I have not been a good example, nor have I given you the respect you have earned.” 

“Told you so,” Loki said as he sat down. “The stench of honour is strong on this one.” 

Bucky lifted his teacup in salute and smiled. “Think nothing of it. Want a bite to eat? Semillon went all out with quite a spread.” 

“No thank you, Lord of Winter. To recompense for my failure, I will join your guard and make certain these peace talks remain undisturbed. There should be peace between the sisters.” Charassare stepped away from the entrance, snapped to attention with a rattle of steel, and became a statue beside the door. 

Loki hiked his talon thumb at the lunar pegasus. “I like this one. It’s like seeing Squire Cornet Sentinel all grown up.” 

“Now… we were discussing the terms of peace. Sister, dear sister, surely there is something I can do that would convince you to surrender. I would so love to win this year.” Princess Celestia gave Princess Luna a polite smile. 

“You have a list of my demands… but there is something else I want from you.” Princess Luna levitated up a napkin and wiped her muzzle. 

Princess Celestia leaned forward. “I am willing to give much for peace… and victory this day. What is it that you want?” 

“Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns… I… I would like my name added to the school. I grow tired of being left out of everything.” Princess Luna lifted a cookie from her plate and waved it around. “You have your name on everything! It is a publicity issue!” 

“How about I remove my name from the school?” Princess Celestia asked. She watched her sister’s eyebrow raise. “The Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns. If we do it this way, we do not have to argue whose name comes first.” 

After swallowing her cookie, Princess Luna wiped her face with a napkin once more. “Your desire to win must be unbearable, dear sister.” 

Clearing his throat, Princess Buckminster lifted his bandaged fetlock and made a gesture towards Princess Luna. “Your sister is giving up quite a bit. How about a little graciousness on your part?” His ears perked when he heard a faint whuffling sound. Turning his head, Bucky’s eyes focused upon the pile of cushions in the corner. 

“Excuse me,” Bucky said as he got up from the table. “I’ll take care of that.” 

“Oh… oh my… that’s fragrant!” Branwen scooted away from the two foals she was guarding. “Did you… did you just hear it happen?” She looked up at Bucky as he limped closer. 

Nodding, Bucky dropped his head down and touched snoots with Erebus. “Poor little fella. Let me get that for you.” 

As she gave another cookie a dainty nibble, Princess Luna watched as Bucky went to work changing Erebus’ diaper. She chewed, looking thoughtful, and then her head turned towards her sister. She swallowed and gave a delicate cough. “Each day, his hearing becomes more and more like the lunar pegasi. He is changing… this holds so much promise for our future Shadowbolts… my sweet little foals born of shadow and darkness.” 

Desiring her sister’s attention, Princess Celestia rapped upon the table, a soft quiet tapping. “I have agreed to all of your demands. The school will have its name changed. Is there something else you wanted?” 

“Yes.” Princess Luna lifted her head high. 

“Very well, out with it,” Princess Celestia said. 

“When this is over, and we are out of these ridiculous sacks of frippery, I want the following things… one sisterly hug… perhaps two. I want you to sit beside my bed and read me a story, like you did when I was little. I will also want a glass of warm milk. While I am snuggled in the bed, after I am read to, with Tourmaline and Erebus present, I wish to be told that I am the best sister ever. If you can agree to these demands, I will willingly surrender to you and you shall be the victor this day.” 

Violet, standing near the table, looked at the sisters, first Princess Luna and then Princess Celestia. These were reasonable demands. 

“I do believe I can agree to your terms.” 

“Very well, I surrender. I am at your mercy.” Princess Luna looked over at Charassare. “I do hope your honour will recover, but we have suffered a crushing defeat by the Solar Court.” 

The big brute of a lunar pegasus said nothing. 

“This… this is pleasant. I have won and no harm came to anyone this day.” Princess Celestia heaved a sigh of relief. “Sentinel? Ripple?” 

“Yes?” they both said together. 

“I want both of you to remember that diplomacy is the most important aspect of war. As you grow up, as you progress in your careers, as you take on more leadership, I want both of you to remember this day. This war was settled without a single broken bone, no blood was spilled, and no one was hurt. And it was because your father was willing to sacrifice his pride, which is a very hard thing to do. Losing well is one of the most difficult things you will ever learn to do as soldiers and leaders. Take this lesson to heart.” 

Sentinel bowed his head and then nodded. 

Ripple lifted her head and looked Princess Celestia in the eye. “Sentinel and I could not see any other way of winning, and Sentinel wanted to avoid bloodshed. I wanted my Raptors to prove their worth, but not at the cost of even one of them getting hurt. I am relieved that this ended the way it did. If one of my Raptors had been injured, even Loki, I would have been eaten alive with guilt.” 

Princess Celestia bowed her head to the two foals. “Your Raptors have proven their worth, and I have no doubt that in the future, they will prove most invaluable.” 

Her head dropping, Ripple bowed. 

“Ripple?” 

“Yes Princess Luna?” 

“About your request to have the Raptors join the Shadowbolts…” 
	
	
> Chapter 599
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It felt good to have the gown off. It had been removed with all the care it deserved, placed back into its box with mothballs, sealed up, and placed inside of a wardrobe. It was something that Bucky knew he would treasure. Coco had done some of the stitches with strands of her and Rarity’s mane, now the signature of their work for special clients. 

Sipping a glass of warm spiced sherry, Bucky reflected upon the day, which was not yet over. There was so much to do, but it was nice to take a break. Sitting in the nursery, curled up in the bowl shaped chair, Bucky listened to the sounds of Bell Heather and Cadance sleeping. 

Beneath the crib, Sukari was eating some baby carrots that Bucky had set out for her. She had taken them, one by one, and dragged them beneath the crib to devour them, like some horrible beast dragging its prey back to its lair. 

It was warm in the nursery. 

Almost drowsing, Bucky enjoyed the time alone, or almost alone, a chance to collect his thoughts. Sentinel and Ripple were having a much deserved celebration and eating the leftover food with the Raptors. He took another sip of sherry, felt the warmth on his tongue, and the gentle burn in his throat. 

He was snapped to reality by realising there were two blue eyes staring at him. He saw two little hooves braced against the edge of the chair cushion. Sukari’s face looked sad, but it always did. 

“Want up here?” 

The foal whimpered, her eyes darting around from nervous fear.  

Bucky decided it was worth the risk. Extending his will, he scooped her up in his telekinesis and plopped her in the chair with him. Everything remained dry and Bucky felt a rush of relief. 

The zebra filly tumbled down the incline of the bowl shaped cushion and ended up against Bucky’s side. She kicked and twisted around, fussed, let out a frustrated grunt, and then curled up in the fetal position, pressed up against Bucky’s ribs. 

Finishing off his sherry, Bucky vanished the glass back into the kitchen. He pulled a blanket over himself and Sukari, dropped down his head, and closed his eyes. 

“Baba?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Sukari replied. 

“Maybe tomorrow.” Bucky felt the foal snuggle a little closer as sleep began to take him. 





Feeling jubilant, Ripple lifted up a foamy mug of harder than soft and softer than hard cider, her hoof stuffed through the handle. She tilted it back and drank it down. She felt light headed, warm, almost sweaty. 

Ripple belched. 

“Losing ain’t so bad,” Grunion said. He ducked an empty mug thrown at him. “Why did Sentinel leave?” 

“I think he went off to think about the lesson his father gave him,” Kiara replied. The griffoness hiccupped. “I think I drank too much. Grunion looks good. Nope.” She shook her head. 

“Freyja and Callum are off preening one another and necking.” Brigid looked over at the pair and fluffed out. “Gofannon is off brushing his pretty little pegasus pony. I need to find love.” 

Flench leaned over and placed his beak close to Brigid’s ear. “I have my eye on a pony. She’s pretty. She can tie herself into knots. She works with Stone Mother. She has the most wonderful squishy face and flappy lips. She is brave. A scrapper.” 

“Why all of this pony love?” Brigid asked. 

“Why not? Pony pretty. Griffoness pretty. Female pretty. Dick fits in both of them. If you like both, you double your chances,” Flench replied. 

Rolling her eyes, Brigid squawked and shoved Flench away from her. 

“Plus, ponies have big soft flabby sideways muffs on face. Might be nice to stick dick in.” 

“Flench, I am ashamed to know you.” Brigid turned away from Flench and watched as Callum and Freyja continued necking. 

“Going in is what a dick does. It goes in. A dick cannot deny its purpose. A hole is meant to be filled. Dick don’t know why it needs to go in hole. A hole don’t know why it opens to dick. But this is the nature of the universe. When the dick and the hole both fulfil their purpose, the dick hides and the hole swallows up the dick, life goes on and the universe continues.” 

Brigid peeped and clacked her beak together in annoyance. 

“I think the universe makes holes and dicks. See, the universe needs something to witness it. We have to look up and see stars. We have to feel water. Soft earth under claws. Lay in wet grass. If no one sees stars, if no one feels wet grass, if no dry dick goes into wet hole while laying in wet grass, if no one touches and feels… maybe universe stops existing because no one there to witness it existing and—” 

Flench fell off of his chair and went silent, his eyes closed. 

“Drunkard,” Brigid said in a low voice. 



 

Looking down at the spidery letters that only creatures with working thaumaturgical systems could see, Dinky tried to understand the complexities of what she was reading. Magic was a language all its own. While some spells had regular words, simple words, words that anypony could read, other spells had spidery letters that no tongue could pronounce and had to be burned into the brain with repeated reading. 

The spidery glyphs and symbols carried more information than any letter or word could say, they carried entire concepts. It was like reading a paragraph or an entire page in a book all at once, knowing every word, gaining every meaning, all just by glancing it. 

Dinky was still learning how to read it. It took time, patience, and dedication. The brain didn’t want to take in knowledge in this way. It rebelled, trying to push the knowledge out, and so the glyphs and siguls had to be stared at until they burned their way in. 

Not only could Dinky read these spider leg letters, she was learning how to write them, something so rare that very few adult unicorns could do it. She could burn the entire contents of a thought down upon a page and it would form the strange letters of magic. 

Dinky understood that she had power. She understood her father’s fascination with magic. She understood why Twilight Sparkle had a look of bliss upon her face when she was lost in the act of spell casting. 

Enchantment was taking these glyphs, these siguls, these concepts put into symbols, placing them on an object, and then making that object conform to the concept being imprinted upon it. Piña’s unspillable glass was, in the most simple of terms, a glass that had been told not to spill, and then the glass had been made to listen by giving it a single purposeful thought along with the ability to turn this thought into action. 

I am not to spill. 

And that was enchantment in the most simple of form. 

But, as Dinky was discovering, enchantment was the most complex of all schools of magic. A simple golem needed to do more than just walk. A golem had to balance. Balance took hundreds, sometimes thousands of actions, each one of those actions required an entire book worth of thoughts. And then, the golem needed to balance while stepping on a stone, which required a whole new set of instructions. 

But father made it seem so easy. 

The day when Dinky realised that one of her father’s simple rotocopter golems required several million different instructions, and that was just to fly, she had lapsed into a depressed funk and had fretted all day that she would never have the mental capacity to do what her father did. 

Sentinel’s self writing pen was mind boggling for its complexity. Each letter it produced took so many instructions, the pen had to balance while writing, it had to listen to what was being said, and it had to make sure not to leak ink. 

Looking at her Daring Do doll, the one that her father had bought for her, Dinky gritted her teeth and told herself that one day, she was going to make that doll walk across her desk, and not fall off of the edge. 



 

Sentinel watched what Sparkler was doing. Sitting on the back porch, having cleared some snow off of a wooden chair, he watched as Sparkler cleared snow from the lake behind the house, revealing the ice beneath. 

She was already almost done. 

Her scarf flapped in the breeze and her woollen cap sat upon her head at a jaunty angle. Her magic made short work of the snow. He watched as she approached the back porch, sliding along the ice. 

Sparkler gave Sentinel a brilliant smile as she sat down and began strapping something to her hooves. 

“What are you doing?” Sentinel asked. 

“I’m about to ice skate,” Sparkler replied. 

“Oh.”

The skates on Sparkler’s hooves had blades. They were shiny and looked sharp. 

Sparkler lifted up four more skates. “Here, strap these on. It’s not hard.” 

Doing as he was bid, Sentinel used his wings and his thumbs to slip the skates onto his hooves, tighten the straps, and then he wiggled each one to make certain they were secured. 

“Now skate with me, little brother,” Sparkler said as she stepped out onto the ice. 

Wobbling over to the ice, the blades under his hooves made it very difficult to walk. He stepped down, onto the ice, took a few steps, and then the horizon went crazy. 

A moment later, Sentinel was laying on his back with four legs sticking up into the air. He heard Sparkler giggling. 

“Ow.” Sentinel laid there for a moment as he tried to figure out what had went wrong. He then felt the warm tingle of magic as he was righted and placed upon his hooves. He heard laughter. Sparkler’s laughter. 

“I’m probably going to fall too. Stupid Shivers. So you can laugh at me.” Sparkler smiled and shoved off, sliding with effortless ease over the ice. 

Unfurling his wings for balance, Sentinel scrambled to stay on his hooves. Flapping, he started to slide over the ice, and after a moment, he sort of had his balance. He kept flapping and was soon moving at a decent speed. 

“Pretty good!” Sparkler shouted. 

This was great. Sentinel slid over the ice, using his wings for propulsion. He found that if he leaned off to one side, he’d turn in that direction. His troubles melted away as he skated across the lake. 

“I can go backwards!” Sparkler cried, shooting backwards and moving with terrific speed. 

Sentinel watched her go, admiring her grace and feeling a little jealous. “Show off!” 

“You should see Dinky… she is an amazing skater… to be honest, I thought that Dinky would get ice skates as a cutie mark.” Sparkler lept, twirled through the air, and made a shaky landing. Recovering, she kept going. 

Having fun, Sentinel let go. He wooshed along, learning to take turns better, how to bank, how to angle, this was a lot like flying. He chased after Sparkler and Sparkler chased after him. 

Sentinel’s uptight and stuffy nature had been laid low by the ice skates. 

It was rare for Sentinel to behave like a foal, but he was doing so now, making funny faces at Sparkler as he went shooting past her. As he went zipping past, Sparkler did a remarkable three hundred and sixty degree turn. 

She landed and for a moment, Sentinel was certain she was going to fall. Her legs trembled and spasmed. At the last moment, she recovered and took off, a purple-pink streak. 

Leaning way over, Sentinel turned, keeping his balance, tipping over as far as he dared, using momentum to keep going forward. There was a loud crack, like a thunderbolt or a tree branch breaking off in the storm. 

Pulling up from his turn, Sentinel did not see Sparkler. Coasting along, he looked around. No sign of Sparkler anywhere. He began to wonder if Sparkler had teleported away, or was playing a prank on him. He coasted to a halt and saw a flash of colour. 

It was Sparkler’s hat and it was floating in the water. Water. There was a hole in the ice. 

Sentinel made a dreadful connection. 

“Oh feck! Sparky!” 

Not sparing a moment to think, Sentinel dove in. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 600
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The freezing water felt like swords slashing through Sentinel’s skin, and he felt it the most in his wings. It was liquid agony all around him. The water around him was filled with bubbles. Sentinel went to scream and his lungs filled with water. Bright red and blue spots danced in his vision. A crushing weight settled upon his barrel and he felt himself being dragged down. 

A powerful swimmer, Sentinel was rendered powerless to save himself. 

The cold burned into his eyeballs, flooded his nostrils, and the cold water in his lungs froze him from the inside. He felt an excruciating pain go lancing through his groin and his guts burned with freezing fire. 

And then, the worst of the pain subsided. He felt a sense of dullness, a sleepy feeling. As he drifted downwards, he knew he was in danger, but he could not seem to care. 

Something grabbed him, he could feel something tugging him, but he couldn’t tell if he was being tugged up or down. There were more bubbles. There was an explosion of sound in his ears, a roaring whoosh, and then the pain returned. White hot pokers sank into his flesh, stabbing him from every angle, every side, they sunk through his skin and deep into the very core of his being. 

There was a violent explosion of pain in his spine and he coughed out water. The air going into his lungs hurt more than the water did, he sucked in wind, but could not get enough of it. Coughing, sputtering, unable to get enough air, Sentinel vomited up more water and thought he would suffocate when he could not get air through his nostrils. 

“Breathe, damn you!” 

Sentinel felt another jarring pain in his back, something slamming into him right between his wings. More lake water trickled from his mouth and his nostrils. He flopped on the ice. Blinded, unable to see, flailed around as his brain begged for oxygen. 

“I can’t find Sparky! She’s gone! She’s gone!” 

Warmth. Precious warmth. Sentinel felt it and the tug of gravity melted away. He barfed out more water and electric agony jolted through his body. Unable to see, Sentinel felt himself being carried away. 



 

Wrapped in a blanket by the fire, Sentinel’s teeth chattered together with so much force he could feel them chipping. Everything hurt. He lay on his side, whimpering, still struggling to breathe. There was another body beside him, but he could not tell who. 

“Sp-p-p-pa-ar-k-ky…” 

“Can’t you dry them off?” 

“Stars no, that would kill them! The sudden water evaporation would drop their temperature. I had to kill the enchantment on the back door to get them in. I’m glad I remembered to do it. Berry, go get Rising Star. Do it now!” 

“M-m-m-my Sp-p-spa-arky!” 

“Derpy, hush, try to keep breathing, the twins need air.” 

Sentinel heard an anguished wail but could not see what was going on. He felt the body beside him press up against him. It was shivering and wet. He felt legs wrapping around him, squeezing him, and he realised it was his mother. Working a leg free from the blanket, he clung to her. He felt hooves rubbing him. 

He spent several agonising minutes shivering, clinging to Derpy, his whole body screaming with pain and his mind coming to the realisation that Sparkler was gone from him forever. He had failed. 

Another warm body pressed up against him. The stench of rotten eggs filled his nostrils. 

“Mom, come on, we all need you.” 

“Rising Star—” 

“I already know. Berry told me. Mom wasn’t able to pull Sparkler out.” 

Sentinel felt two legs wrap around him and his mother. He felt them squeeze tight. 

The sounds of sobbing filled Sentinel’s ears, but the sounds of his own teeth chattering almost drowned it out. Rising Star’s body was like a furnace and it brought warmth and life. 

“She’s gone…” 

Sentinel felt Rising Star’s body begin to shake. A new pain filled his body as he realised he had one less sister now. 

“The love of my life is gone…” 

Sentinel felt another warm body press up against him, but he did not know who. 

“Sparkler? How? You’re hardly even wet! Sparky! How?”

Sentinel felt his heart leap up into his throat. The voice was in another room. It sounded far away. 

“When I started to fall in, I turned myself to stone. I had to walk across the bottom of the lake and punch my way out at the shoreline.” 

Sentinel let out a wail, feeling a confusing mix of grief and relief. 

“Mom? MOM!” 

Something slammed into Sentinel and the body pile with terrific force. 

“Sparky!” 

“Sentinel, you stupid stupid noble little pegasus! Why did you dive in after me?” 

Bawling, Sentinel flailed around, wanting to touch his sister, now back from the dead. 

“Mom, you’re all wet… and shivering.” 



 

“Drink, son… drink…” 

Doing as he was told, Sentinel sucked some hot cocoa through a straw. He still had trouble seeing. Everything was blurry. The fire crackled behind him and he could feel the heat on his back. Beside him, Derpy was also wrapped in a blanket, huddled over, and miserable. 

“I thought I lost you Sparkler… I was so scared! I saw you go under… I was watching out the window as I laid in bed.” 

“Derpy, drink.” 

Sentinel could hear the fear in his father’s voice. He shivered, but not from the lingering chill in his bones. He didn’t like hearing fear in his father’s voice. 

“It was kinda scary… all of a sudden the ice just gave way and I got dunked. I’m thankful that I had a lot of practice turning myself to stone when I’m in danger. I did it without thinking.” 

“Sparkler, how did you breathe?” 

“Daddy, don’t be a doofus. Since when do statues need air? I realised that quite some time ago… I didn’t need to breathe when I was stone.” 

Shuddering, Sentinel sucked more cocoa through his straw and felt soothing warmth spread through his belly. 

“Sparkler… I love you so much… don’t ever leave me.” 

“You ain’t getting rid of me that easy, Rising. I’m here for the long haul.” 

There was a long pause. 

“You know, I just realised. If I hadn’t become a type three… I’d probably be dead right now. That’s a scary thought. I feel kinda faint.” 

“Shut up… Sparkler, don’t talk like that. Your mother can’t take it right now.” 

“Sorry Berry.” 

“My balls hurt,” Sentinel gasped in a faint whisper. 

A warm body brushed up against Sentinel and then he felt himself embraced. It was Berry. He pushed himself against her and closed his eyes. 

“My little colt is brave and I hate him but I love him too… Sentinel, you scared me!” 

Sentinel could hear the pain in his mother’s voice. He couldn’t imagine what Derpy must be feeling. Still shivering, trembling, in pain, Sentinel began sobbing. 

“No mother ever wants to see not one, but two of her foals go under the ice!” 

“Derpy, calm down… drink some cocoa.” 

“I’m gonna have nightmares about that!” 

Sentinel felt a much smaller body hugging up against him. He opened his eyes, turned his head, and saw a flash of flaming orange. 

“Breakfast Sissy!” 

Sisters were precious things. You had a finite number of them if you were lucky to have any at all. Sentinel resolved to be a better brother. This current brush with loss and the feeling of pain left an impression on Sentinel. 

“Harper, I love you.” 

“Harpy knows. All ponies love Harpy.” 



 

His vision was still fuzzy, but Sentinel could see the red in Derpy’s eyes well enough. The grey mare that was his mother looked grief stricken. She was hunched over the table, still wrapped in a blanket, and eating hot soup as Bucky spooned it into her. 

Sentinel was getting fed soup by Sparkler. There was no way he could use a spoon right now. A potato was slipped into his mouth and he chewed it a few times before swallowing. Then came a thick slice of carrot, almost soft, but still firm. Sentinel swallowed it whole. The warm soup felt good going down. 

“Poor little Sukari… to her credit, she didn’t mess herself, but she shot out of the big bowl chair and right under the crib when you screamed.” 

Sentinel heard his father laugh when he was done talking. He turned to look at his father as the spoon was slipped once more between his lips. Bits of cabbage, a thin slice of carrot, and broth. His teeth gnashed down upon the food a few times and then he swallowed. 

“Mother… I couldn’t move when I hit the water… I couldn’t control my body… how… how did you… how did you pull me out?” Sentinel asked. He saw Derpy’s eyes close. 

“I don’t know,” Derpy replied in a soft pain filled whisper. “When I pulled you up, I smacked you on the back and then I went right back in again… one of my babies was still under the ice and I had to go get her… I thought I lost my Sparkler.” 

“Aw… mom… I love you so much right now,” Sparkler said, holding the spoon midair. 

“I love all of my foals so much… each of you. You are my life.” 

“There are mothers… and then there are pegasus mothers,” Bucky said. Reaching out his talons, he touched beneath Derpy’s chin, turned her head, and then gave her more soup. 

“Thistle is getting Sukari sorted out. I don’t know who is going to sort poor Thistle out. She can’t stop crying,” Berry said as she walked into the kitchen. She trotted to Sparkler and Sentinel, kissed Sparkler, then Sentinel, and then sat down. 

With no warning, Sentinel dropped his head into his soup bowl and began to suck it down. In moments, the bowl was empty. Belching, Sentinel felt a little better and a little warmer on the inside. 

“Want more soup?” Bucky asked. 

“No… I want coffee.” Sentinel blinked and his vision was a little clearer. 

A second later, there was the sound of liquid trickling from the direction of the large coffee urn. The scent of coffee flooded the kitchen. It was aromatic, rich, it was everything that Sentinel craved. 

When the mug was sat down in front of him, Sentinel dropped his head, placed his snoot an inch above his cup, and inhaled. More warmth flooded through his body, causing a sensation of pins and needles all over. 

“It was Berry who really got me drinking coffee. She gave me a huge mug of it one day. When we had started dating. I had always been more of a tea drinker up to that point. Something about the thought that she had prepared it for me… with cream and sugar… that she had thought of me… it made it special I think,” Bucky said. He looked down at the table. “Piña climbed into the chair with me and then Dinky did and I don’t know… I felt happy I guess… Derpy took a photo of it… Dinky asked me if I could teach her how to stick stuff to the ceiling… and Derpy… you gave me that look. That look I still get from you sometimes if I do something stupid.” 

“You remember!” Derpy cried. “I think I’m gonna cry...”

“How could I forget? It was the beginning of my family… I started to find myself. I figured out that I didn’t want to be alone after all.” Bucky’s eyes rose and he looked at Sparkler. “Sparkler, thank you so much for shoving your mom out the door.” 

“Yeah, now that I think about it, you owe me,” Sparkler replied. 

“I made you a type three.” 

“Daddy is quick on the draw… I just walked out of the frozen lake because of that.” Sparkler began to giggle. “Okay, we’re even.” 

“I guess I’d better go out there and make sure the lake is safe to skate on. I don’t want any more accidents.” Bucky’s eyes lingered on Sparkler just a little longer, then he looked at Derpy. Leaning over, he kissed her. 

When Bucky pulled away, Derpy said, “I feel warmer. More of that, please.” 
	
> Chapter 601
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pulling Harper into a hug, Sentinel gave her a squeeze as he watched his father gather up stuff from around the library. Papers, books, folders, important things… but none of them seemed as important as what Sentinel was holding. 

“Kiss Harpy… kiss Harpy now.” 

Sentinel did as he was asked, bending down his head and kissing Harper on the cheek, getting a faceful of frizzy orange fluff for his trouble. 

“Father? Must you be going?” 

Still working, stuffing a few books into a saddlebag, Bucky nodded. “I’ve been slacking off since the day of our defeat in the winter games… the day you went through the…” 

There was fear in his father’s voice. Sentinel could hear it. He felt it too, a cold dull ache. 

“Breakfast sissy.” Harper wiggled in Sentinel’s embrace and clapped her front hooves together. “Mama?” 

“Sentinel, look after the house while I am gone. I should only be gone a few hours.” 

A lump in his throat, Sentinel could not reply. He nodded and then wrapped a wing around Harper. She was warm, rather fuzzy, and let off a continual static discharge that Sentinel found pleasant. It was like hugging a leaky thundercloud. 



 

“I dunno about this… this seems… wrong somehow.” Derpy, holding a long handled hairbrush in her fetlock, looked at Berry. 

“Ponies do this all the time. A little bit of light domination never hurt nopony. Come on, pretend I’ve been a bad foal and just give me a spank… it isn’t bad if it is consensual,” Berry said. 

“Rope, spanking, where does it end with you?” Derpy asked. She looked at the hairbrush she was holding. 

Giving Derpy a salacious wink, Berry replied, “It ends with a large puddle of cum in the bed. Or not. Might be just getting started at that point.” 

Turning herself around, Berry hiked up her tail and waggled her hindquarters at Derpy just as Bucky was coming in through the door that led out to the hallway. “Hello, handsome.” 

“I walk in and see one wife presenting to another while the other holds a hairbrush… interesting.” Bucky stood in the door and did not move. 

Shrugging, Derpy gave Berry a swat. 

The perverted earth pony blinked. “That was it? I hardly felt that. What gives?” 

“This feels wrong…” With a sheepish grin, Derpy stared down at the hairbrush she was holding, squinting one eye so she could focus on it better. 

“Just spank me you silly pegasus!” Berry demanded. “Put some pepper on it!” 

Derpy, wincing, raised her foreleg, wound up, and then brought the hairbrush down on Berry’s plot with a thunderous crack, on the crack. She hit her where biology split her. 

Berry’s eyes went wide for a moment, began to glisten, and then one eye narrowed while the other went wide. Then, the narrow eye went wide as the wide eye narrowed. Berry’s lip quivered. Her muzzle wrinkled as it scrunched. One ear gave a little twitch for just a second, and then went still. 

A single tear rolled down Berry’s cheek, made it halfway down her face, and was absorbed into her pelt. 

“Why would ponies do this to one another?” Berry asked in a strained whisper. She let out a pained bleating sound and then took off running, running around and around in a circle. Her tail, hiked up away from her tender burning flesh, swished back and forth as Berry tried to cool off her flaming backside.

“I’M SO SORRY!” Derpy cried as she lept off of the bed and followed after Berry, limping, hobbling, having trouble walking. 

“My foal hole!” Berry was running, her hind legs were bowlegged, and she went in a circle chasing her tail. “You spanked me right on the foal hole!” 

“You told me to spank you!” Derpy cried. 

“Why do ponies do this?” Berry asked, chasing her own backside. 

“Let me kiss it and make it better!” 

“Just stay away! You’ve done enough!” 

Standing in the doorway, Bucky shook his head. 

“Stay away! You’ve committed violence on my vulva!” 

“You told me to!” 

Hissing, sucking air through her gritted teeth, Berry walked with her hips bucking and flexing as she tried to wiggle away from the burning, blinding pain centered on her marehood. 

“Spank me!” Derpy begged.

“No! I could never do this to a friend!” Berry waggled her backside around, trying to cool it off, the flames burned ever brighter as he began to throb back there. Running in circles with Derpy just behind her, Berry Punch let out another bleating cry. 

“Just let me kiss it! A kiss will make everything better!” 

“NO! You’ve done enough! My coont is ruint!” Berry shouted, slipping into a Shetland’s lilt as she kept herself out of Derpy’s reach. 

Bucky marveled at how ‘coont’ and ‘ruint’ rhymed with one another. Coo-ent and roo-ent. Mares were silly creatures. He sighed and decided he would say goodbye to these two later. 



 

Bon Bon smelled of sweetness, of something spicy, and the faint nose tingling scent of sweat. Bucky rubbed his chin along her spine as he pulled up beside her, something he had learned triggered certain instinctual reactions in a mare. It was an ancient greeting, around from a time when ponies had little spoken language if any, and translated into modern language, it meant, “Hello, I am giving you a warning that I am about to mount you. Prepare your body.” 

Sure enough, Bon Bon’s tail hiked up just a little bit, her dock tensing and flexing, a biological reply that translated into, “My body is ready. Give me foals.” 

“How do you feel?” Bucky asked.

“No different.” Bon Bon turned her head towards Bucky and gave him a nuzzle as she stepped backwards to bring his head closer to hers. 

“I wanted to ask… because… you know, communication being so important…” 

“What is it, Bucky?” Bon Bon’s expression softened and she pressed her sides up against Bucky. 

“About us… about our agreement… about how we are now intimate with one another but there is that one thing I won’t do, but we’ll do everything else…” 

“Just spit it out Bucky.” 

“Because of Lyra’s reservations… do you… do you hold yourself away back from swinging both ways because you love her and don’t want her to hurt? I mean… if she knew that you were… um, enjoying having the pony making bone slipped into you, do you worry that it would only hurt Lyra further because of her… issues… I’ve made a mess of this.” 

“I think I understand what you are trying to say.” Bon Bon blinked, her eyes glimmering with raw emotion. She kissed Bucky on the cheek. “Lyra and I do everything together as we try to enjoy life. And yes, this is one thing we can’t do together. If things were different, then yes, you and I might do more than just kiss, fondle, and grope. But yes, I suspect that if you and I worked to wake up any of my lingering bisexual feelings, I think it would destroy Lyra. She would know there is something I wanted that she couldn’t give me.” 

“I wouldn’t want to do that,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “I love Lyra so much. I have trouble expressing it sometimes… I don’t want to sound tribalist, but it is because we are unicorns… and to be honest… I don’t like unicorns. I just don’t. There, I said it. But I like… no… I love Lyra. I guess I don’t like unicorns as a whole but there are those I love as individuals. I don’t know, all of this is really complicated and I haven’t sorted it out yet.” 

“Bucky, Lyra loves you so much that she cries sometimes because she can’t find the words to express it. It confuses her and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. To be honest, I thought this would break Lyra… but she’s been sorting stuff out… she’s shown a lot of strength.” 

“When will we know?” 

“It may take a while Bucky… but I really hope that I have a little part of you inside of me right now. Lyra wants this just as bad as I do. She wants to experience a pregnancy through me.” 

“If not, we’ll try again.” Bucky’s lips brushed up against the corner of Bon Bon’s mouth, lingered, and he stood there for a moment, sharing breath with her, breathing in the same air she was breathing out, and he could feel her ribs pressing up against his own. 



 

“Daddy is leaving.” Piña Colada frowned. 

“I know. He’s said goodbye and told me that he loved me. He also said he’d be back before morning, so he’ll be gone while we are sleeping.” Dinky did not look up from her book. 

“I hate it when daddy leaves.” Piña stomped her hoof. 

Looking up from her book, Dinky twisted her head upwards to look at Piña, who was standing on the ceiling. Piña’s pink mane and tail were hanging down towards the floor. Not a true suspension of gravity, but a sticky hooves spell. “Piña, why are you up there?” 

“Trying to see if I can think better with more blood flowing to my brain,” Piña replied. 

Shrugging, Dinky looked back down at her book. “Piña, I don’t understand all of this hypotenuse nonsense. This geology—” 

“Geometry,” Piña corrected. 

“Ugh, my brain is fried. The worst part is, I know what geology is… I can’t believe I just said that.” Dinky’s head slumped down and she collapsed into her book. “And I think my eyes are going bad because everything is blurry.” 

“You’ve been studying too long.” Piña took a careful step, unsticking one hoof, placing it forward, resticking it, unsticking another, moving it forward, and then the next. It was a complex process that took time. 

Without warning, Piña sneezed. 

Her concentration broken, Piña plummeted to the floor. She closed her eyes and squealed while bracing for impact. There was no impact. No thump. She opened her eye and saw the floor an inch from her head. She felt the warm fuzzy tickle-prickle of magic all around her. 

“Sisters,” Dinky said, her face still pressed down into pages of her book. 

“Stick together,” Piña said, getting her hooves on the ground. 



 

Once more, Bucky entered the bedroom. Once more, he stood in the door. Something wasn’t right. Berry Punch was hogtied on the bed, laying on her back, her hooves all tied tight together. A black silk blindfold was over Berry Punch’s eyes. 

“I’m so scared,” Derpy said.

The grey mare was holding a candle in her hooves. 

“Look, from what I read in the really trashy romance novels, this is erotic and ponies like doing it,” Berry said in a reassuring voice. 

“You said that about spanking.” Derpy shook her head. “Why can’t we just lick one another until we get off?” 

“Because you are my best friend and I almost lost you and I want to try new things with you while we’re both still young enough to regret it later.” Berry Punch wiggled around. “Now… the book about wax play said to use paraffin wax candles but these beeswax candles should be just fine. Candles are candles.” 

Derpy snorted, sighed, and whinnied, sort of all at once, more of a snorswhinny. 

“Now… I am a bad little milkmare and you have ways of making me behave.” 

Bucky raised his eyebrow. 

Derpy cleared her throat. “You are a bad little milkmare! You gave me no milk! Now it is time to punish you for being a bad little milkmare.” 

“Noooo!”

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll stop!” Derpy looked panicked. 

“No… I was roleplaying… you’re still supposed to dribble wax on me…” 

“This is confusing.” Derpy closed her eyes and shook her head. One eye, her good eye opened and she stared at the flame of the candle. “No should mean no. This is how bad things happen to ponies.” 

“Stop being a buzzkill… I’m a bad little milkmare and now you, the dominant pegasus, are going to put me, the submissive and meek earth pony, in my place.” Berry Punch’s voice as a sultry growl. 

Bucky could think of a few ways to put the submissive and meek earth pony in her place. 

Cringing, Derpy placed the candle about six inches away from Berry’s side, tilted it, and allowed some wax to dribble on Berry’s ribs. 

“YeeeeeeeOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUCH!” 

“Oh noes I did it again! I just don’t know what went wrong!” Derpy blew the candle out. 

“OH IT BURNS! HOT HOT HOT! WHY WOULD PONIES DO THIS TO ONE ANOTHER?” Berry Punch thrashed against her bonds, her legs kicking. “GET IT OFF! TOO HOT, GET IT OFF! I CAN FEEL IT BOILING!” 

Derpy, panicked, almost crying, pulled away and looked at Bucky with a pleading look in her eye. “Help!” 

Lunging forward, Bucky sucked the heat out of the blob of hot wax, cooled it, and then with a yank of his telekinesis, peeled it away from Berry’s ribs. 

There was tearing-ripping sound. 

“UUUUUUUUUUUUGH!” Berry rolled around, trying to wiggle away from the ponies that would do her harm in her tied up state. Blinded, hogtied, and afraid, she got too close to the edge of the bed and fell off, landing on the floor with a thump. 

Bucky was too stupefied to even respond. He was still holding a blob of wax with an enormous clump of Berry’s pelt stuck to it. 

“I feel bad for giving Berry Punch what she wants,” Derpy said. 

“Would somepony please untie me?” Berry asked. “I think I’m done with bondage for a while. I’m having second thoughts.” 

“What was I just a part of?” Bucky looked at the blob of wax and plum coloured hairs. “Did I… did I just commit mare abuse? I don’t think I can live with myself… I am going to go turn myself into Sparkler now…” 
	
	
> Chapter 602
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hidden Hollow Fortress, while still a work in progress, was now a far more comfortable place. Much of it had been finished. It was an amazing place, but promised to become wondrous in time. Trotting through the halls, Bucky went looking for Luna, knowing she would be here. 

Or at least, she should be here. If something had gone wrong, she might not be. 

Approaching the labs, Bucky came around the corner and almost bumped into Luna herself. Smiling, he looked up at her and then he nosed the shawl she had tied around her. There was a giggle from Erebus. 

“I do hope everything is well,” Luna said. 

Bucky nodded. 

Gesturing at one of the doors, Luna took on a fierce proud look. “Twilight’s personal lab. She is about to change the world yet again. Working on a new type of magical battery. Arcano tech. I do not understand the complexities, but it draws upon a trickle charge from the ley lines. The magic causes the chemicals inside of the battery to vibrate. The vibration produces electricity. Provided that the low power draw never exceeds the battery’s output, it never runs out of energy.” 

“Impressive,” Bucky said, looking at the door. “I hope Twilight is enjoying her trip.” 

“I hope so as well. My sister was looking forward to spending time with Twilight, her friends, and their families.” Luna began to walk down the hall and gestured for Bucky to follow her. “Any new projects from you?” 

“In the planning stage for a beer that cleans up its own vomit puddles,” Bucky replied. 

“Amusing.” Luna’s voice was dry, but there was a hint of laughter lurking in there somewhere. “Come on Bucky… give me something better. I expect great things from you as my apprentice. Celestia and Twilight keep showing us up.” 

“I have been playing with sand in my office—” 

“How droll… my apprentice plays with sand while my sister’s apprentice changes the future of energy creation as we know it.” 

“Luna, let me finish… I have been playing with sand… and by accident I had an idea and I’ve been following up on it. I don’t know if it is practical, but I have made a little toy wooden ship sail over sand as it was water. Still working out the issues, but it skims over the sand in the same way a ship sails through water.” 

Turning her head, twisting her long slender neck, Luna looked back at Bucky. “Well, that is… interesting, I will give you that. Could be dispelled and that would be a problem, but there is potential there for moving goods through the deserts.” Luna’s hooves clicked upon the floor as she strode down the hallway. 

“And just like in the water, if the ship collides with rocks, there is a problem.” Bucky’s gait had an odd staccato rhythm as he trotted after Luna; three hoof strikes and one metallic clank. “Any word on… the um… the Heartstrings file?” 

“Revenge is a dangerous path Buckminster…” 



 

The crystals glowed with a strange black light. Crystal, glass, they were so similar, Bucky found that working with both was easy. Dozens of spider golems were weaving webs of shadow infused phased glass, weaving a fine mesh into the massive crystal spires. 

The room stank with magical energy of different kinds. 

“Twilight was able to collect a small sample of raw chaos magic from Discord and Fluttershy. Her hunch was correct. The chaos magic actually brought stability to the system and smoothed out the random fluctuations that were causing so much trouble. The harmony magic, the dark magic, and the shadow magic were not meshing well. Twilight’s hunches are most invaluable.” 

Bucky did not respond to Luna, but kept working, burning a series of glyphs on a platform that was in the center of the crystal spires that glowed with black light. 

“Do you approve of Ripple’s desire to change?” Luna asked. 

“No.” Bucky did not raise his head or become distracted from his work. 

“But you will allow her to be altered?” Luna lifted up a massive support strut and fitted it into place. Wires and conduits were secured to the support strut and bolts moved to anchor everything. 

“Ripple’s choice. I am her father, but this is Ripple’s body, and therefore, her rules. My desires and what I want end where her body begins.” The glyphs were magical perfection. Not one flaw manifested as they were burned into place. A bead of sweat ran down Bucky’s neck. 

“Most fathers would not take such an enlightened attitude.” More pieces were bolted to the support strut. 

“I love Ripple. As far as I am concerned, she is my own flesh and blood.” Bucky drew in a deep breath, ignored the tickle of sweat dripping down his neck, and mentally directed some of the spider golems to began going over Luna’s work. “A father has certain obligations to his daughter, but he needs to remember, a daughter’s body is her own. He has the right to protect, to instruct, to defend, and to care for her, but ultimately, her decisions are her own.” 

After a few minutes, Bucky lifted his head from his task, blinked a few times, and looked at Luna. “So… about our first batch of Shadowbolts…” 

Levitating a gargantuan power conduit, Luna began tucking it into the groove along the ceiling.  “Some of them are here. Now. They have undergone the geas and are being conditioned while dreaming. Some were bad… some were good… none of that matters now. All of them are mine and I need both good and bad ponies.” Luna looked thoughtful for a moment. “And other creatures I suppose. Some of them are not ponies.” 

“I have read a little, but the files were… sparse.” Bucky levitated an orb filled with crackling purple-black lightning out of a wooden crate lined with protective padding. He moved it through the room and placed it on an ornate brass stand. Arcs of energy began to flow from the orb and connect to small spires of blue crystal around the brass stand. The blue crystals began to glow. 

As the blue crystals pulsated, they grew. It was only a tiny bit of growth, something that would only be seen by the most observant of souls. 

“That looks interesting.” 

“Shining Armor!” Luna’s voice was ecstatic. “Nephew… how have you been? What made you drop in?” 

Shining Armor, his face stern and serious, looked up at Luna. “I have been having a lot of troubles with ice wights.” 

“That is a problem.” Luna’s voice was now cold. 

“He is getting stronger.” Shining Armor looked at Bucky. “Princess Celestia’s charm will only hold for so long. Sombra’s fell shadow is now becoming a threat to Empress Cadance’s Empire. Something must be done… and soon.” 

“Wait, refresh my memory… what’s an ice wight?” Bucky asked. 

“A powerful variant of undead. A reanimated corpse that radiates freezing cold and has an insatiable hunger for warmth and warm flesh,” Shining Armor replied. 

“And you think Sombra’s shadow is reanimating these?” Bucky asked. 

“I know Sombra’s fell shadow is animating these,” Shining Armor replied. The white unicorn shook his head and his blue mane tumbled along his neck. “He is sending them to attack the Crystal Empire. I am dealing with them, but I fear that Sombra’s shadow is testing my defenses, probing what I am capable of, and trying to find weakness.” 

“Where is he getting the bodies?” Bucky asked. 

Shining Armor’s nostrils flared. “The damnable cultists keep heading north. Some of them go out into the freezing wastes and die. They worship him… they want to bring him back… and they are willing to give their lives to him. He grows stronger by the day. They foolishly believe that the fallen king will share his power with them if they help to resurrect him. These… imbeciles believe that Sombra will give them positions of wealth and power for their assistance… others believe that Sombra’s shadow will restore unicorns back to their rightful glory. All of them are fools!” 

“This is bad…” Luna looked troubled. 

Shining Armor smiled, a sarcastic false smile. “Oh, there is some good in all of this.” 

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “What good could possibly come out of this?” 

“The cultists are fighting with the mirror travelers. They have become aware of the mirror traveler’s desire to kill Bucky. The cultists need Bucky… Bucky has the body that Sombra’s shadow needs if it is to revive. The rotocopter golems that Bucky has given me to use as my eyes in far away places have brought back reports of fighting in the lands south of Saddle Arabia and beyond.” 

Bucky, hearing all of this, began laughing, dark, disturbing, troubling laughter that echoed through the chamber. 

“There was also a half baked plot to have assassins come north and kill Twilight. Using Bucky’s golems, I was able to put down the conspirators. They were in a little pegasi village about halfway between Mustangia and Saddle Arabia.” 

The maniacal laughter stopped. “If they threaten Twilight again, and you know of it, inform me at once. I’ll go kill them myself.” Bucky’s eyelid twitched. 

“Calm yourself. The equipment in here is sensitive and the cold would damage it,” Luna said, looking over at Bucky, her teal eyes glittering with internal rage. “Shining Armor, thank you for keeping your eyes and your ears open.” 

“You have an obligation to look after Cadance. I had the means, I dealt with them.” Shining Armor’s face was hard and impassive, almost statuesque. “One day I will not need golems to project myself that far away. I grow weary of this constant threat. I would burn them all away if I had the power and the reach.”

“Shining Armor… your purpose is to be a defender. A protector. Not a machine of war. Do nothing to buck against your purpose.” Luna took a step towards Shining Armor and looked him in the eyes. 

“Yes, sorry Princess Luna,” Shining Armor replied as he bowed his head. “I… I forgot my purpose for a moment. I still love my sister a great deal and I would do anything for her safety.”

“You are still capable of independent thought and emotion. Interesting.” Luna’s mouth pressed into a tiny puckered line. 

Refocusing upon task, Bucky went back to work. He lifted up a large disc of metal and set it down into a circle bored into the stone floor. In the circle there were holes sunk down into the earth, and in the holes strange crystals lurked. With a thump, the metal disc covered everything below it, concealing it away. 

Bucky began inscribing glyphs upon the disc, protective arresting glyphs that would halt magical surges should they happen. As he did this, a coil of crystalline fibre cable began to glow. This was the overflow channel and should there be a surge, it would travel through the crystalline fibre cable and into a storage capacitor crystal. 

The capacitor crystal still needed to be installed.

“Princess Luna?” 

“Yes? What is it, nephew?” 

“The veins of harmonic crystal grow a little more each day. I do not know when I will reach Canterlot and Ponyville, but the roots of the Crystal Empire move though the earth. I burrow towards our other cities as well. Soon I will be able to raise defensive barriers over everything held dear to us.” Shining Armor’s face softened a little. 

“We have lifetimes available to us to finish our work. Do not feel pressured, Shining Armor. One day, you will look back, and all of this current fret and worry about this effort of yours taking years, you will look back and this will feel like minutes.” Luna smiled. 

“I suppose you would know.” Shining Armor watched Bucky work. “Time is funny now. Already I can feel it slipping away from me.” 

“A little help here might be nice… because I don’t have lifetimes. And we’re trying to have this done on schedule. And I have a family at home that I want to be with, foals to play with, and my time is limited. So stop flapping your gums, both of you, and get to work rather than just standing here.” Bucky snorted to punctuate his point. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 603
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So… tell me Scorch… what do you know about the black market down in Tartarus?” 

Standing in the pale grey of the freezing dawn, Bucky looked at the fire elemental, whom he had caught before Scorch had reached the foundry for the day to light the furnaces. 

Scorch, an amorphous bipedal shape, folded his arms over his chest. “Now why would a nice pony like you know about the black market?” 

Bucky thought of his dream with draconequus Twilight Sparkle and himself. She had mentioned it. Bucky did not mention this to Scorch. “I thought it was common knowledge… I’ve trafficked with demons. Anyway, I need to get there. And that’s kind of a problem. Think you could help me for all of the good I’ve done?” 

Shifting, blazing brightly, Scorch became a massive earth pony. “I guess you have some business to look after. When you need to get home, say my name.” 

There was a poof and a flash of fire, and then Bucky found himself in a very different sort of place. 



 

“Damned souls for sale… we have damned souls! Get them while they’re hot!” 

“Fresh arrivals in need of punishment! Get them while you can! The freshest of fresh arrivals, you will find none fresher! These arrivals don’t know the pain of the lash or the meaning of fear… and you can be the first to teach them!” 

This was a very different sort of place indeed. 

“Irredeemables! We have irredeemables! Few in number, high in value! Get your eternal slaves to torment for all eternity!” 

The black market was filled with all types of beings… but not the mortal sort of beings. Bucky looked at a bored looking demon sitting in a small wooden stall. The demon looked like some kind of ape, mixed with a warthog, a bear, a lion, and a termite. 

“Say, I’m looking for a place where I might find some information…” 

The demon, who looked eternally bored, yawned and then looked at Bucky. 

“I need information… like… finding out who did something so I can find them.” 

“Lord of Winter, what are you doing here in the black market? While the rules here are very strict, most of the crowd here are your sworn enemies. Are you stupid or something?” 

Bucky blinked. “Well, yes… actually I am.” 

The demon sighed; it was the sound of ten thousand years of ennui escaping his body. 

“I need some info… give me what I want or I start breaking the rules.” 

The demon now looked alarmed, his sense of boredom gone. 

“You know who I am… I’m colder than a windigo’s arsehole… I’ll make this place freeze over… just try me.” 

“Now now, there is no need to make threats, we are all businessdemons here. You want to talk to a demon named Eustace. Keep in mind, he is not actually evil, nor is he good. He’s just trying to do his job, just like most of us. He is inside the big building that looks like a burning titan laying on her back, the door to his office is right in the crack of her cunt.” 

Bucky bowed his head. “Thank you. Now, what’s a titan?” 



 

Not bothering to knock, Bucky opened the door and stepped through the forty foot tall cunt crack. There was one very vaginal looking hallway, pinkish, and Bucky felt a bit like a dick as he entered, perhaps for how he had treated the demon earlier. 

Just inside the door, there was an imp picking away at one of his seven nostrils with one gnarled and hooked finger. 

“YOU!” the imp cried. It jumped down from the bench by the door and its feet let out a flatulent squish. “You sonovabitch!” 

“What did I do?” Bucky asked. 

“You flooded us with incoming souls! Minotaurs mostly. So many souls came down at once that the stock market crashed. Cow futures went out the feckin’ window!” 

“Bullshit,” Bucky replied. “I ain’t taking the rap for that. I had help.” 

“You sonovabitch!” 

“That’s Mister Sonovabitch, you little cumstain…” 

“Hmm, maybe, I have met your mother.” The imp looked up at Bucky. “May I please have your autograph?” From out of nowhere, the imp produced a small ledger and a pen. He held them out to Bucky. 

Confused, Bucky looked at the pen and the book. “If you try to trick me into signing away something, I will be the death of you.” 

“I am a junior demonscout. I am trying to get my merit badge for honesty. Scout’s honour, no trickery. I am actually a big fan…. puhweeeze?” 

“Get lost kid… I ain’t giving you nothing until I get something or some kind of sane assurance that you’re not trying to trick me. So feck off, you little cumstain.” 

“You’re not very nice.” The imp now had a pouty expression. Four of its eyes blinked while the other five stayed open. 

“I need to talk to Eustace.” Reaching out with his magic, Bucky lifted the imp into the air, holding him up at eye level. “How about I burn my name into whatever passes as your soul?” 

“You’re scarier than a penile varicose vein…” 

“You have no idea… are you gonna talk, or am I going to have to use my imagination to sort you out?” Bucky asked. 

“Please, there is no need to mangle my errand boy. He’s really quite harmless. Do have some measure of courtesy.” 

A tall demon strode forward. From the waist up, it was a minotaur. From the waist down, it  was a giant spider. Eight legs propelled him forwards. 

“My name is Eustace and I am one of the Bureaucratic Overlords of the Abyss. Why are you here, Lord of Winter?” 

“I need information. One of my wives… a mare I love a great deal, had a run in with some rough types. Rapists. Cultists. Demon worshippers. World ender types. I need to find them.” 

“And then, I suspect, that you are going to enact some horrible revenge?” Eustace extended his arm and began to study his fingernails. “How do you expect to pay for this information? 

“Well, considering I am about to kill a whole bunch of deserving types, I give you their souls directly. Straight from the source. Just like milk from a teat.” Bucky smiled. 

Eustace looked up from his perfect fingernails and narrowed his eyes at Bucky. “Those are some juicy souls… souls most deserving of punishment… souls untouched and fresh… I could live out my harsh headmaster fantasy with those souls… I’d have a whole classroom to molest.” 

“It’s not my place to judge,” Bucky said as he took a step back. “We’re all entitled to our own kinks. But you ever come up aboveground and molest anything young and innocent… I will find some means of destroying you.” 

“Trust me, Lord of Winter, my dicks only get hard for those deserving of the worst punishment. Innocence causes me to go flaccid.” Eustace shuddered with disgust. 

“Then we can work out a deal. You tell me what I need to know, point me in the right direction, and I will fill up your personal, private classroom with the blackest of souls in need of a good buggering. Very simple, we both get what we want and we walk away from this, each of us smugly thinking that we managed to cheat the other by getting a better deal.” Bucky’s talons began to drum upon the floor and he set the imp down. 

The imp scurried off, his flatulent feet squishing with each step. 

“You, Lord of Winter, are practically a demon. You know, you could become one. You’re not far off. Your soul has been stained so very black. We don’t punish the worst of souls when they come here… we welcome them as one of our own.” 

“I’m flattered. How about we just stick to our deal for right now?” Bucky raised an eyebrow as he spoke. 

“I am feeling generous… and rather randy. Since I am in the mood to shake off this dry spell, I will teleport you to their location… so you can… harvest them. Scare them… please, trust me when I say, a soul that dies in fear is so much better than a soul that just dies… so… for the sake of my flaccid dicks… please, scare them to death?” 

“Deal.” Bucky grinned. 

“Wonderful. I am so glad that we could reach an agreement. It is a pleasure doing with you, Lord of Winter…” 



 

Bucky appeared next to one very surprised unicorn who was eating a bowl of cornflakes. It was not the sort of thing that Bucky would expect a cultist to eat, but here he was, here was the cultist, and there was the bowl of cornflakes. 

Reaching out, Bucky grabbed the cultist by the snoot with his telekinesis, got a good grip, and peeled the cultist’s face off with a swift ripping motion. It was like peeling an orange. 

“Remember Lyra?” Bucky bellowed. 

There was no point in stealth. Bucky wanted them to know that he was here. He looked the screaming cultist in the eye; the cultist had no eyelids to blink with. 

It was possible to kill a pony with fear. Forcing his essence into this pony’s mind, Bucky dug deep into his brain, looking for nightmares, looking for what made this pony afraid. It was like a thirsty pony walking through a desert. When Bucky found this pony’s fear, he drank deep. 

The cultist’s pelt faded, becoming grey, his cutie mark, a paintbrush, went dull. The colour drained from his eyes as he watched the horror unfold in front of eyes that could no longer blink. 

It took several minutes before his heart stopped and then his head dropped down into his bowl of cornflakes, splashing milk and cereal everywhere. 

Darkness descended upon the cultist’s lair. 



 

The world enders were nihilists, believing that the end of the world was inevitable. They were also hedonists, believing that they should enjoy every carnal pleasure available before they die. They also believed in moral ambiguity, that there was no right or wrong, only what felt good. 

And so it was, with irony, that Bucky moved among them, doing what felt good, and ending their world. Screams filled the compound, low moans, and shadow moved from room to room, spreading like a cancer among their ranks. Tentacles came out of dimensional rifts. Ponies melted and turned into puddles as others were forced to watch. 

Those watching were forced to drink the liquified bodies of their former companions; after being force fed a what-used-to-be-a-pony slurry, they too would began to melt, being dissolved from the inside a little at a time. 

It was the very worst of dark magic and they were powerless to stop it. Dark magic born of such rage and pain was irresistible, unstoppable, there was no defense. 

No amount of necromancy could save them. 

Indeed, it seemed that the demons were ignoring their pleas for powerful magic. 



 

As Bucky began to move deeper into the heart of the infection, he felt something powerful; something threatening. There was something here, something dangerous, something that felt very wrong. 

Had Bucky been in a somewhat more sane state of mind, he would have known this foe was beyond him. But Bucky was no longer in a sane state of mind. He cackled, laughing maniacally as he brought ruin to those that had brought harm to Lyra. His Lyra. 

All of Bucky’s worst traits were manifested now and his possessive nature was in full control. No one and no thing took what was his. 

Now a beast made of darkness and shadow, Bucky moved through the halls, floating, his mouth open to an impossible width and filled with far too many teeth, consumed by rage and hatred. 

His enemies died of fright from just looking at him. 

Bucky reveled in his power. No more weakness… no more feeling helpless… no more sitting back as bad things happened in the world and then no one suffered punishment for doing them. 

And then, something rose out of the depths to challenge him…



 

The looming horror was a creature made out of disgusting, putrid rolls of flesh, covered in hundreds of blinking red and yellow eyeballs, some of which protruded on eyestalks. One long tentacle dangled down. 

The abyssal creature was the blackest sort of thing one could could conjure from Tartarus. It floated, not bound by gravity, and with a single blast, it put an end to Bucky’s rampage. 

Bucky, stunned, fell to the floor, now in body, paralysed, unable to move. There was no magic available to him, only a feeling of numb deadness. He watched in horror as the abyssal horror loomed over him. He felt himself being rolled over onto his back. 

He watched the tentacle whip outwards, and then, only then, did Bucky realise what had happened to Lyra, what had impaled her. Powerless, unable to stop what was about to happen, Bucky was forced to watch, just as he had forced others to watch. His eyelids failed to work. 

The tentacle would skewer him just as it had done to Lyra. A cold terrifying sanity crept back into Bucky’s brain as he began to realise that he was going to live through this. 

Digging deep, Bucky dove into his sense of will, trying to force his body to move. The cold, slimy tentacle flopped over his belly; it was like being touched by a jellyfish. Agonising pain flared through Bucky’s guts, through his groin, and he felt the tentacle sliding over his belly, down near his balls, and he knew it would go lower, down to his clenched pucker. 

There was no stopping this. 

Afraid, now the one to feel terror, Bucky dredged down into the deepest magic he had, the part of himself he was always afraid to tap into. The tentacle slithered over his balls, wrapping around them, and Bucky felt pressure as it began to squeeze. 

“NO!” 

Bucky’s horn flared to life, he felt magic returning. A beam of energy arced out, striking the abyssal creature. It let out a gurgling cry of pain. Bucky felt new strength in his body. The weakness in his legs melted away. Magic rushed through him. Power… sweet power. 

He felt light headed. 

Bucky got to his hooves, snarled, and with a thunderous crack, his wings unfurled. Wide, broad wings, powerful beyond measure, the feathers matched his tan pelt and had black tips. 

With a flick of his new power, Bucky reduced the creature to ash. 

Throwing back his head, he began to cackle, the madness returning. 

And then, Bucky realised, he had wings. Wings that he never wanted. Halfway between madness and sanity, Bucky let out a wail of anguish as he realised what he had just done. He felt a tugging on his body… a painful jerking. Something summoned him and he could not deny the call. With a flash of blackness, Bucky vanished. 



 

Tartarus. Somehow, Bucky could sense it. He saw a pale pony with a wilted petunia cutie mark. Beside him, three alicorns stood, all of them bearing a ball of twine upon their hips. It was black all around, and only the four figures were visible. 

The pale pony lifted his hoof and pointed. 

Turning his head, Bucky looked and saw a small grey cradle. He felt compelled to walk towards it. His legs betrayed him and he felt himself moving, very much against his will, his wings fluttered at his sides. He knew what he would find in the cradle. 

There was a gibbering whimper from the now ascended alicorn of war. 

Bucky tried everything he could to stop himself from moving forward. One leg moved in front of the other. He no longer had talons, but now four hooves. His body was perfect. 

Except for the legs that betrayed him. 

Unable to breathe, Bucky peered into the cradle. He saw a flash of pink. Something that Bucky loved so very much was in the cradle, now sleeping, and would never wake up. 

“No…” 

Cadance, on her back with her forelegs folded over her barrel, lay still. She did not move. Her eyes were closed and would never open them again. Her wings were limp and had fallen away from her sides. 

“Look what you did,” the Fates said together in one voice. 

Turning, Bucky looked at them, but no words came out.

The pale pony turned away in disgust. 

“You killed me…” 

Bucky looked down in the cradle. Cadance’s eyes were open. 

“You killed me… you ascended… not even to fulfill your purpose, but for revenge!” 

“I’m sorry, I—” 

“You killed me!” Cadance screeched. 

“It was an accident… I lost control… I was in danger and I—” 

“I HATE YOU!” 

It was a terrible thing being told that you were hated by the now departed alicorn of love. 

Moving in an most unnatural way, Cadance began to crawl out of her crib. Her body jerked and spasmed. Her eyes bulged as she crept forth. Hissing, she advanced on Bucky. Feathers dropped from her wings, landing on the ground, beautiful graceful feathers fell like snowflakes. 

One of Cadance’s eyes fell out of her head as it wobbled on the end of her neck. It hit the floor with a wet -plop- and rolled away, trailing slime. 

Maggots poured out of Cadance’s eyehole. 

As Bucky watched, Cadance was covered in crawling maggots, which began to devour her flesh. She screeched and squealed; there was nothing he could do. In no time at all, her flesh was gone, all that was left was a pitiful looking pile of bones. 

“You are free to go.” The voices of the Fates were one. “Bring about the end of all things.” 

“No… no… I made a mistake…” 

Reaching out with his telekinesis, Bucky grabbed his own wings… and began tearing them off. The pain caused him to begin to giggle like a madpony. Ripping, pulling, tearing, he tore them off, snapping tendons, rending flesh, peeling them away a little at a time. 

“It wasn’t worth it… it wasn’t worth losing her!” 

With a yank, one wing was torn free, and with a wet rip, the other was severed. Bucky tossed them down the ground. 

Already, new wings were growing. 

The sounds of hooves were heard in the darkness. The darkness parted, like a curtain, and a tall regal figure stepped forward. She was terrible and beautiful, her eyes were full of fury. 

“My beloved pupil, remember all of this, ” Princess Luna said as she approached Bucky. 

Falling down, bowing, scraping, laying on his belly, Bucky gasped, unable to reply. 

“I tried to warn you… when I appeared to you as Eustace, I hinted that what you were doing would lead you to a terrible end and where this would take you.” 

Unable to move, Bucky closed his eyes and felt his wings growing back. 

“You, Lord of Winter, are practically a demon. You know, you could become one. You’re not far off. Your soul has been stained so very black. We don’t punish the worst of souls when they come here… we welcome them as one of our own.” Luna spoke once more in Eustace’s voice, looking down at Bucky, her eyes filled with a seething fury. 

“Give me Cadance back… I’ll do anything,” Bucky begged, finding his voice. 



 

Sweating, shivering, whimpering, Bucky reached out and grasped the warm body beside him. Around him was movement, others were waking up. He had grabbed Lyra, he could tell by the smell. He pressed his face into her neck and inhaled, glad to be holding her. 

“Bucky, you okay?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Another nightmare?” Thistle’s voice was soft in the darkness. 

Rolling over, Derpy wrapped herself around both Bucky and Lyra, pulling them both to her. She began to nuzzle Bucky’s neck with her cheek. 

In the darkness, surrounded by those he loved, Bucky wept. 
	
	
> Chapter 604
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“He’s sleeping… peacefully.” Berry Punch closed the door behind her and stepped out into the hall. Standing there, she rubbed her left front leg with her right front hoof. 

“Something wrong?” Thistle asked. 

“Cadance bit me when I tried to pull her away. Just a nip to let me know that she wasn’t in the mood to be messed with. She can stay hungry for a while,” Berry replied as she began to move away from the door. “I guess Derpy will wake up if her diaper sense goes off.” 

Following after Berry, Thistle brushed up against Berry’s side as they went down the hall together. “I’m scared.” 

“Why are you scared?” Berry bumped up against Thistle again in an intentional sort of way. “You scared for Bucky?” 

“No… the doctor visit today. I just get so nervous.” Thistle, glad for Berry’s touch, matched pace with Berry, hoping for another reassuring bump. 

“Who is gonna take ya?” Berry asked. 

“Rising Star offered to pull the sleigh. He wants to see his parents and his little brother and his little sister.” 

“Well, I’ll come with you. No need to be scared now.” Berry grinned and gave the kelpie beside her another bump. 



 

“Greetings class… so glad to see you once again,” Stargarden said to her students. She paced in front of the blackboard, moving the width of the room, back and forth in a slow, steady gait. “Some of you didn’t do your homework… I can sense your fear, your anxiety over not doing it. When will you learn that you can’t hide these things from me?” 

Still pacing, the unicorn giggled at her class. 

“So… who can tell me what we are going to talk about today?” Stargarden asked. She looked at her class and saw no hooves raised. “Now now, I am not guarding my thoughts particularly well… somepony try to discern what I am projecting.” 

Still no hooves raised. 

“Well, I suppose you will get better in time.” Stargarden stopped pacing and stood near the lecture podium. “Tell me, have any of you ever heard stories of the Hag?” 

“Isn’t a hag a witch?” Larch asked. 

“Not just any hag, the Hag,” Stargarden replied. She took a deep breath. “A long time ago, a very long time ago, thousands of years ago, there was an earth pony. From what little we know about her, modern researchers have determined that she was a powerful psychic. She could leap into and control the minds of others. She made others do her bidding, follow her whims, and she became quite powerful and wealthy.” 

The class watched their teacher with rapt attention. 

“When she started to show signs of getting old, she did something with her talent that no other psychic has done since. She lept out of her body completely and took over the body of a unicorn, a unicorn by the name of King Borealis. Nopony knew that she had done this however. Now, King Borealis was a powerful wizard and a good king. Ponies began to get suspicious when he began acting strangely and his magic seemed… a little off. The Hag, being an earth pony, did not know how to use unicorn magic.” 

“So she messed up and revealed herself,” Rainy Feather said. 

“Yes!” Stargarden raised her hoof and pointed at the pegasus filly while smiling. “Ponies began suspecting something was wrong. She had to put the whole kingdom under a mental spell to keep them in line, but other kingdoms also began to notice. A few very powerful wizards went to investigate… a battle broke out and it was revealed that King Borealis was actually the Hag. All of this was well documented, so we know a lot about it. The wizards drove the Hag out of King Borealis’ body… but alas, in doing so, they killed him. With nothing left inside of the body after the Hag left, it lingered for a few days and then the good king expired. She had completely killed off what he was when she had jumped into his flesh and bones.” 

“That’s kinda scary,” Piña said. 

“Even more scary when you realise this is only the beginning of this tale, Piña,” Larch said. 

The pink earth pony filly blushed and turned a little pinker at the sound of Larch’s voice. 

Stargarden looked at Piña and a sweet smile split her muzzle, this time a smile with teeth. “The Hag survived. They don’t know how, or who she jumped into, but she survived. They presumed she was dead though and the wizards all wrote very careful notes about this strange magic they had encountered.”

“So… I’m guessing she revealed herself again?” Rainy asked. The little pegasus filly was trembling, shivering in her seat, her wings wrapped around her. 

“Yes she did. Once more, she was discovered in the body of another unicorn, this time almost fifty years later. She was discovered by accident, by a group of wizards that sensed that something was wrong. This time, she did battle, and she slew the unicorns that had discovered her. The Hag had mastered magic, or at least understood it enough to be dangerous.” 

“So they knew that she was still alive.” Larch leaned forward over his desk, eager to hear more. 

“The Hag had to flee. She became hunted. For years, she was never found. Almost twenty five years later, she was found again, this time in the body of a pegasus. She had traveled a long ways from home and was still hunted by those who vowed to end her evil.” Stargarden shook her head. “The wizards were wise to her ways. The Hag was wise to the ways of the wizards.” 

“So she knew that she had to keep jumping from body to body, and to never stop running,” Dinky said, rubbing her head as she gave thought to the dilemma. 

“Yes, but so much more than that. The Hag was gathering lifetimes of experience and magical knowledge. She kept jumping around, leaning all there was to know, she became a living library of knowledge… instead of a few wizards hunting her down, it soon became whole armies. Eventually, a pegasus named Meadow Thatch began to hunt the Hag. We have records about Meadow Thatch. She had strange and powerful magic that the unicorns of that era did not understand. Meadow Thatch was even believed to be the Hag, but she cooperated and did everything her captors asked of her. Eventually, she joined the Hag hunt.” 

“Whatever happened to Meadow Thatch? The Hag lived… was Meadow Thatch okay?” Rainy Feather’s voice was a worried squeak. 

“Meadow Thatch battled the Hag along with a group of wizards. She weakened the Hag, they battled wills against one another… and the wizards slew the Hag’s body. It was believed that the Hag was gone, Meadow did not sense the Hag jumping into another body.” 

“But what happened to Meadow?” Rainy Feather asked. 

“Meadow, now a hero, was well loved. She became Queen Stary Eyes’ advisor.” Stargarden moved away from the podium and began to pace again. “Near the end of Meadow Thatch’s life, it was revealed that the Hag still lived.” 

“So she’s unstoppable,” Piña said, shaking her head. 

“Seems that way. Eventually, she vanished. Nopony has seen nor heard of her for almost a thousand years or more. Some say she is dead… others believe she is better at hiding.” Stargarden stared at her students. “Some say she became a school teacher… and she travels the world, looking for promising students, finding them and vanquishing them before they become a threat to her!” 

Every filly in the class squealed in terror. 

And so did one colt. 

“All of you are so adorable… I’m sorry… I couldn’t help myself. That is what you get for not finishing your homework. Look, I am sorry… all of you may be dismissed early. Go and calm down.” Stargarden gestured towards the door. 



 

Beside Sentinel, a filly sat, and her head began to bob, her eyes half closed. Reaching over with his wing, Sentinel got ahold of a small flap of skin on her ribs and pinched it between his thumb and his central wing knuckle. 

There was a pained yelp and Cloudstreaker was now wide awake. She looked around the meeting hall and then covered her mouth with her hooves. “Sorry… so sorry!” 

There would be no sleeping during important functions like city council meetings or town planning meetings, Sentinel would make certain of that. He watched the filly out of the corner of his eye, waiting for any signs of drowsiness. 

“...Twilight Sparkle picked a terrible time to go on vacation… how are we going to sort this out? I mean, we’re almost deadlocked…”

Cloudstreaker picked up her notebook and her pencil. Using her mouth, she began to take notes and trying to listen to what was being said. 

“...well if you can’t reach a consensus, I could go get my boss, Buckminster—” 

“Oh no! That is entirely unnecessary! Ok ponies, we need to pull together! Should the telegraph office be a private enterprise, a government venture… or… maybe… maybe we should have both?” 

Both? Sentinel shook his head. That sounded stupid. But if it could get the council to agree upon something…

Cloudstreaker’s pencil scratched out letters.  

“... there could be some advantages to both… ponies would have a choice. The private venture would have to compete with the government venture, which would be cheaper. So the private company would have to offer more to compensate. Might be good for the consumers…” 

Sentinel rolled his eyes. Ponies didn’t need choice. They needed practicality. When something served a function, there was no need to make it redundant. He shook his head. 

“Without competition of some sort, innovation stagnates.” Violet Velvet’s voice carried through the room. 

Sentinel reconsidered his stance. That was something he had not considered. Could the telegraph even be improved? Sentinel did not like the telegraph, but understood the necessity. It was cold, unfeeling, messages should be sent by courier, like a helpful pegasus or a griffon. 

“...the private venture will soon become too expensive for the common pony and it will create class division! Rich ponies will use it so they can look down their muzzles at the poor…” 

“...using the government office will bear stigma, shame… ponies will be too ashamed to go in there and take care of business, so it will languish…” 

“...it will just suck up money from the city’s coffers and return nothing…” 

Overwhelmed, Sentinel no longer knew his own opinion. Beside him, Cloudstreaker was hard at work, writing something down. 



 

Yawning, Bucky was thankful for the feeling of Cadance beside him. She dozed, her eyes closed, her barrel rising and falling. The breath from her nostrils was warm against his neck and he was damp with drool. 

Beside him, a pregnant pegasus slumbered. 

Yawning again, Bucky blinked his eyes. His eyelids felt crusty and heavy. He sniffed, more to clear his nostrils, and smelled urine. Using careful caution, Bucky slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Derpy, and lifted Cadance in his magic. He almost stumbled, regained his balance, and walked with Cadance into the nursery. 

The nursery was empty. No sign of Sukari. 

He lay Cadance down upon the changing table, blinked, and looked at her. She looked very much like she did in the dream, laying on her back, one foreleg rested over her barrel. 

Bucky felt a tightness in his throat. 

Her eyes sprang open, she looked a little surprised as she looked up at Bucky. After a moment, she yawned, her mouth opening wide, her tongue lolling out and her uvula visible. Halfway through her yawn, she closed her mouth, pursed her lips, stuck out her tongue, and blew a raspberry at Bucky for waking her up. 

Much to his surprise, Bucky felt a little better. As he stood there staring, Cadance squirmed, her wings fluttered, and she let out a grunt. A foul vapour crept from her diaper and Cadance began to frown. 

There was no sense in complaining. Bucky undid the diaper, pulled it away, and tossed it into the diaper pail. 

Shivering, Cadance went, “Brr!” 

Lifting Cadance once more, mindful to let nothing drip, Bucky took her into the bathroom for a bath, feeling quite grateful to look after her needs. 
	
	
> Chapter 605
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking at the art upon the wall, Bucky sighed. There was no sense getting angry about it. Harper looked up at him with wide eyes, curious eyes, eyes that didn’t know fear. Sukari on the other hoof, cringed and shied away, a crayon still in the corner of her mouth. 

The colour crayon drawing on the wall could be washed away with no effort. 

Lowering his voice to ‘I’m speaking to scared foals’ level, Bucky looked at Sukari and asked, “Do you need to pee?” 

The zebra filly looked at the wall for a moment, then down at her front hooves, and then up at Bucky. She looked confused and her ears splayed out sideways. 

“Well, come on… follow me.” Bucky took off at a very slow walk and he did not put much pressure upon his injured leg. He looked behind him and saw Sukari was following him. His bunched muscles relaxed a little. She was still so timid, but showed signs of improvement. 



 

“Try using the little stool right there and then climb up. Be careful, you can do it,” Bucky said, still using his soft voice. “Mind your tail when you sit down. Harper, can you show her how it’s done?” 

Squeaking, Harper ran in a little circle. “Harpy show!” 

Stopping, Harper became very serious looking. She folded her body a bit, reached back with one front hoof, took a few swipes at her fluffy, curly poof of a tail to get it gathered, sucked in a deep breath, which bulged out her cheeks, pulled her tail off to one side, and sat down. 

“See? Just pull your tail aside before you sit down up there. It’s tricky, but all little fillies learn how to do it. It keeps your tail from falling into the bowl. Your tail will make it easy.” Bucky reached out and gave the zebra filly a soft pat. 

“Wet.” Sukari’s eyes narrowed.

“Well, so what if you fell in once. That was kinda your fault you know. Bon Bon was trying to help you and you squirmed away. Next time, hold on to Bon Bon’s hoof or whomever it is helping you and that won’t happen.” 

With nothing else to do, Bucky waited, watching Sukari. 

Bouncing up onto her legs, Harper began to prowl around the bathroom, sniffing shampoo bottles, examining soaps, and, being the ever so curious foal she was, she gave a strawberry scented bar of soap a little lick. 

To Bucky’s credit, he swallowed most of his laughter. 

“Yuck!” Harper stuck out her tongue. 

With a worried gasp, Sukari mounted the stool, got her hooves up on the first step, wobbled a bit, found her balance, got her front hooves up on the second step, scrabbled for her balance once more, got her hind hooves up on the first step, squeezed her hind legs together, whimpered, and then continued her way up. 

In her struggle to hurry, she almost fell. Bucky, reaching out with his talons, tipped her back into the right direction and the zebra filly let out a terrified squeak. 

To Sukari’s credit, she held her bladder. 

“The world is a scary place when you are so small,” Bucky said as Sukari began to climb onto the seat. He watched her wiggle, trying to grab her own tail, she hooked it, pulled it aside, and sat down, leaning forward so she wouldn’t fall in. 

A moment later, there was the sound of running water. 

“Go pee pot,” Harper said, looking up at Sukari. 

“Yes… now I know you know how to go.” Bucky smiled and felt a sense of accomplishment. “Now, if you are all wet back there, and sometimes it happens, you can just pop into the shower and get clean… I’m told that in Fancy, they have toilets that squirt you on the backside and get you clean. Fancy sounds like a nice place.” 

“I gotta go pee pot,” Harper said, bouncing up and down on her hooves. 

“One moment Harper, Sukari is almost done,” Bucky replied. 



 

As Grunion ran a file over the bladed edge of a wicked looking javelin head, Gofannon applied polish to an articulated girth plate. The pair worked in near silence as they almost always did, doing what needed to be done, and giving the Raptor’s equipment the care it deserved. 

Lifting his head, Gofannon saw a shadow moving along the workbench. 

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” He looked at Boadicea with one narrowed eye. 

“I got out of last class early… my next class is in a little less than half an hour,” Boadicea replied as her eyes devoured the shinies on the workbench. 

“What weapon do you favour?” Grunion asked. 

Boadicea, enthralled by so many shinies, let out a peep. After a moment, she replied, “I like riphooks.” 

“So you fancy yourself a fist fighter?” Grunion continued scraping with his file, making the edge clean, neat, and perfect. 

“I never said I was good… but I like flying by stuff and hooking it.” Boadicea reached out and picked up a helmet. She eyed it, turned it over, her eyes darting back and forth as she took it all in, and then she set the helmet down. 

Setting down the javelin head, Grunion reached out and picked up a riphook. It was a short handle, meant to be clutched in a fist, and a short hooked blade came out from the middle, protruding out from between clenched talons. He examined it and looked at Boadicea. “This is considered a weapon of last resort… like a dirk, a dagger, or a stiletto. It is clever of you to slash and go with this weapon.” He turned the riphook over in his talons, looking at the blade. Fist blades. Katars. A cestus. Simple weapons, and yet clever warriors always found a new way to use them. 

“Any other weapons you like?” Gofannon asked. 

“I’ve been trained to use a bow since… since… about the same time I learned to fly I think,” Boadicea replied. She cocked her head sideways. “I shot dune rats when they were no more than brown dots in the sand.” 

Grunion whistled. 

“Forgive me, I am not boasting… Lugus will punish me… it was a matter of necessity… of eating—”

“Don’t worry about it, we won’t tell Lugus. The Raptors need a good archer. Most of us are too little to use a longbow well, and crossbows take a while to make ready to fire. We’ll see your skills soon enough. You should see Lugus’ bow… it has to be eight feet in length and the grip of the bow is larger than your leg. We make jokes that he could fire little griffons on his arrows and launch us into battle,” Grunion said, trying to put the cub at ease. 

Gofannon watched as Boadicea’s eyes continued to linger on the bench full of weapons and armor pieces. “Tell you what cub… you do well in school and I will make you a riphook and a punch dagger… and I will tell Lugus that you earned them. What do you say to that?” 

Almost overjoyed, Boadicea turned to look at Gofannon. She let out a pleased peep and her talons flexed, her claws scratching the floor. 

“Now… get back to class and let us finish our work. We have much to do…” 



 

“Bucky… just… just what are you doing?” 

Continuing his great work, Bucky took note of Derpy’s voice. 

“Bucky… you… I… sometimes I just… Bucky!” 

“Hmm, needs a little more grey,” Bucky said, lifting up the grey crayon once more. 

On the wall, there was a whole flock of stick ponies. Some of them had wings. All of them were rather crude… Bucky saw no sense in making Sukari and Harper feel bad by drawing better than they did. Bucky himself was working on a grey stick pony pegasus with grey wings and a round circle belly on her stick body. 

“Bucky…” 

“Stop, you’ll spook Sukari.” 

Derpy almost swallowed her own muzzle. She let out a grunt followed by whinny. 

“Mama,” Harper said, pointing to a brown pony with a purple horn. The head was larger than the body. She looked proud of her accomplishment. 

“I’m going to go lay back down,” Derpy said, turning around and walking away. “Harper, you did a good job of drawing Bucky… you got his big head right.” 

“Ouch!” Lifting up a yellow crayon, Bucky added a yellow mane and a tail to the grey pegasus. 

“Jua.” Sukari pointed at an orange circle. An orange crayon hung from the corner of her mouth. Her ears were pinned back against her skull. 

“You drew the sun… that’s wonderful!” Bucky lowered his head down closer to Sukari’s eye level. He saw the fear in her eyes for a moment… a flash of terror, and then it passed. Her eyes were so blue… the bluest shade of blue. Bucky could see himself reflected in them. 

“Want pickle,” Sukari said, looking hopeful. 

“Harpy wants pickle. Green not yuck.” 

Bucky set his crayon down upon the floor. “Okay, follow me, we’ll go to the faraway land of the kitchen and get pickles… but we’ll have to watch out for the cook… she guards the pantry and none shall pass!” 

Sukari let out a yelp of fear. 

“No… no, I’ll find a way for us to pass, don’t worry!” 



 

Looking up from her work, Broom saw Bucky slinking into the kitchen. He was acting sneaky, which was nothing new, and two foals followed after him, the zebra filly almost clinging to his hind heels. 

Peeling the shells off of hard boiled eggs, Broom dropped them one by one into a small barrel filled with a brine and cider vinegar solution. She leaned over the table and nudged her brother, Door, who was staring out the window with a stupid-happy grin on his face. 

“Close your eyes Sukari, and follow me. If you close your eyes, they can’t see you… it works for Peekaboo. Nopony will see us because we’re sneaky.”  

Biting her lip, Broom held back her laughter. She had already encountered an invisible Peekaboo. She heard her brother chortling. She watched as the zebra filly, her eyes now closed, bump snoot first into one of Bucky’s hind legs. There was a fearful whimper. 

“Now all we have to do is get by Semillon without her seeing us…” 

With a plop, another egg was dropped into the barrel. 

Broom turned her head. Semillon was sitting on a chair by the sink, stirring a large mixing bowl filled with yellow mush. The cook, smirking, was ignoring Bucky and the foals. 

“Stinky eggs.” 

“Harper, shush, we can’t be sneaky if you talk about stinky eggs.” 

“But eggs stinky… farts.” 

Door hunched over the table, his barrel shaking, choking and making snorting sounds. 

“Stinky stanky eggy farts… burpy mama eggy farts.” 

Broom watched as her brother stuck his hoof into his mouth and bite down upon it. She worried that she was going to have to do the same. 

“Yes, Derpy does smell like eggs… sometimes. Now shush, we’re being sneaky.” 

“Farts sneaky?” 

“Yes Harper, farts can be sneaky. Now be quiet, we’re almost at the pantry and nopony has seen us.” 

As Broom watched, the trio vanished into the pantry. She leaned over and touched her brother, who appeared to be dying. She could hear Semillon’s heavy breathing as the cook tried to contain her laughter. 

There was the clunk of wood and a gasp. 

“Farts!” 

“Ugh, that’s sauerkraut.” 

There was another clunk of wood, a grunt, more wood clunking, and then a slosh. 

“Pickle… pickle… pickle… pickle go in hole, stop farts?” 

“Harper, don’t you dare try to stick a pickle in there… you eat them… there is something wrong with my little girl.” 

Unable to stop herself, Broom burst out laughing. She gulped, trying to hold it in, but it was no use. The laughter bubbled out and escaped. 

From the pantry, there was crunching sounds.

“Sour.” 

“Yes Harper, pickles are sour.” 

“Not sour.” 

“No… Harper… if you stick a pickle in your ear, you can’t taste it… or if you stick a pickle into any other place for that matter… you only taste things in your mouth.” 

Seeing stars, Broom thought she was going to die at any moment. Beside her, Door was flopped over the table, banging his hoof. 

“What no taste ear?” 

“Why? Because you have taste buds on your tongue and your tongue tastes things, that’s why… Harper no… don’t stick the pickle there either…” 

“EEEEEEEEEE!” 

“Hold still, let me wipe your eye… eyes are for seeing, not for pickle tasting.” 

Door fell out of his chair and hit the floor with a thump. 

“Taste pain! Sting!” 

“I’m sure it does… Harper, hold still!” 

“Eye no eat pickle!” 

“I tried to tell you… is that better? Do you need a kiss?” 

“Eye has lips over eye. Eye kiss?” 

“No Harper, those are eyelids, not lips. You can’t eat pickles with them, and you can’t kiss with them. Your eye is all red and bloodshot… your mothers are going to take turns killing me.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 606
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dinky, her voice no more than a whisper, leaned over towards the unicorn sitting next to her, and asked, “Psst… hey… Sunny Springs… what is a pony and griffon hybrid with no wings called?” 

The unicorn next to her shrugged. Looking down at her paper, Dinky began to feel panicked. Her textbook had said nothing about this. She had looked everywhere. She looked over at the chubby colt sitting nearby. “Hey, Truffle Shuffle, do you know?” 

The colt shook his head and Dinky saw that he was just as confused about the issue as she was. Dinky, alarmed, was running out of options. “Rowanne, do you know?” 

The griffoness cub, always silent, let out a startled peep and said nothing. 

“Oh snot,” Dinky said to herself. 

“Class, it has come to my attention that there is a question on the test not covered in your textbooks…”

Heaving a sigh of relief, Dinky looked up at her teacher, the tough but fair zebra mare. 

“A hippogriff born without wings is known as a sphinx… but this isn’t always the case. Sphinxes have the heads of ponies, not avians. This is a defining characteristic. They are seen as half lion and half pony. In some cultures, a sphinx may still have wings, but it lacks talons on its front legs. Instead, it has the paws of a cat. Sometimes, these are also known as sphinxes. What is important is, sphinxes always, always have the head of a pony. That seems to be the only thing everyone who studies these sorts of things can agree upon. Please, class, take notes. This will be on the final exam when you take it.” 

Using her pencil, Dinky wrote down everything the teacher said, noting that sphinxes came in wingless and winged variants, had the heads of ponies, and that sometimes, it was the front legs that catagorised them. 

“Hey Dinky… Dinky… do you know what a naga is?” 



 

“You lucky little cat brains got out of school early… you are going to get your physical education scores from me.” Loki’s eyes glittered with pure unadulterated malice as he looked at Scootaloo and Boadicea. 

“I should have went on the trip with my family,” Scootaloo said, her voice quavering. 

“I’m gonna hang you by your hind legs from that branch over there… and then you are going to do one hundred sit ups for me before I cut you loose.” Loki pointed at the tree branch. A coil of rope lay in the snow. “To make things interesting, I’m going to throw things at your head. Lugus did it to us, and now I’m going to do it to you, you little worthless hairballs.” 

“Boadicea, I’m scared…” 

“We’re both scared Scoots…” 

“Silence, both of you. Save your breath… you’re gonna need it.” Loki made a gesture for the pair to get moving towards the tree. 





“Bucky? You look a little down… are you okay?” Belisama climbed up onto the couch with her husband and settled against his side, using his ribs to rest her back. 

“I feel pretty good actually… was just thinking… been thinking a lot about it lately… Harper is growing up so fast. She is showing signs of intelligence… curiousity… she has a personality now, she is showing signs of being an extravert, which worries me a little, I still find it hard to relate to extraverts sometimes.. She has so many questions and she trusts me for everything she wants or needs… it… it… it boggles my mind.” 

Laying her head back, Belisama went limp against Bucky’s side. She felt a bit of movement inside of her shawl. “I adore Harper… I hope that Bandua calls me ‘Sama mama’ just like Harper does.” 

“She is such a funny little filly… my life has been made better for knowing her.” 

“My life has been made better for knowing you.” Closing her eyes, content, Belisama began to purr as she reclined against Bucky’s side. 



 

“Hold still… stop… just hold still,” Loki said as he took Scootaloo’s leg in his talons. 

“It hurts!” 

Grasping Scootaloo’s hoof and the upper part of her leg, Loki, with gentle care, turned her fetlock, listening for the sound of grinding bones. He heard the filly hiss and he patted her with his wing. “I think you just gave it a good twist when you took that turn in the snow. It will be fine, but I think you’ll need to rest and stay off of it.” 

Laying on her side in the snow, Scootaloo sniffled as Loki continued to examine her leg. 

“Already got a bit of swelling. Come on, let’s get you inside the house. Fresh Meat! Get over here! You’re carrying Table Scraps inside and then you are going to wait on her talon and paw!” Loki barked. 

Boadicea, doing as she was told, came near. She watched Loki help Scootaloo get up on three legs, and then with a bit of effort, Scootaloo climbed onto Boadicea’s back. 

“Careful,” Loki said in a soft voice, giving Scootaloo a gentle shove to keep her from sliding off. “Fresh Meat… a lesson. Always look after your own.” 

“Sir, yes sir,” Boadicea said, bowing her head. 

Reaching out, Loki grabbed Boadicea by the beak. “No… I want you to take this lesson to heart… we live or die together. We look after one another. You will look after Scootaloo until she’s better… if you slack off, I will flay you.” 

Frightened, Boadicea nodded. 

“Once I have both of you indoors and sorted, I will go pay a visit to Big McIntosh and let him know that Scootaloo has been injured. He will worry if she doesn’t make it home.” Loki’s feathers fluffed out as a cold wind gusted. 



 

“Behold, one of the great wonders of nature, the noble pegasus… see how she sleeps, slumbering, hibernating through the winter and her long pregnancy…” 

On the bed, Derpy drooled. A strand of her mane rose and fell as she inhaled and exhaled. She lay on her stomach, her front legs kicked out in front of her, both Bell Heather and Cadance were sleeping and using her front legs as pillows. 

“This is a fierce creature, a fearsome protector, known to chase dragons, harangue manticores, and is even known to dive into freezing waters to save her offspring… the she-brute pegasus…” 

“You silly,” Peekaboo said, looking up at Bucky. 

“You, my precious little filly, are also a pegasus. This is what you will grow up to be. A noble, majestic creature,” Bucky said in a low whisper. 

“She’s pretty.” Peekaboo turned her head and looked at her wings. 

“Yes she is,” Bucky replied. “You know what… you should sneak up on her and boop her nose. Go on…” Reaching down, Bucky prodded Peekaboo’s backside to get her moving. 

“No…” Peekaboo braced her legs. 

“Go on, get boopin’,” Bucky said, giving Peekaboo another gentle shove. 

The filly, giggling, dropped down into a crouch and began to creep forward, catlike, something she had learned from all of her time spent around griffons. 

“Following the terrible advice of a bored unicorn, a brave young pegasus filly goes on the hunt… her prey… a tender snoot in need of booping. Will she survive the encounter with the much larger mother pegasus?” 

Slinking along on her belly, Peekaboo approached the bed, her hooves only making the slightest sounds as she crept forward. Her wings flared out as she stalked, her movement was far more feline than equine. 

“So brave, our noble little pegasus hunter…” 

Reaching the bed, Peekaboo stood on her hind legs, peered over the edge, and then, flapping her wings, boosted herself up and onto the mattress. She slid forward along her belly, her movements careful, slow, steady, every inch gained was cautious to the danger she was in. 

She lifted one hoof, reached out, and with a faint giggle, Peekaboo pressed her hoof to Derpy’s snoot. 

The grey mare let go a foghorn blast from out of her backside, right as Peekaboo pressed upon her snoot. Derpy snorted, now awake, having been startled into wakefulness by the nose boop and the powerful blast of her own flatulence. 

Squeaking, squealing, Peekaboo took to her hooves, bolted, and when she hit the edge of the bed, she flapped her wings as hard as she could as she lept for safety, trying to escape the blast zone. 

Cadance awoke with a cry, sniffed once, and covered her face with her hooves. 

Bell Heather let out a startled grunt and filled her diaper from fright. 

Chaos erupted. 

Lifting her head, Derpy looked around, trying to figure out what had just gone wrong, because she didn’t know. She blinked several times, her eyelashes clinging together, her nostrils flared as her muzzle crinkled, her mouth opened and her tongue fell out. 

“Blech!” Derpy shook her head, her tongue flapping, and her mane spilled around her eyes. The grey mare’s face held an expression of sleepy confusion and mild panic.  

Peekaboo never stopped running, she hit the bedroom door and kept going, streaking off to find her mother and perhaps saner ponies with better advice. 

Falling over the floor, Bucky clutched his sides as he began to howl with laughter. 





“What happened?” Bucky came around the corner and stood in the archway entrance to the living room. 

“Table Scraps twisted her fetlock a bit during a sharp corner,” Boadicea replied. 

“Hmm, I’ll go make an ice pack,” Bucky said. 

Loki, making certain that Scootaloo was comfortable upon the couch, lifted the filly’s head and stuffed a cushion beneath it. He looked worried, his crest was half erect, and his neck feathers remained fluffed. 

Yew popped her head into the room, smiling, but her face became serious when she saw Scootaloo on the couch. She trotted in, stepped over Loki, and looked down at the filly. With her surviving eye, she studied Scootaloo’s fetlock. 

“Any grinding sounds? Or feeling of something catching?” Yew asked. 

“No. Moves smooth. No sounds,” Loki replied as he stepped aside. “Rotates well, but it hurts her.” 

“What happened?” Yew, whose snoot was inches from Scootaloo’s swelling fetlock, looked worried. 

“Sharp corner. Lost traction in the snow. Went down.” Loki sat back on his haunches and reached out with his talons. He brushed Scootaloo’s mane out of her face and then stroked her cheek. 

“We’ll keep an eye on it. If it swells too much, Lugus will fly her to the hospital.” Yew sat down upon the floor, rubbed her stomach, and closed her eyes for a moment. Opening her eyes again, she shook her head. “I feel kinda nauseous. I don’t know why.”

Bucky, returning with an ice pack, laid it down upon Scootaloo’s fetlock and then eyed Yew Wood. His eyes narrowed. 

“I am off to tell Big McIntosh what happened,” Loki said as he turned and began to leave. 

“Going to be sundown soon. Hurry back, the dark brings cold,” Bucky said to Loki as the griffon departed. 

“That feels a little better.” Scootaloo sniffled and wiped her nose with her good leg. 

“Anything you need?” Boadicea asked. 

“Just sit with me and keep me company,” Scootaloo replied. 



 

Yawning, Harper woke up from her short nap with Sukari. She felt a little hungry. Yawning again, she shook her head to clear away the sleepy. Beside her, Sukari was still asleep. The nursery was quiet and cozy. 

Harper felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up when she heard a scritching scratching sound though. Something felt… off. She lifted her head. 

“What?” she asked. 

There was no reply. 

There was a faint soft scratching sound, a squeak, and a hiss. Harper, growing alarmed, did not like what she was hearing. Her dark purple eyes narrowing, she felt a tingle in her horn, but this was not a good tickle, this was a bad tickle. 

Something black and ugly was scurrying over the floor and towards the cushions where Harper and Sukari were cuddled together. It had red eyes. It was hard to look at and Harper squinted to see it. 

“Bad. Go away.” Harper’s tone was fearful. 

The creature squeaked. 

“Want zap?” Harper asked. 

The creature, its red eyes flashing, darted towards Harper, its mouth open and long yellow teeth bared. A bad smell filled the nursery. 

“ZAP!” Harper cried, her horn igniting. Lightning arced from the tip as Harper unloaded. 

Sukari, now awake, clung to Harper and whimpered. 

The black creature with red eyes was consumed by electricity and burst into flames. An alarmed whinny was heard from the next room. 

“Harpy make zap!” Harper lifted her head. There was more squeaking. Harper didn’t like what she was hearing at all. Her horn, still charged, began to emit sparks. 

The creature let out a pitiful agonised squeal as flames consumed its body. Harper watched it die with cold curiousity in her dark purple eyes. 

Derpy, standing in the nursery doorway, took notice of what appeared to be a giant rat scurrying across the wooden floor, running past the charred smoking mess in the middle of the room. 

“Bucky! Help!” Derpy cried in a frantic voice… 
	
	
> Chapter 607
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“That was strange.” Bucky looked down at the three charred corpses, blinked, and then looked over at Harper. Static danced along the stubby length of her horn and her mane was frizzier than ever. Beside her, Sukari was crackling with static and her mane stood on end. 

“Bucky… they looked… wrong.” Derpy’s voice was frightened, full of panic. 

“The house is well warded… I don’t understand how they got in. But they seem to be gone now. And all of you complained that Lyra and I teaching Harper how to focus her magic at such a young age was a bad idea.” 

Derpy blinked. “Now is not the time for ‘I told you so’ or being smug.” 

His horn glowing, Bucky paced around the room. “I don’t sense anything. I think we can calm down now and once our frazzled nerves are settled, we can all laugh about Harper’s mane and how silly she looks.” 

Derpy nickered and then made an equine bellow deep within her barrel. “I wish Berry and Thistle were here. I’d feel better.” 

“They’re probably in Ponyville with Bon Bon and Lyra. Thistle has been dying to get out and do stuff… now that she is no longer so fat that she has to be shoved through doors, she’s—” 

There was a flutter of wings and Bucky was beset with wing slaps. “She was beautiful! Don’t call her fat!” Derpy gave Bucky a few more halfhearted wing slaps and then she stopped. She took a deep shuddering breath and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“Do you feel better?” Bucky asked. 

“No!” Derpy turned away from her husband. “I’m sorry. I’m stressed.” 

“I bet Harper is hungry. She’ll probably eat every scrap of her dinner tonight.” Bucky smiled at at his frizzy maned daughter that was still sparking and arcing. “I just realised… I’m never going to have to worry about Harper around little colts… my little filly can take care of herself.” 

Bucky’s horn flared, a bright flash, and the charred corpses vanished. The floor, blackened, was now clean and showed no signs of violence. He went around the room once more and looked for holes in the walls or the floor. There was nothing to be found. 

As Bucky continued to search, to find some logical reason for this intrusion, he began to feel peculiar. His horn tingled, a strange new sensation, and a shivering sensation of cold spiked through the root of his horn and into his brain. 

Opening his mouth to say something, to offer warning that something was wrong, Bucky toppled down to the floor with a thump. 



 

Peeling back one of Bucky’s eyelids, Sunset Shimmer looked into Bucky’s Taint filled eye. The slitted pupil was the tiniest pinprick. She let go and allowed the eye to close. She tried tickling one of his frogs, then another, no response. She lowered her head and placed her ear to Bucky’s barrel. His heart was strong and sounded regular. 

“I’m stumped. We should contact Luna.” Sunset Shimmer eyed at the worried looking grey mare. “I can sense something… but I don’t know what it is.” 

“This is bad,” Derpy said, her voice was raspy and somewhat husky. 

“I don’t like this. This seems like more than mere coincidence. First the rats and now this. I’ll dispatch a golem to Luna right away.” 



 

Loki, a harrier, had far more tolerance for carbohydrates, fruits, and sweets than would first appear. Setting down his fork, he rubbed his belly, his fourth apple brown betty sitting in his gut like lead. 

“Ye still look scrawny,” Granny Smith said, squinting at Loki. 

“Eeyup.” 

“I need to do my research,” Apple Bloom said, pushing her plate away. 

Every equine ear at the table perked when a squeak was heard. Every head turned, including one sharp eared griffon. There was a scratching sound.

Loki, his head twisting sideways, flexed his talons and let out a hiss. “Vermin…” 

Dropping from his chair, Loki prowled towards the stove with his tail stiff and straight up into the air like a flag, his claws tapping and scratching on the wooden floor. 

“I think we’re about to see us a cat versus rat fight,” Granny Smith said, leaning over in her chair. “I got my bits on the cat… he looks mean.” 

“Eeyup.” 

Something dark streaked forward, moving with incredible speed. Loki was faster. With one smooth fluid motion, he drew his dagger from the belt around his middle and skewered what had lunged at him. Sitting down, Loki held the wiggling rat up to examine it, looking every bit like a cat playing with its food. 

The rat, almost skeletal, was black. It had glowing red eyes. Fur had fallen away from parts of it, leaving behind diseased looking bare patches. Its teeth were long and yellow. It squealed and squeaked as it writhed on Loki’s blade. Flecks of foam dribbled from its mouth. 

“Diseased vermin,” Loki said, his voice a low feline growl. “I despise vermin.” 

“That ain’t natural,” Big Mac said in a deep voice. 

With a gasp, the rat died. Loki continued to stare at it. 

More squeaks could be heard in the kitchen. Scratching and skittering could be heard under the stove, where it was dark. Apple Bloom let out a terrified scream and jumped up onto the kitchen table. Big Mac was on his hooves in a second, and Cheerilee was at his side. Granny Smith, sitting in her chair, sat still, watched, and waited. 

Loki, flinging the rat from his blade, rose up into a bipedal stance, standing with effortless ease on his hind legs, and a stiletto appeared in his left talons. He waved the dagger in his right talons at the stove. In his black doublet and his armor, he was a roguish looking figure as he stood there, waiting for the enemy to come. 

“Come out little vermin… we can dance.” There was no fancy blade twirling, no flashy swashbuckling, no display of bravado. Loki was still, almost unmoving, conserving his energy, balanced on his hind paws. 

It was the stance of a well practiced killer. 



 

“Ach! Crivens!” 

As the sun was setting, the house was alive with the sounds of vermin. It sounded as though they were in the walls, under the sofas, everywhere there was darkness or where a shadow was cast. 

“To the tower!” Sunset Shimmer commanded, taking control. “The tower will be easier to defend!” She lifted Bucky and began to move. Reaching out with her mind, she lifted up everything most valuable to Bucky, snatching every single foal at once. Harper, Cadance, Bell Heather, and Sukari were all lifted. 

Peekaboo clung to her mother’s back, her eyes wide with terror. 

Boadicea helped Scootaloo climb onto her back and the griffoness carried the injured pegasus. 

Moving as a group, the herd of ponies and griffons made ready to make a strategic retreat from the house. 

“We are besieged by vermin!” Magpie screamed. 

Belisama, her shawl around her neck, and Bandua tucked inside, lept from the porch down into the snow. On her back was her crossbow and her sabre. She heard screams coming from the school and the dormitory towers. Her heart lept up into her beak. 

“Raptors! KILL!” 

Ripple was overhead, flying in formation with her Raptors. The went streaking past, heading towards the source of bedlam and anarchy. 

Spreading his wings, Sentinel took the air, and he glanced down at Sunset Shimmer. “Protect my little sisters,” he commanded as he followed after Ripple. “I have to go look after my big sister.” 

“Oh feck me, the little blighters are everywhere,” Barley said as his horn flared. Several rats closing in on the herd caught fire. “Come and get some you little gobshites!” 

Ahead, there was a massive plume of fire and Rising Star could be heard bellowing. 

Dinky began firing off telekinetic bolts, drilling holes through rats as she took careful aim. 

“Evacuate the towers! Get the students gathered into the school! Get them into dining area where we can watch them!” 

“Change of plans!” Sunset Shimmer cried. “Daylight Shadow has a good idea. We need to face this together! Bucky would want us defending his students, not keeping ourselves safe in his tower!” 

“WHAT VERMIN DARES TO CHALLENGE THE MAGICAL MIGHT OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, NOBLE STEED OF BARTLEBY THE PALADIN!” A blue unicorn went galloping past, a toucan beaked griffon and an earth pony foal upon her back. 

Bartleby was holding the foal in his forelegs as he clung to Trixie’s mane. The foal, crying, had blood streaming from her foreleg. 

As Trixie went streaking past, Sunset Shimmer’s heart filled with pride. 



 

Hovering, Sentinel heard the distant sounds of bells over the hullabaloo all around him. He realised that Ponyville was under attack. It wasn’t enough to defend the school and the farm. There was more at stake than just his immediate family or his father’s interests. 

He watched as the griffons, all of them, took up arms in defense of the school. 

Gritting his teeth, Sentinel made a heart wrenching decision. 

“Griffons!” Sentinel barked in a loud voice that cut through the chaos. “I need about fifty of you to come with me! I’ll need a few Raptors too! Ponyville calls for aid and we shall answer!” 

Little feathered heads lifted. 

His wings flapping, Sentinel watched as some of the defenders rose. Ripple, also hovering, raised a hoof in salute. 

“On the wings of alicorns, Sentinel,” Ripple said. 

“Stay safe, sister,” Sentinel replied. He raised a hoof and waved. 

A flock of griffons, Sentinel was not certain how many, rose into the air around him. Some had bows, others crossbows, some had spears, daggers, swords, all manner of merciless metal glittered in the sun’s final dying light. 

“Follow me!” Sentinel commanded as he took off for Ponyville. 



 

Bloodied, Loki stood on his hind legs, his girth heaving, his blades now stained scarlet. Beside him, Big Mac stood, his hooves covered in gore. Granny Smith was sitting on the kitchen table with Apple Bloom, and the crotchety old mare was armed with a heavy black cast iron skillet. 

Cheerilee stood waiting by the table, ready to snatch up Apple Bloom and run at a moment’s notice. 

Dozens of dead rats were strewn around the kitchen. Blood pooled on the floor. A few bodies still writhed and twitched. When one squeaked, Big Mac stomped down upon it, making certain it was dead.

“Turn on all the lights,” Loki commanded. “Cheerilee… do it… now. We need to make this room as bright as possible. The rats are coming out of the shadows.” 

Cheerilee, quick on her hooves, bounded to the light switch and flicked all of them upwards. The kitchen was now well lit. She bounced over the sink, hit another switch, and more light appeared over the sink, the counters, and the stove. 

“Should we escape? Go somewhere?” Cheerilee asked. 

“It is dark outside… and getting darker. Going outside will be our deaths,” Loki replied. 

“Think we can make it through the night? When daylight comes, will it be safe to leave and go get help?” Cheerilee looked at Apple Bloom. “I could get Apple Bloom to safety somewhere… I can run pretty fast.” 

“You can’t run at the speed of dark.” Loki cocked his head as he listened to the sounds of squeaking. 

“We Apples stick together.” Big Mac lowered his head and peered at the red eyes blinking beneath the stove. 

“Even if one of us happens to be a griffon,” Granny Smith said as she lifted her frying pan. 



 

“Today, we fight like dogs!” Neon Blitz stood in the doorway, his eyes watching for signs of danger. Students were being hustled into the school’s cafeteria. The lights were blazing and magical globes of light began to appear, blinking into existence. 

There was a squeak, a snarl, and a wet sounding thud. 

A diamond dog pup stood and looked proud. 

“Keep the rats away from Buckminster at all costs!” Doctor Mawu said. “There is something about them… some spirit of malice… they wish to wake the darkness within him! This is all a nightmare to him!” 

“So Master is dreaming all of this?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

The bocor nodded. 

Sunset Shimmer lifted Bucky back into the air and wrapped him in a bubble of golden light, making it so no shadow or darkness touched his body. She understood the danger here… in a nightmare, in a dream, the alicorn within Bucky might wake up if threatened. 

Or if what he loved was threatened. 

Bucky kicked out and whimpered in his sleep. 

“Are the students in?” 

“The towers are cleared, we need to do a headcount. Some of the older students are out fighting on the outer perimeter. There are thousands of rats outside.” 

“There are rats in the school too… everywhere it is dark, the rats appear.” 

“Get this room as well lit as possible. Get lights everywhere. Under tables, in dark corners, everywhere a shadow is cast I want light shining!” 

“Yes sir, I will do so, Daylight Shadow.” 

“I’m going outside,” Scorch said, heading towards the door. 

“No!” Sunset Shimmer stomped her hoof. “We need you in here… in case something goes wrong. We have to trust our defenders to do their job and we need you right here in reserve as part of our fall back plan, whatever that might be.” 

Scorch shifted form into a massive griffon and sat down. “Very well.” 

A filly, huddled under a blanket, tossed her blanket aside with a shriek. A rat scurried out from beneath it. The rat didn’t get very far, another student, an earth pony colt, stomped his hoof down upon the rat’s skull. 

“Darkness lurks under blankets! Be warned!” Daylight Shadow cried. 

A massive explosion could be heard outside. 

“What was that!” Derpy asked. 

“Probably Rising Star using some of Bucky’s glass orbs,” Scorch replied. 

“Belisama… play us some music… bring some calm to these students,” an old grizzled griffon said as he sat down beside a crying filly and began to pat her upon the back. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 608
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Over the skies of Ponyville, Sentinel was met by Thunderlane. Behind him, Thunderlane had several pegasi. Behind Sentinel was a large flock of griffons. Neither one of them knew it, it was the beginning of an army. 

“Thunderlane, Ponyville calls for help, and I have answered,” Sentinel said. 

“Things look pretty bad. We can’t be everywhere at once,” Thunderlane said. “Do you have a plan?” 

Sentinel nodded. “We need to evacuate every house, every building, gather up every foal, and we need to secure the foals in the largest building. Probably town hall. Then I will need every able bodied pony there is to form a defense.” 

“We’re going to listen to him?” a pegasus asked. 

“He’s a colt,” another said. 

“He is a squire and he’s been schooled in tactics. He’s also a proven officer who has seen battle… so shut up,” Thunderlane said. The charcoal black pegasus, who had served on the Ponyville militia, had been spoiling for a good fight, but not among his own fellow ponies. “BEGIN CLEARING THE OUTER HOUSES AND GETTING THOSE PONIES TO TOWN HALL!” 

“I need unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. Tonight, we all have our part to play.” Sentinel looked down, his sharp eyes taking in details. “We’re going to need big fires burning… there… there… there… and there.” Sentinel pointed with his hoof. Burn whatever we can get. Raptors?” 

“Just us sir, we’re all you got,” Freyja replied. 

Sentinel looked at Freyja and Callum. Callum was the calm, steady sort, something Sentinel appreciated a great deal. “Private Freyja, Private Callum… you are to go with Thunderlane and gather up as much of the Ponyville police department as possible. We will need them for their leadership and because the community trusts them.” 

The griffons raised their talons in salute, broke away from the griffon flock, and flew to Thunderlane’s side. 

“WE NEED TO ESTABLISH CONTROL!” Sentinel commanded. “Now move!” 



 

“Students…. students, I need you to listen to me, I know you are scared, but I want those of you with strong voices to sing… just think about how some of you are comforted by your mother’s lullabies,” Written Sound said as he looked over the huddled students. 

A tiny earth pony came forward, her head held high. “We can sing, can’t we Rowanne?” Garnet Targe said. 

Rowanne, the always silent griffoness, nodded. 

“I know it is past Hearth’s Warming, but I thought we’d sing Hearth’s Warming carols. Those are songs about being together… and we need that right now,” Written Sound said. 



 

Lifting his crossbow, Bartleby took careful aim, lining up his shot, his eye locked on a pair of red eyes lurking in the darkness. He pulled the trigger and the red eyes vanished. 

“Nice shot,” Trixie said to the griffon riding on her back.

Reaching down, Bartleby patted Trixie on the neck. “I’m not a very good shot yet, but tonight I am going to get a lot of practice.” 

Looking around at the others around them, there were a fair number of ponies with griffon riders, following what Trixie felt to be their example. Armed with crossbows, the mounted cavalry worked well together to keep both mounts and their riders safe. The griffons were free to take shots without fear of being overwhelmed, and ponies had somebirdy to watch over them. 

“Why aren’t they attacking?” a little griffoness asked.

Grisabella tapped her mace upon the dirty grey snow. “Building up numbers… letting us feel fear… that last wave was thousands… we held them off. I’m betting that, right now, those vermin are swarming, gathering up their numbers, and when the time is right, they'll come at us hard.” 

“We’ll be ready for them,” Rising Star said. A dozen glass spheres orbited his head. 

Around the defenders, spider golems scurried, all of them blazing like beacons, lighting everything in a cold silver light. 

Pacing back and forth, snorting, stomping around, Ripple waited. She hated waiting. And she worried. Loki was missing, last known to be heading off to visit the Apples. Ripple worried about the the farms and farmers that she was certain was under siege right now. And most of all, Ripple worried about Canterlot, high up on top of the spire of rock. 

A massive thunderstorm loomed over Canterlot; flashes of fire and explosions could be seen from all the way down here. It seemed that Canterlot was also under invasion. There would be no help tonight, no reinforcement. If they were overrun by rats, and it seemed possible, it would mean their end. 

Ripple thought of Bittersweet, now inside the school, safe for the moment. She did not want to meet her end, but she was prepared for it. 

“Red eyes moving in the darkness… I think they’re making a move! Brace yourselves!” 



 

Lifting a glass of water, Loki poured it down his beak. The nips and bites on his legs burned but he did his best to ignore him. The kitchen was alive with the rustling of vermin. Red eyes moved beneath the stove and any other place there was shadow. 

“Why aren’t they attacking?” Cheerilee asked. The mare was now on the table, huddled together with Granny Smith and Apple Bloom. 

“They’ve watched what has happened to the first few waves… now they gather numbers and hope to swarm us,” Loki replied. 

Big Mac, his legs a bloody mess, stood snorting like some horrible steam powered contraption. Everything important to the big stallion was sitting on the table. In pain, knowing that the bites carried some terrible disease, Big Mac said nothing. 

“When they come, back to back… I’ll try to keep them off of your hind legs and keep them from tearing out your groin,” Loki said in a soft calm voice. 

The big red stallion nodded. 

“I’ve never been so scared in all my life.” Apple Bloom wrapped a foreleg around her grandmother and buried her face into Granny Smith’s ribs. 

The old mare tapped her cast iron skillet on the table. “We’ll get through this, don’t you worry, Apple Bloom.” 



 

“Form a perimeter!” Sentinel made a gesture to a group of earth ponies. “Form lines that stretch from fire to fire. Stand shoulder to shoulder! The pegasi and the earth ponies need to form a front line of defense so the unicorns can be protected. 

The thousands of ponies of Ponyville were all clustered together. The refugees, once seen as outsiders, were now Ponyville ponies as they all formed ranks and made walls of living meat and sinew. 

“I think another wave is coming!” a hovering pegasus reported. 

“Confirmed! We have incoming!” 

Dropping down to the ground and standing on the front line, Sentinel braced himself. On either side of him there were ponies he didn’t know. One pegasus mare and one earth pony stallion. 

“OH STARS! LOOK AT THAT!” 

A moving tide of darkness and red eyes spilled through the city streets, pouring like vile liquid, moving in a disturbing flow towards city hall. An uncountable number of rats formed a river of vermin. 

“STEADY!” Sentinel barked. The colt was terrified. The moving swarm of rats had to be taller than most ponies as it approached. “Unicorns! Fire! Make every shot count!” Sentinel commanded. 

Sentinel watched as spells arced overhead. The incoming flood of rats caught fire, lightning crackled through the black seething mass, but the swarm was not stopped. Sentinel braced himself, knowing he was about to be in the fight of his life. 

Lyra was busy securing city hall and Lyra needed time. 

Sentinel gave thought to his mothers… Berry was here… Lyra… Bon Bon… Thistle. He had to keep them safe. They were all part of the inner defense, the last line of defenders for the foals secured in city hall. 

The black tide hit the outer ranks. Sentinel began kicking and stomping, trying to hold back the rush of bodies. He felt teeth sinking into his legs. He was almost buried in rats. 

His wings buzzing, Thunderlane swooped down, lightning crackling along his feathers as he built up a massive charge. He skimmed over the black mass, his hooves glowing, and let go of massive static discharge. 

Many rats ignited. 

Spells exploded all around Sentinel as he kicked and stomped, almost buried by rats. The earth pony and the pegasus beside him stood with him, refusing to give ground. 

“Unicorns! Be ready with extinguishers!” 

Several griffons swooped down over the rear of the incoming time of vermin, pouring lamp oil as they flew overhead. One griffon dropped a burning brand. With a whoosh the rats ignited and began to burn. 

With the majority of the enemy blazing, the battle turned in favour of the defenders. The rats were pushed back, the outer perimeter pushing their attackers back into the burning bodies. There was a cheer as the ponies realised they were winning this battle. 

A glittering bubble appeared around city hall. A massive glowing golden lyre sat on top of it, and it began to play music, music that brought comfort and relief to the defenders. Fear began to subside. The lyre’s light blazed and drove back shadow. 

Sentinel, bloodied, battered, blinking with surprise that he was still alive, looked around him. Some of the outer perimeter had fallen. The bodies were being dragged back towards city hall. He didn’t know if they were alive or dead. 

“I don’t know if we can survive another rush like that one,” an earth pony mare said. 

The last of the rats were pushed back by a wall of earth ponies working together, forcing them back towards the blazing bodies being consumed by fire. 

Way off in the distance, fires could be seen blazing in the Whitetail Wood. It seemed that the ponies living there were under siege as well. Sentinel, overwhelmed by all of this, reminded himself of his officer’s oath and his duties. His obligations. 

“Something real bad is happening up in Canterlot,” a pegasus said, looking up at the city on top of the mountain. 

“We need Twilight Sparkle!” 

“No! We need one another… we must stick together!” Thunderlane said in a booming voice to the crowd. “This night is just getting started. The clock approaches nine. Tonight, we prove ourselves.” 

“We need more lamp oil. That was a good tactic. We might burn down some buildings, but that is a small price to pay. When next they come, I want you griffons to do a strafing run while they are a good distance from us. By the time they reach us, I want as many of them burning as possible,” Sentinel said in as loud of a voice he could muster. 

“And you unicorns can weaken the remainder. The outer defenders will keep you safe so you can hurl spells,” Thunderlane said, hovering over Sentinel. 

“Prepare! They come in waves… they are building in number right now, so we need to make ready for them!” 



 

The clock on the wall struck eleven. Big Mac, looking winded, leaned against the wall, his sides heaving. The floor of the kitchen squelched with every step. The dead rats were piled deep. The smell was nauseating. 

The last wave had made it to the kitchen table and had scurried up the table’s legs. 

Granny Smith’s cast iron skillet was now bloodied. 

Loki, taking a break, sat on the edge of the table, bandaging his leg with an old towel. 

Apple Bloom, armed with her own skillet, clutched it in a tight grasp of her fetlock. “It’s not even midnight… we’re not going to make it.” 

“Hush your mouth, Bloom.” Big Mac looked at his sister with a worried expression. 

“Loki?” Cheerilee’s voice was filled with panic.

“What?” 

“Loki… do you think you can fly?” Cheerilee asked. 

“Of course… but why would I want to?” 

“Do you think you could fly with Apple Bloom? Get her someplace safe? One of us has to live and carry on.” A tear slid down Cheerilee’s cheek. 

A fearful whimper came from Apple Bloom, but no words. 

“If it comes to that, I will.” Loki looked over at the big red stallion. “How you holding up?” 

“I’m managing. I still got a lot of fight left.” 

“I’m sure you do,” Loki replied as he tied a knot and cinched it tight. “Cheerilee… if the worst happens… and I have to take Apple Bloom…” 

“Yes Loki?” 

“I have some poisons here with me… if you drink them, you will die quickly and with no pain. It is a better end that having rats chew their way through your insides… they’ll come for you and your foal and it will be awful.” 

Rubbing her belly, Cheerilee let out a fearful squeak. 

Loki set down several small glass vials upon the table. “It’ll be real easy to smash the glass with your teeth. A few drops will do you.” 

Her eyes wide with horror, Cheerilee looked down at the glass vials and contemplated how she might end. 
	
	
> Chapter 609
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lyra Heartstrings watched the two massive garbage eating golems prowling around the floor of city hall. The last line of defense if the worst came. Her ears quivering, she heard no squeaks. Hopeful that she had created a rat proof barrier, Lyra took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It was almost midnight. 

The last wave, a few rats had managed to break through her defenses. This time, Lyra was far more confident. She thought of Harper and hoped that her foal was okay. She did not let it distract her, right now she had hundreds of foals depending upon her to be at the top of her game. 

She watched the Cakes as they moved through the crowd, offering up treats, trying to give some measure of comfort to the gathered foals. 

“Bon Bon, you okay?” Berry asked. 

“I’m fine… I’m just worried… about…” 

“I know.” Berry Punch sat down next to Bon Bon. 

Both mares had bloody hooves. 

“Sounds quiet outside. I think we’re in between waves,” Thistle said. 



 

Feeling a weariness that went bone deep, Sentinel wondered how they were going to make it through the night. There had been deaths already. The deaths, as terrible as they were, did nothing to demoralise the defenders… if anything, anger gave the makeshift army new purpose, lighting a fire within them. 

Sentinel was not certain that fire would be enough. 

Overhead, there was a rush of wings. Sentinel looked up. He saw… lights. Could help be arriving? The colt waited, trying to see, his legs burning from the many bites he had endured. 

“Need some help?” 

The voice was… familiar. Sentinel knew that voice… that voice was… 

“King Tannis!” Sentinel felt his spirits lifted. Overhead, a flock of griffons moved in, maybe a hundred in number, along with some lunar pegasi. 

“Princess Luna called in Myrmidons to help defend Canterlot… she sent us to reinforce you. For some reason, I am not surprised to see you here, Sentinel,” King Tannis said. 

Sentinel watched as a few more familiar figures landed. Grimglammer, Furious, and Shadowguard. Grimglammer and Shadowguard were wearing their Myrmidon armor. 

“Somepony did a good job setting up defenses here,” Grimglammer said as she began to study the situation. 

“That was Sentinel,” Thunderlane said, looking over the new arrivals. “He is in charge.”

“Somepony made some hard choices… maximised the protection of valuable assets while expending some acceptable losses… always a tough choice.” Shadowguard began pacing around and looking at the remaining defenders. 

“Squire Cornet Sentinel, permission to join your ranks,” Grimglammer said, snapping to attention. 

“You’re a Myrmidon… you outrank me.” 

“Never hurts to ask… and I’m retired.” Grimglammer whipped a wing out in salute. 

“Show the new griffons what to do,” Sentinel commanded in a clarion voice. “How much lamp oil do we have left?” 

“None,” a griffon replied. 

“None?” Sentinel blinked and gasped in shock. Right away, he began to think of alternatives. One hoof tapping, Sentinel wracked his brain. “Griffons… go to Barley O’Blivion’s brewery… there are casks of whiskey there. Fetch them!” 



 

Rising Star paced back and forth, watching, waiting, his magic ready. He was glad for his fey stamina. Where others were getting weary, Rising Star was getting his fourth wind. He was confident that they were winning. They would live to see the dawn. 

“Rising… I gotta go.” 

Raising his eyebrow, Rising Star looked at Sparkler. “I could use a bathroom break myself.” 

“No… Rising Star, I gotta go. We might be holding up here, I don’t know how they are holding up in Ponyville, but I am sure they are okay… but what about the Apples? They’re like us… far away from town and secluded. Loki went there… if the rats are attacking them, they might already be dead by now.” 

Rising Star felt a sinking feeling. 

“Ripple is sick with worry. One of her Raptors is missing. She is doing her job, but I can see it in her eyes. With each passing wave, she grows more and more frantic,” Sparkler said in a low voice. 

“Go… go Sparkler. Do what you can. I would tell you to stay safe, but we both know that’s not necessary,” Rising Star replied. Leaning over, he kissed Sparkler, pressing his lips against hers. 

“I love you.” Sparkler looked up at her husband for a moment, her eyes glimmering in the firelight. After staring into his eyes and finding her strength, she turned and galloped off, becoming stone as she cleared the outer defensive perimeter. 

Her hooves thundered upon the earth as she departed. 





Loki’s blades scissored through rats. He moved with what appeared to be tireless swiftness, dancing among the swarming vermin, slicing, stabbing, cutting, slashing, and flinging rats away from him. As he moved, he also sheared rats off of Big Mac’s legs. 

Blood geysered from the severed bodies that Loki flung aside. It splattered the walls, covered the ceiling, the entire room was crimson and the various shades of gore. 

On the table, Apple Bloom brought her skillet down upon a rat, crushing it, and a moment later, Granny Smith did the same. Cheerilee kicked and smashed any rats that came in reach. There was a metallic gong sound as Granny Smith crushed yet another rat. Her skillet was slick with guts, blood, and black hairs. 

Loki, stabbing his blades into the endless hordes of vermin all around him, was thankful for his training, his conditioning. If he lived through this, he planned to thank Lugus. Lugus had made this possible. 

For Loki, there was no doubt that the Apples were one of us. 

There was a squeal from Apple Bloom as a rat savaged her hind leg.



 

“Careful with those whiskey bombs!” King Tannis pointed and made a gesture. A flock of griffons moved the casks, mindful of their explosive payload. 

“The last wave wasn’t as bad as the one previous,” Sentinel said. 

“Or we could be doing better at holding them off. We weren’t prepared for them but we still did pretty good,” Thunderlane said. 

“Now we are prepared.” King Tannis watched as the whiskey bombs were placed in strategic locations, and with a command, could be dropped on the incoming invaders. 

King Tannis’ griffons all wore tabards over their armor with Princess Celestia’s cutie mark. The little griffons took up positions on roof tops, on overhangs, on ledges, and on balconies, all of them waiting and ready to rain fire on anything down below. 

“The outer guard reports seeing red eyes!” a pegasus cried. 

“Make ready! We have another wave!” King Tannis flapped his wings and drew his sword. “Make them pay for every bloody inch of ground they gain! BURN THEM!”



 

“I think we’re in trouble,” Loki said as he flung a very large rat from his stiletto. The griffon began to consider the possibility of fleeing with Apple Bloom. He stabbed outwards with the now freed blade and sliced open a rat that was clinging to Big Mac. 

The big red earth pony stomped down, crushing several rats that swarmed beneath his hooves. He jumped into the air and came down stiff legged, crushing more rats into jelly. 

Loki knew he was getting weaker from loss of blood. If this kept up, he would not be able to fly away with Apple Bloom. A decision was going to have to be made, and soon. If not, the decision would be made for him. 

“I’m startin’... to feel… a little… pooped,” Granny Smith said, panting with each word. “I ain’t… as young… as I… once was.” She slammed her skillet down on a writhing mass of rats scurrying over the table and then reversing her stroke, swept several of them away. 

The door slammed open, sweeping aside rats on the floor and crushing them against the wall. A pony entered, grey, featureless, and then it slammed the door shut behind it. Scowling, the stony pony stared down at the rats and a whole mass of them turned to stone. 

“Stone Mother!” For a moment, Loki thought he might cry from relief. New strength flooded through his burning limbs. 

In moments, Sparkler put an end to the invaders. The kitchen was filled with stoned rats. She looked around, waiting, listening for squeaking. 

“Loki? You okay?” Sparkler asked, her voice like gravel. 

“I think I’m dying,” Loki replied, being honest. “Gonna be a slow death.” 

“Hmm, Big Mac too… how are the rest of you?” Sparkler asked. 

“Apple Bloom has been bit a few times,” Cheerilee said. 

“This ground can’t be held. Come on, we’re leaving,” Sparkler said. Closing her eyes for a moment, Sparkler flexed her will. It took a little effort, but she levitated each Apple and one very bloodied griffon in her telekinesis. 

Opening the door, Sparkler began stuffing the Apple’s through it one at a time, holding them up high, out of reach of the swarming vermin. Outside the door… thousands upon thousands of red eyes burned in the darkness. It was only then did Loki realise the futility of his actions. 

The little griffon let go a maniacal laugh. 

Sparkler stomped through them, her stone hooves squishing the rodent invaders. Impervious to their assaults, she allowed them to swarm over her. Conserving her magic, she did nothing to attack them, but went galloping off into the night, the Apples held high above her, returning home with the weary defenders. 



 

A massive explosion rocked through one of the narrow streets of Ponyville as one of the whiskey bombs struck the ground and detonated. The fiery blast shattered windows and sent flaming rats hurtling through the night, soaring through the air like little burning meteors. 

Still, the swarm came, moving like a river of black death. 

Another whiskey bomb detonated. 

In another area, as the rats surged forward, the snow was melted in the blink of an eye, flooding the area, soaking the rats, and Thunderlane released another powerful static discharge, electrocuting thousands of rats all at once. 

Grimglammer charged forward, pushing a snow plow, shoving her way through the endless tide of vermin, dividing them, splitting them up into more manageable groups. 

Shadowguard was doing the same, but pushing up a different street. 

“PUSH THEM BACK!” Sentinel commanded. “PROTECT OUR UNICORNS!”

Spells flew, arcing, fireballs, lightning bolts, and icicles filled the air. Telekinetic blasts shoved writhing balls of vermin backwards. 

“Rats, Hondo… rats everywhere!” 

“I know Cookie… keep shooting! Our little Sweetie Belle is inside the town hall!” 

“Diamond Tiara too! Look out Hondo!” 

“I have your back! Don’t worry Hondo!” 

“Thanks Galaxy Guide!” 

“Should we survive this, we should get together… maybe play bridge, what do you say, Shining Star?” 

Amidst the chaos, a lone green unicorn entered the fray. Her eyes glowed white and her horn blazed like the sun. An aura of raw power crackled around her. She rose, released from gravity, and a her forelegs raised, pointing skywards. A fierce golden orb of light formed above her horn. 

Every pony, every griffon, every being in Ponyville went deaf, save the rats, who retained their perfect hearing. All sound ceased to function. The defenders, confused, tried to figure out what was going wrong. 

Lyra Heartstrings let go of one of the most devastating spells she would ever create. 

The effect, while not heard by ponies nor griffons, was felt. Bones vibrated. Every single pane of glass, every single mirror, every single teacup, every drinking glass, anything and everything fragile shattered for miles around. Eyeballs buzzed and watered over. Full bladders were let go. 

The rats, who still had their hearing, bore the full brunt of Lyra’s spell. Little heads exploded, sending fragments of brain and skull spewing everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of rats, many still lurking in the shadows, all suffered concussive, explosive headaches, their heads popping like swollen, feverish boils. 

Ponies blinked as they realised the battle was over. Griffons hovered, waiting, watching. 

Hearing returned to the citizens of Ponyville. 

“KINDLE NOT A MOTHER’S FURY!” 

Lyra’s voice could be heard all over town. The defenders looked up at the floating unicorn, mouths and beaks open. In the distance, the Ponyville town clock’s bell rang four times. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 610
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sparkler isn’t back yet.” Ripple stood, watching, waiting, eyeing the darkness and looking for red eyes. 

Rising Star, his whole body blazing bright, looked over at Ripple. “She’ll be back.” 

Ripple shook her head. “Rising, she can run out of magic… she can grow tired. What if she gets trapped out there, out in the dark, and she runs out of energy? She’s been gone for far too long.” 

Rising Star began to feel Ripple’s worry. “Maybe she went to Ponyville.” 

“Maybe.” Ripple peered into the darkness, hoping to see a stony pony. 

Trotting, a crazy grin upon her face, and Bartleby still on her back, Trixie approached Ripple and Rising Star. With each step, her ears bounced. Trixie appeared to be having the time of her life. 

“Trixie has news to report… it seems the rat attacks are tapering off. Very few attacks have happened indoors as the defenses kept improving with each wave. Sunset Shimmer is growing tired, but she believes she can make it till the dawn. She is illuminating each and every foal inside of a globe of light spell. The rats have no darkness to leap to.” 

“How can she keep so many lit up for so long?” Ripple asked. 

Rising Star shrugged. “Type fours. We’re different.” 

Ripple’s wings fluttered. “Trixie, your conjured thunderclouds on the outer perimeter made a difference tonight. A lot of lives were saved with those sentries. They let us know when something is coming.” 

The showmare blushed and bowed her head. “Trixie was only doing her part. I have students to keep safe… Buckminster’s performance reviews are very strict.” 

In the distance, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. 

“One more dead rat!” Trixie, who was far too chipper for this occasion, trotted off. 

On Trixie’s back, Bartleby waved. 

Rising Star, watching Trixie go, raised an eyebrow. “You know, the students aren’t the only ones learning stuff here. Is it just me or has Trixie become kinda dangerous?” 

“Love makes ponies dangerous,” Ripple replied. 

“Make way!” a voice like a landslide bellowed. 

Ripple’s wings sprang out and she went airborne for a moment, flying a little loop, flipping through the air, landing, and then running for Sparkler. When she saw Sparkler, Ripple froze, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide. 

“Move! I have Apples, I have Danvers, and I have Turnips!” Sparkler’s hooves thudded as she thundered past with dozens of ponies held above her in telekinetic bubbles. “Sorry it took me so long!” 

“Speaking of dangerous ponies,” Rising Star said as he reached out and closed Ripple’s mouth. 

“Move aside!” Sparkler stomped forward towards the school. “I have sick and wounded here! Outamyway!” 



 

In Ponyville, the defenders waited. A few more rats came, but not the endless hordes that had come before. Griffons flitted about in the cold night air, stabbing rats when they were spotted, and the nervous ponies of Ponyville paced around burning fires, watching the shadows. 

“Lyra… how did you manage to do… well… what you did?” Grimglammer asked. 

Lyra, her horn glowing, turned and raised her head to look up at the massive lunar pegasus mare. “The rats… they’re… they’re like constructs. It took me a while to study them and figure this out. They’re not actually rats. I thought for a while they were conjured rats… like Dinky’s bees, I figured they would wink away after a while or their corpses would vanish. But they didn’t.” Lyra shook her head. “Really powerful magic conjured these… there is a touch of necromancy involved I think, but I didn’t cast a detect necromancy spell to check… because that would involve necromancy.” 

“So what are they?” Furious asked. 

“Nightmares… made flesh. I think. They have some odd magic tied to them. I don’t know for certain. I just know that they had ears and notes that resonated strongly with harmonious magic hurt them… so I blew them up,” Lyra replied. 

“How?” Shadowguard asked. 

“I severed their connection from the nightmarish energy they drew power from. It made their heads explode.” Lyra grinned. 

“So these… creatures… were pulled out of the dreamscape and given bodies of flesh?” King Tannis asked. 

“I think so… that’s why I think necromancy was involved. You take the essence of dream rat and then you use necromancy to give it a body… flesh and bone. Make it real. Just a guess,” Lyra replied. 

“Mistress will know more. She was quite distressed by these creatures. She refused to talk about it.” Grimglammer looked up, craning her head to look at Canterlot. 

In the distance, another whiskey bomb went off, sending a column of fire skywards. There was a gleeful cry of mayhem as the defending griffons and ponies cheered. 

A lone griffon landed, approached King Tannis, and saluted. “My king… I have returned from the Whitetail Woods. The ponies living there have taken heavy casualties, but there are survivors. I spoke with a unicorn named Forest Watcher… he organised the defense of the Whitetail Woods dwellers. The pegasi airlifted the weak and infirm, kept them off of the ground, and the earth ponies and unicorns stood together against the rats.” 

“So we have survivors incoming?” King Tannis asked. 

“They make their way here now,” the griffon reported. 

“Send reinforcements to their ranks,” King Tannis commanded. 

“Sir, a pony named Pepperjack is leading the survivor convoy… he is… most clever. He made bombs from crushed mace seeds and other obnoxious herbs.” The griffon’s crest rose. “The rats do not like the dust bombs. It would be wise to speak to him, his dust bombs will be useful in driving the rats from cellars, holes, and other dark spaces, out into the light so we can kill them.” 

“Let the vermin know no place of refuge. Have this Pepperjack brought to me when he gets here,” King Tannis said. 

“Sir, I will do so, sir,” the griffon replied, and then snapped off a smart salute. 



 

“How is he doing?” Scorch asked, leaning over and whispering into Odin’s ear. 

“I can see everything he sees,” Odin replied. 

The fire elemental heaved an impatient sigh and shook his head. Scorch reached out his talons and gave the old griffon’s wing a tug. “Out with it.” 

“What started out as a nightmare has become quite an enjoyable dream. The dozing Lord of Winter watches as those he loves defends themselves. While he was terrified when the dream started, he is now fascinated and maybe even a little amused. He no longer has the slightest fear for our safety but instead eagerly watches our efforts.” 

Scorch heaved a sigh of relief, the sort of sigh that only a being billions of years old could sigh. “So this has blown up in Sombra’s face.” 

“Indeed.” Odin looked over at the many injured ponies and griffons being laid out. He raised his talons and pointed. “Blood poisoning will be a problem.” 

Scorch nodded. “Septicemia. Rising Star and I can take care of it.”

The old grizzled griffon shook his head. “Scorch, we must let them test their own strength. They have pulled through this admirably. Even Bucky is impressed, watching as he slumbers. We have held back thus far and our little mortals have done quite well for themselves, even those in Ponyville.” 

“You and your birds watch everything.” Scorch rolled his eyes. “There will be too many cases for Rising Star to handle alone. I’ll follow along, act like I am teaching him something, and if I come across a bad case that Rising Star can’t deal with and can’t wait for nurses or doctors to tend to, I’ll just… make it go away.” 

“Doctors must ply their trade and nurses must get practice… every tough case you pull away from them is an opportunity for learning lost,” Odin said. 

Sulking, Scorch grunted. 

“If you will excuse me, I need to go have a talk with a pony about a griffon named Loki. He is dying and I must go engage in an act of hypocrisy. I do believe that he has earned a better end than the one he is about to suffer,” Odin said, pointing to a pale pony that entered the room. 

On the pale pony’s hip there was a wilted petunia that had fallen over and died. No one seemed aware of his presence, yet all felt his passing. Ponies and griffons shivered as he drew near, mothers hugged their foals, husbands scooted closer to their wives, and big brothers held tighter to their little sisters. 

“Thanatos, a word with you if I might… perhaps we can make a deal?” Odin asked. 





Sentinel moved, sniffing, trying to catch a scent with his nostrils. Beside him, Grimglammer, Shadowguard, and Furious were doing much the same. On the backs of the three bigger lunar pegasi almost a dozen little griffons in total rode, armed with crossbows and bows. 

One griffon raised his crossbow, fired, and was rewarded with a squeak. 

Overhead, griffons used their sharp eyes, looking for little burning red dots in the night. 

His legs burned with inner fire and Sentinel did not feel well. He said nothing of course. Nopony felt well, they were all bitten and chewed up. His face had been chewed on, his ears had been nipped, and his legs were bitten all up and down their lengths. 

Sentinel had even suffered one excruciating bite upon his scrotum, something he knew he would need to get looked at later. 

There was another mechanical click followed by a squeak. 

The rats were being hunted now. Griffons and rats were sworn enemies from a time long since forgotten. Hatred burned in every griffons’ beady little eyes. The lunar pegasi patrolled the streets, heads down, noses sniffing, and griffons sniped the rats who came out of hiding to run. 

Sentinel’s ears perked. He could hear a heart beating. His hackles rose and he turned towards where a group of barrels were stashed. A long string of drool dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. 

A low rumbling growl resonated within Sentinel’s barrel. 

A griffon dived down from above, spear in talons, and disappeared behind the barrels. A moment later, it emerged with a giant rat skewered on the end of its spear. 

There were things that lived in the dark that were far more terrifying than rats, and Sentinel was among their number. 



 

There was a cheer when the first rays of dawn showed upon the horizon. The defenders of Ponyville had made it through the long night. The clocktower showed the time as being a little past seven thirty, but not quite a quarter to eight. 

The streets were being patrolled now and unicorns paired with groups of earth ponies, pegasi, or griffons were moving door to door and clearing houses. The remaining stragglers, those outside the range of Lyra’s spell, were now seeking refuge, trying to hide from those that hunted them. 

Lyra, already exhausted, was making ready to cast the spell again. 

Ponyville would need to be cleaned up and windows would need to be replaced. The many rat corpses piled around would need to be disposed of. To the victors go the responsibility of cleaning up the mess. 

Ponyville hospital was being cleared by Sentinel, Grimglammer, Shadowguard, and Furious, along with a small army of griffons. The underground spaces beneath the hospital were dark and almost labyrinthine. It was the perfect hunting grounds for lunar pegasi, who liked being inside of dark, cave-like spaces. 

And so, it was during these moments, while the sun was rising, the ponies and the residents of Ponyville realised they were capable of saving themselves if they all stood together and worked with their neighbors. 

Twilight Sparkle no longer seemed quite so important, at least at the moment, though this opinion was susceptible to change once trouble came again and the residents of Ponyville would cry out for Twilight Sparkle to save them. 

When trouble came once more to Ponyville, which it tended to do, the residents of Ponyville would be right behind Twilight Sparkle and would work with her to save their city. 

Standing on the edge of Ponyville, a lone zebra trotted into town, unconcerned by any potential dangers around her. On her sides were large wicker baskets loaded down with gourds, makeshift containers that held medicine that would be needed after the long night. 



 

Blinking, Bucky awoke with a yawn. “I had the strangest dream… wait… why am I in the school cafeteria…” 
	
	
> Chapter 611
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	His teeth chattering, Sentinel kept his eyes squeezed shut. His body, which felt freezing cold even as it was burning up, convulsed and quivered. He felt clammy and nauseous. The medicine he drank had somehow made him feel worse. 

For a moment, Sentinel wondered if he was going to die. 

Something wet touched him on his belly. The warmth was soothing, whatever it was, it wasn’t water, it made his skin tingle and made the burning pain in his bites dull down to a lingering throb. He heard the sound of water, like water trickling, and then he felt the warm wet touch of something against his flesh, perhaps a sponge. It rubbed, pressing against his skin, and he felt it slide over his injured scrotum. 

Opening his eyes, Sentinel saw something blurry and pink. He struggled to sit up a little so he could see better. 

“Hold still…” 

That voice… Sentinel’s fevered brain rang the alarm bells. And she was touching him! 

“I said hold still you big dumb brute!” 

A very strong hoof pressed upon his chest shoved him down into the mattress and the sponge continued to rub away filth. Sentinel could hear ringing in his ears. 

“This needed to be done… and I’ve seen it all anyway… and you’ve seen mine.” 

Sentinel’s tongue felt too thick for his mouth. 

“You have blood poisoning. Zecora brought lots of medicine. The stuff you drank is giving you a fever and purging your blood. You’re going to sweat it out and you’ll feel better. But your bites need to be cleaned and there are only so many nurses and so I am doing it. Now LAY DOWN!” 

There was another hard shove when Sentinel tried to lift himself up a bit so he could roll over. Sentinel moaned, gave up, and lay still. He could feel the sponge along his balls, along his belly, along his sheath and inner thighs. 

The fuzzy pink shape sitting beside him sniffled. She was crying. Sentinel felt terrible. 

“You’re so chewed up… this looks awful. I can see inside of you.” 

The touch of the sponge was gentle, whatever was being dribbled into his wounds made them feel better. The strong stench of something medicinal was in the air. 

Without meaning to do so, Sentinel drifted off to sleep. It had been a long night. 



 

Opening his eyes, Loki took a look around. All around him was an endless expanse of grey. He was laying on what appeared to be a soft fluffy cloud. Nearby there was an old griffon sitting with a white alicorn, and the pair of them were busy looking at magically projected images of scenes in Loki’s life. On one screen, the screen they were looking at, Loki was reaching up and thrusting his dagger into another griffon’s groin. 

Loki, suspecting the worst, made the assumption that he was dead. 

He knew his end was coming, he had felt it in the farmhouse. He picked himself up off of the cloud and began to brush himself off. He wondered what the Sun Mother was doing in his afterlife. Reaching up, he smoothed out his crest. 

“I have arrived,” Loki said as he tried to make his wings look presentable. He was a vain creature, and even in death, he planned to have perfect wings. “I await whatever eternal torment I deserve. I’m a bad griffon and I’ve done bad things. I’m practically vermin.” 

“I disagree,” Sun Mother replied. 

“As do I,” the old grizzled griffon said. 

The pair turned around and looked at Loki. 

“I’ve done nothing good with my life… behind me, I’ve left a trail of bodies in my wake. I’ve done every bad thing my mama told me to never do and then some.” Sitting down, Loki looked the pair in the eye. 

“And in the end of your life, you defended a family of earth ponies… farmers.” Sun Mother raised her eyebrow. “Why?” 

Loki shrugged. “I don’t know. They fed me.” 

“You considered them one of us,” the grizzled old griffon said. 

“Earth ponies get crapped on from the day they are born… well, most of them. If I was going to have an end, I suppose I wanted to have an end with someone I can associate with.” Loki began smoothing out his neck feathers. “Besides… I was bored and a fight seemed like a good idea at the time.” Loki stopped his preening and looked up. “Getting your throat wet, getting your dick wet, getting your blades wet. That’s all there is in life.” 

“I must respectfully disagree,” Sun Mother said with a teasing smile. 

“So what sort of horrible punishment am I in for?” Loki asked, getting to the point. 

“You are going to live,” the grizzled old griffon replied. 

The greasy looking harrier cocked his head sideways. “What?” 

“I am Odin… as you know. And recently, I came into a little power. Instead of squandering it for my own benefit, I plan to make the world a better place.” 

“And in the spirit of cooperation, I have decided to help him,” Sun Mother said, giving Loki a serene smile. “You have proven to be a trustworthy trickster.” 

The large white alicorn turned her head and looked at a projected image. “This is you… showing your gentle nature with one of my subjects… Scootaloo.” 

Odin pointed to another screen. “This is you… stabbing your own brother in the back after you found out he sold your mother for a few coppers.” Odin frowned. “You did a bad thing, but you did it for the right reasons I suppose.” 

“And this is you… this is you sacrificing your life for a few earth pony apple farmers.” Sun Mother pointed to a projection with her wing, a smirk upon her lips. “You could have flown away. You could have taken yourself to safety. There was absolutely no need to endanger yourself.” 

“Loki… I am in need of servants… the world is in need of changing… and to this end, I am going to make you one of my psychopomps… one of my messengers… and you are going to live.” Odin leaned forward and extended his right talons. 

“I might have have a little gift to give you as well,” Sun Mother said, smiling and showing perfect teeth. 



 

“Sentinel? Sentinel… Can you hear me, Ensign Sentinel?” 

Opening his eyes, Sentinel tried to focus. There was something pleasant and blue looking in his vision. Beside it, there was something pink. And there was something grey. His ears rang. His body felt warm and cold. His legs ached in the worst way. His groin area felt as though there was a white hot poker being jammed up his backside and twisted around. 

“He’s so little… the poison is harder on his body.” 

“He will be fine, I assure you. Lunar pegasi are quite durable. When he comes out of this, he will be almost immune to such maladies in the future.” 

“I cleaned him up… when the nurse finally got around to look at him, she said I did a very good job. The doctor came in and gave him a few stitches in different places, including six… in… uh… a very… uh… delicate place that no colt ever wants stitches.” 

“Thank you so very much, Diamond Tiara.” 

Sentinel tried to process this information and failed. His brain balked at the very notion. He heard bells ringing in his ears. His mouth felt dry and his tongue felt like it was going to split open. 

“This doesn’t seem fair.” 

“What does not seem fair, Diamond Tiara?” 

“Everypony is celebrating and happy… and Sentinel is suffering from a horrible fever.” 

“So are many others.” 

“But Sentinel was a hero…” 

“So were many others.” 

“I just feel so bad for him… it makes my heart ache and I don’t know how to deal with it!” 

“Diamond Tiara… you have learned compassion, I do believe. You keenly feel the pain of another. You have bathed his wounds and endured embarrassment and awkwardness for his sake. I do believe you are getting better.” 

“It needed to be done. Yes, I felt all squirmy doing it, but there was nopony else and it needed to be done and my guts were hurting and I felt sick with worry and there was an ache inside of my barrel—” 

“Hush.” 

Sentinel heard a whimper. He tried to lift his leg and found that he could not. 

“Stay here with his mother and look after what I hold most valuable.” 



 

Loki awoke, feeling funny all over. His eyes focused right away. He turned his head and saw Boadicea and Scootaloo, who were both sitting beside him. He was laying on a folded blanket on the hard floor. A cushion was beneath his head. A blanket was placed over him. 

“You died!” 

There was fear in Boadicea’s voice, Loki could hear it. 

“You died and Doctor Mawu came over here and poured something down your beak and then you coughed and started breathing again,” Scootaloo said. 

“Want some water?” Boadicea asked, holding up a water glass. 

Nodding, Loki took a deep breath. He lifted his head and opened his beak. The water hitting his throat was cold, so very cold, and felt good going down. 

“We look after our own. We’ve been your nurses,” Scootaloo said. 

“I just had to rest a while.” Loki let his head fall back upon the pillow. 

“They had to give you a blood transfusion,” Scootaloo said. “You didn’t have much left.” 

“Somebirdy gave me blood?” Loki asked. 

Holding out her foreleg, Boadicea showed Loki her bandage. “They had to take a dangerous amount of my blood to fill you back up. I’ve been feeling lightheaded and woozy now for hours.” 

“She gave you about one third of her blood. She was the only available match.” Scootaloo pulled the blanket back over Loki’s girth and then gave the griffon a gentle pat. 

“Thank you,” Loki said in a low voice. 

“Aw, don’t mention it,” Boadicea replied. 



 

Standing amidst the wreckage, Princess Luna looked even more regal than usual. Smoke rising from a burned building whirled around her. The sun blazed bright, but offered little warmth. Ponies stared at her, some bowing, some fearful, a few with gazes of adoration. 

“Thunderlane… for your courage, I do believe you are due for promotion. I have spoken with Sparkler… alas, Flash Sentry is gone off with my sister, but Sparkler does heartily agree… you are to be given the rank of Lieutenant and with it, a substantial pay raise. As a Ponyville police officer, you went above and beyond the call of duty. Because of your actions, many were saved. Normally, I would have a much better speech prepared, but I felt that your actions deserved recognition now rather than later. Strike while the iron is hot, and all that.” 

Standing between Flitter and Cloudchaser, Thunderlane lifted his head high. “I was just doing my job.” 

“Yes… yes indeed, many ponies and griffons last night were just doing their job. You did your job, they did their job, and because so many of you were so dedicated to doing your jobs under the very worst of conditions, many of my subjects continue to draw breath.” Princess Luna’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Thunderlane. “The pegasi of Ponyville could have saved themselves by waiting on clouds until this crisis was over. You chose to stay and fight. And you, you, Thunderlane, you offered a little more. Your leadership under Sentinel’s supervision was exemplary.” 

“I just made ponies listen to what Sentinel had to say, that’s all,” Thunderlane said, his ears splaying out sideways. 

“Yes. Exactly. That is the point I am trying to make.” Princess Luna stepped forward. “I must wonder… how many lives were saved because you swallowed your pegasus pride… how many lives were saved because you took orders from a colt… how many lives were saved because of your sense of command and doing what was right?” 

Flitter leaned on Thunderlane and rubbed his neck with the side of her face. Cloudchaser, her eyes brimming with tears, held her head a little higher. 

“Rebuild!” Princess Luna commanded. “If only Canterlot had fared so well. If only the citizens of Canterlot had your courage and your valour, as well as your leadership. Half of Canterlot was burned to the ground last night because some panicked fools lacked leadership and tried to fight the rats by burning down every building where the rats held ground. The ponies of Canterlot lacked horse sense.” 

Looking at the crowd, Princess Luna saw fierce pride in the eyes looking back at her. Her words had buried themselves into the heart of every pony and griffon present. For this, she felt glad. She was weary of bellyaching and mewling cries for help when even minor trouble happened. 

“All of you have proven your worth… and I, the Princess Luna, am most impressed.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 612
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Entering into Sentinel’s room, Bucky was careful not to make a sound. On the bed, sleeping, were two foals. Sentinel, laying on his back, shivered somewhat and twitched in his sleep. Laying against his side, one hind leg thrown over his belly and her head resting upon Sentinel’s barrel, was Diamond Tiara. 

The blanket had slipped off to one side. 

Making no sound, Bucky pulled the blanket over the pair, and grinned a little grin knowing that there would be all kinds of embarrassment upon waking. He stood there for a moment, feeling proud of both of them. 

Diamond Tiara had proven herself to many adults in the town hall… she had comforted foals, been a tremendous help, and had even stomped a rat that had come to close to the foals she had been responsible for foalsitting. 

She had come a long way from being a spoiled bully, and the other ponies in town were beginning to notice. There was still a long ways to go though. But Diamond Tiara was on the right path. 

Bucky backed out of the room and bumped into Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles. Both looked worried. He raised his eyebrow. 

“They’re sleeping together… well, innocently. They’re adorable,” Bucky said. 

“We were worried. We won’t wake her.” Cookie’s eyes gushed liquid adoration as she stared at the door. She opened it just a crack, looked inside, shut the door, and squealed. 

“I remember how she used to torment Sweetie Belle… now… well, the way I hear it, she was one of the most helpful foals in town hall last night. She and Sweetie Belle both.” Hondo looked at his wife and then at Bucky. “We’re going to get silver medals of commendation from the Lunar Court for being model unicorns. So are Galaxy Guide and Shining Star.” 

“Congratulations,” Bucky said in a soft whisper. 

Still gushing liquid adoration, Cookie nodded her head, an enthusiastic bob. “I gotta say, it felt good giving those rats a good what for. I’ve never really used my magic to make a difference like that before. Hondo and I have been taking magic lessons as a couple to spice up our marriage.” 

Exhausted looking, Hondo leaned on his wife, Cookie. “Sweetie Belle is somewhere in this hospital fighting the good fight and helping ponies feel better. It was nice seeing you again. We’re going to go look for our little Sweetie.” 

“Be well,” Bucky said, bowing his head. His black hood fell over his face and his features were lost in shadow. He watched the couple go. 

“Hondo… he’s so charmingly creepy… I do so adore him…” 



 

“Private Freyja and Private Callum… just the Raptors I’ve been looking for,” Princess Luna said, holding her head high and looking down upon the pair. “You came to Ponyville with Sentinel. You fought well from what I hear.” Luna eyed their bandages and a faint smile appeared upon her lips. 

“Just doing our duty,” Freyja said. Slow and weary, she raised her wing in salute. 

“Both of you fought in the orphanage engagement,” Luna said. 

Callum nodded. 

“From what I have heard, that was a fierce battle… you went in there to help Fancy Pants and Fleur dis Lee. They refused to evacuate until every foal was accounted for… is this true?” Luna asked. 

“Is what true? That we fought in the battle or that they refused to leave?” Freyja replied. 

“They refused to go until the last foal they were responsible for was found,” Callum said. 

“Oh my… I do believe those two may have earned themselves a royal pardon.” Luna paused and lowered her head a little more. “As for you two… I have spoken with Ripple. I believe she wants to speak with you.” 

“It is going to have to wait,” Freyja said. 

“Sorry.” Callum nodded. 

“You will keep Ripple waiting?” Luna asked. 

“We are going to go home, get a bath, preen one another, maybe screw one another to celebrate being alive, and then we are going to sleep for three whole days.” Freyja yawned to punctuate her words. 

“The papers are going to write about what you did,” Luna said in a low voice as she raised her head. The corner of her mouth twitched. 

Callum closed his eyes and leaned on Freyja. 

“I wish I had been there to witness it… the eyewitnesses make it sounds so interesting.” 

Freyja hung her head. “We just did our duty.” 

“You jumped onto the backs of two former Canterlot nobles, rode them into battle, you, Callum, you armed yourself with a flagpole as a spear… and do be a dear… what did Fancy Pants shout as his battle cry?” 

Callum sighed. “Merciful stars, I do hope I do not soil myself,” the griffon replied in a dull monotone. 

Luna turned to look at Freyja. “And Fleur dis Lee let go of a shout about saving her precious babies. You slapped her on the backside, made her rear up by yanking on her perfectly coiffed mane, and then she bolted forward into the fray… I must say… I am impressed.” Luna, unable to contain herself any longer, began to laugh, a booming chuckle that echoed through the hospital hallways. 

A short distance away, Nurse Redheart began to snicker. 



 

Hondo Flanks found his daughter sitting in a chair, dull eyed, and tired looking. He approached, looked around for Cookie, and saw her off getting some coffee from a comfort station down the hall. 

“Hiya Sweetie,” Hondo said in a cheerful but exhausted voice. “You look a little pooped.” 

“I’m too pooped to poop,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Too pooped to celebrate.” 

“I suppose there is a lot to celebrate… maybe after a little rest, we’ll throw a little party.” Hondo sat down in a chair beside Sweetie and wrapped his foreleg around her shoulders. 

“No… daddy… I got my cutie mark… I don’t know when it happened… I just looked back and saw it was there. None of my friends were with me.” Sweetie Belle leaned over in her chair and looked down at her hip. 

Hondo’s eyes dropped. On Sweetie’s hip there was a soft pastel pink heart with a tear going down the middle. Over the tear was a band-aid. Hondo took a deep breath for a moment, reached up, rubbed his eyes, and then looked down again. “That looks pretty important. There are a lot of ponies with broken hearts right now and you must have made somepony feel better.” 

“I guess I did.” Sweetie Belle looked up at her father and yawned. “I can’t do this anymore. I want to keep helping,  but I’m so sleepy.” She leaned over, rested her head against her father, and in moments, Sweetie Belle was fast asleep. 

“Hey Cookie,” Hondo said as his wife drew near. His mustache quivered. “Our little filly has a cutie mark.” 

Cookie dropped two cups of coffee she was holding in her telekinesis and her mouth dropped open. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. 



 

“Apple Bloom is running a high fever and I don’t feel so good myself, but we’re going to be okay,” Cheerilee said as she looked at Sparkler. “If you hadn’t of showed up when you did…” Cheerilee reached up into her mane with her hoof, prodded a few curls, and then extended her hoof out to Sparkler. “Could you see that Loki gets these? Tell him I don’t need them any more.” 

Sparkler looked down at the glass vials and knew right away what was in them. She felt a withering sense of horror as she realised what the Apples must have been planning. She looked up and looked into Cheerilee’s eyes. Cheerilee had been her teacher once. Sparkler tried to speak, but all that came out was a pained grunt. 

“I don’t know what we would have done without Loki… Big Mac couldn’t have done this alone… I heard that Granpappy Danver died during the attack and Touchon died just an hour ago.” Cheerilee’s eyes glazed over. “She was a foal… one of my best students. She had just got her cutie mark.. a carrot wrapped in a pink ribbon.” 

Stumbling forward, Cheerilee collapsed onto Sparkler and began sobbing. 

“I’ve lost some of my students!” 



 

“Think more will come tonight?” Ripple asked, looking up at her husband. 

Both of them were red eyed and exhausted. 

“Luna has sent word that it is unlikely.” Rising Star shook his head. “Something like this takes a lot of power. We’ll likely see another attack of some sort, but not tonight. I hope.” 

“I’m about to drop,” Ripple said, admitting weakness. 

“Me too. I don’t even know how you are standing.” Rising Star leaned down his head and kissed Ripple on the cheek. He brushed his body up alongside the smaller filly beside him and rubbed his cheek against hers. She smelled of sweat, of steel, and of blood. 

Rising Star thought she smelled perfect. He stuck his snoot into Ripple’s ear and inhaled. His heart skipped a beat when he heard Ripple giggle. “Say… how about you and I go take a bath together, get cleaned up, and get a few hours of sleep. We’ll wake up and make sure the night is safe. I’ll scrub your back… right between your wings.” 

“I’d like that,” Ripple replied. 



 

“Thistle.” 

“Bucky.” The kelpie leaned forward and smooched Bucky, giving him a wet smack. 

“I heard you did good for yourself last night.” Bucky pressed himself up against Thistle and they stood chest to chest, neck to neck. 

“I did a little stomping. Didn’t get bit.” Thistle leaned into Bucky and rested her neck against his. “I got some good news from the doctor.” 

“You did?” Bucky asked. 

“The doctor said she would like it if I waited another week or two, but she said that everything looked good down there and I’d probably be fine if I wanted to do things… just so long as I did them slow and easy,” Thistle replied. 

“That is good news.” Bucky could feel something thumping inside of Thistle. 

“Berry got bit… it was just a tiny bite, but I’m so scared.” Thistle’s voice was low, soft, and sleepy. 

“Berry is fine. I’ve checked on her. She’s running a bit of a fever, but she is in no danger at all. She’s an earth pony… and Shetland stock. Bon Bon will be fine as well, I’ve already checked up on her too.” 

“Bon Bon don’t take no guff… when she saw the rats, she let out a string of cuss words that turned the air around her blue. Bucky, I swear, the candies on the counter singed, I am not making this up. My ears actually burned and there were little wisps of smoke coming off of the candies and everything.” 

“What happened to the rats?” Bucky asked. 

“They dropped dead from Bon Bon’s swearies,” Thistle replied. 

“Would Bon Bon smack you right now if she heard you saying this?” Bucky stepped back and looked Thistle in the eye. 

Reaching up with her hoof, Thistle tapped on her chest and then crossed her heart. “Ask Berry if you don’t believe me. She’s an earth pony and she wouldn’t lie to you.” 

“Bon Bon killed rats by swearing at them?” 

“Bucky, I swear, I am not making it up! Lyra saw it, Berry Punch saw it, an entire store full of customers saw it, Bon Bon has a horrible potty mouth. The things she said actually hurt my ears and made me want to cry.” 

“If that is true, that is a new type of magic, one I’ve never heard of before. I wonder if it is some kind of specialised earth pony magic… and if it is, I am terrified that Piña will end up with it,” Bucky said in a worried voice. 

“I want to go home.” Thistle leaned up against Bucky once more. 

“Soon.” 

“Is Sentinel going to be okay?” 

“He lost a lot of blood and he’s infected. He’ll be fine. Anything that doesn’t kill a lunar pegasus only makes them stronger. Luna says he'll be darn near immune to septicemia later, so I guess it is good that he is getting it over with now.” 

“Think we’ll be safe tonight? I want to sleep in our bed in a big pile with all of our foals in the bed with us.” 

“I hope we’ll be safe… I’d like to sleep in a big pile too.” 

“I just hope that nothing causes Bon Bon to swear like that ever again.” 
	
	
> Chapter 613
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were a few last things to do, a few final heartfelt thank yous to make, a few more heroes to acknowledge. Princess Luna paused as she approached the door, already knowing that two of the heroes she was looking for would be inside. Because of their… unique punishment, their location was known at all times. 

Lifting a hoof, Princess Luna knocked. 

The door opened and a white head peeked out. There was a gasp and then it vanished inside the room, leaving the door wide open. Seeing as how the door was open, Princess Luna entered. 

Inside the small but cozy room, there were two unicorns, one blue, one white. The white one, a mare, cowered, looking fearful, the blue one moved between Luna and the white mare, as if to protect her. 

“Come to check up on us?” the blue unicorn asked. 

Lifting herself up to her full height, Princess Luna nodded. “Yes I have, Night Light.” Princess Luna shook her head. “Twilight Velvet, why must you fear me? Was I not the one that begged for leniency on your behalf during your trial? Was I not the one who spoke, who testified in front of the court about the purity and the wholesomeness of your dreams?” 

Twilight Velvet, her head bowed low, nodded but said nothing. 

“I have come to speak to you about recent events.” Princess Luna looked Night Light in the eye and was pleased that he did not turn away. Night Light understood the majesty of the night. “What you did was very brave and I am most impressed by your actions.” 

The blue unicorn stallion nodded his head. “We thank you, your Majesty.” 

“What you did went above and beyond the call of duty… the conditions of your punishment require that you be public servants… nowhere does it state that you must follow any order that puts your life in danger—” 

“Our babies were in danger!” Once the last word left her lips, Twilight Velvet froze, looking mortified, terrified, her whole body trembled with fear as she realised she had just interrupted Princess Luna. 

The Princess of the Night’s lips twitched with the need to smile. “You stormed the dormitory towers, checked each floor as they were swarming with nightmare spawned necromantic rats bearing a terrible malady, and you rescued many students. I could not imagine the courage it must have required to go into those towers, into such close quarters, and brave the incoming horde. And at no point was this required of you. Indeed, at any moment, you could have invoked your contracts and said that you were not to be placed in danger.” 

Night Light’s head turned and he lifted his hoof. He gestured around the small room. The walls were lined with shelves. On the shelves were photographs in frames, and each of the frames looked like something foals would make. Popsicle sticks, macaroni, sea shells, glitter, messy drizzles of glue, each frame was made by some loving and adoring soul who prized these two ponies. 

Princess Luna looked around the small room. There was a bed in one corner, a small table just right for two in the other corner. A little hot plate sat on another small table. A somewhat battered looking tea set was set out on the table, with chipped cups, nicked saucers, and teapot with a mismatched lid. 

The contract stated these two ponies were to never have bits, to never know wealth again, and to only have what others would provide for them. Looking around the room, it was clear that they had been provided for, and the picture frames showed who had been providing for them. 

“After the towers were cleared, you joined the defenders at the outer perimeter. Night Light, your light spells proved most valuable. Rising Star mentions in a brief write up of the events that you were instrumental to his defense plans. But at no point were you required to place your lives in danger.” Princess Luna stepped forward, towards a shelf, and began to examine pictures. Inside of a frame decorated with dried and shellacked vines, there was a photo of Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle, both of them foals and in the bathtub together. 

It was the sort of photo that Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle would beg Princess Luna not to reveal to the public. Luna tucked it away in memory, knowing it would be useful in dreams. 

“Is there a point to all of this?” Night Light asked. 

“Why yes there is,” Princess Luna replied. She whirled and turned on Night Light. Stepping forward, she came snoot to snoot with the blue stallion. “I am currently the only Royal Pony Sister in Equestria. And I see souls in front of me, worthy of a reward of some sort. Real valour took place here… true nobility. And so, it comes to this.” 

With a flash of her horn, Princess Luna manifested two contracts. They ignited, burning with a strange pink and purple flame that produced no heat and no smoke. 

“Consider this a royal pardon… a reprieve, if you will. One night of bravery has purchased your freedom. No longer are you required to live as public servants to make up for what happened, the wealth and privilege you enjoyed at the expense of others.” The majestic blue alicorn looked at the contracts as the last remaining parts of them burned to dust. 

“What if we don’t want to go?” Twilight Velvet asked. She shook her head. “We’re happy here… this… this is our home. We love these foals… these cubs… these calves. There is something amazing here and we are a part of it. We love this funny little room and our funny little bed… we’re close to Twilight and we can visit her at any time.” 

“I suspect that Buckminster will pay you a salary… but watch out for his performance reviews… you are free… do what you will. Now, if you will excuse me, I have two other former nobles to go and sort out.” 



 

Holding a spider golem up to eye level, Bucky applied the finishing touches. A smaller, weaker version of Lyra’s spell was now embedded in this spider golem and within a few hours, the spell would spread to all of them, due to the connection they all shared to the dreamscape and to Bucky. 

The golems would not shatter every window, nor break every delicate thing, or even cause ponies or griffons to go deaf. But the harmonic resonance they now emitted would cause nightmare creatures given flesh to have explosive headaches. 

The spider golem beeped and fussed at Bucky, its legs wiggling as it was held airborne. 

“No… I will not give you heat beams, death rays, or disintegration emitters. Not unless the situation is dire and I feel that I have no other option.” 

More beeping and blooping. 

“The situation is not dire! The sun is supposed to rise each day! We are not in a time of crisis!” Finished, Bucky set the golem down. “Go on, get out of here. Teach that spell to others and go hunt any rat survivors.” 

The spider golem raised a leg in salute and the scurried off to spread its new knowledge to others, spewing golem gibberish as it departed. 

Sighing, Bucky lifted his talons. “Yes, all hail the Lunar Court.” 



 

The sun approached the horizon. One stallion, five mares, and one griffoness all waited, feeling apprehensive, worried, and a little afraid. It was a time of togetherness. 

“I’d feel better if Sentinel was home,” Derpy said as Cadance suckled. 

Beside her, Thistle nursed Bell Heather. The kelpie nodded. She had taken a nap, but was still very much exhausted. She was thankful to be home, in her own bed, surrounded by those she loved. 

Bon Bon lay next to Thistle, comfortable on her belly, a zebra foal in her forelegs. She yawned and watched the others around her. She too, had taken a bit of a nap, but longed for real sleep. It had been a long night and an even longer day. Bon Bon had no intention of opening her shop tomorrow. Or maybe even the next day. 

Pressed against Bon Bon’s side was Lyra, who held Harper. Lightning arced between their horns, static discharge, it crackled and fizzled, and Harper’s mane had twice its usual frizziness. Since their reunion, Lyra had not let go of Harper. 

Pressed against Derpy’s other side, Bucky lay with his head resting on the bulge of Berry Punch’s stomach. Bucky worried, Berry’s flesh felt just a little too warm, and she was somewhat sweaty. Berry was still, her eyes were closed, and little grunts of pleasure could be heard from her as Belisama brushed her mane. 

“Dinky was so brave… she blasted any rat that popped inside,” Derpy said.

“Harper killed her fair share.” Belisama gave a tug on her brush to work free a tangle. 

The frizzy maned foal nodded. “Zap.” 

“I want my foals all back under one roof.” Derpy’s voice was a quavering whimper. Her lower lip trembled and her eyes moistened. “Ponies treat Sentinel as an adult and they forget that he is a foal. I’ve held him as he’s cried. I’ve been with him while he is in pain. He still needs his mothers.” 

“Diamond Tiara has been left to care for him. One day Derpy, you are going to have to let go of Sentinel and give his care to Diamond Tiara,” Bon Bon said, looking over at the grey mare. 

“She’s good, but she’s not one of us.” Derpy shook her head. “And Moonbow is so rough… even by pegasus standards.” 

“One day, sooner than we’d like, Sentinel is going to grow up. He is going to have responsibilities. He is going to have tasks that take him away from home. And he is probably going to come home in less than whole condition sometimes,” Bon Bon said as she stroked Sukari. 

“Maziwa?” Sukari asked. She smacked her lips together. 

It took Bon Bon a moment to figure out what Sukari wanted. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re a little old for this, but… I suppose.” The earth pony more rolled over onto her side and kicked out her hind leg. The zebra foal squirmed out of Bon Bon’s forelegs, crawled along Bon Bon’s belly, and latched on to a teat. Reaching down, Bon Bon patted the foal on the back. 

“I don’t want Sentinel to come home bloodied and bruised.” Lyra reached up and wiped her nose. One ear drooped, going limp against her face, while the other stood in halfhearted defiance of Lyra’s worry. “Sentinel was born in the spring. That’s all we know… this spring, he will be nine years of age.” 

“He is definitely in his adolescence,” Derpy said, glancing at Lyra. 

“Do you… do you… well, do you think he… do you think he thinks of Diamond Tiara or Moonbow and.. um—” 

“Lyra Heartstrings, if you finish that sentence I will never let you hear the end of it,” Bon Bon said, leaning her head over and getting into Lyra’s personal space. 

“But Bonnie—” 

“Lyra, I mean it, I will tell Sentinel that you were asking about that.” 

Bon Bon’s terrible words loomed in the air like some unspeakable dread. Lyra fell silent and gave Harper a squeeze. The static discharge from Harper and Lyra spread to Bon Bon, and Bon Bon’s pink and blue mane began to stand on end. Leaning forward a little bit more, Bon Bon kissed Lyra on the lips, pressing in for a moment, getting a good tight seal, and then pulling away. 

Seeing her mothers kiss, Harper giggled. 

“The rats showed up before the sun actually set,” Belisama said as she pulled her brush through Berry’s curls. The griffoness’ eyes darted to the sabre that was within easy reach, sheathed in its scabbard and hung from the bedpost. She had used it last night and Lugus had praised her fluid movements. 

From within Belisama’s shawl, Bandua peeped. Setting down the brush, Belisama produced a spoon. She pulled out her and Bucky’s cub and set her down upon the bed. 

Bucky’s entire attention shifted and his eyes locked upon Bandua. She was a tawny brown on her backside still, but she had grown a little. She had what appeared to be porcupine quills now, spiny growths that would turn into feathers. 

Bandua lifted her head and peeped, letting the world know she was hungry. 

“Foal?” Harper asked, looking at Bandua. 

“Cub,” Lyra replied. 

“Nope. Foal.” Harper’s eyes narrowed as he challenged her mother. 

“Fubby-wubby,” Bucky said. 

Harper’s dark purple eyes glanced at her mama mama, then at Bandua, and then at Lyra. “Fubby-wubby?” 

There was a retching sound as Belisama produced a hot meal for Bandua. 

“Yuck.” Harper shook her head in disgust. 

“Oh come on Harper… who wouldn’t want a delicious meal of hot vomit?” Bucky asked. He watched as Harper buried her face against Lyra’s neck and heard giggling all around him. 

“It’s getting dark,” Dinky said, pushing her way through the bedroom door. She stood in the doorway, looking at her parents, all piled all the bed. 

Behind Dinky, Piña Colada shoved her way into the room. 

“Well don’t just stand there, come on and get in the bed with us,” Berry Punch said. 

“We don’t want the nights to be scary again,” Piña said as she darted for the bed. 

Dinky lept from several feet away, not wanting to risk a leg with anything that might be lurking in the dark below the bed. “Piña and I took a vote and we’re sleeping with you tonight.” 

As Bucky was piled upon by two small fillies, he thought of Sentinel and was glad that Sentinel had somepony to sleep with him. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 614
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lifting his eyes from the sheaf of paper held in front of him, Bucky looked at the unicorn sitting in front of him. Named Mask, he had been selected for the Shadowbolts, hoof picked by Luna herself. 

An actor, an infiltrator, and a mid ranking spy, Mask came with a great deal of experience. He sat, with one front hoof folded over the other, staring up at the ceiling. Bucky studied the the unicorn sitting across from him. 

“How is the cleanup going?” Mask asked. 

Bucky set down the stack of papers and set his talons upon the table, allowing them to settle into idle mode. Soon, they would begin doing what talons liked to do in their spare time. 

“Ponyville is quite a mess from what I understand… and Canterlot is even worse,” Mask said in somewhat cheerful but bored sounding voice. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky nodded. “The past few days since the attack have been difficult. No windows in the middle of winter makes it difficult to deal with the cold.” 

Mask nodded. “I would imagine so.” The unicorn raised one thin eyebrow. “Any more rats? I understand they carried a nasty bite.” 

“There has been a few, but their days are numbered.” Bucky’s talons, now bored out of their simple mind, began to drum upon the table. “Enough about rats… Mask… tell me… why are you here? What is it about the Shadowbolts appeals to you?” 

“Princess Luna is making you interview me, yes?” Mask asked. 

Nodding, Bucky sighed. “Look, I’d rather not be doing this. There is so much more to do.” 

Mask lifted one hoof and made a gesture. “Life is all about change… adaptation… evolving… one day, Princess Luna, she comes to me… and she tells me that I could be part of a new breed of ponies… she explains to me how you changed… how you have been altered. And as she talks… I hear about a way to change, to adapt, a way to evolve. To move forward and become something new. But I must say, the name lunicorn seems so very silly.” 

“So… you want a change… but it still doesn’t tell me why you are doing this.” Bucky looked Mask in the eye. 

Mask raised both of his forelegs out to his sides and shrugged. “It will make me a better thespian…” 



 

The pony across the table was a little pudgy and had a stubby neck. A shock of bright green mane sprouted upwards from between the earth pony’s ears. A smile split his muzzle and his eyes were friendly. 

“Would an earth pony become a moon pony?” 

“I’m sorry?” Bucky asked. 

“What will I become? I’m an earth pony… if a unicorn becomes a lunicorn, does an earth pony become a moon pony?” 

“I would suppose so, Black Briar.” Bucky cleared his throat. “You’re a good cook, you have a good knowledge of medicines, and… you have a talent for poisons from what I understand.” 

“I am also utterly immune to most poisons and my blood can be used to make antivenin which is really neat if you don’t mind me bragging. Earth pony blood is really awesome stuff.” 

After a moment, Bucky nodded. The earth ponies were almost as hearty as the lunar pegasi when dealing with the recent cases of septicemia. Where many pegasi and unicorns were still in the hospital recovering, most earth ponies were already out and about, rebuilding Ponyville. 

“I want to be able to travel the world, gather exotic ingredients, and learn new recipes… I’m a dirt poor earth pony… and this will give the chance to follow my dreams… I really don’t mind killing a few deserving sorts if I have to,” Black Briar said, his smile never leaving his face. 

“Oh… trust me… there is going to be lots of killing…” 



 

Bucky studied the hippogriff sitting across from him but tried not to stare. She was pretty in her own way, had lion paws rather than talons, and had a blue-grey pelt that looked like a pregnant thunderhead. 

“Rainy Sky Tainy—” 

“Call me Tainy.”

“Tainy. You signed up for the experimental part of our project. To see what the shadow generator does to non-ponies. Feeling confident?” 

“Always.” The hippogriff’s eyes narrowed. “You just became a daddy to a little hippogriff… trying to see what your little cub is going to grow up and look like?” 

Bucky nodded. “Yes, actually.” 

“Stare all you want, I don’t mind. I want to be the center of attention. It is part of being a skald… if I’m not being stared at, if I am not being adored, I cannot make the magic happen.” 

The hippogriff’s voice was pouty and Bucky could not help himself, he smiled. 

“You are more like a sphinx than hippogriff… you have a pony face,” Bucky said. 

“I know… I’ve been told that before.” Tainy smiled, revealing long fangs. “Being part lion has a few perks though. Check out my fangs… they’re shiny.” 

“Impressive.” Bucky smiled, revealing his own. As his lips peeled back, more and more horrible jagged teeth were revealed. 

“Oh… that’s not fair… I hope this shadow infusion gives my smile a bit more… bite. Teeth are so important to making a good impression. Ponies… look at me… and I look like such a soft, cuddly, adorable, fluffy little creature… and I am!” Tainy’s smile grew wider. “But then I flash the fangs and right away, I make it known that I mean business.” 

“I think you’ll take well to the shadow grafting… looking forward to working with you, Tainy…” 



 

“You are one very big pegasus.” Sitting in his chair, Bucky looked up at the pegasus on the other side of the table. “Says you’re a strong precog and you’re a supercharger… you came out gifted. And you’re big as well.” 

The pegasus nodded. “It is a pleasure to meet you, sir.” 

The pegasus’ voice was such a low whisper that it was almost inaudible. 

“Rumour has it there are some lunar pegasi in my family tree. We don’t talk about it, I don’t know why.” 

“Storm Blitz. You… you were thrown out of the guard academy. Want to talk about it?” 

“No.” 

“We need to talk about it,” Bucky said. 

Storm Blitz’s ears drooped. “Must we?” he asked in a breezy soft whisper. 

“I know the truth of what happened. I know why you ran amok. You did the right thing. You’ll be better off working for us. We might be killers, but we’ll try to be moral killers.” 

“She was so young… she was a teenager, but she looked younger…” 

“It’s okay… really… I know you came here to avoid being in trouble, but you aren’t in trouble. I wanted to tell you to your face that I think you did the right thing.” 

The big pegasus, hunched over in a chair far too small, sighed. “I don’t feel bad about what I did.” 

“Look, what your fellow cadets did was deplorable. What you did was commendable. I just thought it might be nice for you to hear something positive about what you did.” Bucky leaned forward over the table. 

“Thank you, sir,” Storm Blitz said in a tiny voice that did not match his body. 



 

“Hi Erebus… you are so cuddly and adorable… yes you are!” Holding Erebus up in front of him, Bucky bumped snoots with the colt. “I hear you are starting to eat solid foods!” 

Shaking her head, Princess Luna watched Bucky and her colt for several long moments before she got back to work, making certain that each focusing crystal was perfect in its calibration. It was something only an alicorn could do. 

Flapping his tiny, stubby wings, Erebus giggled as he looked into Bucky’s eyes. A stubby horn protruded from his forehead. 

“I understand that the Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns is still quite a mess,” Bucky said as he pulled Erebus to his barrel and sat back in his chair. “The rats swarmed Canterlot castle and flooded into the school.” 

“The teachers’ defense of the school is admirable, but they are scholars. When faced with actual combat, many of them shut down from fear.” Luna’s voice was cold and unfeeling. “We sustained casualties. I wonder if this will change my sister’s mind about the need to teach combat oriented magic in the school.” 

Bucky began to rock Erebus back and forth. 

“Meanwhile, in your school, many of your students marshaled their own defense and began to fight back. Vicious little griffon cubs and diamond dogs gave the rats a good thrashing. Your unicorn students used combat spells… simple spells, but helpful nonetheless, to defend themselves.” 

“You sound irritated,” Bucky said, looking down at Erebus’ smiling face. 

“I am.” Luna turned away from one finished calibrated crystal. 

“Luna, I am not saying this to patronise you—” 

“Oh just spit it out,” Luna said, rolling her teal eyes. 

“But for whatever it is worth, we need both. Think of the winter games… a diplomatic approach was useful there, and much was accomplished that day. We need a school that provides a high polish, a sense of refinement, and classes that teach the difference between a tea spoon and a table spoon. A dinner fork and a salad fork. A water glass and a wine glass.” 

The alicorn did not reply, but went to work on the next crystal, looking sulky. 

“Once those crystals are done, we can start work on altering the first test subject. Excited?” Bucky asked. 

“Very.” Luna’s terse response allowed her to keep her focus. 

“What sort of pony will you grow up to be I wonder? Will you be a little fighter? A little scrapper? Are you a born diplomat? Will you be a rake and a rogue?” Bucky asked Erebus as he rocked the foal in his forelegs. 

Erebus’ eyes bulged and he belched. 

“Oh… one of those sorts of ponies.” Bucky smiled and bounced Erebus up and down a little. “When you get a little older, I’ll see to it that Sparkler gives you lessons.” 

From behind the crystal columns, Princess Luna began to snicker. 

“Sparkler chugged down an entire quart of hard cider, another quart of beer, and then she burped and blew out Scorch’s mane. Poof! The fire was gone and Scorch did not look amused at all. Rising Star thought it was funny though. Scorch had to stomp his big earth pony hoof to get his mane to ignite again.” 

There was a chortle from behind the crystal columns. 

“Because of that one embarrassing incident, Scorch has promised to make any foals that Sparkler has interesting." Bucky leaned his head down and kissed Erebus on the bridge of his muzzle. “The moral of the story is, never embarrass a primordial fire elemental and blow his hair out. Very old creatures can become quite vain. Ask your mother.” 

“Thou art a most roguish knave…” 

“Luna… mind if I ask you a question as your apprentice?” Bucky asked. 

Luna cleared her throat. “Go ahead… ask.” 

“What do you know about words of power? Like… lullabies… manifestations of magic as spoken words… skalds… or… say, a pony shouting something so vulgar and obscene it makes the target drop over dead?” 

“I know a lot about lullabye magic.” Luna lifted her head, her task finished. “I could teach you about lullabye magic. I know very little about skalds. As for your last query, it sounds preposterous.” 

“I have a candy shop full of witnesses that saw it happen,” Bucky said. 

“What?” Luna stepped out from behind the crystals and stared at Bucky with wide eyes. 

“Bon Bon saw some rats when the invasion started… now… Bon Bon don’t take no guff. She’s a Shetlander you know. She’ll lecture your ears off if you swear around her.” Bucky took a deep breath. “So Bon Bon sees these rats and lets go a string of expletives so foul that the air around her actually glows blue. The candies on the counter singe.” 

“Is this a joke?” Luna asked. 

“No. I spoke to the witnesses. They were telling the truth. The air around Bon Bon did in fact, turn a bilious shade of blue. She killed the rats by swearing at them. The candies were all magically charged. I’m still studying them. Raw thaumaturgic energy. I don’t think they’re safe to eat.”

“You have to be joking.” Luna looked incredulous. 

“No, I’m not. I interviewed the witnesses myself. None of them can remember exactly what Bon Bon actually said, but all of them report their ears burning. All of them saw the same thing more or less. A shimmering burning aura of blue in the air around Bon Bon and the rats just died.” 

“Killing with words is… just… just…” Luna, stammering, fell silent. 

“If a lullabye can drive shadows back and keep them away, I suspect a mother’s emotion can be redirected from something sweet and innocuous to something horrid and potentially fatal.” Bucky looked down and saw Erebus’ eyes had closed. 

“I want Twilight Sparkle to study this phenomenon if possible… try to recreate the incident. We need to observe this strange new magic and see if we can harness its destructive potential.” Luna’s eyes narrowed and the alicorn looked serious. 

“Trying to get Bon Bon to swear is the problem…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 615 (The naughty filly scout gets her cookie crumbled) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Thistle heard the front door open, she sucked in her breath, held it for a moment, and then felt a nervous gurgle in her stomach. It was late… or perhaps early, depending on how one might look at it. She worried, wondering if this was a good idea, wondering if Bucky would come back from wherever it was that he had gone too tired, if perhaps this was a bad idea. 

As if feeling the kelpie’s anticipation, the blossoms in her mane of living plants swelled and began to release their sweet perfume. Thistle could feel a nervous itch in her frogs. 

And then, she saw him. There he was at the front door, shaking the snow that was falling outside off of himself. Thistle felt her heart skip a beat. 

“What are you doing up this late?” 

His voice. Thistle loved his voice. For a moment, she bit her lip, not realising how coy she looked, or the effect she had on Bucky. She drew in a deep breath, her barrel expanded, and her tail swished from hind leg to the other. 

“I was here… waiting for you to come home,” Thistle heard herself saying. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She had been with Bucky before. But not in the way that she hoped that she would be with him… the way she wanted to be with him. 

Bucky stood sniffing and Thistle’s tail twitched once more, wafting a musky scent as well as her own natural floral perfume. The unicorn and the kelpie stood there, eyeing one another, and Thistle took a nervous step forward. 

“I wanted some alone time… just us time… I’m all healed up and I think I’ve waited long enough. I’ve been a good filly, a good mama, I’ve been a good kelpie, and I want what is coming to me,” Thistle said. She blinked, fluttered her long eyelashes at Bucky, and smiled, revealing a mouth full of needle teeth. “Have you eaten? Do you need food?” 

“I ate just before I got a ride home… since when did you get so pretty?” 

Tittering, Thistle gave Bucky an eyes-half-closed stare. “I’m pretty? Tell me, what is it about me that you find… pretty?” 

“Oh… you’ve filled out. You’ve gotten a little padding in all the right places now and I love your eyes—” 

“I know your secrets,” Thistle said, interrupting as she stepped forward and brushed her muzzle against Bucky’s. “One night when Luna was over, we had ourselves a talk just between mares as I was letting Bell Heather suckle. She told me all about you.” Thistle heard Bucky’s breathing as it grew heavier. 

“And what did Luna tell you…”

Giggling, Thistle nuzzled Bucky’s face, angled her muzzle upwards at his ear, and blew. She watched his ear flick and twitch. “You live in a house with some big mares and you… you are such a little stallion. Bon Bon and Derpy are actually just a little bigger than you are, and Bon Bon is solid enough that she can just toss you around and have her way with you.” Thistle sucked in a deep breath, held it, and then blew it out over Bucky’s ear again. “But with me… me and my hot little filly body… I’m smaller than you… for now. You feel big… and strong… and in charge. You like how much smaller I am compared to you. And Luna told me to enjoy this for as long as it lasted.” 

“I must admit… there is something about being bigger than you are and holding you close to me. I can wrap myself around you and feel… protective of you.” 

Thistle took another step forward and now stood neck to neck with Bucky. “We have the spare bedroom in the back of the house that Bon Bon and Lyra sometimes use when they want a private moment all to ourselves. Lyra put fresh sheets on the bed and there are candles waiting for us” 

“You are using your talent right now, aren’t you?” Bucky asked. 

Thistle’s tail swished. “You’ve been trained to resist all forms of magical persuasion… but I know that you can’t resist mine.” Thistle planted a few nibbles, soft kisses along the base of Bucky’s neck, nosing through his long mane to reach his pelt. “Don’t make me use the full force of my talent against you. I did it to Berry one night, just to see what would happen.” 

“Oh you dirty little kelpie.” 

Outside, the wild wind howled as the approaching storm began to blow in, causing a strong need to snuggle in all those who heard it. 

“My waters have been still for far too long… I need some splashing in my loch.” Thistle did her best to sound seductive, remembering every lesson she had taken from Berry Punch. 

“Want me to put some swimmers in your hole?” 

Unable to help herself, Thistle began to laugh, a fillyish and rather immature laugh, and she had no idea what the sounds of her laughter was doing to Bucky as he listened. The laughter turned into a few giggle-snorts and Thistle suffered one moment where she worried such behaviour might not be attractive. 

“Hmm… something seems to have slipped out.” 

Bucky’s voice was a soft whisper near Thistle’s ear. She pulled her head away from Bucky’s neck, her ear tracing along his ribs, and she dropped her head down to have a look. Something was indeed peeking out and dangling down. 

“Oh look what I did,” Thistle said as she raised up a front hoof. She gave a gentle swipe at it, her movement catlike. She batted it around. “So funny looking. It just… dangles out. I’ll never get over how silly it looks.” Thistle tittered and gave it another poke. “How do you live with it just hanging down like that?” She heard Bucky let out a soft nervous chuckle. 

“I manage.” 

“I find that filly bits are much nicer to look at… but colt bits feel so good.” Thistle watched as Bucky swung back and forth from her last prodding. “I can’t look at this, it is too silly.” 

“I guess I’ll have to hide it away somewhere.” 

As Bucky spoke, Thistle felt her nethers clench. “I could think of a place…” 



 

The candles filled with room with a soft warm glow. The scent of roses, of jasmine, and mare musk lingered in the air. The house creaked from the blowing wind, it was almost as if the house itself was moaning in anticipation of what was about to happen. 

Thistle, laying on her belly, her hind legs kicked out behind her and Bucky beside her, pulled away from one long smouldering kiss. She looked into Bucky’s eyes, remembering how they once were, she remembered his handsome face as it once was, but was not repulsed by how he was now. Her eyes open, she kissed the scarred side of Bucky’s face knowing he could not feel her lips, but that he could see her open eyes. 

“I think I’m ready for you,” Thistle said in a low nervous whisper. 

“Just roll over and I’ll get to work.” 

“No… Bucky, I think I’m ready for you. There has been enough nibbling around down there, months of nibbling. There is something else I want from you.” Thistle closed her eyes and leaned against Bucky. 

“Thistle, we need to make sure that you’re slicked up enough—” 

“Bucky, I can’t get any wetter. The sheet is soaked.” Thistle opened her eyes. “I want to feel your weight on top of me. I want to feel my body being pushed into the bed. I want to feel you grinding against my croup. I want to feel myself buried under your body as you have your way with me. We can worry about romantic love later… right now… I need to get laid.” 

“But we have all of these candles…” 

“Bucky… don’t tease me… and please don’t make me a mother again just yet.” 

“I’ll be careful.” 

There was a rustle of fabric, the soft whispers of fine pelt hairs rubbing against flannel sheets. Thistle took a deep breath and held it. She felt a foreleg thrown over her back, ribs rubbed up against her own. Something poked her in the hip, something with a wet tip and a hard length. She felt Bucky slide over her back and his reassuring bulk settled over her spine. 

One foreleg wrapped around her chest, just below her neck, and Thistle felt Bucky’s neck against her own. He was heavy, but not too heavy. Her heart thudded in her chest, hammering against her ribcage as she was crushed down into the mattress. Her tail was brushed aside, thrown over her extended left leg. 

Her excitement peaked as she felt herself wink; her body prepared itself for what she so craved. There was a wet sticky sound as she felt her nubbin push its way free of her moistened and sticky, clinging lips. There was a feeling of not knowing what was going on, not knowing what was happening, and Thistle savoured every second as she stared forward at a burning candle. 

Thistle gasped when she felt something slide between her velvet cheeks, probing its way into her plot furrow and feeling around, seeking out her entrance. Not knowing what else to do, she lay there, held still, and waited. 

“Angle up a little.” 

Bucky’s soft whisper startled Thistle and she felt her whole body tense. She flexed her back muscles and angled her hips upwards a bit, lifting her pert hindquarters away from the bed just a little. She felt her furrow being parted, Bucky’s wide girth was spreading her open and she felt cool air blowing over hot and fevered places. Something broad and flat pressed up against Thistle’s sopping slit. She had felt it before, she had even taken in it in just a little before, parting her outer lips but never fully penetrating her inner opening. 

There was a wet squishing sound and Thistle felt pressure. A moment later, her flesh parted, allowing entrance, and there was a gentle pushing as something made its way inside of her. She gasped, drew in a deep breath, and tried to relax. It was important to relax. She had felt this before and was prepared for it. Something pressed against her inner lips, the narrower smaller hole that lay nestled within her slit. 

When she felt something begin to stretch her open, Thistle whimpered. The penetration stopped for a moment and Thistle released the breath that she hadn’t realised she was holding. The leg around her chest slide upwards a bit, up to the base of her neck, and gave a gentle squeeze. 

Thistle had felt Bell Heather being squirted out of that hole, and now she felt Bucky coming in, creeping forward just a little bit at a time. There was a moment of pain, but it wasn’t terrible pain, and Thistle ignored it. 

It was already subsiding. 

“Oh that’s tight… that feels really good.” 

“I bet you’ve been wanting to bury that in my tight little filly twat for a long time,” Thistle said in the sultriest whisper she could muster. 

“Thistle… you have a dirty mouth… I like it.” 

Lifting her head, Thistle pressed her neck against Bucky’s, feeling him as he slid deeper. His length was rubbing along her tiny little knob of flesh, and each inch stuffed in made her shiver. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it must look like back there, the sight of slick wet flesh, tight taught skin, shimmering beads of moisture, and her tight little filly twat being sundered by bulging stallion cock. Thistle liked to watch Berry or Derpy being penetrated, it was something she loved to watch and it was the focus of all of her own masturbatory fantasies. 

Thistle’s imagination brought her to the distant edge of a climax. 

Then, Thistle felt a terrible pain as something pressed too deep. “Stop!” 

She felt Bucky tense on top of her, she could feel him trembling. “Pull out a little bit, the tip hit something and it hurt.” Even as she was speaking, she felt Bucky pulling out. 

“I think I felt myself bottom out. I’m not especially hung, but your tight little filly snatch isn’t deep enough to take all of me.” 

Breathing deep, Thistle waited for the pain to pass. She gulped down more air and felt Bucky lurking at her entrance. “Whatever it is deep down in there, it’s tender. I think I’ll be fine if you don’t hit it again.” Thistle felt sweat rolling off of her neck and her sides. “Be gentle with me Bucky, I know there is a lot of dirty talk about me being a filly, but I am a filly…” 

“I know.” 

“Sorry I can’t take you all in,” Thistle said in a low whisper. 

“Are you kidding? I have a short stubby little pecker… do you know how good it feels knowing I am too long? Belisama and I have this problem too.” 

Thistle kicked her hind legs a little as she felt Bucky teasing her soaked slit. She parted, easier this time, and she felt him slip in, sinking in several much needed inches, and then pull out before going too deep. She gasped, feeling slick skin sliding over her clitoris. 

“Ooh… mister… you’re bad… screwing my little filly snatch with your big throbbing stallion cock…” Thistle did her best to keep from giggling. She felt Bucky’s stomach muscles tensing, flexing against her croup. “You promised me candy and pretty hair ribbons.” 

“Thistle… I… don’t know how to react… suddenly this feels so wrong.” 

“Don’t you dare stop now, you neurotic twit!” 

She felt Bucky’s length slide in and out with a slow gentle pace. She felt suction building as she clenched tight around him. Thistle could feel Bucky shoving her backwards as he thrust into her. 

“Oh mister… are you gonna blow your load in my backside?” 

Thistle heard a startled gasp and began to giggle. 

“Thistle… I don’t know what to do with you… what… what is going on here?” 

“Berry Punch and I read a lot of trashy romance novels and took turns getting each other off while I was stuck in bed. We’d read, scratch each others itch, and read some more… for hours at a time some days… and she brought me books about tender young fillies that discovered the shameful love of an older stallion, who corrupted her and took her fillyish innocence.” 

“What?” 

“A hot teenage filly on the verge of being a mare… trying to get good grades from her teacher, bent over the teacher’s desk and given a good hot sweaty rutting… wanna be my teacher Bucky?” 

“What did Berry do to you?” 

Thistle felt a gushing warmth between her legs as Bucky slid in and out. Her inner thighs were twitching and jerking. Her hind hooves kicked up and down against the bed as Bucky drove himself into her, but never too hard or too deep. 

“Oh mister… you said you just wanted to hug me,” Thistle said in a breathless voice. She felt Bucky inhale and his thrusting picked up the pace. Thistle angled her hips some more, and then discovered that if she rolled her hips as Bucky was sliding in, delightful friction and pressure would be placed on her hot throbbing nubbin. 

Gasping, Thistle felt Bucky’s thighs pressing in against her cutie marks, squeezing against her red hearts with puckered pink smooch prints. She felt herself growing tighter around him, and she could feel his shaft sliding between her still somewhat chubby cheeks. 

She realised that by having her plot furrow squeezed around Bucky’s cock, Bucky was getting more flesh around his shaft. The thought was dirty and Thistle let out a little squeal as she drew nearer to what she knew was going to be one very satisfying orgasm. 

“Ooh mister… that’s too much meat in my backside... please never screw my tiny filly plothole, please mister, please… I’ll be a good filly… I might even lick your dick.” 

Thistle felt Bucky’s foreleg lock tight around her, redoubling his grip, and then Thistle realised, she was about to be screwed. His legs clamped tight against her hips, sandwiching his length between her velvety cheeks as half of his cock slipped in an out of her hot filly pinkness. He was being a little rough now, but not too rough, and nothing hurt. 

With a sensual moan, Thistle’s tongue fell out of her mouth and she began to pant. Each thrust made her squeak. Her eyes crossed as she was being screwed silly. The sounds… the scents.. the sensation… it was all too much. She could feel Bucky sliding along her back, slipping back and forth, her skin was getting tugged and yanked as he slid forward, then backwards, while stuffing her hot too tight twat. 

“Ooh mister… I just wanted... to sell you... some filly... scout cookies…” 

Almost giggling, her whole body tensing, Thistle felt everything go tight as electric ecstasy tingled though her whole body. Tingles ran up and down her spine. As the orgasm overpowered her, Thistle started laughing. She could feel Bucky’s nose pressing into her neck and his heavy breathing was hot against her flesh. 

Each thrust caused her whole body to go rigid for a moment and shivery shudders rippled through her muscles. It was too much to take and Thistle hoped it would last forever. 

“No mister… no… whatever you do… don’t bust a nut... in my innocent... little filly snatch! It’ll be messy... and gross!” Thistle panted. 

“Naughty little filly scouts… get a load of creamy filling!” 

“No… mister… no!” 

Thistle gasped as she felt Bucky sink in as far as he dared. It was a tight fit, deep, but not deep enough to hurt, and she felt him flare inside of her. She felt herself being stretched by his swelling cock as his whole body convulsed and shuddered on top of her. 

“Mister… no… you never paid... for your cookies!” 

“Take it like… a… bad… filly!” 

Thistle felt something squirting inside of her, deep within her crevice. It shot out and struck against her tender inner flesh with enough force to be felt. She felt her hips buck as the high pressure jet of spunk spattered against her inner recesses. 

After a few more squirts, Thistle felt Bucky go limp on top of her. Her face was shoved down into the bed as Bucky’s head collapsed upon the back of her neck. She could feel his pecker twitching and still spurting inside of her. Her plot furrow felt hot where skin had rubbed against skin. She felt drool dribbling down the side of her neck. 

Giggling, Thistle relished the feeling of the bigger, heavier male collapsed and heaving on top of her. “So… when can we do that again?” she whispered.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 616
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The kitchen was calm and quiet. Gathered around the table, the family was enjoying a quiet moment of togetherness. The foals were in school, except for those too little to go, and two ponies had just woken up a little while ago. 

Harper, sitting in her highchair and enjoying a bit of a second breakfast, was cheerful. Cadance, sitting in a new highchair, was covered in oatmeal and giggling, spewing her breakfast all over the place. 

Dipping her hoof into a large plastic cannister of prunes, Berry Punch chewed upon the dried plums with thoughtful consideration, looking at Bucky and Thistle with a half-awake half-smile that had crept halfway across her face. 

Sitting on a cushion, Derpy was sipping coffee and sometimes slipping a piece of dried fruit into Harper’s mouth, but Harper was being left to fend for herself. 

“It hurts to sit down,” Thistle said, a rosy glow appearing upon her cheeks. 

Derpy nodded. “I wonder why.” 

Berry Punch rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Don’t even talk to me about trouble sitting down. I feel like I have a redwood tree crammed up my backside.” Her hoof plunged into the plastic container and pulled out more prunes. She crammed them all into her mouth and began chewing, smacking her lips and trying to scowl with her mouth full. 

Bucky, not quite awake, watched more prunes disappear. He sipped coffee and gave Cadance a spoonful of oatmeal. Something brushed by his hoof beneath the table and he knew that Sukari was lurking. He paid her no attention. If she wanted food or love, she had to ask for it. 

The grey pegasus yawned, stretching out her wings as she did so. 

“Thank you Bucky… I had a lovely time last night,” Thistle said after swallowing a bite of fish. “But you never paid for your filly scout cookies… that’s the last time I ring your doorbell, mister.” 

Her wings shaking against her sides, Derpy began to giggle. 

Raising one eyebrow, Bucky looked at Derpy. “Do you know anything about all this?” 

The somewhat sleepy looking pegasus nodded. “I’ve been the bad schoolmarm that made her stay after class. Berry Punch has played quite a few roles.” Derpy popped a piece of dried apricot into Harper’s mouth. 

“Berry?” Bucky asked. 

“Yesh? Whashishit?” Berry replied around a mouthful of prunes. 

“How many of those prunes do you plan on eating?” A look of horror crept over Bucky’s face as he watched her swallow. 

“All of ‘em.” Berry looked over at Bucky. “And once I’m done polishing off the container, I thought we’d do a little roleplaying of our own. You can be the wealthy oil baron and drill my back forty for oil. Maybe when you strike it rich, I’ll feel better.” 

“Yeeeeeurgh!” Bucky cringed away from Berry Punch. 

Leaning forward, Berry Punch went from sleepy looking to seductive. Her curls tumbled around her face and neck in a most alluring way. Her lips puckered into a most inviting promise of pleasure ever seen. For a moment, Berry Punch was pure sex in the form of an earth pony. Her nostrils flared, a subtle indicator that she was a mare who could keep breathing under trying conditions, even with her mouth full. Her corded muscles bulging, her neck showed promise that it was a perfect place to get a good grip on while sliding across her back. 

Bucky dropped the spoon with a clatter upon the table; beads of sweat began trickling down his neck and sides. 

The tip of Cadance’s horn blazed cherry red. 

Then, Berry sat back in her chair, tittering, her alluring demeanour gone. She rubbed her belly, wiggled around in her seat, and belched loud enough to make the spoon on the table rattle. After smacking her lips a few times, she began to cram more prunes into her mouth. 

The fiery red glow on Cadance’s horn subsided, cooling off into a dull pink glow. The alicorn foal giggled and rubbed her sides with her front hooves, as if she was feeling tickled. 

“Earth ponies,” Bucky said in a stunned whisper, trying to recover from his encounter. 



 

His pencils moving in a mechanical fashion, Bucky made sketches of artificial legs. While he could draw, he couldn’t draw like Sentinel could draw. Bucky’s pictures were cold, lifeless, lacking warmth. He produced duplicates of what he was thinking about or what he was looking at. His work offered no comfort to the eye. 

The farmhouse library’s table was piled high with papers and Violet was sorting through them. She was scowling, sometimes sipping on a cup of tea, and the pair worked in silence. 

Beneath Bucky’s chair, Sukari was curled up into a little striped ball, sleeping. 

Dreary needed a solution and Bucky wanted to give one. He glanced at the clock on the fireplace mantle and then returned his eyes to his work. Almost three dozen pencils scratched and moved on six different pieces of paper, printing out various sketches. 

There was a soft knock upon the library door. Bucky glanced at the clock. Four minutes early. Good. Somepony was getting a good performance review.

“Come in.” 

The door opened and a pale green pegasus entered. 

“You wanted to see me?” 

“Take a seat… Written Sound, you’re just the pony I was looking for.” Bucky gestured at a chair. “I understand that you have a near perfect ear for musical timing.” 

Taking a seat, Written Sound nodded. “I try… I don’t know if it is perfect.” 

“One of your musical compositions was played by Octavia Melody. Your personality profile says that you are almost an equine metronome and your sense of timing can be measured in mere fractions of seconds.” Bucky set down all of his pencils and leaned forward in his chair. 

Written Sound began to turn a deep purple and he sank down in his chair. 

“Winterworx, my own private venture that I run with my son, Rising Star, is in need of your expertise. How would you like to make a little extra money?” Bucky asked. 

“What would I be doing?” Written Sound asked. 

“Nope… see… I can’t tell you until you agree. Top secret stuff and all that.” Bucky smiled and glanced at Violet. 

“Oh.” Written Sound squirmed. Shrugging, he nodded. “Okay, I’m in.” 

“Excellent. Verbal contracts are binding.” Bucky levitated over a few sheets of paper for Written Sound to look at. “I have a donkey in need of a prosthetic. Problem is… the means of control doesn’t exist. It isn’t enough to hobble around on a dead peg leg. She deserves to run again, but legs are complex bits of leverage and motion. Getting lifelike movement out of a prosthetic is tough.” Bucky lifted his own talons. “These have a mind of their own. They have countless numbers of subroutines that govern their behaviour. But they connected to my mind and this gives them a sense of timing. My will directs them.” 

“I don’t know anything about this stuff—” 

“Oh but you do… you do.” Bucky grinned a manic toothy grin. “When a pony or a donkey runs, what do you hear? Does not their hooves strike against the ground in time with one another? A walk has its own rhythm, as does a trot, so does a canter, and also a gallop. A canter is a three beat gait that is very distinctive, is it not? A gallop starts off as a three beat canter, but changes to a four beat as it picks up speed. Everything works in timing. A walk is a four beat gait but very slow. A trot is a two beat gait.” Bucky’s talons flexed into a fist. “Each of those beats could be counted as musical annotations.” 

Written Sound looked flummoxed. 

“I am no musical genius,” Bucky said. “But I plan to make a leg that is a self playing musical instrument. It will draw a trickle charge from ley lines to give it just enough power to function. And it will work by keeping itself in perfect time with the rhythm of whatever gait is happening at the time. So… when the pretty young donkey wants to run, her leg will move to strike the ground in perfect timing with her other legs, allowing her to run like the wind. Sadly, I don’t think I can get the leg to do much else, all of her control over it will be indirect, but she’ll be able to run again if this works.” 

“What do you need from me?” Written Sound asked. 

“I need for you study donkeys when they run and write sheet music based on what you hear. Lyra Heartstrings will be helping us in this venture. I have a whole bunch of donkeys coming to help you out. I put word out in the paper that I need volunteers and Dreary is no doubt going to find all sorts of help,” Bucky replied. 

“How did you come up with this?” Written Sound asked. “This borders on both madness and brilliance.” 

“I find the best ideas require both,” Bucky replied. “Welcome to Winterworx… Violet will have your employee contracts ready for you to sign in just a few moments. The print is all basic and very easy to read. No small print or confusing legalese. All pay is based upon performance… so if you want to rake in the bits, you have to produce results.” 

“I will do my best, sir…” 



 

“That went well,” Violet said. 

“I have to keep up with Twilight Sparkle somehow… she has a self charging battery she is going to release to the public.” Bucky frowned and his talons flexed, clicking in a mechanical manner. 

“Sir, self cleaning beer puddles are far more practical,” Violet said with more than just a little laughter in her voice. 

Bucky’s muzzle contorted into a sneer as he glared at his secretary. 

“Princess Luna sent back the combat reports of the spider golem testing.” Violet raised up a folder and waved it at Bucky. 

“Summary of results?” Bucky asked. 

“Twenty spider golems took out five well trained unicorn guards. The guards were swarmed, injected with paralytic agents, and five spider golems wrapped around the guards’ horns, cutting off their ability to cast spells. The spider golems suffered no serious damage, but six of them were rendered inert for about twenty minutes. They were revived by their fellow spider golems, who reactivated the fallen golems’ ambulation enchantments and routines.” 

“Hmm… I had hoped for better…” 

“Sir, be realistic, these results are perfect,” Violet said. 

“Six failed.” Bucky shook his head. 

“Six out of twenty.” Violet set the folder down. “Princess Luna described the effectiveness as ‘chilling’ and ‘mechanically efficient’ and has written down that type twos would stand no chance against a squad of golems sent to subdue them. Type threes would be subdued as well, but may require more effort.” 

“If six can fail, all can fail.” Bucky slumped down in his chair. “I’m scrapping this project for now and will rework everything. Out of a hundred golems, thirty of them would fail… maybe more, maybe less. That’s about a one third failure rate. Unnacceptable.” 

“Sir—” 

“This is twenty against five… what about twenty against ten?” Bucky shook his head. “I’ll rework the defensive enchantments and allow it to spread through the swarm. Once I reach a state of say, one out of ten lost, I’ll consider this a success. As of right now, it is a three out of ten and that’s just not good.” 

Violet, looking frustrated, peered at Bucky over the top of her reading glasses. “You expect too much.” 

“Our enemies are far too hardened. You don’t think they won’t be calculating these odds and running these numbers themselves? They’ll send acceptable losses forward to test our defenses, find out what they are up against, and change their tactics to compensate. We’ve pushed the mirror travelers out of Equestria, but they are gaining ground everywhere else. Fancy is seeing heavy fighting right now as mirror traveller hit squads just appear out of nowhere in the streets. In the far east of the Sea of Grass, they are seeing incursions. Saddle Arabia is heating up. The mirror travelers are gearing up… it is like they are making ready for a big push. And we don’t have enough troops to push back. It isn’t enough to fend them off while losing ground a little at a time. We need to start reclaiming what we’re losing.” 

“Perhaps I spoke out of place, sir,” Violet said in a soft voice as she bowed her head. 

From beneath Bucky’s chair, Sukari woke with a cry. She mewled in terror, shot out from beneath Bucky’s chair, and jumped up into the chair with Bucky, her blue eyes filled with terror. 

“Panya!” she cried. “Panya!” 

“Hush little one,” Bucky said, lifting her into his forelegs and pulling her close. “I don’t know what that means, but you are safe. Hush hush hush.” 

“Panya!” Sukari trembled and her tiny forelegs clung to Bucky’s neck. 

“Violet, if you don’t mind, send word to Doctor Mawu and find out what ‘panya’ means,” Bucky said in a soft voice. 

“Baba,” Sukari said, burying her head into Bucky’s mane. 

There was no need to translate that. Bucky knew what it meant. He squeezed the zebra filly closer and kissed her ear. He had been waiting a long time to hear that word come from Sukari’s lips. 

“Yes, baba has you. Panyas, whatever they are, can’t get you.” 
	
> Chapter 617
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“All equines are natural empaths. It is part of our herd behaviour. When we gather together, we instinctively know what is going on with the other equines around us. We can feel what others are feeling. When panic happens, it spreads through the herd. So does fear. We are all connected to one another. For some of us, like earth ponies and zebras, these connections seem to be much stronger, but we do not know why. There are many theories, many thoughts, but there is still so much more to learn. Harmony is having the herd move together, in one direction, as a whole. Disharmony separates us. A few individuals break free from the herd. These individuals are picked off by predatory forces and we equines all keenly feel their loss.” 

Stargarden took a deep breath. 

“Class, we are all sitting together on these cushions, close to one another, and I want you to think of one another. Close your eyes. Allow that sleepy feeling to take you, but do not sleep. Focus not upon yourself, but those around you. What are they feeling?” 

Piña Colada felt a gentle squeeze on her fetlock from Larch, who was sitting next to her. She felt her heart skip a beat. Her other fetlock was being held by the new zebra student that had joined the class, Tabasamu. 

“Yes class… continue to hold on to one another. Lean into one another. We all have empathy, but your gifts go beyond simple empathy. You are gifted… you are extraordinary… you have great minds… you are the next stage of evolution for the equine species as our empathy and our connection to harmony continues to grow… to strengthen.” 

Her eyes closed, Piña Colada did not realise her hooves were glowing with a faint twinkling light. Without warning, her mind was filled with a confusing jumble of images. Bones. Dirt. A big stone building full of foals. An endless stretch of grass that ran from horizon to horizon and a collection of small domes. A little pink earth pony… Piña realised she was looking at herself, but from another pony’s eyes. A airship sailing over the ocean. She was staring at her own lips with a feeling of need and embarrassment. 

Piña realised she was looking through Larch’s eyes and seeing Tabasamu’s memories. 

With this knowledge came pain. Something behind her eyes thudded, like a door slamming shut. With a gasp and a cry, Piña fell over, her eyes rolling back into her head, and her connection was severed as she fell over backwards. Her fetlocks were pulled free from her companions. 

The darkness was comforting. 



 

“Thank you Sentinel,” Cloudstreaker said in a soft voice as the city council prepared to call their meeting to order. “It means a lot to me that you’re helping me. With the recent crisis, this has become a lot more interesting. I’m glad you could get us out of class so we can attend.” 

Sentinel gave a grunt and nodded. 

“Are we friends?” Cloudstreaker asked. “I hope we are. I like you… as a friend.” 

“Just pay attention and pass your class,” Sentinel replied. “Friends help one another.” 

“I don’t have a lot of friends.” Cloudstreaker adjusted her glasses. “The pegasi were awful to your mother… she has bad eyes. But everything turned out okay for her. I don’t know what is going to happen to me.” 

“Things are changing,” Sentinel said as he prepared his notebook and his pencil. 

“Maybe, but the teasing still hurts me and Rumble keeps getting into fights. Not my fault I can’t see very well.” Cloudstreaker looked at the lunar pegasus beside her. 

“You have friends.” Sentinel glanced over and saw Cloudstreaker had glassy, reflective eyes behind her lenses. 

“I have a few friends, but I don’t feel accepted. Getting called ‘four eyes’ hurts.” 

“Look, most foals and even most adults are stupid, okay? You can’t pay them any attention. I wear glasses too… they look like regular glasses but they keep the bright light from burning my eyes… I’m aware of the comments, but I don’t pay them no attention. Just… ignore them!” Sentinel became aware that quite a number of adults were looking at him now. His lip curled back. “What are you looking at? Never seen a friend comforting another friend before?” 





“Look at this…” Berry Punch tossed down a newspaper on the bed. 

Swiping it with her hoof, Derpy picked it up without having over to roll over. Still laying on her back, she lifted the paper and held it above her face. “What am I looking for?” 

“Front page,” Berry replied. 

“Elements of Harmony charm Tradewinds, sees formation of new harmony clubs,” Derpy said, reading the headline out loud, her bad eye winked shut. “Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, the Elements of Harmony, have become the newest celebrities in the Sea of Grass…” Derpy fell silent and stared at the paper, her good eye moving back and forth as she read. 

“I mean, look at it. Think about it. There are a whole bunch of little fillies and little colts pretending to be their favourite Element of Harmony and going out to do good deeds in their community… why hasn’t this happened here at home?” Berry flopped down on the bed beside Derpy. 

“That’s a good question,” Belisama said as she changed Bandua’s diaper. 

“Twilight Sparkle has been asked to speak in front of a crowd that is likely to number in the tens of thousands… I hope the pressure doesn’t make her snap… I bet this is going to be one of the most important moments in her life. She has been asked to make a speech on the importance of making friends.” Berry Punch reached over Derpy and pointed to the section in the paper. 

“They’re asking Twilight to come to the Shetlands,” Derpy said. 

“The United Isles,” Berry said. “I was there when it changed… wow… I just realised how important that moment was… the place where my kith and kin come from…” 

Derpy set the paper down, turned her head, and looked at Berry. “Everything has changed, hasn’t it? All the hard work that Bucky and Twilight have done… everything that they have suffered for… it’s paying off, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, but Bucky isn’t getting any credit for it.” Berry Punch made a berry sour face. 

“We can reward him.” Derpy nudged Berry. “The world is finally changing for the better.” 

“The griffons are finally seen as heroes instead of villains. The world shows signs of unity. You can pick up the paper and read about good things happening.” Belisama picked up Bandua and hugged her cub to her girth. “My cub is going to grow up in a better world than I did. That makes me happy.” 



 

“Piña? Wake up Piña, you okay?” 

Piña Colada blinked. Her eyelids felt heavy and her body sluggish. “What happened?” 

“A bit of psychic whiplash. You’re fine, really, you are. Right now, you are in the school infirmary and Doctor Mawu will be by shortly.” 

“I think Larch wants to kiss me,” Piña said in a sleepy voice. She looked up and saw Stargarden looking down at her. 

“Yes Piña, you saw his thoughts. And Tabasamu’s thoughts as well. Your brain had a lot to take in all at once. You were overwhelmed.” Stargarden reached out and patted Piña. “Think of it as walking. You lost your balance and fell down. It is important that you get back up and try again. In time, you’ll get stronger and this won’t happen.” 

Grunting, Piña sat up and shook her head, her cheeks flapped and her ears whipped around. She conked her skull a few times with her hoof to clear away the cobwebs. “I feel okay… I think.” 

“Earth ponies… so durable.” Stargarden helped Piña up and then held up a plastic cup of water with a straw for Piña to drink. As the foal was slurping down water, Stargarden studied her student. “I felt what happened. You really are a tough little filly. I thought you’d be out for hours while your brain unscrambled. But here you are, bouncing back already. For all the gifts that the others have… you are exceptional.” 

“I’m just an earth pony,” Piña said after she pulled her lips away from the straw. 

“I want to give you some private tutoring, if I can have your permission.” Stargarden looked Piña in the eye. “Piña Colada… you have a great gift.” 

“Is this gonna mean more homework?” Piña asked. 

With a sigh, Stargarden nodded. 



 

Loch Skimmer slumped down in her chair and felt a rising sense of panic. Something was wrong, that much was obvious, but she did not know what. She had been sitting in class, reading her assignment texts on field triage, and then this had happened. 

She looked down at her flaming wings. They didn’t hurt or anything.The flames were a little warm but not hot, and they didn’t seem to be burning anything. If anything, the flames felt good, like warm summer sunlight on her wings. Reaching around with her front leg, she prodded her right wing with her left front hoof. Warmth, but not heat. The flames flickered but did not burn. 

She looked up at Doctor Mawu with hopeful pleading eyes. The zebra shrugged but did not reply. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Doctor Mawu said. “In all of my time as a bocor, I’ve seen a lot of strange things. But this… this is one of the strangest. A burning pegasus that isn’t burning.” 

“Do I have some new form of feather flu?” Loch Skimmer cocked her head and looked at the doctor. 

The zebra shrugged. Doctor Mawu went to a drawer, rummaged around, and pulled out a box of matches. She returned to Loch Skimmer, sat down on the floor in front of her, pulled the box of matches out of her mouth, opened it, and pulled one out. Extending her hoof, she waved the match through Loch Skimmer’s flames. 

Nothing happened. 

Frowning, Mawu struck the match on the floor and lifted it. “Stick your leg out.” 

“You’re going to burn me?” Loch Skimmer asked, her eyes wide with concern. 

“Probably not,” Doctor Mawu replied. 

Doing as she was told, Loch Skimmer stuck out her foreleg and held it over the match flame. She dropped it down, allowing the flame to touch her, and felt nothing. Loch Skimmer, who had been fearful, now felt curious. How had the fire not burned her? 

Doctor Mawu blew the match out. “How odd.” She blinked. “Perhaps somepony is playing a prank on you. Have you crossed your sister Dinky lately?” 

“Dinky would never play a prank on me… would she?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

The zebra bocor shrugged, turned, and left. She went over to a supply cabinet and began looking inside. Muttering to herself, Doctor Mawu glanced at Loch Skimmer, shook her head, and then went back to looking inside of the cabinet. 

“Never encountered a case of flaming pegasus before.” 

“I’m burning, but I feel okay. I was feeling a little queasy earlier… been feeling a little queasy for the past week or so actually, but it passes and then I feel fine. 

“Queasy?” Doctor Mawu turned and stared at Loch Skimmer. 

“It’s put me off my breakfast… not to worry, I make up for it at lunch. The school cafeteria is awesome. No dirty dishes or cooking at home!” Loch Skimmer grinned. 

The zebra returned to the supply cabinet and began to dig around. “You know, your little sister Piña was in here earlier. She gave us a bit of a scare.” 

“Is she okay?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“She appears to be fine. I sent her home for the day with a doctor’s note for a little extra attention and a nice treat.” The doctor pulled open a box and stuffed her head inside. After a moment, she yanked her head out and opened a different box. 

Loch Skimmer extended one charcoal grey-black wing and looked at the flames. The orange looked good with her dark colouration. “I wonder if Rising Star will think I look pretty like this.” 

“I’m certain that Rising Star will be very surprised by your condition,” Doctor Mawu replied. The zebra began pulling boxes out of the supply cabinet and setting them on the floor. 

“So… doctor… just what are you looking for?” Loch Skimmer asked as she watched the doctor make a mess. 

“We have pregnancy tests in here somewhere, I know I saw them…” 
	
> Chapter 618
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Daddy?” Loch Skimmer walked into the farmhouse library, dragging her hooves. She watched Bucky go from panic as well as alarm and then back to measured calm in the blink of an eye. “Daddy, I’m in trouble.” 

“Looks that way. Did Dinky prank you?” Bucky asked. 

Shaking her head, Loch Skimmer looked down at the floor. 

Violet, sitting at the table, stared at Loch Skimmer with curious eyes. 

Loch Skimmer drew in a deep breath and tried to summon the courage to tell Bucky what needed to be said. She failed. Instead, she started crying. She felt the warm tingle of magic around her, gravity relaxed, and then she felt herself carried through the air. As she was plopped on a sofa, she saw Bucky climbing up beside her. 

Sobbing, she wrapped her forelegs and her wings around him, not even thinking about the flames. She felt a fetlock and a hoof stroking her neck and then she was pulled close. 

“Loch, tell me, what’s wrong?” Bucky asked, unconcerned about being hugged by a flaming pegasus. 

“Daddy, something went wrong… we are careful... I promise... we were always so careful and I know I kind of wanted a foal for a while but then I changed my mind and we always made certain to use the spell and I just don’t know what went wrong…” 

Loch Skimmer felt and heard Bucky inhale. 

“I just took a pregnancy test… and it was positive.” 

“Oh that’s not so terrible,” Bucky said. 

“But this could hurt Rising Star’s public image.” Loch Skimmer clung ever tighter to Bucky and sniffled into his mane. 

“It might. So what if it does.” Bucky patted Loch Skimmer on the back. 

“This is gonna mess up my life… I had plans… things I wanted to do.” 

“You can still do them. Do you think for one second that we won’t help you? You’re going to stay in school and you’re still going to do everything you had planned. We’ll help you. Stop crying and we’ll sort this out somehow. You should be happy.” 

Loch Skimmer sneezed into Bucky’s neck. Flames shot out of her nostrils, but did not ignite Bucky. Closing her eyes, she hung on to Bucky and continued to cry. 

“Well, if you sneeze fire, I’d hate to see what comes out of the other end…” 

There was no laugh from Loch Skimmer and Bucky knew that he was in trouble. He looked up towards Violet and made a gesture. The unicorn mare slipped from her chair and trotted from the room. 

Hearing the sound of a foal crying, Derpy came into the farmhouse library and froze. On the sofa there was a flaming pegasus and a frost covered unicorn. Her hips ached from the short walk, and she stood there, not quite sure what to do. Motherhood instinct won out. She hobbled forwards for the sofa, let out a grunt of pain as she climbed up, sat down next to Loch Skimmer, and wrapped her forelegs around the wailing filly. 

With a poof, Derpy ignited. She felt alarmed for a moment when she saw the flames rising off of her wings, but there was no pain and the sofa did not seem to be burning, so she paid it no attention. Crying foals were more important than being on fire. 

“You’re going to be a grandmother,” Loch Skimmer said to Derpy. 

“That’s happy news,” Derpy said, squeezing Loch Skimmer. “Everything will be okay… stop crying.” 

“Violet will return with some tea. Let’s get you cleaned up, we’ll have some tea, and we’ll sort this out.” Bucky planted a kiss on top of Loch Skimmer’s head, on her straw coloured mane, right between her ears. 



 

“We were careful,” Rising Star said, shaking his head. He sat on the floor near the sofa where Loch Skimmer sat. 

Ripple reached over, hugged her sister, burst into flames, let go, watched the flames die, and hugged her sister again, only to watch herself reignite. “Loch, please, stop crying.” 

Sparkler, sitting on the other side of Loch Skimmer, patted the sniffling pegasus on the back. “This isn’t so bad. I suppose a few things will need to change with how we are. Birth control pills or condoms might be a good idea. I guess relying entirely on magic was foolish.” 

“Doctor Mawu said it is because of all the earth ponies around… they boost fertility,” Loch Skimmer said, sniffling and wiping her nose with her fetlock. She looked around the room, her eyes lingering on Derpy and Bucky, who sat together. “How am I going to stay in school and care for a foal?” 

“You’ll have to care for it when you're not in school or not working.” Sparkler wrapped her foreleg over Loch Skimmer’s withers and parts of her that touched Loch Skimmer turned to stone. 

“What about nursing?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“There are no shortages of mares in this house with lots of milk,” Bucky said, observing how Loch Skimmer awoke various elemental effects in the ponies around her. Sparkler got stony, Ripple caught on fire, Derpy caught on fire, and he had become covered in frost. 

Bittersweet, sitting on the sofa beside Ripple, leaned over and took both Loch Skimmer and Ripple into her forelegs. She squeezed them both. The donkey’s ears burst into flames. 

“I bet it was Hearth’s Warming… we had that threesome,” Loch Skimmer said, no longer caring about embarrassing details. “I got drunk enough to be bisexual without hangups. I bet one of you botched the spell.” 

“Now now, no need to place blame,” Derpy said. 

“She’s right though… we might have made a mistake.” Rising Star’s ears drooped. He lifted up his teacup and took a sip. Closing his eyes, he savoured the flavour of peppermint and sighed. 

“I’m excited. I get to be a super protective parent.” Ripple cracked her fetlocks, a terrifying sound coming from the violence prone filly, and her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to be the meanest, most fierce aunt that has ever lived.” She blinked. “I will be an aunt right? I mean, I am Loch’s sister, and this is her foal, but I will also be one of the foal’s mothers… this is confusing... It’s easier to just beat things to death.” 

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Brute.” 

“Snob.” Ripple lifted her head high. 

“Ponies,” Bittersweet signed with her flaming ears. 

“I’m not ready to be a mom… it’s a lot of work… and I saw what Thistle went through. I’m so scared… I’m not ready to grow up yet,” Loch Skimmer said and then collapsed into fresh sobs. 

Derpy sighed. “Poor thing… I cried for a week straight when I found out I was pregnant.” 



 

“Hi Larch.” 

“Hi Piña.” The earth pony smiled an awkward smile. “Feeling better?” 

“Yeah.” Piña nodded. “I was supposed to go home. I did. And I snuck out.” 

“I guess you wanted to talk to me.” Larch began to kick some snow around with his front hoof and he looked everywhere but at Piña. “I’m guessing you saw some embarrassing stuff from in my head.” 

The pink earth pony filly nodded. 

Larch, a dark purple grey, turned a little darker as a blush spread through his body. His glasses, framed with faux wood, fogged over, making it difficult for him to see. He continued to make little hoofy kicks. 

“I… I… I think I like you, Larch.” Piña turned away, unable to look at the colt any longer. 

Larch nodded. “I think I like you too.” 

“If you want me to keep liking you… and if you want that kiss, are you willing to earn it?” Piña asked, looking skywards. 

“I s’pose so,” Larch replied. He sighed. “What do I gotta do?” 

Clearing her throat, Piña tried to get rid of the lumps lurking down in her airpipe. “My daddy has given me very high standards. I know what I want from a colt. I think… anyway, you have to be a perfect gentlecolt and I’ll expect to be shown a nice time.” 

“What do I do?” Larch asked. 

“Figure it out,” Piña replied as she started to walk away. “I’m not gonna make this easy.” 

“I don’t know where to begin!” Larch cried as he stood there looking at Piña. 

“Start by asking my daddy for permission… any colt worthy of me liking them has to be brave,” Piña said over her shoulder.

Larch slumped and felt cold creeping fear crawling along his spine. “Oh noes…” 



 

“Well girls, two out of three ain’t bad,” Apple Bloom said, looking at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “How is your leg, Scoots?” 

“Tomorrow I am cleared to train again. I don’t know if Loki will be up for it though.” Scootaloo’s ears perked forwards. “He’s different.” 

“Loki died,” Apple Bloom said. She shook her head. “Big Mac is still recovering. He’s feeling better… the doctor said my brother should be dead. It makes a pony think.” 

“Granny Smith feeling any better?” Sweetie Belle asked. 

“Yeah… she’s back to being grumpy. She embroidered Loki’s name on a scrap of cloth and she is going to add it to the Apple family quilt. Loki Apple… the Apple family’s first griffon.” 

The three fillies exchanged a three way glance. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged a glance between themselves, and then both glanced at Apple Bloom. The pegasus and the unicorn both took a deep breath. 

“You won’t stay blank forever,” Scootaloo said. 

“Bound to happen sooner or later,” Sweetie Belle added. 

Scootaloo nodded. “For both of us, it happened when we were off doing stuff… doing our own thing… so the next time you find yourself doing something alone… just check your backside.” 

“Any more dreams with Princess Luna?” Sweetie Belle asked, changing the subject when she saw how dejected Apple Bloom looked. 

Shrugging Apple Bloom made a noncommittal grunt. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “I’m behind on my work… I really need your help. I talked with Dinky today and she is busy researching. Headmaster Bitters is going to help us if we need it. We finally have the special bins that will act as cloud containment. There is so much work to do and I am behind. We don’t have a lot of time left, and I really need your help if I am going to pull this off, girls.” 

“Cutie Mark Crusaders’ science project!” 



 

With a thump, the massive minotaur dropped her steamer trunk that she had been carrying like a suitcase. She looked at the pony trotting up to meet her and he bowed her head. 

“You must be Heifer Aestus. My name is Cheerilee. I’m so glad you could make it.” 

“Call me Heif.” 

“Heif? Heif Aestus?” Cheerilee craned her head to look up at the massive minotaur cow. She was wearing plated mail over a long chainmail coat that hung down to her knees. “Very well… welcome to the Founder’s Forge. We have your room ready if you are tired… and I am free to show you around.” 

“I have walked from the Ponyville train station… it was a short walk and it was not taxing.” 

Cheerilee looked at the steamer trunk. It had to be six feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep. It was made of wood and brass. She looked up at the big armored minotaur. The Ponyville train station was several miles away. 

“Well well well… my former student.” 

Cheerilee turned and saw Scorch. At the moment, he was a diamond dog. She saw the big minotaur drop to one knee, bow and then Cheerilee watched as Scorch did the same. 

“How are you Heif?” Scorch asked. 

“I have been living in the utter east… with the dragons. I grew bored. Most of the great wyrms are hibernating and the little ones are… so very juvenile and annoying,” Heif replied. 

“I am so glad you came. We need teachers.” Scorch shifted and became an earth pony. 

The minotaur lurched forward with terrifying speed, her armor clanking, and she snatched up the flaming earth pony. She squeezed, her armor squealing and creaking, her chainmail clinking. She tossed Scorch into the air with effortless ease, snatched him, and then crushed him to her chest once more with all of the violence that only an eight foot tall minotaur could muster. 

“No respect for my age or my dignity!” Scorch bellowed. “You’re worse than Celestia! I should put you over my knee and paddle you!” 

The minotaur squeezed even harder and a jet of flame shot out of Scorch’s earth pony backside. The minotaur cow began laughing, a booming laugh that echoed through the school. Some students had stopped to stare at the giant while others were galloping away. 

Cheerilee was terrified. She squeezed her hind legs together and felt the pressing need to go to the little fillies room. 

“I would like to meet your new student, Rising Star. How does he measure up?” Heif set Scorch down upon the floor and looked down at him. 

“Oh, I expect good things out of Rising Star… he just found out that one of his wives is pregnant…” 
	
	
> Chapter 619
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Master?” 

“Yes? What do you want, Minion?”

Sunset Shimmer lowered her head. “Master, I am concerned about the Mustangia trip.” 

“I know.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “I told you to remain focused upon your task and not to worry about it. You’ve been worrying… bad Minion.” 

Steam rose from Sunset Shimmer’s nostrils. She felt her heart begin to pound in her barrel. “Trixie… Trixie told me what it was like… I’ve learned all I need to know. She showed… she showed me. We touched minds. We communed. It was tricky, but I managed.” 

“Minion, I have faith in you.” Bucky pulled his hood back from his head and moonlight shone down upon his face. “How was your day with Twilight?” 

“She is so happy from her vacation. She has so many stories to tell… she told me stories about visiting the Sea of Grass and the United Isles. I got to tell her about the night of the rats.” Sunset’s lips turned up into a quivering smile. 

“I have said my goodbyes… and I must be going.” Bucky looked up at Sunset Shimmer, who was a little taller than he was. “Stay focused.” 

“Master… don’t go… don’t do this—” 

“Not another word. Remember everything that must be done. Obey my instructions.” 

Sunset Shimmer bowed her head. “Master, I will obey. Forgive me for my doubt.” 

Bucky smiled, revealing teeth. “A Master could ask for no better Minion…” 



 

The Scorned Mare headed south, moving at a brisk pace with the wind giving it a push. Mustangia was less than twenty four hours away. Exhausted, Bucky sat in the dining hall eating a meal prepared by griffons and looking at Twilight Sparkle, who had already eaten and was sitting on a sofa, talking to a couple of griffons. 

There was something different about Twilight, but Bucky could not put a talon on what it was. He lifted his fork and stuffed a bite of fish and rice into his mouth. 

Hidden Hollow Fortress awaited. The shadow generator, now finished, was undergoing the first testing trials with lab rats. Luna had the project in hoof. 

Still staring at Twilight, Bucky watched as her mane spilled into her eyes as she laughed. She was radiant. Her eyes had a merry twinkle that he had not seen since Griffonholm. Twilight Sparkle was jubilant. 

“... and so we were all sitting in the hot springs together when Discord cut one. It makes this glorp sound and Fluttershy starts giggling and Pinkie and Cheese were laughing…” 

Another bite of fish and rice. Keeping Twilight Sparkle safe was his mission priority. Secure the portal device, deal with the mirror travelers that Shining Armor had been spying on, and then destroy the portal device. 

“...well, Celestia is making this face and I can’t tell if she is really angry or putting Discord on. Discord won’t stop giggling and Glass Slipper and Tourmaline are holding on to one another while they’re laughing…” 

Except… Bucky didn’t want to destroy the portal control rod. It would be useful. So very useful. With something like that, he could make incursions into the mirror traveler’s home turf. Maybe liberate a few earth ponies. Maybe send a swarm of golems through. 

“...the stench that came from Celestia’s bubbles…” 

The griffons were laughing now. They adored Sun Mother and held a great deal of light hearted reverence for her. Bucky poured more wine into his glass, drank it down with greedy abandon, and then poured even more. It was nice to see Twilight Sparkle so happy. 

“...and it sounded like whale song…” 

They had all returned so happy. Rarity and Coco were preparing to be parents after Barley had agreed to be the father. Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie had stopped by the farm to say hello, and had done so at the perfect moment. Their visit had cheered Loch Skimmer up just a little bit. Applejack and Silver Shill had visited to thank Loki and Sparkler. Fluttershy and Discord had actually stayed for several days after their return and somehow, Discord of all beings had become friends with Sukari, leaving poor Fluttershy in a near state of jealous rage because the zebra foal fled from her. 

Everyone was happy, except Bucky was not. Bucky had left his apprentice with an unpleasant and horrible task. Bucky was going on what he knew was going to be bloody business. And for all the peace that seemed to be spreading in the world, Bucky was about to populate the world with a few near perfect assassins. 

It was confusing at best and depressing at worst. 

“...it wasn’t all fun and games though. We stopped in Fancy on the way to the United Isles. It was dangerous to go there, we all knew it, but we did it anyway. We visited a couple of hospitals. We thanked the soldiers for the work they were doing. Fancy was so thankful for our visit and they knew we put our lives at risk to make them happy…”

Twilight Sparkle must not be put at risk. Twilight was an answer, and a far better one for the world than Bucky was. Bucky had been in a heated argument with Celestia about Twilight going, but Celestia suspected a small portal was located somewhere around Mustangia. Twilight and her divination magics would have a good chance of finding it. Twilight was so well attuned to magical disturbances. 

Also there was Twilight Sparkle’s hunches. An alicorn’s intuition. 

Swallowing his last bite, Bucky pushed his plate away. 



 

The land below was almost all flat. There were mines around Mustangia, holes dug straight down into the earth. Bucky peered over the rail at the ground below. It was warmer here, but still somewhat chilly. There was no snow, but the plains were dead brown grass. 

“So when we get to Mustangia, we go and we meet with our contacts at the Rusty Hinge tavern. Then we begin casing the mine and seeing what sort of trouble we might run into.” 

Bucky continued to stare down at the ground passing by beneath them. 

“Bucky… are you hearing me?” 

“Yes, sorry Twilight.” Bucky lifted his head and turned to look at Twilight. 

“This is just like those private investigator novels Spike likes to read.” Twilight watched the clouds going by. “Speaking of spies—” 

“Twilight, I know you have some reservations about the Shadowbolts.” 

Nodding, Twilight turned and looked at Bucky. “I have changed my mind. After visiting Fancy and seeing the burned out remains of Fromme du Lac, I no longer have any reservations about the Shadowbolts.” 

“Good.” Bucky narrowed one eye. “And on a matter closer to home, how do you really feel about Scootaloo joining the Raptors?” 

Twilight’s eyes flew open wide and she hissed as she drew in air through her teeth. 

“Come on Twilight, it isn’t that bad.” 

“I’m still making peace with it.” Twilight took a few steps then began to pace upon the deck. “Going on vacation with Princess Celestia… she can really let her mane down, can’t she?” 

“Perverted songs?” Bucky asked. 

Her cheeks turning a rosy red, Twilight nodded as she paced. 

“Hard to imagine… she’s just like us.” Bucky felt one corner of his mouth tug into a smirk as the scarred side of his face tightened. “She has all the same foibles that we do.” 

“I had a bad dream… Celestia came into our cabin and shoved her way into our bed. She slept with us.” Twilight’s ears pinned back against her skull. 

“You get bad dreams too?” Bucky asked. He shook his head. “I don’t mean like regular nightmares, I mean… like… prophetic dreams.” 

“I met an draconequus version of myself in a dream. I was in a bar and it stretched on forever in both directions.” Twilight’s pacing stopped. “I saw a draconequus version of you too… we loved one another Bucky. She told me I could free you from your destiny.” 

Twilight’s words left Bucky feeling as though something had kicked the wind out of him. 

“The bartender said I was becoming aware of other realities. I’ve been to other realities, like the one beyond the mirror. He said as I became more aware, I’d start seeing glimpses of other possibilities, other versions of myself.” Twilight lowered her voice. “There is a whole city outside that bar, a planar nexus. The city is called Converge. It is populated by immortals and beings who have reached certain states of awareness.” 

“And the bartender told you this?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight shook her head. “No, Princess Celestia told me this. She and Star Swirl used to visit there. She warned me to never step through a door where I’ve seen another version of myself enter from the other side.” 

“Feels funny… to think there is so much more out there than just what we know here. I wonder what Discord knows.” Bucky lifted his head and put his face forward into the wind. 

“Princess Celestia told me about Good King Sombra and his world. Trixie is an alicorn of humility, Chrysalis is a powerful force of love, your beloved grey pegasus is a force of wisdom. Oh, and get this; Flim and Flam are two forces of justice and fairness.” 

“Was Celestia maybe joking a little or pulling your leg?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight shook her head and then replied, “No, I don’t think she was. She was crying when she told me about them. She was pretty upset. She misses him Bucky… she misses him bad and it hurts her.” 

“I’m starving. I’m going inside for a bite to eat. All of this talk about multiple realities makes my head hurt.” Bucky shook his head. “I’m not the brightest pony Twilight. I don’t like all of this talk about multiverses and worlds beyond this one. I’d rather just pretend they don’t exist and keep things simple. You get one bad reality and you wind up with something like the mirror travelers. They are blocked from some realities, for whatever reason or logic exists, but allowed to run rampant in others. If I had my way, I’d find some means of severing the means to travel to any other reality outside of this one.”

“But Bucky… all that knowledge out there… the ability to learn—” 

“Is that worth Fromme du Lac?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied. Creases appeared on her forehead as the corners of her mouth were tugged down by a dreadful gravity that had no effect upon the rest of her body. 

“Here’s something to think about… Scootaloo is joining the Raptors. At some point, she is going to end up fighting the mirror travelers. Tell me if it is worth it then.” 



 

Mustangia. The halfway point between Equestria and Saddle Arabia. The city of the plains ponies. The city, while modern, was a massive sprawling affair made up of all sorts of buildings. Out where The Scorned Mare approached, most of the buildings were made of brick and adobe. Large squat buildings set down into the ground to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. 

It was cold, but not as cold as it was in Equestria. 

The air smelled different here, as the air smelled different in every city. 

Thinking of home, Bucky found he would rather be dealing with those problems than this one. Loch Skimmer still needed comforting. She had been following him around a lot lately, calling him ‘daddy’ and had been more affectionate than playful. Sukari was still learning to trust the world around her. Berry wanted to potty train Cadance even though it was still a little early. Bell Heather was starting to show signs of being a real talker. 

Bucky worried that he would miss Bandua’s eyes opening. The thought pained him. Of course, if this went as bad as he feared, he would miss a lot more than just Bandua’s eyes opening. Bucky took a deep breath and tried not to think of that. 

Dinky had been a little too well behaved as of late. She had buried herself into the research project for Apple Bloom’s science experiment. All signs of mischievousness had vanished as Dinky had become hyper-focused on getting results. Her every waking hour was dedicated to school work or gaining ground in her research under Apple Bloom’s direction. 

Piña too, had fallen under Apple Bloom’s command, and worked hard to help Apple Bloom with her vision. Bucky wasn’t quite sure what they were up to, but there was some weird stuff going on. 

And there was Apple Bloom herself. She was becoming a leader. She was organised, she was focused, and she was driven. Apple Bloom now headed an army, willing friends and accomplices that aided her great work. The gregarious little earth pony had even impressed Bucky with her charms, and he found himself offering more and more help each day. 

The little filly was juggling a staggering amount of time and resources. 

“Bucky, you ready to fly down and find the Rusty Hinge tavern?” 

Snapped from his reverie, Bucky blinked, collected his thoughts, and nodded. Saying nothing, he shifted form, becoming an axe beaked griffon. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 620
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Rusty Hinge was a large tavern made of grey stone and adobe that was made in an odd heptagonal shape. Inside were mostly earth ponies. It was dark, dim, and filled with smoke. The scent of cooking onions and garlic filled the air, a reminder that Mustangia produced more onions than any other place on the continent. 

The two black cloaked figures sat in a corner, waiting, their faces hidden in shadow. One was drinking a beer and something glowed beneath his hood. The other was sipping tea from a chipped mug that had seen better days, perhaps around the time of Nightmare Moon’s rebellion. 

“It is almost midnight… no sign of our contacts… and this place is lively. These ponies love the night,” Bucky said to Twilight in a low whisper. 

“Bucky, in the mines, there is no night and day. The next shift begins at one in the morning. These ponies are probably having breakfast,” Twilight replied. 

“Twilight?” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“Do you love me?” 

“I’ll have to think about it…” 

“Ouch… you wound me.” 

“You know I do Bucky, what kind of silly question was that?” 

“Do you trust me?” 

“I’m still not certain on that one.” 

“Fair enough. I should not be trusted. I’m a bad pony… whatever happens though, I need you to trust me.” 

Twilight Sparkle let out a nicker of concern and then took a sip of tea. The sweet scent of wood smoke tickled her nostrils and the warmth of the tavern was making her feel lightheaded. The tea was bitter and the water the tea had been made with was rich with sulphur. 

A pegasus colt approached the table, a fearful expression upon his face. He stopped a few feet away, reached into a saddlebag, pulled out a scroll case with his teeth, stepped forward, placed the scroll case upon the table, and then he took off running, saying nothing. 

With a faint magenta glow, Twilight lifted the scroll case, popped off one end, pulled out the scroll, and began reading. 

Bucky could hear her breathing as it grew heavier. 

“Bucky, we have a problem. Our contacts are dead. This message states that we are to go to a location a few blocks from here and meet with our old dear friends.” Twilight snorted in disgust and then kept reading. “They say they want to talk… and that there are twelve very small and very helpless little lives depending upon our good behaviour… Bucky, what do we do?” 

Anticipating this, Bucky took a drink of beer. He smacked his foam covered lips, wiped them with his foreleg, and looked at Twilight. “We go and talk to them of course. It seems we were expected. Seems like somepony was counting on our visit and made plans to welcome us upon our arrival.” 

“Hostages Bucky… what do we do?” Twilight’s voice grew frantic. 

“Whatever they ask of us, Twilight… whatever they ask of us,” Bucky replied. 



 

The two black cloaked figures moved down the foggy street, one tall, one short. They moved side by side. The tall one moved with a jerky gait that showed nervousness, the short one moved with a fluidity that made it appear that he wasn’t walking at all, but floating. 

“That’s far enough,” a voice said. 

The pair paused and stood together. 

A unicorn stepped out of the doorway, holding a small brown filly in front of him. Around her neck a telekinetic band of energy glowed. Her barrel heaved and she looked terrified. 

“Any sudden moves and her head comes off,” the unicorn said in a low voice. 

Bucky took note that the unicorn’s horn wasn’t glowing, so it was probably somepony else that had the filly by the throat. He heard angry breathing coming from Twilight Sparkle. “Remember to trust me,” Bucky whispered. 

“We’re here. What do you want?” Twilight Sparkle asked, getting to the point. 

As she spoke, more and more ponies stepped into the street, coming out of doors from darkened houses. Twelve foals, each of them with a telekinetic noose around their necks were levitated in view of Twilight and Bucky. 

“I know what you want,” Bucky said, stepping forward. “You have the portal control rod. You’re having trouble making it work. Not only are the crystals faulty, but you need somepony of the right bloodline.” Bucky hoped that nopony was checking for lies right now. 

“How very astute,” one of the unicorns replied. 

“And we all know how much you so love these little ones… even the worthless little mud foals,” a pegasus said in a guttural growl. “So we’re proposing a trade.” 

Nearby, a colt let out a squeal that turned into a gurgle. His eyes bulged and turned red. His face began turning purple. One hind leg began to convulse and twitch. 

“There is no need for that,” Bucky said, pulling his hood away from his face. 

“Bucky… no… what are you doing?” Twilight prodded Bucky’s ribs. 

“What is necessary,” Bucky replied as he removed his cloak and began to fold it. 

“And if he gives himself over, you’ll just let me go?” Twilight asked. 

“Oh don’t worry… we’ll be coming for you later… but the Night Stallion has decided to let you go for now. Once we have him secured…” the pegasus speaking pointed at Bucky. “Once he knows his place, we figure you’ll be far more receptive to our demands. The Night Stallion might even use you as his broodmare… maybe make a few more alicorns.” 

Twilight, infuriated, watched as Bucky removed his torque and a snowflake on a silver chain. He placed them on his folded cloak and passed the bundle to her. Saying nothing, Twilight accepted them and stuffed them into a saddlebag beneath her cloak. 

“Bucky… no… don’t do this.” Twilight watched as Bucky stepped forward. Standing there, feeling helpless, she watched as a telekinetic noose appeared around his neck. A pegasus stepped forward and clamped something around Bucky’s horn. 

There was a faint thrum of magic and the foals were released. Reaching out her mind, Twilight grabbed them, pulling them close to her, and she raised a shield, one of her brother’s shields around her. 

“Twilight…” 

Twilight could hear the strain in Bucky’s voice. He was already being strangled a bit. 

“Go home Twilight.” 

Her eyes burning with tears, her throat hot and dry, Twilight contemplated burning everything around her to cinders. “You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you!” 

“Of course. I suspected the ship was left right where I would find it,” Bucky replied, his voice a strained gargle. 

“Time to go,” a unicorn said in a cold dead sounding voice. 

As Twilight Sparkle stood there, helpless, unable to do anything but keep the foals around her shielded, she watched as Bucky was blindfolded and gagged. She could hear crying and sniffling all around her. 

“I’m coming back with an army,” Twilight promised as she began to back away. 

“We’ll be waiting… we have him. We no longer fear your army. You will do nothing stupid,” a unicorn replied. 

The mirror travelers began to laugh. 

“This was too easy. The Night Stallion didn’t believe this would actually work… but here we are, and here he is.” 

Spreading her wings, Twilight Sparkle rose up into the air, taking the foals with her, trying to think of what to do, how to fix this, how to make this situation better, how to stop Bucky from sacrificing himself. 

Having no other options, Twilight Sparkle flew off into the foggy night. 



 

“Hmm, these look dangerous.” 

Bucky felt a peculiar sensation as his talons went dead, their magic departing. Only a tiny spark of magic remained in them. Unable to see, unable to talk, Bucky stood there, not knowing what was going to happen next. 

So far, everything had gone according to plan. 

Now, if he was lucky, they would take him back to their actual base of operations, not the many decoys that dotted the countryside. 

“You’ve caused us a lot of trouble,” a voice said. 

“So much trouble,” another voice added. 

“We’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.” 

“The Night Stallion said you’d be proud… we have a way of fixing ponies that are proud—” 

Something smashed into Bucky’s ribs with explosive force. He felt them shatter and his body slammed into a wall. Gasping, unable to breathe, he slid down to the floor. He heard hoofsteps coming nearer. Something connected to the side of his face and slammed his head into the wall. And then, the kicks became too many count. 

In a daze, Bucky could not keep track of what was happening. Starbursts floated in front of his eyes, lighting up the blackness under the blindfold. Blow after blow rained down upon his prone and defenseless body. 

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over. 

“That oughta keep the fight out of him. But just in case he still thinks he has some chance…” 

There was guttural laughter as something slammed down onto Bucky’s right hind leg. He felt the bones splinter. There was a second kick, and then Bucky felt the remains of his leg being ground and twisted beneath a steel shod hoof. There was a sickening tearing sound. 

“He won’t need legs with what he’ll be doing.” 

There was one final kick and this one caught Bucky in the groin. Choking on his own gag, his mouth filled with his own blood, his guts writhing with fiery agony, Bucky fought back against the darkness and lost. 



 

Entering into the police station, hoping to find some means of help, some kind of assistance, and hoping to get help for the foals, Twilight Sparkle prepared to explain everything going on. 

A sickening stench struck her nose. She froze in the doorway. Hunched over the desk was a dead pegasus. On the floor was an earth pony. Blood pooled around his misshapen skull. Another earth pony had been torn in half. There was nothing left alive in the police station. There were only cold lifeless bodies. 

There was no help to be had here. She backed out of the doorway, not knowing what to do. She shut the door and looked down at the sobbing foals flocked around her.

Spreading her wings, Twilight Sparkle took flight, off to look for a hospital. 



 

Bucky awoke to the sensation of the tattered remains of his shattered leg being torn free, severed just below the hock. Still blindfolded, still gagged, and still helpless, there was nothing he could do. It was difficult to breathe and the air in his lungs felt soupy. He could hear the wet raspiness of his own laboured breathing. His groin ached with a new pain that was unlike any other. 

A moment later, the smell of burning flesh and hair filled the air, and sizzling could be heard as the stump of his leg was burned shut so he wouldn’t bleed out. This was a familiar pain, something Bucky knew all too well. It was so familiar that it was almost comforting.

All Bucky heard was the sounds of laughter as once more, he slipped into darkness. 



 

Sitting in the hospital, Twilight Sparkle could not stop the tears from falling. She had failed. She was going to have to return to The Scorned Mare and dispatch an emergency rotocopter golem. A golem that would fly home and tell Princess Celestia that she had failed. 

Twilight Sparkle could no longer feel Bucky’s magical signature at all. He was gone from her. He might not even be in this reality any longer. Filled with bleak despair, Twilight choked upon her own sobs, causing a nurse to come over and offer her a gentle pat. 

She was going to have to go home and explain this to Bucky’s family. Somehow, she was going to have to explain to his wives and his offspring that she had just let Bucky go and taken by his most hated enemies. 

“The foals are all okay… take heart… just a few bruises and bumps. No real harm done,” the nurse said. 

The ponies in the police station weren’t going to be okay. They had families too… and somepony was going to have to explain to them that mother or father or sister or brother was never coming home again. 

The thought made Twilight Sparkle wail with anguish and her cries were heard all over the hospital. 
	
	
> Chapter 621
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Things had not gone according to plan. Bucky had expected to be incapacitated, subdued, placed in chains, but not this. This had not been planned for. Laying on his side on a stone cold floor, Bucky tried to collect his thoughts. 

His new stump ached and his many broken ribs made it difficult to breathe. Everything hurt. Everything ached. His left front shoulder was disconnected and he wasn’t able to move his talons at all. 

But at least one thing had gone according to plan. He could feel the dark around him. His cell had some light, but it was dim. Blinking, trying to see out of his eye that was almost swollen shut, Bucky could see faint light shining through a slit in the door. 

Concentrating, Bucky tried to slip into shadow and found that he could not. Knowing how important this was, he drew in a wet bubbly breath and focused. After failing again, Bucky closed his eyes and thought of home. He wasn’t able to slip his whole body into shadow, so he focused on his horn. 

After several minutes of strain, there was a faint clunk on the floor as Bucky’s magical inhibitor fell off. 

It had been a terrible gamble, but they had only taken steps to stop Bucky’s magic… and had done nothing to inhibit his shadow nature. The mirror travelers had made a mistake. 

Not that it helped Bucky much at the moment. The plan had been to escape and wreak havoc inside of their own base of operations. Bucky was in no shape to do that now. He flopped and flailed upon the floor, a faint flame of anger kindling as he realised there would be no way to stand. 

Being beaten almost to death and losing another leg had not been factored into the plan. 

As shadow moved in front of the slit in the door and Bucky tensed. He had magic now. Terrible magic. His magical inhibitor was gone. He focused the feeble remains of his will and wondered if he had it in him to even cast a spell. 

There was a scratch at the door, a thump, a rattle, the clunk of wood, and then the door opened. A black figure loomed in the doorway. It was not the figure that Bucky had hoped for, or was expecting. 

“Bucky?” 

“You were not part of the plan…” Bucky’s voice was a wet soupy gurgle. 

“My king… what have they done to you?” 

Bucky felt his head lifted and he saw two black eyes. Gentle talons cradled his head. “Boadicea… what are you doing here?” 

“I stowed away on board The Scorned Mare.”

“Lugus… is… going… to… kill… you… and… I… will… not… be… able… to… stop… him…” Bucky gasped. 

“My king… I can see your ribs sticking out… and you are missing a leg.” 

There was another figure in the door. It stood there for a moment before entering. 

“Fresh Meat, wrap his ribs with those bandages we brought. I’ll lift his body up so you can reach around. We need to stop the bleeding.” 

“Sir, yes sir,” Boadicea replied. 

“My king… this foolish cub stowed away upon your ship. I thought it was a good idea, so I did too. She didn’t know I had stowed away though, not until I scared her almost to death when grabbed her in the alleyway where they took you. She almost revealed herself. Fresh Meat is a moron.” 

Bucky felt himself being lifted. There was movement around him, but he had trouble seeing what was going on. He felt somebirdy peel away his blood crusted mane from his face. “Where… where is Minion?” he asked. 

“I am here, Master,” Sunset Shimmer said, stepping through the door. “I was not aware that Loki and Boadicea would be joining us. Oh Master… what have they done to you?” 

Bucky saw burning red eyes blinking in front of his face. Gravity fell away from his body and he was lifted. Sunset Shimmer was wearing a black cloak and the alicorn amulet hung around her neck. 

“Boadicea killed the jailer. She ambushed him and strangled him with piano wire. Loki shot some of the guards with poisoned darts. We’ve hid their bodies. We need to get you out of here and go home.” 

“No… we must… we must finish our mission.” 

“Master, do not be foolish—” 

“We may not get this chance again,” Bucky said in a faint rasp. 

“Bucky, please, you are dying—” 

“Obey me.” 

Sunset Shimmer bowed her head. “Yes Master, I will do what I am told.” 



 

Loki, in the lead, peered up and down the narrow passageway, looking for signs of trouble. Behind him, Boadicea had her ear hole pressed to the stone. The pair of griffons, alert to danger, both reacted at the same time. 

“Trouble,” Loki hissed. 

Sunset Shimmer, carrying Bucky in a protective bubble, stepped into a cell and then hid behind the door. Loki vanished into another cell. Boadicea scrambled up the wall. 

A pegasus came around the corner and into the hallway lined with cell doors. He paused, looking around, and noted the empty table where the jailer should have been sitting. As the pegasus opened his mouth, Boadicea dropped down from the ceiling. 

A loop of piano wire was slipped around the pegasus’ neck. His eyes bulged as Boadicea yanked it tight. Stepping out from the shadowy doorway, Loki grabbed the pegasus by the snoot, his talons sinking into the pegasus’ flesh. 

“No… no screams for you… you die… slowly and in much pain,” Loki hissed, his voice one of pure feline evil. Loki stared into the dying pegasus’ eyes and watched as the light within them went dim. 

The pegasus’ legs collapsed and he fell to the floor, his legs giving feeble kicks. 

Boadicea gave a final hard yank and the pegasus’ life ended with a gurgle. She whipped the piano wire garrote from around its neck and looked at Loki. “How did I do?” 

“That was better Fresh Meat, but your technique still needs work,” Loki replied. 

Stepping out from inside the cell, Sunset Shimmer blinked her burning red eyes. Her horn was consumed with the same red glow that emanated from the alicorn amulet. “We move. Slow and steady. We find the portal room, we blow up the little portal they have here, we try to recover the control rod, and then we get out of here.” 

“Oh shite…” One very surprised looking unicorn stood staring. 

Sunset Shimmer’s horn flared and a thin red beam struck the unicorn. He combusted, burning away in the blink of an eye, becoming ash that fluttered in the air like snowflakes. 

“Trixie tried to warn me,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low voice. “I meant to stun him.” 

“Screw him,” Loki said. “This is no longer a mine but a grave.” The angry, murderous little griffon began dragging the dead pegasus into a cell to hide the body. “I will scout ahead. Fresh Meat, you are my shadow. Sunset, you guard our king. If things get bloody and our cover is blown, just let go with everything you have.” 

Sunset Shimmer nodded. 



 

Standing in shadow, Loki waited for the unicorn to pass. He glanced upwards at Boadicea, who clung to the ceiling, and shook his head. He saw her nod. Seeing the unicorn’s tail, Loki stepped out, grabbed the stallion by his tail, lifted, and then Loki drove his poison soaked stiletto into stallion’s balls. He made a stirring motion with his blade, and there was wet squelching from the unicorn’s groin. 

The unicorn was dead before hitting the ground. Loki pulled his blade out. 

There was no place to hide the body. Loki stood there with a bloody stiletto, trying to figure out what to do next. He glanced at Sunset Shimmer, who came out from around the corner. “Save your magic. We leave him. Our cover is bound to be blown eventually.” 

“Trouble!” Boadicea hissed. She scuttled off along the ceiling, her claws allowing her to cling to the soft stone. 

Loki lifted his head, watching, waiting, and he pulled a small crossbow from off of his back. A quarrel was already loaded. As a pegasus came around the distant corner, a black shadow dropped down upon him. A soft gurgle reached Loki’s ears. He watched his pupil strangle the pegasus, evaluating her performance, seeing where she made mistakes, and when this was over, planned to explain in detail everything she was doing wrong. 

He also planned to praise her for what she was doing right. 

The pegasus dropped dead and Boadicea went slinking up the hall, back to Loki’s side. 

“We move. The bodies are piling up and more are bound to be along.” Sunset Shimmer looked at Loki and waited. 

The griffon took off, his head cocked, listening for danger, walking on three legs with his stiletto out and ready in his talons. Boadicea moved beside him and somewhat behind him. 

“We killed a fair number coming in… I don’t know how many are here, but we have to have thinned them out a fair bit by now,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low whisper. 

Coughing, Bucky vomited an enormous gout of blood out onto the floor, which caused Boadicea to whimper. After the coughing subsided, a soft wet, raspy cackle came out of Bucky’s lips as he began to laugh. 



 

“There is gonna be a fight,” Loki said, looking up at Sunset Shimmer. “Through that door is a big room. There are at least ten ponies in there, all of them unicorns. Looks like a place of study.” 

Sunset Shimmer shook her head and some of her mane spilled out from inside of her black hood. “This is is going to be bad.”

“Keep Fresh Meat in a bubble and out of danger if you can.” Loki began to dribble something on his blade from a glass vial. 

“What about you?” Boadicea asked. 

Still poisoning his blade, Loki replied, “It is time for me to be a psychopomp.” He tossed away the now empty glass vial. “Sunset, you don’t need to worry about me. Just let go with everything you have. I’ll go into the room first and give them something to think about.” 

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes narrowed. “Be careful Loki.” 

Walking on two legs, a vicious looking dirk in his right talons and a stiletto in his left talons, Loki slipped through the door and out of view of Sunset Shimmer. 



 

Feeling a perverse sense of pleasure, Loki watched as the unicorns in the room blinked in surprise upon seeing him. “Hello… my name is Loki Apple… you have offended me by injuring my king. All of you are dead ponies!” 

As the incoming spells flew at him, Loki vanished in a poof of fire. 

He appeared behind a very surprised unicorn mare. Both blades sank into her backside, one vanishing as it sank into her crotch. He pulled out and vanished again in another poof of fire. This time he appeared behind another unicorn, a male. Loki drove one blade into the stallion’s scrotum and the other blade went into the buttock. 

It was at this point that Sunset Shimmer entered the room, blazing brightly, and at full power with the alicorn amulet. The unicorns, who had been caught by surprise, were getting spell defenses up. 

Loki found his blades bouncing off of a glowing barrier when he teleported behind another unicorn. The room filled with fire and smoke. Screams filled the air. Several unicorns standing together melted like wax and then Loki noticed the glowing barrier was gone. Both of Loki's blades sank into the surprised unicorn. 

And then, it was over. Nothing was left alive in the room. 

“What do we have here?” Sunset Shimmer stepped towards a glass cabinet. 

“Control rod,” Bucky gasped in reply. 

With no sense of stealth, Sunset Shimmer smashed the cabinet and picked up the rod. It was short, made of metal, studded with crystals, and made her sinuses buzz when she touched it with magic. 

“Good Minion… best Minion…” Bucky’s voice was a weak, wet wheeze. 

“Come on Loki… let’s geld these motherpluckers…” 
	
> Chapter 622
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Night Stallion, we seem to have lost control of the embodiment of war. His minions run amok inside of our base. Do you have any advice?” Commander Thundervolt looked at the small glowing wisp of energy that existed between two pillars. 

“Thundervolt… you disappoint me.” The voice was chilling and it filled the room with dread. “Are you admitting weakness? Has one of my commanders failed me? Only those strong enough to serve may continue to serve…” 

Thundervolt began to sweat, knowing that he was in a dangerous spot. He looked around the room, eyeing any potential attackers. If somepony had a mind for a promotion, a fight might happen. Showing any sort of weakness was just asking for all manner of trouble. 

“Night Stallion, he had help escaping. We have an invader with unbelieveable alicorn levels of magic running around. She is killing us without effort. Most of the ponies in this installation are researchers and tech types, not warriors and combat ready wizards.” 

“If the researchers cannot defend themselves, if they cannot fight, what use are they to me? I expect strength without weakness. There can be no room for failure. The weak, the chaff, will burn away in the fire, the dross must be removed, and only the strongest may serve me.” 

“Sir, she has alicorn levels of magic… potentially equalling your own. You are the strongest of us all and none of us could dare stand against you. We are powerless against her as well—” 

“Silence, cease your mewling, you pitiful welp.” 

Thundervolt fell silent. The Night Stallion sounded furious. He could feel eyes staring at him. He wondered when the attack would come. While he was sleeping? Eating? Perhaps in the middle of fight? Somepony would want his spot, a chance to prove that he or she was strong enough to serve the Night Stallion. 

“Sir… warriors do not always make the best researchers and researchers do not always make the best warriors. We need both if we are to be successful,” a unicorn said in a flat monotone, revealing no fear or emotion. 

“Only the strong may survive. Even the lowliest scholar must prove he can fight if he wishes to continue to serve me. All weakness must be purged until only the very strongest survive if we are to continue to exist against so many powerful enemies. Even as you soft spineless wretches get to live in the lap of luxury on a living green world with sweet, pure air and abundant food, we continue to scratch out our existence here, besieged by demons and eldritch abominations. We fight an endless battle to protect our last city and ourselves. And our numbers GROW! Those who survive now are better than those who have fallen. The weak almost magicless unicorns are nearly extinct now. We have purged their failure! And the pegasi born now are warriors, fighters true to their breed. We have eradicated the failings in their tribe!” 

“PERFECTION THROUGH PAIN!” a pegasus barked, raising his wing in salute. 

“PURITY THROUGH PURGING!” another cried, also raising his wing. 

“If any more scholarly types die, it is of no real loss. Perhaps their mothers should have cast them aside after birth. It is unfortunate, but sometimes weakness cannot be detected until a pony is much older, after they have consumed needed resources and weakened us all with their infirmities. Leave them to fend for themselves, have all of your available troops focus on guarding the portal. I am powering it up from my side and soon I shall step through. Do try to survive until I can come and rescue your pitiful and disgusting flesh.” 

There was no need to issue an order to recall all troops to the portal room. Most of them were already here. The weak were already being purged and left to fend for themselves. 

“No doubt you have lost control of the portal control rod. When I arrive, I shall have reclaim it from this… alicorn imposter that you all seem so terrified of.” 

No doubt, much weakness would be purged because of this debacle. Thundervolt began to wonder if this was even worth it. This world was alive, green, the sky was blue, there was more food than a pony could imagine, more food than an army could control, and it was getting harder and harder to justify the fighting to take all of this. 

Thundervolt was certain that if they had simply come and asked for aid, the ponies of this reality would have helped them. Maybe even given them land. There would have been enough food and medicine available for everypony. Maybe the fighting could have ended. Maybe the madness required for their survival was no longer needed. They were all mad now… so very mad. One day, Thundervolt had woken up and as he stood feeling the sun upon him, he realised that at some point, they had all gone mad, himself included. 

His eyes wide with surprise, Thundervolt went cross eyed as he looked down at the thin metal point protruding from the front of this throat and extending out beyond his muzzle. It was bloodied. He felt his front knees knocking together and he struggled to draw breath. He hadn’t even heard it coming. Grinning, he realised his poor hearing was about to be purged and he hoped that his replacement had better hearing. 

As the poison burned through his blood, Thundervolt said his final words. “We’re too weak to survive on this world… we’ve forgotten how to be ponies… these equines will be the... end of us all.” He gasped, gurgled, and then dropped dead. 

“I do believe that Commander Thundervolt has been relieved of duty. Commander Hailstrike has stepped up to lead us,” a voice said. 

“Commander Hailstrike, orders?” 

“Prepare for the Night Stallion’s arrival. Gather a few of our more inexperienced troops and begin organising a relief convoy for our research base in Saddle Arabia. Gather whomever is left and get them out of here. Perhaps they will learn from the failures made here and will go on to become better, but I doubt it. All nonessentials are to be evacuated with the convoy. Once we have this base resecured, we will bring the nonessentials back to continue our work here.” 

Commander Hailstrike stepped over the convulsing body of Thundervolt and watched as the glowing nexus of energy between the two pillars began to grow larger. 

“Throw as many of the very weakest among us at this alicorn imposter. Let her burn through her reserves and foolishly tire herself. She will be easier to subdue when the Night Stallion arrives. Release the thralls.” 



 

“Loki, we have trouble incoming!” Sunset Shimmer hollered out a warning as she redoubled her shield. “Minotaurs, griffons, a few diamond dogs!” 

“Don’t kill them… see eyes… sparkle… release them,” Bucky said in a low groan. 

Sunset Shimmer fired off a powerful cone of dispel magic down the hallway. The incoming horde stopped, blinked, looked at one another, and then looked at the flaming unicorn. Reaching an unspoken consensus, all of them turned around and ran the other way. 

“Poor wretches… I would have actually felt bad about killing them,” Loki said. He stood on all fours, his girth heaving, his ribs flexing in and out like bellows. “Something is up. There are no more patrols in the halls. We have either killed most of them or they are pulling back.” 

“I sense… something… wrong,” Bucky said, blood trickling from his lips as he spoke. “Strange energy. Can you feel it, Minion?” 

“I feel something, Master it is very hard to feel anything with this amulet,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“We must… we must be going… He is coming,” Bucky said, each word a wheeze. 

“Master, you wanted to destroy the portal,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“Minion, if he is coming… and he hurts you… I might do something… I would regret. We must go,” Bucky said. He started coughing once more. “Revenge is too dangerous… I will not risk my beloved—” Bucky’s words were cut off by coughing. 

Loki shrugged. “Let’s go.” 

“I have a plan,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low voice. 

“So… lets do it and get out of here,” Loki replied. 

“Master insisted that I study the geological survey maps. I understand why he had me do it now… just in case we needed options. These mines are full of halite, as well as other mineral deposits.” Sunset Shimmer began to smile an evil smile and her eyes burned even redder. 

Loki shook his head. 

“Get on my back, Loki, and sit with Boadicea. I am going to put a shield around us.” Sunset Shimmer drew in a deep breath and began to concentrate. “I am going to draw upon the chlorine deposits in the earth all around us and flood the mine with chlorine gas.”

“What about the portal?” Loki asked as he hopped up onto Sunset Shimmer’s back. 

“I have a plan for that too,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

Bucky, still coughing, which caused him horrible pain, which made him start laughing, a maniacal cackle, and his laughter caused more coughing. Caught in a dreadful cycle, Bucky vomited up more blood and let out a pitiful sounding laugh. 

“As I am conjuring up chlorine gas, I will be flooding the mine with hydrochloric acid. These mines are full of salts I need.” Sunset Shimmer summoned a crackling aura of energy around her. “The portal is on the levels below us I think.” 

The unicorn closed her eyes. On her back where two griffons who sat amidst the flames she generated, but they did not burn. Bucky was in a protective bubble beside her with alicorn grade shields wrapped around him. 

“So much power… endless power… this is even better than tapping into a ley line and getting buzzed from the harmonic resonance. I could do so much more… I could crush our enemies, burn them from the earth—”  

“Minion…” 

“I am aware of every single hydrogen atom in the air around me. It was so difficult to touch them before. It would have taken every bit of power I had before to fuse a few together…” 

As Sunset Shimmer spoke, bursts of heat and light began to pop around her. The air crackled with a strange energy. 

“But now… I can reach out and touch them all—” 

“Minion, listen to me…” 

“I can move hydrogen atoms around like Luna moves stars. I could make new stars! I could make a new star right here in this mine and that would destroy the portal… just start smashing hydrogen atoms together… like banging flint and steel—”

“Minion!” 

Sunset Shimmer blinked and shook her head. She opened her eyes. The red in her eyes dimmed a little. Her expression contorted into one of pain. “No… no, love is more important than power… I need to remember what I am fighting for. The amulet does not control me, I control the amulet. It is a tool… a tool that whispers lies and offers power but it does not offer love.” 

Flaming wings sprouted from Sunset Shimmer’s sides and the red in her eyes faded away. Her eyes, now opal once more, blinked. Smoke began to rise from the stone where her hooves touched. 

“I am a being of love and light. It is through harmony that I draw power. That power is to protect, to defend, to preserve harmony.” 

Sunset Shimmer spread her flaming wings. Her voice was booming and it filled the hallways. Bits of rubble sprinkled down from the ceiling. Reaching out with her mind, Sunset Shimmer touched every living thing in the mine. There were many black minds here, she ignored those, looking for those that could be saved. 

Reaching through rock, stretching her will through tons of stone, Sunset Shimmer teleported a number of beings to the surface. 

“This power is not for personal gain, but for the betterment of the world around me.” 

Sunset Shimmer began to blaze with a searing intensity. The stone around her began to glow. She closed her eyes and shook her head, a sad expression upon her face. 

“The earth has been corrupted here and I almost foolishly poisoned the land. I almost made a terrible mistake. The land must be healed. While harm is sometimes unavoidable, this power should be used to heal.” 

Flooded with power, Sunset Shimmer lifted her head high. Her legs grew longer, her body increased in mass, her neck lengthened, and now she glowed like the sun. Her horn lengthened. Around her, the rocks began to liquify. 

“I UNDERSTAND WHAT MUST BE DONE. I SHALL NOT MAKE AN END, BUT A BEGINNING.” Sunset Shimmer’s voice boomed like thunder through the hall and bits of the ceiling began to cave in. 

There was a flash of fire and Sunset Shimmer vanished. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 623
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A new miniature sun blazed, shining down upon the dull brown grass of the plains. The beings teleported out of the mines were teleported once more, now sent miles away. The sun pulsed, and the entire earth trembled. A soft hum could be heard, a low frequency rumble. 

The small collection of shacks below exploded into splinters. 

The ground below began to ripple like a pond. The earth moved like liquid. Overhead, clouds began to gather, swirling, forming a vortex. Lightning flashed and struck the earth. Orbs of light sprang into existence around the new miniature sun. They circled, moving in orbit, and then one by one, they zoomed off and struck the ground with terrific force. 

A jet of magma spewed from the ground, it fell back down and bubbled, spreading out over the grass, becoming lava. More magma fountained upwards and the earth below began to bubble. The air filled with the stench of rotten eggs. 

The miniature sun blazed ever brighter. 

The ground below became a burning caldera as the mine below collapsed in upon itself and the stone melted. Smoke rose up into the air. The grass began to burn. Above, the clouds flashed with lightning, thunder crackled through the air, and it began to rain. 

“AND SO WITH DEATH THERE MUST ALSO BE NEW LIFE.” 

For miles around, the ground shuddered. A beam of glowing white light struck the land below the miniature sun. The ground exploded, shifting, boiling and bubbling, it split open, revealing a deep fissure that went down far into the depths of the earth. 

Water flooded upwards, boiling when it hit the lava, which began to cool. The air filled with steam and the clouds grew thicker. Rain came down in torrents. Lightning streaked down out of the clouds and struck the earth, creating new mineral deposits as the lava churned everything together. 

“I HAVE RETURNED THESE BODIES TO THE EARTH, SO THAT THEY MAY BEGIN ANEW.” 

A boiling lake formed and the ground continued to cool. The caldera was now flooded with water, forming a new lake. Clouds continued to give water back to the earth in the form of rain. Some of the clouds parted and rainbows could be seen in the pale grey winter skies. 

After quite some time, the lake ceased to boil. 

The miniature sun dimmed just a little. 

The clouds ran out of rain and turned into fluffy white clouds. 

Sunset Shimmer, flapped her wings made of fire and dove down to to the earth. She landed near the lake. The ground was warm and the air felt like spring. Singed grass crunched and crackled underhoof. 

“FLAME CLEANSES. THE OLD MUST BE CLEARED AWAY SO THE NEW CAN GROW.” 

Sunset Shimmer lifted the griffons from her back and then set them down upon the ground. She turned and smiled at them, her eyes blazing like the sun, and then she turned to Bucky. 

“YOU HAVE A DISEASE. IT IS LIKE A THORN IN YOUR BRAIN. YOU USE YOUR SICKNESS AS A WEAPON. IT IS NOT A WEAPON WORTH USING AND ALL IT WILL CREATE IS RUIN. FOR YOU, FOR THOSE YOU LOVE, FOR THE WORLD YOU HOPE TO SAVE. YOU BELIEVE IT IS YOUR BEST WEAPON, YOUR STRENGTH, BUT IT IS A WEAKNESS. YOU ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM THE NIGHT STALLION.” 

Sunset Shimmer lifted Bucky into the air. She blinked and Bucky burst into flames. Howls filled the air. Sunset Shimmer’s smile never ceased. She stepped forward, closer to Bucky, and her ears folded back against her skull. 

“YOUR BEST WEAPON IS YOUR GENTLE SPIRIT, BUT IT IS DYING. I CANNOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN. FORGIVE ME, MASTER, BUT I MUST BURN AWAY YOUR WEAKNESS AND RESTORE YOUR STRENGTH.” 

As Bucky was consumed by fire, he continued to howl, to screech, his cries filled the air. Loki and Boadicea clung to one another, terrified, wide eyed, frightened of the flaming sight before them. 

“YOU LOSE LITTLE BITS OF YOURSELF, BOTH YOUR BODY AND YOUR SPIRIT, AND YOU REPLACE THEM. YOU FILL THEM WITH COLD, LIFELESS REPLACEMENTS, AND EACH DAY, YOU BECOME A LITTLE LESS EQUINE AND A LITTLE MORE SOMETHING ELSE.” 

A keening wail escaped from Bucky’s mouth, a sound that could be heard miles away. 

“IF YOU KEEP BECOMING WHAT YOU ARE, YOU MAY WIN THE BATTLE AND LOSE THE WAR. THERE IS A SICKNESS DEEP WITHIN YOU THAT I CANNOT CURE, BUT I CAN BURN AWAY EVERYTHING ELSE… FORGIVE ME MASTER.” 

Burning, shrieking, Bucky writhed. 

“ONE THOUSAND PHOENIXES HAD THEIR SOULS STOLEN TO MAKE THIS AMULET. LIFE, DEATH, REBIRTH. THE CYCLE MUST CONTINUE. THEY HAD LIFE, THEY SUFFERED DEATH, BUT THEIR REBIRTH WAS INTERRUPTED.” 

There was a flash of brilliant light, a sphere of rainbow hue appeared around Bucky, growing brighter, flashing, and then exploded. The lake rippled from the force of the blast. 

“THROUGH THE FLAMES BE BORN AGAIN.” 

The flames around Bucky’s body turned pink, turned blue, turned purple, turned green, turned violet, and for a moment, they even burned black. Then, white light flared. The flames vanished and Bucky was set down in the grass. 

Standing beside him was Sunset Shimmer. 

The wings were gone now, along with the amulet, but Sunset Shimmer was still tall. Her legs were long. Her neck was long, graceful, and slender. Her horn retained its length. 

“Minion… what have you done to me?” Bucky’s voice was soft, weak, feeble, but no longer raspy. 

“Master, I have given you back yourself,” Sunset Shimmer replied. She looked down into Bucky’s eyes. One was still the eye of Odin, but the other was grey and had a slitted pupil. “Oh Master, if you could see yourself right now.” 

“How did you do this?” Bucky asked. He crossed his eyes and looked up. The black, jagged length of horn was gone. His horn was still misshapen, bent, odd, but it was no longer fulgurite. It was made of horn casing, but twisted. It was tan, like the rest of his pelt. 

There was a peculiar sensation coming from his talons. Bucky raised them and had trouble believing what he was seeing. His mechanical prosthesis was no longer metal, but flesh and bone. Black scales grew down the length of his talons and blue-black claws extended from his talon tips. He flexed them, forming a fist, and then unclenched them. 

“How?” Bucky held his talons up so Sunset Shimmer could see them. 

“I released the phoenixes from their torment. All of that energy had to go somewhere.” Sunset Shimmer leaned her head down and nosed Bucky. “Can you stand?” 

Bucky looked down and both of his hind legs. There were still a few scars on his left leg, but his right leg was whole and untouched. He reached for his ribs and began to pat them, touching his side with his now flesh and bone talons. He was whole again and the pain he lived with had subsided a great deal. 

“Minion, what did you do to me?” 

Sunset Shimmer shrugged. 

“Minion… you’ve changed… you’re like… you’re like an alicorn without the wings.” 

“I touched the inside of the amulet. Saw past all of the torment. Saw past the destruction and the need for violence. I heard the voices inside… when I touched them, I don’t know what happened, but something broke… or something. All that destructive power started to come out and I had to channel it somehow. I purged the ground, I made a nice lake, I listened to all the voices in the ley lines, and I heard thousands of dead alicorns whispering in my ears. I don’t know how I knew they were alicorns, but I just did. I just let go and let everything happen.” 

Bucky got to his hooves and his legs wobbled like a newborn foal. He looked himself over. Many of his scars had faded a bit. He waggled his tufted ears, licked his fangs, and tried to figure out what he was. 

“Sorry Master, but the Taint is gone. You’re bound to notice sooner or later.” 

“WHAT?” Bucky stood there, stunned, and panic appeared on his face. 

“Don’t worry Master, it will be okay. Somehow. It was a powerful weapon, but it was a bad weapon. Not one worth using. It was destroying everything good about you. In time, it would have been your ruin. Trying to bring about world harmony using dark magic is like bombing for peace or screwing for virginity. Sounds good in theory, never works out in practice.” 

In the distance, there was a faint rumble. Sunset Shimmer turned her head and looked skywards. She smiled. “We have incoming.” 



 

Feeling very confused, Twilight Sparkle stared at a much taller Sunset Shimmer and one very different Bucky. She stood there, eyes wide and staring, as two griffons sat nearby skipping stones over a lake that hadn’t been there a few hours ago. 

Twilight’s hind legs gave way and she sat down with a muffled thump in the scorched grass. She had heard everything Sunset Shimmer had said, she had listened to Bucky, but still had trouble taking it all in. 

“I thought I lost you!” Twilight cried as she lunging forward, her wings flapping. She tackled Bucky, bowling him over, and she began to squeeze him. “When I watched them taking you away I thought I was going to lose one of my best friends… forever.” 

“I was hoping for more killing,” Loki said in a sulky voice as he sent a rock skimming over the water. “But this is nice. I suppose. No… no… Fresh Meat, it is all the wrist. Flick, not hurl.” 

“The portal is gone. We have the portal control rod. I think we can go home now,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“I need to destroy that,” Twilight said, letting go of Bucky after one final squeeze. She sat up and looked at Sunset Shimmer.

“We might be able to use it,” Bucky said in a low voice. “Twilight, if you and I studied it, we might be able to understand it better. We might be able to use it—” 

“No Bucky.” Twilight shook her head. 

“But Twilight… if we study it, if we understand it, we might be able to give it to Shining Armor. He might be able to do more than just detect mirror travelers… he might be able adapt his shields to block out interdimensional projections. I mean, he is going to keep growing in power… in time… in theory, he might be able to shield the entire world… nothing going in or out.” 

Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment, and then her eyes narrowed as her expression became one of shrewd cunning. 

“I will not lie to auntie Celery about having this control rod.” Sunset Shimmer extended one long foreleg and prodded Bucky. 

“We could let her decide. We tell her that we can study it, maybe do something with it, repurpose it, and then use it for defensive purposes.” Twilight Sparkle looked at Sunset Shimmer and then at Bucky. “I wonder what Celestia will say when she sees Bucky.” 

“I wonder what my wives will say.” Bucky fell over on his back and looked skywards. A few clouds remained. He raised up his right hind leg and looked at it. It was gone just a few hours ago. It had been gone. And now, he was staring at it. Miraculous magic, healing without ascension. 

“The Scorned Mare is in Mustangia. We should go there and then head home.” Twilight looked at the lake, taking in the beauty of the area. The grass was still burnt but life would return. In time, this place would become a sanctuary for all kinds of life. 

“How will I fight without my dark magic?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight shrugged. “It was powerful, I’ll admit, but it was my worry that it what was responsible for your increasingly erratic behaviour. Bucky, I’m sorry, but the gentle pony I know wouldn’t have dangled ponies off of a roof and dropped them. Your moods fluctuated wildly. There were times I didn’t know you.” 

“My horn… its all funny and weird now… and no longer made of a focusing material. What if I’m not strong enough?” Bucky crossed his eyes and stared upwards at the gnarled growth that protruded from his forehead. 

“You will have to rely on others.” Sunset Shimmer squinted at Bucky. “Your horn is funny. It started off tan and it is getting darker I think. Maybe the casing is curing?” Sunset Shimmer shrugged. 

“You can still take advantage of your appearance… the fear it causes. Just use a little illusion. Make it look like you have the Taint still and scare your enemies. Maybe take harmonious magic and make it look like dark magic. You can look like the Bogeypony on the outside, but be the good pony that I know that you are deep down on the inside,” Twilight Sparkle said. 

“Master… I know that you could probably still cast dark magic, but I am asking you, please don’t.” Sunset Shimmer looked Bucky in the eye. “You have been given a chance… please, take it. Explore shadow magic, harmonious magic is still powerful. Just… don’t make yourself sick again.” 

Leaning over, Bucky kissed Sunset Shimmer on the cheek. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Thank you, Minion.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 624
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Loki, I would really like to know what you were thinking when you let Boadicea stowaway aboard this vessel… really, I would,” Bucky said in a low voice as he looked at the little griffon sitting at the table across from him. 

Puffing out and raising his crest, Loki did his best to look offended. “Some gratitude.” 

“Loki, it isn’t about gratitude, it is about me trying to come up with some kind of logical excuse so I can stop Lugus from killing you.” Bucky lifted up a teacup in his talons and felt a sense of wonder as he felt heat against his flesh. 

There was a worried peep and Loki’s feathers pulled tight against his skin. “I saw Boadicea climbing up the side of the vessel. She can’t fly. And I think to myself, she could get in all sorts of trouble for doing this. But then I thought about you, and how much trouble you get into, and I have an obligation to you. So… I climbed up as well and tucked myself away. Boadicea was tailing you the entire time. And that cub is foolish! She almost gave herself away because she allowed emotion to govern her behaviour. So I grabbed her and explained that it would be better to kill them one by one. So we snuck along together and eventually, we bump into Sunset Shimmer. She was tailing you too. But when we met her, she was a very nosy looking goat—” 

“A goat?” Bucky asked, looking first at Loki and then at Sunset Shimmer. 

“I had my reasons.” Sunset Shimmer looked miffed. 

“Nobirdy ever suspects a goat.” Loki shrugged. “Goats follow. Isn’t that what they do?” Loki paused and took a deep breath. “So we show up at the shacks where the mine entrance was and Sunset Shimmer is still a goat and this unicorn guard shows up and he’s looking at this goat—” 

“Loki, shut up. Not another word,” Sunset Shimmer said, her eyes narrowing. 

Bucky shook his head. “Loki, keep going.” 

“Master!” 

“So this unicorn is looking at the goat and I’m wondering, is the unicorn feeling lonesome?” Loki’s crest rose and he looked at Bucky. “I’m moving into position and the unicorn starts trying to milk the goat and Sunset Shimmer is going ‘baa’ and I wait for the unicorn to be disappointed by getting no milk.” 

“And that’s when Loki stabbed him,” Boadicea said. 

“You waited for him to be disappointed?” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Sunset Shimmer, who had turned away and looked pouty. 

“I got molested.” Sunset Shimmer snorted and refused to look anypony or anybirdy in the eye. “He was rough too… just yanking way on my little goat teats. It hurt.” 

Twilight Sparkle’s laughter escaped in the forms of little snorts and she bit her lip to keep from laughing at her friend. 

“After that, there was a lot of killing,” Boadicea said. 

“Master, I did a little interrogating while we were still above ground… I bored into a unicorn’s mind and did a little digging. She didn’t give me what I wanted, and the next one didn’t either, but I learned something interesting from the third unicorn guard that I took a little peek inside of.” 

Setting down his teacup, Bucky narrowed one eye and looked at Sunset Shimmer. “And what is that?” 

“As a pegasus, the Night Stallion had a power… a strange magic that caused weakness in others proportional to their strength. In combat, it made him a powerhouse. I think that is what gave him the advantage needed to fight an alicorn. Now, as an alicorn himself, his talent is much stronger. It is how their city survives. The strongest demons and eldritch abominations are weakened significantly when attacking the city and the defenders hold them back.” Sunset Shimmer shuddered. “I saw through the unicorn’s eyes… I saw what it is like for them. I saw their fight, their struggle. Each day they just keep scraping by somehow.” 

“A magic like that is dangerous.” Twilight, who had stopped laughing, now looked concerned. “I don’t know how to counter something like that. How does one fight something like that?” 

Bucky shrugged. “I don’t know. But it explains how he keeps gaining ground I think.” 



 

Unable to help himself, Bucky reached out and touched a griffoness as she brought more tea. He could feel each soft feather under the fleshy pads at the ends of his talon fingers. He angled his claws away from her tender flesh. 

The griffoness peeped and Bucky pulled his talons away. 

“If you were to pull my tail, I would not resist you… I would even welcome it,” the griffoness said. She looked up and stared into Bucky’s eyes, managing to go for almost a whole minute before looking away. 

“That was not my intention, forgive me,” Bucky said in a soft voice. “I could sort of feel things with my metal prosthesis. The illusion of sensation. This… this is real.” 

“Am I not pleasing to you?” the griffoness asked. 

“You are.” Bucky smiled a soft smile. “You are one very pretty griffoness… and you will someday make somebirdy very happy. But not me. I have enough wives.” 

“Not all females have to be kept as wives within a pride… some are pets. Playthings.” The griffoness looked up again with a hopeful expression. 

Bucky’s ears fell back against his skull. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea.” 

The griffoness heaved a disappointed sigh. “I very much want a husband or a keeper.” 

“See that griffon, the one right over there? His name is Loki, and I know for a fact that he is single. Maybe try bringing him tea. He likes honey and crystalised lemon slices.” 

The griffoness fluffed out her shiny blue feathers. Her crest rose. “He is more predatory than I am. He is a harrier… I have a jay beak.” 

“Since when does that matter?” Bucky asked. “Give him tea and a plumage display.” 

“Do you think he will notice me?” the griffoness asked. 

“If he does, tell him I said no touchy touchy unless he means it.” Bucky glanced over at Loki and then back at the griffoness. He nudged her and she peeped in alarm. “Go on, be brave.” 



 

“You’re almost as tall as I am.” Twilight looked Sunset Shimmer over. 

The pair stood on deck as the sun was setting and The Scorned Mare raced towards home. Both were tall, regal looking, and radiated majestic power. Both mares, named for this time of the day, were enjoying the setting sun together. 

“This is temporary,” Sunset said to Twilight in a low voice that contained a hint of sadness. “Every time I tap into this power, it will burn away and in time, I will become as I once was. Just a regular unicorn. I hope I do not squander it and I have no idea what to do with it.” 

“Oh.” Twilight’s face fell. She looked at the purple, blue, and gold clouds in the distance. 

“They beat him so badly Twilight. I saw him. He was dying. I was so angry… I was filled with so much rage… and wearing the alicorn amulet… that rage was almost the end of me.” Sunset Shimmer cleared her throat. “Master wanted to test me… to see if I was ready for real responsibility and power. He gave me a horrible test. It made Trixie cry seeing the amulet again.” 

“I bet it was hard on her.” Twilight glanced over at the unicorn by her side. 

“I almost failed. Seeing him hurt like that… it made me so angry… I’m still angry.” Sunset Shimmer watched as the clouds drifted in front of the setting sun. “I almost ascended Twilight… I had it right there in my grasp. I could have bound the phoenix souls to me and I would have become a dark alicorn of fire. I was so close. My rage wanted to burn. Everything the old me wanted was right there, and ready to be taken. I’m angry at myself for being tempted.” 

“We all have our moments… the important thing is, even though you were tempted, you chose something else.” Twilight leaned on her friend and wrapped a wing over Sunset’s back. 

“I wonder what Master’s moments are like.” Sunset Shimmer, glad to have Twilight so near, felt a little better about her near failure. 

“Bucky is too stupid to fail.” 

“Twilight, what a horrible thing to say!” Sunset Shimmer felt the alicorn beside her shrug. 

Lowering her voice, Twilight Sparkle did her best Bucky impression. “Super evil dark artifact that will give me godlike power… but will it give me teats and beer?”

Unable to stop herself, Sunset Shimmer chortled. 

“With this, I could rule the world… but would it get me laid?” 

Both mares broke into guffaws. 

“This could make me into a being of near infinite power… but will it make me a better daddy?” Twilight asked, holding back her laughter and making a very serious looking face. 

Lifting her front leg, Sunset Shimmer reached up and wiped her eye with her fetlock. 

“I’m a little angry with Bucky too,” Twilight said as wrinkles formed on her forehead and her eyes narrowed a little. “He never told me about the plan. He just expected me to trust him. It hurt me so much to watch him being led away. Part of me still wants to go and give him a piece of my mind.” 

“Master doesn’t like sharing his plans with too many. He feels it increases the chance of something going wrong.” 

“I don’t know how I feel about this. A lot of ponies died in Mustangia. I’m still angry at Bucky. But we got the control rod and Bucky is… well… Bucky is better than he has been in a long time and you, well, you’ve faced a real test of your character.” The creases on Twilight’s brow deepened and the wrinkles grew more wrinkles. 

Sunset Shimmer nodded as the sun at last slipped below the horizon. “The mirror travelers are dead and the portal was destroyed. We hurt them real bad… Master, he said something about revenge in there… I didn’t catch all of it because of everything going on at the time, and he started coughing and vomiting up blood. But he said something about revenge and not risking his beloved… but I’ve been thinking about it.” 

“And what have you thought about it?” Twilight asked. 

“Did we take revenge? Or was this just a mission? It started to be about revenge I think. But then, things got dangerous. Master was so insistent upon finishing the mission. He was willing to die I think to make certain that we finished up our task. But when it became dangerous… when my life might have been in danger, he gave the order for us to get out of there. He was afraid of what he might do if the Night Stallion or somepony else hurt me.” 

“I understand Bucky’s fears,” Twilight said. Her brow became even more wisened. “I have grown very fond of Glass Slipper. She is… she is more than just a little walking focusing crystal that amplifies my magic and sometimes helps me out in the laboratory. I miss her so much right now.” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes began to water over. “If something was to hurt her… I might drop the sun on their heads. I understand now part of what makes Bucky so dangerous and why he is the way he is. When we were in Fromme du Lac I was so scared that my friends were going to be hurt. Or that Slippy might get hurt. Discord said I had a bad case of mama pegasus going on.” 

“Having lived around Derpy and Yew Wood… a bad case of mama pegasus is a very serious condition. Derpy dove down into freezing lake water to save her foals. And Yew Wood… she’s only got one eye… and she gives off this vibe sometimes… you just know that if she got angry, she’d be dangerous.” Sunset Shimmer watched the darkening sky as it faded into shades of indigo, blue, and the soft hues of night.

“Hey! Hey you silly fillies!” Bucky’s voice carried over the wind on the deck. “We’re stopping in Appleloosa on the way home. I want to see a pony named Longhaul and I’m in the mood for refried beans!” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 625
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Waitress?” Twilight Sparkle waved her hoof, trying to cast the arcane and troublesome spell of ‘summon waitstaff’ so she could request something. 

Beside her, Sunset Shimmer crammed an enormous bite of flatbread and refried beans with cheese in her mouth. The table was loaded down with food; refried beans, stacks of flatbread, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and an enormous bowl of tortilla chips sat in the middle. 

Leaning over to look at the pony beside him, Bucky said, “So, Longhaul, tell me about Kallisti, and how did you get so lucky?” 

Kallisti, who was half pony and half zebra, began to titter. Sitting between her and Bucky, Longhaul began to blush as he chewed on his food. 

“Waitress?” Twilight Sparkle waved her hoof some more. 

“I don’t know how I got so lucky, “ Longhaul said after he swallowed. 

Snatching up a chip in his talons, Bucky dredged it through the pile of refried beans on his plate, some cheese, and some sour cream. He stuffed the whole thing into mouth and crunched. 

“Thish ish really goosh.” Sunset Shimmer smacked her lips and then licked some beans off of her nose. “Toosh bad the griffonsh aren’t into thish short of food.” 

“Waitress?” Twilight frowned. “I swear… it is like nopony notices that there is an alicorn princess around.” 

“There’sh different typesh of refried beansh… pintos and turtle beansh!” Sunset Shimmer said as she crammed more food in. “Oh thish ish jusht what I needed!” 

“We eat like this every day here. Always surprises me that ponies see this as a treat.” Longhaul set down his spoon and picked up his mug. He took a long drink and then set his mug down with a thud.

Kallisti nodded. “I suppose it is all about what you are used to.” 

Her own mouth still full of food, Sunset Shimmer watched in awe as Bucky launched a ferocious attack upon a flatbread taco stuffed with beans, cheese, sour cream, and oozing salsa. Half of it disappeared in the first bite, and then the rest of it was gobbled down bit by bit. 

“In the summer, we have corn and tomatoes too… and succotash. During the winter, there are slim pickings.” Longhaul set down his mug and began loading up a piece of flatbread with beans. 

“And onions,” Kallisti said. “Fresh vegetables. I miss them.” 

“Waitress?” Twilight, looking exasperated, picked up a spoon, scooped up some beans, and shoveled a bite far too big into her mouth. 

After guzzling down the contents of his mug, Bucky slammed it down upon the table. Almost like magic, a waitress appeared. She was young, doe eyed, and somewhat bored looking. 

“More of that winter wheat ale, if you please,” Bucky said. 

Twilight, her mouth full of refried beans, struggled with the need to be polite and the need for more drink. The need for more drink was more pressing than the need to be a polite, pretty, purple pony princess. “Me too!” 

The waitress trotted off, her tail swishing around her hind legs. 

“I miss Berry Punch… if she was here, she’d devour everything on this table and then wander into the kitchen looking for more. Ever watch a pregnant earth pony eat?” Bucky asked to nopony in particular.

“I’ve watched a pregnant and hungry pegasus gobble down six kilograms of pancakes and syrup in one setting,” Twilight replied after she swallowed. “And then Rainbow Dash guzzled down the rest of the syrup.” 

“I bet she was hyper.” Sunset Shimmer eyed her plate and thought about more food. 

“No… she barely made it to the sofa and then napped for three hours.” Twilight smiled as the waitress returned with a tray loaded down with more mugs. 

“Berry Punch makes this seductive face when she is eating,” Bucky said as he began to prepare another flatbread taco. “She makes this… I dunno… ‘I know I’m pudgy and rotund right now but please try to love me anyway’ face. It makes me love her. The way she just inhales everything while making this sweet face at me…” 

Clutching a fresh mug of ale, Twilight Sparkle smiled. “The book I read says that earth ponies power graze when pregnant. Especially with twins.” 

“All this talk of pregnancy scares me.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “I have plenty of foals all around me if I feel the need to cuddle something.” 

“Minion, I have an assignment for you—” 

“Get stuffed. Master, the answer is no.” 

Looking wounded, Bucky crammed his loaded flatbread into his mouth. 



 

Reading a book, Sunset Shimmer was glad for the quiet time. The common room aboard The Scorned Mare was quiet, most of the griffons were tucked away in their beds, sleeping. Appleloosa was now a pleasant memory and Sunset Shimmer was suffering the dreadful consequences of having several pounds of flatbread tacos in her equine gut. 

The effect was almost identical to what having several pounds of tacos in a human gut felt like. 

“I’m lonely…” 

Looking up from her book, Sunset Shimmer saw Bucky. He was staggering and his talons scrabbled over the floor. He was still learning how to walk with them, Sunset realised he didn’t have subroutines to govern their behaviour any longer. 

When Bucky crawled up on the couch beside her, Sunset Shimmer sighed. A moment later, he was hugging her, clinging to her, and Sunset felt a brief moment of worry about Bucky perhaps being a little too lonely and a little too drunk. She set down her book. 

“I… I didn’t -hic- think I was coming -hic- home this time…” 

Bucky’s legs wrapped a little tighter around her, and Sunset Shimmer could feel his talons clutching at her mane. She placed her forelegs around him and squeezed. 

“I never -hic- got to see Bandua’s eyes and -hic- I didn’t think I was -hic- coming home this time.” 

Feeling something damp against her neck, Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes. Bucky was drunk, he was lonesome, but he wasn’t after what she had been worried about. Reaching up, she stroked one of his ears and tried to comfort him as he clung to her and whimpered. 

“I thought they’d capture me… maybe -hic- rough me up a little. I expected to be -hic- roughed up a little…” 

Sunset could feel what strength Bucky had as he clung to her, pressing up against and holding tight, almost like a frightened foal. She felt her own eyes going damp. 

“I didn’t -hic- expect that though. They were going to send me -hic- through the portal… -hic- never see my family again… -hic- I heard them saying that I would be useful for defending their city.” 

“Bucky, hush, we’re going home and everything is alright,” Sunset Shimmer said in a soft comforting whisper. She could feel Bucky’s barrel hitching against hers. 

“The bad part is -hic- I would have helped them… I would have fought -hic- because there are earth ponies -hic- and I love earth ponies!” 

Wrapping a foreleg around Bucky’s neck, Sunset Shimmer tried to cradle him as he slumped against her. “I know you do you… you have two of them as wives.” 

“No wings… -hic- no horn… no flight -hic- and no reality warping magic… somehow they get through their lives -hic- just being themselves and I wish -hic- I was an earth pony.” 

“Why is that?” 

“No great expectations of me… -hic- no demands on my magic and no -hic- having to control the weather if I was -hic- a pegasususususususus. I could walk around everywhere, -hic- and smile, and just be a pony -hic- while having a good time -hic- while I eat and drink -hic- and make lots of little earth ponies.” 

“Bucky, you love magic… what are you saying?” Sunset Shimmer asked, and then she wished she hadn’t. Engaging drunks in these sorts of conversations was always a bad idea. 

“What has -hic- magic done for me lately? Magic can -hic- feck off and take a flying feck at a rolling donut!” 

For a moment, Sunset Shimmer thought about bringing up the fact that magic had just made his body whole, but she thought better of it. She patted Bucky on the back and wished she knew what to say. 

“I don’t want to -hic- ascend, I want to descend… become an earth pony… maybe I’ll -hic- talk to Discord -hic- about it… yeah… that’s a good idea.” 

It was the worst idea that Sunset Shimmer had ever heard, but she said nothing.  

“You know how when -hic- ponies are sad or hurt and -hic- they want their mama?” 

“Yes Bucky.” Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a reassuring squeeze. 

“I don’t have a mama -hic- but I am really scared and hurt.” 

She gave Bucky another squeeze, trying to comfort him, and then, the very worst thing in the world happened. As Sunset was squeezing Bucky, she felt something slip out. There was a pealing squeal that lingered for what felt like several whole minutes. 

“That feels really warm… I could feel -hic- the warm air blowing over my belly.” 

If you just pretend like nothing happened, everything will be okay, Sunset Shimmer told herself. But everything was not okay. Nothing would ever be okay again. For a moment, Sunset Shimmer wondered if it was worth heading back to the human world to escape this embarrassment. With the mention that Bucky could feel the warm air on his belly, Sunset Shimmer became aware of the fact that the hot patch of warm flesh against her cutie mark had two firm, bulging lumps that pressed against her, a fact that her brain had blocked out up until this moment. 

Nope, things will never be okay again, Sunset Shimmer thought to herself. 

“You have Celestia to run to when you are scared or hurt,” Sunset Shimmer said, desperate to draw her attention away from the embarrassment that made her want to self disintegrate. “And Luna… I know if you were hurt, Luna would comfort you.” 

“My mother -hic- was a bad pony!” 

“I know Bucky.” Sunset Shimmer tried to rock Bucky in her forelegs while simultaneously trying to ignore what was rubbing up against her. Not getting drunk at dinner was a mistake. It would have made this so much easier. The neurosis was like a painful itch behind the eyes and Sunset could feel her inner sense of revulsion going from a bud to a full blossom. 

At least humans wore clothes, not that pants did much to stop an erection pressing against you. Sunset Shimmer hoped that nothing else rubbed up against her. This could not possibly get more awkward. 

“I hurt so much inside... -hic- can you sing to me?” Bucky asked in a very foalish voice. 

“No… Bucky… I… I can’t…” 

“Please?” 

“No…” 

“Sunset, please?” 

“Fine, I know one song I could sing… it was sung by an old man and I listened to it almost everyday when I was trapped on the other side of the mirror.” She felt Bucky’s forelegs tighten around her middle and Sunset Shimmer wondered if it was possible to feel any more awkward. 

Sunset cleared her throat and lifted her head. 

“Is it a happy -hic- song?” Bucky asked. 

“No Bucky… but it is a song I know, one I understand,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

Bucky hiccupped again and buried his face into Sunset Shimmer’s neck.



“Baby, I've been waiting
I've been waiting night and day
I didn't see the time
I waited half my life away
There were lots of invitations
And I know you sent me some
But I was waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come
I know you really loved me
But, you see, my hands were tied
I know it must have hurt you
It must have hurt your pride
To have to stand beneath my window
With your bugle and your drum
And me, I'm up there waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come
Ah, I don't believe you'd like it
You wouldn't like it here
There ain't no entertainment
And the judgments are severe
The Maestro says it's Mozart
But it sounds like bubble gum
When you're waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come
Waiting for the miracle
There's nothing left to do
I haven't been this happy
Since the end of World War II
Nothing left to do
When you know that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
When you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
When you've got to go on waiting
Waiting for the miracle to come
I dreamed about you, baby
It was just the other night
Most of you was naked
Ah, but some of you was light
The sands of time were falling
From your fingers and your thumb
And you were waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come
Ah baby, let's get married
We've been alone too long
Let's be alone together
Let's see if we're that strong
Yeah, let's do something crazy
Something absolutely wrong
While we're waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come
Nothing left to do
When you know that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
When you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
When you've got to go on waiting
Waiting for the miracle to come
When you've fallen on the highway
And you're lying in the rain
And they ask you how you're doing
Of course you'll say you can't complain
If you're squeezed for information
That's when you've got to play it dumb
You just say you're out there waiting
For the miracle, for the miracle to come.” 
 

Sunset Shimmer was about to ask what Bucky thought about the song when she realised that he had fallen asleep. With a gentle touch of her hoof, she stroked his ears. “I waited and waited… and when it finally happened, I almost missed it because I had become so cynical and jaded.” Sunset Shimmer sighed. “I wish I was home with Bartleby and Trixie.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 626
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You look different.” Princess Luna raised an eyebrow, extended her wing, and touched Bucky’s face. “Hmmm, I do not know… your previous face had a certain charm.” 

“Luna—” 

“I was teasing. I have no idea what happened but I demand to be informed. Once you are settled of course.” Luna smiled and her teal eyes glittered in the bright lights of The Scorned Mare’s deck lights. “You will find the house rather quiet I fear. While you were gone, a bit of sickness went through the house. Some sort of troublesome stomach flu. Has hit your school as well. The adults suffered mild symptoms, but the foals suffered the full brunt. Poor little dears… Belisama and Magpie were the only ones in your house unaffected. Several griffons have taken up the call to help.” Luna looked westward. “Ponyville is also getting this stomach flu. It goes around every year.” 

“Oh no…” 

“If you go into your home to be with your family, you will catch it.” Luna allowed her warning to sink in for a moment before continuing. “Try not to worry. Your foals, while sick, are strong and doing well. They have excellent caretakers. And the griffons not in your house are in your school, taking care of the students that live in the dormitory towers. Those earth ponies that you hired to work your land… I believe the stallion’s name is Pinto and the mare’s name is Dandelion Fluff, your griffons are caring for them as well. So you have nothing to worry about. Everything important to you is accounted for.” 

“Citrus Summers is an adorable little filly.” Bucky blinked a few times and watched as home seemed to be drifting closer. 

“Also, your phoenix is very rude,” Luna said in cold monotone. 

“I know,” Bucky replied. 

“All I wanted to do was check on him and Philomena and make certain they were okay after the rats. As I approached the tree, I heard the most infernal squawking and then when I stood near the hole where their nest is, Freezerburn came out and he… he…”

“What did he do, Luna?” Bucky asked. 

“He hissed at me and then he shat on me!” Luna’s eyes widened and her calm demeanour became far less calm. “He is a vile little miscreant! Just like you!” 

“Serves you right. Never mess with a father looking after his young. He got me too.” Bucky grinned. “I figure he’ll come out when the eggs hatch in the spring. I doubt he’ll be any friendlier though. Let’s face it, the bird takes after me.” Bucky could feel his ship descending and he heard hooves on the deck. “You should warn Twilight and Sunset Shimmer about the flu.” 



 

The house was dark and quiet as Bucky walked through the dim halls. He made his way to the back bedroom, pushed open the door, and stood in the doorway to take in the situation. There was a pile of ponies in the bed, the bathroom light was on, and Bucky could hear the sounds of vomiting coming from the bathroom. 

“Bucky?” a soft, miserable, feminine voice asked from beneath a blanket. 

“It’s me Bonnie… just stay put.” 

Moving through the room, Bucky went to the bathroom door and peeked in. He saw Magpie holding Harper up over the toilet. As he stood there, Harper puked, and Bucky saw yellow bile dribble out of Harper’s mouth. 

“Welcome home,” Magpie said in a low whisper as she patted Harper on the back. “Belisama is in the nursery. The only foal not sick is Cadance, who seems to be fine.”

Turning from the bathroom door, Bucky doubled back through the room. He heard his name being called from the pile on the bed, but he ignored it for the moment. He stepped through the nursery door to have a look. 

Sitting in the bowl shaped chair, Belisama was holding Sukari and wiping the foal with a damp cloth. Sukari’s eyes were closed and Bucky could see that she was shivering a little. 

“I think she’s passed the worst of it. She’s not as hot as she was and when she drinks water, she can hold it down now for a little while,” Belisama said. The griffoness blinked when she looked up at Bucky. “There is something different about you.” 

“Later,” Bucky said as he crossed the room to the crib. He stuck his head down inside and looked at Bell Heather. “How is Bell?”

“She’s much better. She’s stopped squirting out of both ends and she is sleeping peacefully. Her fever broke a few hours ago,” Belisama replied. 

“How are Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña?” Bucky asked. 

“Sentinel was hardly affected. Out of everypony in the house, he was the last one to fall ill and all he suffered is foul smelling burps. He’s fine.” Belisama wiped Sukari’s face once more. “Dinky and Piña had it pretty bad. Watery stools. Lots of vomiting. High fevers. But they are doing better, last I heard anything.” 

“Oh bother.” Bucky went to the rocking chair and then sat down. “I suppose I’ll be getting it soon.” Bucky cringed when he heard the sound of more vomiting coming from the bathroom. “Sentinel isn’t bothered by it and alicorns seem immune.” 

“Sentinel endured a difficult task,” Belisama said. “I am very proud of him.” 

“He did?” Bucky asked. 

“He held his sister Dinky up on the toilet when the sickness first hit. Afterwards, he helped to clean her up,” Belisama replied. “I heard both of them crying when I went to check on them.” 

“I bet that was awkward. I’m so proud of the little guy.” Bucky reached up and scratched himself with his talons, being very careful and mindful of his new claws. 

“Bucky… you… your talons… what is going on?” Belisama demanded. 

“A lot happened while I was away,” Bucky replied. 



 

Blinking, Derpy took Bucky’s face between her front hooves, squishing his cheeks with a gentle touch. Her bad eye closed and her good eye focused. She stared for several long minutes before she finally asked, “Am I having a fever dream?” 

Bucky, laying on his side, shook his head. 

“I missed your grey eyes… they matched my pelt… I always saw them and thought of them as a sign that you were meant to be mine,” Derpy said in a low trembling voice. She shivered, not knowing if it was from her sickness or emotion. “When Berry wakes up she is going to cry.” Derpy wiggled closer to Bucky. “Just… let me look at you for a while.” 



 

The kitchen was populated by griffons. Bucky stood in the doorway, looking at them while they looked at him. Sunlight streamed through the window. Yawning, Bucky groaned and then asked, “Whatcha fixin’?” 

“Dinky wanted sweet potato pie so we are fixing her a sweet potato pie,” a griffoness replied. She was sitting on top of the kitchen table looking at a cookbook. 

Bucky sighed. This is why he tried to keep the griffons out of his house as servants. They had trouble saying ‘no’ when it came to requests. If left to her own devices, Dinky Doo Hooves would eat nothing but sweet potatoes. 

“Our king has a funny eye.” 

Every griffon stopped what they were doing and stared for as long as they dared. Then, one by one, they averted their gaze and looked away, or went back to their tasks. The last griffon staring, the griffoness on the kitchen table, let out a startled peep and then went back to reading her book. 

“Start making a lot of vegetable broth. There are compressed vegetable bouillon cubes in the pantry. Make it strong. Make some soda bread. The sick are going to need some salt and some nutrients. Everypony is dehydrated. Fix green tea and add lots of lemon and honey.” 

The kitchen filled with the sounds of fluttering wings as the griffons moved to follow Bucky’s orders. Bucky, watching the griffons, walked through the kitchen and sat down at the table. 

“Is there something you wanted?” a griffon asked in a meek voice. 

“No, I just wanted to sit here with you,” Bucky replied. 

“Why?” The griffon had a curious expression. 

“Because I appreciate what you are doing.” Bucky reached up and rubbed his ear with his talons. His horn was itching and the scales around his talons were itchy as well. 

The griffon, confused, fluffed out and then hurried off into the pantry. 

“Oh nuts… fix some fish broth for Thistle… make it thick. I almost forgot.” Bucky peered down at the cookbook. “You still making that sweet potato pie?” 

The griffoness nodded. “It was asked of me.” 

“Look, Dinky is a foal, she is going to ask for silly things. She’s sick, and I don’t think she could eat a sweet potato pie right now. Sometimes, you have to tell her no,” Bucky said, explaining how things were in a gentle voice. 

“But she is your foal… and her word is absolute,” the griffoness said in a meek voice. 

Feeling a strange gurgle in his stomach, Bucky shook his head. “No. No, that is no longer true. I know you mean well, but you can’t always give them what they want.” Bucky belched and it smelled like rotten eggs. A wave of heat washed over his body and he began to feel queasy. “Excuse me,” Bucky said, and then vanished, leaving behind a cloud of snowflakes. 





Setting down a tray loaded with bowls of broth and cups of tea upon a small table, Luna looked at the sick ponies all laying in a pile. One grey pegasus, pregnant, miserable, and covering her head with a pillow. One plum coloured earth pony, also pregnant, also miserable. One cream coloured earth pony with a wet towel draped over her head. One green unicorn curled into a fetal position and whimpering. One kelpie, who clung to the grey pegasus, and muttered that she was dying over and over in a low pained whisper. 

The bedroom reeked like burning sewage and rotten eggs. 

“Princess Luna, the foals need nursing,” Magpie said, standing in the nursery door. 

The night princess heaved a sigh. She heard Bucky grunting in the bathroom and the sound of liquid splattering against liquid. “I will feed the foals in just a short while,” Luna said in a voice that sounded as if almost all of her patience had expired. “Try and get broth down Harper and Sukari. If that fails, I will see if I can give them some milk.” 

One of the ponies in the bed announced Princess Luna’s presence with the blaring note of a trumpet. Much to Luna’s relief, it was gas and nothing else. 

“It’s like lava,” Bucky whimpered from inside the bathroom. “I’m going to attempt… to augment my pucker… and see if I can save myself… from the burning.” 

Rolling her eyes, Luna shook her head. She had tried that a millenia ago and knew from experience that it wouldn’t work. “Who wants some broth? All of you need liquids.” Luna cleared her throat. “Come on… none of you are running fevers… I took your temperatures. The worst is over and you need to get liquids in you.” 

“The thermometer was cold,” Lyra said, squeezing her hind legs together and pulling her tail up against her belly. 

“I can’t move… my stomach hurts so much.” Bon Bon lifted one front hoof in a feeble gesture and then dropped it back down upon the mattress. 

Berry Punch clutched her stomach, and then, with her voice a low whine, she said, “I wish I was constipated again. The twins keep kicking my guts… get them out Luna, get them out!” 

“Magpie, summon some griffons. While these mares are better, I doubt they have the strength to feed themselves. Make certain that Thistle gets the fish broth. See that they drink the broth and eat a little of the soda bread. I will go and look after Cadance and Bell Heather. Poor Erebus, he is such a little piglet, I am positive that at this point he probably thinks he is going to starve.” 

“Right away, Princess Luna.” 
	
> Chapter 627
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“My Bucky.” Derpy squeezed the stallion in her forelegs and then pressed her lips to his ear for a kiss. “No more creepy eye.” 

“It’s not fair. He’s hardly even sick.” Berry Punch’s mouth curled downwards into a frown. 

“Sentinel got stinky burps, Erebus had horrible farts, Bucky had the trots for a while… lunar ponies… it isn’t fair.” Lyra shrugged, took a sip of tea, and then looked at Bucky. “I might be the only one, but I am going to miss his creepy eye. It was Bucky’s calling card… the visual indicator that he should not be messed with.” 

“Lyra’s right. The intimidation factor was useful,” Bucky said in a low voice as Derpy squeezed him once more. “Which is why I am going to cook up a persistent illusion to make me appear how I was. The world was terrified of me as I was, but now I look like some half baked draconequus.” 

“What about dark magic, Bucky?” Lyra asked. 

“I am going to try and not use it unless I have to. Some things can only be done with dark magic, I’ve learned that, but I was becoming too reliant upon it. I think… I think I was using too much of it and it was doing bad things to me. I don’t know… I need to think about it,” Bucky replied. 

“If you give yourself the Taint again I will be very disappointed with you… I love you… I can’t bear to see you in pain.” Bon Bon reached over and patted Bucky on his hops plant. 

“Dark magic… you need pain to power it… the more pain you have the stronger it is. The more dark magic you use, the more susceptible you are to pain. Pain hurts more, but it makes your magic even more powerful… horrible way to become strong.” Lyra lifted her teacup and inhaled the steam. “This is nice. Having tea in bed. Together.” 

“My bum is sore.” Thistle reached back and rubbed her backside. “That was horrible.” 

“It happens almost every year. Some years, the flu isn’t so bad. Other years, it’s just awful.” Berry Punch rolled over onto her back and lay spread eagled. “Still hot back there.” 

“It’s like having my old Bucky back, the one I bumped into,” Derpy said, rubbing her face against Bucky’s neck. 

“I didn’t think I was coming back from this one,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“What do you mean?” Derpy asked. She blinked, her eyes flooding with tears, and she shook her head. “No, never mind. Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. I’m just glad you’re back and that is all that matters.”

“Baba?” 

“Oooh we have a visitor… and she looks better!” Lyra’s horn ignited. “Get up here!” 

Sukari was dropped on the bed. She looked around for a moment, her eyes wide and fearful, and then with careful steps she wobbled over to Bucky and collapsed against him. “Baba.” 

“Sukari.” Bucky nosed her. 

“She’s started calling all of us mama. Even Magpie.” Berry reached out her foreleg and touched Sukari. “Magpie is trying to get Sukari to call her ‘nana’ though.” 

“My sweet little zebra… mama loves you,” Thistle said, crawling on her belly to get a little closer. 

“Our multi-species family is causing a bit of a problem for Twilight Sparkle,” Bucky said as he pulled Sukari closer to him and gave Thistle a teasing look. 

“And why is that?” Berry asked. 

“Because there is a little diamond dog puppy named Tinta that was in the papers. She was abandoned by the guard station in Canterlot—” 

“I saw that news story… the paper is trying to see if the mother can be found… the paper named her Tinta because she was blue-black and inky,” Berry said, cutting Bucky off. “Wait, what does this have to do with Twilight Sparkle?” 

“Twilight was telling me on our trip that Flash Sentry wants to adopt her. Flash seems to think that the Princess of Friendship should open her home and her heart to species other than equines… like we have,” Bucky replied. 

“Griffons… griffons everywhere,” Bon Bon said with a half smile. 

“Bringing home my sweet little kitten Belisama was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done… and mostly, I do really stupid stuff.” Bucky cast a sidelong teasing glance at Belisama. 

“If you want me as your pet you better buy me a nice collar.” Belisama lifted her head and batted her eyelashes at Bucky. 

“This is weird,” Lyra said, shaking her head. 

“Belisama likes it and she’s happy. The griffons have a pet culture. It means they are prized… valuable. Wearing a collar was a means of protection from other nastier griffons.” Berry rubbed her belly and twisted her head around to look at Belisama. 

“How do you learn this stuff?” Bon Bon asked. 

“I talk to the griffons… and I talk to Belisama. For a griffon, becoming a pet was a symbol of status, of power, of value… and every little griffon wants to feel value. Ask Branwen about it, the albino griffoness… her keeper was zealous in her protection. She had bodyguards. She’s sad now because she no longer has a keeper,” Berry Punch replied. 

“I don’t understand,” Bon Bon said as she turned to look at Belisama. 

Belisama gave a squeeze to the bundle tucked away in her shawl. “Branwen never had to worry about rape… her keeper was too afraid of damaging her. She was kept safe. She got to live in a nice room with a soft bed and all she had to do was look pretty and keep her wings preened. And all because she was an albino.” 

“I wish Derpy would get me a collar… she’s supposed to… the ponies in Saddle Arabia said so.” Bucky buried his muzzle into Sukari’s mane, inhaled, and burned Sukari’s scent into his memory. He heard a soft weak giggle and smiled. 

Bon Bon closed her eyes for a moment and tried to see things from Belisama’s perspective, then tried to imagine herself as a pet, and then realised that it just wasn’t her thing. Opening her eyes, she blinked a few times, looked at the griffons, saw how happy Belisama was, and then gave a mental shrug. Reaching out her foreleg, she grabbed Lyra and pulled her close. 

“I am so happy to see your grey eye again… I don’t care if it is slitted, at least its grey,” Derpy said, her good eye focused on Bucky and nothing else. 

“Derpy?” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“I was wondering… I was in a pretty bad state of mind while I was away… I hit a pretty low point in my life… and I was curious, how did you get your name and what does it mean?” Bucky asked. 

“I know the answer to this,” Berry said a smile creeping across her muzzle. 

“My great grandmother Ditzenburg named me. Our family has roots in Germaney.” Derpy turned her head and looked at Berry. “And only my bestest friend knows my real name.” 

“Oh… I see how it is… I’m not your bestest friend—” 

“Shut up!” Derpy gave Bucky a squeeze. 

“Her full name is Der Panzer. Her great great grandfather was named Plattenpanzer, and he was part of the infamous Black Iron Armored Sky Brigade.” Berry grinned and rolled over onto her side. “The most dangerous pegasus division that ever existed. Most of them could prove their ancestry to the old Germaney tribes and some of them could show ancestry to Commander Hurricane. What few survivors that existed after a visit from the Black Iron Armored Sky Brigade developed a psychological condition known as panzerschreck, or armor fright. The mere sight of a pegasus in armor would sent then into fits of panic. I learned about it in university.” 

“I was born dangerous,” Derpy said, giving Bucky a sheepish grin. 

“That explains so much.” Bon Bon stared at Derpy with wide eyes. “Der Panzer… destroyer of city hall—” 

“That was an accident,” Derpy said before Bon Bon could say anything else. “I am going to name one of my foals Ditzenburg after my great grandmother. She was good to me. She was always so kind. She told me to be fierce in my protection of those I love and life would work out for me. She was right.” 

“It is important to keep names alive,” Belisama said, thinking about her sister. “Sometimes it is all we have to remember the ones we love.” 

“One of us needs to make certain that part of Bucky lives on,” Derpy said, looking at the other mares around her. 

“No, that’s not necessary.” Bucky shook his head. 

“I dunno, I named the colt in my belly Barley Bitters… it has a nice ring to it.” Berry patted her belly. “Two stallions that I love.” 

“I want my name to die with me—” 

“Shut up Bucky!” Berry demanded. 

“No, my name, my house, it needs to die with me,” Bucky buried his face into Sukari’s back and closed his eyes. 

“I want one of my foals named Bitters!” Berry rolled over onto her belly and glared at Bucky with narrowed eyes. “Don’t you dare take this away from me, Buckminster Beauregard Bitters!” 

“How… how did you know… how… how did you know that?” Bucky asked. 

“A very drunk Princess Celestia whispered some secrets into my ear.” Berry smiled a berry smug smile. “That’s right everypony, Beauregard… it is how the Bitters family males kept track of individuals. Each of them had a different middle name. And Bucky here, is Beauregard.” 

Bucky’s ears fell against the sides of his face and he let out a wordless whine. 

“And the little filly in my big fat belly I named Brandywine Bitters because Bucky asked me for a foal named Brandywine and so I am going to give him one.” Berry’s smile turned into a straight line. “It is important for a father to name some of their foals.” 

Lifting his head away from Sukari, Bucky looked at Berry and blinked away a few tears. “You remembered. I only barely remembered… I was so plastered.” 

“Of course I remembered you halfwit, I love you, you dimwitted oaf,” Berry Punch said to Bucky in a low wavering voice that was almost overcome with emotion. “I don’t know how long I am going to have you… I want something to remember you by.” Berry reached up and rubbed her eyes with her fetlock. “Now shut up! I don’t wanna cry. My insides hurt.” 



 

Alone in her room, Boadicea waited, not knowing her fate. Her room was a small room, but she didn’t mind. It was cozy. She had a comfortable bed, her own desk, and a cushioned bench in front of the window. A window that she dared not escape out of. Lugus would hunt her down, there was no doubt about that. Lugus was furious and Boadicea imagined all manner of punishments he might come up with. More than anything, Boadicea feared the lash, because she knew that she deserved it. 

On Boadicea’s desk there was a picture of her and Diamond Tiara in a small wooden picture frame. There was also a small silver mirror, a silver brush, and a loop of piano wire with wooden handles. 

She lept from the bed to the cushioned bench and then sat down. Outside, fresh snow was falling, a light flurry that dusted everything in white. Feeling a lump in her throat, Boadicea worried that Lugus might send her away. She worried that she might end up back in a cell. 

Behind her, the door opened and Boadicea cringed. 

“Lugus will see you now,” Yew Wood said in a low voice. “Go to him at once and do not dawdle.” 

Feeling the sting of tears in her eyes, Boadicea slipped from her cushioned bench down the floor. She looked at Yew for a moment, feeling weak and ashamed, and then averted her eyes to the floor. 

“Do not keep him waiting,” Yew said. 



 

Boadicea could hear Lugus’s claws tapping upon the floor as she walked forwards. She dared not lift her head or look at him. She thought about their first meeting. He was fast, far faster than she was, and strong. He had slammed her down into the floor and subdued her without even breathing hard. 

“Sir, I ask for mercy—” 

“SILENCE.” 

Boadicea fell silent, hoping to make this easier upon herself. 

“You left home. You stowed away upon the private vessel of your king. You made Yew Wood sick with worry. She cried for you and I cannot bear to see her cry,” Lugus said in a flat monotone. “And with the stomach flu… she cried and it tore her apart. She was miserable and it is your fault!” 

Boadicea shrank down and tried to look as small and pitiful as possible. 

“Loki told me everything that happened. Everything.” Lugus’ voice was still flat and emotionless. 

To terrified to say anything, Boadicea prostrated herself down before Lugus and realised that she should have gone to the bathroom before coming to speak with Lugus. 

“Right now I am furious with you for what you have done… but I am also fiercely proud of you. You served your king. As your father, I commend you for what you have done.” 

Boadicea felt talons wrap around her body. She peeped in fear, went limp, and squeezed her eyes shut as she was lifted. A moment later, she felt herself crushed against Lugus. Recovering, she wrapped her forelegs around Lugus’ neck. 

“You are still in a world of shite young lady… don’t think this is over!" Yew cried. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 628
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The table was wide and somewhat battered. The wood was lacquered, almost smooth, but powerful hooves had made a few dents in the wood, leaving behind lasting impressions. Bucky watched as Bon Bon rose up on her hind hooves. She took a few steps to the sink, washed her front hooves, placed them under a hot air dryer, and then returned to the table. 

Still standing on all fours, Bucky lowered his head down level with the tabletop for the best view. On the table was a rolled up mass of caramel that Bon Bon said needed pounding. Something about getting air into the caramel and making it chewy. It was about six inches thick and eighteen inches long, and the flat mass that Bon Bon had peeled from the resting pan was now rolled up, which is why it was so thick. 

“Now Bucky, you have to pound it into submission,” Bon Bon said as she raised her hoof. 

With one smooth motion that caused every muscle in Bon Bon’s body to ripple, Bon Bon brought her hoof down upon the rolled up caramel. There was a terrific thunderous crash and then Bucky saw that the six inch thick caramel was now less than an inch where Bon Bon had struck it. 

Bucky gulped and realised that Bon Bon was perhaps one of the strongest earth ponies in Ponyville. He remembered the day they had battled the undead; Bon Bon had been used as a pack pony, and she had carried Bucky without effort. Bon Bon could pull wagons that it would take two, four, or even six ponies to pull. 

And she had just smashed six inches of hard compacted caramel into a smooshed lump that was less than an inch. For reasons that would only make sense to the suicidal and those attracted to danger, Bucky began to feel more than a little aroused. 

“So what you have to do is pound all of it flat, the whole length, then you roll it up, pound it again, and you keep doing it until the caramel changes colour. As more air bubbles get trapped, it turns a nice creamy colour,” Bon Bon said, offering Bucky an explanation and some insight into her trade secret. 

Lifting her hoof, Bon Bon clobbered another section of the eighteen inch length of caramel upon the table, pounding it down into a thinness of less than an inch in one strike. 

“A lot of candy makers buy a machine to do this… a repurposed pneumatic hammer that pounds the candy flat. I don’t understand why though. This is so easy.” -WHAM!- 

Bon Bon was a big mare by any standard. Broad backed, broad shouldered, thick, yet well curved legs, a neck like a graceful pillar, and solid fetlocks meant to absorb shock. And yet, for all of her musculature, she was still soft, her body was warm and welcoming, even if it was terrifying. And it was ever so terrifying. As Bucky watched, Bon Bon did rapid fire slams upon the caramel and pounded it all flat. She rolled up the big sheet of caramel and then began to pound it once again. 

As Bucky stood there watching Bon Bon, who stood on her hind legs, Bucky was struck with a wonderful idea, the sort of idea that could change the world.



 

“It was really nice of you to join us for the day,” Lyra said to Bucky. She smiled a coy smile. “I think you wanted to check out our goodies.” 

“Mayfe,” Bucky said around a mouthful of taffy. 

There was a crash followed by a frustrated grunt. Bucky did not turn to look. He was still watching Lyra as she worked. Lyra was making pecan logs, a dozen at a time, and using her magic for a very practical purpose. 

“You okay Helia?” Bon Bon called to the back of the store. “What about you Golden Harvest?” 

“We’re fine, butter hooves here dropped the marehood mold pans,” Golden Harvest replied. 

“Hmm, I could totally go for a nice chewy marehood,” Bucky said, his taffy now swallowed. 

“I bet,” Lyra said, her eyebrows bouncing up and down in a lewd manner. 

“Ponyville is recovering from the flu,” said a customer standing at the counter and looking at candies, trying to be conversational. “I feel bad for those who relapse and get a second bout of stomach flu right after they got over the first.” 

The bell over the door rang and Twilight Sparkle entered. She walked in, looking miserable, staring down at the floor as she approached the counter. 

“Hello Twilight,” Bon Bon said. “You look miserable… what’s wrong?” 

“I need lots of chocolate,” Twilight replied. “I’ll take… the Super Sorrow Sampler pack.” 

There was a gasp from Lyra, Bon Bon, Helia, and Golden Harvest that happened in unison. Bon Bon cringed just a little. Lyra looked pained. In the back room, Golden Harvest and Helia exchanged a look with one another. 

“Okay Twilight… twenty six pieces of chocolate in a variety of flavours. A double baker’s dozen. Around fifteen thousand and six hundred thigh destroying calories. Included with your order is the Black Melancholy, a dark chocolate bon bon filled with creamy black truffle, black walnut, and creme de menthe liqueur,” Lyra said in a voice smoother than silk. 

“Sounds good. I’ll be in the booth over there. Bring coffee and chocolates,” Twilight replied. She then turned and began to walk away, dragging her hooves. 

“Oooh… she’ll be eating them here,” Bon Bon said, frowning. “Poor dear must be broken hearted about something, and it must be awful. Bucky, go talk to her.” Without warning, Bon Bon gave Bucky a hard shove to get him moving.



 

“You have your creepy eye and your metal talons back,” Twilight said in a low voice as Bucky slipped into the seat across from her. “You’ve wasted no time over these past few days.” 

Reaching up, Bucky tapped the snowflake pendant he wore around his neck. “A little illusion. It kicks in whenever I leave the house. Have to keep up appearances.” He set his talons upon the table. “So, uh, Twilight, what’s wrong?” 

“Flash Sentry is sad and I can’t fix it. It feels like it is my fault,” Twilight replied. 

Two cups of coffee appeared on the table. 

“Want to talk about it?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “No.” 

“Okay.” Bucky shrugged and picked up one of the cups of coffee. Cream and sugar had already been added. He took a sip.

“Flash wanted to adopt… there was a diamond dog puppy named Tinta…” 

Bucky looked up from his coffee. Twilight had just told him no, but here she was, spilling her guts. Confused, Bucky said nothing, but allowed Twilight to keep going. 

“I told you about her… anyway, I dragged my hooves… I had to think about it. I had to be me.” Twilight’s voice was filled with misery. “I had to be little Miss Twilight I Have To Overthink Everything Sparkle. And because of how I am, because I had to stall, because I had to think it over and make lists, because I had to weigh the pros and cons, because I couldn’t be spontaneous, she’s gone. Adopted. Taken by somepony else. And Flash is left heartbroken and it is all my fault because of how I am.” Twilight banged her hoof down upon the table and the coffee in her cup sloshed over the edge. 

“Twilight, you can’t blame yourself, for this,” Bucky said in the sort of gentle voice he usually reserved for foals. 

“Oh yes I can! And don’t you dare try to stop me!” Twilight snapped. 

“Twilight, you were being responsible—” 

“No I wasn’t! Because this is what I hoped would happen! Don’t you get it? I was dragging my hooves and hoping the issue would fix itself so I wouldn’t have to make a tough decision or tell Flash no and I figured if I waited it out, the issue would fix itself and it did and I feel terrible about it! I got what I wanted and it turns out, I don’t want it!” 

Not knowing what to say, Bucky took a sip of coffee. 

“All these checklists, all of these schedules, it is all well organised procrastination so I don’t have to face my own crippling indecision. If I wait and I’m patient, things sort themselves out and I get to look good for being so organised and I seem to take care of every single detail when really, I just keep checking off boxes and waiting for the situation to resolve itself.” 

Lyra came trotting out to the booth, dropped off a pink box with a red ribbon, bowed her head, and then trotted away back to the counter. The box made a muffled thump when it hit the table. 

Twilight opened up the box, peered inside, dug around, and pulled out the Black Melancholy. She stuffed the entire thing into her mouth and began chewing. She smacked her lips and her eyes closed. Her body slumped down into the cushioned booth seat and her wings quivered. 

“Twilight, there will be other chances to adopt… but you shouldn’t adopt something just for the sake of having a well rounded family or to satisfy the public image—”

“Says you!” Twilight snapped, her cheeks bulging as she cleared her mouth so she could speak. “You’re always in the paper! Herd this, herd that, Mister Champion of Adoption who just scored a zebra foal on his last trip out of Equestria!” 

“It isn’t a contest,” Bucky said in a low voice. He watched as Twilight resumed her angry chewing. 

Twilight Sparkle swallowed. “I know… I’m sorry. I’m angry with myself.” 

Bucky gulped down some coffee, not caring that it was still too hot. The hot liquid flooded his body with the sensation of warmth. 

“I kinda feel like I made a mistake on this one… somepony I love got hurt. There’s something they don’t print in the papers.” Twilight picked up her own cup of coffee and began to blow on it. 

“No, what they print in the papers about you is all of these new harmony scouts and harmony clubs. You’ve become a celebrity in the Sea of Grass and they are begging for your return. You’re the hero that everypony wants… you’re the public face for world peace and the Princess of Friendship. I go out and get bloodied and beaten and get my ribs all broken and my leg smashed to splinters and my balls crushed and you get all of the recognition for making the world a better place.” 

Twilight’s eyes brimmed over with tears and her lower lip began to quiver. 

“Meanwhile, I have to keep looking like this… I have to. I don’t have much of a choice because I can’t appear to look weak when we have so many enemies just waiting to nip at our heels and tear out our throats if we show even the slightest bit of weakness.” 

“We’re both stuck playing our part,” Twilight said as a tear rolled out of the corner of her eye. “Have a chocolate Bucky, they’ll make you feel better.” 

“No thanks. You look like you need them. If I want chocolate, I’ll go hug Bon Bon and act sweet.” Bucky glanced over at the counter where Bon Bon and Lyra were standing together. 

After taking a sip of coffee, Twilight reached up and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “I think I’m going to finish off my coffee and take these chocolates to go. They might cheer Flash up and I know that Rainbow Dash will want some later.” 

“How is Slippy?” Bucky asked. 

“Right now she is with the Cakes and having the time of her life. She loves Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich,” Twilight replied. 

“I guess I’ll be seeing you at our secret hideout… ready to create unspeakable abominations?” Bucky grinned in a halfhearted sort of way at Twilight. 

“Crown approved abominations… so they can be spoken about.” Twilight gave Bucky a sad smile. “I’ll see you tonight. Try to get some rest at some point today. Tonight, we’re making history.” 
	
	
> Chapter 629
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mistress?” 

“Yes Asp, what is it, I desire to be done here so that I might get some rest. Tonight is a big night,” Princess Luna replied. 

Asp took a deep breath. It was never his place to second guess his Mistress, but he felt that something needed to be said. “Mistress, about the changes—” 

“What about them?” Princess Luna asked. 

“Do you plan to tell them about the incorporation of changeling magic?” Asp stood at attention and hoped that his Mistress would not be too angry. 

“That is on a need to know basis… and none of them need to know. The changeling illusion magic blended well with our shadow aspect generation and the ability to feed upon fear will keep the Shadowbolts strong in the field.” Princess Luna lifted her head high and stared at Asp. “Are you questioning my actions?” 

“No, Mistress, never that… but as a personal opinion, I do believe they deserve to be told about this,” Asp replied. 

“Each of them signed up to be augmented. Never once did I agree to reveal how they were to be augmented. Asp, I am not in the mood for a discussion about ethics, and since when do you have morals?” Princess Luna glared down at Asp and narrowed her eyes. “I am going to bed. See that everything is ready for tonight.” 

“Yes Mistress…” 



 

“They’re starting the winter session. Rising Star is going to Canterlot. I know I should be with him, but… I don’t want to go. I want to stay here, with all of you,” Loch Skimmer said to Berry Punch. “Lousy Rising Star, all the stomach flu did to him was make him belch fire.” 

Unable to hold it back, Berry Punch giggled at the mental image of Rising Star belching fire. She snorted once as she tried to stifle a giggle, and then just let them slip out. After a moment, she recovered, and then she reached out and patted Loch’s hoof with her own. 

“Loch, stay here if that is what you want. Still having some troubles?” Berry asked. 

“I keep bursting into tears for no reason.” Loch Skimmer slumped down in her chair. 

Berry Punch nodded. “Hormones. Derpy and I went through those. I’m still going through those. I slip off into the bathroom and have myself a good cry about once a day. I think about something sad and wait for the tears to come so I can just get them out and over with.” 

Patting Loch on the side, Semillon set down a tray full of milk and cookies. “Here you go.” 

“Thank you, Semillon,” Loch Skimmer said as she turned to look at the unicorn. 

“Broom made the cookies. They’re good,” Semillon said as she gave Loch another pat. Semillon smiled and then walked away, her hooves clicking on the kitchen floor. 

“Berry?” 

“Yes Loch?” 

“Can I really tell you anything?” 

“Of course.” 

“I thought about… you know… putting an end to this.” 

Berry Punch’s eyes narrowed. 

“I know the procedure exists… but after I thought about it, I was so ashamed. I know mares do it, but I felt bad for even thinking about it. I guess I was scared… I haven’t told anypony else.” 

The earth pony took a deep breath. “A mare has to have choices… that’s important. That said, I’m glad you didn’t make that choice. Loch, we’ll help you raise this foal.” Berry Punch grabbed a glass of milk, a cookie, and then dunked her cookie in her glass of milk. 

“I feel so guilty.” Loch’s eyes dropped and she stared down at the table. 

“Don’t feel guilty. Guilt is bad. Sometimes choices have to be made and each mare has her own reasons. Even if I don’t agree with them, it is important that each mare has the ability to make a decision. Loch Skimmer… don’t feel guilty for thinking about it. It is perfectly rational and reasonable. Now have a cookie.” Berry Punch stuffed the whole cookie into her mouth and began chewing. 

“I thought about destroying a little piece of love that Rising Star shared with me.” Loch Skimmer covered her face with her hooves and then began to sob.



 

“What was that all about?” Lyra asked as she watched the pegasus in silver armor depart. “Bucky, is something going on?” 

As he popped the seal on the scroll case, Bucky did not reply. He instead strode into the back room of the candy shop, pulled out the scroll, and gave it a read. His eyes darted back and forth as he read the carefully penned missive from Princess Celestia. 

“Bucky?” Lyra asked, looking fearful. “Please tell me that they’re not sending you away… I’m not ready for you to go just yet.” 

Rolling up the scroll, Bucky stuffed it back into the wooden case. “No… no, nothing like that. Celestia has made the decision to allow me to begin upgrading type twos to type threes. She did it because Twilight Sparkle convinced her that it was worth it.” 

“The world has never known peace like we know now and yet we’re gearing up for war.” Lyra went to Bucky’s side and rubbed up against him. “At least we’re gearing up for war together against a common enemy… and not with each other.” 

“We even have a battle cry now… remember Fromme du Lac...” Bucky shook his head as his words died in his throat. 

“I keep reading about everything that happened there… the battles… Bucky, why did they hit the city so hard? They never mention that in the papers.” Lyra looked at her husband and hoped for an answer. 

“Fromme du Lac was Fancy’s granary city. It was the centrally located city that had a rail hub that gave easy access to all of their grain stores. The mirror travelers hit it hard and took away the grain reserves of an entire nation. Now, they keep popping up to terrorise them and bring about instability,” Bucky replied. “It isn’t being mentioned because nopony wants to start a global panic about the starvation and famine that Fancy faces. Each part of the alliance is doing their part to make sure that Fancy gets the food they need. We don’t need a global panic right now. Things are just now getting stabilised.” 

“You think the mirror travelers have a base around there somewhere?” Lyra asked. 

“I’m positive they do…” 



 

“Raven?” 

“Yes Princess Celestia?” 

“I am stuck making two terrible decisions.” 

“How can I help you?” 

“We are sending some of our own strategic grain reserves to Fancy, not that we have much to spare and I fear I must make an awful choice.” 

“Princess Celestia?” 

“If I give the order to prioritise unicorns, Fancy will have stronger magic and better defense. The unicorns will give them the edge they need to rebuild… the edge they need to fight… the means to defend their cities.” 

“Yes Princess Celestia, that makes sense.” 

“If I do that though, there are going to be cries of unicorn favouritism and earth pony oppression. I am almost paralysed from this decision and I do not know what to do. Magic takes a great deal of food to sustain. Either way I go, I am going to set off a firestorm.” 

“I am sorry Princess Celestia… I do not know how to advise you on this issue.” 



 

“Larch? Hey Larch, I was wondering if you wanted to compare notes for tonight’s special astronomy class,” Babs Seed said as she trotted up beside Larch. “Night Light and Galaxy Guide both are going to give an extra special lecture… I’m so excited.” 

Larch sighed. Over a month’s worth of study and notes, and all for this class, which had been delayed by recent events. “Sure Babs. I have study hall right now, so we can do it now if you like.” 

“That’d be perfect.” Babs smiled. “So where is Piña? Do you think she has her notes?” 

“She has two whole notebooks full of notes… I’ve seen them. She wrote down everything that Night Light and Galaxy Guide have had to say in our classes.” Larch scowled and shook his head. “I feel like everypony is smarter than me.” 

“Aw, buck up Larch,” Babs said as she slugged Larch on the shoulder. 

“Heya!” 

“Piña! We were just talking about you.” Babs grinned. 

“Hi Babs… hello Larch,” Piña said, feeling a warmth in her ears when she looked at Larch. “So… after tonight’s lesson, how do you think you’ll do on the exam?” 

“Well enough to make the League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies proud,” Babs said. “I got this licked.” 

“What about you Larch?” Piña asked. She smiled and blinked at Larch. 

The earth pony colt shrugged and said nothing.

“So… Larch… when did you plan to talk to my father?” Piña asked in a low voice as she leaned over and looked at Larch. She did her best to mimic Berry Punch’s pouty look. 

Larch gulped and his mouth went dry. As the moisture departed from his mouth, he felt his frogs begin sweating. His dock began to itch. His stomach gurgled and a cold sensation of terror crept up his spine from his itchy dock. 

“Planning on a date?” Babs asked. Her grin widened. “How about the three of us together? Larch is kinda cute and Piña, you’ve got the whole pink pony thing going on.” 

Piña felt a flash of heat travel through her body as she turned pinker than she normally was. Babs’ brazen remark had caught her completely off guard. “Um…” 

“I’m dying to get out of the house and get away from Applejack… I mean, I love her, but she’s… I dunno. I can’t say anything bad about her. She took me in.” Babs’ grin narrowed for a moment and then broke into a wide sunny smile. “Hey Larch… we can go ask Bucky to take Piña out together.” 

Piña’s brain worked overtime as it tried to process blossoming feelings of adolescent attraction. Her whole body burned as she came to the conclusion that Babs was a pleasing orange colour and Piña discovered that she liked the way that Babs’ mane dangled into her eyes. 

Larch was doing no better, standing there with his mouth open, and realising he was outclassed and outnumbered. 

“Hey, you guys can tell me tonight when we attend astronomy class. I just want a chance to get out of the house, that’s all,” Babs said in a pleading voice. 



 

Pinkie Pie paused mid pronk, hung in the air for a moment with a thoughtful expression upon her face, scratching her chin, and dropped down on three legs. “Does this mean I get to throw you a foal shower?” 

Rarity sighed while Coco gave an enthusiastic nod. 

“So you’re really really really really going to go through with this?” Pinkie Pie asked. 

“Yes, Pinkie Pie, we are going through with this. Coco is going to be a mother,” Rarity replied. 

“I’m showing!” Pinkie Pie pushed out her gut, which caused her cheeks to bulge. “I feel so pretty… I’ve never really felt pretty before but now I feel pretty and Cheese Sandwich comes and he serenades my belly and sings silly songs while playing his accordion!” 

“Pinkie Pie, you have always been a pretty pony,” Rarity said in a warm sincere voice. 

Blushing, Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Nuh-uh. I’ve always been the pudgy pony that had to rely upon my winning charm and raw charisma.” She looked over at Cheese Sandwich, who was working the counter with Mister Cake. “But when he looks at me… the way he looks at me… I feel pretty now all the time!” 

“Rarity, we need to throw Pinkie Pie a foal shower… I mean, we should. Somebody needs to throw her a foal shower and it should be us,” Coco said in a soft demure voice. 

“What a splendid idea!” Rarity’s muzzle split into a smile, revealing dazzling white teeth. 

“Oh no! I gotta go! I can’t listen to somepony planning a party for me! Bad luck!” Pinkie Pie bolted, leaving behind a cloud of confetti and a faint pink outline of herself. 

Reaching out, Coco fanned the pink pony outline away and then began to brush confetti off of her pelt. 
	
> Chapter 630
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster… Buckminster, there has been a slight change and you should know about it,” Princess Luna said in a low voice, hoping not to startle Bucky, who was busy studying research notes. 

“Change?” Bucky asked. 

Luna nodded. “Buckminster… you know we research changelings here in Hidden Hollow. The one that replaced Bill Neigh has been so helpful… anyhow, our researches have found a way to include a little changeling magic into the transmutation process. It will give the Shadowbolts a touch of illusion, not very much I am afraid, but perhaps enough to be useful.” Luna’s ears splayed out sideways and she grinned. “It will also allow them to feed upon the emotion of fear.” 

Bucky stepped back and raised an eyebrow. 

“It will allow them to heal from minor injuries in the field. It will replenish their strength. Unicorns will have a bit of their mana restored. Nothing too serious,” Luna said in a soft patient voice. “Twilight Sparkle assured me that this would be good idea, I spoke to her about it at length and she did some of the arcano engineering herself.” 

“And you’re just now telling me the same night as we're about to try it. Were you planning on telling them?” Bucky asked, narrowing one eye at Luna. 

“Oh stars no… Buckminster… this is your baby. Buckminster, billions of bits have been spent on what has been the most expensive war time investment in the long history of Equestria. This project is yours. This is your foal… you are… you are the Shadowbolts’ daddy. And if you want them to know, it is your responsibility to tell them.” Luna lifted her head and gave Bucky a warm smile that expressed her pride far better than any words. Luna levitated a informational packet over to Bucky. 

Snatching it out of the air, Bucky flipped through the pages and then looked back up at Luna. “Mistress, there are times when you are insufferably bitchy and I felt the need to say that.” 

Laughing, Luna nodded. She prodded Bucky with a hoof. “Go… go and tell them. We have work to do, the night is young but it will not stay that way forever.” 

“Yes, Bitchy Mistress… I will do as I am bid…” 



 

That went well, Bucky though to himself as he stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind him. They cheered… not sure how I should feel about that. Bucky scowled and felt a nagging sense of worry. 

The door opened. 

“Sir, a moment,” Black Briar said in a low voice. 

“Yes?” Bucky asked. 

“I was curious, Princess Luna—” 

“Mistress,” Bucky corrected.

“Yes… Mistress told me to ask you about prosthetics.” 

“Already being planned. Your new hind leg will be a pharmaceutical cabinet. A means to store supplies.” Bucky looked Black Briar in the eye. “I would expect for it to be dispelled upon occasion. I’ll have to re-enchant it often I suspect.” 

“Oh…” Black Briar blinked. 

“Anything else?” Bucky asked. 

“No sir, I think I’m good.” 



 

Bucky, feeling somewhat antagonistic, decided to push his luck. He looked up at Luna, narrowed his eyes in the most disrespectful manner he could muster, and said, “You know, this has to be working out rather well for you. I mean, you are finally getting ponies that worship your night. While the lunar pegasi have always been there for you, they’re not exactly ponies and they’re dying off a little more each day. I bet seeing Bandua with her little bat wings was a joyous moment for you.” 

Luna, who was drinking a glass of water, halted mid drink, turned her head, and glared at Bucky. Her ears perked straight up and then pitched forward. 

“Yeah… that’s right… you heard me. When I was getting the crap kicked out of me by mirror travelers a little something might have broken… when I realised that I might not be coming home from this one, something in the back of my mind just… let go. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. All these ponies that are about to change… they’re going to leave behind a legacy of lunar ponies and you’ll finally have your kingdom. You’ll finally have something that is yours and yours alone that you don’t have to share with your snotty little sister that is more popular than you are!” 

The glass of water in Luna’s telekinesis dropped to the floor and shattered. Luna stood there for a moment, her eyes turned white as her body flooded with mana, her horn crackled, and then, with a snort, Luna’s rage turned to laughter. Booming laughter. 

It took Bucky a moment, but he realised his tirade did not work out as planned. He blinked and stood there as Luna fell apart with laughter. He lifted the shattered bits of glass, repaired them, and refilled it with water. 

“What’s so funny?” Twilight Sparkle asked, stepping through the door. 

“Buckminster! That’s what’s so funny! He grew a pair of testicles when I wasn’t looking!” Having replied, Luna collapsed with laughter. 

Twilight, unsure of what she had just walked in on, looked at Bucky, and then shrugged. 



 

“Fever Cure was selected to go first. As a medical doctor, he is uniquely gifted to monitor the changes he will go through. He will be able to tell us what he is feeling in a scientific language that will be useful to our efforts. He will be able to assist me in my observations of the others after they go through the change,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low voice. She gestured at the viewing window where the future Shadowbolts were gathered. “We don’t know what will happen. Each of them is bound to have a different reaction, but it never hurts to be prepared.” 

“Fever Cure, are you ready?” Luna asked.

“Yes I am, Mistress,” Fever Cure replied. The unicorn lifted his head high. “Will this be painful?” 

“Excruciating,” Luna replied. 

Fever Cure gulped. 

“Don’t worry, I will be here with you,” Bucky said in a soft whisper. “And don’t listen to Bitchy Mistress, she is just being a bitch.” 

Princess Luna flicked her tail and laughed. “Twilight, be ready. Bucky, are you ready?” 

“I think so.” Bucky looked at the unicorn standing beside him. “You ready?” 

Fever Cure nodded. 

Feeling the need for one last inspection, Luna stepped forward, examined the ring and the conduit hanging from Bucky’s horn, checked her own connections to the system, stepped back, and then looked at Twilight, who was standing inside of a well shielded control booth. 

“Hit it,” Luna commanded. 

Inside of her booth, Twilight flipped over a lever.

The room went dark. After a few minutes, a low mechanical thrum filled the air. Crystals in the room began to glow. Bucky and Luna’s horns glowed with a faint silver light. 

Twilight Sparkle’s voice came on the intercom. “The chaos magic I suggested be added to the system is smoothing out the surges and fluctuations… everything looks good in here. Buckminster, you’re showing a staggering level of power output. These… these are much higher than your previous test readings, hold on, going to need to compensate!” 

There was a faint buzz from some of the machinery in the room. 

“Twilight?” Luna asked in a somewhat worried voice. 

“Bucky is giving off chaos magic of his own… I don’t know how he is doing it, it isn’t much, more like a trickle, but it is making the system excitable!” Twilight replied in a frantic voice. 

“Keep going!” Luna commanded. 

Now awash in a strange black glow, Fever Cure stood there, his eyes were closed, and his mane stood on end from the energy spiking through his body. His face was peaceful and he almost looked as though he was asleep. 

“I have the system compensating, but a lot more shadow energy is being dumped into Fever Cure than we anticipated… along with Bucky’s chaotic fluctuations… hang on everypony, things are going to get interesting!” Twilight cried over the intercom. 

Fever Cure opened his eyes and revealed slitted pupils. His mouth opened and already, his teeth were distorting, changing, fangs were growing. The unicorn with a slight and slender build became a little more bulky. 

“Hang on, we’re spiking!” Twilight warned over the intercom. 

Black lightning arced over Fever Cure’s body. An almost orgasmic cry came from Fever Cure’s lips and his eyes rolled back into his head. Black tendrils of shadow crept over his body. His hooves, a pale shade of brown, turned black. 

“Woah, the energy levels are unreadable! The system is spiking!” Twilight banged on the glass inside of the booth. 

After one very long moment where it seemed as though everything around them would explode, Princess Luna raised her hoof. 

“Cut the power,” she commanded. 

Twilight threw the emergency switch to kill everything and the room went dark once more. 



 

Fever Cure bounced in place “I feel great!”

“Subject seems to be okay,” Twilight Sparkle said as she took notes. “Subject has undergone considerable changes. His eyes are now slitted in the manner of most lunar creatures. His hooves have changed. He now has a mouthful of impressive fangs. No doubt more changes will come in time, like growing tufts of hair off of his ears.” 

“Twilight.” Princess Luna lifted her hoof and pointed. 

“Subject’s cutie mark has changed… this was unexpected. His cutie mark, a magnifying glass with a colony of bacteria beneath it, is gone. Fever Cure now has a biohazard symbol as his cutie mark. This outcome is fascinating…” 

“His horn is a little longer… and you can feel the magic radiating off of him. This one is strong,” Luna said as she stepped closer to Fever Cure to have a better look. “I wonder if his thaumaturgical glands will grow like Buckminster’s have done.” 

“Now we wait a week and we observe him.” Twilight’s lips pressed into a straight line. 

“I’m hungry… I feel kinda weird, but in a good way. I am really hungry though,” Fever Cure said. 

“Fever Cure, I am going to have an assistant take you to the mess hall, and you are going to have a lovely dinner date with some cans of sardines. Trust me, you are going to love them,” Bucky said. 

“Yuck!” Fever Cure’s eyes closed and his tongue hung out of his mouth. 



 

“So Bucky, you wanted a little meeting of the minds after we wrapped up?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

Bucky nodded. 

“Well, here we are.” Twilight gave Bucky a curious glance. 

Waving her hoof, Luna heaved an impatient sigh. “Out with it Buckminster, I can tell by the look on your face that this is going to be good.” 

“I had an idea… the Night Stallion’s magic makes strong things weak. I think I know how to exploit that,” Bucky said as he glanced at Twilight and then Luna. “I got to thinking… I was thinking about the rats actually and they gave me an idea.” 

“And?” Twilight asked. 

“I have a project in mind. Project Shadowsprite. We need to collect some parasprites and bring them here. We infuse them with shadow, alter them a bit, and then we send them through a portal to harass the mirror travelers on their own turf. The mirror travelers all have terrible sciophobia. We make the shadowsprites as harmless as possible, but we also make them difficult to kill. They’ll eat the mirror traveler’s food, fly around, harass them, and scare them to death. Every mirror traveler I’ve interrogated has a fear of the dark and a fear of shadows.” 

“We have to leave night lights on in the nursery,” Luna said, looking thoughtful. “If we don’t leave a light on for them, they will all cry like scared foals and beg the guards for a little light.” 

“Luna, please tell me that you do not abuse them… I am trusting you—” 

“Buckminster, I do not abuse them, I swear. Sometimes the guard aren’t as… considerate as they should be. I give you my word that I am kind to them. I was not always so warm to them, but after being around them, I pity them. Sometimes I read to them.” Luna looked Bucky in the eye. “If you ask them, they will tell you the same.” 

“I approve of this research project,” Twilight said in a low, slow voice. “Princess Celestia has the final say of course. We need to start hitting them at home somehow. I say we let Bucky play pranks on them.” 

“Twilight Sparkle, have you no mercy?” Luna asked, her face serious. 

Twilight shrugged. “No, not really. I thought they were going to kill Bucky when I saw him being led off. Any mercy I had died that day. Now there is only a cold clinical need for extermination. Should I meet any of them the future, my first action will be to disincorporate their molecular structure. Slowly.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 631
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Opening the front door, Bucky was surprised by five mares and one little griffoness. He stood in the doorway, feeling somewhat befuddled and confused. He shut the door behind him and looked at his wives. 

“Surprise,” they all said in soft subdued voices. 

“What are all of you doing up at this hour?” Bucky asked. 

Stepping forward, Derpy snoot-bumped Bucky. “Oh we took naps, got rested, and then we decided to have a nice little surprise party for you. There is cake in the kitchen. Berry baked it and we covered it with whipped cream… we made it ourselves.” 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said as he stood there blinking. 

“You came home in better condition than you left.” Berry Punch gestured at the kitchen. 

“No more Taint.” Bon Bon smiled. 

“I still miss your creepy eye,” Lyra said as she ducked away from Bon Bon’s hoof. 

“We wanted to tell you that we love you and we’re very happy that you’re better.” Thistle gave Bucky a seductive smile. “Hey Mister, want to buy some filly scout cookies?” 

“It is my fondest wish that Bandua has grey eyes like yours.” Belisama sat up on her haunches and looked up at Bucky. 

Sniffing, Bucky smelled something delicious. There was more than cake. There was also mare musk. He closed his eyes. There was also tea, smelled like a red blend, something strong and full of citrus. His mouth watered. A pair of lips pressed up against his and he almost opened his eyes, but instead, he savoured the surprise. Much to his shock, it was Bon Bon that was about to cause his tail to be sucked into his backside. 

Bon Bon pulled away with a wet smacking of her lips. She stood with her own eyes closed for a moment, breathing deep, and then she opened her eyes. “Get in that kitchen and go have some cake.” 

Feeling himself pulled forward, Bucky opened his eyes. He was surrounded on all sides and being shoved into the kitchen. Belisama pulled out a chair for him and he sat down. There was the creak of wood and the squeak of chairs being pulled out as Bucky’s wives also sat down.

“The tea is a special blend from Violet. Red tea, with rose hips and orange peels. The cake is lemon and poppy seed. We were going to crack open a bottle of wine, but most of us shouldn’t be drinking wine, so we left it in the bar,” Berry Punch said as Lyra began cutting the cake into slices. 

The first slice, a thin one, went to Belisama. 

“So we thought we’d throw you a little party,” Lyra said. 

“I baked the cake,” Berry said, grinning with pride. 

“I fixed the tea,” Lyra said. 

“All I did to prepare for your party is cut the cheese,” Derpy said as she leaned over in her chair and let rip. 

“Ugh, pegasi!” Bon Bon fanned the air with her hoof. “And this one has the most suspicious of all cutie marks, considering what she just did. Phew!” 

“Feel like living dangerously, Thistle?” Lyra asked as she held the knife over the cake. 

“Sure, cut me off a tiny slice. Nothing bigger than what you gave Belisama,” Thistle replied. The kelpie looked at Bucky. “Don’t you go doing anything stupid where you end up with the Taint again!” 

“Thistle, keep your voice down unless you want foals eating our delicious cake.” Berry Punch poked Thistle in the ribs. 

Reaching out her hoof, Derpy swiped a dollop of frosting from the cake and then smeared it over Bucky’s snoot. She then gave Bucky a coy grin. “I just don’t know what went wrong,” she said as she leaned forward. She threw her legs around Bucky’s neck and began to lick the frosting from his snoot. Her wings fluttered at her side as she let out a happy squeal. 

“Well, at least she cleans up after herself.” Bon Bon grinned. 

Thistle picked up a fork in her hoof and looked down at her slice of cake. “Bell Heather kept saying ‘daddoo’ the entire time you were gone. She was adorable.” Thistle stabbed her cake and broke off a bite, which she ate. 

Derpy pulled away from Bucky, slid a slice of cake close to her, and began to devour it in such a way that only pregnant mares can devour cake. 

Smiling, feeling calm and happy, Bucky poured some tea, claimed a slice of cake, and then looked around the table. As he was watching, Bon Bon daubed Lyra’s snoot with frosting, licked it off, and then the two mares almost fell out of their chairs as they groped one another in one very steamy kiss.

Slumping down in his chair, Bucky felt very relaxed. He took a sip of tea, tried a bite of cake, and then took another bite of cake. He swallowed, savouring the pleasing flavour of lemons and the soft texture of the whipped cream on his tongue. 

“Bucky, we love you… we love you a great deal. And we understand that you have responsibilities… I talked with Sunset Shimmer and I made her tell me everything that happened,” Berry Punch said in a low voice. Her eyes narrowed. “Bucky, as your wife, I am asking you to please, never do anything that stupid ever again.” 

“Yes Bucky, please, no more walking into obvious traps,” Belisama said, looking up at Bucky with pleading eyes. “We all know that we are going to lose you someday, but please, don’t take away what little time we have together because of a foolish act.” 

“What you did was stupid,” Derpy said as she turned her good eye upon her husband. 

“I’m sorry.” Bucky’s ears dropped and he apologised again. “Really, I am sorry. I knew was going to be a trap of some kind. I tried to have my contingencies in place. I thought… well, never mind what I thought. I didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was. I thought I’d be roughed up a bit and then I’d come home and recover.” 

“It kills us, all of us, when you come home all busted up.” Lyra waved her frosting covered fork at Bucky. “Each one of us lives in dread when you go out that door. We comfort one another and we hope for the best while each one of prepares for the worst. Each one of us has a terrible fear that some pegasus with silver armor is going to come to our door and politely inform us that you’re not coming home!” 

“I’m sorry!” Bucky felt a growing lump in his throat. 

“That’s enough… this was supposed to be a happy time. So everypony and everybirdy, eat cake and try and be happy. He’s home and we have him,” Derpy said. 

“I have the best wives in the world.” Bucky reached up and wiped his eyes with his right foreleg. “I love you all… you give me something I want to come home to.” 

“You’re damn right we’re the best wives… and don’t you forget it!” Berry stuffed the rest of her cake in her mouth. She lifted her hoof and waved it in Bucky’s direction. Aftering chewing, she swallowed. “I have issues because of what happened to you… I probably have post traumatic stress disorder and I am eaten alive by guilt… so you need to come home so I can slavishly attend your needs so I can feel better about my own shortcomings, you prickish arsehole.” 

Bon Bon cleared her throat. “Berry Punch… language please.”

“At least I was honest.” Berry Punch set down her fork and looked at the remainder of the cake. Licking her lips, Berry Punch picked up her teacup and took a sip, her eyes never leaving the cake. 

“I love you Berry Pu—” 

“You’d damn well better! I started a war for you… I did something so monumentally stupid that now I am bloody feckin’ hyprocrite for chewing you out when you do stupid stunts, so feck both of us! I’m a thriced damned plaster saint and the cracks are showing.” Berry set down her teacup a little too hard and it sloshed out over the table. 

“Ooh… hormones,” Lyra said in soft voice. 

Berry Punch blinked her red teary eyes, picked her teacup back up, and held it between trembling hooves. She took a sip, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. 

Reaching out a foreleg, Derpy patted Berry Punch on the withers and tried to comfort her friend. Derpy kissed Berry on the cheek and gave her a squeeze, and was rewarded with a soggy smile from Berry. 

“Berry may have done something stupid, but it brought us together. Bucky might have been chewed up, but we’re together. Bell Heather has a good daddy. Loch Skimmer and Ripple have a family that loves them. Sentinel… could any of you imagine life without Sentinel?” Thistle leaned over the table and looked at Berry Punch. “You have to find the good in things… you keep telling me that Berry… and now I’m telling you.” 

“Thanks Thistle.” Berry wiped her eyes and sniffled. 

“Have some more cake,” Lyra said, cutting off an enormous slice and dropped it onto Berry’s plate. 

“I am going to burn the words ‘don’t do anything stupid’ over our front door.” Bucky set down his teacup and took a bite of cake. He chewed, thinking to himself, and glancing over at Berry. He swallowed. “Berry Punch said that should be our family motto.” 

“I think we’ve all done something stupid,” Lyra said. “Bon Bon and I took off on an adventure to be with you, Berry Punch started a war, Thistle ran off and got herself knocked up, Derpy dove into the freezing waters of the lake just recently—” 

“And what have I done?” Belisama asked. 

“You gave yourself to Bucky and got involved… that’ll learn ya,” Berry Punch replied. 

“I regret nothing,” Belisama said, lifting her head and looking defiant as a little griffon who just managed to peer over the edge of the table could look. 

“Neither does Bucky apparently.” Derpy looked at her husband. 

“I had my regrets this time. I didn’t think I was coming home. I never got to see Bandua’s eyes. I never got to meet the twins, all four of them. Trust me, I had regrets.” Bucky blinked away tears and ate more cake. 

“This was supposed to be a happy time.” Bon Bon shook her head and ate a bite of cake. 

“I am happy.” Bucky looked at Bon Bon. “But I am also having a solemn moment to be thankful of what I have.” 

For a time, there was silence around the kitchen table. There was no dialogue, only the sounds of six ponies and one griffoness eating and sipping tea. They looked at one another, eyes met, made connections, and there were exchanges that said more than any words could. 

After a few tearful glances at one another, smiles, real happy smiles appeared, except for Belisama, whose crest rose. Bon Bon was the first to grin, her smile splitting open and revealing teeth. Bon Bon waggled her eyes at Berry Punch and Berry Punch giggled. Berry Punch’s giggling caused Derpy to let slip a little laugh. Derpy laughing caused Thistle to titter. 

Hearing his wives laughing made Bucky feel better. 

“We’ve all done something stupid… and look at us. We have assured our own destruction. Derpy and I are going to unleash an army come spring. Bon Bon might be pregnant. Loch Skimmer is pregnant. How are we going to survive?” Berry Punch asked. 

“We present a united front,” Bon Bon replied. 

“How do we teach our foals not to be as stupid as us?” Derpy asked. 

“I think that’s a lost cause,” Lyra replied. “We’re going to release a flood of stupidity upon Equestria… I mean, come on, let’s be realistic. Sentinel is already following in his father’s hoofsteps. We all saw how chewed up he was after the rat invasion. And he kept fighting even after a rat chomped his balls.” 

“Our foals will be the really stupid ones that run towards danger… and they will likely scare us to death,” Bon Bon said. 

“Oh… no… I don’t like thinking about this,” Thistle said. 

Lyra lifted her head high. “When Harper was confronted by rats… she zapped them. Most foals would be crying for their mama or their daddy… but Harper’s behaviour was shocking.” 

“Lyra.” Derpy shook her head. 

Berry blinked her eyes and sniffled a few times. “I know that I’m feeling better, but can I still get a pity screw from somepony?” Berry Punch stuck out her lip and tried to look as sad as possible. “Pwease?” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 632
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Yawning, Bon Bon had herself a look around. She had slept in and that had been pleasant. The house was quiet and it was the start of the weekend. There would be no candy store today, she had left it in Helia and Golden Harvest’s capable hooves. 

The scent of cinnamon buns was in the air, which answered what Bon Bon would be having for breakfast. The aroma of coffee somehow made the smell of the cinnamon buns even more enticing. Bon Bon stepped through the nursery, it was empty. She stood in the middle of it and wondered where the little ones that she loved were and what they might be doing. 

Turning her head to glance through the door that led into the bedroom, Bon Bon caught a glimpse of Derpy and Lyra in the bed, spooning with one another. Bon Bon felt her heart warm just a little. 

Passing through the nursery door into the hallway, Bon Bon smiled. She heard the sounds of ponies in the living room and the kitchen. Yawning once more, she picked up her pace, glad to have a house and family. 



 

Coffee and a cinnamon bun. Maybe a few cinnamon buns. Bon Bon was feeling a bit hungrier than usual, but she refused to get her hopes up. She was a big burly earth pony, and sometimes she just got hungry. 

There was laughter from the living room. 

Lazy days like this were perfect and Bon Bon wished that there could be more of them. No pressing issues, no panic, no town on fire, no monsters coming out of the Everfree, no one thousand year old evils just waking up and spoiling for a fight for breakfast, today was just another day, but it was lazy. 

Something brushed up against Bon Bon’s hind hoof. She looked down and saw blue eyes peering up at her. Smiling, Bon Bon set down her coffee and the fork she had been eating her cinnamon bun with. 

“Hi Sukari,” Bon Bon said as she reached down to pick up the zebra filly. Bon Bon was slow, cautious, and worried about startling the foal. One had to handle Sukari with care. Bon Bon heard a whimper and felt a moment of worry. 

Without incident, Bon Bon lifted Sukari to her barrel and held the foal close. 

“Hi there. Did you come in here for a bit more breakfast? I can feel the bulge in your belly… are you still hungry? Want a little more?” Bon Bon asked. 

“More, yes,” Sukari replied. 

“Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet..” Bon Bon leaned down her head and kissed Sukari between her ears. Somepony had tied a yellow ribbon to Sukari’s tail and another ribbon had been tied into her mane. 

Reaching out, Bon Bon pulled a chair closer and sat Sukari down in the chair. “Don’t fall.” Bon Bon patted Sukari on the side and made sure the foal was secure in the chair. 

“Sukari, who tied these ribbons in your mane?” Bon Bon asked as she began cutting the remains of her cinnamon roll into tiny bite sized pieces. 

“Baba.” Sukari had a hopeful expression as she looked up at Bon Bon. 

“Oh, baba did this, did he? Well, baba loves you… and you look so very pretty.” Using her fork, Bon Bon slipped a bit of cinnamon roll into Sukari’s mouth. 

“Ach, crivens, that’s enough to stop an old stallion’s heart, will ye look at that,” Barley said as he stood in the doorway. “I’m done… I’m dying… my wee zebra niece has been my undoin’ and now it’s the end!” 

Rolling her eyes, Bon Bon began to giggle.  



 

“There it is… Dapple Apple’s gorge.” Bucky stopped walking and took in the sight before him. Quite a number of ponies were here, both foals and adults. Many sleds could be seen in the snow. “Sentinel, thank you for pulling our toboggan.” 

“It was no trouble at all,” Sentinel replied. 

“Mama said I couldn’t come here, it was too dangerous,” Dinky said as she looked at the hill ahead with foalish awe. 

“Your mother was asleep when we left the house, I don’t recall her saying anything.” Bucky reached out and patted Dinky on the head. Grinning, he looked at Piña. “How was your special astronomy class last night?” 

Piña, who felt a heated blush in her cheeks and ears, let out a nervous squeak and looked at her daddy. “It was fine. Everything was fine. Fine fine fine.” 

“So… uh, how high are we going up the side of the gorge?” Sentinel asked. He looked. About one third of the way up, there was a rock outcropping where most sledders took off from. A little higher up there was a smaller shelf where a brave few dared to launch from. 

“Up there,” Bucky said, pointing with his talons. 

Gulping, Sentinel looked. There was a tiny shelf that protruded about halfway up, right about the point where the gorge became a sheer cliff face that went straight up and down. For a moment, Sentinel wondered if perhaps he had some homework that he should be doing. 

“This is gonna be fun!” Piña began bouncing up and down, pronking in the snow. 

“How are we gonna get up there?” Sentinel asked. 

“I was thinking about turning myself into a roc… a giant eagle.” Bucky studied the far off destination. “I could carry the toboggan and Piña and you could fly up there with Dinky.” 

There was a lot that Sentinel wanted to say. He wanted to say, “Father, maybe we should reconsider.” He wanted to say, “Perhaps we should stick to where other families were sledding.” Sentinel wanted to say, “Father, perhaps we should pick a saner course of action.” 

But Sentinel said none of these things. What Sentinel did say after a moment of internal debating was, “Father, I will carry Dinky up there.” Sentinel, who realised that he might die, took satisfaction in knowing that he was an obedient colt that listened to his father. 

“Buckminster… what brings you here?” 

Hearing Discord’s voice, Bucky smiled. He turned to greet the draconequus. “Hey, how have you been?” 

“Bloated and craving chocolate. You?” Discord raised his eyebrow. 

“And there is a vision of beauty… hello Fluttershy,” Bucky said. 

“Hello… we came to watch the foals go sledding… it seems so dangerous.” Fluttershy looked around, a distressed expression upon her face. 

“Care to join us? We have a long toboggan… I think we could all fit.” Bucky grinned and looked up at Discord. 

“Oh I don’t know if pregnant ponies should do this,” Fluttershy replied. 

“Oh nonsense. You are not a pregnant pony.” Discord reached out patted Fluttershy. “I am pretty sure that a pregnant draconequus should be doing this. The baby needs a little chaos for good development.” 

“Oh.” Fluttershy looked fearful and she stared down at her large round belly. “Well, for the baby… I suppose I can be brave.” 

“Attagirl!” Discord clapped his talons his paw together. “Besides. We’re immortals. It isn’t like we can die.” 

Once more, Sentinel gulped. 

“Well, we should be going. Come on, let’s go have fun.” Bucky gave an impatient tug on Sentinel’s ear with his talons. “We’re not immortals, so we don’t have time to wait all day.” 



 

Peering over the edge of the precipice, Fluttershy let out a demure meep of fear. She backed away, bumped into Discord, and then squeaked in alarm. The sunny yellow almost but not quite a pegasus, who was bundled up in a spring green knitted cap, scarf, and a dark green coat, looked up at her husband with wide fearful eyes. 

“Now now my dearest Fluttershy, we’ll be fine,” Discord said as he picked up the almost but not quite a pegasus that he loved so much. “I am certain the rest of you are going to die though.” 

“Discord!” Fluttershy reached out a wing and gave Discord a light slap. 

“I’m certain we’ll be fine,” Sentinel said in a shaky voice. 

“This is gonna be great.” Dinky looked over the edge and then looked up at Sentinel. “It is almost a straight drop for at least fifty feet!” 

Sentinel nodded. “I noticed.” 

“The ponies down there look like ants.” Piña grinned and bounced with excitement. 

“I’ve modified the toboggan.” Bucky glanced at the edge of the shelf they stood on. “I placed a spell on the bottom that will make it super slick, like waxing the wood, but better. The reduced friction should help us go faster.” 

On the inside, Sentinel felt like Fluttershy looked like on the outside. He started to think of the many things he could be doing. Building a wooden ship model. Homework. Writing. Napping. Spending time with Harper. Trying to teach Harper more words. Maybe writing love letters to Diamond Tiara and then stuffing them into his secret hiding space. 

“I think we’re ready. I’ll get in the front. Piña, you’re behind me. Dinky, behind Piña. Sentinel, hold on to your sisters. Fluttershy, hold on to Sentinel. Discord, you’re in the rear.” Bucky stepped onto the toboggan and sat down. 

“Yay!” Piña pronked in place and grabbed her father. 

Dinky climbed aboard, smiling at Sentinel as she got seated. Sentinel, hesitant, got onto the toboggan and wrapped his forelegs around Dinky. He closed his eyes and he felt Fluttershy cling to him. And then, Discord climbed on to the back of the toboggan.

“Give us a shove, Discord,” Bucky said as he grabbed the toboggan’s front grip with his talons. 

Piña squealed as Discord gave a good shove with his tail. 

The toboggan pitched forward over the lip of the stone shelf, and then shot down the cliff. There was instant acceleration, Bucky could feel his lips being peeled back from his teeth. Behind him, he heard screams. 

The toboggan was fast. It shot through the snow like a possessed thing and Bucky realised, much to his horror, that something was wrong. They were going down the incline at an angle, heading towards the trees and not towards the cleared area that was straight down beneath him. 

“Oh bugger!” Bucky shouted, not knowing what to do as the toboggan continued to accelerate to insane speeds. The low friction spell might have been a bad idea. The trees loomed larger as the toboggan careened ahead. 

Sentinel, too terrified to do anything, obeyed his father’s last command and clung to his sisters He closed his eyes and waited for the end. 

“Get out of our way!” Discord cried as he waved at the trees, trying to make himself heard over Fluttershy’s petite screams of feminine terror. 

As Bucky watched, the trees uprooted themselves and ran away, their roots moving like many scurrying legs, and the toboggan plunged through the panicking, fleeing trees that waved their branches in terror. 

“Move! Move! Stop winter napping and vamos! GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Discord bellowed as he waved his forelegs around. 

More and more trees uprooted themselves, ran away, and then lept back into the earth, plunging their roots down into the soil as the toboggan whooshed through the trees. 

Dinky shrieked as she saw branches just inches away from her, the trees were moving as fast as trees could move, but it was a close call. She had trouble breathing and realised that Sentinel was about to crush both her and Piña. 

Still the toboggan picked up speed as they continued down the hill. Everything was a blur now. With a wail of terror from the sunny yellow sort of but not quite a pegasus, they cleared the trees and picked up even more speed as they shot down the hill. 

“That was close!” Discord cried. “This is exciting!” 

“Yes it is!” Piña replied in a squeaky shout. 

The toboggan banked, riding along a graceful curve, and then began to head down the hill, towards the bottom, where many ponies were watching with wide eyes and open mouths. 

Bucky realised they were going too fast to stop any time soon. They weren’t speeding, they were flying too low. The crowd ahead began to understand that the toboggan wasn’t slowing down anytime soon and screams went through the crowd. 

In seconds, the toboggan was shooting through the fleeing crowd and Bucky saw one mare that was frozen in terror, her eyes wide, and she wasn’t moving. With a reflexive burst of telekinesis, Bucky grabbed the mare and stuffed her down onto the toboggan, just behind Discord. 

“Hello Red Gala!” Fluttershy said, her voice a strange discordant mix of manic glee and mortal terror. “Fancy meeting you here!” 

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Red Gala replied as she clung to Discord. 

“Look out!” a pony cried as the toboggan hit a snow bank. 

Looking down upon the earth, Bucky spat in contempt. He was flying and he didn’t need no stinking alicorn wings. He watched as the toboggan flew away from him, streaking off to wherever it was that the toboggan needed to go. Airborne, he waved at Piña, who waved back. 



 

Sentinel popped his head up out of the snow and blinked. Not too far away, he saw Dinky’s head sticking up out of the snow. She was laughing. Sentinel shook the snow from his face. He climbed out of the snow, or tried to. He was in loose powder. 

“That was great!” Piña popped up out of the snow. “I wanna do that again!” 

“Is everypony okay?” Bucky asked. 

Sitting in the snow together, Fluttershy and Discord were kissing, and not too far away from them Red Gala was trying to climb out of the loose powdery fluff. 

“Daddy, where is our toboggan?” Dinky asked. 
	
	
> Chapter 633
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Daddy, could you wait here with me… the rest of you, Dinky, Sentinel, could you please go on in the house,” Piña said as she watched two figures approaching, one a dark purple grey and the other a vibrant shade of orange. 

“Dinky, Sentinel, why don’t you wait here with us… this promises to be entertaining.” Bucky glanced at Piña and his muzzle held a teasing smile. 

Standing in the snow, Piña squirmed. She looked up at her father, then her brother, and then the filly she called her sister. She blinked and then turned her head. Larch and Babs were getting closer. For a moment, Piña worried that she might explode. 

“Hi Larch… hiya Babs… Babs, what are you doing here on the weekend?” Piña asked as the pair drew nearer. 

“Apple Bloom is here working on the big super secret project. We were helping. And we were studying. And I was trying to give Larch some helpful advice,” Babs Seed replied. 

“Mister Bitters, hello, I was wondering if I could ask you a question.” Larch paused a short distance away from Bucky and stood there, trembling somewhat. 

Piña felt her breath catch in her throat. She saw Babs gesturing at Larch with her eyes. After a few tries, Piña caught on to the meaning of what Babs wanted and moved to stand beside Larch. As she stood on Larch’s right, Babs moved in and stood at his left. 

Larch, now between Piña and Babs, glanced to his left, then to his right, and then looked up into the horrible Taint filled eye of the school headmaster, the pony that had rescued him from the Tall Tale orphanarium. He glanced at Sentinel. Sentinel was his friend, he liked Sentinel, but now, Sentinel seemed terrifying for some unknown reason. 

The earth pony colt licked his lips. 

“Out with it Larch… my time is limited,” Bucky said in a low soft voice. 

“Sir, I… er… um… well, I am above average in every way but I do not get perfect grades. I do work very hard for the grades I do get, I’m smart, but not so smart that school is easy for me and I have to work very hard for everything I am given.” Larch paused, wondering how this was going, not certain he had chosen the best way to approach the situation. “Anyway, sir, I would like to earn the privilege of asking Piña out on a date and gaining your permission. As an earth pony, I expect to work hard for it.” 

“Oh dear,” Bucky said in a voice that contained a hint of teasing.  He glanced at Babs and smiled at the earth pony filly. His eyes focused back on Larch. “Hmm, I don’t know… Piña is one of a kind. She is very dear to me—” 

“Daddy, don’t be a jerk!” Piña narrowed her eyes at her father. 

“You see, she comes from Shetland stock, so she isn’t fully tamed. And you, Babs Seed, what are you doing here with Larch and Piña?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh I was going to go out with them. Us fillies have to stick together Mister Bitters.” Babs Seed looked up at Bucky without fear. “The world is a bad place, just ask Applejack.” 

Mistah Bittahs. Bucky drew in Babs’ Manehatten accent and felt more than a little affection for Babs. She had recovered so well and come so far, due in no small part to Luna and Luna’s continuous efforts to rehabilitate Babs in the dreamscape. Come Summer, Babs was going to stay with Luna, under the guise of being Luna’s personal astronomy student. 

“Larch, there is no further effort required on your part. If you wish to take Piña out, you have my permission.” Bucky waited for relief to settle over Larch. Watching, waiting, he could see relief settling into the colt’s eyes, and then Bucky pounced like a waiting cat. “But… Sentinel might have something to say about you dating his sister.” 

Larch let out a yelp of surprise and looked at Sentinel. 

“I am agreeable to this,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “But if she ever comes home crying, if she comes home with a mussed mane and a fearful or worried look in her eye, you should know, I am extremely fond of my sister.” Sentinel’s eyes moved to Babs. “That goes for you, too. Do not betray my trust.” 

Piña darted forward and kissed her brother on the cheek. “Thank you, Sentinel.” 

Larch nodded. “Thank you, both of you. I will not let you down.” 

Babs grinned. “I’m trouble, you’d better keep an eye on me.” 



 

Sprawled on the floor by the fire in the living room, Bucky pulled Bell Heather a little closer and rubbed his cheek against her side. The foal squealed, wiggled, and her stubby little legs clutched at his face. 

“Daddoo.” 

“Mama… play with Harper… play now!” 

It was getting harder to ignore Harper. Bucky grinned at her. “Harper, I played with you. Now I am having a moment with Bell Heather.” Bucky gave Bell Heather a squeeze to illustrate his point. 

“Now you sorry… Harper dead.” Harper gagged, fell over, and her four little legs stuck up into the air. She lay on the floor with her eyes closed and her little orange tongue hanging out. 

Bell Heather cooed at her sister’s death and then rubbed her snoot against Bucky. 

Cadance, wobbling around on four shaky legs, made her way to Bucky, collapsed against his side, and then laid there. “Harpy dead.” 

“Yes, Harper is dead.” Bucky’s voice was alive with repressed laughter. 

“Bucky… why… why did you allow Harper to die?” Lyra asked. 

“I are dead,” Harper said in a low mumbling voice. She spit her tongue out again for good measure once she was done speaking. 

“Ooh they’re just perfect at this age,” Bucky said as he nuzzled Bell Heather. “Bell, don’t grow up on me, please?” 

Bell Heather, hearing her father’s voice, yawned and then smacked her lips. 

“I see somepony is getting hungry again,” Bucky said as he looked up at Lyra.

Lyra heaved a sigh and nodded. “I can feed her… or I could find Thistle. I think she’s in the back keeping Derpy company.” 

“Nopony love dead Harper.” 

Bucky stretched his neck out and prepared for foal necromancy. There was only one way to revive a foal that had died from a lack of attention. He sucked in a deep breath, pressed his lips to Harper’s exposed belly, and blew a powerful raspberry. 

Harper, now filled with life, squealed as her four legs kicked. She wiggled free from the flatulent touch of her father’s lips, got her legs beneath her, and then took off at a speedy run, her fluffy orange tail streaming out behind her. She shot out of the living room and took off down the hall, shrieking for help. 

“Bucky… that… that was funny.” Lyra grinned and her golden eyes were merry. 



 

Scowling in frustration, Sunset Shimmer shook her head and looked at the spider golem in front of her. She felt a heated burst of anger and then took a deep breath to cool off. The spider golem waited, tapping one leg, letting her know that it was bored. 

Taking the spellbook beside her in her telekinesis, Sunset Shimmer looked over the pages, flipping back and forth, trying to figure out what she had missed. This was beyond frustrating. The spider golem had a portion of her own essence, something that Bucky had drawn out of her, so the enchantment could be taken.

“Master makes this seem so easy. A flash of the horn… a little wave of his talons… and then, tada! Archmage level enchantment and perfection on the first try!” Sunset set the book down and slammed it shut. 

“Buckminster makes a lot of mistakes… he hardly ever gets things right on the first try. He’s just too stupid to quit,” Trixie said, trying to make Sunset Shimmer feel better. 

“Trixie… I am being groomed as his replacement.” Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes. “Master is not going to live forever. Somepony has to continue his work after he is gone. Somepony has to make certain that the school is run with his vision in mind. Somepony has to look after his golems.” Sunset Shimmer prodded the spider golem with her hoof. 

“Somepony has just proven that they have Buckminster’s iron will.” Trixie took a step forward. “Somepony took the alicorn amulet, used it, and was not overcome by it. Somepony has shown that they have tenacity and courage.” Trixie took another step closer. “Even though you were scared, you followed his commands and everything turned out okay.” Trixie took one final step forward and then kissed Sunset Shimmer just behind the ear. 

Feeling Trixie touching her, Sunset Shimmer let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. 


“Now stop being a mopey pony, get your muzzle back in that book, and do not disappoint the Great and Powerful Trixie.” Trixie pressed her muzzle into Sunset’s mane and inhaled. 

“Bartleby?” 

“Yes?”

“Coffee please… the robusto Sea of Grass blend. This all day project is going to become an all nighter. I’m going to need help, I can’t do this on my own. I’m going to need both of you.” 

“Glad to be of service,” Bartleby said as he scrambled off of the bed to make coffee. 

“Master insists that I can create an alarm for things attuned to the specific energy of the mirror travelers. Those things I took from their research lab… they’re not from Equestria. I was able to get blood and tissue samples from Loki and narrow down the magical signature, and  these items match. So we know these items are from their reality. Truth be told, I don’t know where to begin.” 

Trixie’s brow furrowed. “What do we know? Anything else to work with?” 

“The mirror travelers' magic mirrors our own. Their magic resonates with the ley lines here. I have one of their research journals, but I already knew this. In other realities, their magic is weak or even non existent. In some realities they’ve gone to, their pegasi can’t fly, in other realities, their unicorns have no magical abilities at all. In yet other realities, they reported having strange bipedal forms. Here, in this reality, their pegasi fly, their unicorns have the strongest magic, and this is the place they want to resettle. They are almost like us, but not like us.” Sunset Shimmer watched as the bored spider golem began to tap dance across her desk. 

“So Buckminster wants golems to detect them?” Trixie asked. Her eyes narrowed. “Shining Armor can detect them because of their hostility and hatred and that they register as a threat to Equestria, but he gets the same feelings from cultists.” 

“Master wants a spell of detection that the golems can use but also almost any unicorn… he expects a spell that could be cast by type twos because there are so many of them in the guard. My recent attempt on the spider golem was a simple alarm spell that should have made a ringing sound when the mirror traveler’s blood sample came in close contact to the golem. Nothing happened.” 

Pulling up a chair, Trixie sat down beside Sunset Shimmer. She looked at the pile of books, and took note of the authors. Starjammer’s books were the bulk of the pile. Trixie shuddered in revulsion. She hated reading Starjammer’s works. There was a unicorn that was full of himself. 

“Forgive me for stating the obvious, but has anypony asked Twilight Sparkle?” Bartleby asked in a soft voice as he poured boiling water into the Fancy press coffee pot. 

“If Master wanted Twilight to do this, he would have asked her. And no doubt, she would have this problem solved in no time at all,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“Very well… we will not ask Twilight Sparkle. Let us go and ask Discord instead. Perhaps it isn't magical advice we need, but a change of perspectives. Perhaps Discord can see something we’re missing.” Trixie leaned back in her chair and looked at Sunset Shimmer. 

“That… that is an excellent idea.” Sunset Shimmer rubbed her head. “You’re brilliant.” 

“Trixie is aware of this, but it is still nice to hear,” Trixie replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 634
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Everything feels wrong Sparky… I don’t like it,” Ripple said as she looked over at Sparkler. “I think we’ve messed up. Mistakes were made. I’m sure I had my own part in it. And don’t you dare tell me its hormones.” 

Closing her eyes, Sparkler fell over on the sofa and covered her face with her hooves. As she fell over, a potato chip bag left on the sofa crinkled beneath her. 

“Rising Star is going off to Canterlot and Bittersweet is going with him. I’m here with my Raptors where I’m needed, cause Lugus has an exercise planned. Meanwhile, Loch Skimmer wants to move out and go and live in the farmhouse again because she doesn’t want to have her foal in a pigsty. We have fecked up and it is time to admit it. Loch Skimmer doesn’t want to even live with us anymore. My sister has gone to be with our parents and she’s a weepy mess that can’t stop crying and I just tried to clean this place up just last night and already it looks like I haven’t done a damn thing!” Ripple stomped her hoof to punctuate her words. 

“We all stay so busy with school and work,” Sparkler said. 

“And we’re about to be busier! That foal is going to keep us busy!” Ripple’s feathers fluffed out and the hair along her spine bristled. “I’ve let my sister down. I have screwed up.” 

“Stuff happens—” 

“Yes stuff happens in the farmhouse too, but they keep it clean! Lyra and Bucky both are busy ponies, but they use their magic to keep things tidy and everypony else does what they can to clean up as well… you… you’re laying down on potato chip sacks and cardboard juice cartons!” Ripple’s eyes narrowed and her wings fluttered at her side. Growling, Ripple turned and stomped out of the room. 

Laying on her side, Sparkler sighed and brushed the litter on the sofa onto the floor. Alone, missing Loch Skimmer, already missing Rising Star even though he wasn’t even gone, and knowing that things were a mess, Sparkler closed her eyes and tried not to cry. 



 

“Winter training. How to survive the cold of winter and the hostility of the world around you.” Lugus looked over the Raptors and noticed that a certain charcoal coloured pegasus filly was missing. 

“At least we know we can make fires,” Grunion said as he looked at Loki. 

“The plan is simple. We move into the Everfree, we find a suitable campsite, and we set up for the night. We make shelters from the ice and snow. The goal is simple. Do not freeze to death and guard the civilians from danger.” Lugus lifted his talons to point at Yew Wood and Peekaboo. “We must keep them from freezing as well. Sometimes, we are going to make rescues and the civilians we must look after will not be hard like us. So we must learn to make them comfortable whilst we suffer.” 

“And what about Fresh Meat and Table Scraps?” Kiara asked. 

“They get to suffer as well. They get to carry a fair portion of the gear and supplies. They will be responsible for their own shelter and keeping each other alive through the night,” Lugus replied. 

Scootaloo could not help but notice Lugus’ choice of words when he said, “alive through the night.” The pegasus filly shivered, but not because of the cold. She turned to Boadicea and patted her friend on the back. 

“I’m still growing back my feathers.” Boadicea leaned on Scootaloo and let out a miserable huff. 

Nearby, Ripple landed. She folded in her wings and trotted forward to join the group. 

“I want us moving in exactly one hour,” Lugus commanded. “Gather gear and be ready to march. We’re not flying on this trip. We need to learn to move as a unit with civilians that might not be able to fly and Yew Wood has volunteered to be the helpless pony. She will be wearing a simple rope hobble on her hind legs to simulate injury.” 

“Feckin’ great, we’ll be draggin’ our balls through the snow,” Angry Angus said as he kicked at the snow with his talons. 

“ANGUS! Down in the snow! I want to see your beak hit the snow a hundred times!” Gofannon barked. Gofannon watched as Angus dropped down and started doing his push ups. 

“Fledgling Fresh Meat.” 

“Sir, what, sir?” 

“You have a special assignment.”

“Sir, what is that, sir?” 

“You will be responsible for looking after your little sister.” 

“Sir, I will do that, sir.” 

Unable to contain herself, Peekaboo rushed forward through the snow. “Bodi!” she cried as she launched herself at Boadicea. “Bodi Bodi Bodi!” 



 

“What’s it like?” Loch Skimmer asked as she looked over at Derpy. “Doesn’t it feel, I dunno, awkward? I mean, Cadance’s nose bumps right into your… well, I mean, our teats are located right next door to where foals come out.” 

Derpy giggled. “Loch, you are a silly pegasus. Yes she bumps me. Sometimes when a foal is done feeding they get all tuckered out and they lay their little heads down on whatever is soft and they go right to sleep. They don’t care about it and neither should you.” 

“I’m worried I’ll get turned on or something… I dunno. All of this scares me.” Loch Skimmer rolled over onto her side and rubbed her stomach. 

“How did you talk with the others go?” Derpy asked in a voice thick with emotion and concern. The grey pegasus’ ears perked forward as she waited for a reply. 

“Rising Star sort of accidentally let it slip that he thinks that I did this on purpose because I was talking about wanting a foal for a while. He tried to take it back and then accused me of twisting his words around when I said there was no taking this back,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“Everypony is panicking, that’s all. While all of you can act very grown up, this shows that you aren’t the adults you think you are.” Derpy reached out and touched Loch Skimmer with her hoof. “Everypony is scared and nopony knows what to do.” 

“I’m thirteen years old. I thought I was an adult. Now I’m not so sure,” Loch Skimmer said. 

“I was fourteen years old when I had Dinky. I thought I was real grown up. I thought I had it all figured out.” Derpy blinked away a few tears she felt lurking. “My parents tossed me out. You’re not being tossed out though. You’re being pulled back in. We have you and we’re not going to let go of you. You’re ours. We’ll help you.” 

Loch Skimmer’s barrel started heaving. “I just got done crying an hour ago… I don’t wanna cry again.” As Loch Skimmer spoke, tears trickled down her cheeks. With a gasp, the floodgates opened and Loch Skimmer began to cry once more. 

Lifting her head, Cadance looked over at Loch Skimmer. Milk dribbled down her chin. The alicorn foal’s eyes began to glaze over with tears and then she let out a pained wail. Crawling on her belly, her stubby wings flapping, Cadance made her way over to Loch Skimmer and pressed herself up against the sobbing pegasus. 



 

Wearing a full load didn’t slow down Sentinel at all. He led the way, his head held high and his ears alert for danger. They had cleared the treeline for the Everfree. Danger did not hibernate. His nostrils flared as he sniffed. Progress was slow through the deep snow but Sentinel did not mind. There was no point in rushing headlong into danger. 

The forest was dark. Very little sun managed to shine down through the naked trees for some odd reason. 

“Squire Ensign Sentinel, report,” Lugus commanded. 

“Knight Commander Lugus, the area seems clear,” Sentinel replied. He paused in place, sniffed, and his ears strained for any sound that might be dangerous. All he heard was the creaking of the trees. 

“Begin looking for a suitable clearing.” Lugus glanced over the troup. “It will be dark before we know it.” 

“Loki’s not even cold… this just isn’t fair,” Kiara said as she took advantage of the brief moment of rest. 

“If you want to stay warm, try dying in the service of another,” Brigid said to Kiara. 

“I’m cold enough to consider it,” Kiara replied. “Hey Loki, want to keep me warm?” 

“No.” 

“Oh come on Loki, that’s cold!” Kiara looked at Loki with an expression of stunned disbelief. “You’re always trying to pull on my tail.” 

“Things change.” 

“Loki has changed, that’s for certain,” Kiara said as she looked at Loki. 

“I fought a fight worth fighting… meaningful violence. Slaughter with purpose. It brought about my end. And then I saw my king in a bloody heap on the floor. My priorities have changed.” Loki looked at Kiara and shook his head. “I am sorry for how I was.” 

“No need to be sorry,” Kiara replied. “You okay Loki? I’m worried now.” 

The harrier griffon blinked. “I’m fine. I’m better than I’ve been for a long time. I have stopped being afraid. There is nothing left to fear. For a long time, I was afraid to live. I was never afraid of dying. Now, that fear has flown from me.” 

“Enough talk, we move!” Sentinel barked. 



 

“Dinky… last night was so wonderful.” Piña closed her eyes and rolled over on her bed. She lay on her back and tapped her front hooves together. 

Engrossed in a book about practical enchantments for plants, Dinky almost didn’t hear her sister. But when she heard the tone of Pina’s voice, she lifted her head and closed her book. 

“It was cloudy so Night Light had to cast a special spell on the telescope… it allowed us to see through the clouds and we got to see the stars, Dinky, there were so many stars. You wouldn’t know it just by looking up, but there are so many stars once you look through a telescope. I get it now, why Babs gets so happy when she’s peeping through a telescope.” 

Dinky rubbed her eyes with her fetlock and then, after she pulled her fetlock away, she blinked a few times. “Sounds like you had a good time.” 

“The top of the astronomy tower was so cold. There was wind. Larch and Babs and I sat together trying to stay warm. We were almost half frozen when Galaxy Guide and Night Light called it quits. We went inside of the tower where it was so warm and we drank cocoa and ate s’mores while Night Light and Galaxy Guide talked about the importance of studying the stars. We talked about physics, and science, and understanding the natural order of things.” 

Blinking her study bleary eyes, Dinky looked over at the pink blur that was Piña. “You sound excited about this. Thinking about direction?” 

“Maybe… last night… I felt something I don’t think I’ve felt before. It was like opening my eyes. Not just about the stars, but everything. I felt so small and humbled by what I saw.” Piña tapped her front hooves together some more and sparks flew from them. Her muzzle crinkled as she concentrated. “Larch wants to take an introduction to tinkering with Tuli, the big minotaur. I think I might join him. Babs is already signed up for the class. This might be nice, we can do science stuff together.” 

“Wait, Babs is an astronomy student, why would she take tinkering?” Dinky asked. 

“In the big observatories, the telescopes are massive mechanical things and the orreries need constant maintenance. She’s not a unicorn, so she is going to have to work so much harder to get a job in one of those places… so having more skills will be useful for her,” Piña replied. 

“Because of Apple Bloom I’ve become curious about the magical sciences. This project is going to be the death of me. I’ve been studying since we got home from sledding on stuff that’s not even schoolwork. Apple Bloom has given me quite a puzzle to figure out.” Dinky fell over on her bed and her head hit her pillow. 

“You just said you got interested in the magical sciences because of an earth pony Dinky… that’s kinda awesome…” 
	
> Chapter 635
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The woods were dark and scary. Sitting near the campfire, Scootaloo shivered, feeling a whole lot more than the cold. She looked around, trying to see shadows in the dark, and her eyes lingered over the domes made out of ice and snow that dotted the campsite. The largest dome was made for Lugus. She blinked and tried to think about what Rainbow Dash might do in this situation. She tore off a bite of her rations, a compressed bar of oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, nuts, and dried fruit. A light dusting of snow fell through the trees. 

Somewhere, an owl hooted. 

Thinking of headless horses, The Olden Pony, and rusty iron shoes, Scootaloo gulped. 

“There is something in the woods,” Boadicea said in a low voice, her beak not moving. 

Scootaloo nodded. “This is the Everfree, the spookiest place in Equestria.”

“If it comes for us, try to guard Peekaboo. I will tear out its eyes.” Boadicea’s black eyes narrowed into slits. “The shadows move and I think it is more than the campfire causing them to flicker.” 

Across the fire, Shaquah snickered as she sharpened her hook sword. “Fresh Meat and Table Scraps look jumpy.” 

“I think Callum and I are going to crawl inside of our shelter. We have the last watch together and we need some sleep,” Freyja said as she gave a tug on Callum. 

“There will be no sleeping.” Flench turned his head around backwards to look at Freyja.

“Shut up Flench!” Freyja opened up her beak and hissed. 

Seeing this, Peekaboo opened up her mouth, made a gagging sound, and then hissed herself, making a sound deep within her throat. 

Lugus, looking proud, snatched up Peekaboo and squeezed her. “My foal can hiss!” 

Held in her father’s foreleg, Peekaboo hissed again, her eyes narrowing as she pulled her lips back from her teeth and tried to look fierce. 

“The lunar pegasi have a magical hiss,” Yew said. “The book I read said that to hear it is to know fear. Sentinel, do you know how to do this?”

Looking up from his compressed brick of dried fish, Sentinel nodded. “Luna has been coaching me. I’d give you a demonstration, but I fear that everyone present would soil themselves.” 

“Is it really that bad?” Scootaloo asked. 

“It is magically induced fear that travels through the ears and directly into the brain. It floods the body with terror. Strong minds might resist some of it, but weaker minds will suffer paralysis or even death… at least Luna says there have been documented cases of ponies and other creatures dying of fright from hearing it,” Sentinel replied. 

“I wonder if our king can do it.” Branwen lifted her head and looked around when she heard an owl hooting. 

“Father can do it. Luna says he is quite good at it, but he doesn’t need to do it. The shadows do his bidding. Try walking into a dark room with him at some point when he is in a bad mood. The darkness comes to life. You can feel things… crawling all around you. You can feel the darkness on your skin. When father broods in the dark, the dark takes on his mood and does his bidding.” Sentinel looked around and met each eye looking at him in turn. 

“Well, creepy stories are great. Time for bed,” Freyja said as she dragged Callum away from the campfire. “Say goodnight Callum.” 

“Goodnight Callum,” Callum said as he waved goodbye. 

“Is… is Bucky really the Bogeypony?” Scootaloo asked. 

Sentinel took a deep breath, looked into the fire, and then raised his head to look at Scootaloo. “A long time ago, there was a pony named Sombra. He was a good pony at one point. He was one of the few ponies that truly understood the work that Princess Luna does. Sombra took it upon himself to help Princess Luna scare ponies back into the light… but that was not enough. The world was a very troubled place at that time. Windigos, Discord, demons roaming the earth, and enemies on all sides. Invading griffons, savage diamond dogs, and hostile minotaurs.” Sentinel drew in a deep breath and his eyes narrowed. 

Nearby, an owl hooted. 

“Sombra realised it wasn’t enough to scare ponies into the light… he started to scare the things that brought harm to ponies, hoping to scare them away from their evil ways. Sombra took it upon himself to become the sum of all fears. He embraced the dark, the shadow, he allowed the very darkest parts of himself to surface and he showed the world why you should be afraid of the dark.” 

All around the campfire, the darkness writhed. Everybirdy and everypony huddled closer together. Ripple grabbed Scootaloo and pulled her closer. Boadicea clung to both Ripple and Scootaloo. The shadows from the fire grew long and distorted. 

Sentinel’s lips parted, showing his fangs, and the colt looked thoughtful for a moment. “The world had stopped being afraid of the dark for a while. Magic and might had pushed back the darkness. Civilisation brought light and security. Sombra began a campaign of terror that made the entire known world keep their lights on at night. He released plagues of rats upon cities. He seized control of shadowy creatures and set them loose upon the enemies of Equestria. He became the King of Shadows… the Bogeypony. He and Luna worked together and used fear to subdue their many enemies. The fear of the Bogeypony made Equestria’s enemies weak…” 

“The griffons still tell stories of the Bogeypony,” Brigid said in a low whisper. “We still tell our cubs that there are things in the dark that will eat them if they are bad.” Trembling, Brigid reached out, grabbed Shaquah, who squawked in terror, and pulled the griffoness to her. 

“Believing in something gives power to it,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “When ponies give prayers to certain beings, they are made stronger because of it. Because so many are so afraid of the dark, the Bogeypony has stopped being a story and has become something… else. All of those fears are manifested and made real… equinification of an abstract concept. When Sombra was struck down, the world didn’t stop believing in the Bogeypony. Mothers told stories to their young, fathers scared their offspring into good behaviour… the words, the stories, they lived on, and the spirit of the Bogeypony had power.”

“So we need to make everybirdy stop believing in it,” Grunion said through a clattering beak. “If we stop believing in it, it will go away.”

“Too late for that… when my father inherited Sombra’s mantle, all of that belief in the Bogeypony began to be channeled through him. Now, every time a mother sings to her foal to keep the Bogeypony away, my father draws power… every time a father tells their foal that if they are bad, the Bogeypony will come and devour them, my father gains power. Like Sombra, my father has become the sum of all fears, he is the thing that lurks in the dark. He is the black shape that looms under the bed. He is the horrible dread that lurks in the closet. He is the horrible shadow that creeps along the wall when you are lying in bed and you can feel the darkness moving. He is the source of all nightmares for the things that would dare attack Equestria or our allies. My father is the thrice damned Bogeypony!” 

As the last word left Sentinel’s mouth, the campfire died and primordial darkness settled over the camp. No light shone. It was impossible to see anything. The camp erupted into screams of terror. 

After several moments of panicked screaming, Loki snapped his talons. A small flame sprang to life from his talon fingers. He made a flicking motion with his talons and the flame arced into the smoking remains of the campfire. After few long terrifying moments, the campfire flickered back to life. 

“Will you look at all that yellow snow,” Loki said as he looked all around him, gloating over his complete lack of fear. “You’d think the Bogeypony just showed up.” 



 

“I can’t believe I wet myself,” Scootaloo said in a low whisper as she snuggled against Boadicea and Peekaboo for warmth. 

The trio had a woollen blanket wrapped around them and the small space inside of the dome was warm enough to be surprising. The snow had melted just a little bit and then froze over, forming a glazed layer of ice inside of the snow dome shelter. A second woollen blanket was folded up and laid out beneath them to prevent them from laying on the snow and to prevent their body heat from being leached away. 

“Look, most of us wet ourselves. Full grown adults pissed themselves and left puddles in the snow. I won’t tell no one at school if you promise not to tell anyone at school.” Boadicea felt warmth returning to her body as she cuddled with the pair of pegasi. “Stupid Loki… he can’t even feel fear anymore.” 

“I wonder what made the campfire go out.” Scootaloo felt Peekaboo wiggling against her. 

“I don’t know.” Boadicea pulled the blanket around them a little tighter. 

“Do you really think believing in something makes something stronger?” Scootaloo asked in a low whisper. 

“I dunno… I know that Diamond Tiara prays to Princess Luna. Quite a number of griffons pray to Odin and Scorch. They all seem plenty powerful. I suppose it might be true,” Boadicea replied. 

“So… is the Bogeypony good or bad? If foals behave and obey their parents… if ponies are scared back into the light… and Luna too… is it right to scare somepony into being good?” Scootaloo asked. 

“I dunno,” Boadicea replied. 

“Go sleepy,” Peekaboo said in a low whine. “Sleepy time. Shut you face now.” 

“I think Peekaboo has the right idea.” Boadicea felt the smaller pegasus clinging to her. The griffoness cub yawned and then touched Scootaloo with her talons. “Good night Scoots.” 



 

“I wonder how Bucky is doing,” Derpy said, thinking out loud. The grey mare looked at her bedmates in the dim light. “The Everfree is a dark and scary place.” 

“Bucky is the scariest damn thing in the Everfree tonight.” Lyra began to giggle and she rolled over while wrapping her forelegs around Bon Bon’s neck. “I feel bad for anything that messes with his griffons.” 

“When the Raptors come back, the mead hall will be opened. You excited about that Belisama? Because I know I am.” Berry Punch wrapped a foreleg around Belisama and gave the griffoness an affectionate nuzzle. 

“I’m dying to know how the statue turned out.” Belisama reached out her talons and rubbed Berry Punch’s ears, mindful of her sharp claws. “Tapper said the first one suffered from crackling and falling apart, but he swears this one captures my beauty.” 

“Clean sheets,” Loch Skimmer said as she rubbed her cheek against them. “So is this what all of you do in the bed? Just lay around and talk?” 

The mares and the griffoness giggled together from Loch Skimmer’s words. 

“What, you don’t talk?” Berry asked in reply as she became serious. 

“We used to.” Loch Skimmer closed her eyes and made ready to pour out her heart. “Now if we’re in the bed, we’re either making out, making love, or sleeping. We’re hardly ever all in the bed together. Sparkler usually works all night, so she’s away. I like going to bed early. Rising Star is usually up late. Rising Star doesn’t need to sleep much. He’s learned he doesn’t need to sleep at all if he doesn’t want to… if he stands in a fire, he becomes rested and refreshed. But Rising Star spends his nights studying stuff from school and the things he needs to know as a stable representative. At some point, he’ll come to bed all lonesome and in the mood and start grinding up against me until I wake up and then we do things and I like those things because I am really glad to have him with me and holding me because I’m really lonely and then he and I fall asleep after we shag for a good long time. Ripple and Bittersweet sleep in their own bed because they’re tired of being woke up at odd hours. At some point in the early morning, we get woke up by Sparkler, who gets into bed. She and Rising Star usually shag… sometimes I’m part of it, and sometimes, I watch, and sometimes, I roll over and go back to sleep. If she comes in late, like around dawn, I’m usually already out of bed at that point and trying take care of my homework for school. It’s hard to do your schoolwork when you can hear two ponies screwing one another senseless.” 

“Well no wonder everything is falling apart… you’ve stopped talking.” Berry Punch, still holding Belisama, twisted her head around to look at Loch Skimmer. “You can’t live that way. You’ve become screw-buddies who make themselves available to scratch each others’ physical itch. The emotional stuff is being ignored.” 

“I don’t know how to fix it.” Loch Skimmer opened her eyes and looked at Berry Punch. “Help me.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 636
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The morning was cold and Boadicea regretted leaving the warmth of the makeshift shelter. Inside, with Scootaloo and Peekaboo, it had almost been too warm, almost stifling. But the morning was cold and the air stung Boadicea’s throat and lungs when she yawned. Standing bipedally, Boadicea arched her back and made her spine crackle before dropping back down on all fours. 

Pegasi were nature’s perfect space heater. They did nothing but produce hot air all night, even on demand when squeezed, and Boadicea understood the appeal of why so many ponies and griffons found pegasi attractive. 

“Ah… Fresh Meat… so glad to see you. The injured civilian took a turn for the worst last night. Lots of swelling. She’s not able to walk. So… you and Table Scraps are going to make a stretcher out of two long lengths of wood and a blanket and the two of you are going to carry the civilian back to civilisation.” Gofannon allowed himself a chuckle as he looked Boadicea in the eye. 

“I didn’t get a wink of sleep… damned owl kept hooting all night. Nothing attacked the camp though,” Kiara said after she emerged from her snow dome. “I wonder what owl tastes like. Is owl edible?” 

Lugus looked around the camp. “You wouldn’t like this owl. He’s probably tough and stringy and the bones would get caught in your craw.” 

“Something big did approach the camp though,” Callum said as he stretched. “In the hours before dawn, something went thundering past. I felt the ground shaking and snow fell down from the trees. Whatever it was, it was huge. Might have been a land drake or something.” 

“Heya... Scraps, we have to make a litter… come on, let’s go,” Boadicea said as Scootaloo poked her head out of the small tunnel that led into the snow dome. 

“What? I just woke up.” Scootaloo blinked tried to allow her eyes to adjust to the light. 

“We have to make a litter and haul Yew back to the house.” Boadicea flexed her talons. 

“But Yew is heavy—” 

“Did you just call me or my mother fat?” Boadicea’s crest rose. 

“Nope. I didn’t say anything.” Scootaloo dragged herself up to her hooves. “Let’s go.” 

A moment later, Peekaboo popped up out of the entrance to the snow dome. She looked around, shivered, and then blew a raspberry to complain about her situation. It was cold. 

“Look how cold it is… Peekaboo has turned blue!” Lugus cried. 

“Peekaboo was always blue you silly birdy.” Yew reached out and gave Lugus a loving caress. “Come here, Peekaboo, before you turn bluer.” 

Bounding through the packed snow of the camp, Peekaboo lept up and clung to her mother’s neck. “Mama! It cold mama!” 

Reaching over, Lugus picked up both Yew and Peekaboo in his right talons. He pulled them close and wrapped his right wing around them. 

Letting go of her mother’s neck, Peekaboo latched on to Lugus’ right foreleg instead. “Com- com- comododo- mand- commander daddy.” The foal looked frustrated as she stammered out the big word that was almost too much to say. Her lower lip protruded. 

There was snickering around the camp. Lugus lifted his large head, opened his beak, and hissed at his troops for having a laugh at his expense. He wrapped his wing a little tighter around Peekaboo and Yew. 

“She got the dodo part right,” Yew whispered. 

Shaking his head, Lugus’s crest fell, and the big griffon was crestfallen. “No gratitude from civilians.” The big griffon watched as Loki loped off after the fledglings and made certain that no harm befell them. Lugus reasoned that anything playing with Loki was playing with fire, and nothing good ever came from playing with fire. 



 

Discord paced back and forth in the somewhat round room, tapping his chin with his paw, his tail whipping back and forth, and his hind feet planted on the ground for once. He scratched his side with his talons and his brows were wrinkled with furrows that would make an earth pony farmer jealous. Behind Discord, a parade of spider golems paced with him, observing the thoughtful habits of the draconequus in action. 

He paused for a moment, lifted his paw in the air, and looked as though he might say something, but then, Discord shook his head and resumed pacing. 

In an overstuffed chair, Bartleby was napping. Trixie was sprawled over a couch, almost awake, and just about asleep. Sunset Shimmer alone was wide eyed and alert. She watched Discord pacing and waited. 

“I am disturbed by this. I find that I actually desire to be helpful, but I do not know how to help, and I fear that if I do not help, it will look as though I am being a bad draconequus. This is distressing… I want ponies to trust me. Ever since a little piece of Fluttershy has latched itself on to me, I keep having these troubling emotions. I don’t like it.” Discord shook his head as he paced and stared down at the floor. 

Discord turned about, the spider golems scurried out of his way, and just as he put Fluttershy’s hoof down, his stomach bulged out and hung low. “Oh bother… on top of everything else, it is my turn to be pregnant. What has my life become?”

“Ooh… foal!” Sunset Shimmer slipped out her chair, rushed over to Discord, and proceeded to nose Discord’s foal bump. “Hi baby!” 

“Sunset… dear, have you become numb to just how very weird your life is?” Discord asked in a kind but somewhat sarcastic voice. 

“I think Master has rubbed off on me… I have an overpowering urge to bring home new mates and stray orphans.” Sunset Shimmer gave Discord’s stomach one fine nuzzle and then trotted off. She sat back down in her chair and leaned back. 

Shaking his head, Discord threw both of his front legs up in the air. 

“Trixie’s life is full of weird vibes.” 

“Vibrations,” Discord said, muttering to himself. “Consonance.” 

“Agreement?” Sunset asked as she gave Discord a puzzled look. 

“No… music theory. Consonance and dissonance. Bad vibrations,” Discord replied. 

The draconequus shuffled off to he table. Snapping his talon fingers, he summoned water glasses, large goblets filled with water. He tapped each of them, producing a ringing sound. Each glass’ water level changed as Discord tapped it and each glass produced a different ringing sound. The effect was beautiful. But as Discord made adjustments, one glass was out of tune with the others, producing a sound that ruined the melody.

“This is consonance.” Discord tapped on the glasses in order, producing a beautiful melody. He tapped the one bad glass and it made what was almost an annoying buzz when compared to the other ringing sounds. “And this is dissonance. I find it beautiful but most will be put off by dissonant notes.” 

“How does this help us?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

Discord shrugged. “I have no idea, but this is a good place to start. We need to figure out how to make what doesn’t belong ring.” 

On the sofa, Trixie snorted and collapsed into sleep. “B flat,” she muttered as she drifted off. 

Looking at Trixie, Discord frowned. “There is just no pleasing some ponies.” 



 

Huffing and puffing, Scootaloo could feel the weight of the litter bearing down upon her back. Her legs burned and her spine ached, but she said nothing. There was no point in complaining. One day, all of this would be a memory and she would be flying. She knew that Boadicea had to be suffering just as much. 

“Treeline is ahead. Once we clear the trees, home will be in sight,” Branwen reported. 

“Oh, that’s not far at all,” Scootaloo said, panting more than just a little. 

“Tired mama!” 

Just after Scootaloo heard the words come out of Peekaboo’s mouth, she felt the weight on the litter increase just a little more. Just enough that each step made her ache in a whole new way. Scootaloo thought about the straw that broke the camel’s back and was glad that she was a pegasus, and not a camel. 

The group broke the treeline and made their way into the open. 

Overhead, a pegasus went shooting past, trailing a rainbow contrail. Beside her, a second pegasus flew, streaming yellow fire. Scootaloo knew who it was right away. Rainbow Dash and Surprise, who were doing strength training and flight drills. Scootaloo wasn’t certain what was going on, but she knew it had something to do with taking advantage of pregnancy hormones. 

Rainbow Dash wasn’t pulling hard turns, or banking, or swooping about in her usual manner, this was constant steady speed. Scootaloo watched for a while, even as she kept one eye ahead of her. The farmhouse and the school were visible from here. 

Constant steady speed. Scootaloo focused on placing one hoof in front of the other as she trudged through the snow. Without realising it, she fell into step and much of the bouncing of the litter went away. Her trot smoothed out and behind her, Boadicea also fell into just the right step with the somewhat increased pace. 

At least Yew Wood would be bouncing a lot less. 



 

The apartment over the foundry was empty. Sparkler went from room to room, looking around, tired after a long night. Ripple was out and away. Loch Skimmer was in the farmhouse. Rising Star and Bittersweet were gone. 

There had been plenty of times that nopony was home to greet her, but now, the place they called home felt empty. Cold. Lifeless. There was no fire burning in the grate. There was no warm body in the bed.

There had been too many excuses. Too many promises to do things later. The dishes could be done… later. A bit of unicorn magic would make short work of them. But there was always something else to do, some other task, some other pressing need. Laundry would be done… later. Unicorn magic would make short work of it. But something else always seemed to come up. 

The scent of soured milk hung in Sparkler’s nose. There were bowls on the table that had once held granola and milk. She wasn’t certain how long they had been there. For a while. Sparkler hoped that those were not the bowls of granola and milk they had all eaten on the first morning after they had moved in. She was certain they couldn’t be that old, because Ripple had tried to clean a few times, but the thought continued to nag Sparkler’s mind. How had things gone so wrong?

“You done fecked up.” 

So startled that she turned to stone, Sparkler whirled around and saw Berry Punch. “I didn’t hear you come in… you… you scared me!” Seeing Berry Punch, Sparkler relaxed and became a purple pink pony again. 

“GOOD!” Berry lowered her head and snorted. “Somepony I love a whole bunch is crying right now. Want to guess who it is?” 

Sparkler’s ears pinned back to her skull. 

“This place is disgusting. Look at it.” Berry Punch made a gesture with her hoof. “How hard is it to clean?” 

Her lips curled back from her teeth as Sparkler replied, “Easy for you to say, you have Broom and Door to do all of your cleaning!” 

Moving with incredible speed, Berry Punch slapped Sparkler across the muzzle, moving faster than Sparkler could react. Sparkler, stunned by the slap, stepped backwards, shocked that somepony could move faster than her stony reaction. She rubbed the side of her face with one front hoof and looked at Berry, feeling very confused and hurt. 

“Broom and Door complain because there is hardly anything to clean. If there is a mess, somepony gets on top of it. Broom and Door are here because they love the little griffons and because they’re a little elderly and because they wanted to come here. They are household helpers, not servants, and they spend most of the time helping the griffons do whatever it is that little griffons do when we’re not looking. Broom and Door aren’t obligated to do anything at all, other than sit around and relax. They’ve suffered enough!” Berry Punch punctuated her words by grinding her teeth and glaring daggers at Sparkler. 

“I stay very busy… things… just sort of blur together,” Sparkler said. 

“Bucky stays busy too. He multitasks. He says it makes his magic stronger doing everything at once. While you're sitting there stuffing your face and reading a book, you could be cleaning without having to leave the sofa. The only thing stopping you… is you.” Berry drove her point home by poking Sparkler in the chest a few times with her hoof. 

Knowing she was beaten, Sparkler hung her head and her ears went limp against the sides of her face. 

“And I got something for Rising Star too, once he comes home. I almost let him have it this morning before he left for the train station, but I figured that he had enough on his mind. Bon Bon is stewing mad right now because I let Rising Star get away unscathed. I would not come anywhere NEAR Bon Bon right now… she’s likely to give you a good cussin’ out and we all know what happens now if Bon Bon cusses.” 

“I’m sorry.” Sparkler was unable to look Berry in the eye. 

“Not yet you’re not. Bucky made a mistake. He thought by moving you out, it would make you think you’re grown ups… he gave you a chance. He had high hopes for you. He had optimism. He had faith that if given a nudge, you’d do the right thing… have you?” Berry replied. 

“No. I’ve messed up. I’ve made a mess of things.” Sparkler closed her eyes and felt her cheeks burn from within. Her throat felt tight. 

“Bucky is beating himself up for this. He’s angry with himself. He feels that he made a mistake and that he had a lapse in judgment. He had faith in all of you to do the right thing, and you failed him.” Berry Punch stepped back away from Sparkler, her hooves kicking up against juice cartons and food wrappers. 

“What now?” Sparkler asked. 

Berry Punch closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She took another, then another, and then she took a deep breath and held it for several long moments. She opened her eyes and looked at Sparkler. “Here is what happens next. Loch Skimmer is going to ask Ripple to move back in with us. Bittersweet too. Ripple and Bittersweet actually tried to clean up in here. A donkey with no means to do much of anything put more effort into cleaning than you did.” Berry Punch took another deep breath. “You… you are not welcome to move back in with us. You will be staying here in this pigsty with Rising Star and both of you can continue to be each other’s screw buddies.” 

“That’s not fair… Loch Skimmer didn’t exactly do much to clean.” Sparkler backed away from Berry Punch, hoping she wouldn’t get slapped again. Her cheek still stung and would probably continue to sting for quite some time. 

“And Loch Skimmer has realised she has made a mistake. She’s asking for help to fix it so she can raise her foal in a clean feckin’ home and not some horrible feckin’ trash heap!” Berry kicked at a paper plate on the floor. “Are those semen stains on the floor?” 

Sparkler shrugged but said nothing in reply. 

“I’m leaving. I need a shower now. A really long fecking shower because I feel soiled just standing here,” Berry Punch said as she turned towards the door. 

Standing there, dumb, Sparkler watched as Berry Punch left and slammed the door behind her. 
	
> Chapter 637
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was an air of tension inside the mead hall. The gathered griffons and ponies all waited, looking at the cloth draped statue that would be soon revealed. The building, which was constructed out of stone and logs, was a simple thing. There was a central fire pit, cellars excavated down into the earth for storage, a simple but expansive kitchen, and many comfortable padded cushions that could be strewn along the floor Near the fire pit, there was a raised platform that would serve as a stage. At the rear of the platform was the statue, still unseen. 

A fire blazed in the fire pit and a haze of smoke hung in the air. The sweet scent of wood burning played along the nostrils. There was laughter in the air, much laughter, and the building was crowded. 

Lugus, who felt good about all of this, looked around, trying to see if he could spot Loki, who seemed to have disappeared. The little harrier griffon had vanished at about the same time that they had come home. Lugus’ eyes fell upon Bucky, who was laughing and sprawled out on a pile of cushions with Belisama. There was no sign of Berry Punch, no sign of Derpy, no sign of Thistle, and Lugus wondered what was up. Lyra and Bon Bon would be in town by now, back to work. There was no sign of Ripple. 

As Lugus was looking around the room, a grizzled old griffon climbed up onto the raised platform and cleared his throat. 



 

Over the carriage house, there were apartments, small living spaces, what amounted to bedrooms for the griffons, with a shared living space, community area, and kitchen, which is how the griffons liked it. The flock ate together, played together, and when private time was needed, they had their own little spot to curl up and have a quiet moment alone. 

And in was in one of these small rooms that a grey harrier griffon and a jay griffoness with remarkable blue feathers lay together in bed, both of them on their backs, staring up at the ceiling. Around the jay griffoness’ neck, there was a small silver collar, a simple thing. 

“So what does your name mean, anyway?” 

“Gormlaith? It means blue princess… it is such a silly name. Which is why I ask everybirdy to call me Gormley.” 

“I think I like Gormlaith.” 

“I think I like you.” The blue griffoness began to titter and wiggled closer to the griffon beside her. “So… why me?” 

“Honest answer?” 

“Honest answer.” 

“You came to me during a very troubled moment in my life. You were simple and uncomplicated. You knew exactly what you wanted. The other griffonesses I know… they’re complicated. They have complicated wants and needs. You wanted just one thing. I wanted just one thing. It felt right.” 

“I like this collar… I like knowing I have value.” 

Loki said nothing, but took a deep breath. 

“I still do not know what it is you want.” 

“What I want is this right here.” 

“This? I don’t understand.” 

“I want to come home and have somebirdy to lay beside. Just like this. And to talk to.” 

“Oh. I see. This is nice.” 



 

Sitting on the stage, the grizzled old griffon looked at the crowd. Beside him, a very nervous griffon named Tapper sat, twitching and jerking. Odin reached out and patted the jumpy griffon, which was a mistake. Tapper shot for the ceiling, his wings flapping, squawking with alarm. On the stage, Odin waited for Tapper to come back down.

The high strung griffon landed on the stage and then began to preen his wings with nervous abandon, tugging on his feathers with his beak. 

Odin sighed and felt a pang of sadness. Tapper was a marvelous craftsbirdy, but had seen too much abuse, just like so many other of the little griffons. 

“I suppose we should get right to the point.” Odin cleared his throat. “The first statue was a bust…” Odin waited for his joke to sink in and he was rewarded with a few chuckles. “Tapper found a piece of rose marble and said he saw a vision of beauty inside. I have seen the statue. He wasn’t lying.” 

With a yank, Odin pulled the cloth off of the statue. There was a gasp. 

Belisama’s statue had her posed standing on her hind legs, as some little griffons tended to do. Her wings were spread, wide open, and she was cradling her large pregnant belly with her talons. Her beak was open and she was looking down at her bulging stomach. Her likeness had been carved in soft pink rose marble, and no detail was spared. It was accurate in every conceivable way. 

“I can see her kitten b—” 

“Bucky!” 

The hall erupted in laughter. 

“Barley O’Blivion was kind enough to provide us with this cask of mead. I know it is still early in the day, but how about we start celebrating?” Odin tossed the drop cloth aside and looked over the crowd. Odin raised his talons. 

“Before we begin… some of you have heard stories about Loki… and I’d like a moment to talk about that.” Odin sat down and looked at the crowd. “You… you Raptors, but not just you… any of you… if any of you die in the service of another… I might just call you to me. Loki chose to serve. He chose to devote his entire existence to protecting all of you and everything that you are working so hard to create for ourselves.” 

The crowd was silent, the only sound was ruffling feathers. 

“Today, we celebrate our future. In Canterlot, Queen Agnetha will soon give birth to a prince. Here at home, we already have Princess Bandua. Things are looking up for us.” Odin’s crest rose and the griffon lifted his head. 

“I did good,” Tapper said in a nervous wheeze. “I did good.” 

“Yes, you did good,” Odin said to the nervous griffon beside him. 



 

Sparkler awoke seconds after something impacted her ribs and sent her flying from the bed. Not really awake and exhausted, her usual defense did not kick in. She bounced off of the wall and then hit the floor, banging her chin hard enough to see stars. 

A moment later, she felt something strong pick her up, lift her up high, and squeeze the air out of her. Sparkler panicked, tried to breathe, couldn’t, and then saw the floor rushing up to greet her once more. 

Just a fraction of a second before a face first impact with the floor, Sparkler turned to stone. With a terrific, thunderous crash, Ripple piledrived Sparkler through the floor. 

Both fillies tumbled into the foundry below, which was cold and unused this day. 

Sparkler was the first to get to her hooves. She wobbled, she might have been stone, but she had felt that. She shook her head and looked at Ripple. “What has gotten into you? Are you crazy!” 

“Yes!” Ripple snapped. “Now turn back into a pony so I can kick your plot all over this foundry!” 

“Ripple, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” Sparkler backed away from Ripple, feeling a little fearful. 

“You don’t deserve to be alpha! You’ve messed up! I’m taking this from you!” Ripple advanced. “A filly needs her daddy…” At the sound of Ripples’ words, her war shoes blinked into existence around her hooves. She kicked a divot free from the stone floor and sent it flying across the room. 

“Fine! I give… uncle… auntie… whatever!” Sparkler forced herself to turn back into flesh and she looked at Ripple. “You shoved me through the floor!” 

“DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW?” Ripple kicked the floor again and sparks flew from her shoes. 

“Yes… now calm down!” Sparkler snapped. 

“NO!” Ripple’s lips pulled back from her teeth. “I want my family back! Loch is in the house… they have her scrubbing floors and doing laundry and she’s crying and I live in a pigsty and Loch Skimmer just asked me to move back in with them and THAT AIN’T HAPPENING!” 

“What?” Sparkler’s eyes narrowed in confusion. 

“You are going to fix this hole because I know you can. After that, we are going to clean this wretched mess… together. You are going to do everything I say because I’m the alpha mare now… we are going to clean this mess up and then you and I are going to figure out how to get my sister back!” 

“Ripple—” 

“SHUT UP! I want things back the way they were. When it was just us all being together, talking, telling each other that we would make this work! I believed in you… I TRUSTED you! You told me things would work out and that you would look after me! My sister is gone… we’re… I don’t even know if we are a herd anymore and I WANT IT ALL BACK!” 

“Ripple, I—” 

“FIX THIS HOLE BEFORE I REARRANGE THOSE HOLES IN YOUR HEAD!” 

Sparkler looked into Ripple’s magenta eyes and saw fury. Ripple’s ribs were heaving. Sparkler realised that she was seeing a side of Ripple that most things would only see just before they died. Under the fury, Sparkler saw… grief. 

“I’ll fix the hole. Afterwards, you and I will go upstairs. We’ll get everything cleaned up. Together. And then we’ll figure out what to do next. Together.” Sparkler backed up a few steps from Ripple and tried to let Ripple calm down. “I’m sorry—” 

“YOU’RE NOT SORRY YET, BUT I CAN MAKE YOU SORRY!” 



 

Looking up from Belisama’s eyes, Bucky saw Gofannon and Helia together on a cushion, having a quiet moment, both of them alone in a crowd. Helia had a day off from work. Something about the scene warmed his heart. 

There was music in the mead hall, but the celebration lacked the boisterous quality that Bucky expected, perhaps because it was still early in the day and the mead had only begun to flow. 

“How was your night out?” Belisama asked, her beak inches from Bucky’s ear. 

“It was a hoot,” Bucky replied. 

Fluffing out, Belisama felt Bandua moving against her. She reached out a wing, wrapped it around Bucky’s neck, and pulled him closer in a hug, glad for this moment. “Bucky, I can’t drink and it is getting too warm in here for me. Bandua will want to sleep. I’m sorry, but I think I’ll need to go soon.” 

“Okay… I think I’ll need some sleep soon. We’ll escape together,” Bucky said as he pressed his muzzle into Belisama’s neck. 

“Griffons, ponies, gather round and I shall tell you a tale,” Odin said in a booming voice. 



 

The sun shining through the narrow window warmed the bed, the golden light seeped through the blankets and into the two bodies beneath the blanket. Loki, lying on his back, held Gormlaith, who had her head draped over his girth and was laying on her belly. 

Gormlaith’s talon finger moved in slow lazy circles just above Loki’s navel, her claw angled away from his skin. Her eyes were closed and on her face was an avian expression of bliss. 

Loki felt a strange sensation of peace. It almost felt like boredom, but was far more enjoyable. It was warm and pleasant. There was a warm soft body using him as a pillow for her head. The bed was soft beneath his back. His armor and his doublet lay on the floor, his sword belt was hung from the bedpost, and his many weapons were scattered over the bedside table. 

Because of this, Loki felt naked and exposed. He ran his talons up Gormlaith’s back, feeling the bumps of her spine, and he felt the griffoness shiver. Closing his eyes, Loki slipped off into a mid morning nap. 



 

With a grunt, Ripple flung the filthy sheets into the fire. They ignited and began to burn right away, filling the apartment with a horrible eye watering stench. She returned to the bedroom for the pillowcases, yanked them off one by one, and then carried them back into the main room to toss them into the fireplace. Returning to the fireplace, she tossed in the pillowcases. 

“You burned the bedding,” Sparkler said in a low, tired voice. 

“It was filthy. And there is no way I am going to go do the laundry in the farmhouse. They’ll make Loch Skimmer do it. I’m going to fly into Ponyville and buy new sheets. I have a little money, I think it will be enough,” Ripple replied. 

“You sound a little calmer.” Sparkler kept her distance. Ripple was fast, Sparkler knew this from experience. 

“Look… as the alpha, we’re going to do things my way. We’re going to clean this place. And then, once everything is spotless, we’re going to go to the farmhouse, and we’re going to get my sister. I don’t care if we have to foalnap her, she is coming home with us. I am not leaving that house without her. And then, we’re going to come back to this place and we’re going to talk about some changes.” 

“Like what?” Sparkler asked. 

“Like all of this mindless nookie… Berry Punch gave me an earful about all the problems we have. This is why Bittersweet and I don’t do anything but neck and make out with one another. We know we’re not mature enough for the other stuff and we know it. You, my sister, and Rising, do you even feel the love you once had? It’s just mindless sex for all of you, all the time, no more romance, no more sweet words, just wake up to a nice dry humping how do you do, go through the empty motions, and then sleep. DISGUSTING!” 

The ferocity of Ripple’s words brought tears to Sparkler’s eyes. She blinked a few times, wanted to say something, but then chose to remain silent. She felt the side of her face convulsing and one hind leg began kicking as her Shivers began to manifest from stress. 

“How can you even be doing your job as an officer? Those sheets were so greasy and gross… can you smell them burning? Do you know how you must have smelled when you crawled out of bed and went to school or went on patrol? You’re all matted and gross and I wouldn’t touch you if Lugus was stabbing me in my arse with a pike! You take a shower and then you sleep in wretched filth!” 

Sparkler looked around. The apartment was cleaner. Much of the trash had been cleared. Sparkler had cleaned the stuff off of the walls. The dishes were done. Ripple had scrubbed the floor with scrubbing shoes. The floor was scuffed, marked from hooves, and in dire need of waxing, but it was much cleaner. There was still a lot that needed to be done. 

“I am off to Ponyville… and if I come back home and I find you napping, so help me, I will bring the wrath of a pissed off alpha on your head. I am going to get new bedding and then when I come home, we’re going to have to figure out a way of rescuing my sister.” 

“By the time you come back, I will try to have most of this cleaned, I promise,” Sparkler said. 

“I don’t believe you!” Ripple stomped out the door and slammed it behind her. 
	
	
> Chapter 638
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sentinel held out a flash card pinched between his thumb and central knuckle, holding it out where Sukari, Harper, and Cadance could see it. “Orange,” Sentinel said, being careful with his pronunciation. On the card was an orange. 

“Owange?” Cadance replied. 

“Owenge…” Harper said, looking at Cadance. 

“Chungwa.” Sukari looked at Cadance, then Harper, and then Sentinel. “Orange.” 

“Hmm, Chungwa must mean orange. Good job Sukari.” Sentinel set down the orange flash card and picked up another card. He held it up for the trio to look at. “Apple. Apples are red. Unless they’re ponies, and then all bets are off.” 

“Apple.” Harper bobbed her head. 

Cadance’s wings fluttered. “Apple apple.” 

Sukari tapped her hoof on the floor. “Tufaha!” 

Sentinel flipped the card down into the discard pile. “Somepony loves apples.” 

“Tufaha?” Sukari asked, blinking at Sentinel and then pointing to the card with her hoof. 

“We don’t have any fresh apples… but we do have applesauce. Come on you three… let’s see if big brother can get you some applesauce. Not certain how I am going to feed the three of you by myself.” 



 

Piña felt a dreadful sense of worry. After all the shouting earlier, she wondered if perhaps Sparkler and her herd had fallen apart. If things were over. If things had gone so wrong that they couldn’t be fixed. Unable to study, unable to read, unable to do much of anything, she lay in her bed, curled up, and felt fearful. 

There had been a lot of shouting earlier after Ripple had come home. Derpy had shouted, Berry had shouted, Loch Skimmer had shouted and Loch Skimmer had said some very mean things to her sister. And then Ripple had screamed a whole bunch of really awful things back at her sister. 

Things that Piña hoped that Loch Skimmer and Ripple didn’t mean. Piña had learned one thing from hearing the heated exchange. You never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, said that you wished that you weren’t sisters. Feeling very small, feeling very miserable, and feeling very much like a little foal at the moment, Piña closed her eyes and hoped that she was never, ever angry enough to say such horrible words to Dinky. Ever. 



 

Pushing open the somewhat already open door, Dinky made her way into Barley’s bedroom. It was sunny in here, the sun was blazing through the big window. It smelled like spicy rum and cologne. The bed was made and everything looked to be in perfect order. Barley himself was curled up in a chair by the window, reading through the newspaper. 

“Uncle Barley?” Dinky asked as she stood in the doorway. 

“Aye, Dinks, what do ye need?” Barley replied as he lowered his newspaper and looked at Dinky with one squinted eye. 

“Everypony is in an awful mood. There was that big fight earlier. And I feel so out of sorts but when I go to my mama or Berry or Thistle they’re all out of sorts too and I feel even worse just being around them.” Dinky kicked the floor with one of her front hooves. 

“Poor lass… come on in. Have a seat on the bed if’n ye want,” Barley said, inviting Dinky in. “I reckon yer worried about things and the things that were said.” 

After bouncing up on the bed, Dinky nodded. 

“Dinky… where do I begin… lessee… Loch Skimmer and Ripple both grew up under very hard circumstances. See, this is important to know, it gives you some perspective on why they do what they do, without this, we can’t understand them. Loch Skimmer and Ripple both worked very hard as foals and didn’t have much time to play around and have fun and have themselves a good time… ye ken?” 

Dinky blinked and tried to take in everything that Barley had just said. 

“Ripple and Loch did nothing but work most of their lives already. They came here, to where we live, and they enjoyed the fun. Now, Loch Skimmer is still a hard worker, don’t get me wrong, she was doing the whole dawn brigade thing and working for Sky Hook as part of the emergency response team. But when she’s not doing that, she’s focused on having fun. Too much fun. And wee Ripple, she’s the same way. She works hard and takes care of her duties.” 

“So they’re tired of working?” Dinky asked as she got herself comfortable on the bed. 

“In simple terms, yes. They work very hard at what they do, and then they poop out,” Barley replied. He folded up his newspaper and placed it down on the table beside his chair, next to a stack of books. “Now… Sparkler and Rising Star… they’ve never really worked before. They had good lives. All they had to worry about was school and stuff that foals their age have to worry about. But then, some bad things happened. Rising Star came home a little less than whole from his time on the isles. And he’s not grown up enough to face his troubles, so he hides away in his workshop, pounding out metal, and losing himself in his work. And his problem is getting worse and worse because he refuses to admit that it is a problem. It is like a foal that has a thorn in their frog and they don’t want it pulled out because it is going to hurt and mama is going to pour iodine over the wee boo boo, ye ken?” 

“Yes, I think I understand, uncle Barley.” Dinky nodded. 

“Sparkler is no different. Sparkler prowls around the dark of Ponyville every night she gets because she’s never going to let the wolves come back and hurt somepony ever again. She’s still a wee scared filly under all that stone. Every night she’s pissin’ her wee self in terror and she’s out dealing with the fear the only way she can. Keeping others safe. She thinks if she puts on a brave face and turns herself to stone, nopony will see how scared she is.” Barley’s face became sad and he shook his head. 

“I still don’t understand how everything got so bad though.” Dinky rubbed her front hooves together. 

“Everypony is too focused on their own needs and no focus is paid to what they need as a herd. Loch Skimmer works hard and then wants to relax and have fun. Ripple gets beat up and bruised and she wants to go home and recuperate. Rising Star wants to work and work and work and so long as he is working, he never has to think about all the bad things that lurk in the dark corners of his mind. Sparkler works herself to exhaustion because when yer exhausted, you tend not to think about what scares ye… poor Rising Star doesn’t have that luxury… seems he can just keep going forever and ever. Poor lad.” With his magic, Barley poured himself a glass of whiskey and then took a sip. 

“So they’re all taking care of their own needs but not each other’s needs,” Dinky said. 

“Aye Dinky, that’s it, more or less.” He grimaced from his whiskey and then looked at his niece. “Now… I bet yer sister Piña is right miserable and worried about all things sisterly. Ye should go and bug her and even if she tells ye to go away, ye need to stick around and keep buggin’ her, cause I suspect the wee lass needs ye.” 



 

Armed with a scrubbing brush held in her fetlock, Ripple went to work on the toilet while Sparkler scrubbed the tub and shower. The fillies worked together, and the sounds of bristles scrubbing filled the bathroom. 

The bed had new fresh sheets. Ripple had not yet decided what to do with the blankets. 

“Ripple,” Sparkler said as she scrubbed. “The second bed was mostly clean… the place where you and Bittersweet sleep was the cleanest place in our apartment. You were doing your part—” 

“No. I wasn’t. I failed to say anything until everything went bad. I thought if I kept my head down and tried to do my part, things would be okay and I just let everything go because I didn’t want to start another row with you. I trusted that you would take care of things. That you were in charge and that at some point, you would do what you are supposed to do as alpha. Lead us.” 

“This mistake was mostly mine,” Sparkler said as she lifted up a bucket of water to pour over the side of the tub. 

“No. This mistake was ours. We all had a hoof in this. Even Bittersweet. She kept coming to me and telling me that things were out of control and she was worried, but she was afraid of coming to you because she had seen how you and I bicker and she didn’t want to make the problem worse.” Ripple flushed the toilet. “Because it is so hard for her to communicate, she will just keep to herself if there is a problem or come to me. She worries that you don’t do enough to pay attention to what she is trying to tell you.” 

“I think we’re about done here… what now?” Sparkler asked. There was no satisfaction about a job well done. There was only guilt and shame. 

“We go and we get my sister back,” Ripple replied. 



 

Moving with near silence, Ripple pulled open the back door. She peered around, her ears perked for any sounds. She heard nothing. She moved with remarkable natural stealth. Behind her, Sparkler followed, her hooves muffled with a silence spell. 

The two fillies made their way down a short hall that extended off of the main hall, and into the laundry room. In the laundry room, they found Loch Skimmer, who was sitting on a cushion and crying. 

“Say nothing,” Ripple whispered. 

“What are you doing?” Loch asked. 

“Taking you home,” Ripple replied. 

“No way… there is no way I am going home with you of all ponies… I might have it rough here but at least this place is clean and I can get hugs when I need them.” Loch Skimmer narrowed her eyes and glared at Ripple and Sparkler. 

“Sparkler, I’m gonna need you to carry us out,” Ripple said. 

“Whymmph—” 

The rest of Loch Skimmer’s words never left her mouth. Ripple lunged and tackled her sister. In moments, Ripple, a powerful melee combatant, subdued Loch Skimmer and then had a hoof stuffed into her sister’s mouth. 

Sparkler, obeying Ripple’s command, lifted both sisters in her telekinesis and then made ready to leave. She peered out of the laundry room door, looked around, and then began to creep for the back door while Loch Skimmer kicked and made muffled cries. 

“At least you are getting hugged,” Ripple said in a low whisper. 

“Mufferpruffer!” Loch Skimmer said around Ripple’s hoof. 

“Loch, Loch Skimmer… Semillon needs your help, you’re going to help her make lunch!” Berry’s voice called from the front of the house. 

“We’re horned,” Sparkler muttered as she scooted for the back door and escaped. 



 

Back inside of their own apartment, Ripple let her sister go. Loch Skimmer stood wide eyed, staring, still stunned from being foalnapped, and her mouth hung open when she saw the apartment. Unable to move, Loch Skimmer just stood there and blinked. 

Ripple lifted her head high and one eye began twitching. “I have put my nest back together,” she said in a strained reedy voice. One ear quivered and Ripple’s wings fluttered at her sides. Her eyes began to blink in an erratic manner. 

“Look out Loch, I think Ripple might be going psycho,” Sparkler said, backing away from Ripple. 

“A broody pegasus needs her nest,” Ripple said in a strained whine as she looked at her sister. “And a broody pegasus needs her sister. Broody pegasus doesn’t feel well. Nope. Not well at all. Broody pegasus is very very sorry for the things she said.” 

“Ripple, you okay?” Loch Skimmer asked, feeling very concerned for her sister. She had never seen Ripple behave this way. 

“NO!” Ripple snapped. “Not okay. I am not okay. I AM NOT OKAY!” 

“Ripple—”

“SHUT IT!” Ripple took a few steps backwards. “I am the alpha now. What I say goes. We are going to get our act together. We are going to fix this. We are going to talk. We’re not done here today… nope. We’re just getting STARTED!” 

Loch Skimmer, trembling, moved up against Sparkler and pressed into Sparkler’s side. “She doesn’t look well.” 

“I think this is what a nervous breakdown looks like,” Sparkler replied. 

“We are going to talk to one another again. You three are going to stop mindlessly screwing one another. If I hear the sounds of nookie, I swear to Luna, I will SHOVE YOU THROUGH THE FLOOR AGAIN! We’re going to lay off of that for a while, and we’re all going to sleep in the same bed again, together, and we’re going to talk and we’re going to giggle, and we’re going to remember why we LOVE ONE ANOTHER!” 

Hearing the door, Ripple whirled. “HELLO BERRY PUNCH!” 

Wide eyed, Berry Punch stood in the doorway, her mouth hanging open. 

“We were just having a discussion… a discussion about EVERYTHING THAT WENT WRONG!” Ripple grinned a manic grin and stopped her hoof against the floor three times. 

“Ripple… you don’t look well… why don’t you sit down—” 

“Hey Berry Punch… WHY DON’T YOU SHUT UP! I WAS TALKING AND TRYING TO SAVE MY MARRIAGE!” 

“Watch out Berry… she piledrived me right through the floor earlier,” Sparkler said. 

Berry blinked and then stared at Sparkler. “She what?” 

“I HAD TO GET SPARKLER’S ATTENTION!” Ripple squeezed her eyes shut and gnashed her teeth together for a moment. “I need my family together. All of them. I need my husband and I think I might need MY DONKEY!” Tears began to trickle down Ripple’s cheeks. 

“Ripple… honey… just try to calm down,” Berry Punch said as she took a step forward. 

“NO! IT HURTS INSIDE MY HEAD! I HAVE ALL THESE INSTINCTS AND THEY ARE TEARING ME APART!” Ripple shook her head. “My nest was ruined. Ruined. RUINED!” 

“Oh shite, I think we fecked up worse than I thought,” Loch Skimmer said in a nervous whisper. She pressed up even tighter against Sparkler, not knowing what to do about her sister. 

“Father gone… all my mothers… gone… all I had was my sister and we said bad things. We said we’re not sisters. Not sisters. NOT SISTERS! Different father… different mothers but I had a family of my own and now it is BREAKING APART AND I CAN’T STOP IT! Not again… not again… will not live in a nest where there is no love… my father never loved my mothers… my father wanted to sell me. Wanted to sell me. SELL ME. Sell me to another nest with no love. No love. NO LOVE. He never loved us. He hurt us. He hurt my sister… he broke my sister and I couldn’t do anything about it… won’t can't live like this where there is no love, nope, I CAN’T LET THIS HAPPEN—” 

There was a flash of light and then, with a thump, Ripple fell down to the floor, her body limp. Berry screamed. Loch Skimmer squealed in terror. Sparkler stood there, numb, her mouth hanging open.

Turning around in the doorway, Berry Punch saw Bucky and almost swallowed her own tongue. 

“She was suffering… I had to put her down…” 
	
	
> Chapter 639
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Come on my little filly, let’s get you into bed,” Bucky said as he scooped up Ripple’s limp body. He moved towards the bedroom as Sparkler and Loch Skimmer stood there staring. “Berry Punch, please, go to the school and get Doctor Mawu. Tell her we have an emergency.” 

Snapping to her senses, Berry Punch took off out the door. 

Stepping through the bedroom door, Bucky slipped Ripple into the bed. He looked around and saw the blankets wadded up in the corner. He shook his head. “Sparkler… go to the house. Go and fetch a couple of blankets. Don’t dawdle.” 

“This is all my fault, I failed as the alpha of my herd,” Sparkler said as she stood there with her neck pressed against Loch Skimmer. 

Bucky emerged from the doorway. “All of you failed. You let each other down and this is the consequence of that. No one is more at fault than the other. All of you have an equal share in this together. Mistakes were made. Beating yourself up or beating each other up isn’t going to help you. Now go fetch some blankets.” 

“But Ripple said—”

Shaking his head, Bucky interrupted Sparkler. “Ripple said some things because she was sick where you couldn’t see it. You had no way of knowing. I saw some of Ripple’s dreams last night when she was camped out in the snow. I sort of worried that she might be showing some signs of strain, but I didn’t expect for this to happen. Should I blame myself or say that I am at fault for not preventing this? For not anticipating this?” 

“But I… but she… but we…” Sparkler stood there stammering for a moment and then fell silent. She looked at her father. “No… you are not to blame.” 

“Neither are you… now go fetch those blankets. I will not ask again,” Bucky said in a voice that had an eerie amount of calm. 

Sparkler left and Loch Skimmer watched her go. After Sparkler was gone, she looked at Bucky and stared at him for a moment, her eyes wide and glistening with tears. She sniffled and shifted on her hooves. 

“Daddy, why did you send her out for blankets when you could have just conjured them?” Loch Skimmer asked as she wiped her eyes with her flaming wings. 

“I wanted Sparkler to go for a walk and calm down.” Bucky stepped forwards and looked at Loch Skimmer. “You okay? Did you get hurt?” 

“I’m okay… my sister was gentle when she took me out,” Loch Skimmer replied. The charcoal grey pegasus looked around the apartment and then focused on Bucky once more. “They cleaned. I don’t know what to say… I hope my sister is okay. I’ve never seen her act like that before.” 

“I suspect that if you want your sister to be okay, you have a lot of work ahead of you.” 



 

“What do you think is gonna happen? Not knowing is killing me. I feel sick to my stomach and my head hurts.” Dinky rolled over on her bed and looked at Piña, who was laying on the other bed. “I have stuff I need to be getting done and I can’t do it.” 

“I know.” Piña nodded and her head caused her pillowcase to rumple. 

“What happens when ponies stop loving one another? Will that happen to our parents? I can’t stop thinking about it and I feel like I am going to throw up.” Dinky clutched her stomach. 

“I guess you know how Diamond Tiara feels now when she gets stressed out. I’m sorry Dinky… I don’t know what to do.” Piña curled into the fetal position. “One day everything seemed like it was okay and the next day all of this happened and it all seems so sudden.” 

“I think that I’m going to go and hug my mama.” Dinky began to squirm to get off the bed. 

“I think I’m going to go and hug your mama as well.” Piña kicked her legs out and slid from her bed. “It would be nice to be under her wings right now.” 



 

Glancing at the bedroom door, Bucky sighed. As he stood there, not knowing what to do, he thought of the Shadowbolt program. Ripple would need to be suspended for a while. Having an enhanced version of Ripple that was even more combat capable would be a bad idea. 

“What is going on in there?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Ripple and Doctor Mawu are talking.” Bucky glanced at Loch Skimmer. “In private.” 

“Sparkler, why did you just go along with her?” Loch Skimmer fidgeted on the couch and one ear drooped down to the side of her face.

Shrugging, Sparkler replied, “I don’t know. I was stupid I guess. Part of me thought she was right for making herself alpha. I was so desperate for an easy way to fix the situation that I was willing to do anything.” Sparkler bit her lip and pranced around on her hooves. 

“Well that was stupid.” Loch Skimmer slumped down. “Seems like that’s all we do. Act stupid, be stupid, and make more stupid.” She looked down at her belly. “I have bad news, but you’re going to be stupid.” 

“Ripple tried to tell me she was feeling a little… discouraged. Sentinel earned a promotion from the rats… Ripple didn’t. I don’t know. I was behind in my homework and I didn’t pay her as much attention as I should have.” Sparkler closed her eyes and hung her head. 

“And do tell, why were you behind in your homework? How about an honest answer?” Bucky gave Sparkler a harsh glare. 

Opening her eyes, Sparkler looked at Bucky and found she could not meet her critical gaze. She dropped her eyes to the floor. “Rising Star and I spent about two hours fooling around… I could have been doing my homework and if I had done my homework, I might have been able to listen to Ripple tell me that she had a problem.” 

“So… were those screaming orgasms worth the guilt you are feeling right now?” Bucky asked. He raised his eyebrow and narrowed his eye at Sparkler. 

“No daddy,” Sparkler backed away and then sat down on the couch with Loch Skimmer. “I had an obligation to Ripple and I messed up. I messed—” 

“Shut up.” Bucky’s tone was icy. “I have no desire to listen to you berate yourself for this. My patience grew thin quite some time ago. You may have cleaned up your own home, but I’m the one cleaning up your mess.” 

Whimpering, Sparkler grabbed ahold of Loch Skimmer and pulled the flaming pegasus closer. The pair clung to one another and both avoided Bucky’s gaze. 

“If Violet were here I would order her to go after you with a newspaper!” Bucky’s raised voice carried through the open space of the apartment and there was a faint echo. 

There was a faint click as the door handle on the bedroom door moved and then the door opened. Doctor Mawu stepped out and looked at the three ponies in the room. She cleared her throat, lifted her head, and focused her attention upon Bucky. 

“She required further sedation. After talking for a while, she became increasingly agitated and hostile. She is very stressed. She needs a stable home environment. She needs love and support. She is at a precarious age and she might look tough as nails, but she has the same soft heart and insecurities as almost any filly her age.” Doctor Mawu turned and looked at Loch Skimmer and Sparkler. “Did either of you ever stop to think what the sounds of your ceaseless rutting might have sounded like to a filly that grew up hearing her mothers being brutalised by an over aggressive and sexually domineering father?” 

Loch Skimmer started to say something, gagged, hung her head over the edge of the couch, and then threw up all over the floor. She almost pitched forward face first into her own mess, but Sparkler grabbed on tighter and held on. 

“Anyway… I must be going. I shall return in a few hours to check on Ripple. Try to see that she remains calm if and when she wakes up.” Doctor Mawu turned her head towards Bucky. “Please see that she is cared for.” 

Bucky nodded as Doctor Mawu made her way towards the door. The zebra ignored the vomit puddle as she passed. She opened the door, stepped through, and then shut the door behind her. 

As soon as she was gone, Bucky turned to the fillies on the couch and said, “Clean that up. You don’t want this place to get messy again. I am going to leave you two alone to talk for a while. I need to go clear my own head after hearing that.” 





Canterlot. Canterlot seemed like a bleak place. The buildings around the train station had been damaged and some of them had been burned down. But the city was rebuilding, much like Ponyville. Snorting, Rising Star shut the curtains on their private carriage and then smiled at Bittersweet.

“I miss home already,” Bittersweet said, moving her lips and her ears. 

Rising Star made certain that Bittersweet could see him when he replied, “Me too.” 

The carriage bounced over the cobblestones, rocked back and forth, and the swaying motion made Rising Star feel kind of drowsy. He half closed his eyes and studied Bittersweet. She was pretty, in her own way, she had her own charms, and there were moments where Rising Star felt quite taken by her. There were even moments were Rising Star wondered what it might be like to do more than just kiss her. In those moments Rising Star thought of Bucky, Bon Bon, and Lyra. 

As the carriage bounced over a pothole, Rising Star realised that he was trapped with one of the females from his herd that he couldn’t shag and could only make base communication with, and only after a great deal of efforts on their parts to understand one another. He wasn’t quite certain what to do. If this was Loch Skimmer or Sparkler, there would be a way to pass the time. Plenty of fun ways to pass the time. If this was Ripple, at least they could talk to one another while staring out the window, although Ripple was usually up for a wrastle or a throw down if he did so much as blow a raspberry at her. Being suplexed or piledrived by a filly was its own special sort of fun. There was a lot of exciting grabbing, groping, and bodies rubbing together. 

But Bittersweet was delicate. Bittersweet, while a rather solid donkey, was also somehow dainty. She was feminine, soft, and gentle, to match Ripple’s hard, sharp, and flinty.

It was in that moment that Rising Star discovered the pain of being entrapped in a closed space with a female, one of his own wives no less, with nothing of interest to talk about, nothing to say, just a wall of silence between them, an insurmountable, unassailable mountain that barred communication. 

Heaving a sigh, Rising Star wished that he could go home. 



 

“...and so my little griffons, always be reminded to protect the sanctity of home and hearth. Stay true to your flock. Stick by your family. As you heard in my stories, it was always love that saved the hero from imminent demise. Not magic swords, nor magic bows, or even powerful artifacts. Every great thing to do begins and ends with your home and hearth. Defend it well. Look after your families, and remember this one griffon proverb.” Odin looked around the mead hall and raised his mug. “When the pride faileth, then cometh the fall.” 

The little griffons sat in stunned silence for several long minutes. Little eyes blinked. A few of the larger griffons like Grisabella looked around the room, also blinking, each of them trying to take in what Odin had just said. 

Weaver, Grisabella’s mate, raised his talons almost like a schoolcub. “Um, sir, do we have to take on multiple wives or mates?” 

“No… no, that isn’t necessary at all. Your pride, just you and Grisabella, that is enough. I am asking you to treat it with respect,” Odin replied. 

“Oh. I see,” Weaver said, his crest falling flat. “So we can be a pride of two.” 

“And you must never demean or belittle each others’ prides for being different.” Odin pointed to Gofannon and Helia. “Like those two. A griffon and a pegasus. Much good can be accomplished with those two.” Odin moved his talons around and then pointed to Lugnut and Spanner. “Or those two. I know that some of you question them. I know your minds… are they not good fathers to Sprocket and Cog? Or you would you claim different?” 

The quite a number of the gathered griffons stared down into the mead mugs, almost as if they were searching for the meaning of life down in the depths. 

“All you have in this life is a king and queen that is dedicated to serving you and each of you have each other. Guard what is yours, and do so zealously. Are we not a greater flock? Are we not a pride unto ourselves? How many of you call me Alfadir? How many of you call your king Winter Father? With these titles, you recognise each other as siblings, but there are those among you than treat your siblings poorly.” Odin narrowed his eyes and his face took on a wizened expression. “When the pride faileth, then cometh the fall. Think about that my cubs. Do you want to go back to being slaves? Do you like being property? Strengthen these familial bonds or else..” 
	
> Chapter 640
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The gathering of the stable reps would not actually happen until Monday, and Rising Star wondered what he was going to do with his time. The Stable of Representatives building had lodging for the representatives, small but comfortable rooms for single occupants, and a fair number of larger rooms for whole families that showed up. 

Rising Star of course had a small room for single occupants, one that he was sharing with Bittersweet right now. There would be just enough room for both of them in the bed, but only if they spooned or remained very close together. Of course, Rising Star could let Bittersweet sleep in the bed and he could go find some way of standing in a fire somewhere without freaking other ponies out, which was easier said than done. 

History was going to be made. Not only would tomorrow see democracy in action, but Rising Star would have Bittersweet repeating everything he said in ear language. 

Reaching out, Rising Star tapped Bittersweet on her side. When he had her attention, and she could see his face, he said, “Come on, let’s go out. I know it’s cold, but I can keep you warm. Let’s find a bite to eat and maybe have a look around.” 

Smiling, looking hopeful, Bittersweet nodded. 



 

“Look how much joy a simple balloon brings.” Thistle watched as Peekaboo bounced the balloon from her snoot, sent it flying, and then as it came down, Harper nosed it and sent it flying again. Peekaboo bounced it upwards once more, and then Sukari prodded it with a hoof. 

Cadance, who wasn’t quite coordinated enough to keep up, sat on her hindquarters and clopped her front hooves together, grinning and giggling as she watched the game. Cadance’s wings fluttered as the filly’s eyes almost glowed with happiness. 

The balloon came almost straight down and instead of bumping against Harper’s nose, it touched the tip of Harper’s horn. The balloon, being a thin skinned sort of creature and exposed to Harper, a unicorn who could be a real prick, popped. The popping of the balloon produced a loud scary sound. The loud scary sound startled one very skittish zebra with excitable nerves. The very skittish zebra with excitable nerves, now startled, popped in very much the same way the balloon did and took off at a full run for Thistle. Thistle, a kelpie, who had decided to perform a good deed, was now the mother of one very skittish zebra with excitable nerves and Thistle, being a mother, heard her foal cry, and she too, became a creature with excitable nerves. Her ears, which had been in a relaxed position, perked straight up. 

With a leap, Sukari collided with Thistle and clung to Thistle’s neck, bawling in terror. 

After wrapping her foreleg around the foal hanging from her neck, Thistle noticed that even though Sukari had been spooked, no accidents had happened. The zebra was getting better, and a little more progress could be seen each day. 

Harper, who had a disturbed expression upon her face, looked at the tattered remains of the balloon. “Floaty dead, go bye bye.” She raised her hoof and waved to the remains of the balloon. 



 

Haute Culture. Rising Star half scowled and half smirked at the sign. A small cafe specialising in yogurt. Bittersweet was making the faint wheezing sound that she made when she was laughing, and Rising Star was glad to hear it. 

Opening the door, Rising Star let Bittersweet go in first and then he stepped inside. He froze upon entering, and felt his balls shrivel up into his guts as he felt a worrying sense of panic that gnawed at his belly like a living thing turned loose inside of him. 

While there were a few ponies inside the cafe, most of the occupants were donkeys, and every single one of them was staring. Rising Star wondered where his air went and his lungs now felt empty. Rising Star felt Bittersweet bump into him as she took a step backwards. 

“It’s him,” a donkey said to another donkey. 

“It’s her,” another donkey said. 

Not knowing what was going to happen next, Rising Star’s muzzle split into a wide sheepish grin, revealing far too many teeth, some of them pointed. “Hi,” he said, his word a nervous squeak. 

“We all came to see you.” A donkey mare looked at Rising Star with wide brown eyes. “My name is Sulky. We came from all over to see you. We’re citizens of Equestria too and we want to know why there are no donkey stable representatives. Or any other species for that matter. All of them are ponies.” 

“That… that is a very good question actually and one I’ve been wondering about myself.” Rising Star, recovering some of his aplomb, lifted his head and tried to look serious. “Our government is just getting off of the ground. A lot of mistakes are being made as we try to make things right. I am hoping to address some of these issues and maybe fix some of the faults in the system. That is why I brought my wife Bittersweet with me.” 

Bittersweet, who had a shy smile, waved one ear at her fellow donkeys. 

“So until we can get our own representation, are you willing to speak for us?” Sulky asked, her eyes narrowing and her ears repeating her words in ear language. 

“Well, uh, that was sort of what I was hoping to do with Bittersweet,” Rising Star replied. 

“I know Dreary. I know you you tried to help her.” Sulky’s ears kept moving, pouring out a stream of language that Bittersweet understood. 

Rising Star gave Bittersweet a gentle shove forward and then moved out of the way of the door. He scooted Bittersweet along and pulled out a chair at a table for her to sit down. He looked over at Sulky. “Sulky, would you care to join us? I can’t talk to all of you at once, that would be chaos, so why don’t you come and talk to me?” 

Looking around at her fellow donkeys, Sulky saw them all nodding and she saw many ears telling her to make the best of it. She looked over at Rising Star. “That would be wonderful, thank you.” 



 

Meanwhile, in the town of Ponyville, in Sugarcube Corner, a very worn out Apple Bloom slumped over a table in the corner, sitting by herself, and sometimes casting a glance at Silver Shill and Applejack, who were necking with one another at another table. Too much study, too much science, too much time spent with her muzzle in a book. She had trouble seeing and the letters had finally jumbled together. She sat back and closed her eyes. 

So exhausted was the earth pony that she didn’t notice the dragon sitting down in the seat across from hers until she opened up her eyes and saw Spike grinning at her and waving his claws. 

“Hiya Spike… how ya doing?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“Oh, you know, staying busy. Well, not busy now. Taking a break actually,” Spike replied. 

Apple Bloom dragged herself up in her chair and sat up straight. She rested her hooves on the table in front of her and watched as Spike devoured a large frosted cupcake, paper and all. Dragons, she thought to herself. 

Licking pink frosting from his lips, Spike focused on Apple Bloom with a serious expression. “Hey Apple Bloom… I was wondering… about the League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies, you know, the club?”

Nodding, Apple Bloom leaned forward. “What about it?” 

“I want to join.” Spike licked a glop of frosting from one of his claws. 

“Now, I ain’t saying you can’t join, but I gotta know, why would a dragon want to join a club for earth ponies?” Apple Bloom raised one eyebrow and her ears perked forwards. She found that she wanted to hear what Spike had to say on this issue and an ember of curiousity burned within her mind. 

“See, I heard it was open to anypony… anyone… anyhow, I’m a dragon, and as a dragon, I have all of this great potential that nopony seems to notice. So I understand what it feels like to be an earth pony, I think. To know that you can do great things, amazing things, and the world just sort of ignores you,” Spike replied. “I’m an earth dragon.” 

Feeling sad without knowing why, Apple Bloom nodded. “Yep. That’s being an earth pony. Spike, I had no idea you felt that way.” 

With a half smile, Spike nodded. “So, when do we meet?” 



 

Rising Star stared down into his bowl of yogurt, granola, and dried fruit. He drew in a deep breath, rubbed the side of his head with his fetlock, and exhaled in a huff. He was all too aware of every eye in the cafe staring at him. Every ear was listening to what he had to say. Feeling miserable after everything he had heard, he stuffed his spoon between his lips in a careless fashion and got yogurt all over his muzzle. 

“So you see, the laws that are supposed to protect workers, the employers try to say that those laws only apply to equines. We have to eat. We have to pay rent. What choice to do we have? We have to just live with this mistreatment, being paid half as much for doing twice as much work, and if one of us gets hurt, we only have each other to fall back upon.” Sulky tapped her hoof upon the table and then looked at Bittersweet. 

Bittersweet had seen everything that Sulky had to say by watching Sulky’s ears. 

“Can you help us?” Sulky asked. 

“I want to help you, but I can’t make promises. I don’t know what I can do. I will help you all that I can, but I don’t know what I can accomplish. If anything is going to happen at all, we’re going to need allies,” Rising Star replied. He licked the yogurt from his lips and then hunched over his bowl. 

“Will the Lord of Winter help us? We know he sympathises with earth ponies.” Sulky lifted her head and looked around the room. There were many hopeful eyes. 

“Of course he will, he’s already helping. He’s working with Dreary… as for more help, I know that he will,” Rising Star said in a low miserable voice. “How do things become so screwed up… I don’t get it. Things just get out of hoof without warning.” 



 

“Think we can save our nest? Or are we totally horned? I’m worried that we’re horned,” Sparkler said to Loch Skimmer, who was sitting on the couch beside her. Sparkler leaned over a bit on Loch Skimmer, glad to feel the pegasus against her. 

Closing her eyes, Loch Skimmer took a deep breath and tried not to feel overwhelmed. Ripple was a mess and had be sedated again after Doctor Mawu had come back. Loch Skimmer had nervous queasy feeling that wouldn’t go away, and there seemed to be no way of fixing this, making it all better. 

“Loch Skimmer, how much crazy can you handle in a day?” Sparkler asked. 

“I dunno, but I think I’ve approached my limit,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

Sparkler looked at Loch Skimmer. “I think I know how to make Ripple better.” 

Sighing, Loch Skimmer’s ears splayed out sideways. “What is your idea?” 

“She needs her donkey and she needs Rising Star. We need to be together.” Sparkler looked over at the bedroom door. “Think we can sneak out and go to Canterlot? Think you could carry us? Might be real hard to explain to ponies on a train why we have a drugged filly.” 

“Do you want Ripple to wake up and break every single bone in our bodies?” Loch Skimmer asked. “Have you gone as barmy as Ripple?” 

“Maybe. I suspect that I have. But I have a feeling that Ripple isn’t going to be better until all of us are together and staying together and giving her what she needs… we’ve done her wrong. We have really done her wrong. We hurt her. You’re hurt. I’m hurt. I think we’re all hurt.” Sparkler closed her eyes. “Or maybe we should think about calling it quits. Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we’re all messed up and we have no business doing this, and continuing to hurt one another.” 

“Shut up Sparkler!” Loch Skimmer snapped. 

Sparkler opened her eyes and looked at Loch Skimmer. 

“If everything is going to go wrong, it might as well go wrong with all of us together. I’ll get my harness and I’ll strap both of you in. If Ripple wakes up and gets feisty, use your magic to take her out if you have to. Nopony alive trains as much as Ripple does to condition her body. If she decides to take us out, we’re in big trouble.” 

“I know, she slammed me through the floor.” Sparkler shook her head. 

“I’ve seen Ripple catch Lugus off guard and power throw him a couple of times now. One time it took Lugus a few minutes before he got up and when he did get up, he was moving around all achy like.” Loch Skimmer’s muzzle became covered with worry wrinkles. 

“Well then, I say we get bundled up and get going. I’ll wrap Ripple up in a blanket. I wonder if we have any rope… I wonder if rope would even hold Ripple if she got riled up? You get your harness, and then we’ll slip off. I’ll have to miss work tonight, but that’s okay. Thunderlane likes working at night, says it makes him feel important guarding sleeping ponies.” Sparkler looked at Loch Skimmer. “Are we really going to do this?” 

“My brain is screaming at me that this is a terrible idea, so yes… why not… what else could possibly go wrong?” Loch Skimmer replied. “All aboard the flaming pegasus express.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 641
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh those moronic little dick hickies!” Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and tried to shake out the frustration trapped inside of his head. He banged on the floor with his hoof. 

“Bucky… I don’t know where to begin, but please don’t talk about our foals that way,” Derpy said in a soft voice, her eyes wide and hurt looking. “They’re teenagers. They’re going to do stupid things. They just did a bunch of stupid things and now there is one more stupid thing.” 

“I’m calling my auntie.” Bucky opened his eyes and with a mental command, he called a rotocopter golem to come to him. While he waited for it to arrive, he looked at Derpy. “I’m sorry… but this has been a very trying day. I need sleep. I was awake most of yesterday, all of last night, and all of today. I am worn out from dealing with this and I am scared out of my mind for Ripple” 

“Come to bed with me… come here… let me hold you and make you feel better.” Derpy’s voice was inviting but not seductive. She patted the bed beside her. “Sometimes love needs a stupid gesture to make everything okay. Would you do something stupid for me?” 

Slumping, Bucky hung his head. “Probably.”  He closed his eyes. “Most likely.” He heaved a sigh. “Without a doubt.” 



 

Looking up over the front door, Berry Punch read the words that had been burned into the wood. “Don’t do anything stupid.” Bucky had done it, he had burned the words above the door into the wood just as he said he would. A broken hearted smile appeared on Berry Punch’s face as she looked up. 

“Mama!” 

Turning around, Berry Punch saw Cadance standing at her hind leg, smacking her lips. As she looked at Cadance, the earth pony had a stupid idea. The earth pony had a moronic, stupid idea and she grinned at Cadance. 

“Bucky! I have an idea to help our troubled foals!” Berry Punch looked at Cadance and her eyes narrowed. 

“Mama?” Cadance, who had been hopeful for food of some sort, now looked uncertain. 

“Bucky, if we hurry, we can still catch them! Loch Skimmer is a slow flyer!” 



 

Standing in a small but cozy room, an exhausted looking Bucky looked at Spanner and Lugnut. Bucky’s eyes were red and blurry. His expression was dull, almost vacant. It had been a long, trying day and he had approached the ends of his endurance. 

“It is mostly ready, we’ve had a few tests, it’s stable enough, the problem is the power supply and the engine… we need more power. We need lots of electricity with the current prototype.” Lugnut gave Bucky an apologetic look and then dropped his gaze to the floor. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky thought of Lyra, who was in Ponyville. Too far away for his purposes. Time mattered. The drugs on Ripple would be wearing off right about the same time that Loch would be arriving in Canterlot, if all of the guesswork involved here proved correct. Or maybe even before, which would be awful. 

“Sir, the prototype was designed to hold three. I think we could make it work through. We just need more spark,” Spanner said. 

Opening his eyes, Bucky reached out his talons and patted Sprocket on the head. “You’re cute.” The little griffoness cub was adorable, small, fluffy, and feathered. It gave Bucky dreams for how Bandua would be. 

Sprocket, who peeped at Bucky’s touch, looked up and replied, “Me know.” 

And then, Bucky had an idea. Bucky too, had a moronic, stupid idea. 



 

Flapping a few times to help gain altitude, Loch Skimmer completed another circle over Ponyville, trying to catch whatever updrafts were available. She was a slow and steady flier, tireless, she had proven that in Baltimare after the hurricane. The weight of Ripple and Sparkler weren’t even noticeable. 

“How is Ripple?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“She’s mumbling about killing your father for breaking your leg,” Sparkler replied. 

“Oh bugger… Sparky, she sounds like she is waking up in a fighting mood.” Loch Skimmer gave her wings a few more flaps and then surged upwards on an updraft. “Don’t turn to stone Sparky… I’m strong, but I don’t know if I am that strong.” 

“My reflexes for that are pretty strong… but I’ll try to keep it from happening so we don’t all die.” Sparkler looked up at Loch Skimmer above her and shivered as the cold wind tore at her pelt. It was cold up here at this altitude and Sparkler wished that Loch Skimmer could fly a little faster. 



 

“Derpy, do you think this will work out?” Thistle asked, looking at the grey pegasus on the bed beside her. “I mean, it is getting late. The sun will be setting soon. I’m worried about all of this. I’m worried for our foals and I’m worried about Bucky…” 

Picking up where Thistle left off, Derpy heaved a sigh and said, “Bucky is sleep deprived. you know how he gets when he’s been awake too long. So Bucky’s exhausted and he hasn’t had much of a chance to eat very much and his magic is all screwy. So I am thinking Princess Celestia is going to have to be the one to fix all of this. I hope that the golem Bucky sent gets to her soon.” 

“You know, I think everything would have been fine by just sending a message to Princess Celestia. I’m not sure why Bucky felt the need to go himself.” Thistle rolled over onto her back and pulled Bell Heather over her barrel. She began to pat Bell on the back to make her burp. 

“Bucky and Berry had to go look after their foals and make sure they were okay.” Belisama lifted up Bandua in her talons, held her cub close to her beak, and peeped at her. Bandua peeped back and Belisama’s crest rose. 

“She peeped back!” Derpy’s eyes went wide. “Did she… just talk?” 

“I dunno…” Belisama peeped again, a shrill peep, and Bandua repeated the sound, also a shrill peep. Belisama peeped twice, one long, and one short, and Bandua made two peeps, both short. Belisama peeped again, this time two short peeps, and then cocked her head as Bandua made two short peeps. 

“I think she’s communicating!” Thistle grinned. 

Fluffing out with pride, Belisama eyes began to glaze over with tears. “I just wish her eyes would open. But she’s trying to talk with us. Her mind is developing.” 

“I wish Bucky was here,” Derpy said, her eyes also watering as she looked at the tiny griffon cub. The grey mare felt a pride that burned deep within her breast as she looked at Bandua. Never in all of Derpy’s life was she so happy to hear a peep. 



 

Canterlot was visible ahead. Loch Skimmer still had to gain some altitude, but she felt they were making good time. Gaining the required altitude was the tricky part about flying to Canterlot. Loch Skimmer had never done anything quite like this before, but she felt that she was doing a good job. 

“She’s starting to squirm!” 

Loch Skimmer gritted her teeth at Sparkler’s warning. Canterlot was still too far away. “Sparkler, try hugging her and whispering soothing things in her ear about how much we love one another!” 

Loch Skimmer tried to coax a little more speed out of her wings. She was flying into a headwind and that made things difficult. She pondered angling away from Canterlot and then circling in, so she wasn’t flying head first into the wind. 

“Do you hear that?” Sparkler shouted over the wind. 

Her ears perking, Loch Skimmer listened. She heard a faint droning buzz, almost like a nest of bees. It was getting louder. Feeling alarmed, Loch Skimmer’s adrenaline kicked in and her speed increased a fair bit from raw panic. 

As the droning buzz got louder, Sparkler saw what it was. Something silver-grey was coming up fast behind them. It bounced in the air a lot, getting tossed around in the air currents and wind. Whatever it was, it was fast. It was gaining on them with incredible speed. 

It slowed as it approached and Sparkler got a clear view as it pulled up alongside them. A sleek shiny looking gyrocopter. It was wide in  the front, tear shaped, and it narrowed towards the rear. It was pushed through the air by a propeller on the tail and held aloft by a rotor blade mounted near the middle. In the front, where it was wider, there were two side by side seats and Sparkler could see two griffons and a unicorn stuffed into the front seats. All three of them were wearing goggles and scarves around their necks. 

As it grew closer, Sparkler could make out Trixie in the front seat and something was over her horn. The unicorn was waving as the craft approached. The gyrocopter, faster than Loch Skimmer, flew past, and Sparkler could make out two figures stuffed into the rear seat together, crammed in. Much to Sparkler’s fear and horror, she could make out Berry Punch and Bucky. Both were wearing goggles and scarves as well. 

Ahead, the gyrocopter banked and began to swoop around for another pass. Sparkler realised she was in some real trouble if Bucky had gone through this much trouble to catch them. 

“We are so horned!” Loch Skimmer cried. 



 

At some point, this ridiculous and foolish idea had turned sour. Berry Punch realised that now. She was crammed into a seat with Bucky that was only meant to hold one occupant, and it was a tight fit for a unicorn and an earth pony pregnant with twins holding one alicorn foal. There was also the throbbing erection stabbing into her backside that didn’t help anything at all. Wiggling around and trying to get comfortable only made things worse. Biting her lip, Berry wondered how bad of an idea it would be if she wiggled around enough to get it inside of her and then allowed the vibration of the gyrocopter to finish the job. 

It would be an awkward moment doing that while holding Cadance, but Berry was tempted to try. 

“Trixie makes a Great and Powerful battery! Trixie is electric! Trixie is pissing herself because she is a unicorn and she has discovered a fear of heights! Trixie will need a great deal of therapy before this is over! Trixie can do nothing so now she will laugh! Mwahahahahahahah!” 

Lugnut, raising his voice to be heard over the wind, turned his head backwards to look at Bucky and said, “We can’t go any slower or we’ll drop! The top rotor isn’t powered, it acts like a wing, as we’re pushed through the air, it spins and provides lift!” 

“Just keep circling around!” Bucky replied. 

“Aye aye, sir!” 

Just when things couldn’t possibly get any more awkward or worse, a flock appeared in the sky ahead of them. Craning his head around and squirming, Bucky could just make out the figures if he squinted. As he wiggled in his seat, something rock hard and very, very awake prodded Berry Punch in the backside. 

“Here comes the cavalry,” Bucky said, wondering if this even would get him remembered as a good father or a terrible father. “Here comes auntie.”  

“So… Loch Skimmer and Sparkler foalnapped Ripple, who foalnapped Loch Skimmer earlier, Ripple is in the middle of a nervous breakdown, we’re flying in an experimental million bit aircraft that isn’t supposed to be seen just yet, Trixie is losing her marbles from fear, we have two gay griffons having a wonderful date with one another in the front seat, and I am sitting on my husband’s boner while holding my daughter, who happens to be the immortal embodiment of love, and we’re trying to catch our three teenaged foals before this escalates into something that gets out of control,” Berry Punch said, summing up the situation. 

“When you put it like that it sounds as though we failed,” Bucky replied. “Just so long as it doesn’t get any worse, I think we’ll be okay! Now stop squirming before I make a mess!” 

“Auntie Celery!” Cadance cried when she saw Princess Celestia and wing of royal guards. She clapped her hooves together and her eyes were filled with happiness behind her goggles. 

“Loch Skimmer, Sparkler, both of you are in so much trouble!” Berry Punch barked as the gyrocopter flew past the trio. Berry Punch raised one front hoof and shook it at them to let them know she meant business. 

Unable to stop himself, Bucky threw back his head and let out a cackle. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 642
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“We’re heavy, this is going to be exciting!” Lugnut cried out in terror. 

“It’s not a crash if you can walk away from it!” Spanner gripped his mate and hung on. 

“There is always just enough wreckage to get you to the crash site!” Lugnut felt relieved that in what might be his final moments, he had Spanner holding him. 

“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that both of you shut up! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you land this craft on its wretched untrustworthy wheels and that we all live through this!” 

The gyrocopter approached the runway behind Canterlot castle, one intended for pegasi and sky chariots. The engine buzzed, a steady drone, and the occupants of the craft readied themselves for what was certain to be an interesting landing. 

Berry Punch clenched her plot furrow together and thought about how the landing was going to make her bounce up and down on Bucky. She bit her lip and then spit her lip out, realising she might just bite it off when they landed. 

Unicorns lined up on the runway, their horns ignited with fierce glows. They served two purposes; to light up the runway and to slow the craft so there would be no crash. Pegasi guards were swarming into the area and some flew around the craft. 

The Lord of Winter cackled, a ceaseless endless stream of pure madness poured out of his mouth, a cackle worthy of Discord himself. His mad laughter could be heard over the droning buzz of the engine and it filled the air with manic energy. And then, the Somewhat Troubled and Perhaps Disturbed Trixie began to join him, and the two unicorns cackling together made a discordant cacophony with their laughter. 

This was Canterlot. High Society. The location of the Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns. From this school, in this city, there was a rule. A rule taught from an early age, a warning passed from teacher to student, mother to colt, father to filly, brother to sister, every unicorn in Canterlot learned the warning: A unicorn was never supposed to cackle. 



 

Surrounded on all sides, Loch Skimmer lowered Sparkler and Ripple down to the ground. When Sparkler had her hooves on solid ground, Loch hit the release on the sling to let Sparkler and Ripple go. Sparkler, who held Ripple in her magic, eased the blanket wrapped filly down to the ground and then sprinted away with all haste as the blanketed bundle thrashed and wiggled. 

Ripple emerged from the blanket, foal like, her legs wobbling as she stood. She trembled, unsteady, still drugged, and looked around. She saw Princess Celestia standing a few feet away and held in Princess Celestia’s magic was a small pink alicorn foal. She blinked a few times. Everything was blurry for the doped filly. 

“Ripple, darling, don’t do anything foolish,” Rising Star said as he stepped forward. 

With an almost drunken wobble, Ripple staggered off sideways and then got her legs steadied. She looked at Rising Star and Bittersweet. Loch Skimmer was landing beside them. Sparkler approached, looking fearful. 

“I’m having a bad day,” Ripple said, her words somewhat slurred. “Donkey…” 

“We’re all together… look Ripple, we’re all together and we can sort this out.” Loch Skimmer gave her sister a fearful but hopeful smile. 

As Ripple took a step forward towards Celestia, there was a single massive clank of armor as dozens of guards bolted to attention. Ripple blinked, looking confused, and she shook her head. “Foal. Little sister.” 

“Auntie,” Bucky whispered. “Do you trust reason or instinct?” 

“Reason can be faulty and instincts can be cruel,” Celestia replied, not knowing what her nephew was talking about. 

Saying nothing else, Bucky plucked Cadance out of Celestia’s telekinetic field and with a great deal of caution, he moved forward. Celestia followed, looking worried, not certain what Bucky was up to. 

“The plan was to zap Ripple with love! What are you doing Bucky?” Berry Punch asked, her voice almost a whine from worry and fear. 

Undeterred, undaunted, Bucky crept forward towards Ripple. “Ripple, baby, daddy needs you to foalsit… I need your whole herd to foalsit. You know how important Cadance is… can daddy trust you?” He held Cadance up in front of him like a shield. 

Cadance, seeing Ripple, held out her forelegs as though she was begging for a hug. She cooed and burbled at the disturbed pegasus. “Ripple?” 

Hearing Cadance’s voice, Ripple stepped forward, almost fell, and then got herself balanced again. She pitched forward once more, staggered, veered off to one side, and then shuffled closer to Bucky and Cadance. 

“Daddy… my head hurts,” Ripple said in a pained voice. She closed her eyes and shook her head. 

Moving at a swift trot, Bittersweet broke away from her herd and headed for Ripple. Following her lead, Rising Star also took off. Shrugging, Sparkler looked at Loch Skimmer and then followed after Rising Star. Alone, Loch Skimmer realised she was being left behind and the flaming pegasus hurried after Sparkler. 

Stretching out her neck, Ripple nosed Cadance and then a moment later, Ripple buried her face against Cadance’s belly. She closed her eyes and let out a shuddering sobbing sigh and then her legs gave out from beneath her. 

Before hitting the cobblestones, she was caught in a blue-green field of telekinesis. 

“Come on, let’s get you inside so you can get some rest. All of you, follow me. Ripple needs you. Let’s go. Indoors, now!” Bucky took off at a tired trot for the large double doors leading into Canterlot Castle. 

“I guess Bucky trusts instincts,” Celestia said in a low voice as she took off after Bucky. 



 

“This isn’t what I expected to happen.” Rising Star lifted his head a little. He was laying on his stomach, his legs tucked beneath him. On his left was Sparkler and on his right was Loch Skimmer, both of them were also lying on their stomachs. Bittersweet was curled up against Loch Skimmer and sleeping. 

Sprawled out over all four of them was Ripple, who was holding Cadance cradled in her forelegs, and her head rested on Cadance’s back. Ripple had been given a mild sedative that she herself had requested and Ripple was now floating in the euphoric bliss of her medication as well as having her herd back together. 

“Well, just so long as Ripple is feeling a little better,” Rising Star said in a low voice. “I had no idea things were this bad.” He lifted his head a little more and looked over at Bucky, who was draped over a sofa, sound asleep. There was a sharp -CONK!- to the back of Rising Star’s skull and with a pained moan, he dropped his head back down. “Right… nesting. Therapeutic nesting.” 

Closing her eyes, Ripple tucked her foreleg back under Cadance and dropped her head down on Cadance’s back once more. Cadance giggled and her wings fluttered. She squirmed against Ripple, glad to have the reassuring weight of Ripple’s chin against her back. 

“Stings, don’t it Rising, she got me too.” Loch Skimmer looked over at Rising Star but did not raise her head. “Now hold still you dunderhead and don’t disturb the nest.” 

“I think I am going to talk to Thunderlane about cutting back my schedule. Maybe try getting home at midnight or one in the morning.” Sparkler’s eyes darted over so she could look at Rising. “It isn’t perfect, but at least I’d be home for part of the night.” 

“We need to cut back on the shagging. Never thought I’d be the one to say that.” Loch Skimmer closed her eyes. “And no more doing it in our big bed, no matter how fun it is to have all that room. Ripple has a right to sleep there and we’re not being fair to her.” 

“So we buy another bed? Put up more walls in that big open space of ours and maybe invest in some soundproofing?” Rising Star asked. 

Sparkler lifted her head and looked Rising Star in the eye. “Eventually, but not right now. For right now, we lay off and we do more of this.” 

-CONK!-

“Oh feck, that stings.” Sparkler’s eyes watered over as she dropped her head down. She didn’t dare raise up her leg to rub the pain away either. “I’m gonna be a two-hornicorn when that lump grows out.” She bit her lip and waited for the dull throb to die down.

“How about we organise a time where we all do our homework together?” Loch Skimmer, careful not to raise her head, turned her head to look at Rising Star. “Also, we need to start eating meals together. Ripple had a lot to say about that.” 

“Okay, so we make sure that we eat at least one meal together in a day and we set up a time that we all do our homework together if possible. We spend more time sleeping together in the same bed. Sleeping, not shagging. And we spend more time talking.” Rising Star glanced at Loch Skimmer and then at Ripple. 

“And we make more of an effort to learn ear language from Bittersweet,” Loch Skimmer said, looking over at the donkey curled up against her side. “In the long string of obscenities that poured out of Ripple’s mouth earlier, that was mentioned.” 

“We can do that.” Rising Star looked over at Loch Skimmer but kept his head down. 

“Ripple doesn’t feel like she gets enough of your attention,” Lock Skimmer said to Rising Star. “She mentioned that. You shag Sparky and I to pass the time and scratch the itch, but you have almost neglected Ripple and she is kinda upset about that. She said she was thinking about letting you screw her just so she could get your attention for a little while and so maybe she could see your smiling face. She said that right after she called me a dirty strumpet whorse and just before calling me a filthy cum encrusted foal batter guzzling slut.” 

“Oh stars, Ripple, I’m sorry,” Rising Star said, his voice sinking into a pained whine. His ears, burning with shame, dropped against the sides of his face and Rising Star closed his eyes. 

The only reply from Ripple was a slurred incomprehensible mumble. 

His eyes squeezed shut, Rising Star lifted his head high and gritted his teeth. A moment later, there was a hollow sounding -CONK!- on the back of his skull. He let out a whimper and lowered his head, his nostrils flaring from pain. “I deserved that, I did it to myself.” 

“She got you right on the spot where she got you the first time, didn’t she?” Sparkler asked. She pressed her neck against Rising Star. “She’ll get this out of her system and she’ll feel like a normal healthy broody pegasus again and everything will be better. We deserve our lumps.” 

“We’ve been especially bad foals and we’ve messed up our nest. Think of this as nature’s way of making sure that we keep our nest clean and free of trouble in the future… broody pegasi are nature’s blessing, they guard the home, look after foals, and police family squabbles.” Loch Skimmer kept her head down the entire time she was speaking and kept her voice low. “They need to be listened to because they are the ones that will tell us if something is wrong.” 

“I remember when Bucky was sick and how my mother wouldn’t leave his side. She had powerful nesting instincts… we’re blessed to have Ripple.” Sparkler drew in a deep breath and heaved out a sigh. “Ripple will care for us if we get sick, look after us if we are down, be there for us in times of trouble, and shepherd us back into better behaviour if we upset the flock.” 

“I can’t believe we screwed up and made my sister sick.” Loch Skimmer pressed her face up against Rising Star’s cheek. “I feel so ashamed. I should have known something was wrong when she was saying all those horrible things to me. Instead, I was just angry and I said stuff back. Awful things. The Ripple I know, my sister, would never say those things to me and mean them.” 

“Or cram me through the floor.” Sparkler sniffled and felt tears coming once more. “It’s time to grow up and start holding ourselves accountable.” 
	
	
> Chapter 643
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“This is impressive.” Princess Celestia felt no need to mince words. She paced around the gyrocopter, looking it over, admiring the sleek design. Once she had gone around the entire craft, she paused and looked at Lugnut and Spanner. “I must commend both of you.” 

Lugnut stepped forward, his head low. “Sun Mother, you flatter me. The basic design was mine and Spanner’s. Scorch made some changes. Rising Star made the body possible… it is a steel frame with magnesium and an aluminum double hull that holds cloudstuff. It is very light and it is done without magic. There is still some magic in the craft, but we are making it very hard to dispel. When we run into a serious problem, we go to Winter Father and he tends to think of things that we don’t.” 

Princess Celestia nodded. “Tell me more, if you will.” 

Spanner walked to the rear of the craft and lifted his talons, pointing to the tail. “The rear seat is the gunner seat. If you hit the swivel lever, the entire seat rotates three hundred and sixty degrees. The guns are angled down at the ground and targets below. There is a pane of glass on the bottom and the gunner can look between their legs to see their targets. We are still working on a targeting system.” The griffon lept towards the front of the craft. “In the front there are two side by side seats. One is for the pilot and the other is for the front gunner. The front guns can aim downwards, upwards, starboard, and port. For now, the guns are mock ups, but in time, Winter Father hopes to add a spell orb launcher and other projectile based weapons.” 

“The craft can achieve almost four hundred knots in clear skies. Winter Father demands more speed, but this is about the limit that we can push with the technology that we have. At least with the electric turbine engine. We’re looking at other engines, but that is where we are having problems,” Lugnut said. 

“Winter Father has demanded a version of this craft that is magic free for fighting unicorns… he doesn’t want any essential arcano tech being knocked out.” Spanner looked up at Celestia for a moment, heaved a sigh, and looked very dejected. 

“We have spent over a million of your bits on this project so far, but we promise you, once we get past this stage, we can bring down the cost considerably. We’re paying for mistakes right now, soon these will be much cheaper,” Lugnut said. 

“I am going to offer you further help,” Princess Celestia said as a unicorn guard wheeled in a wooden pushcart with a large wooden chest. “I feel that you have earned my trust. Inside of this chest is something from beyond the mirror. We recovered it from Fromme du Lac. It is a terrible weapon and it was used to mutilate ponies, but I believe it can be repurposed.” 

The guard opened the trunk with a flick of his telekinesis. Spanner and Lugnut looked inside. They had no idea what they were looking at. It looked like a very messed up looking sword. 

“Beyond the mirror, in the world where Sunset Shimmer was exiled, they call this a chainsaw. It is a saw powered by an engine that runs on combustible fuel. The chain along the blade spins, cutting, ripping, and tearing. It was used as a weapon of terror by a unicorn. It inflicted terrible wounds… I saw those wounds while I was in Fancy.” Celestia shuddered and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to compose herself. When her eyes opened, she looked at Lugnut and Spanner. “I want you to repurpose the engine. It is something called a diesel engine and from what little I know, it can be run on peanut oil and a variety of other compounds. I will have this sent to the foundry. I want both of you and Scorch to pull this apart, figure it out, and with Rising Star’s help, try to find a way to use this engine to power this craft.” 

“Spanner?” 

“Yeah Luggy?” 

“This is gonna be awesome…” 



 

Feeling conflicted, Princess Celestia allowed herself a good fret. She felt bad, even guilty for using the recovered technology, but the potential good that could come out of it held so much promise. Scorch would make certain that the technology was used for good. Perhaps a lot more than gyrocopter engines would come of this. 

The steam powered tractor was a practical device, and perhaps a new motor would make it more so. The possibilities were endless. Thinking of this dulled the pain of seeing those horrible wounds in the hospital from those who had lived through the nightmarish assault. 

She passed into a small dining area intended for castle staff and found a lone earth pony eating. Quite a spread was on the table and the earth pony taking bites from everything. Celestia watched her eat for several minutes, stuffing bite after bite into her mouth, and with each bite, Celestia’s smile grew a little more. She hadn’t seen anypony eat like this since the days of Smart Cookie, who became a terror while carrying triplets. Smart Cookie’s distant daughter was sitting at the table now, stuffing her face. 

“Hello Berry Punch,” Celestia said in a low voice, hoping she wouldn’t startle the grazing earth pony. “Enjoying a little snack?” The white alicorn’s tone was teasing. 

“I was hungry,” Berry replied. “And worried… I was real scared for a while there.” 

“I could imagine.” Celestia came forward and sat down beside Berry at the too small for Celestia table. “I could tell you something that would make you feel better.” 

“You could?” Berry Punch raised her eyebrow and then stuffed a bite of strawberry shortcake into her mouth. 

“I think Ripple will be okay… see, I know a little something about broody pegasi.” Celestia leaned over the table. “My sister, Luna, deep down in her alicorn bones, is a broody pegasus. It has caused her no end of grief, heartache, and trouble, but it is still her strength. I think it is part of the reason why she did what she did. She was lonely and had no nest. The ponies rejected her, feared her, were frightened of her storms, her magic, and the dark majesty of her night. For all of the trouble that being a broody pegasus has caused Luna, I would not have her any other way.” Celestia smiled and watched as Berry Punch shoveled in some macaroni and cheese. “I myself, well, I am more of a watcher pegasus deep down inside. I watch and I wait and I keep guard… Luna on the other hoof, Luna wrestles owlbears to deal with her instincts.” 

After swallowing, Berry Punch said, “That explains so much.” 

“Luna has leveled out quite a bit by having Erebus around. She is calmer. Less sulky. Unadulterated violence is not always the first thing she thinks of when dealing with a conflict.” Celestia looked Berry Punch in the eye. “Ripple had a very bad upbringing. She is still healing and confused. So is Luna. But Luna is getting better, and I know for certain, Ripple will get better as well. Bucky was right to go with his instincts. Seeing Ripple react to Cadance made me think of Luna, even Luna’s worst moods can be banished by allowing her a moment with Erebus. I think that Loch Skimmer’s foal could be a source of healing for their herd.” 

“Or it could make everything worse.” Berry Punch, a practical pony, spit the words out and then resumed eating. 

“Of course it could make everything worse, having a foal is by no means a solution unto itself, it could make everything go horribly wrong.” Celestia folded one foreleg over the other on the table and looked down at a plate full of greenhouse grown dandelion greens. “Ripple said something just before she took her pills. She said, ‘love makes ponies dangerous’ and it struck me as being rather profound. I think with some help, their issues could be fixed. But they do need help.” 

“They sure do,” Berry said just before cramming a massive bite of stuffed mushrooms into her mouth. As she chewed on mushrooms, she loaded up her fork with salad greens and them dipped them into a small bowl full of vinaigrette. She swallowed, and then stuffed in the bite of salad greens. She made a bleating sound as she slurped in the green leaves slathered in vinegar and oil. 

“Love made you dangerous.” Celestia allowed her words to linger in the air and waited for a reply. She watched as more food disappeared down Berry’s maw. 

“I have my regrets.” Berry paused with a loaded fork front of her mouth as she spoke. “I love Bucky in a way that makes me insane. I can’t even explain what it is that I feel for him. I looked into his eyes one day and I felt something in my heart. It changed me.” Having said what she wanted to say, Berry Punch stuck her fork in her mouth and gobbled down her food. 

“Love has made Twilight Sparkle dangerous. She has changed a great deal. First she found amazing friends that rounded her out as a pony, and then she found the loves of her life. Twilight has been adorable to watch as she blunders through discovering love and motherhood. She has become quite a caretaker to Glass Slipper. That foal follows Twilight everywhere.” Celestia smiled as she thought about her vacation with Twilight. “She is closer to Spike now… Twilight has matured enough to understand who and what Spike really is to her. They have become very close to one another and Spike is so endearing as the doting older brother to Glass Slipper. If you tease him about it, he becomes quite flustered.” 

“You want to see a broody pegasus and a big brother, watch Sentinel sometime.” Berry licked the sauce off of her fork and then looked up Celestia. “The way he is with Harper, Cadance, Sukari, Peekaboo, and Bell Heather is enough to rot your teeth.” Berry Punch eyed her beans, set down her fork, and armed herself with a spoon. 

Celestia pulled her head back as she watched the earth pony’s ferocious assault on the bowl of baked beans. “I have high hopes for little Sentinel.” 

Smacking her lips, Berry Punch swallowed the last of her beans. “Sukari likes to hide inside of Sentinel’s hidey hole under the stairs with him. He lets her in there and he’s started to reading to her while she’s tucked in there with him.” Berry Punch assaulted the remains of her macaroni and cheese next, shovelling it into mouth, chewing once or twice, and swallowing. 

Not at all surprised by what she was seeing, most of the food on the table was now gone and Princess Celestia once more thought of Smart Cookie. Although there was that one time that Princess Platinum had succumbed to pregnancy hunger, invaded, and then proceeded to ransack the larder in the name of the Platinum crown. Thinking of it made Celestia smile. 

With nothing to say at the moment, Celestia watched as Berry Punch devoured the last of her meal, leaving nothing behind. Not a single bean, not a single macaroni noodle, not a single dandelion green, not a single slice of cornbread. Nothing had survived the onslaught of the ravenous, pregnant earth pony mare. 

Letting out a thunderous belch, Berry Punch tossed down her spoon and it clattered to the table. She patted her stomach, glanced around the table with a hopeful expression, and a look of disappointment clouded her face when she saw that everything was gone. 

Berry Punch patted her belly, leaned back in her chair, rubbed down below her bulging navel, where the skin had stretched taut, belched again with enough force that it made the dishes on the table rattle, and then she looked up at Princess Celestia. 

“Not only can love make ponies dangerous, but it can make them pregnant… and hungry. I think I’ll go for seconds.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 644
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The main chamber of the Stable of Representatives was getting crowded. Rising Star watched as more and more ponies poured into the seats as well as the floor where they could stand or sit and watch. Beside him, Bittersweet sat, a patient expression upon her face, and a beautiful sunny orange ribbon tied into her mane. Rising Star was close to the floor. He liked it here. He was close to the ponies he was serving. He could see their faces. For many representatives, there was a belief that the higher up you were, the more important you were. 

The thought made Rising Star feel sick. 

He watched as a small group of donkeys gathered in the standing room only section. Far too few donkeys. Breaking the rules, he jumped over the barrier and down into the common area, not at all afraid. He walked towards the group and saw Sulky waving at him. 

“Rising Star! Rising Star! They won’t let us all in! They say they’re saving room for ponies, because their opinions matter!” Sulky cried in a loud voice that carried over the noise of the crowd. 

Almost igniting, Rising Star took a deep breath and maintained control. 

“LET THEM IN!” 

Twilight Sparkle’s voice, amplified by magic, boomed through the chamber. Her expression was calm. Her wings remained unruffled. She stood and stared at the guards posted at the doors. 

“Do as my mommy says… or you’ll be stood in the corner.” Peering out from behind Twilight Sparkle’s left hind leg, Glass Slipper gave a disapproving glance to the ponies her mother had addressed. 

“Majesty, it was planned to allow the tax collector’s union—” 

“You mean to tell me one of the most well represented groups in Canterlot is being given precedence over a group that has no representation at all?” Twilight Sparkle took a step forward. 

The guard looked like he wanted to swallow his own face. “Look, I was under orders from Representative—” 

“I do not give one ruffled feather who gave you orders… you took orders from an equus non grata. You OBEY my orders. I am ordering you to let the rest of the donkeys in or so help me, I will dismiss the entire lot of you and I will summon the Lord of Winter to look over this meeting when it is called to order. Do you want that again? Because he is in town.” 

The guard snapped to attention and fired off a salute with his wing. Another guard opened the door and barked out a command. A few moments later, a long procession of donkeys entered the hall and began filling up a section of the standing room only, all of them standing or sitting together on the floor. 

Rising Star, satisfied that justice was done, returned to his seat. With effortless ease, he lept over the barricade and then sat back down beside Bittersweet. 

“You made mommy mad… shame on you!” Glass Slipper stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry of disapproval at the guard. “You’re lucky she’s nice. If it was me, I’d stand you in the corner. You’re bad!” 



 

An entire hour had passed and Rising Star controlled the urge to yawn. It would be his time soon, and he had to be patient. So far, there had been voting on mundane stuff. Tax codes, business laws, education reform, which had made Twilight Sparkle scowl in the most horrendous manner when one representative spoke out and said that earth pony education reform served no practical purpose. 

The representative had been raspberried by Glass Slipper and threatened with time spent in the corner. Provoked into action by the foal, many earth ponies in attendance also blew raspberries at the pegasus that had drawn Princess Twilight Sparkle’s ire. 

Rising Star, being young and rather immature, sort of hoped that Glass Slipper’s raspberry of shame would become a political institution. It was brief, to the point, and expressed what you thought about somepony’s opinion. It said everything that needed to be said. 

“Representative Rising Star… you have the floor.” 

Almost startled, Rising Star bolted up in his chair. He cleared his throat, stood up, glanced at Bittersweet, and then stepped forward. He looked all around the chamber and saw hundreds of eyes looking at him. He wondered how many ponies hated him and how many more might hate him after he did what he was about to do. Beside him, Bittersweet stood and he turned his face to her so she could see his lips. 

“My fellow Equestrians… no… wait, my fellow sapient beings. As I am certain most of you know, my name is Rising Star. And today, I came to give a speech about workers rights and the need for more laws to protect workers, among a number of other issues. But I tossed that speech out last night. There is a bigger problem to address… we need to protect all of our labourers. All of our workers. There are many workers who are getting no protection whatsoever.” 

Bittersweet’s ears moved with grace and speed, repeating everything Rising Star said. 

“It has come to my attention that donkeys have no representation. Neither do diamond dogs, nor griffons, nor minotaurs, nor any of the other sapient races.” Rising Star paused and allowed his words to sink in. “The donkeys have been begging for help for a long time, long before our government fell and had to be rebuilt. While we put the pieces back together, we need to include them. I ask that all of you bear with me for a moment while I give you a demonstration.” Rising Star fell silent.

Beside him, Bittersweet’s ears kept moving. She had a look of intense concentration upon her face as she continued her husband’s message. She stared into Rising Star’s eyes and ignored the confused and befuddled crowd that was staring at her. 

The first minute passed, and then the second, and by the third minute, the crowd began to murmur. By the fourth minute, hissing whispers could be heard all over and Twilight Sparkle’s wings became ruffled while scowling at the noisemakers. 

“That is a voice that none of you can hear, but all of you need to learn to listen to. Imagine how frustrating it must be to beg for help and have no one listen. For the past few minutes, my lovely wife was begging you for your help over and over, pleading with you to listen. None of you could make out what she was saying. Not only is she a donkey, but she is deaf and mute. She embodies several major problems we face as a nation. All she was asking for was your help, over and over again, and none of you, none of you could make out what she was saying. This embodies the plight of many of the minorities in our nation. They have no voice. No means for you to hear them. Many of you became angry and perhaps thought I was wasting your time. I just recently learned a lesson about pleas for help and not listening. I took it to heart and I have the lumps to show for it. I am asking for an immediate vote to allow for minority representation so we can begin to fix these problems.” 

The chamber exploded with sound, a furious roar traveled through the gathered crowd as the shouting began. The shouting grew louder and louder. Twilight Sparkle began crying out for silence. A fight started between a pegasus and an earth pony, and the fight spread, becoming a vicious multi-tribal brawl. Twilight Sparkle cried out for guards and none seemed to be coming. She stood in the crowd, demanding order, surrounded by a shield spell so she could protect herself and Glass Slipper. 

Realising that Bittersweet might be in danger, Rising Star picked her up, burst into flames, and began to walk out of the chamber. Ponies gave him plenty of space, fleeing out of his way, running, screaming in panic as the flaming fey unicorn made his way to the door with the donkey held up above him out of harm’s way. As Rising Star exited, he saw a few guards approaching, but many seemed to have abandoned their posts. 

Saddened, he shook his head as he made his way through the doors and left the main chamber. 



 

“Sister, time and time again your solar guards have failed. There is division in your ranks and loyalties lie scattered, this is a problem that keeps rearing its ugly head and causing us problems—” 

“I know Luna,” Celestia said, cutting Luna off. “I am aware of the issue. Not everypony goes into the dreaming minds of their guard and keeps them fanatically loyal.” 

“Sister, there is no need to be snippy.” Luna’s eyes narrowed from hurt. 

Shaking her head, Celestia apologised. “I am sorry. That was uncalled for. I give my guard a great deal of freedom and I keep hoping for the best from them. I only get the best from a few. I am bitter, I am angry, and I took it out on you. That was wrong. I am also angry with you for sending in lunar guards and Myrmidons into the representative chamber. I worry how democracy can happen with living suits of armor scaring everypony in there into submission.” 

“Buckminster is not exactly a cheerful pot of geraniums either.” Luna stared at her sister. 

Unable to help herself, Celestia snorted and then let out a sad sounding chuckle. 

“Sister, these are tumultuous times. I see into ponies dreams. There are a lot of angry ponies because they are no longer on the top and they are now forced to scrabble out an existence with those they once exploited. Many are unhappy with the idea of equal hoofing. Their entire way of life burned up during the summer and now those ponies have to find a new way. Those with old wealth are now destitute and they curry favour with whatever they have left, trying to rig the game in their favour once more. This is not going to be easy… and to have a pony like Rising Star step in and demand that equality be spread to the others who share Equestria with us, that is is going to cause a panic. Many businesses depend on donkeys for cheap labour and this threatens their profit margins. Many employers are already furious that they have to pay earth ponies a fair wage. Meanwhile, type one unicorns can sit back in a collection factory, in total ease while enjoying air conditioned comfort as they sit in a well cushioned chair, they get milked for their thaumaturgical liquids, and make three times as many bits in a day as an earth pony wagon puller or labourer. Being born a unicorn still means a free pass to the middle class for many.” Luna’s expression became sad and she looked away from her sister and out the window towards the Stable of Representatives building. 

“What do we do? Time and time again, my guard betray me. I give them freedom. I hear what they say about your guards and their slavish obedience. I try to be their friend. I try to be fair. I try to make certain that my solar guard are treated in the same way I want my subjects treated, fairly and kindly… but every time that it matters, they turn on me. It hurts so much… and here I am just focused on my guard… the rest of our problems seem insurmountable.” 

Luna turned to look at her sister. “There is the geas—” 

“We have the entire Stable of Representatives under geas already just to safeguard our budding democracy. Where does it end? If we start with the guards, why not the police? If we geas our police, why not our teachers? We will need to keep going… eventually, all of our subjects will require a geas to live within our society.” Celestia's voice was a fearful whine of pain and her eyes brimmed with tears. “I hate what we have done to the Stable of Representatives even though I know it is necessary. We could end tribalism and discrimination against minorities with a geas. Fair wages would be paid. But then, our subjects would not be choosing to do the right thing. They would be forced.” 

Frustrated, Luna stomped her hoof. “What about just one generation of adults under the geas… they would raise their offspring to believe in the correct values—” 

“LUNA!” 

Luna’s ears dropped down in submission and she took a step backwards away from Celestia. “I am sorry… that slipped out. I do not know if I actually meant it. I too, am frustrated and angry and I want results!” 

“Somehow, we have to make them want to do the right thing, sister.” Celestia moved to Luna’s side, moved alongside Luna, and placed her wing over the smaller alicorn. “I envy the donkeys in a way… their ethics are gloriously uncomplicated by magic. They are a simple species and most of them do what is right for the sake of doing right. Bittersweet is a magnificent creature.” 

“There are going to be many, many nightmares tonight about the Bogeypony, and for many, it will be a nightmare of their own crafting. I am returning to bed. Summon me if I am needed.” Luna leaned against Celestia and allowed herself a moment of closeness. 

“Sleep well Luna, I will leave a light on for you, my sister.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 645
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pacing back and forth, Bucky looked at the seventy one guards who had failed this day. Seventy one guards who had deserted their post. Some were older, some were younger, and all of them had one thing in common; they had not kept their oath. This made Bucky furious. 

“One pony died today,” Bucky said in a low voice as he paced back and forth. 

Not far from him stood several Myrmidons and a whole host of lunar guard. Guards that Bucky could trust. Guards that, if given orders, would die if required while trying to complete those orders. 

“One pony died and there were over two hundred injured. This was a great day for democracy. I do not care why you abandoned your posts. I do not want to hear your excuses. All that matters to me is… you failed.” Bucky ceased to pace and he stared at the seventy one pegasi standing in the training yard. “The entire command structure of the guard was removed. We had to purge that because it was sickly and full of disease. We cut that away. Seems there is some flesh we missed. Now, the question is, what do we do with this diseased flesh before me?” 

None of the guards said anything, but one of the lunar guards did laugh just a little, chuckling just loud enough to be heard, and Bucky did nothing to silence him. 

“While waiting for your sorry caracasses to be brought before me, I was struck by inspiration, because I honestly did not know what to do with the lot of you. But then it hit me. I am going to hurt you. I am going to hurt you badly. I am going to hurt you and then I am going to hurt you some more and then I am going to keep hurting you for as long as possible. Even after I am dead, I am going to keep hurting you right up until your own worthless bodies die and are dumped into the trash pile where they belong.” 

One of the solar guard coughed but nothing was said. 

“You are going to pay back every bit invested in you.” 

Bucky’s words were met with confused, blank stares. The pegasi looked at him, none of them comprehending Bucky’s words. Wings fluttered. Ears splayed out or perked forwards. But nopony seemed to have an inkling of what Bucky meant. 

“You are going to pay back every bit spent on you. The cost of your training, you will pay it back. Every bit paid to you for your service, you will pay it back. The cost of your armor, you will pay it back. The cost of housing you, feeding you, the cost of your medicine, the cost of your medical care, the cost to get you cured of the thrice damned Drip, everything ever spent on you will be added up, accounted for, and you will be responsible for paying every single bit back—” 

“You can’t do that!” a pegasus barked. 

“I can’t?” Bucky asked. He moved towards the pegasus that had spoken and a Myrmidon followed after him. “I can’t? Pray tell, why can’t I? Do you wish to go to Princess Luna? Perhaps you’d like to deal with Keg Smasher… because those are your only options. Do you think the Princess of the Night will be merciful? Do you even want to know what Keg Smasher secretly does to deserters? Out of the Triumvirate, I am your best option and your only hope.” 

The Myrmidon shadowing Bucky leaned forward and let out a low rumbling growl to the pegasus scowling and looking unhappy about Bucky’s decision. Encased from ear to hoof in armor, the low rumbling growl echoed and reverberated inside the suit of reinforced steel. It was the sound of nightmares wrapped in plate mail. 

“Each of you will be fitted with a leg band. It will stay with you for the rest of your lives. It will tell of your location. It will mark you as a deserter of your post. You will be kept track of, and each and every one of you will pay back every bit ever given to you or spent on you. Any attempts to remove the leg band will be met with explosive repercussions.” 

One pegasus stepped forward. “I have spent twenty three years of my life in service. I am two years away from retirement. There is no way I could work and pay back everything given to me or spent on my care.” The pegasus looked at Bucky with a hurt and confused expression. 

“Sounds like you will die destitute and with nothing. Don’t worry, we will not be cruel. We will only take forty nine percent of your gross pay… that is if anypony is willing to hire you once they see you wearing the deserter’s mark. I intend to make certain that every single citizen in Equestria knows what a deserter’s mark looks like. You should feel proud. You’re going to better society by being made an example of.” Bucky grinned and lifted his head high. 



 

Exhausted even with his fey endurance, Rising Star trotted through the wide arboretum of the diplomat’s quarters in Canterlot castle where he and his family were staying while the Stable of Representatives were in session. The glass dome overhead allowed sunlight in and it trickled down through the trees. 

Bugs and birds flew overhead, the season under the glass dome was a perpetual spring on the verge of summer. An artificial waterfall burbled nearby. This was a soothing place, and Rising Star hoped that Ripple might recover here. 

“Rising Star… might I have a word with you?” 

Pausing mid step, Rising Star froze in place, turned his head, and looked at Princess Celestia. He felt a mild sensation of panic as she approached. She looked sad, upset, and there were plenty of reasons why. Her eyes were red and her step seemed heavy. 

“I wanted to speak with you,” Celestia said as she drew closer. 

“I was hoping to speak with you as well,” Rising Star replied, feeling nervous and wondering how to bring up the delicate subject matter he had in mind. 

“What about?” Celestia asked. 

Rising Star said one word: “Ripple.” 

Princess Celestia nodded. “Ah, good. That is what I wanted to talk to you about . What did you have to say?” 

Squirming, Rising Star wasn’t certain how to say what needed to be said without it sounding as though he was requesting favouritism or leniency. “Is Ripple going to be punished? I mean, everything that happened. And for that matter, Loch Skimmer and Sparkler. Everything kind of got out of hoof. And I don’t mean punished like by our parents… I mean punished. The guard got involved. There was a bit of an incident.” 

Her eyes going wide, Celestia lifted her head and pulled back in stunned surprise. “Rising Star… no… you do not punish the sick, that is cruel and heartless! You treat them, kindly if you can.” Celestia recovered her composure after a moment of staring at Rising Star and her expression softened. “Mental illness is a sickness like any other. Ripple lost control of her mental facilities. She was unwell and is still unwell. From what I understand, she is still under quite a bit of sedation so she does not go into an agitated state and begin ranting about all of the worries plaguing her mind. Ripple will be treated and looked after, not punished.” 

“I’m a little confused about all of that,” Rising Star said, looking up at Celestia. “I mean, Ripple did something awful to Sparky and there is all this talk of domestic abuse and I don’t want it to look like we’re being shown favouritism and all of this has me worried.” 

Stepping forward, Celestia wrapped her wing around Rising Star’s neck and pulled him closer. “Ripple was sick… you need to understand. Fear did a horrible thing to her mind and reduced her ability to act appropriately. She might have seemed okay for a while, from what I understand she even flew to Ponyville to buy some sheets and she seemed to be in control while she was planning and trying to fix the problems at home, but at that point, she was already lost. The breakdown had not happened yet, but the fracture had already taken place. She was suffering horrendously.” 

“So is she going to be okay from this? I mean, her career… punishment can mean so many things… I need to know that Ripple is going to be okay because I made so many mistakes and I messed up so badly and I don’t know how to fix all of this and I am scared out of my mind that her life is ruined and it is all my fault—”

“Rising Star… deep breaths… breathe in, hold it, and then let it out.” Celestia wrapped her wings a little tighter around Rising Star’s neck and pulled him even closer. “All of you are so hurt. Each and every one of you. And each of you try so hard in your own way to deal with everything that happened. Ripple will be picked up, dusted off, and allowed to fix her own mistakes. But she is going to need a lot of help. Her future, her ability to cope, her ability to function, I think a lot of it will have to do with her home life. She is not so different from Buckminster when you examine all of the details. She needs a stable supportive environment. She needs a refuge she can come to. She needs love and kindness and a safe place to let down her guard. Truth be told, all of you are like this to some degree, but it is especially bad for Ripple. She has a sickness, but it can be treated.” 

“I feel like I almost lost her. I love her so much. I have trouble expressing it though because I am young and stupid and I spend too much time thinking with my dick lately and she’s a filly and it seems like I just don’t know how to talk to fillies lately and there’s been this growing gap with all of my wives and it just keeps getting wider and wider and now it is so wide that it is easier to just ignore it rather than try to talk about it.” His sides heaving, Rising Star closed his eyes and tried to hold everything in. “I tried talking to my parents… my dad said to take them out to dinner. That was his only advice. Dinner doesn’t fix the wolves howling inside of my head!”

The pain was sudden, sharp, and swift. Celestia felt as though an icicle had been rammed through her heart. She closed her eyes and felt the tears coming. 

“The noise of the foundry drowns out the sounds of howling inside of my head. I haven’t told anypony. I haven’t said anything because I was scared out how it might make me sound and there is so much riding on my shoulders and so many ponies depend on me and I can’t stumble, fail, or fall down because so much depends on me so I just try and deal with it in my own way and I don’t even want to sleep anymore because I can still hear them howling and in that time when you’re not quite asleep and not quite awake I can still smell the burning of the undead and I remember every horrible thing that happened on the Isle of Wheat where dead things kept moving and I had to burn them!” 

Celestia felt Rising Star collapse as the sobbing started. He pitched forward into her, his legs buckling, and Celestia caught him in her telekinesis. She picked up him, holding him close, held against her neck, and then with a heavy heart, she placed one hoof in front of the other as she carried Rising Star back to his room. 

“Come on Rising Star… let me get you back to your wives. You need them right now and they need you. You understand each others pain. Just cry and let it out dear… Ripple will be so very happy to see you.” 
	
> Chapter 646
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Majesty, we have reports of violence in the outer crescent beyond the mid city walls. There are angry protesters in the streets. There are different groups, each of them angry about something. There are also angry guards demanding that you overturn the Lord of Winter’s decision.” The pegasus guard looked up at Princess Celestia with wide fearful eyes. 

“Summon Captain Hierofalco and his regiment. Have him look after the guard and see if their ruffled feathers can be smoothed over,” Princess Celestia replied. “As for everything else, try to bring calm to the situation if possible and keep me informed of any changes.” 

The guard snapped off a salute with his wing, turned, and then departed. 

Watching the guard go, Princess Celestia wondered if the fragile peace would hold. 



 

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. I can feel the hatred and hostility that is seething in this city.” Shining Armor stood near Princess Celestia’s empty throne. 

On the floor, not far away, Cadance, Glass Slipper, and Tourmaline played together. 

“There were a lot of emotions today. A lot of ponies had everything they believe in challenged. A lot of ponies had their entire way of life threatened. While a lot of ponies are angry, I think it will be okay.” Twilight Sparkle looked over at her brother. “We have to trust in the good of our subjects. There are good ponies. There are lots of good ponies and there are a lot of good unicorns, so don’t bring that up again either, Shining Armor. I saw them today, trying to help protect and defend those who could not protect themselves. While the violence in the Stable of Representatives chamber today was unsettling, a lot of good ponies stepped up to do the right thing, unicorns included.” 

“I’m not worried about those unicorns,” Shining Armor said in a soft voice to his sister as he moved towards the three foals playing on the floor. When he reached the quilt where they were playing, he sat down on the edge. “I can feel this city’s sickness.” 

“Shiny!” Cadance bounced up and down where she was sitting and looked up at Shining Armor, her eyes glittering with adoration. 

“Do you need a hug, Cady Bug?” Shining Armor asked. 

“Yes!” Cadance extended her forelegs. 

Scooping Cadance up in telekinesis, Shining Armor held her close. He wrapped one foreleg around her and clutched her to his neck. He kissed her, once, and then closed his eyes as he squeezed her. 

“I feel dizzy,” Tourmaline said as she looked at Shining Armor and Cadance. “Almost too much… my head…” 

Worried for her friend and playmate, Glass Slipper threw herself onto Tourmaline and squeezed as hard as she could. “Love makes you stronger, silly!” 

“Too much at once.” Tourmaline fell over with Glass Slipper on top of her. She rubbed her head and let out a low moan. 

“This is what I mean Shining Armor… we have a pony that is best friends with a changeling hugging on the floor right in front of you. While this city might be sick, there is still hope. Things can still change. We have to look for the good in things and celebrate them when we find them.” Twilight Sparkle smiled and looked at Glass Slipper and Tourmaline. 

Shining Armor opened his eyes. “You speak as if there is some mystical, magical force that friendship brings.” His tone was teasing and there was half smile, half smirk upon his face. 

“My recent trip with Princess Celestia and all of my friends taught me that there is a lot of good in the world still. There are brave souls willing to fight and do what is both good and necessary. The trip… the trip reignited my passion and gave me perspective. It made me grow as a pony and a leader. I can choose to focus on the negative, to worry and fret… or I can focus on the good in the world and then work to reinforce it so that it grows stronger. I choose a more proactive stance and I look to what I can defend rather than what I can fight.” 

“Little sister, you have grown up…” 



 

Standing on the balcony of Princess Luna’s room, Bucky stared off at the lurid orange glow on the horizon, feeling a painful lump in his throat. He glanced over at Luna. They had just watched the moon rising. In Luna’s eyes, Bucky saw tears. 

“Not again… how can I protect them if they keep doing this to themselves?” Luna’s voice was a pained whimper. “These fools… they have set the city on fire… Buckminster, prepare yourself. I must secure Erebus.” 

A lunar pegasus landed on the balcony, folded his wings, and bowed his head. He looked at Bucky, then Luna, and his slitted eyes blinked. “Majesties, I have dire news to report. As you can see, the outer city, the poor quarters, have been set ablaze. But there is a bigger problem. Somepony has gated in a demon and it is running amok near the trainyard.” 

“Buckminster... Buckminster, this is a real crisis…” Luna felt a burst of cold and then she realised that Bucky was gone. “Get rainclouds on those fires! Secure the school! Begin trying to evacuate the quarter around the railyard! Mobilise the entirety of the guard! MOVE!” 

The guard’s wings snapped out and he launched himself from the balcony, off to do his Mistress’ bidding. 



 

Flying in griffon form, Bucky followed after Twilight Sparkle. They flew over a city now caught in the grip of fear. Beneath them, ponies stampeded through the streets. There was violence happening, but there was no time to intervene in the troubles down below. Those were minor troubles compared to what was ahead. 

There was much bigger trouble ahead. 

There was a loud supersonic crack and Bucky knew that Luna was off to deal with the outer city, off to summon up as many stormclouds as she could. He poured on some speed and tried to keep up with Twilight, who kept accelerating towards the terrible threat that was ahead. 

Bucky hoped that he could keep Twilight Sparkle safe. 



 

“We have screwed up.” 

“No denying that.” 

“We don’t have much to live for.” 

“No denying that as well.” 

“The city is burning. Again.” 

“They keep building the new buildings out of wood!” 

“We may not be able to pay our debt, but we might be able to earn forgiveness. Who’s with me?” 

“We’re confined to these quarters.” 

“And earlier, most of us deserted from our posts for a variety reasons, which is what got us here. We’re already in trouble, it can’t get any worse.” 

“Anything is better than sitting here.” 

“One last chance to prove ourselves… do we take it?” 

“You know, we could use this chance to escape the city… we could go south… or somewhere…” 

“Well, I plan to go and redeem myself. I have no idea what the rest of you are going to do.” 



 

“Hey ugly! I got bad news for you… there is only room in this town for one ugly messed up looking creature, and I was here first!” As Bucky taunted the demon, he brought up spell protections. He could see that Twilight was doing the same. 

The demon, taller than a building, glared at Bucky. It was a massive, fat, disgusting thing with four arms, two legs, a large protruding belly, and a head that looked like all of the worst parts of a hippopotamus had been smashed together with a naked mole rat in the most haphazard manner possible. 

With a beam of telekinetic force, Twilight Sparkle began the exchange of hostilities. It struck the demon in its fat, gross gut and bored a hole through him. The demon grunted, paused, and then began to chuckle as the hole began to close up and his flesh knitted itself back together. 

Moving faster than the eye could see, the demon lunged for Twilight Sparkle. He snatched her up in his greasy fifteen fingered fist, squeezed, and then rearing back, hurled Twilight away. 

Bucky watched as Twilight Sparkle smashed into the side of a building. The wall shattered and Twilight kept going. The building crumbled from the impact and the wall collapsed. Bricks poured into the street. 

Filled with rage and grief, not knowing if Twilight had survived, Bucky darted forward as shadow, streaking past the demon, moving towards the train yard as a black intangible blur. The demon followed, stomping on its large flapping feet. 

Ahead, a locomotive sat on the tracks. Bucky became just solid enough to use his telekinesis. He lifted the locomotive up, feeling the strain inside of his mind, and then with as much force as he could muster, he slammed the steam engine into the side of the demon’s head. 

The titanic creature, almost a hundred feet tall, toppled over as his skull caved in from the force of the impact. It landed on its flabby, fetid belly. Still holding the locomotive in his telekinetic field, Bucky circled around, almost blind with rage, everything in his vision was shades of red or grey, and with all the force he could muster, Bucky stuffed the steam engine into the massive, cavernous cleft of the creature’s buttocks. 

The demon let out a howl of pain as the steam engine was rammed up his backside. 

Bucky was already picking up another locomotive as the demon got up on its feet. It hunched over, bellowed in pain and rage, grunted, squatted, and shat the train engine lodged in its backside out. Just as the engine tumbled to the street, Bucky slapped him with the second locomotive. 

The demon was felled once more, this time landing on his back, and Bucky brought the engine down upon the demon’s exposed and vulnerable groin. 

“Oh… that’s how it is… you wanna throw ponies through buildings!” Twilight cried as she came around the corner. The alicorn’s feathers were disheveled, rumpled, and her mane was mussed. She was dirty and covered in soot. Twilight Sparkle shook herself off, bared her teeth, and then burst into flames. 

Following Bucky’s lead, Twilight picked up her own locomotive and began clubbing the demon, breaking its arms and legs, smashing his skull, hammering away and raining down blows as Bucky did the same. 

But the demon was healing almost as fast as they could damage it. 

Twilight Sparkle tried burning it, but it ignored her flames and her fiery conflagration did nothing to slow down the demon’s regeneration. Bucky froze the creature’s arm and Twilight struck it with her steam engine. The arm shattered into tiny pieces. 

The tiny pieces dissolved and the arm began to grow back. 



 

A single, lone pony marched through the panicked mobs. The mobs were all heading one way, and the lone pony went the other. Pegasi guards flew overhead, trying to herd the ponies out of the danger area. Most ponies moving against the herd would be stampeded, crushed, trampled, but this pony was not like other ponies. 

What made her different from other ponies was, she was made of stone. She pushed her way through the mob and ponies bounced off of her. She was very, very careful not to crush other ponies beneath her hooves. She pushed ahead, oblivious to the seething mass of bodies around her, and not slowed down in the slightest. 

At long last, she pushed her way through the mob and into clear streets where only a few ponies remained, all of them fleeing, running after the departing mob. She picked up her pace a little bit, her stone mane and stone tail had a pert bounciness to them as she worked her way into a canter. 

Alone, smiling, she headed for the sounds of battle. 

After a few more blocks, she came across two ponies trying to beat a demon to death with steam engines. The demon, now enraged, had gone berserk and the crushing blows did almost nothing stop him. It seemed to be shrugging off the blows of the locomotives. It could do nothing to harm its attackers. It tried to grab the amorphous black shadow attacking it and came away with handfuls of smoke and shadow that slipped out between its many fingers. The flaming pony kept teleporting around so that she was always just out of reach. 

The situation seemed to be at a stalemate. The forceful blows of the levitated train engines were no longer even knocking the colossal creature over. It had grown powerful and strong with rage and hate. 

Seeing what it thought was a helpless pony in the street, the massive, flabby, disgusting demon snatched one of the now battered locomotives out of the air, reared back, and hurled it at the stone pony. 

The hurled engine struck the stone pony with terrific force. The pony, being made of stone and struck with a steam engine, shattered. Pieces of the stone pony flew everywhere and the train engine slid over the street, into a tall group of rowhouses, and toppled them over. 

There was a furious howl of rage that filled the night and the demon began to chuckle. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 647
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Black flames danced along the length of Bucky’s horn and he felt the sweet sting of dark magic flooding through his being. Pain and rage were his strength, his old standby. There was no pain worse, no rage stronger, there was nothing more emotion evoking than a father that had just seen his daughter killed. 

With only a tiny thread of control holding him back, Bucky let go of a disintegration beam. It burned through the creature’s shoulder, boring a hole through the demon’s body, and the flesh did not begin to grow back right away. The demon’s left upper arm hung limp against its body. 

Though tempted, Twilight Sparkle resisted the siren call of dark magic. 

Bucky let go of another disintegration beam and the demon’s limp left arm was blown off. It landed in some rubble, twitched, and then started to dissolve. It burned and melted the stone and brick as it bubbled away. 

The black flames along Bucky’s horn extinguished. He had already burned through a lot of his energy. He was feeling tired and he didn’t know what else to do. He worried about using more dark magic. The creature was already recovering, but now the regrowth along the gaping wounds of the demon’s shoulder was slow. 

Twilight Sparkle unleashed a torrent of lightning from her horn. It struck the flabby demon and made him convulse. His fat, bloated, filthy rolls of flesh jiggled in a most obscene manner. It almost looked as though the disgusting horror from the abyss was dancing a jig, and his tumorous flaccid penises flopped up and down in a nightmarish fashion. 

It was a sight that would give Twilight Sparkle nightmares for years to come. Bucky on the other hoof, would use this image to give other ponies nightmares for years to come. 

With a burst of magic, Bucky turned the ground beneath the demon into a sheet of ice. It slipped and fell over, still writhing as Twilight Sparkle kept the streams of lightning going. The demon flopped around like a fish out of water, howling, Twilight Sparkle’s lightning turning its skin black and crispy. 

As the pair continued to try and wear the demon down, they did not notice bits of rubble, pieces of brick, cobblestones, chunks of stone, and pieces of an old marble statue pulling together into something almost pony shaped. It shimmered and rippled, the bits of stone, rock, and rubble almost moving like a liquid for a moment. The jumbled bits of rock solidified and then, the stony pony stood up. 

“YOU DON’T HIT SWEET LITTLE FILLIES WITH TRAINS, YOU GOBSHITE!” 

Roaring like a landslide, Sparkler stomped forward, the various bits of stone that now made up her body still shifting, merging, and blending together. Her somewhat crooked horn blazed with pink light and Sparkler cast Acidulent Assault pH0, Bucky’s oh so special cleaning spell that she had learned during her time spent on the Shetland Isles, upon the creature’s groin. 

Acidulent Assault pH0 promised to remove tough stains, dissolve stone, metal, wood, and even clean up hard to remove demons. The demon’s genitals burned away in a foul yellow-green foam. One leg began to get burned off at the hip. 

But the damage was temporary. Already, the creature was starting to heal. New flesh bubbled and sizzled beneath the acid. The demon’s howls echoed all over the city.

Exhausted from piecing herself together, Sparkler cast one final spell. The demon’s skin began to turn to stone. It screamed, it thrashed, but there was nothing it could do as the stone began to creep along its body. 

Sparkler squinted and gave it all that she had left. “Make more ice!” she commanded. “Once I have it petrified, we need to shove it off of the cliff so it will shatter!” 

Feeling so glad to hear Sparkler’s gravel grating voice, Bucky began to summon more ice as he almost cried with relief and Twilight began to shove the creature out towards the train yard. Sparkler moved with them, keeping her petrification beam focused upon the demon. 

The trio moved together and more and more of the demon was claimed by stone. In the outer edge of the train yard there was a wall, and outside that wall was a sheer drop down to the valley floor below, thousands of feet of empty air with stone at the bottom. 

Scowling, Twilight Sparkle shoved the now petrified demon through the wall and watched it drop. The burning alicorn spread her wings and took off, flying after the massive stone body of the petrified demon as it took its fatal plunge. 

With a gasp, Sparkler became flesh again. Her body was covered in oozing gashes, blood seeped from rips in her skin, and one leg flopped around at a crooked angle. 

“Sparky!” Bucky fell down into the rubble beside her and tried to pull her close without hurting her. He kissed her face, once, twice, and then several more times in rapid succession. “I thought I lost you… you… stop scaring your parents!” The shuddering sobs that wracked Bucky’s ribs are agonising. 

There was a massive thud from down below. 

“We need to get you to the castle… Tourmaline can fix you up. Tourmaline can make this okay… we need to get you to safety.” Bucky scrambled to his hooves and scooped Sparkler up in his magic. “I didn’t ascend… I didn’t ascend… I held it all back… I held back everything. I chose love instead. I kept it together and now I just need to get my sweet little filly to safety and everything will be okay.” 

“Daddy.” Sparkler’s words were a faint gasp and she raised her head to look at Bucky. 

Bucky felt himself lifted up in the warm tingle of powerful magic. No longer needing to walk, he pulled Sparkler closer and began to kiss her face again. After kissing her many times, he then buried his nose into her bloody mane and inhaled her scent as he cradled her body in his forelegs. 

“He shattered,” Twilight Sparkle said as she gained altitude. “I crushed his remains into a fine powder. He’s not coming back. He had the stink of necromancy about him. When I find out who did this, I am going to have Sparkler turn them into stone so they can think about what they’ve done.” 



 

There was bad magic in the city tonight. Princess Celestia could feel it in her bones. She stood on top of the gatehouse that led to the entrance of the school, feeling fearful, nervous, and afraid. In the courtyard behind her, refugees from the city were gathered, and her students were looking after their needs. Looking out over the city, Celestia stood guard and watched. 

She felt a fierce pride for her students. They were level headed, they were calm, they approached this situation with dignity, grace, and poise. They passed out water, food, and tended to the injured. A makeshift triage camp had been established. 

There was rioting not too far from the castle walls. 

Behind her, in the courtyard, Celestia heard screams of terror. She lept from the gatehouse and her wings remained at her sides. She plunged down almost thirty feet and her hooves cracked the cobblestones on impact. Keeping calm, keeping cool, Celestia strode forward to protect her students. 

“He bit me!” 

Celestia heard a low moan from the pegasus that wobbled about ahead of her. The crowd had cleared away from him. As Celestia approached, the pegasus shambled and turned around, shuffling in a low clumsy manner. 

The pegasus’ eyes were milky, clouded, and dead. Celestia realised what she was looking at the moment she saw it. Blood dribbled from the pegasus’ mouth and a flap of skin hung from his teeth. 

“You poor dear… I am so sorry… I will find whomever did this to you and I will see that they are punished,” Celestia said in a grief stricken voice. She held everything in, knowing what she could do if she lost control of her emotions in this situation. All of her students, all of her subjects, all of those who depended upon her would suffer. Choking back a sob, Celestia shoved the pegasus down with her telekinesis, ground him into cobblestones, breaking his bones to render him harmless, and then she ignited his remains. 

Screams filled the courtyard around her. 

The undead pegasus blazed brightly and the courtyard filled with the stench of burning flesh. 

“GUARDS! Fetch the orbs of undead compulsion! We are going to need them!” 



 

Princess Luna hovered over a bank of clouds that dumped rain on the cheap wooden buildings below. Quite a few of the tenements had already burnt down. She was doing everything she could to save the rest of them. It was through the force of her will that more water manifested within the clouds and turned into the drenching downpour that was drowning the fires below. 

A bright flash light up the night sky. Luna felt magic. Bad magic. The worst sort of magic. Magic fear crept into her brain. All around her, the solar pegasi of the day that were managing the clouds all screamed, reaching up and clutching their ears as they did so. Many shook their heads. And then, one by one, they went streaking off into the night, shrieking in terror. 

Luna felt alarmed. 

She looked around, her alicorn senses trying to determine what was going on, and the magical stench of necromancy was strong in her nostrils. Something rotten lurked in the city below. Something most foul. 

The bolt of black energy that streaked up through the clouds beneath her and struck Luna caught her by surprise. Her right wing melted away like wax and her ribs were laid bare. Letting out a pained cry, Luna plummeted to the earth. She slammed into a burning building, which shattered her leg, bounced off of a balcony ledge, and then smashed into the drenched street below. 

Flopping about in the water, Luna gasped and tried to draw breath. A second bolt struck her. The flesh along the left side of her face melted away and her left eye dribbled out of its socket. 

“I wonder… do I have your attention?” a soft voice asked. 

A figure wearing a dark cloak approached, his cloak staying dry in the driving rain. It paused and stared down at Luna, unmoving. Two eyes glowed beneath the voluminous hood. It took a few more steps forward. 

“I have worked so very hard to get your attention. I had to worm my way into so many minds. I had to wait and be patient. And today, today your pathetic subjects gave me just the opportunity I needed. You see, I could not pass up such a golden opportunity when it presented itself.” 

The figure lowered its head and watched as Luna lay there, helpless and gasping. Her horn flashed with a silver glow for a moment, and then her magic died. 

“I say… are you ignoring me?” The figure cocked its head. “Tsk tsk. We cannot have that.” 

Greenish-black flames ignited along a black jagged looking horn that protruded from the figure’s hood. Necromantic energies flared outwards and consumed Luna’s body. Lacerations opened in Luna’s skin. Muscles became exposed. Deep gashes manifested. Her hooves cracked and split. 

“I have played this city like a fiddle. My Master will be most pleased. We need fear to bring Him back. We have plagued this city with uncertainty and doubt, seeded these fertile fields with dissention, and now, we are going to reap some rewards.” The figure paused and chuckled before it continued. “I know that I cannot kill you, but is it not horrifying what you immortals can live through?” 

Laying on the ground, Luna gurgled and one leg made a feeble kick. 

“Once my Master comes back, I am positive he will find some way of severing the bonds that keep you living. You do not seem so threatening or powerful at the moment. More like a foal.” 

The figure stepped forward and one leg extended from his cloak. One crystalline looking hoof lifted. It was shiny, it glowed with a faint light, and it was opaque. The hoof came down on top of one of Luna’s cracked hooves and the cloaked figure pressed down, grinding his hoof into Luna’s. 

Luna’s cracked hoof split open, there was a sickening crunch, and blood oozed out, only to be washed away by the rain. 

The figure lifted its hoof and backed away. “Amazing. I left you with the capacity to scream, but you do not. Your defiance is rather amusing. Hmm… I wonder… what secrets does the night hold? Shall I have a taste of what us mere mortals only dream of? Perhaps a good rutting would teach you your place? Tell me Night Harlot, would you care for some hot seed being squirted down your throat? Or shall I first defile the the majesty of the night? Shall I part your night skies?” 

The cloaked figure threw back his head and laughed. 

“I do believe I shall put in the extra work to send a message just how helpless all of you are.” The figure stepped forward. 

There was a dull explosive thud and the cloaked figure went flying. He slammed into a building, went through the wall, and a shadowy black mass went streaking off after him. The shadowy black mass howled with anguish and fury and it moved with supernatural speed. 

“Princess Luna… what has he done to you?” Twilight Sparkle said as she landed. She stood there, wide eyed and horrified by what she was seeing. “Bucky got your message… we got here as soon as we could… what do I do? What do I do?” 

“I have him,” Bucky said as he emerged through a shattered window. He lifted up the strange unicorn held in his telekinesis. “I took him alive. He’s no longer a threat.” With slow trembling steps, he approached Luna and pained whimper escaped Bucky’s throat. “Mistress…” 

Not knowing what else to do, Twilight Sparkle lifted Luna’s bloodied and battered body in her telekinesis. She then lifted Bucky and the strange unicorn, who had black crystals growing out of his weird, jagged, black horn. Flapping her wings, Twilight took to the air so she could return to the castle. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 648
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Is the prisoner secured?” Celestia asked in a voice husky with pain and worry. 

Bucky nodded as he cradled Luna’s head in his forelegs. His whole body trembled as he looked up at Celestia. “He is some kind of crystal unicorn… but not like the others. I’ve ruined his thaumaturgical system; he’ll never cast magic again.” 

“What do we do?” Twilight asked, dancing around on her hooves. 

The tall white alicorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Twilight, Bucky, I need to ask both of you to leave. I promise you, Luna will be okay.” Celestia opened her eyes and looked upon the mess that was her sister.

“I’m not leaving!” Bucky looked up at Celestia with pleading eyes. “No…” 

Luna gurgled and her body made a few feeble twitches. “Bucky… stay.” Luna’s words, almost inaudible, caused blood to dribble down her chin. 

“I don’t know what is about to happen, but I’m staying.” Twilight moved closer to Celestia’s side. “I’m so scared… I’m so scared.” 

“I promise you, Luna will be okay.” Celestia’s voice was gentle and soft, but also filled with pain as well as fear. “Be calm, both of you. Luna’s suffering will be over very soon.” 

“Hold me… Bucky.” More blood frothed and bubbled around Luna’s lips as she spoke. 

“Sister, how I hate to hurt you… are you ready?” Celestia’s eyes narrowed. 

Unable to do anything else, Princess Luna blinked her remaining eye. 

“Buckminster… hold tight to her. I promise, everything will be fine, but you must trust me. Twilight, please, try not to panic. I will shield both of you.” Celestia paused and looked down at the battered remains of her sister. “Luna, my beloved sister, I hate what I must do and I am sorry.” 

A whimpering wail slipped out of Twilight’s mouth as the stress of the moment became too much. Fear and doubt settled over her. The stress of the night was sinking in and seeing Luna, a pony that she loved, in this condition was too much. She pressed herself into Celestia’s side and started bawling. 

Lowering her head close to Luna’s surviving ear, Celestia whispered, “Hush now, quiet now, it is time to rest your sleepy head… hush now, quiet now, it is time to go to bed.” 

When the last word left her mouth, Celestia burst into flames. A torrent of fire filled the room around her, but nothing in the room burned. 

Except for Luna.

Flames devoured Luna’s body, searing away her pelt, burning away her flesh, in moments she was incinerated and Bucky felt the weight of her head in his forelegs vanish as she became dust. A choking sob escaped his throat as his teacher, his Mistress was burned away. Even her bones were consumed in the flame. 

And then, the flames were gone. The bed, unburned, was full of ashes. Just as Bucky started to sniffle and weep, there was a loud pop. A small dark blue filly with light blue hair popped into existence and landed against Bucky. 

Twilight Sparkle stood staring, her eyes wide, and after a moment, she managed to say, “She’s like how she was when the Elements of Harmony brought her back! She’s a filly!” 

“Luna!” Bucky had his forelegs around the filly in a moment and lifted her. He squeezed, crushing Luna to him, and a few shuddering sobs escaped from his mouth. 

“Let go of me at once! Release me, Minion!” Luna cried in a squeaky voice. 

Crying, Bucky squeezed even harder and pressed his muzzle against the top of Luna’s now whole and perfect head. He ignored the Luna’s feeble kicks and her attempts to wiggle free. He rubbed his cheek against Luna and took comfort in feeling the warm fuzz of her small body against the side of his face. 

“I think he marked me! Lunar ponies! Ugh, help!” Luna tried pounding on Bucky with her little hooves as Bucky sobbed. “I have no strength, no magic in this state! You’re smothering me! Stop! It tickles! No more fuzzy wuzzy muzzle nuzzles! This is demeaning and degrading! Remove your hooves from me this once! Talons too! Off! Off! Off!” 

“I told you that Luna would be fine. We just had to burn away the old body so the new one would form. How do you feel, Luna?” Celestia smiled and her eyes were filled with tears. 

“Tell him to release me, sister!” Luna looked up at Celestia with foalish pleading eyes. 

“No. I think Bucky needs you. He’s had a hard night. Bucky, look after my sister. In this form, she is weak and helpless. It will be quite some time before she gets her strength and her magic back—” 

“Ooooo, how dare you! You know how clingy he is with foals!” Luna cried as she continued to struggle. “He is wet! He is soiling my royal body with his tears!” 

“Twilight, there is still much work to be done. We need to be going. Luna will be fine.” Celestia moved her muzzle close to Bucky’s ear. “When you recover, leave this room and go and be with your family. You have done enough this night, you have proven yourself, shown great restraint, and I am proud of you. All I ask is that you guard Luna in her current state.” 

Bucky nodded and squeezed Luna even tighter as he sobbed.



 

When Celestia lowered the moon and raised the sun, a bruised, battered city celebrated the end of a long night. There was a tired cheer from the castle ramparts. Much of the city was in ruins. Not long ago, the rats had caused no end of chaos and the events of the long night had further damaged the city. 

Guards patrolled the streets, some of them armed with orbs of undead compulsion. Reports of zombie ponies continued to filter in. There was a near state of panicked hysteria in the school courtyard camp. Canterlot’s hospital was overcrowded and the military hospital in Canterlot castle was dealing with the overflow. 



 

In the hours just after dawn, Rising Star stood next to the Stable of Representatives building. Many of the buildings around it were rubble, burned down, and turned into blackened hulks. Lunar guards stood nearby, squinting in the sun, and a few other stable representatives had also shown up. A large crowd had gathered. 

“We were supposed to meet today,” Rising Star said in a loud clarion voice. “Since we won’t be meeting today, I decided I’d start cleaning up this place. I came here to Canterlot to get some work done. I came here to be a public servant. I came here to serve you.” Rising Star looked at the crowd of ponies staring at him. 

The crowd parted as a procession of donkeys as well as earth ponies came marching up the street, pulling wagons, and hauling equipment. At the head of the line was Sulky and she was pulling a wagon. She waved at Rising Star. 

Stepping down from off of his pile of rubble, Rising Star went to Sulky and stood near her. “What brings you here?” Rising Star grinned at the donkey mare. 

Sulky lifted her head high. “This is my city too. I live here. I thought I’d help you clean the mess up. I heard that some of the stable reps, you included, were having an impromptu meeting this morning. I brought some friends and a few wagons.” 

“I am really happy to see that you are okay,” Rising Star said. 

“I had a few close calls last night. I was saved by a really nice unicorn. He’s right over there. His name is Lint Trap and we’re going to go have drinks once all of this is over.” Sulky turned and smiled at a bespectacled unicorn hitched to a wagon a few paces behind her. She turned back to Rising Star and winked. “He’s kinda hunky.” 

With a flutter of wings, Twilight Sparkle landed. She looked weary, exhausted, but she gave everyone present a weak smile. She stood, her legs stiff, and she lifted her head high. “Need some help? I see everypony else is helping out… I wouldn’t want anypony thinking that we alicorns are above lending a helping hoof.” She stood tall in the half melted, sooty, rubble strewn slush. 

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” Rising Star said. 



 

“I don’t understand. I am unable to detect him at all. I can’t feel him, I cannot detect him as a threat, there is just nothing there when I try to focus upon him as a threat.” Shining Armor scowled and shook his head. “I have failed. I have you let you down. And in doing so, I have let Cadance down. I am sorry.” 

Princess Celestia, who stood atop the gatehouse once more to keep watch, turned look at Shining Armor. “Shining Armor… you expect too much from yourself. Sombra is gaining power. Somehow, his agent has figured out a means to cloak himself from you, from Luna’s dream patrols, and from our own magical detection. I have never seen anything like him. He is not quite a crystal pony, but he is not quite a unicorn either. He is… weird. Something else.” 

“I suspect he was transmuted into something akin to a crystal pony so he could focus more magic. After everything he has done last night, I would think he might be a type three or a type four. His whole body has been reshaped by necromancy.” Shining Armor watched as a wagon filled with injured ponies was pulled up the gate by a donkey. “I believe he is most likely responsible for the rats.” 

“I do believe I agree with you. Those rats were brought about by strong necromancy.” Celestia watched a wing of royal guards pass over head. After watching them shrink and grow smaller in the distance, she turned to look at Shining Armor. “And what is the word on our deserters?” 

“Of the seventy one deserters, twenty nine have turned themselves in this morning just after dawn. All of them were sooty, sweaty, showed signs of dehydration, and showed signs of intense labour to save the city. Eleven of their number died last night. Thirty one guards are unaccounted for, and the twenty nine we have confined to quarters once again said that the others have fled the city.” Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed and he looked up at Celestia. “What should be done with them?” 

“Speak with Buckminster. What I would like to happen is to have all of them demoted to some form of probationary rank so that they might redeem themselves. We must trust in the inherent goodness of ponies. They could have flown off with their fellows. They chose to stay here. Eleven of them died defending this city,” Celestia replied. 

“I don’t get it.” Shining Armor watched another cart approaching the gate, being pulled by a donkey. “Why are they helping? We treated them so poorly. All of this… mess… this trouble, it came about because of what happened yesterday and they were at the center of it.” 

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, turned her face to the sun to feel its warmth upon her, then turned back towards Shining Armor and opened her eyes. “Many, many donkeys came to this city to help make change. I invited quite a number of them here, even paid for the cost of train tickets, food, and lodging for the majority. I had hoped that a few stable members would take up their cause. Some did. I trusted in the inherent good of ponies. Now, the donkeys are rewarding me for my kindness, of this I have no doubt.” 

Shining Armor blinked and looked confused. His brow furrowed. 

“You look puzzled.” Celestia reached out her wing and patted Shining Armor. “You look exactly like your sister when you make that face.” The regal alicorn beamed and her eyes narrowed from her smile. “Shining Armor… go check up on your sister. See that she does not exhaust herself.” 

“Yes… of course.” Shining Armor nodded and then vanished. 

Alone, Celestia surveyed her surroundings and kept watch. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 649
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rubbing his chin with his talons, Bucky perused the reports that were given to him. The scales on his foreleg had become hardened, stiffer, it was similar to a griffon’s avian scales, but also different. The scales had an odd metallic feel to them, almost like dragon scales. 

“And I suppose this is your opinion upon the matter as well?” Bucky asked Shining Armor. 

Shining Armor nodded. His projection flickered for a moment and he seemed to be looking at something far away. 

“I concur. Clean service records for those that have died. Their honour has been restored. As for the others, well… give them the probationary rank of Horseapple Head. After a year, they will be up for review and can be promoted to Horseapple Head First Class. After the second year, they can earn the title Private.” 

There was a snort as Shining Armor’s entire face contorted. More snorts escaped. Deep wrinkles appeared on Shining Armor’s muzzle. One of Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed as the other went wide. One ear began to twitch and Shining Armor’s ribs heaved a few times. 

“Something funny, Emperor?” Bucky asked. 

“No… nope. Absolutely nothing funny at all,” Shining Armor replied in a strangled voice as he choked back laughter. “We, the Emperor, find nothing at all amusing.” 

“Think they will hold a stable rep meeting tomorrow?” Bucky asked, changing the subject. 

“Yes. It is planned. A number of ponies, Rising Star among them, have demanded an emergency meeting. The citizenry demands that the meetings take place. Will you be here?” Shining Armor replied. 

“No.” Bucky dropped his talons to the table. “I am going home as soon as possible and I am taking Luna with me. After what she endured… the quiet stability of the farm is probably just what she needs.” 

Shining Armor’s expression softened into worry. “She insists she is fine.” 

“We both know she isn’t.” Bucky closed his eyes. “Her body was so broken… and now she can’t feed Erebus or care for him.” Leaning back in his chair, Bucky reached up and rubbed his withered, scarred cheek with his talon finger tips. Tilting his head, Bucky looked at Shining Armor. “One unicorn Shining… just one unicorn. One unicorn did all of this. He infiltrated the city, warped minds, created chaos, spread fear, derision, dissent, stirred up old hatreds, look at everything that has happened.” 

“Summoned a demon, created undead, and used powerful necromancy to strike down one of the Princesses of Equestria.” Shining Armor shook his head and his cheeks huffed out as he sighed. “At least he is currently a statue. We have nothing to worry about as far as he goes. I take it you have plans for him, but I have no desire to know what those might be.” 

“I have plans… but not what you might think. Luna taught me a valuable lesson about the need for revenge a while ago. I will not allow myself to indulge in my inner darkness and potentially risk Cadance.” 

“Thank you, Bucky.” 



 

“Sister, we have this information, but what do we do with it?” Luna asked as she tried to squirm away from Berry Punch, who was brushing her mane. 

“We let the public hear it. I have pulled the memory from your mind… we have every word that he said to you. I can project it with magic. We let the public hear everything,” Celestia replied as she glanced at the crystal rod that held Luna’s memory of the event. 

“Even the really bad part at the end?” Berry pulled Luna closer and attacked the tangles in the filly’s mane with a brush. 

“OW! Stop pulling!” Luna’s eyes narrowed as she squirmed. “We let them hear everything. Hold nothing back. Let them know what our enemy is like.” 

“Luna, this is… very private… he said awful things.” Celestia’s voice became a husky strained whisper. “He was going to… he planned to…” 

Luna’s eyes glittered with a rage that seemed too large for her small filly body. Her lower lip trembled and she went still against Berry Punch. Her forelegs wrapped around the earth pony foreleg surrounding her middle. “Tell them! Let our subjects know that they were played for fools and my body almost paid the price for their idiocy!” 

Setting down the brush, Berry Punch wrapped her other foreleg around Luna and crushed Luna to her barrel. With a sniffle and a grunt, Berry Punch began to cry. 

“Why are you crying? Why are tears happening! What is going on!” Luna asked.

“Shut up and let me hold you!” Berry Punch replied. 



 

Feeling a pride he had trouble containing, Bucky looked at his older foals. So close to adulthood, yet so far away. Bittersweet was eating a meal of salad and carrots, chewing with a contented smile upon her muzzle. Ripple, who was still medicated, sat in a chair beside Bittersweet, leaning up against the donkey. Her eyes were half closed and she was smiling. Loch Skimmer was sitting on a sofa, looking at her sister and Bittersweet, her expression was thoughtful and her green eyes seemed both sad and hopeful at the same time. Beside Loch Skimmer, Sparkler lay on the couch. her front leg wrapped in bandages and hung from a sling around her neck. 

“We killed a greater demon.” Sparkler’s face lit up with a dopey grin. “I got hit with a train.”

For a moment, Bucky felt his heart sink. He closed his eyes and tried to push that image out of his mind. The pain was too much, the image was still too vivid. 

“It was weird not having a body. It was like that moment when you teleport and at the time, you’re not real, but your consciousness exists, only it stretched out for several minutes. For those minutes, I was the entire Canterhorn mountain. It was an amazing feeling.” 

In the back of Bucky’s mind, he wondered and worried if Sparkler was immortal. He thought of Luna’s broken, ruined body and he felt his stomach churn. It was a horrifying thought. 

“We are never going to hear the end of this.” Loch Skimmer waved her hoof around. “I got hit by a train… I helped kill a greater demon… I am the hardest hardarse that has ever lived…” 

“Shut up, Loch!” Sparkler made a face at Loch Skimmer and stuck out her tongue. 

“Without Sparkler, Twilight and I might have been wailing on him all night… or I might had have to turn to dark magic. Twilight Sparkle is not powerful enough to cast a banishment spell yet, but I have no doubt, one day, she will be.” Bucky leaned over the table and rubbed his aching head. He felt sick and queasy. 

“Why didn’t Celestia or Luna just banish the demon?” Loch Skimmer asked in a low worried voice. 

Rubbing his snoot, Bucky looked at Loch. He took a moment to think of the right words to say. “They could have. And the demon would have been right back in Tartarus. And then Celestia or Luna, whomever cast it, would have been weakened, without magic, and defenseless during a time of crisis. Celestia was watching the castle and the school. Luna kept the city from burning down and her magic kept a lot of ponies alive. It was a matter of priorities Loch Skimmer… Twilight Sparkle and I were trusted to find a way to deal with the threat.” 

“You should have turned into a dragon and ripped him apart.” Loch Skimmer looked at Sparkler and saw Sparkler’s thoughtful expression. 

“And then, who would have saved the city from me? As it was, there was so much collateral damage. But a dragon… rampant destruction of dragonbreath, and my size… sure, I would have been a good match for the demon. I would have been bigger than he was. But who would have protected the city from me? My tail?” Bucky’s stomach lurched and he felt an almost overpowering sense of nausea wash over him. 

“Would a dragon been able to beat him? I don’t mean burning him, he’s immune to fire, but I mean, by, say, eating him a piece at a time?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky replied as he reached down and clutched his stomach. A cold clammy sensation crept over his skin. His brain showed him images of Sparkler being smashed and Luna’s broken body. He thought of his grief at seeing Twilight Sparkle hurled through a wall. 

“Daddy, you don’t look well,” Sparkler said. 

“I don’t feel well.” Bucky closed his eyes and hoped that the sick feeling would pass. 



 

The world was a very confusing and awkward place at times. And this happened to be one of those times. This was the sort of moment that could drive a pony to distraction, having to deal with two foals in the most peculiar of all situations that one might encounter in life. 

Nearby, Luna wept bitter tears as Erebus suckled. Erebus, who has behaving, wasn’t nipping, and for this, Berry was thankful, but he was a hard feeder with a lot of suction. The first few goes there had been nips and Berry had shoved him away, confusing the colt and causing him to cry. But now, he had learned some manners. 

“This hurts so much!” Luna wailed as she fell over on the bed and closed her eyes. She kicked her legs and broke into a full blown tantrum, rolling and thrashing about. “I am his mother!” 

Heaving a sigh as she extended her foreleg, Berry Punch hooked her hoof around Luna’s middle and hauled her closer. She wrapped both forelegs around Luna, grabbing Luna’s legs, and Berry Punch restrained the filly from thrashing about. After a moment of struggle, Luna went still but continued to sob, her face buried into the blanket upon the bed. 

“Hush, it’ll be okay,” Berry Punch said in a soothing whisper. “Princess Celestia said you’ll be fine in month or three—” 

“His life is so short! He will stop suckling soon! He will be growing up and I am missing these precious moments!” Luna’s squeaky voice was filled with grief and rage. She tried to kick and thrash again but was powerless to break the earth pony’s protective embrace. Unable to do anything else, Luna threw back her head, screeched, and slammed her head down into the bed. 

Berry Punch reached a conclusion that very few ponies would understand; Luna had been hurt in the worst way possible, the very worst way that one could imagine. Something had been taken from her that could not be given back, could not be replaced, could not be made better. Realising this, Berry Punch felt the sting of tears and she closed her eyes. 

In a small crib in the corner, Cadance snorted and then began to babble, letting everypony know that she was now awake. 



 

With the farmhouse in view, Bucky heaved a sigh of relief. It was good to be home. Around the sky carriage, a wing of Myrmidons flew. Rising Star and his herd were still all together in Canterlot, but Bucky had returned with Berry, Cadance, Luna, and Erebus. 

A wing of griffons joined them in the air and looking out the window, Bucky could see the cleared space in the field where they would be landing. It was the place they had launched the gyrocopter, which would be brought back home under the cover of night at some other time. 

The carriage banked and began a sweeping curve as they lined themselves up with the makeshift landing strip. 

Away from the carriage, but close enough to be seen, Rainbow Dash and her class of fliers flew in formation, streaking through the air, rolling, diving, climbing, and banking. 

“Probably going to be a hard landing,” Berry Punch said as they drew closer to the ground. She blinked, looked out the window, but did not seem concerned. 

“What will Barley say?” Luna asked as the carriage gave a lurch. 

Hanging her head, Berry felt a pain her heart as she realised there was another short life that mattered a great deal to Luna. 



 

Stepping out of the carriage, Bucky saw a grey pegasus hobbling through the snow to greet him. He grinned, feeling better, and lifted his head high. “Hiya beautiful… guess what… this time I brought home two foals!” 

“Bucky!” Derpy looked for stunned for a moment. She stood there, blinking, and the wind whipped her mane back. “We talked about this!” A confused expression crossed over the grey mare’s face. “Can I see them?” 
	
	
> Chapter 650
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“...and that is everything that happened. Some gory details included.” Bucky shuddered for a moment, felt queasy once more, and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and hoped that the strong feelings of being sick that he had suffered earlier did not return. 

“Oh my.” Derpy made a nervous popping sound with her lips and then began to look around, not certain how to respond, how to feel, or even what to say. The grey mare turned her head, closed her bad eye, and squinted at Luna with her good eye. 

“Bucky did the right thing. He did not kill our prisoner. But Bucky, I am wondering, what was that spell you used to knock him out?” Luna asked. 

“I don’t have a name for it. I call it a ‘boomf’ and it is something I was working on for non lethal pacification,” Bucky replied as he opened his eyes. He blinked a few times and felt what threatened to be a headache in a while. “I create a telekinetic sphere that is airtight and then begin super compressing air inside of it. I release the telekinetic sphere and there is a ‘boomf’ sound as the air compressed inside of the sphere is released. I thought it might be useful in riot situations.” 

“Ingenious.” One of Luna’s ears twitched. “I desire and require ginger snaps.” 

“Does little Luna want a cookie?” Derpy asked. 

“Do not patronise me!” Luna’s eyes narrowed. 

“Cranky fillies do not get cookies.” Derpy frowned and looked at Bucky. 

“I detest this body. It has strange wants, needs, and desires.” Luna dropped her head and sulked. She heaved a pouty sigh and her wings fluttered at her sides.  “Might I please have a cookie?” 



 

Derpy had reached one conclusion; alicorns were weird. The immortal ones even more so. Her experiences with Twilight Sparkle, her time spent around Luna, Cadance returning as an infant, and now, Luna in a regenerated body. Alicorns were strange creatures. 

Wincing, almost limping, Derpy made her way down the hall. Bucky was sleeping, he had complained of a headache. Barley had snatched up both Luna and Erebus and then had gone upstairs. Luna had cried upon seeing Barley, and Barley had broken into tears not long after seeing Luna weeping. 

Feeling a sharp, stabbing pain near her groin, Derpy rounded the corner and crossed into the kitchen. She saw Semillon near the stove. Derpy hobbled to the table and sat down in a hard wooden chair. She grunted as her weight settled down upon her backside and then leaned against the table. 

“Semillon, I hate to ask you for anything, but I need to ask you for something,” Derpy said. 

“You employ me, you are supposed to ask me for things,” Semillon replied as she turned to face Derpy. The middle aged cook smiled. 

Derpy nodded, leaned forward a onto the table a little more, propping herself up with her front legs and finding a somewhat comfortable position. “I need some ginger snaps.” 

“Are the twins feeling peckish for ginger snaps?” Semillon asked, raising a fine thin eyebrow as her ears perked forwards.

“Not for me, but for Luna. To make her feel better. I think she likes them. Knowing Luna, she probably likes them extra snappy.” Derpy closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled, feeling a little out of breath. “I love my foals, really I do, and I treasure every moment I have with them, but I want these foals out of me. They need to go.” 

The unicorn cook chuckled as she returned to her task. “I’ll have cookies made soonish. Tonight’s dinner promises to be one of your favourites. Cheese curds and peppery gravy served over fried potato wedges. There’ll be biscuits too. For the meat eaters, there will be mealworm meatballs and a thick fish bisque.” 

“That’ll all be good for Berry, but what are the rest of us supposed to eat?” Derpy asked. 

Semillon closed her eyes and let out a hearty laugh. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and then tried to catch her breath. “Do you think I should fix more food? I can… I had an idea for a corn soufflé with a creamy onion and mushroom sauce.” 

“That sounds good,” Derpy replied. 

“If you wait just one moment, I can get you a hot cup of tea… you sound like you are suffering, dear.” Semillon turned away from the large stockpot over the stove and looked at the grey pegasus at the table. “You look miserable too.”



 

Glad that school was over, Dinky, dragging her hooves, entered her room, stepped inside, and then dropped her bookbag on the floor by the door where she always dropped it. Dinky froze. Something was wrong with her room. Something was wrong with her room and there were too many beds. 

Dinky saw that her and Piña’s beds were now stacked on top of one another, forming bunk beds, and there was a narrow wooden step ladder leading up to the top bunk. Where Piña’s bed used to be, there was now another set of bunk beds. There was a tiny wooden stepstool leading up to the bottom bunk and in the middle of the bed there was one of Harper’s stuffies. 

Dinky began to suspect that she and Piña had a new roommate. 

“Move out of the way, Dinky doofus,” Piña said as she shoved Dinky aside. The pink earth pony paused and her eyes narrowed as she looked around. “Something is wrong with our room.” 

“Yep.” Dinky nodded and she heard the clunk of Piña’s bookbag hitting the floor. 

Sticking her head in the room, Thistle said, “Sorry girls. The decision was made to move Harper and Sukari out of the nursery. Please, be good fillies and help us. We need your help. Try to look after Harper and please, try to make Sukari feel safe. You know how she can be when she feels spooked.” 

“But we’re growing up… we need our privacy.” Dinky turned and looked up at Thistle. 

Beside Dinky, Piña did the same, her ears pinning back against her skull as she did so. “We talk about grown up stuff in here. This is a bad idea.” 

“Grown up fillies have responsibilities. If you are grown up enough to talk about stuff you’d be ashamed of other ponies hearing, you’re grown up enough to look after your younger sisters.” Thistle offered both Dinky and Piña a gentle smile to make them feel better.

“This isn’t fair… Sentinel gets a room all to himself and we’re getting stacked up in here.” Dinky, left with no other recourse, resorted to whining. “Why don’t we get a say in this? Why not move them into the stinky stink hole of a room my older sister had?” 

“Because. The decision was made to trust you with some responsibility. I’m sorry girls, but you are just going to have to accept this and get over it,” Thistle said. 

“And I suppose they sent you to tell us so you’d get mommy experience.” Piña scowled and turned away. She snorted in contempt. 

Thistle, hearing and seeing Piña’s reaction, started to chuckle. She reached out and patted Piña on the back. “Yes. That is probably true. I was asked to come up and tell you the news.” 

“We need privacy… this is unfair.” Piña turned and give Thistle the worst scowl she could muster. “I have weird dreams and it is bad enough that Dinky has to hear them… I could just die from embarrassment right now.” 

“You know, this could be worse,” Thistle said in a voice filled with laughter. 

“How could this be worse?” Piña asked in a voice squeaky with anger. 

“We could have moved Princess Luna into your room,” Thistle replied. 





Pulling out her books, Diamond Tiara laid them out on the table. She grabbed a pencil and set that out as well. Across the table, Sentinel was doing the same. Beside Diamond Tiara, Boadicea plopped her bookbag upon the table and then slumped down into her chair. 

“Hey, at least Loki isn’t torturing us,” Scootaloo said in a cheerful voice. 

“I do not understand this multiplication. I am not stupid and I hate being talked down to,” Boadicea said in a low angry voice. 

“Teacher give you a hard time?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

Nodding, Boadicea pulled out her homework and let out a frustrated huff from her open beak. 

“I am lousy at math. I have trouble with multiplication as well. I lose track of what number goes where.” Sentinel, feeling awkward, placed his front hooves upon the table and the corners of his mouth contorted downwards into a scowl. “I do not see its importance.” 

“They say math is important to pilots, so I’ve started paying more attention.” Scootaloo pulled a stack of papers out of her bookbag. “But since when is language composition important to flying well?” 

Trotting through the dining room, Semillon placed a platter of fresh gingersnap cookies down upon the table, smiled, and then trotted off back to the kitchen. 

Sentinel, watching the cook go, took a moment to say, “Thank you.” Not long after, the others around the table also voiced their appreciation. 

“Okay, here is the plan,” Diamond Tiara said as she pulled a cookie off the platter. She waved her cookie around and noticed it was still warm. “I’ll give a little math class but only if Sentinel gives a little language class. I think if we work together, we can get through this.” Diamond Tiara stuffed her cookie into her mouth, took a bite, chewed, swallowed, and blinked. “These are really good… but they got some bite!” 

“I’m in,” Scootaloo said as she too, took a cookie. “Rainbow Dash said that she’d take me to a Wonderbolts show if I got good grades and a good performance review from the Raptors.” She crammed the whole cookie into her mouth and chewed. 

“I could use help with both.” Boadicea looked around the table. “Well, what are we waiting for? The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.” 



 

“So Harpy, do you want a cookie-wookie?” Thistle held out a gingersnap for Harper and smiled. She watched as Harper stopped stacking blocks together and turned her head. 

Getting up, Harper knocked over her block tower and came to Thistle. She sniffed the outstretched cookie. Rearing back her head, Harper sneezed, which caused her bright orange curls to explode outwards in all directions. Sparks arced from the tip of her horn. 

“Sneezy!” Harper shook her head and stepped away from the cookie. 

Meanwhile, Thistle tittered and bit her lip to keep from laughing. 

“Cookie taste like sneeze.” Harper stared at the cookie with a wary eye. 

“Come on, take the cookie… have a bite,” Thistle broke off a smaller piece of the cookie and presented Harper with a bite sized morsel. Thistle found Harper’s confusion between smell and taste an adorable thing to fawn over. 

“Um.” Harper’s eyes narrowed and she stepped forward. She nibbled on her own lip, took another apprehensive step forward, and she let out a small squeak of fear. “Cookie make nose tickle.” 

“It is a gingersnap.” Thistle waved the small bite of cookie in front of Harper, hoping to hope coax Harper into eating it. 

“Gingersneeze? Sneezysnap?” Harper’s eyes followed the cookie as it waved back and forth. “What when cookie makes head inside tickle?” 

“Num num… Harper, you love cookies, come on, take it.” Thistle’s eyes glittered with mischievousness and prankish glee that only a mother could have when playing a bit of a joke on her foal. 

Her tail twitching up and down, Harper came forward, her lips pulled from her teeth, and she snatched the worrisome cookie away from Thistle. She crunched it up, chewing on the tiny bite, and one eye began to twitch and quiver. She swallowed. 

“Num num!” Thistle grinned even wider.

“Cookie bad!” Harper’s eyes watered and one eye continued to twitch. A dull throbbing glow appeared at the base of her horn. “Bad mama gave Harpy cookie badness! Stand in corner cookie!” Harper began to run in circles. 

Thistle threw back her head and laughed. 

Running in circles, bouncing up and down, Harper allowed her tongue to slip from between her lips as she tried to cool off the stinging sensation in her mouth. The dull glow on her horn grew brighter. Her poofy orange mane expanded outwards to unheard of levels of frizz and the foal let out a panicked -woo woo woo- sound as she gamboled about with her tongue flopping around. 

A bolt of energy shot from Harper’s horn, struck the ceiling, and knocked loose a sizeable chunk of plaster, which came down and conked Thistle on the head. The kelpie squeaked in both alarm and pain. White plaster dust fell like snowflakes. 

After letting out a squeal, Harper came screeching to a halt and stared up at Thistle. 

“More cookie?” she asked. 
	
	
> Chapter 651
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were a lot of neat things in this house that Luna had never noticed before, never paid much attention to, never took the time to look at. Standing up on Barley’s chair by the fireplace, she stretched out her neck as far as she could, braced her front hooves on the stones that formed the fireplace, and peered over the edge of the mantle. 

The first thing she noticed was a small glass pegasus. It was exquisite in detail, flawless, perfect in every way, even the bubbles on the pegasus’ hips were present. It was one of the most beautiful things Luna had ever seen. Beside the glass pegasus was a glass earth pony, also perfect. Each thick curl in her mane had been captured. Next to the earth pony was a smaller figure, and her smile revealed many pointed teeth. Her waterweed mane and tail even had little glass blossoms. Sitting down beside the glass kelpie was a tiny glass griffoness, perfect in scale to the rest of the figures. Every feather on her wings were visible. There was a glass unicorn with a lyre next, she had a mischievous expression upon her face. Beside the unicorn was a solid, stocky earth pony. The earth pony’s face was kind, loving, and she had a soft smile. 

There was another unicorn, a male, much older, wrinkled, wise looking, and he had a familiar scowl. Around the older male unicorn was a whole herd of little glass foals. One little glass unicorn foal hugging an earth pony foal. Two lunar pegasi foals, one male, one female. Beside the lunar pegasus colt there was a little earth pony filly made out of pink glass. The male lunar pegasus was looking over much smaller foals. A tiny little unicorn with a frizzy mane. A tiny glass alicorn. A little glass zebra. One little foal that looked like an earth pony but Luna knew it was a kelpie. 

Another little family of glass ponies stood near. A tall unicorn that had cloven hooves. Another unicorn that stood beside the tall one. A pegasus with a very goofy grin. Another pegasus, this one wearing ornate war shoes. Between the pegasi, there was a donkey. 

It was the most marvellous thing Luna had ever seen. She stood there, entranced, feeling tears welling up in her eyes, not knowing why she was overcome with emotion. 

“Those belong to father… those are all things that he considers his. There are other figures he plans to create when he has the time. That is the collection of ‘do not touch’ and the things that father values.” 

Dropping down into the chair, Luna looked at Sentinel. 

“Those are the most important things to father. What he frets over. What he worries about. Those are things he loves.” Sentinel moved into the room and looked at Luna. She wasn’t that much larger than he was. “I know for certain that father plans to create a few more alicorns and each of the Elements of Harmony.” 

“They are beautiful,” Luna said, looking at Sentinel. 

“Father would burn away the land and boil away the oceans for each of them.” Sentinel blinked. “Are you okay? My mother, Derpy, had a talk with me. She told me what happened.” 

“I am fine now… this body is new. I am untouched,” Luna replied. 

“That is not what I asked. I asked if you are okay. You are more than a body.” Sentinel’s brow furrowed and his expression became stern. 

A pained expression crept over Luna’s face as she stared at Sentinel. “No Sentinel, I am not okay.” Luna’s voice dropped into a low whine. “I remember the pain. I remember everything. I remember standing on my balcony and seeing my home burning. I remember everything… everything… and I remember my sister reducing me to ashes.” 

Sentinel moved towards the chair, his hooves making no sound on the wooden floor. He lept up into the chair beside Luna, sat down, and ignoring Luna’s protests, wrapped a wing around her and pulled her close. When Luna tried to squirm away, Sentinel applied more pressure and pinned her in place. After a moment, Luna went still and Sentinel felt her lean on him. 

“Luna, where were your guards? Your Myrmidons?” Sentinel asked. 

“I sent them away to guard my little ponies. I had my Myrmidons on the streets shielding my subjects. The lunar guard were all working to evacuate burning buildings and airlift the injured. I kept no protection for myself,” Luna replied. 

“We serve and we do what we can.” Sentinel rubbed his cheek against Luna and left behind a somewhat greasy looking dark patch just below her ear. He ignored her squirming and muttered protests. 

“The house is so quiet,” Luna said, breaking the silence after a long moment of quiet. 

“The little foals are being bathed and readied for bed. Dinky and Piña are busy researching something top secret. There are moments where this house is quiet.” Sentinel could feel Luna’s heart beating through her ribs. He could hear it too, it was a faint, steady, muffled thump. 

“Thank you, Sentinel,” Luna said in a low whisper. 

“For what?” Sentinel asked. 

“For being you,” Luna replied as she closed her eyes. 



 

“Look, little fillies need to go to bed,” Berry Punch said in a low voice to Dinky and Piña. 

“Tough luck. We have homework. We have research that needs to be done. We have things we need to do. Maybe you should have thought about that before moving them into our room.” Piña gave Berry Punch a petulant stare and narrowed her eyes. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Berry Punch summoned her patience but refused to admit that Piña might have had a point. She glowered down at the defiant earth filly and tried to think about what it was that she could say. 

“This is our room, our place of study, the place where we work and play and sleep and we do stuff in here. We can’t get our homework done if the lights are turned off and little fillies need to sleep.” Piña’s ears pitched forwards in aggressive defiance. “I bet you didn’t even think about our needs or how this might have caused some problems.” 

“Piña—”

“If you did think of these problems, if you did think about how this affects us, we wouldn’t be butting heads right now.” Piña sat down on the floor and did her best to look smug. 

“Fine… one more night in the nursery for them. But only so we can sort out these issues,” Berry Punch said as she backed out the door. “You know, there is nothing stopping you from doing your homework in another room. The library or the dining room.” 

“All our stuff is in here.” Piña’s lip protruded into a pouty smirk. 

“You know Piña… while you’re doing this homework of yours, you should spend some time thinking.” Berry Punch stood in the hallway and looked down at her sister. “Think long and hard how your sister changed her entire life to look after you and see that you were cared for. Imagine if I didn’t have the time or the desire to look after you.” Berry Punch slammed the door and then stomped off down the hall. 

In her room, Piña’s face fell and she discovered that she had nothing smart to say. 



 

In the nursery, Luna sat in the big bowl shaped chair with Erebus curled up against one side and Cadance sitting on the other side. Cadance burbled and was blowing spit bubbles, making happy little foal noises as her head bobbed up and down. 

A short distance away, Barley sat in the rocking chair and his head nodded as he dozed. 

“Mama missed you,” Lyra said to Harper as she sat on the floor, hugging Harper and squeezing the unicorn foal until her eyes bulged. Lyra fell over onto her side, rolled over onto her back, and pulled Harper up on top of her, still squeezing. 

With a snort, Barley awoke. He looked around and saw Lyra. “Closed early?" he asked. After a moment, his muzzle split into a wide yawn and he let out a sleepy sounding whine. 

“The store was dead so we closed early and I came home to see my little Harpy!” Lyra rolled around on her back. 

Recovering, able to breathe once more, Harper attacked her mother’s face with kisses and little electric shocks every time her muzzle touched Lyra’s face. The little zaps had an audible crackle and blue sparks arced between the filly and her mama. 

“Have we figured out where Luna is sleeping tonight?" Derpy asked from the bedroom, her voice soft as it came through the nursery door.

“With me,” Barley replied. His wrinkled face slipped into a scowl and he somehow looked even older. “All that matters to me is that she’s a warm body. Erebus too.” 

“Okay.” Derpy’s voice sounded relieved as it drifted through the doorway. 

“If Erebus wakes up hungry, give a holler.” Lyra looked up at Barley and gave him a sad smile. She craned her head around as Harper continued to kiss her and looked at Luna. “I’m glad you are here with us. I mean, it shows a lot of trust, you being here, and letting us look after you and Erebus… I mean, well, I hope you understand what I am saying.” 

“Thank you, Lyra Heartstrings,” Luna said as her eyes began to glisten. 

“I… I need a drink.” Barley got up out of the rocking chair, stretched, and then stood there blinking. 

“I could use a strong drink as well.” Luna looked at Barley with wide, hopeful eyes. 

“Not a chance lass, yer too young.” Barley shook his head. 

“Barley, I am an adult in the body of a foal,” Luna’s hopeful expression turned to one of anger and her thin brows furrowed as her ears pinned back. Her blue mane slipped down over her face. 

“You come and talk to me when you’re an adult in the body of a teenager, and maybe we’ll talk, if you’ve been well behaved.” Barley’s wrinkles intensified as he gave Luna the stinkeye. 

“You cannot just treat me like I am a foal!” Luna cried. 

“I can’t?” Barley’s eyebrow raised and his tail twitched. 

Harper, sensing a bad foal, stopped kissing Lyra. Sitting on Lyra’s barrel, Harper raised her head and watched the contest of wills as it unfolded. Electrical arcs coursed through her mane and her dark purple eyes were wide. 

“If you demean me I will have my guard summoned and I will demand to go home!” Luna glared in defiance at Barley, her ears perked forwards, and she gave the older stallion an imperious, aggressive stare. “I am your Princess, and I demand that you do as I say!” 

“I dinnae have to take this sort of shite,” Barley said in a low growling voice. 

His horn flared and Luna was yanked out of the bowl shaped chair. She kicked and wiggled, but was held fast in Barley’s telekinesis. A hairbrush slid off of the changing table and flew across the room. Luna was turned around, her tail was pushed aside, and there was a single loud -THWAP!- as the brush slapped against Luna’s left buttock. Luna’s eyes bulged, her cheeks puffed out, and both ears splayed out into a submissive position. Luna then squealed in pain and fury, kicking, thrashing about in the air, and Barley levitated her into the corner. 

She tried to turn about to face Barley, but found that her hooves would not move and she was stuck facing the corner. Tears rolled down her cheeks and Luna began to sniffle. 

“What is going on in here?” Bucky asked as he appeared in the door. He looked around, looking confused and worried. 

“Luna got a smart mouth. And I popped her one over her little blue backside to show that I don’t take no sass. Dinnae worry, it wasn’t hard, more sound and sting than anything else. And now she’s gonna stand in the corner for a while,” Barley replied as he set down the hairbrush. 

“Release me at once!” Luna demanded. “Buckminster! Make him let me go! I command you! You are obligated to do to as I say! Now have him release me at once!” 

“Barley, you know how I feel about spanking… how hard?” Bucky asked, looking a bit out of sorts. The confused look on Bucky’s face said a lot about the situation. 

“I assure ye, not hard. A little sting and some sound.” Barley’s voice was now calm and reassuring. 

“How hard?” Bucky cocked his head to the side and fixed his gaze upon Barley. There was some edge to Bucky’s voice now. Something burned in his grey eye, the first ember of what could become anger. 

“Fine lad, I’ll show ye,” Barely replied. He lifted the brush, levitated it over to Bucky, and gave Bucky a swat on the backside, giving it the same oomph as the one he had given to Luna. 

Standing there, with an almost slow mechanical motion, Bucky turned his head towards Luna. “You… you are going to stand in the corner for however long Lyra decides. No more sass. You are under my care and your sister has given me full authority over you. We do not tolerate spoiled foals.” Bucky turned his head back to Barley. “That was far more gentle than I thought. Violet hits harder than that with a newspaper. Don’t let this become a habit. There are better ways to punish than spanking.” 

In the corner, Luna sobbed as she realised how hopeless this situation was and that her authority meant nothing any longer. 

“When all of this is over, both of you are going to apologise to one another and that will be the end of this. Do I make myself clear?” Bucky asked. 

“Aye, as crystal lad,” Barley said, nodding his head. 

“Good. I am glad we have resolved this. Now go sit in the corner Barley, and think about what you’ve done. You can come out when Lyra says it's okay.” 

“What?” Barley’s eyes went wide with shock. 

“Did I stutter?” Bucky lifted his talons and pointed at the other corner, the only empty corner left. 

Sighing, Barley nodded. “Aye lad, I suppose I deserve this. I struck her in anger.” Barley shuffled off to the corner, stuck his nose into it, and sat down on the floor. He heaved a sigh and slumped over in shame. 

“Lyra, see that they apologise to one another before you send them off to bed. I want a sincere apology too. If you sense any lip service at all, back into the corner with both of them. And I want more than an ‘I’m sorry’ being exchanged. I want some meaningful words said. Now if you will excuse me, my head hurts and I am not in the mood for these sorts of problems right now.” Bucky turned around and departed with a snort, going back into the bedroom. 

“Wow, both of you got off with a light sentence,” Lyra said in a low whisper once Bucky was gone. 
	
	
> Chapter 652
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Dinky, we’ve messed up.” Piña turned to her sister and blinked away a few tears. 

Staring down into her book, Dinky did not reply. 

“We messed up,” Piña repeated, shaking her head. “Think about Sparkler and how she was always looking after you. Looking after us. There was plenty of things I know Sparkler probably wanted to do but she always made her plans with you in mind. With us in mind. And if it wasn’t for Berry, I would have been totally ignored as a foal because everypony in that house was sick to death of little foals by the time I came along.” Unable to stop herself, Piña began to sniffle. 

Closing her book, Dinky went to the closet and began to rummage around. 

“What are you doing?” Piña asked as she wiped her eyes. 

“Looking for my old nightlight,” Dinky replied. “I know for certain Harper is scared of the dark. I used to be scared of the dark too. Daddy taught me I have to make the dark fear me.” Dinky dug through boxes, board games, arts and crafts supplies, and piles of old stuffed animals. Shrugging, Dinky tossed her old stuffed animals out on Harper’s bed as she continued to search for her old nightlight. 

“A big sister is your first best friend,” Piña said, still sniffling. “And sometimes she’s your mama too… I fecked up!” Covering up her face with her hooves, Piña fell over on the floor and began sobbing. 

Finding Piña’s sniffles somewhat contagious, Dinky delved even deeper in the depths of her closet, hunting for the lost nightlight. She felt a little like Daring Do at some old dig site. She began to open board game boxes to see if the nightlight had been tucked inside of one of them. 

“Berry Punch gave up the chance to go to a Sapphire Shores concert so she could take me to a movie after I had to go to the doctor because of a cracked hoof and I was miserable.” Piña rolled around on the floor and continued to bawl. “She had backstage passes too. She carried me on her back! I’m shite! I’m the stinky little turd that sticks to your tail!” 

Dinky sighed and thought about how much stranger Piña had been acting as of late. She had been far more emotional and it didn’t take much to send her off into a downward spiral of drama. She kept up her search for the nightlight and let Piña cry it all out. 

It was the only thing that could be done. 

“She held my head up when I couldn’t stop hurling everywhere because of an ear infection! My mama just left me in bed and I was stuck in my own puke puddle! Berry rescued me and I spewed on her a dozen times or more!” 

“Piña!” Dinky closed her eyes and held back her own frustration. 

“What?” Piña lifted her head and a long yellow green booger dangled from her nostril. 

“Go talk to Berry! She’ll make you feel better… just… go!” Dinky pointed one hoof at the bedroom door and made a gesture for Piña to leave. 

“But I don’t deserve to feel better!” Piña shook her head and the booger swung back and forth like a pendulum. “I would just feel worse because I know she’ll hug me and make me feel better even after how I treated her… I’m a gobshite!” 

“Finally! Nightlight!” Dinky held the old nightlight aloft over her head in her telekinesis. 



 




Today has been a strange day, but almost every day is a strange day. Princess Luna is currently in the body of a foal, and I do not even know where to begin to express my feelings on that issue. She does not seem like herself either, there are moments where she seems very much like an adult, but then her mood shifts and she becomes very foalish. 

Are we more than a body, or does the body have its own say? Do I behave like a foal because I am in the body of a foal? If I was me, as I am now, in the body of an adult, would I behave differently? Or would my adult body give me more adult behaviour to match it? Were I an adult, and I was placed into the body I have now, would who I am change to fit the body, or would the body change who I am? 

I have spent the evening pondering these questions and I have no answers. I do not even know who to ask to help me sort these things out. Once again, I fear I am alone in my contemplations with no help to be had. Perhaps if I had an adult body and an adult mindset, I would have answers to these questions. Or if I was an adult, would I even ask such foalish questions? Are these even foalish questions? I don’t know. 

Boadicea and Diamond Tiara continue to become friends. I should not let this bother me, I know, but I feel so much jealousy when I see them together. I do not have a lot of extra time and what little bit of time I do have free, I want to spend it with Diamond Tiara… who is now giving me the brush off to spend time with Boadicea. 

I cannot stand it but I have no choice but to live with it. 

Father spoke to me briefly about not letting the need for revenge cloud your judgment. I suspect that he has more to say, but he wasn’t feeling well. When he opens up, I shall make it a point to listen. 

Piña and Berry are squabbling again. I can hear Piña in the next room, crying right now, and I am tempted to go over there to make her feel better. But if I do that, she won’t go to Berry and sort this out, which is what needs to happen. So I all I can do is sit here and feel sad about the situation. Their relationship is confusing. Sometimes they are sisters; sometimes they are mother and daughter. I don’t know what to make of it. 

I do know that Berry Punch walked away crying. She cries quietly in these situations, hoping that nopony will hear that she is hurt. It is hard having the hearing that I possess. I hear everything that goes on in this house. Nothing escapes my attention. 

For the sake of recording my achievement, this entire entry was written using the power of my umbrakinesis. I can no longer hold the pencil.


 




Sitting in the tub, Berry Punch dunked herself beneath the water, holding her breath, and letting the hot water soak into her tear stained face. She remained submerged for a while, almost floating, glad to have the constant tug of gravity off of her stomach. She came up for air with a gasp and pulled herself up into a reclined sitting position with her back against the slope of the tub. 

She became aware of a sniffling pink pony staring at her after she opened her eyes. 

“Piña?” Berry asked. 

“I’m sorry!” Piña cried as she threw herself over the edge of the tub and landed with a splash. She climbed up over Berry’s belly and threw her forelegs around Berry’s neck. 

Stunned for a moment, Berry didn’t respond. After taking a deep breath, Berry wrapped her forelegs around Piña and pulled her closer. “I’m sorry too.” 

“Why are you sorry?” Piña rested her head against Berry’s soaked barrel. 

“Because… I don’t know how to reach you sometimes. You and I say such awful things to one another. We know how to push each other’s buttons like nopony else can. And there are times when I am tired, out of sorts, and just not in the mood for crap and when I have to deal with you, I take cheap shots.” Berry Punch heaved a sigh and squeezed the sopping wet foal on top of her. 

“I do it too,” Piña said, offering up her admission in an apologetic tone of voice. 

“I love you a lot… but you’re growing up and getting smarter and more and more, you keep messing with me and testing my patience and generally doing everything you can to drive me crazy and you know exactly what to do to do it.” Berry slid down the slope of the tub and submerged herself and Piña a bit in the hot water. “And so to get even with you, I do it right back because there are times when I am petty.” 

“I do the same thing.” Piña closed her eyes and sniffled. “Why do we do this?” 

“I dunno. We’re sisters. Maybe it is how we blow off steam because we know we’ll forgive each other.” Berry Punch rubbed Piña’s back and kissed her sister on the head. “I think I was about fourteen years old when I noticed that mom was neglecting you. My best friend, a mare you might know, she was pregnant and scared out of her mind. Amethyst Star, Sparkler’s mother, she sat me down one day and she gave me quite a talking to about doing the right thing. I was young and I didn’t understand it.” Berry Punch’s voice became gritty and raspy with emotion. 

“I don’t even remember this,” Piña said in a low voice. 

“Piña, Amethyst Star helped me find a part time job. I also did some foalsitting and other odd jobs. Star tried to show me how to be independent. And once I got my hooves under me, she helped me get custody of you. I had to take my mother to court and show that she was unfit. Everypony in the family hated me. My sister and I got into a terrible fight and I was forced to pound her into submission because every time I tried to walk away, she’d attack me again. When the dust cleared there were a lot of hard feelings. I don’t remember just how old I was. Everything back then blurs together.” 

“How come you never told me this?” Piña asked. 

“Because Piña… while there are times I torment you, I don’t actually want to hurt you. But I think you’re old enough to know,” Berry Punch replied. Taking a deep breath, she continued. 

“Amethyst Star was an earth pony of the best sort. She looked after me, she looked after Derpy, she was almost like our mother. She loved us. And when I got a wild hair up my backside, she was very forgiving when I went off on a tear and didn’t look after you. Didn’t stop her from lecturing me though. After Dinky was born, we were something like a family. Barley came and stayed with us for a while. Amethyst Star worked a couple of jobs, Derpy got work with the postal service, I did whatever I could, and we all looked out for one another. Only I would get fed up with all of the pressure and responsibility and I’d go off on one of my adventures. I never had much of a chance to be a foal… even when I was younger there was just so much work to be done. You see Piña, our family, we were Shetlanders living on the mainland. We had to work twice as hard to make it and fit in. I went crazy a few times… got in some real trouble, and then one day Amethyst Star told me that if I kept behaving the way I was, I ran the risk of being declared an unfit guardian. I was sleeping all over town, having fun, partying, I was a wild thing and I was finally having fun. What she said hurt me pretty bad and I didn’t know how to take it. I kept screwing up and Star kept warning me.” Berry Punch felt tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. 

Piña felt Berry shudder beneath her. She patted her sister’s barrel and felt Berry’s heart beating against her cheek. 

“Then came the train wreck where Star got killed. I was still too young, still half wild, and Star was gone. This was just before Hearth’s Warming. Sparkler lost her mother. I lost my role model and the mare that was keeping me together. I realised that I couldn’t screw up no more.” 

“I remember that,” Piña said in a trembling voice. 

“Piña, I actually hated you just a little bit for a while… I feel so bad for it… but I did. It didn’t feel fair that I had to do what was right for you just because my mama got tired of looking after foals after having so many. And then I felt trapped. And I went off and I did something really stupid in Las Pegasus. I don’t remember much of it, but I got my cutie mark because of it. I was also arrested and I got in so much trouble. When the dust cleared, I got my warning. Get my stuff together… or else. You’d be taken from me.” Berry wrapped her forelegs around Piña and squeezed with a renewed effort. 

“Is that where you went?” Piña asked in a strained voice as her ribs were crushed. 

“Yes.” Berry Punch nodded her head in reply. “After I came home, I made some peace with my family. Just enough so that we could work together. Barley came back again for a while. I took advantage of Barley, I dropped out of secondary school, took an equivalency test, scored high enough to get into university, and I started taking classes to be a better brewer. I went to school at night, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’d ride to Canterlot, go to school and be back by morning. I stopped screwing up. I did everything I could to look after you and Derpy. We had Sparkler to look after as well.” 

“Why did you do all of this for me?” Piña lifted her head and looked Berry in the eye. 

“Because I love you, you booger licker. I had a hard time seeing that for a while, but l love you. I ain’t perfect, I’ve made lots of mistakes, I might not have always said or done the right thing, and it might be my fault that you swear the way you do, but nopony can actually prove that.” Berry blinked and stared back at Piña. “I still feel so guilty for hating you the way I did. It eats me up inside.” 

“I hate you too… sometimes.” Piña felt a little bit shocked by the honest words that came out of her mouth. “I didn’t know about all of this.” 

“You were young.” Berry felt Piña’s head drop down on her chest. “I was young. I was stupid. They threatened to cart you off to Fillydelphia and it made me crazy.” Berry paused and had a moment of hindsight. “I guess that is where our family really began. Derpy had Dinky, I had you, we both had Sparkler, and we were brought together in hardship. We suffered together. We hadn’t met Bucky or the others yet, but we were a family.” 

“Berry?” 

“Yes, what is it Piña?” 

“Dinky found her old nightlight. When Harper and Sukari move in with us, they don’t have to be afraid of of the dark.” Piña took a deep breath. “I’ve learned a bit from this. I need time to sort it all out. Maybe now that I am older and I understand more, we should spend more time talking and less time pushing each other’s buttons. I like knowing this stuff… it helps me understand.” 

“Okay Piña.” 

“And Berry?” 

“Yes?” 

“Thanks for never giving up on me. I know we bicker, I know we squabble, but knowing all of this helps me know that you really love me. I keep thinking about Loch Skimmer and Ripple and all of the horrible things they said to one another. I hope it never gets so bad that we do that.” 

“Piña, I hope we don’t have a go at one another either.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 653
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky! Bucky, wake up!” 

Opening one eye, Bucky looked around. The room was dim. The heavy drapes over the window had been closed to keep the warmth in and keep it from seeping out through the glass. Bucky felt a yank on one of his ears. He turned his head and saw Belisama as he opened his other eye. 

“Look!” Belisama held out her talons. 

In the dim light, Bucky saw Bandua. He blinked, half awake, and tried to figure out what was going on and why he was required to be awake. He yawned and his orange tongue fell out of his mouth. 

“Her eyes! They’re open! And they are grey!” Belisama bounced up and down. 

“Oh… eyes… open…” Bucky blinked a few more times. His horn itched in the most horrendous manner that one could imagine. Stretching out his neck and his lips, Bucky smooched the tiny hippogriff held in Belisama’s talons. 

“What’s going on?” Bon Bon asked, now awake and looking around. 

“Bandua has her eyes open,” Belisama replied. 

With his telekinesis, Bucky lifted Bandua out of Belisama’s talons and then set her down upon the bed between his forelegs. He dropped his head down and bumped her with his snoot. He felt a tiny beak nibble on the edge of his nostril. Chills went galloping down his spine like a herd of windigos. When Bandua peeped, Bucky felt every single hair on his back stand up. 

If only his damn horn would stop itching, Bucky might be able to enjoy this special moment. He reached up with his talons and began to rub his own horn. He felt something slip free and a thin brownish black flake floated down onto the bed. Feeling alarmed, Bucky scratched a little more and another flake came floating down. Looking up, he saw several eyes focused on him in the dim light.

He levitated Bandua up and held her in front of Belisama. “Here, take her.” 

When Belisama took Bandua, Bucky wiggled out of bed and went to the bathroom. 



 

Staring into the mirror, Bucky saw flakes hanging off of his horn. He didn’t know what to call them, what they were, but there was a thin layer of black and tan that was peeling off. Beneath the flakes, his horn had an odd metallic look and feel, just like his talons did. Reaching up, he rubbed and scratched some more. It felt good. Bending his neck, Bucky angled his horn against the edge of the sink and began to rub. 

The feeling of relief was almost orgasmic, sort of like scratching your croup against something like a fence rail or getting on your back for a good roll in the grass. Whole flakes of horn casing peeled away, revealing the shiny black metallic layer beneath. Moaning with relief, Bucky continued to rub his horn, and he looked very much like a deer scraping velvet from their antlers. 

The pressure inside of Bucky’s skull began to subside a little as the tight, taut casing surrounding his horn flaked and peeled away. 

“You need to go to the doctor… something seems wrong,” Bon Bon said as she stood in the door of the bathroom. 

“And who do I go see about this?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t know. Go back to Canterlot. Bucky, please, do this for me, I’m worried.” Bon Bon’s voice was pleading. 

“But this is making me feel better.” Bucky continued to rub his horn against the hard edge of the sink. “You have no idea how good this feels. The pressure in my head is going away.” 

“Bucky, please?” Bon Bon’s voice was insistent now. 

“Bonnie, Canterlot is in shambles. The doctors are very busy looking after those who got hurt.” Bucky lifted his head away from the sink and gave himself a good shake. After doing so, he gathered up all of the flakes in a telekinetic bubble and then incinerated them to remove the mess. With a flick of magic, he burned away the soap scum in the tub, sterilised the toilet, and removed the toothpaste that was gunked around the drain in the bottom of the sink. “And they said taking household enchantments was a sissy thing to do,” Bucky said to his reflection in the mirror. 

“Bucky, I’m worried… I don’t like this. If weird stuff keeps happening, please, promise me you will go to the doctor.” Bon Bon stepped forward and touched Bucky’s ribs with her hoof. 

“Fine.” Bucky turned and looked Bon Bon in the eye. "If weird stuff keeps happening, I promise I will go to the doctor. I give you my word as your husband.” 

“Thank you.” Bon Bon gave Bucky a worried smile. “Go back to bed. I am going to go upstairs to check on Erebus.” 



 

Somewhere, there was a babbling brook. Bucky could hear it. He could feel the cool damp grass beneath his hooves. He knew right away that he was dreaming, there was an odd surreal sensation in his mind and he was an alicorn once more. 

Beside him, Twilight Sparkle was looking around, wide eyed and curious. 

Bucky was somewhat surprised to see her here with him. He looked around. There were trees, the distant sounds of water, and in the far off distance, there was some kind of wall or fence. 

There was also a dark blue alicorn smiling at them. 

“Hello again, observer,” Bucky said, feeling a strange sense of relief upon seeing the alicorn once more. “What brings you here?” 

“Where are we?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

“This is a public park that is located in the city of Converge. I brought you here so that I might speak with you. I hope both of you are well,” the observer replied. 

“I’d like to know what is going on, why am I here, and why Bucky is here… please?” Twilight said in a confused voice. 

The observer stepped closer, his head high, and his eyes blazed with inner light. “I was asked to speak with both of you. On this occasion, I bring good news… glad tidings.” 

“Good news is always appreciated.” Bucky spread his wings and began to examine his feathers. “I apologise if I was a bit rude last time.” 

“You came to me after the mirror crisis. I remember you. You told me about… about…” Twilight Sparkle looked thoughtful and she blinked as she tried to remember what had been discussed. 

“Answers, Twilight Sparkle. We spoke about answers.” The observer’s eyes narrowed. “Which is why I am here now. Those who hold interest in the both of you felt the need to… help out. You are each fighting the battle in your own way, and I was sent to offer you hope.” 

“We need hope,” Twilight replied. 

“So about these answers… I’ve figured them out.” Bucky looked away from his wings. “Alicorns of specific purpose. I am War. Twilight Sparkle is Magic. Cadance is Love.” 

“Very good. Three answers accounted for. The fate of your world hangs upon these answers. And that is why I am here. The fourth answer approaches,” the observer said. “The final answer is Growth.” 

“There will be another alicorn?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

“Eventually.” The observer nodded. “You might say that one waits in the wings.” 

“Why tell us this?” Bucky asked as he began to study the observer. 

“Because. Magic will be key to Growth’s development, and as for you War, you are already guiding the answer to their purpose. You were put here to destroy Growth, yet you nurture her, much as Magic has done,” the observer replied. The observer’s face became serious. “Hope burns brightly. Others have begun to believe in your cause. Allies are forming. Rules are being broken and help is coming. There is now a sense of unity that has taken root in your world and that has inspired many.” 

“What caused this?” Twilight asked. She stepped forward. “This unity, what brought it about? What can I do to make it stronger?” 

“You are the Princess of Friendship, are you not?” The observer narrowed one eye and his eyebrow raised. “War may blaze the way, but it was friendship that has won the hearts of the world. War has burned down those that would have opposed you, perverted your message, and would have destroyed all of your hard work. Twilight Sparkle, heed my words… your great work is only beginning. There is much you must do and there is a lot of hard work ahead of you.” 

Overcome with curiousity, Bucky asked, “What about me?” 

“As Magic waxes, War must wane. I am sorry, but as Magic gains strength you will grow weaker. You will still have a part in the battle that is coming, of that there is no doubt, but surely you understand that the Apathy of War must give ground to the Magic of Friendship. As Magic gains in strength, so will Love and eventually, Growth. With these three, I am sorry, but you will fade into the background and become insignificant.” 

“But that is what I want!” Bucky stepped forward and there was a manic look in his eye. “I don’t want to ascend. I want to fade away and lose power! I don’t want my destiny or the future I could bring about!” 

“Then keep running. Keep resisting. Keep up the chase and may your destiny never catch you.” The observer’s face became blank of expression. “Many are starting to believe that you have what it takes to resist. Don’t give up. Keep going.” 

“I will.” Bucky nodded. 

“You must still play the role of guardian. You walk a fine, fine line.” The observer looked away from Bucky and his gaze turned to Twilight. “It is a pity that the both of you cannot be great together. But this is how it must be. Twilight Sparkle, when you awake, you will find a new spellbook in your library, on your secret shelf. You know the one of which I speak. It will be bound in white oak wood and will bear your mark upon the cover. Living holly will grow around the cover and keep the book closed to all eyes but yours.” 

“Spellbook?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she looked puzzled. 

The observer looked Twilight in the eye. “You will discover its purpose soon enough. Though I will say, the spells in there are… unique. They will grow much stronger in the presence of what give you strength. Be warned though. They come at a cost.” 

“And that is?” Twilight’s ears pinned back and he pawed the grass with her hoof. 

“For each of these spells that you use, you will weaken War. You will not harm him, nor will you shorten his life, but you will weaken him. As you grow in strength, he will become weaker,” the observer replied. 

“So this becomes a matter of strategy… you said a big battle is coming. I should wait and use the spells when Bucky’s magic isn’t as necessary.” Twilight’s eyes widened as her mind began to race as she started thinking about everything involved in this. 

“Perhaps. Or perhaps, if you weaken War, you will change the outcome of the coming battle in your favour. I cannot tell you, this is something you must discern upon your own.” The observer stepped away. “My time grows ever shorter.” 

“About Growth… can you tell us any more?” Bucky asked. 

“Growth represents change. A paradigm shift. When Growth manifests, the healing can begin in earnest. When Growth comes, they will remove many of the causes of War, and you will be weakened by their arrival. Growth will cause friendship to bloom and Love will blossom,” the observer replied. 

“So this makes me a weed in the garden,” Bucky said. 

Twilight Sparkle snorted and began to snicker. 

“The analogy is accurate,” the observer said. “Tell me, do you have the humility to accept your own decline?” 

“Of course I do, I don’t want my destiny, I never asked for this.” Bucky’s face became morose and sorrowful. “I love too much. I have friends. There are too many ponies I care about, and I would never want to be a threat to them. I would give my life for any of them.” 

“Then if all goes well, you will diminish, grow weak, and become insignificant. There are many whose pride would never allow them to accept that fate.” The observer turned his burning stare upon Bucky and gazed into Bucky’s eyes. “You will not live long enough to reap the rewards you deserve. You will not see the end result of what Magic, Love, and Growth will accomplish together. You deserve a better fate. I may not have emotion, but I cannot help but feel that you were cheated.” The observer bowed his head. “My time is up…” 
	
	
> Chapter 654
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was an unusual spring in Bucky’s step as he made his way to the breakfast table. As he passed Bon Bon in the hallway, just as she was about to head upstairs, he smooched the earth pony on the lips and then rounded the corner into the kitchen where several of his wives were gathered around the table. 

He saw solemn, serious faces. Berry Punch set the newspaper down upon the table. 

Trotting to the table, Bucky pulled out a chair, seated himself, and scooted closer to the table. Berry tapped on the paper with her hoof. Bucky glanced down at the newspaper and then he looked up, glancing into Berry’s eyes.

“The paper… they printed every word said to Luna during her attack. It is a direct quote from Princess Celestia and a bunch of witnesses who listened to the memory crystal saying Luna’s words.” Berry’s eyes narrowed. “One unicorn did this Bucky…” 

Bucky nodded. “I said the same thing. One unicorn did this.” Bucky looked around. “Say, where is Luna?” 

“She and Barley are still in bed,” Lyra replied. “Last night, Barley admitted to have a moment of brain loss and a bad case of the stoo-pids. He said that his brain registered Luna as a bad foal and he just sort of forgot everything else for a moment.” 

“Barley is old and set in his ways.” Derpy lifted up her coffee mug between her front hooves and took a sip. “He makes mistakes like the rest of us.” 

“I don’t make mistakes… I make opportunities for Piña and I to bond,” Berry said, waggling her eyebrows. 

“I feel bad for everything that happened… I didn’t know it would cause a fight. I honestly thought they’d be happy having Harper and Sukari in their room after all they did to help out and feeding them in the mornings. I feel bad that it caused some ruffled feathers.” Derpy heaved a sigh and then took another sip of coffee. 

“Well it all worked out okay.” Thistle patted her stomach and glanced around the table. “Dinky and Piña sounded excited when they headed off to school early.” 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed the withered side of his face. It itched and he could feel little bumpy lumpy things just below his scars. He rubbed with the sides of his talon fingers, keeping his claws away from his face. As he had learned from Belisama, claws were sharp. 



 

“Sir, you have a visitor.” Violet leaned her head towards Bucky and lowered her voice. “She’s been crying. She looks very upset.” 

“Send her in,” Bucky said as he set down his pencil. On the paper in front of him were were some very strange horseshoes. He looked up as his visitor came through the library door. “Apple Bloom… sit down… you okay?” 

“No!” Apple Bloom stood just inside the door, her lower lip quivering. “This is so hard!” 

“Violet, please, perhaps you could fetch Apple Bloom some cocoa?” Bucky asked. 

“Sure thing,” Violet replied as she took off out the door. 

“Have a seat. What’s wrong?” Bucky gestured at a chair. 

“Everything!” Apple Bloom stood in place for a moment longer and then as the tears began to fall, she went and climbed up into a chair. “This is turning out much harder than I thought it would be and I don’t know how to keep everypony motivated. And nothing seems to be going right!” 

“Apple Bloom, calm down. Deep breaths. Just let it all out.” Bucky offered Apple Bloom a little smile. 

“I’m running out of time and things just aren’t going right… this is too complicated.” Apple Bloom covered up her face with her hooves and sobbed, her pink ribbon bouncing up and down with each gasp. 

“Tell you what. You let it all out, you drink your cocoa when Violet comes back, and then you and I will go have a look at your project. I am limited at what I can do, but I can give you advice and maybe point you in the right direction.” Bucky spoke with a very calming, very soothing voice in the hopes that Apple Bloom might calm down. 

“Okay.” Apple Bloom looked up at Bucky and sniffled. “Thank you.” She rubbed her eyes with her foreleg. “How do I become a better leader? I feel like this is my fault. Everything is disorganised.” 

“When we go and have a look at your project, I’ll have Violet come with us. She’s just the pony you want to speak to about being organised.” Bucky stacked the papers on the table in front of him in a neat well ordered pile. 

Apple Bloom rubbed her chin. “Diamond Tiara is pretty good at organising too… I might need to bring her in on this. I just can’t keep everypony together and everything is falling apart.” 

“Apple Bloom, I find that that the best way to be a leader is to get all of the right ponies on all of the right jobs, and then get out of their way so they can work unhindered. If they need to be told what to do constantly, then you either don’t have the right ponies for the job, or you might have failed to map out your direction. Either way, these are problems that can be fixed. So cheer up.” 



 

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, two old acquaintances were fast becoming friends. Rising Star and Spitfire sat together in small office space within the Stable of Representatives building, going over papers and plans with one another. The office was small, cramped, cluttered, and now had both Rising Star and Spitfire’s name on the door. 

Somepony else had secured a ‘Warning! Contents are flammable!' sign to the door beneath their names. 

“Rising, I can get you the votes you need… I think… won’t be easy, but it is gonna cost you,” Spitfire said as she looked at Rising Star. 

“Ugh, you and your hidden costs… what do you want?” Rising Star settled back in his chair and folded his forelegs over his barrel. “Just spit it out.” 

“Oh calm your teats, you big goof.” Spitfire raised one fine eyebrow and looked at Rising Star. “I want your backing on the second chance program.” 

“I haven’t had a chance to read about that just yet, there is so much on the docket!” Rising Star gestured at the stack of papers on the desk. “Canterlot is in shambles and things got out of hoof and I haven’t had a chance to sort through all of this.” 

Spitfire spread her hooves wide. “Okay! Nutshell… the second chance program is a quasi-military camp for juvenile offenders. This is Soarin and Fleetfoot’s idea. For those who have a few screw ups, this camp is intended to be a means to give them a second chance and keep them from getting into more trouble. Nothing too hard or harsh… I don’t want drill instructors. But I don’t want softies either. A few hard types mixed with a few kind types and hopefully we can give troublesome teens an outlet and a means to straighten themselves out before they become petty criminals as adults.” 

“That seems reasonable. I will talk to the other Ponyville reps and see if I can drum up support. That actually seems like a good idea. We can pose it as a means to save money and reduce incarceration costs.” Rising Star reached up and rubbed his chin with one cloven hoof. 

“Good spin!” Spitfire smiled. 

“How do you think the minority vote will go?” Rising Star asked. 

Spitfire’s wings gave a nervous twitch. “I don’t know. I think your proposal to give each of the minority species in Equestria five representatives each was very reasonable. Five donkeys, five diamond dogs, five griffons, five minotaurs… five whatever elses… we’ll have to find worthy souls and there will have to be another election, but we could make it work. I think after that bombshell dropped in the papers this morning it will be a lot easier. Those speaking out about it will be outright accused of aiding the enemy and bringing about more division.” 

“That bothers me.” Rising Star scowled and shook his head.

“Why would that bother you?” Spitfire asked, blinking in surprise at Rising Star’s words. 

“We should be free to disagree without being second guessed or accused of treason… this whole thing is so fragile and everypony puts a spin on everything.” Rising Star huffed and let out a trapped sigh that had been lurking for a while. 

“I never thought of it that way.” Spitfire sat back in her chair on the other side of the desk and looked thoughtful. “I think you’re right, this is a problem. Somepony might have good reasons why they oppose something, but with all of the current anger and mistrust, those valid reasons might be ignored. Damn.” 

The door opened and a moss green pegasus with an outrageous pink, red, and bright yellow mane poked her head in the door. “Hey, we’re looking for support for the Las Pegasus restoration project, if you need votes, we have votes, but we need something in return.” 

Both Rising Star and Spitfire looked at one another and grinned. 



 

Feeling stunned, Celestia looked down at the creature kneeling before her. She had trouble breathing for a moment, and when that passed, she worried that she might start crying in front of everypony. 

“Stop… do not kneel before me,” Celestia said in an almost strangled voice. “I cannot believe it is you. How have you been?” 

The creature rose and brought himself up to his full eleven feet in height. Apelike, bearlike, and with massive bat wings, Scorpan stood and looked around Princess Celestia’s throne room. He let out a sigh more powerful than any blacksmith’s bellows and then reached up with his right hand to scratch at the back of his head. 

“I heard you were having some trouble. I thought I’d come and see if you needed help.” Scorpan’s voice was almost too soft to be coming out of a creature of his size and bulk. “I heard what happened with my brother… I am sorry that he plagued you.” 

“I am sorry that he is now dead,” Celestia looked up at the massive figure and the first few tears began to roll down her cheeks. “Where have you been? When I saw you last… I was a filly… you were my playmate for a time… you’ve been gone for so long… where did you go?” 

“I headed east… I visited with the draquus ponies for a time. I roamed the Forbidden Wastes and the Dead Sands. Tried looking for the lost Temple of Time… found nothing. Eventually found myself in the city of Converge. After my brother and I parted ways, I just sort of wandered.” Scorpan’s eyes narrowed and he began to squirm. 

“What is wrong?” Celestia asked as she blinked away tears. 

“I can’t stand it when you cry!” Scorpan replied. He lunged forward and snatched Celestia up, she was little more than filly sized in his massive arms. Ignoring her protests, Scorpan scooped her up, gathered the white alicorn to his chest, and began to squeeze her. 

After a moment, Celestia relented and allowed herself to be held, cradled in Scorpan’s tree trunk like arms. “You’ve grown very large,” Celestia whispered. 

“You still feel about the same size as when I left you.” Scorpan ignored the glares that the guards were giving him as she continued to cuddle the large white monarch. “Where is Luna?” 

“Luna is recovering. She is away… there is so much to tell you, old friend,” Celestia replied. “Could you please put me down? This… this is most undignified.” 

Nodding, Scorpan lowered Celestia down to the floor and then gave one final gentle pat. 

“So what brings you here, to Canterlot?” Celestia craned her head to look up at Scorpan. 

Scorpan shrugged. “I heard you needed help. I got word that a big fight is brewing and the odds are not in your favour. The word was put out for heroes. I was in Converge and I heard a great deal about the troubles you face… I heard that you needed a friend you could trust. So I came back.” 

Celestia, tears still streaming down her cheeks, beamed up at Scorpan. “It is so very good to see you… it has been so long. Come, we must catch up on old times…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 655
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh my goodness! You’re so little and adorable! Come back here!” 

Bucky found himself in the odd position of wanting to break the rules in his own school. No running in the halls. Behind him, Heifer Aestus thundered down the hallway at a light jog, coming after him, her arms outstretched. In every encounter they had shared, she had tried to give him a huggle-snuggle. 

“I love shaggy ponies! Come back! You look scruffy! Let me brush you!” 

As Bucky broke into a run down the hall, an odd sense of queasiness overtook him for a moment, but was gone just as sudden as it had arrived. He heard heavy hooves clopping just behind him. 

“Miss Aestus, please, I am not a pettable, brushable little pony!” 

“But you could be!” 

There was a flash, a burst of snowflakes, and then Bucky was gone, leaving poor Heifer Aestus standing there, looking rather forlorn. She huffed in frustration. A rare and elusive shaggy pony had gotten away once more. 

She threw her hands up into the air and snorted in frustration. “Drats!” 



 

Bucky appeared the forge, appearing in a whirlwind of snowflakes. Griffons were all around him, working on whatever it was that little griffons worked on in here. Half of the time, Bucky didn’t know. He looked around and spotted a burning pegasus. 

“She almost got you again, didn’t she?” Scorch asked. 

Bucky nodded. 

“My old apprentice loves shaggy ponies. I’m sorry.” After smirking for a moment, Scorch began to chuckle. “She is going to catch you, you know.” 

“Look Scorch… I came here to speak to you about a deal. A binding deal,” Bucky said. 

Scorched shifted and became bipedal. He snapped his fingers and the world around them shimmered. The foundry blinked away. All around them were flames. A river of magma went churning past. Flaming creatures frolicked and gamboled about in a burning meadow, and nearby there was a forest that was on fire. 

Bucky sighed and enjoyed the soothing warmth. 

“So… you wanted to make a deal?” Scorch asked. 

Poking at a burning rock with his talons, Bucky nodded. “I have in my possession one soul and one mortal body. I was told that he was mine to do with as I pleased, by a ruling voice of authority. I am far too angry with him to deal with him in a rational way, and I am afraid just being around him will inspire my need for revenge. So… I am going to give him to you and I am hoping you can pull his secrets out of him. I’d also like something in exchange, because let’s face it, souls are valuable.” 

Scorch folded his arms over his chest and raised one burning eyebrow. 

“Can you give me another year of life?” Bucky asked. 

“Not for one soul… sorry. Plus, you want information. Come on Bucky, don’t put me in a bad spot, I’m your friend. I don’t want to haggle with you and hurt your feelings,” Scorch replied. 

“Well, that’s good to know. I need to find more souls—” 

“Bucky, the powers that be would come down on my head if I extended your life. Something would come about to reset the balance. Sorry my friend, but your string is already measured and readied for cutting.” For a moment, there was an expression of agonised sorrow on Scorch’s face. 

“I understand.” Bucky nodded and then looked off at the blazing trees. “So. What can I get for one soul?” 

“Well, you trade me one soul and I can tell you,” Scorch replied as he shifted form and became an earth pony. “Bucky, do I need to explain the rules? Because if I do, that’ll cost you a soul.” 

Looking up at the blazing sky, Bucky became thoughtful. “Could you do something for one of my foals?” 

“Let me guess… you want an alicorn born to one of your wives. I could do that for one soul… as a favour, mind you, I’d never make this deal with anypony else… but then for the next ten thousand years, Celestia would let me have it every time we bumped into one another… and I’d need at least ten more souls to deal with that sort of inconvenience.” Scorch shook his head and shuddered. 

“No… no alicorn… nothing like that,” Bucky said in a low whisper as he turned to look at Scorch. “My foals are going to be born in my shadow… I want at least one of my foals to be normal… no, not normal… just slightly above average—” 

“You want a slightly above average foal in exchange for one soul?” Scorch gave Bucky an incredulous stare. “You could have all of your unicorn foals born as type fours. I could give all of your pegasus foals the ability to break the sound barrier. I could make your earth pony foals as strong as titans. Bucky, there is so much more I could do for—” 

“You just gave me a list and it didn’t cost me anything.” Feeling smug, Bucky grinned. 

“You bastard!” Scorch’s lip curled away from his teeth and he snarled. “Damn you and your supernatural cleverness… you cheated me!” Scorch shifted into a large diamond dog, sat down, and began to scratch behind his ear. “Why would you want a slightly above average foal?” 

“What will you give me in exchange for an answer?” Bucky asked. 

“A means home,” Scorch replied. 

“Oh… okay then.” Bucky sat down on the blazing ground and looked up at Scorch, who appeared to have fleas. “I get the feeling that my foals are going to be exceptional. Call it a hunch, call it vanity, but I have this feeling, And I want one of them to be mostly normal. I want one that the others can fall back upon during times of trouble. I want one with a level head to give the others perspective. I want one of my foals to be a rock of normalcy and stability for the others.” 

Scorch paused his scratching and stared at Bucky. “That is shockingly wise. Greatness always brings sorrow, strife, and trouble. Look at your own brush with greatness and what it has done to you. So you want one foal to be a refuge for all the others, one slightly above average sibling to balance out the others.” 

“Yes.” Bucky nodded. “I need at least one level headed foal to look after the others when I am gone.” 

“You are condemning one of your offspring to a life of mediocrity. I commend you for this.” Scorch shifted into griffon and extended his talons. “Do we have a deal? For the cost of one soul, I Scorch, will give you, Buckminster, one slightly above average foal, all of the information said soul possesses, and a means to get home.” 

Bucky extended his own talons and shook Scorch’s to seal the deal. “I accept.” 

Scorch leaned forward. “Since I am giving you so much, could I ask a favour in return?” 

“You can always ask,” Bucky replied. 

“Let my old apprentice catch you at least once… you are scruffy looking…” 



 

Bucky popped into the farmhouse library, bringing with him the eye watering stench of rotten eggs and the burning of the damned. He began to fan away the stink as he started coughing. Getting up from his chair, Bucky felt a powerful rush of nausea, it hit him like an ocean wave hitting the rocky shore. 

He staggered out of the library, skidded down the hall, and made his way to the guest bathroom. He slammed into the wooden doorframe, bounced, hit the sink counter, and made his way to the toilet. He gagged a few times, a long string of drool dribbled from his chin, but nothing came up from his stomach. 

Standing with his head over the toilet, heaving, and not feeling well at all, Bucky gagged a few more times. He felt clammy and weird. His face itched. His scars all over his body itched. They felt hot and weird. Almost like a wound healing, the itch was both familiar and strange at the same time. 

“Whew.” Bucky felt the waves of nausea subside and he sat down upon the tile floor. He shook his head. He was overcome with the odd sensation of wanting to rub the scarred side of his face against something, just as he had done with his horn. “Stress… the silent killer. This must be what Diamond Tiara goes through. I wonder if I am breaking out in hives or a rash or something.” 

After his head cleared a bit more, Bucky got up, went to the sink, and washed his face. The cold water felt soothing against the fevered and itchy withered skin on the scarred side of his face. Closing his eyes, Bucky stuffed his face further beneath the faucet and let the water wash the itch away. 



 

“Class, you must not fear stumbling. Falling is a part of walking. You fall forward and then you recover. Deep breaths,” Stargarden said in a low whisper. 

Sitting on a cushion, balanced upon her haunches, Piña sat with her eyes closed. This was becoming her favourite part of the day. She inhaled, held it for a moment, and then let it out in a steady exhale. She felt her worries slipping away as she breathed out. 

Piña, I know you can hear me right now. Be calm and do not panic. 

Inhaling once more, Piña reached out with her mind. Is this magic? 

No Piña, this is the herd voice that exists within our minds. This is what tells us to run together, to all turn together in the same direction, to keep our weakest in the middle where we can protect them, this is the voice that makes us one.

There was an almost painful feeling of pressure behind Piña’s eyes, but she ignored it and focused upon the voice. Her inner voice. So we all have this voice. It guides us and directs us a herd. How are we talking? 

Simple Piña, we are projecting our own voice, our own thoughts, and making them heard over shared instincts that guide us all. It is my belief that one day, all of us equines will be able to do this and the world will be peaceful. We are but the first, the first few courageous seekers trying to find a way to speak with our inner voices. 

The pain behind her eyes began to subside a bit. So this is what you mean by evolve? 

Yes Piña, it is my hope that one day, we will all be like this. If we can all touch minds, if we can see and feel what the others around us are thinking, are feeling, our innermost perspectives, misunderstandings will go away. We will know each others points of view. We will have understanding. Mistrust and paranoia of one another will go away and we can be harmonious. 

It was a dizzying thought for Piña. She pondered the meaning of Stargarden’s words and heard a soft cough from Tabasamu. Piña wondered what it might be like to touch minds with Berry Punch. Having a perfect understanding of her sister might be nice. Piña realised there was one mind she could touch and gain understanding. 

Dinky? Piña pushed outwards with her thoughts. 

“OW OW OW OW OW!” Dinky fell over on her cushion and clutched her head between her hooves. She rolled off of her cushion and landed upon the classroom floor, her hind legs kicking. “It is like getting brain freeze!” 

“I’m sorry, Dinky!” Piña lept from her cushion and went to Dinky’s side. 

“Dinky will be okay.” Stargarden got up and went to Dinky’s side. “This is like using any other muscle, it takes time to gain strength.” 

“I’m fine,” Dinky said as she sat up. “It was like sucking down a milkshake too fast. Piña, I heard you inside of my head in a weird way.” 

Piña wrapped her forelegs around Dinky’s neck and squeezed. “Why do we always hurt the ones we love?” 

“We trust the ones we love to bear with us through our mistakes, so that we might better ourselves, learn, and grow strong,” Stargarden replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 656
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“How was your day, Rising Star?” Ripple peered at her husband, blinked once to get him into focus, and then felt her whole face warm as a smile spread over her lips. The pleasant dopey feeling made the corners of her mouth sort of tingle. 

Dropping his head, Rising Star kissed Ripple right between her ears, and his snoot lingered for a moment in the soft tangles of her pale blue mane. “Things were good, real good. We got a lot done today, Ripple. There is a new sense of unity now that we have all realised we are working against a common enemy.” Rising Star said nothing of his worries and concerns over that though. “How are you feeling?” 

Twisting her head around, Ripple surprised Rising Star with a somewhat slobbery kiss. She pulled away with a wet smacking sound and blinked a few times. “I’m feeling better. They’ve lowered my dose and I don’t feel agitated or angry.” 

“You’re all alone… where are the others? Where is Sparkler, Bittersweet, and Loch Skimmer? Why aren’t they here with you?” Rising Star asked. 

“Sparky had bad pains inside. She got hit by a train you know… they went with her to the hospital. I told them I needed a nap and everything is okay,” Ripple replied. 

“I don’t want to make any further mistakes.” Rising Star lifted his head and made an equine sound of concern, a deep resonant nickering within his barrel. He flopped over into the bed beside Ripple, pulled her close, and pressed his snoot into her ear to give her a tickle as he breathed. When she giggled, he felt his heart warm and some of his worries melted away. 

“I had me a bad case of the angries. The doctor said it wasn’t good for me to have the angries. She said I needed something to nurture, something to care for. She said for me to get a cat or a hamster or something… and then I told her about all of my little sisters, my little brother, and everything. She said if I had the angries, then I was doing something wrong. I don’t know what wrong I’m doing, but I need to figure it out because if I get the angries again we are going to have another hole in our floor.” Ripple sighed and enjoyed the feeling of Rising Star pressed up against her. “She also said that I might be gay because I have issues with male and female intimacy and I could be using my attraction to females as a coping mechanism so I don’t have to deal with what I like to call my daddy issues. I told her that I don’t have a problem with my daddy, that Bucky was really good to me… but then she made me talk about my other daddy… and I almost got the angries and for a moment, I thought she was going to give me a shot, but then I calmed down and cried a whole bunch and she patted me and Loch Skimmer cried, and Sparkler started hugging me and then Loch Skimmer threw up everywhere because she was upset and she thought about daddy breaking her leg and she has morning sickness even though it is the afternoon.” 

Rising Star pulled Ripple a little closer. “Sounds like you had a hard day.” 

“Please look after us Rising Star… I need to develop healthy expectations of males and so I need for you to do whatever it is that you need to do so I’ll have healthy expectations.” Ripple rubbed her head against Rising Star’s cheek.

“I’ll try, Ripple, I’ll try.” 



 

In his axe beak griffon form, Bucky swooped over Rainbow Dash’s flight class. Rainbow Dash had a bag of chocolate chips and a long line of students. He watched as she dropped a chocolate chip and a pegasus went streaking off after it. The tiny chip dropped through the clouds, vanishing, and Bucky knew that the student would have to reacquire his visual target after busting through the cloud. 

It was an unorthodox but brilliant way to hone a little pegasus or a little griffon’s observation skills and how to track a moving target after losing sight of it. Bucky was impressed. 

Circling overhead, Bucky watched his students. He was becoming an adept flier himself, many natural fliers had told him so, including Rainbow Dash. Bucky found the griffon form rather clumsy though, and felt that the owl was his favourite as well as most comfortable form. Owls just felt right.

Rolling over, Bucky tucked in his wings and dove, his beak now pointed straight at the clouds below. He had a bit of a spin and he felt the wind rushing through his feathers. He burst through the clouds and saw the ground. Freefall. Glorious freefall. One of Bucky’s favourite sensations. Almost as good as making love. Almost, but not quite.

Just moments before Bucky splattered into the ground, he spread his wings and pulled up, dive bombing Lugus, who let out an indignant squawk and then shook his talons at Bucky. 

Laughing, Bucky flew away, gained altitude, and then dove down once more, aiming for the group of griffons that Lugus was instructing in the arts of war. 

Streaking over the training grounds, just a few feet away from the snow covered earth, Bucky snatched a pilum off of a rack as he flew over, angled upwards, looped over backwards, and flew at the haybale targets. He hurled his javelin and scored the third rung outside of the bullseye. Cackling, he went streaking off, feeling a sense of wonder at how much talon to eye coordination this body had. 

“That was a good shot! Now get out of here!” Lugus bellowed. 

Hearing wings, Bucky realised that he had company. Yew Wood pulled up alongside him, a smile on her face. Yew was carrying Peekaboo. The foal was giggling like a squirrel hopped up on rock candy. 

“Here, catch!” Yew tossed Peekaboo at Bucky. 

Having never played the time honoured pegasus sport of ‘toss the foal’ before, Bucky panicked. He thought of his claws, which were razor sharp. He rolled over sideways, caught Peekaboo in his forelegs, hugged her close as she kept giggling, and then leveled out. 

His heart thudding in his chest, Bucky hoped that Derpy never played this game with him.

“You have to throw her back, you big silly!” Yew rolled over and flapped wings to level out as she kept pace beside Bucky. “Just toss her! She’ll be fine! You did good for your first catch!” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky tossed Peekaboo. He heard the foal laughing as he launched her. Cracking one eye open, he watched as Yew went streaking off. She snatched Peekaboo in her front legs, hugged Peekaboo close, and then did a loop as Peekaboo flapped her wings. 

“This is an important game. We pegasi toss our foals to one another for practice. If we ever have to outfly danger, we can pass our foals around as we take turns confounding whatever is trying to gobble us up,” Yew said as she leveled out. “Turns out, griffons like to play the same game.” 

Bucky nodded and watched as Yew rolled away. She darted off to fly above where Lugus and the griffons were training so she could watch. Feeling hungry, Bucky decided it was time to be back in his own body again. 



 

Inside the house, Bucky saw Thistle as she moved from the kitchen to the living room just as he was coming in through the front door. Sensing opportunity, Bucky dug his nose under Thistle’s tail and lifted, his snoot grazing the secret places to be found under the lush greenery. 

Thistle bolted forward away from Bucky and and as she did so, she cried, “Eeek! A pervert!” 

“Pervert?” 

Cringing, Bucky’s ears drooped. That was not a good sound. That was not a good sound at all. In fact, that was the very last thing he wanted to hear. He heard Thistle giggling as she recovered and the kelpie’s giggles harmonised with the dulcet tones of Harper’s voice. 

“Pervert?” Harper repeated, blinking her eyes and looking curious. She looked at Sukari. 

“Pervert.” Sukari looked up at Thistle. “Pervert?” 

Harper shrugged and also looked up at Thistle. “What who pervert?” 

Peeking out from behind the living room archway, Cadance blinked at the ponies in the hall. Her ears perked forward and she looked up at Bucky. “Pervert?” 

“Thistle… you’re young and you have your whole life in front of you… I’ll take the blame for this when Derpy finds out. While I distract her, you run.” Bucky gave Thistle a glance and then he looked at his foals. 

Nodding, Thistle made eye contact as a means of silent agreement. 



 

“I’m so tired,” Apple Bloom said as she fell over on Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom rested her head on Sweetie Belle’s ribs and closed her eyes. “I wish Scootaloo was here.” 

In a squeaky voice, Sweetie Belle replied, “I’m getting worn out too. I have to go to the hospital and help out though in just a little while.” The unicorn filly sighed. “Scootaloo has her drills.” 

“I’m making headway.” Dinky climbed up onto the couch and sat down beside Apple Bloom. “Piña and I will keep at it. Things at home are going to be a little complicated, but we’ll make it work.” 

“Where is Piña?” Apple Bloom asked. 

Dinky heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes. “She is with Larch and Babs. They’re off talking to Tuli about egghead stuff.” 

“Dinky, we are eggheads,” Sweetie Belle said in a low voice. 

“I know.” Dinky nodded and shook her head. She lifted up both front hooves and waved them around as she said, “I’ve become a real dork.” 

“I’ve almost worked out the secret formula. I need to get out and see Zecora, but it is winter, it is a long walk, and the Everfree is dangerous.” Apple Bloom lifted her foreleg and then rested it on Sweetie’s foreleg in an open display of affection. 

“You need a way out to Zecora? I think I know a way. How do you feel about flying?” Dinky asked, looking over at Apple Bloom and noticing how her and Sweetie were cuddled with one another. Seeing it made Dinky curious about what it would be like to cuddle with another filly in the same way they were doing it. There was something… different about them, but Dinky couldn’t put her hoof on what it was. 

“Who would give me a ride?” Apple Bloom asked as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She turned to look at Dinky and couldn’t help but notice that Dinky was staring, and Dinky’s expression was wide eyed and curious. 

“I know that Lugus would give you a ride if you said please,” Dinky replied. 

“Hmm.” Apple Bloom removed her foreleg from Sweetie Belle’s foreleg and then reached up to rub her nose. “If I am going to go, I should do it before it gets any later.” 

“Come on, We’ll go find Lugus and I’ll give him the sad eyes,” Dinky said as she hopped down off of the couch. 



 

“Settling in, Luna?” Bucky asked as he nibbled on a brownie. 

“Yes, thank you,” Luna replied, as she too, ate a brownie. 

Bucky raised his eyebrow and leaned over the table. “Did you and Barley get everything sorted out?” 

After a moment of hesitation, Luna nodded for a moment, paused, and then continued nodding. “Barley had an old pony moment. He insisted that he actually thought of me as a foal for a moment. I have no reason to think he was lying. Bucky… he is old. I do hope his mind is not going. I love him so.” 

Bucky stuffed more of his brownie into his mouth and chewed, not knowing what to say or how to reply. He could see the pained expression upon Luna’s face. Barley was old, but not that old. Perhaps Barley had just had an off moment. As he thought about it, Bucky’s stomach gave a lurch. He set his brownie down upon his plate and clutched his stomach. 

“Buckminster?” Luna’s ears pitched forwards and wrinkles appeared upon her foalish brow as her eyes narrowed. “Are you alright?” 

Another powerful wave of nausea. Bucky could feel the itching beneath his skin, right underneath the worst of his scars. Bucky felt his stomach gurgle and then he tasted something bitter in the back of his throat, almost like acid indigestion. It burned as the taste crept over his tongue. 

Without warning, Bucky belched, a small acidic belch that reeked of rotten eggs. Luna recoiled, jerking her head back, and covering her nose with her hoof. Bucky felt his stomach squelching, and the pressure began to build. 

“Eww… Buckminster… you have soiled the air,” Luna said in a muffled voice from behind her hoof. “Begone! Leave this room at once, you foul creature from the abyssal depths!” 

Bucky’s mouth fell open and he belched once more. The sound was like something that had crawled out of the Stygian Pits, a croaking -urgle-gurgle-blargle-nargle- sound. As the sound increased in volume and force, Luna’s mane blew back from her head as her eyes went wider and wider. 

Luna let out a foalish fearful cry and Semillon squeaked in alarm. 

Still the belch kept coming, and a sulphurous, ruinous reek befouled the air. Harper was standing in the kitchen archway now, looking wide eyed and afraid. She began to back away. 

Just when Bucky thought the burp was reaching its crescendo, the pressure increased even more and Bucky felt a painful pinching sensation in the back of his throat. Blue-purple-pink flames shot out of his mouth and the stench of sulphur grew even stronger. 

“Dragon eat princess!” Harper cried as she took off running. 

Luna dove from her chair and ducked under the table. 

And then, it was over. The pressure was gone and Bucky felt a lot better. The nausea was gone. He felt empty inside. Reaching out, he picked up his brownie and began to eat it. 

“Please help, send a knight,” Luna said in a fearful voice from beneath the table. 

“Just so long as I get paid every Monday,” Semillon said as she took a step backwards and then resumed making dinner. 

“I suppose I owe it to Bon Bon to go see a doctor,” Bucky said around a mouthful of brownie, looking unconcerned about what had just taken place. 
	
> Chapter 657
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Dearest Buckminster, I bet you have troubling symptoms and they are showing, just as I have calculated and predicted. I will explain tonight, between first and second sleep when I come to Ponyville. Do not worry and try not to panic, your friend, Twilight Sparkle.” Bucky looked down at the sheet of parchment and blinked a few times, feeling very, very confused and a bit intimidated by Twilight. 

With her eyes on the parchment, Luna said, “Twilight Sparkle is as smart as you are clever, and that is saying a whole lot. I have no idea how she stays on top of everything, but she seems to know what is going on.” 

“First and second sleep. I wonder if I should try that,” Bucky said as he looked over the words on the parchment. 

“Many ponies do… a bit of sleep in the evening, waking up in the middle of the night, spend an hour or three eating, studying, laughing, making foals, and then back to sleep for a few more hours before the dawn.” Luna looked up at Bucky. “If you were to follow your own natural sleeping patterns, you would sleep through the morning, be awake around noon, and then sleep through the afternoon until evening.” 

Rubbing his stomach, Bucky wondered what was going on while he also marvelled at Twilight Sparkle’s intuition. He felt blessed to have her as a friend. 



 

“Berry, have you thought about taking a break?” Derpy asked. She looked at the earth pony hunched over a small fold out desk that was against the wall and next to the wardrobe in the bedroom. “You’ve been at this for a while.” 

Sitting up, Berry Punch rubbed her face with her front hooves. Her spine crackled as she stretched. Reaching behind her, she pressed one hoof into the middle of her spine, pushed, and leaned backwards. 

Derpy winced at the sound. It was like somepony snapping a bunch of celery in half. 

“What are you doing?” Thistle asked. 

Berry turned around on her cushion and looked at her two fellow wives. “Stuff.” Berry blinked and shook her head for a moment. “Balancing the books. Making certain that the businesses are profitable. Making certain that we can help our affiliated farms with funding in the spring so they can plant what we need. I do not want them indebted to the banks ever again.  My brain feels like sludge. I’m tired.” 

“Take a break,” Derpy said, her suggestion soft and inviting as she tapped on the bed beside her. “Come here. Sit with me.” 

“I need to be able to go on long walks to clear my head and I’m too fat.” Berry’s eyes narrowed. “I feel so sluggish and stupid. I keep packing on the pounds and I can’t stop eating and if I keep this up, I’m going to become a giant slug laying in the bed beside Derpy all day.” 

“I don’t want to hear it.” Thistle shook her head. “You can still move, Berry Punch.” 

“So I can.” Berry Punch heaved a sigh. 

Trotting through the room, her ears back in a submissive posture, Sukari came round the bed and sat down on the floor near Berry Punch. The zebra looked up at the earth pony with a hopeful expression. 

“I know… I promised you a story. I’ve been very busy. I’m sorry,” Berry said, looking guilty. 

There was a flash of anger in Sukari’s blue eyes. Her tail thumped against the floor as it twitched. The zebra foal snorted and then said, “Pervert.” Getting up, Sukari went trotting off, walking past a stunned Thistle whose mouth hung open. 

“Did… did she just say what I thought she just said?” Derpy asked as the zebra foal went through the nursery door. 

“How did she know I am a pervert?” Berry shook her head as though she was trying to get the confusion out of it, perhaps out of an ear or a nostril. “What just happened?” 

“Berry Punch… how could you teach her that word—” 

“Oh no… no no no! You can’t blame me Derpy, I didn’t do this!” Berry said, cutting Derpy off. Berry stood up, wobbled a bit, her sides jiggling as she struggled to get her balance, and then Berry’s ears tilted forwards. 

“Where else would she hear this kind of language?” Derpy asked. “You keep slipping up and saying stuff around the foals… Piña swears, Harper says awful things, Cadance has learned some bad words from you… this keeps happening!” 

“I didn’t do this!” Berry snorted to place emphasis upon her retort. 

“This is my fault.” Thistle lifted her head. 

“Stay out of this Thistle, you can’t save Berry from this little slip up—” 

“No, Derpy, this is my fault.” Thistle stepped forward. “Bucky came inside as I was coming out the kitchen. As he came inside the front door, he goosed me. Got his nose up under my tail and stuck his snoot right into my plot furrow. I called him a pervert because I was surprised. Sukari, Harper, and Cadance all heard me call Bucky a pervert.” 

Derpy turned her head away from Thistle and looked at Berry. “I’m sorry.” 

“To be fair, ninety nine percent of the time, it is my fault, so I can’t be mad. But you owe me one I’m sorry kiss and a free pass the next time I screw up,” Berry Punch replied. 

“Fair enough.” Derpy turned and looked at Thistle. “Thank you.” 

“Wow… this just resolved itself without any serious squabbling, angry words, or shouting.” Thistle’s eyes darted from Berry to Derpy. She began to giggle. 

“Sukari doesn’t even know how right she was.” Derpy’s face was like the sun parting the clouds as she began to grin. “It’s kinda funny even though it shouldn’t be.”

Tittering, Berry Punch nodded in agreement and then said, “I’m going to go read her a story and maybe give her a brownie.” Berry Punch left, heading for the door that led out into the hallway, off to find Sukari. 

In the nursery, Bell Heather began to cry and there was a soft squawk from Magpie. Thistle cocked her head and listened for a moment. 

“Hungry.” Derpy looked at Thistle and saw her nodding. 

“Yep, hungry. Sounds so clear now, makes me feel stupid that I couldn’t hear this before.” Thistle began to move towards the nursery door. 

“Thistle, love, these things take time to learn. But you are becoming a great mother.”

Hearing Derpy’s praise, Thistle felt a warm tingle all over that made her feel so good that a little laugh escaped her lips. She glanced at Derpy before she went through the nursery door and for a moment, she was overcome with a feeling of love that she had no words to express. 



 

The mead hall’s lights were low and the air was somewhat smokey. Belisama’s statue stood out in its own column of light. Sitting beneath her statue, Belisama held Bandua in her forelegs and looked at the other mothers gathered around her, holding their young. 

“These are blessed times,” Odin said in a soft, warm voice to the griffonesses around him. “All of you are doing your part to rebuild our empire, and for this, I thank you.” Reaching out, Odin patted Belisama. “We came to the verge of extinction. It was almost our end. I saw our end, or I thought I did, I saw what was our final battle as we were first burned by fire, turned to ashes and cinders, and then buried under ice. I saw what I thought would be our grave. I felt my own end coming, I saw my own death. I felt what little goodness that existed in our species grow weaker and weaker, choked out by the evil that plagued us.” 

Bandua peeped and her eyes blinked as she lifted her head. 

“The two kings will fight and commit treachery upon one another, all sisters' cubs will defile their sacred kinship and the bonds of blood will be severed. As our world nears its end, madness will be the herald of our end; an age of coal, an age of steel, all bonds of brotherhood and trust will be sundered. There will be a burning age, and then, with the coming of the black dragon, griffon will turn upon griffon, no griffon will have mercy on another.” Odin slumped down and looked sad. “As I began to see my own death, I wrote down those words almost eight hundred years ago, not knowing what they meant, but knowing that it meant our end. 

“Bucky was the black dragon,” Belisama said in a soft voice as she turned her head to look at Odin. “His armor… his helmet looked like a dragon’s head and he had a long black tail. Our cities were burned away in fire and then Bucky buried Huginn and Muninn in ice.” 

“It was the end of us… we died that day… we are something different now,” a griffoness said as she looked around at the others. “We are something new now. The sickness is gone.” 

“I am starting to feel the music now when I play,” another griffoness said. “We are rediscovering our magic and the old ways are being revived.” 

“The bigger griffons that survive are very protective of us… Lugus is like the warriors in the sagas of old, he would die to save any one of us and he would never bring harm to us.” The griffoness rocked her cub in her forelegs and blinked as she looked up at Odin. 

A small griffoness with a bright yellow canary-like head looked around and met her fellow griffoness’ eyes with her own. “Grisabella has become a tireless provider. She goes into the Everfree and returns with meat for all of us. She hunts only the dumb and the mindless. She keeps us fed and when she is not hunting, she is watching over us with her sharp eyes, even though there is no danger here.” 

“Tannis and Agnetha are tireless assistants to Sun Mother and Moon Mother. They are trusted and are good,” a griffoness said as she bounced her cub in her forelegs. “Are we still what we once were?” 

“I don’t know,” Odin replied as he looked at the females around him. “I have gathered you all here for a reason. Each one of you has shown a talent for writing, for prose and verse, each one of you has shown yourself as exceptional little griffons.” Odin paused, stretched his wings, and looked over at Belisama. “I ask that all of you become the Mothers of Memory… please, begin writing down our history as we rebuild. Write down our new songs. Write down our triumphs as they happen, our victories, like the battle against the rats.” Odin reached out and touched Bandua with his talons, rubbing her neck with the side of his talon finger. “These little ones will need to know our new history… let the old history die under the ice. We have an obligation to teach these little ones our sense of goodness, our decency, the strength of our hearts… we owe it to them to tell them the story of how we rebuilt after we stood and saw witness of the twilight of our end… aldarrök, the age of our end, the end of our age.” 

“Is this the new morning?” a griffoness asked. 

Belisama nodded. “One might call it that. We witnessed the twilight of our end, we saw the sun set upon our empire, we have endured the night of terror, and yes, this could be seen as the new day. We now exist in a new land, with new gods, and better kings. Sun Mother and Moon Mother have embraced us as if we were their own offspring.” 

“Odin, we will be your Mothers of Memory. We will write for you new sagas for our kind.” A griffoness held her cub in one foreleg and rubbed her bulging, pregnant belly with her other talons. “We will make new stories to tell our young and we raise them knowing the new way.” 

“Odin, I will do as you ask, but I have a request,” a griffoness said in a nervous voice as she looked up at Odin. “I feel that we are missing a member. You called together a meeting of mothers… and while there are many, you wanted those of us who are exceptional. Spanner was left out of our number. He is the mother of Sprocket and Cog. Any who look at Lugnut and Spanner will see that Spanner is the mother out of the two of them.” 

Belisama’s crest rose as she nodded and looked at Odin. “She is correct.” 

“I will go and have a talk with Spanner once we are done here,” Odin said. “We must embrace the new ways… I am glad that you brought this to my attention. Thank you.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 658
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in the library, sipping a glass of apple jiggered gin, Bucky made a few adjustments to the shaped glass object he held in his telekinesis before him. Small, round, it was almost cup shaped. It had three fingers that came off one of one side of the cup, and a thumb that protruded from the other. As he worked, he lifted up his own talons and compared his talons to the glass mock up. 

After seeing Bon Bon working with her hooves, after watching how she had stood on her hind legs and worked with her front hooves, Bucky had an idea that was just now taking shape. While manipulation shoes were useful, wonderful things, and had changed the world for ponies in general, they had limitations. 

Squinting, his tongue sticking out of his mouth, Bucky examined his mock up shoe. It had fingers. He looked at his talons, then at the glass mock up, and he realised he had made a fundamental design flaw. Why have three fingers and one thumb? Why not have the fingers move and change positions to what was needed, able to slide around the outer rim of the shoe? If he did that, there could be two fingers and two thumbs. Or three fingers and a thumb. Or four fingers and no thumb, if it wasn’t needed. 

If earth ponies stood up like Bon Bon did in a bipedal stance, and used their front hooves the way Bon Bon did, why not have fingers? Even as he worked, Bucky realised that this was an idea that was going to change the lives of earth ponies and even pegasi, forever. Octavia, an earth pony with incredible mastery over her mental focus and the ability to make beautiful music with her cello was still working with clumsy manipulation shoes. Bucky had trouble imagining what she might do if she had actual fingers. 

With fingers, Earth ponies could rival the griffons as mechanics and tinkerers. They could be just as adept as unicorns who had fine control with telekinesis. He lifted the mock up, changed the angle, and wondered what it would be like to walk on it. The fingers would need to fold up and away from the shoe so it could be walked on. 

It was the beginning of an idea that would change everything. 

Bucky saw plenty of problems though. There was the cost of manufacturing. There was the complex enchantments required. His brow furrowed. He could give them the same swarm mind as his golems. Bucky nodded. If one pony’s fingers went out, being near another pony with working fingers would allow them to be reset, much in the same way that golems revived one another, restoring each other’s directives and subroutines. In theory, he would only need to enchant the first set of finger shoes and then the magic would swarm through the rest. 

In his magical grasp, the fingers waggled and moved as Bucky made adjustments, lengthening some joints and shortening others. Having them made out of glass would make them cheap. All that would be needed for their construction was sand. There would need to be hardening spells. Glass was easy to keep clean as well. 

Steel would have a few advantages but might be expensive. The glass joints and points of articulation would need spells for smooth action, because glass sliding over glass had some issues. Aluminum seemed too soft and impractical. Earth ponies lived hard lives. Farmers, labourers, they would need something that would be as tough as they were. 

Bucky’s muzzle scrunched as he gave it some serious thought. 

Copper and zinc were dirt cheap, common, plentiful, and easy enough to acquire. Brass, hardened brass, was a tough and durable metal. Reaching up with his own talons, Bucky rubbed the withered side of his face and ignored the gurgle in his gut. 

Brass was cheap, practical, smooth enough to use in both hinges as well as ball and socket joints. Also, with a bit of spit and hard work, it could be polished up to a mirror finish to make it look presentable. 

As Bucky took a drink of his apple jiggered gin, there was a knock on the front door. 



 

“Twilight.” Bucky stood, looking up. Twilight had become quite tall, now a match for how Cadance was, or Princess Luna when Luna had been larger. 

“Bucky.” Twilight leaned her head down and kissed Bucky on the good side of his face. 

“I got your message. The messenger pegasus arrived not long after I belched up flames.” Bucky looked Twilight in the eye. “I would really like to know just how you knew about this.” 

Stepping aside, Bucky gestured for Twilight to make herself at home. “Want anything? Food? Drink?” 

“Some tea would be nice,” Twilight replied as she headed off into the kitchen. 



 

Hunched over an oversized mug full of steaming green tea, Bucky was starting to feel queasy again as the pressure continued to build up in his stomach. He looked at Twilight and watched as she gobbled down a second brownie. Raw, insatiable curiousity was devouring Bucky’s insides and he felt irked that Twilight wasn’t spilling any answers at the moment. 

“After your regeneration by phoenix flames, I started to study about the healing process, I was wondering if perhaps it might be a viable means to heal traumatic injuries, even if it is horrible, unpleasant, and unspeakably painful to endure,” Twilight said with a wad of brownie in her cheek. The alicorn shook her head. “There isn’t a whole lot of information available.” 

“Twilight… being burned to a cinder by Minion was right up there with hanging on the hook as far as unpleasant experiences go.” Bucky rubbed his stomach and wondered when he would belch flames again. 

Swallowing, Twilight nodded. “See, I started to get concerned when the shadow generator system controls registered chaos magic coming from you. You had a phenomenal amount of magical energy that night, and you were giving off chaos energy. Fluttershy is giving off chaos energy as well, I’ve done a little studying of her condition, but her changes are sudden and pronounced. Stuff just appears. At first, I thought you might become a draconequus after I saw the chaos magic in your magical signature.” 

Bucky blinked and felt more than a little alarmed. He lifted his mug and took a sip, pondering Twilight’s words. He had seen himself as a draconequus. The thought sent cold chills up and down his spine and he shuddered. 

“But you suffered no sudden changes. You’ve been experiencing slow changes though. Your horn has darkened. I see you’ve been shedding. The scales on your talons have darkened and taken on a metallic appearance. And I have a working hypothesis as to what is going on.” Twilight grinned, picked up a spoon, and added far too much sugar to her tea. The spoon clinked against the sides of the cup as she stirred. 

“Well?” Bucky asked, wishing that Twilight would just get to the point. 

“Tell me Bucky, what exactly were your talons made from?” Twilight’s face became serious and she leaned closer to Bucky. 

Bucky, feeling more than a little afraid, took a moment to consider his answer. “Fulgurite as the base, so it could fuse with the bone well… and a steel alloy.” Bucky felt bad for leaving out one little detail, but he didn’t think that Twilight Sparkle needed to know that it was demon blood infused steel alloy. The less said about that, the better. 

“Spike has metallic scales. Bio-organic-metalloid-metallic compounds.” Twilight’s brows knitted together as she became focused and thoughtful. “Keep in mind, this is a theory, but when the phoenix fire began to consume your body, you had a few body parts that were not quite the standard equine body structure. It had to recreate an approximation of your body, an amalgamation of the materials it encountered. The composition of your body was remarkably draconic… I mean when you stop to think about it. You had silicon from the fulgurite and metallic compounds from your steel prosthesis.” 

And demon blood, Bucky thought to himself as he began to feel concerned. 

“So, when your body was reconstituted, rebuilt, when your hind leg was regenerated and your whole body was restored, you were rebuilt with all of the parts and replacements you had added to your body. Your metal prosthesis is still with you, in a sense. I suspect the chaos magic is what is allowing you to become… whatever you are now. Spike has a whiff of chaos magic about him too, because he is a dragon. I bet if we took one of your scales and and one of his scales, they would either be similar or identical in composition. Your horn appears to be the same material as the scales on your talons.” Twilight cleared her throat, took a sip of tea, and looked up at Bucky. “I am betting that you have some new organs inside of you… and right now, they are developing and becoming functional. I can’t say for certain, but I think chaos magic is what allows dragons to be living metal. Spike has just a tiny touch of chaos magic, and I have a theory that this is what allows him to function as a dragon. Tell me Bucky, do you feel any strange lumps under your skin?” 

“Yes… how did you know?” Bucky asked. 

“A guess. I strongly suspect that you will grow some scales.” Twilight sniffed her tea and her eyes half closed as her ears relaxed. 

“I can feel little lumpy bumpy places under the scarred side of my face… but only the scarred side… why there? And the othered scarred places on my body. Why?” Bucky set down his mug, reached up with his talons, and rubbed his face. 

“If I had to guess, I would say it is because those are the places on your body where you were touched by fire. Cauterised. I suspect the scales are developing to grow over and replace the damaged skin. Just a hunch, mind you,” Twilight replied. The alicorn sighed a contented sigh and slumped down in her chair. “I’d like to study you and compare you to Spike if I can get the chance. And Fluttershy I suppose.” 

A creeping fear crawled up Bucky’s neck, leaving behind goosebumps with every step it took. He swallowed. “Um, sure. A study might be good, but we’re both kinda busy. When will we find the time?” Thoughts about demon blood lingered in the depths of Bucky’s mind. 

“Funny you mention that. We can pick up our work at Hidden Hollow. It was you that spiked the machinery last time. We don’t need Luna’s magic, we can just plug you into the machine and get everything we need. While we’re working on the Shadowbolt program, in between creation cycles, you can let me poke and prod at you.” Twilight smiled. 

“That sounds like a really good idea,” Bucky said, thinking it was a terrible idea even as the words were leaving his mouth. 

“Oh, and before I forget, I will have some scale cream sent your way. I bet you’re being eaten alive by the itchies. Spike gets them real bad when he is molting and growing new scales. The medicated cream I made just for him should also make you feel a lot better.” Twilight gulped down some of her tea and then set her mug down upon the table. “When Spike was a little itty bitty baby dragon, he had terrible tummy troubles as his fire developed. Painful gas, cramps, he’d complain about feeling sick and dizzy. He had a real rough time, but he got through it.” 

“Twilight… I still don’t know how you knew about this.” Bucky looked Twilight in the eye. 

“A hunch. Like I said, I started to study after we came home. I studied even more after you spiked the system. I started forming different potential hypotheses based on things I did know, like my studies of Spike, and then I took an educated guess on when you might have symptoms based on what I know. And it seems that I was right. You will probably grow scales all over your scarred places. You might become a bit more fire resistant, perhaps through magical means since you lack scales everywhere. The clacker organs in the back of your throat will continue to develop and you may feel a pinching feeling back there. If you feel gassy, be careful letting it out when you burp. Try taking a powdered charcoal supplement, it will make your stomach feel better. It worked for Spike.” Twilight picked up her mug and  then drained about half of it. 

“Twilight… uh…” Bucky tried to think about some way to bring up the demon blood issue, failed to think of any good way to say it, and then realised he had Twilight’s attention and she was waiting for him to finish saying something. Bucky spat out the first thing that came to mind. “Um, will I need to worry about hoarding? I already feel kinda possessive and protective about stuff.” 

“I dunno.” Twilight’s expression became thoughtful. “Perhaps. Your psychological profile already shows a strong possessive streak, but not a greedy streak. However, you should be careful around gold, silver, and other precious metals just to be safe, this is something we should study. I have books on draquus ponies… I am going to read them and learn what I can. Some of it might be relevant to you.” 

Feeling a bit queasier, Bucky drank more of his tea and began to worry about what he wasn’t telling Twilight Sparkle. 
	
> Chapter 659
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Scorch?” Bucky peered around the forge. It was empty and there was no sign of Scorch. Bucky stood near the smelter and tried to control his rising panic. “Scorch?” Bucky trotted through the large space, heading for the doors. He knew that Scorch was around here somewhere, or he hoped Scorch was here.

He stepped through the doors and out into the night. A light dusting of snow was falling. 

“Scorch?” 

There was a poof of fire off to Bucky’s right and Bucky turned his head. “Scorch! Am I glad to see you… I need to talk to you.” Bucky blinked as he looked up at the big burning earth pony. 

“What sort of talk are we having?” Scorch asked as he shifted into a minotaur. 

“I need information,” Bucky replied. 

“Hmm.” Scorch folded his arms over his massive chest. “What sort of information?” 

“About demons… this is important.” Bucky looked up at the tall minotaur. 

“Bucky, there are rules. I can’t just give that kind of information away. I have to be paid,” Scorch said in a low voice. “Something has to be given to me in exchange.” 

Shaking his head, Bucky looked up at Scorch. “I might have absorbed demon essence… I could be in terrible trouble here, Scorch.” 

The big minotaur scowled, reached up, and began to scratch his ear with his massive hand. “That is a problem. I suppose you want to find out if you are now infernal.” 

“Yes!” Bucky cried in reply, dancing in place on his hooves. His stomach lurched and he felt a strong wave of nausea hit him. 

“Lord of Winter… for my answer, I demand one snowball.” Scorch held out his hand. 

“What?” Bucky went still and stared upwards. 

“One snowball. You are the Lord of Winter. Snow is your hallmark, is it not? The very essence of what you are? I demand one snowball for an answer. Give it to me and I will give you something in exchange.” 

His horn igniting, Bucky made a snowball, packed it, added a little more snow, and then placed it in Scorch’s hand. He watched as Scorch hefted the snowball, as if feeling  the weight, and then, the snowball melted in Scorch’s fingers. 

“Hmm, let’s have a look at you.” Scorch hunkered down, dropping low, and he grabbed Bucky in his hands. With one hand on Bucky’s back, and the other on Bucky’s neck, Scorch leaned in and sniffed Bucky. He pulled back his head, let go of Bucky, and stood back up.

“Well?” Bucky asked. 

“You are, in fact, infernal,” Scorch replied. 

“Oh no… that’s not good.” Bucky turned around in a circle, almost chasing his own tail, and he felt his stomach gurgle. 

Standing still, Scorch held out his hand and waited. 

Seeing Scorch’s hand out, Bucky froze in place once more, stared at Scorch’s hand, and then a dull look of recognition appeared in his eyes. He made another snowball and placed it in the palm of Scorch’s hand. 

“You have to ask a question,” Scorch said, offering Bucky a bit of instruction. 

“I don’t even know where to begin… tell me about demons… make me feel better about this somehow!” Bucky said in a frantic voice. 

The minotaur nodded. “Very well.” He clenched the snowball in his fist and it vanished. “I am not actually a demon, even though I am called a demon lord. But I am infernal. I became this way over time. Demons are any number of beings that live in Tartarus or travel through various dimensions. Not all demons are evil. Some are actually good. The term demon is a broad classification fraught with perilous definition. Right now in Canterlot, one of Celestia’s dearest foalhood friends is visiting, and he is an actual demon. His name is Scorpan. Scorpan has become what some might consider to be an insufferable goody-goody. Being infernal does not make you evil. And if you took the time to think about your son, Rising Star, you would remember that he is infernal as well.” Scorch looked down at Bucky. “Feel better?” 

“Not really, no. Still freaking out.” Bucky belched and grimaced at the bitter taste. 

“Well, you paid me. I am obligated to make you feel better, or soon I will begin feeling indescribable anguish for going back upon my word.” Scorch’s face became a little worried. 

“I am part demon… I don’t know how I should feel about this.” Bucky took a deep breath and filled his lungs with cold air. 

“You are part demon only in the loosest sense of the word. Rising Star became an infernal fey, you’ve become a little infernal with a touch of demonhood. It doesn’t make you evil. Choice makes you evil. What you do. Scorpan roams the world, righting wrongs, fighting a good fight, and he believes himself to be some sort of paladin. He takes up noble causes. He will preach endlessly about goodness and virtue. You’ve already shown that you can deal with the temptation of power, so the extra power you have gained from this won’t corrupt you or make you any worse than you already are. You have the means to make this work for you. To make you better. To help you fight.” Scorch hunkered down once more and patted Bucky on the back. 

“Thanks… I feel better… I think… I guess there are certain conclusions you jump to when you hear the word ‘demon’ and most of them aren’t good.” Bucky closed his eyes and felt his knees tremble as a powerful wave of nausea washed over him. 

Scorch heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s a start, but I still feel obligated.” 

“Will this affect my foals? I mean… the ones I make in the future.” Bucky opened his eyes and every muscle in his body tensed at the very thought. 

Biting his lip for a moment, Scorch realised that Bucky was about to feel worse. “Yes. Yes, this infernal tinge will pass on to any future foals you have, but it will not make them bad, so you need to stop worrying, please, my friend, trust me when I tell you that it will be okay.” 

“Will they be tempted into evil?” Bucky asked. 

“Bucky, anything can be tempted into evil, infernal or not,” Scorch replied. 

Bucky shook his head from worry, causing his tufted ears to flop around. “How will this affect them?” 

Scorch shifted into a big earth pony and stood beside Bucky. “Your foals are already going to be interesting and face plenty of challenges… being infernal will be the least of their worries.” 

“So it is really nothing to worry about?” Bucky asked. 

“Really… I know it seems scary, but fear of the unknown is always scary. One of your foals might be born sinister… wooo… that’s a scary word when you first hear it… but being born sinister just means left handed or left hoofed or left taloned or left pawed. But it sounds scary when you hear it… you will have a few foals with an infernal streak. They'll be impish little buggers, but mostly because you are already an impish little bugger yourself, so you will never know the difference.” Scorch lifted his hoof and patted Bucky on the ribs. He felt his sense of obligation fading away into nothingness. 

“I feel better,” Bucky said. 

“I know.” Scorch smiled. 

“So this doesn’t change who or what I am?” Bucky asked. 

Scorch shrugged. 

“Do I need to give you another snowball?” Bucky raised his eyebrow. 

“No. I don’t know how to answer. You determine who and what you are.” Scorch sprouted a horn and became a unicorn. “Bucky… you had a pretty ironclad destiny set out for you. You rejected it. You made your own way and you keep doing things your own way and I’m not certain if there is much that can change who you choose to be.” 

Belching again, Bucky shuddered from the bitter taste creeping up his throat and over his tongue. As he tried to ignore his churning stomach, he gave thought to what Scorch had said. 

“Go be with your wives, you infernal scoundrel. They can do what I cannot.” Scorch lifted his hoof and pointed at the farmhouse. 

“Thank you, Scorch… this means a lot to me.” 



 

Bucky stood outside of his bedroom door and took a deep breath. He felt a lot better. He had belched out on the porch, and now the build up was out of his system. He was still itchy all over though. 

He pushed the door open, crept inside, and shut the door behind him. There were several lumps in the bed, all bunched together under the blanket. He stood near the bed, sniffing, his nostrils flaring. The scent of mares flooded his nose. Floral shampoo and soap. Soft smelling perfume. The faint scent of candy. The minty scent of toothpaste. 

He lifted the blanket and made ready to crawl in, but as he did so, he saw a hoof. It was Bon Bon’s hoof. Feeling perverse, feeling impish, Bucky lowered his head, parted his lips, and then he dragged his tongue over Bon Bon’s frog. 

There was a startled snort followed by a feminine voice asking, “What was that?!” 

Bucky’s vision filled with white and blue stars. His ears filled with a ringing sound. He felt his knees going weak. He fell onto the bed, lost his balance, and then slipped over the side, tumbling down to the floor the floor below. 

It was like licking Berry Punch’s hooves, but much, much stronger. Bucky lay on the floor and giggled as the stars zoomed around in his vision. He felt the whole room lurch and the floor rolled beneath him. 

“Bucky?” Bon Bon looked down over the edge of the bed at Bucky, her mane spilling down over her face. “Bucky, you dirty little hoof licker, you scared me…” 

For a moment, Bucky saw three Bon Bons. It left him feeling a little aroused. You could have a lot of fun with three Bon Bons and all those hooves. 

“Bucky, are you okay?” Bon Bon asked. 

Waking up, Berry Punch asked, “What’s going on?” 

“Bucky licked my hoof and now he is lying on the floor giggling,” Bon Bon replied in a low whisper. 

“Hey, I want my hooves licked.” Berry Punch’s voice was a soft, silken sound in the dark room, now filled with the hint of need. 

In the darkness, Derpy yawned and then smacked her lips. “Go back to sleep.” 

“Bucky licked my hoof!” 

“Bucky, stop licking Bon Bon’s hooves and go to bed.”

“He’s on the floor, giggling like mad after licking my hoof.” 

“He’s probably drunk. Pull him into the bed and let’s go back to sleep.” 

With a grunt, Bon Bon slipped out of bed and tried to scoop Bucky up off the floor. She stood over him, trying to get her foreleg around him, but he squirmed away. Worried that she might step on him, Bon Bon lifted her right front leg and her left hind leg, and then Bucky yanked on her left front leg. 

Bon Bon toppled down on top of Bucky. She felt his legs wrap around her neck and pull her in. A moment later, they were lip locked, muzzle pressed to muzzle, and Bon Bon closed her eyes as Bucky’s tongue traced over her lips in slow, lazy circles. 

As the kiss intensified, Bon Bon’s hips bucked forwards and she felt a moist heat in her nethers as parts of her dragged over the soft flesh of Bucky’s groin and belly. 

With a gasp, Bon Bon pulled away, but lingered close, her snoot just a scant inch from Bucky’s, and she could feel his hot, wet breath blowing over her heated lips. Extending her tongue, Bon Bon licked Bucky’s lips and his snoot, a slow teasing lick, and the tip of her tongue doubled back to linger against Bucky’s lip once more.  

Getting up, Bon Bon shook herself, feeling more than a little aroused, and she pressed her front hoof into Bucky’s barrel. “Get into the bed… you dirty little hoof licker.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 660 (First half of the chapter is kinky, the second half is political) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mmmmhunnng,” Bucky moaned as something rubbed his balls. He drifted between sleep and wakefulness. He opened his eyes, lifted his head, and looked down between his legs. Thistle was standing on the bed with her head between his legs, nosing his balls with her muzzle. He heard the kelpie giggling.

It felt good and was a wonderful way to wake up. 

“They’re just so funny looking,” Thistle said as she rolled Bucky’s balls over her snoot. 

“What are you doing?” Bucky asked, the awareness of his morning wood now creeping into his brain. It twitched once and bounced against his belly. 

Still tittering, Thistle looked up from between Bucky’s legs and gave Bucky a heavy lidded, smouldering stare. “Playing with fire.” 

Lifting her head, Thistle moved forward, past Bucky’s balls, and there was a flash of orange as she stuck her orange tongue out. She placed the tip of her tongue on the base of Bucky’s shaft, and then with a smooth motion of her head, dragged it the entire length. 

The kelpie felt a strange feeling of power knowing that she had almost caused Bucky to jump out of his skin. She began to laugh in earnest now, and she stood with her head just above Bucky’s cock. “It’s so funny looking. So ridiculous. I can’t stand looking at it. I am not at all sexually attracted to cocks… I like looking at marehoods… but I love the feeling of cocks. Why must they look so silly?” Thistle gave another lick and was rewarded with a rush of power as Bucky squirmed. 

When Thistle took the head of his cock into her mouth, Bucky’s whole body tensed as her tongue circled around his flared head and the hole in the middle. He had trouble breathing, he felt himself gasp, and every muscle in his body jerked. 

Thistle, a kelpie, was a creature designed for eating fish, swallowing them whole, allowing for the fish’s entire length to slide down her throat. Thistle, knowing that she could do this, had an idea. Bucky’s cock was girthy though, but Thistle had eaten big fish before. Her lower jaw could open far more than a regular pony’s jaw. She tumbled the idea around in her brain as she continued to tease Bucky, causing him to huff and puff. 

Pulling away, Thistle lifted her head for a moment and looked Bucky in the eye. A ribbon of drool dribbled from her chin. Giving Bucky a sultry stare, Thistle whispered, “I’m a dirty filly.” 

And then, as Bucky watched, Thistle gobbled up his dick as though it was a fish. She pushed her head down along the length, getting her lips around it, and he felt the worrisome tickle-prickle of her needle teeth. She pushed her head down and Bucky was seized with the dreadful need to grab Thistle by her head, push her down against him, and screw her face until she was senseless. More and more of his cock vanished, and then Bucky felt his tip press against the soft, fleshy folds of her throat. 

Thistle, a kelpie, did not have a gag reflex. Thistle had a swallow reflex. This was no different than a big troublesome floppy trout. Thistle gulped as she took more of Bucky’s cock in. She rubbed her tongue along the bottom, she tasted something salty in her mouth, something that tasted like fish roe, something salty bitter. Berry Punch had described the taste as being awful, but Thistle found she loved the taste and wanted more.

Fish roe was the most delicious treat that Thistle knew of and this flavour was similar. 

All four of Bucky’s legs cramped as instinct took over, a painful need to brace his legs and began humping something, a vigorous need to be a stallion and impart his seed into a waiting fertile plot furrow. Only he was not buried in a plot furrow, his cock was halfway down Thistle’s throat and she seemed determined to take in all of it. He could feel her swallowing around his flesh, taking more and more of him in, and the feeling of suction was powerful. 

His eyes crossed and he sucked in a deep breath, trying to hold back, trying to keep from blowing his load right here and now. He gritted his teeth and did all that he could to keep himself together. 

The kelpie realised this was going to be the first time that she had the entire length of Bucky’s cock hidden inside of her. She felt proud, accomplished, and she felt her lips slide over the thick fleshy ring as she continued to push her head down and keep swallowing. It was just like gulping a fish down, her throat muscles had evolved for this sort of action. Fish fought back, they flopped and thrashed, fish didn’t want to be swallowed whole and alive. 

Thistle had once swallowed a very cranky two foot long freshwater bass that had taken offense to being eaten alive, it had been a real fighter, and it had been a whole lot longer as well as a whole lot thicker than Bucky’s cock. She had gulped it down a little at a time, which is what she was going with Bucky’s throbbing and pulsating length. 

Gulp, gulp, gulp. 

With a sense of triumph that could not be described, Thistle wrapped her lips around the base of Bucky’s shaft, applied suction, and pulled back just a little bit as she swallowed. 

Whimpering, Bucky closed his eyes and fought the urge to buck his hips as he felt his entire length sliding back and forth inside of Thistle’s undulating throat. Soft, warm flesh massaged his length, pulling him in deeper, it gripped him, tugged at him, pulled on him. 

Thistle’s eyes bulged and her nostrils flared. She had no trouble at all breathing, she had encountered some trouble breathing when she had gobbled down the massive bass, but this was nowhere near as bad as that. She recalled having to drag it ashore to subdue it and begin the process of getting it down her gullet. 

Unable to hold back any longer, Bucky climaxed and blew his load down Thistle’s throat, shooting a massive wad of cum out deep inside of her. He blew a second load, then a third, and with a feeling that made his balls ache, his guts convulsed as his body worked loose a fourth load of spunk. 

Thistle could feel the hot salty treat backing up in her throat as she pulled her head up and the length of Bucky’s cock slid along her still swallowing throat, trying to pull it all back in. She licked, hungry greedy licks, not wanting to waste a drop. This was a lot like fish roe, salty, bitter, it was delicious and Thistle was determined to get every precious glop. She kept swallowing, refusing to release the flared head of Bucky’s cock until she had coaxed out every last drop of cum that she could get. Her tongue lapped and she applied as much suction as she could muster. 

For a moment, Bucky thought he was going to pass out. 

When no more spunk seemed forthcoming, Thistle pulled her head away, allowing Bucky’s cock to slip free from her lips. “Mmm, thanks Mister,” Thistle said as she bounced off the bed and went pronking away. 

Grunting, wincing, Bucky had to work to unkink his cramped legs so he could get up. 



 

“Thistle seems perky for some reason,” Berry said before she took a bite of muffin with one hoof and shoved the newspaper over towards Barley and Luna with her other hoof. “Have a look, Barley.” Berry Punch’s words came out from around her mouthful of bran muffin. 

“What am I looking at?” Barley asked as he picked up the newspaper. 

“Good news, good news everywhere,” Berry replied after she had swallowed. She waved her muffin around in one hoof and gestured at the paper with the other. “Read the article about agreeing to disagree. Some of the representatives, even though they don’t like certain measures, have agreed to negotiate and come to a deal that will benefit everyone in some way. A little give and take. Makes me feel real good to read it.” 

Barley raised his eyebrows. “Compromise?” 

“Compromise is better than division, that is the quote from Representative Carroway. He said that we need to start finding common ground and presenting a united front. Carroway is a member of the monogamist party and believes in a class structure based on tribe, but he is willing to make compromises and reach across the divide.” 

“So what is the compromise and what is he supporting?” Barley unfolded the newspaper and began to read. 

“He has voted for the education reform act, even though he disagreed with it, and he voted for a funding increase for the Crown’s postal service, but that is a neutral issue. In return, Rising Star got a whole bunch of ponies to vote for the big guard retirement increase, which has not been raised in a very long time… so Carroway got something that he wanted. His family has a long and noble service record in the guard...  so it looks like everybody gets to go home happy on these issues.” Berry stuffed the entire remainder of the muffin into her mouth. 

Sitting in silence, Princess Luna chewed her food, her expression thoughtful. 

“Wait, we’re dividing into political interest parties?” Barley asked, his brows furrowing as he read. “How is this bringing ponies together?” 

Shrugging, Berry swallowed. “It is an easy way to label your interests and make your affiliations known. Seems like a lot of groups are forming, but I think over time the smaller groups will band together and we’ll see fewer groups but with a broader base of interests.” 

“This sounds like a recipe for anarchy.” Barley snorted, folded the paper back up, and laid it down. “Still, these first few steps are going to be the most precarious.” Barley’s hard scowl softened and he shook his head. 

Clearing her throat, Luna tapped on the edge of the table with her hoof and then said, “This is a good first step… it addresses my own biggest issue with democracy. Everypony calling out for something different all at once. It is my fondest hope that these individual voices will band together and exchange whatever it is they want for the benefit of everyone involved. They might not get everything they want, but with luck and patience, society might get what it needs.” 

Setting the paper down upon the table, Barley nodded. “I have stuff I need to do today. Need to get myself off to the brewery.” He leaned over and gave Luna a chaste kiss on her cheek. 

“Who will take you?” Luna asked. “You can’t walk that far… do be careful, it is slippery outside and there has been fresh snow.” 

“Lima Bean offered to take me. Lima Bean has a keen interest in brewing, but his mother, Dandelion Fluff, she gets a bit testy when he brings it up,” Barley replied. The old stallion sighed and looked over at Berry and then back at Luna. “It would be a terrible thing if he got a cutie mark for brewing… his mama would be beside herself. I hope that doesn’t happen today when he is helping me. Poor lad remains blank but his interest in brewing keeps growing as his mama keeps saying no.” 

“How is Pinto Bean after his back surgery?” Berry asked as she held back a chuckle after hearing what Barley had to say. 

“His back is still bad. They say by spring he’ll be healed up, but he’ll never lift anything heavy ever again. He’ll never pull a wagon. He’s worried that we’ll toss him out and find other caretakers. I dinnae know how to reassure him that he’s one of us and we look after our own,” Barley replied. 

“I think I’ll go pay them a visit today.” Berry rubbed her front hooves together and looked at the plate of muffins sitting in the middle of the table, looking tempted by what she saw. 

“Go on, lass, take one. Ye know ye want to.” Barley looked at his niece and grinned. 
	
	
> Chapter 661
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks will both be homeward bound soon. I have a dispatch from them, they will be home soon, and once home, they are in desperate need of some time off,” Violet said as she watched Bucky drink his coffee. 

“See that they get it,” Bucky replied in between sips. 

“There is going to be the very public trial in the Shetlands for the war criminals. The very, very public trials. Vice Governor Wrecker sends a personal note of thanks for your assistance and hopes that Equestria can endure the coming firestorm.” Violet paused and let out a faint whinny of concern, re-read the missive, shook her head, and then looked up at Bucky. “Sir, this could cause rioting and all manner of unpleasantness. Do we wish to rile what little bit of calm we have? This is horrific.” 

“We do.” Bucky’s voice was a dull monotone. “The public has a right to know and I made a promise. The world needs to hear what happens to slaves in mercury mines. Slavery period. Our future will not be built upon the backs of others.” 

“Sir… this will set us against one another… this will rile up ill will against minotaurs, diamond dogs, griffons, and… and…” Violet’s voice faded out into a saddened gasp. 

“Unicorns?” Bucky asked. 

Violet nodded. 

“Mistakes must be acknowledged and these criminals must be made to answer. The world needs to know of this horror. Look, I made a promise to Lord Wrecker that I would see this through. The world needs to know. I will not go back on my word… and we will have endure whatever backlash comes from this. If we worry about how this will set off the citizenry, we rob the victims of their voice.” 

“But sir… while I agree with you in principle, the public is still raw from a number of incidents that have recently happened and I have some concern—” 

“Violet, would you rob Sukari of her voice? She is branded… she was a slave. Who knows what manner of horror she endured?” Bucky asked. 

“Sir, I understand why this is important to you. I will say no more,” Violet replied. She flipped a page forward on her organiser. “Princess Celestia will be doing more than attending the big science fair, she plans to bring along the press and she wants to showcase Equestria’s bright future.” 

“Oh bugger.” Bucky closed his eyes. 

“She expects great things from the Founder’s Forge.” Violet snapped her organiser shut. “One final issue that needs to be discussed and it comes from Mayor Mare. It concerns your wife, Thistle.” 

“Eh?” Bucky felt a hot blush creeping up his neck as Thistle’s name was mentioned. He opened his eyes and looked at Violet. 

“Crystal Brook approaches the age of retirement. She is the purity inspector for Ponyville’s drinking water. She is old and she can’t move around as well as she used to. She fears she can’t do her job effectively anymore. Mayor Mare would like Thistle to take over. Thistle would be responsible for inspecting the reservoir at the Ponyville hydroelectric dam, a number of water towers, and the water purification plant. Thistle doesn’t need to know how stuff works, she will have helpers and assistants for all of that, Mayor Mare just wants to make certain that the water is pure and Thistle could help towards that end.” 

“Hmm, Thistle was talking to Bon Bon about some sort of job… this is something that Thistle is uniquely suited for.” Bucky gave a slow nod of his head. “I’ll talk to her.” 



 

“Auntie Disco!” Harper looked up at her tall auntie and bounced a few times, trying to get Discord’s attention. After what seemed like forever, Harper felt herself snatched up and hugged. 

“Harpy… one of my most favourite ponies!” Discord squeezed the foal and then kissed her on the cheek. “Now where are the rest of my nieces… Sukari, Peekaboo, Cadance, where is my little pretty pink princess?” 

“Cadance is getting a bath,” Belisama said to Discord. “She decided that she was going to stick her face into a bowl of applesauce and feed herself.” 

“Sounds like fun.” Discord grinned, set Harper down, and scooped up Sukari, who began to giggle as Discord tickled her. “Applesauce snorkeling. Sounds like an Apple family sport.” 

Harper, disappointed, huffed out a pouty sigh and her mane sagged a bit as she felt rejected. 

“Fluttershy, how are you?” Belisama asked. 

“Oh, I am well… where is Bucky? The poor dear is becoming a little draconic and he needs to learn how to calm down and I am supposed to teach him how to be like me,” Fluttershy replied as she hugged Peekaboo. 

“Did someone say my name?” Bucky asked as he came into the living room. 

“Hmm… Buckminster… chaos looks good on you.” Discord let slip a maniacal giggle as he looked at Bucky. He set Sukari down upon the floor and then hovered in the air, ignoring gravity. He glanced over at Fluttershy and then back at Bucky. “Dearest Flutters, there is a pony in need of your calm.” 

“Oh I know.” Fluttershy, also floating without flapping her now mismatched wings, glanced at Bucky and blinked her yellow and red eyes. “How are you feeling? Twilight told me you are having some tummy trouble as you go through the changes… have you started feeling less stress? I’ve been worried about you.” 

“You know what would make me calmer?” Bucky asked, a faint chuckle lurking within his voice. “Knowing what Peekaboo’s cutie mark is. It is driving me crazy.” 

Discord threw back his head and laughed. After a few moments of crazed howling, he wiped his eye and looked at Bucky. “Yeah, like I could possibly explain what an interdimensional protrusion bubble and the associated warped reality rift would look like to you.” Discord sighed and shook his head. 

Scowling, Bucky glared at Discord, and then after a moment, his scowl melted away into a grin. “Make yourselves at home, both of you. Fluttershy, I can be with you in just a little while. I was just having Violet hammer out a proposal of mine and I need to finish that up.” 

Seeing Harper’s mane with an alarming looking sag, Discord peered down at the broken hearted foal. The sagging mane was a worrisome sign, one that Discord knew too well. Reaching down, he picked up Harper once more, kissed her cheek, and gave her a hug. 

There was an audible -twang!- as Harper’s mane bounced back to its usual frizziness. 



 

“Not every great unicorn starts out as an immediate success,” Daylight Shadow said as he summoned a breeze to clear the smoke from the air. “Even Star Swirl the Bearded had spells go wrong… spectacularly wrong!” 

Heaving a dejected sigh, Sweetie Belle wondered how she was going to get a passing grade in basic magical applications as her instructor worked to extinguish the flames. There were foals in this class much younger than she was that had better magical control. 

“Hey, don’t give up,” a unicorn filly with braces on her teeth said in a somewhat slurpy voice. She prodded Sweetie Belle. “My name is Firelock and we have study hall together. I stink at magic too… maybe we can help each other?” 

Turning to look at the unicorn beside her, Sweetie Belle hesitated to reply, but after a moment, she gave a nod. 

“I had to wear a magic inhibitor to keep from burning everything around me. Now I have learned to hold back… but casting spells or even using telekinesis is hard for me.” Firelock smiled at Sweetie Belle. “Sunset Shimmer has been helping me, she can help you too.” 

Hearing the exchange of the two fillies, Daylight Shadow heaved an internal sigh of relief but also felt a creeping sense of panic. The two most dangerous students in his class were making friends with one another. He hoped that good things would come of this, but worried about the mishaps that were certain to happen along the way. 

“Okay class… while we have a little bit of time left, we’re going to talk about telekinetic shields once more. It is just like using telekinesis to push something, but you make a bubble all around you to push things away. Some of you have shown great promise… those of you that can, try to raise a shield up and then there will be practical demonstrations…” 



 

His eyes closed, Bucky tried to clear his mind. This was easier said than done, the moment he shoved out one set of thoughts, others rushed in to replace them. He needed to make more golems. He needed to address the worrisome reports that some guns were still functioning even with the gunpowder golems now gaining a civilisation-wide reach. Thistle was a dirty, dirty filly… Bucky thought of how she had looked up at him, her lips tight around him, and the playful look in her eyes as she took more of him in. 

That had to go too, Bucky shoved it out of his mind with a pang of regret. 

“Breathe deep and think of calm, serene thoughts. Fluffy kittens. Baby chicks. Sweet, fluffy, cuddly little puppies. Newborn foals.”

The sound of Fluttershy’s voice made Bucky feel sort of sleepy in strange way. 

“The cushion you are sitting on is an island. Your own personal island, just for you. Because you are special and you deserve it. And while you are on this island, the troubles of the world can’t reach you. This is your special place… now try to push all of your worries out of your mind and let yourself drift away. Think of Derpy and how happy she makes you. Now think of Derpy’s bubbles… imagine that all of your worries, all of your troubles are bubbles and let them float away.” 

Derpy’s bubbles were a great place to get a grip while he… Bucky forced himself to stop thinking about it and tried to think of something else. He felt his breathing quicken. As he tried to avoid feeling aroused, his stomach lurched and he felt the pressure building. 

“Maybe you can think about your foals, your sweet, sweet little foals, each of them adorable, precious, and special in their own way. As you push your troubles out of your mind, try to think of your foals and what makes each of them special to you in some way. Breath deep, and as you breathe out, try to push your worries out with your bad air. Breathe in, think of sweet little Bell Heather, and now breathe out, pushing away all of your bad thoughts, leaving you with a feeling of peace…” 

Fluttershy’s voice was a hypnotic drone and Bucky could actually feel the world drifting away from him. He thought of Bell Heather. Bell Heather was soft, warm, and fuzzy. She smelled like mother’s milk and hypoallergenic foal shampoo. Bell Heather called him ‘daddoo’ and had a voice almost like her mother’s. The weight of the world seemed to have vanished. 

“Oh my… some-whatever-you-are-now must be very relaxed…” 

Bucky opened his eyes. Looking down, he saw the floor beneath him. He hung there for a moment, suspended, and thought of gravity. As he did so, he came straight down and smashed into the floor snoot first. His hind half landed on the cushion he had been sitting on. He lay there, groaning, and wondered what had just happened. Thinking of gravity had been a mistake. 

Hovering closer, Fluttershy scooped up Bucky, sat him up, and got him settled upon his cushion once more. Reaching out with her paw, she rubbed Bucky on the snoot. “We all have a touch of chaos in us. It is what allows us to serve our individual purpose, at least, that is what Discord says. This tiny spark of chaos is what makes the impossible possible. It allows pegasi and dragons to fly on impossible wings. It makes magic function. It allows us to love one another and forget the mistakes that others make that hurts us by making our memories less than perfect. It allows us to make self discoveries.” Fluttershy leaned her head down and kissed Bucky on his nasal bridge. “Does that feel better?” 

Feeling rather foalish, Bucky nodded and looked into Fluttershy’s eyes. She had changed. The red and yellow eyes that stared back at him were filled with manic kindness, love, and understanding. 

But one thing was missing from Fluttershy’s eyes. 

Fear. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 662
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Well this was, without a doubt, interesting. Larch found himself sandwiched between two fillies on a couch in the school library. Piña was on his right and Babs was on his left. Babs had been chewing gum again, he could still smell it when she breathed on him. He found that he wanted Babs to breathe on him. 

Piña on the other hoof smelled like hot cinnamon candy; she was almost mouth watering. 

“I’ll be getting the new Oubliettes and Ogres supplemental materials soon,” Babs said. 

“I can’t wait to play.” Larch squirmed and was almost overcome by cinnamon and the smell of bubblegum. “I wanna play a paladin pegasus and battle the undead.” 

“That sounds like fun.” Piña tapped her front hooves together. “I’m kinda thinking about a diamond dog rogue, but that might be difficult to play if you play a paladin pegasus.” 

“I could look the other way… I would look the other way for you.” Larch felt his cheeks grow hot and all of a sudden it was far too warm between the two fillies. 

“The new Creature Compendium for Oubliettes and Ogres has a listing for demon spider lords. This is gonna be awesome.” Babs turned her head to look at both Larch and Piña. “So, where are we gonna play? We’ll need a place to lay out the maps and the figurines and stuff.” 

“Hmm, I dunno,” Piña replied. 

“I saw an advertisement for Harmony Mallet 50k in the back of the latest issue of Power Ponies.” Larch blinked and inhaled… Babs’ muzzle was inches away from his and the smell was making him light headed. 

“Looks like fun, but the figures cost so much money and you have to paint them and metal bawkses is such a stupid name for battle wagons.” Babs rolled her eyes and leaned back against the cushions of the couch. 

“We’re going to need more players,” Piña said, looking thoughtful as she spoke. “I know Dinky will play. I wonder if we can get anypony else?” 

“Who is going to be the penitentiary princess for the game?” Babs asked. 

“Why does it have to be a princess? Why not a penitentiary prince? Or something easier to say, like… game guru or…” 

“I dunno, master of the dungeon might work, but it just sounds so eggheaded,” Piña said, filling in for Larch after he failed to say anything after a long moment. 

Babs blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. She then cleared her throat, laughed, and then said, “Dungeon master… that just sounds… so… so… dumb.” Babs began to giggle and leaned over on Larch. “At least penitentiary princess sounds like it has authority.” 

“I gotta go help Apple Bloom… it’s getting to be about that time. I’ll see both of you later,” Piña said as she scooted off the couch. She then bounced onto her hooves and took off. 

“She’s pretty, ain’t she?” Babs asked the earth pony colt beside her. 

Nodding, Larch let out an embarrassed giggle. “You think she’s pretty? Why do you think she’s pretty?” 

Babs grinned. “Because… I’m a tomcolt. And I like fillies in the same way that you like fillies… and you, you’re kinda handsome.” Babs’ words were a ticklish whisper into Larch’s ear. "When you do it, asking her out that is, I wanna watch.” 

Babs’ voice caused Larch to shiver. He wiggled and felt tingles all over as Babs’ bubblegum scented breath blew over his ear, causing it to twitch. 

“You can do it.” Babs’ voice was soft and she was still speaking into Larch’s ear. 

“Oh, I dunno if I can.” 

“Sure you can… just roll for initiative… and then go for it.” 



 

“Did you have a good session with Doctor Mawu?” Sentinel asked Diamond Tiara. 

The earth filly turned a darker shade of pink, giggled, and then blinked at Sentinel. “I did,” she replied in a coy voice. “And we talked about you.” 

“Me?” Sentinel raised his eyebrow. 

“We talked about inspirations. Positive healthy inspirations that are good for us. So I talked about you.” Diamond Tiara glanced at Sentinel through half closed eyes, took a step forward, and snoot-bumped the flustered looking colt. The earth pony filly felt a deep sense of satisfaction when she saw Sentinel’s wings flutter at his sides. 

“I’m flattered,” Sentinel said in a voice that sounded more like his echolocation squeaks. 

“Sentinel, it hasn’t been announced yet, but there is going to be a school gala.” Diamond Tiara gave Sentinel a hopeful look. 

“There is?” Sentinel, feeling confused, wasn’t quite sure what to make of this information. 

“Yes. A school dance. But a dance takes at least two, in my opinion,” Diamond Tiara replied as she batted her eyelashes at Sentinel. 

Gulping, Sentinel felt an uncomfortable tightness in his wings. “Yes. Two. Two. Two to dance. You need a partner.” 

“Yes I do,” Diamond Tiara said in a nervous breathy voice as once more touched her snoot against Sentinel’s.  She inhaled, filling her barrel with air, and then sighed, breathing on Sentinel’s lips, her own lips less than an inch from him. 

Sentinel felt too hot all over and his shaggy coat felt itchy against his skin. “Guh.” It wasn’t so much a word as it was a sound escaping Sentinel’s mouth as he lost the ability to converse with intelligent dialogue. 

“Come on Sentinel… If I am going to be a pretty princess, I need a noble knight…” 

Looking into Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes, Sentinel felt a peculiar sensation in his wing joints. There was a loud -KEERACK!- as his wings snapped out from his sides, unfurling, and the blood vessels in the thin membranes of his wings filled with blood, an emergency measure to cool off his overheating body. As his wings filled with blood, his brain suffered a shortage. He stood there, open mouthed, staring at Diamond Tiara. 

The dreaded wingboner! Diamond Tiara, unable to help herself, began to giggle, then she laughed, and then she collapsed to the floor, rolling around and guffawing. 

Drooling, Sentinel stood there, his body as still as a statue, and his wings quivered at his sides. 



 

“I wonder where Discord is?” Fluttershy looked around, lifting her head, and blinking her eyes. “It is too quiet. This worries me. It should never be this quiet with Discord around.” 

Bucky found himself in agreement. He couldn’t hear anything, anything at all. There should be the sounds of foals playing. Discord’s manic giggling. A cackle. Rude flatulent noises. A string and brass section from an orchestra. 

“Now now, no need to panic, I’m certain they went off on an adventure somewhere or went off to find trouble,” Fluttershy said in a calm, reassuring voice. 

All of the calm that Bucky had worked so hard to find, it packed its luggage, said a few choice words, walked out of the door, slammed the door behind it, and then departed in a huff. Bucky was sad to see it go, he had looked forward to entertaining it as a guest for a while. Now, there was a vacancy between his ears, and who knew what would come to claim the available space. 

Fluttershy, ignoring gravity, drifted out of the farmhouse library, her head cocked to listen. A soft smile was on her face, exposing her large buck teeth; the jury was still out if they were beaver teeth or rabbit teeth. She rubbed her belly as she floated through the air and cooed to herself.

Following close behind, Bucky’s ears perked as he tried to listen. 

“Discord… you silly goose,” Fluttershy said as she drifted off down the hall, heading for the back of the house. 

Bucky watched as Fluttershy drifted towards the nursery. He picked up the pace to follow her, now feeling relieved and curious. What was Discord doing in the nursery? Bucky supposed that he was about to find out. 

Fluttershy waved her paw at the door and it opened for her. “Discord… what are you doing?” Fluttershy’s forelegs went akimbo against her hips. 

Peering through the door, Bucky saw what Discord was doing. Discord was wearing an outrageous blue silk dress, a wide brimmed floppy hat covered in wax fruit, dangly tacky looking earrings, and he was holding a teacup. Tea was being served on the floor. There were a lot of stuffed animals, teacups, and little fillies. Peekaboo, Harper, Sukari, Cadance, even Bell Heather was propped up against a rolled up blanket. 

“Do you mind?” Discord asked in a sarcastic voice as he stared at Fluttershy and Bucky. “I am trying to teach proper tea etiquette. You can never start too young!” He turned and glanced at Cadance. “You there, Cadance, stop blowing bubbles in your tea… you are the Empress... auntie Celery will blame me if you blow bubbles into your tea at some big soiree of state. And we both know the fault is Bucky’s for raising you like a savage barbarian!” 

Cadance blinked, her snoot still in her tea. She blinked again as her brows furrowed and an aggressive expression crept over her sweet foalish face. She slurped in her tea, and with her cheeks bulging, the alicorn foal lifted her head. Pursing her lips, Cadance squirted tea at Discord as malice glittered in her eyes. 

Fluttershy began to giggle as Discord summoned an umbrella to protect himself. “You have to be careful. Cadance loves her daddy—” 

“Mama!” Harper shouted in correction. 

“Yes, Cadance loves her mama,” Fluttershy said, nodding in agreement with Harper. The used-to-be-a-pegasus-but-was-now-something-else floated forward, snatched up the frizzy, oranged maned foal, and gave her a big squeezy hug. 

“Pretty Flutterbugbottom.” Harper closed her eyes and allowed herself to be cuddled. 

At long last, Cadance ran out of tea. Adding insult to injury, she stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at Discord while waving her front hooves over her head. 



 

Bon Bon couldn’t get Bucky off of her mind. He had licked her hoof. He had crept up, licked her hoof, and then he had fallen down to the floor. He appeared drunk, but Bon Bon had smelled no hint of liquor on his breath when she had kissed him. 

Raising an eyebrow, Bon Bon looked at Helia. She glanced down at her hoof and then her eyes darted back to the grinning, griffon obsessed pegasus. Hating herself, Bon Bon cleared her throat and said to Helia, “Hey… I need to ask you something really weird.” 

“Anything,” Helia replied. 

“Something strange happened. I’m trying to solve a mystery. I need for you to lick my hoof. The bottom part. The frog.” 

Helia gave Bon Bon a strange look. “Is this some sort of weird workplace harassment?” 

“No,” Bon Bon replied. “Bucky licked my hoof last night. He fell down drunk afterwards, but he hadn’t been drinking. I’m trying to figure out what happened.” 

The pegasus raised her eyebrow. “I see.” 

“My hoof is clean, I just got done pounding taffy and then I washed it under the faucet.” Bon Bon’s eyes dropped to the floor. “I know how weird this must sound.” 

Shrugging, Helia came forward and when Bon Bon offered her hoof, Helia gave it a lick. The pegasus tasted sweetness… and a bit of sour. Bon Bon’s hoof tasted like sour apple taffy. “Sour apple, with a hint of Bon Bon.” 

“I don’t get it. Bucky went right down to the floor.” Bon Bon lifted up her hoof and looked at it. She then looked at Lyra. Biting her lip, she pondered her next action and wondered about Lyra’s response. With a sheepish grin, Bon Bon asked Lyra, “Hey, Lyra, would you lick my hoof for science?” 

“Sure, why not Bonnie,” Lyra replied as she waggled her eyebrows in a lascivious manner at Bon Bon. 

Sauntering up to Bon Bon, Lyra waited as Bon Bon lifted up her other front hoof. 

“The frog… the soft fleshy part. Bucky licked it and he went all weird.” Bon Bon raised her eyebrow and looked at Lyra. 

Sticking out her tongue, Lyra gave Bon Bon’s hoof a lick. The green unicorn grunted, her eyes crossed, and then Lyra toppled down to the floor, a stupid giggle escaping her lips as she lay sprawled out and limp. 

Staring at her hoof, Bon Bon asked, “What is going on?” 
	
	
> Chapter 663
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Getting settled into a chair, Berry Punch heaved a sigh, shifted her massive belly around, patted it once with her right front hoof, and then began to unfold the evening edition paper as Harper talked with her dolls. The twins were far too busy inside of her, but Berry tried to remind herself to treasure every moment that she had. 

The paper was a pleasure; somepony had saved it just for her. It was untouched, it had still been inside of the protective sleeve that kept it from the rain and the snow. Grinning, Berry Punch’s eyes began to look over the front page. 

“Any interesting headlines that stand out?” Yew Wood asked. 

Berry Punch focused on the main headline when she replied, “Twilight Sparkle to safeguard democracy. Plans announced to form the Aurora Guard, a group of polite and unobtrusive guardians who will safeguard stable meetings.” 

A crease appeared in Yew Wood’s forehead as she considered Berry Punch’s reply. “It doesn’t say ponies. Interesting.”

Nodding, Berry Punch continued reading the newspaper. 



 

Scootaloo, who had always been an athletic sort, found that she was gaining endurance. On her third lap around the lake, bounding through the snow, she still had some air left. She was panting, but she could tell she was getting stronger. 

When she had started training, she had trouble completing just one lap without panting. 

Beside her, Boadicea kept pace, the griffoness had her beak open as she ran. 

Overhead, Loki circled and kept pace, his sharp eyes on the treeline of the everfree. 

All of this was worth it. Scootaloo was going to fly. Scootaloo was going to soar through the clouds, she was going to be able to sneer down at the earth in contempt, she was going to earn her place in the sky and Rainbow Dash had promised that Scootaloo would be grateful for flight like no other pegasus was; because Scootaloo was having to work for it. 

“Fledglings… you see a friend in trouble… bad trouble. Life threatening trouble. What do you do?” Loki asked as he circled overhead. 

“Assess the situation while I am moving in, determine the best means to attack, and engage trouble,” Boadicea replied. 

“We make sure that our friend gets away. We send our friend to go fetch help while we deal with the trouble. We may die, but our friends will live,” Scootaloo said as her hooves pounded on the snow covered path. 

“Are we afraid of death?” Loki asked. 

“Maybe,” Scootaloo replied, panting somewhat. “We might be afraid of death just a little bit, but we’re prepared for glory anyway. Our friends are too important; we Raptors will gladly die in the service of another.” 

“If we must meet our end, we shall make it a glorious end!” Boadicea’s wings flared out as she ran, allowing cold air to blow over her sides and cool her body. “If we must, we’ll use our own guts as garrotes and strangle our enemies with the last of our strength!” 

“When you reach the farmhouse, take a rest. The rest of our lesson will be spent talking. Now get moving!” Loki commanded. 



 

Accidents happened. Bucky examined the accident, feeling both proud and a little in awe. This had been a failure, but the idea seemed sound. Several teachers were already trying to clean up the mess, and was it ever a mess, which was why Bucky was summoned to the school. 

One of the teachers slipped and fell into a puddle of ink. Bucky, too his credit, did not laugh as the white unicorn mare became rather blackish-blue. He turned and looked at the unicorn colt beside him, who looked sad, terrified, and a bit heartbroken. 

“Look, Hawthorne, you have a good idea. Modifying chlorophyll in plants so that it doubles as ink is a brilliant idea. We just got to work on the flaws. Just because something explodes doesn’t mean that is bad. Your project just exploded. I accidentally made carnivorous potatoes that tried to eat my classmates and took over a wing of the school.” Bucky reached out and patted the colt. “So your transmutations produced a few explosive compounds as well. That’s not a bad thing.” 

“And you got your cutie mark,” a teacher said as she passed, pointing at the colt’s hip. 

Craning his head around, Hawthorne stared and his eyes grew wide. A black leaf with an inkdrop hanging from the tip stood out in sharp contrast with his pale white pelt. The colt’s breathing began to quicken as he stared at his brand new cutie mark. 

“See, even in failure, there is growth,” Bucky said, trying to offer a bit more reassurance. 

“I’ve kept up the family tradition of plant based magics!” Hawthorne began to bounce around, pronking, his eyes twinkling with his inner joy. Still bouncing, the colt said, “I hope I can salvage enough of my project for the science fair!” 





“Master, it is as you predicted… Sweetie Belle has considerable magic,” Sunset Shimmer reported when she saw Bucky. She moved to his side, standing close, and moved her muzzle closer to his ear. “Firelock brought Sweetie to a practice session. Once I got a big destructive blast out of her, what was left of her magic was much easier for her to manage, just as you said it would be.” 

“Hmm.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he glanced up at Sunset Shimmer beside him. 

Sunset Shimmer watched a teacher go by with some students and her eyes narrowed. Speaking in a lowered voice, she said, “I believe you may be on to something master. Perhaps holding back magic is wrong and we have been making a mistake this whole time. Perhaps we should encourage destructive outbursts in safe locations… what little magic Sweetie Belle had left after her near surge was so much easier for her to manage. She showed promise, real talent, magic very similar to her sister, Rarity. A fine sense of control and she had multiple telekinetic bubbles operating.” 

“Harper’s mood improves and she is far less mischievous.” Bucky’s ears splayed out sideways and his expression became thoughtful. “I still think holding the magic back, the act of restraint, causes it to manifest as mischievousness. Dinky becomes a model citizen when she is constantly and consistently using magic.” 

“The entire unicorn parenting model might be shown to be wrong because of this.” Sunset Shimmer’s lips pressed into a straight line and she watched a group of students disappear into the school library. 

“How is Firelock’s behaviour?” Bucky asked in a soft unobtrusive voice that could only be heard by Sunset Shimmer, who stood beside him. 

“Doctor Mawu says that Firelock’s hyper-aggressiveness has all but vanished. She is becoming well adjusted, calm, she is gentle and attentive, mindful of others, The willful and dangerous foal that was sent here by her parents is gone. Doctor Mawu says that Firelock is a sweet and loving little foal,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“The little fireball was considered so dangerous. She got shipped to us because she burnt her house down because she was told that she couldn’t have cookies… we seem to have a clear cut case of behavioural change. I’m telling you, the long held belief of repression and holding back is the cause of our problems.” Bucky smiled when a group of earth pony fillies waved at him as they passed. 

“Master, I am inclined to agree with you, but I want to see more results before I decide what my opinion is and what I believe. But the initial evidence suggests that channeling the magic outward greatly improves behaviour, mood, and fine control over magic.” Sunset paused and let out a faint groan. “Master, I am troubled, Master, this would mean that the methods of teaching that were used in Celestia’s school were wrong… that all of that effort, all of that education, all of classes of self restraint, repression, holding it all back, holding it all in, that would mean that the education model itself was the source of the problem. Or a contributor, anyway.” 

“Sometimes, the old way must be completely destroyed to make way for the new. Sometimes, we have to admit that our entire way of life is wrong, and everything we believe in is false. And then we have to make mistakes as we find a new way.” 

Her head dropping, Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and gave thought to Bucky’s words, not knowing what to think, what to feel, or even what to say. “Master, we were taught to hold it all in… to hold it all back. To guard our emotions, to bury and press everything down. And then let it out in small controlled bursts of creation… is that why I turned out the way I did? Or you? How might our lives be different if we were taught to let it all out as a foal, just one big explosive burst, letting out emotions and our magic go free… might have we been happier?”


“I don’t know.” Bucky looked into Sunset Shimmer’s now opened opal eyes. “I do know that I want Harper happy and healthy. She deserves a better life, a happier life than you or I had as foals. She’s got powerful magic… I live in fear of the sort of neurosis she might develop because of that.” 

“Master, Twilight Sparkle wishes to be kept informed of any new developments.” 

“See that she gets them.” 

“Master… I want to believe that you are right… even though I know bias isn’t helpful…” 



 

With a flick of his magic, Rising Star lit a few candles that stood on the dining table in the small diplomat’s quarters that he and his family were staying in. Tonight's dinner, prepared by Sparkler, was to celebrate the fact that Ripple was no longer taking pills and showed signs of improvement. 

He looked to his right, saw Sparkler, and then looked to his left, at Loch Skimmer. Ripple sat beside Loch Skimmer, and between Ripple and Sparkler, Bittersweet sat with a sweet smile. Everything that Rising Star valued was at this little round table. 

“Sparkler, I see that you outdid yourself in the kitchen.” Rising Star kept a straight face as he looked Sparkler in the eye. He heard Loch Skimmer sniggering beside him. 

“My, um, cooking skills aren’t very good.” Sparkler looked at the pile of peanut butter and mango jelly sandwiches. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with grape soda by candlelight can be romantic.” 

“Just so long as we are together,” Ripple said as she leaned herself on the table. 

“You look shaky.” Loch Skimmer turned to look at her sister. “You okay?” 

“Just a little adjustment. I’m fine,” Ripple replied. 

“You’re all my best friends… my family. It sorta looked like I lost you there for a while. I hit a real low point in my life.” Loch Skimmer looked around the table and met each eye in turn. 

“We messed up. We made some mistakes. Hopefully, we’ve learned from our mistakes and we won’t make them twice,” Sparkler said as stared down at her empty plate. Lifting her head, she started lifting sandwiches off of the platter and placing them on plates. 

“I’ve learned that when mistakes do happen, it is best to acknowledge them, rather than ignore them and pretend that they will go away.” Rising Star watched as several sandwiches were dropped on his plate and then looked at Sparkler. “So, uh, not that I am taking you for granite or anything, but, um, is there any dessert?” 

“I made banana pudding with crunched up vanilla wafers,” Sparkler replied. “Ripple helped me.” 

“By help, she means that I licked the mixing bowl and the wooden spoon.”  Ripple grinned. “And I watched. But I was learning as I was watching.” 

Loch Skimmer was the first to grab a sandwich and begin eating. In typical pegasus fashion, she devoured her first sandwich in three bites, belched, and then began work on the second. 

“After we finish up with dinner and the cleanup, Princess Celestia has graciously allowed us to use the castle’s private theatre. Who is up for a movie?” Sparkler asked. She looked at Bittersweet and her face wrinkled with concern. At least Bittersweet could see the movie. 

“I’ve never had a chance to see a movie yet,” Ripple replied as she watched her sister eat. “This sounds like fun.” 

“Tonight’s film is Golden Fetlocks and the Three Ursas,” Sparkler said as she lifted a sandwich to her muzzle. “Apparently, it is Celestia’s favourite film.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 664
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	For Apple Bloom, the past few days were a blur, today was a tortured nightmare, and tomorrow was going to be the most difficult day of her life. She drew in a deep breath, held it for so long that her vision went fuzzy, and then let it out just so she could gasp in and take another deep breath. 

She looked up at Bucky, watched him take a bite of food, and felt tears in her eyes. “Thank you Mister Bitters, for letting me stay here with you. Been kinda necessary to work around the clock. Being here makes it easier.” Apple Bloom heard Bucky swallow. 

“Do try to get a little rest when you can. I know what you’re up against,” Bucky said. 

Apple Bloom scowled and then her expression softened. “Yeah, I am up against Hawthorne and his amazing ink plants. He accused me of causing the explosion that happened a while back.” 

“Everypony is under a lot of stress, Apple Bloom.” 

“I know, Mister Bitters… he apologised for it and then we sat down in the school cafeteria for a slice of pie together. I think he has a good chance of winning.” Apple Bloom felt a sinking feeling in her guts as she said the words, but she was determined to be a good sport about this. 

“I have cleared all of your classes, but you are not excused from the work. You will have to go back and do all of your assignments once all of this is over. So all you need to do is focus on your work, see it through, and show some of that grit that you Apples are known for.” 

The earth pony filly felt a smile spreading over her muzzle. “Thank you, Mister Bitters.” 

“Call me Bucky, really… Mister Bitters sounds… awful.” 

“Applejack says that’s disrespectful-like,” Apple Bloom said in a low foalish whisper. 

“Just Bucky will do, I assure you.” 



 

Tension. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut it with a knife. Bucky could feel it all over the school. Important exams were coming for some students, for other students a new round of classes were just beginning, and then there was the big science fair where Princess Celestia herself was going to be there. 

Some of the students were broken down sobbing messes. Others were high strung wrecks. Standing in the hall, Bucky watched them, feeling worried, knowing that they would get through these troubling times, but unable to convince them of that. 

Doctor Mawu had been one very busy zebra with all of the mental strain. 

When the alarm went off, Bucky sighed. At least these were not boring times. 



 

There was no sign of Semillon in the kitchen. The house felt a bit too quiet for Bucky. Sighing, feeling a little alone, Bucky thought about lunch and his empty house. Derpy and Berry were off seeing the doctor. In a move that was certain to cause all manner of chaos, the foals had been packed up and taken to town, including Luna and Erebus. Thistle and Belisama had also gone, leaving the house with an empty feeling. 

After standing there and moping for a while, Bucky decided that some lunch was in order. He pulled open the refrigerator door and that was when a pink pony lept out and shouted “HIYA BUCKY!” as confetti went everywhere. 

Staggering backwards, Bucky wondered how he could explain to Princess Celestia that the disintegration of the Element of Laughter was an accident. He could feel his heart thudding in his throat. 

“Hahahah! You’re not laughing now! See, being afraid isn’t funny!” Pinkie Pie stepped out of the fridge and shut the door behind her. She advanced on Bucky. “You laughed at a really inappropriate time and now you’re not laughing at all!” 

Confused, Bucky had no idea what Pinkie was going on about as he fell over into a chair and sat down, clutching his chest and wheezing. 

Crossing the kitchen, Pinkie Pie stood next to the counter, opened a drawer, and Cheese Sandwich sprang out with a shower of confetti. 

“Hmm, I was certain that he was going to go after a spatula so he could make grilled cheese sandwiches,” Cheese Sandwich said in a low voice as he looked around. 

Still trying to collect himself, Bucky didn’t not even want to know how an earth pony fit into a utensil drawer. Some things, it was better if they were never explained and left unknown. He gulped in more air and tried not to think about how he had just almost obliterated the pink pregnant pony. 

“What is going on?” Bucky asked. 

Pinkie Pie stalked across the kitchen, got up in Bucky’s face, and stood snoot to snoot, eye to eye, and replied, “I’m glad you asked.” Pinkie Pie took a dramatic pause, narrowed her eyes, and pitched her ears forward. “When we went to Griffonholm, you hurt me… you laughed as you went down the hall and started killing. It was the most horrible thing I had ever heard in all of my life… you laugh when a foal is born, you giggle to scare away the ghosties, you laugh at jokes, but you don’t laugh while you are killing… how could you?” 

“I’m sorry… forgive me… my mind goes to dark places and I never meant to hurt you intentionally.” Bucky saw Pinkie Pie step back and she scowled as she also looked surprised. And then, he saw Pinkie’s mood shift. Her eyes watered and her lower lip quivered. 

“Hasn’t darkness claimed enough? Why has it claimed laughter too? Why must everything be touched by the dark? Laughter is supposed to be an expression of joy, as light as a balloon, that floats and drifts and carries you away from trouble… your laughter made the darkness worse… it made it all too real… and I felt all of the hope I have inside just shrivel up like a raisin in the sun. I wanted to die and it wasn’t the griffons that were trying to kill us that made me feel that way, it was YOU! You hurt me more than they ever did! How could you?” 

Bucky watched as a single tear rolled down Pinkie Pie’s cheek. 

“When I heard you laughing, I never wanted to laugh again, because I didn’t want to be reminded of the most horrible sound I had ever heard in my life.” Pinkie began to sniffle. 

“Pinkie, why are you here?” Bucky asked. 

“I came here for some good natured pranking and to teach you a lesson about laughter… but then I saw how sad you are for hurting me and now I am sad and you and I are going to have a good cry together instead—” 

“Wait, what?” Bucky slid from his chair and started to back away from Pinkie, something he would realise was foolish in hindsight. 

The plump, pregnant pink party pony, Pinkie Pie, pronked, pounced, and then Bucky was born down to the floor under Pinkie Pie’s bulk. Pinkie Pie began sobbing, and for Bucky, it was one of the worst things he had heard in his life. It was heart breaking. He felt himself pulled into a hug and Pinkie Pie got her forelegs around him. A moment later, he felt himself sandwiched by Cheese Sandwich, and then all three ponies began to cry in the middle of the kitchen floor. 



 

“I’m so sorry,” Bucky said as Pinkie Pie wiped his nose with a kleenex from a box that Pinkie Pie had pulled from out of nowhere. “I never meant to hurt you… I would never want to hurt you… that really wasn’t a laugh as much as it was a cackle and for us unicorns cackling is not a healthy sign it means that we’re sick and I’m so, so sorry.” 

The trio sat together on the kitchen floor in a miserable huddle. 

“It’s hard being you… I get that. You’re the Answer that nopony wants,” Pinkie Pie said as she continued to wipe Bucky’s nose. 

“Wait… how do you know about that? What do you know about—hmph!” Bucky was cut off by a snotty kleenex being stuffed into his mouth. He felt Pinkie’s other foreleg tighten around his neck and keep him still as he started to struggle. 

“Never mind how I know… I know.” Pinkie Pie leaned over and kissed Bucky on the cheek as he spat bits of kleenex out of his mouth. As she pulled away, the pink mare sniffled and looked at Cheese Sandwich. “I’m sorry I scared you… this was supposed to be a series of pranks… a fun time… looks like life had other plans.” 

Spitting out more kleenex, sputtering, Bucky looked into Pinkie Pie’s blue eyes. 

“If bad laughter is a symptom of a sickness, Cheese and I are going to have to find a way to cure you… that’s a sickness we can’t have,” Pinkie Pie said in a voice full of earth pony gentleness. 

“Somepony has to look after you, you may be the Answer that nopony wants, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are a pony.” Cheese Sandwich pulled both Pinkie Pie and Bucky into a crushing hug, revealing immense strength in what appeared to a skinny, weak body. “It’s hard feeling left out and left feeling unwanted.” 

“How about we all get cleaned up and I fix lunch,” Pinkie Pie said. “And then we can sit down and have lunch and laugh together and stop being sad… I don’t want to be sad anymore today if I can help it.” 



 

With her eyes half closed, Apple Bloom stared down into her bowl of creamy vegetable bisque. A few broken crackers floated on the surface and steam rose from the bowl. The earth pony filly took a sniff, yawned, took another sniff, and felt her mouth water. 

A moment later, she picked up her spoon and resumed eating. 

“Apple Bloom, things are far from perfect, but we’re managing. Don’t look so gloomy,” Sweetie Belle said as she watched Apple Bloom eating. “Everything is going to be okay.” 

Swallowing, Apple Bloom looked up from her bowl and stared at Sweetie Belle. “You’re just trying to make me feel better… and it’s kinda working because of your talent.” Apple Bloom wiped her chin with her foreleg and waved at Sweetie Belle with her spoon. “You and Scootaloo have your cutie marks. Scootaloo has life all figured out now… and you might not know what you want to do yet, but you have a direction… I feel like I am just… just… drifting, like, I don’t have a direction. I’ve thrown myself into this project, I have thrown all of myself into this project, I have given it everything I have, and the results are far from perfect. I’m gonna fail. I’m gonna fail and this is going to blow up in my face and we’ll be lucky if we're not covered in tree sap. If I had a cutie mark I might know what I am doing, but I don’t, so I am making a mess of things. I can see the wreck from here.” 

“Don’t give up just yet, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said. 

“I ain’t giving up,” Apple Bloom replied, shaking her head. “I’m just making peace with the fact that I am going to make another mess.” 

“Sometimes, you gotta make a mess. Loki says, ‘no guts, no glory, and at the end of a good day, you’ll be covered in both.’ He’s all about preparing for glory. Glory is messy, glory is gooey, and you have to accept that you might die covered in glory.” Scootaloo smiled. 

“Loki Apple needs to watch what he says around foals,” Apple Bloom said as her mouth twisted into a scowl. “Granny will go after him with a wooden spoon again.” 

“We’re with you till the end, Apple Bloom. We’re Crusaders. We’ll always be Crusaders. If there is a mess to be made, we’ll help you make it, and we’ll help you clean up afterwards.” Sweetie Belle gave Apple Bloom a winning smile. 

“Crusaders… prepare for glory!” Scootaloo cried. 

Apple Bloom jerked back her head. “No… ew… I don’t mind being covered in tree sap, but I don’t want to die just yet… we have our whole lives ahead of us.” 

Giggling, Sweetie Belle poked Apple Bloom in the ribs. “Two of us do. I think Scoots is getting a death wish just like Princess Punishment in the comic books.” 
	
	
> Chapter 665
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trembling, Apple Bloom clung to Rumble, her eyes closed and her face pressed against his cheek. The pegasus colt had one foreleg wrapped around Apple Bloom, the other was over Sweetie Belle’s neck. Beside Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo sat, forming the circle, and Scootaloo had her foreleg over Apple Bloom’s withers. The four sat, side to side, heads all pressed together, trying to help Apple Bloom get through her anxiety. 

“Rumble, you’ll catch all kinds of trouble if you don’t get home,” Scootaloo said in a soft whisper, her snoot almost touching Rumble’s as they spoke. 

“I ain’t going,” Rumble replied, giving both Apple Bloom and Sweetie a squeeze. “Trouble can come looking for me.” 

“It’s gonna be dark soon… I’ll be in trouble myself.” Sweetie Belle pressed her muzzle against Apple Bloom’s, offering a reassuring and tender snoot-bump. “We gotta stick together. Apple Bloom needs us. She’s almost sick with worry and to leave her now would be cruel.” 

“Gonna be a long night. We’ll see ya through it,” Scootaloo said, giving Apple Bloom a muzzle nuzzle. 



 

A long night was predicted by the guards. Princess Celestia prepared herself; one could feel the tension in the air. The trials in the Shetlands had started and some of the full grisly details had hit the paper. Tensions were still running high as the Stable of Representatives meetings continued. The riots from about a week ago were still fresh in everyone’s minds. 

Taking wing, Celestia flew from the public address balcony, soared over the courtyard, and landed on top of the gatehouse. She stood beside several solar and lunar guards, her sharp eyes peering off into the distance, fearful of seeing a worrisome orange glow. 

“A group marches towards the castle!” a guard reported as he flew overhead. 

Closing her eyes for a moment, Princess Celestia felt sadness and she wondered if she was going to have to make a public display of force. In the distance, she could hear the marching hooves. She opened her eyes and saw an orange glow in the distance. 

“Begin securing the city,” Princess Celestia commanded. 

“Your Majesty, wait,” a lunar pegasus cried as he landed upon the gatehouse. “Wait, look!” He pointed with his hoof, making a wild gesture towards the coming disturbance. 

Peering ahead into the darkness, Princess Celestia saw the mob marching towards the castle. They were carrying… candles. There were unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, a few griffons, some minotaurs, a few zebras, and she even spotted one diamond dog. 

“That has to be at least two thousand… or more... if a mob like that goes bad… Majesty, we should make them disperse,” a solar pegasus said to Princess Celestia. 

Saying nothing, Princess Celestia unfurled her wings, lept from the gatehouse, and then touched down with a soft impact upon the street below. She could see the earth ponies and pegasi with candle holders in their mouths. Clearing her throat, Princess Celestia addressed the crowd. 

“What are your intentions?” she asked in a booming voice that carried over the sounds of the murmuring throng of Canterlot residents. 

A lone unicorn stepped forward. “Some of us were angry… really angry… others were sad… One of us, an earth pony mare, suggested that we all grieve together and she suggested that we come to you, so that we might find comfort.” 

Turning her head, Princess Celestia looked back at the gatehouse. “Open the gates. Light fires for warmth. Bring out casks of cider and begin serving mulled wine. Do it, now!” She watched as several of the guard took wing to follow through with her commands and then she turned back to the crowd of ponies. “The trial in the Shetlands is going to be tragic. Before everything is said and done, you will hear many upsetting things. This is the right thing to do, coming together and consoling one another in your time of grief and sorrow. Please, stay here as my guests, and be good to one another.” 

Looking out upon the crowd, Princess Celestia felt an immense amount of pride for her little ponies. She could see the anger in some faces, the sorrow in others, and the confusion that could be found on many. 



 

“Bucky?” Bon Bon’s voice was as soft as moth wings fluttering in the dark. Stretching out her neck, she nosed Bucky’s ear and let out a tiny snort to get his attention. 

Bucky, who was cuddled against Derpy at the moment, turned his head and then rolled over to look at Bon Bon. “What is it Bonnie?” 

Stretching out her neck once more, Bon Bon kissed Bucky on the corner of the mouth. Overcome with emotion, she had trouble making a reply, and lay there in the bed, her eyelashes batting as she looked into Bucky’s eyes. 

“Bon Bon?” Derpy asked. 

“After I closed up shop early today, I stopped by the hospital and visited with Doctor Latigo… I took an ELISA test,” Bon Bon replied. 

“What’s that?” Derpy asked as she rolled herself over and propped her head up on Bucky. “ELISA?” 

“Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.” Bon Bon’s soft smile grew a little wider. 

“Bon Bon…” Bucky’s eyes narrowed for a moment and then grew wide. “Are you trying to tell me…” 

The earth pony mare nodded, closed her eyes, and then leaned forward for one more kiss with Bucky. She nibbled his lip for a moment, pulled away, and opened her eyes. “Lyra already knows and I’m amazed that she kept it a secret.” 

“I told you I could keep a secret!” Lyra’s voice drifted in from the nursery and it was filled with laughter. 

Bucky felt Derpy crawling over him, he was almost crushed by her bulk and he grunted. As he watched, Derpy and Bon Bon shared a kiss. It started out as a simple peck on the lips, but then Derpy came back for seconds. There was a nibble, which served as an invitation, and then as Bucky watched with growing interest, the two mares got into the kiss. Bucky’s ears perked as he heard wet, sloppy, slurping sounds and he watched a dribble of what he knew had to be pegasus drool dribble down. 

After several scorching moments, the two mares pulled away from one another, but continued to look each other in the eye. 

“That sounded hot…” 

Bucky found himself in agreement with Lyra, who was still in the nursery. With Derpy crushing his ribs, it was impossible to engage in heavy breathing. The two mares were still staring into each other’s eyes with searing intensity. 

“Bon Bon, Berry Punch is my oldest best friend, but in our herd, you are my second. If something ever happens to me, I leave everyone in your care. Out of all of us, you are the least crazy and I know that you’ll always have our better interests in mind,” Derpy said in a breathy voice to Bon Bon, her body still draped over Bucky. 

There was another slobbery exchange that Bucky couldn’t peel his eyes away from.

“I’m going to give the fillies a bath and then it is time for little fillies to go to bed.” After Lyra spoke, groans could be heard in the nursery. “No! Running away won’t help!” 

“I love all of you so much… I love all of our craziness so much… and you Bucky… I love you even though you licked my hoof and made me feel all weird,” Bon Bon said in a soft whisper that held lurking giggles. She pressed her lips, still covered in Derpy’s waxy drool, against Bucky’s for another long, lingering kiss. 

After a moment, Derpy pushed her muzzle in and the kiss became a three way free for all of nibbling, licking, and muzzle nuzzling. 



 

Looking up at his mother, Flitter, Rumble found that he could not read her expression, but she did look a bit angry. “Look, mother, I told you, I’m sorry, but I can’t come home. I made a promise to be here.” Rumble’s ears pinned back when he heard his mother, the mare that had birthed him, whinny. 

When Flitter took a step forward, Rumble saw a flash of white and a flash of orange. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo now stood between him and his mother. Things had gone from uncomfortable to awkward. He watched as Flitter, his mother, continued to advance. 

“Please, don’t punish him,” Sweetie Belle said in a pleading voice. 

“Apple Bloom needs him, honest,” Scootaloo said as Flitter advanced. 

The pegasus pushed aside the two fillies with her wings, a gentle shove, and stepped between them. She stood over Rumble, looking down at her colt, and then her hard expression became a soft, sad smile. She lowered her head and kissed Rumble on top of his head, right between the ears, right in the spot that every pony that existed loved to be kissed, the spot that causes shivers to run up and down the equine spine.

“Mom?” Rumble looked up, confused. 

“If you are going to defy me, I’d rather have it happen for the right reasons,” Flitter said in a soft voice. “You did right, standing by those you care about. You’re not in trouble. Is Apple Bloom working right now?” 

Rumble nodded. 

“Come here, girls,” Flitter said to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. 

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, shrugged, and then the pair of them approached Flitter together. When Flitter nudged them with her wings, herding them into place, both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo sat down on either side of Rumble and all three of them looked up at the motherly pegasus. 

“All of you have been involved with each other now for a very long time… at least, for foals your age, I’m sure it feels like a very long time.” Flitter watched as three little heads bobbed. She sat down, settled onto her haunches, and her expression became serious. “Thunderlane was about Rumble’s age when he made up his mind that he was going to have both me and my sister, because we were both too pretty for him to make a decision. He courted both of us. It was like a game for all of us, and we never expected for it to be serious. But we knew that we loved each other, even then.” Turning her head away, Flitter stared at the wall, blinked, and her ears drooped down against her face. 

“Are we about to get some kind of talk?” Rumble asked. 

Flitter nodded. 

“Oh… I see.” Rumble glanced at Sweetie Belle and then Scootaloo. 

Turning her head, Flitter looked at the trio once more. “A pony can be your age and just know. It’s funny how it works. But like I said, Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, and myself, we had just passed our decade marks when things started to become serious between us. And then, things got hard for us. It’s hard to keep love a secret. And the three of us, we had chosen a love that wasn’t popular. When our parents found out, we were forbidden from seeing each other. Ponies were scandalised, sickened. One of my uncles got several of our family members together and they beat poor Thunderlane, they broke one of his wings, one of his legs, and fractured his skull with a kick. The Cloudsdale police, they did nothing. There was no witnesses and they were determined to look the other way.” Looking down, Flitter could see the trio pressed together, and Rumble had his wings around both fillies, 

“Not everypony was against us though. Once Thunderlane had healed up a bit, a few nice ponies gave us a fair bit of money, some supplies, and they helped us. We took Thunderlane and we got out of Cloudsdale. He couldn’t fly yet, and he was still pretty busted up, but my sister and I, we took turns carrying him. And we began the long journey of trying to fit in. Everywhere we went, the accusation started, ponies would get suspicious, and then the trouble would start.” 

“Why?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Because ponies don’t much care for things that are different,” Flitter replied, her mouth contorting into a grimace of pain. “But we kept moving. We took whatever work we could get, and we’d survive, and we kept going from place to pace. Eventually, as these things happen, you came along Rumble. It caused us all kinds of trouble, but I loved you so much. It made all the trouble worth it. I had a little piece of your daddy that I could hold against me, and I was so in love with you… but you caused so much trouble. Ponies knew. Ponies talked. And they shamed us. So we kept moving around from place to place, trying to find a spot where we fit in.”


Reaching up, Sweetie Belle wiped tears away from her eyes. 

“We lost Cloudstreaker along the way. She was stolen from us, but thanks to Twilight Sparkle, we got her back. We had to say that Rumble was Thunderlane’s little brother. We had to lie, we had to be dishonest, and we had to get forged documents to help us get by. But we held it together. We knew that we loved each other and our love was special. We made everything work. And now, we have the acceptance we’ve always wanted.” 

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Because, more than anything, I want the four of you to make this work. It will be hard, there will be a lot of crying, there will be moments when it seems impossible, and you’ll probably face some trouble from narrow minded dimwits that don’t understand that love only grows when you add more ponies to your family. Some loves can’t be contained between two ponies… it takes three or four. It took lot of guts for you two to stand between me and my colt, that shows a lot of love. I want my son to have mares that will stand by his side, just like my sister Cloudchaser and I stood by Thunderlane’s side.” 

Extending her wings, Flitter wrapped them around Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Rumble. She pulled them all in close, squeezing them, and kissed each one of them on the head, right between the ears. Lifting her head, she looked down. “Never, ever, ever let anypony tell you that you can’t make this work. You can. Never let anypony tell you that you are too young to know your own minds, cause that’s a load of horseapples. And don’t you ever, under any circumstances, feel ashamed of what you are together, because what you have is special, sacred, and meaningful. Don’t you ever let anypony take it away from you. You all fight to keep each other. Times are different now, and there is a lot more acceptance, but the world is still a far from perfect place.” 

“Thanks, mama,” Rumble said as he buried his face against his mother’s chest and rubbed his cheek. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 666
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The nicest thing that anypony can do for another pony is to hold back their mane while they were throwing up. And that is what Sweetie Belle did for Apple Bloom as Apple Bloom threw up into the sink, her sides contracting in painful spasms as she puked out her breakfast of oatmeal. 

When at last nothing else came up, Sweetie Belle eased Apple Bloom down to the tile floor and held her as Apple Bloom dribbled out the last bit of vomit in her mouth from her chin. 

“We have got to get her cleaned up, on her hooves, and get her moving,” Scootaloo said as she turned on the faucet and tried to wash the vomit in the sink down the drain. 

“I can’t do it,” Apple Bloom said, clutching her stomach. She suffered through a round of dry heaves and felt Sweetie Belle holding her head up. 

“Too late Apple Bloom, you’re gonna do it!” Scootaloo said, the water still running from the faucet. “We’ve come too far to quit now. Prepare for glory!” 

“Dyin’ seems pretty easy at this point,” Apple Bloom replied in a low pained mumble. 

Rumble poked his head into the fillies bathroom. “Hey, Hawthorne is about to start his presentation. We need to prepare now… you okay Bloomy?” 

“No.” Apple Bloom’s honest reply was a strained, raspy grumble. 

Breaking the most sacred of all trusts, Rumble pushed his way into the fillies restroom. He had the confident swagger that only a strutting pegasus could have as he approached the three fillies. He paused in front of Apple Bloom, stuck out his neck, kissed the earth pony filly on the cheek, and was rewarded with a soft, weak giggle. 

“Scrub her face,” Scootaloo said. “Get her cleaned up. Retie her bow, it’s all rumpled and messed up looking. Rumble, go find some breath mints. We don’t want Apple Bloom talking to Princess Celestia with barf breath because that would be so gross.” 

“Got it,” Rumble replied as he turned tail and took off at a run to find breath mints. 

“There is no point in doing this… I failed… nothing worked out right,” Apple Bloom said. 

“SHUT UP!” Sweetie Belle, who had Apple Bloom in her forelegs, gave the earth pony filly a good shaking. “It isn’t perfect. But we can’t quit now. If we have to, we’ll drag you out there! Now hold still and let me clean your face!” 

“Well stop shaking me! I’m gonna barf again!” 



 

“I have to say Headmaster Bitters, I am impressed. So much promise to be found,” Princess Celestia said as she moved around the auditorium. “You have encouraged your students to do some… unique things.” 

“We make it a point to tell them that anything is possible, short of raising the dead through necromancy,” Bucky replied, a faint chuckle punctuating his words when he was done speaking. 

“The pomato plant was interesting. Such a clever little earth pony colt, making a plant that grows both tomatoes and potatoes. A farmer could double their yields from the same field.” Princess Celestia smiled a warm smile at looked down at Bucky. 

Seeing Celestia smiling at him, Bucky doubled his pace to keep up with her as she crossed the auditorium. “We expect good things from him… he hardly ever speaks, but there is no finer student in school when it comes to grafting and splicing plants.” 

“Hawthorne’s ink plants show a great deal of promise, if we can stop the plants from bursting once they become too hot. The black ink causes them to absorb a lot of heat… I wonder if the problem can be fixed somehow. There is always a need for ink and growing these plants could make a lot of farmers wealthy.” 

Hanging on Celestia’s every word, Bucky nodded. He stopped when Celestia stopped and they stood in front of a curtain that hung over the entrance to Apple Bloom’s exhibit. Privacy partitions had been set up all around her secret project, just as many other budding scientists had done, adding an air of mystery to their work. 

“Might we come in?” Celestia asked in a warm, dulcet voice. 

“Please do!” Sweetie Belle squeaked from the other side of the curtain. 

Pulling the curtain aside, Celestia entered and was not prepared for what she saw. 



 

Celestia stood staring at the impossible. For a moment, she had trouble processing in her mind what she was seeing, and it took a few moments of puzzled confusion to piece everything together. One might think that alicorns were used to looking at physical impossibilities, but this was not the case. Celestia stood with her mouth hanging open, her eyes wide, and a stunned expression upon her face. 

Inside of a cloud containment system were several clouds. And growing out of each of the clouds were green sprouts. Plants. Growing out of the clouds. It was something that Celestia knew was an impossibility… it was something that had been tried many, many times during the last one thousand years. Even Star Swirl and Sombra had taken a crack at this very thing, and had failed. 

Swallowing, Celestia felt very humbled by what she saw. She had attempted this herself, a long, long time ago and had been met with failure with each attempt. 

“They’re not perfect! I’m so sorry! I did all that I could! They’re kinda wilted and I couldn’t get everything just right because there wasn’t enough time!” Apple Bloom burst into tears and began sobbing as she collapsed into a miserable lump upon the floor. 

“Apple Bloom, do you not realise what you have done? Explain to me how you did this… Apple Bloom, tell me at once how you did this! Do you know what you have done?” Celestia lifted Apple Bloom up and set the filly on her hooves. Moving, going muzzle to muzzle with Apple Bloom, Celestia stared into Apple Bloom’s eyes. “Do you understand what you have done?” Celestia repeated, her voice almost frantic. 

“But I failed!” Apple Bloom tried to turn her head away and found that she could not. 

“This is not a failure… Apple Bloom, you have done the impossible… ponies have tried doing this since I was very young… no one has ever made this happen… ever!” Celestia lifted her head and looked down at the three fillies in front of her. 

“Apple Bloom had the idea, it was her idea, and we all started to wonder what would happen if you could grow food on clouds. But Apple Bloom couldn’t do it by herself… after some testing, we figured that we’d need a team effort,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“All us tribes had to work together,” Scootaloo added. 

Sniffling, Apple Bloom picked up where the others left off. “We ran into problems right away. Plants need nutrients. So I started to study hydroponics and I gave myself a crash course. I then used my potion making skills to make what we needed, a nutrient soup that could be added to the clouds. Nothing happened with our first batch and everything went wrong. So we got Dinky involved, and Piña, and they suspected that we needed earth pony hooves to add life to the ground, except we didn’t have ground. We had clouds. So Dinky began working on a cloud walking spell… it took her a while, but she got it right.” 

“Amazing,” Celestia gasped. 

“We had to get a couple of pegasi to get the clouds compacted just right. They have to be dense, but not too dense. It took some trial and error,” Scootaloo said. “Rumble and I did the cloud tending and we kept the clouds at just the right amount of fluffiness.” 

“And then we had earth ponies walk on the clouds. With the fertiliser and the earth pony hooves, the clouds changed. But the seeds wouldn’t behave right and so Dinky had to make another spell so the seeds would stay put in the clouds. Turns out, Piña could cast the spell better than Dinky could, we think it is because Piña is an earth pony. So now the seeds were sticking to the clouds and then the seeds bloomed and started growing but everything keeps wilting and there wasn’t enough time to fix everything wrong and this whole thing is a failure.” Apple Bloom heaved a sigh and her head dropped down close to the floor. 

“Apple Bloom… you have not failed, please, stop saying that,” Celestia said in a loving, patient voice. “This has been a success… you have made this work. All it needs is a little more work… do you understand what you have done?” 

“Made food grow on clouds?” Apple Bloom replied, looking up at Celestia. 

“Food shortages cause wars. Famine and starvation… you have just dealt famine and starvation a crippling blow. Apple Bloom, you may have just insured our world’s future,” Celestia said. The majestic white alicorn shook her head. “When creatures are hungry, they become desperate. They resort to violence. When a creature is filled with unsatisfied wants, it makes them dangerous. Food shortages have been the cause of some of history’s worst wars. If we can satisfy basic wants and needs, things like food, shelter, and security, there will be no need for violence and we can be content as we live in peace.” 

“Ooooh…” Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide. 

“Apple Bloom, with enough food to share and to go around, you have just dealt a crippling blow to war, to greed, to selfishness… this is a step towards worldwide harmonisation… you do not understand what you have done, do you?” Celestia lowered her head once more and stared into Apple Bloom’s eyes. 

“I just know that I couldn’t have done this without my friends. The Crusaders made this possible,” Apple Bloom said in a faint voice that was little more than a breathy whisper. Apple Bloom blinked as Princess Celestia’s horn flashed and then, the world went weird. 



 

Blinking, Apple Bloom looked around. The school auditorium was gone. She was standing on fluffy grey clouds and Princess Celestia stood close by, shining like the sun. There were others here, Apple Bloom saw Princess Luna sitting in a fluffy pile of clouds, hugging Princess Cadance. Princess Twilight Sparkle was watching something that looked like a movie screen, and Apple Bloom saw an image of herself and her friends, all covered in tree sap and in need of a bath. She turned and saw Bucky standing beside her. He was an alicorn though, which was weird. 

“What’s going on?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“I suspect that Princess Celestia is about to give you wings and a horn,” Bucky replied. 

“But I don’t want wings or a horn! I want to be an earth pony!” Apple Bloom backed away from Princess Celestia and hid behind Bucky, clinging to Bucky’s hind leg. “Don’t let her do it, please, Bucky, don’t let her do it, I just want to be a normal earth pony so I can play with my friends!” 

“But Apple Bloom… you have earned this… do you not understand what you have done?” Celestia asked as she took a step forward. 

“NO!” Apple Bloom shrieked as she buried her face into Bucky’s hind leg. “I wanna be an earth pony! Bucky, don’t let her zap me! Bucky, please, don’t let her do this! I’m happy being an earth pony!” 

The gathered alicorns all looked at Celestia, faces solemn, and Bucky’s wings flared outwards, forming a shield and blocking Apple Bloom from view. 

“Celestia, I ask that you reconsider. Give the earth ponies a princess… an earth pony princess… with the understanding that wings and a horn can come later, when Apple Bloom decides she is ready for them. Do not spoil her youth with these unnecessary trappings,” Bucky said  as he lowered his head and looked up in defiance, his ears pinned back against his skull. 

“I find the words of the Alicorn of War both wise and meaningful,” Princess Luna said. “Cadance was a miserable pony, different than all of her peers, I saw Cadance’s troubled dreams. Apple Bloom will have enough trouble with just the title of ‘Princess,’ we should not make it worse for her.” 

“I disagree,” Twilight said, stepping forward. “The sooner she has a horn, the sooner she can begin to learn magic. Magic will be required for her alicorn responsibilities. If we delay her change, it will stunt her growth.” 

“The Crusader Project has paid dividends that even I could not imagine,” Princess Celestia said, shaking her head. “I will admit, I am not certain what should be done here.” 

“Give the earth ponies what they want… a princess of their own. If you give her a horn and wings, you’re sending a message that earth ponies are useless as ponies… that you need a horn, or wings, or both to be important and serve your function in society… Celestia, I am begging you, do not rob her of what makes her special,” Bucky said, his lips curling back from his teeth in a snarl. 

“Buckminster, be calm,” Luna commanded. “I do not like your hostility.” 

“In this place, he is what he is, the embodiment of war. It cannot be helped,” Twilight Sparkle took a step forward and smiled at Bucky. “I admire his ferocity and I find myself in partial agreement with his words.” 

Lifting her head high, Celestia glowed with dazzling light and her eyes blazed like the sun. “Very well then, I shall touch her with the spark of the divine that she is owed for her great work. In this place, she will appear like us, as an alicorn, but she will retain her earth pony form for her physical body.” 

“Spark of the divine?” Apple Bloom asked, still hiding behind Bucky. 

“It will awaken within you infinite potential, connect you to ley lines, awaken your internal alicorn’s intuition, and with time, it will make every aspect about you better… stronger, smarter, more capable for your life’s great work… and you have much work to do, Apple Bloom, Princess of Agriculture,” Princess Celestia replied. 

Folding in his wings, Bucky looked back at Apple Bloom. “Do you agree to this?” 

“I don’t want to lose my friends. I don’t want to go away and live in a castle. I don’t want to have to worry about getting in trouble if I get my hooves dirty or having to wonder which fork I use at the dinner table.” Apple Bloom blinked away a few tears and focused on Bucky. 

“Apple Bloom’s friends are what has brought her here. Her leadership and her guidance made this possible. Are you going to take her to Canterlot?” Bucky asked. 

“No.” Celestia’s voice was soft and subdued. “No, she must continue to grow in the soil in which she was planted. Taking her to Canterlot would be a mistake. Buckminster, Twilight Sparkle, she will be left in Ponyville, under your instruction, your guidance, and your care. She has much to learn. Keep her with her friends… the Crusader project has more to give us, I do believe.” 

“But I wanna stay with my family!” Apple Bloom gave Bucky’s hind leg a squeeze. 

“Apple Bloom, you will stay with your family. Celestia is just making Twilight and I responsible for teaching you what you need to know. I will not let you be taken from those you love and the source of your strength. Surely, you trust Twilight and I, don’t you?” Bucky looked back at the foal clinging to his leg. 

Sniffling, Apple Bloom nodded. 

“Come here Apple Bloom… it is time to awaken your infinite potential… and then I shall return you to your friends, those who made this possible,” Celestia said in a warm, loving voice. 

“Okay… I accept.” Apple Bloom stepped out from behind Bucky, took a step forward, and held her head high. “I wonder what Granny Smith is going to say about all of this.” 
	
> Chapter 667
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Somepony has a cutie mark,” Celestia said, a faint teasing tone in her voice as she pointed at Apple Bloom’s backside with her wing. This was, perhaps, her favourite moment in life. Seeing another reach their full potential. 

Blinking, Apple Bloom looked around at her friends, feeling very confused, and then, in a moment of slow, creeping realisation, she came to the understanding that time had not passed here in this place and she had not gone anywhere, at least her body hadn’t. 

Turning her head, still blinking, still stunned, Apple Bloom looked at her backside and saw an apple tree growing out of a white fluffy cloud. As she stared at it, she was tackled by Scootaloo and then by Sweetie Belle. Too stunned to respond, Apple Bloom went limp and allowed herself to be hugged. 

“For your hard work, and for doing the impossible, I grant you the title of ‘Princess’ and from now on, you will be known as Apple Bloom, Princess of Agriculture,” Princess Celestia said in a loud booming voice that carried through the school auditorium. With a flash of her horn, the privacy barriers around the exhibit disappeared. 

Other students and teachers began to stare. 

Sweetie Belle let out a shrill wordless squeal that echoed through the auditorium. 

It was Bucky who bowed first, bending his knee, dropping his head, and then dropping the front half of his body, kneeling down beside Apple Bloom. 

Seeing Bucky bow, Scootaloo went still and silent, and as she sat there, holding Apple Bloom with wide eyes, she watched as others came up and began to bow. Fearful, Scootaloo gripped Apple Bloom a little tighter. Her heart racing, Scootaloo could only think of one thing. 

Protect Apple Bloom at all costs. 

Shoving his way through the crowd, Rumble reached the three fillies and dove into the pile, trying to get all three of them gathered into his stubby legs. He pulled Apple Bloom the closest. 

“I couldn’t have done this without my friends,” Apple Bloom said in a sobbing voice as the tears started to come in a flood. Grateful for her friends, she tried to pull them all closer. 

“When the tribes work together as one, anything is possible,” Celestia said, her voice a clarion call that echoed through the auditorium. “Even the impossible can be done if you work together. This is proof!” Princess Celestia, her head high, pointed at the sprouts growing out of the clouds. “This has been the impossible dream that many have tried to make happen, even when I was but a filly many attempted to make this dream a reality. And it was Princess Apple Bloom that has done so.” 

Rising up, Bucky lifted all four foals into his magic, gave Princess Celestia an unapologetic expression, and then as he began to depart, he said, “Sorry… little filly has been awake for too long and is in need of a warm bed and a quiet place of rest. I hate to disrupt this triumphant moment, but she’s been miserable long enough.” 

Watching Bucky go, Celestia felt the faint sting of disappointment, but could not fault his actions. Apple Bloom’s wailing could be heard all over the auditorium. Turning to face the crowd, Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “I expect good things from future science fairs. Do not disappoint me.” 



 

When Bucky heard the sonic boom overhead, he knew that company was incoming. He paced up and down the hall of the farmhouse, Rumble following at his heels, and the sounds of Rumble’s fluttering wings filled his ears. 

Moving towards the front door, Bucky made ready to greet Twilight Sparkle. He heard hooves on the porch and he pulled the door open. He saw Twilight and then he saw Applejack. The earth pony mare’s eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were stained with tears. 

“Where is she?” Applejack asked in a raspy strangled voice. 

“Getting the sleep she so desperately needs,” Bucky replied. 

“I’ll be quiet,” Applejack said, pushing her way inside and shoving Twilight out of the way. “Where is she?” 

“Back there, in our spare downstairs bedroom,” Bucky said, gesturing for Applejack to follow him down the hall. 

“Twilight told me… she done told me everything when she came to get me,” Applejack said in a low whisper. 

Leading Applejack down the hall towards the back bedrooms, Bucky took a deep breath and hoped that Applejack could contain herself. Apple Bloom was exhausted and a calming tea had sent the foal right to sleep. 

Standing in front of the bedroom door, Bucky pulled it open with his talons and then stepped aside so Applejack could enter. He bowed his head and in a low whisper, he said, “Princess Apple Bloom.” 



 

Standing in the doorway, Applejack didn’t know what to do. She stood, chewing on her lip, and looked at Apple Bloom in the bed. Beside her, Sweetie Belle was sleeping, and the two were curled up together under a blanket. Scootaloo sat beside them both, awake, and stroking Apple Bloom’s back with a soft touch of her hooves. 

“My sister,” Applejack said in a teeny, tiny voice that was little more than a breathy utterance. “My sister…my baby sister. She done did the impossible.” 

Pulling the door shut, and doing it in a soft way that made little sound, Applejack backed away from the door and then began sobbing. She threw her forelegs around Twilight Sparkle’s neck as she collapsed into a weeping mess. 

“See Applejack, she’s still an earth pony, just like I promised. But she is also a princess… I mean, a Princess... in the way that matters. It was Bucky that made sure that she stayed an earth pony,” Twilight said as she wrapped her wings around Applejack and hugged her. 

Sitting down in front of the nursery door, Harper watched the ponies in the hall with wide, solemn eyes for a while, and then looked at up at Bucky. 

“Applejack, you will never have to worry about the farm ever again… Sweet Apple Acres is now a royal residence,” Twilight said, trying to find some way of making Applejack feel better. 

Applejack’s only response was to sob even harder and she wiped her snotty nose on Twilight Sparkle’s neck. It was something only those who were true, true friends or in love with one another could do. 

“Look, I’ll go make us some tea,” Bucky said as he fought back the urge to sniffle. 

“Coffee, Applejack likes coffee.” Twilight patted Applejack on the back and then lifted the sobbing mare up in a telekinetic bubble. “Gee Applejack, I thought you only cried on the inside.” 



 

“I fell in love with her before she was a princess.” Rumble’s voice was squeaky and nervous a he peered over the top of his glass of chocolate milk at the other adults sitting around the table with him. 

“Ayup, you did,” Applejack replied in a weak voice that was raspy from weeping. 

“Rumble, you have a responsibility now.” Bucky looked at the colt, his expression serious. “Do you know who is Twilight Sparkle’s first and foremost protector?” 

“Flash Sentry?” Rumble replied. 

Twilight Sparkle felt her lips curl up into a smile when she saw Bucky nodding. Flash Sentry protected her from the things that Twilight herself could not deal with. Twilight Sparkle felt a sharp pang of desire and then more than anything else in the whole wide world, she wanted to be home with Flash Sentry. 

“I gotta go, I’m sorry… I don’t know what’s come over me, but I need to go find Flash. And Rainbow Dash. I gotta go be with my own family. Sorry… Applejack, I’m so happy for you…” 

“See?” Bucky said to Rumble, pointing to Twilight. “Every princess needs a refuge. One day, Apple Bloom is going to have a moment just like this one, where she feels the weight of the world bearing down upon her shoulders, and she is going to need you to help her carry it.” 

“He’s right!” Twilight Sparkle lifted her coffee, cooled it with magic, and then drank it down in a few gulps. She patted Applejack with her wing, smiled at Bucky, waved at Rumble, and then took off for the front door. 

When the front door clicked shut, Bucky sighed. 

“Bucky?” Applejack asked in a worried voice. 

“Yes?” Bucky replied. 

“Apple Bloom being a princess and all… she can become an alicorn… what would have happened if the rats had killed her? I know it’s a dark thought, but I can’t stop thinking about it. I was gone… I was gone and I couldn’t protect my sister and all I can think about is what the world might have lost,” Applejack said as she lifted her coffee cup up and held it between trembling hooves. 

“Fate, as funny and fickle as it might seem, made certain she had a protector.” Using his telekinesis, Bucky pulled the cookie jar from off of the fridge, floated it over to the table, popped off the lid, pulled out a stack of cookies, set them down in front of Rumble, and then took a few for himself. He set the cookie jar on the table and glanced at Applejack. 

“Did she get a cutie mark?” Applejack asked. 

“She did.” Bucky nodded. “An apple tree growing on a cloud.” 

The orange mare sighed, took a sip of coffee, and then closed her eyes. Sniffling, Applejack began to tear up once more. “I wish my ma and my pa where here to see this…” 

His mouth full of cookie, Rumble leaned over and patted Applejack on the ribs to make her feel better. He watched as Applejack set down her coffee cup, and then Rumble let out a squeak when Applejack snatched him up and out of his chair, lifting him into a fierce hug. 

Eating a cookie, Bucky watched as Applejack hugged Rumble and sobbed. 



 

“And how is our newest princess?” Celestia asked as she beamed at Bucky. The tall white alicorn was almost too chipper.

“Sleeping.” Rubbing his face, Bucky could feel his scarred skin had grown thinner; the lumpy bumpy places beneath had grown larger and harder. 

“Hawthorne took second place. I hope you do not mind. A call had to be made and you were gone. Cheerilee helped me make the call; she is a most remarkable mare and she has extraordinary horse sense.” Celestia sat down at the kitchen table and rested her forelegs on the tabletop. “Buckminster, I am so happy… I am almost overcome. Last night, I worried about riots in Canterlot once more, but the citizenry behaved themselves. And then everything that happened today. I cannot help but feel happy at how things are turning out.” 

“Coffee? Tea?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, no thank you,” Celestia replied. Still beaming, she asked, “Where is Applejack?” 

“She crawled into bed with Apple Bloom and is sleeping peacefully,” Bucky replied. 

“You look lost in your thoughts. Do not rub your face, your scales will grow in with time. I am going to go find Cadance and spoil her as much as I can while she is still little!” Almost bouncing from her chair, Celestia took off with a wide grin on her face. 

Still sitting in his chair, Bucky sighed and thought of Growth. 



 

“She did it, and we helped. I feel good about things,” Piña said to Dinky in a soft subdued voice. “It feels nice knowing that we had a hoof in that.” 

Nodding, Dinky turned and looked Piña in the eye. “Getting some credit is nice, but not necessary. I did this for my own reasons. I have a greater understanding of magic now, I have learned, and the name Dinky Doo Hooves is now recognised as a wizard with some small ability.” 

Blinking, Piña shook her head. “So you did this to be famous?” 

“No, silly head… I did this to help a friend and it just so happened to get my name noticed.” Dinky winked at Piña and then grinned. “More than anything else, I want to be a great wizard. Like Twilight Sparkle… like Star Swirl the Bearded. Like daddy… some ponies want to be princesses and princes and members of royalty, other ponies want to protect princesses and princes and royalty. And that is how I want to be remembered. When Apple Bloom grows up, she is going to need wizards and powerful spellcasters to look after her interests… and I’ve proven that I can be trusted and that I am useful.” 

“You’ve really thought this out.” Piña reached out and touched Dinky. 

“Complimentary magics, destinies, and power. Apple Bloom will need more bees than ever to pollinate all the plants if we start cloud farming. Think about it. Somepony with a knack for controlling insects could be real helpful to her.” Dinky’s eyes narrowed and glittered as she peered ahead into the future that she wanted. “The best sort of magic exists to serve others and bring about the betterment of society. Daddy keeps telling me that. And I could be the best wizard ever.” 

“You really have been thinking about this,” Piña said, staring at Dinky and feeling a little in awe. “Dinky… you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” 

“When Apple Bloom explained why she needed our help, I saw everything so clearly. I saw a way to use my talent to preserve life… to make others happy. I didn’t have to use my bees as a weapon… although I could use my bees as a weapon… or as spies if necessary… but I could use them to make the lives of everyone better. I didn’t have to do something I felt guilty or ashamed about. Apple Bloom is going to change the world, and I am going to be her right hoof.” 

“Wow, Dinky, I don’t know what to say,” Piña said, looking at her sister with wide awestruck eyes. 

“All I need now is a good hat. A good wizard needs a distinctive hat as a trademark, and I’ll be all set.” Dinky grinned even wider as she looked at Piña. “Of course, I’ll also need a best friend and an assistant that I can call my equal. Star Swirl the Bearded had Clover the Clever. Daddy has his beloved Minion. I wonder if I can find a worthy assistant who is my equal.” 

“Hmmm,” Piña replied and then began to giggle. “I dunno, but if I find her, I’ll let you know.” 
	
	
> Chapter 668
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky?” 

Sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs of the farmhouse library, Apple Bloom hunched over a steaming mug of soft hot cider held between her front hooves. The fire crackled and Apple Bloom was enjoying a bit of quiet downtime. 

“Yes?” 

Sitting in his usual chair, Bucky was reading a spellbook about nonlethal incapacitation spells. Looking up from his book, he waited for Apple Bloom to say something. He smiled a soft, pleasant smile to encourage Apple Bloom to speak what was on her mind. 

“Why me?” Apple Bloom asked. 

Bucky chuckled and lifted up his own mug of hot soft cider. “Oooh… I was waiting for that question. Well… why not you?” 

The earth pony filly’s brows crinkled and Apple Bloom looked very confused. 

“Your cutie mark is yours… while some cutie marks repeat, your cutie mark is special and unique. You were born to have that mark. You were created to do what you did today. That’s why everypony else that tried to do what you have done has failed. This accomplishment of yours that you did today, it was your own special thing to do.” Bucky lifted his mug to his lips and took a sip, never once taking his eyes off of Apple Bloom. 

“But I didn’t do this… I mean, I had so much help. So many ponies helped me…” 

“And you, you led them. You organised them. You kept them focused on the task. You picked the right ponies for the job, you inspired them, and you got them to help you complete your vision.” Holding his mug in his talons, Bucky gave Apple Bloom an almost sleepy looking smile. 

“But I’m so young,” Apple Bloom said in a voice that was almost a whine. 

“So was Cadance when she battled Prismia.” Bucky’s face became serious. “At some point, we grow up and stop believing that we can do anything. We make excuses and rationalise ourselves out of our potential. We tell ourselves we can’t. When we’re young, we don’t know any better. We think that anything might be possible and then we stupidly blunder forward.” 

“So I did this because I didn’t know that I couldn’t do it?” Apple Bloom blinked and cocked her head. Her muzzle crinked. “Wait, that sorta makes sense. So what is the one thing you can do that nopony else can? Do you have a special spell or a talent?” 

“I have made a spell that brews up beer from raw ingredients. When I first figured it out, it wasn’t very good beer. Each time I cast the spell, it got better and better. Now, when I cast the spell, Barley himself can’t tell what was properly brewed in a vat and what I made with my spell. I have no doubt any longer that this is my special talent, my special spell, my special purpose that is tied to my cutie mark. I’ve even started brewing up batches of whiskey and other alcohols from raw ingredients. When I cast the spell, I feel at peace with everything and I am overcome with calm.” 

“Hmm.” Apple Bloom lifted her mug to her lips and took a sip. 

“Twilight Sparkle says the spell is unbelievably complex. It involves time manipulation and is mind boggling to perform… and all it does is make alcohol. It doesn’t serve much else of a purpose, but it is what makes me special,” Bucky said. 

“Apple Bloom! Come play with us! We need a fourth player for cross conquer checkers!” 

Bucky gestured at the library door with his hoof. “You should go play with them. You’ll feel better and blow off a little steam. Go on, go have fun.” 



 

“Come on Harper, make zap for mama,” Bucky said. He faced Harper well prepared, a fresh grounding spell would protect him from Harper’s lightning. The foal had been throwing off many sparks and many accidental static discharges had already stood up many a mane this evening, including Erebus, who was still crying. 

“No?” Harper replied. 

“Come on Harpy… make some zap. It’s okay. Just like you do for mama Lyra… make zap for mamamama,” Bucky made an inviting gesture with his talons. 

“Harpy made Erby cry… Harpy bad.” The dejected foal slumped over and looked miserable. Her mane, held aloft by too much static, was unable to droop and display her mood. 

“Which is why we need to drain you of your destructive potential, my little thunderhead.” Bucky smiled at Harper and then raised an eyebrow. “Want visit from the tickle monster?” 

“No.” Harper’s lip protruded as she turned away from Bucky. 

“Fine… there here comes the zerbert monster,” Bucky said in a mock-menacing voice. 

Harper turned her head to look at Bucky, and lightning coursed along her stubby horn as she did no. “Nooooo!” 

Bucky allowed a long string of slobber to dribble from his lips. “Here comes the zerbert monster!” 

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Harper squeaked in terror. She started to run but was caught in Bucky’s magic. She kicked, wiggled, and then let go off massive discharge of lightning that struck Bucky. 

“Gobble gobble!” Bucky shouted as he pressed his muzzle to Harper’s exposed belly. He pressed in, drooled everywhere to get a good seal, and then blew a colossal raspberry. 

As he did so, blue bolts of lightning flew from Harper’s horn, striking Bucky all over, but most struck his horn. He blew another raspberry and Harper exploded with laughter. Lightning arced and crackled between Bucky and Harper. Even with the grounding spell to protect him, Bucky’s mane stood on end and his tail became a frightful mass of hair. 

“Grawr! Foal gobbling time!” Bucky said after he came up for air. This time, he went for Harper’s weak spot, her neck. She squealed for mercy but Bucky had none. He blew a raspberry as Harper kicked, wiggled, discharged lightning. He blew another raspberry, and then another, and he noticed that Harper’s discharges were losing power. 

Harper was giggling like a spastic squirrel. She looked up at Bucky, her eyes twinkling, almost begging him to do it again. She pressed her snoot against Bucky’s muzzle and blew a clumsy, slobbery raspberry of her own. 

“Harper, you always make me so happy with your infectious laughter and your smile,” Bucky said as he gave Harper a squeeze and held her close. Harper seemed to have few arcs left in her and Bucky rather enjoyed the little zaps that connected the two of them. 

“Buckminster, thou art a most ridiculous creature,” Luna said from the doorway where she stood. 

Turning his head, Bucky gave Luna an evil look as he set Harper down upon the floor. His eyes were glazed over with manic glee and he let out a little cackle. “Gobble gobble!” 

“Oh no! Buckminster, you would not dare to commit such a trespass!” Luna took a step backwards. She could see a ribbon of slobber dangling down from Bucky’s muzzle and she watched as Harper scurried away, still giggling, parts of her pelt shiny with drool. 

“Grawr!” Bucky growled as he pounced. 

“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Luna cried as she took off running down the hall. 



 

Humming a soft wordless melody, Coco Pommel held a brush in her fetlock as she held Sweetie Belle close to her. After a moment spent in a crushing, but gentle hug, Coco resumed brushing the tangles out of Sweetie Belle’s mane. Removing the tangles from the filly’s tender head took a gentle touch, and Coco was nothing but gentle touches. 

“Sweetie Belle?” Coco asked as she pulled the brush down Sweetie Belle’s neck. 

“Hmm?” 

“Sweetie, love, one of the most difficult things you can do is stand in somepony else’s shadow...” Coco stopped speaking for a moment as she tugged out a determined tangle with slow measured strokes, never once causing Sweetie Belle to cry out. “Rarity tries to be very good about that sort of thing, when somepony showers her with praise she tries to make it clear that we both worked on the project in question. Ponies don’t always listen though.” 

“You think I’m upset?” Sweetie Belle asked. 

“I wasn’t sure,” Coco replied in a gentle voice that matched her considerate actions. “I had to find out. I didn’t want you feeling cheated, or that you were left out of the limelight. I know how hard it is.” 

“Apple Bloom deserves her moment in the spotlight. She worked really hard. Later on, if I’m ever working on something important, I know she’ll help me. I don’t feel bad about this, I feel really happy that I had a hoof in helping her. She did something really amazing and I helped to make that possible.” Sweetie Belle leaned against Coco Pommel, feeling relaxed and almost limp. The brush trailing over her scalp felt divine. “It’s hard being around my sister, isn’t it? She’s famous and everypony treats her special.” 

“Yes Sweetie, it can be very difficult, but Rarity does try to include me. She makes every effort, even if ponies don’t want to listen.” Coco began work on the hank of mane just behind Sweetie’s right ear. 

“You think that is what it will be like for Apple Bloom? She’ll get famous and important and then ponies will recognise her and Apple Bloom will have to stick up for us and all we do and nopony will listen?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head to make Coco’s task a little easier. 

“I don’t know… I just know that it takes a very special sort of pony, a very strong pony to stand in the background while others get their due. Apple Bloom is now a princess… I know from being the shadow of Rarity’s fame and from hearing Twilight talk about her own experiences and troubles with her friends, it can be very difficult standing in the shadow of greatness.” Coco Pommel stopped brushing for a moment, lowered her head, and kissed Sweetie Belle on the top of her head. 

“This won’t change our friendship,” Sweetie Belle said in a soft voice. “Will it?” 

“I hope not… I think if you are aware of the problems that can happen, you will know how to deal with them and it will help,” Coco replied. 



 

Heaving a sigh, Rainbow Dash looked Scootaloo in the eye. “It’s time we had a talk, Squirt. Pay attention, there is a lot to talk about.” 

“There is?” Scootaloo’s wings fluttered as she looked up at Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow Dash nodded, sidled up beside Scootaloo, and wrapped a wing around the pegasus foal. “This is the ‘so your best friend just became a princess’ talk. See, this is something I’ve had experience in… because of Twi.” Rainbow Dash laid down on the floor and pulled Scootaloo down with her. “You have a duty now… a task that only you can do.” 

“And what is that?” Scootaloo asked as she tried to blink away her confusion. 

“When Twilight became a princess, she needed me more than ever, because I’m awesome. I’m made of awesome. And let’s face it, Twilight Sparkle is an egghead. And not just any egghead, she’s the princess of eggheads. Now, see, eggheads typically don’t know just how eggheaded they are, so somepony had to help Twilight Sparkle have awesome moments whenever possible,” Rainbow Dash replied. 

“I don’t get it.” Scootaloo nuzzled her muzzle against Rainbow Dash’ jawline. 

“I’m in charge in making your mother, the princess of eggheads, Twilight Sparkle, appear to be awesome. I have to give other ponies something to look at, something to distract them, something awesome to look at so they don’t focus on Twilight Sparkle’s eggheadedness. It is my job to try and help Twilight Sparkle not look like such a dork. If she starts dancing…” Rainbow Dash shuddered and felt Scootaloo shuddering with her. “If she starts dancing, I have to strut my stuff and do my thing and be the most awesome pegasus ever so ponies will look at me and not go blind by looking at Twilight Sparkle when she dances. If Twilight Sparkle is making some long, boring, eggheaded speech, it is my job to make funny faces, the occasional rude noise, and to be as silly as possible so ponies don’t go to sleep and Twilight won’t feel bad for causing yet another snorefest.” 

“I see,” Scootaloo said in a soft, squeaky voice. 

“Apple Bloom is an egghead… Squirt, you, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. You have the sacred duty that every pegasus made of awesome must embrace. Being loyal and being awesome. But don’t worry, Squirt. I’ll teach you my awesome ways so that you too, can protect your egghead.” 

“Um, thanks… I think?” 
	
> Chapter 669
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ready to get some work done?” Bucky asked Sunset Shimmer, grinning a manic grin.

“You look delightfully disturbed tonight, Master,” Sunset Shimmer replied, feeling a growing sense of worry as she looked at Bucky. 

“Oh, I held Luna down and blew raspberries on her belly.” Bucky’s face became serious. “We have a long night ahead of us. This could be awful. I plan to test this on myself, you don’t have to join me.” 

“Testing must be done.” Sunset Shimmer looked Bucky in the eye. “Is Luna okay?” 

“Once she allowed herself to laugh and have fun, she was fine. She did say that I was going to pay dearly though,” Bucky replied. 

The fiery orange unicorn blinked and looked at Bucky. “So, what are we testing?” 

“Nonlethal means of pacification. I have developed a spell that will thoroughly hydrate the bowels of the body. If my theory proves correct, since the spell does no measurable harm, but actually helps the body, current means of spell protections should prove completely worthless. I’m not quite certain what it will do, but it will be awful.” 

Bucky walked through the laboratory, located in the middle of his tower, and lifted a spell jar off of a stand. He held it aloft in his magic, squinted his eye, studied it, and then looked at Sunset Shimmer. “Really… you might just want to observe me rather than endure this.” 

“Master, the goal here is to avoid bringing harm to our enemies, if it can be helped. You have an insane pain tolerance. You cannot give realistic feedback on what you experience.” Sunset snorted and shook her mane out of her eyes. “As your Minion, I am obligated to help you.” 

“Minion… I expect for this to be bad.” Bucky looked at the crystal pylons situated around the testing floor. “That is why I have the incineration units prepared. This will be messy.” 

“Oh.” Sunset Shimmer paused and stared down at the floor. “We will need an observer.” 

“Who?” Bucky asked. 

“Trixie,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

Bucky nodded. “Trixie.” 



 

Trixie, after hearing what Bucky had to say, raised her eyebrow. “A bowel hydration spell? And Trixie is to observe the results… Trixie is doubtful and feels hesitant to observe the outcome of what is certain to be a horrific success.” 

“Come on Trixie, you keep saying that you want to be involved in more research so you can be a better wizard,” Sunset Shimmer said, trying to cajole Trixie into agreeing. 

Moving about the lab, Bucky made certain that everything was in place. There were clouds to provide rain so they could shower, the incinerators were ready to clean what was certain to be a huge mess off of the floor, and radius of effect for the spell trapped in the jar was clearly marked upon the floor. 

“Why are we doing this? What is the result that we hope to achieve?” Trixie asked. 

“To remove enemies from combat, render them impotent, stop enemy unicorns from casting, and do no serious harm to them. From what Master says, this spell is actually beneficial and will leave them in better health afterwards,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“Trixie is dubious of these claims.” The unicorn raised her eyebrow and looked up at Sunset Shimmer, who was still quite tall. “On a scale of one to ten, how horrible will this be?” 

“Hmm, I’d say about a ninety nine,” Bucky replied as he began setting up automated quills to write down everything that he and Sunset Shimmer might say. 

“Master?” Sunset Shimmer’s lower lip protruded. “Master, I am having second thoughts, Master. Your statement is worrisome!” 

“You don’t have to do this, I am content to be the only one who suffers,” Bucky said. 

Sunset Shimmer watched as Trixie took off to get a safe distance away from the test zone, smiling as she saw Trixie’s mane and tail bobbing as well as bouncing. “Bucky, you ever just look at somepony and have a sudden reminder of why you fell in love with them?” 

Turning, Bucky waved his talons in front of Sunset Shimmer’s eyes, trying to get her attention. “Sunset, are you there? Are you still with me?” 

“She’s amazing. Something in the way she moves…” 

“Trixie knows she has the stuff.” Flicking her tail, Trixie gave Sunset a wry smile. “Trixie knows she has the goods to make Bartleby squawk and Sunset Shimmer to lose focus. If Trixie was a train, her caboose would be most grand and glorious.” 

“We’re trying to do science here,” Bucky said, rolling his eyes as he fanned his talons in front of Sunset Shimmer’s glazed over stare once again. “Hello?” 

“Er, what? Um, sorry. I was, uh, distracted.” Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a sheepish grin and backed a step away. 

“We should begin our defensive preparations. I doubt they will help, but we need to be thorough,” Bucky said in an amused voice as he watched Sunset give Trixie one final glance. 



 

Casting every defensive spell he could think of, Bucky focused on the task at hoof. He cast defensive wards, protective spell barriers, protective charms, security enchantments, and even a very difficult to cast spell armor that Bucky struggled to manifest but that Sunset Shimmer popped into existence with no effort. As Bucky cast each spell, he spoke its name aloud, allowing it to be recorded by the automated scribing system. 

“Nonlethal takedown… test one,” Bucky announced in a clear voice as he lifted a glass globe and held it in the dead center of the testing zone. “Minion, are you ready?” 

“Master, you are asking me if I am ready to have my bowels explode. How do I answer that query, exactly? That is a tall order,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 

“Trixie is going to witness the Turd Typhoon Three Thousand!”

Both Bucky and Sunset Shimmer turned to look at Trixie with wide eyes and manic grins. Bucky was not the only maniacal pony in the room. 

“Trixie feels that alliteration adds gravitas to mad arcano-science. Trixie is once again shown  to be correct. Bowel Bomb, Trixie’s first thought, lacks the dramatic presence of Turd Typhoon Three Thousand!” 

“Trixie, why three thousand?” Bucky asked the question that begged to be asked. 

“Mwahahahahaha! Three thousand implies that there were two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine failures before finally reaching success with three thousand. It will make your enemies’ sphincters clench in fear, not that it will do them any good, imagining all of the things that might have gone wrong during the first two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine attempts!” Trixie threw back her head and laughed some more. 

Glancing at Sunset Shimmer, Bucky whispered, “You fell in love with an amazing mare.” He saw Sunset Shimmer give an enthusiastic nod in reply. 

Without warning, Bucky crushed the globe into nothingness. There was a flash of blue-green harmony magic that enveloped both Bucky and Sunset Shimmer. 

“My lips suddenly feel very full and smooth. My mouth feels moist. All of me feels moist,” Sunset Shimmer said as she cocked her head to one side. “Spell defenses did nothing. My skin feels hydrated, like I spent all day in the spa with Twilight Sparkle.” 

“I feel better than I have in quite some time,” Bucky reported. He heard a quill scribbling down his words. “But I am experiencing some minor…” Bucky paused as there was a loud squelching gurgle deep within his guts. “Correction, experiencing some major bowel excitement.” 

“Master, what has your mad science wrought?” 

“Our doom,” Bucky replied as he clutched his guts with his talons. He closed his eyes. “Experiencing some mild discomfort. I can feel things moving around inside of there. I am going to attempt to cast a spell.” 

Bucky’s horn flashed for a moment and a look of concentration appeared upon his face. As a globe of intense light flashed into existence over Bucky’s horn, a lingering, pealing note of flatulence emerged from Bucky’s backside and there was a horrendous gurgle from within his midsection. The sphere of light over his horn flickered, went dim, and them faded as Bucky fell over onto his side with a pained gasp. 

A moment later, Sunset Shimmer fell over onto the stone floor and curled up into a huddled ball of misery. “Minion’s log… as expected, everything is about to go horribly right. I can feel my insides sloshing… sloshing!” 

Groaning, Bucky hiked his tail away from his backside as he farted once more, the pressure continued to build, and his sides bulged in the most alarming fashion. The soft skin of his flanks, the skin that exists between the hip bones and the ribs, rippled and convulsed in a most unnatural sort of way. 

“Damn all warlocks,” Sunset Shimmer whimpered as she covered her face with her front hooves. She uncurled from her fetal position and her back arched as she flung her tail away from her backside. Wet whooshy sounding crepitations were now escaping from her plot furrow. 

And then, without warning, it was Sunset Shimmer who exploded first. A brown geyser burst from her backside, a raging torrent of liquefied feces that spurted out with enough force that it splashed down almost twenty feet away. 

“I have made a grievous error in judgment,” Bucky said and then, he too, exploded. 

“The expression ‘damn all warlocks’ is erroneous, this was done with harmony magic,” Trixie said as she watched in wide eyed awe. “This, by definition and by classification, is a healing spell, and would be a powerful weapon against sickness and disease.” Trixie’s nose crinkled as she watched brown sludge spewing from Sunset Shimmer and Bucky’s backsides. 

Sunset Shimmer let out a sobbing, shuddering cry as it felt like her insides were leaking out from her backside. She rolled over onto her stomach, trying to keep her tail out of the streaming filth, and failed. She began to cry as she felt her hind legs being coated in watery diarrhea. 

“I can do nothing,” Bucky said, struggling to get the words out. “It is all I can do to just lay here and endure this. Each spell I attempt to cast fizzles out into failure.” As he spoke, yet another spell became a shower of sparks that fell from his twisted horn. 

The floor around the pair was flooded with an unspeakable mess. 

“What in the name of Celestia’s golden sun is happening here?” 

With wide, fearful eyes, Trixie looked up and saw Twilight Sparkle standing in the doorway. Trixie, at a loss for words, stammered a few times, and then at last said, “Science!” 



 

As Twilight Sparkle held up two miserable and trembling ponies under rainclouds to help them get cleaned off, she also read the disturbing research notes. As Twilight read, both Sunset Shimmer and Bucky would suffer an occasional squirt. A protective magenta bubble was around Twilight Sparkle’s head to protect her from the stench. 

“I am both disgusted and impressed,” Twilight Sparkle said as she glanced at Bucky. “This is brilliant… and insane.” 

“And effective,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low squeaky voice. “I think I need a soothing lotion… I feel chapped back there.” 

Twilight Sparkle took a step backwards and let out a disgusted grunt as Sunset Shimmer dribbled out yet more runny feces. As the liquid spattered upon the stone floor, the blazing orange unicorn whimpered. 

“Trixie believes this will be the solution to all future rioting. This application of force will only need to used once or twice… the consequences for failing to comply are so horrible that ponies will just go home rather than risk facing the Turd Typhoon Three Thousand.” 

“Turd Typhoon Three Thousand?” Twilight Sparkle smirked and let out an immature snigger. She struggled to maintain her composure and lost. The alicorn of magic began to chuckle. 

“This application of force is safe… I am too pooped to fight. More than anything, I want to lay down and recover. I don’t think I could fight right now, even if I wanted to,” Bucky said in a weak voice. “So Twilight, what brings you here?” 

“I came by to tell you that we will resume our scheduled project tomorrow night.” Twilight Sparkle gave Bucky a meaningful look. 

“I understand. Tomorrow night then.” Bucky nodded. 

“I also came by because I recently uncovered something that I know that will help me and I wanted to talk to Sunset Shimmer…” 



 

“...so… this is my grand vision of the future and this is why I need you,” Twilight said, explaining everything to Sunset Shimmer as the orange unicorn sat in a soft chair, drinking a soothing tea. “Princess Celestia said that you caused explosive plant growth during your exam. The vines took over the library tower. How?” 

“I can produce actual sunlight… I don’t know how or why, but my sunlight is special. It causes hyper growth of plants.” Sunset Shimmer took a sip of tea, narrowed her eyes, and looked at Twilight. “So you want a university made of living trees, just like your library tree?” 

“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “I have a grove of white oaks in mind that stand upon the edge of the Whitetail Woods that would be perfect. They are already large, in good health, and would form a wonderful campus. I want this to be my legacy, what I leave behind in the world. Bucky has the Founder’s Forge and he has primary and secondary grades covered… Ponyville needs a university… we could cover education for all phases of life. I know that Bucky will prepare perfect students to attend university. He prepares them, I finish them… I have grand plans, Sunset Shimmer.” 

“I can help you,” Sunset Shimmer said as she shivered. “I feel so empty inside.” 

“I could imagine.” Twilight’s lips pulled back into a smirk. 
	
> Chapter 670
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky watched as the messenger pegasus in silver armor flew away, holding a heavy, ornate wooden scroll tube in his telekinesis as the pegasus departed into the midmorning sun. He glanced at the tube and then his eyes darted back towards the skybound pegasus. It was a pleasant day for flying. 

Opening the front door, Bucky let himself back into the house, turned right, and went into the living room. He sat down in the chair that was next to the window, popped the cap off of the scroll, pulled out the thick sheaf of papers, and began to read. 

Berry Punch, always curious, sat down on the sofa and watched, her eyes narrowed in a quizzical expression of curiousity. She watched as Bucky’s head and eyes scanned the paper. And then, without warning, Bucky gasped and began sobbing. Feeling panicked, Berry Punch watched as the stack of papers fell out of his telekinesis and floated down to the floor like autumn leaves. 

“Daddy?” Cadance said, dropping her stuffy and looking in Bucky’s direction. Her eyes were already welling up with tears of her own.

“Bucky, what is wrong? Bucky, talk to me… what’s wrong?” Berry Punch asked as she felt worry begin to gnaw at her insides. 

“Bucky?” Derpy hobbled into the living room, stepped over the papers, and sat down on the floor, easing her backside down to the wooden planks so she could sit down beside Bucky’s chair. 

Pitching forward, bawling, Bucky clung to Derpy’s neck as he tumbled to the floor to be beside her. Cadance, who had crawled over, began to paw at Bucky’s side with frantic intensity. Derpy wrapped her wings around Bucky and tried to hold him up. 

While this was happening, Berry Punch, who had moved to the middle of the papers and had sat down, was picking them up and arranging them back into a stack. She wobbled on her haunches, her large oversized belly making it difficult to balance.

“Bucky, tell me what’s wrong,” Derpy said in a soothing whisper, speaking into Bucky’s ear as she held him up with one foreleg wrapped around him. Derpy lifted her head and looked at the earth pony holding the papers. “Berry?” 

“The Stable of Representatives held a vote… there was a big vote that just happened and I guess it isn’t in the papers just yet,” Berry Punch replied as as her eyes darted over the well written letters, the perfect flowing script. “All of the nobles who remained as indentured public servants, all of them have proven themselves in one way or another, each has earned their freedom… the stable reps stood together for a historic vote as the end of the winter session nears… Derpy… Derpy they…” Berry Punch almost dropped the papers and covered her mouth with her hoof. 

“What?” Derpy asked, giving Bucky a squeeze and patting the distraught alicorn foal with her wing. 

“In a unanimous decision, the Stable of Representatives now and forever have abolished all forms of slavery and indentured servitude… Bucky is a free pony… Rising Star climbed up on top of a table and demanded that the last vestiges of the old Equestria finally be stripped away and the entire stable agreed with him.” Berry looked up at Derpy and there were tears in her eyes. She pulled her hoof away from her mouth and rubbed her stomach. “Mere minutes after the motion was settled, Princess Celestia had legal documents drawn up making her the legal guardian and next of kin for both Buckminster Beauregard Bitters and Sunset Shimmer. Bucky’s real mother and father are being stricken from public record… Celestia has formally adopted Bucky and Sunset as her own… there are papers here for Sunset Shimmer as well.” The sheaf of papers fell from Berry’s hoof and the earth pony mare gave Derpy a blank stare. 

Berry stumbled forwards and collapsed against Bucky and Derpy. She wrapped her forelegs around both of them and was careful not to crush Cadance. 

“What’s going on?” Thistle asked as she came around the corner with Belisama riding on her back. 

“Somepony needs to go get Sunset Shimmer right away,” Derpy replied. 



 

“I can’t figure out why she would do this.” Sunset Shimmer looked down at the papers sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. “I mean, I see the papers, but she didn’t include her reasons. Why did she do this? Not that I’m complaining.” She looked over at Bucky, who was huddled over a teacup and trembling. 

“I have a sister,” Bucky mumbled as he rocked back and forth in his chair, his tea sloshing. “I have a sister.” 

Lifting her head, Sunset Shimmer said to Bucky, “Actually, you would have two sisters if you wanted to look at it that way. Myself and Tourmaline… no… oh no… Bucky, no, don’t start crying again, it’s horrible when you cry!” 

Too late, Bucky had begun sobbing. The teacup slipped from his talons and would have spilled all over the table if Sunset Shimmer hadn’t caught it. There was a thump as Bucky’s upper half collapsed over the table. 

“Not even Discord can cause this sort of chaos,” Berry Punch said in a low muttering voice. Holding Cadance, Berry tried to console the foal that had started sobbing at the same time as Bucky. “And I just got you quieted down, too.” 

“What is her motivation? I mean, Celestia never does anything without having some meaningful reason that motivates her actions. I mean, sometimes she does things for emotional reasons, but those times are rare… I don’t understand what is going on here.” Sunset Shimmer folded her forelegs over her barrel and tried to ignore the horrible sounds of Bucky sobbing. 

“Technically, Celestia only listed herself as your guardian and next of kin. She might have simply tried filling the gap after she had your shite encrusted parents stricken from public record,” Berry Punch said as she patted Cadance on the back. 

“Is it a political move? Support for herd marriage? Now that Bucky is off the leash, is this a move to gain public trust? I mean, while Bucky is known as a warlock, he is also known for being an insanely devoted father… and if Celestia has him as her ward, is she trying to send some sort of message to society that she trusts Bucky and his dark ways?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“You could always go to Canterlot and ask her, I suppose.” Derpy sighed and took a deep breath. “It isn’t right to second guess her actions like this. She might have had a very simple reason.” 

“Bucky needs to get some sleep. He has a long night ahead of him tonight. So no going to Canterlot.” Berry Punch bounced Cadance up and down and there seemed to be no end in sight for Cadance’s tears. “Come on Bucky… you’ve been up all night and right through the morning and you’re all emotional. Come to bed… and I’ll tuck Cadance in with you.” 

“I guess I’ll go to Canterlot. I can fly there and be back in no time,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“That’s a good idea,” Derpy said to Sunset Shimmer. The grey pegasus mare looked at Bucky. “Come on. I’ll come to bed with you. I can’t sit up no more.” 



 

Sentinel glanced at the various hats, trying to figure out which one that Dinky might like. For all of her word work, for all of her effort, Sentinel felt that Dinky deserved a reward. Piña too, but he didn’t know what to do for Piña. It was Piña’s idea to find Dinky a hat. 

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” a mare asked as she peered down at Sentinel. “Wait, I know you… you’re Sentinel. Why aren’t you in school?” 

“I have study hall and I am free for one hour and fifteen minutes and I came to Ponyville to look through your hat selection because I want to do something real nice for my sister, Dinky, because Dinky did something that I think deserves rewarding,” Sentinel replied.

“I see.” The mare raised her eyebrow. “What sort of hat might your sister like?” 

“I don’t know… she wants to grow up and be a wizard. She wants a distinctive hat that is unique… something uncommon that when ponies see it, they immediately know right away that it is her. She wants a hat that ponies will associate with her name… at least that is what my other sister, Piña, told me when we talked.” 

“Oh my,” the mare gasped. She turned tail and headed off to the back of the store. “I think I know what you might want. Follow me, Monsieur.” 

Following the mare’s commands, Sentinel took off, moving at double time. He moved past hundreds of hats on racks, hats of all styles, makes, and models. Sentinel had trouble believing there could be so many hats. 

“These are all I have left… nopony even makes these anymore,” the mare said as she came to a stop in front of a shelf. “Nopony wears them any longer, at least no one that I know. These fell out of fashion about a hundred years ago. Nopony even remembers what they were called.” 

“What are they?” Sentinel asked as he looked at the hats on the shelf. 

“They’re called smoking caps. As you can see, they are very distinctive. Classy. Dressy. Part of a bygone age,” the mare replied. 

Craning his head, Sentinel looked at them. Some were velvet, some looked quilted, some were made of heavy looking brocade. As Sentinel looked them over, he found one that stood out more than the others. On the top shelf there was one that was dark purple, and it looked like wool velvet. There were green shoots of ivy embroidered around the sides and in between the ivy leaves, there were bumblebees. 

It could not be more perfect. 

“That one!” Sentinel said, pointing upwards with his wing. “How much?” 

“For you, twenty five silver bits,” the mare replied. 

“These are display models, right? Do you have a second?” Sentinel asked. 

“Hang on, let me check,” the mare replied as she hustled off and then vanished through a narrow door in the back wall where the shelf was located. 

His wings fluttering at his side, Sentinel waited and stared upwards at the hat. The dark purple would match Dinky’s pelt and the bumblebees would match her cutie mark. It was also unique and unlike anything that Sentinel had ever seen before. 

The mare poked her head out of the door. “I have three left. The factory that made these has long since gone out of existence.”

“How much for three?” Sentinel asked. “All of them. How much?” 

“For you, I could let all three of them all go for sixty silver bits,” the mare replied. 

“I’ll take all three… I have enough with a little extra left over.” Sentinel grinned.

“Planning for the future… such a clever colt. These hats shall age well, but it will be nice to have spares if there is ever an accident.” The mare vanished into the back once more. “I will steam clean this one, it is dusty, it will not take long!” 

Sentinel saw the hat on the shelf vanish, pulled into the back room. With nothing else to do, Sentinel waited and thought about his sister, hoping that Dinky would be happy. 

At last, the mare appeared, carrying a hatbox on her back. “I have tied this off with twine so it will be easy for you to carry home. Each of the hats are packed in a special bag that will keep moths away. The tassels are removable and I packed in several extra tassels, those tend to wear out before the hat does. These are all heirloom quality pieces, so one day, your sister might be giving these to her foals and telling them a wonderful story about her big brother.” 

Sentinel felt his cheeks burn and his ears felt as though they would combust at any second. He stared down at his front hooves and kicked his right hoof with his left hoof. 

“I’ll ring you up at the register. I do hope that she will like them. You are such a good colt…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 671
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“This is worrisome.” Lugus looked down and read the dispatch once more and then looked up at Violet. “What is a sewer lurker?” 

“A sewer lurker can be any number of creatures to start with, but being down the sewer mutates them. Careless alchemists pour their failures down the toilet instead of following proper disposal methods. Companies dump toxic waste down into the sewer, much of it magical in nature. The things that live down in the sewer mutate over time. Some of them are benign and are mostly harmless. Other things become sewer lurkers and gain a taste for pony flesh,” Violet replied. 

“The Raptors were chosen for their small size… wait, how will I join them?” Lugus asked. 

Violet’s eyes narrowed. “Lugus, do not be stupid. It does not become you.” 

“They will need leadership. Ripple is still on medical leave. I am too big…” Lugus’ words trailed off and then he looked at Violet, who was nodding at him. “Sentinel is still small and will be useful in the dark confines of a sewer tunnel.” 

“You will need to leave for Baltimare at once. Once you arrive in Baltimare, the Raptors will be getting all manner of emergency vaccinations as a means of disease prevention. The Raptors will be dosed with drugs to protect them from the magical contaminants of the sewer. There are quite a number of alchemical plants in Baltimare, so anything could be down in the sewer. Much of the city was damaged back during the hurricane, and no doubt all kinds of sludge and goop went down into the drains and sewers. This is a class five threat, so you are cleared for magical munitions.” Violet looked Lugus in the eye. “Try not to blow up the city.” 

“I will inform Sentinel at once and we will begin preparations to leave,” Lugus said. 



 

Feeling anxious, Sentinel left the box with the hats in Dinky’s room, along with a note explaining his reasons, voicing his pride, and expressing his love. He drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and wished that he would be here in pony to give it to her, but he had to go and Dinky was still in school. 

He wished that he could see Dinky’s face when she saw the hats, but that did not seem possible. He had his duties, a task had been laid out for him that he alone was well suited for, and he was needed. 

In that moment, Sentinel understood his father’s pain, having to be away and missing things. Missing out on magical moments. Sniffling, Sentinel rubbed his eyes with his foreleg and pulled himself together. 

He gave one final glance to the box, sniffled a few more times, and then he turned and left the room, his expression one of bitter resolve. His life would be spent in service and Sentinel knew it was best to make peace with these moments now. 



 

Celestia’s private guest room was almost how Sunset Shimmer remembered it. She had spent so much time here as a foal. When she had been good, when she had behaved, she had been allowed to stay here, to sleep here in this room of luxury. Pacing back and forth, Sunset Shimmer waited. 

There was a photo of Twilight Sparkle over the mantle. She was a foal and the picture had been taken in this room. Moving closer, Sunset Shimmer could see text upon the picture frame, burned into the wood. 

“All of my hopes, fulfilled,” Sunset Shimmer read to herself. She heaved a pained sigh, closed her eyes, and once more wished that she could escape her past. Her whole body felt heavy with regret as she stepped away from the picture in the ornate wooden frame. 

She hung her head and held back stinging tears, her eyelids blinking with rapid movement as she tried to make the burning pain go away. She felt pressure in her sinuses as the tears backed up, and she shook her head, wishing that the past didn’t hurt so much. 

Heading towards a chair so she could sit down, Sunset Shimmer saw another frame on the small table that sat between the chair and the bed. She sat down in the chair, held her breath for a moment, and turned the picture frame around so that she might see who was in this one. She lifted it up so that she might see it better. 

She saw herself. She was a foal, still so small, and she was wearing a holiday wreath on her head like a crown. She had a big beaming smile, and Sunset Shimmer had trouble recognising the foal she saw in the picture. She had been so happy. Sunset’s vision blurred over with tears and she was unable to see the photo or the text on the picture frame. She blinked, trying to clear her vision, but it was no use. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks. 

She only had a faint memory of when this picture had been taken. She had placed the wreath over her head and had proclaimed herself the Princess of Hearth’s Warming. Princess Celestia had taken a photo to commemorate the occasion. 

Sunset Shimmer turned her head away and wiped her eyes. She blinked several times, trying to clear her vision. She had to squint to read the flowing script burned into the wood. Her lips trembling, Sunset Shimmer read aloud. 

“I have never given up hope in this one.” 

The picture almost fell when Sunset Shimmer’s telekinesis faltered. The wooden frame shook as Sunset Shimmer set it down upon the table. Unable to help herself, Sunset Shimmer began to weep and she let out a screeching cry of pain. 



 

The Raptors began to assemble in front of the armory, which was connected to the foundry. Gear was checked. Straps and buckles were adjusted. Armor was secured. Inside the armory, packs were already loaded down with supplies and various bits of kit that they might need. Heavy crossbows had been approved for this mission. 

Others had gathered to watch the Raptors make ready, including a griffoness named Gormlaith. Beside her, an older grizzled looking griffon stood watch. Little cubs looked up at the adults with wide eyed wonder. 

Lugus stood apart from the Raptors, Yew Wood and Peekaboo close by. Yew Wood was wearing heavy saddlebags and a broad grin was on her face. Peekaboo, overcome with excitement, ran around in circles, chasing her own tail. 

Berry Punch, Thistle, and Belisama stood together, ready to see Sentinel off. 

“Your father should be here for this,” Thistle said in a low voice. 

“No, mother, please, he needs sleep. He has work that he must do this night.” Sentinel looked up at Thistle with pleading eyes. “Do not wake him. Let him sleep.” 

“Sentinel, I don’t know what to do with you sometimes.” Berry Punch leaned down her head and kissed the colt on his cheek. She moved her head around to look Sentinel in the eye and stood snoot to snoot with the colt. “Don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want you coming home all torn up. Do you understand me?” 

Blinking, Sentinel nodded and looked into Berry’s eyes. 

“Sentinel, good luck.” Belisama lifted her head high and opened her beak wide. “That goes for you too, all of you. Good luck Raptors!” 

The Raptors, hearing their queen’s voice, all turned and gave jaunty salutes. 

“Sentinel, are you going to be able to fly that far? That’s a long way for a colt… that’s a long way for an adult pegasus,” Berry asked. 

“I’ll be fine. I’ve been training. I have good endurance,” Sentinel replied. 



 

“My apologies that I took so long,” Princess Celestia said as she came into through the door, carrying a tray with tea. “I started to come in earlier, but I heard you crying. I thought I would give you a moment and I went and fixed tea.” 

The white alicorn moved through the room and set the tea tray down upon a coffee table set in front of a low oversized sofa. She looked over at Sunset Shimmer and made an inviting gesture before she sat down upon the sofa. She reclined on her side, stretching out her full length upon the sofa. 

“Are you okay?” Celestia asked after she was comfortable. 

“I just… I just had a moment where my past became a little too painful,” Sunset Shimmer replied, making an honest admission as she came over and sat down on the chair beside the sofa. 

Looking at the tea set, Sunset Shimmer smiled. It was a ridiculous tea set, the cups and the teapot were covered in little trains, and the little trains all had cargo of tea cakes, cookies, and little sandwiches loaded on the cars. It was something that Celestia often brought out to cheer Sunset Shimmer up when Sunset had been little. 

Seeing it made Sunset Shimmer ache. “I smashed this in anger… I wanted to hurt you...” 

“I fixed it. A little magic made it right. One of the teacups seems to have mysterious dribble when you go to drink from it, but I can never tell which one,” Celestia said in a low voice. 

“I suppose you know why I am here.” Sunset Shimmer watched as Princess Celestia poured tea into the teacups. 

“Oh, I have a few guesses.” The corner of Celestia’s mouth twitched. 

Sunset Shimmer lifted up a teacup and held it front of her muzzle. After a moment of thought, she got right to the point. “Why did you do it?” 

Celestia’s face was as impassive and immovable as the marble that she resembled. “I had to make certain that the public trusts Buckminster. He can be… intimidating. And now freed, I feared for a certain amount of backlash. There are many who hate him. I worried over the accusations that could be made and the fear mongering that might happen. I wanted the public to see that I love him and I trust him. That I am behind him.” 

“And that’s it?” Sunset Shimmer asked, turning to look Celestia in the eye. 

“Of course not.” Celestia lifted up a teacup, held it up to her muzzle, and sniffed. 

“Well?” Sunset Shimmer gave Celestia a pleading gaze. 

Celestia’s stony demeanour softened and emotion became visible upon her face. “As I was doing it, I realised that I could give Buckminster something that I know he craves. An extended sense of family. My sister sees into his dreams and she feels his pain. His sense of loneliness. He has his wives and his foals, but that is not enough to fill the emptiness in his heart. So… I gave him you. I gave him me. I gave him what he dreams of and desires. Both of you are cousins, but now, there is something else there. A stronger bond. It is between you and Buckminster how you wish to define it. I am content to be his aunt, and your aunt as well.” Celestia paused for a moment and her eyes glittered. “I never stopped loving you.” 

Sunset Shimmer felt her eyes welling up once more. 

“I am so proud of you. You took the alicorn amulet and you broke its terrible power. You had the means to achieve the dream you once wanted, and you rejected it. You turned away. You faced the worst sort of temptation. I knew I was right to place my hopes in you.” 

Sunset Shimmer took a sip of tea and she felt the tea dribble down her chin and onto her chest. She pulled her cup away and looked down at her darkened, dampened pelt. 

“Oh dear… you seemed to have received the cup with the dribble.” Celestia’s face held the ghost of a smile and her voice was filled with repressed giggles. “My dear, precious Sunset Shimmer, are you okay?” 

Still on the verge of tears, but now smiling, Sunset Shimmer looked at Celestia. “I’m fine. Just covered in tea, that’s all. I seem to recall that this happened frequently as a foal and you struggled to teach me to steady my telekinesis.” 

“It is good to know that some things never change, my beloved foal…” 
	
	
> Chapter 672
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hidden Hollow Fortress seemed to be a much larger place than Luna remembered it being. It was difficult being smaller. It was difficult being without magic. It was difficult being without strength. She glanced up at Bucky. He was now larger than she was. He was stronger than she was. He now had more magic than she did. 

While she had borne some resentment for this not long ago, a more recent feeling of strong affection had replaced it and she felt it now, she felt it in every fibre of her being now as she walked beside him through the corridors of the underground bunker. 

These past few days spent with Buckminster and his family were some of the happiest days that Luna had known in her entire long life. She felt welcomed, wanted, loved, she had everything she had ever wanted. The experience had softened her heart, and Luna knew it. 

It made it somewhat more difficult to make an army of abominations. 

“Ready Buckminster? The docket for tonight contains two.” 

“I’m good for it,” Bucky replied as he turned his head to glance at Luna. 

“Deus should prove interesting and Moonless Night I have high hopes for. These are two of our best three fighters, the heavy hitters, the big brutes that will help keep the others safe, the last of which is—” 

“Storm Blitz,” Bucky said, finishing Luna’s spoken thoughts. “Storm should prove interesting. Been reading through Fever Cure’s file… he has become utterly immune to poison because of his transition. He was only very resistant before. Storm Blitz has an exceptional lightning resistance, even by pegasi standards.” 

“The researchers tell me that Fever Cure’s blood has become antivenin of the highest quality. His liver has gone through profound changes and has almost doubled in size. His thaumaturgical glands have changed, grown enlarged, much in the same way that yours have. While the change to his cutie mark was worrisome, he seems to have become a weapon against poison, disease, and contagion.” 

“This could not come at a better time… we know for certain that the mirror travelers are making diseases in the old world countries,” Bucky said to Luna as the continued down the hall together. 

Luna nodded as she trotted at Bucky’s heels. “Twilight Sparkle wishes to send him to aid our allies as soon as he is cleared for release.” 

“Weaponised diseases bother me.” Bucky scowled and his face darkened. “Anthrax is an awful disease for us equines and it is decimating the minotaur population.” 

“With Fever Cure, we have the means to make new vaccines as well as antivenins. For treatment, we’re going to need a lot of blood plasma for the anthrax.” Luna could see the door, their destination, at the end of the darkened hallway. 

“We’ll need public support to wage war on disease then. I know of a league of earth ponies that plans to donate blood, but they’re not enough.” Bucky’s scowl became a smile, a roguish grin that made his eyes twinkle. “But they can set an example. We’ll have Fever Cure begin producing a means to treat the new strains of anthrax while he waits here in Hidden Hollow.” 

“We will need to get a sample of the new strains of anthrax so Fever Cure can begin his work,” Luna said as they approached the door. “Already, the Shadowbolt Initiative has been shown to be a sound decision. For this, I am glad.” 

Now standing at the door, Bucky’s grin grew ever wider. “It is a good night for mad science.” 



 

“There both of you are… how are you both?” Twilight asked as she rushed forward. She wrapped her wings around Luna and gave the smaller alicorn a hug. After a moment’s embrace, she turned to Bucky, grabbed him, ignored his protests, and gave him a squeeze. 

“Ready to get work done. Are you certain this can be done with just Bucky?” Luna replied. 

“Positive. I have made adjustments to the machine. Bucky is now packing his own chaos magic so that should also stabilise the system, at least from his end of input.” Twilight Sparkle gave Luna a reassuring smile. “Fever Cure’s self diagnostic seems most promising and our doctors are confident that he is well.” She turned to Bucky. “Which reminds me, how is your condition?” 

“The cream helps the itching but I am still having stomach issues,” Bucky replied, his ears drooping down in embarrassment. “So, fair warning about working in confined spaces with me.” 

“We had broccoli and other vegetables dipped into fondue for dinner,” Luna said in a cheerful voice. 

“Look, I live at home with three pegasi and a dragon. Nothing, and I mean nothing that the two of you might do could scare me.” Twilight’s mouth pressed into a straight line and her eyes narrowed. “Tonight’s test subjects are ready to go.” 



 

As the silver ring was placed over Bucky’s horn, he had himself a good look at Deus and Moonless Night. Deus had curled horns like a ram and Bucky studied the cambion. Bat winged and far larger than most normal ponies, he wasn’t quite the oversized bulk of an actual lunar pegasus. As for Moonless Night, Bucky wasn’t quite certain he was looking at. It was equine, but it was also lupine, the best guess being that Moonless Night was part diamond dog. Moonless Night was drooling with excitement, his long tongue hanging out as he panted. Unlike Deus, Moonless Night was just as big as many male lunar pegasi. 

“Is everypony ready?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she headed for the protective control booth, glancing over her shoulder at the test subjects as she cleared the area. 

“Yeah… I cannot help but notice that Luna and I are sitting here in the open, exposed to the energy fields… are we being bombarded as well?” Bucky asked. 

Before stepping through the heavy steel door, Twilight stopped and nodded. “Yes. And no doubt, the continued exposure to is making your shadow magic stronger Bucky. I take it that Luna didn’t tell you about phase two of this operation?” 

“No… she did not,” Bucky replied as he turned to look at Luna. 

“Solar ponies grow strong in the sun.” Luna shrugged. “Lunar ponies grow stronger in the moonlight. But lunar ponies also seem to grow far, far stronger with exposure to radiant shadow energies. Phase two of this program is to start exposing the lunar pegasi to the field generators on a regular basis to make them stronger… bigger… faster… and have more shadow magic.” 

“Is there a reason you did not tell me?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes,” Luna replied. 

“And that is?” 

“We needed to observe you and your power levels. I needed a blind test. If you knew that you were being altered, if you became aware of what was being done, your knowledge of it might have skewed your actual abilities. If you came to believe you were stronger, you might have acted stronger and there could have been a placebo effect.” 

“That makes sense.” 

“You are not mad?” For a moment, Luna looked worried. 

“No. There is no good reason to be angry. What you did was wise. But now our results will be biased by me knowing.” Bucky looked at Twilight and gave her a wry grin. 

“Hmm… whoops?” Twilight muttered as she stepped through the doorway and shut the heavy steel door behind her. 

“Excited!” Moonless Night said, his barrel heaving with anticipation and his tail wagging. Reaching up with his hind leg, Moonless Night began to scratch behind his ear, one eye narrowing as he scratched his itch. 

“I must say, achieving perfection seems possible,” Deus said in a low dramatic whisper. The cambion brushed his mane out of his eyes and glanced at Luna. “This certainly beats being in a cell.” 

“Prepare yourselves!” Twilight warned. 

The room went dark and after several minutes, the humming thrum of machinery could be heard. The banks of crystals all around the room began to glow, a steady pulsing light. The floor vibrated. 

“We’re looking good… Bucky’s got more than enough juice to draw from and we’re not spiking. This should be a nice, smooth transition!” Twilight Sparkle said through the intercom system. 

Moonless Night began grunting, his wings jerked and his eyes twitched. He flexed his paws and his legs spasmed. He seemed to be becoming hairier and his body appeared to be growing in mass. His muscles bulged. His teeth grew longer and the pony that appeared to be half diamond dog threw back his head and howled. His cutie mark, a wolf in silhouette that was howling at the moon, glowed with a lurid light, and a dark cloud appeared around the moon. His equine aspect seemed to be diminishing and he took on a far more lupine appearance. 

Through it all, his tail never stopped wagging. 

Beside Moonless Night, Deus was also undergoing changes. His legs grew longer, thicker, and his body increased in mass. His off white pelt became sootier in appearance. His curled ram's horns became thicker, longer, and a sharp ridges grew in spirals around them. His skull shifted shape, becoming broader, flatter around the horns, and thick bony brow ridges formed over his eyes. His neck became broader and broader, thickening, and thick, corded muscles rippled beneath his flesh of his neck. His cutie mark, a blazing heart, remained unchanged. 

“By the stars, they are beautiful,” Luna gasped, her eyes wide. “Look at them… becoming physical perfection… such beautiful offspring of the night…” 

“Power level readings are good, I am going to allow the juice to keep flowing, everything shows signs of remarkable stability… this is gonna be something to remember!” Twilight announced over the intercom. 

For reasons that he could not explain, Bucky felt giddy. Perhaps it was the exposure to the shadow generator. Perhaps it was because he had proof of good work right before his eyes. 

Perhaps it was because Luna seemed so happy. She was prancing in place, her wings fluttering, and her eyes were as wide as a foal’s on Hearth’s Warming Eve. 

Moonless Night continued to grow in bulk; his front shoulders were now almost as wide as most ponies were tall. His body tapered back to narrower rear hips. Tendrils of shadow writhed over his flesh and his eyes rolled back into his skull in what appeared to be ecstasy. 

Deus’ muscles became more and more refined, some bulk was added, but not the absurd bulk that Moonless Night was developing. Deus became more ram like, and his cloven hooves began to look like they were made of onyx or obsidian. 

“Moonie… you are drooling everywhere!” Deus said, unable to get away from the ribbons of slobber flying from Moonless Night’s slavering jowls. 

The only response that Moonless Night could manage was to chase his tail and pant even harder. 

“I think I am going to kill the power. Luna?” Twilight Sparkle knocked on the protective glass of the control both. 

Luna nodded. 

“Cutting power in three… two… one… we’re done!” 

The hum of the machinery went silent and the strange tingling that Bucky felt in his horn went dead. He felt drained, but also felt contented. 

“How do both of you feel?” Twilight asked. “Moonless Night?” 

“I feel good… wanna go for a run… yeah… wanna go for a run and maybe chase rabbits… a run would be good. Feel good. Feel really good! Wanna run… bunnies!” 

“He’s normally not like this… when he’s not hyper and worked up, my companion here is actually very intelligent,” Deus said, looking worried. 

“I know that, Deus, I’ve read his profile,” Twilight replied, smiling through the glass. “Deus? How do you feel?” 

“I have never felt better in my whole life. Is this what the feeling of perfect health feels like? I feel like a million bits. The only thing wrong with me is that I am hungry—” 

“HUNGRY! FOOD! WANT FOOD, NEED FOOD, FOOD IS GOOD! FOOD NOW!” Moonless Night shouted as he continued to chase his tail. 

“By the stars, Moonie has grown huge... he’ll be an unstoppable juggernaut...  Moonie, calm down before you go through a wall or something,” Deus said to his fellow shadowbolt. 

Moonless Night continued chasing his tail and ignored Deus.

“Both of you should hit up the cafeteria. Food will be waiting. We know from Fever Cure’s transition that your appetite will be the stuff of legends,” Twilight Sparkle said through the intercom. 

“I feel good about what we have accomplished here tonight,” Bucky said as he smiled. 
	
> Chapter 673
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a groan, Dinky awoke. It took a moment to focus her magic, but she managed, and reaching out with her telekinesis, she silenced her alarm clock. She heard Piña moan up above her and Dinky forced her eyes to stay open. Falling back to sleep would be bad. 

With a grunt, Dinky crawled out from beneath the covers, got her hooves on the floor, yawned, shook her head, yawned again, and then began to cross the room. The sun had not yet risen and the only light was the night light, keeping the darkness away from the other bunk beds in the room. 

As she crossed the room, Dinky saw the mysterious box Sentinel had left for her in the faint light. She paused to glance at it for a moment, but decided to wait until Sentinel was home to open it. Dinky felt her heart swelling in her barrel as she thought of her brother. 

Sentinel was the ideal big brother. 

With Sentinel’s example in mind, Dinky approached the other bed and stood there. “Good morning girls,” she said in a soft voice, trying to wake the two adorable sleepers. Harper and Sukari clung to one another, a tangle of legs, and the alarm clock had done nothing to wake them. 

“Wake up girls… come on, time to rise and shine,” Dinky said once more in a singsong voice to her two younger siblings. She didn’t want to scare them; Sukari still had accidents, but had not had one in quite some time. Dinky didn’t want to break the streak. 

After a moment of being patient, Dinky was rewarded with a yawn from Harper. “Sukari… come on Sukari… we have to get you up and out of bed so you can have breakfast.” 

“Wake up, sissy stripes.” Harper shook the zebra foal she was clinging to. “Harpy need go pee pot!” 

The zebra’s eyes open and her small body jumped with a start. She looked around, eyes blinking, and realising there was no danger, she yawned, letting out an equine whine as her eyes squeezed shut mid yawn. 

“Yay, the bed is dry and there are no accidents! Who are the best sisters in the world!” Dinky bounced in place a few times and her mane’s forelock tumbled down into her eyes. 

From in her bunk, Piña let out a wordless grumble, followed by a grunt. “Ugh.” 

As Dinky helped Harper and Sukari out of bed, she heard Piña drop down to the floor behind her. Dinky first hugged and then kissed Harper, and then afterwards, Sukari also got her morning hug and a kiss as well. 

“Harpy go pee pot now,” Harper whimpered as she squirmed and danced in place. 

“Come on Harper, let’s go, follow me,” Dinky said. 



 

Standing up on her hind hooves, Piña steadied Harper on the toilet, made certain that Harper’s tail was out of the way, and that Harper did not fall in. Even in her not quite awake state, Piña’s balance was rather good. 

“Gonna make it, Sukari?” Dinky asked. 

Sukari nodded. “Will make it.” 

“Good!” Dinky said, her voice full of affectionate praise. 

There was a plop in the water beneath Harper and the frizzy maned foal grunted. She closed her eyes and made a face of concentration. “Harpy make plop plop not rain drop.” 

“Looks like we all get a shower together this morning.” Piña smiled for a moment, then yawned, and then she leaned in and gave Harper a kiss on the cheek. “Good foal.”

“Might not make it.” Sukari began to dance around a little, shuffling her hooves, making them click on the tile floor of the bathroom. “Gotta go. Gotta go. Hurry…” 

“There is a universal truth… a fact as sure as fate… there are some things that cannot be hurried, and there are some things that cannot wait,” Piña said as she continued to hold Harper up. 



 

As Dinky was coming down the stairs, she decided that being a clever unicorn was the best sort of unicorn. Letting Sukari pee in the shower had taken care of two tasks at once. Now, Dinky led the way down the stairs, followed by Harper, then by Piña, and Sukari bringing up the rear. Sukari, who was fine going up the stairs, was terrified coming down the stairs, and Piña stood ready incase Sukari started to tumble. 

At the bottom of the stairs, Dinky saw a light in the living room. She stuck out her neck, peered around the corner, and saw her daddy. He was holding Bell Heather, and Bell Heather’s soft, snuffling cries could be heard. 

“Daddy? She okay?” Dinky asked. She saw her father looked up. 

“One of her ears is hot. I think she has an earache. I poured some medicated sweet oil down in there and she seems to be doing a little better. Poor thing,” Bucky replied. 

“Mama…” Harper gave Dinky a stern glance. 

“Harper, you can say mama, I say daddy. Now hush!” Dinky glared down at Harper in a contest of wills, her head held high and her eyes narrowed. 

After a moment, Harper looked away and muttered, “Mama.” 

Sukari made a sour face at Harper. “Baba.” 

“And Bell Heather says daddoo, so nya nya to the both of you,” Piña said, allowing herself to lapse into immaturity. She stuck out her tongue and shook her head at Sukari and Harper. 

Chuckling, Bucky looked at his foals and blinked. “She’s getting her first buds. Little green knots that Thistle says will turn into a mane and tail of water weeds.” Cradling Bell Heather in his forelegs, Bucky rocked her back and forth, bouncing her just a bit as he did so. 

“Come on girls, time for breakfast,” Dinky said as she got behind Harper and nudged her towards the kitchen. 

With a nudge from Dinky, Harper’s mood brightened and the dispute over mama was now forgotten. Harper pronked away, bouncing twice on legs that wobbled, and then she took off at a somewhat more normal walk, her frizzy mane bobbing up and down as if she was still pronking. 



 

Glancing at himself in the bathroom mirror, Bucky grinned a terrible, horrible, no good mischievous grin. Realising that he had been exposed to the shadow generator twice now, and both times he had been bombarded with magic, he had made a connection somewhere between his ears about what he had been exposed to. 

Closing his eyes, he focused his will. He thought about being somepony else. He ignored the tingling in his horn and tried to call forth other magic, something he knew was there. Something… different. He opened his eyes and stared at himself in the mirror as nothing happened. He gritted his teeth and continued to try and make something happen. 

For a brief instant, his grey eye flashed green and lurid green flames danced around his body. A faint cackle escaped his lips. Nothing yet, but it was a matter of time before he figured out how to make this work. 



 

The village of Podunk was small, little more than a switching yard for the trains, but it did have a decent enough hotel. For this, Sentinel was grateful. His wing joints ached and his spine was full of painful kinks. 

Standing in the hotel lobby, Sentinel was not certain what to do. He had slept like a stone after the long flight, and the Raptors would be departing again soon enough. Sniffing, he smelled food. Hearing his stomach gurgle, Sentinel decided that his rations were subpar and he sauntered off to the diner on the east side of the hotel lobby. 

It was a greasy spoon and there were no Raptors to be found. 

“Come on in, hon,” a waitress said. “You’re here on a royal stipend. Your meals are covered if you want something. Have a seat. Don’t see many bat ponies.” 

Polite to a fault, Sentinel said nothing about the despised racial slur. The waitress didn’t know any better. Instead, he smiled and looked gracious as he took a seat on a wooden seat, climbing into a booth. 

“We ain’t got any meat, sorry. No call for it here, but we do have eggs and lots of them. Watcha want, hon?” the waitress asked in a bored sounding voice. 

“Coffee… I need coffee,” Sentinel replied in a groggy voice. “Lots of coffee and keep it coming. I’ll also take a dozen eggs, soft fried, and a mountain of hash browns with everything you can throw on them, including gravy if you’ve got it.” 

“Somepony is hungry,” the waitress said in a bored monotone. “I’ll be right back with your coffee, sugar.” The waitress sashayed off and disappeared through a swinging door into the kitchen. 

The diner was empty. Sentinel realised that he was the only pony present. The scent of coffee in the air made his mouth water and for a moment, Sentinel thought he might have to wipe away drool. 

“What about capers?” 

“Look, the bat pony said everything you can throw on them—” 

“Do bat ponies even eat potatoes? That seems weird… I thought they drank blood and sucked your guts out like a spider does…” 

Sighing, Sentinel closed his eyes and rubbed his head. There was no point in saying anything or being upset. He heard the creak of hinges and the waitress returned with a large mug full of steaming coffee, which she set down upon the table in front of Sentinel. 

Saying nothing, the waitress wandered off, leaving Sentinel alone. 

Feeling a peculiar feeling of loneliness, Sentinel, more than anything else he could think of, wanted his mother, the grey solar pegasus named Derpy, in this troubled moment. To Derpy, he was just another pegasus and her son. Hunched over his coffee, he heaved a dejected sigh. 

Staring down into coffee, Sentinel realised that he was going to spend his entire life saving ponies just like these. The thought made him feel even more depressed as he stared down in the black depths of his coffee. 



 

Hunkering down, Neon Blitz looked the crying earth pony in the eye. Reaching out, he patted her on her shoulder with his paw, and then he placed his paw under her chin, lifting her head, so that she might look him in the eye. 

“What troubles you, tiny one?” 

The earth pony sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Ponies keep calling me ‘princess’ and I don’t like it. I understand why Bucky gets upset now. I feel awful. Everypony is treating me different and this morning I got a summons for my coronation and I don’t want to get crowned.” 

“Hmm… I see,” Neon Blitz said in a soft raspy voice that was filled with as much kindness as he could muster. “Would you like some advice?” 

Still sniffling, Apple Bloom nodded. 

“When ponies call you ‘princess’ you should respond by asking how you can serve them. You should say to them, ‘what can I do to help you, I am your devoted servant.’ It will throw them off guard… and if you are lucky, it will cause a few to stop and think about what being a princess really means. You might change how they see the world. At the very least, this will show ponies how seriously you take your duties. If ponies call you by your name, respond as you always would to your friends… but if somepony calls you by your title, reply to them in a formal manner.” 

“Do you think that will help?” Apple Bloom asked in a hoarse whisper. 

“I don’t know. It might,” Neon Blitz replied. 

“Thank you, really, you’ve made me feel better.” Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes once more and offered a trembling smile to the diamond dog. 

“How are your friends dealing with it?” Neon Blitz asked as he patted Apple Bloom on the shoulder once more, his tail wagging in affection. 

“There was a little teasing, but not in a bad way. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle have been really good about it and they keep hugging me and telling me how happy they are for me.” Apple Bloom heaved a sigh and then rubbed her cheek with her folded fetlock. She felt a hot flush creep up over her neck and blossom into her ears. “Rumble said I was already his princess…” 

“My advice, stick with your friends as much as you can, but do not distance yourself from others. Remember those that stood by you and helped you achieve what you have become. Surround yourself with those who saw you through your troubles, and they will continue to see you through your troubles. Now… you should be getting back to class… I will ignore this infraction for now, seeing as how you are having a tough time.” 

“Thank you,” Apple Bloom said in a warm and sincere voice. “I just needed a moment to myself… all of this has been very hard on me.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 674
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Luna worked her hooves into the soil, she felt the first stirrings of her magic returning. The air inside of the greenhouse was humid and warm. The smell of greenery hung in the air and the moist, rich smell of black soil was almost cloying in her nostrils. She could feel her connection with the earth. 

Luna, who should have been in bed, was wide awake, could not sleep, and was behaving like any other foal that didn’t want to go to bed. She watched the other ponies in the greenhouse. Dandelion Fluff and her husband, Pinto Bean, were busy working through the rows of plants that grew in the greenhouse. There were griffons in here that farmed bugs in compost boxes and an entire cycle of life was happening in the greenhouse, making certain that nothing was wasted. Nearby, a teacher was teaching students a lesson in horticulture. 

At one end of the greenhouse was a waterfall, an endless stream of water that cascaded over a wall constructed of jagged stones and bits of brick. The falling water formed a fine mist and fans blew a steady breeze, which blew the mist over the plants, keeping everything moist and hydrated. 

The sound of the falling water was soothing. Luna found that she adored this place. 

Lowering her head, Luna nosed around the lettuce plants, pressing her snoot into the dirt, and very much enjoying her restored connection to the earth, as faint and feeble as it might be.  

She prowled in between the rows, her nose to the ground, sniffling, her hooves pressing into the moist black dirt with every step, and soon she found herself lost in a massive forest of oversized cannabis plants that made her feel very tiny. Squatting down, she urinated among the plants, sensing their needs, and knowing that she had something to offer them. 

Urine was rich with nitrogen, something that the plants needed. Urine also had phosphorus and potassium, especially earth pony urine, and that helped to restore the soil, giving it life. Uric acid in urine helped to break down organic compounds in the soil, making things like compost even more effective. 

With a sigh of relief, Luna gave back to the earth something in return for everything she had taken. She gave herself a shake to dry herself off, waggling her backside around, and then wandered off, departing the tall cannabis plants and wandering into the pole beans that grew along wooden trellises. 

The soil was oh so very warm, full of rotting compost that had been ground with earth pony hooves. It heated the air of the greenhouse and made it feel like spring. Overcome by the primeval equine that dwelled deep within her, Luna fell over and began to roll in the dirt, rubbing her croup over the moist, black soil. She flapped and fluttered her wings at her sides, sending dirt everywhere and getting her feathers filthy. As she flopped around, she rubbed her head in the dirt, also her neck, and she kicked all four legs up into the air as she snorted. 

She was not the only pony that was doing this in the greenhouse. 



 

Laying in a warm patch of sunlight that was shining through a window, Bucky was almost sleeping; he lay drowsing with his eyes closed, sprawled over a quilt left on the living room floor. His hind legs were kicked out behind him and his long tail was fanned out over his legs. 

A mischievous kelpie that was up to no good lurked around the corner of the archway that led into the living room. She watched, she waited, biting her lip to repress her need to giggle, trying to determine if Bucky was a good target. 

Sitting at the kitchen table, Berry Punch was reading the paper and eating as she also kept an eye on the drama that was about to unfold. She could see that Thistle was up to no good and Berry Punch sort of hoped that Thistle would get what was coming to her. At the very least, Berry Punch was hoping that Thistle would get something coming to her, and that Berry Punch could be a part of it. 

Beside Berry, both Harper and Cadance were sitting in their high chairs, also watching. Harper was bending her head down to eat baby carrots and Cadance ignored her food as she watched the kelpie creeping up on Bucky. 

“Daddy?” Cadance’s voice was a low whisper and she waved in Bucky’s general direction as she bounced around a bit in her high chair.

“Daddy will be fine,” Berry said in a low reassuring voice to Cadance. 

Cadance covered her muzzle with both of her front hooves and watched in wide eyed terror as Thistle crept closer to Bucky. She whimpered and her wings fluttered at her sides. “No… nooooo…” 

“It’s just play, Cadance.” Berry Punch reached over and patted Cadance as the alicorn foal covered her eyes. Berry felt the corners of her mouth pulling back as a grin overtook her. 

Meanwhile, Thistle, who had crept up on Bucky, loomed over him, wondering what to do next. She had trouble telling if Bucky was asleep or if he was playing possum, she knew full well that it could be either. She dropped head down, pursed her lips, and blew into Bucky’s ear. 

The tufted ear twitched once, then twice, and then waggled around as Thistle continued to blow. As the kelpie watched, Bucky’s grey eye opened. She gave him a warm smile, blew in his ear once more, and then let out a squeak when Bucky lifted his head. 

“Catch me if you can,” Thistle said in an alluring voice as she reached out and stroked Bucky’s cheek with her hoof. Saying nothing else, Thistle took off, lickety split, heading for the front door. 

In the kitchen, Berry Punch watched as Bucky got his legs, wobbled like a newborn foal, and then took off after Thistle, running out of the front door after her. The earth pony mare threw back her head and had a good laugh. 



 

Below her, Rainbow Dash watched as Thistle took off running with Bucky in hot, panting pursuit. It seemed even midwinter could not stop a chase from happening, and Rainbow Dash recognised it right away for what it was. 

She let out a piercing whistle to the get the attention of her class, made a gesture to follow, and then she rolled, dropping down into a dive. Behind her, her students mimicked her actions and when Rainbow Dash leveled out, her students did as well. 

Flying low, Rainbow Dash buzzed over the heads of Bucky and Thistle.  Her class made catcalls, whistles, and cheered on Thistle, telling her to run faster. One more flier joined the fray, and Belisama fell beside Rainbow Dash, flapping her wings and keeping up with the mob as they chased after Bucky and Thistle. 

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Hey, you should be a part of this! Go after Thistle!” 

And then, without warning, the sky darkened as a whole flock of little griffons joined in to see what was going on. They flew around Rainbow Dash’s flight class and joined in on the fun. 

“And this class, is a ritual as old as ponykind… the chase. It is how we declare our intentions for one another. It is how we, as ponies, profess love for one another, or declare our intentions for another. Usually you see it a lot more in the springtime, and sometimes in the summer. The chase is what makes sure that the fastest males catch the fastest females and there are many that believe that this is what has made our species so strong… I dunno… I just think it’s fun to chase somepony that you like,” Rainbow Dash said, offering an explanation to her class. “Pegasi fly while doing it… earth ponies run… and so will unicorns if you can tear them away from their books and get them outside.” 

Rainbow Dash watched as Thistle lept over a snowbank and then darted off in another direction, her tongue flapping from the corner of her mouth. “You see class, when one pony is chasing another pony, that means they are curious about a relationship and it is considered rude to chase another pony’s pony… fights have started because of that… and so have wars. Word has it that Stratuspolis was destroyed because one brother chased after the mare that his brother had declared his intentions for with a chase. A bitter feud broke out between brothers. If the legend can be believed, Stratuspolis was destroyed, one brother murdered the mare, made his brother watch, then killed his brother, and then killed himself. We pegasi have been known to be a little hot headed… I guess.” 

“Will this be on our test?” a colt asked. 

“Maybe!” Rainbow Dash replied with a broad grin. “I suppose we could consider this part of the rules of flight.” 

“Are there any rules for the chase itself?” a filly asked. 

“If you don’t want to be chased, don’t run,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Just stand there and shake your head no at the pony trying initiate the chase.” 

“How does one start a chase?” a colt asked. 

“Usually with a friendly snoot bump, followed by a soft touch on the cheek. It is the opposite of declaring war, which is a hard slap across the kisser,” Rainbow Dash replied. She turned to look at her class and the gaggle of griffons following her. “After the initial contact is made, the snoot bump and the touch on the cheek, if a pony takes off running, you take off after them.”

“Is there anything that we pegasi should be doing while a chase is going on?” a chubby pegasus colt asked in a breathless voice. 

“Flock around them and keep them safe, I suppose. I guess that is what we did in the old days, when it was dangerous. Now, we flock around them and harass them to let them know we like them and that we approve. Like this.” Rainbow Dash placed both front hooves on either side of her mouth and shouted at Bucky, “HEY, GROUNDPOUNDER! GET MOVING, YA SLOWPOKE!” 

Darting around, Rainbow Dash dodged the snowballs that Bucky lobbed at her with his telekinesis. “Hey Bucky! You throw like Twilight Sparkle dances!” 

“Somepony fetch the burn cream!” a colt cried in a squeaky voice. 

“I’ll deal with you later, Rainbow Dash!” Bucky shouted as he kept running. 

Rainbow Dash, laughing, rolled through the air and pointed down at the ground at Bucky. She watched as he turned tail and started to run in another direction. “Hey class, pay attention. Now we have a reversal. See how Thistle and Belisama are now chasing him? At some point, the chaser becomes the chasee as a means to see if there is mutual interest. And in this case, Thistle and Belisama are continuing the chase, running after Bucky as he is now running away from them.” 

“Thistle isn’t running very fast to catch him,” a filly said as she watched. 

“Well, no, the whole point isn’t to catch him, it is to chase him. Bucky has messed up legs and those weird metal griffon claws and he can’t run very well.” Rainbow Dash glanced at her class and made certain that every head was accounted for. Her quick observation abilities told her that everypony and everybirdy was present. 

“Pay attention my griffons, this is important. I want you to watch this and learn,” a grizzled griffon said as he swooped past Rainbow Dash. 

A smaller griffon, named Weaver, broke off from the flock and then tweaked the beak of a larger hunter griffon named Grisabella. Already a pair, Weaver took off at full speed, streaking away, and in a flash of grey, Grisabella went after him, her wings pumping to catch up with the smaller, faster griffon that she loved. 

“That is the love I want each of you to have for one another,” the old grizzled griffon said as he pointed at the pair with left talons. The old griffon then turned in the air and pointed at Belisama. “Or that. That works too. See how she chases the one she loves. She is happy. Learn from these examples.” 

“A chase is supposed to make you happy,” Rainbow Dash said. “If a chase isn’t fun, you’re doing something wrong.”

A filly, who had a rosy blush on cheeks, reached out and stroked the cheek of a colt as she flew near him. She giggled, lingered in the air for a moment, and then took off with as much speed as she could muster. After a moment, the confused colt took off after her, and with a chuckle, Rainbow Dash went off after them both. 
	
> Chapter 675
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Baltimare. The winter here seemed a bit milder than in Ponyville. There was not as much snow, but there was a dense, heavy fog that blanketed everything and a freezing drizzle left everything coated in ice. The sun was now rising up over Horseshoe Bay, Sentinel could feel it, but he could not see it, the fog was just too thick to be able to see more than ten paces. 

For a moment, Sentinel envied Yew Wood and Peekaboo, who were warm and snug in a nice, comfortable hotel room with room service and electric heat. Lugus would be returning there to wait in the lap of luxury, as soon as the group had dropped down into the sewer. 

Sentinel tried to ignore the stinging pain in his plot where he had been injected with every available biological and alchemical protection available. It hurt to walk and there were goose egg sized lumps protruding from both of his buttocks.

“So… what is the plan, exactly?” Kiara asked as the group walked through the streets together. 

Sentinel became aware that Lugus was looking at him and waiting for an answer. The colt felt his muscles twitch from nervousness, and he licked his lips as his nervousness overtook him. “I have given that a lot of thought actually. The plan is, we stay together as a group. We will not be able to cover as much ground, but there will be safety in numbers. We are all flying creatures and we will be at a disadvantage down in the sewer. If we engage something, some of us form a protective barrier while the rest of us fire at will with crossbows.” Much to Sentinel’s relief, he saw Lugus nodding. “Also, Loki… no fire. Sewer gasses can be volatile.” 

“Like I care, I can’t burn,” was Loki’s snide rejoinder.  

“There are reports of tentacles coming up and out of storm drains to snatch foals,” Lugus said, his beak clicking at the end of his sentence to punctuate his words. The big griffon’s crest rose. “All of you are foal sized, give or take, so be careful.” 

“Sir, permission to use Loki as bait in front of a storm drain, sir,” Freyja barked, an act made all the more interesting because she was feline. 

Lugus shook his head and rolled his eyes as he walked. “Denied.” The big griffon suppressed a chuckle and his neck feathers ruffled. 

“That’s actually a good idea.” Loki glanced at Freyja as he walked. “We should listen to her… her idea has merit. It might speed things up.” 

“There are hundreds, maybe thousands of storm drains in the gutters of this city. And the creature might be lurking at any one of them. It would be foolish to be waiting at just one of them. As it is there are about twenty three hundred kilometres of sewer under Baltimare and thankfully only about eleven hundred kilometres of those pipes are large enough for you to fit into. We know that the sewer lurker is good sized… eye witnesses have seen it, but the reports vary wildly,” Lugus said in a calm voice as the Raptors continued to walk through the fog and the freezing drizzle. 

“We could be here for months hunting this thing.” Callum’s wings fluttered at his side. “How many miles is that?” 

Sentinel stopped mid step, blinked, and realised he was unable to answer. After a moment, he resumed walking, and lamented his terrible and disappointing math skills. 

“About seven hundred,” Angry Angus replied in low growl. “Do you know how impossible this is? Even if we somehow cover twenty miles in a day, this lurker thing could double back into an area we’ve already checked. It could be anywhere.” 

“We are so beaked.” Gofannon kicked at the cobblestones. “I have a pregnant pegasus at home that needs me.” 

“Such is the price of duty,” Flench said to Gofannon. 

“Easy for you to say, Flench, you screw anything that walks or has a pulse. I’m committed.” Gofannon’s feathers ruffled. “Sorry… I shouldn’t have said that.” 

Flench did not reply. 

“No offense to anybirdy, but I gotta know… how does a tiny dicked griffon satisfy a pony?” Shaquah asked in a voice that seemed to echo through the fog. 

“Oh, ponies are very grippy… it is like they have prehensile twats,” Flench replied. 

“Do you mind?” Sentinel turned and glared at the pudgy griffon. 

“Sorry sir.” Flench fired off a salute with his wing. 

“I can make Helia happy. It takes patience, being attentive, and a little hard work.” Gofannon glanced at Sentinel and hoped that he had not upset the colt. “Actually being in love helps. I’m not having a go at her just to scratch an itch. I want to express how much I love her.” 

“That’s better,” Sentinel grumbled as he marched over the icy cobblestones. 

“Makes you think about Lugus and—” 

“Brigid, I will crush you into broken, busted birdy bits, do not test my patience.” Lugus’ crest rose and his tail twitched in irritation. 

“My apologies, sir. I meant no disrespect. I only meant to imply that you clearly love your mate and that there is ample evidence of your gentle nature… sir.” 

Branwen lifted her head and her crest rose. “I’m freakin’ out over here… seven hundred miles of tunnel ain’t no small thing… and there is eleven of us… twelve with Sentinel. Down in the sewer with something that has tentacles and probably wants to violate our cute little kitty cat assholes. Don’t any of you read comic books?” 

Grunion squawked and lept into the air. “That’s too kinky for me. I think I want to go home!” 



 

The passageway had a few inches of fetid water at the bottom. The scent of rotting vegetation tickled Sentinel’s nose. He peered around, the faint light from the grate up above providing a little light. Behind him, Raptors dropped down one by one in the sewer. 

The passage was circular, a yard high and a yard wide. 

Off in the distance, Sentinel could hear water dripping. Or, at least, liquid dripping. Sentinel sniffed, a deep inhale, and was overwhelmed by too many scents. His sense of smell would be almost useless down here. 

“Raptors, lights please,” Sentinel commanded in a soft voice that somehow carried well through the tunnel. 

Several Raptors pulled out small glass globes, tapped them twice with a talon, and then placed them into a netted pocket that hung from their doublets. The sewer filled with a warm, almost comforting yellow light. 

It was cold enough down here to see one’s breath. 

“Loki, I want you up here in the front with me. Wing Corporal Gofannon, you are the only griffon I trust enough to know how important it is to bring up the rear. The rest of you, form ranks in the middle. Those of you capable of walking in a bipedal stance, be ready to rise up and unleash fury with crossbows. The rest of you keep those with the crossbows safe. 

“Sir, yes sir, I will watch our backs, sir,” Gofannon replied as he snapped off a salute with his wing. 

Not knowing which direction to go, Sentinel went forward, down the passage, which sloped somewhat. He knew that everything ran downwards towards the ocean and everything poured into the sea. 

“Everybirdy watch your assholes,” Loki said in a low hissy voice. “I have a bad feeling about this.” 

“Yes… everbirdy watch everybirdy elses’ arseholes,” Sentinel commanded, a faint Shetlands’ lilt coming into his voice. “Remember, anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice and there ain’t no dead like good and dead. You see something with tentacles, you start shooting and you don’t stop.” 



 

The sound of running water somewhere made it very difficult to hear anything. Sentinel moved ahead with Loki by his side. Loki walked in a bipedal stance with his left talons resting upon Sentinel’s back and his heavy crossbow was held in his right talons. The rest of the Raptors also walked two by two, with Brigid and Gofannon bringing up the rear. 

As the group continued down the passage, Sentinel saw an iron ponyhole cover above him. At least there were plenty of places to get out, if the need to escape was bad enough to require it. Any full sized pony coming down here would have to crawl upon their belly to get through the tunnel. 

The Raptors were quiet as they traveled down the long length of sewer together. Sentinel used his keen eyesight as well as his echolocation to see and hear what was ahead. He took several steps, stopped, scanned ahead, took several more steps, stopped, and then would scan ahead. Progress was slow and cautious. 

After about twenty minutes of walking, the group came to a three way intersection. One passage led upwards, just like the passageway behind them, and one passage led downwards. Sentinel paused and sniffed. Something smelled bad in the passage that led downwards. The sound of running water rose up to greet them. 

After a long moment of hesitation, Sentinel chose to go down. 



 

The angle of this passage was a fair bit steeper than the previous one. Sentinel walked with his head low and his ears perked. It was difficult to hear anything with the sound of running water that grew louder with each step. 

It was darker down here, and Sentinel could not see any ponyhole covers overhead. The passage beneath him was slick with slimy leaves and soggy detritus. Water trickled down the tunnel, dirty water that was thick with disgusting sediment. 

“Where are the vermin?” Loki asked in a low raspy voice. 

Sentinel froze and felt every single hair on his back stand up. They had encountered no rats. No roaches. No bugs. No mice. There was nothing down here. Nothing at all. The full weight of Loki’s words settled over Sentinel’s withers and threatened to crush him. 

“Loki is right… there’s not even any dead rats or dead roaches. This sewer is devoid of life of any sort,” Branwen said. The griffoness’ white legs were filthy and grey from her trek through the sewer. 

“Well… things are now exciting.” Loki patted Sentinel on the back and then looked back at the rest of the Raptors. “Something down here must be awful hungry. All the rats are gone. The roaches seem to have vanished. So now, whatever it is, is having to resort to snatching ponies from off the streets and dragging them down here into the depths.” 

“Oh feck everything, we’re beaked,” Gofannon said and then he let out a frustrated squawk. “When Loki says things are exciting, things are just plain beaked.” 

“We are so screwed.” Angus fluffed out and somehow managed to look more than twice his usual size. “I’ve been dragging my balls through the sewer and now I’m going to get eaten.” 

“Probably,” Loki said in a smug voice. 

“Oh, screw you, Loki, you damnable psychopath!” Angus snapped. 

“No. I have given my heart to Gormlaith and my soul belongs to Odin. My asshole is not up for grabs,” Loki replied. 

“Shut up you cat brained twits!” Sentinel commanded. Sentinel snarled and the group fell silent. He cocked his head and strained to listen, even though listening wouldn’t do him much good with the sounds of running water. “We move ahead, forward, slow and steady.” 

After a short distance, group came to a well, a large wide passage that dropped straight down. Many tunnels fed into the well, and Sentinel could see brackish water pouring from some entrances. The bottom was not visible, but was shrouded in what appeared to be impenetrable darkness. 

A nauseating stench wafted up out of the well and caused Sentinel’s nostrils to crinkle. 

“We’re going to have to fly down and begin exploring some of the other tunnels. Those of you with lights will need to light the way for the others. I have echolocation, so try not to worry about me. My kind were made to fly in caves,” Sentinel said as he peered downwards. “Stay together. That is an order. Violate that order at your own peril.” 
	
	
> Chapter 676
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The bottom of the well was filled with bones and old carcasses. Sentinel could see that many of them were pony bones, and this filled him with feelings of concern. The group stood on a service ledge that was about twenty feet above the bottom. Below them was a mass of filth, bones, trash, and other debris and water drained out somewhere below the metal grate where the filth was collected. As the Raptors stood huddled in a group together, Sentinel heard a faint beeping sound. 

“What is that sound that is going to get us killed?” Loki asked, saying what everybirdy was thinking. 

Kiara clutched at her armor, her right talons feeling around her doublet, and after a moment, she reached down inside of her armor. She pulled out a small wand like device, a short fat shaft of wood with several crystals growing off the end. The crystals flashed with each beep. There were several knobs on the handle. 

“What is that?” Callum asked. 

“Thaumaturgical something or other… I wasn’t paying attention—” 

“Kiara, you cat brain!” Sentinel barked. He bared his fangs in frustration. 

“It detects magic.” Kiara fiddled with a switch and the device went silent, but the crystals still flashed. “I’m sorry… when Violet gave me this, I was distracted by all of the other shinies, I couldn’t help it… please forgive—” 

“You are forgiven. I understand that there are some things that just can’t be helped.” Sentinel scowled and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the device. “But you still screwed up. Expect to pay for this later!” 

“There were so many pretties…” 

“Corvids!” Loki fluffed out and his crest rose. 

“This detects magic. As magic gets closer, I guess it will get louder. Or flash more. It’s flashing brighter when I point it in that direction,” Kiara said as she pointed off towards a large opening just across from them that emptied out into the well. The griffoness angled it up, then down, and then right at the entrance. The crystals flashed blue when she pointed across from where the group was situated. 

“So… we have something that will help us navigate seven hundred miles of sewer.” Flench heaved a sigh of frustration. “Great. That makes everything better.” 

“We have magical munitions and other things that we were given. Was anybirdy else given something important?” Sentinel asked. 

“I have a water breathing bomb.” Freyja patted a pocket on her doublet. “This right here will save us. I paid attention and was not distracted by shinies. If it looks like we are going to drown, if I shatter this glass ball, we’ll all be able to breathe like fish.” 

“I have several ampules of healing compounds that came from Sun Mother’s daughter,” Brigid said. 

“I wonder what will happen if we follow this thaumaturgical detector thingy. It’s flashing more. I think something magical is moving towards us.” Kiara held up the wand like device and stared at the crystals. 

“Eyes forward,” Sentinel commanded as he turned and stared at the entrance just across from them. “We need lights. Two of you, in the air and fly over there near the entrance. See if it is safe before we fly over. We’ll start investigating that tunnel.” 



 

The Raptors moved forward and the wand that Kiara carried continued to flash with greater and greater intensity. Sentinel led the way with Loki by his side, with Gofannon and Brigid bringing up the rear. This sewer passage was wider and was egg shaped. It appeared to be very old and made out of hardened clay. 

“It smells pretty bad down here… like rotten meat… but worse.” Loki, who had his left talons upon Sentinel’s back, peered ahead into the darkness. “And there are all these bones littering the tunnel. Lots of pony bones and other things. I guess when a bunch of liquid comes through here, the passage will be washed clean and all the bones will get pushed into the well that is behind us.” 

“I think you are right, Loki,” Sentinel replied as he stepped over a rather small pony skull. 

“We have incoming,” Kiara hissed in warning. 

Sentinel froze and lowered his head. Beside him, Loki brought his crossbow to bear, resting the stock against his shoulder and sighting down the length. The Raptors peered ahead, all of them straining to see beyond the light radius. 

“I have a shot!” Callum cried out as he fired. In the darkness ahead, there was a strange croaking squeak. 

“Damn, Callum, how did you see your target?” Loki asked as he peered ahead. 

“I dunno… good eyes I guess,” Callum replied. The dove like griffon twitched. “I have to keep Freyja safe. She’s all I have.” 

“Touching.” Loki’s voice dripped with sarcasm as he moved forward, his crossbow aimed downwards and ahead. In the dim light, Loki studied what Callum had shot. “What in Tartarus is this thing?” 

The rest of the Raptors moved forward and Sentinel had himself a good look. It appeared to be rat like… but not rat like. It had rat like features, but it also had scales. It had a long tail and from the middle of its back, two tentacles grew. The creature was only about a foot and a half long. 

“It’s like Gummy, Pinkie Pie’s alligator,” Callum said as he stared down at the creature. He yanked his quarrel free and shuddered in revulsion. 

Nodding, Sentinel, who said nothing, agreed with Callum. It looked like it was part rat and part alligator. With tentacles. It didn’t appear to be very big or very dangerous. A troubling thought lurked in the back of Sentinel’s mind. 

“You know, that thing right there is not big enough to snatch a foal… and the magical detector doohickey is still flashing,” Angus said in a low voice, pointing at Kiara’s wand with one extended talon finger. 

“Well, the corpse is magical, but I get your point.” Kiara held the device up. “This is one of many. We are so, so very screwed. Do you know how many eggs an alligator can lay?” 

“Eh… we have Callum. Lovey Dovey has proven himself useful. Good eyes… and look at that shot. He put his shot right into the thing’s friggin’ eye… and he did it outside of the light radius.” Loki looked down at the corpse and saw some sort of slime was oozing from the tentacles. “Do not touch the body as you pass. I don’t think you’d like it.” 

“We keep moving forward. Gofannon, mind our backsides,” Sentinel commanded. 



 

The stench grew worse. Sentinel was feeling sickened now from the malodorous funk and he couldn’t imagine how bad it must have been for the rest of the Raptors. He started to think of all the things he could have done different, like studying a map of the sewers before coming down here. Checking to see what equipment his Raptors had been given. There was a laundry list of mistakes made, and Sentinel was determined to never make these mistakes again, if possible.

Discord had once said that chaos was like herding cats. Sentinel came to the realisation, he was leading cats. Griffons were not at all like ponies. And not all griffons were like Lugus. The Raptors weren’t raised as warriors, or soldiers, all of them save one had been slaves. Loki, he was also a slave, but had been trained as a pit fighter and an assassin. Teaching them to be independent thinkers was hard, but teaching them to think together as a group was going to prove harder. Getting them to follow his method of thinking was almost an impossibility. 

The sound of running water was behind them now, and Sentinel could hear a little better. He peered ahead into the darkness as the Raptors crept forward, and Loki’s talons upon his back was reassuring, to say the least. 

“Something is coming. This thingy is getting blinky,” Kiara warned in a low whisper. 

The group halted. Loki raised his crossbow. Sentinel’s ears perked as he strained to hear the incoming danger. There were several faint muffled clicks as crossbow safeties were killed and the crossbows were made ready to fire. 

“Steady…” Sentinel’s command was said in a smooth, assured voice that held back the fear that the others were feeling and steadied trembling talons. 

There was hissing sound in the darkness in front of them, and then a whooshing sound. There was a sizzling crackle and then Sentinel felt something agonising burning through his pelt on his chest. His legs wobbled and had trouble moving. He dropped like a stone into the litter of bones in the bottom of the passageway. 

Somebirdy threw a light globe ahead; the glass tinked and plinked as it bounced off of the walls and the floor of the passage. And then, the Raptors saw it. Over a yard long, low slung, and hideous. The weird alligator rat surged forward, tentacles waving. One of the tentacles whipped and a searing blob of goo was hurled at the Raptors. 

It caught Shaquah on her shoulder; part of the ooze dribbled onto her bare and exposed foreleg. The griffoness went limp and fell down. She lay unmoving amongst the bones littering the passage. 

As all of this happened, a flurry of quarrels slammed into the lurker and it let out a pained, keening cry that echoed through the tunnels. After a moment, other keening cries could be heard. 

Already, Sentinel was recovering. He rose, growling, his legs trembling. The paralytic compounds in the acidic blob had slowed him down, but had not rendered him helpless. He flared out his wings, offering some cover for the Raptors to stay safe behind. 

Once again, it was Callum who scored the killing shot as the griffon lodged a quarrel into the creature’s eye. Several bolts had bounced off of the lurker, which had thick, scaly, armored patches over its hide. 

“See to Shaquah,” Sentinel commanded once the lurker stopped moving. He didn’t feel so good, but he ignored it. 

“She’s alive,” Branwen said as she lifted Shaquah’s head. 

“Paralytic goo,” Loki said. “Two shots. Might be one for each tentacle. If one of those tentacles touches you, could be fatal. Commander, you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Sentinel replied. He gave himself a shake and looked at the spot where the acidic goo had hit him, just below his neck, on his chest. His pelt was burned away and the skin was blistered, red, and oozing. 

“Shaquah is bad. The goo burned away her doublet and it has pitted her armor. It melted some of the steel. Her foreleg and shoulder looks really awful,” Branwen said in a worried voice. “Brigid, I need one of those ampules of changeling spit.” 

Brigid fished out a small glass vial that was sealed with wax and passed it to Branwen. Holding it up to the light, Branwen looked at the goo, saw that it glowed with a light of its own, and then with her thumb claw, she pierced the wax seal. She poured the entire ampule over Shaquah’s gruesome wound. 

“Sentinel, we should patch that up,” Grunion said, making a helpful suggestion as he pointed at the still sizzling wound on Sentinel’s chest. 

“No.” Sentinel shook his head. “I’m fine. The rest of you are far more fragile. Supplies are limited.” 

“Shaquah, are you okay?” Brigid asked in a low voice filled with concern. 

“Can’t move,” Shaquah replied in a hoarse, pained whisper. 

“Strap her on my back,” Sentinel commanded. 

“Commander, what is the plan? What are we doing now?” Gofannon asked as more keening and screeching filled the tunnels. “I think our retreat is cut off.” 

“Do we keep fighting?” Freyja asked. 

Sentinel did not reply. He tried to weigh his options as he ignored the agonising chemical burn on his chest. He had other lives to think about than just his own. He felt Shaquah’s weight settle over his spine and straps were cinched around his body, securing her in place. He felt a burning sense of shame, knowing that he had failed. He had gone into this ill prepared. The shame, the pain of failure, it hurt more than the raw flesh on his chest. 

“Be prepared to fight. Start heading back, slow and steady, we are retreating and working our way back topside. If any of us fall along the way, snatch them up and we must keep moving. No pointless heroics. We’re all getting out of this together. Either we all get out or none of us get out, do I make myself clear?” Sentinel looked at the Raptors and his ears perked as the sound of the keening drew closer. 

“Raptors, let’s go,” Gofannon said in a subdued voice as he made a gesture back in the direction they had come. “You heard the commander. No pointless heroics. Get a move on!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 677
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, a Sunflower Showers here to see you,” Violet said to Bucky in a soft voice. “She does not have an appointment, but I have listened to what she has to say and I do believe you will want to speak with her.” 

Looking up from his work, Bucky met Violet’s eyes. He saw a soft expression of urgency and Violet’s ears were perked forward. “Send her in. Let’s hear what she has to say.” 

Stepping aside, Violet Velvet made a gesture as a pale yellow earth pony mare entered the farmhouse library. Violet pointed to a seat and the pale yellow earth pony mare sat down. 

“Sir, there are matters to look after in the school. Do you need anything before I go?” Violet asked. 

“No, but thank you, Violet,” Bucky replied. As Violet departed, Bucky looked over at the earth pony waiting with a patient smile. “Miss Showers, how can I help you?” 

“Please, call me Sunflower,” the earth pony said in a somewhat shy sounding voice that was soft and without much volume. “I came to speak with you about some concerns that we, the earth ponies of Ponyville, are having.” 

“Do tell,” Bucky said. “I am your servant.” 

“I know that you are… that is why I was tasked to come to you. I was hoping that you would see reason, and that you would help us.” Sunflower’s face became troubled. “Apple Bloom’s coronation is coming. In Canterlot. Canterlot is a very expensive place to stay. The coronation tickets are going to start at two hundred and fifty silver bits and that is for standing room in the back.” Sunflower shook her head. “Add in the cost of a train to Canterlot, hotels, the cost of meals, and it becomes an impossible journey for most of the earth ponies of Ponyville. Even without the cost of a ticket to the coronation.” 

“Hmm… I see.” Bucky frowned and looked the earth pony mare in the eye. 

“We finally have an earth pony princess, but most of us earth ponies aren’t going to be able to see her getting crowned. That doesn’t seem very fair to us. And in Canterlot, the city of unicorns, no less. Many of us refuse to go there, some of us have very bad memories of things that happened there. Do you think you can help us, Prince Buckminster? You were the first member of the royal family that we earth ponies felt we could connect with, and we’re begging you for your help. We want our princess crowned in a place where we can reach her. Where we can see her. Where we aren’t crowded out by the high society types and made to feel unwelcome.” Sunflower looked at Bucky with pleading hazel green eyes. 

“I can’t make any promises, but I will see what I can do. I’ll admit, this situation seems… awful. And I am flattered that you see me as an ally,” Bucky replied. 

“You have long been our friend. Many of the earth ponies in Ponyville trust you and we all know that you look out for us when nopony else will.” Sunflower’s face split into a hopeful smile. 

“There is something I want from you in return.” Bucky raised an eyebrow. 

Looking alarmed, Sunflower’s ears fell down against the sides of her face. “We have so little, but we will give you all that we have.” 

“I need a crown fit for an earth pony princess. Not made of metal, but of wood. Something beautiful, but simple. Something elegant but not ostentatious or tacky. Do this for me, give me what I want, and I will do everything within my power to help you.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he gave the mare a shrewd look. 

Sunflower’s mouth dropped open for a moment and she stared down at the floor as she tried to take in everything Bucky had just said. She raised her head, lifted it high, and then looked Bucky in the eye. “We, the earth ponies of Ponyville, can give you what you want. Consider it done.” 

“Sunflower, I look forward to working with you. Is there anything else you need?” Bucky asked as a smile spread over his muzzle. 

“No sir, and I thank you so much for your time!” 



 

“Violet?” Bucky asked when he heard his secretary return. 

“Yes?” Violet replied as she stood in the door. 

“I do believe I have figured out the solution to the tax dilemma. I think it will be very unpopular, but it is fair.” Bucky pushed the stack of papers on the table in front of him away and then leaned back in his chair. 

“Unpopular?” Violet asked. Her eyes narrowed and she began to look concerned. “What are you planning and do I need my newspaper?” 

“I am planning an economic revolt,” Bucky replied with total honesty. 

“Tell me, out with it… the sooner I know the sooner I can begin damage control.” Violet began to tap one hoof upon the wooden floor. “Will there be rioting?” 

“Um, actually, yes, I suspect that there may in fact, be rioting,” Bucky replied in a low whisper as he reached up and rubbed his eyes with his right folded fetlock. “Violet, I am going to cease all monetary taxes upon the farmers and producers of Ponyville.” 

“YOU’RE WHAT?” Violet demanded. 

“The farmers tend to have the least amount of actual bits… and the tax upon them is downright cruel. We take their earnings… what few bits they make, and we leave them almost broke. They need bits for seed, new equipments, and to pay their bills. So… I am ceasing all monetary taxes upon the farmers. I have something else in mind.” 

Violet crossed the room, snatched up a snifter, and poured herself a glass of whiskey. She then sat down, folded her forelegs across her barrel, and she glared at Bucky. “You had better start explaining yourself. That’s all I have to say.” Violet tossed back her whiskey, grimaced, and then poured another glass. 

“Violet, the farmers produce goods. Carrots. Corn. Apples. We have families who specialise in production of valuable goods, like cheese, cider, wine, and other commodities. They have goods, but they lack bits.” Bucky took a moment to collect this thoughts and he waved his talons around. “My plan is to take some of their goods. We determine the value of carrots, we take a share of carrots that is equivalent to percentage of their total yield, a fair percentage, and then we take the carrots as tax payment instead of the bits. Now, before you say anything…” Bucky held up one talon finger in front of Violet to silence her before she could start speaking. “Before you say anything, we take these carrots, we take these cheeses, we take these casks of cider, these bushes of apples, and we have options. We can distribute them to the poor, making certain that every citizen of Ponyville eats and keeps their bellies full, or… we could also sell them at a price that is matched by the farmer’s own price into local or foreign markets. The city then collects the funds. I have ran the numbers… and I can show you that Ponyville will become the wealthiest city in Equestria if we do this. But not right away. This is a matter of long term gain versus short term. If we don’t tax the farmers, but leave them with every bit they earn, they will have more cash to spend, pumping up the local economy, grow their operations, expand their enterprise, and as the farmers become wealthy and grow their business, we get to take a proportional share of their products and their goods in taxes. Instead of getting ten casks of cider, we might get twenty. And after a decade of growth, we might get fifty or even a hundred. But the farmers keep every bit they make so that their operations can experience steady growth.” 

Violet slugged down her second glass of whiskey and scowled. “You brilliant bastard.” 

“The agricultural tax system will only be available to farmers and ponies that produce goods. I am still working on a commercial overhaul, but I have something similar in mind for small businesses that produce non edible goods. I haven’t worked out the issues in those proposals just yet, like where is the cut off is between a small business as a massive commercial enterprise.” Bucky tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling. “We’re spending a massive part of the city budget just to keep ponies from starving. If we had the means to take food from the farmers directly, and give that food to the needy, that right there would start giving us some financial solvency and stability. The way things are going are unsustainable.” 

“The wealthy are going to see this as being grossly unfair, the poor no longer paying a bit in taxes. You are going to have industrialists and capitalists howling for your blood,” Violet said in a worried voice. 

“Oh screw them. They’ve been at the top long enough. This wealth restructuring will still benefit them the most in the long term, which bothers me a great deal.” Bucky, still staring at the ceiling, scowled and bared his teeth. 

“We are going to see the rise of gentlepony farmers and land will become increasingly more valuable, as land will now directly translate into a means for farmers to make bits and a means for the Crown to generate taxable goods… in the short term this will create all kinds of trouble… but once we get past the trouble in the beginning, this is going to create a lot of new money.” Violet snatched up a second snifter, filled it with whiskey, and passed it to Bucky. 

“Wealthy farmers is the goal. Farmers feed us. They deserve fair and just compensation. They should not be at the bottom of society. With Apple Bloom’s eventual cloud farming future, we should see a rise in wealthy farmers… the amount of goods collected through taxes will mean that Equestria can theoretically feed most of the poor in the known world. Once we put an end to hunger and increase stability, the world will be a nicer place. Once the cost of feeding the poor has been lifted from worldwide governments, they can focus on growth and development. And a lot of ponies will be able to be hired to help farm. It will become a good, honest, stable source of readily available work. At least, if everything goes as planned.” Bucky took the snifter of whiskey in his telekinesis and gulped it down. “This program starts in Ponyville… eventually, I plan to have it spread to all of Equestria, once it has been shown to work.” 

“Sir, it might not be perfect, but it is a good plan.” Violet tipped back her snifter and emptied it. 

“It is better than the current plan of screwing farmers over in the worst way and leaving them perpetually in debt,” Bucky said as he set his empty glass upon the table. 



 

Picking Cadance up off the floor, Bucky gave his foal a soft squeeze. Wrapping his forelegs around her, Bucky leaned back in his chair and held Cadance close. Using the side of his talon fingers, he rubbed Cadance’s back, right between her wings, and he felt the foal go limp in his embrace. 

“I’m doing everything I can to leave the world in a better state for you,” Bucky whispered into Cadance’s ear. “Everything I do, I do it so that you will have a good future to work with. I won’t be here for it though, and I’m sorry about that. I need you to look after your brothers and your sisters for me.” 

Cadance, who had just eaten and was getting her back rubbed, belched in reply. She closed her eyes, snuggled against Bucky, and wrapped her forelegs around his neck. 

“You’re going to have to look after Apple Bloom too… while the royalty of Equestria is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, we need somepony to look after the least of our subjects. Those who cry the loudest but are seldom heard. It can be hard to hear the voices of our subjects from way up there on Canterhorn Peak.” 

Gurgling, Cadance belched once more, her eyelids fluttered, and then she yawned. 

“I wish I had more time… just for moments like this one,” Bucky whispered as he felt Cadance slip off into sleep and begin drooling. “Even just a few more years might be nice…” 
	
	
> Chapter 678
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a grunt, Loki pulled Sentinel’s limp body up out of the sewer. He dragged Sentinel away from the ponyhole, and Shaquah was still strapped to Sentinel’s back. Limping, Loki returned to the ponyhole to help his fellow Raptors out. 

“Get help!” Gofannon shouted to the ponies that stood there and stared, blinking, confused about the griffons crawling up out of the sewer. “Get help now! We need to get to a hospital!” 

Loki lifted Freyja, his long time antagonist and competition. She was limp in his grasp and for a moment, Loki feared that she wasn’t breathing. He dragged her over to where Sentinel was and laid her down upon the street. He returned to the ponyhole cover just in time to help Callum pull out Flench. 

Most of Flench’s beak was missing and the pudgy looking griffon’s breath whistled out of a horrific looking hole in his throat. Flench was now missing an eye and his crest had been burned away. 

“I can get you to the hospital!” an earth pony shouted as he pulled up with a wagon full of cabbages and rutabagas. “Get in!” 

A helpful unicorn mare came over and lifted up both Sentinel and Freyja. She placed them in the wagon, on top of cabbages and rutabagas. She then lifted Flench and set him in the wagon. The other Raptors began to climb aboard, with Loki being the last. 

Once Loki was aboard, the earth pony took off at a swift run. 



 

When Sentinel opened his eyes, he saw Lugus. Sentinel blinked a few times, confused about being in a bed, and he couldn’t remember how he had gotten here. He tried to sit up and found that he couldn’t. Nothing wanted to move. 

“Things went poorly,” Lugus said in a soft voice as he moved to Sentinel’s bedside. “Stay still. Everybirdy made it out and everybirdy is still alive… although it is still touch and go for Flench.” 

“Everything went wrong,” Sentinel said in a weak, wheezy croak. “How is Loki alive… I saw him die… I saw him ripped in half after part of him was melted… how?” 

“Loki will not die until Odin releases him from service, at Loki’s request,” Lugus replied as he reached out and touched Sentinel’s face to comfort the colt. “Loki tells me that you used yourself as a shield to save your troops. That was admirable. Many commanders would use their troops to shield themselves. You took dozens of shots all over your body. The doctors assured me that you would not live, yet here you are, already recovering. Lunar pegasi… the lot of you are impressive creatures.” 

“I messed up so badly… I messed up and my father’s griffons got hurt,” Sentinel said as he closed his eyes, unable to look at Lugus any longer.  “I made so many mistakes.” 

“Maybe. I do not know. I do not know everything that happened. I do know that you wisely chose to retreat and that it was your leadership that got everybirdy out. I do know that you made all of the right decisions when it mattered. Gofannon and Loki gave me detailed reports. Both of them mentioned that some mistakes were made.” Lugus sat down upon the floor by Sentinel’s bedside and heaved a sigh. “Not everything can always go right. Sometimes, it is how we deal with our failures, or losses, that matters. Things could have been a lot worse. There are many who might have sacrificed others to make certain they escaped.” 

Sentinel kicked and struggled to make his legs work, but all he managed to do was twitch and thrash about a bit. “I need to see that the others are okay… Lugus, help me, I can’t move!” 

“Stay still.” Lugus kept his talons off of Sentinel, there was no place left on the colt’s body where he could be touched and comforted. “Sentinel, please, stay still.” 

“I want my mama,” Sentinel whimpered as he struggled to get his legs to move. 



 

“Lugus, honey, how is Sentinel?” Yew Wood asked as she sat down beside her husband. She sat in a chair, and Lugus sat upon the floor. There were no chairs in his hospital large enough for Lugus. 

“The doctor sedated him.” Lugus slumped down and looked down at the floor. He saw Peekaboo craning her head upwards to look at him. “Everybirdy is listed as stable, even though Freyja and Flench are in intensive care.” 

“Are you okay?” Yew asked, reaching out and touching the much larger griffon with her hoof. “Lugus, there was no way that you could fit down there, so I hope you aren’t beating yourself up over this. And there was no way of knowing that it would be this bad.” 

“Why hasn’t there been a reply? We sent that telegram hours ago. What is the point of having long distance communication if no one replies?” Lugus shook his head. “What if the message didn’t make it?” 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Yew gave her husband the look. 

“I’m dealing with… all of this,” Lugus said in a faint voice that seemed far too small coming from a creature of his size and bulk. 

As Yew Wood reached out with her wing to give Lugus a hug, the whole hospital shook. The entire building shuddered, as if it had been hit by something. Ponies cried out and one nurse shouted “Earthquake!” 

Lugus, reaching down with his talons, snatched up Peekaboo and crushed her to his girth, hunching over her with his body as she squealed in terror. He glanced around, trying to figure out if the whole building was about to come down. He looked at the window and wondered if he could fit through it as a means of escape. 

“DRAGON!” a nurse shrieked as she went running down the hallway. “DRAGON!” 

Lugus turned to Yew Wood at the same time that Yew Wood was turning to look at him and speaking at the same time, they both said, “Bucky.” 



 

“WHERE IS HE?” a voice bellowed. “WHERE IS MY SON, SENTINEL?” 

Yew Wood, light on her hooves, scrambled around the corner on the slippery tile, running towards the sounds of terror. As she came around the corner, she saw Bucky, his black cloak billowing out behind him, and his horrible Taint filled eye oozed purple mist. Beside Bucky, there was a small jet black foal with a pink mane, green framed glasses, and a frightened expression. 

“Bucky!” Yew cried. “Calm down… over here… be quiet, this is a hospital!” 

As Yew Wood watched, Bucky didn’t walk towards her so much as he just drifted in her direction, his black cloak flowing and rippling around him. It made her skin crawl to look. The lights flickered and the hospital around her felt cold. Behind Bucky, Tourmaline hurried along as fast as her legs could carry her. 

“Master, I have found his location!” 

“So have I, Minion.” 

Sunset Shimmer came into view and Yew Wood heaved a sigh of relief. Sunset had a way of getting Bucky to calm down. It would make things easier. When Bucky drew near, Yew wrapped a wing around his neck, kissed his cheek, and and then pointed off in the direction of Sentinel’s room. 



 

It was unbearable to hear Bucky whimpering as he paced and Sunset Shimmer felt a sharp stabbing pain in her throat every time she heard it. She cleared her throat to get Bucky’s attention and said, “Master, the city still needs to be made safe. Sentinel is safe and recovering, but sedated. I know this is a frantic time for you, but nothing can be done for Sentinel right now. Tourmaline can do a lot to help, but somepony needs to help her keep her secret.” She watched Bucky freeze in place. 

“Yes… I am being foolish. Thank you, Minion,” Bucky said in a pained voice. 

“I am going to go clear the sewer.” Sunset Shimmer turned and headed for the door. 

“Wait! Minion, wait! Too dangerous!” Bucky whirled around and grabbed Sunset Shimmer with his telekinesis. “I won’t let you go! I already have spider golems and rotocopter golems going into the sewer.” 

“Master… I will be fine. I am far too large to fit in the sewer with this body. I plan to shapeshift into a cockatrice and petrify the lurkers.” Sunset’s hooves skidded over the tile floor as she was dragged closer to Bucky. Leaning down her head, she kissed Bucky on his nasal bridge. “Now let me go. This is a real danger to the city. I’ll be fine.” 

With a hesitant whimper, Bucky let Sunset go. “Be safe… don’t do anything stupid, Sunset.” 

“Bucky, I promise, I’ll be fine,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “There could be something down there that the golems can’t handle and we have to make certain that the ponies of Baltimare are safe.” 



 

When Sentinel awoke, his room was dark. He struggled to turn his head and his gaze fell upon a small cot beside his bed, the sort of fold out bed that hospitals kept for guests that needed to sleep somewhere. On the cot were two small bodies curled together under a blanket. He sniffed, there was the strong hospital smell, the smell of his father lingered in the air, the scent of Sunset Shimmer, there was one filly, and one changeling filly. Sentinel relaxed when he recognised the scents of Peekaboo and Tourmaline under the blanket. 

There was no point in waking them up or scaring them. 

Light flooded into the room as the door opened and Sentinel saw his father. The colt almost cried with relief, but held everything in so he wouldn’t wake Tourmaline and Peekaboo. 

“Sentinel?” Bucky’s voice was a low whisper, a ripple of velvet in the darkness. 

“Daddy…” Sentinel’s voice was a restrained coltish squeak. He watched his father come closer and he struggled to lift his forelegs. 

“Sentinel, I can’t hug you,” Bucky said in a low voice as he stood a short distance away. “There are wounds all over your body. Tourmaline ran out of spit. She’ll have more in the morning, hopefully.” 

“Was Tourmaline able to help the others?” Sentinel asked in a faint breathy voice. 

Bucky nodded. “Flench has his eye back. His beak will grow back with time. Tourmaline had trouble getting it to grow. Freyja is doing much better.” 

“I messed up and others paid for my mistakes,” Sentinel said in a groggy whisper.

“Just don’t make the same mistakes twice.” Bucky sat down in a chair by the bed and looked at his son. “You had no way of knowing what was down there. None of us did. You answered the call and you did your duty. Normally, sewer lurkers aren’t this dangerous.” 

Sentinel’s mind felt disconnected from his body and he had trouble making anything move. He blinked, swallowed once, and realised that he was thirsty. He looked up at Bucky and blinked. “Father, I need a drink.” 

“Of course,” Bucky replied as his horn flared. 

Lifting up a plastic cup, Bucky poured ice water into it from a pitcher sitting on a table by the bed. He poked a straw down into the cup and then held the cup by Sentinel’s lips. With a flick of his magic, he guided the straw into Sentinel’s mouth, and the colt began slurping down the cold, refreshing drink. 

“I’m proud of you,” Bucky whispered in the dark. 

Sentinel stopped drinking and spit out his straw. “Why? I failed.” 

Frowning, Bucky stuffed the straw back in between Sentinel’s lips. “You got everybirdy out. You ordered Gofannon, Angus, and Grunion to pick you up and continue using you as a shield to protect the others as you made your retreat. You made hard choices. And for this, I am proud of you.” 

Once more, the straw was spit out. “I saw Loki die.” 

Yet again, the straw was stuffed back in. “I know. That was probably very confusing. Loki chose a life of service. He will live for as long as he desires to keep living, such is the power of his oath. When he grows tired of life, he will ask Odin to release him and Loki will be free to die in a painless, peaceful sort of way. Perhaps in his sleep.” 

Feeling full of water, Sentinel stopped sucking on the straw, allowed it to slip from his lips, and he closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out as a slow, measured exhale. “Father, I need your help once more… water has gone in, and water must go out…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 679
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing at the edge of her bed, Bucky looked down at Shaquah and smiled. Reaching out with his talons, he touched the side of her neck, stoked it in a gentle gesture of affection, and focused on her eyes. “How are you feeling?” 

The griffoness’ crest rose a little and she squirmed, still having some trouble looking into the eyes of another. Reaching out with her good foreleg, she touched Bucky on the side of his neck, much in the same way that he was doing to her. “I am well, my king. Out of all of us that got hurt, I think I got hurt the least, but I think I was the most vulnerable to the paralytic effects.” 

“Everybirdy made it out… and for that, I am glad.” Bucky stepped away from the bed to give Shaquah a little space. 

“You’re not angry because we failed?” Shaquah asked. 

“Why would I be?” Bucky replied as he shook his head. He belched and made a sour grimace as his stomach acted up. 

“I guess I am so used to being punished for failure… I don’t know.” Shaquah sighed and her crest fell flat upon her head. “Sentinel saved us. He kept us together right up until the end. He was the only one of us not wearing armor but he used his body to shield us anyway. I don’t know how I feel about it.” 

“I think the real heroes here are all of you. You worked together. You stuck together. And you obeyed Sentinel’s commands. You worked as a group and all of you are alive to show for it,” Bucky said in a reassuring, warm voice to the griffoness. “As a regiment, the Raptors still have a long ways to go, but all of you show much promise.” 

Shaquah closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them to look at Bucky. “Do you think we’ll ever be recognised as an actual, official regiment? We failed. We did okay with the wyverns, but when it came down to a real threat, we got beaked.” 

“I think…” Bucky paused in his reply for a moment to make his stomach stop churning and he tried to swallow the foul taste lingering the back of his throat. “I think that you did better than you realise. Just give it time… and don’t give up.” 



 

Pushing his way into Sentinel’s room, Bucky saw Sunset Shimmer. She was laying on a cot, having a bit of a snuggle with Tourmaline. Sentinel was in the bed, gobbling down hospital food with reckless abandon. 

There was too much evidence that there was something somewhat off with Sentinel. 

“I was just helping Tourmaline recharge her batteries,” Sunset Shimmer said when she saw Bucky. “Cadance isn’t here and Tourmaline was feeling a little depleted. Tourmaline tells me that this is a good test of her abilities.” 

“Minion… report.” Bucky smiled at Tourmaline and then sat down in the chair beside Sentinel’s bed so that he could listen. 

“Master… well, I entered the sewer and I followed the spider golem swarms. The rotocopter golems provided valuable air support. The lurkers had moved back down to the lower levels, and it didn’t take long to get them riled up again. They came at us in force. I turned into a cockatrice, but couldn’t petrify anything, which is weird. I can turn into a dragon and get dragonbreath… Master, any idea why this is?” 

“Dragonbreath is bio-magi-logical… there are chemicals, mana, clacker organs. Petrification beams are entirely magical,” Bucky replied. “I’m still growing my clacker organs, but Twilight says they are coming along nicely.” 

“Oh… that makes sense… thank you, Master.” Sunset Shimmer bowed her head for a moment before she continued: “I had to fight against my nature and I turned myself into a small serpentine ice drake. It was supremely difficult because I am so strongly fire aligned. One of the most difficult self transmutations I’ve ever done. My drake body was utterly immune to acid attacks and paralysis and I was able to spit icicles at lurkers. Went down deep into the depths, way, way down, and found the main nest. Found a ratigator queen… she was too big to come up to the surface anymore, so her little rat alligator army was bringing her food. The golems and I killed her. She had to be over forty feet long. We smashed all the eggs and then we purged the surrounding area. The golems are still combing the sewer, crawling through places that I could not go, looking for teeny tiny hatchlings.” 

“Ugh, worrisome.” Bucky shuddered and looked over at Sentinel, who was now almost done gobbling down his breakfast tray. He rubbed his stomach and wished the pressure would go away. Stress of any sort made his new biology upset. 

“He’s gonna burp fire again… it’s awesome,” Tourmaline said and then began to giggle. 



 

His expression both stern and serious, Lugus studied the two griffons before him. He first looked over Callum, who trembled a little as Lugus looked at him, and averted his eyes down to the floor. Next, Lugus looked at Branwen, gave her a nod, and was pleased to see that Branwen returned eye contact. At least, she did for a moment. With a nervous huff, the griffoness averted her eyes and stared down at the hospital green tile floor as her wings fluttered. 

“Both of you distinguished yourselves down in the sewers. After listening to the reports of the others, I must say, I am impressed by both of you.” Lugus’ beak clicked as the big griffon leaned forward. “Callum, I dare say that you have the sharpest eyes available in our ranks. You have distinguished yourself as our messenger, but you have proven yourself as a sniper. If it was just one griffon telling me about the shots you made with a crossbow, I might not have believed them… but several tell of how you made some very difficult shots under trying conditions. For this, you have been promoted to the rank of Wing Corporal and you have earned the designation of sniper. You have proven yourself as a Raptor. It has become clear that you were never intended as a melee combatant; this is a much better role for you.” Lugus extended his wing and saluted. 

Callum, overcome with emotion, said nothing, but extended his own wing and returned the salute. His talons twitched and his claws clicked upon the floor. 

Lugus turned his attention to the albino griffoness. “Branwen, under pressure, you thought only of the health of your fellow Raptors. You managed the limited medical supplies that were available, making certain that there was enough to go around. You were even injured, as you did nothing to defend yourself as you looked after of one of your patients, and you used your own body to shield Freyja after she fell.” Lugus looked down at Branwen’s bandaged hind leg and then raised his gaze to look Branwen in the face. “For this, you are being assigned as the team’s medic and it is now your responsibility to learn how to care for your fellow Raptors. You have also earned a promotion to the rank of Wing Corporal for your actions.” Once more, Lugus raised his wing in salute. 

With a soft, surprised squawk, Branwen returned the salute. “I will throw myself into my duties, sir. I will not let you down.” 

“Both of you… pay attention and listen to what I have to say,” Lugus said in a somewhat gruff, serious voice. “Neither one of you have shown much in the way of combat prowess. Callum, you are as dovelike as your appearance. Branwen, you lived a soft, spoiled, pampered life as a pet. But it was both of you that have proven yourself as Raptors. There is more to war and combat than fighting, and I want both of you to think about why you were promoted and the value that both of you have to your fellow Raptors. Sometimes, those who seem like the least of us are the most valuable because of their skills, because of what they have to offer. Both of you have distinguished yourselves in combat, enough so that I am impressed. Now that you have shown yourselves as being capable, I will be expecting a whole lot more from you. Both of you are dismissed.” 

“Sir, thank you, sir,” Callum said in a low gritty voice as he lifted his head and looked Lugus in the eye. “I will do everything I can to stop the danger before it reaches my teammates.” 

“Come on Callum, let’s go get a cup of coffee,” Branwen said as she patted Callum on the back with her wing. 



 

“Oh my gosh… you are such an adorable little pegasus… I could just cuddle-wuddle your feathers right off!” 

Hearing giggles, Bucky looked up from the newspaper he was reading and glanced at Sunset Shimmer, who was waving Peekaboo around in her magic. Sentinel was watching and smiling. Yew Wood was sitting in a chair in the other corner of the room and clapping her front hooves together. In the bed, lying beside Sentinel, Tourmaline gave a snort but did not wake. 

Bucky’s eyes returned to his paper, where he read about the need for environmentalism, responsibility, and the monsters living down in the sewers below Baltimare. A lot of ponies had a lot to say about the subject, and everypony seemed to be pointing hooves at everypony else, with the blame being leveled at several large, local companies. 

The most hated local culprit seemed to be the manufacturers of the self cooking instant dinner for bachelors and bachelorettes. The dinner was kept in your freezer until you wanted to eat it. To heat it, all one had to do was slam it down upon the counter, where a small alchemical packet would get activated, produce immense heat, and cook the dinner in its foil container. 

As it turned out, the company had a long laundry list of problems; employee abuse, poor wages, unsafe working conditions, questionable food safety practices, there was all manner of horrible in the paper, but one thing was missing. 

Something that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were guilty. 

For Bucky, the pharmaceutical companies were far more suspect; they had some dangerous compounds and the large, powerful companies produced far more toxic waste than a small time food production outfit. 

A very paranoid thought passed through Bucky’s mind. What if the pharmaceutical companies were paying the reporters to stir up blame and create a scapegoat so that they might go unnoticed? Bucky scowled and rumpled his newspaper. It was now a troubling paranoid thought that wouldn’t go away, and Bucky didn’t like how reasonable it seemed the more he thought about it. 

Conspiracy theories were important; he had been learning the fine art of creating a conspiracy from Luna. Conspiracy theories usually held a grain of truth to them, somewhere, but the deluge of false details and foo were so overwhelming that any message of truth was lost in the bovine excrement being shoveled into the story. Anypony that talked about the story was labeled as a crack pot. It kept ponies with dangerous opinions from having any sort of meaningful credibility and was how the Lunar Court maintained the many secrets and shadowy aspects of the Crown. Carefully woven conspiracy theories, a little mind control, and the surgical application of dream magic were how certain situations were managed and kept under wraps. 

Like the Black Cloaks, who had remained a rumour for so long and were still almost all rumour and myth. They were now acknowledged, Twilight Sparkle wanted the group to be known to the public, believing that fear would keep certain ponies in line. So now, the Black Cloaks existed, but nopony knew what they did for certain. It was all wild speculation, rumours, stories, carefully created urban legends manufactured by Luna, urban legends that were spun by dimwits, and ignorant blathering conspiracy theorists who took all of the foo regarding the Black Cloaks and spun it into a magnificent yarn that was almost all categorically untrue. 

Bucky was bothered by Twilight Sparkle’s position that fear would keep undesirable elements in line. Fear had not stopped the cultists or the more dangerous elements of society. 

Fear didn’t keep certain ponies in line… vanishing kept certain ponies in line. 

“Peekaboo… I’m gonna huggle-wuggle the blue right off of your adorable little body-wody!” 

Sighing, Bucky ignored his apprentice and kept reading his paper. 
	
> Chapter 680
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking at her bandaged brother, Dinky felt both very happy and very sad. She held off her sniffles as she looked into Sentinel's eyes, and she wondered how it was possible to feel such a strong sense of happiness while you felt such bone aching sadness at the same time. 

“You look like a mummy in a museum.” Dinky gave her brother a sad smile and saw him smile in return, which made her feel better. “So, I saved this box you left and I didn’t touch it, so that way I could open it up when you came home.” 

“Oh just open it Dinky,” Diamond Tiara said in a frustrated voice. “I’m dying to know what my sweet, hairy Sentinel put in the box.” 

“Yeah, open the box, you noodle brain.” Piña gestured towards the box with her hoof. 

“I’m really glad that you came home.” Dinky heaved a sigh and wanted to throw herself at her brother for a hug, but she resisted. Doing so would hurt him. “When daddy got the message… I think daddy lost a marble or three. It was scary. He made a funny sound and he got really panicked.” 

Lifting the box in her telekinesis, Dinky pulled it closer to where she was sitting beside Sentinel’s bed, on the floor. She broke the twine and began pulling the lid off of the box. It took a little wiggle, but Dinky was careful. She poked her head inside, her horn flashed, and she pulled out one of the hats that was sealed inside of a moth proof bag. 

“Be careful,” Sentinel said in warning. 

Nodding, Dinky pulled open the bag, careful, without tearing it, and pulled out the hat she found inside. It was beautiful. Dinky felt tears welling up and nothing she did could make them go away. The embroidered twining ivy circled the cap and the bumblebees were similar to her own cutie mark. The soft, deep purple velvet was full of fuzzy tickles as Dinky touched it with the fleshy pad of her snoot to get a feel for it. She plopped it down upon her head. 

“It’s a little big, but it still looks good. You’ll grow into it,” Diamond Tiara said. Reaching out with her hoof, she nudged Dinky’s hat and pushed it off to a rakish angle. 

“It looks incredible. Now that’s a wizard’s hat. Perfect for Dinky the Bumblemancer.” Piña gave an enthusiastic nod as she studied the hat. 

“Sentinel, this is a perfect gift, thank you,” Dinky said. She stood up on her hind legs, braced her front hooves on Sentinel’s bed, leaned over, and kissed Sentinel on his cheek. 

“I just thought you deserved a reward for helping Apple Bloom. You did so much. I know Apple Bloom thanked you, but I wanted to thank you as well… just for being you.” Sentinel looked at Piña. “I haven’t forgotten about you. I just don’t know what to get yet.” 

“Hey, what about me?” Diamond Tiara asked. “The organiser.” 

“Oh, not to worry, I have plans for you…” 



 

The lake was smooth and perfect. The ice was now several feet thick and cleared of snow. Sparkler, who shivered but not because of the cold, used her magic to lace ice skates to her hooves as she also worked to secure ice skates on others. 

Loch Skimmer, whose flames seemed to have gone out for a while, giggled as she reached out and used her wing to tickle Bittersweet; the donkey looked dubious about this whole adventure and the tickle made the donkey let out a near silent giggle. 

“Hey, Sparky, you be careful on that sore leg of yours,” Rising Star said in a concerned voice as he strapped on his own skates. “I know you say it is okay, but… you just be careful.” 

“I’m worried about my Raptors.” Ripple stared off at the carriage house in the distance, her expression pained. “I know I was told that they are going to be okay, and I’m glad to see them, but Flench and Freyja are still pretty messed up.” 

“They’re fine.” Rising Star stuck out his neck and kissed Ripple in the corner of her mouth. “They just need rest and recovery. Flench will regrow his beak in time and everything will be okay. You were shooed out of there and told to do something fun.” 

“I know… I’m still having some trouble obsessing over things important to me,” Ripple said. “I’m sorry. ”

Every member of Ripple’s herd went still and silent when they heard Ripple’s admission. An obsessed Ripple was a dangerous Ripple. Bittersweet, sensing that something was off, turned her head around and studied Ripple with wide, worried eyes. 

“Um, Ripple, love, thank you for being honest with us. That’s the sort of communication we need if we’re going to make things work.” Rising Star lifted his head. “Did I say this right? This feels so weird...I can’t even remember what this is called, this thing we’re supposed to be doing.” 

Sparkler shrugged as she cinched her laces. 

“I’m gonna fall on my arse.” Loch Skimmer looked at the ice and then looked at Sparkler. “Aren’t you scared, after you fell through?” 

“Scared?” Sparkler blinked. “I killed a greater demon and I got hit by a train. There are worse things than falling through the ice. Plus, I got piledrived right through the floor by Ripple. That was actually scary.” 

“I’m sorry!” Ripple closed her eyes and shook her head. 

“Best thing that’s happened to me. Made me see some sense. Got me motivated to get my life back in order and make a few changes. Made me see what’s important.” Sparkler grabbed Ripple, pulled her closer, and planted a firm, sloppy kiss on Ripple’s lips. “Like you. You’re one of my best friends and a pony that I love a whole bunch.” 

His skates now on, Rising Star wobbled out onto the ice, kicking and scrabbling as he tried to keep his balance. He started to slide forward and he leaned into the direction he was skating. Losing his balance, Rising Star slipped, stumbled and flipped over, landing on his back. 

There was a faint wheezing as Bittersweet's silent braying came spilling out as the donkey laughed in the only way that she could. She lifted up an ice skate covered hoof and threw back her head as her body was overcome by mirth. 

Loch Skimmer wobbled out on the ice, slipping and sliding over to Rising Star, and then she dropped her head. She had a wicked grin upon her muzzle. She pressed her icy cold snoot down into Rising Star’s groin and blew a raspberry against his balls. 

“OH NO!” Rising Star cried as he used his telekinesis to shove Loch Skimmer away. He sent her sliding backwards and he could hear ringing laughter in his ears. 

“That’s for knocking me up, ya creep,” Loch Skimmer said as she flapped her wings to keep her balance. 

Watching her sister, Ripple also tried flapping her wings. In no time at all, she went streaking off, moving at quite a clip over the ice, her movement smooth and certain. 

“How does she do that?” Sparkler asked as she watched Ripple, who was now halfway across the lake. “I mean, anything that’s physical… she’s a natural at it. It isn’t fair.” 

“Just the way it is for her,” Rising Star replied as he tried to get up on his hooves. 

Flapping her wings, Loch Skimmer tried to keep her legs from going in four different directions. She pushed and braced with her hind legs, flapped a bit more, and then began to slide forward in a haphazard way. 

A moment later, Sparkler went shooting past and Loch Skimmer grunted in frustration. 

“Hey Bittersweet,” Rising Star said, even though he knew the donkey could not hear him. He reached out with his magic to steady her, and Bittersweet wobbled around on the ice. He saw her eyes meet his own and Rising Star mouthed the words, “I love you.” 

The donkey blushed. 

“Oh feck everything.” Loch Skimmer stood still and pointed at Ripple. 

Looking up, Sparkler came to a halt as she watched Ripple skating on her front legs. Her hind legs were held up in the air, and Ripple was tearing around the ice on just her front skates. “Oh come on… that’s just showing off!” 

“How does she do that?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“I just asked that question,” Sparkler replied. 

As the others watched, Ripple lept, twisted in the air, spun around, landed on her front skates, spun around on the ice, and then went streaking off in a charcoal grey blur with her light blue mane and tail streaking out behind her. She did a flip, somersaulting through the air, landed on her hind hooves, and then pushed off to keep going.

“She could have been anything… a dancer, an ice skater, a ballerina… I don’t know how she moves the way she does.” Rising Star watched as Ripple continued to do her thing. 

“I gotta be honest… as part of our goal to be honest with one another… sometimes, I am jealous of my sister. I mean, look at that… it’s just not fair…” 



 

Luna stood beside Erebus as he wobbled. She gave him a nudge to straighten him out and then stepped away so her colt could balance on his own. She watched as his stunted wings fluttered to allow him to keep his balance. 

“Mama.” Erebus said as he took a step closer towards Luna. “Mama small.” 

“Yes, mama is small. Because she wanted to play with you.” Luna smiled and took a step backwards, and then took another. 

“Cadance! Cadance, come back here! You don’t have a diaper!” Berry Punch cried as she took off after Cadance, who giggled as she made her escape. “Don’t run! You’ll only make this worse! Cadance!” 

Heaving a sigh, Luna looked at Erebus. “One day, you will run from me I suppose.” 

Erebus took off at a clumsy run, wobbled, and then slammed into Luna, bowling her over. The pair tumbled down to the floor together, and Luna’s head thunked into the wooden floor as she tried to shield Erebus from the worst of the fall. 

“For now you are content to run at me.” Luna let out a moan and wrapped her small forelegs around Erebus’ neck. She lifted her head and kissed Erebus on the snoot. Afterwards, she gave him a shove to get him back up on his hooves, and it took all of her strength to do so. 

As Luna clambered up to her hooves, she was slammed by a pink blur, which sent her sprawling once more. She tumbled down to the floor and bonked her chin upon the wooden floorboards, causing her teeth to snap together. 

“Cadance!” Berry cried out in frustration. 

“Did a train just hit me?” Luna asked as Berry Punch chased after Cadance, who was blowing a raspberry. Luna did not remember there being stars in the nursery, but she could see them now. 

Confused, Erebus sat down upon the floor and whimpered. 

“Cadance, mama is too fat to run and I just ate an entire platter of cornbread and several bowls of beans… Cadance…” Huffing and puffing, Berry Punch gave up and sat down. “When Bucky gets back… he can deal with you.” 

Rising up, Luna shook herself, wiggled her backside to limber up, and then took off after Cadance. Cadance, seeing Luna coming right at her, squealed and took off running again. Luna lept, tackled Cadance, and alicorn on alicorn violence took place in the nursery. 

Luna discovered that Cadance was far stronger than she realised. There was a dreadful moment of realisation when Luna reached the conclusion that Cadance, a much smaller alicorn foal, was stronger than she was. 

The tables turned as Cadance tried to wrestle Luna down. Luna had size, but it didn’t seem to be helping as the snuggle-huggle-fight-fest continued. Giggling, laughing, Cadance got her forelegs around Luna’s neck and squeezed. 

Struggling, Luna tried to get away from Cadance. Cadance, who was enjoying herself a great deal, stuck her tongue into Luna’s ear and gave it a wiggle. Cadance got her lips around Luna’s ear and gave it a good slobbering. 

“UUUGH! Cadance!” Luna cried as she tried to wiggle free. “You fight like my sister!” 

Berry Punch watched as the two alicorns battled for supremacy and she began to laugh, clutching her belly and throwing back her head. “Oh no… it hurts to laugh… I gotta get these foals out soon… hahahahahaha!” 
	
> Chapter 681
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The pegasus of exceptional size, Storm Blitz, paced back and forth in the room, waiting. Tonight was going to be the night. The night that everything changed. Tonight, rebirth would happen. Storm Blitz would go into a room as one creature, and come out as another. 

But he had a few worries. 

“My large friend, be calm,” Mask said in a low reassuring voice. “Everything will be fine. Fever Cure turned out okay, Deus is better than he has ever been, and Moonie has recovered to become his usual erudite and well spoken self after having a dog moment. You have nothing to worry about.” 

“I’m not worried about that.” The voice that came out of Storm Blitz didn’t belong to a pegasus of his mass and size. It was small, quiet, and soft. 

“Then perhaps you should talk to me. I have become your friend, have I not?” Mask looked at the big pegasus with a calm, almost sleepy looking expression. 

Storm Blitz looked at Mask, his expression troubled. The corner of his mouth trembled and the hulking pegasus gazed at the much smaller unicorn. “Ponies just assume that I feel bad about what I did. Bucky was the first and only pony to commend me for what I did. And that confuses me. I must confess, it troubles me that he found my actions commendable. I don’t know how to feel about it.” 

The unicorn blinked. “It concerns you that you found a like minded spirit?” 

“I dunno. I don’t feel bad about what I did… don’t get me wrong, but I know I did something pretty awful and I guess it bothers me that there is another pony that thinks that what I did was a good thing,” Storm Blitz replied. 

“Bucky is not like other ponies. I only know a little, but I would imagine his experiences have coloured his perception of justice.” Mask paused and looked up at his large friend. “Just what did you do anyway? I mean, I have a general idea. I know there was some violence… but what happened?” 

Storm Blitz hunched over. “There was a rape.” 

“I know that.” Mask nodded. 

“A group of my fellow cadets went out for a night of rest and relaxation. I don’t know everything that happened, but there was a rape. She was a teenage filly… but she looked a lot younger. I saw her. I saw her and her messed up face at the trial and it broke my heart. They kicked the stuffing out of her because she bit one of them. She bit his dick when he stuffed it in her mouth. After that, it became rape and revenge.” Storm Blitz fell silent. 

“They would not release the details of what happened to the public. Said that it was too disturbing.” Mask closed his eyes and shook his head. After a moment, he looked at Storm Blitz. 

“What was disturbing, and what the public doesn’t know, is that every single one of the cadets involved got what amounts to a wing slap. There was all this talk about ‘colts will be colts’ and that this whole thing wouldn’t have happened if the filly hadn’t snuck into that nightclub and she was asking for it and she got what she wanted… each one of the cadets got off light.” Storm Blitz was trembling now and the sounds of his feathers ruffling filled the room. 

“It happens. It’s awful, and it happens.” Mask began to pace back and forth, his eyes never leaving Storm Blitz. 

The big pegasus trembled and his barrel began to heave. “I decided that there was no justice in the world except for the justice we make for ourselves. If the Command was not going to punish them, I figured that somepony was going to have to make sure they suffered.” 

“So… you acted as a vigilante?” Mask asked. 

“I waited for just the right moment… and when I had the right opportunity, I started beating them. All of them. I broke their legs so they couldn’t get away. I kicked them, I crushed them, a few of them had their spines crushed. I shattered their pelvises. A couple of them suffered ruptured testicles. I beat them, and I beat them, and I kept beating them, I beat them until they were all unrecognisable piles of meat and bone… but there was one thing I didn’t do…”

“And what was that?” Mask’s eyes were sad and his expression was mournful. 

“I didn’t kill them. I beat each and every one of them to within an inch of their death, right up to the point where my precog sense told me that they were going to die if I kept going. I took their lives away from them. I took away everything they had, just like what they took away from her. And then I turned myself in. Command said that what I did to my fellow guard was monstrous. I told them that what they did to the public trust was worse than anything I did. I got court martialed, tossed out of the guard, and wound up in prison. Word had it that they wanted to execute me for what I did. I ended up here.” 

“Sounds as though you belong here,” Mask said in unwavering, self assured, and steady voice. “If it is any consolation at all, I think you did the right thing. Sometimes, justice is not the banging of a judge’s gavel, but the meaty thump of a pony being beaten. If there is a spirit of justice, I do believe that it used you as an instrument of its will.” 

A writhing mass of black shadow coalesced and took form. “Sometimes the justice that comes out of the darkness and shadow is the most meaningful form of justice available.”

“Lord of Winter… how do you do?” Mask bowed his head. 

Storm Blitz stood silent, watching as Bucky materialised, his eyes narrowed and his expression blank. The big pegasus glanced at Mask, then back at Bucky. 

“I heard the two of you talking when I was outside the door. Interesting conversation. Very interesting. So… how would you two like to bring a little more justice into the world?” Bucky asked. 

“I would like that a great deal,” Mask replied. The unicorn looked up at his pegasus companion. “Ready?” 

The pegasus nodded, but said nothing in reply. 



 

The big pegasus almost seemed shy as he moved onto the platform and stood beside the smaller unicorn. His wings fluttered; he was careful not to bump into Mask and disturb him. He took a deep breath and took a look around, but had no idea what anything around him was. Crystals, conduits, cables, crystalline fibres, large machines, and there was a control booth that kept Twilight Sparkle safe. As he looked around, his eyes lingered upon Luna. 

“This doesn’t hurt in the slightest. Every single subject so far has reported that it is quite pleasurable… so you have nothing to worry about.” Twilight’s voice crackled over the intercom and she smiled from inside the booth. 

“Wait, I have a question,” Storm Blitz asked. 

“Speak,” Luna replied in an excited fillyish squeak. 

“What comes after? I mean, the war will end someday, right? What becomes of us?” Storm Blitz looked down at Luna, his expression filled with worry. “That is, assuming we survive.” 

“That depends on you.” Bucky looked up from where he was sitting. “The world will always need protectors. Warriors. Defenders. Even if it is not mirror travelers, there will always be something that threatens peace. But there are options. Luna is working on long term conditioning that she says will allow reintegration back into society. She uses it on her Myrmidons and it allows them a somewhat peaceful life when they retire. Killers face troubled futures. This is the burden we bear.” 

“I just had to know that there was something beyond the war… thank you.” Storm Blitz bowed his head. “I’m ready.” 

“Commence transformation!” Luna cried. 

The room went dark as Twilight Sparkle threw the switch. 



 

With each thrum of the machinery, Storm Blitz seemed to increase in mass, growing bulkier and bulkier. Static electricity danced along his wings, his mane, and his tail. He closed his eyes, shook his head for a moment, and when he opened his eyes once more, they were slitted. 

Beside Storm Blitz, Mask underwent the change. The unicorn’s legs lengthened a bit, making him taller, but he did not gain bulk or mass. His tan pelt darkened, becoming sootier in appearance. His horn lengthened somewhat, also becoming thicker and wider at the base. 

“Picking up some weird readings from Storm Blitz,” Twilight said over the intercom. 

“Bad readings?” Luna asked. 

“I dunno… spikes of electrical power… he’s building up quite a charge. I dunno if it is bad, but if he discharges, it could be dangerous,” Twilight replied. 

Luna, her face filled with concerned, looked over at Bucky and then back at Storm Blitz. She could see the electrical arcs coursing over his pelt. She could feel the static in the air. The scent of ozone was strong. 

“Kill the power,” Luna commanded. 

With a whirring thrum, the machinery went silent. 



 

“I didn’t want to do it, but I placed Storm Blitz in the observation wing,” Twilight Sparkle said to Luna in a low voice. “He’s being drained and the electricity is being channeled away safely. I’m not sure what is going on, but he’s become highly electrical.” 

“How is Mask?” Luna asked, looking concerned. 

“He’s fine. Eating,” Twilight replied. “Luna, I have received troubling reports from your Lunar Guard about Baltimare. Is this a good time to talk?” 

“As good a time as any,” Luna replied. 

“I suspect that something is up with the pharmaceutical companies in Baltimare. One in particular. The dreams of some of the ponies that work there are troubling. We’ve been focusing on them after the sewer lurker incident. One of the high level researchers keeps dreaming about changelings.” Twilight Sparkle scowled and her face looked troubled. 

“Oh my… that is troubling.” Luna blinked and sat back in her chair. 

“Should I go pay them a visit?” Bucky asked. 

“No, not yet,” Twilight replied. She sat up straighter and folded her front hooves together. “Going to keep investigating their dreams and gather as much information as possible. Once I know more, I’m thinking about sending Fever Cure to do a bit of spying. He’s a medical doctor, he knows a great deal about pharmacology, and I do believe that he might be able to slip in unnoticed.” 

“Unnoticed?” Luna’s face split into a half smile. “Why unnoticed?” 

“I don’t want them destroying evidence if they get wind of an investigation. I know they’re up to something, the dream network suggests illicit activity, and it is my desire to catch them in the act.” Twilight leaned forward and looked at Luna, then Bucky. “If it becomes necessary, Bucky, I will send you to infiltrate, but I think this might be a good test of Fever Cure’s abilities. Now that Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks are back, they can get in on the investigation too.” 

“Abduction?” Bucky asked, his talons drumming upon the table. 

“If we have a good target that we know for certain knows stuff, we’ll snatch him, take everything he has, and mind wipe him of the experience before sending him back to work.” Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “I’m tired of investigating and working and slaving away to make society better and getting nothing in return. This time, I am getting results. We need to prove guilt and get as much dirt as possible on everypony implicit in these crimes. I intend to come down hard on everypony involved if I can. I want to do as much damage to the corporate structure as possible to set an example.” 

“I’ll assemble the best infiltrators we have and have them monitor the dream network. Who is our suspect?” Bucky asked. 

“Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “They pride themselves on public safety and proclaim themselves the guardians of good public health.” 

“Let me guess… formerly owned by House Avarice?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes. Through House Bitters, actually.” Twilight Sparkle flashed Bucky a wry grin. “They make the most successful Shivers medication available, a number of mood altering drugs, psychiatric medicines, and have highly successful product lines that are both alchemical and chemical. There are a shocking amount of ponies that want nothing to do with alchemical medicines and prefer a chemical non-magical approach to medicine. I was surprised at learning this.” 

“Bucky, I want you to stay out of this. This is too close to home for you. Am I clear?” Luna leveled her stare at Bucky and waited for his reply. 

“Yes… I understand.” Bucky bowed his head. 

Turning to look at Twilight Sparkle, Luna said, “Uncover every secret. Leave no metaphorical stone unturned. Collect as much evidence as possible. If we are going to trim away corruption, we need to attack the root, otherwise it will grow back. Be very careful with your investigations.” 

“Yes, of course… I understand how important all of this is.” Twilight nodded her head and her expression became serious. “This is how we begin the process of real change… I know what is at stake here.” 

“Manere in tenebris,” Bucky said, raising his hoof up in salute. 

“Ex umbra in solem,” Twilight replied. 

“Both of you have come such a long way… I feel so proud.” Luna smiled and looked contented. “I am ready to go home. I miss Erebus. Are we done for the night?” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 682
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was the one thing that Bucky feared more than just about anything else; coming home to a commotion. There were wagons parked in the snow, two of them, there were several ponies milling about the dark hours before the dawn, and Bucky was almost overcome with panic. 

He opened up the door of the sky carriage while it was still flying and lept out, causing both Luna and Twilight Sparkle to cry out in alarm. Halfway between the carriage and solid earth, Bucky dropped into shadow and a black mass floated down to the ground, unharmed. His black cloak settled around his body and he began to take in the situation. 

A body was being carried out of the house. Bucky felt a growing sensation of terror. He stood in the snow, struggling to breathe, feeling very small and helpless at the moment. He watched as the body was laid down into the back of a buckboard wagon and covered with a tarp. 

Barley, whose joints were stiff, hobbled up to Bucky with a sad expression, reached out, and touched Bucky on his cloak covered shoulder with his hoof. “Aye lad… try not to get too worked up. Door went off on the big sleep. While he was sleeping. Apparently, Broom was having a nightmare and she called out for her brother, and he did not answer. Poor lass… she seems to be taking well though. She hasn’t shed a tear.” 

“Door died? But he was… he was…” Bucky’s voice trailed off into nothingness. “Door had a lot wrong with him. I didn’t think it was this bad.” 

“Poor lad had his brain stirred with a stick. No telling what else they did to him.” Barley’s face settled into a grim frown. “Yonder griffons will take it hard.” 

Bucky saw them, sitting on the edge of the wagon. More were coming, the sounds of wings fluttering in the night were all around. Bucky could hear little peeps, soft sounds of griffon sorrow, he could hear it all around him and the sound made his soul ache. Griffons peeped for a lot of reasons, and Bucky was learning to understand each peep. These peeps were of sorrow, of grief, and of loss. Each peep was a mournful sound. 

“You there, all of you… go with him on his last ride,” Bucky said to the griffons who had landed upon the wagon. “Guard him on his final journey and then come home.” 



 

The house was quiet in a strange way now and Bucky felt out of sorts. Broom had just gone back to bed, and she had said very little other than complaining that she was tired. Others had gone back to bed as well, some were awake in the kitchen, and Bucky sitting in the living room with Dinky beside him. 

“I don’t understand,” Dinky said in a raspy voice as she sniffled and snuffled back tears. “Door wasn’t that old. How does this happen? Barley is so much older, but he’s still alive.” 

Bucky drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and collected his thoughts, hoping he could answer this. He opened his eyes, cleared his throat, and looked Dinky in the eye. “Age is more than just a number. Door had a lot of health problems. Door lived a very hard life, didn’t eat very well, and some very bad things were done to him. His years were robbed from him by cruelty.” 

Shuddering, Dinky’s eyes dropped, unable to meet the gaze of her father. “But here, he was eating well. He was happy. He had a soft bed and everything he loved. Why didn’t he recover? Why didn’t he get better? Why?” 

“While all of that was a comfort, it wasn’t enough to save him, Dinky.” Bucky shook his head. “He experienced things that aged him. No amount of comfort, no amount of good living could reverse that. It isn’t fair, but that’s how life is.” 

“How could Broom just go to bed after losing her brother?” Dinky asked. 

“We all deal with death in our own way. I suspect that Broom is relieved that her brother is no longer suffering. I don’t know. I suppose you should ask her when she wakes up, but do so gently, Dinky Doo,” Bucky replied. 

“Barley had a hard life too… he’s told me stories… I wonder how long he has…” 

“I don’t know, Dinky. Life is funny like that. Some ponies… some ponies live a long life no matter what life throws at them, like Granny Smith.” Bucky dropped his head and gave Dinky a kiss on the her nose. 

“That’s why they came here, isn’t it?” Dinky asked in a low whisper. “To live out whatever days they had left and be happy?” 

“Yes Dinky. They came here to live, and laugh, and dance, and sing,” Bucky replied. 

Dinky closed her eyes and leaned against her father. She yawned, smacked her lips, and then yawned again. Her father smelled like a thunderstorm, the strange smell of rain and ozone. Resting her head against Bucky’s side, Dinky felt her body going limp as she relaxed. 

Quite without meaning to do so, Dinky slipped off into slumber. 



 

Outside, there was freezing rain, which coated everything in a layer of ice. It was cold, damp, and miserable. Inside, a few ponies felt the cold and the damp in a keen manner. In particular, Derpy, Broom, and Barley felt it in their bones; the cold and the damp made their joints ache like a rotten tooth. For these three, the living room was pleasant and warm. For everypony else, the living room was a sweltering furnace filled with unbearable heat. The fire was stoked and extra wood had been thrown on the grate. The front room now resembled an oven more than anything else.

Barley sat near the fire, wearing a thick robe and wrapped in a blanket. Beside him, the table next to his chair, a hot toddy steamed in a tall mug.  A soft felted flat cap was on Barley’s head, keeping him and his ears warm. The old stallion smelled of camphor and the strong medicinal smell of his joint balm. 

Derpy lay on one of the couches, wrapped in a blanket, and wearing a long turtle necked sweater that had been knitted by Berry Punch. Her eyes were glazed over from her medication and one ear hung limp. 

Broom sat in a high backed chair, staring into the fire. She too was wearing a sweater, also knitted by Berry Punch, and her lower half was covered in a thick, heavy, tartan blanket. A sad smile was upon her lips and her eyes had a faraway look as she gazed into the fire. She sipped a whiskey sour as the occasional tear slid down her cheek. 

“Broom, lass, do you need another drink?” Barley asked in a low, sleepy sounding voice. 

“Not at the moment,” Broom replied. “Thank you for asking though.” 

“You holding up okay?” Barley took a sip of his hot toddy as he waited for answer. 

“Me brother is dead. I don’t know what to say. I’m relieved more than anything. I’m glad that he died happy, in his sleep, in a kind place. His final days were damn good ones.” Broom lifted her foreleg and wiped at her eyes with her fetlock. “All me hopes and dreams and all that.” 

“Yer brother was well loved by the griffons.” Barley held his hot toddy up near his nose and inhaled the vapours, trying to get the ache out of his lungs. “He was always willing to offer help with his magic.” 

“I’m just glad that he died here. I would have been happy if he had died on the Isle o’ Groats, too. Anyplace was better than the Shire Isles.” Broom’s face darkened and she looked at Derpy. “Lady Hooves, I am most gracious that you made us welcome in your home.” 

Snorting, Derpy pulled herself from her half doze, closed her bad eye, and peered at Broom with her good eye. “I’ve been very happy to have you.” Derpy cleared her throat, yawned, and then opened her closed eye. 

“All me days, I never saw this coming. He was so lively just the day before. He was happy. He played with wee Cadance and kept sneaking Sukari cookies.” Broom shook her head, sniffled, and then her smile widened. “We had us a hard life, but at least we were together. I’m grateful for that. We endured together. How do I get along without him now that he’s gone?” 

“I dinnae know, lass… life is all about finding ways and means.” Barley lifted his mug in salute, then put it to his lips and guzzled down its contents. 



 

Moving around the forge, Rising Star was glad to be working again. A second gyrocopter was being constructed, this one a mere skeletal frame with no body. This one promised to be unique, as it would fly without magic of any kind. 

“Stupid fiddly bits!” Spanner grunted as he pulled on a wrench, trying to loosen a bolt. 

“This diesel engine is fascinating. The saw that it was a part of made for a terrible weapon, but this little motor is going to change our world. I can see so many potential inventions being powered by something like this,” Scorch said. The big fire elemental shifted into a massive minotaur and lifted the engine in one hand. “For every weapon of war we make with this engine, I expect two peaceful developments to be made to clear our consciences. Am I clear?” 

Looking up from his work, Lugnut nodded his head. “I’m already working on a new tractor design. It’s just on paper for now, but I think I could mate that engine to one of the gearboxes from a steam powered tractor to give it all kinds of improved power and torque.” 

“Good.” Scorch smiled. 

“Spanner has an idea that the diesel motor could be used to power a generator to make electricity. A small motor powering the generator could be used to power big electric turbines, like the ones on airships. Spanner seems to think that you could power up a train, but I don’t know.” Lugnut dropped his head and returned to his work. 

Reaching up with his massive hand, Scorch began to rub his chin. 

“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” Rising Star said as a curious look appeared upon his face. “I wonder if we could do that? The electric turbines produce so much more power than the steam engines we have, but getting the electricity is the problem. Having a stormcloud generator on the ground is risky because of sabotage or accidental dispelling. But if we had a means to generate electricity, we could have some powerful and fast trains.” 

“This is an idea worth looking into.” Scorch nodded as he spoke. “I want a working scale prototype made… high priority. Being able to move materials from one coast to another is a wartime priority. I want a scaled down model made as soon as possible.” 

“You heard what he said… everybirdy, Princess Celestia is depending on us to secure the future of Equestria in this workshop. We don’t want to disappoint the Sun Mother,” Rising Star said in a loud, booming voice that carried over the mechanical cacophony of the forge. 

“I’ll get Heifer Aestus to help us as well. My previous apprentice will likely have much to say,” Scorch said as he shifted into a pegasus pony. “That is if I can pull her away from her students.” 

“If you can’t pull her away from her students, then get her students involved.” Rising Star levitated a steel support strut into place on the gyrocopter frame and then began to bolt it into place with magic. “I can’t think of a better way to get students interested in our craft than to tell them that the hard work they do might one day save Equestria and perhaps all of the world.” 

Nodding, Scorch grinned. “I think I’ll do that.” 
	
	
> Chapter 683
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	This house was interesting. The ponies and the griffons living inside of it were even more interesting. The griffons made her nervous, but she couldn’t quite remember why, there was just a stinging pain sometimes when she looked at them. More and more, she was having trouble remembering the other place, the place with pain all of the time. 

Losing this memory troubled her, because with it, she was losing baba. The baba that had been like her. He was but a distant fuzzy memory now, and she had to work very hard to remember him. What she remembered most was that he had been eaten; she had watched it happen, and she didn’t want to remember that. It hurt too much. 

Now, she even tried to avoid thinking about this memory, the details of her baba grew fainter and fainter, and now, she could not remember his voice. She could not remember his smell. She was losing him, even the memory of him, and she felt troubled. 

Feeling pained, feeling real hurt and not knowing what to do, she left her hiding place beneath the stairs, the place she shared with her much larger protector, the pony called Sentinel. Sentinel was kind and he was quiet. She slipped out of the place beneath the stairs, crept down the hall, keeping her hooves silent, and made her way into the back bedroom, where she knew he would be. 

Other baba. She peered around once she had stepped through the doorway. She saw him, asleep in the big bed, another safe place. There was nopony else back here. The grey mare was in the front room, roasting by the fire. That room was too hot. 

With a bounding leap, she made her way up onto the bed and hurried to other baba’s side. He was sleeping. She considered her actions for a moment, he never got upset if woken up and she needed him. She took his ear between her teeth, her action gentle, she had hurt him with her teeth once; she would never do that again, and she gave a tug on his ear, a few yanks to get his attention. 

She was rewarded with a snort. 

“Sukari?” 

“Baba.” 

“You look sad. Stop looking sad. I don’t like it.” 

Without warning, Sukari found herself snatched. She felt the panic, the panic and the fear were always there, and she yelped without meaning to do so. She tumbled down and was held in place by baba’s forelegs. She felt the reassuring weight of his chin resting upon her. 

She was being used as a pillow. This is not what she had in mind, but baba did odd things like use her as a pillow. This wasn’t so bad. She curled up, sighed, and made herself comfortable. 

“My poor sad little zebra. What’s troubling you?” Bucky asked. 

The sound of his voice was soothing. She could listen to him talk all day. His voice was kind and it smoothed out the rough, painful places in her mind. Lifting her head, she rubbed her muzzle against the soft side of his face and the feeling of his jaw resting upon her ribs made her feel tingles all over, warm fuzzy feelings that she associated with security and safety. 

“Sad dream.” She did not know how to put everything into words to express what she was feeling, the fear she had, what she worried about, the summary of her troubles. It was a dream to her, every day it seemed a little less real. She rubbed her cheek against against baba’s with vigorous affection. 

“Now now, we can’t have you having sad dreams.” Baba yawned, his body tensed, and then he yawned once more. “I’m a sleepy pony. Now, you close your eyes, and we’ll have a snooze together, and you’ll have nice dreams. Derpy is right. Foals make for the best pillows.” 

Angling her head around, she kissed baba on the cheek. It was something that these weird ponies did to one another often. She couldn’t remember what life was like before, but there had been no kissing. Baba’s head was warm and heavy upon her side. She was laying between his front legs. She yawned, feeling sleepy for some inexplicable reason, and rested her head upon baba’s left front foreleg. 

“Keep us safe,” she said as she closed her eyes. 



 

Feeling nervous, Apple Bloom cleared her throat and looked around the room, meeting each eye. She sat down, scratched her still new cutie mark with a front hoof, and then cleared her throat once more. 

“I’ve called together an emergency meeting of The League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies during the weekend because we need to talk about a few issues. I need your help. And Equestria needs your help. And I, uh, well, we need to talk about it,” Apple Bloom said in her most confident voice. 

“We have some new earth ponies,” Lance said as he held back a chuckle. 

“This goes beyond earth ponies. I’ve brought together the League and a few of my friends. Bucky said I need ponies that I trust. So I’ve brought all of you together. Bucky says that I will need to form, a… uh… um… a Court. I think that’s what he said. I want to get a start on that right now. I’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of me that I can’t do alone.” 

“A court needs a knight,” Dinky said. 

“Yeah it does.” Archer’s head bobbed in agreement. 

“We don’t have a knight.” Apple Bloom frowned. “We’re just getting started.” 

“We can get a knight. I happen to know one.” Diamond Tiara grinned. “He’s not a knight yet, but make no mistake, he will be.” 

“Sentinel?” Apple Bloom asked, looking thoughtful. She saw Diamond Tiara nod. “Send him an invitation. Make it look important so he understands this isn’t a game.” 

“You’re really being serious about this?” Larch folded his front hooves together on the desk in front of him. 

Nodding, Apple Bloom looked Larch in the eye. “If you join me now, I promise you I will keep you with me for as long as I live. Bucky and I talked for a long time, and I need ponies I can trust. He warned me about leeches, hangers on, and ponies that will want to take advantage of me because I’m young.” 

Her ledger open, Diamond Tiara’s automated pen began to write everything down. “Apple Bloom, we’re gonna need a diplomat to the griffons. We have both the Hippogriff Solar Commonwealth Republic and the Hippogriff Lunar Commonwealth Republic.” 

“I take it you have an idea already?” Apple Bloom looked at Diamond Tiara and waited for a reply. 

“Boadicea. I know from inside information that she is being schooled in diplomatic arts and negotiation. Lugus has high expectations of her, wants her to be the spokesbirdy of the Raptors someday,” Diamond Tiara replied as her automated pen continued to write everything down in smooth, flowing strokes. 

“Get on that,” Apple Bloom said in a now more confident voice. “I want to get to the first emergency that we need to deal with. Blood.” Apple Bloom looked around the room. “Blood is needed. Blood and plasma. Something to do with the sickness going around overseas. Everybody has their permission slips signed I hope. We can donate twice a week, and we’re gonna do it. And when we go, we’re going to try and get as many ponies as we can to come with us. If they’re scared of needles, you remind them that y’all are foals and you’re going. Get your sisters, your brothers, your parents, your school mates, just try to get one pony to come along with you.” 

“I’ll work on getting fliers printed,” Spike offered, his claws drumming upon his desk. 

“Thank you, Spike,” Diamond Tiara said as she gave the dragon a smile. 

“Yes, thank you, Spike.” Apple Bloom tapped her hooves together. “Second order of business. I have a coronation coming up. And I ain’t going to Canterlot. Ain’t no how, ain’t no way, and I know that Bucky is already trying to help me. But I need your help too. We need to get ponies interested here in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle lives here in Ponyville and she was crowned in Canterlot. Bucky also lives in Ponyville, but he was crowned in Canterlot. We, the ponies of Ponyville, we deserve to have a coronation right here where we live and where we work. It’s winter, so we need an indoors place large enough to hold a fair number of ponies. We’ll need access to a kitchen so there is food. And of course, we need ponies.” 

“There was something else you wanted to do, Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice to Apple Bloom. 

“I know… but I don’t know about that. I don’t want ponies to feel left out if they can’t do it,” Apple Bloom replied. 

“I guess I never got the memo.” Babs looked over at Diamond Tiara, then at Apple Bloom, and then she grinned. “Sure, leave your cousin and your best friend out in the cold.” 

“I never meant to do that Babs… I only told Diamond Tiara because I knew she would be honest with me even if it meant hurting my feelings. I’m still not certain about the idea.” Apple Bloom lifted up her right front hoof and made a circular gesture as she thought about what to say. “I want to charge money for the coronation, but I don’t want to keep the money. I want to collect funds so that we can do community improvement projects. I don’t want to collect a lot of money, or charge a lot of bits to get in… more like a donation, but I’m scared that ponies will get the wrong idea or think that I’ve become greedy now that I’m a princess and I’m so scared because everypony is watching me and the newspapers are writing stories and I’m being judged by ponies I don’t even know and ponies who have never even met me.” 

“Yikes… this is why I try to avoid reading newspapers.” Babs’ face looked as though she was chewing on lemons. “Tell you what Bloomy… you let Larch, Piña, and I deal with the fundraising. We’ll make it clear that a donation isn’t required to get in the door, but that it is appreciated and every bit collected will be returned to the community.” 

“You’ll do that for me?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“For you, cousin, I’ll do anything,” Babs replied in a thick accent. 

“I’ll help too,” Dinky said. 

“I’ll get my sister and Coco to help.” Sweetie Belle’s voice pealed through the room, an excited squeak that could be contained no longer. “Coco is really good about fundraising. She’s really soft and gentle and something about how she is makes ponies trust her and do everything she says.” 

“Better idea… have Rarity organise a fabulous after party for the well to do of Ponyville so she and Coco can shmooze bits out of them. With the wealthier ponies, it will become a competition to see who can give more, especially if they are at a party,” Scootaloo said. 

Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped open. “That’s a really good idea, Scoots!” 

“Yeah, but you are going to have to go and mingle at the party… I mean, the snooty snoots of Ponyville will want to feel special and have you all to themselves.” Scootaloo scowled and her wings fluttered. “Might send the wrong message to the poor ponies of Ponyville.” 

“I know what we can do,” Diamond Tiara said in a breathless voice, her eyes wide with fillyish excitement. “We can combine the school gala that we have coming up with Apple Bloom’s coronation! The big cafeteria and auditorium room is large enough to hold a lot of ponies, the school’s kitchens can be used to feed everypony, and we can have a big bash!” 

“That’s… that’s a really good idea.” Apple Bloom rose up on all four hooves and began to prance in place. “That is the most fantastic idea ever!” 

“Hey, that is a good idea,” Rumble replied. “It means I only have to get dressed up once!” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 684
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Storm Blitz seems to have returned to mostly normal, other than being obscenely large,” the doctor reported in a dull sounding bored monotone. “We thought things were going to be exciting, but his electrical generation has calmed down. We suspect that if he gets angry though, or suffers strong emotion, that he will start emitting static discharges.” 

“Also, his caloric intake was frightening. He ate almost ten thousand calories worth of cultured bean curd and processed textured vegetable protein. An hour later, he ate thirty hard boiled eggs at seventy eight calories each. Afterwards, he complained about feeling empty,” a second doctor said as he stood shaking his head in disbelief. 

“To say this had an effect upon his pegasus digestive tract and flatulence would be an understatement,” the first doctor said as he made a face of disgust. “We’re having to install new biological filters in the ventilation system to compensate.” 

“How goes the conditioning?” Bucky asked in a low voice. He glanced at Twilight Sparkle and then at Luna, who were sitting on either side of him. 

“When presented with the illusion of a foal being in danger, those who have been altered suffer heightened responses in a number of systems. The adrenal response is terrifying, Moonless Night, as an example, goes off the charts. We’re still studying and trying to determine exactly what happens, but the response seems to be a violent frenzy towards whatever is threatening the foal. The desire to protect is strong. Perhaps too strong. We’re intentionally making something capable of extreme violence on a scale most unimaginable have psychotic instability if presented with various stimuli,” the first doctor replied. 

“Deus headbutted a six inch thick reinforced steel plate during his simulation. We had to replace the plate. It crumpled like foil from the impact of his head and his horns,” the second doctor said. 

There was a gasp from Luna, whose jaw dropped. 

“Um, Princess Luna, you wanted us to create monsters, and we have.” The first doctor cleared his throat and then he gave his colleague a nervous glance. “But well controlled monsters. They respond well to cries of help. The conditioned empathy is coming along well.” 

“They are so far kind and receptive to all forms of young, prioritising them in a crisis along with pregnant females of all species, exactly as Prince Buckminster has demanded.” The second doctor tapped his front hooves together and his eyebrows knitted together.

“Other than the increased food consumption being well beyond our expectations, all seems to be going well,” the first doctor said with a nervous smile. 

“I am actually feeling both confident and relieved about all of this.” Twilight Sparkle leaned forward over the table and she looked at Luna, then Bucky. “Let’s keep up with the positive results… we’re doing good work here, I never thought I’d say that.” 

“Also, watch out for Mask. He’s already figured out the changeling magic aspect… and he is full of unicorn mischief. You have been warned,” the second doctor said in quavering, nervous voice. 



 

Black Briar hobbled around on three legs in the waiting room, pacing back and forth, going from corner to corner so he could get the most distance. He moved rather well on three legs, two front legs and one rear. The pudgy earth pony was smiling, but it was a nervous smile. 

Draped over a chair, looking languid, almost lazy, Rainy Sky Tainy filed the claws on her front paws, her eyelids looked heavy, almost sleepy, and her tail twitched upon occasion. She had her mouth open and her tongue was licking her teeth, helping to keep them clean and white. 

“How can you be so calm?” Black Briar asked in a breathless, worried voice. 

“Who said anything about being calm?” Rainy Sky Tainy replied, looking up at the chubby earth pony. “If you could read feline body language, you’d know that I’m going out of my mind right now.” 

The earth pony paused and stared at the unusual by any standards hippogriff. “Huh.” 

“I’m not all that scared… just… nervous and apprehensive. I want to know what the change will be like. Moonie changed so much, but he's still the same in a strange way. He just became more dog like.” Rainy Sky Tainy shook her head. “Poor thing, he couldn’t help himself and he just had to chase me. Of course, I had to run… and it was all in good fun. It seems as though the transformation process draws upon the strongest aspects of your character and enhances them. Makes them better. More pronounced. And I want to see how I change, because I think I know my strongest parts, but I don’t know for certain. What if I am not the hippogriff I think I am? What if I turn out to be something I didn’t expect?” 

“You… you bring up some excellent points,” Black Briar replied. 

There was a knock upon the door and then it opened. “Are both of you ready?” Twilight Sparkle stuck her head through the door and smiled. 



 

“We’re powered up and ready to go,” Twilight Sparkle said over the intercom. “You feeling okay Bucky?” 

Rubbing his face, Bucky replied, “Just a little itchy. Some of the first scales are breaking through the skin and it kinda hurts.” 

“Well stop picking at them, before you make yourself bleed again.” Luna shook her head in annoyance. “Are both of you ready? Feeling confident?” 

Together, both Black Briar and Rainy Sky Tainy nodded and then they exchanged a glance with one another, but remained in silence. 

“Ready?” Twilight asked, her voice crackling somewhat over the intercom. 

“Hit it,” Luna replied. 

The room went dark and the now familiar hum of machinery filled Bucky’s ears. He felt a tingling buzz in his horn, it produced a pleasant vibration through his skull, and he could feel it in all of the scales growing beneath his skin. It felt good. 

Black Briar, who was sitting on the floor, lifted his head as an eldritch green glow formed around his body. His hooves glowed the brightest. His eyes closed and he began to hum, his head bobbing, and a pleasant smile appeared upon his muzzle. Whatever seemed to be happening, there seemed to be no external, outward signs of change. 

Yowling, Rainy Sky Tainy arched her back, her pelt standing out in all directions, and her feathers fluffed out, making her look much larger than she was. Writhing tendrils of black shadow crawled over her skin. Her muzzle elongated, she shook her head as it happened, but did not appear to be pain, and when she opened her mouth, her teeth had grown larger. 

“It tickles!” Black Briar called out as his whole body jiggled from his laughter. He clutched his stomach with his left foreleg and little giggle-snorts escaped his nostrils. “It tickles all over!” 

Lifting her front paw, shadows coalesced around Rainy Sky Tainy’s toes. The shadows solidified, her stubby claws grew in length, half a foot long curved claws stretched from her toes and she stared at them in wide eyed awe. The shadow claws vanished, wisping away like smoke, and the hippogriff waved her paw in front of her face. 

A moment later, the half a foot long, curved claws reappeared, then vanished once more. 

Black Briar’s head jerked back and the earth pony let out a startled cry. His skin seemed to bubble, it rippled and moved. His neck thickened, and his shoulders began to widen. His three legs, which gained no length, became stockier, thicker, and new muscles twitched with growth. His pudgy body took on more mass, becoming both more muscular and a bit more rotund. 

It looked as though a cannonball had grown muscles. 

“I do believe we have optimal saturation,” Twilight Sparkle said over the intercom. “Luna, should I hit the kill switch?” 

Princess Luna did not reply right away. She watched as Black Briar continued to grow in mass and bulk, little by little, his mass increasing. After a full minute, she turned at looked at Twilight in the control booth. “Turn it off,” Luna commanded. 

The thrumming vibration in the room died down and the room went dark. 



 

Laying on her side, Luna yawned and made a foalish sound of exhaustion. She shook her head, blinked a few times, and looked over at Twilight, who seemed to be in a good mood about something. Bucky seemed distracted as he flipped through a progress report. Luna noticed that Bucky seemed to be using his talons more and more, and his telekinesis less and less. Something about this bothered her, but she couldn’t say what it was. 

“Now we begin working on other test subjects. A number of the Raptors have volunteered and I am interested in seeing how the change will alter them,” Twilight Sparkle said as she wrote something down in a notebook. “In time, Ripple might go through the change as well.” 

“Not for a long time,” Bucky replied as he lifted his head to look at Twilight. “As her parent, I have final say in this issue. The last thing we need is a greatly enhanced Ripple having an episode. It’s bad enough when I have an episode… or you have an episode.” 

“I’ll admit, I’ve been a little emotional lately, and I know why,” Twilight Sparkle said as she smiled a secretive smile. The alicorn sighed and then her smile faded, her expression became somewhat troubled. 

“Twilight?” Luna turned her gaze upon Twilight and one eyebrow raised. 

“I’m with foal. I haven’t told Rainbow Dash or Flash Sentry yet. I don’t know how to tell them after I made such a big deal about how important my work was and how we had to manage our time as a valuable resource… and so many other things were said.” Twilight’s head dropped and she looked down at the table. She sighed again and her wings fluttered. “I think I know when it happened too. While I was on vacation with Princess Celestia, there was one night when Flash, Rainbow and I… we had a very special and very romantic time together. There was dancing, and drinking, and everything was perfect in every way… and it was all very magical…” 

“That’s why every time I look at you I keep thinking there is something different about you!” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “You were pregnant when we fought the demon.” Bucky’s voice was a pained whisper as he peered at Twilight Sparkle. 

“We’re so careful… I use contraception spells. Several of them.” Twilight shook her head and then she smiled again. “There was this great moment where all three of us connected. It was spontaneous and beautiful I wasn’t thinking about if everypony was getting their fair share of time with one another or if everything was well managed… we went at it like animals. Very drunk animals. It was the single most wonderful moment of my life because I let go completely.” 

Luna’s ears perked forwards “You need to tell them, Twilight.” 

“I’m so scared of looking like a hypocrite.” Twilight was still smiling, but her eyes were now watering, glazing over with tears. “I made such a big deal about being responsible and family planning, and how we had to be fair to the foals and the baby dragon that we already have, and be attentive to their needs, and balance our own needs and after everything was said and done, it was Rainbow Dash that agreed to expand our family as part of a first, cautious, careful step forward so we could test the waters.” 

“It’s okay to be a hypocrite. Berry Punch does it all the time and I don’t love her any less,” Bucky said in a perfect deadpan. 

Snorting, Luna whipped her head around to look at Bucky. “To say nothing of your own hypocrisy—” 

“Or yours,” Bucky said, cutting Luna off before she could finish. 

Glowering, Luna glared daggers at Bucky and the sounds of her teeth grinding filled the room. Her ears splayed out sideways after a moment and she turned to look at Twilight Sparkle. “This is good and happy news. You need to tell them.” 

“But if I do that, I’ll have to admit my own—” 

“Oh stuff it, Twilight.” Bucky lifted his talons and made a dismissive gesture. “They’ll both be so happy about the news that you are going to be fat with foal that they won’t even think about all of the stuff you’re obsessing about. The only one worried about that is you.” 

Twilight Sparkle’s lips quivered as she welled up with tears. 

“No crying!” Bucky slipped out of his chair, walked over to Twilight, nosed her, and then sat down in the chair beside her. He patted her on the side and gave her a lopsided grin. “This is a happy time. Just stop being Twilight Sparkle for a while and let all of this go. Just… be happy about this. Go home and smooch both Flashie and Dashie, tell them the good news, and maybe make plans to go to dinner or something. Or send your foals out of the house so the three of your can celebrate together by shagging each other to death. You can’t get pregnant twice. Make the most of this time of never having to worry.” 

“I feel so emotional right now.” Twilight Sparkle smiled once more but her eyes were still flooded with tears. “Think we can wrap up early? I want to go home and be with my family. I have something I need to tell them…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 685
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the heated, enclosed carriage banked towards the general direction of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting with a worried look upon her face, looked over at Bucky and said, “Can you come home with me and be there while I break the news?” 

“Are you going to wake them up this late?” Bucky asked. 

Luna shrugged. “Or this early. They might still be awake. It is only around two in the morning. We did quit rather early.” 

“They might be up for the time between sleeps.” Twilight reached up and rubbed the side of her jaw with the edge of her hoof. “I sort of got them practicing first and second sleeps by accident. They wanted to spend more time with me when I started doing it.” 

“Do the foals wake up?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight sighed and then replied, “Sometimes.” 

Turning his head, Bucky looked out the carriage window at the lights of Ponyville as Luna pulled up the small wooden shutter that allowed for communication with the lunar pegasi pulling the covered  carriage. 

“Ponyville library first!” Luna shouted to the lunar pegasi pulling the carriage, her voice amplified with magic by the communications portal so it could be better heard outside. She shut the wooden shutter to keep the cold out. 

The carriage made a sharp turn and then leveled out. Bucky turned away from the window and looked over at Twilight Sparkle once more. “I’m very happy for you. I’m also scared, because you go into danger regularly, so if I seem distant, it is because I’m trying not to freak out.” 

“I’ll admit, I’m scared too.” Twilight’s hoof moved down and rubbed her belly. “I was not prepared for this. I didn’t have time to make plans and organise every detail of this pregnancy. This just sort of happened. I’m happy about it, but I am also scared out of my mind.” 

“We are almost there. Both of you at least try to look happy.” Luna smiled and made a gesture with her hoof. “Everything will be fine.” 



 

Pushing open the door, Twilight Sparkle stepped inside. Inside of the library, in the main room, a quilt had been spread on the floor. Rainbow Dash was sprawled out on her belly and Flash Sentry was busy working over her spine, rubbing, popping, and realigning each vertebra as he worked from Rainbow Dash’s croup up to her neck. 

It was something that Twilight Sparkle loved to have done to her after a long day. Flash was good at it, gifted even, he could take almost any crick in the back and work it out if given enough time. But he refused to reveal where he had learned his art. 

“Hi Twi… Bucky… teeny tiny Princess Luna,” Rainbow Dash said in greeting. Something in her spine popped and her eyes rolled back into her head. The mare moaned, stuffed her right front hoof into her mouth, bit down, and then banged on the floor through the quilt with her other front hoof.

Grunting, Flash Sentry continued to press down with his hoof, right between Rainbow Dash’s wings, there were several loud pops, a crackle, an even louder pop, and then a sound like a bunch of celery being twisted and broken. Rainbow cried out around her hoof in her mouth, banged upon the floor with the other, and then with a whinny, she went limp on the floor after a gruesome sounding crackle. 

“Did you just paralyse that poor mare?” Luna asked, her eyes wide with horror. Beside her, Bucky stood there, statuesque and unmoving. 

“No,” Twilight replied before Flash could. “Rainbow does stupid stuff while flying. It leaves her spine all messed up. Flash is really good at putting stuff back.” 

“I love this mare too much to paralyse her,” Flash Sentry said as he lowered his head. He kissed Rainbow Dash upon her nasal bridge and then stepped over her to greet Twilight. There was a snoot bump, followed by a swift peck upon the lips. “And I love this mare too… she’s kinda special.” 

“I guess everypony is asleep?” Twilight asked as she lifted her head and brought herself up to her full height. “Look, I have something I want to tell both of you.” 

“That you’re an egghead?” Flash Sentry replied as he took a step backwards. 

“Ha ha… you’re almost as funny as Applejack—” 

“Ouch, that’s cold,” Flash Sentry said, interrupting Twilight and shaking his head. 

“Flash Sentry… Rainbow Dash… do you remember that night while we were on vacation?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she glanced over at Luna and Bucky, looking for silent support. 

“Which one… the night when Rainbow Dash ate all of that weird fruit from the market in Tradewinds and had the squirts or the night we all got drunk and—” 

“The night we got drunk, you silly stallion!” Twilight Sparkle tossed her head around and snorted as Rainbow Dash let out a weak sounding chuckle. 

“Oh yeah… that night… when Twilight Sparkle used that spell from that book that Princess Celestia gave her and both of you screwed me senseless.” Rainbow Dash tried to lift her head and couldn’t. 

A very sheepish grin spread over Twilight’s face and she looked over at Bucky and Luna, who both had raised eyebrows. She dropped her head and her ears splayed out sideways. “Um, yeah, that happened.” 

“I was the middle of a two stallion sandwich.” Rainbow Dash’s wings fluttered and she closed her eyes. “We did crazy things that night.” 

“Dash!” Twilight cried out in a nervous voice. 

“Seems as though Twilight Sparkle has developed a little kink,” Bucky said in a low, rumbling baritone. 

“Look, none of this is helping me! I’m having a really hard time trying to say what needs to be said! I’m really emotional and while all of this is kinda funny, it is also really, really embarrassing because I still feel awkward about it even though I know that nothing is inherently wrong or bad if everything is consensual, but I still feel really out of sorts about the whole thing because I haven’t gone through my list and sorted out my sexuality… and I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” 

Eyes wide, Flash Sentry nodded. 

“Look, I’m pregnant. I know I said a lot of things about how important it was to plan everything and I know that I’ve messed up and—umphulumphle!”

“Shut up,” Flash Sentry said as he stuffed his hoof into Twilight’s mouth. “I am going to pull my hoof out and you are going to repeat what you just said with no more than three words.” 

On the floor, Rainbow Dash struggled to lift her head and her wings flopped at her sides. 

When Flash Sentry pulled his hoof out, Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath. 

“I mean it, no more than three words, or it is the hoof again,” Flash warned. 

Grunting, Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. “I am with foal,” she said in defiance, using four words. She backed up a step and looked at Flash. 

Sniffling, Rainbow Dash flailed on the floor, unable to get up or move. “Twilight… that’s wonderful news… now we can do this together!” 

Twilight’s eyes narrowed “But—” 

“No buts!” Flash Sentry said, cutting Twilight off. “No apologies, no buts, no berating yourself… I don’t want this moment ruined.” Flash stepped forward, got into Twilight Sparkle’s personal space, wrapped his wings around her neck, and hauled her down for a kiss. The kiss, which started out as a peck, intensified and became something else. 

“It is time for us to go,” Luna said. “Oh my, look at the time.” 

Twilight Sparkle let out a whinny and her tail began twitching as the kiss turned into something resembling two cannibalistic ponies trying to devour each other’s faces. 

“Hey! Hey!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Hey! Selfish needy pegasus feeling left out over here!” 

“We should be going,” Bucky said. “Best of luck to all of you.” 



 

“That went well.” 

Luna, listening to Bucky’s words, nodded. 

“It’s nice to see them happy.” 

Once more, Luna nodded. 

“Now if we could just get you happy…” 

Flashing a coy smile, Luna turned her head and looked out the window. She giggled, a fillyish sound, and her wings fluttered at her sides. “Oh, I have a plan to be happy.” 

“Do you?” Bucky asked. 

“I do.” 

“Well, do tell then.” 

Luna’s teal eyes locked onto Bucky’s mismatched grey and weird purple-blue eyes. “I have asked Twilight Sparkle for a little help. I had a crazy plan to ask Barley to that dance that you are having at your school.” Luna took a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the shocked look upon Bucky’s face. “Twilight Sparkle has agreed to use a little age magic on Barley, to turn him into a colt for the dance, so we can both be about the same age and have fun together.” 

Bucky felt the corners of his mouth turning upwards, almost as if by magic. 

“Barley agreed and he’s looking forward to having a night together as foals.” Luna turned away from Bucky and looked out the window once more. She heaved a lovesick sigh, tapped her front hooves together, and then her expression became one of nervousness. 

“Luna?” Bucky asked, seeing the change. 

The night blue alicorn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then, turning her head towards Bucky, she opened her eyes. “Bucky… I’m tired of making the same mistakes over and over again in my impossibly long life. Being young once more has changed my points of view. I have my mind, my memories, but a pony is more than just a mind and memories… a pony is also physical, and the brain must make connections. The brain is a collection of neurons, a network that develops over time, shaped by our growth, our development, our experiences in life, and I am aware that mine is being altered right now, even as we speak. Each connection is a new way for me to look at life, or to experience something new… I am not the pony I was once was.” 

Bucky blinked and looked at Luna, not understand everything she was saying, but trying to take it all in nonetheless. 

“What I do now, what I feel now, what I experience now, all of that will shape how I am for as long as this current incarnation of my body exists. When I came back the first time, when Twilight freed me from the nightmare, I was but a foal… and I was kept locked away from everypony and everything, so I could collect my thoughts and grow and become myself. My sister was busy. So very busy. Those were momentous times.” Luna shook her head. “I developed in lonesome times. It shaped me, shaped who I became, turned me into what I was. I was a mare out of time, out of place, out of touch, and I made no connections with the ponies around me as I grew. I think it made me cold, distant, and unlikeable.” 

“Oh.” Bucky’s voice was a faint gasp. 

“I have since read a lot about brain development. We know so much more now. Each experience makes a neural connection that affects who and what we are. You, for example, are more than just the sum of your memories… you are a collection of neural pathways in the brain, each one formed from something that happened in your life.” Luna paused, blinked, and then tapped her front hooves together a few times once more. “I am not the pony I was. I feel different now. I feel a lot more remorse than I did. I have memories that plague me, cause me pain, memories I am not happy about… being around you, your family, being around Barley, it has affected my development. Changed my perceptions. I feel my emotions quite keenly now.” 

“I see,” Bucky said, feeling uncertain about what to say or how to acknowledge Luna. 

“It is my intention to ask Barley to marry me at the dance. I expect quite a scandal. I expect a lot of angry shouting between my sister and myself. Things might get bad. I do not want to jeapordise your relationship with my sister, so I must ask you to stay out of it if possible.” Luna shook her head. “I want to be a better collection of connections. I want this cycle of growth and development to go better than the last one. I have grown to hate the pony that I was.” 

“Oh my goodness…” Bucky did not know what else to say. He felt the carriage lurch as it came in for a landing. 

“Bucky, I mean it, your relationship with my sister means more to me than my own feelings… you are to do nothing that might damage your standing with my sister. Please, I am begging you, I do not want that upon my conscience… I cannot bear the thought of knowing that I drove a wedge between you and her. She loves you so much, in her own confused and somewhat muddled way. Her own connections are faulty and well over a thousand years out of date I think. I do not know what to do for her, but I intend to make the most of my rebirth.” 

Sitting on the cushioned bench in the carriage, Bucky gave Luna a blank slack jawed stare as the full weight of her words settled into his mind. 

“Would you please fix me tea when we get inside?” Luna asked in a soft fillyish voice, giving Bucky a hopeful look. “I think I need a cup of tea…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 686
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bucky stepped out of the carriage, he was greeted by Scorch, who appeared to have been waiting. Bucky stepped down into the snow with a crunch and Scorch, who was in a large, hulking bipedal form, grabbed Luna as she came out. Luna squealed as Scorch cradled her in his arms. 

The carriage, pulled by lunar pegasi, took off once more, and Bucky watched it go, being pulled off into the night sky as the lunar pegasi returned to Canterlot. After a moment, he returned his attention to Scorch, who was hugging Luna and kissing her on each cheek, and Luna who was returning Scorch’s affections. 

The pair had a long history; Bucky knew this, he was one of the few that was privileged with this information. Scorch had taken care of Celestia, he had been her nanny, and there had been many occasions that he had been the primary caretaker of Luna as well. 

“Bucky, I have some information for you… from my guest,” Scorch said in a voice that held a great deal of amusement. “More information is coming, I assure you, but this is what he spilled after a few… gentle… introductions from my associates.” 

The words had Bucky’s attention. His gaze locked onto Scorch and Bucky stared upwards. “I’m listening.” 

“First things first. Sombra is your most readily available form to immortality if you ascend. Absorbing him will put an end to that pesky mortality that would get in the way of your plans. It would also change how you operate, allowing you to draw strength from a lot more than hatred and conflict. Other things would be added to your divine portfolio, primarily, negative emotions would give you power and strength. If Sombra’s remains were destroyed, it would put an end your readily available means of ascension to an immortal form. Others would be available, but those would be a bit trickier and a bit more difficult to come by, with varying degrees of success.” 

Luna, wide eyed, looked down at Bucky from Scorch’s arms. She saw fear. Her heart felt a pang. She resolved that Sombra’s remnants needed to go, and soon. 

Scorch began radiating heat to keep both Luna and Bucky warm. The snow began to melt around him as he leaned down his head once more and kissed Luna just behind her ear. “The odd crystal unicorn shaped by necromancy is not alone. There are others like him. He was the one responsible for plaguing Canterlot and Ponyville. There is another in Vanhoover, one in Baltimare, one in Fillydelphia, and there are others who roam the world.” 

“So they are crystal ponies?” Bucky asked. 

“Sort of," Scorch replied, almost shrugging while still holding Luna. “But they hold none of the crystal ponies inherent harmony or goodness. They magnify negativity, disharmony, they are like a focusing crystal built specifically for necromancy. They are powerful. Their bodies are remade with alchemy and necromancy. He’s almost a lich, only instead of a phylactery, a part of his essence went into Sombra’s fell shadow, giving them a weird connection that we haven’t worked out yet. I can tell you this… you will not be able to kill these abominations until you put down Sombra’s shadow for good, at least I don’t think. I mean, it might be possible, but it would be difficult. Killing Sombra’s shadow should kill these pseudo-liches outright. I think.” 

“Oh bother,” Luna said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. 

“Sombra is getting closer to full revival. Should he revive, he will continue with his old plan for domination. He still views you and your sister Celestia as being the greatest threat to himself and he will try to cast you into the moon and the sun in an attempt to restore them to what they once were when they moved under their own power. He will also come for our little Buckminster here, with the hopes that Bucky will ascend if he’s provoked enough. Sombra’s shadow figures a few gruesomely murdered foals should be enough to push Bucky right over the edge, and then Sombra’s essence can be absorbed. Should this happen, I can safely say, the world will be, by and large, screwed.” 

“So why not just find out where he is right now and put an end to him?” Bucky asked. 

“Not that simple,” Luna replied, opening her eyes. “Curses are complicated things. Celestia could go north right now, we suspect that we know where he is… and Celestia could give him a good thrashing.” Luna shook her head. “But that would not kill him.” 

“It has to be someone that his shadow looms over.” Scorch gave Luna a gentle squeeze to comfort her and make her calm back down. “Family is a funny thing. All of your foals could do it. Rising Star fits the requirement, but I wouldn’t send him. Rising Star has the resolve, but he is not a fighter, not in his heart. He is a creator, an artist, and has a fragile, temperamental soul. His strengths lie elsewhere. Sentinel could do it, but I don’t think he’s ready. Dinky and Piña, both might be able to do so someday, but they aren’t ready now. And we don’t have time for them to grow up and learn what they need to battle Sombra. I know it was planned for Sentinel to put an end to him, but we don’t have time. Sombra’s shadow could revive within the year.” 

“Then how? I can’t do it… we can’t get near one another,” Bucky said, shaking his head. 

“Sunset Shimmer shares a direct blood link. Her ancestors, Starjammer and Cerise Velvet, give her unusual ties to the past, which is why Celestia believed that she could be the one for either. She has ties to both Star Swirl and Sombra.” Luna rested her head against Scorch’s chest and sighed. 

“Blood is important, but how does Sentinel fit into this?” Bucky asked. 

“Family is more than blood. Some ties, some ties are stronger. Emotional ties create bonds. Sentinel went into your dream and rescued you from Sombra’s shadow. Because of love, because of his proximity to you, he has proven himself as your colt… make no mistake, Sentinel is your son. There are bonds stronger than blood, even if we do not understand them,” Luna replied. 

“Sombra’s shadow knows that he could hurt you just as badly by harming Sentinel as he could by harming one of your flesh and blood foals, like your unborn twins or Bandua. And make no mistake, the corrupted crystal unicorns are aware of your unborn foals and your family. For now, they are biding their time, waiting for their Master’s return, and making plans.” Scorch shook his head and looked angry for a moment, his eyes blazing like cherry red coals. 

“But I love Celestia… she… she is very much like my mother now,” Bucky said. “I’m confused.” 

“Celestia is immortal. You aren’t connected to her in the same way as you are Sentinel. Sombra could hurt her, but he cannot kill her. The fear of loss isn’t the same. Breaking a curse takes a special set of conditions… like you Bucky, ending the curse that hung over House Bitters and House Avarice. The last victim was Sunset Shimmer, which satisfied conditions. Her horn broke. Celestia’s most powerful divination spells show that Sunset Shimmer could take Sombra down, she meets the requirements,” Luna said as she cuddled against Scorch, glad for his warmth during this talk about the most ghastly of subjects. “She could end the curse.” 

“So it has to be somepony that shares a bond of love where the consequences for failure are real?” Bucky asked, one eye wide and the other eye squinted almost shut in a quizzical expression of befuddlement. 

“Yes, more or less,” Luna replied. “I still want that cup of tea…” 



 

Steam rose from the spout of the teapot and filled the kitchen with a fragrant perfume. Bucky sniffed, felt his mouth water, and then looked over at Thistle, who was holding Bell Heather and bouncing her up and down in an attempt to comfort the foal. 

Bell Heather was teething, growing in several needle teeth just like her mother’s. 

“I still have no telekinesis,” Luna said, grumbling as she brought herself up to her full height so she could see over the table. Angling her head, she was able to sip her tea from her teacup, which sat on the table. 

“Here, Bucky, take this… I do believe this is yours,” Thistle said as she extended her forelegs and held Bell Heather out to Bucky. “Mama is very, very tired.” 

Bell Heather squeaked as Bucky took her. Using both his telekinesis and his forelegs, he took her into his embrace and held her to his barrel. He began to rock her back and forth, trying to keep Bell from crying. 

“Has Erebus been behaved?” Luna asked. 

“Erebus is fine just so long as he isn’t left alone,” Thistle replied as she slumped down onto the table, resting her upper body on her front legs. “He likes Cadance a great deal.” 

“Mmmm, Bell don’t bite,” Bucky said in a pained voice as he tried to prise Bell Heather’s jaws off of his tender flesh. 

Looking over, Thistle saw that Bell Heather had latched on to Bucky’s neck and was gnawing. The kelpie yawned. “She got ahold of one of my teats earlier. Drew blood. She also bit Derpy’s ear and she gave Bon Bon quite a nibble on Bon Bon’s snoot.” 

After extracting himself from the tiny and adorable foal attempting to give him a good chewing, Bucky stuck one of his talon fingers into Bell Heather’s mouth. She savaged the talon finger, gnashing the needle teeth that had worked through her gums against it, but was unable to get through the tough scales. The kitchen filled with “om nom nom nom” sounds as Bell Heather attempted to chew her father’s talon finger off. 

“Little lunar pegasi also need chew toys. Erebus nips and nibbles, but so far, he hasn’t been a terrible chewer upon the toys that he has,” Luna said. “Practical advice for raising the little monsters. If left unattended, they will chew on each other, sometimes even taking ears off. They are horrible little savages. Thankfully, Erebus only gets nibbly while he is feeding.” 

“He’s been very gentle with Cadance,” Thistle said in a worried voice. 

“Erebus is not a full lunar pegasus and he is only at his worst for one night, when the moon is full.” Luna’s muzzle was wet with tea and she licked her lips. 

A low growl came out of Bell Heather as she chomped down upon Bucky’s talon finger. Bucky watched his daughter attempt to chew his finger off with an amused look upon his face. The scales were too tough to be pierced by her tiny teeth, and Bucky thought the sight of her chewing on him was rather adorable. Chewing on others would be frowned upon though. 

“Does that feel better?” Bucky asked Bell Heather. He lifted up his teacup, took a sip, set it down, and continued to watch his foal gnawing away. “I think we’ll need chew toys for Bell Heather. Any suggestions Luna?” 

“There is actually a seller of such toys in Canterlot. He doesn’t have a shop, but he sells to the lunar pegasi. I’ll send word to him and see what I can do for my bloodthirsty little niece.” 

“I’m worn out,” Thistle said and then yawned. “Oh… Bucky, I read through those papers about the job… about water inspection. I’m interested. I don’t know what else to do with my life, but I would like to have a job. The best part is, I can take Bell with me and we can swim together… she could grow up knowing what to do… learn a skill… serve a purpose.” The kelpie yawned once more and then smiled at Bell Heather. 

“How is Broom holding up?” Bucky asked, the concerns within his mind causing him to change the subject. 

“Broom has cried a bit but she’s taking this so well. She was laughing earlier, telling us stories about Door. She and Semillon spent some quiet time together in the library… Bucky, I would be a mess if my brother died,” Thistle replied. 

“We all deal with loss in our own way,” Luna said as she glanced over at Thistle. “Some mourn their losses, others celebrate the memories of those they once held close.” 

“I miss my mother… I wish she was here to see Bell Heather. I wish she was here to see Bucky… my whole family… I just wish that she was here… I hate her a little bit for being so selfish… for what she did. She left me and I needed her.” The kelpie’s face darkened with a miserable frown. 

“We all deal with grief and loss in our own way,” Luna repeated. 

“She mourned the loss of her foals by abandoning the one foal she had left!” Thistle snapped, banging her hoof down upon the table. 

Startled, Bell Heather whimpered and stopped gnawing upon her daddoo’s talon finger. 

“I’m sorry… I’m tired… I should go to bed,” Thistle said in an apologetic voice. She pushed herself away from the table, shook her head, and slid off of her chair. “Good night.” 

“Come here, let me kiss you,” Bucky said, leaning his head out in invitation. 

The kelpie gave Bucky a sad smile as she went to him. She stretched out her neck, pressed her lips against Bucky’s, and gave him a wet smooch. Lowering her head, she kissed Bell Heather. She lingered, her muzzle pressed against her foal for a moment, and then she turned and walked away. 

As she left the kitchen, Thistle turned her head to say, “I would never be so selfish.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 687
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Bucky?” Berry Punch wrapped her forelegs around Bucky as he got into bed and pulled him closer, her voice was a ticklish whisper in his ear. “Bucky, I had a bad dream. I’m glad you’re here.” 

Rolling over in Berry’s embrace, Bucky lay snoot to snoot with the earth pony. Dropping his voice to a low whisper, he asked, “Bad dream?” 

“My mother was a good mother… she was… really… she was good to all of us. She was so loving and patient. She sang to us,” Berry replied in a breathy whisper. She took a deep breath. Bucky smelled like tea and rum. He had been drinking a bit. She took another deep breath, taking in his scent, and closed her eyes. “My mother stopped caring when Piña came around though. I don’t know what happened to her. I had a dream that I kept having foals, they just came squirting out of me, and I stopped loving them and I stopped loving you but we kept screwing because it felt good but I stopped loving my foals…” 

“At least we kept screwing.” 

“Bucky, you numpty… I love you.” 

The feel of Berry Punch’s bulging stomach against his own was warm, inviting, and Bucky snuggled up against her as close as he could. She was warm, she was soft, and Bucky had a chill that he could not make go away. 

“I don’t understand what happened, Bucky. It was like a light switch. One day, my mama just stopped being the mare she was and she became a stranger. I loved her so much. I still do love her. But I also am angry with her for how she treated Piña. Piña deserved better. And I don’t want to turn out like my mama…” Berry’s words faded into sniffles and snuffled gasps. “What time is it?” 

“Almost five in the morning. I came home early from my project and then I got a little work done on some golems and a bit of research with Sunset Shimmer,” Bucky replied. He pressed his muzzle into Berry Punch’s and gave her a gentle kiss, not a lusty ‘I plan to screw you’ kiss but more of an ‘I’m sorry you’re sad and I hope you feel better’ kiss. 

When Bucky pulled away, Berry Punch kissed him in reply, a long kiss that said a great deal, the gist of it being ‘I’m glad you’re my husband, thank you for making me feel better, I plan to jump your bones later but right now I’m sleepy.’ Kissing was a complex language and it took a great deal of practice to reach this level of communication. 



 

Glancing up at the clock upon the wall, Diamond Tiara saw that class would begin soon. She looked over at Boadicea and she knew something was bothering the griffoness. Reaching out her hoof, Diamond Tiara nudged her companion, a gentle tap to get Boadicea’s attention. 

“What’s wrong?” the earth pony filly asked. 

“Who said anything is wrong?” Boadicea's feathers all fluffed out and she rotated her head around backwards to look at Diamond Tiara. “Nothing is wrong—”

“Don’t lie to me.” Diamond Tiara’s eyes narrowed. 

The griffoness drooped into a defeated slouch. “There is something wrong.” 

“Well, out with it,” Diamond Tiara said, doing her best to act and sound like Sentinel. 

“There is a school dance coming up. I’ve heard some rumours.” 

“Yes… there is a dance coming up.” 

“Have you noticed that there are no male griffons my age? There are some little griffons… little cubs… there are lots of older male griffons… but griffons my age… there are none.” Boadicea’s wings fluttered and she began to tap her claws upon the floor. 

The pink earth pony filly felt a strange pang in her barrel. She had grown close to Boadicea; there was now a keen sensation of discomfort after hearing the griffon's words and seeing how sad the griffoness looked. A very peculiar sensation overcame Diamond Tiara, a strong need to comfort her friend. But there was something else… something that lurked in the back of her mind. It had been there for a while. A daydream that would not go away and would come into her mind as she gazed out of the window or stared into a book but did not read the words. 

Her mouth went dry as Diamond Tiara realised there was something she wanted to do. She stepped forward, her heart thudding in her barrel, she felt afraid and she did not know why. Trembling, she wrapped a foreleg around Boadicea’s neck, got a grip on the griffoness, and then before Boadicea could react, Diamond Tiara kissed Boadicea on the cheek, just behind her beak. 

The griffoness squawked and them squirmed away. “What was that for?” Boadicea stared at Diamond Tiara and saw that the earth pony’s eyes were filled with fear and other emotions. A lone feather had come loose and was stuck in the corner of Diamond Tiara’s mouth. 

“I just wanted you to know that I care… and I wanted you to feel better,” Diamond Tiara replied in a voice that wavered a bit too much for her own liking. 

“Wait… you like me. You like me like me.” Boadicea’s eyes narrowed. 

There was a strong urge to run away, but Diamond Tiara forced her legs to remain still. “A little,” she admitted, her voice cracking in the middle of the word ‘little.’ 

“A crush?” Boadicea fell silent and then peeped. Her feather’s fluffed out and suddenly the study alcove where they were sitting was far too warm. “And what about your relationship with Sentinel?” 

“What about it?” Diamond Tiara replied, her ears pinning back against her skull as she responded. “He’s betrothed to marry Moonbow and he’s also my coltfriend.” Diamond Tiara’s lip quivered. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.” 

“Sentinel doesn’t like me.” Boadicea cocked her head to one side. 

Diamond Tiara opened her mouth and the most embarrassing croaking sound came out. She swallowed, cleared her throat, and looked Boadicea in the eye. “If I can convince Sentinel to take both of us to the dance, will you go with us?” 

“I dunno… I need some time to think about it… I did not expect for an earth pony to have a crush on me,” Boadicea replied. 

“I’m so scared right now… I just revealed how I feel and now I am terrified that I will lose you as a friend.” Diamond Tiara closed her eyes. “I don’t know what came over me.” 

Reaching out her wing, Boadicea touched Diamond Tiara’s cheek. “Oh come on, don’t be scared… I just need a little bit of time to think, that’s all. We’re still friends. Only now, we’re friends and you have a crush on me.” 

The feather stuck in the corner of Diamond Tiara’s mouth fell away and drifted down to the floor as she opened her eyes. “Thank you… I gotta go to class…” 

“I do too… see you at lunch.” 



 

Cocking her head to one side, Belisama peeped at Bandua and waited for a peep in return. After a moment, she was rewarded. She cocked her head to a different angle, peeped, and her head moved upwards in a swift, almost mechanical motion as she looked at Magpie. 

There was another peep from Bandua. 

“Magpie… have you noticed anything peculiar about Bandua?” 

“The fact that she is bald headed…” Magpie’s crest rose upwards as she looked at Belisama. Magpie’s neck shortened and it appeared that the nanny griffoness’ head was growing straight out of her shoulders. 

“I think she’s going to be vulture headed.” Belisama’s gaze darted downwards in the swift way of avian creatures. “My ugly cub is going to be an ugly griffoness.” 

“Her daddy will love her.” Magpie shrugged and wrapped her wings around her body. 

“Yes. Her daddy, will in fact, love her. I’m not worried about that. But I’m a little worried about other griffons. We griffons have superstitions.” Belisama lowered her head down and looked Bandua in the eye. 

“She’ll be fine. The bat wings and the vulture head will go well together.” Magpie extended her neck, folded her wings to her side, and then crossed the nursery to sit next to Belisama. “She will be like her daddy… an avenging force that springs from the shadows. Her appearance will make her the stuff of legends.” 

“Hmm.” Belisama’s head tilted sideways and one eye focused on the tiny cub in front of her. “You bring up a good point.” 

“You have to be at the town hall in less than hour… are you taking Bandua?” Magpie asked. 

“No… I planned to leave her here with you,” Belisama replied. 



 

As Sunset Shimmer passed through Ponyville, some ponies waved at her while others gave her plenty of room. A heavy black woollen cloak hung over body, keeping the cold out and her body remained warm. Steam rose from her hood with each puff from her nostrils. 

She had a task, a goal, a mission. To help a friend. To assist Twilight Sparkle in making Twilight Sparkle’s dream possible. She knew what needed to be done, she had studied all of Twilight Sparkle’s notes, she had even walked through the site with Twilight. 

Her belly full of a hearty breakfast and lots of coffee, Sunset Shimmer was as ready as she would ever be. This was going to be a perfect day, a wonderful day, a day where she would finally be able to show Twilight Sparkle how much she cared, and how much Twilight mattered. 

Reaching the edge of Ponyville, Sunset Shimmer looked over the Whitetail Woods, the place where Twilight Sparkle planned to create Ponyville University. Each tree was marked with a faint magical beacon by Twilight Sparkle. A grove of white oaks. 

Already, she could feel the spirits of the phoenixes stirring within her. They knew. Sunset Shimmer could shape a few trees on her own with her magic, but it would be draining. A whole grove would be time consuming. But with the phoenix spirits aiding her, this would not take long. 

Wings of fire sprang from her sides as her cloak billowed away from her body. It blew away from her, carried aloft by an unseen force. Heat radiated from Sunset’s body and the snow around her began to melt. She rose into the air as her mane and tail burst into burning blaze. 

Reaching out with her mind, she touched the earth, the trees, and she could feel every living thing around her. She could feel the ponies of Ponyville. The trees felt sleepy, and Sunset Shimmer could feel the effects of winter upon them. 

She rose even higher into the air, blazing like a miniature sun. She was filled with life, full of living fire and light. These were spirits that craved a return to the earth, to nature, so they could know peace at last. She heard sounds within her mind, cries, the calls of birds longing to be free. 

She touched every seed of magic placed by Twilight, her mind connected with every tree that Twilight Sparkle had marked, and Sunset Shimmer imparted her will upon the spirits within her, pleading with them for their aid once more, as she had done when she had healed the earth and had healed Bucky. 

The earth rumbled, a deep low frequency hum filled the air, and the air around Sunset Shimmer became like summer. As she blazed brighter, she felt joy inside, the feeling of sweet release. She thought of her life; of good things, of forgiveness, of Celestia, of her family, as large as it had become, of her friends, and she thought of Twilight Sparkle, who had shown her genuine friendship at a time when Sunset Shimmer needed it most. 

Below her, the trees came alive, writhing, their branches moving with growth at an unnatural rate. Trunks thickened and became hollow. Rooms formed, like bubbles within the wood. Stairs grew as the wood changed both shape and structure. Each room, like each tree, was different, unique. Openings for windows appeared and what would one day become doorways yawned open as the trees awoke from their winter slumber to grow. Flames lept down from Sunset Shimmer and went dancing among the trees, consuming in flames but the trees did not burn. They grew stronger, changing, becoming fire oaks, trees forever changed by magic, now impervious to burning by all but the most determined fires. 

As her magic was released, Sunset Shimmer shrank, becoming smaller and smaller, until at last, she was a normal sized unicorn again. Her wings vanished, but she did not fall. Blazing spirits cradled her, holding her aloft, she was borne down with gentle grace to the earth, and set down before a crowd that had gathered to watch the show. 

Sunset Shimmer rose up on wobbling legs and watched as the grove of fire oaks continued to take shape front of her, the living trees becoming the campus of what would soon become Ponyville University. 

One spirit broke apart from the others, it flew over to Sunset Shimmer, it was phoenix-like in shape and size. It hovered before her for a moment, its form becoming more and more refined. Its eyes blazed with burning intensity. 

“We thank you,” it said in a voice like a roaring fire. It bowed its head and then flew off, off to join its fellows in reshaping the grove so the ponies could live in harmony with nature, living with the grove rather than cutting it down to make way for progress. 

Tears splashed down Sunset Shimmer’s cheeks as she too, began to feel reborn in this moment. 
	
> Chapter 688
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I had a bad dream.” 

Bucky cracked open his left eye, peered around, and saw Luna. 

“I was napping and I had a really bad dream,” Luna said in frightened whisper. 

Beside Bucky, there was a snort as Derpy woke up. He felt the grey mare move away from him and her wing grazed against his side as she lifted the blankets up. 

Not needing to be told, Luna lept up into the bed and crammed herself in between Bucky and Derpy. She squirmed, kicked, and wiggled until at last, she was sandwiched in between the pregnant pegasus and the unawake unicorn. 

“I became Nightmare Moon again… I hurt those I love… I hurt my sister.” 

Derpy yawned, nosed Luna’s cheek, and then lay her head down once more. The grey pegasus’ eyes remained open, but only as slits, her amber eyes peering out from between her eyelashes. 

“I hurt Barley...I hurt all of you… please don’t let her get me… I don’t want to go back into the dark place,” Luna said in a fear filled whimper. “In my dream I killed Erebus because he was weak and helpless and he disgusted me after she took me over once more. I called him a leech.” 

“Where is Erebus now?” Derpy asked. 

“Magpie has him… I could not bear to look at him… it hurts too much,” Luna replied in a pained, almost panting whimper. 

Lifting her head, Derpy pressed her snoot into Luna’s cheek, inhaled, exhaled, and then gave Luna a tender kiss. Moving her snoot to Luna’s ear, she whispered, “It was just a dream.”

“I don’t want to be like I was.” Luna trembled between Bucky and Derpy. “I can still feel parts of her in my mind… hear her voice… her laughter. I hear her when I get lonely.” 

“You’re not alone,” Bucky grumbled. “Now go back to sleep, little nightmare.” 

“Don’t let her get me,” Luna said in a pleading voice. 

“Where is Barley?” Derpy asked. 

“He went to the brewery with Berry Punch,” Luna replied. The alicorn shivered even though she was in a very warm place. “He didn’t want Berry going, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” 

“Silly numbskull earth pony.” Derpy’s eyes closed, her eyelashes now crisscrossing with one another. Derpy yawned, and as she did so, the words “too stubborn” slipped out. 

“Bucky, keep me safe,” Luna said as she rested her head down upon the bed. “I’m so tired. I need sleep but I’m afraid of my dreams.” Luna pressed herself up against the unicorn that was Sombra’s equal, if not his better, and rubbed her cheek against his side. “I’ll help keep you safe from him if you help keep me safe from her.” 

“She had better stay away… I’m a grumpy lump and I want to go back to sleep,” Bucky replied in a low growl. 



 

“Majesty, the rumours appear to be true. I know it is difficult to accept, but perhaps there was an ascension within their ranks and the rumours of an alicorn are a mirror traveler.” The pegasus bowed his head before Princess Celestia and waited for a response. 

Standing beside Princess Celestia’s throne, Scorpan folded his massive arms over his barrel chest. He was now almost a permanent fixture in the throneroom and his presence kept everypony on their very best behaviour. 

“Another alicorn would leave traces of powerful magic… magic that no one right now seems to be able to detect. An alicorn does not simply appear and go unnoticed.” Princess Celestia leaned forwards and her beautiful, serene face contorted into a scowl. 

“Nevertheless, several bocors and a number of unicorns did battle an alicorn. There are few survivors. The Sea of Grass is quite alarmed by the attack. Nopony is quite sure what to do yet, but we need to accept the fact that there may very well be an unknown, undetectable alicorn running around and we may be in imminent danger if he comes here.” The pegasus lifted his head and looked up at Princess Celestia, then at Scorpan, and then his gaze fell upon Shining Armor. 

“And the alicorn just left?” Shining Armor asked. 

“The report states that he gloated for a bit, mocked what few survivors there were, called them weak, and then flew north,” the pegasus replied. “The bocors say that no dark magic was used, which seems to fit in with the idea that this is a mirror traveler, but it is not the Night Stallion. Not from what little bit we know about him. This alicorn was pale blue with a silver mane and tail.” 

“So we potentially have an alicorn that we cannot detect running around,” Scorpan said in a low rumbling voice. “And he could be anywhere, including here in Equestria, doing who knows what.” 

Fearful, Princess Celestia made a pained admission. “I am at a loss for what to do.”

“I could go looking for him, with your permission of course,” Scorpan said, offering to help out and do what he could. “If he is an alicorn, I don’t know if I could take him in a fight.” 

“If he is spotted, if he is detected somehow, I want to be notified of it immediately. I will go and deal with himself myself if need be, and I will determine if he is actually an alicorn,” Princess Celestia said in an angry voice that cracked with emotion, her anger overcoming her fear. 

“If he tangles with Buckminster, who has not one, but two alicorns under his care, that would be a calamitous error in judgment on his part,” Shining Armor said. “That said, I am devoting some of my energies to observing the farmhouse. I might even show up in pony to pay a visit.” 

“That farm is one of most defended places in Equestria right now… never mind whatever horrible things Buckminster might do, Scorch, Odin, and Heifer Aestus remain to keep Cadance and also Luna safe,” Scorpan said as he rubbed his chin. 

“So we have corrupted crystal unicorns running around in several of our major cities, possible problems with changelings in Baltimare, cultists of all stripes converging on Equestria, and potentially an alicorn running around on the loose… did I miss anything?” Shining Armor looked around, his eyes meeting each set of eyes around him, and then his gaze fell upon Celestia, who looked frightened and angry. 

“I feel as though I have gone blind once more.” Celestia closed her eyes. “I do not have Luna keeping watch over dreams. The lunar pegasi are helpful, but they do not have her power. I am back to where I was before Luna’s return… we are crippled right now and one of our best means of defense is down.” 

“That might be true, but at least we have Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the guard said. 



 

His heart pounding, Bucky awoke to screaming. His talons flexed into a fist as adrenaline flooded through his body. The bed was warm and very, very wet. He could feel Luna thrashing against his side, her hooves and wings beating up against him. 

As Bucky came to an alarmed state of wakefulness, the screaming ceased and became sobs. Bucky pushed himself up into a sitting position, the blankets falling away from him. Already, Derpy was cradling Luna in her forelegs, kissing her, trying to comfort the sobbing foal. 

For a moment, Bucky thought that his heart would explode out of his chest. He could feel a second heart in his throat and a third heart thudding away in the base of his horn. He felt his stomach churn from stress. 

“It hurts so much…” 

“Luna, what hurts so much?” Derpy asked. 

There was no reply. Luna, wailing, buried her head against Derpy and her wings flapped outwards with every sob that wracked her body. Luna’s muffled weeping continued unabated. 

Looking over at the door, Bucky saw several faces peering in, looking concerned. Thistle stood with her ears perked forwards. Magpie stood beside Thistle. Harper stood with her head poking out from between Thistle’s front legs. Cadance clung to Magpie’s front right leg, and her eyes were shiny with tears. Sukari stood apart, on her own, but looking sorrowful. 

“I hurt my sister and I feel so ashamed… I broke my promise to my mother that I would protect my sister!” Luna shrieked, overcome with grief. She began to kick and struggle against Derpy. “I was supposed to protect Dawn Star and I couldn’t do it and all those things hurt her… hurt us… and then I HURT HER!” 

The force of Luna’s voice caused every ear in the room to have violent spasms. 

“I DIDN’T KEEP MY PROMISE!” Luna screeched, her voice cracking from the force of her scream. Luna squeezed her eyes shut and continued wailing. 

“Come on Luna, a hot bath will make you feel better… Bucky, help us to the tub,” Derpy said in a low voice. 

“Good idea… while you two are in there, I’ll clean up and go shower,” Bucky replied. 

“NO!” Luna begged. “Don’t leave me!” Luna sucked in a deep breath and tried to hold back her sobs. “Please?” She opened her eyes, turned her head, and looked at Bucky, her face stained with tears and shiny with snot. 

“We’ll clean up in here,” Magpie said, stepping forward through the door. “You go look after her. She needs you.” 

Wishing that his heart would stop pounding, Bucky slipped out of bed, lifted both Derpy and Luna, then carried them off to the bathroom for a bath. 



 

“What’s going on here?” Thistle asked as Tourmaline rubbed up against her leg. The kelpie looked at the guards who had brought Tourmaline in a covered sky carriage. 

“Princess Celestia believed it was time for Tourmaline to have some time with Princess Luna and to visit with your family,” the guard replied. 

“I’m not certain I believe that,” Thistle said. 

“Mama’s real scared,” Tourmaline whispered as she clung to Thistle’s leg. 

The kelpie bared her teeth. “Now I really don’t believe you… you had better start explaining... or else.” 

“Princess Celestia has expressly forbidden me to speak of it. I am to make the delivery, wish you well, and return.” The guard snapped out a wing in salute. 

“What’s going on here?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she strode into the middle of the gathered ponies. “I just get back from having a nice time with Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry and come home to find a commotion.” 

“There is no commotion,” the guard said in a worried voice. 

“Let me go summon my Master and we shall see if there is a commotion,” Sunset Shimmer said, her voice taking on a dangerous and commanding tone. 

“Princess Celestia will be sending communications to Prince Buckminster later. That is all I can say,” the guard said as he backed away from Sunset Shimmer. 

“Hmmph. Fine. Go on then, get out of here.” Sunset Shimmer waved and made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. Turning away from the guard, she dropped her head down and nosed Tourmaline. 

“My apologies. I know very little and I am under orders to deliver the foal. That is all,” the guard said in apologetic tones. “And we must be going.” 

Sunset lifted her head and kissed Thistle on the cheek. “How ya doing?” she asked, now ignoring the guard as they made ready to depart. 

“Fine, thank you,” Thistle replied. 

“Mama is scared,” Tourmaline said to Sunset Shimmer. 

“I suspected something is up. Twilight Sparkle got a message and then she took off lickety split for Canterlot, leaving Flash Sentry and I alone with our coffee and each other.” Sunset dropped head down once more and kissed Tourmaline on the snoot. 

Watching the guards as they departed, Thistle said, “I wonder what is going on.” 

“Mama said she had to send me someplace where it was safe when she was telling me goodbye. She said Canterlot isn’t safe right now and I was going to stay with Bucky and Scorch.” 

“Come on cuddlebug, let’s get you inside and out of the cold,” Thistle said. “Want some cookies?” 

“Oh, yes please!” Tourmaline replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 689
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I brought you your schoolwork,” Diamond Tiara said as she set Sentinel’s assignments upon his desk in a neat pile. “How are you feeling? I’ve been worried. Do you need anything?” 

“I’m dying of boredom… they won’t let me out of bed.” Sentinel scowled and shook his head. “I’m fine and I know I’m fine but they’re worried if I get out of bed I’ll fall down or something.” 

“Just because you look okay on the outside doesn’t mean everything is healed on the inside. You got gooped by something that makes your body not want to move.” Reaching up with her hoof, Diamond Tiara adjusted her glasses. “I need you well in time for the dance we have coming up. Sentinel, there is something I want to ask you.” 

“You sound like you’re talking business again…” Sentinel rolled over on his side and looked at the pink earth pony filly. 

“Life is business, or so Violet Velvet says.” Diamond Tiara flashed her well practiced professional smile at Sentinel. “And in the business of life, there are two types of ponies. Those who are organised, and the clutter that needs to be cleaned up or go into the rubbish bin.” 

Huffing, his cheeks puffing out, Sentinel snorted and then began to chortle. 

Heaving a sigh, Diamond Tiara allowed herself a little giggle. “I was so nervous there. I was worried that how I was, how I used to be would make the joke not funny or out of context or make me sound like a snob or make it sound worse than it was really intended…” The filly’s lips pressed into a prim, straight line and her eyes narrowed. She inhaled. “Sentinel, there is something I want from you.” 

The colt struggled to sit up. He did so, wobbled a bit, and then scooted himself against the headboard of his bed to steady himself. 

“Sentinel, Boadicea has no one to escort her to the dance. There are no male griffons her age. And uh… well,” Diamond Tiara said, her voice becoming squeaky. “Sentinel, I need to confess, I might have just a little friendly crush on her.” 

“So I’ve noticed.” Sentinel crossed his forelegs over his barrel. 

“You’ve noticed?” Diamond Tiara climbed up into the chair by Sentinel’s desk. 

“I’ve been a little jealous but I haven’t said anything because it would reflect poorly upon me given the nature of our relationship and my betrothal to Moonbow. So… I’ve just been dealing with it.” Sentinel’s barrel rose and fell as the colt inhaled, held it for a moment, and then let out in slow exhale. 

“It doesn’t change how I feel about you,” Diamond Tiara said. “I have a crush on her… I’m madly in love with you. I was talking with Cookie and Hondo when they were at Rarity’s place the other night… they were foalhood sweethearts. Neither one of them had even hit their decade mark when they started to fall in love. They grew up together, just knowing, going through all of their awkward phases together, enduring all of those horrible adolescent traumas together, holding on to one another, knowing the whole time that they were meant to be together… it’s so romantic.” Diamond Tiara’s gaze became vacant, distant, and she fluttered her eyelashes. 

“Would it make you happy if I asked Boadicea to come to the dance with us?” Sentinel asked. 

“Yes… yes it would. I will do anything I can for you to make it worth your while,” Diamond Tiara replied. “How is it that ponies just know? I mean, we get names that reflect our natures. We get cutie marks that guide our purpose. And you can meet a colt one day and just know that they’re the one… I sometimes wonder if we have any say in our lives at all.”

“Sure we do.” Sentinel’s muzzle became wrinkled as his lips pressed together for a second in concentration. “My cutie mark is a fish. While I am a good fisher, I am free to do other things. I can be a good fisher and a good writer. I can be a good fisher, a good writer, and maybe someday, I’ll be a good soldier, but I am a little down in the dumps about that right now.” 

“Sentinel, you had a bad run. Your father has had bad runs. Things go wrong sometimes. Don’t make me come over there and cheer you up the hard way.” Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes became aggressive pinpricks. For an earth pony, she showed a remarkable lack of fear of the predatory creature that Sentinel was. 

“Father says that love is a choice.” Sentinel settled against the headboard of his bed. “He told me it starts out as an attraction, a spark, and there is a tiny little flame and that tiny little flame is a fire that you have to nurture. You have to give it fuel, you have to shelter it, and with care, it becomes a roaring blaze.” Sentinel’s eyes focused upon Diamond Tiara. “But like any fire, it can go out. So you have to keep adding fuel to keep it burning. It becomes a choice to keep the fire going or let it go out.” 

Listening to Sentinel’s words, Diamond Tiara wondered if she had just been distracted from lecturing Sentinel about his failure in the sewers. She wanted to be distracted. She wanted Sentinel to keep going with beautiful, meaningful words. 

“If I have to ask one of your friends to come to the dance as our guest, I am grown up enough to do that.” Sentinel’s lips formed a half smile. “Just my way of adding a few logs to the fire that will burn for a while.” 



 

Feeling worried, Bucky glanced over at Luna. She was sitting on a pile of cushions with Tourmaline on one side of her and Erebus on the other side of her. She seemed better, but Bucky knew that looks could be deceiving. 

The nursery was quiet. Bell Heather was crawling around on the floor, exploring the room, and she was quiet for the moment after having her gums numbed. Bucky’s introverted nature treasured these quiet moments. 

“You have sad sickness,” Tourmaline said in a low whisper as she pressed her cheek against Luna’s neck. 

His ears perking forward, Bucky strained to listen. 

“Tourmaline, if you ever give your word about something, if you ever make a promise, you must never break it,” Luna said to the changeling foal resting beside her. 

“Sometimes we can’t help what happens. It isn’t our fault.” Tourmaline blinked, looking owlish in her glasses, and then turned her head to look at Luna. “Sometimes, the only thing we can do is make up for it afterwards.” 

“You sound like Celestia,” Luna said as she pressed her muzzle against Tourmaline. 

A sigh slipped out from Tourmaline and her pink mane tumbled down over her face, spilling over her glasses and flowing around her horn. “Mama loves you so much… she is always worried about you. She still has bad dreams too.” 

“I know she does.” Luna closed her eyes. “When I was trapped inside of Nightmare Moon and we were imprisoned in the moon together, I could feel my sister touching the moon to keep it in motion. It was the only thing I had of her. Nightmare Moon hated that touch more than anything… for me, it was the only comfort I had for those thousand years. I could do nothing, but Nightmare Moon spent those thousand years torturing my sister and hurting her, and Celestia had no choice but to keep the connection so that the moon would keep moving. One thousand years of agony… and there was nothing I could do. She had to endure the direct connection to Nightmare Moon and I got to feel her torture my sister. It was one of the many ways Nightmare Moon hurt me.” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky had trouble trying to imagine what it must have been like. 

“Celestia is the strongest pony I know. She would, and could, endure anything for those she loves. I wish I was as strong as she was… but I am not. I am weak, I am selfish, I am petty, I can be arrogant, I am possessive… I am jealous… and I am not the pony that my sister is.” Luna’s head fell and came to rest upon the cushion she was laying upon. “All Celestia had to do to make the torture stop was to stop loving me and to sever her bonds of affection with me. That was all Nightmare Moon wanted. With no love to protect me, the last part of what I was would have been consumed by her and I would have ceased to exist. Celestia never let go, never gave up, never stopped believing that I could be redeemed, and she never stopped loving me. She endured everything that Nightmare Moon did to her. The bad dreams, the pain, the knowledge that I was being tortured… Celestia bore it all.” 

“And you feel guilty? Why?” Tourmaline asked. 

“Because… I do not deserve that sort of love after what I did,” Luna replied. 



 

“Oh this is awful,” Boadicea huffed as she lept over a yard high barrier made of snow. 

“I like the way this sucks,” Scootaloo said to her companion as she too, lept over the barrier. 

“You sound like Loki.” Boadicea opened her beak wide and let cool air hit her throat as she ran. Her wings flared outwards to allow cool air upon her sides and under her wings. 

“I hear talking, I don’t think you’re running fast enough! Get moving!” Rainbow Dash shouted down as she flew overhead. “In fact, since you have the energy to flap your lips, I think another five laps is in order!” 

Rolling over and then leveling out, Loki laughed. Rainbow Dash was good at this. 

The sheet of ice was coming up again. Scootaloo braced herself. Boadicea had claws and could get a grip on the ice, Scootaloo had nothing but her hooves and her stubby wings; she had to have control. She needed to hit the ice just right and slide across, and not try to run this time so she wouldn’t slip and fall on her plot again. 

Boadicea had other plans though. She fell back behind Scootaloo as the ice drew near, lept, spread her wings, snatched Scootaloo in her talons, making certain that her claws did no harm to Scootaloo’s flesh, and the griffoness soared over the ice patch. She still couldn’t fly, but Boadicea was an amazing leaper, and with her wings spread, she could extend her range with a bit of gliding. 

She dropped Scootaloo in the snow, tossing her off to one side, and then landed. Boadicea’s hind legs dug into the snow, her claws got traction, and she shoved off, resuming her running gait. 

“Loki… did you see that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she pointed down at the pair with her hoof. “Did you see that? That was amazing!” 

“That was impressive.” Loki swooped down and flew beside Boadicea. “That was good. You thought of your teammate’s weakness and you compensated,” he said as he kept pace with Boadicea. 

Banking away, Loki got himself a bit of altitude. “Why do we do what we do?” 

“I do what I do out of a sense of love and obligation!” Scootaloo barked in reply. 

“I wish to restore my honour!” Boadicea shouted as she ran. 

“And what is this obligation?” Loki demanded. 

Panting, Scootaloo knew that if she slowed down, she’d be in for it. “What I love is valuable and I must fight to protect it! I am obligated to keep what I love safe!” 

“And what do you love?” Rainbow Dash asked as she swooped down by Scootaloo. 

“My family… my friends… and my country!” Scootaloo panted. She was starting to feel the laps she had run already. 

“I guess… I have… those I love and… obligations too,” Boadicea said in between heaving breaths. The griffoness looked as though she was steam powered. Her great, heaving breaths came out as visible puffs of steam in the cold. 

“Are they worth this pain you feel right now?” Loki asked as he swooped down and got a talonful of snow. 

“Yes!” Scootaloo cried in return. 

Taking careful aim, Loki nailed Scootaloo with a snowball, hitting her in the back of the head, and almost knocking her off balance as she bounded through the snow. “What about now, Table Scraps?” 

“Is that… all you got… cat brain?” Scootaloo replied as she fought to keep running and not fall over. “You throw like a filly… and I bet you squat down… to pee!” 

“Oh my gosh! My filly is getting hard boiled!” Rainbow Dash pressed her front hooves into her cheeks, squishing her face, and tried to contain the massive rush of love she felt at this moment. “When I tell Flash about this he is going to laugh!” 
	
> Chapter 690
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Grinning, Bucky looked at the Tourmaline sitting beside his reflection in the mirror. At the moment, she didn’t look like Tourmaline at all, she looked very much like a miniature, foal sized version of Princess Celestia. 

“You keep trying to change how you look,” Tourmaline said, explaining to Bucky what he was doing wrong. “You can’t change how you look. You have to change how others see you. The change is inside their heads.” 

“Hmm.” Bucky looked down beside him at the real Tourmaline, not the reflection. 

Celestia’s image shimmered and vanished. Tourmaline became herself once more. 

“Tourmaline, you should go and play. Thank you for the lesson. Go pester Dinky and Piña or something,” Bucky said as he lowered his head down. He gave Tourmaline a kiss, patted her backside to get her moving, and sent her on her way. 



 

“What plot?” Harper asked as she turned around, trying to catch her own tail, chasing after her own backside. After a few turns, she stopped and looked around at the other ponies in the room. “What call plot?” 

“Why is your cute little bottom called a plot?” Yew Wood covered her mouth with her hoof and began to giggle. 

“Yes, what plot?” Harper asked again. 

“I have always heard that it was earth ponies who started that. There’s a crack back there and it sort of looks like a plowed furrow in a field. A farmer’s field is called a plot. I don’t know if this is true or if it is an urban myth,” Yew replied. She left out the other references about planting seeds. 

“Plot!” Peekaboo said in a loud voice. 

“Now, be good fillies, no shouting.” Yew Wood reached out her left foreleg and booped Peekaboo on the snoot. “Indoor voices.” 

“Yes, indoor voices,” Derpy said as she lifted her head up off of the arm of the couch. 

Without warning, without provocation, Erebus rose up on wobbling legs and charged Harper, his stubby wings out, his tiny fangs bared. He stumbled forwards, his wings flapping, a low growl rumbling out, and his ears perked forwards. 

Unconcerned, Harper stepped aside at the last moment. Erebus kept stumbling forward, smacked headfirst into the couch, bounced, fell over, landed on his backside, and then Erebus let out a yowl of frustration as he could not quite figure out what had just gone wrong. 

Standing close, Harper turned and watched the colt, a smile upon her muzzle. 

Broom, who had watched the whole thing, began let out a slow laugh. Yew turned her head, glad to hear the mare laughing, and watched as Broom continued to chuckle. Yew glanced at Derpy, and noticed that Derpy appeared to be listening. 

“I need help in the kitchen,” Semillon called out. “I’m making au gratin potatoes and mushrooms.” 

“Ooh, busywork.” Still chuckling, Broom rose up and teetered off into the kitchen. She nosed Erebus’ ear as she passed, who was still sitting on the floor, looking befuddled. 

When Broom had left the room and had gone into the kitchen, Yew Wood looked over at Derpy. “Still no word about a funeral. No word about Door. I wonder what is going on.” 

“Bucky says that Door is going to be studied so they can figure out what was done to those poor ponies. Broom asked for it,” Derpy replied. “Other than that, I don’t know what is going on.” 

Erebus, who had recovered, looked around the room for his next victim. His eyes narrowed as he peered around, and his tail swished, causing his diaper to crinkle. He began to stalk Cadance, who was asleep on a round cushion that sat between a chair and a couch. 

“No Erebus… don’t do it,” Yew warned, shaking her head. 

Closing her bad eye, Derpy focused her good eye on Erebus, feeling sorry for the colt, but she did nothing to stop what was about to happen. Some lessons had to be learned the hard way. She watched as Erebus tried a clumsy crouch, and when he almost fell over, Derpy giggled. 

But Erebus did not pounce on Cadance. At the last moment, when it appeared he would attack the sleeping foal, Erebus made an awkward reversal, lept, and slammed into Peekaboo, bowling her over. 

Peekaboo, no stranger to rough and tumble combat, was on her hooves in a moment, and with a few quick movements, she flipped Erebus over onto his back, subduing him, and then she sat down upon him, pressing one of her front hooves down onto his head to make him submit. 

“She’s gonna grow up and be a terror,” Yew Wood said, feeling proud of her filly. 

“Oh, I dunno, look how gentle she is.” Derpy watched as Peekaboo gave Erebus a few playful, light smacks on the muzzle with her hoof, but nothing that would hurt the colt, it looked more like a cat batting its prey with its paw. “How are you feeling Yew?” 

“A little queasy now and then, but mostly okay,” Yew replied. “I’m having an easy go of it I think. After I drop my foal, I think I am going to look into long term birth control options.” 

“Really? Why?” Derpy turned to look at Yew. 

“Because I wanted to give Lugus a cub. Well, I wanted one too, don’t get me wrong.” Yew paused and reflected upon her thoughts for a moment. “As Lugus’ wife, I have certain obligations. I intend to support him in the field. I look after the Raptors. If Lugus and I ever want more foals or cubs, there is always adoption, which we feel is a better option. There are a lot of needy foals right there in the Ponyville Orphanarium.” 

“I have forbidden Bucky from ever setting hoof inside of that place,” Derpy said in a low flat voice. She shook her head. “He has been forgiven for bringing home Sukari though. I wonder where she is.” 

“She went upstairs,” Yew replied. 



 

Narrowing his eyes, Sentinel lowered his voice into a terrifying and dramatic growl. “But under the bridge, there was a horrible and boogery troll that liked to gobble up all those who dared to cross the bridge. The three goats, the son, the father, and the grandfather, were hungry, starving, and they needed food. They had to cross the bridge so they could get to the grass on the other side.” 

Sukari shivered and pressed herself up even tighter against Sentinel. Her eyes were wide with fright and her ears were pinned back against her skull. 

“The littlest goat, who was brave, gritted his teeth with determination, lifted his head high, and he started to cross the bridge. When the troll came out, the big, gross, horrible troll, who had big nostrils because he had big fingers, the littlest goat looked up at the troll and said, ‘you don’t want to eat me!’ and then the troll replied, ‘well, why not?’ and the littlest goat smiled and was very polite, because being polite is important.” Sentinel paused and let Sukari have a moment to recover. She had covered her face with her front hooves and had closed her eyes. 

“So the littlest goat looks up at the troll and says, ‘if you eat me you won’t have room in your tummy to eat the much bigger goat that is following after me.’ The troll, being a fat, stupid, greedy creature, looks down and he sees that the littlest goat is scrawny and there isn’t much meat. Drooling, slobbering all over himself and the bridge, the troll lets the littlest goat go, and the littlest goat runs off, off to the meadow so that he can eat all of the grass.” 

Sukari let out a little whimper, of fear or relief, Sentinel could not tell. 

“So the troll goes back under his bridge, hiding in his squalid filth, picking his nose with his fat, horrible fingers, and eating a few boogers to tide him over as he waits on the big fat goat. He doesn’t have to wait very long until he hears the sounds of hooves upon the bridge.” Sentinel tapped his front hooves together and leaned his head down closer to Sukari’s ear. “The troll begins to drool as it climbs out from beneath the bridge, it roars, but the goat is unafraid. The goat looks up at the troll and he says, ‘I’m not much of a meal. But the goat behind me, he’s huge. If you eat me, I’ll only fill up half of your belly, but if you eat him, you’ll have leftovers.’ So the troll stops and he thinks about what the goat said, the troll is not very smart at all, he picks his nose some more, and then he lets the goat pass because the troll is very, very stupid and very, very greedy.” 

Sukari opened up one eye and peeked out. 

“So the troll is wondering how he is going to cook the goat, if he will even cook the goat at all, because trolls think eating goats alive is also a very good way to serve them. And then, the troll hears hooves upon his bridge. The troll is very, very happy because dinner has shown up. As the troll is climbing out on top of the bridge, he sees the biggest goat he has ever seen, a massive shaggy buck goat with huge horns. As the troll stands up and gets ready to snatch up the goat, the goat leaps into action, jumps around, and kicks the troll right in the groin. While the troll is down, the big buck goat kicks him a few more times, headbuts him, and fearing for his life, the troll crawls beneath the bridge, where he lives out his days, never once attacking any goats that crossed his bridge, forced to survive on river algae and boogers.” 

Sentinel leaned his head down and kissed Sukari on the cheek. “Now, if you ever get in trouble and something wants to eat you, you tell them that there is a much bigger pony right behind you and you let me deal with them…” 



 

Pushing open the door, Belisama did not see Bucky. She looked around, her tail swishing from side to side, and she crept into the nursery. She saw Magpie in the in the rocking chair and Bucky was changing Bell Heather’s diaper. 

Almost overcome with good feelings, Belisama lept up onto the changing table, sat down upon the edge, and looked Bucky in the eye, her crest rising as she saw the flash of grey in Bucky’s surviving natural eye. 

“Hello kitten,” Bucky said as he finished his task. “You look happy.” 

“Oh, I had a good day. Violet and I got a lot done in city hall. There was very little fighting and some good compromises were made… and I also stopped by and saw the doctor.” Belisama’s whole body swelled as she fluffed out, her feathers and her fur expanding and almost doubling the appearance of her size. “I got a clean bill of health. I’m free to give your tail a yank.” 

In the rocking chair, Magpie squawked and then began to laugh. 

“Bucky… there is something I need to tell you,” Belisama said, looking Bucky in the eye. 

“And that is?” Bucky replied, taking note of the seriousness of Belisama’s tone. 

“I asked the doctor about birth control. Bucky, there are things I’d like to do… if that’s alright—” 

“Woah, slow down there,” Bucky said, interrupting Belisama. He patted Bell Heather, lifted her with his telekinesis, set her down upon the floor on a quilt, and then turned his attention back to Belisama. “I have no issue with you being responsible. I don’t own you, and I have no intentions of forcing you into doing anything.” 

Belisama deflated, her body mass shrinking as her fur and feathers unfluffed. Her crest dropped. “I don’t know what I expected I guess.” The griffoness’ eyes narrowed. “I want to do more with the Raptors. I want to learn how to fight. I am enjoying politics… for some reason, I thought you’d be upset—” 

“You thought I’d be upset about shagging without the worry of consequences?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, no… I… Bucky… you… I… we…” Belisama stammered. She blinked, and then shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever figure you out.” 

“This was a good move on your part. The spells aren’t as effective as one might hope, as I’ve seen with Loch Skimmer and Twilight Sparkle.” Bucky’s face became quite serious. “I should make Thistle go talk with the doctor about birth control options. She’s frisky and needy and the last thing I want is her getting pregnant right now. She deserves to enjoy being a teenager for a while.” 

Leaping from the changing table, Belisama landed in the middle of the room, looked up at Magpie, flexed her talons, and asked, “Might I please have Bandua back?” 
	
	
> Chapter 691
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, the donkeys have started arriving in Ponyville. Rising Star, Sunset Shimmer, and Written Sound are preparing themselves for the project. I think you are going to be pushed aside, sir, Sunset Shimmer is looking to test her abilities,” Violet said, reading over the morning report. 

“Good. I’ll put up token resistance and make them fight for it,” Bucky replied. 

“Very good, sir.” Violet nodded. “Sir, Sunflower Showers says that the crown will be ready in a few more days. Sir, Celestia is very insistent on the coronation being held in Canterlot.” 

“Not happening,” Bucky said as he poured black rum into his coffee. “How is our crisis?” 

“Sir, nothing new to report. The past few days have been uneventful. No sign of the rumoured alicorn anywhere. Celestia is most thankful that you have looked after Tourmaline for the past few days. Celestia’s attention has been quite focused and she fears that Tourmaline would have felt neglected,” Violet replied. 

“Any word on Twilight Sparkle’s opinion on the coronation?” Bucky asked. 

Violet lowered down her notes and looked Bucky in the eye. “Twilight Sparkle is of the opinion that the coronation should be held here, in Ponyville. She likes the idea of having a school dance for the coronation. She is looking forward to attending.” 

“I have you now, auntie,” Bucky muttered to himself. He took a drink of his rum spiked coffee, grinned, and then held the cup in his talons rather than his telekinesis. 

“Sir, I know you have been very busy, but Celestia is very insistent… how is the progress going on the solution to—” 

“Violet, I don’t have an answer just yet. I am aware that there are many reports of working guns overseas. I am aware that my gunpowder golems aren’t working out as planned. I am working on a solution but I don’t have one yet. I can only imagine that they are shielding their ammo, enchanting it for protection, or have changed some fundamental aspect of what makes it what it is as gunpowder. Something has changed and I don’t know how to fix it.” Bucky heard the tendons in his talons creak as he gripped his coffee cup. 

Violet’s hard expression softened. “Sir, you’ve already done so much… I have the utmost confidence that you will find a solution.” 

“We face competent foes, Violet. They are not mindless villains who sit idle while waiting for the hero to arrive and wreck them. The gunpowder golems were a good idea while they lasted, and they have made a world a somewhat safer place. Native sources of gunpowder are controlled. In this, I have succeeded. I don’t know what to do next…” 



 

Gritting his teeth, Sentinel placed one hoof in front of the other and took a shaky step forwards. He wobbled, almost lost his balance, and stuck out his other front leg to keep from pitching forwards. 

Nearby, Belisama watched, her talons flexing with nervous energy. “Keep going.” 

There was a delay in his legs and Sentinel found that even simple movement was difficult. At least he was walking unassisted. It was like walking through deep water as he pushed his way forwards, and he took a few more steps. 

Sukari moved to Sentinel’s side, nosing him to get him moving. Her blue eyes were wide with worry and her tail swished around from nervous twitches, as if fighting off a swarm of invisible flies. 

As Sentinel took another step forwards, he tripped over his own leg and started to topple over onto Sukari. The zebra yearling braced her legs, gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and strained to keep Sentinel upright. She stomped and kicked and pushed until Sentinel had regained his own balance. 

“Thank you, Sukari,” Sentinel said as he focused on remaining upright. 

“No fall.” Sukari remained at Sentinel’s side, her expression one of worry. 

“Come on Sentinel, the full length of the hall… you can do it,” Belisama said, coaxing Sentinel along with a wave of her talons. 



 

“I think that this will work out better for all of us,” Flash Sentry said as his head nodded. 

“An eight hour shift for each of us.” Thunderlane’s nostrils flared. “I think this works out better than the two of you trying to deal with twelve hour shifts.” 

“I agree,” Sparkler said. “I can arrange my schedule to work from four in the afternoon until midnight. This would  get me home to be with my family, give me some time for school, and a bit of time for myself.” 

“I can manage midnight until eight in the morning.” Thunderlane looked at Sparkler and then at Flash Sentry. “And I guess that leaves from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon for you, Flash, if you are agreeable.” 

The orange pegasus’ ears perked forwards and he leaned over his coffee cup which sat on the table in front of him. “This will make Twilight and Rainbow real happy.” 

“Crime is down,” Thunderlane reported. “But that is likely because it is so darn cold. I suspect we’ll see more when the spring comes. The last incident that got serious was a while ago, but Blossomforth and Orange Swirl dealt with it.” 

“Big Mac is quitting come spring. Between the apple farm, Cheerilee being fat with foal, and Apple Bloom, he is worried that he doesn’t have enough hours in the day,” Flash Sentry said. “I’ll be sad to see the big fella go. He was a great crime deterrent and a gentle spirit.” 

“We do have potential new cadets though. Grisabella has asked me a number of times about police work. She’s a hunter griffoness. War veteran. She’s capable and she’s fit.” Sparkler looked at the two pegasi sitting at the table with her. “We have other ponies interested too… it’s about time that others took some interest. If things get interesting in the spring and summer, we’ll need every warm body we can muster.” 

“Not everything is rosy.” Flash Sentry reached out with his hoof and pushed a folder forward. “This just came in from Canterlot. They want the Ponyville police department to take on the responsibilities of the foal protective services… the Canterlot agency is spread too thin and can’t keep sending agents to Ponyville to investigate and collect foals.” 

“We’re not qualified,” Sparkler said, shaking her head. 

“Well, you see Sparky…” Flash Sentry looked Sparkler in the eye. “You went and rescued a few foals from a bad spot, and you did a damn good job. You even found them emergency shelter. You did everything by the book, or so the social workers seem to think, even though you had no idea what the book was. They look at what happened with Singsong and Brass Note as a rousing success, and proof that Ponyville police department is capable of looking after foals.” 

Cringing, Sparkler continued to shake her head. “One good deed is enough to screw a pony over.” 

“We’ll need to find a pony or a griffon or two that can look after foals and we’ll figure this out,” Thunderlane said as he eyed the folder. He gestured at the kitchen around him. “We still have this house, which Derpy is oh so gracious to let us keep using. There are bedrooms upstairs. Worst comes to worst, if we have to pull a foal out of a bad spot, we bring them here and find a worthy foal sitter until we figure out what to do.” 

“We’ll need beds.” Sparkler picked up a pencil and began writing down a few notes. “Also, we must make certain that daddy never, ever, under any circumstances sets hoof in here if we have foals with a hard luck story. He’ll try to take them home and all kinds of bad things might happen.” 

“Bucky can let go of a foal if he has to, there is Diamond Tiara.” Flash Sentry pushed the folder over to Sparkler and gave her a teasing smile. 

“Daddy let her go with the knowledge that he’d be getting her back later as a daughter… most likely,” Sparkler replied. She tapped the side of her head with her hoof. “She’s still his where it matters. Have you ever seen him spending time with her? He has this crazy sense of obligation to her because Filthy Rich was daddy’s friend.” 

“Well, no, I can’t say that I have.” Flash Sentry’s smile faded. “Anyhow, we need to look out for potential cadets with foal care skills. Our budget has been increased, but it’s still tight.” 

“If we take care of the community, the community will take care of us,” Thunderlane said. 



 

Raising an eyebrow, Sunset Shimmer looked at the rock that had been used for target practice. A chunk was missing. Her head made a slow turn as she looked over at Sweetie Belle. The filly was rubbing her temple and there was a halo of smoke around her head. 

“That was great!” Firelock cried. 

“That was pretty impressive,” Sunset Shimmer said as she nodded her head. “Firelock, you are going to work on your pyrokinesis. Sweetie Belle, you’re going to work on your telekinesis with me. I’m going to toss jellybeans at you. And I want you to catch them with your telekinesis. You and Firelock will get to eat all of the jellybeans you can catch.” 

Looking up, Sweetie Belle saw a jellybean incoming that she was not at all prepared for. Reaching out with her mind, she caught it somehow before it hit the ground. She thought of her big sister, Rarity. Rarity could levitate hundreds of items at the same time. Another jellybean was incoming and Sweetie Belle pushed the distraction out of her mind as she caught this jellybean mid-arc. Comparing herself to her sister would only cause nervousness, and Sweetie Belle couldn’t do magic if she got too nervous. Two more jellybeans were tossed at the same time, and Sweetie caught them both. 

Holding several jellybeans aloft, Sweetie Belle realised she had to concentrate upon them or else she might drop them. She had to keep them moving somehow so she could keep herself focused on them. They formed a circle around her head and began to move in a slow orbit. She had seen her big sister Rarity do this when Rarity was holding up a lot of items. The slow moving circle smoothed out the worry in her mind and it was easy to maintain. She caught several more jellybeans without incident and then moved them into orbit with the rest. 

She could keep going like this for a while. 

As Sweetie Belle kept her jellybeans in orbit around her head, Firelock had ignited. Her mane and tail were now ablaze, along with her hooves. A stream of fiery darts flew from her horn and collided with the stone that had been set up for target practice. 

“Impressive.” 

Sunset Shimmer turned to towards the sound of the voice and saw Rising Star. She could see him studying Firelock. She smiled as Rising Star approached. 

“Hmm, Sunset Shimmer, I do believe I might have to try and steal away your student,” Rising Star said in a somewhat amused voice. “Firelock, right? How would you like to learn how to turn your fire into a force of creation?” 

The filly’s fiery darts ceased to fire. She looked up at Rising Star. 

Lowering his head, Rising Star dropped himself down to eye level with Firelock. “You blaze brightly, but your flames sputter. You need more control. Allowing your anger to fuel your flames is good, but it is not a steady burn. Passion will also make your flames burn brightly, but also steadily. What makes you passionate?” 

“I dunno…” Firelock replied. 

Sunset Shimmer turned her attention back to Sweetie Belle, whom she had been tossing jellybeans to this whole time. The filly was sweating with concentration and her whole body trembled. Sunset knew that a few more jellybeans would make everything she was holding up come tumbling down. Sunset smiled. “Sweetie Belle, you’ve done well. Set them down upon the table over there, you and Firelock can divide them when we’re done here.” 

“I’m just a filly… I don’t know what I want to do just yet,” Firelock said to Rising Star. 

Sweetie Belle levitated the jellybeans over the table and then stood in the snow, feeling too hot. Her horn ached a little bit, but not too bad. She hadn’t failed. She was showing a lot of improvement over her telekinesis once she let go of a good warm up destructive burst. 

“Firelock, how would you like to come inside the foundry to have a look around and see what fire can do?” Rising Star asked. 

“Firelock, this is a great opportunity for you… even if you’re not interested, it never hurts to have a look and learn a little bit.” Sunset offered the foal a reassuring smile. “Rising Star is a good pony and he can be trusted.” 

“I’d like to have a look,” Firelock said as she looked first at Rising Star and then at Sunset Shimmer. 

“Good… you go with Rising Star and I’m going to stay here and have a talk with Sweetie Belle about magic… good luck, Firelock.” Sunset Shimmer lifted up her hoof and waved goodbye. 

Taking off at a trot, Rising Star headed for the forge, and Firelock took off after him, her portion of the jellybeans forgotten in her excitement. 

“Sweetie Belle, you and I are going to talk about advanced telekinesis…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 692
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky could feel the sun setting. It was strong now, so much stronger, he had been exposed to so much shadow energy during the experiments at Hidden Hollow Fortress. His thin, weak, frail seeming body no longer felt thin, weak, or frail once the sun went down. 

With a gentle touch, he rubbed his face where the first few scales had grown in, having broken the skin and become visible. It had scabbed over a bit, but it was healing. The scales were black, just like the scales that covered his talons and half of his left front leg. Scales were growing into other places as well, and Bucky suspected that one day very soon, all of the scarred places would be covered over in smooth, shimmering, supple scales. 

His body was healing, improving, becoming stronger and more fit. Exposure to the shadow generator was having a profound effect upon him. Lean wiry muscle could now be found under his shaggy pelt. 

With a slurp, Bucky sucked copious amounts of drool back into his mouth. He had been staring at Thistle and Berry, who were curled up together on the couch while listening to a record on the phonograph. A hungry looking lupine grin cracked Bucky’s muzzle. 

Bucky. 

Bucky’s tufted ears perked. 

Bucky, meet me in front of your tower. We need to talk. It’s me, Shining Armor.

There was an explosion of snowflakes as Bucky vanished. 



 

“Bucky, we have incoming. I wasn’t able to detect him at first, because he had shielded himself, but Twilight found him. She’s coming to you right now to talk to you.” Shining Armor’s projection looked emotional; frantic even. His usual calm demeanour was gone. “Bucky, you can’t let her go. Do anything you have to do to stop her.” 

A toothy scowl appeared upon Bucky’s face. 

“Bucky, please… Twily is pregnant. I can’t lose her, not after losing Cadance and her foals. We’re very short on time—” 

“Does Celestia know?” Bucky asked, cutting Shining Armor off. 

“No… no, Bucky, she’s too dangerous. Right now, she is emotional and Celestia is not in a perfect state of control. If she was to engage this possible alicorn in a fight, there would be all kinds of rampant destruction if something happened… or worse, they might have a means to hurt Celestia. We don’t know. Scorpan and I made the decision to keep her out of this. Twilight knows because she’s the one that finally saw through the shield of non-detection with her best divination magics. But you can’t let her go and fight. Here she comes!” Shining Armor vanished. 

Overhead, Bucky heard wings. He watched as Twilight came streaking in for a landing. He said nothing and waited for Twilight to speak. 

“Oh good, I’m glad I caught you before you went into your office to work for the night,” Twilight said in a somewhat breathless voice as she trotted up to Bucky. “Bucky, we have an emergency. I’m going to deal with it, but Shining Armor insisted that I come and tell you about it, and I promised that I would… but I think we have an enemy alicorn inbound. Well, he might be an alicorn, I don’t know. Anyway, if things look bad, I’ll break off and get help, so if you can, get Sunset Shimmer, Witching Hour, Tiddlywinks, and Lyra together—” 

“Twilight…” 

“Yes Bucky?” Twilight replied, looking somewhat nervous and a little annoyed that Bucky had interrupted her. 

“Do you trust me?” Bucky asked. 

“Well of course I do… what…” 

Black tendrils of shadow flowed from Bucky’s body and over Twilight’s. They went into her ears, flowed into her eyes, wriggled up her nostrils, and crept inside of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back into her head and Twilight Sparkle fell down into the snow with a thump. 

Shining Armor reappeared, looking worried. “Sorry Twily… I hope you’ll forgive me.” 

“Sleep well Twilight,” Bucky said as he lifted her up. He carried her inside of his tower, laid her down upon a small sofa, and then turned to look at Shining Armor, who had followed him inside. 

“He is in the lowlands that exist between Manehatten and Fillydelphia, heading towards Canterlot. You need to hurry. He’s not moving fast, he’s saving his energy,” Shining Armor said. 

“Got it.” Bucky’s horn flashed and his black cloak appeared, draped around his body. 



 

Flying at the speed of dark, Bucky hurtled towards his target, guided by Shining Armor. He wasn’t flying so much as he was shadow winking several hundred yards forward at a time. He didn’t need wings. 

You are Equestria’s sword and I am its shield… I will do all that I can to protect you. 

A sense of grim resolve settled over Bucky as he steeled himself for a fight. He hoped that Twilight would forgive him. He winked forwards, almost a thousand feet at a time, surging through the darkening sky faster than most pegasi. He was insubstantial, a shadow drifting from one pocket of dark to another, and he was ready for a fight. 

You know Bucky, moving like this, you could cross the ocean in no time at all… 

Ahead, Bucky saw lights. In the distance, the faint lights of Fillydelphia twinkled on the distant horizon. Each shadow wink brought Bucky closer. It was darker here on the east coast, and Bucky drank deep of the dark, feeling revitalised. 

He’s close… hang on, I’ll ignite a flare around him. 

Off to his left, Bucky saw the explosion of light. He cast multiple augmentations upon his body, powerful defensive enchantments to enhance himself. He moved in to engage his target. 



 

Moving in, Bucky opened up with a beam of pure telekinetic fury, applying several hundred thousand tons of force into a tight, narrow beam. The beam struck the enemy pony’s shields, caused them to ripple, but did not pierce them. Bucky flew in a curve, winking in and out of existence, a shadow borne upon the wind. He avoided several beams aimed at him and began to cackle as the lust for battle overtook him. One shot did strike home, and Bucky saw a magenta coloured shield around him absorb the blast. 

There were mountains off in the distance and the lowlands down below. 

Billowing black wings made of shadowstuff formed at Bucky’s sides and he began a strafing run, firing off rapid shots of telekinetic force interspersed with barrier breaking spells. The enemy alicorn’s shields fizzled and popped, but held. 

The night sky lit up almost as bright as day as the battle heated up. Electricity arced from the enemy alicorn’s horn and Bucky winked out of existence. When he reappeared, Bucky attacked from a different angle, coming up from below his foe. 

The alicorn teleported away in flash of light. He reappeared a good distance away and a crackling globe of electrical energy appeared around his body. He launched several orbs of ball lightning at Bucky. 

First casting a quick grounding spell, Bucky prepared his defenses for lightning based attacks and then he winked away once more. He tried a new approach and slipped into shadow, giving all of himself over. 

The air filled with a terrible stench and the temperature plummeted. Now a lethal ball of gas, Bucky made his way for the alicorn, who tried to teleport away, Bucky winked to follow him. Bucky’s toxic mist form was blocked by the alicorn’s shields, so Bucky dropped away to try something else. 

Overhead, a massive storm began to form, a swirling maelstrom. Lighting flashed and thunder roared. The enemy alicorn, now glowing with a silver light, charged towards Bucky. 

When Bucky tried to shadow wink away, he found that he couldn’t. Almost panicking, Bucky threw everything he had into a shield breaching spell just as the alicorn was about to collide with him. Shining Armor’s shield bubble vanished, dissipating into crackling sparks. 

Both Bucky and the enemy alicorn were defenseless for a moment as they impacted, slamming into each other with terrific force. The only thing that saved Bucky from grievous injury was the fact that he had augmented his body before battle. It still knocked the wind out of him though, and it hurt a great deal. Snarling, Bucky ignored his pain and lashed out with his talons as he veered away from the alicorn. 

His claws raked over the back of the alicorn’s neck and down his withers, raking open gashes several inches deep, going right down to the bone in a few places. The alicorn screamed and teleported away. 

Much to Bucky’s relief, his shadow magic began working again. Whatever spell had blocked it now seemed to be broken. He took a moment to catch his breath and tried to see where his foe had gone. 

Bucky, this is draining me… the distance… I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. 

The alicorn swooped down out of the thick stormclouds that now circled above, his horn blazing, a beam of pure destructive energy aimed at Bucky. It struck Bucky’s shield and raw thaumaturgic energy crackled all around him. It washed over him like a wave breaking on the beach. Below him, the earth was split in two by the force of the blast, which ripped open a canyon in the ground beneath the aerial combatants. 

Trusting in Shining Armor’s shield, Bucky flew upwards, into the beam, right where his enemy couldn’t see him. Bucky struck out with dark magic, sending black agony coursing through his enemy. 

The alicorn spasmed, his body contorted, and his head jerked about. The beam went lancing off towards the mountains. Bucky used this moment where the alicorn was stunned to grab the alicorn in his telekinesis and hurled him towards the mountains. 

There was a dull thud as the alicorn broke the sound barrier. Bucky went streaking off after him. The alicorn slammed into one of the mountains, about a third of the way down from the peak, and the entire upper section of the mountain exploded from the force of the impact, the upper section shearing off and becoming rubble. 

The alicorn rose up out of the rubble, silver flames writhed around his body, and his eyes glowed white. Bucky, held aloft by darkness, cloaked in shadow, stared down at his foe. Lightning crackled around the two combatants. Bucky took this moment to get the upper hoof. His body shimmered, warped, and turned into a dragon. 

He dove, and as he did so, he breathed out a terrible cloud of ice breath. Ice formed over the enemy alicorn, whose movements slowed down. Bucky inhaled and let go of another blast. His enemy released a flurry of telekinetic bolts, but Bucky ignored those. This body was disposable. 

Lunging forwards, he swiped at the alicorn with his dragon talons, but his enemy teleported away. Bucky breathed again, sending more icy death in the direction of his foe. Bucky was beginning to realise that his foe fought with brute force, but no finesse. It was all telekinetic force beams, shields, and a bit of storm magic, but no hallmarks of alicorn combat. No shapeshifting. Weak augmentation. Bucky had clawed right through it. His foe had immense power, but not the skill to use it. The alicorn made clumsy attacks. 

Swooping through the air, Bucky snatched up a massive multi-ton boulder. He made a few feints, watched as the alicorn teleported a few times, and then hoping he would get lucky, he hurled his massive rock. The alicorn dove out of the way and returned fire, hammering Bucky’s armored body with painful telekinetic blasts. 

The alicorn seemed to be tiring, and the cold attacks were having an effect upon him. Bucky didn’t let up, clawing, breathing, clawing, never giving his foe a moment to catch his breath. Bucky was relentless. 

The alicorn teleported some distance away and as Bucky took off after him, the alicorn unleashed a massive torrent of telekinetic force at Bucky. It caught Bucky in the face and a moment’s later, his head was ripped free of his neck. The dragon’s body disintegrated as it died. 

Some distance away, Bucky popped back into existence and dropped into shadow. He contemplated his next move. Bucky was starting to feel a little fatigued. He had also learned why real dragons were afraid of unicorns and alicorns. Decapitation was an unpleasant experience. Bucky added it to the list of horrors that he had experienced. 

It was time to end this. Bucky fired off the worst spell he knew. 



 

Bucky landed a short distance away from where the alicorn had fell. His foe could still be dangerous. He approached, shielded, ready for a confrontation, half in and half out of shadow. He approached the convulsing alicorn, who appeared to be shielded. 

Overhead, the whirling maelstrom seemed to be dying out, the alicorn’s will now broken. 

The alicorn lay on his side, his legs kicking, his barrel heaving. Bucky watched as the alicorn defecated, leaving him prone, helpless, and unable to defend himself. The alicorn’s horn flared and a weak bolt of energy was fired, which hit Bucky’s shields, but did not penetrate them. 

“You’re no alicorn,” Bucky said in a low voice, a cold voice that was devoid of emotion. Looking down upon his helpless, diarrhea stricken foe, Bucky saw a thin spiral of silver studded with gemstones around the false alicorn’s horn. 

Casting a breaching spell, Bucky got rid of the shields protecting his fallen foe. Reaching out his talons, he yanked the spiral from the horn of his enemy and watched as the wings vanished. He felt strong magic in the silver spiral. Powerful harmony magic, clean, pure, it radiated with a strong harmonic vibe. 

“You remind me of a pony I know named Trixie,” Bucky said as the now unicorn shat himself, doubling over in pain and whimpering as everything inside of him squirted out. Bucky stood over his fallen foe and shook his head. “Power without discipline is useless. Trixie discovered that. She had a magic trinket that gave her the powers of an alicorn. She has since grown wiser. Too bad you will not.” 

Reaching down, with one swift movement, Bucky opened the unicorn’s throat with his talons. He felt his claws go deep, scraping against bones in the back of the unicorn’s neck. With one swipe, Bucky had almost decapitated his enemy. He looked down at his bloody claws and then at the unicorn that looked so much like Trixie. 

After a moment of quiet contemplation, Bucky’s thoughts were interrupted by Shining Armor’s projection. 

“He might have had useful information,” Shining Armor said. 

Shrugging, Bucky did not reply. He wiped his talons upon the grass and continued to stare at the unicorn he had killed. He shook his head and then he turned to look at Shining Armor. “I am glad that Trixie made better choices. I have grown fond of her. I am very, very fond of her. This could have been her. I wonder what she might say if she saw herself in the mirror.” 

“Bucky… I don’t know what to say.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said as he teleported the dead body into nothingness. “I couldn’t have done this without you.” 

“Cadance needs her protector… her father… and I needed to protect my friend,” Shining Armor replied. “I expect both of us are going to get lectured… the mother of all lectures by the mother of all ponies.” 

“Oh yeah, we’re in deep, Shining Armor. Ever been wing slapped silly? Can you even feel pain in your current form?” 

“I suspect that I will be soon finding out. What are you going to do with the amplifier?” Shining Armor asked. 

“Take it home, study it, the design is unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bucky replied. “You should return to Canterlot and tell auntie that her ponies are safe. I’m heading home. If she comes for me, I’ll be waiting.” 

“We made a good team, Bucky…” 
	
> Chapter 693
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Home. It was terrifying to go home. Fearful of what might be waiting for him, Bucky continued homewards, shadow winking through the darkness, a shade borne upon the currents of the night, tugging the odd magical amplifier along with him. Already, he was feeling a compulsion to place it over his horn, but the call was weak and he ignored it. 

The lights of home were visible. He saw the school, the farmhouse, his tower, the small tower in which Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks lived, as well as the other buildings that dotted the landscape. Further on in the distance was Ponyville, a sparkling jewel embedded in snow made silver by moonlight. For a moment, Bucky paused, hovering upon wings made of shadowstuff, and he looked over the places he called home. Tilting his head, he saw Canterlot in the distance. Canterlot had once been the city light, a shining beacon upon Canterhorn peak. Much of the city was dark now; it had suffered so much in the past year and continued to undergo so many changes.

Canterlot had been his home, along with Baltimare, where the Bitters family estate houses were located. Feeling a pang of regret, Bucky came to the conclusion that Canterlot deserved a better fate. Canterlot was a city impossible, built upon a rock shelf on top of a mountain, with no space around the immediate area for farmlands, no means to grow its own food, it was difficult to get water up into the city, it was just barren rock that ponies insisted on turning into a city. The gems that had once made the city wealthy were long gone; the mountain had almost been hollowed out by the mining. Canterlot was a city sustainable only through magic and insanity. After some time spent upon reflection, Bucky realised that Canterlot was a city of defiance; a city built and then sustained to show that it could be done. 

Tearing his eyes away from the dim lights of Canterlot, Bucky headed home. 



 

As he descended, Bucky saw a collection of figures waiting for him, including a tall white alicorn. For a moment, he entertained the notion of escape, but he had no idea where to go. He drifted downwards, aware that his presence had been detected. He dropped out of shadow, fell several feet, and landed in the snow, his cloak settling around his body. 

Celestia was striding forwards, she must have came when Shining Armor had told her what had been done, and she was moving. There was no point in running, Bucky heaved a sigh and stood there, resigning himself to whatever was about to happen. 

Behind Celestia, now very much awake, Twilight Sparkle also moved with a great deal of hustle and bustle in her step. Her expression was unreadable and Bucky supposed that he had it coming. Standing nearby, Shining Armor’s projection flickered as he watched his sister move. 

It was so very easy to feel so very small around Princess Celestia. She was a tall pony, but more than that, she had a presence, something about her that made her seem even larger, ever taller than her actual height suggested. 

When Bucky felt himself snatched up into the air by magic, he went limp, offering no resistance. He closed his eyes, waiting for it. A moment later, he felt himself pressed against a warm body and there were two wings wrapped around him. Celestia’s knees buckled and Bucky found himself down in the snow, pressed to Celestia’s neck, her wings tight around him, and he realised that she was crying. 

A second later, a very solid mass collided with the both of them, and Bucky, who could see nothing, realised it was Twilight Sparkle. A warm sense of pleasant confusion settled into Bucky’s mind as he came to the conclusion that he might live through this act of stupidity. 

“You stupid little pony! What were you thinking?” 

Whoops, Celestia still sounded angry… 

He was let go of, lifted again, held aloft, and Bucky felt himself being turned around so he could be looked at. For a moment, he saw Celestia’s magenta eyes, there was a deep ocean filled with frantic worry to be found within them as she looked him over, her eyes darting back and forth as she no doubt took in every detail. He was spun around and he felt a wing touch his cheek, his good cheek, and he saw Celestia looking into his eyes. 

“You seem whole of body…” 

“Shining Armor shielded me. I’m fine,” Bucky said in a tiny, forgiveness seeking voice. He glanced at Twilight, who was beside Celestia in the snow. “I brought you home a present.” Bucky held aloft the weird magical amplifier and gave it an enticing shake. 

“What do you say, Twilight? Do we forgive him?” Celestia asked. 

“I already have,” Twilight replied as she rose up onto her hooves. 

Also rising up, Celestia stood in the snow, her expression one of anger and relief. She took the amplifier out of Bucky’s levitation bubble and began to examine it. Her eyes narrowed and her ears pinned back against her head. She shook her head and her eyes widened. 

“This is an Element of Harmony,” Celestia said, her voice a stunned gasp. 

The world around Bucky vanished. 



 

The endless grey expanse of the astral realm stretched out in all directions. The sky was filled with stars. Bucky, now in alicorn form, floated over the clouds beneath his hooves. Twilight was a short distance away, and Celestia was studying Bucky’s prize. 

The alicorn blazed as bright as the sun. She moved around the aether, almost as if she was swimming, calling down stars from overhead. They moved around her in a circular orbit, and the Element of Harmony was now a glowing red gemstone. It glowed with fierce intensity when Celestia drew it closer. 

“What secrets do you have?” Celestia asked as her horn ignited with a radiant golden glow. The alicorn's face became serene, composed, and Celestia’s eyes closed as she began to concentrate. 

After what felt like a brief eternity, Celestia’s face filled with worry and her eyes opened. “You are all wrong… everything about you is wrong…” 

“Celestia?” Twilight asked as she drifted closer. 

Pushing the gem away from her with her magic, Celestia shook her head. “Too much goodness is just as bad as too much evil. Too much harmony is just as bad as total disharmony. In all things a balance must be struck. This gem is the very essence of purity. Dangerously so.” 

Reaching out a hoof, Celestia tapped a glowing star that orbited around her. It became a projection screen, and as it took shape a glowing tether of magic connected to the fierce red gem. Images danced upon the projection screen, and then other stars became projection screens. Flickering images filled the screens, and Celestia began to arranged them all around her in an almost spherical pattern. She pulled Bucky and Twilight closer to her side. 

“Let us go with something recent,” she said as she tapped a screen with her hoof. 

The projection flickered and the gem pulsed with light. On the screen, a dark image formed, difficult to see, but an alicorn came into focus. He had a stern face with fierce looking eyes. He was staring, and Bucky realised as he looked at it that he was seeing out of somepony’s eyes, looking into the eyes of the Night Stallion himself. 

“I have grown weary of your constant boasting, your arrogance, and your whiny screeching. It is time to see if you are the pony that you claim to be,” the Night Stallion said in a voice that seemed to be devoid of any warmth or emotion. 

“Yes, Night Stallion. For you, anything,” a voice replied. 

“Go forth with a message. Announce yourself. Show them their weakness. Let them fear you, so that it might weaken them. Once they know you are there, go and kill the one called ‘Twilight Sparkle,’ for she is a threat to us. She is weak and spineless but she is their alicorn of magic. Kill her before she realises that she is dangerous.” 

“Yes, Night Stallion, I will do as you ask…” 

Reaching out, Celestia tapped the screen, freezing the image. Her lip was pulled back in a snarl. She shook her head and her eyes blazed with actual flames. Celestia touched the image again, shoving it away, and she began to look around her at other images projected on moving magical tapestries. 

Bucky saw a familiar sight. It looked an awful lot like some greater demon, big, bloated, fat, and greasy. 

Pulling the image upwards for a better look, Celestia set it in motion. There were several alicorns on the image, all of them battling what had to be demon lord from beyond the mirror. One of the alicorns was picked up and then impaled upon a shard of stone rubble. 

“Wait!” Bucky cried. “Go back!” 

Celestia made the image go backwards a bit and then let it play forwards, only this time the image was slowed down and easier to see. 

Bucky waited, pointing, until the alicorn was just being slammed onto the spike of rock. “There! Did you see it? He had something on his horn but when he was impaled, it vanished and you can see his wings fading away.” 

Replaying the image again, the trio examined what Bucky had noticed. 

“The elements must go back to their source if something happens to their bearer,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Except we still have this element… I guess they can’t jump dimensions. I wonder if the Night Stallion realised that the element would not come back if the worst happened?” 

“I do believe he has made a mistake,” Celestia said in a low voice. “He is arrogant and horrible… foolish even.” She shook her head. “But this element is all wrong… it is a dreadful thing.” 

“We know that their Elements of Harmony gives their bearers the appearance of alicorns,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Probably because alicorns are the embodiment of harmonic order… I dunno… but I am getting ideas.”

“We don’t know what we have.” Bucky peered at the glowing red gemstone and he had a strong desire to touch it now. The compulsion was strong. 

Gasping, Twilight Sparkle covered her mouth with her hoof as she looked at another screen. Reaching down with her other hoof, she touched it, setting the images in motion. 

On the screen, row after row of unicorns were kept in tiny narrow stalls. Hundreds of stalls stretched on and on in a long corridor. Crystalline fibre cables were connected to their horns. Their eyes were milky, almost dead and lifeless. Their bodies were held up by slings hung under their bellies and under their heads. Their bodies were almost colourless, emaciated looking, and feeding tubes went down their noses. 

“Tell me, Sunfire, do you pity them?” The Night Stallion’s voice was unmistakable. 

“No, Night Stallion, I do not. They were the weak ones. As they were, they were too weak to live, too weak to fight, too weak to be of service. But now, they have been given the greatest of all gifts, strength, they get to serve and keep our city alive.” 

“Sunfire, sacrifices must be made. All of these hungry mouths would have killed us. These insignificant souls would have been the death of us all. Keeping them alive as they were would have been folly. The magical might of one insignificant unicorn is nothing, it is a drop of water in a desert.” The Night Stallion shook his head. “But the magical might of thousands of insignificant unicorns linked together is what shields our city, keeps our air breathable, free of poison, keeps our water flowing, gives us light, gives us power, allows us to survive another day, keeps the darkness away, and helps our portals to be powered up. They serve a noble purpose, and truly, they are now the greatest among us. They give us life. Together, they are an ocean, and the ocean was a mighty thing, but I don’t suppose you remember what the ocean was. Do you understand, Sunfire?” 

“Yes, yes I understand, Night Stallion,” the unknown voice replied. 

“Of course you do, Sunfire. This is why you have been chosen as the Element of Obedience. I have a job that you must do, and you are uniquely suited for it,” the Night Stallion said. “You will have the glory of ensuring that others live. You will become one of the greatest among us.” 

Reaching out, Celestia touched the screen, silencing it, unable to hear anymore. She turned away, unable to look at it. Her eyes were filled with sorrow, and the first sign of coming tears manifested as her eyes began to glisten with moisture, the fire that had been blazing in them having gone out. 

Realising what the gemstone was, Twilight stared at it with a horrified expression. “This is monstrous…” She shook her head and a fearful expression escaped her quivering lips. “Get it away from me, I don’t want to touch it, even by accident!” 

“He’s using them as batteries,” Bucky said, sounding a bit strangled. His voice was raspy. He thought about the long row of filthy stalls, each one holding a unicorn, each one a tiny spark of magic. He felt numbed and an icy cold sensation settled into his guts. Right now, more than anything, he wanted to be in bed surrounded by his wives and foals. 

“Perfect harmony quells all forms of dissent, bringing about unquestioning obedience,” Celestia said as she stared at the gem. A tear rolled down her cheek. “Survival through extreme circumstances will cause you to do horrible things. We should not judge them too harshly.” 

Bucky disagreed, but he said nothing. He had come home expecting wing slaps, but had been hugged instead, and the recent revelation had left him in a peculiar state. He wasn’t in the mood to disagree or argue. 

“It’s red…” Twilight said, covering her face with her front hooves. She began to sob. “It’s red… it’s a ruby...” 

“Twilight, what is wrong?” Celestia asked, wrapping her wing around Twilight and pulling the smaller alicorn closer. 

Distraught, Twilight Sparkle did not reply, but let out a pained screech. She buried her face against Celestia’s neck and wept. She screamed once, then twice, and then just sobbed. 

Eyeing the red gemstone, Bucky understood. He felt a heaviness in his heart as he reached the same conclusion that Twilight Sparkle had. “Rainbow Dash, a pony that Twilight Sparkle loves so very much, is the Element of Loyalty. Perfect loyalty is unquestioning obedience.” 

Recoiling as if she had been struck, the muscles along Celestia’s jaw tightened as she pulled Twilight Sparkle away from the red ruby gemstone. All around her, the projection screens popped out of existence, becoming stars once more, which streaked off to the astral sky. 

“This should have been a victory… but I just feel hollow and empty inside,” Bucky said. 
	
	
> Chapter 694
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Biting her lip, Luna agonised over something she needed to do, something she needed to say before her sister returned to Canterlot. It was something that would be easier to do in private, but Luna knew she wanted others to hear it. She looked around the room, meeting the eyes of several ponies. Shining Armor was spending a little time with Cadance. Bucky was busy washing down a bottle of naval strength gin with Twilight. Thistle and Celestia had just wrapped up a conversation about water purity. 

Something dreadful had taken place in the astral realms, Luna was certain of that, but so far, everypony had been tight lipped about what had taken place. The magical amplifier had been placed into Bucky’s vault and would be moved to Hidden Hollow Fortress later. 

“Sister?” Luna’s voice was a shrill squeak. 

Turning her head, Celestia looked at Luna, and saw that her sister was trembling. "Do you need something, Luna?” 

“Yes,” Luna replied, her ears drooping down to the sides of her face. She took a step closer to the big cushion that Celestia was laying upon. She stumbled, almost fell, she was far too nervous about what she was about to do. She lifted her head, looked Celestia in the eye, and gulped. She licked her lips, took a deep breath, and said, “Sister, please forgive me.” 

The room went silent. Shining Armor turned his head, his flickering weak projection now watching the interaction between the two sisters. Bucky slammed down his glass of gin, poured another, and refilled Twilight’s glass, of which she had drank, very, very little. 

“Forgive you for what, Luna?” 

“For what I did… hurting you… hurting our ponies,” Luna replied. 

“Luna, I have already forgiven you—” 

“No… I broke a promise to you… I hurt you… I did such awful things.” Luna shook her head and her pale blue mane spilled over her face. “It hurts so much… I cannot bear it anymore.” 

Scurrying forwards, Luna lept onto Celestia’s cushion and threw her forelegs around her sister’s neck. She squeezed with all of the strength that her small foal body could muster, closed her eyes, and clung to her sister. Luna’s body was half on and half off of the cushion. 

“Luna, you are forgiven,” Celestia whispered as she wrapped her wings around Luna so that she might pull her sister closer. “Please, Luna, I am begging you, you must not torture yourself over what has taken place.” 

“I was the Element of Loyalty… I was supposed to be the strong one… I betrayed you… it hurts so much sister… I was bonded with the element and I still feel the wound it left in my spirit when it tore itself away from me… I cannot make the hurting stop.” Luna’s voice was a pitiful, pained whine, and her whole body trembled as she clung to her sister’s neck. 

Feeling eyes upon him, Bucky turned his head and saw Twilight staring at him. Her eyes looked haunted. The stunning revelation of the Element of Obedience was still fresh in his mind and now poor Twilight was hearing this. He saw her wings flutter and her lower lip quivered. 

Bowing her head down, Celestia placed her mouth near Luna’s ear “When I banished you, I lost my bonds with the Elements as well… I think that means we were both at fault… they abandoned me, and I did not see them for almost a thousand years. I failed you… please forgive me…” 

A faint pink light flared from Cadance’s horn and her eyes took on a rosy pink glow. Energy crackled, and bright pink sparks arced from the tip of the alicorn foal’s horn. The room was filled with the overpowering smell of roses. An explosion of warm pink light burst away from Cadance and when the bright flash was over, Cadance had undergone a profound change. Her mane and tail, which had been hair up to this point, had become ethereal. It was now tri coloured rainbow of violet, of gold, and rosy pink. Little pinkish red hearts bubbled through the waving ethereal mass. Her mane and tail wafted about on unseen currents, blown by an intangible wind. 

Cadance vibrated, her whole body trembled, and she blinked her eyes at Shining Armor. 

“Cady bug?” Shining Armor’s head tilted off to one side. 

“Uh oh!” Cadance said as she continued to shake. Her wings fluttered and her horn grew brighter and brighter. 

“Cadance?” Celestia began to look alarmed. 

Raising his eyebrow, Bucky knocked back a whole glass of naval strength gin. He lifted his talons and tried to shield his eyes from the pink radiance that Cadance emanated. 

“Whoops…” The word was spoken as Cadance exploded. There was a violent explosion of pinkness through the living room, filling the air with the scent of roses and little pink hearts. Little pink and purple sparkles glittered in the air, drifting down like snowflakes. “Oopsie doodle.” 

Trembling, Bucky blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. He lifted up Twilight Sparkle’s undrank glass of naval strength gin, guzzled it down, set the glass upon the table, picked up the bottle, drank the remains in a few swallows, set the bottle down, and then wiped his muzzle with his right foreleg. 

“If you will excuse me, I am going to screw my wives,” Bucky said as he got out of his chair. He sauntered out the room, walking funny, leaving behind a trail of drool as he departed. 

Celestia blinked as she watched him go. 

“You know what?” Twilight nodded her head. “That sounds like a really good idea. I have ponies I could be screwing as well.” Saying nothing else, she lept out of her chair, bounded for the front door, opened it, stepped out, pulled the door shut, and then Twilight Sparkle was gone. 

“I need to go!” Thistle squeaked, taking off in hot pursuit of her husband. 

“I wonder if there is something wrong with me, but I do not feel aroused,” Luna said. She looked her sister in the eye. “Are you okay, sister?” 

“I am filled with love and affection,” Celestia replied, lying through her teeth. “You are still a foal, Luna. So of course you are not aroused. And I am filled with my love for you.” Right now, more than anything else, Celestia wanted the coldest cold shower in existence. Perhaps liquid helium would do the trick. 

“Are you sure you are okay?” Luna asked. 

“I am fine,” Celestia replied as she struggled not to grit her teeth. “Cadance just had a little love surge. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.” 

Cadance giggled. 

“Oh my, look at the time… I gotta go,” Shining Armor said. “I love you, Cadance…” There was a fizzle as Shining Armor vanished. 

“I feel so very affectionate,” Luna said. She craned her neck, tilted her head, and kissed her sister on the cheek. She hugged and squeezed her sister’s neck. “I really am sorry, you know.” 

“I know that, Luna. I am sorry as well.” 

“I want so very much to promise that I will never hurt you again…” 



 

Bucky woke with the taste of Bon Bon upon his lips. His whole face felt crusted and sticky, the hair upon his muzzle was stiff and matted. One of Bon Bon’s hind legs was still draped over his neck and her fuzzy foal hole, which was inches away from his muzzle, winked good morning at him. Looking down, he saw Thistle’s head between his legs, she was drooling, her mouth open, and her neck was pressed tight against his balls. Bucky tried to shove Bon Bon off of him, he would never say to her face, but she weighed a ton, and when he did give her a little shove, there was a moan from Lyra. 

Lifting his head, Bucky saw that Bon Bon was using Lyra’s teats as a pillow, and pushing Bon Bon had caused her to rub against Lyra. Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed his head and tried to remember just what had happened last night. 

Cadance had happened. 

Bucky had gone back to the bedroom to see who was awake only to find that everyone was awake and that he was outnumbered. He had given it a valiant effort though. He rubbed his head some more. He wiggled, trying to get out from under Bon Bon. Her tail twitched as his shoulder brushed up against her teats. He bumped up against Belisama, who gave him an irritated half awake squawk in retaliation. 

Little Belisama, who was shy about doing things while the others were around. The others had pulled pillowcases over their heads and while Bucky had been giving Belisama a little pony ride, there had been a lot of blind groping of each other’s bodies done by the others. 

At least boundaries had been respected. No penis had been slipped into Bon Bon or Lyra, even by accident. Lyra had to be sore though, having been the victim of the game ‘who can make Lyra cum the fastest.’ Bucky could not remember who had won, it was hazy, but he supposed it could be said that Lyra was the ultimate winner. Lyra at least, could give herself over in complete and total trust now. 

When Bucky moved his body again, Thistle’s bulk shifted, sliding down between his legs, tugging on his balls. Her head ended up down there and he felt the sharp points of her teeth against tender flesh. Eyes now opened wide, Bucky was very, very careful about extracting himself. 

He slipped free from Bon Bon’s big heavy plot, shook his head, and slipped out of bed. 



 

It was still early, too early for most of the house to be awake. Bucky stood in the shower, letting the hot water rain down upon his aching body. A few new scales were growing out on his backside. Half awake, Bucky thought about how showers were not ideal for equines. The shower came down upon the back, on the neck, on the head, and even on the backside. Washing his belly took effort though, standing up, to twisting around, because rinsing off the soap was of vital importance. 

His mind drifted to other things. He had killed a pony last night. Celestia and Luna had a chance to have a much needed talk. Cadance had transformed into the very equinomorphic embodiment of immortal love and all of its aspects last night. 

Including lust. 

No telling what that did to the other household members. Or how far the surge had traveled. A few more of those and there could be population issues within the year. Bucky let the water beat down upon his face, his eyes closed, and he felt his mane become waterlogged. 

He contemplated the effect of Cadance’s surge upon his griffons, if it had traveled that far. The back of his mind also worried about Rising Star, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Ripple, and Bittersweet. 

His mind reminded him that he had killed a pony. He gave the thought a violent mental shove and reasoned with himself that he had killed a golem made of meat. His brain, not willing to let the issue drop, reminded him that it was pony meat. Bucky’s mental retort told his conscience to shut up, that golem made out of pony meat was going to try and kill Twilight and that Twilight was pregnant. 

The shower curtain was pulled back and one very sleepy looking griffoness flapped into the shower. She landed on Bucky’s drenched back, settled in, and rested her body against the back of Bucky’s neck and his head, her beak coming to rest between his ears. Bucky pulled the shower curtain closed. He heard a peep and a yawn. 

He reminded his brain that Twilight Sparkle was the Scholar and that he was the Guardian. She was the Librarian and he was the Knight. The back of his mind suggested that his enemy had been subdued and could have provided useful information. Feeling annoyed with himself, he decided to ignore his nagging conscience. 

He felt talon tips rubbing his neck, and the soft prickle-prickle of sharp claws almost but not quite teasing his skin. He felt the pads of Belisama’s rear feet rubbing his shoulders and his front legs. 

“Good morning, kitten.” 

“Good morning, tiny horse husband...” 
	
	
> Chapter 695
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a grunt, Big Mac emerged triumphant from his storage closet, holding a satin finished heavy duty cardboard box tied up with string. The box was dull, faded somewhat, and covered in dust. Carrying the string in his teeth, he moved from the closet so he could set the box upon his and Cheerilee’s bed. 

“Found it?” Cheerilee asked. 

“Eeyup.” 

There was an excited squeak from Babs as she trotted up to the edge of the bed and peered at the box, which was a faded shade of blue under all of the dust. 

“I dunno about this.” Applejack’s mouth pressed into a tight, narrow line. “Babs, darling, wouldn’t you like to wear a frilly dress and be all pretty and dolled up?” 

Clearing her throat, Cheerilee turned to look at Applejack. “She can still be pretty.” 

“I didn’t mean it that way.” Applejack’s green eyes flashed and she shook her head. 

Using his teeth, Big Mac yanked at an end of string, undoing the bow that had been tied. The string, old and dusty, fell away. Reaching out a hoof, Big Mac used his manipulation shoe to get a grip on the box lid. He lifted it, pulling the box open, and flipped the lid over onto the bed. 

Inside of the box was a moth proof bag. Even though Big Mac’s movements were a little clumsy, he was careful when opening the bag. There was a flash of dark green and the rumple of aged plastic, as well as the scent of mothballs. A dark bottle glass green jacket was pulled out and laid upon the bed. Big Mac smoothed it out, his eyes were misty, but it might have been because of the dust. 

Babs stood near, spellbound. 

“Babs, honey, there is nothing wrong with a young filly wanting to wear a tuxedo coat to look good,” Cheerilee said, her muzzle a few inches away from Babs’ ear. “It takes courage to be different.” 

“I got this coat for the Ponyville Apple Country Cotillion. Granny Smith took on every odd job she could find, did extra laundry and sewing, and she scrimped and she saved until she had this coat.” Big Mac shook his head and then closed his eyes. “I was a very foolish colt. I said I hated it and I refused to wear it.” 

“Eeyup.” Applejack nodded, remembering that day all too well. “Made Granny Smith cry. Shame on you, Mac.” 

Stepping away, Big Mac opened his eyes. “Apple Bloom was still in diapers.” 

“Hey!” Apple Bloom looked up at her brother. 

Big Mac stared at the coat; the dust in the room caused his eyes to glaze over. “I apologised when I realised what it meant to Granny Smith. I wore the coat, went to the cotillion, stood next to the wall, and did my best not to be noticed.” Big Mac coughed. “I came home and I asked Granny Smith to dance with me and I kept telling her how sorry I was.” 

“You big softie,” Cheerilee said in a teasing voice. She bumped up against Big Mac’s side. Her head turned and she glanced at Babs. “Well, try it on.”

Licking her lips, nervous, Babs was careful as she pulled the coat down to try it on. She got her front legs through the sleeves, adjusted the coat, and then stood there. She looked up at Big Mac with a hopeful gaze.

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. 

Sensing something was wrong, that something seemed out of place, Babs looked over at Applejack. “Are we gonna fight about this too?” 

Cheerilee looked at Babs and then at Applejack. Her mouth opened, as if she might say something, but she held her tongue, waiting, knowing there would be a time for words if they were needed. 

Shaking her head, Applejack took a step backwards from Babs. “No… we ain’t gonna fight about this. I was just being stubborn and if I keep doing that, I’m gonna end up hurting somepony that I love… I’m sorry.” 

A cautious smile crept over Babs’ muzzle and she turned to look at Apple Bloom. “How do I look?” 

Before anything came spilling out, Apple Bloom clamped her mouth shut. She wanted to be honest, there was a powerful need to be honest, Apple Bloom didn’t like it. Babs looked too much like a colt in the jacket. Looking up at her sister, Apple Bloom had a glimmer of understanding about what Applejack might be feeling. But there was Babs’ feelings to think about, and Apple Bloom knew all too well how much honesty could hurt. “Babs, cousin, I think that Larch and Piña will think you look fantastic.” 

“You had better not give poor Larch a hard time when he comes over here and asks permission to take Babs to the dance,” Cheerilee said to Applejack. “He’s shy, he’s sweet, and he’s very, very sensitive. He is just the sort of colt you want to have around Babs.” Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed into a hard, flinty glare and she gave her sister in law a fierce stare. 

“The coat needs some adjusting,” Applejack said, ignoring Cheerilee. “I’ll take you over to Rarity’s and she’ll make it fit ya, she’s gotta make some adjustments to Apple Bloom’s dress so it’ll be all perfect.” Applejack, sighed, lowered her head, and then looked at Cheerilee. “I’ll be nice when Larch comes over.” 

“You had better,” Cheerilee replied in a flat voice. “I like little Larch.” 

“You like quiet sentimental types.” Applejack looked over at her bother and then back at Cheerilee. “I suppose I should trust your judgment.” 

“Eeyup.” Big Mac looked at his sister, then his wife, and then down at Babs. He ignored the family drama, leaned down, and kissed Babs on the cheek. “You look awful pretty… er… handsome?”

The filly shrugged and smiled as she looked up at Big Mac. Her eyes, warm and affectionate, held the faint shimmering sheen of happy tears. 

“I just had a thought,” Apple Bloom said, her expression becoming one of worry. 

“And that is?” Applejack asked. 

“Larch is a ward of the school… how is he gonna dress up?” Apple Bloom looked over at Babs and saw a concerned expression appear on her cousin’s face. “He ain’t got no money.” 

A low whinny slipped out of Applejack and the mare appeared to be chewing on something. Her muzzle scrunched as her tail twitched from side to side, slapping around her hind legs with soft thumps. “Daggum it, I ain’t letting anything ruin Apple Bloom and Babs’ big day. We need to find out if Larch is getting any help and if’n he ain’t, we’re gonna make certain he looks good and I don’t wanna hear no arguin’, consarnit.” 

“It seems that big, soft, sentimental types run in the Apple family,” Cheerilee said. 

“Shut yer pie hole, Cheerilee!” 



 

“Sir, we have an official letter of surrender from Princess Celestia,” Violet said as she placed a scroll case down upon the farmhouse library table. “She promises to make your life miserable for what you have done.” 

“I’m okay with that,” Bucky replied. 

“Dreary the donkey is here and she is working with Rising Star and Sunset Shimmer on the advanced prosthetic project. Lyra will be joining them, time permitting.” Violet looked over at Bucky. “The past week has been very, very busy. Are you holding up okay, sir?” 

The past week had been busy. Bucky had killed the Element of Obedience. Cadance had become the equinomorphic embodiment of love. He had been working on making a advanced prototype prosthetic leg for Black Briar. There had been all manner of enchantment done upon Apple Bloom’s crown, and still more to do. 

“Sir, you look exhausted.” Violet’s eyes narrowed and she looked at Bucky with concern as well as a well hidden bit of affection. 

“Violet, I killed a pony in a cold blood. I had him at my mercy and I reacted from anger rather than reason or logic. I am having some trouble assuaging my conscience. I have retreated into my work and I haven’t been sleeping right,” Bucky admitted. 

“Sir, you are a dimwitted dumbass, sir,” Violet said. 

“Yes, Violet, I know.”

Sighing, Violet shook her head. “Agnetha will be giving birth soon. Word has it she is giving birth to a male cub.” 

“That is pleasant news.” Bucky looked up from the ledger he was writing in. 

“Sir, it seems that Celestia suggested a name and Agnetha was quite taken with it…” 

“Oh?” Bucky set down the ledger upon the table and gave Violet a curious stare. 

“Sir, Agnetha plans to name the cub ‘Beauregard’—”

“OH SOD IT!” Bucky’s talons clenched into a fist. 

“Prince Beauregard will be born very soon. She might drop her cub before the coronation. She is hoping that you will be there for her. Also, King Tannis says hello.” 

Glowering, Bucky slumped down into his chair. He unclenched his talons and began to drum his talon fingers upon the arm of the chair. “She did this because of the coronation.” 

“Agnetha?” Violet raised her eyebrow. 

“No, auntie… this is her subtle revenge,” Bucky replied. 

“Your paranoia does not become you.” Violet shook her head. “You don’t name a foal or a cub based upon the principles of revenge. No, your auntie’s revenge is coming in the form that you are going to be Apple Bloom’s tutor in all of her royal duties. You are going to teach her everything she needs to know and she is going to start joining us while we work here in this library, doing what we do.” 

Bucky’s talon fingers ceased drumming and his ears perked. 

“I have a list of objectives,” Violet said, holding up a scroll tube in her telekinesis and waving it at Bucky. “Twilight Sparkle has her own list of duties expected from her as well.” 

“Hmm, I am actually quite happy about this.” Bucky sat up straight and looked Violet in the eye. “This is not onerous at all.” He smiled and his ears relaxed. 

“I couldn’t think of a better pair of teachers for Apple Bloom…” 



 

Standing in the middle of Rarity’s kitchen, Applejack looked at her friends, her green eyes glittering with determination. She looked at Rarity, at Pinkie Pie, at Fluttershy, and at Rainbow Dash. The only pony missing was Twilight Sparkle, who was busy. 

“I gotta be at the school in just a little bit… I have class to teach,” Rainbow Dash said as she began to pace with nervousness. 

“Just hang on Rainbow… this is an emergency.” Applejack’s eyes narrowed as she gave the impatient pegasus a commanding stare. “It has come to my attention that Larch is a ward of the school. He ain’t got much in the way of money, I already found out that it is Bucky himself that sees that Larch has a little spending money.” Applejack cleared her throat. “I talked with Violet for a few minutes. We have a colt that is taking two fillies to the coronation dance. He is going to need to be well dressed and he is going to need to be able to get flowers for both Babs and Piña.” 

“And we’re gonna help young love blossom?” Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced in place. 

“Yes, Pinkie, that is what we’re gonna do.” Applejack pushed her hat back on her head. 

“Ooooh, this is good!” Pinkie Pie said as she began to pronk around Rarity’s kitchen. 

“He’s gonna need a nice jacket, something that will match with Babs’ jacket and Piña’s dress. He’s gonna need a shirt and a nice tie. He’ll also need a bit of a trim to his mane because he’s scruffy looking and we’re gonna turn this pauper into a prince… and I won’t accept nothing less. Babs is getting the night she deserves and I ain’t settling for anything less than perfection.” 

Rarity’s lips puckered up in concentration for a moment as she looked at Applejack. “Big Mac’s old coat is bottle glass green. Piña’s gown is spring green. Larch would look good in something emerald green. I have a bolt of emerald green wool satin gabardine somewhere...” 

“We have a week,” Applejack said to Rarity. 

“Oh merciful stars, whatsoever shall I do, only a week?” Rarity replied, her eyes narrowing and blinking, a sarcastic flutter. “Please, I can finish the jacket in a day and still get everything else done that is on my long list of things to do.” 

“Discord and I will make certain that he is cleaned up and looks presentable,” Fluttershy said in a low voice. “We’ll pitch in for the flowers, too.” 

“We need to get him here so he can be fitted.” Rainbow Dash looked up at the clock on the wall. 

“I gotta good feeling about this.” Pinkie Pie grinned as she stopped pronking about. She stood beside Applejack and gave her fellow earth pony a sideways glance. “We’re gonna need photos,” Pinkie Pie said in a conspiratorial whisper. “Cheese Sandwich just so happens to be an excellent photographer. He specialises in party photos. He has an excellent eye for lighting and getting the most out of his subjects. He likes getting photos of happy ponies.” 

“Hmm,” Applejack hummed as she turned to look at Pinkie. “We’ll need photos of the coronation… that gives me an idea…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 696
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	—and in the final war, the final act of conflict between Clan Pickled and House Avarice, their armies never met upon the field. The conflict was almost bloodless, with the only grievous injury being caused by one Berry Punch of Clan Pickled, who started the war with one Primrose Propers, member of House Bitters, which had been a major house within House Avarice. 

Sentinel sighed, his eyes half closing, and he closed his history book. The history books never told the full story, like how the war had still been going strong. Berry Punch didn’t declare the war, it was being fought on the Shetlands, the ponies there being preyed upon by the crystal lich, who had been Buckminster Bitters of House Bitters, from a previous generation. 

He had been there for that war. No mention of that in the history books. An insane lich looking to ascend so that he might become something greater. Berry Punch never broke the cease fire, she had brought the war into the open, but the history books neglected that little detail. 

Hunched over his desk, scowling, Sentinel stewed, hating his history lessons. 



 

“I can’t figure out if I am a failure,” Sweetie Belle said as stared at Sunset Shimmer. “I mean, all of the other unicorns are taking magic classes together and doing just fine. I keep messing up and making a mess of things.” 

Taking Sweetie Belle’s words into careful consideration, Sunset Shimmer gave thought to how to best reply. The foal was frustrated, hurt, and feeling dejected. Sunset Shimmer could feel the pressure upon her. A few ill-chosen words could wreck a lot of potential. 

“Sweetie Belle, you have a unique gift… wait, let me put this another way.” Sunset Shimmer’s face became serious and stern. “You share a unique gift with your sister, Rarity. Rarity is one of the most gifted telekinetics that Twilight Sparkle has ever seen. And you have the potential to be just as good, just as great as your sister. Now, your sister, she had a passion that drove her, a desire create, and her sewing took a lot of meticulous detail, fine control, and effort. Rarity taught herself and developed her own talent. Are you with me so far?” 

Nodding, Sweetie Belle hung on Sunset Shimmer’s every word, her muzzle scrunched from concentration. 

“Good… your sister learned fine control so that she could master her art. She puts a lot of love and passion into what she does. Her heart goes into every stitch, every fold, the way she shapes fabric into art.” Sunset Shimmer paused and thought about what to say next, flogging her brain for what she hoped were the right words. “Levitating jellybeans is not the greatest form of motivation. You need to find something that inspires you, something that you love to do, so it doesn’t feel like work when you experiment and learn new ways to use your telekinesis. It will feel like a natural extension of yourself. You probably won’t even realise that you are improving, getting better, it will just happen as you pour your love and your magic into your work.” 

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle’s face became blank of all expression. 

“You’re fighting to learn right now and having a lot of trouble. It’s frustrating and you hate it. But if you were doing something that you loved, the frustration would melt away.” Sunset Shimmer gave Sweetie Belle an encouraging smile. 

“I think I understand… but what do I do?” Sweetie Belle asked. 

“I don’t know… but you need to figure it out,” Sunset Shimmer replied. 



 

Tilting his head back, Larch looked up at the tall figure looming over him. Long, serpentine, and bulging in the middle, Discord was an imposing figure and Larch could not help but feel a little afraid. 

“You have a most unusual talent,” Discord said, looking down at the dark purple grey foal. 

“I know.” Larch’s eyes were wide. He hadn’t seen Discord up close. “I really should be in class so I can learn to make sense of the world so I can make something of myself.”

“Oh, what fun is there in making sense?” Discord asked as he waved his paw in dismissive gesture. “Anyway, I am sent here on behalf of your pony godparents. You have been excused from your classes. You are going to be set upon by a herd of mares and quite possibly loved to pieces.” The draconequus began to giggle and his whole body shook with mirth. 

“I don’t understand—” 

“No, you don’t, and the outcome of your ability to understand is unknown. Mares are mysterious creatures. The love of them will make you act irrationally. It will make you do things that are completely out of your character. They will make you feel things that you have no desire to feel… it is really quite awful and I have given it a lot of thought; I still don’t understand it. Worse still, you have an interest in Piña of all ponies… she is going to do awful things to you because of her incessant need to know everything and how her motivations overlap with your talent. There are entire civilisations whose stories are lost and you could recover them… but you aren’t even aware of your own potential, are you?” Discord leaned down, stretched out his neck, placed his long distorted muzzle close to Larch’s face, and narrowed his eyes. “The world is full of bones and there are a lot of forgotten stories…” 

Larch gulped, blinked, and then took a step back from Discord. 

“Want to come with me to Ponyville Larch?” Discord asked. 

“Okay, I guess,” Larch replied. 

Discord’s eyes narrowed. “We need to get you ready for the dance. There is going to be all kinds of chaos and confusion there, and you are going to be a part of it. Tell me Larch, have you ever thought about wearing a nice dress? As Buckminster has discovered, they are quite comfortable.” 

“Why would I want to wear a dress?” Larch blinked and tried to figure out what was going on. “This is getting kinda weird.” 

“Why wouldn’t you want to wear a dress? I mean, come on… so comfortable and frilly…” 

“I don’t understand what is going on,” Larch said. 

“Oh, don’t worry Larch, you’ll find out soon enough!” Discord began to cackle and drew himself back up to his full height. 



 

Sighing with satisfaction, Bucky examined the signs he had printed. This was bound to cause quite a stir at the dance. He glanced at Violet, who was rolling her eyes while shaking her head, and then back at the signs he had printed. 

“Bucky, you are an awful pony,” Violet said as she gave Bucky the stinkeye. 

“Perhaps,” Bucky replied as his grin split apart his face, revealing a number of sharp teeth. “But this was necessary as a public safety measure.” He tapped his talon finger upon the signs that had been printed. 

Snorting, Violet tossed her head back and walked away. “I work for an awful pony.” 

The signs were perfect. Safety yellow background, a black alicorn silhouette that was no one could mistake was Princess Twilight Sparkle, standing in an odd pose. Overlaid over Twilight Sparkle was a red circle with a slash running though it and beneath the image were the words, “NO DANCING!” in big bold print. 

“But Violet… the department of health and public safety insisted that I put up warnings!” 



 

Feeling nervous, a little sweaty, and a little hungry, Sentinel stared down at his school lunch for a moment. He knew what he needed to do, but doing it was proving difficult. Diamond Tiara was getting irritated with him. He glanced over at the pink filly and then at the griffoness sitting beside her. He sighed, looked down at his lunch, and then back at Diamond Tiara. 

Sentinel ate a few bites of his lunch, tasting nothing, swallowed, and then set down his fork. He cleared his throat and saw Diamond Tiara give him a hopeful look. “Um…” Sentinel felt his courage slipping away. “Boadicea…” 

“Yes, Ensign Sentinel?” Boadicea cocked her head and looked at Sentinel. 

Diamond Tiara began to titter and Sentinel realised that the both of them were having a bit of a go at him. They had no intention of making this easy on him, and it was clear they had been planning. 

“No ranks in school,” Sentinel said in a low voice, glancing around in a furtive manner. 

“Sir, yes sir,” Boadicea replied. 

Beside the griffoness, Diamond Tiara covered her mouth with her hoof and began to giggle. She leaned over on her friend and her blue eyes twinkled as she laughed. She glanced at Boadicea and then back at Sentinel, giggle snorting behind the hoof that covered her mouth. 

His ears pinning back, an unwanted whine escaped Sentinel’s lips. This wasn’t going very well at all. “Boadicea, I, uh…” 

“Yes?” Boadicea leaned over the table and looked into Sentinel’s eyes. 

Sentinel found himself staring back. Boadicea’s eyes were black. He had never seen anything like them before. Black irises with black pupils in the center. Her feathers were black, shiny, and bald, patchy places were clearing up. She was becoming sleek, healthy looking, and much to Sentinel’s surprise as he stared at her, attractive. Her beak, which had been black and rather dull looking when he had first met her, was now shiny, almost a mirror finish. 

“Didn’t your mother teach you not to stare? I know that Yew Wood climbs me like a tree if I do it,” Boadicea said. 

Sentinel blinked and jerked his head back. Diamond Tiara’s giggles made his ears burn. He cleared his throat again. “Um, well… Boadicea, would you like to go to the dance with us? Diamond Tiara and I, we, uh, well, us, we would—” 

“I would like that very much,” Boadicea replied, cutting in and saving Sentinel from any embarrassing stammering. “Or should I say, ‘sir, yes sir’ to acknowledge our agreement?”  

“Boadicea, don’t… he’s flustered… look at him. I think he just noticed how pretty you are,” Diamond Tiara said as she nudged her friend. “And make no mistake, you’re pretty.” 

Slumping down, Sentinel gave the two females a nervous, sheepish grin. 



 

“What are we doing here?” Larch asked, looking at Sweet Apple Acres. 

“What is necessary,” Discord replied. “You need to get permission to take Babs to the dance. Applejack and Silver Shill are with Rarity, waiting for you there, and that’s going to be an awkward scene if ever there was one.” 

“But why are we here?” Larch asked again. 

Discord lept up the steps and knocked on the door, banging his talon knuckles upon the wood. He stood there, humming, waiting, and Larch stood on the porch, not knowing what was going on. 

“Yes?” Granny Smith said as she pulled open the door. 

“Now Larch, remember your manners, be polite, be respectful, and ask the nice Apple family matriarch if you can take Babs to the dance.” Discord stepped aside, bowed, and gave Larch a mischievous grin. 

“Um, ma’am—” 

“Oh, I like this one, he’s well mannered,” Granny Smith said, interrupting Larch. “And he’s handsome too… a little scrawny and underfed though.” 

Clearing his throat, Larch tried again. “Ma’am, I’d like your permission to take Babs Seed to the coronation dance, if that would be okay. Might I please have the privilege of doing so?” 

“Oh my, he’s a charmer,” Granny Smith said, shaking her head. She looked up at Discord for a moment and then turned her wrinkled face back down towards Larch. “This’ll put a burr in Applejack’s tail. You have my permission to take Babs Seed to the dance. You make certain she has a nice time.” 

“Thank you, ma’am,” Larch replied and then heaved a sigh of relief. 

“You look too thin… come in and have a slice of pie,” Granny Smith said. 

Looking up at Discord, Larch asked a silent question with his eyes. He saw Discord nod. 

“There is always time for pie.” Discord reached down and gave Larch a gentle shove towards the door. “We’d love to come in for pie.” 
	
	
> Chapter 697
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh my goodness, the father of my foal is adorable,” Coco said as she shook her head and stomped her hoof. “What a handsome little fella!” 

Rolling his eyes, Barley, who was now a colt for a while so Rarity could get his coat fitted, glanced over at Larch. “The things we go through for love, right laddy?” Barley’s fiery orange mane, which was iron grey in his ripe old age, spilled down his face as he spoke and Barley did nothing to push it out of the way. 

“I must say, Barley, you are quite handsome, if you will allow me to flatter you,” Rarity said to Barley, one eyebrow raised as she studied Barley’s features. “Don’t get me wrong, you are handsome as an older stallion as well, but you have such remarkable features as a colt.” 

“Aye, I’m a looker.” Barley rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I have half a mind to go into the bathroom and play with myself. Ah, to be young again and give a tug on my wee willy.” 

Hearing Barley’s words, Coco turned an odd shade of eggplant purple, coughed, and tried to look at anything but Barley. Meanwhile, Rarity, who was having troubles of her own, settled upon a warmer, more vibrant shade of red rather than eggplant purple. 

Larch of course, said nothing. 

“I can’t believe that Granny Smith did what she did.” 

Applejack’s voice came out of the kitchen, sounding irritated and a little upset. There was a clatter, a thump, and then the sounds of water running. Hearing all of this, Larch raised an eyebrow as he listened. Larch’s ears drooped.

“Dear, try not to be too upset,” Silver Shill said. “You’re getting macaroni noodles everywhere, my little apple blossom.” 

There was even more of a ruckus in the kitchen when Larch made a decision. He took off, moving slow, and he was cautious as he stepped through the door into the kitchen. Applejack was making macaroni salad for Rarity and Coco. 

“Applejack, ma’am, Silver Shill, sir, might I please take Babs Seed to the dance?” Larch asked as he stood in the door. 

Pausing, Applejack, who was hatless, stopped everything she was doing to look at Larch. She stood there for a moment, still, and then she moved away from the counter, moving towards Larch. 

“Larch, I ain’t upset with you for asking, I was upset because I was looking forward to doing the right thing for Babs… she likes you a lot, ya know. She talks about you all the time. Says she has never had friends like you or Piña. Babs is very special to me. I almost lost her… she means an awful lot to me… so make sure she has a real nice time at the dance.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Larch replied. He looked over and saw that Silver Shill was smiling.

“I gotta get back to work. I ain’t even got started on cuttin’ them onions yet and already them onions is making my eyes water,” Applejack muttered as she walked away. 



 

“Mama?” Dinky pushed her way into her parents bedroom and saw her mother upon the bed. The drapes over  the window were open and the late afternoon sun shone into the window. Dinky could see that her mother was sunning herself. 

The foal could also see that her mother was ginormous. 

“Dinky!” Derpy cried as she struggled to get off of her back and roll over onto herself. She grunted, she strained, and with a great deal of effort, Derpy rolled over onto her side. She panted a bit, looked at her daughter, and then smiled. “Hi Dinky… you look troubled… come here to me.” 

Hopping up on the bed, Dinky went to her mother, threw her forelegs around Derpy’s neck, and gave her mother a hug. After a brief squeeze, Dinky collapsed onto the bed beside her mother and just lay there, sprawled out. 

Not yet done being affectionate, Derpy began planting little kisses on Dinky’s face. 

“Mama, I don’t think I want to go to this dance,” Dinky said, just blurting out what was wrong. “I want to be there for my friend, Apple Bloom, but I don’t want to ask anypony to the dance and nopony is asking me and I don’t want to deal with the pressure and I don’t think I want to be around the crowd and I just really don’t want to be there but I know how important it is.” 

“You know Dinks, you don’t have to go,” Derpy replied. 

“Piña is going.” Dinky cuddled up against her mother. “I don’t know why, but I am kinda mad at her for going. I wanted to stay home… but if I do that, I’ll be alone. Piña won’t be here to spend time with me. Piña is so… involved with Larch and Babs. They have this great friendship and I think I feel jealous.” 

“Oh dear, Dinky.” Derpy spread her wing and placed it over Dinky, so she could pull Dinky closer. 

“And she keeps talking about Larch and Babs and I haven’t said anything but I really hate it when she talks about them and I keep thinking about us and I remember how it was on the Shetlands when it was just Piña and I against the whole world and I know we’re still really close but now I have to share her with two other ponies that want her and her time just as much as I do and I don’t know how I feel.” Dinky inhaled and heaved out a huge sigh. She curled up and hugged her hind legs to her barrel. 

“Dinky, love, ponies grow up and things change.” Derpy blinked. “You’ve grown up. The only time you come to me now is if you are in trouble.” 

“I’m sorry, mama,” Dinky replied. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Derpy could feel the twins kicking around inside of her. “Nothing to be sorry about Dinky, that’s just the way it is. Growing up happens. I do miss you though. But now, you have other ponies you want to be with and I’ve had to learn to share you.” 

Giving her hind legs a squeeze, Dinky considered her mother’s words. “I guess the same way I’m having to learn to share Piña.” 

“Dinky, on a much more personal level, I have had to learn to share Bucky. First with Berry and then with others. It was difficult at first, but I held on, because it was Berry that promised me it would be okay. And she was right. There was plenty of love to go around. It wasn’t just Bucky’s love I was after, but Thistle’s as well. Bon Bon and Lyra mean so much to me. Belisama is a good friend and I have no doubt that I love her.” Derpy paused and gave some consideration to her next words. “Dinky, don’t misunderstand me, but maybe what you need to do is stop thinking about losing Piña, but think instead about what you gain from having Larch and Babs as very close friends. I’m not saying you need to wiggle your way into their relationship, but you can be their friend. It would mean the world to Piña to know that her sister was there for her closest friends.” 

Like a tolling bell, Derpy’s words rang true for Dinky, and she gave them careful, serious thought. She closed her eyes, feeling the sun shining upon her through the window, and the warmth of her mother’s body against her. 

“Mama?” 

“Yes Dinky?” 

“I’m taking biology in school… and there are things I don’t understand.” 

“I dunno if I can help you, Dinky, but I can listen.” 

“We’re studying puberty and sexual development.” Dinky squeezed her eyes shut ever tighter. “A pony can be sexually mature and capable of having foals just after their decade mark. And I’ve seen that… I’ve seen the Shetlands and I know what happened with you when you had me and Loch Skimmer is going to have a foal… and my teacher says that our sexual maturity happens long before we become emotionally mature. I don’t understand any of this. This feels backwards, having your body get all grown up before the mind does.” 

“That’s just the way it is Dinky. I suppose it allowed us to survive when the world was a dangerous place. I don’t know. Just because a filly who is not yet a mare can have foals, doesn’t mean that she should. Her womb might work, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of her body is ready.” Derpy forced herself to relax, knowing that Dinky needed her more than ever, even though this was a very difficult thing to talk about. 

“Equines are herbivorous mammals. We’re prey animals with a strong herding instinct. The need to form compatible herds is deeply rooted in our biology. That’s what my textbook says. And a big part of our sexual development is the need to form herds of like minded peers. Only I don’t have like minded peers. No one else is really like me. I love my magic… I love the study of magic. No one else is driven like I am, Piña is the only pony that really understands me and what I want.” Dinky sighed and opened up her eyes, which were dazzled by the sunlight coming in through the window. She squinted for a moment, letting her eyes adjust, and watched as things came back into focus. 

“Dinky, love, whatever you do, don’t give up on the world. Learn from your father. I worry about you becoming a bit too bookish. Even if you can find just one pony you can connect with, fall in love with, life will be better for you,” Derpy said in a soft whisper, her lips inches from Dinky’s ear. 



 

“You know, Sentinel, she really loves you. She talks about you all of the time. She gets on my nerves sometimes, but I don’t let it bother me too much because she’s been such a good friend,” Boadicea said to Sentinel in a low voice. She cocked her head sideways and looked at the colt. 

“She talks about you, too,” Sentinel replied. He blinked, reached out with his wing, and adjusted his glasses. His body still felt stiff and it was difficult to move, but each day it was getting a little easier. 

“We have something in common. We both like Diamond Tiara. We both want her happy.” Boadicea fluffed out and her tail began to dart around in an erratic manner. “I would do anything for her. She has been very kind to me. She says she does it because of the kindness that you showed her and she tries to live by your example.” 

Sentinel’s ears perked forwards and the colt felt his wing muscles tense. “She was in a bad spot. She’s done a lot of bad things. Questionable things. She’d had to make up for them and earn trust the hard way. Dinky and Piña are like sisters to her.” 

“Yeah, I know. She talks about them. Piña is off with her right now, talking to that zebra doctor… I can’t think of her name…” 

“Doctor Mawu. She’s a psychiatrist. Piña went with Diamond Tiara to a therapy session?” Sentinel’s expression became puzzled. 

“Diamond Tiara said she might tell me later, but for right now, it was private,” Boadicea replied. The griffoness studied Sentinel. “So… tell me about Moonbow.” 

“Moonbow and I are betrothed. Arranged marriage. We have agreed to do what is best for our species. Moonbow is training to become a Myrmidon.” Sentinel sighed. “I like her. I like her spirit. I miss her. I don’t know if I love her, but she is my friend. We both understand duty, honour, and obligation.” 

“I understand all of those things… I want my honour back. I did some very dishonourable things. Things that I am very, very ashamed of now.” Boadicea reached out with her talons and began smoothing out her wing feathers. “I live for the moments when Lugus says he is proud of me. Lugus and Yew have been good to me. It’s funny, but I actually worry more about Yew Wood scolding me than Lugus having words with me. With Lugus, it is just a few words about how disappointed he is. With Yew, she tells me how disappointed she is and how much it hurts her, and how I am not living up to my potential, and I don’t know how she does it, but she can really rake me over the coals.” 

“It’s funny… I too, live in fear of disappointing my mother. I mean, I worry about letting my father down, and it scares me, but I have nightmares of my mother Derpy being unhappy with me.” Sentinel shivered and turned to look out the window. “There is something about pegasi mothers.” 

“Yep.” Boadicea nodded her head. “I’ve come to respect pegasi, after my experiences.” 

“I heard a little about you and Keg Smasher,” Sentinel said as he turned to look at Boadicea. “I miss him. He was good to me.” 

“He tried to be good to me, but I was stupid.” Boadicea shook her head and tugged on her wing feathers with her talons, pulling off loose sheaths from new feathers that were growing in. “He forgave me, even after all I did. I feel so bad about everything now. Having lived here… in Equestria, seeing how everything is. I don’t know why I chose to believe the lies I was being told. But this, this is what it means to be a griffon. To have honour. To be just, good, virtuous, and true. To protect.” She pulled her talons away from her wing and gestured at the ponies and many other creatures in the hall. “Here, I can be great. I could go into the Everfree and slay a monster. I could make a name for myself. I can fight and make a difference.” 

“Equestria needs heroes. I plan to become a knight. Moonbow plans to become a Myrmidon. Diamond Tiara isn’t totally certain what she wants to do just yet, but every day, more and more, she gains interest in becoming a lawyer. She’s gonna make an incredible fighter… she’s tenacious, she’s brave, and she’s dedicated… together, we’re gonna make a better future and nothing is gonna stop us.” 

“I just want a worthy fight… I need a worthy foe so that I might test myself,” Boadicea said, staring out the window. She flexed her talons. “I see a future worth fighting for here… this isn’t about survival, eating rats and scratching a living out of the sand, this is preserving a way of life, and so help me I will fight beak and claw to keep my new home safe.” 

“We don’t fight for ourselves, but for others, those who cannot defend themselves.” Sentinel looked Boadicea in the eye. “When I take my father’s place in ruling the griffons, I will need like minded compatriots to help me fulfill my father’s vision… it is a fight worth fighting…” 
	
> Chapter 698 (Dinky's Dilemma)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The coronation dance was now less than a week away. The entire school was abuzz with excitement, and there was no doubt that love was alive in the late winter air. Notes with tender words were passed in class and many teachers turned a blind eye to the flagrant violations to the rules, at least just this one. Brave little colts approached shy little fillies in the hall. Courageous little fillies cornered skittish colts that they had their eye on. 

For many, this dance would be their first. For others, this dance would be their first big disappointment. There were far more fillies than there was colts, and many began to realise that they had waited far too long to ask. Now, as the day drew closer and closer, there was a scramble to find somepony to go to the dance with. 

For some, the situation became quite hopeless… 



 

Dinky Doo Hooves settled into somewhat battered and beat up looking chair in the student study nook, opened up her behavioural sciences supplemental study guide for her biology classes, and tried to ignore the hullabaloo all around her. More than anything, she was becoming annoyed with the situation in school, and wish that this would just be over. It was difficult to pay attention in class, or to study, or to do much of anything with everypony being all moony eyed over the dance. 

It was leaving her in a sour mood. 

The textbook, printed in the Sea of Grass and imported to Equestria, was unlike anything Dinky had seen before in her life. Her previous textbooks had very little science in them, not that Dinky had held much of an interest even just a year ago, but now, she was a motivated student. These books were very, very different than the old science textbooks, which had very little to do with actual science. She flipped the behavioural sciences book open to her yellow bookmark, opened her study notebook, and prepared her pencil. 

Contrary to the common belief, in the wild, primitive horses were not ruled by a stallion, but by a mare. In this case, the mare was known as the alpha, or the primary, and she ruled over a group of mares known as a harem in biological and behavioural terms. The alpha, or primary, was a mature mare, wise, familiar with the land, where water was, food, and the local dangers. She managed the herd resources, moving the herd from place to place, choosing the best travel routes and doing what she could for the good of the herd as a whole. 

Dinky thought of her mother, nodded, and began to scribble down notes, ignoring the hustle and bustle all around her. 

The role of the head stallion was to stay on the edge of the herd, to be watchful for danger, fighting off both predators and other stallions. When the herd was moving, it was the duty of the stallion to stay in the rear, watching over stragglers, herding slower members forward, keeping the herd together, and protecting the rear, which was vulnerable. The male was responsible for keeping curious fillies as well as colts from straying too far from the herd as well as correcting their behaviour, socialising them so that they might be better members of the herd. 

Lower ranking mares and stallions within the herd did not display this sort of behaviour, but behaved as followers within the rungs of the hierarchy. Hierarchy, once established, was held under most occasions, as the risk of injury from fights was too high, and impacted the survival of all. Being herbivorous prey mammals, their only real defense was numbers, and the loss of even one could tip the scales in favour of the predators. 

The filly’s thoughts turned to her own father and she continued making notes. 

Flipping the page, Dinky read something that made her pause. Lifting her head, she looked at her fellow students. Primitive horses and equines had a gender ratio of one to five stallions for twenty to thirty mares. Her lips moving, but saying nothing, Dinky began doing a quick headcount of her fellow students around her, most of whom were still hoping to find some lucky, special somepony to take to the dance. Using her pencil, she made a tally in her notebook for every filly and a tally in a different place for every colt. 

She watched as the herds of her fellow students moved through the area, counting every head she could, trying to get some sense of the immediate world around her. Even before completion, Dinky began to get the idea that there was something wrong. In no uncertain terms, something was wrong.

After several minutes spent counting heads, Dinky turned to her notebook and began counting up her scratches. In the immediate area around her, Dinky had counted fifty three fillies. She double checked, counting through the marks she had made with her pencil. Fifty three. 

Scowling, Dinky looked at the tally marks for the males. Eight. Seven colts and one male dragon. These numbers couldn’t be right. Dinky looked around her, blinking, her ears perked forward at attention. The only logical conclusion she could reach was that she had a faulty sample size… the males had to be elsewhere. Perhaps a count in another area of the school would yield better results. 

Scratching the spot just below her ear with her pencil eraser, Dinky realised that even under ideal conditions, with one to five colts per twenty to thirty fillies, there were a lot of fillies that would have no dance partners for the coronation gala. The filly, on the edge of an epiphany, thought of Ponyville. The town had far more mares than stallions. She thought about the discussion about monogamy in her biology class, noting that it was an emotional as well as ethical decision that society had made, and that emotional as well as ethical decisions could override biological imperatives, but risked damaging the balance. 

The epiphany lurked on the edges of Dinky’s mind. 

Biology didn’t care about morals or ethics. Biology was no respecter of sociological and behavioural advances that changed a way a pony thought, behaved, and acted. Biology simply was. If monogamy was the so called moral choice, a denial of old and some might even say outright primitive equine behaviours, what about those left with nopony at all? Seven colts and fifty three fillies represented quite a challenge for Dinky’s mind to wrap around. Even though her numbers had to be faulty, they still represented society on some scale, and Dinky knew this. She knew this and the knowledge was a painful thing to try and internalise. 

If one followed the practice of monogamy as a moral and ethical choice, that would mean seven colts and seven fillies pairing up when they reached adulthood, leaving forty six fillies with no hopes of ever having a husband. Dinky frowned and deep wrinkles set into her muzzle. She began scratching out a little math in her notebook. If those seven colts divided the fifty three fillies, each colt would have seven point five seven one fillies… or just seven as a good round number. Dinky thought of her parents. There was Bucky, her mother, Derpy, Berry, Bon Bon, Lyra, Thistle, and Belisama. That was six wives, but one of them was not a pony. Dinky wasn’t sure she could keep Belisama in her calculations. 

The lurking epiphany teased the back of Dinky’s mind. 

Either biology was out to get them, or moral and ethical practices were based upon flawed reasoning as well as faulty mental concepts. Using her telekinesis, Dinky snapped her textbook shut, closed her notebook, and stared at her fellow students all around her. Sure, they had the ability to reason now, to ignore their base instincts, they were equines, but they did not have to behave like animals. Primitive behaviours could be ignored. They could choose to be civilised, to be polite, to have rules, to have social contracts, but no matter what they did, they could not escape their own biology. They were herd animals. No amount of debate, no amount of pretty words, no amount of reasoning or impassioned pleas to ignore their base equine nature would change the simple fact that there were far too many mares and far too few stallions. 

There was a painful stabbing sensation in Dinky’s barrel as she began to realise just how many broken hearts there was going to be at the coronation gala. Little fillies whose hopes and dreams were going to be crushed. Hopeful fillies in pretty dresses, standing around, attending the dance, hoping there would be just one colt that had not found a date, and the fillies would all be hoping to find a special somepony, and everypony would fall prey to the curse of optimism. The introduction of monogamy into their society brought with it the pressure to find ‘the one.’ That one special somepony to spend your whole life with, to have and to hold, to be committed to and ignore all others. Because so many were raised on this ideal, because reality was so cold as well as brutal, it was something that could only end of heartache and heartbreak. 

In that moment, Dinky understood that life was unfair. Not only was life unfair, but practices had been introduced that had made life even more unfair, making life outright cruel for a majority, and making life even sweeter for a privileged few. Dinky was just starting to understand that a filly had to be smart enough, but not too smart, because colts were intimidated by a smart filly. A filly had to be pretty, but she couldn’t be too pretty, because she had be attainable and approachable. There was all of this societal pressure to be perfect; to be just right. Something snapped into place in Dinky’s mind, an understanding of just how cruel life was. If you were one of the forty six fillies that couldn’t get the seven colts available to take you to the dance, society blamed you. You weren’t good enough. You weren’t pretty enough. You were either an egghead or you were too stupid. You were either too perfect or not perfect enough. But one thing was clear; if you weren’t picked, society would see it as being your fault. Society had created an unreasonable set of conditions to go along with its flawed moral and ethical standards. 

Dinky felt a crushing weight settle upon her shoulders, and as the weight pressed down upon her, she realised once again that her intelligence was more of a curse. Once you became aware of something, there was no going back to the blissful state of ignorance and being unaware. One could not unring a bell. She wondered how many of the foals around her even had an inkling just how unfair and cruel their lives would be. The filly settled back into the cushions of her chair, the epiphany having left her mind in a state of disarray. 

If you were poor, it wasn’t the fault of the society that had created the conditions for extreme poverty, it was your fault for being poor. If you could not find a mate, it wasn’t the fault of the society had created an unsustainable state of monogamy between the sexes, it was because you just weren’t good enough to be included or chosen, you had failed to make yourself more available or more attainable. 

Society had created some impossible standards and then placed blame upon those who failed to live up to those impossible standards. Dinky came to the conclusion that the game was rigged. A rigged game was not worth playing, in her opinion. 

Feeling very small, very helpless, and very depressed, Dinky sighed. She watched the fillies going by, she heard the idle chatter, the sounds of hooves tapping upon the tile floor, the faint rustle of tails and manes as they brushed up against soft, silken pelts. There was a smell in the air, a smell that Dinky would forever associate as the smell of school. The soft scent of bubblegum. A hint of perfume on fillies who were just beginning to reach the age where they had to worry about body odour. The smell of ink, of paper, and faint hint of sour sweat that lingered in the background. 

As much as Dinky loved Apple Bloom as a friend, Dinky wanted no part of this, and she resolved to keep herself away from it. Sighing, she hoped that Apple Bloom would understand, and Dinky wondered how she would explain it to her friend. 

The filly stuffed her books into her bookbag, sighed once more, and then got up to go to class. 
	
> Chapter 699
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Zero hour. Bucky stood in the school auditorium. Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich stood nearby, and Bucky wondered how everything would be done so that everything could begin by noon. Noon was the hour in which Princess Celestia wanted to place a crown upon Apple Bloom’s head. 

There was a lot of work to be done. 

“I suppose the two of you have something planned?” Bucky asked, fearful of the answer. 

“Here comes the army now,” Cheese Sandwich replied as a bunch of fillies and colts came into the big room that served as the school’s cafeteria dining room and auditorium. 

“Cheese, we need the balloons!” Pinkie cried. “We forgot the balloons!” 

Without warning, Pinkie Pie lunged forward, standing bipedal, snatched up Bucky, hoisted him around, pointed his head towards the ceiling, and gave his tail a yank. Bucky felt a peculiar sensation travel through his body, culminating in an odd feeling of pressure in his horn, and there was an explosion of confetti and streamers that shot into the air. 

“My unicorn isn’t working,” Pinkie Pie said in a somewhat whiny voice. “I think he’s too grumpy. There should be balloons.” 

Bucky, confused, wiggled in the pink pony’s embrace. “Pinkie Pie—”

“Pull harder Pinkie, I think he’s just backed up. You know how stress affects some ponies,” Cheese Sandwich said as he went bouncing off to talk to the fillies and colts coming in to decorate. 

“Pinkie, no, wait I don’t think—” 

Bucky was cut off by a hard yank on his tail. It wasn’t painful, as much as he worried it might be, it was pleasurable in a very odd way. He felt his whole body tense up for a moment, then relax, and there was a massive feeling of pressure just beneath his horn. 

“Uh oh…” Pinkie Pie gasped as she gave Bucky a squeeze. “HIT THE DECK!” 

There was a peculiar sensation of sneezing through his horn, in all of Bucky’s life he had never quite experienced anything quite like this. There was a cannon blast from his horn; balloons, streamers, and confetti sprayed out. Loops of crepe paper shot the entire length of the room. 

“Thanks Bucky… I was worried… I can’t believe I forgot the balloons!” Pinkie Pie set Bucky down; then she beamed at the confused and startled unicorn. 

“How… what… how… what just happened?” Bucky asked. 

“If I need more balloons or streamers I’ll let you know,” Pinkie Pie replied. 



 

Standing in front of a mirror, Luna examined herself and checked out her reflection. Her gown was as purple as a midnight snowstorm. It was little frillier than she might have liked, but she could not deny that she looked pretty good. 

“Pretty,” Harper said as she too, moved in front of the mirror. “Pretty Luna.” 

“Thank you, Harper,” Luna replied. The night blue alicorn extended her leg, wondering if perhaps she might have grown a little bit. She was getting her magic back bit by bit. As soon as she could raise the moon once more, she knew she could grow by leaps and bounds. 

“Harpy pretty.” Harper sat down in front of the mirror and began to look at her frizzy orange mane that stuck out in every direction. Her horn was lost in the frizzy mass and she looked very much like an earth pony at the moment. 

“Yes, Harper is a very pretty pony.” Luna turned to look at the real Harper beside her. She sniffed, smelling roses, and knew that Cadance had just come into the room. 

Strutting, Cadance walked up to the mirror, checking herself out. She wasn’t wearing a diaper now, at least during the day. Cadance’s ethereal mane billowed out around her, spilling out little pink hearts that popped like bubbles when they drifted too far away. 

“I am going to ask Barley to marry me. I am so, very, very nervous. What if he says no? What if my sister forbids it? I cannot bear this state of not knowing how this will turn out,” Luna said to Cadance and Harper. 

Plopping her backside down upon the floor, Cadance looked at Luna, tilting her head off to one side. “Love.” 

“Yes, of course Cadance. It all comes to love, does it not?” Luna heaved a sigh. “Do I love Barley? Does Barley love me? Does my sister love me enough to let me be happy… a million questions and it all comes down to love.” 

“Zap.” Just in case her message wasn’t clear, Harper repeated herself: “Zap!” 

“No, Harper, that would be wrong. If my sister says no, I do not plan to zap her. I mean, I might be tempted, but I do understand that there are going to be some big consequences if I try to marry Barley. I love him so much that it hurts… more so now than ever. I have duties, obligations, things I have to look after… I am not even certain if it is fair for me to marry Barley. I would not be able to come home to him every night. My schedule would keep us apart. Maybe all of this is a foolish fantasy and I should just give up now before somepony gets hurt.” 

Her ears splaying out sideways, Cadance’s face looked like she had been sucking on lemons. She stared at Luna, her tiny muzzle all wrinkled, and her wings flared out from her sides. 

“If you keep making faces like that, it might end up staying that way,” Luna said to Cadance. 

Hearing Luna’s words, Harper puffed out her cheeks, contorted her lips into a lopsided pucker, and made the most grotesque face she could muster, closing one eye and rolling her other eye back into her head until only the white was showing. 

The foal was hideous and disgusting, and there was a strange sense of admiration for Harper that Luna could not explain. “Harper Heartstrings, you amaze and disgust me. I do not know how you do it. Your mother, Lyra, would be very proud of you right now if she could see you, and no doubt, Bucky would be fawning over you.” 

Saying nothing, Sukari came through the door, her head held low, and her tail down. She moved through the room, her hooves almost silent, until she reached Luna, Harper and Cadance. The zebra paused to look at herself in the mirror. She cringed, recoiled, and turned away from her own reflection. 

Sensing the zebra’s sadness, Cadance stretched out her neck and kissed her sister on the cheek, just below the scar that ran from her nostril to the corner of Sukari’s eye. Cadance scooted herself over towards Sukari and placed her wing over the zebra, giving her sister an affectionate hug. 

Overcome with pity, Luna did not know how to react. She picked up the brush she had been using, holding it in her fetlock, and hopped over to Sukari on three legs. She sat down beside the zebra and began to brush Sukari’s mane. 

Harper, whose face had gone back to normal, looked over at Sukari and smiled. 

“Sukari, I do not know how well you can understand me… but I want to tell you, sisters have a way of seeing past your scars… trust me, I know from experience. Please, do not be sad,” Luna said as she pulled the brush through Sukari’s mane. 



 

Apple Bloom’s crown was perfect. Made of apple wood, it was reddish brown in colour with a wavy grain. A small green garnet, carved into the shape of an apple, was embedded in the rise of the crown. It was, without a doubt, fit for a princess. Bucky’s own enchantments were extensive. Apple Bloom would know if a pony was lying to her while she was wearing this. It would allow her to see past most illusions. It would provide light in the darkness. 

In just a few hours, this crown, made of apple heart wood, would be resting upon Apple Bloom’s head. Reaching out his talons, Bucky caressed the smooth wood that had a perfect, flawless finish. It was warm to the touch. 

Closing the lid to the velvet lined wooden box, Bucky lifted the box in his telekinesis and headed for the door, the hour drawing ever closer. 



 

“Oh my, you’re handsome,” Derpy said to Sentinel, who was wearing his officer’s jacket. “You are going to make hearts melt.” The grey pegasus was stiff and it was difficult for her to move, but move she did. Reaching out a wing, she smoothed back Sentinel’s rusty red mane. 

Black, with silver trim, Sentinel’s officer jacket transformed the colt into a dashing figure. There were several medals that hung from his chest, just below his collar. Trembling, Sentinel looked up at his mother. 

“Don’t be scared… just trust that everything is going to be okay and try to have a nice time,” Derpy said in a low, reassuring voice to her son. 

“What if I have ‘carnivore breath’ and I don’t know it and—” 

“Sentinel, just stop. Smile.” Lyra, who held a camera in her telekinesis, made a gesture with her hoof. She waited for Sentinel to give her something of a smile and then she snapped a picture. “Now to go get one of Piña…” 



 

“Piña, you look stunning,” Berry Punch said to Piña Colada. 

“Really?” Piña asked in reply. 

“Really… green looks good on you.” Berry Punch smiled down at Piña. “You’re gonna be a headturner. Come here, let me work on that mess you call a mane.” 

Being obedient, Piña went and stood in front of Berry, who started to get a comb through Piña’s mane. She cringed as the comb began to tug on tangles, but did not whine or protest. Piña wanted to look her best and a few tugs on her tender head were a small price to pay. 

“It’s a shame that Dinky isn’t going.” Berry Punch combed the bangs out of Piña’s eyes and tried to sweep all of Piña’s mane down the back of Piña’s neck. 

“Dinky has her reasons… she talked to Apple Bloom and Apple Bloom understands. You know, you should talk to Dinky… I think she needs you.” Piña’s ears twitched as a tangle got yanked on and her tail swished around her hind legs. 

“I tried to talk to Dinky,” Berry said as she continued to try and comb out the tangles. “She refused to talk to me about it.” 

“Well, you need to go pester her and not go away until she spills her guts. This is hurting her,” Piña Colada said to Berry Punch. “I understand her not wanting to go to the dance, but this could turn into her spending life in her room. She’s been moody for almost a week now.” 

“Ugh.” Berry Punch slumped at Piña’s words. “I’ll go talk with her.” 



 

“The three of you look smashing,” Bon Bon said in what could only be described as a mother's voice. She looked at Barley, Luna, Sentinel and Piña. As she did so, she felt her barrel swell with pride. 

“Guests are already arriving… oh my,” Lyra said as she looked out the front window. 

“Barley, I know it feels good to be young, but you behave yourself around Luna,” Bon Bon said in a stern voice. “And you, Luna, the same goes for you. Both of you are adult minds in the bodies of younger foals. Try not to set a bad example, please?” 

“Crivens, I’m a colt for a day and already Bon Bon is mothering me to death,” Barley grumbled. “Fine, when I go to nibble on Luna’s neck we’ll sneak off to the bathrooms or something.” 

Luna’s eyes went wide, Piña turned four shades pinker, and Sentinel cleared his throat. 

“Oh my stars!” Lyra stared at the living room archway, her eyes wide. 

Boadicea stood in the arch, wearing a simple but beautiful black gown made by her fellow griffons. She let out a shy peep, ducked her head down, and her wings fluttered by her side. 

-THWAP!- 

“Sentinel! You struck me!” Luna cried as she staggered away. 

“Ach, poor laddie, he’s done got himself a wing boner!” 

Unable to do anything else, Piña Colada began to giggle at her brother. 

“Well, somepony thinks that Boadicea is a very pretty griffoness,” Yew Wood said. She turned her surviving eye upon Sentinel, who stood with his wings flared out and stiff. “I have my eye on you… if you muss her feathers, I’ll whoop the stuffing out of you, colt. You had better behave.” The pegasus’ face lit up with a teasing smile.

“You think I’m pretty?” Boadicea asked. 

Sentinel nodded, gulped, and nodded once more as he tried to ignore the throbbing in his wings and the heat in his body. 

“Crivens, there’s gonna be all kinds of wing boners at the school dance,” Barley muttered. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 700
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Babs…. you’re wearing a tux…” Piña blinked a few times. “You look really good.” Piña did not know what else to say. She had expected Babs to be wearing a dress. Instead, Piña was with a colt that had a tux and a filly that also had a tux… and truth be told, Piña liked it. Being the only pony in their trio wearing a gown made her feel extra special. It was like having two colts fighting over your attention, or at least the fantasy of that happening. 

“We’re all in green,” Larch said, standing on Piña’s right. 

“And we all look good,” Babs added, standing on Piña’s left. 

“They’re gonna crown Apple Bloom at noon and then the dancing begins. I’m not much of a dancer, but I have something we can do.” Piña offered her companions a sheepish grin. 

Larch raised an eyebrow and Babs turned to look at her two companions. 

Clearing her throat, Piña steeled her jittery nerves and spat out what she had in mind. “I brought a whole bunch of Thaumaturgy: the Convergence cards. We can split them into decks and take turns playing one another.” 

Letting out an exciting squeal, Babs almost lost control of herself on the spot. She bounced in place, her eyes sparkling with happiness, and her nostrils flared from her heavy breathing. “This is going to be the greatest gala ever.” 

“I know, right?” Larch, not thinking about what he was doing, stuck his head out and nosed Piña’s cheek. He stopped after the initial contact, frozen, his eyes wide with almost terror. “Umm… sorry, got excited. I’ll behave…” 



 

In a single moment, Sentinel forgot how to breathe. For the second time this day, his wings revealed his real feelings as he viewed Diamond Tiara. She wore a black gown that could only be described as spiderwebby. Her mane had been gathered up into a tight bun on the back of her head, making her look older somehow. She looked cool, calm, and one might even say professional. 

The filly didn’t walk so much as she sashayed, moving towards Sentinel with her rear hips rocking like a bell, something she had spent hours practicing with Coco in front of a mirror. 

With a loud, painful squawk, Boadicea’s wings unfurled, snapping outwards with a near supersonic crack. Several other pegasi nearby, both male and female, also suffered similar reactions.

For Diamond Tiara, discovering this new power she held over others around her was intoxicating. She placed one front hoof beneath Sentinel’s chin, lifted his head, and gave her coltfriend a saucy lip nibble. She then turned to Boadicea, bowed her head, and then gave her friend a warm smile. 

Not yet done, and overcome with an unfamiliar feeling of aggression, Sentinel stepped forwards, pressed his lips against Diamond Tiara’s muzzle, and gave the stunning pink filly a clumsy kiss that borderlined on not-so-innocent-this-is-hot-even-by-adult-standards. 

Coco, a chaperone for the dance, watching the pair smooching for a moment, and then she found other more interesting things to go and have a look at, trusting that Diamond Tiara and Sentinel both would know where to draw the line. 

Breathless, Diamond Tiara pulled away and regained her composure. “Sentinel… don’t be brutish… you are escorting another lady, and as her escort, it would be customary to kiss her hoof… er, her talons.” 

Bowing his head, sucking in a deep breath, Sentinel turned and looked at Boadicea. Reaching out his foreleg, he hooked his fetlock behind her foreleg, lifted it, watched as her talons curled up, a nervous flexing on her part, and he planted a somewhat slobbery kiss upon her knuckles. 

The only reply from the griffoness was a lot of heavy breathing. 



 

Flanked by Sweetie Belle on his right and Scootaloo on his left, Rumble strutted up to Apple Bloom with the sort of cool confidence that that only a pegasus colt dating a princess could muster. He raised his eyebrow, gave Apple Bloom a saucy ear wiggle, and then looked up at Princess Celestia with a youthful smirk. 

“You are a brave little pegasus,” Princess Celestia said, looking down at the grey colt. 

“I get the feeling that you and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other,” Rumble replied. 

“You are a brave little pegasus,” Princess Celestia repeated. She smiled down at Rumble, glad to have a pony that wasn’t afraid of her, bowing or scraping, and treating her like any other pony. “You have quite a collection of little fillies going on. You are doing well for yourself.” 

“They’re easy to look after, all you have to do is treat them well.” Rumble tilted his head back and looked up at Princess Celestia. “I learned it from my pops. Basically, I treat these three the same way he treats my mothers.” 

“Oh my, you are not only brave, but you are a smooth talking little charmer as well.” Princess Celestia gave Rumble a smile as warm and beaming as the sun. A quiet titter escaped from the regal alicorn’s lips and her wings fluttered at her sides. She turned to the two ponies standing off to her left, Violet Velvet and Raven, her secretary, and gave them both a secretive smile. 

“Rumble, you look handsome,” Apple Bloom said, stepping forwards. “I’m so nervous. I feel kinda sick and I’m so scared.” 

“You got this,” Rumble replied. His expression changed as he looked into Apple Bloom’s eyes. “Look, you made it this far. Getting this far was the hard part. Do you know how difficult it is to become a princess?” Rumble paused for a moment, looking and sounding very much like Thunderlane. “Well, you do actually, because you did it. My point is, the hardest part is over.” 

“He is absolutely right, Apple Bloom,” Princess Celestia said, lowering her head and whispering into Apple Bloom’s ear. “He is also a very silly little colt, for being such a smooth operator.” 

Hearing Princess Celestia’s words, Apple Bloom began to let out a nervous giggle. 

“Anyway, I’ve given Scootaloo a kiss, and Sweetie Belle got one, and the only filly I haven’t kissed was you… so that’s why I’m here.” Rumble looked at Apple Bloom and blinked. Grinning, he looked over at Applejack, who was standing nearby, waved, and then looked back at Apple Bloom. 

Beating Rumble to the punch, Apple Bloom stretched out her neck and gave the colt a kiss on the cheek, her lips lingering near the corner of his mouth, all too aware of so many eyes staring at her, watching her every movement, and for a moment, she wondered how many ponies might be judging her actions. 

“Apple Bloom… that ain’t how you kiss yer beau,” Applejack said in a long drawl. “This is how you give yer beau a proper kiss.” Whirling around, Applejack puckered up, planted her muzzle on Silver Shill, and let the stallion standing beside her have it with a wet smooch that was affectionate, but not too sultry or steamy. 

When Applejack pulled away, Silver Shill’s knees wobbled. 

“Did somepony catch the name of that turnip wagon that just hit me…” 

“I still got it,” Applejack boasted. She shuffled around in her gown and a strand of her mane broke free from her upswept mane style. It tumbled down and came to rest in front of her ear and against her cheek. 

“I’m so nervous, I can’t take this anymore. I really do feel sick,” Apple Bloom said as she turned to look up at Princess Celestia. 

“Just hang on, I promise that all of this will be over very soon,” Princess Celestia replied. 



 

“I bet you look very handsome, but I wouldn’t know,” Sweet Pea said to her companion, Growler. “Thank you for taking me to the dance. It means the world to me.” 

“Growler does what he can,” the diamond dog replied. 

“Not only are you my eyes, but you are my best friend. It means a lot, having you here with me.” The filly pressed herself up against her companion. “I can hear a lot of ponies. I’m nervous.” 

“I am too.” Growler, who had his paw upon Sweet Pea’s back, reached up and stroked her ear to calm her. “I think they are about to perform the coronation. I’ll tell you what I see so you can enjoy it too…” 



 

“Thank you everypony… and everybirdy, for coming out today,” Princess Celestia said, addressing the entire room. She stood tall, proud, her head high. She extended her wing and gestured to Apple Bloom. “We have a new princess, Princess Apple Bloom. She is not feeling very well, and I do not wish to ruin what is probably the most important moment in her young life… her first big dance.” Princess Celestia smiled at the crowd. “So without further ado, I present to you, Princess Apple Bloom, the Princess of Agriculture.” 

Saying nothing else, Princess Celestia set the wooden crown upon Apple Bloom’s head, lowered her own head down, kissed Apple Bloom upon her cheek, and then using her wing, nudged Apple Bloom from the stage. 

“Go and calm down,” Celestia said in a low voice to Apple Bloom as she scooted the filly along. “You look like a little green Apple. Rumble, I am assigning you as her royal guard for the day. See that she gets a private moment to herself in that little alcove just outside of the auditorium.” 

Sticking out a wing, Rumble saluted Princess Celestia and then escorted Apple Bloom away, pushing ahead through the crowd as both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stood on either side of Apple Bloom. 

“Perhaps later, when she is feeling better, we can coax a little speech out of her,” Princess Celestia said in a voice that carried over the murmur of the crowd. “Please, everypony, respect her as you would respect me. Thank you. Please, continue having a nice time. A lot of ponies and griffons went through a lot of troubles to make this day special. Please, offer them a round of applause…” 

The crowd erupted into cheering. 



 

In an almost quiet corner, Luna and Barley cuddled together in a somewhat beat up stuffed chair. As adults, they would have never fit in the chair together, but being foal sized, it was a tight, but cozy fit for the two of them. 

Luna, who quite enjoyed the tender nibbles along her neck, pushed Barley away from her and looked into his eyes. “Barley, I wish to speak to you.” 

Blinking, Barley looked at Luna. “Aye?” 

“Barley, being young again, it has changed my perspectives a great deal,” Luna said, trying to speak the words she found so difficult to say. “I know this is unorthodox, the question that I am about to ask, but it weighs so heavily in my heart, and this is so very difficult—” 

“Yes,” Barley replied and then went back to neck nibbling, moving up Luna’s slender neck as though he was eating corn on the cob. 

“Yes? Do you even know what I was going to ask,” Luna asked as she melted into Barley’s embrace. Her young body was overcome with sensation and a curious feeling of awakening. 

The nibbles stopped. “You want me to marry you.” The nibbles continued. 

“Yes,” Luna gasped as she wrapped her forelegs around Barley’s neck. “But we must ask my sister for her permission. This means a lot to me.” 

Pulling his head back, Barley looked into Luna’s teal eyes. “If that is what it takes, then I will do it. But later. This moment right here, I want this moment to last forever.” Barley pulled Luna to him, embracing her, and he held her close, his eyes closed. “I didn’t ruin your big moment when I just came out and said yes, did I?” 

“No,” Luna replied. “You made it easier.” 

“Aye, that’s good…” 



 

The pegasus in silver armor saluted Princess Celestia and then turned to look at Prince Buckminster. He snapped out his wing a second time in salute as he looked Bucky in the eye. 

“Speak,” Bucky commanded, looking just a little worried. 

“Lord of Winter, sir, Queen Agnetha’s water broke just a little while ago and I was sent to inform you of her condition. She will be giving birth soon and—” 

“She requests my presence if possible, of course,” Bucky said, cutting the guard off. He looked up at Princess Celestia. “I am sorry, but once again, I am escaping a coronation and there is nothing you can do to stop me.” 

Princess Celestia smirked. “Scoundrel…” 

“Auntie, please, make certain that there are plenty of photos… I feel bad for missing this.” Bucky paused. “Also, have a nice time with Raven and Violet.” 

“Bucky, what are you talking—” 

“Look, you fooled me on the Shetlands, but I’m not fooled now. I’ve seen the way the three of you look at one another and I’ve figured out why Violet heads to Canterlot on her days off. I’m not blind and I’m not stupid. But I am happy for you… have a good time.” 

“Bucky, say hello to Beauregard for me.” Princess Celestia’s smile was wide and teasing. 

Nodding, Bucky stepped away. There was a flash and then Bucky vanished. In his place was one ugly axe beaked griffon. The griffon began to push its way through the crowd, departing, and the crowd parted to let Bucky pass. 

Luna, who approached her sister, watched Bucky go. “He is leaving?” 

“Queen Agnetha is giving birth.” Princess Celestia smiled down at Luna. “Is there something on your mind, Luna? You look worried. Are you okay?” 

“Sister, Barley and I have something that we would like to ask you…” 
	
	
> Chapter 701
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Twilight Sparkle, who was having a wonderful time, took notice of a sign hanging on the wall. It was red, black, and yellow, the universal colours of safety. She studied the sign for a moment, noticing that it said, “NO DANCING!” big bold letters. That was a funny thing to hang up at a dance. 

But upon closer inspection, Twilight Sparkle realised that it was her on the sign. This was a warning sign forbidding her to dance. A wry smile spread over Twilight’s lips, moving as slow as the weary sun when it goes to bed for the day. 

“Just now noticing those?” Rainbow Dash asked in a teasing voice. She gave her mate a nudge. “Those are actually from the department of health and safety… see, you can see the stamp near the bottom. You’re a public safety hazard, Twi.” 

An almost cruel smile appeared on Twilight’s face as she turned to face Rainbow Dash. It was cold, it was calculating, it was a well practiced look that she had spent hours practicing in the mirror, hoping to match Bucky and one of his evil dead eyed stares. 

“You’re a naughty little pegasus, Rainbow Dash… it is time you learned how to be a proper student… I’m gonna make you stay after class,” Twilight said in a delicious evil whisper.  

“What’s going on here?” Flash Sentry asked, looking first at Rainbow Dash, who had a wingboner, and then at Twilight, who was trying to look evil but somehow managed to look silly and adorable. It made him love her even more. 

“Rainbow Dash brought gum to school but she did not bring enough to share with the rest of the class… so she must be punished,” Twilight Sparkle replied. 

“Ooooooh… I see,” Flash Sentry said in a low whisper as he began to look around. “I’m a naughty student too… I have the hots for teacher and I’ve been passing Rainbow Dash notes in class.” 

“That’s a detention.” Twilight began to feel a curious state of arousal. This roleplay thing was not only fun, but it worked as advertised in the book. “Quick, since I’m not allowed to dance, let’s go find a secluded place where we can… discuss your punishments.” 

“Ooooh hooo hooo…” Rainbow Dash could feel her wings throbbing. 

“Get moving, both of you. Don’t make me compound your detention…” 



 

“There sure are a lot of fillies at this dance.” Cloudstreaker looked at Spike, sighed, and then slumped over the table. “I asked my brother to take me with him, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. He acted all weird and told me no. I don’t understand why.” 

“Because… you’re his sister and this is a romantic dance,” Spike said in a kind voice. 

“But I could have tagged along.” Cloudstreaker scowled. “The pony I wanted to take me to the dance doesn’t even notice me and everything I try to do to get noticed by him.” 

“I know how that is when you have a crush on somepony… really, I do.” Spike leaned forward over the table, looked over at Coco, and then back at Cloudstreaker. “At least you can take consolation that the pony you have feelings for is happy.” 

“Coco makes her happy.” Cloudstreaker, who was young, was not blind. 

“Yeah. She is. She is happy,” Spike replied in a flat monotone. He was sitting in such a way that it made his tuxedo jacket wrinkle and he didn’t care. “Crushes are the most awful thing. Love sometimes seems to be rewarded, but a crush lives up to its name. It always seems to hurt you.” 

Looking over at her own crush, Cloudstreaker watched as he danced with his partners, an earth pony filly and a black griffoness. She watched for as long as she could bear, until it felt as though her heart was going to burst, and then, blinking away tears, she turned to look at Spike. “At least he’s happy.” 

“Cloudstreaker, don’t feel bad. At least you’ll grow up sooner rather than later. And you’ll find somepony… for me, I’ll be almost a hundred years old before I’m even considered a teenager… and by then, the pony I have a crush on will have died of old age.” 

“I’m sorry, Spike,” Cloudstreaker said in a soft pain filled whisper. 

“Don’t be sorry.” Spike shook his head. “You’re, what, six years old? And you’re in such a hurry to grow up. I know you like him, but I know him. Even if you did get his attention, he is going to treat you like his little sister until you get a little older.” 

“I just turned seven.” Cloudstreaker sniffled and wiped her nose with her fetlock. “My brother teases me sometimes and tells me I still sound like a yearling. He’s right though, isn’t he?” 

“Yeah, he’s right. I’m sorry Streaky.” Reaching over, Spike patted the pegasus filly on her withers. “Would you like to dance with me? As just friends, of course.” 

“I’d really like that, Spike. It would mean the world to me,” Cloudstreaker replied. 



 

“I brought some fruit punch,” Sweetie Belle said as she levitated a plastic cup over towards Apple Bloom and set it down upon the table. “You feeling better Bloomy?” 

“So many ponies in there… I mean, I’ve been in there during school with a whole bunch of ponies, but this was different… so much pressure. I thought I was going to toss my cookies there for a moment,” Apple Bloom replied to Sweetie Belle. The filly picked up the glass that Sweetie Belle had set down and then emptied it in a few gulps. 

Patting her stomach, Apple Bloom let out a roaring belch. 

“Behold, Apple Bloom, Princess of Uncouth.” Scootaloo made a gesture with her hoof as if she was introducing Apple Bloom to somepony. 

“So says the pooty pegasus,” Apple Bloom said as she set her cup down. 

“Hey!” Rumble and Scootaloo said in unison. 

“That’s not even fair!” Scootaloo pointed at Sweetie Belle. “And just who was it that set off the emergency quarantine at the hospital because of how bad she smelled?” 

Turning a violent shade of red, Sweetie Belle began to giggle. She sat down and covered her face with both front hooves, closed her eyes, and her ears pinned back against her skull as she was overcome with embarrassment. “The doctors went around checking each room for corpses,” Sweetie Belle managed to say as she tried to hold back her chortles. 

“I’m all gussied up… and I’m feeling better. Who’s up for a dance?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“I’m up for a kiss,” Rumble said. He reached up with his front leg and smoothed back his pompadour. He leaned closer to Apple Bloom and narrowed his eyes. “You’re really pretty, Bloomy… you are a perfect princess.” Closing his eyes, Rumble leaned his head forward and kissed Apple Bloom on the corner of the mouth, a gentle chaste peck. 

“Hey, you have to share those,” Scootaloo said in a nervous squeak.

Rumble opened up his eyes and smiled. “I have enough to go around…”



 

“I wish that Moonbow was here… then this moment would be perfect,” Diamond Tiara whispered in a low voice. She stood chest to chest with her companions, Sentinel and Boadicea. Closing her eyes, she rubbed her cheek against Boadicea’s neck. “I’m glad you are here with us. This just feels right.” 

“Yeah, it does,” Boadicea replied. 

“I’m one lucky colt.” Sentinel pressed his nose against Diamond Tiara. “I have the prettiest females at the dance.” Mindful of his hooves, Sentinel shuffled around, not sure who was leading this dance, but glad to be moving together. 

“What do we do when the dance is over?” Boadicea asked. 

“What do you mean?” Diamond Tiara looked up at the somewhat taller griffoness. 

“Are we friends… or something else… I know how you feel about me Diamond Tiara, but I don’t want to stick my beak where it isn’t wanted.” Reaching out her wing, Boadicea stroked Sentinel, trailing her feather tips over his neck. She delighted when the colt shivered from her touch. 

“I feel funny speaking for Sentinel and Moonbow, but I know that both of them have very high expectations. It is part of why I cleaned up my act.” Diamond Tiara almost felt drowsy as she danced with her companions. It was warm, pressed up against both of them, and she couldn’t help but feel safe and secure somehow, a lone earth pony tucked up against two apex predators. “This is going to be a royal family… Sentinel takes his duties very, very seriously. Anypony, or anybirdy, who is going to be a part of this will have a lot expected from them. Sentinel demands servitude from all of us who join him. Moonbow will serve and protect the public as a Myrmidon. I don’t know exactly what I am going to do just yet, but I have options. Boadicea, if you intend to court us, just be aware that expectations made of you will be almost unrealistically high and we hold ourselves to a very different standard.” 

“I understand,” Boadicea replied. “Both of you are very grown up about this—” 

“We have to be,” Sentinel said, raising his voice somewhat as he cut in. “We have to be. Father intends for me to be the next king of the griffons, to replace him. The griffons, who hold a very fragile place in the world. The demands made of me, what is expected of me, the duties that I have… my whole life is being planned out and it starts now. I will be a knight, I will defend this country, and I will lead my father’s griffons. It is my intentions to earn my place as an Equestrian prince, so that I will have the resources and the political clout I need to make the best life possible for the griffons. Royal titles for Equestrians are no longer inherited, but earned, paid for in sweat, tears, and maybe blood. To continue my father’s legacy, a lot is expected of me, and I will not allow myself to let him down. He has hopes and dreams that he is not going to live long enough to see… and he has placed all of his faith and trust in me to make certain that his work, his vision, is seen through.” Sentinel took a deep breath. “I have no place at my side for weakness, frail character, cowardice, or being spineless… so if you really do wish to court us, think long and hard about what this means for you… it will mean that you will become the queen of the griffons some day… and I will not allow you to grow fat and live a life of luxury at the expense of your griffons… you will be the hardest working griffon among them, you will be their servant, and like me, you will be their slave. I have unreasonable demands, just as my father does, and I will see them through. I will not disappoint my father…” 

“Yes sir, I understand, sir,” Boadicea replied. 

“Now you understand what is expected of us,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice. “I am being groomed for the life that I have planned. I have given over the whole of my existence and it was no easy decision. I still have moments of doubt, but each day I get a little more conviction… mostly because of Coco. She’s been amazing this whole time. Rarity too. And Sweetie Belle I suppose.” 

“I never thought about how much goes into being prepared for good leadership.” Boadicea reached out her other wing and stroked Diamond Tiara, running her feathers up along the filly’s neck, and she heard Diamond Tiara sucking her breath in. 

“Well, look at what bad leadership has done to the griffons… your homeland is a toxic cesspit… I was there… I was there when everything fell apart… I was there and I watched everything happen. I was on the deck of The Scorned Mare where the survivors were being gathered up. I saw what slavery and insanity had done to an entire species… not just their homeland, but the griffons themselves… I was there when they came into our room that night and tried to kill us… they sent assassins against us… I was there when it all went wrong… I was there when the center no longer held… and I saw everything fly apart!” 

“Sentinel, it’s okay… calm down,” Diamond Tiara whispered in the colt’s ear. “Shh… it’s okay… you’re not there anymore and everything is getting better now.” 

Looking down into Sentinel’s eyes, Boadicea saw tears. Overcome with an unfamiliar emotion, she felt her own eyes begin to water. She extended both wings, wrapped them around Diamond Tiara and Sentinel, giving them both a quiet, somewhat private space so Diamond Tiara could calm Sentinel down. She could feel him trembling, and the realised that the weight of the memory must be terrible upon his shoulders. 

If she chose this life, this weight would be placed upon her shoulders as well. Boadicea began to wonder if she was strong enough to bear this burden. 
	
> Chapter 702
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The minutes seemed to turn into hours as Luna stared at her sister. Now alone, standing in a teacher’s lounge, Luna, Barley, and Celestia looked at one another in silence, neither Luna nor Barley knew what to say and Celestia had made no response at all, other than a request to go somewhere private. 

“Sister, please, hear me out—” 

“Luna, please, give me some time to think. I am trying to come up with the right words—” 

“So you can keep Barley and I apart. I understand.” Luna hung her head low and her ears fall back against her skull. “So be it, sister, if this is how you want it—” 

“Luna, stop.” Celestia’s tone of command was unmistakable. “I had no intention of saying no. I lack the ability to put my feelings into words. I apologise if you took my silence the wrong way. I wanted to say just the right things, I wanted to smooth things over between us.” 

Still tensed, still in a defensive crouch, Luna wasn’t certain if her sister was being sincere or just saying what Luna wanted to hear now that Luna had shown that she refused to take no as an answer. Looking up into her sister’s eyes, Luna thought about giving her sister a good chewing out, just on general principles. 

And then, Luna realised that she was being just a little unreasonable. Her ears perked forwards and she lifted her head. One eyebrow raised as she peered up at her much taller sister. Luna’s own paranoia had almost caused her and her sister to come to blows again. 

“I am very sorry, Luna, I just do not know how to respond… there is so much I want to say, so much I wish to express, but I am at a loss to put everything in my heart into words,” Celestia said, explaining her lack of communication. “Even though I expected this, I must confess, hearing you actually say it put me into a state of shock.” 

Looking upwards, Luna gave her sister a wary stare. 

“I see that I have hurt you… I am sorry, please forgive me Luna.” 

“I am the one at fault,” Luna replied. The smaller blue alicorn filly shook her head. “I was being paranoid and unreasonable.” 

“And you had good reasons to respond the way you did. I have been unbearable and unreasonable myself in the past.” Celestia lowered her head. “Forgive me.” 

“I would very much like to call your sister my wife,” Barley said, his voice almost a whisper. “I don’t care about her being a princess or any of that malarky, but I do love her a great deal… I’ve come to understand that lately, watching her as she flounders through this foalhood of hers.” 

“I will agree to this but I have stipulations,” Celestia said, looking at Barley and then at Luna. “Gentle stipulations, so please, do not worry or fret.” 

“I have my own conditions as well.” Luna stepped backwards from her sister and took a step closer to Barley. 

“I would like that either Twilight Sparkle or Bucky perform the wedding—” 

“But sister… I wanted you to do it… why—” 

“Luna, I am sick of performing weddings… I want to be a bridesmaid.” Celestia gave Luna a pleading look and hoped that her sister would understand. “I have grown tired of being the center of attention all the time.” 

Licking her lips, nervous, Luna nodded. She took a deep breath and then said, “I can agree to that… I do not want a public wedding. I do not want the Canterlot elite showing up to stare down their upturned muzzles at me and judging me with their eyes. I want a small, private ceremony, free from the public eye. I want this for myself and for Barley.” 

“That seems reasonable.” Celestia nodded. 

“No press.” Barley’s face had a stern expression. “I mean it, I don’t want to be bothered on my wedding day. If they come, if this gets out somehow and they come, I will set them on fire. See if I don’t.” 

“He will,” Luna said, lifting her foreleg and pointing at Barley. “This is part of the reason why I love him.” 

“So a clandestine wedding, free of the press, done in private. I can agree to this, it seems very reasonable,” Celestia said. 

Smiling, Luna looked up at her sister. “And I would be most agreeable to having you as my bridesmaid.” 

“I would be glad to call you brother,” Celestia said to Barley, her voice soft. “Thank you, for all you have done to make my sister happy… for this, I am grateful…” 



 

The nervous feeling of nausea had returned. Apple Bloom looked over at her sister, who stood with Silver Shill, then at Granny Smith, then at Big Mac who stood beside Cheerilee, and then at Babs, who was sitting at a table with Piña and Larch. 

She felt Princess Celestia’s wing against her backside, nudging her forward. Every eye was on her. The filly cleared her throat, which felt parched, it felt so dry that she feared it crack or rip open. Every ear in the room was waiting for her to say something. 

Shoving his way past Applejack, Rumble made his way to Apple Bloom’s side. Following Rumble’s example, Sweetie Belle broke away from Coco to also join Apple Bloom on stage. Knowing she was needed, Scootaloo stepped away from Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Flash Sentry, all of whom were rather sweaty and could not stop giggling. 

Feeling her best friends crowd around her, Apple Bloom found her strength and her legs stopped threatening to buckle beneath her. She was pushed forwards towards the microphone by Scootaloo and Rumble, who shoved her along, and Sweetie Belle adjusted the microphone for Apple Bloom. 

“This was an accident,” Apple Bloom began in a somewhat fearful squeak. “All of this was an accident… I never set out to become no princess, I was just following an idea. I wanted to make certain that everypony could be fed.” The filly, nervous, cleared her throat. “I could not have done this by myself, but I suppose that is kinda the point. I didn’t have the magic I needed to make this possible, so I had to depend upon my friends. All of them. So many ponies helped me. It took all of us, it took so many talents and skills, it took all three tribes to make this dream of mine a reality.” 

Apple Bloom looked into the eyes of the crowd and was overwhelmed by all of the faces she saw staring back at her. “Very much like Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am here where I am right now because of friendship… my friends pulled me through and made this possible. I owe you, I owe all of you, and I have been placed into a position of responsibility because of everything you did for me. I want to be your servant… I am here to serve you.” Apple Bloom paused, blinked away tears, and then continued: “When I joined up with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, we formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders because we wanted to find our destiny. We did… but it took a lot of time. Looking back on it, looking back on all of the time we spent together, I realise that I learned everything I needed to know to become what I am today because of our adventures. I learned responsibility. I learned determination. I learned about courage and conviction. I learned a few really hard lessons too… like when my friends and I became Gabby Gums and we caused all that grief and misery… from that, I learned to treat others how I wish to be treated, and I learned about humility… I still feel real bad for that folks… I’m sorry. That was mighty dumb of me.” 

The crowd was silent. 

“To wrap this up, I would like to say this… my crusade is only beginning. My friends and I have already done the impossible once, and now we know that we can do anything together. I have a world to change… either you can help me or you can get out of my way. Not only do I have my fellow crusaders, but I have an army!” Having said what she wanted to say, more or less, Apple Bloom waved at the crowd and gave them a smile. 

Spike was the first to begin the applause, clapping his clawed hands together. Others joined in, stomping their hooves, and then came the whistles, the hoots, the hollers, and then the room exploded into deafening noise. 

Standing behind Apple Bloom, Princess Celestia smiled as tears began to slide down her cheeks. She had another agent of change to help her with her still blossoming vision… 



 

“Do you really think that Apple Bloom will change everything?” Piña asked Larch. 

Larch did not reply right right away. He sat, silent, with Piña on one side and Babs on the other. He scratched his head. “I dunno… I want to say yes.” 

“We earth ponies…” Babs’ words faded out and her stare became vacant. 

“Babs?” Piña reached over and gave Babs a gentle shove. 

“Oh… sorry… I don’t know what happened there, sorry.” Babs shook her head and blinked a few times. “Weird… anyway, we earth ponies, we have our own way of doing things.” 

Piña felt concerned. Babs got like this sometimes when talking about earth ponies. She seemed far and distant. Not quite herself. She could see Babs trembling and the filly started to look a little sweaty. 

“Twilight Sparkle and Bucky… they were both born in Canterlot… they’re unicorns… unicorns…” Babs faded out again. 

Reaching over once more, Piña gave Babs a prod. It was almost like Babs was waking up or something. Piña watched as Babs blinked and looked startled. “Do you need some fresh air, Babs?” 

“No, I’m fine… what was I saying? I started thinking about the moon there for a moment… I don’t know why… but I was feeling really nervous and out of sorts and I don’t know why but I started feeling really afraid and then I thought about the moon and then I felt better… I think I’ve had my head in my astronomy textbooks for too long. I really want to go and study with Princess Luna in the summer… I think all of this study has made me flakier than a pie crust... weird, huh?” Babs shook her head from side to side and then continued: “Twilight and Bucky have done a great job… they're off to a great start… but that doesn’t change that they both come from high society. Apple Bloom comes from the very bottom… she’s one of us earth ponies… I think she’ll be a big help to Twilight and Bucky…” Babs began to look sleepy for a moment and blinked, her eyelids becoming heavy. “Good unicorns… the right unicorns… good unicorns that can be trusted… good unicorns… who are kind to earth ponies.” 

“Babs? You’re acting funny again,” Larch said as he prodded Babs with his hoof. 

“I gotta stop studying so much… I was just thinking about the moon again. And the stars. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m fine, really. Too much time studying.” Babs turned her head and looked at Larch. “There are good pegasi and good unicorns. I thought about that when I thought about about the moon. We have to trust them that they will do right by us.” 

Piña, seeing Larch was almost snoot to snoot with Babs, gave Larch a gentle shove, pushing him into Babs. She watched as they bumped muzzles, and after a moment, it turned into a noisy smacker of a kiss. Piña felt a strange new sense of accomplishment. 

“You kissed me.” Babs looked Larch in the eye. 

“Piña pushed me…” Larch’s voice held a trace of panic. 

Babs nodded. “I say we grab her and give her a kiss on each cheek. What do you say, Larch?” 

Shrugging, Larch replied, “Okay.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 703
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m exhausted. I don’t think I am going to make it to the after party that Rarity is throwing… even though I know I gotta go,” Apple Bloom said as she flopped down in a chair. She yawned, let out a whine, and then watched her brother Big Mac dancing with Cheerilee. 

“It’s so sweet watching them together,” Sweetie Belle whispered in a low voice into Apple Bloom’s ear. She leaned over and put an arm around Apple Bloom’s withers. “Look how happy they are… they act like they are the only ponies in the room.” 

“Eh, I could love you like that.” Rumble reached up and smoothed back his pompadour, which was looking a little flat from his sweating and so much smoothing back. 

Leaning over, Scootaloo placed a foreleg around Rumble’s withers and whispered into his ear, “Rumble, if you loved any of us like that, we’d end up fat with foal like Cheerilee and several mares would be drawing straws to put an end to you… not to mention what your own mothers might do. You… you just keep loving us like the way you do, okay?” 

Embarrassed, Rumble turned an as of yet unknown and unseen shade of purple, something never before seen by mortal or immortal eyes in all known realities and dimensions. “I… Scoots… I… just… I just meant… I just meant I could be sweet to you.” 

Seeing Rumble losing his cool, Sweetie Belle fell back into her chair and began to guffaw. 



 

Closing his eyes, Barley leaned on Luna. Slow dancing. One of his favourite things, but something he could no longer do with his arthritic old knees. But in this much younger body, he could stand on his hind legs and hold Luna up so they could dance barrel to barrel, with their forelegs wrapped around one another, holding each other up as they danced in slow, lazy circles. 

“When we first met, I had no idea I would love you like I do right now,” Barley said, confessing his heart to Luna. “I thought this was going to be another drunken fling.” 

“I was lonesome, and I had an itch… but you have done so much more than scratch an itch, Barley. I have come to love you like I have loved no other. Even if you did paddle me with a brush.” 

“But that brought us a little closer together, I think.” Barley allowed his front hooves to wander and one ran down Luna’s spine until it reached her croup. He began to press tight circles against her supple flesh. 

“Barley, you are getting fresh with me, are you not?” Luna asked. 

“Oh, I am, but I’ll behave. A little touchy feely isn’t going to hurt anything. Lots of other colts are doing it… and more than a few fillies too,” Barley replied. 

“Slow dancing… a lesson in control for little colts. How to keep parts of your anatomy from popping out and embarrassing everypony present.” Luna shook her head and began to giggle. 

“Oh, I’ll admit, it is taking all my control to keep something from stabbing you in the belly right now… the chaperones are right to keep an eye on us colts. We’re all dirty perverts.” 

Squeezing Barley a little tighter, Luna pressed her muzzle against his neck and treasured this most magical of moments with the pony that she loved more than all others in her long, long life. 



 

This had been quite a party. Almost perfect. Pinkie Pie, proud, pondered party perfection. Cheese Sandwich was taking photos of happy couples and happy herds. There were a surprising number of little herds and there was a news reporter here interviewing any of the little herds that were brave enough to talk to him. 

Smiling a wide smile, Pinkie Pie watched Luna and Barley dancing. She felt her heart warm and thought of Cheese Sandwich. She couldn’t imagine loving another pony as much as him. Technically, she and Cheese lived together as a herd with a Cakes, but they lived as an extended family; the Cakes were like second parents to her. They had taken her in when she had come to Ponyville at such a young and tender age. All four of them had custody of Twist, a curious arrangement that had caused no end of eyebrow raising. 

But Twist was happy. Twist being happy made Pinkie Pie happy. Twist was blossoming into the beautiful beginnings of adolescence and she was becoming quite a baker in her own right. The love, the care, and the attention of not two, but four parents had done wonders for Twist’s self confidence and self esteem. 

Almost vibrating with excitement, Pinkie Pie looked over at Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting at a table with Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry, having a bit of a breather. Twilight Sparkle had come a long way from being the shy bookworm and wallflower. She was still clingy with her friends in social situations, but Twilight Sparkle was a social pony now. It made Pinkie Pie happy to see how Twilight Sparkle had changed. 

There was a flash from Cheese Sandwich’s camera and Pinkie Pie turned her head to watch. Cheese had a knack for getting amazing smiles out of even the shyest little colts and fillies, telling them to say “Cheese!” just before a picture and making silly faces at them. 

She felt her heart swelling with love. She sighed, rubbed her belly, and hoped that the little foal in there could feel its mother’s happiness. Pinkie Pie suspected she was having a colt. She didn’t know how she knew, just that she knew, perhaps because of her Pinkie sense. 

She watched as Cheese Sandwich snapped a picture of Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea. Both Diamond Tiara and Boadicea had matching flowers. Pinkie had no idea what the flowers were, but they were beautiful and white. Diamond Tiara’s was tucked into her mane while Boadicea had pinned hers to the collar on her gown.

Sentinel was a very lucky colt; he had found himself a pink pony. Pinkie Pie knew that pink ponies brought luck and were very, very special. Her father had told her so and her father was a very honest earth pony. 

Piña Colada was another pink pony, and it seemed that Piña had been procured, spoken for, claimed by a sweet little colt named Larch. Larch had received a crash course lesson in dancing from Carrot Cake and Cup Cake. Cheese had been so helpful and had provided music with his accordion. During the coronation gala today, Larch hadn’t done much dancing, but Larch, Piña, and Babs had been laughing and having a lot of fun, so Pinkie Pie couldn’t fault them. 

Heaving a sigh, Pinkie Pie felt very contented. 



 

“Look at them,” Rising Star said to Sparkler and Loch Skimmer. He pointed at Ripple and Bittersweet. “Look at them slow dancing. Did you ever see anything quite so beautiful as that?” 

“Well, I did wake up the other morning with Loch Skimmer’s plump posteriour in my face,” Sparkler replied. “But I’ll admit, seeing Ripple dancing with Bittersweet is right up there with beautiful sunsets and thunderstorms on my list of things I like to look at.” 

“I wish I could slow dance,” Rising Star said and then heaved a sigh. “But I know what would happen if I did.” 

“We haven’t done anything to help you with your boner problem for quite a while… at first I thought I was going to lose my mind.” Loch Skimmer turned and looked at her companions. “But then we started talking and doing stuff together and while I’d still like to have my bones jumped, I gotta admit, doing stuff together as a family has been nice.” 

“We have come back from the brink of disaster. Ripple has been doing a lot better. I think all of us have, actually.” Sparkler leaned over on Rising Star, sighed, and rubbed her cheek against his neck. “Look at Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea. They’re all trying to slow dance together as a trio, holding each other up.” 

“Sentinel is drooling… you can see it hanging off of the corner of his lip,” Loch Skimmer said, pointing at Sentinel. “Poor little fella, he can’t help how he drools when he gets excited.” 

“Gross, but somehow endearing. Boadicea just wiped it away with her wing… that has to be some kind of early warning sign of love or something, wiping away drool from your date.” Rising Star placed his foreleg around Sparkler and pulled her closer. 

Loch Skimmer looked up at Rising Star. “You drool in your sleep. From two distinct places.” The pegasus filly shook her head as she grinned. 

“Look how pretty Ripple is in her gown. Our little brawler is all girly,” Rising Star said. 

“Look, Rising, honey, why don’t you have Ripple put you through the floor and then you get back to me on how girly she is.” Sparkler, who was happy to be pressed up against her husband, melted against him, her body almost going limp. Her tremors weren’t so bad as of late and her Shivers symptoms had reduced a great deal now that she had removed some of the stress from her life. 

“Ponies never use the term ‘willowy’ to describe me.” Loch Skimmer looked at her sister and felt a twinge of envy. “When they describe Ripple though, she’s willowy. She’s graceful. She’s delicate. Ripple gets all of the pretty words when ponies talk about her.” 

“I dunno, there is something to be said for solid, stocky, and sturdy…. ouch! You slugged me, Loch Skimmer!” Rising Star’s lower lip protruded in a pout. “You know, when a pony is rescued by emergency services, they want a pony that is dependable, solid, stocky, and sturdy… nobody ever begs the willowy pony to come and rescue them.” 

“Oh shut up.” Loch Skimmer reached up with both front hooves, grabbed Rising Star by his cheeks, pulled his head around, and kissed him on the lips. 



 

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, a different sort of dance was coming to an end. Sighing, feeling weary, Bucky, who was bloodied, sat down upon the floor. He turned to Tannis and gave the proud new father an exhausted, but reassuring smile. 

“See, I told you everything was going to be fine,” Bucky said. 

The griffon took a deep shuddering breath, nodded, and looked at his wife. Agnetha was being cleaned up by the nurses and she was holding the blanket wrapped bundle that was their cub. A few tears trickled from the corners of his eyes and the sides of his beak were shiny. 

Bucky watched as Agnetha made a few feeble movements and then turned his attention back to Tannis. “I’ll admit, that was scary. Breech birth and something rupturing. Agnetha will recover and Beauregard came out okay.” 

“I have never seen my wife look more beautiful than she does right now,” Tannis said. 

His eyes darting towards the griffoness, and then back at Tannis, Bucky nodded. “I know what you mean. When your mate gives birth to your offspring, there is something beautiful about her.” 

“Blood for the transfusion is coming,” a nurse reported. She bowed her head and then departed, disappearing down the hall. 

“I can’t stop crying… this is shameful.” Tannis began to wipe his eyes with his wings, but he could not make the tears stop. “I thought I was going to lose her… I’ve never been so scared in all my life… even during that horrible night when everything went wrong…” 

“Oh my, I made a hideous little cub,” Agnetha said in a low, weak sounding voice. 

Shaking his head, Bucky started to chuckle and he held up his talons. “Come on, they’re not so bad… I thought that Bandua was beautiful and perfect.” 

Pulling back the corner of the blanket, Agnetha looked at her still bloodied cub. She took a deep breath, rested her head back against her pillows, and then looked at her husband. “I think you’ll need to feed him. I’m not sure that I have it in me.” 

“Of course, dear,” Tannis replied, stepping forward. 

“Sir, one moment, let us clean up the little prince just a bit more, if we may,” a nurse said. 

“Of course.” Tannis stepped back but kept his sharp eyes locked on the blanket covered bundle. “I have a son. Bucky, you have a daughter… I think at some point, we need to have a talk about doing what is best for our griffons…” 

“Funny you should mention that… I was planning on bringing up the subject myself, only later,” Odin said as he stepped through the door. “Oh goodness, there is a lot of blood. How are you, Agnetha dear?” 

“Still alive and very happy,” Agnetha replied. 

“This is a momentous day… a wonderful day.” Odin lifted his head and looked proud. “The fates of the griffons are improving…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 704
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All good things come to an end. Standing among the balloons and the streamers, Sentinel looked around the room. There were very few dancers on their hooves now. As it approached the hour of six, it was clear that the dance was over. 

Tired, more than a little sweaty, and wanting to get out of his clothing, Sentinel smiled, feeling good about this whole experience. Apple Bloom was gone, off to the after coronation gala party being hosted by Rarity. Sentinel hoped that as a charity fundraiser, it would go well. Princess Celestia had left, taking with her Apple Bloom, Rumble, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. 

Diamond Tiara’s mane had fallen out of its bun and had spilled around her neck. Sentinel thought she looked fabulous, but when her mane had been in a flux state, with part of it still in a bun but with strands falling out, Diamond Tiara had become a powerful, beautiful distraction. Sentinel hoped that she would put her mane up in a bun again and that parts of it would slip out once more. 

Sighing, Sentinel gave a gentle kick to a balloon. Diamond Tiara was gone, off to the after coronation gala party. Feeling a little melancholy and not knowing why, Sentinel turned his attention to Piña, Larch, and Babs. The trio were still sitting at a table, playing some sort of game, and an indulging in a little bit of innocent kissy-face. All three of them looked so very happy with one another. 

The coronation gala had been a fertile field, and young love had blossomed. 



 

Feeling Lugus’ stare, Boadicea had trouble meeting his gaze. She turned away, staring down at the floor, her eyes looking at everything but Lugus, even at Peekaboo, who was dancing with herself in front of a mirror. 

“I hope you had a nice time, dear,” Yew Wood said as she watched Peekaboo playing. 

“You seem out of sorts.” Lugus’ eyes narrowed. “And you refuse to look me in the eye. Did something happen?” 

“Oh, Sentinel was a perfect gentlecolt,” Boadicea replied, hoping that Lugus would not get the wrong idea. “He does drool a bit when he gets excited, but he was on his very best behaviour.” 

Nervous, Boadicea began to preen her wings. They were full of confetti. Her tail swished from side to side and she could feel Lugus’ burning stare upon her, making her feel self conscious and weird. She wished Lugus would stop staring. 

“Something happened.” Lugus’ words were not a question, but a statement. 

“Lugus, honey, don’t start interrogating her after her dance.” Yew Wood’s feathers fluffed out, adding bulk to her profile. 

Holding up his claws, Lugus made a gesture for Yew Wood’s silence. “Something has happened that has hurt her, and I intend to find out what it is.” 

“Oh… wait, what?” Yew, whose mother-mode was now engaged, walked over to Boadicea and began to try and study the griffoness’ face as Boadicea tried to preen her wings. “Did somepony hurt your feelings?” 

“No.” Boadicea lifted her head. She looked Yew in the eye, finding it much easier than looking Lugus in the eye. “It is Sentinel… I… he… I don’t know how to put it.” 

“Sentinel did not hurt you… but Sentinel is the cause of this condition?” Lugus asked in a patient sounding voice. 

“Yes… no… I don’t know!” Boadicea’s wings flapped in frustration. “We griffons have this code of honour we hold to. We have these oaths and these measures and all of these solemn, serious things we recite that make us behave and do what we do and we strive to live up to these ideals and Sentinel… he… he… simply is.” Boadicea, who worked up her courage, stared Lugus dead in the eye. “I don’t know how else to put it. We griffons practice honour, but Sentinel is honour. We practice it, he lives it. And it leaves me feeling very out of sorts and insecure. I could spend my entire life chasing after my honourable ideals and I’ll never have his character or his conviction.” 

“There has to be quite a story here,” Yew Wood said as she looked Boadicea over. Reaching out her wing, she stroked the griffoness on the neck, trying to calm her. 

“Would I make a good queen?” Boadicea asked. 

“Is that what this is about—” 

“Lugus, so help me, if you break my little girl’s heart after her first real grown up dance, I will dance upon your bloodied skull!” 

Jerking his head back as all of his feather’s fluffed out, Lugus said, “Shetlanders.” 

“Sentinel has his whole life planned out. He has given himself over entirely to duty. He talks of servitude. His is a head worthy of a crown. He ordered his own troops to use his body as a shield.” Boadicea began to pick confetti out of her feathers with her talons. “I don’t know what I want just yet, but I have a lot to think about. I don’t know if I am strong enough to serve at his side.” 

“Come here,” Lugus said as he tried to wrap his wing around Boadicea. 

The griffoness, being sulky, tried to squirm away, but Lugus was a large powerful creature who could not be denied when he wanted something. Reaching out his talons, he grabbed her around her middle, hauled her in, wrapped a foreleg around her, and then his wings as he sat down upon the floor. 

“Boadicea, the fact that you doubt, the fact that you worry, the fact that you question is a good sign. Feeling entitled, feeling as though you deserved to be a queen, feeling as though it was owed to you, or that life was obligated to give you this position would prove that you are unfit. So you have already dealt with the biggest obstacle.” Lugus gave Boadicea a squeeze and saw that Yew was giving him an approving smile. 

“I’m not even sure what I want… I just want the chance to get to know Sentinel… but even getting to know him means that I have to be in a position to meet his standards… I have to be ready to chase after his unattainable ideals. He doesn’t have time to engage in playful courting or common dating. Anybirdy getting involved with him has to be prepared to deal with the future that Sentinel has planned. But there is a part of me that really wants to get to know him. He’s got this strength to him… and when I felt it, it made me want to be a better griffoness.” Exhausted, Boadicea went limp in Lugus’ embrace and allowed herself to be held without resistance. 



 

It felt good to be out of the gown. Piña, now freed, wiggled and pronked about, glad to be naked again. It didn’t feel natural to wear clothing, but clothing did cover things up. Funny that there was even a need to cover things up. Peering back from between her front legs, Piña examined her teats. Standing up on her hind legs, she always felt that they were too noticeable. Other ponies did it, and other ponies paid them no attention, but Piña felt self conscious about that part of her body. She closed her legs when she sat down, felt awkward when standing up, and prefered to remain on all fours where at least things were more or less out of sight and therefore, out of mind. 

Minotaurs, like Tuli, wore clothes and had a concept of modesty, while other minotaurs were nudists. Tuli had explained it to Piña in a very awkward conversation that standing upright, by being bipedal, there was a bit of social responsibility for not making others feel self conscious or out of sorts. Hence, civilised, responsible, modest minotaurs wore clothing. 

Down on all fours, most parts of pony anatomy weren’t too visible. Males were a bit more visible than others, and Piña had found herself looking on more than one occasion, trying to get a good view of pendulous, swinging scrotums on some of the young colts, and trying not to look at pendulous, swinging scrotums on certain other colts. Like her brother. Noticing it or seeing it was just too awkward, and Piña understood why some species wore clothing. It was so you didn’t see your sibling's private bits and then want to tear your own eyes out. 

Piña had once spent half a day thinking about how certain parts of Sentinel would flop around, slapping up against Diamond Tiara and had given herself a headache from banging her head into her desk to make the disturbing thoughts go away. 

The pink filly waggled her backside in front of the mirror and lifted her tail to have a look back there, craning her head around and stretching out her neck as much as possible. With her legs together in a relaxed position, nothing was too visible. Everything remained tucked down inside of her plot furrow and only became visible when she spread her hind legs out. 

“Piña, what are you doing?” Dinky asked. The unicorn filly raised an eyebrow.

“Checking out my plot to see how visible it is,” Piña replied. The earth pony filly squinted to get a better look. She kicked out her hind legs and flexed back there. “You know, fillies have it much easier to hide everything away than little colts do.” 

Shuddering, Dinky squeezed her eyes shut. “Piña… ew… just… ew. Go into the bathroom if you are going to keep checking out your filly bits. I’m trying to study teleportation essentials.” 

“You know Dinky… everywhere that little colts have sat have been touched by scrotums—” 

“GAH! Piña! How could you?” Dinky cried, placing both front hooves against her ears and pressing them in to try and block out the sound of Piña’s voice. “I’m not listening, tra-la-la-la-la!” 

“I’m going to go take a shower… have fun not thinking about scrotums, Dinky…” 



 

There was good wine in the royal wine cellar. Bucky had left the well-protected dusty stuff alone, but he had pulled up a few bottles of wine older than he was. He was deep in his cups, slumped over a table, thinking about his pregnant wives, his not pregnant wives, and his foals. 

Lifting the bottle in his talons, Bucky guzzled some of it down and then set it back down upon the table with a thump. There were several empty bottles on the table scattered around him. Much to his dismay, Bucky was alone. Tannis was with his wife, looking after his newborn. 

Somehow, Bucky had gone from being in the mood to celebrate to feeling melancholy. 

Beauregard was still wet from being born and already his life was being planned out for him. Bucky thought of Bandua… he wasn’t keen on prearranged marriage but he had agreed that he would consider the option with the understanding that the end decision would be Bandua’s. Sentinel seemed happy enough with his own prearranged marriage with Moonbow and in general, Bucky did not know how he felt about the issue. 

His own marriage to Belisama had been somewhat coerced, but Bucky could not deny that he loved her. Given a fair chance, they had become friends, then close friends, and over time, lovers. Bucky emptied out the bottle, belched, and thought about Bandua’s happiness. 

“Bucky?” 

The sound of Shining Armor’s voice jolted Bucky from his thoughts and he turned to look at Shining Armor’s projection. 

“Bucky, we have a situation.” Shining Armor’s expression became one of concern. “Mirror traveler incoming. He’s on a train heading northwards and he is currently in the badlands. Something isn’t right though Bucky… I’ve detected him, and he’s not as hostile as he should be, but make no mistake, he has some hostility. Something just doesn’t feel right though. I’m stretched thin Bucky, and I cannot deal with him. I’ve been keeping an unseen shield up over Apple Bloom just as you’ve requested.” 

“Oh bugger.” Bucky shoved his empty wine bottle away from him. “Time to go kill somepony... and I was having such a lovely day. Oh, sod it all.” 

“He is on a train with many other passengers. He’s sitting by himself, just muttering under his breath. Something seems off about him. He appears to be in pain—” 

“Oh, he’s not in pain yet, but he will be,” Bucky said. His words held a faint drunken slur. He held up his talons to Shining Armor. “Do you know how sharp these things are?” 

“Bucky, be careful. Something feels off about this. He’s a unicorn, I’m thinking a type three, and he has a burning sun cutie mark. He could be quite dangerous and there are other passengers to think about.” 

His horn flashing, Bucky became sober in an instant. He shuddered, blinked; then he was gone, leaving behind a cloud of snowflakes and a sheet of ice upon the table. 
	
> Chapter 705
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once more a shadow adrift upon the currents of the night, Bucky traveled at the speed of dark. He was refining this means of travel, shadow winking from place to place, moving several hundred yards in the span of an eyeblink. For unicorns, winking involved moving mass, which took a great deal of energy. For those adept in shadow magic, there was no mass, only shadowstuff. Remaining in shadow was quite taxing for most though. For Bucky, it was getting easier and easier. The shadow generator had done something to him, changed some fundamental aspect of his being. Bucky was starting to believe that he wouldn’t need dark magic as much as he first thought; he had found something that he believed, if properly explored, might be a suitable replacement. 

He was further evolving as a lunicorn, which Bucky still thought was a silly name. While Sombra had been able to harness shadow magic, Bucky had become shadow magic. Even Luna, for all of her magical might and her ability to work in shadow, she was still a solar pony. Her eyes lacked slitted pupils, she had feathers, and she was as herbivorous as the next pony. 

Bucky felt as though he was a sea captain, sailing uncharted waters, making new discoveries as he pushed ever onwards towards the horizon. 

In the distance, there was a train winding its way through the frozen desert. 



 

A shadowy figure in a black cloak moved through the door of the passenger car, walked down the aisle, and then sat down next to an older looking unicorn. Not much of the shadowy figure could be seen, but dull black metallic talons flexed in the faint light of the passenger car and there was a soft glow emanating from beneath the figure’s hood. 

“I knew you would come… hello,” the older looking unicorn said. “I need your help.” 

The black cloaked figure leaned over. “That is not the greeting I was expecting.” 

“It hurts… it hurts so much… there are a million voices in my head all screaming to kill you… I can’t bear it anymore… he’s worse than Princess Selene… he’s inside of our heads, twisting our thoughts… he took her power and he warps us through our dreams… he’s become the dark… make the voices stop…” The older unicorn’s words faded into incomprehensible muttering, whispers, and grunts. 

“I can make your pain go away,” the shadowy figure said in a whisper reminiscent of silk brushing up against silk. He leaned over a little more and raised his talons. “Dream of the light…” As the shadowy figure spoke, tendrils of shadowstuff drifted from his talons, crept over the older unicorn’s face, and began to burrow into the unicorn’s mind through any available orifice. 

Whimpering, the unicorn went limp, then slipped into slumber. 



 

In the hours just before dawn, a group of Myrmidons surrounded the train station in Appleloosa. They watched and waited as the passengers were herded off of the train and taken to safety. After the crowd was a safe distance away, a black cloaked figure emerged from the train with a unicorn levitated in a telekinetic field. 

One of the Myrmidons stepped forward. Using her thumb and central wing knuckle, she snapped a magic inhibitor upon the unicorn’s horn. She then snapped out a salute to the black cloaked figure. 

“Sir, what is to be done with him?” she asked. 

“Treat him gently. He is of no threat to us and could be of great use,” Bucky replied. “I have been inside of his mind… he is not our enemy.” 

“Sir?” The Myrmidon lifted up her faceplate, opening up her helmet and revealing her face. She gave Bucky an incredulous stare. “I am not at all doubting your claim, sir, but an explanation would be… helpful, sir.” 

“He is a tired old stallion that cannot fight anymore. He watched his master, his teacher, Princess Solara, get murdered by Princess Selene when she returned as Nightmare Moon. He was there when the Night Stallion killed Nightmare Moon. His brain has been damaged… tampered with in ways I cannot even begin to comprehend. I need Shadowguard and others like her to begin triage right away. We need to save what we can, he is a potential asset. He was the Night Stallion’s second in command and primary advisor.” 

The lunar pegasus mare’s eyes widened and she looked down at the unicorn held in Bucky’s levitation. He was old looking, wizened, and his pelt was a faded shade of purple. 

“His name is Dusk Chaser and he has come seeking asylum.” 



 

“It is like looking in a mirror,” Princess Celestia said as she looked down at the pony sleeping in the bed. She felt terrible for the restraints, but hoped that with time and trust, they could be removed. Her eyes lingered on the dark purple mane with few bright spots of colour, all tinged with strands of grey. 

“It’s me.” Twilight Sparkle stepped away from the bed, shaking her head. 

“Perhaps. One of the many possibilities of you.” Celestia looked over at Twilight and saw her former student trembling. 

“Majesties, this pony’s mind is… damaged. His condition can best be described as schizophrenic. Whole sections of his mind have been blocked off to keep him from remembering certain things.” The lunar pegasus male adjusted his eyeglasses and looked at Princess Celestia. “He has been disciplined for having treacherous thoughts but it is clear that his intelligence was an asset. His mind is a mess.” 

“Can he be saved? Healed?” Celestia looked down at the pony who lay slumbering, having what had to be the first untroubled sleep in a very long time. 

“By Mistress Luna, perhaps. But he is beyond any of our abilities,” the lunar pegasus replied. “What is interesting is that we can go into his mind and see into his dreams. We can’t do that with other mirror travelers. He’s… done something to himself to leave his mind open. We don’t understand just what is going on, but we’re working on figuring it out.” 

“I can’t deal with this,” Twilight Sparkle blurted out. Cringing, she ran out of the room, her wings fluttering at her sides. She let out a pained cry as she cleared the door, almost stumbled over her own hooves, recovered, and took off at a run down the hallway. 

“Look after our guest,” Princess Celestia commanded. “I am going to look after Twilight Sparkle.” 



 

Bucky awoke, feeling confused and disoriented. He had been half in and half out of a dream state on the train ride, something that had taxed his mind far more than he cared to admit. While his shadow powers were growing, his ability to dreamwalk was limited. Luna was still the undisputed master of such activities, and Sentinel was far, far better at it than Bucky was. 

He felt lips against his cheek, a wet sogginess. He opened one eye, felt the sting of daylight, and then opened the other eye. 

“Go back to sleep… you’ve only been asleep for a few hours. It’s not even noon,” Derpy said as she cuddled up a little closer to her mate. 

“Have there been any messages?” Bucky asked in a groggy voice. 

For a moment, Derpy wanted to lie; she wanted to say no, hoping that Bucky would go back to sleep, but she was too tender hearted to be dishonest. “Yes. Several messages have been delivered. Now go back to sleep. It can wait.” 

Tensing, Derpy felt Bucky’s body as he began to stretch himself. She bit her lip, feeling more than a little angry and hurt. Closing her eyes, she made a choice. “You’re not getting out of this bed in one piece. Don’t even try it. Get some sleep.” She opened her good eye and glared at Bucky, pressing her muzzle up against his. 

Much to Derpy’s surprise, Bucky kissed her, a soft gentle kiss. She blinked and opened her other eye. She felt her heart thumping inside of ribcage and her pulse quickened. 

“Oh, I could think of a few reasons to stay in the bed,” Bucky said in a low voice to the grey pegasus mare. “And when I’m done, I think we’ll both go to sleep.” 



 

Twilight Sparkle took a sip of her coffee. It was bitter, cold, and tasted terrible. She did not notice the flavour however. She felt heavy all over, her mind felt dull, and she was somewhat hungover. The party that Rarity had thrown had been amazing. She had gone expecting a bunch of snobby dullards. Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee had both been there to work the crowd over. 

Looking up, Twilight Sparkle saw Princess Celestia standing in the doorway, carrying fresh, steaming cups of coffee. Twilight blinked and she could feel her heavy eyelids almost scraping over her dry, irritated eyes. 

“It seems that I was your faithful student,” Twilight Sparkle said in a dull, flat voice. “Dusk Chaser, faithful student of Princess Solara, Royal Archivist, Scholar, and who knows, probably the pony that figured out how to sever Nightmare Moon’s immortality.” 

“Twilight—” 

“His cutie mark is the sun though, and mine is a star… perhaps his cutie mark is what made him Princess Solara’s most faithful student. It was his destiny to serve the Sun. He never became an alicorn though… nope. He had to watch his most beloved mentor get murdered by her sister.” 

“Twilight, please, stop,” Celestia said in a pleading voice. 

“That pony in there is one of the many versions of me.” Twilight Sparkle made a gesture with her hoof. “When I look at him, I feel weird. Is that what it was like for you when you saw your own counterpart on the other side of the mirror?” 

“Yes, Twilight, there was some discomfort and a peculiar feeling,” Celestia replied. 

“So what do you think is going to happen when Dusk Chaser wakes up and sees you? His beloved teacher, now back from the dead… how much do you think that will hurt him? Confuse him? How much damage will it cause his already addled brains?” Twilight set down her cold coffee and picked up a hot, fresh, steaming cup. 

“Twilight, I do not know.” Celestia’s stony expression cracked and her features became pained. “He looks so much like you. But older. And male of course.” 

“What do we do with him?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 

“What do you mean, Twilight?” Celestia replied as she picked up a cup of coffee. 

“There is a second me running around… I am having a very difficult time taking this in… I am me. I am unique. I am special. Or at least, I thought I was. And then I met a draconequus version of myself that is madly in love with Bucky, who is also a draconequus. I have heard other rumours of my various selves. And there is a male version of myself lying sedated in a bed. This is my reality and I am feeling quite possessive of it right now.” 

“It is not easy Twilight.” Celestia closed her eyes. “I have met an evil version of myself. Also met Cadance’s mirror counterpart, the Alicorn of Lust. She was horrible beyond compare.” 

“And Sombra. Even I was charmed by Sombra. He was… good.” Twilight watched Celestia’s eyes open. 

“He was very much like the Sombra I remember. The good Sombra that I loved. But Good King Sombra was too good. The Sombra that I fell in love with was a good pony, but he had a thing for fighting dirty when it was necessary and he had a laundry list of bad habits that made him a horrible, disreputable pony. He was a drunkard, he was a pervert, and he was a boorish jerk.” Celestia paused and looked at Twilight. “Keep this in mind, no matter how much he might look like you, or even be similar to you, he is not you. Beneath it all, he is a different pony. Just like Good King Sombra was a different pony.” 

“Thanks… for some reason, that actually makes me feel better,” Twilight Sparkle said. 
	
	
> Chapter 706
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Did you have a nice time at the coronation gala?” Bucky asked, looking down at Luna. 

“I had a lovely time,” Luna replied. She looked up at Bucky, a broad smile upon her muzzle. “Have an eventful night?” 

“A bit.” Bucky stared out the window. Outside, the sun was far too bright, too blinding, almost painful. His eyes seemed to sensitive. A part of him wished that he was back in bed, perhaps spooning with a certain grey pegasus mare. 

“Bucky?” Luna sat down on the floor and looked up at the unicorn beside her.

“Yes, Luna, what is it?” Bucky replied. 

“Bucky, what if I told you there was another way…” Luna’s voice was soft, almost a whisper, silken and smooth. “What if I told you I knew of a way for you to stay with your family… to have a long life… to have the ability to protect Equestria from your enemies… and not grow wings?” 

His head jerking around with an almost mechanical movement, Bucky stared down at Luna, his eyes narrowing and his brows furrowing. “Luna, we both know that my candle is already almost burnt out. My string has been cut short. We both know that what is wrong with me can’t be fixed.” 

“But what if it could?” Luna’s eyes were almost luminous, they were wide pools of teal tinted moonlight. “What if I told you that it was possible to put some years back… to give you time… to give you power.” 

Growling, Bucky ripped his gaze away from Luna’s eyes. “Luna, there are some things you shouldn’t bring up in a discussion, no matter how close you are to a pony.” 

Her expression changing, becoming cold and angry, Luna’s eyes flashed for a moment, her pupils becoming slitted while Bucky was turned away, unable to see them. “Bucky… it doesn’t have to end this way… don’t throw your life away… there are options—” 

“I AM NOT THROWING MY LIFE AWAY!” Bucky roared, whirling on Luna. 



 

With a gasp, Bucky awoke. He felt cold and clammy, his muscles ached, and his head hurt. He had been dreaming, but he was unable to remember what he had been dreaming about. He pulled himself out of the bed, stumbled, blinded by the bright light coming in the window, and he almost toppled over as he struggled to regain his balance. He felt a peculiar sense of weakness. 

Free from the blankets, he began to shiver even though the room was warm. His teeth began to chatter as he headed for the bathroom with a warm shower on his mind. Stepping into the bathroom, the first thing he did was close the blinds, darkening the room just a bit. 

He turned on the water, got it as hot as he dared, and climbed into the shower. As the hot water sprayed down upon his sweat soaked pelt, a painful feeling of bitterness crept into Bucky’s mind. He didn’t know why he felt angry, just that he felt angry; like he had been cheated, screwed over, that he hadn’t been given what he deserved. 

He was Equestria’s protector. He was certain that he was owed a little more than he was getting. With this realisation, a tiny spark of resentment kindled in his heart. He was a good father, a devoted husband, a dedicated protector. What did he have to show for it? Gritting his teeth, Bucky kicked the side of the tub as he allowed the hot water to soak into salty, sweat covered hide. 



 

“I had a very nice time,” Boadicea said to Sentinel, her crest rising somewhat as she spoke. “Thank you for taking me to the dance, that was gracious of you.” 

Bowing his head, Sentinel replied, “It was my privilege.” 

“Oh stop that… it leaves a female flustered.” Boadicea’s crest rose a little more. She tittered for a moment and then brought herself under control. “Sentinel, I was up all night thinking… you… you and Diamond Tiara left a lot on my mind. I wanted to thank you for being straightforward with me.” And Boadicea was feeling more than a little flustered. Unaware that she was emitting pheromones, her wings fluttered at her sides, perfuming the air around her. 

Feeling a fire in his cheeks and his neck, Sentinel blinked as his ears perked forwards. He sniffed, smelling something that left him quite excited. There was a spicy smell, something intoxicating, and it was coming from Boadicea. He felt his muscles contract. Unable to control himself, Sentinel felt his body seize up as the flehmen response overtook his body, causing his lips to peel back from his teeth, his tongue lolled out, and he sucked in air, drawing scents over his vomeronasal organ. 

“Sentinel… I didn’t know you could make such funny faces!” Boadicea began to laugh and she took a step backwards as Sentinel made a most peculiar sound. And then, her eyes going as wide as saucers, Boadicea noticed something. Something blue was dangling down. “Oh my, Sentinel… are you happy to see me?” 

Shaking himself, Sentinel who realised that something had gone wrong in the worst possible way, forced his legs to move. He ran around to the stairs, ran up the stairs, almost flying, down the hall, and then into his room, where he slammed the door behind him. 

“What just happened?” Berry Punch asked. She stood in the kitchen archway, having witnessed everything that had just taken place. “Oh nuts… he’s going to torture himself over that for weeks.” 

“I don’t know what just happened,” Boadicea replied. 

Sniffing, Berry Punch felt a tingle in her nostrils. She eyed Boadicea and her eyes narrowed. She took a step forwards, her brows furrowing, her nostrils flaring. Berry Punch, now almost holding her breath, came snoot to beak with Boadicea and whispered, “Did you just rub one out?” 

The griffoness’ eyes went wide and her beak dropped open. 

“You stink like sexy griffoness,” Berry Punch said in a low conspiratorial whisper. The wily earth pony mare tried to breathe as little as possible. “You just overloaded poor Sentinel’s brain.” 

After letting out a nervous caw, Boadicea stared down at the floor, unable to look Berry Punch in the eye any longer. “How did you know?” 

“I just know these things… Sentinel is almost feral when it comes to his senses. He’s not like us. He’s a wild thing. He marks his territory. He scent rubs on stuff. He’s aggressive and territorial and I’ve seen him lifting his leg outside to lay claim to this entire area. If you’re not careful, he’ll mark you. I’ve seen him mark Diamond Tiara a couple of times now,” Berry Punch replied in a Berry serious voice.  

“Is that why he rubs his head on stuff, and even other ponies?” Boadicea began to feel a little self conscious and all of her feathers fluffed out. 

Smirking, Berry Punch nodded. She backed away, her smirk becoming a grin, and she took pleasure in watching poor Boadicea squirming. “Go take a shower before you talk to Sentinel again.” 

“But… that was where I scratched my itch…” 



 

Her lips pressed into a straight line, Celestia looked at Tourmaline and with great patience, she waited. Tourmaline stood on Dusk Chaser’s bed, her head held down low near the comatose unicorn’s. Reaching out a hoof, she touched Dusk Chaser’s cheek. 

“He’s sick. His mind feels all wrong. Broken. There are things in there that don’t feel like they belong,” Tourmaline said to her mother. 

“What do you mean, Tourmaline? Can you explain?” Celestia asked. 

“Almost like a second pony was in there,” Tourmaline replied. 

“Well, he’s schizophrenic, so that explains that.” Celestia heaved a weary sigh and watched as her adopted daughter continued to poke and prod. 

“I don’t know what that means, but his mind is broken and… and… he has memories that aren’t his own. Dark memories. Bad memories. Mama, it scares me to touch them.” Unable to bear it any longer, Tourmaline stepped away, lept off of the bed, and ran to her mother. “They’re not his memories.” 

“Hmm.” Celestia felt puzzled. Dusk Chaser was one mystery layered over another. 

“I can’t stay… I can still feel the sickness… mama, it’s bad,” Tourmaline said, whimpering as she cowered beneath the tall white alicorn. 

“Which is why we need to heal him, he’s suffering.” Celestia looked down between her front legs and saw Tourmaline staring up at him. 

“No, mama, you don’t understand… the memories are there… but whatever left those memories behind… it’s not there any longer… it is like a big gaping hole where a thorn is pulled out.” Tourmaline squeaked and squeezed her hind legs together to keep from urinating upon herself in fear. Letting out a shrill cry, she ran from the hospital room as fast as her legs could carry her. 

A cold chill ran down Celestia’s spine and she wondered what might scare Tourmaline so much…



 

“Sentinel?” Berry Punch knocked on Sentinel’s door and then leaned up against it. 

“Go away!” Sentinel shouted. 

Berry closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Sentinel, I can’t do that. Come on, talk to me, Sentinel… I’m not leaving and I’m coming in there, so unless you are doing something private, I’m coming in right now.” 

“No!” 

Berry Punch opened the door with her eyes still closed, her ears strained for any sounds of a personal and private nature. When she heard nothing, she opened her eyes and looked at Sentinel, who was curled up on his bed, miserable looking, with bleary reddened eyes. She shut the door behind her, approached the bed, sat down, and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“Go away!” 

“No.” Berry Punch shook her head. “Sentinel, this happens to every colt. It happens in front of fillies that you like, it happens in front of your sisters, and it happens to little colts in front of their own mothers. It just happens, okay?” 

“I wish I was DEAD!” 

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad… it just happens. My brother did it… he was hugging me at the time. It took him months before he could hug me again.” Berry Punch’s expression was one of soft compassion. 

“Oh stars… that’s horrible…” Sentinel’s mouth fell open. 

Nodding, Berry Punch looked Sentinel in the eye. “Sentinel, this is going to start happening to you. There isn’t much you can do about it, so you might as well make peace with it now. You have sisters that aren’t yours by blood, and they’re growing up, and there are a lot mares and females in the house that are going to trigger some responses from you. Just remember, no matter what happens, all of us still love you and will not think any less of you.” 

“No,” Sentinel said in a pained whimper. “I can’t stand how I’m feeling right now… if this starts to happen all the time I’m never leaving my room again.” 

“It will happen at home, it will happen at school, and it will happen anywhere there are females. Look, Sentinel, you have a powerful sense of smell and you’re a bit more… primitive than other colts. You have powerful instincts. I can’t candy coat this for ya, this is going to be rough on you.” Berry Punch blinked but did not break eye contact with her son. 

“Well… I’m not going to school anymore… that settles that,” Sentinel said, his voice an uncharacteristic whine. 

“Oh come on Sentinel, suck it up.” Berry’s eyes narrowed and her ears perked upwards. “I know you’ve slipped out around Diamond Tiara.” 

“That’s different! We know each other… it is still really embarrassing though.” 

“But you don’t know Boadicea as well as you do Diamond Tiara. I understand. Have you checked out Diamond Tiara?” Berry Punch asked in her usual blunt manner. 

Closing his eyes, Sentinel nodded. 

“I’m guessing you’ve sniffed her?” Berry asked. 

Squeezing his eyes shut even tighter, Sentinel nodded again. 

“Have you had a response from her like the one you had with Boadicea?” Berry’s voice was soft, soothing, comforting. It was almost hypnotic and she could tell that it was having an effect upon Sentinel. 

Sentinel shook his head no. “No, nothing ever quite like that. Berry… I wanted… I wanted to do… I wanted to do things… the feeling was so strong that it scared me. This is why I can’t go back to school. I felt like an animal… I wanted to pounce on Boadicea and do awful things to her.” 

“That is very, very honest of you to say, Sentinel.” Berry’s ears fell back down to the sides of her face and her eyes softened. “You didn’t do those things though. You came upstairs. You remained in control. You feel guilty for even thinking about it, which means you have pretty good control over your more bestial nature. I think that maybe, you are being too hard on yourself and you need to acknowledge your own self control.” 

“All it takes is one moment where I lose my self control… and it is all over for me,” Sentinel said in a fearful whine. He opened his eyes and looked at Berry, his eyes full of tears. 

Berry Punch shook her head, causing her limp ears to flop around. “Sentinel, be realistic. Stuff happens. Look, we’ll play this by ear, okay? If this starts to be a problem, we’ll get some pheromone blockers for you and the problem will go away. But that is a crutch and it might hurt you in the long run. You’re going to have to work on self control and self discipline. And I will be here every step of the way for you. And I know this is embarrassing, but we might have to get you a false sheath to help you control your urges.” 

“What’s a false sheath?” Sentinel asked, his voice an embarrassed squeak. 

“Sentinel, a false sheath is something that a colt or a stallion can stick his penis in so that he can relieve himself in a controlled environment,” Berry replied. 

The colt, embarrassed beyond words, covered his face with his wings and began to snuffle as he lay there, limp upon the bed. 

“Sentinel, you are going to have to grow up a little and try to be mature about this. If you are having strong urges, you’re going to need coping mechanisms… means of control. Come spring, when spring is actually in the air, you going to be what, nine years old? You were born in the spring, right? You’re about that age where the urges start… but when spring is in the air, things are going to get rough for you. And it will be even rougher come summer. We might as well start working on solutions now, before there is a serious problem.” 

“It’s already a serious problem!” 

“I know, Sentinel, I know.” Berry Punch reached out her front hoof and touched Sentinel on his hind leg. Much to her relief, Sentinel did not jerk his leg away. She began to stroke him with a gentle touch. “But you did good. You held back on your urges, and I’m proud of you.” 

Sentinel uncovered his face and looked at Berry. “Thank you… I feel a little better…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 707
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Drifting within the astral realm, Celestia began to secure herself, fearful of intrusion. Something had spooked Tourmaline, something that did not need a body to move about. Something parasitic, something dark. A thorn within the mind. 

With the force of her will, she caused Odin to manifest beside her. Celestia could see his alarm, his confusion, and his worry. Needing his help, Celestia said, “Odin, we face an unknown threat. My sister would be able to sort this out in moments, but alas, we do not have her expertise. I need you to help me. Please?” 

“Of course,” Odin replied.  

“We need to sort through memories and find clues.” Celestia looked at the griffon and was grateful for his help. As of late, she had become more and more dependent upon Odin’s assistance. He was calm, he was meticulous. his cautious and careful nature was a powerful asset. “I suspect that Dusk Chaser was sent to us with something powerful imprisoned inside of him. I do not know what. I am worried that right now, whatever was inside of Dusk Chaser is now inside of Buckminster. Before we act, we need to figure out what we are facing. I think Dusk Chaser was a trap, but I do not think that Dusk Chaser was a willing trap. I do not think he was aware of the danger he posed.” 

“And what makes you feel that way?” Odin asked. 

Her eyes narrowing, Celestia searched her feelings. “Call it a hunch. Perhaps I do not wish to believe that one who mirrors my most faithful student is capable of such treachery, such duplicity, and perhaps I am making a mistake. But I must continue to believe in Twilight Sparkle’s inherent goodness, no matter which form she might take. Certain threads run through the fabric of reality.” 

“Good enough for me.” Odin’s crest rose. “Where do we start?” 

Overhead, the stars shifted and began to swirl around. Celestia rose from the cloudlike grey expanse and hovered in the air as the stars came down to meet her. The stars became projections, images of Dusk Chaser’s life. With her strongest magic, Celestia set them in motion, allowing these events to play out. There were so many that Celestia did not even know where to begin. 

With a gasp, Celestia’s eyes fell upon herself, another version of what she was. She was different, but there was no mistaking that she was seeing herself. This version was a faint pink, almost but not quite white, pink like the clouds of a delicate sunrise. She moved the image about, studying herself. The cutie mark was different. Half of it was the sun, the other half a series of cogs and gears. 

The keeper of the celestial machinery. 

“Looks like you… but she’s not like you,” Odin said as he floated beside Celestia. “Oh… oh my, will you look at that…” 

A furious blaze ignited in Celestia’s cheeks. A distinctive purple colt had climbed over Princess Solara’s back and had placed his forelegs around her neck. There was a lot of heavy breathing. The keeper of said celestial machinery was laying on a bed, sprawled out on her stomach. 

“You are my glorious sun,” Celestia heard Dusk Chaser say. 

The regal white alicorn’s whole body tensed when Dusk Chaser thrust his way inside of Princess Solara. She watched as her counterpart’s whole body stiffened, her eyes closing, and her mouth fell open. Dusk Chaser began going at his task with all the youthful enthusiasm that only a colt could muster. His lips nibbled along the sides of her neck, and his front hooves were clumsy as he tried to get a better grip around her body, but his efforts were gentle, affectionate, it was clear that there was love there, and not just mindless lust. 

Reaching out, Celestia pushed the image away, making it go still and silent. Her whole body felt as though it was on fire. She turned to look at Odin. “Perhaps I should trust in love. I stand by what I said, I do not believe that Dusk Chaser would willingly do harm.” 

The grizzled old griffon nodded. 

“We have a lot of work to do,” Celestia said as she began to pull other projections closer to her. 



 

“She watched him grow up. She watched him grow up from a tiny colt as her student. Their world was beautiful, almost perfect. Look Odin, at what it was.” Celestia’s voice was thick and husky with grief. She pulled up one projection, pointed at it with her hoof, but she did not set the image in motion. “Right there is where it changed for them. She discovered him pleasuring himself while looking at a picture of her. It is how he got his cutie mark, Odin. It wasn’t his love of magic, or his elemental attunement to fire, he quite literally got his cutie mark because he worshipped the sun.” 

“So it was his destiny to be her most devoted servant.” Odin eyed the image, his eyes looking tired, and he reached out his talons to touch it. He felt a surge of feelings, an almost electrical jolt, something alien and yet so familiar. 

“This is was over two hundred and fifty years ago,” Celestia said, her muzzle wrinkling with concentration as she watched Odin touch the projected image. “I have no idea how Dusk Chaser has lived for so long, but I suspect he is like Good King Sombra… he was thousands of years old but still a unicorn.” 

“Forgive me for being blunt, but I suspect his goodness is not quite as pure as you might desire for it to be.” Odin, eyeing Celestia, saw her nostrils flare. 

“Would you please explain your statement?” Celestia asked, her eyes flashing with anger but her voice offering no sign of her internal emotional turmoil. 

Odin pulled down another image, pointed at it, and tried to sooth Celestia’s ruffled feathers with some well chosen words. “Revenge. After Princess Solara’s death, Dusk Chaser sought revenge. He did not act for good and benefit of them all, his motivation to strike out at Princess Selene, Nightmare Moon, it was revenge, plain and simple. Now, I am not saying that Dusk Chaser is a bad sort, but he is no paragon of virtue, either.” Odin touched the image of Dusk Chaser’s face. The unicorn’s eyes were aglow with the sickening illumination of dark magic and black fire burned along the length of Dusk Chaser’s horn. 

Celestia pulled the image away from Odin, drawing it close, and she set it in motion. She watched as Dusk Chaser created a conjuring circle and she knew at once what he was doing. She felt her own heart breaking. She knew that the mirror travelers had made the foolish mistake of turning the demon hordes for aid against Nightmare Moon. 

“We must keep looking,” Celestia said, her heart aching. She wondered if she had the strength to watch as Dusk Chaser sank down into darkness. 



 

Rubbing at his eyes, Odin listened and watched the image in front of him. It was Dusk Chaser and a pegasus named Night Watch standing together in a library. A large heavy tome sat in front of the unicorn. 

“Once we have her weakened, the blood ritual should finish her off,” Dusk Chaser said. 

“Using her own sister’s body against her, clever. The demons have taught us much useful magic,” Night Watch said. 

“This is wrong… what are we doing to ourselves?” Dusk Chaser asked. “This is not our way… if Solara was alive, she would hate me for what I’ve done—” 

“She is dead and that way of life is dead.” Night Watch’s expression chilled Odin’s blood. The griffon continued to listen: “Do you want her death to be in vain? Do you think she would approve of your sniveling, contemptible weakness? Do you think that she would appreciate her greatest student allowing our great civilisation to die off and for all of her subjects to die because of a few moral complications that can be sorted out later?” 

“Well, no, I—” 

“Those who survive this can sort out the moral consequences later. For now, we survive, and we keep Princess Solara’s beloved subjects alive. We do whatever is necessary.” 

“Of course, Commander Night Watch. You are correct… I am still grieving her loss, I had a moment of weakness. Forgive me, it will not happen again.” 

Odin felt his heart sinking. Reaching out, he touched the projection, causing it to go silent. He shoved it away and once more, he rubbed his eyes, trying to scrub away tears. 



 

Dusk Chaser, now grey haired, was hunched over a book. Before him paced a tall alicorn, an alicorn that Odin knew to be the Night Stallion. This was a different library than before, smaller, it lacked windows, and had far fewer books. 

“I can feel her inside of me. I have contained her with my will, but she lashes out at the bars of her cage like a confined beast. We need some means to separate the two. I need Princess Selene’s magic to keep us alive, but we must find a way to draw out Nightmare Moon. We must separate the two.” 

“Night Watch… er, Night Stallion, I am working on a solution, but I lack the resources. I have ideas, I have a general idea of what needs to be done, but I don’t know how to do it. We’re dealing with immortal entities here. Nightmare Moon, the shadow that fell upon Princess Selene’s heart, has merged itself with Princess Selene’s essence. If we tear her free, we’ll need some way to imprison her. She’s an immortal entity herself.” 

“Find a way,” Night Stallion commanded. 

“Night Stallion, we’ll need a living being to act as her prison… how many more atrocities must we commit before we—” 

“AS MANY AS IT TAKES!” the Night Stallion bellowed. “You’re still hung up on the creation of the Elements of Harmony, aren’t you? There was no way we could have kept those lives sustained. There is no sun and our world is dead. Those were mouths we could not feed, bellies we could not fill, those were ponies that could do nothing to help us fight and survive… they would have been our end!” 

“Over a million lives sacrificed for some pretty rocks—” 

“THEY GAVE THEMSELVES WILLINGLY!” The Night Stallion’s eyes blazed with fury. “It was this or face some horrible death as the claws of the rampaging demon army. We could not house them, we could not feed them. We could have let the demons eat them, but they understood what was necessary. They gave themselves over to the greater good so that we all might benefit! We have powerful weapons now that aid in our survival and will help us rebuild our once great civilisation.” 

“You’re right. What’s one more life after millions sacrificed. What’s one more...” Dusk Chaser said in an exhausted, defeated voice. 

Celestia, beside Odin, let out a whimpering cry and her barrel began heaving as she fought to hold back sobs, her body shuddering. “Do you think he… do you think he did it to punish himself?” 

“I don’t know,” Odin replied. He reached out with his wing and touched Celestia. “I’m sorry, this must be awful for you.” 

“So once we strip Nightmare Moon away from Princess Selene’s essence, I should be a lot stronger. Once I am free from the nightmare taint, I should be able to absorb Princess Solara’s essence. Once I do that, I will have the strength I need to keep us alive.” 

“In theory, Night Stallion,” Dusk Chaser said. 

“You should find some comfort in all of this… your beloved Princess Solara will live on through me. It will be like having her back from the dead.” 

Both Celestia and Odin could see the seething hatred upon Dusk Chaser’s face. Celestia felt a pain go stabbing through her heart, an agony unlike any other, something new, something unique, something she knew would leave a scar. 

“We have their world’s Nightmare Moon trapped inside of Buckminster’s head,” Odin said. “What do we do?” 

“I do not know… but I will not lose another that I love to her wickedness,” Celestia replied. “If necessary, I will do what needs to be done. We need to act now, before she takes over his mind completely and becomes a real threat.” 

“Would you really kill him, if it came to that?” Odin asked. 

Unable to reply, unable to hold back her sobs, Celestia began to weep. 
	
	
> Chapter 708
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rubbing his chin, Scorpan gave Celestia a quizzical look. “So let me get this straight. You don’t think Dusk Chaser escaped, you think he was set free but allowed to think that he escaped so he could defect to our side.” The massive gargoyle pulled his hand away from his chin and made a sweeping gesture. “Dusk Chaser had the immortal essence of the mirror reality’s Nightmare Moon trapped inside of his head, but he didn’t know it was in there. So he was released with the intention that somepony would probe his mind and release Nightmare Moon from her prison. The obvious targets for infection would be Princess Luna or perhaps a Myrmidon, but Bucky was the first one in there.” 

“Yes.” Princess Celestia gave a weary nod. 

Scorpan, looking into Princess Celestia’s red, bleary eyes, heaved a sigh like a blacksmith’s bellows compressing. “This is some dirty fighting. This is the kind of trickery my brother would do.” The gargoyle folded his arms over his chest. “So what do we do now?” 

“I wish I knew. The Nightmare entity that drove Luna to madness preyed upon her fears, her desires, everything that made her what she is as a pony… it wanted to bring about eternal night so that Luna would rule forever. It promised Luna that,” Celestia replied. 

“So… Nightmare Winter.” Scorpan scowled and his fangs became visible. “It preys upon Bucky’s need to protect, to defend. It preys upon Bucky’s strong ties to family… I guess it offers Bucky a means to stay with his loved ones? What?” 

Closing her eyes, Celestia nodded. 

“So this becomes that Hearth’s Warming Eve that never ends. A long cold winter that never ends, that keeps families indoors, safe, secure, and together, while this Nightmare parasite feeds off of Bucky—”

“Scorpan, this is not a joke,” Celestia said. 

“I wasn’t joking.” Scorpan unfolded his arms from his chest and held his massive, meaty hand out to Celestia. “I was being serious. I’ve read Luna’s writings… if the ponies were afraid of the dark, they would have no choice but to turn to her to protect them, to worship and adore her, placating her so that she would keep the terrible things in the dark away. And all that worshipping and adoration would feed this Nightmare parasite thing.” 

“We do not know if they are the same sort of entity, but your speculation seems reasonable if we assume that they are similar,” Celestia said. 

Crossing the room, Scorpan placed his hand upon Celestia’s neck. “Speaking of similarities, whatever this thing is, it knows how to kill you. Whatever it is we do, we need to do it soon, before this thing gains enough power to be a threat.” 

“This is a master stroke by our enemies.” Odin lifted his head high, a tiny griffon in a room full of giants. “If this took over Luna, we might have had to ask the mirror travelers for help… they have experience in beating it. We might have had no choice but to turn to them for aid. If it had infected Celestia, I can only imagine the sort of nightmare scenario we might be facing. If we had to put Celestia down, we would have to turn to the Night Stallion with the hopes that he could keep the celestial machinery running so that we might live. With Twilight or Bucky, one of our greatest champions are removed from the fight.” 

“I marvel at your insight into treachery, tiny griffon.” Scorpan looked down at Odin, bowed, and then brought himself back up to his full height. “So what is our next move? If this is an immortal entity, how do we kill it? How do we stop Bucky? More importantly, how do we stop Bucky in such a way that he doesn’t sprout wings and destroy us all?”

“We pull him away from his family. We try to explain things to him. We try to reason with him and see who or what we are dealing with.” Celestia’s face darkened and her eyes became sorrowful. “I do not know what to do next. If we pull it out of him, where does it go next? I do not think pulling it out of him will be an easy feat. As much as it pains me to say this, Bucky might have to remain as this creature’s prison and we may need to drag him to Tartarus, if we can subdue him.” 

“There is a whole lot of ifs, possiblies, and maybes here. I don’t much care for this.” Scorpan shook his head and his wings unfurled as he began to stretch them out. “The worst part of this whole mess is, Bucky strikes me as the sort that would understand the need to cut him down for the greater good.” 

“I don’t want you going,” Odin said, looking up at Celestia.

“No, I am going. If somepony must take Bucky down, it should be somepony that loves him.” Celestia began to gnaw upon her lip, biting down until she almost drew blood, and then she let go before she chewed through her lip. “Send word to Discord. His magic might be useful. Gather up our most powerful Myrmidons. Send word to Scorch and make certain that Scorch understands that Bucky must not catch wind of what we are doing.” 

“Are we really going to kill him?” Odin asked. 

“If we must. It is my hope to subdue him. If we can subdue him—” 

“He’ll be dragged off to Tartarus… so this doesn’t end well for Bucky,” Odin sat down and his whole body slumped. 

“The Elements of Harmony have gone back to their source. I doubt that they will come forth if called. The world is in a better state of balance now, and the Elements are not as needed.” Celestia’s head dropped and her ears splayed out. “It would be easier if we could just purge this taint from Bucky with the Elements of Harmony.” 

“But they are dormant until the world enters into a state of chaos so terrible that they are needed. Understood.” Odin began to drum his talons on the floor. “There has to be a different way.” 

“Do we risk putting everyone and everything in the world at risk for just one pony that we love?” Celestia asked. 

Odin thought about saying “Maybe” in reply but remained silent. 

“If we kill him, she jumps free and goes to something else. So killing him is a bad idea and a last resort. We should avoid that. Taking him alive is our best bet,” Scorpan said. 

Taking a deep breath, Celestia thought of her fight with Nightmare Moon. “He will be immensely powerful. I could not defeat my sister when the Nightmare had her. It took the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon and lock her away. When Nightmare Moon came back, she banished me into my sun and it took Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony to free me.” 

“So we hit hard and fast before he has a chance to smite us.” Scorpan could see the agony on Celestia’s face. “I’m sorry—” 

“Do not be sorry!” Celestia snapped. “Let us assemble and then go and do what must be done…” 



 

“—that might actually explain a few weird feelings I’ve been having lately,” Bucky said as he looked at the stern and sad faces all around him. “What happens next?” 

Relieved, but still feeling crushed, Celestia felt a lump rising up in her throat as she thought about what must be done next. “Bucky, this entity must be contained. We are dealing with it now, thankfully we figured all of this out before there was real threat, but something has to act as a prison for this thing.” 

“I see.” Bucky blinked. He dropped his head and his ears went limp. “Do what must be done. I understand and I bear you no malice.” 

“There has to be another way,” Twilight Sparkle said in a strangled voice as she stepped forwards. Twilight Sparkle looked at her friends, then at Bucky, and then at Princess Celestia. 

“The Tree did not yield its Elements, just as I predicted.” Celestia gave a sad sigh and shook her head. “Our Elements of Harmony are meant to bring balance and restore order. Right now, things are well balanced. The world is a harmonious place.” 

“Tell my family that I love them. Come, let’s do what must be done, whatever that is. I’m feeling a peculiar sense of hatred right now and I don’t like it,” Bucky said. 

“Don’t you want to say goodbye?” Pinkie Pie asked. 

“And see them crying? Hear them weeping? And allow whatever is inside of me to feed on that and gain more power? No, I think not. It is better this way,” Bucky replied.

“This is wrong,” Pinkie Pie said as she gave a pleading look to those around her. “Can’t we do something?” 

“What can we do?” Rarity asked. 

“We have to do what is best for other ponies… and everyone else too,” Applejack said. 

“Applejack even tried bucking the Element Tree… nothing happened.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “So what happens to Bucky?” 

Celestia’s wings drooped at her sides. “I think our best solution is to use his body as a prison and we take him to Tartarus—” 

“No!” Twilight shouted, stomping her hoof. “NO NO NO!” 

“Twilight, be reasonable,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“How can you be so calm about this?” Twilight demanded. She watched as Bucky shrugged but said nothing. A raw, seething fury boiled inside of her and Twilight Sparkle tried to swallow the lump in her throat. 

“I’ll take his place—” 

“No, Rarity, there will be no taking my place,” Bucky said, the first hints of anger appearing in his voice. “You have obligations—” 

“And so do you!” Rarity snapped in a very curt and unladylike reply. 

“I appreciate the thought, but I will not allow that to happen,” Bucky said. He looked up at Celestia. “Let’s get this over with. I will go to Tartarus in the manner of my own choosing—” 

“Now look here, you pompous, foul tempered, discourteous, foul tempered brute, you are not the only unicorn with a noble sense of self sacrifice! I know what it means to give up a part of yourself or even all of yourself!” Tears streamed down Rarity’s cheeks. 

Sniffling, Pinkie Pie placed a foreleg around Rarity’s neck and pulled her friend closer. She kissed Rarity’s cheek, gave the unicorn a reassuring squeeze, and then squeezed her eyes shut, unable to watch whatever was going to happen next. “You said foul tempered twice…” 

Celestia’s horn ignited and then glowed as bright as the sun. A rift appeared. Celestia stared into the rift, beyond it was blackness. She drew in a deep, shuddering breath and then turned to look at Bucky. 

“What’s that?” Applejack asked. 

“A special portal into Tartarus,” Twilight Sparkle replied to Applejack. “It is a certain type of one way portal. Once something is banished through one of those, it is almost impossible to escape.” 

“But things like Tirek do escape.” Applejack’s eyes narrowed and she looked at Bucky. 

“It’s better this way,” Bucky said as he closed his eyes and hung his head. 

“Come Bucky, being the Gatekeeper, I will walk you through. I will try to at least make certain that you are comfortable and I will do everything within my power to make certain you are treated well.” Reaching out her wing, Celestia prodded Bucky on the backside. 

“NO!” 

“Fluttershy, dearest, this temper does not become you,” Discord said as he placed his paw upon Fluttershy, who hovered beside him. The yellow no-longer-quite-a-pegasus trembled with rage. 

“You’re killing him!” Fluttershy screamed. She shook her head. “No, this is worse than death… he’s sick… you don’t put sick ponies in the ground! You heal them! Somehow!” 

“Fluttershy, please try to calm down,” Celestia said. 

“NO!” Fluttershy roared. She made a gesture with her paw and the portal to Tartarus snapped shut with an almost deafening pop. She made another gesture and Celestia went flying, tumbling end over end, and the alicorn landed in the snow quite some distance away. Fluttershy covered her mouth with her paw and a pained expression filled her eyes. “I’m sorry… I can’t control my power just yet… you’ll be okay I hope!” 

“Fluttershy, what are you doing?” Twilight asked as her horn ignited. 

“Don’t cross me, Twilight Sparkle,” Fluttershy warned. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.” 

In the distance, Celestia was getting up on her hooves. Scorch stood at her side and Scorpan had his sword drawn. Heifer Aestus stood with her hands clenched into fists. 

Bucky stood in the snow looking bewildered, not knowing what to do. 

Fluttershy looked around, realising that the group had divided. Celestia had quite a collection of protectors gathered around her. Twilight Sparkle had her friends around her. Fluttershy turned and looked at the only one still next to her. “Discord, help me. I have an idea but I can’t do this on my own.” 

“Fluttershy, dearest, we’re going to spend a very long time as statues…” 

“I don’t care,” Fluttershy replied. There was a flash and Twilight Sparkle vanished, along with Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. 

“I was starting to believe that the draconequus among us could be trusted,” Celestia said in an angry, gritty voice. “I had hoped that we could all live in peace. I see that I was mistaken.” All around her, the snow was melting. 

Discord, knowing there was about to be trouble, snapped his talons. Celestia’s horn vanished. At least he and Fluttershy would be pretty statues together. And then, just when he thought that things were going his way, Celestia’s horn began growing back. It was a neat trick, and this wasn’t what had happened last time he had taken her horn away. 

When Bucky’s horn ignited, Fluttershy sneezed at Bucky. Right away, Bucky was overcome by sneezing, and his magic fizzled out, rendering him helpless. 

Scorch reached out and grabbed Celestia around the middle, pulling her close. “No!” he cried, trying to hold the alicorn. “Now is not a time for anger… there are too many lives at risk here… this is a misunderstanding and we can sort this out later—” 

“Traitor!” Scorpan lunged at Scorch with his sword held over his head. 

Seeing the massive gargoyle coming right at him, Scorch snapped his fingers and the gargoyle vanished. Celestia blazed to life, becoming a torrent of living flame in his embrace. Her horn had grown back and now glowed with a furious intensity. 

“Discord, help me,” Fluttershy commanded as she advanced on Bucky, who lay in the snow, overcome by a powerful sneezing fit that left him helpless. 

“What are we doing?” Discord asked. 

Fluttershy rubbed her large, rounded stomach. “Making a baby.” 

“Here? In the middle of battle? Kinky!” Discord lunged forwards and began to cackle. 

When she reached Bucky’s side, Fluttershy kneeled down in the soggy, slushy snow. She took Bucky’s head into her forelegs, cradling it to her barrel as the poor pony continued to sneeze. “I’m very sorry Bucky, I know you’ll forgive me later, because you’re a good pony.” 

Discord dropped his long serpentine form down to the ground and placed his lion paw upon Bucky. “So, dearest Fluttershy, I guess your plan is to pull this thing out of him, and put it into something else, but what?” 

Reaching down, Fluttershy rubbed Bucky’s nose, and he stopped sneezing. “Bucky, I need you to make a tiny foal sized body out of ice for me, can you do that?” 

A short distance away, Celestia ceased to struggle and her flames extinguished. She remained in Scorch’s embrace, and Scorch refused to let go of her. Scorch stroked Celestia’s neck and tried to calm her. 

“What are they doing?” Celestia whispered. 

“I have no idea,” Scorch replied. 

“Bucky, I hate to even ask you, but I am going to need a teeny, tiny smidgen of your life… it is for a good cause,” Fluttershy said in a soothing, soft voice, the very voice of kindness itself. She saw Bucky nod. “Discord, I’m gonna need you rip him open and pull out whatever is inside of him, along with our little troublemaker. Be gentle!” 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Discord replied. 

“I don’t want to be ripped open,” Bucky said as he made a feeble defense of his own body. He didn’t have much strength after sneezing almost one hundred times in a row. 

“Don’t be a big baby, you’re giving birth,” Fluttershy said as she booped Bucky on the nose. She watched as Discord pulled Bucky open, creating a rift in Bucky’s chest. Inside, there was blackness and snow, along with a curious lack of organs. 

Discord reached his talons inside of the rift and began to dig around. Discord squinted, stuck out his tongue, and shook his head. “Nope, too squishy. Not that either, that’s too warm. That’s too big, that has to be Bucky’s moral outrage, it’s almost as big as his auntie Celery’s.” Discord pulled what appeared to be a sapling out of Bucky. “Here’s the stick he used to have up his ass.” Discord tossed it over his shoulder and it landed in the snow with a thud. 

The draconequus made a disgusted face. “I think I just touched Bucky’s self loathing, it was like a pile full of noodles mixed with runny pudding… yuck!” Discord kept digging, rummaging around, and his tongue flopped around as he shook his head. “She’s hiding in here… somewhere!” 

“Discord, stop fooling around, this is serious,” Fluttershy said, her soft expression becoming stern. 

“Ahah! I found it,” Discord said as he yanked out something black and amorphous from the rift in Bucky’s chest. It pulsated with a weird black illumination. “We’re gonna need something to remedy this… this is pure, concentrated hatred.” 

“It wants love and affection. It’s very, very sick and it needs affection. That is what is craves.” Fluttershy’s brows furrowed. Fluttershy snapped her paw and one very surprised looking Cadance popped into existence. 

“Hello Cadance,” Discord said to the alicorn foal. “It is so nice to see you before I get banished into the abyssal planes in the bottom of Tartarus.” 

“We need a little love. Cadance, do you mind if we took some?” Fluttershy asked. 

Wide eyed, confused, Cadance nodded. 

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said. Reaching out her paw, she began to snatch the little hearts that drifted in Cadance’s ethereal mane, pulling them away and placing them in a little pile on Bucky. The pile had an odd glow about it. 

“What strange magic is this?” Odin asked as he crept a little closer. 

“Draconequus magic… something Discord could have done if he had known kindness,” Fluttershy replied. She looked down at the small foal made out of ice. It wasn’t Bucky’s best work, but it would have to do. “Discord, if you please…” 

Picking up the ice-foal, Discord held it up in front of his face. He stuffed the amorphous black mass in there. Reaching down, he snatched up the pile of hearts from Cadance’s mane, careful to get every last single one, and stuffed those inside of the ice-foal. His eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back from his lone fang that protruded from his mouth. “Needs something.” 

The draconequus drifted upwards and then began to float towards Celestia, scratching his head. “Life is more than that animus and love,” he muttered to himself. When he reached Celestia, he looked the white alicorn in the eye. 

Extending his talon, he pointed at the ice-foal. “She’s cold. I guess you were right. The sun is the source of all life. May I?” Discord raised one eyebrow. 

Celestia, who was still in Scorch’s arms, nodded, but found that she could not speak. She whimpered when Discord touched her, but his touch was soft, gentle, even affectionate. Celestia was overcome with guilt for thinking that Discord had betrayed her yet again. 

When Discord pulled his paw away, it glowed with a fierce light. He stuffed that into the ice-foal and began to drift back towards Fluttershy, an almost manic grin upon his face. 

Reaching out, Fluttershy took the ice foal from Discord into a gentle embrace. She hugged it for a moment, her eyes closing, and a warm smile spread over her face. After a minute lost in a hug, she opened her eyes and looked down at Bucky, who lay in the snow, looking very, very confused. 

“Kiss her,” Fluttershy commanded. 

Not knowing what else to do, Bucky did so. 

Fluttershy held the ice-foal out to Cadance, who also kissed her. Then, Fluttershy hugged the foal to her barrel once more. Bowing her head, Fluttershy kissed the ice-foal. There was a brilliant flash of light, and then a shrill cry was heard. 

“Oh, she’s very precious,” Fluttershy said as she snuggled the foal in her forearms. 

Discord floated over to have a look at the crying foal that Fluttershy was holding. Reaching out his talons, he went to tickle the foal beneath her chin. As his talon tip touched the foal, her head snapped out, chomped down upon his talon, and with a jerk, she tore Discord’s talon finger clean off. 

“Oh… she’s cranky.” Fluttershy began to coo to the foal, rocking her, and trying to comfort her. 

“Young lady, you are lucky that it’s growing back!” Discord said, shaking his regenerating stump at the foal. 

“She just needs some kindness and a bit of love and affection, just like Discord. I’m going to take her home now. She’s cold and probably hungry. You can apologise to me later.” Fluttershy snapped her paw and vanished. 

“What just happened?” Celestia asked, rediscovering her voice. 

Discord shrugged, snapped his talons, and vanished. 

“I want some kind of explanation!” Celestia shouted at the empty air. 
	
> Chapter 709 (Celestia's Confession) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know Bucky, the least you could have done was put up token resistance. I would have expected you to say no or maybe shout a bit about how unfair everything is. This calm acceptance of yours bothers me.” Celestia took a sip of strong black coffee, closed her eyes for a second as she swallowed, and then with her eyes opened, she took a long look at Bucky. 

“It was what needed to be done.” Bucky shrugged and took drink of his own coffee. 

“Bucky, I was dragging you off to Tartarus. You’re supposed to struggle and say no. Blind obedience is… just plain wrong,” Celestia said. 

There was a growl from Cadance, and the foal’s lips were curled back from her teeth. She stood on the floor, near the kitchen table, her tiny body trembling, and Celestia recoiled from the sight of teeny, tiny, furious Cadance. Cadance’s horn glowed an angry shade of pink. 

Realising that Cadance’s fury was directed at her, Celestia heaved a sigh and then cleared her throat. “I think I am about to be rebuked for harming her daddy.” 

Shaking his head, Bucky scooped Cadance up with his magic and held her close. Cadance, whipping her head around, never took her narrowed eyes off of Celestia. Her glowing horn intensified. 

“Cadance, baby, don’t you dare zap your auntie Celery,” Bucky said into Cadance’s ear. “Come on, be a big filly about this. Auntie Celery was doing what was best for everypony. There is a time and a place for the heart and I’m not certain that was it.”

Hearing her father’s words, Cadance turned her head as she pulled one foreleg from around Bucky’s neck and then placed her hoof over Bucky’s mouth as she stared into his eyes. “Need you.” Cadance said in a soft whisper. 

“Do you two need anything?” Berry Punch asked as she stood in the archway of the kitchen. “Or do you need more time alone to sort things out?” 

“A little more time to recover my calm would be nice,” Bucky replied.

“I still want an explanation of what happened, but I know you’ll tell me later.” Turning, Berry Punch left. 

The angry pink glow on Cadance’s horn dimmed but she continued to give an angry glare to Celestia. She settled against her father’s neck, wrapped her forelegs around him, and then sat there with her teeth bared at her aunt. 

“You know, I think Cadance would feel better if she just unloaded and gave me a good zap. She is furious Bucky. And seeing her like this makes me feel bad.” Celestia slumped down over the table with her head held low. She lifted her coffee cup to her lips, took a sip, then another, and then sat there with her cup inches away from her muzzle. “I think I would feel better if Cadance zapped me. I feel awful.” 

“For doing the right thing?” Bucky asked.

“Bucky, I was careless and I made a mistake,” Celestia replied. The white alicorn shook her head. “I know why Fluttershy wants an apology. I took an ‘either or’ approach and that was careless of me. I left you with no good options, and never once did I check upon the most valuable of resources sitting under my nose.” Celestia closed her eyes and then continued: “Discord might have had the solution all along, but I never asked him and he was too afraid of upsetting me to volunteer the information. He is right to be afraid of me. When Fluttershy and he did what they did, I immediately assumed the worst of both of them. Discord has proven himself though… Tirek might have ended me… might have ended all of us. Discord put himself at risk and almost died. And none of that entered into my mind earlier. I suffered a lapse in judgment and you almost paid for that. Please forgive me Bucky.” Celestia opened up her eyes, looked at Bucky, and saw Cadance glaring back at her with a fierce intensity. 

“I don’t know what to say,” Bucky said in reply, feeling the need to say something, but he had no clue what should be said. He felt Cadance trembling against him and her horn began to glow again. 

“Cadance, would you like a hug to make you feel better?” Celestia asked. 

The foal snorted once, then twice, then thrice, and then replied, “NO!” 

Shrugging, Celestia took a sip of coffee. 

With a pop and a flash Twilight Sparkle appeared in Bucky’s kitchen, looking very confused and saying, “—ttershy I demand some kind of explanation!” 

Blinking, Twilight Sparkle began to realise that she was no longer in Fluttershy’s home. She watched as a cup of coffee was poured and set out upon the table at her. She could see one very angry looking Cadance glaring at Celestia. 

“Have a seat, Sparkle, and you can come and be befuddled with us for a while,” Bucky said, inviting Twilight to sit down and stay awhile. 

“Fluttershy has a foal… a strange little blue earth pony foal that is the meanest thing you will ever see in your whole life,” Twilight Sparkle said as she sat down. 

“Oh dear.” Celestia drew in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out a little at a time. She inhaled again, held it a little longer, her lips moving as though she was counting or perhaps repeating something to herself, and then she exhaled. 

“Fluttershy turned the immortal essence of the Nightmare into a mortal foal so she could make it feel loved,” Bucky said to Twilight in a low voice. 

“It’s mortal?” Twilight raised her eyebrow as she began to add cream and sugar to her coffee. She added a few cubes, shrugged, and then tossed in several more. 

“I think it might be. I don’t know. Fluttershy bound it with my mortal life force. I don’t know what happened. I’ve learned to just go with things, it’s easier that way. If you question these weird events that keep happening, you’ll just go mad.” Bucky gave Cadance a little squeeze and tried to calm her.

“Cadance looks upset.” When Twilight spoke, Cadance glanced at her and then resumed her death stare at her aunt. Twilight felt uncomfortable with the way Cadance was staring. 

“I did almost make a terrible mistake with her father. She has a right to be a little testy.” Celestia glanced at Cadance over the edge of her coffee cup and then took a sip. Averting her eyes from the angry embodiment of love, Celestia’s traveled to Twilight and she thought of Dusk Chaser. “Tell me Twilight, do you still believe me perfect?” 

Twilight Sparkle almost dropped her coffee cup and she began to splutter as Bucky began to chuckle. She recovered herself, evapourated the spilled coffee away off of the table, and then turned to address her former teacher with one raised eyebrow. “I still have my moments where I believe you are perfect.” Twilight Sparkle chose her next words with great care. “I had moments where I foolishly judged you. I was rash and irrational. I would find out later how foolish I was. I have since come to the opinion that you are capable of mistakes, but in general, your judgment is sound and I trust your many long years of experience.” 

Setting down her coffee cup, Celestia nodded. “I almost made a terrible mistake just a little while ago. I almost took away Cadance’s guardian and could have removed our greatest protector because I did not take all of our assets into account. I am not feeling very wise or perfect right now and the thousands of years of being set in my ways may have been working against me.” 

Averting her gaze away from her mentor’s stare, Twilight Sparkle stared down at the sugarbowl upon the table. It was brown and cream coloured, made of crockery, and there was a chip in the lid. It was not the sort of sugarbowl that would be seen amongst royalty, yet here it was, surrounded by royals. For a moment, Twilight felt envious of the sugarbowl. It was common, plain, and had a very, very simple life. 

“I cannot stand doubting myself,” Celestia confessed. “But there are moments when I do. I am supposed to be this thousands of year old benefactor of the equine species. I am supposed to have the wisdom of centuries. Ponies see me as being flawless and perfect in every way. But I do make mistakes, just like any other pony. Sometimes, I make terrible mistakes and many suffer because of them. It never gets any easier for me. I have the hindsight of centuries and I can look back at one event or another that happened six hundred years ago and say to myself ‘everything that is happening now is happening because I did this right here’ and there is nothing I can do to comfort myself and I continuously berate myself because of my mistakes. I can feel a level of regret that goes beyond any sense of mortal comprehension. I can be slapped in my face for a mistake I made a thousand years ago and plagued by my mishaps. I cannot help but feel that I almost made a terrible mistake today, something that would have repercussions centuries from now…” 

“That’s heavy,” Twilight said, still staring at the sugarbowl. 

“Looking back, I could have prevented Luna’s fall. The Elements of Harmony were right to abandon me and vanish for a thousand years. Luna was not the only one injured by their loss… I had just defeated my sister and I was raising the weakened, almost dead sun when I felt the Elements rip themselves free of my spirit. It was agonising. I was already so weakened. For a time, I thought I would die. Scorch came to me at that point in my life… we talked. He said that he told me that he had warned me so many times about my hubris… about how convinced I was of my own greatness… he asked me if it was worth losing my sister… and then he was gone, disgusted with the whole mess, and rightfully so. He had warned me over, and over, and over… it was always gentle nudges and reminders. I failed to listen. I wish I had listened. I was blind to my sister’s suffering. I do make mistakes… and my blindness set off a thousand years of decline. Corruption set in, both in the cosmos and here in Equestria. I was left so weakened from that battle, from having the Elements of Harmony that I was bonded to ripped away from me. Magic began to sour, began to falter. I worried for the longest time that I had not stopped the end of the world as we know it, but had instead merely slowed down its arrival. My mistake caused an uncountable number of lives to suffer. With my power greatly diminished and what little power I had left was spent trying to uphold the cosmos all on my own, the world went into a state of decline. Slavery returned to places it had been banished from. War and conflict spread. The griffons found their strength again after almost being exterminated by Sombra. Equestria grew weaker and weaker. So many died… there were so many deaths. And I could not help them. I was locked away in Canterlot, trying to hold up the heavens, trying to keep the world alive, trying to keep the sun, the moon, and our own planet alive in the careful chaotic dance that we must endure. Granum became a more barbaric place. And I could do next to nothing. And all of this because of my pride… because I failed to pay attention to my sister’s pleas for help… my mistakes almost ended everything. I do not make mistakes like normal ponies do… I make mistakes that could put an end to everything we know.” 

“Celestia, I…” Twilight sat there with her mouth hanging open. 

“Had I taken Bucky to Tartarus, I cannot help but wonder if a thousand years from now, would I be looking at the smoking ruins of our planet and feeling regret for a mistake I made that ended everything we know. Forgive me, I must leave you. I want to spend time with Luna… I need to be with my sister for a while… I am not feeling very well,” Celestia said, excusing herself as she rose from the table. 

Cadance’s expression softened as she looked up at her aunt and waved goodbye. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 710
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The house was quieting down and the wind was picking up. Outside, it was snowing, a light flurry that would dust everything with fresh snow. Inside, there was a plethora of ponies gathered around the fireplace in the living room to roast marshmallows and make s'mores together. 

Luna, always the helpful one, pointed out that it was possible to make s’mores over any available source of fire, including flaming unicorns and large fuzzy-wuzzy alicorns that controlled the sun. The frivolity was a soothing balm that eased away tensions that lingered because of what happened earlier. 

Celestia, who was quiet and subdued, sighed every now and then, but did not say much. She laughed at Luna’s joke, offered a few tips on how to get a marshmallow just right, and never stopped trying to get back into Cadance’s good graces once more. 

It was this moment of family togetherness that Fluttershy popped into the middle of and in her calm, polite manner, asked for a moment of their time in private. 



 

Pulling the farmhouse library door shut behind him, Bucky crossed the room and headed for his chair. Celestia was getting herself comfortable on a sofa, and Fluttershy hovered beside Celestia, ignoring gravity, as was her wont. 

“Might I ask how the foal is doing?” Bucky asked. 

Smiling, Fluttershy’s red and yellow eyes twinkled with happiness. “I knew you would want to know. I will bring her by to visit soon… she’s also your foal you know. She’s a little cranky though. She needs… she needs a lot of kindness. I refuse to believe there are bad foals.” 

“I see…” Bucky settled into a pony loaf position and sat with his head held high. 

“I came here to apologise,” Fluttershy said, getting to the point. 

“I believe that an exchange of apologies are in order.” Celestia’s voice was soft, muted, and husky with emotion. A pained expression was visible for an instant, but then was gone as quick as it had appeared. 

“I did what I did for a reason,” Fluttershy began in a timid sounding voice. The not-quite-a-pegasus was nervous and it showed. “It is very hard to explain, but Discord and I share a mind together. We’re two bodies but one set of thoughts. Sort of. We aren’t always aware of what the other is thinking, but sometimes we are.” Fluttershy began rubbing her two front appendages together in a self hug. “I saw a way for this to work… I knew that Discord also had ideas, but he was too afraid of you, Celestia, to say anything.” 

Blinking, Celestia asked, “Afraid of me?” 

“And he is right to feel that way!” Fluttershy squeaked. “You immediately thought we were untrustworthy! You jumped right to the worst possible conclusion about us!” Fluttershy’s fear vanished and the pregnant almost-a-mare-but-not-quite heaved from heavy breathing. “Discord is afraid to say or do anything that might upset you. He just wants to be good, to be accepted. He’s different now… you know, you trusted me once. You trusted me with an impossible task. You, Princess Celestia, you trusted me with an impossible task of reforming the Lord of Chaos himself. You told me to do whatever it took to try and convert him to our ways. You trusted in me and my kindness. You trusted in my kindness to save the world and make it a better place… but today, you no longer trusted in my kindness, my soft heart, or my desire to do good… all of that went away! Is it because I’m no longer a pony?” 

Shuddering, Princess Celestia slumped in her chair, her head dropping. 

“When I told you that I didn’t think I could reform Discord, you told me that with my kindness, anything was possible… you used to be the Element of Kindness… what happened? Where did your kindness go?” Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed and her expression was one of pain. 

“I did something horrible and cruel,” Celestia replied. 

“And you almost did it again today! You’ve been alone for so long, hurt, betrayed on all sides, abused, and you spent far too much time listening to that voice in your head—” 

“What do you know of that?” Celestia demanded. 

“Never mind what I know about that. It isn’t important right now.” Fluttershy hovered with her front legs folded over her barrel. “You used to be the Element of Magic too… you of all ponies should know that magic is a weird and wonderful thing. You should have known that there might have been other ways to save Bucky. But you sought no other council. The zebra bocors might have had a means to help Bucky. Discord and I clearly had the means to save Bucky. But you never asked any of us. You were content to just drag him away to a horrible place!” 

“I know, and I am sorry,” Celestia said in a tiny voice. 

“You are not alone any more. You have friends, allies, those who will help you, if you will let us.” Fluttershy descended, opening her forelegs, and she wrapped them around Celestia’s neck. “I know it is very difficult to trust after everything you’ve endured, but we do want to help you. I’m sorry that I did what I did today. I didn’t see another way of doing it. I was afraid that if I tried to explain what it was that I was about to do, you would just pull Bucky through the portal. So I acted with the hopes that I would be able to apologise later.” Fluttershy lifted Celestia out of the chair in a tight hug, the smaller almost-a-pegasus holding the much larger alicorn in a gentle embrace. 

Bucky, who was sitting in his chair, watched all of this with impassive silence. 

“I really am so sorry for betraying your trust,” Fluttershy said as she pulled Celestia closer and gave the alicorn a reassuring squeeze. Fluttershy’s mismatched wings fluttered on her back. “It was awful of me. So many ponies have betrayed you and it hurts you so much. I didn’t see another way of making this happen at the time, though.” 

“I am sorry as well,” Celestia replied, her eyes closed. “I am sorry Bucky.” 

“I’m at a loss for what to say.” Bucky dropped his head to the arm of his chair and fell back into silence. 

“I am also sorry that I cannot stay very long. I have a foal to look after. I am certain that Discord is trying his best, but he’s a little helpless when it comes to looking after teeny, tiny terrors.” Fluttershy gave Celestia a soft peck upon the cheek. “I hope we can be friends.” 

“But we are—” 

Fluttershy was gone and Celestia found herself sitting in her chair. The alicorn blinked, looked around the farmhouse library, and then her gaze fell upon Bucky. “She left.” Celestia watched as Bucky nodded in reply. 

The pair sat looking at one another in silence. A guilty feeling began to gnaw at Celestia’s insides as she pondered Fluttershy’s words. She had trusted Fluttershy with the fate of the world when she had asked Fluttershy to attempt to reform Discord. It had been a risky decision, fraught with danger, and something Luna did not agree with at all. Harsh words had been spoken. Celestia, the former bearer of the Element of Kindness, knew the power of a kind act. A heavy feeling manifested in her barrel as she contemplated her many faults. 

“Are you beating yourself up over there?” Bucky asked. 

Snapped from her thoughts, Celestia looked up and blinked a few times. “Perhaps.” 

“I crave marshmallows. I hope you will not mind, but it is my intention to leave you. I will be in the front room if you need me. Try not to isolate yourself in here too long, okay?” Bucky looked over at the troubled looking alicorn and offered her a reassuring smile. 



 

Berry Punch pulled a somewhat burnt marshmallow off of the end of the long fondue fork she was using to cook her marshmallows. It was hot, gooey, and a little crunchy, just like a good almost burnt marshmallow should be. 

“So let me get this straight,” Bon Bon said in a confused voice. “We have another foal… sort of… but Fluttershy is going to raise it?” 

“I guess… I don’t know a lot about the situation just yet, Bonnie,” Bucky replied around a mouthful of marshmallows. He stabbed a marshmallow onto his fondue fork and then stuck it near the fire. 

“It sounds like there was a bit of a misunderstanding but things did not spiral out of control this time.” Lyra’s face was solemn in the firelight. “I like how this turned out, makes me feel hopeful.” 

“Can something that is made of hate feel loved?” Dinky asked. 

Bucky turned his fondue fork so the other side of his marshmallow would toast. “Discord learned to love. Look at what it has done to him. Sometimes, all it takes is one pony to love you.” Bucky looked away from his marshmallow and looked at Derpy on the couch. “Sometimes, just one pony, or griffon, or just something loving you can change the fate of the world around you.” 

“Bucky, is of course, speaking from experience. Just think, we unassuming mares have loved away the alicorn of war.” Lyra, grinning, nudged Bucky with her hoof. “We can do with hugs and kisses what an army could not.” 

“So I have another sister?” Piña asked, looking very, very confused. 

“I dunno.” Bucky shrugged and pulled his marshmallow out of the fire. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit that this gets very confusing. Metaphysical metaphorical mumbo jumbo.” He began to blow on his marshmallow, cooling it off so he could feed it to Sukari, who stood waiting and licking her lips. 

Pulling his own marshmallow out of the fire, Sentinel blew the flames out and eyed the charred black mass with a hungry expression. “If anypony can make that foal a good foal, it will be Fluttershy.” 

“And Discord,” Piña said. “Having a good daddy is just as important as a good mommy. Or two mommies. Or two daddies. Or a daddy and bunch of mommies. Maybe even a mommy and a bunch of daddies, but that sounds weird.” Piña’s face became wizened with worry wrinkles. “The point I am trying to make is, she needs a family. And that includes us. We’ll need to be there for her when the time is right.” 

“Pass the hot sauce,” Sentinel said to Lyra. He waited, patient, and then smiled when the bottle filled with greenish sauce was set in front of him, the cap already removed. He picked it up with his other wing, grabbing it between his thumb and central knuckle, and then shook several drops of the hot as Tartarus fire green goo upon his marshmallow. He licked his lips, braced himself, and jammed the burnt marshmallow slathered in green death sauce into his mouth. “Oh, that’s good,” he said as his eyes watered. 

“Yeah it is,” Lyra said, lifting up the bottle to shake some of the near-lethal concoction upon her marshmallow. 

“Both of you are weird.” Dinky shook her head as she watched her brother suffer. 

“Just try it, Dinky—” 

“Are you crazy? No way! The bottle has a skull and crossbones on it with a warning saying it should not come in contact with bare skin! Your tongue and your mouth is all flesh!” Dinky shook her head even harder. “Nope, nope, nope, nope!” 

“Eh, that’s just sensationalism,” Lyra said around a mouthful of marshmallow. She smacked her lips and a tear rolled down her cheek. “So good…” 

“I don’t know how Lyra did it, but she passed along her brain damage to her son.” Bon Bon’s mouth pressed into a small, tight, straight line. “Look at them, both of them crying, I mean, you can see that they are in pain… I don’t get it.”

With everypony focused on Sentinel and Lyra, nopony was paying attention to Harper, who came up and gave the bottle sitting on the floor a curious lick. Harper, upon taking a curious lick, discovered that the green substance was made of pain and fire. She responded in the same way that any foal would respond in this situation. 

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” With a violent shake of her head, Harper took off running, her mouth open, trying to put out the flames in her mouth. “MOMMY!” 

“If I laugh at this, does that make me a bad mother?” Lyra asked as she watched Harper running laps around the living room. 

“Yes, yes it does, Lyra,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Somepony needs to do something,” Derpy said, gesturing at the stricken foal. 

“Like what? The burning has to wear off, nothing can be done, and she’s sparking.” Lyra watched as Harper stopped, dropped, and rolled around on the floor, kicking her legs in the air. 

There was a flash and then Belisama set down the camera upon the table beside her chair. “I feel ashamed,” the griffoness said, confessing her guilt. “But no doubt, the picture will be amazing.” 

“Come here, Harper, and have some milk,” Lyra said to her foal. 

Harper, who got to her hooves, panted and looked at her mother. “NO! YOU EAT DEATH GOOP!” She then took off running as fast as her legs could carry her, fleeing the living room. 

Thistle watched the foal go streaking off. “Wow, she’s fast…” 
	
	
> Chapter 711
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Settling back in a chair, Bucky studied Dusk Chaser. The stallion was sitting, propped up in his bed, his eyes were dull, glazed over, and his ears were limp. A magic inhibitor was still upon his horn. Bucky knew that Dusk Chaser had been medicated, but the stallion seemed somewhat alert, if a little dopey. 

For sanity’s sake, it was determined to keep Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle away from him. The shock of seeing his long dead mentor might be too much for his fragile mind and running into yourself was never a good thing it seemed. Twilight Sparkle was still recovering, left in an unpleasant state of mind from seeing Dusk Chaser. 

“Do you know why I am here?” Bucky asked in a soft voice, the sort of voice he used to calm foals like Sukari or any number of crying, hysterical students. His eyebrow elevated and he looked Dusk Chaser in the eye.

Nodding, Dusk Chaser gave Bucky a medicated, blissful grin and this gaze fell down to a half-eaten slice of chocolate cake sitting on his plate before him. “Yes, and I have questions too… nothing terrible, just idle curiousity.” 

“Hmm, I shall see if I can answer a few questions,” Bucky said in a warm voice, trying to inspire Dusk Chaser’s trust. “You first.” 

Blinking, Dusk Chaser looked surprised. His eyes, as heavy as they seemed to be, were lifted and he looked at Bucky. “You look very different. You have… have a hand and claws. And I can see scales. What are you?” 

Sighing, Bucky gave an internal shrug. He had expected other questions. “I have endured a number of magical mutations. My body was in very bad shape, I was very nearly dead, when I was revived with phoenix magic. There were side effects.” 

“I see.” Dusk Chaser blinked and his somewhat out of focus eyes remained on Bucky. 

Bucky sat back in his chair and studied Dusk Chaser, pondering his words with careful consideration. There was a lot to ask, but it was important to do it in such a way that Dusk Chaser did not suffer. Bucky found that he felt bad for the old two hundred and something year old unicorn. Near as anyone could tell, Dusk Chaser was unaware that he had been used, unaware that he had been let go rather than escaped, and the old unicorn had no idea that he had been the Nightmare’s prison. 

“Before spring there is going to be a big fight. The Night Stallion has been stealing unicorns from other places, other whens and wheres. Weak minded stupid unicorns that have strong magic but low willpower… we’ve even taken a number of them from here, in this when and where,” Dusk Chaser said with a pained look upon his face. 

“What?” Bucky leaned forwards in his chair, feeling a bit alarmed. 

“We’ve stolen so many… some as adults, some as foals. But we took them. Some of them weren’t even born as ponies… but humans… we’ve learned to read destiny connections… we’ve gone into the world that is directly connected to this one… we’ve found guns, technology, medicine, things that have helped us survive, and we’ve been able to make connections between the unicorns and ponies that exist in this when and where and tie them to the humans of that when and where. And we take them. And when they come here, they change… they change and it hurts them… they change, becoming ponies, and it breaks their mind, a nightmare, all a bad dream, and the Night Stallion warps them. He blanks them out and wipes away their minds and then he makes them loyal and obedient and the Night Stallion is building an army.” 

“Can you tell me more about this army?” Bucky asked in a low voice that was almost a whisper.

“I can tell you that we have an army of over five thousand warped unicorns that will attack before the spring… the place you call Fancy. The Night Stallion is going to establish a hoofhold from the secret base in the mountains. Once we have the area secured, we will begin to take in resources for our next big push, the invasion of the Sea of Grass.” 

“That’s a lot of unicorns—” 

“That’s nothing,” Dusk Chaser said in a pained wheeze, interrupting Bucky. “We have an army tens of thousands strong… unicorns and pegasi that have been alchemically augmented by a new type of alchemy that is completely alien to you. Arcano-tech… something called gene shaping from one very advanced when and where. We’re creating the perfect tribe of super soldiers… the Night Stallion is learning how to shape and rebuild a pony right down to its genes… soon, weakness will be banished.” 

“Wait, are you talking about genetic manipulation?” Bucky asked. 

“Teeny tiny scrolls of paper… it is like teeny tiny scrolls of paper.” Dusk Chaser seemed manic and his head rocked back and forth on his neck. “We’re made of little teeny tiny scrolls… we learned that the scrolls that make us what we are can be edited. The Night Stallion has absorbed the knowledge we’ve stolen and he is learning how to apply it. There has been some failures, but also some successes!” Dusk Chaser’s eyes closed for a moment and he began to grind his teeth together. “What is Princess Celestia like?” 

Taken aback by the question, Bucky floundered for a moment, as he was still trying to wrap his mind around what he had heard. He looked at Dusk Chaser and felt pity. “She’s kind. Gentle. She is the reason that we all still exist. She is the preserver of life and unrecognised hero that does not get the credit she deserves. I also love her a great deal.” 

“I miss Princess Solara… she was my everything. She was beautiful and perfect in every way.” Tears began streaming down Dusk Chaser’s cheeks. “I think she would hate me now… I’ve done some very bad things to survive. It was my magic that made so many atrocities possible.” 

Sitting back in his chair, Bucky began putting some pieces together. The Element of Obedience was supposed to have killed Twilight Sparkle. Dusk Chaser was meant to contaminate somepony with the Nightmare. Had things gone differently, had things gone bad, this army of five thousand might have attacked a world wracked with panic over the loss of at least two major figures, prominent players in the big fight. The gamble had not paid off. 

“I will never obey the Night Stallion ever again,” Dusk Chaser said in a manic sounding whimper as he stared at Bucky. “Never again. I know the consequences for disobedience. He can’t hurt me anymore. I will die remembering the glory of the sun. I’M SORRY SOLARA, FORGIVE ME!” 

“What?” Bucky felt a bit of worry at Dusk Chaser’s words. 

And then, without warning, Dusk Chaser seized. His whole body stiffened and something orange tumbled down into the bed. Bucky stared in horror when he realised it was the end of Dusk Chaser’s tongue. Something in the room began beeping. Outside, in the hall, Bucky could hear shouting. Dusk Chaser began to thrash around in the bed, his body flailing, and blood trickled from his mouth as Dusk Chaser’s eyes rolled back up into his head. 

Dusk Chaser kicked and thrashed against the bed, his teeth shattering like glass from the force of his snapping jaws. Nurses and doctors began to flood into the room and Bucky began backing out, knowing that every inch of space was needed. 



 

“—look, I’m sorry Celestia, but I don’t know what happened. He started to talk about disobeying the Night Stallion and remembering the glory of the sun. I was being very, very gentle with him. No magic, no roughing up, no intimidation, nothing that might have harmed him.” Bucky looked up at Celestia, feeling very small and afraid, worried that he might be blamed for whatever it was that had just happened. 

“Look, Buckminster, be calm, I heard everything said in there. You did no wrong,” Celestia said in a soft, reassuring voice. “The doctors are doing all they can. Dusk Chaser is not in good health. Everything in that room was being recorded. I wonder what happened.” 

Sitting down in a chair, Bucky rubbed the scales on his face, trying to sooth the itch that he felt. His stomach felt queasy and a wave of nausea overcame him. Feeling miserable, he slumped down. “We have an army incoming...” 

“Yes. We do. And they cannot be allowed to gain a hoofhold. Not one inch.” 

Bucky could hear fear in Celestia’s voice, fear that matched his own, it was beginning to settle in like an unwanted visitor. “An army of thousands of pegasi we could deal with. But unicorns. Powerful unicorns. Even if they are not skilled, brute force can be enough to get the job done, especially if you have thousands of allies backing you up.” 

“It is a grim situation.” Celestia began to pace back and forth in the room. 

“This is going to be bloody,” Bucky said as the enormity of the situation began to press down upon his shoulders. “Look, I already know what needs to be done. We need to strike now, to draw them out, before they have time to prepare for us. We go into Fancy with airships and everything we can muster… armies of unicorns and bocors from the Sea of Grass. I will lead this offensive.” 

Her eyes filled with pain, Celestia looked at Bucky, also knowing what must be done. “Buckminster, this will not be like other battles… The airships will be vulnerable. Dispel magic will undo many enchantments that make airships possible. I will send as many Myrmidons with you as I can, as many as I think we can spare. I will need for you to be ready to go before the week is out.” 

“I understand,” Bucky replied, bowing his head. “Give me a list of our resources and I will begin planning. Also, send word to Keg Smasher. I need hardened troops that I can trust, I need hard, fearless fighters with combat experience.” 

Closing her eyes, Celestia took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. When her eyes opened, they glittered with fierce anger. “We knew the war was coming, but I did not expect for major conflict so soon. I do not know that we are prepared for this. Our command structure is still in a shambles. The guard is not as well organised as one might hope. Our troops are stretched thin.” 

“Institute the draft.” Bucky’s words were little more than a whisper, but what was said was almost deafening. He watched as Celestia flinched. “Mares wanted to be in the military, draft them too. When this conflict is over, if we are victorious, we are going to be far fewer than when we started. We are going to need to rebuild. Begin the draft and ship every able bodied soul off to the Shetlands where they can be made hard.” 

“Bucky, I do not wish to do this.” Celestia shook her head. “But I know that it is necessary. I will make a public announcement after the plan to defend Fancy has been revealed. It think it will soften the blow to know that we are in a state of crisis.” 

Clearing this throat, Bucky’s ears perked forwards. “Project Equiliser has yielded some great returns. I am loathe to even bring this up, but it could turn the battle in our favour. Should we reveal what I’ve been up to?” 

Celestia’s jaw muscles stiffened. “Is anything ready?” 

Bucky nodded. “The new pistol design from the pistol I recovered from the derelict ship, the pistol with the magazine feed that loads bullets into the chamber… we have reverse engineered it and have quite a stockpile of our own. It loads a good deal faster than a revolver, but they do tend to jam. The rifles are fewer in number, but we have a good number of them. My griffons have been training in sharpshooting, using crossbows. If you give me the order, I will take them into battle. I do not know that they are ready, but these are desperate times.” 

“What of the ammunition?” Celestia asked. 

“The liquid methane rounds show a lot of promise. Very safe. The chances of harming friendlies is nil. We have a few other rounds, incendiary rounds with phosphorus, and a few explosive rounds, but I like the liquid methane rounds. The guns tend to get hot and the methane rounds keep the guns cool. But I assure you, the rounds are safe. I have quite a stockpile in my vault. I make a few hundred a time when I have a moment to spare and there are close to ten thousand ten millimetre rounds stashed away.” 

“Bucky, the very idea of those rounds sicken me,” Celestia said. 

“Very hard for an enemy combatant to bring harm to somepony or somebirdy if they are frozen solid. Even Scorch has a grudging appreciation for the liquid methane rounds and he says they will save lives,” Bucky replied. 

“We throw everything we have at them.” Celestia blinked and shook her head. “I will get as many of the guard unicorns as I think we can spare and send them with you. Can you give them a crash course in firearms use?” 

Bucky nodded and watched as the door opened. A doctor stepped through the door and cleared his throat. “Yes, doctor?” 

“Dusk Chaser is dead.” The doctor fidgeted in a nervous manner. “Massive stroke and seizures. He snapped his own spine during his convulsions. Never seen anything like it.” 

“How?” Celestia looked stunned. 

“We don’t know,” the doctor replied. “We suspect that there might have been a magical compulsion. We did all that we could to save him, but he suffered brain death and so we decided to let him go.” 

Celestia nodded. “That is for the best. Take his remains to Hidden Hollow so that he might be studied.” 

“Yes, right away, Your Majesty,” the doctor replied, bowing his head.

“Bucky, begin your preparations at once. We have a lot to do…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 712
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus, being a large creature, could not use chairs like most of his fellow griffons and ponies. Instead, he sat down upon the floor, and was still taller than those who sat in chairs, being long in body, as long as a lion. With his talons, he stuffed a whole cricket taco into his beak, sans vegetables, with only a little cilantro as well as onion for flavour, and crunched it up. He went to work making another one, spooning crickets onto a thick piece of flatbread. Being such a large creature, it took an awe inspiring amount of food to keep him fed. 

“It is time for the Raptors to make a name for themselves,” Bucky said around a mouthful of food. “They’ll be good examples to the others who have volunteered. Still not certain how I feel about my little griffons going to war. We are too few and there will be deaths. I don’t like this.”

“They wish to fight.” Lugus added a little lime juice to his cricket taco and some white crumbled cheese. “They want to defend their home. For many of them, this is their first time feeling patriotism. Funny that they call Equestria home and they wish to defend it.” 

“I want them kept out of actual battle as much as possible. Unicorns are dangerous up close, spells lose a lot of punch at a distance. The further they are, the safer they are. Use their natural sharpshooter abilities,” Bucky said, thinking aloud. 

“Bucky, I am going.” 

Pausing just as he was about to take a bite, Bucky’s eyes abandoned his delicious cricket taco and looked over at Belisama. He blinked a few times, his nostrils flared, and then he set his taco down upon his plate. “What?” 

“I have made up my mind, I’m going.” Belisama began to tremble and she looked her husband in the eye, fighting the urge to avert her gaze. 

“No. Absolutely not.” Bucky shook his head and became aware that Lugus was staring at him. He raised his talons to Lugus to silence him. 

“You… you… you don’t own me,” Belisama said in a strained squeak. “I am a free griffoness, and while I love and respect you, you… you… you can’t… you can’t tell me what to do. I have given you a cub, I have warmed your bed, I have given you my body, and I have loved you, and make no mistake, I am going to war with you.” 

“Bandua needs her mother—” 

“Magpie is capable of looking after Bandua.” Belisama, trembling, folded her forelegs over her girth and sat up a little straighter. “I am one of the best sharpshooters you have. Ask Lugus. Either with that fancy crossbow you gave me or a rifle. You just got done saying that the further the griffons are from the unicorns, that the safer they will be. Give us rifles and we will kill from the horizon, and I will lead them.” 

“Queen Belisama, there is also the respect given to a leader that leads her subjects into battle,” Lugus said in a soft voice, ignoring the icy death stare that Bucky was giving him. 

“Sombra fell because he sent his family away. He had no one there with him when he needed them most. Nopony, nobirdy that he trusted. I will not allow you to make that same mistake,” Belisama said in a commanding voice that was now free of her former stammering and fear. “Where you go I will follow. I belong with you. Your foes are my foes. Princess Celestia told me that sometimes, one life can change the world. I keep thinking that if just one of Sombra’s wives had stayed with him, remained at his side, we might live in a very different world right now. I cannot live with myself if I abandon you now when you need me the most.” 

Slumping down in his chair, Bucky sighed in defeat. He picked up his taco, nibbled on it a bit, but no longer felt very hungry. He looked over at Belisama, noted her heavy breathing, and could see the fear that she was feeling. No doubt, her little heart was thumping in her chest. She had grown, she had changed so much, and Bucky felt a swell of love for her. 

“I suppose I shall have to lead by example and resort to using guns. I detest guns, but the griffons will need a good example of trigger discipline in the field,” Lugus said after he swallowed a whole cricket taco. 

“Yes Lugus, they will. I have been modifying the twenty millimetre hand cannon that we found. Also have made a variety of custom twenty millimetre shells, all of them fantastically lethal.” Bucky, feeling his hunger return, took a big bite and savoured the taste of spicy crickets. 

“Modifications?” Lugus asked. 

“Improved rangefinder sights… spell jar shells. You’ll be able to launch a shell into a cluster of enemies from quite some distance away. Some of the griffon alchemists have been working on powdered poison joke shells.” Bucky looked at Belisama, who had fluffed out. “You do good work.” 

Lugus shook his head. “This conflict is going to be horrifying…” 



 

“Bell, honey, daddy is trying to work,” Bucky said as he bounced Bell Heather in his forelegs. He kissed her on her cheek, gave her a squeeze, and then looked at Myrmidon Charassare. “Do you understand what is expected of you?” 

“Of course sir,” Charassare replied. The big Myrmidon smiled, a rare sight, and his eyes locked on Bell Heather. “My job is to make certain that little foals like that one have a future… and get to live in a world that is safe for them.” 

“Sorry for the distraction. She’s teething and she’s fussy and she just wants her daddy.” Bucky gave his foal another squeeze, knowing that he would be leaving her soon. 

“Foalsitting the Shadowbolts is a very important task,” Luna said in a stern voice. “I do not want you feeling slighted or cheated out of combat. There will be plenty of combat for you. But the Shadowbolts are going to need an experienced handler when we send them out into the field.” 

Charassare bowed his head. “Mistress, I understand the necessity. If others wish to grumble, I will beat some understanding into them. The Shadowbolts are an untested weapon, and you need eyes that you can trust to look over them, to see if they are fit for war. I understand the unique privilege that I have been given, and I respect your decision.” 

“You big,” Harper said as she walked between Charassare’s armored legs with her head craned upwards. “Metal.” The foal knocked on Charassare’s armor with her hoof, banging away and producing a metallic clanging sound. 

“You have an admirer, Charassare.” Luna grinned at the Myrmidon as he looked down at the teeny, tiny foal standing between his hooves. 

“Hello, Princess Harper—” 

“No, don’t call her that, she’ll get very silly, she has funny ideas about what a princess is,” Bucky said, holding Bell Heather in one foreleg while he waved his talons at Charassare. “She starts putting on airs with her stuffed animals and starts calling herself the ‘Storm Princess’ and this is all Luna’s fault.” 

“It is not!” Luna’s angry retort startled Erebus and caused the colt to snort. “Charassare, do you see the sort of insolence I have to deal with?” 

Ignoring his Mistress, Charassare remained focused on Harper, who had been joined by Sukari. The timid zebra foal had come out of hiding, and was now pressed against Harper’s side. Lowering his head in a slow cautious manner, Charassare said, “Princess Sukari… see, I’m not so scary.” 

“This is a highly irregular war counsel, I apologise,” Bucky said, feeling a little sheepish as he watched the armored Myrmidon interacting with his foals. “I’m leaving them soon and I don’t have the heart to send them away.” 

Charassare lifted his head and looked at Bucky. “Master, this is a good reminder of why I fight. More war counsels should have foals present. It puts things into perspective.” The scarred face of the Myrmidon peered out from beneath his open visored helmet and a fang filled smile became visible. 

“Charassare, you do know that royal titles are not inherited, correct?” Luna asked. 

“Mistress, I do not care. What harm is there with titles of affection?” Charassare replied. He looked up at Luna. “What harm is there in calling your colt Prince Erebus?” 

“We do not want a sense of entitlement.” Luna glanced over at Erebus, who was dozing off on a cushion. “We do not want them growing up with the expectation that they are owed special treatment or a title or that they are somehow above everypony else.” 

“I understand, Mistress,” Charassare replied. The big Myrmidon heaved a sigh. “To return to required discussion, I have an idea that I would like to share.” 

“Oh?” Bucky looked up from staring into Bell Heather’s eyes. 

“We have a number of fresh Myrmidons that have passed training, but are not truly battle tested. I wish to have them learn some humility and teamwork. Rather than place them into the thick of the fighting, I have an idea that involves the griffons.” 

“I think I know where this is going.” Luna’s eyes narrowed. “There are no steadier fliers than gliding lunar pegasi and your ability to hover is second to none.”

“Yes, Mistress, this is true. Snipers need a steady platform for shooting. If a griffon has to hover, all that movement is bound to cause some degree of inaccuracy. But if they can remain still and allow somepony else to hover and keep them relatively steady, I do believe they will be far better sharpshooters.” 

“I like this idea,” Bucky said as he bounced Bell Heather in his embrace. 

“Many Myrmidons will protest being used as mounts.” Shaking her head, Luna’s ears tilted back a little. “There will be some resentment within the ranks.” 

“Hence the need to learn humility,” Charassare said. “To be honest, we Myrmidons do have blind spots and we tend to have some weaknesses when dealing with unicorns. Their magic is a good counter for our strength. Having to fight both unicorns and pegasi at the same time makes things difficult for us. Having a companion to watch our backs in the air and deal with unicorns while we deal with enemy pegasi will be of a tremendous advantage, at least, that is my opinion.” 

“So the idea is to stay out of reach of the unicorns and their spells, which keeps both you and the griffons safe, and if pegasi come to flush you out, the means are there to deal with that threat as well. This is a sound plan. I have been worried sick about keeping my griffons safe… we are too few in number.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and a cunning expression overtook his face. “We could even load you down with bombs and high powered explosive ordnance  for the griffons to drop on your enemies down below.” 

Luna, feeling a new sense of enthusiasm, began to nod. “We could do the same with unicorns… mount griffons upon them… defensive specialists. If all they had to do was focus on keeping a shield up, they could conserve energy and keep their shields up longer if they didn’t have to focus on offense. A mounted griffon could provide a blistering offense with one of those lever action rifles.”

“It would certainly give us an advantage.” Bucky looked at Luna and then at Charassare, his eyes glittering with an almost feral cunning. “The mirror travelers would have to focus upon both defense and offense, which they can do, but they will exhaust themselves quickly.” 

“This is a significant tactical advantage.” Charassare’s smile turned into a wide grin, revealing even more jagged teeth. And then, the smile vanished and his face became stern. “If this works out as well as we hope, that is. Pioneering new tactics is fine and good, but having them work out in the field is another.” 

Stroking Bell Heather’s neck as she snuffled, Bucky said, “Which brings up something I wish to discuss… there are those who wish to become citizens of Equestria and are willing to fight for us. I say we use them in this conflict. Service guarantees citizenship…” 
	
	
> Chapter 713
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In his talons, Bucky held his own modified copy of the Krammler & Klein pistol that he found on the derelict vessel. A grim expression was upon Bucky’s face as he inserted the magazine into the grip with his telekinesis. Looking up, Bucky saw Scorch, who was in earth pony form. Scorch did not look happy. 

“Nitrocellulose rounds,” Bucky said, holding up a brass casing for all to see. “Magically modified. Ten millimetre rounds. These will come in several variants. There are a limited number of revolvers that will use an extended casing with a higher propellent load.” Bucky set down the bullet upon a table and looked out at his audience, his griffons along with some unicorns. He felt Belisama shift upon his back, her warm body upon his spine was reassuring. 

Raising the pistol, Bucky took aim, looking down the sights, drawing a bead upon the mound of earth in the distance. His talons held the gun steady. There was a sharp report when he pulled the trigger, causing several griffons and unicorns to jump. 

The target had a hole in it on the third rung from the bullseye. 

“You’d think you’d be a better shot, being the embodiment of war and all,” Belisama said, her words causing some nervous laughter from the crowd. “It’s the pistol design. I don’t like it. The design is too light and the recoil is too much. The revolver is a much better design, has less recoil, and is far more accurate. Plus, it never jams.” Pulling a revolver out of its sheath, Belisama lifted it, took aim, her beak opened as she concentrated, and with a pull of her talon finger, she fired. 

There was a neat hole on the edge of the bullseye, touching the first rung. Belisama sheathed her gun and then smoothed out her feathers with her talons, looking very smug as she sat upon Bucky’s back. 

“Today is a live fire exercise. We must conserve rounds, so firing today will be limited, only a few shots for each of you. Today, you will make a choice if you wish to have a magazine fed pistol or a revolver as your sidearm. A rifle will also be issued to you as well, which is also chambered for ten millimetre. For those of you uncomfortable with firearms, high powered crossbows will be issued. The crossbows are of Scorch’s own personal design, and they are of exceptional power. I have looked them over myself, and they are weapons without equal.” 

“The crossbow is also mostly silent!” Branwen shouted so the crowd could hear her. 

Activating the safety, Bucky then set the magazine fed pistol down upon the table. He didn’t much care for the design either, and agreed with Belisama’s assessment. He liked the solidity of a good revolver, the simpler design, he shared Belisama’s opinion that the revolver was a better gun, even if it was slower to reload. 

Plus, in a pinch, the heavier revolver could be used to beat somepony to death. 

“My griffons… listen to me,” Belisama said in a loud voice, her eyes wide and her expression fierce as she sat upon her husband’s back. “We have been given an opportunity… we can reclaim some of our honour as griffons. We have been asked to protect our friends, our neighbors, our hosts, these good ponies that have offered to share their home with us! We can help restore the good name of the griffons! We can show the world that we are a good and honourable species!” She drew her revolver from its sheath once more and held it over her head for all to see. “And perhaps, if we are lucky, we can restore a little trust in these! Use them well, use them honourably, and treat them with respect! We have a lot in common with the gun, in that we have come to be reviled… we have an obligation to show the world that guns can be used for good purposes! Like it or not, guns are a part of our heritage. Up to this point, nothing but bad things have been done with them, leading the world to hate us and hate our guns, a well deserved hatred after everything that has been said and done.”

Belisama’s eyes narrowed and she looked out upon the crowd, still holding the massive revolver over head for all to see. “As queen, I will see faith restored in my griffons and our heritage, and I demand that you help me!” 

Wincing, Bucky was overcome with the sound of the audience exploding with applause. There were caws, squawks, whistles, various bird calls, hooting, screeching, a veritable cacophony of sound. 

Belisama pulled the other revolver from its sheath and she held it above her head as well. “This is Huginn, and this is Muninn,” she said, holding both revolvers aloft. “These will be voices of my subjects. Woe to those to who threaten the freedom of those we hold dear! We little griffons, we know the pain of oppression, and we will never allow it to happen again! Not to us, not to our friends, not to anyone!” 



 

Rubbing his temple, Bucky tried to ease the thudding inside of his skull. Too much sound, too much excitement, and too much stress. He lifted up a glass of naval strength gin, emptied it, poured another glass, and set it down upon the table beside his chair so it would be ready when he needed it. 

There was a soft knock upon the farmhouse library door. 

“Do come in,” Bucky said, realising it must be someone who wasn’t family, because family would have barged right in. He rubbed his nasal bridge with his talons and blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the starbursts swimming in his vision. 

“Hello,” Fluttershy said as she floated through the door. A shawl was wrapped around her neck and something was slung in the shawl. She smiled, looking nervous, and her red eyes looked merry. “I brought you a visitor… be careful, she bites.” 

At that moment, Bucky felt his heart in this throat. He looked at Fluttershy, not certain what he was feeling, overcome by the events of the day, the gunfire, the cheering, and now this. He grabbed his glass of naval strength gin and emptied it. The burn in his throat was the only thing that made sense during this long and uncomfortable moment. 

“Discord named her Lunacy… I wasn’t too happy about that but he kept calling her that, he adores her, and I suppose from a draconequus point of view, Lunacy is a pretty and endearing name, but it might not endear her to ponies,” Fluttershy said in a nervous, halting voice. “I would have brought her sooner, but I know you’ve been busy and she hasn’t been very well behaved. She’s… she can be a teensy weensy bit cranky.” 

Drifting over, Fluttershy reached into her shawl and pulled out a small bundle wrapped in a blanket. She cradled it for a moment, kissed it, and then reaching down, she handed it to Bucky, looking very apprehensive as she did so. 

There was a feral hiss from within the blanket and Bucky began to feel more than a little alarmed. He cradled the bundle in his forelegs, the gin still burned the back of his throat, and with his telekinesis, he pulled the blanket back, revealing a tiny foal. 

A tiny foal wearing a muzzle over her muzzle. Raising his head, Bucky looked up at Fluttershy, his eyebrow lifting as he glanced at her. 

“Oh, it’s necessary… she bites. Angel Bunny got too close and Lunacy almost chomped him. She can be… she can be a little cranky,” Fluttershy replied, answering Bucky’s silent, unasked question. 

Looking back down, Bucky looked upon Lunacy. She was small, blue, her mane was a darker shade of blue, and her eyes were icy blue. The foal hissed again and began to struggle against the blanket swaddling her. 

“She responds to kindness, just like any other foal. If you hold her, sing to her, and be gentle with her, eventually, she calms down just a little bit and she isn’t so violent. I’m confident that love and kindness can overcome her nightmare nature. It worked for Discord,” Fluttershy said, hovering closer. She reached out her paw, placed it upon Bucky’s neck, and then planted a soft peck upon Bucky’s cheek. “It also worked for you,” Fluttershy whispered into Bucky’s ear. 

“She’s flesh and blood.” Bucky lifted Lunacy up in his forelegs and looked down at her in amazement. “She’s an earth pony?” 

“Well, you made a little earth pony body out of ice, no horn or wings. A little chaos magic and a little love and a teeny, tiny part of you made her real,” Fluttershy replied. She reached down and touched Lunacy with her paw. “She is made out of your flesh and blood, in a sense. And Celestia’s. And mine… and there is a tiny bit of Discord in there as well. The good part… not to worry.” 

Bending his neck, Bucky kissed Lunacy upon her forehead and was rewarded with a savage snarl, followed by a feral growl. Perhaps it was a good thing she was wearing a muzzle over her maw. He kissed her again and then shivered when the foal let out a seething screech of hatred. “Daddy loves you…” 

“I’m going to show her to the rest of her mothers… you’re okay with sharing, right? I mean, she is your cub, but she’s going to need a certain type of upbringing and—” 

“Fluttershy, I trust you with her care. Try not to worry. Just be careful not to put your own foal in danger,” Bucky said, interrupting Fluttershy. Holding Lunacy in one foreleg, he reached out his talons and touched Fluttershy’s rounded stomach. He felt the mare freeze at his touch and he started to pull his talons away, realising he had made a mistake. 

Reaching down, Fluttershy grabbed Bucky’s talons and pressed them up against her stomach. “You just startled me, that’s all. I trust you.” She nudged Bucky’s talons so that they would rub against the curve of her stomach. “This foal isn’t going to be like Discord and I. She’s going to be mortal… don’t ask me how I know. It bothers me a little. I don’t have to worry about ever growing old, but she will. That makes me sad. Already, every day is precious.” 

“I know the feeling,” Bucky said in a pained voice. 

“I know you do.” Fluttershy looked into Bucky’s eyes with her own red and yellow eyes. 



 

Heaving a sigh, Bucky watched as his wives fawned over Lunacy, gathered around the bed, all of them wide eyed. Derpy scowled, it was clear that the grey pegasus didn’t like the muzzle, but she did nothing to remove it. Berry touched the foal with her hoof. Thistle cooed at the foal, trying to make gentle sounds to soothe her, while Bon Bon and Lyra stood together and watched. Belisama, who had come in from outside, sat on a pillow and studied the foal. 

“This is kinda confusing,” Berry said. “The parenting thing I mean.” 

“It is my hope that if she can be made a little nicer, she can come and stay with all of you on visits,” Fluttershy replied, looking at Berry with a soft, reassuring expression upon her face. “I’m counting on all of you to make her feel loved, even if it is very difficult. She can be a little… cranky.” 

Luna, who stood in the doorway, glanced at the foal, her expression fearful. She had said nothing, nothing at all, but had remained silent. She moved from the door, went to Bucky’s side, and pressed up against his leg. 

Realising that Luna was scared, Bucky planted his hoof on her backside and shoved her forwards, towards the bed, realising that she was a part of this in her own way. When Luna scrambled backwards and clung to his leg, Bucky sighed. 

“Keep her away from me,” Luna whispered. 

“Luna, isn’t that what you wanted? To be loved? To not be feared?” Bucky gave Luna a nudge. “Of all ponies, you know how much it hurts to be rejected just because ponies fear what you are.” 

Looking up, Luna looked Bucky in the eye. “Damn you, Buckminster, damn you and your reasonable nature…” 

From the bed, from the middle of a group of mares and one griffoness, there was a blood chilling hiss followed by a snarl. Derpy, a creature of intrinsic goodness, pulled the grumpy foal into an embrace and gave her a squeeze, ignoring the fearsome snarling that came from the tiny terror. 

“I cannot deal with this,” Luna said in a strangled voice as she fled, running out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her. “I am sorry, I need time to think about all of this.” 

Watching Luna go, Fluttershy let out a sad sigh. “Poor Luna, she is still so hurt. I wish I knew what to do to make her feel better.” 

“We need to get her to love the Nightmare,” Bucky replied, looking up at Fluttershy. 
	
> Chapter 714
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“While I am gone, here are all of the things that need looking after, the most important being the investigation in Baltimare with Fever Cure and Mask.” Twilight Sparkle slid a folder over the table to Sunset Shimmer.

Raising an eyebrow, Bucky looked at Twilight Sparkle, his face becoming quite unpleasant as his anger manifested. “What do you mean when you say gone?” 

Twilight Sparkle’s head swiveled and she regarded Bucky with a calm stare. “My fellow Elements of Harmony and I are going—” 

“Oh no you are not!” Bucky said, speaking with far more vehemence than usual. 

“—to serve upon the hospital frigate Sol Sempiternus. The ship will remain back, far away from enemy lines. Our last trip to Fancy made a huge difference, lifting the spirits of many. Bucky, the Elements of Harmony are needed more than ever.” 

Reaching out, Sunset Shimmer patted Bucky and then turned to Twilight. “Don’t mind him, he’s just a little on edge. When I told him that I thought about going, he lost his marbles. You should have heard him.” 

“I’m a big filly, Bucky, I can look after myself if I need to,” Twilight said, her tone both gentle and teasing. “Fluttershy and Discord are coming along. They are immensely powerful and along with my magic, we should be able to take care of ourselves.” Twilight felt bad when she saw Bucky trembling with rage, but knew there wasn’t much she could do about it. “Sunset, we expect trouble while Bucky and I are away. Be creative in your defenses if something happens and seek help. There is help. We have a fair number of domestic threats here at home.” Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat. “I have authorised Trixie to assist you in any matters involving the Black Cloaks, and Bartleby as well.” 

“Thank you, Twilight,” Sunset Shimmer replied, a soft smile spreading upon her lips. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will be most pleased to hear that she is allowed to help the Great and Powerful Black Cloaks.” 

“I am leaving some of my golems at home to assist you, should you need them.” Bucky looked at his student, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. He rubbed his face with his talons, and then felt his talons pulled away by magic. He looked and saw that Twilight’s horn was lit. 

“Stop that, you’re still growing in scales. Leave them be, your skin is all rashy and irritated.” Twilight lifted her bottle of fruit punch soda. “Ponyville’s university grove should be completed while I am gone. It will be strange to return home and see that the trees have been given windows and doors. I wonder what else will be different upon my return.” 

“Equestria,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low voice. “With the draft announced, able bodied colts and fillies are going to discover a new way to spend their teenage years. Young adults are going to be hoof picked for their potential. And then shipped away on frigates to the Shetlands, where a terrible future of nothing to do awaits them… that is if you read the papers. The ones who do not die from boredom will die in this great conflict of ours.” 

“Bah, we’re not sending them to this war… we’re preparing for future conflicts. And mark my words, there will be future conflicts.” Scowling, Bucky began to drum his talon fingers upon the table. 

“Master, you are so grumpy. What am I to do with you?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“Bah!” Bucky lifted his talons and made a dismissive gesture at his apprentice. 

“I can see where Lunacy gets her crankiness—” 

“Don’t make jokes about that!” Bucky snapped, looking at Twilight, who was smirking. 



 

Almost unblinking, Sentinel watched as Belisama cleaned and oiled her pair of revolvers. Huginn and Muninn had been forged by Scorch himself out of some strange black-blue metal that had come from Tartarus. Sentinel hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but his hearing was a little too good. There was the subtle implication that the guns were supernatural and Odin himself was quite proud of his dual ravens, as he called them. 

Huginn was somewhat larger, the barrel longer, and a scope had been mounted upon the top of the revolver. It was a big weapon, at least by Belisama’s standards, somehow the griffoness seemed even smaller when holding it. Muninn was smaller, had a stubbier barrel, and seemed made for rapid fire shooting along with a quicker draw. Though smaller, it was still a big weapon. 

Nearby, Fleshrender’s rifle lay upon the table, and beside it, Belisama’s sword. 

“Are you scared?” Sentinel asked, finally getting the words to come out. 

Belisama stopped polishing and looked at Sentinel. She nodded. “Of course I am. I am terrified. I had terrible nightmares all last night. But that doesn’t change the fact that I must do what needs to be done. For too long, we griffons were the cause of much of the world’s suffering. Now, I intend to make amends.” The griffoness resumed her task and began to rub Huginn once more. 

Creeping a little closer, Sentinel got a better look at Muninn, which was lying upon the table, but he made no attempt to touch it, even though a part of him wanted to do so. Something about the weapon made his skin feel shivery. Whatever magic the gun had, it was terrifying. 

“Sentinel, you know, if you treat her well, you might have a nice little griffoness of your own to ride upon your back into battle,” Belisama said in a voice that contained the faintest hint of teasing. 

“Boadicea is a hunter griffon, she will not be little,” Sentinel said, feeling roasting heat in his neck that rose up into his cheeks. 

“That doesn’t matter… you’re going to be a big pony. They’re talking about pairing up some of the little griffons on the backs of Myrmidons. If two little griffons can ride a lunar pegasus, I think one somewhat larger hunter griffon can ride a lunar pegasus as well.” Belisama folded the cylinder into the gun and it closed with a click. 

“The guns… they’re magical… did Scorch say what they did?” Sentinel asked, desperate to change the subject and talk about anything but Boadicea. 

“I don’t know, Scorch might have been telling me a story,” Belisama replied. “He said the revolvers have been bound with spirits of torment and anguish. To be my enemy and to look upon my guns is to know despair. I don’t know what he did to them. Scorch told me to ask Odin.” 

“It scares me to look at them.” Sentinel blinked and watched as Huginn was set down upon the table. 

“Odin says that a long time ago, a griffon that became a demon rampaged the countryside, sowing fear and derision everywhere he went. He came to be during the time of defilement, where everything in the world went wrong. For many years, he tormented the world, running rampant, doing terrible things. He was a terror. His name is not remembered. Or maybe it is and Odin doesn’t want his name remembered so he did not tell me. But this demon griffon, who fed upon the anguish of others, came across an enclave of ponies and griffons who had holed up together to endure the trying times they lived in, one of the last hold outs to days gone by when ponies and griffons lived in harmony with one another.” Belisama picked up Fleshrender’s rifle and began rubbing down the wooden stock. “This demon griffon plagued these survivors of the time of defilement, wearing them down, killing some of them, but the group of survivors did not survive as long as they had without learning a few tricks. They slew the demon griffon and bound his soul into a bell they had made. Odin says the bell had powerful magic after that, that when rung, it would scare away enemies, overcoming them with terror. Those revolvers are supposed to be made of the remains of that bell, after it was taken to Tartarus because of the bound demon spirit contained within it.” 

“Really?” Sentinel asked. 

Belisama shrugged. “Maybe. It might be true. It might be a story, intended to create a legend, a history for these guns. But the guns are magical. So it might be true. Part of it might be true. I don’t know.” 

“I like these stories,” Sentinel said, his eyes narrowing. “I like not knowing if they are the total truth or not. I like it when Odin starts telling stories. I try to write them down like how he tells them so I can be a better writer. I would very much like to become a skald, but I am not a griffon and I don’t know how to play any musical instruments.” 

“Odin says a skald must be equal parts poet and warrior, musician and killer, an artist and an avenger. More and more, I can feel the magic now, the connection grows stronger every day.” Belisama pulled the lever out on Fleshrender’s rifle and began breaking down the gun. “Been learning alchemy, learning how to shoot, been learning music, getting an education in politics, been learning how to be a good mother, I’ll be learning how to be a fierce warrior, I suppose a skald is all of these things. What I do know is that hundreds of years from now, they’ll be telling stories about me slaying giants and going to war and how I restored the honour of the griffons, because that’s how storytelling and creating legends works. When the story about this war is told, I’ll have slain half of the invading army myself, my guns will be twice as big as they really are, and wee little griffons will feel inspired to follow me in my good works, because that is the purpose of our storytelling tradition.” 

“Hmm.” Sentinel looked at his griffoness mother, his mind filling with thoughts that pushed the limits of his comprehension and then pushed a little harder. Was inspiration more important than the truth? Sentinel didn’t know, but it was something to think about. Sometimes the truth was less than inspiring. Sometimes it was disappointing. Sometimes, the truth was discouraging and disparaging. Sentinel’s thoughts drifted to how his father might be remembered, and by who. Would the ponies tell very different stories about his father than the griffons? His enemies would tell a very different tale Sentinel supposed. 

“Skalds are parents of heritage. We give birth to stories and they take on a life of their own. They grow up, they mature, these stories inspire others, who in turn live the sort of lives that stories are written about, so in a sense, these stories of ours produce offspring, giving birth to new legends.” Belisama continued to rip the guts out of Fleshrender’s rifle and placed them upon the table, intending to oil each and every piece. “We are mortal storytellers, but we have immortal offspring.” 

“As a writer, I suppose I could do the same thing,” Sentinel said, feeling a new sense of self awareness as he thought about the meaning behind Belisama’s words. 

“As king, perhaps you could write a foundation for us to build a new history upon…” 



 

“This is tea. Real tea. Not just water in a cup. I put lots of sugar in it for you,” Piña said to Sukari. Reaching out, Piña adjusted the ribbon tied into Sukari’s mane. “We have to look pretty when we have tea parties… there… you look smashing.” 

Lowering her head, Sukari sniffed her teacup. Her ears perked and then she looked up when Dinky placed a plate of cookies upon the low table set up in the middle of the room. There was tea in her cup but no tea in the cup of the stuffy sitting next to her, which made Sukari feel confused. 

But then again, almost everything made Sukari feel confused. 

“Empress Cadance, you look stunning,” Dinky said as she poured a bit of tea into Cadance’s cup. Dinky used her magic to adjust Cadance’s paper crown, trying to get it straight without rumpling it. 

Cadance, sitting upon a cushion, sat up a little straighter and tried to look important, or at least as important as she could look with cookie crumbs all over her muzzle and grape jelly stains on her snoot. 

“Ooh, Lady Harper, you look especially frizzy today,” Dinky said, placing a few more cookies in front of Harper. Stolen cookies, filched from the kitchen, the best kind of cookie there was, the kind that tasted the best. 

It wasn’t safe to place a paper crown upon Harper’s head. The last one had ignited from Harper’s electrical arcing and had burst into flames, which had caused quite a scare, but Harper had not been injured, only somewhat singed. 

“Tea is what makes us civilised ponies,” Dinky explained, using this as an opportunity to instruct her younger sisters. “It teaches us how to behave, how to get along with one another, how to share, and how to be considerate of others. Observe.” Dinky lifted up the platter with little quartered peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches upon it. “Lady Piña, would you care for a sandwich?” 

“Why thank you, Lady Dinky, for your most gracious offer,” Piña replied, taking a sandwich and placing it upon her plate. 

“Tea is usually done with unicorn manners, but teatime with pegasi can be a rich and rewarding experience,” Dinky said, her head bobbing with youthful enthusiasm. 

At that moment, Cadance let go of a disgusting long winded belch, her lips pulling away from her grape jelly stained teeth as she let everything out. The force of the blast caused Piña’s mane to blow back upon her head. 

Wide eyed, Dinky stared at Cadance with an expression of awe. “Yes, Empress Cadance is in touch with her inner pegasus…” 
	
> Chapter 715
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Watching as The Scorned Mare was being loaded, Piña Colada felt a thought nagging at the back of her mind. Food was being loaded into the ship, whole crates of it, not just for ponies, but for griffons as well. Piña sighed and watched her breath drift away from her as tendrils of steam in the cold winter air. She looked up at Thistle, who was also watching. 

“Thistle, is there enough fish in the lake to feed all of the griffons?” Piña asked. 

The kelpie, who seemed surprised by Piña’s question, turned to look at the curious foal. “No Piña, not at the moment. I’ll need to farm more fish but even then, it is going to be troublesome. Bucky had to order frozen fish from other places.” 

“And there is only a few griffons now.” Piña’s brow furrowed and turned to watch as a large crate was being loaded. “Thistle, what happens when the griffons increase in number again? What if they become like us ponies now that they are peaceful? And the diamond dogs? And the meat eating minotaurs? Where will they get enough food? In school, we talked about how growing food in the clouds will fix the problem with world hunger, but how do we keep them from going hungry? If they become like us, have large numbers, how do we feed them?” 

“I don’t know,” Thistle replied, feeling a bit unsettled by Piña’s inquiry. 

“I know the griffons eat dumb animals… it bothers me but I know they have to eat something, but what do we do when there are millions of griffons like there are millions of ponies in the world, how do we have enough animals and fish for them to eat? I know that some of the griffons can eat other stuff, but then there are griffons who are like you and eating other stuff makes them sick. You have to eat several pounds of fish in a single meal. How do we feed everyone that isn’t a pony?” Piña asked, becoming quite animated as her mind began racing, filling up with all kinds of thoughts on the subject. 

The kelpie shook her head. “I don’t know, Piña, I don’t know.” 



 

“I’ve never seen Bucky like this,” Derpy said as she settled onto the sofa so she could watch out the window. “It kinda worries me. He’s too calm lately.” 

Berry Punch, sitting on the sofa and also watching out the window, nodded. She heard a sigh of relief from Derpy as the big grey mare got comfortable, followed by lots of heavy breathing. There was a lot of heavy breathing as of late, from both mares. The twins were big, the twins were heavy, and the twins were healthy. 

“Spring can’t come soon enough,” Derpy said as she rolled over onto her side and then rested her head upon Berry’s ribs. “Berry, do you have troubles breathing?” 

“Sometimes,” Berry replied as she watched the griffons loading crates onto The Scorned Mare. 

“I can’t even fart right,” Derpy said, complaining just because she could. “I feel backed up and stopped up all the time. When it finally does come out, it feels soooo good.” 

“Fart?” Harper asked, looking up at the pregnant mares upon the sofa. She began rearranging her letter blocks upon the floor and then pointed down at them with a proud look.

Looking away from the window, Berry Punch looked down at Harper’s blocks, not certain what she might see, and was shocked by what she saw. “FERT.” There it was. Plain as daylight. Berry felt a quiet sense of awe. “Harper… you know how to spell already?” Berry watched as Harper’s brow furrowed. 

“Sentinel show letters. Letters talk. Letters make letters.” Harper shrugged and stared down at her blocks. “What words why happen.” 

Confused, Berry Punch had no idea what Harper was trying to say, but she began to understand that Harper was smart. Sentinel had been spending a lot of time with his little sisters, trying to get them to repeat stuff on flash cards. It was for the most part, amusing, something that everypony laughed at, but Berry wasn’t certain it was funny anymore. Sentinel’s endless effort and hard work now had results. 

“Harper, has Sentinel taught you how to spell your name?” Berry asked. She watched as Harper got to work, sorting her blocks out and rearranging them into a word. She was slow, her movements were careful, and then after a few minutes, Harper pointed down at her blocks. Berry Punch felt Derpy gasp. 

“Hrapr.” 

It was close enough. Berry Punch’s ears perked forwards. “Can you spell your mama Lyra’s name?” Berry waited as there was no response from Harper other than an intense look of concentration. 

After a moment, Harper’s expression became quite serious. “Sentinel no show what Lyra…” The foal went to work, trying to sort her blocks out as she said the word “Lyra” over and over. “Laa la laa la,” Harper said, trying to sound out the beginning of the word. 

“Keep going…” Derpy rolled over just a bit, angling her head so she could see better. 

“Lyra?” Harper asked, pointing at her blocks, which spelled out the word “Lira.” Harper sat up straight and looked at her mothers. “Suki whats out letters too. Suki smart.” 

“We need to have a talk with Sentinel,” Berry Punch said to Derpy. 



 

On the deck of The Scorned Mare Odin watched as the cargo was being loaded, sitting on top of a sack of oats that were piled in a bin. Beside him sat several of the Raptors, along with one little blue griffoness named Gormlaith, whom Odin had grown quite fond of. 

A short distance away, several griffons and a large minotaur worked to bolt a large cannon to the deck of The Scorned Mare. It was an odd looking device, with a large tank that had a stirling engine mounted on top. The barrel was made out of brass and there were gauges, dials, and indicators mounted on a display. Hoses and tubing were scattered all around, making a huge mess. 

“We need to mount the air compression tank below decks somewhere and run a line to feed the compressed air cannon,” one griffon said to another. 

“Yeah,” another agreed, speaking to the griffon holding a big wrench. “If the compressed air tank gets shot, there will be a big gooey kablooey.” 

“Gooey kablooey bad!” the griffon holding the big wrench said, shaking his head. He looked at a smudged, dirty looking tiny griffoness that was covered in black grease. “I have an idea where we can put the compressed air tank. I’m going to need you to crawl through the ductwork so we can feed the lines from the main tank to the firing tank on the cannon.” 

“Aye aye,” the griffoness said, raising a wing in a smart salute. 

“There will be no gooey kablooey,” Odin said in a commanding voice, turning his head to look at the engineers mounting the cannon. “And make certain the compressed air tank and the air compressor are in an easily accessible place in the event of an emergency.” 

Spanner came out of the door leading belowdecks, walking on three legs, using his right talons to secure a long heavy torque wrench over his back. He crossed the deck, getting out of the way of the cargo being placed on deck and the many ponies as well as griffons moving about. 

“Lugnut sent me up here to tell you that the new turbine engine should produce about thirty percent more power. It is not the fifty percent increase that was demanded, but this is as good as it gets. You can only fit so big of an engine in a ship this size and we’re getting as much electricity as we can get out of the turbine that will fit. If we had more time, Lugnut and I could keep working on the new neodymium magnet designs for the electric motor. It would mean a smaller motor with more power.” The griffon looked annoyed and a bit frustrated.  

“Spanner, thirty percent will just have to do,” the griffon holding a big wrench said. “I think our king gives us impossible numbers to reach so that when we hit reasonable numbers, we look like miracle workers and we feel good about our jobs.” 

“Maybe,” Spanner said, setting his massive torque wrench down. “Here, I got word that this was needed on deck.” He tossed down a bag of socket heads onto the deck beside the wrench and they landed with a metallic clunk. 

“Lugnut’s compressed air cannon is a marvelous design,” Odin said, turning to look at Spanner. 

The griffon squirmed and then reached up to smooth out his feathers. “Lugnut’s compressed air cannon was impractical and worthless. It didn’t generate enough power to launch any sort of projectile in a meaningful way until we realised it was ideal for launching glass orbs filled with spells.” 

“But the idea was sound… you had just not yet discovered the ideal source of ammunition.” Odin leaned forward, his gaze becoming stern. “Sometimes, we have ideas before the world is ready for them. We must follow through with these ideas, so that way, when the world is ready, we can use them. Keep inventing.” 

Bowing his head, Spanner nodded. 



 

“Oh wow, that’s big,” Dinky said, craning her head to look skyward as an airship drifted down, pulled along and aided by lunar pegasi in heavy armor. Her smoking cap tilted back upon her head and her blonde mane spilled out from beneath it.

Several foals from the school were also outside, looking up as the massive airship was being brought down to the ground so it could be tethered. The airship was an awe inspiring sight, but it was not a warship. The white ship was a hospital frigate, the largest ever built, the hull stretching over four hundred feet in length, making it even larger than many of the current generation battleships and dreadnaughts. 

Sol Sempiternus sent a message, and that message was hope. It was a flying hospital, meant to wage war on disease, on injury, a combatant that battled against death. Over four hundred feet in length from stern to bow, and over six stories tall in the middle. The hull was a gleaming, almost blinding white. The gasbag, a new aluminum design, was almost fifteen hundred feet long. It was long, sleek, and silver coloured. The ship had been built by Equestria and the Sea of Grass as part of the new spirit of cooperation between the two empires. 

“How does that even stay up in the air?” Dinky asked. She watched as other airships began to drift closer to the farm, but those did not descend. The other ships were warships and more than a few were dreadnaughts. One ship in the fleet looked as though it might have been even larger than the Sol Sempiternus, but it was far away so it was hard to tell. 

“This is the reason why Equestria is a major world power,” Sentinel said, looking upwards at the airships as they drifted closer. “There is enough firepower up there to scrub a city off of the map.” 

“I like the hospital ship,” Dinky said, turning to look at her brother. 

“Would you like to see it up close?” Sentinel asked. 

“How?” Dinky blinked at her brother, hoping that there would be a way. 

“I can carry you up there,” Sentinel replied, noticing his sister’s excitement. 

Dinky bit her lip for a moment, she wasn’t too fond of flying, but she wanted a chance to stand on the deck of that ship more than anything. “Can you really get us up there without any trouble?” 

“Yeah, I think so.” Sentinel peered upwards at the ship as it was tugged downwards. “They’re going to be loading some hospital supplies from Ponyville and a bunch of ponies are volunteering as helpers. They could probably use a hoof from somepony with experience in command. If you stuck with me and stayed out of the way, I could take you with me.” 

Without a word, Dinky lept up onto Sentinel’s back and wrapped her forelegs around his neck. She squeezed her eyes shut and said, “Okay, I’m ready.” 

Sentinel needed a running start with the extra weight, but he managed to get airborne without too much trouble. He flapped, gaining altitude, and felt Dinky squeeze even tighter. He circled, gaining altitude in a spiral, and then leveled out so he could approach the deck. As he came in for a landing, he saw a familiar figure, and he hoped that he looked presentable. 

Flapping Sentinel came in for a gentle landing beside Princess Celestia, who stood near the bow of the ship. His landing wasn’t quite perfect due to the extra weight on his back, and he skidded a bit as he came to a screeching halt. Dinky’s embrace grew even tighter and he heard her whimper. 

“Ensign Sentinel, how are you?” Princess Celestia asked, a sunny smile upon her happy face. “Dinky, are you well? Did you have a nice flight?” 

Dinky sucked in a deep breath, held it, and tried to still her thumping heart. She opened her eyes, looked around, and relaxing a little, she began to loosen her grip upon her brother. 

“Princess, I am reporting for duty. How might I be of service?” Sentinel asked, trying to offer the required salute while Dinky clung to him. 

“Well, I can think of a few ways that you might be helpful Sentinel… as for you Dinky, I do believe that Tourmaline could use somepony to keep her company. She is belowdecks,” Princess Celestia replied. 

“Princess Celestia, are you… are you going to war?” Sentinel looked up at the regal looking white alicorn, a look of stunned disbelief upon his face. 

“Ensign Sentinel, I qualify as a nurse and I am skilled in medicine. Every available pony that can help is needed. And we both know that Tourmaline is a skilled healer. She is needed.” 

“But… but… but who is looking after Equestria?” Sentinel asked, his voice becoming a shrill squeak from his nervousness. “I mean, I know Princess Luna is here, but she is little…”

“Emperor Shining Armor is quite capable of ruling in my absence, along with King Tannis and Queen Agnetha.” Princess Celestia’s smile broadened. “Plus, I know that I have you here, looking after everything for me.” 

Sentinel began to cough and splutter. As Dinky slipped down from his back, she whacked him on his withers to help him get to breathing again. She straightened out her hat with her magic, gave her brother another whack, and then looked up at Celestia, who looked like she was about to say something. 

“I shall take you to see Tourmaline, follow me…” 
	
> Chapter 716
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy watched as her husband kissed Dinky upon the head, seeing how he lingered, his muzzle pressed to into Dinky’s mane. She could see  the look in his eye. This time, the goodbye was different. Goodbyes had always been the most difficult time for Derpy, knowing that there was a long waiting period of not knowing. But this time, it felt different. Bucky was calm, almost too calm, and didn’t seem reluctant to go at all. Bucky seemed… resigned perhaps, or maybe just accepting. As Derpy stood there, watching, Belisama gave Dinky a hug. The breeze blew Derpy’s mane back. Maybe Belisama was the difference. Bucky had somebirdy with him that he loved and trusted. Little Belisama would be there for him. 

Little Belisama, who was already being called the one of the two greatest griffoness queens that had ever lived. Little Belisama, who had bragging rights for giving birth to the ugliest cub ever. Little Belisama, who was armed to the teeth, er, the armed to the beak in this instance. 

A painful ache throbbed in Derpy’s pelvis, standing here was getting worse and worse by the second, but Derpy was determined to see this through. She gritted her teeth and smiled as Bucky stood before Sentinel. 

“You are in charge, Sentinel. Look after your sisters. Make certain your mothers get any help they might need. Look after Cadance and Luna. When I come home, I want to see a marked improvement in Boadicea and Scootaloo. They will be needed more than ever now, so I want you involved in their training. Do you understand me?” 

“Sir, I understand.” 

“Good colt.” 

The grey mare sighed. Bucky was being a good daddy, as always, giving Sentinel a sense of purpose as well as keeping the colt occupied, so Sentinel would not mope so much during his absence. Derpy felt a stirring in her heart and watched as Bucky moved on to Piña. 

The ache was becoming almost unbearable. The longer she stood, the worse it became. It was getting harder to breathe now. The warm tingle of magic wrapped around Derpy’s body, but this wasn’t Bucky’s magic, Derpy could feel the difference. This was full of static, a bit zippy zappy, and Derpy knew it was Lyra’s magic. A pleasant tingle worked its way through Derpy’s body as she was lifted a few inches off of the ground. 

“You poor thing,” Lyra whispered into Derpy’s ear. “I’m so sorry I didn’t notice sooner.” 

“Piña, you make certain that you help Apple Bloom in any way you can. Keep up with the blood and plasma drive. Earth pony blood is needed more than ever.” 

The little pink foal wrapped her forelegs around her father’s neck and Derpy felt a tightness in her throat. Each of her little foals were dutiful in their own way and Derpy felt a sense of pride. The tiny foals were a different issue of course, but not much was expected from them. Derpy’s sensitive ears heard Piña snuffling as she let go. 

“Rising Star, there is a lot for you to do. The prosthetic project will be more important now than ever, I suspect that when we come home, there is going to be a high demand for replacement limbs. Keep cracking on the mechanical fingers for ponies. And whatever you do, do not neglect your family. Try to find a balance.” 

“Yes, Bucky, I understand.” 

“Ripple, work with Sentinel. You are also being assigned to look after Bittersweet. She is very precious to me. See that she remains well guarded.” 

“Daddy, you’re very silly.” 

“But I am being serious… out of all you nincompoops, I don’t have to worry about Bittersweet flaking out or acting like a spaz, Bittersweet is the reliable one.” 

“Hey!” 

“Hey yourself, Loch Skimmer.” 

Unable to stop herself, Derpy began to laugh. Ripple’s expression was priceless, Loch Skimmer was giving Bucky a sour look, and Sparkler was going to strain something with how she was rolling her eyes. She watched as Bucky ignored all of them and kissed Bittersweet upon the cheek. Bittersweet returned the kiss, and patted Bucky with her ears as she did so. It was an endearing sight to witness, and Derpy felt better for having seen it. 

Bucky had moved on to Thistle, and Derpy turned her head just in time to see a tender kiss between the two. Thistle had a done a lot of growing up, in both the emotional and physical sense. She hadn’t grown much taller, but she had filled out quite a bit. Thistle leaned forwards and whispered something into Bucky’s ear that Derpy could not hear, but whatever it was, it made Bucky smile. 

Bon Bon was next, Bucky gave her a quick peck, but Bon Bon seemed unsatisfied. She gave him a warm lingering kiss, pressing her muzzle against the corner of his mouth, and holding herself in place there with her eyes closed. There was a long hug, and then Derpy watched as Bucky rubbed himself along Bon Bon’s side until his head came to rest against the sides of Bon Bon’s stomach, his ear pressed into her soft flesh. 

Then came Lyra. Neck to neck, the two of them hugged one another and Derpy felt her heart warm. Lyra, who had always been a bit shy, a bit reserved, and a bit skittish was now quick to return affection. Lyra had let go a bit and trusted her herdmates. 

“Bucky, don’t do anything stupid,” Lyra said as she stared into Bucky’s eyes. 

“Lyra, I’ll do what I can to play this one safe,” Bucky replied. 

“I’m in the mood to do something stupid, it is a real pity that you are leaving, Bucky.” 

“Berry Punch, the soul of wit.” 

Grinning, Berry Punch grabbed Bucky around the neck with her foreleg and hauled him in for a wet, sloppy kiss. Derpy had been wondering what mood Berry would be in for this goodbye, depressive, moody, or happy. The earth pony was giving Bucky quite a sendoff. 

There was an odd feeling shyness as Bucky approached. Derpy felt her heart going pitter-pat inside of her barrel. She batted her eyelashes at her husband and gave him a coy look. “You saved the best for last, I see.” 

“Of course,” Bucky replied as he bumped snoots with Derpy. 

“As alpha, it is my duty to make sure that the herd gets their needs looked after before my own… I will see to them while you are gone, Bucky. Just come back to us, okay?” Derpy could feel Bucky’s lips brush up against her own as she spoke, and then, just as she was getting ready to say something else, she was cut off by a searing, smouldering kiss that could make a mare weak in the knees. It was a good thing that Lyra was still holding her up. She lifted both front hooves, wrapped them around Bucky’s neck, and put some passion into her efforts. She wanted Bucky to come home, and she gave him a taste of what was waiting for him when he did. 

“Eeew… gross… but also kinda sweet I suppose,” Piña said, not sure how to feel about what she was seeing. “Drool everywhere. Yuck!” The pink foal stuck her tongue out and shook her head. 

When Derpy pulled away from Bucky, she noticed Belisama looking up at her. Reaching out, Derpy grabbed Belisama, lifting her up, and gave her a squeeze. “Keep him safe if you can.” 

“If anything comes too close I’ll take their heads off, I promise,” Belisama replied. “I won’t leave his side… he’ll stay out of danger to keep me out of danger.” 

“Hey! That’s dirty pool!” 

“Tough luck.” Derpy eyed her husband for a moment and then looked Belisama in the eye. “Come back to us. We need you. I love you bunches, Belisama. You’re one of my best friends.” 

Belisama pressed the side of her face against Derpy’s, the closest the griffoness could come to a kiss. The pair held each other for a long moment, until Belisama let go and then Derpy let her drop to the ground. 

“Goodbye,” Derpy said to both Bucky and Belisama. “We’ll be right here, waiting on both of you. Come back to us…” 



 

Wrapping her forelegs around Bon Bon’s sturdy neck, Derpy watched as the fleet grew smaller in the distance, her vision blurry from tears, her one good eye straining to focus on the smallest ship in the fleet. 

“Barley, hold me,” Luna said as she began to sniffle. 

Saying nothing, Barley lifted Luna with his magic and placed her upon his back. She wrapped her forelegs around his neck and buried her face into her mane. He stared at the departing fleet, wondering how many of them would return in one piece, or would even return at all. 

“I had no idea that this would hurt this much,” Luna mumbled, her muzzle buried in Barley’s iron grey mane and her eyes squeezed shut. “I cannot bear this. To think of the pain I caused all of you by taking him away from you… I am so sorry.” 

“Luna, lass, hush… it’s okay.” A pained expression caused Barley’s face to wrinkle. “This is just one of those things that ponies have to deal with.” 

Berry shuffled a little closer to her uncle, sidestepping, and stretching out her neck, she gave Luna a reassuring nuzzle. “Luna, it will be okay. It’s hard to watch him go, but we’ve all come to understand and accept that he has things that he has to do. All we can do now is watch over what we know is important to him and wait for his return.” 

“Bye bye,” Cadance said, waving with one tiny hoof, standing beside Loki and Gormlaith. “Cold.” 

“Yes, we should get inside,” Barley said, looking down at Cadance. He scooped up Cadance in his magic, then Sukari, and then Harper. He took off, his joints creaking, and cast one final glance at the fleet as it departed. 

“I think I’ll stay until I can’t see them anymore,” Derpy said as Barley headed for the house. “You can just leave me. I’ll be fine.” 

“We’re staying,” Lyra replied, still holding up Derpy up. Lyra stood next to Bon Bon, her face now anxious and full of worry. “You know, something tells me if Derpy could fly well enough, she’d be following after the fleet.” 

“Yep.” 

“The hardest part is the waiting,” Thistle said as she scooted closer to Bon Bon and pressed up against the earth pony’s side. “But at least I can wait with all of you. We’re in this together.” 

“I couldn’t think of a better group of ponies to wait this out with.” Berry Punch said as she pressed up against Thistle and gave the kelpie a cutie mark bump. “Piña, you holding up okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Piña replied as she leaned on Sentinel. She closed her eyes and pressed her face into Sentinel’s neck and focused on her breathing, determined to be a big filly and not cry this time. 

On the other side of Sentinel, Dinky lost her struggle and the tears began to slip down her cheeks. She kept her head held high, watching as the fleet grew smaller and smaller. Dinky didn’t feel very grown up at the moment, she wanted to cry out for her mama and bawl like a little foal. But she stood, resolute, her head up, feeling a fierce sense of pride for her father, her mother Belisama, and all of the others putting themselves at risk. Somepony had to go and fight wars so that others could stay safe at home. 

“We have to hold ourselves together… tonight there is going to be a special gathering in the mead hall and Odin is going to honour those who have left home. There’ll be some music and some inspiring stories. There are a lot of very frightened griffons who need us,” Bon Bon said. She stood in the middle of all the others, like a rock for the rest of her fellow-wives to lean upon. 

“Each one of us must play our parts,” Sentinel said, turning away from the fleet so he could look at his mothers. “I’m going to take Dinky and Piña inside. They’re shivering and cold and I think both of them could use some hot cocoa.” 

Turning to look at Bon Bon, Lyra nodded. “That’s a good idea… the hot cocoa… once the fleet is gone, I think we should do the same…” 
	
> Chapter 717 (Warning, tooth decay) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Laying in the dark, surrounded by those she loved, Berry Punch was unable to sleep. This was only the second night with Bucky gone and already the worry had become almost unbearable. Rubbing her stomach, she squirmed, trying to get comfortable, but there was no comfort. There was no position on the bed that brought relief. She rolled over and grabbed Lyra, but substituting one unicorn for another was not the same. Deep in sleep, Lyra snorted and cuddled up against Berry, causing Berry to feel a little better. 

The bed was missing two creatures that Berry realised that she loved a great deal. 

Much to Berry’s dismay, she realised that she was not the only one awake. Inside of her stomach, the twins began their nighttime brawl. Berry Punch sighed, struggling to breathe as she lay on her side, and wished that the twins would just cut it out. These were only the beginning of the sleepless nights, and Berry Punch knew that there would be many nights ahead. 



 

“Keep your focus, Sentinel,” Luna said, offering patient, gentle instruction. “You are one of the very precious few that can raise an umbral shield. This is a rare defensive magic for your kind.” Reaching out, Luna tapped upon the black sphere that was around Sentinel’s body.

There was a frustrated grunt as the shield died and Luna felt bad for Sentinel as he slumped in defeat. He had kept the shield up for over five minutes, a new record for him. Sentinel had all of the makings of a powerful umbramancer, a rarity among his kind, with brute force being the typical approach to everything. 

“Take a break and have a little rest. Do you have any questions?” Luna asked. 

“I do,” Sentinel replied as he rubbed his head. “What is it like for you being inside of the mind of more than one dreamer? I get overwhelmed being inside of just one pony’s head.” 

Pausing, Luna took a moment to think about the best way to answer. “Your kind can only be inside of one dreamer at a time… during my long absence, there were many dreamers but very few lunar pegasi to help my sister. The dream realm was not patrolled. I can exist inside the dreams of many at once, but even my power is limited. With each dream I enter, my power gets weaker and weaker, so there are only so many minds I can enter and maintain my will. My powers were exceptional a thousand years ago, there were only a few thousand ponies in Equestria and I could keep an eye upon all of them, more or less. Now, there are millions, and I am overwhelmed. I cannot keep up with all of them. Even among your kind, the gift is rare, exceptional… there is no longer any way I can do this on my own.” 

Closing his eyes, Sentinel nodded. “That is why there are breeding programs for us lunar pegasi. It is the reason why it is so important for Moonbow and I to have foals. I am gifted and our foals might also have my gifts.” Sentinel opened his eyes and looked at Luna. “I still don’t understand how you can do it.” 

“I will admit, it can be very difficult at times,” Luna replied, turning away from Sentinel and looking skywards, looking through the glass dome over Bucky’s office at the stars up above her. “Back when my powers were at their peak, I never imagined that there would be so many ponies. My sister had to be very inventive to get so many ponies to live together in a city and not have total anarchy. She did very well, all things considered. There were some failures, and of course there was the collapse… it is a real challenge now. The dream realm is where the battle for the hearts, minds is fought and souls of our subjects are kept safe. There are many foul influences which prey upon the dreams of dreamers, corrupting their thoughts, filling them with hate, perverting them, twisting them, robbing them of their potential for greatness. During my long absence, Celestia had to prioritise. After what happened with Sunset Shimmer, she had the dreams of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor monitored, to make certain that no dark influence crept in and undid what she felt were her best hopes for the future. She could have had her enemies watched, but my sister is an optimist. She chose to guard her hopes and dreams for the future, even though she knew there was some serious decay in the empire.” 

“You seem focused on your sister,” Sentinel said, giving Luna a reassuring nudge. 

“I am,” Luna replied, her gaze dropping from the stars to look once more at Sentinel. “I have been going through a great deal of changes Sentinel… and I have come to understand and appreciate the enormity of my sister’s task. What she had to endure to allow Equestria to survive. Near the end, just before my return, she was so burned out and hurt. I do not know how she managed to function, but she is a much stronger pony than I am.”

Sentinel nodded. “I have wondered the same thing about my father.” 

“Your father, my sister, Twilight Sparkle, all of them indomitable wills. Your father’s sense of duty and devotion, my sister and her sense of goodness and what is right, and Twilight Sparkle in the defense of those she calls friends.” Luna shook her head as it dropped lower. “I am not among their number. I am mercurial, my moods are fickle, I have come to realise, I am not their equal.” 

“It’s not so bad, Luna. We all have our faults,” Sentinel said, feeling bad for Luna and not knowing what to say. 

“I have actually considered abdicating the throne and allowing my sister to rule as the sole monarch,” Luna confessed as she stared at the floor. “She is a far better ruler than I am or will ever be. I am good at war. I am good at destruction. I am good at raining down ruination upon mine enemies. My efforts would be better spent serving as my sister’s protector and doing what must be done to defend our empire.” 

Shaking his head, Sentinel’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t say that, now is not the time for self doubt—”

“Sentinel, this is not about self doubt, this is admitting that I am a deeply flawed individual and that I have characteristics that are detrimental to both myself and my ability to act as a responsible ruler. I have been using this time I have had to myself to give all of this some serious thought.” Luna lifted her gaze and looked Sentinel in the eye. “Sentinel, this is all about self sacrifice. I am a very selfish pony. I stumbled and fell because of my own selfish desires. That is part of what makes Celestia a good pony, or your father, or Twilight Sparkle. They are not selfish ponies… they are selfless, and sometimes foolishly so. Laughably so. The fact that I have sometimes mocked their selflessness is evidence that I am not suitable for my role as a princess.” 

“I think you are being too hard upon yourself,” Sentinel said, his nostrils flaring, not at all liking what he was hearing from Luna. It upset him, shook him, and disturbed him to the very core of his being. 

“And I think it is time for both of us to go to bed.” Luna’s sad eyes glanced upwards at the stars once more. “You have school tomorrow. I have many things I must do as well. Come, Sentinel, escort me back to the house.” 





Something patted Dinky upon her face, causing her to wake. She peered ahead in the darkness, the dim light of the nightlight on the other side of the room providing just enough illumination for her to make out Sukari’s face peering at her over the edge of the bed. 

“What’s wrong?” Dinky asked in a raspy, sleepy voice. 

“Bad dream,” Sukari replied. 

“Bad dream?” 

“Bad dream.” 

The zebra filly did not seem to want to elaborate further and Dinky wasn’t certain what to do. All she knew was that Sukari had come to her for comfort, and Dinky was determined not to let her sister down. “Is there something that you want?” 

Sukari nodded but did not say anything to Dinky, but continued to stare. 

“If you want something, you have to tell me,” Dinky said in a gentle voice. Trying to coax anything out of Sukari was frustrating at times, and the zebra was very sensitive to the moods of others. If she sensed frustration, Dinky knew that Sukari would just walk away and suffer in silence, something that Dinky did not want. 

“Thirsty.” Sukari came a little closer to Dinky’s bed and rested her head upon the mattress. “Hungry too.” 

“Okay,” Dinky replied. She yawned and then wiggled out of the bed. Once she was on her hooves, she gave Sukari a reassuring pat. “Let’s go down to the kitchen and I’ll see what I can do.” 



 

The clock upon the kitchen wall said that it was three thirty four in the morning. Dinky yawned once more, whining a bit as she did so, and headed for the fridge, with Sukari walking right beside her. 

Reaching the fridge, Dinky pulled the door open and began to look around. There was a half of sweet potato pie still left in the fridge. Drool flooded Dinky’s mouth. Sweet potatoes. Her favourite food. And she knew that Sukari liked them too. She grabbed the pie and the crockery full of milk in her telekinesis. She turned around, closed the refrigerator door with her telekinesis, and then made her way to the table. 

She placed the pie and the crockery upon the table, went to the silverware drawer, fetched a butter knife along with two spoons, and then fetched two small plates out of the dish hutch. Holding everything above her head in a telekinetic field, dinky returned back to the table, Sukari never once leaving her side. 

With a bit of effort, Dinky helped Sukari climb up into a chair and then Dinky sat down beside her sister. Using the butter knife, she cut the half of sweet potato pie in half, licked her lips, sucked up a bit of drool that almost escaped, and then plopped half of the remaining pie upon a plate. She slid the plate to Sukari and then plopped out the other half onto a plate for herself. 

“I forgot the glasses, no, hang on, don’t get up,” Dinky said as her horn glowed with a fierce intensity. Some distance away, the cupboard opened and Dinky got out two old jelly jars that everypony liked to use for drinking. One had a strawberry etched on the side, the other had a jalapeño. “Which one do you want?” 

“Red berry,” Sukari replied. 

Nodding, Dinky set down the strawberry jar in front of Sukari and the jalapeño jar in front of herself. She lifted the heavy crockery and poured some milk into each jar. She looked at Sukari. “There… now we can pig out on pie.” 

“Oink?” Sukari asked in a very serious manner. 

“Yes, oink,” Dinky replied. 

Sukari lifted her jam jar between her front hooves, took a long drink, staining her upper lip white, and then set her jar down. Ignoring her silverware, Sukari lowered her head and began gobbling down her pie. 

After having a look around, Dinky did the same, jamming her muzzle down into her food and savaging the enormous wedge of pie. With a mouth full of pie, Dinky oinked, making snorting sounds as she chewed. 

Looking from her plate, Sukari looked confused for a moment, then oinked herself, mimicking the sound that Dinky had made. She chewed for a bit longer and then swallowed. 

Much to Dinky’s surprise, Sukari smiled. It wasn’t something she saw very often. Then there was a soft snuffling sound, then a raspy sound, and then, Dinky realised that Sukari was laughing. It was a soft sound with almost no volume. Sitting in stunned awe, Dinky listened to Sukari laughing, knowing that Sukari seldom laughed. The foal was too timid about making sounds and it was rare for her to make any unnecessary noise. 

“Oink,” Dinky said and then made a few more piggy snorts as she stuffed her face down into her pie. Dinky heard another snort from Sukari in reply. 

“I hear piggies in my kitchen!” Berry Punch said as she came around the corner and into the kitchen, a smile upon her face. She paused, almost laughing, and then a disappointed, almost pouty expression crept over her face. “You little piggies ate all of the pie…” 
	
	
> Chapter 718
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You’re an earth pony. Why are you an earth pony?” Fever Cure asked his companion, Mask in a low voice as they trotted down the road together. 

“Nopony suspects an earth pony,” Mask replied in a low voice, giving his companion a sidelong glance as they went down the sidewalk. 

Glancing over at a Baltimare landmark, the Milkmaid Oats Company, Fever Cure shook his head. “That is so tribalist that I don’t even know what to say.” 

“It’s not tribalist, it is pointing out the obvious. Nopony suspects an earth pony. They don’t have magic and they can’t fly. It is the perfect disguise. Just another average run of the mill earth pony.” Mask scowled as he traveled down the sidewalk with his friend and fellow investigator. “I have earth pony friends… some of my best friends are earth ponies.” 

“Do you even know how tribalist that sounds?” Fever Cure asked. 

Nodding, Mask grimaced and his ears pinned back against his skull. “Yes, right after I said it, I was aware of how it sounded. Now shut up, before you make more tribalist sounding stuff come out of my mouth with your accusations.” 

Now grinning, Fever Cure’s form rippled and shimmered, becoming that of an earth pony. A look of insufferable smugness crept over his face and he gave Mask a teasing glance. “It only makes sense that I’m an earth pony as well. Earth ponies stick together and if one earth pony is inconspicuous, then two earth ponies are a spot of invisibility.” 

“Jerk.” A reluctant grin spread over Mask’s face. 

“I know,” Fever Cure replied. “Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs is up ahead. Be ready. We’re going to walk in the front door. We’re both agents from the city, there to check up on… oh cheese and crackers, what were we supposed to check on again?” 

“We’re there to perform a survey on if the postal services to the various departments of the building are satisfactory—” 

“Right, so we can have a look around at the various departments, case the building, and get to know its layout, so that way when we return later, we’ll have an easier time,” Fever Cure said, going over the plan. 

Mask grinned. “Leave the talking to me, I have a way with ponies…” 



 

“This place is a dump.” Sparkler looked up into the cobwebby rafters up above her, squinting to see in the dim light. Sunlight shone in through several holes in the roof. “I suppose the price is right though.” 

Looking around, Flash Sentry said nothing. He stood in the middle of the floor. The building was tall but all of the floors were missing. The old windmill had potential. The heavy wooden beams were still in good condition and the outer walls were still solid. It needed new shingles and the inside was a real mess; one might even call it unsalvageable. On first glance, it seemed that way. 

“You can’t beat the price. The Ponyville Historical society is giving this to us… but it does seem stupid to have a windmill as a police station. Do we really have to keep the windmill thingy on the outside?” 

“Yeah, we do… if we accept this place that is,” Flash Sentry replied. “Having the house is nice, but that really doesn’t serve as a police station all that well. This place is huge on the inside, I mean, just look around… We can set everything up in here… the telegraph office, public records, a complaint department, and there is a sizeable cellar down below that was used for grain storage. We can turn that into a jail so we don’t have to ship local dimwits off to Canterlot when they need to sleep something off or need a little time to think about what they’ve done.” 

“Over four thousand square feet including the basement. Seems large now, but I bet it will feel cramped later.” Sparkler used her magic to begin clearing away cobwebs from the rafters and support struts up above her. “The hatch up there… what’s that for?” 

“Grain hatch. Friendly pegasi would carry in sacks of grain from outlying farms,” Thunderlane replied. 

“How do you know that?” Sparkler gave Thunderlane a blank stare and waited for an answer from the charcoal grey stallion. 

“I paid attention to what the historical society ponies were saying when they gave us their presentation.” Thunderlane looked upwards at the hatch, which was hanging on one hinge. “That would be a great place to dispatch our fliers. Also be a good place to have a mooring clip for the hot air balloon and the airship we’ll be getting.” 

“Airship.” Flash Sentry snorted. “It’s a rowboat attached to a glorified hot air balloon that has a pedal powered propeller.” 

“Still useful for aerial surveillance.” Thunderlane looked at the spot where the old millstone used to be. There was still a large hole in the floor where the mounting post was. “Cherry Berry is getting her own airborne division. She’s proud of it, don’t spoil it for her.” 

“So tell me,” Sparkler said to the two stallions with her. “Who is getting spider eviction duties?” She held up a spider that had an abdomen the size of a very large grape in front of Thunderlane, who began screaming like a traumatised filly at the sight of it. 

“Arachnophobes.” Flash Sentry shook his head as a somewhat amused smile appeared upon his muzzle. “Thunderlane, help Sparkler clear out the spiders, will you?” 



 

After folding up the newspaper, Berry Punch set it down upon the kitchen table, placing it between the coffee carafe and the pitcher full of sweet cream. She stared at the plate of scones, feeling hungry but not in the mood to eat, and she leaned forwards over the table, resting herself on her forelegs, taking some of the pressure off of her spine. Her frown did not go unnoticed and Berry Punch saw Lyra looking at her with questioning eyes. 

“Have you read it?” Berry Punch asked, her eyes glancing down at the paper. 

Lyra shook her head. “Not yet. Do I want to?” 

Shrugging, Berry Punch replied, “You might. No real bad news, but the paper does a lovely job of placing everything into perspective. Over thirty thousand troops being assembled into an army with every major nation sending whatever they have for support. The various old world diamond dog kingdoms are undergoing unification and an army of around ten thousand diamond dogs is being raised. More troops are coming as well, the Sea of Grass is recalling many recent retirees back into active service. By the time everything is said and done, they’re estimating over fifty thousand troops, all of which will be going into Fancy and the mountains to drive out the enemy.” 

Lyra stared at Berry Punch, agape, her eyes wide and her expression vacant. 

“I know, that’s a lot of ponies,” Berry Punch said, saying what Lyra could not. Grunting, Berry corrected herself. “Well, not just ponies. But griffons, donkeys, diamond dogs, minotaurs, some elephants, well, everyone. Like I said, the whole world is pitching in.” 

“I have never seen an elephant up close.” Lyra blinked a few times as her brain began to restore function. “Pacifists. They don’t believe in violence unless it is absolutely necessary. I can’t imagine them getting involved.” 

“When you weigh eight tons, you really don’t need to be violent, I do believe just raising your voice a little will get the attention of whatever has offended you,” Berry said, trying to bring a little humour into the conversation. Even as she said it though, she understood that her remark failed to make her feel better, and it did nothing to make anypony laugh. Berry Punch sighed and felt a little bit more miserable than she already did. 

“This isn’t some little scuffle or conflict. This is a major war. I’ve never heard of anything quite like this before,” Lyra said, shaking her head as all of Berry Punch’s words sank in and developed meaning inside of her mind. She thought of Bucky and then felt a sense of anxiety begin creeping into her mind. “I hope Bucky and Belisama will be okay…” 

“Belisama will keep Bucky safe,” Berry Punch said, looking Lyra in the eye. “Look, we know that Bucky is stupid when it comes to his own sense of self preservation, but if Belisama is with him, he is going to stay out of danger just so he can keep her safe. I hope.” 

“I hope you’re right.” Lyra picked up a scone and turned it over a few times in her magic. She saw bits of dehydrated and crystalised orange peel along with dried cranberries poking out. Sighing, she lifted the scone to her muzzle and began to nibble, eating from nervousness rather than hunger. 

Sensing that Lyra needed to think about something else, Berry Punch changed the subject. “How is the candy shop? Has business been picking up? Is everything getting better?” 

Swallowing, Lyra pulled the scone away from her muzzle and looked at Berry. “Business is good. The, uh, adult candies we make are a big hit for certain types of parties. We’re hiring more help soon. I think. Helia and Golden Harvest are getting pretty good at running the store, which means that Bon Bon and I can take more time off. Bon Bon and I can make the candies in huge batches now, building up quite a supply that lasts for a few days, and then Helia and Golden Harvest can stock the shelves, fill the displays, and sell the candies, without having to worry about making more.” 

“But are you profitable?” Berry asked. 

Lyra gave an enthusiastic nod. “Yep. Now that we are selling specialty goods in bulk, we’re in black ink, or so Bon Bon says. The Painfully Pierced Pony buys a lot of our adult candies so they can give them out as promotional items.” 

“Loch Skimmer and I have both been in there… they sell a lot of neat stuff. I bought a few toys but I haven’t sprung them on Derpy and the others just yet. I’m too pregnant and she’s too pregnant but as soon as I’m not pregnant, and she’s not pregnant, and we’re healed up, I am going to surprise Derpy with a hemipenis strapon modeled after a dragon’s double dong.” 

Coughing, Lyra choked and dropped her scone upon the table. She banged her front hoof on the table edge, horked a few times, and saw starbursts in her vision as she tried to fill her lungs with air. After a long struggle, Lyra gasped, “Hemipenis? Two dicks?” 

“Well, you see, there was this bit of magical exploration where Bucky cast a spell and he became a mare and I became a stallion for a bit, which was weird—” 

“Yeah, I remember, Bon Bon and I had a nice time with Bucky,” Lyra said, recalling a fond memory as she focused upon her breathing and hoped for the starbursts in her vision to go away. 

“Anyway, Derpy and I had a nice time, but it got interrupted. Anyway, I liked mounting Derpy. It was a nice change of pace. I don’t think I’d want to stay a stallion, but it is kinda fun to play around as one. Some of our other experimentations have gone horribly awry though.” Berry Punch recalled a few painful memories, squeezed her eyes shut, and shook her head to make them go away. Hot wax and hair brushes… 

“I like being with Derpy.” Lyra looked down at the table and her voice became very quiet and nervous. “I really do like being with Derpy. There has only been a few times, and it is very different than being with Bon Bon. With Bon Bon, there is a feeling of control. She’s in charge and I like that… I need that. She punches through all of my indecisiveness… I don’t know how to put it in words… but with Derpy, it isn’t so much about orgasms or even sex. I just like being held close… being held against her. I feel so safe. I feel like I can finally relax.” 

“Derpy’s like that. She is like a fortress of sexual intimacy.” Berry Punch smiled at Lyra, an almost teasing smile. “She can be very gentle and she can be very rough. But since you brought this up—” 

“Berry, before you ask, I know what you are about to say.” Lyra looked Berry in the eye, her eyes becoming focused and her face becoming serious. “Yes, I liked being with you. You were playful. But it is going to take me some time to get used to that. You overwhelmed me just a bit, but don’t think that I didn’t enjoy it. I just have… some issues.” 

Berry Punch became berry serious, her teasing expression vanishing. “I know you do.” 

“This open relationship between all of us is a lot for me to take in. I’m still sorting it out. It is overwhelming. It took me a long time just to get comfortable with Bon Bon and now I’m still dealing with all of you and I’m actually really happy and I don’t always deal well with being  really happy because of how I am.” 

“Lyra Heartstrings, we’ll be here for you every step of the way,” Berry Punch said, hoping to make Lyra feel better. “Don’t let us overwhelm you though. Thanks for being open with me.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 719
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	What remained of the day felt almost as though there was a hint of spring. The sun was shining, it was above freezing in the city of Baltimare, and a warm, balmy breeze blew in off of Horseshoe bay. To celebrate the day of almost spring, Mask sat outside of a small hole in the wall bistro, sitting at the black wrought iron tables upon a black wrought iron chair, sipping tea from a cup that was far too oversized for tea, a cup so large that it was almost comical. 

It did not stop Mask or Fever Cure from enjoying their beverages with lunch however. A few dirty dishes sat on the table between them and an empty wineglass sat in front of Mask. Fever Cure was reading a thin pulp magazine with a picture of Princess Twilight upon the cover and a large question mark beside her. 

The pair seemed like any other ponies around them, even the dark sunglasses they wore didn’t seem too far out of place. It was bright, sunny, and there was a good bit of glare this winter’s day. 

“You know, Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs is a very wealthy place… the marble tile, the fountains, everything trimmed in brass… we’re messing with somepony’s money. Somepony is going to be irate,” Mask said to his companion. 

Still looking at his magazine, Fever Cure replied, “As we do this, I am forced to ask how much privacy does a private cooperation deserve?” The unicorn paused and turned a page with his magic. “We let the noble houses go unchecked and look what happened there. This company was owned by Avarice. It is a large, powerful entity and it has an obscene amount of power. I must confess, it concerns me a little to be sticking my snoot into their business.” 

“It concerns me that they test on animals… I’m an animal.” Mask took a sip of tea and then continued. “Seems wrong somehow. Cruel. The kennels we saw today… disturbing.” 

“Well, you are a pony animal. And a unicorn as well. That makes you privileged. No doubt they would love to not only test on cute little bunnies, but earth ponies as well. The way they looked at us today. I wanted to drop my disguise and let them see me as a unicorn.” Fever Cure shook his head. “That was awful. I mean, I know there are some problems with tribalism, but those unicorns made me feel lower than dirt.” 

“So when are we going back to have a better look around?” Mask asked. 

“I say we at least take a day to take in everything we’ve learned and make a good plan,” Fever Cure replied. “You know, if they do have changelings in there somewhere, they are testing on ponies… in a sense. They’re not so different than us. The changelings I mean.” 

“Before this is over, I fear I shall be beset with moral outrage and righteous indignation. Also, it is likely that I’ll have a strong urge to strangle somepony. So help me I’d like to indulge myself in a good throttling…” 



 

“Goodbye Little Slip, don’t be a stranger,” Diamond Tiara said as she watched her friend go, waving her hoof at the departing filly. After a moment, Diamond Tiara turned to look at Sentinel. “It was a good group therapy session today.” Diamond Tiara tore her gaze away from Sentinel and watched as Garnet Targe reunited with Rowanne, the ever silent griffoness, who had been waiting outside of the office. 

“I’ll try not to be a stranger,” Little Slip replied as she hurried away. “See you at the spa… I guess. I still don’t know if I’ll go.” 

“You need to go!” Diamond Tiara shouted in reply. 

“Spa?” Sentinel cocked his head and looked both adorable and befuddled as he gave Diamond Tiara a quizzical look. 

“We’re all going to the spa so we can be indulged, pampered, and maybe learn a bit of self acceptance. It is supposed to help us with our self esteem and let us know we’re worth something,” Diamond Tiara replied, looking at Sentinel and feeling her heart fluttering. “I talked about you… again… it is only fair that I mention this.” 

“I don’t mind,” Sentinel said, shrugging as he looked into Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes. 

Diamond Tiara took off at a trot and Sentinel followed, falling in step beside her. She took a deep breath, tossed her head around to get her mane out of her face, and then the little pink filly remembered to smile so she didn’t look so serious and stern. 

Down the hallway they went together, Diamond Tiara bumping into Sentinel a few times as she walked, brushing up against his side, knowing that she was flustering the poor colt with each touch. They passed through a study alcove, went down the hall, and then stepped outside through the doors, with Sentinel opening the door for Diamond Tiara. 

She paused for a moment to look around, looking for familiar orange, and it did not take long to find what she was looking for. She found an orange pegasus and a black griffoness talking to one another. Diamond Tiara took off, walking in such a way that it made her tail and her mane bob in a perfect manner. 

“Scootaloo! Boadicea!” Diamond Tiara called out as she got closer. 

The griffoness waved and Scootaloo almost tackled Diamond Tiara, rushing up to give the filly a hug. Scootaloo seemed excited and her grin stretched from ear to ear. After hugging Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo bounced in place, unable to contain herself. 

“What’s going on?” Sentinel asked. 

“Rumble!” Scootaloo replied, her eyes bright and flashing. 

“What about Rumble?” Sentinel looked around and then his eyes fell upon Boadicea as he realised that the griffoness was staring at him. When he looked at her, she did not turn away, but kept staring. 

“Rumble has permission to join us for Raptor training. We’re gonna break him down and make him hard, like Fresh Meat and I. He wants to be a police officer… or at least he thinks he does, and he wants to be a good bodyguard for Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said. 

“Where is he now?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“He’s talking with Loki and Ripple… Sentinel… can we make him run until he pukes?” Scootaloo grinned a manic, half crazed grin. 

“Huh?” Sentinel looked away from Boadicea, startled by hearing his own name. 

“Somepony likes somebirdy,” Scootaloo said in a teasing voice as she gave Sentinel a playful wink. “And I happen to know that somebirdy likes somepony—” 

“Shut up, Table Scraps!” Boadicea fluffed out, her fur and feathers sticking out in all directions. She glowered at the orange pegasus filly and then gave herself a good shake, trying to smooth out her plumage as well as her pelt. 

“This is gonna be awesome,” Scootaloo said as she continued to bounce in place. 



 

“Where mamamama?” Harper asked, looking up at Thistle with wide, curious eyes.

“Gone,” Thistle replied, having the sort of patience that only a mother could have. Harper had been asking this question all day. Thistle already knew the questions that were sure to follow. 

“What gone?” Harper sat down and looked up at Thistle, looking very serious and concerned. Her orange mane seemed a little droopier than normal. 

“Why is he gone?” Thistle sighed and then felt bad for Harper. “He’s gone because he has a job to do. He’ll be gone for a little while. I don’t know how long.” 

“Harpy no like this.” Harper’s brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed. “Mamamama come home. Now.” 

“Harper, honey, we’d all be happier if Bucky came home right now,” Thistle replied. 

The frustrated foal took Thistle’s words about as well as could be expected. She sucked in a deep breath, held it, her cheeks bulging, and then fell over onto the floor, refusing to breathe, which was Harper’s way of protesting almost any situation she didn’t like. 

The frustrated kelpie sighed. Harper would hold her breath until the foal started trembling and she would either start breathing or pass out. If she passed out, she would start breathing after she passed out, so her melodramatic theatrics were almost harmless, but painful to watch nonetheless. 

“Harpy explode,” Peekaboo said as she watched Harper holding her breath. 

The build up pressure in Harper’s small body intensified but had nowhere to go. Harper began to tremble and her nostrils flared as her lip quivered. Harper refused to breathe though and held on with grim determination. 

Without warning, Harper farted, the backed up pressure escaping out of the only orifice it could find. There was a wet fizzling sound and then Harper let out her breath with a huff; afterwards, she started panting while fanning her hoof in front of her nose. 

“Serves you right,” Thistle said as she backed away from Harper. “You’re a little stinker… oh goodness Harper, what have you been eating?” 

“Mangos,” Harper replied between heaving panting breaths. 

“Phew! Stinky pony!” Peekaboo cried as she took off at a gallop, clearing out of the living room. 

Cadance, who was napping on the sofa, awoke, lifted her head, and her nostrils crinkled in disgust. “YUCK!” She stuck out her tongue and shook her head while rubbing her nose with her fetlock. Cadance rolled over onto her back and did her best to look as though she had died. 

“Harper, you killed Cadance!” Thistle pointed at the limp pink alicorn foal on the sofa. 

“OH NOES!” Harper closed her eyes, ran in wild circles, and then smacked into the end table beside Barley’s chair, colliding with a thump. She bounced away, opened her eyes, and rubbed her head. She approached Cadance, who had not moved. 

When Harper got close, she stood there, looking worried, dancing from her right hooves to her left hooves, back and forth, anxious about the very still pink foal sprawled out on the sofa. After an agonising moment, Cadance moved, her foreleg extending and she booped Harper on the nose. 

Harper, who was relieved, heaved a sigh and then sat down as Cadance giggled. Cadance slid off of the sofa, rolling over as she did so, wrapped her forelegs around Harper’s neck, and gave Harper a big, wet, slobbery kiss on the cheek as she plopped down upon the floor. 

“Miss daddy too,” Cadance said, leaning on Harper, holding tight to Harper’s neck. 

“Mama,” Harper said in a sad voice that lacked the energy to start an argument. She lifted one foreleg and wrapped it around Cadance, and both huddled together in misery as they tried to comfort one another. 

Peekaboo came back into the living room, looked around, and then dove at Harper and Cadance, tackling them with a hug. Thistle watched all of this as it happened and felt a little better. 

“Who wants some banana pudding?” Thistle asked and then looked around for Sukari, who she did not see. She guessed that Sukari might be in Sentinel’s hidey hole under the stairs. 

“Puddin’?” Cadance looked up and gave her full attention to Thistle. 

“Yes, you can have some pudding… but no sticking your muzzle down in the bowl and trying to blow bubbles. Picking dried pudding boogers out of little filly nostrils was not a fun time for Lyra,” Thistle replied. 

“Boogies!” Cadance cried and then began to giggle as she clapped her front hooves together and making a foalish amount of noise. 

“Booger pudding?” Peekaboo asked. 

“No… no booger pudding.” Harper shook her head and looked disgusted. 

“No, Peekaboo, please, don’t show us how you can stick your tongue into your nostril!” Thistle turned away to avoid the sight, just knowing that Peekaboo would try to do it. 

“Did somepony say booger?” Broom asked as she came into the living room. She looked around and spotted Peekaboo. “Aye, right then. Oi.” Broom shook her head. “Some foals.” 

“How is Yew?” Thistle asked. 

“I is fine,” Broom replied, and then had herself a bit of a chuckle. “Yew is okay, but she won’t be getting out of bed any time soon. She’s got herself a bad case of the queasies. I came down to fetch her some soda crackers and some salted broth.” 

“I bet missing Lugus is making everything worse,” Thistle said. 

“And Yew Wood be right.” Broom gave the kelpie a lopsided grin. 
	
> Chapter 720
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’m done with being pregnant.” Berry Punch struggled to roll over and get off of her back. “This was supposed to be this wonderful, magical experience. It was supposed to be this fantastic moment that defined my life.” Scowling, Berry grunted as she managed to get to her side and then began to kick her legs so she could get off the bed. “Nothing is fantastic, wonderful, or magical… I have heartburn… with every burp I can taste yesterday’s lunch… I’m constipated one minute and have the squirts the next… I can’t even reach down between my hind legs to scratch my own itches!” Panting, Berry Punch fell off the bed, sliding over the edge, and almost did not land upon her hooves, all of her cat-like nimbleness gone. She stumbled around until she got her balance and then walked away with her head held high, trying to regain her dignity. 

Watching Berry go, Derpy heaved a sigh. At least Berry Punch didn’t have her whole bottom half go to sleep sitting on the toilet, only to succumb to pins and needles once trying to get off of the toilet. Berry Punch was still walking, and Derpy felt a bitter twinge of jealousy. Inside of her belly, Derpy could feel the twins kicking around and then she felt the most peculiar sensation, the warm tingly feeling of magic. Reaching down with both of her front hooves, she grasped her stomach as she could feel the magic inside of her. It was a new feeling, something she had never experienced, and Derpy regretted that she was alone while she was feeling this, with nopony to share this moment with. 

Smiling, Derpy realised she had a little unicorn inside of her, a little teeny, tiny version of Bucky. She closed her eyes and thought of Bucky, missing him, and enjoying the odd feeling of magic tingling inside of her. It was little moments like this one that made this whole experience worth the suffering she had to endure. 



 

Rumble was certain that he was going to die. Panting, he pushed himself a little harder and ran as though his life depended on it. His life did depend on it. He lept over the barrier, didn’t quite make it, and then scrambled over. 

“MOVE IT YOU LITTLE RUNT!” Flitter shouted at her colt. “Move it or else you’ll get a wing across your backside again!” 

“No!” Rumble begged, struggling to even spit the word out as he ran. 

Watching this as it happened, Sentinel, who was sitting with Diamond Tiara, turned to Loki and said, “I had no idea that Flitter was like this… she’s going to run poor Leftovers into the ground.” 

Nodding, Loki watched the mother pegasus fly after her colt. “She’s already ran him until he’s puked. He’s still got a lot of run in him though. He’s got endurance, I’ll give him that.” 

“How long can Rumble keep going?” Diamond Tiara asked, feeling a strange mix of both concern and awe for the pegasus colt. She watched as Flitter dove and swiped the empty air around Rumble’s head, scaring poor Rumble and causing him to cry out. 

“Rumble can still talk, can still cry out, can still communicate. So he’s got a fair bit left in him. If he can talk, he’s nowhere near done,” Loki replied. The griffon turned his head and looked over at Scootaloo and Boadicea. The pair were trying to pull a full sized pony practice dummy filled with sand through the snow and get it to safety. 

“Why is this so important, anyway?” Diamond Tiara asked as she watched Rumble train. “I mean, he doesn’t want to be a soldier, so why the hard training? He’s a pegasus, so why the running?” 

“What if he is in a place where he can’t fly and needs to chase a suspect? There are very capable criminals. Rumble needs to run faster then them. Be harder than they are. Have more endurance. With this sort of training, he’ll be stronger, faster, and tougher than anypony else out there,” Sentinel replied. 

“Do you train like this?” Diamond Tiara looked at Sentinel and watched him shake his head at her question. 

“All of us would die from exhaustion trying to wear Sentinel out,” Loki said, his crest rising. “His kind are born and bred for war. He trains in other ways though, which are just as difficult as what the other fledglings must endure.” 

“Ow, mama, I need to sit on that!” 

“I spent over thirty hours in labour with you, you little troublemaker! I couldn’t sit down right for over a month! Now get moving!” 

Giving Sentinel a sidelong glance, Diamond Tiara couldn’t help but think about how big he was going to be when he grew up. He had already grown a little bit since she had met him, becoming bulkier, but she knew that he would get a growth spurt sooner or later that would turn him into a hulking monster. A hulking monster that would no doubt have hulking monster foals. 

“When you crowned, I screamed so hard that I lost my voice for two weeks!” Flitter shouted as she hovered over Rumble, trying to motivate just a little more speed out of her son. 

Diamond Tiara’s attention turned to Scootaloo and Boadicea, who were now lifting the dummy over as well as under a series of barricades and barriers. Her eyes glanced over to the small hourglass that Loki was holding, and then back at her friends. Scootaloo was, without a doubt, the stronger of the two and doing most of the heavy lifting, while Boadicea was doing most of the dexterous manipulation of the dummy, using her talons. They made a good team together, making the most of the their strengths and working together to overcome their shortcomings. 

For some reason, it made Diamond Tiara feel hopeful for the future, a future that now seemed haunted by the shadow of war. 



 

Within a comfortable room located within the Sol Sempiternus, a gathering was taking place. A number of ship’s captains had gathered. There were unicorns, pegasi, and even a few earth ponies that could be counted among their number. The captains had settled into the comfortable chairs and sat watching an empty podium. Near the podium, Bucky stood waiting and Belisama was sitting upon his back, and now amongst the crew there was now some jokes about Bucky being the griffon queen’s seat of command. Bucky had his hood down and his face was visible. More scales had grown in, covering the withered scars upon his face, and he was an imposing, if somewhat small figure. Out of all of the stallions in the room, he was the smallest. 

Her face stern, Princess Celestia stepped through the door. Her crown was gone and so were her vestments. She now wore a somewhat old fashioned black admiral’s coat with stylised suns on the lapels along with a simple garrison cover upon her head that also had a blazing sun. Her ethereal mane waved in and out of the hat’s matte black fabric. 

Princess Celestia as a friendly regent was approachable, kind looking, her beaming smile only added to her regal manner. But Princess Celestia in service garb was intimidating. Imposing. The black coat and cap made her look taller. More threatening. The hard glint in the eyes that peered out from beneath her cover were filled with fierce determination, as well as anger. 

As Celestia approached the podium, she gave a nod to Bucky. “Knight Commandant.” 

Bowing his head, Bucky replied, “Solar Empress.” 

Standing on the platform, now behind the podium, Celestia looked out on the crowd, looking at the many faces that now stared at her, giving her their undivided attention. Her eyes narrowed and a fierce expression came over her face. She cleared her throat and made herself ready to address the crowd. 

“Our enemy is strong. Unicorns are dangerous foes. Wars have been fought before between unicorn nations. I am old enough to remember these wars and the horror that they caused. We are dealing with a foe that was trained under the conditions of total war. I have seen images, I have seen memories of what it is like for our enemies where they exist under a constant state of siege. It makes them strong. It makes them capable. Make no mistake, they will give us a fight, so it would not become you to be haughty or arrogant about our odds.” 

Celestia allowed herself a moment’s pause, took a deep breath, and then continued: 

“These unicorns have been warped, changed, made stronger, better, and more capable. Their knowledge of combat magic is great. That alone makes them fierce. They also have pegasi troops, who no doubt, will be augmented by the unicorns' magic. Many of you have not dealt with augmented or enhanced troops. Imagine if you will, a pegasus with skin like steel and hooves that can strike with the force of a falling meteor. A pegasus with supernatural speed that can punch through the steel hull of an airship and get inside. That is the sort of enemy we face.” 

There were murmurs from the crowd and Celestia waited for them to become silent once more, her wings fluttering at her sides. 

“We are dealing with thousands of unicorns and an unknown number of pegasi. We are assembling a large army with a lot of assets. Make no mistake, they have assets as well. Fancy and Germaney both have reported that quite a number of airships have been stolen and then have vanished into the mountains. Minos had some of its shipyards plundered by invaders. So we know that they have a fleet.” 

More murmuring and soft hissing of concern. Celestia lifted her head a little higher. 

“We move towards the rendezvous. We will be assembling a massive fleet with other airships from other countries. Keg Smasher will be joining us with the Northern Fleet and the Griffon Remnants Fleet that are loyal to him. Fancy is sending everything it can muster. Germaney has a small fleet, but they are very advanced and highly technical. Far to the north and the east, the Stalliongrad Progression Bloc Republic is sending everything they feel they can spare. They are still battling their enemies, the Chimerae Empire. Once this is settled, we will be sending aid to the Stalliongrad Progression Bloc Republic as part of the new Era of Cooperation.” 

A lot of the faces looked worried, even fearful. Celestia glanced at Bucky and Belisama and then looked once more upon the audience. 

“An army of over fifty thousand has been assembled and there will be over four hundred airships at the rendezvous. If we are not careful, chaos will become a far more dangerous enemy to us than the invading mirror travelers. I am expecting all of you to be the best captains and commanders that you can be. Some of you have experience in combat, some of you do not. Some of you are merchant fleet captains or you escort merchant vessels… but all of you have a great deal of experience in some form or another. Each of you are highly respected and considered good at what you do. Help one another. Keep the lines of communication open. Be open to helpful suggestions and please, remember that we are all in this together.” Celestia turned once more to Bucky and gave him a nod. “Knight Commandant, you have the floor.” 

Bowing his head once more in acknowledgement, Bucky then turned to the crowd. “For the sake of efficient communication, a number of griffon volunteers will be working as couriers. They desired to help, they wanted to do their part, but combat is not their way.” Bucky cleared his throat. “I will have them treated well. They can be easily intimidated and many are skittish. Be kind when addressing them. Do not take your frustrations out upon them. Do not berate them. They are there to help you and to assist in communications. Please, treat them well, keep them out of danger, and see that they are protected. Do not betray my trust. That is all I have to say.” 

“We will now begin the question and answer portion of our meeting… are there any questions?” Princess Celestia asked. 
	
	
> Chapter 721
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Reading a comic book, Sweetie Belle did everything she could to ignore the needle in her leg. She was okay just so long as she didn’t look at it. If she did, she she would feel queasy and lightheaded. On either side of her, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were also donating plasma. The blood bank was full of both ponies and griffons, both of which were ‘doing their part.’ 

“You know, we need to start up our own local chapter of harmony scouts,” Apple Bloom said to her friends. “Cheerilee was reading the newspaper… these harmony scouts do good things, like fix up their community, but they’re all in other places in the world. We need a chapter right here at home.” 

“Yeah,” Scootaloo replied. “That would be awesome.” 

“But we’re already doing good stuff.” Sweetie Belle put down her comic book and looked first at Apple Bloom and then turned her head to look at Scootaloo. “I mean, we’re here right now doing this.” 

“And this is a good start.” Apple Bloom looked around the room and then shook her head. “This is a good start, but this is not enough. My time as a Crusader taught me something. We can do anything if we work together.” 

Sweetie Belle thought about her cutie mark. That had not been accomplished with her friends, but alone, doing what she did best. She thought about the hurricane in Baltimare, stowing away and then being put to work. She thought about the immense feeling of satisfaction that came from knowing she had made a difference. Turning her head, she looked over at Rumble, who sat in a different little nook a short distance away, donating plasma with his father, his sister and his mothers. In the corner nook, Bon Bon was chatting with Piña Colada, Babs, and Larch. Sentinel, Boadicea, and Diamond Tiara were donating together. Dinky was sitting with Princess Luna and Dinky had her nose in a book labeled “Teleportation Basics, Book II. Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mind Your Molecules or Risk Dispersal.”  

“Look at what we’ve done here, girls.” Sweetie Belle looked over at Apple Bloom. “This started with the League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies, but now look at it. Everypony is getting involved. It’s Saturday and look at what everypony is doing.” 

Feeling a sense of accomplishment, Apple Bloom nodded and then turned to look into Sweetie Belle’s eyes. “So is anypony going to help me, or am I gonna have to do this myself?” 

“I’m in,” Scootaloo replied. 

“What do we do?” Sweetie Belle asked. 

“More of what we’re already doing,” Apple Bloom replied. “You know, I think it’s time for the League of Extraordinary Earth Ponies to just become the League of Extraordinary Ponies. All of this kinda started there. And now, we just need to continue.” 

Looking up, Scootaloo saw Spike approaching, carrying a tray with shortbread cookies and little plastic cups filled with orange juice. The dragon looked quite sad. “Hiya Spike… missing Twilight?” 

Setting down the tray upon a table, Spike nodded and then sat down upon a bench. He rested his face in his hands, sighed, and then said, “I miss Glass Slipper too.” 

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Scootaloo said to Spike. “Look, I miss her too—” 

“Do you?” Spike asked, looking up and raising his head from his hands. 

Scootaloo nodded. “Look, I know that she and I don’t always get along, but I miss her.” 

“I miss her bunches,” Spike admitted as he began to wring his hands together, his claws making scraping sounds as they dragged across his scales. “I miss Twilight and Rainbow too… I should have gone with them… but I’m here… I’m here…” 

“Come here,” Scootaloo said, patting the the empty space in her chair. 

Trembling, Spike first looked to the left, then to the right, and then, sniffling, he climbed up into the chair with Scootaloo. As he sat down, he felt her lean up against him and one of her forelegs, the one that did not have the needle in it, wrapped around him. Closing his eyes, he threw his own forelegs around her neck and squeezed. 

“I miss her,” Spike whispered. 

“I think that sometimes, we all forget how little Spike is… he acts so grown up but he’s really little.” Sweetie Belle leaned over in her chair, extended her foreleg, and then she stroked Spike on the back. 

“At least we have Flash,” Scootaloo said in a soft voice, trying to comfort Spike. “He lets us eat ice cream for dinner.” 

“She’s in danger and I can’t do anything to protect her.” Spike, who had his eyes closed, began to sniffle. 

Scootaloo glanced at Apple Bloom, hoping that Apple Bloom might have something useful to say, but all the earth pony filly did was shrug. Sweetie Belle didn’t seem to have anything else to say either. Scootaloo sighed, now feeling just awful herself, not knowing how to reassure Spike. 

“I wish I had gone with her,” Spike said, rubbing his nose with his hand as he spoke. 

Sweetie Belle, after a few moments of careful consideration, thought about what she could say that would make Spike feel better, her knack for helping to soothe hurting hearts now kicking in. “Spike, you know, there is another princess for you to look after, and Twilight would be very proud of you for keeping her safe...” 



 

“You know darling, this is all very flattering,” Rarity said as she waved her well manicured hoof at a group of hooting and howling pegasi standing on the deck of a ship that flew alongside Sol Sempiternus. “We are the object of their adoration!” 

“I suppose we are,” Coco said as a blush crept over her face. “Rarity, they painted us on the front of their ship…” 

“I know, isn’t it marvelous?” Rarity replied, blowing a kiss at the pegasi on the next ship over. She blew another kiss, then another, and then began to wave while she batted her eyelashes at them. 

“Rarity, when I look at that picture, I get all hot and flustered… I can’t imagine what it must be doing to others that view it.” Coco glanced at the image of her and Rarity entwined together in a very sultry and rather compromising position. 

“We’re giving them something to fight for,” Rarity said, lifting her head high and flashing a perfect white smile. She flicked her tail and struck a glamorous pose. The chill wind was starting to sting, but Rarity didn’t care. She was having the time of her life. “A noble knight needs a lady fair.”

“Or in this case, horny guardsponies need their fantasy of two hot mares going at one another.” With a shy smile upon her face, Coco lifted up a hoof and waved at the nice pegasi. “You know Rarity, we could give them quite a show.” 

“Coco, darling, what are you proposing?” Rarity turned and gave Coco a pouty expression, one perfect eyebrow raised high. 

The earth pony did not reply. She stepped forwards, got her foreleg around Rarity’s neck, and then gave Rarity the wettest, sloppiest, muzzle gobbling-est smooch she could muster, causing Rarity to squeal as Coco put everything she had into the romantic and sultry kiss. 

The crew of pegasi upon the ship flying alongside them erupted into cheering, hooting, and hollering, and the sound of stomping hooves could be heard above the dull roar of wind. 



 

“Knight Commandant, I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.” 

Bucky turned and looked at the earth pony addressing him. “Captain Sparks, how are you? How might I help you?” Bucky felt Belisama shift upon his back and her autoharp went silent. 

The earth pony cleared his throat looked Bucky in the eye for a moment, and then turned away to stare down at the floor. “Is what Princess Celestia saying true? Pegasi that could punch their way through a steel hull?” 

Feeling weary, Bucky nodded. There had been so many of these questions as of late. He looked at the nervous earth pony, trying to figure out what sort of pony he was dealing with. The earth pony didn’t look afraid, but nervous. This made Bucky feel a little better. “Augmentation can turn a pegasus into a fierce fighter. Strength, speed, endurance. So yes, we will be dealing with dangerous foes. If we are careful and cautious, they can be dealt with. Princess Celestia’s practical defensive nature is going to pay off. Her school produces some of the best spellbreakers in the world. Do you understand what spellbreaking is?” 

“No sir, I do not,” Captain Sparks replied. 

“Spellbreakers are unicorns skilled at stripping away enemy protections and augmentations. Princess Celestia does not like training unicorns in her school in combat magic. She focuses entirely upon defensive measures. Abjuration. So we have an advantage.” Bucky gave the earth pony a reassuring smile. 

“So why don’t we augment our own troops?” Sparks asked. 

“We’re not trained. The only pony who is really well trained in supersonic flight is Rainbow Dash. Taking a common flier and making them fast does not help them. Knowing how to fight at regular speeds is one thing, but using those combat tactics while flying at supersonic speeds would be disastrous. An augmented soldier would need to learn how to control themselves, their strength, their speed, their new abilities, they would need to learn how to fly all over again,” Bucky replied. 

Captain Sparks nodded, understanding lighting up his eyes. He raised his gaze and looked Bucky in the face. “I understand now, thank you.” He blinked and his ears pitched forwards. “So in aerial engagements, I guess Princess Celestia’s spellbreakers take out the augments on the pegasi, making them comparatively slow and weak, and they won’t know how to fight without their augments?” 

Bucky’s muzzle split into a wide toothy grin. “That is the plan. Our enemy is all about brute force. I strongly suspect that when left without their usual options for the application of force, they will be fighting at a significant disadvantage, giving us the upper hoof.” 

Relief became visible upon the earth pony’s face and he sighed. Captain Sparks’ face broke into a worried half smile. “That is a pretty significant disadvantage.” 

“It is indeed.” Belisama leaned forward and began to run her talons through Bucky’s mane, trying to pick out a few tangles. “My husband has a gift for knowing the weakness of his enemies. It is a powerful advantage.” 

Captain Sparks nodded and his gaze shifted to Belisama for a moment, and then back once more to Bucky. “I will make my crew aware of this. Thank you, both of you.” 

“You have an impressive service record, Captain Sparks… the only earth pony on your ship. You lead a crew of battle hardened storm specialist pegasi, all of which are superchargers. They appreciate you for your calm, careful, cautious demeanour, and your ability to fly your ship safely through any storm that might get kicked up by your crew, following after them, shadowing them, and always making certain that their place of refuge is just behind them if something goes wrong. You have been in quite a number of major conflicts and you are one of the most seasoned captains in the fleet,” Bucky said. 

“I am flattered that I have caught your attention, sir.” Captain Sparks stood up a little taller and a little straighter. 

“I am forming a new high command. Would you be interested in being Commandant Sparks? I am of course asking you to be a Deck Admiral. I need ponies that I can trust. I need ponies of the right temperament and the right moral fibre.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed as he studied the earth pony, watching his body language. 

“Sir, I would be flattered and it would be a privilege to serve in that capacity, if you think I am worthy, sir,” Sparks replied. 

“Good. Join me in mess tonight and we will discuss this in a more official manner.” 

“Sir, thank you, sir, for this opportunity.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 722
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The farmhouse dining table was covered in maps, paper, and dice. Babs sat at the head of the table. Around the table, Piña, Larch, and Dinky were huddled together, laughing, and having a good time. A game of Oubliettes and Ogres was in progress. 

“Okay Larch, the lorkogammen is engaging you in combat,” Babs said. 

“Wait, what is a lorkogammen again?” Piña asked. 

“It’s an evil two headed dog skeleton thing… like a diamond dog, only a giant with two heads,” Dinky replied. 

“Have you been reading the monster manual?” Piña gave her sister an incredulous look. “How do you even find time? All you do is study…” 

Shrugging, Dinky turned and waited for Larch to roll the dice. 

“Facing an undead creature, you get a plus ten percent to your defence rolls. Prepare to die!” Babs Seed rolled two ten sided dice, one blue, one purple, and watched as they bounced over the table. “Hahahahahah! I rolled a seventy eight!” 

Gulping, Larch looked a little distressed. He held his own dice, one red, one green, in the telekinetic field of his manipulation shoe upon his hoof. “Dice, don’t fail me now,” he muttered as he rolled. 

The green and red dice bounced. The red die, the first one, rolled an eight. The green die, the second one, rolled a one. Piña, sitting beside Larch, squealed with excitement. 

“With Larch’s bonus, that’s a ninety one,” Dinky said, a wide grin lighting up her countenance and her eyes twinkling. “That’s a critical riposte!” 

One ear twitching, Babs rolled a twenty sided dice and then looked at a paper reference guide, her lips moving as she read through the list. “Okay, Larch, your pegasus paladin not only stops the incoming attack, preventing all damage, but smacks the lorkogammen with your shield.” Babs rolled the twenty sided dice again and had a look at the list of effects. “The lorkogammen is knocked off balance from the shield smite and is knocked over. It is helpless! It also takes four points of damage from the shield bash.” 

“My diamond dog scout is going to backstab the helpless whatever it is and get the bonus damage!” Piña bounced up and down in her chair and snatched up her own pair of percentile dice, one pink, the other orange. 

“How do you backstab with a wooden club?” Dinky asked. 

“Well, you don’t actually stab, it’s more of a backsmack… look, it is a sneak attack with a club. The club is a good weapon because it knocks enemies out and it is effective against the undead. More thief like characters should use them,” Piña replied. 

“Okay, Piña roll for it. You get an additional twenty percent on your roll for attacking a helpless foe,” Babs said. 

“Sweet!” Piña tossed her dice and watched as they bounced a few times before going still. She rolled a sixty four. 

“That’s an eighty four.” Babs lifted up her dice and rolled. “I get a negative twenty percent penalty for my defensive roll,” she said as her dice bounced off of a book and went still. “Oh, that’s ugly. I rolled a thirty nine. So… nineteen. Roll four six sided dice for damage.” 

“This is going to hurt,” Dinky said, shaking her head. “Piña gets an additional fifty percent damage added for using her club against the undead. Ouch.” 

Piña held the four six sided dice in her front hooves for a moment, kissed them, and then let them fly. There was a clatter as they hit the table and bounced around. A one, which was disappointing, a three, a four, and one six. 

“Fourteen… with fifty percent more added, that’s twenty one points of damage. The lorkogammen is dead. It only had twenty hit points to begin with. Experience gained!” Babs gave a nod to Dinky and passed her a sheet of paper. 

Dinky, accepting the piece of paper, began to write down the relevant data, recording the group experience total on a sheet of paper as she heaved a disappointed sigh. “My unicorn mage didn’t get a chance to fight in this encounter.” 

“Well now, now we check the room for loot,” Larch said, his eyebrows bouncing up and down. 

“Wait, I have a question,” Dinky said. 

“Yes?” Babs looked at Dinky. 

“How does a pegasus use a shield? Or a sword for that matter?” Dinky asked. 

Babs shrugged. “I don’t know… this is a fantasy game. Maybe the pegasus walks around on his hind legs and holds his sword in his fetlock and his shield on his other foreleg.” 

“Hmm…” Dinky reached up and scratched her head with her left front hoof. 

“Dinky, stop being such a hopeless nerd… you can’t expect realism in your fantasy game.” Piña waved her hoof in a dismissive gesture at her sister. 

“The room is empty, but there is a door. Do you want to open the door?” Babs looked around the table, meeting the eyes of each of her friends. 

“I pull open the door,” Larch said. He puffed his barrel out. “I fear no evil!” 

“You dummy, I should have checked it for traps, don’t you remember what happened last time?” Piña rolled her eyes and shook her head as Larch deflated and looked embarrassed. 

“The door opens. It isn’t trapped. There is another long musty hallway, dark, and you can’t see more than just a few feet. Your only light source is the unicorn’s horn. This hallway is narrow and you must walk single file. Who leads the way?” 

“If I lead the way, I could detect traps.” Piña looked at her companions. 

“Piña, your scout only has seven hit points left…” Dinky’s eyebrow raised in warning. “Single file means if there is a fight, you are stuck out front.” 

“Your unicorn has eleven hit points at maximum, so don’t talk to me about low hit points.” Piña gave her sister a pouty look. “We send Larch ahead. He has high constitution and made good rolls for hit points. We’ll just have to hope there are no traps.” 

“Okay, I’m going,” Larch said. “I start down the hall.” 

Dinky waved her hoof. “I’m in the middle, so I can lob spells over Larch.” 

“I’m bringing up the rear.” Piña slumped down in her chair and did her best to look miserable. “Stupid kobolds… shooting me in the rump with flaming arrows. Now I smell like burning wet dog hair.” 

“The narrow hallway is littered with bones. Lots of bones. In a pile of bones, there is a torch and Larch adds it to his supplies as you pass. Piña, being a diamond dog, you notice that there is a downward slope to the hallway,” Babs said, describing the scene. 

“You know, Piña, you should have bought some arrows. I told you to buy arrows. But no… you had to save your money, thinking that we would find some arrows—” 

“Shut up! Shut up!” Piña raised her hoof at Dinky and closed her eyes. “Talk to the hoof, Stinky Doo!” 

Giggling, Dinky stuck out her tongue at her sister. 

“Give her a break, Dinky. Her diamond dog rolled ‘stingy’ as her random trait. She can’t help it,” Larch said. “Still better than what you rolled. Do you know how dangerous a nearsighted wizard is?” 

“The hallway is long and the darkness seems to get thicker as you go deeper. The walls are slick with slime. Old dusty bones crunch under your hooves… and your paws.” Babs looked at Piña and then continued: “The diamond dog’s sensitive nose picks up a terrible smell from up ahead. The smell of rot and decay is faint but detectable.” 

“Ew, grody.” Piña made a disgusted face. “So it smells like Sentinel’s breath.” 

“Eeeeugh, carnivores.” Larch grimaced and shuddered in disgust. 

“I love Sentinel, don’t get me wrong, but his breath… I don’t see how Diamond Tiara kisses him.” Dinky reached up and adjusted her hat upon her head. 

“Ahead of you, you hear a squishy, squelching sound. In the darkness, something slurps… slurp slurp slurp.” 

“Right now, all I can hear is the sound of my parents making out.” Piña’s ears perked forwards. “That’s scary alright. Something horrible lurks ahead.” 

Dinky looked over at her sister, Piña. “How about the sound that Cadance makes when she stuffs her muzzle down into her oatmeal or her pudding and blows bubbles? That squelching blub blub blub sound—” 

“Like one of Harper’s post dump farts right after she filled her diaper?” Lyra asked as she stuck her head around the corner. 

Covering her mouth with her hoof, Piña’s cheeks bulged out and she made a gagging sound deep in her throat. Babs began to giggle, Larch squeezed his eyes shut, and Dinky raised her hoof. 

“Gross!” Dinky looked at Lyra, crossed her eyes, and then acted as if she had fainted in her chair, slumping down and going limp, her head lolling on her neck. 

Lyra came over and sat down at the table. She had a good look around, eyeing the various game materials. Leaning over, she examined Piña’s character sheet, her brows crinkling as she concentrated on reading the fine, small text. 

“I’m going to keep going forward, but in a defensive posture, shield forward, so I’ll get an additional twenty percent to my defensive rolls,” Larch said. The colt began to feel a little self conscious as Lyra kept checking out the game materials upon the table. 

“He’s a pegasus, does he get a bonus to his vision or anything?” Lyra asked as she glanced over Larch’s character sheet. 

“Larch chose to ignore the observation skill so he could place points into first aid. He only has the base ten percent that pegasi get,” Babs replied. 

Lyra looked confused. “So… why does Piña remain wounded if Larch has a first aid skill? Shouldn’t she patched up or something?” 

“I bought a tower shield with my starting funds. It was expensive. I thought we’d find bandages by now, but the dice rolls for random loot have not been kind.” Larch blinked and discovered he could not look at Lyra or Piña, as he felt bad about Piña’s predicament. “I guess I should have bought a scutum and some bandages. Piña is probably going to die and it is all my fault.” 

Clearing her throat, Babs continued: “Ahead of you, you see a shapeless mass. It makes a glorping sound as it begins to move forward. It is large and grey—” 

“A grey ooze!” Larch cried. He pressed both of his front hooves into his cheeks and began to panic. “My sword and my shield is gonna crumble!” 

“Glorp glorp glorp!” Babs leaned forwards and made a wicked looking face at Larch. 

“Don’t panic! I have this!” Dinky snatched up her dice. “I have a fire spell, burning bombs. I have three castings of it left—”

“Dinky, if you cast a spell, your light spell goes out, how will you see to target the ooze?” Piña asked, cutting Dinky off. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Dinky opened her mouth to make a reply, but no sound came out. She sat there, her eyes narrowed, and she began to tap her hoof upon the table. 

“I’m going to light the torch I picked up a little while ago… or have Dinky light it. I put away my sword, because it’s useless anyway, and I hold the torch.” Larch’s face brightened and the colts excitement was visible. 

“I light the torch,” Dinky said. 

“The grey ooze is getting closer…” Babs looked at her game playing companions as well as Lyra. “It wants to digest you.” 

“Don’t let it digest you! Burn it to cinders!” Lyra made an impatient snort and gestured at Dinky. “Look, as unicorns, we have an obligation to make certain our friends don’t get digested. That is why we blast things with fire, lightning, and ice! Kill it, kill it with fire, Dinky!” 

“I’m going to raise my shield so I don’t get burned to a crisp.” Larch seemed a bit disturbed by Lyra’s enthusiasm. 

“I’m casting burning bombs at the grey ooze!” Dinky got her dice ready and waited. 

“At your level, you get four burning bombs. The grey ooze has no defensive bonus. Start rolling,” Babs said. 

Dinky rolled. Her first roll was a forty three, while Babs rolled a forty nine. A miss. Dinky’s second roll was an eighty four, while Babs rolled a twenty six. For the third roll, Dinky had a fifty five, while Babs rolled a fifty two. The last and final roll, Dinky rolled a seventy nine, while Babs rolled a thirty seven. 

“That’s three hits. Roll a four sided die three times.” Babs lifted up a folder, opened it, and began looking up the hit points for a grey ooze. 

“There is a four sided die?” Lyra asked. 

“The one that looks like a pyramid,” Larch replied. 

“Oh… neat!” Lyra rubbed her front hooves together. 

Dinky lifted the four sided die and gave it a roll. The number was a four. She rolled again, scoring a two, and her final roll was a three. Dinky’s lip curled back in a what would have been a ferocious snarl if she wasn’t such an adorable little foal. “Nine points of damage.” 

“It only had eight hit points, so it’s dead.” Babs looked disappointed. “I was kinda hoping to make Larch start sweating there. I’m going to have to roll for more random monsters…” 

“Hey, I wanna play… how do I make a character?” Lyra asked. 

“You have to roll a lot of dice,” Piña replied. 

“I can roll dice.” Lyra nodded and looked at Piña’s character sheet. Lyra, who was far more nerdy than she let on, already knew how to do this, but thought it might be great fun to have the foals explain everything in detail, so she played dumb. She blinked and did her best to look clueless, which wasn’t hard for Lyra under most circumstances. 

“We might be able to drop Lyra in… I could have the lot of you rescue her.” Babs began to stroke her chin with her hoof and she became thoughtful looking. 

“I want to be a earth pony that makes candies—” 

Piña prodded Lyra to get her attention. “Lyra, that doesn’t seem practical in a dungeon. You might want something else.” 

“Oh. Right.” Lyra heaved a dramatic sigh and did her best to look disappointed. “Can I be a black and red alicorn?”

“Nope. NPC race only.” Babs shook her head. 

“What’s an NPC?” Lyra asked, already knowing the answer. 

“Non player character,” Larch replied. “Alicorns are too powerful.”

“Aw, nuts.” Lyra crossed her forelegs over her barrel and slumped down in her chair. 

“There are lot of other playable races,” Piña said, trying to be helpful. “I’m playing a diamond dog. I get bonuses to mining, machinery, clockwork stuff, traps, locks, and I get big bonuses for being down in the underground.” 

“And hiding behind trees,” Babs added. 

“Yes, poaching.” Dinky nodded. 

“Hmm, I’ll be a griffon archer I think. That sounds like fun.” Lyra unfolded her forelegs, leaned forwards, and grabbed a pencil. 

“Warrior class archer or ranger class archer?” Babs asked. 

“What’s the difference?” Lyra asked in reply. 

“Hit dice.” Babs blinked. “Warriors with the archer subclass get to roll a ten sided die for hit points, while a ranger gets to roll two eight sided dice to start out and then one eight sided dice for hit points every level after.” 

“Rangers can do awesome stuff with a bow while warriors get a bonus to armor and defensive stuff,” Larch said, explaining a bit more of the differences between the two. “Rangers have to wear light armor.” 

“Oh…” Lyra gave a slow nod and then looked around the foals sitting at the table. 

“Ranger archers have more bow skills. Warrior archers are sweat golems that use a bow while wearing platemail,” Piña said, speaking as though this explained everything. 

“Could I be a ranger griffon archer that doesn’t use bows but uses a sling instead?” Lyra gave Babs a hopeful look. 

“Yeah. Archers can be skilled with any ranged weapon. Flintlocks, slings, bows, crossbows, slugthrowers, javelins, anything really. Slings are really good against undead because the sling bullets also do crushing damage.” Babs pulled a character sheet out of a bright yellow folder and passed it to Piña, who then passed it to Lyra. 

Lyra giggled, then smiled, and then said “This is gonna be great…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 723
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So, uh, Mask, can you tell me why we are buying pornography?” Fever Cure asked, glancing around the adult bookstore with shifty eyes. 

Glancing at a magazine with a glossy cover, Mask raised an eyebrow, and then looked at his friend. “Bait—” 

“Mask, never mind, I don’t want to know about your bathroom habits!” Fever Cure raised a hoof and shook his head. 

After heaving a weary sigh, Mask then snorted in disgust. “Bait. Just bait. I plan to cast attraction spells upon the magazines. We’re going to leave them in places where security guards are likely to see them. If the guards are looking at the magazines, which will be magically irresistable, they won’t be looking for us.” 

Tilting his head, Fever Cure looked over at a magazine that had a mare performing oral sex upon herself. After staring for a moment, his gaze returned to Mask. “That’s just dirty. In more ways than one. This is a brilliant plan.” 

“Of course it is, I thought it up,” Mask replied and then he let out a mock-haughty sniff. “I’m brilliant… what do you expect?” 

“So we’re going to buy lots of porn, cast magic on it to make it irresistible, and then leave it around the building in places where security will find it. That doesn’t seem suspicious at all.” Fever Cure turned his head and saw a magazine cover that made him squirm. “I think that poor fella has elephantitis of the scrotum… there is no way that’s natural.” 

“The magical compulsion preying upon their own sexual interest will make them unable to put the magazines down. Which reminds me…” Mask began to peer around the magazine stand. “We’re going to need to find some really trashy gay porn to cover our bases. There might be a security guard who is gay and has no interest in mares. The spell won’t work as well on him. Or it might be better to find something that has a lot of dicks in it along with the usual slutty mares.” 

“You’re like some kind of evil genius, you know that, don’t you?” Fever Cure asked. “And a pervert.” 

“Says the pony who developed a compound that causes explosive priapism—” 

“Hey, that was accidental! I had no idea that the Crown would express an interest in my accidental discovery that causes males to pop a boner and run out of skin!” Fever Cure’s eyebrows furrowed and he stomped his hoof. “I didn’t do it on purpose! I was trying to find a cure for hay fever.” 



 

Laying on her back, Thistle held Bell Heather above her and bounced her around a little bit, holding her foal between her front hooves. Bell was getting a little bigger, now had a few teeth, and her mane of living water weeds was just now beginning to grow in. Her orange eyes were bright and curious as she stared down at her mother. 

“You are the most amazing thing ever… I can’t believe I made you,” Thistle said to her foal in a soft and somewhat squeaky voice as she lowered Bell Heather down and laid the foal upon her barrel. 

Magpie, who was looking after Bandua, watched the kelpie mother with interest. 

“I’m going to be a good mother. I have a job now. I’ve started attending a few school classes so that I’m a good example for you. I’m growing up and becoming a responsible adult just for you.” Thistle began to rub Bell’s back as she spoke and closed her eyes. “Come spring, you and I are going to go for a swim in the lake and we’re going to be so happy…” 



 

Flash Sentry did everything he could to hide his worries. Grinning, he scooped vanilla ice cream into large glass mugs and then he poured in the root beer. One of the mugs got a little too much root beer and foamed over. He wiped up the sticky mess with cleaning wipe pulled out of a little plastic container and then he added more root beer to the mugs. 

Scootaloo and Spike were both sitting at the tiny kitchen table that was far too small for their growing family. He grabbed the mugs, one at a time, and brought them to the table, which was piled high with hay fries, hayburgers, nachos, and an assortment of gems for Spike. 

“I hope everypony is hungry,” Flash said as he set down the final mug. 

“Just so long as my hayburger has extra pickles, I’m good.” Scootaloo took a sip of her rootbeer float and then smiled. 

“All of the hayburgers have extra pickles. I figured it would be easier that way.” Flash Sentry pulled a hayburger out of the pile. It was wrapped in paper that had become translucent from the grease. “Some of these are the new black bean hayburgers. I hope you don’t mind.” 

Scootaloo, who was unwrapping a hayburger, let out a grunt of anticipation and then tore into her food, taking down almost half of her burger in one bite, chewing while smacking her lips, and licking sauce off of her muzzle. 

“I’m not that hungry,” Spike said as he stared at the food. He reached out his hand, picked up a red gemstone shard, eyed it for a moment, and then gave it a halfhearted crunch. 

While he was chewing, Flash Sentry felt a bit of worry for Spike but did not know what to do. Spike’s moods fluctuated and it seemed that the little dragon was now in a bit of a funk. 

“Do you think she’s okay?” Spike asked. 



 

“I think I’m freaking out!” Twilight Sparkle looked up at Celestia with a panicked expression upon her face. “What was I thinking? What was I thinking? Why did I bring Glass Slipper with me?” Twilight turned away from Celestia and looked over at Bucky, who was enjoying a bit of a snooze and had Glass Slipper tucked between his front legs so he could use her as a pillow. 

“Twilight, calm down—” 

“No, I will not calm down… I can’t deal with this!” Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and began to grind her teeth together. 

Reaching out with one front hoof, Celestia patted Twilight on the shoulder. “Look, Twilight, it will be fine. Tourmaline is on this ship as well, and I know that she is safe—” 

“I love her so much… I’ve grown so attached to her… it makes me crazy thinking about how dangerous the world is and how helpless she is! I can’t stand it!” The corner of Twilight’s eye began to twitch and convulse in an erratic manner. “She has a tiny little body and tiny little hooves and a little curious snoot that twitches when she gets excited and she is so helpless and it drives me craaaaay-zee—” 

“Twilight Sparkle, these mommy hormones—” 

“DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT MOMMY HORMONES!” 

Bucky awoke with a snort, blinked, and looked around. Glass Slipper was still asleep and Belisama remained curled up against his side. He yawned, looked around once more, closed his eyes, and then once again, he rested his head upon Glass Slipper so he could go back to sleep. 

“Twilight Sparkle, please, calm down—” 

“I don’t want to calm down… I think I finally understand Bucky and it kinda worries me.” A demented sounding giggle escaped from Twilight’s quivering lips. Twilight’s head turned and she glanced over at the foal she had come to love so much. “I would burn my enemies to a crisp just to keep her safe. I wake up late at night and go into her room just to make sure she is breathing. I feel happy when she is happy and when she isn’t happy I feel miserable.” Twilight’s head turned so she could look at Celestia. “Miserable I tell you. At first I didn’t know what to do with her. She was just kinda there and it was uncomfortable because she followed me everywhere and I didn’t know how to talk to her and she was strange to me and something about her scared me. Now I can’t imagine living without her.” 

Sighing, Celestia shook her head. Twilight Sparkle was acting more than a little peculiar. It didn’t seem so long ago that Twilight Sparkle was just a curious little foal herself, a curious little foal that asked impossible questions and demanded impossible answers. Celestia knew all too well that in an eyeblink that Twilight Sparkle would be an old mare, and then she would be gone, having passed forever from the world. The world would be a poorer place without her. Celestia could not say that and mean it about many ponies. 

“One day I was a single mare still trying to figure out the intricacies of friendship. I made a lot of mistakes.” One of Twilight’s ears began to spasm and her tail swished from side to side, snapping from leg to leg. “And the next day I had a family and there were ponies that I realised that I loved and there were foals and now I am going crazy because I have to make sure that they are safe.” 

Celestia’s ears perked when she heard Twilight Sparkle start to sniffle. She lowered her head, stepped towards Twilight, and then stood neck to neck with her, as awkward as it was with the size difference. 

“Twilight Sparkle, I am so proud of you…” 



 

The music was somehow happy and sad at the same time. Fluttershy listened to Cheese Sandwich’s accordion and thought it was beautiful. He was serenading Pinkie Pie, crooning a song about spaghetti covered with cheese to her. The song itself was so very silly, but the accompanying accordion music was almost too beautiful to bear. Fluttershy felt that she could enjoy it a whole lot more if she could just sneeze and get it over with. 

“On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed… it rolled off the table, it rolled on the floor, and then my poor meatball, it rolled out of the door. It rolled in the garden and under a bush, and then my poor meatball, it was nothing but mush. The mush was as tasty as tasty could be, and early next summer it grew to a tree. The tree was all covered with beautiful moss… it grew great big mushroom balls and tomato sauce. So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese, hold on to your meatball and don't ever sneeze…” 

“Oooh Cheesy, you really know how to sing to a girl,” Pinkie Pie said in a squeaky emotional voice. She batted her eyelashes at Cheese Sandwich. “You know how to make a mare feel special, you charmer.” 

Reaching up with her paw, Fluttershy wiped a tear out of her eye and then looked at Discord, who was playing dominoes with Rainbow Dash. She began to drift over in his direction, feeling a strange state of melancholy amorousness. As she moved through the air, not flying but just sort of drifting about, Fluttershy suffered a strange feeling where she wasn’t certain if she was moving, or if perhaps, she was remaining still while the world moved beneath her. She reached down and rubbed her enormous belly. She had been having a lot of strange feelings lately. Sniffling, she wiped her nose and continued to endure the need to sneeze. 

For the past few hours she had needed to sneeze but the sneeze did not come. It had started off as a minor annoyance, but as of right now this moment, it was now a real concern. Fluttershy stopped mid drift and rubbed her nose. She felt as though her sinuses were backed up. She patted the shawl around her neck and felt the little bundle of hatred squirm when touched. 

A long string of snot dribbled out of Fluttershy’s nose and now the need to sneeze was stronger than ever. It was painful, almost a dull, pulsating throb. 

“Fluttershy, you okay?” You don’t look so good,” Applejack said from the sofa where she was canoodling with Silver Shill. 

“Dearest Fluttershy?” Discord abandoned his game of dominoes and floated over to Fluttershy’s side. “You look a little… snotty… are you okay, love?” 

“I don’t feel good. I feel out of sorts and weird. Been needing to sneeze for a while but nothing seems to be happening,” Fluttershy replied as she drifted into Discord’s embrace. 

“Something seems off about you,” Discord said as he held Fluttershy close. “I don’t know what it is, but it worries me.” He looked down when he heard a loud gurgle from Fluttershy’s stomach. “Do you need to eat something?” 

The sunny yellow mare shook her head. “I don’t feel hungry… just sneezy. But nothing is happening and it is becoming oh so very frustrating.” 

“I think there is something wrong with my dearest Fluttershy… we need to get her to a hospital!” Discord began to look around the room and there was an expression of panic upon his face. 

“Discord, we’re on the largest flying hospital ever constructed,” Applejack said as she rolled her eyes. “Come on y’all, let’s go get Fluttershy looked after. My gut is telling me something is off…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 724
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs was dark. Most of it anyway. The darkness made it easier. There were well lit places where the guards congregated, but to save money on electricity, many of the lights were turned off at night, leaving behind islands of light scattered in a sea of darkness. 

Fever Cure took to his shadow nature much better than Mask did, even though Mask had already figured out total mastery over the changeling illusion aspect of his magic. It was Fever Cure who led the way, sometimes pulling Mask down into shadow when Mask was having a bit of difficulty. 

Peering around the corner and into the hallway ahead, looking both left as well as right, Fever Cure whispered, “There needs to be a better way. Some legal means for the government to investigate big businesses upon demand.” 

“The Stable of Representatives will sort this out, I have faith in our budding democratic values,” Mask replied, also whispering. “This is great, being able to see in almost total darkness.” 

There was no reply from his companion. Fever Cure had gone silent once more, and dove into shadow. He floated down the hallway, able to see the defensive alarm wards on the floor. Stepping on them would activate them, but right now, he didn’t have legs, so there was nothing to worry about. He was little more than an amorphous mass of shadowstuff. 

Bringing up the rear, Mask followed along, but struggled staying in shadow long enough to make it down the length of hallway. He became solid in a safe place, landing upon the floor, glad to rest and stand upon solid hooves once more. 

“You can feel the very wrongness of this place,” Fever Cure muttered in a hissy whisper, his voice held scarce volume in the dark. It was just the mere the suggestion of a voice, a hidden whisper, the rustling sound that one hears in a dark room and then wonders what might be lurking in the dark with them. 

Mask remained silent, but agreed. Something was wrong with this place, but he couldn’t understand how he knew. But he could feel it as they got closer to the research labs, the place they had not been allowed to go when they had cased the place earlier. 

After observing the area ahead, Fever Cure said, “There is no security.” 

“They don’t expect anypony to make it down into the basement past all of the security upstairs,” Mask replied. 

Nodding in the dark, Fever Cure shadowdove and then made his way ahead…



 

Seeing Sentinel standing in the doorway, Derpy patted the bed beside her with her hoof. She watched as he entered, looking around, sniffing, and how he loped to the bed. He didn’t quite walk like other ponies. Derpy realised that he had grown a bit since they had first met, and Sentinel was a little larger. No doubt, he would be hitting his big growth spurt soon. 

Sentinel was careful leaping up onto the bed, making certain he did not disturb Cadance or Bell Heather. He nosed Cadance, who was half awake and half asleep. After sniffing her, pressing his muzzle against her neck and snuffling a few times, he did the same to Bell Heather, who giggled at her brother’s soft, loving touch. 

“They’re growing,” Sentinel said as he turned around in a circle a few times and then settled down onto the bed beside his mother, Derpy. “All of my father’s little girls are accounted for and seem happy.” 

“How are Sukari and Harper?” Derpy asked. 

“Lyra, Dinky, and Piña have created a bedtime theatre to tell them a bedtime story. There’s puppets and everything,” Sentinel replied. He watched as Bell Heather crawled towards him, then collapsed upon his foreleg, slobbering all over his fetlock. He didn’t mind. He had his own slobbering issues, and it would be hypocritical to complain about the slobber of others. “Bon Bon is extra huggy tonight. I didn’t think she would ever let me go.” 

Cadance meanwhile had closed her eyes. 

“Bon Bon has mommy hormones,” Derpy said. “Where is Thistle? She’s been gone for a while now, I haven’t seen her for what feels like hours.” 

“She’s upstairs with Yew. Yew misses Lugus and can’t stop crying. Broom, Thistle, and Boadicea are trying to cheer her up before she dehydrates herself. I think Yew has mommy hormones pretty bad.” Sentinel pulled Bell Heather closer and then nuzzled her velvety ear with his muzzle. She was soft, warm, and had that delightful foal smell that made Sentinel feel weird, aggressive, and protective, a sensation that Sentinel quite enjoyed. 

“How is Luna?” Derpy watched as her foals loved one another and she felt her heart warm. Every mother wanted to see her foals get along. Sometimes in a herd, there could sometimes be problems between foals, or so Berry Punch had read and Derpy had listened. 

“Luna and Erebus are upstairs with Barley. Barley is trying to teach Erebus how to talk better. I think Erebus is going to end up with a funny accent. Luna has the latest medical digest, something about neurology and brain development, written by some brain surgeon minotaur living in the Sea of Grass after he fled his home in Minos. Luna was telling me about it, she thinks his findings will change everything we think we know. The brain has bits called mirror neurons and they can have something called quantum entanglement happen. Something about spooky action at a distance… quantum consciousness... I did not understand half of what Luna was saying, but she seemed excited about it.” 

Feeling confused, Derpy shook her head. She didn’t understand anything that Sentinel was saying. She blinked and did not know what to say or where to even begin to on a reply. She opted for another approach; changing the subject. “How is Diamond Tiara?” 

“She’s missing Coco and Rarity, but she likes Hondo and Cookie. They both love her. Hondo treats Diamond Tiara just like he treats Sweetie Belle and makes no distinctions between them. It makes Diamond Tiara’s life a little easier. Earlier today, we talked about her therapy.” Sentinel rubbed the side of his head against Bell Heather and left behind a faint somewhat musty smelling oily patch on the foal’s pelt, but was unaware he had done so. 

Derpy sighed and felt a sense of satisfaction in knowing that those she loved were okay. It was getting harder and harder to check up upon them, and she depended on others like Sentinel to keep her updated on the goings on within her extended flock. 

“How are you holding up?” Sentinel asked, giving his mother a worried expression. 

“I’m managing. The twins are giving me a hard time. I’m missing Bucky. I’m scared for him and Belisama, I want them both home with me and I want to know that they are safe.” Reaching out a foreleg, Derpy hooked her hoof around Cadance’s middle and pulled the foal over. 

Cadance let out a sleepy whimper of surprise, realised she was about to be hugged, and when she was close enough, she wrapped her forelegs around Derpy’s muzzle, giving the grey mare a squeeze. Derpy remained with her face pressed into Cadance’s belly, and Cadance clung to Derpy’s face. 

“Somepony go fetch Lyra! I can’t get out of the bathtub on my own!” Berry Punch cried from the bathroom in a somewhat frantic sounding voice. “I’m waterlogged and I’m stuck!” 

“I had better go fetch Lyra.” Sentinel gave Bell Heather a quick kiss upon the cheek and then extracted himself. “I’ll be right back.” 



 

“I feel like I’m dying,” Fluttershy said. The sunny yellow mare sniffled as she lay in the bed, her head resting upon a well fluffed pillow, and her pastel pink mane spilling all around her neck and shoulders. 

Discord reached out and wiped Fluttershy’s nose with a tissue. “The doctors think you are having some kind of allergic reaction to something. You’re not dying, don’t say that. You can’t die and I cannot bear to live even one second without you.” Discord leaned in a little closer. “Somepony has to take care of sweet little Lunacy. She’s cranky.” 

“Where is my sweet little foal?” Fluttershy asked as she made a weak effort to lift her head and looked around. After a moment of straining, she gave up and fell back against her pillow. 

“Rarity has the adorable little psychopath—oh, and don’t worry, Lunacy has her happy helmet on. Rarity is safe and sound,” Discord replied. He reached out his paw and stroked Fluttershy’s cheek, noting that she felt damp and clammy. “You’ve been like this for hours—” 

Discord fell silent as the door opened. Turning his head, he saw a tall white figure enter, followed by two shorter figures. “Celestia… Twilight… fellow chimeric chaos creature.” 

“I was worried.” Bucky approached the bed first and then stood there, not knowing what to do or say. Reaching up with his talons, he touched Fluttershy’s paw and stood there in silent support. 

“Discord, I wish you wouldn’t call Bucky that.” Fluttershy peered up at her mate and even in her distressed state, she somehow managed to look a little peeved. 

“What? He’s not a pony anymore… I don’t know what he is, he’s not like us… he is, well, he is a lot like us but not like us and—” 

“Discord!” Fluttershy’s scolding tone silenced her husband and her draconequus mate slumped by her bedside. 

Bucky’s sole response was to laugh, and as he was doing so, both Twilight as well as Celestia exchanged a glance with one another; with Celestia raising one eyebrow while Twilight’s lips pressed into a straight, thin line. 

“I think I would feel better if I could just sneeze.” Fluttershy sighed and rubbed her oversized stomach. “It is like that feeling when you fly and gain altitude and you need your ears to pop but they just won’t do it so you keep yawning…” Fluttershy’s words trailed off and she lapsed into a moment of silence as she continued to rub her stomach. “Ooh… everything hurts. All my muscles are tense.” 

“The doctors say that your vitals are good, or at least they think they are. They were a little concerned when your pulse began to pump out a funky rhumba, but that is just your draconequus nature having a little fun with the doctors.” Twilight Sparkle moved closer to her friend. “Some of us have changed so much. Bucky is not what he was once was. You’ve become a draconequus—” 

“You’ve grown a whole lot taller,” Fluttershy said to Twilight and gave her beloved friend a warm, reassuring smile. “And you sprouted some wings too. Life is all about changes Twilight… those of us who go along with the changes that are to come will do better than those who don’t.” 

“I don’t understand what you mean.” Twilight Sparkle looked down into Fluttershy’s red and yellow eyes, trying to grasp the meaning of what Fluttershy had said. 

“Learn from the trees Twilight… the supple tree bends and flexes with the wind. They grow tall and strong. But the old proud trees grow rigid and stiff. They no longer bend or bow when the winds come. Instead of flexing and going gracefully with the wind, they stand resolute in defiance, and when the winds come, they break.” 

Twilight nodded, now understanding Fluttershy’s words. 

“I have accepted my changes.” Fluttershy’s eyes glanced over at Celestia and then back at Twilight. “Bucky has chosen to uproot and now he rides the whirlwind. Discord has chosen to put roots down.” 

“Fluttershy, you have changed,” Twilight said, lowering her head. She kissed her friend upon the cheek. Twilight felt a nagging sense of worry blossom in the back of her mind. She didn’t like the way that Fluttershy had looked at Celestia. Twilight began to wonder if perhaps Celestia had grown old and proud; at least, that seemed to be the unspoken implication. Twilight’s heart lept up into her throat when Fluttershy let out a pained moan and then squirmed in the bed. 

Not knowing what else to do, but knowing that Fluttershy believed that sneezing would make her feel better, Twilight Sparkle reached out and tickled her friend’s nose with the tip of her wing. 

The effect was immediate. Fluttershy gasped a few times, her eyes squeezed shut, she started to giggle from the tickle, gasped again, and then with a blast of almost hurricane force, Fluttershy sneezed. 

An explosion of snot rocketed out of her nose, much like a cannon firing off a round of mucus. Twilight Sparkle was instantly drenched from the neck up, and also her wings. Bucky was caught in the outer edges of the blast. Celestia and Discord, who were standing at the foot of the bed, got the worst of it. The geyser of snot that shot out of Fluttershy’s nose coated the wall in a slick layer of gunky, chunky mucus and the ceiling too, leaving both a draconequus as well as an alicorn silhouette upon the wall.

Twilight Sparkle felt an instant sensation of regret for what she had done as she stood there dripping, covered in hot sticky goo. 

“This is not the worst thing that has happened to me,” Bucky said in a dismissive voice. 

Recovering, Fluttershy felt a weight on her barrel and her stomach. Blinking, she looked down and saw a snot covered something. It was slimy… and it moved. Fluttershy came to the slow worrisome realisation that she felt empty inside and her stomach was no longer as big as it was. She had shrunk a little. Fluttershy heard a gurgle. 

Celestia, soaked with snot, recovered her senses enough to assess the situation. “I think Fluttershy has just given birth… and Twilight… please, never, ever, under any circumstance are you to assist a draconequus giving birth by tickling its nose while I am standing in the blast zone… am I understood?” 
	
	
> Chapter 725
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

         The doors, while they had been locked, were not trapped. The stairs leading down were also not trapped. There was a worrying lack of defenses now, just empty space and darkness. Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs’ darkened heart was almost too easy to access. Fever Cure, who stood at the top of the stairs, scowled in the dark. 

“Unicorn arrogance,” Mask said, muttering in a muted whisper. 

“That’s tribalist,” Fever Cure replied. 

“It isn’t tribalist when we say it about ourselves.” Mask stopped staring down the stairs and looked at his friend. “You can actually spot the signs of a superiourity complex. I mean, look around you. Past the outer ring of magical traps, there have been nothing. It is like they just assumed that nopony would make it this far. A pegasus certainly could not, and as for an earth pony, that’s just out of the question. This is why we have fallen from grace… we make these arrogant assumptions about the world around us, believing our magic is vastly superiour, and then we sit back and rest upon our laurels.” 

“Ouch, that’s harsh.” Fever Cure shook his head.

“But you do nothing to deny it or disprove it.” Mask began to descend the stairs, half in an half out of shadow. 

Drifting along behind his friend and companion, Fever Cure fell back into silence, bothered by Mask’s words, which held more than a little truth. What Mask had said disturbed him far more than he cared to admit. 

The stairs were long, narrow, and rather steep. As Fever Cure went down the staircase, his mind drifted off, filling up with useless and obscure minutiae. Like the fact that as an equine, it was odd for his society to have stairs. Horses and their larger equine cousins were incapable of using stairs, yet somehow minima forma equus sapiens had mastered the ability to use staircases and now built entire civilisations dependent upon their common, everyday use. It somehow seemed paradoxical. 

At the bottom of the staircase, there was a small round room with three doors. Two off to one one side, and one off to the other. The doors were locked, but not in a magical way. The air smelled musty and a bit mildewy; there was also something sour lingering in the air. There was a faint hum from some piece of machinery that laboured into the dark of the night. 

Something about the smell reminded Fever Cure of a hospital. It was both reassuring and disturbing at the same time. Being a doctor, he liked the smell of hospitals. They were supposed to be clean and safe. But this place, while clean, reeked of wrongness. 

Knowing that a door had to be chosen, Fever Cure selected the door off to itself. It was locked, but that was no problem. A little telekinetic tap to the tumblers opened it right up. He pushed the door open and peered ahead into the dark room, his shadow nature allowing him to see only outlines of things in the dark. Taking a bit of a risk, he ignited his horn and then stood frozen in place. 

Ahead were several glass tanks and inside the tanks floated preserved, pickled corpses. Fever Cure was only somewhat aware of Mask, who stood by his side, also staring. Along with the pickled corpses, the room was filled with shelves and thousands of ledgers. 

“Well… right… this is pretty much what I expected,” Mask said in a low scratchy whisper. He walked ahead, his head tilted as he looked at the preservation tanks. “That however, is not what I expected. Will you look at that. I’d say that’s evidence of illegal experimentation, wouldn’t you agree, Fever Cure?” 

Nodding, Fever Cure stared up at the earth pony corpses floating in the tanks, along with several changelings. He felt sick. Some of the earth ponies had been visibly dissected and then sewn back together. He swallowed when bile from his stomach crept up into his throat. 

“I don’t get it… why keep the bodies? Why keep such damning evidence?” Mask asked his companion. 

“Unicorn arrogance,” Fever Cure replied in a raspy voice. “They’re assets. Research assets. You never throw away assets because something can always be reused.” 

“Well… right then. We’d better have a good look around and then get out of here…” 



 

Prowling about the house, Sentinel stuck his head into the nursery. He sniffed, his nostrils flaring, and then his ears locked on the sounds of four hearts beating. Cadance and Bell Heather were in the crib together. Magpie had fallen asleep in the rocker and Bandua was swaddled in a blanket and held in a shawl. One ear flickered when the griffoness sleeping in the rocking chair let out a soft, faint peep. He backed out of the nursery, making not a single sound. 

He crept down the hallway, his hooves making no sound, his ears perked and listening to everything around him. Most of the house had gone to bed. His sisters were sleeping. The nursery was quiet. Some of his parents were still awake and he did not disturb the master bedroom. Luna, Barley, and Erebus were still awake. 

His ears perked at the sound of a heart beating above him. Craning his head, he looked up the stairs and saw Boadicea. Her feathers were disheveled and she looked out of sorts. Sentinel sniffed and smelled fear. Looking up, he said nothing. 

“I couldn’t sleep,” Boadicea said in a soft voice as she came down the stairs. 

Sentinel watched as she moved with feline grace down the stairs. Her words did not explain why she was afraid or why her heartbeat was now increasing. His ears perked forwards, the tufted tips pointing towards Boadicea, and he could feel the subtle vibrations of her movement in his ears. 

“I’m worried about Yew and I’m missing Lugus,” Boadicea said to Sentinel. 

“I’m sorry. We’re all missing somepony or somebirdy that we love,” Sentinel replied. He cocked his head to one side, turning one ear away from Boadicea, which gave depth to his hearing. Her heart was thudding inside of her girth now. 

The griffoness cub sat down upon the floor, her tail twitching from side to side. “I finally got Peekaboo to go to sleep. She wanted a story from Lugus, but he’s not here. I had to read her a book.” 

“She likes the book ‘The Milk Bottle Mystery,’ but you have to read it slow and show her the pictures,” Sentinel said as he watched Boadicea’s tail twitching from side to side. Something about the erratic movement made him want to pounce upon it, to hold it down and make it go still. 

Unaware that her twitching tail was driving Sentinel to distraction, Boadicea tilted her head and looked at Sentinel. “I find myself missing Lugus more than I thought I would. I  keep thinking about him. About when we first met. We didn’t like each other very much. He gave me a good thumping… I tried to ambush your father and Lugus set me straight.” 

Intrigued, Sentinel sat down upon the floor and tore his gaze away from Boadicea’s tail, which appeared to have a mind of its own. The scent of fear was still strong in his nostrils. 

“Lugus has become like the father I never knew I wanted. I’ve grown very fond of him. As for Yew, I can’t imagine how I’ve lived so long without her. And Peekaboo… I can’t even put into words how I feel about her. It’s complicated. Lugus loves her so much and I think I do too and he said he was trusting me to look after something very dear to him and when he said it I got so nervous and I felt so proud and so important… I felt so special…” 

“I feel the same way when my father tells me that he’s trusting me with looking after what he values,” Sentinel said 

“Do you?” Boadicea leaned a little closer to Sentinel. “I like this feeling… this… this…” 

“Sense of purpose?” Sentinel’s ears drooped and fell down to the sides of his face as he relaxed a little bit more. 

“I guess that is what it is.” Boadicea’s head bobbed and her crest rose. She scooted a little bit closer to Sentinel, her claws clicking upon the wooden floor. “I like the feeling of satisfaction that I get from protecting others.” 

“So do I. Which is why I was checking the house.” The scent of Boadicea was strong in Sentinel’s nose now. Her fear, the scent of soap, her own unique scent, which was feminine and predatory. Sentinel began to feel a little overwhelmed and he began taking deep breaths to keep control of himself as his senses continued to take in everything around him. 

“Do you think I will be a good soldier? I want to be a good soldier… I want to know that I am making a difference,” Boadicea said to Sentinel in a girlish, unguarded voice. “Diamond Tiara and I were talking about social activism and she read me something out of her textbook. It made me think.” 

Feeling pensive, Sentinel took a moment to think about how to reply to Boadicea. Her heart was no longer thudding in her girth and Sentinel continued to wonder what had spooked her so. 

Unaware that Sentinel was trying to think of what to say, Boadicea continued. “I have hopes and dreams now… not just the hope of surviving, picking a living out of the sands of the Hinterlands, but actual hopes and dreams. There are things I want, there are places I want to go, things I want to do… I have become aware that life is full of possibilities.” 

“Life is overwhelming,” Sentinel said, his voice cracking and becoming a shrill squeak. 

“I am going to go outside to look at the stars… do you want to come with me?” Boadicea asked. 

“I’d like that… but you should be mindful of the cold outside…” 



 

Overcome with emotion, Coco, using a soft voice, crooned the words, “Oh, she’s so beautiful...” 

Pacing around the mares gathered around Fluttershy’s bed, Discord strutted in the sort of way that only a draconequus experiencing paternal pride for the first time could, his eyes never leaving the little yellow face peering out of a blanket. After getting cleaned up, the foal turned out to be, a well, a foal, more or less, which surprised Discord to no end. 

“She looks like you,” Rarity said as she gazed upon the newborn foal. 

“She looks normal.” Applejack looked at the  foal and then noticed that Rarity looked agast. Applejack sighed and prepared for drama princess theatre… 

“Of course she’s normal! She’s a foal! She’s perfectly normal for… whatever it is she is!” Rarity narrowed her eyes at Applejack. Rarity shook her head and then gave a delicate stomp with her well cared for hoof upon the tile floor. 

“Girls, please!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Now is not the time.” 

“Have you thought about any names?” Pinkie Pie asked. 

“Well, now that you mention it—” 

“Discord, you named Lunacy, I’m naming this one… if that’s okay.” Fluttershy looked up at the pacing, strutting draconequus. 

“Well, actually, I had a few good ideas—” 

Staring at Discord, Fluttershy’s voice dropped a full octave and came out as a throaty, terrifying growl, an alien sound that did not seem like it should be coming out of the sunny yellow no-longer-quite-a-pegasus. “Discord…” 

“I had some very good ideas which I shall keep to myself. You’ve earned the right to name her, I suppose, after sneezing her out into the world and coating the Solar Empress in snot.” 

“No more ‘snot funny’ jokes…” Twilight cleared her throat and then looked at her friends. “You… you just don’t know what it was like, and no, Pinkie Pie, I don’t want to talk about it. Talking about it will not make me feel better.” 

“Awww… nuts.” Pinkie Pie slumped and looked dejected, her lower lip protruding in a pout. 

“It seems to me that she came early.” Applejack’s face crinkled with concern. “But she seems okay. She doesn’t seem like she’s premature, but what do I know?” 

“A draconequus is born when they feel like it, I suppose,” Twilight said to Applejack. 

“Born? More like sneezed out.” Applejack made a silly face, waggled her ears, and crossed her eyes at the foal. 

“Applejack, you’re a silly pony,” Rainbow Dash said, grinning at her friend. 

“No I ain’t! You take that back! Why do ponies keep saying that? I ain’t no silly pony!” 

“Who’s a silly pony?” Rainbow Dash, speaking in baby-talk, leaned down to get closer to the newborn foal. “Applejack, that’s who.” 

“Dashie, I ain’t amused.” Applejack rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You’ll get yours, just you wait, you cuss headed pegasus.” 

“Three perfect little hooves…” Coco gushed and then she squirmed as she held in a squeal of delight, not wanting to disturb the newborn. 

“Yes… three perfect little hooves and one perfect little paw. She is adorable,” Rarity agreed, leaning up against Coco. “Two perfect little wings—” 

“Even if they are two different types of wings,” Pinkie Pie said, finishing Rarity’s sentence. “She’s so cute and perfect and adorable and she looks so much like Fluttershy.” 

“Ooooh… ooooh! She just yawned… I could just die!” Twilight let out a squeal and began to prance in place at Fluttershy’s bedside. “I gotta hug something, come here Rainbow!” 

“Hey! Hey, you keep your mommy hormones to yourself!” Rainbow Dash replied as she backed away from the bed, looking fearful and apprehensive. 

“But you’re so little… and huggable,” Twilight Sparkle said, presenting a logical argument and trying to appeal to Rainbow Dash’s sense of reason. 

“Ugh, no!” Rainbow Dash backed away a bit more, bumped into the wall, turned tail, and then fled the small room.

“Hey, come back here!” Twilight Sparkle took off in hot pursuit of the fleeing pegasus. “Don’t turn this into a huggle struggle!” 

Staring at the door that Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash had exited through, Applejack sighed, her tail swishing around her hind legs. She looked over at Fluttershy, then at Rarity, and then at Pinkie Pie. 

“What are you thinking, Applejack?” Rarity asked as she took a step closer to her friend. “You must stop frowning, dear… you’ll get worry lines and wrinkles, and you have such a beautiful face.” 

“I was thinking about how things are gonna change. For all of us. I know what raising a foal is like, I done raised Apple Bloom and I think I did a pretty good job, seeing as how she turned out to become a princess and all. But for us, all of us, things are gonna change. Twilight is so different now because of little Glass Slipper… and she’s pregnant. So’s Rainbow. Rainbow has finally grown up and is taking life seriously.” Applejack turned to look at Pinkie Pie. “And you, you’re pregnant. You’ve changed.” Applejack shook her head. “We’re all at that point in our lives when everything changes. We’ve all gotten married and settled down. Adventuring has gotten a whole lot more complicated because we know there is more at stake now. Sometimes I feel kinda sad because I know the days of how things used to be are over.” 

Pinkie Pie giggled and looked at Applejack with wide amused looking eyes. “Applejack, don’t be silly… those days aren’t over… adventures end and new adventures begin… we’re just beginning our new adventures… and they’re going to involve a lot of scary things like diapers and projectile vomiting… but at least we’ll face them together!” 
	
> Chapter 726
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in a small, cramped, dirty dive bar, Mask and Fever Cure were having a drink and trying to calm down. The bar was empty, save for a greying, wrinkled waitress, and an elderly stallion that looked after the bar. The bar was old, smelled like mildew, and the alcohol served by the establishment had been watered down a great deal. 

“So now, I guess we return to Violet Velvet and Sunset Shimmer,” Fever Cure said, trying to start a conversation even though he didn’t feel like talking. He was so bothered by what they had found together that he had to do something to distract himself. 

Mask rubbed his face with his front hooves, squishing his cheeks, stretching and pulling the skin as he tried to rub away the tension. “Yes, we return to them, make a full report on everything we saw, including the live specimens in laboratory seventeen. Fever Cure, I am having a moral dilemma.” 

“You are?” Fever Cure looked at his companion with a curious expression. 

“We found living changelings in the lab but we did nothing to help them. We left them there. I know why we left them there. Changelings are dangerous and you and I lack the means to contain them. So we left them there to continue to be tortured and dissected.” Mask shook his head as his front hooves dropped away and fell to his sides. He slumped down in his chair, which had a wobble and rocked around with each movement. “Had those been ponies, we would have helped them escape. I have no doubt that you and I could have torn that whole building down. But they’re changelings. Which might be ponies… and we just left them there.” 

Fever Cure nodded. “We did. And what makes it even worse is, we study changelings at Hidden Hollow. It makes it very hard to condemn the actions of a private company when the Crown is also doing it.” 

“But the changelings at Hidden Hollow were infiltrators. Enemies of Crown and Country. The Enemy… and the Crown is not trying to make new drugs and make a profit off of what they are doing,” Mask said, trying to present a reasonable argument. 

“So that makes it better?” Fever Cure asked. 

Raising a hoof, Mask scratched his chin and replied, “I don’t know. We ourselves exist in a morally grey area. You and I are experimental abominations now, creations of rogue science and magic.” 

“We should get going. There is a four in the morning train we can catch. I think we can make it if we hurry,” Fever Cure said, changing the subject. 

“Yeah, let’s go. This place is a dump…” 



 

Sunset Shimmer was no stranger to burning the midnight oil. She lifted her teacup, took a sip of strong, black tea, grinned at Bartleby, and then resumed her work, returning to her book about resonant magical frequencies and their potential as weapons. It was an old dusty tome on loan from the Canterlot Royal Archives. 

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is feeling some Great and Powerful fatigue.” Trixie looked up from the book she was studying, rubbed her eyes, and then yawned. “But Trixie can keep going… do not worry.” Trixie blinked, shook her head, and then looked at Sunset Shimmer. “You know, if my idea works—” 

“You really will be remembered as the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Sunset Shimmer said, offering sincere praise to Trixie. “Still drawing blanks on how to sniff them out, but your idea was sheer brilliance. If we can find their specific frequency of magic, we can dispel their enchantments and their spells without disabling our own enchantments and spells.” 

“That does seem like it would be remarkably useful… detonating some kind of spell bomb that would only undo the enemy’s enchantments and protective wards with no risk of undoing ours.” Bartleby picked up a saucer covered in coffee cake crumbs and then flew over to the small sink. 

“It’ll be a long time before this goes from being a brilliant idea to being a functional battlefield tactic though, Bartleby. Years maybe.” Sunset Shimmer’s grin turned into a frown. “We’ll need extensive testing and that in and of itself presents a problem.” 

After dropping the saucer into the sink, Bartleby landed on the counter and then peered out the window. He could see two figures down below, two dark shapes that stood out in sharp contrast to the pale white snow. “I think… I think there is somepony playing tag.” 

Knowing she needed a break, Sunset Shimmer got up from her cushion, stretched, which caused her spine to crackle, and then trotted over to the window with Bartleby. She smooched the griffon sitting on the counter and then looked out the window. Squinting, she stared. 

“That’s Sentinel. I’d recognise those blue bat wings anywhere. And he’s with a griffoness. Is that Boadicea?” 

“Oh?” Trixie lept off of her cushion, almost stumbled because her hind legs had fallen asleep, and she made her way to the window. “I just got Boadicea as one of my drama students. She is very theatrical… she has a gift… all those marvelous black feathers.” 

“Oh, this is interesting.” Sunset Shimmer felt Trixie pressing up against her side. “Look at him, galloping around and kicking up his heels. What do you think has gotten into them?” 

“I would venture a guess that they are trying to get warmed up. It is currently below zero outside,” Bartleby replied. 

“Hmm… you might be right. There are better ways to get warmed up though.” 

“Sunset, my ray of sunshine, they are foals. The ways available to them to get warmed up are hopefully limited to running around and perhaps a little bit of necking,” Bartleby said as he hopped off of the counter and landed upon Sunset Shimmer’s back. 

“Bartleby is right. But now that it's been brought up, I’m feeling a little a chilly.” Trixie turned and looked at her companions. “But I am also exhausted.” 

“Hmm.” Sunset Shimmer considered Trixie’s words. “A little snuggle by the fire sounds good. We don’t have to do anything else. I’m still wide awake, but I think I could send you off to slumberland with pleasant dreams.” 

“Oooh… Trixie likes the sound of this…” 



 

Something shook the bed. Derpy could feel it and it pulled her up from the dark depths of sleep. She smacked her lips and forced her eyes to open. Derpy’s ears perked. Somepony was crying, but doing it in a way where they were trying to be as silent as possible. Derpy lifted her head and looked around. There was one pony off by herself, Thistle. 

Wiggling over the bed, Derpy crawled on her belly over to where Thistle was curled up by herself, trying to sob while also trying to be quiet. Derpy dropped her voice into a low whisper. “Thistle? You okay?” 

“He’s gone.” 

Something lanced through Derpy’s heart, something that hurt just as much as the throbbing arthritic ache in her pelvis. Thistle sounded miserable and now, Derpy was starting to feel just as bad as Thistle sounded. Something about the kelpie’s sobbing was heartwrenching. 

“I woke up and he was gone.” 

Reaching out, Derpy wrapped her forelegs around Thistle, snaking one of them under the kelpie’s neck, embracing Thistle and pulling her closer. Thistle, eager to be embraced, wiggled closer to Derpy and continued to cry into her front fetlocks. 

“He’s gone… I wanted to have another foal… I wanted to give Bell Heather a sister or a brother, and I want it to be Bucky’s foal, but he’s gone and what happens if he doesn’t come back—” 

“Shush,” Derpy said, whispering into Thistle’s ear. The kelpie fell silent but her body continued to shake and her barrel hitched from her sobbing. Derpy gave Thistle a squeeze and could feel Thistle’s spine against her stomach. “Are you still hung up on Bucky not being Bell Heather’s daddy?” 

“Maybe a little,” Thistle replied.

The grey pegasus nuzzled the kelpie just behind her ear. “You gotta stop that. Bucky loves that foal. It’s his in every way that matters. Just like Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel.” 

Sniffling, Thistle tried to hold back her sobs. “What if he doesn’t come back?” 

“He’ll come back,” Derpy said, but even as she said it, she worried that she might be lying to Thistle. She had no way of knowing. There were no guarantees that anypony would come back. 

“I don’t want to have another foal right away, but I keep thinking about Bucky going away and doing something dangerous and not coming back and then I worry that I might miss my chance and it hurts so much—” 

“Hush.” Derpy kissed Thistle just below her ear and she felt the kelpie squirm. 

“That’s where he kisses me when he’s trying to calm me down.” 

“I know,” Derpy replied and then kissed Thistle just below her ear once more.

“What’s going on?” Bon Bon asked as she lifted her head. “Do we have a sad kelpie?” 

“Yes we do.” Derpy could feel Thistle’s ear flicking over her lips as she spoke. “We also have a pregnant pegasus that needs to pee. I don’t think I can get out of bed on my own.” 

“I’ll wake up Lyra,” Bon Bon replied. 



 

Standing on the deck of The Scorned Mare, Bucky watched the fleet as it surged forwards towards the dawn. The sky was already looking rosy and the first hints of the sun were ahead. 

“It burns, ugh, it really hurts!” Tainy cried. The hippogriff fumbled around for her thick black glass goggles. “It feels like somepony is driving white hot needles into my eyes!” 

“I miss the sun… a little… but not much,” Black Briar said as he watched the hippogriff trying to save her eyes. He squinted at the first rays of dawn, his muzzle contorting. “Thankfully, I can stand to be in the sunlight.” 

Moonless Night steadied Tainy and kept her from falling over. He felt the sting as well, but nowhere near as bad as the hippogriff. For whatever reason, she was the only one in the group that had developed an extreme aversion to sunlight, so much so that she could no longer stand to have bright lights of any kind. Moonless Night suspected that it was because of her griffon ancestry, and griffons already having good night vision to begin with. 

“You okay, Tainy? Say something,” Storm Blitz said to the hippogriff. 

“Something,” Tainy mumbled as she leaned up against Moonless Night. 

Sitting on his haunches, Deus was sipping a cup of tea that steamed in the freezing air. He was wrapped in a heavy black cloak that rippled in the breeze. He was quiet and enjoying the beginnings of the sunrise. 

“I see a real potential weakness with Tainy’s eyes. A flare spell will cripple her,” Black Briar said, giving voice to his concerns to his companions. “I mean, it could hurt all of us, but she’s going to be especially weak.” 

“Then we look after her. And whatever flashes the flare spell, I rip its horn off of its head and I shove it up their—” 

“Moonie… that’s horrible!” Tainy said as she recovered just a enough to protest what was being said. She turned and looked at the big pony-creature-thing she had been leaning on. She watched as he shrugged. “I’m going belowdecks. I’ll be in my cabin if anypony needs me. I feel really weak.” 

“I’ll walk you there,” Moonless Night offered. 

“Thank you, you big violent brute.” Tainy looked at her fellow Shadowbolts. “You fellas are great. You know how to make a girl feel special. Thanks guys.” 

“It is you, Tainy, that makes the music that soothes the savage brute. We need you.” Deus smiled. “We have to have some way of calming Moonie down and making him a reasonable, intelligent creature once more when he has one of his… spells.” 

Tainy let out a weak laugh as she walked away, and Moonless Night followed on her heels. Moonless bounded ahead to open the door, waved her through, he then had to hunch down and shove himself through the doorway, because he no longer fit through standard sized doorways. 

“Uh, Bucky?” Black Briar took a few cautious steps towards the black cloaked figure. 

“Yes, what is it?” Bucky replied. 

“I’m a little nervous about meeting Princess Celestia,” Black Briar said. 

“Why are you nervous?” Bucky turned around and looked at the rotund earth pony. 

“I don’t know… I just am. I mean, she’s Princess Celestia… she’s important. She’s in charge. And she’s the alicorn of the sun and we’re all shades now and—” 

“She is looking forward to meeting all of you. She’ll be here within the hour. Black Briar, do try to calm down. How is your new leg?” Bucky asked, hoping to distract the earth pony from his problems. 

“Oh, it’s fine. It has a few quirks but I know that you’ll get them sorted out in time,” Black Briar replied. “I’m still really nervous.” 

“I haven’t seen Princess Celestia since my little fall from grace,” Storm Blitz said as he peered off in the direction of the hospital frigate. “I’m nervous too.” 

Bucky pulled his hood up over his head as the dawn grew brighter. “Well, get yourselves sorted out. She’ll be here within the hour.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 727
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Even though the hospital was a familiar place to her, Loch Skimmer felt more than a little nervous. She gnawed her lip, tapped one of her rear hooves upon the tile floor, fidgeted, and twitched. At least she wasn’t on fire, that made things a little easier. 

“You need to calm down,” Rising Star said in a calm and collected voice. He closed his magazine and set it down upon the low, small table that sat in front of the row of chairs. “Just a little visit to make sure that you and the foal are healthy.”

“I don’t want to be calm. You… your part in this is done, more or less. You can be calm all you want. Me on the other hoof, I get to be poked, prodded, have needles jammed into me, have my tail lifted so strangers can stare at my backside, my troubles are just beginning… so don’t tell me to be calm—” 

“Loch Skimmer, calm down.” Rising Star looked his wife in the eye and gave her a gentle smile. “I will be with you every step of the way.” He watched as Loch Skimmer took a deep breath and her wings fluttered at her sides. A bit of down worked itself free from her left wing and drifted down to the floor like an autumn leaf on the breeze. 

“Thanks for being here with me,” Loch Skimmer said in a husky, quavering voice. She stepped forwards, walked around the table, and then pressed her face into Rising Star’s neck. 

“We’ve finally got Ripple sorted out and acting mostly normal and now we need to work together and get you through this. Now that we are all working together, things have been easier. This will be a cinch. You’ll get through this and you’ll be a great mom, because you are an awesome pony. And you’re totally hawt, as Sparky would say.” Rising Star gave Loch Skimmer a reassuring nuzzle. 

“Loch Skimmer?” 

At the sound of the gravel filled voice, Loch Skimmer pulled away from Rising Star. She turned around and saw a short, squat looking diamond dog. She was grey with black spots, hunched over a bit, and had a kind expression. 

“My name is Silkie. I just took a job here and I would like to say right up front that if you are uncomfortable with me as your doctor, another doctor can be assigned to you. But I am very good at what I do,” the diamond dog said, introducing herself.

“I am totally okay with you as my doctor,” Loch Skimmer replied. She tilted her head and looked at the diamond dog. She saw the doctor wag her tail. “You must be part of the Unity Initiative.” 

The diamond dog nodded, her long droopy ears flopping around her face. “I am. I grew up in Germaney where there is already a lot of integration. During my career, I have worked in Germaney, in Fancy, the Sea of Grass, and Saddle Arabia. I specialise in crossbreeds and births of a highly magical nature. I understand that you occasionally burst into flames?” 

Loch Skimmer nodded and a sunny smile dawned upon the charcoal grey pegasus’ face. She felt Rising Star pressing up against her side and he was now standing, having slipped out of his chair while she hadn’t been looking. “You sound amazing.” 

“I had to beg the hospital for a job here,” Silkie replied. 

Rising Star took a cautious step forward. “Things are slow to change, but things are changing. Just give it some time… Ponyville is ground zero for big changes.”

“I know who you are,” Silkie said, looking at Rising Star. “Everyone knows who you are. Representative Rising Star, the voice of reason.” 

Bowing his head, Rising Star gave Silkie a charming smile. “I do my best, but for me to do my job, everyone has to listen. The most reasonable voice in the world is useless if there is nopony there to listen to them.” Rising Star paused, and then self corrected. “Or no one to listen to them. I do not wish to be an exclusionist.” 

“If you will follow me, we can continue talking in the exam room. I look forward to getting to know your entire family,” Silkie said as she made an inviting ‘follow me’ gesture with her well manicured paw. “And it is my distinct pleasure to make your family a little larger…” 



 

Looking at the assembled students, Daylight Shadow cleared his throat, cast a glance at Neon Blitz, and then prepared himself to address the crowd. He checked his notes, some of them written by Princess Apple Bloom herself, smiled, and thought about everything that needed to be said. 

“Greetings, all of you,” Daylight Shadow said into the microphone. There was a squeal of feedback and Night Light worked to adjust the sound settings. “Students, today, I am here to announce an all new school project. As all of you know, Equestria has entered into a serious conflict. I know that some of you have fathers and even mothers who have answered the call and have gone overseas to fight a good fight… but there are a lot of soldiers that don’t have families. They don’t have loved ones at home rooting for them. Princess Apple Bloom brought this to my attention and she has a plan. Working together with the Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns, we’re going to adopt soldiers. Classes will get a list of soldiers and a basic dossier about them. And then, we’re going to let them know that we appreciate them and we love them for what they are doing for us. We’re going to send them cookies. We’re going to send them letters. We’re going to send them care packages and little useful thoughtful things that let them know that we are thinking of them and to make them feel better.” Daylight Shadow smiled at the crowd and then looked over at Cheerilee, who was in charge during Bucky’s absence, and Apple Bloom, who stood grinning at Cheerilee’s side. 

Stepping forward, Cheerilee approached the microphone, one ear twitching. She swallowed, let out a low polite cough, and then she lifted her head as she stood next to Daylight Shadow. “This is very important. Very, very important. I ask that you get your parents involved. We’re going to need a lot of cookies, a lot of brownies, a lot of treats. I know there are some shortages right now, so if you and your family want to do something, but need some help getting supplies, talk to me and let me know. Help is available. We can’t do this without all of you. I know all of you are very good students and that none of you will let me down.” Cheerilee’s smile broadened. “Now, in a moment, Written Sound is going to come up on the stage and talk about the music from home project… all of you gifted little singers and musicians are going to get a chance to make a record and we’re going to send copies to the fleet so that the music might lift their spirits.” She looked over at Twilight Velvet and gave a nod to the mare that the students adored. 

Twilight Velvet strode forward, her head high, and her expression dignified. She stood beside Cheerilee. “Students, the Elements of Harmony need your help. As many of you know, my daughter and her friends are serving aboard the Sol Sempiternus. Twilight Sparkle and her friends need your help. This conflict is going to cause a lot of injuries… many are going to suffer. Twilight Sparkle and her friends could use a whole lot of little care packages, something small and easy to pass out to those they visit. Something to lift the spirits of the injured and the maimed. A kind word is good, but a little gift box is even better… so we need an army of volunteers to not only get the goods we need together, but to put everything into little boxes and maybe tie them up with little ribbons. We just need something that shows effort, care, appreciation, and consideration were shown.” 

Daylight Shadow looked at the two mares standing beside him, and then back upon the crowd. “We’re counting on you. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and I know for certain that you will not let us down. Now, where is Written Sound?” 



 

“There is going to be a literal storm of shit because of this.” Sunset Shimmer tossed her head back, trying to get her mane out of her eyes. “This is worse than I thought it was going to be. Thank you, both of you, for your excellent work. Both of you are a credit to the Shadowbolts.” 

“Thank you,” Mask replied. 

Fever Cure watched as Bartleby served tea. “This went much better than I had hoped.” 

“I have already dispatched Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks, along with a contingent of guardsponies, to Baltimare with warrants for arrest and seizure.” Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes. “Earth ponies.” She lifted her hoof to her temple and began to rub, trying to ease her own stress. “Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs will be shut down, all of their products will be removed from sale, all assets will be seized, and some very powerful ponies will no doubt try to fight this using any means they can.” 

“Where is Luna?” Trixie asked. “Luna should be here.” 

“I don’t know,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “Something may have come up, she might be busy. We can take care of this though.” 

Lifting up his teacup, Fever Cure gave a nod of thanks to the griffon and then looked at Sunset Shimmer once more. “So… tell me, what are we doing next? I strongly suspect that there are more jobs for my companion and I…” 



 

Looking at his mate, Lugnut tried to calm his nerves a bit. Dreary the donkey was quiet. Too quiet. Lugnut began to worry that old tensions between donkeys and griffons might be the cause. The presentation for Rising Star and Sunset Shimmer’s prototype leg was lying upon the table and Dreary had said nothing. 

“I don’t understand what I am looking at,” Dreary said as she shook her head. 

Lugnut sighed in relief.

Stepping forward, Spanner whipped out his charm. “Rising Star had this idea to remove as many joints as possible from the leg. Keep everything mechanically simple. The first few prototypes had all of the usual joints found in a pony or a donkey leg, but it presented so many issues with animating those joints.” Spanner pointed at the prototype. “This leg has a knee and that’s it. It will bend and flex matching the rhythm of the walk.” He ran his talon down along the long curved piece of metal. “This is like a leaf spring. It is curved so it will store mechanical energy. Down here along the bottom, it curves even more. This will bend and flex when the wearer stands on it, or walks, or runs. It might have a bit of a learning curve, but I assure you, this will work. Because of the flexible nature of the curved spring, it will allow the wearer to walk over uneven surfaces, and even up and down stairs. It is made of ultralight composites, so it isn’t heavy.” 

“The bottom of it, the place where a hoof should be, looks like an upside down question mark,” Dreary said.

“Yes, it is supposed to look like that,” Spanner replied. “An artificial hoof with a fully articulated fetlock and other joints was so heavy and there were so many things that could go wrong. And would go wrong most likely. This simplifies this, but I assure you, this will work.” 

“I think I see how this might work.” Dreary tilted her head and her muzzle scrunched up as she concentrated. “Pressing down would bend the spring, which in turn, would provide energy that would push back up. Yeah, I think I get it now…” 

“This thing uses so little power for the knee joint that it will work on a ley line charger with no other need for an additional power source. Which means it will work for those who don’t have natural magic reserves to draw upon. Most of the energy in the leg is mechanical, which is why we used a curved spring made out of flexible composite construction,” Lugnut said, overcoming his nervousness and was now gushing out his enthusiasm and his knowledge. “This is going to change the world,” the little griffon boasted, his feathers puffing out and his crest rising. 

Dreary nodded. “I suspect that this forge is going to make a lot of things that are going to change the world…” 
	
> Chapter 728 (Warning, may contain sexual congress) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blinking her bleary eyes, Berry Punch focused upon the newspaper. It had been a long night, made longer by the fact that the twins had been awake for hours, running laps inside of her uterus. At least, that is what it felt like. She leaned forwards and rested her elbows upon the table. Scowling, she rolled her hips around, or tried to, trying to shift her pelvis around, hoping to find the elusive and hard to find comfortable spot. All of this shifting and wiggling caused her insides to slosh around, which in turn caused the twins to bounce. Her efforts to get comfortable caused a long bassoon note of flatulence to come squealing out, starting out low and flappy, before rising in pitch, going from a wet flapper to a dry sounding fizzle. 

Berry Punch heard the thunk of a coffee cup hitting the kitchen table. She lowered her paper and saw Sentinel peering at her with wide, accusing eyes. “What?” Berry Punch looked at Sentinel, who seemed to have taken his father’s place at the table. The colt did not respond, but sat there, silent, his accusatory gaze still locked upon her. “I’m pregnant. With twins. I’m allowed to do anything I want to get comfortable. I don’t care how sensitive your sense of smell is.” Berry Punch fanned her newspaper at Sentinel. 

In a rare moment of Sentinel displaying a sense of humour, the colt proceeded with a pretend faint, falling over in the most dramatic way possible, clutching at his throat as he tipped over out of his chair with a gurgle. He hit the floor, went and limp, with the exception of one leg twitching. 

“Oh come on! You eat dead woodchucks and you once tried to eat a skunk.” Berry Punch rolled her eyes as she heard Lyra giggling. Berry’s nose crinkled and she used her newspaper to fan away the stench. 

Lyra began to cough. 

After a moment, Sentinel rose, shook himself, and got back into his chair, adjusting his glasses as he sat down. “Any good news?” he asked, looking at Berry with some concern as she continued to try and get comfortable. 

“The Rendezvous is happening today, according to the newspaper,” Berry replied. 

“The entire world going to war, united under one banner.” Sentinel picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, swished his coffee around in his mouth, and then swallowed. “So if the Rendezvous is happening, that means that the fleet is now assembled off of the coast of Fancy. Which means the invasion can begin at any time. We’ll go in, draw our enemy out, force them to fight, destroy them, the fleet can return home, and this will all be over.” 

“I doubt it will be that simple,” Lyra said as a scowl replaced her smile. 

“Oh… this is bad… this is real bad…” Berry Punch’s eyes narrowed as she read the fine, neat print. “There was a raid on Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs yesterday. The facilities were conducting illegal experimentation on earth ponies… the researchers and the company heads fought back, killing several guards before fleeing the premises. A running battle took place on the streets of Baltimare. The escape was aided by none other than Doctor Caballeron—” Berry Punch made an abrupt pause and stared at the paper. “Why does that name sound familiar?” 

“In the Daring Do novels, he is one of her primary antagonists,” Sentinel replied. 

Her mouth hanging open, Berry Punch set down the paper and gave Sentinel a blank stare, her discomfort now forgotten. She remained stupefied by what she had read. She saw Sentinel’s brow furrow and then she heard the colt ask, “Why would Doctor Caballeron, an earth pony, help a company experimenting on earth ponies?” 

Shrugging, Lyra lifted the paper in her telekinesis and had a look. “I didn’t know that he was a real pony, much less a real villain. This is news to me.” Lyra found the article and began reading through it for herself. “Now I’m wondering if whatsisname, that Ahuizotl fellow is real.” 

“He’s real,” Sentinel said. “Luna has talked about him. He’s kinda crazy and he wants to steal the sun from Celestia. He hates the cold and he wants to turn the whole world into one big sweltering jungle.” 

Rubbing her stomach, Berry Punch wondered if the twins would ever calm down and go to sleep. She thought about what Sentinel had said and after a moment, she had this to say. “So he’s crazy.” 

Sentinel nodded. “More or less. But dangerous crazy, enough so that Luna had warned father about him and they’ve discussed him as a potential Equestrian threat.” 

Possessing a quick mind, Lyra sat up straight and blurted out her conclusion: “Hey, if he wanted to turn the world into a jungle, he’d need to make stuff grow… like how earth ponies make stuff grow—” 

“Lyra Heartstrings, we don’t even know if Ahuizotl is involved in this mess,” Berry Punch said to her fellow-wife. 

“But he might be, and it’s fun to think about conspiracies,” Lyra replied, now grinning. 

Rolling her eyes, Berry Punch snorted. “Conspiracies.” The pudgy, pregnant earth pony looked at Lyra. “Conspiracies. Next you’ll be blurting out is that Bon Bon is really a secret agent who is hiding out and making candies for some obscure reason.” 

Lyra began to giggle. “That’s absurd… Bon Bon’s cutie mark is for candy making, not espionage… if she had a pair of binoculars or something, I’d be concerned.” 

The two mares began to laugh together and Sentinel lifted up his coffee cup for another sip.  



 

“No more, I can’t take it anymore!” Belisama panting, reached down, grabbed Bucky’s ear and gave it a gentle tug. She felt her toes curling as Bucky’s tongue lingered in a hot, moist place. “Take me… I want to feel you mount me…” 

Lifting his head, Bucky licked his lips and then replied, “Uh, that’s easier said than done. I’m a bit bigger than you, I’ll crush you into the bed or smother you.” He glanced downwards and stared at Belisama with a greedy unsatisfied need. Her kitty bits were swollen with need and her vibrant pink insides were peeking out. Her slit, when not all hot and bothered, was little more than a tight almost unnoticeable wrinkle, but now, it was a wet, glistening, inviting place. A bead of moisture began a slow roll down the exposed internal flap of skin. Reaching out his tongue, Bucky lapped it away and as he did so, he heard Belisama yowl. Her hind legs kicked around the sides of his face. 

It was a good thing he had sound proofed his cabin. 

“Take me on the edge of the bed… I have needs… I need to feel you against my back,” Belisama said in a needy whisper. She lifted her head, looked down between her legs, and saw Bucky staring back up at her. “Some itches can only be scratched the old fashioned way.” 

Feeling a strong sense of need himself, Bucky slipped off the bed. Belisama began to wiggle around, but he saved her the trouble, pulling her to the edge of the bed and then rolling her over onto her belly. Reaching down with his talons, he lifted her tail and gave it a few loving, gentle tugs to announce his intentions. He then mounted the griffoness, placing his front hoof and his talons on either side of her body before lowering himself down a bit on top of her, giving what he hoped was enough weight, without it being too much weight. She vanished beneath him, her head bumping up against his breast bone, and he heard her moaning. 

He lined himself up and gave her a few prods, trying to find his way in. After a few pokes, he found something hot and wet, something that made him throb on contact. He took a deep breath and reminded himself to be careful, Belisama was tiny and delicate. He could feel her wiggling her spine against his belly. He pushed forwards, encountering some resistance, and then with a grunt, he felt himself inside a place of slippery heat. 

A needy peep escaped from Belisama’s beak. She clenched her talons, digging into the blankets, getting a grip and pushing backwards as Bucky pushed into her. She could feel the skin on her back sliding forwards over her spine in the most delicious sort of way, and she could feel Bucky’s reassuring weight settling on top of her, which awakened her most primal needs. She rolled her hips, changing the angle of entry, and she could feel his shaft sliding along the tiny bead of flesh that was now protruding from a mass of hot, well slicked folds. She let out a needy screech and kicked her hind legs, which hung over the edge of the bed. With each thrust, she felt something heavy and meaty slapping up against her mons. It made her want to begin shredding the bed with her claws and it took every ounce of willpower that she had to keep herself from going wild in a frenzy of lust. 

Sliding in and out between Belisama’s fuzzy thighs, Bucky realised that he was not going to last very long. He was overstimulated and something about mounting the yowling, screeching griffoness had awoken the most primal and bestial parts of his nature. The wooden bedframe creaked with each thrust and Belisama was almost ground down into the mattress. He could feel her wings fluttering and flapping against his ribs. He eased himself down onto his elbows, closed his eyes, and continued thrusting, mindful of how deep he went, knowing that Belisama could not take his full length. He narrowed his stance, Belisama’s hind legs were in between his, and this caused her to tighten around him a little more, adding a bit of much needed friction. 

A strong, powerful need to push himself deep inside overtook Bucky, a need to push deeper and stay deep within the moist recesses of searing hot flesh. Shuddering, his face contorted into a crazed expression of maniacal lust, one eye narrowing, the other going wide, his lips pulled back from his teeth, one ear went sideways while the other stood straight up. His nostrils flared and his body trembled as a powerful orgasm overcame his body. His hips ground and humped up against Belisama’s clenching backside as he pumped his seed deep within her body while her needy yowls filled his ears. His dock seized and went tight, causing his tail to hitch and rise. His spine arched as his back muscles tensed and quivered. He could feel Belisama’s legs kicking, the outside of her thighs rubbing up against the inside of his thighs, and her tail thrashed against his belly, pinned between their bodies. He gave one final thrust, trying to pump out just a few more drops of seed, and then with a gasp, he fell over onto his side, rolling off of Belisama. 

After taking a few moments to recover, Belisama rolled over onto her back to cool off, drifting in the endless ocean that was her afterglow. She lay there, peeping, panting, her feathers were dishevelled, and her fur was damp as well as matted from Bucky’s frothy sweat. Her feminine places were sore, hot, stretched out, and tender, but Belisama wouldn’t have it any other way. The feeling of Bucky against her back, mounting her, had satisfied some deep emotional need, something that had gone unsatisfied up to this point, some animalistic and instinctual need that dwelled deep within. She felt a foreleg hook around her middle, pull her over, and then she felt two lips pressing into her feathers, kissing her. 

“Is that what you wanted?” Bucky asked, knowing that his words would tickle Belisama’s ear. He felt her squirm in his embrace and shivered as his body cooled from his evapourating sweat. 

Belisama sighed and her feathers fluffed out. “Yes.” She stretched, catlike, and then rolled over in Bucky’s embrace, presenting her stomach. “Now I want my belly rubbed. I need to feel appreciated.” 

“Oh, is that so?” Bucky placed his talons upon Belisama’s damp stomach, mindful of his claws. Belisama had been showing him how to sharpen them, and now the bladed edges could shave hair from flesh, much like any other well maintained griffon’s claws could do. As he began to rub her tummy, Bucky realised that the griffons’ talons could sum up their existence. They were fierce, gentle creatures, a living contradictory extreme. They could be gentle, loving parents, their claws never once drawing blood or piercing flesh, while still being murderous melee combatants. He waxed philosophical as his talon tips trailed over Belisama’s skin. 

“When I am sitting on your back, when I speak to inspire others… when I play music, I have a powerful feeling come over me. I can’t explain it,” Belisama said, engaging in a little pillow talk. 

“You feel like a queen?” Bucky asked. 

“Maybe… I don’t know. But everything feels right. When I am sitting on your back, I feel I could do anything, face anything, I feel like I have the courage to fight,” Belisama replied. 

“So am I your loyal steed?” Bucky grinned and gave Belisama’s belly a light tickle. 

Closing her eyes, Belisama giggled at Bucky’s tickle-touch. “Yes, yes you are, pony husband, you are my loyal steed.” She grasped Bucky’s talons with her own, and squeezed his talon fingers in hers. “You complete me. You’ve given me back my sense of self. I’ve figured out who and what I am, and know now what I must do.” Belisama opened her eyes, craned her head around in a crazy boneless manner, and looked Bucky in the eye. 

“And what must you do?” Bucky asked. 

“I must survive this conflict, make a name for myself, I must preserve my subjects, and then when all of this is over, I must ride you off into the sunset,” Belisama replied. 

Bucky grinned. “You’re a silly a cat-birdy creature… we’re going to be expected soon. Up for a shower?” 

“Just a few minutes more of this… I know others need you, but I need you too…” 
	
	
> Chapter 729
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




Father has already been away for too long. Everypony in the house is suffering in some way, but I am not sure  if anypony feels it as keenly as Harper. She has become quite miserable and she tries the patience of everypony and everybirdy in the house. 

At first, it was kind of cute, Harper laying on the floor with her legs stuck up in the air and announcing that she was dead. These bouts of death have progressed though, becoming full blown tantrums. She lays on the ground, kicking, screaming, shrieking, generally trying to make everyone around her as miserable as she is because she can’t deal with father not being here. 

At Bon Bon’s suggestion, Harper is now left alone on the floor and summarily ignored, left to kick and cry until she passes out from exhaustion or falls silent on her own. I am not certain what Bon Bon had hoped to accomplish with this approach, but everyone in the house now suffers for the hours that it takes until Harper wears herself out. 

For a time, I was actually angry with Harper, but after having thought about it, the anger is gone and all I feel is pity. I feel bad for Harper. She and I have something in common, and that is we both love our father. 

I have tried being the best big brother that I can be, I am ill suited to be father’s replacement, though I have tried. I lack ‘the claw’… something that father does to Harper when he holds her, announcing that ‘the claw’ will get her and then he holds his talons up in the air and Harper begins freaking out as father lowers his talons closer and closer and waggles his talon-fingers as she giggles and lets out adorable little cries for help. 

I tried attacking Harper with ‘the hoof’ and all she did was zap me. It wasn’t a little zap either, Harper really let go and the arcing electricity burned a patch of hair off of my leg. It wasn’t Harper’s fault though, she didn’t do it on purpose, she was very upset and having a bit of a temper tantrum at the time and I honestly thought I could cheer her up and restore some order. So the fault is my own. I should have listened to my mother, Berry Punch. She warned me to stay back and I failed to obey her or listen to her wisdom on the issue. As such, I have suffered.

Bell Heather is showing signs of being a chatterbox. Teaching her to talk was easy, she already has a tremendous vocabulary, but now, getting her to shut up is the real trick. The foal is impossibly loquacious. 

Cadance continues to progress. She is fully potty trained and no longer has accidents. She has figured out how to sprint without falling over onto her face. She has figured out how to climb stairs, but she hasn’t quite figured out how to get down the stairs. She is starting to fly too. Much like Harper, she misses father. She goes room to room looking for him, asking for him, wondering why he is gone. Shining Armor has taken up visiting more often to try and comfort her. 

And then there is Sukari. She goes around asking for baba, her word for father. She alternates her time with different ponies. She likes hiding with me under the stairs. When Harper is behaving herself she likes to spend time with Harper. She likes to play ball with Cadance. She likes to play tag with Peekaboo. But Sukari’s favourite pony has to be Bell Heather. Bell will start chattering and Sukari will sit there and listen to every word coming out of Bell’s mouth while occasionally kissing her sister. Sukari has come a long way from the scared, skittish foal that she was and Doctor Mawu says that Sukari is catching up on her lagging foalhood development. 

I feel that it should be noted, for the purposes of family history, that Sukari no longer freaks out when Thistle or Bell Heather change into kelpie form in the big bathtub. Sukari has taken up trying to swim in the big tub when it is full of water and Thistle is having a good soak. 

Mother Derpy has grown so large that her belly almost reaches the ground when she stands. This is not an exaggeration upon my part, and there are photographs that corroborate my statements. Berry Punch is almost as large, but not quite. It is hard to believe that there is still a fair bit of time to go until both sets of twins are born, although mother Berry is given to fits of drama where she lays on her back and begs for the birth to begin now. 

Something terrible has come over Bon Bon and it is no longer safe for a foal to come anywhere near her. She is clingy and will refuse to let go. She got ahold of Piña the other day and I felt bad for Piña, but I did not feel bad enough to risk coming close and rescuing her. 

Princess Luna continues to grow and gain back her magic. She has almost doubled in size already and her magic is becoming more potent. She says she is going to try raising the moon at some point in the near future. Funny, I had planned to write the words ‘raising the moon soon’ but the rhyme just seemed silly somehow and so, I self corrected. I leave this behind as a hoofnote. 

On a somewhat more personal note, I think I will be officially courting Boadicea soon. 

 



 

“It is so good to see all three of you,” Bucky said to Deadspin, Sour Mash, and Bunny. He grinned at the trio. “How are all of you? I’ve missed you so much.” 

We’re good,” Deadspin replied. “How are Derpy and Berry?” 

“Fit to pop.” Bucky looked at Sour Mash and then at Bunny. Bunny had a bit of a bulge around her middle. He turned his expression back towards Deadspin. 

“Yeah, I know. Fatherhood.” Deadspin grinned. “Don’t know how we’re going to function without Bunny though. She’s the best quartermaster in the fleet. She’ll be serving with Princess Celestia, keeping track of supplies.” 

“Deadspin and I are co-captains of our own ship now. Our vessel is named The Bollocks on account that it uses two spherical gasbags for buoyancy rather than the usual egg shaped single gasbag,” Sour Mash said. 

“We used the two gasbags because that’s all we had… we took them as salvage. The design is so distinctive that we’re keeping it. It has become the pride of the Shetland fleet,” Bunny explained. 

Bucky, laughing, felt overjoyed to see three ponies that he loved once more. 

“The Bollocks is equipped with dozens of steam powered harpoon launchers. We specialise in seizing other ships, crippling them, boarding them, subduing the crew, and gaining a new vessel to add to our fleet. That’s what we did during the griffon conflict.” Deadspin looked at Bucky, pride visible upon his face. “We captured over a dozen vessels. Of course, half of our crew are now griffons. Can’t imagine life without them.” 

“It is good to hear you say that,” Bucky said to Deadspin, his laughter now gone. Bucky’s tone was serious and his expression had become one of concern. “If Belisama was here with me, she’d probably be thanking you, but she’s with Twilight, schmoozing with the zebras.” 

“We’ve been down to the Sea of Grass… it was a nice place. We liked it there,” Bunny said. “I like life on an airship. Always a new bit of horizon to see, a new land to look at, and new creatures to meet.” 

“Travel is nice, but I think I’d be happier as a homebody.” Bucky heaved a sigh and missed those he had left at home. He looked around him, viewing the absurd number of airships flying in formation all around him. He had to keep those at home safe, which was why he was here. “Here comes in an incoming squadron of pegasi. We’d better clear the deck…” 



 

“This one here is made of pure sugar,” Applejack said to Fluttershy as Fluttershy changed Lunacy’s diaper. Applejack snuggled the tiny foal closer. “Have you thought of a name yet?” 

“Nope.” Fluttershy, now finished, lifted Lunacy up and gave the foal a little kiss upon her forehead. She cradled the small blue foal in her forelegs and began to try and rock her to sleep. 

“She’s so little… and yeller… and she looks like you,” Applejack said, her emotion causing her drawl to thicken. She lifted the blanketed bundle up and gave the foal a kiss on the cheek. 

Yawning, feeling a little sleepy, but also feeling content, Fluttershy began to hum, a soft soothing sound, trying to soothe Lunacy, who was just a little bit fussy, but was not crying. Looking after both foals would have been exhausting, if she hadn’t had so much help. 

And Discord. Fluttershy’s face broke into a sleepy smile. Discord had proven himself amazing. He was a good father and a proud papa. He looked after both foals and kept them quiet while she had slept, recovering from the birth. He could calm Lunacy when she was cranky. 

Poor Lunacy was always cranky. 

“You look tired, Flutters. You should take a nap. I’ll help look after these youngins while you catch yourself forty winks,” Applejack said. 

Fluttershy let out another yawn and then turned to look at her friend. “I might. Once I can get Lunacy settled down enough that she stops kicking. She was being so quiet and calm earlier when she was bundled up with the newborn. I don’t know what happened.” 

“I has me an idear,” Applejack said, her drawl just as thick as ever. “Give over little Lunacy.” 

Fluttershy, curious, drifted over towards Applejack and then placed Lunacy into Applejack’s waiting embrace. She watched as Applejack cradled both foals together and Fluttershy blinked when she saw Lunacy go still. 

“Well I’ll be,” Applejack said. “It’s just like I suspected. Lunacy might be a cranky cuss, but this little sweetheart is made of pure tranquility.” 

Fluttershy dropped down closer, reached out her paw, and placed it upon the newborn. “I suppose they are sisters. I still don’t trust Lunacy around the newborn, that protective mask is staying on, but it is surprising to see Lunacy so calm.” 

“Lunacy isn’t so bad.” Applejack leaned her head down and kissed the dark blue foal. The foal kicked her in the cheek and Applejack shook her head. “Apple Bloom was foul tempered for a time after she was born. She had colic something awful. Ma and Pa did all they could to calm her, but it took Apple Bloom’s big brother to get her to stop crying. Sometimes, ya just need a big brother or a big sister I suppose.” 

“Yes, I guess that Lunacy needs a little tranquility,” Fluttershy replied. She peered down at her foal, the tiny little yellow not-quite-a-pegasus wrapped in a blanket. “You bring calm to everypony that holds you and you comfort your sister. I think I might call you Tranquility.” 

Applejack’s eyes narrowed and the mare looked as though she had been chewing nettles for a moment as she pondered Fluttershy’s choice of a name. And then, Applejack smiled. “You know, for a little foal that’s part draconequus, that’s a good name.” 

The newborn’s tail, which resembled that of a lion, crept out of her blanket, sought out Lunacy, wrapped around the blue foal’s front leg, and the tufted tip came to rest up against Lunacy’s fetlock. 

“Aw nuts and gum, looking at that makes me want to squeal like a hog and run around in circles,” Applejack said as she looked down at the two foals. “Looks like Lunacy is plum tuckered out and is starting to go to sleep. You should get some sleep as well. I’ll just sit here all quiet like and hold these two.” 

Covering her mouth, Fluttershy yawned once more. She then reached out her wing and touched Applejack. “Thank you so very much. I’m very, very tired. I hate that I’m abandoning them, but I need some sleep and Discord is very busy helping Princess Celestia.” 

“Aw shucks, what are friends for? You go on, get you some shut eye…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 730
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Has there been any word?” Derpy looked over at Berry Punch with wide, pleading eyes. Laying on her side, Derpy was almost comfortable for the time being, her head propped up on several pillows. She was dopey and a bit spacey from painkillers as well as the anti-inflammatory medication she had taken. 

“Only that the invasion has begun a week early. After the Rendezvous, Keg Smasher made the decision to waste no time and Bucky backed his decision fully. The article doesn’t go into specifics, but Princess Celestia wanted more time for the troops to get to know one another and rest.” Berry Punch snorted and shook her head. “After being cooped up on an airship for a week or two, I bet those soldiers were itching for a fight. Not another week in the air.” 

“He’s in danger,” Derpy said in a fearful voice, her ears falling and drooping against the sides of her face. 

“We don’t know that.” Berry, who was sprawled on her back, reached over and grasped Derpy’s fetlock with her own. She gave her best friend a squeeze. “He has Belisama. We have to trust that Bucky will keep her safe, and by extension, keep himself safe.” 

“I hope this is over soon.” Derpy felt a little better with Berry Punch holding her fetlock. "I hope Twilight stays safe. I’m worried about her too… all of them.” 

“Princess Celestia remains off of the coast of Fancy, parked out over the ocean, hundreds of miles away from where the fighting is expected to be. The mountains are where our enemy is hiding. That hospital ship has a small fleet of protectors. They’ll be fine. There is also Princess Celestia herself, Twilight is no slouch in the magic department, and Discord, the killer of Tirek, is also there. Anything attacking the hospital frigate deserves whatever happens next.” 

Derpy sighed and allowed herself to feel just a tiny bit better. “I can’t wait for all of this to be over. Not just the war, but everything. I want to be able to run and walk again. I want to be able to chase after Bucky and play with my foals. I want to go swimming.” Straining, grunting, Derpy made a tremendous effort and with a great deal of struggle, she rolled over onto her back. At the end of her exertion, her sides were heaving. “When Dizzy and Ditzy come out, I am going to give them a piece of my mind for what they’ve done to me.” 

“Ooh… idea… we take all four of the little monsters and we foist them off on the others while you and I go on a vacation. I don’t know where we’ll go, but we’ll leave all of this behind.” Berry grinned and her hoof began to rub her belly in slow, lazy circles. 

“Hmm…” Derpy rubbed her chin and gave thought to Berry’s words. 

“We can celebrate being thin again. We can spend all day staring down at our filly bits… even better, we’ll be able to reach our own filly bits again. I don’t know about you but I am getting tired of having to ask somepony else to scratch the itchy places down there that I can no longer reach—” 

“Like when your tail gets pinched in your plot furrow and no amount of wiggling will get it out,” Derpy said. 

“Yeah!” Berry Punch nodded and felt better for having distracted Derpy from her worries. “And no more getting stuck in the bathtub!” 

“Um, Berry, speaking of tails caught in your plot furrow…” 

“Yeah?” 

“Could you help me pull mine out? It’s driving me crazy…” 



 

When missing those that were loved, some waited, some despaired, some sought to comfort others, and some chose to work to distract themselves. Dinky, missing her father, laboured towards the goal of impressing him upon his return, and worked towards figuring out teleportation. She could teleport rocks now, her own equivalent mass and then some. She had made a thorough study of the subject, even making an attempt to understand what happened to the equine consciousness when it didn’t have a body. 

That endeavour had lead to both understanding and confusion. Dinky had spoken with Sparkler, who had been without a body for a short time and then had used her magic to create herself a new body under extraordinary circumstances. 

Teleportation, or winking as it was sometimes called, was something that any unicorn could do, or so it was said. Some did it as an instinctual reflex during some extreme situation, preserving their life through dire circumstance. Nopony was certain how it even worked, but there were many competing theories, some of the best written by Star Swirl the Bearded and Twilight Sparkle the Absent Minded. 

In Dinky’s own independent studies on the matter, she had discovered that fire continued to burn when teleported. She had no idea why this was. But lit candles remained lit after teleportation. 

It was cold, the temperature hovered near zero, but Dinky failed to notice. She stood sucking in deep breaths, filling her lungs with cold air, preparing herself. No more rocks, no more blocks of wood, no more bales of hay, she was determined to send herself through the aether. Today was going to be the day. She tried not to think about all of the horrible things that could happen. 

Closing her eyes, Dinky began to focus her magic… 



 

Frustrated, angry, Cheerilee stared down at the crumpled up piece of paper for a long, heated moment and then looked over at Violet Velvet. The earth pony mare shook her head, unable to comprehend how somepony could do this. 

“You look upset,” Violet said to Cheerilee. “There is no point in getting upset. Yes, it is awful, but this is their choice to make.” 

“She’s a foal! She couldn’t help what she did! It was an accident, like wetting the bed, you don’t punish a foal for wetting the bed,” Cheerilee snapped, her emotions getting the better of her. 

“Cheerilee, calm down,” Doctor Mawu said in a well practiced, soothing voice. 

“No!” Cheerilee slammed her hoof down upon the table. “I will not be calm about this! I’m sick of being calm about this. This is going to hurt her and who is going to comfort her?” 

“Look, Cheerilee, as awful as this is, this is their choice to make. And they have chosen to relinquish custody of Firelock over to the Crown. Their home was burned down. They have other foals as well as themselves to think about and there is a great deal of concern for their own safety. And while Firelock is getting some control, we both know that she is dangerous.” Violet peered through her reading glasses down at the folder on the table. 

“But she is getting control! Sunset Shimmer has worked miracles with that foal… and she’s been helping Rising Star in the forge.” Cheerilee’s eyes glazed over with tears and she reached down to rub her rounded stomach.

Doctor Mawu leaned over and placed a hoof upon Cheerilee’s withers. “She has control under ideal circumstances while under the tutlage of fellow fire type unicorns. Her parents do not feel that they can safely look after her needs while also looking after the needs of their other foals.” 

Wiping her eyes, Cheerilee shook her head. “But she could learn control and then go home when she’s older. That’s why we have dormitories… we can get them through the rough spot. Why can’t they see that this will get better?” 

“Cheerilee, I am very sorry, but this is their choice to make. I also feel that they are making a mistake, but as a professional I must respect their decision. Now we need to figure out what is best for her and try to pick up the pieces,” Violet said. 

Sniffling, Cheerilee nodded. “It makes me feel better to hear you say that they’re making a mistake. I think I might be a little hormonal.” Cheerilee regained a bit more of her composure, shook her head, then looked at both the zebra and the unicorn sitting at the table with her. “So, what do we do now? Where do we go from here? And who is going to break the news to Firelock?” 





“Are you going to come out?” Loch Skimmer asked. She reached out a hoof and touched the cardboard box. 

“No,” a voice replied from inside the cardboard box. 

“No?” Loch Skimmer sat down on the floor and her head cocked to one side. “Why not? It has to be dark in there. Surely you don’t want to stay inside of a dark box.” 

The box moved, the edges lifting from the floor, and then the box walked a few steps away. Loch Skimmer watched as the box moved away and she could see little black hooves. 

“Come on Sukari… come out… I want to be a good big sister and play with you,” Loch Skimmer said as she continued to try and coax Sukari out from her fortress of boxitude. 

“No.” 

Heaving a sigh of exasperation, Loch Skimmer flopped down upon the floor with a thump. She crawled forwards on her belly towards the box and then knocked on the side with her hoof. “Come out and play.” 

“No.” 

Lifting her head, Loch Skimmer looked over at Cadance, hoping for some kind of help, but all Cadance did was shrug. Loch Skimmer scowled, Cadance was no help at all. “Thanks Cadance, thanks a lot. And after I went through all that trouble to preen your wings and make them pretty.” 

The pink alicorn foal giggled. 

“Come on Sukari, won’t you please come out?” Loch Skimmer pleaded. 

“I can’t.” 

At least that wasn’t a no, Loch Skimmer thought to herself. “What do you mean you can’t? Just lift up the box and crawl out.” 

“No.” 

“Yaaaaaaargh!” The frustrated filly rolled her eyes. “Why can’t you come out of your box and play with me?” 

“I’m a turtle.” 



 

Dinky was not in the same place as she had started. A powerful wave of nausea slammed into her and she felt like vomiting. She gritted her teeth and fought back, refusing to give in. She was alive and she seemed to be in one piece. 

Reaching up with her hoof, she touched her hat, after having a terrifying thought about it being fused to her head after her teleport. Her smoking cap moved, sliding over her scalp, and Dinky felt both relief and extreme nausea. 

It seemed so easy now that she had done it. Dinky realised that she could have done this a long time ago. All the practice done on rocks, wood, and bales of hay wasn’t as necessary and she had made herself believe. 

Gagging, Dinky lost her struggle. She barfed up the liquefied remains of her breakfast and chunks of her lunch, spewing into the snow at her front hooves. This was a temporary discomfort and she knew it would pass. She had magic now. Real magic. Powerful magic. Even as Dinky emptied out the contents of her stomach, she celebrated the fact that she had joined the accomplished ranks of skilled magic users. 

Snorting, Dinky tried to blow chunks of hot, stinging vomit out of her nostrils. 

“You did well.” 

Dinky lifted her head, feeling more than a little concerned about her appearance at the moment. She saw Luna standing in the snow. Luna, who now seemed a little taller than she had been this morning at breakfast. Dinky took a deep breath and forced out another snort, trying to clear her nostrils. 

“As I am sure you know, it gets a little easier. But that first wink is always a doozy.” Luna’s eyes narrowed. “You are accomplishing much at your age. You are driven.” 

“I want to see the world change,” Dinky replied in a raspy voice. “If the world will not change willingly, then it shall do so under the brute force of my magic.” 

A thin smile crept over Luna’s lips, like a foal who was late and sneaking into a classroom. “Is that so?” 

“Yes.” Dinky gagged and she felt her knees began to wobble. “My father taught me that I don’t have to sit back and complain about how the world is. I don’t have to cry about how unfair the world can be. If change will not happen on its own, then I will force it to happen, just as he has.” Dinky shook her head and then wiped her muzzle with her fetlock. 

“Fascinating,” Luna said in a low voice. Her eyebrow raised. 

“Apple Bloom has ideas. Good ideas. With magic, anything is possible. I’m going to help make those ideas a reality,” Dinky said to Luna. “Apple Bloom is building an army.” 

“And finding capable soldiers, so it seems.” Luna, who was feeling a powerful sensation of elation, realised she was feeling pride. And not self pride, the sort that brought a nasty tumble. “My dearest sister is going to come home and find that she has competition as the do goodingest princess.” 

Dinky gave Luna a weak smile. 

“When I give lessons to Sentinel you are invited to come and join us. I will give you instruction as well. You have taken an extraordinary step and now that you have done so, you have earned my attention. I will instruct you in advanced magical theory, if you would like.” 

Dinky had trouble believing what she was hearing. She looked at Luna and her heart started thudding inside of her barrel. 

“Of course, I do not do this for your own benefit… but for Apple Bloom and the world in general.” Luna gave Dinky a teasing smile. “Come Dinky, let us go inside the house and get you cleaned up. Be mindful of the zebra turtle.” 

Dinky blinked. “What?”
	
	
	
> Chapter 731
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scowling, Sentinel threw down the newspaper and bared his fangs at it. He thought about hissing at it, but having everypony around him releasing their bowels would have been problematic. 

“Something wrong?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

The hard expression upon Sentinel’s face softened somewhat when he heard Diamond Tiara’s voice. “Some bad things were said about my father… the whole gun issue. He worked so hard to remove threats to future peace and they’re blaming him for the return of firearms. He was tasked with finding safe, reliable solutions that would allow us to battle our enemies. Somepony called him a hypocrite, taking away guns one moment and bringing them back for himself the next.” 

“Calm down. Let them say stupid things. Maybe you should write something and explain what really happened.” Diamond Tiara grabbed the offending newspaper, wadded it up, and then stuffed it into her bookbag. “Sentinel, Bucky is at the mercy of what others tell him to do. Maybe you need to tell everypo… er, everyone about his dedication and how he is following orders.” 

Sentinel let out a grumpy sounding grunt as he folded his forelegs over his barrel and began to sulk. He heaved out a sigh and when he didn’t feel better, he let go of another. 

Covering her nose with her fetlock, Diamond Tiara looked at Sentinel. “What have you been eating? Mercy… I’m dying over here.” 

The scowl upon Sentinel’s face intensified. “I got a whiff of pickled garlic bulbs at breakfast. They smelled irresistible so I stood up on my hind legs, got a better look at them on the counter, fished one out with my wing, ate one, and then I emptied out about half of the jar before I could stop.” 

“Smelths lith thit,” Diamond Tiara said around her fetlock. “No kistheths forth thyou!” 

“I also drank some of the pickled garlic brine.” Sentinel raised his eyebrow as he looked at Diamond Tiara. He slipped out his chair and took a step closer to Diamond Tiara. 

“Whath areth thyou doingth?” Diamond Tiara lept out of her chair and backed away. 

“I’m about to make myself feel better,” Sentinel replied. 

“Ugh! No!” Diamond Tiara took off, running away and squealing. She didn’t get very far and she felt Sentinel grabbing her, wrapping a his foreleg around her middle. He reeked of garlic. “Mega-brute!” Reaching out, Diamond Tiara gave Sentinel a few cuffs with her well maintained and perfect hoof. 



 

Hearing a commotion, Lyra Heartstrings got up from the sofa, landed on her hooves, stepped over Harper, lept over Cadance, sidestepped a zebra turtle, somehow avoided snapping her fetlock like a twig by not stepping on a stray wooden block, avoided a charging Peekaboo, and left Erebus to his fate of being pounced upon by Peekaboo. 

The living room was a hazardous place. She stepped into the hall, turned right, took a few steps, and went into the dining room. The commotion had gone silent. On the floor, she saw Sentinel sitting on his haunches, one foreleg wrapped around Diamond Tiara, and both wings. It sounded like he was gnawing upon her face, and Diamond Tiara had both forelegs wrapped around Sentinel’s neck. 

Lyra watched the two juveniles snog for a while and then came to the conclusion that neither one of them realised that she was standing there. She cleared her throat, and then, this time, adding some volume, cleared her throat again. 

She watched as Sentinel jerked his head away, his eyes blinking, and a marvelous look of guilt appeared upon his face. Diamond Tiara’s whole muzzle was shiny with slick slobber. Lyra heard Diamond Tiara start to giggle, a nervous giggle. 

“So I take it that you were helping Diamond Tiara with her homework?” Lyra asked. 

“Yes!” Sentinel replied. It took several seconds for Sentinel to realise that this was the wrong answer. “No!” he cried, correcting himself. His eye glasses were fogged over and his eyes blinked several times behind the steamed lenses. “No… I, uh…” Sentinel, knowing that he was caught in the act, resorted to absurdity. “You came just in time… Lyra… I couldn’t help myself. I got hungry and it finally happened. I was consumed with the burning need to feast upon pony flesh and I started eating Diamond Tiara’s face… you came just in time to save both of us!” 

Diamond Tiara, collapsed into a fit of laughter and buried her face down against Sentinel’s neck as her whole body convulsed from her guffaws. 

To Lyra’s credit, she kept a straight face, even though it took a monumental effort. “I see.” Lyra cleared her throat as laughter tickled her uvula. She then coughed and her golden eyes focused upon Sentinel. “So I am living every mother’s nightmare. My little colt has grown up and has reached the age where I need to worry about him eating fillies.” 

The double entendre waited for a few seconds, an act of courtesy on its part, it then smashed into Sentinel with all of the force of an inebriated full sized dragon jumping off of a cliff and diving into a pony proportioned apple pie, simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

There was a pained wheeze and then Diamond Tiara howled with more laughter, clinging to Sentinel’s neck as she struggled to breathe. Tears streamed down her slick, slobber soaked cheeks. 

Sentinel fell over as though he had been poleaxed, pulling Diamond Tiara down on top of him. He lay on the floor and whimpered, knowing full well there was nothing he could say or do. Lyra had him dead to rights. 

“What stinks like garlic?” Lyra asked, her nostrils crinkling. “Oh by Luna’s stars, you really were going to eat her, weren’t you? You slathered her up in some kind of garlic marinade first, you sicko!” 

“What about my stars?” 

Lyra Heartstrings turned and looked at Luna. “I just caught Sentinel gnawing upon Diamond Tiara’s face. He was eating her. He even slathered her up in garlic marinade first.” 

Blank faced, Luna stared down at Sentinel and Diamond Tiara on the floor. She then turned her head and looked over at Lyra. “This house is weird, so very, very weird.” Luna shook her head as she rolled her eyes. She then looked down at Sentinel once more. “At least you started off in the right place. Too many colts are over eager, skip the main course, and go right for dessert. Always start on the face, work your way down along the neck bone, and then continue to work your way down. Slowly. And with a great deal of patience. With practice, you will never have to go out and catch a mare, the mare will come to you.” Tossing her head back, Luna trotted off towards the living room to be with Erebus. 

“Hmm, that’s helpful advice,” Lyra said. “Anyway, now that you’ve been sufficiently embarrassed, I hope you’ve learned your lesson. Carry on.” Lyra stepped away and followed after Luna. 

Diamond Tiara, still sprawled over Sentinel, cried with laughter. 



 

Leaning against her mother’s stomach, Dinky pressed her ear down onto Derpy’s belly and tried to listen to her siblings. She wrapped her forelegs around the bulge and gave her little brother and her little sister a hug. 

“So you teleported today,” Derpy said as she felt her belly being squeezed. Derpy couldn’t complain. It felt kinda good. She hoped that Dinky would keep squeezing. 

“Yeah I did, mama,” Dinky replied. Dinky’s ear twitched and flapped against Derpy’s taut stomach flesh. “I did it. I have separated myself from the common dabbler and joined the ranks of well practiced unicorn magi.” 

“Dinky, just don’t grow up too quickly.” Reaching down, Derpy patted Dinky on the back. “I’m proud of you. I suppose all of the study and practice has been a good thing. You haven’t pulled any pranks in quite a while.” 

“I’ve been busy.” Dinky felt something kick up against her cheek. “With Apple Bloom’s cloud project, my own studies, delving into enchantment, dabbling with transmutation, and my mentalist studies for Stargarden’s class, all of my magic gets exhausted and there just isn’t enough left for pranks.” 

“You sound like Bucky… always busy.” Derpy stroked Dinky’s neck, feeling her foal’s silky mane against the inner folds of her bent fetlock. 

“I am trying to live by his example.” Dinky lifted her head and turned her whole body around to look at her mother. “You know, I am what I am because of both of you.” 

“Explain to mommy what you mean, Dinky.” 

Dinky’s muzzle crinkled and she pressed her two front hooves together in front of her. “You raised me like a pegasus. It helped to shape how I see the world and how I deal with stuff.” Dinky’s face contorted even more as she struggled to think of complex thoughts and concepts that challenged the limits of her understanding. “Bucky taught me how to be a unicorn. In a good way. From you, I learned how to look after a flock. How to look after a group as a whole. Bucky taught me control. He gave me discipline. That day when he worked me until I was stupid taught me something. Taught me a lot actually. By looking after my flock, by keeping myself busy, by channeling all of my magical energy into helping those around me, I keep the neurosis away. I can still feel it sometimes. I still get weird urges and I sometimes get angry for no reason. But I know how to make it go away. I know how to deal with it now. I find my friends and I help them. I use my magic to make their lives easier. Or better. By giving all that I have of myself, I keep the angries away and I don’t have the crazy thoughts very often.” 

“It makes me very happy to hear you say that, Dinky,” Derpy said to her daughter in a proud voice. 

“We taught daddy pegasus manners. Daddy taught me unicorn work ethic. I don’t know what else to call it. Not every unicorn has it, and the ones that don’t, they have a lot of problems if they have strong magic.” 

“You’ve grown up so much in the past year, Dinky. You’re making mommy want to cry.” Reaching out, Derpy got one foreleg around Dinky and then pulled her closer. She crushed Dinky into her barrel and gave her foal a squeeze. 

“I wonder what it is going to be like having a little brother…” 



 

“Big Mac?” 

The big red stallion turned his head and looked at Babs Seed as she spilled her school books out of her bookbag and onto the kitchen table. 

Seeing that she had Big Mac’s attention, Babs asked, “Is it wrong for me to act like a colt? Some foals at school said something to me today about me wearing a tuxedo jacket to the school gala.” 

“Eenope.” 

Babs rubbed her chin. “Applejack is a bit of a tomcolt, isn’t she?” 

“Eeyup.” 

“But when the mood strikes her, she can doll herself up and look real pretty.” 

“Eeyup.” Big Mac squirmed a bit about agreeing that his sister was pretty. One had to be careful to avoid stereotypes. 

“I like being a filly, and I guess I am a tomcolt, but when I get dressed up, I want to look handsome, not pretty. I guess pretty just isn’t my thing.” Babs looked Big Mac in the eye and noticed that he was squirming. “Is there something wrong with me?” 

“Eenope.” 

“Everything is so simple for you. Nothing is complicated at all. It all boils down to a yes or a no. I wish everything was so simple for me.” 

Big Mac gnawed on his lip. Granny Smith wasn’t home. Cheerilee had not returned yet. Applejack and Silver Shill were gone. It was just Big Mac and a tiny filly from Manehatten that needed to talk. He gulped and cleared his throat. “Let me simplify things for you…” 

Babs blinked a few times as her ears fell over in astonishment. She looked up at Big Mac. “Okay, Mac, let me have it.” 

“Just answer yes or no.” Big Mac felt himself start to sweat and his leg muscles quivered with nervousness. 

“Okay. Hit me.” 

“Does Larch like you just the way you are?” 

“Yes he does. He’s always—” 

“Yes or no,” Big Mac said, cutting Babs off. 

Babs sighed. 

“We’ll try this again.” Big Mac cleared his throat. “Does Larch like you just the way you are?” He looked down at Babs and could see that she was deep in thought. 

“Yes.” 

“Is he and Piña your best friends?” 

“Yes.” 

“Does Piña like you just the way you are?” 

“Yes.” 

“Did either one of them seem bothered by you being in a tuxedo jacket?” 

“No.” 

“Did you have a nice time at the gala?” 

“Yes.” 

“When you are with the both of them, do you forget what time it is and does the world around you just sort of fade away?” 

Babs nodded. “Yes.” 

“Do you love me?” 

Babs rolled her eyes. “Yes.” 

“Have you kissed Larch or Piña yet?” 

“Hey!” Babs shook her hoof at Big Mac. “You tried to trick me!” 

“Eeyup.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 732
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Aboard a ship named The Season of the Bitch, which happened to be a diamond dog vessel, Bucky did his best to relax in strange surroundings. The Scorned Mare was back with the rest of the fleet, serving as a base of operations for the Shadowbolts. 

The diamond dogs took a very stark approach to shipbuilding, and Bucky found that he rather liked the bare bones aesthetic. This ship had started its life in the Sea of Grass, had been purchased by the K-Neun Army of Germaney, stripped bare down to the hull, and rebuilt. 

The ship was a bit chaotic as it had dogs and cats living together. Quite a number of Keg Smasher’s Griffon Remnants Army was stationed aboard, most of them hunters. All of them were hard cases, of this there could be no doubt. Many were missing an eye, or talon finger or two, or sometimes missing whole limbs. They were a battered lot, well seasoned, and had seen extensive combat against the enemy griffons during the archipelago engagement. 

Bucky was proud to know them. 

“Sir.” 

Bucky turned to address the growly voice. A short but heavy set diamond dog stood at attention. Behind him, a much taller diamond dog stood, holding a wooden box. The short diamond dog’s arms were longer than his hind legs and the width of his shoulders appeared to be almost the same as his height. His forearms had to be larger than Bucky’s own neck. “Yes?” 

“The K-Neun Army of Germaney has a gift for you, a sign of respect. For both you and Queen Belisama.” 

“A gift?” 

The taller diamond dog kneeled down, opened the wooden box, and the shorter diamond dog reached inside. He pulled out a spiked helmet and held it out to Bucky. 

“A salad bowl!” Bucky grinned. 

Both diamond dogs laughed and the taller one began to chortle. 

“This is a pickelhaube, the traditional helmet of our soldiers. It is heavy, well made, can be used to beat your enemies to death, and this one is plated in nickel, making it extra shiny. Only officers and commanders get shiny nickel plating. Very desireable!” The shorter diamond dog let go of the helmet when he felt the tug of magic upon it and watched as Bucky placed it upon his head. “There is a second one for Queen Belisama.” 

Turning around, the shorter diamond dog pulled a smaller pickelhaube out of the wooden box and held it out towards Bucky. Extending his field of levitation, Bucky accepted the gift and passed it back to Belisama, who wasted no time and put it on. The griffoness began cinching the strap that ran down under her beak. 

“You say these are functional and will protect our heads?” Belisama asked. 

The taller diamond dog nodded. 

Her crest rising, Belisama pulled out Muninn from its sheath. With a flick of her wrist, she flipped the revolver around, grabbed it by the barrel, and with one swift motion, she hammered down the grip onto the back of Bucky’s helmet. There was a metallic ringing sound. 

“Hey!” Bucky shouted, startled by the blow. 

“Not even a dent,” Belisama said. She reached out and rubbed Bucky’s neck with her right talons as her left talons slid Muninn back into it’s oiled canvas sheath. 

“Good wife. Checks gear and makes sure that it is safe. Very desireable in a mate,” the short diamond dog said. 

“She just pistol whipped me.” Bucky craned his head around to look at Belisama. 

“Pistol whipping for good reason. Very romantic,” the taller diamond dog said. 

Reaching out, Belisama patted Bucky on the snoot. “I had to make sure that your helmet would keep your brain safe. I feel better knowing for certain.” She saw Bucky smile and felt her heart start pounding in a most familiar way. 

The moment was interrupted by an alarm klaxxon going off, which made a deafening “AAAAAAOOOOOGAH!” sound. The wooden box was dropped and the taller diamond dog took off sprinting. 

“Proximity alarm… what in Tartarus?” The shorter diamond dog looked panicked. “Is there a malfunction? That should only go off if there is an enemy right on top of us—” 

The diamond dog was interrupted by a deafening explosion and the whole ship shuddered. Belisama reached out and grabbed Bucky’s mane to steady herself. 

“How can this be? We should have a warning alarm to let us know an enemy vessel was approaching!” the diamond dog shouted as he took off running. 



 

“Situation,” Bucky said in a calm voice as he stepped onto the command room. 

“Sir, a ship just appeared in the middle of our formation—” 

“Are you telling me a ship just teleported on top of us?” Bucky asked, shaking his head. He wobbled as there was another explosion, but kept his balance. “That’s impossible, you can’t teleport an airship, it’s too big!” 

“Sir, that is what happened!” 

“THE AASFRESSER IS TORN IN TWO, SHE’S GOING DOWN!” 

“Fliegen welpin scheiße!”

“Pull away, hard to starboard, gain altitude so our gasbag is above their line of fire!” Bucky commanded as he looked out and saw the enemy vessel that was just yards away from the window. 

“Shields are holding but the arcano tech batteries are draining fast,” a griffon reported. “We’re in the yellow and approaching red!” 

The whole ship rocked as another nearby ship exploded. Bucky understood that the old tactics of clustering together to have safety in numbers was now working against them. To open fire on the enemy vessel meant that they could risk hitting one of their own. Under normal tactics, staying clustered together for safety worked. Approaching vessels were met with bristling offense. 

As the ship climbed and pulled away, Bucky had a good view of the enemy vessel. The gasbag was struck by a lightning gun, it ripped into the aluminum with ease. A blossom of fire erupted from the sundered gasbag. 

In a fraction of a second, Bucky realised that the gasbag was not filled with cloudstuff, but hydrogen. Already the flames were blooming into a massive fireball. He felt the deck plate beneath his hooves shudder. 

Acting on reflex, Bucky dropped into shadow, pulling Belisama with him. He retreated into his cloak, his mantle of living darkness, and then he shadow winked away as the blossoming fireball overtook The Season of the Bitch. 



 

Bucky winked back into existence quite some distance away. He felt Belisama clutching his neck, she was trembling. His cloak protected him in the daylight, but Bucky felt weak. His shadow magic was being taxed by trying to fly and hover in the daylight. 

He watched as the fleet of seventeen ships fell to earth, all of them burning and broken. Hundreds of lives had just ended. Off in the distance, on the distant horizon, he saw another massive explosion. Bucky could only guess that somehow, another ship had been teleported into the middle of another formation of airships. 

He felt a lump rise in his throat. This was impossible. He did not understand how this could be happening. The magical power to teleport something as large as an airship was incalculable, impossible, inconceivable. 

“You okay?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m alright,” Belisama replied in a soft squeak. 

“We’re in trouble Belisama… the fleet is several hundred miles behind us. The forward advance… I have a feeling that most of them are gone. It’s daylight, and that’s bad for me. Once it is night, I can get us back to the fleet in no time.” 

“We get down to ground level and we hide.” Belisama wondered how they were staying up in the air, but that was a question for another time. “They’re all dead, aren’t they?” 

“Probably,” Bucky replied. As he spoke, there was yet another horrendous explosion off on the distant horizon where another formation of airships had been pushing forward towards the mountains. More ships were now going down in flames and hundreds more lives had just been lost. Feeling fatigued, in both a mental and physical sense, Bucky angled himself towards the ground, his cloak fluttering around him like wings. 



 

Against his better judgment, Bucky crept forward towards the crash site, working his way through the trees. Flaming wreckage lie ahead and the forest was burning. Even though he knew that he would find none, Bucky hoped that there would be survivors. Even if the flames did not kill them, the fall would have. The ships had been over a mile in the air. 

As he made his way to the wreckage, Bucky put out any patches of fire in his way, keeping Belisama and himself safe. He couldn’t put out the entire blazing forest fire, the expense of magic would be immense, but he was able to protect himself from the flames. 

There were pieces of ships scattered everywhere, most of them quite small. Some pieces were larger. Bucky peered around and came to the dreadful conclusion that he would find no life in this dreadful inferno, but he already knew that. 

Bucky came across a large section of keel, the very bottom part of a ship. It was charred and black, dented, and a part of it had crumpled. There was a gaping tear in the side. Curious, he stepped through the tear and made his way inside of the fallen section of airship. 



 

Bucky illuminated the dark space with his horn so Belisama could see. It was hot in here, but his magic kept him safe. He smelled burning hair. There were no fires in here, just immense heat. He crawled through another hole ripped through a bulkhead and entered into a wide open space. The walls all around him were crumpled. 

The room was full of horror. Belisama let out a frightened peep. 

The broken bodies of several unicorns lay upon what used to be a wall, but now served as the floor. Some had been torn free, but others still had magic collectors around their horns. Feeding tubes snaked up their noses. They were emaciated looking, and almost all of them were hairless. 

In the corner of the room there was a large crystal sphere that was somehow undamaged. Bucky went over to examine it. He could feel Belisama quaking in terror upon his back. Looking around, he saw crystalline fibre cables, conduits, more magic collectors, and the torn remains of slings that had once held bodies. 

The crystal sphere still pulsed in the faint spark of magic. As Bucky examined it, he realised what all of this was. The airship had been a golem powered by unicorns. Expendable unicorns. It was a grim realisation, one that shocked Bucky, and then he had a second revelation. 

He figured out how the ships had managed to teleport. The ships were not constrained by arcano tech batteries, but living unicorn batteries. There were over a dozen in this room with him, and Bucky had no idea how many more had been on this ship. 

“Belisama, I think we’re in big trouble,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

“I figured that out on my own, thanks,” Belisama replied. Her voice sounded brave, defiant event, but her trembling body gave away her real feelings. 

“Belisama, those unicorns you see, those were living batteries. This ship was an automated golem. I’m pretty sure that is how it was able to teleport into the middle of our formation. Probably from miles away, outside of our threat detection range. We need to get back to the main fleet and tell them about this. We’ll need to change our tactics and how we position our ships. And we’ll need to figure out how to fight an enemy with vastly superiour technology.” 

“Bucky, I want to be away from this place… please, can we go? I don’t like the smell,” Belisama said in a pleading voice.

The immense heat was cooking the bodies around them. Bucky nodded, took a final look at the crystal sphere, the cables, the conduits, an entire system of powerful magic built upon the exploitation of those too weak to defend themselves. It made him feel sick to his stomach to think about it. 

Turning away, Bucky began to climb back out of the wreckage. 
	
	
> Chapter 733
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So we know nothing about what has taken place in Baltimare,” Sunset Shimmer said to Witching Hour in an annoyed and somewhat impatient voice. 

Witching Hour, who seemed almost calm, nodded. 

“But we do know that Doctor Caballeron was involved.” 

Again, Witching Hour nodded.

“So we know that ponies with serious bank power have become involved in a pharmaceutical company that was working on the next generation of mood altering drugs. And now, it appears, we are engaging in a clandestine war against them.” 

Witching Hour did not reply right away. She gave thought to Sunset Shimmer’s words for a while, giving them careful consideration, and then, after a few minutes of thought, the unicorn mare shrugged. 

“Where are Fever Cure and Mask right now?” Sunset asked. 

“Fever Cure is at Canterlot castle hospital, working on research to aid the war effort. Mask has also taken up residence at Canterlot castle. He is POSING as an INTERIOR DECORATOR on the castle staff and he will be SPENDING his time around the foreign dignitaries, trying to PICK UP on their secrets or useful information.” 

Frustrated, Sunset realised there wasn’t much she could do here. She shook her head and sighed. “Witching Hour, you and your husband should stay here at home for a while. Take more downtime. I am certain there will be no shortage of trouble that you will need to respond to, and I want you well rested.” 

Smiling, Witching Hour nodded, turned tail, and left. 



 

“Okay class… today, we are going to work upon our flouncing! I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, shall show you a proper flounce!” Trixie lifted her head high and her nostrils flared. “First, one must look suitably angry. Look at how angry Trixie looks!” 

The class, full of all sorts of creatures, all watched Trixie in manner that could only be described as mesmerised. Ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, a few little minotaurs, zebras, all of them brought together over a love of drama. 

At the moment, all of them were tossing their heads back and trying to flare nostrils, except for the griffons, who had to settle for trying other ways to emote their anger. Boadicea settled on fluffing out her neck scruffle and raising her crest to a forty five degree angle. 

Trixie then prance-stomped forwards, her steps exaggerated as she lifted her hooves high, her hooves then striking the wooden floor with a sharp kick downwards, with each prancing stomp she tossed her head around a bit and snorted. The classroom filled with a hullaballoo of stomps, snorts, and eager little students followed Trixie’s example. 

At the end of her dramatic march, Trixie threw herself down upon a fainting couch, raised her right front hoof to her brow, and cried, “OH WOE IS ME, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, I HAVE COME TO KNOW LOSS AND HARDSHIP!” 

As the class stomped around and engaged in drama, Babs Seed turned to face her new friend. “This is great, ain’t it?” 

Lifting a wing to her brow in a manner most dramatic, all while looking as though she would faint at any moment, Boadicea nodded and then said, “Oh woe is me, I am but a poor griffoness, and all of my shinies have been stolen!” 

Encouraged by what she was seeing, Trixie watched as her students got into the act. The new batch of students were quite good. Some of them had a good look about them, and some of them made wonderful tragic figures, like the black griffoness with black eyes. This class was showy. While the last class had some potential, and some of them had done quite well, most of the class had taken drama believing it to be an easy class that they could slack off in. The Great and Powerful Trixie had shown them. She had worked them almost to death and now, now she had a reputation. The only students signing up for this class now were those most dedicated to the cause of good drama and the desire to engage in a bit of show business. 

When the door opened and a rainbow beaked griffon stood in the doorway, Trixie cried, “My beau! The love of my life! That which I cannot live without!” She rose from her fainting couch in the most dramatic way possible and then sashayed towards him in an exaggerated and sultry strut. Trixie was most pleased to see Bartleby’s feathers fluffing out. 

“I was sent to help and to be your assistant,” Bartleby said in a low voice. “You rang?” 

“Class, this is Bartleby the Butler.” Trixie grinned at her students. “We’re going to be putting on a play. The play is called ‘How I Helped the Hired Help’ and it is about a young heiress that falls in love with a clumsy butler… to express their societally forbidden love, separated by social classes and a variety of other factors, she teaches him how to tapdance. The two go on, triumphant, to become a singing and dancing sensation, loved by all, and their tragic romance has a happy ending!” 

“Sappy!” a student shouted in a flamboyant manner, giving the ‘s’ sounds a bit of a drawn out lisp. 

“I know this story!” Babs began to bounce up and down. “The heiress was disowned. She and the clumsy butler had to dance for tips on the street corners of Manehatten.” 

“Correct!” Trixie trilled her ‘r’ sounds and pointed at Babs with her hoof. 

“Oh my, what have I gotten myself into?” Bartleby muttered. 



 

“...and then the lock washer goes on, just like this,” Spanner said to Firelock. He pulled his head back to allow the unicorn foal to get a better look. “After that, we put a bolt on and tighten everything up.” 

“I see.” Firelock nodded and lifted a wrench up in her telekinesis to have a good look at it. The foal was covered in grease and soot. The only place clean on her was the whites of her eyes. “And this is done to keep the bolts from working free because of vibration.” 

“Right,” Spanner said, nodding his head. “You’re a smart filly.” 

“Hey, I need you for a moment,” Lugnut said as he dropped down from where he was at the top of a skeletal looking mechanical framework. Reaching out, he grabbed Firelock, who started giggling, and then flew back up to the top of the metal framework. 

“Whatcha need?” Firelock asked. 

“I need a strut that goes from here to here,” Lugnut replied, pointing from place to place. “Think you can spot weld something for me?” 

“Sure thing!” Firelock balanced upon the narrow metal framework, fearless, knowing that she would be caught if she slipped and fell. She pulled her smoked glass goggles over her eyes and her horn began to glow. 

Lugnut held up the metal support bar and wedged it into a corner where two major metal struts came together, forming a triangle. Firelock’s horn glowed a bright eye burning blue and the metal she applied her magic to began to merge together with a hiss. 

Some distance away, Rising Star watched the filly work. She spent almost all of her time in the forge now. Learning things that she could not learn in school. Rising Star felt that she was learning important things. When the support strut was welded into place, Lugnut hung himself from it and began to do beak-ups to test its structural hold. 

“Sir, somepony to is here to see you,” a grubby looking griffoness said. 



 

That somepony turned out to be Spitfire. She was wearing a heavy winter coat and sunglasses. She paced in the snow while looking at the school. Rising Star found that he was glad to see her, but he could not say why.

“Rainbow Dash is messing up our Wonderbolts Academy.”

Confused, Rising Star shook his head. “I beg your pardon?” 

“Rainbow Dash… the flight school she has here. She has a perfect safety record, you know. Her students all have higher average speeds. They have better flying metrics. I don’t know what Rainbow Dash is doing, but so far, her performance here is outstanding. She’s making future Wonderbolts. Future soldiers. This generation of fliers is off to a damn good start, and it all starts here. Cloudsdale’s flight camp has nothing on this place, and the Wonderbolts’ juniour flight academy looks like an absolute disaster when you compare the flight records.” 

“We do things differently here at the Founder’s Forge,” Rising Star said to Spitfire. “Why are you here?” 

“To seduce you into a political alliance,” Spitfire said, lowering her sunglasses and batting her eyelashes at Rising Star. “Get into bed with me, I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll work your shaft and your balls if you give my filly boner the attention it deserves.” 

“Okay, start talking,” Rising Star said to the brazen mare. 

“I’ve been in contact with Princess Apple Bloom. She has a secretary now, did you know that? Some mare named Diamond Tiara. Real professional like. Anyhow, Apple Bloom is creating an initiative called ‘Foals First’ and she wants me to drum up support because I like the idea… it is why I was thinking out loud about what Rainbow Dash is doing here. We need to look ahead Rising Star, the old way is dying out fast and the next generation is all set to replace us.” 

“Lots of talk with very little said.” Rising Star’s eyebrow raised and he shook his head. “Is there a point to this?” 

“Apple Bloom wants to create a program that will appeal to today's youth, get them into after school programs, extracurricular stuff, and have all the programs populated with talent scouts, skilled wizards, experienced fliers, et cetera, et cetera… and then when real talent is spotted, it is snatched up, taken, studied for its fullest possible potential, and then given every possible chance to succeed. The idea here is to get at the real talent when they are as young as possible in order to maximise the returns on educating them. Apple Bloom wants the best and the brightest at everything. Apple Bloom is building an army.” 

“I see.” Rising Star cleared his throat. 

“This is going to rock the political boat, so to speak. It is going to cost money and it is going to need all kinds of support. Apple Bloom wants the program to be ready to be presented by the spring session.” 

“Oh dog farts.” Rising Star’s jaw dropped open. “Spring session?” 

“Yeah, Apple Bloom has this whole Twilight Sparkle vibe going on. She wants the impossible done and she wants it done last week.” Spitfire looked up at Rising Star, her glasses still low down on her nasal bridge. “Rising, we have a chance to do something amazing here. This is where the change we need can start. All kinds of ponies from all walks of life. Fliers, spell casters… little engineers that like to play with fire. We can spot them early and make sure that no talent goes wasted. We won’t have some brilliant earth pony with an engineering bent stuck pulling wagons because he never got the education he needed to make his full potential possible.” 

Turning his head, Rising Star looked at his foundry. He thought of Firelock. She had seemed like a walking disaster upon first glance, but she had brilliance and raw talent. Staring at the large black iron double doors, Rising Star mulled the situation over in his mind. 

“Look, this is something that could bring some real equality…” 

Rising Star’s head began to bob up and down as he found himself in agreement. Class equality was just as important as tribal equality. Rising Star began to see that this was a way to bring about some real change in the system. Which meant that it would be fought every step of the way by the old guard. “I’m in—” 

“YES!” Spitfire’s wings snapped out and she stomped her hoof down in the snow. 

“So, tell me, do you want to go and meet with Apple Bloom and her lovely secretary, Diamond Tiara?” Rising Star asked. 

“Yeah, actually, that’d be great,” Spitfire replied. 

“Let’s go.” Rising Star took off at a trot for the main school building. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 734
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Princess Celestia said a few words, Glass Slipper wrapped her legs around Bucky’s neck, leaned against him, and closed her eyes. “Mama got scared.” 

Sitting in a chair, Bucky patted Glass Slipper on the back with his talons. “I got scared too.” Bucky lowered his head, inhaled, and took in Glass Slipper’s scent. She smelled a bit like Twilight Sparkle. Old books and fruity scented soap. “Are you ready to start school in  the spring? Your mama says you’re old enough.” 

“No. Mama needs me. She can’t save the world without me,” Glass Slipper replied. 

“Oh. I see.” Bucky gave a sidelong glance to Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting beside him. “It’s probably for the best. If I had you in my clutches at school, I might decide to keep you for myself.” 

Glass Slipper began to giggle, while Twilight, overhearing what Bucky had said, began to growl. 

“...and Buckminster, if you will come and say a few words about our situation?” Celestia looked over at Bucky with an expectant glance, her eyebrow raised. 

“That’s my cue. Sorry Slippy.” Bucky lifted the foal in his magic and then passed her over to Twilight, who snatched her and then squeezed her. Bucky got out of his chair, his cloak settling around his legs, looked at Belisama, who was sitting in a chair, and then made his way to the podium. 

Princess Celestia stepped aside to give him room, bowing her head and giving the gathered command a nod of her head. 

“I am sure that all of you know by now, the entire forward advance is gone,” Bucky said in a low voice to the many creatures in the room. “I am trusting that all of you have read my brief report and understand why we must make changes to our tactics. Are there any questions?” 

Bucky’s abruptness was unexpected. The gathered crowd was silent. After a long period of sitting there and blinking, a zebra mare stood up and asked, “If he is using unicorns to make batteries, isn’t he weakening his own forces? I mean, he can’t have that many, can he?” 

Heaving a weary sigh, Bucky lowered his head closer to the microphone. “Let me explain our enemy. He is never going to run out of unicorns. He is plundering other whens, other wheres, stealing resources, food, guns, technology, and even other ponies. There are a million other worlds and potentially an infinite number of unicorns he could steal to aid his plans.” 

“But how is this possible? Isn’t the whole point that his magic works here and not in other places? How is the unicorn magic working here?” a griffon commander asked. 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed his nasal bridge and tried to think of a way to make everyone understand. “These are weak unicorns. He isn’t using them for their magical prowess. A unicorn, no matter which world it comes from, has mana. A thaumaturgical liquid produced by a series of organs in the body. Now, magical power itself has to be fine tuned to work throughout different worlds. In this world, I’m fairly powerful, as far as unicorns go, but in another world, I might be very weak. But I would still have my mana reserves. Think of it as blood, or lymphatic fluid in a body.” Bucky cleared his throat. “He is taking these unicorns, subduing them, and then milking them for raw mana. Basically raw fuel. Think of it as lamp oil. You can use a lot of different types of oil for lamp oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, even naphtha can be used, but the one thing all these have in common is that they will burn and power a lamp. He’s not using these unicorns for magic, but for fuel to power his magical devices, which are attuned for this world.” 

“That’s horrifying,” a zebra stallion said. 

“I agree,” Bucky said into the microphone. “We face a very different sort of enemy.” 

“How do we fight such a foe?” a tall female diamond dog asked. 

“I don’t know yet,” Bucky replied, being honest. He heard gasps from around the room and he raised his talons. “I have ideas though. We present less of a target for one. The Night Stallion is used to dealing with big powerful threats. That is his talent, that is what he does. We keep the fleet back and we go on hoof and on wing and we push forwards again. Smaller groups. Small groups that don’t seem as threatening. We give his talent as little as possible to work with. Once we get an idea of where our enemy is hiding, we send in the Myrmidons and use them as high altitude bombers, but we keep them spaced out and not in a herd. We are not going to have any success using airships in a conventional, old fashioned sort of way.” 

“This seems sound,” the diamond dog said. 

“It is planned to send griffons along with the Myrmidon bombers. If wings of enemy pegasi try to deal with the Myrmidons, the griffons will have firearms to help even the odds. But there are so few griffons for this purpose.” 

“Knight Commandant, there are a lot of smaller diamond dogs,” the tall female diamond dog captain said. 

“There are only so many firearms. Many of our ranks will be using crossbows and spell jars to deal with incoming threats, if this even works.” Bucky looked at the diamond dog and nodded. “I will keep what you said in mind. If the little dogs want to make a difference, they will be given the opportunity.” 

The diamond dog captain looked around the room and then said, “Clan Dachshund are some of our most fierce fighters, they will be glad to be given a chance to prove themselves. On land or in the air.” 

“Death from above or below,” another diamond dog said. “And what of the ground?” 

“We hold back on a direct invasion on the ground until after we find out how successful an air campaign is. We draw the enemy out. We test their strength. We continue to plague them from the air as long as we can, provided that these ideas work,” Bucky replied. 

“We bocors know a few things about guerrilla tactics. We have long fought the evil griffons of the Hinterlands and Griffonholm. We could tell you much,” a zebra stallion said. 

“Well, I’m listening…” Bucky replied. 



 

“Silver Shill, what are you doing up here on the deck, it’s freezing.” Applejack looked at her husband and hoped that her hat wouldn’t blow off. She shivered and then pressed herself up against the tall silver pelted stallion beside her. 

“I’m hoping that more come back,” Silver Shill replied, his eyes scanning the horizon. “They can’t all be gone… they just can’t.” 

“I reckon I don’t know.” Applejack rubbed herself up against her husband and tried to keep her teeth from chattering. “Bucky’s fast from what I hear. Twilight tried to explain it to me how it worked, but I couldn’t make no sense of it. If others do come back, it might take them a while. If their ship is gone and they somehow survived the fall, they might still make it back.” Applejack lost her struggle and her teeth began to chatter together. 

“What are the others doing?” Silver Shill asked in a soft voice that was difficult to hear over the roar of the wind. 

“Cheese and Pinkie are singing to the troops in that little makeshift officer’s club. Spirits are high, I reckon, given the situation and all. It’s impossible to be depressed around those two.” Applejack rubbed her neck against Silver Shill’s, glad for his warmth. “Rarity and Coco are taking nursing lessons. Rarity’s real good at stitching, and she might be doing a lot of it real soon, but not on no fancy dresses. I figure she’ll be stitching our troops back together soon enough. Coco is the strong sort. She’ll be real useful for holding a body down and making them stay still, whispering a comforting word in their ear while Rarity sews them back together.” Applejack closed her eyes. “Fluttershy is taking care of Tranquility and Lunacy with Rainbow Dash, who has turned into a big sap. Discord is working with Twilight to extend the range of the magical sensor doohickies so they can try to detect teleporting ships from a longer distance away. And Bucky… Bucky is being Bucky. He’s probably thinking of something real evil to do for revenge, and bless his hooves, I hope he thinks of something awful.” 

“Bucky isn’t a bad sort,” Silver Shill said. 

“You ain’t seen Bucky in one of his bad moods Silver. You weren’t there in Griffonholm. All I can say is, I’m glad he’s on our side.” Applejack opened her eyes. “Silver, come on. Let’s go to our cabin. I need ya to warm me up with that handsome body of yours. I’m cold and I’m in need of comforting.” 

“Anything for you, dearest…” 



 

“Fluttershy, do you really believe that everything happens for a reason?” Rainbow Dash asked as she rubbed her cheek against Tranquility’s velvety ear. 

“Yes,” Fluttershy replied. “I have come to believe that.” 

“My rainboom that brought all of us together. That led to this. I dunno, it’s kinda overwhelming to think about.” Rainbow Dash looked over at her oldest friend. “It’s been a long, strange journey.” 

“It has.” Fluttershy nodded and felt her heart melting. Rainbow Dash was laying on her stomach, sprawled over the bed, and both foals were cradled in Rainbow Dash’s forelegs. It made Fluttershy want to hug something every time she looked at the heart warming scene. 

“And then Tranquility is born just when she’s needed. Look how calm Lunacy is… she’s sleeping and she’s so sweet. Hard to believe that she’s the same foal from when I first met her.” Rainbow Dash looked down. Lunacy was still wearing a muzzle, which Fluttershy refused to remove. Lunacy was sound asleep, pressed up against her sister’s soft, fuzzy, yellow body. 

“We’ve both come such a long, long way,” Fluttershy said in a soft voice as she landed on the bed beside Rainbow Dash. She curled up against her friend’s side and rested her head against the slight swell of Rainbow Dash’s side, just behind her ribs. “You just wanted to win a race that day. That’s what started all of this. That is quite possibly the most chaotic thing I can think of, and believe me, lately, I’ve been thinking about all kinds of chaotic things.” 

“What’s it like being a draconequus?” Rainbow Dash asked, turning her head around to look at Fluttershy. 

“I don’t know… it isn’t so bad. I’m still the same pony I was on the inside.” 

“No… you’re not. You’ve changed. You’ve gotten braver. You’re more outspoken.” 

“Maybe I have changed. So what… change is necessary. Things change or face stagnation.” A gentle smile spread over Fluttershy’s lips. “You’ve changed.” 

“I know.” Rainbow Dash sighed and then rolled her eyes. She gave the foals in her embrace a little squeeze. “Twilight teases me about it all the time.” 

“Twilight has changed.” Fluttershy rubbed her head against Rainbow Dash’s side. 

“She found a grey mane hair the other day. She freaked out. I mean, total meltdown. She pulled it out and then sealed it away for study. I don’t know what she plans to do.” Rainbow Dash had to hold back a giggle, Fluttershy’s fuzzy wuzzy muzzle nuzzles against her sides were ticklish. “Twilight is too young to have grey hair.” 

“One day, we’ll all have grey hair,” Fluttershy said. 

“No Shy… you won’t… you’ll never have to worry about that.” Rainbow Dash looked at her oldest friend and the ticklish feeling was now gone. She felt her eyes watering. “I’m gonna break your heart, Shy. We all are. We’re going to continue to get old and grey and you are going to be young and pretty forever.” 

Fluttershy flopped forwards and wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow Dash’s neck. She gave her friend a squeeze and then remained there, not letting go. Rainbow Dash did nothing to squirm away or break free. 

“Just try not to tease me when my rainbow gets a bit of a silver lining in it, okay?” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 735
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Are you sure that this will work?” One eye narrow, one eye wide, Rumble looked at the cobbled together contraption. Scootaloo had done something weird to her scooter. It no longer had wheels, but runners in the rear and a single ski up in the front for steering. 

“Look here, Leftovers, I’m telling you, it will work. I just need a pony to pull it. Think of this as a training opportunity.” Scootaloo grinned at Rumble and then patted her scooter. “Now hurry up, we’ll be late for school.” 

“I have to pull you to school?” Rumble kicked the snow and then let out a groan. 

“Seniority, Leftovers, seniority.” Scootaloo began tying a simple harness around Rumble’s body. As she tightened a strap, she leaned her head over and kissed Rumble right on his ear. 

Rumble’s ears perked straight up, becoming fully ear-ect. 

Grinning, Scootaloo got on her scooter, gripped the handlebars with her fetlocks, braced her hind hooves on the running board, and watched as Rumble lurched forwards, pulling the strap connecting him to the scooter taut. The scooter lurched a bit, took off, and then the ride smoothed out as Rumble began picking up speed. 

Soon enough, the town of Ponyville was almost a blur as the pair surged forwards, Rumble bounding through the fresh fallen snow and Scootaloo hanging on for dear life. She had expected some speed, but she hadn’t expected this much speed. 

And then, at some point when Sugarcube Corner was in view, Rumble found his rhythm, going from a fast canter to a full steam gallop. Scootaloo was forced to redouble her grip to keep hanging on. Rumble had always been a fast one, but there was a marked improvement in his speed with even just a few days of hard training, most of which had been done by his own mother, Flitter. 

Rumble bounded through the snow, his wings flapping, his mouth open, and his nostrils flared open wide for maximum air intake. Lean muscle rippled under his silver grey pelt. His mane and tail streamed out behind him as he continued to pick up speed. 

The filly on the scooter played it cool. She kept a good grip, leaned in to the corners when they happened, and she enjoyed the feeling of her snow scooter carving into the corners. There was nothing quite as satisfying as leaning her scooter down as much as it would go, the handlebars inches from the snow, and then recovering, pulling up as Rumble continued his relentless onslaught forwards. 

With a cheer, Scootaloo blasted past the sleigh pulling a load of foals to the school.



 

Ignoring the whinny from the door, Harper paid no attention to Cadance, who wanted to play, and instead pressed her ear up against Derpy’s belly. There was a faint crackle of static, which caused Derpy’s mane and tail to become fuller, fluffing out. 

Standing in the door to the nursery, Cadance let out another impatient whinny. It was time for after breakfast playtime. She let out a frustrated nicker and then when she realised that her playmate was not coming, Cadance took off to find her own adventures, leaving Harper and Derpy alone. 

“How?” Harper asked, tapping on Derpy’s stomach. 

“Oh, it’s very magical,” Derpy replied, her eyes twinkling with merriment.

“Did I?” Harper turned and looked at Derpy, her ears flat back against her skull. 

Thinking of Harper’s birth, Derpy felt a pang, but kept her smile. She nodded. “Yes, Harper, you came out of a tummy. All foals do. The world is a very dangerous place, and a mother’s tummy is safe for a foal when they are teeny tiny.” 

“Harpy was teeny tiny?” Harper sat back on her haunches, balanced, and then pressed her front hooves together as she began to think of what Derpy had said. 

“Harpy was very teeny tiny. You were so small and fuzzy wuzzy. Everypony loved you. You made your mamamama very happy,” Derpy said. 

Harper’s expression darkened. “Harpy miss mamamama.” 

“I know.” Derpy reached out and pressed her hoof into Harper’s stomach and then gave it a rub. “I miss Bucky too.” 

“How Harpy get in there?” the foal asked, pointing to Derpy’s belly. 

“A very special kind of magic brought about by love.” Derpy felt Harper’s forelegs wrap around her foreleg and squeeze. “When two ponies love each other a whole lot, a little foal is made. They share a little bit of each other, give up just a little piece of themselves, and from those pieces and from that love, a little foal is made.” 

“Harpy want inside. Want to see foals.” 

“Oh no… Harper can’t go inside, Harper is too big. I’m sorry, Harper.” 

“But Harper want inside. Want to play.” 

“Harper, no, there is no way inside,” Derpy said. 

“What foals do to get in there?” Harper asked, her brows furrowing as she made a massive leap of logic for her age. 

“What did you have for breakfast?” Derpy asked, changing the subject. 

“Mango jelly. Toast. Eggies.” Harper rolled over onto her back and pressed her ear against Derpy’s belly. 

“You really love mangos…” 

“Yep. Harpy love mangos.” Harper’s eyes closed and she snuggled closer to Derpy’s side, her ear flickering as she listened. “What feel like?” 

A serene smile crept over Derpy’s face. “Right now, it feels like they are sleeping.” 



 

“Come back here, your pelt is all matted and you need a good brushing!” Thistle took off after Cadance and tried once more to catch the foal. She pounced, almost had Cadance, but then Cadance bounded away. Thistle grunted. “I will not have a scruffy looking foal! It makes me look like a bad mother!” 

Thistle took the brush she was holding in her folded fetlock and placed it between her teeth so she would have all four legs available. She took off after Cadance, who ran down the hall. Thistle lept again, and Cadance doubled back, her hooves skidding along the wooden floor. Thistle growled around the handle of the brush and took off in hot pursuit. 

Meanwhile, Cadance giggled, circled around, avoided Thistle, and took off at a run towards the front of the house. Her ethereal mane and tail bubbled out little pink hearts that popped in the air, leaving behind the perpetual scent of roses everywhere that Cadance went. 

Berry Punch lumbered out of the living room archway, trying to block Cadance, but Cadance darted between Berry’s legs, reaching out a wing as she ran beneath, she tickled Berry’s stomach. Berry began to laugh and she wobbled as she tried to get away from Cadance.

Thistle had to come to a skidding halt to avoid slamming into Berry Punch. She sidestepped, braced her legs, and pounced. She caught Cadance in a flying tackle. She bore Cadance down to the floor, pinning her, and Thistle wrapped her front legs around Cadance’s body. Cadance, for all of her seeming fragility, was much sturdier than she looked, and much stronger than one expected. Using her hind legs, she hooked her hooves onto Thistle’s left foreleg, strained, grunted, and then Cadance popped free. She flapped her wings and took off running, letting out a triumphant whinny. 

“Ugh, you little monster!” The hairbrush clattered to the floor, having fallen out of Thistle’s mouth.

“Get her Thistle! We can’t show weakness! If we do, we’ll be overrun!” Berry Punch got out of the way and watched as the kelpie recovered her hooves. 

Sitting on the sofa, Sukari watched all of this, her blue eyes wide, her ears perked forwards. There was too much commotion going on and Sukari considered returning to her box to become a turtle once more. 

Deciding that enough was enough, Thistle held nothing back when she tackled Cadance again. Thistle engaged in an epic huggle struggle. Having learned some of Cadance’s tricks, the kelpie wrapped one foreleg down around Cadance’s lower stomach, down in a spot where the foal could not get leverage with her hind legs. The other foreleg wrapped around Cadance’s barrel and snaked between Cadance’s front legs. Thistle rolled over onto her back so Cadance would have no floor to brace her legs against. 

“Berry, help me!” 

“Hang on, I’m coming!” 

The pudgy, pregnant earth pony mare stood beside Thistle and looked down at Cadance, who was smiling. “You’re gonna pay Cadance… I know how to wear you out.” 

Real fear appeared in Cadance’s eyes and she began to shake her head, a pleading look upon her face. “No no no!” 

“Yes yes yes!” Berry replied as she reached out with her foreleg. She grabbed Cadance’s hind leg, pulled it out, and then pressed her lips against Cadance’s tender frog. Berry Punch blew a wet slobbery raspberry. 

Cadance squealed and then exploded with spastic laughter, her wings flapping. She felt another raspberry against her frog and then, Cadance was helpless. Gasping, almost crying, Cadance howled with laughter, which winded her, making it impossible to fight back. 

Berry Punch lifted her head. “Hold on to her Thistle, she might be playing possum. I’ll go get the brush.” Berry Punch looked down at the wiggling, squirming, kicking foal. “That’ll learn you for making Thistle chase after you, you little pink monster.” 



 

Feeling queasy, Yew Wood moved with slow caution. She came down the last few stairs, paused at the bottom to allow her stomach to settle, and then continued into the living room. As she came around the corner, she saw quite a sight. Berry Punch and Thistle both were laying on the sunny patch of floor in front of the window on a spread out quilt. Both were sound asleep. Cadance was curled up, also napping, and Sukari was using Cadance as a pillow. Peekaboo was laying on Thistle’s back, draped out over her. Bell Heather was sleeping in Thistle’s forelegs. All of the foals looked well brushed, their pelts shiny, smooth, and clean. 

Nearby, a hairbrush sat on the floor. 

Not wanting to disturb the sleepers, Yew crept away as quiet as possible. She made her way into the kitchen instead, where she found Broom and Semillon working together. There was flour everywhere and dough was spread out on the table. 

“Whatcha doing?” Yew asked. 

“Making noodles,” Broom replied as she used her telekinesis to push a chair out from the table for Yew. 

Grateful, Yew wobbled forward and then sat down. She eased herself into the chair, got comfortable, and then rested with her elbows propped up on the table, not at all minding the flour. 

“Surprised to see you out and about,” Semillon said to Yew. 

“I’m feeling a little better.” Yew offered the two older mares a smile. “Has there been any word about Door?” 

For a moment, Broom’s smile faltered. Her face contorted in pain for a moment, but then her smile returned, only now it was a sad smile. “They’ve learned a fair bit, they have. Looks as though all our lives will be a bit shorter because of what was done.” 

“I’m sorry.” Yew felt bad for even bringing it up. 

“Think nothing of it, dearie. Do you want some food?” Broom looked over at Yew, her eyes glittering with concern. 

Yew Wood shook her head. “Not at the moment. I just needed to get out of my room.” 

“Understandable. You’ve been up there for days,” Semillon said as her eyebrow raised. “Lugus was in the paper.”

“He was?” Yew’s face brightened and a smile appeared upon her muzzle, it was like the sun breaking through dark clouds, bringing hope and light. 

“Just a little mention. He’s been put in charge of overseeing all communications between the fleet. The reporter had a bit of an interview with Lugus. Lugus mentioned you,” Semillon replied. 

“What did he say?” Yew asked, now sitting up straight and both of her front hooves clutching her barrel. 

“Oh, Lugus mentioned something about some pretty pegasus back home that he loved and that he hoped was well.” Semillon smiled as she rolled out a noodle. 

Yew Wood’s single surviving eye flooded with tears and her protruding bottom lip began to quiver.  “He found a way to send word back home…” 

“Yes, the big lummox is quite resourceful.” Broom’s sad smile became a happy smile once more. “I miss him.” 

Semillon sighed. “We have to wait and be patient. They’ll be back. It might take a while, but we have busy work around here to keep our minds occupied.” 

“I think I’m feeling hungry… is there any breakfast?” Yew asked. 

“Sure, you just tell me what you want, dear,” Semillon replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 736
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling a terrible pain in her heart, Violet Velvet looked across the table at the unicorn foal known as Firelock. She could see that the foal was being brave about this, her lip was quivering, her ears trembled, and Violet could see the pain in Firelock’s eyes. 

Nothing in the room burst into flames. There was no great rush of heat. The papers on the table did not ignite. The only notable thing that happened was a loud but subdued sigh that slipped out of the filly. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Violet asked after several long minutes of silence. 

Firelock sniffled, nodded, and then she made a shuddering reply. “Yes.” 

“Your parents had to do—” 

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Firelock said in a shrill, strained voice. 

The words in Violet’s mouth died. She didn’t want to talk about this either. While it might have needed to be said, presenting the logical reasons for abandonment did nothing to help Firelock feel better, it did nothing to soothe the hurt, it did nothing to make the pain go away. 

“What happens now?” Firelock asked after she wiped her nose with her fetlock. 

“You stay here, at the school, in this regard, not much will change. You will continue to see Doctor Mawu and you will continue to learn how to harness your gift,” Violet replied. 

“Is there any chance I can talk to them again?” Firelock gave Violet a hopeful look. 

A swell of anger rose up inside of Violet, but it did not break the calm surface that was her face. She hated that she was about to break Firelock’s heart just a little more. “Your parents have chosen to block all communications. They wish to begin the grieving process of losing a foal, you, in this case, so they can move on with their lives.” 

“But I’m not dead.” Firelock’s eyes were shiny with tears now and her whole body shook. Her barrel began hitching. “It was an accident…” 

“I know that—”

Violet was interrupted by the door opening. She turned around and saw two griffons entering. Two familiar griffons. Violet’s eyes narrowed as she peered at Lugnut and Spanner. Lugnut stood in the doorway, looking quite upset, while Spanner wasted no time and ran forwards to Firelock. The foal slipped out of her chair and tackled Spanner in a fierce hug. After squeezing him, the foal began wailing. 

“This is a private meeting,” Violet said in a calm voice. 

“Our assistant did not show up for work this morning. We were worried. Rising Star told us what was going on,” Lugnut said as his crest rose. “Spanner, she’s crying. We can’t have her crying, do something.” Sooty, dirty, greasy, Lugnut lifted his head high. “She is going to need parents.” 

“We’re still sorting out the legal issues and custody.” Violet gave the griffon a shrewd look and then with an almost mechanical motion, she looked over at Spanner, who was every bit as filthy as his partner. Spanner was now sharing his grubbiness with Firelock, who had been quite clean, at least up to this point. Violet, a quick mind, began to calculate the odds of this working. “Look, there are going to be some complications—”

“We get it. We’re griffons. We’re flamingly fabulous. She’s a foal. A pony foal.” Lugnut lept up onto the table, landing right in front of Violet. He looked the mare in the eye, and as he did so, one greasy feather fell from his wing. He left sooty paw prints on the wooden tabletop. 

“I think both of you are fantastic parents.” Violet leaned her head forward, going nose to beak with Lugnut. “I am going to issue an order.”

“Is that so?” Lugnut asked. 

“Yes. Both of you are going to get cleaned up. You are going to get Firelock cleaned up. Both of you are going to get Sprocket and Cog. And then the entire lot of you are going into Ponyville to try and make Firelock feel better. Both of you are going to show me what sort of capable parents you are. And the community. Drop in and see Bon Bon. Maybe go to Sugarcube Corner. Just see that she has a nice time,” Violet replied. 

“Hey Spanner, how would you feel about going to the Ponyville Tea Room?” Lugnut turned his head and looked at his partner. 

“I’ve been wanting to go there for a while,” Firelock said, snuffling as she wiped her nose against Spanner’s neck. 

“I know. I heard you talking about it the other day when Spanner was showing you how pistons work.” Lugnut’s feathers fluffed out and he sat down upon the tabletop, his tail twitching in feline aggravation. 

Violet leaned forward a little more, until her muzzle was inches away from the side of Lugnut’s head. “Thank you… I owe you one. Try to make her feel special and loved.” 

The griffon, looking at the foal and his partner, nodded. 



 

Sunset Shimmer looked at the pony in the hat and the overcoat. His face seemed blank, emotionless, his eyes almost seemed lifeless. She felt a growing sense of worry the longer she looked at him. 

The strange visitor had been welcomed in and now stood in the middle of the room of the ground floor of Bucky’s tower. And that was all he did. He stood there. He did not look around, he did not take in his surroundings, the strange pony just stood there. 

The door opened and Scorch stepped in, followed by Heifer Aestus. Scorch, in minotaur form at the moment, crossed his arms over his chest and stood by the door. Aestus crossed the room and then sat down upon the sofa, the wooden frame creaking beneath her immense bulk. 

“Speak,” Scorch commanded. “Tell us, what brings you here, Observer.” 

“I have come with information,” the strange pony replied. 

“Breaking the rules again.” Aestus grinned. 

“You have no idea, bovine creature. We approach a civil war within our ranks. Every day more of us agree that we can no longer sit back and watch. We approach a crisis.” The strange pony backed himself into an overstuffed chair and sat down. “It is turning out as some have said it would.” 

“So what is going on?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“Recently, you investigated Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs…” 

“Yes,” Sunset replied. 

“And no doubt, you have become aware of some troubling truths. But these are only the beginning.” The strange pony reached up and removed his broad brimmed hat and then placed it upon the small, ornate wooden table beside his chair. “Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs doesn’t just exist in this reality, Sunset Shimmer. They also exist in the reality in which you found yourself when you were exiled.” 

“I see.” Sunset’s ears perked forwards. 

“I know you have encountered Doctor Caballeron.” The strange pony’s words were a statement, as if he was presenting a fact. “What if I told you that the Doctor Caballeron you encountered was not this world’s Doctor Caballeron?” 

“What?” Sunset Shimmer’s jaw dropped open. 

“This world’s Doctor Caballeron is dead.” The strange pony’s voice was blank, emotionless. He announced the news with no feelings whatsoever. “The Doctor Caballeron encountered in Baltimare was born as a human. He now roams several worlds, making himself quite powerful and wealthy. He acts as a broker. I know for certain that he has made some deals with the mirror travelers that plague you. He was here in Equestria overseeing the making of magical drugs and then smuggling them back to the world right next door to this one, the one you found yourself exiled in.” 

“But magic—”

“Does work in that world. Under special circumstances. That world is magic weak, but magic still exists. The magical drugs lose their potency at an alarming rate. Magical elixirs that cure diseases, ease injuries, and a new drug called ‘Bliss’ that is now plaguing that world.” 

“Bliss? Hey, I heard of that while I was there, it was on the television, it was supposed to be some kind of new miracle cure for depression,” Sunset Shimmer said. 

“Bliss is more than a cure for depression. It makes people, human beings, weak minded and weak willed. It makes them content, happy, it blanks out their minds and makes them very easy to manipulate. Makes them complacent.” 

“I don’t like where this is going,” Aestus said. 

“It is a chemical compound discovered from the study of changeling drones. It took a long time before it began to work on humans. We first became aware of its existence almost a decade ago, and it was first being developed to work on ponies, a work funded by one of your noble houses. The experimentations were a failure and the earth ponies it was tested on all became violent and unstable. It did nothing to make them docile and complacent.” 

Scorch grunted and shook his head, his lip curling back into a snarl. 

“The human known as Doctor Caballeron found a weak place in between realities when he was studying some forgotten temples in a jungle. He found a door, so to speak. He and others began to study it. They learned to replicate its strange energies that they did not understand. It started a secret technological revolution, a paradigm shift in that world’s technical understanding. As they laboured, others took notice of them. Sensing opportunity, a group of rogue draconequus went to that world, posed as aliens from another planet, duped the humans into cooperation, and assisted them with their technological leap.” 

“All for the chaos that it is causing, no doubt.” Aestus shook her head. 

“Correct.” The strange pony nodded. “The instability is spreading and now it is becoming a threat to multiple realities. I can no longer sit back and watch. I feel the need to do something.” 

“So this Doctor Caballeron is working as a smuggler, a go anywhere agent that moves between worlds, striking up deals, working as a messenger…” Sunset’s words trailed off and she looked confused. “To what end? Why do this?” 

“Wealth. Greed. The conglomerate that owns Endovelicus Pharmacological Research Labs is set to make over a trillion dollars in profits this year,” the strange pony said. 

Sunset Shimmer staggered backwards, her legs buckling. Scorch lunged forward, caught the stumbling mare, and steadied her. He stroked her back, patted her, and then straightened himself back up. 

“So they are helping the mirror travelers?” Aestus asked. 

“Yes. When it is profitable for them to do so. They are not allies, not in the strictest sense, but the secretive society that is seizing control of the entire planet now works with several off-world agencies, the mirror travelers included,” the strange pony replied. 

“So we not only have mirror travelers posing a threat, but interdimensional crime as well,” Scorch said in a low, rumbling growl. 

“This instability that you mention.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head as she spoke. “This is caused by the mirror travelers, correct?” 

“No.” The strange pony looked at Sunset Shimmer, his eyes blank. 

“No?” Sunset’s ears fell back against her head. 

“The pony most responsible for the instability between realities is Star Swirl the Bearded. His early days of interdimensional jaunts were done with unstable portal generators. He did not make a nice, neat, clean portal. He made rips, tears, he sundered the fabric of reality and allowed one reality to bleed into the next. And then, long after he was gone, his technology saw continued use by Princess Celestia, who traveled through the mirror to visit a nearby reality, where she continued her relationship with good king Sombra. Which led to the mirror crisis that almost destroyed both Equestrias, this one and the one ruled by the formerly Good King Sombra.” 

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and let out a groan. 

“Yes, Sunset Shimmer, that mirror that Twilight Sparkle is using to visit the world next door is causing irreparable damage to both worlds. The mirror that is being used to transfer letters between you and your friends on the other side.” 

With a thump, Sunset Shimmer’s backside fell to the floor. She sat there, looking stunned. She blinked a few times and then her eyes flooded with tears. 

“Don’t give up hope,” the strange pony said, focusing his eyes upon Sunset Shimmer. “I will be your letter carrier. I can see how much this means to you.” 

“Thank you,” Sunset said. She looked at the Observer and wondered if he felt anything, anything at all. 

“There is still much to discuss.” The strange pony blinked. “I’m going to tell you everything I know…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 737
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Strapped to a makeshift saddle, Kiara the griffoness hung on to her mount, a young male lunar pegasus Myrmidon named North Star. Far below them were mountains. Mountains that might or might not have enemies. Kiara’s scarf whipped in the wind and the fabric of her coat rippled. She reached out her talons and patted the armor plating around North Star’s neck. 

“It’s cold, how are you holding up? I see ice on your wings.”

“I’m fine,” North Star replied. “Has that potion the zebra gave you kicked in?” 

“I think it’s starting to… I’m starting to see more in the darkness.” 

“So what is the Lord of Winter like?” North Star asked. 

“He’s been good to me. Good to all of us little griffons. I would give my life for him.” Kiara peered down at the ground and she started to notice more details of the terrain far below. 

“I’d like to meet him… Moonbow, an initiate I know, she speaks fondly of him.”

The world took on a silver hue and Kiara realised that she could see everything. Far below, trees stood out in sharp contrast. It was like moonlight had become daylight, and everything was bright and well illuminated in the silver light. 

There was a strange metallic clunk followed by a pained cry from North Star. Kiara, almost panicking, tried to figure out what was going on. She looked around, her eyes wide with fright, and  then she heard North Star say, “Something hit my side.” 

Looking down, right behind her leg, she saw a jagged hole in his armor. She twisted her body around, clambered along his armor, noticed that he was favouring his right wing, and then got her head down below his wing. There was another big hole in his metal armor. Blood poured out of the wound, the droplets vanishing in North Star’s slipstream. 

“I think it grazed my ribs,” North Star said. 

“You’re bleeding pretty bad.” Something whizzed past Kiara’s head, she could feel it, just inches away from her. She felt her urethra clench in fear and her bowels gurgled. “Pull up, pull up as hard as you can! Give us some altitude!” 

The griffoness reached inside of her coat, fumbling around in her pockets. “I imagine it hurts, but can you keep flying? I have some blood stopper around here somewhere.” 

“I will not shame my Mistress!” 

Pulling out the first of two ampules, Kiara broke off the end, tried to peer inside of the hole down low on North Star’s side, and then, using her thumb, she jammed the ampule through his armor, stabbing the injection point into the wound. She pulled herself back up into the saddle, steadied herself, and pulled out the second ampule. She broke off the end, tossed it, and then repeated the process she had done with the first hole, jamming it in and stabbing North Star. 

“There’s a bit of painkiller in the blood stop stuff,” Kiara said. As she spoke, something whizzed past them again. She noticed that North Star was still favouring his right wing, and his flapping was not as strong as it was on the left. 

“We’ve got company,” North Star said as he continued to climb. 

Looking around, Kiara swiveled her head around backwards and saw several pegasi flying in formation, coming right up for them. “Well, I think we’ve found the enemy!” 

“I think you’re right!” 

Reaching back into her jacket, Kiara pulled out the ten milimetre pistol, one of the new designs. She had fourteen shots before she needed to reload. She hoped that she had enough. She had a magazine full of incendiary rounds, another magazine of cryo rounds, and a half a dozen magazines of standard rounds. She twisted her body around on the makeshift saddle and watched as the incoming pegasi began to spread out. She realised that while they were still somewhat clustered together, she had a marvelous opportunity. 

She raised the pistol, peered down the sights, and breathed out as she pulled the trigger. She let out caw as one of the pegasi jerked backwards and then began to plummet towards the ground. 

“They’re going to come and try to knock you from my back,” North Star warned. 

“Let them come!” Kiara reached down and cinched the straps connecting her a little tighter, restricting her movement, but keeping her a bit more secure. She raised the pistol and began to pray to Odin that her aim was true and that she wouldn’t miss. 

“Cowards, they’re wearing helmet mounted lights,” North Star said. 

“I don’t see any lights.” 

“You drank that potion, you can’t see this bright light, if you did, it would blind you,” North Star explained as he tried to pick up speed. 

One of the pegasi came in hard and fast; North Star tucked in his wings and rolled in response. Kiara felt the blood rush to her head. She gripped her pistol in her right talons and the straps holding her to the saddle with her left. North Star, being a lunar pegasus, had marvellous maneuvering abilities. When he leveled out, the pegasus was still coming in hard and fast, just to North Star’s left. 

Dizzy, but confident, Kiara raised her pistol. She fired and the pegasus jerked. Still flapping, still flying, the pegasus began to roll away. Kiara took a second shot, missed, and then fired again. 

This shot connected with the pegasus’ neck. Kiara could see the blood spurting out in the strange silver light that illuminated everything she saw. The pegasus, now limp, began to plummet to the earth. 

Another pegasus was already incoming, followed by a second. North Star banked, and as he did so, the second pegasus flew where North Star was rolling. Kiara feared for a midair collision, she felt a feathered wing brush up against her, panicked, she lifted the gun and fired blind. 

There was an explosion of blood and feathers, the wing of the pegasus that was too close was severed. The remaining pegasus took advantage of Kiara’s distraction and scored a grazing kick. 

The griffoness cried out in pain as several of her ribs broke. She gasped, struggling to breathe, and raised the gun, her talons trembling. She pulled the trigger. The pegasus, flying away, was still close. The bullet struck him in the hind leg, which was almost severed. It hung from a few tattered ribbons of flesh and blood spurted out into the night sky. 

“You okay?” North Star asked. 

“No.” Kiara’s voice was raspy with pain. Each breath she drew in filled her lungs with fire. “I’m not good at all.” 

“I’m getting us out of here, hang on, I’m gonna shadow wink… it’s gonna be real weird for you!” North Star shouted. 

Kiara started to reply, but then it was as if the whole world had become some strange black liquid. She could feel it flow around her. She struggled to breathe, and not just from the broken ribs she had. She was blind. She felt as though she was being sucked down into sludge and drowned. Kiara wasn’t certain how much longer she could bear whatever it was that was happening to her. 





“Is she going to be okay?” North Star looked down at the nurse with wide, worried eyes. The lunar pegasus was not in armor, and his pale white pelt was visible. His side was wrapped in a bandage. 

“You got shot in the bloody side, you’re supposed to be in bed, you halfwit!” 

Lifting his head, North Star stared down at the solar pegasus mare. “I asked if my companion is okay. I’m not leaving until I know.” 

“Aye, she’ll live. She has a few broken ribs, a cracked scapula, and two broken thoracic spikes. She’ll be going into surgery soon.” Fearless, the much smaller solar pegasus mare stared up at North Star. “Now, are you going to be a good colt or am I going to have to call for help to get your stubborn, cantankerous ass back into the bed where it belongs?” 

“All it did was graze my ribs,” North Star replied. 

“And punched through whole clusters of flight control muscles.” The nurse bared her teeth. “Last warning. I have special drugs for the likes of you. It’ll put you down just like a sleepy foal, up past its bedtime.” 

“Fine, fine, I’m going to bed,” North Star said as he took a step backwards. 

“Your friend will be okay, I promise. She was worried about you when they were examining her… she’s a tough little scrapper.” The nurse’s expression softened. “Don’t let me catch you out of bed again.” 



 

“No losses, sir,” Wing Corporal Gofannon reported. He looked up at Bucky. “We took some injuries, some of our scouts were shot, Kiara got the stuffing kicked out of her, but no deaths reported and all scouts are accounted for. We’ve even got some reported kills for our side.” 

“Fantastic news.” Bucky looked down at the maps spread over the table. “So we have a better idea of where they are.” 

“Are you really going to do it, sir?” Gofannon’s eyes softened and he looked at Bucky. 

“They’re golems.” 

“Sir, golems with feelings, thoughts, even some sense of self awareness, sir.” Gofannon’s crest rose and angled upwards. “Sir, forgive me if my words are out of place, but I know what they mean to you. These are not your disposable drones.” 

His ears drooping, Bucky nodded. “Sacrifices must be made. The golems made this decision, Gofannon. None of them are being forced to do this. They have free will, and they have chosen to be heroes.” 

“Sir, that makes me a feel a little bit better, sir.” Gofannon looked down at the map. “So what happens now?” 

“The golems go forward, find the enemy, swarm them, kill or cripple as many as they can, and make the enemy’s base of operations uninhabitable. Many will be carrying spells that will turn hard rock into soft mud. Once they find a way into enemy fortifications, these spells should be devastating. Others will be carrying infectious diseases created by the zebras for times just like this. Others will be carrying ordnance of a more horrendous nature…” 

Gofannon gulped and his feathers fluffed out. He looked at Bucky and shook his head. Gofannon saw Bucky nod his head. Gofannon, feeling disgusted, knew exactly what sort of ordnance the golems would be carrying. 

The door opened, bringing with it a great deal of sound from many voices. Keg Smasher and Lugus entered the room and then shut the door. Bucky looked up from the map and then looked at both of them. 

“So, tomorrow night, we’ll have this war all wrapped up.” Keg Smasher grinned a reckless grin and looked down at the map. “All our scouts accounted for. I’m in a damn good mood.” 

“The golem invasion will draw the enemy out. I doubt it will win the war for us,” Bucky said to Keg Smasher. 

“It never hurts to have a good attitude.” Keg Smasher looked down at Gofannon. “Good to see you back in one piece, lad.” 

“Others had some scary moments, I had a long boring flight,” Gofannon replied. 

“War. Long hours of boredom followed by intense moments of shitting one’s self.” Keg Smasher looked up from the griffon and then focused upon Bucky. “So, you’ll be taking a fast ship forward, dumping off the golems, and then skedaddling out of there. Don’t you dare get no stupid ideas, or I’ll kick yer wee bony, scrawny arse and I’ll tell that grey mare of yours that you were a bloody idiot.” 

“Bastard.” Bucky’s lip curled back from his teeth. “I must confess, I am worried about how far to go forward. I don’t know how much range they have for those teleporting ships.” 

“If something starts exploding, you’ve gone too far forwards.” Keg Smasher reached out his wing and began to study the map. “Most of the attacks on our scouts happened here, around this area, where the valley is. There is a river there, abundant hot springs, and it’s a fantastic place to settle in and make a fortress.” 

“My friend, I don’t like this. Please, let me go with you,” Lugus said. 

“No.” Bucky shook his head. 

Lugus’ feathers fluffed out and the big griffon let out an annoyed squawk of irritation. His beak opened as he started to say something, and then he fell silent. His wings fluttered at his sides, his tail swished, and then his talons began to tap upon the floor. 

“Lugus, we have a shortage of good commanders. I need you here. And the last thing we need is for both of us to be together and then have something happen that kills both of us. We are fighting at a severe disadvantage here.” 

Bowing his head, Lugus replied, “You speak truth. I will stay here and do what is needed.” 

“Lugus, you know the plan. If something happens to me, you are to serve as steward until Sentinel is old enough. There are other things to look after than just this war. We must try to preserve the greater plan while we sort this out.” 

Keg Smasher, having listened to the whole exchange, pointed down at a spot on the map with his wing. “Go no farther than here. Call it a gut feeling, but I don’t think they can come out this far, coming here should allow you some time to unload and then flee. This is just beyond the line we can draw where the forward advance all met their ends.” 

“Thank you, Keg Smasher, I think I’ll do as you suggest…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 738
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“There hasn’t been any word in the papers for days,” Piña said in a low, squeaky voice. She stared down at her half eaten school lunch, her eyes wide, and her ears drooping. Such was the misery upon her face that the pinkness of her pelt somehow seemed less vibrant. 

Sitting beside Piña, Larch reached over, wrapped his foreleg around Piña’s withers, and then the colt pulled her close, wrapping both forelegs around her in a hug. He rubbed his cheek against hers, and did not care that others in the cafeteria were staring. 

Sitting on the other side of Piña, Babs also leaned over. She grabbed hold of the pair and completed the Piña Colada sandwich. She pressed herself against Piña, closed her eyes, and thought of those she loved that were gone from home. 



 

“They’re so cute together,” Sweetie Belle said as she prodded Apple Bloom in the ribs. She looked over at Babs, Larch, and Piña. The filly blinked and then heaved a sigh. “I like watching other ponies in love. It makes me feel good about life.” 

Bent over her lunch and an opened notebook, Apple Bloom did not respond. 

Angling her head so she could see over Apple Bloom’s forelegs, Sweetie Belle stared down at the opened notebook. “Whatcha working on, Bloomie?” 

“Looking over my notes from my meeting with Spitfire and Rising Star. All the stuff I wrote down. Ideas I had. I can’t work on everything, so I am trying to decide what is important and what I can let go,” Apple Bloom replied. 

Nodding, Sweetie Belle began humming to herself as she took a look around the cafeteria. Scootaloo, Rumble, and Boadicea were off at their own table today, being loud, laughing, all while throwing food at one another. Sweet Pea, the little blind filly was having lunch with Growler, but she was always having lunch with Growler. Garnet and Rowanne were having lunch with a filly named Little Slip. 

Overcome by her thoughts, Sweetie Belle blurted out, “You know, Apple Bloom, we should have a day where we sit down and eat lunch with a stranger, a pony that you don’t know very well, so you can get to know them better…” 



 

Worried, Ripple surprised Bittersweet with a kiss, a gentle peck on the corner of the mouth. She moved herself into Bittersweet’s field of view, smiled, and looked into Bittersweet’s eyes. 

“You did good,” Ripple said with with both her lips and her ears conveying her message. “Is it getting easier?” 

The donkey’s eyes narrowed. She took a step backwards from Ripple and shook her head. Bittersweet drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out a little at a time. Her ears began to move in a rapid manner. “I get scared when I have to be the center of attention. I don’t like it. I couldn’t do this class without you. I keep worrying if the foals in the class are listening. If they are paying attention. If they look away for even a moment and miss something, I start freaking out. I keep worrying that they are just there for the class so they can slack off and not have to work.”  

Ripple took in everything that Bittersweet’s ears had communicated. She was the only pony around who could understand Bittersweet when the donkey’s ears moved at full speed. She let everything sink in and then she gave thought to what to say so she could make Bittersweet feel better. 

The donkey stepped forwards, planted a kiss on Ripple’s nasal bridge, then she stepped backwards so she could see any response that Ripple made, her eyes wide and hopeful. 

“That might be true, we don’t know for certain yet, but I think that everypony that is there wants to be there to learn. Sweetie Belle is our best student I think; she wants to learn the ear language so she can do her job at the hospital better, on the odd chance that she runs into a deaf donkey. In time though, I think a lot more ponies will know ear language and the deaf and dumb will have a voice. This is how it starts. Brave donkeys like you make the effort to teach, and then you have to trust in the goodness and decency of those around you.” 

Bittersweet, who had watched Ripple’s ears moving, now had trouble seeing as her eyes began to glaze over with tears. Nostrils quivering, tears brimming in the corner of her eyes, Bittersweet lunged forwards, wrapped her foreleg around Ripple’s neck, and clamped her muzzle down upon Ripple’s muzzle in an aggressive, needy kiss. Bittersweet delighted at how Ripple’s hind legs wobbled, then buckled, forcing Ripple to sit down, and then the donkey got her other front leg around Ripple’s neck. She felt Ripple’s forelegs slide around her barrel. Ripple’s lips somehow still tasted like banana pudding from school lunch and Bittersweet settled in for a steamy makeout session in the empty classroom where she had taught class. 

Some things could not be said with words, only actions. 



 

Looking through the camera viewfinder, Lyra Heartstrings tried in vain to find a more flattering angle for Bandua. The little hippogriff had fur and feathers now. She was vulture headed, which caused a great deal of discussion among the griffons. Bandua only had a few feathers upon the top of her head, feather shafts with a few scrawny strands. Bandua was a tawny tan colour on her feline parts, looking a good deal like Bucky, and had black feathers. 

“She’s hideous,” Magpie said to Lyra as Lyra continued to try and find a more flattering angle. “No matter which way you turn the camera, she will remain hideous.” 

Bandua, who was holding her head up, peeped. She blinked, her grey eyes bright and curious as she looked at the world around her. Her tail, tiny as it was, twitched. She was still small, so very small, not much larger than a cantaloupe melon. Reaching out her talons, she swiped at the folded corner of the blanket, peeped once more, and then turned her head to look up at Lyra. 

Lyra chose this moment to snap a picture, sans flash. Holding the camera, she wondered how the picture would turn out. Opening her beak, Bandua hissed, then peeped, and Lyra felt a strange maternal instinct for the tiny, revolting looking creature. 

“You’re cute!” Lyra said in a chirpy voice to her daughter. “And if Bon Bon was here, she’d smack me for lying.” 

“Bandua does have a remarkable tail,” Magpie said to Lyra. 

“Really? I can’t tell.” Lyra turned and looked at the griffoness. 

“It is over half of the length of her body. Large tuft. By griffon standards, her tail is a thing of beauty,” Magpie explained. 

“So wait, you mean to tell me, on top of everything else that Bucky has to worry about, he has to worry about little griffon cubs checking out Bandua’s backside because she has a pretty tail?” 

Magpie shrugged. 

The tiny cub let out a yowl as she tried once more to stick her claws into the blanket. 





“I don’t know that I’m comfortable with this,” Diamond Tiara said as she slipped Sentinel’s glasses into her coat pocket. She looked over at Loki and Scorch. 

“It’s his choice. He wants to learn how to fight. Heifer Aestus is going to teach him.” Loki, sitting on a wooden bench, settled in and got comfortable. 

“But this is full contact,” Diamond Tiara retorted in a shrill voice. “He is going to get hurt. Bucky would never allow this—” 

“Just like Bucky never allowed Lugus to give Ripple a good thumping?” Scorch asked. 

Sullen, feeling angry, Diamond Tiara fell silent. She looked at the tall minotaur holding a long wooden sword and a large wooden shield. She looked over at Scootaloo, Boadicea, and Rumble, all of whom were running laps while being chased by both Flitter as well as Cloudchaser. She huffed out a steaming cloud of breath, filled her lungs with cold air, and then, feeling her blood beginning to boil, she settled in to watch. 



 

Eyes narrowed, Sentinel watched his giant opponent, trying to figure out when she was going to strike. The wooden sword was long, had good reach, and it stung a whole lot when it made contact. Aestus was skilled in getting the flat of the blade to cause the maximum amount of sting. 

“All you have to do is disarm me,” Heifer Aestus said. She waved her sword. “I must say, you’re quicker than I thought you’d be.” She lunged forwards and made a downwards chop with her sword. 

Grunting, Sentinel dropped and rolled out of the way, rolling forward. He ended up behind the big minotaur cow, got to his hooves, and made ready to deliver a kick to the back of her legs. 

The big minotaur’s shield came sweeping down and broadsided Sentinel, smacking into him with titanic force, and sent him flying. He tumbled down into the snow, wondering how the big cow could be so quick. He saw stars in his vision. 

“I thought you were smarter than that!” Heifer Aestus shouted as she raised her shield. 

Shaking his head, Sentinel realised that he had no time to recover. She was charging. He rolled out of the way just as the massive wooden sword sliced down into snow where he had been lying just a second before. It would have hurt had it struck him, it would have hurt a lot. He was just on his hooves as a powerful kick connected to his ribs, the minotaur’s hoof flying out right where Sentinel had rolled to. 

It was an excruciating moment of learning as Sentinel had the wind kicked out of him. Gasping, struggling to fill his lungs with air, Sentinel lept away, his wings flaring out to give him additional lift. He landed almost twenty feet away and let out a strangled, gurgling gasp. 

Baring his teeth, Sentinel let out a hiss. 

“Your supernatural tricks don’t work on me, colt,” Heifer Aestus said as she waved her sword around. “But I bet your fillyfriend has probably pissed herself.” 

Roaring, still half winded, Sentinel charged. The long wooden sword came in for a slashing chop, he avoided it, but did not avoid the shield bash. He was sent flying backwards and crashed into the snow, landing on his back. 

Looking up, he saw the giant coming to finish him off. He had no doubt that she would smash him right in his guts. He feinted a roll to the left, and then went right. The sword sliced into the snow where he had landed, and then he was smacked again with the shield, a glancing blow. 

“You tried to be clever.” The big minotaur cow wasn’t even breathing hard. “You’re learning!” 

As Sentinel lept away to get some distance, the sword struck him a glancing, stinging blow on his left foreleg. He landed, limping, trying not to put weight on his leg. He thought about yielding. All he had to do was say the words and the training match would end. 

Snarling, he launched himself at Heifer Aestus. He avoided the swinging sword and this time, when the shield came crashing in for the follow through, he attacked the shield. He sunk his teeth into the wood and bit down with all of his strength. The wood splintered. Heifer tried to shake him loose from the shield, but Sentinel hung on, flapping back and forth like a rag doll. He reared back with his right front hoof, focused all of the strength he could muster, and punched forwards. His hoof struck the wood and caused it to explode into splinters. The shield shattered, half of it dropping away. Sentinel landed down in the snow, got his balance, and then lept away so he could recover. 

“What you lack in skill, you make up for in sheer viciousness.” The minotaur cow raised her sword in salute. “I am impressed.” She tossed away the broken half a shield. “Play time is over.” 

Before Sentinel had time to react, Heifer Aestus was all over him. Her sword was everywhere all at once. A flurry of blows rained down upon him, and no matter which direction he went, the sword seemed to find him. One blow struck him in the head hard enough to cause him to see stars. In between the many painful blows, Sentinel heard shouting. 

The next few seconds were confusing, and Sentinel had trouble making out what was happening. There was a pink blur, more shouting, a pained cry, and then the furious assault with the sword ceased. 

Trying to figure out what had just happened, Sentinel could see the sword on the ground. Beside it, Diamond Tiara stood, her lip curled back as she let out a furious equine snarl. Her ears were pinned back against her skull and her tail was hiked high to match her aggressive stance. Her eyes were narrowed, angry, she did not look like the Diamond Tiara that Sentinel knew. 

Heifer Aestus stood hunched over, rubbing her knee and limping. She grinned down at Diamond Tiara. She extended her left hand and pointed at the pink foal. “I like this one. She has spirit. She’s a kicker. I think I’m going to need ice for my knee.” 

Loki took a step forwards, but Scorch stopped him. “Let her calm down. Give her some space. I think she just discovered something new about herself.” 

Sentinel allowed himself to fall over into the snow. The cold felt good against his body. Everything ached. He took a deep breath, held it, let it out, and then took another. He rolled over onto his back and let his wings fall open. He saw a pink face appear above him, and two worried looking blue eyes. 

“I don’t know what came over me… I got scared… I’ve never felt like that before,” Diamond Tiara said in a shuddering whisper. 

Sentinel’s breath came wheezing out as Diamond Tiara threw herself down on top of him. He felt her forelegs around his neck. He could feel her cheek against his throat. He reached up with his right foreleg and wrapped it around her. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” Diamond Tiara said in a small, fear-filled voice. “You were hurting him and then I don’t know what happened.” 

“I thought Sentinel was vicious…. I was wrong…” The minotaur cow rubbed her knee, wincing. “The pink one is the dangerous one. I haven’t been kicked like that in centuries.” She sat down in the snow. “Remind me to never turn my back on that one ever again.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 739
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A very large minotaur sat in the snow beside a rather small filly sitting on a wooden bench. The minotaur’s forearm was larger in bulk than the filly’s body, and the minotaur’s fingers were as large as the filly’s legs. 

And so, it was rather surprising to see how gentle the minotaur was when she reached out and patted the tiny filly on the back, trying to help her feel better. 

“You love him, don’t you?” Heif asked. 

“I guess… I don’t know sometimes… I worry a lot that I’m too young to understand what I feel,” Diamond Tiara replied. She looked over at Heifer Aestus, her eyes wide, her whole face quivering from emotion. “I’ve built up my whole future around his. He is my everything and it scares me how much I need him. I can’t imagine a future without him. I went for so long without any friends and then he came along.” 

“I see.” Heif began to rub her knee, using her fingers to knead the aching flesh. 

“Am I wrong for being this way? I worry about that a lot… I wonder sometimes if I’m obsessed and nopony is saying anything because they feel sorry for me and don’t want to hurt my feelings after everything that has happened.” After baring her heart, Diamond Tiara cringed, hunching over on the bench, looking somehow smaller in her misery. 

“That’s a tough thing to realise at your age.” Heif’s face became one of contemplation. “I had a similar situation.” 

“You did?” Diamond Tiara looked over at the minotaur beside her. 

“I did.” Heifer Aestus nodded. 

The filly, sitting on the bench, waited. She sat up a little straighter and tried to look hopeful, hoping that the minotaur would explain things, giving her a different perspective to examine. 

“Once, a long time ago, I was a silly little cow. I wasn’t like how I am now. I wasn’t tall, I wasn’t powerful, I was nothing like how I am now. But I was obsessed. There was a minotaur I was madly in love with. He wasn’t like the others. He was kind, gentle, a master of the forge. Soft spoken. He didn’t like the other minotaurs, and he tried to teach other minotaurs to be like him. To follow a path of gentleness. To be inventive rather than warlike. He was extraordinary, and I loved everything about him.” Heifer Aestus’ broke into a soft, dreamy smile. “I had no interest in blacksmithing at all. But I knew that we just had to be together.” 

“So… you became his student?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I did. I went to him and I pleaded, and I begged, and I made a real fool out of myself,” Heif replied. 

“So he took you as a student?” Diamond Tiara leaned over and looked at Heifer Aestus, her attention now focused upon the minotaur’s story. 

“No. He refused.” Heifer looked angry for a moment. “He told me to bugger off and grow up. But I knew that we were meant to be together. So I pestered him.” 

“And what happened?” Diamond Tiara blinked, still focused, her curiousity aroused and fueled by a powerful need to know. 

“He sent me on missions… scavenger hunts. Difficult, dangerous missions. He did it to get rid of me. I went to horrible places… into swamps, into dangerous hydra breeding grounds. I had to learn how to fight. I took up a sword and shield, but had no idea how to use them. I took lessons. Suddenly, I wasn’t the gawky little cow. I did everything he asked of me.” 

“So what happened?” Diamond Tiara, feeling the cold, wrapped her winter coat tighter around her. 

“I grew up a bit. I matured. And he finally took me as his student. It was a proud moment for me.” Heifer Aestus smiled and shook her head. “Then came the difficult part. Getting him to love me. I knew that the usual way of getting a bull’s attention wasn’t going to work. So I pushed myself to become smarter. I kept my nose in books when I wasn’t working. I made myself available to him, always ready to do his bidding. I paid attention to him even during the most boring of lectures, when his other students would be falling asleep.” 

“I see.” Diamond Tiara squirmed, now feeling a bit uncomfortable. “Did you ever get his love and affection?” 

“Yes… in time, Scorch warmed up to me. He revealed who and what he really was. He gave me a choice.” Heif took a deep breath. “My obsessions turned out to be a good thing for me. I grew as a minotaur. I made myself a better minotaur. I don’t know how this will turn out for you, but I will give you a bit of advice.” 

“And that is?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Never stop asking yourself about what you are getting out of this situation… if all of this comes out to Sentinel’s benefit, leaving nothing for you, exploiting you, it may be time for you to break free and move on, as difficult as it seems. But if you are growing, gaining skills, becoming a better pony, if you have something to show for your struggle, if you are gaining just as much as he is from this relationship, then I’d say that nopony… nobody has any right to tell you how to live the life that you have chosen. Scorch demanded a level of self improvement from me… he demanded my full potential. He demanded strength that I didn’t even know that I had,” Heifer Aestus replied. 

“Do you still love him?” Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes were moistened with tears. 

“Yeah. Yeah I do. But I’ve grown up a lot. Scorch got frustrated with how the world was and felt that he couldn’t do much to change it. So he went off to sulk in Tartarus and I went and continued with my journey of self improvement.” Heifer turned her head and looked over at the forge. “It seems that somepony has rekindled Scorch’s better nature. For this, I am glad. Scorch had become quite depressed and I became quite disgusted with him.” 

Heifer Aestus rose to her hooves, smiling, then, without warning, she bent down and picked up Diamond Tiara. “I love ponies. So tiny and snuggly. I really like the fuzzy wuzzy ones like Bucky. He’s shaggy. You look cold. Let’s get you home to those that love you.” 

“I’m already home… there are those who love me right here… but I am sure that Cookie and Hondo will be very glad to see me…” 



 

The shrieking sound produced by Erebus was most unpleasant to hear. It was one part scream and one part shrill echolocation squeak. Every ear in the room flapped around like little wings as Erebus worked his way up and down different octaves. 

“Erebus, cease your wailing at once!” Luna snapped. “You had it coming… you were warned what would happen if you continued to play rough with Harper. She doesn’t like being pounced upon and tackled!” 

Sulking in the corner, knowing that she was the cause of this, Harper glared daggers at the wailing colt. She hated sitting in the corner. When she saw Lyra, she turned her head around to stare into the corner as sparks arced from her horn. 

“Erebus! Be silent! And you stay in the corner!” Luna stomped her hoof as Erebus started to turn around, no doubt to find somepony to comfort him. “I am sorry,” Luna said to the others. “He’s aggressive, I’ve been trying to correct that, but he is a lunar pegasus. I have long feared that this would be a problem.” 

“Lunar pegasi can’t be reared around other foals?” Berry Punch asked. 

“Sometimes… if they behave,” Luna replied. 

“I say we let him keep trying to hunt Harper… a few more zaps like the last one should teach him some respect.” Berry Punch looked at the colt in the corner, eyeing his frizzed out mane. Little wisps of smoke rose from several places on his pelt. 

“That’s horrible, Berry!” Lyra looked at Harper and then at Berry Punch. 

“He is going to have to be conditioned somehow… Erebus has grown into a real pain. He bit Barley earlier. I don’t know what to do with him. I am losing my patience.” Luna sat down upon the floor, gritted her teeth, and shook her head. 

“The only pony Erebus behaves for is Derpy,” Berry said. 

“What is it that Derpy does that we aren’t doing?” Lyra asked. 

“She’s Derpy… her ways are mysterious and weird,” Thistle replied. 

“Thistle…” Berry Punch rolled her eyes at Thistle’s words. “Derpy does what none of us in this room wants to do. She slaps the spit out of him when he misbehaves and none of us like doing that. He needs to learn consequences for his actions before he gets big enough to seriously hurt one of his playmates, which is why I suggested we let him have a few more goes at Harper so she can let him have it. We have to let them establish dominance.” 

“I don’t agree, not at all.” Lyra’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. 

“Look, Harper’s zaps hurt plenty.” Berry Punch rubbed her forehead with her hoof as she sat down on the floor. “We don’t have wings, most of us. Yew does. So wing slapping him is out as an option. He’s not bothered too much by being sat in the corner. And none of us want to smack the little troublemaker with a hard hoof, but I’m sure we’ve all thought about it.” 

Sitting in the corner, Erebus continued to wail. 

“Shut up!” Luna snapped as she reached the end of her patience. “Your incessant blubbering will not gain you any pity and get you rescued from the corner!” Luna punctuated her words with a stomp of her hoof. 

“Come on Luna… you’re too angry about this. Come with me. Come on—” 

“Leave me be!” Luna snapped at Berry. “I do not wish to be coddled!” 

Berry’s nostrils flared but she held in her anger. “Come on Luna, everypony’s patience is wearing thin. Just… go upstairs and be with Barley or go and sit with Derpy for a while… please?” 

Eyes narrowed, ears pinned back against her skull, Luna stomped out of the room, turned right, and then began to stomp up the stairs, her hooves making loud thumps on the wooden planks. Her departure caused Erebus to shriek even louder. 

“QUIET! YOU QUIET NOW!” Harper screamed from her corner. Sitting down, she began to kick and bang her hind legs against the floor. 

“That’s it! I can’t take it anymore!” Lyra’s horn flared and the room was flooded with glorious silence. A golden glowing bubble appeared around Erebus’ head. “Look, I know that we all said we’d try practical solutions and avoid using magic when we could, but I can’t do this anymore.” Lyra heaved a sigh of relief as Harper’s tantrum faded into blessed silence. 

“At this point, I think this is the best thing we can do,” Berry said in a reassuring manner to Lyra. Berry got up on her hooves, crossed the room, and wrapped a foreleg around Lyra’s neck. After a bit of a squeeze, Berry sat down beside Lyra. “No hard feelings between us?” 

“No, none at all.” Lyra offered a half-hearted smile to the earth pony beside her, but her pinned back ears expressed a very different emotion. 

“Rude,” Sukari said as she slipped off the sofa. She pointed at Erebus. “Rude.” She shook her head in disapproval and then took off at a trot, leaving the room. “Rude!” 

“Two foals in the corner, Erebus and Harper. Sukari is heading off, probably to be with Derpy or to go into the nursery to be with Bell Heather. Cadance is being a good girl… where is Peekaboo?” Thistle asked after doing a headcount. 

Gritting her teeth, Lyra let out an angry groan, her tail twitching as she tried to deal with her ever growing frustration. Lyra’s eyes opened wide and then she said, “I think I need a timeout myself.” 

“Let Peekaboo hide for a while. She probably got stressed out from the shrieking and the shouting. She’ll come out on her own. There is no good reason to get all worked up looking for her.” Berry Punch gave Lyra a reassuring nuzzle on the neck. 

“I thought being a herd was supposed to make foal rearing easier.” Thistle heaved a sigh and then fell over onto the floor. She looked over into the corner were Erebus continued to shriek into his sound proofed bubble and then her eyes moved over to Harper, who was being rather good, all things considered. “There are four more on the way. And then there is Loch Skimmer’s foal… who we are going to have to raise.” 

Berry Punch, still trying to calm Lyra, said to the kelpie, “Yeah, Thistle, things look a little grim right now. We’ll get through this. Somehow.” 
	
	
> Chapter 740
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After taking a sip of coffee, Berry Punch pulled the newspaper from the protective sleeve that kept it dry and secure. She wadded up the sleeve, tossed it upon the table, and then she picked up the paper in one hoof, the right one. Using her other hoof, she lifted up a hot scone, crammed over half of it into her mouth, began chewing, and then put the remainder of the scone down upon her plate. 

She opened the paper to have a look. 

THOUSANDS DEAD AFTER MALICIOUS MASSACRE! 

Berry Punch almost choked upon her food. She coughed, swallowed a little, coughed again, swallowed a little more, then, straining, she forced the rest of the food in her mouth down her gullet, she could feel the painful lumps stretching the tender flesh of her throat. 

The earth pony began to read, her eyes darting back and forth as she began reading the stark type. When the paper had something pleasant as a subject matter, they used soft, easy to read letters. When the paper had unpleasant subject matter, it was made worse by the usage of hard, austere type. 

“What is it, Berry?” Lyra leaned over the table, all traces of her sleepiness gone. 

“Bucky used his golems,” Berry replied as she kept reading. “Thousands died… independant sources have taken photos of the ruined enemy fortifications, most of which have collapsed. There are thousands of corpses and photos are forthcoming, to be released unto the public in the near future. The carnage is called indescribable but they do their best to describe it anyway.” Berry Punch kept reading, her brow crinkling as her face became serious. “The various heads of state are demanding an inquiry into whether or not Bucky’s methods were justified… it says here that there is war and then there is what the Lord of Winter has done, which is monstrous and goes beyond any reasonable action done as an act of war.” 

“What did he do?” Lyra asked. 

“The usual stuff that Bucky is known for, and while that is disturbing enough, he did something pretty bad Lyra… I don’t know if you really want to know,” Berry replied. 

“How bad could it be?” Overwhelmed by curiousity, Lyra snatched the paper out of Berry Punch’s hooves. 

“Lyra… Bucky created a new transmutation spell that changes thaumaturgical liquids into nitroglycerine—” 

“Unicorns are filled with thaumaturgical liquids! I’m filled with thaumaturgical liquids!” 

“Yes Lyra… living unicorns were turned into high yield explosive bombs… which is why every head of state is freaking out right now and wanting answers and reassurance that Bucky will never use this magic against the unicorns of this world… I was just starting to read about it before you stole my paper.” 



 

Staring down into his oatmeal, Sentinel lifted up his cup of coffee and took a sip. The breakfast table was quiet this morning. Too quiet. School had been cancelled all across the nation and families were encouraged to spend the day together. 

“I don’t understand why they cancelled school,” Piña said as she prodded her oatmeal with her spoon. 

“Piña, we’re not living in the same world today that we were living in yesterday,” Bon Bon said in a soft, gentle voice. “The paper says that with the creation of a new super weapon, a new weapon of mass destruction, that we are living in a new era.” 

“Life goes on. School should too.” Piña looked up at Bon Bon, her expression quizzical. “I don’t understand the big deal.” 

“Piña, honey, something so horrific has happened that the civilised world needs a little time of quiet reflection, some time to think.” Bon Bon winced when the sound of Sentinel’s spoon clattering after it hit the table reached her ears. She turned her head in time to see Sentinel picking up his spoon and offering an apologetic look. 

“The paper is full of malarky. Father would never use that spell to commit unicorn genocide. It’s just scare tactics… words being said by a bunch of creatures that are frightened by what they don’t understand,” Dinky said. 

“Dinky… Bucky might not… but now, the knowledge that this can be done now exists in the world. What has been done cannot be undone. There is no going back. If another unicorn figures out how Bucky did this and then replicates the process…” Bon Bon’s words trailed off as the earth pony bowed her head and closed her eyes. 

Blinking, Dinky sat there in her chair, unmoving as Bon Bon’s words settled into her mind. She hadn’t thought of this line of reasoning. She began to feel queasy. She looked over at Piña, another creature also filled with thaumaturgical liquids. Piña did not look well. 

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Piña said as she lept out of her chair and took off at a run. 

Sentinel, his head drooping, looked up at Bon Bon. “I’m certain that father had good intentions.” The colt shook his head. “I’m not certain that father thought of the consequences.” 



 

Surrounded by her foals, Derpy lay with her eyes closed, trying to sort out all of the thoughts in her mind. The papers had said a lot of horrible things, terrible things, and all of those things were said about a pony that she loved a great deal. Reaching up, she wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye.

At least the war was considered almost over. Derpy took comfort in that. All that had to be done now was hunt down the survivors that had fled into the mountains, root them out, and finish them off. 

“What sad?” Harper asked. 

Derpy did not know how to respond to the question in a meaningful way that Harper would understand. She sighed and tried to think of what to say. Some answer, even if it wasn’t an explanation. Not that she would tell Harper that Bucky had just done the unthinkable. 

Standing up on her hind legs, Cadance rested her body against the bulge of Derpy’s stomach and pressed her ear into Derpy’s navel. Cadance rubbed a little circle with her right front hoof. After a moment of listening, Cadance lifted her head and looked at her siblings. “Foals.” Cadance tapped with the hoof that she had been using to make little circles. 

“Mama swallow foals to keep safe,” Harper said. 

Unable to help herself, Derpy smiled. She felt it spreading across her face. However bad the situation was, life went on. Perhaps the world had changed. Here at home, things remained the same. Derpy was startled from her thoughts as a little hoof brushed over her left teat. 

“Foals inside. With milk.” Harper, sitting on her haunches, patted on Derpy’s left teat and looked up at Cadance. 

Cadance’s ears fell back as her wings buzzed at her sides. She slid down from Derpy’s belly, sat back on her haunches, and balanced herself by placing her hoof on Derpy’s thigh, which pressed into the skin just above the bubbles that were Derpy’s cutie mark. 

Derpy squirmed. She couldn’t see what was going on because her large belly was in the way. She felt a hoof step on her dock and half of a whinny escaped before she swallowed it back and held it in. She felt a small warm body clambering up and climbing between her legs, but she could not see who. She felt two lips fumbling around one of her teats. 

“Bell hungry,” Harper said in a chirpy, cheerful voice. 

Relaxing, Derpy allowed her head to sink down into the pillow and she went still once more. Bell Heather’s body was like a small hot water bottle laying right on the spot where Derpy ached. 

“Do you need anything?” Magpie asked. 

“Yes, actually… I’m thirsty,” Derpy replied. “Is there any more of that mint ice tea sweetened with honey?” 

“I’ll go look. I think there is though.” 

“Mint,” Sukari repeated. 

“Yes, Sukari, mint. Mint is minty and good.” Derpy could not see the foal at the moment, but she was glad to hear Sukari’s sweet, soft voice. 

“Mint taste does cold,” Harper said. She began to clamber over to where she could see Derpy’s face. “What?” 

“I don’t know why mint tastes cold,” Derpy replied, glad for the distraction from her troubling thoughts. 



 

Looking out the window, wrapped in a paisley printed robe, Luna watched as the freezing rain glazed over everything with a layer of glimmering ice. Behind her, on the bed, Barley was having a quiet moment with Erebus while the foal was in a good and cooperative mood. 

Barley’s room, which on most days was the cleanest, neatest room in the house, looked like some Fancy bohemian crash pad had exploded. There were teacups aplenty, saucers, small plates that had once held food, rolled up sheets of canvas, an easel sat in the corner, a picture half completed upon it. Sheafs of sheet music were scattered about. Books sat in little piles. Barley had ceased complaining long ago, after learning, and then accepting, that alicorns had an insatiable need for creation. 

Bothered by what she had read in the papers, Luna shook her head. She hopped down from her seat by the window. She stood in front of the easel, looked at her paint brushes, lifted one in her telekinesis, sighed, slumped, and then put the brush down. She lifted up a piece of sheet music, picked up a pencil, wrote down a string of a musical notes, frowned, and then tossed down the sheet music as well as the pencil. 

She stood there, her robe hanging from her body. “Barley… there is only one thing I can think of that would make me feel better right now and that is—” 

“No.” Barley shook his head. 

“Barley… at this point, I have to have the body of a teenage filly… I am still an adult and I—” 

“No.” Barley ignored Luna and focused on Erebus. 

“Why?” Luna whined. 

“Listen to yerself.” 

“This isn’t fair!” 

“I rest my case.” 

“Since when did you become such a prude? You’ve screwed every orifice of my body.” 

Barley’s head turned and he looked over at Luna. “Since I fell in love with the one mare that I want to spend the rest of my days with and she became something more to me than just a means to scratch my itchy old, wrinkly dick with her hot little squish pocket.”  

Sulking, Luna sat down with a huff and kicked an empty saucer, sending it skidding over the floor. “You… you are impossible to live with. There are times I don’t know what I see in you or why I love you the way I do, you crotchety old fart.” 

“Yer older than I am.” 

“Yet right now there is this concern about cradle robbing… you… you are an infant compared to me.” 

“Right now, I am the responsible adult of mostly sound mind. Sorry Luna.” 

“You are impossible!” Luna’s cheeks bulged as Luna held her breath to calm down. 

“Aye lass… I can be.” 



 

“This is kinda nice,” Sentinel said as he looked up from his book and looked around the farmhouse library. He was sitting in his father’s chair. He looked over at Dinky and Piña, who were curled up together on the sofa. He could feel the warmth of the fire seeping into his flesh and understood why his father liked to sit here. 

Ripple was laying on the floor, an open book between her forelegs. Pressed against her side, Bittersweet was also reading. 

“Where did Loch Skimmer go?” Piña asked as she looked up from her book. 

“She left a little while ago to be with mom,” Dinky replied. She looked at Piña and watched as Piña nodded. 

“Mommy lessons,” Dinky and Piña said together in unison. 

Turning a page, Ripple snorted and then began to laugh. The filly’s tail twitched, swished, and then whipped around, coming to rest against Bittersweet’s curvy backside. 

“Sunset Shimmer was telling me that they don’t read a lot of books in the human world,” Piña said as she rubbed her eyes. “They have things called televisions, they’re like movie screens, but are in little wooden and plastic boxes.” 

“Everypony knows that books are always better than movies,” Dinky said. 

“I dunno.” Piña shrugged. “Sometimes, you just want to watch a movie. I guess I can see why it would be so popular, but I have a hard time believing that books aren’t as popular.”

“Sunset has a lot of crazy human stories. As a species, they don’t make a lot of sense.” Sentinel shook his head. “They sound weird.” 

Dinky looked at her siblings with wide eyes. “Hey, who wants to go and pester Sunset? Maybe we can get her to tell us a story!” 
	
> Chapter 741
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There were hundreds of photographs laying upon the table. Princess Celestia looked down upon them in horror, her eyes wide. A fine sheen of sweat glistened upon her pelt. She had removed her jacket and cover, leaving them on the back of a chair. Many of the mountains were gone, collapsed into rubble, and the force of the explosion that had caused it was unthinkable. 

“Buckminster, how could you?” Celestia looked into Bucky’s eyes. He hadn’t slept much, that much was obvious. His movements were spastic, jerky, and he started at her words. As much as she wanted to feel anger towards him, she found that she could not. Bucky would punish himself for this in a way that no other pony could. 

“You asked for this…” Bucky replied, his expression almost glazed over, dull, and vacant. “You specifically asked me to come up with a counter for the unicorn battery issue, and I did… I… I… I did not realise it would be so effective.” 

“Buckminster, I…” Celestia fell silent, shook her head, and then looked down at the photos on the table. Corpses and assorted remains dotted the landscape. Everything was black and charred.

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight said. The smaller alicorn swallowed and it sounded painful to all who heard it. Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat and blinked her red eyes. “Princess Celestia, this looks much worse than it really is. The destruction that you see in the photographs… it is my opinion that Buckminster’s spell, as horrible as it was, could not possibly be the only cause of the damage that we see. It is the opinion of myself and others who have examined the photographs that the widespread catastrophic devastation that you see had to be caused by multiple airships filled with hydrogen being sheltered in underground hangars.” Twilight Sparkle blinked. “It was the perfect set of circumstances to create what was potentially the largest explosion this world has ever seen.” 

“And naturally, Buckminster, being who he is, he’ll get credit for it.” Keg Smasher looked down at the photographs upon the table and scowled. “This was necessary. As a return fire, this was completely justified.” The big pegasus looked up at Celestia, his expression weary. “I don’t know what it is that you wanted, but we are now in a position where we can win this little war.” 

“What I wanted was to show the world a decisive victory after having the entire forward advance wiped out. I wanted to soften the blow. I wanted to tell them that we took incredible losses, but then we gave back as good as we got and everything is going to be okay. I wanted the world to see bravery, courage, determination, and resolution… I wanted to give them back hope and let them know that their future is secured,” Celestia said in a reedy, wavering voice as she held back tears. 

“Aye lass… what we want and what we get are two very different things.” Keg Smasher extended a wing and patted Celestia upon the shoulder. “We don’t have the luxury of feeling bad about this just yet. We still have a lot of fighting ahead of us.” 

“Yes, we do. This fight is far from over.” Twilight Sparkle took a step forward. “We have enemy combatants that fled further into the mountains and with each moment we wait they are resecuring themselves and re-establishing a hoofhold. Other survivors went down into the lowlands of Fancy, and will be soon preying upon the cities, villages, and little towns that dot the countryside.” 

“We know that one city has already been overrun by a band of pegasi and a few unicorns. The city is called Le Pain and—”

“What a funny name for a city,” Keg Smasher said. 

“It means bread, surprisingly.” Twilight Sparkle looked up at the much larger pegasus. “Le Pain is a city that serves a single purpose. They make bread for most of Fancy. Or did, before the mirror travelers stole most of Fancy’s grain reserves. Much of the city of Le Pain was abandoned. There were a few thousand holdouts that stayed there in the city. Now, the city is taken over by mirror travelers.” 

“This doesn’t sound good.” Celestia looked up from the horrible photographs and her gaze focused upon Twilight Sparkle. 

“No… Le Pain is an earth pony city, and they are in need of rescue.” Twilight’s feathers became ruffled as she spoke. 

“Send in the Shadowbolts.” 

“What?” Celestia’s head turned to look at Bucky. 

“Send in the Shadowbolts. Demoralise and destabilise the enemy. If we go in there in a full assault, too many civilians will be killed. Send in the Shadowbolts and let them do what they were made to do. This is an ideal opportunity to test them.” 

“I dunno about this.” Keg Smasher’s brow furrowed. “Don’t get me wrong, I believe in what they are capable of, but this… this is a lot of lives at stake.”

“All the more reason to do this.” Celestia wings fluttered and fidgeted at her sides. “We need to win this war and this is more than just winning battles. We need to regain the public trust. We need to have all those involved in this war have their faith restored in our cause. I have met with the Shadowbolts and I believe them capable of great things.” 

“If they fail, the public will forever hate them,” Keg Smasher said. 

“Even if they win, the public still might fear them. A few augmented creatures going into a town occupied by a large number of enemy troops...” Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “We made them to fight under extreme circumstances. They are living weapons of war.” 

“If they succeed, and it is my opinion that they will, we present them to the public as superheroes. We keep them mysterious but we assure the public that the Shadowbolts are there for the public good.” A tired looking grin spread over Celestia’s muzzle. “We have to give the public something to believe in. If we give them heroes, but keep the details sparse, the public will create the legend of the Shadowbolts and have faith in them. That little spark of hope can make a difference.” 

“I will speak to them and have them get ready,” Bucky said. He looked up at Celestia. “I’m sorry, for whatever it’s worth. I knew it would be bad, but I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t tell you about it because I knew that you’d never agree… but I also knew that we needed this victory at any cost. I take full responsibility for what I have done.” 

“Buckminster, we shall talk about this later… go and get some rest, you look terrible.” 



 

“So much has happened since we all got together and put a stop to the big meanie-head, Nightmare Moon.” Pinkie Pie looked at her friends, her riotous pink curls being tugged on by the breeze. The pink pony smiled. 

Standing beside Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash extended her wing and put it over Pinkie Pie’s back. Rainbow Dash was quiet, she seemed somewhat subdued, and her multi-hued mane was whipped around her face by the wind. 

“Once this war is over, our work will begin,” Rarity said, raising her voice a little so she could be heard better. “There are fences to mend and nations to bring together.” Rarity had a scarf tied around her head to hold her mane down and keep the wind from ruining it. She was experimenting with a new fashion that involved heavy goggles to protect the eyes. 

“I don’t see what the big deal is. Bucky took the practical approach. He blew them up and boy howdy, he blew them up good. Everypony involved is making too big a deal over this whole thing, and they ain’t nothing but backseat generals running their mouths about how they could win this scuffle in a day.” Applejack’s green eyes watered from the wind. 

“Applejack, what he did was awful,” Rarity said. 

“But that is what Bucky does… and I don’t care that it’s awful. I have a family at home that I want to see again. And I want them safe. I ain’t got no concerns about Bucky using this new spell of his on unicorns from this world… but even if he did, then I’d say they had it coming. Bucky’s real easy to understand and to deal with. Don’t be a shithead and you ain’t got nothing to worry about.” 

“Applejack! Language!” Behind the goggles, Rarity’s eyes went wide. “I swear, some ponies… especially those from outlying rural locations.” 

“Applejack is right.” Fluttershy, clutching a shawl around her neck, drifted closer to Rarity. “Also, Applejack, there are little tender ears present. Please don’t swear. If you don’t mind, that is.” 

Annoyed, aggravated, Applejack blew a raspberry but said nothing.

“It’s easy for you, Applejack dear… you are an earth pony. I myself, on the other hoof… I am a unicorn. While I love Buckminster a great deal and I would, and have, trusted him with my life, I must confess, it concerns me… this… unpleasantness.” 

A single eyebrow raised as Applejack took a deep breath. “And this is what we don’t need. Drama for the sake of drama. Rarity, do you think for one moment that Bucky would ever hurt you? Do you think that he’d ever allow harm to come to you?” 

Rarity began to stammer. “Well, no, I… that’s not the point—” 

“Look… Bucky has a thankless job. He’s like an outhouse basement scooper outer—” 

“OH, EEEW!” Pinkie Pie shouted. 

“—and he didn’t ask for this job of outhouse basement scooper outer. He’s stuck with it and it ain’t fair to him. He’s gotta live with it and it’s a shit job and a shitty situation—” 

“Applejack! Tender little ears!” Fluttershy squeezed the two tiny bundles in her shawl as she pleaded for softer language. 

“—made even shittier because not only is he stuck cleaning out outhouse basements, he’s got a bunch of thankless morons complaining about how he smells and shunning him from society… for doing a job that has to be done and nopony wants to do. And I swear on my ma and my pa, if I hear one more reporter on this ship talking trash about Buckminster, I am going to open up a can of good old fashioned country asswhoopin’ and I’m gonna make them eat their camera and their notebook.” 

Rainbow Dash blinked and then looked around. Rarity was staring down at the deck. Pinkie Pie was chewing on her lip. Fluttershy was cradling the two foals in her shawl. Applejack looked mad enough to spit. 

“Well, that certainly puts a new perspective on things,” Rarity said in an almost breathless whisper. 

“Jackie, if you don’t mind me asking, but what’s come over you?” Rainbow Dash dared to ask. She took a step closer to Applejack, her ears pinned back in a submissive manner, hoping that she wouldn’t set Applejack off. 

“He done did right by Apple Bloom. He’s done did right by Babs Seed. I don’t always agree with what he does, but I don’t need to agree. I buck apples and he does… whatever it is that he does. That’s how the world is,” Applejack replied. 

“That would be kinda frustrating, being forced to clean out outhouses—”

Applejack looked at her fellow earth pony. “Pinkie.” 

“—because outhouses are so messy and just imagine how scary and it would be to be down in the outhouse basement doing your job when somepony came in and used the outhouse—” 

“Pinkie!” Applejack stomped her hoof. 

“—or imagine trying to do your job and you’re using a shovel but somepony comes along and tells you that using a shovel is wrong and gives you a spoon instead and makes you use that just to make your job worse—”

“PINKIE!” 

“What Applejack?” Pinkie, serious faced, looked Applejack in the eye. 

Applejack rubbed her face with her hoof. “You know what, Pinkie, you actually make a good point with the spoon thing… you just keep going if’n you feel the need.” 
	
	
> Chapter 742
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Some ponies, when faced with a day of doing nothing, choose to get work done. Bon Bon was one of those ponies. She had taken over the kitchen of the farmhouse, labouring away, until at last, she had produced something, an idea that had been lingering in her mind for quite some time. She had turned the whole kitchen upside down and made a huge mess. 

Sentinel, his eyes narrowed, his ears perked forwards, examined the end results of Bon Bon’s hard work. There were little chocolate princesses, each of them glazed over with a candy coating. Celestia had a white candy shell, Luna had blue, Cadance had pink, and Twilight Sparkle had a purple candy coating. 

They had no eyes, no defining characteristics, which somehow made them even creepier. Sentinel shuddered. The very idea of eating one unhinged him. He looked up at Bon Bon, his eyes going wide, and he shook his head, which caused his tufted ears to flop around. 

“This is too weird. I couldn’t eat something like this,” Sentinel said in a low squeaky voice. 

“Sentinel, son, you eat tubes of toothpaste. What’s wrong with little chocolate princesses?” Bon Bon looked at her creations, a whole herd of them standing upon the table. 

“I can see little plot puckers!” Sentinel said, pointing with his wing. 

“Well, the creamy filling has to be injected somewhere!” Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “I guess I need to do a better job of hiding it.” 

“Creamy filling?” Sentinel asked.

“Candy goo. Sort of like marshmallow fluff. Princess Celestia has vanilla, Cadance has cotton candy, Luna has blueberry, and Twilight Sparkle has grape,” Bon Bon replied. 

“So you jammed an injector into their backside and filled them full of creamy filling?” Sentinel eyed the candy creations and felt even weirder. He heard Bon Bon choke and the sound of her heart beating faster filled his ears. 

“Sentinel… don’t say it like that… it sounds dirty!” Bon Bon looked down at her son as she bit down upon her lip, trying not to smile. 

“I can’t eat these. Where does one start? It feels disrespectful to bite Princess Celestia’s head off… and as for eating the other end… that’s just wrong. There are… filly parts on the other end... I’d never be able to look Princess Luna in the eye ever again if I gobbled her backside.” Sentinel backed away from the kitchen table and let out a whimper. 

“I have finally found something that Sentinel doesn’t want to eat. Perfect. Just perfect.” Bon Bon heaved a sigh as Sentinel continued to back away. 

“So wrong…” Sentinel shook his head. “Nope.” 

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked as she trotted into the kitchen. She came to stop with a curious expression upon her face. She looked at Sentinel, saw his disgust, looked at Bon Bon, and then her eyes came to rest upon the kitchen table where the herd of candy ponies stood. “Is that me?” 

“Yes Luna… and Bon Bon wanted me to eat you! But I said no!” Sentinel cringed and waited for Luna’s reaction. 

“I can see my own anus.” Luna’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the candy version of herself. “Why does candy me have an anus? No… wait, better question… why does candy me have an edible anus?” 

A screech of horror escaped from Sentinel and the colt closed his eyes.

“The creamy filling had to go in somewhere,” Bon Bon explained in a sheepish voice. 

“I see.” Luna lifted her head high, smacked her lips, and then looked Bon Bon in the eye. “These are quite well made. Am I to assume the final product will have details like eyes, tails, and manes?” 

Bon Bon nodded. “Yes, I plan to paint the eyes on and add spun sugar manes and tails. Even cutie marks if I can manage it. For now, they are just bodies. Rich chocolate with a hard candy shell.” 

“And a creamy filling, squirted in through the edible anus.” Luna’s ears pinned back at the sounds of Sentinel’s shrill echolocation whistle of horror. “Can I have one?” 

“Please do… by all means, try one. Show Sentinel that it is okay to eat them,” Bon Bon said to Luna. 

Lifting one up with her telekinesis, Luna eyed it, examined it from every angle, and then bit the head off of one. She chewed for a moment, her eyes closing as an expression of bliss crept over her face, and then Luna said, “Mmm, vanilla. Spicy and strong! Is that a hint of bourbon?” 

“She’s eating her sister!” Sentinel cried as he ran out of the kitchen. 



 

Standing inside of a castle that had the curious distinction of being made out of wood, Princess Twilight Sparkle looked out of a crooked window. Beside her, Princess Cadance stood. 

Outside the window was a terrifying one hundred foot tall unicorn with a bright orange frizzy mane. It raised a massive hoof and then crushed the castle while letting out a roar. 

“RAAAAAAAAAAWR!” 

The two princess lay in the rubble of the ruined castle as the terrible princess eating monster began to dig through the rubble consisting of wooden blocks. The princesses, powerless, could do nothing to save themselves from the horrible monster. 

“No, no eat me!” Princess Twilight Sparkle said in a high falsetto. 

“What does this happen to us?” Princess Cadance asked, her body buried under the rubble. “Now gobble time, oh no!” 

The monstrous unicorn snatched up Princess Twilight Sparkle in her maw. There was a terrible chomp, and then Princess Twilight Sparkle’s gooey insides squirted out, going everywhere, as poor Princess Cadance watched, still pinned beneath enormous wooden blocks. 

“Noo!” Cadance begged in a squeaky falsetto. She sounded as though her mouth was full. 

“Yes! RAAAAWR!” the giant unicorn roared, little chunks of Princess Twilight Sparkle spraying everywhere. “I bite you head off!”



 

“Something is wrong with Harper,” Berry Punch said as she watched the filly wreck a castle made of blocks and then gobble the candy ponies inside. 

“What makes you say that?” Lyra asked as she tried to hold in a chuckle. 

“She’s enjoying this too much.” Berry Punch grinned and then turned to look at Lyra. “I love that little booger.” 

“She’s something. She’s growing up… she has a personality now… humour. She thinks and does crazy stuff. Every day she shows off a new part of her.” Lyra leaned over on Berry Punch and wrapped her foreleg around Berry’s shoulders. “Harper is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.” 

“What about Bonnie?” Berry asked. 

“Bonnie too.” 

“And us?” 

“And all of you, I suppose.” Lyra prodded Berry Punch in the stomach with her other front hoof. “You though, I’m not sure about you.” 

Berry Punch threw back her head and laughed. 

Leaning against each other, the two mares watched as Harper gobbled her treats. The other foals were not so keen on eating little candy ponies. Sukari had ran out of the room, Peekaboo was watching Harper, the little pegasus’ eyes were wide with terror. Cadance had not witnessed the carnage, she was off taking a nap with Derpy. 

Turning her head, Lyra Heartstrings surprised Berry Punch with a kiss, pulling Berry in and working her over. Before anything became too heated, Lyra pulled away, blinking as she recovered. 

“Having a big family is the best thing that could have ever happened to me…” 



 

For a moment, the scene was almost too painful to look at. Princess Celestia felt a powerful sense of melancholy overcome her. For some reason, seeing Bucky and Keg Smasher together reminded her far too much of Sombra and Briarburner. 

Poor Briarburner had met a bad end. 

Keg Smasher was bellowing with laughter after making a joke at Bucky’s expense, cracking wise about Bucky’s small size. She watched as the big pegasus slapped Bucky on the back, which almost knocked poor Bucky out of his chair. Briarburner was always making jokes about Sombra’s ‘finer’ qualities and would always point out any embarrassing flaw. 

The similarity was almost too painful to bear witness to. The whole room was filled with riotous laughter, laughter that grated upon Celestia’s nerves, laughter that Celestia could not bear to listen to. 

The large alicorn eased herself out of her seat and slipped away, glad to leave the room. It was far too hot in there, too many bodies, too much sound. She walked down the hall, not knowing where she was going, wondering about Tourmaline and Glass Slipper as she wandered. 

Just hours from now, Bucky and many, many others would begin the purge. Celestia felt a heaviness in her barrel, worried for Bucky’s safety, worried about his methods, worried about everything that could happen. 

Already, Bucky was becoming a pony that would be remembered, much like Sombra was remembered. Alas, Sombra was not remembered for pleasant reasons. As she walked, Celestia’s mind drifted and then part of her slipped free from her body. 



 

She found herself in an endless grey expanse looking at two figures who were gazing down into what appeared to be a pool of water, but Celestia knew it was not a pool of water. She approached the pair, clearing her throat to announce her presence. 

“Come… sit with us,” Platinum said in a soft voice. 

A pained expression crept over Celestia’s face. She came closer, her ears pinned back, her head held low. Standing close to Sombra, she raised her hoof, stood there for a moment, and then extended her hoof. 

It passed through Sombra’s body, encountering nothing, touching nothing solid. 

“Each time you come here, it is always the same.” Sombra sounded sad and his head drooped. “My body is lost to you. Why do you keep trying?” 

Lifting her head, Celestia did not respond to Sombra’s question. 

“We had a chance to see him and speak to him recently in a dream. He’s grown so much… he holds so much promise,” Platinum said. She turned away from the viewing pool to look at Celestia. “We’re both so very proud of him.” 

Tilting her head forward, Celestia looked down into the viewing pool. She saw a familiar young unicorn with her snoot in a book. Beside her, a pink earth pony foal was also reading. The water rippled and the image shifted, changing, becoming something else. A lunar pegasus colt was talking to a tiny zebra filly. The water rippled once more. A griffoness sitting in a rocking chair and holding a teeny, tiny hippogriff appeared. 

“We’ve made peace with the fact that we may never cross through the gate. If Buckminster’s ascension is what is actually required for us to pass though, we don’t want it,” Platinum said as she turned her eyes down into the viewing pool. 

“Had I the power, I would have you released from this place,” Celestia said to both Sombra and Platinum. “I… I still love… I am so sorry… I…” 

“Will you please stop torturing yourself?” Platinum turned her head and looked at Celestia. “It does not become you.” Platinum patted the greyness beside her with her hoof. “Come and sit with us.” 

Celestia looked down at the spot where Platinum had indicated, a spot between her and Sombra. Celestia felt a tightness in her throat. She had come between Platinum and Sombra once. She had done that and so much more. 

“That was over a thousand years ago. Look, I forgave you and even welcomed you into our bed… something I did not do with Sombra’s other wives and mistresses.” Platinum patted the greyness once more. 

The white alicorn drew in a ragged breath and took a step forward. She thought of Platinum dying, those final agonising moments Celestia had endured, watching a loved one go. 

“Buckminster shares such a different relationship with his wives.” Sombra looked up from the pool and shook his head.

“For you, you had those you loved, those you lusted after, and those you had obligations to.” Platinum looked her husband in the eye. 

“You met all three of those criteria.” 

“Flatterer.” Platinum rolled her eyes and waved her hoof in a dismissive manner. 

“He is so much like you,” Celestia said as she sat down between Sombra and Platinum. “He is about to lead our armies into a major conflict… he is drinking and having a laugh with his friends. He is confident.”

“As well he should be,” Sombra replied. The dead unicorn lifted his head high. “He’s reached the absolute pinnacle of power that a unicorn is capable of. He’s my flesh and blood.” 

The viewing pool shifted, this time showing a bright orange unicorn that had streaks of crimson in her mane. Upon seeing her, Platinum smiled and then said, “She too, shows promise.” 

“Sunset Shimmer will be a worthy replacement for Bucky when the time comes. She is learning his craft, his secrets.” Sombra peered down into the water. “She has exceeded all of my expectations.” 

“There is a strong potential for wings in her future.” Platinum scooted a little closer to Celestia, even though they could not touch. The dead unicorn mare sighed. 

“Not everypony agrees with Scorch’s ideas.” Celestia peered down into the pool and watched as Sunset Shimmer danced with Trixie and Bartleby. “But I must confess, a set of wings would be a beautiful addition.” 

His eyes locked upon the pool, Sombra said, “There are other major powers in the world than just equines… it would be good for them to have representation. If Scorch wants to turn her into an alicorn to safeguard his interests, he should be allowed to do so without interference.” 

Finding herself in agreement, Celestia nodded. “I just hope that the world is ready for that kind of change.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 743
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Darkness settled over Ponyville after a long day intended for thoughtful reflection. For some, the day was ending, for others, it was only beginning. For a few, their work never ended. 

“I am very sorry to have interrupted you,” Violet Velvet said in an apologetic voice. 

“Think nothing of it,” Sunset Shimmer said. She looked at the older mare. “What brings you here?” 

“Telegraph. Official Crown dispatch,” Violet replied. 

“Bartleby, darling, would you, could you, be so kind and fix our guest something pleasant to drink?” Sunset Shimmer turned her head and looked at Violet. “Anything in particular that you would like? We have tea, coffee, and cocoa.” 

“Tea would be wonderful.” Violet made herself at home and sat down upon a round cushion placed on the floor, which sat beside a low table intended for serving low tea. 

“I’ll get right on it,” Bartleby said as he climbed out of his chair and got to work. 

“So what is happening?” Sunset Shimmer asked. She sat down on a round cushion beside Violet and got herself comfortable. Using her magic, she began to pull tea cakes and biscuits from an ornamental metal breadbox. She also pulled out a silver tray to place the assorted goodies upon. 

“We’ve captured another crystal unicorn.” A triumphant grin spread over Violet’s face. “A group calling themselves the Manehatten Knights, a group that has helped a great deal during Manehatten’s reconstruction after Tirek’s rampage, they encountered the crystal unicorn. Turns out they’ve been trying to figure out who has been sabotaging the reconstruction efforts. There was quite a fight and several of their number died. A very helpful drake got involved, he works in the city lifting girders into place and offers his services as a living crane. Anyhow, they took the crystal unicorn alive and pummeled him into submission. He’s sitting in Canterlot right now and Shining Armor is about to go to work on him.” 

“This is fantastic news!” Sunset Shimmer’s whole face brightened. “I mean, it’s tragic that there are a few dead, but some heroes, real heroes, came and saved the day.” 

“Common ponies rising up in defense of their home and their country.” Violet took off her half moon reading glasses and began to polish and clean them with a soft cloth she produced out of her jacket pocket. 

“Trixie understands… there was a point in Trixie’s life where she would have ran away from trouble.” Trixie lifted her head and held it high. “But now, Trixie has a family. Trixie has students that look up to her. Trixie has a home. All of these things are worth fighting for.” 

“Indeed.” Violet slipped her glasses back on to her face. The middle aged mare turned to look at Sunset Shimmer. “You are needed in Canterlot. Shining Armor would like to have you there as soon as possible.” 

“Tomorrow morning?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“Tonight if possible,” Violet replied. 

Slumping down, Sunset Shimmer sighed. “I guess I’ll go right after tea.” 

“We can come with you.” Trixie looked at Sunset Shimmer and gave her a soft smile. 

“No, you don’t have  to do that. It’s cold out there and I’ll be busy in Canterlot and—” 

“We can come and help you. Ease your burden. Besides, I am in need of access to the royal library for our little project.” Trixie, looking hopeful, waited for Sunset Shimmer’s response. 

“Fine, we can all go. I don’t even need to ask if Bartleby wants to go.” Sunset Shimmer looked over at the griffon, who was measuring out tea into a small mesh strainer. 

“I would very much like to visit with King Tannis, Queen Agnetha, and Prince Beauregard,” Bartleby said in a cheerful voice. 

“Come morning, I have my own task to look after. I have to go to Appleloosa. Going to be a long trip.” Violet eyed the tea tray and felt her stomach gurgle. She let out a tiny sigh and resigned herself to good manners. She would wait. 

“What’s in Appleloosa?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“A couple of bodies that have been completely desiccated and dried out,” Violet replied. “No, we don’t know what caused it. Fever Cure and Mask are coming down from Canterlot on the morning train, and then we’re all going down to Appleloosa together. I am not looking forward to the trip. Something about the description gave me the heebie jeebies.” 

Sunset Shimmer felt a cold chill go crawling up her spine. “Creepy…” 



 

Having tucked her two smaller sisters in, Dinky settled into bed to read by hornlight. Sukari seemed spooked about something, she was quite upset, but would not talk about what was wrong. Dinky worried that Sukari might not be capable of explaining what was bothering her. Dinky’s ears perked as she heard Harper humming a tune to calm Sukari down. 

Each day, Harper was becoming a little more musical, given to humming, drumming on the floor, and even trying to sing. Even Dinky could see that Harper showed talent as far as music went. 

“You know, getting those bunk beds was stupid,” Piña said from the top bunk. 

“Why is that, Piña?” Dinky lifted her head and listened. 

“They sleep together. I think if you stuffed one of them into the top bunk, they’d both start crying,” Piña replied in a low, soft voice. 

“Hmm, maybe.” Dinky looked over at the bed where her little sisters were laying. She saw Sukari’s mouth open in a wide yawn. “When Cadance is ready to leave the nursery, I wonder where they will put her?” 

“Plenty of room in the bed with Harper and Sukari.” Piña stuck her head out over the edge of her bunk and looked down at Dinky. “I miss sleeping together.” 

“I do too.” Dinky looked up and saw Piña looking down. “You know, you could fit Bell Heather in the bed with them too. It’d be a long time before they’re big enough to crowd each other out.” 

“Even if they did get big, I don’t think it would matter,” Piña said. 

“Why is that, Piña?” 

“Our parents sleep in a big bed. But if you’ve ever gone in and seen them when they are all asleep, they’re all piled together in the same spot and most of the bed is empty,” Piña replied. 

“Yeah… that’s  true. Except now that mama and Berry are both so big, they’ve needed a little more room.” Dinky thought about her mother and felt an odd sense of longing. “I miss sleeping with my mama.” 

“I remember when I was really, really little… I would sneak out of my bed, go creeping down the hall, and then get into bed with Berry when I was scared. Like when it was thundering or the wind was howling.” Piña, her eyes half closed, smiled. 

“I feel bad for Sentinel. He sleeps in a room all by himself,” Dinky said. “I wonder if he’s lonesome.” 



 

“You shouldn’t be in here,” Sentinel said in a low whisper. He looked at the griffoness cub that had made herself at home, sitting in his chair in front of his desk. Her crest was raised in a way that made him feel worried. 

“Why?” Boadicea tilted her head to one side. “You’re a good colt. You wouldn’t do anything untoward with me, would you?” 

“That’s not the point.” Sentinel held up his hoof. “We’re both—” 

“You let Diamond Tiara in here with you.” Boadicea turned her head around and looked at the things on Sentinel’s desk. She reached out her talons and picked up a drawing. “What’s this?” 

“That’s—” 

“Diamond Tiara,” Boadicea said. “This is saucy… the way she’s biting on her hoof, I like this.” She lifted the picture higher and moved her head closer to have a better look. “Does Diamond Tiara know that you drew her in this position?” 

“She posed for that picture,” Sentinel replied as he stared down at the floor, his cheeks on fire. He was unable to look at Boadicea. “Diamond Tiara laid down on my bed, rolled over, and told me to start drawing. She bit down on her hoof as I was sketching and she made those eyes at me.” 

“You spent a lot of time sketching her teats.” 

A shrill squeak escaped Sentinel and then a whimper. “I wanted them to be perfect, she deserves to have every detail be perfect…” 

“So… why were you looking at this when I came in?” Boadicea asked in a teasing voice. She turned and looked at Sentinel while still holding the picture of Diamond Tiara. 

“I… I was studying my own work, trying to see how I could improve… I don’t like how I drew her knees or her elbows, they don’t look right and the next time I draw her I want them to be perfect.”

Giggling, Boadicea put the picture down and watched as Sentinel stood squirming. She had succeeded beyond her wildest expectations in getting the colt flustered. She hopped down out of the chair she was sitting in and walked over to Sentinel. She extended a wing, stroked his cheek, and then stood beak to snoot with Sentinel. 

“I could pose for you… would you like to practice your strokes?” Boadicea batted her eyelashes as she continued to brush her wingtips over Sentinel’s cheeks. 

“Nyah-umph,” Sentinel mumbled, his utterance incomprehensible. 

“Get your paper, get your charcoal sticks, and then you tell me how you want me to pose,” Boadicea said in a low whisper. “Just make me look pretty, like you did Diamond Tiara. That’s all I ask.” 

“Ayuh.” Sentinel nodded. 



 

“Come on, get a little exercise. You won’t fall, I won’t let you.” Lyra made a gesture as Derpy took a few cautious steps. The golden glow of Lyra’s magic was wrapped around the whole of Derpy’s body, making the pegasus lighter. 

“Come on, let’s get you in the tub,” Bon Bon said as she stood in the bathroom door, waiting, watching, feeling anxious. Derpy’s movements were stiff and Bon Bon felt a pang of worry. 

“Bonnie, be gentle when you shove her through the door, try to press in on her sides first if you can and then try to ease her through.” Thistle sat on the floor, Bell Heather beside her, watching as Derpy made her way to the bathroom. 

“I really gotta go pee.” Derpy eyed the door and stopped walking. “Every day it is getting harder to fit. It hurts going through there.” 

“Wait, let me pop the door off of the hinges maybe… that would give us a few extra inches… see how the door itself sticks out into the doorway?” Lyra peered at the doorway and then back at Derpy. 

“What do we do with the door? If we prop it up against a wall, it could fall over on a foal,” Bon Bon said, her face crinkling with worry. 

“I pull the door off of the hinges, I get Derpy into the tub, when she’s comfortable in the water, I take the door outside and put it on the back porch… and then we get used to not having a door on the bathroom.” Lyra’s lips pressed into a pucker of concentration. “Maybe tomorrow, we ask some of the woodworker griffons to widen the door frame and hang a wider door.” 

“That seems reasonable.” Thistle got up, took a few steps, and then stood beside Derpy. She patted the grey pegasus on the shoulder. “Be careful with her wings, she’s carrying a lot of water weight right now and they’re probably tender. Don’t bang them on anything getting through the door.” 

There was a loud screech as the bathroom door was lifted off of its brass hinges. Lyra levitated it out of the bathroom, moving it in a skillful manner, and then lay it down atop of the bed, out of the way. 

Grunting, Derpy began walking again. She spread her wings out, stretched them, and then positioned them straight up, pointing them above her body, trying to reduce her profile as much as she could. 

“Suck it in!” Bon Bon cried as she rose up on her hind hooves and placed her front hooves just behind Derpy’s wings. 

“It kinda looks like Bonnie is mounting Derpy,” Thistle said, giggling and covering her mouth with her hoof. 

‘Mount mount mount… you keep saying that.” Lyra shook her head. 

“I’m lonesome and needy. I need to be mounted.” Thistle stopped giggling and gave Lyra a serious look. “As much as I like a little filly on filly action, I am in dire need of a good hard di—” 

“Thistle! Foals!” Bon Bon cried as she shook her head. 

“Oh, see, that’s what I mean. I need to be mounted to make those,” Thistle said in a soft, innocent tone that was impossible to be angry with. 

Working in tandem, Lyra and Bon Bon began trying to get Derpy through the door. Removing the door helped, Derpy’s ribs weren’t scraping along the rough edge of the door. Lyra pulled and tugged with her magic, while Bon Bon pushed Derpy from behind, shoving her through the doorway with gentle nudges and bumps. 

“It sorta looks like Bon Bon is humping Derpy—” 

“Thistle!” Bon Bon squeezed her eyes shut. “So help me, if you say one more word, I am going to work you over later until you beg me for mercy!” 

“I want to watch!” Derpy said as more of her bulk was shoved through the door. “I’m so bored! I can’t take it anymore!” 

“Word,” Thistle said in bold defiance. She grinned, revealing needle teeth. 

“The kelpie is impossible,” Bon Bon muttered. She rolled her eyes and gave Derpy another gentle shove. “This is impossible… I really hope I don’t have twins! We can’t keep doing this! Umph! Get through the door!” Bon Bon braced her hind legs, squeezed Derpy’s sides with her forelegs, and then used her hips to bump Derpy forwards. 

“Thistle’s right. It does kinda look like you are humping Derpy—” 

“Lyra Heartstrings, you are so dead!” 

“Oops, too far!” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 744
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The forge was cold. Under normal circumstances, the fires would be blazing by now, even at this early morning hour. The forge was cold, quiet. There was no hammering, no pounding, no heavy thudding of steam powered machines that banged metal into shape. 

There was a pile of tinder, a pile of charcoal, an iron rod, a hammer, one small unicorn filly, one large fey unicorn, two griffons, both males, two griffon cubs, both female, and one primordial fire entity along with his former apprentice. 

This was a solemn moment, and Rising Star said nothing as he stood watching. Firelock was being added to their number. Rising Star felt an odd sense of pride. This filly was not his, but he was her teacher, and he had strong feelings of fondness for her. He knew that Lugnut and Spanner wanted to keep her, to become her parents. Rising Star hoped that their petition would be accepted. Everyone that worked in the forge had become fond of her. 

“Why aren’t we using magic to light the forge?” Firelock asked, breaking the contemplative silence of the forge. She yawned and her breath was visible in the frosty air. 

“Because, little one, there are other forces than just mere magic. There is tradition. The griffons have a tradition, one that is taught to us by the Fire Keeper himself,” Lugnut replied in a soft voice. He wrapped his wing over Firelock’s back and patted her on the neck with his talons. 

Spanner, silent, and wearing heavy leather gloves over his talons, picked up the iron rod. It wasn’t very big, long, and rather thin. One end looked a little flattened and battered. He placed it upon the anvil and waited.

Stepping away from Firelock, Lugnut picked up the short handled hammer. “You know how I’ve had you practicing holding a hammer gripped in your fetlock?” 

Firelock nodded. 

Lugnut held out the hammer to Firelock. “Take this. This hammer is the blacksmith’s heart. By itself, it is only a hammer.” 

Spanner lifted the iron bar above the anvil. “And this, this is the blacksmith’s soul. By itself, it is no more than an iron rod. But if a blacksmith has both heart and soul, he or she will have fire at their command.” 

Gentle, careful, mindful of his sharp talons, Lugnut grabbed Firelock’s front leg that was holding the hammer. He waited, watched as Spanner placed the iron rod upon the anvil, and then, he pushed down on Firelock’s leg. The hammer struck the iron rod and the anvil, which rang out in the quiet forge. 

“Keep striking the iron with your hammer,” Lugnut instructed. 

“Heart and soul must work together to produce passion, which is heat. Heat is fire,” Spanner said. “With the beating of the heart, the soul will burn with passion.” 

Firelock began banging the hammer down upon the cold iron rod, swinging her foreleg. She wasn’t very strong, at least not yet, but her blows were steady and well timed. The forge filled with -ting-ting-ting!- sounds. 

Shifting into the form of a massive earth pony, Scorch, the Fire Keeper, stood nearby, his face as solemn as a stone. He watched as the filly lifted the hammer and brought it down, each strike hitting the iron rod. Already, a thin wisp of smoke came from the iron. It was getting hot. 

“The heart beats true and the soul warms, gaining life of its own,” Spanner said as he watched the iron begin to heat. “Now the soul has vitality, but it is not enough to start a fire. Firelock, keep striking and give it life.” 

“The heart must beat steady and true,” Heifer Aestus said to Firelock. “I too, was taught this lesson.” 

After repeated striking, the tip of the iron bar began to glow cherry red. Spanner took the iron bar and poked it into the pile of tinder. He opened his beak, blew, and the tinder ignited. Flames began to burn as the tinder blazed and the wood began to ignite. 

Firelock watched the flames with wide, staring eyes. She set the hammer down upon the anvil and watched as the wood began to burn. 

Lugnut placed his talons under Firelock’s chin, lifted her head, and looked her in the eye. “You made fire without magic, without matches, you have made fire with both heart and soul. You are now one of us. Do not squander this gift.” 

“So who is going to tell her?” Scorch said. He was smiling. 

Smiling, Heifer Aestus covered her mouth with her massive hand. She took a step backwards and stood with a merry look in her eye. 

“Tell me what?” Firelock blinked and looked around. The flames were blazing now. “Hey, what’s going on?” 

Lifting his cloven hoof, Rising Star prodded Firelock on the backside. She turned around, her eyes narrowed, her tail swishing from her sudden movement, and then, she saw what the others had seen. 

“Ooooh!” She continued to chase her own tail, trying to get a better look. 

“That’s a good looking mark. A flaming hammer.” Lugnut looked at Spanner and his crest rose. The griffon puffed out, looking proud. “No doubting it now, you are one of us.” 

Spanner reached up and began wiping his eyes. “I think I got a spark in my eye or something…” The griffon began to mutter and squawk. 

Standing beside him, Sprocket clutched her father’s leg. “No cry.” 

“I’m not crying Sprocket, I have something in my eye!” 

Looking up at her father, Sprocket peeped and then looked at her twin, Cog. 

“So are we going to get to work?” Firelock asked. 



 

Scowling, Sunset Shimmer tore her gaze away from the prisoner and then looked at Shining Armor. Frustrated, she did not know what to say. She did not have Bucky’s raw intimidation factor, nor would she dabble into dark magic as Bucky tended to do. She turned her attention back to the crystal unicorn. The black crystals growing out of his crystal horn had rendered him powerless, a spell cast from smashing open a spell jar. 

“He’s not going to tell us anything,” Sunset Shimmer said. “I’m sorry Shining Armor… I’m just not scary like Bucky can be.” 

“That’s okay. It’s probably for the best. At least we have his magic neutralised, I was worried about him somehow defeating the magic inhibitor we had on him.” Shining Armor’s image flickered for a moment, becoming fuzzy and indistinct. “Message incoming.” 

“Message?” Sunset Shimmer gave Shining Armor a curious look. 

“Princess Celestia is sending pulses through the ley lines… Morsel’s code—ugh!” Shining Armor’s image began to pulse and stutter. His image crackled, some crackles short, other crackles long. 

“The second battle of Fromme du Lac rages on, stop. Victory is not assured, stop. The enemy have holed up in makeshift bunkers and trenches, stop. They have some kind of sound weapon that completely disables the diamond dogs, stop. Shining Armor, I am scared, stop. Please look after my little ponies, stop.” 

Shining Armor blinked as he took in everything he had just said. “The lowlands offensive was just launched several hours ago, back around midnight, Canterlot time. The mirror travelers are capable foes.” 

“I know. I was almost killed by one,” Sunset Shimmer replied. “He took on four of us and he was winning that fight.” The unicorn mare shook her head. “Shining, what if we lose?” 

“Then the survivors pull out, come home, and we begin the largest evacuation ever known as we begin bringing citizens of Fancy and Germaney to both Equestria and the Sea of Grass,” Shining Armor replied.

“You mean there is a plan in place already?” Sunset Shimmer felt a tightness in her barrel as she spoke. 

“Princess Celestia made extensive plans and plotted many outcomes. If necessary, Equestria becomes a fortress. She has thought that far ahead.” Shining Armor frowned. “I hope it never comes to that.” 

“Shining Armor, it is my recommendation that we turn the prisoner to stone. I will bring Sparkler to Canterlot to deal with him. We have more pressing issues to deal with than this jerk. He’s no longer much of a concern and any information he might have can wait until Bucky comes home.” Sunset’s face became stern. “I wanna watch this guy pull the tough pony act with Bucky.” 

Shining Armor’s head bobbed. “I think your suggestion is wise.” 



 

Standing on the deck of a ship named Thundercracker, Bucky’s muscles tensed as the ship drifted towards Fromme du Lac. He turned, lifted his head high, and looked at the Myrmidons on deck. 

“Our enemy is tough and capable. During previous engagements they were hit with a bowel disruption spell that should have ended the fighting. While it took down some, many kept fighting while ignoring the effects.” Bucky shook his head. “Princess Celestia wanted them incapacitated, taken down, and captured alive to show the world that we can be merciful. That’s not gonna work. Now we’re going to do things my way.” 

There was a great deal of hooting and grunting from the assembled Myrmidons, a lot of hoof stomping, and enthusiastic squawks from mounted griffon riders. 

“Each of you have been given a number of spell jars containing the fires of Tartarus from my son, Rising Star. Fromme du Lac cannot be saved, and our enemy cannot be captured alive. Your job is to fly in as low as you dare and drop these spell jars onto areas of enemy occupation and destroy enemy fortifications. Are there any questions?” 

“Why did they return to Fromme?” a Myrmidon asked. 

“I don’t know. Familiar ground I suppose. There has already been a major battle fought here and this terrain might be well known to them. They might have established it as a reconnoiter point. The concrete grain silos do make for good fortifications and the extensive drainage system beneath the city allows for rapid movement below ground where they cannot be seen,” Bucky replied. 

“How much resistance can we expect?” a griffoness asked. 

“Heavy resistance. You will encounter enemy pegasi and even unicorns using wing spells. They’ll also be shooting at you every chance they get. To help you out, a group of minotaurs and a group of brave earth ponies will be making a damn big ruckus. The earth ponies have twenty millimetre guns mounted to their backs, rigged as mortars. They will be shelling the northeast quadrant of the city to cause panic and maybe draw out some of the enemy, making it easier for you lot to go in and do your jobs. Make each pass count, we’re expecting heavy casualties for the ground troops. The enemy have an unreasonable hatred for the earth ponies, and we’re exploiting that.” 

“Brave bastards,” a female Myrmidon said. “When this is over, we owe them a drink.” 

In the distance, fires burned and explosions could be heard as the Thundercracker drew closer to Fromme du Lac. The Thundercracker, so named because of its ability to generate protective storm cloud cover around the ship, was a small, swift moving light cruiser. Other ships also approached the city. 

“Sir, what will you be doing?” a griffon asked. 

“I plan to go underground, down into the dark. I’ll be in the southwest quadrant of the city, so go easy shelling that area. We suspect that their command headquarters is somewhere in the southwest,” Bucky replied. 

“Sir, I hope you will not be going alone.” The griffon, sitting on the back of a Myrmidon, sat up straighter and looked at Bucky. 

Belisama cleared her throat. “Not to worry. We’ll be meeting up with several bocors who specialise in underground fighting.” She reached out and patted Bucky’s neck with her talons. “It’s important to have friends.” Belisama began to pull a gas mask over her head, getting ready as the Thundercracker drew closer to their point of departure. 

“We’re getting ready to turn the ship around,” a voice said through the deck’s intercom system. “Make ready for departure!” 

“Make ready!” Bucky shouted. 

“FOR FROMME DU LAC!” one of the Myrmidon’s screamed. 

“YEAH!” 

“GO GO GO!” 

The first row of Myrmidons broke from the formation, lept for the rail of the ship, and took to the air. Airborne, they spread out, presenting less of a target. Other Myrmidons broke ranks and took to the air. 

“Belisama?” 

“Yes Bucky?” 

“I love you, just so you know.” 

“I know.” There was a pause. “I love you too.” 

“The bocors are going to be using really nasty gas… aerosolised poison joke to break down defenses and phosgene gas to clear the tunnels. It smells like musty hay or green corn, or so I’ve been told. Belisama, this is going to be awful… I’m sorry.” 

“There’s no need to be sorry. I chose to do this. Now get your mask on, we’ve got work to do.” Belisama, whose voice was muffled by her mask, reached out her talons and gave Bucky’s left ear a tug. “Come on, let’s get this over with.” 

Grimacing, Bucky pulled his gas mask over his face and then began to tighten the straps. Having something over his muzzle made him feel claustrophobic, but he dismissed the feeling. There was work to do and Bucky would see it done. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 745
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Harper, happy to see her mother, Bon Bon, grabbed Bon Bon’s tail and squeezed it between her forelegs, rubbing her cheek against the silken strands. “So fluffy!” 

It was impossible not to smile. Bon Bon, who was laying in the bed, nudged Derpy to have a look. Derpy lifted her head, stretched out her neck, and was just able to see the foal clinging to Bon Bon’s tail. 

“So soft… so fluffy… so…” Harper paused and stopped rubbing her cheek. Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. Her head turned just a little to the side and she sniffed. “Ugh!” 

“Harper, what’s wrong?” Bon Bon asked. 

“FARTS!” Harper pushed Bon Bon’s tail away. The foal shuddered and stuck her tongue out, making a yuck-face with more skill than any foal had any right to have. “Tail stinky-stanky with poot-poot juice!” Harper’s eyes bulged out. 

“Harper!” Bon Bon’s eyebrows huddled together like two angry caterpillars debating politics. 

“Bwahahahahahah!” Derpy exploded with laughter and then clutched her stomach with her front legs as her hind legs kicked and scissored in the air. Her wings flapped against the bed as Derpy laughed, her belly jiggling. 

“Harper Heartstrings!” Bon Bon snatched her tail away with a swipe of her right front leg. 

“Bonnie, help me, I need to pee!” Derpy clutched her stomach and could not stop laughing. “I can’t breathe, fetch a doctor!” 

With a gasp, Harper fell over and went limp. “Harpy DEAD!” 

“I’m not going to make it to the bathroom!” Derpy cried as she squeezed her hind legs together. “Oh it hurts, I’m dying!” 

“LYRA HEARTSTRINGS, GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!” 



 

“Will you two cut it out in there?” Berry Punch looked down at her big belly, her head down and peering between her front legs. She could see that there were things bulging out, things protruding from her stomach. “Hey! Hey! Stop that! Right now!” Berry punch jiggled her stomach around. “I can’t take this anymore!” 

Eyes wide, Piña looked up at Berry. “You got things poking out of your sides!” 

“I know!” Berry jiggled her stomach again. “Feels so weird!” 

“Is that a hoof?” Piña stepped away, worried that Berry Punch could explode at any moment. “That was a hoof… I think that was hoof!” 

“Will you little cooter kickers cut it out?” Berry shouted. She shook herself again. 

After taking another step backwards, Piña covered her mouth with her hoof.

“OW, hey, that’s my uterus, ooof,” Berry cried as she lifted up her right hind leg and pressed it up against her stomach. “Oh, that hurts, that really, really hurts… somepony help me, I gotta go lay down.” 

“I gotta be in school,” Piña said as she backed away even more from Berry. “And I never, ever, ever, want to have to have foals… NEVER EVER!” Piña took off at a run, her pink tail streaming out behind her.

After Piña was gone, Berry Punch laughed. She patted her stomach. “Thanks, you two were great. Here’s to hoping that Piña has foal-free teenage years.” 



 

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” 

Cloudstreaker looked at the pony speaking to her. He was wearing a hat. He looked trustworthy enough, for a stranger, anyway. She cleared her throat and replied, “I’m here for school. For my last class, I came here to learn civics and politics. Now I am here to attend a meeting as a junior reporter for the new school newspaper we're starting.” 

“Oh. Neat.” 

“Why are you here?” Cloudstreaker smiled at the stranger. 

“Oh, I was sent here on behalf of the ponies living in the Whitetail Woods. We need to hammer out a new agreement,” the pony replied. 

“Oh… hey, could I interview you?” Cloudstreaker’s pencil and notebook appeared, almost like magic. The filly adjusted her glasses and tried to look professional. 

“Um, I guess?” The pony tilted back his hat. 

Cloudstreaker held her pencil in her primaries. “We should start with your name. My name is Cloudstreaker.” 

“My name is Pepperjack.” 

“Great! So why did you come to city hall today?” Cloudstreaker asked. 

“The ponies of the Whitetail Wood are almost out of food. I don’t think we’re going to make it through the winter and I came to ask for help. To see what we can trade for supplies.” 

“Sounds like quite a story. Starving survivors seek sustenance… send supplicant. Hmm.” 

“What?” Pepperjack blinked. 

“Oh, never mind. Sentinel suggested alliteration to help me find inspiration. So, tell me about your situation, if you don’t mind…” 



 

“Sentinel, would you mind telling me why you are staring out the window rather than paying attention?” Cheerilee tapped her hoof upon the floor to get the colt’s attention. 

Startled, Sentinel looked away from the window, and with a guilty expression upon his face, he turned to Cheerilee. “Sorry Cheerilee, I… well, Freezerburn and Philomena are both out of their nest at the same time, preening one another and I haven’t seen them in such—” 

“They are?” Cheerilee smiled and trotted to the window. She stretched her whole body, trying to get a better view. “Look at them… so majestic. Two phoenixes… one blue, one orange. Class, Philomena has eggs and I am certain that you know the rule about staying away from their tree.” 

“Yeah, Freezerburn is a big meanie!” a filly shouted. 

“He’s a proud papa, guarding his young,” Sentinel said in defense of Freezerburn’s aggression. “Princess Luna says that Freezerburn hatched and borrowed some of my father’s characteristics. Which means that Freezerburn just wants to be left alone with his young.” 

“Look at them class, see how in love they are. Phoenixes are like us, they are animals with powerful intelligence that equal our own. They cannot speak like we do, but sometimes they do mimic our sounds. There are ways to communicate with them though. If you earn their trust, they make steadfast friends.” Cheerilee watched as the two love birds preened one another, and she thought of Big Mac. 

“Freezerburn is a corrupted phoenix. He was forever altered because of what the crystal lich did to him. His egg was used as a battery and he died countless times, trapped inside of his egg, unable to die, unable to live, until my father rescued him. Freezerburn does not generate heat, but cold. A corrupted phoenix is one of the few creatures that Discord, the Lord of Chaos fears. Freezerburn is mostly friendly though.” 

“Thank you, Sentinel, for that little lesson about Freezerburn,” Cheerilee said. 



 

Terrified, Lyra Heartstrings looked at the pegasus in silver armor standing on the front porch. Every horrible nightmare scenario that Lyra could think of began to play out in Lyra’s mind as she looked at the messenger. 

“Be at ease,” the pegasus said, seeing Lyra’s distress. “I am here for Derpy Doo Hooves. I have been sent to collect her and bring her to Canterlot.” 

“She’s… she is…” Lyra, still unnerved by the pegasus, swallowed and composed herself. “Derpy is very, very pregnant. She’s having trouble getting around.” 

“Oh, I’ve taken that into consideration. In the heated sky carriage, I have two skilled unicorns that will be happy to assist her.” The pegasus smiled, trying to make Lyra feel better. 

“What is so important, anyway?” Lyra narrowed her eyes and did her best to look authoritative. “Like I said, she’s pregnant and she has some health issues. She needs lots of rest.” 

“Goldflake, former head of House Avarice, is dying. He has begged to see the mare that showed him kindness when he deserved none. Emperor Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire, feeling merciful, has chosen to allow this, that is if Derpy is willing to come to Canterlot. The decision is hers to make.” 

“Hmmph.” Lyra tossed her head back to flip her mane out of her eyes. She took a step backwards, got out of the doorway, and made an inviting gesture with her hoof. “Come on in. It’s cold out.” 



 

After hearing everything the pegasus messenger had to say, Derpy remained silent. Goldflake had been sorry; of that Derpy had no doubt. His regret had been sincere. The messenger had laid it all out. Goldflake wanted to clear his conscience before he died. He wanted Derpy to be there, along with Berry Punch and Piña Colada, two members of Clan Pickled. 

Berry Punch was pacing, if one could call what she was doing pacing. It was more of a waddle, all things considered. The earth pony mare had a troubled look upon her face. 

“Berry?” Derpy asked, hoping for input from her oldest friend. 

“I don’t know what to do… I don’t want to do this, but if I don’t, I’ll be sending a bad message to Piña Colada, and that’ll make me a shite. I don’t want to be a shite. Piña deserves better. I have worked very hard to make certain that Piña will have a good life,” Berry Punch said as she waddled back and forth. 

“Well, I’m going,” Derpy said. 

“You are? Why?” Berry asked. 

“Because. Goldflake is all alone and dying. He has no family around him. He said he was sorry and he was sincere. I held him and he cried.” Derpy watched as Berry Punch’s face contorted into a hate-filled scowl, and then, after a moment, Berry’s face softened into an expression of disgust. “He did bad things. Awful things. But he also brought about the end of his own house. And now, he is an old stallion that is dying. He has nothing left in his life. I hate what he has done, but I can’t hate him as a pony.” 

“Oh feck, if you’re going, I have to go too. I can’t let you go alone,” Berry said as she rolled her eyes. “I can’t let you have the moral high ground all to yourself, you’ll get lonely without me.” Berry snorted and shook her head. “Somepony go and fetch Piña from the school.” 

“Berry, you’re acting Berry sour—” 

“Puns do not become you!” Berry snapped. “That scrotal varicose vein profited off of Clan Pickled misery.” Berry’s whole face contorted with rage and turned a deep purple. “I’m doing this to be with you and I’m doing this for Piña. 

“Thank you, Berry Punch—” 

“And don’t thank me either! Not until later, when I’m in a better mood, like thirty years from now after my foals have grown up, I have grandfoals, and I have drank myself into a very forgiving stupour!” Berry Punch’s barrel heaved and each breath came out as a snort. 

“Berry?”

“What?” 

“Moments like this are why I love you.” 



 

Sulking, Berry Punch tried to get comfortable. The rear seat of the carriage had been ripped out and a makeshift shelf bed had been put in. Derpy was piled in and Berry Punch was beside her. On the rear facing seat sat Piña, Dinky, and Sentinel. Piña had refused to come along unless Dinky was with her, and then Dinky had refused to come along unless she had her big brother. 

The three foals were silent. Sentinel sat in the middle, with Piña and Dinky sitting on either side of him. He had his wings wrapped around them. Dinky had one of her forelegs wrapped around Sentinel’s forelegs, her eyes were closed, and her face was buried into Sentinel’s neck. 

It was at this moment that Berry Punch realised that Sentinel had grown. He was now a full head taller than both Dinky and Piña when sitting down. Berry Punch’s mind began to make connections; Sentinel was eating a dozen eggs at a time some days, he was always hungry, and his voice had been cracking a lot, going up and down from a deep baritone all the way up to a high pitched coltish squeak. 

The sky carriage bounced as it fell prey to turbulence. Piña let out a soft cry and pressed herself a little closer to Sentinel. As Berry watched, Sentinel gave Piña a little squeeze with his wing. When Sentinel had first joined their family, he was no larger than Piña or Dinky and had nearly froze himself to death standing guard. Berry Punch felt a large lump growing in her throat. 

Reaching up, Berry Punch wiped her eyes with the back of her fetlock. She sniffled a bit, and  then, sprawling out, she set her head upon Derpy’s hip, her chin coming to rest upon Derpy’s bubbles. 

“A mare could ask for no finer son,” said Berry Punch in a soft voice as she continued to watch Sentinel. 
	
> Chapter 746
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Derpy was being lifted out the carriage, she saw a familiar face smiling at her. She sucked in a lungful of cold air and shouted, “Sparky! What are you doing here in Canterlot?” 

“Mom, I can’t talk about that,” Sparkler replied. 

“Oh fine, be that way,” Derpy said as she wrapped her forelegs around Sparkler’s neck. She began kissing the filly, planting kiss after kiss upon Sparkler’s face, and as she did so, she noticed Sparkler’s facial tics. Worried, Derpy tried to kiss those away. 

“Okay, mom, you’re getting all slobbery and excited.” Sparkler didn’t dare pull away, she stood there, glad to have to her mother’s affection, but she was no longer a little foal. “I have to get back to Ponyville, I’m needed there.” 

Derpy pulled away, feeling sad, and watched as two fresh pegasi guards started to get hitched into harnesses. “I’m so proud of you, Sparky. You’re growing up and doing so well for yourself. And now you’re here in Canterlot on secret business. Is it police work?” 

“Something like that, mom.” Sparkler smiled a dazzling smile, the corner of her mouth and her eye twitching only a little. “Take care of mom, Dinky. That’s an order. Do it or face arrest.” 

After rolling her eyes, Dinky then looked up at her sister. “Oh please. Like I need to be told.” Dinky grinned and then adjusted her hat so it sat at a more rakish angle. She watched as Sparkler stuck her tongue out. 

“Ah, Canterlot… smell that snooty air!” Berry Punch said as she had a look around. 

His ears perking forward, Sentinel noticed Berry Punch’s forced smile. She wasn’t happy to be here, not at all, and now she was going to make bad jokes as a means to mask her discomfort. He sighed and resigned himself to what was certain to be a long day. 

“Hey, please, get my mother inside, out of the cold and see that she’s comfortable,” Sparkler said as Derpy let go. “I gotta go mom, bye.” 

Feeling a bit sad, Derpy watched as Sparkler climbed into the carriage. She lifted up a hoof, waved, and gave Sparkler one final, parting smile. “Go look after Ripple, she gets lonesome without you!” 

“I will… don’t worry, mom,” Sparkler replied as she pulled the door shut. 



 

The hospital was small, had a single bed, and a single narrow illusionary window that allowed illusionary sunlight to shine in, an impressive feat considering this wing of the hospital was below ground, sunk into the solid stone of Canterhorn Peak. 

In the bed, Goldflake looked more like a skeleton with leathery hide stretched over the bones. Most of his hair had fallen out and his skin was wrinkled like a raisin. One eye had gone milky and white with age. A feeding tube snaked up one nostril. 

“I didn’t think you would come,” Goldflake said in a raspy voice that sounded like winter wind blowing through dead, dry leaves. “And I am very surprised to see her.” 

Her eyes narrowing, Berry Punch’s ears pitched forwards, but she did not say anything. She was sitting on the floor on a cushion and was comfortable enough, but she worried about Derpy, who was propped up in a chair. 

“I am so sorry,” Goldflake said in the voice of a being broken from pain and suffering. He struggled to draw in breath and it rattled inside of his lungs. “Princess Platinum has… forgiven me… she tells me she’s waiting for me and that I’ll be seeing her soon.” 

With sadness heavy in her eyes, Derpy smiled and wondered if Goldflake could even see her. She listened to the soupy sounding gurgles of his breathing and felt a genuine pain in her heart for the equine lying in the bed. “Why did you ask for us to come here?” 

Sucking in air, Goldflake wheezed, his breathing wet and raspy. “You… you showed me the first sincere act of kindness… in my… whole life… at a moment when… I did not… deserve it.” Goldflake rested for a moment, winded from speaking what few words he had spoken. “I have been haunted… by your smile… and your laughter.” 

The grey pegasus mare gasped and her smile faded away into nothingness. Sitting in her chair, she looked at Goldflake, feeling a strange pain in her heart. She felt tears stinging her eyes and she shuddered as she tried to breathe. 

“I can see… why he loves… you the way… that he does… Princess Platinum tells me… that your smile… your laughter… might have saved… the world from… destruction.” Goldflake let out a weak gurgling cough and closed his eyes. “I don’t know… but I do know… that it has… saved me.” 

Sniffling, Piña let out a shrill cry and then began sobbing. She buried her face into Sentinel’s neck, wrapped her forelegs around him, and bawled her eyes out. “I can feel him going… it’s awful!” 



 

A pale white stallion, almost an albino, moved through the room. He had stepped through the door and now stood beside Goldflake’s bed. On his backside, there was a wilted petunia plant that had given up the ghost and died. 

Blinking, Goldflake tried to draw breath as he looked up at the new visitor. 

“There’s no point in doing that,” the pale pony said. 

Fearful, Goldflake realised that he no longer needed to breathe. It was a curious sensation. He looked up at the pale pony and felt cold fear lancing through his heart. “I’m going to be punished.” 

The pale pony nodded. “Yes, there will be punishment, but it will not be as bad as you fear it will be.” 

“But I deserve it,” Goldflake said. 

“Yes, yes you do, but the fact that you can say that says a lot about you.” The pale pony smiled. “It is never too late to change. So long as you draw breath, change is possible. It is never too late to do good. You… you had exactly one pony that loved you. She barely knew you, but she held love in her heart for you. She felt sincere pity for you. She loved you enough to sit by your bedside in your final moments. You have been an extraordinarily rotten pony, and the very sight of you disgusts me, but you sought to change your ways and one pony loved you.” 

“I don’t understand,” Goldflake said. 

“It means that, instead of thousands of years of soul shredding torment to make up for what you’ve done, you will instead spend centuries of contemplation while in a state of discomfort. After you have done your time, you will be allowed to pass through the gate, and you will know happiness.” The pale pony offered the dead stallion a gentle smile. 

“I… don’t know what to say.” Goldflake shook his head. “She’s crying—” 

“She’s crying for you.” The pale pony turned his muted pink eyes upon Goldflake. “She hardly knew you, but she feels sincere and honest pain because of your passing. Her goodness knows no bounds, it seems, and even shelters the undeserving.” The pale pony turned and looked at Derpy, who had covered her face with her wings. “Some ponies, when they die, they are remembered for their atrocities. Others are remembered for their heroic acts. Some will be remembered for courage and bravery. A few will be remembered for their capacity to love… and love can change the world.” 

“I did not deserve this.” Goldflake sat up in the bed. He looked down on his own body and shook his head. 

“No. You did not. But that is what makes this special. She loves you even though you don’t deserve it. That is what love is. A choice. She chooses to love you and show you kindness. It is easy to love those you like. It is hard to love those who have done you wrong.” The pale pony made a gesture at the grey pegasus mare. “You had more wealth and power than just about any other mortal on this planet, and I tell you, for all of your wealth, for all of your power, you did not possess anything as valuable as that mare. She is a treasure that cannot be bought with gold or silver. Nothing in your empire is as valuable as she.” 

Looking up from his own corpse, Goldflake studied the grey pegasus. She was enormous, fat with foal, sobbing, and wheat coloured strands of her mane clung to her soaked cheeks. He felt a terrible pain inside, it started off as a dull ache, turned into a stabbing pain, and then became a throbbing agony. It was almost more than he could bear. He whimpered. It was a pain unlike any other he had felt during his entire long life. 

“Ah, there we go. The pain… the pain that you will reflect upon for these many centuries, you feel it, do you not? It is… most unpleasant.” The pale pony reached out and patted Goldflake. 

“Oh stars, it hurts!” Goldflake covered his face with his hooves and then gibbered with pain and fear. It dawned upon him that he was going to have to endure centuries of this, and the realisation was soul-crushing. He quailed with despair. 

“As much as this hurts, this is better than you having passed into my realm with no love at all, trust me. Had you passed into my realm with no love to shield you, no love to protect you, I would be shredding your soul right now as we speak. I would be trading your soul to the denizens of the underworld. You would be bought and sold in the market of lost souls, and your suffering would be used as the currency of Tartarus. And to get you acclimated to the suffering you would be enduring, I’d be laying your soul to waste right now. You sir, are one lucky equine. Life is so very simple. Just get one being to love you with a simple, sincere, true love, and save yourself from damnation. Yet so many fail in this endeavour.” 

Cringing, Goldflake pulled away from the pale pony, whose voice had changed, becoming cold, terrifying, and sepulchral. 

“Princess Platinum has requested to see you. Are you ready?” the pale pony asked. 

Nodding, Goldflake found that he could not speak, he was far too terrified and the pain he felt coursing through his being was overwhelming. 

The door to the hospital room opened, but the hospital hallway was not on the other side. The doorway was nothing but blackness, a featureless void. The pale pony stepped towards the door, stopped for a moment, looked at Sentinel, smiled at the colt, and then turned around to look upon Goldflake once more. 

“Don’t dawdle,” the pale pony said, his voice now dripping with malice. “Her love may save you from my wrath, but it will not shield you from my impatience…”



 

Quiet, contemplative, Berry Punch was sprawled in a comfortable chair, drinking a cup of coffee. She had watched him go and now she couldn’t figure out how she felt about it. The deposed ruler of House Avarice, a pony laid low by his own hoof. She wanted to hate him. More than anything, Berry Punch wanted to hate him, but found that she could not. The dead were dead, the noble houses were gone, the war had ended, the feud was over. 

And Goldflake was as dead as dead could be. 

Berry Punch sipped her coffee and looked over at Derpy, who was still crying as she held all three of her foals. Piña was still sobbing, Dinky just looked sad, and Sentinel looked… it was hard for Berry to understand whatever it was Sentinel was feeling. Under the somewhat embarrassed expression of being sobbed on by two females, there was something else. 

Something unknown. 

“I felt him going and the room got cold.” Piña, still sobbing, sniffled and clung to Sentinel. “I don’t want my magic if it means I have to feel ponies dying.” 

Piña’s words caused Berry a bit of pain and the earth pony mare watched as Sentinel wrapped a wing around Piña, and then as Derpy also put a wing around the sobbing foal. Piña was so tender hearted. Berry wondered if Piña even understood how much pain, misery, and suffering Goldflake had caused a countless number of ponies. For a moment, Berry Punch contemplated telling her, explaining just how terrible he had been, and what he had done. 

But then, Berry realised, Piña would not be growing up under the shadow of House Avarice. She had suffered some, of that there could be no doubt, Piña had been on the Shetland Isles and had seen the pony she now called her father laid low. Piña had suffered enough hurt. Feeling ashamed for her thoughts, Berry Punch realised there was no good reason to make Piña hate a pony now dead. 

The dead were as dead as dead could be, and the old bones, now buried, should be left alone. The old hatred should pass along with Goldflake. Berry Punch took another sip of coffee. It was time for this to end. She had brought Piña here to learn something, and now, Berry Punch understood the lesson. 

It was time to let go. 

Piña was weeping for a pony, not a hated enemy. She had not yet learned to hate. Berry Punch resolved that the old hatred would end here and now with the passing of Goldflake. Feeling ashamed, feeling bitter, Berry Punch pondered her part in all that had taken place, and the pony she loved more than anything. Missing Bucky, Berry Punch began to weep. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 747
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Even though she had just woke up, Berry Punch felt exhausted. Yesterday, during a trip to Canterlot, she had watched a pony breathe his last. All day afterwards, she had been out of sorts. Berry Punch hoped that Piña had learned something from the experience, along with Dinky and Sentinel as well. 

The wooden kitchen chair was a bit too hard on her plot. It was getting harder and harder to sit down on anything firm. Semillon was humming to herself as she prepared breakfast for the adults that were just now getting out of bed. For Berry, it was a pleasant, pleasing sound, something that Berry associated with normality. The earth pony yawned and then reached down to scratch the tight skin below her navel with her left front hoof. 

There was nothing quite like a good scratch of too tight skin. Berry found it satisfying, almost orgasmic. She let out little happy half awake grunts as she moved her hoof in a circle. Itches had to be scratched. That was the nature of the universe. Come spring, when the earth woke back up, Berry planned to spend a lot of time rolling in the grass. 

Sighing, satisfied, Berry Punch took a sip of coffee. She shuddered, let out a “Wuh-wuh-wuh-woo!” sound, and remembered that her coffee needed sugar. She armed herself with a spoon, stabbed it into the sugar bowl, and dumped a few spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee. She then added a bit more cream for good measure. She heard bubbling laughter from Semillon behind her and Berry smiled without realising it, glad to have made somepony happy. 

Nopony else was in the kitchen yet. She knew that the others were awake, Lyra and Bon Bon were helping Derpy in the bathroom. Thistle was having a morning snuggle with Bell Heather and Sukari. Berry Punch wiggled her legs, trying to keep the blood flowing, worried about feeling pins and needles in her hind frogs. 

The coffee, made at Bucky-strength, made for a fine cup of mud. Berry Punch started to feel a bit more awake. She took another sip, made a face like she was drinking one hundred and sixty proof corn squeezings, and then wondered how Sentinel managed to drink this stuff black. In the back of her mind, Berry Punch wondered what the black goo in the coffee cup was doing to the foals in her belly. 

Feeling a bit more awake, Berry Punch pulled the newspaper from its protective sleeve. As she did so, Bon Bon came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Berry, a polite sort, mumbled out, “Morning.” 

“Hey Berry,” Bon Bon replied as a cup of coffee was set down in front of her. 

Yawning, Berry Punch opened up her paper and had a look. What she saw startled her. It took several seconds of intense staring to make out what she was seeing. She gasped as she made out of the details of the grey scale photo in the paper. She saw Bucky, the Taint was leaking from his left eye and his right eye was turned away from the camera. His teeth were bared, revealing the jagged nightmarish teeth made for rending flesh that went all the way to the back of his jaw. His talons were wrapped around the neck of a pegasus and Bucky’s right rear hoof was snapping the pegasus’ wing. The picture was snapped mid act; the wing had not yet hit the ground, but it had snapped and formed sharp angles around Bucky’s hoof. It made Berry’s groin clench and tingle just to look at it. She saw Belisama and one of Belisama’s revolvers was smashing into the pegasus’ skull. A jet of shiny silver was erupting from the place where the revolver’s grip had impacted. Berry realised that the silver stream was blood, a copious amount of it. A third figure that Berry Punch could not make out had their hooves inches away from the pegasus’ ribs. Somepony was about to get the kicking of their life. Only the back half of the kicker was in the photo, and the figure was blurry. 

Stunned, Berry Punch read the print below the image. 

As shocking as this image might be, I ask all of you to take the following into consideration. Moments before this photo was taken, the pegasus, one of the generals of our enemy, spat upon our beloved Princess Celestia and soiled her perfect white pelt. This pony, the Lord of Winter, is feared by many. But in this moment captured on film, we see a pony defending not just his Princess, but his beloved aunt, who was disrespected. We see a pony that is fanatically loyal to our beloved Monarch. We see one of Princess Celestia’s most devoted protectors, one of her most worshipful servants. We see the dutiful apprentice of Princess Luna. We see a devoted patriot that has pledged his entire existence to serving the Royal Pony Sisters, the rightful Diarchs of Equestria. My fellow ponies, I ask you, is this how we thank our most dedicated defenders? By smearing their names in the paper and creating campaigns of fear mongering? Now I ask you, what do you see when you look at this photograph? A terrifying psychopath or a loving nephew protecting his aunt? 

Berry Punch’s jaw fell open. Below the paragraph of fine text, she saw a bolded statement that was underlined. 

My fellow Equestrians, who are you to insult our beloved Princess Celestia and say that her cherished nephew is a monstrous terror that is a danger to the nation that he strives to protect? 

The paper fell out of Berry Punch’s hooves and fluttered down to the table. She sat there, her eyes wide, staring at the large image of Bucky in the paper once it had gone still. 

Leaning over the table, Bon Bon craned her head to have a look. Her eyes narrowed. “Bucky is scary when he’s angry… look at him… and Belisama… she’s giving that pegasus a skull fracture I think.” The earth pony mare winced and shook her head. “That looks like it hurts.” 

“I wonder who the kicker is?” Berry Punch asked, recovering just a little. 

Bon Bon picked up the paper, turned it right side up, and studied the photograph. Her lips pressed together in concentration and her ears pitched forwards. “It’s blurry but there is three somethings on the kicker’s hips.” Bon Bon moved her head closer to the paper, her snoot almost touching the paper. “Oh crap! That’s Applejack! Those are three apples and you can see the ribbon she keeps tied around the end of her tail!” She began to read the caption beneath the picture. 

“Oh snot!” Berry watched as Bon Bon set down the paper and shuddered. 

“Oh, I bet that hurt bunches… Applejack is a born kicker and she’s about to applebuck that poor pegasus… oh, that’s ugly, I can’t look at that,” Bon Bon said as she turned away from the paper. The earth pony’s face contorted into a grimace. “That pegasus is having a bad day. He picked the wrong Princess to spit on.” 

“You can see the bones in his wing are snapped already… just imagine the mess when Bucky’s hoof smashed that wing into the deck planks.” Berry Punch tapped on the paper with her hoof. “And ponies say that what I did was brutal.” 

“I can’t get over sweet little Belisama… she looks so vicious. Her little beak is open and you can see murder in her eyes. I’ve never, ever seen her look so angry.” Bon Bon, looking worried, shook her head. “Berry, you and I are going to have a real mess to clean up when these two get home.” 

Nodding in agreement, Berry Punch looked Bon Bon in the eye. “I suppose so.” 

“At least we’ve won the battle of Fromme du Lac.” Bon Bon sat back in her chair. 

“That’s good news,” Semillon said as she set down a platter of cheese and garlic biscuits. She paused and looked at the photo of Bucky in the paper. “You know, somepony should cut that out and frame it. Stick it over the mantle in the living room.” 

“The entire world is going to look at this picture and they are going to learn that you don’t spit on Bucky’s auntie.” Berry Punch lifted her coffee mug in salute. 



 

As Celestia looked down, Bucky cowered like a kicked foal. Her eyes narrowed. “I am still very, very angry with you… what came over you?” Towering over Bucky, Celestia could see a very foalish expression upon his face. 

“It’s like a day later and you’re still angry,” Bucky said as his ears drooped down to the sides of his face. 

“YES!” Celestia’s wings sprang out from her sides and she saw Bucky cringe. She took a deep breath and folded her wings back against her sides and then took a step backwards. 

“What possessed you to do what you did?” Celestia demanded. 

“He spat on you… I don’t need a reason!” Bucky’s voice was a nervous squeak. 

“I can’t even imagine what the reporters are going to say about you… and all of the photos that were snapped… so many photos of you doing the violence that you do so well.” Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Bucky, you have image issues as it is and now there are going to be pictures of you on the front page of every newspaper in the world beating a pony to within an inch of his death—” 

“I had help,” Bucky said in a faint, foalish voice. 

“It was just spit, Bucky… spit cleans off!” Celestia lowered her head, took a few steps forward, and came snoot to snoot with Bucky. She snorted and peered down her muzzle at him. He trembled “Bucky, they are going to use those photos to make you into a monster. They are going to say awful things about you… don’t you understand that?” 

“I don’t care!” Bucky let out a wordless whimper after speaking. Nervous, Bucky licked his lips. “He spit on you…” 

“Stop saying that! That is not an excuse!” Celestia shouted. 

“It’s all the excuse I need,” Bucky replied. 

Closing her eyes, Celestia growled in frustration and then took a step backwards. After standing still for a moment, she then turned around and stomped away. “You are impossibly foalish! I don’t know what to do with you at times! I can’t even think straight right now!” 

The hair along Bucky’s spine stood up. Celestia was using contractions, indicating that she had gone beyond a reasonable state. 

“I can’t even stay angry with you because part of me is flattered that you delivered such a horrific beatdown to preserve my honour, like the knights of old! I hate you so much right now because I know I need to scold you for what you’ve done but part of me wants to hug you and tell you how much I appreciate your gesture of affection… EVEN IF IT WAS INCREDIBLY MISGUIDED! BAD! BAD NEPHEW!” 

Cowering, Bucky let out another whimper as he stared down at the floor. He worried that in Celestia’s current state of irate anger that she would start wing slapping him. She might… she seemed almost in a blind rage. Her current emotional state made her unpredictable. 

“The Element of Honesty delivered a savage beating to a captured enemy general. I can’t even begin to imagine how much damage this is going to cause to Twilight’s efforts towards global harmonisation… when you grabbed him by the throat Applejack just… just… she just—” 

“Gave him a much needed lesson in manners?” Bucky said, trying to be helpful. 

“NO!” Celestia whirled around and glared at Bucky once more. “After capturing him, there was a golden opportunity to show the world that we can be kind, fair, merciful, and just to our enemies. We had a chance to show the world that we can be just as capable of being gentle as we are brutal. This was supposed to show the world that you didn’t have to kill our enemies, that you could bring them back alive and that we could be merciful! If we can just get some to surrender this might be over faster! We might get them to see reason! This was supposed to help you, you pudding headed, mare mounting, kelpie fondling, griffoness groping idiot!” 

“Auntie—” 

“SHUT UP!” Celestia squinted at Bucky. She stomped her hoof once, then twice, and then a third time. “What am I going to do with you? I want the public to love you like I love you… why must you make it so hard?” 

Looking at Celestia’s now tear stained face, Bucky felt like crawling down into a hole somewhere and dying. 

“Why must you be so much like him?” Celestia asked in a voice that was almost a sob. 

That was the unkindest cut of all. Bucky felt as though his guts were being pulled out through his backside. Real physical pain writhed inside of his body and his stomach clenched in an agonising manner. He felt as though he was going to be sick at any moment. He coughed, cleared his throat, and blinked away a few tears. 

“You’re so beautiful and perfect… and he spit on you…” 
	
	
> Chapter 748
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Surrounded by what Lyra considered ideal ingredients, Lyra drew in a deep breath and studied her canvas. It had been a hectic morning but now the house was beginning to calm down, and the calm was pleasant. The bread was crusty, with a hint of moistness that made it chewy, the crust was thick and rather flakey. Semillon had crafted an almost perfect baguette and Lyra had almost felt a pang of guilt as she had sliced it in half down the middle. 

The perfect sandwich had thus far eluded Lyra. She had a copious volume of notes documenting her failures. Sandwiches that were too wet, sandwiches that were too dry, sandwiches that were bland and a chore to eat. 

“Science,” Lyra muttered to herself as her stomach began to gurgle. “I do this for science.” 

Sighing, reveling in the beauty of perfect bread, Lyra pulled open the baguette. She lay it out on a plate. To make the perfect sandwich, you needed perfect bread. This was perfect bread. Semillon, a Fancy pony, could make perfect Fancy bread. 

The bread needed lubrication, some, but not too much. On the bottom, Lyra spread a layer of mayonnaise, homemade mayonnaise, not the icky stuff that came in a glass jar. She spread it thin, having learned the hard way about too much and too little. A little went a long way. On the top half of the bread, she applied a light coating of sweet, tangy yellow mustard. 

And that was the base upon which Lyra would build. The unicorn’s eyes narrowed as she studied her foundations. Problems started during this stage. This is where everything could go wrong. Lyra checked her work, and saw that it was good. 

To the bottom half, Lyra applied cucumber slices. Thin, but not too thin, the sandwich needed a cooling crunch. If you put the cucumbers in the middle, they tended to slip around and fall out of the sides, ruining your sandwich. Lyra tried to slide a cucumber around on the mayonnaise. It moved, but not much. Good… good, the mayonnaise was doing its job. It was a lubricant, but it was also a glue of sorts, a sandwich cement. 

So far, so good, so what, Lyra thought to herself. She ignored the sweat beading up along the hairline of her mane. She lifted up a few tomato slices, tomatoes grown in the greenhouse. These tomatoes were ideal; they had some juice, but not too much juice. The tomatoes were small, not much larger around than the cucumber slices. These tomatoes were fleshy. She stacked them atop the cucumber, feeling anxious as her creation began to take shape. 

The sweaty unicorn wiped her brow with a clean towel and then went back to work. She applied a layer of shredded lettuce. Cool, crisp lettuce, grown in the greenhouse. Baby lettuce, at a state when it was most tender. Not too much lettuce though, but just enough to make a foundation, like mixing straw and mud to make adobe. 

Grinning, Lyra let out a soft, faint cackle as she loomed over a tub of her next ingredient; hummus. Bucky loved the stuff and ate it by the bucketful. This batch reeked of garlic and had been seasoned with roasted red peppers. A manic gleam appeared in Lyra’s eye. She began to daub the hummus to the sandwich, little pats applied to the lettuce, which formed a nice layer. A little here, a little there, but not too much. A little went a long way. 

“Yes,” Lyra said to herself as she nodded her head. “This pleases Lyra Heartstrings.” 

To the top of the sandwich adobe made of shredded baby lettuce and hummus, Lyra applied black and green olives, sliced. She pressed them down into the hummus, cementing them into place. 

Next, Lyra added thin sliced portobello mushrooms. A manic giggle escaped her lips. So far, everything was perfect. She began to add some bits of purple onion. Then came a layer of baby spinach leaves. On top of the spinach, she added slices of pale white cheese, tucking each slice in, tessellating the triangles for maximum cheese coverages. The cheese, a source of friction, needed lubrication, but it had to be grippy lubrication. Lyra added more hummus and lamented the lack of avocado. 

Perhaps, come summer… 

On top of the hummus, Lyra added alfalfa sprouts. Lots of them. She pressed them into the hummus, which secured them into place. She then added rings of red, green, and orange bell peppers, grown in the greenhouse. 

The sandwich was now thick. Lyra considered her work. She was even sweatier now and her mane clung to her neck. Her golden eyes glittered with manic energy. She folded the lid of the sandwich into place and then gave a gentle press to seal everything together. 

The sandwich was pleasing to the eye. It had colour. The pale golden brown of the baguette. The colour of the peppers. The blushing labial red of the tomato peeking out of the sides excited Lyra. She felt a pleasing rush of heat flooding through her nethers. A good sandwich had similar characteristics to something else that Lyra liked. You needed a little wet, a little slippery, a little grippy… a rivulet of sweat ran down Lyra’s neck and she thought of Bon Bon… and then, much to her surprise, she also thought of Thistle. 

“Need mango.” 

Startled, Lyra let out a cry and whipped her head around. She saw Harper sitting on her haunches, looking up at her with wide, curious eyes. Harper’s frizzy mane was sticking out in all directions. 

“Harpy, honey, while you love peanut butter and mango jelly sandwiches, this is mommy’s art. Mommy has impossible standards due to magically induced neurosis motivating me and filling me with desires that I cannot understand, but must labour towards anyway… and mommy thinks she has made progress towards the perfect sandwich.” 

“Mommy silly.” Harper craned her head and eyed Lyra’s work. “Ew, crust. Blech!” 

“This isn’t for you!” Lyra shook her head. “Bread should have crust, a perfect sandwich needs crusty bits… oh, why am I trying to explain this to you?” 

“Nope. Yuck.” Harper, almost a yearling, made her argument in a precise and succinct manner. She screwed her face into a disgusted rictus of displeasure and stuck her tongue out at her mother. 

“Harper… just… go! Go on, you little wooly booger, and let your mama enjoy her sandwich!” Lyra gestured at the kitchen door. She watched as little Harper blew a juicy wet raspberry. 

“Yuck sandwich. Need mango. Sandwich need colour orange more,” Harper insisted as she walked away. 

“Harper, wait,” Lyra stepped forwards and then lifted Harper in her magic. She pressed her snoot against Harper’s cheek and gave her filly a kiss. “Mama loves you… mama loves you like she loves her sandwiches… it's a weird love I can’t put into words.” 

“All ponies love Harpy.” Harper giggled as her mother smooched her again and her ears wiggled. 

“Want me to fix you a sandwich?” Lyra asked. “I can make it perfect, just for you…” 



 

“Still getting lectured?” 

“Eeyup.” A pause. “You?” 

“I am now composed of ninety percent arseholes, because Princess Celestia keeps ripping me a new one,” Bucky replied. He slumped down by the deck rail. 

“Fluttershy just saved me from Twilight’s most recent attempt.” Applejack shivered for a moment in the chill wind. “Twilight is still kinda peeved with me.”There was a thoughtful silence and then Applejack mumbled, “I’m kinda upset, Bucky.” 

“About?” Bucky turned his head and saw green eyes. 

“Has anybody even bothered to lecture Belisama?” Applejack grinned as she took a step closer towards Bucky and peered over the rail. “She cracked his head like a walnut.” 

“She did.” Bucky let out a miserable huff. 

“You know what galls me… we’re healing that bastard. We have him hooked up to life support and Celestia wants him healed. Bucky… that just… bothers me. He should have been tossed over the rail and dropped into the ocean below. We’re wasting perfectly good medicine healing him and making him better… and it makes me so mad that I can just spit.” 

“Princess Celestia is trying to think long term… she wants to show the mirror travelers that we can live together. That they can lay down their arms, surrender, and be treated with mercy,” Bucky explained.

“I don’t see that working,” Applejack said in a voice that dripped with bitter sarcasm. “But maybe it's ‘cause I’m just some dumb as dirt earth pony that isn’t worth spit to these invaders.” 

“Don’t say that Applejack—” 

“I’ll say whatever I feel like… it’s true, ain’t it?” Applejack snapped. 

“Just… don’t say that. I have earth ponies at home that I’m missing and I can’t bear to hear you say words like that.” Bucky closed his eyes and rested his chin on the rail. 

“I’m sorry, alright? I didn’t mean to make ya upset.” Applejack pressed up against Bucky’s side and then shivered from the cold. “Well I’ll be damned, will you look at that, I gots me an airship… Rarity and Coco ain’t the only sex pots with airships.” 

Opening his eyes, Bucky watched as a smaller craft did a flyby. On the bow of the ship was a perfect painting of Applejack in mid-buck, kicking the snot out of a dark blue-grey pegasus. Bucky lifted his head and unable to help himself, he smiled. The image was almost cartoony, and there was a ring of apples and stars around the pegasus’ head along with a stupid look upon his face.

“WOOOO!” a group of pegasi on the deck of the ship shouted. “MEET THE APPLE BUCKER, MOTHERPLUCKER!” 

“Well damn, I’m flattered,” Applejack said, her eyes watering. 

Almost laughing, Bucky could not see this sitting well with Princess Celestia or Princess Twilight Sparkle. The pegasi on the passing ship continued to hoot and holler, as well making loud whistles. Beside him, Applejack was waving and smiling.

“Bucky, what kinda ship is that?” Applejack asked as she waved. “Did I get a warship?” 

“That’s a… I think that’s a mobile kitchen ship… it isn’t very big and you can smell the hot grease from here—” 

“WOO DAMN! I gots me a kitchen ship! A pony’s gotta eat! It’s food that wins a war!” Applejack stomped her hooves down upon the deck. “Bucky, can you carry me over there? I want to talk to them… cheer ‘em up a bit, raise their morale, you know, do what I was sent here to do.” 

“I can do that… hold on…” 



 

“So, how about that hospital food?” Cheese Sandwich asked. He grinned as he pronked about the bandaged masses. “You’d think that they would want you to get better!” 

Some of the ponies in bandages laughed, while others were silent but grinned. A few moaned in pain as they tried not to laugh. 

“And the nurses… the nurses! Oh my, some of the nurses. Nurses who say they want to be your friend…” 

“Yeah Cheesy, with friends like that, who needs enemas?” Pinkie Pie began to giggle-snort at her perfect punchline delivery. She could hear the laughter all around her. Good laughter. Healthy laughter. Medicinal laughter. 

“Oh, that’s just dreadful,” Discord grumbled to himself as he rubbed his face with his paw. He was grinning, but it was against his will, and he hated his face for betraying him. There would be harsh words with his face later, heated words spoken into a mirror. 

“At least they are nice enough to move the food from the bedpan to a plate… it’s all about the presentation and the little piece of parsley is—” 

“Coco!” Rarity’s mouth fell open and Rarity shook her head. “Coco, how could you?” Rarity had to raise her voice to be heard over the riotous laughter and she realised that some of the ponies were laughing at her. Flustered, Rarity lapsed into silence but grinned, knowing it was important. 

Squeezing his accordion, Cheese Sandwich began to sing: “Eat it... eat it... eat it... eat it… If it's gettin' cold, reheat it… have a big dinner, have a light snack… if you don't like it, you can't send it back!” 

Working his squeeze box, Cheese sang his heart out and Pinkie Pie danced around the room, tossing confetti as well as streamers, trying to bring a bit of cheer to the wounded. As she whirled around the room, she grabbed Rarity, and then Pinkie Pie began to dance with the stuffy unicorn, ignoring Rarity’s protests and pleas to be put down. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 749
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing upon the deck of the Sol Sempiternus, Princess Celestia watched as part of the fleet made preparations to depart, to fly inland and begin the invasion into the mountains. This night was one of the coldest yet and everything was glazed with ice. Metal creaked, an unnerving sound that made Celestia’s groin tighten with alarm. It was snowing, a wild storm that had blown in from off of the ocean. Several dragons circled the fleet, some small, some massive, all of them servants of the Queen of the Sea Dragons. 

Several tears had frozen upon Celestia’s cheeks; they glittered like tiny diamonds in the deck lights. Each breath came out as a cloud of steam and curled away from Celestia’s graceful nostrils in little wisps. She could warm herself if she wanted to, but she wanted to feel the cold. She heard the sounds of hoofsteps approaching behind her. 

Without turning to look, Princess Celestia knew it was Twilight Sparkle. After a moment, Twilight stood beside her, Twilight Sparkle, the little filly that had grown up, become a beautiful mare, and was now a tall, gawky alicorn of unbelievable power. Bucky, who had reached the very limits of what a unicorn was capable of, and Twilight Sparkle, who was exploring new realms of alicorn magic, the pair were her champions. Her chosen. She felt a fierce feeling of pride for both of them. 

“I don’t know how you do it.” 

Twilight’s voice as wavering, uncertain, and fatigued. Princess Celestia felt a growing heaviness in her heart. The weariness in Twilight’s voice matched the weariness that Celestia felt in her spirit. 

“Princess Celestia, I once criticised you for being a bad ruler because I was ignorant of everything that was really going on. I came down pretty hard on you… and then, you showed me a little more of the big picture. It crushed me, I’ll admit. Everything I thought I knew about the world was wrong.” 

Silent, Princess Celestia did not feel the need to reply, but she noticed that Twilight had called her ‘Princess Celestia’ and was speaking in a somewhat foalish voice. Without realising it, Celestia smiled, and when she did so, one of the frozen tears upon her cheek fell away, falling down to the deck, at last doing what tears were meant to do. 

“Now, I am stuck trying to get other ponies to see the big picture. Applejack is so stubborn. And I’m a little frustrated with Rainbow Dash because Rainbow keeps taking Applejack’s side and I’m a little jealous. Now that I’m thinking long term, now that I understand what this war really means, I realise, I don’t know what I’m doing. I want the world to make sense again… I want things to go back to how they were, when I was your student and you could teach me things and I would learn and everything would be okay. Nothing is okay now.” 

Somewhere, out in the darkness, a foghorn blared. The snow was picking up and visibility was dropping. Princess Celestia listened to the sounds of the fleet and watched as flashing lights relayed messages from ship to ship. Saying anything to Twilight right now would be useless, Twilight Sparkle needed to talk... she needed to speak the words so she could listen with her own ears to what it was that she was saying so she could sort everything out. Celestia knew her student… perhaps better than Twilight knew herself. 

“You held everything together all by yourself. You did the impossible. You kept Equestria together as a nation, held on to your throne, and you waited out the bad spell, knowing that Princess Luna would return and you awaited the possibility of her redemption. It was either a calculated move or the world’s most reckless gamble… and right now, I’m thinking it was a calculated move. You saved what was important, knowing that you could save everything else that had fallen down later. And then, somehow, even with your own empire crumbling down around you and your enemies plotting against you, you were successful with your Ponyville Project. Without the Ponyville Project, I would never have met my friends. The Elements of Harmony would not have redeemed Luna. And right now, the mirror travelers would be gaining a hoofhold on a world held in the embrace of night. I don’t know how you do what you do.” 

“Oh, I get help from amazing students.” Celestia’s muzzle split into a wry, toothy smile. 

“I want to be your student again. Not magic… but statecraft. All of this has been humbling. I used to think I knew everything I needed to know, but now I see how foolish I’ve been and I’ve come to the painful understanding that I know very little.” 

Another frozen tear fell away from Celestia’s face. She thought about her students. During her long life, there had been many. She thought about her many bold gambits… and most of the time, it came down to her students. Her amazing students. For a moment, Celestia’s mind drifted away completely, and she remembered traveling upon an airship, meeting up with the most unlikely crew of misfits, and enlisting them to rescue one of her beloved students. Rye Mash had been quite charming, cultured, polite, and civilised. History had been unkind to him and his remembrance was less than flattering. The dreaded sky pirate, Rye Mash, the shotgun rapist. Celestia’s wry grin became an amused grin. She had fond memories of drinking tea with that little colourful character. Celestia knew what the history books had failed to mention; Rye was a bit prissy, prim, proper, and a teatotaller. Celestia had trusted the life of one of her students to him. The sound of Twilight’s voice jolted her from her memories. 

“How we win this war is just as important as how we fight it. We have to be gracious winners and—” 

Twilight’s words trailed off into a long yawn. A worrisome yawn that awoke all of Celestia’s instincts and urges for motherhood. “Twilight Sparkle, when was the last time you slept?” 

Twilight’s ears fell down and she sidestepped away from Celestia. “I don’t know. There’s been so much to do.” 

“Twilight Sparkle, you are a pregnant mare and you are carrying my godfoal in your belly right now.” Celestia’s voice was stern, but not angry. She turned her head and looked at Twilight. For a moment, Twilight Sparkle, the tall, gawky alicorn, was once more a tiny foal in Celestia’s eyes. 

“But there is so much to do!” 

“Twilight Sparkle… sleep.” Celestia’s command carried with it the impossible weight of magic. Twilight Sparkle toppled, her body going limp, her eyes rolling back into her head as her eyes closed. Celestia caught her before she hit the deck. 

Turning, Celestia trotted across the deck to return Twilight to her quarters. 



 

Pushing open the door, Celestia saw a blue pegasus raising her head from her pillow. There was a moment of sleepy aggression as the blue pegasus, not quite awake, protected the two smaller lumps in the bed with her. The rainbow maned defender of the bed blinked and Celestia could see intelligence creep into her eyes. 

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash blinked again. “Hey, is Twi okay? What’s wrong with my Twilight? Why is she all limp?” 

“She is fine. She is asleep. She needs sleep. Rainbow Dash, when she wakes up, she is to stay in the bed. I do not care what you need to do, but you are to keep her in the bed for a while. See that she gets rest. Am I understood?” 

“Yeah, now gimme my egghead!” Rainbow Dash’s voice was squeaky with worry. 

“How is Tourmaline?” Celestia lay Twilight down in the bed and watched as Rainbow Dash pulled a blanket over her. 

“I have bad news… I don’t know if I should be the one telling you this,” Rainbow Dash replied in a low whisper. 

“Tell me.” Celestia made her request as soft and as gentle as possible. 

“Tourmaline found that she can heal… and I don’t just mean that spit stuff either… she… she… she was low on juice and she was really upset because she couldn’t do her job and then she did magic, and the unicorn started healing and Tourmaline started screaming like a dragon was eating her and it scared everypony… she has that… I can’t remember what the doctor called it, I’m sorry.” 

Celestia could see the apologetic expression on Rainbow Dash’s face. “Empathic healing. She feels the wounds that she heals.” Celestia felt her heart sink and a crushing weight settled over Celestia’s back. “I will leave her in your care.” Reaching out her wing, Celestia patted Rainbow Dash on the cheek. She then lowered her head and kissed each pony in the bed, starting with Twilight Sparkle. 

“You don’t have to leave… there’s enough room in this bed for you if you want to stay…” 



 

“And how is daddy’s little Tartarus-spawn?” Discord lifted up a foal wrapped in a blanket. “Hi Tranquility…. oh how your mommy stares at me…” Discord began to giggle. 

“Discord, don’t call her that,” Fluttershy demanded in a hushed voice. 

“Sorry Tranquility, I can’t call you by your name anymore, you adorable little Tartarus-spawn—” 

“Discord, I love you, but you try my patience something awful sometimes.” Fluttershy looked up at the tall serpentine figure. 

“You should be more specific.” Discord allowed his suggestion to hang in the air as he grinned and waited for a reply. He heard Lunacy grunt and then the little nightmare began to snuffle as she grew upset, wanting her sibling returned. He scooped up the other blanket wrapped bundle and held the two foals together. 

“I’m cranky, the foals won’t let me sleep… I have had a very, very long day. You deal with them for a while.” Fluttershy snapped her paw.

For a moment, Discord wasn’t sure what Fluttershy’s paw snap had done, but then he noticed a very peculiar sensation travel through his body. Holding the foals, he looked down and realised with growing horror, he was no longer a daddy, but more of a mommy. 

“There… now you can feed them. Lunacy can gnaw on your teats for a while.” Heaving a sigh, Fluttershy threw herself down upon the bed, closed her eyes, and was asleep in seconds. 

“Well… I am a thoroughly modern parent… I should be open to new experiences. I did rather enjoy pregnancy.” A mischievous grin spread over Discord’s long face. He snapped his tail and the terrible grin widened. Fluttershy was going to wake up with some new bits on her anatomy… that would teach her. Him. That that would teach him. 

Cackling, Discord fled his cabin to go off and spread a little chaos. 



 

Needing a rest, Bucky looked up from his work, the enchantments he was burning into Fleshrender’s rifle. He glanced over at Belisama, who was cleaning her revolvers yet again. Beside her, her sword was immaculate, and her crossbow gleamed with a mirror finish. 

The little griffoness was a killer, of that there could no longer be any doubt. 

“Belisama? Would you play me a song?” 

The griffoness closed the cylinder on Huginn and then looked at Bucky. “Give me a minute.” The revolver was at least half the length of Belisama’s body and the barrel’s maw loomed black and terrifying, like a train tunnel into the abyssal planes of Tartarus. 

“We’re going to go up the mountains on the back of an elephant… that should be fun.” 

With reverence, Belisama placed Huginn into its holster, nodding as she did so. “It’s gonna be a bloodbath.” The griffoness’ crest rose. “In the tunnels, down below Fromme… something changed for me Bucky.” 

Bucky raised an eyebrow. 

“You know how ponies get cutie marks that tell them what their destiny is?” Belisama picked up her autoharp. “If I was a pony, I would have a cutie mark now… down there, in the tunnels, I knew my place in the world… as the bodies began to pile up from the gas and the bullets, all of my fear and all of my doubt fell away from me… sitting on your back, I felt like a queen. I was Odin’s talonmaiden, I was your wife, and I felt so empowered…” She cradled her autoharp to her breast. “I am going to raise Bandua to be a fierce warrior.” 

“We did good in those tunnels, you and I… we didn’t lose a single bocor.” 

“And we took General Vertigo alive. I’d still like to scatter his brains for what he did…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 750
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Any word on Bucky?” Derpy closed her bad eye so she could focus upon Berry Punch. The grey mare wasn’t quite laying on her back, but she wasn’t quite laying on her side, either. She had pillows wedged under her spine, propping her up at an angle. She was, for the moment, comfortable. 

“There’s a picture of him on the back of an elephant. They built a platform on the elephant’s back so a whole bunch of ponies and griffons and diamond dogs and minotaurs could sit up there. The unicorns will work together to make a shield and the whole thing will work together as a makeshift tank.” Berry Punch pulled herself up into the bed, lay down, and got comfortable. 

“I’m so scared… Berry, I want him home.” Stretching out her wing, Derpy brushed her mane from her face. “What else is in the paper?” 

“Le Pain has been liberated. A group of ghosts infiltrated the city and began killing the mirror travelers, or ponies thought there were ghosts. Turns out the phantoms were shadow ponies… witnesses describe a large wolf like pony that savaged the enemy ranks, ripping them limb from limb. Another shadow pony was described as being ram like. He broke down the fortifications where the enemy had holed up. A really large pegasus laid waste to a group of unicorns, or so witnesses say. After an intense battle, an earth pony and a very kind hippogriff arrived, bringing with them medicine and comfort. The many wounded were helped and the hippogriff sang songs and made music that helped drive away the horrors of the abuse the town had suffered, lifting their spirits. Nopony heard a single name being said, but the group called itself the Shadowbolts. The paper is going nuts trying to figure out who the new heroes are.” 

Closing her good eye, Derpy laid her head down on a pillow, strained to draw in a deep breath, and wished that Bucky was here with her right now. She felt like crying, but held her tears in. If she started crying, then Cadance would start crying, and Cadance had powerful alicorn lungs. 

“Ripple still wants to join the Shadowbolts.” Berry sighed, reached out, and pulled Bell Heather closer. “Where is Thistle?” 

“I dunno,” Derpy replied. 

The door leading out into the hallway opened and Lyra Heartstrings stepped into the bedroom. She was smiling and her golden eyes had a merry twinkle. She was wearing a coat with a fluffy collar. 

“Okay, time to load both of you into a wagon,” Lyra announced. 

“What?” Derpy opened her eyes and looked at Lyra. 

“Both of you are going into the wagon sleigh thingy. We need to get you into Ponyville—” 

“Do I have a doctor’s appointment that I don’t remember?” Derpy asked. 

“No.” Lyra began to approach the bed. “Sentinel got paid a substantial chunk of change for an essay on nationalism he submitted. He used some of that money to purchase a day at the spa for both of you. The spa is all yours. Just the two of you. Well, I’ll be there to help move you around. No other ponies will disturb you, Sentinel sprang for Aloe and Lotus’ exclusive service.” 

Berry Punch, having trouble believing what she was hearing, shook her head, causing her ears to flop around. “Sentinel did what?” 

“Sentinel got paid… oh never mind. Standing here talking isn’t getting you into the wagon. Alpha mare goes first!” 



 



Stargarden insists that magic springs from our consciousness, from a place that is beyond our bodies. Travelling to the astral plane leaves the body behind, separating the spirit from the flesh. Magic continues to function during these times of separation. 

Our teacher, Stargarden, wants us to do experiments that highlight this separation of body and mind. I have given this a lot of thought, and Piña and I have come up with a great idea for an experiment. With Piña’s help, I intend to find out if unicorns can perform conscious magic while they are sleeping. 

My idea is to levitate something small, a piece of paper or something, holding it above my head and then go to sleep. A sufficiently focused state of will should allow me to continue levitating the paper. I talked with Princess Luna about lucid dreaming, which means that the will continues to function, even during sleep. Controlling a dream or levitating a piece of paper shouldn’t be that different. Piña is eager to begin the experiments. 

I suspect that the hardest part will be putting myself to sleep. 

 


 

“Mommy has control of the moon again.” Luna, now a good bit larger, cradled Erebus in her forelegs. “Mommy can now do her part to maintain balance and keep this world alive. Mommy can now relieve some of the stresses placed upon your auntie Celery.” 

“Celery!” Erebus cried. 

“Yes, Celery.” Luna dove down, soaring through the air with relative ease. 

Banking, Luna sliced through the air, the chill wind stinging her eyes. She was starting to feel like herself again. She was once again Luna, the Princess of the Night, but she was not the same. She could not put a hoof upon what had changed, but Luna knew that she had changed a great deal. This body, this incarnation, this new mind, it was unlike her previous forms. She thought about her guilt, her self doubt, she thought about her long ponderings if she deserved her crown. 

As she picked up speed, her doubt began to peel away. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, Luna began to work her new self free from her old self. Flying, Luna’s body was growing with each beat of her wings. Magic flowed through her as she touched not only the moon, but the stars and the planets as well. Her horn grew in length as she circled over the farmhouse. She clutched Erebus to her barrel, and his gleeful giggling was music in Luna’s ears. She placed a protective bubble around Erebus and prepared to test her new limits, just to see what this new body could do. 

Laughing, Princess Luna flexed her new muscles, physical, mental, and magical. 





“Ooh… hot!” Derpy’s muscles quivered as a hot rock was pressed into her flesh. Aloe rubbed the rock in little circles over Derpy’s aching lower back and her croup. Derpy’s ears wiggled and her eyes closed as she melted into a state of bliss. She was slathered down in some kind of sweet oil that allowed the rock to slide over her pelt with effortless ease. As the rock trailed over the base of her dock, one hind leg kicked a little upon the padded table. 

Beside Derpy, Berry was also lost, drifting upon a sea of near euphoria. Lotus was stacking hot rocks upon Berry’s back, which caused Berry Punch to let out little happy grunts. A wide, dopey grin was plastered upon Berry Punch’s face and the earth pony lay limp upon the padded table, her face pressed into a large padded donut shaped cushion. 

“Happiness is measured in ear wiggles, yes?” Aloe asked as she began to stack hot rocks upon Derpy’s back. “Lotus, dear sister, I do believe my pegasus is happy. Look at her ears!” 

“Bah, happiness is measured in grunts and snorts,” Lotus replied to her sister. She waved one hoof in a dismissive manner. She lifted up a ladle of hot oil and began to drizzle it over Berry Punch’s lower back, causing Berry Punch to hiss and wiggle, and then she began to knead Berry’s lower half, using two hot rocks held in her hooves. 

“We have a special mud pack for nursing mothers… medicated minty mud that has a wonderful cooling sensation…  when we get done with the hot rock massage, we shall flip you over and go to work upon your underside. We guarantee that the experience is quite pleasurable,” Aloe said to Derpy as she pressed kinks and cricks out of Derpy’s spine with two hot rocks. “Also, we have a special moisturisers for pegasus wings that will have you feeling like a million bits, but I warn you, it must be applied hot. Some don’t like it.” 

“Even the twins feel relaxed… it’s like they’ve gone into a coma,” Berry Punch said in a low, muffled voice. “You know, at this point, I would let Sentinel get away with just about anything.” 

“Yeah…” Derpy gasped in agreement. “Sentinel gets a free pass, whaddaya say, Berry?” 

“Free pass…” 



 

Umbral sanguisuge. Violet Velvet shivered. There could be no doubt as to what had caused the dessicated husks. Already, she was making preparations to deal with this issue, even though she was at a loss for what to do. Fever Cure and Mask were back in Canterlot to explain the situation to Shining Armor. The mare’s skin crawled as she settled back into her chair. 

“Miss Velvet?” 

“What is it, Cobalt?” Violet was glad to see the earth pony. Cobalt was a good sort, trusted, efficient, and something about his competence made Violet feel calm. He and Dirtbound both were shaping up to be excellent couriers and assistants. 

“You don’t look well… is there anything I can get you?” Cobalt asked. The earth pony’s face was kind and full of concern. His ears splayed out sideways as he studied Violet Velvet, trying to read her mood. 

“No thank you, Cobalt,” Violet replied. “How is Tuli?” 

“Oh, she is well.” Cobalt lifted his head. “I left you a stack of messages in the in box. A package arrived, and it is under the desk down on the floor. There is a scroll tube that arrived from Shining Armor, I placed that in the usual secure location. I also signed for the compressed tea bricks that arrived from Trottingham.” 

“Wonderful Cobalt, it sounds as though everything went smoothly during my absence.” 

“I tried, Miss Velvet.” Cobalt’s face now had a nervous smile. “Apple Bloom is requesting a meeting with you as soon as possible.” 

“She’s in class right now, isn’t she?” Violet asked. 

“Yes, yes she is.” 

“Hmm. I’ll track her down later. Cobalt, I need you to go to the Ponyville library and see if there are any books about a condition known as Umbral sanguisuge. If not, send word to Canterlot to the royal research archives, and have them send any books they might have. Make it a high priority.” 

“Yes ma’am, right away.” Cobalt bowed his head, backed out of the small room that Violet used as her office, and was gone. 

Violet’s desk, a stark affair, was austere and uncluttered. Feeling anxious, Violet began to tap one front hoof upon the wood. Something dangerous and predatory was feeding upon Equestrian ponies and it left Violet feeling unsettled. 

She pulled open the protected drawer that few could see. Only those who needed to know of its existence could see past the powerful aversion spell placed upon it. Inside of the drawer was an ornate wooden scroll tube. She lifted the scroll tube in her telekinesis, popped off a wooden cap from one end, and then peered inside. 

Using her magic, she pulled out a scroll. It was covered in a fine script written in flowing, ornate letters. Beautiful letters in a script that was similar to Twilight Sparkle’s. 

Dear Servant of the Windigo: 

By the express command of the Phoenix, the unicorn known as Sparkler Doo Hooves is now an auxiliary member of the Black Cloaks, to be called upon in times of crisis. See that she is told of her position and that she receives an information packet. 

Thank you, Emperor of the North, Shining Armor, Steward of Equestria. 

After rolling up the scroll, Violet Velvet stuffed it back inside the scroll tube. Sparkler would make a good addition to the Black Cloaks. Sparkler was growing up to be a good sort, a tireless labourer for the greater good with a powerful sense of civic obligation. 

Sighing, Violet Velvet began to work on her inbox… 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 751
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I have no intentions of going easy on you.” Princess Luna’s voice was colder than the night air and as she spoke, tendrils of steam curled away from her lips. “The only way either of you will learn is to know the fear of failure… this will hurt you.” 

Offering no warning, Luna’s horn flared to life and a dart of silver light burst forth. Sentinel rolled out of the way, his body causing the snow to make crunching sounds as he evaded the blast. Several more silver darts flew through the air, chasing him, coming closer and closer. 

Recovering, Sentinel got to his hooves and a black bubble appeared around him. It absorbed several of the silver darts and then burst. Sentinel sprang away, almost cat-like, and one of the silver darts homed in on him. 

Another shield, this one purple, sprang up around his body. Her teeth bared with concentration, Dinky stood stiff legged, raising a simple spell shield around her brother. The silver dart struck Dinky’s shield, popping it right away. 

“Sometimes an enemy is impossible to fight… you will face off against a foe whose might is greater than yours. All you can do in such a situation is evade until such a time that escape is possible, or you find an opening to attack.” Luna’s horn flared once more and several of the snow ponies in the field shuddered to life. 

The snow ponies began to shuffle towards Dinky and Sentinel. 

Instead of running away, Sentinel snapped his wings out, lowered his head, and charged, going right for the lead snow pony. He slammed into it, but the snow pony did not fall apart as Sentinel had expected. Sentinel was grabbed, flipped around, and then smashed downwards into the snow. He snarled, kicked, and cried out in anger as the snow ponies began to pummel him. 

“Sentinel!” Dinky summoned several fiery darts and then launched them at the snow ponies assaulting her brother. Hearing the crunch of snow behind her, Dinky found that she was under attack herself. Controlling her fear, Dinky winked, teleporting away seconds before being kicked by a snow pony. 

Realising that his sister had the right idea, Sentinel shadow dove and then shadow winked away, reappearing several yards distant. His lips pulled back from his teeth and he snarled. 

“So far, this has been foal’s play.” Grinning a terrible, maniacal grin, Luna continued her assault, calling forth more snow ponies and forming a snow army. 

“Two can play at this game!” Dinky cried. She took cover behind Sentinel, closed her eyes, and concentrated. The night sky blazed with light, illuminated by a horde of bugs that Dinky had summoned. “Go forth my fire beetles, attack!” 

“Conjuring!” Luna spread her wings as her eyes went white, glowing with power. Several large flaming toads appeared in the snow, and they began to devour the flaming beetles. 

One of the toads breathed a gout of flame at Sentinel. The colt summoned an umbrakinetic shield, blocking the flames, protecting both him and Dinky. Things were getting complicated. 

“Look after yourself Dinky!” Sentinel shouted as he dove forwards, slipping into shadow. Toads were such simple creatures. He became a tendril of shadow and slipped into the toad’s mind. A second later, he had control of the creature. He belched out a large fireball at the snowponies, and then, just to be flippant, he belched out another fireball at Luna. He slipped out of the toad’s mind, feeling the fatigue of his efforts, and landed in the snow, standing on his own four hooves, his sides heaving from his exertion. 

“Dirty pool!” Luna screamed, rolling out of the way of the fireball. When she got back upon her hooves, her eyes narrowed. “No mercy for you!” 

While Luna was recovering, Dinky was hammering the remainder of the snow ponies with fiery darts and flame whips, while the remains of her fire beetles kept them at bay. She didn’t know what to do about the fire breathing toads. Just to see what would happen, she launched a telekinetic bolt at one of the toads, boring a hole through it. A second later, the toad exploded into a massive fireball that was so large that it singed Dinky’s pelt in several places, turning her face black and leaving her ears sooty. 

“Toadsplosion!” Sentinel cried as he rolled around in the snow, trying to put out his smouldering pelt. There was a second fireball, then a third, and then Sentinel realised that the first exploding toad was causing the others to explode. He shadow dove and winked away, hoping that Dinky would be okay somehow. 

Flames burned all around Dinky and she hoped that her spell bubble would hold. She took the moment of standing there in her bubble to rest and collect her thoughts. Any moment now, Luna was going to wreak even more havoc, releasing the next wave of torment. Dinky could feel the heat of the flames through her spell bubble, and she worried that the bubble would burst at any time. It would burn away her pelt and leave her blistered. 

Understanding that Luna would keep this going all night, Sentinel understood the lesson. As the flames began to die down, he saw Luna lighting up her horn. She was preparing for the next assault. He understood with perfect clarity the purpose of this lesson. Spreading his wings, he took to the air, swooped down, snatched Dinky in his forelegs, and then flew off as fast as his wings could carry him.

“Very good! You took the opportunity to flee a vastly superiour opponent and now both of you get to live and fight another day… I am so very proud of both of you!” Flapping her wings, Luna took to the air to follow after Sentinel. She extinguished the remaining flames, snuffed out the last animated snow pony, and banished the remaining bugs. “Are both of you okay? You are both smoking… land, and let me have a look at you.” 



 

It seemed that there were no flat surfaces upon the mountains. Everything was a slope, a difficult angle. Far overhead, Myrmidons circled, keeping an eye upon the army that advanced up the mountains, pushing further up and in a little more each day. The enemy, such as they were, were on the run, pushing ahead and trying to avoid the bombing flights of the Myrmidons. 

War was awful. There were a lot of long boring stretches of sitting on the back of an elephant, always pushing forwards. Ahead was the unknown and a retreating enemy. Above them were Myrmidons. Behind them were a few support airships that were crewed by as few as possible, fearful of a sudden teleporting surprise that might damage them, or a surprise attack by unicorns that might disenchant the ships and bring them down. 

There had been a few battles, intense fighting had broken out, waves of enemy had stayed behind to buy time to allow the others to escape. Bored, spoiling for a good stand up fight, Bucky found himself in the most pathetic ambush he had ever seen. 



 

A lone figure stood in the snow and the rocks ahead of them. A tiny figure. Blinking, Bucky saw what he thought was a foal. Wary, alert for trickery, he lept down from the elephant, landed in the snow, and began to approach, cautious, knowing full well that the enemy knew how he felt about foals. Belisama’s weight upon his back was reassuring. Just behind his head, he heard the sounds of two revolvers being made ready. 

“Speak now and save your life,” Bucky said as he approached. As he spoke, several Myrmidons landed on either side of him and a zebra bocor stood ready just behind Bucky, a bag bomb ready to be launched. 

“Help me.” 

The voice was weak, faint, and squeaky. Bucky made no move forwards, but lifted his talons to halt the Myrmidon advance. Bucky could detect no magic, but he could detect the trace of magic. There had once been magic on whatever it was in the snow ahead, but it was gone now. Or, at least, that was perhaps the purpose of the trap, to make Bucky believe that everything was okay. 

“I got away and I got my collar off… I’m so cold, help me, I’ll do anything you ask,” the miserable sounding figure in the snow said in a pleading voice. “I think I’m dying.” 

They were far above the tree line. All that was up here was rocks, snow, and more rocks. The wind was like a razor. Anything left exposed to the elements would die in short order, or weakened to the point of their death. 

Bucky crept forward, a shield raised around his body, ready to teleport away at the first sign of trouble. “Don’t you move… or I will kill you.” 

“I surrender… I don’t want to fight… I hate violence, please, please don’t kill me.” 

What Bucky saw in the snow made him gasp. Huddled in the snow was a small figure, dark, with leathery bat-like wings. It made Bucky think of Sentinel and for a moment, it was almost too painful to bear. He wanted to rush ahead and comfort the foal. But he held his ground. 

“You’re a lunar pegasus… I thought the mirror travelers killed your kind on sight,” Bucky said, suspicious and now paranoid. 

“I’m a what?” The voice sounded confused. “No… no… I’m a flower feeder—” 

“What?” Bucky was now the one confused. He relied upon his other senses to tell him the truth. He reached out with his shadow essence… and sensed nothing. This was not a lunar creature at all, even though Bucky could see the bat wings and the slitted eyes. 

“I’m a flower feeder pony… please, please don’t make me fight no more!” the figure huddled in the snow began sobbing. 

Against his better judgment, Bucky moved ahead a bit more. He approached the side of the fallen colt and looked down. The small figure cowered in the snow. “You’re a foal—” 

“No I’m not… I’m almost full grown… I’m so hungry and cold… I surrender… I’ll do anything you ask. I’ll tell you anything you want to know… just don’t hurt me,” the bat winged pony pleaded. 

This was puzzling. Almost full grown, bat winged, but still tiny like a foal. Slitted eyes, a nocturnal creature, but no shadow nature. It was all so very peculiar. Bucky wrapped the small pony in a bubble of warmed air, rolled him over, and then looked the small pony in the eye. “What are you?” 

“I’m a flower feeder pony.” The small pony was terrified as it looked upwards. 

“How did you end up with the ponies I am hunting?” Bucky asked. 

“They came to our world… we thought that they were going to help us, but they took us and did awful things to all of us,” the pony replied. 

“Why would you need help?” Bucky felt Belisama slip from his back and land in the snow beside him. 

“The magic on our world was dying. The sun kept getting dimmer and dimmer and the nights grew longer. We used what little magic we had left to change ourselves, becoming flower feeders… but it wasn’t enough. We were dying out.” The pony trembled as it looked up at Bucky. 

“If it was getting darker and darker, there couldn’t have been many flowers,” Bucky said. His eyes narrowed as he waited for a reply. 

“There were moon flowers, big giant blossoms that opened up when the moon rose. There were too many of us and not enough flowers,” the pony explained. 

Sitting down in the snow, Belisama pulled the head of the small pony to her breast, cradling him, trying to warm him. She stroked his ears, looked into his eyes, and began to examine him. 

“Please, please don’t hurt me… I never wanted to fight, they made us do what they wanted by making us wear collars… they used me as a messenger because I am a swift flier… I’ll tell you everything,” the pony said in a pleading voice. 

Lowering his head, Bucky lifted the pony’s chin and looked at his neck. There was a bald patch where the pony’s pelt had been rubbed away and the flesh was blistered. “You’ve been burned.” 

“The collar burned me and punished me for taking it off… it talked, it kept telling me to be obedient and to obey and the pain would stop.” The pony reached out and touched Bucky’s leg. “I don’t know what you are, but I am not your enemy… please don’t kill me… they said that you would kill me… kill all of us… but you seem kind.” 

“Tell me, little bat pony, what is your name? Tell me your name, and I will help you.” Bucky smiled, but kept his teeth covered. 

“My name is Dipper.” 

Bucky lifted his head and looked at one of the Myrmidons standing nearby. “You… yes you… you’re going to fly him back to the fleet. He is not our prisoner, but our guest. Treat him well. He is nothing but bones and I don’t think he’s a danger. Let Princess Celestia have her capture she can parade around for the papers. Let’s try to get some food in him…” Bucky paused, and then looked down at Dipper. “What do you eat?” 

“Pollen, nectar, bugs, honey if I can get it, but I haven’t had honey in so long—” 

“Mix up some sugar water and get some compressed bug bars for the trip. Get him bundled up or this cold will kill him. He’s too thin and he has no feathers for insulation.” Bucky watched as several ponies sprang off to do his bidding. He turned his attention back to Dipper, his ears perking as he heard Belisama singing some wordless warbling song. The griffoness’ voice was soft, soothing, and somehow made the air around them feel as warm as the spring. 

“Dipper, you are going to see Princess Celestia. She is the Princess of the Sun. You be honest with her, you tell her everything she wants to know, you do everything she says, and she will be good to you. She will give you everything you need, she will shelter you, and she will be kind to you.” 

“Thank you.” 

For a moment, Bucky marveled at the tiny pony’s trusting nature, and then thought about how the little pony begged and pleaded that he didn’t want to fight any more. He felt a surge of anger when he thought about the mirror travelers taking advantage of such gentle natures. Inside, he seethed with anger, but on the outside, he remained calm and gentle. 

“Dipper, for you, the war is over. If you do exactly as Princess Celestia asks, you will never have to worry about fighting ever again. When I return to the fleet, I will come and see you, and we shall talk some more.” 

“Thank you, thank you so very much…” 
	
	
> Chapter 752
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Half awake, Berry Punch stumbled into the kitchen a little earlier than usual, her sleep fogged mind following the scent of coffee. She stumbled through the archway and into the kitchen. She stood there and took in the scene. Three little foals, three bigger foals. The high chairs had been abandoned in favour of a small, low table that sat by the kitchen window. Sukari, Harper and Cadance were all sitting on one side of the low table. On the other side of the table, Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel were sitting, and each of them was helping to feed one of the smaller foals. 

It took Berry Punch several blinks to realise that there was something off with Dinky and Sentinel. Both were… singed? Berry Punch flogged her brain to process the information. It had been a rough night for her, and she had not slept well. The twins had turned her uterus into a racetrack, a wrestling ring, and a trampoline. 

“Why my babies burnt?” Berry asked in a confused voice. 

“Luna set us on fire several times last night,” Dinky replied. 

“Oh.” Berry took this information in. Dinky and Sentinel seemed okay with it. Just a little hair was missing, and there was no real harm done. Presented with a problem, Berry’s brain presented an answer: “Good for Luna.” 

Yawning, Berry Punch went to the low table, grunted, and then eased her barn sized backside down to the floor so she could sit down with her foals. Breakfast this morning was… bowls of brown rice with heavy cream. The scent of molasses was heavy in the air. It made Berry’s mouth water. 

“Semillon?” 

“Yes Berry?” 

“Any of that brown rice you made for the little foals left over?” Berry gave the cook a hopeful, pleading look. 

“Only a little… but I can have a new batch out of the pressure cooker in a jiffy.” 

“That’d be great. You’re like, the most wonderful cook ever.” Berry closed her eyes, thought for a moment, and then opened her eyes. She looked at Sentinel, the responsible one. “Why is there no Erebus at breakfast?” 

“Because early mornings and Erebus don’t mix,” Piña replied. The pink foal shuddered. “One simply does not wake up Erebus for an early morning feeding.” 

“Oh.” Berry Punch watched as Dinky slipped a spoon into Cadance’s mouth. Berry saw Cadance smile because the foal knew she was being looked at. Rice and heavy cream dribbled down her chin, throat, and barrel. 

“Oh nuts… now I have to wash Cadance before school. The milk in her hair will stink.” Dinky shook her head and then loaded up another spoon. Dinky yawned, shook her head a little, and then gave Cadance another spoonful. 

“So what happened last night?” Berry asked. 

“We picked a fight with Luna. She set us on fire, attacked us with armies of snow ponies, zapped us with lightning, threw us around the yard, smashed us into snowbanks with her telekinesis, and she introduced Dinky to a magical feedback loop where she forced Dinky’s magic back down inside of her horn and almost caused Dinky’s brains to squirt out of her ears,” Sentinel replied. 

“Look, it only felt that way… my brain wasn’t actually going to squirt out my ears.” Dinky, looking worried, hoped that her explanation would suffice. “Because I endured it so well, Princess Luna showed me how to cast that spell… I don’t think I’d ever use it on a pony unless I had to though. Because it really hurts and it’s mean.” 

“Well I hope that you at least got a little revenge,” Berry said, waking up a little bit more. She yawned, covering her mouth with her hoof, and waggled her ears, trying to loosen up the muscles in her neck. 

“Oh, we did.” Sentinel smiled, revealing many nightmarish teeth. 

“I grabbed Sentinel in my telekinesis and I threw him at Luna. She was very, very surprised when Sentinel slammed into her. Knocked her flat into the snow. She told me that if I was ever in serious trouble, try throwing Sentinel at something I don’t like.” Dinky rubbed her singed cheek with one of her hooves. 

“You listen to Luna and you pay attention during these lessons,” Berry said. 



 

Grinning, Rainbow Dash contemplated the large, white alicorn sleeping in the bed beside her. The white alicorn that had long been a bed invader, but now was a welcome addition. As it turned out, the alicorn of the sun made a magnificent bed warmer, turning the temperature beneath the blankets into Ahuizotl’s sweltering jungles levels of heat. 

The corners of her mouth curling upwards, Rainbow Dash lifted the black marker up and let out a tiny, worrisome fiendish giggle. Mid laughter, Rainbow Dash heard a voice say in a whisper, “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” 

Turning her head, Rainbow Dash saw Twilight Sparkle’s terrified face. Twilight was shaking her head ‘no’ and there was a pleading look in her eyes. Rainbow Dash shook her head ‘yes’ and gave Twilight a wink. 

“No!” Twilight pleaded in a loud but hushed whisper, full of urgency. “No!” 

“Come on, Twi, just a little mustache…” Rainbow Dash popped the cap off of the marker. The blue pegasus was overcome by her giggles. 

“No, we can’t, she trusts us to guard her in her sleep.” Twilight, horrified, reached out and grabbed Rainbow Dash around the middle with her forelegs, and tried to pull Rainbow Dash away. 

With a grunt, Rainbow Dash dropped the marker. Twilight Sparkle was bigger, and stronger now. She felt herself pulled into an embrace. The pegasus wiggled and squirmed, trying to get free. 

“Hold still, you are going to going to wake her up, Dashie, I can’t believe you’d try to do this,” Twilight said in a low whisper. “Bad pegasus… so very bad.” 

Both mares stopped when they heard giggling. Twilight lifted her head, trying to look over Rainbow Dash, and then, Rainbow Dash gasped as she covered her mouth with her hoof. 

“Glass Slipper… how could you?” Twilight Sparkle looked at her foal. The damage was done. Glass Slipper had the magic marker in her mouth and there was an elaborate curlicue mustache upon Celestia’s upper lip. 

“Yeah, Slippy, how could you? That was my prank.” Rainbow Dash grinned at Glass Slipper, who was crawling away from Celestia and over towards where Rainbow Dash was being held by Twilight. She still had the marker in her mouth and Rainbow Dash could not help but laugh. She held out her legs, inviting Glass Slipper to come and get a hug. 

Waking up, Tourmaline looked around, her head popping up from out beneath the blanket, looking a bit like a bewildered groundhog trying to determine if spring had sprung. She did not have her glasses on and was unable to see anything. 

“Is it wrong that I am sort of proud of Glass Slipper?” Twilight Sparkle asked. 



 

“Tembo? You doing okay?” Bucky, standing on the edge of the platform, looked down at the massive elephant bull beneath him. 

“Fine. Fine. I can keep moving at this steady pace all day, uphill or down.” Tembo’s voice was booming, resonant, and confident. Tembo was a creature that did not know fear. 

Or fatigue it seemed. Bucky marveled at the endurance of the elephants. They were magnificent creatures, tireless, brave, gentle, kind, they made for wonderful friends, but one had to be mindful of the trunks and an elephant’s playful nature around watering holes. He stepped away from the edge of the platform and sat back down upon his cushion. The platform rocked a little with each step, and it tilted backwards a bit because of the incline of the slope. 

“How long can they keep running?” Belisama asked. 

“Until they run out of supplies or stamina,” Bucky replied. “When we get to them though, we’ll have an army of well rested and well fed unicorns, as well as everything else. They’ll be worn out from running up and down the mountains and trying to flee. Let them keep running and wearing themselves out. They’ll die tired.” 

“I’m tempted to trample a few when we meet them.” Tembo’s voice held a great deal of anger and his words were made all the harsher by the fact that the elephants were known pacifists. They abhorred violence in any form. 

Bored, Belisama pulled out her autoharp. It was a powerful weapon of war, her autoharp. It slew boredom, battled low morale, lifted flagging spirits, and made the long march bearable. She began plucking the strings and almost right away, she could feel the curious itchy tingle of magic flowing through her claws. 

On the next elephant over, a diamond dog named Dominic joined in on his flute, and it wasn’t long before it could be heard from one end of the marching masses to the other. Tired hooves moved a little faster. Tired paws picked up the pace. The army, several thousand strong, moved along in time to the music. Even the elephants joined in, humming through their trunks, making a low resonant droning sound that was like an army of trumpets. 

It was during this moment of lifted spirits that the mountains on either side of the pass began to explode. Massive fireballs rose up into the sky and the sounds of the explosions were deafening in the narrow mountain pass. After many, many explosions, there was the terrifying sounds of ice cracking, stone shattering, and then there was the heart stopping roar of snow and debris sliding down the sides of the mountains on either side. Endless tons of rocks and snow rumbled down the steep slopes of the mountains that lined both sides of the pass. 

Reacting quickly, knowing that he only had seconds, Bucky threw up a shield around Tembo and the elephant right next to them. Bucky knew that he couldn’t make too big of a shield, there was only so much he could do. The other unicorns would have to do their job, if they had the presence of mind to do so. Gritting his teeth, Bucky braced himself, ramping up his magic as much as he could with as little time as he had. 

Other horns ignited and Bucky could feel his shield being reinforced. He dug a little deeper and gave it everything he had just as the sliding avalanche of snow and massive boulders reached the valley floor. He felt everything slamming into his shield and the pressure upon his horn increased to agonising levels. The whole world went dark as he was buried under tons and tons of snow, ice,  and rocks. He felt more and more weight slamming into his shield and he began to worry, fearful that it would not hold. He could hear screams all around him. 

But he also heard music. Bucky felt a rush of love welling up within his heart. Belisama had never once faltered in her playing. She was still strumming, it was almost as if she played music in defiance of the life threatening situation they were in. Bucky drew in strength from the music and his love for the griffoness, now trapped in the dark with him, buried under what might be hundreds of feet of ice and snow. The mountains had been brought down upon their heads. 

Bucky had the grim realisation that they were buried alive. He had no idea how much of the army had survived and he wasn’t certain how he was going to get out of this one. His shield, aided by at least a dozen other unicorns, was holding. But it would not hold forever. He needed to get topside to assess the situation. 

The only light was the glow of unicorn horns and the eerie illumination of magic from the shield. The two elephants stood together, close, the platforms almost touching. Bucky was certain that the only thing keeping everypony from going mad with fear was Belisama’s music. And then, Dominic began playing his flute again, joining Belisama. His music wavered, it was clear that the diamond dog was terrified, but he played, doing his part. 

“I need to get topside,” Bucky said in a commanding voice. “I’m going to open a tiny hole in the shield, and then I’m going to make a tunnel heading upwards. I don’t know how we are going to get the elephants out, but we’re going to. No one gets left buried alive.” 

Opening a tiny hole, rocks and snow trickled in. Bucky shadow dove, drifted upwards, became semi-solid, and tapped a little used resource. He belched, forcing his clacker glands to bang together. A gout of flame erupted from his mouth. It burned a tunnel into the snow, the sides froze right away, turning into ice. Bucky braced the tunnel with his magic and began to head upwards, belching fire to clear away the snow. 

About fifty feet or so later, Bucky was out of fire. He belched and nothing happened. There was no helping it, he was going to have to use his magic, a limited resource. Flames sprang forth from his horn and he continued upwards, not knowing when he would find the surface. He knew he was climbing upwards at a slight angle, because he could spit and the spit would drip down. As he made his way up the tunnel, he could still hear Belisama’s music. 

After what felt like over a hundred feet of climbing, Bucky’s head popped up out of the snow. He had himself a look around. He could hear fighting. He looked up and saw the Myrmidons high overhead. He heard gunfire. Something struck the snow a few feet away from him, and then it happened again. There was a hissing sound as something whizzed past his helmeted head and struck the snow. 

It dawned on Bucky that he was being shot at. This was an ambush. He ducked down inside of the tunnel and slid back down a ways. Most of the army was buried beneath the snow. He had no idea how many had died. Trying to dig their way out of the snow meant getting shot at. 

Angry, desperate, overcome by grief, the Lord of Winter reached out for the only ally he had left at the moment. Around him, the snow began to rumble and come to life… 
	
	
	
> Chapter 753
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You know Derpy, I can’t help but notice… you have a thing for unicorns.” Lyra eased Derpy’s body down into the steaming hot water of the large tub, a tub large enough for a kelpie to get comfortable in. 

When her hooves hit the water, Derpy twitched, whipped her tail around, and then moaned as she was lowered into the hot bath. When her belly hit the water, she gasped a few times, closed her eyes, and allowed herself to sink into the tub. 

“I mean… Dinky’s father… then Bucky… and me.” Lyra sat down on the tile floor beside the tub. “It strikes me as being a little weird, seeing as how Dinky’s father hurt you.” 

The heat from the bathwater began to soak into Derpy’s aching pelvis and she sighed. Her eyes now half open, she looked over at Lyra. She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but then closed her mouth a second later, her lips pursing together to form a puckered straight line of concentration. 

“Come on… talk to me… please? You and I… we’ve… we’ve crossed the barrier and we’ve done things with one another… and I don’t feel right about being close to somepony unless I can talk to them… I need to know stuff, otherwise, I don’t feel connected.” Lyra’s ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

“I want to tell you, I just don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to start. I don’t want to keep this from you… it’s just hard,” Derpy said, trying to make Lyra feel better. 

Lyra looked at the new bathroom door; Fancy doors, two doors that opened wide in the middle. She then looked at the collection of liquid soap bottles. Everypony had their own preference on what they liked to smell like, but sometimes somepony grabbed somepony else’s soap just because they could, or because it smelled good. Her eyes lingered on Bucky’s bottle of soap; lime with essence of bergamot. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought about how Bucky smelled, like ozone, like Bucky. There were bottles of lavender soap, other floral scents, and fruity scents. 

“There is just something about unicorns… the mystery… the magic.” Derpy blinked and looked at Lyra. “I don’t mean the big whizz bang magic, but the little things, the pretty things. Coloured lights and pretty sounds and it’s all like fireworks. I like it.” 

“That’s it? Pretty lights and crackle-pops?” Lyra looked at Derpy in disbelief. “Nothing powerful, just the simple stuff?” 

“It doesn’t need to be complicated, or powerful, it just needs to be pretty.” Derpy smiled at the unicorn sitting beside the tub. 

“I… don’t know what to say.” Lyra realised that her whole body was tensed, every muscle taut. She made herself calm down, took a deep breath, and tried to relax. 

“I really hope that this doesn’t make me sound superficial or shallow.” Derpy looked over at the wall, puckered up her lips, made a popping sound, blinked, made another popping sound, and then stretched out her hind legs, kicking them out behind her in the tub. “There are times when you or Bucky and doing magic stuff and I get aroused—”

“Like when I pick you up in my telekinesis?” Lyra asked. 

“Yep.” Derpy took a deep breath and popped her lips again.

“I had no idea.” Lyra rose to her hooves, stepped over the edge of the tub, and stuck one leg down into the hot bath water. She hissed as she felt the heat creeping into her flesh. She stuck her other leg down into the water, waited a moment, and then with a splash, she got her hind legs into the tub. “For you, it’s pretty lights and sounds… for me, it’s smells. Like… how Bon Bon smells like candy. I can stick my nose into her pelt and just smell her for hours. I love closing my eyes and just smelling the pony I’m with.” Lyra flopped down into the water, got comfortable, and then eyed the soap bottles. 

“Today I was thinking about the lavender and sage soap.” Derpy turned her half opened eyes upon Lyra. “How does that sound to you?” 

“That… that… that sounds really good,” Lyra replied as she felt the muscles in her belly tensing again. That was her soap. Lyra realised that Derpy wanted to smell like how she had been smelling. She had purchased the lavender and sage soap on a whim, not knowing if she would like it. It was hypoallergenic, and Thistle was fond of using it as well. 

“Come a little closer,” Derpy said in a low voice. “I don’t bite… much… but I am known to nibble.” 

Lyra Heartstrings felt her lip quivering. “I know. About the nibbling I mean.” She scooted a little closer to the grey mare, her heart now racing in her barrel. “The first time you did it, it scared me so bad… but it was so soft and gentle… and those little tugs. Once I realised you weren’t going to hurt me and I relaxed, I liked it.” 

“Hi.” 

Lifting her head, Derpy peered over the edge of the tub with her good eye. She saw something pink. Unable to help herself, Derpy began to giggle when she looked at the foal sitting beside the tub. 

“Felt love.” Cadance reared up on her hind legs and balanced herself by placing her front hooves on the side of the tub. 

“Yes, there, uh, was love here.” Lyra took a deep breath and wondered how Cadance had entered the bathroom. The doors were still closed. It was a bit of a mystery. 

“Bath?” Cadance asked. She blinked and gave the two mares in the tub a pleading look. “Cady want bath. Want love.” 

“Okay Cady-bug.” Lyra lifted the foal in her telekinesis, paused, and wondered if the bath water was too hot. “Wait just a moment Cadance. Let mama cool the bathwater just a bit. We don’t want boiled alicorn on the cob.” 

Giggling at Lyra’s joke, Derpy watched as Cadance flapped her wings in eager anticipation. It was difficult to get most foals to take a bath, but it was far more difficult to keep Cadance out of the bath. She loved to swim around in the water like a little pink swan. 

“You know, Cadance hasn’t had a single accident in a long time. She took to potty training quick,” Lyra said as she cooled the bath water just a bit. No more adult conversation. Lyra heaved a sigh. No making out in the tub. No wet kisses and splashing around. Now, Lyra didn’t know what to say or to talk about. 

“Boats?” Cadance asked. “Tooty toot!” 

“I’ll get your boats, Cadance, they’re under the sink,” Lyra replied. 



 

“Greetings Grisabella, I’m up here!” 

The grey hunter griffoness cocked her head and looked upwards. The windmill was looking as though it was in a somewhat better state of repair since the last time she had visited. 

“How is your mate… Weaver, right?” 

At the mention of Weaver’s name, the hunter griffoness’ crest rose and all of her feathers fluffed out. She felt a hot flustered feeling under her feathers and the chill in the air vanished. There was a loud thump overhead. Grisabella’s claws tapped upon the floor. “Weaver is fine. He is designing a new kind of loom.” 

“That’s great! New innovations are always good!” 

More thumps happened overhead, and Grisabella caught a glimpse of orange as Flash Sentry became visible for a moment. “Do you require assistance?” 

“No… no, I got this.” There was a pause. “Hey, your badge arrived. You are now officially part of the Ponyville Police Department and Emergency Rescue Response. Canterlot has given you clearance… you and I are going to be partners while I train you, and Thunderlane will also be doing some of your training.” 

Leaping upwards, Grisabella ran up a wooden support beam, her claws finding grip upon the wood. She sprang away from the support, landed upon the second floor support beam that still lacked a floor, and watched as Flash Sentry worked to patch a giant hole in the wall. 

“You should ask the little griffons to help you. They could have this place fixed in no time,” Grisabella said to Flash. 

“I bet they could, but the budget is tight. I don’t think I could pay them a fair wage. And before you say anything, you know how Bucky is. He’ll flip his lid if he thinks his little griffons are being taken advantage of.” Flash Sentry set down his hammer and then sat down on the wooden beam that would someday once again hold up a floor. Maybe. “I have no idea what I’m doing. I think I’ve made a mess of this.” 

“Hmm.” Grisabella looked around, eyeing the mess. With a swipe of her talons, she impaled a giant spider on her one of her claws and then stuffed it into her beak, still wiggling. She swallowed and looked at Flash Sentry. “I will speak with Princess Apple Bloom. Perhaps she can help us.” 

“But… but I don’t want to keep asking for help. I don’t want the police force to look incompetent.” Flash Sentry shook his head, disgusted from watching the spider become an hors d'oeuvre.  “Public opinion is still very divided about us.” He wondered what the social etiquette was about telling a griffoness that she had a spider’s leg hanging out of her beak and waving. Flash Sentry wondered if the spider was waving for help. It looked like it was waving for help. He saw Grisabella’s beak open and then the spider leg vanished as her tongue swept it away. 

“Thank you, by the way, for the job. I can’t be a soldier anymore. I promised Weaver when I took him as my mate that I was done with war. I don’t know of any other way to make a living. I think I’ll like this job though.” Grisabella looked at the orange pegasus. “It means a lot to me that you trust me with the safety of the town and that you trust your ponies to my care.” 

“I’m very happy to have you with us…” 



 

With a roar that sounded like an avalanche, Bucky summoned more cold and breathed out a devastating blast of ice. Over fifty feet tall and with his body now made of ice, Bucky unleashed his fury upon his enemies. He ignored the bullets chipping away at his body, he ignored the fiery blasts from his enemies. More ice grew in the places where he took damage. In the back of his mind, he knew that there would be consequences for his actions later, he remembered Sparkler’s battered body after she had reformed herself from stone after the fight with the demon. 

Now a titanic ice elemental, Bucky obliterated his foes. He stomped down one hoof upon the bare rock of the mountain. Ice traveled from his hoof, up the rock, up the mountain, and then the unicorns firing spells at him were impaled upon sharp spikes of ice. Their bodies twitched as they died. Their end was not quick, nor was it clean. Opening his icicle fanged maw, Bucky blasted another group of enemy pegasi that were foolish enough to keep trying to fight him, flying up and kicking him, chipping away pieces of his icy body. They froze solid and plummeted down, crashing into the stone of the mountain and shattering into a thousand pieces. 

Lumbering forward into the enemy ranks, Bucky went after his remaining foes. Thousands had died from his fury. Some of his attacks killed hundreds in one go. Overhead, Myrmidons and griffon riders picked off dangerous targets and those trying to flee. 

Bucky let out another roar, a blizzard erupting from his maw. There was only rage now, endless rage. A group of fleeing unicorns were frozen in place. Lifting his massive hoof made of ice, Bucky stomped down upon them, shattering them into tiny pieces. 

Not far away, a group of Myrmidons did a bombing run. Spell jars fell like rain. Everywhere the bombs landed there were blooms of fire, arcs of lightning, and mayhem was unleashed as ‘hate it kill it’ spells overtook the enemy’s minds. 

Enemy pegasi were gunned down and the stuttering clatter of gunfire echoed between the mountains. Some of the buried unicorns had emerged from the snow and had joined the battle, while others were working on freeing their buried comrades. 

Bucky did another stomp. Living ice shot forwards, running seeking out deserving enemies, and spikes of ice impaled dozens and dozens of foes, skewering them, the freezing shards impaling them, creeping through their bodies, freezing them from within. 

The screams of the enemy filled the mountain pass. Blood trickled down like rain and fallen bloodied pegasi dropped like gruesome hailstones. None of the mirror travelers were prepared to fight an entropic ice elemental and now, the Lord of Winter’s cold was claiming their lives one by one. There was no fleeing, no escape, there was only death in the high mountain pass. Cold, freezing death. 

Drawing even more ice into himself, Bucky grew ever larger… 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 754
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Another whimper. Another pitiful whimper. Cadance hadn’t been acting right and Berry Punch was starting to worry. She was fussy, almost at the verge of tears, and would not calm down. Berry began to wonder what might be wrong. Constipation? Tummy troubles? Did she swallow soapy bathwater again? The foal was pacing back and forth on her stumpy little legs, her stubby wings flapping at her sides.

And then, all of a sudden, Cadance took off at a wobbling run for the front door. Just before collision, her horn flashed and she winked out of existence. Seeing this, Berry Punch panicked. 

“LUNA! Something is up with Cadance!” 



 

With a frustrated huff, Luna burst through the front door and began to look around the yard, checking the snow for signs of pink. She spotted Cadance right away. The foal was running around in a circle, crying, making pitiful mewling sounds as a long string of snot dribbled from her nose. 

“Cadance, what is wrong?” Luna lept down the stairs, her hooves crunching in the snow. She began to approach Cadance. “Something has you spooked… Cadance, try to tell me what is going on… I know for certain that you have more mental awareness than you let on.” 

The foal threw back her head and let out a shrill shriek. The sound was deafening and Luna’s ears pinned back against her skull. Cadance let out another scream. Luna advanced, a look of worry upon her face.

“Come on Cadance,” Luna said as she scooped the foal up in her telekinesis. 

Shrieking, Cadance kicked and wiggled in the telekinetic bubble, and then her horn flashed. There was a forceful thud that made the house rattle and Luna was sent flying backwards, her body tumbling through the snow when she landed. Luna’s telekinetic bubble burst and Cadance dropped into the snow. 

Seeing that she had hurt Luna, Cadance began weeping, an agonising sound. The little filly, now standing in the snow, wailed as tears streamed down her face. She turned her head and began looking off towards the east, and then looked at Luna once more. 

Standing on the porch, Berry Punch let out a panicked bleat of worry. 

Luna rolled over and got to her hooves. She flapped the snow out of her wings, shook her head, which caused her ears to flop around, and then she looked at Cadance with an expression of both fear and sympathy. “Cadance, let me help you… Cadance, please, try to speak!” 

“DADDY!” 

Luna shook her head as she felt her blood running cold. For a moment, Luna worried that Cadance was feeling the approach of her own death, but she shoved that fear out of her mind. It would accomplish nothing. Bucky would never do such a thing, there was too much at stake. 

“HURT! PAIN! HATE! HATE HURT!” 

There was a rustle of wings and Sentinel landed in the snow not too far away from Luna. Other students were coming out of the school to see what had happened. Cadance’s shockwave had been felt all over. Other figures were now arriving. Scorch, Odin, Heifer Aestus, and Loki were all moving through the snow. 

Trembling, Cadance lost control of her bladder, turning the snow around her hind legs a faint shade of yellow. She let out a keening wail and then took off running towards the east, stumbling through the snow. 

“Sentinel, something is wrong with your father, I do not know what though. Cadance senses something. Something has gone amiss. I am leaving, and I am taking Cadance with me. Look after your mothers and try to reassure them!” Luna ran forward after Cadance. 

As Sentinel stood watching, Luna spread her wings, snatched up Cadance, wrapped the foal in a protective bubble of magic, and then went streaking upwards, straight up towards the sky. He craned his head backwards and then heard the sonic boom as Luna broke the sound barrier. Everything around him shook. Luna was picking up speed and a dull roar filled the air. A silver blue contrail streamed out behind Luna as she accelerated straight up. 

Looking up, Loki asked, “If she’s heading off to find Bucky, why is she going up?” 

“Speed,” Sentinel replied, shouting a bit to be heard over the roar. “She’s going to break atmosphere and go where there is no air or friction so she can get the most speed. Once she’s where she needs to be, she will come back into atmosphere.” 

“How do you know this stuff?” Loki turned his head and looked at Sentinel. 

“Lunar pegasi can shadow dive and break atmosphere for a while, flying at incredible speeds. Well, some of us. Luna thinks I’ll be able to learn how.” Sentinel narrowed his eyes. Luna was a faint dot now, but her contrail was long. A dull rumble still filled the air. 

“I don’t like that she took Cadance and did not consult us,” Scorch said in an irritated growl of a voice. Scorch sighed. “Might have been for the best though. If this is the sort of emergency I think it is, time spent arguing might have been disasterous.” 

“Father will not ascend. He gave his word. He loves Cadance and all of us too much.” Sentinel, staring upwards, gritted his teeth. “But something is wrong. Cadance was not well. She was terrified.” 

Standing upon the porch, Berry Punch whispered, “I hope Bucky is okay.” 



 

Resting her head upon Harper, Derpy, overcome with worry, sobbed. The other little foals were piled into bed with her, Sukari was holding her sibling, Bell Heather, in a tight embrace. Lyra paced the floor by the bed, her tail swishing around her hind legs. Berry Punch sat in a chair, rubbing her temples with her front hooves. Thistle stood in the nursery doorway, unmoving, a pained expression upon her face. 

“I wish Bon Bon was with us,” Lyra said in a low raspy whisper. “I know that she had to be at the candy store today though.” Lyra ceased pacing and stopped to scratch one front leg with the other. 

The doorway that led into the hallway opened and Sentinel stepped inside of the room. He looked around at the mares in various states of misery. “Semillon is fixing tea for all of you and will be bringing you some snacks. Is there anything I can do for you?” 

“Come here to me,” Derpy said in a strangled voice. “I need you…” 

Head high, Sentinel walked through the room, heading straight for the bed. He lept up and then laid down beside Derpy, careful not to smoosh Sukari and Bell Heather. 

Looking over at his mother, Sentinel said, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.” 





Standing in the snow, Belisama looked all around her. There were bodies everywhere. Holes were being dug down into the snow to try and find survivors. She looked at her husband, her heart in her throat, and then she looked up at the Myrmidons gathered around her. 

It was time to make decisions. Hard decisions.

“Get Bucky back to the fleet. I think he’ll be okay, but he needs to be put back together. He’s a bloody mess and he has injuries that we can’t treat here. We need the fleet to come here with all haste, every hour matters. We have many, many wounded. Try to carry as many of them back as you can.” Belisama lifted her head higher. “I am in charge. Do you dispute that?” 

The nearest Myrmidon shook his head. “No, Queen Belisama. You are the recognised authority. Your word is law. I await your orders.” 

“We need to look after the slaves. Take me to them. It pains me to be separated from my husband, but I know I am needed here. We need to get organised. Set up some triage and start looking after the injured. Get what few support ships we have in order. We need hot food and warmth. I want every able body we have to keep digging.” 

The Myrmidon snapped out his wing in salute. “As you command.” 

Her heart racing, the blood in her temples pounding, Belisama approached her husband. He was wrapped in his black cloak. Blood pooled in the snow around him. His body was covered in horrific gashes and blood oozed out through the black as night material of his cloak. 

“Bucky, I am going to send you back to the fleet.” 

“No… there is still much to be done,” Bucky gasped in reply. 

“Not for you, beloved. You have obliterated our enemies. Your work here is done and now my work is beginning.” Belisama took Bucky’s talons into her own. She looked down into his eyes. Odin’s eye peered back at her. She stroked Bucky’s blood encrusted mane with her other talons. “I hope I am the queen you think I am.” 

“All that and more.” Bucky coughed and red spatters fell upon the snow. His fangs were pink with blood; his own. “You brought me back… I wanted to become the ice. I wanted to go cold and not feel anything.” 

“Bandua needs her father.” Belisama felt her heart beating in her throat. “Don’t ever leave me, beloved.” She listened to Bucky’s wet breathing, it sounded like bubbling soup in a pot. She touched him once more, patting his cheek with her talons. She looked at the Myrmidons who had gathered around. “Get him to the fleet and be as swift as you can.” 



 

The slaves were a miserable lot. From what Belisama could see, there were a number of earth ponies, some pegasi, some unicorns, a griffoness that didn’t look like she was going to live for another hour, and a few diamond dogs. Belisama moved among them, feeling pity for them. 

Except for one. Something seemed off. The other slaves averted their eyes when she looked at them. They were fearful and submissive. Except for one, a pegasus. He glared, angry, defiant, something about him seemed wrong somehow. 

“All of you are safe now… you will be treated well. We are going to move you to where we can help you. You will be fed and you will have a chance to get warm. But before we go…” Belisama looked around at the slaves. “I strongly suspect that one of you is not a slave. They can’t hurt you now… if you could just give me the confirmation I need…” 

Belisama watched as the group moved away from the pegasus, whose lip curled back as he snarled. Belisama glared at the pegasus, getting a better look at him. He was wearing a collar, but his pelt was not worn away in the slightest from the too tight device. 

The pegasus’ wings flared outwards, snapping out with an almost supersonic crack. Belisama was just as fast. Muninn’s throaty cry rang out and echoed off of the mountains. A gaping wound appeared just below the base of the pegasus’ neck. He staggered backwards, spat out a gob of blood into the snow, his eyes narrowed into a fierce gaze, and then he fell down, pitching forward into the snow. 

Belisama stood on three legs, her revolver still held out, and a long curl of smoke rose from the barrel. She flipped the gun around and slid it back into its holster. “Bastard. Hiding behind slaves.” 

She looked around at the slaves. She could see them trembling, and she knew it wasn’t from the cold. “I was a slave once. I lost hope. I gave up. But I was rescued. Now, I am rescuing you. You will recover. You will be looked after. You see these nice ponies around me? They will help you. If you ask them for something, they will try to get it for you.” Belisama sat up on her haunches. “We will try to remove the collars if we can, but if we can’t, be patient. Help is coming. Trust me, those collars will come off one way or another, but we want to do it without hurting you. No doubt, you have suffered enough already.” 

The griffoness heard the freed slaves murmuring. The pegasus lying in the snow twitched. Faster than the eye could follow, Belisama drew her sword, darted forward, and slashed. A severed head rolled through the snow and Belisama stood with her sword ready, her sides heaving as she panted. She stood next to the bloodied, steaming neck stump and let out an angry squawk. 

“I am Belisama, the queen of the griffons, and all of you are under my protection…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 755
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was Celestia, but it was not the Princess Celestia Bucky knew. He watched as the much larger alicorn stood upon the balcony. She was horse sized now. Massive. A creature of statuesque proportions and perfect musculature. Her soft pastel mane was gone, replaced by a blazing sheen that held all of the colours of the sunrise… or the sunset. Purples, golds, pinks, rose hues, various shades of blue, all blazing with brilliant intensity. 

“Who are you?” Bucky asked in a trembling voice. 

“I am that which was promised. I am Celestia, the Eternal Light,” the tall alicorn said in a voice that was both soft and yet still somehow almost deafening. 

Bucky saw the tall figure as it turned to look at him. Her eyes blazed with inner light, and they too were all the colours of the rising or setting sun, always changing. Looking up at her, Bucky felt very small and helpless. She was massive compared to his small body. She was also terrifying. She radiated power. 

She was approaching now, her gait silent. Her large, heavy hooves made no sounds as they fell upon the stones. Her neck was like a marble pillar. Her face was different, it was not the face that Bucky knew, but it was similar. He saw kindness and that is how he recognised her as the Celestia that he knew. He saw the tall figure lower her head. 

A second later, two lips pressed against his cheek. There was a brilliant flash of light, it was like staring into the sun, and Bucky went blind from the radiance. Celestia’s touch was almost searing. He felt two lips brush up against his ear. 

“When you pass into the mists, I will absorb the best that you have to offer. I will be the protector this world needs. I will keep them safe, Buckminster… and when Twilight Sparkle slips away, lost to old age, I will take upon myself her mantle as well. I would have become Love had she passed, but Love chose permanency. I do not know the future of Growth. Fear not, tiny protector, and go into deep and gentle slumber, so that your body might recover…” 



 

Scratching his chin, Bucky contemplated how large Sentinel had become. His son, his beloved colt, was a gargantuan pony that seemed too large for the doors in the house. He couldn’t remember Sentinel being quite so large. They grew up so fast. It seemed like only yesterday that Sentinel was a little colt that had stood watch through the freezing night to guard Dinky and Piña. 

“Father, I’m scared.” Sentinel’s voice was a deep, baritone rumble that made the entire house rattle with each spoken word. 

“Son, why are you scared?” Bucky sat down and looked up at his colt, feeling rather colt sized himself. 

“They’re so little compared to me… I’m so afraid that I’m going to hurt them—” 

“Oh, nonsense. You won’t hurt them. Look at Belisama and I. She’s half my size.” Bucky waved his talons in a dismissive gesture. “You love them, don’t you?” 

“So very much. I’m still so confused by them.” Sentinel looked down at his father, shifting his massive bulk and sitting down upon the floor. 

“Females are confusing creatures, designed by an insane creator—”

“Father, stop being silly.” Sentinel rolled his eyes. 

“No, wait, hear me out, son… by their very design, females are illogical—” 

“Father, you… I don’t know how to deal with you sometimes.” Sentinel shook his head. 

“But I have proof… whoever designed them ran a sewer main right through the recreation area.” Bucky looked up at Sentinel and waited. He watched as his son began shaking, trying to hold in laughter. “That is the mark of an insane creator.” 

“You are a terrible pony.” Sentinel had to fight to keep a straight face and not laugh. “That is a terrible joke. If mother was to hear you say that—” 

“She’d probably turn around and fart at me.” Bucky grinned and sighed as he thought about Derpy. “And then I’d probably go and play in her recreation area.” 

“Father please, there are some things I do not wish to know.” Sentinel’s ears pinned back against his head. “How do I take care of them all? How do I keep them happy?” 

“Sentinel, son, you are a provider.” Bucky reached out and prodded Sentinel’s brown trout cutie mark. “You’ve been feeding all of your little brothers and sisters now for a long time. You go into the lake to catch fish for those that need it. This mark right here, this is the mark of a provider. Look, all you’ve got to do is be a good father and just keep doing what you’ve been doing with all of your brothers and sisters when your own foals come along. Trust me, Moonbow, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea will take care of the rest. Everyone will do their part and everything will be fine, trust me.” 

“Father, who will I go to for advice when you are gone?” 

Bucky tried to reply, but no words would come. 





The small blue foal was weeping. She was always weeping, that is to say, when she wasn’t angry. But she was almost always angry. Feeling pity, Bucky sat down in the soft grass beside her and then patted her upon the back. 

“Having a rough day?” Bucky asked. 

The small blue earth pony foal sniffled, then nodded, but said nothing in reply. Everything about her was blue. A soft blue pelt. A darker blue mane and tail. Ice blue eyes. Her mouth opened for a moment, revealing teeth like a steel trap, sharp jagged teeth. 

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Bucky rubbed the filly’s back, hoping to make her feel better. “Do you have the angries again? Is something hurting you?” 

The small blue filly latched on to Bucky’s leg and began squeezing, her face pressed up against Bucky’s barrel. As she sobbed, she growled, a terrible, fierce sound that confused so many and made others afraid of her. But Bucky felt no fear. He took a deep breath and then patted the foal on the back again. 

“What happened?” Bucky asked. 

“Gloaming Guard called me a big smelly meanie head!” Lunacy blurted out. 

“Oh.” Bucky, who had been called far worse, had to remind himself how much words like that could hurt. “Lunacy, love, Gloaming Guard is a bit of a prat. He… he can’t help himself.” 

“He called Tranquility a big sissy and I punched him and I gave him a bloody nose and now Tranquility is mad at me and she’s being nice to him and it hurts so much I can’t take it.” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky sighed. Not this again… he thought to himself. “Come on, let’s go.” 

“Go?” Lunacy asked. 

“Yes, we need to go find your mother so you can confess to her what you did.” Bucky cringed, waiting, knowing what would come next. His ears fell back in anticipation as…

“NOOOOOOOO!” Lunacy shrieked. She fell over in the grass and went limp, refusing to move, laying on her back, all four legs up in the air. “NOOOOOO!” 

Ears ringing, Bucky summoned his patience. It took a gentle touch to deal with Lunacy. One could not be angry when dealing with her, it brought complications that were very difficult to deal with. 

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” 

“Come on little one, it won’t be so bad,” Bucky said in a soothing voice. “Fluttershy never stops loving you, and you know that.” Reaching out his talons, he placed them atop Lunacy’s belly. He rubbed a little, trying to comfort the distraught foal. “You poor thing. All those emotions and so little control. We don’t have to go to Fluttershy right away… you can spend some time crying. And maybe we’ll go find your sister first.” 



 

“You look beautiful.” Bucky bowed his head low to the ground and then lifted it back up so he was eye to eye with the radiant vision of beauty before him. Two amber coloured eyes gazed into his own. Or, at least he thought they were gazing into his. He could never quite be certain. He stole a kiss and heard a giggle. 

That maddening giggle that always flooded him with so much desire. “You’re mine… all mine,” Bucky said as he moved forwards and stood neck to neck with Derpy. He pressed his chest against hers and then a somewhat clumsy slow dance began. “It’s just us… I have you all to myself.” 

As they danced, Bucky looked around. So many foals. Such a large family. He and Derpy had somehow managed to make all of this possible. Berry Punch was dancing with Thistle. Bon Bon and Lyra were standing up on their hind hooves and slow dancing with one another. Belisama danced with Bandua, trying to teach the awkward little cub to dance. 

A firefly went buzzing past, bobbing along in a lazy manner in the cool evening breeze. The scent of spring hung heavy in the air. Little paper lanterns had been hung from long lines and bathed the engulfing twilight with a riotous display of colour. A splash could be heard as something jumped into the lake. 

“It wasn’t always easy,” Derpy said. 

“But I think it was worth every moment,” Bucky replied. “How about you and I slip off and go have ourselves a little roll in the grass?” Bucky heard a soft giggle and he felt Derpy’s breathing quicken. 

“How would you feel about having just one more?” Derpy asked. 

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind that at all.” Bucky closed his eyes and leaned on Derpy. 

“Well, that’s good, because in ten more months, the foal is due…” 



 

“Any luck?” Celestia looked at her sister Luna. “Can you reach him? Have you figured out what is wrong?” 

“He is dreaming… but I cannot reach him. Sister… I… I think he has Bucky.” Luna took a step backwards away from the bed. 

“Father?” Celestia’s eyes went wide with panic and then narrowed with anger. 

Luna nodded. “I cannot get through. Bucky’s mind is completely lost to me. I do not know what Bucky is dreaming, or if he is being tortured, I can do nothing.” 

Lifting her head high, Celestia pondered what to do. She heard Cadance’s soft snuffling and Celestia inhaled, took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself. She looked down at Bucky, his form wrapped in bandages. Tourmaline had done what she could, but Tourmaline could only do so much at a time. One ruptured lung. Multiple broken bones. Many, many lacerations. Wounds of transference, wounds that Bucky had endured while he had become an ice elemental. 

Tourmaline wanted to heal Bucky using empathic healing, and Celestia, broken hearted, had forbade it. The foal wasn’t ready for that kind of pain. Nopony was ready for that kind of pain. 

“Cadance, hold still, he will be okay,” Luna said, pressing her nose into Cadance’s neck. “Be calm, be still, and try not to worry. You are here by his side, where you wanted to be.” 

“Luna, we approach a grim situation. I do not expect many survivors, but you and I are going to look anyway—” 

“Sister, I have read the reports already. I am prepared to do what I can… but you and I both know what we will find.” Reaching out her wing, Luna stroked Cadance, trying to calm her. “At least this conflict is more or less over.” 

“There are still a few remnants in the lowlands and some have crossed over into Germaney. Your Shadowbolts hound them… the Shadowbolts have been a tremendous help in this war effort. They can travel vast distances and they are very good at what they do.” Celestia looked her sister in the eye. “I must confess, I was hesitant to allow the Shadowbolt program to happen. Now, I am glad that I did. So many lives have been saved. Luna, you were right to champion that idea.” 

Luna, blushing, blinked as her ears drooped down beside her face. “Thank you… sister… I…” Luna’s words trailed off and her eyes glazed over. She swallowed, blinked away tears, and then whispered, “Thank you.” 

The door opened and a hovering figure slipped through the door. “Sorry I’m late, I’m here, Lunacy was being fussy and Discord is getting ready to help and I—” Fluttershy paused and looked at Luna. “Oh… hi Luna.” 

Luna, wide eyed, glared at the blanketed bundle held by Fluttershy. She said nothing. She began to tremble as a fearful look crept into her eyes. And then, Luna vanished. 

“I’m sorry!” Fluttershy squeaked. 

“Fluttershy, she will come around in time. I hope.” Celestia’s muzzle wrinkled with concern. “Look after him Fluttershy. I must go as well. There is much to do and much preparation needs to take place.” 

The no longer a pegasus nodded as she hovered over beside Bucky’s bed. She looked over the various tubes and wires sticking out everywhere, making certain that everything was the way that it was supposed to be, then placed two blanketed bundles down into the bed beside Cadance and Bucky. 

Lingering in the doorway, Princess Celestia cast one final glance, and then she was gone. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 756
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sugarcube Corner smelled like cinnamon, rye flour, and yeast. Dinky found the scent pleasant, comforting even. The past few days had been stressful, and Dinky had found herself worn a little thin. Luna had flown across the world with Cadance. Something was wrong with father. Her mother was having a hard time eating, and there was no telling what that might be doing to the twins. It scared Dinky to no end. 

“You okay?” 

Dinky blinked when she heard the somewhat lispy voice of Twist. Twist’s lisp was getting better. She had a retainer now, the Cakes had spent a lot of bits to help Twist out. Twist looked worried, her muzzle was crinkled, her eyebrows were low over her eyes, and her breathing seemed a bit heavier than usual. 

“Do you need a hug?” Twist asked. 

“I dunno, I’m just distract—” Dinky fell silent as Twist wrapped her forelegs around her and squeezed. Twist smelled like peppermint, she always smelled like peppermint, and she was soft, much softer than Dinky thought she would be. Twist was not hard muscled like other earth ponies, like Piña. 

“Pinkie Pie says that if a pony looks like they need a hug, then you should give them one,” Twist said into Dinky’s quivering ear. Twist’s words caused Dinky’s quivering ear to twitch even more. 

Dinky, feeling Twist’s soft breath on her ear, felt her cheeks begin to warm in a curious, pleasant sort of way. She twisted around and wrapped her forelegs around Twist, hugging her back. This was no different than hugging Piña, or her other sisters. 

Except, this was different. The rosy glow that Dinky felt in her cheeks and spreading down her neck didn’t happen when she hugged Piña or one of her other sisters. Dinky closed her eyes and allowed the hug to continue, feeling confused, a little warm, and a little curious.

“Feel better?” Twist asked as she pulled away just a little, enough to look Dinky in the face. She saw Dinky’s eyes open, and then she watched as Dinky’s head nodded. “Good, now we can work on our project about dietary nutrition for biology. I like biology.” 

Hearing Twist say that she liked biology caused Dinky to experience a curious new sensation. She felt her heart flutter in her chest and she could feel the blood pulsing through the thin flesh of her ears. Dinky understood enough about biology to know that her body was showing signs of heat stress, and blood was flowing through the thin flesh of her ears to help her cool down. 

“I thought that we should study a primary foodstuff in our diet. Oats. Oats are really fascinating,” Twist said as she hunched over her textbook. 

Oaths are weally fathinathing. Feeling lightheaded, there was something about Twist’s lisp that Dinky found that she liked. Other ponies teased her for it, but for some reason, Dinky thought it was sweet. Twist was a brave filly, she had started ignoring what others thought of her more and more and had started speaking out in class. 

“The humble oat, also known as avena sativa, is a common, plentiful cereal grain that is almost ideal for equines. They can be served as is, ground into flour, served as hot cereal, made into breads and cookies, and can also be served as cold cereal, muesli, and granola, all of which are staples of our diet. Nopony respects the oat and all of the good things it does for us,” Twist said in a steady, but somewhat lispy drone. “Oats are the only cereal grain that can match globulin or legume levels of protein. The main form of protein in oats is avenalin, which is comparable to soy protein; which is to say that it is comparable to proteins found in milk, cheese, eggs, and even meat. Oats can contain twelve to twenty four percent protein, and no other cereal has as much protein. Evolutionary biologists say that our intelligence is linked to our protein intake, and oats are responsible for making us smart.” 

Flummoxed, Dinky tried to take in everything that Twist had just said. Twist was smart. Something inside of Dinky flared to life and she leaned a little closer to Twist. “Where did you learn all of this?” 

“I don’t have have a lot of friends. I don’t get out much. So I study. I like food,” Twist replied. “Nopony ever really pays much attention to what they eat.” 

Dinky felt her mouth go dry. She inhaled, smelling peppermint. She scooted a little closer and then looked into Twist’s textbook, while inhaling more of the delightful peppermint smell. Twist was smart about food in the same way that Dinky was smart about magic, or so Dinky thought. 

“Do you need glasses?” Twist asked. 

“Huh?” Dinky lifted her head, turned, and almost bumped snoots with Twist. 

“You kept getting closer to see into my book,” Twist explained. 

“Yeah, I think I might need glasses. I have a hard time seeing sometimes.” Dinky thought about what she had said, fact checked it within her mind, and felt relieved that she had told Twist the truth. It was the truth, Dinky did have a hard time seeing. Twist didn’t need to know about the other reasons. 

“It’s warm in here,” Twist said as she sat up straight and adjusted her own glasses, which were somewhat fogged up. “Is it just me or is it warm in here?” 

Nodding, Dinky agreed. “It is a little warm in here.” 

“Whew, I thought it was just me who was hot.” Twist pulled out a ledger, a folder full of paper, and another book from her book bag. 

Something about Twist’s choice of words made Dinky want to giggle, but somehow Dinky held it in. She could not hold back her smile however. She pushed her hat back on her head, brushed her mane out of her eyes, and made ready a pencil. “So, where do we start?” 

“We have to introduce the oat, the species that the oat is, the purpose of the oat, how the oat is used, the dietary content of the oat, and then the various ways that the oat can be prepared. We get bonus points if we can talk about how other cultures use oats or prefer them,” Twist replied. 

“Shetlanders love to turn oats into beer,” Dinky said. “Uncle Barley loves his oatmeal porter and gets cranky if he doesn’t have it in the afternoon. He says it takes the edge off.” 

“Edge off of what?” Twist asked. 

Dinky shrugged. “I don’t know.” 



 

Pacing the deck, Princess Celestia surveyed the mountain pass below. She was grief stricken, her heart was heavy, she was worried for Bucky, and fearful of the future. This war had seen death on a scale that frightened Celestia like nothing else. She felt the griffoness on her back shift, and wondered if Belisama was comfortable. The little griffoness was exhausted and Celestia worried for her health. 

“You have done an outstanding job,” Celestia said as she looked down below. 

“I tried.” 

“Really, you did a remarkable job. How did you know what to do?” Celestia asked. 

“I didn’t,” was Belisama’s blunt reply. “At first I thought about having the unicorns melt the snow, but then I realised that one of two things would happen. Those down in the snow would drown, or the water would just freeze again.” The griffoness yawned. “And then I thought about having the snow boiled away to get rid of it, but that would cook those still buried. In the end, I decided that we had to dig. The diamond dog slaves that we rescued, they were very, very helpful and they deserve recognition.” 

“Many lives were saved. I am honestly surprised by the number of survivors.” Celestia lifted her head and turned around, looking at the griffoness on her back. 

“Thousands got buried in the snow… we pulled out hundreds.” Belisama shook her head. “Most of them were crushed to death in the avalanche. We’ve pulled out a lot of remains.” 

“I know.” Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the icy wind blowing through her pelt. “Out of the fifty or so thousand troops we gathered for this war, less than twenty thousand will be going home. This victory has come at a terrible price. We do not even know how many have died in this mountain pass. Bucky came up here with an army twenty five thousand strong.” Celestia shivered, feeling a chill that was more than just the wind. 

“I hope my husband is okay,” Belisama said in a weary voice. The griffoness yawned again, shook her head, and then sat up straight, blinking. “It worries me, him not waking up.” 

“We are all worried,” Celestia replied. She turned her head back around and began to head for the door. “You need rest. You cannot even keep your eyes open anymore.” 

Belisama let out a peep of protest, but said nothing. 

“Belisama, for your efforts, for your leadership, for remaining behind to do your part while you sent Bucky back to us so he could get the help he needed, Luna and I both feel that you deserve knighthood. Tomorrow, when I raise the sun, would you accept this heartfelt honour?” 

The griffoness yawned and then her feathers fluffed out. “I was just doing what needed to be done, just like everybirdy… er, everybody else.” 



 

Sitting by her father’s side, Cadance studied her bedmates, Tranquility and Lunacy. Something about them both was interesting. Cadance tilted her head to one side as she looked at the pair. She looked over at her father, blinked once, and then returned her gaze to Lunacy. 

Cadance felt bad for Lunacy. Lunacy was love starved, and she was in pain. Cadance could feel that pain. Cadance had tried giving Lunacy love, but for all of Cadance’s exhaustive efforts, all of the love that Cadance had to give seemed like a drop of water in the bathtub. Or perhaps a drop of water in something bigger, like a really big bathtub, Cadance wasn’t certain. Lunacy ached for affection and Cadance wondered if anypony could understand that. She had tried saying something, she had tried giving voice to the confusing jumble of thoughts in her head, but all that had come out was garble and foal-talk, which was frustrating. 

Lunacy was not a bad foal, she was just in a lot of physical and mental pain, the physical pain caused by her mental pain, and it made her a little cranky. Cadance sighed. She reached out a delicate pink hoof and pressed it against Lunacy’s blanket. The foal quieted and peered up at Cadance through her mask. 

The mask was silly. There was no way that Lunacy would bring harm to Tranquility. Cadance wasn’t sure how she knew this, but she knew. Trying to remove the mask had earned her a scolding, which was awful. 

Turning her head, Cadance looked at her father once more. He and Lunacy had a lot in common. They were creatures driven by pain and fear. It made them a little cranky. Both of them only wanted comfort, some way for the pain to end, some way to make the hurting and the feelings of emptiness to go away. Cadance knew how to make her father’s pain go away. One little zippity zappity of magic and daddy would lie down and take a long nap, free of pain, free of hurt, free of fear, happy and comfortable. Daddy was harmless and powerless against Cadance’s magic. She was not sure how she knew this, but she knew it. Cadance knew that her magic was the only thing that could heal what was wrong with her daddy, but the wound always reopened. 

Lunacy presented a bit more of a problem though. One little zippity zappity didn’t do very much. It bothered Cadance that she had encountered a problem that her love could not fix. Her love could fix almost anything. She had helped her older brothers and sisters, Rising Star, Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, Ripple, and the gentle donkey named Bittersweet rediscover their love by giving a good zippity zappity to Loch Skimmer. Loch Skimmer was now blessed with love, and it had brought them back together, just like Cadance knew it would. With a good zippity zappity, auntie Celery had found comfort and love with Raven and Violet. Auntie Celery was still hurting though, but she was getting better. A broken heart does not heal right away. 

Looking down at Lunacy, Cadance gave the foal another love tap with her magic. Sure, it might not be doing much, but it never hurt to try, and Cadance, the demiurge of love, would keep trying for as long as it took. 
	
> Chapter 757
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A group of shadowy figures lurked within the deep dark of what appeared to be endless woods, old growth forest that stretched on for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see, from horizon to horizon. The trees were naked, bereft of cover, and skeletal in appearance. 

The lurking shadowy figures watched a group of ponies gathered around campfires, all of them safe, secure, and quite some distance away. The camp, made in a small clearing, had more than fifty ponies all huddled and miserable in the snow. Some were in crude shelters, others huddled around small campfires. It was foolish to make campfires when you were hunted, but freezing to death wasn’t very pleasant either. 

“Is that him? Is that the one that burned you?” Tainy asked as she held her scoped crossbow out to Storm Blitz, still pointed in the right direction. She held it up to the big pegasus’ eye, squinted, and then made adjustments, hoping that her scope was still focused on the same pony. 

“That’s him… I got a real good look at him before he flash fried me,” Storm Blitz said as he peered through the scope. 

“Auroramancer. Real dangerous for us,” Moonless Night said in a low growl. 

“He cooked me with a flare,” Storm Blitz said in a low whisper. 

“Nopony messes with us.” In the darkness, Deus smiled a terrible fang filled smile. The cambion was hunched down low to the ground. “I think we’ve let them run long enough. Tonight, it ends.” 

Lifting her crossbow, Tainy contemplated the enemy camp. “There are a number of unicorns, abilities unknown. Maybe a dozen unicorns and the rest of the camp are pegasi. Gonna be a real ugly fight.” The hippogriff peered through her scope. “Stormy is still wounded and we are running low on supplies. I don’t know about this.” 

“What we need is fear… delicious fear,” Moonless Night said in a low guttural growl. “If they succumb to fear, Stormy can heal… and we can feed.” 

“You enjoy that aspect of our nature too much,” Black Briar said in a soft, gentle voice that was little more than a whisper in the dark. 

“We need to finish them off. We’ve been picking off the weaker ones for a long time now, their numbers have gone from over two hundred down to all that is left around those campfires. I want out of these woods. I want a hot shower again,” Deus said, making his opinion known. 

“Well then, let’s do this.” Tainy lifted her crossbow. “Black Briar, come here darlin’, I need a good mount.” 

The rotund earth pony shuffled through the snow and stood in front of the hippogriff, his legs braced. As he stood there, Tainy rummaged around in her quiver, looking for one very specific quarrel, knowing that she had one left. It was a powerful bolt of disenchantment, made by Bucky himself, designed to bring down magical shields and pierce through augmentations. The only thing that could stop this quarrel was alicorn magic, and Tainy took a smug sense of satisfaction in this fact. 

“Any more poison?” Tainy whispered into Black Briar’s ear. 

“No, I’m sorry, we’re out,” Black Briar replied. 

“Well, ain’t that a crying shame.” Tainy laid her crossbow down on Black Briar’s back. “That’s what I like in a pony. Steady… hold it, right there, don’t move.” Tainy brushed her paw over Black Briar in an affectionate gesture and then began to calculate the complexities of her attack. There was wind. There was extreme distance. She peeped into the scope and steadied her breathing. 

Around her, her companions tensed. All of them were a bit overprotective of their sniper and their medic. Tainy would get one shot, and then the camp would erupt into chaos. After that, all bets were off, and nopony knew what would happen next. 

A light snow began to fall, the flakes drifting down through the skeletal branches, the ice crystals glittering in the faint moonlight, filling the air with millions of diamonds. Almost holding her breath, Tainy adjusted a brass knob on her scope. This was going to be a fiendishly difficult shot. Her crossbow had two hundred and fifty pounds of draw, the target was a little over one hundred yards away, and she was shooting a four hundred grain weight quarrel. She adjusted the knob a little more, hating that she was having to guess. She figured that there would be a good thirty to thirty five inch drop in the quarrel as it flew. That was a sloppy guestimate and five inches might mean the difference between a good hit and a miss. She twisted another knob, trying to bring her target into better focus. He was hunched over a fire, trying to get warm. Unicorns were more susceptible to the cold than pegasi. He wasn’t moving and that suited Tainy just fine.

At least Black Briar was rock solid and unmoving. That would make the shot easier. The stocky little earth pony was the best damn mount that any sniper could ask for. Even stones weren’t as steady as Black Briar, and something about her chubby little companion steadied Tainy and made her feel more confident. 

When she thought she had the perfect shot, Tainy pulled the trigger. 

“Did you get him?” Black Briar asked in a low whisper. 

Peeking through her scope, Tainy tried to see what was going on. There was a flurry of activity in the camp. Around her, her companions tensed, waiting to see if the camp would rush out to attack them. The camp began to pull closer around the campfires, and an alarm was sounded. 

In her scope, Tainy finally caught a glimpse of her prey. “I got him in the neck. He’s not dead. I can see him kicking and thrashing around with the quarrel sticking out of his neck. There is a lot of blood.” 

“He’s not dead?” Storm Blitz shook his head. “Damn.” 

“Oh, I don’t like this. He’s suffering… you’re supposed to kill them clean, Tainy, why ain’t he dead?” Black Briar asked in a soft, almost whimpering whisper. 

“I’m sorry, I took the shot… I’m surprised I even hit him at all.” Tainy patted the distraught earth pony standing in the snow in front of her. Tainy’s ears could hear the cries of alarm and the panicked cries, and then she felt an electric tingle flowing through her being. 

Fear. 

All of them felt it, it was revitalising and nourishing to them. As the camp began to collapse into terror, the emotion of fear became a tangible force for the gathered Shadowbolts. Even Black Briar, for all of his kindness, drank deep of the fear, allowing it to replenish his mind and body. 

“He’s still kicking,” Tainy said as she peered through her scope. “Still dangerous. If he’s breathing, he can still cast most likely, as we’ve seen from those other unicorns that we hit with bowel bombs.” 

“That was awful… I feel bad for tossing that bowel bomb down into the underground cave  where they were hiding,” Black Briar said in a pained voice. “All that screaming.” 

A low chuckle escaped from Moonless Night. “I wonder if anypony drowned.” 

“Has he died yet or is he being a drama queen about this?” Deus asked in an impatient whisper. 

“Oh, he’s being a drama queen,” Tainy replied. “Lots of spurting though. I lost a lot of force on the quarrel during flight. It punched through his neck, but didn’t pass through clean. It’s lodged in his throat by the looks of it. I can see the shaft sticking out front and back and he’s thrashing around. I hope it hurts.” 

Black Briar began to sniffle. “That’s awful, just awful. I hope they’re giving him something to bite on.” 

“Nope.” Tainy’s eye was locked into her scope. “They just yanked the quarrel out. Big mistake. Now he’s spurting geysers of blood everywhere. Everypony is getting soaked in the blood fountaining out of this drama queen’s neck. Oh, that looks messy. One of the pegasi just slipped and fell in the blood.” 

“Nopony has come looking for us,” Storm Blitz grumbled. 

“They’ve learned,” Deus replied. “That’s how we’ve killed so many of them. Nopony is leaving that camp. Tainy, you think you can lob in another quarrel? They’re all massed together, you are bound to hit something.” 

“I have one last spell jar left—”

“You said we was out,” Moonless said to Black Briar. 

“I don’t want to use it, it’s awful.” Black Briar’s ears drooped. 

Tainy, reached down and opened up Black Briar’s false leg. She had herself a good look around. There were glass vials, a few tiny jars, some ampules of healing goo, and down near the hoof there was a faint purple glow. “Oh… hello.” 

“I can’t look,” Black Briar said as he squeezed his eyes shut. He felt the compartment upon his leg close. “I don’t like this part… I don’t like this part.” 

“I’m sorry Briar, I’ll make it up to you when we get home. I’ll sing ya a song,” Tainy said in a low reassuring whisper. 

“You owe me a lot of songs.” 

“I’m good for them.” Tainy patted the earth pony on the neck with her paw. She could feel the earth pony trembling as she said, “So, who is going to fly over and drop this?” 

“I say we wait a bit. Leave them stewing in their fear,” Deus said, offering up his opinion. “I’m enjoying this.” 

“I’ll drop it,” Storm Blitz offered. He glanced at Tainy. “How is our drama queen?” 

Squinting, Tainy pressed her eye to the scope and then reacquired her target. “Being dramatic. Still thrashing around. Damn, he has a lot of blood.” 

“Unicorns have thaumaturgic liquids too… unicorns leak a lot.” Black Briar shook his head. “You might have punctured one of the thaumaturgic vessels that lead up to his brain—”  

“Damn, good shot Tainy,” Moonless Night said. 

“Quiet, all of you, Black Briar is really hurting. Moonie, you cut him off. That was rude.” Tainy gave the large wolf-like equine a disapproving glare in the dark. 

“Sorry.” Moonless Night tucked his tail between his legs. 

“Don’t mention it.” Black Briar turned his head and looked at Moonless Night. “You’ve saved me a dozen times. I know you’re my friend.”

In the dark, Moonless Night grinned, revealing far too many pearlescent teeth that shimmered in the faint moonlight. He reached out and patted Black Briar with a massive paw. 

“Stormy, get ready to drop that jar. I’m going to ready myself right here. If any of them come running in this direction, I’ll shoot them. We’re going to stir up the camp and make their lives exciting,” Tainy said. 

“Gotcha.” Storm Blitz held the spell jar with his hoof, spread his wings, and then was gone. He flew on silent wings for a short distance, and then slipped into shadow, vanishing from sight, nothing more than a wisp of shadowstuff in the darkness. 

Tainy readied a quarrel and then pulled back on the lever three times, loading her crossbow. She took to the air, hovering behind a tree, waiting. Below her, long black spikes sprouted from Black Briar as he became his namesake. The stout little earth pony was a defensive sort who stuck around and kept Tainy safe. 

Moonless Night began flexing his claws and his tail swished. The fear was getting rid of the hungry ache in his guts. He glanced at Deus and gave a nod. The contest was on, a contest measured in bodies. Deus stretched his neck and made himself ready to headbut something. 

The tension in the air was palpable, electric. Faint screams could be heard from the camp. Real terror had set in, and the camp huddled together, waiting, knowing that everything they were afraid of in the darkness was real and was waiting for them. Just like in their homeworld, there were demons lurking in the darkness, and their best hope of fighting them lay dying. 

High overhead, Storm Blitz dropped a glowing purple spell jar that seemed to pop into existence from out of nowhere. It plummeted towards the camp where fifty or more of the enemy were gathered. Storm Blitz turned and began to return to his companions as the bomb fell. 

The glowing spell jar landed in the middle of the camp, shattering. At least half of the ponies visible glowed with an eerie, lurid purple light. A loud frenzied scream filled the night, and then another, followed by another. The camp exploded into an orgy of violence as a sexual frenzy overcame the occupants. 

Peering out from behind her tree, peeping through her scope, Tainy watched as her long hunted prey began to tear each other apart as the terrible enchantment overtook them and robbed them of their minds, turning them into rampaging beasts filled with lust. 

Tainy knew that by dawn, her prey would be no more and they could rest in some dark place, secure, knowing that their task was done, and that they could return to the fleet to report a victory. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 758
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh, this is just great. Just what we needed… more flu.” Sparkler shook her head, glanced at Rising Star, who seemed just fine, and then looked over at the bed where Ripple and Bittersweet were huddled together, shivering under a blanket. From the bathroom, the sounds of Loch Skimmer vomiting her lungs out reached Sparkler’s ears. Just the sound of vomit splashing into the bowl made Sparkler feel queasy. 

“Eh, at least it isn’t like that stomach flu that was going around.” Rising Star shrugged. 

“Stupid sexy fey pony… you don’t even get sick like we do,” Sparkler said to her husband. “It isn’t fair. It just isn’t fair. I don’t feel so good. I feel kinda cold and clammy.” 

“You look sweaty, and not in a good way.” Rising Star prodded Sparkler with his hoof. “Get in the bed. I’m not going to work today, time to look after all my pretty mares… time to be a superhero… time to be… Captain Wonderful Husband!” Rising Star took a deep breath and then flexed his muscles. 

Lifting up the edge of the blanket, Sparkler first looked beneath the blanket, saw Ripple looking at her with unfocused eyes, and then crawled in, allowing the blanket to fall upon her. She cuddled up against Ripple, forming a Ripple sandwich with Bittersweet. She heard the sounds of more retching in the bathroom, a chunky sounding splash, and then a cry of alarm. 

“You know, they never tell you about these moments before you are married,” Sparkler heard Rising Star say. She poked her head out from beneath the blanket and realised that Rising Star had gone into the bathroom. 

“I’m so sorry,” Sparkler heard Loch Skimmer gasp. 

“Think nothing of it… there should be creative moments of bonding in a marriage. Like barfing all over your mate. This was a barfing of affection. I love you too, Loch Skimmer, I can’t wait until we can bond again.” 

Even though she felt queasy, Sparkler giggled at the sound of Rising Star’s words, and beside her, she could feel Ripple shaking with weak, suppressed laughter. Sparkler rested her head down upon a pillow, the cotton fabric felt cool against her cheek. 

“Such is the reward for trying to hold back a filly’s mane while she daintily tosses her cookies… Captain Wonderful Husband is dauntless in his task!” 

“You startled me… I didn’t know you were coming… wait, I’m gonna… -URGLEFLURGLEFLURF!-”

Still giggling, Sparkler could feel the contrast of the cool pillow against her cheek and Ripple’s warm body against her belly. She felt the muscles along her ribs contracting in a painful spasm, which ended her giggling, and the purple-pink filly closed her eyes as she waited for the spasm to pass. 

“It feels really nice to lay on clean sheets,” Ripple muttered beneath the blankets, oblivious to her sister’s suffering in the bathroom. “No more dirty, crusty, stinky, stab you in the sides sheets.” 

Caused by Ripple’s words, Sparkler felt a stab of guilt. She cringed, feeling the muscles along her spine contracting and tensing, a sensation not caused by her Shivers. “Ripple, honey, have we been doing better? Is there anything that you are not happy about that you are not telling us?” 

“Well, there is one thing,” Ripple replied. 

“Tell me,” Sparkler commanded, giving Ripple a little squeeze. 

“We never stock enough popcorn. I’m tired of going to the cupboard in the mood for popcorn and then discovering we have none. It can be a little frustrating.” 

Sparkler forced her muscles to relax and she let out a little sigh, not even aware that she had started holding her breath or had tensed up every muscle in her body in anticipation of some much greater problem. “Rising Star is a pig. Rather than eat a sensible meal to restore his magic, he just eats popcorn.” 

“I asked him to share his popcorn and he was a jerk about it,” Ripple said. 

“What?” Sparkler lifted up the blanket and looked down at Ripple. She could see Ripple’s light blue mane. It looked kinda sweaty, clinging to Ripple’s ears and head. 

“He made me dance for popcorn. I was hungry and he made dance around before he gave me a single piece. And when I asked for more popcorn, he told me to keep dancing.” 

“Whatta jerk.” Sparkler felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards and she lowered the blanket back down on Ripple’s head. She rubbed Ripple’s shoulder and felt Bittersweet shift position a little, the donkey rolled over a bit and then snuggled back up against the pegasus in the middle. In the bathroom, Sparkler heard the sounds of the shower being turned on. 

“Do you think father is okay?” Ripple asked in a small, almost squeaky voice.

“Shining Armor showed up and said something… I wish I knew what,” Sparkler replied.

“They haven’t told us.” Ripple’s head popped out from beneath the blanket and flopped down beside Sparkler’s on the pillow. “Either there is nothing to tell us or something bad is happening and nopony is saying anything.” 

“You had your mane trimmed again,” Sparkler said, changing the subject. “You always keep it so short. I love your mane, it is such a pretty shade of sky blue.” Sparkler inched her head forwards over the pillow and then kissed the back of Ripple’s neck, planting her lips down upon Ripple’s charcoal grey pelt, right beside the hairline of her mane. “It is one of my favourite things about you.” 

“Gosh, thank you, Sparky.” There was a long pause. “My mouth keeps going dry and then floods with drool. I think I’m going to be sick, I need to get to the bathroom…” 



 

“Why is everypony staring? Did somepony draw a mustache on me while I was sleeping again?” Princess Celestia looked at the different faces staring at her. “By the way, Rainbow Dash, you are a class act for blaming that prank on a foal… a foal… and if you think you can get away with that, you are in for a surprise. Nopony blames a foal on my watch. Just you wait.” 

“But I… I didn’t… I—” 

“Princess Celestia, I think I’ve figured out why Bucky’s gunpowder golems failed,” Twilight Sparkle said as she cut off a stammering Rainbow Dash. “Well, that is to say, the golems didn’t fail. They worked exactly as intended, neutralising dangerous caches of weapons and gunpowder.” Twilight Sparkle blinked, cleared her throat, and then continued with her report.

“The mirror travelers seemed to have worked up an enchantment that made their ammunition invisible to the golems. A counter-enchantment. I’ve been studying the weapons we’ve seized. So Bucky’s plan worked. Bucky’s efforts worked. He has, in fact, made the world much safer, and he should be credited for that, I have an appointment with a senior reporter to pass some of this information along. Anyway, the mirror travelers have kept functioning guns and weapons because of counter-enchantments. This brings up an interesting problem, in that we can, in fact, keep the world safer from guns, but we cannot keep the world safer from unicorns. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, in the event of an armed uprising, a group would need to secure the services of a unicorn, paying them for enchantments. By themselves, rebels of a non-magical species would pose no threat with guns. It comes down to magic… I guess it always comes down to magic.” Twilight Sparkle let out a frustrated sigh and then slumped, going into a defeated posture. “I don’t know how to fix this problem, and trust me, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.” 

“Hmm,” Princess Celestia hummed. “That is quite a pickle you have there, Twilight Sparkle.” The white alicorn lifted her head high and then scratched the side of her head just below her ear with her wing. “Walk with me, Twilight Sparkle.” 

“Okay,” Twilight replied in an eager voice. 

“But not you, you mustache drawer and foal blamer,” Celestia said to Rainbow Dash. 

“But I… but you… but Glass Slipper!” 

“For shame, Rainbow Dash, for shame. Off with you, go on, go check on Bucky. Maybe talk to him and see if he’ll wake up if he hears your voice. You troublesome trouble maker types have a way of speaking to one another… bad pony speak.” Princess Celestia made a dismissive gesture with her wing and heard Twilight Sparkle giggling. 

“Fine!” Rainbow Dash trotted away with her head down and her tail tucked between her legs. 



 

Princess Celestia walked at half pace, while Twilight Sparkle walked double time to keep up with the much larger alicorn. Princess Celestia radiated a cool calmness, and as she passed the busy ponies around her, she brought a state of peace. Frazzled nerves soothed a bit, short tempers smoothed out, and overworked nurses found a second wind. As she walked past many beds in the open common ward, she brought a sense of reassuring comfort to the wounded. Soldiers in their beds looked up at her as she passed, many of them smiling. 

Seeing Princess Luna, Princess Celestia stopped mid-step, almost causing Twilight Sparkle to bump into her backside. The noble alabaster alicorn extended her wing and pointed at the night blue alicorn sitting at a pony’s bedside. “Look Twilight, I have not seen her like this for an entire age.” 

Peering at Luna, Twilight Sparkle’s eyes narrowed as she tried to see whatever it was that Princess Celestia was seeing. She tilted her head off to one side, then the other, and then her ears pitched forwards as she studied Princess Luna feeding the bedridden soldier. 

When Twilight realised that she didn’t know what to look for, she looked up at Princess Celestia and said in a low whisper, “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. I’m sorry, Princess Celestia.” 

“Look at her Twilight Sparkle. See how she smiles? She is smiling… look at how patient she is. See how she spoons the food off of that poor pony’s chin? Do you see how she is looking into his eyes, she is being warm and kind to him,” Princess Celestia said, revealing what it was that she saw. “My sister is always seen as being cold and rather distant. She shows kindness to her beloved lunar pegasi, but very few ponies see that affection. Now look at her… she has changed… perhaps because of Erebus, perhaps because of her regeneration, but make no mistake, she has changed. It is almost like looking upon a stranger compared to how Luna has been in recent memory.” 

Watching, studying, Twilight realised that she could see Princess Luna’s doting affection. She could see warmth. Luna’s eyes were twinkling and there was something about Luna’s smile. She saw Luna lean forward and whisper something into the pony’s ear as she wiped his muzzle. Twilight then realised that there was a lot that she didn’t see; chief among what she did not see was Princess Luna’s haughtiness. Her cold arrogance and her lofty superiourity. She heard Luna’s soft laughter as Luna laughed about something, whatever it was, Twilight had not heard it. 

“Perhaps stranger is too harsh a word.” Princess Celestia continued to watch her sister. “Luna was the Element of Laughter at one point… seeing her now reminds me a little of how she was way back when. She was jovial and jolly in the right company. She was fond of teasing Star Swirl to the point of utter distraction. She would leave behind bladders filled with air beneath cushions and when ponies sat down, there would be horrific flatulent noises. Luna’s laughter would echo up and down the halls of our old castle. The constant battle changed Luna though. She became lachrymose… and then became withdrawn. She grew distant. Her heart grew hard.” 

“That’s awful.” Twilight couldn’t imagine Princess Luna leaving behind a whoopee cushion under a pony’s seat. “Wait, Princess Celestia, they had whoopee cushions back then?”

“Twilight Sparkle, my sister Luna invented the whoopee cushion. It took her hundreds of attempts and different kinds of bladders before she got it correct. I suppose it sounds awful now, using animal bladders, but those were different times back then. They make them out of rubber now… which is a pity. The rubber whoopee cushions lack the charming sound and the realism of a properly cured bladder with a well puckered and slightly lubricated sphincter.”

Stunned, Twilight Sparkle’s mouth fell open. 

“I miss those days. Princess Luna teleported one of her greatest experiments beneath me just as I was sitting down in front of a group of zebra diplomats. It caused total bedlam to break out. Of course, Luna totally embarrassed me, but the end result was positive. The zebra diplomats laughed. Because of this shared laughter, we became friends. It led to very positive relations with the Sea of Grass.” 

“She did that?” Twilight Sparkle stared at Luna with wide eyed disbelief. Luna’s eyes were closed and the night blue alicorn was laughing about something with the pony in the bed. Twilight wondered what sort of story Luna might be telling him, or what joke she might be saying. 

“Luna and Sombra together were actually far, far more chaotic and dangerous than Discord even during the height of his powers. The pair of them left behind paranoid, terrified victims that checked their cushions, minded their beds, guarded their telescopes, and checked their hats for large, hairy spiders before putting them on.” 

“Luna… Luna did that?” Twilight Sparkle shook her head. She shivered. 

“Princess Luna left a coiled serpent inside of Chancellor Puddinghead’s hat.” Celestia paused. “To Luna’s credit, it was harmless.” 

Twilight Sparkle squeaked and then backed up a step. “Now that’s uncalled for.” 

“I have long missed my sister… but now, I fear her return.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 759
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Clutching her pencil in her primaries, Cloudstreaker put a game smile upon her face, tried to look as adorable as possible, and then focused her weapons-grade cuteness upon Night Light. In a sweet, happy, chirpy voice, Cloudstreaker spoke the well practiced words that she had repeated into the mirror a hundred times: “I wanted to get your story for the school newspaper.” 

“Story?” Night Light looked at the foal sitting down at the table across from him. He heard his wife make an equine noise of concern, a sort of low nicker as she moved to fix tea, using her magic to boil the water. 

“The rise and fall of Canterlot and how you came to be some of the bestest teachers ever.” Cloudstreaker’s smile widened. The word bestest had been selected for maximum cuteness. 

“Oh my,” Twilight Velvet gasped as she moved about the small room. She placed a small chipped saucer with several ginger molasses cookies in front of the pegasus filly. 

“Well, I don’t know…” Night Light said, drawing his words out. 

“Nighty, be a dear and help her out. Her grade probably depends on this,” Twilight Velvet said to her husband. 

Cloudstreaker readied her pencil and gave Night Light a hopeful expression. 

“It all started with a ledger… are you getting this? Am I talking too fast? Can you keep up?” Night Light pulled out several sheets of paper from a folder on a shelf, a quill, and some ink. The quill quivered in his magic, and he made ready to help the filly write down all of the important stuff. 

“We discovered our entire family fortune was blood money. It was awful,” Twilight Velvet said as she sat down upon a cushion on the floor. Her ears perked forwards and she noticed that the cookies on the plate were being ignored. 

“Yes… we might not be perfect unicorns, or even perfect parents, but we try so very hard to be good examples to Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle. We tried to give them a sense of self sacrifice, a sense of goodness, because so many of the nobles were just plain dreadful.” Night Light dipped his quill in ink and got ready for more words. 

“We’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made mistakes though. Like the time Twilight Sparkle thought there were ghosts in the air vents. But that is a story for another time.” Twilight Velvet pulled out a tea tin and began to drop loose leaf tea into a small wire mesh basket so that it could be dunked into the teapot and allowed to steep. 

“And because of that little slip up, we tried to teach our foals to own their mistakes. So… when word got out about everything that had happened, we offered to do the right thing. We wanted to get rid of our fortune.” Night Light’s ear began to quiver. “Those were scary times. Princess Luna came to us and assured us that we would be looked after if we cooperated. She said that there were a lot of angry ponies, and while it was very unfortunate, scapegoats were needed. Do you know what a scapegoat is?” 

“Yup.” Cloudstreaker’s head bobbed in a dainty nod. Realising that everything was getting written down, she set down her pencil and began to eat a cookie. 

“We did not know at the time that this was part of a greater plan by Princess Celestia and that Princess Luna was simply playing her part. We, along with quite a number of other nobles, were spared because we did the right thing. A public display had to be made. Ponies got to see mercy as well as justice. After the trial, Princess Celestia came to us and gave us her solemn word that we would be looked after and that we would never know want. She sent us back to Ponyville.” Night Light paused and dipped his quill in ink once more. 

“It was dangerous in Canterlot. Nobles who had turned were getting killed. Princess Celestia kept her word though. We were kept safe. The ponies of Ponyville took good care of us. We were heroes. We had stood up and did the right thing. We had so much love and support given to us. Fancy Pants and Fleur were also sent to Ponyville with us to be kept safe. It was hard on them at first, I guess it was hard on us too.” Reaching up, Twilight Velvet dabbed at her eyes with the back of her fetlock. 

“Just before the all out rebellion and battle in Canterlot, Princess Celestia got a message to us. I did not understand the meaning at the time, but I understand it now.” Night Light watched as the ginger molasses cookie disappeared. “She said that serving as scapegoats was an admirable thing, but that before all of this was over, we would be needed for another greater purpose. Forgiveness.” 

“Huh?” Cloudstreaker, who had cookie crumbs on her muzzle, looked at the dark blue stallion sitting across the table. She blinked a few times, her ears perked forwards, then fell backwards, and then she said, “I don’t understand.” 

“We didn’t either.” Twilight Velvet drew in a deep breath and shook her head. “Ponies don’t realise just how smart Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are. How old and wise they both are. While Princess Luna can be a little scary at times, Princess Luna does try to do her best to protect us all and think of our needs. And so does Princess Celestia. We were serving a need. A purpose… but we didn’t know it at the time.” 

“As time went on, after all those horrible things in Canterlot took place, after the Collapse, when peace began to return, something peculiar happened.” Night Light’s quill scratched along the paper, writing down everything and then some, including details left unsaid. “Ponies we didn’t even know came up to us and forgave us. Not that we had even done anything in particular to them... or that we were seen as being to blame for everything that had happened.” 

“They just wanted some resolution.” Twilight Velvet poured hot water from the kettle into the teapot. “They came to us… we heard stories… things that happened. Some of them were Shetlanders. We had to endure listening to a lot of awful things. And ponies forgave us. They needed to forgive somepony so the healing could begin. Princess Celestia knew that this was going to happen, and she fulfilled the need, using us.” 

“So we went from scapegoats to being an ear for forgiveness. Twilight Velvet, Fancy Pants, Fleur, we got invited to a lot of dinners, many suppers, many afternoon teas, and we got to hear the stories of so many. They got a chance to pour their hearts out… they finally had a chance to tell the nobles just how they had been hurt… and  they forgave us. It really was something magical. It was perhaps the greatest experience of my life,” Night Light said to Cloudstreaker. “We got a chance to be part of the healing process.” 

“And true to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s word, we were looked after. We wanted for nothing. We never went hungry, we never missed so much as a single meal. Nopony was cruel and vindictive towards us… well, not the Ponyville ponies. We had a few of our own fellow family members, cousins and such, that threatened to kill us for what we had done.” Twilight Velvet closed her eyes for a moment and then shook her head. “We were so humbled by the graciousness and goodness all around us.” 

“Princess Celestia told us privately that we, and others who also served in this role, were the reason why Equestria was able to begin the healing process and start down the road to recovery and reunification. The unrepentant nobles were exiled. The heartless criminals were dealt with. The public got the justice and the wicked were punished, which appeased many angry ponies. We nobles who did the right thing, we who made the noble gestures… in the most literal sense of the word, the common ponies got to see that we weren’t so bad. They learned that not all of us were heartless leeches and monsters living in beautiful, lofty towers in Canterlot.” Night Light sniffled a bit and watched as Cloudstreaker began to eat another cookie. 

“Some of us got the punishment, others got the forgiveness. Both were necessary, and the Royal Pony Sisters knew it.” Twilight Velvet opened her eyes. “We’re free now, but nothing has changed. We plan to remain teachers and teach the lessons of the past with the sincere hope that these same mistakes will not be made in the future.” 

“Wow,” Cloudstreaker said after she swallowed her bite of cookie. “I’m gonna be newspaper famous!” 



 

Sitting in a small chair, Coco Pommel looked over at Rarity, who was sitting on the other side of the bed. Coco, who was overcome with a dreadful sense of worry, felt her spirits lift a little when she saw Rarity looking back at her. Reaching out her hoof, Coco patted the comatose pony in the bed, hoping he would wake. 

Rarity, knitting, gave Coco a soft, sad smile and returned to paying attention to her knitting, her needles making faint clicking sounds as she made loop after loop of yarn. 

“I am glad we came,” Coco said in a soft whisper. 

“Say again, darling?” Rarity replied, not looking up from her work. 

Reaching out, Coco patted Bucky’s cheek with a soft, gentle touch. “I am glad we came. Seeing all of this has been hard, but I think it has made me a better pony. I have made a difference. I have brought smiles to the faces of those suffering. I have brought a measure of comfort to those who needed it most. And when I go home, I will be able to say that I fought in this war and I did my part. We have done battle here.” 

“I suppose we have.” Rarity’s knitting needles stopped clicking. With a troubled expression, she shoved her knitting into her bag and then looked over at Coco. “Did you know that you really are the most extraordinary pony and that every single day, you inspire me?” 

“I try.” Coco gave Rarity a demure smile. 

“I am so crazily in love with you, Coco Pommel.” Rarity’s affectionate, eyes half opened gaze lingered upon Coco. Rarity’s ears twitched upwards when she heard the door open. Turning her head, she saw Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie enter the small room. 

“How is he?” Cheese Sandwich asked, looking a bit morose. 

“He was dreaming earlier and talking in his sleep. It was strange.” Rarity’s lips pursed. “It sounded as though he was trying to teach somepony to ice skate.” 

“He has to be awake if he wants to teach somepony to ice skate. That’s the rules,” Pinkie Pie said in an unusual subdued voice. “Cheese and I can’t stay long… we’re sorry, but were supposed to go and sing in the amputation ward.” 

“Oh, that place is just dreadful,” Rarity said, cringing, her ears drooping down and falling beside her cheeks, which were taut with tension. “Coco and I were just in there earlier. I feel so bad for the poor darlings.” 

“When we get home I suspect that Bucky’s knack for prosthetics will be useful.” Coco, still hoping, gave Bucky another prod with her hoof. 

“Where is cute little Cadance?” Cheese Sandwich asked. 

“Fluttershy and Discord have her. She was in dire need of a bath,” Rarity replied. 

“We should get going. We don’t want to keep them waiting, they need cheering up and we’re just the right ponies to make them smile, smile smile,” Pinkie Pie said in a voice that became more chipper with each instance of the word ‘smile.’ 

“Has anypony seen Applejack?” Coco asked just as Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich started to slip out of the door. 

A wide grin spread over Pinkie Pie’s face. “General Pommejack and her Fancy colonel Silver Shill are working the flight deck. General Pommejack has been instrumental in motivating others and her spectacular work ethic has been an inspiration. She has taken a hard stance against lollygagging and keeps the flights moving.” 

“Oh dear… oh… that’s dreadful, not everypony has Applejack’s endless stamina.” Rarity covered her mouth with her hoof. “Best of luck in the amputee ward… tata, both of you.” Lifting her other hoof, Rarity waved goodbye. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 760
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day, grey, overcast, the air filled with bitter cold, was almost perfect for Sentinel. It was Saturday, not a school day, which made the day even better. Everything was glazed over with ice from freezing drizzle that had happened in the wee morning hours. 

Low to the ground, wings flared, Sentinel stalked his prey. He had an insatiable hunger that needed to be satisfied, there was an emptiness in his belly that oatmeal did not satisfy, canned or frozen fish did nothing to ease, and Sentinel’s nostrils quivered as he smelled what he needed. 

The hare was large and was white so it would be camouflaged with the snow. It had a pink nose that twitched and wiggled. Most gentle sorts would see it and think of it as being cute, adorable, something pleasant to watch, pleasing to look at. Sentinel saw it as a meal. The twitchy nose triggered his feelings of aggression, he didn’t want his prey catching wind of him. 

Sentinel’s wings flared out a little more from his sides and his ears pitched forwards. Eyes narrowing, Sentinel’s body dropped even lower to the ground. Catlike, Sentinel went still as the hare lifted its head and began to look around. 

When the hare turned its head in the opposite direction to look for danger, Sentinel pounced, making a good twelve foot leap. He came down hard, fast, legs extended, wings out wide, mouth open, and fangs bared. The hare, realising death came from above, tried to run. It lept away, but Sentinel caught it mid air, clamping his jaws down upon the base of the hare’s skull, and with a well practiced motion, Sentinel whipped the large hare around to break its neck. There was a loud, shrill, pitiful squeal and then a loud gurgling scream as the hare was whipped around. 

He dropped the hare into the snow and sat down as the hare kicked and twitched, going through its final motions. Sentinel licked his lips and then looked around, hoping that nopony was watching him while he was eating. This was the third catch of the day and Sentinel’s hunger showed no signs of abating. 

After another almost guilty glance around, Sentinel attended his prey. He sniffed it, filling his nostrils with the salty, coppery scent of blood. He placed one front hoof down on the body, applied a little pressure, and then bit down upon the head. Jerking upwards, he tore the head free of the body. 

Sentinel tossed his meal up into the air, caught it, crunched down once, shattering the hare’s skull, and then swallowed it whole, ears and all. His throat bulged as the hare’s whole head slipped down his gullet. The fine white hairs made it a little difficult to swallow, but Sentinel managed. 

After belching, Sentinel set to work. He sheared off one front leg, using his molars to bite it free. That went down easy. He bit off the other front leg, lapped up a little somewhat frozen blood from the snow, tore off the hind legs one at a time, devoured those, and then he glanced down at the limbless, headless torso. 

“Sorry… it’s nothing personal,” Sentinel said to his food. 

He picked up the corpse by the blood encrusted neck stump, flipped it up high into the air, and then caught it by the neck stump once more. Tilting his head back, he began the process of swallowing his food, chewing, crushing bones, rending flesh until it was soft, tender, and easy to swallow. 

When Sentinel was done, there was nothing left but blood on the snow, and Sentinel began to devour the snow, gobbling it down, savouring the delicious frozen treat. After another belch, Sentinel realised that he felt sated. He also felt a little guilty. His brain, ever his tormentor, gave him a quiet reminder that the hare was almost the same size as Sukari or Harper. 



 

Fighting back a wave of nausea, Thistle rubbed Harper’s stomach, trying to make the foal feel better. Some of the foals were sick, others were just fine, and then there was Harper, who was sick, no worse than the others, but with the way that Harper was acting, one might think she was dying. Thistle attributed it to Harper missing Bucky. 

Sukari, free of any sign of sickness, was cuddled up with Bell Heather, who dozed away a low grade fever. Peekaboo was curled up into a small miserable blue ball and was tucked into the bowl shaped chair with Magpie, who was looking after Bandua. 

“Is little Bandua showing any signs of sickness?” Thistle asked. 

Magpie looked up from the bundle cradled in her forelegs. “Bandua seems fine. More hungry than usual. She is a little quiet though.” Magpie made a peeping sound and bounced Bandua in her embrace. “She’s starting to crawl around more and watch stuff.” 

“Harpy dying.” Harper covered her eyes with her foreleg and then out a foghorn belch. 

“Harper, I thought you said you were dead fifteen minutes ago,” Thistle said to the foal on the floor. She fanned the air with her other hoof as her nostrils crinked from the smell of rotten eggs. Thistle thought of Harper’s troubles with maintaining useful digestive gut flora. “Poor Harpy… you and your tummy troubles. Do you want to try and eat some yogurt? Or maybe your special cookies with that yeast extract stuff?” 

“No food,” Harper replied, shaking her head. 

“Harper, honey, I’m worried about you. If you don’t eat something, I’m worried that your precious little insides will seize up… wanna try to eat some yogurt for me?” Thistle tried to look as sad as possible. It wasn’t hard. She was missing Bucky, feeling nauseous, and had a sick foal that she was worried about. “I’ll add a little mango jelly to the yogurt.” 

“Okay.” Harper belched again and then made a disgusted face. “Eggy.” 

“We can’t have Harper getting colic again or getting bound up from gas… make sure you feed her as much yogurt as you can,” Magpie said in a worried voice. “We have to keep her digestive processes going.” 

“Getting the flu makes things complicated,” Thistle said as she sighed. “Come on Harper, off to the kitchen.” 



 

Creeping in the back door, Sentinel slunk down the hall, hoping not to be noticed. He was still a bit messy and needed to get cleaned up, but there was one thing that he needed to do before that could happen. He made his way down the hall, past the door of his parents bedroom, and to the door the of nursery. He peered through the door and around the room. He spotted Magpie and felt relieved. 

“Magpie?” Sentinel said in a soft voice. 

“Yes?” Mapgie replied. 

“Magpie, I caught you a hare… so you can feed Bandua… but I also wanted to thank you for looking after my sister,” Sentinel said to the griffoness. 

“You caught me a hare?” Magpie blinked and her crest rose. 

“It is outside, on the back porch, sitting in a snow bank. I just wanted to show my appreciation. It’s still quite warm, I flew home right after catching it. Or you could have it cooked I guess, if you wanted to. It’s up to you. But I thought you’d enjoy a nice meal.” 

The griffoness reached up and rubbed her eyes with her talons. “You are the most considerate little colt… thank you. I’ll go outside and get it in just a moment. Go get cleaned up before somepony wakes up and sees you.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Sentinel replied as he backed out of the doorway. 



 

Standing in the shower, his eyes closed, his belly full, Sentinel allowed the steaming hot water to run down his sides, which tickled and made him shudder. He lifted his wings, allowing the water to run down into his wingpits, trying to make certain that every last vestige of blood was washed away. 

Sentinel felt sleepy now and did not know if it was because he was full or because it was daytime. The falling water plastered his mane to his neck and made his tail heavy. Closing his eyes, he faced the shower head and allowed the water to spray down onto his face. He curled back his lips, revealing his teeth, and could feel hot water flowing through the gaps in his teeth. 

The colt began to whistle, but not with his lips. Using his echolocation, Sentinel sang in the shower, belting out a cheerful tune as he worked to clean his shaggy pelt. The water beating on the thin, tight membranes of his raised and extended wings produced faint drum-like beats. 

Using his grasping digits and his central knuckles, Sentinel lifted up a bottle of liquid soap, squirted it out along his spine, let out a shrill squeak as the cold soap hit his skin, and then after he set down the bottle of soap, he went to work with a wooden handled scrubbing brush. Feeling good about himself, Sentinel laboured to make himself presentable. 



 

The hinges of the door creaked as Sentinel pushed the door open. He stuck his head through the door, his ears pinned back, and looked around. “Dinky, Piña, both of you okay?” 

“I’m fine, but Dinky is dying,” Piña replied. 

“Oh. That’s not good.” Sentinel made his way into the room, the sounds of his sister’s hearts beating in his ears. Dinky’s heart was still beating strong, much to his relief. Even though he knew that Piña had made a joke, a part of Sentinel still worried. 

“How is my second favourite pink pony?” Sentinel asked. 

Piña, closing her book, narrowed her eyes at Sentinel. “Curse you and your favourite pink pony!” Piña made a wild gesture with her hoof. After a dramatic pause, a smile appeared on Piña’s face. “I’m good. Finished my homework for the weekend. If Larch and Babs aren’t down with the flu, I think we’ll get a game going tomorrow, so I am excited. You?” 

“I can’t complain.” Sentinel looked around the room. Dinky was huddled under her blankets. Piña was sitting on a cushion on the floor. There was a gathering of stuffies upon Harper and Sukari’s bed. There was a pile of brushes and combs upon the low table in the corner, the low table that was sometimes pulled out to the middle of the room for tea parties or arts and crafts. “Dinky, can you say anything?” 

“Anything,” Dinky replied. She coughed and then pulled her head beneath the blankets. “I can’t get warm. So cold.” 

“An hour ago, she was roasting and refused to cover up,” Piña said, turning to look at Dinky as she spoke. “I tried to tell Dinky to stay covered even though she was hot, or she’d just freeze later.” 

“Sh’up,” Dinky mumbled from beneath her blanket. 

“Hey, Sentinel, up for a game of chess?” Piña asked. 

“I’d love to,” Sentinel replied. “I was kinda hoping that we could do something together, which is why I stopped in to check on the two of you.” 

“I’ll get the chessboard and the pieces out of the closet!” Piña squeaked. 



 

“Will you look at that… North Star has a lovely hat,” Princess Celestia said to Twilight Sparkle as the pair inspected the deck. 

Looking up from her clipboard that held her checklist, Twilight Sparkle saw the large, white lunar pegasus. He wasn’t wearing his armor, but had a bright blue blanket draped over his back. Sitting on the top of his head was a small black and grey griffoniness. Without meaning to do so, Twilight Sparkle giggle-snorted. Somehow, the tiny griffoness was perched and sitting between North Star’s ears, her tail was curled around her companion’s broad neck. 

“They are inseparable,” Princess Celestia said in a low whisper to Twilight. “They have become fast friends. Many of the Myrmidons and their riders have become boon companions. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” 

“So many new friendships,” Twilight Sparkle said her eyes becoming unfocused. “This war has been awful, but there have been so many new friendships… friendships that cross the oceans.” 

“Twilight, we are going to have to recreate the postal service. While there is a means to send mail from country to country, it involves private couriers and a lot of money. I want to see these friendships continue. I have ideas, Twilight, and I want to talk to you about them. A world-wide postal service, for friendship’s sake. I want you to make a proposal to the Sea of Grass and see if Equestria and the Sea of Grass can somehow pay the bill so the poorer nations of the world can also have access to this mail service.” Princess Celestia turned to look at her student and saw that Twilight Sparkle was staring at the lunar pegasus and the griffoness. “Twilight, did you hear me?” 

“She loves him,” Twilight said, oblivious to everything that Celestia had said. 

“What? No… Twilight, they are just friends.” Celestia turned to study the pair. “Twilight, you cannot just make those kinds… of… assumptions…” Celestia’s words faded out as she studied the pair. 

“Look at her.” Twilight squinted her eyes. “See how she clings to him. How she strokes his ears. Look at how attentive they are towards one another.” 

“Twilight… they… no… Twilight…” Celestia stammered. “Twilight, oh cookies, I think you are right.” 

“They’re going to need some help.” Twilight’s expression became thoughtful. 

“Help?” Celestia shook her head. “Why would they need help?” 

“Well, at some point, they are going to want to express their affection—” 

“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia jerked her head back. “You used to be such a nice pony before you became involved with that mustache drawer, Rainbow Dash.” 

“Well, he’s really big, and she’s really little, I mean, he can wear her as a hat,” Twilight said in a low voice as she waved her clipboard around with her magic. “I’m not sure that it is even physically possible for them to—” 

“Twilight!” Celestia gasped. She reached out gave her former student a gentle shove. 

“Well, I understand how it is… when you are around somepony that you love you just get urges. Like right now I have urges… and I keep thinking about a certain orange pegasus waiting for me back home.” Twilight Sparkle fell silent and then bit down upon her lip as she made a whimpering sound, her tail swishing around her hind legs. 

“Majesties!” A nurse came running out over the deck, breathless and excited. She stopped at a respectful distance away from the pair of princesses. “Prince Buckminster has awakened!” 



 

Not bothering to knock, Princess Celestia shoved the door open and went inside. Much to her shock and surprise, she saw Bucky sitting up in the bed, propped up on pillows, and he was levitating Cadance in front of his face in a blue-green bubble of magic. Just as Celestia stepped through the door, a loud, wet raspberry filled the air and Cadance’s squeaky giggles could be heard. 

This isn’t what Princess Celestia expected at all. Paranoid, worried, even a little frightened, she had not expected him to just let go of Bucky. A million things all raced through Princess Celestia’s mind all at once. Another raspberry caused Celestia’s ears to twitch. 

“Buckminster, nephew, are you okay?” Celestia asked. 

“I feel great. I’m a little stiff, but really, I feel fine. Fluttershy here tells me I was out for a while and that all of you were worried,” Bucky replied as he plopped Cadance down onto the bed. 

“No, daddy, lift!” Cadance demanded, flapping her wings. “Obey Cady! Now!” 

Reaching out his forelegs, Bucky snatched Cadance up and squeezed her close. He smiled as he cradled her. Overcome with joy, he began to kiss her upon the top of her head over and over. 

Eyes wide, Princess Celestia let out a shuddering sob of relief, her mind still racing. 
	
> Chapter 761 "Hush..." 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in their small, or as some might say, cosy, but well appointed cabin, Rarity heard the door open behind her. She did not bother looking up from her book, already knowing that it had to be Coco coming in. The earth pony had an odd, solid daintiness about her, the way she moved, the way she was, the way she did everything. Coco was perfect, subtle, perfection. 

“Welcome home, Coco,” Rarity said as Coco moved through the small stateroom aboard the Sol Sempiternus. Rarity did not hear a reply. She started to turn around, but was surprised by Coco wrapping her forelegs around her from behind. She could feel heavy breathing upon the back of her neck. “Coco—” 

“Hush…” The word slithered out from Coco’s lips like a serpent. 

Rarity could feel Coco behind her, moving, and she did not know what Coco was doing. Rarity started to say something, but then something was placed over her eyes. Soft silk slid over her skin, was pulled taut, causing the wrinkles and little folds to vanish. Rarity, suffering dirty thoughts, thought it was very much like Coco’s feminine folds just before Coco came, causing all of her muscles to clench and flex, the little wrinkles drawing tight as Rarity’s tongue lingered over them. When this happened, Coco released a little something that Rarity liked to call Coco-butter, and Rarity was fond of the golden, gooey liquid. 

“Coco—” 

There was a jerk on the silk over Rarity’s eyes and Rarity heard the word, “Hush.” 

Blinded, Rarity sat in the chair, not knowing what was going on, but feeling a growing sense of arousal. She started to titter, but was reprimanded with another yank on the silken blindfold. She felt something slide over her muzzle, and before she realised it, she was gagged. It was not a tight gag, but it sent a clear message. Coco was in control and Rarity had been told to hush. Twice now. A third time would have consequences. Delicious consequences? Perhaps. 

Gasping through her gag, Rarity felt herself being lifted out of her chair. The book fell to the floor with a thump. Coco was carrying her, Rarity had been lifted in Coco’s ever so strong forelegs. A moment later, Rarity was dumped on the bed. Confused, aroused, Rarity waited, every muscle in her body tensing. 

She felt her right foreleg being tugged on and then felt soft cloth wrap around it. Something not silk, it was a bit more grippy, Rarity had trouble figuring out what it was. With growing fascination, Rarity realised that she was being tied down. So that’s how it was. Coco was tired of being Coco, Rarity’s most dutiful and helpful assistant, and was now becoming Coco, Rarity’s most demanding and dominating mistress. Her left foreleg was being tied down now. Rarity could feel her dock clenching and the muscles in her belly went taut.

A foreleg grazed over her exposed belly, over her navel, and brushed over her teats. Her left hind leg was seized, bound, and Rarity could hear the sounds of fabric rustling together. Holding back a whimper, Rarity felt the first bead of moisture go rolling down her swelling lips, over her clenching, flexing, alabaster anus, and dribble down into the crook of her dock. It tickled something awful. Now her right hind leg was being tied down to the bed, leaving Rarity spread open. 

All Rarity had to do to make this stop was shake her head no and the blindfold would be off in a jiffy, but she didn’t dare. Not now. This was just getting interesting, and Rarity wondered what was in store for her. 

There was a creak as Coco climbed onto the bed with Rarity and then a sound like ice rattling around. Rarity’s ears perked. She tried to make out what she was hearing and—oooOOOoooh! Something cold touched her belly, pressing in on her navel. The ice cube began to make slow, lazy circles, working out and away from Rarity’s navel. Rarity let out as much of a moan as she dared as her belly muscles tensed from the freezing tickle-touch, knowing that if she was bad, she would be punished. Rarity wasn’t certain she was in the mood to be a bad filly tonight, Coco could be a little rough if Rarity was bad. Rarity kicked her hind legs as much as she could, but her bonds were tight enough to keep her still and didn’t allow for much movement. She wiggled and shimmied in the bed, trying to squirm away from the ice cube trailing over her tender, sensitive, supple, belly flesh. 

Beneath the blindfold, Rarity closed her eyes and tried to get as much as she could out of the moment. The ice cube was moving closer to her teats, teasing, tickling, titillating, torturing... the anticipation was killing her already and Rarity hoped that it would last a little longer. She clamped her teeth together and tried to close her hind legs as she felt another bead of moisture escape from her clenching folds, only to go rolling down over Rarity’s too-tight pucker. 

The ice cube lingered on the soft edge of Rarity’s left teat… of all the worst possible things that could happen… this was the worst… possible… thing… ever… Rarity’s hips bucked upwards and a loud squelching sound filled the cabin as Rarity’s needy twat tried to suckle a throbbing cock that wasn’t there. 

“Hush!” 

Oh no… Coco sounded angry! The wet slurp wasn’t Rarity’s fault. She hadn’t meant to sound like a needy, dirty, wanton little whorse. The ice cube vanished, gone, and Rarity lamented its departure. There was a creak as Coco left the bed. Rarity wondered what was about to happen. She waited, hearing hooves, and then the sound of somepony rummaging through the luggage. What was Coco doing? Dripping, Rarity couldn’t wait to find out. 

There was a teeth clenching wonderful pain in Rarity’s right teat and she felt pressure closing in on the tip. The velvet wrapped teat-clamps! Rarity had no idea that Coco had smuggled those in the luggage. A moment later, the cruel sister of the first teat-clamp was placed over Rarity’s left teat. There was a good tug to test their grip. Kicking her hind legs, Rarity had to swallow her cry. She had brought this on herself, she had been told to hush, but she hadn’t listened. 

“Hush.” 

Rarity could hear it in Coco’s hissy voice; that was a warning. Perhaps the only warning she might get from this point out. Protesting the punishment would only lead to more punishment. She thought about shaking her head ‘no’ and ending this game, but then thought better of it. Rarity’s whole body jerked and quivered, adrenaline pumped through her veins, and she was both hopeful and frightened of what was going to happen next. 

Oh, this was dreadful. Rarity had stepped in it now. Instead of lots of teasing, teat play, tickling, and then the glorious oral delights, something else was going to happen. Something dreadful. The teat-clamps were causing her teats to feel warm, the pain was exquisite, wonderful, almost unbearable in just the right way. 

Rarity heard squelching sounds, but they didn’t come from her. She smelled the tangy, almost sneezy scent of the floral lube that was Coco’s favourite. Lube? She heard Coco hiss, inhaling, sucking wind. What was Coco doing? The sounds of Coco’s heavy breathing filled Rarity’s ears. 

Rarity’s teats were swollen now. She felt Coco tug the right clamp. Rarity could not help it, she whimpered as delicious friction took over and the clamp began to slide free from tender teat-flesh. Each little tug caused the clamp slip, to slide, the velvet tugging on her flesh. Rarity writhed but did not dare slamming down with her hips and ending her punishment too soon. 

That would only bring more punishment. 

She endured it, and then, Rarity felt the clamp slide free. It was over… it was over… and then… the slow process of pulling the left one free started. Rarity cried out through her gag again, her belly muscles clenching in an almost painful manner. Rarity wanted to bite down on her hoof, but she was gagged, she was tied, her hoof was immobile, and she was helpless. The right teat throbbed in the most delightful way, now freed from the clamp, and the left teat was being stretched to the point where the skin felt hot. Rarity sucked in air, gasping, and then let out a needy whimper as the clamp slid free. 

“Hush…” 

Teats throbbing, hard as rocks, Rarity wasn’t sure how much more she could take. She thought about shaking her head and making this end. She was winded, sore… but she still wasn’t satisfied. If Rarity ended the game, Coco would still satisfy her, but it wouldn’t be the same. Coco would be smug, superiour, gloating that Rarity had succumbed. 

Rarity could not let that happen. She waited, not knowing what would happen next. 

And then, Coco was on top of her. Rarity could feel Coco’s belly up against her own, and each of Coco’s front hooves on either side of Rarity’s ribs, propping Coco up. Rarity felt something slippery prod her clenching, winking marehood. Coco had the strapon! Rarity knew that she was about to be screwed like the dirty little whorse that she was. She felt Coco shifting on top of her, sliding around, and then, Rarity felt quite a surprise. 

A second invader, also slippery, prodded her puckered plot hole. This one was smaller. Coco had both of them lined up, and before Rarity had a chance to shake her head no, Coco gave a powerful thrust of her earth pony hips, driving both shafts several inches in. 

Rarity inhaled and was about to let out a muffled scream when she heard Coco’s soft, commanding voice say, “Hush…” 

There was a wet slogging sound, a slurping sound, and then the well lubed double cocks slipped deeper into Rarity. The anal invader wasn’t so bad, but the pain and the pleasure was causing Rarity to sweat. She felt her whole body going damp as Coco worked her way in deeper. 

That was how this started. Coco would only be gentle to get started, and then her earth pony strength would ram the strapon into Rarity’s delicate, perfect marehood until Coco had her fill. But now, with the anal invader, Rarity wondered if Coco would be rough. She wondered if Coco also had two cocks stuffed inside of her, a double-double dong. 

She didn’t have time to contemplate this scenario. With a grunt, Coco buried herself into Rarity and then began pounding. Feeling a total loss of control, the only thing Rarity could do was let go and let this happen. Coco was railing both Rarity’s delicate pussy and Rarity’s dainty pucker. Rarity could feel her winking clitoris sliding along the well lubed length of the thick fauxcock that Coco was burying into her with each well practiced thrust. Rarity was being screwed right down into the mattress. She felt a growing heat as she smaller fauxcock drilled her tiny, perfect, well bleached little anus. 

The first orgasm was rough, painful even, and it hit Rarity like a slap in the face, leaving her breathless. She was drifting now, and she knew another orgasm was rapidly approaching. Coco was a little too good at what she did. Rarity could feel Coco’s belly sliding back and forth over over throbbing, too-sensitive teats. 

Unable to stop herself, Rarity began to whimper with each pelvis sundering thrust. Her whole body was drenched with sweat now, she trembled, her body quaking, and Coco showed no signs of slowing down. Only an earth pony could rut with this much force. 

Each stab of the double cocks caused Rarity to let out a squeaky cry, it sounded like a massacre of rubber ducks as Coco continued to work out her frustrations upon Rarity. The unicorn thrashed against her bonds as orgasm after orgasm barreled through her, slamming through her body with violent force, leaving her an almost senseless mess. 

And just when Rarity didn’t think she could take a second more, the relentless pounding ceased. The double cocks slid out with a wet sounding slurp. Coco collapsed on top of Rarity’s body, and Rarity could feel Coco’s barrel heaving. She felt two lips kiss her on the neck, once, twice, then three times, and then she heard Coco take a deep breath. 

“Hush…” 
	
	
> Chapter 762
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Approaching in a cautious and calm manner, Sweetie Belle offered a soft smile to the worried looking stallion. “Hey, you okay mister? You look a little sad…” Sensing something was wrong, Sweetie Belle made eye contact, knowing how important it was. The training seminar had said so. 

“I’m scared,” the stallion replied, looking down at Sweetie Belle. 

“Scared?” Sweetie Belle did her best to look reassuring. “My name is Sweetie Belle… I volunteer here at the hospital. Do you need to talk to somepony? Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?” 

“No thank you,” the stallion replied. He gave Sweetie Belle a nervous smile. “My name is Crispy Cucumber.” 

“Well, Mister Cucumber—” 

“Just call me Crispy.” 

Sweetie Belle’s smile widened. “What’s scaring you? Maybe I can help?” 

“I’m about to be a father.” Crispy looked at the double doors a few yards away. “The foal has come early… almost two months early.” The stallion slumped in his chair. “Even before this happened, I was scared. I don’t know how to be a good father.” 

“That does sound scary.” Sweetie Belle pulled her front hooves together, adopting a pose of poise from her older sister. “I don’t think anypony knows how to be a good father when they first start out. It’s kinda something that you have to learn how to do as you go.” 

Looking up, Sweetie Belle could see the Crispy Cucumber thinking about her words. She could see his thoughtfulness in his eyes. She could see his ears twitching, as if trying to decide between perking up or drooping down. 

“She’s going to be so small and fragile if she makes it… if she makes it… she’ll be so small… so helpless… I don’t know how to deal with it.” Crispy reached up his right foreleg and then wiped his eyes with his foreleg. He drew in a shuddering breath. 

“Sounds like you need practice dealing with small, fragile things.” Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and prepared to do her job. 

“Practice? What do you mean by practice? How do I practice?” Crispy asked. 

“Well, I am kinda little, and I’m kinda fragile, so you can start by giving me a hug. I’m pretty standard, as far as daughters and fillies go, even though my daddy thinks I’m the most special filly in the world… I think it’s a dad thing,” Sweetie Belle replied, her voice cracking into a high pitched squeak near the end when she thought about her father. Sweetie Belle straightened out her posture and prepared herself.

“I dunno about this… this seems…” The stallion looked around the waiting room and then stared at the mare behind the desk. The mare behind the desk was reading what appeared to be a trashy romance novel. 

“It’ll be okay.” They’re going to call me Squeakie Belle again, Sweetie Belle thought to herself after she spoke. She watched as an elderly mare was wheeled by on a gurney, a possible victim of the recent flu. 

The stallion dropped out of his chair, took a step forwards, and then sat down upon the cool tile of the hospital floor. He looked at Sweetie Belle, then at the mare, becoming more and more nervous. 

“You look scared.” Sweetie Belle looked up at the stallion and her green eyes blinked. 

“I don’t want ponies to get the wrong idea,” Crispy replied. 

“I don’t understand,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“Hugging you… I don’t want other ponies to think I might be doing something bad… I’ve heard talk… about things… it scares me—” 

“How can you be a daddy if you can’t take care of your filly?” Sweetie Belle’s smile vanished and she became quite serious. “When trouble comes, I run to my daddy… I don’t care what other ponies think and I don’t think he does either. He takes us out to lunch and we do stuff and he takes me and Diamond Tiara out on dates and we do fun stuff all the time.” 

Swallowing, pushing aside her fear, Sweetie Belle stepped forwards, made a gesture with her hoof, and then waited, feeling just a little nervous about this whole thing, but refusing to show it. “Come on, don’t be shy. This’ll be good practice.” 

With a hesitant jerkiness, Crispy Cucumber placed one foreleg around Sweetie Belle’s neck, halted, took a deep breath, and then swept her closer, drawing her in for a tight hug. He closed his eyes and the moment took him. Sweetie Belle was soft, warm, and something about the moment eased his troubled mind. He felt a tear slide down his cheek, there was a rush of embarrassment, but then, like everything else, it melted away. 

After several long seconds, he let go, sniffled, and then looked down to see Sweetie Belle looking up at him. Her green eyes were glittering and there was a tiny smile upon her lips. He saw her ears perk forwards and then, he heard her say, “Do you feel better? That was nice. That was a good daddy hug, it made me feel safe.” 

Overcome, Crispy Cucumber began weeping; he pulled Sweetie Belle back in for another hug as his fear and his worry poured down his cheeks. 



 

“I hate boring Sundays,” Piña said as she threw herself down on the floor in a huff. “Babs is down and Neon Blitz tells me that Larch can’t even get out of bed. I hate the front end flu.” 

“Front end flu?” Sentinel asked. 

“Everything comes out the front end. Better than the back end flu, which was awful,” Piña replied. She let out a wordless whine, took a deep breath, and then blew out a loud raspberry. 

Erebus, sitting beside Sentinel, blew a raspberry back. Sentinel lifted his head and then smiled. Erebus had been missing his mother, and the raspberry was the first real interaction that Erebus had made with anypony for a while. Piña blew another raspberry, allowing her orange tongue to flop around as her lips flapped. Sentinel joined in, filling his lungs with air before forcing the air out from between his lips, which were pressed tight around his protruding tongue.

There was the sound of hooves on the wood floor, and Broom came running into the living room, looking panicked and scared. The three foals sitting on the floor, Piña, Sentinel, and Erebus, all looked at her and blew a raspberry. 

“I heard the sound and thought some foal had the squirts… made my heart stop.” Broom lifted one front hoof and pressed it against her chest and then let out a little laugh. “Good to see that Erebus is feeling a little better.” She took a few steps forwards. “Erebus, want some soup broth? Think you can eat, you little rascal?” 

“He’s stopped throwing up and he’s been moving around,” Sentinel reported. “Still misses his mama though. How’s uncle Barley?” 

“Oh, he thinks he’s dying. He’s also sodding drunk… keeps insisting that the flu can be drowned,” Broom replied. She looked down at the three foals and gave them an affectionate smile. “Come on Erebus, want some soup?” 

“Soup?” Erebus repeated. 

“Soup.” Broom nodded. 

“Hmm.” Erebus looked up at the unicorn. 

“Now come on Erebus, I know you are a big colt.” Broom’s voice was one of infinite patience and kindness. “I’ll see what I can do about getting you a little milk if you eat some soup.” 

Erebus looked up at Sentinel, a curious expression on his face, and then eyed Broom. “Soup… mama?” 

“I’m sorry little one, I can’t bring her back… but she’ll be home soon, I hope,” Broom replied.



 

A half a world away, Erebus’ mother was speaking with her sister, both alicorns quite worried about recent troubling developments. Luna was agitated and animated. Celestia was calm, cool, and collected. 

“We do not know what he might have done with Bucky’s mind. Bucky might be compromised. He seems okay, but I am worried—” 

“Luna, he seems more than ‘okay,’ he seems ridiculously happy. He does not seem himself. He just survived yet another soul crushing ordeal and he is acting… well, most peculiar. Luna, I am scared.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head. “How paranoid I have become of him. Bucky is happy and well and I fear for ulterior motives.” 

“There is Belisama to think about as well,” Luna said. 

“That… I do not know how to explain that.” Celestia opened her eyes and looked at her sister. “Hippogriffs can get cutie marks… but griffons do not. In the long history of the world that I am aware of, I have never heard of such a thing. This scares me.” 

“Perhaps it is nothing to be afraid of. Perhaps harmony has a plan for the griffons as well. Now that they are committed to peace and have become our allies, perhaps they are fulfilling a purpose that was intended all along.” Luna considered her own words, weighing them in her mind, pondering the possibility. 

“We know that the Fates have become involved. I think I will send a message to them and see what they have to say about this issue. Perhaps our sisters will be able to explain this mystery.” Princess Celestia heaved a weary sigh. “Luna, I need sleep. I have laboured until  the end of my endurance. You are in charge, I am off to slip between the sheets with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash.” 

“Beware of mustaches, dear sister…” 



 

“Cease groping me, ruffian,” Belisama said as she tried to wiggle out of Bucky’s embrace. She let out a frustrated peep and then began to giggle when she heard Cadance laughing. 

“Come on, I just want another look at your butt.” Bucky pressed his muzzle into Belisama’s neck and blew into griffoness’ feathers, knowing full well how it flustered her. 

Tittering, Belisama gave up and went limp in Bucky’s embrace. She lay still beside him in the bed and watched as he pulled his head away. She gazed into his eyes, the grey eye being Bucky’s and the purple-blue eye belonging to Odin. Belisama’s tail thumped against the bed in a staccato rhythm. 

“So you just woke up and this was there?” Bucky asked as he looked down at Belisama’s shapely hips. There was a hops plant, very much like his own, and beneath it, there was a curved sword crossed with a revolver. 

Giggling, Cadance lept and then landed between her parents. She wiggled around, happy, her bright eyes twinkling, and a broad smile was on her face. She gave Belisama a slobbery kiss and then closed her eyes, basking in the affection of her parents. 

“You have a very nice cutie mark,” Bucky said in a low voice, now gazing into Belisama’s eyes. 

“I don’t think of it as a cutie mark,” Belisama replied as she pulled Cadance closer. “That is your hops plant. I think of it as a companion mark. I like it. It makes me feel good knowing that I have purpose.” 

Bucky pulled Belisama closer, squishing Cadance between them. “I know what your purpose is… you’ve grown up so much… and all that potential I saw in you is coming out. As a queen, as a knight, you will help lead the griffons into a new and glorious future. Equestria will need them more than ever. We have more war ahead of us.” 

“I don’t want to talk about fighting,” Belisama said as she stroked Cadance, rubbing Cadance’s ribs with her folded knuckles, keeping her sharp claws away from Cadance’s tender skin. “Bucky, it was so hard to send you away. It broke my heart.” 

Looking into Belisama’s eyes, Bucky saw tears. Leaning down his head, he kissed them away as they began to trickle out of the corners of her eyes, smooshing Cadance just a little. 

Pressed between two warm bodies, Cadance yawned, overcome by a feeling of drowsiness. She snuggled closer to Belisama, burying her muzzle into Belisama’s feathers, and then Cadance closed her eyes. “Go sleepy.” 

Horn flashing, Bucky pulled the blanket up over the three of them. He then flicked off the light, leaving them in the dark, the only the light coming from his horn, which emanated a faint blue-green glow. “Good night, both of you. Sleep well.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 763
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Emperor of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor, has made the announcement that the war is over. There is still some fighting with a few remnants, but the threat to old world Ponyland has ended. The fleet has begun the long journey home,” Berry Punch read from the paper. 

“Oh, thank goodness,” Thistle said as she rocked Bell Heather. She kissed her foal on the top of the head and then looked over at Berry Punch. “So when do you think Bucky will be home?” 

“I dunno.” Berry shrugged. “Maybe a week?” The earth pony put down her paper, smiled, and then reached out to stroke Bell Heather. “How is mama’s little filly? Feeling better?” 

“You know, it’s funny,” Thistle said in a low voice, looking Berry in the eye. 

“What’s funny?” Berry looked up from Bell Heather. 

“When you or Derpy or anypony would hold Bell, and call yourselves her mama, I would get the most horrible spikes of jealousy. It was awful. I would get so angry and I wanted to shout at you,” Thistle admitted in a soft voice, looking away from Berry for a moment and staring down at the floor. 

“But something changed?” Berry’s ears perked forwards. 

“Yes.” Thistle nodded. “I think I grew up a bit. Now, when you say it, I feel relieved. I know that if I’m not here for whatever reason, Bell always has a mama to go to.” 

“Lyra had the same problem for a while… I think every mother in a herd might. That awful feeling of seeing your foal with another mare. I wonder what I’ll be like, because I’m a possessive sort… I don’t like sharing.” Berry Punch extended her leg a little more and touched Thistle. 

“You share Bucky.” Thistle’s voice was almost a whisper. 

“That’s different.” Berry’s eyes narrowed as she began to study the kelpie. 

“How so?” Thistle asked. 

“I’m sharing Bucky with you… and you’re mine. Derpy is mine. And so is Lyra and Bon Bon. Belisama… she’s mine too.” Berry Punch cleared her throat. “I don’t get jealous when my playthings play with each other. I like being able to sit back and imagine the opportunities. Everypony likes to make their dolls kiss each other and imagine all of the various goings on in a relationship.” 

Thistle felt her cheeks grow hot and she began to feel warm down in her nethers. 

“I like having my kelpie doll play smoochie smoochie with my raggedy unicorn doll. I like keeping my dollhouse in order. I like knowing that all my dolls are happy and living a good life.” Berry Punch smiled and looked Thistle in the eye. “But I am the only pony allowed to play with my dolls. If some other pony was to ever come in and start playing around in my dollhouse… I would trample them. And if I couldn’t trample them, I would have my lunar pegasus doll trample them, and then he and I would bury what was left of them in the garden.” 

Thistle sucked in a deep breath; she was unable to tell if Berry Punch was joking. 



 

Pouring coffee, Cheerilee almost spilled some in her hurry. Mondays were always the worst days to go to work. Problems piled up over the weekend, somehow compounding into an impossible morass. Nervous, anxious, Cheerilee sat down in her chair and wondered what sort of crisis would befall the school today. The flu was still going around, and no doubt, many students, not feeling well, would be pushed to go to school by their parents, would arrive, begin to feel worse, and then the bad times would start. She hoped there was enough sawdust in reserve to deal with vomit puddles. 

“Mac, is Babs feeling any better?” Cheerilee asked. 

“Eenope.” 

Some things never changed. For this, Cheerilee was glad. Big Mac was a constant in her life. She felt herself relaxing a bit from just the sound of his voice. She hunched over her coffee and eyed breakfast, which she wasn’t certain she felt like eating. Apple pancakes, made with applesauce and lots of cinnamon. 

There was a thump at the top of the stairs and Cheerilee’s ears perked up at the faint sounds of sobbing. She lifted her head, alert to the sound of crying, her teacher’s instincts kicking in and telling her that something was wrong. 

“Apple Bloom?” Big Mac looked at his little sister, watching as she lept down the last few steps, and then ran across the room. He watched as she latched on to his leg, and then, Apple Bloom began sobbing in earnest. 

“Apple Bloom, what’s wrong?” Cheerilee asked, slipping from her chair and approaching. A dreadful feeling of fear slithered up Cheerilee’s spine, a cold, terrible feeling. 

“Gra-Gra-Granny,” Apple Bloom stammered, shuddering from her sobs, and almost unable to speak. 

Cheerilee’s eyes met with Big Mac’s for a moment, just a moment. She could see the fear and pain in his eyes. The flaring of his nostrils. The way his ears drooped. Feeling a terrible pain in her heart, Cheerilee tore her gaze away and then bounded up the stairs, the pregnant mare somehow taking three or four stairs at a time. 

She barreled down the hallway towards Granny Smith’s half open door. Just an hour ago when Cheerilee had woken up, Granny Smith had been fine; she had told Cheerilee to go away and let her have more sleep. She had been recovering from the flu, of which she had suffered a mild case. It wasn’t even enough to keep the old mare in bed, she had spent all of Sunday baking just to pass the time. 

Passing through the door, Cheerilee’s nose crinkled. She smelled the stench of urine and feces. She could feel her heart thudding against her ribs. She slowed as she approached the bed, thinking of how Granny was just baking yesterday. How spry she had been. 

“We’re gonna need a lot of pies and apple brown betties,” Granny Smith had said yesterday. Cheerilee thought of those words now. She had dismissed them as Granny Smith being eccentric, the old mare did what she wanted, when she wanted, and never explained her reasons. Had she known what was coming? Cheerilee wondered. 

Granny Smith appeared to be sleeping, her eyes closed. Her mane was down from  its usual bun and spread out over her pillow. Cheerilee’s ears perked and as hard as she tried to hear something, there was nothing to hear but the ticking of a clock that set on a table beside Granny Smith’s bed. 

“You were okay when I checked on you… you sent me away… why?” Cheerilee asked in a strangled voice, her barrel hitching as she tried to breathe. “I would have stayed with you… I would have sat here with you… why?” 

Cheerilee heard hooves shuffling behind her and the muffled sounds of sobbing. She turned and saw Big Mac in the doorway. Apple Bloom was still clutching his leg, clinging to it, and she realised that Big Mac had climbed the steps with Apple Bloom latched on to him. 

“I’ll get her cleaned up,” Cheerilee said in a soft whisper. 

“I’ll help,” Big Mac said to his wife, Cheerilee. 

“Mac, she’s… this is going to be…” Cheerilee’s words died in her throat. 

“She used to give me baths and scrub me all over.” Big Mac’s voice was soft, almost inaudible. “She’d be powerful upset about the condition she’s in now. I’ll help get her cleaned up and we’ll make the bed, and after we get done giving her a bath, we’ll lay her back out in the bed and then we’ll figure out what to do next.” 

“She shooed me away when I came in here earlier to check on her.” Cheerilee turned her head to look at the body in the bed. 

“I came in to get a kiss and say good morning,” Apple Bloom said as she wept. She sniffled and pressed her face up against Big Mac’s leg. “I wanna help.” 

“Apple Bloom, I don’t know, this is going to be—” 

“I WANNA HELP!” Apple Bloom sobbed. 

Biting her lip, Cheerilee looked up at Big Mac, not knowing what to say or what to do. She felt an ache in her heart, and more than anything, she wanted to spare Apple Bloom the task of having to clean up her dead grandmother to restore her dignity. 

“I was made to watch as my parents were cleaned up and laid to rest. It taught me about life,” Big Mac said to Cheerilee, seeing her distress in the dim light. “How we say goodbye is just as important as how we say hello.” 

Cheerilee felt a tear slip free from the corner of her eye. She nodded and then moved to be closer to Big Mac. She pressed up against him, mindful of Apple Bloom. “Somepony needs to go tell Babs.” 

“I’ll do it,” Big Mac said. “Apple Bloom, you stay here and look after Cheerilee.” 

“Okay.” Apple Bloom let go of Big Mac’s leg, sniffled, wiped her nose on her foreleg, and then latched on to Cheerilee’s leg. 

“After we get Granny laid out, one of us is going to have to get word to the school. I won’t be going to work today. We’ll also need to get word to the mortician… I guess I can go to the school and get in touch with Violet Velvet. She has all those runners. She’ll help,” Cheerilee said. 

“I better go have a talk with Babs.” Big Mac plodded off, his hooves heavy upon the wooden floor. “Bloom, look after your aunt.” 



 

“We came as soon as we heard.” Sweetie Belle pulled Apple Bloom into a tight hug. 

“We all got excused from school and we were told to go and look after the last princess in Equestria,” Rumble said as he climbed up on the sofa and sat down beside Apple Bloom. He leaned over and gave Apple Bloom a soft kiss on the cheek. 

“Anything we can do to help?” Scootaloo asked as she pulled herself up on the sofa and plopped down beside Sweetie Belle. She reached out her hoof and helped to pull Spike up beside her and then yanked Spike closer for a hug, a rare show of affection from Scootaloo. 

“We need to write letters… to let everypony know.” Apple Bloom shuddered and squeezed her eyes shut. “We gave her a bath and brushed her pelt and we combed her mane and her tail and then we put her to bed and now she looks like she is sleeping.” 

“We can help with the letters,” Spike said, still holding Scootaloo. He squeezed his adopted sibling a little tighter as he felt a lump growing in his throat. 

“If you get hungry, there is lots of pie… Cheerilee said that Granny knew that we would need them.” Apple Bloom pulled Sweetie Belle closer, and then squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, trying to stop more tears from leaking out. 

Rumble, not knowing what to do at a moment like this, grabbed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, even though his forelegs weren’t quite long enough. He pulled them both closer, closed his eyes, and rested his cheek against the back of Apple Bloom’s head. He could feel Sweetie Belle’s hooves clutching at him as she too, struggled with forelegs that were too short. Reaching around, he hooked his fetlock over Sweetie Belle’s fetlock, got a good grip, and held on. 

“I guess I’m stuck hugging you, you dork,” Scootaloo whispered to Spike as she hugged with as much force as she could muster. “I miss our parents… I really wish they were here right now.” 

Eyes closed, Spike kissed Scootaloo on the cheek, hoping that nopony was looking. “I want my mother, but you’ll do in a pinch.” Spike felt something damp and he came to the slow conclusion that Scootaloo was crying. He knew better than to say anything, but he felt better knowing that he brought her some comfort. 

“Diamond Tiara and some of the others will be by later… we’ll get those letters done together,” Rumble said, whispering in Apple Bloom’s ear. “We’ll handle this the same way we take care of everything else, together.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 764
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	At the Apple family home, a gathering of sorts was taking place. For now, it was a quiet gathering, mostly foals, with everypony and everybirdy dealing with their grief in their own way. Loki, who had been quite stricken by the news, paced the living room floor with Gormlaith sitting nearby, watching Loki’s every move. Death was something that Loki could not protect the Apples from and he took this hard. 

Big Mac and Cheerilee were curled up on the sofa together, saying nothing, taking solace in each other. Beside them, Babs, who had crawled out of bed, lay limp on the sofa, with Piña beside her, rubbing her back. On the other side of Babs, crammed into a tiny spot that was left on the sofa, was Boadicea, who had come to be with Babs, her friend from drama class. Sitting on the floor in front of the sofa, Spike the dragon sat, looking up at Babs, fearful worry upon his face, and grief in his eyes. 

In the kitchen, gathered around the large wooden table, there was a gathering of foals. Dinky and Diamond Tiara worked on letters, while also managing the mailing list. Sweetie Belle and Rumble added names to the letters that Dinky and Diamond Tiara churned out. At the bottom of each letter, Apple Bloom added a short, brief, personal note and her signature. Sentinel and Scootaloo worked on stuffing the letters into envelopes. 

“I don’t mean to complain, but this is really boring and I feel sad so this feels even worse,” Apple Bloom said as she set down her pen and took a break. She lifted her head, stretched out her neck, and then looked at Sentinel. “Read anything interesting lately?” 

“Apple Bloom, I don’t know if this is the best time,” Sentinel replied.

Shrugging, the earth pony filly reached up and rubbed her jaw. “Now is as good a time as any. I’m bored. I’m sad. Everything is too quiet and I want to think about something other than this. Now do as your princess bids, noble knight.” 

“Not a knight… yet.” Sentinel looked up from his pile of envelopes. “Funny you bring that up. I was just reading a historical novel of Sir Starkicker. He was a knight in the early dark ages, not long after Princess Luna was banished.” 

“Tell me about him,” Apple Bloom said, resting her chin on both of her front hooves and propping her elbows up on the table. 

“He was a pegasus, a proud warrior, a rough and ready fighter, and he fathered two foals, one of whom became famous.” Sentinel cleared his throat. “He did amazing things and left quite an impact on the world, all before he was nineteen years old.” 

“Nineteen?” Apple Bloom leaned forwards a bit. “What age did he get started?” 

“Well, he became a squire by five, at least that is what the records say. His master, Sir Harrowwood, was killed by griffon invaders when Squire Starkicker was eight. At the age of nine, Squire Starkicker killed the griffons responsible for his master’s death. He was given a knighthood by Princess Celestia herself and became Sir Starkicker the Knight.” 

“That’s about our age.” Apple Bloom lifted her head and lowered her forelegs down upon the table. “He was our age. He must have been brave.” 

“At the age of ten, he proved himself on the field of battle, became a commander, led a regiment, and secured a major victory against the diamond dogs in the southern reaches, re-opening the trade routes between Equestria, Mustangia, and Saddle Arabia. At the age of eleven, he was married to Baroness Night Bright from Mustangia. She was the age of ten and the gossip of the age says that many worried that she would never find a husband at her age.” 

Sweetie Belle turned and looked at Rumble, made a face, and then went back to looking at Sentinel. “What?” 

“Not so different than life on the Shetland Isles,” Sentinel said to Sweetie Belle. He shrugged. “By all accounts, he loved her, and he was a good husband. He was said to be kind, gentle, and courtly to her. It was an arranged marriage, but he took the time to woo her, winning her heart, and he went to battle under her standard.” 

“That’s kinda romantic.” Diamond Tiara stared at Sentinel with a sad, but dreamy expression upon her face. 

“Their firstborn, born when Sir Starkicker was the age of twelve and Baroness Night Bright was eleven. She almost died during the birth, but recovered. By all accounts, motherhood agreed with her. Their first foal is actually unlisted in the book… he was a scoundrel and is generally disliked by all. Their second foal was a filly, born when her father was thirteen and her mother was twelve. The filly was named Firefly, and she would grow up to be a ruthless warrior, just like her father. She would found the Wonderbolts.” 

“Oh neat!” Apple Bloom’s face lit up with a halfhearted smile. “So, what happened when Starkicker was nineteen? Did he retire or something?” 

Sentinel shook his head. “No, Apple Bloom. After securing his legacy with two foals, he continued as a knight. War, hardship, infections, disease, and poor nutrition took a toll on him. At the age of sixteen, he became unwell. He remained mostly in Equestria, working as Princess Celestia’s personal advisor. By eighteen, he was bed ridden, unable to do much of anything. At the age of nineteen, he died in his sleep, listed by the surgeon as ‘death by old age.’ Sir Starkicker got to die peacefully in his bed. Many who lived during that time had no such luxury.” 

Apple Bloom heaved a sigh. “It really makes you think about how far we’ve come. Nopony even is sure how old Granny Smith was. But she was ancient. Over a hundred.” Apple Bloom began to roll her pen back and forth with her hoof. “If we were living back then, our lives would be half over. Most of us would be married right now.” 

“Or just living on the Shetlands,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “Some places, the world hasn’t changed much.” 

“I can hardly even take care of myself. I can’t imagine being married.” Sweetie Belle frowned. “I can’t imagine dying of old age at nineteen either.” 

“Back then, a lot of ponies died with no cutie marks. Life was too hard, too short, and too dangerous to spend any time looking for what you did best. A lot of ponies just sort of did whatever they had to do to survive. Did whatever was needed to get by.” Sentinel looked around the table at his friends and then down at the pile of envelopes in front of him. 

“What about Baroness Night Bright?” Scootaloo asked. 

“She died at the ripe old age of twenty, not long after her daughter Firefly was betrothed,” Sentinel replied. 

Scootaloo’s face scrunched up in concentration. “Firefly was eight years old when she was engaged to be married?” Scootaloo sat there blinking, then turned and looked at Rumble. 

“At the age of eight, Firefly already had a promising future in the military, and was in command of her own squad of rowdies.” Sentinel smiled. “She was a brilliant tactician. She changed aerial warfare.” 

“Meanwhile, all of us are still trying to get our acts together,” Rumble said. 

“Speak for yourself, Rumble.” Dinky leaned over and looked at the pegasus colt. “I know what I want from my life. I have dedicated myself to becoming the best wizard that I can be and I have set high standards for myself.” 

“Well, she has the hat part covered,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“My brother got me an awesome hat.” Dinky looked at Sentinel and gave him a smile. 

“Apple Bloom has us all beat. She became a princess.” Rumble looked at Apple Bloom and then slumped over the table. “Sentinel is a squire and on his way to becoming a knight.” 

“I’m not that special.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Princess Cadance became a princess at a younger age than I am now when she beat Prismia.” Apple Bloom paused, took a deep breath, and then looked at her friends, looking each of them in the eye before she continued: 

“I could not have done what I did without each of you. I became a princess because all of you helped me become a princess. There is no way I could have done this by myself. I owe each and every one of you my heartfelt thanks.” Apple Bloom wiped her eyes and then made herself smile. “Granny Smith was proud of me. She said I became a princess because I brought out the best in each and every one of you, because you loved me and you wanted to help me because of that love. Granny Smith said I wasn’t making friends, I was making a family… and… and… and she was right.” Apple Bloom scrubbed at her eyes once more with her foreleg and she struggled to keep smiling even as the tears started to fall. 

“I love you… but I think you know that,” Rumble said in a low whisper, staring down at the table, his eyes almost closed. “My mothers keep giving me awkward talks because of this love. I guess it’s obvious to them.” 

“We’re old enough to know what love is.” Diamond Tiara turned a darker shade of pink as she spoke. “This Sir Starbucker—” 

“Starkicker,” Sentinel corrected. 

“This Sir Starkicker the Knight, he was married and he wasn’t much older than we are. He was eleven, and no offense Rumble or Sentinel, but we all know how colts can be at the age of eleven.” Diamond Tiara’s eyes blazed for a moment and then she regained her calm. “He could have been a real brat and treated Night Bright poorly. But he took the time to win her heart. He courted her. He wanted to be loved by her. He was eleven. Eleven.” The pink filly paused, looking thoughtful. “If somepony tells you that you are too young to understand love, you should tell them to shove off.” 

“Diamond Tiara got in trouble a few days back for doodling about how much she loves Sentinel in her notebook,” Scootaloo said, looking serious and not being teasing at all. “I got in trouble too. I told the teacher that she was being mean.” 

“I owe you one, Table Scraps,” Sentinel said to Scootaloo.

“You know it.” Scootaloo looked at Sentinel and then at Diamond Tiara. “That whole thing made me feel so angry. If somepony tried to tell me that I didn’t know my own feelings towards Leftovers over there…” Scootaloo glanced over at Rumble. “I… I… I might just black their eye.” 

“Granny Smith said I was growing up. She said there was two kinds of fillies. Little fillies, or filly foals, and big fillies… fillies on their way to being a mare. She told me…” Apple Bloom made a hiccuping sound, swallowed, then took one shuddering breath. “She told me I was becoming the young mare that she wanted me to be. She told me that yesterday while I was helping her bake pies and she kissed me and I want her back!” Apple Bloom hunched over the table, buried her face into her forelegs, and began sobbing. 

Sweetie Belle, sitting beside Apple Bloom, placed her foreleg over Apple Bloom’s withers. “Just let it out. You can cry in front of us. We’re all friends… loved ones, and family.” 

“Thank you, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom sobbed. “I love you so much -snort!- you’re one of my best friends!” 

Sentinel, watching the display of affection, felt his heart warm. He glanced at Diamond Tiara, already knowing how he felt about her, and glad to know how she felt about him. He thought about being a squire, what it meant to him, his obligations, and his obligations to Apple Bloom. His father had been very specific about Apple Bloom’s care and protection, and Sentinel recalled the oath that his father had made him swear. 

Sentinel took his oaths in the most serious manner possible. 
	
> Chapter 765
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Mouth hanging open agape, Sunset Shimmer shook her head and tried to process what it was that she was seeing. The letter, written over one thousand years ago, had just been delivered by a pegasus courier, a courier that had no idea what it was that he had been carrying. The scroll was made from actual vellum, calf skin, something that Sunset knew about from her time as Princess Celestia’s personal student. A faint magical aura lingered about the vellum scroll, a powerful magical aura. She had read the scroll three times now, and could not tell if it was real or some practical joke. 




Dearest Descendant, Sunset Glimmer, 

I hope this communication finds you well. Greetings from your distant ancestor. This message would have originally gone to Twilight Shimmer the Scholar, but if my calculations are correct and the stars were not lying to me, she should be several months pregnant, give or take a month or two, so she is unfit to aid in this task of utmost importance. 

Times are becoming more dangerous and desperate again. Equestria has enemies. Tumultuous times have befallen the entirety of the world. You should just be finishing up a major war and your Master, Buckminster Belmont Bitters the Knight, should be coming home soon. 

It is time for both of you to go to work. Aided by my brother Sombra, I have peered ahead as far as I could, and we have tried to prepare for this eventuality, along with many, many others. The invaders from the world that has gone dark should be causing you a lot of trouble right now, if my calculations are correct, although there is the high probability that the humans from beyond the mirror in the world next door to ours might be invading instead. 

Either way, Equestria will be facing dire times, beset by powerful invaders. 

My brother Sombra and I sealed off our mutual place of research, the Tower of the New Moon. We buried it under aversion spells, wards, and too many other protections to list. The doors can only be opened by mine and Sombra’s blood and it will take at least two ponies to disengage the locks. Speak to Princess Celestia about its location, or speak to Princess Luna if she is back from her exile on the moon. She should have returned at this point, a powerful group of nobles known as House Avarice and House Evening Star should have meddled with the stars enough by now to have triggered her return, thinking that Nightmare Moon will aid them. Hopefully the Elements of Harmony have set Princess Luna straight, but if they have not, you will probably not receive this letter. What a pity. 

Once inside the Tower of the New Moon, you will need to reactivate the laboratory, you will need to gain access to the research archives, and you will need to open the armory. Buckminster will find the Heart of the Golem, a most useful artifact, and it should help him rebuild an army. The archives will be of great use to Twilight. The Scholar and the Knight are Equestria’s best hope for surviving what is to come. 

Sunset Glimmer… there is no shame in being an apprentice to a great Master. I would not be the pony that I am without Clover the Clever. Every great thing I accomplished, I did it because of her. Tell Clover I said hello, she should be resting someplace under Canterlot at the moment, trapped inside of crystal. Poor Sombra… he doesn’t even see his own madness coming, and there is nothing I can do to help my brother. Alas, all of these things must come to pass. I have worked too hard to restore the damaged timeline from when I tried to save him. I was able to bring my brother back from the madness that seized his mind, but doing so completely destroyed your future, caused your sun to go dark, the moon crumbled, and life as you know it ended when the dark world invaders arrived (or perhaps the humans) and there was no Twilight Shimmer or Buckminster Belmont Bitters to fight them. The timeline is still fractured from my efforts. I can’t stop the future that is coming, and I fear I have made things worse by trying to fix them. 

Tell Clover that I am sorry, tell Princess Luna to behave herself, and tell Princess Celestia that her pride will be her undoing. I would send them a message too, but I fear the energy it took to send this one message into the future has been fatal. I didn’t have much left in me, but there is still so much to do and so much to prepare for. I have given my life trying to fix my mistakes. I hope that my efforts have not been in vain. 

Love, your distant relative, Star Swirl of the Great and Powerful Beard. 

 

Sunset Shimmer rolled up the scroll. It had to be some kind of joke. A prank. But the magic radiating from the scroll was no prank. It was powerful. It made her horn burn just to connect with it. She stuffed it down inside the thousand year old scroll tube made of ornate wood. 

There was no one to talk to about this. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, both gone. Princess Twilight Sparkle, gone. There was nothing that Sunset Shimmer could do but wait, and she didn’t feel like waiting. She needed answers now. 

Sure, the names were a little off, but the rest of the letter… something about it rang true to Sunset Shimmer, even though part of her mind wanted to believe that it was a prank. It would be easier to believe it was a prank. Sunset had heard stories of just how powerful Star Swirl was, but this, this was ridiculous. 

Rising from her seat, Sunset Shimmer began to pace the floor. 



 

Standing in place, Princess Celestia cleared her throat, took a deep breath, which caused her sides to expand, and then said, “Over five thousand unicorns and maybe ten to fifteen thousand enemy pegasi almost destroyed us. Out of the fifty thousand or so troops we have mustered for this war, less than twenty thousand are going home. We cannot take these sorts of losses.” 

“War is their bread and butter. No offense, but most of you lot are soft. You mainland sorts don’t have to fight for anything. We Shetlanders took the fewest losses, Myrmidons excluded.” Keg Smasher’s eyes narrowed and the big pegasus shook his head. “We got hammered.” 

“The long and the short of it is, we would have lost this war without the Lord of Winter and his golems,” Wrecker said, glancing at Keg Smasher, who sat beside him. “We got lucky… lucky that those golems got into their underground base and killed a majority of them. Had that not happened, we’d be in retreat right now.” 

“We don’t know that for certain, Wrecker,” Keg Smasher said to his companion. 

The grizzled pegasus scowled at Keg Smasher, and Wrecker shook his head. “I know that for certain, and that’s all that matters to me. We got lucky. Those golems won the war for us.” 

“I dunno, I think the Shadowbolts showed promise.” Keg Smasher looked around at the ponies and griffons gathered around the table. “Not one of them died and each one of their engagements was an exercise in long odds. A few against many. They took on hundreds at a time, picking them off, hunting them, damn good tactics.” 

“I agree, the Shadowbolts were our strongest fighters, even more so than the Myrmidons, at least when it comes down to fighting the enemy unicorns.” Princess Celestia turned her head and looked at the various creatures gathered around the table. “They hardly even used their meagre healing supplies, they came back with almost everything they were sent out with, using fear to heal themselves. I would say that the Shadowbolts have proven to be a wildly successful experiment.” 

“And potentially the savours of the lunar pegasi,” Charassare said in a gruff voice. “We need more of them. Our bloodlines have grown thin. We need an infusion of lunar blood to restore our numbers. We took some losses in this war, losses I worry if we can recover from.” 

“You are not the only ones who took losses.” Lugus’ talons clenched into a fist. “We griffons are too few as it is. We approach extinction. As it is, there are probably more lunar pegasi in the world than there are griffons.” 

“My apologies Lugus, I did not mean to diminish your circumstances,” Charassare replied, speaking in a gruff, but soft voice to the griffon. “The griffons were noble and brave to have even fought in this war. Equestria owes them a debt of gratitude.” 

Lugus, his feathers fluffing out, closed his eyes. “My anger is not directed at you. Or at anyone else at this table. I am just pained by our losses, and I am not dealing well with my grief. My apologies for being unbearable.” 

“Lugus, there is nothing to apologise for.” Charassare smiled at his friend, a horrible lopsided smile that threw the scar tissue that was his face off balance. “When we are done here, let us go and drink so that we might remember those who fell.” 

“I think it is safe to say that at this point, all bets are off and we do whatever is needed to survive. I am bothered by what I am about to say, but I feel that it needs to be said. We need to give Bucky free reign to come up with new weapons, no matter how terrible, and even if we do not personally agree with his demented imagination, we need to acknowledge the fact that as the nascent alicorn of war, he is our best hope for survival.” Twilight’s voice quavered and it was clear that she was nervous about speaking her mind. She paced around, moving beside Princess Celestia, her face filled with worry and sorrow. Taking a deep breath, she continued: 

“Commander Wrecker said we got lucky. I disagree. Attributing Bucky’s efforts to superstition is bad form. He sacrificed something very dear to him to give us the advantage we needed. He sacrificed his own creations, sapient creations I might add, creatures with free will, creatures who were intelligent and asked questions, creatures that pondered their own existence. Good creatures. Creatures with the ability to reason and they understood what needed to be done. Not a one of them came back. Not a single one. All we found while exploring the ruins of the base were dead, broken golems. These golems were imbued with the spirit of their creator, and they gave their lives for us. I just want all of us to think about everything I’ve just said the next time we call into question Bucky’s experiments.” 

“Thank you, Twilight.” Bucky bowed his head, his gaze lingering on Twilight. 

Twilight gave Bucky a nod and then lifted her head high. “We need to make our own luck. We no longer have the luxury of playing nice, or being fair. Our enemies will not do the same. We will be offered no mercy if we are captured. The best that we would hope for would be slavery, and none of us want that.” 

“Well said.” Wrecker held his head a little higher and his remaining eye blinked. The old, battered pegasus sat there in his chair for a moment, looking proud, and then he slumped over, leaning over the table, his open mouth gasping as he struggled for air. 

“Wrecker?” Keg Smasher looked alarmed, scared even, fear was a rare emotion to see on his face. 

Wrecker lifted his head, his surviving eye was narrow, fierce looking. He looked at Bucky, his nostrils flaring as he struggled to breathe. “You… forge the chains that will drag them into Tartarus. You saved the isles… my home… thank you.” 

Letting out a gasp, Wrecker fell over with a thump and did not move. 

Taking charge, Princess Celestia barked out a command. “Quick, we need to get—” 

“There’s no point, lass… he’s gone,” Keg Smasher said as he looked over at Celestia, whose grief was visible upon her face. He could see her choking on her own words. The big pegasus reached over and patted his friend upon the back. “That’s a good lad. You did good. You were useful right up to the end, just like you wanted. No lingering, no time bedridden.” Keg Smasher fell silent and hung his head. 

Shaking her head, Princess Luna closed her eyes and said, “So it ends.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 766
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing under the overhang that covered the front porch that belonged to Cookie and Hondo, Sentinel gazed at Diamond Tiara after having walked both her and Sweetie Belle home. Sweetie Belle had gone inside, distracting her parents, leaving Sentinel and Diamond Tiara alone on the porch together. 

Diamond Tiara watched as Sentinel sat down upon the wooden planks of the porch. He had to be a brave colt to sit down upon what was certain to be cold wood. She felt her heart begin racing, as it always did when she looked at Sentinel. He was handsome, at least Diamond Tiara thought so, with his dark, sooty brown pelt, his night blue membranous wings, and his mane, which was the colour of old rust. His amber eyes were bright behind his eyeglasses, which looked like regular glasses but protected his eyes from the sun. 

All of a sudden, there was a fluttering sound and the world all around Diamond Tiara jerked and moved around in a crazy way. The horizon wobbled and her hooves slid over the wooden floorboards of the porch. She let out a startled yelp, not knowing what was happening. It took several seconds to realise that Sentinel had grabbed her with his wings. He was fast; too fast. Diamond Tiara felt unsettled. Nothing should ever move that fast or be that strong. She found herself chest to chest with Sentinel, snoot to snoot, his large eyes now inches from her own. 

Her heart was thudding inside of her barrel now, almost hurting from how hard it was pounding. Diamond Tiara came to the conclusion that she was completely powerless in this situation. She could feel Sentinel breathing on her muzzle; he smelled of apples and of cinnamon, with a faint whiff of toothpaste along with something dead. 

“Sentinel, let go of me,” Diamond Tiara whispered, feeling afraid but not understanding why. She wiggled in his embrace, but was unable to do much of anything. 

“No.” Sentinel shook his head and there was a playful smile upon his lips. 

“No?” Diamond Tiara blinked and her mouth pressed into a straight line for a second. “What to do you mean, no? Release me this instant, you mega-brute.” 

“No.” Sentinel’s smile became a faint, gentle smirk. “The only way I will release you is if you say please.” 

Diamond Tiara’s eyes narrowed and her brows wrinkled. So that’s how it was. This was a contest of wills. Diamond Tiara, after several long seconds of thoughtful consideration, realised that she didn’t want to be let go of, but there was the need to resist Sentinel and show him who was boss. “Let me go. Now.” 

“Nope.” Sentinel wrapped his wings around Diamond Tiara a little tighter, and he placed his foreleg around her middle, pulling her even closer. Very close. Diamond Tiara was tilting back now, they were belly to belly, and if he let go of her, she would fall over on her back. He leaned forward, dipping her back a little more, and he could feel the warm flesh of her stomach against his own. It excited him. 

Diamond Tiara placed both front hooves against Sentinel’s chest, just below his neck, and applied gentle pressure, a show of token resistance. “Unhoof me, mega-brute… oh… oh… Sentinel, what are you doing?” Diamond Tiara could feel Sentinel’s nose traveling up and down her neck, sniffing, his wet breath blowing through the fine, short hairs of her pelt. His hot, heated snuffling caused her to have cold chills and hot flashes all over her body. 

“You smell like girl…” 

Sentinel’s voice was a low, dangerous sounding growl. Diamond Tiara squirmed and wiggled, not trying to escape, not any more, just trying to make the ticklish feeling of Sentinel’s nose rapidly sniffing up and down her neck go away. Sentinel was slobbering from his excitement, and she could feel hot drool soaking her pelt now. 

Something wet and rough brushed up against the soft, tender, vulnerable base of Diamond Tiara’s throat and then it traveled upwards, moving slowly, leaving behind a wet, slick, greasy sensation as it passed. The pink filly realised that Sentinel was licking her; she felt confused, not knowing if she was delicious food or just a delicious filly, or if there was even a difference when it came to Sentinel. She felt his rough tongue stop near her jawline. She wiggled a bit more, trying to seem like she was resisting, but what she really wanted to do was to melt in Sentinel’s embrace and let him keep doing whatever it was that he was about to do. It was as confusing as it was arousing. 

“Sentinel,” Diamond Tiara squeaked in a breathless utterance. “What are you doing?” 

She felt Sentinel rubbing the sides of his head against her, moving along her cheeks, along her jawline, against her neck, he was moving from side to side, leaving behind a musky, oily scent. She recognised that smell now. He was marking her with the scent glands just below his ears. She was never going to get that smell out of her pelt, not with a million shampooings. 

Diamond Tiara felt herself being eased down upon her back. She wondered what Sentinel was about to do right here on the front porch of Hondo and Cookie’s house. He was still sitting, but his upper half was leaning over her body now, and she was all too aware of how this position might look. It probably looked a lot like Sentinel was getting ready to—

“Mmm, mine!” Sentinel said in a low rumbling growl, a terrifying sound. 

Diamond Tiara’s thoughts were cut off by Sentinel’s head now rubbing down her throat, along the base of her neck, she could feel Sentinel’s tufted ears against her forelegs, his head sliding down her barrel, moving closer to her navel. This was blissful and Diamond Tiara’s eyes rolled back into her head as her eyelids closed. She could feel the sides of Sentinel’s face rubbing all over her tender, exposed underside. As he moved, parts of her rubbed up against his belly, and Diamond Tiara became somewhat aware of a gentle feminine awakening as parts of Sentinel brushed up against her. She didn’t know what she was feeling, but she liked it, as confusing as it was. 

For a moment, Sentinel’s head rested against the base of her breastbone, and Diamond Tiara wondered, no, hoped that he would go lower, just so she could see what would happen next. 

But nothing happened. She lay on her back as Sentinel pulled away. She felt two strong forelegs grab her just beneath her own forelegs and then hoist her up into a sitting position. She felt dizzy and the scent Sentinel’s marking musk was causing her nose to tingle in a strange way. She felt like sneezing, but also like she needed to pee, or something. She had trouble telling. She felt oily everywhere he had rubbed his head. 

“You… you mega-brute! What am I going to do with you? You’re half wild,” Diamond Tiara said in a weak, wavering voice. If Sentinel wasn’t holding her up right now, she knew that she would fall over. 

“Goodbye,” Sentinel said in a rough, raspy voice. He kissed Diamond Tiara on the cheek, his lips lingering there for several long seconds. “Think fondly of me.” Sentinel made certain that Diamond Tiara was sitting down and had her front hooves against the ground before he let go. 

He lept from the porch, spread his wings, and took to the air, flapping, gaining altitude, a crazed grin on his face as he departed. His mane blew back from his face and his legs tucked up against his belly, streamlining his form for faster flight. 

Diamond Tiara, still stunned, still feeling weak, raised one front hoof with a great deal of effort, waved, and then in a low voice said, “I love you, Sentinel. Until we meet again.” 



 

Soaring with effortless ease, Sentinel barreled, banked, and rolled, just for the sensations they caused. He tore through clouds, dove, rose, flying with no real set direction or goal, just enjoying himself. 

A bright shape popped through the clouds and Sentinel realised that he had company. A second flier appeared, white, following the first. Sentinel squinted, trying to see who was following him. 

He saw Raindrops and Blossomforth, no doubt out on patrol. He could see the sashes they were wearing, the caps, and the glinting of their badges. Sentinel smiled as both mares pulled up along either side of him, Blossomforth on his right and Raindrops on his left. 

“Hiya Cutie,” Blossomforth said. “How ya been?” 

“Fine, thanks for asking. I just walked Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle home,” Sentinel replied, glad to have company. It was flattering to be called ‘Cutie’ by a solar pegasus, something about it made Sentinel feel good about himself. 

“How are you and Diamond Tiara getting along? How is that filly doing? I know she’s in therapy. Is she feeling better? Real shame about her father.” Raindrops’ smile was warm and sincere. She flew a little closer to Sentinel, trying to see his face so she could read his expressions. 

“Diamond Tiara and I are close. I like her a great deal. She’s doing better, but she still has off days. Yes, she is still in therapy. And yes, it was tragic what happened to Mister Rich.” Sentinel was gliding now, not needing to flap his wings much. His wings had grown it seemed, they were longer than he remembered. 

“Sentinel, we’re both very happy to have caught you. The truth is, we need your help,” Blossomforth said, her tone becoming professional and businesslike. 

“Oh?” Sentinel asked. “You know I am always willing to help, you need but ask.” 

“We have a very clever thief that hasn’t been caught. Somepony… or something… has been stealing produce. We haven’t caught them. We need your nose… we want you to sniff out the crime scene and see if you can lead us back to the perpetrator of these crimes,” Raindrops explained as she flew beside Sentinel. 

“I can do that. Just show me where I need to go. We can take care of this right now,” Sentinel said, offering Raindrops a smile. 

“Good, follow us.” Blossomforth banked and dropped away. 

Glad to be helping, Sentinel grinned and dove after the white pegasus. 



 

“Majesty, we will be looking into the cause of Lord Governor Wrecker’s death, but we suspect it premature old age and any number of health problems he had that might have brought about his demise,” the doctor said as he crammed a clipboard into a slot marked ‘Wrecker’ and shook his head. “That pony ate fried foods at almost every meal.” 

“Yes, yes he did.” Princess Celestia, her heart heavy, let out a sigh. “He was fond of beer battered deep fried cheese served with greasy gravy over fried potatoes. It makes me glad that I am immortal.” Celestia’s attempt at humour to cheer herself up fell flat and her ears drooped. 

“We have conducted an exhaustive physical on Prince Bitters, Majesty.” The doctor turned to look at Princess Celestia, his face stern and serious. 

“Do tell.” Princess Celestia’s head turned to one side and she studied the pegasus doctor. She could see herself in the reflection of his glasses. 

“Well, aside from his curious physiology, which we can’t currently identify, we—” 

“Wait, go back a bit. Explain,” Celestia commanded. 

“Majesty, we cannot currently identify which species Prince Bitters is. He has an equine appearance but his physiology is… remarkably similar to Discord’s, if perhaps a little more draconic and a little less random chimeric. He is more of a sulfur based life form, like most dragons or common demon physiology. He continues to mutate.” 

“Mutate?” Celestia asked, her eyebrow raising. “I do not know that I like this term, ‘mutate.’ My nephew does not mutate.” 

“Majesty, I meant no offense, it is simple terminology.” The doctor cleared his throat, shuffled his hooves, and continued: “Majesty, the common pony has forty four vertebrae. Our ancestors, the common horse, had fifty one to fifty eight—” 

“And my nephew?” Celestia asked, guessing where the doctor was going. 

“At the moment he has forty nine vertebrae, and we suspect this number may grow larger. He is still small and slight of build, but he has grown longer. His recent full body transformation into an ice elemental and then reverting back into an equine body, we suspect that it further mutated his already unstable form,” the doctor replied. 

“Hmm.” The white alicorn lifted her head and stared off at the wall, lost in thought. 

“Anyway, Prince Bitters is in good health. The experimental blood transfusion from Tourmaline went well for him. The changeling magic that he has been altered with made him quite receptive, and the healing compounds in Tourmaline’s blood did an amazing job in revitalising his body. We were able to study him a great deal during his brief coma.” 

“Thank you,” Princess Celestia said. “I am a very busy pony. I fear I must be going. Again, thank you so much for your time.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 767
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Eyes watering, Derpy pulled Lyra Heartstrings a little closer, her lower lip almost, but not quite, quivering from emotions being held back. The waiting was the worst. The many long hours that had to pass until Bucky came home. Derpy was miserable and it showed. 

Lyra Heartstrings, who was becoming the patient sort, due in no small part to motherhood, allowed herself to be held and be a source of comfort for the distraught grey mare. There was no longer a pressing need to squirm away, there was no longer any anxiety when she was being held close, there was no longer any fear, worry, or doubt. 

That was, perhaps, the greatest gift given from motherhood. Lyra didn’t mind being grabbed now by some foal. Her muscles didn’t all clutch up from panic, causing pain. Lyra wasn’t bothered by a face full of oatmeal or any number of other things of the same vein happening. Lyra was now quite blasé about a good number of things that just a year ago would have pushed her over the edge and left her a panicked mess. Lyra had become quite good natured and laid back. 

Sliding her head over, Lyra touched her lips to Derpy’s cheek, pressing them tight, and then leaving them to linger for a moment, knowing that little moments of intense physical affection were just what Derpy needed to snap her out of her funk, even for just a moment. 

After a moment, Derpy responded, letting out a faint wickering sound, and pulling Lyra closer. The nesting pegasus was a creature ruled by instincts and the unicorn was a creature ruled by emotion. Lyra was kept safe in a fortress of grey fluff and Derpy got to feel protective. 

The door to the bedroom opened, causing Derpy to lift her head, her amber eyes now wide, her ears pitched forwards, her tail swishing over the quilt. There was a faint flaring of Derpy’s nostrils, and then a smile spread over the grey mare’s face. 

“Sentinel… are you just getting back? How is Apple Bloom?” Derpy watched as Sentinel lept up into the bed and then flopped down near Lyra. 

“Apple Bloom is doing okay I think. We helped her write death notices and get all of the letters prepared. Dinky and Piña are going to be spending the night over at the Apple household, I was asked to give you that message,” Sentinel replied. 

“So where have you been? You’re home a little late.” Lyra, held tight in Derpy’s embrace, looked at the colt she called her son, her orange-gold eyes glittering with curious delight. 

“My nose was needed.” Sentinel’s sides expanded as he drew in a deep breath. “I got to witness a powerful act of forgiveness. I plan to write about it.” 

“What happened?” Derpy asked. 

Sentinel’s eyes closed as he reflected upon everything that had taken place, his ears drooped somewhat, and he adjusted his glasses with his thumb and central knuckle upon his right wing. “One of the refugees living in one of the little gourd houses… he’s kinda young. He’s been stealing produce… vegetables and such. It’s a crime that carries a harsh penalty.” 

Lyra, hearing that Sentinel had fallen silent, waited for what felt like a half a minute, and then, with growing impatience, said to Sentinel, “Well, go on.” 

“Sorry, I was thinking.” Sentinel shook his head. “This colt is living with a very nice filly. They’ve taken up residence together. She’s pregnant and he’s looking after her. The foal in her belly isn’t his, but that hasn’t stopped him from being good to her. He works any job he can get to make the bits they need, but it isn’t enough and she stays hungry. They were too proud to ask for help, and she didn’t know that he was stealing.” 

“Oh. I see.” Lyra twisted her head around to catch a sidelong glimpse of Derpy. 

“Anyway, everypony involved was rather good about this. Roma, she’s a good mare. When she found out the circumstances, she refused to press charges, but she demanded compensation. I got called upon to do my duty as a squire, which was nice,” Sentinel said. 

“Duty as a squire?” Derpy lowered her head and rested it down upon Lyra’s neck. 

“A tradition from the old times. Not a law so much as it is a tradition. I know about it from books, and somehow, Roma knew about it, and both Blossomforth and Raindrops agreed, and I was asked to dispense justice.” Sentinel’s eyes narrowed. “I was unsure of what to do. But we all sat down and discussed the matter.” 

“So what happened?” Lyra asked. 

“Well, we all agreed that taking away the filly’s primary caregiver was a bad idea. She’s having a rough pregnancy too, having to deal with low blood iron, a bit of anemia, and there is the whole not enough food thing. Jailing the colt seemed cruel and out of the question. Roma didn’t want that on her conscience.” Sentinel shook his head. “Roma was quite upset, but not about the stealing.” 

“There are a lot of ponies with needs right now.” Derpy patted Lyra and she closed her bad eye so she could focus on Sentinel with her good eye. 

“The colt agreed to spend the next year working for Roma as hired help, with fair enough wages considering the penalty involved and extra food as part of those wages.” Sentinel looked at his mothers. “Everypony got what they wanted out of the situation. It made me feel really good that I had a part in it. It also made me wish that this would happen more often, this was the ideal outcome to the problem, addressing the cause and smoothing everything over without cruelty or a feeling that justice had not been committed.” 

“Sadly, perfect solutions rarely happen. You were lucky today, Sentinel. I would not expect this to happen every time you encounter this problem,” Lyra said in a soft, pained voice. “Even though this is how the problem should be fixed. A lot of ponies are petty and would have wanted that colt tried to the fullest extent of the law, and they would not have given a second thought to the needs of that poor filly.” 

“I keep thinking about it. The law I mean. I don’t know how I feel about all of this. On one hoof, I feel good about what happened, but on the other hoof, I feel unsettled because I know how the world really is, and these kinds of happy outcomes are not what I can expect. It makes me sad,” Sentinel said. 

“I’m sorry, Sentinel.” Derpy looked at her son, feeling a fierce sense of pride. 

“Bucky says the law is useless… that good ponies don’t need them and bad ponies don’t follow them anyway.” Lyra offered Sentinel a sage smile. “You should talk to your father about it when he comes home.” 

Sentinel nodded. “I think I will.” 



 

The sun would be rising soon and the night had been long and cold. It was a night of ritualistic discipline, part of a long standing tradition stretching back to a time long forgotten, an ancient practice preserved through the ages. 

A night blue figure stepped before a gathering of grim looking guards, approaching a pale white figure that had been required to stand guard over an apple throughout the night. The apple was not important, it was useless, which was the point. This was ceremony that was about to become theatre. 

Seeing the night blue figure approaching, North Star snapped to a perfect state of attention, eyes forward, wings folded in a perfect manner, his lips pressed into a regulation straight line, ears forward. 

“Your Mistress is most displeased with you,” Luna said in a soft, almost hissing voice. 

“Forgive me, Mistress—” 

“Did I say that you could speak, you insignificant wretch?” Luna’s wing whipped out, slapped the much larger lunar pegasus across the muzzle, and the night’s silence was split by a whip-crack sound. “You have disappointed me… failed me.” Luna’s eyes narrowed. 

North Star did not reply. He did not acknowledge the slap across his muzzle. He did not move. He was a statue, a flesh creature that could be mistaken for pale white marble. 

“You have another Mistress!” Luna screeched. She brought herself to her full height and in a low, growling voice, Luna gave the command, “Grovel!” 

North Star dropped to the deck, prostrate upon his belly, his head pressed down to the wood of the deck. He snaked out his neck and kissed one of his Mistress’ silver shod hooves. 

A faint, difficult to see smile crept over Luna’s muzzle. She lifted her kissed hoof, raised it high, and then bought it down upon North Star’s neck, applying light pressure. “Traitor… do you have anything to say in your defense before I have you drawn and quartered?” 

“Mistress, please forgive me,” North Star said in a low, submissive voice. “I am still your slave, the meat that moves my armor still belongs to you, I am an insignificant worm, Mistress, punish me, flog me, debase me, for my flesh has known weakness—” 

“You disgust me!” Luna bellowed. She looked around at the other Myrmidons, some of whom were brave enough to be smirking rather than looking serious. Luna heaved an internal sigh, knowing that she was going to have some words with these slackers later when this was all over. “All of you disgust me, and I am made nauseous by your stench!” 

Luna climbed up, stood upon North Star’s back, and then pressed one front hoof down upon North Star’s neck once more, applying gentle pressure. “You are unfit for service. You have betrayed me.” 

“No, Mistress!” North Star pleaded. “Mistress, I am begging you, do not cast me away!” 

“Bring out the cause of this wretched worm’s weakness!” Luna commanded. 

The surrounding crowd parted. A short, slight unicorn wearing a flowing black cloak slipped through the ranks and there was a small black griffoness riding upon his back. Her eyes were wide and it was obvious to any observer that she was overwhelmed by everything around her, this gathering of giants. There was gruff, guttural laughter from several of the gathered Myrmidons, and the black cloaked unicorn was grinning, his sharp teeth glinting in the faint light. 

“Greetings Kiara.” Luna looked down at the tiny griffoness, small even by little griffon standards. “Dismount.” 

Kiara did as she bid, dropping down to the deck, she took a look around, and then came forward. Reaching out, she patted North Star on the muzzle. 

“Just as I suspected. North Star has another Mistress,” Luna said in a voice of haughty ridicule and mock-mockery. “Have anything to say for yourself, you worthless mass of congealed dragon shit?” 

“Mistress, I implore you, have mercy, please, I am worthless and weak and my meat is unfit to wear the armor,” North Star said in a low voice, his eyes now locked upon Kiara. 

“You disgust me... this admission of weakness, it sickens me. I should have you strung up to feed the crows, you despicable coward!” Luna pressed her hoof down into North Star’s neck. “You are no longer fit to serve me. Your heart knows a weakness that I cannot mend. You leave me with no choice. Do you have any final words?” 

“You will always be my Mistress and I shall always worship and adore you,” North Star said as he closed his eyes and awaited his fate. 

The crowd parted once more and a tall but slender figure stepped forwards, a proud, white, regal figure. She stood beside the black cloaked unicorn, a wide grin upon her face, making no attempt to look serious. “I do so love a good bit of theatre.” 

“You worthless little slug, you are useless to me. So I am forced to give you away to another Mistress. Say something to her… NOW!” Luna stomped down one hind hind hoof upon North Star’s backside. 

“Mistress, I adore you!” North Star cried out to Kiara. 

Kiara, still confused about all of this, looked up at Luna, her beak open, and her crest raised. This was military tradition that she did not understand, but she did know that it was important. Her gaze dropped to North Star, whose head was as large as her body. 

“Mistress Kiara… we find ourselves in odd times… I am giving you one of my toys, one of my playthings… one of my most perfect weapons. You must understand, you have to keep a strong sense of control over this brute. He has stopped being a pony long ago and has since become a weapon of war. He must be commanded and made to obey!” Luna poked North Star in the neck with her silver shod hoof. 

Kiara, not knowing what to say, nodded. 

“Little griffoness, make him submit!” Luna barked, jumping from North Star’s back. “Make him do your bidding. Tell your machine made of meat and metal to do as you command!” 

Kiara looked around her and saw many grinning faces. Something was expected from her, some show of force. Some sign of dominance. She turned and looked at North Star, who was staring at her with an expectant expression. 

“Roll over and show belly!” Kiara demanded. 

North Star rolled over onto his back, his legs kicked up into the air. There was snickering now, harsh guttural laughter coming from North Star’s peers. He waited, not knowing what humiliation awaited him next. 

Kiara lept up onto North Star’s barrel, sat down, and began to preen her wings. 

“Perfect. This is one who understands.” Luna grinned and looked down at the griffoness. “Usually, I give Myrmidons away to other Myrmidons, making the weaker submit to the stronger.” 

“Hey, remember when the Solar Mistress made Grimglammer submit to Furious?” a raspy, growling voice asked. 

“Ah, that was fun,” the tall white figure replied. “Poor Furious. He knew that he was going to get it later. And he did. He got exactly what he deserved.” The tall white figure turned her gaze to the tiny griffoness preening herself while sitting on a dangerous piece of military equipment. 

Luna’s horn flared and a spoon on a silver chain popped into existence. “Somehow, this is a fitting symbol of your affection.” Luna dangled the spoon in front of North Star’s face. “With a tug, when she yanks your chain, this spoon will change your size, allowing the two of you compatibility with one another.” 

North Star looked up at the spoon, eyes wide. 

“You will obey your new Mistress, and you will show her every bit of affection, devotion, and protection that you show me, do you understand?” Luna lowered her head and stared down into North Star’s eyes. She saw him nod. “You have disappointed me once, you wretched puddle of boil squeezings, and you have been disciplined accordingly. Never disappoint me again… do you understand?”

“Yes Mistress… forgive my weak flesh, Mistress. I will never disappoint you again Mistress, and I will worship her as you have commanded, Mistress,” North Star replied. 

Now looking solemn, Princess Luna slipped the chain over North Star’s head. Bending her neck, Luna dropped down and placed a soft, affectionate kiss upon North Star’s cheek, and then she lifted her head away from him. She then looked at her sister and spoke: 

“Sister, you have done a good job raising this one up during my absence. This one pleases me. Thank you for looking after my foals of the night.” 

“Think nothing of it.” The tall white figure bowed her head and both wings dipped down in a curtsey. Raising her head once more, the white figure said, “This one was a good foal and I spent as much time as I could spare educating him after seeing his potential. Kiara, look after this one, he is very dear to me.” 

Kiara’s wing slipped from her beak and she looked up at the tall white alicorn. “I like him too. He’s pretty special.” The griffoness looked up at Luna. “Thank you for the shiny and the big dangerous weapon. I plan to have lots of fun with him.” 

“Both on the battlefield and in the bedroom, I am certain.” Luna smirked and gave the griffoness a wink. “Now, I do believe it is time that we get to the customary drinking that is a central part to this ritual. Who will raise a mug of strong drink to honour their Mistress?” 

The gathered Myrmidons roared, and the night air was filled with terrifying hooting and hollering as many hooves stomped upon the wooden planks of the deck as the group prepared a celebration that would last well into the burning day. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 768
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Boadicea… what are you doing in my room… again?” Sentinel asked as he stood in his own doorway. The black griffoness cub was lounging on his bed, using his pillows, and was reading a book. At least it wasn’t one of his journals. For this, Sentinel was relieved. “I feel funny having you in my room. I don’t want accusations, this worries me.” 

“You worry too much.” The griffoness cub stretched, spread her wings, and folded her book shut. “I asked Yew Wood if I could come and visit you in your room. She made me give an honourable oath that I would behave myself and then she took me at my word.” 

“Uh huh.” Sentinel’s reply came out as a grunt. He cut left, heading towards his desk. It had been a very long day for him, filling out letters, escorting Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle home, sniffing out a produce thief—his warm bed was now occupied by Boadicea, who was staring at him with wide black eyes. He turned his chair around to face the bed, climbed up, and sat down. 

“I just wanted to talk. It’s been a long day for me and I have a lot on my mind,” Boadicea said, her beak making clicking sounds when it moved. The griffoness cub propped her head up in her talons, resting her elbows on one of Sentinel’s pillows. “I like your bed. It smells like you. When I lay here, I want to nest.” 

“Uh…” Sentinel’s mouth fell open and he was at a complete loss for what to say in return. He stared, mouth open, looking very much like a confused fish. A confused fish with a mouthful of sharp teeth. 

“You’re kinda cute when you do that. Diamond Tiara is right.” Boadicea did her best to fluster Sentinel and tried batting her eyes at the colt, doing her best to follow Diamond Tiara’s instructions. She cleared her throat and then she spoke in a low voice, “Anyhow… I wanted to talk to you about a practical issue.” 

“Practical issue?” Sentinel sounded more like a squeaky toy than a colt when he replied. He felt his ears growing hot and then he had the most peculiar feeling that he was naked. More than anything else, he wanted to cover himself up. He adjusted his front legs, tucking them between his hind legs, and sat up straight, using good posture. 

“Sentinel, I spent a lot of time sitting in a small stone cell. I had very few ways to pass the time. I plotted escape, I plotted revenge, and I played with myself.” Boadicea spoke without moving her beak this time, her crest was flat against her head, and only her wings showed any emotion as they rustled against her sides. 

Coughing, Sentinel almost choked. He sucked in wind, making it worse, and then let everything in his lungs out in a pained wheeze as his ears pinned back against his skull. 

“Sentinel, I know what it is like to have urges. I know you have urges. I remember that day that you reacted to me. And I just wanted to make it known that I have urges and that you have urges and that we might be able to help one another,” Boadicea said, being blunt. 

“This is not just some practical matter,” Sentinel replied in a raspy voice. 

“Why not?” Boadicea asked. 

“Because.” 

“Because is not a reason. Yew Wood tells me that because is avoiding the issue.” 

“I can’t just… do things with you. That would be wrong. We should love one another—” 

“What does love have to do with anything? I’m infatuated with you… I’ll admit, I have a heavy crush on you, and that’s enough for me for now. It’s no different than scratching an itch. It is just satisfying a physical need. I do it in the shower, and I know from talking to your sisters, that no matter how quiet you try to be that you—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Sentinel blurted out. 

“I’m not ashamed of this and you shouldn’t be either!” Boadicea shouted back. 

“Keep your voice down!” 

“You keep your voice down!” 

“Fine.” 

“Okay then.” 

“Look, Boadicea, we can’t just… do what you are suggesting.” Sentinel tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling, unable to look at Boadicea on his bed. 

“Why not?” Boadicea stared at Sentinel, her eyes almost unblinking. 

“Because… this is an act of love—” 

“But love can come later. You have strong urges. I know all about your hunting. I’ve been watching you. Stalking you. I’ve been hunting you. This would allow you to work out your frustrations and I could work out my frustrations and we’d both be happier. For now, it would just be going through the motions. We could sort out our feelings later.” Boadicea took a deep breath and waited for Sentinel’s response. 

“No.” Sentinel shook his head, still staring at the ceiling, refusing to look at the griffoness cub on his bed. “Nope. We shouldn’t even be talking about this.” 

“It was Diamond Tiara’s idea actually. She’s worried about you. She loves you so much and I love hearing her talk about you.” Boadicea’s crest rose, a few black feathers now protruding. 

“I… I don’t believe that Diamond Tiara would say that.” Sentinel raised his hoof and began to rub his temple. Yet, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he could believe that Diamond Tiara might talk about it. 

“Back to the matter at talon… you have a need. I have a need. This is a very practical arrangement. We sneak off someplace, you tug my tail, I say yes, and we both have our first time with one another. You get to practice with me, because I’m a tough little birdy, and you can figure out how this is done… that way, when it comes time to shag Diamond Tiara, you don’t have to worry about being gentle or how it's done or worry that you might be too rough. You’ll know what you are doing and everything will be—” 

“Stop, please, stop… I don’t want to raise my voice…” Sentinel covered his ears with both front hooves and then realised that he was no longer covering himself up with said front hooves. 

Boadicea, realising that Sentinel was upset, took a deep breath and remained silent, allowing time for the air to clear. She watched him, her eyes locked on his face, and not on what he had been trying to hide during the conversation. 

Overwhelmed, Sentinel could not think of any words to say. He squeezed his eyes shut, dropped his forelegs, resumed his proper sitting position, and tried to drive Boadicea’s seeming logic out of his mind, trying to find fault with it. He would never be able to forgive himself if he hurt Diamond Tiara, even once. He knew how he was. He thought about his hunt, killing winter hares. The scent of blood. What if Diamond Tiara bled and he caught of a whiff of it? Could he trust himself? It took everything he had to repress his inner nature, but what about those moments when he let his guard down? Sentinel knew that he was a creature that could pulverise other lesser creatures, and almost all creatures were lesser to a lunar pegasus. He lived in a world where walls had to be respected, even though he could smash right through them. They were barriers, put up for a reason. He thought about the constant nagging need to destroy everything around him, a need he kept muffled by creating. 

“Sentinel, nothing says that we have to do anything now, tonight. Or even tomorrow. Or even a week from now. I just want to let you know, the offer remains open. Diamond Tiara and I both talked about this for a long time, multiple times, and it was very difficult for her. She and I are very, very close. We’re besties. And Sentinel, I gotta tell you, she loves you. This ain’t no crush, this is no case of playground love, she’s planning out her entire life around you,” Boadicea said to Sentinel in a soft voice. She watched a tear roll down Sentinel’s cheek and then felt a growing lump in the back of her throat. She hadn’t wanted to make him cry. 

“What if I hurt you? You’re my friend… I… planned to have my first time with Moonbow. She’ll be tough enough to take it if something goes wrong… Boadicea, you don’t know what I’m like… or what I have to hold back—” 

“Don’t even tell me about what I don’t know! Let me tell you what you don’t know! I’m a hunter griffoness… every time I watch one of the little foals go running past me on the floor, I have to use every ounce of will to hold back my instincts. I want to pounce on them, catch them… hunt them. It isn’t even about killing… I just want to hunt them and play with them. And I hate myself for feeling it because it feels like I am betraying a solemn oath that I made to Lugus just because I think about doing it and my desire… my need to hunt stuff! I’ve even felt that way one day when Diamond Tiara took off running from me after she said ‘tag, you’re it!’ and then off she went and I wanted more than anything to run her down, pounce, take her down, and… and… I can’t even keep talking about this!” 

“I’m sorry… I didn’t know.” Sentinel opened his eyes and looked at Boadicea. The feathers around her eyes were damp, clumped together, and sticking to her face. He felt a growing sense of shame, not taking the ‘hunter’ in ‘hunter griffon’ as serious as he should. 

“I love Peekaboo so much… and all the others. I would kill myself if I ever hurt them. I would find a sword to fall upon. I feel so ashamed. I feel ashamed of what I am,” Boadicea said. 

“I know what you mean… when I was eating a big, fat winter hare, I couldn’t help but think that my littlest sisters were about the same size. It eats me up inside, that I think about stuff like that.” Sentinel found his eyes locked on Boadicea’s eyes and he could not look away. 

Sentinel slipped down from his chair, his eyes never leaving Boadicea. He approached the bed, watching her as she watched him, and he saw her tail swish once across his blankets. He lept up into the bed, sat down beside her, and then, hesitant, he pulled her close to him, wrapping one foreleg and both of his wings around her. He felt her resist for a moment, she was trembling, and when he felt her relax, he pulled her even closer. 

He felt her head resting upon his shoulder, in the crook of his neck, and he could feel something wet up against his shaggy pelt. He patted Boadicea on the back as he felt her forelegs wrap around his neck and his body, one of them slipping around his barrel, just above his wings. They sat on the bed, clinging to one another, and Sentinel remained quiet.

The silence was powerful. 

Boadicea, feeling warm and content, discovered a new pleasure. The powerful urge to nest, almost an itch, felt as though it had been scratched a little. She wiggled closer to Sentinel, pressing her face into his short, shaggy neck, and she could feel his heart beating against his ribcage, she felt every beat with her own fluffy girth, against her own ribs. She felt his foreleg wrap around the lower part of her body, just below her ribs, pulling her closer against him. She felt a dizzy thrill as her lower half, her hips, brushed up against his stomach. He was hugging her from her side, and she felt both safe and secure in his embrace. 

“I don’t want you to break your oath to Yew Wood,” Sentinel whispered. 

“We’re behaving,” Boadicea replied. “Please don’t let go of me. I need this.” 

Sentinel squeezed a little more. “We should talk more. Maybe we could hunt together.” 

“I’d like that. I’m still growing in my flight feathers.” Boadicea cuddled up a little closer to Sentinel, almost feeling sleepy and feeling quite content. “Thank you, Sentinel.” 

“For what?” 

“You never mind that. A girl has to keep some sense of mystery. But thank you.” 

“I’ll never understand females.” 

“No. You will not. If you start to figure us out, Diamond Tiara and I will have to change our tactics.” Boadicea let out a tearful giggle. “You know, I think I understand why so many griffons… hunter griffons, went bad.” 

“You do?” 

“It’s hard to fight your instincts. That takes effort. Work. Willpower. It’s easier to give in. It’s hard living around ponies. It takes work. Hard work. And you have to guard your thoughts. Everything looks like food. Some griffons… some griffons just don’t have willpower. Or love.” 

“Yeah, I believe you’re right,” Sentinel said, his hoof rubbing up and down Boadicea’s spine as he continued to hold her close. 

“Sentinel, I want to love so I’ll have a constant reminder of what I’ll lose.” 

“I already do that.” 

“That makes sense, Sentinel. I guess you have that part figured out.” 

Tilting his head down, Sentinel kissed Boadicea on top of her head. “I could add you to the list of things I love, I suppose.” 

“I’ll add you to my list… and maybe… maybe we could talk about this again? It makes me feel better,” Boadicea whispered, shivering from the touch of Sentinel’s lips against her sensitive crest feathers. She did her best to ignore something hard stabbing into the soft flesh just below her ribs. 

“I think I’d like that,” Sentinel replied. He cleared his throat. “Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go take a very cold shower. You may remain here if you would like. Try not to mess up my room while I am gone.” 

“Do you really have to go? I could help you…” 

“Boadicea… it wouldn’t be right. You made an oath.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 769
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Old world Ponyland seeks new union, change of name, unification of nations,” Berry Punch read to herself in silence. Clearing her throat, she continued out loud. “Diamond dogs, minotaurs, other species demand place in unification, uniting against our common threat.” 

Berry Punch took a moment to take all of this in. “I’ll be damned. Something good came out of this war. If the old world unifies into one country, they’ll be a nation to rival Equestria or the Sea of Grass.”

She opened the paper to the next page, her ears perked to the sounds of the dining room just behind her. Comfortable in the living room, Berry Punch wanted to avoid the early morning hubbub in the different dining areas. She just wanted some quiet time to read and hug her own belly. The next page of the paper had a large editorial praising Princess Twilight Sparkle’s efforts to heal the wounds of war and an outline of the Princess of Friendship’s post-war plan to rebuild the shattered global economy and trade foundations. Equestria and the Sea of Grass were going to assist with careful advancement and modernisation of many nations in the old world, bringing them into the modern age and gifting them arcano-tech. Berry found herself nodding in agreement, it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Everybody knew that having the have-nots looking and longing at those who have-much was the cause of almost every major conflict. At least, everypony in Clan Pickled knew that anyway. 

“Berry?” 

Lowering her paper, Berry Punch looked and saw a black feathered figure in the doorway. The earth pony smiled and patted the couch beside her. “Come and sit with me.” 

“No, that’s okay,” Boadicea replied as she entered the room proper. She stood in the middle of the floor. “I talked with Sentinel last night. I followed your advice. I said everything on my mind, no holding back, and was totally honest.” 

“Oh?” Berry Punch felt a growing sense of intrigue. “How did that go?” 

“Just like you said it would. Sentinel listened to what I had to say, and he was very reasonable and up front in return. He respected me.” Boadicea sat down on the floor and her black eyes locked on to Berry Punch’s eyes, maintaining contact. 

“Boadicea, I have found, while there is a time for playful games, there is also a time for being blunt and direct. Males are never mind readers and a sense of mystery only goes so far.” Berry Punch’s lips puckered up and  then popped. “So… if you don’t mind me asking, what did the two of you talk about?” 

Boadicea, realising that Sentinel was in the dining room and was probably listening to all of this, shook her head. “Sorry Berry. That’s private. I just wanted to say that your advice worked and probably saved me a lot of heartache. It also allowed me to have a very straightforward conversation with Diamond Tiara that put the two of us on even pawing. Hoofing. Footing?” The griffoness cub’s head tilted off to one side as she spoke. 

“Well, glad I could help.” Berry Punch’s brain began to calculate and plot out the most likely options of conversation, thought about the long talk with Sentinel a while back involving his urges, and the nose-dive into adolescence that Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea were experiencing. “One last piece of advice?” 

Boadicea lifted her head, her crest rising, then lowering, then rising again in interest. 

“Don’t hide yourselves away from one another.” Berry Punch lowered her voice, becoming quite solemn and serious. “You and Sentinel should not hide yourselves away from Diamond Tiara. It isn’t fair to her. Sooner or later, Diamond Tiara is going to see how you and Sentinel really are. Better for her to see that now, talk to her therapist, get it sorted out, and make peace with it now, rather than later.” 

“Are you suggesting letting Diamond Tiara watch us hunt?” Boadicea asked in an almost inaudible whisper. Boadicea shook her head. “No… no… she’s a pony.” 

“A pony that plans to marry into a group of snarly meat eating hunters.” Berry Punch tossed her paper aside. “Look, all I am saying is, it took me some time to adjust to Thistle and Bucky and their eating habits. I’m still sorting that out in my head. Sooner or later, Diamond Tiara is going to watch you bone crunching carnivores go at it and she’s going to be thinking that she’s food. I know I still think I’m delicious food when I watch Bucky eat something that once had a face.” Berry Punch cleared her throat. “I’m not saying let her see a bloody hunt… just saying, ease her into the experience slowly. A little at a time. She’s a tough filly and she’ll be fine… just soften the shock somehow.” 

“Every other piece of advice you have given me has worked.” Boadicea nodded. “I will do as you say. Thank you, Berry Punch.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 



 

“Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Bucky asked as Fluttershy bounced Cadance up and down. He could see the worry upon Fluttershy’s face. Worry… and something else. 

“He… he just made me a little angry. There is nothing wrong,” Fluttershy replied. The no-longer-a-pegasus stopped bouncing Cadance and cradled her instead, delighting as Cadance cooed. 

“What happened?” Bucky reached up with his talons and brushed his long mane out of his eyes, pushing it away from his face. He then adjusted his torque and his snowflake pendant. 

“He took off Lunacy’s mask and didn’t tell me. He left her with Tranquility… it scared me.” Fluttershy hugged Cadance closer and closed her eyes. 

“I am assuming that Tranquility is unharmed.” Bucky rubbed his muzzle, blinked, and then studied Fluttershy’s face. “So… you are upset that Discord did the same thing to you that you did to Princess Celestia when you helped me.” 

“No… that’s not… it… at… all.” Fluttershy deflated in her chair and her ears drooped. She slumped down, shaking her head. “Yeah. I guess that sums it up.” Fluttershy heaved a sigh, still shaking her head, and then raised her eyes to look at Bucky. “I suppose some apologies are in order.” 

“It seems that way.” Bucky smiled a toothy smile. “Fluttershy, try not to worry about it too much. The way I see it, we’ve all become family because of everything that’s happened. It is in our best interest to forgive one another. We need each other.” 

“Bucky, if you don’t mind me saying, you’ve been very different since you woke up from your long nap,” Fluttershy said in a voice as soft as slippery silk. 

“I feel different. Happier somehow. I don’t know how to put it.” Bucky leaned back in his chair, crossed one hind leg over the other, and began to scratch his chin as he contemplated. “More than anything, I just want to go home, be with my family, and make booze.” 

“Well, you certainly made a strong batch of whatever that was after that really weird wedding for North Star and Kiara,” Fluttershy said to Bucky, recalling the cider that had laid so many low. “What did you do?” 

“Freeze distillation. I took weak apple cider, froze the water, removed the water, and kept freezing until all I had left was high test alcohol.” Bucky made a dismissive motion with his talons. “Foal’s play, really. Alcohol brought a lot of ponies together. Made new friendships. Made a lot of ponies and griffons and diamond dogs and minotaurs dance. And I feel good about it.” 

“Bucky, there is something weird about you…” Fluttershy squeezed Cadance even tighter. “Right now, I can feel it. As you were talking, I felt it.” 

“I feel different, Fluttershy. Like some great weight has been lifted from my back,” Bucky replied. 

Fluttershy cleared her throat. “Well… we should work on what Twilight wanted us to work on. Me teaching you how to meditate. How to control your stress. Bucky, I want you to begin thinking calm thoughts. I am going to give you Cadance and she is going to be your calm anchor that will keep you from going adrift in the seas of stress. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Bucky said, leaning forward, paying attention, and becoming a bit more serious. He waited for Fluttershy to let go of Cadance so he could take her. 

“Once you have Cadance, I want you to focus upon the sounds of my voice,” Fluttershy said as she passed Cadance over to Bucky. “I want you to feel sleepy and calm… go into your happy place…” 



 

Pacing the deck, Princess Luna, bleary eyed and still a bit intoxicated, thought of home. More than anything, she thought of Erebus. Erebus and Barley. How good it would feel to sleep in a bed with Erebus and Barley. The back of her skull ached. Bucky, being a clever archmage, had made high test liquor out of weak apple cider. Bucky had done what few could. He had laid many Myrmidons low and there would be much bellyaching and complaints of hangovers later. 

There was also the worrisome changes that Bucky seemed to have gone through, something that left both Luna and her sister feeling quite alarmed. Luna paused, no longer pacing, and squeezed her eyes shut. She cursed her sister’s sun, and wish the night would hurry. The sun was setting, but it was not setting fast enough. 

Luna’s alicorn senses told her that the sun should be rising over Ponyville. Erebus would be waking up, maybe, Erebus had a little trouble with mornings and preferred the night. Luna resumed her pacing along the deck, walking along the rail, the wind ruffling her feathers. 

She wished the ship could go faster, but this big hospital frigate was slow. She had half a mind to commandeer the The Scorned Mare and head home in a much faster ship. Hooves thudding on the deck planks as she paced, Luna came to the slow realisation that any ship she took would be slow. She could be home in a few blinks and three shakes of a pony’s tail if she wanted to be. Home with Erebus. Home with Barley. Home with good news for her godfoals. 

She wasn’t needed here. Luna knew that. Celestia had everything in hoof. Luna looked off to the west, feeling a powerful need to be home. It was a feeling quite unlike anything else that Luna knew or had felt during her long life. 

With a supersonic crack, Luna’s wings spread and she lept over the deck rail. 



 

Sitting beside the bed, Silver Shill looked at Applejack’s sleeping form. She lay on her side, her mane no longer held in place by its usual red ribbon, and it had spilled out all over her face, covering her closed eyes, and draping over her delicate muzzle. The blankets rose and fell with each breath. 

Applejack had been devastated by the news of her grandmother’s death and there wasn’t much that Silver Shill could do for his wife, other than remain at her side. Silver Shill was puzzled by Applejack’s reaction to the news; the mare had not shed a single tear. At least, not yet. Silver wondered if she was holding them in until she was home. In grief, Applejack had turned to him and there had been much lovemaking, with Applejack saying over and over how much she needed him. 

It left Silver feeling confused and a little worried. He realised that he was still getting to know Applejack, and that you really didn’t know a pony until you had watched them experience grief. They had dealt with the heartbreaking issues of Babs together, and there had been much grief in that situation, but this was different, Silver supposed. They still had Babs and any time that Applejack was feeling overwhelmed by what had happened to Babs, she could run and hug Babs until Babs pleaded and begged to be let go. 

There would be no hugging Granny Smith. She was gone. Silver let out a soft sigh, feeling an odd feeling of contentment as his wife’s barrel rose and fell with each breath. He was glad to see her breathing. She was still very much alive, and so was the foal in her belly. Silver’s foal. 

The impossible foal that shouldn’t have happened but did. Applejack, always the responsible sort, had been on the pill. Applejack, the athletic sort, had an athletic love of sex, always finding some good reason to have a go at it. It was good exercise. It was a way to relieve stress. It was a good way to get a little cardio in during the middle of a long walk. It was a good way to warm the bed when you first got in and the sheets were cold against the skin. It was the perfect way to pass a rainy afternoon. It was a good way to get somepony’s attention and have a little talk. It was the perfect distraction to deal with loss after the heartbreaking news of a death in the family. 

Silver Shill came to an understanding about Applejack’s reasoning. Applejack had to be doing something physical if she wanted to engage in something mental, something he himself had to do. There were no fields to plow, no chores to do, no heavy labour. There was just this airship, a bed, and each other. Silver supposed that Applejack was sorting through her grief in her own way, but it still worried him that she had not cried. He had watched her cry about other things, so why not this? He didn’t know and it bothered him a great deal. 

He watched as Applejack’s eyelids fluttered and then he caught a flash of the greenest green. There was a faint snort as Applejack tried to blow her mane away from her nose. He watched her ears twitch. 

“Silver, get in this bed, I needs me a cuddle,” Applejack said in a low, raspy voice that was still thick and husky from sleep. “Hold me… I’m feelin’ powerful lonesome.” 

Nodding, Silver rose from his chair and made his way to the bed. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 770
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I bring good tidings! Bucky is well, the war is over, the fleet is coming home, Belisama has been granted a knighthood—and now I want my sweet little Erebus!” Princess Luna shouted as she burst through the front door of the farmhouse. 

She began to hear the start of what was sure to be a commotion as several voices cried out in reply. Looking into the living room, Luna saw nopony. She turned and looked into the kitchen, saw Semillon, waved with one hoof, and then, with a wide smile upon her face, she began to make her way up the stairs, heading for Barley’s bedroom. 

“Luna, what are you doing back?” Lyra asked, shouting down the hall from the back of the house where the master bedroom was. 

“I had to return to Erebus! I left him! I am a terrible mother and I must make amends!” 

“Are you certain that Bucky is okay?” Berry Punch asked. 

“Positive!” Luna shouted in reply as she neared the top of the stairs. 

In the hallway, Luna turned left, heading to the end of the hall where Barley’s bedroom was. She thumped down the hallway, her head high, and she heard a familiar squeal. It was Erebus’ happy squeal, one part foalish squeak and one part echolocation. 

“Ach, crivens!” 

And that would be Barley, Luna thought to herself as she flung open the door. Barley had been lazing about in the bed. He was wearing a thick flannel robe, and had hot water bottles on each of his hind knees. Beside him in the bed was Erebus, and it looked as though Barley had been reading to the colt. 

“Aye, lass, yer a sight to make eyes sore,” Barley said to Luna. 

“Barley, for that, I intend to be a nagging wife…” Luna shook her head, looking serious for a moment, and then her muzzle split with a smile. 

“Mama!” Erebus began to bounce on the bed, causing Barley to grunt in pain. 

Shutting the door behind her, Luna then joined those she loved in the bed. 



 

“Stargarden?” Dinky approached her teacher’s desk and her inquiry was made in a soft voice, so the others in the class would not be disturbed.

“Yes Dinky, my prized pupil?” Stargarden replied, smiling a broad smile, her voice also low and soft. “Is there something you need?” 

“I wanted to talk about my project.” Dinky looked into her teacher’s eyes, blinked, and then looked down at the floor. “I might have been a bit over ambitious.” 

“No progress?” Stargarden didn’t look disappointed at all, but deep concern began to show on her face. “You chose a very difficult project, wanting to show that levitation is possible during sleep.” 

“I know… and now I’m afraid I’m going to fail,” Dinky said in a huffy, almost pouty voice. “I… I can’t take the thought of failure. It fills me up with so much worry. I’m having trouble dealing with it. I think my neurosis is affecting my mind.” 

“Dinky, you are getting very good at spotting the early warning signs. For a foal your age, you have a remarkable handle on your state of mental well being.” Stargarden reached out, placed her hoof under Dinky’s chin, and lifted the foal’s head, making Dinky look up so Stargarden could peer into the filly’s eyes. 

“I’ve been wanting to play pranks. Not just any pranks, but mean pranks. All this stress… with my father gone… all my schoolwork… all my studies… Apple Bloom’s grandmother just died… I can feel the pressure building and now I’m freaking out because I don’t want to fail this project.” Dinky struggled to look her teacher in the eye. 

“Dinky, all I can tell you is that sometimes, how we deal with failure is just as important as how we deal with success. Don’t be afraid to fail. If all we do is succeed, when do we learn? We need mistakes.” Stargarden’s expression softened. “I don’t think that you will fail though. You are the most driven little filly I have ever met, and you have something that other fillies don’t.” 

“I do?” Dinky asked, blinking, confused, and wondering what she had. 

“You have Piña, and Piña is a powerful asset. She is your friend, your sister, and if you will let her, she will gladly carry your burdens. Piña is your strength.” Stargarden smiled and hoped that Dinky felt better. Sometimes, all a foal needed was a pep-talk to re-ignite their confidence. A pep-talk and a reminder that there was always help to be had. 

“Thanks… I’ll keep trying. I’m just feeling really discouraged,” Dinky said. 

“Maybe try having a little fun for a while and ease up on your studies,” Stargarden suggested in a soft voice. She gave Dinky a nudge. “Now go sit down. Class is going to be a long one today.” 



 

“Defensive charms and protective cantrips,” Daylight Shadow said as he wrote his words down upon the chalkboard. “And in keeping with the theme of safety, spells that can summon help.” 

“Most of us are type ones and type twos… can’t summon help,” a filly said. 

“Sure we can.” A small colt adjusted his glasses. He cleared his throat, coughed, smiled, and then recited, “Whenever I am all alone and I am too scared to think, whenever I need some help, I flash my light and blink.” 

“That will summon help,” Daylight Shadow said to his class. “That is a most excellent example and it has a long and storied history. But this is not a history class.” He turned back around and began writing on the chalkboard again. 

A unicorn to light my way, a pegasus to watch over me, and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens. 

Daylight Shadow turned to look at his class. “This is the Founder’s Prayer. Each and every day you probably pass by this in the halls. It is inscribed everywhere throughout this school. It also contains helpful advice. Can anypony tell me what it is?” 

Sweetie Belle raised her hoof. 

“Sweetie Belle, go ahead,” Daylight Shadow said. 

“Light.” Sweetie Belle sat up a little straighter in her seat. “Light clears away darkness, allowing us to see. It provides comfort and gives us courage. It is the first step towards regaining control when a situation goes bad. Powerful light can keep away shadow creatures and even lesser demons. Unicorns bring light to the darkness, allowing pegasi to fight and earth ponies to see where to plant their hooves.” 

Nodding, Daylight Shadow smiled. “Very good.” He took a deep breath. “Anypony in here know any basic charms?” 

A colt, not waiting to be called on, blurted out, “I know how to cast a grounding spell. My sister is electrically aligned and she keeps zapping everypony in the family because she can’t hold back her magic.” 

“Ah yes, static discharge.” Daylight Shadow smiled. “A common problem for little unicorns with electric talents. Who taught you how to cast that charm?” 

The colt smiled and his ears splayed out sideways. “My mother.” 

“Nothing to be embarrassed about. Little unicorns should learn spells from their parents. There is no shame in that. Home educated unicorns can be just as useful and just as powerful as their contemporaries that are taught in the finest schools.” Daylight Shadow’s face became solemn and serious. “A good education should begin in the home.” 

“I learned how to make myself fire resistant from my father,” a filly said. “Daddy worries all the time that everything is going to burst into flames and he is always checking to see if somepony left the stove or the oven on. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and goes downstairs to check and see if the stove is on. He doesn’t want me burning.” 

“Anypony else?” Daylight Shadow asked. 

“Just this winter I learned how to make my hooves not slip on the ice,” a filly replied. 

“That is the very essence of a good defensive charm.” Daylight Shadow lifted his head high. “It is a spell that is cast and then forgotten about. It prevents injury and keeps you safe.” 

“I learned how to magically lock a door to keep my big brother out of my room,” Bloo said, a wide grin on her face. “A locked door keeps you safe. He can’t noogie me.” 

“A locked door is always a good start in a crisis. Bright lights, a locked door, these are little things you can do to keep yourself safe when trouble happens.” Daylight Shadow looked at his class and smiled as he waited for further suggestions. 



 

“Hello little sister… how have you been?” 

Startled, Princess Celestia whirled about, her horn glowing as bright as the sun. In one’s private quarters that were locked and protected, one did not expect to hear voices. Standing in her room were two visitors. One was an earth pony, pale, pink eyes, and a black cloak. The other was a unicorn with a tired, weary expression. 

“Atropos… Thanatos. I did not expect to see you. You scared me.” Princess Celestia lifted her head and then studied her visitors as her horn dimmed. “What brings you here?” 

“You sent a message. In the name of good family relations, we answered. Sorry, but Clotho and Lachesis are very busy making certain that nothing interferes with the unification of old world Ponyland,” Atropos replied. The unicorn sighed and shook her head. “There is going to be heavy resistance in the unseen realms. You have made enemies. You are destroying the granaries of Tartarus and leaving a lot of hungry, angry demons.” 

“They can piss off,” Celestia said, feeling no need to be prim or proper in private. There was no decorum to observe here. “I sent the message because I was worried about—” 

“My little brother.” Atropos scowled, her timeless face becoming wizened with wrinkles. She shook her head. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know what Father was doing with War. I can’t get inside of War’s head at the moment and his string has become very difficult to see. Father must have awoke from his nap just long enough to screw with us… I loathe him.” 

“So Father was doing something with Bucky while he was under. Luna could not enter his mind and she tried everything.” Celestia looked at her older sister and raised an eyebrow. “Is Bucky a threat to us?” 

“Well of course War is a threat to us, you blithering ninny! He’s the thrice damned Destroyer of All Things!” Atropos shouted. The unicorn shifted, shimmered, and warped. She became an alicorn, one of an even larger body than Celestia. Her cutie mark was a ball of twine. “His power has been greatly weakened though. With the end of the conflict, he has lost much of what he draws power from. I wish I knew what Father’s game is. Each day that passes I grow to hate him a little more. I despise him for driving a wedge between us—” 

“Atropos, I really am sorry for everything—” 

“Hush… it isn’t your fault. He gets inside of a pony’s head and he messes with everything… he made his own foals hate one another. You know, I’d like to end him!” Atropos’ wings flared out and she smacked Thanatos in the face by accident. 

“Morta, you need to relax,” Thanatos said as he stepped away from his sister. 

“Look here you contemptuous, necromentia impaired, festering, maggot ridden, prolapsed, thrice buggered undead asshole, now is not the time to start shit with me!” 

Celestia’s mouth dropped open from the ear blistering profanity that spewed from Atropos’ lips and she took a step backwards while shaking her head in disapproval. 

“Sister, Atropos, forgive me… I spoke in jest.” Thanatos bowed his head. 

Atropos’ eyes narrowed and she glared at her brother as her lip curled back from her teeth in an uncertain snarl. After a moment of sullen staring at her brother, she returned her attention to her little sister. “We don’t know what Father did to War. Has he shown any bizarre or otherwise disturbing behaviour?” 

“Well, Bucky has been unusually happy. Well focused. He has been sleeping better. He has not flown into a blind spitting rage for a while. It scares me,” Princess Celestia replied. 

“This is pathetic. War seems genuinely happy and we’re all cowering from paranoia. This is why I hate Father with every fibre of my being. For all we know, he might have made War happy just to dick with us. Get us paranoid. Make us lose our nerve and our focus.” Atropos glowered at nopony in particular and her wings rustled at her sides. 

“War did fulfill his function—well, sort of... during his rampage as a titanic ice elemental, he killed thousands. It isn’t ending all life as we know it, but that has to satisfy the itch a bit.” 

“Thanatos, that is a horrible thought... but you might have a point,” Atropos said to her brother. “War might be experiencing some kind of orgasmic afterglow, as horrifying as that might seem. Still doesn’t explain why his mind has been sealed off.” 

“Bucky is still a gentle sort… deep down. I refuse to believe that he would feel such elation from killing thousands.” Princess Celestia tossed her head back, snorted, and then looked at her siblings. “Must we always assume the worst of him?” 

“Yes!” Atropos snapped. “I have a genuine feeling of love and affection for War… he has endured much. But I know what he is capable of. You and Clotho both have soft hearts… the two of you should speak more.” 

“Which reminds me… Celestia, you will soon be an aunt. Clotho is with foal,” Thanatos said to his sister. 

“What?” Celestia blinked in surprise. “Who is the father?” 

“Clotho won’t say.” Thanatos shrugged and offered a sheepish smile to Celestia. 

“Clotho has populated the world with the thousands of earth ponies she has squirted from her womb. I wonder what she will do with this one.” Atropos heaved a sigh and looked at Celestia. “Knowing Clotho, she will keep it for a month or two, grow bored, find a decent enough family, and then be rid of it. She likes the screwing, she likes the pregnancy, she likes the birthing, but she is not at all fond of the foal rearing.” 

“Lachesis will be wanting another foal… you mark my word,” Thanatos said. 

“Lachesis’ many foals are the reason why zebras have magic.” Atropos looked at Celestia. “Did you know that?” 

“I have always wondered,” Celestia replied. 

“We should get together more often. Talk more. This is nice.” Atropos took a deep breath, held it, let it out in a slow huff, and then her ears pivoted forwards. “We must keep up the momentum we have. The world approaches an era of peace that I would have thought impossible. We must continue making progress towards this end and we must drive the mirror travelers from our world. If we can do this, perhaps Father will relent and let us continue. Perhaps he can be convinced to go away and leave Granum in our care, even in its broken state, it is our home. We must continue to strive towards peace.” 

“Even if it means allowing War to crush those who stand in our way into a fine greasy paste,” Thanatos said, adding to his sister’s sentiment. “We will use Father’s tools against him. He might have sent War to end us, but War has become our strongest weapon against Father’s machinations.” 

“War has obliterated many of the short term threats to us and our long term plans. Magic is now laying out the foundations for our long term survival,” Atropos said to her brother, replying to Thanatos’ spoken observations. 

“Are you willing to relent upon the gun issue?” Thanatos asked. 

“No!” Atropos watched as Thanatos rolled his eyes. “I will never relent on that issue. Not after Rye Mash and the bloody swath that he carved across the continents!” 

“There you go, bringing personal issues into this matter that should be dealt with using unbiased opinion and logic!” Thanatos retorted, his eyes narrowing. 

“Enough! Both of you! I am sick of your bickering!” Celestia demanded. 

“Atropos, like it or not, guns are a necessary evil. War has found ways to minimise the damage done to innocents. Firearms are our best weapon against the invaders. Let’s face it, the more distance between us and them the better.” Thanatos’ ears perked forwards as he waited for his sister’s reply. 

“I will never relent on the gun issue.” Atropos shook her head. “But I will admit they have made a difference in this conflict. Once this conflict is over, once this threat has been nullified, I want them gone. All of them.” 

“And what of future threats?” Celestia asked. 

“Are you revealing where you stand on the issue?” Atropos demanded. 

“Not at all.” Celestia let out a sniff. “I am being practical and asking the question that needs to be asked.” 

“We will deal with future threats in the future, where they belong. Guns represent a threat to our long term survival. Has it occurred to either of you that guns might contribute to why Father believes this planet is irredeemable?” Atropos glanced at her sister and then at her brother. 

“That is certainly something to think about,” Thanatos replied. “But the same could be said for magic in general. Same kind of threat, same sort of atrocities committed. I have collected far more souls killed by magic than by guns.” 

“Look, let us not get into this issue,” Celestia said, butting in before Atropos could respond. “I am weary of fighting. I do not wish to bicker. If the two of you want to fight, please, go.” 

Atropos sighed, shook her head, and relented. She looked at her sister and offered a submissive smile. “For your sake, I will cease my eons of squabbling with my brother, whom I love.” 

“Thank you,” Celestia replied. The alicorn’s eyes widened as she remembered something she had intended to ask if the opportunity presented itself. “Atropos, tell me, do you know anything about griffons and cutie marks? Something has happened recently and it has left be quite puzzled.” 

“The griffons abandoned their harmonious existence and gave up their place as the protectors of the equine species. They lost their cutie marks eons ago.” Atropos smiled a devious smile and her ears pitched forwards. “Recently though, griffons began to once more live a harmonious existence.” 

“Griffons had cutie marks?” Celestia asked. 

“All things that served the Greater Balance bore the mark of a harmonious existence,” Thanatos replied in a low voice. “Even before the rebellion, the marks began to disappear.” 

“Belisama got a cutie mark.” Celestia looked at Atropos. “What do you know of this?” 

“I know that a deal was struck with Odin and that now, we have begun to heal the wound. This is only the beginning. In time, who knows what will happen?” Atropos replied. 

“But why Belisama?” Celestia asked. 

“Fervent dedication,” Thanatos replied. “Love. Belisama obeys the ebb and flow of harmony. I told Odin that this might happen if Belisama followed her husband into conflict.” 

“But why her?” Celestia shook her head. “I mean, she is a fine example of her species, but I just want to understand what is going on.”

“She secured a future for her species. She has assured the survival of the griffons. She has touched upon her original purpose and now others will follow her lead. The predator has found redemption and has returned as the shepherd,” Atropos replied. 

“Stop being cryptic… I just want to understand more of what is going on.” Celestia looked at her sister and heaved an impatient sigh. 

“Hmm… you know, I think I shall go and visit War, his bird of prey, and Love. I’m in the mood for a snuggle,” Atropos said, her body shifting and becoming a unicorn again. 

“You are impossible… you are so frustrating.” Celestia scowled and rolled her eyes. 

Thanatos nodded. “I’ve been saying that for tens of thousands of years now.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 771
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A small, slight figure buzzed away from Princess Celestia after a quick touch of its nose to her her graceful ear. In its forelegs, it clutched a juice box and its wings almost appeared to be like a hummingbird. It was small, not much larger than a foal, with a slight, supple body. 

“Dipper is such a charmer… telling me that he mistakes my ears for flowers,” Princess Celestia said as she grinned. “He’s a teeny, tiny, adorable little flatterer and I want so very much to cuddle him.” 

“What is to be done with him?” Bucky asked. 

“Yes, what will be done with him?” Twilight tilted her head to look up at Princess Celestia. “He is unique among pony kind. A flower feeder pony.”  

“I plan to let him live at the castle. He can look after the gardens,” Celestia replied as she watched Dipper zipping along over other ponies’ heads. “Look at him go, look how happy he is… look how precious and valuable freedom is to him.” 

“And what is to be done with Vertigo?” Bucky asked, his face remaining neutral. 

Shaking her head, Celestia looked troubled. “I haven’t decided yet.” 

“Well… we should keep Bucky as far away from him as possible—” 

“Twilight, I wasn’t going to do him any harm,” Bucky said, rolling his eyes as he cut Twilight off. “I came to speak to the doctor about his condition.” 

“Vertigo soiled himself, losing control of both his bowels and his bladder. His heart rate doubled and so did his pulse. He went into paroxysms of fear and very nearly died from just seeing Bucky.” Twilight Sparkle dropped her gaze down to her contemporary, who was much, much smaller than she was. 

“To be fair, little Buckminster is an eyesore—” 

“Princess Celestia, do you think this is funny?” Twilight’s gaze shot upwards, her head tilting back. There were two extremes here. Bucky, who was little, and Celestia, who was not little. 

“No Twilight, this is a critique of Buckminster’s atrocious appearance and his questionable hygiene. He seems to never comb his mane and his pelt is quite shaggy.” Celestia’s face contained no trace of a smile and she had become as expressionless as white marble. 

“Hey…” Bucky craned his head back to look up and scowled. “Belisama spends hours brushing me… I will not have her efforts slighted!” 

“Then she deserves a medal for bravery... for taking on an impossible task, trying to groom a naturally disheveled looking pony,” Celestia said in a cold deadpan. 

“You… Princess Celestia… you… you just completely turned the conversation away from Vertigo… how do you do that?” Twilight demanded. 

“Thousands of years of practice,” Celestia replied, ever the regal and well spoken white alicorn. “Statecraft, Twilight Sparkle, statecraft. Find a use for every single pony that you know. Especially the ugly ones. They make wonderful distractions.” 

“Hey!” Bucky’s lip curled back from his teeth. 

“Oh hush.” Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed as Twilight Sparkle began to giggle. 



 

Leaning over the bed, Discord looked down at Fluttershy’s sleeping form. Her body had grown a little longer and so had her now mismatched limbs. Lunacy was sleeping, no mask, pressed up against her mother’s barrel, while Tranquility struggled to stay awake, latched on to a teat and feeding. Tranquility was losing the battle though, and each time her eyes closed, they stayed closed a little longer. 

Reaching down, he picked up Tranquility, pulling her free with a gentle tug. He placed her up against his chest, looked around to see if anypony was watching, touched her spine with one paw finger, and then cringed as a thunderous belch filled the room. Only chumps went through all of the hard work of burping a foal the difficult way. Satisfied, he tucked the foal back down into the bed, pressing her against Lunacy. 

Reaching out with his talons, Discord pulled the blanket over Fluttershy and the two foals, pulling it all the way up to Fluttershy’s chin. Leaning down, he kissed Fluttershy on the cheek, lifted his head, dropped his head, kissed her once more, glanced around in a paranoid manner, kissed her a third time, and then lifted his head up high. 

Satisfied that all was well, Discord drifted away from the bed, towards the door, off to cause a little gentle chaos where he could. In the doorway, his tail lifted, and the tuft upon the end waved goodbye to his sleeping mate. 



 

“How is the little mate?” Charassare asked, looking over at North Star. 

North Star, lifting his head up from his bowl of fish stew, nodded his head, chewing, waiting until he had cleared his mouth to reply. He swallowed and then looked at his fellow Myrmidon. “She’s fine. She is off with her fellow Raptors. Perhaps conspiring against me.” 

“She is a former slave you know—” 

“I know.” North Star’s face became expressionless. 

“How is she adapting to our way?” Charassare asked in a low gravel-filled whisper. 

“She will adapt.” North Star looked down into his bowl. “She is a fearless warrior, and she will adapt. She plans to join the Shadowbolt program.” 

Charassare looked over at his companion, his eyes narrowing, and his ears pinning back against his head. North Star was one of the last to have been raised by Princess Celestia. North Star had proven himself as a warrior, but had no direction, which was ironic considering his name, given to him by Princess Celestia herself. 

Clearing his throat, Charassare then asked, “What will you do now?”

“I don’t know. I could keep fighting in the foreign theatres… I hear that a bunch of us will be heading south to be stationed in Saddle Arabia.” North Star shook his head. “That would take me away from Kiara. We just found each other. I don’t wish to appear weak, but I want very much to stay with her.” 

“It is my belief that you should stay with her.” Charassare let out a grunt, which was more of a stifled burp. “Not for any milksop ideal such as love though, mind you. Practical purposes. The two of you need to train as one unit. Some of the other Raptors as well. Endless training is the key to total domination.” 

“What comes next for you?” North Star asked and then dipped his spoon into his stew. He pulled up a whole fish head, jammed the spoon into his mouth, and then began chewing. 

“I have been offered a knighthood for foalsitting the Shadowbolts and my other actions in this war. I don’t know if I will accept it. Sounds like a headache. Mistress has asked me if I would like to wear a solar disguise and head the initiative to begin replacing most of the day guard with lunar pegasi that look like solar pegasi. I might. I just might,” Charassare replied. 

“I’ve heard rumours about vampires… do you know anything about those?” North Star knew that he was taking a risk. Charassare might just get up and give him a good thumping for talking about something that was supposed to be a secret. Or Charassare might not. 

The older, grizzled lunar pegasus’ eyes narrowed and his scarred face became a hideous sight. “How much do you know?” 

“Only a little. I heard it from Mistress’ lips when she talked to Solar Mistress. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop and I suspect that Mistress wanted me to hear. She knew that I was there and did nothing to prevent me from listening.” Nervous, North Star kept his eyes focused on the table, not wanting to do anything that might upset Charassare. 

“We do, in fact, have an infestation of vampires. Dessicated bodies have been found.” Charassare let out a growl. “I fought in one of the last vampire campaigns, the nasty one that happened just before our Mistress returned.” 

“I’d like to fight,” North Star said in a meek voice, still averting his eyes. 

“Would you?” Charassare leaned over, his muzzle now inches away from the much younger lunar pegasus. “I got swatted away by a tiny little solar pegasus jacked up on blood lust that had bat wings and big frickin’ fangs. Hit me so hard my armor crimped. Broke three of my four legs. He then went and ripped the head off of another Myrmidon, tearing through her armor like tinfoil and pulling away her neck and head as though she was a stuffed doll. That little son of a bitch killed seven of us. He fled when reinforcements arrived.” 

North Star gulped and felt sweat beginning to trickle down his neck. “I still want to fight. We have strong allies now. Shadowbolts… and Raptors.” 

Charassare’s scowl intensified, his eyes narrowed even more, and then, after several long moments of studying North Star, his expression relaxed. “You know, you make an excellent point. I think I am going to have you transferred.” 

Feeling brave, North Star turned his head to look at Charassare. “Well then, I guess I don’t need to decide what to do with myself. I take it that I’ll be staying here, at home?” 

Nodding, Charassare grinned. 



 

Leaning on the deck rail, Lugus heaved a sigh. The wind ruffled his feathers and his long tail twitched in the strong gusts. He looked westwards, feeling homesick for a land that was not his through birth, missing a pegasus that he loved more than he was capable of expressing. 

More than anything, he wanted to beg Bucky to take The Scorned Mare and break away from the fleet so they could go home with haste. He was missing Peekaboo something awful. Boadicea needed instruction. 

“You look restless.” 

Turning around, Lugus bowed his head. “Greetings, Queen Belisama.” 

“Lugus, spare me the titles.” Belisama made a dismissive gesture with her talons. “I can’t wait to be home. It is home for us, isn’t it?” 

“Yes, yes I think it is,” Lugus replied. 

“What’s bothering you, Lugus?” Belisama asked, looking up at the much larger warrior-caste griffon. “You’ve been out of sorts and avoiding everybirdy. And everypony. While we’ve been celebrating, you’ve been out here moping.” 

Lugus resumed looking westward, turning away from Belisama. “I did not fight. I acted solely in positions of leadership. I avoided conflict… and I feel like a coward.” 

“Lugus… you… you…” Belisama stammered. “You cat brain!” 

Lugus, hearing Belisama’s words, slumped over the rail. “Me-ouch.” 

“You big fluffy idiot… if you had attended some of the celebrations, you would know what Princess Celestia is saying about you! The fleet has never been more organised! The rescue and recovery efforts were highly successful because of your efforts!” Belisama took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “Your command of everything saved countless lives and made a huge difference in the war. Having you in the field fighting would have been a waste. Lugus, you have a gift for command. You kept everything running like a smooth, well oiled machine.” 

Lugus did not reply, but he did feel better. Slumped over the rail, he let his forelegs hang limp and dangle down. He just felt like moping and he clung to his depression, very much like a cub clung to its parent because it didn’t want a bath. 

“Lugus, you get to go home… alive and in one piece. Yew Wood gets to have you back. Peekaboo has her papa bird. Your unborn cub will know its father. And you get to continue as Boadicea’s tutor,” Belisama said, trying to cheer up the drooping giant. Reaching out with her talons, she poked Lugus in the sides. 

“Belisama… I grew up hearing from an early age that the greatest honour that I could hope for would be to die in battle. It was pounded into my head along with all of the other so called ideals of the warrior-caste. I was supposed to rush into every battle with the hope of dying so that if I lived, victory would be all the sweeter. I now approach the age of thirty. I never made plans for a life this long. And I feel very, very confused about staying out of the fight. I feel conflicted, torn between my ideals and what my heart wants. I don’t know how to reconcile with myself.” 

Hearing Lugus’ words, Belisama felt a strange pain in her heart. She thought about everything that Lugus said, realising that she was a little griffon, he was a warrior griffon and both of them came from very different worlds. 

“Lugus, I am sixteen years of age. I was born as property. I was a slave until just recently. I was set free and then required to marry for political reasons… and let me tell you, I was scared out of my mind about that. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was made queen… and there were so many demands made of me. I grew up with no expectations, no hope for the future, and no plans at all other than just surviving.” 

Lugus turned his head to look at Belisama. 

“Now look at me. I have more demands than ever placed upon me. I still have no idea what I am doing. I still have no idea what the future holds. But I got Bucky… and I have the rest of my pride back home that I love a great deal. You have Yew Wood… you have good reasons to keep going. There are going to be more warrior griffons… some of those little griffon cubs are going to grow up to be big, just like you. And they are going to need somebirdy to teach them the new way of the warrior in this new world that we’re living in. You owe it to them to stick around. You’ve dealt with change better than any other griffon I know… and I need you.” 

“Thank you, my Queen. I think that what you have said was just what I needed to hear.” 
	
> Chapter 772
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Where is the fleet?” Derpy asked in a low whine as she squirmed in her makeshift bed. The back of the wagon was filled with cushions and a few blankets so Derpy could be comfortable while she waited. 

“They should be here soon,” Luna replied, lifting a wing over her eyes so she could search the eastern horizon. “I do know that Bucky did break away from the fleet upon reaching the east coast of Equestria.” 

The grey mare, tired of waiting, let out an impatient whinny followed by a rumbling nicker. Reaching out a wing, she pulled Bell Heather a little closer and gave the foal a snuggle, fawning over the adorable pink sweater the foal was wearing to protect her from the cold. 

“I’m nervous.” Thistle pacing back and forth beside the wagon, looked east. 

“Why are you nervous?” Berry asked as she thought about getting into the wagon with Derpy. “Just be happy that he is coming home. Don’t be nervous.” 

“You and Derpy are very, very fat with foal. Bon Bon and Lyra’s filly bits remain fillies only, no colts allowed. When Bucky comes home, he’s going to want to—” 

“Have a proper welcoming,” Derpy said, cutting Thistle off and covering Bell Heather’s ears with both front hooves. 

“I might be a fat slug, but I can still shag!” Berry shouted. 

“Berry Punch!” Derpy shook her head. “Will somepony please smack Berry Punch?” 

“Why?” Berry asked, hoping she was out of reach as she glanced around. 

“Foals right over there, waiting,” Derpy replied. She glared at Berry over the edge of the wagon. “This is why Piña Colada has potty mouth.” 

In the distance, there was a rumble, almost like an approaching storm. Every head in the yard looked up as a rainbow contrail and a bright purple contrail could now be seen in the sky. The rainbow contrail slowed for a moment, and then, there was a magnificent rainboom, followed by a dull thud as the sound barrier was smashed. 

“Do you think traveling at supersonic speeds could hurt their foals?” Derpy asked. 

Luna shook her head. “No, both of them are aware of  the problems. Twilight Sparkle knows a shielding spell that protects their bodies from the shock. The foals they carry in their wombs will be just fine.” 

The dual contrails streaked overhead and headed for Ponyville, spiraling and twisting around one another, putting on quite a show. Watching the pair overhead filled every pony waiting in the yard with excitement. A certain grey mare’s eyes became teary as she waited. 

“I can’t even fly up to greet him,” Derpy said she flapped her now useless wings. 

“This will all be over soon,” Berry Punch said, looking over at Derpy. “For you and me both. Not much longer now. Spring is coming and with spring comes the many foals made in the late spring and summer heats.” 

“Not soon enough.” Derpy’s ears drooped. Bored, frustrated, tired of waiting, Derpy turned her head and watched as Violet Velvet played tag in the snow with Dinky, Piña, Boadicea, and Sentinel. At least the foals had found a way to pass the time. Looking up, she saw Yew Wood circling overhead. Yew Wood, who had a small but visible bulge in her stomach now. 

Derpy’s ears perked when she heard shrill laughter. Sunset Shimmer was running around in wild abandon with Trixie right behind her and Bartleby flying after the pair of them. Even with the snow and the freezing rain that had been common as of late, Derpy realised that something felt like the beginning of spring, the first hint that spring was coming. That need to run and play, to go out in defiance of the winter to play games like tag. 

Sunset, Trixie, and Bartleby made for a happy trio and Derpy felt happy for them. 



 

“I see it!” Luna shouted, peering east with narrowed eyes. Luna’s wings sprung from her sides and she was almost overcome with joy. Tears filled her eyes, a most peculiar response to being overwhelmed by happiness. She heard flapping, turned her head, and saw Derpy straining to take wing. 

“Stop, you’ll hurt yourself!” Thistle cried as she lept into the wagon. “Stop! You can’t fly, you’ll mess up your spine and your wings! The doctor said so!” 

Luna realised that Derpy showed no signs of stopping. The grey mare had lifted her forward half up from the wagon with her front legs. She heard a pained cry as something in Derpy’s body made a loud pop. Luna was filled with a peculiar emotion, one she could not name. She stood staring, watching Derpy’s valiant but foolish efforts. 

There was an agonising realisation that Luna might have felt contempt for such weakness not all that long ago, a secret sneering contempt, and would have felt derision for such a foolish act. This knowledge hurt Luna a great deal. She wondered what had made her such a cold and horrid individual. 

“Stop!” 

Thistle had her forelegs around Derpy’s neck now. Luna, staring, thought about the majesty of pegasi. Their devotion to their mates was a thing of story and legend. Luna’s wings flapped, creating powerful downdrafts, and her horn flared as she rose up into the air. Using her telekinesis, she lifted Derpy, cradling her body, lifting Derpy with as much care and love as one might use to lift a newborn foal. Such a devotion, however foolish, was deserving of a reward, not contemptuous ridicule. 

“Be still,” Luna commanded as she gained altitude. 

Derpy’s only response was a frantic, heartbroken mewling cry of pain. Luna pulled the grey mare closer. Luna wasn’t certain that Derpy was even capable of making a rational response at the moment. The grey mare let out pained yelp after pained yelp, an endless stream of distraught, whimpering cries. 

Feeling shame, feeling guilt, Luna knew that she was responsible for this. She had used instinct as a tool. Almost a year ago, when Bucky had suffered his mental break and then had gone into his recovery, Luna had left him imprintable, almost foal like. To complete the bonding, Luna had gone deep into Derpy’s mind to tap into the grey mare’s strongest maternal instincts and then Luna had painstakingly established connection after connection, manipulating instincts and using them as an artist might use a paintbrush. She had crosswired maternal instincts, love, and affection all together into a tangled weave, creating a powerful shackle to bind that which was dangerous. 

It had all been done in the name of the greater good, an action deemed necessary to prepare for the potential future that both sisters had seen coming. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time… but now, hearing the grey mare’s heart rending cries, Luna felt crushing pangs of regret for what she had done. It was almost unbearable, and with each cry, Luna’s shame multiplied. 

Picking up speed, Luna headed for The Scorned Mare. 



 

As Luna approached the deck, she felt Derpy yanked from her magic by a powerful, but gentle force. Derpy, now wrapped in a blue-green aura of magic, was carried towards Bucky, her forelegs extended, her wings out, wriggling, waving, kicking as she could not bear to be separated from Bucky for another second. 

Luna landed upon the deck, her eyes locked on Bucky and Derpy, not even noticing the crowd forming around her. She watched as Bucky swept his black cloak around Derpy, covering her in the Shroud of Night, the cloak Luna herself had made from elemental darkness. 

Lost in her own thoughts, Luna was oblivious to the cheering and hooting all around her. She watched as Belisama was pulled into the embrace that Bucky and Derpy were sharing. There was a loud squawk, a shrill peep, and then the sounds of sobbing. 

Overcome with guilt, Luna shook her head, spread her wings, and lept from the deck. 



 

Standing at attention with his sister Ripple right beside him, Sentinel saluted when he saw his father coming down the loading ramp. His mother, Derpy, was held in a bubble of magic, her eyes red and weepy. Belisama sat on Bucky’s back, her crest high. 

“Sir, I kept them safe, sir,” Sentinel said as his father drew closer. 

“Good lad,” Bucky replied. He looked around at his family, overcome with emotion. It was cold and wet outside. He looked at the front door of the house. “Before everypony piles on top of me, how about we go inside.” 

There was a flash from a camera. Lifting his head, Bucky could see several reporters, all of whom were staying a respectful distance away. There were students from his school. He heard a joyful cry above him, looked up, and saw that Lugus and Yew had reunited. 

“Where is Harper?” Discord asked, coming down the loading ramp, Cadance held in his forelegs. “Harpy probably needs her Auntie Disco… I should go find her!” Clutching Cadance, Discord took off towards the farmhouse. 

“Discord, wait!” Fluttershy cried as she floated over the railing, two blanketed bundles clutched in her forelegs. “Discord, we weren’t invited!” She flapped her wings to catch up with her mate. “Discord, this is very rude!” 

“We should get inside. I’m in the mood for hugging, but I don’t want to get cold and wet,” Berry Punch said, brushing up against Bucky’s side. 

“I’m throwing a huge party at Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie Pie shouted from the deck. “The whole town is invited! Come have fun!” 

“There’ll be music!” Cheese Sandwich cried to the gathered crowd. More flashbulbs went off and the curly headed stallion waved. “Come one, come all! The press are welcome!”

“Apple Bloom!” An orange blur shot down the loading ramp, blazed past Bucky, almost bowling him over, and then took at a tear towards a group of four waiting fillies and one pegasus colt. “Babs!” 

“Oh dear, I don’t have any boots!” Rarity cried, looking down at the snow from the top of the ramp. “Oh bother… there is no help for it I guess… Hello Sweetie Belle!” Rarity waved at her sister and wondered where her parents were. She assumed they were at home.

Turning to look at Coco, Rarity said, “I want to go see my parents, do you mind?”

“Not at all,” Coco replied. The earth pony turned to look at Silver Shill, who was standing beside her. “I really am sorry about Granny Smith. I bet it feels good to be at home with your family.” 

“Indeed it does,” Silver Shill replied as he started down the loading ramp. 



 

The living room was packed with ponies, griffons, a nightmare made flesh, a draconequus pair, a draconequus spawn, and whatever the Tartarus Bucky now was. It was cramped to say the very least. Everything was starting to quiet down. 

“Mama,” Harper said, rolling over and clinging to Bucky’s foreleg. 

“I think Bell Heather needs a nap, she might need to be taken back to the nursery and put down,” Thistle said as she watched Sukari hanging on to Bucky’s neck. “Poor Sukari is beside herself.” 

“Aye, it’s always hardest on the little ones,” Barley said. “And the bigger ones feel jealous—” 

“I don’t feel jealous.” Piña looked up at her uncle. “I can be patient. It’s harder for them because they’re little. They don’t want to be pulled away from their daddy. I can wait.” 

Reaching out a foreleg, Berry pulled Piña closer. “You make me proud.” 

“You are not allowed to leave this house for a week,” Derpy said in a weak, trembling voice as she stared at her husband. “And I am not saying this for personal reasons. The little ones need you.” 

“Dinner isn’t going to fix itself,” Broom said as she rose up on wobbling legs. “Come on Semillon, we have a lot of work to do.” 

“Yeah we do,” the cook replied. She helped Broom get steady and then the pair headed off to the kitchen together. 

“You and Discord are more than welcome to spend the night if you want to,” Thistle said to Fluttershy in a soft voice. “I know you are eager to get home, but if you wanted to stay, you could. I think the foals missed both of you.” 

“Stay with us,” Berry Punch begged, looking over at Fluttershy. “I want to know all about Tranquility.” 

“You are part of this family because of Lunacy… stay with us… please?” Derpy asked. 

“Oh, very well, we can stay… I’d like that,” Fluttershy replied in a low voice. “I could use the help with Tranquility and Lunacy.” 

“Fluttershy sneezed and brought Tranquility into the world.” Bucky grinned. “Incredible but true.”
	
> Chapter 773
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It felt good to be home. Lounging in the bed, Bucky refused to budge, even though there were very important things to look after. It was also very hard to leave the bed when a large, pregnant pegasus lay half on and half off of him, crushing him into the mattress. 

“Violet, I am sorry about the setting,” Bucky said in apologetic tones.

A faint grin spread over Violet’s muzzle. “This isn’t so bad, sir.” Violet cleared her throat. “The disturbances down south have grown bad enough to require some manner of response. There is a petrified crystal unicorn sitting in Canterlot that demands your attention. And then there is the matter that Sunset Shimmer brought to your attention briefly last night when she was here.” 

“I just got home… do I get a little bit of downtime?” Bucky rolled his eyes and let out a groan. “I have changed my mind, away with you Violet… I have proclaimed myself ‘King of the Bed’ and today I will not be holding Court—” 

“Sir, I know that you just came home, but to be fair, you’ve been lounging on an airship for the past few days. Things have piled up. And some things really are priorities,” Violet said as she lifted Sukari up off the floor and set Sukari down upon the bed. 

“Play with me.” Sukari sat down inches from where Bucky was resting his head. 

“See Violet? I have no attention to spare… hello little zebra, welcome to the Kingdom of Bed.” Angling his head, Bucky looked at Sukari and smiled. “Have you been a good foal this morning?” 

Sukari shrugged. 

“Violet, have Sunset Shimmer meet with me in a few hours. I agree, messages from Star Swirl of the Great and Powerful Beard are a high priority. The petrified crystal unicorn isn’t going anywhere. I already know how to make him talk… as for the problem down south… I promise I will read the reports and give them my full attention at some point today before noon, but I cannot say when exactly.” 

When Bucky was done speaking, he reached out and pulled Sukari closer to him. He pressed his face into her belly, puckered his lips, and blew a raspberry. Kicking and squealing, Sukari tried to get away, but didn’t put very much effort into it, making only a few halfhearted attempts at escape. 

“Where is Harper?” Bucky asked as he lifted his head. 

“Harper is currently quite irate with you for leaving and remaining gone for so long,” Violet replied. The mare adjusted her reading glasses. “When I was in the living room, she was pitching a fit… having a tantrum if you will.” 

“See Violet, this is why I can’t work today… so many things to fix and put back into order.” Bucky nuzzled his nose against Sukari’s barrel, causing the foal to close her eyes and giggle. 

“Sir, this is exactly the reason you have to work today… there is much to put back in order.” 



 

Frustrated, Lyra Heartstrings let out a heaving groan. The house had slipped into utter anarchy. The foals refused to go to school. Harper decided to vent her frustrations with endless high pitched shrieking. Because of Harper’s wailing, both Tranquility and Lunacy were now crying. The house was crowded with ponies and there seemed to be no place to go for quiet or personal space. Bon Bon was far too busy looking after everything to make Lyra feel better. 

Lyra needed routine. Lyra needed calm, stable environments. Lyra did not deal well with change. Closing her eyes, Lyra listened to the sounds of Ripple and Loch Skimmer rough housing in the living room, the thump of bodies against the floor as well as the furniture. Then came the sound of Rising Star hooting and hollering, cheering on the brawling pegasi in the living room as the foals continued to shriek at the top of their lungs. 

For a moment, Lyra thought about blaming the chaos on Discord and Fluttershy, but then thought better of it. Lyra’s ears perked straight up and then fell back against her skull as Sparkler shouted something unintelligible at Dinky. There was the thunderous sounds of hooves running down the hallway, clattering upon the wooden floorboards. 

There was a crash and a thump as something heavy collided with the wall, followed by a triumphant shout from Ripple, who was proclaiming victory over the big sister menace. Lyra covered her eyes. Pegasi. She shook her head and slumped over the kitchen table. This was not a good environment for introverts. Not at all. 

There was a high pitched squeal, it sounded as though it came from Piña, followed by shouting about noogies. Lyra fell forwards and banged her head upon the table, over and over, there was a loud thud each time Lyra’s skull connected with the wood. 

“No fair! Teleporting away is cheating Dinky!” 

Teleporting away was cheating. And that is what Lyra did. Horn flashing with golden light, Lyra winked away, vanishing from the kitchen. 



 

“Hmm, I should make wishes more often,” Bucky said in a low growl as he pulled Lyra closer to him. He ran his right hoof down her side, trailing over her ribs, and pressed his lips against the back of her neck. 

“What are you talking about?” Lyra asked as she tried not to giggle. 

“I wished for a nice looking unicorn to share my bed kingdom with and then you showed up,” Bucky replied and then kissed Lyra just behind her ear, causing her to shiver. 

“Hey, I want some of that.” Derpy, still half draped over Bucky, wiggled forwards, crushing Bucky a bit more, causing him to groan, and got ahold of Lyra. “Now I have both my unicorns in bed with me.” 

“Sukari, are you smooshed? Where are you?” Bucky asked, wondering where the zebra filly went. He looked around, unable to feel her, and then spied her head sticking out from beneath a large pillow at the head of the bed. “I’ve gotta get up… I fear I must leave my kingdom.” 

“No!” Derpy wrapped her forelegs around both Bucky and Lyra’s necks and squeezed. 

“Stay with us,” Lyra begged, rubbing the back of her neck against Bucky. Lyra shivered as she felt Bucky’s nose snuffling along her neck, in her mane, along the base of her skull. “The rest of the house has gone mad, this is the only sane place… a little more to the left… no, your other left… and up a little…” Lyra closed her eyes and began to relax. 

“I can hear that the house has gone crazy. Bucky, if you lift me up and carry me, I can go lay down the law,” Derpy said, whispering into Bucky’s ear. 

“No, stay here, hold me.” Lyra, feeling warm and secure, didn’t want this to end. 

“This is only the beginning. Soon, we will be overrun by foals. We shall have to barricade ourselves into this room and this this room… yes… this very room shall be our fortress against the chaos.” Bucky ran his hoof along the smooth, velvety flesh of Lyra’s stomach, and he could feel Lyra quivering at his touch. 

“Bucky, the nursery is right next door to this room,” Derpy said. 

“Curses! Foiled by interior design!” 

Hearing Bucky’s words, Lyra began to titter. 



 

The house was now almost silent. Sitting in the farmhouse library, Bucky read through several long reports, feeling a growing sense of concern about what was going on down south. The area between Appleloosa and Dodge City Junction had all manner of undead, more than usual, and now, there were bodies drained of all liquid. Shining Armor had placed several memos about this issue at top priority, an issue that demanded Bucky’s attention right away and would not wait. 

Tossing the papers down, Bucky began to rub his head with his talons and he closed his eyes. He began to realise that there would be no downtime and that he was going to break Derpy’s heart. 

There was also the matter of the apparent letter sent from Star Swirl and the Tower of the New Moon. Having read a copy of the letter several times now, Bucky felt a growing feeling of unease. Buckminster Belmont Bitters. If this was a hoax, it was a very elaborate hoax. 

“I am Buckminster Beauregard Bitters,” Bucky said to himself as he opened his eyes. 

Hearing a scuttling sound, Bucky’s ears perked. He looked around, not feeling alarmed, but there was a feeling of concern. His talons flexed, his tendons creaking, his ears straining to listen over the sound of the fire roaring in the farmhouse library. His eyes narrowed into slits. 

Something clattered over the floor, moving closer. Reaching out with his mind, Bucky snatched it with his telekinesis, lifted it up, and had a look at it. He blinked in astonishment, not believing what he was seeing. 

A spider golem wiggled in Bucky’s telekinetic grasp, its legs kicking. Bucky knew of only one other spider golem, and it was Tourmaline’s guardian golem. He watched as the spider golem joyfully kicked its legs and danced as it was suspended in the air. 

“I called all of you to come with me,” Bucky said to the golem. 

The golem beeped a few times, went silent, and then let out a long stream of golem garble, waving its legs around, letting everything out all at once. 



.. / .-- . -. - / .- -.. ...- . -. - ..- .-. .. -. --. / .. -. / - .... . / . ...- . .-. ..-. .-. . . .-.-.- / -- . - / .- / -. .. -.-. . / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- .-.-.- / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / ... .--. --- -.- . / .. -. / .-. .... -.-- -- . ... .-.-.- / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / .-- .- ... / ...- . .-. -.-- / -. .. -.-. . / - --- / -- . / .- -. -.. / - --- --- -.- / -- . / .. -. .-.-.- / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / .- -. -.. / .. / - .- .-.. -.- . -.. / .- / .-- .... --- .-.. . / .-.. --- - .-.-.- / .... . .-.. .--. . -.. / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / ..-. .. -. -.. / ... .--. . -.-. .. .- .-.. / .-- . . -.. ... .-.-.- / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / .- -. -.. / .. / .... . .-.. .--. . -.. / .- / ... .. -.-. -.- / -.. .-. .- --. --- -. .-.-.- / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- / - --- .-.. -.. / -- . / -- .- -. -.-- / ... . -.-. .-. . - ... / .- -... --- ..- - / - .... . / -- --- --- -. .-.-.- / - .... . -. / .- ..-. - . .-. / .. / .-.. . ..-. - / - .... . / ... - .-. .. .--. . -.. / .--. --- -. -.-- --..-- / .. / ..-. --- ..- -. -.. / .- / -... .. --. / -.-. .- ... - .-.. . .-.-.- / .. / . -..- .--. .-.. --- .-. . -.. / - .... . / -... .. --. / -.-. .- ... - .-.. . .-.-.- / ..-. --- ..- -. -.. / - .-. . .- ... ..- .-. . .-.-.- / .... .- ..- .-.. . -.. / - .-. . .- ... ..- .-. . / -... .- -.-. -.- .-.-.- / .-.. . ..-. - / .. - / .. -. / - --- .-- . .-. --..-- / .. -. / .-. --- --- -- / .-- .... . .-. . / .-- . / .-. . ... - .-.-.-

 

“Adventure? Secrets of the moon? Castle? Treasure?” Bucky grinned. “Sounds like you had a nice time. I guess that explains why you weren’t there when I called you. I’m glad you skipped off… the others… the others are…” Bucky’s words trailed off and he realised that he didn’t have the heart to say what had happened. “The others had an adventure of their own.” 

Bucky set the spider golem down upon the table and released it. It began to dance around, tapping its legs, waltzing over Bucky’s papers. Sighing, Bucky felt a painful sense of loss. He was going to have to make more golems. He thought about the Heart of the Golem and wondered what it was. Sombra’s memories, sometimes helpful, told him nothing. 

The golem let out another stream of beeps. 

“No… no, they will not be coming back from their adventure,” Bucky replied, shaking his head, not knowing what to say or how to explain everything that had happened. 

More beeping and golem garble came out of the diminutive golem in front of Bucky. 

“Striped pony named you?” Bucky eyebrows lifted. “What does Buibui even mean?” 

The golem bleeped and blooped a few times. 

“How do you not know the meaning of your own name?” Bucky asked. 

The golem shrugged with four legs then beeped. 

“No, don’t leave. Stay with me, Buibui. Remain at my side, if you will.” 
	
> Chapter 774
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in the farmhouse library, Bucky closed his eyes. He flexed his magical will, thought about his tower, and when he opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of his personal study. Everything was just as he left it. The shadow web glowed with a faint light. His various projects were just as he had left them. Sunset Shimmer had been in here several times, he could feel her magic. No doubt she had been working on her connection to the shadow web with the shadow circlet she had been constructing. 

He dropped Buibui upon his desk and leaned back in his chair. “Now, where is this treasure you keep going on about?” 

Buibui beeped a few times, and then let out a stream of golem garble. 

“Yes… those tiny tunnels that a pony can’t fit through, those are a good place to find valuables,” Bucky said, not bothering to explain to the spider golem that those were probably sewer lines or old drainage pipes. 

The spider golem lept from the desk, landed on the floor, scuttled over the floor, ran over to a cabinet, crawled behind the cabinet, and then emerged a moment later with something small and brown. The spider golem clutched his treasure with four legs, holding it over his body, and came running back to Bucky on his remaining four legs. 

Bucky lifted the spider golem back up onto his desk and set him down. He lifted away the small brown object. Holding it up, he had a look. It was a small stuffed pony that had shiny button eyes. It was in remarkable condition, like new, brown, made of what appeared to be velvet, and its mane and tail were made out of soft, fuzzy green yarn. 

It would have been easy to mistake for being a new toy, it was in perfect condition, but there was also powerful enchantment on it. Confused, even a little concerned about the magic he felt, Bucky gave the stuffy a little squeeze. 

“Thou art worthy!” 

Turning his head, Bucky looked at Buibui and then back at the stuffy. He squeezed again, not quite certain what to expect. His ears perked and his eyes narrowed into slits. 

“Thou art the night’s most valiant protector!” 

Reaching out, Bucky grabbed the stuffed doll in his talons, and gave it another thorough examination. It was weird. So very weird. It felt modern almost, it could very well be a toy sold in some store… except for the powerful feeling of the enchantment. He squeezed it in his talons. 

“Striketh down thine enemies! Smite them! Smother thine foes in their own ruination!” 

“How odd,” Bucky said as he stared at the doll. Unable to help himself, he squeezed again, curious as to what the doll might say next. He had a nagging suspicion who this doll belonged to. 

“Thou art the Princess of the Night! HUZZAH!” 

Bucky, unable to help himself, began to chortle. He looked down at Buibui. “You… stay safe. Do nothing to bring yourself to harm. I am returning to the house. Be a good spider golem… I shall make you more companions to play with very soon, I promise.” 

And with that, Bucky vanished, leaving behind a dusting of frost. 



 

“Princess Luna?” Bucky, grinning, approached Luna, who was having a good cuddle with Erebus. It was time to have a little laugh at Luna’s expense. Untouchable Luna, hard flinty Luna, Luna, who had a foalhood stuffy. 

“Yes, what is it Buckminster… and why must you address me so formally?” Luna replied. She looked up from Erebus, saw Bucky’s grin, and right away, she felt panic. Bucky had the grin of a demon accountant come to collect debts and balance the books. She shivered. 

“Where is Barley?” Bucky asked. 

“Preparing the celebration that is to come later in the mead hall,” Luna replied, still very unnerved by Bucky’s lopsided manic rictus. 

“Ah, very good.” Unable to help himself, Bucky began to snigger, his sides heaving with repressed laughter. “I have something you might want.” 

“Do you now?” Luna peered at Bucky and the Alicorn of the Dark Sacred Night felt a prickle of fear. Whatever it was that Bucky had, Luna wasn’t certain that she wanted it. Bucky had become a little too good at the being creepy part of his nature. 

“Know what this is?” Bucky asked as he pulled a small brown stuffy from beneath his cloak and held it out in front of Luna’s muzzle. 

The reaction that Bucky hoped for didn’t happen. Right away, Luna’s eyes shimmered with tears and she jerked her head back with a pained cry. She stared at the toy, and Bucky wasn’t certain about Luna’s expression. Shock? Disbelief? Fear? He dropped the act right away and took a step backwards. 

“How did you come by this?” Luna asked in a soft whisper. “I… threw this away… the night that… the night that I… the night that I tried to murder mine own sister… I threw aside the artifacts of mine foalhood.” The alicorn shook her head, blinked, and gave Erebus a squeeze. “I threw that down the sump hole.” 

“It was found in the sewer beneath the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters,” Bucky said. He lowered the stuffed pony down to the bed and set it down in front of Luna. “It is quite enchanted and it talks. I guess the enchantments preserved it and kept it in good condition.” 

“Miss Cobblestone,” Luna said as she pulled it closer. 

It was snatched by Erebus, who hugged it close to him, squeezing it to his barrel. 

Luna looked down, watched for a moment as Erebus closed his eyes, enjoying the cuddle with the stuffy, and then, after a moment, she tore her gaze away so she could look once more upon Bucky. 

“Clotho made that for me,” Luna said, her horn glowing and a faint blue glow had covered Erebus’ ears. “For the longest time, she was my best friend. My one true companion. When other foals had long since gone to bed, I was up, awake all night, unable to sleep. Miss Cobblestone kept me company. Clotho took pity upon me and she made me a toy unlike any other.” 

Standing at the foot of Barley’s bed, Bucky felt as though as he was intruding something private, perhaps even sacred. His plans to tease Luna were now forgotten as he watched the tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“Huzzah! Thou art loved!” the stuffy said as Erebus gave it a squeeze. 

“When I was very, very young, Celestia would get jealous because I had the best toy. She would sometimes steal Miss Cobblestone and try to hide her. I learned to focus upon the magical signature to find her.” Luna blinked and shook her head. “Celestia onced tried to burn Miss Cobblestone… nothing happened, much to Celestia’s dismay. Scorch was very, very upset with her though for her attempted cruelty. He paddled her backside with a large wooden spoon and then gave her a lecture that lasted for hours.” 

“Well, she has been returned to you,” Bucky said, bowing his head. 

“I think she will make a good companion for Erebus. He tries to eat his toys. He will be unable to hurt her.” Luna looked up at Bucky. “Thank you… I know you came to me with the intent of teasing me. I probably had that coming. But I appreciate your gentleness.” 

Backing away from the bed, Bucky nodded. “Think nothing of it… I shall be taking my leave now… you look like you could use some time alone with your thoughts. Call upon me if you need anything, Mistress.” 

Watching Bucky go, Luna lifted her head. “Wait…” 

“Yes?” Bucky paused, almost at the doorway. 

“You called me ‘Mistress’ just now… was it said in the same way that you call Sunset Shimmer ‘Minion?’ Did you mean it as a moniker of affection?” Luna blinked away tears and watching as Bucky squirmed in the doorway. “All of your sarcasm and derision was absent.” 

“Yes Mistress,” Bucky said as he bowed his head once more and then stepped back through the door, leaving Luna alone with Erebus and shutting the door as he departed. 



 

“Cadance.” Sukari looked at the pink alicorn, her bright blue eyes glittering. “You go away.” 

The pink alicorn nodded. “Daddy hurt.” 

Sukari shook her head and her ears pinned back against her skull as her thin, corded tail flicked from side to side. “Save Baba?” 

Cadance sat down and spread her stubby wings, extending them out as far as possible. “Flew. Saved Baba.” 

“Still hurt?” Sukari asked. 

“Happy now,” Cadance replied.

Sukari’s brows wrinkled as she struggled to make words inside of her head. Her ears stood up and her tiny little nostrils flared as she went through the effort of communication. “Thank you.” 

Giggling, Cadance lunged forwards, wrapped her forelegs around Sukari’s neck, and gave the zebra foal a squeeze. Cadance, even though she was younger, was already larger than Sukari, with longer legs, a longer neck, and a longer body. Cadance planted a slobbery kiss on the zebra filly’s cheek. 

Sukari, a quiet, shy type, allowed Cadance to hold her. After a moment, Sukari returned the embrace, wrapping one foreleg around Cadance’s neck, and clinging to the alicorn foal. “Was scared. Lost other Baba. Ate.” 

“Sorry,” Cadance squeaked. The cotton candy pink foal kissed the zebra filly again. 

Closing her eyes, her ears going limp, Sukari pressed her face into Cadance’s neck, let out a strangled sounding groan, and shuddered. “Still hurt.” 

“Sorry,” Cadance repeated, a pained expression appearing on her face. 

Harper, still in a bit of a snit, seeing that Sukari was upset, stopped playing with her blocks, abandoning them, and walked over to where Cadance and Sukari were sitting together. She sat down beside Sukari and then leaned up against the zebra foal, sandwiching her against Cadance. 

“What cry?” Harper asked, her eyes barely visible under the wild mass of orange curls that was her mane. 

“Miss Baba,” Sukari replied. 

“Oh.” Harper slipped her legs around Sukari. “Gone one.” 

Sukari nodded, her eyes still squeezed shut. A few tears worked their way out and ran down her cheeks. “Scared. Gone again.” 

“Mama back,” Harper said, trying to be comforting. Harper’s dark purple eyes focused upon Cadance. “Still hurts Mama why gone.” 

“Papa was gone,” Peekaboo said as she abandoned her sleeping mother. She lept down from the sofa where Yew Wood lay slumbering, yawned, stretched her wings, and then joined the three foals on the floor. “Papa gone again. Gone for food. Will come back. That’s what he do.” 

The blue pegasus sat down a short distance away from the trio, sitting in an aggressive posture, her spine rigid, wings flared out from her sides, ears perked, eyes wide and alert. “Help Sukari… I watch,” Peekaboo said as she kept her eyes on the archway that was the entryway to the living room. “Protect flock.” Peekaboo sat up a little straighter, glanced at her sleeping mother, and then resumed her vigil. 

“When a cookie?” Harper asked. 

“Yes, want cookie,” Sukari said as she lifted up her head from Cadance’s neck. She opened her eyes, sniffling, looking hopeful for a cookie. 

Harper looked at Yew, who was sleeping, and thought better of waking the sleeping pegasus. Yew could be cranky when she woke, and cranky didn’t help get cookies. Harper contemplated her cookie conundrum. 

“We move,” Harper said to the others. “Find cookie giver.” 

Peekaboo, rising from her sitting position, was the first to be ready to go. She stood up, gave herself a shake, flapped her wings, and then stood waiting for the others. Harper was the second to rise, she stood up, tossed her head around to try and see past her own curls, and then watched as Cadance and Sukari both got up. 

Cadance, taller than her siblings, stood beside Sukari and placed a wing over Sukari’s back, keeping the zebra foal close to her. She gave Harper a nudge, moving Harper into a forward guard position just behind Peekaboo. The pegasus would be their forward advance, Harper would be the protective second. 

Peekaboo, the pacesetter, took off at a light trot, her tail bouncing, and Harper fell into step just behind her. Cadance, still covering Sukari, fell into step behind Harper and Peekaboo, and Sukari kept pace at Cadance’s side. 

Reaching the arch, Peekaboo looked around. She turned her head left, eyed the front door, then turned her head forwards, staring into the kitchen, and then turned her head right, looking down the hallway as well as the stairs. 

Having an idea, Peekaboo went down the hallway, trotting a short distance, the others following her lead, and she stopped in front of a wooden door beneath the staircase. Peering around, Peekaboo knocked, stepped back, and waited. 

A second later, there was a groan from inside the hidey hole beneath the stairs, followed by a grunt. The door opened on well oiled hinges and Sentinel’s sleepy looking face peered out from the darkness. 

“Hi!” Harper said in a chirpy voice, which caused Sentinel’s ears to perk. 

“I was napping.” Sentinel blinked at the fillies staring at him. 

“Want cookies,” Cadance said in a firm voice, a voice of command. “Sukari sad. Need cookies.” 

“Okay, okay, Empress, give me a minute, I’ll help you get cookies.” Sentinel shook his head, blinked a few times, then yawned, his long orange tongue slipping free of his maw. Reaching out his foreleg, he grabbed Peekaboo, who was closest to him, pulled her close, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. 

“Okay, follow me to the kitchen,” Sentinel commanded as he emerged from his hidey hole. “Stay close together. There are draconequus lurking about and dangerous raspberry blowing monsters are everywhere.” 

“Harpy zapper ready.” 
	
	
> Chapter 775
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Coming into the kitchen, Bucky paused. There was herd of foals sitting in the kitchen window, eating cookies, and looking adorable. Without even thinking about it, he conjured a camera and began snapping photographs, feeling a sense of deep personal satisfaction that Sentinel looked so embarrassed. 

“Father, I gave Harper some of her special cookies to help with her digestion,” Sentinel said, his ears pinning back against his head as he spoke. 

Peering out from beneath her curls, Harper looked over at Bucky, a wide grin upon her muzzle. “Mama… Harpy tell you secret.” 

“Secret?” Bucky unsummoned the camera, sending it back from whence it came. He watched as Harper gestured for him to come closer. “Harpy wants to tell me a secret?” 

“Big secret. Mama come close,” Harper replied, her mouth full of cookie. 

Delighted, Bucky went over to the bay window seat where Harper, Peekaboo, Sukari, Cadance, and Sentinel were eating cookies. As he approached, he heard Sentinel ask, “Where have you been?” 

To which Bucky replied, “With Dinky and Piña.” 

Having reached the bay window, Bucky stood there close to Harper, waiting for Harper to tell him her secret, feeling something warm and squishy in his heart because of the pride that he had as Harper’s father. His little filly was talking now, she had personality, she did more than just lie there like a lump. Every day, she amazed him with something new. 

Harper held out her forelegs. “Hold Harpy.” 

“Okay.” Bucky sat down upon the kitchen floor, reached over, and lifted Harper. He hugged her close, glad to be able to hug her once more. “Now, tell me your secret.” 

“Come close,” Harper said in a whisper, gesturing with her hoof. 

Bucky lowered his head, saw Harper wave, dropped his head a little more, and gave Harper a squeeze. He felt her muscles tense, all of them, and her whole body went stiff. A second later, a brassy, sassy, trumpeting blast could be heard, and Bucky felt Harper’s whole body strain. Stunned, it took a second for Bucky to piece together what had just happened, foalish giggling filling his ears all the while. 

“Why you little stinker,” Bucky said as he heard more feminine foalish laughter. He turned to look at his offspring and noticed that Sentinel was trying very hard not to laugh. He gave Harper a squeeze, as dangerous as it might be, and then kissed her on top of her head, his muzzle having to hunt for a kissable place through a mass of curls. “You pranked me.” 

“Harpy funny.” 

“I am so proud of you… you fooled me,” Bucky said as he lifted Harper up and then set her down upon the cushioned bench in the bay window. Leaning his head down, he kissed Harper on the end of her snoot. 

Cadance, her muzzle covered in sticky cookie bits and pieces of coconut, looked at Bucky and her eyes narrowed. She tilted her head off to one side, her cookie held between her front hooves, and her ears splayed out sideways. “Kiss?” 

“For you, anything,” Bucky replied. He stretched out his neck, leaned his head down, and kissed Cadance on the corner of her mouth. As he pulled away, he felt something touch his ear. Turning, he saw Sukari, sitting there and looking hopeful, her hoof still raised. 

He smooched her next, pressing his lips just above her eyes, and he heard giggling as he pulled away. For good measure, he grabbed Peekaboo and gave her a kiss upon her cheek. As Bucky pressed his lips against the pegasus filly, Peekaboo flapped her wings, scrunched up her body, and giggled. 

Looking at Sentinel, he saw the colt start to make a leap for it. Bucky, being a known clever unicorn, grabbed Sentinel with his telekinesis, sat him back down, leaned over, and gave his colt a kiss just in front of Sentinel’s scarred ear, the same ear that Lyra had sewn back on after the trout bite. 

“Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go spend some time with Bell Heather and Bandua. I have little, little foals to look after,” Bucky said. 



 

“Loki, right?” 

Looking at the blue foal, Loki nodded. The earth pony filly was almost as large as he was, and she was certainly more muscular. She was wearing a bright green winter coat and had a black case upon her back. Loki wondered if she played in instrument in the school band. 

“My name is Archer and I want to join the Raptors,” the blue earth pony filly said. 

“I dunno about that—”

“I have a note of permission from both of my parents… Daddy really wants me to join the military. His name is Fletcher and he makes arrows. He’s a wood carver.” Archer blinked and looked at Loki. “I realise that I am an earth pony and that makes things complicated.” 

“Kiddo, you have no idea,” Loki replied. “I mean, the name… ‘Raptor,’ it is a type of bird.” 

“Scootaloo doesn’t fly,” Archer said in a calm voice. “She is training to be a pilot.” 

Feeling somewhat irritated, Loki realised that he was losing this battle. Archer had a bow and arrow cutie mark and Loki began to get an inkling as to what might be inside the black case. But Loki couldn’t make it easy on her. Nope. “I don’t think you’re cut out for it, kiddo.” 

“I demand a second opinion, this time from somepony or somebirdy with meaningful rank and decision making ability,” Archer said in a calm, steady voice. 

Loki’s irritation vanished and a sense of respect replaced it. The filly was bold. She had guts. Loki’s crest rose and he cocked his head off to one side. “You know what, you wait right here. I’m gonna go get somepony or somebirdy so you can talk to them.” 

“Okay. I will remain here for a while. But if you fly off and try to give me the slip, I will come looking for you, and my bow will not be in the case, Loki Apple,” Archer replied, her voice still cool, calm, and collected. 



 

“Mmm, kelpies,” Bucky said as he made his way into the nursery. He looked around. He saw Belisama sitting on a cushion on the floor, she was holding Bandua and cooing at her. There was no sign of Magpie though. Bucky supposed that Magpie might be taking a well deserved break. 

He crossed the room, aware that Thistle was watching him. She was laying on a blanket, sprawled out on her side, and Bell Heather was suckling while making sloppy slurping sounds. Thistle, reclining on her side with her head raised struck him as being especially beautiful and he felt his pulse quicken. The way that Thistle blinked her eyes, the slow, almost seductive movement of her eyelids, inflamed Bucky’s passion. Suddenly, Bucky wanted another little kelpie to look after. Shaking his head, Bucky realised that Thistle was using her talent against him. 

“Hello,” Thistle said in a purring voice. “Do you come here often?” 

“Only when I’m thirsty,” Bucky replied, raising his eyebrow. 

“Poor you… you are going to be disappointed.” Thistle grinned. “Have you noticed how chubby Bell Heather is? She’s a heavy drinker… and she leaves nothing behind.” The kelpie watched as Bucky eased himself down to the floor, lying on his belly, and kicking his hind legs out behind him while crossing his front legs in front of him. Leaning her head over, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

“Bell is a chubby little foal,” Bucky said as he looked at his kelpie filly. “Look at her… she has little flab rolls around her middle… she’s so cute… I could just die.”

Abandoning her cushion, Belisama came over with Bandua and sat down beside Bucky. She got herself situated, pulled Bandua out of her shawl, and cradled her cub in her forelegs. “Bandua got bigger while I was away. She has more feathers and fuzz now. She has a few feathers on her head, but not many. Makes her look like she has a mowhawk.” 

“Daddy’s little vulture-pony.” Bucky turned his head around to have a look at Bandua and could not help but think that she was beautiful. She was his and he felt an immense feeling of pride for having helped to make her. 

Belisama put Bandua down upon the floor beside Bucky, pulled the shawl from her neck, shook the shawl, and then slipped it over Bucky’s head. Reaching down, she lifted Bandua and then dropped the peeping hippogriff into the shawl. 

“She’s clean, has a fresh diaper, has just been fed, and I am going to go and take a nap with Derpy for a few hours if I can. If she gets hungry, Bucky, you can probably chew something into a fine pulp and cram it down her gullet.” Reaching out, Belisama grabbed Bucky’s ear with her talons, gave it a tug, and then took off, walking away with her tail raised high, giving Bucky a fine view as she departed. 

“Well Thistle, I am all yours,” Bucky said as he turned and gave the kelpie he so loved a lewd wink. 



 

Eyes narrowed into a hawkish glare, Ripple looked down at Archer. “I know you. You’re Apple Bloom’s friend. You’re in that club of hers.” 

“Yup.” Archer nodded and grinned. 

“You want to be a Raptor?” Ripple asked. 

“Yeah I do,” Archer replied. 

“Why?” Ripple flexed her wings and winced from the sore ache. She had been slap boxing with Loch Skimmer and Loch Skimmer was getting pretty good at fighting back. 

“I want to be part of Princess Apple Bloom’s royal guard one day. Daddy says the best way for me to do that would be to join the military now. He said this would be a good idea.” Archer stood up at a little straighter and tried to look as though she was standing at attention. 

“Do you know what we do to Fledglings that join the Raptors?” Ripple, doing her best to be intimidating, leaned her head down and got snoot to snoot with Archer. “Do you know what Private Loki does to whimpering little snots like you?” 

Archer, unphased, grinned. “He runs us till we puke?” 

Ripple nodded. “Yeah. He does. And he enjoys it. And Loki is only the beginning. Luna help you if Buck Sergeant Sparkler wakes up one morning in the mood to make somepony miserable. Then there is Flitter and Cloudchaser, Rumble’s mothers. They like their new hobby of ‘what did the foal eat for school lunch today.’” 

“Sounds great!” Archer said in a cheerful, chipper voice. 

“You have your parents permission?” Ripple asked. She watched the filly nod. Ripple lifted her head up high and stared down her nose at the smaller earth pony filly. “Loki… what kind of lunch are you in the mood for today?” 

Loki’s crest rose and the little griffon’s eyes glittered with feline-avian malice. He began to size up Archer, gauging her strengths and her potential weaknesses. After several moments, he looked up at Ripple and said, “I think I’m in the mood for kebabs.” 

“Fledgling Kebab, you worthless little puddle of chunky chimera snot… YOU’RE NOT WORTHY!” Ripple’s wings snapped out and her eyes narrowed into fierce looking slits. “So help me though, Loki is going to make you worthy, EVEN IF IT MEANS GRINDING YOU INTO A FINE PASTE!” 

“WOOHOO!” Archer replied as she lept up into the air and clicked all four of her hooves together. “I get to shoot stuff with my arrows!” 

“Private Loki,” Ripple snapped. 

“Yes, Squire Cornet Ripple?” Loki replied, snapping to attention. 

“I want you to run this little blue cuss until she barfs. After she’s barfed a few times, have her shoot something. If she can’t hit a target, I want you to run her until she dies. Am I clear?” Ripple towered over Loki, looking every bit the very daughter of War. 

“Aye aye, Squire Cornet Ripple,” Loki replied, snapping his wing out in a salute. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 776
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You griffons have secured for yourselves a worthy future.” Odin, sitting on a cushion, looked at the many griffons and other creatures packed into the mead hall. His gaze lingered upon a large pale white lunar pegasus for a long while. Odin bowed his head. “We have suffered losses, though few they may be, each one of them is a terrible loss.” 

Odin lifted his head. “Every Raptor is accounted for.” Odin took a deep breath. “For this, I am glad. The Raptors represent our hope. They embody change. They started out as freed slaves and became something else. Something worthy. Now, their numbers grow. The ponies have joined their number.” Odin closed his eyes and slumped down on his cushion. 

Crest rising, Odin opened his eyes after a moment and looked out upon the crowd once more. “A promise made long ago has been restored and we have taken our first step towards our return to glory. Queen Belisama bears upon her the mark of destiny. Soon, others will follow, or so is my hope.” 

King Tannis, having come down from Canterlot, leaned over and wrapped his foreleg around Queen Agnetha and then looked down at Beauregard. He looked around the dim, smoke-filled mead hall; after taking everything in, his gaze came to rest upon both Bucky and Belisama. 

“We are not alone,” Odin said. “There is an enclave of griffons down near Saddle Arabia, living on the coast. They fled Griffonholm years ago. I have been in contact with their chieftain, a griffoness named Gossamer. The entire colony have dedicated themselves to the healing arts, peaceful pursuits, and have proclaimed themselves as pacifists. Gossamer will not help us in battle, but she will help us fight in future conflicts. She will be coming to visit us in the spring. I want it known that I recognise her leadership. She does not call herself Queen, nor does she have any desire to do so.” 

“We look forward to welcoming her into our family,” King Tannis said in a loud, but gentle voice. “I have sent her a message, welcoming her, recognising her leadership, and inviting her to come and stay with us. Please, when she comes, see that she is welcome.” 

Lifting his mug, Bucky looked at the room around him. What he saw gave him hope. Gofannon the griffon was sitting beside his mate, the pegasus known as Helia. There was North Star and Kiara. Bartleby sat between Trixie and Sunset Shimmer. Lugnut and Spanner had their cubs, along with one new addition, not yet finalised, the unicorn foal known as Firelock. Where there had once been hatred, a species at war for thousands of years, there was now unity and even love. 

Glancing around, Bucky realised that there was something missing. Several somethings missing. He felt a twinge of worry. There was no sign of Loki Apple, the first griffon recognised as an Apple. He spotted Gormlaith, but she was alone. Sentinel was missing and so was Boadicea. 

“Keg Smasher has given us an entire island that is rich in resources and has abundant fish. The griffons of the Shetlands call the island New Griffonholm. The griffons of the Shetlands are few in number, but in time, with peace, I hope their numbers will improve,” Odin said. The older looking griffon’s crest rose. “I demand that you all make more griffons and hippogriffs. We have an island to colonise and a nation to rebuild.” 

“Excuse me,” Bucky said in a low voice as he got up. “I seem to be missing some of my subjects. Pardon me while I go look for them.” He leaned down his head, kissed Belisama, and then slipped away, stepping between griffons and ponies that had crowded into the mead hall. 



 

The night was dark and cold. Huffing, Bucky could see his breath. Crowds always made him nervous, and truth be told, he was thankful to be free of the mead hall. It was far too crowded in there, hot from too many bodies and roaring fires. The cold air hitting his lungs made him feel better, calmer, and some of his nervousness eased. 

Walking through the snow, he saw a group near the school. There was a small figure running, another small figure flying, and a gathered group of onlookers. Bucky approached to go have a look. 

“What is going on?” Bucky asked as he approached. He saw Ripple, Sentinel, Boadicea, and an earth pony that he did not know. He spied Loki flying around, chasing after a dark blue foal that was difficult to see in the darkness. 

“I think Loki is about to drop dead from exhaustion,” Ripple replied as she turned to look at Bucky. “I ordered Loki to run Fledgling Kebab until she puked. Kebab has ran and ran and ran for hours and has not run out of endurance.” 

“That’s my filly,” the earth pony stallion said. 

“You must be proud.” Bucky grinned at the earth pony. 

“Father, this is Fletcher, Archer’s father.” Sentinel, tearing his eyes away from the griffon chasing the earth pony foal, turned and looked at his father. “Ripple, I don’t think that Kebab is going toss her cookies any time soon. Loki however, is starting to lag behind more and more.” 

“I’ve been preparing my daughter to fight from an early age. That’s my girl!” Fletcher lifted his hoof and waved at Archer, who bounded through the snow and showed no signs of slowing. “Honey, you run that griffon until he pukes!” 

“Yeah, okay, I can do that!” Archer shouted back in reply. 

Taking in the absurdity of it all, Bucky snorted. Fletcher seemed to be enjoying this far too much. Archer was well prepared for this moment, having been trained from an early age. The situation needed a good kick in the backside to make things interesting again. “Sentinel?” 

“Father?” Sentinel looked over Bucky. 

“Go after her.” Bucky grinned. “Let her know that if you catch her, you are going to slobber all over her. No flying though.” 

“Okay,” Sentinel replied as he bolted, taking off at a run. 

“OH NO! SENTINEL! NO!” Archer, doubling her speed, was now going at a flat out run with Sentinel just behind her, his tongue dangling out of his mouth as he ran. “SENTINEL, WE’RE FRIENDS! DON’T DO THIS!” 

“Well, that should make things interesting.” Bucky watched as Loki flapped over and then landed beside Ripple. “So, Fletcher, you must be very proud.” 

“SENTINEL, I’M ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS!” 

“Archer is one of a kind.” Fletcher turned and looked at Bucky. “You have daughters. Surely you must know a father’s fear. I raised my daughter to look after herself.” 

“Wow, Archer is really moving.” Ripple’s remark was made in an awestruck whisper. 

“Daughters are special. I worry non stop about all of mine. Even Ripple—” 

“Daddy… don’t embarrass me!” Ripple scooted away from Bucky, shaking her head. “I’m on duty… I am supposed to have an image of command and authority.” 

“UGH, HE’S DROOLING!” 

“Fletcher, how would you like to join us in the mead hall? Care for a drink?” Bucky asked the earth pony standing near him. 

“I’d love a drink,” Fletcher replied. He looked at his daughter, who was now running at full speed with Sentinel chasing just behind her. “He’s holding back… why isn’t he catching her?” 

“Sentinel is a good colt.” Bucky grinned and looked at his son. “He’ll catch her eventually, when she’s finally been worn out completely.” 

“I am going to go find Gormlaith,” Loki muttered as he stomped off through the snow. 

“Fletcher, just follow Loki. I think I’ll stay out here and keep an eye on these two.” Standing in the snow, Bucky took a deep breath, allowing the cold air to fill his lungs. “Ripple, I bet there is a donkey that is missing you. You should go look after her.” 



 

As it approached the midnight hour, the party in the mead hall showed no signs of slowing down. Enjoying the cold, Bucky prowled the grounds of the farm and the school, looking around, exploring, and feeling good that he was home. 

The dormitory towers were all dark now, save for a few faint lights in the windows, probably night lights or glowing horns. There were several new houses built at the edge of the woods that lie between the farmhouse and Ponyville. 

“Bucky?” 

Lifting his head, Bucky turned towards the sound of Scorch’s voice. He saw the Demon Lord of Tartarus approaching. Unable to stop himself, Bucky, thinking of Luna’s words, grinned. “Hello Scorch.” 

“Nice night for a walk,” Scorch said to Bucky. 

“I was just out collecting my thoughts.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “I heard that you once paddled Celestia with a spoon.” Bucky’s ears perked as Scorch sighed. 

“On more than one occasion. She was nothing but trouble.” Scorch shifted form, becoming a flaming alicorn. He looked down at Bucky. “I’m glad that I found you alone. I wanted to talk to you.” 

“Well, here I am. Talk.” Bucky drifted in and out of shadow, his legs vanishing so he could drift above the snow in comfort. 

“There is a matter that I am hesitant to bring up.” Scorch’s ears perked forwards and his flaming wings fluttered. “I know it is a lot to ask, but I keep getting nagged about the issue. I made a promise that I would bring it up to you when I had the chance.” 

Bucky, his talons in shadow, made a gesture, trailing tendrils of black shadow. “So, tell me about it. There is no need to be hesitant. We’re both friends.” 

Scorch sighed, his cheeks puffing out. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “I had this fling with a rather nice demoness. She really wasn’t evil. Honestly, she isn’t a bad sort. She stays away from the politics of Tartarus. A few centuries ago, she got interested in having offspring. But, being a demoness, she knew that if she had a little demon spawn, there was a good chance that it might be evil, seeing as how demons are soulless creatures. Not every demon makes good choices.” 

“I see.” Bucky looked up at Scorch. “Fascinating.” 

“So, she asked me for a soul. It didn’t have to be a particularly high quality soul, but something practical and serviceable,” Scorch said in a low voice. 

“You can give something a soul?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Well, yes… I can. I can make life, create souls, I am a being of near infinite power. But I rarely do any of that anymore. It breaks the balance of things,” Scorch replied. 

“Okay… carry on.” Bucky drifted up a little higher to be at eye level with Scorch. 

“So, I created her a very simple soul and then we got about to the business of making new life the old fashioned way. Whips, chains, the fires of Tartarus, oceans of lubricant, hot pokers, tentacles, it took several attempts before she became pregnant,” Scorch said, continuing his story. 

“Neat.” Bucky raised his eyebrow. 

“She had a son. A son that inherited a portion of her soul.” Scorch shifted form, becoming bipedal, and began to scratch his head with his hand. “He’s not a bad sort at all. A bit weird. Somewhat withdrawn. Has a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder. And he is fanatically fixated upon the secretarial sciences.” 

“Okay… what does this have to do with me?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, his mother wants him to attend school and make friends—” 

“Are you shitting me?” Bucky asked, cutting Scorch off. 

“No!” Scorch shook his head. “No… I’m dead serious.” Scorch held his hands up. “Look, he’s not evil. He doesn’t have any friends because he doesn’t fit in. He’s quiet and a bit shy. He has a soul and that makes it difficult for him to be a heartless asshole and be accepted by his peers. He gets teased a lot and it bothers him. He’s sensitive.” 

“I have heard everything,” Bucky snapped, his shadow form mimicking Scorch’s bipedal form, but without a solid body. He tossed two vaguely arm shaped appendages up in the air. 

“I want to enroll him when spring comes rolling around,” Scorch said, unable to look Bucky in the eye. “And just because he is one of my many, many offspring, I don’t want him getting special treatment.” 

“I don’t know about this—” 

“Look, you want diversity, here you go…” Scorch held out his hand to his side, making a gesture. “He’s about this tall… maybe a meter. He has three legs and two arms. His name is Zaster and I think he could do well here.” 

“Zaster?” Bucky shook his head. “What sort of name is Zaster?” 

“His full name is Dee, short for Demon, Zaster—” 

“You have got to be screwing around with me!” Bucky cried in disbelief. 

“His mother is a demon! She tries to be nice but even with a soul she just can’t help herself… she gets into mischief… look, he’s not a bad kid, okay?” Scorch replied. He reached up and began to rub his forehead. “Look, he’s one of my children...” 

“I want to meet him before I decide anything.” 

“Fair enough.” 

“Dee Zaster… do you know how disruptive that is going to be in a classroom?” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“If I enroll him, you owe me.” 

“Of course.” 

“There had better not be any tentacles…” 
	
	
> Chapter 777
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling the approaching dawn, Bucky awoke, feeling a little confused and disoriented. The dawn had moved, he was now in a different time zone now than where he had been not just a week before. Beside him, he heard Derpy’s muffled breathing and realised she was awake. 

Rolling over, he pressed up against her back, reached over with his talons, and slid his foreleg down along the rounded curve of her protruding belly. “In much pain?” 

“A little.” Derpy leaned back against Bucky and gasped as she felt his talons sliding down along her belly, going lower and lower, brushing up against her teats. She felt him touching her right along the ridge where her pelvis was, right where it hurt the most, the place that had been broken all those years ago when Dinky had been born. 

“Feels hot to the touch, like a fever. You probably need your pills… I can go get them,” Bucky said. “Do you need to get into the bathroom?” 

“Yeah,” Derpy replied. She closed her eyes and melted into Bucky’s embrace. “I can’t take my pills until I eat something.” 

“I will fix you some breakfast.” Bucky nuzzled the grey mare’s ear. “What would you like to eat?” 

“Waffles,” Derpy breathed. “Waffles with apple butter. And scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs with apple butter.” 

“Anything else?” Bucky asked as he wrapped Derpy in a telekinetic bubble. 

Derpy licked her lips, thinking about what sounded good to eat. “Well, if you don’t mind, slather everything down in that hot chow chow relish stuff that Berry Punch makes.” 

“With the apple butter?” Bucky cringed; there was no accounting for pregnant mares and their tastes. At least Derpy seemed to be off of her sauerkraut kick. 

“Yes, with the apple butter,” Derpy replied as she felt gravity lose its hold over her. She sighed with relief as the horrible pressure dropped away. “Bucky, this is very embarrassing, but…” 

“What is it?” Bucky slipped out of bed, trying not to disturb grumbling sleepers. 

“When I get done, you’re going to need to clean me up back there with those medicated wipes. Doctor doesn’t want me getting any fissures or hemorrhoids. All the skin back there is stretched too tight.” 

“I can do that.” Bucky, half in shadow, floated over the bedroom floor, moving in silence. “This is kinda my fault that you’re like this, so helping you is the least I can do.” 

“After breakfast, can you get in the tub with me?” Derpy asked. 

“Sure, I can do that too. Maybe we can invite Berry to come with us?” 

“I’d like that.” Derpy paused and then turned her head to look back at Bucky. “I can’t reach back there to clean any more. I’m having problems with acne because of my hormones. I’m gonna need you to spend a lot of time scrubbing my butt.” 

“This is not a chore…” 



 

“I don’t know how I got talked into this,” Bon Bon said. She leaned back, yawned, and then looked at Bucky. “I suppose I don’t have anything better to do.” 

Closing her eyes, Lyra leaned over on Bon Bon. “Mmm, you’re hot, wet, and soapy.” 

“Lyra, there are foals in this tub,” Bon Bon whispered. 

“So there are,” Lyra said, opening her eyes. “I don’t know what came over me.” 

Giggling, Cadance kicked her hooves and splashed both Lyra and Bon Bon as she flapped her wings and soaked everypony else. Beside Cadance, Sukari covered her face and tried to shield herself. Harper kicked back and gave as good as she got.

“The tub is crowded.” Thistle stretched out her tail and tried to get comfortable. Beside her, Bell Heather floated in the water, stretching out her own tail. “I’m surprised we all fit.” 

“Thistle, this is a fourteen foot long, eight foot wide tub that holds over sixteen hundred gallons of water. Most ponies would call this a swimming pool.” Berry Punch reached up, grabbed Thistle by the cheeks, pulled the kelpie close, and gave Thistle a soggy kiss. 

“My head hurts,” Belisama said, floating in what was for her, deep water. “I drank too much last night. Why did I do that?” The griffoness cringed when Harper let out a war cry. “Am I a bad mother because I was too drunk to look after Bandua? What does Magpie think of me?” 

Bucky, quiet, laboured with a scrubbing brush, saying nothing, enjoying the time spent with his wives and his littlest foals. The bigger foals had school today, and for this, Bucky was glad. He needed this quiet, peaceful time. Discord and Fluttershy were now gone and with the exception of Luna, the house was back to its usual state of affairs. 

“I think Bucky has a few more silver hairs mixed in with his black mane,” Bon Bon said as she looked over at Bucky, her head tilted off to one side as she studied him. “Black and silver is a good look for you… makes you look distinguished. Stately.”

“Berry Punch, don’t you dare.” Derpy’s eyes narrowed and she gave Berry, who was about to say something, a fierce glare. 

“I wasn’t going to say any foal-unfriendly words.” Berry Punch let go of Thistle and grabbed Sukari, pulling her close. She grabbed a scrubbing brush in one fetlock and went to work getting Sukari cleaned. 

Cadance, having lost interest in the splash fight, focused on Bell Heather instead, pulling the kelpie closer and giving her a squeeze. For Cadance, Bell Heather was like a living bath toy. 

“Cadance, don’t squeeze Bell Heather so hard. She’ll fart,” Thistle warned. 

Grinning, Cadance squeezed Bell Heather even harder, causing Thistle to roll her eyes. Cadance, playing a dangerous game, didn’t seem to mind, and Bell Heather was giggling now, her orange eyes bright with glee because she was being hugged by her sister. 

“Harpy mane heavy.” Harper tired of holding up her waterlogged curls, fell over and floated on her back. She kicked out her hind legs and closed her eyes. “Harpy better now.” 

“These are the moments that I wish would last forever,” Derpy said as she turned her head to look at Bucky. “I know that you’ll probably have to leave us again soon, but stay as long as you can.” 



 

“Today, I am going to be your substitute teacher. I am Princess Luna. You may call me Luna. Your regular teacher is unable to come in to class due to some pregnancy complications, at least from what I understand. She wants us to focus on painting—good brush strokes, technique, adding texture to your painting,” Luna said to her class. She lifted her head high and her ears perked forward. “This is my assistant, Erebus. Say hello the class, Erebus.” Luna heard several foals giggling. 

“Hi!” Erebus, suspended in a foal carrier hung from Luna’s side, waved with one hoof at the class while grinning a huge grin. 

The students seemed squirrely. This was the first class of the day and many of the students were, no doubt, jacked up on sugar from breakfast. Luna, somewhat nervous, stood before her students, wanting to leave a good impression upon them. 

“Well, get to work!” Luna commanded. She watched as the foals scattered, each of them going to their easels. She began to prowl around the classroom, looking for talent, waiting for a call for help, or trying to spot a painting that might benefit from some helpful suggestions. 

She spotted a filly whose painting had hard lines and lacked soft edges. Luna approached, feeling more than a few butterflies in her stomach. She tried to calm herself. This is just a foal, Luna thought to herself. She took a deep breath. 

“Gentle strokes would give your painting a softer appearance. Would you like a demonstration?” Luna asked. 

“Sure,” the filly replied as she stepped aside. 

Luna lifted a paint brush in her telekinesis and pointed at what was supposed to be a pony. It was almost all straight lines with no curves, no rounded places. Luna made a soft, curving stroke, making the pony’s square backside a little more rounded. “See, like so.” 

“I don’t have telekinesis,” the filly said to Luna. 

“Oh dear, you do not.” Luna looked down and she heard Erebus burbling. “No matter, it can still be done.” Luna slipped her paintbrush into her mouth and leaned her head down to the canvas. Using her lips, she made a smooth, somewhat curved stroke along the pony’s back, rounding off the withers and the croup. 

“Hmm.” The filly looked up. 

“You cannot bite the brush in your teeth,” Luna said in a somewhat muffled voice. “Hold the brush loose in your lips.” 

“Okay.” The filly picked up her brush once more, allowed it to dangle in her lips, and began touching up another pony in her painting. She added a curved, flowing tail and began to round off the hard angles and edges. 

“Very good!” Luna said as she pulled the paintbrush from her lips with her telekinesis. “Telekinesis does not make you a good painter. One of the greatest painters I knew was an earth pony. He painted bugs for the Royal Academy of Science. He did not like photographs because he felt they lacked detail. I met him not long after my return. Sadly, his talent is lost to us now.” 

“Hey, that’s pretty neat!” a pegasus colt shouted. 

“Art is an expression of your body. You do not need magic to make art. Art is magic,” Luna said in a loud voice. “Art is the language of the soul and the means of expression for the inner mind.” 

Head high, Luna began to pace around the room again. Everywhere she went, she saw talent. Real talent. She saw promise and she saw hope. A well funded art program was now showing dividends. 





“You are my pretty little filly,” Thistle said to Sukari in a low voice. Reaching out, Thistle adjusted the bright yellow ribbon tied into Sukari’s mane. 

“No.” Sukari dropped her head and looked down at the floor. 

“You are so my little filly!” Thistle reached down with her hoof, placed it under Sukari’s chin, and lifted the filly’s head, making her look up. “I am so your mother… I have proof! Don’t you ever forget that!” 

“Not pretty.” Sukari pulled her head away from Thistle’s hoof and stared down at the floor. “Ugly.” 

Deflating, Thistle sat down with a huff. She blinked a few times, shaking her head, not knowing what to say or how to respond to this. “Why would you say you are ugly? That’s awful!” 

Sukari lifted her head up and looked Thistle in the eye. She blinked, her blue eyes gleaming in the nursery lights, and then, raising one trembling hoof, she pointed at the scar that went from her ear down to her nostril. Then she made a gesture pointing at the rest of herself. Cringing, she pointed at the mirror that stood in the nursery. 

“Are you trying to make me cry?” Thistle asked. Sitting down, she then reached down and snatched up the zebra foal. “You have a few scars… they’re not that bad. Baba has scars too, but we love him.” Thistle tilted her head down and kissed Sukari while clutching her close. 

“Why… this… happen?” Sukari asked in a halting voice. “Why… make… ugly?” 

“Bucky! Help me!” Thistle cried as she felt tears coming. 

There was the sound of hooves and claws upon the floor. Thistle, holding Sukari, waited, not knowing how to answer. There was a rustle of feathers as Magpie entered the nursery, hooves clattered as Lyra came running, and then Bucky pushed his way past Lyra, who had stopped in the door. 

“What’s wrong?” Bucky asked, worry causing his face to wrinkle. 

“Sukari thinks she’s ugly.” Thistle took a deep breath. “She wants to know why something made her ugly… I don’t know what to do.” 

Sitting down beside Thistle, Bucky leaned his head down. “Calm down… just take a deep breath, Thistle.” He looked at the kelpie’s heaving sides and felt pity for Thistle. For all of her seeming maturity, there were moments where she was more filly than mare. He stretched out his neck and kissed Sukari on the side of her muzzle. 

“Bucky, do something!” Thistle demanded in a high pitched whine. “Make this better somehow. My filly is unhappy.” 

Reaching out his talons, he caressed Sukari’s scarred cheek, keeping his claws away from her skin. He shook his head and heaved a sad sounding sigh. “There isn’t much I can do, really. She’s going to have to make peace with this. All we can do is love her a whole lot and try to make her feel special.” Bucky lifted his talons up to his own face, where scales were still growing in over the worst of the scarring, what remained after his regeneration in pheonix fire. 

Lyra, sitting down on the other side of Thistle, reached out with her hoof and touched Sukari’s side. “Sukari, all of us have scars. Some of us have scars on the outside, like you and Bucky… some of us, we have scars on the inside. They’re harder to see, but that don’t make us feel any better about having them, because we know they are there.” 

“Lyra, she can’t understand most of what you are saying.” Thistle shook her head. 

“Doesn’t matter. We start telling her this stuff now and she grows up hearing it. She’s a tough little scrapper and she’s come a long way. She’ll get better. She has Bucky as a role model. And Yew… Yew Wood had half of her face ripped off by an eagle. Not only will Sukari have scars, but in time, she’ll understand scars. Inside and out. And maybe, if she’s lucky, she’ll be able to help somepony who’s worse off than her,” Lyra said, explaining her actions. 

Blushing, Thistle leaned over and kissed Lyra on the side of her mouth, pressing in and making a wet smack. “Thank you, Lyra, thank you.” 

“Well, if you plan to kiss me again, I have more advice to offer,” Lyra replied. 

“Sukari, do you want to play ball with me” Bucky asked. 

Sukari, frowning, gave thought to Bucky’s words for a moment and then, lifting her head, she nodded. A somewhat frowny half-smile appeared on Sukari’s muzzle and then she tilted her head back to kiss Thistle on the bottom of her chin. 

“Come on, we’ll get Harpy and Cadance to play with us. And maybe Peekaboo if she’s around. She might be off with Lugus though,” Bucky said to Sukari. 

“Okay,” Sukari replied as Thistle eased her down to the floor. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 778
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Tower of the New Moon?” Bucky held up the letter written by Star Swirl and delivered to Sunset Shimmer by courier. He glanced at Luna, who had finished acting as a substitute teacher for the day. 

“That letter is very confusing.” Sunset Shimmer, sitting upon a cushion placed on the floor of the farmhouse library, pointed at the letter held in Bucky’s talons. “The names are all wrong.” 

“Nevertheless, Star Swirl was the sender. I would recognise that magical signature anywhere,” Luna said, looking around the room at the gathered ponies, her gaze coming to rest upon Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight, is something wrong?” 

Twilight, distracted, staring out the window, jerked her head around at Luna’s words. “No… yes… I… I was just thinking about Flash. I want to be home with him. I have strange urges to pile pillows and blankets on the bed and to keep my family around me. It’s all very illogical and strange, but the constant thoughts are leaving me distracted.” 

A soft smile appeared upon Luna’s face. “Twilight, we will be done here shortly. You needed to see the letter. This is important.” Luna took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air, and then turned to Bucky, who was sitting in his somewhat ratty looking ‘throne.’ She raised a hoof and made a made a circular motion with it. 

“The Tower of the New Moon was sealed by Star Swirl. It is probably filled with devious traps, much like the old castle where my sister and I once lived. The tower itself is very small, not at all very large and it sits atop a mountain in the north. The mountain itself has been hollowed out and filled with extra dimensional pockets. It is a place of research, of study, much powerful magic was done there by many exceptional ponies. There are many artifacts kept inside. Star Swirl and Sombra looted some of the treasuries of the old world kingdoms we went to war with. Some of those artifacts in there are older than my sister and I. Hopefully, Sombra will return some of his memories to Bucky and that will make our task easier.” 

Bucky snorted. “He likes to keep me in the dark about some things. He is not always helpful. I suppose he wants me to learn about some things the hard way for some reason, hoping that I will achieve some great understanding.” 

“So Bucky and I are going to have to go in there, gain access, navigate what are certain to be lethal booby traps, find a way to turn off the defenses, and gain mastery of the tower?” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “I will follow Bucky anywhere, even into Tartarus if necessary, but I will confess, this makes me nervous. If this place has stairs, I am going to scream bloody murder and I swear to your stars, Luna, I will never forgive Sombra for his love of cruel and unusual architecture—” 

“Something that Buckminster, his grandfoal, has inherited!” Luna shouted in a booming voice as she pointed at Bucky. 

“There is beautiful, agonising perfection in a good staircase—” 

“Bucky, shut up!” Twilight snapped. “I still haven’t forgiven you for what you’ve done to me on those stairs of yours!” 

“I have given thought on how to improve elevators… a small space where one is trapped inside—”

“Buckminster Beauregard Bitters, if you ever create an elevator, I personally will banish you to the moon.” Luna’s eyes narrowed and she stared at her apprentice, her eyes glittering. Her lip curled back from her teeth. “I mean it. Which reminds me… I might need you for nightmare work. I know some ponies with a dreadful fear of elevators.” 

“Luna! That’s like trying to use a carcinogen to cure cancer!” Twilight shook her head in disbelief, horrified by Luna’s words. She heard Bucky chuckling and waited for it to become his characteristic cackle. 

Sunset Shimmer cleared her throat. “So, will Bucky and Twilight become the masters of this tower once it is opened? I mean, what comes next? Once we have the tower open, is it just another research facility, like Hidden Hollow Fortress?” 

Luna took Sunset Shimmer’s words into consideration. Once the tower was opened, it would be a powerful resource. It was a vast repository of knowledge. She turned and looked at Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight?” 

“Yes Luna?” Twilight, somewhat distracted, focused her attention on Luna. 

“This tower will need a curator. A librarian. This is a place of learning and of knowledge. There is only one pony I can think of that would be qualified.” Luna took a deep breath and focused upon Twilight. “Once Buckminster and Sunset Shimmer have this place opened, do you think you can take over the day to day operations of this place? Of course you will have Buckminster and Sunset to help you… but Hidden Hollow Fortress is mine. This place could be yours. I do believe that Buckminster and Sunset Shimmer are content to be here… this is their place.” 

“Do you want me to move in and live there?” Twilight asked. 

“Oh, heavens no! I do not live in Hidden Hollow… but I am the master of that place,” Luna replied. 

“I’ll have to think about it,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I have so many responsibilities already. I want to be with my family more. I need them.” 

“Take them with you. Stay there while you conduct research. Glass Slipper will certainly be useful to you there.” Luna blinked and her wings fluttered at her sides. “Take some time and think about it. No need to answer right away.” 

“And what of us?” Bucky asked. “When do we go explore this tower, Luna?” 

“Soon. Spend time with your family. When you say that you are ready, we will go.” 



 

“Okay, everypony take a deep breath and relax. We’re all family here, no need to be embarrassed or feel out of sorts.” Violet looked over at Fluttershy. “Glad to see you back.” 

“I wanted to know more about being a midwife… I want to be there when my friends drop foals,” Fluttershy said in a squeaky whisper. “This is very important to me. This is going to be the most beautiful moment of their lives and I want to make it special for them.” Fluttershy’s eyes glanced over at Tranquility and Lunacy, who slept on a blanket nearby, and then focused once more upon Violet. 

“Derpy, are you comfortable?” Violet looked at the grey mare. She was laying on her back with a couple of pillows beneath her head and a large pillow placed beneath her hips. She had her hind legs kicked out and spread wide open. 

The grey mare nodded. “I’m about as comfortable as I can be. I can’t see your face though Violet, my belly is in the way.” 

“But you can see Bucky.” Violet smiled at Bucky, who was sitting between Berry Punch and Derpy. Beside Bucky, Berry Punch was also laying on her back, propped up on pillows. “I want everypony to focus on your breathing. Deep breaths… down into the stomach. Suck in as much air as possible, hold it for just a second, and then release it nice and slow and easy.” 

Derpy and Berry both took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out in a steady huff. The stomachs of both mares rose and fell. Between then, Bucky sat grinning, looking very much like a fox in a henhouse, raising and lowering his eyebrow, and risking newspapery wrath. 

“This is the psychoprophylactic method for foal birth. This will increase your self worth, your self esteem, this will make you feel valuable, special, and I will try to convince you that this is a special occasion—my goal is to increase your confidence so you can face birth in the most natural way possible. This will teach you to cope with labour, how to train your mind to deal with what might be a trying time. You will learn how to relax. You will learn how to stretch, how to flex, how to ease the pain of a foal passing through the door of life so that they might join us in this world. And as for Bucky, who needs to stop making silly faces, he is going to learn massage techniques with his magic that should make this process much easier.” 

“I have a question.” 

“Yes Fluttershy?” Violet looked at the sunny yellow mare. 

“The book you gave me… it says to avoid giving birth on your back… so why are they on their backs now?” Fluttershy looked at Berry and Derpy, then back at Violet. 

“So they are comfortable.” Violet gave Fluttershy a smile. “It also builds trust. Right now, they are open, exposed, vulnerable. Parts of them are highly visible. For some mares, shy mares, this can be one of the toughest parts of birth. Letting other ponies help them and be near the places that a shy mare might try to hide.” 

“Oh… I understand that.” Fluttershy nodded. “So, when birthing, they’ll try to stand or lay on their side or… float in the tub?” 

“Correct.” Feeling irritated, Violet glared at Bucky. “Will you please stop looking so proud and smug. Yes, you are a proud father. Yes, you impregnated two mares with your seed. Yes, both mares are having twins. Right now, you are being insufferable.” 

A haughty sniff was Bucky’s first reply, followed by a snort. His eyes narrowed as he focused upon Violet. “I also participated in a pretty awesome threesome, which was the catalyst to all of this.” Bucky gestured at both mares and remained serious looking as Berry Punch closed her eyes and began to snigger. “This was me losing my virginity. Pretty awesome, right?” 

“Bucky… I swear, I will get duct tape.” Violet rolled her eyes. “Your wives need you at the top of your game. You did good with Thistle and you did good with Belisama. But these are going to be challenging births. Twins. And despite all of your best efforts, Berry Punch looks as though she remains rather tight—” 

“Oh, you have no idea,” Bucky said, opening his eyes a little wider. 

“Bucky, please, be a good pony. We talked about this. You are feeling an inner manifestation of chaos right now, aren’t you?” Fluttershy leaned over and using her paw, she began to rub gentle little circles upon Derpy’s belly. 

Defeated, Bucky slumped down and his expression grew sulky. Across from him, Violet’s eyes narrowed and she glanced at Fluttershy with an incredulous expression upon her face. Fluttershy meanwhile, ignored both ponies, and focused on the forceful kicks she could feel coming from Derpy’s rounded stomach. 

“Okay, I suppose I can be a serious pony. I wanted to say something funny about Bucky liking my tight little filly flaps and that he should enjoy them while he can, but I can be mature and resist saying it,” Berry said, giving Violet a straight face the entire time she spoke. 

“Okay, breathing exercises. More breathing exercises. Because I certainly need to take a few deep breaths right now,” Violet said in a voice filled with artificial, but tactful, patience. 

Amidst the sounds of breathing, Fluttershy lowered her head and pressed her ear up against Derpy’s stomach. She closed her eyes and could feel life moving around inside of the grey pegasus mare. Feeling happy, Fluttershy shivered, feeling a shuddery feeling all over as she was overcome with a delightful feeling of joy.

“Okay, keep breathing. In a few minutes, I am going to place my hooves upon you in places that I am going to need to touch during the birthing process. This is so that you become familiar with my touch and don’t panic during birth. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, say something and I will stop, okay?” Violet moved a little closer to Berry Punch and glanced up at Bucky, expecting some kind of trouble. Much to her surprise, Bucky looked serious now, focused. 

“Bucky, I have a task for you. While I am touching Berry Punch, I want you to tell her why she is beautiful to you. Make her confident. Make her feel special, make her feel good about herself,” Violet said to Bucky in a soft voice as she moved between Berry’s legs. She reached out and touched Berry’s stomach to let the earth pony mare know that she was there. 

“Oh… I can do that…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 779
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a gentleness that stood out in sharp contrast to his seemingly monstrous appearance, Bucky laid Derpy down in the bed, easing her down, placing her withers first, allowing her to sink into the soft mattress, and then with careful ease, he lowered her back half down just a little at a time. 

“Are you comfortable?” Bucky asked as he refilled the water pitcher beside the bed. 

“More or less,” Derpy replied. She reached out and touched Bucky’s neck with her right front hoof. Derpy’s face became a little sad and she heaved a sigh. “Bucky?” 

“Yes?” Bucky pulled a knitted throw over Derpy’s lower half. 

“Goldflake died while you were away.” Derpy shook her head and then closed her bad eye so she could look Bucky in the eye. “I don’t know if anypony told you.” 

“I heard.” Bucky heaved a sigh. “Truth be told, I almost forgot about it after something was said to me. I really haven’t had the time to sit down and think about it.” 

“I was with him when he passed,” Derpy said to Bucky in a soft voice. Grunting, Derpy rolled over onto her side, heaved a sigh, and then kicked her hind legs around as she tried to get comfortable. Her efforts left the knitted throw all bunched up around and between her hind legs. 

“That was good of you, I suppose.” Bucky’s ears drooped down, hanging limp against the sides of his face. Closing his eyes, Bucky flopped over onto his side and then let out a long, slow exhale through his nostrils. 

“You really don’t want to talk about this, do you?” Derpy peered at her mate, trying to discern what Bucky was feeling. Derpy, who still had some feelings about Goldflake’s passing, wanted to talk about it. 

“No. No, I’d rather not.” Bucky gave Derpy an uncertain glance. “Look, Derpy, this is a sore subject for me… I don’t even want Berry Punch using the name Bitters for little Barley when he’s born. I just… I can’t… I mean, I’ve tried talking to her about it, but every single time, the words just fail and I feel terrible that I even brought it up.” 

“It is just a name—” 

“It was more than just a name… it was an image. It was an institution. It was one of the sub-houses of House Avarice and the one with the most direct connection to Princess Platinum and Sombra. Every time I hear my own name mentioned, it just brings me pain,” Bucky said as he rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. 

“Bucky, have you thought about what it means to Berry?” Derpy asked as she hooked her foreleg around Bucky’s foreleg. 

“I dunno… maybe a little,” Bucky replied. 

“Berry Punch, a member of Clan Pickled, fell in love with one of the sons of House Avarice. She never held that against you. She could have. You and I both know that she has some real problems. She could have hated you. She could have blamed you for what happened—but she didn’t.” Derpy’s head slid over the pillow to be closer to Bucky. “She loves you. Even with your name, even with your connections, and she is willing to name one of her foals with your name, because it is your name. Not the name of your house, but you. Buckminster Bitters. She wants a little part of you to continue on. Not your house, but you.” 

“I guess you’re right.” Bucky turned his head to look at Derpy, his snoot almost touching hers. “Is there anything you need right now?” 

“Just you…” 



 

The knitting needles made a pleasant, calming clicking sound. Berry Punch, her bulk spread out in a chair, allowed her hooves to do their work so her mind could focus. She was looking forward to natural foal birth, but still had some moments of fear and hesitation. 

Inside of her, the twins were being well behaved. Berry liked to imagine that they were napping, perhaps even hugging one another, even though she knew that this was not the case. She wondered what they would be like. Would they be extraverted and sociable like her? Shy and introverted like their father? Would they be smart? Serious? Funny? One little colt and one little filly. More than anything, she hoped that the little colt looked like Bucky. 

She thought of Bucky how he was; a little short, somewhat slight, thin in body, but still solid enough. The graceful angle of his muzzle. He was different now of course, but Berry still loved him. He was still her companion in mischief. And once the foals were born, he would be her drinking companion once more. She hoped to go on an epic bender, perhaps something so legendary that the griffons would write some song about it. 

“You look happy, dear.” 

Smiling, Berry Punch looked up, her eyes meeting Broom’s. The unicorn mare was crocheting. “I am happy… I don’t know what’s come over me, but I just feel really good about everything.” 

“Motherhood agrees with you, dearie,” Broom said to Berry Punch. “You have that look about you…” 



 

“It looks so cool to look up and see Canterlot now… you can see the fleet floating around the city. Some of those ships are huge!” Rumble looked over at his friends and saw Spike picking at his lunch. “How is Twilight?” 

“She’s happy to be home,” Spike replied. 

“You look disappointed.” Rumble leaned over. “What’s wrong?” 

“I wanted more time with her. But she’s so busy. And I have to go to school. I dunno, I’m being selfish I guess.” Spike prodded at his fries with his claw. “Twilight has been acting funny.”

“Twilight is acting funny?” Piña leaned over and prodded Spike with her hoof. “Spill the beans. Is the Princess of Friendship going loopy?” 

Spike gave Piña a halfhearted smile. “No, nothing like that, Coconut Butt.” 

Her mouth dropping open in mock-shock, Piña let out a gasp. After a moment, she smiled. “So, what’s wrong with Twilight?” 

“She’s been spending more time in the bed. She keeps trying to get us into the bed with her and then she wants to lay on us. She got ahold of Scootaloo last night and almost suffocated her. Rainbow Dash too. Glass Slipper doesn’t mind, but for Scootaloo and I, it’s embarrassing.” Spike stared down at his half eaten lunch and poked the remains of his sandwich. 

“She’s nesting. That’s all. My mother gets that way. Twilight probably doesn’t know how to deal with it. She wasn’t born a pegasus, but being an alicorn, she is part pegasus now. Yew Wood is nesting too… she likes to settle down in the living room, lay a quilt on the floor, and then pile up pillows around her. Then she gets ahold of the little ones, pulls them into the pillow pile with her, and she doesn’t let them go.” Dinky gave Spike a reassuring smile. “If you really want to help Twilight feel better, stand next to her nesting site and guard it.” 

“Will that really help?” Spike asked. 

“Sure it will,” Diamond Tiara replied. “You know, Sentinel nests—” 

“I DO NOT!” 

“Sentinel, shut up.” Diamond Tiara pushed her hoof against Sentinel’s muzzle, placing it over his lips. “He has his nest in that closet beneath the stairs. He likes to pull Sukari and the other little ones in there with him. And then he growls if anypony gets too close to the door.” 

“No I don’t…” Sentinel’s voice, muffled by the hoof over his lips, was a faint squeak. 

“Sukari is the only one who will really spend time in there with him though. Harper likes to be out and playing too much. But Sukari goes in there and naps and Sentinel will guard his nest. It’s adorable.” 

“So what if I do… I like Sukari. She’s quiet.” Sentinel his face dark, slumped down in his seat and shoved Diamond Tiara’s hoof away from his muzzle. “She’s my sister and she’s been abused. She needs to feel safe and protected.” 

Leaning over, Diamond Tiara kissed Sentinel on the cheek. “And this is why I love you. I’ve seen how you behave with your sisters. You are the most perfect colt I know.” The pink filly lingered close to Sentinel. “One day, I’m going to give you something very valuable of mine to look after and protect.” 

“Oh really?” Sentinel blinked. “What?” 

“Our foal,” Diamond Tiara whispered. The earth pony filly began to giggle as she watched Sentinel come undone. 

Sentinel blushed, his sooty brown pelt becoming almost purple. His tufted ears perked straight up for a moment and then splayed out sideways. A shrill squeal of echolocation could be heard deep in Sentinel’s throat. 

“Aw, he’s kinda adorable when he gets all flustered like that.” Apple Bloom leaned over and poked Sweetie Belle. “I wonder how worked up we can get Rumble.” 

“Nope. Rumble needs to save his strength. We have training this afternoon.” Scootaloo grinned at Rumble. “Gonna be fun working with Fledgling Kebab.” 

“Where is Archer, anyway?” Apple Bloom asked as she watched Rumble devouring his lunch.

“She snuck off with her lunch. I don’t know where she is,” Scootaloo replied. The orange pegasus filly angled her head so she could get a look at Spike, who was several seats down from her at the lunch table. “You okay Spike?” 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’m just… I dunno. I don’t know what is wrong with me.” Spike picked up a cookie from his lunch tray and ate it. With his mouth still full, he said, “Twilight is going to have a foal. This is different than just having Glass Slipper around. Glass Slipper is little and she needs to be looked after, but she can do some stuff on her own. When Twilight has her foal, that foal is going to be helpless… and Twilight is going to be so busy. And Rainbow is going to have her foal, and she’s going to be busy… and Flash Sentry… he never stops being busy and I’m just worried about all kinds of stuff.” 

“Are you worried that most of the work is going to be passed off on you?” Dinky asked. 

“Maybe.” Spike shrugged and swallowed. 

“Spike, Sentinel, Piña, and I all look after the little ones. We feed them breakfast. Sukari and Harper sleep in the same room as Piña and I. We’re responsible for them. We get them up in the mornings, get them into the bathroom, get them cleaned up and bathed, and I gotta say, while it can be hard work sometimes… I really don’t mind doing it. I understand now why Sparkler looked after me. It makes me feel good knowing that I am a good big sister.” Dinky gave Spike a smile. “You might have to do some of the work, but not all of it. It’s part of being a family, Spike.” 

“It’s not so bad,” Sentinel said. “I learned how to change a diaper. Pee diapers aren’t so bad… you just need a wet wipe to scrub everything down so the pee won’t give them a rash.” Sentinel paused and his face scrunched in disgust. “Poo diapers… poo diapers mean a quick clean up in the sink or in the bath. I have learned that no matter what you do with wet wipes, poo does not come out of a foal’s fuzzy backside.” 

“Oh gross!” Scootaloo shook her head, looking horrified. 

“Bon Bon was looking at getting a foal sanitation station for the nursery. It’s a little shelf-sink thingy with a little showerhead at the end of a hose that can be used to power scrub a foal’s messy backside. Makes things convenient.” Sentinel looked at his friends, seeing a mix of both fascination and disgust. 

“Yuck… yuck yuck! Scootaloo cringed. “Rainbow Dash has already threatened to make me change diapers. I don’t see how I am supposed to do that.” 

“It’s not so bad,” Sentinel said, repeating his words from earlier. “I am looking forward to the invasion. Two sets of twins… I’ll get to look after them. Help feed them. I’ll get to help them grow up. However they turn out as ponies, part of it will be because of what I did to help them.” 

“I never thought of that.” Spike looked over at Sentinel. 

“Spike, come over and stay a while after school. We can talk. Maybe catch up on comic books.” Sentinel looked at his friend with wide, hopeful eyes. 

“That might be nice… thank you, Sentinel,” Spike replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 780
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Luna? Luna, I have some questions. Some tough questions… like, student asking their teacher questions.” Bucky sat down in a chair beside Luna, who was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a few slices of zucchini bread and drinking coffee. 

“I see.” Luna’s demeanour shifted and she went from smiling to looking serious. “You look troubled… what is bothering you?” 

“I’ve been giving something a lot of thought. It’s been bothering me… when I was in my comatose state… I dreamed. I can’t remember what, though. Well, not very much, anyway.” Bucky, using his magic, poured himself a cup of coffee, opened the fridge, got milk, levitated it over to the table, and then began to prepare his coffee to his liking. “I got to thinking, Luna… about those lessons in conspiracy and control. How to control what ponies think, what they believe in, and how you can control them, should you choose to do so.” 

“You intend to have a heavy conversation.” Luna’s sides heaved as she sighed. 

“I got to thinking about you… what if you are being controlled through dreams?” Bucky asked, his eyes narrowing as he stirred his coffee. 

“I am not certain I understand what you are getting at,” Luna replied. 

“You’ve seen other realities… ones where I have become the alicorn of war… what if those are false? While I am aware that there are other realities, like the one with good king Sombra… what if you saw a manufactured dream… a nightmare, something that influenced your thinking, your decision making abilities, thus manipulating you towards a desired outcome?” 

Luna’s eyes widened and she stared at Bucky open mouthed. 

“It is what I would do. Spread disinformation… look, I overheard you and Celestia talking while I pretended to be asleep. I know that both of you think that whatever he is was inside of my head. And he might have been.” Bucky took a deep breath. “But what if you’ve been inside of his head while he dreamed? What if he showed you other worlds that didn’t even exist, but you believed that they existed? For that matter, how do we even know how many of these so called realities are even real or just elaborate illusions created by some pissed off god that wants to wreck his own sandbox just because his toys rebelled against him?” 

“Buckminster, your paranoia is unsettling to say the very least.” Luna shook her head. 

“A campaign of misinformation. Half truths, half lies, total falsehoods, false leads, we already know he’ll feck around with Celestia’s mind to undermine her confidence and self value.” Bucky paused and took a deep breath. “What if the future you saw where I became the alicorn of war is a total falsehood? What if it never happened? But the illusion of it happening was powerful enough to influence your decision to help me? What if we are all being played?” 

“I am at a loss for what to say,” Luna admitted in a small voice, her brows creased in concentration as she tried to process everything being said. 

“I don’t think we can fight it, Luna. What do we do? How do we fight an enemy that creates reality as we know it?” Bucky asked. 

“I do not have your answer, Buckminster… I am sorry.” Luna, scowling stared down at her zucchini bread. “I will be returning to Canterlot soon. There is much to be done. You will be needed in Canterlot as well… do not look at me in such a manner, my apprentice, it does not become you. My sister insists that you are in attendance… if it were up to me, I would leave you be.” 

“I’m not going to Canterlot.” Bucky lifted his coffee cup in his talons. “I understand that I have duties and that I need to deal with the opening of the tower and that I will have to go south to deal with the problems that have been growing worse down there.” 

“Had I my way, I would not return to Canterlot either. I have grown to loathe that place. Alas, I am required to be there.” Luna made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. 

“I shall send my squire in my stead.” Bucky raised his head and peered at Luna, as if daring her to tell him that he could not. “Sentinel shall go in my stead. I am guessing there will be some sort of victory parade or celebration or some such event. I want no part of it.” 

“Buckminster… I doubt my sister’s needs would be placated.” Luna gave Bucky a sympathetic glance. “She wants for you to rub shoulders and get to know other—” 

“No.” Bucky’s refusal was firm. 

“No?” Luna stared at Bucky in disbelief. 

“No.” Bucky shook his head and then said it again. “No.” As he spoke, his mouth formed a perfect little ‘o’ and his ears perked forwards. 

“Buckminster—” 

“No.” 

“But Buckminster, Celestia just wants for you to have a better public image—” 

“No.” 

“But this is for your own good—” 

“Negatory.” 

“Buckminster—” 

“Nope.” 

“Fine… since you insist on being unreasonable, you can deal with Celestia. I wash my hooves of this issue. You are such a stubborn little pony.” Luna rolled her eyes and then decided that a change of subject was needed. “So… tell me… are you ready to make more Shadowbolts?” 



 

During moments of intense concentration, Lyra’s tongue stuck out of her mouth. She was doing that now as she fiddled with a project. Using a screwdriver, Lyra attached a long handled crank on a flexible hinge that allowed it to be folded away. 

What she held in her magic defied description. It was long, appeared to be a collection of gears, copper, iron, wires, discs, and a small glass globe was near the front end, the end she kept pointed away from her. Extending from the front of the device was a long, flexible, silver looking antennae with a round knob on the end that protruded from a round dish. 

Lyra slurped in her tongue. “Okay, got the hoof crank, that’s set to a gearbox, that spins up a high speed flywheel for momentum, that turns a camshaft, and that turns several banks of stators and rotors. All of that leads up to the supercapacitor, the thaumaturgical agitator, and a reserve of liquid mana.” 

Lyra grinned, a terrible, mad looking grin. 

She gave her device a once over, grunted with satisfaction, put on protective eye goggles, rose out of her chair, and stood for a moment, feeling triumphant. She stomped off, heading for the front door to test out her new device. 



 

As Lyra conjured up a hay bale from the carriage house, she realised that she was not alone. She gave both Bucky and Luna a sheepish grin. In a somewhat shy sounding voice, Lyra said, “I bet both of you wonder what it is that I am doing.” 

“I will admit, I am curious. That looks like an electrical motor,” Bucky replied. 

“Oh, it is!” Lyra’s eyes took on a manic gleam. “I was studying electro-cannons, like those used on airships. While you were gone, since I had some spare time occasionally around the house, since I wasn’t working in the candy store with Bon Bon, I started using my noodle to design this.” Lyra held her device over her head. 

“But what is it?” Luna asked. 

Lyra’s eyes blinked behind the lenses of her goggles and she let out a faint, wheezing cackle. “The portable hoof cranked electro-cannon.” 

“Why hoof cranked? Why not just have a flywheel that could be turned with magic? Why have a mechanical device at all for that matter… Lyra Heartstrings, you can cast lightning bolts from your horn.” Luna shook her head in befuddled confusion. 

“I can… but a griffon can’t.” Lyra gave Luna a smug, self satisfied smile. Lyra began to turn the crank with her telekinesis, causing the device to make a soft whirring sound. 

“Lyra, what have you done?” Luna asked, her eyes wide with alarm as she began to back away. 

“Science!” Lyra cried in reply as the crank began to turn faster. She tossed the hay bale with her telekinesis and it landed almost one hundred feet away, tumbling down into the snow. “I got my idea from making sandwiches… I made flat stators and rotors. They’re thin. The rotors spin with the flywheel and the stators are stationary. I put a whole bunch of them in here, one after the other, so this thing builds up a massive charge.” 

All around Lyra, the air crackled and Lyra’s mane was starting to stand up. 

“I gave it an agitator and made a closed system thaumaturgical system… I milked myself for my own mana using a school science kit I had lying around. The excited mana flows through the long tube that holds all the stators and rotors… it gathers the charge and becomes super-excited. All of that goes into a supercapacitor I pulled that off of an airship electrical turbine engine I found in a scrapyard a long time ago.” 

A long, low whine came from the device that Lyra was holding, a terrifying anus-puckering sound that even made Bucky back away from Lyra, a hideous look of fascination, curiousity, and arousal upon his face. 

A little blue light turned on. It blinked. Seeing it, Lyra clucked her tongue. “Will you look at that. It’s ready to fire. I wonder what is about to happen...” 

Taking no chances, Luna threw up a protective shield bubble and then cast a grounding spell. Beside her, Bucky was doing the same. 

“Sandwich science pays benefits!” Lyra shouted as she pointed the device at the hay bale. The antennae at the end of it quivered, the whole electro-cannon was vibrating in Lyra’s magical grasp. Squinting, Lyra peered down the crude sights. 

When Lyra hit the release switch, there was a brilliant flash of light followed by a clap of thunder. A stream of lightning spewed forth from the front of Lyra’s portable electro-cannon, it crackled and super-heated the air around it. The snow melted along the ground and the hay bale exploded on contact, sending flaming hay in every which direction. 

Wisps of plasma floated around in the air, making hissy-fizzle sounds, then popping out of existence like punctured soap bubbles. A stream of smoke trickled upwards from the end of the antennae. 

“IT WORKS!” Lyra screamed. The fuzzy pelt on her face and strands of her mane were smouldering. “SEE WHAT SANDWICH SCIENCE HAS WROUGHT!” A long maniacal cackle slipped from Lyra’s lips. 

Luna, her eyes wide with terror, looked over at Buckminster and then immediately looked away, squeezing her eyes shut. “Buckminster… how uncouth! You are not wearing your cloak! Cover yourself this instant!” Luna began to sidestep away from the visibly aroused unicorn beside her. 

Ignoring his dangling bits, Bucky rushed to Lyra’s side, a crazed rictus upon his face. He kissed Lyra on her smouldering, somewhat blackened cheek and then looked down at the electro-cannon. “I want to fire it! Please, please let me shoot that!” 

Lyra, excited by her success, seemed oblivious to the fact that Bucky was excited and aroused. She bounced up and down, flexing her knees, and then, in her excitement, kissed Bucky on the lips, a hot, wet, saucy kiss that did nothing to help Bucky’s current problem. 

“I made a weapon for our griffons to use!” Lyra said to Bucky. 

“You did, you did make a weapon that our griffons could use,” Bucky replied. He wrapped his foreleg around Lyra’s neck and pulled her in for another excited, lusty kiss. 

After a moment, Lyra pulled away, panting. “Here! You can shoot it! We’ll need another hay bale. Start winding the crank and I’ll get the hay bale.” Lyra passed the gun off to Bucky’s waiting telekinesis. 

Luna rolled her eyes and thought about telling Bucky that his lightning rod was on full display. Seeing him this way reminded her of Sombra… during his moments of excitement, he was known for slipping free and causing present mares to faint. 

Bucky was nowhere that gifted. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 781
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The last of winter clung to the land with a tenacious grip. Spring was coming and would not be denied. The winter had been harsh; brutal cold, heavy snowfall, it had come early and was staying late. The land had gone into a deep, restorative sleep and now, it showed signs of waking. 

Tucked in his bed, the Lord of Winter snoozed, an occasional fitful snort escaping his nostrils as he lay sprawled upon his back, part of him piled beneath the other ponies (and one griffoness) that he shared the bed with. 

In his bed, surrounded by those he loved, the Lord of Winter dreamed… 



 

A long stone hallway stretched before Bucky. It seemed ancient, from a forgotten time, but also familiar somehow, as if Bucky held some memory of it. Suits of armor stood guard along the walls. The armor was old, crude, the only thing it had going for it was the fact that it was solid, heavy, and offered good protection. 

Ahead, he heard voices as he approached a set of tall double doors. One of the doors was open, the other closed. The massive timbers were held together with brass fittings. 

“The body is missing… Sombra has gone north.” 

“North you say. Somepony should go after him.” 

“The Lord of Winter is mad with grief… I hesitate to report this, your Majesty—” 

“Please, dispense with the formalities.” 

“Of course…” There was a long pause. “Necromantic magic was detected. We do not know what has taken place. We suspect that he has perhaps tried to contact her on the other side. One shudders to think of the other possibilities.” 

Bucky froze outside the door, unable to take another step, his heart thudding inside of his barrel. He could make out Celestia’s voice on the other side of the door. Very little had changed in a thousand years. 

“Majesty, the crime of necromancy is punishable by death… something that the Lord of Winter has enforced countless times—” 

“I know what the penalty is!” Celestia snapped. 

Standing outside the door, Bucky cringed. The sound of Celestia’s voice was unbearable. Pain, grief… fear. 

“Sombra is too valuable of an asset to simply cast aside. He shall have to face consequences, but the empire cannot continue to function without him. We shall have to turn a blind eye to what has been done, whatever it is.” 

“Majesty… if we allow for mercy, others will see this laxness and become emboldened, this is the first step down the path of ruin. We need to hunt Sombra down, place him on trial, and have him summarily executed—” 

“BE SILENT HURRICANE! I AM IN NO MOOD FOR YOUR SERMONS ABOUT JUSTICE!” 

“Very well, you bring this ruin down upon your own head.” 

Bucky, standing outside the door, heard somepony stomping off, metal shod hooves rang out like bells against the stone floor. Unable to stop himself, Bucky began to wonder what might have been different had Sombra been hunted down, placed on trial, and put to death before his long slide into madness. The world might be a different place. He felt a heaviness in his heart. Celestia was making a terrible decision, one based upon love rather than reason. He didn’t believe for one moment that Celestia was doing this for the empire. 

Stepping forward, Bucky peered through the door to see what he could see… 



 

“You look troubled,” Bon Bon said as she leaned over and prodded Bucky, touching his neck with her hoof. “Is something bothering you?” 

“Yeah,” Bucky replied, seeing no point in lying. “I had a dream that’s bothering me. I’m okay though.” 

“Bucky, the past week has been wonderful, having you home, and having us all together, but I have got to go into town today and open up my shop.” Bon Bon frowned and then gave Bucky an apologetic glance. 

“Bonnie, do you have to go?” Bucky turned his head and gave the earth pony beside him the saddest look he could muster. He knew he was doing a good job when Bon Bon turned away, biting her lip and blinking her eyes, perhaps blinking away a tear or two. Bon Bon was a lot easier to manipulate now that she was soaked through with pregnancy hormones. 

“Bucky, don’t make this hard. That business is my life.” Bon Bon let out a sniffle and then drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “I want to be here with you. I want to be here to help comfort Derpy. I want to be here to play with Harper and the others and somepony responsible needs to be here to keep an eye on Lyra so she doesn’t invent another super lethal contraption.” 

“Lyra’s lightning cannon is an amazing invention and the griffons have spent the past week pulling it apart and putting it back together to see if they can improve it.” Bucky grinned and looked over at Berry Punch, who was half awake. She was eating granola and milk. Berry had not even bothered using a spoon, her muzzle was down in the bowl and she was just sucking everything in. 

Bon Bon’s sniffles ceased. “Look, I am none too pleased that Lyra built something that is only practical for killing things. It doesn’t serve any other useful purpose. I’ve always tried to keep Lyra’s creative energies focused on candy creation… this just… bothers me. She made something unbelievably dangerous.” 

“Bon Bon, you’ve been upset about this for days… I think mommy hormones are—” 

“IT ISN’T MOMMY HORMONES!” 

“Woah, okay… never mind. No sign of mommy hormones here.” 

Trembling, her cheeks bulging as she held her breath, Bon Bon glared at Bucky, her face taking on a purple tone as she tried to swallow her angry retort. She could feel a blood vessel in her temple throbbing like a second heartbeat. She watched as Bucky leaned over in his chair, coming closer. She wanted to shove him away. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to lecture him. 

She felt two lips pressing against her own, and then there was a soft kiss that she found that she was powerless to resist. She felt a foreleg wrap around her neck and then, the kiss intensified into something that made Bon Bon want to throw Bucky down on the floor. But not because she was angry. Bon Bon resented that Bucky had weaseled his way out of this. 

She clamped down on his lower lip with her teeth and summoned up the will to resist him. She glared down her muzzle, his eyes inches from her own. She could see mischievousness in Bucky’s eyes. Bon Bon’s anger fizzled away. Letting Bucky’s lip slip free from her teeth, Bon Bon reached out, grabbed Bucky around his middle, and then pulled him into her lap, cradling him in her forelegs. He was smaller than her, about the same size as Lyra, and she began stroking his neck with one foreleg. 

“You really are bothered by this… I’m sorry,” Bucky said, looking Bon Bon in the eye. He slipped a foreleg around Bon Bon’s neck and gave her a little squeeze. “Is there anything I can do?” 

“You’re already doing it,” Bon Bon replied. She heaved a sigh. “Lyra inventing that lightning gun… it’s like watching Sentinel when he succumbed to blood lust. Or knowing that you are off killing something. It just bothers me. I feel like I have failed or something. I feel like it is my job to keep things peaceful… and safe.” 

“I think I understand, actually. Some sort of earth pony feeling to keep the herd around them stable and calm—” 

“Yup… I think so too.” Milk dribbled from Berry Punch’s muzzle as she looked at Bon Bon and Bucky. “Keep the herd from fighting. Keep everypony pacified, happy, and working together to maintain stability.” Berry Punch let go of a thunderous, gurgling belch and then returned to eating her granola, stuffing her muzzle down into her bowl. 

“I’m going to kiss you now and maybe grope you a bit.” Bucky nuzzled Bon Bon’s muzzle with his own. “If you would like, I could send you to work with a smile. There is a kelpie around here that I could work out my own frustrations on.” 

“No, Bucky, that’s okay. If that happens, I’ll never leave the house. You’ll find other ways to keep me here.” Bon Bon, feeling Bucky’s muzzle moving against her own, felt a shiver go down her spine. She gave him a squeeze. 

“That’s the idea, Bonnie…” 



 

Violet Velvet watched as Apple Bloom got comfortable in her chair and Diamond Tiara was already reading through the folder of information, the pink filly’s eyes squinted through her reading glasses. The royal seal of Princess Celestia was emblazoned upon the front of the folder. 

“So what do I need to do exactly?” Apple Bloom asked. She glanced over at Diamond Tiara, then back at Violet. “Where is Bucky? Isn’t he supposed to be here?” 

“Bucky is finalising some adoption papers for a filly named Firelock and welcoming her into the nation of griffons,” Violet replied. She gave Apple Bloom a smile. “This is very, very important to him.” 

“Oh.” Apple Bloom sat back in her chair. “That is important.” She cleared her throat and then leaned over to read over Diamond Tiara’s shoulder. “So I have an official royal duty that I must attend to. What am I supposed to do?” 

“You have to choose the Maiden of Spring. The Lord of Winter must surrender the season and the Maiden of Spring must announce the coming of spring.” Diamond Tiara continued reading and her eyes darted from side to side. “Each year a new Maiden of Spring is selected to symbolise renewal and the tender new growth of spring. Ideally, the Maiden of Spring should be a young, fresh faced filly.” Diamond Tiara groaned and tossed the folder down upon the table. She looked up at Violet, her face becoming pinker by the moment. 

“What’s wrong?” Violet asked. 

“The Maiden of Spring is to be innocent of the knowledge of colts.” Diamond Tiara swallowed and cleared her throat. “Not even a kiss. The Maiden of Spring must know purity and innocence.” 

“Well, that rules out most of the fillies I know,” Apple Bloom said. 

“Oh dear.” Violet sat down in a chair. 

“Diamond Tiara, you’re right out… I mean, you were just trying to eat Sentinel’s face in the school hallway the other day—”

“APPLE BLOOM!” Diamond Tiara slumped down in her chair, her ears limp against her face. She covered her face with her hooves and let out a long groan. 

“Piña… I know Piña has been smooching Larch. Not big, wet sloppy tongue wrasslin’ kisses like a certain pink filly I know, but still kisses.” Apple Bloom’s eyes narrowed and she looked over at Diamond Tiara. 

“It was a dare, okay? There was a lot of peer pressure and I’m still struggling to fit in and gain acceptance… don’t judge me!” Diamond Tiara shrank down even further into her chair while trying to hide her face. 

“Wait, who dared you to do that?” Apple Bloom asked. One eyebrow raised and she leaned closer to Diamond Tiara. “Don’t make me pull rank as a princess.”

“Scootaloo… it was Scootaloo.” Diamond Tiara squeezed her eyes shut. 

“I’m gonna have to have a long talk with Scoots.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Sorry if Scoots made you uncomfortable… she’s going through a phase of some kind. I don’t understand that pegasus.” 

“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to do it,” Diamond Tiara said in a squeaky whisper. “Scoots didn’t have to try very hard.” 

“This is all very endearing, but we need to discuss the issue at hoof.” Violet Velvet looked at the two fillies, her expression stern. “Playground politics, while very important to you two, is best left on the playground.” 

“Right. Sorry Violet.” Apple Bloom sat up straight and folded her front hooves together on the edge of the table. Beside her, Diamond Tiara was doing much the same. 

“So we need a young filly that hasn’t kissed a colt. What about kissing other fillies?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“The spirit of the tradition remains.” Violet’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “We need a young filly, innocent, fresh faced, no kissing.” 

“This is going to be hard.” Diamond Tiara leaned over the folder, adjusted her glasses, her seriousness overcoming her embarrassment. “We’re going to have to search the lower grades.” 

“I have an idea.” Apple Bloom reached over and poked Diamond Tiara. “We can get Dinky to do it.” 

“Dinky?” Diamond Tiara blinked as the idea registered in her mind. 

“Dinky… Dinky isn’t in to colts. She skipped out on the dance. As far as I know, the only colt she has kissed is her brother, Sentinel, and I don’t think that counts.” Apple Bloom looked over at Violet and then began to tap one hoof upon the desk. 

“Dinky and Twist have been spending a lot of time together… if we want her to do this, we might need to have a chitchat with her about waiting until after the welcoming of spring.” Diamond Tiara lifted her head and looked at Violet. “All of this seems like such a big deal over nothing.” 

“It is an old tradition that is being revived. It should be respected, even if we think it might be silly,” Violet said in a patient voice. “These traditions come from a time long ago. The Maiden of Spring would lead other fillies her age in a dance to celebrate the end of winter. It comes from an earth pony tradition. When the tribes united, there was a ceremonial transfer of power… the Lord of Winter, a unicorn, would surrender to the Maiden of Spring to welcome in the new season of growth. There was a Champion of Fall too. That comes from the pegasi, who would have their games once the hard work of the summer was over.” 

“What about summer?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“Princess Celestia became the embodiment of summer with her summer sun celebration. She brings the summer heat so that new foals can be born in the spring.” Violet smiled and looked at the two fillies. “Both of you have had your heats, so you know what that is like.” 

“Are we going to bring back the Champion of Fall?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Yes.” Violet nodded. “The winner of the Running of the Leaves might be a candidate for the position.” 

“What about ponies in other cities? Other places?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“Ah, I was hoping you would ask that.” Violet smiled and felt pleased. “Princess Celestia wants to revive the tradition here, in Ponyville. In time, she wants to expand to other places. One day Apple Bloom, you might have to go Vanhoover to pick a Maiden of Spring… or off to Baltimare to find a Champion of Fall.” 

Apple Bloom took a moment to allow this to sink in. She looked over at Diamond Tiara, then back at Violet. The subtle implication here was that this was going to be a long term project that she was going to be responsible for. This was like planting a seed and then watching it grow. Apple Bloom’s ears pitched forwards. She was being made responsible for re-establishing old traditions. 

“Violet, I want to begin preparations on next year’s selection of the Maiden of Spring. I don’t know what I’m doing just yet, but there should be some kind of pageant, some kind of competition to help select the next one.” Apple Bloom waited for any kind of reply, feeling butterflies in her stomach. 

“Like a beauty pageant?” Violet raised her eyebrow. 

Apple Bloom shook her head. “No… no, that’s all wrong. Beauty pageants are all about popularity and there are too many shy fillies that might get left out at having a fair shot. We don’t want that.” 

“Well, then, what?” Violet peered at Apple Bloom through her quarter moon reading glasses and waited for Apple Bloom to come up with something. 

“Some kind of essay,” Apple Bloom said, speaking mostly to herself, her words coming out in a low mumble. “An essay. Every little filly is in school, or should be, and essays are something we all can do. This would encourage better writing skills too.” 

“So an essay… about what?” Violet asked. 

“I don’t know yet. We’ll need to discuss that.” Apple Bloom looked at Diamond Tiara. “I’m gonna need your help… I can’t do this on my own.” 

“You know I’ll help,” Diamond Tiara replied. “I’ll talk to Sentinel. He’s a writer. He’s bound to have a good, simple idea that will be easy to execute.” 

“Good idea!” Apple Bloom’s whole face lit up. “We can gather up all the submitted essays, take the very best of them, and have Twilight Sparkle publish them as a collection. We can then take that book, sell it, and then all the money that is made from book sales can go towards a good cause. I don’t know what though.” 

“That is some progressive thinking.” 

Apple Bloom looked up and saw Bucky standing in the doorway of the farmhouse library. He was smiling, looking quite pleased. She watched as he entered the library and then sit down in his chair, the chair that nopony else sat in, with the exception of Sentinel and sometimes Harper. He picked up a ledger and began writing something down. 

Apple Bloom thought of what Bucky had been doing, finalising an adoption, a filly going to two griffon parents. It gave her an idea. “Next year’s theme for an essay should be unity. Not just tribal unity, but all of Equestria’s new residents. Griffons, diamond dogs, donkeys, minotaurs, zebras… some kind of essay on the importance of unity, from the point of view of a little filly that is going to grow up and live in this future we have coming.” 

“Apple Bloom, that’s a good idea.” Diamond Tiara lifted up a pen and began to scribble something down upon a notepad. 

Apple Bloom saw Bucky glance at her, but she could not make out his expression. “And make certain that the Maiden of Spring is available to all little females that submit an essay…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 782
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hello North Star… pleased to meet you.” Rising Star watched the guest in his workshop as North Star wandered around, looking at everything from new armor sections to advanced prototypes of prosthetic legs. “Welcome to Winterworx.” 

“This place is amazing,” North Star said as he looked at the skeletal frame of a gyro prototype. North Star, a Myrmidon, was just another piece of military hardware now looking at other pieces of military hardware. 

“I am honoured to have a Myrmidon in my workshop.” Rising Star grinned. “Do you mind if I ask a question that is probably kinda top secret?” 

“I might answer,” North Star replied. 

Rising Star nodded, his enthusiasm bubbling up from inside of him. “How do you Myrmidons get in and out of your armor? It’s all built as a solid suit to reduce the number of weak points. There are no gaps… and so very few weak places. Just the wings.” 

“Oh, the answer is so very simple… it might surprise you.” The big white lunar pegasus grinned. “Here is a hint. It is dark inside the armor.” 

Scowling, Rising Star tried to figure out the cryptic reply. He cocked his head to one side and began concentrating. After a few moments, he shook his head. “I still don’t see how you get in and out.” 

“Inside the armor, we can shadow dive. Once in shadow form, we slip out. Usually through a wing hole or the eye slit. To put the armor on, we store it inside of a dim room. We shadow dive, slip inside the armor, and become solid again.” 

“That… that is beautiful simplicity.” Rising Star nodded as he began to understand how practical that was. It allowed for complex armor to be put on without having to strap a lot of pieces in place. It was fast and easy. “So… do you understand your mission and why we are here today?” 

“Yes, yes I do. I’m going to help you design the next generation suits of armor. Mistress said you would be using that moon-silver stuff… super light, super strong, armor that can only be made by fey smiths. It isn’t magical in the sense that it can be dispelled, but it is magical because it is made from moonbeams.” 

“I can’t actually say what it is made from. But yes, there is some magic in its making.” Rising Star stepped forwards and then pointed at a small sheet of shiny, reflective metal that looked like a mirror. “That is one of our test pieces. We’ve fired bullets at it… the twelve point seven millimetre rounds left behind some tiny dimples and a few scratches, but did not crumple or pierce the metal. You still wouldn’t want to get shot though, the vibration carries something fierce. I blasted the metal with flames while a griffon had his talons pressed to the other side… he remained unburned. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia both used to have their armies decked out in this stuff… but the fey are gone… and I am one of the few smiths alive that can now make this stuff.” 

“Impressive. So Myrmidons suited up in this stuff are going to be unbreakable—” 

“I wouldn’t say that,” Rising Star said, cutting North Star off. “That kind of arrogance is dangerous. Heavier rounds will probably be able to punch through, or exotic materials. You will still be vulnerable to magic, although moon-silver is magic resistant and some spells are known to bounce off of its mirrored surface.” 

North Star bowed his head. “I understand.” 

Rising Star unrolled a scroll sitting on the table. “Our job is to make the best suit of armor possible. We also want to be able to carry one passenger… have a cargo delivery system… hmm, that’s a funny way of describing a bomb dispenser… explore the possibility of having a mounted gun system on the hindquarters that can be operated by the rider. Hmm, looks as though they want a mobile weapons platform, like with the gyros, only powered by meat rather than a motor.” 

Both stallions turned their head when a griffoness entered the room. She was small, sleek, and black. She sashayed through the room, spread her wings, lept from the floor to North Star’s back, and then sat down while making herself comfortable. 

“Kiara… glad you could join us,” Rising Star said. 

“Sorry, I got held up… some very curious cubs wanted to hear stories of me and North Star and how we fell in love.” The griffoness puffed up, her feathers sticking out in all directions. She reached out and gave North Star an affectionate pat. “Well, where do we start?” 

“I’d like to start by saying that the danger has changed… the bullets come up from the ground. Our old armor designs are all about top and side impacts. When they were designed, high powered projectile weapons were not taken into consideration,” North Star said.

“Hmm… I say we pull apart the old armor design and see what works. It is a proven design. But let’s see if we can improve upon it.” Rising Star summoned up a sketchbook and a few pencils. “We have a suit of Myrmidon armor in the testing room.” 



 

Hearing the sound of Cadance squealing, Bucky cringed. Some sounds were still difficult for him to deal with. A squeal of happiness sounded too much like a squeal of pain or fear. He felt a bad case of the shakes coming on and he took a deep breath to try and deal with it. The cause of Cadance squealing was Shining Armor, now foal sized. 

Crowing, Cadance attacked Shining Armor, her wings spread, and pounced upon him. Shining Armor’s projection, as solid and as real as any other pony, was bowled over by the alicorn foal’s assault. Cadance got ahold of Shining’s ear and began tugging, all while making happy little grunts. 

Sukari, not one for rough play, scooted away from Cadance and Shining Armor. Bucky watched her go, her eyes darting from side to side as she retreated. As she left, Bucky heard her say, “Thistle?” 

“Sir?” 

Blinking, Bucky looked at Violet, giving her a befuddled stare. 

“Sir, I asked you a question. Are you okay? You seem out of sorts,” Violet said to Bucky in a voice filled with concern. “You looked panicked there for a moment.” 

“I’m fine.” Bucky raised his hoof and made a dismissive circular gesture. 

“Princess Celestia wants you in Canterlot for the—” 

“I said NO!” 

Bucky’s voice was loud enough to make Shining Armor and Cadance stop playing. Cadance, fearful looking, looked up at her father, her eyes narrowed and curious. She clung to Shining Armor, her wings twitching and her nostrils flaring. 

“I can’t even listen to the sound of my own foals playing without freaking out… I can’t deal with some parade or some big celebration.” Bucky put his talons and his hoof to the sides of his head, placing them over his temples. “I don’t want to listen to ponies shouting… I don’t want to hear screaming or hooting or hollering. I can’t do it.” 

“I understand… Bucky, I’ll send a message to Princess Celestia. Is that why you just zoned out minute ago?” Worry wrinkles appeared on Violet’s face. “Cadance, Bucky needs a hug.” 

The words were scarcely out of Violet’s mouth when Cadance tore herself free from Shining Armor and threw herself at her daddy. She slammed into him full force and began rubbing her cheek against Bucky’s chest. 

“Be happy,” Cadance said in a soft but chirpy voice. 

“Are you going to be able to deal with the tower?” Violet asked, her brows furrowing. “Look, if you need time, I can forcibly clear your schedule and I can make other ponies listen to reason… you just need to tell me and be honest when you are having a problem, rather than tell me that everything is fine. When you tell me that everything is fine, I am obligated to keep you at task.” 

“I’ll be able to deal with the tower… I just… don’t want anything to do with Canterlot.” Bucky slipped his foreleg around Cadance, lifted her, and held her close. He kissed her, gave her another squeeze, and then set her down upon the floor. He place a hoof upon her backside and scooted her towards Shining Armor. “Go and play… go on.” 

Hesitant, Cadance peered back at Bucky, and then looked at Shining Armor. After a moment of internal debate, Cadance’s cheerful playfulness won out, and she launched herself at Shining Armor once more, tackling him, but this time doing so in near silence. 

“Princess Luna wishes to resume the Shadowbolt program right away. We already have a list of candidates, mostly griffons. Sir, there is a name on the list that you should know about,” Violet said as she watched watched Shining Armor trying to get Cadance in a headlock. 

“Oh?” Bucky raised his eyebrow and looked over at Violet. 

“Boadicea is on the list. She wishes to follow the example of her queen,” Violet replied. 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed his face. He sank back into the cushions of the couch. “Does Sentinel know about this?” 

“I have no idea.” Violet shook her head. “Do you think she is doing it to impress him?” 

“She might be. I have no real issue with her doing this, but I want her to do it for the right reasons. This is a life changing decision… I still don’t know how I feel about Belisama doing it.” His talons falling away from his face, Bucky blinked a few times, his eyes watering, and then he let out a sour tasting belch. Home for a week and already the stress was getting to me, he thought to himself. 

“Belisama is doing it to inspire her subjects… and so she can be a better warrior. She wants to be a good example for Bandua… and she wants to be able to train Bandua to better use her shadow magic. Princess Luna says that Bandua reeks of strong magic.” 

Bucky nodded. “I know, Violet. Bandua could end up very much like Luna, doing for the griffons what Luna does for ponies. Odin and I have spoke about it. I just hope that Belisama doesn’t have another little cub that loves the sun and then we’ll have squabbling sisters and somebirdy will end up on the moon.” 

“Sir, I found nothing about that funny.” Violet shook her head. “For shame.” 

“Sorry I said anything… anything else that demands my attention?” Bucky asked. 

“Well, the Royal Academy of Science has made a formal request of the griffon empire to examine the new portable lightning cannon,” Violet replied. 

“No,” Bucky replied, shaking his head. “Not right away. The griffons in Rising Star’s foundry are still examining it. I’m sorry… but I want my griffons to have some recognition for improving the design… I know that Lyra invented it, but I want my griffons to have the credit for perfecting it, not a bunch of scientists working together in Hidden Hollow or someplace like that.” 

“Sir, that is understandable.” Violet wrote something down upon her notepad and then looked up at Bucky. “Speaking of Lyra… she is working on another project and might need your help.” 

“Oh?” 



 

Feeling inspired after her success with the portable electro-cannon, Lyra Heartstrings had slipped into full blown mad scientist mode. The electro-cannon, while very good, would benefit from more power. The more electricity the better. And Lyra, being a clever unicorn, had an idea of how to make more electricity. 

In front of her, she had a coil cylinder wrapped with iron and copper, as well as a large, round, magnetic ball. A powerful magnetic ball. Holding up a disc of metal with her telekinesis, Lyra Heartstrings pushed her hoof into the steel disc, touching a glowing, golden magical field. 

Her hoof passed through the steel disc and vanished. Down on the table in front of her, she saw her hoof coming up out of the coil cylinder. Lyra smiled. She had a stable, active, step-through portal. It was a tiny thing, something that was held in place by a ley line trickle charge, but it would hold forever. She wiggled her hoof around. Anything dropped down the cylinder case would hit the portal in the bottom and immediately fall out of the second portal. 

Which was the lid. Lyra pulled her hoof free and grinned, 

Lyra slapped the lid down upon the cylinder case and began turning the screws to secure it, sealing off the cylinder. It was now a closed teleportation loop. She looked at the magnetic ball. The ball would fall into the teleporter at the bottom of the cylinder, get teleported to the top of the cylinder, fall, hit the teleporter on the bottom, be sent back to the top, and would fall forever, generating a significant amount of electricity on each pass. 

Lyra scoffed at the laws of thermodynamics and thought of something that Bucky had said. Laws are useless. Good ponies don’t need them and bad ponies don’t follow them anyway. Lyra realised that she was about to violate all the known laws of the universe with infinite energy production. She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then teleported the magnetic orb inside of the infinite loop chamber. 

Right away, she heard a whirring sound. A lightbulb began to glow. A large bead of sweat rolled down Lyra’s neck. Nervous, terrified of failure, Lyra looked over at the large battery and the charge indicator. She felt a queasy feeling in her stomach as she watched. Nothing was happening. Lyra began to wonder what she had done wrong. 

And then, the needle moved. It was a tiny jump. The battery was charging. 

Lyra wanted to scream, but somehow swallowed it and remained silent. The design had limitations, the most restrictive was the need for the portals. They could only be so big, arcano-tech was limited by ley line trickle charging. Lyra had pushed the very limits of what a stable step-through portal was capable of. She had no idea how much electricity her device would make… but Lyra supposed that it didn’t matter. It was infinite energy. Even if the machine was small, whole banks of them could be made. The magnets and the coil cylinders could be improved. Lyra’s mind reeled when she thought of what her new motor could do for the airship industry. 

Other things began to trickle into Lyra’s mind… the world would no longer need to struggle, fight, or bicker for resources. With enough of these machines, even though they were tiny and their output was limited, the entire world could have electricity. Homes could be heated, cooled, have electric lights, coal would no longer have to be burned for cheap electrical production. 

The full weight of what Lyra had done began to settle upon her. Lyra looked at the battery charger. The battery was already sitting at four percent according to the indicator, the needle resting just below the number five marker. 

A longer coil cylinder would allow for more electrical production. Even if the portals could not be made larger than an opening the size of a foal’s rubber ball, the longer coil cylinders would allow for more electrical generation. Lyra lifted up a somewhat chewed up pencil and began jotting down her ideas on paper. The lightbulb burned with a steady, unwavering light. The whirring from the coil cylinder was soft, almost soothing. 

Feeling warmth, Lyra looked down at her infinite loop motor. She placed a hoof near it. It was growing warm. This concerned Lyra somewhat, but she did not see it as a setback. If it got hot, heat was more energy to exploit. It could be cooled. The heat could be used to heat water for bathing perhaps. If it got real hot, perhaps it could be used as a boiler as well as a means of electrical generation. It was growing hotter by the minute. She pulled her hoof away and realised that her experiment was becoming a danger. She wanted Bucky to see what she had done… Lyra desperately wanted his approval again—so shutting her project down was out of the question. 

“BUCKY! I NEED SOME HELP!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 783
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Don’t make any plans this weekend,” Violet Velvet said to Sentinel in a low voice. “I’m calling in your debt to me. I am going to need both you and Ripple. I am going to want both of you in fine form.” 

Sentinel, who had made plans for the weekend, held back a groan. He had wondered when Violet was going to call in his debt for the winter games. “I will tell Ripple that we are needed.” 

“There is going to be a big fundraiser for the Veterans of Distant Conflicts at the bowling alley. I am going to need you and Ripple to make certain that some very important invitations make it to the right ponies. All of them live in both Ponyville and Canterlot. There shouldn’t be any problems.” Violet gave a very prim smile to Sentinel. 

“We can do that,” Sentinel replied. 

“One of those ponies is Sapphire Shores… you and Ripple should have a lot of fun convincing her to come…” 



 

Saddened, Lyra looked at the remains of her fantastic device. Not long after Bucky came to the rescue, it had melted as though it was made of candle wax, collapsing into a puddle of molten metal, right after Bucky had teleported it outside. The metal had been cooled and then pried out of the dirt. It now sat inside of the Winterworx foundry. 

Lyra was forbidden to work on the project again without following proper safety protocols. It was a tough, but fair, judgment call. Already, she was working on improvements. A cooling system. She had found other magnets. A long cylindrical magnet and several spheres. The spheres were bearings that had come out of airship engines and then turned into powerful magnets by Lyra’s magic. 

Staring at the mess, Lyra thought of other ways to power her coil cylinder piston engine. Perhaps abusing teleportation was a bad idea. Maybe steam could push the magnet up the coil cylinder and then gravity could allow it to fall again… but Lyra wasn’t certain how to make steam without finding other means of power. 

“Perhaps I could dig a deep hole in the ground, tap into the place where the ground is hot, superheat water into steam using the deep earth, and have the steam lift the piston… or not… that’s just a crazy idea,” Lyra said to herself. 

Heaving a sigh, Lyra wondered how to fix the energy crisis. She heard the clatter of metal and then the sound of banging. They were working on some pretty awesome stuff here in the foundry. 

“Queen Lyra?” 

Turning, Lyra looked down and saw a dirty, greasy, soot covered griffoness. She beamed, trying to put the nervous griffoness at ease. “Gertrude… how are you?” 

“Hard at work.” The griffoness sat down upon the floor and her crest rose. “You remembered my name.” 

“Well, your name is Gertrude. It sort of stuck out in my memory. Ready to get to work on the portable electro-cannon?” Lyra flexed her knees and bounced in place. “And just call me Lyra. We’re friends, right?” 

The griffoness looked baffled from hearing Lyra’s words. “Yes Lyra, of course. We’ve made a few improvements to your design. We built stator plates with copper tubing that allows liquid mana to flow around the stator plate while the rotor is spinning. It more than doubles the electrical generation output. We’ve had to place banks of supercapacitors to hold the charge.” 

“Sounds good.” Lyra grinned. 

“There are some serious drawbacks though,” Gertrude said in an apologetic voice. 

“Sounds bad.” Lyra frowned. 

“The gun has a very limited range. Beyond one hundred and fifty feet or so, it becomes useless. It is very slow to fire.” Gertrude began to tap her talons upon the floor. “It is still a very useful weapon though. It should be able to blast through most unicorn shields in a shot or two. Rising Star believes this gun has a future on the new gyrocopters we are building.” 

“Wonderful.” Lyra looked happy once more. 



 

Sitting in a comfortable chair, Bucky watched as Sunset Shimmer packed a few things into her saddlebags. Little things, things not even intended for survival. There was a photo that Bucky caught a glimpse of, it had Sunset Shimmer, Trixie, and Bartleby all sitting together. A brush was tucked away, because for whatever reason, a brush was somehow necessary. 

Sunset Shimmer’s quarters had changed a great deal. The stone walls were covered in all manner of things; research notes, photos, and maps. A quaint little kitchen had been constructed. There was a functional bathroom now. The space was open though, cozy, and inviting. Bucky found that he liked it a great deal. All kinds of plants hung from the ceiling, drying out. Jars of alchemical ingredients lined tall shelves. An alchemical station had been constructed. 

The space was intended to be everything. A study, a bedroom, a kitchen, a dining room, and a place to entertain guests. It was a curious, magical place, and Bucky knew that Sunset Shimmer brought promising students here for private lessons or even just a place of quiet study. More and more, it appeared that Sunset Shimmer would one day be a good replacement as the head of the school after he was gone. 

“Are we taking the airship, Master?” Sunset asked as she turned around to look at Bucky. One eyebrow was raised and she looked hopeful. 

“No, Minion, we are not. The Scorned Mare is about to undergo a major retrofitting and will be getting a new solid bodied aluminum gasbag. One of those big, long, skinny nacelles. We will be flying with Luna… so have a means of flight in mind and make certain it is fast,” Bucky replied. He looked at his apprentice and felt a warm sense of fondness. “How is your detection spell research going?” 

“Some days it goes splendidly… other days we start right back at the beginning.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “Discord has been of considerable help and we are looking into a study of harmonics.” Turning around, Sunset Shimmer continued packing things into her saddlebags. 

“Sunset, we’re going to have to go into the south into the Badlands at some point. I suspect that things are going to be quite bad. I will not force you to go with me—”

“Bucky, there is no way that you are going alone… don’t even start with that noble, self sacrificing crap with me,” Sunset Shimmer snapped. 

“I just wanted to give you a means to back out.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll be dealing with the undead.” 

“Master, I have a question.” 

“Yes?” 

“The mirror travelers. They fear dark magic and shadow magic. Yet we know that some of them use dark magic and some of them practice necromancy, like the ones in Las Pegasus that made undead changelings to use as spies. I never understood this.” 

Bucky's talons flexed into a fist. “Luna and I have spoken about this and I have interviewed a few of the prisoners in the nursery. There are competing ideologies within the ranks of the mirror travelers. It seems that while most are terrified of dark magic, some will use it. It makes sense… they did release the demons from Tartarus in their world to help fight Nightmare Moon.” 

“That’s all kinds of messed up.” Sunset Shimmer turned to look at Bucky. “Competing ideologies… that would be like Princess Celestia having you and Twilight Sparkle going head to head and proving who was right and who was wrong in the only way that matters. It’s pure stupidity.” 

“It is survival, Minion… ideas that work become stronger and lead to new ideas. Ideas that are weak are shown to be weak. Failure is usually fatal. I am not saying it is right, but I am saying that it seems to be working for them. They have survived.” 

“Master, I do not like it… it bothers me in a way that I cannot describe…” 



 

Flapping his wings, Sentinel came in for a soft landing beside Ripple. He folded his wings against his sides, lifted his head high, and then watched the four Fledglings running laps out out in the field. Archer was a tireless runner, Scootaloo was getting a reputation for speed, while both Rumble and Boadicea showed a little more toughness each day. 

“Ripple, Violet is calling in her debt from the winter games. This weekend. We’ll be doing deliveries for her and flying to Canterlot,” Sentinel said as he watched Flitter and Cloudchaser heap abuse upon the four running foals. 

“I think I can fly to Canterlot,” Ripple replied. She turned her head and looked at Sentinel. “Think you’ll be able to make it?” 

“Yeah… I think so. I’m good at gliding.” Sentinel watched as Archer kept Boadicea from taking a tumble as Flitter swooped down and dive bombed them. Hearing laughter, he looked upwards towards the source. He saw Rainbow Dash and her students flying in a tight formation. “She’s going to be an amazing Wonderbolt.” 

“I think so too.” Ripple, squinting, peered upwards. She watched as Rainbow Dash, flying at the head of a flying V formation, rolled through the air. Each one of her students joined her in the roll, each turning with near perfect synchronisation. “Scoots tells me that her parents don’t bicker as much anymore. I think they’re figuring everything out.” 

“What about you? Have you figured everything out?” Sentinel asked. 

Ripple nodded. “Yeah… we’re making this work. We’re all a lot happier now. I’ve joined the therapy group with Doctor Mawu… I get to talk with Diamond Tiara, Little Slip, and several others. It makes things easier for me.” 

Silent, Sentinel did not know what to say. He watched as Rainbow Dash banked. She flew the the same way that poets wrote beautiful words. The bulge of her stomach was becoming noticeable. Lowering his eyes, he focused his gaze upon the Raptor Fledglings. Each of them had amazing potential. Scootaloo would be learning how to be a pilot come spring; all of them would learn basic flight skills, but Scootaloo would go on to advanced pilot training. Boadicea would be getting special combat training from Loki. Rumble was going to start learning law enforcement and combat training. Archer… special plans had been made for Archer. Scootaloo would need a skilled gunner. 

“Loch Skimmer has changed, Sentinel. There are times when she is a completely different pony now and I feel like she is a stranger. There are moments when she’s still the fun loving sister that I know… and then there are other moments when she just grabs ahold of somepony and doesn’t want to let go. She has these moments where she is very, very serious. If she thinks that we haven’t been spending enough time together, Loch Skimmer… she cusses us all out and asks if we want a repeat of what happened the last time we let everything fly apart.” 

“Maybe she’s scared it will happen again… what happened was pretty scary.” Sentinel took a step closer to Ripple. “Being in love does funny things to you, Ripple. Something threatens that love and it makes you crazy.” 

“I think it’s different for us because we’re pegasi… I think about that a lot, Sentinel. I mean, how the different tribes approach love.” Ripple heaved a sigh, wrapped her wing over Sentinel, and pulled him closer. 

“I dunno… sometimes, I don’t think we’re all that different,” Sentinel replied. 

“Sentinel… don’t even try it. I’ve seen you flaunting your stuff in front of Diamond Tiara… your wings out completely, doing the whole ‘hey, check out my wingspan’ walk.” Ripple heard a snort and when she turned to look at Sentinel, she could see him turning a shade of beet red. “Unicorns can’t compare wingspans and neither can earth ponies.” 

“No, I guess they can’t,” Sentinel squeaked. 

“Rumble does it too when he goes parading around in front of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo… but Scootaloo is the only one who really responds to it. She starts blushing and then she tries to hide her own stunted wings any way she can.” 

“That’s awful.” Sentinel looked over at Scootaloo, who was sprinting through the snow. “She’s gonna fly someday. And she’s gonna be awesome.” 

“Yeah… she’s gonna be awesome. I think she has all of the right reflexes to be a great flier, we just need to give her wings.” Ripple’s ears swiveled forwards. She watched as Cloudchaser delivered what had to be a stinging wing slap upon Rumble’s rump in midflight. Laughter could be heard. 

“Don’t you sass your mother!” 

As Ripple and Sentinel watched, Scootaloo caught one across the backside as well. 

“OW!” 

“Don’t laugh at the misfortunes of the one you love!” 

Glancing over at Sentinel, Ripple began to chortle. 
	
	
> Chapter 784
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Buckminster… what in Equestria have you done to yourself? What are you?” Luna asked as she stopped and stared at Bucky in a most unprincessly manner. Bucky was some sort of long snake like creature that had chicken legs in the back and long membranous bat wings. Luna had never seen anything like it. 

“Master has changed himself into a zilant,” Sunset Shimmer said to Luna. Sunset Shimmer herself had chosen a more practical form. A long bodied and sleek dragoness. “Master says he rather likes this form. I think Master looks hideous.” 

“I concur.” Luna drew back her head and shook it as a sign of her disapproval. “Buckminster… as always, you are an eyesore.” 

“I like this form,” Bucky said in a hissy voice. “I can breathe a cloud of gas that causes uncontrollable laughter and hysteria. In this body, I can be dangerous but not lethal.” 

“Hmm.” Luna peered down at the strange zilant creature and tilted her head to one side. “I suppose that is a benefit.” Luna flared out her wings and gave them a flap. “Ready to go? We have a long, long way to go this night. We are heading to the Crystal Mountains. Once there, we will need to locate a group of mountains known as Sombra’s Teeth. The whole area was infested with—” 

“Trolls, giants, and dragons,” Bucky said, interrupting Luna as a strange new memory bubbled up to the surface of his mind. “Sombra and Commander Hurricane led an army into these mountains. They killed most of the monsters who lived there. The smart dragons fled and headed off to the utter east, the dragon homeland.” 

“You know, it’s kinda funny… dragons were content to gobble up earth ponies and pegasi, but once the unicorns got involved and made it known that pony poaching was a crime punishable by extermination, the dragons decided to go and live on the other side of the world.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “I have nothing against dragons… this is just something that bothers me.” 

“Most dragons are harmless. The Queen of the Sea Dragons has long been a friend to ponykind. There are rogue elements with every species though.” Luna looked up at Sunset Shimmer, who was in dragon form. “Trouble is brewing in the utter east though. The mirror travelers have attacked the dragons. Now, the dragons are demanding compensation for the breaking of the old treaties. They refused to listen to reason and do not accept that the ponies attacking them are from another realm. They just know that ponies are attacking them and that the treaties have been violated. I fear conflict in the future. Dragons have been seen in the skies over Stalliongrad.” 

“Why can’t Scorch control his children?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“Not all offspring respect or obey their parents. Dragons are a fierce, independent lot. Especially the ancient wyrms. Many of them are powerful necromancers just for the sake of study and nothing that Celestia can say to them will dissuade them from the forbidden arts,” Luna replied. The alicorn continued to stretch her wings and she started pacing. “For some, the allure of forbidden arts is just too much. They don’t care about the consequences. Many of the ancient wyrms know full well what necromancy does to this world. Demons are of no real threat to them.” 

“Master’s foals obey him—” 

“The foals I have now sometimes do as I say,” Bucky corrected. He stretched out his long serpentine neck. “I suspect that there will be utter anarchy soon.” 

“We should get going. We’ll need to set up base camp outside of the tower.” Luna gestured at the Myrmidons. “They look impatient.” 

“Princess Luna, before we go…” 

“Yes?” Luna turned and looked up at Sunset Shimmer, meeting her reptilian gaze. 

“I’ve been wondering. Where do I fit in with the Myrmidons? I know they follow you and Master with an almost zealous fervour.” Nervous, Sunset Shimmer began to wring her two front claws together. 

Smiling, Luna glanced over at her Myrmidons and then back at Sunset Shimmer. “Minion’s Minion, if you could, please, give the command for us to leave.” 



 

“You again.” Sentinel looked at the black griffoness lounging on his bed. She had made a nest out of his blankets and his pillows. He stood in his doorway, wondering and somewhat worried about whatever it was that Boadicea was up to. 

“I made a promise to be well behaved.” Boadicea’s feathers fluffed out. “But I never promised to be on my best behaviour.” She tilted her head to one side and watched as Sentinel went to the chair by his desk, pulled it out, turned it around, and sat down. “I hear you’re going to be busy this weekend.” 

“Yeah… I am.” Sentinel inhaled and then let it all out in a huff. “I had plans with Diamond Tiara too.” 

“Actually, you had plans with Diamond Tiara and I. We were going to surprise you.” Lifting her head, Boadicea folded one foreleg over the other and her tail swished around behind her. “Why don’t you sit on the bed with me? I’ve made us a nest.” 

“Nope… I’m good. You’re not crying or hurting in any way that I can see so there is no need to go over, comfort you, and embarrass myself,” Sentinel replied. 

Boadicea’s wings fluttered and she made a trilling sound deep in her throat, followed by a warbling sound. She flexed her talons, shifted her body, and kicked out both of her hind legs off to left. She was sore from working out. “Queen Belisama sent me here.” 

“What?” Sentinel’s eyebrow lifted. His growing nervousness caused him to start sweating. “Am I being conspired against?” 

“She wants us to talk about what you might want from me if I was to serve as your queen.” Boadicea lifted her left talons and began to polish her claws against the dense fur on her breast. “Lugus wants me to have goals. Queen Belisama wants me to have direction. Both of them want me to get sorted out and start living up to my potential.” 

“Um… I have no idea what to say.” Sentinel shook his head. He sat up straighter, adjusting his posture, trying to feel more like what he was supposed to be. A squire—and also a future leader, both of which relied upon protocol and good posture. 

“Belisama is discovering her way. She is learning politics in Ponyville while working with Violet Velvet. She is learning alchemy so that she might heal her subjects and care for them. She is becoming an accomplished musician and a skald of some renown… and on top of all of that, she is a celebrated war hero that has earned herself a knighthood. Soon, she begins combat lessons… the hard way. Lugus is going to show her the same kind of love and affection that he shows Ripple and me. Lumpy love.” 

Throat dry, Sentinel swallowed. “My heart tells me to tell you to protect Diamond Tiara at all costs. Out of all us, she is the weakest. She has no wings. I don’t want you to take this the wrong way or think I’m playing favourites—” 

“Hush Sentinel, and be calm.” Boadicea held up her left talons and held out one finger talon to silence Sentinel. “I understand, and that is already a given. The pink one is soft and vulnerable. She is my very best friend. If something was to hurt her… I would have to fetch my piano wire.” 

Sentinel felt his pulse quicken and discovered that Boadicea was suddenly a good deal more attractive, but he couldn’t say why. Her sleek black feathers glistened and she was well groomed. Sentinel realised that she had filled out. She no longer had bald patches and she wasn’t as thin and pinched looking. She was plump in certain places, sleek in others, and she was pretty. Sentinel sighed. She was pretty and she was dangerous, like thunderheads on the horizon with the setting sun behind them. 

“Go with your strengths, whatever those are. Discover yourself and what you are good at.” Sentinel gulped, trying to swallow the tight feeling in his throat. His body was betraying him and so was his mind. He wanted to go over to Boadicea, roll around in the nest she had made, and mark it. It was his bed, his blankets, and everything was marked with his scent already. 

Too late, Sentinel realised that he didn’t just want to mark his territory, he wanted to mark Boadicea, much in the same way he liked to mark anything he was affectionate towards. But Diamond Tiara got special attention. Resolute, Sentinel decided that he was going to stay in his chair. 

“Well, if I must say, I’m getting pretty good at making nests. I keep practicing. Could I count that as a strength? Do you think you could help me practice?” Boadicea said in low voice. 

Sentinel gulped and hoped that he had enough willpower to make it through this conversation. 



 

Frustrated, Dinky scratched out a few notes. Trying to levitate objects as she drifted off to sleep was not going as well as she had hoped. The biggest problem was knowing when Dinky was asleep or almost asleep. Piña had trouble knowing. Then there was falling asleep with the burden of performance anxiety. She worked by the dim light of her horn. Tonight was not an experiment night. Dinky was far too agitated to even try. 

“Dinky?” 

Dinky paused when she heard Harper’s soft voice. Harper was supposed to be asleep. Dinky turned her head and looked over at her sister. Dinky felt a prickle crawling up the back of her neck. Something seemed off with Harper. 

“Harper?” 

“Harpy no feel good,” Harper said in a low voice.

“Harper, what’s wrong?” Dinky set down her pencil and abandoned her notebook. She slipped out of bed and heard Piña’s blankets rustle. 

“Harpy have tummy troubles. Hurts. Real bad hurt.” 

Dinky could hear it in Harper’s voice. The foal was almost panting. Dinky went to Harper’s bedside and pulled back the blankets. She looked down at Harper and Sukari, who were in bed together as they always were. Dinky reached out her foreleg and touched Harper. The foal looked bloated, her stomach was distended, and was rock hard to the touch. Harper whimpered when Dinky touched her, causing Dinky to jerk her hoof away. 

Acting on reflex, knowing that her father had just left, Dinky scooped up Harper in her magic and took off at a quick trot. Dinky flung open the bedroom door, ran down the hallway, and then shot down the stairs taking them three or four at a time. 

Behind her, Piña was a pink blur, her blue eyes wide. 

“Hey! HEY! Something is wrong with Harper!” Dinky shouted. 



 

Frantic, Lyra feared that she was living her worst nightmare. She held Harper in her magic, not knowing what to do. Harper was panting now, having a lot of difficulty breathing, and the foal was soaked with sweat. She felt hot and feverish. Her stomach seemed almost twice its usual size and was as hard as a rock. 

“Lyra, be still.” Lugus extended his talons and looked Lyra in the eye. “I’m going to fly you to the hospital. But I need for you to be calm and brave, and Harper needs for you to be calm and brave. You can’t help her if you are falling apart.” 

Lyra, her vision blurry with tears, nodded. She felt something brush up against her side and knew it was Bon Bon without even looking. Lyra felt some of her strength and her courage return. Bon Bon would make everything better. Bon Bon always made everything better. 

“Everypony, out of the way,” Sentinel said, his soft voice cutting through the panic like a sword. He glanced at Boadicea, she was sitting in the corner, staring with wide, fearful eyes and holding Sukari, much to Sentinel’s surprise. 

“I’m ready to go,” Lyra said in a quavering voice. 

“I can carry you and Bon Bon. Come outside with me and I will lift you in my talons. I give you my word that you will be safe.” Lugus gestured at the door and his crest rose. 

“I’m coming… somepony, look after Peekaboo, she’s panicking.” Yew Wood lowered her head down and kissed Peekaboo. “Mama has to go, Peekaboo… I know you want to be with Harper, but I need you to stay here and look after Sukari. She’s going to need a brave little pegasus, just like you. Can you do that for Mama?” 

Peekaboo, looking up into her mother’s single remaining eye, nodded. With an attempt at a dutiful salute with her wing, she marched over to the corner where Sukari and Boadicea were sitting, trying to be brave, but it was clear that she wanted her mother. 

“Here, pack Harper up in a blanket. It’s cold outside and might be chilly in the hospital,” Derpy said. She pointed at the big wooden wardrobe. “There are spare blankets in there.” 

“Good idea.” Broom flung open the wardrobe doors and grabbed a cheerful looking orange, yellow, and pink blanket that Berry Punch had knitted. She unfolded it, gave it a few shakes to get it unfurled, and then began wrapping it around Harper with Lyra’s help. 

“I’m coming too,” Sentinel said. “Father would shame me if something happened to Harper on my watch.” 

“We go,” Lugus said. He looked down at Sentinel. “Lead the way, Squire Sentinel.” 



 

Flapping his large, powerful wings, Lugus sliced through the frigid night air, moving with the sort of swift speed that seemed impossible for a winged creature of his size. He held Lyra in his right talons and Bon Bon in his left talons. He had them around their barrels and Lugus hoped they weren’t too uncomfortable. 

As fast as Lugus was, Sentinel was faster still, leading the way, navigating through the dark, cloudy sky with ease using his echolocation. Lugus felt a strong sense of pride for Sentinel. Sentinel was not his offspring, but that did not change what Lugus felt for the colt. Sentinel could be at home right now, with his mothers, with his sisters, Sentinel could be safe, snug, and secure in his warm bed. But Sentinel chose duty. And, truth be told, Lugus was glad for Sentinel’s company. The night was dark and cloudy. It was difficult to see, even for Lugus’ eagle eyes. Sentinel didn’t need his eyes to fly in total darkness. Sentinel could fly at breakneck speeds through dense trees with a blindfold and never once hit anything. 

“If I go faster, can you keep up?” Sentinel asked in a loud shout so he could be heard over the rushing wind and the sound of flapping wings. 

“You can go faster?” Lugus replied, also shouting. 

“At night, I am much, much faster… I’m only going at half speed because I didn’t want to leave you behind!” 

Lugus gave his speed some thought and after a moment, he realised that he had a little more left in him. He glanced over at Yew Wood, who flew beside him. He saw her nodding. “Go faster!” As Lugus watched, he saw Sentinel’s already fast flapping wings double their strokes. Sentinel zoomed ahead and for a moment, Lugus was afraid he might not keep up. He heard a fearful cry from Bon Bon. He tucked the two mares a little closer to his body, pulling his front legs as close as possible, and then he began to dish out an aggressive assault upon the air with his wings, carving his way forwards. 

The freezing fog glazed his wings with a thin coating of ice. This was treacherous weather. Lugus, feeling a bit of worry, realised that he might not have as much control with iced over wings. He felt an odd bubble of warmth around his body and a soft golden glow surrounded him. The ice turned into droplets of moisture that rolled off his wings. Lugus looked down at Lyra. Even in Lyra’s frantic, panicked state, the mare had the presence of mind to look after little details. He did however feel a bit of worry for Sentinel and wondered how Sentinel’s wings worked in cold weather. 



 

“I wish they’d tell us something.” Lyra, pacing, doubled back upon herself, turning around so she could go in the other direction. “I’m losing my mind.” 

“Lyra, come here. Sit with Sentinel and I.” Bon Bon patted the seat beside her. 

Shaking her head, Lyra kept pacing, her hooves clicking upon the floor. This was the worst part of motherhood. Lyra could live with just about everything else, but this was unbearable. She paused midstep, closed her eyes, and repressed a painful shudder. 

“Lyra, come sit with me… I need you,” Bon Bon said in a soft, pleading voice. 

Opening her eyes, Lyra took a deep breath and went over to sit with Bon Bon. As she sat down, a nurse that Lyra did not recognise opened the door and stepped out into the waiting room. Lyra felt Bon Bon’s foreleg wrap around her withers and pull her close and she could feel Sentinel pressing up against her other side. 

“Is she okay?” Lyra asked. 

“I have some good news and a little bad news... but it is nothing too bad,” the nurse replied. “First off, the good news. Little Harper is going to be fine. She was backed up… severe constipation. We gave her an enema and she is still evacuating her bowels.” 

“And the bad news?” Yew asked. 

“Has she been getting enough of the digestive aids that the doctor recommended?” The nurse looked at Lyra with a questioning expression. 

“Every day she eats yogurt, we give her that special yeast stuff in her food, she has special cookies just for her that have the yeast extract stuff.” Lyra shook her head. “Why isn’t it working? How did Harper get like this?” 

“We suspect that Harper’s enzyme deficiency might be worse than first thought… or it could be a more serious problem. The doctor is confident that it is an enzyme issue though. We wish to admit her to the hospital for the next few days for observation.” 

Lyra slumped down in her seat, looking crushed. She almost fell over onto Bon Bon and Sentinel nudged her with his head to hold her up. “What do we do? How do we fix this? I don’t want Harper sick.” 

“Not to worry.” The nurse smiled. “If this is an enzyme deficiency, you keep feeding her yogurt, you keep giving her the yeast extract that the doctor recommended, and we start giving her medication—pills to help her problem. There will be some trial and error until we find just the right combo. I feel I should warn you though, there are side effects and complications.” 

“Like what?” Sentinel asked. 

The nurse’s lips pressed into a straight line as she looked at Sentinel and then she took a deep breath. She cleared her throat, tossed her head back to get her mane out of her eyes, and then she replied, “Well, first and foremost, excessive, forceful, powerful flatulence. Depending on the pills, this might be accompanied by runny, loose stools. If this happens, she will need to take other pills to firm everything up, because nopony wants, well, to have troubling flatulence and diarrhea. She’ll also probably have to drink a lot more water or face severe dehydration. We also might have to fine tune her diet.” 

“I can live with all of that.” Lyra looked at the nurse. “None of that seems that bad. I just want her well.” 

“The doctor is certain that this is not a serious issue and that you shouldn’t worry. We can fix this. Usually, we have these problems with elderly ponies.” The nurse gave Lyra a smile. “I must be going. Can I get you anything?” 

“When can we see Harper?” Sentinel asked. 

“Oh, soon. As soon as she recovers from the enema and we get some fluids into her, we’ll be moving her to a private room and we’ll do our best to make you comfortable. We encourage somepony to spend the night with her. It’s scary for a foal that age to be sick and not have their parents or their big brother around.” 

“Thank you,” Lyra said in a low, raspy voice as her eyes welled up with tears. Lyra managed to smile and she reached out to pull Sentinel even closer. 

“Just wait a little while longer if you can.” Smiling, the nurse vanished through the doors and was gone. 

	
	
> Chapter 785
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bon Bon, who had been unable to sleep, pulled Lyra closer. Between them, Harper remained in a fitful, restless slumber. It had taken forever to get Harper to go to sleep after the traumatic experience of the enema and the aftermath that followed. Bon Bon wished that Bucky was here; Bucky had always been the one who had a knack for making Harper feel better, even when she was in her most inconsolable states. Bucky had always been the one who would stay up all night and sit with Harper, rubbing her to soothe her aching stomach. For all of Bucky’s faults, of which there were many, Bon Bon forgave him because of the comfort he brought to Harper. 

When Lyra began to whimper in her sleep, Bon Bon stroked her neck. Lyra continued to kick and fidget in her sleep, but then quieted after several moments of stroking. Lyra, after confronting some of her past, was now in a place of stability and happiness that Bon Bon had not thought possible. Lyra was creative, full of life, and perhaps most of all, Lyra had found some sense of peace. Lyra had opened up to other ponies. Lyra now had in depth relationships with ponies other than Bon Bon. Lyra was able to laugh and carry on with an entire herd. Lyra had grown. The Lyra that Bon Bon held now was not the Lyra she had fallen in love with. This Lyra was different. This Lyra was developing a real sense of strength. This Lyra had hopes and dreams again. Bon Bon brushed Lyra’s mane out of her face. This was Lyra, Harper’s mother, a fierce creature that had rediscovered herself and had grown strong from tragedy. 



 

“Do you think that Harper is going to be okay?” Ripple asked her brother, Sentinel. She watched as Sentinel stretched his wings and made ready for a long distance flight to Canterlot. 

“When I left last night, she was doing better. They’re just keeping her for observation,” Sentinel replied. He heard a shrill whistle and turned to see what it was. He saw Loch Skimmer prancing through the snow, her head high. 

“I’m coming with you. I want little sister and little brother time,” Loch Skimmer said as she approached. Loch Skimmer flared out her flaming wings. “I’m feeling pretty good today… I want to have a little fun. Please, please don’t tell me no.” 

Ripple looked at Sentinel and saw him shrug. Turning her head, she looked at her sister. “It’d be great if you could come with us. You could use the exercise. You’ve been looking a little pudgy lately.” 

Loch Skimmer froze mid-step. “Oh… you went there… so that’s how it is.” 

Now grinning, Ripple pranced over to her sister’s side and wrapped her wings around Loch Skimmer’s neck. She pulled Loch Skimmer closer and gave her sister a kiss on the cheek. “There’s just more of you to love—” 

“Stuff it!” Loch Skimmer shouted, cutting Ripple off. “Stuff it, stuff it, stuff it!” She tried to pull away from Ripple, but Ripple held on and refused to let go. Loch Skimmer, unable to pull away, refused to make eye contact with her sister and turned her head away. 

“Both of you are silly.” Sentinel shook his head and adjusted his saddlebags. “We have invitations to deliver. We need to be going.” 

“He called us silly!” Loch Skimmer’s eyes narrowed as her head swiveled around to look at Sentinel. “Ripple, he called us silly… are we going to take that?” 

“No!” Ripple whirled around to face Sentinel. 

Sentinel, not knowing what was going on, stood staring at the two sisters, his expression one of befuddled bewilderment. He watched as Loch Skimmer scooped up a snowball. “Hey… what are you—” Sentinel’s words died out when the loose snowball hit him in the face. It was more slush than anything. He shook his head, trying to get the wet snow dislodged from his face. A second later, another snowball hit him. He backed away and then was pelted with another snowball. He covered his face with his wings and decided to wait this out. 



 

“Harpy’s butt explode.” 

Reminding herself that it was very, very important not laugh, Lyra nodded. Harper was being serious. Lyra struggled to keep a straight face and from the looks of things, Bon Bon was have a rough go at it as well. 

“What Harpy’s butt explode?” Harper, sitting on the bed, looking up at Lyra with wide, curious eyes. “What… butt… words sound same.” 

“Why did your butt explode?” Lyra’s whole body spasmed as she tried not laugh. “Well, you see Harper, from the time you were little, you had chronic colic. You have a problem with your tummy.” Lyra paused when she heard a faint ‘pfffrth’ sound, her ears perking forwards. “You couldn’t go poopoo and your insides were all stopped up and the nurse had to give you—gah! Harper!” Lyra covered her face with her hooves as her eyes began to water. The strong taste of eggs filled Lyra’s mouth. 

“Eggy!” Harper shouted. After a second, Harper fell over on the bed, lying upon her back, all four legs kicked up into the air. “Harpy dead now. Harpy no live. Nope.” 

“Oh, Harper!” Bon Bon, sitting in a chair in the corner, began to wave and fan her front hooves around. “Oh, that’s worse than Sentinel.” 

“Bonnie, I’m blind,” Lyra said as she rubbed her eyes. “It burns! I’m right here at ground zero… help me, Bonnie!” 

“I’m going to find out what is taking them so long to serve Harper breakfast,” Bon Bon said as she took the golden opportunity to escape. She dropped down out of her chair, crossed the room, and then was gone, coughing as she passed through the door. 

“Harper, you horrible little fuzzball, you’ve killed Mommy!” Lyra covered her face with a pillow and focused on not breathing. The air felt thick somehow, as though it could be chewed rather than just inhaled. 

“Harpy killed Harpy.” Harper gagged, rolled over, and then coughed. “When does smell come from? Why causes smell?” 

Lyra, coughing into the pillow, was unable to answer. 



 

Ahead, Canterlot was shrouded in a heavy layer of foggy, freezing mist. It was cold at this altitude, the sort of bitter cold that burned the lungs. Sentinel flew into the fog undaunted, Loch Skimmer and Ripple right behind him. A series of whistles, clicks, pops, and squeals filled the air as Sentinel cut loose with his echolocation, trying to pierce the fog. Canterlot was all but invisible. 

“Sentinel, I can’t see… I’m kinda worried about this, Sentinel,” Loch Skimmer said in a voice that sounded as though it held more than worry. “When we punch through the fog, let’s go get an early lunch. There is this restaurant I heard about, a place called The Gilded Filly. It’s by the rail station.” 

“How do you know about Canterlot restaurants?” Ripple asked her sister. 

“Um, Rising Star told me about it,” Loch Skimmer replied. 

“Oh.” Ripple, blinded by fog, followed close behind Sentinel, but also relying upon her fine-tuned sense of precognition. Ripple sensed that Loch Skimmer was lying to her, but Ripple figured that Loch Skimmer had her reasons. Loch knew better than to lie about anything. Ripple made a note to get down to the bottom of the issue later. 

Sentinel did not reply. He drifted through the fog, flapping his leathery wings, and letting out a neverending stream of echo-sounds. He could smell the city below him. The scent of burning wood and coal. The scent of coffee. The scent of baked bread. The faint scent of perfume borne in the high mountain wind. 

There were buildings ahead, objects, Sentinel could sense them. He eased his descent, and then, he dropped through the fog. Visibility improved a little bit, allowing him to see for maybe a hundred feet. He could see Canterlot below him. He saw the main gate and he could see the rail yard. 

“What’s the place called again?” Sentinel asked. 

“The Gilded Filly,” Loch Skimmer replied. “It will have a golden filly on the roof.” 

“I think I see it.” Sentinel banked and made ready to land in the road. There were very few ponies out and about. There was fine freezing drizzle coating everything in a glaze of ice. Extending his legs, Sentinel braced himself for what was sure to be an interesting landing. 

He landed hind legs first, his hooves sliding and scrabbling over the icy cobblestones. He dropped down his front hooves, bent his knees to absorb the impact, and continued to flap his wings for balance. He was confident that this landing was going to be a success right up to the point when Loch Skimmer plowed into him. Sentinel realised that she was falling. 

His first thought was that Loch Skimmer was pregnant; his second thought was that Loch Skimmer had once saved him. He doubled his body around, fell on purpose, and kicked himself underneath Loch Skimmer just as she went face first towards the ground. 

Loch Skimmer fell over onto Sentinel’s side, and Sentinel’s body cushioned her fall. Sentinel’s forelegs wrapped around Loch Skimmer’s neck, arresting her momentum, and keeping her from pitching further forward. 

Behind them, Ripple made the perfect landing, folding her wings and dropping down. She didn’t slide once, but came to a halt, watching as Sentinel grabbed Loch Skimmer. There was no denying it, Loch Skimmer was a clumsy doofus and Ripple was tempted to say something about it. 

“Thanks, Sentinel.” Loch Skimmer got to her hooves, almost slipped again, and then steadied herself. She watched as Sentinel got his hooves, gave himself a shake, and then, when Sentinel was not expecting it, Loch Skimmer kissed him on the cheek. 

“Aw, I couldn’t let you fall,” Sentinel said, becoming bashful. “Let’s go eat. I brought some bits in my saddlebags.” 

Loch Skimmer smiled. “Oh, those won’t be needed.” 



 

When the door opened, Sentinel was met with a blast of heat and the scent of delicious food. He stood in the doorway for a moment, sniffing, then stepped inside, following after Ripple and Loch Skimmer, who had gone first. Sentinel didn’t even have a chance to get his bearings before he was tackled by something. 

Something pink. 

“Sentinel!” 

The colt felt two lips press up against the corner of his mouth and two forelegs wrap around his neck. Pink filled his vision, and then something black as well. He felt feathers tickling him. 

“Surprise, Sentinel,” Loch Skimmer said as she began laughing. 

“How?” Sentinel asked as he was squeezed by both Diamond Tiara and Boadicea. 

“Well, I talked to Loch Skimmer and told her my plan, and Loch Skimmer flew over to Rarity’s house and told Rarity, and then Loch Skimmer flew back and told me, and we took a train to Canterlot,” Boadicea replied, explaining everything. 

“Good news, darling… I have scheduled a brunch date with Sapphire Shores. She is here now… I will get her to help you.” Rarity smiled down at Sentinel and batted her long eyelashes. “Sapphire and I needed to discuss business anyway. I’m positive she will help you if I ask her. There is a table waiting for you, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea… Coco and I have our own table.” 

“And Ripple and I will have a nice brunch together as sisters,” Loch Skimmer said, looking pleased with herself. “Ripple, you probably figured out I was lying to you earlier… sorry about that.” Loch Skimmer saw her sister smile. 

Checking out his surroundings as Boadicea and Diamond Tiara continued to squeeze him, Sentinel asked, “Where is Sweetie Belle?”

To which Coco replied, “Oh, she is helping Apple Bloom work on a historical memorial to Granny Smith.” Coco paused for a moment and then brushed up against Rarity. “Young love is something to be treasured. Look at them Rarity. Look how happy they are.” 

“Oh, they are just so precious!” Rarity pulled a small camera out of her bag and then snapped a photo just as Diamond Tiara was kissing Sentinel upon the cheek. She then turned and took a picture of Loch Skimmer and Ripple. “Sisterhood… a most treasured bond.” 



 

“I don’t know if I can afford this,” Sentinel said in a low voice as he looked at the menu. “Even the soup and salad are expensive here.” 

“Oh, no worries.” Diamond Tiara made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. “I’m paying for this. I have more than enough, trust me. I’ve been working, helping Rarity and Coco. They pay me for my help.” 

“There is meat on the menu,” Boadicea said from behind her menu. “I’m surprised.” 

“Rarity tells me that griffons run this restaurant. They serve the usual pony fare, but also serve fish and chicken dishes.” Diamond Tiara, who was staring at her own menu, lifted her eyes so she could see Sentinel and Boadicea. “Feel free to order anything you’d like. I don’t mind, honest. The sooner I get used to this, the better.” 

“I’m in the mood for chicken.” Boadicea set her menu down. “Lugus makes fantastic chicken. He smokes it in the smokehouse and does something to it.” 

“I’ve had it.” Sentinel looked over at Boadicea. “Father isn’t sure that he likes chicken. But I like chicken. Bones and all. They’re crunchy.” 

“You can’t eat chicken and not eat the bones. That’s wasteful. And if I waste anything, Lugus goes all angry birdy on me.” Boadicea giggled, reached over, and patted Sentinel. “Yew Wood loves to tease Lugus when he starts acting like a papa bird.” 

“Coco goes ballistic if food gets wasted,” Diamond Tiara said. The pink filly rolled her eyes. “Sweetie Belle and I can’t leave the table unless everything is eaten. Coco says that food is too scarce for most ponies and wasting food is immoral and wrong.” 

“Oh, here comes the waitress… does everypony and everybirdy know what they are getting?” Sentinel asked. “I think I’m going to go for the whole roasted chicken, stuffed with winter vegetables and served on a bed of rice.” 

“Oh, that sounds good!” Boadicea nodded her head. “I have no idea what winter vegetables are though. But it sounds good. I like rice.” 

Diamond Tiara returned to her menu. “Rice sounds good… I think I’ll get a rice dish of some sort...” 



 

Sipping her water through a straw, Ripple looked at her sister. Loch Skimmer was gnawing upon a crusty yeast roll. Ripple had ordered the lasagna primavera, not knowing what to order. The menu held far too many choices, and Ripple had felt overwhelmed just looking at it. Glancing around, Ripple saw that the booth that she and her sister were sitting in was private. 

Clearing her throat, Ripple summoned her courage. “Loch Skimmer?” 

“Yeah, Rippy?” Loch Skimmer replied between bites of yeast roll. 

“I can talk to you about anything, right?” Ripple looked Loch Skimmer in the eye and watched as Loch Skimmer swallowed her bite of yeast roll. 

“Of course. We’re sisters forever.” Loch Skimmer’s face split into a wide, toothy grin.

Ripple’s mouth went dry and she took another sip of water. She stared down at the basket of yeast rolls and sucked in a deep breath. She steeled her nerve, and then she said, “Bittersweet and I have planned out our first time. The first day of spring… Hearts and Hooves day.” 

“Oooh… romantic.” Loch Skimmer’s eyes narrowed. 

“I was wondering if you could give me some advice… Skimmy, I’m so scared that I’m having nightmares about it.” Ripple glanced at her sister for a moment and then looked away as she began to rub her front hooves together. “We don’t have a clue about what to do and I am so scared.” 

“Rippy, first off, relax.” Loch Skimmer’s grin vanished and the charcoal grey pegasus filly became quite serious. She leaned forward and looked at her sister. Lowering her voice, Loch Skimmer said, “If you are scared, spend lots of time talking about it. Talk to Sparkler. Talk to me, just like you are doing now. Talk to Rising Star… as awkward as it might be to do so, he’ll appreciate you talking to him. And talk to Berry. She can give you advice. She can help you.” 

“Okay.” Ripple gave her sister a little nod and somehow managed to look Loch Skimmer in the eye. “I want Bittersweet to be happy. I don’t want her disappointed with our first time together. I always expect so much out of myself and I want Bittersweet to be ridiculously happy.” 

“Rippy, the first time is going to be clumsy and nothing will go as planned. Just… try to enjoy it. Take it slow, figure out what feels good, and don’t rush into anything.” Loch Skimmer picked up another roll. “Have you talked with Doctor Mawu?” 

“Yes.” Ripple nodded. “Doctor Mawu asked me to keep a journal from now until Bittersweet and I do something. She wants me to document my feelings, my anticipation, and my anxiety. I can’t seem to write anything down and I’m starting to worry about it a lot. I’m frustrated and angry that I can’t figure out a journal entry worth writing.” 

Loch Skimmer sat back in her plush, cushioned seat, contemplating her sister’s troubles. Ripple was one for action, not words. If Ripple had a weakness, it was a lack of expression. Loch Skimmer wondered how she could help her sister. 

“Loch, help me… I’m freaking out again and I don’t want another episode,” Ripple whispered, looking her sister in the eye. 

“Rippy, how about this… you sit down with Bittersweet and you both work on your journal entries together. I don’t think Doctor Mawu will mind.” The more Loch Skimmer gave thought about this, the more it made sense. “Bittersweet is your expressive side. The two of you are like two halves that make up a single whole. Sort of like how Sparkler is the brains of the outfit between her and I. Let’s face it, I’m not the yellowest bit of corn in the turd.” 

Ripple’s eyes went wide and her nostrils flared. After a moment, Ripple began to chortle. She covered her mouth with both front hooves as she tried to suppress a laugh. 



 

“Sentinel, right?” 

Flustered, Sentinel could only nod. Sapphire Shores was pretty. Very much so. He looked up at the mare who stood by his table, smiling at him. Something about the way she looked at him made him want to squirm. 

“I understand that you were about to give up your date with these two lovely females to keep a promise you made some time ago,” Sapphire Shores said in a voice as smooth as silky velvet. “Consider my services engaged.” 

“Thank you, Sapphire Shores.” Diamond Tiara looked up at the singer with a worshipful expression. “I have all of your albums. I listen to them often… when I’m troubled, they give me hope.” 

“Rarity has told me a little about you… I’m glad that my music makes you feel better. It is why I do what I do. And I’m the best at what I do… making ponies—” Sapphire Shores paused and looked at Boadicea. “—And griffons feel good. I sing the blues so they don’t have to.” 

“Th-thank you,” Sentinel stammered. 

“Oh, you are most welcome,” Sapphire Shores said to Sentinel. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 786
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Tower of the New Moon was buried under centuries of compacted snow and ice. Princess Luna knew of its exact location though. Sunset Shimmer, using her magic, was able to unearth the tower, little by little, layer by layer, scorching away the accumulated ice and snow. 

The base camp was set up on a narrow ledge. Bucky created a small fortress made of ice to keep the wind and the weather out. It didn’t look like much, but indoors, it was warm and pleasant enough. 

The tower was carved and shaped from the living stone of the mountain, much like any other shaped stone tower made by unicorns. It was a hallmark of unicorn magic. Unlike other unicorn towers, Bucky’s included, this one radiated strange magic. Sunset Shimmer’s fire could not scorch it, nor did she try to do so. Directing any sort of hostile magic directly at the tower was a bad idea. Bucky could sense things and vague memories flittered around in his mind. 



 

“This is very much like a dawning of a new golden age,” Luna said as she studied the now visible door. “A return to the time when Equestria was at its mightiest. A time when we had a surplus of archmages and anything was possible.” 

“I dunno, seems to me that we have a surplus of alicorns now.” Bucky peered down into his coffee, which was black. He was missing his wives already. There was just no good substitute for fresh milk. 

“We have a surplus of magic.” Sunset Shimmer, who was taking a bit of a break, drank a sip of hot chocolate. “Which means we have enough to help the whole world. There is no longer a good reason to be selfish.” 

“I concur.” Luna nodded at Sunset’s words. “Pay attention, both of you. On either side of the door there is a locking mechanism. You will have to put a hoof inside of the hole on either side of the door. Once you put a hoof in there, press forward. Something will click and lock around your hoof. The next part is painful, I am afraid.” 

“Painful?” Bucky raised one gnarly eyebrow on the right side of his face. 

“After you stick a hoof in there and it is locked into place, a needle will come out, stab you in the frog, and if all goes well, your blood will open the door.” Luna frowned. “If all does not go well, well, we might have a crisis upon our hooves. I shall do my best to save you if I can.” 

“Wonderful.” Bucky heaved a sigh and then sipped his coffee. He grimaced at the bitterness of his hot drink. He was reminded of the morning that he had stepped on some jacks; he then winced as he thought of Sukari biting him, a lovely moment of bonding between father and daughter. 

“Just inside the door is an antechamber. There are stairs going up. On the next floor is a kitchen, an ancient affair, and above that are bunks and living quarters. In the antechamber are also stairs going down. In the room below, there is a large door that leads down to the hollowed out mountain. I do not know what was done to seal it off, but it is no doubt dangerous. Do be careful.” Luna looked at Sunset Shimmer and then at Bucky. 

“Sunset, I want you to stay close to me. I don’t want you getting hurt. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened.” Bucky looked at his apprentice, his expression one of open concern. “Hopefully, we can handle anything that might happen in there.” 

“I intend to exercise caution. I have Bartleby and Trixie to return home to.” Sunset Shimmer swallowed some of her cocoa. “I miss them already. At least Luna has Erebus with her.” 

“Yes I do… and he’s my snuggly-wuggly widdle cuddle-wuddle buddy,” Luna said as she lifted Erebus into the air and gave him a playful shake. Luna crossed her eyes and made a silly face, causing Erebus to begin giggling. 

“We’re starting to collect some serious artifacts. We have Star Swirl’s portal control rod. I’m guessing that soon, I’ll have the Heart of the Golem. And whatever else has been sealed away in this tower.” Bucky watched Luna playing with Erebus and a powerful feeling of loneliness gripped him. He missed his foals, the littlest ones he missed the most of all. Bell Heather would soon be like Harper, going from a fuzzy little lump that sometimes said something to an adorable little ball of fuzz that had a personality, that would have conversations, and Bucky longed to see how Bell Heather would turn out. Bandua however, only made peeping sounds and Bucky, with a feeling of regret, realised that he would have to wait much, much longer before Bandua went from being a hungry lump to something interesting. 

“Bucky?” 

Startled, Bucky jumped and almost spilled his coffee, which he was holding in his talons. He looked over at Sunset, his eyes wide and his ears perked forwards. He blinked at his apprentice. 

“You were staring off into space.” Sunset Shimmer’s brows furrowed. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied. He took a sip of his coffee and thought about what he wanted to eat before entering the tower. “I was just thinking that I might steal Erebus from Luna so I could play with him for a bit.” 

Eyes narrowed, Luna’s head swiveled and she glared at her apprentice with a fierce stare. “Try to take my foal from me and I will banish you into some staircase bannister someplace.” 

Chortling, Sunset Shimmer watched as Bucky stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at Luna. There was a sense of camaraderie here that Sunset Shimmer treasured. She wondered how her friends on the other side of the mirror were doing as she watched the playful exchange between Luna and Bucky. 



 

The double doors to the tower were simple. Understated. At least ten feet tall and made of some strange metal that did not rust. Bucky had never seen its like before. It was some kind of metal that had come from a falling star that Luna had pulled down from the dark reaches of space. They radiated a strange magic, something unique, different, and terrifying. There was so much power here. 

There were two openings on either side of the door. Without thinking, Bucky began moving towards the opening marked with a crescent moon embossed over the hole, while Sunset went towards the opening with a stylised sun. A faint, strange memory lingered in Bucky’s mind. He had done this before. He knew this place. He knew what the antechamber would be like on the other side of the doors. He knew that these doors open for him. 

This was his tower after all. He had been present for its construction. He had seen it birthed from stone. Many strange magics had come together for its construction, and not just pony magic. Dragons had helped to construct this place, and so had demons. Friendly demons who had assisted Star Swirl and Sombra. 

Bucky closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The bitter wind blew, but his cloak did not flap around him. He raised his right hoof, and, with his eyes still closed, he placed it into  the hole, touching the metal plate within. He pushed inwards and felt the warm tingle of magic. There was painful pricking; he felt the needle pierce his flesh, but Bucky did not pull away. Blood was needed. His blood. Sombra had reached across the centuries and was now partially revived and living on through Bucky. 

Something inside the wall rumbled to life and everything vibrated. The massive blue-black doors began to open. Bucky opened his eyes and a peculiar sensation overtook him. He had the strangest feeling that he was home. He had lived here at some point during the past. Other memories began flooding his mind. A warm bed and an even warmer body. Vivid memories of Princess Platinum filled his mind; he could almost feel her body writhing beneath him as he sunk into her depths. Even more torrid memories came to him, memories that Bucky wanted no part of, memories of Princess Celestia in the throes of passion, both Sombra and Celestia wrestling for control, for dominance, an impassioned fight for who would rule who in the bedroom. Sombra had happy memories here. Spells and magic of unbelievable power drifted through Bucky’s mind. 

But there were unhappy memories as well. Passionless, cold sex with Clover that did not fill the empty ache, nor could it warm Sombra’s cold heart. Dabbling into necromancy down in the very depths of this tower. And something else… something horrible lingered on the edge of Bucky’s memory—something that Bucky could not remember. He stared up at the double doors, now open. The tower would welcome him inside. The tower’s master had returned. 

“What’s happening?” Sunset Shimmer cried as she backed away. “His horn is turning red and changing shape!” 

Princess Luna stood in the snow, staring at Bucky, her eyes wide. The agitated alicorn flapped her wings once, twice, and then a third time before she worked up the nerve to go to Bucky. “Buckminster, look upon yourself.” 

Not knowing what was wrong, Bucky tilted his head and looked down at his foreleg. “What in Tartarus?” Bucky grumbled. He was turning darker, his tan pelt was taking on a greyish tinge. A dark, sooty, greyish tinge. “What’s happening to me?” 

“It is like seeing a ghost,” Luna gasped. The alicorn shook her head. “This is changeling magic… I can sense it. It is some kind of residual effect from the Shadowbolt generation… at least, I think it is. Buckminster, think of something else, do it now!” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky thought of the day he had met Derpy, bumping snoots with the grey pegasus. He pushed Sombra’s memories out of his mind and focused upon his own. He thought of those first few tender kisses, not just with Derpy, but with Berry as well. Those were happy times. He felt a warmth deep within his chest. 

“Buckminster, you are as you were so long ago. Your horn is normal. Your talons are gone. Your scars have vanished, from what little I can see.” Luna shook her head. “I did not realise that seeing Sombra would scare me so.” 

Snapping into the present, Bucky felt a peculiar sensation course through his body. Opening his eyes, he looked inside of the tower, into the antechamber. He made his way through the double doors, stood just inside, and with a mental flick of his magic, turned the lights on. The room came to life at Bucky’s presence. Magical globes of light flickered to life. A fireplace on the far wall ignited, ghostly flames burned upon a piece of petrified wood. 

Standing just inside of the doorway, Bucky inhaled, drawing in ancient air that seemed to invigorate him somehow. Something about this place made him feel a calm sense of power. Warmth was already filling the room and the cold chill was pushed outside. Behind him, Sunset Shimmer, Luna, and the Myrmidons began to enter, crowding in just behind Bucky. 

“Do not attempt to go down the stairs, any of you. Even you Luna. Very bad things will happen,” Bucky said in a low, rumbling baritone that reverberated off of the walls. “Stay up here. You will be warm and comfortable. The tower recognises you as my guests. Everything has been preserved here.” 

He turned to look at Sunset Shimmer, and he could see that she was fearful. “You and I have business downstairs. Come Minion, follow me. Stay close. The tower acknowledges our presence, but we have not yet proven our mastery.” 

“Buckminster… this place… does it speak to you?” Luna asked in a low voice. 

Hearing Luna’s words, Bucky nodded. “Yes, yes it does.” 



 

After going down a curved staircase, Bucky came to another door, and Sunset Shimmer was just behind him. Sunset was wide eyed, enchanted by everything around her. As they came down the stairs, the lights had flared to life. This room was still furnished, still beautiful, even if the interior design was a thousand years out of date. 

Standing before a silver door, Bucky looked up at the glyphs covering the surface. There was a sun, identical to Celestia’s cutie mark, and a moon, also identical to Luna’s cutie mark. Beneath the sun and the moon, little ponies frolicked. Little earth ponies, little pegasi, and little unicorns, all dancing and playing together. 

Beneath the ponies, there was a carving of a familiar draconequus. Lines were hitting him, Bucky supposed that with some imagination and a bit of squinting, one might see it as a rainbow hitting Discord. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood triumphant, wings flared, light shining from six gems that orbited around the two of them. 

Bucky blew the dust from the words written at eye level upon the door and then read them aloud. “Without the keys, the door will not open.”

“Master, we have no keys.” Sunset glanced at Bucky and then began to study the magnificent door, trying to take in as many details as possible. 

“Trust me, we have the keys.” Bucky turned away from the door and went over to a trunk located against the wall, near the stairs. Before he opened the lid, he knew what he would find. Star Swirl had prepared for this event, the keys would be within. The symbols of the two brothers. Bowing his head, he touched his horn to the trunk. 

There was a soft click from the lock and then the lid opened. Inside, preserved by magic, were several artifacts. There was a broad, floppy brimmed pointed hat covered in silver bells. It radiated powerful magic and just being near it made Bucky feel light headed. This was not Star Swirl’s hat, but it was the likeness of Star Swirl’s hat. 

But the hat was not for him. He knew what else lay within the box. Wrapped in velvet, hidden down at the bottom, were the symbols of Sombra’s power. Bucky lifted the velvet and stared at the four greaves. Blinking, Bucky realised that there was a problem. He had three pony legs… and one set of talons. Fearful, he wondered if this would work. 

“Is that Star Swirl’s hat?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“No.” Bucky, still staring at the greaves, shook his head, his eyes never leaving the foreboding black metal greaves. These greaves were not just copies, facsimiles of Sombra’s greaves, these were the real thing. Sombra had made several pairs, all of them based upon the battle armor of the ancient Northern Kings. “Put on the hat. Be prepared, you will be tested.” 

Bucky watched as Sunset slipped the hat upon her head and then her eyes rolled back in their sockets. He did not feel overly concerned. Sunset Shimmer had the right bloodline, and she had resisted the siren call of the alicorn amulet. She had proven her worth as his apprentice. He lifted the greaves in his magic and could feel strange shadow magic radiating from the blackened metal. He saw his cloak lift, the fabric reaching upwards, and when it touched the greaves, Bucky felt an electric jolt flow through him. Much to his alarm, the greaves vanished. 

Controlling his panic, Bucky realised that he was wearing them. They radiated shadowstuff and wisps of smoke-like shadow wafted off of them. Bucky lifted his talons. The greave that should have gone over his left front hoof had formed a gauntlet instead. This ancient armor was not made of metal, no, it was made of stranger stuff. It looked like metal, it gleamed like metal, but when in contact with his body, it was something else entirely. He clenched his talons into a fist. It even sounded like fine steel when it clanked. Bucky felt a curious sensation of power creeping through his bones. It made him feel giddy. 

“Master, my mind is full of strange knowledge. I feel… smarter somehow,” Sunset Shimmer whispered in a low, breathy voice. “There are spells inside of my head that I did not know before.” 

“We have claimed our inheritance,” Bucky said to Sunset as he turned to look her in the eye. “Twilight Sparkle will be the master of this tower, but you and I, we have claimed our rightful inheritance.” Bucky unclenched his talons and set them down upon the floor. “We have taken our rightful place as Equestria’s champions.” As he watched, Sunset Shimmer’s hat changed colours, becoming a far more cheerful looking orange. The hat was adapting to Sunset Shimmer, absorbing a part of her. No other pony would be able to wear it, an act of theft would have dire consequences. 

There was only one last thing in the trunk that Bucky had to claim before going down further into the depths of the tower. He feared it, but at the same time, he was filled with anticipation. He was born to wear it… it was his, and his alone. It was Bucky’s birthright. 

Lifting away the velvet, Bucky saw a small wooden box within the trunk, nestled into the corner. Reaching out his talons, he touched the box, tapping a talon tip upon the wood. The box opened. Inside was a crown, made of the same strange material as the greaves. It had spikes protruding from the areas that would be around his ears. Cold, cruel protection. There was a red crystal embedded in the front. This was Sombra’s actual crown. Bucky knew its history without knowing how he knew. After Sombra had been banished and the Crystal Empire had vanished, the crown had been all that was left. It had been brought here and sealed away. 

After putting this on, Bucky knew that there would be no going back. This was one crown that could not be removed. It would be with him until he died. The crown was a sapient artifact, and Bucky could feel it calling to him even now, begging him to put it on. The crown itself was not evil, nor was it good. It simply was. The idea of placing it upon his brow terrified him. It was very much like the hat that Sunset Shimmer was now wearing. It was more than a symbol of office, more than a key. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky slipped the crown over his head, sliding it down over his ears. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 787
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Master?” 

Sunset Shimmer, worried, reached out and touched Bucky. He seemed to be having some kind of dream, she was fearful that he was having a nightmare. He was muttering strange words and his whole body twitched. She heard him mention something about choosing between Sombras, that his inheritance was his to decide upon and that he would take up the mantle of his own choosing.

Her own ordeal had been quite simple; a contest of wills. The hat refused to be worn at first and had come at her, trying to shame her, trying to show her every horrible thing that she had done. Her betrayal of Princess Celestia. The acts of murder she had committed. Her abuse of her fellow students in both worlds. Sunset Shimmer had seen herself at her worst, when she was a rampaging she-demon. Somehow, Sunset had endured all of this and had kept a clear line of thought. She was worthy because she had lived through these things, grown stronger, learned from her mistakes, and had become wiser, a wisdom learned through misery. 

As she watched, the blood red crystal on the front of the crown that Bucky had placed upon his head began to change colour as Bucky snarled and growled. His now gauntleted talons clawed at the floor. The red crystal became a dazzling blue-green, the colour of Bucky’s magic. The hideous, dangerous looking shape of the crown changed. The horrible looking spikes became leaf shaped ear guards. The featureless, bleak, stark metal also changed, it began to look like vines or shoots, Sunset Shimmer could not tell. On either side of the now blue-green gemstone, what appeared to be two hops appeared, holding the crystal in place.

“I will not have my foals fearful of their inheritance!” Bucky roared. 

Frightened, backing away, Sunset Shimmer watched as Bucky’s eyes opened. His grey eye was clear, Sunset could see it focusing upon her. “Master, are you okay?” 

Bucky inhaled, Sunset Shimmer heard a faint wheezing sound as he did so. She watched as he brought himself to his full height, which wasn’t much. His face was now calm, and Bucky had his usual quiet sense of dignity. She saw him blink and she could hear him breathing. She shivered as she waited for some kind of reply, wanting to hear his voice. Not his angry voice, but his calm voice, that voice that let everypony know that everything was okay. 

“Sunset, I am fine.” Bucky cleared his throat. “Come, we have much to do.” 

There it was. The voice that Sunset Shimmer longed to hear. She heaved a sigh of relief. That sonorous, commanding voice that cut through fear, dispelled confusion, that voice that she could not help but obey. The voice that spoke to the deepest parts of her and wanted her to be a better pony. The voice that inspired her to seek forgiveness and earn redemption. 

For Sunset, it was the voice of a king. 

“What do we do now, Master?” Sunset asked. 

“We open this door. It will open for us now, if we request it,” Bucky replied. 



 

“Oh, Master… I hate you so much right now,” Sunset Shimmer said to Bucky as she peered at the staircase that led down into the depths of the mountain. It was straight and featureless. Just stairs, leading down into the darkness. “I am tempted to toss you down the stairs, but I suppose some horrible slavering demon would rise up to protect you from the egregious architecture and would punish me for my transgressions.” 

“This staircase is beautiful,” Bucky mumbled as he looked down. “Look how perfect each step is. Each one is an exact duplicate of the one previous. To look upon it is to know perfection… look at the sharp edges, the perfect right angles. Beautiful order… such a lovely creation—” 

“Oh, shut up… Master.” Sunset Shimmer threw her head back and snorted. “What is it with you and stairs, anyway?” 

“You wouldn’t understand.” Bucky scooted sideways, brushing up against Sunset Shimmer. “No, you wouldn’t understand at all.” 

“I understand that you’re a loony.” Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes and then started down the stairs. Her hoof passed through nothing and she almost pitched forwards. She would have fallen if Bucky had not caught her, pulled her back, and righted her. 

“Wait,” Bucky said as he began to examine the stairs. “Be still, Minion, or these stairs will be your death.” As Bucky cast a spell, the stairs shimmered for a moment, vanished, and cruel spikes could be seen beneath. 

Shivering, Sunset Shimmer realised that Bucky wasn’t joking. These stairs were lethal. 

“We must go together. We must both be touching the stairs for them to be solid. Minion, move with me, and mind your hooves.” Bucky looked at Sunset, whose barrel was heaving, and then gave her a gentle prod to calm her. 

“How did ponies get in and out of this tower?” Sunset asked. 

“These stairs aren’t always like this. This place was sealed,” Bucky replied. 

Standing beside Bucky, Sunset Shimmer extended her hoof as Bucky did, and both of them touched the top stair together. It was solid. It was awkward moving together, but the pair of them managed it. After going about five steps down, Bucky looked over at Sunset. 

“I don’t think we’ll be able to teleport away… I am confident that these stairs are warded,” Bucky said, giving Sunset a warning. “Ready yourself for an ordeal.” 



 

“Bucky, we’ve crossed this landing five times now,” Sunset Shimmer said as they stood on the small landing that was just big enough for two ponies to crowd together. “This is the same landing. See, I plucked out a tail hair and left it behind. There it is.” 

“Oh bugger.” Bucky, looking down at the crimson hair, sighed. 

“We’ve been doing this for hours. These stairs literally go on forever.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “So help me, if you do this at home and I can’t reach my room, you and I are going to scuffle and I’ll get Luna to help me.” 

“Let’s try going up the stairs,” Bucky suggested. 

“Oh, that sounds splendid… we can walk up the stairs forever!” Sunset Shimmer gritted her teeth for a moment. “Let’s get this over with. We’ll be right back on this landing in just a few minutes.” 



 

“Not one word, Minion.” Bucky, standing on the landing, gave Sunset Shimmer a sour look. Her hat had changed completely and Bucky wondered if Sunset was aware of the changes. It was more like a floppy brimmed sunhat, a sensible thing, not so ridiculous as a wizard’s floppy conical hat. He also wondered if he should be distracted by a hat. He kicked the stone floor of the landing and then began to look around, trying to see if there was something he had missed. 

On the landing, there were two lights on the walls, glass globes that contained light spells. Bucky hadn’t paid much attention to them before, but he paid attention to them now. There was one on each side, located on either wall. 

Looking closer, Bucky saw a ‘+’ sign on one side, located just beneath the glass globe. Craning his head, Bucky squinted at the other light. It had a ‘-’ sign beneath the globe. Bucky, seeing the signs, had an idea. 

“Minion, I know what to do,” Bucky said to Sunset. “I think… you cast regular magic on that one—” Bucky pointed at the light with the ‘+’ sign. “—and I’ll cast dark magic on this other one.” 

“Worth a shot I suppose.” Sunset’s horn ignited as she spoke. 

Black flames burst from Bucky’s horn and Taint mist wafted from his grey eye. It was still so easy. The dark magic was like drinking too much icy water after a walk through the desert, both a blessing and a curse. The pain was comforting in an odd way. 

From somewhere, a horn blared and the whole staircase shuddered. The stairs vanished and the light globes disappeared as well. On either side of the landing there was a mirror. One mirror showed Sunset Shimmer, but not Bucky, and the other mirror showed Bucky, but not Sunset Shimmer. 

Curious, Sunset Shimmer raised her hoof to touch the reflective surface. It was like touching a liquid, and her touch caused the surface of the mirror to ripple. She pulled away and then turned her head to face Bucky. 

“I guess we step through the mirrors… I wonder what will happen?” Sunset Shimmer touched the mirror again. “I’m scared, Bucky.” 

“Sunset, you’ll need to deal with your fear. I suspect we are about to be tested. I don’t know what failure will do to us, but I assume that it will be nothing good,” Bucky said to his apprentice.

“You’re my favourite teacher,” Sunset Shimmer said as she stepped through the mirror and vanished, leaving Bucky all alone on the landing. 

Turning his head, Bucky looked at his own mirror and stepped through. 



 

Sunset Shimmer found herself back in Canterlot High. The school was dark and everything seemed off somehow. The doors were not quite square and everything was all crooked angles. A sense of growing unease filled Sunset Shimmer’s mind and she rubbed her stomach with her human hands. 

There were banners and streamers everywhere, but when she tried to read the banners, the letters blurred. The streamers lacked vibrant colours, everything looked dull and greyed out. Not knowing what to expect, a whimper escaped Sunset Shimmer’s lips. She wished that Twilight was here, or Bucky. If there was something dangerous here, Bucky would save her. That was what Bucky did. When the mirror traveler had tried to kill her, it was Bucky that had saved her. 

There was a painful moment of realisation and Sunset Shimmer gasped. Twilight had saved her too. Sunset Shimmer’s friends had saved her. Sunset had trouble remembering when she had actually saved herself. Was that all that she was? A damsel in distress? Sunset shoved the thoughts from her mind. She had saved Bucky. Sunset squeezed her eyes shut as she wondered if she was capable of saving herself. 

“No,” she snapped, shaking her head. “Bucky would never keep me as his apprentice if I was worthless. No… no… no!” Sunset Shimmer slapped her own cheek. The stinging pain cleared her head. She opened her eyes and looked around her. In the distance, she heard footsteps. Hoofsteps? She didn’t know. She wasn’t alone, something was out there, and given how the sound grew louder, it was approaching. 

“I can hear you whimpering,” a voice hissed. “Are you contemplating how worthless you are? How meaningless your existence is?” 

“I have worth!” Sunset shouted. She shook her head. “And I am not worthless!” 

“You could have been something greater, but you gave up your dreams… you settled when you found you lacked the strength to take what could have been yours.” 

Sunset’s hands balled up into fists and her whole body trembled. Anger bubbled up from deep within her. The words stung, there was a tiny part of her that believed that. Sunset hated that part of herself and wished that she could silence it forever. It was something that could only hurt her if she let it, and she frequently let it, much to her own shame. 

Sunset Shimmer watched in horror as she saw herself coming around the corner. The hideous she demon. The moment of Sunset Shimmer’s worst failure, what she had become when she had hit bottom. All of the very worst parts of herself made manifest. She hated what she saw. The winged figure raised her clawed hands and Sunset Shimmer could see the terrible glow of dark magic. 

As she rolled away, the locker that Sunset Shimmer had been standing in front of exploded into shards of metal. The shards bit deep into Sunset’s skin and she bit down on her lip to keep from screaming. She had no magic of her own in this form, no means to fight back, there was nothing she could do. 

The next blast hit her directly, and Sunset Shimmer writhed upon the floor, kicking, thrashing, and screaming as the pain consumed her body. Black lightning coursed up and down her limbs. Sunset could feel her flesh cooking as the dark magic seared her. She tried rolling away, but her strength was already fading. She was pathetic and weak, but still determined to get away. She clawed at the floor with her fingers, and one of her fingernails caught between the tiles. It tore away, filling Sunset with blinding pain in her left hand. 

The endless rage that Sunset Shimmer held inside of her escaped and came up to the surface. She rolled over and faced her tormentor, her eyes narrowing. She found strength that she didn’t know that she had. Somehow, she sat up, and then, she was up on her feet somehow, wobbling around as the dark magic continued to blast her. 

Sunset Shimmer launched herself at her she demon form. She curled her right hand into a fist and punched the she demon in the jaw. It was a clumsy attack, but effective. The she demon staggered backwards, her wings flapping. She brought her claws around and raked Sunset’s face, tearing open her cheek. 

“Bitch!” Sunset shouted. 

“Cunt!” the she demon retorted. 

Sunset lunged forwards again, punching and kicking as her cheek streamed blood down upon the hallway floor. She brought her knee up into the she demon’s groin, once, twice, thrice, and then a fourth time. The she demon shrieked in pain and Sunset Shimmer, who had learned a few terrible lessons from Bucky, pressed her advantage. Reaching out, she grabbed the she demon by her nipple and gave it a fierce, cruel twist. 

“OH YOU FUCKING COCK TEASE!” the she demon screamed as she had her titty twisted. 

In reply, Sunset Shimmer rammed her fist into the she demon’s stomach and then grabbed the she demon by her hair. She dragged the she demon into the bathroom, kicked open a stall door, punched her enemy a few times in the kidney to subdue her, and then Sunset Shimmer slammed the she demon’s head down into the toilet. 

Sunset Shimmer flushed twice. 

“YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT!” Sunset lifted the she demon from the toilet, hefted her into the air, and then smashed her face first into the edge of the toilet bowl. She did it again, and again, and on the third time, there was a sickening crunch. Blood dribbled everywhere. She dropped the she demon upon the floor. 

While the demoness was down, Sunset Shimmer stomped on the she demon’s tender, already twisted titty with her heavy boot. She stomped down again, this time on the demoness’ head. 

“I know what you are!” Sunset shouted at the she demon. “I know what you are and I know that you can’t hurt me unless I let you!” Lifting her heavy boot once more, Sunset Shimmer delivered a pelvis shattering kick to the she demon’s groin. “NOW HAVE A GOOD AND PROPER FUCK OFF, YA CUNT!” 



 

It felt good to be home. Bucky looked around, not quite remembering how he had gotten here. He took another look around and realised that something didn’t seem quite right. All of the angles here were wrong. Thanks to the many lessons with Luna, Bucky realised almost right away that this was a dream. 

A dream that he could not wake up from. 

Standing in the empty kitchen, Bucky’s ears perked, listening for some kind of sound. He heard crying. He heard… Piña crying. That alarmed him, even though he knew that this was a dream. 

“No no no, hit her harder… teach her to fear us! Make that mud pony cry!” 

Bucky’s blood ran cold. He knew that voice. It was difficult to make his legs work, but he forced them to move and he headed towards the living room. That voice. Bucky’s skin crawled with revulsion and he felt as though he was going to be sick. He heard a meaty sounding thump, as though something was striking something else. 

And then, Bucky heard Dinky giggling. 

He rushed forwards, not liking what he was hearing, at all. As he walked through the living room arch, he saw Primrose Propers. His mother loomed over Dinky, smiling her terrible smile, and Dinky had a heavy wooden paddle held in her magic. 

Piña lay on the floor in a heap and as Bucky watched, Dinky brought the paddle down again. The pink foal gibbered. This is only a dream, Bucky reminded himself. He looked his mother in the eye. “I sent you to Tartarus. You’re not real. And there is no way that Dinky would ever hurt Piña like this.” Bucky felt his muscles spasming as rage began to overtake him. “All of this is just a cheap ploy to make me lose control… a means to hurt me.” 

“My little colt… so quick to use dark magic… I think you like to hurt yourself,” Primrose said. The mare let out an obscene titter. Her horn began to glow and Taint mist began to creep from her eyes. 

“This is a dream… the rules here are different. You brought this on yourself,” Bucky said as he closed his eyes and concentrated. “There are better females in my life now. Let me show you.” When he opened his eyes, he was no longer alone. He grinned a wolfish grin. 

Beside him, Derpy’s wings flared out. He heard the sharp scrape of Belisama’s claws upon the floor. He could hear Berry Punch’s heavy breathing. He smelled the strong scent of ozone as Lyra began charging her magic. He almost laughed as Bon Bon pulled him back, shoving him behind her for safety. 

Dinky and Piña began writhing around, their bodies warping, becoming distorted, becoming all wrong in the worst sorts of ways. Dinky’s mouth yawned open wide and then, much to Bucky’s horror, a rat crawled out. Piña’s eyeball fell out as a rat broke free of Piña’s skull. 

Both foals burst open and rats began to spill out. Endless numbers of rats. Bucky, who had been in perfect control up to this point, began shrieking, his control slipping away. 

“No, Bucky, look into my eyes.” 

Derpy’s muzzle was pressed against his own and all he could see was Derpy’s amber eyes. He felt her forelegs wrapping around him. He closed his eyes and went limp into Derpy’s embrace, letting himself go completely, and trusting in the grey pegasus. 

“I’m gonna enjoy beating you to death,” Berry Punch said, cracking her front fetlocks. 

“Vermin!” Belisama hissed. 

“You give unicorns a bad name… you… you… you horrible bitch! Lyra shouted. 

The last thing that Bucky heard was a stream of profanity so vile slipping from Bon Bon’s lips that his brain boggled and began to reject this reality. He smelled burning hair and could hear pained squeals. He squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, not wanting at all to see what was happening to the rats. He couldn’t bear to look. His ears rang from the stinging vulgarities that Bon Bon had spewed. 

“Bucky, the rats are gone… just sit over here and I’ll be right back… I have to go get my hooves dirty,” Derpy said and then pressed her lips to Bucky’s cheek. Derpy tittered. “Doo Hooves…” 

With the exception of the rats, Bucky was beginning to enjoy this dream. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 788
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sunset, you’ve got to help me!” 

Sunset Shimmer turned her head towards Twilight Sparkle, giving her friend a curious look. Twilight looked distressed, upset, and as though she had been fighting. She was sweaty and scorched in a few places. 

“What’s going on?” asked Sunset Shimmer in a low voice as she tried to remember what she was doing here. Thinking about it made her head hurt and her ears pinned back against her skull. The unicorn winced as her vision blurred and tripled over. 

“It’s Bucky… he’s slipped into darkness… he just started cackling and he’s lost his mind.” Twilight shook her head. “He’s gone on a rampage!” 

Sunset Shimmer considered Twilight Sparkle’s words. Sunset was Bucky’s apprentice, she was supposed to be loyal to him above all else. In the distance, she heard an explosion, and everything around her shook and rumbled. She owed Bucky everything. He had given her a home, because of him, she had Bartleby and Trixie. Because of him, she was back in Equestria and she had magic again. She bit down upon her lip, hesitating, preparing herself for what she was about to do. 

“Twilight, let’s go take him down… but let’s see if we can do so without killing him…” 



 

The moon was high in the sky, blocking out the sun in an eclipse. Something felt off, but every time that Bucky tried to reason out what it was, a stabbing pain shot through his head. It was almost as if something didn’t want him thinking about it, which was a cause for alarm, but when he thought about that, he was punished with pain. 

“Buckminster…” 

His ears perking, Bucky could hear that Celestia sounded heartbroken. He looked at her. In the dim light, he could see her red, bloodshot eyes. Her cheeks were stained with tears. She looked disheveled, which was not a natural state of affairs for Celestia, who almost always looked immaculate. 

“Buckminster, Luna has once again succumbed to her inner darkness… help me!” 

Hearing Celestia’s words caused Bucky no end of pain. Luna, his Mistress. Luna, the one he had made a deal with. He had given himself over to her, offering his service, his loyalty, and his dedication. In return, Luna had given him power. Luna had allowed him to keep his family. Luna had been good to him. He owed Luna. He would serve her without question.

“Bucky, please, Nightmare Moon has once more reclaimed my sister!” 

He owed Luna, not Nightmare Moon. He looked up at Celestia and then heard horrible, cackling laughter, the laugh of utter lunacy. He hung his head as he made his decision. 

Looking defeated, he walked to Nightmare Moon’s side, his head low, looking submissive. As he walked, he heard Celestia say, “How could you?” It stabbed at his heart, but he had his reasons. He wished more than anything that Celestia would trust him, but he understood. Reaching Nightmare Moon’s side, he angled his head upwards to glance at her. She was laughing even harder now, revelling in her sister’s misfortune. There were no shields, no defenses, Nightmare Moon had done nothing to defend herself. 

“You took my teacher away from me,” Bucky hissed as his horn charged up. There was a flare of blue-green light as Bucky unloaded everything he had, slamming into Nightmare Moon in a devastating sneak attack. The world around him filled with sunlight and Bucky was blinded… 



 

Disoriented and confused, Sunset Shimmer looked around. She was in a small room. Blinking, she tried to remember what had just happened and couldn’t. She remembered stepping through a mirror… and then, nothing. Now she was here and Bucky was beside her, still as a statue. She saw one of his ears twitch and then, he started moving. She heard a faint grunt. 

The room was small and there was a familiar looking staircase at one end, the stairs they had just spent what felt like hours going down and up, until figuring out what to do. The room seemed nice enough. There was a little couch, a table, a light globe that hung from the ceiling, and another door. 

“I don’t remember anything.” 

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “I have the same problem. I wonder what just happened?” 

“Minion, I suspect that we were tested somehow.” Bucky shook his head, causing his ears to flop around. His horn glowed with a piercing light. Two cups made of ice appeared and with a splash, they were filled with water. “Care for a drink?” 

“Why thank you, Master, you are so thoughtful,” Sunset Shimmer replied as she accepted the cup. Tilting back her head, she took a drink, not realising how thirsty she was until the icy water hit her dry, parched throat. She swallowed and smacked her lips. “Well, we have new hats and we figured out the staircase of infinite doom. I wonder what is next?” 

“There is the door right over there. We’re about to find out,” Bucky replied. 



 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, the door opened without difficulty or test. Beyond was another room, something that Bucky was not surprised about. This room was filled with doors. Four doors, to be exact. The first door had a snowflake, the second door had a sun, the third door had a seven pointed star, and the fourth door had a moon. There was nothing else in the room. Nothing at all. No warning, no hints of what lie beyond the doors, there wasn’t even a rug on the floor. 

“Oh great.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head and then, reaching up, she pushed her hat back upon her brow. 


“I have no memories here,” Bucky said as he stared at the door with the moon upon it. 

“I’ll open the snowflake—” 

“Minion, the snowflake is clearly intended to be mine!” 

“But I called it…” Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a sour look, squinting one eye and curling her lip back as she glared at him. 

“Oh, very well, you may have it.” Bucky gave his talons a dismissive wave. He watched as Sunset Shimmer went to the door to open it. Nothing happened. He could see her magic around the door handle, tugging on the latch, but the door did not open. 

Reaching out with his mind, he gave the door a tug. Nothing happened. Confused, Bucky blinked a few times and then tried both pulling and pushing upon the door. It did not budge. It didn’t even wiggle. 

Sunset Shimmer sat down upon the stone floor and let out a frustrated huff. She tried pulling on the other doors, and each door remained unmoving, until at last, the frustrated unicorn mare gave up. She looked at Bucky and asked, “Any ideas?”

There was no reply as Bucky stared at the doors, his brows furrowed, and his lips pressed into a straight line. He stared at the door with the sun, wondering if perhaps Celestia was needed to open it. He looked at Sunset Shimmer and thought about her cutie mark, the balanced sun. 

No, Bucky reasoned to himself. Celestia was not needed to open these doors. Bucky’s logic told him that if she or Luna were needed to open these doors, then the letter would have said so. He and Sunset would be able to open these doors somehow. 

“Sunset, about your light spell…” 

“What about it?” Sunset Shimmer looked away from the doors and looked at Bucky instead. She could see that Bucky had that look on his face when he was about to do something clever. 

“Is it true light? Does it have ultraviolet radiation?” Bucky asked. 

“No.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “I don’t think it does, anyway.” 

“Well, cover your eyes. I’m about to try a test.” Bucky’s horn glowed and he squeezed his eyes shut. He pulled his hood around his face, trying to shield himself from what he was about to do. 

His horn protruded from his hood and Bucky focused his magical might. It was difficult to call this magic up. His body had become so attuned with shadow that he wasn’t certain that this would even work. A strange pain filled his head and there was an odd tingling that Bucky felt in his horn, an unpleasant feeling. 

A beam of light shot from the tip of Bucky’s horn and hit the door. There was a loud, clarion trumpeting blast, the whole room shook, and then, as Sunset Shimmer watched through squinted eyes, the door vanished. 

Seeing that the door was now gone, Sunset Shimmer understood the doors. The first door was to generate actual sunlight, from the bloodlines of ancient unicorn royalty. While Sunset knew that she descended from both Star Swirl and Sombra’s bloodlines, she didn’t seem to have whatever it was that made certain light spells have sun magic. She looked at the other doors. The moon door would be dream magic or shadow magic. She supposed that Bucky had that covered. The ice door would also be openable by Bucky. The third door was a star. Sunset wasn’t certain what it was, but she supposed that there was some kind of magical lock on it that Bucky would be able to open. Thinking about this made Sunset feel rather useless and she sighed a despondent sigh. 

As she sat there watching, Bucky hit the moon door with shadow magic. Much as she suspected, it vanished. The temperature plummeted as Bucky blasted the snowflake door with entropic ice. The door vanished, leaving only the door with the star. 

“The last door should be some form of regular magic,” Bucky said as he fired a pulse of magic at the door. 

Blinking, Sunset Shimmer realised that nothing happened. She watched as Bucky hit the door again and again, and with each blast, nothing happened. Reaching out, she touched Bucky to make him stop as she had a revelation. 

“Master, these doors were here for a reason,” Sunset said in a soft voice. “Master, I know what opens the last door… Twilight Sparkle should have been here, this is her door. She would have been the key.” 

“What do you mean, Minion?” Bucky looked at Sunset with one eyebrow raised. 

“Twilight Sparkle taught me that friendship really is magic,” Sunset replied as she brushed up against Bucky. “Star Swirl, being able to see ahead the way that he did, probably knew that Twilight would be able to open this door with a magic unique to her. But, since he knew that Twilight wasn’t going to make this trip when he sent that message, it means that I can open it as well.” Sunset Shimmer bowed her head. 

Feeling Bucky beside her, Sunset Shimmer thought of the warm feelings she had for him. She thought of her friends on both sides of the mirror. She thought of Bartleby and of Trixie. She thought of Twilight. She thought of Celestia… and of Celestia’s forgiveness. Sunset Shimmer lifted her head. “I am the key.” 

Walking forwards, Sunset Shimmer went to the door, the only door remaining. She lowered her head and touched the tip of her horn to the door. With a trumpeting sound and a flash of light, the door vanished and then, so did the room. 



 

When Sunset Shimmer saw the demoness, she almost screamed. It looked so very much like how she had been. Humanoid, in a vague sort of way. But then, she realised that while it was similar, it was also very different. It had four legs and four arms. Enormous bat-like wings sprouted from her back. She had horns and there were four pairs of eyes. The demoness was also wearing glasses. 

“Greetings,” the demoness said in a soft voice. She bowed her head and then raised her arms. “I suppose you have questions. My name is Hex Libris.” 

“I suppose that you mean us no harm,” Bucky said, stepping forward and in front of Sunset, his head high. He narrowed his eyes at the demoness. “Tell me, why should I trust you?” 

“Because I gave my word to preserve this place and be its caretaker.” Hex Libris smiled, revealing an odd collection of teeth. “I swore a solemn oath to both Star Swirl and Sombra to look after this tower.” 

A faint memory trickled into Bucky’s brain, it tickled as it manifested. Details began to emerge. “Yes… I came to you… I found you in Tartarus… you were bound, the prisoner of another… I took pity upon you because you were not like the others.”

“Yes Master, this is true.” The demoness bowed again. 

Sunset, hearing this exchange, felt her blood run cold. She looked at the demoness, peering out from behind Bucky. Burning curiousity filled Sunset Shimmer’s mind and she wanted to know more. She wondered how much of Sombra was inside of Bucky’s mind. 

“You… your magic powered the tests. You kept this place during my absence. You preserve the Well of Knowledge… I remember now… my brother and I offered you refuge and an endless number of books to read in exchange for your eternal service.” Bucky spoke with a voice not entirely his own. It was almost as though two ponies were speaking out of Bucky’s mouth. 

“Yes Master.” Hex Libris bowed once more and then began to walk towards Bucky. 

“Well of Knowledge?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

The demoness, now standing near Bucky, made a come hither motion with one of her many hands. She began to head towards a door. Sunset Shimmer, overcome by curiousity, followed after the demoness, and Bucky followed after them both. 

“My brother wanted knowledge more than anything else… he wanted books… he wanted learning. He found a way to have access to every book ever written… strong magic… a means to replicate every book ever written within this realm and within the realms connected directly to this one, plus all of the nearby mirror dimensions. An endless stream of books, copies of every book in existence… and all he needed was the heart of a demon to power the magic… we found Hex Libris—” 

“And you gave me refuge in exchange for my powerful magic,’ Hex Libris said, finishing Bucky’s words. “I power the magic required for the Well of Knowledge and I get to read endlessly.” Hex Libris walked through the door and made a gesture, causing the lights to come on. 

Sunset Shimmer, passing through the door, took a few steps and froze. Before her was a railing that went around a hole. Angling her head, she looked down and saw a hole that had no visible bottom, something that appeared to stretch on forever. Sunset was no stranger to extradimensional spaces, but this, nothing in her whole life could have prepared her for this. It was nothing but bookshelves all the way down, in what appeared to be a bottomless hole. 

“Below us is a copy of every book written in this reality and those immediately surrounding it. Books of knowledge, books of learning, books for leisure.” The demoness spread her wings, took to the air, and hovered over the extradimensional hole. “Star Swirl brought back books from his early mirror travels. He realised that other whens and wheres had information that he wanted. He created a system that would give him access to those books.” 

“I created the powerful enchantments that would draw up a copy of the book.” Bucky peered down into the hole, a strange expression upon his face. “When last I saw this, it was not this big. So much has changed in a thousand years. So many more books. Learning and education have grown considerably.” 

“I am dreadfully behind in my reading list,” Hex Libris said as a smirking smile spread over her lips. 

“Why would a demon choose this life?” Sunset Shimmer asked. 

“Not all demons are evil,” Bucky replied, still speaking in two voices. 

“I am a spirit of knowledge. I have no desire to bring harm to others or to torment the souls of the damned. I was captured by a demon lord who used me and my powers of divination for his own twisted ends. The brothers rescued me and I willingly dedicated myself to their service.” The demoness spread her many arms. “Look at this place. I have everything I will ever need here, including safety.” 

“So this tower is ours now? Did we pass the tests?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she tried to take in everything around her and failed. It was overwhelming. She sat down upon the floor, her eyes wide, and stared. 

“You have passed the tests. This tower is yours. I have already began to restore functions to make this tower comfortable for the living. The ancient rooms are waking up and soon, everything will be operational.” 

“Twilight Sparkle is to be given authority over this tower. She is of Star Swirl’s lineage and she will be the Master of this place. I ask that you obey her,” Bucky said to Hex Libris.

“I cannot wait to meet her, I adore her writings and her many books. I have read them all… I am a huge fan and eagerly await the times when a new book appears.” Flapping, the demoness flew over to where Bucky was and landed. She folded her wings and then dropped in a low bow. “I will do as you ask. You have reclaimed this tower, it is yours, but you may name another Master to act in your stead. I will obey, as I am bound to my contract.” 

“Don’t you want to be free?” Sunset Shimmer asked. “I dunno that I like that you are bound by a contract. Doesn’t your freedom mean something to you?” 

“But I am free!” Hex turned to look at the confused unicorn mare. “This is a servitude of my choosing. I offer up a portion of my magic to power this place, and in return, I get my heart’s desire. This is a fair exchange. Here, I am not molested nor am I coerced into unsavoury acts that rob me of my dignity. This place is my sanctuary. This is my home.” 

“I’m sorry, I just feel funny about this.” Sunset Shimmer looked at Bucky, hoping that he would say something that would make her feel better, but Bucky was now looking at the many books below him. 

“You chose voluntary service to Buckminster. You willingly call him Master. Do you feel diminished or somehow reduced to a state of slavery?” Hex Libris asked. 

“Well… no,” Sunset replied. She shook her head. “As for calling him Master, that’s more of a title of affection than anything else. He is my teacher… I am not his slave, I am his equal and I know that. He has never made me feel servile or lesser.” Sunset reflected upon the nature of her relationship with Bucky, feeling very, very confused. “Could you end your contract and leave this place if you wanted to?” 

“Why would I want to?” The demoness pulled off her glasses, blew on them, and then put them on her face, adjusting them so that each of the eight lenses covered each of her eight eyes. 

Sunset Shimmer realised that she had no understanding of demons in spite of almost becoming one. 

“I sense the presence of Princess Luna.” Hex smiled at Bucky. “Should I invite her down? It has been so very long since I have seen her last.” 

“Oh yes… that might be a good idea,” Bucky replied, sounding a bit more like his usual self and speaking with one singular voice. “If you will excuse me, I just remembered where the wine cellar is. I am off to get reacquainted with some old friends.” 

“Master, wait, I think I would like a good, strong drink! I am coming with you!” 
	
> Chapter 789
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Whiskey bottle in tow, Bucky, now in a much better mood, approached some tall double doors. He stopped for a moment, took a drink of the well preserved whiskey, grimaced at the smokey flavour of iodine with a heavy, acrid, peaty note, and then let out a belch that echoed throughout the complex. 

Looking annoyed, Hex Libris appeared. She glared at Bucky, all four of her arms crossed over her dangerously well endowed bosoms; all eight of them. “For I moment, I thought Sombra himself had returned.” The demoness snorted and then gestured at the doors. “Beyond those doors is the arsenal.” 

“I know,” Bucky replied, his words somewhat slurred. 

“I heard a frog.” Sunset Shimmer staggered into the room through a narrow door. Her mane was mussed and it looked as though she was expending a great deal of information to remain upright. “Really big frog. Frog.” 

“Minion, you must really learn to hold your liquor… cast a spell and burn some of it out of your system,” Bucky said to his apprentice. 

“No… I’m not drunk… YOU’RE drunk… you cast a spell… I’m going to see if I can find that frog.” Sunset Shimmer staggered off, exiting through the narrow door. “Here, Froggy Froggy Froggy!” 

Heaving a sigh, Hex Libris shrugged. “Some things never change.” 

“I’ve heard that Sombra was a bit of a sot.” Bucky looked at Hex Libris, wondering what he could learn from her. “I suppose he had a good excuse though. He probably needed the caloric intake to fuel his magic.” 

“If you wanted to see a fine pair of drunks, one needed to look no further than Star Swirl and his apprentice, Clover the Crocked.” Hex Libris walked towards the double doors, glancing at Bucky as she moved. “Star Swirl had a theory that liquor was a type of knowledge lubricant; that being sufficiently inebriated allowed for knowledge to enter the brain easier.” 

Hearing hoofsteps, Bucky lifted his bottle to his lips, took a long pull, and then saw a flash of blue in the corner of his vision. He watched as Luna entered. The alicorn was smiling, looking triumphant, right up to the point where Bucky saw her look at him. He watched Luna’s eyes roll and then she shook her head. 

“Sunset Shimmer was stumbling through the halls trying to find a frog,” Luna said. The Princess of the Night cocked her eyebrow at Bucky and then clucked her tongue. She turned her attention to the double doors as Hex Libris was beginning to open them. “Oh, this is exciting.” 

The doors creaked open, an almost theatrical creak, and Bucky could not help but wonder if Hex Libris was perhaps adding a little sound effect for the sake of a good show. Beyond the door, lights flickered to life, illuminating what appeared to be a long hall. 

The room was nowhere as large as Bucky thought it would be. All things considered, it was rather small. He could see suits of armor, racks of weapons, tall cabinets, shelves, and many solid looking wooden trunks. Compelled by some unseen force, Bucky took off at a slow walk towards the arsenal, longing to look upon the treasures inside.

“The Heart of the Golem,” Bucky said, his voice almost a whisper as he moved forwards. His now armored hooves rang out with each step he took, a fine metallic ring. He saw a suit of armor, black armor, and knew that he was looking at the armor that made for a finished set with what he was wearing. 

This wasn’t like his old armor, an arcano-tech marvel. This armor was not made with magic, this armor was magic. It couldn’t be dispelled, it could not be breached, at least not by common magical means. Very much like his cloak, this armor was something else. Bucky had no idea what it was, or what it was constructed from. 

It hummed as he approached. Sombra wore the greaves as his symbol of office, along with his crown. But in battle, Sombra wore the full suit of armor. Entranced, Bucky stood, spellbound, staring at what he knew to be his birthright. As he stared at it, the armor shifted, changing size. Bucky wasn’t sure if the armor had grown smaller or he had grown larger. Magical artifacts of extreme power liked to play mind games, and he had experienced this sensation before.

“It has been a long time since I have gazed upon this armor,” Luna said as she stepped forwards and stood beside Bucky. “It was forged in the realm of shades, the Other Other, the gaps between worlds. Made by Haides, the Lady of Shades, She Who is Unseen.” 

Bucky turned to look at Luna, feeling curious, and hoped that his teacher would continue her lesson. He stood, silent, waiting, a hopeful expression upon his face.

“This armor inspired Sombra’s study into enchantment and magical smithing. Haides, the Lady of Shades, made this for him to aid him in his fight after he assisted her in the realm of the Other Other.” Luna paused, her eyes narrowed, and her ears perked forwards as she stared at the armor. “Such was its design that Sombra began to experiment with forging shadows. He made arms and armor to mimic its design. Sombra made his greaves to match this armor. He made armor for others as well. Sombra was the only enchanter who ever came close to matching Haides skill… not even I could make such finery… but I did make that cloak that you are wearing.” 

“I visit occasionally with Haides,” Hex Libris said as she began to move around the room. A feather duster appeared and the demoness began to tidy up the room a bit as she went from artifact to artifact. 

“How is she?” Luna asked. 

“Locked into an eternal war with the other shade lords, each of them trying to wrest control of the Other Other from each other,” Hex Libris replied. “Dreadful business. Haides seems to be doing well though. She still exists and has not yet been absorbed or devoured by the others.” 

Extending his trembling talons, Bucky reached out to touch the suit of black armor. The blue-green gemstone upon his crown began to glow with a faint light. Hex Libris stopped her dusting, turned her head, and looked at Bucky, watching, waiting. Beside Bucky, Luna waited, wondering what would happen. With one talon finger extended, Bucky touched the armor. 

The armor vanished from the armor rack. 

“Where did it go?” Bucky asked, looking panicked. His ears rang with the laughter of Hex Libris, it sounded like screechy violins being played while cats were being slaughtered, an unpleasant sound if ever there was one. 

“Buckminster, your shadow essence has absorbed the armor.” Luna lowered her head, placing her lips near Bucky’s ear. “It is now a part of you. If you focus, the armor will manifest to protect you.” 

“Oh.” Bucky took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He looked at his gauntleted talons. The armor had reshaped itself to fit his body, at the least the greaves had. The gauntlet was proof of that. He looked down at himself, at his legs clad in the strange black metal. He focused his will, desiring to be armored. For a moment, something black and blurry formed around him, his body shimmered, almost like heat rising up from the road. 

Blinking, Bucky pushed a little harder. The blurry glammer around him began to solidify, becoming real. His chest was now covered by an articulated black metal plate. More armor appeared, manifesting, and Bucky could feel its reassuring solidness all around him. 

Cloaked in night, armored by shadows, Bucky, even as small as he was, was now an imposing figure. Luna lifted her head high and studied him. While the armor and the cloak were all very dark, for some reason, Bucky was not a dark figure. The gemstone upon his crown, a fierce glowing blue-green, did not seem as ominous or dreadful as the red gemstone when the crown had been worn by Sombra. Bucky’s armored form was what Bucky was meant to be; a knight. Perhaps it wasn’t the more typical vision of what a knight should be, but Luna had never been one to embrace convention. 

And then, as Luna watched, all of it vanished. The armor, the greaves, the gauntlet, even the crown. It dissipated into tendrils of shadowstuff and was absorbed into Bucky’s body. Now, Bucky was himself once more. Small, quiet, unassuming, a hideous eyesore brought about by maiming and magical mutation. He was also her apprentice, her student, and Luna, staring at him, felt a sense of pride. Luna pondered if this is what her sister felt when Celestia contemplated her students. 

Twilight Sparkle had renown for all of her greatness; Bucky had renown for all of his terribleness. For a moment, Luna felt a pang of sorrow. That really wasn’t fair to Bucky. Fate, destiny, it was all so fickle, even cruel sometimes, and Bucky had little to no say in how his own life had turned out. 

“I suppose you’ll be wanting the Heart of the Golem,” Hex Libris said in a soft voice. 

The demoness stood near a cabinet. Reaching out, she stroked the wood with her fingertips, a loving caress. When she saw that she had both Bucky’s and Luna’s attention, she extended her arm and pulled the cabinet door open, a faint demonic grin upon her face. Pointed teeth made a teasing appearance just behind her parted lips. 

Inside the cabinet was a short handled rod that almost looked like a minotaur’s morningstar mace. It gleamed and there was a faint illumination that twinkled from several gemstones studded along the handle. 

“The Heart of the Golem,” Hex Libris said to Bucky. “It not only aids in the creation of automatons, but will allow you to seize control of enemy automatons. It’s magic is very, very powerful.” The demoness reached out her hand and touched the rod. “Wielding this rod in battle, you will rule the minds of all automatons and all golems. They will be unable to resist your commands. Very few creations will be capable of resisting your authority. It is a weapon powered by willpower.” 

Bucky swallowed, a loud, audible sound in the small room. Such a thing would have been useful in the recent war. It might have even saved the fleet from the wretched sneak attack. He took a step forwards, coming closer, both eyes wide. Bucky looked very much like a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve. 

Take it. The words were strong in his mind, said in Sombra’s voice. Take it, my son. This is the inheritance that you deserve, not the horror that you have been given. Let this be your sceptre, one of the symbols of your rule. 

Reaching out with his talons, Bucky wrapped his talon-fingers around the cool metal handle and then lifted the rod from its cradle. It was heavy, much heavier than Bucky anticipated. The metal had a strange smoothness, almost as if it had no grain, no flaws, no faults, no imperfections. The gemstones embedded in the handle flared with light at his touch. 

He lifted it in his telekinesis and held it aloft in front of his face. Holding it in his magic made him feel peculiar, almost drunk, it was as though he had been drinking whiskey by the gallon. There was an intoxicating feeling of power. Not the power of dominance, nor the power of control, but the power of creation. With this, he could make life. Feeling giddy, Bucky inhaled and then let out a shuddering sigh, almost unable to contain his glee. 

With this, he could build an army. 



 

When Luna entered the room, she saw Bucky staring at the Heart of the Golem. She paused and looked around the room. It was almost how it was left long ago; this room had been Sombra’s room when Sombra had stayed here at the tower. There was a large bed, large enough for many ponies to be piled together; or several ponies and one large alicorn. Luna let out a soft sigh. 

The walls were lined with shelves and on the shelves were all manner of things.  Books, curious, oddities, artifacts, trinkets, mementos, useless junk, and… something else. Seeing it caused Luna’s heart to stop for a moment. Luna was forced to take a deep breath and then she moved forwards, stepping past Bucky as she went to the corner where two shelves met together. 

There it was. Few would even know what it was, or that it even had real value. Seeing it caused Luna to feel a pang in her heart. She stared at it for a moment, and her mind flooded with memories. It had been one of Sombra’s most treasured possessions, something he loved more than anything, an odd bit of treasure for a king that could have had anything he wanted. 

A small gaudy looking tiara sat upon the shelf. It was made of tin and scrap metal. It was tacky, awful looking junk. Instead of a gemstone as the centerpiece, there was a walnut. For a moment, staring at it, Luna thought she might start crying. A hollow, empty ache filled her barrel. She desperately wanted Erebus, but she had left him with her Myrmidons upstairs. 

“What is it?” Bucky asked as he brushed up against Luna’s side. 

“The Hearth’s Warming Crown,” Luna replied as she sat down upon the stone floor in a very unprincessly like manner. She extended her wing and pulled Bucky closer to her. When he sat down, Luna leaned over, placing her weight upon Bucky, and she was glad to have him near. 

“It looks awful… if you wore that, it would slice you open,” Bucky said. 

“Yes, you are correct.” Luna’s lips turned upwards in a sad smile as her eyes glazed over with tears. “Not long after Princess Platinum and Sombra were married, they had their very first Hearth’s Warming together as a married couple. Sombra was as drunk as a lord and he demanded some sort of celebration… we were fighting a war at the time but he insisted that we celebrate.” Luna took a deep breath and immersed herself further into ancient memory. 

“Clover made this pot metal coronet and proclaimed Princess Platinum the Princess of Debauched Unicorns. It did, in fact, cut Platinum’s scalp when Clover placed it upon her head. Platinum was a little soused, she had imbibed a few drinks, perhaps a few drinks too many. Sombra, seeing his crowned bride, told Platinum that he had a throne that she could sit on, the Turgid Throne of Almighty Bone. She slapped him, hard, for being lewd. Sombra, who had been slapped silly, lay upon the floor laughing about the whole thing.” 

Luna heard Bucky sigh and her ears perked. 

“After he recovered, Sombra, now serious, got to his hooves, lifted Princess Platinum’s hoof, kissed it, apologised, and begged for a dance with his princess. He didn’t wait for an answer… Sombra swept Platinum up in his forelegs, pulling her close, and then off he went, dancing around the central hall with her, roaring with laughter while Princess Platinum tried to slap him away and squirm free from his embrace because he had unsheathed yet again in public view. Several of the maids and the servants fainted from the sight.” 

“That’s some story,” Bucky whispered. 

“Sombra kept the crown. After Platinum died, he would sit and stare at it for hours. I did not realise that it was here, in this place. I thought it had been lost to time.” Reaching up with her other wing, the wing not wrapped around Bucky, Luna wiped her eyes. “It should remain here, in this place, in this room. This is a good place for it.” 

“I agree… I’d like to believe that whatever good Sombra had in him remains here… even though I know he succumbed to darkness here.” Bucky paused. “But perhaps we can focus upon the good.” He lifted up the almost empty bottle of whiskey to his lips and took a drink. 

“Share that,” Luna said to Bucky. 

Saying nothing, Bucky lifted the bottle up and passed it to Luna, who took it in her telekinesis. She lifted the bottle to her muzzle, closed her eyes, and then, tilting her head back, finished it off in one gulp. She opened her eyes, stared at the tacky tiara, and then set the bottle down upon the floor beside her. 

“Those days were very much like the days that we have now. Troubled days, but there were joyous moments. The difficult times somehow made the happy moments all the sweeter.” Luna let out a soft belch. Against her side, Bucky was warm. Luna, feeling uncharacteristically affectionate, leaned her head down and kissed Bucky on his ear, a soft, gentle, quick kiss of simple, unabashed affection. 

“What was that for?” Bucky asked. 

“Because you are my friend,” Luna replied. “I am not an easy pony to be friends with.” Luna, feeling something in her heart, something she could not identify, closed her eyes and instead focused on just enjoying this moment. She thought of the past as well as the present, she thought of her sister, she thought of Erebus, and she thought of Barley, missing him. 

“I suppose that opposites do attract,” Bucky said as he stared at the crown on the shelf. Beside it was a little wooden box and beside that was a glass jar filled with something that Bucky did not recognise. 

Opening her eyes, Luna nodded. “Platinum and Sombra were very different ponies, but there could be no mistaking the fact that they loved one another. They completed each other… very much like a certain unicorn and pegasus I know.” 

“I don’t think that Derpy and I are all that different.” Bucky shook his head. “No, we’re not that different at all.” 

“Oh, I disagree.” Luna, tilting her head, looked down at Bucky, gazing into his eyes, the corners of her lips turning upwards into a lopsided smirk. She gave him an affectionate squeeze. “She is a creature of simple goodness and of virtue. She walks among the light, never wavering.” 

Turning away from Luna’s gaze, Bucky scowled and his ears drooped down. 

“Dearest Buckminster, some of us have to walk within the darkness… it is a sacred duty. Some of us chose to brave the darkness to keep others safe. You know what lurks within the lingering shadows and what hunts your fellow ponies in the dark.” Luna’s voice softened and her head dropped down, her lips now near Bucky’s ear. “You chose to walk this path. You have the courage and the conviction to see this through. Because of your efforts, Derpy, and others like her, walk through the light untroubled, unmolested by what would devour us all, had it the chance.” 

“Luna?” 

“Yes Buckminster?” 

“Had I means… the ability… had I the option… I would remain at your side forever, as your servant, patrolling the darkness with you.” Bucky paused. “I would do it because it is a thankless job, and I would want to spare others this burden, but also to keep you company.” 

Touched, Luna felt a tightness in her throat. Bucky’s words were sincere, honest, and she knew them to be true. He would take upon his shoulders such a task to spare others. For a moment, Luna wondered if she was worthy of such devotion. 

“Buckminster, I wish to go home… it is my desire to see Barley.” Luna gave Bucky one final squeeze and then let go. “We should wrap up here. Hex can prepare this place for Twilight Sparkle’s arrival. Is there anything else you want from this place? Anything in the arsenal? Anything that you would like to see?” 

In reply, Bucky shook his head and sighed. 

“Then we should be going…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 790
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Never liking to give up, Lyra Heartstrings looked at her new machine. The step through portals had been installed, but the machine was not quite finished. Not yet. At the bottom of the machine was a large basin. At the top of the machine there was a small metal plate with the step through portal attached. In between the two portals there a small waterwheel. The waterwheel was connected to a dynamo to create electricity. 

Step through portals, considered a magical toy by most, were one of Lyra’s favourite things. They weren’t considered useful. There was a severe distance restriction, beyond a certain point the energy required to keep them powered grew at an exponential rate. The size of the portal was limited. Up to this point, when not being used as a science fair demonstration, wealthy ponies used them as dumbwaiters between floors of a house, a dumbwaiter just large enough to pass a cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich. 

A passive ley line charger could only generate so much magical power. There just wasn’t very much power to work with, which is why step through portals remained a scientific curiousity or a novelty. 

“Lyra, are we ready for the water?” 

Feeling a growing sense of excitement, Lyra nodded at Gertrude’s words. “Yes, I think we are… I can’t wait to see if this works.” 

“It’ll work,” Gertrude replied. “This is a better idea than the magnet passing through the tube, I think. No more runaway reactions. If this will turn a waterwheel, we’ll have to rebuild so the water will pass through a turbine of some sort.”

“Yes!” Lyra’s teeth flashed white as a manic grin took over her face. “We’re going live!” 

Several griffons scrambled to safety and Lyra slid a pair of goggles over her face. It was important to follow proper safety procedures. Gertrude did the same, covering her eyes with goggles that had safety glass lenses. 

“Infinity generator, version eleven!” Lyra shouted. 

“This time it will work!” Gertrude added. 

Lyra lifted up a large plastic container that was full of water, holding it in her telekinesis. She poured it into the basin at the bottom of her contraption. Many gallons of water glugged out of the container, filling the basin halfway, and then Lyra looked over at Gertrude. 

“Gertrude, my lovely assistant, if you would please do me the honours of hitting the switch,” Lyra said. She watched as the griffoness’ crest rose, almost unable to deal with her own growing anticipation. 

Nervous, her beak clicking, Gertrude hopped up onto the table, approached the machine, reached out with her talons, and flipped the switch. The step through portals activated. There was a low hum and the top portal began to trickle water. The trickle became a flood, growing in strength and speed. Then, the flow became a self contained torrent, pouring out of the top portal, falling down, hitting the water wheel, causing it to turn, splashing into the basin at the bottom, and then spilling through the step through portal located in the bottom of the basin, where it was teleported back to the top to begin the process again. 

“It’s working!” Lyra shouted. Her ears perked as she heard a cheer from all around her. It felt good to have success… at least, so far, this was a success. The previous ten attempts had all been failures. 

“We have electrical generation!” Gertrude cried as she stared at the instrument cluster connected to the water wheel that was powering the electrical dynamo. 

“What are we making?” Lyra asked over the growing whine of the machine. 

“We’re cranking out point five pony power… so about three hundred and seventy watts of electricity… which is pretty good for our controlled test.” The griffoness looked at the various gages and then her wings started to flutter. “The forty eight volt airship battery is charging… we have steady growth.” 

“Adding more water,” Lyra announced as she picked up a second container. 

Gertrude backed away from the machine, but her eyes remained upon the instrument cluster. The griffoness let out a peep of excitement and watched the gages as Lyra poured in more water. The low whine of the machine became a mechanical thrum. 

“We’re at one pony power… which means about six hundred and forty watts or so of electricity. The water wheel can only spin so fast, so we’re limited for RPMs, and that restricts our efficiency.” 

“We need a turbine.” Lyra’s head bobbed with enthusiasm as the noise level continued to increase. 

“Cubby steps… we need to see how this one works,” Gertrude replied, her voice almost inaudible over the hum of the machinery. 

“It’s working… beautifully… I just can’t see this going wrong.” Lyra leaned her head down and studied the gages. A little over one pony power, six hundred and fifty one watts of electrical generation, and the nickel-iron airship battery was being charged “There are still plenty of things we can do to optimise this system, this is merely proof of concept… but I think this is going to work!” 

“It certainly seems like it!” 



 

Something tickled Derpy’s ear. The sleeping grey pegasus snorted, then farted as one of her hind legs twitched. Derpy’s brain awoke just enough to register that there was probably a foal playing with her ear. Snorting again, Derpy sank back down into the depths of slumber. 

The tickle happened again, causing one wing to flutter. And now, something was tickling her nose as well. Some little foal was going to get cuddled to death for this. Derpy’s good eye cracked open and she peered out, trying to see who was pestering her. 

“That was some welcome.” 

That voice. Derpy’s eye opened wider as she lifted up her head and yawned. She smacked her lips together a few times, feeling just a little bit thirsty, and then her blurry vision focused upon a grinning face and sharp teeth. 

“Hello.” 

“Bucky, you’re back,” Derpy said to pony sitting beside her. 

“I snuck inside… nopony knows I’m here yet. I wanted a moment with you… but just a moment… and then I’m going to announce my presence and get mobbed. The foals are in school, so it shouldn’t be too bad.” 

“Harper had to be hospitalised for a while.” Derpy stretched out her neck and kissed Bucky on his chin. “She’s okay, but her stomach problem has become worse. She’s fine now, or seems to be. She’s been dying to see you.” 

“Poor Harper.” Bucky slumped over and his ears drooped. 

“She got constipated real bad… her digestion shut down for a bit and she couldn’t poop. Dinky had a very grown up moment and so did Sentinel.” Derpy paused. “Kiss me… please? Before you go.” 

“I can do that,” Bucky replied, nodding his head. 



 

Sprawled out on the floor, Bucky was overtaken by foals and one kelpie that could not hold herself back. He tried to acknowledge each foal in turn, but it was difficult with Thistle’s forelegs around his neck and trying to squeeze the life out of him. 

“One of mine,” he said to Bell Heather as he pulled her in for a kiss. “You’re up and moving about… oh no… that’s not good.” He felt Bell’s body shake as she began to giggle. “And Harper… I heard you got sick… Poor Harpy.” 

“Mama bad for leaving Harpy!” Conflicted, a little angry, but glad to see Bucky, Harper didn’t quite know what to do. She kissed Bucky’s cheek and then pushed him away, letting out a frustrated huff as she did so. 

“Sukari… get over here… don’t make me come over there to get you.” Bucky looked at the zebra foal. Sukari sometimes got overwhelmed with too many other foals around. He watched as she stood up and took tiny, hesitant steps as she approached. 

A wisp of Cadance’s ethereal mane drifted into Bucky’s face, reeking of roses. He almost sneezed. “And how have you been, Empress?” 

Cadance lifted her head, assuming an almost regal pose, and puffed out her barrel. “In charge.” Her wings fluttered at her sides and she looked very proud and solemn. When Sukari passed, Cadance reached out her foreleg and gave the zebra filly a reassuring pat on the backside. 

“Mean mare stuck something up Harpy’s plot.” 

“Oh no,” Bucky replied as he pulled Sukari closer. 

“It was cold.” 

Bucky nodded and gave Harper a sympathetic look.

“Harpy’s butt exploded. Go boom. Make mess.” 

Unable to help himself, Bucky began to snicker as he gave Sukari a little much needed affection. He could feel Bell drooling on his right foreleg, soaking his shaggy pelt. “Mmm… four little fillies aren’t enough… I can’t wait until I have more.” 

“I could help with that,” Thistle whispered into Bucky’s ear. 



 

“Is something wrong?” Berry Punch reached out and poked her husband with her hoof as she blew her mane out of her eyes. “You look distracted… what’s wrong?” 

“There’s an earth pony I’m missing,” Bucky replied. 

Ah, Berry Punch thought to herself. Bon Bon. She looked Bucky in the eye. “She’s working. Bucky, you know how driven she is. She didn’t know that you’d be home today… none of us did. You just sort of showed up.” 

“Well, I wanted to surprise you.” Bucky’s ears splayed out sideways and he scowled. 

“It’s the foal, isn’t it?” Berry asked. “The foal has made you take interest in Bonnie.” 

“I love Bon Bon—” 

“I know you do… but now that she’s pregnant, you’re feeling protective and you want her where you… or somepony you trust, can keep an eye on her.” Berry Punch watched as Bucky’s mouth moved but no words came out. “You want to herd all of your mares together for safety. How sweet.” 

“Maybe I do…” His scowl darkened. “How can I keep her safe and protected if she’s in Ponyville? How do I keep an eye on her? How do I know if she’s okay?” Bucky’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Berry Punch. 

Shaking her head, Berry Punch sighed. “You don’t.” 

“Perhaps a flight of stairs in front of her candy store could keep her safe…” 



 

“Ooh, a two-fer.” Bucky stood in the doorway, not quite knowing what it was that he was seeing. There was a whole gaggle of griffons and one very excited unicorn. Belisama was hovering in circles around Lyra’s head. Lyra was pronking. Something had happened that had made Lyra quite pleased, by the looks of things. 

“Bucky!” Lyra pronked again, this time clicking all four of her hooves together. 

“My noble steed!” Belisama flapped over and landed upon Bucky’s back, then placed her forelegs around his neck to squeeze him. “Lyra’s newest invention works better than we had hoped.” 

Just as Bucky was about to say something, Lyra, lascivious, locked lips, latching on lecherously, like a libidinous, lubricious leech, leaving a loving, lusty, lingering, licentious lewd lick. Recovering, Bucky leaned into the kiss, determined to leave Lyra weak in the knees, but Lyra surprised him by tickling him with her magic. 

Pulling away with a pop, Lyra grinned, licked her lips, and then bumped snoots with Bucky. “I’ve broken the established laws of the universe again and this time, nothing exploded. I have a working infinity engine.”

“You used one of the oldest bits of mechanical energy known to ponykind… the waterwheel.” Bucky lifted his head and looked at the machine. A minor enchantment had been placed upon it, silencing it. The water poured down in an endless loop, turning the waterwheel, and cranking the dynamo. It was mechanical simplicity itself. It was something that should have been invented a long time ago—and hadn’t, for whatever reason. 

“We have it turning at two pony power… I think that’s the best we can hope for from this prototype. That’s one thousand four hundred and ninety two watts of power. We have it running a forty eight volt system that is charging a forty eight volt airship battery. Which means that if you follow the formula for watts, volts, and amps, we’re getting a little over thirty one amps. Which is amazing… this isn’t even optimised yet… we’re going to try a turbine next.” 

A little griffoness stood up beside Lyra, looking shy, but also joyful. “With the turbine and perhaps a little more water flow, we might be able to hit twenty pony power… that would give us fourteen thousand, nine hundred, and twenty watts of power. On a forty eight volt system, like that of an airship, that’s over three hundred and ten amps. The extra power will be useful for shield generation and the electro-cannons.” 

“I have no idea what any of this means,” Bucky said, giving the griffoness a blank look. 

“Bucky, what my assistant Gertrude is trying to say is, we have a better means of electrical generation than stormcloud generators inside of a gasbag and battery banks. We’ll be able to have smaller, sleeker gasbags, which means more speed for an airship, just enough cloudstuff to be buoyant, and then we’ll have an alternate means of electrical generation. A bank of ten or twenty of these gravity powered loop engines would turn an airship into an electrical powerhouse,” Lyra explained. 

“Which means a better warship,” Belisama added as she gave Bucky’s ear a tug. 

Stunned, Bucky looked at the endlessly turning waterwheel. The falling magnet had caused no end of problems and complications, but the turning wheel was simplicity of the highest degree, removing all of the major worries of cooling, friction, and a runaway reaction. 

He lifted his head, curious, watching the falling water. He cocked his head to one side. It seemed like such a simple idea, and he thought once again how somepony should have figured out this solution by now, an efficient means of electrical generation that produced no pollution. It was like a self contained hydroelectric dam, only smaller. This would fix the world energy crisis. This would make certain that every creature who needed electricity would be able to have it. 

This would destroy an uncountable number of jobs and bring ruin to an entire industry. Bucky sighed as his brain reached this conclusion. Dams and large scale industrial power plants would be needed for manufacturing. But for the common house, the average pony would no longer need to pay the electric company. All of the ponies employed to keep the lights on, keeping the power lines connected, many of them would soon be out of work. If ponies could buy, or even make a loop generator for themselves, there would be no need to pay for power. 

Lyra had solved a major problem for the world, but had created another problem that might be just as bad. Bucky stared at the machine and glanced at the gages. A cheap, easy to produce means of electrical generation would devalue electricity and wreck the market for it. In time, factories and manufacturing facilities would build their own generator banks, reducing the need for municipal and industrial power plants. 

“This is the greatest day ever!” Lyra shouted. 



 

“Two pink ponies and one pony in a very stylish hat,” Bucky said as he materialised in front of Dinky, Piña, and Diamond Tiara, slipping out of shadow. “Talking about colts no less… should I warn Sentinel and Larch what terrible fates await them?” 

“Um, hi.” Piña blinked and did her best to look innocent as Bucky leaned his head down and kissed her. She wrapped a foreleg around his neck and gave him a squeeze, aware that other ponies were watching, and feeling a little embarrassed. 

“We were having a private conversation, you creepy spook,” Diamond Tiara said as she tilted her head to one side so Bucky could kiss her cheek. She smiled and also gave him a quick hug, tugging on his neck with one foreleg as he kissed her. 

“Hey, I was just listening, I don’t even like colts.” Dinky launched herself at Bucky when he had finished kissing Diamond Tiara, wrapped both forelegs around his neck, and squeezed for all she was worth. She didn’t care who saw her hugging him and could worry about being embarrassed later. “Did you have a nice trip?” 

“It was nice enough. I’m just glad to be home,” Bucky replied. He looked around. “Where is Sentinel, anyway? I haven’t found him yet.” 

“Oh, he’s getting the stuffing beaten out of him by Heif… I can’t watch, it’s too upsetting.” Diamond Tiara scowled and her pink face darkened. “I understand that it needs to happen, I just don’t like it. At all. And it makes me want to kick something.” 

Nodding, Bucky gave Diamond Tiara a reassuring nudge. Heifer Aestus’ tutelage was essential for Sentinel’s development, and soon, Lugus would also be beating lumps onto Sentinel’s head, teaching Sentinel aerial combat. 

“It isn’t spring yet, but Ripple has already started teaching the Fledglings combat. Yesterday, she whooped them all over the yard, throwing them around, and shouting at them. It was upsetting to watch,” Diamond Tiara said. “I guess I have a hard time because hearing her shout at them about how worthless they are reminds me of how I was and I’m still having issues. Maybe I should talk with Doctor Mawu.” 

“Diamond Tiara, I hope you understand how necessary these things are.” Bucky wrapped his left foreleg over Diamond Tiara’s withers and pulled her closer. 

“When Daddy teaches me magical stuff, he has to hurt me a bit… I have to know there are consequences for failure… otherwise, I don’t learn very much.” Dinky sighed and then rubbed her side. “Or Luna… Luna really piles on the hurt and you only want to make a mistake once… because of Luna, I’ve really improved my shield spell.” 

“We’re heading towards some big fight and everypony is scrambling to get prepared.” Piña lifted her eyes and looked up at her father, then at Dinky, and then at Diamond Tiara. “It feels like being back on the isles again and all of the tension as the big fight got closer and closer.” 

Bucky sighed and wished that he could spare Piña from this feeling somehow, but knew that he was powerless to change it. He swept all three fillies into his embrace, and then kissed them all on top of the head once more in turn. 
	
	
> Chapter 791 (Sweet affection) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Bon Bon pounded out her candy confection, she could not help but feel that some… thing was watching her. Of course there were ponies watching her, she was working, and ponies always loved to watch when candy was being made, but this was something else. Bon Bon looked around the shop to see what she could see; two ponies kissing in a booth, two griffons engaged in a bit of heavy petting after sharing some chocolate covered crickets, Helia was sweet talking her husband, Gofannon the griffon, and Golden Harvest was discussing current events with a customer. 

“Helia, you’ve been on your legs too long, go sit down,” Bon Bon said as she returned to her work. She slugged the candy with her hoof; the candy, only being candy, succumbed to the blow, almost going paper thin where Bon Bon had bopped it a good one. 

Rolling up the candy, Bon Bon then began to pound it out again, slamming it flat. This was a long, involved process, and it made the candy chewy, but with a creamy texture. Before her, Bon Bon had a big blob of chocolate, another blob of vanilla, and she was currently working on the strawberry. When done, all three flavours would be combined to form neapolitan, which was always a favourite, and then the candies would be rolled in toasted coconut. It seemed that Bon Bon could never make enough of these candies, they always sold out within the first few hours of being made. The local bridge club had a bounty that could be collected by anypony coming to tell them when these went on sale. For Bon Bon, this was a modest sign of success. 

She slammed and pounded away on the strawberry candy, flattening it, rolling it over, pounding it down, and this time, just to try something different, she sprinkled just a little bit of toasted coconut onto the smooshed out strawberry confection. She rolled it up and began to pound it out again, her hooves landing steady, effective blows. 

It could be said that Bon Bon was a happy pony because she spent her days punching things into perfection. Bon Bon’s ear twitched; it felt as though something had tickled it. She ignored the odd sensation, it was probably sweat or the heat blowing out of the air vent. 

After slamming the confection a few more times, Bon Bon paused. If there was one thing about pregnancy she didn’t like, it was the troublesome, frequent need to pee. Reaching up, she wiped her brow with her foreleg, shook herself, and dropped down on all fours. 

As she made her way to the back of the store, she felt something slide over her teats, a faint, teasing tickle. It was almost too much to bear. She clenched her teeth and hissed, the need to pee even stronger. She had to squeeze herself to hold everything in. She dismissed the feeling as her imagination, pregnancy caused all manner of strange feelings, and continued to the bathroom, going up the stairs and into the old apartment she had shared with Lyra. 





Sitting on the toilet, Bon Bon had the curious sensation that she was not alone. Feeling a little creeped out, Bon Bon wondered if the stress was getting to her. Work, home, family, Harper was sick, Bucky was away and there was no way of knowing if he would come home intact… Bon Bon wanted him in one piece. Bon Bon had been in a strange mood as of late, more than anything she wanted to just cuddle another pony, any of them would do, but she wanted to give Bucky a good, quiet, perhaps even intimate snuggle. Perhaps a cuddle by the fire, with nuzzling, and ear nibbles, and gentle squeezes. 

Closing her eyes, Bon Bon could almost imagine it as she sat on the toilet. It felt good letting everything out, almost orgasmic. Being pregnant had done something to her bladder. A warm tingle in her nethers caused Bon Bon to shiver.

She shook her backside, causing a few more drops to trickle free, and then stood up. She flushed, turned towards the sink, and saw herself in the mirror. She looked… sweaty. It was far too warm in here with the heat on. 

“It’s just the heat bothering me,” Bon Bon said to herself as she turned on the sink. 

Bending her neck, she went to wash her face, placing her muzzle beneath the faucet. The water was cold and feeling it flowing over her nose caused her whole body to tense. It felt good, real good. Lifting her head, Bon Bon opened her eyes. 

There was a face in the mirror, a face not her own. Two terrible Taint filled eyes. An iron grey face. Horrible pointed teeth. A hideous scowl. One glowing red horn. Bon Bon blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, there was a pony skull in a black hood. 

Bon Bon was not amused, nor was she scared. Her eyes narrowed. “Bucky… get out of my mirror… what are you doing here, you horrible creep… spying on me while I’m in the bathroom… for shame.” 

“I was also tickling your teats and playing with your ear,” Bucky admitted from within the mirror. “Hi Bonnie… I was missing you… and worried about you… how ya feeling?” 

“I just saw Sombra and then the reaper pony in my mirror… so I’m feeling a bit annoyed with my husband at the moment,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Aw, Bonnie, I was only playing.” Bucky poured out of the mirror like smoke rising from a fire. His body coalesced and the faucet in the sink was turned off by an invisible force. “Did you miss me? I missed you.” 

The bathroom was now a bit cramped with two ponies inside of it. Bon Bon could feel Bucky’s body pressed up against hers. She snorted, but stretched out her neck and gave Bucky a grudging kiss on the cheek. 

“Most ponies would have lost their minds from fear… this is why I love you Bonnie.” Bucky rubbed his cheek against Bon Bon’s, then angled his head, and rubbed his ear against the corner of her jaw. 

“Buttering me up isn’t going to help you.” Bon Bon was tempted to pull away, but the affection that Bucky was lavishing upon her felt too good. She gave Bucky a little hip bump, pressing her cutie mark against his. 

“Well, nuts… I guess there is only one thing to do,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

Taken by surprise, Bon Bon felt Bucky move. He was fast. She couldn’t recall Bucky moving like this before, his movements were predatory, almost fierce. In the span of an eyeblink he was no longer beside her, but in front of her, his muzzle pressed against her own, applying powerful suction, her lips had been parted, one leg was now wrapped around her neck, and the almost pointed tip of Bucky’s tongue was tracing little circles over her lips. 

Feeling lightheaded, dizzy, Bon Bon’s legs began to wobble. She sat down on the tile floor, leaned forwards into Bucky, and then, with great effort, she lifted her front legs, wrapped them around Bucky, and pulled him down into a sitting position with her. The smooth, cool touch of Bucky’s cloak against her skin made Bon Bon shiver, her muscles clenching and spasming. 

It took all of Bon Bon’s willpower to pull her head back, away from Bucky’s feverish kisses, and asked in a breathy whisper, “Bucky… why do things have to be complicated between us?” She felt Bucky’s muzzle pressed against hers, but not in a kiss. It trailed over her face, brushing against her eyelashes, until she felt two lips against her ear. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Bucky, I want you… I want you real bad, and I want you right here, right now, in this bathroom,” Bon Bon said in a low, needy whisper. “I have a powerful need, Bucky, but this always gets complicated.” 

“Lyra,” Bucky breathed. 

“Yes, Lyra,” Bon Bon replied as she gave Bucky a squeeze, pulling him closer, now feeling his belly against her belly. “I can’t have Lyra hurting over me having something she couldn’t give me.”

“I know, and I would never hurt Lyra like that.” After speaking, Bucky took Bon Bon’s ear between his lips and gave it a teasing, tantalising, tender tug. He was rewarded with a faint moan from Bon Bon. 

His horn igniting, Bucky soundproofed the bathroom and made certain the door was locked. Once that was finished, he extended his will, reaching out with his telekinesis, and probed Bon Bon’s moist folds. He felt her gasp and her whole body tensed. He made his telekinesis vibrate, he made it ripple, it made it feel as though droplets of water fell. 

“What about you?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Don’t worry about me,” Bucky replied as he intensified his magic. His ears perked when he heard a lewd squelch. “Oh Bonnie… I love you crazily.” 

“I know.” Bon Bon let out a gasp. Bucky was good at what he did, perhaps too good. His magic was pushing all of the right buttons in all of the right places. “Bucky, I love you,” she breathed as she closed her eyes. “You and I… we don’t spend as much time together as we should… we’re the workers in this family.” Bon Bon was having trouble making words happen. She leaned forwards onto Bucky as a powerful wave of euphoria overtook her. She could feel something stabbing her in the stomach. She knew what it was… and she knew what to do. 

Turning Bucky away from her somewhat, Bon Bon angled him in such a way that she could reach his turgid, throbbing cock. She wrapped her fetlock around it, squeezing, applying pressure, and she gave him a tug, not allowing her fetlock to slide over his tender flesh, but an actual tug, pulling on him. She felt his whole body tense. She relaxed her hold a little and her fetlock slid along Bucky’s length. 

As far as stallions went, Bucky wasn’t very long… something that Bon Bon knew that Bucky was sensitive about, but Bucky had girth. Bon Bon’s love fevered brain thought about Derpy and Berry’s descriptions about how Bucky’s chubby little prick would stretch them out, hitting all of the right places. He was hung like a pickle barrel. She slid her fetlock back down his shaft, squeezed, and then stroked him a few times in rapid succession. 

Feeling dirty for even thinking about it, she tried to imagine Bucky slipping inside of her. The feeling of pressure at her entrance, pushing, shoving his way inside, and then there would be a delightful sting of being stretched out, the elastic lips of her labia being stretched out, filled to bursting, the solid, meaty feeling of her clitoris being crushed by the girthy invader. That wonderful sensation of a tight fit.

Bon Bon’s strokes intensified as her own climax approached. She could feel something brushing up against her clitoris in light, almost lapping strokes, a feather touch tracing over the tip of it, enough to titillate but not enough to satisfy. A warm, kneading massage began over her teats, and she could feel the tips being tugged upon, a gentle squeeze. She closed her eyes, spread her legs somewhat, and began humping up against Bucky’s hipbone, she was hornier than a secondary school full of teenage unicorns. 

She could hear Bucky’s laboured breathing. Eyes still closed, still giving Bucky’s leg a good humping, Bon Bon’s lips sought out Bucky’s as she felt her body bracing for what was certain to be an explosive climax. She kissed him, but Bucky seemed a bit distracted, and Bon Bon knew why. She squeezed with her fetlock, tugging instead of stroking, applying pressure at the base, and without realising it, she was preventing him from cumming. 

Sweaty, hot, and dying for release, Bon Bon’s flat, square teeth bit down on Bucky’s neck, pinching, nipping at a roll of his flesh. She latched on, unable to help herself, fulfilling some ancient, primal need that equines had to bite down and hold on as they climaxed. Bon Bon’s hips churned, writhing up and down as the tickle of magic inside and all around her twat grew to be too much. A dribble of squalene oozed out from Bon Bon’s candy pink folds, leaving Bucky’s hops plant slick with mare cum. Bon Bon let go of herself completely and began banging her filly flaps against Bucky with reckless abandon, all while her teeth were locked upon a tender bit of Bucky’s neck flesh. 

Snorting, Bon Bon was unaware that her heavy breathing was pushing Bucky over the edge. She had never given a hoofjob before, she had no idea what she was doing, but she applied firm, sturdy, steady strokes to Bucky’s stubby shaft, trying to help him grind out his own frustrations. 

Bon Bon unlocked her jaws from Bucky’s skin, letting go, and then she buried her face into Bucky’s mane. She could not stop herself, she cried, tears spilling out of her eyes as her orgasms slammed through her guts. Strange emotions filled her, a need to be close to Bucky, the heady feeling of love, the knowledge of motherhood, the feeling of relief from climaxing so hard. 

The mare went limp, leaning on Bucky, her foreleg kept going, kneading, stroking, Bon Bon was a tireless worker, and her orgasm-addled brain realised that Bucky was cumming. She could feel him flaring, and then she could feel his seed travelling up his shaft. Something hot and sticky dribbled all over Bon Bon’s foreleg. She felt Bucky go limp against her, in more ways than one. His body slumped over and his twitching cock was already starting to go soft. 

Rubbing her sweaty cheek against Bucky, Bon Bon sought out his lips again. She pulled him in for a kiss, she needed this kiss, she nibbled on his lip and coaxed him into kissing her, even though he was slipping into a warm afterglow. 

“After we clean up, I’ll fix you some coffee,” Bon Bon whispered as she pulled away from the slobbery kiss. A powerful shudder made her whole body tense and she shook, clinging to Bucky, worried, even fearful of falling over. She felt her anus clench as her marehood attempted to swallow itself in one final post-coital orgasm. She gave Bucky a crushing hug and rode out the final shivers, whimpering, tears still streaming down her cheeks. 



 

Smiling, a freshly showered Bon Bon glanced at Bucky, meeting his eyes for a moment, and then she looked away, giggling like a school filly. She tried not to think about how there had been cum on the ceiling, but failed, causing even more giggles and a few snorts to slip out. She lifted up a chocolate dipped tea cake, bit off the end, and watched as Bucky took a sip of coffee. Her orange tongue slipped out of her mouth, licked the tip of the chocolate dipped tea cake, and she watched as Bucky almost dropped his coffee. 

Bon Bon, twenty five years of age, felt like a filly again. Reaching out beneath the table, she used her hind hoof to stroke Bucky’s leg. She tittered, unable to help herself, not quite knowing what had come over her, but she suspected it had something to do with the foal now growing in her belly. 

“That was some welcome home,” Bucky said as he set down his coffee cup. He lifted up a chocolate dipped tea cake, bit off the end, and started crunching. 

Reaching up, Bon Bon brushed her mane out of her face. She looked Bucky in his eye, watching the Taint mist creeping out of his terrible red and green eye. She understood the need for Bucky to maintain his warlock status in public, but she hated seeing him like this. This was an illusion, nothing more. He had been cleaned of the Taint, reclaiming a part of himself that Bon Bon had worried was lost forever. 

“I know you’re going to be leaving again.” Bon Bon squirmed in her seat. She leaned forwards, resting one foreleg on the table, and took another bite of her chocolate dipped tea cake. She chewed for a few moments, smacked her lips, and swallowed. “Bucky, don’t go.” 

“Bonnie, I have to go. There is something nasty down south, and sending other ponies to deal with it would be their deaths.” Bucky gave Bon Bon a pleading look. “Please don’t make me feel guilty for having to do my job.” 

“Why can’t Luna go and deal with it?” Bon Bon sucked in a deep breath when she saw the angry look on Bucky’s face, and she hoped his anger was not directed at her. 

“She might not be able to die, but she can be mutilated, mangled, and have horrible things happen to her… I cannot allow that to happen again… you didn’t see her Bonnie… you didn’t see her—” 

“Bucky, calm down.” Bon Bon could see his talons flexing and she caught a whiff of ozone. “Bucky, I’m sorry… no, I didn’t see her.” 

“She was melted… like wax… what he did to her… what he was going to do to her… he was going to violate her… steal away her dignity—” 

“Bucky,” Bon Bon whispered. “Bucky, it’s okay… just calm down.” Reaching over the table, Bon Bon used the soft edge of her fetlock to wipe away a tear on Bucky’s cheek that had slipped out. Bon Bon wanted to say that Bucky could also be mutilated, mangled, and have horrible things happen to him; horrible things had already happened to him. She wanted to tell Bucky that he was mortal, and that if he died, there was no coming back, while Luna would recover in time, just as she had done. But Bon Bon said none of these things. 

“Bucky, I love you… whatever has to happen, just… get it done and over with… and come home to us.” The earth pony mare smiled a soft, sad smile. “I hate your job… I hate it so much… but I understand that it’s a job that has to be done.” 

“I’m sorry Bonnie… I wish things were different…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 792
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Swaying from side to side, the train rocked back and forth as it traveled south. The train car was comfortable, well appointed, more like a rolling hotel room. There was a well stocked bar in this car, a long sofa, a hi-fi, and a mini-fridge filled with goodies. There was one peculiarity about this train car—it was daytime and the windows of this car, and of every car in the train, had been covered over with heavy black drapes, blocking out the sunlight. 

In the lounge car, there were four ponies relaxing, but one was not like the other three. Sunny, vibrant, and orange, Sunset Shimmer lacked the slitted pupils of her companions. She was curled up on the end of the sofa, reading a book by horn light, a soft, amused smile upon her lips. Taking up most of the length of the sofa was Moonless Night, a pony that could be mistaken for a very, very large dog. The wolf-like abomination was snoring, sleeping, lost in pleasant dreams, perhaps dreams of chasing rabbits. Somepony had tied pretty pink bows into his mane and the hairy tufts that sprouted from the tips of his ears while he slept. 

Sitting in a high backed recliner chair, Mask was reading a thick book entitled, ‘Method Acting and You: A Revival.’ Beside him was a tall glass tumbler filled with dark brown liquor. As Mask read, he became different ponies, changing between being a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony. 

Sprawled upon the floor, Bucky held something tiny up to his face to study it. It was no larger than a coin, had a spherical body the size of a pea, and eight tiny legs. It kicked and wiggled, protesting it’s current plight with faint beeps and whistles. Bucky, who had come to the realisation that bigger was not always better, was already working on the next generation of spider golems. 

“Hold still,” Bucky said in a patient, faint whisper. “I’m trying to see if I made your leg hinges correctly… stop dancing, I know that telekinesis magic is tickly and tingly.” 

The golem, beeping, made a rude gesture with one tiny leg, a leg as thin as a needle. 

“Master?” 

Sighing, Bucky set down the golem. It scurried away, running beneath the couch. “Yes, what is it, Minion?” 

“What is the purpose of a golem so small?” Sunset asked. 

“This model serves one purpose,” Bucky replied. “Injection. That one that I’m working on has a reservoir, extra-dimensional in nature, that is filled with the new synthetic healing compound copied from Tourmaline’s spit.” 

“Teeny, tiny, itty bitty little medics?” Sunset Shimmer tilted her head and her ears perked forwards. 

“Yes… I plan to give a bunch of them to Black Briar… if I can convince them to stay with him.” Bucky’s ears perked to the sound of beeping from beneath the couch. “The little ones are so sensitive to vibrations. I wonder if I can exploit that somehow.” 

“Filling them with paralytic agents seems ideal for non lethal takedowns.” Returning to her book, Sunset Shimmer busied herself with more reading. 



 

Pinto Creek had at one point been a mining town. After the mines gave up their wealth, the town almost died. The town had been revitalised after discovering that it had ideal soil for growing sweet yellow onions. The ground lacked a significant concentration of sulfur. 

The town was almost dead again. Most of the residents had abandoned it. Only a few brave souls remained, determined to stick it out and see the town thrive again. When the train pulled into the train depot, hope came with it. The residents had been overjoyed to witness the arrival of the train. 

The residents of Pinto Creek were so desperate for help that they didn’t seem to mind that there was a warlock on the train and a collection of abominations. Pinto Creek had trouble, real trouble, and friendly abominations were the best hope of ending said trouble. 

The whole southern desert had been plagued with the undead, but Pinto Creek had been hard hit. Now, there were dried up dessicated bodies being found. Strange things lurked in the dark. There were reports of strange glows in the distance, down south, along Sidewinder Ridge. 

A team of Myrmidons had been dispatched to this place; none of them had returned. 



 

Wrapping his cloak around him, Bucky stepped down off of the train, and Sunset followed along behind him. Once he was on the ground, she moved to his side, walking with him as an equal. Bucky lifted his head high and looked at the only pony that had come out to greet them, a wrinkled, weatherworn stallion that had a soggy looking stogie hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

“Greetings,” Bucky said. “I am Bucky, of the Black Cloaks. This is Sunset Shimmer, my apprentice. We’re here to help.” 

The old stallion squinted at Bucky, then at Sunset Shimmer. “We’re glad to see you. My name is Buckeye Owens. Most folk just call me ‘Eyeball’ cause I’m good at spotting danger.” The old stallion gave a nod at Bucky and Sunset. “The both of you are dangerous. Real dangerous. And I’m real happy to see that.” The stallion coughed and then spit out a wad of bloody green phlegm. 

“If you need a doctor, we have one onboard the train,” Sunset Shimmer said in a low, concerned voice. 

“Last night there was another attack,” Eyeball said, ignoring Sunset’s words. “We saw the flames, but none of us dared leave our houses. We went out there this morning though. One body found… the husband. The mother and the three foals are missing. The body is in the post office if you want to look. It’s dried out, like a big ol’ spider sucked it dry.” 

“I’ll have Fever Cure have a look at that,” Bucky said. 

“We’d all appreciate it.” Eyeball sighed and his body sagged. He looked tired. “Lumpy was a good pony. Hard worker. He was real good to his mare too, not a hitter, a biter, or a shouter. They scratched a living out of the dirt together. He deserved better.” 

Bucky nodded. “A lot of ponies deserve better.” 

“As mayor, I want you to take those sumbitches that did this and I want you to kill them dead. I have no plans to get in your way or make you follow some daggum regulations or behave all by the book. That’s all a load of happy crappy stick to your hooves horseshit at this point. Now is killing time.” 

“Oh, I doubt we’ll be taking many prisoners,” Bucky whispered in reply. “Whatever it was that killed those Myrmidons are unlikely to surrender.” 

“Those big armored fellas… they questioned everyone in the town. Came into our dreams… after that, they headed south, where you can sometimes see the glow.” Eyeball chewed on his stogie for a moment, coughed, and then spat out more bloody phlegm. 

Hearing this made Bucky feel a little worried. Myrmidons were tough—tough enough to deal with almost anything, with the exception of strong magic users. 

“There’s zombies out there… dead ponies, burros, steers, cows, and other critters. Be careful if you go out. During the daytime, you can see them and run, but at night, they’ll jump out and get ya.” Eyeball wheezed a bit, his eyes watering, coughed, and then shook his head. “I gotta get inside, outa this cold air before it kills me.” 

“Oh, I’m not worried about zombies,” Sunset Shimmer said, offering Eyeball a sunny smile. “I’m an anathema to the undead. That’s why I’m here.” 

“Firestarter,” Bucky added, making a gesture to suggest flames with his talons. “Lots of burning, fireballs, she’s great if you want to roast marshmallows, but don’t be anywhere near her if she sneezes or farts—” 

“Master!” 

“What?” Bucky reached up and rubbed the ear that Sunset had just shouted into. 

Sunset Shimmer tossed her head back and let out an indignant sniff. 

Eyeball, his eyes still watering, began to chortle, which caused him to start coughing once more. He hacked and wheezed, still laughing as he turned around to head inside. 



 

“Just like the others,” Fever Cure said, shaking his head. “Sucked dry.” He stared at the body on the table. It was skin, desiccated meat, and bones. Everything was shriveled. He cleared his throat. “Bears an unmistakable signature, the touch of necromantic energy.” Fever Cure held up an orb of undead compulsion near the body and the orb glowed with a faint light. “Just like all the others.” 

“Shite and buggery.” Bucky’s lip curled back into a snarl and he shook his head. 

“Bite marks.” Sunset Shimmer looked over the dried out body, her muzzle crinkled in disgust. “Bite marks on the neck and the forelegs, down near the fetlocks. Puncture wounds.” 

Fever Cure placed the orb of undead compulsion near the bite wounds and it flashed brighter as it was held near. The stallion made a clucking sound with his tongue. “I don’t like this. This is very much like what Bocor Oya described.” 

Oya. The name rung a bell. Bucky tilted his head to the side as he tried to recall the name and its significance. Oya. He recalled the scent of oranges… and the need to sneeze. Oya, he had discussed nether creatures with Oya and they had danced together at a party. Oya believed in vampires. 

“Bocor Oya?” Bucky asked. 

“She and I have exchanged a few letters… she’s heard about our problem. She’s told me some things… that… I have had a hard time accepting,” Fever Cure replied. 

“Let me guess… nether creatures… vampires.” Bucky’s voice was low. He watched as Fever Cure nodded. “Well, I suppose anything is possible. Treat this as a serious threat for now. I want this whole town locked down by sundown.” Bucky yawned. “I’d better get some sleep sometime if I’m going to be at the top of my game tonight.” 



 

“Mommy, you’re very pretty.” Bucky looked up at the gleaming, almost metallic looking mare that was applying makeup in the mirror. He rubbed up against her leg and was rewarded with an affectionate nuzzle on top of his head. 

“Why thank you, you darling colt.” 

Bucky adored the sound of his mother’s voice. He looked up at her reflection, his eyes wide, an almost worshipful expression upon his face. “Will Daddy be joining us at the opera tonight?” Bucky’s eyes glanced at the photo of Daddy. A dark, smokey grey stallion stared back out of the picture frame, his long, unkempt mane spilling around his face and shoulders. His eyes were loving, gentle, and there was a smirking smile upon his face. Daddy had a lopsided grin and square, perfect teeth. 

There was a tingle-tickle all around him as Bucky felt himself lifted. He was flying, soaring through the air, and then he was right in front of Mommy’s face. She was so pretty. Her shining silvery mane spilled down her neck. Dinner plate nums. Or something. Bucky could never quite remember. He felt two lips kiss his tummy and he giggled again, holding still so he wouldn’t mess up Mommy’s eye makeup. 

“Daddy is very sorry,” Mommy said in a low voice. 

Looking his Mommy in the eye, Bucky blinked as she reached up and booped his nose. Reaching out a foreleg, he touched his tiny hoof to her snoot, booping her back. “Why is Daddy sorry?” He could see that Mommy looked sad now. If she cried, her eye makeup would start running. 

“Daddy is very, very sorry… for everything.” 

Oops. Mommy was starting to cry. A single tear rolled down out of the corner of her eye, making her blue-black makeup run. “I don’t understand.” He squirmed as he felt his mother pull him closer and kiss his belly again. 

“I love you so much… you’ve been such a good colt. Never forget that Mommy loves you, no matter what happens.” 

“What?” Bucky blinked, not understanding what was going on. 

“Mommy loves you so much… tonight, at the opera, I fear that you are going to learn the truth… and that it is going to hurt you.” 

Before his eyes, Mommy began to age, growing old and wrinkled. Her face sagged and her ears drooped. Her eyes yellowed and her gleaming dinner plate num mane started to fall out. 

Letting out a shrill squeak of terror, Bucky fell down to the floor, watching as his mother aged. He cried out, again and again, but there was nothing he could do. As he let out a pained shriek, there was the sound of shattering glass. 

Daddy jumped out of the picture frame. Only it was Not Daddy. He looked like Daddy, but was different. Sharp teeth. Horrible red and green eyes. A glowing red horn. Something bad had happened to Daddy. 

As Mommy fell over, collapsing, dying of old age, Not Daddy lept down and pinned Bucky to the floor. Screaming, helpless, there was nothing the foal could do as Not Daddy’s muzzle opened wide and then clamped down. Sharp teeth pierced Bucky’s throat, and then, he was unable to scream. 

He felt himself growing cold. He felt a rough tongue lapping at the wound in his neck. 

The world went black. 



 

“Bucky, wake up… everything is freezing over!” Not knowing what else to do, Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a gentle slap across the muzzle with a hoof. She heard a muffled confused cry and then he was all over her, clinging to her neck, panicking, she could feel his talons clutching her mane. “It’s okay… shh, I have you.”

She could feel his heart thudding in his chest. His whole body was cold. He was twitching, spasming, everything about him was violent jerks and twitches. She pulled him closer, rubbing him, trying to warm him. His body was like ice. The train car all around them was coated in hoarfrost. 

Hearing a soft muffled sound, Sunset Shimmer looked up. She saw Black Briar standing close by, his pelt thick with accumulated frost. The earth pony came closer, his hooves and prosthetic leg almost silent as he moved. He placed one front hoof on Bucky’s back and Sunset felt Bucky calm a little. 

“He feels like he’s almost dead,” Blackbriar said in a low whisper. 

“Shut up!” Sunset snapped. 

“I didn’t mean anything by it.” The earth pony’s face became apologetic. “I’m scared.” 

Sunset closed her eyes. “I’m sorry… I’m scared too.” 

“Gin,” Bucky gasped. 

Reaching out with her mind, Sunset Shimmer grabbed the gin out of the liquor cabinet. She almost got a glass as well, but she realised that a glass wasn’t needed. She twisted off the cap as the bottle zoomed through the air and then held it up to Bucky’s lips. 

She watched as the bottle of naval strength gin was sucked down Bucky’s throat, feeling a little amazed by what she was seeing. This stuff was horrid, strong stuff, a vile liquid. Just being close to the open bottle made her eyes water and her sinuses burn. 

“You mad bastard, you just guzzled two quarts of gin!” Fever Cure, looking bleary eyed, stood in the doorway. Fever Cure frowned as he listened to Bucky wheezing. “I don’t suppose drinking that much would kill you… but if it was anypony else, I’d be inducing vomiting right about now.” 



 

Feeling unsettled, Bucky leaned back against the couch cushions. He was wrapped in a blanket, cold, unable to feel his legs. The gin had warmed his belly, but nothing else. He didn’t even feel drunk, which unnerved him. He hadn’t cast any spells to burn the alcohol from his blood. That much gin should have done something. 

Next to him, Sunset Shimmer continued to worry. He had sent everypony else out of the room, wanting to be alone, but Sunset had refused to leave. Closing his eyes, Bucky could see vivid images from his dream. He shivered as he saw Platinum aging, shrivelling up. 

He had dreamed that she was his mother. For a moment, he could almost feel the soft, warm touch of the nuzzle she had given him in the dream. The affection. The little kisses she had placed upon his belly. He had felt loved. His bones ached as the cold in his body seemed to turn his limbs to lead. 

As much as he tried not to, he thought of Berry and her soft, tender, milk swollen teats. How warm they were. How full of life they were. The sweet, creamy, life sustaining richness of the milk she produced. A terrible hunger gnawed at Bucky’s insides, not just in his stomach, but in his heart, it permeated through every fibre of his being. 

Or Derpy… He could almost feel her velvety thigh against his cheek. The soft, moist smell of her feminine places. The heat from those places. Warmth. The soft gurgles of her stomach in his ear while he suckled, while he fed. It always made the cold go away. It always brought life back to his limbs and appeased his strange hunger. 

Thistle, whose milk tasted of fish and sweetness. She liked it when he fed, liked the feeling of closeness. She liked to rub his ears. Her soothing touch would sometimes put him to sleep. Thistle understood his needs. She was a good pony and was becoming a good wife. 

The cold became an unbearable ache. He reached out his talons, extending them towards Sunset Shimmer, his whole body shaking, and he wrapped his talon fingers around her leg. “It hurts so much…” 

The cold was agonising. Sunset Shimmer hissed as the cold sank into her foreleg like a knife. In moments, her foreleg had gone numb and she could feel the cold spreading. It hurt… it hurt so much, but Sunset had nothing to reference this sort of pain, This was different. Her teeth began to chatter and she felt a cold ache in her heart. 

Torn, wanting to comfort Bucky, but unable to bear his frigid touch, Sunset pulled her foreleg away. Right away, she could feel warmth returning to her limb. She rubbed herself as she said, “Bucky, you’re like ice… it’s hurting me.” 

“I’m sorry Sunset… I’m so cold. And you… you’re so warm.” 

Sunset Shimmer felt her blood run cold for a moment, a cold chill shot down her spine, and her whole body shivered. She threw a thick woollen blanket over Bucky, then another, and then, wondering if it was safe, she leaned over against him, fearful of the cold that he seemed to radiate. 
	
> Chapter 793
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The shadows grew long as the sun settled ever closer to the west. An odd mix of emotion had settled over the town, both fear and hope. Fear that their rescuers would fail, plunging the town into darkness, and hope that they would succeed, meaning the nightmare would finally be over. 

Plans had been made for the first night. Break apart into groups, travel outwards from the center of town through the darkness, find any opposition, and crush them. If any undead were encountered, either fire weapons would be employed or Sunset Shimmer would be whisked to the undead. Either way, annihilation was the only outcome. The group was armed with several orbs of undead compulsion, one of Bucky’s finest and perhaps most puzzling creations. 



 

“You’ve been staring into an orb again, haven’t you?” Bucky noted the haunted look upon Storm Blitz’s face. “I told you, what you see there isn’t real. It’s your own fear of death and the horrors of your mind.” 

“I know.” The big pegasus hunched over, looking chastised. “It’s like a horror movie. I can’t turn away… part of me keeps wanting to look to see what will happen next… what fresh horror is about to be shown next.” 

“Those orbs are creepy,” Black Briar said. “When I touch one, I can hear whispering sounds inside and outside of my head.” The rotund earth pony shook his head. “Yet I keep wanting to touch one. I like how it shivers my skin.” 

Moonless Night looked down at Black Briar and nodded. “Creepy.” 

His lip curling back, Deus shrugged. “The orbs have no effect on me. I don’t see what the big deal is.” He reached up and scratched his neck. “Then again, I don’t scare easy.” 

“It’s hard to scare a cambion,” Tainy said as she looked up at her big, hulking, horned companion. “Those orbs… I don’t like them. I don’t trust anything that gives Blackie the creeps.” She waved her paw, making a dismissive gesture. “Bucky, you going to be okay for tonight?” 

“I’m fine,” Bucky said, not feeling fine at all. He looked at his Shadowbolts, meeting the eyes of each of them. “Sunset and I will be working together. If you need her, send a message via umbral empathy. How are the rest of you planning to team up?” 

“Well, Mask and I were planning on teaming up together, but Tainy pointed out that having two sources of magic in different places might be useful,” Fever Cure said. 

“Tainy and I both have spell jars with fire and Tainy also has her crossbow.” Black Briar looked at his constant companion. “We work well together, so unless there are any objections, I’m with her. She needs distance to do her best work and I can keep stuff away from us.” 

“Moonie and I will work with Mask,” Deus said to Bucky, gesturing to each as he said their names. “I think we can keep the little guy safe.” 

“I guess that leaves Fever Cure and I.” Storm Blitz looked down at the unicorn and saw a faint nod of approval. “Do you think I could set the undead on fire with lightning?” 

“Electrical burns?” Bucky shrugged. “Perhaps. You have set stuff on fire before.” 

“But no running around setting things on fire willy-nilly.” Sunset Shimmer looked around the group, her opal eyes blazing in the last faint light of day. “Ask first. Check. Double check. And then triple check. What if you run into some injured pony out in the dark seeking help and you burn them? Not good! If you burn an innocent, you’ll answer to me!” 

“Okay, no shooting first and asking questions later, I get it,” Tainy said, her feathers fluffing out. “I’m as nervous as a griffon cub in a room full of rocking chairs… this is going to be a rough night. Frickin’ undead.” 

“I don’t know what we might face out there. Zombies, wights, ghouls, could be anything. Once you have confirmation, take them down. Dismember the corpse. Shooting them in the head or decapitating them is useless. Remember to dismember.” Bucky looked around the group, his grey eye glinting beneath this hood. “If you run into real trouble, don’t be stupid and proud, call for help… this is why we brought Sunset Shimmer… she is our best weapon against hordes of undead.” 

“Don’t be proud, remember to dismember, burn everything that is dead but keeps moving, got it.” Moonless Night reached up with his hind leg and scratched behind his ear. He sniffed and his tall ears perked. The wolf-like pony’s hackles rose as he continued sniffing the breeze blowing up from the south. “Something rotten… like bad meat.” 

“Oh, ew.” Tainy shook her head. “I guess they know we’re here. Here comes the welcoming committee.” 

“Perhaps.” Bucky turned his head and looked southwards. “Spread out and be careful.” 



 

Darkness settled over the land like a shroud, causing well lighted windows to become islands of illumination in a sea of vivid, crawling black. Many windows had planks over them, trying to keep whatever was lurking in the darkness out, and light spilled through at crazy angles. 

Bucky moved through the darkness, drifting, legless, a billowing black shroud with a face. Beside him, Sunset Shimmer moved with an easy grace, an orb of undead compulsion levitated in front of her face. She was scowling, her face visible in the light of her magic, and her eyes were troubled. 

“Master, we’re getting closer.” 

“We’re still in a populated area, Minion.” 

“I know, this troubles me,” Sunset replied, her voice little more than a whisper. 

“So something undead lurks within the town proper.” Bucky glided over the frozen dirt, a writhing, roiling mass of shadow covered in a black shimmering shroud. 

“There,” Sunset Shimmer pointed at a house, a small house, made of adobe that had a sod roof. It was one of the nicer houses, more than the common wooden ramshackle shack. Sunset headed for the door, her black cloak billowing out behind her, her breath rising like steam from her nostrils. 

Bucky solidified, his hooves touching down upon the sand, and a pained expression crossed his face. He limped towards the door, one ear spasming from pain with each step he took. He glanced at Sunset Shimmer and then saw her knock. 

“Hello? Hello!” Sunset knocked again. “We need to speak with you!” The orb pulsated as Sunset held it up in front of the door for a moment, and then she secreted it away, hiding it beneath her cloak. 

“Go away,” a voice on the other side of the door said. 

“Look, I’m very sorry sir, but we are coming inside one way or another. Now let us in, or there will be trouble,” Bucky replied. 

There was a clunk on the other side of the door, the door shook for a moment, and then opened. A tired looking earth pony peered out. “What do you want?”

“Well, we’re looking for undead.” Sunset Shimmer glanced at Bucky. “And we noticed that your home was giving off some peculiar—” 

“No, you can’t… she’s sick… she’s all I have left… all I have left… mother gone… sister gone… she’s all I have… she can be cured,” the stallion stammered. 

Moving forwards, Bucky shoved the door open, moving the stallion aside. “I’m very sorry, but there is no cure for this. This is not an illness… she’s gone, all that you have is a body—” 

“NO!” The stallion tried to shove Bucky, but couldn’t. A weeping red sore began bleeding, torn open by his efforts. With the blood came the smell of rot. The stallion started weeping. “No, please, she’s all I have left!” 

Sniffing, Bucky could smell death and decay. Touching the darkness with his mind, he reached out for Fever Cure. He turned and looked at the stallion, his expression one of pity. “I understand your pain. I too, am a father.” Bucky’s talons rose up and tendrils of black shadow rose from his claws. The stallion collapsed. Bucky looked at his companion. “Gangrene, I think. He’s dying. I hope that Fever Cure is able to save him.” 

“Master, you should grant him mercy…” 

Bucky nodded at Sunset Shimmer’s open ended suggestion. A little editing was in order. Some things shouldn’t be remembered. It would be a kindness to wipe away this memory, make it all a fever dream, a faint unknowable nightmare. 

Something moaned down in the cellar. Bucky heaved a weary sigh, not feeling well at all. “We go downstairs, we teleport it outside, you set it on fire, and we let it burn to ashes.” 

“Master, no.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “No, Master, I do not think so. This I shall handle alone. You don’t need to see this in your condition—” 

“I don’t have a condition,” Bucky grumbled, cutting Sunset off. 

“Liar.” Sunset scowled and shook her head. “I’m telling Bon Bon.” 

Sighing, Bucky hung his head in defeat. “Very well. You take care of what is in the basement and I’ll do what I can to make this poor sod feel better.” Bucky looked Sunset in the eye. “Sunset, I’m sorry.” 

“For what?” Sunset looked around the room, looking at the different doors. 

“For what you are about to experience.” Bucky shook his head. “It’s going to be awful, I wish there was a way I could spare you from what is about to happen.” 

“I’m sure that it will hurt me,” Sunset replied in a soft, whispery voice. “But at the end of all of this, I get to go home to Bartleby and Trixie, and I will feel better in time. This is the life I chose to have. You are my teacher… where you go, I will follow, damn the consequences.” 



 

Try as he might, Bucky could not ignore the haunted expression on Sunset Shimmer’s face. She had said only a few scant words as they had started back out together, but the most chilling words she had said were, “She was still fresh.” Hearing this had made Bucky’s blood run cold. Fever Cure and Storm Blitz were left to look after the gangrenous bite victim. 

The farms out at the edge of town were little islands of light and shelter in the darkness. The fallow onion fields waited for spring, the promise of new growth, as well as the return of invigourating light and the heat of the sun. 

One farmhouse was a burned down hulk, little more than charred scraps of wood, broken glass, and twisted sections of tin roofing. Bucky examined it as they passed, looking it over, searching for bodies, but it seemed as though the ruined farmhouse had already been searched. 

Many of the farmhouses were empty, abandoned, the families living in them gone for whatever reason. There was a brief moment of worry when Bucky saw flames in the distance, but then something touched his mind; he could feel Tainy’s thoughts and Black Briar’s as well. Black Briar’s thoughts seemed remarkably calm given the circumstances. 



 

Hearing a low moan, Bucky stopped and looked at Sunset Shimmer. He watched as she lifted up the orb of undead compulsion. It glowed in the darkness, almost burning his eyes, his grey eye reflecting a silvery glow from the orb’s light. 

In the distance, something very clearly dead shuffled towards them. Bucky heaved a weary sigh when he saw the horror ambling towards him. Somepony had killed these zombies, dismembered them, but hadn’t burned the bodies. Now, the undead creature shambling towards he and Sunset was a disgusting mass of legs, heads, wings, and bodies, all of which stuck out from odd places. The corpses had pulled themselves together and had reanimated after being dismembered. 

“Okay, that’s just gross… when will ponies learn that the movies aren’t a good place to learn about dealing with the undead?” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “Well, I think we have a confirmed undead… no having to worry about torching this one.” 

“Wait.” Bucky held up his talons. “Let us see if there is anything to be learned here.” 

“Master—” 

“Just give me a minute,” Bucky said as he stepped forwards. He held the creature back from him at a safe distance with his magic. 

Using his telekinesis, he formed a thin, flat blade of force and then lopped off the legs the creature was using to walk. It fell to the ground with a splat and squish. Bucky stepped forward, watching, and he heard Sunset moving beside him. There was a sickening slurping sound and little red meaty tendrils shot out of the undead abomination. The legs were pulled back to the corpse, and more tendrils looped out, and it looked almost as though the body was sewing itself back together. 

“Ew.” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like that.” 

“That’s some powerful necromancy.” Bucky sliced off a head that happened to be growing out of a lumpy, misshapen shoulder, right where a front leg should have been. Within seconds, more meaty red tendrils reached out, grabbed the head, pulled it back to the writhing mass that was the creature’s body, and began to reattach it, this time connecting it to a rotting, open gash on another torso’s ribs. 

“Oh Master… I don’t like this… not at all,” Sunset Shimmer said as she backed away. 

Shoving the creature over, Bucky watched as it started to get back up, using a different group of wriggling, kicking legs. Bucky had seen enough. He backed away. “Minion, if you please, kill it with fire.” 

“Gladly.” For a moment, Sunset’s eyes blazed in the darkness and then the creature burst into greedy, hungry flames. Sunset’s ears twitched as the night was filled with a horrible keening, as well as the sound of flames cooking meat, the horrible spit and sizzle. 

“Minion, necromancy such as this… this doesn’t come from the common demon I don’t think. We’re dealing with something powerful. I have a bad feeling that we’re dealing with something I keep hearing about, but never see.” 

“And that is?” Sunset asked. 

“One of those enemies that I keep hearing about… the ones that work in the dark, pulling strings, and trying to end Equestria.” Bucky thought about things that had been said, wagers, bets, the denizens of Tartarus and how they loved to gamble. 

“Stupid question time, Master.” 

“Go ahead, there are no stupid questions, Minion.” 

“Can you kill it?” 

“I dunno… I’m not sure I want to answer that question either.” 



 

“Fall back!” Bucky shouted as he shoved forwards with a wall of telekinetic force. 

“Regroup!” Sunset commanded as she lashed out with fire. The night around her burned and her companions all squinted from the bright light she generated. 

A massive army of abominations poured from the south, advancing by the hundreds. Shambling corpses made of many bodies, legs, and heads surged forwards. Zombies, fast moving ghouls, and wights with powerful auras of cold that made limbs feel heavy and useless. 

A large shadowy form swooped overhead and Moonless Night landed, forming a wall made of meat between the advancing horde of undead and Bucky. He roared, not sounding at all like a pony. Deus landed at his side, his infernal eyes glowing in the firelight. 

“We’re in deep shit,” Deus said to his companions. “I feel something… something bad!” 

“The ground feels like curdled milk!” Black Briar shouted. 

“What does that even mean, anyways?” Tainy looked at her companion and began to crank the lever that cocked her crossbow. 

“It means something so foul is coming that the ground itself is turning bad!” Black Briar screamed as he began to dance around. “My hooves are burning!” The earth pony slipped into shadow and rose up above the earth with a pained, whimpering cry. 

“Damnit, I don’t like that!” Tainy rose up, hovering near her companion, half in and half out of shadow. She watched as Sunset Shimmer lobbed a massive fireball, and then squeezed her eyes shut before the explosion blinded her. “Whatever it is, it hurt Blackie… IT DIES!” 

After the fireball detonated, it began to rain flaming body parts. They fell to the earth with a wet, chunky sounding splatter. Bucky let go of another wave of telekinesis, pushing hundreds of bodies backwards, dismembering many from the force of impact, even causing some to explode.

In the distance, in the darkness, something was laughing. It boomed through the night, a horrible sound, as if something escaped from Tartarus found all of this funny. The stench of brimstone filled the air, mingling with the scent of rot and the stink of burned bodies. 

When Sunset let go of another massive fireball, launching it in a parabolic arc, Bucky saw a tall, bipedal winged figure off in the distance, in the back of the advancing army of the undead. He had just survived a war, lived through a devastating trap that had killed thousands, and yet at no moment in the war was he as worried about his survival as he was right now. Gulping, he steeled his nerves, preparing himself for what was certain to be a real fight. 

“Shadowbolts… stick together!” Bucky barked. His body shifted, his shadowstuff rippling. Armor began to form around him, his inheritance manifesting in his time of need. 

Beside him, both Mask and Fever Cure began to cast as many defensive spells as possible, both remaining cool under pressure. Sunset Shimmer began casting powerful augmentations, not just on herself, but on the whole group. 

Realising that drastic times called for drastic measures, Bucky conjured up a few rainclouds, but these clouds didn’t have water. These clouds were charged with the spell Acidulant Assault PH0. The advancing ranks of undead began to dissolve and puddles of acid formed. 

More booming laughter filled the night and Bucky’s blood ran cold. He felt it before he saw it. An incoming missile of blackness, a flying void of darkness. Memories of the crystal lich filled his mind, the loss of his leg, and he stared upwards, his eyes wide with remembered horror. He had survived a death spell, and was now keenly aware of their presence. 

“SCATTER!” Bucky shouted. “SHADOW DIVE! GET OUT OF HERE!” Almost too late, Bucky realised that Sunset Shimmer couldn’t shadow dive. Bucky knew that the incoming death spell was locked onto the life force of a living solar pony—if she teleported, it would only follow her. He didn’t know what it would do to Shadowbolts, but it was reasonable to assume it would kill them if they were in the detonation radius.

Diving into shadow, Bucky surged forwards, engulfing his student, pulling her down with him, swallowing her in his shadow essence, pulling her into the void of his cloak with him. 

He did not make it away in time. He concentrated his essence around Sunset’s, trying to shield her, trying to ignore the horrible pain of the necromantic magic that was trying to rip his soul away from his body. He had survived this once already, it was a matter of willpower. 

Almost merging with Sunset’s essence, Bucky held on, not knowing the outcome as blackness began to overtake him. He cursed in his mind, he struggled, he raged, refusing to let go of life, his final thought was of a grey pegasus with vivid amber eyes and how she had chased him. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 794
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Head aching, Bucky tried to force his eyes to open. Nothing happened. The world remained dark. He heard whimpering, faint panting cries, and the sound of guttural laughter. He found that he was unable to move. After a few attempts, he found that his magic wasn’t working either. His whole body hurt, wracked by strange pain. He felt cold and his body felt as heavy as lead. 

Using all of his will, he forced his eyes open. 

Inches away from his face, he saw Sunset Shimmer. She was gagged. He could see the fear in her eyes. Her horn sparked and fizzled. She had been crying; her eyes were red, tears stained her face, and her nose was snotty. 

“He awakes,” a voice said. “Delightful.” 

“After doing what was predicted,” another voice said. 

“I am still surprised that she lived… yet it is somehow more satisfying that she is to be his first victim… perhaps when he is done with her he can rid us of those wretched, crying, sniveling foals we took as a contingency.” 

“I bet you are wondering why you are here, Descendant of Sombra,” a resonant voice said, speaking with a perfect, well cultured enunciation. “I would imagine that you have questions. I would not bother trying to ask them, all will be revealed in time.” 

“I’m… going… to… kill… you,” Bucky gasped, panting, spitting out the words one by one. He kicked and struggled, or tried to. All of his efforts only caused his legs to twitch and make futile, feeble jerks. 

“Tsk tsk tsk… how rude.”

The cultured voice was close, but not too close. Bucky could hear it. He tried to move his head, but was unable to do anything. He looked into Sunset’s eyes, trying to draw strength from her, trying to give her strength, trying to do something, anything to fight back. 

“Unlike the bitchy Fates, I am kind enough to offer you a choice when it comes to your destiny,” the cultured voice said, his Canterlot accent strong and recognisable. “You see, because of my Master, I have some appreciation for you… not in the current state of weakness that you exist in, but for what you could become. Tonight, I plan to free you. Does that not sound pleasant?” 

“Piss off.” Bucky’s voice came out as a dry, raspy hiss as he struggled to move. 

“Tonight, I am going to give you a choice.” The cultured Canterlot voice burst into a laugh. “You can either ascend, becoming what you were meant to be, or you can take a little foal step towards your eventual ascension… either way, tonight, you will embrace what you were meant to be.” 

“No,” Bucky gasped. “No, never.” 

“I am not giving you the option of saying no,” the voice said before slipping into a sarcastic chuckle. “After tonight, there is no going back for you. The princesses will never allow you back after what you will do. They will hunt you down, they will destroy you… they will take your family from you. You will be left with nothing. You will have no choice but to embrace your destiny.” 

Blinking, Bucky heard a low whimper from Sunset. 

“Do you know what you are?” the refined voice from Canterlot asked. 

“I don’t think he does,” another voice said. 

All around him, Bucky heard snickering and more guttural laughter. 

“When my Master first touched you, you had the right body. The right mind. You had the right blood. You’ve been given a gift. A gift that so far, you have rejected.” The Canterlot voice paused for a moment. “Tonight, your lack of gratitude will be rectified. You will be corrected, you ungrateful whelp.” 

Bucky ignored the voice, focusing instead on Sunset Shimmer, staring into her opal eyes. A flood of Sombra’s memories began to trickle through his mind, and with them, came a faint glimmer of understanding. He choked back a sob, fearful for Sunset and how close she was to him. 

“Do it,” the cultured, Canterlot accented voice commanded. 

A dark shape loomed over Bucky, grabbed him by an ear, lifted his head, and before Bucky could do anything to protest, something sharp pierced his throat. He felt the cold metal biting deep, then slicing him open. He heard a dreadful gurgle and it was suddenly hard to  draw breath. 

“You have but two options. Ascend, and save yourself. Become an alicorn and give Sombra your body. You will be immortal, and you will live.” The voice paused for a moment as Bucky gurgled. “Or, you can feed upon your former student and save yourself. By doing so, you will make yourself an enemy of the princesses.” 

Bucky’s vision was growing dim. He didn’t like these options. He stared into Sunset’s eyes, wondering what to do, and with great sadness, he realised there was a third option. He blinked. Dying was easy. All of this could be over. It would be over and he would be beyond caring. It would be easy to slip away. 

But slipping away meant leaving Sunset at the mercy of these ponies, whomever they were. Anger flared within Bucky’s dying heart. There was another option. He didn’t like this option, but it was an option. 

Bucky let out a strangled gurgle, trying to say something. Blood sprayed from his lips. He had such a narrow chance. He felt his heartbeat growing weaker. Colour was bleeding from his vision and sound was becoming distorted. 

“I do believe he is trying to speak,” the Canterlot voice said. “You idiot… you were only supposed to open his throat, not slice into his vocal cords!” 

Coughing, Bucky tried to say something again, his blood splattering all over Sunset’s face. Even as he was dying, he felt bad about it. Something white loomed in his vision. He could no longer see Sunset. Something white and gold. 

“If you have something to say, some final words of protest, I am listening,” the Canterlot voice said, his words dripping with sarcasm. “Or do you require some help feeding on your prey? Is that it? Just nod and I shall help you.” 

Calling up the last of his strength, Bucky lifted his head, opened his jaws, and clamped down on the white that was in his vision, his teeth sinking into an ear and part of a face. The moment that blood spurted into his mouth, he felt his strength returning. A piercing shriek filled his ears. 

With the blood came more memories. Haunting, terrible memories of Sombra. These ponies, they had but a fraction of the curse; they relied upon necromancy to aid the dark curse of shadow upon their souls. Bucky didn’t need necromancy. As it had been stated, he had the right body, the right mind, and he had the right blood. 

“My magic is gone!” Somepony shouted. “My gift is gone!” 

“Mine too!” 

Bucky felt a weak bolt of telekinetic energy slam into his body. He ignored it. There was another, weak, ineffective blast of magic against his ribs. He ignored that too. While the taste of blood had been invigourating, Bucky’s shadow essence was pulling the life force out of the unicorn trapped in his jaws. He began to radiate a powerful aura of umbral terror. 

He felt his magic returning, but faint. However, his shadow essence had been restored and he felt much needed warmth returning to his limbs. He felt alive. The unicorn he had his teeth sank into was starting to feel a little dead, or close to it. 

Snarling, Bucky rose from where he had been laying, his grey eye now a scary shade of crimson. He was on some kind of altar. He could see unicorns fleeing all around him, running. He would deal with them in a moment. He still felt sick, drugged. He also had a terrible hunger.

He reached out to Sunset Shimmer, who whimpered at his touch. He dove into shadow, pulling Sunset down into the darkness with him. Luna had taught him a trick to purge his body of drugs and poisons. Deep within shadow, he purified his essence and Sunset’s as well. 

Becoming semi-solid, he released Sunset. Using his telekinesis, he pulled off her gag. She wobbled on her hooves, looking at him with a fearful expression, trembling, and then, lunging forwards, she kissed Bucky on the cheek. 

“Master,” she whispered. 

“Be ready to fight,” Bucky replied. 

“Your eye… you’re like them,” Sunset said. 

“Not now, Minion.” He looked around the now abandoned chamber. 

There was work to be done. Horrible, dirty work. 

Reaching out with his mind, Bucky felt his cloak nearby. He called it to him. His wolf head torque seemed to be gone, perhaps destroyed, its loss unnerved him, because he knew what it protected him from. 



 

“We can’t get out, something has sealed off the entrance!” 

Hearing this, Bucky let out a maniacal cackle that echoed through the hallways. This was a place filled with weaklings. Most of these unicorns were type ones with a few type twos scattered in. Whatever powerful necromancy they had, it was gone now. Bucky wondered where the giant demon was. 

He needed answers, and they did not seem forthcoming. Perhaps killing the Canterlot unicorn with the fine white pelt and silky golden mane had been a mistake, but Bucky was beyond caring. Flames lashed out from Sunset Shimmer as she burned down more undead. 

Screams echoed up and down the hallways. Without their powerful necromancy, the unicorns in the charnel pit had no control over the undead abominations they had been creating. Bucky could not even count how many undead horrors were lurking in here, nor could he figure out why they were roaming the halls. Something had gone horribly wrong. 

Perhaps, seeing their weakness, sensing failure, the demon helping them had abandoned them, but not before releasing the undead hordes. Bucky heard screaming; turning his head in the screamer’s direction, he watched a mare getting dragged down by hungry undead horrors. She was pulled apart and her guts spilled out all over the floor. Her last act was to reach out for her own hind legs with her forelegs. 

He pushed ahead, a wall of telekinetic force shoving the undead away from him. Sunset Shimmer was setting everything around them on fire. The hallway was filled with smoke that burned Bucky’s eyes and made him cough. 

Bucky had a feeling that this was going to be the longest night of his life. 



 

Stepping into a large cavern that reeked of sulfur, Bucky stopped, seeing several figures in the smokey haze. The first was a crystal unicorn. He wasn’t surprised at all. On either side of the crystal unicorn were two hulking demon imps. There were several unicorns all standing together in a tight cluster, and then Bucky saw something that made his blood run cold. 

There was a dried out dessicated corpse with very little flesh; it was more skeleton than anything else. Its hollow eye sockets glowed with eldritch light and a spike of purple crystal stuck out from its forehead. Somehow, Bucky knew what it was, because he had seen it before. It stood out in Sombra’s memories, because Sombra had helped to create it. A guardian lich. Bucky shivered.

“It isn’t too late,” the crystal unicorn said. “You can still surrender. We will still aid you. We want you as our king… after what you have done, do you honestly believe that the sisters will allow you to return home?” 

“Bucky, don’t listen to them… Celestia will forgive almost anything… believe me, I know,” Sunset Shimmer said, moving closer to Bucky’s side. “She is the most forgiving pony I know. Don’t believe a word he says.” 

“Do you really think that the Empress of the Sun will allow a vampire to live peacefully? She has hunted the shadow leeches to near extinction, destroying almost all of Sombra’s children… we, the rightful heirs to his power… those of us who have been touched by his gift.” 

“I grow weary of wordy foes,” Bucky spat, wondering how he was going to kill another lich. The last battle hadn’t ended very well and he had ended up with the Taint. He was going to need disintegration magic. Beside him, Sunset Shimmer was already casting powerful defensive spells. 

“There is no need for further violence,” the crystal unicorn continued. “We only want to help you. The Fates have lied to you… you have a great purpose… a powerful destiny. And you have been manipulated to keep you from it.” 

“Sunset,” Bucky whispered. “Be ready to shield me for as long as possible. I need time to work.” Bucky turned his gaze towards the crystal unicorn. “Why should I listen to you?”

“You cannot possibly beat us.” The crystal unicorn paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “You killed Prince Goldenstar, who claimed to be the rightful head of House Avarice… he was an idiot and a constant source of irritation. I think that you would make a far better prince… or how about a king?” The crystal unicorn raised his eyebrow. “All of Equestria could be yours… even if you do not ascend, we would understand. You could still live up to some of your potential… you could remain with your family. We could help you remove the sisters.” 

“Want to hear my counter proposal?” Bucky asked. 

“Ah, there we go. Reason. I figured with a few soft words and some kindness that you could be reasonable. I was right.” The crystal unicorn smiled. “What is it that you want?” 

A terrible rictus spread over Bucky’s muzzle. The sclera of his eye turned a sickly shade of green. Taint mist began to drift up from his surviving eye. Black flames danced along his horn. “I want you to die… screaming please… I like it when you scream!” 



 

Spell after spell slammed into Sunset’s shield, but Bucky ignored it. He had far more pressing concerns. The unicorns, the crystal unicorn, and the guardian lich were certain to take down Sunset’s shields, sooner rather than later. He was inside of the minds of the two imps, dominating them, forcing his will to overpower their own. Overpowering a demon and seizing control of it was a task of fiendish difficulty; taking on two at once was folly. 

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer stood with her eyes closed, her mind a fortress of iron will. She blazed with inner light, her whole body illuminated with a golden glow. Her reinforced horn was now capable of so much more magic; she no longer knew her upper limits. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this going though. More spells slammed into her shields. 

Then, without warning, the two imps both shrieked and went into a frenzy. One attacked the crystal unicorn, the other attacked the guardian lich. Screams filled the room as the unicorns realised that something had gone wrong in the worst way possible. 

Sunset Shimmer felt her shield break and all around her, the room plunged into darkness, a darkness so powerful even her own light was extinguished. Crying out, gibbering with fear, Sunset Shimmer tried to return the light, fearful of what was in the darkness. 



 

Gliding through the darkness, feeling weak, needing sustenance after his mental battle with the two demonic imps, Bucky went for the weakest targets in the room while the crystal unicorn and the guardian lich were busy. 

He moved among the unicorns, feeding off of their fear, gaining strength, drinking it in, but he needed more. Becoming just solid enough to do what he needed to do, he wrapped his right foreleg around a unicorn’s neck. Reaching up with his talons, he grabbed the unicorn by its horn, cackling the entire time, and snapped the horn off with a flick of his wrist. The darkness was filled with a horrible scream. Inhaling, Bucky drank deep of the unicorn’s thaumaturgic essence, refreshing his own mana reserves. This was how Sombra sustained himself on the battlefield. 

The limp, lifeless body slipped free from Bucky’s grasp. One unicorn, unable to see, killed another in her panic. He laughed. Reaching out his talons, he grabbed her around the neck and pulled her closer. He allowed just enough light to return around his face so she could see him. 

Her piercing screams filled the cavern, echoing, and Bucky was nourished by her fear. Using his thumb talon, he made a tiny incision in her throat. He inhaled, sucking in her raw vital essence, giving himself more magic, charging himself up with bloodlust. Already, the need, the craving, the desire to keep feeding was almost more than he could bear. 

It would do himself no good to win this battle but lose himself in the process. Ignoring his baser instincts, Bucky pushed out with a pulse of powerful dark magic. All around him, more screams resounded. Black crystals grew from the unicorn’s horns, stealing away their magic. 

Bucky allowed some of the light to return. Sunset needed to see after all. She needed to live. She had to live. If Bucky couldn’t return, then Sunset had to be the one to go back and explain everything that had happened. 

Talons extended, Bucky surged forwards, aiming for the guardian lich. Long claws made of shadowstuff extended from his talon tips. He raked his claws along the lich’s rotten ribs, cutting it open, sending dust flying out as the demon imp was attempting to twist off the lich’s head, while the lich itself was trying to disintegrate the demon. 

The lich burst into flames, green flames, a spell that Bucky did not recognise. He scooted away, something about the flames frightened him a great deal, their warmth caused him some pain and discomfort. 

He focused upon the crystal unicorn instead. He dove forward, half in and half out of shadow, and with a swipe of his claws, a long series of gashes opened on the crystal unicorn’s neck. The damage, while impressive, was not serious; the gashes were already closing. 

The lich was howling with pain, its cries caused the whole cavern to reverberate. Sunset Shimmer hammered away upon it with spell after spell, smashing down its defenses, her lip curled back in a snarl. 

“Celestia gave me a really nifty spellbook… how do you like that? It’s a spell of her own making, a purging flame… HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?” 

The heat coming off the lich was becoming terrible. Bucky had to flee. His skin burned, blistering and peeling. He came to the realisation that, whatever it was that he was now, he was no longer welcome in the light or the grace of the sun. A whimpering cry escaped his lips and he slipped into shadow, trying to cool his burning flesh. 

“Protect Sunset!” a voice shouted. 

A moment later, Moonless Night came crashing into the cavern, covered in gore, and Deus was right beside him. The pair formed a wall in front of Sunset, snarling and growling. Storm Blitz entered the room next, half in and half out of shadow, dangerous electrical arcs crackling along his body. Black Briar came next, and with him, a writhing mass of spiky shadow briars, which formed a barrier around Sunset. 

Tainy came last, long shadow claws extending from her paws. “Your stupid pet demon lord is dead… we killed Wrath and shredded his disgusting heart into a thousand pieces… guess what… you’re next! Go for the throats, Shadowbolts!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 795
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Darting away, Bucky watched as Moonless Night lifted the corrupted crystal unicorn up into the air. Up, up, up he went, clutched in Moonless’ massive, clawed paws, and when the elevator ride up was done, the corrupted crystal unicorn took the long ride down. Moonless Night slammed his foe down onto the cavern floor with a colossal thud, causing the whole of the cavern to shake. 

It was the sort of blow that would have killed most anything. The crystal unicorn shattered into a thousand quivering pieces. Moonless was panting from his exertion and he snarled when he saw the pieces moving back together. 

“Damn!” Bucky swore as the crystal unicorn began to reassemble. 

Swift shadows shot forwards and Black Briar’s shadow brambles grabbed many pieces of the corrupted crystal unicorn, trying to keep them from reforming, but the glittering crystal shards just teleported out of the grasp of the brambles. 

“NOT FAIR!” Black Briar shouted. 

Unleashing a furious flurry attack with his talons, Bucky did his best to damage the crystal unicorn, hacking and slashing away with long, curved, shadowstuff claws. Moonless Night joined in, but it seemed to be a useless endeavour. The crystal unicorn was putting himself together and healing faster than he could be damaged. 

Meanwhile, as Bucky and others attacked the corrupted crystal unicorn, Sunset Shimmer was having far more luck with the guardian lich. The lich was wounded, perhaps dying, but it was still going to be a while before the lich turned to dust. She hammered away with powerful spells, spells created by Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight, and Princess Luna, all intended to combat the undead. Sunset was using every bit of her training, every bit of her learning, it seemed, as she was recalling every lesson she had ever taken on magic, from the time when she was a foal with Princess Celestia to the long hours of study with Bucky, her current teacher. 

Deus, recovering from being slammed into the wall by a concussive blast, reentered the fray, going for the corrupted crystal unicorn. He charged, lowering his head, and with a bellow, he slammed into his foe. The crystal unicorn was knocked from his hooves and slammed into the cavern wall, which caused parts of him to shatter again. A leg broke free and many cracks spiderwebbed over his body. 

It pained Bucky to admit it, but they were losing. If Sparkler was here, the unicorn could be petrified and the fight would be over. This enemy was immensely powerful, far more so than the other crystal unicorns that Bucky had encountered. He wasn’t sure if this was a fight that could be won. He began to wonder if retreat was possible. 

“Hush a bye, don't you cry, go to sleep, my little foal. When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little ponies,” Tainy sang in a voice that echoed through the caverns. She had her eyes closed and she was pressed against Black Briar’s side. She was bleeding, but the wounds were already closing. Her voice was still strong, and it gave her companions strength. 

Hearing Tainy’s song gave Sunset courage. Princess Celestia had sang this lullaby to her when Sunset had been a foal. It always made the nightmares go away. Sunset was ready for this nightmare to end. The music gave her more strength, and Sunset felt as though she could keep fighting for a little while longer. 

“In your bed, Mama said, my little foal is riding off to dreamland. One by one, they've begun, to dance and prance for my little foal,” Tainy continued. 

His horn glowing with black flames and Taint mist leaking from his eye, Bucky fired round after round of disintegration spell into the crystal unicorn, trying to slow down the monstrous regeneration. Pieces of the crystal unicorn’s body chipped away, holes were blasted clean through, but he kept reforming. At least he could not do much spellcasting while he was reassembling. 

“Blacks and bays, dapples and greys, running in the night. When you wake, You shall have all the pretty little ponies.” Tainy’s voice was a soothing balm. She could feel the horror and the fear of loss lurking in her companions’ minds. 

Their battle with Wrath had been downright simple compared to this. With Wrath, they had simply carved him apart, ripped him to pieces, and then destroyed his heart. Easy peasy. But this fight wasn’t going as well. 

With a triumphant shriek, Sunset Shimmer turned the guardian lich into dust and the lich stayed that way. There was a piercing cry as the animation holding the lich together failed and then a massive explosion rocked the whole cavern. 

“Can you see the little ponies dance before your eyes? All the pretty little ponies will be there when you arise,” Tainy sang, finishing her lullaby. She hoped that all of her friends were still alive when this was over. 

Two more figures joined the fight, winking into existence. Fever Cure and Mask appeared and right away, they surged forwards to began their attack on the crystal unicorn with the others. 

“Dreadfully sorry that we’re late, but that phylactery wasn’t going to destroy itself,” Mask said as he summoned a shield around himself. 

“The lich was clever… lots of booby traps… Mask almost got blown up.” Fever Cure also summoned a shield around himself and glanced at his boon companion. 

Mask, firing off a bolt of telekinetic force, scowled at his friend. “I thought we agreed not to talk about the unpleasantness!” 

With a gasp, Sunset collapsed, her magic spent. Tainy grabbed Sunset and pulled her close to Black Briar. The hippogriff understood that soon, Bucky’s magic would give out as well. He couldn’t keep casting forever. At that point, the fight would be over. 

There was a sound like shattering glass when Storm Blitz’s hind hooves caused the crystal unicorn’s head to explode and shatter. Already, the damage was being repaired and all the little pieces were reassembling. 

“What in Tartarus are we fighting?” Mask asked as their foe pieced itself together. 

“Something with no weakness!” Storm Blitz shouted. There was a hint of panic in his voice. “I don’t think we can win this fight!” 

Moonless sliced and slashed with his claws. “Somepony is going to have to stay behind and keep smashing while the rest of us escape!”

“No!” Tainy shouted. 

“Then we die together,” Dues said as he tried to smash a kicking leg that had been snapped off. 

“Bucky, I’m sorry, but I know how to end this,” Sunset said as she clung to Tainy. “This has to be a trap… a failsafe put in place in case you survived what happened earlier… I just know it.” 

“Keep talking Minion, I’m listening!” Bucky replied as he pulled back. 

“Goldenstar was too much of an idiot!” Sunset lifted her head. “Our real enemies were down here the whole time… Everypony who was left around the altar up there was intended to be food. You were supposed to kill all of them, I think. Goldenstar was no big loss if everything went wrong… they threw him away… but this unicorn here… he has some of Sombra’s essence, right?” 

“I believe so.” The dark magic on Bucky’s horn died away and the Taint wafted away from his eye, which was now crimson from vampiric bloodlust. He blinked, and deep down in his heart, Bucky was fearful that he would end up with a permanent case of the Taint once more. It was a funny thing to be fearful of, considering it was the least of his worries. 

“Bucky, this unicorn is the last failsafe… the only way to beat him is to absorb him.” As the last word left Sunset’s mouth, so did a sob. She closed her eyes, weeping, unable to bear this anymore. She clutched Tainy, hugging her, and wishing for this nightmare to be over. 

Feeling his blood run cold, Bucky sensed the truth in Sunset Shimmer’s words. So long as Sombra’s essence remained, the corrupted crystal unicorn would continue to regenerate. Sombra’s corruption had to be removed. It had to go somewhere. With a weary sigh, Bucky knew what he had to do. He was damned already, there would be no going home after this, but he felt that he owed his Shadowbolts. 

“Keep him pinned down and keep snapping off his horn so he can’t cast anything,” Bucky commanded. 

“No! Not like this!” Black Briar shouted. 

“Blackie, did you really think that there would be a happy end for any of us? We chose this life… at least he’s getting to chose how this ends,” Tainy said as she squeezed Sunset, who sobbed and wailed. 

“NO!” Black Briar closed his eyes. 

Bucky glanced at Fever Cure, saw a nod, and then looked at Mask. His fellow unicorn looked grim. After a moment, Mask nodded. Bucky turned his head. Deus and Moonless Night had the unicorn pinned down while Storm Blitz kept snapping off the long crystalline horn as it continued to regrow. 

Stepping forwards, Bucky prepared himself, trying to come to terms with the fact that he was about to draw in even more of Sombra’s dark nature. The only way to stop this abomination’s reanimation was to remove the source of power. Perhaps if he was smarter, or perhaps if Twilight was here, some other way could be found. If Sparkler was here, it could be petrified. Perhaps the Elements of Harmony could destroy it. Bucky had none of those things. 

He hoped that Princess Celestia would make it quick. He was certain that she would. He doubted that he would feel a thing. She would reduce him to ashes and it would be all over. 

Extending his talons, Bucky sank his claws into the corrupted crystal monstrosity that had taken the shape of a unicorn. He felt it kicking and thrashing. And for the first time during the whole fight, Bucky felt fear. The fear offered sustenance. Hating himself for what he was doing, Bucky drank. 



 

It almost felt as though Bucky had some kind of horrible flu. He didn’t feel strength, but weakness. The crystal unicorn was starting to crumble and Bucky was starting to feel sicker. His limbs felt dull and tired. His head felt heavy. A terrible hunger gnawed at his insides. 

Then, much to his horror, Bucky smelled something that made his mouth water. Living flesh. Warm flesh. Sunset’s flesh. Self loathing flooded through his being. He would never let it come to that. It was a matter of willpower. 

Inhaling, Bucky drew more essence in, and more pieces of the crystal unicorn broke away. Bucky’s limbs began to tremble. What little light there was dazzled his eyes. All around him was ruin. Dead unicorn bodies were scattered around the cavern, all of them broken, mangled, legs and spines all at odd, unnatural angles. 

He could hear weeping. He could make out Sunset’s sniffling sobs and somepony else. Black Briar? Perhaps. Bucky didn’t turn around to look. He had a job to finish. The corrupted crystal unicorn had stopped kicking and had gone still. Cracks appeared in his body and parts of him fell away, turning into glittery dust. 

The cold had returned. Bucky felt empty inside. His insides writhed with the sickness he had just absorbed into his body. He let go, pulling his talons away, and the crystal unicorn fell over. It shattered and did not reform. 

Overcome by crippling weakness, Bucky fell, his face slamming into the floor of the cavern. There was more to do. Blinking, having trouble seeing, he saw a door at the other end of the cavern. There was more to do. He had to get up. It all came down to willpower. 

“Master?” 

Bucky closed his eyes again, this time feeling tears. “Minion, stay away.” He heard a sniffle and then an angry snort. 

“No!” 

Somepony was touching him. It wasn’t Sunset. Groaning, Bucky tried to get up on his legs. When that failed, he tried to drop into shadow. Try as he might, he couldn’t. He felt himself being lifted, and then he felt the warm tingle of magic. Sunset’s magic. 

Opening his eyes, Bucky saw worried faces all around him. He saw Sunset moving into his vision. Her eyes looked sad. There was fear there too, but Bucky realised she was not afraid of him. As terrible as he felt, he managed to feel pride for his student. 

“Help me… there is a door,” Bucky whispered. 

“Yes Master,” Sunset replied. 

Carrying Bucky, Sunset moved for the door, the Shadowbolts forming ranks around her. She struggled to hold back her tears, but a few slipped out. Her legs wobbled and her knees knocked. She was exhausted and it was a strain to even hold up Bucky. There was nothing left in her. 

“Allow me,” Fever Cure said, taking Bucky into his own telekinetic field. He saw Sunset give him a reluctant nod. “Bucky, what lies beyond the door?” 

“I don’t know.” Bucky’s voice was dry and raspy. Bucky rather hoped that it would be death. The door was heavy looking, made of wood, and Bucky knew that it would open for him. As he was carried closer, he shivered, feeling what felt like the chill of the grave. 

For a moment, Bucky thought he saw a familiar pale pony with a black cloak beside him, but then it was gone. He couldn’t tell if he had been hallucinating or not. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, and then, there it was. 

The door. 

Lifting his trembling talons, he touched the dark wood and brass. The door shuddered and then opened. A foul smell drifted out, causing several Shadowbolts and Sunset Shimmer to gag. There were bodies here, little bodies, many many little bodies. The room was dim, it was hard to see, Bucky couldn’t make his eyes work right. The room was like a freezer. 

Sunset’s horn provided a pale light as she gagged. The bodies of dozens of dead foals littered the floor and there were several adults as well. Nothing moved. The floor was slick with frozen blood. Icicles hung from the ceiling—icicles made of blood. 

In the center of the room was what appeared to be a large mirror. There was no silvery surface, only a black void. Compelled, Bucky wanted to look into the mirror. He slipped into shadow, now able to do so, and drifted towards the mirror. In the dark void, he saw two red glowing eyes surrounded by green. Glowing purple mist trailed up from the eyes. 

“Still, you continue to resist,” a voice growled. 

“I know what you are,” Sunset Shimmer said as she stepped forwards. Her horn glowed with a faint, feeble light. “I know who you are. I’m going to end you for this!” 

The disembodied face in the mirror grew larger, as if it were drawing closer. “You have so much to learn, apprentice. Love only brings pain and weakness. Come to me if you will. I have much to teach you.” 

“I’m not afraid of you,” Sunset hissed. 

“I’ll be waiting for you in Tartarus.” Bucky scowled at the face in the mirror. 

The mirror shattered, exploding into thousands of black fragments. Bucky shielded his eyes as he cried out in panic. The room was filled with a silver light. It burned him, causing his skin to blister and peel. He heard pained cries from the Shadowbolts. 

The light subsided, but was still almost unbearable. Bucky struggled to see, but his eyes were blurry. He saw a vague shape in front of him, something glowing with a beautiful silver light. 

“There is still hope… Cadance still lives… do not give up hope… Mommy still loves you.” 

With another painful flash, the silvery light was gone. Bucky blinked and the last of his strength gave out. He fell to the floor, gasping, his whole body aching, his hunger threatening to consume him. 



 

“We can keep fighting. Wherever you go, we will go with you,” Tainy said in a soft voice. “If you can’t go home, we’ll just roam. We’ll keep fighting until this is over.” 

Laying on the cold stone floor, Bucky sighed. He stared up at the ceiling above him. The entire group was resting in front of the door that led outside. It would be dawn soon. Bucky did not know what to do. 

“Wait, I think I know what might help a little,” Black Briar said. The earth pony sat down and kicked out his prosthetic leg. Reaching down, he opened a compartment, fished around inside, and pulled out something that shone silver in the faint light. 

“When they swooped in and took you, this was yanked off.” Black Briar held up Bucky’s wolf headed torque. “We really couldn’t do much to stop them, we had to protect the town.” With a sad smile, the earth pony slipped the torque around Bucky’s neck and tried to ignore Bucky’s glowing crimson eye. 

“Army of undead, destroyed. One demon lord of Tartarus, destroyed. One lich, dusted, two imps, ripped apart, and one crystal unicorn that just wouldn’t die… but did. Once again, I’d say that we’ve outdone ourselves,” Deus said as he flopped down upon the floor. 

The torque, much to Bucky’s surprise, did make him feel better. Some of his weakness subsided. It made it a little easier to ignore the smell of Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer wasn’t making it easy for him though, as she refused to let go of him. She had his right hoof clutched in her fetlock.

The sound of grating stone could be heard and then the massive stone door was ripped away. Rolling over, Bucky saw a tall figure in the doorway. He knew who it was. He lay on the floor, limp, knowing there was no point in defending himself. He heard gagging. 

“What an appalling stench!” A second figure joined the first. “Oh, that is ghastly!” 

“Buckminster?” The taller figure stepped forwards, her horn glowing with soft light. 

Other figures began to fill the doorway behind her. There was quite a crowd. Bucky groaned, Celestia’s light burned his eyes and his skin, it was almost unbearable. The light went away and was replaced by silvery light, which was cool and soothing. Bucky gasped.

“What has taken place here?” Celestia asked as she drew near. She froze. “No… Bucky, your eye… no… what has happened?” 

Bucky had no strength to reply. He felt Sunset squeeze his hoof. 

“This was all a trap,” Sunset said to Celestia. “He didn’t have any choice… you have to trust me when I say that.” 

Somewhere, nearby, the wailing of a foal could be heard, coming from outside. Bucky’s ears perked. He sucked in a deep breath. “Cadance?” 

“Bucky, I need you to listen to me and let me finish when I speak.” Celestia cleared her throat. “There was an attack upon the farm… an all out assault. They tried to take Cadance.” Celestia drew in a deep breath. “Nopony was seriously hurt, but there was some extensive damage to the house, the school, and the surrounding grounds. The attackers encountered heavy resistance. Rising Star, Sparkler, Lugus, and Ripple organised the defenses. Odin and Loki, along with many others, kept your family safe. Scorch ended the attackers and he’s in Tartarus right now trying to figure out everything that just happened.” 

Groaning, Bucky writhed on the stone floor. “Let me see Cadance.” 

Standing silent, there was no reply from Celestia, nor Luna. The two sisters stood there, looking at one another, neither one of them knowing what to say or do. Several Shadowbolts rose up, now standing, and Luna gave them a nervous glance. 

“How dare you keep Cadance away from Bucky… do you really think that he would hurt her? Do you?” Sunset Shimmer let go of Bucky’s hoof and stepped forwards, her eyes narrowed, her lips quivering with rage. “Bucky could have fed on me and he didn’t! HE DIDN’T!” 

“I would never keep Cadance away from Bucky… I’m not worried about him hurting her,” Celestia said to Sunset, shaking her head. Her wings fluttered and she blinked back tears. “I’m worried that Cadance would destroy him in his current state.” 

“Just end me,” Bucky begged. “I can’t go home… not like this.” 

Cadance’s shrieking reached a crescendo. Holding the pink foal in his arms, Scorpan moved forward, through the doorway, and stood near Princess Celestia. He glanced at her, then at Luna, and then at Bucky. 

It was Luna who acted, lifting Cadance, and then setting the foal down upon the stone floor. Cadance scooted forward as fast her legs would carry her, her wings flapping, running to her father. She stopped just a few feet away, a confused, hurt expression upon her face. 

“You been bad,” Cadance said in a squeaky, frightened voice. 

Now sobbing, Bucky closed his eyes. “I didn’t have a choice, I’m sorry.” He rolled over onto his stomach, his chin resting on the floor. “Are you okay?” Bucky opened his eyes. Cadance radiated with a faint pink light and her ethereal mane whipped around in an agitated sort of way. 

“You been bad,” Cadance repeated, shaking her head. “Naughty.” Her lower lip protruded. “Make promise, no more bad.” 

“Cadance, I can’t promise that,” Bucky replied. He let out a pained groan, oblivious to the world around him. “I didn’t want to do it… I didn’t have a choice.” 

“Make promise!” Cadance shouted, her wings now sticking out from her sides. “No more bad, Daddy!” 

“I promise to try, Cadance.” Bucky opened his eyes and watched as Cadance approached. He gazed into her eyes as she stood nose to nose with him. “I don’t know what will happen… things happen that force me to do bad things sometimes… but I didn’t want to do it, I swear!” 

Sitting down in front of Bucky’s face, Cadance leaned her head forwards. Her horn glowed with a soft pink light. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she touched her stubby horn to Bucky’s. “Sorry Daddy.” 

Gritting his teeth to keep from crying out, Bucky thrashed about, but did not pull away from Cadance. It felt as though his whole body was going to combust. His talons clenched and his blood burned. His eyes clenched shut and he heard worried murmurs all around him. 

When Bucky’s eye opened, the crimson was gone. He lay on the floor, whimpering, feeling as though he was on the verge of death. He panted, his whole body consumed by some terrible fever that was burning out whatever was in his blood. He felt Cadance hugging his face, clinging to him, and his eyelashes brushed up against her barrel. He could feel her kissing the top of his head. 

“Has she cured him?” Luna asked. 

“Doubtful,” Celestia replied. “But she took away the worst of it somehow. I did not know that Cadance was capable of such a thing.” 

“She is the manifestation of love now.” Luna looked up at her sister. “There is probably much that she can do or will be able to do that we do not know about.” Luna’s ears perked at the sounds of Cadance and Bucky sobbing together. She took a step closer to Bucky and then paused when Cadance whipped her head around to glare at her. 

“I need to know everything that has taken place here.” Princess Celestia stepped forwards and looked at Sunset Shimmer. “I need to know what has happened so we can begin to put the pieces back together.” 

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “I can tell you everything I know…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 796
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Winter wrap up winter wrap up… hmm mmm mmm hmm,” Sentinel paused and then looked around with an embarrassed glance. That song was entirely too catchy. Everypony had been singing it. He moved along with a bounce in his step. It was a fine Saturday, no school, and even though it was far too sunny, it was shaping up to be a perfect day. 

Hearing a loud caw, Sentinel turned his attention to the phoenix tree. He saw Freezerburn and for a moment, Sentinel’s blood ran cold. Staring, unmoving, Sentinel’s mind drifted back to that horrible night when everything had gone wrong. The fire, the smoke, the screaming and shouting… and Sentinel had learned first hoof why Discord was so afraid of corrupted phoenixes. Regular phoenixes could be plenty dangerous, but Freezerburn… he had done things. Terrible things. 

“And how are you today, Freezerburn?” Sentinel asked. 

Freezerburn cawed again, and to Sentinel’s ears, it sounded as though Freezerburn was saying ‘watchful’ in phoenix-speak. There were hatchlings in the phoenix tree, three of them, and Freezerburn had been in a real snit since the night that everything had gone wrong. 

Closing his eyes, Sentinel cringed at the memory of some of the attackers rapidly aging, becoming old in seconds, and then just dying, falling over and collapsing into dust. Ripple’s fierce cries as she fought by Lugus’ side. The attackers had smashed their way into the house. 

Sentinel’s eyes flew open when he heard the rustle of feathers, the flapping of wings, and the tickle-prickle of freezing cold claws on his back. Freezerburn was sitting on him. Sentinel turned his head around to look at Freezerburn, shivering, afraid now of what Freezerburn could do. 

A little whimper of fear escaped Sentinel’s lips when a feathered head rubbed up against his cheek. He breathed in, trying to calm himself. Freezerburn was trying to comfort him, not peck out his eyes, make him age, and drink his soul, or whatever it was that corrupted phoenixes did when they didn’t like somepony. 

“Nice birdy,” Sentinel said to Freezerburn. “How are Philomena and your chicks?” 



 

Bucky stared at Thistle with the most pleading, begging eyes he could muster, shaking his head, and trying to look as pathetic as possible. He let out a whimper, a whine, and then shook his head, knowing that it was futile, but doing it any way. 

“Bucky, don’t be like this… you have to go outside and spend time in the sun… you have to get better… I’m sorry,” Thistle said as she looked Bucky in the eye. “Come on, you can do it… you’re going to do it, and you’re not going to fight me today.” 

“We’ll see about that,” Bucky said, his voice weak and raspy. 

Rolling her eyes, sighing, Thistle prepared herself for the coming conflict. “You are going outside. Without your cloak. I know that this is going to hurt you, but this is for your own good. If I have to fight you about this, I’ll get help.” Thistle’s lip curled away from her needle-like teeth. “Or I’ll fight dirty.” 

“Thistle, what do you know of fighting dirty?” Bucky asked. 

Inhaling to fill out her barrel and make her slender body more curvaceous, Thistle batted her eyelashes at Bucky and gave him a sweet smile. “Don’t you want to be able to play outside in the sun with your foals?” 

“Oh… you dirty kelpie!” Bucky sneered at Thistle and glanced at the front door. “I’m not going outside… I’m just not in the mood.” 

“YOU’RE GOING OUTSIDE!” Thistle snapped. 

“GO OUTSIDE OR ELSE!” Derpy’s voice drifted out from the back bedroom. 

“No!” Bucky began backing away from the door. 

“Bucky, the heliophobia isn’t going to get better until you do more to fight this… this… disease. You’re getting better, but you’ve got to keep doing this. I know it hurts you, but you are getting better.” Thistle, impatient, began to tap her hoof on the floor. “Look, when this is over, I will give you all of the attention, love, and cuddles that you can stand, okay?” 

“Too late, bargaining time is over,” Lyra said as she grabbed Bucky in her telekinesis and headed for the door. She ignored his whimperings and the other heartbreaking sounds that he was making. Opening the door, Lyra made ready to drag Bucky outside. 



 

Bucky hadn’t even cleared the porch yet when he started to smoke. On his right front leg, blisters boiled and bubbled up from his skin. He hissed in pain, wishing he could be indoors. At least he wasn’t bursting into flames anymore. Once out into actual, direct sunlight, Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to think about combusting into a pile of ashes. 

Spring was just a few days away. He would be surrendering the spring to Dinky soon, but winter was already over and melting away. Apple blossoms had come early. Everything was green already. The hard winter had been good for the land and now, everything was vibrant with new life. 

Lyra dumped him unceremoniously into the grass, bent down her head, kissed him, and then trotted away, leaving him alone with Thistle, who sat down beside him. Bucky opened one of his eyes just a crack, the Eye of Odin, hoping to see. Why oh why did his artificial eye have to feel pain as well? He squeezed it shut and then cursed the sun. 

Carrying a parasol in her mouth, Bittersweet trotted over to where Bucky was laying in the grass and sat down. She hit the switch on the parasol with her hoof, causing it to spring open, and then held the long handle in the crook of her foreleg, providing shade for Bucky. The donkey didn’t seem to mind the smoke that was rising from Bucky’s body. 

With a sizzling crackle, Bucky’s back sprouted more blisters, causing Bucky to let out a pained whimper. He tried laying very still, resigning himself to this torture for at least the next hour. He clenched his talons and gritted his teeth. When this was over, at least he’d have a nice warm bed to go to sleep in, and he could snooze the day away. 

Waddling over, Berry Punch sat down beside Thistle and Bittersweet, easing her large, rounded backside down to the ground with a grunt. She looked down at Bucky for a moment, sighed, and then looked at Thistle. 

“This is awful,” Berry said. 

“Berry much so,” Thistle replied, causing Berry to snort. She reached out her hoof and touched Berry’s bulging stomach. “Hey there, little ones.” 

“The little ones aren’t so little,” Berry said and then heaved a sigh. “Doctor says that both of them are just about full sized… unusual for twins… I guess my big, wide, birthing hips are going to get a workout.” Berry punch laid down on her side, groaned, and then rolled over onto her back, exposing her belly and everything else to the sun. “Ooooh… that feels good.” 

“No it don’t.” Bucky cracked open one eye once more to see if he could see Berry.

“Twilight’s university might start teaching classes in the late spring or early summer.” Berry waved a hoof around as she tried to start idle conversation. “I don’t know if Twilight had plans to name it, but everypony calls it Grove University. The first official teachers have already been signed on.” 

“Who?” Bucky asked, glad for the distraction while he slow roasted in the sun. 

“Coco and Rarity.” Berry reached down and began to rub her belly. 

“Teaching fashion?” Thistle asked. 

“No, surprisingly,” Berry replied as she tilted her head around to look at Thistle. “Basic sewing. Part of Twilight’s heuristic approach to basic life skills. She wants Coco and Rarity to inspire ponies into learning a useful skill.” 

“Sewing is practical.” Reaching out, Thistle rubbed Berry’s tummy. 

“And you don’t need a cutie mark to do it,” Berry added. “I mean, I knit and crochet and I don’t have a cutie mark for it. Some ponies just put too much stock into their cutie marks, focus on that, and nothing else.” 

Frowning, Bittersweet reached out with her hoof and patted at some smouldering hair on Bucky that had ignited. Her long ears drooped, framing her face, and she shook her head as she kept a wary, watchful eye on Bucky, hoping that no more flames happened. Her nostrils crinkled from the strong stench of burning hair. She scooted a little closer to Bucky, trying to shade as much of him as possible with her parasol. 

“Why must there be so much thrice damned hammering?” Bucky asked, his ears twitching with every thud of said hammers. 

Thistle looked around, her ears perking, and then shook her head. “Bucky, there is some construction going on, they’re working on the brewery, but I can hardly hear any hammering.” 

“Well, it’s driving me mad… is this what it is like for poor Sentinel?” Bucky let out an irritated snarl and then covered his face with his forelegs. “It’s bad enough I must be forcibly dragged outside into the sun each day… but all of this noise… I just want some quiet!” 

“I should teach a brewing course at Twilight’s university. Barley too. That might be fun,” Berry said, ignoring Bucky’s outburst. “Ponyville and an education based economy. Pfah! We need a brewery based economy. But then again, since Ponyville is becoming a university town, there is going to be a much higher need for beer… hmm.” 

“I wanna brew some beer,” Bucky whined. 

“That would mean leaving the house,” Thistle said. 

“I’m never leaving the house, ever again… never ever. Which is why I am having a brewery constructed here. But that was a mistake… BECAUSE NOW THERE IS ALL THAT THRICE DAMNED HAMMERING!” 

The kelpie frowned at Bucky, but since he had his eyes shut, he did not see her. She sighed. Bucky’s behaviour as of late was almost foal-like, and there were times when he was just unbearable. A week ago, he had sent off letters of resignation to every office that he held and had announced his retirement from everything. 

“Everything I need is here, at home. I’ll be a headmaster, because I don’t mind that, and I’ll brew beer, because I need that, but I am never, ever, under any circumstances ever leaving this farm ever again.” 

“Bucky, shut up and stop talking crazy,” Berry said to her husband. 

There was a flutter of wings causing both Berry Punch and Thistle to turn their heads, but not Bittersweet, because she couldn’t hear it. The earth pony and the kelpie saw Freezerburn perched on a nearby pony statue. The statue’s facial expression was one of pain and horror. It was remarkably accurate, with detail unlike any other statue. There were several of them on the farm now, located in different places. There were also several shattered statues, and nopony had bothered to pick up the pieces. 

The corrupted phoenix let out a loud squawk, danced around, and then deposited fresh bird droppings on the statue. He let out a warbling cry, an announcement that this was his territory, then took wing, flapping a few times, then gliding over to where Berry Punch lay in the grass. 

“Hiya Freezerburn.” Berry turned her head and gave the bird an affectionate smile. 

Strutting, Freezerburn walked over to Berry’s belly, squawked, and then rubbed his face against her stomach, making affectionate cooing noises. Berry, feeling Freezerburn’s cool touch, shivered a bit but did not pull away. 

Without warning, Freezerburn spread his wings and flew away, off to hunt food for his chicks. He let out a piercing screech that could be heard all over the immediate area. The sound caused Bucky to groan. 

“Oh no, here comes the foal patrol!” Thistle said, fearful for Bucky’s oversensitive ears. 



 

“You survived,” Derpy said as Bucky was laid down in the bed beside her by Lyra. 

“I was attacked… by your progeny no less.” Bucky peeped open an eye. The room was dim. He sighed with relief and opened both eyes. “Dinky led her little sisters in a full on assault upon my hearing.” 

“I think it’s adorable how they all follow Dinky and Piña around in a little parade.” Derpy smiled and rubbed her front hooves together. She watched as Lyra’s blurry outline departed the room and was a little sad to see Lyra go. “The way that Harper brings up the rear so Sukari feels a little safer.” Derpy closed her eyes and let warm feelings of motherhood wash over her. 

“As promised, one kelpie,” Thistle said as she lept up into the bed. “You may have your way with me. Do with me as you will.” 

“Hmm, so many options.” Bucky tapped on his chin with a talon. “Kelpie, go fetch me a fishy—” 

“What?” Thistle blinked, looking disappointed. 

“Kelpie… fishy… now… please?” Bucky gave Thistle a pleading look. 

“But… I was hoping for… I mean, I was looking forward to… um…” 

“Fishy.” 

“Fine.” Thistle rolled her eyes. “I shall go fetch you a fish.” 

Giggling, Derpy watched as Thistle rolled back out of the bed. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 797
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Whimpering, Sukari watched as her mother vanished beneath the surface of the water. Since the thaw, Thistle had been going into the lake almost every day, and Sukari hated every minute of it. She paced along the dock, wanting her mother back, not understanding how her mother was able do what she did. Sometimes, her mother took her little sister down below into the water as well. 

All of which frightened Sukari, who worried that those she loved might not come back up. Her tail lashed around her legs and her ears pivoted around to different positions. She was afraid of the water, the water was cold. She had already tried going into the lake once, having taken a few steps in from the shore. 

Unable to bear the separation from her mother, unable to deal with the worry, Sukari sucked in a deep breath and lept from the end of the dock. She belly flopped into the water, which almost knocked the air out of her, and the cold water bit into her skin like terrible teeth. She splashed around, unable to swim, and unable to keep her head up above the surface. 

Gasping, she slipped down into the depths of the murky water. 

She couldn’t see very well, her whole body hurt, and Sukari couldn’t tell which way was up or down. She kicked with her legs, trying to swim, instincts taking over, but she kept sinking, down, down, down. Bubbles surrounded her, making it even harder to see, and she was starting to see red spots in her vision. She needed air. The cold was making her body numb. 

In the dark water, something grabbed her. She felt something snake around her middle and Sukari had to choke back a scream. She kicked and thrashed even harder, and then she felt something touch her lips. It felt like a kiss. It was a nice kiss, and Sukari discovered that she could breathe again. The cold water didn’t feel so cold. Straining to see, Sukari saw green in the water, and two eyes. Mama? 

The zebra foal went limp and ceased her struggling. The two legs wrapped around her made her feel secure. She was able to breathe again, even though she couldn’t understand how or why. And Mommy was kissing her, so everything was okay. 



 

With a flap of her tail, Thistle broke the surface, bringing Sukari with her. When she pulled her lips away, the zebra foal began to shiver once more, feeling the cold of the water no doubt. Thistle didn’t understand how her magic worked, only that it worked. She lifted Sukari up, holding the filly in her forelegs, and then set her daughter upon the dock. Thistle could hear Sukari’s teeth chattering. 

Heaving herself up, Thistle slid out of the water, onto the dock, and changed forms, becoming a pony. She gave herself a shake, pulled Sukari close, and then gave the foal a squeeze. After a quick kiss, she pushed Sukari away with a gentle shove. 

“Come on, shake yourself off… get as much water off as you can and I’ll get you inside,” Thistle said to the shivering zebra filly with chattering teeth. “You’re a very brave little filly, jumping into the lake like that, but don’t do it again.” 

Staring, Thistle realised that there was something different about her foal. She stepped around Sukari and looked at the zebra filly’s backside. In the white spot on her hips there were now three wavy marks, right in the same place where a pony would have a cutie mark. 

“Oh my, Sukari, you’ve done something, but I don’t know what.” 



 

Stuffed into a comfortable chair, Twilight Sparkle took a sip of coffee as Celestia was sitting down on a cushion upon the floor. Twilight, eager for this meeting to hurry up and commence, cleared her throat and waited for Celestia to speak. Not far away, a very sleepy looking Luna was trying to keep her eyes open. As Princess Celestia was getting situated, Shining Armor blinked into existence and then stood beside Twilight’s chair. Twilight reached out and touched her brother. He was solid, real, and being able to touch him brought her comfort. 

“We find ourselves in a dangerous state of affairs,” Celestia began. She lifted her head up a little higher. “I have been reading through Scorch’s reports. Wrath is not dead. It is as I feared, he is far too powerful to have been simply destroyed. He is recovering in Tartarus and no doubt, at some point, he might be summoned again by somepony with enough strength. There was a rebellion in Tartarus, a major shift in the ruling powers, and that is why the Fates did not see this coming. Something very powerful has thwarted their foresight and we do not know what, or whom.” 

One ear twitched as Luna grunted. 

“The attackers that teleported to the farmhouse had several demons with them as support. Scorch has been interrogating them, but not much has been said yet. We do know that they work in support of Sombra’s cult,” Celestia continued. 

“Sparkler turning them to stone was helpful,” Twilight said as she looked over at her brother. “I want to know how they were able to defeat my brother’s ability to detect threats.” She saw Shining Armor look ashamed for a moment and Twilight reached out to touch him once more. “It isn’t your fault, Shiny.” 

“This is not the first time we have been blindsided.” Luna, who had an irritated, cranky expression, yawned. “They hit us hard. They attacked Canterlot castle to show that they can, they hit the farm, and there was a brilliant trap laid out for Bucky.” 

“It is time that we hit back,” Celestia said, her voice holding an uncharacteristic amount of force and anger. The alicorn took a deep breath as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She added several sugarcubes, a splash of milk, and then lifted her coffee cup to her lips. She took a long drink, emptying half of the cup, and then her nostrils flared as her belly warmed. 

“The immortal pegasus known as Shield is gathering up an army of like-minded immortals and he is more than willing to lead them into Tartarus. Heifer Aestus has agreed to be his second in command. Scorpan wants to go with them, but he understands that he is needed here at the castle.” Luna’s eyes narrowed. “The plan is quite simple. Attack Wrath’s holdings and destroy as many of his followers as possible. With Wrath in his weakened state, other demon lords will move on him, keeping him occupied. I understand that this is a temporary solution, but for now, this is the best that we can do.” 

“So we keep Sombra’s allies occupied in Tartarus and we move on Sombra?” Twilight asked. “Sentinel was supposed to destroy Sombra… it was to be his test. There is no way that Sentinel is ready.” 

“Sentinel will not be the one destroying Sombra’s shadow.” Luna closed her eyes and sighed. “He is not ready. This is going to pain him greatly.” Luna’s eyes opened and she shook her head, wishing that things could be different. Things were far too urgent though, and something needed to be done sooner, rather than later. 

“I plan to discuss the issue with Sunset Shimmer. In her new role as the first Empyrean Paladin, I believe destroying Sombra’s fell shadow will be a good test of her abilities.” Celestia glanced at her sister and then at Twilight. “Sunset is strong and capable. Her ability to destroy the undead has been proven in battle.” 

“She destroyed a guardian lich, which is no small feat, but she had help.” Luna chewed on her lip as she paused for a moment. “It is not my intention to diminish her accomplishment, but there is much difference between a lich and Sombra’s fell shadow.” 

“Luna?” Celestia looked at her sister. 

“I worry for Sunset… Bucky is very close to her. If something were to happen to her, Bucky would lose his mind… I believe that Sunset is a very capable archmage, do not get the wrong idea, but things could go badly. I fear for my own student’s mental well being. He hangs by a thread right now.” 

“Twilight?” Celestia looked at her former student. 

“I believe that Sunset has the potential, but at this time, I do not feel comfortable saying much more than that.” Twilight set down her coffee cup, no longer in the mood for the somewhat bitter drink. “I think her chances would be improved if she was an alicorn.” 

“She refused.” Celestia shook her head. “She is too much like her teacher. That morning, after we recovered Bucky from that horrid pit, I asked her. She refused me. She has refused me every time since as well, and now she gets angry with me if I bring it up.” 

“Oh.” Twilight blinked in surprise. “I didn’t know this. I wonder why she refuses?” 

“Because she is Buckminster’s apprentice,” Luna snapped. “She doesn’t need a reason.” Luna let out a yawn and blinked her eyes a few times. “I have been awake for far too long. I feel my patience withering.” 

“Shining Armor, do you have any opinions on this matter?” Celestia asked. 

“I can feel the darkness at the top of the world growing stronger,” Shining Armor replied. “Every day more undead horrors come to attack the Crystal Empire. The shadows have grown long and strange. Sometimes, the sun is dimmed and does not shine as brightly. I do not know what needs to be done, but I am aware that something needs to be done.” 

Twilight nodded and then said, “We do have other allies we can call upon…” 



 

“You again.” Berry Punch stared at the strange earth pony. She did not know the earth pony’s name, but she knew the earth pony. “I suppose that you are here to see Bucky. I’ll let him know that you are here. Go wait in the library and I’ll tell him.” 

Feeling somewhat relieved to see the strange earth pony again, but also rather annoyed, Berry Punch stepped aside and let her guest inside. Berry waddled away, heading down the hall towards the back bedroom so that she could let Bucky know that he had a guest. 



 

When the library door opened, Clotho felt her heart creeping up into her throat. Bucky looked awful. She, along with her sisters, had done much to abuse him, leading him along, manipulating him, making him labour to aid their plans, and now, Clotho felt bad about it. She cringed when she saw Bucky’s scabbed over and blistered hide. 

“Why didn’t you warn me?” Bucky asked, his voice a low, faint growl. 

No hello, no greetings, nothing else, just the questions right away. Clotho felt the first prickle of fear, a cold tickle along her spine and her dock. “Something blinded us… we could not see.” Clotho took a step backwards. 

“How could you be blinded?” Bucky demanded, his voice rising. 

Too late, Clotho saw Bucky lunge at her. He moved with supernatural speed now, not even using his legs, a writhing black mass of cold shadow was upon her in the time it took to blink an eye. She had no time to bring up her defenses and Clotho wondered for a moment if she could die. 

She felt two legs around her neck, she stumbled backwards, confused, Bucky’s thin, frail body was hanging from her. She tripped over her own hind hooves, stumbled, and sat down with a plop just as the first sobs began to slip out of Bucky. 

Not knowing what else to do, she raised one foreleg and pulled Bucky closer, slipping her right front leg around his bony, protruding ribs. It was like hugging a skeleton covered in loose, hanging skin. 

“How could you not see?” 

Clotho felt Bucky’s talons clench her mane, there was a tug that was almost painful as he gripped it. She realised that he wasn’t trying to hurt her. Confused, Clotho felt a strange pain. She had treated Bucky so callously to motivate him into doing what she and her sisters wanted. She didn’t know what to do with the sobbing unicorn hanging from her neck. 

“How could you be blind?”

At a loss for words, Clotho did not know what to say or do. She gave Bucky a squeeze. She felt tears stinging at her eyes. Was she crying? Were these real tears? She had cried many times to get a pony to do what she wanted, but this, something about this was different. 

“I almost lost everything… how could you not warn me?” 

Seized with emotion, Clotho began weeping. She pulled Bucky closer, and as she did so, she began to hate herself and what she was. Something in her bones, something within her earth pony nature told her that she was a bad pony, and that quiet little voice could not be ignored. Bucky was hugging her, clinging to her, hoping to find some comfort, and she had done bad things to him. She had done awful things. Something cold lanced through her heart. 

Clotho had abused his trust, his love, and his affection. She clung to him tighter, unable to bear her own pain as she came to the realisation that she was an awful pony, that at some point, during her long life, she had lost her way. When had she become so cold and unfeeling? When had she stopped caring? She was supposed to be the soft hearted one. The foal in her belly right now was supposed to be her connection the world. The foal she knew that she would give away soon after birth. She felt her spirit sink down to a new low. 

“Bucky,” Clotho said in a strangled voice. She coughed, but could not stop crying. “I brought you something… it might help… I don’t know.” She tried to ignore her own pain, she swallowed and tried once more to stop crying. She squeezed. There was almost nothing left of Bucky, he was a frail, thin doppelganger of his former self. 

The future was changing, the many different outcomes were all so uncertain now. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 798
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With a faint gasp, Sunset Shimmer lifted up the well crafted helmet and began to examine it, her opal eyes darting from detail to detail, admiring the golden metal. It was light, had a strange, soothing warmth that it radiated, and something about it was pleasant to touch with her magic. She swung the visor up and down, hearing no squeaks, admiring the mechanical hinge. 

She looked over at Rising Star, who stood nearby, a proud expression upon his face. “This looks like the golden armor of the royal guard. It’s beautiful.” 

“Actually,” Rising Star replied, flexing his knees as his eyes widened. “The golden armor of the royal guards is modeled after this stuff. But their golden armor is not the real thing, but a replica.” 

“Huh?” Sunset Shimmer set down the helmet. 

“This is radiant steel. It is very much like moon-silver. It is quite literally sunbeams forged into a special alloy. It can only be made by fey smiths and the ability to create it was lost when the fey unicorns vanished.” Rising Star let out an uncomfortable sounding whinny. “This armor is magical, but cannot be dispelled, not in the usual sense. It is purified. It is highly reflective, just like moon-silver, which means that some magical attacks might be reflected back at the caster, beam spells especially. It will stop most bullets, at least bullets of smaller sizes. This is a suit of armor that truly befits the first Empyrean Paladin.” 

Sunset Shimmer felt herself blushing and the scent of sulfur grew stronger. 

Rising Star nodded his head at the armor laid out on display. “Everything is ready. Princess Celestia wants for you to be wearing this at the ceremony when when spring is announced. We need to try this on and make certain that is comfortable.” 

“I’ve never worn armor before,” Sunset admitted. 

“No worries.” Rising Star lifted up the backplate. “This stuff is as light as a sunbeam. No joke!” He smiled, trying to put Sunset at ease. “This is very, very important to Princess Celestia. She wants ponies to see her chosen champion and she wants the papers to get a good look at the new military might that is growing here in Equestria.” 

Several griffons had stopped what they had been doing and were now watching, waiting, their little eyes wide with curiousity. Little tails twitched and wings fluttered at little fuzzy sides. Little crests rose. A little unicorn filly came over and sat down with the griffons, a broad, beaming smile upon her muzzle. 

The first thing put on was a simple shift of thick, padded cloth barding. When the backplate was set upon her withers and came to rest along her back, Sunset Shimmer felt a strange new emotion welling up within her, an emotion that manifested in the form of a tear that slid down her cheek. Another plate was placed along her belly and her barrel and the two halves clicked together as straps were cinched. Forgiveness, long wanted, had been earned, she had redeemed herself, she had atoned for the terrible things in her past. Princess Celestia was giving her a chance to make a good future for herself. She felt a growing lump in her throat as armored neck plates closed around her throat. More tears fell; not tears of sorrow, or pain, but those of joy. 

“Paladin Sunset Shimmer, Bane of the Undead, Scourge of Necromancers,” Rising Star said as he continued his solemn task of dressing Sunset in her armor. He leaned in his head closer to her ear. “How does it feel being connected to the sun and having the blessing of Princess Celestia’s power?” 

The question took Sunset by surprise. Her mind raced, trying to come up with some worthwhile answer. “I can cast sunlight now… real sunlight. I can feel Celestia’s magic in me… I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s changed me.” 

“It’s changed Loki too,” Firelock said as she watched Rising Star buckle on some greaves. “He feels good about life now.” 

Sunset nodded as more armor was strapped into place. She did feel better about life. She felt strong, confident, she felt capable. There was nothing that she couldn’t do. She could protect, she could defend. Instead of bringing harm to others, she could prevent harm from happening. Celestia’s powerful magic had manifested the healing arts within Sunset. The young unicorn knew that she had the courage and the conviction needed to deal with the pain. If Bucky could bear the pain of his existence, Sunset reasoned that she could do no less; she now had a powerful weapon to reduce the misery and suffering in the world. 

The armor did not feel heavy as Sunset had expected. More of it was being strapped into place. A skirt of metal plates was hung from her cuirass that hung down to her knees on both her front and hind legs. This wasn’t the partial plate that the guards wore, but full plate. Everything on Sunset was covered, from her fetlocks to her chin, but there was a helmet that would soon cover everything else. 

“It needs something,” Trixie said as she stood in the door with Bartleby sitting upon her back. The blue unicorn strode forwards, nodding as she examined Sunset. “Trixie is pleased by what she sees, but one thing is missing.” 

With a dramatic flourish, Trixie whipped out Sunset Shimmer’s voluminous black cloak and placed it over Sunset’s now armored body, clasping it around her plated neck. She stepped back as Rising Star placed the visored helmet upon Sunset’s head. 

“Black and gold are marvellous colours for you,” Bartleby said to Sunset. 

“There’s no mirror… how do I look?” Sunset asked. 

“You’re very pretty,” Firelock replied as she trotted forwards. 



 

“Brennus is peeping!” Yew Wood lifted her head and her remaining eye glittered with joy. “He’s peeping! Listen to him! He’s so precious.” 

“He’s so tiny,” Broom said. “Just like Bandua.” The unicorn looked down at the tiny, tawny bundle of fluff between Yew’s forelegs. “He looks like his father.” 

“I dunno, he has a pony tail, and cute little hoofsies in the back, and I still think those teeny, tiny iddle-widdle wings are going to look like mine.” Yew looked up at Broom and grinned. 

“Makes me think of the tales that Alfadir has been telling in the meadhall.” Magpie’s feathers fluffed out. “The great champions of old, the hippogriffs and all the good they did for both griffon and ponykind. I bet Lugus’ cub will be a fighter.” 

“Oh, I hope he grows up like his daddy, even if he has a strange name like ‘Brennus.’ He’s certainly cute like his daddy.” Yew Wood leaned down her head and nuzzled her cub with her nose. “He’s not hideous at all.” 

“You and Bucky both.” Magpie rolled her eyes. “Ponies.”

“Boadicea keeps surprising me,” Yew said to her companions. “She was feeding Brennus the other day. I caught her in the act. She looked so flustered. When I started to say something, she opened up her beak and started squawking at me and then flew off out of the balcony window.” 

“Boadicea’ll make a good mum.” Broom nodded her head. “Now if we can just get her to stop strangling things she don’t like with piano wire.” 

The room went silent for a moment and each face darkened as each of them thought about the attack upon the farm. There was a shared glance as they all looked at one another, each eye meeting, each acknowledging the other. 

“Lugus still hasn’t said that he’s proud of her for what she did, he still hasn’t forgiven her,” Yew said in a low voice. “It pains her. She knows that what she did was wrong… she disobeyed Lugus’ orders to get to safety, but I still think she did the right thing going to Sentinel’s side. Lugus needs to understand that Boadicea is not the sort that will run away from danger… and that she loves Sentinel.” 

“I’ve had enough of this,” Magpie said as her feathers all fluffed out. “Excuse me.” 

“Where are you going?” Broom asked. 

“I’m about to go tell Lugus off… I’m sick and tired of Boadicea skulking around and fretting because she upset her father,” Magpie replied as she stalked away, her tail slashing through the air. 

“Excuse me dearie, but I think’ll go and watch that happen.” Broom smiled at Yew. 

Sighing, Yew Wood watched as the mare and the griffoness departed, leaving her alone with Brennus. “Well, now I have you all to myself. Peep for me, my little fuzzy-wuzzy.” 



 

“Bucky, I don’t mean to impose, but can I stay with you?” Clotho asked. She looked at Bucky, who was huddled over in his favourite chair, wrapped in his cloak and shivering even though the room was warm. 

“What?” Bucky, caught by surprise from the question, blinked in confusion. “Why?” 

“I… don’t want to be around my other sisters right now. I want to help you. I don’t know if the elixir I brought will help, but I hope it does. If it doesn’t, I plan to keep trying. I want to be closer to Celestia and Luna. I want to be around good ponies again. I… want to feel things again. When one hangs around immortals for too long, emotions cease to have as much meaning,” Clotho replied. 

“You are always welcome to stay,” Bucky replied. He saw an expression of pain upon Clotho’s face and something stirred within his heart for her. “What should we call you?” 

Clotho looked away from Bucky, her eyes coming to rest upon a bookshelf. “A long time ago, back when the world was young, long before the time of corruption, I came upon a group of earth ponies and their griffon protectors. The earth ponies foraged, living off of the land, and the griffons traveled with them. The earth ponies kept the griffon’s cubs safe while the griffons hunted. They had a good existence with one another, but it was a hard existence.” 

“A history lesson was not expected,” Bucky said in a low voice as he curled up in his chair and looked at Clotho, waiting for her to continue. 

“I stayed with them for a time. I showed them how to harvest a plant that grew all around them, a plant they called amaranth. The plant produced grain. In time, the earth ponies settled in one place, a beautiful river valley with rich black soil. I showed them how to grow, how to cultivate the amaranth. I used my magic to help them, but I appeared to them as an earth pony. They called me ‘Amaranth’ and began to worship me, knowing that I was different. After they flourished and formed a village, I left them, moving on to help others.” 

Clotho sighed, looking sad. She looked Bucky in the eye and shook her head. “Every place I went, it was the same story. I’d go to help, I’d use my magic to help give root to civilisation, and then came the infuriating worship. I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does. I left behind three foals that I had birthed in that village, all of them earth ponies, all of them touched with magic. Same story everywhere I go.” 

“So the griffons helped them?” Bucky asked. 

“There is no better friend to a farmer than a griffon,” Clotho replied. “The griffons kept pests out of the field. Vermin. Animals that would come and devour the crops of the earth ponies. The griffons also kept the earth ponies safe from the prowling monsters. The earth ponies and the griffons needed one another to survive. Hippogriffs would be born sometimes, a joyous occasion, a reaffirmation of the harmony between the earth ponies and the griffons.” 

Bucky closed his eyes for a moment, becoming thoughtful. The griffons must have had a good life with the animals coming to them. With all of the many pests that plagued farmers and destroyed crops, the griffons must have had an endless feast. It might even explain the griffons and their absolute hatred of vermin. Vermin would have destroyed crops and potentially threatened the cubs and foals that the griffons worked to protect. Vermin would have threatened harmony and stability. Bucky’s eyes opened and he looked at Clotho. 

“In time, the griffons learned metal working. They made tools to help the earth ponies in their farming efforts. Civilisation grew because ponies and griffons laboured together, offering each other mutual assistance. The world flourished, pushing back the dark and the shadow. The spirit of cooperation allowed them to face any foe, any adversity, any time of hardship.” Clotho reached up and rubbed her neck with a front hoof, her eyes distant and dreamy. Her dull, drab looking brown pelt changed colours, shifting to a soft, almost sooty looking grey. Her straw coloured mane shifted over to a soft, but vibrant shade of pink. 

“I suppose that Amaranth is as good as any name to call me. It reminds me of happier times,” Clotho said as her eyes changed from a shade of purple to a brilliant rose coloured hue. 



 

Seeing that the door was open, Thistle, who had a zebra filly sitting on her back, stepped into Doctor Mawu’s office. She looked around and saw the zebra bocor was at her desk, reading something. Thistle took a deep breath, feeling as though she was intruding, and then said, “Doctor Mawu, do you have a moment?” 

“I have a moment,” Doctor Mawu replied. “I will be having a group in about twenty minutes, but I always have a moment for Sukari.” The doctor smiled and waved at the foal on Thistle’s back. 

Sukari, seeing another zebra, lifted her hoof and waved back. A faint smile hid on her lips. She slid down from her mother’s back, landed on her four hooves, and then walked over to Mawu, her blue eyes wide and watchful. 

“Um, she’s got a mark.” Thistle pointed at Sukari’s backside. “She jumped into the lake and I had to rescue her and then I noticed that the mark was there. Do you know what it means?” 

Mawu’s lips pressed into a straight line. “That is not a mark familiar to me. Hold on.” Standing up on her hind legs, she stretched and reached up to grab a book from a bookshelf over her desk. “There are only so many tribal marks… we zebras do not have a wide assortment of tribal marks like your cutie marks.” 

Sitting down, the zebra opened the book, which wasn’t very thick, and began flipping through the pages. She looked at Sukari’s backside, examining the three wavy lines, and then peered into the book once more. She stopped flipping when she was almost at the back of the book. 

“Those are waves. I have never, ever in my life seen a water tribal mark before. They’re rare,” Mawu said. 

“So… water… is she a swimmer?” Thistle asked. Thistle’s head tilted. “Why are water marks rare?” 

“Zebra tribal marks aren’t like your cutie marks. A tribal mark doesn’t confine you to a specific purpose. I have a moon mark and I am good at dream magic. Another zebra with a moon mark might be good at fertility magic. The moon and the sun are pretty common marks. Zecora, in the Everfree, she has a sun tribal mark,” Mawu explained. 

“So… what does a water mark mean and why are they rare?” Thistle asked. 

Mawu’s black ears pivoted forwards and she reached down to give Sukari a loving caress. “Thistle, to understand the rarity of a water tribal mark, you must first understand zebras. We are traditionalists. We follow tradition, sometimes blindly.” The zebra paused for a moment and shook her head. “It is part of the reason why I left home, but I digress.” Mawu reached over her desk, opened up a container, reached in, and pulled out a piece of candy. 

Extending her hoof, she gave the bright orange piece of hard candy to Sukari, who slurped it in and began to suck on it. Mawu looked up at Thistle while Sukari was occupied. “Water means many things. Swimming. Irrigation. Meteorology.” Mawu glanced down into the book, blinked, and then looked back up at Thistle once more. “It also means change.” 

“Change?” Thistle looked down at her daughter, trying to understand. 

“For traditionalists, change is an unwanted element,” Mawu replied. 

Thistle’s eyes widened as she made the connection. She looked down at Sukari. 

“So this is a very rare mark to have. Most zebras do not swim. We lived on the savannah, in an ocean of endless grass, not water. The book mentions that some irrigation specialists would sometimes get the mark, though most farmers would get an earth mark. Most meteorologists would get a sun or a moon mark.” Mawu paused. “Tribal marks are nebulous things. Typically, it is left for the young zebra to figure out what their mark means to them, usually with some kind of vision quest, or some period of meditation and reflection.” 

“Um, why does water represent change?” Thistle asked. 

Mawu glanced around her office, trying to think of a good answer. “Think of a river. It is always changing, eroding away where it flows, changing the land, turning mountains into canyons. Water is also a paradoxical element.” 

“Um, what?” Thistle shook her head so hard that her ears flapped. “Paradoxical?” 

“What falls yet stays where it is?” Mawu asked, smiling at the kelpie before her. 

“I have no idea,” Thistle replied. 

“A waterfall.” Mawu’s smile became a grin, showing off her square teeth. She patted Sukari on the head as Sukari sucked on her candy. “When my group is over, I’ll come over to the house with a few books on zebra tribal culture for you.” 

“Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you.” Thistle paused and looked down at Sukari. “Sukari, say ‘thank you’ to Doctor Mawu for the candy.” 

“Thank you,” Sukari said, her left cheek bulging with the ball of hard candy. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 799
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the west, the sun was beginning to dip down near the tree line. Several figures were gathered around three stone statues. There was Bucky, wearing his cloak, his hood pulled over his head, hunched under the voluminous black garment and trying to hide from the sun as much as possible. Beside him stood Sunset Shimmer, not wearing her armor, but wearing her black cloak. Her face was grim. Sparkler stood nearby, a black cloak draped over her back, her hood down, her eyes gleamed with anticipation and nervousness. Standing next to her was Scorch, who was in the form of a minotaur. He stood with one hand upon Sparkler’s neck, stroking her. Several members of the Solar Guard also stood with the group, each of them looking solemn, and perhaps even a little afraid. 

“Bucky… I don’t know if I can do this,” Sunset said in a low voice. 

“Sunset, you don’t have to do this. Celestia said that you could wait until you felt more comfortable. We can hang this up and forget about it,” Bucky replied. 

Chewing on her lip, Sunset thought about what to do. She had obligations now. Duties. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. Or maybe it would be worse. The breeze picked up, carrying with it the sweet smells of spring, and it blew Sunset Shimmer’s mane away from her face for a moment, revealing wrinkled, troubled brows. 

“Sunset, you were given a gift by Princess Celestia. The gift is merely a resource. It doesn’t mean that you have to use it if it makes you feel uncomfortable.” The fire elemental shifted form, becoming a tall unicorn stallion with a flaming, flickering mane and tail. 

“A message needs to be sent,” Sunset Shimmer whispered, her voice low. “What happened was… horrible. Not just to me and Bucky… but attacking our family… attacking Canterlot. I want somepony to answer for what was done!” 

“Very well, Minion, then we shall do this. We can start small, with these three.” Bucky coughed, a wet, soupy sound, hacked, and then stood there wheezing lightly from beneath his hood. “Now where is Twilight?” 

Almost as if saying her name had summoned her, Twilight came careening in over the treetops, her wings flapping, and the alicorn circled once before landing. She stood, winded, looking at the gathered group, and then yanked a black cloak out of her saddlebags. She tossed it over herself and it settled into place, covering her. She pulled up her hood and stomped over to where Sunset Shimmer was standing. 

“My apologies… I came back from Canterlot and a group of foals demanded my attention at the library. I didn’t mean to be late,” Twilight said, apologising. She glanced at Bucky, a look of worry flashing over her face as she heard him coughing, and then she took a deep breath. “This court of Black Cloaks is called to order. Empyrean Paladin Sunset Shimmer, you are duly recognised as the formal authority here. Your word is law.” 

Unable to reply, Sunset nodded. 

“Sparkler, would you please release these three unicorns from their stone prisons?” Twilight asked.

Nodding, Sparkler stepped forwards and her horn began to glow. 



 

Sunset Shimmer looked at the ponies cowering before her. Two stallions, one mare. They had come out of petrification and Bucky had wasted no time, scaring them to within an inch of their deaths. Sunset Shimmer wanted to be angry with them, she wanted to hate them, but found herself pitying them instead. 

“Each of you has performed necromancy. Your names will be scrubbed from existence. No one will remember you. Your own mothers will not remember birthing you. Every trace of your existence in this world will be scrubbed,” Twilight Sparkle said in a solemn voice. 

“You there, nameless one, look at me,” Sunset Shimmer said as she approached the first stallion. She saw him looking up at her, his whole body spasming from paroxysms of fear. “You have committed heresy. You have violated the natural order. You conspired against the ruling heads of Equestria. Your crimes are many and your time grows ever shorter. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” 

“Answer her, or I will summon the blue death!” Bucky barked, his voice raspy and popping. 

The mare shrieked and pissed herself, the stallion covered his face with his forelegs, and the pony that Sunset was addressing shat himself. Bucky saw Twilight glare at him. He didn’t care. These ponies had threatened his family, and it felt good to scare them. 

“I would like to beg for mercy,” the stallion said, crawling forward on his belly. “This wasn’t worth it. It was wrong… I was wrong. I let myself be swayed by promises of power and pretty words.” 

Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath. Princess Celestia’s new spell danced in her memory. The Purging Flame. Celestia had promised her that if there was anything left to save in a pony, this spell would find it, but Celestia had not said what it was that the spell did. 

“For your crimes, you will face punishment.” Sunset’s horn blazed with white fire. 

The stallion before Sunset Shimmer burst into flames and began burning. The other two, seeing this, began screaming, yelling, and trying to crawl away. They didn’t get very far. Magenta coloured magic grabbed them and pulled them back, dragging them over the new green grass. 

Sparkler, watching the flickering flames as they consumed the stallion, moved over closer to Bucky and pressed up against his side. The fire’s brilliant light was reflected in her teary eyes. Try as she might, Sparkler could not look away. 

Sunset Shimmer stood numb, unable to believe that she had just set a pony on fire. She watched, transfixed by the flames, her eyes wide and unblinking. As she stood there, she noticed that the burning pony was not screaming. Her head tilted off to one side and she decided to trust in Celestia’s wisdom. It was now clear that Celestia had created something special. 

With a poof, the flames vanished. The grass was unburned. And where the stallion had lain in the grass, there was now a yearling colt, a pegasus. He was small, yellow, blue maned, had no cutie mark, and stood there, his eyes wide, looking very, very confused. 

“What happened?” the colt asked in a fearful, squeaky voice. 

Sunset Shimmer stepped forwards. “Do you have any memory of what has just taken place?” 

The colt shook his head. “I remember being warm. There was… there was a white pony and she was kind to me. She said that she forgave me… and that is all I remember. Then I was here. The white pony was like her.” The colt pointed at Twilight Sparkle with his hoof. 

Twilight glanced at Sunset Shimmer and Sunset stared down at the colt, trying to figure out what to do next. The Purging Flame had found something worth saving, or so it seemed, and for this, Sunset was thankful. 

“Guard, please, take this colt into house. Ask one of the mares to look after him. See that he is fed and treated kindly. Our kindness now will determine our futures later, I do believe,” Sunset said. 

“Bucky can’t keep any more foals,” Twilight said in a low voice. 

“Who said?” Bucky hissed in reply. 

“You would take him in?” Twilight asked. 

“Why wouldn’t I?” Bucky’s hooded head turned in Twilight’s direction, but his eyes were not visible. It seemed that Bucky’s burning stare worked through the fabric and he watched as Twilight squirmed. 

“But… after everything… nevermind, knowing you, you would.” Twilight heaved a sigh and turned her attention down to the pegasus colt. Whatever spell that Celestia had given Sunset Shimmer was an amazing one. She looked at the other two ponies, both of whom were wide eyed, and the mare looked hopeful. 

“When this is all said and done, I personally will take them to meet with Fancy Pants and Fleur.” Sunset nodded at the guard, and the pegasus wearing golden armor raised a wing in salute. 

Nosing the colt, the guard herded the colt along, taking him to the farmhouse.



 

“Do you have any final words to say?” Sunset Shimmer asked of the mare cowering in front of her. Sunset Shimmer drew in a calming breath. The Purging Flame gave ponies a new chance at life, a second chance. It made everything she was about to do a whole lot easier. The mare even looked hopeful. 

“I have hope in your mercy. I accept whatever fate awaits me,” the mare replied. 

Sunset Shimmer nodded her head as white flames danced along the length of her horn. She smiled, feeling much better about all of this. This wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. She ignored the screams of the stallion and focused on the mare as she burned. No screams. She listened, trying to hear over the screaming stallion and the roaring flames that did not burn the grass for whatever odd reason. 

Ears perked, Sunset Shimmer heard a faint voice say, “I’m sorry.” 

Not long after, the flames died. Where the unicorn mare had been, there was now an earth pony filly. She was small, light orange coloured, and had a dark pink mane and tail. Like the colt, she had no cutie mark. She blinked, looking confused. 

“Where did the white pony go? She was nice… she hugged me and she kissed me and she said I would meet some nice ponies.” 

Sunset Shimmer lowered her head. “We’re the nice ponies. Hello.” Sunset Shimmer glanced at the third stallion and saw that he had been gagged with magenta magic. She glanced at the guard. “See that she is taken to the house and looked after.” 

“She’s kinda cute,” Bucky said as the filly was led away by the guard. 

“Master, be silent,” Sunset Shimmer whispered. “You there.” She looked at the final prisoner. “Come forward.” 

When the stallion refused to move, Twilight dragged him forwards. Sunset looked towards the house, checking to see if the filly was safe inside. She waited while the stallion kicked and struggled. 

When the filly was gone, Sunset looked down at the stallion. “Do you have any final words to say?” Sunset readied her spell. She watched as the gag over the stallion’s mouth vanished. 

The stallion said nothing, but spat in Sunset’s direction. Sunset heard a low growl coming from Bucky. She did not feel anger, but pity. This one was defiant. Celestia would sort him out. A strong breeze gusted, causing the grass to ripple, and Sunset’s black cloak fluttered along her back. White flames crept up along the length of her horn. 

The stallion ignited, and right away, he began screaming. He howled as he burned. Reacting at once, Twilight surrounded the area with a soundproofed bubble. Sunset Shimmer knew something was amiss. Something had gone wrong. The flames devoured his flesh, consuming him, and he kicked and writhed. Horrified, Sunset Shimmer backed away as the stallion burned, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. 

“She didn’t save him,” Sunset said to Bucky, her voice almost foalish. 

Bucky, his face unseen within his hood, shook his head. “Not everypony can be saved.” 
	
	
> Chapter 800
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Belisama… Belisama… wake up… Belisama, I need you.” 

With a sleepy peep, Belisama woke up and opened one eye a tiny bit. The bedroom was dark. She felt a few soft pokes with a firm hoof. She lifted her head, confused, not quite awake, and feeling somewhat irritated for having been woken up. 

“Belisama, I need for you to go and get Violet… fly fast.” 

In an instant, Belisama was wide awake and she let out a yowl. She opened her other eye and looked into Derpy’s face, her crest rising with alarm. She felt a warm body stirring beside her. She heard a murmur. 

“Where is Bucky?” a very sleepy Bon Bon asked in a drowsy voice. “I’m gonna kill him… he’s supposed to be getting some sleep… he’s so fragile right now.” 

“What’s going on?” Thistle asked. The kelpie yawned as the griffoness hopped down out of the bed. Reaching over, Thistle shook Berry Punch. “Wake up, I think something is happening. Bon Bon is going to kill Bucky.” 

There was a loud snort followed by the words, “Good.” Berry Punch rolled over, let rip a whooshy sounding fart, then slipped off back into slumber, her large, foal-filled stomach rising and falling with each steady breath. 

“I’ll be right back,” Belisama said as she gave her wings a flew flaps and headed for the bedroom door. 

Bon Bon shoving Lyra over, climbed out of the bed, got her hooves on the floor, shook her sleepy head, and then yawned. She smacked her lips once, then twice, then said, “I’m gonna murder him as soon as I find him… he’s so dead. I’m tired of this foalishness and the fact that he just won’t take care of himself.” 

“Just be gentle, Bonnie.” Thistle bounced out of the bed and landed beside Bon Bon. 

“Can somepony get me into the tub and get some water going?” Derpy asked. 

Rolling over, Lyra tried to disentangle herself from the blankets and from Berry Punch, who had latched on to her and wasn’t letting go. Lyra wiggled and kicked her legs, trying to scrabble free, and Berry Punch moaned from the struggle. 

“Lemme go, need to help Derpy,” Lyra grumbled. 

“Why?” Berry Punch asked in a sleepy whisper. “Lemme snuggle you.” 

“She’s giving bir—OOOOOOOOF!” Lyra wheezed as Berry Punch almost crushed her. “Berry, I need air, leggo!” 

“Derpy?” Berry Punch lifted her head and looked at the grey pegasus. 

“It’s time,” Derpy replied.

“I found Bucky.” Thistle’s voice came from the nursery. “He’s sleeping in the chair in here with Bell Heather, Bandua, and Cadance.” 

Bon Bon stomped off for the nursery door, muttering and sputtering. She turned on the lights, hitting the switch on the wall, causing several ponies to moan and groan in pain from the sudden light. She stood in the doorway, turned her head, and looked over at Bucky, who was indeed sleeping. Cadance’s nose was protruding out from beneath the blanket covering them, and she was curled up against Bucky’s side. Bell Heather and Bandua were cradled in Bucky’s forelegs, pressed up against either side of Bucky’s neck. Bon Bon could hear Bucky’s wet, raspy breathing. When sick, Bucky’s lungs were always the first things to go, but the lingering pneumonia and respiratory infection was getting better. 

“Bucky, wake up… wake up, you’re about to be a daddy again,” Thistle said as she gave Bucky a shake. “Wake up, Derpy needs you.” 



 

“Are you in much pain?” Bucky asked as he eased himself into the water beside Derpy. He lifted her head, cradling it in his right foreleg, and braced his back up against the side of the tub. “Talk to me.” 

“Just a little more pain than usual, but not much,” Derpy replied in a soft whisper as she closed her eyes. She felt Bucky repositioning her body and getting her comfortable. “This will all be over soon.” Reaching out, Derpy wrapped her left fetlock around Bucky’s leg, just above his talons. “I’m going to be able to walk and fly again.” 

Leaning his head down, Bucky kissed Derpy, pressing his snoot into the velvety fold of her ear. He inhaled, wheezing somewhat, and relaxed in the warm water. Using his telekinesis, he pushed Derpy’s wet mane out of her face and tried to pull her a little closer, worried that she might be uncomfortable. 

“There is a full moon tonight… I wonder how many spring foals are being born right now, tonight,” Lyra said as she sat down beside the tub. “It’s a little early for Derpy’s foals, but the doctor said this would happen. They’re well developed and I think we’re ready for them.” 

“I want them out.” Derpy gave Bucky’s leg a gentle squeeze. “I’m ready for this to be over.” The grey mare yawned, feeling sleepy. She nestled up against Bucky and closed her eyes. “You know, I thought Bucky would be more panicked then he is.” 

Bucky, blinked, but said nothing. His ears perked when he heard the bedroom door open. He heard hooves on the hardwood floor, an unfamiliar gait. His head swiveled towards the door. He heard a soft chuckle, and then he heard Clotho say, “Berry Punch, are you ready to be a mother?” 

“Yeah, I can look after Derpy’s foals,” Berry replied. 

Another chuckle. Bucky’s ears quivered as he listened. “No, I mean are you ready to be a mother? Because—” A loud, pained, somewhat confused grunt came from the bedroom. “—your water is about to break.” 

“Amaranth, what did you do?” Bon Bon demanded. 

“I felt a popping feeling and everything just clenched up… ow ow ow!” Berry whined. 

“I did nothing. This is Luna’s doing. Foals want to be born on full moons.” 

“LUNAAAAAAAAA!” Berry shouted. 

“Luna’s moon and Celestia’s sun are the celestial clocks to which life is timed. Without them, life as we know it would cease. With them, new lives are conceived, and much like hands on a clock, they announce when new life will arrive,” Amaranth said. The earth pony heaved a sigh as Berry Punch stumbled off for the bathroom. 

“Are there many births tonight?” Thistle asked. 

“Do you really want to know?” Amaranth replied. 

“Um, yes?” Thistle’s voice sounded uncertain. 

“Right now, in the Ponyville area, sixty two mares have just given birth, are in labour, are birthing, or will be birthing. Before the dawn, that number will climb to seventy nine. Out of those seventy nine, fifty four newborn foals will live to see the sunrise.” Amaranth’s voice was a soft monotone. “Nine mothers will join their foals in passing.” 

“I… I didn’t want to know that!” Thistle backed away from the strange earth pony named Amaranth, shaking her head. “That… that’s awful! That’s just awful!” 

“All knowledge comes with a price. I’m sorry. You asked, I answered. Next time, be careful what you ask for,” Amaranth replied. 



 

Sentinel, feeling protective, pulled his sister Piña closer and kissed her just below her ear. She was yawning, not quite awake, and leaned over on him. Harper was clinging to his right foreleg, fighting to keep her eyes open. Sukari held on to Harper, her chin resting on the back of Harper’s head and her eyes were closed. Dinky, sitting on the other side of Sentinel, peered into the bathroom, trying to see what was going on. So far, not much had happened, the exciting part hadn’t yet begun. 

“You foals should lay down in the bed,” Bon Bon said as she paced. “There’s fresh sheets… go on, lay down.” 

“But we don’t want to go back to sleep and we’ll do that if we get comfortable,” Piña said in protest. She rubbed her eyes with one foreleg, yawned, and shook her head. “I don’t want to go fall back to sleep.” 

The earth pony stopped pacing, moved near the foals, and then sat down. “This might take hours. Go ahead, go back to sleep. I promise, when something starts to happen, you’ll be awake… there’ll be all sorts of commotion.” 

“Is Amaranth a midwife?” Dinky asked. 

“I dunno… but she knows how to help. Violet will be here soon. Now get in the bed,” Bon Bon replied as she gave Dinky a gentle nudge. As Bon Bon watched, Harper slumped over with a thump and fell fast asleep on the floor. Sukari sat up for a moment, looking conflicted, then fell over on Harper, using her as a soft pillow on the hard floor. 

“I got these two.” Lyra scooped up the two foals, kissed them both, and then set them down upon the big bed with fresh sheets. She tossed a blanket over them, kissed them both once more, and then turned to face the other foals. “You can either get in the bed and get some rest, or, I can give you mustaches if I find you sleeping on the floor.” 

Grumbling, the other foals began climbing up in bed. 



 

Bucky, who held Derpy, listened to the grey pegasus humming. The bathroom was dim and rather warm from the press of too many bodies, not to mention the warm water of the tub. Derpy seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing and would sometimes close her bad eye so she could tilt her head back and look up at Bucky. Beside her, Bon Bon was holding Berry Punch, who wasn’t quite as relaxed, and Berry Punch would sometimes whimper, not so much from pain, but from anticipation of squeezing what was certain to be a big foal out her backside. 

Out of both of the twins in her belly, Brandywine was said to be larger than normal sized and fully developed, while Barley was a little smaller and a bit more like a normal twin sized foal. 

“How can you be so calm?” Berry Punch said to Derpy. 

Derpy, humming, paused for a moment to answer Berry. “I took those psychoprophylactic method courses with Violet. I’m gonna be fine. Positive outlook and all that. Plus, I’ve done this before. While the last time was pretty bad, this time is going to be awesome. Isn’t that right, Violet?” 

The stern looking mare standing beside the tub nodded. 

“I took all of those courses with you and Helia started joining us… how is Helia… I’m worried… how is Helia?” Berry Punch looked at Violet with wide, concerned eyes and perked ears. 

“Helia is fine. I think she’ll drop her foal in the next batch of births. Gofannon has become very protective of her. Griffons.” Violet, who smiled for a mere moment, reached out and prodded Belisama, who squawked on contact. “Relax. Be calm. There may have been danger once, but there is no danger now.” 

“I’ve been having trouble letting my guard down since the war… and since…” 

“I know… but do try and be calm. I think it would help Berry,” Violet said to Belisama. 

“I’m calm!” Berry, panting, squirmed in Bon Bon’s embrace. “But I do keep thinking about the last time Derpy gave birth.” Berry Punch squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s hard forgetting.” 

“Yeah it is, but this time isn’t going to be like that.” Derpy drew in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out in a measured, slow huff through her nostrils. “Now don’t bring that up again. I don’t want you messing with my calm.” 

“I wonder who will come out first?” Berry Punch blinked a few times as a dull ache throbbed in her hips. “I’m kinda hoping that Barley will be first… so I’ll stretch out and it will make birthing Brandywine a little easier… the doctor said that she’s so big.” 

“Little earth ponies are always so fat and chubby when they’re born. They’re wonderful,” Amaranth said from where she sat in the corner. “Unicorns tend to be skinnier and so are pegasi… gotta watch out for those wings on pegasi though.” The rotund earth pony mare sighed and looked at Berry Punch. “The only real trouble you’re ever going to have from Brandywine is about to happen very soon—” 

“What?” Berry Punch kicked her hind legs in the water. “What?” 

“Oh, Brandywine is going to take after her father… his best parts. She’ll be quiet, a little shy, and she’ll be a homebody… but she’s going to give you trouble coming out,” Amaranth replied. 

“No,” Berry whimpered. “No no no… no.” 

“A little earth pony version of me?” Bucky lifted his head. “That sounds wonderful.” He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the sounds of breathing around him, the splash of water, and tried to hold back a cough because of the dreadful tickle in his throat. “You know, Amaranth, that elixir you gave me to drink, I don’t think it fixed my problem much, but it is a little easier to breathe.” Bucky opened his eyes and looked at Amaranth and saw a look of concern upon her face. 

“I’m going to get you better.” Amaranth’s eyes flashed for a moment and then changed from blue to green. 

The ponies in the bathroom all listened as a single cry could be heard from the nursery. Thistle stood up, shaking her head, and then trotted out of the bathroom, hurrying off to look after Bell Heather. Belisama, who was more than a little twitchy, turned her head around to watch Thistle leave. 

“I bet Bandua is getting hungry. I think I’ll go tend to her.” Belisama stalked out of the bathroom, following after Thistle, her tail slashing through the air and her feathers fluffed out. 

“She hasn’t been right since the attack,” Lyra whispered after Belisama was gone. 

“Don’t disturb Derpy’s calm.” Violet gave Lyra a stern glance and shook her head. 

“Just saying that I’m worried about her. She’s my friend… she’s one of my best friends. I don’t know how to deal with it sometimes. I don’t like seeing her so tense all the time because I’m tense all the time and I don’t want others to suffer like I do,” Lyra explained, her expression one of pensive worry. 

“It’s been almost a year,” Bucky said, his lips brushing over Derpy’s ear and causing it to twitch. “I was out buying supplies… and I bumped into you.” 

“You were handsome,” Derpy said in a wistful, almost sleepy sounding voice. 

“You were pretty.” Bucky trailed his lips over Derpy’s ear, causing the grey mare to shiver. “You… you ran me down. At the time, that just might have been the most terrifying moment of my life. Nothing made sense.” 

“You were worth chasing.” Derpy closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and heaved a long sigh. “I had a good feeling about you.” Derpy reached out and touched Berry Punch. “It’s been worth it… all of it. The good and the bad. If I had to do it again, knowing what I know now about everything that was going to happen, I would do it again without thinking. Probably so I could have this moment happen again. This moment right here.” 

“This moment must be pretty special to you.” Bon Bon glanced over at Bucky and Derpy. “I’m glad you’re getting to have a special moment. You deserve it.” Bon Bon gave Berry Punch a little squeeze and kissed Berry between the ears. Bon Bon felt Berry tremble; she watched as Berry’s legs kicked in the water, causing the shallow water in the tub to make waves and splash around. 

“It was so rewarding watching Bucky come out of his shell.” Berry Punch gulped in a deep breath and squirmed as she felt something shift inside of her. “It was like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon—” 

“A drunken, profanity spewing, perverted butterfly.” Lyra gave Bucky a teasing wink as Berry Punch somehow managed to laugh with all of the pain she was in. In a moment, everypony was laughing, Lyra included. 

“We got to know you and Bon Bon… we didn’t know it at the time, but you came to us at the moment we needed you most and you became a part of our family,” Berry continued as she rubbed her stomach. “I guess we just didn’t know it at the time.” 

“Everything changes now as we move into our second year.” Derpy closed her eyes and laid her head back against Bucky, going limp. She tried to ignore the stabbing ache in her pelvis, knowing this would all be over soon. Derpy’s ears perked. She heard Barley’s voice off in the nursery, singing some lullaby that she couldn’t quite make out. His voice was gruff, but kind, and was useful for getting Bell Heather to go back to sleep. Barley, sweet wonderful Barely, who was about to have a nephew named after him. Barley, who was such a kind and gentle soul. Barley, who had set several ponies on fire who had threatened his home. Derpy shivered, her whole body trembling from the memory as she had been carried from the house to the tower. The defenses on the house had been breached and the house itself had been set on fire. She shoved the troubling memory from her mind and focused on something else instead. 

“Lyra, I love you… thank you for keeping me safe,” Derpy said as she opened her eyes. She looked at Lyra, her vision fuzzy, not just from her messed up vision, but from tears as well. 

“I’ve resigned from everything. I don’t know if they’ll let me go… but I’m done… I’ve had enough.” Bucky closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of Derpy’s head. “I can’t keep doing what I’ve been doing. I just want to be a father and live a quiet life at home.” 

“Bucky…” 

“Yes Violet?” 

“I’ve been speaking with Celestia…” 

“And?” 

“I don’t know for certain, but I think I’ve convinced her that you’ll be more valuable at home in your workshop and working as a headmaster… I think she might be planning to let you go from everything but the Black Cloaks, because let’s face it, there are some things you are good at that nopony else can do, and I don’t think you want Sunset going off by herself and getting hurt,” Violet said. 

“You really think that she’ll let me go?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t know, but I’m hopeful,” Violet replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 801
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was going to be dawn soon, Bucky could feel it, a sensation that now brought him terror and made him feel ill. It was more than the worry of pain that the sun brought, it was the feeling of fear. There were few things that scared Bucky, but those things that did tended to overwhelm him. He was getting better, but there were moments, moments like the one he was experiencing, that unnerved him. 

He gave Derpy a little squeeze; she was still propped up against him. Her breathing was heavy now, almost panting, and her pelt was damp with water and sweat. There was no doubting it, Derpy was going to foal first. 

From her corner, Clotho, known to others as Amaranth, smiled. “Be ready.” 

Violet turned and looked at the enigmatic earth pony and then back at Derpy, nodding. “Yes, any time, soon. Derpy, how are you feeling? How is the pain?” 

“I’m… managing… feel… the… need… to… push,” Derpy panted. 

“I think she needs a kiss… right… about… now,” Amaranth said to Bucky. 

Dropping his head, Bucky planted his lips on Derpy’s, an upside down kiss. He felt her whole body tense up and her hot, heavy breathing lingered on his face. He heard the sound of one of Derpy’s legs kicking, causing the water to splash. 

“Woah, she’s crowning, it’s go time!” Violet lept over the side of the tub and landed in the water with a splash. “I think this one is going to be real easy.” 

“Mama?” Standing in the doorway, Dinky’s eyes were wide and fearful. 

Beside Dinky, Sentinel sat down, silent, his head tilted off to one side as he watched everything that was taking place. When Derpy let out a cry of pain, Dinky almost bolted forward, but Sentinel grabbed her and pulled her back. When she wrapped her forelegs around his neck, he gave her a squeeze. 

Rubbing her eyes, Piña sat down beside Dinky and Sentinel, watching and waiting. 

Stroking Derpy’s head, Bucky waited, feeling a little fearful, feeling nervous, and filled with anticipation. He’d been waiting a long time for this. He lifted his head and looked at his other foals. Harper had joined Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña in the doorway. She looked sleepy, curious, and scared. He didn’t know where Sukari was, but hoped that she wasn’t panicking. 

“Snoot!” Lyra shouted as she pointed down. “I saw a snoot! It was purple!” 

“OW… OOOOOH… stabbing!” Derpy shouted as her whole body tensed. 

“Unicorn,” Violet said as she stroked Derpy’s belly. “Come on, give me a big push. You’ve done this before. The first unicorn you gifted this world with turned out wonderful.” 

There was a grotesque slurping sound, a flatulent squish, and then there was a head. Violet watched as the head began to rotate as the foal continued to turn inside of Derpy. Violet lifted both of Derpy’s hind legs and held them in position. Blood oozed into the water and seeped over Derpy’s grey pelt. 

“Worst is over, a few more pushes,” Violet said in a firm voice of command. 

“I’m scared… this is gonna hurt… I’m having second… thoughts.” Berry Punch, panting, closed her eyes and pressed her face into Bon Bon’s neck. “There’s blood… I don’t feel good.” 

Reaching up her right foreleg, Derpy reached over her barrel and grabbed Bucky by his talons. She squeezed, closed her eyes, and pushed with everything she had as she swallowed a scream. There was a moment of intense tightness followed by a strange feeling of emptiness. She gasped, panting, fearing the pain would overwhelm her, and then she heard a gurgling cry. 

“Dizzy,” Violet said as she laid the foal on Derpy’s belly. A clean cloth held in her telekinesis was wiping the foal down to prevent heat loss. “Dizzy, meet your mother, she’s wonderful.” 

After blinking a few times to clear away tears, Derpy winked her bad eye shut and looked down. The first thing she saw was black… and a little bit of grey. An ear? She blinked her good eye. A black mane and a grey ear. She let go of Bucky and reached down with her forelegs. She scooped the crying foal up, her touch gentle, and she could feel the umbilical cord against her left fetlock. She could see a little nubby horn. 

Already, she was feeling the need to push again. She could feel the other foal thrashing around inside of her, making violent kicks against her womb. She looked up at Violet as she gave her newborn a squeeze. “Take him… Ditzy’s coming.” 

Nodding, Violet slipped a clamp over the cord, lifted the newborn colt, wrapped him in a clean cloth, and then held him in her telekinesis as the colt cried his new little lungs out. 



 

“—and here comes Ditzenburg, named after Derpy’s great grandmother,” Lyra said as she watched a teeny, tiny little head pop out. She stood on the edge of the tub, her ears erect and twitching with every cry that Dizzy made. The grey mare was already visibly smaller, it was as if her belly had somehow shrunk. It made Lyra feel queasy to even look at it or think about it. 

“She just squirted them right out.” Thistle sitting beside the tub, reached out and stroked Derpy on the stomach. “Come on, just a little more, the hardest part is over I think.” 

“Ditzy has a big head and she’s a lot bulkier than Dizzy.” Violet held the filly’s head in her magic as Derpy laboured to push the rest of her out. “I hope the wings haven’t slipped out of the birth sack, we don’t need any complications, this has to be one of the easiest births I’ve witnessed.” 

“Fluttershy sneezed and made a foal,” Bucky said. 

“I would have liked to have seen that.” Violet gave the tiny body a little tug, and with a pop, the wings were free. The rest of the foal slid out of her mother with a slurp. Violet lifted the foal, cleared the airway, blinked away a tear or two as Ditzy made her first cries, dried the foal to prevent heat loss, and then set her down on top of Derpy’s stomach. Sighing, she laid Dizzy down beside his sister, and watched as Derpy scooped them both up. 

“She looks like you,” Bucky whispered. “She’s a little version of you. She’s perfect.” 

Derpy, closing her bad eye, looked down at her new filly, her heart swelling with love and pride. The foal opened her eyes, which were grey, just like her father’s. The foal blinked, looking a little confused. One eye pointed towards the ceiling, the other at her mother and father. 

“Yup, she’s perfect,” Bucky said. “I guess it’s time to get you out of the tub, cleaned up, and in the bed so they can nurse. I’ll help.” 

“Don’t leave me!” Berry begged. 

“Foals need to nurse.” Bon Bon gave Berry a squeeze. “Bucky will come back, right?” 

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Bucky replied. 



 

“Bucky, what did you do to me?” Berry asked as tears rolled down her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut as the pain hit a crescendo and then floated on the verge of consciousness, feeling lightheaded and faint. 

“Brandywine is corked in there tight,” Violet said as she lifted her head. “Any helpful words, Amaranth?” 

“She’ll come out when she’s ready and not a moment before,” Amaranth replied. 

After sucking in a deep breath, Berry Punch threw back her head and screamed at the top of her lungs, causing every ear in the bathroom and the bedroom to twitch. When she was done, her eyes rolled back into her head and she went limp in Bon Bon’s embrace. 

“Berry!” Barley stumbled for the bathroom door, stepped over the foals, and approached the tub. He looked down at his niece, scowling and shaking his head. “Berry, stop your bloody bellyaching and birth those foals!” 

In the bedroom, Sukari, who no longer had Barley to comfort her, began to cry as the bathroom filled with stunned silence. Bon Bon looked up at Barley with a confused, almost hurt expression. 

“Berry Punch, we’re Shetlanders. We come from a heartier stock. Has all this fancy living made ye soft, ye bleatin’ ninny? Now suck it up, I dinnae wanna hear any more cryin’!” 

Lifting her head, her eyes unfocused, Berry Punch gritted her teeth and pushed. One ear stood up, the other drooped, her hind legs kicked from the effort. She growled, then huffed, and then puffed. 

“Eh, stop bein’ so bloody soft, ye git!” Barley yelled. “Yer an embarrassment! That’s what ye are, ye whiny little milksop! Ye ain’t got the feckin’ teats to squirt them little buggers out, ye big bleatin’ crybaby!” 

“Feck off, ya bastard!” Berry’s eyes narrowed and she glared up at her uncle. 

“Get up out o’ that tub and make me, ye big blithering numpty! Yer a disgrace! Yer mudder dropped ye in the dirt and kept workin’, and she didn’t so much as sniffle when yer fat, pudgy little head squirted out from her well fecked loins!” 

Squeezing her eyes shut, Berry Punch roared, her mouth going wide, her uvula becoming visible for all to see. Her hind legs kicked and she almost sat up as she threw everything she had into it. 

“That all ye got? What the feck happened to my niece? You know, the mare that went to Canterlot to kick some coont in the coont? Yer softer than a wee, warm, runny puddle of shite!” 

“Yer a... GOBSHITE!” Berry yelled. Berry let out a wordless scream from between clenched teeth, her whole body trembling. 

“Ye should have learned to take up the arse, seems yer damned coont ain’t up for the work it was made for, ye worthless fart lump!” 

“BARLEY!” Berry Punch’s eyes opened and she looked at her uncle. She grunted and bore down, pushing with everything she had. 

Bon Bon stared with wide eyes, not sure what to make of the exchange and everything being said. Bucky blinked, looking confused. Lyra had exited the bathroom and had since removed the foals from the bathroom door after soundproofing the bathroom. Thistle, a Shetlander, had pink cheeks and stared down at the floor. Belisama, sitting on the side of the tub, watched Berry and waited. 

Amaranth began to giggle and covered her mouth with her fetlock. 

“She’s crowning!” Violet said as she peered down. “There’s a bit of tearing, but it’s not too bad… Berry, keep going!” 

“Come on Berry, yer almost there,” Barley said, his voice now soft. “Yer my filly… I always felt that I was cheated, you should have been my filly, and not my sister’s. She never appreciated you… she never loved you enough for what you did for Piña. Pinot Noir was a big numpty and she never quite knew what a treasure you were… now push, damn you, push, you soft headed lout… I wanna see my niece and I’m tired of waiting.” 

“Oh, that’s a lot of blood,” Thistle whispered as she stood up on all four hooves. 

Standing next to the tub, Barley extended his hoof to Berry. “Go on, give it a squeeze, ye’ve earned it. Do yer worst!” 

Reaching out, Berry grabbed Barley’s fetlock, hooking it in her own, and squeezed down as she pushed. She saw stars in her vision and she could feel the pressure causing her whole face to tremble. She felt the blood pounding in her ears. She heard a sound that sounded very much like tearing flesh, like when Bucky, Thistle, or Sentinel ripped a fish in half. She felt a sharp, stabbing pain go shooting through her groin as her insides clenched. 

“Just a little more, the worst is over!” Violet placed a wet, bloodied hoof upon Berry’s stomach. “Come on, the shoulders are jammed in tight. Give me just one good push!” 

Almost sitting up, Berry bore down with everything she had, groaning, gritting her teeth, and straining so hard that she saw spots in her vision. She had the curious feeling of hard rain falling down and striking her face as she strained. Her whole body trembled. 

“Ach, wee Brandywine is tearing Mommy a new one, crivens!” Barley shook his head at the gristly sight. “Oooh, that’s a sight that’ll make eyes sore, ugh!” 

Violet, who had a good grip on the large, fat foal, gave a tug. The rear hips slipped free from Berry with a loud, wet sounding pop and then, Brandywine was free. Violet began to clear the foal’s airway and there was a subdued cheer from those watching when the foal cried for the first time. Violet worked to get the foal cleaned up. 

“There’s a leg!” Thistle pointed down with her right foreleg as she pranced in place on her three other legs. 

Violet felt her blood run cold. She looked down, worried about a breech birth. As she stared, the leg was slurped back inside and vanished. Violet, almost holding her breath, put a clamp on Brandywine’s umbilical cord and passed the foal to Bucky, who was close. She lowered her head, her brows furrowing, and began to examine Berry Punch to see what was going on. 



 

Staring, Violet watched as Berry Punch’s bloody nethers clenched. There was a tear that was bad enough that it would need stitches. The water was turning crimson with blood. She glanced up, looking up at Berry from between her hind legs, and watched as Barley kissed Berry’s cheek. It seemed that Shetlanders practiced tough love. 

“Berry, are you with me?” Violet asked. Violet heard an incomprehensible moan from Berry Punch. A feeling of worry began to settle into Violet’s mind. 

“It’s not a breech birth,” Amaranth said in a low voice. “I do believe that little Barley just wanted to know where his sister went. Give him a moment, he’s shy and it’s cold out here. He’s not fond of the cold.” 

Violet peered at the strange earth pony in the corner for a moment and then, when she looked down, she saw a snoot protruding from Berry Punch. She heard a grunt from Berry, and saw her sides expand as she pushed. Little Barley, who was a good deal smaller and skinnier, squirted right out, his head passing easily. One hoof came next, and his slender shoulders slipped free as Berry let out another scream. 

“Brandywine looks just like you,” Barley said, whispering into Berry Punch’s ear. “But she has her daddy’s distinctive grey eyes.” 

With a sloppy squish, little Barley slipped free and Violet lifted up him. The foal coughed, cleared his own airway, and then let out a plaintive wail as he began to shiver. Violet began to clean him up and made plans to stitch Berry up. She wiped the colt down with a clean cloth as Berry squirted out several clots and chunks of afterbirth. 

Bucky, who stood watching all of this with wide eyes, felt a few tears slipping down his cheeks. “He looks just like me… he looks like… me… there’s a little version of me… Berry, you made a little version of me.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 802
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pushing open the bedroom door, Sparkler entered, carrying a tray loaded down with food. Her legs trembled, not from nervous anticipation, but from her disease. The moment that Sparkler entered, Violet was examining the absorbent cover placed over the bed for Derpy and Berry—the latter it seemed had been bleeding. Sparkler paused in the doorway, feeling concerned, worried even, hoping that Berry would be okay. Doctor Gotland, the old navy sawbones, had just left while Sparkler had been in the kitchen. 

To Sparkler’s eyes, Berry looked weak and tired, laying there limp and listless. Sparkler pushed the worrisome thoughts she was getting from her mind and continued forwards, smiling, and trying to look as cheerful as possible.

“I brought you breakfast,” Sparkler announced in a chipper voice. “A special breakfast, cooked by special ponies, both of them sisters. Loch Skimmer and Ripple fixed you pancakes.” Sparkler saw her mother Derpy lick her lips. 

Reaching the bedside, Sparkler put the heavy tray down on the table by the bedside. She watched as Violet helped Berry sit up, propping the plum coloured mare up with a few pillows behind her. To Sparkler’s eyes, Berry seemed… almost helpless. Berry was clearly not her usual self and had trouble even holding her head up. 

“Daddy’s somehow surviving out in the sun. Bittersweet is out there holding a parasol over him like she always does. They’re really sweet together, you know? They’ve become so close,” Sparkler said, trying to engage in a bit of idle chit-chat. 

“I’m starving.” Derpy glanced at the tray full of food. “That’s a lot of food… but…” 

“Don’t worry, Mom. That’s your tray. Rising Star will be coming in a moment with Berry’s tray. Berry is getting a special smoothie that is supposed to help her recover.” Sparkler looked at the earth pony, who had her eyes closed and whose breathing seemed shallow. “You okay, Mom Two?” 

“Brandy tore me a new one… no, I’m not okay. I’m gonna ground her,” Berry replied. 

“It’s not so bad, it’s only a second degree vaginal tear.” Violet, who looked weary, sat down in a chair beside the bed. “Everything stitched up well and the slight tear to the anal sphincter muscle is expected to be just fine.” 

Hearing this, Sparkler felt her nethers clench. Both of her hind legs pulled together and she felt her pucker puckering from just thinking about it. She heard the bedroom door open, turned, and saw Rising Star. Just behind him were two worried faces, Loch Skimmer and Ripple. 

“Mama!” Loch Skimmer darted forwards, her folded wings flapping once at her sides. The charcoal grey pegasus ran to Berry’s side and moving with smooth grace, climbed into the bed beside her. She began kissing the side of Berry’s face and hugging the earth pony’s neck. She paused in her kissing only just long enough to say, “We fixed you a beet smoothie, it’s supposed to help you after your blood loss.” 

“Where are the foals?” Ripple asked in a loud, excited voice as she looked around. 

“In the nursery, sleeping, so their mothers can have a much needed break. Keep it down,” Violet replied in a firm, but gentle, quiet voice. 

Ripple, the other charcoal coloured pegasus, moved to the bed. She had a commanding presence, she moved with fluid grace, and as she approached Derpy and Berry, she bowed her head while giving both mares a smile. “I’ve been learning how to cook. I hope everything is edible. My skills with a spatula went from blah to awesome when I started to think of it as a weapon to attack food.” 

“She got a pancake stuck to the ceiling. Semillon muttered something bad in Fancy. I dunno what she said, but she looked a little peeved,” Rising Star said while smiling. He looked down at the tray that he had set down on the other side of the bed, on the bedside table for a moment and then looked at Loch Skimmer, who was hugging an almost unresponsive Berry. “Loch, darling, I think that Berry will need your help with eating breakfast and drinking her smoothie.” 

“Oh, I can do that. Mama, we need to get you better. I can’t stand to see you like this.” Loch Skimmer pressed her snoot against Berry’s cheek, just below her ear, and planted a few kisses. “I need practice feeding another pony. I’m going to be a mama myself sooner rather than later. I tried sitting Ripple down in a chair and tying a bib on her, but she slap boxed my ears and threatened to stick the spoon I had up my nose, after coming in through the back entrance.” 

Clutching her stomach, Berry Punch let out a weak laugh, but didn’t lift her head from her pillow. She chuckled, let out a groan of pain, and one of her hind legs gave a feeble kick. She lifted one front hoof and waved it. “No more… no more… hurts to laugh. Brandywine ripped me a new one.” 

“It’s nice to see all of you getting along and acting like a family now.” Derpy looked at her older foals. “All of you have grown up a bit. You make me proud.” 

“Aw, Mom… let’s get some food in ya.” Sparkler looked at her mother, smiled, and then leaned her head down to give her mother a kiss. 



 

“Master, you look well.” Sunset Shimmer sat down beside Bucky, lifted her head, and felt the warm sunshine on her face. It was a glorious feeling; she was happy. Foals had been born. Bucky was getting better. She had suffered a troubled sleep after the events of the day before, but felt much better about everything now. 

“Minion… do you remember when you assisted me when I grafted my artificial talons onto my front leg?” Bucky asked of his apprentice. He kept his eyes shut and tried to ignore the feeling of his skin, which felt as though it was being seared.

“Yes, yes I do remember that,” Sunset replied. 

“You may begin diaper duty now.” Bucky let out a wheezing cackle that turned into a rasping cough. 

“How… how did you even remember that?” Sunset asked. She shook her head as she tried to recall what she had even said to earn diaper duty. She felt Bucky’s talons close around her leg and she looked down. Bucky’s touch reminded her of Bartleby’s. Sweet little Bartleby, who was kind, attentive, and kept her entire life on track. Bartleby, who kept her happy. Bartleby, who brushed her mane, her tail, and her pelt. Bartleby, who had once again rode Trixie into battle when the farm had been attacked. 

“I’m not a smart pony,” Bucky replied. He coughed and then sucked in a deep breath. “But I have a decent memory… I kinda wish that I could forget stuff. It’d make a lot of things in life a lot easier. Like waking up on that altar next to you.” 

“Master… Bucky… I wish I knew how to help you.” Sunset eased herself down and lied down in the grass beside Bucky. She glanced up at Bittersweet, smiled at the donkey, and then prodded Bucky on the neck. “That was a bad moment… but there have been good moments for us.” 

“I remember you almost being killed… your horn was—” Bucky let out a pained, raspy gasp. “You’ve been in so much danger because of me. I’m so sorry. Everypony is in danger because of me. Sometimes, I think it would have been better if I had died at some point. There were so many times that I was close to it. I feel bad for even thinking about it. I want to live… I want to be with my family. I want to be with you. But I don’t know if I can live with myself with those I love getting into danger because of their connection to me.” 

“Twilight Sparkle feels the same way that you do. Her friends have been placed into extraordinary danger because of her. She feels guilty sometimes. You should talk with her.” Sunset Shimmer thought of happier times with Bucky. The trips. The long nights of study. Her continuing magical education. She was becoming a fearsome transmuter and a powerful enchanter in her own right. She watched as a bumblebee went about its errands, collecting pollen from a patch of clover. “Bucky, I’ve grown as a pony since becoming your student. I’ve learned amazing magic. You shoved me, kicking and screaming I might add, into the light. I’m a paladin now. I have Celestia’s trust. I’ve earned my redemption. I no longer fear my own shadow and the things I’ve done in the past. There is a young colt that Princess Celestia wants me to start spending time with. He’s a student in her school. He beats up bullies and he spends a lot of time being angry at how unfair the world is. She thinks that he might make for a good paladin.” 

Leaning her head over, Sunset nosed Bucky’s neck, and as she did so, she noticed all of the new silver hairs in his mane. He was almost at the point of being salt and pepper now. Not only did Bucky look frail and skinny, but something about him seemed older now. Seeing it made Sunset feel sad, and her nose lingered against Bucky’s neck for a long time. 

“I’m never going to be able to fill your shoes,” Sunset said to Bucky, speaking into his ear. “But I promise to try. I’ll do everything I can. I’ll look after your students, I give you my word. I’m learning how to use the shadow web so I can see into dreams. I’m trying to be a mentor. I know that you need somepony that you can trust to look after all of this when you are gone. I hope that I can be that pony.” 

“Sunset, there is one final thing that I must ask you to do.” 

“Anything, Bucky, just ask.” 

“Dizzy and little Barley are going to need a good teacher. I’m not going to be around long enough to watch them grow up and see their magical skills mature. Lyra will do a good job of teaching them what she knows, and what she knows is considerable, but I need… I need for you to do what I can’t.” 

“Yes, Master, I will do as you ask.” Sunset felt a catch in her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut as the hot sting of tears overtook her. 

“I could not ask for a finer Minion…” 



 

Far away, on the other side of Ponyville, a tall white figure stood at the door of a humble cottage and knocked. After a moment, the door opened, and a sunny yellow no-longer-a-pegasus greeted the white figure with a fierce hug around her neck. The tall white figure was then yanked inside and the door to the cottage slammed shut. 

Inside the cottage, Princess Celestia looked down on the floor at two chubby foals laying together on a quilt. She immediately dropped down, forgetting her princessly poise, and began to make silly faces at the two foals. 

Lunacy, grumpy, rolled over and ignored the white alicorn while hugging her own fluffy blue tail, but Tranquility was enchanted by Celestia’s silly faces. She batted at Celestia with her paw as her lion’s tail twitched. 

“Wait, Tranquility, wasn’t your paw on your right leg the last I saw you?” Celestia pressed her nose into the foal and heard a giggle. “Are you already playing tricks on ponies?”

“Oh, it moves,” Fluttershy said to Celestia as she shrugged. “Sometimes it shows up on her hind legs. I’ve learned to stop worrying about it.” 

“Lunacy, you get over here.” Celestia pulled the dark blue earth pony closer and gave her a kiss on her cheek. Celestia’s ears perked when Lunacy snorted and then the foal started kicking while sucking wind while threatening to cry. “Oh… somepony is a cranky-puss!” 

“She’s adorable. I love her to pieces,” Discord said to Celestia as he stood nearby. 

Celestia lifted her head and looked at Discord, who was looking rather proud at the moment as he looked down upon his offspring. She thought about everything that had taken place, and she felt a sincere feeling of appreciation for the draconequus. “Discord, I wanted to tell you thank you.” 

“For what?” Discord squinted one eye and looked at the white alicorn sprawled on the floor. “What did I do?” 

Clearing her throat, Celestia smiled. “Fluttershy once said that I have others who can help me now. Sunset Shimmer used that spell that you helped me and my sisters create. It worked as planned. I could not have done it without you. You helped two ponies get a second chance and start over. Your magic did some real good in the world. You helped me save two ponies from a terrible fate, and once more, you have my thanks.” 

“Well…” Discord squirmed, his tail lashing from side to side, and he glanced at Fluttershy. “I have an interest in saving this world. I have two little foals now. I assure you, I did what I did purely for selfish reasons.” Discord tilted his head back and snorted as he folded his forelegs over his chest. His long ears waggled when he heard Fluttershy tittering. 

“Are you heading over to the farmhouse?” Fluttershy asked. 

“Yes, I had planned on it,” Celestia replied. 

“I’ll come with you.” Fluttershy glanced at Discord and knew that her mate would follow along. “I was supposed to give Bucky a lesson in meditation today. I wonder how his new foals are… I’m dying to see them.” 

“I felt a major shift in reality last night.” Discord, now looking quite serious, looked Celestia in her eye. “Something happened. Something big. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” 

The white alicorn blinked. “Clotho is there with Bucky now. She kept her end of the bargain. Berry Punch lived to see the dawn—” 

“I knew it!” Discord’s body rose up into the air and he fell into a relaxed hover. “For a time there, I had this feeling that something really bad was going to happen and that the whole world was about to be destroyed. Made the backside of my eyeballs itch. Sort of like when Bucky took that little trip down to Pinto Creek to become the Harbinger of Doom.” 

“He’s not allowed to become the Harbinger of Doom. That is why I am teaching him how to meditate, so he will be calm. He can be the harbinger of something else, like the Harbinger of Really Bad Hangovers… or something.” Flustered, Fluttershy flapped her mismatched wings. “I need to go and make sure he’s okay. Between Cadance and I, I’m positive that we can keep him from becoming the harbinger of something unpleasant.” 

“Fluttershy, I owe you a debt of thanks for everything you have done.” Celestia looked up at Fluttershy, giving her a grateful look. “You and Discord both. I do not know what I would do without the two of you.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 803
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trying to be as quiet as possible, Princess Celestia looked down and saw a miniature version of Bucky. She let out a teeny, tiny, almost imperceptible squeal, glanced at an almost comatose Berry Punch, and then looked back down at the pile of foals with wide eyes that were now shimmering with tears. There was a little grey colt with a black mane that made her heart flutter. He was looking up at her with one amber coloured eye and Celestia wasn’t certain where his other eye was looking. Ditzy was sleeping, her mouth open, and a copious puddle of drool formed on the sheet around her. 

And then, there was Brandywine. Celestia looked down at the foal. All of Berry Punch’s power grazing had produced what might be a record setting foal that weighed in at a mind blowing seventeen pounds and a few odd ounces. With the average being five point five pounds and the mere mention of squirting out a ten pound foal being enough to make most mares either faint or squeeze their hind legs together, Berry Punch had a chance to go down in the record books for the heaviest foal on record. 

“How are you feeling?” Celestia asked Derpy, her head down low and her muzzle inches away from the pile of foals. 

“The pressure is off of my pelvis. I’m feeling lots better already. I’ve already been up and walking around, even though it makes Violet upset. I feel good… real good,” Derpy replied. The grey mare moved around on the bed, her wings twitching, she glanced at the pile of foals and then at Celestia. Lowering her voice down to a conspiratorial whisper, Derpy gave Celestia a wink. “Don’t tell anypony, but I think little Barley Bitters is my favourite.” 

The white alicorn nodded. “Mine too. But Brandywine is certainly something.” 

“She ripped Berry Punch a new one,” Derpy remarked in a casual sort of way. The grey mare looked Celestia in the eye. “Brandywine weighs as much as triplets do. She’s a big filly and Doctor Gotland, he says that when she grows up, she’s going to rival Big Mac for size.” 

“Hmm, I have long given thought to creating a special school for tall fillies.” Celestia let out a low titter. “I cannot stay for long, but I wanted to stop by. I have much to do and there is a lot of work that needs to be done with Twilight for the coming spring ceremony.” Celestia paused and her nose crinkled. She looked down at the foals and saw Ditzy was waking up. “Somepony needs a fresh diaper.” 

“Oooh… I get to use my bell and summon Sunset Shimmer.” Derpy, smiling a smile that was filled with the pride of a new mother, turned and looked at a small silver bell that was sitting on the bedside table. “She has a week of diaper duty.” 

“What?” 



 

“Breathe deep and think calm, cleansing thoughts. I want you to think of warm, happy, fuzzy, wuzzy, snuggly-wuggly little foals, because those make you happy.” Fluttershy, sitting upon a soft cushion, drew in a deep breath to lead by example. She heard Bucky breathing beside her, a sound that worried her despite all of the reassurances that he was getting better. 

“You don’t want to be a terror of the night… and I don’t either. You don’t want to succumb to your urges… just like I don’t want to suck the juice from sweet… juicy… succulent apples.” Fluttershy fought back the powerful urge to lick her lips as she recalled her own brush with vampirism. Not quite the same as what Bucky was enduring, but the experience had changed her. Fluttershy heard the soft ruffle of feathers. 

“You be good. You promised.” Cadance, sitting on the floor beside her father, poked him in the stomach. She blinked a few times, remembering that she had also made a promise to be good and let her father meditate and that she was supposed to keep her eyes closed and be quiet. She settled down, closed her eyes, and ceased poking her father with her hoof. 

“It’s not healthy to hate others… we don’t want to feed on hate. We want to love and be kind to others because kindness is good. Remember, deep breaths.” Fluttershy could hear Bucky’s breathing make a faint, almost unnoticeable shift, and he sounded almost as though he was going to sleep. That was the sound that she had been waiting for. He was calm, he was focused, he was in a good and happy place. 

There was a deep, satisfied, contented sigh from Bucky. 

“We want don’t want to be naughty creatures of chaos. I might be a draconequus now and you are… you are… and you are, well, whatever it is that you are now, nopony really knows what you are anymore.” Fluttershy cleared her throat, a soft gentle sound. “But that doesn’t mean that we have to be naughty. We can can still be mischievous and good.” 

Cadance cracked open one eye. “Be good. Keep promise.” 



 

“This emergency meeting is called to order,” Dinky said to her siblings. “This is the day that we planned for. This is the day that we have long waited for. This is our time, this is our hour, this is our time to—” 

“Dinky, enough!” Piña looked at Dinky and gave her a grin. “We get it.” 

“Berry Punch is laid up and healing. Magpie is an awesome nanny but Bell Heather and Bandua keep her busy. Broom does a lot to help out, but she’s old and she deserves as much rest as she can get. She’s had it bad.” Dinky paused and pushed her cap back on her head. “So, it falls on us. We have experience. We know what we are doing.” 

Sentinel rolled his eyes but said nothing. Sisters were silly. 

“We need to help out as much as we can. We need to spend lots of time with Harper and Sukari… we don’t want them feeling jealous or left out. We need to help with Bandua, Bell Heather, Brandywine, Ditzy, Barley, and Dizzy—” Dinky sucked in a deep breath after saying all of the names. 

“I think that we should get Boadicea to join us,” Piña said. 

Dinky, looking hesitant about Piña’s suggestion, looked over at the pink filly. “Oh, I dunno, if you bring up her whole… nesting thing… she gets… um—” 

“Cranky?” Sentinel finished. “She wants to be a tough somebirdy. She doesn’t like appearing soft because she’s afraid it will hurt her image as a hunter.” 

“But Magpie is a hunter griffon!” Piña pointed out with a wave of her hoof. 

“Magpie is also mature, grown up, and okay with her self image,” Sentinel replied. 

“Then we need to exploit Bodi’s need to appear tough.” Piña rubbed her chin with her hoof, looking thoughtful. “We need to manipulate her into giving into her budding need to nest and nurture without making her appear to be soft or weak. Sentinel?” 

“I’m okay with ruthlessly exploiting her and outright manipulation.” Sentinel shrugged with his wings. “I mean, we’re doing this for her own good, right?” 

“Right.” Piña gave an enthusiastic nod. “I mean, it’s not like we’re doing this for selfish reasons or for personal gain. We’re helping others. And Bodi will learn to be a better big sister, which helps Brennus.” 

Sentinel nodded. 

“We can put Boadicea on nursery guard duty… Sentinel, if you give her a command, she’ll do anything that you tell her… just try to sound all noble and stuff,” Dinky suggested. 

“I think that will work.” Piña’s head bobbed as she spoke. “Now, we just need to work out how we’ll bring food back to Berry Punch and feed her. I think one of the best ways we can take care of our new brothers and sisters is to make sure that their mama is looked after. Brandywine ripped poor Berry Punch a new one.” 

Dinky cringed at Piña’s words, let out a squeal, and then squeezed her eyes shut. 



 

Lugus, uncertain of how to proceed, took a deep breath and looked down at Boadicea, who did not look back at him. Her eyes dropped down to the floor and Lugus felt a heaviness in his heart. He looked away from her, looking around the attic, which everypony and everybirdy called ‘the airie.’ 

There were fresh timbers were the roof had been replaced. Lugus closed his eyes for a moment and tried not to think about the fire and the smoke. He sat down and his tail lay limp upon the well polished wooden plank flooring. 

“Boadicea…” 

The smaller griffoness cringed and her feathers fluffed out as she assumed a submissive posture. For a moment, she thought about rolling belly up and showing throat. Her claws tapped on the floor, but not enough to leave scratches, which would only get her in more trouble, the last thing she needed right now.

“Boadicea, you’ve become very dear to me. It’s made it difficult for me to be objective,” Lugus said in a low voice. He was unaware that Yew Wood, who appeared to be napping on the bed, had cracked open her one remaining eye. “You are a deadly and capable fighter. When I tried to send you to safety, it was not to insult you or to diminish your skill.” The big griffon struggled, searching for the right words to say. His ability to speak had grown by leaps and bounds, he had once been a griffon of few words, but he had no idea of what to say next or how to fix this. 

He saw Boadicea look at him, finally meeting his gaze and looking him in the eye. Her eyes were black and shiny, Lugus had never seen eyes quite like hers. Many corvids had dark eyes, but Boadicea’s were black. It was hard to even see her pupils in the dark voids in the center of her eyes. Her black feathers were distinctive, shiny on one side, and matte black on the other. She tilted her head to one side, looking up at him, and Lugus felt himself disarmed. He wanted to crush her in a tight hug and never, ever let her go, but such a thing would be awkward. 

Instead, he reached out with his talons, angling the sharp claws away, and stroked her throat with his knuckles. It was a sign of trust among griffons, to touch such a vulnerable area with something as dangerous as one’s talons. He had done it with Bucky, a silent way of saying that he loved him without all of the embarrassing and awkward stuff that would happen from saying it. He heard a soft peep from Boadicea as he touched her throat, and then, with trembling talons, Boadicea returned the gesture. Lugus could feel her knuckles trailing over his neck. 

Instead of being happy, Lugus felt shame. He had once hurt her, smashing her head down into the floor and making her bleed. He had diminished her, showing off his strength, while making her feel so weak and powerless. It was not something he was proud of. 

“I am very proud of you and what you did. It took bravery to defy me and it took great courage to face the many enemies we had attacking us. You put yourself at risk to fight alongside Sentinel. I should have commended you, I should have praised you. Instead, I have been prideful and I chastised you.” When the last word left his beak, the big griffon slumped. “When I saw you in danger, I almost lost my nerve… not just you… but Ripple as well. She is my squire, she is expected to fight by my side, but at that moment, all I could think about was keeping you safe… keeping all of you safe. I couldn’t think clearly and it affected my ability to fight.” 

Head tilting in the other direction, and her crest rising, Boadicea let out a soft peep. 

“I have spent most of my life thinking only of myself. I am a warrior griffon. I fight. It is what I do. It is why I exist. When all of you were in danger… when I could not throw myself into the fight and give myself over to combat, I became very angry. I felt as though I had failed. And I think I might have taken it out on you.” 

The pegasus on the bed, who appeared to be napping, her barrel expanded for a moment and she gave a silent shudder, almost as if she was holding back her emotions. Her eye, which had been open, now shut.

Lugus, a creature of swift action, snatched Boadicea and crushed her to him, causing the griffoness cub to let out an alarmed squawk. He squeezed as hard as he dared, trying to tell Boadicea that he loved her with action. He felt her squirming, he thought she was trying to get free, but then he felt two legs wrap around his neck. 

Peekaboo, who appeared in the doorway, saw her daddy and her sister hugging. Feeling left out, Peekaboo ran forwards, crouched, and launched herself. Wings spread, the little pegasus yearling slammed into Lugus and Boadicea. 

“Hugs… I like hugs. More hugs!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 804
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The hidden room within the library was quiet. Twilight Sparkle, who looked tired, glanced at her guest, blinked, looked away, and then began to rub her weary eyes. Her stomach was bothering her, she was hungry, she was cranky, and she was in no mood to talk. Yet talk she must. 

“I think it was a mistake to come here… you need rest,” Celestia said in a low voice to her former student. “Twilight, a mother needs rest.” 

“And a country needs ruling,” Twilight snapped, feeling irritated that yet another pony had brought up her pregnancy to try and coerce her into doing something. “The spring session is coming up for the Stable of Representatives. I’m going to be officially recognised as part of the new Triarchy. I have the Aurora Guard to look after. The spring ceremony is coming up. And there is the matter of that spell from the book given to me by the Observers.” 

“What do you think will happen when you cast it?” Celestia raised her eyebrow, feeling curious about the spell. The spell itself was beyond her own comprehension—Celestia’s student had surpassed her, which made Celestia feel proud. 

Twilight rubbed her nasal bridge and one ear twitched with each stroke of her fetlock over her nose. “The spell is an advanced harmonics spell. It’s supposed to purge an area of negative emotion. Over time, negative emotions and feelings can leave behind traces of themselves, making an area worse and worse… or in our case, Canterlot.” Twilight blinked her dry, irritated eyes. “Taking Bucky to Canterlot for medical treatment was an eye opener.” 

“Indeed.” Celestia shook her head. Upon returning to Canterlot after the battle of Pinto Creek, the dreadful, baleful red glow had returned to Bucky’s grey eye and he had been overcome with a terrible bloodlust. Just being within the city had made him terribly ill and had almost killed him. Once again, Celestia had been thankful for Cadance.

“The very rock that Canterlot is built upon is tainted with about a thousand years of hate. The sickness that the nobles had… it poisoned the land. It has an effect upon everypony that lives there, it finds a way in, gets inside your head, and does something to your thinking.” Twilight Sparkle leaned back in her seat and folded her front legs over her barrel. “I suspect that it is the cause of so much magical neurosis. Now that I have spells to sense it, I’ve been studying it. I still don’t know what to think.” 

“And you plan to do this before the spring session?” Celestia asked. 

“Well… look what keeps happening with our Stable of Representative sessions,” Twilight replied. She freed one foreleg, reached down, and rubbed her stomach. “I suspect that whatever it is that has poisoned Canterlot is trying to worm its way into our stable reps. Canterlot is absolutely toxic with negative emotion. It’s… going to destroy our budding democratic processes.” 

The white alicorn nodded. “Do you have any idea what this might do to Bucky?” 

“I have no idea.” Twilight closed her eyes and went limp in her chair. “If I can purge Canterlot, there will be a lot less hate in the world. Once I see what the spell does to Canterlot, I’m taking my friends and we’re going to Fillydelphia. That city still has a sickness.” 

“I concur… purging Fillydelphia would be prudent.” Celestia, thinking about what Twilight had just said, focused on Twilight’s face and wished her student would open her eyes. “Friends? Making this a group effort?” 

Eyes opening only half way, Twilight nodded. “Each of them have been touched by advanced harmonic magics, not to be confused with harmony magic. They’re all bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I’ve been learning about them. They exist on many worlds, many wheres and whens.” Twilight thought of the Element of Obedience from the mirror travelers and shuddered. “Those who have been bearers of the Elements of Harmony retain a connection to the elements… I can’t actually cast any of those spells in that book by myself. I need my friends. It’s complicated.” 

“I see.” Celestia wondered about her own connection to the Elements of Harmony. Twilight had grown, become powerful, and had exceeded every expectation that Celestia had for her. Twilight was now delving into a whole new school of magic, Twilight was exploring uncharted territory. And Celestia was proud. Twilight deserved to be the third ruling head in the newly established Triarchy. A tiebreaker for those times when Luna was just being unreasonable. 

Not that Celestia would ever be unreasonable. 

“While I have you here, now that I am one of the ponies in charge, there is a list of things I want to bring up and discuss with you,” Twilight said to Celestia in a soft, but commanding voice. “Changes need to be made and this is going to be a difficult discussion… but I suppose that is the reason why you came…” 



 

Apple Bloom, enjoying the pleasant spring sunshine, looked over at her friends and thought about the long winter. She thought of the rats, shuddered, and then thought of better times. Happier times. She thought of her coronation gala. She thought of dancing. And then, without meaning to, she thought of Granny Smith. The filly’s smile faded for a moment, becoming a frown, but then she shook her head and her smile returned, even though it was a bit sad. The spring ceremony was coming soon, and with it, the announcement of the Maiden of Spring. Dinky seemed okay with it, understanding the necessity of it, and Apple Bloom was looking forward to the day. 

It was spring now. They were all another year older. But out of all of them, Scootaloo showed it the most. Pegasi seemed to mature both early and rapidly. The orange pegasus filly had Sweetie Belle pinned in the grass and was making the unicorn filly beg to be released. Sweetie Belle was blowing raspberries of defiance while struggling to fight back. 

Not far away, Babs was off reading a book on astronomy. Apple Bloom, proud for Babs, was glad that Babs was getting a chance to go to Canterlot over the summer and study astronomy with Princess Luna. 

Apple Bloom was distracted by Rumble clearing his throat. She turned to look at the silvery grey pegasus. He was smiling… he looked nervous… and he was blushing. He was clearly up to no good. Apple Bloom wondered what he was up to. 

She watched him squirm, his face turning darker and darker, and then, he grinned. It was that confident and cocky grin that he always had. His composure returned. He waggled his ears and Apple Bloom heard him say, “Apple Bloom…” He seemed as though he was going to say more, but no more words came out. Apple Bloom saw his foreleg lift and after a second, she felt a soft touch on her cheek. 

Then, without warning, Rumble ran away. Apple Bloom, stunned, realised what was going on. Her body was frozen. She wanted to run, she wanted to give chase, but all that seemed to be happening was that she had been set on fire. She felt a burning blush that started in her dock, shot up her spine, through her neck, and then set her face ablaze. 

“Run after him, you big dummy!” Scootaloo shouted. “We’ll help!” 

That seemed to break the spell. Apple Bloom found that her legs moved once more. She was on her hooves in an instant, and she took off after Rumble. As she ran, Sweetie Belle fell into place on her left, and Scootaloo ran beside her on the right. 

This felt good. Something about this felt right. Apple Bloom poured on speed and the springtime sun shone on her back. Her heart thudded in her chest and her lungs stung from the need for more wind to fill them. Winter was over. Spring was here. It was a time for hope, of new beginnings, it was time to begin anew. It was a time to chase. 

It was time to run Rumble down, to laugh, and be happy. At some point, the chase would shift and it would be time for Rumble to run after her. Life was like that, sudden changes and dramatic turnabouts. Apple Bloom’s hooves tore divots in the orchard grass as she ran beneath the apple blossoms. Beside her, Scootaloo was laughing. Sweetie Belle’s excited squeals rang in Apple Bloom’s ears. 

Apple Bloom knew there were troubles to be worried about, but those were future troubles. They could be worried about later. Right now, she was too happy to give them much thought. She could be Princess Apple Bloom later; right now she was just a filly madly in love and chasing after the object of her affections. 



 

Applejack, who stood watching her younger sister go tearing off around the orchard after Rumble, heaved a sigh. Her back ached and she was getting fatter. It would have been nice to have had a spring foal like the others, but Applejack wasn’t due until the end of summer. Cheerilee was going to pop any day now—somehow the rotund and very pregnant mare kept up with her duties as a teacher and as Provost of Bucky’s school. 

Heaving a sigh, Applejack realised that she probably wouldn’t be able to do much applebucking. She had school to worry about herself. Twilight wanted Applejack to teach at Grove University. Applejack didn’t know if she was up for being a teacher, but she was free to teach her own way. Which meant lots of hooves on learning. It also meant that Applejack would have a lot of ‘students’ to help her here at Sweet Apple Acres. 

Almost daydreaming, her mind wandered to Diamond Tiara, who would be coming to live with them soon. The pink filly was excited about the whole thing and was looking forward to ‘getting an education as a proper earth pony.’ 

The chase shifted abruptly. It was Rumble doing the chasing now, and Scootaloo ran at his side, hot on the heels of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Applejack, feeling a little sad and not knowing why, turned to look at Babs, who was sitting all alone. It was too nice a day to be sitting all alone. 



 

“Babs, why are you sitting out here all alone?” Applejack asked. 

The filly looked up from her book and blinked a few times. “I’m doing my homework. It has to be perfect. I’ve made a reputation for myself.” The dark orange filly stuffed her bookmark into her book to mark her page and then closed her schoolbook. 

Smiling, the pregnant mare eased herself down and sat beside Babs. The filly had an odd drawl mixed with a Manehattan accent. Applejack watched as a buzzy buzzy bumblebee went droning past, off to do his bee errands. 

“Maybe you could be doing yer homework with that nice colt you like,” Applejack suggested, turning to look at Babs with one raised eyebrow. She saw that she had Babs’ attention. The filly was staring at her now, and not in the way that Applejack had hoped for. 

“Are you going to start something? Are you going to freak out again?” Babs asked. 

“No.” Applejack let out a huff and a puff as she tried to find some way to sit that didn’t make her back hurt. “I’ve… made peace with it. Larch is a good colt.” Applejack paused for a moment and then grinned. “But that Piña, I tell you what, I might have to put my hoof down because of her.” 

“You keep going back and forth… you tell me it’s okay that I’m with Larch, but after I spend time with him and come home, you’re all freaked out and you ask so many questions. I don’t know how to deal with it,” Babs said to Applejack as the pair watched the chase happening in the orchard. 

“I’m still messed up on the inside because of what happened to you, that’s all. You got hurt. You lost yer sister.” Applejack took a deep breath. “The idea of losing you or something happening to you scares me something awful. Babs… you and Bloom both… yer like my own fillies. I feel like yer mama, do ya understand?” 

Babs heard Applejack’s words echo inside of her head. It was time to put Applejack’s words to the test. It was time for a mother-daughter moment. “I kissed him… and Piña too.” 

“I’ve seen,” Applejack replied as she let out a heavy sigh. 

“No, not those little smoochies like you saw at the coronation gala.” Babs smiled and her eyes became like mischievous glittering emeralds. She could see Applejack’s breathing increase. “I was kissing Piña actually... and she surprised me by opening her mouth and touching the tip of her tongue to mine. It was pretty gross.” Babs looked up at Applejack and looked the earth pony mare in the eye. “So I had to give Larch a little kiss like that. Fair is fair. I didn’t want him feeling left out.” 

Squirming, Applejack nodded. “Fair is fair. If’n yer all dedicated to being with one another, it’s important to keep it fair.” Applejack reached up and tilted back her hat. “I still don’t see the appeal of herds, but it makes ponies happy and ponies have a right to be happy.” 

“I think we’re happy,” Babs said as she watched Sweetie Belle chase after the other three. “It’s just the three of us. We get to have fun together. We get to play games and be silly. We’ll sort out whatever is going to happen when we get older later.” 

Leaning over, Applejack placed a foreleg around Babs’ withers. “I love Silver… I don’t think I could share him. I done reckon I’d kick whomever touched him. I has me a jealous bone, or so I figure. But I understand the reasoning at work… I suppose. Had Ma and Pa been part of a herd, I might still have parents. I might have been sad to lose them the way I did, but I might have still been happy with my other parents, had I had them. It might have been easier to keep the farm and keep up with all the hard work. Big Mac and I were foals when we had to take over and keep everything running. It was awful for us. I suppose my feelings are complicated. I’m okay with you and Apple Bloom doing yer own thing though. Even if sometimes it seems like I ain’t.” 

Riotous laughter could be heard from the orchard. Babs watched as the chase ended and became a mudslinging match as the whole group began to wrestle in a mud puddle. Poor Sweetie was getting the worst of it, her white pelt was splattered with black, goopy, runny, sticky mud. 

“Moments like this is when I miss Granny Smith. Somepony has gotta yell about getting out of the mud and when to stop wallerin’ like a hog… but she ain’t here. She’s gone off to her hard earned rest. So I suppose it falls on my shoulders to be the one with common sense and tell them to stop slingin’ mud every whichaways.” Applejack heaved a sigh. “I ain’t in no mood. Let ‘em go a wallerin’.” 

“I think… I think I’ll pack up my homework for now and go for a walk. Would you like to join me?” Babs asked. 

“Sure… maybe it’ll help me get this cramp out of my back,” Applejack replied. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 805
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Berry Punch awoke to see a blue face looking down at her. She blinked, her eyes bleary from sleep and pain. She was sore, so very sore. Brandywine had ripped her a new one. She looked up at Princess Luna and yawned. 

“Hello Berry Punch. I have come to see my godfoals and to check up on you,” Luna said in a soft, but loud whisper. Luna levitated a syringe up where Berry Punch could see. “I also have come with this. I am sorry, there is a shortage. The synthetic compound only helps with superficial wounds. Tourmaline is having a bit of a problem at the moment making new healing compounds.” 

“What’s wrong?” Berry asked, feeling worried. 

Luna gave the earth pony a reassuring smile. “Tourmaline is growing. With her growth, her chitinous plates became too small for her body. She is moulting. Right now, she is very soft and vulnerable. I had no idea that changelings moulted. We keep learning something new from her almost every day.” Luna lifted up a glass of water from the bedside table and held it up to Berry’s lips. She watched as the earth pony mare pulled the straw into her mouth with her tongue. Berry’s cheeks went tight as she sucked in some much needed water, and Luna felt happy knowing that she had helped. 

“So, um, where does that syringe have to be injected?” Derpy asked as she peered at it with her good eye. “That’s a big needle.” 

Luna grinned. “It has to be injected into affected area, of course.” 

Hearing Luna’s words, Berry Punch immediately spit out her water into Luna’s face and began to cough. 



 

“Thank you,” Derpy said to Bucky as she nestled a little closer to him in bed. Her voice was low and soft. The grey mare closed her eyes and rested her head on Bucky’s right foreleg, ignoring how thin and bony it was. 

“For what?” Bucky asked. 

“For everything,” Derpy replied. 

“I don’t understand.” Bucky lifted his head, moved it over to his right, and set it down upon Derpy’s head, his chin resting upon her ear. 

“For everything,” Derpy repeated. “For making me happy. For looking after my foals. For giving me more foals to love. For being good to me. For being good to us.” The grey pegasus heard Berry Punch’s soft breathing. “That injection didn’t heal everything.” 

Bucky’s ear twitched as he listened. “No, no it didn’t. But it gave her a good head start. She’ll recover and do the rest of the healing herself.” 

“Why did you stop Sunset from healing Berry?” Derpy asked. 

Letting out a long, slow sigh, Bucky took a moment to think about his answer. “I don’t think Sunset Shimmer is ready to experience the consequences of shoving a seventeen pound foal out her backside.”

“Bucky, she has a gift… she’s been blessed with healing. Sooner or later, she is going to get hurt. You can’t stop her from getting hurt and you can’t keep her from using her gift.” Derpy, feeling the weight of Bucky’s head resting on her own, let out a sigh. 

“Yes I can,” Bucky muttered. 

“Bucky, she’ll hate you if you hold her back.” Derpy pulled her head free, lifted her head, turned, and looked Bucky in the eye. “She loves you. You love her. Don’t make her hate you.” 

“She’ll just have to scratch her mad spot and get over it.” Bucky turned away from Derpy. His ears perked at the sounds of soft laughter in the nursery. This was not something he wanted to talk about and wished the conversation would end. 

“Stay here with Berry.” Derpy leaned over and gave Bucky a kiss on the corner of his mouth. “I’m going to see if any little foals need a feeding. I think it’s getting to be about that time.” 



 

“Bucky, Bucky, wake up,” Luna said. She felt terrible about waking Bucky up, but it needed to be done. She heard the sounds of other ponies waking in the bed and then Bucky let out a snort. Luna lifted him up in her telekinesis. “Bucky, something has happened. I am not certain of what though. My sister is coming.” 

“Huh?” Bucky opened his eyes and could see Luna’s snoot inches from his own. He kicked at the air, wanting to be back in bed with his wives. Back where it was warm. 

“Bucky, how much gin did you drink to put you to sleep?” Luna levitated Bucky away from her and fanned the air with her wing. “Your breath could strip paint. Mine eyes are watering.” 

“I drank enough,” Bucky grumbled in reply. 

Luna heard him grumble something else, but she couldn’t quite make it out. It sounded like Bucky had said, “Several quarts.” Luna shook her head. She pushed him a little farther away as her nostrils flared. 

“What’s happening?” Bucky asked. He coughed, his cough sounding a little drier, and then he yawned, making a raspy whine. “I’ve retired. I’m done. Lemme alone. Put me back in my bed. Don’t make me breathe on you.” 

“Whatever you do, do not do that,” Luna said as she made her way down the hall. She heard Barley’s voice as he explained why she was stealing Bucky away. She felt bad for even doing this. Bucky needed his rest. He was sick in more ways than one. But Celestia had insisted. Luna huffed, feeling irritated with her sister, and then she focused on not breathing. 

Bucky reeked of gin. 



 

In the ground floor of Bucky’s tower, Luna paced, waiting for Celestia to arrive. She didn’t know what was taking her sister so long. She felt nervous, not knowing what was going on. She heard a thunderous belch, paused mid step, and looked at Bucky. What she saw made her frown. 

“Is that a jug of moonshine?” Luna asked. 

Slumped in a comfortable chair, Bucky lifted his head just enough to look at Luna. “No.” He belched again, squinted one eye, and looked at the alicorn standing nearby with as much contempt as he could muster. “It’s mead. I’ll get to the moonshine later.” 

“Why are you drinking?” Luna shook her head at Bucky and narrowed her eyes. 

“Because,” Bucky replied. “I’m awake.” He let out yet another belch and then lifted the jug to his lips. He took a long swallow, lowered his jug, burped, burped again, and then wiped his mouth with his foreleg. “Insurance. I’ll be doo thrunk to shave Equestria. Equestria can go shave itself. I’m done.” 

“Buckminster, sober yourself up at once, this instant,” Luna demanded. 

“No.” Bucky belched in defiance. “Make me.” 

“This passive aggressiveness does not become you.” Luna shook her head in disapproval. She watched as Bucky killed off the gallon jug of mead, guzzling it down. She could hear his stomach sloshing as he struggled to sit up in his chair. She saw his horn ignite and she let out a hopeful sigh. A little magic and Bucky would sober right up and be right as rain. 

When the bottle of dark brown rum materialised next to Bucky, Luna ground her teeth together in frustration. She watched as he set down the brown gallon crockery jug on the floor beside him and he took the bottle of rum in his talons. Bucky belched once more and this time, a rainbow of flames shot out of his mouth and nostrils. She could see the pained expression upon his face as smoke rose from his nose. 

Rolling her eyes, Luna let out a disgusted snort. 



 

Tense, nervous, Luna watched as her sister Celestia entered the tower. Twilight Sparkle was right beside Celestia, looking fearful and concerned. Luna’s ears perked when she heard Sunset Shimmer speaking soft words to Bucky, trying to convince him to sober up. Luna, unable to help herself, smiled just a little when Celestia came to a stop and sniffed. She watched as her sister turned to look at Bucky and then, Celestia looked more than a little angry. 

“Something terrible has happened,” Celestia said. She looked around the room, meeting every eye. She extended a wing and pointed at Twilight, who was carrying a wooden box. 

Twilight, looking disgusted, scared, and horrified, placed the wooden box down upon a table and backed away until her rump hit the wall, her eyes never leaving the box. 

Glancing at Bucky, Celestia continued: “Equestria has lost a major foe. Our enemy has struck down one of our fellow immortals to send a message to us. She was horrible, but she didn’t deserve this…” Celestia’s words trailed off and she fell silent. 

“Box in the what?” Bucky, clutching an almost empty bottle in his telekinesis, fell out of his chair, wobbled on his legs, and then stumbled over to the table. “What’sh in the box… not ish birfday.”

“Bucky, will you please sober up?” Celestia asked in a patient voice. 

Luna, unable to tear her eyes away, watched as Bucky staggered to the box. She looked at Celestia, wondering if Celestia was going to stop him, but then realised that Celestia wanted Bucky to see whatever was in the box. Perhaps the contents of said box would sober Bucky up. Luna looked into Twilight’s haunted eyes. She had seen whatever was in there. 

“This was sent by a courier to Twilight Sparkle, along with a note stating that this could be her,” Celestia said in a low voice as Bucky clutched at the box with his talons. 

“Nopony… hursh… Twi—” Bucky let out a thunderous belch that made everything in the room rattle, and caused the two sisters to both glare at him in anger, something that escaped his attention. “—light. Shomepony hursh Twilight, I do bad thingsh. Very bad thingsh. Break promish to Cady. Get Shadowboltsh and make mush violensh.” 

Fumbling, Bucky had to struggle to get the latch on the box to open and then he lifted the lid. The bottle in his telekinesis crashed to the floor and shattered to pieces. Bucky stared for a few moments, his eyes going wide, then going narrow, then going wide again. 

“Osh shite.” 

From where Luna was standing, she could see the contents of the box. The severed head of Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, stared up with sightless eyes. Her horn had been sawn off to make her head fit in the wooden box. 

Slumping against the table, Bucky began laughing. He wheezed and cackled, his raspy breathing popping and crackling in his throat. He laughed until he coughed, but kept laughing. He clung to the edge of the table to keep from falling over. 

“Buckminster Bitters!” Celestia snapped. “She was our enemy, she did bad things, but we should treat her remains with respect!” Celestia stomped a hoof. “This is very, very bad… one of the major immortals of this world has been killed!” 

Thinking fast, Luna pulled away the shards of glass all over the floor as Bucky fell over, clutching his sides, coughing, and laughing. His hind legs kicked and scissored in the air as more and more maniacal laughter escaped from his thin lips. 

“Master, stop, this isn’t funny!” Sunset Shimmer shouted. 

“He’s drunk… I hope that he wouldn’t be like this sober.” Twilight shook her head, shuddered, and then closed the box with her telekinesis. 

“Shomepony shut that dumb coont righth up,” Bucky wheezed as he rolled on the floor. He rubbed his eyes, coughed, kept coughing, then collapsed into a fit of wheezing and hacking that was so bad that he pissed himself. He pounded his talons on the floor, trying to breathe, and just as he started to get himself back under control, a little cackle slipped out and threatened to cause a coughing fit that might just finish him off. He clutched his ribs, panting and wheezing. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing. 

“Are you done?” Celestia asked in a very short tempered voice. 

Bucky coughed up an enormous, horrid chunk of lung butter and spat it out on the floor. Wobbling, he rose to his hooves He stood there for a moment, unsure of his balance, glanced at the box, turned his head, scowled at Celestia, and then gave himself a shake, sending urine and spilled rum from the floor that had soaked into his pelt all over, causing all mares present to let out cries of disgust. 

Letting out a drunken cackle, Bucky staggered for the door that led outside, his movements jerky and slow. He almost fell over, laughed a bit, and then wobbled in the general direction of the door. 

“Shcuse me… but I hash to go and shee an old friend,” Bucky said as he teetered forwards. 

“Where is he going?” Sunset asked. 

“I do not know. Probably to find another bottle. Let him go,” Celestia replied. 

“We still have much to discuss. At least now we can do so without disruptions,” Luna said. 



 

Outside of his tower, Bucky gave himself a shake, farted once, giggled, and then his horn blazed with a brilliant blue-green glow. He coughed up more lung butter, spat it out, and then gave himself another shake. 

With a blinding flash, the unicorn turned into a axe beaked griffon, spread his wings, and took off, heading south southwest. It was a little past midnight, and Bucky had a long ways to go. Seeing Chrysalis’ severed head had forced him to throw aside his funk and his depression. 

It was time to go and have a talk with an old friend about becoming allies. 
	
	
> Chapter 806
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Badlands. Below Bucky, there were as many grains of sand as there were stars overhead. He moved along as a formless, shapeless shadow adrift in the wind. He had started his journey as an axe beaked griffon, grew weary of that form, had slipped into others, and then had given up on physical forms altogether. 

It felt as though some of his depressive funk had fallen away from him, and for this, Bucky was glad. He was in the right place, or so his senses told him, and he needed himself a physical form so he could announce himself to his guests. 

It was such a pleasant experience that Bucky almost felt alive again. The birth of his foals had helped his mood considerably, but this, this was like icing on the cake. Bucky was in the mood to have a few more foals. Maybe a few more thousand foals. Bucky’s form shifted into something physical and practical; he turned himself into a nondescript pegasus. 

Now drifting on the wind, he thought about his plan to father an army. There was a war that had to be won and Bucky was sick of others dying to make it happen. He needed a way to even the odds. He was willing to do what Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle were unwilling to do, and that was win at any cost. There were no consequences to hold Bucky back, not as short as his life was now. Somehow, this war had to end before he did. He needed a way to reach out and strike his enemy. 

Being the manifestation of war, Bucky had found a way. He could save others. He could save many. He would send his own foals off to war in the stead of others, saving countless lives. And all he would have to do is sacrifice his own offspring. 

He just needed a willing mother, and he knew where to find her. He needed to make the hard choices, he needed to make the impossible decisions and bear the consequences upon his own back so others wouldn’t have to. 

He was in the right place, all he had to do was wait. 



 

Being patient paid off. Bucky watched as a wing of pegasi joined him, flying in formation. He knew what they were and their illusion was incapable of fooling him. One of the pegasi shimmered, consumed in green flames, and became a small changeling drone. 

“Greetings, Lord of Winter, you are expected. Our Queen is prepared to meet with you. She has been looking forward to your arrival, though you did come sooner than expected,” the drone said in a somewhat chipper sounding monotone. “If you would just follow us, we will take you to her.” 

The wing of pegasi banked and began to descend down to the sandy floor of the badlands. Bucky followed, not at all worried about things like traps or betrayals. Chrysalis knew better and Bucky had something she wanted. Something very important. 

Her survival. With a laugh, Bucky looked forwards to seeing an old friend. 



 

Several dozen changelings of different shapes and sizes milled about on the ground. More were arriving, landing in organised wings. Bucky watched as a large group dropped down and landed on the edge of the gathering. He heard buzzing, a happy sound, and then he heard laughter. Familiar laugher. 

The crowd parted and Bucky saw a much taller figure approaching in the darkness that was illuminated by glowing green lights emitted from twisted, stubby horns. Bucky, now in his own body once more, grinned. He saw that Queen Chrysalis was doing the same. 

“It’s been a while. You look like shit, wolfchow.” 

Ah, there it was. The snide sarcasm and bitter wit. “How has life been? Hopefully no troubles worth losing your head over.” Bucky rose, his legs dissolving into shadow, and he hovered at eye level with Chrysalis. 

“I see you got my message,” Chrysalis said. “We’ll talk about that later, I suppose. I have a lot of interesting things I could tell you about that encounter. Plus, I know where there is a mirror traveler in hiding. He’s not too far away. You’ll like him, he’s a sick, twisted, depraved psychopath. With a bit of luck, he’ll be like you someday.” 

“Such flattery,” Bucky replied. He heard Chrysalis snort. 

“You’ve upgraded. It pains me to admit this, but I can’t read inside of your mind like before. What a pity, you had such lovely thoughts. You also have changeling magic it seems… Luna has been busy. Too bad she screwed you over, but we’ll get to that later as well.” 

Bucky looked into Chrysalis’ eyes. “We’ve exchanged pleasantries. If it is all the same, I would like to just get down to the issue at hoof. I suspect that you know why I am here, so let’s just deal with that, shall we?” 

Chrysalis gave a faint half-nod. “You’re here because you are a pragmatist and I have something you desire.” She cleared her throat. “And you have something that I want.” 

“Yes, about that… I will not cheat on my wives,” Bucky said in a low voice. “But I know there are other ways.”

“I don’t even need semen anymore. I was able to use Celestia’s genetic information to create the bug bombs that you saw in Las Pegasus. After capturing Cadance and Shining Armor and getting her eggs and his sperm, I had a couple of—” 

Chrysalis’ words died off as Bucky’s talons reached out of shadow and clasped around her throat. Her eyes bulged. The pressure was agonising. She saw dark magic flames wreathing Bucky’s horn and a terrible glow was in his left eye. Dreadful purple mist wafted up from his glowing crimson and green eye. She felt herself growing weaker. 

“You did what?” Bucky asked, his voice a snarl. 

Chrysalis gagged and held back her drones with a mental command. 

“Do not toy with a father’s emotions… if you have something that belongs to the treasure of my heart, you had better give it back… or I will end you,” Bucky said. 

Chrysalis, unable to reply with her throat being crushed, kicked and writhed as the terrible grip of Bucky’s talons grew worse. She was lifted up off the ground now and she suspected that what was about to happen next was going to suck. 

She was whipped around with terrible force and her body slammed into the sand with with a splat. Yep, this sucked she thought to herself as she was lifted again and then hurled downwards. She had messed up, made a mistake, and she had called down the whirlwind. It was time to ride out the storm. She would survive this, as she survived everything else. 

The black glow from Bucky’s horn surrounded Chrysalis’ body and he watched as she squirmed and tried to free herself. “I know how to kill you… I know how to put an end to your existence and unravel your life. It’s easy Chrysalis, because I’ll do what Celestia and Luna won’t.” 

Her whole body now consumed by black flames, Chrysalis let out a choked scream. 

“Let me explain something to you,” Bucky said, his voice taking an on eerie calm. “Let me explain how this is going to go down. I have one of your drones… and I’ve made him special. After a whole lot of dark, questionable magic, I’ve turned him into a soul trap. He’s not activated and he’s kept in stasis. I keep him in a little glass orb, tucked safely away.” 

Chrysalis, like most of Bucky’s enemies, began to feel fear. Real fear. Right now, she feared for her own existence. And she could feel Bucky drinking from her, gaining strength from her fear. Her chitinous plates crawled. It wasn’t pleasant at all being on the other end. 

“Once he’s activated, the next time you die, you get sucked into his body. Slurp! And after you are sucked into his body, my pretty little Sparkler turns you and that body into a nice statue. A real nice statue. After that, I drag you down to Tartarus and I find out what the going rate for a changeling queen is. I’m certain that somebody will want to buy you… you’ve made enemies.” 

Letting out a pained, frightened gurgle, Chrysalis blinked. Her eyes were playing tricks on her. Behind Bucky there was a pale white earth pony stallion wearing a black cloak. He had a manic, crazed grin on his face and his head was bobbing up and down with great enthusiasm. His eyes gleamed with a craziness matched only by Bucky. 

“Let me make this clear… you are my bitch. Do you understand?” Bucky asked. He relaxed his grip on Chrysalis’ throat. “Even if I don’t kill you, Celestia is making long term plans to undo you. Your days are numbered. You need to make some friends if you want to survive. You need to start earning some trust. And you need to give me back anything that belongs to Shining Armor or Cadance… or else I will become very, very angry. I will not be calm and gentle like I am being right now.” 

Bucky stared into Chrysalis’ eyes. “Do you want to survive?” 

Coughing, Chrysalis sucked in air after Bucky let go. Her legs buckled beneath her and she dropped down to the sand, all too aware of the fact that it looked as though she was kneeling before Bucky. It galled her. Behind Bucky, the pale stallion had vanished. Chrysalis was glad that the hallucination was gone. 

“You are such a bastard,” Chrysalis said, speaking through one of her drones. “I have what you want, but it isn’t as easy as giving it to you… there is something I need from you… your cold… it’s unique… it’s complicated.” Chrysalis sucked in a big, wheezing gasp. “I respected you… I could have just taken one of your hairs from you in Las Pegasus and I would have an army bred for war… I respected you.” Chrysalis’s head dropped to the ground and she coughed. 

“Why?” Bucky demanded. 

“You and I are not so different!” Chrysalis replied, speaking through one of her drones. “You have a crazy love… and you’ll do anything to keep those you love safe and secure. I’m no different. We’ll both do bad things, terrible things, we’ll do every dirty deed available because we’re pragmatists.” 

“And just who do you love, Chrysalis? What motivates you to do what you do?” Bucky lowered his head. The dark magic flames along his horn vanished. 

“ME!” one of Chrysalis’ drones yelled. “I love ME! And I will do anything to ensure my own survival. I’ve made it this far!” 

“You’ll not survive much longer. After the mirror travelers are dealt with, you’re next. Even if I don’t kill you, and you know I can, Celestia will undo you. She is making many long term plans. We’re studying how you make drones and we’re working on ways to undo the magic on your pseudo phylacteries. No more slavery.” 

Still struggling to breathe, Chrysalis felt Bucky’s words crushing down upon her very soul. She lay in a heap, not knowing what to say, not knowing what to feel, both hating Bucky for what he was but also loving him for being such a clever, horrible, awful bastard. 

“I have a right to exist,” Chrysalis said in a strangled whisper, speaking from her own lips. 

“So do others,” Bucky replied, shaking his head. “Your rights do not trump theirs.” 

“How do I save myself?” There was no point in beating around the bush any longer. Chrysalis got right down to the practical matter of survival. 

“You start by working with me. And I give you my word that for as long as I am alive, I will allow for your continued existence. I will not move against you and I will speak for you on your behalf. I will be… your ambassador, if you will. I will explain it to Celestia that you are trying to work with us. That you are helping us. I will plant the seeds of trust.” 

“And after you die?” Chrysalis blinked, trying to clear the stars out of her vision. 

“At that point, you had better be on good terms. I promise you, Celestia is the most forgiving pony I know… of all of us, she is the greatest of us. She will help you, if you let her. She might even help you find a way to allow your continued existence if you will just stop using drones as slaves and wiping them, stealing away their rights as individuals.” Bucky lifted up Chrysalis in his telekinesis and set her down upon her hooves. 

“Bucky, I can’t survive without my drones… you can’t just kill me,” Chrysalis said in a soft, worried voice. All of her cockiness was gone. She wobbled a bit as she looked Bucky in the eye. 

“Death happens.” Bucky shrugged. 

Feeling a cold chill, Chrysalis once more saw the pale white earth pony behind Bucky, staring at her, his pale pink albino eyes piercing into her soul. She blinked, and the earth pony’s image persisted. She blinked again, and he was gone. She had cheated death for so long. She was so close to actual immortality that it was frustrating. 

“So… what happens now? How can I help you?” Chrysalis asked. 

“I need an army. And I need it as soon as possible,” Bucky replied. A bitter grin spread over his muzzle. “Here is the hypocritical part… I need a drone army that is willing to take a one way trip.” 

“What are you planning?” the changeling queen asked, now curious. Bucky was her equal when it came to devious plots. “I mean, how can I help you specifically? What sort of drones do you need?” 

“Bug bombs. The big heavy armored drones. Fighters. Whatever it is that you can make from me. I need an army of thousands.” Bucky paused and licked his lips. He coughed, hacked up a wad of phlegm, and spat it out in the sand. “I’ve been planning to open up a portal to the mirror traveler’s home. We’re going to rescue some earth pony slaves. I want to leave behind a little present for the Night Stallion.” 

“Oh… oooooh... oh, that is beautiful,” Chrysalis said, appreciating the plan in a way that few others would. “You are a crafty, devious bastard… the drones I could make from you.” 

“Can we work together?” Bucky asked. He shook his head. “No, better question. Do you want to survive? I’m not leaving you with any choices.” 

“Oh, I think we could work together,” Chrysalis replied in a husky, raspy, hoarse voice. “But I have a few of my own conditions.” 

“You’re not in a place to be making demands.” Bucky’s grin vanished and his left eye narrowed. “But I am not an unreasonable pony. I will hear you out. Be mindful of what you ask.” His ears perked forwards. 

“First off, I need resources. How about you give me those earth ponies?” Chrysalis noted Bucky’s murderous glare and backed away. “Hear me out… please… no more strangling foreplay or being a tease, not without buying me a drink first.” 

“Fine, but if I don’t like what you have to say, you’ll be moving into a new body soon,” Bucky said in a sullen voice. 

Chrysalis cleared her aching throat. “I’ve been making changes already. Doing things differently. In the place I call home… I have a group of ponies living there. Refugees. We provide for them. We shelter them. We keep them safe. Call it an experiment. They live a peaceful, sheltered existence and we get their love. It’s why I am so strong right now. You give me those earth ponies you rescue, and I will rehabilitate them. I will see that they are cared for. I will have my drones look after their every need and see that they are well cared for.” She saw Bucky rubbing his ear with his talons, his face thoughtful. 

Hopeful that Bucky’s murderous impulses had been sated, Chrysalis continued with a great deal of caution. “I plan to make a hybrid… not quite a changeling, not quite a pony. The best of both. I’ve been planning this for a while. I want you to raise her. I want her to be raised with ponies. Should I fail somehow, or if something happens, the changelings that continue to survive beyond my end will need a new type of queen. A new leader.” 

“I’m listening.” Bucky’s eyebrow raised. 

“Not that I’m planning on failing… I just like having contingencies.” Chrysalis took a deep breath and steadied herself. The sight of the pale white earth pony had unnerved her and she could not say why. She looked up at the stars overhead, not wanting to meet Bucky’s piercing gaze. “Perhaps Cadance can show her a new way, a better way, and they can be friends together.” Chrysalis forced herself to look Bucky in the eye. “I don’t want to die. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I know that if the mirror travelers are successful, they’ll find a way to undo me. No more running, I suppose. I’ve been running all my life. Death scares me. It’s why I did what I did.” 

“It’s something else we have in common. We’re both running. We both know what it means to be chased. I can’t stop running either.” Bucky gestured at the world around him. “I don’t want for all of this to end.” 

“Bucky, I’m sorry,” Chrysalis said. 

“For what?” Bucky asked. 

“For what was done to you. You were given changeling magic… no doubt through Luna’s tampering, but it was corrupted… and that bothers me. Fear is not a delectable emotion and in the long run, it will make you sick. Trust me, I know from experience. My first few incarnations relied upon feeding upon the fear of others. It almost killed me.” 

Chrysalis could see that Bucky was staring at her with an odd, strange, almost bewildered expression upon his face. “It was very nearly my undoing. I had to completely undo my spell matrices and find another way. I focused upon love instead. It made me strong. It beat back death.” 

“Fascinating,” Bucky whispered. 

“You’re sick,” Chrysalis said. 

“So they tell me,” Bucky replied. 

“No, your lungs… you have a dreadful infection. Everypony probably thinks it is getting better, but it isn’t, trust me. It’s going to kill you. But I can fix it. Do you trust me?” 

“I don’t know that I should trust you.” Bucky peered into the changeling queen’s eyes. 

“Let me help you,” Chrysalis said. 

“Very well then.” Bucky dropped out of shadow and stood upon the sand. He knew he was taking a risk, a terrible risk, but trust had to be established sometime. He needed an army and Chrysalis needed a chance at having a future. 

Reaching out with her magic, Chrysalis lifted Bucky, being gentle, and held him up at eye level. She smiled, her green eyes glittering—then, with swift and sudden movement, she latched her muzzle on to Bucky, kissing him. 

Only it wasn’t much of a kiss. Strange goo flooded down Bucky’s throat, filling his lungs, and for a moment he thought he was going to drown. He kicked and struggled, trying to use magic, but nothing happened. 

“You were a fool to trust me,” Chrysalis said, speaking through one of her drones. “Stop fighting, let me fix you… stop struggling… I lied about your lungs killing you. You would have been fine, but this will clear out your infection and make you stronger. I am also changing you… making you more like us. Feeding on fear will ruin you. You deserve to know what feeding on love feels like. It will make you strong… it will give you the strength you need to protect my future… make no mistake, I am doing this for my own selfish preservation!” 

Bucky, his lungs filled with goo, kicked and thrashed in the air. He felt the strong need to breathe, but it was getting weaker. He calmed himself, or tried to, and realised that the sensation was unpleasant, but it wasn’t killing him. He wasn’t suffocating. He wasn’t drowning. He made his limbs go still and fought against the instinctual urge to draw breath as Chrysalis’ strange lips lingered upon his. 

“The love of your wives and your foals will sustain you… heal your injuries. Keep you strong. This will give you a fighting chance. Luna was a fool for tampering with my magic!” a drone said, speaking with Chrysalis’ voice. 

“We have a mirror traveler to go and visit. He has a strange device that allows him to speak to his fellows back at home. Some kind of box that has voices coming out of it. I learned a lot from him. I allowed myself to be captured. I allowed myself to be tortured. I allowed him to have his sick way with me. I was kept in a cage and I listened to everything he said. I listened to the voice of this Night Stallion… he’s a creep. I gave them all kinds of misinformation as I was interrogated and then I had my immortality severed with a fancy magic show. He cut off my head after having one final go at the body I was in to satisfy his sick needs. He had plans to send my head to Twilight Sparkle as a message, to wear down her will and unnerve her. I was counting on you showing up.” 

Chrysalis broke the long strange kiss and set Bucky down. He started coughing up the green goop in his lungs. She looked down at Bucky, confused by his appearance, finding herself wondering what he was exactly. 

“Pull yourself together, wolfchow, we have work to do.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 807
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Agave Flats. Bucky had a good long look at the town while the sun began to make the first rosy glow in the east. He felt his muscles clenching, he hated and feared the sun now. He huddled under his cloak and kept his hood pulled down over his face. 

“What is this place?” Bucky asked. 

“A little settlement. We changelings do a bit of trade with them. We buy their booze and their agave syrup for the ponies living with us. They’re not part of Equestria or Mustangia. They’re just a little independent settlement. Make really good tequila,” Chrysalis replied. 

“And a mirror traveler lives here? Shining Armor should be able to detect him.” Bucky scowled within the black confines of his hood. Something about this felt wrong. He glanced at Chrysalis beside him. She had taken the form of a soft, sooty grey unicorn mare that had a brown bottle for a cutie mark. 

“Okay, Bucky, time for a little information. The unicorn is named Sadwick. He sleeps during the day when he feels safe because the night scares the living shit out of him. He is scared of the dark… I mean he is really afraid of the dark. He cries and whimpers and freaks out all night long.” 

“Good to know. He should be afraid of the dark.” Bucky’s lip curled away from his teeth and he shook his head. There were bad things in the dark. In Bucky’s experience, ponies with troubled minds feared the dark. 

“So… are we going to torture him?” Chrysalis asked. 

Bucky let out a hiss and then swiveled his head to look at the disguised changeling beside him. “No!” Bucky shook his head to make it clear. “No, no, no! We do not torture ponies. Even bad ones.” 

“Well, you almost choked me to death!” Chrysalis snapped. 

Snorting, Bucky looked away. “Are you even a pony?” 

Looking wounded, Chrysalis turned away. She stared at the town in the distance. “I used to be. Once, a long time ago, I used to be pretty. I wanted to stay pretty. I saw old age and I feared it. Beyond old age, there was death. I didn’t want to face that. I couldn’t. I wasn’t always like this.” Chrysalis turned to glare at her companion. “So, any snide remarks about how ugly I am or what a disgusting bug I am?” 

“No.” Bucky watched as ponies walked out of the town, heading off into the agave fields. The sun rose a little more, bathing the world around them in a soft, pinkish light. 

“Why not, wolfchow?” 

To Bucky’s ears, Chrysalis sounded confused and scared right now. He could feel her fear. He could feel her doubt and uncertainty. She had done more than just allow him to feel love and have a taste. Bucky could feel the entire emotional spectrum and sample it. Her doubt was bitter and he didn’t like it. He didn’t reply, just gave a shrug. 

So this was what it was like to be an emovore. Bucky wasn’t certain that he liked it. He made a mental note to make certain that he inspired more positive feelings in the ponies around him, as doubt and uncertainty felt like it was giving him indigestion. Or maybe he was just hungry for real food and the alcohol had long since worn off. 

“Is there a cafe in town?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh crap, for all the times to be hungry.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. 

“I’ve been sick… been very difficult to eat. My body wants something… else. But I think I’m hungry. Did you do something to me?” Bucky peered up at his tall unicorn companion.

“I might have tweaked you a little bit,” Chrysalis admitted. “But I wasn’t helping you, wolfchow… this is me selfishly looking after my own interests.” The sooty grey unicorn looked at her companions, a few more unicorns, a pegasus or three, and a few earth ponies, all of them changelings in disguise. “Okay, change in plans. Who’s up for pancakes and agave syrup?” 

One by one, each of the disguised changelings present raised their hooves while making sheepish expressions. One of the earth ponies, a dark brown stallion, gave Chrysalis a hopeful look and asked, “Can we get the chocolate chip pancakes?” 

“Do I look like I’m made out of bits?” Chrysalis let out a snort. “This is what I get for allowing some of you drones to retain a little personality. Chocolate chips. Pfah!” 

“Sometimes… sometimes my life really sucks. Sometimes, my life is the most abysmal thing I know of. Sometimes, I hate my life and I loathe my very existence.” Bucky paused and considered the changelings around him. “And then there are moments when my life becomes quite surreal and I find the strength to continue.” 

“Let’s go… we’ll talk about this over breakfast,” Chrysalis said. 



 

Stepping out of the cafe, Bucky belched. His stomach was full. He had eaten quite well and he didn’t feel like throwing up, which was pleasant. His body wanted food and the pancakes didn’t taste like disgusting ashes. The others joined him and Chrysalis looked quite annoyed because she had been stuck with the bill. 

The town was a collection of brick buildings, adobe buildings, wooden buildings, and quite a number of crude shacks. Agave fields stretched out around the town in all directions and little cottages, huts, and shacks dotted the farmland. The agave also had cacti growing, edible cacti, like prickly pears. Many of the ponies had cacti related cutie marks. 

“So where is our new best friend?” Bucky asked as he began to follow Chrysalis. 

“A short ways out of town, there is an old topaz mine. He lives down at the bottom of the mine shaft, in a section of the mine turned into a forepony’s office that he converted into a place to live. There are no stairs down, no means to fly down the narrow shaft, and only unicorns can teleport down. He freaks out about the darkness down there and keeps the lights burning at all times. The entrance is booby trapped and he is well protected. While he slept, I had several drones come and study his defenses. I leaned a lot about him during my so called captivity.” Chrysalis gave Bucky a sticky, syrupy smile. 

Nodding, Bucky began making mental notes. His number one priority, or so he felt, was capturing the communication device and giving it to Twilight Sparkle. It might save his head from rolling for this little fiasco. He was fully prepared to beg for forgiveness, but bearing gifts improved his chances. 

“The mine shaft has mines. The explosive kind. The whole shaft is littered with mines. He has wards to keep teleporters out.” Chrysalis frowned. “He really hates the local earth ponies. I mean, he hates them. When he had me captive, I saw a few of his other victims. We’re dealing with a real sick pony, wolfchow. He can’t get his dick hard unless somepony screams. He likes whips and chains. He likes branding irons. He has a thing for pegasi too, keeps talking about how their day will come and unicorn superiority will be acknowledged.” 

Feeling disgusted, Bucky snorted. Unicorn superiority. He felt his skin crawl as loathing filled him. It was something that he hated and wished that somehow, he could burn it away. He wished that he could erase it from the minds of unicorns around him. 

“Sure you’re not up for a little torture?” Chrysalis asked.

“Don’t even start with me right now.” Bucky’s voice came out as a terrifying growl. “I mean it. Don’t… even… start.” 

“I just don’t see the big deal.” Chrysalis sidestepped away from Bucky, putting some distance between herself and the unicorn beside her. “Not trying to pick a fight, I just don’t get it. He’s scum. I don’t see a compelling reason why we can’t make him screech. Make him pay for all the harm he’s done to me and to others.” 

“Because it’s wrong,” Bucky replied. 

“You do wrong things all the time.” Chrysalis snorted and shook her head. 

“Why did you teleport all those ponies in Las Pegasus to safety before the bombs went off?” Bucky asked. “Don’t lie to me. I’ll know. If you lie, I swear, I’ll cut your head off myself.” 

Sighing, Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I did it because it was the right thing to do. Every now and then I get an annoying voice in the back of my head that tells me I’m about to do something horrible… sometimes I can ignore it and keep going… but… I… just… couldn’t let all those ponies die.” 

“So you didn’t do it for selfish reasons just to endear yourself to me,” Bucky said. 

“Well, that might have been a part of it, but that was not the driving motivation. At that moment, I truly did suffer a pang of conscience,” Chrysalis admitted. 

“So you do know the difference between right and wrong.” Bucky gave a sidelong glance at his companion. “No more hurting ponies. No more killing. No more sucking ponies dry and turning them into husks. I mean it, Chrysalis. I will end you. I am your nightmares given flesh. I am a bad day waiting to happen. I am Mister Death. I kill stuff… I end things. It is what I do. And I’ve worked out the plan on how to end you… so no more torture. You listen to that little voice in the back of your head that tells you not to do bad things… or else you’re going to have to deal with me. I’ll do worse than kill you.” 

“Okay, fine, I get it!” Chrysalis whined as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Just… don’t nag me about it. It’s bad enough that you’ve got me bent over a barrel and have left me with no choice in the matter. You know, before I met you, I’ve never felt helpless before. I hate you, just so you know.” She opened her eyes, squinting in the early morning sunshine, her lip curled back from her flat, square teeth, and she turned to give Bucky a hateful glare. 

“Got something to say?” Bucky asked in a flat voice. 

“Yeah… I was wrong about you. After picking through your mind that first time, I thought you’d roll right over for me and show your belly… you like being dominated by females. You’re so happy just to give in and be so annoyingly submissive. But beneath it all… you’re a tyrant. You’re an awful pony, wolfchow.” 

“Let’s get something clear. You make my skin crawl. Being near you is unpleasant. I loathe you and I keep questioning myself right now. I consider you to be a major threat to Equestria, and every moment that I am with you I question my judgment more and more. There is a little voice in the back of my mind that is screaming at me to kill you, before you try to betray me later.” Bucky took a deep breath. “But there is also a little voice screaming to give you a chance because you still know the difference between right and wrong. I still might kill you at some point on general principles after I get what I need from you. You calling me a tyrant is not helping anything.” 

Chrysalis, not knowing how to respond, fell silent and marched ahead, her face a sour sneer. 



 

Working together in silence, Bucky and Chrysalis disarmed the defenses around the mine shaft, working together, being cautious, and trying to avoid eye contact. Chrysalis struggled to focus upon the task at hoof. Bucky, as she had discovered, was a terrifying creature, and she now understood why so many feared him and why so many loathed him. The idea that he might still kill her after getting what he needed unnerved her. She had no choice but to give him what he wanted. Even if somehow she killed him now, she would still have to deal with a very angry Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle, not to mention any backup contingencies that Bucky had. 

It was painful having to admit that one had been horned so thoroughly. Bucky had screwed her over in the worst possible way, going in dry, and leaving her in a subdued, violated, submissive heap. At the moment, all feelings of amorousness she had for him were tainted by her feelings of absolute hatred for him. He had said it, she was his bitch. This knowledge galled her something awful. 

For a moment, she thought about the white pony she had seen, wondering if it had really been a hallucination or something else. The fear she felt… it was as if death was close by and leering over her shoulder, taunting her that she would soon be food for worms. 

The only way out of this mess was to allow herself to be exploited, be a good pony, and be on her best behaviour. She was out of options. This realisation caused her to seethe. It could be worse though. She would live through this. Maybe. Celestia was known for being kind. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe all of this would work out for the best. 

Beside the mine shaft, Bucky cleared his throat. Turning to look at him, she saw him give a nod. She nodded back, feeling ready, and began preparing herself to go back down into the dungeon where she had been tortured. 

She hoped that the mirror traveler would make Bucky lose his temper. At least things would get interesting if that happened. 



 

Tucked away in the shadows, Bucky watched as Chrysalis awoke the sleeping unicorn. He had already been subdued, left defenseless, and was quite helpless. Chrysalis, no longer disguised, prodded the unicorn with her hole-filled hoof. 

“You!” Sadwick said as his eyes fluttered open. 

“Me?” Chrysalis replied in a sarcastic, mocking tone. “Me. Me, me, me.” Chrysalis shook her head, smiling. “It isn’t always about me.” She lifted up her hoof, turned the mostly paralysed unicorn’s head, and made him look in the corner. “Him!” Chrysalis began laughing. 

Sadwick screamed and shat the bed. He screamed and screamed and kept screaming. All around him, changelings snickered and made insectoid chittering sounds as Sadwick continued to scream himself hoarse. 

“Greetings,” Bucky whispered. “I see you know who I am… I take it that you are very surprised to have visitors right now. Before we continue, there is something you should know.” Bucky paused and let out a chuckle. “Cutting off her head was only step one. For her, that’s foreplay. You have made a grievous error.” 

Floating forward, Bucky, half in and half out of shadow, came and hovered beside Sadwick’s bed. Reaching down, he placed his talon fingers over the unicorn’s lips to silence him. “Shh… this will all be over soon.” 

Hearing Bucky’s voice, Chrysalis shivered. He was creepy. No, scratch that, he was Mister Creepy. The growing puddle of urine and the turds in the bed were proof of that. 

“You’re going to tell me everything. There will be no bravado, there will be no resisting, so don’t waste your breath.” Bucky’s talon finger lingered over the unicorn’s lips. 

“I’ll tell you nothing,” Sadwick said, his voice a low murmur of fear. “I’ve been trained to resist torture. You’ll get nothing, spawn of nightmares.” 

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Bucky shook his head and gave the unicorn an affectionate pat upon the cheek. “See, I don’t plan to torture you. Tortured ponies tend to say whatever will make the pain stop.” Bucky blinked and looked up at Chrysalis for a moment, and then back down at Sadwick. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I could torture you, believe me, I could. And you would still tell me everything.” Bucky’s talons moved over the unicorn’s eye and then Sadwick’s eyelids were held open in a faint blue green glow. Bucky placed the sharp point of his claw a hair’s breadth away from Sadwick’s eyeball and the unicorn began shrieking. 

“I lost an eye,” Bucky said in a soft conversational voice. “Out of the many things I’ve lost, I regret losing my eye. Of course, out of everything I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.” Twitching his talon, he touched his claw tip to the unicorn’s eyeball for a fraction of a second. 

Sadwick gibbered with fear as a few more turds slipped out. 

Suddenly, more than anything else in the whole wide world, Chrysalis wanted to flee this room, flee the desert, flee Equestria, flee this hemisphere, and she wanted to be as far away from Bucky as possible. Perhaps she could adapt to life on the southern ice shelf. For all of her evil, for all of her misdeeds, for all of the terrible things she had done during her long life, nothing scared her quite like this. Her insides felt like jelly and it took every ounce of her will to keep from shaking. Was Bucky doing this somehow? Some kind of magic? Whatever it was, it was horrible like nothing else. 

Chrysalis understood something now. The boogeypony was real and he wasn’t found under the bed or in a closet. He was right there in front of her. Scared to even breathe, Chrysalis didn’t want to watch whatever was about to happen next, but she couldn’t turn away either. Something bad was going to happen. Something worse than torture. 

Bucky’s horn ignited and black flames crept up its length. Taint mist began to leak from his eye. He shivered, feeling the old familiar pain of dark magic. He had turned his pain into power. Focusing his will, he pushed his way into the unicorn’s mind, destroying all barriers, and began stripping the unicorn bare. He made a few mental cuts, a few deep gashes, and in just a few moments, he absolutely destroyed the willful resistance of the unicorn. He still had more to do, but he would get to that later. The dark flames that bubbled along his horn went out and the Taint mist went away. 

“Tell me your name,” Bucky commanded. 

“My name is Sadwick,” the unicorn said in a meek, foalish voice. “Can you keep the dark away?” 

“I can keep the dark away, but only if you are a good foal. You want to be a good foal, don’t you?” Bucky leaned down and brushed Sadwick’s mane back out of his face. 

“Yes sir, just don’t leave me in the dark.” Sadwick gave a weak nod. 

Horrified, Chrysalis tried to figure out what had just happened. Stunned, disturbed, she took a step back from the bed, her mouth hanging open. She had just witnessed something that shocked her to her very core. Cold fear crept along her spine. 

“Sadwick, I want you to tell me about how you talk to your fellows back home,” Bucky said in a gentle voice, the same voice he used when he was putting his little ones to bed. 

“I have a quantum connection radio,” Sadwick replied. 

“Tell me more... how does it work?” Bucky asked. 

“I don’t understand it very well, I only know the basics.” Sadwick looked scared. “Please don’t leave me in the dark just because I don’t know.”

Bucky sighed, a patient sound. “Just tell me what you know.” 

Sadwick, looking hopeful, nodded. “Yes sir, I can do that. Inside the radio, there is a special atom. It’s kept in a containment field. This atom is connected to an atom inside of another radio back home. These two atoms are connected by something called spooky action. A scientist in one of the worlds we visited invented this tech. We stole it. Communication is made possible by using the spooky action connection as a carrier.” 

“Very good Sadwick, this makes me happy. So you have a means to communicate with home.” Bucky reached down and patted the unicorn’s leg. “What is your purpose here?” 

“My purpose is to gather intelligence, test various spells of non detection, and to kill Twilight Sparkle should I get the chance.” Sadwick began to tremble. “The Night Stallion said that I was allowed to have my way with her if I could subdue her somehow.” 

“But you don’t want to do that now, do you?” Bucky asked. 

“No sir, it’s wrong, sir. I feel very bad about what I’ve done.” Sadwick closed his eyes. 

“I want you to apologise to Chrysalis.” Bucky gave the unicorn a nudge. “Come on, you can do it… if you don’t, I’ll turn the lights off.” 

Shaking, Sadwick opened his eyes. He stared up at Bucky, his whole body starting to have violent spasms. “Please, no, not the dark!” Sadwick began to whimper and he struggled to turn his head to face Chrysalis. “I’m so sorry… what I did was wrong! I’m sorry!” 

Revolted, sickened by what she was seeing, for a moment, Chrysalis worried that all of her pancakes were about to make a hasty exit. She made drones for obedience, but this was different. Her drones were made when there was no real mind to speak of, no memories, no real free will, her drones were made before any real brain development. Bucky had done something to the poor unicorn… something awful. Filled with revulsion, Chrysalis backed away a little more and began to rethink her life. 

“There we go. A little confession is good for the soul. Don’t you feel better?” Bucky raised his eyebrow and smiled down at Sadwick. His voice was gentle and kind, almost loving. 

“Yes sir, I do.” Sadwick gave a feeble nod. 

“So… are there any current plans to attack Equestria directly?” Bucky asked. 

Sadwick, whimpering, closed his eyes again and made a pained expression. “Yes sir, the Night Stallion is brokering a deal with several demons down in your Tartarus. They were locked away thousands of years ago by the white alicorn you call Celestia. If the Night Stallion has his way, soon, the Destroyer and his army will be released. It is hoped that you will perish in the conflict. Celestia defeated them once, but she is weaker now and does not have the Elements of Harmony or the Horn of Banishment.” 

“Hmm.” Horn of Banishment. Bucky made a few mental notes. If it was gone, he wondered if he could make a replacement. It might be a worthy task for a grandmaster of enchantment. “Tell me, what is the Destroyer getting out of all of this?” 

“Besides a chance to destroy Celestia, whom he hates, the Night Stallion has promised to open a portal to the world next door to this one, the one where the one you call Sunset Shimmer was banished. That world is weak and lacks powerful magic. The Destroyer could establish himself a new kingdom there and we could push the beings of this planet through a portal to him to feed him the souls he craves.” 

That sounded bad. Bucky’s eyebrow raised and he gave careful thought to Sadwick’s words. This conflict was spilling over to other whens and wheres. How many humans did that world have? Millions? Billions? No real magic to speak of, just technology, an army of demons would obliterate them and turn the world to ashes in no time. Bucky felt a cold prickle along his spine. He didn’t like this at all. They would be defenseless. Demons were magic, from what little he understood. They didn’t need ley lines or access to ambient magical sources. Unicorns and alicorns casted magic, channeled magic, demons were magic, with the exception being Twilight Sparkle, who was the alicorn of magic. Being a source of magic is what allowed demons to grant necromantic powers. Bucky began to feel jittery, but he made no outward sign to show it. 

Bucky needed to throw a wrench into the Night Stallion’s machinery somehow. He began to feel the pressure of needing to save lives, not just the lives on this world, but its sister world as well, the world next door. They were defenseless. 

His horn igniting, Bucky pushed his way into Sadwick’s memories and began to poke around, being careful and gentle. “Tell me, Sadwick, have you been to the world next door?” 

“Yes I have,” Sadwick replied. “I went there with the Night Stallion himself. It was very strange.” 

Perfect. Bucky tried to home in on the memory. It didn’t take him long until he found what he was looking for. Sensing what he was wanting, he pushed his way in deeper, until he lost himself completely. 



 

“Greetings, Doctor Caballeron. It is a pleasure to see you again.” 

Bucky peered through Sadwick’s eyes, trying to get his bearings. He was bipedal and having trouble balancing. In front of him where two humans, both male. Both were wearing fancy clothes… business suits. There was some kind of wagon nearby… what had Sunset Shimmer called them? It was too disorienting to think in a clear and concise way. 

“It is always a pleasure to see you again, Mister Night Watch. I was able to implement the, uh, technology you provided me. The quantum mirror is very interesting.” 

“It is indeed,” Night Watch replied. “It shows us what we are in other whens and wheres.” 

“Certainly better than the previous means of testing. More reliable. Easier. I’ve collected what you wanted.” Doctor Caballeron smiled. “Thousands of unicorns, ready to go. No one will miss them. I’ve combed through the undesirables that no one cares about. The vagrants, the prisons, the mental hospitals, and a whole boatload of illegal immigrants coming into our country that got caught. We’re going to deport them and the ship we’ll be deporting them on will have a most unfortunate accident.” 

“How tragic.” Night Watch raised an eyebrow. “Please, send my condolences to any who might miss these pieces of garbage.” 

Both humans started laughing, rowdy boisterous laughter. Bucky felt sickened. The hatred inside of him grew like a cancer, consuming his insides. Loathing filled him. He hated the Night Stallion more than ever. 

Night Watch cleared his throat. “I have a fine selection of gifts for you. I think you will be pleased. We are approaching zero hour… soon, you will want to flee this wretched shit hole of a world and find a nicer place to live.” 

Bucky noted a brief moment of sadness on Doctor Caballeron’s face, but it was gone in an instant, replaced by a cruel smile. “I have made plans. I look forward to continuing to do business with you. Get in touch with me if you need something, I have a knack for finding things… In that other world, the world you want, I can find anything. It’s amazing! It’s like magic! I just think about what I want and immediately I know where to find it.” 

Both humans started laughing again. 

“You have done well, Doctor Caballeron.” 

“I’ll have your next shipment of unicorns ready in just a few months, as promised.” 

“Wonderful.” 

Seething, Bucky pulled himself out of this memory. 



 

“It’s worse than I thought,” Bucky said as he came to his senses. “We are so horned. So very horned.” He fought to control his panic. He closed his eyes, focused his will, and opened up his personal dimensional pocket, a trick that he had finally been able to master, a bit of magic taught to him by Witching Hour. 

“I’m sorry Sadwick, but what is inside of your head is far too valuable. We need to be able to study everything. You must forgive me.” Bucky reached into dimensional pocket, fished around, and then pulled out a glass orb. “It’s nothing personal, but the survival of not one, but two worlds is at stake. I feel bad for what I am about to do, but you made some awful choices to bring you to this point. You met me halfway.” 

“Do whatever you must,” Sadwick replied, giving Bucky a nod.  

“Bucky, what are you about to do?” Chrysalis asked as Bucky’s horn glowed with black energy once more. “Bucky… what are you doing?” 

Ignoring Chrysalis, Bucky touched the glass orb to the unicorn’s horn and then began to cast a simplified, corrected version of one of Sombra’s spells. He wasn’t putting a whole life into crystal to preserve it, but he was pulling out every bit of knowledge and memory. Sadwick moaned and his mouth fell open. His legs gave a feeble kick but he was still paralysed. 

“It’s going dark,” Sadwick whimpered. 

“I’m sorry, it will all be over soon,” Bucky said as he reached down and stroked Sadwick’s face. “This goes beyond you or me… this goes beyond both of us. Our lives don’t mean a single horseapple in the bigger picture of things. It will all be over soon.” 

“I’m scared.” Sadwick trembled and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry for everything I done. I wish I could take it back.” 

Looking down, Bucky could see a glow inside of the glass orb. It was filling with magic, with memory, with knowledge, it was filling with the contents of Sadwick’s mind. “Sorry doesn’t always make it so.” 

“I… scared.” Sadwick’s voice was weird and distorted now. “Dark.” 

“Almost over.” Bucky rubbed Sadwick’s face with his talons, trying to comfort him. 

“Ur… durk… hum…” Sadwick’s eyes opened and then rolled back into his head. 

“Yes, there is a hum in the dark,” Bucky said. “The glass will keep you safe. Nothing can hurt you in there. You will sleep. Shh, let everything go and be at peace. You’re being given a chance to save millions… maybe billions of lives.” 

With a gasp, Sadwick went still and stared up at the ceiling. His chest rose and fell with slow regularity. One leg kicked. 

“Oh by the stars, he’s still alive?” Chrysalis asked, her eyes wide with horror. 

“Yes.” Bucky looked at Chrysalis. “His mind is a cleaned off slate. Everything is in here.” Bucky held up the glass orb. “This body will need to be cared for. In time, it will learn to walk, will learn new things, will learn to speak, and a new personality will bloom. This body will need a caretaker. Can I trust you?” 

“Bucky, I… you… what you just did—” 

“Can I trust you?” Bucky’s voice was a cold, chilling sound. 

Chrysalis cottoned on quick. This was not a question one could say ‘no’ to. Chrysalis opened her mouth to reply, but the pancakes she had eaten came out instead. She threw up all over the floor, half digested wads of fried dough shooting out of her nostrils and gooey syrup clogged her sinuses. 

Coughing, spitting, trying to clear her airway, Chrysalis nodded, hoping that a nod would be enough. She looked at Bucky and wiped her mouth with her foreleg. She tried to take a deep breath and discovered that she wasn’t done vomiting. It felt as though her various organs and chemical production centers inside were all trying to leap out of her throat so they could flee, get away from the bad unicorn on the other side of the bed and go someplace far, far away. 

In the back of her mind, Chrysalis realised it was time to turn over a new leaf. 

“I mean it, Chrysalis. I’ll have ways of knowing. I’ll drop in unannounced and check through his memories… and if I see anything that resembles abuse or cruelty… do I even need to say what happens next?” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. 

Chrysalis wondered how Bucky would find her, but that was stupid thinking, that was the sort of thinking that would get one killed. Of course he would find her. There would be no safe place on this planet that she could hide. Somehow, she knew. 

“I’ll see he’s treated like royalty... he’ll be fat and spoiled… he’ll want for nothing and have a happy, pleasant life,” Chrysalis gasped, still panting from throwing up. 

“Good… good… you and I have much to discuss still. I still need an army. You want to keep living. You were just thinking about turning over a new leaf, and I would advise that you give that some serious thought. And whatever you do, do not think about toying with me.” 

Cringing, Chrysalis nodded and tried to balance herself on wobbling knees. 

“I must confess… I’ve stopped caring… I only have one goal now, one directive, one motive. I’ve got to give Celestia, Twilight, and Sunset Shimmer the future they need to make things right. I don’t care what I have to do. Truth be told, I stopped caring some time ago, even before Pinto Creek. All options are on the table for me. There is nothing I won’t do to give them time and to clear away their enemies. I will go to Tartarus in the manner of my own choosing.” 

Chrysalis blinked, uncertain if she could continue to deal with the terror inside of her. 

“Now, this is the last time I will ask you.” Bucky drew in a shallow breath. “Can I trust you?” 

“Yes, yes you can trust me. I give you my word. I will do anything and everything you ask of me. I will give you the army you need. I will look after the earth ponies that you rescue and I will rehabilitate them. I will see that they are happy and cared for. I will do anything asked of me,” Chrysalis replied. 

“Good… then I will go and speak to Celestia about giving you a future. She’ll be angry with me, but I suppose I’ll just have to charm her somehow, or find some means to convince her. I look forward to working with you. And do not forget… you have something very dear to me. I expect it returned, and soon. Am I clear?” 

“As crystal!” Chrysalis could feel her knees knocking. Bucky was inside of her head. He knew about her thought about turning over a new leaf. Was he causing this fear? Was she held in his thrall right now? How much longer could her bladder hold out before critical failure? 

“Wonderful!” Bucky smiled. “I can soften Celestia’s defenses by telling her that Cadance and Shining Armor can still have foals.” 
	
> Chapter 808
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I’ve got to get my daily dose of sunshine or I’ll lapse into the dreadful state of becoming something like a wraith,” Bucky said as he looked up at Chrysalis. “I’m quite weak when this happens. Since I can trust you, I need for you to protect my body.” 

Still fearful, Chrysalis stared down at Bucky. Such cheek. Such balls. She guarded her thoughts, letting them go no further. She squinted as Bucky circled around, looking for a comfortable place in the sand. The sun was warm and there was a gentle breeze blowing over the desert, a rare luxury brought about by a gentle spring. She watched as he slipped his cloak off and set it aside. 

Right away, he began to smoke. His hide sizzled and she heard him whimper. He had his eyes closed and he collapsed into the sand. A strange new emotion welled up within Chrysalis. It was overwhelming to her senses. No, not new. An old emotion that had died a long, long time ago, and feeling it now was like feeling it for the very first time. 

She was feeling pity for another being. It pained her, bothered her, and she hated herself a little for feeling such weakness. She felt genuinely bad for Bucky and his condition. He had never asked for the life he had been given. He was a pathetic heap of skin and bones, however terrifying he might be, he was simply trying to make do with the horrible circumstances he had been given. 

Bearing the form of a tall grey unicorn, she sat down beside him in the sand and her drones formed a protective circle around the two of them. Something on Bucky’s pelt sizzled like hot grease in a frying pan, it ignited, and caught fire. Chrysalis hawked up a wad of changeling goo and spat. It hit Bucky’s back with a wet splat, putting out the flames, and the blistered, burned flesh began to knit itself back together. 

Feeling pity for somepony that she both loathed and feared, Chrysalis heaved a sigh. She heard him whimper and she turned her head away. She despised weakness, but she could not fault Bucky for his pain, even if she wanted to. 

“Bucky?” Chrysalis took a deep breath and readied herself for what was sure to be an enlightening conversation. 

“What?” Bucky, his eyes squeezed shut, wiggled in the sand, trying to get comfortable. 

“I’ll admit to doing some questionable things. I’ve used mental domination and control on a pony to get my way… but you… you… you just… blanked him out.” Chrysalis hated that she had begun to stammer while speaking. She was losing her composure. She was appearing weak and soft. She hated herself for it. 

“I did what was necessary,” Bucky said in a low whisper. “Just one more act to add to my damnation. I’ve learned that morality is a luxury. One life to save a hundred. Thousands to save millions.” Bucky let out pained cry as a patch upon his neck began to smoulder. 

Chrysalis hawked up another wad of spit and with perfect aim, she hit her target. The green wad of goo glistened, looking shiny in the sunlight, and began to soak into Bucky’s neck. 

“He met me halfway… he made terrible life decisions that brought him to me. Our paths crossed because of the choices he made. It doesn’t make what I did right, but it does make it a little easier for me to justify it.” 

Nodding, Chrysalis understood. “It starts off just like that. Can you justify it?” The changeling queen scooted closer to Bucky and leaned over him, trying to offer him some shade and protect him from the direct sunlight. “Once, a long long time ago, there was a little filly, and like so many other little fillies, bad things happened to her. She watched her entire village get ransacked. Most died. Only the little ones were spared and the diamond dogs hauled them off. The little filly became a slave and she learned to live in fear. She feared the lash. She, like the others, was made to pull heavy loads out of the mines.” 

Hearing a sizzle, Chrysalis spat out another blob of goo on Bucky. 

“She practiced magic in secret. She learned her craft. In time, as she grew older, she became cruel and dangerous. She learned to dominate the diamond dogs. She kept them as slaves. But something was broken in the mare that the filly had become. She kept the ponies as slaves as well. There was no sense in letting good gems and a source of wealth go to waste. She became a raider… a warlord. She became a terror. In time, not only was she wealthy, but she had a vast army. And none of this was enough. She feared death… survival had become such a focus that the fear of death was crippling. Survival at any cost.” 

As painful as it was, Bucky cracked open one eye, the Eye of Odin, and peered out at Chrysalis. Dazzled by the sun, he was unable to see anything. 

“Beset on all sides, surrounded by enemies, she found that it was easy to justify almost anything. All that mattered was survival. As it turned out, she had amazing magic… the sort of magic that might have made her a princess had she been born in the age of Celestia’s Might. Things might have been different had she lived during a more civilised era.” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “But that isn’t what happened.” 

“So what great magical gift did she have?” Bucky asked. 

“For her, it all started off with the ability to control bugs. Cockroaches, fleas, flies, all the things that plagued us as slaves. She ended up with a cockroach for what you would now call a cutie mark. But bugs were only the beginning. She learned how to dominate and control others. Not just one, but many. She had a rare gift that allowed her to control multiple minds and not go mad.” 

Hearing Chrysalis’ words, Bucky thought of Dinky, which caused his guts to slither inside of him. Three little bumblebees. Hivemind control. Powerful mental abilities. 

“She learned how to read the minds of others. She gathered more and more information. She learned. And she continued to fear death. She could justify anything using her fear of death.” Chrysalis shook her head and let out a little cough as her body burbled and produced more compounds deep inside, her inner chemical compound producers churning. 

“In time, she changed herself. She adapted what she knew into her own body for survival. She experimented… and one day, her domination of one of her subjects went too far. She finally crossed a line, she began to worry about the state of her soul. She pushed too hard and left a faithful servant completely blank.” Chrysalis drew in a deep breath, held it, and then continued: 

“Nothing wasted though. She took the blank body, silenced her own inner voices, and she continued. He became the first drone. An animated puppet of her will. He was trustworthy, he was safe, he could provide for her needs. Animating his body, she was free to breed with him and not worry about being vulnerable. She did not have to think about the many previous rapes and violations of her body. She was in control now… she was the undisputed master. She began calling herself ‘Queen’ and she liked it. In time, the nagging voice of guilt was silenced for the sake of survival.” 

All Bucky could think about was Dinky. 

“She learned to jump between bodies. Not just dominate, but jump. She could leave her body behind. A means of escape. She bore her first foal, a little colt, and in her selfishness, she did the unthinkable. She dominated him not long after his birth and shoved what little mind that he had away, clearing him out, and she turned him into a puppet to serve her will. She justified it… the colt, a newborn, had no life experiences. He had no memories. He had nothing of his own, he was just a body. He became the second drone.” 

Silent, Bucky said nothing. He was in no position to judge. 

“With time, it got easier. I soon had an army of drones, some of them birthed from my own loins. I changed them. Altered them. I used powerful magics. I changed their bodies. I used powerful alchemy. I took the first brave step towards immortality. In time, my original body died and yet I continued to exist. Each successive body was an improvement, changed with alchemy and magic. In time, the alchemy became an internal process, like it is now. The little filly with a cockroach cutie mark continued to survive. She became unkillable. Many tried. She outlasted all of them. The first few centuries were the worst, but we changed. We became the changelings. We survived.” 

Chrysalis frowned, reached out, and touched Bucky. “Seeing you do what you did brought back memories that we would rather not think about. It starts off so easy, Bucky. You cross a line once and each time after it becomes a little easier, and then the line vanishes. So you find another line or you make one. Each mindwipe gets a little easier. Soon, it becomes no trouble at all. Each kill you make gets a little easier. Soon, it becomes just another act. Soon, the act of justification becomes unnecessary. And you survive.” 

This was not a future that Bucky wanted for Dinky. He thought about Chrysalis' words, he thought about himself, he thought about his own life choices that had brought him to this point. He could pinpoint the first time he had crossed the line; summoning the demon. He had drawn so many lines… he had sworn not to bring harm to another pony… that had been a line. He had crossed it when protecting Sunset. He had killed the mirror traveler. After that, killing became a little easier. He had tried to be moral, or at least somewhat ethical, but those things continued to impede what he felt was progress. He had made a promise to Cadance; be good. He wasn’t certain that he was doing a very good job of keeping it. Perhaps drawing the line was his mistake. 

He made an uncomfortable realisation; he and Chrysalis were a little too much alike. 

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, you can justify what you are doing as ensuring the survival of others… at least you aren’t being selfish… a lot of really bad things can be said about you, let’s not lie, you are a monster, but you are a faithful and devoted servant to Celestia.” Chrysalis snorted. “You know, I would trade a thousand drones to have just one faithful servant such as yourself. Sometimes I wonder if Little Miss Goody Four-Shoes knows or even understands just how lucky she is to have you. You’d cut your own throat if you thought it would be for her benefit.” 

“Be careful with your words,” Bucky said in a low, dangerous sounding voice. 

“I actually meant that as a compliment.” Chrysalis shifted form and became a pegasus. She spread her wings and tried to shield more of Bucky from the direct sunlight. Perhaps confession really was good for the soul. She looked down at Bucky and realised that she had somepony she could talk to. Somepony that would actually understand. It was an odd feeling. Some old emotion tumbled around inside of her, something she had not felt in such a long time, and she could not identify it. 

“How do I do better?” Chrysalis asked. 

“I don’t know. I keep thinking about that myself. I’m the one wrestling with how many lives I am willing to sacrifice to save others. Right now, I’m so lost and confused about what to do… I feel like I have no other options. That’s why I came to you. I knew that you would understand. Celestia? Luna? Twilight? If I went to them for advice for what I’ve got planned, I don’t even want to think about what would happen. I suppose I needed somepony as awful as I was.” 

“You’re pretty bad, wolfchow… but Celestia needs a pony like you. Twilight is too soft. Truth be told, she needs Twilight more than she does you though. I’m sure you’ve realised that. Long after this conflict is over, the world will need to be rebuilt. There will be a brave new future. And Twilight will be the one crafting that future… you on the other hoof…” Chrysalis fell silent. 

“I have no place in that future. For it to be truly secure, I need to die,” Bucky said. 

“Yep.” Chrysalis nodded. “At some point, when all the big threats are eliminated, there will be only one threat left to take care of. You.” Chrysalis shook her head. “Damn shame. At that point, you’ll be so burned out and wasted from the conflict and the killing… you’ll be an empty husk of your former self. Your soul will be so worn down and stretched thin from bearing the consequences of bad choices made for survival that there is no way that you’ll be able to fit into this brave new world.”

“I know.” Bucky swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat. “I know.” 

Pity and sympathy. And some unknown long dead emotion. Chrysalis sighed. She was having a bad day. She didn’t get to where she was by having pity or sympathy for others. She had purged herself of those emotions because of the weakness they presented. 

“So, care to tell me your grand plan? I might be able to improve it,” Chrysalis said. “I want to survive too… I have a strong interest in your success.” 

“The plan is simple. Get as many drones as possible and send them over. With the drones, I want to send plagues… diseases. I need to talk to the zebras about getting some of their most virulent diseases. I don’t know if this will destroy the mirror travelers, it might, but I have my doubts. I do think that this will cripple them though. They’ll have to pull back and consolidate if this goes well. We might be able to buy time and that time will allow me to plan some kind of final solution.” 

“I can help you on the diseases… so many diseases have been made to wipe us out. I’ve kept samples of them all… I have cures to all of them, naturally… but I think it is a good idea that you go to the zebras. They know their diseases.” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “They’re not shy about unleashing a plague for the sake of war. The zebras will be very receptive to your idea. You’ll find allies… and they won’t think you are a monster.” 

“Really?” Bucky asked. 

“Really. The zebras lived closer to the griffons than these soft ponies in Equestria. For the zebras, much will be forgiven for the sake of survival.” Spotting a patch of erupting blisters, Chrysalis spat and applied a wad of healing, pain relieving goo. 

“Oh, I should warn you, we’re going to have company,” Bucky said.

“What?” Chrysalis looked up and looked around. 

“The tracking spells on my eye and my torque. I allowed them to start working again. We’re going to have company. Don’t panic and don’t be scared.” 

“How long?” Chrysalis asked. 

“I dunno,” Bucky replied. 

“Crap, I don’t want to have to deal with her Royal Sanctimoniousness today.” Chrysalis let out a frustrated groan and prodded Bucky with her hoof. “She and I don’t get along very well. We both reside on opposite ends of the moral spectrum.” 

“Funny, I’ve engaged in some morally questionable things and she still loves me. I think. Sometimes I’m not sure and I have my doubts, but I think that’s just me doubting myself.” Bucky could feel the sand making him itch and he longed for soft green grass. 

“Well, I have your back. I think your plan has merit. If you really think that you can open a portal into the mirror traveler’s home base, I can give you an army to slip in there,” Chrysalis said. 

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. Too confusing and too much I don’t know. But I can help Twilight figure it out. I think that between the two of us, we’ll be able to lock in and force a portal open. Twilight is an amazing pony… although I understand that you are not a big fan of her.” Bucky allowed himself a bit of a grin. He felt something begin to blister, heard Chrysalis hawking up a wad of spit, and then felt a cooling sensation on his back. 

“If she can open a portal and strike the home of the mirror travelers, I will personally offer my heartfelt congratulations to her. Beyond that, I hate her. She is too much like Celestia, too convinced of her own goodness, too convinced in her own rightness. She’s never been given the ogre’s choice of die fast or die slow. She’s been too sheltered and lived for too long in her ivory tower. What does she know of pain? Of suffering? What does she know about being like us?” Chrysalis growled and flapped her wings in frustration, fanning Bucky with a cool breeze. 

“She knows more than you think,” Bucky replied. 

“What could she possibly know?” Chrysalis demanded in an angry, bitter voice, unable to hold back her burning resentment. 

“She was there with me in Griffonholm. She still bears scars upon her body and her soul. She is now part of the official triarchy, one of the three greater ruling heads of Equestria. She bears the weight of the entire world upon her back. She lives in fear of making mistakes and she has nothing but nightmares about the consequences for failure. She dreams of a blackened, scorched, burnt planet devoid of life almost every night. She suffers from an insomnia that matches my own. She has plenty of ponies and enemies that want to kill her, including enemies right here in Equestria that do not agree with her aggressive multi-tribal politics. Twilight Sparkle has guts. Back when I was still bedridden, back when I was unable to do much of anything after the battle at Pinto Creek, a unicorn supremacist made an assassination attempt on Twilight in her home. Flash, her husband, killed her attacker. The unicorn mare assassin was put down. Twilight Sparkle is my counterpart and my contemporary. She has my respect.” 

“Okay, so maybe the self righteous little twit is learning what the real world is like,” Chrysalis said in a reluctant manner. 

“Words like those aren’t going to help you gain Celestia’s trust or friendship. She’ll not want to save you if you speak ill of her prized pupil.” For Bucky, each minute out exposed in the sun felt like hours, but he was determined to stick this out. His family needed him, him in the flesh, not some kind of wraith. 

Or a vampire crazed with bloodlust. 

“Sadwick is now relocated. The drones escorting his body have arrived back at my hidden home.” Chrysalis tilted her head and her pony ears perked. “The other ponies that live with me are worried for him and are willing to help care for him. The drones report that he will be well cared for.” 

Hearing Chrysalis’ words, Bucky felt relieved. 

“Guano Grotto.” 

“What?” Bucky, confused, wondered what guano had to do with anything. 

“That is the name of my home. I suppose I’ll show it off to you someday. The ponies living there seem to like it. There are natural underground hot springs. The air stinks a little of eggs, but it could be worse. There is a well disguised shaft that drops straight down, it is hidden by illusion. The earth ponies have figured out how to make vertical gardens that line the walls of the shaft and take advantage of the sun. Some of the unicorns can shape rocks. We’re building a city. I still don’t know how I feel about these arrangements, but I saw which way the wind was blowing. My days are numbered… hence the experiment. We have a mutually beneficial living arrangement. It’s pretty tense sometimes though. Not a lot of trust I guess. I don’t know.” Chrysalis shook her head and then let out a snort. “I have to say, my hive has grown and I’ve become quite powerful. This arrangement has been good for both parties.” 

“Don’t squander it. Don’t mess it up. This could be the key to your survival in the future. If Celestia comes to believe that she needs you, she will find a way to keep you around.”  Bucky, uncomfortable with lying on his stomach, rolled over onto his side. He kicked his legs out and sprawled out in the gritty sand. 



 

Looking skyward, to the north, Chrysalis squinted. She scanned the skies, trying to see, struggling to spot what she knew was coming. Her drones were giving off all manner of alarms right now. “We have company incoming.” 

“That was fast.” Bucky pulled his smoking body up out of the sand, gave himself a shake, and then began to pull his cloak over himself. He wondered about just how much trouble he was in. Not just with Celestia, but with his wives. He was horned and he knew it. Now was time for damage control. With his cloak over his back and his hood over his head, he felt his strength returning. 

In the distance, multiple figures approached. Bucky knew who one of the figures was, there was no doubting that she would come, but he was uncertain of the others. He sighed and tried to think about what to say. What was said was just as important as how it was said. He worked himself over and tried to look apologetic. 

He watched as the figures landed on the desert sand. There were a few big silhouettes present. Squinting, he could make out a tall white figure. Celestia. Folding his wings beside her, he saw Scorpan. Another tall figure that Bucky did not know or recognise. And three smaller figures that Bucky had to strain to see, but there could be no mistaking who they were. Odin, Loki, and Belisama. 

“Oh crap, she brought one of my wives… well… I’m screwed. I can see the glint of steel. Belisama brought her sword and I think I can see her revolvers.” Bucky sat down in the sand and shook his head. “Shallow grave… I had hoped for a better end.” 



 

“Buckminster… I would really like some kind of explanation. For now, I will trust that you have good reasons to be here.” Princess Celestia tore her gaze away from Bucky and looked at Queen Chrysalis. “You had better have a good reason for being here with her.” 

Bucky, now a fully functioning emovore, could feel all of Celestia’s emotions. Is this what Tourmaline felt? It was almost overwhelming, as if Celestia was screaming her feelings at him. There were a lot of emotions, but Bucky focused on the feeling of love. She loved him. Feeling relieved, knowing that she loved him, Bucky realised that everything was going to be okay. Uncomfortable perhaps, but okay. 

“Queen Chrysalis, I must say, I am very surprised to see you alive and well. I assume there is a perfectly logical explanation as to why Twilight Sparkle has your head in a box.” Princess Celestia gave Chrysalis a burning stare, the white alicorn’s eyes burned like glowing red cinders. 

“Give the word and I’ll take this head as well,” Belisama said as her talons curled around the grip of her sword. “Just move funny… blink funny… make any sudden moves… and I will take your head, make no mistake.” 

Clearing his throat, Odin stepped forwards. “There is no need for that. Bucky might have disabled the tracking spell on my eye, but I saw and I heard everything that has taken place. All of you need to calm down and remember who you trust and love, as well as keep in mind what he has done for us. All of us. He’s trying to give Chrysalis here a chance that she probably doesn’t deserve.” 

“Hey!” Bucky snapped. “What gives you the right to say who deserves a chance and who doesn’t?” His talons flexed and Bucky gave Odin a hard stare. “The griffons damn sure didn’t deserve a chance after everything that happened… I’m certain that most of the world felt that way! I gave them a chance! I gave you a chance! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!” 

Odin, wide eyed, backed away. His crest drooped and his feathers fluffed out. His gaze dropped down to the sand. “You’re right. My apologies. I spoke out of place.” 

“I hate having to be the voice of reason, but all of you need to just calm down before there is bloodshed. Sun Mother, please, relax your guard… please?” Loki looked up at Celestia, his talons twitching in the sand. 

Snorting, letting out an angry growl, Celestia tossed her head around and the fiery glow in her eyes faded away. Her hooves stomped against the sand. She stared at Chrysalis, her eyes narrowing almost to the point of being closed, and her wings fluttered against her sides. 

Nodding, Scorpan placed his hand upon Princess Celestia’s back. “Loki is correct. Anger will not help us at this time. I do believe that the Lord of Winter came here looking for much needed assistance and has found it. Are you so proud that you would turn it away?” 

Her lip curling back from her teeth, Celestia let out a snarl of frustration. As she did this, Bucky thought about her pride. This was going to be harder for her than she thought. Bucky stood up, lifting his backside from the sand. 

“Look, I’ll tell you everything. I just ask for your patience and to let me finish. I assure you, I had good, sane reasons for being here and doing what I did.” He looked at Celestia. “You love me… so please, give me a chance.” 

“Very well.” Celestia took a deep, calming breath. She looked down at Bucky. She trusted him. She trusted him with a countless number of lives. She pulled herself together and brought her emotions under control. 

“Well then, I had an idea how on how to strike back against the mirror travelers and give us some breathing room… but first, I needed an army…” 



 

Having heard everything that Bucky had to say, Celestia stood there, feeling stunned, shocked, and confused. She looked down at the glowing glass orb that Bucky held in his talons, the contents of Sadwick’s mind. The strange device that allowed for communications between worlds. She looked up and her eyes focused on Queen Chrysalis, who had given up the pony disguise and was now looking subdued. Submissive even. During the long chat, Chrysalis had started to say something, she had started to become angry, but Bucky had silenced her by raising his talons. 

More than anything, Princess Celestia wanted to reject everything Bucky had said. She wanted to be away from here. Queen Chrysalis represented her failure. She had failed to listen to Twilight. She had failed to keep her subjects safe. She had been made to look like a fool, and Celestia hated Chrysalis. But hatred wouldn’t save any lives. Gulping down the lump in her throat, Celestia nodded her head. 

“This is a horrible plan, but it has its merits. Buckminster, you were wise to seek her help. I am uncertain about certain aspects of this deal… I do not know if I trust her with the earth ponies you plan to rescue—” 

“If you will excuse me for interrupting,” Chrysalis said in a soft voice. She took a step forwards, mindful of Belisama, who was still gripping her sword. Chrysalis had no doubts about how fast the griffoness could be. “To sweeten the deal, I will give you several more changelings like Tourmaline. Healers. I will not make them drones and I will not grow them in pods. They will be hatchlings. You will be free to raise them as you see fit with families that are brave enough to love them. You need healers. I need a reliable source of food.” 

Realising that she stood on the brink of much needed peace, Princess Celestia swallowed her pride, feeling bitter and angry. She nodded. “It is a good start. If you provide us with healers to help us secure our future, I will work with you to help you secure yours. After Buckminster rescues these earth ponies, if he is successful, we will give them medical care and see what we can do for them. Once they are stable, once we feel that they feel safe and secure, we will help you integrate them with the ponies you have living with you currently.” 

She wanted to say more, she wanted to say so much more… she wanted to shout and be angry and she wanted to put an end to Chrysalis making more drones… more slaves. But Celestia held her tongue. 

“Is there anything we can do to help or assist you in the creation of this drone army?” Scorpan asked. 

Chrysalis almost spoke, but held back her words so she could think before saying anything. She looked at Bucky, then at Celestia, and then down at Belisama, the Queen of the Griffons. The little griffoness had a crazy, catty, jealous love. The sort of love that got stabby if it was threatened. The little griffoness had the same kind of crazy that Bucky did. Chrysalis supposed that the war had done something to the tiny tigress. 

“I think I can handle the creation of this army just fine. I have the resources. Your efforts are better spent helping Bucky secure the resources of the zebras. Load up on diseases and I can infest my drones with them. I can make plague bombs. Give me a couple of weeks and I can grow an army of considerable size, but it will leave me weak. The Badlands are a dangerous place. This will stretch my resources thin.” 

“I will send help,” Bucky said. “You need to fix my Shadowbolts. If we are what we eat, you need to do to them whatever it was that you did to me. I’ll also send a few Myrmidons with strict orders that you are to be guarded and kept safe at all costs.” 

Chrysalis looked at Celestia and saw the white alicorn nodding. “Very well then, if I can pull away resources from protection and defense, I can devote more resources to creation.” 

“Queen Chrysalis…”

“Yes?” The changeling queen looked Celestia in the eye. 

“About Cadance and Shining Armor…” Celestia’s voice trailed off. 

“I keep biological materials inside of special drones that preserve it. I have already given my word that as soon as I have drones made that have Bucky’s special type of cold, I will return what I have taken. The eggs and the sperm I have in my collection will be viable… I don’t want Bucky killing me.” 

A gust of wind blew, carrying sand with it in little eddies. Celestia nodded. “Thank you. This goes a long way towards repairing the harm that you have done.” 

“I think we’re done here,” Bucky said. 

“Yes, I think we are,” Celestia agreed. “For all future diplomacy, Buckminster, I am appointing you as my official ambassador.. I know that you want to withdraw from as many of your public duties as possible, but certainly you must understand the importance of this task.” 

“Of course.” Bucky bowed his head. 

Celestia gave Chrysalis a cold smile. “Here is to hoping that by working together, we can secure for ourselves a better future…” 
	
> Chapter 809
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Did you have a nice trip? Do you feel better? I’ve been worried about you,” Derpy said in a soft voice as she approached Bucky, her gait slow and somewhat pained. “You scared me. You just took off and left.” 

“I’m sorry.” Bucky shuffled his hooves. “Are you angry?” 

“No.” Derpy blinked and her long eyelashes clung to one another as she did so. “I was a little angry at first, but then I remembered that I trusted you. You would not have taken off without a good reason. Berry is a little peeved with you though. She was scared.” 

“There was something I had to do. There is much I still need to do. I’m going to be busy for a while.” Bucky’s ears drooped down to the sides of his face as he looked his wife in the face. 

“Good… when you get bored, bad things happen. I’m glad you found something to do. Just… don’t over do it… there are four little foals that were just born and a whole family that loves you. Try to find some balance, or I will be angry.” Derpy’s wings fluttered at her sides. 

“Seems fair.” Bucky nodded and his ears rose up to the splayed out position, sticking out sideways. “Would you still love me if I did something terrible?” 

“Probably… depends on who you do something terrible to,” Derpy replied. She closed her bad eye and focused her good eye on her husband. “Just how terrible?” 

Bucky started to reply, his mouth opening and moving, but no words came out. He coughed and cleared his throat. “For once in my life, I am too ashamed to even tell you what I’m planning. I’m sorry. If you want me to tell you, I will. This is right up there with me summoning the demon back on the Shetland isles.” 

The grey mare’s expression darkened. “Bucky, that was pretty terrible… I dunno about this. Is this necessary?” 

Closing his eyes, Bucky gave thought to his answer. He couldn’t lie to Derpy. He felt a painful tightness in his chest. He spent a moment doing a little soul searching, and then his whole body slumped. “Yes. Yes it is. Thousands to save millions.” 

“Come to bed with me. Come lay down and get some rest. Come be with your foals.” Derpy opened her bad eye and shook her head. “We don’t need to talk about this now. Just come and be with me.” 



 

Lost in his own thoughts, Bucky looked down at the little version of himself, little Barley Bitters. The colt was sleeping, having just fed, and his little tummy was rounded. He lay in a pile with his brothers and sisters. Bucky’s eyes lingered for a moment longer upon his colt and then he looked at Ditzy. She lay sprawled out over her twin, her eyes closed, her little wings twitching. Dizzy was almost swallowed between his sister Ditzy and his other sister, Brandywine. Brandywine was the only one awake, but not for much longer. Her eyes kept closing and staying closed for longer and longer. 

He had to give them a future, but to do that, he had to take away somepony elses. 

“Barley keeps bringing me treats and saying he’s sorry,” Berry Punch said in a low voice, unable to bear the silence any longer. She saw Brandywine’s ear flicker at the sound of her voice. “I don’t think I could have squeezed her out without him. I was so angry that I had to prove him wrong.” 

Feeling the need to acknowledge Berry’s words, Bucky nodded but said nothing. 

“You know, maybe I’m crazy, but I enjoyed giving birth, as bad as it was. I feel a sense of accomplishment. And not just because I birthed a seventeen pound foal. I did something amazing. I feel good about my life. I have a successful business, I make more than enough bits to provide for all of my family and for us to live comfortably if we had to on just my income alone. And now I’ve birthed foals. It all feels good, ya know?” Berry Punch rolled over and draped her foreleg over Bucky’s neck. She puckered up and smooched Bucky on the cheek. 

“I’d like to start working again at some point, but I don’t want to be a mailpony.” Derpy shook her head as she engaged Berry Punch in soft conversation. Perhaps Bucky could be distracted out of his funk. 

“We have an opening at the brewery. Got any skills?” Berry asked, grinning a sleepy grin at Derpy. 

“I have bubbles on my butt… beer has bubbles… surely I can do something,” Derpy replied. 

Berry, looking Berry serious, nodded. “Yes, I’ve witnessed your impressive bubble making abilities. I wonder if we can harness that to add bubbles to our beer… I have lingering concerns about the taste though.” 

Covering her mouth, Derpy tittered and tried not to make too much noise. Brandywine made a fussy snort as her eyelids fluttered. She looked down at her foals and tried to swallow her laughter. “I think we should put these little fuzzballs into their crib if we are going to keep talking.” 

Saying nothing, Bucky rose, lifted each foal in the soft glow of his blue green magic, slipped off the bed, and then making not a sound, he slipped off into the nursery. 

He did not return. 



 

“Princess Celestia looked peeved with Daddy and she didn’t stay to talk with us,” Piña said to her siblings. “Something is up. I don’t like it.” She looked away from Dinky and over at Harper. “Don’t go too far, Harper… you stay close or you won’t get a cookie!” 

“Flutterbug!” Harper cried as she chased after a blue winged butterfly. 

“Father seems off… he’s in one of his moods.” Sentinel, sitting in the grass, watched as Harper ran in circles after the blue winged butterfly. His watchful eyes shifted and he looked at Sukari, who was pacing back and forth at the edge of the lake. Sukari looked a little agitated, but she wasn’t freaking out, not yet. The zebra clearly wanted her mother though. 

Thistle and Bell Heather were in the lake. 

“Cadance is angry with Daddy… why is everybody angry with poor Daddy?” Dinky, sitting on her haunches, raised both front hooves and waved them around. “It’s not fair. He’s having a hard time right now and ponies are just being mean to him. Makes me angry.” Dinky took a deep breath. “I haven’t been feeling right myself. I feel off. I’m dealing with it, but everything just makes me angry lately. Have I been snippy?” 

Sentinel shrugged with his wings. “You’re managing.” He glanced over at Cadance. She was sitting off by herself, scowling, looking very put out. She was staring at the farmhouse and she had the most sour expression upon her face that Sentinel had ever seen. Something was up, something awful, and somehow, Cadance was aware of what it was. 

“Sukari, come over here and stop being a silly pony,” Piña said as she patted the grass beside her. She watched as Sukari stopped pacing, looked back at her, and then trotted over. When Sukari sat down, Piña hugged her and rubbed her with her hooves. 

“I haven’t been right since the farm was attacked,” Dinky said. She looked at her brother. “This was supposed to be a safe place. They were in our house… everything was on fire… they kept shouting that we were going to die.” The unicorn filly’s face contorted into a scowl. “I keep thinking that I should feel bad for what I did, but I don’t. I don’t feel bad at all… and it is really bothering me. I’m supposed to feel bad.” 

“We did what needed to be done,” Sentinel said, his voice coming out as a flat monotone. “I just feel numb about it.” 

“You killed a pony,” Piña said in a low voice. “I dunno how you can feel numb about it.” 

“I… just… do,” Sentinel stammered. “I didn’t mean to. It… just… happened. I meant to kick him… I didn’t mean to hit him so hard. It was an accident.” Sentinel felt a nose prodding him, turned his head, and saw Cadance. She looked worried. Reaching out, Sentinel pulled her closer and gave her a hug. “Father was away. I had to keep all of you safe. Our home was burning and the smell of blood was in the air and there was so much panic and I slipped up and I made a mistake.” He gave Cadance a squeeze. “Had that pony been given a chance, he would have killed us.” 

“I know,” Dinky replied. “That’s why I summoned the giant hornets.” 

Cadance made a soft squeak as she was squeezed. She looked up at Sentinel, her eyes wide and expressive. She reached up her hoof, touched his nose, and said in a sweet voice, “Be good.” 

“You keep saying that!” Sentinel said. “I was being good… I did what I had to do. Do you know how disappointed Father would be if I let something happen to you? I was far more afraid of disappointing him than I was of being killed on that night we were attacked! I think about letting him down and it keeps me awake at night… I have so much pressure on me… I spend every waking moment of my life being good!” 

Cadance closed her eyes and buried her face against Sentinel’s neck. 

The colt’s stony, stoic exterior cracked, his barrel hitched, and he squeezed his eyes shut. The first tear ran down his cheek, sliding along his water resistant pelt, and spilled down upon Cadance’s ear, which twitched from the contact. He squeezed Cadance a little tighter, the alicorn was tough, sturdy, she could take it, she enjoyed it, expected it even and would pout if she wasn’t given what she wanted. 

“You and Daddy,” Cadance said to Sentinel as she wrapped her forelegs around her brother’s neck and held on tight. “Not fair.” 



 

“He’s asleep… which is kinda bad, because that’s going to make it difficult for him to get to sleep tonight… but also kinda good, because he looked tired and he didn’t get much sleep last night,” Magpie said as she emerged from the nursery. 

“Thank you, Magpie,” Derpy said. 

“Bandua… she’s too much like Bucky. I can’t get her to sleep at night. All she does is peep.” Magpie let out a soft, frustrated squawk. “She’s starting to crawl and pull herself around more.” The griffoness’ feathers all fluffed out. “She’s also a little nipper, so look out.” 

“She got Piña a while back. Piña got her nose too close and Bandua clamped down on the edge of Piña’s nostril.” Berry Punch let out a giggle. “It was pretty funny.” 

“Hush Berry,” Derpy said, giving Berry a nudge. “You’re not supposed to laugh.” 

Sighing, Magpie shook her head. “Nopony listens.” She looked at the two mares in the bed. “Can I do anything for either of you?” 

“I think we’re good, thanks for asking,” Berry Punch replied, still sniggering about Piña’s misfortune. 

“I’m going to take a nap,” Magpie said as she departed the room. 



 

“It’s too nice a day to be sad… what’re you lot up to?” Barley asked as he flexed his aching knees. With the spring thaw, walking was now a whole lot easier. He looked down at the herd of foals in the grass and raised his eyebrow. 

“We just had a talk, that’s all,” Piña replied. She looked up at her uncle. 

The wily old stallion took note of red, teary eyes, stained cheeks, and little snotty noses. “Aye, a talk.” He nodded. “Had yerselves a wee chat about something, did ye?” Barley suspected he knew what it was, but he decided to beat around the bush. “I suppose yer upset about what I said to Berry. It’s complicated, but I hope I can make you understand.” 

Piña’s ears perked. Barley’s accent was slipping in and out. Something was up. She tilted her head. “Oh, I dunno about the others, but I understand why you did it. Berry was being a big crybaby.” 

“Aye, aye she was,” Barley agreed, nodding his head. 

“But that’s not what we were talking about.” Piña glanced at her siblings and then back up at Barley. “We’ve got it sorted out, I think. If we need help, we know where to go.” 

Hearing Piña’s sass, Barley snorted. The little cuss headed lass was growing up to be like Berry, and it made Barley feel good to know that the fine Shetland spirit was alive and well in Piña. He did feel a moment of pity for poor Larch though, and made a mental note to have a chat with the lad at some point. 

“Hmm, well, I guess I’ll shove off and leave you lot to continue sorting things out amongst yourselves. If ye do need me, come find me,” Barley said as he moseyed off. 

“We will,” Piña replied as she watched her uncle leave. 
	
> Chapter 810
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Half awake, Bucky stumbled out of the bathroom and made his way down the hall towards the kitchen. He needed food something awful. He had an appetite again. He wanted food… he wanted something sweet. Something like the love around him, which he became aware of that he was feeling. 

After almost tripping and falling on his face, Bucky recovered. He moved past the living room and saw Glass Slipper. His mind did not make the connection as he passed, he only saw Glass Slipper playing some hoof bumping game with Harper. 

He stumbled into the kitchen, paused, and stared at Twilight Sparkle. She had a cup of tea. Violet was sitting with her. Semillon was standing near the stove preparing something for supper. Bucky let out a wordless grumble, blinked a few times, and then looked around for anything sweet. He would boil the oceans for something sweet right about now. Something like… agave syrup. Or maple syrup. Sugar. It was almost like an ache. His mouth went dry thinking about it. His fuzzy brain thought about the breakfast he had shared with Chrysalis. 

The changelings had eaten a fair number of pancakes, but they had gone through whole bottles of agave syrup; they kept pouring it on, adding more, scraping it up with spoons, slurping down more and more of the syrup. Bucky’s eyes settled on half a chocolate cake sitting under a glass cover. He grabbed it with his magic and made his way to the table. 

He gave Twilight a bleary stare as he sat down. He opened the fridge, pulled out the jug of milk, opened the cupboard, grabbed an enormous highball glass, and then pulled a bottle of chocolate syrup from out of the fridge. A spoon and a fork were summoned. Bucky began preparing a glass of chocolate milk and pulled the glass cover from the cake. 

“Plan to share?” Violet asked, her tone teasing. 

His lip curling back in a snarl, Bucky growled and narrowed his eyes at his secretary. 

“Don’t be a bad dog… I’ll get my newspaper!” Violet narrowed her eyes right back. 

“I think Chrysalis did something to me,” Bucky grumbled as he stirred his chocolate milk with his spoon. 

“One of the many things we need to talk about.” Twilight turned her red, bloodshot eyes upon Bucky and blinked. “Bucky, I want you to remember, I am your friend.” 

“So this is one of those sorts of talks,” Bucky replied. He slumped over in his chair, lifted his fork, and began to gobble down chocolate cake by the forkfull. 

“Princess Celestia told me what you plan to do,” Twilight began. The alicorn began to tap her hoof upon the table and then she closed her eyes. Reaching up, she rubbed her nose and then, opening her eyes, she looked at Bucky. “I am supposed to publicly condemn your actions… but… I want you to know… right or wrong, I know why you are doing this. I want to give you my personal thanks. This can’t be easy for you.” Twilight watched as Bucky stuffed his face with dark chocolate cake. Almost half of it was already gone. 

“For the record, I think you are doing the right thing,” Violet said. “At this point, we know that it is them or us. I’d rather it be them. There are going to be a lot of ponies that just won’t understand why you’ve made an alliance with the changelings.” 

“Bucky, after the war, a lot of ponies in both Equestria and other countries started calling for your removal… they’re afraid of you. They want your title of ‘prince’ removed. They want you to abdicate your position as King of the Griffons. After word of this gets out, there is going to be a political firestorm.” Twilight Sparkle poured more tea into her cup and then, scowling, she shook her head. 

“It’s mostly here in Equestria and the old world pony countries. The Sea of Grass, the zebras and the ponies who live there, they’re still your biggest supporters. They’re threatening to break the treaty with Equestria if you are stripped of power.” Violet looked at Bucky, then at Twilight, and then stared down into her own teacup. 

“Why?” Bucky asked. 

“Why what, exactly?” Violet replied. 

“Why support me?” Bucky stuffed more cake into his mouth and licked his chocolate frosting covered lips. 

“The Sea of Grass has a different set of values and ideals. They fought for too long and the sting of slavery is still too painful. They’re ready to forgive you almost anything you do. If you are treated poorly here, they are willing to give you asylum in the Sea of Grass, both you and your griffons. They’re building shrines over there dedicated to you… it’s crazy.” Twilight stirred a bit of sugar into her tea and then set her spoon down upon a saucer. 

“So, am I to be treated poorly here? Am I to be kicked out of my own home?” Bucky asked. “Is this my reward for everything I’ve done?” 

“No.” Twilight’s voice was a flat monotone. “But Princess Celestia might have to take drastic measures for damage control. With you being in close contact with the changelings, the issue if you can be trusted is bound to be brought up. The issue of Equestria’s military might being under your command as part of the Triumvirate, with Princess Luna and Prince Keg Smasher… it is bound to become a problem.” 

“I see,” Bucky replied around a mouthful of cake. “Not a problem. I resigned.” 

“Is that part of why you did this? To force the issue of your resignation? We need you. You can’t just resign. You can’t just quit now. Princess Celestia is scared out of her mind… you’ve put her in a bad spot. You have no idea how much trouble you’ve caused her. She’s trying to defend you, to shelter you from the whole world and you’ve gone and made everything worse… she needs you… depends on you…. she trusts you.” Twilight stared at Bucky, her eyes glittering with anger. 

Instead of replying, Bucky stuffed his mouth full of cake, finishing it off. Half a chocolate cake was now little more than crumbs. He picked up the glass plate and began licking it, not caring. Once, a long, long, long time ago, he had been a Canterlot unicorn. He had impeccable manners. He had the best breeding, all questions of inbreeding and incest aside. He had been unicorn perfection. 

Now, he had a face covered in chocolate frosting, his mane was uncombed, wild, and his bushy sideburns made him look like a lion. He dragged his orange tongue over the plate, making certain to cover every inch, trying to get every last crumb. 

That was the greatest chocolate cake that Bucky had ever eaten, of that, there could be no doubt. His mouth opened and he belched. Violet turned away, rolling her eyes, and Twilight Sparkle looked disgusted. 

Rising from his seat, Bucky walked around the table. He approached Twilight, who watched him, her eyes narrowed, a quizzical expression on her face. Before Twilight could react, Bucky kissed her, pressing lips against her cheek and planting a wet smooch that smeared chocolate all over Twilight’s cheek. 

“I love you, Twilight.” Bucky smiled, turned, and walked away, heading back for his chair. He did not see Twilight’s stunned expression behind him as he moved away, nor did he see Violet’s smirk. 

The wooden chair creaked as Bucky sat down. He looked at Twilight, who was blushing, looking both confused and furious. He picked up his glass of chocolate milk, raised it in salute, and then began to chug it down. 

Taking an angry sip of her tea, Twilight sat there with chocolate smeared on her cheek. She drew in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out in a slow huff. 

“I will continue my duties as a Black Cloak. I need a little excitement from time to time. But everything else, I don’t care about.” Bucky paused. “Wait, scratch that. If you try to take my griffons from me, I will bring ruination and destruction to everything around me. I will not let them be taken. They are mine.” 

“So that’s it then?” Twilight blinked in shock. She watched Bucky nod. 

“Princess Celestia is going to need to hire a lot of ponies to help her find her missing marbles,” Violet said in a low voice as she stared down into her teacup. “As for the griffons… I suspect that there would be an armed insurrection if anypony tried to remove you as their king. I don’t even want to think about what might happen.” 

“We’re not just a kingdom, we’re also a corporation. Winterworx, our designs are enchanting.” Bucky set down his glass and began to wonder if there was anything sweet in the kitchen that he could eat. He was still feeling peckish. 

Twilight, still stunned, just stared at Bucky. 

“There is still much to discuss… “ Violet looked at each of the ponies sitting at the table and knew her work was cut out for her. Twilight’s brain had broken and Bucky was in one of his moods. She sighed, thought about how much she was being paid, and then smiled. 



 

“—look, Twilight, don’t ask me to explain it, I’ve told you what I know. Some kind of quantum connection through spooky action. The two atoms are connected. It’s called a radio.” Bucky frowned and waved his talons. “The mirror traveler didn’t know much about it either. It just works for him and he uses it to talk. He doesn’t need to understand the how or the why that it works.” 

Annoyed, irritated, Twilight ground her teeth, certain that Bucky was leaving out some important detail or neglecting to mention something. It was time to change the subject. “Bucky, I’ve been studying the portal generation rod and I’ve been in contact with the Observers. I think I can make a clean portal without any chaotic destabilisation issues. Hex Libris had some books… I suppose I’d better get to work on making a portal for us to use.” 

Glad that he was no longer being grilled over the radio issue, Bucky heaved a sigh. “I can help. We need a large portal, something that an army can pass through quickly.” 

“We’ll need to pull the earth ponies out. They might not want to come with us willingly, poor things will be scared of us.” Twilight shook her head. “Seems wrong to force them, but we must do what is good for them.” She looked at Bucky. “Are you really going to trust Chrysalis to look after them?” 

“Trust has to start somewhere. She knows what is at stake. She knows I can end her. I’ve explained my plan to you.” Bucky raised his eyebrow. “I can trust in her selfishness and her sense of survival.” 

“I still don’t know how I feel about this. Turning to the changelings for help. Using an army of drones. Plague warfare. It feels as though we are losing the moral high ground.” Twilight set down her teacup and looked over at Violet, as if she was seeking Violet’s approval, but the mare said nothing. “Bucky, if we’re going to do this, there is no point in going halfway. I want as much destruction and devastation as possible. Hold nothing back. No disease is too horrible.” 

“I’ll get in touch with the zebras and I’ll begin finding out what we can get,” Violet said. 

“Find out what the zebras have as far as chemical and biological warfare options. Anything goes. Diseases, gas, I’ll have golems disperse it. Find diseases that specifically target unicorns. We need to hit the mirror travelers where it hurts the most. Those unicorns that they use as batteries, they’re sickly already… if we could wipe out their unicorn battery population, we could hurt them.” 

“Ugh, that’s horrible… Bucky, those are slaves!” Twilight gave Bucky a pleading look. 

“We can’t save them. They’re lost to us. We can save some of the earth ponies that they keep in the big cavern underground where they grow mushrooms. We must take away their ability to strike at us. Those unicorn batteries power their whole society. Keeps the air breathable, the water clean, powers up their defenses, their shields, their portals, those unicorns are the key to everything. So… we need to kill them.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and took on a hard glint. “We cannot be merciful, not with so much at stake.” 

“Has it really come to this?” Twilight asked. 

“Yes, Twilight, I think so,” Violet replied. 

“This feels so wrong.” Twilight sniffled and then reached up to rub her eyes. 

“You tell me how wrong this is after your foals have grown up in a safe world and you live to be a ripe old age… oh wait… you can’t… I’ll be dead.” Bucky stared at Twilight, his nostrils quivering. 

“Bucky, that’s not fair—” 

“Twilight, nothing is fair.” Bucky’s expression softened and became sad. “One day, you’re going to be a grandmother and this war is going to be over, and you’re going to be happy and all of this will be a distant memory. When you’re old and you have some little foal calling you ‘Gramma’ I want you think back on this conversation and then I want you to think about ‘fair’ and how little you care about it at that point.” 

Unable to reply, Twilight stared down at the table and said nothing. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 811
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sprawled on the floor, Bucky basked in Cadance’s love. It was hard to describe the feeling. The past few days had caused him considerable change. It was more than just a knowledge of the presence of love. It was difficult and complex. For Bucky, just being close to somepony in his family was enough to kill off the cold, lonely ache… and the all consuming need for warmth. Whatever Chrysalis had done to him, it had killed off the emptiness that Sombra’s fell shadow had left inside of him. 

Glancing at her father, Cadance had a disturbed look upon her face. Her ethereal mane drifted like a lazy cloud around her head and her wide eyes blinked as she looked at her father. She shook her head and her nose crinkled. 

“Cadance…” Bucky crawled over the floor, getting a little closer. He let out a sigh as Cadance tried to wave him away with her forehoof. “Cadance, Chrysalis fixed me… I feel better… she did something nice.” 

Letting out a tiny sigh, the alicorn foal rolled her eyes and relented. She scooted herself over to Bucky and lifting her hoof, she booped him on the nose. Her expression changed to one of irritation. 

“You and Sukari both… I could huggle-juggle both of you all day,” Bucky said. 

“Huggle-juggle…” Cadance managed to get the words out. A faint smile appeared on her tiny muzzle. 

“Bucky… shouldn’t you be getting ready? Spring ceremony!” Lyra called out from the other room.  

“Daddy silly,” Cadance said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

Harper, who came bouncing around the corner and barreling into the living room, came to a skidding halt but her mass of curls kept moving forwards due to momentum. She went blind, squealed, shook her head, and tried to clear her vision. “We going somewhy.” 

“Yes, Harper, we are going somewhere.” Bucky stretched out his legs and let out a low groan. 

“Somewhat?” Harper asked, looking confused. 

“No, Harper, some where.” Bucky smiled at both of his present fillies. 

“Somewhen.” Harper began nodding, her head bobbing, her floofy-poofy orange mane rocking back and forth on her head. 

Cadance blinked and looked at her sister. “Harper silly.” 

Harper, who had been smiling, paused and became serious. She gave careful consideration to Cadance’s words, turning them over in her head, lifting up one front hoof and tapping upon her chin. After a moment, she nodded. “Yup, silly.” 

“Bucky, stop lazing about and soaking up love! We need your help! I will fix you a chocolate cake all for you if you’ll help us!” Bon Bon shouted from elsewhere in the house. 

“Oh, that’s an offer I can’t refuse, excuse me,” Bucky said as he picked himself up off of the floor. “Come on fillies, we have work to do if we’re going to make it to this spring ceremony.” 



 

“I dunno about this,” Bucky grumbled, mostly to himself. This was turning into a parade. Derpy had insisted on going, she wanted out of the house more than anything. The newborns were packed into the wagon with the two new mothers and some of their older siblings. The Raptors milled about, armed to the beaks, and a nervous Ripple paced around, her war shoes clicking. Cadance was sitting in a prominent spot on the wagon, looking very much like the Empress that she was. 

Dinky, wearing her purple smoking cap, was nervous. She paced around, twitching, her tail whipping about. “How did I get talked into this?” 

“Somepony has to go first,” Piña replied. She looked around. “Sure are a whole lot of griffons.” 

“Well, this is a big deal to them. A new spring, in a new land, with a new, fresh start.” Belisama looked around at the various groups of griffons that had gathered around the wagon. Some of them were armed. She left some words unspoken; it was too nice a day to recall the attack upon the farm, but the little griffons would never be caught unawares ever again. 

“Where did the time go?” Dinky asked. “It was only a week ago that both twins were born and Daddy—” 

“Mama!” 

“Sorry, Mama went off on an adventure.” Dinky’s brow furrowed. “I remember when a week used to feel like forever.” 

“You grow up and things change, Dinks.” Sparkler smiled down at her little sister. The purple pink unicorn made an unsteady, shaking pronk and landed at Bucky’s side. She leaned in, stuck her muzzle inside of Bucky’s hood, gave Bucky a kiss, and then body bumped him. “You’re getting better I think.” 

“I feel better,” Bucky said to Sparkler. 

“I think you’re putting on some weight.” Sparkler tried to look at her father, who was bundled up beneath his cloak, trying to determine if he looked a bit more fleshed out and not so bony. 

“Do you really think so?” Bucky asked. 

“Your cheek has some softness again,” Sparkler replied. 

Basking in the glow of his family, Bucky felt his legs trembling. He wanted to get better. He had been unaware of just how miserable he was. He looked around, trying to count heads, and then asked, “Where is Minion? I do not see Minion…” 

“Your Minion is still having trouble putting on all that armor,” Bartleby replied from where he was sitting on Trixie’s back. “Rising Star is helping her look presentable.” 

“Trixie must admit, the Shimmering One is almost too much hotness to handle in all that armor.” The blue unicorn began to fan herself with her hoof. “The spring is far too warm, Trixie demands a return of winter!” 

Obliging Trixie’s request, Bucky conjured a snowball and tossed it at her. It struck Trixie on the horn, causing the mare to stand there and stare at Bucky. After a moment, she laughed. 

“Trixie thanks you! That was cold and refreshing!” 

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is getting too nervous and needs to calm down,” Bartleby said, patting Trixie’s neck. 

“Trixie is fine… fine, Trixie tells you. She is only going into Ponyville, a town that hates her and remembers her cruelty. Trixie has no concerns and is nowhere near having a breakdown!” More nervous laughter and a bit of a cackle spilled out of Trixie’s mouth. 

“Mares.” Bucky let out a snort and looked at Sentinel. 

“Yes Father, mares.” Sentinel looked confused, not quite knowing what his father was going on about. 

“Aye, mares.” Barley pulled a silver flask out from his quilted vest and passed it to Trixie. “Social lubricant… have a nip!” 

“Trixie shall partake of a nip, whatever that is!” 



 

The road into Ponyville was somewhat muddy from a recent scheduled rain. Pegasi flew overhead, the Ponyville flock revelling in the spring, and there were chases going on, winged fliers darting from cloud to cloud as Spring Fever infected the local pegasi population. 

Quite a few pegasi sat in the trees on either side of the road, singing, whistling, warbling out a spring tune, leading nature in singing a song of creation. Loch Skimmer, who happened to be on fire once again, joined in, whistling as she walked beside Bittersweet. 

“No embarrassing, perverted plumage displays,” Sparkler said as she looked at both Ripple and Loch Skimmer with worry that was clear and easy to be seen in her eyes. The purple pink filly craned her head around to look at her mother. She was surrounded by pegasi and Sparkler knew what pegasi did come spring. 

“Hey, check out my wingspan,” Ripple said, moving her ears as she spoke so Bittersweet could understand her. Ripple flared out her wings, extended each primary, and then fluffed out her feathers enough to reveal tantalising flashes of healthy pink skin beneath her perfect plumage. 

“Stop that, you perv!” Sparkler demanded, turning a darker shade of purple pink. From the side of the road, there was hooting, whistling, and enthusiastic whinnies as Ripple continued her shameless display. She remembered the shameless display that her mother had put on, trying to get Bucky’s attention. Her cheeks burned like a furnace and she grinned.

“Look, I have perfect feathers… so silky and smooth!” Ripple said, her ears moving and making complex gestures to translate her words. 

“You ain’t got nothing,” Loch Skimmer said to her sister. “My wings are on fire.” The burning pegasus unfurled her wings and waved them around, trailing streams of blazing fire. 

“Oh, that’s not fair!” Ripple extended her wing and with a fluid motion, she slapped Loch Skimmer in the face. 

“NO!” Bon Bon shouted, glaring at the two sisters. “There will be no mortal combat today… you two… don’t even start!” 

Ducking their heads, both sisters glanced at one another and then looked at Bon Bon. 

The gathered griffons were getting into the act, prowling like the little cats that they were, showing off their wings, and yowling to get in the mood for spring. Belisama, sitting in the wagon, unfurled her wings and struck a pose. 

Spring had sprung. 



 

There was quite a crowd. Bucky, feeling nervous and overwhelmed, didn’t know what he was feeling. There was just too much to feel. It hit him like an ocean wave and threatened to sweep him away. He didn’t know where his own feelings ended and where the feelings of others began. Is this what Tourmaline felt? How did she deal with it? Bucky almost felt drunk. 

There was love in the air, so much love. New foals had been born. New couples were forming. Biological imperatives, aided by pheromones, were in full force. It was difficult to even remain standing for Bucky. Even though he felt wobbly and a little drunk, he felt strong. 

Feeling as good as he did, Bucky did the unthinkable. He pulled back his hood from his head in broad daylight, not caring that he might get scorched. He didn’t see the worried looks or frightened glances. He had his illusion up, maintaining his terrifying appearance, his jagged fulgurite horn and green sunstone eye, elements of himself that no longer existed. Much to his surprise, he hardly did so much as smoulder. It was painful, sure, and the light dazzled his eyes, but it was bearable for the first time in a long time. 

Overcome by the emotions around him and the feeling of spring upon his own body, Bucky reached out grabbed himself a mare, which just happened to be Lyra. He dragged her in, plunged his muzzle up against hers, and went in for the kill. Lyra resisted at first, confused, scared, nervous, but her defenses melted. She went limp and Bucky had to hold her up. He wrapped his left foreleg around her neck and with his tongue, he explored every available inch of the inside of Lyra’s mouth.

When the kiss ended, Lyra collapsed into heap in the grass, giggling, gasping, and fanning herself with her hoof. Looking very pleased with himself, Bucky sat down, yawned, and then stared at Bon Bon, giving her a saucy look. 

“Mama?” Harper poked Lyra with her hoof. 

“Mama’s fine… Mama’s real fine… Mama is happy,” Lyra said, her voice little more than a murmur. “Mama is going to lay here in the grass.” Lyra grabbed Harper, pulled her close, and gave her foal a hug. 

“She gobbled you face,” Harper said in a low whisper, looking up at Bucky. 

“Yes, yes she did,” Lyra replied as she closed her eyes. 

“Suki looks scared.” Harper tried to wiggle free of her mother’s grasp. 

Lyra’s horn ignited and she pulled Sukari closer. The zebra filly almost leaped into Lyra’s embrace, glad to be held. She closed her blue eyes and cowered. Lyra, feeling wonderful, began to hum, knowing how Sukari loved music. 



 

“Some of the fine mares and stallions of the Ponyville Police Department have set up a kissing booth,” Dinky said as she looked around at the massive crowd. “That’s a pretty good way to raise money… I guess.” 

“Poor Blossomforth, nopony is standing in her line.” Sparkler watched as Sunshower Raindrops leaned forwards and gave a stallion a quick peck on the cheek. 

“Her hobbies include wrestling, hoof-fu, and punching other ponies until they explode.” Rising Star snorted. Blossomforth had been a guest at dinner more than a few times. 

“YEAAAAH!” 

“How cute, Snowflake had a customer.” Sparkler sat down in the grass, her legs trembling, and tried to make the spasms in her face stop. “He gets lonesome.” 

“I like Blossomforth.” Ripple’s head bobbed as she listened to the polka music playing in the background. “I too, like punching ponies until they explode.” 

A sour expression settled over Sparkler’s face. Ripple and Blossomforth got along a little too well. It was scary, disconcerting, and Sparkler held a secret fear that the two of them would decide to go on a spree some night, perhaps after alcohol had been involved. Both of them were flexible acrobats and had exceptional combat skills. It was reasonable to assume that Sparkler might need to call in the Royal Guard for backup. 

Rising Star nudged Sparkler and leaned his head down close to her ear. “Trixie won’t stop giggling.” 

Sparkler looked up at her husband and her ears pinned back against her head. “Have you ever thought of becoming a paladin?” 

“Me? When would I find the time? Stable rep… all the work I do… my family… nope. I’m happy Sparkler. I’m doing what makes me happy. I have all I need in life. I have a few pretty mares, a good job, I perform a valuable public service… and I’ve started engraving poems and verses on all my projects, which satisfies my need for artistic endeavour. I’m not paladin material. You might be.” 

“Naw… I’m going to keep doing police work until I die.” Sparkler leaned on her husband and watched as Ripple walked around on her front hooves with her hind hooves held high in the air. “But I do want to help in the school. Once I’m a little older and I finish my education, I’m going to help out. I’ll be… a hall monitor!” 

“Can you give me detention?” Rising Star asked. 

“I dunno, did you bring some gum, and if so, did you bring enough to share with the rest of the class?” 



 

A roar came up from the crowd when Princess Celestia made an appearance. The regal white alicorn stood tall, her head high, and her wings unfurled. Princess Twilight Sparkle stood at her right while Princess Luna, encased in armor, stood at her left. Buckminster, Lord of Winter, fell into place beside Princess Luna, wearing his armor and wrapped in his cloak. Princess Apple Bloom took her place beside Twilight Sparkle, wearing her wooden crown. Empyrean Paladin Sunset Shimmer, not a member of the ruling royalty, but a sworn Defender of Equestria, moved into place just behind both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight. Her golden armor gleamed like the sun itself. 

The only ponies missing were Prince Keg Smasher and Emperor Shining Armor. 

Glass Slipper, unconcerned with pomp, circumstance, or social standing, chomped down on Rainbow Dash’s leg, wiggled free from the pegasus’ grip, and then moving at a brisk trot, she joined her mother, Twilight Sparkle on the wooden platform, grinning at the ponies as she ducked behind her mother’s leg. 

With a sheepish grin, Twilight waved at the crowd, cleared her throat, and then said, “We’re very close. I’ve been away from home a lot a lately… she’s been wanting to see me.” 

“I’m not a princess,” Glass Slipper announced in her squeaky voice. “But I could be.” 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I believe that you have an announcement?” Princess Celestia looked down at Glass Slipper, gave the foal a wink, and then looked at Twilight, giving her former student a broad smile. 

Nervous, Twilight cleared her throat. “I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, would like to announce the formation of a new guard unit, the Aurora Guard. They will be present to serve and protect the Stable of Representatives when they are in session. Please, all of you, reveal yourselves.” 

In front of the wooden platform, a group began to gather. There were a few ponies, but not many. The crowd began to gasp as a flock of griffons gathered and stood at attention. One of the ponies present in the group was Sparkler. She stood tall and proud among the assembled group. 

“I had to find a group of guards that I could trust. It was a very difficult task. I mean no disrespect, but after the many troubles that were had with the Royal Guard, I had to look elsewhere. These griffons that you see, they wish to safeguard our budding democracy. They realise that our futures are intertwined. They have a vested interest in making sure that the Stable of Representatives meetings go well and that progress is made. I ask that you treat them with respect. Sparkler Doo Hooves, as I am sure that many of you recognise as one of the three heads of the police department here in Ponyville, will also be heading the Aurora Guard. They will function as a special police force with full powers of arrest. Interference of any kind with our democratic processes will not be tolerated and the full force of the law will be brought to bear.” Twilight looked around the crowd, her expression hard, her eyes narrowed. 

“Interference of any kind, any sort of disturbance of the Stable of Representatives while they are in session will be met with thirty days in stone,” Princess Celestia said to the crowd. “Afterwards, you will be placed on trial and may face further consequences. There will be zero tolerance for those who wish to bring harm to our democratic processes.” She glanced over at Princess Luna and Buckminster, Lord of Winter, her gaze lingering upon them for a long moment before she looked back upon the crowd. “During said trial, your background will be thoroughly examined to determine if you are part of some greater threat. It will be unpleasant. You will not like it, I assure you. Our future must be protected at any cost.” 

Much to Twilight’s surprise, the crowd began to cheer. She stood there, confused, bewildered, having expected a very different response to the draconian announcement about law and order. 

Princess Celestia lowered her head and placed her lips near Twilight’s ear. “I told you… the little ponies just want to feel secure again. For too long, there has been too much uncertainty.” 

Hearing Celestia’s words, Twilight nodded, having received yet another lesson in rule from her teacher. She smiled at the crowd, bowed her head, and glanced over at Bucky. She could not see his face, it was obscured beneath his hood and his manifested umbral armor. The sound of cheering and stomping hooves was almost too much to bear. 

Twilight felt the beginnings of a panic attack grip her. Still grinning, she felt Glass Slipper hugging her leg. She needed to be away from the crowd. She felt herself start sweating. 

“If you will all excuse me.” Twilight felt her voice crack. “I need a moment to compose myself.” Saying nothing else, she exited from the wooden platform with Glass Slipper clinging to her leg. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 812
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking out over the crowd, Princess Celestia’s eyes fell upon Twilight. Her student had endured much in the last year. Radical changes. Social upheaval. Twilight had declared war and had broken off from Equestria to form her own empire in order to do what she had felt was right. Looking back on it, Celestia could see that Twilight had done the right thing. Twilight had grown, in more ways than one, both in size, strength, power, and maturity. 

Twilight was now doing magic that Celestia could not even begin to comprehend, complex magic that was outside of Celestia’s scope and scale. Harmonics… magic powerful enough to change the fate of nations or even entire worlds. Twilight could shape the future. Twilight could make the entirety of the world a better place. Celestia knew that her student could fix everything that was broken. 

Surrounded by a number of pegasi and a few unicorns, Twilight was chatting, smiling, being sociable. Celestia herself was surrounded as well, but she was ignoring most of what was being said while offering polite nods of acknowledgement. Most of the ponies around Princess Celestia were unicorns, Canterlot unicorns, and almost all of them were begging and pleading for a return to how things were. Canterlot should be the center of the world, the center of Equestria, the place where all of the important things happened. The ceremony that was about to take place should be held in Canterlot, not Ponyville. 

Heaving a sigh, Celestia summoned her patience. Things would change, but it would take time. The change was only starting, there had been explosive change, but the important changes would take generations. The Equestria that would exist a hundred years from now would be very different from the current Equestria that existed. 

And Twilight would be its architect. Already, Twilight’s aggressive social policies were taking hold. There was a real feeling of equality already taking hold. Not just for ponies, but for all species. 

Feeling a little maudlin, Princess Celestia turned and looked at Buckminster. He had caused a great deal of change as well, in much the same way that a tornado or a natural disaster made things change. Bucky held no respect for the old institutions and simply tore them down if they dared to resist the change sweeping the nation. Bucky was surrounded by earth ponies and griffons. Beside him, Apple Bloom was chatting with a somewhat worried look upon her face, sometimes nudging Bucky. 

He looked happy, which gave Celestia pause. He had never been one for crowds. He hated being in public. He was a private pony, a pony who loved home and hearth more than anything. But for whatever reason, he looked happy. Celestia nodded about how unicorns deserved special privileges by virtue of just being unicorns and ignored the speech she had heard a thousand times before. Bucky was enjoying himself, which seemed odd. What had Queen Chrysalis done to him? Was it the recent birth of his foals? Bucky seemed… at peace. 

She watched him laughing at something that Apple Bloom had said and the earth ponies gathered around them laughed as well. After a moment, Apple Bloom herself laughed and stopped looking so nervous. There really was a profound change and for reasons that Celestia could not determine, it caused her to feel fear. 

You see it as well? Luna said within Celestia’s mind. 

Turning her head, Celestia looked at her sister. Luna was off with Barley and Erebus, having a quiet moment. Why does it scare me? Celestia thought at her sister. After a moment of no reply, Celestia felt a mental shrug from Luna. 

Feeling insecure, Celestia thought of her own changes, her own failures, and her own successes. She had made quite a number of mistakes, she had allowed herself to be led astray—she stifled the thought and forced her mind to think of something else. She didn’t want to think about that. She was in control now. She had pushed him away. She didn’t need him, his input, his opinion, or his direction. She was in charge now. She had Luna to help hold up the heavens. She was no longer weak and backed into a corner. 

She thought of how foolish she had been and how easily she had believed her father’s lies. How she believed that the Alicorn of War could be controlled, held back, used for the good of Equestria. She thought of her other sisters. Clotho was around here somewhere. She was staying on the farm and was currently in the crowd someplace. Her sisters had helped her to see the truth. There was still much to be done to repair their relationship, but things were better. Celestia had allies now. With allies came hope. With hope came courage. With courage, Celestia could continue forward with the many impossible changes that still lie ahead. 

While Bucky was a random, destructive element, unpredictable at best, he was a good teacher. While Celestia knew that in the long run, while she could not rely upon Bucky and his methods, she could place all of her hopes in Sunset Shimmer, Bucky’s apprentice. While Celestia could question many of the things that Bucky had done, while she doubted his many plans, while she was fearful of what he may yet still do if he became desperate or his home was threatened, it could not be denied that Bucky had done a fantastic job of preparing his student for a bright future. Not just Sunset… Celestia gave some careful thought and realised that his whole school was going to provide a bright future as well. He simply did not care about rules, traditions, or institutions, Bucky did things his own way. Pursing her lips, she realised that Bucky was an iconoclast. His school flourished because Bucky had broken away from the old ways that had failed everypony. 

While she couldn’t always trust Bucky and his plans, Celestia realised that she could trust in at least some of his destruction, if he was pointed in the right direction and then allowed to run rampant. He had caused the destruction of the entire city government of Vanhoover. While that had seemed catastrophic at the time, Vanhoover was now recovering from Bucky’s visit and the city was flourishing under new management. Las Pegasus had been blown up during Bucky’s last visit. Now, Las Pegasus was being rebuilt. Ponies lived there. Positive changes were being made. Everything that Bucky knocked down or destroyed… 

Celestia looked at Twilight once more. 

Everything that Bucky knocked down or destroyed, Twilight salvaged and made whole once more. Twilight didn’t have the heart to callously slash and burn everything around her. She didn’t have the heart to bring wreck and ruin, or cause a scene. But Twilight was good at cleaning up messes. 

She glanced at Bucky once more. 

Therein was the balance. Creation and destruction. Celestia reasoned that destruction was just as much of an integral part of life as creation. Perhaps she should engage in some destruction. She turned and looked at the pony nattering on about how the treasured, sacred institutions of the upper crust were in jeopardy because of all the social upheaval and the rise of all the new money. 

A soft smile came to Princess Celestia’s lips. It was time to tear down the old to make way for the new. She took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and then said, “Excuse me, but I have something to say…” 



 

There was a feeling that anything was possible. Apple Bloom, who was riding high on a wave of euphoria, let out a laugh. Beside her, Bucky was laughing too. All around her were earth ponies, happy earth ponies, and quite a number of griffons. Apple Bloom had no idea that griffons were farmers too, but they were. Many of them farmed bugs, which was icky, but Apple Bloom knew that it was necessary. 

Not too far away, Applejack sat scratching her neck. “So… lemme get this straight. Y’all want to come out onto my farm and haul away some of my green waste, lawn clippings, rotten apples, and all the stuff I gotta worry about cleaning up, and you don’t want me to pay ya? I don’t reckon I understand.” 

One of the griffons nearby nodded. “We need as much compost as possible for our bug farms We’ll come out to your farm, clean up everything, and haul away all of the waste. All we want is the waste, it is very, very valuable for us.” 

“Shucks… I think as neighbors, we can help out,” Applejack replied. 

“Once the bugs get done with it, we can even bring it back as exceptionally rich mulch. It will help your gardens grow,” the griffon said in a low voice. “We wish to provide this service to all of you. If our numbers are to grow, we will need more bugs as a food source. We could hunt or fish, but with as many of us living in this area as there are, we would strain the natural resources. Bugs are sustainable. We just need the green waste and we will give you the best mulch you have ever seen in return.” 

Applejack’s freckled cheeks wrinkled somewhat as she smiled. “Something is buggin’ me though.” The orange mare chuckled at her own joke. “How will you make bits? How will you support yourselves? If’n I’m understanding right, y’all are communal… you share everything with one another, so you’re not selling your bugs… y’all need bits.” 

“We have other ways to make bits. Winterworx belongs to all of us. We all have a share and we all get some of the profits being made by the business.” The griffon peered up at Applejack. “We just need to eat and food is a very pressing concern.” 

Turning to look at Bucky, Applejack’s brows furrowed. “Yeah, I don’t understand that, but that’s real nice of Bucky to include all of y’all in the sharing of profits.” Applejack blinked and tried to comprehend the strange business concept of communal ownership and a fair split of the profits, even to those who didn’t work in the business directly. It was confusing, but it didn’t seem like such a bad thing. “I think we can do business though. I dunno about the rest of the farmers, but Sweet Apple Acres likes the idea of the best mulch that bits can buy.” 



 

Feeling a little jittery, Bucky stood waiting to surrender the season to Dinky. Dinky was wearing a soft pastel green gown and a crown of flowers. Princess Celestia stood nearby, grinning a smug looking grin. There had been some kind of disturbance earlier involving Celestia and the unicorns around her. Bucky had no idea what had happened, but the unicorns had scattered like chickens while Celestia had chased them around. 

Dinky looked as scared and nervous on the outside as Bucky felt on the inside. It was almost noon. The Maiden of Spring would get a kiss from the Lord of Winter and then another kiss from the Lady of Summer. After that, mead and cider would be served, weak mead and cider. No public debauchery like in the days of old.  

The ponyville clock tower showed the time to be ten minutes until twelve noon. The crowd was gathering and the band, led by Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, was playing polka music, heavy on the ‘oompah.’ 

Overhead, Rainbow Dash was zooming back and forth, being chased by Ripple, but staying just out of the filly’s reach, much to Ripple’s frustration. The rainbow maned pegasus was blowing raspberries and was making rude faces. 

Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry were sitting together, enjoying a drink with one another, a refreshing glass of strawberry lemonade that they both shared. Glass Slipper kept tugging on Spike’s tail, trying and testing her brother’s patience. Scootaloo was nowhere to be found and neither was Sweetie Belle or Rumble. Only Apple Bloom could be accounted for, and that was because she was a princess now and had duties. 

Eight minutes until noon. Bucky thought about moving the hands of the clock with his telekinesis. His senses were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of emotion coming from the crowd. He saw Tourmaline peering at him, a curious, quizzical expression upon her face. She was sitting beside Sentinel and Diamond Tiara. 

Seven minutes until noon. A lone pony came running through the crowd, pushing and shoving forwards towards the stage. Bucky raised an eyebrow, wondering what was going on. Somepony appeared to be panicked. 

“Caramel, what in tarnation is going on?” Applejack demanded as the stallion came to a skidding halt before her. 

“Cheerilee… giving… birth!” Caramel panted. 

“Oh shucks,” Applejack replied. “I need to get home, sorry y’all!” 

“Hang on Applejack, I’ll get you—” 

“Oh no Buckminster, you are not escaping yet another formal function!” Celestia said to Bucky. “You have to surrender the season to Dinky. You can’t just leave! I’m sick and tired of you wiggling out of your civic duties!”

Uh oh, Auntie was using contractions. Bucky knew that he’d be paying for this later. “Dinky, take control of the season and do whatever it is you’re supposed to do. Go and give Twist a smooch on the cheek or something. Have fun and be a good filly. Smile pretty for the cameras and whatever you do, don’t do anything stupid!” Bucky reached out with his magic, grabbed Applejack, Violet Velvet, and Silver Shill. 

There was a deafening crackle as Bucky exploded into a cloud of snowflakes and vanished with three other ponies. The crowd stood staring and the music stopped as Pinkie Pie let out a shrill squeal. 

“Cheerilee is having a foal!” Pinkie shouted and then took off in a pink blur that moved off at super-equine speeds, leaving behind a wake of streamers, confetti, and balloons. 

Pronking once, Cheese Sandwich then took off, hot on Pinkie’s heels, darted back, grabbed his accordion, and then took off once more at speeds that made Rainbow Dash jealous. 

“They left me behind!” Apple Bloom shouted as she stomped her hoof. 

“Rainboom express!” Rainbow Dash swooped down and grabbed Apple Bloom, snatching her up and then zooming off towards Sweet Apple Acres. 

Celestia watched them go and heaved a sigh. Nothing ever went as planned. Ever. She turned to look at Twilight, but Twilight was already up and moving. Celestia raised her eyebrow, but Twilight said nothing, she didn’t even offer an apologetic expression. 

“Oh, this is so very gauche, just abandoning this lovely party like this,” Rarity said as she snatched up her saddlebags and her parasol. “Coming Coco?” 

“Oh… yes.” Coco replied, hesitating for a moment. “Where did Discord and Fluttershy go? They were just here…” 

“They left when Bucky gave them a fitting distraction,” Celestia said in a dry voice as she rolled her eyes. “I swear, I am going to give that unicorn a good talking to one of these days.” As she spoke, Twilight Sparkle flew away, carrying Glass Slipper, and Flash Sentry flew behind her, her watchful protector. She looked down at Dinky and sighed as she said: 

“Happy spring, Dinky. You make for a very lovely maiden.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 813
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Smiling, Dinky took a sip of soft cider. She was caught up in the moment. She felt special. She was the Maiden of Spring. She was sitting on Sparkler’s back, drinking cider, and watching as a group of ponies performed a complicated step dance just for her. They kicked, knocked their hooves into the wooden platform, pounded out a complex rhythm, and they did it all for her. 

It was a fantastic feeling, one that Dinky had no idea that she would enjoy so much. She watched the dancers, mesmerised, sitting astride her big sister’s back. Sometimes, Dinky felt angry, even jealous about her big sister, wishing they had more time together. But Sparkler had grown up and had her own family now. She had a job. She had school. She was a young adult. Deep down inside, Dinky felt proud, even if she had trouble expressing it at times. 

She glanced over at Piña, who was sitting on Thistle’s back. Beside Piña and Thistle stood Rising Star, who had Singsong and Brass Note sitting on his back, his adopted siblings. She could not find Sentinel no matter where she looked; it appeared that Diamond Tiara and Boadicea were gone as well. 

Turning her head again, Dinky looked at her family, off some distance away. Her mother, Derpy, was laying on a blanket and Berry Punch was beside her. The newborns were all in a pile under a blanket. Cadance kept poking the blanket and Berry Punch kept trying to keep Cadance’s little hoof away, which caused Dinky to laugh. Harper was playing pattycake with Lyra, trying to keep up with complicated hoof bumps. Lugus was feeding Peekaboo baby carrots. 

Everypony was happy. It wasn’t that long ago that they had all been attacked and their home had been invaded. Dinky shoved those memories from her mind, determined not to let them ruin her wonderful, fabulous day. 

Things had become a little dark, but then got better, and for that, Dinky was grateful. She reached out and stroked Sparkler’s mane, noticing the quivering muscles. She hoped that her sister and her disease could get better somehow. She leaned forwards, getting closer to Sparkler’s ear and asked, “Are you ready to be a Mommy?” She felt Sparkler startle beneath her and Dinky grabbed Sparkler’s sides with her hind legs to keep her balance. 

“I hope so… Dinky, I hope so. I think being your big sister gave me a lot of practice. How do you think I’ll do?” Sparkler replied. 

“You’ll be fine.” Dinky spoke without a second of hesitation and there was no trace of doubt in her voice. “Where is Loch Skimmer anyways?” 

“Loch Skimmer is off at that tent that Zecora set up. She’s getting big belly pictures painted on her stomach, like so many other pregnant mares. Zecora is doing some kind of zebra tribal fertility art. I can’t wait to see it.” Sparkler turned her head so that she could see Dinky out of the corner of her eye. “I can’t believe how well behaved the crowd is.” 

“You’re working right now, aren’t you?” Dinky asked. 

Sparkler nodded. “I’m always on duty. I take my job seriously. This town must be kept safe. It is my home.” 

“And this is why you are the best big sister ever…” 



 

Frustrated, Boadicea looked at Sentinel, huffed, and fluffed out her feathers. The colt was just not acting like himself as of late. Things had been different for him, and Boadicea knew why. Killing never really bothered her, she supposed it was because she was a hunter griffon, or maybe it was because of how she had grown up. She tilted her head when she heard Diamond Tiara begin speaking. 

“Sentinel, you need to talk to us.” Diamond Tiara’s voice was firm, commanding, one of authority. “You can’t always just hold things in. If you do, you’ll end up sick like I was. Or worse.” The pink filly reached out with her hoof and gave Sentinel a good hard poke. He was tough enough to handle anything she could dish out. Sentinel didn’t respond well to ‘gentle’ as Diamond Tiara had found out. Now, she tried to act a bit more like a lunar pegasus might. Much to her relief, Sentinel responded. She saw him looking at her, right in the eye, which was a good start. 

“I can’t keep them safe,” Sentinel said, his voice a pained whimper. “I’m supposed to keep my siblings safe. I can’t… Sombra is just going to keep coming… I see him in my dreams. He’s taunting me. Luna knows about it, she’s trying to make it stop, but I’m connected to all of this because I went inside of Father’s head. Father used my shadow essence to graft shadow nature into himself when he replaced his horn. Sombra doesn’t just want Father… he wants me too… he wants me… he wants a dedicated servant. I don’t know what to do.” 

“Well… he can’t have you. You… you’re mine.” Diamond Tiara’s barrel puffed out. She didn’t know what else to say and shot a glance to Boadicea. 

“They’re all in danger. Father keeps saying that he should have been the last of his bloodline… he hasn’t told anypony else that I know of. He’s so afraid that Sombra will go after his foals. Father can’t stop Sombra… the cultists and others are just going to keep coming. The farm is going to be attacked again, I just know it… and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to kill again. I’m not like Father, I don’t have his strength. I just don’t—” 

“Sentinel, stop.” Boadicea reached out with her talons and gave Sentinel’s left ear a tug. “We’ll get through this together somehow. All of us. You’re not alone. You have me… and you have Diamond Tiara… and while I don’t know Moonbow, I suspect that if she was here, she’d slap you for being mopey rather than coming up with a plan to do something.” 

Sentinel’s eyes widened and he recoiled from the griffoness. After a moment of sitting in shock, he nodded. A second later, Boadicea launched herself at him and he felt himself swept up in a fierce, reassuring hug. 

“Bucky is who he is because of who loves him,” Diamond Tiara said in a low whisper. “Sentinel, you are no different. You’re going to be strong just like he is because of who loves you… and make no mistake, we love you.” 



 

Belisama, always watchful, sat staring at Princess Celestia. The large white alicorn was offering ‘princess lessons.’ She was walking with exaggerated steps, looking rather silly, and a line of little fillies trailed out behind her, trying to mimic Celestia’s comical walk. 

Princess lessons were serious business. 

“Belisama, would you please just let down your guard and enjoy yourself?” Derpy asked in a soft voice. 

“No,” came Belisama’s stony reply. The little griffoness scanned the crowd, her crest raised and her muscles ready for action. Having the newborns out in the open unnerved her. Those were her foals too. She reached up and patted Bandua, who was tucked away in a shawl around Belisama’s neck. Belisama loved each and every one of her foals, from the smallest, which was without a doubt little Bandua, to the largest, which was Rising Star. 

Heads would roll before she allowed harm to come to any of them. 

“Helia is going to pop any day. Gofannon is beside himself,” Lugus said to Belisama. 

The little griffoness looked up at the much larger griffon beside her. “Gofannon is going to pluck out all of his own feathers if he does not relax.” 

“The same could be said for you,” Lugus replied. 

Belisama bristled and her eyes narrowed. “I have had things try to kill my husband. Things I have trouble comprehending. Vermin—” Belisama let out a loud hiss after spitting out the word ‘vermin’ and then continued: “— tried to harm my offspring.” 

“My beloved Queen Belisama, I meant no offense.” Lugus bowed his head and held out another carrot for Peekaboo to eat. 

“Vermin!” Belisama hissed through an open beak. 

“I think somebirdy needs a hug,” Derpy said as she pulled Belisama into an embrace. 

The griffoness fluffed out, her fur and her feathers puffing out to make her look twice as large as she really was. Her tail tufted and slashed the air. He talons flexed. Her crest rose straight up and her eyes narrowed as she glowered. But she did not resist the grey mare. Derpy headed the pride and Belisama was subject to the pecking order. If the grey one said it was time for hugs, then the grey one’s word was law. Hissing like a teakettle, Belisama allowed herself to be hugged, stroked, and petted. She felt Derpy trying to smooth out her ruffled feathers. 

“You know, for being no bigger than Dinky or Piña, Belisama sure is dangerous looking,” Berry Punch remarked in a Berry serious voice. “I’m glad she’s on our side.” 

“Vermin need to be exterminated,” Lugus said in a low voice as he looked down at Peekaboo. He felt very protective and he looked over at Yew Wood, who had Brennus in a shawl around her neck, following Belisama’s advice. “Peekaboo, what do we do with vermin?” 

“We smash them until they brains go squirt out their butts,” Peekaboo replied, blinking and looking very serious. “Then we smash again and again until we sure they dead.” The foal’s wings flared out from her side. “Vermin.” She looked around, trying to find anything that might resemble vermin, so she could smash it and make her Daddy proud. After a moment, she found an acceptable vermin substitute. 

Snarling, Peekaboo lept upon and then savaged Lugus’ tail with her little flat teeth. 



 

“Hi hi.” Hearing these words, Derpy turned her head and saw Bucky. He was swaying. He was swallowed by his cloak, but the parts of him that she could see looked sweaty. His voice wavered. Derpy could only reach one conclusion. 

“Are you drunk?” she asked. 

“No,” Bucky replied. “But I feel like it.” 

“How is Cheerilee?” Derpy looked at her husband as he sat down upon the blanket. 

“She’s fine. There was some tearing.” Bucky reached up and rubbed his face beneath his hood. “A colt. She had a colt. He’s a big one. Not as big as Brandywine though. It was really good that I brought Violet… the doctor that was supposed to be there for Cheerilee’s birth was off with another mare who was giving birth and he couldn’t be in two places at once.” 

“It’s good that she’s okay.” Derpy let out a little sigh and looked over at Berry, who was napping in the sun. “You like being there when birth happens, don’t you?” 

“Yes.” Bucky nodded. “Seen too much death. I want to see lives begin… not end.” 

“I understand.” Derpy leaned over and gave Bucky a little peck on his snoot. 

“Violet says that I’d make a good midwife.” Bucky grinned, revealing jagged teeth. “Also, I’ve learned that my little puffs of dragonbreath are great for sterilising stuff.” He puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled and then his grin widened. “I feel great. My dearest lady, if you will excuse me, I have a young lady to go and dance with.” 

Derpy giggled. “Oh, do you now? Now that I’ve squirted out a few foals, I’m probably not as interesting… I see how it is.” She gave her husband a one eyed stare and stuck her tongue out. “Fine, go be with her. I’ll just be here, looking after your foals, you cad.” 

Reaching out his talons, Bucky stroked Derpy’s cheek and then he strode away, grinning from ear to ear. 



 

“Might I have this dance?” Bucky asked. He looked down at Dinky, whose face was stained with what appeared to be frozen custard. “I offer you my most sincere apologies for my sudden departure.” 

“I dunno,” Dinky said in a low voice as she gave her father a wary look. “You went off and left me in the lurch. I had to listen to Princess Celestia complain about how you always find a way to escape. She went on about it for a long time.” 

“Please?” Bucky gave his daughter a pleading look as he lowered his head. Reaching out with his right hoof, he prodded her. “Dance with me?” 

“Oh fine,” Dinky sighed. She leaned over and gave Bucky a kiss, leaving frozen custard smeared on his cheek. She felt herself lifted in Bucky’s magic and she wrapped her forelegs around her father’s neck, reaching beneath his cloak.

Triumphant, Bucky led Dinky away to the wooden platform where others danced. 

Holding Dinky close to him, Bucky swayed from side to side as he moved around the edges of the wooden platform. He moved with easy grace on three legs, or appeared to anyway, and had one foreleg wrapped around Dinky’s middle as he clutched her to his neck. 

“You’re growing up so fast,” Bucky whispered. 

“I know,” Dinky replied. “I’m scared. A lot of stuff is going on. Everything is changing.” 

“You know that you can always come to me, right?” Bucky closed his eyes and listened as the band played some kind of waltz. For however many years he had left, he wanted to spend them doing something like this, dancing with his fillies, or spending time with his colts. “So… how did your special project in school go?” 

“I was able to keep something levitated as I went to sleep. Turns out I’m not the first unicorn to have this idea. Not many unicorns can do it. They lack the mental discipline. But I can keep something in my telekinesis for a while after I doze off,” Dinky replied. 

“I’m proud of you.” Bucky gave Dinky a squeeze. “You are going to grow up, you are going to be beautiful just like your mother, and you are going to have such a promising future…” Bucky fell silent, not able to bring himself to say that he wasn’t going to be there to see it. “Dinky, whatever you do, stick to your principles… hold tight to your values… and do your best not to compromise them. Once you do—” 

“I know,” Dinky said, cutting in. “Once I do, I might start down a path that I can’t return from and then there is no choice but to keep going down that path.” 

Bucky blinked a few times, something had gotten in his eyes, perhaps a hair or something. He was so overwhelmed at the moment, he felt so much love… he felt tipsy and emotional, as if he had been drinking. He had to hold it together though. Dinky deserved her special moment. He loved her so much. Without a doubt, she loved him. He could feel it. It gave him hope. There was no doubt and he felt more secure in the knowledge that Dinky really loved him. 

“Daddy?” 

“What is it, Dinks?” 

“I’ve learned something very important from you.” 

“And that is?” 

“If I do have to compromise my values… if I do have to walk down that path, however scary it might be, I’ll keep going and keep doing whatever it is that needs to be done. There’s no point in going halfway. Sentinel and I talk about it sometimes, doing what needs to be done. You’ve taught me an awful lot about magic, but you also taught me about courage and how to keep going.” 

“Thank you, Dinky.” 

“No, thank you, Daddy.” Dinky gave her father’s neck a squeeze. “Thank you for everything…” 
	
> Chapter 814
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The room was cosy and a fire burned in the grate. While the spring was warm, the nights were still chilly. Sunset Shimmer’s quarters now resembled a proper unicorn’s home, it was a fantastic clutter of everything interesting, mixed with things that brought comfort, far too many books, and all manner of arcane devices scattered about. 

Sunset Shimmer sat upon a couch by herself. Trixie and Bartleby had gone for a walk, knowing that the meeting taking place was not for their ears. Bucky sat on a large hexagonal pillow covered with stars and constellations, an entire star chart had been embroidered upon it. Princess Celestia reclined upon a sofa that had the odd shape of a spoon, her body resting in the spoony part. Sentinel sat on a cushion by a low table where a few treats had been left out. 

“I know it has been a very long day, but I have come to a decision, as has Luna. She cannot be here with us at the moment, as she is taking some much needed family time with Barley and Erebus. Her priorities have changed,” Celestia said in a soft voice. 

“You should be with Tourmaline.” Bucky’s words were little more than a soft spoken whisper, but they carried through the room with ease. “Priorities…” 

“My priorities have changed, Nephew.” Celestia gave Bucky a hard stare for a moment but then her expression softened. “Tourmaline is with your family and getting a chance to visit. She is happy and content.” The white alicorn drew in a deep breath. “Today, after chastising a group of ponies with awful thinking—” 

Bucky took note that Celestia had said ponies with awful thinking, and not awful ponies. 

“—I had a moment of reflection. I have reached a decision and I now know what I must do. Sombra must be dealt with sooner, rather than later. He has grown far too dangerous and far reaching—” 

“Sentinel is not ready,” Bucky said, interrupting and waving his talons, “there is no way that Sentinel could face Sombra right now!” 

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. “Sentinel will not be facing Sombra. I plan to send Sunset Shimmer in his stead.” 

“NO!” Sentinel lept up to his hooves and his lips curled into an inarticulate snarl of rage. He stood growling, unable to speak beyond his initial outburst. He stomped his hooves and writhing tendrils of black shadow crawled along his body. 

“Sentinel, I am sorry, but this is a problem that cannot wait. There is not enough time for you to grow older, wiser, and stronger. I know this was promised to you, but there will be other chances for you to prove yourself.” Celestia bowed her head, closed her eyes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. 

“Sunset can’t go alone!” Bucky snapped. 

“You cannot go with her, Buckminster. Neither can Twilight, she has… other concerns to look after. Sunset has the raw skill and the magical ability. This will be a good test for her.” Celestia opened her eyes and looked at Bucky. 

“There are no words for how much I hate you right now,” Bucky spat and then vanished. He exploded into a shower of snowflakes and left behind a layer of ice on his star chart covered pillow. 

“Father has done nothing but serve you faithfully and his reward is that you murder his student…” Sentinel fell silent, shook his head, and then hurried to leave the room. 

“Sentinel, wait!” Celestia said, her voice pleading. 

But Sentinel didn’t wait. He left, fleeing the room, not even looking back over his shoulder, choking back angry retorts and hurtful words. In mere seconds he was out the door and retreating down the stairs, leaving behind Celestia and Sunset Shimmer to stare at one another. 

Bowing her head, Sunset Shimmer nodded. “I will do what needs to be done. I will find a way.” Her nods turned to shakes and she looked Celestia in the eye. “If something does happen to me, he will never forgive you. He will see it as a failure to protect me, which he has sworn some sort of oath to do.” 

“He will come around,” Celestia said in a voice that was choked with the need to sob. 

“No… he will not.” Sunset Shimmer looked sad. “Forgive me for my contradiction, but I know him better than you do. Sombra will be dealt with, one way or another. I will do what needs to be done.” 

“I guess to do the right thing, sometimes sacrifices are necessary.” 

“Sometimes, yes.” 



 

Alone in his room, Sentinel seethed in his usual quiet fashion. He sat at his desk, a pencil held between his thumb and central knuckle, trying to write, but no words would come. One eyelid twitched. Writhing tendrils of black shadow curled and looped around his body. 

The pencil snapped from too much pressure. 

Ears pinning back against his skull, Sentinel stared at the broken pieces. This wasn’t about proving himself as a prince… or proving worthy as his father’s heir. Sentinel, more than anything, wanted to destroy Sombra’s fell shadow. 

Behind him, the door creaked open. He knew who it was from scent alone, there was no need to turn his head. “Now is not a good time, Boadicea.” 

“So you say… but I couldn’t help but feel that there is something wrong. A certain colt and I were supposed to go hunting together… and gobble down delicious frogs,” Boadicea replied. 

“I’m sorry, but something else came up.” He turned and looked at the griffoness entering his room. “Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for company right now.” Sentinel’s ears splayed outwards in a more apologetic position. 

“Yeah, well, stuff what you want. You think I’m gonna leave now that I’ve seen that something is hurting you?” Boadicea pushed the door shut behind her, kicking it in place with her hind paw until the latch clicked. Her black eyes focused upon Sentinel and her crest rose halfway. 

“Princess Celestia is sending Sunset Shimmer to deal with Sombra… and not me.” Sentinel slumped down in his seat. “I am being denied the chance to protect my family and avenge the many wrongs done to my father.” 

“What?” Boadicea’s eyes went wide. “No… no… this is a matter of honour… she can’t take that from you… the very idea is insulting… how could she? How could she… how could she be so heartless and cruel?” The griffoness sat down upon the floor, stunned, her body almost going limp as her brain processed what Sentinel said. “I thought Sun Mother was a better pony… I don’t understand how she could do this.” 

“I don’t either… I do not think that honour matters much to her,” Sentinel grumbled. 

“What will you do?” Boadicea asked. 

“I don’t know,” Sentinel replied. 

“This insult cannot stand… you must do something… you have to do something.” Boadicea flexed her talons. “Whatever you do, I will help you.” 

“Thank you.” Sentinel looked at Boadicea and felt something warming in his heart when he gazed into her eyes. “Princess Luna and my father are downstairs talking. I think… I shall go speak with them.” 

“Yes, make your feelings known.” Boadicea fluffed out and gave her wings a flap. “How… insulting.” She shivered. “It makes my skin crawl, like I’m covered with bugs.” 

“If I did something stupid, would you stick by me?” Sentinel asked. 

Boadicea tilted her head to one side, then tilted her head to the other side, never once taking her eyes off of Sentinel. “There are words over the door, ‘don’t do anything stupid.’ Isn’t that like a family motto or something?” 

“This is Princess Celestia’s fault… she’s left me with nothing but stupid things to do.” Sentinel scowled and bared his teeth. “She brought this stupidness about.” 

“Well, if you do something stupid, I’m right there with you. Lugus might be really unhappy, but he did tell me that if I was considering you as a mate, I am supposed to stand by you, right or wrong. He can’t punish me for following his instructions.” The griffoness blinked. “What are you going to do?” 

“I dunno yet… probably something stupid,” Sentinel replied. 



 

Standing outside the library, Sentinel was very relieved to discover that the library had not been soundproofed. Inside, he could hear three heartbeats and two voices speaking. There was his father, who sounded angry, there was Luna, whose voice was soft and reassuring, and based upon the fussy snuffling sounds, Erebus was in there with his mother. 

“If something happens to Sunset Shimmer, I will never, ever forgive your sister.” 

“Buckminster… somepony has to try. It can’t be you. Sentinel isn’t ready. Twilight is fat with foal… who else has the magical skill or ability to even stand a chance?” 

Sentinel scowled and his teeth clenched together. 

“Not my student… send some other fool to their death… send a thousand, I don’t care! Just don’t send her!” 

Sentinel cringed, unable to bear the sounds of his father begging. 

“You do not mean that.” Luna’s voice was a soft whisper. 

“Even if she survives, who knows what this will do to her? How it might scar her? What darkness it might leave upon her soul? How this will hurt her… no… no, I will not allow it.” 

“My faithful student,” Luna began, “there is nothing you can do to stop it. At some point, every teacher must send their student into danger. They must be allowed to be tested, so they can grow. They must face risk.” 

“No! He’ll shred her soul… you know what he’s capable of!” 

“Yes. I do.” Sentinel waited for Luna to continue, his ears straining. He had heard her sucking in a deep breath so he knew that she was about to say something. “I also know what Sunset is capable of. You have trained her well. Her power rivals yours or even Twilight’s, back when Twilight was still a unicorn. You have given her restraint, you have taught her respect, you made her responsible with the immense power that she holds… the kind of power that could save the world, or destroy it. She has shown that she can be trusted with it.” 

“No… please… no…” 

Hearing his father whimpering was like a physical pain for Sentinel. He felt hot stinging tears in the corners of his eyes. 

“Don’t take my student… she’s suffered enough… she’s suffered enough!” 

“Buckminster, Sunset Shimmer has Sombra’s horn. My sister, Celestia, gave it to her. It will aid Sunset in finding where Sombra is. The horn has been turned into a soul trap, and with the right magic, Sunset’s magic, the shredded remains of his soul can be drawn in. He can be defeated. The horn will be taken to Tartarus and he will be locked away.” 

“If something happens to her, I will never forgive either of you! Get out! Get out of my library! Get out of my house! I want nothing to do with you right now!” 

Sentinel blinked back more tears. He heard Erebus crying. After a moment, he heard Luna crying. Luna was crying… Sentinel’s ears perked at the sound. He heard hooves coming towards the library door. 

Not knowing what else to do, Sentinel shadow winked to get out of there before he was seen. 



 

Standing in the grass, Sentinel looked up at the moon, then suffered a paranoid thought that he was being spied upon. He darted into the darkness, avoiding the moonlight. He needed advice. He needed help. He needed the helpful wisdom of somepony as clever and as treacherous as his father was. 

Sentinel was not filled with such cunning or treachery. It was not his way. But right now, more than anything else, he knew that he needed it. Inside of his mind, a plan was already forming, but he’d need help. 

He glanced around. If he flew, he’d be seen, he was certain of it. Instead, he took off at a swift run, going to the one being that Sentinel knew would help him. There would be no way that he could resist. 



 

Standing on the stoop, Sentinel saw that there were lights on. He felt a little relieved. It made this easier. He was about to do something stupid, but he didn’t want to be rude. Being rude was unforgivable. 

Reaching up his hoof, he knocked upon the door. 

A moment later, a tall figure pulled the door open. Sentinel looked up and saw that Discord was looking down. Sentinel, who always tried to be polite, waved. 

“Hello,” Sentinel said as he waved. 

Discord bent over and leaned down, getting nose to nose with Sentinel. “You smell like trouble. Big trouble.”

“That’s why I am here,” Sentinel said to Discord. “I need your help. You’re the only one I can trust to do what needs done.” 

“Come in.” Discord didn’t give Sentinel a chance to disagree. He grabbed the colt, yanked him inside, and then slammed the door. 



 

“So… let me get this straight… let me try to understand this… you plan to break into Sunset Shimmer’s room, steal Sombra’s horn, then rendezvous with Scootaloo, who you have selected to be your pilot, then you plan to steal your father’s airship, along with Scootaloo, and then you plan to go and reclaim your honour?” Discord squinted at Sentinel with a disbelieving stare. 

Sentinel nodded. “More or less.” 

“Isn’t there a sign above your front door saying something like ‘don’t do anything stupid’... do you know how stupid this is?” Discord’s incredulous stare intensified. 

“And I need you to make a massive distraction that will allow me time to escape.” Sentinel stared into Discord’s eyes almost unblinking. “I plan to leave with the dawn.” 

“They’ll stop you… they’ll try to board the ship—” 

“Then I shall open fire upon them… politely, if possible, and give them warning shots. The Scorned Mare is a tough nut to crack and she’s fast. I just need a really good distraction to give me a decent chance of escape.” Sentinel cleared his throat. “Please… help me.” 

Discord shrugged. “Okay, fine… I’m in. They’re going to have Sparkler turn me into a statue for this… but I understand why you are doing this. Anything for those you love.” 

Sentinel gave Discord a grim nod. 

“Don’t die… really… don’t die… ugh, I’m not supposed to get involved in stuff like this… look, I’ll give you the distraction you need and I’ll call in a few favours. I’ll try to help in other ways… if something were to happen to you, Bucky would kill me. Trust me, he would… he knows how to do it… he explained it to me in great detail about what he would do if I turned into a bad draconequus and hurt Fluttershy.” Discord paused. “Also, your father is creepy.” 

“He is also your friend.” Sentinel took a deep breath and tried to calm himself so he could clear his mind. 

“Well, yes… yes he is. And Fluttershy’s friend as well. We’re all a fine collection of chaos creatures… a draconequus pair and a boogeypony. Somepony has to annoy those brooding alicorns and keep them on their hooves. They have no sense of humour.” 

“I must be going,” Sentinel said. “The dawn comes ever closer.” 

“Allow me.” Discord raised his talons and snapped his fingers. 

All around Sentinel, the world turned a funky shade of plaid. 



 

Sentinel found himself right beside Scootaloo’s bed. She was staring at him, but she hadn’t screamed. Her eyes were bright and curious. She had a book in her hooves, A History of the Wonderbolts. 

“Ensign Sentinel, should I salute?” Scootaloo asked. 

For a moment, Sentinel really, really wanted to give Scootaloo a hug. And maybe a friendly kiss. She was such a good friend. He almost felt bad for involving her in this. There were going to be dire consequences. 

Almost felt bad. 

Almost. 

Sentinel sucked in a deep breath. “Fledgling Scootaloo… your services are needed. I plan to steal my father’s airship and I need your innate skills as a pilot.” 

The orange pegasus filly blinked. “Um, I seem to recall, you have some kind of family saying… what was it… oh, right… ‘don’t do anything stupid’ is what I think it was.” 

“I’m stealing an airship so I can go after Sombra’s shadow, kill it, and save my family. I have to protect my father, my mothers, my siblings, and I have to protect Sunset Shimmer, because if something happens to her, my father will hate both Luna and Celestia. And if that happens, the world might end. That kind of hate might undo him, and I know that you know what I mean by that.” 

“Yeah… yeah I do.” Scootaloo’s cheeks puffed out. “So… end of the world… we’re going to prevent the end of the world.” 

“Maybe,” Sentinel replied. 

“Well, that’s all the motivation I need. Raptor Fledgling Table Scraps reporting for duty.” Scootaloo grinned. “So… when are we making our move?” 

“By dawn. There are a few things I need to take care of first. Ready to go?” Sentinel gave Scootaloo a hopeful look. 

“I’ll meet you at the farm. I have a few things I need to take care of too.” Scootaloo’s smile became devious. “Go do whatever you need to do and then trust me.” 

“Thank you,” Sentinel gushed. He lept forward, grabbed Scootaloo, and gave her a squeeze, sandwiching the book between them. “You’re a good friend… they’re going to kill us for this, you know?” 

“Oh, Rainbow Dash told me to be loyal… always loyal. She can’t punish me for me doing what I’m told.” Scootaloo squeezed back. “I’ll be at the farmhouse in just a little while.” 

“Okay… I’d better go before we get caught,” Sentinel said as he pulled away. 



 

Standing just outside of Sunset Shimmer’s door, Sentinel pressed his ear to the door and listened. He could hear three heartbeats inside. He paused and sniffed. The air reeked of sex, the scent of mares and the musty scent of spunk. From the sounds of it, they were asleep. 

Sentinel dove into shadow, becoming little more than a blob of amorphous darkness, and slipped beneath the crack under the door. He flowed into Sunset Shimmer’s room, a thief born on darkness, and then slipped out of shadow, becoming almost, but not quite solid. Luna’s lessons were paying off. 

He paused, sniffing, and then focused his shadow senses, trying to find something in this room that was touched by shadow. In the corner was a large glass orb. There was a long jewel encrusted rod sitting on a stand. There was a silver circlet that radiated strong shadow magic. 

Then he felt it, something dark and cold. On the table was a wooden box. He crept through the room, floating in the darkness. Trixie let out a little whinny in her sleep, she was piled in the bed with Bartleby and Sunset. 

Sentinel, full of shame, knew that he was going to have to beg for their forgiveness after coming into their home like a common thief and stealing something. When he reached the table, he focused all of his willpower and extended tendrils of shadow from himself. He lifted the lid of the box using umbrakinesis and looked inside. 

There it was. Red. Glowing. Sombra’s horn. It pulsated as if it had its own heartbeat or something. He was suddenly overcome with the overwhelming desire to grab the horn and jam it into his forehead. He heard whispers, hissing voices, he could hear promises… promises of strength, promises of power, promises that he would be given what he needed to keep his siblings safe… forever. 

Images flashed in his mind, he saw himself, full grown, and he was a lunar alicorn. He was tall, large, powerful, the sort of body he would need to defend the world, to protect everything he loved. And to have it, all he had to do was jam the horn down into his forehead. 

So little to ask for so much in return. 

Not just shadow magic, but unicorn magic—no, alicorn magic. Just stab it in!

Don’t do anything stupid, a voice inside of Sentinel’s head said. It sounded an awful lot like Berry Punch. Do it, and I will kick your little fuzzy behind into next Tuesday.” 

Sentinel paused. An angry Berry Punch was a whole lot scarier than Sombra. He shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to shut the different voices out. Berry Punch’s voice was the right one to listen to. Sentinel decided not to do anything stupid. He snatched up the horn in his umbrakinesis, dove back into shadow, taking the horn with him, and then slipped out beneath the door. 



 

Returning to his room, Sentinel was greeted by his sisters and one griffoness. He froze in the doorway, unable to read his sisters’ expressions. He felt himself grabbed in Dinky’s magic and then the door was shut behind him. 

“Discord contacted me,” Dinky said in a low voice. “I know what you are doing and if you think you can get away with it—” 

“Dinky, I have to try,” Sentinel said, cutting his sister off. 

“Let me finish, you fluffy eared moron,” Dinky’s eyes narrowed and she glared at her brother, “if you think for one minute that I would let you go off alone, you are sorely mistaken. I should swat some sense into you, you dunderheaded doofus.” 

“You can’t come with me.” Sentinel gave his angry sister a fearful glance. 

“I can’t?” Dinky’s face contorted with hot anger. “I didn’t ask you if I could. I am coming with you and you can’t stop me. You need me.” Dinky lifted her brother up into the air and gave him a good stern shaking.

“Yep, we’re coming with you,” Piña said in a far more cheerful and a lot less angry voice. “Boadicea… do you have that duct tape I asked you to get?” 

The black griffoness held out the dark grey roll of duct tape and let out a low squawk. “Sorry Sentinel, Yew Wood told me that sometimes, a mate has to do awful things to their partner… for their own good. Don’t make me do awful things. Cause I’ll do them, and you know that.” 

“We need to start preparing the ship,” Dinky said. “I have no idea what to do, but I know it has tethers. We should try to slip those off while it is good and dark.” 

“We should be okay for food, I know that the ship stays well stocked just for emergencies,” Piña said. 

“We should be going.” Boadicea waved the duct tape in front of Sentinel. 

Sentinel felt a growing lump in his throat. “Thank you, all of you.” 



 

It was going to be dawn in less than two hours. Sentinel wondered where Scootaloo was. He stood on the deck of The Scorned Mare, pacing back and forth, worried out of his mind. He was tired, bone weary, it had been a long day. A good day. A pleasant day. Right up until the moment that Celestia tried to take everything away from him. 

“Movement,” Boadicea said as she stood near the rail. 

Sentinel peered down, his eyes piercing the darkness. In a moment, he lept over the railing, unfurled his wings, and flew down to the ground. A small group was moving from shadow to shadow. He approached them. 

“Sentinel, you shit for brains, I should kick your fuzzy little keister,” Diamond Tiara whispered as Sentinel landed. 

“Oh no,” Sentinel moaned. 

“Oh yes,” Diamond Tiara hissed. She stomped forwards, breaking away from Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. She kissed Sentinel on the cheek, her lips lingering, and then, after she pulled away, she slapped him, hard, her hoof striking him in the muzzle. 

The colt stood there, confused, blinking, not understanding what was going on. 

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot, start flying us up to the ship, you nincompoop.” Diamond Tiara’s voice could cut glass, it was hard, angry, and commanding. 

“This has officially become princess business,” Apple Bloom said. “This is a threat to Equestria and I’m taking action.” She pointed up at her head. “See, I brought my crown and everything.” 

“All of you are going to be in so much trouble.” 

Everypony froze at the sound of the voice. It was quite some distance away. 

“Spike, don’t you dare,” Scootaloo said. 

“I don’t plan to tell… they’ll have to torture me to get me to talk.” Spike emerged from some bushes near the wall of the school. “All of you be careful with whatever it is that you are about to do.” 

“You could come with us,” Sweetie Belle said to Spike. “We could use a noble dragon.” 

“Glass Slipper needs me. With Twilight being so busy, Glass Slipper needs me. Otherwise, I would.” Spike cleared his throat. “Scootaloo, you be careful. All of you. I don’t know what is about to happen, and I don’t want to know. The less I know the better.” 

“Spike, you’re the best brother a sister could hope for,” Scootaloo said in a low voice. 

“I know,” Spike replied in bashful tones. 

“We need to be ready,” Scootaloo said to the group. “Discord said that we’d know what to do when it happens. I don’t know what he has planned. He just told me to be ready.” 

“Goodbye… Spike… look after Glass Slipper… do what big brothers do. I’m about to look after all my little sisters… if something happens… if something goes wrong, can you look after a few more?” Sentinel looked at Spike and blinked. 

Spike, running forward, nodded. He slammed into Sentinel and wrapped his forelegs around Sentinel’s neck, squeezing with all the strength he could muster. “Don’t talk like that!” 

“Hush, pipe down, both of y’all.” Apple Bloom’s commanding voice brought silence to the night. “We need to be ready. Spike, tell my sister not to worry. It’s my turn to save the world and now she gets to see what it feels like.” 

“Tell mine that too,” Sweetie Belle added. 

“Goodbye, all of you, and good luck,” Spike said as he let go of Sentinel. 
	
> Chapter 815
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Dawn approached. The horrible whispering inside of his head wasn’t getting any better. Sentinel, standing on the deck of The Scorned Mare, knew that there were probably going to be some sore bottoms and tender snoots once this was all said and done. This wasn’t the sort of thing one just got a lecture for. Piña was already rubbing her bottom and mumbling about about what both Berry Punch and Bon Bon were going to do, as well as mentioning the likelihood of them taking turns, picking up where the other left off when one got tired. It was the tragic drawback to having more than one mother. 

Dinky mentioned that Thistle might even get in on the action; she was a Shetlander after all, and they had a different way of showing love as the foals had learned when Berry Punch was giving birth. 

There was a collective shudder of terror when Piña quietly suggested that even Barley O’Blivion might be a wee bit upset over this fiasco. With Barley being a unicorn, there would be no running away, Barley had reach with his magic. 

As the first few pink rays of dawn broke over the horizon, Sentinel considered his chances of a clean escape. 



 

The whole ship shuddered; Scootaloo did not make the airship take off in the same smooth way as Bucky or Lyra. The ship jolted, lurched, and banged against its cradle, causing quite a ruckus. Sentinel gritted his teeth and hissed, fearing the worst. 

Much to his surprise, nothing happened. At least, not yet. The sun was rising and the dawn brigade was hard at work. Sentinel thought of Loch Skimmer, she had her job of orchestrating the dawn again and she was happy. She had a wonderful, happy, fantastic purpose in life. She had a function in society that she loved. Sentinel still did not know or understand his place. 

The Scorned Mare rose into the air, heading for clouds. Scootaloo had mentioned that the gasbag needed a refill. Sentinel stood near the rail, looking down, his gaze falling over the farm and in the distance, Ponyville. He wondered what Discord was up to. 

Almost as if Discord had somehow sensed that Sentinel was thinking about him, chaos erupted. Over Ponyville, pink, fluffy cotton candy clouds appeared and in mere moments, there was a torrential downpour of chocolate milk. Looking down, Sentinel could see that the chocolate milk showers were only over Ponyville, but something truly horrible swarmed through the trees and descended upon the farm. 

“OH FECK!” Piña swore, free to do so because there were no adults around, “it’s like the time that Pinkie Pie found the mirror pool!” 

Below were hundreds and hundreds of Pinkie Pies, they swarmed the school and the farmhouse, no doubt to say, “Hello,” or “Good morning,” or “Hiya!” in a chirpy voice. Somewhere, the ominous sound of polka music began to play. 

“Scootaloo! Full power! Full power! Get us out of here, NOW!” Sentinel commanded. 



 

“Nopony is trying to stop us,” Apple Bloom said as she peered over the rail. “I didn’t think this would work. I honestly thought that we’d be stopped by now.” The earth pony filly looked at Canterlot, which was dead ahead. They were heading north, into a strong headwind. “I wonder if we will make it past Canterlot.” 

“I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done.” Sweetie Belle stood beside Apple Bloom, her eyes watering from the wind, or perhaps something else. “I can’t be wrong for sticking by my friends. I’m hoping that Rarity will understand that.” 

“My mothers are the Element of Loyalty and the Princess of Friendship. If I get in trouble for this, it would be, um… um… hippocratic?” Scootaloo’s face contorted. 

“Hypocritical,” Sweetie Belle said, correcting Scootaloo and rolling her eyes. “Dodo.” 



 

Sentinel, standing on the upper deck, watched as Canterlot began to drift by on his left. They were passing it, slowly but surely, and nopony had come to stop them. They had not been boarded. Sentinel was beginning to worry. By now, something should have happened. 

He turned to look at Diamond Tiara, who was standing beside him, her mane waving and streaming in the wind. Sentinel raised his eyebrow and cleared his throat with a polite little cough, he then gave Diamond a soft nudge. “Why did you slap me?” He saw the pink filly bite her lip and he knew that he was in trouble. 

“Because you are an idiot,” Diamond Tiara replied after spending a moment chewing on her lip. “You aren’t just any idiot, you are the official village idiot of Ponyville.” 

Sighing, Sentinel hung his head and tucked his tail between his legs. 

“Your father… he had such high hopes for you. You were supposed to be the reliable one. You were supposed to be the trustworthy one. You were supposed to be the one that the princesses could turn to in times of trouble, knowing that you were steady, stable, and reasonable!” Diamond Tiara sucked in a lungful of cold air and then continued, “But you blew that… you just blew all of that. You did something reckless, brash, and stupid. STUPID! You did something that you can never take back… you acted just like Bucky… and HE IS NOT A SMART PONY! BUCKY IS A SELF PROFESSED IDIOT AND HE WANTED BETTER FOR YOU! IT WAS HIS HOPE, HIS DREAM, IT WAS HIS MOST SINCERE AND FONDEST WISH! AND YOU… YOU JUST WRECKED EVERYTHING HE WANTED FOR YOU!” 

For just a moment, Sentinel wanted to curl up and die. Each and every word hurt, cutting him right down to his marrow. He cringed away from Diamond Tiara, realising just what it was that he had done. “If I did something so bad, why are you here with me? Why not just slap me and go home?” 

Diamond Tiara whirled on Sentinel, raised her hoof, and for the second time this day, she delivered a stunning blow across Sentinel’s chops. Her lip curled back from her teeth and her breath whistled as she inhaled so she could continue to let Sentinel have exactly what he needed. “BECAUSE I MADE A CHOICE! THAT CHOICE WAS YOU! RIGHT OR WRONG, GOOD OR BAD, HAPPY OR TRAGIC, I CHOSE TO BE WITH YOU! HOURS AND HOURS OF THERAPY, TIME SPENT WITH DOCTOR MAWU, AND SOMETIMES WITH RARITY AND APPLEJACK, AND WE TALKED ABOUT ME AND HOW I CAN IMPROVE MYSELF! AND I WANTED TO IMPROVE MYSELF FOR YOU! I HAVE INVESTED ENDLESS HOURS OF MY TIME SORTING OUT MY SHIT SO I CAN GET BETTER… FOR YOU! AND AFTER ALL THIS TIME AND EFFORT INVESTED, I CAN’T JUST GIVE UP ON YOU! YOU ARE MY LIFE! MY REASON TO BE A BETTER PONY! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT MAKES ME CRAZY! CRAZY! I PLAN TO STICK THIS OUT WITH YOU, COME TARTARUS OR HIGH WATER, BUT WHEN YOU SCREW UP, LIKE YOU HAVE JUST DONE, YOU BETTER BELIEVE THAT I AM GOING TO LET YOU HAVE IT, BECAUSE IT MAKES ALL THE HOURS I’VE SPENT WORKING, SLAVING AWAY TO GET BETTER FEEL LIKE A WASTE OF TIME… YOU IDIOT!”

“I’m sorry,” Sentinel said, apologising and rubbing his sore cheek. She had gotten him on both the left and the right. 

Squeezing her eyes shut, trying to hold back tears, Diamond Tiara lunged forward, smooshed her lips into Sentinel’s, gave him an angry kiss, bit his lip between her teeth, applied pressure, tugged, opened her eyes, stared into his surprised looking eyes, snarled in a way that no earth pony had ever done before, and then let go. 

Eyes streaming tears, Diamond Tiara fled, running off to go and sob belowdecks. 



 

Canterlot was now behind them and The Scorned Mare was making good time. It would be noon soon. Sentinel had seen a few airships off in the distance, but they made no move to follow or intercept. They had remained hovering over Canterlot. 

Which worried Sentinel. By now, somepony should have tried to stop him. Nopony had. Sentinel found this suspicious, but he could not discern the reason. He knew that The Scorned Mare was a dangerous vessel for her size. The addition of the liquid methane cannons meant that any ship approaching would be frozen solid, plummet to the ground, and possibly shatter on impact. 

Sentinel yawned. He hadn’t had any sleep since yesterday. He was exhausted and his face was sore. He frowned, what Diamond Tiara had done was nothing compared to what awaited. Sentinel had potentially just screwed up his life and possibly ruined his father’s plans. There would be no fixing that. Plus, coming home… when he came home… there was going to be an angry grey pegasus. Sentinel realised that if he had, in fact, just broken his father’s heart… Derpy was going to be furious. Sentinel shivered, and it wasn’t from the cold. He lived and breathed for Derpy’s praise and approval, just as he did for his father’s. The grey pegasus might do everything short of killing him. His mind reeled as he began to imagine all of the horrible ways he might be punished. 

Sentinel was far more afraid of going home than he was of facing Sombra. 

Going north was safer. 



 

Diamond Tiara awoke with a start, not realising that she had dozed off. She was groggy, her medications made it difficult to wake up sometimes, and even in the middle of an adventure, she had remembered to take her pills this morning. Feeling dopey, she tried to understand what was going on around her. 

She was in bed and somepony was in bed with her. There was something hard, solid, and hot pressed up against her backside. The back of her neck and her mane were wet. Somepony was pressed against her back. That somepony was Sentinel, and by the feeling of what was throbbing against her, he was very, very aroused. Diamond Tiara gave her lips a nervous lick. 

“Sentinel?” 

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I can’t help it!” Sentinel sobbed. 

Diamond Tiara tried to move, felt Sentinel’s turgid length brushing up against her, and then she felt it twitch as she moved her hind legs. She stopped moving and lay still, and she felt Sentinel’s forelegs wrap tighter around her middle. For a moment, she wondered, fearful, if something was about to happen.

Part of her wanted it to happen, she felt her own confused arousal growing. 

“I just wanted to hold you, I’m so scared, I don’t know what I’m doing… I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Sentinel said, his words hot and his hot breath blowing over Diamond Tiara’s neck. “If you want me to let you go, I will… I don’t want you afraid of me.” 

The pink earth pony filly paused and gave thought to the situation. Sentinel, even in his state of emotional upset and his powerful physical arousal, was still the tender, gentle, sensitive soul that she had come to love. She felt his hardness throbbing against the curved furrow of her plot. She realised that if Sentinel had wanted to do something, he would have, and could have, and there would be nothing she could do to stop it. He was stronger, bigger, and she was little, pink, and helpless. 

There was also a good chance that she wouldn’t even tell him to stop. She was curious, even in her moment of confused, aroused terror. She had a dangerous predatory creature against her back and she could feel the points of his fangs tickling her neck. As she squirmed, she felt herself becoming a little slick down there, like she did when she read the trashy bridle ripper novels that Rarity had hidden all over. 

“Sentinel, if that’s hurting you… if you feel a strong need, I can help you,” Diamond Tiara said, whispering in the dark of the cabin. The blankets were wet with sweat and tears. Diamond Tiara could not stop shivering, even though she felt as though she was consumed with a fever, and burning up from within from inner fire, most of which was burning down in her hips, between her legs. “Just… try to be gentle, if you can.” She felt Sentinel sniffle and snort against her mane, and she felt electric tingles running up and down her spine. 

“No,” Sentinel replied, “we’re too young. Maybe when we’re older, but now isn’t  the time. It wouldn’t be right.” Raising his foreleg, he rubbed Diamond Tiara’s neck and felt her tremble at his every touch. 

“What about if I wanted it? Maybe it’s not just you right now.” Diamond Tiara felt her dock clenching and she felt a squishy sliminess down below. Inside, the fires raged. It almost hurt. She wondered if Sentinel could feel her wetness on what was pressed against her secret places. 

“No. We’re in enough trouble… I just… wanted to hold you while I tried to go to sleep.” 

“This is why I love you,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice. She pulled herself away from Sentinel, hearing him whimper, she felt him clutching at her, but she pulled away, fearing that her heart would break as she did so. She rolled over, kissed him on the lips, a peck, and then, she pulled the blanket over him, covering him and his all too tempting erection. She folded the blanket back over itself, laid down, cuddled up against Sentinel, and pulled the blanket over herself. She felt Sentinel embrace her, but now there was a blanket between them, which did nothing to stop the feeling of flesh prodding against flesh. 

“I’m so tired… Boadicea is keeping watch and she’ll come and wake me if something happens,” Sentinel said. 

“Shh, sleep now,” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“Are you going to smack me again?” Sentinel asked. 

For quite some time, Diamond Tiara was silent. Then, after giving it a lot of thought, she made her reply. 

“Maybe.” 
	
> Chapter 816
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling the tickle of feathers on his nose, Sentinel opened one eye. He saw the fuzzy outline of Boadicea and somehow, even in his miserable state, he managed to smile, even if it was only just a tiny bit. Diamond Tiara was still with him, but he could feel her squirming as she woke up. 

“Hello, Fearless Leader… sleep well?” Boadicea tilted her head, exaggerating her avian nature, and moved her beak a scant inch away from Sentinel’s nose. “Just like a real leader… slacking off, napping with a nice pink pony, while the rest of the crew do all the real work. Harrumph.” 

“No… I… no…” Sentinel’s stammering protest fell upon deaf ears, he heard a soft squawk from Boadicea and watched her fluff out with laughter. “Dirty birdy.” 

“Leave him alone, he’s having a rough day,” Diamond Tiara said to her friend as she tried shoving the busy bodied cat-bird creature away from her.

“Rough day?” Boadicea somehow managed to look amused, even with most of her face being a hard, unmoving, rigid beak. “Is that what we’re calling this catastrophe?” 

“Yeah, Sentinel woke up and decided that his good, wonderful life just wasn’t worth it, so he committed himself to the biggest feck up in history and chose to ruin it!” Diamond Tiara rolled over and lay snoot to snoot with Sentinel, the blanket being the only thing separating them. She saw the colt beside her cringing. 

“Catastrophe?” Sentinel said in a weak voice. 

Boadicea gave an enthusiastic nod. “I am half cat,” she whirled around, revealing her pert kitty backside, “and this is my ass!” Boadicea hiked up her tail, revealing everything that could be seen back there, her backside inches away from both Diamond Tiara and Sentinel. “My father, Lugus, is going to rip everything off from back there, and he is going to mount it on the wall as a trophy!” 

“Oh… shut… up…” Diamond Tiara breathed. 

“I don’t get it,” Sentinel said, not fully awake and feeling confused. 

“Cat… ass… trophy.” Diamond Tiara reached up, planted her hoof on Boadicea’s lithe bottom, and tried to shove the exhibitionist griffoness away. 

Refusing to be shoved away, Boadicea instead rubbed her backside against Diamond Tiara’s hoof, made a yowling sound, and the fur along her spine stood up as she made the universal feline signs for begging for more butt scratchies. 

“It’s a sign of trust when they show you their butthole,” Sentinel said to Diamond Tiara. 

“Ugh, both of you… sometimes I can’t believe I’m involved in this!” Diamond Tiara closed her eyes and continued to scratch Boadicea’s backside. 



 

“You know, all that time spent taking care of our siblings is paying off,” Dinky said to Sentinel from across the table, “Piña and I were able to fix a meal without too much trouble. Nothing burnt and no smoke. We even kept Sweetie Belle from burning down the kitchen.” 

Sweetie, sitting beside Dinky, went from white to pink. 

“So we are rapidly approaching the Crystal Empire, moving along at a breakneck speed. The headwind gave way and now we have a powerful tailwind pushing us forward.” Scootaloo shoveled in a bite full of baked beans, smacked her lips once, then twice, chewed once, mashing a few beans, and then swallowed. 

Apple Bloom, who watched Scootaloo shovel in more beans, narrowed her eyes and gave the orange filly beside her a dark look. “Pegasus ponies… ugh.” 

“What’d I do?” Scootaloo asked around a mouthful of baked beans. 

“What you always do,” Apple Bloom replied, feeling no need to say anything else about the issue. 

“I don’t know which end smells worse… try being around a lunar pegasus with carrion breath… ugh, meat eaters.” Diamond Tiara took a bite of baked potato and began to chew on it as she gave Sentinel a thoughtful stare. 

“Rumble’s parents make him eat cloves of garlic to keep parasites away.” Sweetie Belle poked at her food with her fork and then looked over at Apple Bloom. “I miss Rumble already. It’s for the best that he’s not here though. Flitter and Cloudchaser together would probably destroy him.” 

“Oh, sweet destruction, how I long for thee,” Piña said. The filly was slumped down in her chair and eyeing the food on her plate. “I think this is the one that is going to do it. Bon Bon and Berry both have threatened to spank me for a long time… there’s been a few swats, maybe a slap or two, but this time, I think they’re going to paddle me, probably with a brush. You know, maybe we shouldn’t go home… just keep flying and find a new place to live. We could make Sentinel our leader.” 

“No. We’ll go home and face the music.” Sentinel’s voice left behind a palpable tension in the air as each foal present at the table squirmed. 

“Applejack once made me go and fetch her a switch. It was awful, I had to go and pick my own switch… I had to chose what I was going to be whipped with. It was terrible!” Apple Bloom wiggled in her chair and reached down to rub her backside with her right hoof. 

“But did you deserve it?” Boadicea asked. 

“Yeah… yeah I did,” Apple Bloom replied. “I lied. After that, I lied again. Then I lied about lying. Then came more lies. I got a switchin’ for each lie I told, and after feeling the switch come down on my fanny for the sixth time, I knew that I wanted to be an honest pony like my sister.” 

“Wow, that’s harsh… I had no idea,” Sweetie Belle said to Apple Bloom. 

“The switchin’ really didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would… I was actually more hurt when Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith all told me that they didn’t trust me no more. That hurt more than all the switchin’ in the world. I think I would have taken a hundred more lashes from the switch that I picked for myself than hear those words again. At least with the switching, it’s over with and done and you can go and move on with your life.” Apple Bloom felt the sting of tears in her eyes; she reached up with her right foreleg, sniffled, and then rubbed her eyes with her fetlock. 

“So you admit that you had it coming.” Boadicea’s black eyes glittered as she studied Apple Bloom. 

“Yeah, I had it coming, and truth be told, I always felt like I deserved more. I felt so guilty. I kept thinking that if Applejack had just laid into my bottom with a switch, I might have felt better about everything. That feelin’ lasted for about a week or more.” 

There was a moment of tense silence around the table as each foal and one griffoness stared at each other, stared at their food, each large, worried, terrified eye saying what words could not say. 

It was Sentinel who broke the silence. “If it comes down to corporal punishment, I will offer to take each lash upon my own back for each of you. I will be the one to pay for this mistake. It is the least I can do.” 

“Nope… if it comes down to lashing, whipping, switching, whatever you call it, I’m with you, Sentinel. I chose to get into this. I could have walked away. Just like when I stowed away and joined Bucky when he went off and was almost killed. I knew what I was doing. And that trip turned out for the best. Me and my piano wire were needed.” Boadicea turned her stare upon Sentinel and her crest rose. “You’re going to make a good king someday though, offering to take everypony else’s punishment. That’s the kind of nobility that this messed up, crazy, insane world needs.” 

“Thank you,” Sentinel replied, bowing his head. 

“You know, if Twilight, Rainbow, or Flash were to give me a spanking, I… think… It think it would show that they really are my parents—” 

“Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle looked at the pegasus filly, blinking with confusion. 

“Really, I think it would be the hardest thing that they would ever do… I think it would kill Rainbow Dash, and I know that she’d cry about it, probably off somewhere private where nopony could see her. I think it’d hurt her real bad… but if she endured that… just to teach me a lesson and make me a better pony, it would mean that she loves me.” Scootaloo’s face contorted and the pegasus filly began to sniffle. She wiped her nose, set down her spoon in her other hoof, then, letting out a choked sob, she lept down out of her chair and fled from the dining area, gushing tears as she departed. 

Dinky, after watching Scootaloo run away, looked around the table at her companions. “Anypony remember when things were simpler and we used to talk about what was better, the slide, the swing, or the tether ball?” 



 

“Sentinel?” Piña approached her brother, the sounds of him whispering to himself audible in her ears. He was sitting, alone, in the prow of the ship. “Sentinel, something is wrong, I can feel something wrong. Talk to me.” 

Sentinel turned his head, his mane whipping in the wind. He looked at his sister. Piña, sweet Piña, she was his rock. He gulped, thinking about what to say, and then looked down at the red glowing horn he had clutched in his folded fetlock. 

“I can hear him whispering to me,” Sentinel admitted to his sister. He shook his head. “He wants me to jam the horn into my head. He kept making promises about power, but now, he’s just torturing me, telling me who he’ll let live. It hurts, Piña, it hurts. This horn just keeps getting heavier in my grasp… I think it is sapping my strength.” 

“Gimme,” Piña commanded. 

“No!” Sentinel’s lips curled back from his teeth and he growled. 

Piña, undeterred, extended her left foreleg, and then, using her earth pony strength, she clobbered Sentinel, catching him a solid blow across the cheek. Sentinel, sitting on his haunches, was flipped over onto his back. He hit the deck with a heavy thud. The horn flew from his grasp, arced through the air, glittering, gleaming, emanating a menacing red glow, and Piña snatched it out of the air. 

“Hmm,” Piña said as she held the horn. She looked down at Sentinel, who was recovering and rubbing his cheek. “Interesting.” 

“Everypony that loves me just keeps slapping me… Piña, that really hurt.” Sentinel gave Piña a wounded expression. “Ow…” 

“This thing is pure concentrated badness… Sentinel, you’re lucky that I didn’t give you a hoof-zap for sassing me… never do it again… you need to trust me,” Piña said to her brother. “I can hear it whispering too—” 

“You can?” Sentinel stood up and flexed his jaw. Piña was strong. 

“Yeah,” Piña replied, “and right now, it’s disgusted. It’s sickened that a mud pony is holding it. It’s demanding that I put it down and I can hear it whispering about all of the horrible things it is going to do to me.” The pink filly smiled and squeezed the horn in her fetlock. “I think I’ll hold on to this. Grandpa is… well, he’s an arse.” 

“It doesn’t bother you?” Sentinel gave Piña an incredulous stare. 

“Naw.” Piña shook her head. “It doesn’t want me sticking it in my forehead. I can hear it inside my head… my touch is burning it and making it feel unclean and dirty because of my mud pony taint.” 

“Piña…” Sentinel, overwhelmed, had trouble taking in everything. He was still woozy from Piña almost smacking his face into next Tuesday. “Piña, you are amazing.” 

“Damn right I am.” Piña’s eyebrow lifted. “Don’t you ever forget that. I’m here to help you… I don’t know how useful I am, but this, this I can do. I can carry this. I like hearing the voices begging and pleading with me to put them down, offering me everything I ever wanted if I will just toss the horn away.” 

Sentinel, almost crying, grabbed his sister and embraced her. He kissed her cheek, and then, feeling relieved, he pulled her close, and he did not let go. For whatever reason, Piña was immune to the darkness that was concentrated within Sombra’s horn. “Pink ponies are the best ponies.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Piña wrapped her free foreleg around Sentinel’s neck and held on to her brother. “We’re gonna get through this somehow… together.” 

“Thank you, Piña.” 
	
> Chapter 817
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Unbeknownst to Sentinel, there were stowaways on The Scorned Mare, visitors that had arrived, and now stood, unseen, undetected, and in every way unnoticed. Not even Piña, who might have been the most observant pony on board, could notice them. 

One was a zebra and she had a brown hoof, the other was a unicorn. 

The pair watched as various interactions unfolded and took place between the companions, looking at one another, their faces sad, but also hard and determined. The zebra began to focus on Sentinel, while the unicorn looked upon Apple Bloom. 

Both of them saw very different things than what other ponies might see. The unicorn, looking at Apple Bloom, did not see an earth pony filly, but saw an alicorn filly. The zebra, looking at Sentinel, also saw Sentinel as something else. His image shifted, going from a lunar pegasus to a lunar alicorn. Not the hideous, twisted image as promised by Sombra’s horn, but instead the noble, regal form that could be offered by the potential for ascension. 

Sentinel, changing, ever shifting, almost as if his fate could not make up his mind. 

“He is too much like his father,” the zebra said in an irritated voice, “he will resist his future and attempt to run from it. He may yet be successful.” 

“I do not believe so,” the unicorn replied, shaking her head, “unlike his father, we will catch him and he will take up the mantle that he is due. We can run him down.” 

“I find that unlikely.” The zebra shook her head. “The potential Alicorn of the Hunt will remain elusive. Should the Hunter become the hunted, we will be forced to chase him down. He has learned and absorbed too much from his father. If we wish to harness his divine spark as a provider, we will have to work for it.” 

“Too much metaphor, dear sister, like too much mustard, upsets the digestion.” The unicorn turned her head to look at the zebra. “This trip will change them, bring them the bonding they need, it will bring them together.” 

“I wish Clotho was here to witness this,” the zebra said. 

“Dearest Clotho is upset with us, she is wounded, she needs time to recover her spirit.” The unicorn sat down and scowled. “I don’t understand why she is upset. We only do what is necessary.” 

“The coming death will change them, it will leave scars upon their spirits. Alas, it is necessary. They must be made to see.” The zebra paused, also took a seat, and then let out a weary sigh. “I think I understand what upsets our dearest Clotho so.” 

“Well, I don’t. Death is necessary, just as much as living, breathing, violence or sex.” 

“Easy for you to say, Morta, for you and Thanatos both. You cut the string and Thanatos goes to do your bidding. Do you even feel it any more when you cut it? Does it even hurt you as it once did? Do you feel the dread and hesitate as you once did long ago?” 

The unicorn, who bristled with anger for a moment, let out her frustration and her temper with an extended huff, glaring at her companion as she did so. After a long moment, she turned away. “I must confess, dearest sister, I have gone numb. I have not felt the cutting of a string for a long time. It has become like anything else, just something I do, just another task, I do what is necessary.” 

“I pity you, Atropos, and myself as well… we’re dead inside… Clotho, on the other hoof, it seems that she still has feelings, a conscience, and still struggles with the pains of her existence. I do believe that Father’s punishment has ruined us, hollowed us out… made us empty. Do you remember the passion we once had? The feeling that we were doing what was right? The fires that once burned within us as we battled Him?” 

The unicorn let out a weary sigh. “No…” 

“Me neither,” the zebra replied, shaking her head, “but I bet that Clotho does.” 

“Sister, we are damned…” 



 

“We’re getting closer to the Crystal Empire,” Scootaloo reported with a smile, “we’re still heading due north. So… what do we do when we reach the Crystal Empire, just keep going north until we reach wherever it is that we’re going?” 

Sentinel nodded. 

“That might be trickier than we think,” Scootaloo said to Sentinel, her frown turning upside down. “If we fly to the top of the world, we can’t put the ship down, the wind will rip apart. At the top of the world, a storm rages, the storm of ages, I don’t know what it is, but I’ve heard some ghost stories.” 

“Sombra made the storm, giving it his fury, and it is supposed to be protecting something.” Sentinel blinked once. “If the stories are true, seems like a good place to go into hiding. I don’t know what to do, Scootaloo. We might have to abandon the ship somewhere near the Crystal Empire, take what supplies we can, send the ship home with the automated pilot, and then continue north on hoof.” 

“Oh.” Scootaloo slumped, deflating, looking quite defeated by Sentinel’s words. She began to tap one front hoof on the wooden deck, and the expression on her face showed her emotional turmoil as she began to realise the enormity of the task ahead. Even in the face of crushing reality, the little pegasus filly was undaunted; after a moment, she recovered, and her cheerful smile returned. “We’ll get through this. We Crusaders have found ourselves in all kinds of trouble, this is no different, only now we have more friends for more help. This’ll be easy.” 

Sentinel, hearing Scootaloo’s words, was not reassured. No part of this trip would be easy, going north on hoof and surviving the storm would be an almost impossible task, yet it had to be done. His gaze moved from Scootaloo over to Diamond Tiara and Boadicea, who were huddled together in the prow of the ship, and Boadicea was using her fuzzy, feathery body to help protect Diamond Tiara from the cutting cold. 

With a heavy feeling of realisation, Sentinel understood just how much he loved them both. He loved them in the same way that his father loved his mothers. They completed him, made him better, filled in all the empty places, made up for what he lacked, he was a better pony with them than without them. If he was to have any sort of future at all, he needed them. 

Not just them. Sentinel looked at Scootaloo with a growing sense of understanding. He needed her too, but not just her, he needed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle; there was something about them all, some sense that they all belonged together. Even Rumble, although the pegasus colt was now far away, he was a part of this as well, or would be. This went beyond any single one of them, they were all part of something larger, individual pieces of a much larger, and much more satisfying whole. 

The Elements of Harmony had changed the world, but they too were part of a much larger whole, a network of friends, lovers, companions, ponies that had been touched by harmony, ponies connected by a common thread. Not just ponies, either, there was even a draconequus whose very nature had been changed after being touched. 

Who would fill their shoes? Who would continue their work? Sentinel began to understand. The Elements of Harmony had shown the way and now it was up to others to heed the call and do what they could. Sentinel looked at Scootaloo and saw that she was staring at the sky; she was flying, she was soaring right now, she was at home amongst the clouds, she was finally getting to live her dreams as a pegasus. She was marching towards certain inevitable doom, but the filly was happy because she was a pegasus among the clouds, living whatever destiny her cutie mark had given her. 

He thought of his own cutie mark, a brown trout. A monster fish, a terrible foe, he still bore the scars of his battles with one. He had caught and eaten several. They were a foe that should have been beyond the capabilities of a colt his age, but he had battled them and won. To the victor goes dinner and a full belly. 

“Hey Scootaloo… how would you like to fly?” 



 

“She’s flying.” Sweetie Belle lifted her hoof up over her eyes to block out the glare. Sentinel had tied a rope around Scootaloo, forming a harness, secured it to the rear rail of The Scorned Mare, and now, Scootaloo was being towed behind the ship, soaring through the air, all by herself with no help from others. 

“That’s amazing.” Apple Bloom sat down beside Sweetie Belle and fought the urge to shiver, from the cold or from her many emotions, she could not tell the cause. “That has got to mean so much to her.” 

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle replied, her eyes tearing up. The cause, wind or emotion, was unknown, but the results began to stream down her face. A watery smile spread over her muzzle. “It’s so nice to see her happy.” 



 

Without warning, The Scorned Mare lurched. Sentinel felt a swell of panic, wondering if it was turbulence, but then noticed that they were descending. Uh oh. He began to tow Scootaloo in, grabbing the rope in his teeth and with his fetlocks. 

Dinky appeared beside him, and her horn glowed. With ease, Dinky hauled Scootaloo in, and it became apparent that the orange filly looked scared. Something was up. Scootaloo, when she was pulled over the rail, wrapped her forelegs around Sentinel’s neck and hugged him. 

The embrace was short, but sweet, and then the two pulled apart as everypony began to try and figure out what was going on. Dinky’s horn glowed with a fierce purple light as the unicorn filly made herself ready for trouble. Trouble would be met with bees, lots of bees. Sentinel prowled the deck, pacing along the rails, looking down, looking off to the sides, but he could see nothing. There was not a ship in the sky, there was no visible sign of trouble. 

Scootaloo hurried off to the navigation cabin to see if she could figure out what was going on. She vanished inside of the gleaming glass cabin, a joyful smile still upon her face. Even the danger could not dampen her mood, she had flown! 

“We’re fecked,” Piña announced after assessing the situation. The pink filly, seeing no need to panic, sat down upon the deck and waited. She was going to enjoy this chance to have a good sit down, it might just be the last time she ever planted herself on her pretty pink plot. Piña was convinced; Berry Punch was going to paddle the pink right off. 

“You know how they say that just before you die, you can see your life flash before your eyes?” Boadicea said in a loud voice that was easy to hear over the wind. 

“Yeah?” Diamond Tiara replied. 

“My life has been short, it didn’t take very long and there wasn’t much to see!” Boadicea threw her head back, let out a riotous caw, and then began to laugh in the most insane manner imaginable, revealing to her companions that she had spent far too much time around Bucky. 

“She’s gone mad,” Diamond Tiara muttered as she clung to Boadicea. “Why must everything I love be crazy? I’m trying to get better! I was trying to get better!” Diamond Tiara’s voice rose into shriek that could be heard over the wind and then, she too, began laughing, letting out maniacal guffaws as she and Boadicea held on to one another. 

Scootaloo emerged from the navigation cabin, approached Sentinel, and shook her head. “I’ve been locked out of the controls. I have no idea how to control the ship. We’re in trouble!” 

“Oh bugger,” Sentinel swore, sounding very much like his father. “Prepare yourself for naval traditions to be practiced upon us.” 

“What?” Scootaloo’s eyes went wide with confusion. “What what?” 

“We’re too young for rum, you don’t even want to know what the second great naval tradition is, so that only leaves the lash. We’re caught,” Sentinel replied. 

“Well, we need to escape!” Scootaloo shouted. 

“I can’t carry you all!” Sentinel began to pace back and forth, his hackles rising, his nostrils flaring. “It can’t end like this… it just can’t… I don’t know what to do!” 

With a sizzle of magic, Shining Armor appeared on deck. He looked stern, but calm, his face held no trace of anger. “End of the line! All of you, on deck, front and center!” 

For a moment, Sentinel looked at the rail and considered his chances. 

“I wouldn’t,” Shining Armor said, offering a warning. 

Sentinel took one step towards the rail and then froze. Something blue and terrible rose up into the air, something blue and filled with terrible fury, something blue and made of nightmares. 

“THIS ENDS NOW!” 

The force of Princess Luna’s voice caused the entire ship to shudder. Sentinel backed away from the rail, his tail tucked between his legs, and backed over to where the others had gathered. 

Another figure rose up over the rail beside Princess Luna, another alicorn, and she looked every bit as furious. “SCOOTALOO! I AM COMING FOR YOU!” 

“AAAAAIEEEE!” Scootaloo squealed. “Pee coming out now!” 

The two invisible stowaways, having lived for countless eons, knew a bad scene when they saw one. They shook their heads and then were gone, having fled the scene and left the foals to their well deserved fates. 

With a thump, a visibly pregnant Twilight Sparkle landed upon the deck, her hooves striking thunder claps as she touched down. Her lip was curled back, revealing her teeth, and she let out a fierce snarl, the sort of snarl that could only come from an angry mother. 

Little sphincters clenched up tight from the sound and everything was made worse by  the fact that Boadicea and Diamond Tiara were still letting out mad howls of laughter, the laughter of the doomed, the damned, and the dying. 

“Yep, we’re fecked,” Piña said in a shrill, squeaky voice of terror. 
	
	
> Chapter 818
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? DO YOU KNOW THE HARM THAT YOU HAVE CAUSED? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE MADNESS THAT YOU HAVE UNLEASHED?”

Princess Luna unleashed her bellicose fury upon the foals, sparing nothing of her anger. She hovered in the air, her wings unmoving, her eyes glowing with brilliant whiteness. She watched the gathered foals cower and begin to whimper. 

“BUCKMINSTER LOST HIS MIND! HE WAS BESIDE HIMSELF WITH GRIEF THAT HIS OWN SON HAD DONE SOMETHING SO FOOLISH! HE DEMANDED THAT WE GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO CORRECT YOUR MISTAKE! HE SEIZED ME AS A HOSTAGE TO THE GRIFFON EMPIRE TO PREVENT ANY AND ALL FROM GOING AFTER YOU, INSISTING THAT IF GIVEN THE CHANCE, YOU WOULD COME TO YOUR SENSES, TURN AROUND, AND COME HOME!”

Luna sucked in a deep breath before she continued: 

“YOU BROKE YOUR FATHER’S HEART! HE WAS SO CERTAIN THAT YOU WOULD DO THE RIGHT THING! HE WAS MAD AND BESIDE HIMSELF WITH GRIEF! WHEN HE REALISED THAT YOU WEREN’T COMING BACK, HIS SHAME WAS SUCH THAT ALL HE COULD DO WAS CLING TO MY NECK AND BAWL LIKE A FOAL… A FOAL!”

Hearing Luna’s words, Sentinel curled up into the fetal position and wanted to die. Her words caused physical pain, and for reasons other than the sheer volume from which they were spoken. Sentinel squeezed his eyes shut, swallowed, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not hold back his tears. 

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO SEE, TO FEEL, AND TO HEAR A PONY LIKE YOUR FATHER CRY? AFTER ALL HE HAS ENDURED, WHICH IS MUCH, HE HAS SUFFERED FAR MORE THAN ANY MORTAL EVER SHOULD, IT WAS HIS OWN SON THAT HAS CAUSED HIM THE TORMENT THAT HE COULD NOT ENDURE! HE CLUNG TO MY NECK AND BEGGED ME TO KILL HIM BECAUSE HE COULD NOT ENDURE THE PAIN WITHIN HIS HEART! THE VERY IDEA THAT YOU OF ALL PONIES, YOU BETRAYED HIS TRUST! YOU CAUSED HIM A PAIN THAT HE COULD NOT BEAR, YOU PUSHED HIM BEYOND A LIMIT THAT HE COULD NOT ENDURE, YOU… YOU WRETCHED LITTLE MONSTER, YOU HAVE DONE WHAT HIS COUNTLESS ENEMIES COULD NOT! YOU BROKE HIM!”

Princess Luna’s words broke upon Sentinel’s body like a cat o’ nine tails, causing the colt to spasm with each verbal lash, with each sentence she caused a wail of anguish to escape his lips. 

“I MIGHT NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! THE HARM YOU HAVE BROUGHT UPON MY MOST DEVOTED SERVANT! MY FRIEND! MY BOON COMPANION! THE PONY WHO HAS SUFFERED SO MUCH TO BE MY FRIEND, EVEN WHEN I WAS AT MY MOST UNLIKEABLE! YOUR FATHER IS ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING PONIES I KNOW! HIS STEADFASTNESS IS SOMETHING I TREASURE MORE THAN ANY AMOUNT OF GOLD OR SHINY BAUBLES I COULD POSSESS! YOUR FATHER’S ENDURING SPIRIT IS SOMETHING I HAVE LONG DEPENDED UPON, IT IS HOW I KEEP MY EMPIRE SECURE! I HAD THOUGHT HIM UNBREAKABLE! YET YOU DID SOMETHING THAT NONE OF HIS ENEMIES HAD ACCOMPLISHED! HE WAS SO FRAGILE! SO HURT! YOU HAVE LEFT A WOUND UPON HIS SOUL THAT I FEAR MAY NEVER HEAL! HE WANTED TO KNOW WHY YOU WOULD DO SUCH A FOOLISH THING… HE BEGGED ME OVER AND OVER TO GIVE HIM SOME REASON… AND ALAS, I COULD GIVE HIM NO ANSWER THAT WOULD CONSOLE HIM, BRING HIM COMFORT, OR STAUNCH THE FLOW OF HIS MANY TEARS!”

Sobbing, Sentinel covered his face with his forelegs and his wings, then curled up even tighter into a pitiful, mewling fetal ball. He lay upon the wooden deck, each breath he drew in was agonising, so powerful were his sobs that they were robbing him of his ability to draw in air. His sides burned as if he had been running for far too long. He felt another pony climb over him, covering his body, and knew by the soft touch that it had to be Diamond Tiara. 

Clearing her throat, Luna softened her voice. She landed, her hooves touching down. She looked down at the miserable foals all huddled together, and none of them met her eye save one. Diamond Tiara, shielding Sentinel’s body with her own, looked up at her with a look of grim defiance. 

“The earth pony that you know as Amaranth, she managed to console your father where I could not. You were doing what you were meant to do. All of you. Each and every one of you have been drawn together for this moment. All of your fates converged to bring you here. You will finish what you have started, you will go to the top of the world, and you will find what you are looking for in the Tomb of Princess Platinum, or so Amaranth tells me. This is the time of your testing… that this is your fate does not excuse what you have done. Each of you will be punished for your actions, although I fear the consequences may be far worse than any of us might expect.” Princess Luna folded her wings against her sides, taking great care that each feather was tucked into proper place and that her wings were perfect. 

Letting out a weary sigh, Princess Luna dropped her cloak of illusion, revealing a large, muscular filly that stood on deck. “Your last companion is with you, this fellowship of fools is complete. Moonbow was in her time of blindness, the time which she trains to live without her eyes… Amaranth insisted that she be here with you, she has a role to play in all of this. You will be outfitted, given supplies, and you will continue your trek north.” 

Moonbow, scowling, strode forwards past Luna, her face contorted into an angry glare. She did not look happy to see Sentinel, far from it, she marched up to the edge of the group of foals and gave him a withering stare that Sentinel did not even see because he had his face covered. 

“You have hurt Mistress—” 

“Don’t you even start,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice, looking Moonbow in the eye. Diamond Tiara shook her head. “He’s suffered enough… he’s been punished enough. Pick your actions wisely and figure out where your loyalties lie.” 

Moonbow stood as still as a statue, her lips curled back away from her jagged teeth. She stared at the pink filly, her eyes almost unblinking. Her sides heaved, her breathing heavy. Her short shocking blue mane whipped in the breeze. 

After a long moment, she looked back at Princess Luna, giving her Mistress a sidelong glance, and then turned her head to look at Diamond Tiara. She saw a black griffoness now standing over Sentinel, rubbing one of her ear holes with her curled up talons. 

She stepped around the others, moving to Sentinel’s side, brushing up against Dinky and Sweetie Belle. She reached Sentinel, gave Diamond Tiara a gentle shove to move her away, heard a soft cawing from the griffoness, and then, using her wings, she pulled Sentinel’s limbs and his wings away from his face. She looked down at his face, saw him looking up at her, and then lowered her head until she was nose to nose with him. 

“You’re an idiot.” Moonbow blinked and allowed her snoot to bump up against Sentinel’s. “I now worry about our future foals. Will they be as soft headed as you are?” 

Moonbow’s tongue slithered out of her mouth and she gave Sentinel a lick. Then, looking sad, she began to back away, shaking her head, and looking at her Mistress, to whom she gave a nod. 

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I do believe that is your cue,” Luna said as she took a step back and made a gesture with her wing. “Do what must be done, as you are the emissary of those who have been wronged. 

“Do you know what you have done?” Twilight snapped as she stalked forwards towards Scootaloo. “Your mother, the mare that took you in, Rainbow Dash is in the hospital! The stress and the fear were so much that she started having complications! If she loses her foal because of this, I will never forgive you!” 

Twilight’s wing slashed through the air and caught Scootaloo on the cheek. The orange pegasus filly squealed in pain and shock, not just from the blow, but from the words that Twilight had spoken. 

Twilight’s wing lashed out once more as Scootaloo tried to scramble away, and this time, the tips whip-cracked over Scootaloo’s backside, causing the filly to yelp in pain. Scootaloo and her companions all tried to get clear, to run away, but found that their hooves were rooted to the deck. 

Snarling, Twilight descended upon all of them, using both of her wings, landing stinging blows upon every foal gathered. She shouted something incomprehensible about Applejack as she connected just below Apple Bloom’s cutie mark. She hissed something about Rarity and Coco as her primaries connected just above Sweetie Belle’s dock, causing the white filly’s eyes to bulge with pain. Twilight moved among them without mercy and no foal was spared. She stood in the middle of them all, a storm of fury, rage, and feathers. Bits of purple down fluttered in the breeze, there were howls of pain, but none could escape the punishment due. Diamond Tiara got a wing slap that landed like a thunderclap upon her backside, causing her to sing out in pain, a wavering cry that made her blue eyes flood with tears. 

In the middle of them all, Twilight Sparkle was sobbing, crying from her own self inflicted pain, and babbling in an incoherent manner about all the ponies that had been hurt by this, most of all Rainbow Dash. 

At the end of it all, Twilight released the foals from the spell that held them in place and she collapsed among them. Using her telekinesis, she drew all of them to her, pressing them to her sides, trying to hug each and every one of them to her as she sobbed, her head coming to rest upon one very sorry, sobbing, sniffling Scootaloo. 

Not one foal tried to flee, or run away, but each remained against Twilight’s side, pressed up against her. Twilight scrambled to try and hold them all, wrapping her wings around them, her forelegs, trying to comfort them, trying most of all to comfort herself, trying to somehow let each and every one of them know that they were still loved. 

“I’m so scared for all of you,” Twilight Sparkle said, her voice hitching. She tried to say more, but she was overcome with wracking sobs. She looked up at Princess Luna and saw fear in Luna’s eyes. Unable to keep looking, finding the fear she saw unbearable, Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes and buried her face into Scootaloo’s back. 



 

“Come here, and let me have a look at you,” Moonbow said to Boadicea. “My name is Moonbow… I have heard much about you, Boadicea” The lunar pegasus filly peered at the black griffoness, looking her over. 

Almost appearing shy, Boadicea approached Moonbow and the two began to size each other up. Where Moonbow was stocky, Boadicea was lithe. Where Moonbow was bulging with heavy, solid muscle, Boadicea was slender and graceful. Moonbow’s legs were bigger around in size than Boadicea’s neck. 

A short distance away, Sentinel sat, being comforted by Diamond Tiara, and watching as the two females looked each other over. Moonbow glanced at him for a moment, watching Diamond’s tender ministrations, her soft, gentle touch, and then looked back at Boadicea. 

“He talks about you a lot.” Boadicea made a bold move and looked Moonbow directly in the eye. “He holds himself to a very high standard so that you will be proud of him.” 

“I am,” Moonbow replied. 

“And what about this mess?” Boadicea tilted her head and peered at Moonbow. 

Moonbow scanned the deck, looking for Mistress, who was in the prow of the ship with Twilight, trying to comfort the upset mare. After staring for a moment, Moonbow made a calculated risk, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m proud of him. What he did took courage. Now, I’ll be even more proud of him if he owns up to his mistake and takes the punishment due like a stallion.” 

Boadicea, pleased by what she heard, nodded. 

“You have to be pretty involved with him to follow him into this much trouble,” Moonbow said to Boadicea in a low whisper. 

“I am.” Boadicea bowed her head. “Diamond Tiara too. She is my very best friend.” 

“You don’t seem stupid… I take it that you know full well what will be expected of you if you join us.” Moonbow’s words were hard, flinty, but also inviting, in their own way. “This will not be an easy life. Sentinel has much to inherit, and there can be no doubt, he is going to spend the rest of his life being reminded of this steaming pile of manticore shite and being made to make up for it.” 

“I’ve made my own mistakes… he has helped me to make up for them.” Boadicea fluffed out, sat down, and then cocked her head to look at Sentinel as well as Diamond Tiara. 

“Everypony in this herd needs their head examined.” Moonbow shook her head. “Sentinel lives for others. Diamond Tiara lives for Sentinel. I live in the service of my Mistress. What about you, where do your loyalties lie?” 

Boadicea did not answer right away, but gave thought to her life. A gust of wind struck her, ruffling her feathers, and biting through her thick, fuzzy hide. Her tail twitched, lashing from side to side, and her talons tapped upon the deck. 

At last, Boadicea felt as though she had something to say. “I suppose that I live to learn my place. In time, I would like to serve my fellow griffons. I want to be more than a friend to Diamond Tiara and Sentinel. I also suppose that there is some part of me that wishes to serve Equestria as well… which surprises me, given all that has happened. I would like to be a good ruler… like Queen Belisama, who is loved and adored by her subjects and feared by her enemies, and who is the Destroyer of Vermin… or Princess Celestia, who is as gentle as she is kind. I do not know if I have it in me to be as gentle and good as Sun Mother, but something about her makes me want to be a better griffoness.” 

“All of that sounds admirable,” Moonbow replied. 



 

The Scorned Mare hovered over the train station that was just outside the Crystal empire and was tethered to a series of makeshift poles that had been erected just for this task. Princess Luna was now in command of the ship and was confined to the ship itself as she was not allowed into the Crystal Empire proper. Myrmidons swarmed the train station below, watchful for monsters that might come wandering in from the frozen wastes. Golems of all shapes and sizes patrolled the perimeter of the train station. 

A sleek looking narrow sled was being prepared, it was already loaded down with supplies, boxes, crates, and blankets. What little bit of space that was left over was being turned into a padded nest that was somewhat protected from the elements. 

While it was springtime elsewhere, it was always winter in the frozen north. 

In the middle of it all stood Shining Armor, Emperor of the Crystal Empire and Guardian of the Northern Reaches. He watched, silent, saying nothing, his projection had a grim expression that showed no other emotion. 

Standing in the crowd, he looked up at Princess Luna and saw her looking back down at him. He gave her a nod and saw her give a nod in return, a sad exchange, neither of them knowing how this would end. 

Turning, Shining Armor looked north, as if trying to spot his most hated enemy. Sombra was out there, somewhere, most likely in the fabled Tomb of Princess Platinum, the sanctuary that Sombra had constructed so he could lay her body to rest. Nopony had ever been able to reach it, or so the story went, other than Star Swirl and Sombra. Shining Armor had no idea how a fellowship of foals would survive the frozen wastes and reach the tomb. 

He had been forbidden to help them. They were on their own. Shining Armor hated the whole situation. He could follow them, he could survive the cold, he could shield them, he could keep them safe from harm—but he wasn’t allowed to do so. 

Scowling, Shining Armor stared northwards, hating his sworn enemy and his nemesis. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 819
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Twilight, I’m scared,” Scootaloo said, her words almost a whimper as she buried her face into Twilight’s neck, “about everything. About what is about to happen… about Rainbow… and if you still love me… it’s stupid, I know… you’re right here holding me—” 

“I spoke out of anger,” Twilight broke in, “for that, I’m sorry. You have no idea how much worry and panic that all of you caused. Rainbow Dash got sick… Applejack almost lost her mind. Rarity went into a full blown meltdown… and then, after everything, I get a stern talking to that you’ve gotten yourself involved in something that there is no backing down from. There is no turning back, no turning away, there is no going home.” Twilight’s voice became choked and she had to fight back a sob. “So… you need to be brave… and you need to be awesome… just like Rainbow Dash… do you understand me? You need to be the friend that the others can depend upon… be the bold little pegasus that I know you can be.” 

Twilight Sparkle sucked in a deep breath, held it until it began to hurt, and then let it out as she spoke the words that still needed to be said. “You are going to need all that bravery and all that awesomeness… because when you come home, and you will be coming home, don’t you even doubt that for a second, my troublesome little filly… you are going to be in so much trouble. There is going to be one very upset alicorn and two very angry pegasi waiting for you to return to us… and we are going to make you wish that you had never left.” 

“That seems fair,” Scootaloo replied, glad for a moment of comfort with Twilight. 

There was a soft knocking on the door and Twilight looked up from her bunk on The Scorned Mare. “We don’t wish to be bothered right now.” 

“Twilight, I have news about Rainbow Dash,” Shining Armor said through the door. 

“Come in.” Twilight watched the door and waited, almost holding her breath. 

Shining Armor’s projection stuck his head in through the now opened door. “Twilight, you can relax. Rainbow Dash is fine… as it turns out, it was a severe case of indigestion, a bit of stress, and a terrible case of backed up gas with constipation. The stomach pains are all accounted for and Rainbow Dash is fine… so is the foal.” 

Twilight, without even realising she was doing so, squeezed Scootaloo so hard that the foal let out a whistling wheeze. After a moment, Twilight relaxed a little and Scootaloo was able to breathe again. 

“Rainbow Dash had to suffer the indignities of an upper colonic because of all the festival food she ate… as it turns out, engaging in an eating contest involving deep fried cheese sticks while you are pregnant is a terrible idea. Who knew?” Shining Armor gave his sister a reassuring smile. 

“So she’s okay?” Scootaloo asked, needing to hear the words again. 

“As okay as can be expected, given the circumstances. She ate several pounds of deep fried beer battered cheese. From what I understand, the Ponyville Hospital has her in the quarantine wing, locked in a room with an advanced ventilation system designed to filter toxic contaminants out of the air,” Shining Armor replied. 

Twilight Sparkle gave her brother a wry, reluctant smile. 

“Rainbow Dash can clear a room in ten seconds flat,” Scootaloo said.

“Oh, trust me, I know all about pegasi.” Shining Armor bowed his head, smiled, and then shut the door, leaving Twilight and Scootaloo alone together. 

“This changes nothing,” Twilight said in a low menacing whisper before Scootaloo could even open her mouth, “when you come home, you are still so very dead.” 

Frightened, Scootaloo let out a little squeal followed by, “Okay.” 



 

“So you had started your year of being blind?” Diamond Tiara asked, wanting to know more about what Moonbow had been up to. She lay beside the much larger, much bulkier filly. Moonbow had grown a great deal since they had last seen one another. 

“Yeah… and because of some dimwitted colt getting in trouble, Mistress has decided to punish me... when I get back, I have to start all over from the beginning,” Moonbow replied. Craning her head and her neck, Moonbow focused upon Sentinel and gave him the stinkeye, staring him down until at last, Sentinel turned away, unable to meet Moonbow’s gaze. 

“Yes… the dimwitted colt… the source of much of our frustration, fear, doubt, and dread. The reason that all three of us are here… it wasn’t enough that he had to ruin his life, he had to ruin ours as well… because of the dimwitted colt, I now have a second heart beating in the middle of my plot crack, and I fear I may never be able to sit down ever again.” Diamond Tiara turned her head and scowled at Sentinel, hoping that he would feel it since he wasn’t looking. 

“Yeah, Twilight got you a good one… no doubt because you’re expected to be the one to talk the dimwitted colt out of trouble. I bet you’ll be feeling that for weeks.” 

“I won’t be needing a blanket tonight, that’s for certain… my arse is on fire!” Diamond Tiara’s scowl intensified. 

“Twilight got me too… right on the back of my right thigh… well, she got me in several places, but those don’t hurt much… but the back of my thigh is tender… and Diamond Tiara is absolutely right, I will not need a blanket, I have the enormous welt on my leg that is radiating heat to keep me warm… well, that and thoughts of revenge against Sentinel. Somepony has to pay for this travesty.” Boadicea’s black eyes narrowed and she focused her predatory stare upon the colt that was the cause of all of this. “Hey, asshole, you do know that you are going to spend the rest of your life paying for this, right?” 

“Yeah,” Diamond Tiara chimed in, “whenever there is a diaper that needs changing, we’re going to remind you of the time that you pulled this boneheaded stunt that got us all wing slapped by Twilight ‘Hot Crossed Buns’ Sparkle!” 

“Princess Celestia came to speak with all of the Myrmidons in training and she regaled us with the tale of the time that she wing slapped Buckminster and Rising Star. I think it is a point of pride for alicorns to wing slap ponies that they truly love and care about, just like pegasi—” 

“Only it hurts a whole lot more!” Boadicea said and then punctuated her words with a pained squawk. “I’ve been wing slapped a few times by Yew Wood… and I thought Yew was gifted! As it turns out, me and my welt both agree that Twilight’s wing slapping skill is vastly superiour.” 

“I named my welts Sentinel One and Sentinel Two… and both of them are pains in my arse.” Diamond Tiara’s scowl devolved into a dark, fuming stare and her blue eyes narrowed. 

“You know, I could spend the rest of my life doing this.” Boadicea’s head bobbed in a manner most avian and her crest rose. “Just the three of us… together… never, ever letting Sentinel hear the end of this.” 

Curled into a miserable ball, Sentinel moaned. 



 

Dinky, laying beside Sweetie Belle, tried to ignore the throbbing pain that existed in several places. Laying down was the only way to get comfortable, sitting down was out of the question for both she and Sweetie Belle. In front of the two fillies, a spellbook from the library of The Scorned Mare lay open. 

“You’re good with telekinesis, just like your sister. That’s your strong point, Sweetie. This is a beam spell, it is a whole bunch of little tiny telekinesis beads all strung together, one right after another. If you focus them all in one spot, you can do a lot of damage. It also generates friction and heat. I have strong telekinesis too.” Dinky gave Sweetie a soft nudge with her elbow. 

“I can perform a basic zap spell… Sunset Shimmer said I was pretty good at it,” Sweetie Belle said to Dinky as they both looked into the book together. “I can also make fire, boil water, and freeze stuff… but I’m not very good.” 

“I don’t have an elemental attunement.” Dinky shrugged. “I used to be mad about it, but it is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m a mentalist. I’m not element focused because my magic is attuned to the mind. I’ll never be gifted at fireballs, but I have strong telekinesis and other mental spells.” 

“My mother has strong telekinesis, Rarity has it, and I have it. It took me a while to realise that what my mother does and Rarity does is not normal… my mother bakes and her speciality is cookies. She can levitate dozens and dozens of items all around the kitchen, all at once. Rarity can do the same thing, but with sewing stuff… and now I’m starting to be able to levitate a whole bunch of stuff.” Sweetie Belle paused, turned her head, and looked at Dinky. “I think I might go into nursing… or maybe even be a doctor… with my telekinesis, I could put ponies back together if they get hurt… my cutie mark says that I can mend broken hearts… maybe I can mend actual hearts as well… I dunno… that is all still a long ways away. But Rarity is teaching me to sew with the hopes that I’ll be a surgeon.” 

“Sweetie Belle?” 

“What?” 

“Do you really think that you’ll be happy with the boring life of being a nurse after having all of these adventures?” Dinky asked. 

Heaving a sigh, Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Probably not. But the one time I mentioned to my sister that I thought becoming a Black Cloak might be fun, Rarity screamed until she fainted and Coco had to revive her with the smelling salts. When Rarity woke up, she screamed until she fainted again… now, I only bring up sensible careers, my sister’s nerves can’t take the idea that I might be in danger.” 

“I want to be a Black Cloak, I think. I want to use my magic for good. I want to do good things and defend ponies. More than anything, I want to be remembered as a powerful wizard that did good… I want it so bad… it is all I can think about.” Dinky closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and then let it out in a huff. Opening her eyes, she stared down at the book and stared at an arcane diagram that she had already spent hours staring at. 

“I just want to make hurting ponies stop hurting,” Sweetie Belle said in a low voice. 



 

“You okay, ‘Bloom?” Piña asked. Apple Bloom was staring down at her plate but not eating, causing Piña to worry. For a moment, as Piña looked at Apple Bloom, the filly shimmered, a horn and wings appeared, then, after a second, they vanished. Piña blinked to clear her vision. 

“When I was asleep earlier, I had weird dreams… I’m having a hard time rememberin’ it, but Sentinel was in it… there was a pony… a really weird pony… I can’t remember if this pony was male or female, and when I try to think about it, it makes my head hurt,” Apple Bloom replied. She looked up from her plate and stared at Piña. 

“I have weird dreams too… but I have a spirit of knowledge lodged inside of me.” Piña shrugged. “It’s kinda expected.” 

“Sentinel and I were placed on this really big scale… like the scales they have in front of the courthouse. He was on one side and I was on the other and that really weird pony in my dream that I can’t seem to remember said that he and I exist to strike a balance for something that is broken… but if Sentinel and I work together, we can fix it… or, we could ruin it.” Apple Bloom pushed her half eaten plate of food away. “The dream was real scary… I keep thinking about it and feeling nervous.” 

“You and Sentinel both are going to have a lot of crap dumped on you. You’re a Princess of Equestria and Sentinel is going to be a Prince… both of you are going to grow up together. It’s good that you’re friends now… you’ll be able to trust each other when you get older and politics starts getting a lot more backstabby. Sentinel will always be there for you.” Piña blinked her blue eyes and gave Apple Bloom a reassuring smile. 

“I think that’s why I’m here,” Apple Bloom said to Piña, her voice low, “if I was in trouble, Sentinel would come running to help me… he said that every knight must serve a princess… and that when he became a knight, he wanted to serve me. I thought it was silly at the time, but now… now… I think I understand how serious all of this is.” 

“We’re about to go and cut down Grandpa.” Piña set down a glowing red horn upon the table, dropping it from her fetlock. “Apple Bloom, this is going to be a defining moment of your princesshood.” Piña tapped on the horn a few times with the edge of her hoof. “You, an earth pony, are going to be one of the ponies responsible putting an end to the single greatest threat that exists against Equestria.” 

“I never looked at it that way,” Apple Bloom replied. 

Piña grinned and then picked up the glowing red horn. “Amaranth told me that a fire burns within all of us… a special fire… and that we are going to light the way to the future…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 820
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“What’s going on?” Moonbow woke up, groggy, confused, and only somewhat aware of the soft voices around her. She rolled over and found herself next to a warm, fuzzy, squirming pink pony. In her half awake state, she gave the pink pony next to her a quick snuggle, which made the pink pony squirm. 

“Sentinel is having colt troubles,” Boadicea said in a low whisper, not a trace of laughter in her voice. “To be fair he is in bed with three females.” 

“So, somepony take care of him… why is this even a big deal?” Moonbow grumbled. 

“Take care of me?” Sentinel’s confused voice was muffled from beneath the pillow where he was hiding his head. “I don’t even know how to respond to something like that. I’m not a chore.” 

Sniffing, Moonbow’s body woke up a little more. Her senses sampled the world around her. Blankets and a bed that smelled of sweat. The sound of four hearts beating, including her own. Diamond Tiara’s heart was racing inside of her barrel. The scent of female arousal was just strong enough to be detected, strange arousal, and Moonbow assumed it was the griffoness. The scent of fear, carried by sweat, was mouth watering and put Moonbow in a hunting mood—but that was a desire that would have to be dealt with later. Perhaps Diamond Tiara would indulge her in a bit of good natured sport. Prey only had to be nibbled, or maybe licked, after a good pouncing of course. 

“It’s just a boner… a biological need… it is something that can be dealt with,” Moonbow said to the others as she sat up in the bed and looked around. “Why all this fear?” 

“Sentinel is afraid that he’ll hurt us… that he’ll be rough… that he will lose control and become some horrible beast,” Diamond Tiara replied, her whole body tingling after the full body snuggle she had just experienced with Moonbow. 

Sniggering, then snorting, Moonbow, unable to help herself, began laughing. Moonbow tried to compose herself, she tried to be serious, but then she made the mistake of looking at Sentinel, who was belly down on the bed and had his head stuffed under a pillow to hide himself. Moonbow, who had gone through the effort of sitting up, fell over onto her side as she collapsed into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. 

“I don’t think this is funny.” Boadicea placed one of her talons upon Sentinel to comfort him. “Stop laughing, will you?” The griffoness let out an annoyed squawk and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the laughing lunar pegasus filly. 

Moonbow sucked in a deep breath and tried to hold back her laughter, but a few chortles escaped her. She took another deep breath, snorted a few times, and then, after much effort, she composed herself. She wiped her eye, scrubbing away a tear, then reached out and patted Diamond Tiara. 

“What’s so funny?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Both of you,” Moonbow replied, another chuckle escaping her, “the two of you are in love with something you don’t understand.” The lunar pegasus cleared her throat and sat up once more. “The males of our kind, while they can be rough, they are subservient to females. It is something deeply ingrained within them. We are different than the solar ponies, where the male dominates the female. This is why solar pony females take lunar pegasus males as mates… they are attentive, good at minding the nest, and more importantly, they are gentle.” 

“What?” Sentinel blinked, his head now out from beneath the pillow. 

“Sentinel, your mother and your father had you… you come from mixed parentage. Your mother was a solar pony… if your father was some rough, mindless, brutal beast, how do you think you came along? If your father was a savage, don’t you think he would have ripped such a small, helpless female right in half?” 

“Well… I… uh…” Sentinel, stammering, was unable to make a reply. 

Moonbow, who moved with a swiftness unmatched by the others, pinned Diamond Tiara down to the mattress in a fluid movement, then grabbed Sentinel by the nape of his neck with her teeth. Moonbow dragged the startled colt over Diamond Tiara’s kicking, wiggling, face down form, and Moonbow ignored the surprised squawk from Boadicea. 

As Sentinel thrashed around on top of Diamond Tiara, moving on top of her, his arousal was all too evident as it slapped around between the pinned filly’s hind legs and trailed over her soft, silky, pleasant feeling tail. Moonbow extended her wing, grabbed a bit of skin between her thumb and central knuckle, and gave a hard squeeze, causing Diamond Tiara to squeal in pain.

The response to the squeal was immediate and sudden. Sentinel flew from Diamond Tiara’s back, slid over the bed, then fell over the edge and landed upon the floor with a thump. 

“He was almost inside of me!” Diamond Tiara gasped, curling up on the bed and tucking her tail between her hind legs. “He was humping me… Moonbow… I don’t even…” 

“Sentinel is a creature of instincts.” Moonbow looked down where Sentinel was crouched on the floor, looking the colt in the eye. “His need to be subservient and protect is stronger than his need for sex, just like any other male from our tribe. I grew up watching the sex play between the males and females of our tribe. We don’t hide our rutting like you solar ponies do. Why hide something that others can learn from?” 

“Moonbow, he mounted me… he could have… done things to me,” Diamond Tiara said, looking up at Moonbow as she spoke. 

“So what?” Moonbow shrugged. “It’s bound to happen sooner or later. It is what ponies are supposed to do, after all, make more ponies.” Moonbow sighed and looked at Sentinel, who was still sitting on the floor, looking spooked and a little confused. “If something ever does happen and it isn’t to your liking, just squeal or make a sound like you are in pain. Trust me, Sentinel will stop. Doesn’t matter how involved he is or how good it feels, just squeal and buck him off.” 

“I… I don’t know about this…” Diamond Tiara, shaken, looked at Moonbow and then at Sentinel. “I mean, I want to believe it, but he’s strong… he is so strong. Boadicea and I have had a lot of conversations about what to do with him when the time comes.” 

“Sentinel is not going to hurt you. He’s a nest protector. That is what he is. That is what males are good for. Males are to bring food, to hunt, and to provide. Sentinel and I have a different arrangement though… we are to trade fishes and work together in equality—” 

“Moonbow, you remembered?” Sentinel lept up on the bed, looking surprised. 

“Of course I do,” Moonbow replied as she looked at Sentinel. “Sentinel is like the other males of my tribe. Have you ever once seen or heard of Sentinel hurting his smaller siblings, even by accident? I have every confidence that no matter how worked up Sentinel is, his need to protect is still stronger by far than his need to rut.” 

Moonbow flopped down on the bed, sighed, kicked out her hind legs, spread them, and hiked her tail up. “Sentinel, come here and take me.” Moonbow looked back over her shoulder at Sentinel and gave her hips an inviting wiggle. 

Sentinel shook his head “I’m not—” 

“Old enough?” Moonbow finished. She shook her head. “I disagree. Part of you is old enough and it is as hard as an oak tree right now. Come here, Sentinel, and let us show the others how gentle you can be. You can’t hurt me.” Moonbow’s voice was soft and inviting. “This is a chance to prove to yourself that you are not a mindless animal.” 

“This feels wrong.” Sentinel let out a little whimper, looked at Diamond Tiara, and then at Boadicea as he tried to figure out what to do. His eyes fell upon Moonbow and he could see everything. 

“Sentinel, if we were living on Crescent Moon Isle, our home, you and I would already be engaging in sex play. We might already be bonded… maybe not when we met the first time, but with the spring coming around, you and I would have already been bound. It is only here, with these mainlanders that we are considered foals. You and I are old enough to hunt, to kill, to provide, I am old enough to breed, we are old enough to contribute, and once a foal is old enough to contribute something, anything, they are no longer a foal. They become something else. A hunter. A fisher. A protector. A breeder… you and I are long past foalhood.” 

“Moonbow… I…” 

Hearing Sentinel’s voice, Moonbow, raised her hips up into the air a little and shook them from side to side, her tail flagged up high and off to the left. She felt her dock flexing and a strange new feeling crept through her guts, causing her to clench on the inside. 

“Moonbow…” Sentinel was almost whining as he spoke. His whole body trembled. Try as he might, he could not turn away. He saw a bead of slick looking moisture on Moonbow’s exposed secret places and he was overcome with a strange thirst. He licked his lips and wished that he was licking something else. He looked at Diamond Tiara—he licked her sometimes, usually her face and her ears, grooming her. It left her slick and wet, even slimy, and oh how she complained, usually she complained a whole lot, but that didn’t stop her from turning her head to present new places for him to lick while she was complaining. He realised that she loved him—she loved him enough to endure his strange need to groom her and she tolerated being covered in slick, slimy drool. 

“Show them that you are more than an animal, Sentinel,” Moonbow said, waggling her hips from side to side. “Show them that you are more than a rough brute. You can’t hurt me… you won’t hurt me… and if we show them, they can stop living in fear of you.” 

Moonbow’s words made too much sense. Sentinel felt his will fading and his desire growing. He sniffed, smelling arousal. He wanted to dive onto Moonbow’s back, hook his forelegs onto her wing joints, press his face into her mane, and then bury himself inside of her. He couldn’t think of a worthwhile argument, he couldn’t think of a logical reason to say no. He found himself looking at Diamond Tiara, staring into her blue eyes. It was like staring into a pool of reflective water on a sunny day and seeing the sky above reflected in the water below. As he looked at Diamond Tiara, he felt his shallow breathing quicken. 

She was nodding—she was telling him that it was okay—she was telling him that she wanted to know the outcome of this as well. This was her future too. At some point, she was going to be beneath him, or even above him, and he was going to be doing a whole lot more than licking her, grooming her, other things were going to be happening and Diamond Tiara wanted to know that she would be safe. 

Sentinel turned and looked at Boadicea; her tail was swishing from side to side and her black eyes glittered with curiousity. Her talon fingers twitched with nervous energy. Her crest was high on her head and her beak was open. She was panting. He watched her nod as well. Sentinel could hear Boadicea’s heart pounding in her ribcage. She had offered herself to him, believing herself tough enough, but right now, the griffoness cub was filled with the fear of the unknown. 

Sentinel scooted forward on the bed, moving towards Moonbow. He was cautious and slow. He sniffed, breathing in deep the scent of her arousal. The smell made him drool and a long ribbon of slobber dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. He stepped over her back and then dropped down on top of her. He felt her back arch as he touched her, her hips rolling up and bucking up against him. Her dock tickled against his stomach. His movements were clumsy, awkward, he had no idea what he was doing. He braced himself against Moonbow’s back, hooking his front fetlocks over her wing joints. 

Moonbow, feeling Sentinel on top of her, could feel his heavy breathing into her neck, which caused all of the hairs along her neck to stand up. She felt his wet, slobbery muzzle move against her ear, leaving her damp and slick feeling. His rough tongue trailed over the base of her ear and then moved upwards, causing little electric tingles all throughout her body. He licked again, and again, and Moonbow had a hard time concentrating upon the fact that something hard was stabbing her just below her tail, trying to find its way in. 

And then, almost as if by accident, she felt Sentinel snag against her. Her hips bucked, trying to draw him in, and her whole body tensed. She felt Sentinel brace himself against her wing joints. Moonbow growled, prompting the colt into action, and then, with a sudden thrust, he was inside of her. There was no real pain, at least no serious pain, there had been a brief moment of tight friction where everything tugged and felt too tight, but then everything relaxed. 

He was inside of her now, Moonbow could feel it, and he was making tender little thrusts as he worked his way in deeper. A growing wetness welcomed him, and a fire was kindled in Moonbow’s belly. She could hear Sentinel squeaking, and she answered with little clicks, pops, and happy sounding squeals of her echolocation, encouraging him to continue. 

Alas, the experience would not last long. Moonbow felt his thrusts quicken, he was only getting about halfway in, but that changed when he gave her a few vigorous, quick humps, getting most of his length inside of her. She felt him stay inside, she heard his breathing quicken, he was panting now, he was squeezing her, she felt something happening inside of her, some rush of liquid heat filling her. 

Then it was over. Sentinel collapsed on top of her, his breathing heavy, and then he began to lick her ear again, it was loving, and something about it almost seemed apologetic. Moonbow allowed her body to collapse to the bed and she rolled her hips around with Sentinel still inside of her. She felt him going soft, so she squeezed him, clenching around him, not willing to let him go, wanting to hold him inside of her for as long as possible, and not even knowing the reason why. 

Moonbow heard a little whimper in her ear as she clenched his length, and then felt him twitch inside of her. His heavy, hot breathing blew over her wet ear, making it feel both cold and hot at the same time. She felt sticky down there and she felt something dribbling out. 

Sighing, Moonbow turned her head and looked at Diamond Tiara, who was sitting right beside her in the bed. The filly’s mouth was open, her breathing was shallow, and her eyes were wide. She was sweating and her mane clung to her face and neck. 

“You have nothing to be afraid of,” Moonbow said to the earth pony filly. 

Sighing once more, Moonbow lowered her head down to the mattress, closed her eyes, and focused on the feeling of Sentinel shrinking inside of her. He was grooming her other ear now, licking and nibbling, and it was just what she needed to complete the moment. She felt her body grow drowsy, she felt heavy, she felt warm and good from Sentinel’s attentive ministrations. 

Only one thought lingered at the edge of her mind, and she wondered what Mistress would have to say about all of this. There would be no way of hiding it, Mistress had a way of knowing, but Moonbow realised that she could worry about any possible consequences at another time. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 821
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Something had happened, Princess Luna was sure of it. She stared at Moonbow, who had a secretive smile upon her muzzle. Raising her eyebrow, Luna looked at Sentinel. No! For a moment, Luna almost held her breath. It only took a moment for her to realise what had taken place behind closed doors. She stared at Moonbow and the filly stared back, doing nothing to avert her gaze. 

The other foals had not come out yet; it was only Sentinel, Moonbow, Diamond Tiara and Boadicea. Luna stepped forwards, trying to think of the right words to say, she wanted to say something, she wanted to say the right thing. One of her future Myrmidons and her godson had just— 

“Mistress, I know that every aspect of my life is laid before before you, but in this instance I beg for privacy,” Moonbow said to Luna in a soft voice, her head bowed, but her eyes remained locked upon Luna’s. 

It was all Luna could do not to smile. Sentinel was slinking along beside Moonbow, watchful, his movements catlike. Lunar pegasi were all so delightfully similar, Luna had watched this scene play out so many times. Luna felt a swelling of pride; she was going to have to tell Bucky about this, perhaps it would cheer Bucky up. Bucky needed cheering up, Doctor Mawu had said that Bucky had experienced a full blown nervous breakdown. 

“I have no idea what you mean, Moonbow,” Luna said to the filly, “did something take place that I am not aware of?” Luna grinned, her wings fluttering at her sides, she was supposed to be angry with these foals, she was supposed to look dour, intimidating and scary even, but at the moment, she could not. She gave Moonbow a knowing wink and then composed herself, making herself look serious and solemn once more. 

Only Princess Celestia had a better poker face when it came to hiding emotion. 



 

“—the earth ponies are going to have to pull the sleigh,” Princess Luna said to the gathered foals. She saw Sentinel bristle at her words, his hackles were rising, and Luna realised that Sentinel was about to stick his hoof into his mouth. She decided to let him. 

“So that’s it then, that’s what they are along for? Beasts of burden? Are they just here to pull the sleigh? Moonbow and I can pull the sleigh! I… I can’t believe that you’d do this!” Sentinel assumed a posture of defiance and challenge, his legs going stiff, and his hackles bristled. “Apple Bloom is a princess, not just some animal meant for heavy labour!” 

“Sentinel, are you done being stupid or is this to become a regular thing?” Moonbow asked. 

“Are you going along with this?” Sentinel demanded as he whirled on Moonbow. He had just… done something with her. Now, feeling betrayed, he was ready to fight. His emotions were getting the best of him, he felt angry, hurt, and confused. 

“Sentinel, don’t you dare challenge me!” Moonbow snarled. The lunar pegasus filly bared her teeth and raised her hoof. “You’re being an idiot! Stop being angry and think!” 

“What is there to think about?” Sentinel’s voice came out a low growl and he moved himself between Diamond Tiara and Moonbow. “You and I can pull this sleigh just fine!” 

“By the stars, you are stupid!” Moonbow shook her head and waved her hoof at Sentinel. “If you and I are in the harnesses, and something attacks us, we’ll be all tangled up! We’ll be unable to defend the others, you ignoramus! The earth ponies are the ones most suited for pulling the sleigh and the heavy load! The unicorns certainly can’t! We can’t even have the unicorns out walking! We need for them to conserve every calorie they can so they can keep their magic ready! We can’t have them exhausted if we need their magic for a fight or for our survival! Scootaloo could pull the sleigh, but that would be stupid! She’s a pegasus, she’s more suited for cold weather with her natural insulation! Having her in the sleigh with with the unicorns will allow them to stay warmer, shiver less, and burn fewer calories trying to keep warm, you idiot!” 

Sentinel stood down, assuming a more submissive posture. He ignored Luna’s hard stare. After a moment of staring at Moonbow, he dropped his gaze. “Your words are reasonable, I’m sorry.”

“What about me?” Boadicea asked. 

“You’re in the sleigh too,” Moonbow replied, “Your talons will freeze right off in this kind of cold, while you might be useful in a fight, you’re no good if your talon fingers freeze and snap off. So it is your job to keep Sweetie Belle and Dinky warm.” 

“I can do that,” Boadicea said, puffing out her fluff. 

Apple Bloom walked forwards and gave Sentinel a nudge. “I appreciate you standing up for me… for us… but this time, our earth pony strength is needed to do the hard work. Sentinel, just keep us safe.” 

Sentinel nodded. 

“Piña Colada will be out in the front, using Sombra’s horn to guide your way. I suspect that as you get closer, Piña will no longer need the horn, given her unique nature, she will just know.” Princess Luna looked at Piña and gave the pink earth pony filly a stern look. “Little one, you carry the fate of millions upon your shoulders. The fact that you seem utterly immune to the horn’s influence may mean that you might be the strongest earth pony that has ever lived. You carry the world upon your back… I hope you are mature enough to understand the seriousness of what you are doing.” Luna blinked and swallowed her emotions, refusing to allow tears to come to her eyes. “Sunset Shimmer was chosen for this task because she resisted the Alicorn Amulet after much time and study under Buckminster’s tutelage. Sunset’s willpower is almost equal to Buckminster’s own, but I must confess, my sister and I were worried about her ability to resist the horn. Even Celestia and I felt a powerful compulsion to stab it into our heads.” 

“Oh, Grandpa keeps whispering about all of the horrible ways he’s gonna kill me for touching his horn and suffocating it with my pink pony goodness… and once he ascends he is going to wipe the mud ponies from the land and push them into the sea… he’s cranky.” Piña gave Luna a bright smile. 

For a moment, Luna thought of Pinkie Pie and then looked at Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara was comforting Sentinel after his lapse into stupidity, patting him, and whispering something into his tufted ear. Luna had one thought that echoed through her head: Pink ponies might just be the salvation of us all… 



 

Sentinel had a bit of trouble moving after he was bundled up. He had a heavy woollen coat, a down filled vest that went over his body, and a thick woollen cloak. Protective boots covered his hooves; Luna had informed him that the ice he would walk though would slice his legs open. The boots were enchanted to keep him from falling through the snow. All of his companions were also bundled up. Sweetie Belle, Dinky Doo, Scootaloo, and Boadicea were already tucked into the sleigh. Piña was hitched at the front of the line, Diamond Tiara was right behind her, and Apple Bloom was the one closest to the sleigh, being the strongest. 

It was already cold, each puff of breath was visible. While it was spring elsewhere, it was still winter in the frozen reaches of the north were the Crystal Empire was. It would be even colder as they trekked north, heading into the icy wastes. 

Twilight Sparkle stood near the sleigh, kissing Scootaloo over and over, nuzzling the orange pegasus foal, but was unable to bring herself to say ‘goodbye.’ Shining Armor stood nearby, giving some advice to Dinky and Sweetie Belle. 

Princess Luna herded both Moonbow and Sentinel together, using her wings to nudge them along, until they were separated from the rest of the group and had a bit of privacy due to distance and howling winds. Luna cleared her throat and put on her most emotionless mask. 

“Moonbow… you are to keep them safe. I am trusting you with the life of a Princess of Equestria and the future Prince of the Griffons… not to mention that Sentinel will very soon be a Prince of Equestria himself. Do not fail me.” 

“Of course, Mistress, I will do as you command. My life for them if necessary.” Moonbow bowed her head. 

“Sentinel… I hope that you learn from your father’s mistakes…” Luna shook her head, her mask almost slipping. “I do not mean Bucky, my student. I mean your father. Sentinel, do not cloud your mind with thoughts of revenge… your father’s need for revenge caused him to fail you and left you an orphan. Here you are, brought to this point by revenge. Sentinel, son of Buckminster, Lord of Winter, change your ways!” Luna stared down at the colt—Sentinel looked away, but Luna grabbed his muzzle in her telekinesis and she made him look her in the eye. 

“Revenge can cloud the mind, dull your senses, it can make you stupid… it will lead you down a dark path… it brought you here. I know that you want revenge upon Sombra for what he has done… you had better change your heart before you reach him, lest you give Sombra the weapon he needs to defeat you and destroy your companions. Make no mistake, Godson, he will be your ruination! Do not make this easier for him, if there is to be a fight, make him work to claim your soul. This is why Buckminster has no hope of ever defeating Sombra… my student is far too weak in this one regard, Bucky would be motivated by revenge, he would move against Sombra in anger with a heart filled with hatred… and Sombra would undo him… make no mistake, Sombra will do the same thing to you, if you let him.” 

Sentinel, looking up into Princess Luna’s eyes, nodded. “As I walk north, I will search my heart and attempt to mend my spirit—” 

Luna’s wing extended, and with a thunderous crack, she slapped Sentinel across the muzzle, sending the colt flying. “You insignificant little fool, you will not make the attempt, you will do it! If you fail to do this, it could mean the death of all of your companions! It might mean the death of all those you know and love… the fate of millions… endless numbers of lives rest upon your back! Sentinel, do not fail me! You have long seen the kindness and mercy that I have, but I can be a cruel Mistress… I will not rest the fate of endless numbers of souls upon what you might or might not do… you chose to do this… the time for foalhood is over. If you fail… if things go horribly wrong, it will mean the end of everything you know and love… it might even mean the end of my sister and I. Everything! So you sort your shite out and you get your heart, mind, body and soul into fighting condition before you reach Sombra, you insufferable little insolent foal, or so help me…” 

Luna’s mask broke and she began crying as Sentinel struggled to get back up on his hooves. Tears spilled down her cheeks and a pained cry lingered in her throat. “I would go with you myself, were I allowed, but Amaranth assures me that all of you are the ones who carry our salvation… Sentinel, please, do not fail us!” 

Sentinel bowed his head and nodded. “I will not fail you. I will set out and I will accomplish the task I am given.” His lips moved as he struggled to make more words, but nothing came out. After several tries, Sentinel continued, “Out of the many slaps I have been given recently, that one was the one I most deserved. I apologise, my Mistress, I will not fail you. I live to serve.” 

Princess Luna sat down in the snow and swept Sentinel up to her, crushing him to her. “You are so very precious to me, I have grown to love you so much, I cannot bear this pain I feel lancing through my breast and impaling my heart… it wounds me so. When you come back to me, I will try to shield you as best I can from your father’s wrath, and your mothers’… but I can make no promises.” 

“I understand.” Sentinel began to sniffle as he wrapped his forelegs around Luna’s neck. “When I go home, I will take the punishment I deserve… please, Godmother, do not think less of me for the errors I have made as a foal.” 

“Sentinel, go and be the better pony that neither of your fathers could be…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 822
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the fellowship made its way north, Sentinel gave a lot of thought about the two of his fathers. Both of them. Bucky and… much to his chagrin, Sentinel realised that he couldn’t remember his real father’s name. Blood… Blood something… Bloodweather? The memory of his father was now so old that he had trouble remembering it. Bloodweather, so named for the perfect time to hunt, when the air was moist and the light breeze carried scents. 

As his hooves crunched through the snow, his nose sniffed the wind and his mind thought of times that almost seemed more like dreams than memories. His father had been an enormous brute, at least by solar pegasus standards. Sentinel thought of his mother… it took him time to coax her name from his memory. Her name was Rain Tricker. Sentinel’s father had loved her a great deal, or so Sentinel’s memories told him. He had only been a yearling, he had been very, very small when they were both still alive. He had confusing, awkward memories of hearing their lovemaking while he was curled up in the pile of straw with both of them. He had vague memories of his father sprawled over his mother’s back and he could still hear her soft, mewling cries in his ears as the old memories resurfaced, bringing with them a feeling of pain and loss. Ponies always talked about how good his father was to his mother, how much he loved her… even worshipped her. He had fallen in love with a feather wing, the small, weak pegasi of the day.

And when she had died, Bloodweather had gone mad with rage and grief. 

Sentinel almost stumbled in the snow. He recovered and tried to ignore the spike of agony going through his barrel, the shaft of ice that had skewered through his heart. The freezing wind tore at his tear filled eyes and burned his nostrils.

Rain Tricker clearly meant more to Bloodweather—Sentinel… who at the time didn’t even have a name, Sentinel hadn’t been worth living for. The howling wind picked up and Sentinel felt it tearing at his cloak. The wind found its way through his coat and his down filled vest. 

At least Bucky, for all of his faults, of which there were many, Sentinel knew that he was loved. Sentinel knew that he was worth living for. Bucky believed in him, had high hopes for him, Bucky was carving out an empire, a future worth having, Bucky, being a good father, was making certain that something worthwhile was left behind for all of his foals. Bucky had given him a name. 

Alas, having Bucky as a father had also given Sentinel a nemesis: Sombra. So much hate and rage bubbled in Sentinel’s tender breast, a loathing that went far beyond Sentinel’s foalish age. Much like either of his fathers, Bloodweather or Bucky, Sentinel had gone off in search of revenge, never once thinking about the consequences, the danger, or the fact that such an action might be the end of him. 

As Sentinel trudged through the snow, he promised himself that he would learn from this, with the hope of never making the same mistake twice. He had things he wanted to live for; Moonbow, Diamond Tiara, Boadicea… his siblings… his family. He had hurt them. Sentinel’s desire for revenge had caused pain to those he loved. 

He resolved to do better. 



 

This was it. This was her time of proving. This was Dinky’s chance to prove to herself if she really had it in her to be the wizard that she believed that she could be. She was huddled under a pile of blankets with several other ponies and a griffon—which did nothing to keep away the biting cold. 

All those hours spent in study, all those nights reading books by horn light, the lessons from Princess Luna, the lessons from Princess Twilight Sparkle, the lessons from her father, the hours spent in study with Sunset Shimmer, the lesson in telekinesis from Rarity, the lessons from Princess Celestia, all of her schoolwork, it all came down to this. She had invested much of the last year of her life improving herself. She was a type three with unlimited potential. She was a gifted mentalist. She was learning the art of astral projection from Princess Celestia, but needed Piña and Piña’s gift of mysticism to be her guide. She was considered gifted with enchantments and was showing signs of being talented with transmutation, no doubt because her father was patient and explained to her the vast mysteries of his chosen craft. 

Bucky might just be the greatest enchanter and transmuter who had ever lived, and Dinky intended to be his equal, if given the chance. She could already create golems with simple walking patterns that could perform basic tasks… like fetching her pencil off of her desk. She had enchanted her schoolbooks to read their texts out loud for her, so she could focus on other tasks, like taking notes or study diagrams. 

Dinky had ideas, hopes, and dreams. While she knew that Princess Celestia had hopes of retaining her as a wizard, Dinky wanted to serve Princess Apple Bloom. Dinky wanted to be part of Princess Apple Bloom’s vision of the future. Dinky understood that Princess Celestia had some notions about using Dinky’s talent to deal with the changelings, and while Dinky wasn’t entirely against that, she didn’t want to use her gifts for destructive purposes or for conflict. She wanted to build things, she wanted to make things, she wanted to make things grow, she wanted to secure the future. 

But if she had to battle bugs to protect Apple Bloom’s vision of the future, she would. 

If she had to put on a black cloak to protect her fellow ponies, she would. 

And she knew that Piña would be right there with her, by her side. They had special magic together; Princess Twilight called it gestalt thaumaturgy, an organised magical whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. Together, their potential was infinite, Twilight had said so, and Dinky didn’t believe that Twilight would lie about something this important or just say something to make both her and Piña feel good. 

When Dinky went home, if she survived this, she knew that she would be going home as a proven wizard, she would finally have the credibility, the respect, and the recognition that she craved. It meant everything to her. 



 

Pulling the sleigh wasn’t as hard she thought it would be and Piña found that she was rather enjoying this trip so far. She was the pacesetter, the pony up front, and she felt that she had set a steady pace. 

Bundled up beneath multiple layers of protective clothing, Piña’s unseen face was smiling. She supposed that she should be afraid, but she was in too good of a mood. There was a time not all that long ago where she would have been terrified. She recalled how the howling wolves of the Shetlands had caused her several embarrassing accidents. 

Knowledge removed fear, Piña was starting to understand that now. Being possessed by a spirit of knowledge had its perks. Piña knew stuff. And knowing stuff made it hard to be afraid of it. Sombra’s shadow was a grumpy old spook with a broken heart. Piña wasn’t quite certain how to deal with him just yet, but she suspected that her spirit of knowledge would have a few suggestions at some point. Some brilliant idea would just pop into Piña’s mind and Piña would know just what to do to make the situation better somehow. 

That grumpy old spook was afraid of her, and Piña knew it. The creepy old shadow feared the knowledge that Piña carried with her; knowledge brought self illumination, and a well lighted self made it difficult for shadows to find purchase upon your soul. Piña didn’t know how she knew this, it was just there. Shades fed on ignorance, stupidity, and negative emotions. They needed hate and stupidity to function. They gathered under beds, hid in closets, and from there, they would make their way into ponies’ dreams. They would whisper terrible suggestions into the ears of sleepers to make them weaker. Hate those different than you. The shades loved the idea of division by tribe. Together, the tribes were unbeatable, unbreakable, together, the tribes had the ultimate weapon to combat the shades, the shadows, the scurrying dark that lingered in the places where the light did not shine. 

A pony separated by tribe, a pony cut off from the herd, that was a pony who was easy prey. Little by little, the predatory shadows would continue to stalk them, weakening them, making them less likable, less loveable, breaking down all bonds and connections with their fellow ponies until at last, the fell shadows, the darklings that hid in the true dark, The Other Other, could swoop in and devour whatever was left. 

The tiniest bit of ignorance and the shades would have their claws in you. Hating a pony for their horn, or their wings, or hating because they had neither horn nor wings, it made you a target, it left you weak, and Piña knew this. Piña was beginning to detest this weakness and she wanted to do something about it, but she didn’t know what. Perhaps Dinky would know, or figure it out. Or maybe Piña would just do whatever and hope that everything would work out for the best. As Piña was learning from Discord, a harmonious system had to have a little chaos, so perhaps leaving this to chance was for the best. 

Discord. Piña huffed out a sigh as she thought of him. Not long ago, he had offered to turn her into a unicorn. Piña was supposed to be a unicorn, she should have been born that way. Her astral projection had a horn, but her physical body was that of an earth pony. Discord could not figure why Piña was content to remain an earth pony when she could be a unicorn… and not just any unicorn, a powerful unicorn. Piña had no interest in being a silly unicorn, it was far more interesting being an earth pony with strong magic. 

It was a lot more fun being the earth pony that gave Sombra nightmares. 



 

Harnessed just behind Piña, Diamond Tiara found that she enjoyed pulling her weight, so to speak. The hard physical work was somehow pleasing for her body, and her thoughts became so clear. Trudging through the snow, she was thinking far more clearly than she had, perhaps in her entire life. Things that had confused her before made sense now. 

There were no longer any doubts, concerns, or worries about Sentinel. She loved him. There was a clear vision of the future now, now that she was free to think. She was going to become a lawyer, there was no doubting it now, she was going to become a lawyer and she was going to do battle with the injustices of the world in the same way that Sentinel, Boadicea, and Moonbow might do battle with horrible monsters with giant fangs. She was going to work with Apple Bloom and make a better future. 

It all seemed so obvious now. So clear. Everything made perfect sense. Moonbow, Sentinel, Boadicea, they were all savages, but good savages. They were going to need somepony to keep them together. There was bound to be a lot of snarling, hissing, and growling in this relationship. There were bound to be spats. And spats among predators could be bloody, terrible things. Which was part of the reason why Diamond Tiara had to become a lawyer. Somepony in this family of vicious butt chomping, entrail eating, neck snapping, intestine slurping, gut gobbling, throat ripping apex predators had to be a fearless mediator that would present the facts as they were, rather than how the heat of the moment might make them out to be. Somepony was going to have to keep the peace, and being the non predator, being the earth pony, the lone grass eater in this group of bloodthirsty savages, Diamond Tiara knew that the task fell upon her back. She was going to have to keep them in line. She was going to have to keep the peace, she would have to be the one to settle disputes, she would have to be the one that kept things fair. 

She would not allow the law of the jungle to take over her future herd. Moonbow was going to make a good alpha, Diamond Tiara did not doubt that for a second, but Moonbow’s strong leadership and aggressive personality would need to be tempered with gentle wisdom and kind words. 

And Diamond Tiara knew that she could do that. 

When teeth were being bared, when lips were curled back, when razor sharp talons were being waved around, somepony was going to have to wade into the middle of all those sharp teeth and dangerous pokey bits to keep the peace. 

Diamond Tiara trusted her companions and her future herdmates to never bring her to harm. She had to; she was the most vulnerable of them all. She was no lunar pegasus, a creature of mythical nigh indestructibility. She was no griffon, a creature made of cunning, claws, and one razor sharp beak. Diamond Tiara was a pink earth pony, a soft, fuzzy creature who had a body made for snuggles and hard work. As delicious as she might be, and Diamond Tiara in her most secret moments fantasised about just how delicious the pinkest parts of her could be, she was not on the menu. 

Well, maybe for nibbling, or perhaps just a little taste—Diamond Tiara bit her lip as she thought about this. She had to trust that her companions could control themselves and would not devour a helpless pink morsel. Trust was perhaps the most important asset of their relationship as a whole. Doctor Mawu said that their trust would bring them together and make them strong. 

Diamond Tiara hoped so. 
	
	
> Chapter 823
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Trudging through the snow, Moonbow thought about the feeling of Sentinel upon her back. It was something she had wanted for quite some time. He hadn’t given her a case of the shivers, but that was okay. Stuff like that would come later, with time and practice. 

Thinking of Sentinel caused the dreadful chill in the air to go away. Someday, soon, she would be able to be with him. They could play together. She could pounce him. He was getting bigger, but so was she, and she still dwarfed him. Soon, she would be as large as an adult solar mare, and then, after that, much, much larger. 

Moonbow sniffed, taking in the scent of the wind. The stench of decay was faint but noticeable. There were dead things about. The scent of bad magic, something that Moonbow was learning how to smell, was noticeable even to Moonbow’s as of yet untrained nose. Necromancy lingered in the wind. 

Nothing could be done about it, they had to continue to wherever it was they were going. At some point, the dead things around them would attack. Or maybe not. Perhaps Sombra wanted them to come. Maybe the way would be cleared for them, a thought that unsettled Moonbow a great deal. She didn’t mind being in danger, it was her place to be in danger, but she didn’t want anything to harm her companions. 

Piña was setting a good pace; swift but steady, a pace that Moonbow knew would carry the companions for hours. When the sun started to go down and the dark came, they would need to stop, create a shelter, and hide inside. Somepony was going to have to keep guard. If the things around them even now decided to attack, it would probably be at night, when it was dark and they were the strongest. 

That was the nice thing about being a shadow creature; when it was dark, she too, was at her strongest. Moonbow was certain she could handle a few zombies if it came down to it, but she’d need Dinky or Sweetie Belle to set their remains on fire. If it was something worse than zombies, and there were worse things than zombies, Moonbow might have to get creative. 

Between her and Sentinel, the others would stay safe. Mistress was trusting her with so much already and she wasn’t even tested yet. To be given the protection of a Princess of Equestria was a great honour, a privilege, and Moonbow was determined to make good on the trust she had been given. 

Head high, Moonbow was determined to see this through, and at the end, she would know glory. 



 

Applejack only ever talked about the fun stuff on her adventures and now, Apple Bloom was beginning to suspect that there were a lot of moments of hard work, like this one. Piña was doing a good job of setting the pace and Diamond Tiara was also doing well at pulling, but Apple Bloom, the closest to the sleigh, was doing most of the hard pulling. She didn’t mind, years of chores and heavy labour at Sweet Apple Acres prepared her for this. Princess or no, Apple Bloom was ready to do a little hard work. She understood her place on this adventure. 

Her hooves crunched with each step on the ice encrusted snow. The heavy exertion was helping to keep her warm and the icy air she breathed into her lungs kept her from getting too warm. She leaned into her harness, glad to give a little more of herself. 

Diamond Tiara wasn’t much good for hard work, but she would be. A summer at Sweet Apple Acres would be good for her. Apple Bloom looked forward to the coming summer. There would be an awful lot of hard work, but there would be fun, too. Camping. Swimming. The fair would come to town, maybe, if this summer was better than the last. Equestria was getting better, or so Applejack kept saying. Cheerilee had her foal and Apple Bloom looked forward to playing with little Cheery Apple, so named for having the happiest demeanour ever seen in a foal. The little colt never seemed to be unhappy about anything. Where most foals began crying after being born, Cheery had giggled instead. 

Apple Bloom had to survive this and make it home; she had to spoil little Cheery and do all the things she had so longed to do as a big sister, even if she wasn’t quite Cheery’s big sister, she was close enough. Plus, if Piña and Dinky were any indication, there were moments where the lines were blurred when it came to sisters, brothers, and siblings. 

She hoped that Sweetie Belle, Dinky, Scootaloo, and Boadicea were warm enough in the sleigh. They weren’t working, or moving much, so they weren’t generating a lot of heat. All they had to keep warm was each other. Apple Bloom was hopeful that it was enough. They were all bundled up in protective clothing, tucked away in a well insulated nest, and covered over with a thick, heavy, dark green woollen blanket that would allow the wind to blow over them rather than on to them. 

Ahead was the unknown and Apple Bloom would face it with her friends. 



 

Being in what felt like a warm nest with other warm bodies under a thick blanket that trapped the heat, Scootaloo was overcome with drowsiness. There was nothing to do and so it was easy to just slip away, lapsing off into little naps. 

The oatmeal she had eaten this morning was a brick in her stomach, which did nothing to help her sluggishness, both mental and physical. She was pressed up against Sweetie Belle and Dinky Doo, with Boadicea completing the sandwich on the other side of Dinky Doo. 

Pffrt! 

Scootaloo sighed. The teeny, tiny, harmless little pegasus poots made everything feel even warmer. She was certain they didn’t stink, at least she didn’t smell anything. This is what pegasi did when piled in a nest with other pegasi, or other ponies. At least, this is what Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry did… perhaps Twilight as well, but Twilight was shy about these things, thus causing her to try and hide it. 

Flash Sentry was cool and casual about it, he would yawn, stretch his wings, stretch his legs, he would arch his back, and when something slipped out, and something would slip out, because he would keep stretching until something did, he would blame it on his stretching, leaving Twilight frustrated because a pony couldn’t be blamed for accidents—a house rule. 

Rainbow Dash on the other hoof, she did nothing to hide it, made no effort to mask it, and made no attempt to be subtle. Rainbow Dash always had excuses, her best one being her pregnancy. She would drop a bed bomb and then look Twilight right in the eye, waiting for Twilight to complain. Then, as Twilight was complaining, Rainbow would fan the air with her wings, explaining to Twilight that this was how pegasi marked their territory and protected their nests, keeping dragons away from their young. 

Which was pretty funny, given how many times Spike was in the bed with them, during moments of family time. Spike was no innocent when it came to casual, covert crepitation, but he had one major failing when he tried to blame his sulfurous emissions upon Rainbow Dash—when Spike farted, there was almost always a telltale curl of smoke, which almost always prompted Twilight Sparkle to talk about writing some novel or another called ‘The Telltale Fart,’ a story about a baby dragon that killed his parents, suffocating them all in their bed. 

So focused on family and the good times they all had together, Scootaloo was unaware of the danger ahead, the mortal peril that they would all soon encounter, together. 



 

Tucked away in the sleigh, Sweetie Belle sighed, almost napping. The smell around her was so bad that Sweetie Belle missed the overpowering, nose tickling, sneezy smell of her big sister Rarity’s perfume collection. Later, when it was safe to breathe and Sweetie Belle was no longer forced to hold her breath, she planned to call the stinky little pegasus that was her best friend ‘Pootaloo.’ As if that wasn’t bad enough, Dinky was every bit as bad and Boadicea had disgusting fishy breath from eating a tin of smoked fish for breakfast. The resulting eye watering stench under the blanket was appalling, to say the very least. 

Was this what Rarity had to endure as the Element of Generousity when she went off with her friends? Sweetie Belle thought of her sister Rarity’s stories in a new light now. Being trapped on a train with her friends, traveling, eating strange new food, being exposed to new cultures, no wonder Rarity went right for the spa when she came home—Sweetie Belle, who was now almost feeling like she was Sweaty Belle, planned to ask her sister to go to the spa… that was assuming of course that her mom, her dad, her sister, and Coco didn’t all take turns killing her upon her arrival. But Rarity would understand about Parfume le Pegasus. Oh yes, Rarity would understand. Sweetie Belle now understood why her sister would run around and sniff herself after arriving at home, Rarity wasn’t crazy at all. 

So this is what it meant to be an adventurer. For now, Sweetie Belle was baggage, luggage, something to be hauled about in the sleigh until such a point that she became useful, she would then be used in a useful manner, and then, afterwards, she would be stowed away, back within the soul withering stench of the nest of nastiness in the sleigh. 

Sweetie Belle wanted to talk, but she was told to save her energy. To try and sleep if she could. She was supposed to just lay here and do nothing, nothing at all. At least things would be exciting if they were attacked by zombies. Or abominable snowponies. Coco had once told a scary story about abominable snowponies in front of a crackling fire while drinking cups of hot cocoa. At the end of the story, Rarity had burst in, wearing a snowpony mask. Sweetie Belle had no memory what happened afterward, apparently she had fainted, much to the amusement of her friends.

Sweetie Belle hoped that she wouldn’t faint if Sombra showed up. Her friends were counting on her and she needed to come through for them. 



 

Tucked away, warm and secure against the bitter cold, Boadicea was taking stock of her assets. Following Rarity’s advice on how to be a fashionable young lady, Boadicea had taken to carrying a purse. She also had her body harness with a few assorted pouches. Boadicea felt that she was well prepared, she worked very hard to live up to Loki’s standards of preparation. 

She had raided the armory before leaving, pilfering as much as she could. She didn’t like to think about it as stealing—it was appropriating goods for an unknown crisis. She had gathered up quite a collection before slipping away to join Sentinel. 

She had multiple incendiary orbs, the little glass spheres that Bucky, Rising Star, and Sunset Shimmer all made. She was almost certain that these firebombs were made by Rising Star. The glass was warm to the touch and the fires within burned with an unnatural intensity. Seventeen orbs in total, seven in one pouch, three in her purse, two in another small pouch, and five in a satchel. If zombies or undead were encountered, Boadicea would be ready. 

She had her beloved piano wire garrote. Nothing said “I hate you!” quite like slipping a length of piano wire around the neck and then strangling your foe or slitting their throat with a well practiced movement of the wire. 

A collection of darts and poisons, some paralytic, others lethal. Boadicea had grabbed them just in case they ran into cultists. A hurled dart was silent and deadly, much like the farts that Scootaloo kept letting go. Pegasus ponies! 

Three smoke grenades, useful for making a quick escape or laying down cover. Boadicea had been practicing holding her breath with Loki, she could hold her breath for a little over two minutes now, which allowed her to work inside of the cloud of choking smoke, and with her fine tuned senses, she could keep her eyes closed, thus negating the harmful effects of the smoke grenades. Smoke was the best friend of the assassin, and no mistake, Boadicea fancied herself as Loki’s most apt pupil. Even in the most peaceful, civilised world, there was always going to be the need for polite, discrete killers. Boadicea was going to be the most politest, discretiest, nicest killer for hire that she could be. Bucky had promised that if she stuck to her lessons that he would make for her a cloak that would make her all but invisible, some kind of special magic called aversion or something. 

Tucked into her purse was the most important weapon in Boadicea’s personal, private arsenal. A ‘borrowed’ ten millimetre revolver. She had ammo for it as well, incendiary ammo a-plenty, some regular ammo, and a dozen high explosive rounds that she had no doubt would turn a zombie into a fine red mist that would blow away in the howling wind. The others could rely on magic, or muscle, or the hokey magic of friendship—Boadicea found that she prefered firepower, guile, and treachery. The magic of friendship was nothing compared to the reassuring heft and life affirming firepower of a heavy revolver. 

If Boadicea got the chance, she planned to put a bullet right between Sombra’s eyes. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 824
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Piña was certain that she was a frozen ponycicle. She had trouble feeling her legs and her whole body ached. The sun was going down. They had traveled the entire length of the day, stopping only for a while to eat something and have a drink. Having unicorns was handy, Dinky and Sweetie Belle were able to melt snow for water. 

Now they needed to build an igloo, something that Sentinel, Boadicea, and Scootaloo were familiar with, having made emergency shelters a few times as part of their Raptor training. The problem, as Piña saw it, was that it was getting far too cold far too fast. The wind was picking up. And the sun really seemed to be moving faster than Piña would have liked. 

She watched as Dinky and Sentinel spoke together, talking into each other’s ears so they could be heard over the howling wind. Something was happening, but she wasn’t certain what. Piña hoped it wasn’t an argument, now was not the time. 

Dinky and Sweetie Belle were talking to one another as the sun dipped closer to the horizon. Piña, feeling anxious, wondered what was taking so long. Nopony was doing anything at the moment. 

Then, much to Piña’s relief, stuff started to happen. Dinky and Sweetie Belle began to use their telekinesis to shape blocks of snow, compressing them, and shaping them into a giant ring that was the base of their igloo. Piña could feel the wind blowing through her woollen overwear and the down filled vest. She moved closer to Apple Bloom and pressed up against her, hoping for some kind of warmth. 

When she got home, she’d  be more than willing to get spanked and sent to bed early. The bed in particular sounded warm and pleasant. The igloo was going up fast, faster than Sentinel, Scootaloo, and Boadicea could have constructed it. The sleigh was inside the igloo already. Piña wondered if they would all fit in the little nest area that had been constructed. She didn’t care if it was a tight fit, she just wanted to be warm again. 

When the last few compressed snow blocks were lowered into place, including the capstone block, Piña let out a happy squeal. An opening had been left, a small opening that one had to crawl through. The others were already crawling inside. Piña waited her turn, but it was so very hard to do. She was freezing. 



 

Inside, it was dark and was already warming from all the warm bodies crammed into the tight space. Their heavy breathing was melting the walls, then the water would freeze, forming a glazed layer of ice that prevented the wind from finding a way through. 

Sweetie Belle created a floating flare of light that hovered near the ceiling. It provided no warmth, but it was nice to have light. Dinky was digging into the supplies, looking for food. Piña collapsed into a pile with Moonbow and Diamond Tiara, both of them wrapping their forelegs around her and giving her a snuggle. 

“Sombra keeps whispering that he’s going to make me freeze to death,” Piña whispered through teeth that almost chattered. “He’s really, really angry with me. He says he’s gonna kill me.” 

“Piña… maybe you should take a break from carrying his horn.” Moonbow pulled Piña closer, pressed her face against Piña’s, and began breathing against Piña’s cheek in an attempt to warm her. 

“No, can’t.” Piña squirmed, Moonbow’s breath upon her was all tickly. “It has to be me… it just does. It isn’t safe for the rest of you.” 

“Okay, we’ll sleep with you in the middle of the pile… you’ll stay warmer that way.” Moonbow squeezed a little more and crushed Diamond Tiara closer, hoping more body warmth would help Piña. 

“He hates our pink goodness,” Diamond Tiara said to Piña, smiling in spite of the grim situation. “We’re pink, we’re fluffy—” 

“And we don’t take no shite from nopony,” Piña finished, cutting Diamond Tiara off.

The three fillies giggled together while Dinky tried to throw together a meal. The others were all pressing together, longing for warmth and fellowship. The chill in the air was more than mere cold. 

“Scootaloo and I will do guard duty. We’ve been snoozing in the sleigh most of the day anyway so we’ll be fine. The rest of you need your rest. Sentinel, Moonbow, don’t you argue. We need you two to be awake, aware, and alert come tomorrow,” Boadicea said as she snuggled up against Apple Bloom. 

Piña, who was being smothered by Moonbow and Diamond Tiara, noticed that the bad feeling being caused by Sombra’s horn wasn’t so bad when she was in close contact with the others. She filed away that tidbit of knowledge for later reflection, making mental notes about her conclusion. Sombra seemed to be the strongest when a pony was at their weakest, alone. 

It was good, then, that they were all here. Had Sentinel come alone, something awful might have happened. Piña thought about the horn tucked away in a pocket, throbbing with hatred, a terrible artifact of evil. 

“It’s starting to warm up in here with all of us,” Sweetie Belle said as she helped Dinky dump rations into thin, light, ultraportable metal bowls. Hard granola, dried fruit, dried berries, and compressed squares of oats rattled into the metal containers. 

“We might need to worry about air and poke a hole in the top. If our exit gets covered over with snow, we could suffocate. That would be bad.” Boadicea looked up at the roof above them. 

“‘Specially if Scootaloo keeps fartin’,” Sweetie Belle said, giving Scootaloo a teasing smile as she spoke. 

“Hey, that’s a pegasus emergency survival skill… it will keep us warm.” Scootaloo peered down into a bowl of army rations, sniffed, and shook her head. “It looks like kibble.” 

“No. Sentinel, Moonbow, and Boadicea are getting the kibble… their dinner smells like the cat food that Rarity keeps in the cupboard.” Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow and grinned at Scootaloo. 

“Smells like peanut butter… and Rainbow Dash’s wingpits.” Scootaloo sniffed her bowl, shrugged, and then jammed her muzzle into the metal container so she could eat. 

In a moment, all of the companions were eating, and nopony (or nobirdy) complained about the army rations. They were all far too hungry and the food, while terrible, was filling, calorie dense, and had the deliciousness that could only be brought about by desperation or starvation. 



 

Curled up between Sentinel and Moonbow, Diamond Tiara thought about her life up to this point, and everything that had led her here. It was strange, really. One bad day and a swarm of bees. One day where she had gone too far and then came the terrible stinging bees. That had been pretty bad, all things considered, but what came after was somehow even worse. Dinky and Piña’s forgiveness. No, mutual forgiveness. Dinky and Piña had both been kind to her, even when she didn’t deserve it. 

She had wronged Sentinel too, but he had continued to be nice to her. He was good to her. He made her want to be a better pony. And now, here she was, thousands of miles away from home, going on an adventure that might end her life. She could hear the faint murmuring of those around her talking to one another. Some were asleep already. 

She missed her father, and wondered if he would have been proud of her. She had changed, she had fought to earn her forgiveness, to restore her place in society, she was earning the respect of others. She was now one of Apple Bloom’s most trusted friends. Dinky and Piña both saw her as a sister. Bucky still treated her as if she was one of his own daughters. He was warm and affectionate with her in ways that even her own father never was. 

Which made things difficult sometimes. 

She felt cold, but it wasn’t from the chill in the air. Diamond Tiara turned her head, her muzzle seeking out Sentinel’s. Her lips brushed over his, lingering for a moment, she could feel his damp breath blowing against her mouth, and then she felt Sentinel kiss her. It was warm, gentle, a little clumsy, and sweet. Nothing too vulgar or obscene, as far as kisses go, no open mouthed tonsil hockey, just a prolonged touch of lips. Sentinel tasted like how cat food smelled. She didn’t mind. She thought of Sentinel and how he had moved against Moonbow’s body. She no longer felt worried or afraid. Sentinel, mega-brute as he might be, was a sweet gentle creature. Sure, he could dismember and disembowel his enemies with startling ease. Sure, he had big pointy fangs and a strange rough tongue that was meant to scrape marrow from cracked bones. Sure, he ate strange things, but Diamond Tiara found that she loved him all the more because of these things. 

“Hey, I feel left out,” Moonbow whispered. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sentinel replied, pulling away from Diamond Tiara. “I can kiss… you… too…” Sentinel watched as Moonbow’s muzzle locked on to Diamond Tiara’s. He saw Diamond Tiara’s blue eyes go wide. The pink filly began to squirm as the kiss intensified. Sentinel felt warmth in the pit of his stomach. He could hear soft, wet, slurping squelching sounds, and the sound of Diamond Tiara almost gagging, but holding back. He had a very arousing thought about just how long Moonbow’s tongue was, and just how deep it might have been in Diamond Tiara’s mouth at the moment. 

After one very hot minute, the two fillies pulled apart, and Sentinel was saddened to see them stop. A part of him desperately wanted to watch them keep going. Diamond Tiara’s muzzle was slick with drool. Her nostrils were flared and her breathing was heavy. Sentinel’s nose detected the scent of arousal coming from both of them. 

“Hey! Hey! Get a private room, you two!” Sweetie Belle’s voice sounded squeaky and almost embarrassed. 

Moonbow winked at Sentinel and then gave Diamond Tiara a muzzle nuzzle. “Don’t worry,” she whispered to Sentinel, “we can take turns sharing her when the time comes. I don’t mind sharing a meal with you.” 

Diamond Tiara tittered, a quiet, restrained, muffled fit of laughter, giddy with arousal and affection. She thought about Boadicea, the griffoness had a beak, but surely they could find a way to have her join in. She snuggled up against Sentinel and felt Moonbow cuddle up closer against her. Sandwiched between them, Diamond Tiara began to feel warm and sleepy. 



 

“Everything seems to be happening so fast,” Scootaloo said to Boadicea in a low whisper. The others were sleeping, and the igloo was filled with the sounds of slumbering ponies. “I had my first heat. Colts stopped being so gross. My best friends and I started realising that we could be best friends forever. We started making plans… the foolish plans of fillies… but now, we’re all here together. I find myself missing Rumble. Watching Moonbow and Diamond Tiara together earlier… I keep thinking about Twilight and Rainbow… they’re so happy together, all of them. I mean… best friends who became something else.” 

“Yeah.” Boadicea nodded, her head bobbing. She was warm, so very warm, the air inside of the igloo was downright toasty and each breath of warm air into her lungs felt good. 

“It feels like life is moving at the same speed that Rainbow Dash flies… she’s really come a long ways in her pregnancy. You can feel the foal moving around in there. She’s changed, Rainbow Dash… she’s put on a lot of muscle with her pregnancy, just as she planned. All those times working out with Surprise has paid off for her. Rainbow Dash has everything she wants in life… she’s going to be a Wonderbolt. She’s teaching other foals to fly… she has everything figured out—” 

“And you don’t?” Boadicea looked at her friend, her companion, and her fellow Raptor. 

“I dunno.” Scootaloo shrugged. “I wanna be a pilot. I wanna be a Raptor. I wanna be with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Rumble. But beyond that, I’m not sure that I have some glorious master plan for my life like Rainbow Dash does.” 

“Do you really need a master plan?” Boadicea asked. 

“Yes.” Scootaloo nodded. “I wanna be like my hero… I know it sounds pathetic, but I really do… I want to be like Rainbow Dash. I want her confidence, I want her lust for life and living, I want to be loyal like she is… and I want to be a good mother like I know that she is going to be. She’s changed so much… I think I had something to do with it… and now, I have to figure my life out and do a bunch of awesome stuff so she isn’t disappointed with me. I can’t waste my life.” Scootaloo sniffled and wiped her nose with her wool-wrapped foreleg. “Ugh, the wool is so rough and scratchy… going home is gonna be hard… Rainbow Dash is gonna be super pissed with me. Beyond that though… I just want her to be proud of me. I want to do something worthy of being her little Squirt.” 

“I understand.” Boadicea reached out and gave Scootaloo a nudge. “Lugus is a very big griffon… and with being a big griffon, he leaves behind some very, very large expectations. He has been good to me, and I am obligated to be the very best griffon that I can be for him. I don’t want to disappoint him. It makes life complicated, wanting to have somebirdy be proud of you.” 

“It sure does,” Scootaloo agreed, her head nodding. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 825
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sentinel, Moonbow, wake up, something is outside,” Boadicea said, shaking the pair. Scootaloo couldn’t hear anything over the wind, but Boadicea knew that something was outside. She could hear faint sounds over the wind and over the muffled breathing of the ponies inside of the igloo. 

Moonbow was awake in an instant and Sentinel shook his head, trying to clear away his sleepiness. Moonbow’s ears pivoted, moving around, listening, and the large filly let out a growl. She hissed; not the supernatural hiss of her kind, but an angry, protective hiss. Something was threatening what she had sworn to protect. 

“Sentinel, you stay inside and keep the others safe. Dinky and Sweetie Belle, ready your magic. All of you, I need you awake and alert, NOW!” Moonbow’s voice was commanding, confident, and brought everypony to attention, cutting like a knife through the confused drowsiness of the sleepy foals all around her. “Boadicea, you are with me.” 

“What about putting down the zombies?” Sentinel asked. 

“We can burn them after I dismember them,” Moonbow replied. 

Sentinel nodded, now awake, there was worry etched upon his face, but not fear. His ears perked as there was a thump against the wall of the igloo. An unnatural feeling of cold began to fill the air. 

“There is an ice wight outside,” Moonbow whispered, her lip curling back from her teeth. “Princess Luna warned me of these… Boadicea, we must move swiftly… I shall deal with the wight, keep the zombies off of me while I work to dismember it.” 

“Aye aye,” Boadicea replied, slipping into her Raptor training. 

“Attagirl.” Moonbow’s predatory snarl became a grin. 





As it turned out, kicking an ice wight didn’t do very much. Moonbow had believed that kicking it with as much of her strength as she could muster would dismember it, but that hadn’t happened. The creature had amazing resilience, and Moonbow respected it was a worthy foe. The ice wight’s supernatural cold was eating into her skin, making her shiver, she worried about frostbite as she fought it. The cold was sapping her strength, making her muscles weaker with each second. The howling wind seemed to be filled with knives now, knives that pierced her protective clothing and sank into her flesh. 

Somewhere, behind her, a zombie moaned. 

“GET DOWN!” 

Boadicea’s voice was commanding, full of an authority and strength that Moonbow recognised. She trusted in Boadicea’s spoken command and responded right away, her legs folding as she dropped down, getting low, and diving into the snow. 

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! 

The dark before dawn filled with bright orange flashes of light, causing a strobe effect. Moonbow’s eyes were dazzled, she blinked, seeing big spots in her vision. The head of the ice wight in front of her exploded and the body ignited with bright red and orange flames. Fire crackled all around and the air filled with smoke. 

Moonbow was shocked that Boadicea could see well enough in the dark to have done what she did. Five shots, five bodies, no misses. Moonbow rose up, getting to her hooves, and backed away from the burning ice wight. It writhed, kicking around, the neck hole making strange gurgling noises. It had once been a pony, but was now something else, made vile with necromancy. The zombies were all burning and the flames whipped in the wintry wind. 

“I can’t believe I…” Boadicea’s words trailed off in her throat. 

“This is why you train.” Moonbow looked at the body of the ice wight, which blazed with magical flames. She watched as the tail ignited and the fire spread down the hind legs. “This is why you spend every day getting better, until such actions become second nature, forever part of your muscle memory. Killing is a skill like any other. Thank you, Boadicea.” 

Moonbow moved closer to Boadicea’s side and watched as the griffoness began to reload the gun, putting more bullets into the cylinder. Boadicea’s talons were calm, steady, they did not tremble; the griffoness had just dealt death and was no poorer for it. Moonbow looked at the griffoness’ face and could see flames reflected in Boadicea’s black eyes. There could be no mistaking it, the griffoness was a killer. 

“A Winterworx revolver… for those moments when everything must die.” Boadicea slipped the gun back into her purse and then slipped her purse back under her protective outerwear. “You okay, Moonbow? I didn’t want you getting burnt… as you can see, I used incendiary rounds. I loaded them into the gun earlier… I expected for this to happen, I was up all night waiting, nervous, and to be honest, a bit scared. I don’t want any of my friends getting hurt.” 

“Let’s get back inside. There’ll be no going to sleep after this, we might as well get something to eat, get hydrated, and then get moving.” Moonbow looked at the burning bodies. “You did good. You were wise to use fire. Thank you, Boadicea, future herdmate.” 

“It was nothing,” Boadicea replied, feeling a sensation of warmth that flooded through her body, driving the cold away. “I was just protecting Sentinel and what he loves.” 

Moonbow shook her head. “Sentinel and I have an agreement. I doubt that it is love, at least not yet. You spend far more time with him than I do. I have seen the way he looks at you, the way he is so gentle and tender with you… it makes my heart ache. I will be with him soon though, it is only a few short years that I must be patient.” 

“I dunno if I could do what you are doing… I don’t think I’m strong enough.” Boadicea turned and headed back for the opening of the igloo. “I struggle to be an honourable griffoness… you and Sentinel just live it as though it was the most natural thing to the both of you.” 

“Your delusion does not suit you.” 

“What do you mean?” Boadicea froze, standing at the entrance. 

“Sentinel stole his father’s airship and took off, bent on revenge. He caused much hurt and sorrow. He caused his father to have a full blown nervous breakdown. Buckminster took Mistress hostage. His mothers are all broken hearted, suffering a pain I doubt that you or I could comprehend, a pain made all the worse by the fact that when Sentinel does come home, if he comes home, they will be so happy to see him, so relieved to have him back, but also so furious with what he has done and burdened by the need to punish him. Five mares and one griffoness are going to flay the flesh off of his hindquarters when he returns home for what he has done to his father… these are not the actions nor the indicators of an honourable pony.” 

Boadicea slumped as Moonbow approached, not sure how she felt about what Moonbow had said. She watched as Moonbow dropped down and began to crawl through the tunnel, and then, her heart heavy, she followed after, eager to be out of the cold. 



 

Breakfast was more kibble, which did nothing friendly for Scootaloo’s digestive processes, or anypony else’s for that matter. The dry, hard kibble was the perfect ration; you didn’t want to eat any more of it then you had to. You ate just enough to make it almost feel as though your belly had something in it, which in turn gave you plenty of calories. The kibble was not intended to leave you feeling full and sluggish, it was intended to keep you going. 

By the time they had demolished the walls of the igloo to free the sleigh, the sun had risen, offering feeble pink light but no warmth. The wind had picked up, blowing southward, meaning that the group would be walking into a headwind, always an exhausting task. 



 

Within hours of setting out, visibility was nonexistent. The whiteout conditions made it impossible to see the end of one’s own nose. Piña kept them going, she knew the way. Sentinel and Moonbow walked on either side of her, touching her, not wanting to be separated where they might wander off into the blinding snow and be lost forever. Moonbow and Sentinel both were using their echolocation to try and ‘see’ around them, and Moonbow kept making a silent wish that she had finished her year of blindness and all of the training that came along with it. Fighting in these conditions would be nigh impossible. 

They were vulnerable; Moonbow knew it and feared it. In a storm like this, if the undead attacked them, they would be easy pickings. There would be no way that she and Sentinel could keep the others safe if something happened. It would be fighting blind, and that would be ferocious, desperate fighting indeed. 

The storm bore down upon them with all of the cold fury that it could muster. This was Sombra’s cold, this was Sombra’s storm, and he was not going to make reaching him easy. Leaning forward into the cold, the companions continued northwards together. 



 

Piña pulled with all of her might, fighting against the wind. She was exhausted, tired, and dragging Diamond Tiara, who had collapsed into her harness. Diamond Tiara didn’t have the endurance to keep going. The cold was biting through Piña’s clothing and she had stopped feeling her legs hours ago, or at least it felt that way. She was in pain and needed to pee. She really needed to pee, but she didn’t want to pee, because that would mean exposing her bare backside to the hostile cold and Piña suspected that her pee would freeze before it would hit the ground. 

“WE’RE STOPPING!” Moonbow shouted, her voice almost inaudible over the wind. 

Piña came to a halt and then just stood there, not knowing what to do. She tried not to breathe too much, the air was so cold that it made her lungs sting and it made her tongue go dry. Even her boogers felt frozen, she was no longer able to breathe through her nose. 

She turned around and then moved to help Diamond Tiara, who lay in the snow. The poor filly had been dragged along, Piña had done the pulling, and Apple Bloom had been the one pulling most of the weight of the sled. Somehow, Apple Bloom was still standing. She too was trying to help Diamond Tiara now. 

“DINKY, SWEETIE BELLE, I KNOW IT IS A LOT TO ASK, BUT WE NEED YOU TO MAKE A SHELTER… I KNOW THAT DOING IT BLIND WILL BE DIFFICULT, BUT YOU MUST. WE ARE ALL DEPENDING ON YOU,” Moonbow bellowed. 

“I can feel things with my telekinesis!” Dinky replied, shouting over the wind, her voice nowhere near as loud as Moonbow’s. “This will be a piece of cake! I’ve been painting pictures while blindfolded, just so I could feel my own brushstrokes!” 

Piña, who nosed Diamond Tiara, had witnessed Dinky painting in such a fashion. Dinky pushed herself harder than any other foal she knew. Diamond Tiara had pushed herself too, and was now dealing with the consequences of it. The filly was limp and unresponsive. 

“Sentinel, when we have a shelter, you’re going to need to get Diamond Tiara warmed up,” Piña said, struggling to make herself heard over the wind. “She’s out… I’m worried.” 

“She’s an earth pony.” Moonbow moved closer and nudged Diamond Tiara. “She’ll be fine… she’s just not in shape… she’s in lousy condition for physical effort.” 

“Moonbow, she spent a lot of time sick, with ulcers, stomach problems, and a bunch of other stuff,” Piña said, her muzzle close to Moonbow’s. “She only started to get better just a while ago… I saw her take her pills this morning… I’m worried.” 

“Pills?” Moonbow lowered her head and nosed Diamond Tiara again. “I really hope her medication isn’t making her more susceptible to the cold. Sentinel, when we’re inside, you and I are going to make a pink filly sandwich!” 

“Aye aye!” Sentinel replied. 

“If we have to, we’ll shag her until she’s warm!” 

“What?” There was a long pause from Sentinel. “What?” 

“One of the first things we Myrmidons are taught for cold weather survival. Vigorous shagging increases blood flow to the extremities, raises body temperature, generates heat, and can revive a pony laid low by the cold. Survival sex—” 

“WHAT?” Sentinel shouted, his voice a howl to rival the wind. 

“I’m going to have such great stories to tell when I get home.” Piña began rubbing Diamond Tiara, trying to rouse her. “My brother Sentinel had to give Diamond Tiara a good hard dicking while she was passed out to warm her up and save her life!” 

“Piña, no!” Sentinel shook his head. “No… no… you mustn’t tell our parents!” 

“Ah, I spent one summer on the Shetlands and I came home with such a great vocabulary.” Piña felt Diamond Tiara squirm and felt relieved. She wasn’t about to tell Sentinel though, it would be great fun watching him squirm, especially if Moonbow kept teasing him. 

Moonbow was teasing, Piña hoped. She really didn’t want to watch her brother boning her best friend in the tight confines of an igloo. Ponies really didn’t have sex to revive one another from the cold, right? 
	
> Chapter 826
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The days passed, each blurring into the next, as days are wont to do. In the frozen wastes, all there was to do was walk, to survive, to keep moving, and with nothing else to do to fill the time, with no modern distractions, with no books, with no games, with no real modern comforts, all that was left to fill the time was introspection and self reflection. 

There were several more attacks from the undead along the way, Dinky and Sweetie Belle both finally getting to prove themselves, both using basic fire spells to ignite the corpses and keep them from reviving. More care was taken with Diamond Tiara, who pulled for as long as she could, then she would say something, admitting that she could do no more, and after that, she would ride in the back with the others, recovering while dealing with her feelings of inadequacy. 

As the companions drew closer, a peculiar mania overcame Piña, who wanted to be rid of the horn. She wanted them to travel longer, to keep pushing themselves as hard they could, she wanted to continue forwards even when she herself was almost ready to drop over from sheer exhaustion. 

The cold grew ever worse, the weather intensifying, and there were times when the companions traveled in complete blindness. What kept them going was Piña’s unerring sense of direction, along with Moonbow and Sentinel’s echolocation, both of whom were becoming quite skilled from its constant use. 

And then, much to the surprise of all, the storm lifted and they saw a beautiful white spire rising up out of the snow. The tower stood in the middle of the eye of the storm. It was, quite possibly, the most beautiful thing that the entire fellowship had ever seen, and all of them took a moment to stare at it wide eyed. 

It was the tomb of Princess Platinum, and a lone pony stood waiting for them at its doors… 



 

Sentinel moved with caution, not certain what he was seeing. He saw another pony, but could not smell another pony. He realised that he was seeing a projection, an illusion. A white stallion stood near the ornate silver door. He had a broad hat, covered in bells, and a flowing white beard. 

Dinky, who had crawled out of the wagon, knew who it was, as did Piña, who was slipping free of her harness. The others began to gather around, and Moonbow sniffed the projected image, a low growl escaping from her throat. 

“I foresaw this day coming,” the projected image said, “my name is Star Swirl and no doubt, you have come to ensure my brother’s end. I came to this place and placed safeguards on the doors. My brother was unaware of my meddling. If you can see me, that means a pony with the right bloodline has come. You will be able to open the door, I have enchanted it so that it will open… I, of course, saw this coming.” The image of Star Swirl gave a sad shake of his head. “Welcome, Scion of Avarice. Only a Son or Daughter of the lineage of Princess Platinum may cross this threshold. My brother must be destroyed. I do not envy you your task.” 

The companions stopped and began to look at one another, each one of them wondering the same thing, the same unasked question lurking upon each set of lips as they all pondered the words of Star Swirl the Bearded. 

Who? 

“You know, it is going to be really funny if it is one of us earth ponies,” Piña said as she nudged Apple Bloom. She looked at the projection, which was now flickering, and then at the door. She moved, motivated by curiousity, crossing the snow, her boot covered hooves crunching on the crust of ice, she stood upon the white steps, and then before anypony could stop her, she knocked. 

Nothing happened. 

Piña sat down with a huff and blew a raspberry. “Aw, nuts.” 

“Diamond Tiara, why don’t you try?” Apple Bloom suggested. 

“Why me?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Well, you do have that crown on your backside,” Moonbow replied. 

Diamond Tiara thought about this for a moment, nodded, acknowledging that it made sense, but also horrified that she might actually descend from royal bloodlines. While she had dreamed about being a princess when she was younger, she had grown, she had changed, she had seen what princesses were responsible for, their duties, and what was expected of them. She could feel her heart thudding in her barrel. 

The projected image of Star Swirl vanished completely, disappearing with a puff of glittering magic. Diamond Tiara strode forward, her head high, trying to do this with as much poise as possible, but wanting more than anything to run and hide in the sleigh, under a blanket, terrified of the answer. 

She ascended the stairs, which were strangely free of snow and ice, gulping with almost every other step, fearful of what might be, the outcome so uncertain. She raised her hoof, took a deep breath, and knocked. 

Nothing happened. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, Diamond Tiara went over and sat down beside Piña on the stairs, waiting for another to take their turn. She was so very thankful that it wasn’t her. She leaned against Piña, relief flooding through her body. 

“Dinky,” Piña said in a loud voice, speaking her sister, “you know, you never knew your daddy…” Her words trailed off and Piña felt pain rising up in her, knowing that this was a painful subject for Dinky. 

“Bucky is my daddy,” Dinky replied, shaking her head. 

“Dinky, I’m thinking that when we get home, you might want to have a long talk—” 

“No! I don’t even like to think about it!” Dinky began to sniffle and she turned away from the door. “No, Bucky is my daddy… and… I don’t want to know the other because whoever he was, he hurt my mommy… and… and… he hurt me too… and I don’t want to hurt Bucky by bringing up… by bringing up… by bringing him up, whoever he was.” 

Piña began to go down the steps, her hooves tingling, and a strange feeling welling up inside of her. “Dinky, you need to try the door…” Piña’s eyes took on a strange white glow as she approached. “Threads of fate… we all have threads of fate. Your thread is entwined with Bucky’s thread. Like calls to like… your powerful magic is a gift Dinky, Bucky was not the only one worthy of Princess Platinum’s lineage… there are others, many in fact… as was promised, her children outnumber the stars… open the door, Dinky.” 

Dinky turned and saw Piña’s white, glowing eyes. She looked at her companions, each of them were staring, all of them wide eyed with shock and surprise. She felt a growing compulsion to go and open the door. She felt a strange tingle in her horn. In the back of her mind, she realised that she belonged here, in this place, at this time, she had come to deal with old family business. She stared at the door for a minute, then back at Piña. Piña was blinking, her eyelids fluttering, the white was fading away and her eyes returning to normal. 

It all made sense. Dinky had powerful magic, magic far beyond any of her classmates, far beyond other foals, she had more magic than most adults she knew. Dinky could do deep magic, the seemingly impossible feats that few could do. She felt a chill in her blood that was not from the bitter cold around her. 

She lifted her head high, adjusted her smoking cap, which did a marvelous job of keeping her head warm after a few minor enchantments, and never once came close to blowing off in the wind. She gritted her teeth, realising that she had a part to play in all of this. She had been called to the Shetlands in much the same way that Bucky had. There, she had been tested. There, she had endured. A part of her had awoken there, and it was upon the isles that Dinky had come to a conclusion; that she would walk in the path of light and never again seek the darkness. She had witnessed power there, both light and darkness, good power and terrible power, and after witnessing both, she had known what she wanted from life. 

She took the stairs, moving slow, her breathing shallow, her throat dry and painful. She took the last few stairs, stopped, and bowed her head. “I am Dinky, daughter of Derpy and Bucky, and Scion of the Platinum Lineage. For me, you will open.” Dinky closed her eyes, reached out her hoof, and pushed upon the door, not bothering to knock. 

The door opened, revealing sepulchral darkness. 



 

Star Swirl appeared once more, blinking into existence, his projected image flickering. “As the stars have promised, the children of the founders have all come together. The magical seal I have left behind has been activated, each descendent is accounted for. The bloodline of Smart Cookie, Puddinghead, Clover, Platinum, Hurricane, and Pansy. The Bearers have arrived and with them, the means to banish the darkness that may yet consume the world. Try to remember what your ancestors accomplished.” 

And having said his words, Star Swirl vanished again, leaving the companions to stare at the blackness that loomed just inside the door. Dinky’s horn ignited, blazing brightly, and her light spell pushed back the supernatural darkness. 

Sweetie Belle stepped forwards, a strange glow forming around her body as she approached Dinky. “As my ancestor Clover once did, I have answered the call and I will battle the darkness.” Sweetie Belle didn’t know how she knew, but it seemed that she did, and she was shocked by the words coming out of her mouth. “Friendship through the ages… a foal of Platinum has called for help and I will answer.” 

Piña trotted forwards, a peculiar feeling welling up inside of her. “I am a foal from Smart Cookie… I have heard the call, and I have answered. Friendship through the ages, as was promised when we summoned the Fires of Friendship. It has been centuries, but this is a fire that cannot be extinguished so long as these bloodlines continue.” 

“Friendship through the ages,” Scootaloo said, not quite sure how or why the words were coming out of her mouth. She strode forwards, her head high, moving with a cocky swagger. “The foal of Hurricane and Pansy has answered the call. A pegasus has come to watch over you, as promised. I see that there is a unicorn to light my way and an earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens.” 

Overtaken by a strange compulsion, Apple Bloom found her hooves moving on their own accord, her body moving forwards on its own. She felt herself take a deep breath, then her mouth opened, and words began spilling out. “Puddinghead has answered the call. Our long and noble bloodline has always served our home through hard work. I will carry your heavy burdens. Somepony has to do the heavy lifting!” 

“What’s happening to me?” Diamond Tiara said as she felt herself being pulled forwards. She didn’t like the feeling of her legs moving on their own without her control. She started to protest the strange feeling, but other words spilled out of her mouth. “To make up for being such a silly pony so long ago, I have sent extra help… because that is what friends do when they make mistakes. They make up for it. Sorry, but I was called ‘Puddinghead’ for a reason. Friendship through the ages!” 

“Well, are you coming?” Piña asked, looking at Moonbow, Sentinel, and Boadicea. “Your kind wasn’t  there when this happened the first time and we went to war against the cold that chilled our hearts. Come and join our covenant, we could use some new blood… and I think that the griffons could use a bit of friendship.” 

“Yes, come and join us!” Sweetie Belle gave the lunar pegasi and the griffoness a warm smile. “This is a time for the tribes to come together… once more, we are threatened by the cold, we can’t do this alone.” 

“We need you.” Scootaloo looked at her bat winged cousins. “We face a terrible foe, and so do you… we have a better chance working together… as one tribe, as our ancestors did a long time ago… come and join our new covenant… face the darkness with us and help us defeat the cold. We can’t do it without you.” 

“It is time for the separation to end, your tribe is dying… your tribe was never touched by the Fires of Friendship… join us, and save yourselves… those touched by the Fire do not die, but prosper until their number is equal to the stars. Save yourselves… you too, Boadicea… the griffons are too few… your race is too far gone, in a few generations, you will be all but dead… join us, Boadicea, and save your kind.” Piña looked at the three and smiled at them, her blue eyes glittering with a strange light. 

Moonbow looked at Sentinel and nodded, then at Boadicea. She knew that they were in this together. She looked at Piña. “I will join you and I will aid you with light, should you need it. My shadow form can light up any darkness.” 

“I will do what must be done,” Sentinel said. 

“If this will save my griffons from extinction, than I will do what I must to save them. A future queen must think of her subjects.” Boadicea bowed her head and blinked away tears, knowing that she was about to be part of something great, something that, a thousand years from now, little ponies and griffons both would be discussing in their history classes in school. 

The time when the tribes came back together and the cold dark was destroyed. 
	
> Chapter 827
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The darkness was a living thing, oppressive, and something about it made it difficult to breathe. The air was filled with a nauseating stench. The companions stepped inside, and nothing came to greet them, much to the surprise of everyone. Sweetie Belle and Dinky moved forwards, their horns casting a tiny circle of light around them. 

“I suddenly know a whole bunch of weird stuff,” Diamond Tiara said as she crept forwards, pressed against Sentinel’s side. “My head is full of things I didn’t know five minutes before.” 

“Isn’t it amazing?” Sweetie Belle peered ahead into the darkness. “I come from Clover the Clever… I know a whole bunch of stuff… like… Clover is alive still… I don’t know how I know that, but I know that she is. She’s been watching us… she’s excited. Something about Princess Celestia’s Crusader Project.” 

“How can Clover still be alive?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“Stranger things have happened,” Piña replied, saying nothing else. 

“This place is weird, it is a tower, but look how much larger it is on the inside.” Dinky paused to have a look around. “The magic here is strange, it is like the dimensional spells that Princess Celestia has on her castle making it bigger on the inside, but different.” 

“Shadow space.” Sentinel could feel Diamond Tiara shivering against him. “It is different. It can only exist where there is dark. A powerful enough light will shrink this room.” 

“Somepony has been paying attention during their Luna lessons.” Dinky chewed on her lip and tried to coax more light from her horn. “Sweetie Belle, work with me… help me merge spells.” 

“I don’t know how,” Sweetie Belle replied, looking at the darkness around her. 

“But I do… just… try not to resist me and that will make this easier.” Dinky closed her eyes for a moment, concentrated, and her horn glowed even brighter. The bright glow of Dinky’s purple magic settled around Sweetie Belle. 

“I can hear you whispering inside of my head!” Sweetie Belle cried out, her eyes widening. “That feels really weird—” 

Sweetie Belle was cut off by her own magic flaring and intensifying. Both her and Dinky’s magic doubled, then tripled, and then became so bright that the other foals cried out. The same sort of magic that unicorns had once used to help raise the sun, move the moon, and guide the stars was now in play. 

A unicorn to light my way… 

The darkness retreated and the room shrank. All that was left was an opening in the middle of the room, leading down. Above them was stark, empty space. The tower was nothing but empty space on the inside, a vault filled with darkness. 

After flooding the tower with light, Piña let out a cry and collapsed. She lay on the floor, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow. The others rushed to her side, some trying to figure out what was wrong with her, others forming a protective circle.

“It’s the horn,” Piña managed to say as she wiggled a bit. “It hurts so much… he knows we’re here… I’m close enough… that… he is hurting me… through his horn—” 

“Piña is the only one of us strong enough to deal with that.” Apple Bloom looked around the room, her face grim. “Sweetie, throw her over my back. I’m strong enough to carry her and not be slowed down.” 

An earth pony to shoulder my heavy burdens… 

Scowling, Sentinel was tempted to dive down the hole and go after Sombra, who he was certain was down below somewhere. As much as he wanted to run off howling into the darkness, he stayed, standing beside Scootaloo, Moonbow, and Boadicea. 

Piña needed him… she was being hurt and she needed him. What she didn’t need was some colt that foolishly ran off after their common enemy. Sentinel made a silent promise that he would see this out and that he would stay with the others. However this ended, this ended with them staying together. 

A pegasus to watch over me… 

“He’s down there,” Moonbow said, lifting her hoof and pointing at the hole in the floor. “I get the feeling this tomb was never finished. Look how plain it is on the inside. There are no carvings on the walls, no mosaics on the floors, there is nothing here that shows dedication or love. This place was never finished.” Moonbow’s voice echoed in the emptiness, the tower was tall, and her voice bounced about as it rose to the top, the echoes rising like eerie spectres. 

“Let’s go.” Apple Bloom was the one that got the group moving, together. She had Piña draped over her back and she could hear Piña’s laboured breathing. Dinky and Sweetie Belle were close to her, near the middle as much as possible for the sake of protection. 

As one, the group moved towards the round hole in the floor. The empty round hole. There were no stairs, no means to get down, just a hole, for all they knew, it might have been an oubliette. Boadicea peered down into the darkness, her tail swishing. 

Raising her head, Boadicea looked at her companions. “It’s not far, I can make out the floor below. I mean, so long as it isn’t an illusion, I could drop down there. With all of us wearing heavy overcoats, our fliers are useless unless they peel off their outerwear.” 

“Boadicea, Moonbow, the two of you drop down together.” Sentinel looked at the pair, loving them, hating himself for sending them into possible danger. “Nopony or nobirdy goes alone.” 

“Seems reasonable,” Moonbow replied as she stood near the hole. “Boadicea is right, it is a short drop. I can just make out the white floor beneath us.” 

The pair stood near the hole together, looked at one another, then nodded. Moving as one, they lept down the hole together, dropping down into the dark depths below. Moonbow landed with a thump while Boadicea somehow landed with total silence. 

“All clear,” Moonbow said, tilting her head upwards so she could communicate with her companions. “Come on down—” 

“Wait, how do we get up?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“Easy,” Dinky replied, “we unicorns levitate the rest of you up, I levitate Sweetie up, and when she is up here, she levitates me up. Easy peasy.” 

“That works.” Diamond Tiara lept down the hole and landed beside Moonbow down below. The pink filly peered around, taking in the sights, and waiting for the rest of her companions to join her. 



 

“This place was never finished.” Moonbow pointed at where the white marble flooring ended and a rough stone passage headed downward at an angle. The walls glistened, slick with some slimy texture. Something smelled bad, Moonbow had no idea what it was. It wasn’t decay, not exactly, Moonbow could only describe it as the scent of evil. 

In the darkness ahead, something moaned. The sound made each and every foal (and one cub) shiver. There it was, the reminder that they weren’t alone in here. Moonbow began to work her way down, careful where she placed her hooves upon the slick stone passage. The cold here gnawed its way through her protective clothing and she could feel it in her bones. 

The foals moved as a herd, remaining pressed together, bringing with them their sphere of light that kept the darkness away. Each of them were as silent as possible, and except for Piña’s pained panting, very little sound could be heard. 

The darkness came to life. Like a rushing wind moving forwards, a dark shape rushed them, gliding up the passage, and the dark shape brought a wedge of shadow into the sphere of light. There was screaming, lots of screaming, and two terrible glowing eyes were visible in the dark, formless shape. Terrible red eyes, surrounded by glowing green, trailing purple mist. 

It descended upon Moonbow, seizing her, lifting her up into the air. Moonbow, who had been trained as a Myrmidon, did not give Sombra the satisfaction of a scream. She was grabbed by tendrils of shadow, both her front legs and her hind legs, and as her companions watched in horror, she was ripped in half, her body torn in two and tossed aside. 

Her intestines and her entrails fell to the floor, followed by the two halves of her body. Her wide, staring eyes were unblinking, a look of surprise and pain frozen upon her face. The air was filled with maniacal laughter, a wretched, terrible cackle, a cackle that seemed all too familiar for those who knew Bucky. 

The darkness retreated, fleeing up the passage, leaving the shocked, screaming foals alone with their dead companion. Dinky and Sweetie Belle’s light began to flicker as fear flowed through them. 

A terrible, sound rending scream came from Sentinel’s parted lips. He started to charge forwards, to give chase to the darkness, his mind focused only upon one thing: Revenge. His vision filled with a red haze and he felt his guts twisting around inside of him. 

“No, Sentinel!” Dinky grabbed her brother in her magic and pulled him back before he had left the circle of light. 

“Sentinel… you have to live for us,” Piña said, choking back tears. “If we get separated now, we’ll all die. We have to stay together.” As Piña spoke, the light grew dimmer. 

Sentinel, who stood staring at Moonbow’s body, choked back a sob and gnashed his teeth together. He thought of his father charging off into the night to avenge his mother. He choked, coughing, tasting bile, the scent of Moonbow’s blood now heavy in his nose. Her pink intestines were scattered all over the floor like ribbons. 

“No…” Sentinel gasped in a pleading voice. 

Piña let out a whimper as the light began to go out. Somewhere, in the darkness, the sound of howling wolves could be heard. It echoed through the passage, causing terrified little ears to flicker and twitch. 

“We have to stick together,” Sweetie Belle said to the others, “we have to keep the light on somehow!” 

“Sentinel!” Diamond Tiara pressed herself up against Sentinel and pulled him closer. “Don’t look… Sentinel, try not to look… your fear, your anger, it is weakening us… if you don’t stop, if you don’t pull yourself together, we’re all going to die… if Sombra strikes again, it’ll be either Boadicea or me because he knows that it will hurt you the most.” 

The light continued to dim. It was dark now, the circle of light barely covered the companions. Sentinel realised that this was his fault, he just wasn’t strong enough. His weakness had given Sombra terrible strength, and now, the darkness would devour them all. 

Sentinel turned and buried his face against Diamond Tiara. “However much time I have left, I’m living for you and Boadicea… for my sisters… for my friends… I will not waste my life on revenge.” 

As Sentinel said the word ‘revenge’ the light went out completely. There was a rushing sound in the darkness, like wind, a whooshing sound, the foul darkness came to life. Each of the foals felt something horrid coming for them… 

But the darkness did not devour them. 

A faint pink light outlined each of the companions, a warm pink glow, and as the darkness took shape around them, becoming solid, becoming Sombra, pink flames surrounded each of the companions, burning bright. 

Sombra howled, his body outlined in pink flames. 

Hearthfire! 

The Hearthfire sprang to life, outlining each of the foals, causing each of them to blaze brightly. Piña, no longer in pain, slipped down from Apple Bloom’s back and gave her brother a hug, Sentinel needed a hug. She held him close and wept with him, grieving with him, not knowing how to fix his broken heart, not knowing how to fix the gaping hole that had been torn into her own heart. 

Sombra’s furious howls filled the cave as the Hearthfire consumed him. His shadow became corporeal, becoming a body, he was becoming solid and real again. As the flames intensified, Sombra lost much of his shadow nature, burned by the Fires of Friendship. He screeched and howled, unable to stop what was happening, he felt the terrible warmth of living again, the flame of life and all of the pain that came along with living. 

A silver light filled the passage and it was Sweetie Belle that first noticed the spectral form of a pony standing with them. She was tall, regal looking, her pelt glowed with silver light, and she appeared to be almost metallic. The others began to notice the tall mare standing in their midst. 

“Sombra, it is time for this to end,” the mare said in a voice filled with sorrow. 

Sweetie Belle felt her mouth start moving and strange words began to spill out. “Sombra, this is your own friend, Clover… I tried to bring you comfort… and now, I’m still trying to save you. It doesn’t have to end this way… if you let it, the fire will consume you, and it will be all over… Platinum still loves you… all of you, even your darkness… you can still be with her… just let go… you have to let go of her.” 

Sweetie Belle pointed her foreleg at a figure that was shambling up the passage and was now visible in the light. An undead figure stumbled forwards, it is shockingly well preserved, a mare, with a an almost silver metallic looking pelt and a mane the colour of pale yellow gold mixed with platinum. Even the eyes were well preserved. 

“Sombra, that body is empty… I’ve long since passed on… I am in Tartarus… with you… at least, part of you. Why stay here with… that when you could have the real me?” Princess Platinum’s spectral form glowed even brighter, and with her, the Fires of Friendship blazed. 

“A broken heart hurts more than just about anything,” Sweetie Belle said, looking at Sombra. This time, her words were her own. Her anger had melted away, her terror, her fear. She could feel the Hearthfire revitalising her spirit, giving her strength, giving her courage. “You broke Sentinel’s heart because you just wanted him to hurt like you hurt… you’ve made the whole world hurt in an attempt to express your own pain… I’m really very sorry, but sometimes, bad things happen. Hearts are fragile things. You lost the pony that you loved more than life itself. I know it hurt… but was it worth all of this?” Sweetie Belle coughed and pointed at the revived revenant of Princess Platinum. “Have you found any comfort clinging to her empty corpse? That body offers no warmth, no matter how much love you give it, how you hold it, how you cling to it seeking what it once had. You can have that again, I think… just go with her.” 

“Sombra, the flame will consume you and this part of you will be gone forever… come with me… please? I don’t want to lose you… even after all that has happened, I still love you, all of you, even your darkness, as hard as it is to love you sometimes. Just… come with me and we can sort this out… I don’t want this part of you to die… I want all of you.” 

Another figure appeared, a pale albino earth pony wearing a black cloak. His pink eyes flashed, reflecting the flames of the Hearthfire. “It is time for an ending… Sombra, make your choice. Go with Platinum and know peace, or be consumed.” 

The now physical body of Sombra shuffled forwards, hardly moving, his body was little more than a dessicated husk. Dust fell from his body as he moved, and the pink flames that burned him prevented him from slipping away into shadow. 

Sombra let out a groan and as he did so, the revived body of Platinum slumped over, losing animation. The Hearthfire lept to her body, consuming her, burning her, rapidly turning her to ash. She was gone in seconds. 

“There, that’s a start… letting go is hard… would you like a hug before you go? I can feel Clover… she’s saying that you need a hug.” Sweetie Belle stepped forwards, her companions stepping aside. “No funny business though.” 

The shadow given physical form stepped forwards, his eyes changing. The Taint vanished, the terrible red and green fading away, leaving behind two eyes of pale grey, familiar eyes to all who knew them. Sombra took a hesitant step forwards, his mouth moving, but no words coming out. 

Feeling her skin crawl, filled with revulsion, Sweetie Belle felt Sombra press up against her. He was on fire, consumed with Hearthfire, but his body had no warmth. He was dead. He gave her a weak hug, and fighting back her rising gorge, Sweetie Belle rose to the ultimate test of her talent, healing a broken heart. She gave the undead emperor a hug and tried not to think about how much it sounded like the rustle of a pile of leaves as she hugged him. 

“I’m sorry…” Sombra’s words were a faint gasp, a voice of wind blowing through a cemetery. He pulled away from Sweetie Belle, almost stumbled, and took a step towards Platinum. 

“That’s right… come to me… and we can go away together. You can be reunited with the rest of you, and I’ll have all of you once more.” Princess Platinum held out her hoof and made a come-hither gesture. 

Sombra lurched forwards, the pink flames around his body blazing brightly. He paused, turning his head, his grey eyes sad. He turned and looked at the pale white pony. “No…” Sombra’s voice came out as a groan and he pointed at the front half of Moonbow’s corpse that he himself had torn asunder. “No… no… no!” 

“What’s done is done, dead is dead,” Thanatos said, shaking his head. 

“If I join with the flame, it says it will bring her back.” Sombra’s voice crackled, it was dry and raspy, the voice of a pony long dead. 

“Sombra…” Platinum’s word came out as a gasp. 

“I was good once… as I remember the good, I can feel warmth… I have not felt the warmth in so long… not since you passed.” Sombra drew in a deep breath, his dried out lungs rattling. “I have made a terrible mistake… Platinum, I am sorry, but I cannot go with you. This part of me must atone for what I have done.” 

Reaching out, Princess Platinum grabbed Dinky and pulled the foal close. Her spectral form began weeping, and she pressed her face down into Dinky’s mane. “I have missed the pony that I loved so much… I thought him gone.” 

“There is still the matter of the inheritance,” Sombra said in a low voice, a dry wheezing groan. “Even if I pass, my power will not. Somepony will claim it… in the wrong pony…” 

Thanatos nodded, looking solemn. “Yes, in the wrong pony, this would be bad.” A flash of silver light appeared around Thanatos and a pair of glowing garden shears appeared. They moved near Sombra, and a faint purple glow emanated from Sombra’s body. Thanatos made a sour face as he drew Sombra’s essence from him, and then, with one swift snip of the garden shears, he cut away Sombra’s shadow essence. 

The emperor staggered and fell down to the cave floor. “I give freely the last of what I am…” Sombra’s eyes closed and the pink flames burned so bright that they were blinding. The flames consumed him, and parts of his body began to flake away, becoming ash. 

Moonbow’s body was engulfed by the pink flames and the Hearthfire began to burn her, turning her to ash. In no time, she was gone, the flames having devoured her. Thanatos stomped his hoof once, and a very confused looking filly appeared, her eyes wide and blinking. 

“You…” Moonbow gasped, looking at Thanatos. “You told me it would be okay… what’s going—” 

Moonbow never got a chance to finish her words as she was slammed into by Sentinel, who struck her with enough force to knock the wind out of her. She rolled, sucking wind, and Sentinel clung to her, sobbing. 

The last of Sombra burned away, and when he was gone, so was Platinum. She vanished without a word, her silver glowing form vanishing, leaving behind a very confused Dinky, who had been hugging the ghost of her long dead grandmother. 

“Before I go… there is still the matter of the inheritance.” Thanatos looked down at Sentinel, who was still hugging and squeezing Moonbow, his eyes squeezed shut. He stepped forwards and gave the colt a gentle touch. 

Sentinel opened his eyes and looked up at the pale white stallion. 

“This was supposed to go to Bucky… this is the essence that would have made him immortal. This isn’t something that can just be destroyed, it isn’t that easy. If left in the world, it will find a way to Bucky, or some other soul might end up with it. There are others who might seek it.” Thanatos looked Sentinel in the eye. 

“Is it evil?” Sentinel asked. 

“No,” Thanatos replied, “nor is it good. It simply is. It is power. Pure concentrated shadow essence. This could help you—” 

“I don’t want it!” Sentinel cried, his voice echoing through the cave. 

“Have you learned nothing?” Thanatos asked, his voice soft and patient. “Just like your father…” Thanatos snorted. “This has to go somewhere… something like this doesn’t just go away… if you run from this responsibility, eventually, this power will end up in the wrong hooves… and the world will suffer greatly.” 

“I don’t know if I should have it,” Sentinel said, still squeezing Moonbow. 

“Sentinel, you could have ran away and left us all to die… and that power still would have found its way to you… but in the wrong way… you resisted… you did not fail us… you chose to live for Diamond Tiara and Boadicea… and for us… you are worthy to be its bearer.” Piña, her body wreathed in Hearthfire, approached. “Because of you, we summoned this fire. You had a hoof in this… all those who walked though the door had to play their part. You are worthy.” 

“I will do what needs to be done,” Sentinel said, letting go of Moonbow, rising up to his hooves, and bowing his head. “I will accept this responsibility and then spend the rest of my life trying to prove worthy of it.” 

Thanatos nodded, his expression sad. He stepped forwards, the glowing orb of purple light held before him, and saying nothing, he pressed it into Sentinel’s head. He watched as the colt shuddered. Sentinel blinked a few times, and Thanatos watched as Sentinel took on a dusky, shadowy ambiance. 

Sentinel looked over at Moonbow, whose body was still wreathed in Hearthfire. She was alive and whole again. He looked at his sisters, his companions, his friends, and those he loved, knowing that he could not have done this without them. He felt more tears sting his eyes, fresh tears, and the emotions he felt welling up within him threatened to consume him. 

“Hey, Boadicea has something pink on her butt!” Piña pointed. 

“What?” Boadicea turned, whirling about, trying to look at her own lithe haunches. “No! What is that?” 

“It is a pink puff of fire… you have a cutie mark. Congratulations!” Piña threw her forelegs around Boadicea’s neck. 

“Argh, it’s pink!” Boadicea, still wreathed in flames, returned Piña’s hug with grudging reluctance. 

“So… what now?” Sentinel asked, overwhelmed by everything that had happened. 

“Now… now you pick up the pieces and continue with your life. Something miraculous has happened here. A powerful force of goodness that has long been absent has been returned to the world. Sombra is no more, his broken heart was mended just a little bit and he chose his own end. He sacrificed a piece of his own soul, ridding both the world and himself of his darkness. The Sombra who resides in Tartarus will be glad this nightmare is finally over. Your father, Buckminster, no longer lives with a shadow looming over him, and his offspring are finally free of the old curse. The Bearers of Hearthfire were promised to heal a great hurt in the world, and I would say that you have.” 

“What about me?” Moonbow looked up at Thanatos. “I feel weird.” 

“You were dead, you should feel weird. The Hearthfire brought you back to serve its whims… it is a living thing, a spirit, a force… in very much the same way that Discord is a spirit of disharmony, Hearthfire is a spirit as well. It is immensely powerful and I know very little about it.” Thanatos reached out and touched Moonbow. “The Bearers will need guardians. This world is still dangerous and our foes are many. There are those that will see this as a terrible threat and will move against all of you.” 

“But we were called together to do this, right?” Apple Bloom looked at the pale white earth pony as she hugged Scootaloo. “I mean, this was our big heroic moment, right?”

“This was only the beginning, a test. In time, you will be needed again, of this, I have no doubts. The original Bearers, you call them the Founders, all of them lived interesting lives and accomplished much.” Thanatos gave the foals a sad smile. “Interesting lives, but not always happy ones. Come… I will take you back to my sister, Luna… I’ll probably get lectured by my other sisters, but really, who wants to walk through a frozen wasteland?” 

“What about this place?” Scootaloo looked all around her at the unfinished tomb. 

“The ice will reclaim it. Without Sombra’s magic to preserve it, the ice and the snow will soon cover the tower, crush it, and then it will be gone.” Thanatos sighed. “It is for the best. So much wrong has taken place here. It has tainted the earth. The Fires of Friendship have helped, but the ground has its own way of cleansing itself. Already, the endless storm of centuries has ceased and the sun is shining above us.” 

“I have so many questions—” 

“All those will have to happen later, Piña, after I return you to Luna. Hold on, this will be disorienting. We’ll be taking a shortcut through Tartarus.” 

“Wait, what… no!” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 828
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Thanatos… what did you do? What have you done? Why have you done this? Do you realise what you have done?” Atropos stared wide eyed at her brother as he stood in the small library aboard The Scorned Mare. She blinked a few times, unable to process everything that had just happened in such a short amount of time. 

“I had nothing to do with it.” Thanatos’ words came out as a weary sigh. “Honestly, this was not of my meddling. The Hearthfire revived her. When I came to collect her, I found my efforts blocked. It… it spoke to me… it told me to comfort her.” 

“It is alive?” Atropos asked. 

“Does that surprise you?” Thanatos sat down in an overstuffed chair and got comfortable, as comfortable as he could get in a long, long life of knowing no comfort. 

“She isn’t meant to be alive… Thanatos, her string is gone… she is supposed to be dead. She has no string. She no longer has a purpose, a destiny… at least not one we can influence or control. It is a sad, regrettable fate, but she was supposed to die… the final piece that determined this outcome slid into place when Sentinel committed theft—” 

“Atropos… now I am not even sure that she can die.” Thanatos took a great deal of satisfaction from Atropos’ shocked reaction. “I have no desire to find out. If she has no string to cut, well…” The pale albino let his statement hang open ended. 

Atropos flounced into a chair and glared daggers at her brother. After a moment of almost painful silence, she said, “I have no desire to find out either… we can’t arrange for an accident to test her hypothetical immortality. Somehow, that strikes me as being wrong, even for us. We have no way of knowing. But with no string, she has no end.” 

“I fear I already have plans forming for her, Atropos…” 

“What are you saying, brother?” Atropos gave her brother a cool, quizzical stare. She noticed that he was not calling her ‘Morta.’ He was being pleasant. After a moment of consideration, she realised that her brother was hurting, hurting far, far more than he usually did. She felt her heart soften as she began to feel pity for her brother. 

“Atropos, some of us have grown weary… Clotho and I… we seek replacements.” 

“What?” Atropos’ shocked utterance came out as a whisper. She looked at her brother, blinking in disbelief, her head shaking. “You cannot be replaced… you cannot…” 

“Oh, I assure you, we can. Power can be passed on… Atropos, I have been meddling again I fear—”

“Brother, what have you done?” Atropos’ words were soft, not angry, and full of fear brought about by desperation. She realised that her brother and Clotho had been hiding something. Her own sight was being blocked, leaving her unknowing. 

“When Bucky came to rescue Cadance, he offered me much in return for her. I took it.” 

Atropos nodded, already knowing this. 

“I took as much as I could take, leaving Bucky with only a sliver of his divine spark, just enough to keep him alive so his purpose could be fulfilled in one way or another.” Thanatos sighed, a weary sound, it was like wind whistling through a tomb. “Clotho and I found that we could… shape it a bit, like clay. We messed with it. We could not make major changes… Bucky has certain inherent abilities that come with being the potential alicorn of war. He knows the weakness of his enemies. He understands battle of any type, be it politics or bureaucracy. He has a supernatural tenacity that makes him very, very difficult to kill. I took as much of this from him as possible and then Clotho and I tried to reshape it—”  

“Yes, I get it… just get to the explanation,” Atropos said, becoming impatient. 

“When I collected the soul of shadow from Sombra, I slipped a little something extra into it before giving it to Sentinel—” 

“Thanatos… you didn’t!” 

“Sentinel, should he ascend—” 

“No!” Atropos’ eyes narrowed into slits. 

“—into the alicorn of the hunt, he will know his prey’s every weakness, he will know the hunt, he will have a supernatural endurance that will allow him to outlast his prey so that he can overpower it—” 

“What have you done?” Atropos’ words were a fearful hiss. “This goes beyond the pale, even for you, Thanatos… and you did this without telling me or Lachesis? How could you?” 

“—and by doing this, Clotho and I learned a great deal. Even now, Clotho seeks her replacement and has her eye upon one promising soul. So do I.” Thanatos looked at his sister, countless ages of suffering and sorrow etched upon his face. “Moonbow could replace me. She knows of purpose, of duty, she is honourable. She understands that the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are flexible things.” 

Atropos began to rub her face with a hoof, her eyes closed, her ears drooping down to the sides of her head. “It is Piña, isn’t it, the one that Clotho sees as a replacement. She has the Sight… and it is far stronger than any other mortal pony… a pony of her skill hasn’t been seen for ages… we cannot be replaced—” 

“Yes, we can.” Thanatos shook his head. “Clotho and I have done this for far too long. We’ve lost touch with who and what we are. We’ve lost our passion. We’ve forgotten ourselves as ponies. We’ve lost our equinity. We both just go through the motions. We haven’t been ourselves for a long, long time.”

“So you would take Moonbow’s youth and her chance for a family from her?” Atropos looked at her brother, surprised by the words coming out of her mouth. She blinked, feeling strange, shocked that she felt sad about this. 

“No. I plan to talk to her, make her the offer, and then let her live a long, full life. I can wait a little longer.” Thanatos gave his sister a sad smile. “Then, when the time is right, and she has had some training, she will have her first assignment… arranging for the death of her instructor and collecting his soul.” Thanatos heard his sister’s sharp intake of breath and he could see her jaw clenching. The look of pain upon her face was so intense that he felt a stabbing pain of guilt. He had never actually wanted to hurt her, even all those times he called her ‘Morta.’ He just liked to annoy her a bit. But seeing her hurting made him ache, a sharp, profound pain that he felt rising to the surface of the ocean of pain that was his existence. 

“Father has tortured you long enough, I suppose… I guess it is time to end.” Atropos wiped her eyes, shuddered, and even though she fought to hold it back, a soft, gasping sob escaped as her whole body trembled. “Nothing lasts forever… even Death shall die… oh bother, here I am becoming all sentimental over my brother, who has been a pain in my side for eons.” 

“Moonbow has no string. She has been freed from destiny and from fate. She can choose her own outcome. Don’t ask me how I know, but I just know that she will do as I ask. If offered the chance to protect Luna up until the time of Luna’s death, Moonbow will do it. Should Sentinel ascend and find immortality, it will be good for him to have an immortal companion that will join him on the hunt. I think that is the worst problem facing us immortals… we become lonely, we lose touch with what gives us emotions, and over time, we become cold and unfeeling. At some point, we stop living, and begin to go through the motions, a pale imitation of life.” Thanatos pulled his cloak a little tighter around his body, feeling a cold chill that was not borne of the air. “I’ve become dead… I’m sorry, Atropos, but I cannot keep doing this any longer. It is time for this to end.” 

“I understand, brother. I will do whatever I can to ease your transition. Just… tell me what you need if you desire my help.” Atropos blinked away a few tears and wondered how Clotho was doing. She had become distant from her sister. Perhaps her blindness to the actions of Thanatos and Clotho was self induced. Maybe she would have seen it coming, had she cared more or been paying attention. 

“Piña will make a fine replacement for Clotho… at least, I think so. She has the right temperament and a certain lust for life.” Thanatos’ face lit up with a weak, sad smile. “Atropos, perhaps we should all pass the torch. Perhaps no one pony should do what we do forever.” 

“Thanatos… you might be right…” 



 

Sighing, Princess Luna paced down the hallway, heading towards Sentinel’s cabin. When the foals had returned, they had been jubilant, happy, celebrating. They were wreathed in Hearthfire, all of them, and most of them showed signs of having been possessed by spirits. 

But the fire had gone out. The leftover rush of being possessed by powerful guardian spirits faded away. The feeling of jubilation had faded away, only to be replaced with the horror of what they had faced. Luna stopped just outside of Sentinel’s door, closed her eyes, and prepared herself. 

From within the cabin, she could hear sobbing. 

The celebration had ended. 

She opened the door, entered, and then approached the miserable, sobbing pile of foals. She stood at the edge of the bed and her ears perked at the sounds of growling. She lifted her foreleg, hoping to offer comfort, and tried to stroke Sentinel to soothe him. 

She yanked her foreleg away as Sentinel’s teeth snapped the air a mere hair’s breadth away from the delicate, tender flesh of her fetlock. Luna, who had been around these creatures for a long time, knew them, understood them, they were her creatures, her chosen, her favoured. She didn’t even bat an eyelash. She made a soft cooing sound, a sound made deep within her throat, and then jumped up into the bed. When she was almost nipped again, she slapped Sentinel on the snoot with her wing to assert her dominance. She heard a yowling growl as she settled herself down upon the pile, adding her bulk to the nest made out of blankets in the bed. She heard another snarl from Moonbow but no nip seemed forthcoming. She dropped herself down into the middle, easing herself in, and pulled Sentinel’s still growling bulk into her forelegs to cradle him. 

She lowered her head, using Sentinel as a pillow, took a deep breath, and felt satisfied that she had been accepted as a nestmate. Boadicea shifted against her side, getting comfortable, Luna very much wanted to find out more about the wisp of pink fire that was Boadicea’s cutie mark. To have a Hearthfire cutie mark was surely some kind of sign—Luna wanted to know more, but that would have to come later. 

There was a heavy impact against Luna’s skull, a blow hard enough to cause her vision to blur and make her see stars. The affectionate headbutt from Moonbow would be enough to cripple most ponies, Luna bore it without complaint; she had been headbutted many, many times from her ponies of the night. The harder the headbutt, the more affection was behind it. 

They were very much like cats; hissing, snarling, territory marking, nipping, biting, howling, yowling, growling, savages, the entire lot of them. She felt Sentinel rubbing his face against her throat, leaving her feeling greasy and oily from his scent glands below his ears. 

He and Moonbow were almost feral in this state, but she had no fear for Diamond Tiara or Boadicea. Boadicea understood, she yowled in return, hissing right back, and there could be no safer place for Diamond Tiara than in a pile with her mates. The pink foal was slick looking, almost greasy, her pink pelt was shiny, she had been rubbed down and thoroughly marked by her companions. She was one of them now. Luna wondered just how much Diamond Tiara understood about her companions and their savage natures. 

“Mama, he hurt me.” 

Moonbow’s words were a soft, pained whisper, Luna was surprised to even hear them coming from Moonbow in her near feral state. She extended her wing, wrapped it over Moonbow, and pulled her closer. 

“Close your eyes and rest, my foal,” Luna replied, using the sacred voice of Night to soothe Moonbow. “You have earned your rest. Close your eyes and sleep, I shall guard you so your sleep shall be untroubled. The nightmare is over, Sombra is gone, the entire world will sleep a little easier because of what you have done.” 

Luna thought of the others and hoped that Twilight was able to comfort them. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 829
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Are you any closer to understanding what has taken place, Twilight Sparkle?” Princess Luna, sitting at a table in the common area of The Scorned Mare leaned forwards over the table, eager to hear the answer from Twilight, who looked rather dishevelled. 

“No,” Twilight replied, the word coming out as a weary sigh, “after much questioning and divination, I am left with only more questions.” Twilight stretched out her left wing, then the right one, groaning a little as her wing joints flexed. She really needed to go flying, she needed a chance to clear her head and think. Flying gave her a strange sense of focus and the ability to sort out previously unnoticed details. “How are Sentinel, Boadicea, Diamond Tiara, and Moonbow?” 

“Sleeping in a dreamless sleep.” Luna’s lips pressed together and she shook her head. “The nightmares of what has taken place will come, but later. I cannot stop the natural healing process of the mind for too long.” Luna’s eyebrow raised and she studied Twilight. “So, what do you know?” 

Clearing her throat, Twilight then replied, “Very little. Star Swirl, from what I could gather, left behind contingency spells, spells  triggered by having the right ponies present. The bloodlines of the Founders had to be accounted for, and a descendent of Princess Platinum had to open the door. Once the door was opened, Star Swirl’s spell activated, and the descendents of the Founder’s bloodlines were… well, possessed by spirits. I don’t understand the magic at work here, it is beyond my abilities.” 

“This I do not understand. Many of them have departed from us and some have passed through the gate… how could they be here for these possessions?” Luna asked. 

“A piece of them was left behind, merged forever with the Hearthfire.” Twilight rubbed her chin, becoming a bit more animated, even though she was exhausted. “It is like Bucky’s orbs of undead compulsion. He infused a part of his own being into those orbs. A part of his soul will always persist in this realm, even after his death and eventual passing into Elysium… if he goes there.” The last four words that Twilight said were spoken as a whisper and a pained expression crossed her face. “It’s complicated.” 

“Twilight, answers are needed. Hearthfire is my sister’s obsession, her fixation, she has spent the past thousand years trying to make Hearthfire happen again. The city building projects, the social experiments, various experimentations into tribal integration, the Crusader project, Ponyville as a project, all of it has been done to once again bring Hearthfire back into the world.” Luna swallowed, her throat feeling dry, and she stared into Twilight’s eyes. “And now we know that Hearthfire can resurrect the dead, true resurrection outside of necromancy and my sister’s strange magic. We need to know more.”

“Hearthfire is some kind of gestalt harmonics magic, I don’t even understand it, it isn’t a spell that can be cast by itself… it is miraculous… it can revive those frozen and near death or those even dead. It lifts spirits in dire situations. It is powerful and I know next to nothing about it.” Twilight scowled, still rubbing her chin, blinked, and then stared down at the table. “Boadicea will need to be studied, she’s been touched by it, I am hoping that she will cooperate and will help me learn more.” 

“You know that my sister is going to task you with learning everything you can about Hearthfire,” Luna said to Twilight, watching as Twilight stared down at the table. “I cannot stress this enough, learning more about this magic has been Celestia’s manic obsession. While I was gone away, she was not certain that I would return as I once was. Hearthfire was her hope, her dream, it was how she remained motivated during those long, lonely years.” 

Twilight heaved a sigh. Everypony wanted something from her. In much the same way that everypony wanted Bucky to go and fight some horrible, monstrous creature or slay some ancient evil, everypony wanted Twilight to get to the bottom of something, or study this ancient unknown, or unravel the ancient mysteries of something or other, or figure out how and why something did whatever it did. This was going to cause her to lose hours of her life in the Tower of the New Moon. At least she’d have the help of Hex Libris. 

Looking up, Twilight focused upon Luna’s face. “So what happens with Sentinel now?” 

This time, it was Luna who turned away and stared down at the table. “He will be both punished and rewarded. He will be granted knighthood, of this there can be no doubt, and I suspect that the punishment will be serving many labours for the community.”

“And what of his status as a prince, as was Celestia’s hope?” Twilight asked. 

“That will be discussed, though it still seems likely. Sentinel will take it as a position of service,” Luna replied, “and he will be much like Keg Smasher. A minor prince. In time, he could potentially fulfill any number of positions.” 

“He’s a very lucky pony… all of this could have ended very differently. There are so many factors… Star Swirl might have botched one of his spells… one of the descendents of the Founders might have chosen to stay at home or might have been stopped by their parents… Sunset Shimmer might have made the trip… and it pains me to know that she might have failed. I guess we only know the details of stuff like this in hindsight. How could Star Swirl have known all about this in foresight?” Twilight saw that Luna looked up at her words. 

“Star Swirl and Sombra both were powerful, powerful beyond the ken of most mortals. You and Buckminster are not so different. Working together, the two of you can and will accomplish much.” Luna sighed, closing her eyes, and then continued, “The two brothers together balanced light and darkness, at least, they did for a time. They took very different approaches to things. They faced problems in different ways… but they did their best work together.” Luna’s eyes opened and her ears perked forwards. “That was their strength… they were different, yet still found a way to work together, weaving their magic together, changing and shaping our future. Even Sombra’s darkness has become our benefit… in the wake of his passing, we have a new generation of heroes… Bearers of Hearthfire. We have future leaders and their devoted followers already gaining powerful and necessary life lessons. Whether by design, by random chance, or just plain luck, all of this has worked out for the best. Star Swirl keeps providing for our future. He laid the foundations for you… for Buckminster… for our new Bearers of Hearthfire… and even the means to lay his brother down for his final rest.” 

“Luna,” Twilight said in a small voice, an almost foalish voice, “after everything you just said, I find myself wondering, ‘what will I leave behind?’ and it makes me feel very small and very humble.” 

“Hopefully, you are not stuck cleaning up Buckminster’s darkness a thousand years from now.” Luna’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s funny you say that,” Twilight replied, one eyebrow raising. “I was just thinking it myself. Luna… we have to ease up on him… too much is expected… watching him… break after Sentinel’s departure was an eye opener. Too much was expected of Sombra as well. Bucky has endured a great deal… some ponies have a bad day… Bucky had a bad year. I have to say, I want to avoid cleaning up messes a thousand years from now, so… I’m dealing with the cause. I can no longer in good conscience allow you and Celestia to keep pushing Bucky so hard.” 

“I do believe that we have all arrived at that conclusion already.” Luna’s ears drooped, falling down to rest against the sides of her face. “At least we have momentum now. Ponies are beginning to believe that change is possible. Others are rising to the challenge. Ponies are rebuilding Las Pegasus and Manehattan. Common, everyday sorts believe they can make a difference and we have heroes now… More Shetlanders have come to the mainland, many of them spoiling for a fight...” 

Twilight gave Luna a weary smile. “And then there are our heroes in the Stable of Representatives…” 



 

Sweating, feeling cold and clammy, Sentinel awoke with a gasp. He hadn’t been dreaming, at least he didn’t remember dreaming, but he awoke with a feeling of terror. He felt a warm body shift beneath him; Diamond Tiara. He was half draped over her barrel, with one foreleg wrapped protectively around her neck and his head rested upon Moonbow. 

Sentinel now had a much greater understanding of his father. His mind tormented him, showing him the ghastly images of Moonbow being ripped in half. He closed his eyes, his breathing quickening, he turned his head, pressing his cheek against Moonbow’s withers, and rubbed his face against her. Everything he loved was in this bed with him right now. Everything valuable, everything important. His ears perked, listening for any sound. A soft touch startled him. His head lifted, he turned, and saw Boadicea. She was stroking him with her wing. 

“Did I wake you?” Sentinel whispered. 

The griffoness shook her head. “No.” 

“Can’t sleep?” 

Boadicea’s crest rose and she tilted her head to one side. “No… I keep thinking about all of you. My friends. When I lived in the Hinterlands, I didn’t have friends. It was everybirdy for themselves. I was thinking about Diamond Tiara and how much she’s helped me. You. Moonbow… Moonbow and I are only getting to know one another, but I can see us being close friends… maybe more.” The griffoness touched Sentinel once more with her wing. “Everything I never knew I wanted is right here, all around me, right now. Going home is going to be hard for so many reasons… the fur and feathers are going to fly… but the worst… the worst is going to be sleeping alone again. I like this.” 

Sentinel gave some thought to Boadicea’s words, mulling them over in his mind, and came to the conclusion that he felt the same way. He was going to miss this. He thought of Bucky and of Bloodweather. Both were ponies that loved their mates, both ponies with strong bonds, a trait that Sentinel realised that he himself also shared. There was still a lot of growing up to do. Sentinel felt trapped. He was no longer a foal, at least he did not feel that way in his own mind, but he understood that others would continue to think of him as a foal. 

“I keep seeing it,” Boadicea said, flexing her talons. 

“Moonbow being pulled apart.” Sentinel looked into Boadicea’s eyes, already knowing what she saw. Luna had left the lights on, a touching gesture, as nopony wanted to be in the dark right now. He could see himself reflected in Boadicea’s black eyes. 

“Everything happened so fast. One minute, we were heading down that passageway, the next minute, everything just got bloody.” Boadicea eyes closed for a moment and then, when they opened, they glistened with tears. “It was all so sudden. I finally knew what I wanted from life and then it was ripped away… or I thought it was. I thought I was going to lose you for a second there. I felt my whole life unravelling… all my hopes and dreams almost died in an instant.” Boadicea blinked again, her eyelids fluttering, her eyelashes now holding condensed droplets, trapped tears that didn’t want to let go and fall away. “And now that I have it back, I don’t ever want to let go. I don’t want Moonbow to go back to Myrmidon training. I want us to stay together. I don’t want to sleep in a bed alone. I don’t want us to be apart… I want all of you together, where I can see you… where I can protect you.” 

Reaching out her talons, Boadicea grabbed Sentinel’s mane and clutched it, holding it, but being gentle and not pulling on it. “We’re going to go home and we’re all going to go our separate ways and we won’t be together anymore.” She let go of Sentinel’s mane, letting the silky strands slip through her talon fingers. 

“I think I need to go for a walk, but I don’t want to leave Moonbow and Diamond Tiara… I know they’ll be safe… I just… can’t bear to leave.” Sentinel looked at Boadicea, his expression sad and uncertain. 

“I think a walk would do us good,” Boadicea said to Sentinel. “We need to get used to being apart. Come, walk with me.” 

“As you wish, my lady,” Sentinel replied. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 830
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Princess Luna?” Apple Bloom lifted her head high; there was a time to be submissive, but she didn’t feel that this was one of those times. She was, however, respectful, addressing the princess by her proper title. She saw Luna looking at her, studying her, and there was a faint hint of a smirk upon the blue alicorn’s face. 

“Yes, Princess Apple Bloom?” 

Clearing her throat, Apple Bloom kept her eyes locked upon Luna’s. “I don’t regret what I’ve done, not at all.” Apple Bloom swallowed and then dug deep to find the courage to continue. “I did what needed to be done. All of these events were meant to happen. I know I’m in some trouble, and I accept that, I do, but I refuse to feel bad about what I’ve done.” 

Luna’s face remained statuesque for a time, and then one eyebrow raised as her eyes narrowed. “You sound entirely too much like Buckminster. He too, frequently regrets nothing. My sister, Celestia, will rue the day that she established Buckminster and Violet to be your instructors.” Luna sighed and her smirk became a little more noticeable. 

“And what about you?” 

“Me?” Luna asked. 

“How do you feel about Bucky teaching me a practical approach to getting stuff done?” 

Luna’s serious mein shattered and she laughed. Snorting, she brought herself under control, her sides heaving, her eyes were now wide and twinkling. “Me… why, I am proud of my student and what he does. The anarchy that he causes. The panic, fear and doubt. I could not imagine a quiet, peaceful state of rule. I am ecstatic that he is passing along his merry ways to an apt pupil.” 

“You’re kinda sarcastic,” Apple Bloom replied, squinting one eye and studying Luna. “Bucky has taught me a lot already. He told me to try and believe in the good that ponies have while preparing for the worst that ponies have to offer. He told me to try kindness first, always, and when that fails, use force, and not just a little either. He told me to use every means at my disposal when force is necessary so that I get myself a reputation. Ponies will want to deal with me when I am kind and fair, because they will know what I’ll do if I’m pushed. He told me that when ponies choose to go about doing things the kind and easy way, that I should go out of my way to reward them for choosing to do the right thing, so I’ll have myself a reputation for generousity.” 

Surprised, Luna looked down at the foal. 

“Right now, I am trying to deal with you kindly.” Apple Bloom’s eyebrow raised. 

The corners of Luna’s mouth turned downwards even as her heart swelled with pride. Apple Bloom had been learning from Buckminster and Violet. The foal had shown no sign of fear whatsoever when she had made her bold statement. Luna began to suspect that Apple Bloom was going to make a fantastic diplomat someday. 

Luna cleared her throat. “Buckminster has done a wonderful job instructing you. I shall have a word with him and tell him so once we return. Go and be with your friends, we shall speak later, perhaps after we have returned and you have had a chance to settle in.” 

“Okay.” 

“Oh, and Apple Bloom,” Luna said. 

“Yes?” 

“I do believe that one day, you will make for a fine princess. Your loyalty to Sentinel is admirable and an asset. Continue to pay attention to Buckminster, he will prepare you for the future.” 

“Thank you, Princess Luna.” 



 

“You alright, Dinks?” Piña sat down beside Dinky and watched as the world went by. The Scorned Mare was flying low and the entire land of Equestria lay spread out beneath them. Dinky wasn’t alright. None of them were alright. They had returned to the ship and the good feeling that all of them had faded.

Then came the horror. 

“I keep seeing it,” Dinky replied, shaking her head, “her guts all over the floor, it looked like… pink ribbons… how shiny and wet everything looked. I can’t eat anything and I just don’t feel right.” 

“Yeah, it was pretty bad.” Piña leaned against Dinky and felt the wind blowing through her mane. “Everything happened so fast. I keep thinking about Princess Platinum… and love gone wrong.” 

“A long time ago, I was a normal foal. I got picked on by the school bullies. That was kinda rotten, but aside from that, life more or less made sense. My mom delivered the mail. When I was good, I got ice cream and hugs. When I was bad, I got scolded and hugs.” Dinky sucked in a deep breath and then continued, “One day, everything changed. Mama met a nice pony. He was good to her. He was nice. He was nice to me. Nice to you. He was nice to us. He made mama happy.” Dinky paused and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. 

Piña lifted a foreleg and draped it over Dinky’s withers. 

“Mama used to cry herself to sleep sometimes… she was so lonely. I’d hear her and sometimes I’d go and crawl into bed with her. It’s hard when your parent cries… it’s hard to even be around them. It hurts… it hurt so much seeing her hurt and Bucky made the pain go away.” Dinky drew in a deep, shuddering breath as tears streamed down her cheeks. 

“Then all the trouble started. Everything happened so fast. We got shipped off to the Shetlands. I had to grow up. I learned about the burden of magic…” Dinky thought about the day that Bucky had put her to work, feeling an odd mix of sadness and gratitude. “I learned an awful lot of hard lessons on the Shetlands. I learned that with the kind of magic that I have, I have to be all grown up and be responsible. Then we came home. Stuff continued to happen. Then this happened.” 

Dinky turned and looked at Piña. “It’s been rough, Piña, this whole destiny thing. Sure, I have a daddy now, but I also got everything that came with him. It’s hard, Piña, it’s hard.” 

“Sure, it’s hard, but think about all of the other good stuff. It’s gonna get better, Dinky… now that Sombra is gone, things can only get better.” Piña gave Dinky a sad smile of encouragement. 

“Piña, everything hurts and I’m so scared. I want to feel the Hearthfire again… it was like the greatest feeling in the world. It was like the time I stole some of Bon Bon’s special eggnog and drank a cup… I felt so warm and happy… everything felt so good inside. I felt… I felt like I could do anything, anything at all.” 

Dinky watched as distant mountains drew nearer. Equestria was filled with the green of spring. Birds were flying in formation around the ship. Everything was beautiful and sunny, although the wind felt chilly. It beat the frozen north any day of the week. 

Nodding, Piña understood how Dinky felt. The Hearthfire had been a wonderful feeling. She wanted it back as well, but understood that life couldn’t be happy and perfect all of the time. There had to be sad moments to make the happy moments happier. 

“Piña, don’t ever leave me… I’m always gonna need you. You’re my best friend. Seeing Moonbow like that… it made me start thinking.” Dinky leaned over against Piña, resting her head against Piña’s head. 

“Friendship through the ages… best friends really are forever, Dinky…” 



 

“You doing alright, Scootaloo?” Twilight Sparkle looked at the filly that was eating a bowl of hot, buttery noodles mixed with vegetables. Twilight sat down at the table beside Scootaloo, her brows furrowed, her face worried. 

Scootaloo looked up, a noodle sticking to her nose. She watched as Twilight lifted a napkin and Scootaloo felt her muzzle being cleaned. She swallowed her mouthful of food and looked into Twilight’s eyes, trying to determine what Twilight was feeling. 

“I love you so much,” Twilight said, not waiting for Scootaloo to answer. She continued cleaning Scootaloo’s face. “I love you so much and it is very difficult for me to put it into words. When you left, I was scared. I was so angry with you. And then, when you took off across the frozen wastes, I was terrified. I’m not okay, Scootaloo… I’m not okay at all. I’m angry with you for scaring me and hurting me… but I still love you… I think I need to have a long talk with my own mother and give her a very heartfelt apology for being the sort of foal that I was.” Extending her wing, Twilight wiped her own face, leaving behind cheeks moistened with tears. 

“I’m sorry… I wasn’t trying to hurt you… my friends were going… I had to go too… otherwise, what sort of friend would I be?” Scootaloo lowered her gaze and stared down into her bowl of noodles, staring at a bright orange slice of carrot. 

“Scootaloo… I understand… sometimes, you gotta do the wrong thing for the right reasons. That doesn’t excuse what you’ve done… and we’re still going to punish you… oh, we are going to punish you, but I want you to know that I’m proud of you.” Twilight gave Scootaloo a quivering smile. 

Slumping down in her chair, Scootaloo frowned and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Even though you have to punish me, it doesn’t mean that you’ve stopped loving me.” Scootaloo sighed, her wings fluttering at her sides. 

“I’m gonna talk to Bucky… hopefully he won’t decide to have you charged with airship grand larceny. But if he does, I’ll see if I can find a lawyer brave enough to stand up to Bucky.” Twilight’s sad smile widened, becoming a little happier, and she set down the napkin on the table. 

“Gee, thanks.” Scootaloo, unable to help herself, smirked. She had a wonderful mental image of a lawyer melting like candle wax in court under Bucky’s withering stare. A giggle bubbled up her throat and slipped out before she had a chance to stop it. 

“You know, if you went to him and asked him for his forgiveness, I think everything would be okay.” Twilight blinked away a few tears and tried to be happy with Scootaloo. “He’s got a soft spot for foals… that can be exploited. Just try to look small, helpless, and in need of rescue. He’s a pushover.” 

“He’d steal me away and you’d never get me back,” Scootaloo said. 

“You know, I bet you’re right,” Twilight replied. 



 

“I guess this is goodbye,” Sentinel said, feeling as though his sense of grief was going to consume him. He looked at the massive Myrmidons on the deck and then looked at Princess Luna. He blinked, hoping that he wouldn’t cry, and then looked Moonbow in the eye. She was so much larger than he was now. 

“I have to go and finish my training… once I’m done, we can be together.” Moonbow’s jaw clenched and she held her head high. “I will miss you… I love you, Sentinel. Look after Diamond Tiara and Boadicea… the pink one isn’t dealing with everything that has happened very well.” 

Sentinel looked around the deck and then back at Moonbow. Diamond Tiara was below decks, crying, and Boadicea was with her, trying to comfort her. Diamond Tiara could not face saying goodbye, not after what had happened. She did not deal well with stress or high emotions. 

Lunging forwards, Moonbow smashed her head into Sentinel’s, causing him to stagger backwards a bit. He recovered, braced his legs, and pushed back. Moonbow snarled, and Sentinel snarled back. The two stood together, growling at one another, expressing affection in the manner of their own kind. 

“It hurt so much losing you… I don’t want to say goodbye,” Sentinel said in a low voice. He felt Moonbow nip him. He yelped, not from pain, but because the nip startled him. 

“We have our duties and our obligations.” Moonbow’s voice was stern, hard even, and her eyes narrowed into a flinty glare. “No weakness Sentinel… we both know the risks. Either one of us could die at any given moment… you and I must throw ourselves into the jaws of danger… it is what we do… I, as a Myrmidon, and you, as a knight… don’t be a coward, Sentinel, I expect more from you.” 

Bowing his head, Sentinel gave Moonbow a faint nod. “I understand. You are right, of course. Our lives are not our own, we have chosen to live in the service of others.” Sentinel looked up and saw that Luna was staring at both him and Moonbow. He returned his gaze to Moonbow. “I love you… five more years.” 

“Yes, five more years.” Moonbow bonked Sentinel in the head again, slamming her skull against his. “I love you too… if you do something stupid again, maybe we can go off on another adventure.” 

Luna began laughing and beside her, one of her Myrmidons snorted. 

Sentinel, never the best at humour, made a valiant attempt at being funny. “Doing stupid things is a family tradition… just imagine what our foals are going to do someday—” 

Choking, Luna stopped laughing, an alarmed expression settling over her face. 

“—and we’re going to have to tell them stories about their grandfather and what kind of reputation they have to live up to… trouble is our family tradition. Berry Punch will teach them everything they need to know…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 831
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing near the rail of The Scorned Mare, Sentinel saw his parents, along with a group of other ponies, as well as a very large griffon, all of whom looked quite angry. He sighed, knowing this was necessary, but he wasn’t certain he could deal with this right now, not after everything that had happened. Diamond Tiara was sick; real sick, unable to keep anything in her stomach and projectile vomiting sick. The stress had worn her down and laid her low. The knowledge of everything that had happened had settled into his mind, leaving him in quite a state. Sentinel had no idea how he felt about anything. 

He wasn’t ready to face this. He knew that his parents were going to punish him, but he wasn’t sure that they would understand that he was already being punished. He sighed, his stomach churning, feeling fear for Diamond Tiara’s fragile mental state. 

His ears perked. If the fireworks started, Sentinel was going to have to tell them to lay off of Diamond Tiara… and he might have to put his hoof down about the issue. Could he do that? Did he have it in him to stand up to his parents and the others? Did he have what it took to tell them to be quiet and stop doing harm to a pony that he cared about? 

He was about to find out. The ship was lowering down, the landing spot was the muddy looking field by the lake. Princess Luna was pacing the deck, her hooves clicking upon the wooden planks. He heard the sounds of Diamond Tiara vomiting into a bucket and closed his eyes. She had insisted on being on deck when they came home, but she was in no condition to be out of bed. 

Looking down, he could see Applejack and Rarity. He couldn’t quite make out their expressions. No doubt though, they would be angry. No sign of Rainbow Dash. Sentinel suspected that Rainbow was at home with Glass Slipper, at least, that was his best guess about the matter. 

Feeling doubtful, Sentinel wasn’t certain he could do this. If the screaming and shouting started, especially towards Diamond Tiara, he wasn’t certain that he could deal with it very well. He had been emotional and overprotective since everything that had taken place. He feared his own anger, his own temper. 

Almost as if she was somehow reading his thoughts, Sentinel heard Princess Luna say to him, “You worry for Diamond Tiara and the coming conflict. I give you my word, I shall shield her from the anger of her guardians. She is unwell. They will be made to understand that she is suffering a great deal and further harm to her would be counterproductive.” 

Sentinel closed his eyes, feeling relieved, thankful for Luna’s presence. 

“While punishment is due, I am not certain it is wise for it to begin the moment you set hoof off of this ship. All of you are in fragile mental states. I am worried.” Luna moved closer to Sentinel, coming to stand beside him. “I worry most for Diamond Tiara… there is nothing that any of them could to do to her that she isn’t already doing to herself. She is high strung. I suspect that what she needs is time for quiet recovery.” 

Blinking, Sentinel turned his head and looked up at Luna. “Princess Luna, I do not trust myself right now. My emotions are getting the better of me… I’m scared of what is about to happen… I’m afraid I’ll get angry and do something to hurt those I love.” 

Nodding, Luna looked down at the foal. “I understand.” 

“Do you?” Sentinel’s jaw clenched for a moment, regretting what he said right away, chastising himself for his curt response. “Princess Luna… I’m sorry… but I feel terrible… like… I feel dangerous and I don’t trust myself.” 

“Sentinel, you went through a traumatic experience. You watched somepony that you love die. You had a powerful bonding experience. I also know that you and Moonbow”—Luna paused to clear her throat—“got to know each other on a more intimate level.” 

“We did.” Sentinel looked away and stared down at his own hooves.

“This has been a momentous trip for you. You have started your own family, in a sense. You have endured something that has brought all of you together. You and Buckminster are not so different. He thinks very little of himself or his own needs, he thinks of his family first and foremost. It seems that you are no different. Here you are in the worst trouble of your life and your primary concern is not for yourself, but for Diamond Tiara and probably Boadicea as well.” Luna stepped closer to Sentinel, wishing that he would lift his head and look up at her. “When Buckminster was in a position similar to yours, he demanded that he be punished and that his family be left alone.” 

Sentinel lifted his head and looked up at Luna, his eyes narrowed in concentration. “When we came to Canterlot… when he was still so sick and so frail. When he was placed on trial for everything that took place.” 

“Yes.” Luna nodded and realised that Sentinel had come to a drastic conclusion, not the conclusion that she had wanted. She knew what Sentinel was going to do before he even said anything. 

“I cannot let the others be punished for my hasty actions. I should be the one punished, not them.” Sentinel’s wings fluttered at his sides and his ears twitched in the wind. 

Sighing, Luna shook her head. There were fools, noble fools, and then there were honourable fools. Before she had a chance to say anything, Sentinel launched himself over the rail, his wings unfurling, and he flapped away, muttering something about making this right. She stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do, worried about Sentinel’s own fragile state. Spreading her wings, Luna kicked away from the deck and went after Sentinel, unable to let him face this trouble on his own. 



 

Sentinel landed with a squishy thump, his hooves touching down in the mud. He stood, defiant as he dared, and folded his wings against his sides. He looked at his father, who was wearing his cloak, his father’s face was buried in shadow and Sentinel was unable to read his expression. His mother, Derpy, was right beside him, and Berry Punch stood on the other side. Of his other mothers, they were not present. He guessed that somepony was looking after the newborns. He saw Lugus, who looked furious. Rarity was giving him a cold stare. Applejack was chewing on her lip. 

Sentinel licked his lips and focused upon his father, hoping that his father would understand. “Sombra’s fell shadow is no more. He is gone. He killed Moonbow and then, after having himself a change of heart, he gave what was left of himself to the Hearthfire so Moonbow could be revived. All of us have endured something that has changed us profoundly.” Sentinel felt his mouth go dry and speaking became ever more difficult. 

“Diamond Tiara is sick with worry. We’re all hurting, in shock, and trying to deal with everything that has taken place. I am the one most responsible for everything that has taken place.” Sentinel coughed, his throat feeling like sandpaper. “As such, I demand that the others be left alone and allowed to heal. Leave them be… if you must punish somepony, here I am, but I demand that they be left alone. If you bring harm to them in the state they are currently in, I will never forgive you.” 

Sentinel heard the fluttering of wings behind him and the soft squish of somepony landing. He looked at the many faces staring at him, trying to read them, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. “We need rest, healing, and recovery. All of us… myself included… I’m not dealing with this very well… nevertheless, I understand that punishment is due. If it must happen, I insist that you punish me. I meant what I said… I will never forgive you…” 

“Sentinel, come with me, I wish to speak to you.” 

Looking up at his father, Sentinel struggled to find the courage to do what needed to be done. He shook his head, hating himself even as he did it. He felt nauseous, sick to his own stomach, and he struggled to keep his knees from knocking. “Sir, no, I will not.” Sentinel gulped down a hard lump in his throat. “Not until I have some assurance that the others will be welcomed home with the gentleness they need. I will not have them brought to harm.” 

“That seems reasonable,” Bucky said, glancing around. 

Sentinel looked at the others, seeing hard, angry glares, and when his gaze reached Applejack’s green eyed angry stare, he was forced to look down, unable to look her in the eye. She was furious and Sentinel could only imagine all of the horrible things that she might be planning. 

“Go on, Sentinel, I will stay their wrath.” Luna stepped forwards, her hooves sinking into the sodden, rain soaked ground. 

Sentinel felt his hackles rising. “I don’t know that I trust you… I feel as though you are patronising me… humouring me because I’m a foal… I meant what I said… right now, they are fragile… especially Diamond Tiara… if she is made worse, I will be angry… you… you don’t know what I’m capable of… you don’t understand how serious I am… I am not just some foal trying to keep his playmates out of trouble…” Sentinel stepped forwards, lifting his head high, blinking away tears. 

“Sentinel… come with me,” Bucky said, his voice soft and low. “As for the rest of you, not one harsh word. If you must, have it out with me later, but right now, this is not a time for anger. That can come later. Just be thankful that they are home and that they are all alive.” 

Sentinel saw the angry glares soften a bit. He looked at Derpy and saw her lower lip quivering. Her eyes glistened with tears. She blinked, her eyelashes clinging together, and then her anger melted away completely. Rarity was now staring at Bucky, her brows furrowed, and Sentinel had some sort of understanding of his father, some new awareness. He understood what it meant to be his father. 

“Is there a problem, Rarity?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Rarity replied, shaking her head, “and I’m not angry with you. Forgive me for giving you the wrong idea. I was marvelling at how much alike both you and Sentinel are.” Rarity’s muzzle wrinkled as she turned to look at Sentinel. “As for you… I’ll take you up on your offer… I’ll not punish Sweetie Belle or Diamond Tiara… you and I will be speaking later. Once you’ve had a chance to recover, of course. I do believe that if those two watch you suffer, it will send a message far more effectively than anything I could do to either of them.” 

Sentinel’s defiance fell away and he slumped. He hadn’t thought about that, that the others would be punished by watching him suffer. He thought about his father’s trial, when he had been branded… he now had some kind of understanding of how much pain his mothers had endured, having to watch Bucky be punished. Sentinel slumped, his body feeling heavy and weak. He would bear this, somehow. 

“Come on, Sentinel, come with me.” Bucky made a gesture with his talons. “We’ll go sit by the lake. Maybe Thistle will bring us some fish. We don’t even need to talk, if you don’t want to, we can just sit and enjoy the silence together.” 

Bowing his head, Sentinel, who just a few moments before, had tried to assert himself as an adult. Now, he felt very, very foalish. His ears drooped and burning shame set his cheeks on fire. His defiance and resolve were now gone. He felt weak, tired, he felt sick to his stomach. His mouth was dry and it was difficult to swallow. He could taste bile in the back of his throat. More than anything, he wanted to cry, he could feel the tears welling up inside of him, but he didn’t want to start sobbing in front of these ponies. They would know that his hard words were just bluster and everything he had tried to accomplish would lose meaning. Somehow, he had to keep himself together. 

“Sentinel, go with your father,” Berry Punch said, her hard angry expression now gone. She gave him a knowing look as she stepped forwards. “Look, I’ll give you my word, I’m not going to yell at Piña… I just want her back and I want to see that she’s okay… we’ll sort all of this out later… but for now, just go with your father. You look like you need a quiet moment… and I think out of all of us, Bucky is probably the only one that really understands what you’re feeling at this moment.” 

There was a crackle of magic and a brilliant flash of light. Sunset Shimmer appeared, standing beside Sentinel. She stood there for a moment, giving Sentinel a sad smile, and then, after clearing her throat, she said, “I’ve been watching and listening to everything being said. Sentinel, whatever happens, I’ll be with you through this. If they put you to work, I’ll join you.” 

“But I wronged you,” Sentinel said to Sunset, shaking his head, and feeling even more emotional. “Why… why would you do this?” 

“Because I know what it feels like to earn the forgiveness of others… you can feel very, very alone when everypony is angry with you. And nopony should have to go through that alone.” Sunset Shimmer looked at the other ponies present. “He messed up… we can all agree to that. But try to remember why he messed up. I think his heart was in the right place.” 

Try as he might, Sentinel could no longer hold back tears. They begin to slip out, and nothing he did could stop them. He squeezed his eyes shut and he felt his legs go weak. Before he fell down to the muddy earth, he felt himself picked up in the soft prickle of magic. 

Choking on his own sobs, Sentinel heard the voice of his father speaking to him, and he found his father’s voice comforting as everything he was holding inside of him came slipping out. “Come on Sentinel… come with me…” 
	
	
> Chapter 832
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Staring at the placid water of the lake, Bucky listened to the sound of Sentinel’s sobbing, not certain at all of what he was feeling or how he should respond to something like this. Even though he had been at the fatherhood game for about a year now, this was something somewhat new for him. Sentinel was hurt, really hurt, and Bucky had no idea how to make him feel better. Because of his own family situation, Bucky had nothing to draw upon, no positive experiences to try and mimic, nothing. Bucky let Sentinel cling to his leg and sob while he just sat there. 

For his own part in all of this, Bucky didn’t know how to feel about everything that had taken place. He had been certain that Sentinel would come back if given a chance to do the right thing. Bucky had been proven wrong; Sentinel had kept going, even when the going got tougher. There was a strange feeling of pride mixed with anger, but Bucky kept his anger to himself. For now, anger would only further hurt Sentinel, and Bucky reasoned that Sentinel had been hurt enough. 

“I feel bad for Sombra,” Sentinel managed to say between sobs, clinging even tighter to Bucky’s leg as he spoke. 

Surprised, those were not the words that Bucky expected Sentinel to say. He waited, knowing that Sentinel would say more if given a chance. Bucky wrapped his cloak over Sentinel, blocking out the sun, and trying to give Sentinel a dark spot to hide. It seemed to help, or maybe Bucky was just being optimistic. 

“Princess Platinum was there with him… he had revived her body… he stayed with her… he never wanted her to die… it was awful… I can’t stop thinking about it.” 

Bucky closed his eyes, feeling lightheaded, almost unable to bear thinking about what Sentinel had just said. After his little breakdown, he had been taking some strong medication. Now, the side effects of the drugs and the weight of Sentinel’s words felt as though he was being crushed. 

“He killed her… he killed Moonbow… he… just ripped her in half. I watched her guts spill out all over the floor.” Sentinel sniffled, his whole body shuddering. “He did it so I would go berserk and go charging in… if I would have left my friends… he would have possessed me… why must I be so angry? I keep thinking about my other father… Bloodweather… he ran off to avenge my mother… I used to think that I wasn’t worth living for, but now I think I understand why he did it. I love Moonbow so much… I didn’t know it until I saw her ripped in half… and the others… Diamond Tiara and even Boadicea, but we’re still sorting out how we feel about one another… but if something was to hurt her… I don’t know what I would do.” 

Bucky nodded, feeling chills. “Loving another pony is hard to do… it makes you strong, but it also leaves you vulnerable. It is something I struggle with every day… all I could think about was losing you… Sentinel, you made me lose my marbles… I don’t know if Luna told you what happened, but I may have gone a little crazy.” 

“Daddy, I think I went a little crazy too.” 

Bucky felt a hard lump form in his throat. Daddy. Not father, nothing starchy, stiff, and formal, but Daddy. It was a rare thing for Sentinel to drop his guard so completely and allow himself to be a foal. He wrapped his foreleg around Sentinel and pulled him closer. 

“I think that you and I understand each other a little better now,” Bucky said, his voice a low whisper. He saw ripples in the lake water and wondered if Thistle was lurking. She and Bell Heather were both in the lake, causing no end of frustration for poor Sukari. Bucky made a mental note that he needed to do something to fix this problem. “Sentinel, son, you and I both need to make a promise to be a bit more considerate with the ones that we love. I’m in trouble too for taking off and going on a little adventure to see Chrysalis. Derpy is still giving me the stinkeye, Berry Punch keeps telling me off, Lyra and Bon Bon scolded me, Thistle is angry with me, and the only wife I have who is on my side is Belisama… who is still angry with me, but understands why I did what I did. Sentinel… the females in our lives… they’ll keep us honest, if we’ll let them.” 

“I shagged Moonbow.” 

Bucky sucked in a deep breath and then held it, not knowing what to say or how to respond. He had to force himself to start breathing again and he stared at the lake water, watching the sun sparkle upon the surface, making the lake look as though it was full of diamonds. 

“It just sort of happened. She was there and it just sort of happened and everything was over so fast and afterwards, I felt so protective of her and I wanted to keep her safe and do right by her… it was all so overwhelming… and to tell the truth, I’m not ready to grow up and be an adult just yet. I think I made a mistake…” Sentinel sighed. “Loving her was not a mistake… I don’t know what I mean. Nothing makes sense right now.” 

“I think I understand,” Bucky said to Sentinel. 

“Are you angry?” Sentinel asked. 

“No.” Bucky said his reply without hesitation. 

“Are you sure?” Sentinel sounded doubtful. 

“Sentinel, I didn’t get laid until I was completely grown up and was married. I missed out on a lot in life. I didn’t get a chance to enjoy my youth. I wasn’t a happy pony. I just sort of muddled through my teenage years and hoped that they would end. I was determined to be alone… I made a terrible mistake.” Bucky shook his head, his eyes still focused on the lake. He was certain that he had seen something lurking just beneath the surface of the water. “You know, I think Berry Punch will be both happy and relieved to hear about this. She worries about you. You should hear her talk. She loves you, you know. She is your mother in every way that matters—” 

“And I hurt her by leaving… I’m sorry.” Sentinel let go of his father’s leg, slipped out from beneath his father’s cloak, and walked to the edge of the rock that he and his father had been sitting on. He stared down into the water. “I really am sorry… but I had to do what I had to do.” 

“You know Sentinel, I might just be the only pony that really understands you when you say that.” Bucky took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. “Sometimes, sometimes I get so scared when Twilight or Sunset have to go into a dangerous situation. I’d rather it be me. It kills me when Sunset has to do something that might get her hurt. I go out of my mind with worry. So I can’t fault you for what you did.” 

“But you’re still going to punish me,” Sentinel said. 

“Of course I am,” Bucky replied, “if you’re going to be like me, then you are going to experience exactly what it means to be me. Consequences too. The good and the bad. Sentinel, son, there are consequences to everything, good or bad. That is the defining nature of our character… how we deal with consequences. I’ve done things… questionable things. I’ve done bad things and good things. I understand and accept that there are going to be consequences. But then I do whatever needs to be done anyway.” 

“Like your deal with Chrysalis?” Sentinel turned away from the water and looked at his father. “Father, if I may speak openly, everything about that feels wrong.” 

Bucky sighed when he heard Sentinel call him ‘father.’ Those moments where Sentinel opened up were so rare and treasured. His talons tapped upon the rock where he was sitting. “Of course it has elements of wrongness, but that doesn’t mean that some good can’t come out of it. Queen Chrysalis is getting a chance to show that she can be trusted. We are getting a powerful ally to help us in the war.” Bucky cleared his throat. “As for me, I’m getting the means to strike my foes a crippling, perhaps even a mortal blow.” Bucky thought of Cadance and Shining Armor, they were getting something as well. He sighed again, it was worth getting the stinkeye knowing that Cadance and Shining Armor would be able to have foals someday. 

“I didn’t do this for good reasons.” Sentinel closed his eyes and shook his head. “I did this to get revenge… I wanted to pick a fight with Sombra because of what he did… how he hurt you… how he hurt us… the rats… everything. What I did was stupid.” 

“Perhaps.” Bucky watched as Sentinel opened his eyes. “We all have our reasons. I’ll freely admit that sometimes, revenge is my primary means of motivation.” Having said what needed to be said, Bucky found that he felt a little better. “Sentinel, son, if something was to hurt one of your mothers, or you, one of your siblings… do you think for one minute that I would hunt them down because it was the right thing to do? Do you really believe that I am that virtuous?” 

“No.” Sentinel felt queasy even saying the word. “No, you are not.” 

“It’s the reason why I can’t go hunting down the ponies that hurt Lyra. I’d do all of the wrong things for all of the wrong reasons and nothing good would come out of it. It is a failing point of mine, a weakness.” Bucky stood up, stretched his legs, and walked over to where Sentinel was sitting. He sat down beside his colt and stared down into the water. 

“And I’d probably join you.” Sentinel wiped his eyes with his foreleg and then snorted, blowing a stream of snot into the water. “I want to be a better pony and I guess that means being honest. I’d probably hurt them for the sake of hurting them, not for the sake of making things right.” 

“Sentinel, you and I are more alike than either of us would care to admit.” Bucky reached out his talons and poked the water with his claw, causing a circle of ripples to spread out from where his claw touched the water. “I doubt that we can change our natures… the best that we can hope for is to channel them for better purposes and try to keep our inner darkness in check. It doesn’t make us bad ponies, it just means we have to work harder to be good ponies.” 

“But there are times when we have to do bad things for good reasons?” Sentinel asked. 

“Yes, son, there are times when the only option left is to do something bad… and that is where strength of character comes in. You do what needs to be done, you kill whomever needs to be killed, you do whatever it is that you have to do, and then you face the consequences. Afterwards, you pick up the pieces and you try to heal. Those that love you, those that really love you, will stick by your side and will try to understand why you did what you did… you have to understand Sentinel, there are going to be moments where those who love you are going to hate your actions, but that doesn’t mean that they hate you. They… they just can’t understand why you did what you did or how you could do something so awful. But if they love you and trust you, they’ll understand that you did what you had to do. It might take them some time before they accept it, but with love, time, and patience, things will smooth out.” 

“So strength of character comes with facing the consequences for your actions? Being punished?” Sentinel looked up at his father, more tears now streaming down his cheeks. 

“Son, bad things happen. Thunderlane… he is what you call a good pony… when the collapse happened, Thunderlane… when he was part of Ponyville’s militia, he had to kill a few ponies. He didn’t want to do it. But he understood that it had to be done. Thunderlane now lives under the shadow that he had to kill his fellow ponies… and there is nothing he can do about it but accept it. It is a consequence, a dreadful one for him. Twilight Sparkle incinerated Griffonholm. Every day I know she suffers from the guilt of what happened. As for myself, of all the things I’ve done, the one thing that truly bothers me was killing the griffon cubs in the nursery. I wish I hadn’t done it, but I know that it had to be done. Belisama gets me through those rough moments when I begin to doubt myself.” 

“So if these things hurt us, why the punishment?” Sentinel shook his head, not understanding. 

“Son, we face the consequences so we can feel like we have paid for what we’ve done. It eases our consciences. It is so we can feel like we have given something back for what we have taken. I promise you, you’ll feel better about all of this once you've faced the consequences.” Bucky reached out and gave Sentinel’s ear a gentle tug with his talons. 

“Really?” Sentinel asked. 

“Honest,” Bucky replied. “If Derpy was to stop giving me the stinkeye, or if Berry didn’t hold me accountable, or if Bon Bon didn’t chew me out, I’d feel worse about a lot of things. I know I have it coming, and it is a relief to finally get it. I trust in those I love to set me straight.” 

Sentinel nodded, sort of understanding. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make this right. I’m sorry for what I’ve done… I hope that I can earn your trust again.” Sentinel wiped away more tears and stared down into the water, looking at the reflections of himself and of his father. 

“Son, your first task, once you’ve recovered, is going to Sweetie Belle’s parents and apologising to them… Cookie and Hondo were absolutely beside themselves… Rarity was here to welcome Sweetie Belle home because Cookie had a nervous breakdown. Poor Cookie has a hard enough time knowing that Rarity goes into dangerous situations, but Sweetie Belle is still her sweet little foal… so you are going to apologise and you are going to stand there, and you are going to take whatever Cookie and Hondo have to dish out.” 

“Father, I understand…” 
	
	
> Chapter 833
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Brandywine yawned and Bucky felt himself doing the same. It was funny how a pony felt like yawning after watching another pony yawn. He looked down at the chubby foal cradled in his forelegs. She was sleepy, but fighting to stay awake, fussy, and refusing to be put down for bed. 

“Given who your mother is, I can’t help but wonder if you are going to be a troublemaker,” Bucky said in a low voice, a lopsided smile upon his lips. “Still, you’re going to have to work very hard to beat Sentinel… he stole my airship.” 

The house was quiet again. It was late, late enough to be early. Brandywine yawned again and then snuffled as she smacked her lips together. Bucky heard her stomach gurgle and then began to wonder if she was hungry or if the gurgles were what was causing her to be fussy. His mind wandered and he thought of Harper’s stomach problems. She was doing okay but her diet had to be monitored. 

Sombra was gone. Bucky could not help but feel as though the dark shadow that loomed over him was now gone. He didn’t know how he felt, at least not yet, but he was grateful that Sombra was gone. He heard the soft sound of hooves treading over the wooden floor, lifted his head, and looked at the nursery door. 

He saw Amaranth in the doorway. It was strange, thinking of her as both Amaranth and Clotho. By some strange coincidence he hadn’t messed up and said her real name around the others. At the moment, she was a pale blue colour, with a pink mane and dark blue eyes. She came into the nursery, stood near the crib where the other foals lay sleeping, and then turned to look at Bucky. 

“It’s just gas… but she’ll be hungry within the hour. They all will,” Amaranth said to Bucky. She moved over to the rocking chair and sat down, her eyes never leaving Bucky, who was sitting in the bowl shaped chair. After getting comfortable, she sighed. “I like it here… I really do… but I’ll be moving on soon.” 

“You don’t have to go.” Bucky spoke in a low whisper, a soft voice, and Brandywine cooed when she heard her daddy’s voice. Bucky watched as Brandywine’s grey eyes closed and the foal went still in his embrace. 

“Sentinel has been rooted.” Amaranth leaned back in the chair, trying to get comfortable, and the rocker tilted back and forth. “He will have a difficult life, but he will be happy. He has found the companions that will make life bearable. He will continue the work that you have started.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” Bucky asked. 

“You look as though you need comforting,” Clotho replied, her eyelids settling down over her eyes. She yawned herself, and her sleepy expression intensified. “The foals that he has with Diamond Tiara will give him no end of trouble though.” 

“It bothers me sometimes that you speak of the future as though it is written in stone.” Bucky shook his head, disturbed, but he kept his voice down. “I have never liked that, you speak as though we have no choice in our own lives.”

Clotho pulled a blanket overself and the rocking chair continued to rock. She smiled. “Sentinel has no desire to run away from his destiny, unlike a certain pony I know. He runs toward it. His future is far less clouded and there are far fewer probabilities. Sentinel wants to continue your work. Sentinel wants the future that has been laid out for him. He’s not being made to do anything… this is the future of his choosing, this is what he wants, which is why his future is so easy to see. I can peer far, far ahead and there are so few unknowns.” Clotho sighed, looked sad for a moment, and stared into Bucky’s eyes. “His future isn’t an easy one. As a knight, he will know the suffering that you know.” 

“I know,” Bucky whispered, “it bothers me, but this is what the little guy wants. Just so long as he gets his happy moments too.” 

“Nine minutes from now, he is going to wake up from a terrible nightmare, and not one of Luna’s creation. You would be wise to be there. Be warned though, if you leave now, Brandywine is going to wail her lungs out and none of your wives shall sleep. I’m sorry Bucky… your future seems to be filled with nothing but bad choices. Sentinel shall awake and suffer upon his own, or you can be there to comfort him at the expense of Brandywine suffering and your wives losing sleep.” Clotho blinked. “Eight minutes now.” 

Grumbling, Bucky glared at Clotho and reminded himself that this wasn’t her fault. She saw things as they were, how they could be, and what was. She at least gave him a choice, even if it was a rotten choice, warning him that Sentinel needed him. 

“I reject your future,” Bucky muttered as he slipped out of the bowl shaped chair with Brandywine held within his magic. “I’ll go look after Sentinel and take Brandywine with me.” 

Clotho grinned, watching as Bucky headed for the door, knowing full well that he would take this option, the option unmentioned. Her ears perked as she heard the soft breathing of Brandywine, who didn’t seem too keen on wandering about with her father. 

“Don’t you dare start crying,” Bucky whispered to Brandywine, “please, please, please be a good foal for me… just let me look after my son and I’ll see that you get fed.” Bucky heard a grunt but no cries seemed forthcoming, it appeared that what he had said had mollified Brandywine, at least for the moment. 

“Oh, and Bucky, try not to be angry…” 



 

Pacing outside of Sentinel’s door, Bucky was rehearsing in his head why he was lurking outside of Sentinel’s door. There was no easy way of saying it or explaining it. He thought about Clotho’s parting words. Why would he be angry? He waited, anxious, not knowing if he should go in and wake Sentinel up or if he should go in after Sentinel was awake. Which one was right? Gnawing his lip, Bucky continued to pace with Brandywine held close against his neck and chest in a bubble of magic. 

What to do, what to do? Bucky was frozen with indecision, a feeling that he hated a great deal. He paused just outside the door, hearing a soft cry, a gasp, and a sharp intake of breath. He was about to open the door and go inside when he heard something he did not expect. 

“Sentinel, are you okay?” 

The voice, little more than a whisper, was well known to Bucky. That was Boadicea. Bucky, knowing full well that Sentinel would hear him, muffled himself with a spell, silencing every noise he made. He listened just outside the door, his ears straining. 

“Sentinel, it’s just a bad dream… come here… it’s okay. Let me hold you.” 

Bucky felt angry but choked it back. Clotho had tried to warn him. Why was he angry? Boadicea was being sneaky and deceitful, that’s why. She was supposed to be upstairs, in the attic, with Lugus and Yew, tucked away in her own bed. The sneaky little griffoness had somehow made her way downstairs without anypony noticing and was now sleeping in Sentinel’s bed. 

Bucky sighed. 

Comforting Sentinel after his nightmare. She was probably scared herself. She was probably too terrified to sleep all alone after everything that had happened and probably felt that she was too big and too grown up to climb into bed with her parents to seek comfort. 

Bucky sighed again. She had gone to Sentinel for comfort. His anger melted away, he had trouble faulting Boadicea for that, or Sentinel. Something would have to do be done about this, the sneaking about had to stop, but now was probably not the best time to deal with it. 

The worst part of all of this was, Boadicea had been trained to be sneaky. That was what she did. She spent many long hours with Loki learning the fine art of stealthcraft. She was going to have to be punished for this, but Bucky wasn’t certain how. 

“That’s okay Sentinel, let it all out.” 

Bucky felt his lower lip quivering. He stood there, wanting to rush in, wanting to comfort Sentinel, but he knew that his sudden appearance would cause no end of panic. Boadicea would know she was busted. Sentinel, already upset, would be even more upset knowing that he and Boadicea would be caught. 

What harm was being done here? Bucky asked himself that over and over, not knowing the answer. They weren’t doing anything. Sure, Sentinel had shagged Moonbow and had admitted it. Sentinel had known that what he had done was questionable and had done nothing to hide it. Bucky reasoned that there was almost zero chance of that happening right now. Bucky had to trust Sentinel to do the right thing, no easy task given that Sentinel had just done something colossally stupid. 

Being a parent was hard and Bucky realised that he wasn’t prepared for this, not at all. He needed advice, he needed somepony to talk to. He needed somepony to go to for a few helpful tips, but he didn’t know who. 

Standing there, confused, hurt, not knowing how to deal with his son, his own neurosis gnawing away at his mind, Bucky tried to think about who he knew to go to for advice. He flogged his brain to start working, this was a battle of sorts and he needed resources. This was a fight he had to win, or so he told himself. 

After thinking about it in the right way, Bucky’s brain provided an answer. 



 

“Buckminster Bitters… what are you doing here at this hour?” 

Bucky, feeling very much like a guilty foal stood there, not knowing what to say, holding Brandywine, and wondering when she was going to get hungry enough to become a problem. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky committed himself to his course of action. “Twilight Velvet… I… um… I… uh…” 

“Mister Bitters, are you okay?” Twilight Velvet stepped away from the door of the small house they now had and made a gesture for Bucky to come inside. 

“I needed parenting advice and I didn’t know who to go to and I…” Bucky stood in the doorway, unmoving, and Brandywine fidgeted against his neck. His mouth moved but no words came out. 

“Just do come in,” Twilight Velvet insisted, making an impatient stomp with her hoof. 

“Both of you were the best parents I could think of and I thought to myself, ‘what’s the harm in asking’ and I’m really very sorry that it is so late and I—” 

Bucky was cut off as Twilight Velvet grabbed him with her magic and yanked him inside, shutting the door behind him. 



 

“ —so, that’s everything, more or less.” Bucky clutched his teacup in his talons and stared at his hosts. Twilight Velvet was fussing over Brandywine and the foal seemed delighted to see Twilight Velvet. Night Light looked thoughtful and composed while sipping his tea. The house was small, cosy, comfortable, and a fine example of griffon work. 

“Mister Bitters, if I might be direct,” Night Light said to Bucky.

“Please do,” Bucky replied. 

“I offer my most sincere apologies. But you have lost control of your foal—” 

Groaning, Bucky slumped down in his chair. 

“—and this is not as bad as you make it out. Sentinel was bound to grow up sometime. Mister Bitters, you cannot shelter him forever. As much as you might want to, you cannot hover over him and protect him from the world. You’re going to have to let go. As painful as it might be, you’re going to have to let go and let him make mistakes. You’re going to have to watch as he gets hurt and even worse, you’re going to have to watch as he recovers from being hurt. Sentinel is a little young, but it happens. Foals assert their independence from their parents and they do things that drive us crazy. Shining Armor started off rather young and the only thing that kept him from driving us completely insane was little Twilight. He adored her and tried to be a good example. The moment that little Twilight wasn’t around though… ugh.” Night Light reached up and began to rub his temple. 

“Shining Armor caused us no end of grief. But we endured. We had to let him become the pony he was meant to be. We let him make mistakes. We had to sit back and watch as he made some serious mistakes. We had to watch him choke as he bit off more than he could chew. Shining Armor was a little stubborn… not earth pony stubborn, but stubborn enough.” Twilight Velvet gave Bucky a sad smile. “And then, Cadance came along and Night Light and I both almost gave up hope. All we could do was wait it out. When Shining Armor became an adult, he leveled out a bit. Princess Celestia did a lot to help him level out. Make no mistake though, Night Light and I went through over a decade of madness. We had to ship Shining out to military school.” 

“So you’re saying that I should let go and just let things happen?” Bucky asked. 

“Only interfere if you must. Let him make mistakes. Punish him when need be and let him face the consequences of his own actions,” Twilight Velvet replied.

“Little colts do stupid things. So do fillies, for that matter, and you have a lot of them—” 

Bucky gulped. 

“—but little colts are particularly bad. Shining Armor once stole the wagon out of the garage and used it to haul Cadance and her friends around for a night on the town in Canterlot. He desperately wanted to impress her. It was foggy and there had been rain earlier that evening. He went down a steep incline on slick cobblestones… Shiny didn’t have his wagon license and he didn’t know what to do in the situation. There was a crash.” Night Light shook his head and a  faint smile was on his lips as he reminisced. 

“That was the night that things changed for Shining Armor… he started to realise that his actions had consequences for others. Cadance was hurt and Cadance… well, Cadance might have acted a bit more hurt than she really was at my insistence,” Twilight Velvet said. 

“One of her friends really was hurt though,” Night Light said, picking up where his wife left off, “and Shining Armor understood that what he had done had brought serious harm to others. That was the night that he grew up a little bit and started trying to do right.” 

Clutching his teacup in his trembling talons, Bucky came to the slow conclusion that there might be ten more years of this behaviour. His insides felt like lead and he didn’t know what to say. Sentinel was already off to an epic start. He hadn’t stolen a wagon, the little cuss had stolen an airship. Bucky groaned and felt tears stinging his eyes. 

“Oh, try not to be upset dear… it does get better,” Twilight Velvet said. 

Ten years. Bucky wasn’t sure that he had that long. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 834
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lugus was taking this rather well, or so Bucky thought. The big griffon was now at a level of furious that Bucky hadn’t seen in a while and his feathers were fluffed out, making him look almost twice his size. Yew was taking this a little better, she was calm, cool, and collected while she held Brennus, her cub. Boadicea stood slumped over, looking miserable, her tail down, trying to look as pathetic as possible. 

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Yew said to Lugus, her words causing the big griffon to fluff out even more. “There are lots of things to be angry with her about, but this isn’t one of them.” 

“How can you be so calm?” Lugus asked, his left eyelid twitching as he spoke. 

“I’ll admit, I’m kinda curious.” As Bucky spoke, he glanced at Boadicea and felt kind of bad for her, but only a little. It was too early to be angry and Bucky was tired. He hadn’t slept. At least his visit with Night Light and Twilight Velvet had been productive. He had been told to come back at any time, hugged, and sent on his way. 

The whole experience had left him with a peculiar feeling. 

Yew Wood cleared her throat, her own feathers fluffing out, and she stared her much larger mate right in the eye. “I was married the first time when I wasn’t much older than Boadicea. If she wishes to sleep with Sentinel, I just do not see what the problem is. I understand that things are different on the mainland, but even with all that has happened, I feel that I can still trust Sentinel and Boadicea together.” 

“Trust?” Lugus lifted his right talons and clenched them into a fist. “Trust? You mean you still trust them after… after… after everything that has taken place?” Lugus shook his head, looking incredulous. “How, my love, how is it that you have this trust?” 

Shrugging, Yew Wood yawned, smacked her lips, and then looked at Boadicea. “She did something bad but her heart was in the right place. She did the wrong thing for the right reasons. I will not fault her for doing what she did, what she did took courage, she went off to be beside her chosen mate—” 

“I thought we discussed this… she is far too young under the standards which we live!” Lugus’s clenched talons opened and he pointed his extended talon finger at Boadicea. 

Reaching out a hoof, Yew Wood shoved Lugus’ talon away. “Don’t you dare point that meathook at family members, you big oaf,” she demanded. Yew Wood took a deep breath, eyeballed her flustered husband, and her ears pivoted forwards. In the shawl hung around her neck, Brennus began peeping. “I still feel that Sentinel and Boadicea can be trusted together. If she wishes to sleep with him, we need to make it very clear that no funny business is to take place. I agree that Boadicea needs to be punished for what she has done, but I will not be cruel to her by separating her from her chosen mate. How can you be so heartless?” 

Lugus deflated, his feathers and crest drooping. He closed his eyes, shaking his head, his tail went limp and fell to the floor with a thump. For a moment, it appeared as though Lugus was going to say something, his beak opened, moved, his girth rose and fell, but no words came out. 

“Boadicea, can you be trusted with Sentinel?” Yew asked, looking at the griffoness. 

“It’s going to happen eventually,” Boadicea replied, being honest. 

Pursing her lips, Yew Wood nodded, appreciating Boadicea’s honesty. She waited for a moment, looking thoughtful, before she made her reply. “But it isn’t happening right now. We can cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, I don’t think you need anymore trouble in your life. I know that you are hurting right now and I am trying to give you some sort of comfort.” 

Lifting her head, Boadicea looked up at Lugus, then at Bucky, and then at Yew. “I give you my word, I’ll be good. No funny business.” She reached up with her talons and smoothed back her crest feathers. “I was scared… I snuck down to be with Sentinel because I had a bad dream. He tried to send me back upstairs and I refused to listen to him. He tried to do the right thing.” 

Just as Lugus started to say something, Yew Wood interrupted, giving her husband a warning. “Watch your beak or else I’ll kick you out of my bed. Be the good, gentle, loving sort that I know you can be.” 

Yowling with frustration, Lugus glared at his mate. His claws clicked upon the wooden floor and his tail now swished from side to side. The big griffon looked troubled. He looked at Boadicea. “You and I are going to have a nice, pleasant talk, but not here. Grab your bow… there is a chimera that has been seen prowling the Everfree. You and I are going to make it see reason to leave little ponies alone and if that fails, we are going to kill it.” 

“Sir, yes sir,” Boadicea replied. 

“Oh, and Boadicea…” 

“Yes Bucky?” The griffoness looked up at Bucky, still looking fearful. 

“You ever break into the armory and steal a firearm ever again and I will turn you into a cute, fluffy, adorable little woodland creature and lock you into a room with curious school foals,” Bucky replied. 

Boadicea’s eyes went wide and she stared at Bucky as her tail tucked up between her hind legs. After a moment, she nodded, then gulped. Her beak fell open but no words came out. With swift movement, she ducked behind Yew Wood and peeked out from behind her at Bucky. 

“Lugus, you be nice to her while you are out hunting, I mean it. I’ll know about it if you don’t.” Yew gave her mate a stern look. “For now, there needs to be a truce.” 

“Yes Yew, I understand.” Lugus glanced at Boadicea and then at Bucky. 

“Shouldn’t I be in school?” Boadicea said in a low voice. 

“Nope.” There was no hesitation in Yew Wood’s reply. “You’ve already missed a few days. I have all of your missed assignments waiting for you. A few more can’t hurt. You can catch up. For now, I think some time with your father would be good for you. And good for him too.” She looked at her husband. “Don’t fail me, Lugus.” 

“You lucked out.” Lugus looked at Boadicea and sighed. 

“I’d say you lucked out as well,” Boadicea replied, looking at Lugus. 

Crest rising, Lugus lowered his head to look at Boadicea at eye level. 

Seeing Lugus’ response, Boadicea looked as submissive as possible. “She’s your mate… you lucked out getting her. We both did… I don’t think we’d be much of a family without Yew.” 

Lugus stared at Boadicea for a moment, tilting his head to one side, he glanced at Yew Wood, and then, with impossible speed, his talons shot out and he grabbed Boadicea. He ignored her panicked squawks and yowls as he pulled her closer. He gave her a hug and tried to calm her. After a moment, when she realised that she wasn’t about to be mauled, she returned the hug, throwing her forelegs around Lugus’ neck. 

“Good luck you two,” Bucky said to Lugus and Boadicea, “have fun and be careful. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do in the kitchen.” 



 

It was important to have hobbies. Bucky had long stressed this fact to Dinky, telling her to keep herself busy, and he was glad that she had taken his advice to heart. Bucky himself had been keeping busy, preparing for the invasion, assembling golems, designing new weapons, and making kitchen appliances. 

Semillon was glaring at him, the kitchen was her domain, and she was the undisputed master. Bucky continued his work, wondering, waiting, knowing that Semillon had something to say about all of this. 

“I’m a unicorn… I don’t see how this is necessary. Broom and I manage just fine.” 

There it was...

Bucky had a speech prepared. “Semillon, you and Broom have the kitchen well managed, and it is because you are both unicorns.” Bucky continued twisting the screwdriver as he mounted the ocular sensor to the wall above strange looking mechanical arms that ended in mechanical hands. 

“What?” Semillon stood near the fridge, watching as Bucky worked. 

“You and Broom are unicorns. Other ponies aren’t so lucky. There are plenty of ponies out there that need some helping hands in the kitchen.” Bucky pointed up at the two golem arms. “Which is why I am working on this. Earth ponies and pegasi have to work very, very hard to get anything done in the kitchen, stuff that we unicorns can do effortlessly. These will help mix stuff, chop veggies, and will make a number of kitchen tasks automated.” 

“But they are ugly.” Semillon’s voice was almost a whine. “Sir, please, if you must continue to populate my kitchen with mechanical abominations, at least try to make them fit in with the decor.” 

Bucky sighed, knowing there would be more work to do. It wasn’t enough to make functioning golem arms and hands, no, he had to make them look good somehow. It was all the more frustrating because Bucky knew that if these were to be a successful product, they would have to look good so ponies would want them in their kitchen. He lowered his screwdriver and scratched his cheek with his talons. It was time to test. 

Testing made everything better. 

Looking up, Bucky examined the two arms and the ocular sensor. Rising Star had done wonderful work on the prototype. The arms were slender, long, Bucky thought they looked fine, but matte grey steel wasn’t everypony’s cup of tea. The wrist joints were a marvel of engineering and the elbows weren’t bad either. The hands, modeled after a minotaur’s, were dexterous and capable. 

“I’m going to leave you to your work… I think I’ll play cribbage with Broom,” Semillon said to Bucky as she turned to leave the kitchen. “It is a noble goal, trying to help the earth ponies and the pegasi. I can live with that.” 

As Bucky listened to the sounds of Semillon’s hooves tapping on the the floor, he began pulling out a list of ingredients required for the testing. He raided the fridge, the cupboards, and the pantry, getting everything he needed to make oatmeal molasses cookies. 

He placed the big metal mixing bowl on the counter next to the eggs and paused when he heard something behind him. Turning, he saw four pairs of eyes looking at him. Harper, Peekaboo, Sukari, and Cadance had all come into the kitchen and were now sitting down, looking at him, watching him. He could see the hopeful expressions upon their faces. 

“Things have been a little nutty around here, haven’t they?” Bucky asked. 

Four little heads bobbed together. 

“You’ve not been getting as much attention with the newborns around and the trouble that Sentinel has caused. I’m sorry.” Bucky set about his work, arranging the ingredients on the counter. 

“Is Sentinel a bad pony?” Peekaboo asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied, nodding his head and smiling, “little Sentinel is a bad pony. Don’t do like Sentinel does, or I’ll stand you in the corner.” 

“Senty stand in corner?” Harper seemed concerned about this development. 

Bucky picked up a long, thin pink crystal, grinned, and slid it into place into the arcano-tech reader. The crystal held the instructions to mix up cookies. The crystal glowed, the arcano-tech reader hummed, and the arms came to life. 

“Standing Sentinel in the corner isn’t a bad idea, but I bet the little cuss would enjoy the chance to have a good think,” Bucky said to his audience as the arms went to work, mixing the dry ingredients together in the big steel mixing bowl. 

“Are you mad?” Peekaboo asked, looking at Bucky with wide, curious eyes. 

“Yes, I am mad at the little hooligan,” Bucky replied as the arms began to measure out molasses. “But I can sympathise with him. Do you know what sympathy means?” 

“No,” three voices said together, the only one silent was Cadance, who was giving Bucky a queer look. 

“I understand why Sentinel did what he did… but that doesn’t excuse him.” Bucky turned away from the kitchen counter and looked at the four little foals who were watching him with rapt attention. He noticed Cadance’s peculiar stare. Bucky’s eyebrow raised, he didn’t like the look that Cadance was giving him. 

“You a bad pony, sometimes.” Cadance looked up at her father, her ears drooping as she spoke, and her expression was now apologetic. “Who stands you in corner?” 

Bucky heaved a sigh, turned his head, and watched as the two golem arms laboured to make cookie dough. They cracked the eggs with surprising skill, tapping them on the flat of the counter rather than the edge of the bowl. Cracking them on the bowl tended to get eggshell fragments into the egg. The arms worked with smooth mechanical precision. So far, everything was working. 

“Cadance, that’s a good question,” Bucky replied. He had no answer. He had no means of answering her question. Maybe he needed some time in the corner himself, he had taught Sentinel some awful habits and maybe, just maybe, some of what had happened was his fault. He felt unsettled and a bit disappointed with himself. He thought of Dizzy, Ditzy, little Barley, and Brandywine. What would he teach them? How could he be a good parent, how could he teach his foals right and wrong when the line had become so blurred for him? He didn’t even know what right or wrong was anymore, only what got results. He was about to do something he knew was wrong, everypony and everybirdy involved knew that he was about to do something terrible, but he was going to do it anyway. 

It occurred to Bucky that being a parent had a dangerous level of hypocrisy involved. He didn’t like it, it made him feel depressed and bitter. He was going to punish his son and try to impress upon Sentinel the lesson to do what was right, and Bucky was about to do something that was the opposite of right. The thought settled upon Bucky with a crushing weight. 

“Sad?” Sukari asked. 

“Yes, Sukari, I’m sad.” Bucky looked over at the zebra and saw the empathy in her wide, blue eyes. Sukari didn’t say much, but she didn’t need to. She said more with a look than most ponies said with a dictionary’s worth of words. 

“When sad?” Harper looked up at her father, her muzzle wrinkled with a quizzical expression, her dark purple eyes almost not visible under the mass of curly, frizzy, poofed out mane that stuck out in all directions. 

Bon Bon and Lyra had stopped trimming it back and now insisted that it grow out, gain some length, and Bon Bon insisted that with some length, the extra weight would make Harper’s mane behave. So far, Bon Bon was horribly wrong. Harper’s mane had swallowed up her ears, most of her eyes, and her horn was now all but invisible, so much so that others mistook her for an earth pony. Harper’s excessive static electricity did nothing to help the situation. 

“Harpy, I don’t know that I could explain it. I’m just sad. Thankfully, I have you four to keep me happy.” Bucky gave the foals a smile. “Are you four going to give me a lot of trouble? Are you going to be rotten like Sentinel?” 

As Bucky watched, Harper gave him a noncommittal shrug, Cadance looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook her head, Peekaboo also shook her head, while Sukari stared fixedly at some non existent point on the ceiling. Bucky sighed. Sukari was going to be trouble, he just knew it. She never gave him much of an answer when he posed the question of being a good foal to her. It was always the quiet ones. 

“Cadance, are you sure you’re not going to cause me trouble?” Bucky narrowed his eyes at Cadance, and he stifled a laugh when she looked worried. “I’ve heard some stories about you… you were quite a troublemaker.” Much to Bucky’s satisfaction, Cadance turned pinker and she looked alarmed. 

“Aw, look at them all, they’re all so cute.” 

Turning, Bucky saw Derpy and Belisama standing together in the kitchen doorway. He cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed them sooner. He gave them a sheepish grin. “How long have you two been standing there?” 

“Long enough,” Derpy replied as she strolled into the kitchen, her bad eye squeezed shut and her good eye focused on the golem arms. She came to where the foals were sitting, opened her shut eye, and sat down with the fillies as Belisama also prowled into the kitchen. 

“How are the newborns?” Bucky asked. 

“Just got fed and now they’re all sleepy, except for Dizzy. Dizzy is sleepy but wants to stay awake. Berry is trying to sing him to sleep.” Belisama sat down beside Cadance, reached out a wing, and patted the pink filly. 

“Sentinel is upstairs in his room, doing some of his school assignments,” Derpy said to Bucky, “or he was when I checked on him a while ago. Dinky and Piña both are also working on catching up. Dinky and Piña would like to speak with you when you get a chance. But if they ask to leave their room, the answer is no.” 

“Got it.” Bucky gave Derpy a knowing look; he understood how the game was played. When mother said no, father had to say no as well. He watched as Belisama began preening Cadance’s wings and his ears perked when Cadance began giggling. 

“Bucky, Bon Bon is of the impression that what has been done is an offense that deserves paddling. I don’t know how I feel about the issue yet, but she has brought up some good points. Berry Punch agrees with her. The threat of spanking has long been held over Piña’s head, but has never happened. Both Bon Bon and Berry think that it is time for a little demonstration of punishment, at least, that is how Berry Punch worded it.” Derpy gave Bucky a sad stare, her expression heartbroken and morose. “Berry seems to think that it is time that the foals learn that we will do more than just make threats. They need to know that the consequences are real.” 

Inhaling, Bucky held his breath for a moment, his cheeks puffed out, and he was now all too aware of four little pairs of eyes all looking at him. He realised that Derpy had said what she had said in front of the little ones for a reason; they needed to learn about the consequences of disobeying as well. His held breath slipped out with a huff. “I agree with Bon Bon and Berry, but it kills me to say it. I’d like to find another way if possible… but I don’t want this to be over with a spanking. That’s over far too quickly and strikes me as lazy parenting. We’re going to have to commit ourselves to the hard work of punishing them.” Bucky heard Derpy take a deep breath and he worried that he had said the wrong thing. Was there a wrong thing that could be said in a moment like this? 

“I agree. I was spanked when I was little. I didn’t mind the spanking very much, it was over and then I was free to go off and get into more trouble. It didn’t teach me very much. A few minutes of spanking was a lot easier than hours spent doing chores.” Derpy wrapped her wing around Harper and pulled the little filly closer. “My idea is to ship them off to Applejack’s and put them to work. There is a lot that needs to be done now that it is spring. Applejack could use the help, she’s pregnant and Cheerilee just had Cheery and right now, Big Mac and Silver Shill are trying to manage everything all by themselves.” 

“Sentinel is a little brute, some time spent pulling a plow would be good for him.” 

Belisama began to chuckle at Bucky’s words as she continued to preen Cadance. 

Turning his head, Bucky realised that the golem arms had gone still. There was now a batch of cookie batter that needed to be put on a cookie pan and placed into the oven. The mess on the counter was minimal, the cookie dough looked fine, and overall, Bucky felt as though the test had been a success. 

“You know, Derpy, I can’t help but wonder if I could make a mechanical foal paddler—” 

There was a loud squeal followed by the pounding of hooves as four fillies fled the kitchen, leaving behind three amused looking adults. Belisama had a pink feather in her beak. Bucky had a chaotic grin upon his face, and Derpy smiled at her husband. 

Giving Bucky a wink, Derpy ears pivoted forwards. “That should keep them all well behaved for a while. Nice job.” 
	
	
> Chapter 835
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	How are the two of you?” Bucky looked at both Dinky and Piña, both of whom were working on their missed school assignments. Piña was looking back at him, and Dinky was busy staring down at her desk. 

“Would it sound weird if I told you that it felt good to be doing my school assignments?” Piña replied as she closed her textbook. She bounced off of the bed where she was sprawled out, pronked across the floor, and then wrapped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck, giving him a hug. 

Bucky of course, hugged her back. 

“Are you going to let them spank us?” Dinky asked, looking up from her assignment. She looked worried, fearful, and hopeful all at the same time.

Piña let go, backed away, and Bucky focused his gaze upon Dinky. He sat down on the floor, sitting near the door. His ears drooped down to the sides of his face, causing strands of his black and silver mane to spill down upon his cheeks. 

“I dunno, do you think you deserve a spanking?” Before Dinky had a chance to reply, Bucky got in a few more words. “Be honest… your answer might influence my decision.” 

The words in Dinky’s mouth died as she realised that there was a lot more on the line than she first thought. Bucky had always been fair in his dealings with her, and she had no reason not to trust him. She tried to think about what Bucky might want to hear, but knew that he was too clever to fall for that. She chose the honest approach and began to think about her words. 

“We did a bad thing,” Piña said to Bucky, “and while some good came out of it, we had no idea that things would work out the way they did or that we were meant to go. When we made the decision to go, even before we stole your airship, we knew that we were disobeying the rules and being bad.” Piña’s ears drooped down, going limp, and she hung her head. “The fact that everything worked out for the best was just plain luck, an accident.” 

“Yeah,” Dinky said, the word coming out as a gasp of relief as Piña had said what Dinky thought were all of the right things. 

“So you can admit that you’ve done something wrong.” Bucky’s voice was low and patient. His left eyebrow raised, little glints of silver hairs now mixed in with the black. 

“Yeah, but spanking is serious business.” Piña’s ears perked up, now standing erect, and she shook her head. “Wing slapping is one thing, getting a little swat is another, but Bon Bon is talking about spanking us with a paddle or a brush.” 

“And that’s gonna sting,” Dinky grumbled as she looked at her father, “except it won’t hurt Sentinel much… and that’s not fair.” 

Bucky’s eyebrow raised a little higher. He hadn’t considered that. The worst blows with a hairbrush against Sentinel’s backside would cause very little pain, all things considered. Sentinel was tough and pain resistant. Whacking him with a brush wouldn’t do much to discourage Sentinel, something bigger, heavier, and harder hitting would have to be used, or something thinner and more whip-like, such as a switch. Bucky scowled, not liking this at all. It didn’t seem very fair that Sentinel would have to be punished in a far worse way than his sisters just to get the same message across. 

Dinky almost stopped breathing when she saw her father scowl, thinking that he was angry with her. Each breath that came out of her was almost a squeak and it took serious effort to keep breathing. She was so panicked that it felt as though her throat was closing. 

Shaking his head, Bucky began to think of Loch Skimmer and Ripple’s father, the pony that Bucky had flogged. He didn’t like thinking about it. His scowl intensified, and Bucky had no idea that his expression of disgust was causing Dinky so much distress. Without knowing why, Bucky wanted very much to give Loch Skimmer a hug and see that she was okay. Ripple too, but Loch Skimmer was with foal, which made Bucky worry far more than he normally would. 

“Daddy, I’m sorry… I know I messed up… please, please, don’t let Bon Bon or Berry spank me… I’ve already suffered a whole bunch and you have to believe me when I say that I’ve learned my lesson.” Dinky focused her pleading stare upon Bucky and her lower lip began to tremble. “Bon Bon has all those muscles… she scares me… I’ve already been having nightmares about Sombra and I don’t want to have nightmares about Bon Bon pounding on me like I’m a lump of caramel.” 

His expression softening, Bucky looked at Dinky. “And just what do you think should be done with you?” He cleared his throat and tried to deal with his growing feeling of unease. He needed sleep, Bucky realised that in the back of his mind. Perhaps now was not a good time to be engaging in this. 

“I’ll help Dandelion Fluff and her husband Pinto Bean in the garden and the greenhouse. There is a lot of planting to be done still, and weeding, and all of the stuff that has to be done to make a garden grow.” Dinky drew in a deep breath as she realised that this wasn’t enough, she hadn’t expected to have to bargain for her own punishment and her mind raced as she tried to come up with different ideas to appease her father. Bucky was tough, but he was fair, and Dinky trusted in his sense of fairness. 

“Hmm.” Bucky rubbed his chin with his talons. 

“I’ll help Applejack with her orchard—” 

“Oh, yes, yes you will, that is already planned,” Bucky said, cutting Dinky off. 

Dinky gulped. She was running out of bargaining chips. She glanced around the room, her eyes darting around, almost as if she was hoping to see something that would fix this somehow. Her backside was on the line now and she suspected that her father had her right where he wanted her, an admission that she had done something worthy of a good spanking along with the acceptance of said punishment. 

“I have an idea,” Piña said in a low whisper to Bucky, her ears drooping once again. She blinked, her eyes full of tears, and she looked fearful. 

“I’m listening,” Bucky said to Piña. 

Piña sucked in a deep breath, cleared her throat, coughed, and then let it all out, deflating. She tried again, taking another deep breath, and like Dinky, she trusted in her father’s fairness. Knowing it was important, she looked Bucky in the eye as she said to him, “Father, we’re bad foals, and everypony needs to know that we’re bad. You should auction us off to the highest bidder and we can do chores for them. We can work all summer and we can keep having auctions. Whatever money gets raised can go to the orphanarium or the hospital or whatever and ponies get chores done and we get punished.” 

“Piña, that is a very good idea.” Bucky’s ears perked up as both Piña and Dinky groaned in unison. “I’ll run that by your mothers and we’ll discuss that. No promises, but from what I understand, Bon Bon is hankering for a spankering. I’ll have to see if I can stay her heavy hoof.” 

“But you’re her husband, she has to listen to you,” Piña squeaked. 

“Is that so?” Bucky glowered at Piña and watched as the pink foal tried to melt into the floor and become a pink puddle. It was obvious that Piña knew that she had just made a mess of things and Bucky continued with his withering glare. “I understand that you want some kind of answer, some kind of assurance right now, but you are not going to get it. You’re going to have to sweat it out.” 

“Okay.” Piña nodded. “I have a lot of schoolwork. I need to get back to it.” 

“Very well,” Bucky replied, “you get your school work done. Somepony will call you downstairs when it is lunchtime. Until then, not one peep and no leaving your room unless you need to use the bathroom.” 

Having said his piece, Bucky stood up, turned, and left the room. 



 

As Bucky came down the stairs, he saw Berry Punch standing by the front door next to a box. She was looking at him and he quickened his step to hurry down the stairs. He watched as Berry pointed at the box. 

“You had a package delivered by courier. Expecting something?” Berry looked at her husband and gave him a weary smile. 

“I dunno… does it say who it is from?” Bucky asked. 

“Nope,” Berry replied. 

“I hope it isn’t a severed head.” Bucky moved for the box, which wasn’t very big, but was, as Bucky noticed, large enough for a severed head. 

“What is the world coming to when a pony expects a severed head in the mail?” Berry Punch, who liked to indulge in a little black humour, took a few steps back as Bucky opened the box, and she hated his fussy, meticulous nature. Boxes were meant to be ripped open, just like presents. 

The box was filled with packing straw and on the top of it was a piece of paper. Bucky lifted it up, holding it in his telekinesis, and he saw fine script on the paper. Taking a deep breath, he began to read the paper aloud. 

“Bucky, thank you for giving me a chance. I’ve been in contact with Princess Celestia. Things are difficult, but at least we are talking and she is treating me better than I had expected. I’m working on your army, it won’t be long now. Your heart’s fondest desire has been sent to Princess Celestia, safe and sound, and cryogenically suspended. I’ve sent you a little token of my appreciation.” 

Pausing, Bucky flipped over the paper, more was written on the other side. 

“I’ve named her Crisis. You don’t need to worry about keeping her warm, she’ll be fine, but she does need love if you want a healthy hatchling. I made her just for you, she’s special, a hybrid, and perhaps one of my greatest creations. Think of her as a peace offering. Whatever you do, please don’t come and kill me in the night. Thanks a lot, Wolfchow.” 

The letter was not signed. Bucky lowered his head and poked his nose into the packing straw. He bumped into something rubbery and warm. Using his telekinesis, he began to pull out the straw, scattering it all over the entryway floor. 

“Bucky?” Berry asked, coming closer. 

Staring down into the box, Bucky lifted out something that was blackish-green with his telekinesis. “I have an egg.” 

“You know what Bucky, it occurs to me that I’ve been married to you for too long. Because this, this don’t phase me in the slightest. I just heard a stallion, my husband, announce that he has an egg, and seems like the most natural thing I’ve ever heard.” Berry Punch stretched out her neck and nosed the egg. It was dry, warm, and rubbery. 

“I have to go look after my egg,” Bucky said, holding it close, pressing it against his neck. He took off down the hall, leaving behind the box and a mess of straw all over the floor. 

“Nope, still not weird.” Berry Punch heaved a sigh and sounded Berry tired. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 836
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dark curtain of slumber parted and Bucky saw distant light. Something had touched him. He felt wakefulness overtaking him, like the rising sun overtakes the land as it is shrouded in darkness. He yawned, not fully awake yet, his eyes blinked, and his vision began to focus. 

He had an egg. It was a curious thing to think about as one awoke. 

Lifting his head, Bucky focused on Bell Heather who squirmed beside him, and Thistle, who was examining his egg. He smacked his lips, his mouth dry, and his tongue felt as though it was covered in sand. “How long was I out?” 

“You went to sleep a little before noon and it is now a little past six. Feel better?” Thistle nosed the egg and then nosed her husband. “It’s so strange. It’s rubbery and something is moving inside of it.” 

“I don’t know what is inside of it exactly, other than her name is Crisis.” Bucky yawned again, the dryness in his mouth was almost painful. “You okay with this, Thistle?” 

“Of course I am… you took in Bell Heather and made her your own, so why would I have a problem with Crisis?” Thistle turned and gave her husband a puzzled look. 

“I dunno… before I fell asleep, I thought about everything… about Chrysalis… and now there is going to be another foal… I suppose she’ll be like Tourmaline, but I don’t know.” Bucky reached up and scratched the left side of his face with his talons, angling his sharp claws away from his skin. 

“Are you worried that one of us will think of this as cheating?” Thistle asked. 

“Maybe I am,” Bucky replied. 

“Bucky, we’ve been over this. This wasn’t cheating. You gave Chrysalis a strand of hair so she could make the army that you need. Bucky… we all know that you wouldn’t cheat on us.” Thistle turned her head and placed her ear against the egg, her lake weed mane spilling down all around it. 

“Daddoo?” 

“Yes, Bell?” Bucky turned to look at his filly, who had tumbled over and was now lying on her back beside him. For a moment, he felt dizzy and lightheaded; just after waking up, things like love felt the strongest, overwhelming. Bell loved him, a simple uncomplicated love. Bucky had no means to identify what sort of love it was, but he liked to think it was adoration. Tourmaline might be able to tell him more, no doubt, she probably had a long list of different types of love and all the different ways she enjoyed each one. 

Bell rolled over and wrapped her foreleg around Bucky’s foreleg. She was starting to get her own lake weed mane now, tender little buds were growing. She was chubby, well fed, and growing every day. She lay, drooling, and she stared up at Bucky. 

“Bell is a good swimmer already. She’s amazing. She’s so wonderful…” Thistle lifted her head and looked over at her foal. “I’m going to take her with me when I go to inspect the Ponyville reservoir. It’ll be nice to be able to bring Bell with me on my job. I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do what I was born to do.” 

“Thistle, honey, as a kelpie, you can only do good things for Ponyville’s water supply.” Bucky wiggled, yawned, and then started to climb out of the bed. “Speaking of water supply, I need to return some water to the source. Sorry Bell.” 



 

In his office in the top of his tower, Bucky laboured. On his desk there was a makeshift blanket that served as a little nest for his egg. He looked at it while he worked. Tonight, there would be no preparations for war, he just wasn’t in the mood. Sunset, not far away, was quiet as she too, worked on one of Bucky’s many projects. 

Sunset Shimmer, she of the flaming mane, was becoming a master glass maker, just like Bucky. It was becoming her preferred medium, and just like her Master, she did marvelous things. She was sitting near the shadow web, the arcano-tech machine that would allow the viewer to look into the dreams of the nearby students. 

With his telekinesis, Bucky lifted up one of his tiny spider golems, a vast improvement from the previous models. He held it up to his nose. “What is your function?” 

“To save lives,” the golem replied in a soft, gentle voice, a voice that offered comfort and reassurance. “I exist to save lives.” 

“Yes.” Bucky nodded his head. 

Not far away, Sunset Shimmer stopped what she was doing, lifted her head, and turned to look at Bucky, her horn still glowing. The corner of her mouth turned upwards and a lopsided smile graced her face. 

“I exist to heal others. It makes me happy.” The little spider golem wiggled. It was nothing more than a tiny glass sphere with eight little legs. 

“I made you to cheat death… don’t worry, I know him… I suppose you could say he’s a friend.” Bucky sighed, reached up, and rubbed his chin. “There is a big fight coming and a lot of ponies and other creatures are going to get hurt… you are going to be my greatest weapon on the battlefield. With you, I will change the theatre of war forever.” 

As Bucky studied the golem, Buibui scurried over his desk, one of the first generation spider golems. Buibui had been upgraded a bit, changed, made better, smarter, and more capable. Buibui had sentimental value, and he treasured the little golem. 

“Master, the Ponyville hospital is interested in a test run of the medic golems. The directors are curious about how well the golems can function as drug dispensers. They are willing to work with you.” Sunset Shimmer rotated her head around, causing her neck to crackle, and after one painful sounding pop, she reached up and rubbed her neck with her left front hoof. 

“Wonderful. I would like for Winterworx to be remembered for the lives it has saved, not for the lives it has taken,” Bucky replied. 

“Master, we make a lot of weapons. That is going to be tough to do.” Sunset Shimmer looked at Bucky and watched as he set down the tiny drug dispensing golem. 

“We only make weapons because of necessity. I have been ordered to make weapons. One day, it is my hope that we can remove them entirely from our product lines and focus entirely on products that make lives better… like the helping hands golem for the kitchen.” Bucky slumped over his desk and stared at his egg. 

All around him, things moved in his office. Not far from his desk, a group of specialised spider golems were constructing a chair out of resin that hardened on contact with the air, an experiment in manufacturing. The chair, nearing completion, looked comfortable and sturdy enough, but the chair was not the end goal, only a means to an end. Anything that could be made out of plastic could be constructed by a team of spider golems with a set of instructions. 

Bucky had visions of entire armies of golems being shipped overseas to developing nations and making simple houses, furniture, the things needed to ease the transition from crude living and barbarity to civilisation. The golems, tireless, could do the heavy labour of changing the world for the better, giving everyone what they needed. Squabbling over resources and basic needs for life would end and maybe, just maybe, everybody would start getting along a little better. It was a foolish dream, but it was a dream worth having. 

He paused, thinking of his own dreams, an army of golems made to destroy the world. Bucky frowned, not liking that dream at all. His talons clenched into a fist and he looked around his office, the birthplace of his many creations. He would not destroy the world, but would he would make it better. 

“Minion…” 

“Yes, Master?” 

“We need a way to purify water and make it potable. I do believe that will be the next big project. Golems that will go into places where the water has been befouled… the lands around Griffonholm have a big problem with coal dust and dirty water. Start brainstorming now.” 

“Master, if we are to fix the water, we must start at the source… the coal being burned is the real problem here,” Sunset Shimmer said to Bucky. 

“I agree. Which is why Lyra’s generators are going to become important in the near future. No more poverty, no more want, no more need. Apple Bloom has fixed the food problem, there will be more food than anypony knows what to do with… now, we need to make sure that everybody else in the world has a fair distribution of resources. Power, clean water, and comfortable living.” Bucky folded his forelegs together in front of him on his desk and stared at his egg. “Sunset, we have to strike out at the reasons why we squabble and fight. I don’t know if the fighting will ever totally go away, but we can reduce the reasons why it happens.” 

“A noble goal, Bucky… a noble goal.” Sunset Shimmer rose, stretched her legs, and began to approach Bucky’s desk. “I got a communication from Princess Celestia this afternoon Bucky—” 

“Yes?” Bucky looked up from his egg and his gaze focused upon his pupil. 

“As you know, Princess Celestia is kinda itchy about getting new paladins… there is a little colt in Canterlot that she thinks might be perfect… his name is Limelight and I’ll be meeting him soon.” 

“Sunset, I am certain there is a point to this,” Bucky said, his talons tapping on his desk. “I would appreciate it if you made that point. There is something you don’t want to say to me, that much is clear, so spit it out.” 

“Princess Celestia wants me to find out if Dinky would be interested in paladin training.” 

Slumping down in his chair, Bucky scowled. He didn’t like the idea of his sweet little Dinky being in danger. His claws scraped over the desk, making a terrible screeching sound, and Sunset Shimmer retreated away from his desk as the air began to grow cold. 

“Master, temper… remember your egg.” Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a worried smile as she continued to back away. 

“Minion… paladins are meant to go after the very worst of foes.” Bucky’s voice sounded wounded and he shook his head. “I’m not comfortable with you being a paladin. If something was to hurt you… I… I… I—” 

“Yes Master, you would do unspeakable things and I know what you are capable of, you irritable old warlock.” Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes and shook her head. Bucky’s overprotectiveness of her was sometimes a little annoying, but she still loved him. “Dinky is brave, courageous, bold, true of heart, has good morals, and loving parents that have instilled in her a strong sense of right and wrong. She could do the world some good… Master, there is still much evil in the world and there will always be necromancers and heresy.” 

“Yes, yes, I suppose there will be. And somepony needs to stomp it out.” Bucky let out a defeated sigh and stared at his student. “This whole family has a terminal case of the stupids. It’s because Dinky went along with Sentinel on his little adventure, isn’t it? Dinky did something stupid and now it is being seen as bravery.” 

Sunset Shimmer gave Bucky a wry smile. “I suspect that recent events might have influenced Princess Celestia’s decision, but to be honest, I sorta kinda mighta made a suggestion to Princess Celestia that Dinky might be a good—” 

“BETRAYER!” Bucky roared, floating up from his desk, suspended half in and half out of shadow. “AAAAAAARGH!” 

“Okay, fine, get it out of your system… I deserve it.” Sunset Shimmer sat down and waited for the theatrics to pass. She watched her teacher as he struggled with his anger and his obvious love for her. She was counting on his affectionate nature to save her. 

“It is because of the diaper duty, isn’t it?” Bucky asked as he settled back down into his chair, glaring at his pupil, his talons clenching. 

“No.” Sunset Shimmer watched as Bucky started to calm himself and she waited for him to become a little bit more reasonable. “Dinky is gifted… you know that. She is a skilled mentalist, a rare and elusive trait. She’s needed… Bucky, she can make the world a better place, but she is going to have to go into danger to do it.” 

Reaching up, Bucky grabbed a talonful of his own mane and gave it a tug. He squirmed in his chair, feeling both pride and rage, knowing that Dinky had amazing gifts and they would be wasted if she remained someplace in safety. 

“You do one stupid thing and then you get press ganged into an entire life of doing nothing but stupid things, one right after another.” Bucky rubbed his muzzle, closed his eyes, and then went limp in his chair, his head coming to rest upon his desk in front of him. “This isn’t the life I wanted, Sunset. I fell in love by accident and nothing has been right since. I had to push my magical limits… I cracked my horn and activated the old family curse… and now look at me… look at me! This is not the life I want for Dinky!” 

“Bucky, what if this is the life that Dinky wants for herself?” Sunset Shimmer moved closer to Bucky’s desk, stepped around it, and stood beside Bucky in his chair. She nosed him, feeling bad for him, and then nosed him a second time. “Master, somepony has to fight the good fight. Not every little pony has it in them to do what needs to be done. Some of us have to go into danger so that others can live in safety. You know that better than any other pony I know. Like it or not, you have set a powerful example for your foals. They are going to want to grow up and be like you. They’re going to run towards danger, rather than away from it, and you, you are going to have to make peace with that.” 

“Minion…” 

“Master?” 

“If Dinky wants to be a paladin, you must teach her as I have taught you… total obliteration… it is the only way she might be safe. She must learn to reduce her foes to ash… I cannot bear to think of her in danger… just as I cannot bear to think about you in danger. That is why I taught you the spells I did… Princess Celestia did not agree with me at the time, but I think she agrees with me now.” 

“Princess Celestia said that as the first paladin, I am responsible for our traditions… I suppose destructive evocations are as good of a tradition as any.” Sunset Shimmer sighed and sat down on the floor beside Bucky’s chair. 

“We should get back to work. There is much to do.” 

“Yes, Master, of course.” 
	
> Chapter 837
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was becoming harder and harder for all of Twilight’s friends to be together in the same place at once. They all had lives now, marriage, family, businesses, responsibilities; somehow, they still found time to be together, like they were now, gathered inside of the cosy confines of the library tree. 

Feeling a little afraid, Twilight had an enormous task ahead of her; cleanse Canterlot. She had been preparing for a long while now, her preparations had been interrupted by an unexpected trip up north. Now, she was overburdened once again, expected to deal with everything, including the appearance of Hearthfire, a phenomenon not seen for the past one thousand years. There was so much to study, so much to do, and she still had to prepare for the spring session of the Stable of Representatives. 

“Twilight, you okay?” Pinkie Pie asked. 

Nodding, Twilight replied, “I’m fine, just a little distracted.” She turned and looked at her friends, seeing worried faces, concerned looks, love, care, and affection were creased into each face. “Are there any questions about what we’re going to do?” 

“Just one,” Discord replied, “what am I doing here?” 

“Discord, you are the chaos that we need to bring harmony to the system.” Twilight looked at Discord; he still had Fluttershy’s leg and cutie mark. He would be forever touched by kindness. 

“Twilight, is there something you’re not telling us?” Discord asked, his eyebrows wrinkling. “You know you can tell us anything, right? It seems oddly specific that you’ve requested Cheese Sandwich and I to attend this meeting.” 

For a moment, Twilight thought about holding it all in, but her mouth had other plans. Everything just spilled out in a stream of honesty. “Discord, I’ve been having strange dreams lately. Lots of them. And I talk to strangers in these strange dreams. Sometimes I talk to alternate versions of myself. Sometimes I dream about the Observers. I was told to make certain that you and Cheese Sandwich both were there with us when I try this, because the spell will fail otherwise. I just guessed as to the why you would need to be there, Discord.” 

“Twilight, these dreams… you’re not alone… I have them too.” Discord’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen another version of myself… I became a pony and I never found out why.” Discord lifted his head up higher and then looked down at Fluttershy beside him as he heard her taking a deep breath. 

“Bucky has strange dreams too. He tells me about them when we have our meditation time together. He’s seen a draconequus version of himself and of you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. 

“I know.” Twilight blinked and then shook her head. “Back to the important subject at hoof. This spell is going to be draining for all of us, but I am confident that we’ll pull through. If everything goes right, we’ll strip away the negative emotional residue left in Canterlot. I don’t know what that will do exactly, but it can only do good things. If we are successful, we’ll be going to Fillydelphia next.” 

“I still don’t understand how this works,” Applejack said. 

“Applejack, over time, in certain places, the same feelings over and over can leave behind traces of themselves.” Rarity’s lips puckered together for a moment in a thoughtful expression as she tried to think of an example. “Take Sweet Apple Acres… there is a feeling of home there, a feeling of peace, a good feeling when you go there… that’s probably not your mind playing tricks on you and you having good feelings by association… there probably really is a feeling of peace there because of all of the generations of Apples that have made that homestead what it is. You can feel all of the love and appreciation put into the land.” 

Rarity took a deep breath and then continued, “Canterlot is no different. A lot of bad things happened there. Madness, dark magic, murder, jealousy, anger, hatred, all of those bad things that happened in Canterlot have left behind a stain. All of those negative feelings remain, influencing those who still live in Canterlot, having a profound effect upon the weak willed and the weak minded.” 

“Explains how Twilight and Buckminster turned out the way that they did,” Discord said, rubbing his chin. 

“What?” Twilight blinked, shocked by Rarity’s outburst and confused by Discord’s remark. “Also… Rarity… how?” 

“I’ve been studying, dear.” Rarity gave her friend a wink. 

Clearing his throat, Discord responded to Twilight’s inquiry. “It is as Rarity said, this residue of negative emotion most affects the weak willed and the weak minded.” Discord extended his lion’s paw and pointed at Twilight. “You do not have a weak mind… as for Bucky… his willpower…” Discord shook his head from side to side. 

“Like the day that he fended off all of Ponyville when Dinky made a mess of that spell and turned herself into a target of loveable, huggable, squeezable affection,” Pinkie Pie said. 

“Or his recent brush with vampirism and the tight spot he found himself in with Sunset Shimmer.” Rarity looked at Twilight and then at her companions. “His brutish stubbornness is an asset and I for one appreciate it as one of his finer qualities.” 

“Or going to Canterlot when we tried to help him after all of that happened.” Twilight’s gaze dropped down to the floor, her head feeling heavy and she now felt tired. She drew in a deep breath, filling her lungs with air, her barrel expanding, and she lifted her head to look at her friends once more. “The train leaves in a few hours. Be prepared. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I suspect that this will be draining. Thank you, all of you, all of you are the best friends a pony could ask for.” 



 

The apartment was clean, far cleaner than any apartment lived in by teenagers should be. Berry Punch remembered how things were, how bad things had become, and seeing everything now, Berry Punch could not help but feel a bit of pride. 

“Loch, where are you, Violet said you weren’t in school today, I’m worried,” Berry Punch said as she moved through the apartment. 

“I’m in here,” Loch replied, her voice coming out of the bedroom. 

Picking up her pace, Berry hurried through the open space of the living room area and passed through the door to the bedroom. She paused upon entering and looked at Loch Skimmer, who was buried under blankets, only her head was visible, resting upon a pillow. 

“How’s my filly?” Berry asked as she approached the bed. 

“Having a rough day… everything hurts… I’m constipated and nauseous and I just didn’t feel like dealing with the world today,” Loch replied. 

“I understand.” Berry Punch climbed up into the bed and sat down beside Loch. “You’ve been having a pretty easy go at this so far, but bad days are expected.” Berry smiled, reached out her foreleg, and stroked Loch Skimmer. “How’s life at home?” 

“We’re good… I think we’re all happier now. We still squabble sometimes, but we’re not hurting Ripple anymore… she’s gotten better. Her mood is nicer… and it is nice living in a clean apartment.” Loch Skimmer sighed and rolled over onto her back. “I feel so ashamed for how everything got out of hoof. I still feel bad about it. I never meant to hurt my sister and I know that my sister never meant to hurt anypony.” She looked up at Berry, her expression worried. “How is Daddy?” 

“Better. Still medicated and acting a little weird after his little episode. He’s asleep again, which is good. He has an egg now. You should come by the house and see it. Bucky is acting like a pegasus and he and Derpy are nesting together.” 

“An egg?” Loch Skimmer pushed down the blankets and looked up at Berry, her expression one of confusion. 

“It’s complicated. I’ll tell you more later… that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to get you out of the bed and get you moving… don’t worry, you don’t have to go to school. I know you feel lousy, but you wanna get out and go somewhere together?” Berry Punch gave Loch Skimmer a hopeful smile. 

“I dunno.” Loch Skimmer shook her head. “I really don’t feel good—” 

“Then come and spend time with me in the house. I miss you… please?” Berry Punch gave Loch Skimmer the saddest expression she could muster, which was pretty sad, all things considered. 

“Okay, I’ll come to the house with you.” Loch Skimmer, a victim of Berry Punch’s Berry sad expression, turned away, unable to keep looking. 

“That’s my filly…” 



 

Derpy, sitting in the nursery, was engaged in a contest of wills with Cadance. The grey pegasus and the pink alicorn eyed one another, and Cadance had a very sour expression upon her face. Cadance did not like Bucky’s egg, not one bit. 

“Cadance… the egg needs love.” As Derpy spoke, she watched as Cadance’s lip curled away from her teeth in a terrible scowl. “I know you’re having some issues with this, but like it or not, you have a new sibling.” 

Her ears pinning back, Cadance snorted and stared at Derpy. Her furious scowl became a sullen pout and the stomped her little hoof in defiance. She leveled her gaze at the egg that Derpy was sitting beside. 

“Cadance, don’t you dare wake up your father,” Derpy said in a low voice. “Or your other siblings. You be nice.” 

“No.” Cadance made another sour face, this one far worse than the one before, and she looked as though she had just eaten a lemon. Afterwards, she turned around and then marched out of the room, her hooves clicking upon the wooden floor. 

Sighing, Derpy watched as Cadance left, feeling sad and worried about future trouble. Cadance was very upset about this and Derpy wasn’t sure what to do. She thought about everything that Bucky had said, about how Cadance and Shining Armor would have foals in the future… that was the future and it didn’t help Cadance right now. Cadance was downright testy and behaving in a way that Derpy had never seen before. Under normal circumstances, Cadance was sweet, well mannered, and even tempered. 

Now, she was just acting like a foal. 

Derpy’s ears perked, standing straight up. The grey pegasus realised that she had been taking Cadance’s well mannered behaviour for granted. Cadance was a foal and she was supposed to have moments when she misbehaved. Cadance had been such a perfect little filly for so long that Derpy had almost forgotten that Cadance was a foal. 

The grey mare smiled, feeling better about everything. Cadance was just going to have to scratch her mad spot and get over it, somehow. It was understandable, but this was not acceptable behaviour. Derpy looked down at Crisis and saw that the egg was moving a little, the sides and the top of the egg bulging. 

It was going to be strange, having a foal that hatched from an egg, but Derpy was okay with it. She didn’t care where Crisis came from, Crisis was Bucky’s, and by extension, at least in Derpy’s mind, that made Crisis one of her foals. Love knew of no boundaries and there would be no favouritism in this herd, that much was certain. 

Turning her head, Derpy looked at the pile of foals in the middle of the room, laying on a cushioned quilt. Brandywine, the big chubby one, was in the middle of the pile, and her siblings were stacked around her. Dizzy was drooling all over his sister, Ditzy. Little Barley was laying on his side, curled up into a little fuzzy ball, and seeing him made Derpy’s breathing go shallow. She loved them all so very much that she had trouble putting it into words. 

A zebra filly passed through the nursery door and Sukari came to a stop. She studied her siblings for a moment, silent, saying nothing, her scarred face somehow looking wise, maybe even aged somehow. A bright yellow ribbon had been tied into her mane again by somepony or somebirdy. 

This was another that Derpy loved and she hoped that Sukari would come closer. The zebra filly didn’t say much, but she was affectionate now, not quite as shy and skittish as she was. According to Doctor Mawu, she was healing. The house had a strong atmosphere of love and affection, which was just what the zebra filly needed to bloom. 

And bloom she had. Derpy thought about those first days when Sukari had first come home and felt a heaviness in her heart. As Derpy watched, Sukari approached the newborns, moving with a near silent grace, her hooves making almost no sound. Sukari was stealthy and Derpy had some faint worry about Sukari growing up to be sneaky and devious. 

But growing up would come later—for now, Sukari was just cautious. The filly crossed the padded quilt, leaned her head down, looked at little Barley, and then laid down beside him, folding her legs beneath her and easing herself down. 

Ears perking, Derpy’s head swiveled when she heard knocking on the front door. She wondered who it could be and felt excited, she liked having company and loved showing off the newborns. She was a proud mother and never missed a chance to show off her young. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 838
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Looking out over the courtyard, Princess Celestia looked at the mare that had once been her student. The white alicorn watched, her eyes almost unblinking, remembering each precious moment with Twilight as she grew, as she matured, with each little victory, and now, Twilight was all grown up. She was married, married into a herd no less, and the curious little bookworm had discovered the blessing of family. Looking at Twilight made Celestia feel both happy and sad. 

Twilight was down in the courtyard with her friends—Celestia paused to correct her thinking. That was no mere collection of friends down in the courtyard. At some point, it had changed. They had become an extended family of their own. They had laughed together, cried together. They had fretted, laboured, and celebrated together. They had survived Griffonholm together. The boundaries of family had always been a blurry concept for Celestia and she thought about her own life. She thought of happier times, harder times, worse times. She had been friends with Princess Platinum and Sombra, the Lord of Winter. But she had been so much more… to both of them. Perhaps when this was over she might go and pay two old friends a visit. 

“Each day she becomes a little more like us.” 

Princess Celestia turned and looked at her sister. Luna had crept up on her unawares and Luna was holding Erebus in her magic. Celestia blinked, her deep thinking interrupted, but she was not upset. She was glad to see Luna. 

“It seems as though Twilight becomes more like us with each passing day,” Luna said in a low voice as she looked up at her sister, “and I cannot help but wonder… are we part of some great harmonic ideal… perhaps of beauty…” 

“What do you mean, Luna?” Celestia asked, knowing there had to be more to Luna’s thoughts. Her brows furrowed and she waited, patient, hoping that Luna would continue to share whatever it was she was thinking. 

“As Twilight grows in power, she becomes more like us. Look at her, she is tall, getting longer in the leg, her body has lengthened, so has her neck, her muzzle has grown a little longer, a little more delicate. She is becoming like us.” Luna drew in a deep breath, her sides expanding. “Then there is dearest Buckminster… each day that passes, he mutates a just a bit more, losing more of himself. He’s become twisted, misshapen, gnarled, it is almost as if he moved away from the great harmonious ideal and has become something else. Each day he becomes a little more like Discord.” 

Lips pressing into a straight line, Princess Celestia thought of Fluttershy. She looked at her sister, could see the twinkle in Luna’s eye, and knew that Luna was also deep in thought on this momentous day. “Sister, what of Fluttershy? She has changed, of this there could be no doubt, yet she is still beautiful.” 

“Oh, I do agree,” Luna replied, lifting her head, “she has somehow managed to turn chaos towards the harmonious ideal, has she not? She has retained her beauty even with all of the changes she has endured.” Luna looked down into the courtyard where Fluttershy was. “She is still beautiful… but think of Buckminster. Scaly. Mishapen. He too, has grown longer in body, his spine has become longer, his limbs have become gnarled, life has not been kind to him.” 

“There might be something to what you say, Luna.” Celestia made her reluctant admission and shook her head, feeling bad for acknowledging it, and feeling just a tiny bit envious of Luna’s insight into other ponies. “I do not get it, Luna… if Bucky were to follow the harmonious ideal, all life as we know it would end. If he were to fulfill his destiny, as the alicorn of war he would destroy us all. Would that make him beautiful once more?” 

Shrugging, her wings fluttering at her sides, Luna replied, “Perhaps.” Luna put Erebus down upon the floor and allowed him to wobble around, rubbing up against her legs. “All things must come to an end. The day ends and succumbs to the night. The phantom night is chased away by the optimistic dawn. Winter comes and so begins the season of death… yet come spring, life returns anew. Perhaps the end I have seen is only symbolic—the end of all I know. Perhaps Buckminster is meant to do what Twilight is doing right now… be rid of all of the accumulated badness so that the new can start fresh. Perhaps you and I, along with all of the others who resist and fight against our creator are doing irreparable harm against the cosmos by preventing the old to be washed away so that the new might take hold.” 

“But we are fixing what is wrong… progress has been made… we are undoing the harm done!” Celestia felt her jaw clench, she hated the grain of truth in Luna’s words. She felt bitterness and anger welling up inside of her. 

“Maybe we are… or maybe we are applying fertiliser to maintain life in a field that should be allowed to go fallow.” Luna’s eyes closed for a moment and she shook her head. Her horn blazed and she plugged Erebus’ ears with magic, preventing him from hearing. “I have been giving this a lot of thought, dear sister. Thanatos and Clotho both seek replacements. They have grown tired, weary, they seek a way to pass on their duties. Many of the other immortals have grown weary. Some of them seek an end. We are young, you and I, so hold your tongue. I know that you are about to say something about them just giving up.” 

“We are but thousands of years old. Think of Scorch. Think of Odin—” 

“Yes, Odin, who faces renewal, who has been revitalised, who has found new purpose, who now grows younger!” Celestia said to her sister. 

“Odin, who is an exception.” Luna looked sad, her expression knowing and wise. “Sister, he is tens of thousands of years old. Surely those many years of his weigh upon him… I am not saying that I want everything to end, I am merely saying that I understand transition. I was wrong to try and make the night last forever.” 

“Are you saying that we are making a mistake by unnaturally extending the period of life upon this planet?” Celestia asked, her voice an emotional, breathy, frightened whisper. 

“The night must give way to the day…” 



 

This was going to be one of those moments where everything changed. Twilight stood, the wind blowing through her mane and tail, gathering her strength. Her strength came not from within, but from around her. She glanced around at her friends, grateful for them, thankful, glad to have them. 

Blinking, feeling the gust of wind against her eyelashes, Twilight watched as Discord nudged Pinkie Pie’s bulging stomach and laughed while looking at Cheese Sandwich. Rarity and Fluttershy were chatting together. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both discussing all of the different ways that they were going to punish Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Twilight sighed, turned her head, and looked at Spike. He was off in the distance, sitting on the ground, playing with Glass Slipper. 

It was time. Twilight had studied this spell and she felt ready. It was complex, difficult, it would be the ultimate test of her abilities. It was an entirely new field of magic, at least to her. It seemed that others had been studying it for quite some time. It was the deep magic of immortals and gods. It was how new universes were made, how new cosmoses were birthed, with it, one could create an entirely new reality. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Twilight prepared to call her friends together.



 

Gritting her teeth, Twilight struggled to tap into a source of magic that was almost alien to her. She could tap into ley lines, that had long ago stopped being difficult, but Twilight was trying to tap into the Weave, the ley lines that transcended this reality and flowed through each and every universe. Every reality, every when and where, this was a magical constant that allowed certain magics to exist anywhere. Twilight theorised that the Weave is what she had tapped into with her human friends on the other side of the mirror. Some magic was universal, it existed anywhere and everywhere. 

Gasping, Twilight felt strange as something inside of her changed. Unknown to her, she was now out of phase, out of focus, and almost looked as though there were several copies of herself, each of them overlapping with the other. She felt it now, it was like standing in the shallow water and waiting for a big wave to come and knock you over. She let the magic flow through her, she felt joy, happiness, a rush of warmth. Extending her mind, she touched each one of her friends; she was their connection to the Weave. A crackling web of magic formed, beams of magic extended from Twilight’s horn and connected to each one of her friends. When Discord was connected with, the magic ceased to crackle, sputter, and pop. It became smooth, it hummed with a beautiful sound that could not be described. 

Twilight felt gravity release her, that sweet moment of weightlessness let her know that everything was working. She was in a controlled surge now, she was in a contradictory state of controlled chaos. She rose higher into the air, her friends now moving around her in orbit. 

The ground rumbled and the entire Canterhorn Peak shuddered. The city of Canterlot shook. Glass windows rattled. Canterlot Castle trembled. Twilight began to hear voices, but she could not make them out. She felt pain, but it was not her pain. Betrayal, fear, doubt, loathing, anger, and pain, so much pain. She felt it now, it threatened to overwhelm her. The voices became more distinct, angry shouts, terrified screams, grief filled wails. Mental images began to flicker through Twilight’s mind. She began to see all of the horrible things done behind closed doors in Canterlot. She saw the very worst of what had been done, she saw whole families plotting to kill one another, there was an endless stream of the many betrayals. 

Twilight had to endure it and she thought of her friends as she watched Canterlot’s dark history playing inside of her mind, almost as if it was a movie. She saw wives conspiring to kill the foals of other wives, she saw sisters plotting to kill one another, husbands who spoke with poisoned words, turning his wives against one another, and everypony betraying everypony else in a mad scramble to gain power. Canterlot was a monument to equine suffering. 

And always at the top, House Avarice, the masterminds that perpetuated this endless cycle of misery, the puppet masters that kept the other houses fighting and so mistrustful of one another that they stood no chance of ever ousting House Avarice from the top of the heap. Twilight’s mind flooded with knowledge, seeing how everything was connected. House Avarice had connections to every house, they had created an army of bastards and created shackles through marriage. House Avarice had learned to manipulate the very stars themselves, unicorns that had once controlled the sun now sought to master the stars instead, hoping to release Nightmare Moon… and things that were worse. 

Twilight’s body shimmered, warping with magic, her horn lengthened, her legs grew a little longer, her wings grew ever more majestic. The life in her belly was also touched by the powerful magic. Twilight was channeling the Weave, the ultimate in ley lines. 

Canterhorn Peak trembled and shook, the temblor could be felt all the way down in Ponyville. A roar filled the air, but Twilight couldn’t hear it. Brilliant flashes of light filled the air, explosions of light, not just around Twilight, but around the entirety of the Canterhorn, top to bottom. 

The very rock of the Canterhorn had been corrupted, the whole mountain was rotten. Everything that lived up here felt the effects. Twilight came to an understanding—the mountain had to go. Even more magic welled up from inside of her, flowing through her, changing her, altering her form to allow for even greater magical output. 

With her mind, Twilight reached down, deep into the heart of the ground below the Canterhorn, touching the uncorrupted earth, a heart made of crystal, still untouched by miners and those who had dug into the ground. She infused it with magic, causing it to grow, and the crystal, now brought to life, rose upwards in a swell. The entire Canterhorn Peak swayed from side to side in a most terrifying way, and those who felt it insisted that the mountain would topple over. 

The old began to crumble away as the new rose up to replace it. Twilight held it all together as the blue-white crystal rose up out of the ground. The pieces of granite and basalt that fell away were crushed to dust and scattered on the wind. Twilight guided the growth, controlled chaos, making a new mountain to replace the old, a sparkling blue-white spire made of crystal. Canterlot would have a new foundation, untouched, uncorrupted, unblemished. 

Twilight’s terraformation spell was forever altering the view from Ponyville. Canterlot would be perched atop a gleaming spire of crystal, a thing of beauty, a vision of hope and radiance. No longer would it be viewed with so much fear, anger, and mistrust. The old was being done away with, taking with it a thousand years of misery, the accumulated emotional residue that had poisoned the very land itself and those who lived upon it. 

The city gave a final shudder as the crystal spire grew beneath it, embracing it, offering a foundation for the city to rest upon. The ground ceased shaking and everything grew still. Not one window was broken, nor had the city been damaged. 

The very last thought that went through Twilight’s mind as the magic began to overwhelm her was that the crystal ponies of the Crystal Empire would need to come to Canterlot to tend the new crystal foundation of the city. Canterlot, like the Crystal Empire, was now a transmitter meant to broadcast positive emotion. 

Smiling, triumphant, but exhausted, Twilight Sparkle, who had forever altered the landscape of the Canterlot and Ponyville region, knew no more. 
	
> Chapter 839
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Numb, her body feeling weak and heavy, Berry Punch looked down at the courier delivered letter that lay upon the table in front of her. Something miraculous had taken place, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. The entire Canterhorn mountain was now a spire of beautiful blue crystal, and while Berry Punch had glanced out the window at it, she had gone back to the table, sat down, and continued to drink her coffee as she stared at the sheet of paper. 

Hearing hooves, she looked up and saw Barley coming into the kitchen. His expression, sad, and full of concern, said everything that needed to be said. The old unicorn sat down at the table, easing himself into a chair, and his tired old eyes focused upon Berry. 

“Lass, we need to figure out what to do,” Barley said in a low voice. “Yer twin, my niece, is gone. I’m so, so sorry, lass.” Barley let out a sigh. “Does Piña know?” 

Berry Punch shook her head. “I haven’t told her yet.” Berry Punch reached up and wiped her eyes. 

“Lass, it occurs to me that stills have something against this family. First yer mum, my sister, then her no good husband, yer father, and now Berryshine—” 

“She’s a feckin’ numpty!” Berry shouted, banging her hoof down on the table. “This is why I went to college… this is why I learned numbers, science, and arithmetic… I kept telling her that you can’t just guess the numbers on a cobbled together still… she was… stupid… she didn’t listen to me… neither did mom or dad… feckin’ eejits.” 

“We need to see about catching a train so we can go to Moonshiner’s Haint. I ain’t been there for a while. It might be nice to see the Smokey Mountains again.” Barley sighed, his expression one of weariness, and he looked at his beloved niece. “We need to go and look after wee Pinchy and settle Berryshine’s estate.” 

Berry choked, her sobs almost overcoming her, and her barrel hitched. “I told that stupid coont that she was going to blow herself up—” 

“Berry, it is our way. We make moonshine. We make whiskey. We make beer. We do what we love and love what we do… and not all of us are like you and I.” Barley gave his niece a sorrowful smile and watched as she began to cry, leaning on the table, her sobs causing her spoon to rattle and her coffee to slosh in her cup. 

Bucky approached the table, his hooves silent upon the floor. He was bleary eyed, having woken up during the earthquake, and he looked worried. He eyed Berry and Barley, not yet knowing what was going on. He sat down at the table, poured himself a cup of coffee, added cream, then sugar, and then looked at the letter on the table when Barley nodded at it. 

After a moment of reading, Bucky set down the piece of paper, looking grim. He looked at Berry, reached out, and touched her. She looked at him and he saw such pain in her eyes that he almost couldn’t bear it. 

“Bucky, what do I do?” Berry asked, sniffling and wiping her nose with her foreleg. 

“The only thing we can do. Go and get your niece, bring her home, and we’ll add her to the collection.” Bucky took a sip of coffee, grimaced, shook his head, and added more sugar. 

“We have so many already… Bucky, I’m worried… scared even… she’s gonna be messed up from this… what if I can’t give her the love and attention she needs to recover? My sister was a horrible pony… little Pinchy was already pretty messed up as far as foals go—” 

“Berry, speak no ill of the recently dead,” Barley said in a low whisper. 

“No, Barley, my sister was irresponsible, she was mean, she was a terrible drunkard, she treated wee Pinchy just awful, and she took out everything on that foal of hers. She blamed all of her problems on Pinchy, rather than herself… we’re already dealing with Sukari and I’m scared out of my mind that Sukari doesn’t get the attention she needs right now with Sentinel pulling his little stunt and the newborns taking up so much of our time.” Berry Punch sat back in her chair, scowled, and folded her forelegs over her barrel. “Last time I saw Pinchy she was telling me about all of her ‘uncles’ and how some of them beat Mommy.” The plum coloured earth pony bared her teeth, her nostrils flaring, and she shook her head. “This is really just one more irresponsible act by Berryshine!” 

“Aye, lass,” Barley replied, bowing his head, “I suppose it is.” 

“What a way to wake up,” Bucky grumbled after taking another sip of coffee. “The Canterhorn is now all weird and made of crystal… and this happens… Berry… damn… I’m sorry.” 

“Barley is right though. He and I need to go and look after things. I feel bad for leaving Brandywine and little Barley here at home, but I’m not in the mood to look after two newborns on a cross country trip.” Berry Punch wiped her eyes again, scrubbing at them, her rapid movements conveying how she was both angry and grief stricken. “Is bringing Pinchy home the right thing?” 

“Of course it is,” Bucky replied without hesitation. 

“Berry, ye might as well be askin’ a bloody alcoholic if drinking is a good idea.” Barley looked at Bucky, his eyebrow raised, and when Bucky glared at him, he glared right back. “Lad, it has come to the attention to those that love you unconditionally that you might have a problem.” 

Scowling, Bucky took a drink of coffee and said nothing. 

“I feel terrible for not knowing, but how old is wee Pinchy?” Barley asked. 

“Two, as of this spring,” Berry replied as she stared down into the depths of her own coffee cup, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Bucky is right. If we don’t take her, she’ll end up with foal services, and lets face it, the rest of the family… well, they shouldn’t even be considered.” 

“Aye, lass, what an ugly thing to say, too bad it’s true.” Barley coughed a bit, cleared his throat, and his ears drooped. “I’m getting too old for this shite.” Barley rubbed his face, groaning, and when he was done, he looked miserable, a frown making his muzzle wrinkle even more so than usual. “How’s Derpy?” 

“She’s still spooked. She won’t leave the newborns or the egg. The earthquake made her freak out.” Bucky frowned and set his coffee cup down. “I don’t think I’m going to get my egg back from her. She’s grown very fond of it.” 

“Crivens, wee Pinchy… she’s gonna need a lot of adjustment when she comes home.” Barley blinked, his scowl intensifying, and he rested his forelegs upon the table. “Things tend to be a bit weird ‘round this house.” 



 

Piña watched as Berry and Barley made their preparations to go. She didn’t know what to say, or how to act, she was sad about the news, but not that sad, and part of her felt bad because she wasn’t crying. She sat down on the floor and watched as her uncle adjusted his trilby hat. Uncle Barley might have been old, but he was stylish. He also caused Piña a great deal of confusion because of his age. Barley was, as Piña understood it, her real mother’s brother. Berry Punch was twenty two, about to turn twenty three. Berry’s mother, Pinot Noir, had been in her forties, or so Piña thought, she wasn’t certain. Uncle Barley was in his sixties, which meant that he was twenty or so years older than his sister. Shaking her head, Piña felt uncomfortable with the troubling arithmetic. 

“Piña, you gonna be okay?” Barley asked. 

“I’ll be fine,” Piña responded. 

“You don’t seem too busted up ‘bout this, which has me worried,” Barley said. 

“I didn’t know my big sister Berryshine all that well. As for what I remember about her…” The corners of Piña’s mouth contorted downwards and her ears drooped, an expression both sad and guilty. 

“Lass, what do ye remember?” Barley asked, getting a strange look from Berry. 

“I remember that Berryshine drank,” Piña replied. 

Eyes narrowing, eyebrows crinkling, his forehead gaining even more wrinkles, Barley sat down on the floor and looked down at his pink niece. “Honey, a lot of ponies drink. I drink. Berry Punch drinks. That’s kinda what we do in this family.” 

“When Berry drinks, she’s fun and nice. She laughs a lot and she gets really huggy with me and I don’t mind, and she kisses me lot.” Piña’s expression darkened. “Berryshine though, she got mean when she drank. She said mean things. She kicked me. She hurt me. She used to press lit cigarettes into me and laugh about it.” 

“Oh, feck everything,” Berry Punch muttered, squeezing her eyes shut as she swore, not even thinking about swearing in front of Piña, something she was trying to not do. For a moment, Berry Punch felt a great deal of gratitude for her sense of responsibility. She had done right by Piña, raising her, looking after her, and she felt a whole heap of sobs threatening to work their way loose from deep inside of her. 

Berry Punch had always considered her family to be ‘good ponies’ but as she grew older, as she matured, and now that she had foals of her own, more and more, she was realising, there was no way that she’d ever let her foals anywhere near most of her family. More and more, she was starting to realise that she had pulled Piña away from them for a reason and that she had gone to university as an escape. Piña had been better cared for in the company of strangers—Amethyst Star, Derpy, Sparkler, all of whom were more attentive and showed Piña more affection than just about anypony in the family. 

Making a sorrowful bleating sound, Berry Punch lurched forwards and snatched up Piña with her foreleg. She squeezed her sister, trying to hold back her tears as she did so. Piña was precious to her, and she loved her sister so very much, so much so that the line between sister and daughter were blurred forever. 

“Piña, I’ll tell you what,” Barley said to his niece, his wrinkled face now sagging. 

“Yeah?” Piña wiggled in Berry’s embrace, trying to look at her uncle. 

“Wee Pinchy is probably going to be a right mess when we bring her home. I has me a real fear of what we’re gonna find.” Barley’s eyes almost closed, he sighed, and he shook his head, looking troubled at his words. “But if you help wee Pinchy and you help her get sorted out, I’ll talk to Berry Punch and Bon Bon about granting you a wee bit o’ mercy.” 

“I’d still help, even if my backside was about to be paddled,” Piña said in reply. 

With a gasp, Berry Punch lost it completely, now sobbing again, squeezing Piña, almost crushing the little pink filly in her embrace. She made more bleating sounds, there were many things that caused Berry Punch to sound like a sheep, and Berry Punch’s grief ran down her cheeks. 

“Crivens… it has to suck to lose yer twin, even if you dinnae like them.” Barley slumped, his neck crooked, and his trilby hat tilted off to one side. “Sorry Piña, it looks like she is gonna use you as a snotrag.” 



 

“Are you jealous that Piña isn’t being punished?” Bucky asked Dinky as Dinky ate her peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. Dinky seemed out of sorts and Bucky felt a little worried. 

“No,” Dinky replied between bites. 

“It wasn’t planned, taking Piña along. Berry Punch just couldn’t let go. Piña is still in a whole heap of trouble, both of you are.” Bucky looked around his daughter’s room. School assignments were scattered over the desk and the table. The lower bunk had books scattered about. It appeared as though Dinky and Piña had been making the most of their confinement to their room. 

“The Canterhorn—” 

“It was neat,” Dinky said around a mouthful of sandwich, looking up at her father. “Can I please come out of my room?” Dinky looked up at Bucky, her face pleading, her ears pinning back. “Piña’s not here and I can’t stand being alone… I start hearing stuff… I start hearing… him.” 

Blinking, Bucky didn’t know to respond. He wondered how Sentinel was dealing with being all alone in his room. He made a snap decision, not caring that he might be lectured for it. “You can come out of your room, Dinky. Go and be with your mother. She’s still spooked from the earthquake. I’m going to talk to Sentinel.” 

“Thank you, Daddy…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 840
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing on her balcony, Princess Celestia looked down upon the city of Canterlot, Princess Luna standing beside her. Celestia was lowering the sun, sending it to other parts of the world. It had been an eventful day. Canterlot had been… changed. 

“We shall have to reestablish the trains,” Luna said as the first few stars of the evening began to twinkle. Luna, wearing a grin that had been on her face since the alteration of Canterhorn, let out a laugh—all of this amused her a great deal. Canterlot was now a city accessible by pegasi, alicorns, or ponies with airships. 

While not a window had been broken in the city, the powerlines and the watermains had all been severed, leaving the city without power or water. All of those would need to be rebuilt. All in all, Luna liked the changes, as she detested electric light bulbs a great deal. Candlelight was far better, had more atmosphere, and had a certain romance to it. 

“Look at them, Luna… there is kindness in the streets. Look… they have lit lanterns… there… there… and there.” Celestia pointed with her hoof as she spoke. “Already one can feel the difference. It is as though a shadow has been lifted from the city.” 

“I feel something, but you are far more attuned to these things than I am,” Luna replied as more stars twinkled to life overhead. Luna looked over to where Celestia had pointed. Ponies had hung paper lanterns over the street and an impromptu street party was happening. Faint music could be heard in the distance, it seemed that ponies were celebrating. 

“Sister, the changes… things are getting better. The world has changed for the better. There is a sense of unity now, this feeling of belonging to something larger. The nations of the world want peace. The old hatreds and the mistrust is being put aside. Old enemies have become allies. It feels as though we stand upon the brink of greatness.” Princess Celestia smiled at her sister, extended a wing, placed it over Luna, and pulled Luna closer. “Luna, I think I shall go and celebrate with Twilight and her friends. Perhaps I can spoil Prince Beauregard.” 

Luna paused, smacking her lips together, looking thoughtful. “You know, rather than be by myself, I think I shall join you. This is far too nice a night to be brooding all alone. We are winning, dearest Sister.” 

“We have not yet won,” Celestia said. 

“Oh, but I think we will… Twilight and Buckminster are the architects of our future and already, the future generation shapes up to be exceptional. At some point, we need to crown Sentinel as a prince and give him his knighthood.” Luna paused and her grin widened. “After he sweats through his punishment of course.” 

“That little rascal is entirely too much like his father… he might as well be Buckminster’s flesh and blood colt. We are going to have nothing but trouble from him, but I do believe that he will be a loyal, dedicated, worthwhile servant for Princess Apple Bloom.” Celestia turned and stepped through the double doors, exiting the balcony. 

Luna, following her sister, nodded in agreement. “Everything is going as planned. We will be able to step back and relax our rule over Equestria so we can focus instead upon the governance and fair rule of the world at large. We need a name for the intercontinental government that is forming.” 

“We do, we do…” 



 

Sitting on the porch, Bucky listened to frogs croaking as he watched his foals chasing fireflies in the yard. In the distance, many of the school foals were out as well, enjoying the pleasant spring evening. Sitting on a small wooden table beside Bucky there was a gin and tonic in a highball glass. He had drank enough that he was no longer miserable, but was in a decent enough mood. 

On the grass, Derpy had spread out a quilt and was sitting with the newborns. Dinky was with her and the two were enjoying quiet time together, watching as Harper, Cadance, Sukari, and Peekaboo all ran after fireflies. Lugus was engaged in a game of darts with Boadicea and Yew Wood was watching both of the fierce competitors trying to outdo the other. Sentinel was having a quiet conversation with both Lyra and Bon Bon. Thistle was in the lake with Bell Heather. 

Bucky turned and looked at Belisama beside him. The griffoness was a little drunk, having sipped some of Bucky’s gin and tonic, which was made with naval strength gin. She sat with her feathers fluffed out, looking pleased, her tail twitching from side to side. 

“You look happy,” Bucky said to Belisama, ending his long held silence. 

“They’re all safe and secure… I feel happy,” Belisama replied. She swayed a little bit, her eyes blinking in a slow, drunken manner. “I love them all so much. I am a mother to four new little cubs.” Belisama paused, looking confused for a moment, and then she corrected herself. “Foals. Yes, foals. They are mine. I love them. They’re all so precious to me.” 

The griffoness went quiet as Bittersweet went shooting past, running at a breakneck speed, and Ripple was hot on her heels, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and her wings sticking straight out from her sides. 

“Ah, spring is in the air,” Derpy said as she watched Ripple running after Bittersweet. “Go Ripple!” 

Belisama fell back in her chair with a squawk and a bit of a laugh. She scratched her stomach, kicked out her hind legs, and watched as Ripple ran after Bittersweet. Life was good. Her sharp eyes saw another set of figures out for a walk—Gofannon and Helia, along with Helia’s new colt, Cygnus. Gofannon was riding on Helia’s back and holding Cygnus in his forelegs. Belisama liked Cygnus, the pegasus colt was pure white with the exception of a splash of orange over his nose and muzzle. Belisama wondered what the other Raptors were up to. Princess Luna had plans for the Raptors and Belisama worried a great deal about the Raptors’ acceptance as an actual regiment. At some point, an inspection would happen, and they would be judged. Belisama hoped that for Ripple’s sake, the Raptors would prove worthy. 

“We are becoming our own city,” Bucky said in a low voice to Belisama. “There are now well over a thousand living in this immediate area. Students, the teachers, instructors, the griffons, me and my family, our numbers keep growing. Violet is worried about our growth.” Bucky reached out his talons and picked up his highball glass, causing his ice cubes to clink. 

“Some of the griffons have taken up residence in Ponyville,” Belisama replied. 

“Very few. They’re clannish. They don’t want to be separated.” Bucky took a gulp of his gin and tonic. “I understand that many are still scared and do not wish to be apart from the others.” Bucky sighed, took another gulp of gin, and looked out at the school. “The school is growing larger… a whole new wing is being added. New students are coming with the spring. We need new dormitory towers. Parents from all over want to send their students here, to the Founder’s Forge. We show so much promise… but Violet worries about our growth. With this many residents, we will need governance.” 

“From what I understand, Cheerilee manages the school quite well as your provost, but I can see Violet’s point, I think.” Belisama looked over at Bucky, her crest rising. “She is only one pony. She has a foal now… she might need some help.” 

“Growing pains are good to have.” Bucky set his glass down on the table and watched as Belisama snatched it up. The griffoness tipped it back and poured some down her beak. She let out a contented sigh and then set the glass down. “Twilight is having them too as she tries to get her university going. Ponyville is becoming a town known for education, just as Mister Rich had envisioned.” Bucky’s brows furrowed and he looked troubled for a moment. “I wonder how Diamond Tiara is doing.” 

“Bucky, you keep asking that… you should go to her.” Belisama sat up in her chair, her tail swishing, and she leaned over on the arm to get closer to Bucky. “We’ll be fine… you are just going to keep worrying so you might as well just go. Maybe Diamond Tiara needs you.” 

“Maybe so,” Bucky agreed, “maybe so.” After speaking, he vanished, dissolving into wisps of shadow. 

“Waste not, want not,” Belisama said as she picked up the highball glass and prepared to guzzle down the contents. 



 

“Bon Bon?” Sentinel looked up at the earth pony mare, one of the many mares that he called ‘mother.’ He thought about the long nights together in the cramped room in the castle. Bon Bon and Lyra both had helped to educate him, they had been good to him, they had been kind to him, he loved them both more than words could say. 

“What?” Bon Bon’s eyebrow raised. 

“There is something I need to say… I hope you will understand.” Sentinel cleared his throat and saw that both Bon Bon and Lyra were waiting. Sentinel had a hard time meeting Bon Bon’s gaze, feeling ashamed. He cleared his throat again and hoped that he would not squeak like a growing colt while he said something that he felt was important. Something that would show that he was capable of acting like a grownup. He took a deep breath and hoped that his voice did not crack. “I am not going to let you punish my sisters… I understand that spanking has been left on the table as an option—” 

“Is that so?” Bon Bon asked, cutting Sentinel off, her eyes narrowing. The muscles in her forelegs quivered. 

Sentinel no longer felt quite so grown up or brave. He swallowed, feeling afraid. He kept his eyes locked onto Bon Bon’s and found his voice again. “You can paddle me all you want. You can take your anger out on me and you can spank me until you feel better, but I am not going to allow”—Sentinel’s voice broke and became a squeak, but somehow, he found the courage to keep going—“you to spank my sisters because of something I did.” 

“Sentinel… do you have any idea how much that would hurt your sisters, watching you get spanked for something they did?” Bon Bon asked. 

Sentinel’s gaze fell, dropping down to the grass and his own front hooves. He had thought about this, but something about how Bon Bon had said it now had him reconsidering it. He felt a growing lump in his throat. 

“Dinky and Piña both are good foals… this would hurt them like nothing else, watching you get punished for something they willingly took part in. They would want their share of the punishment—” 

“Bonnie, we can’t do this,” Lyra said, her words a plaintive whimper. 

“Lyra, we’ve discussed this—” 

“No, you’ve discussed this and made all these reasons and I’ve said very little about the issue and now I’m saying something… we can’t do this… you spank bad foals… you just said that Dinky and Piña are good foals. They’ve done something stupid, they’ve done something rotten, but they’re not bad foals. Spanking is something you do when all else fails, when you can’t reach them any other way… and you just said that they were good. We just can’t do this to them.” Horn glowing, Lyra yanked Sentinel into her embrace and began to squeeze him. “If you and Berry spank them, I’ll not forgive you!” 

“Lyra,” Bon Bon said, blinking, almost in shock. “Be reasonable—” 

“I am being reasonable, and don’t you say otherwise… I don’t like this and I’m making my feelings known. We’ll find some other way of making them miserable. But if you try to spank them, I swear, I’ll whisk them away to someplace safe and you won’t find us.” Lyra redoubled her grip on Sentinel, squeezing him so hard that his eyes bulged. 

“Fine, Lyra, we’ll try to find some other way. We still need to sort this out with the others though and see what they say. But I promise I’ll be on your side,” Bon Bon said, shaking her head, not expecting this from Lyra. 

“You owe me, Sentinel… don’t think for one second that you’re off the hook… I plan to make you miserable… but I’m not going to let them resort to violent punishment.” Lyra buried her muzzle into Sentinel’s mane and kissed him between his ears. 

“Okay,” Sentinel groaned as Lyra continued squeezing. 

“I love you so much… you made me crazy… you made your father crazy. He had a breakdown and we had to slip him drugs in his food and his drink so we could deal with him. Sentinel, you made your father lose his mind… he was ranting and raving and truth be told I was almost at that point myself and I’m so angry with you!” Lyra squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “Right now, I want to zap you and there is a part of me that wants to spank you but I feel so conflicted and it feels wrong and all of this is tearing me apart and I think there is still a chance that I just might have that breakdown after all… and I hate you just a little bit for what you have done but I still love you so much… but you are a horrible, horrible little colt for what you did and you need to know that!” 

Something warm and wet splashed on top of Sentinel’s head. He felt it. Lyra was crying now, and something about about her crying hurt him. Burning shame consumed him and he went limp in Lyra’s embrace. Truth be told, he would rather be spanked than endure this. This was awful. He felt her whole body trembling against him, he felt her barrel hitching as she sobbed, and her tears became a flood that soaked the top of his head as she buried her face into his mane. 

At that moment, Sentinel loathed himself and wished that he had never been born. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 841
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sir, did you have a nice visit with Diamond Tiara last night?” Violet asked as Bucky settled into his chair, in his office within the school. Violet set down a steaming, fragrant cup of chai in front of Bucky, the cup and spoon both clattering on the saucer as she set it upon his desk. 

The small office was pleasant, filled with comfortable chairs, jars of candy, cookies, and other things that brought comfort to little foals and parents. Today was going to be a trying day for both Bucky, a fair number of foals, and more than a few parents as well. 

“Yes I did,” Bucky replied, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed at his spiced chai, “had a long talk with her and then spent some time with Hondo and Cookie. They’re looking after Diamond while Rarity is in Canterlot.” Bucky’s eyebrow raised and he looked at his secretary. “What’s on the schedule for today? How bad is it?” 

“Well, most parents were content to deal with an admissions counselor, but there are a few that insist on dealing with the headmaster, probably because they want assurance, are worried, want special treatment for their precious, gifted, talented, perfect little foal, or just want a chance to meet you. Sir, the list is long.” 

“Bugger.” Bucky frowned, lifted up his cup of chai, took a sip, set his cup down, and then sighed in contentment. It was strong and coconutty, a blend made in the Sea of Grass. Being patient, he sat still while Violet tried to do something with his long, disheveled mane and his full, bushy sideburns. “Lyra just brushed me this morning.” 

“Sir, did you get your morning kiss from little Harper?” Violet asked in a knowing manner. 

Now grinning, Bucky nodded. Harper had a continuous static discharge and a whole lot of love to give. There was a clunk as Violet set down a coffee carafe on a small table in the corner, next to a stack of disposable insulated coffee cups. 

“Who’s first?” Bucky asked. 

“Miss Wainwright. She is enrolling her colt in kindergarten. I’m not sure why she wanted to see you, but she doesn’t appear to be snobby. She probably just wants assurance. She seems nervous.” Violet cleared her throat, put on her most professional expression, and headed for the door. “I shall send her in if you are ready.” 

“Of course…” 



 

“Hello, your Lordship—” 

“Just Bucky, if you don’t mind, Miss Wainwright.” 

“Right.” The mare nodded. 

“Have a seat,” Bucky said, pointing to a chair. “Where is your colt?” 

“Oh, I wanted to spare him the boredom. I left him in the waiting area with the other foals so he could play.” The mare cleared her throat, looking nervous, and she bowed her head. “Sir, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I wanted to thank you… I don’t know if you remember me, but I was your server at the Ponyville Tea Room. You told me to enroll my colt.” 

“Yes, I remember you… you had a colt that wanted to grow up and be a knight,” Bucky said in a pleasant voice as he leaned forward over his desk. 

“I’m flattered that you remembered.” The mare smiled and her ears stood up straight. “Little Gelb no longer wants to be a knight… at the moment, he wants be a police pony.” 

“There isn’t much difference, really,” Bucky replied, feeling amused by the mare’s words. “Gelb… that is a fascinating name.” 

“My family came from Germaney. Gelb means yellow… he’s the colour of sunshine,” Miss Wainwright explained to Bucky. “Look, I am sure you are a very busy pony… I will not keep you from your duties. I just wanted to thank you face to face.” 

“You are most welcome, Miss Wainwright.” Bucky watched as the mare stood up and got ready to go. 

“He’s been a real hoofful… he’s a prankster… his magic has been a little out of control lately. I’m hoping that he can be sorted out. It would make my life a whole lot easier.” Bowing her head, the mare smiled at Bucky, backed up towards the door, and then stepped out. 

Easing back in his chair, Bucky wondered who he would be dealing with next. 



 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, it was Scorch who came through the door next, with a very curious looking something right behind him. Bucky’s eyes narrowed. He had never committed to allowing Dee into school, in fact, Scorch had never brought it up ever again and Bucky had come to the belief that Scorch had changed his mind, which made Bucky very, very surprised to see Scorch standing in his office. 

Scorch, in pony form, gave Bucky a shrewd smile. 

“Look, I know what you are up to, you fey trickster… you’re trying to make it difficult for me to say no.” Bucky looked at the demon child standing behind Scorch, who looked a little shy and afraid. 

As Scorch had said, Dee Zaster was around a yard tall, had three legs, two arms, a head like a goat, three horns, three nostrils, one on one side of his nose, two on the other, and one eye in the middle of his face. The little demonspawn wore glasses. Bucky paused, thoughtful. A monocle? But it had temples, like a pair of eyeglasses. Why did demons always have to make things confusing? He was wearing a suit; a blue pair of trousers made for three legs, a dark green waistcoat, and a dark blue blazer. A polka dotted bowtie, light green with bright orange dots somehow brought the outfit together. 

Sure enough, there were tentacles. Tentacles with suckers on them. Dee’s left arm ended in a cluster of tentacles covered in suckers. Bucky’s head made a slow turn so he could stare at Scorch, who had a smug, self satisfied grin. At this moment, Bucky hated Scorch just a little tiny bit. 

“Dee, have a seat, and don’t be scared. He’s really very nice, I promise,” Scorch said, pressing his nose into his son’s back and scooting him towards a chair. Scorch waited for Dee to sit down and then he looked at Bucky. “Now, I don’t want any special treatment. I want Dee to get by on his own merits. His mother and I want him to earn his own successes, no special treatment on account that he is my son.” 

“Scorch… I—” 

“Are you really going to tell me no?” Scorch asked, his pony ears perking forwards. 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky rubbed his face. Scorch had put him on the spot. Scorch had not played fair. The fey fire elemental expected an answer with Dee in the room, and the little demonspawn probably had his hopes up to come to school. Bucky couldn’t even begin to imagine how much trouble this might cause. 

But all were welcome at the Founder’s Forge. At least, that was the original plan. Bucky continued to rub his face with his talons. He glanced over at the demonspawn. There was a pocket protector in the pocket of his blazer along with a collection of pens and pencils. His silver eyeglasses glinted and the single lense was polished and clean. 

“Hello,” Bucky said, trying to kind. 

“Hi,” Dee replied. 

Dee had a very nasal voice. He sounded congested and scared. Bucky put his talons down upon the desk and blinked a few times in stunned shock. He didn’t know what he expected as far as demon offspring went. Dee had a soul and he seemed decent enough. There was no way that Bucky could say no. 

“Speak with Violet. Dee will need to go through placement testing. I’m guessing he’s smart.” Bucky let out a sigh and tapped his claws upon his desk. “Dee, do you want to come to school here?” 

There was a long silence before Dee replied, “Yes.” 

“And you want to learn about the secretarial sciences?” Bucky asked. 

“Beaurocracy is fascinating,” Dee replied as he adjusted his glasses. “The establishment of proper order all begins with good leadership and good leadership means having a good secretary.” 

“Oh, Violet is going to love you.” Bucky lifted up his cup of chai, took a sip, and then gave Dee a nod. “I hope you enjoy your time here. Welcome to the Founder’s Forge.” 

“Thank you, Bucky, this means a lot to me,” Scorch said to Bucky, looking very solemn and serious. Still in pony form, he stood beside his son and looked Bucky in the eye. “I am hoping that this is a change for the better. His mother is very excited. If this goes well, she might want to have more spawn.” 

“Oh, delightful,” Bucky replied, his eyebrow raising. “Go talk to Violet. She’ll tell you where to go next. And Scorch—” 

“Yes?” 

“You owe me…” 





After touching the egg with her nose, Derpy pulled her head back. The egg was now bigger, at the least the contents inside of it were bigger. The egg itself was now stretched, the rubbery outside was now thinner. Whatever was inside was moving. The egg bulged and wobbled around. The only thing keeping it in one spot was the makeshift blanket nest around it, otherwise, Derpy was certain it would roll around on the floor like a ball. 

Missing Berry, Derpy looked over at Thistle, who was feeding both little Barley and Dizzy. The kelpie looked happy, and she murmured soft words to the two colts suckling at her teats. Bell Heather was wobbling around the nursery, bored, trying to run but always stumbling and almost falling. 

Sitting on a quilt spread over the floor, Cadance was looking protective, her stubby wings extended, and she watched over both Ditzy and Brandywine. The pink alicorn took an occasional peek at the egg and would frown in a most adorable manner. 

Peering out from beneath her frizzy, curly, springy mane, Harper was the one most fascinated by the egg. She sat staring at it, sometimes touching it, and, as Derpy watched, appeared to be about to say something about it. Harper just had that look. 

“Egg moving.” Harper pointed her hoof at the egg as the side bulged. 

“There is a foal in there,” Derpy said, not thinking of the consequences. 

When Harper’s brow’s furrowed and her eyes vanished behind the explosion of curls on top of her head, Derpy thought about the consequences. There was a grunt from Harper, the sound that the filly made when she geared up for intellectual pursuits. Harper scooted closer to the egg, touching it with her hoof, feeling it moving. 

“Foals come from egg?” Harper asked, confused, shaking her head, “foals come from belly you say. You trick Harpy?” 

“Foals do come from a mare’s belly… but this foal, she is coming from an egg. She’s special.” Derpy licked her lips, feeling somewhat worried, she wanted Harper to trust her. Lyra might play tricks and pranks on Harper, and that was fine for Lyra, but Derpy valued Harper’s trust. 

“Where do egg come from?” Harper demanded to know. 

“Some females lay eggs. The eggs come from their belly,” Derpy replied. 

“So foal still come from belly… okay.” Reaching up with her foreleg, Harper tried to brush back her mane from her eyes and failed. It sprang forwards to reclaim lost ground. “How egg happen? If lay egg, does it hurt?” 

Eyes blinking, Derpy squeezed her hind legs together, her cheeks sucking in against her teeth. She eyed the egg, noting the size, the texture, and she felt herself sweating under her wings just thinking about trying to shove that out of her nethers. “Yes, Harper, I would say that laying an egg hurts just as much as giving birth, but egg laying mothers love their eggs and they do it anyway.” The grey pegasus felt a stabbing ache in her loins. She was still healing up a bit down there, but most of the swelling and pain was gone, the source of the inflammation was now laying on the nursery floor. Her ears perked as she heard Thistle giggling. 

Sitting down, sucking in her gut, Harper tried to look down between her legs, fell over onto her back, grunted, kicked her legs, rolled over, and then looked at the egg, an annoyed expression on her face. After a moment, she looked at her siblings, both Brandywine and Ditzy. 

“How big things come out?” Using her hoof, Harper touched her stomach, patting it a few times, and then looked up at Derpy. 

“Oh, it’s very stretchy down there,” Derpy said in reply, wishing that Harper would get bored and ask fifty million questions about something else. 

“Harpy will have a foal, right?” Harper asked, her tone one of utter seriousness. 

“Yes.” Derpy nodded. As she did so, she reached out with her wing and brushed her own mane out of her eyes. She needed a trim. She was getting a bit shaggier than she liked. 

“Why Harpy have a foal and not an egg? What if Harpy wanted egg?” Harper pulled herself closer to the egg, leaned her head down, and rested her cheek on it. “Eggy soft and warm. Harpy like.” 

“Harper, that is just how it is. Some females lay eggs, others have live young. Dragons lay eggs. Ponies have live young.” Derpy smiled, stretched out her neck, and nosed Harper. “That’s just the way it is, I don’t know why.” 

“But foal in egg, yes?” Harper asked. 

Disappointed that she had failed to satisfy Harper’s curiousity, Derpy took a deep breath, held it, reinflated her patience, and then exhaled in a huff. “Maybe. We don’t know what Crisis is. We think she’s a foal… of some sort. Like I said, she’s special.” 

“So why can’t Harpy be special too and lay egg?” Harper wrapped her forelegs around the egg and gave it a hug as she continued to exhaust her mother’s patience. 

“Harper, things are the way they are. I don’t think you will ever lay eggs. One day though, you’ll be a mommy, hopefully not too soon, and you’ll scare poor Lyra to death and make her really happy, all at the same time.” Derpy heaved another sigh. “I can only hope that when you become a mother, you’ll remember these moments as your own foal asks you questions about how the world works, you little stinker.” 
	
> Chapter 842
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Violet placed another cup of hot, steaming, fragrant liquid of some sort in front of him, Bucky sighed, thankful that his morning was over. Overall, it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be; most of the parents weren’t snobby or horrible at all, much to his relief. Most just wanted to ask questions and quite a few of the parents could not make it down from Canterlot, saving Bucky from many, many meetings. 

“Sir, your pupil sends a message,” Violet said as Bucky took a sip of coffee. 

“Oh?” Bucky’s eyebrow raised. 

“Yes… she claims that she is going to be your ruination in the dueling display this afternoon.” Violet’s lips pressed into a straight line and she shook her head. “I’m assuming that you have a plan to deal with her?” 

“Of course I do,” Bucky replied with a wry grin. “I have a lesson planned for my student and for all the students watching.” 

“Sir, I am still shocked that Princess Celestia agreed to a dueling league and competition between the schools.” Violet lifted several folders off of Bucky’s desk, organised them, and stuffed them into a filing cabinet. “Tours of the school are going well, most parents seem impressed, there is some worry about the construction going on though.” 

“We have to grow somehow. We keep the students safe.” Bucky lifted his cup and took another sip. “Construction is a good thing. We need growth and development.” 

“Of course, Sir, but the parents worry about their foals. Construction sites are dangerous.” Violet cleared the rest of the clutter from Bucky’s desk and left everything well organised. 

“I hope that Berry and Barley are doing okay… I’m worried, Violet. Berry has some family issues and I know how those can be,” Bucky said to his secretary in a low voice. His brow wrinkled and he shook his head. “She’s had little to do with them for a long time now. Before she left, she told me that she fears that she’s grown apart from them. They look down their nose at her now because she went to university.” 

“Sir, if I may speak openly, I was told by my parents that I didn’t need to go to university, I just needed to find a husband. My mother did finally agree that university would be an excellent place to find a husband. The last time I spoke to her was on the day of my graduation… she told me that I needed to get my priorities straightened out. I told her that she was right and I agreed with her completely. I haven’t spoken to my father or my mother since.” 

“Damn… Violet, I’m sorry.” Bucky set down his coffee cup and looked at his secretary. 

“I’m not. I have a rich, full life. I took up midwifery. My skills are valuable, respected, and demand a premium pay grade. I do what I love. I have an excellent employer that treats me with respect and dignity and not as a potential marriage option. I am a liberated, well educated, modern mare. It was painful losing my parents, but I do not regret it.” 

“I dunno… Violet… marriage isn’t totally off the table. I’ve grown very fond of you.” 

The middle aged unicorn mare threw back her head and laughed. Laughing, she staggered to a chair, managed to sit down, collapsing into the chair, and laughed until tears streamed down her cheeks. She clutched her stomach, kicked her legs, and bellowed with laughter. After several minutes, she wiped her face with her foreleg and looked over at Bucky, who was grinning while sipping his coffee. 

“All jokes aside, you are very dear to me. I don’t think I express my appreciation of you very much. I couldn’t do what I do without you. You are a dear friend, Violet.” Bucky looked at his secretary and felt a little misty eyed. His office needed dusting. 

“It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with you, Bucky.” Violet blinked a few times, still smiling, but her eyes were now teary for other reasons. “Hurry up, you need to grind your student into paste. If you don’t, it will be embarrassing and we can’t have that.” 



 

This was a risky move, and Bucky knew it. There were many parents present, all of them gathered to watch the dueling demonstration. The students from the school had gathered and were now sitting in the grass in a wide circle, all of them sitting past the boundaries put down for safety. The dueling spells were simple, effective, and only caused minor pain when a point was made. Bucky wouldn’t be using the actual dueling spells, he and Sunset had agreed to put on a show. But the dueling league would teach both offense and defense with a simplified attack spell and easy to get started with defensive spells. 

Sunset was already in the middle of the circle, getting warmed up, already wowing the crowd with amazing displays of fire control. Trixie was patrolling the outer perimeter with Witching Hour, checking over the protective wards. Nopony wanted the crowd getting hurt. 

Somehow, this had turned into a spectacle. Bucky sort of expected that, but seeing the crowd, seeing the signs, and hearing the impatient cheers all drove this home for him. Ponies wanted to see a battle between him and Sunset. There was a roar and a cheer as he approached. 

Bucky allowed himself a smug grin. This battle was already won. He felt a little bad for Sunset, but a lesson had to be taught. To her, his students, the parents, there was a much needed message that needed to be heard by all, and today, he was going to teach everypony a valuable lesson. He looked around the crowd, looking for Dinky, knowing that she was here. He wanted her to be here, he wanted her to see, he wanted her to learn. 

“Don’t worry Master, I’ll be gentle and I’ll be a gracious winner!” Sunset shouted as Bucky made his way into the makeshift dueling circle. Hearing her words, the crowd cheered. 

“After I put you down, perhaps more diaper duty is in order… you need humility, Minion!” Bucky flexed his talons and using his telekinesis, he adjusted his cloak around him. He turned and watched as Tiddlywinks tested the defenses of the dueling circle. 

Crowd safety was paramount above all else. 

“Master, that’s not fair!” Sunset replied. 

“Life isn’t fair, Minion, that’s the point!” Bucky grinned, his muzzle peeking out from the shadowy confines of his hood. Twilight Sparkle was supposed to be here, but she was in Canterlot, fixing what she had broken. Bucky was relieved. With what he had planned, Twilight would lecture him, and he didn’t need a lecture. He needed to make a point. 

As Bucky stood watching, Lyra’s horn flared with golden light and a transparent bubble appeared over the dueling circle. After a moment, it vanished. Yet another protective spell put into place. As Bucky waited, he contemplated turning Sunset into some kind of small, adorable rodent so he could further drive home his point. 

With a faint crackle, Shining Armor appeared, the official safety inspector. He set to work right away, double and triple checking the protective wards and barriers to keep the audience safe. In the event of some kind of failure, Shining Armor would be there to fix anything that went wrong. There were going to be some spells that were designed to strip away defenses. 

After listening to the crowd, Bucky realised that most of them were rooting for Sunset; this was good. This would make her crushing defeat all the more satisfying. Much to his surprise, he saw that Lugus was holding up a sign with Sunset Shimmer’s cutie mark drawn on it with marker ink. 

“Are you scared, Minion?” Bucky asked. 

“Of some stinky old warlock?” Sunset Shimmer pursed her lips together and blew a raspberry. “Oh please… I’m a paladin now… I can totally take you out. Besides, you have a soft spot for me. You’re not going to do anything awful! If you surrender now, I’ll be nice, I promise.” 

“Minion… you should be scared,” Bucky said in a low, somewhat hissy dramatic whisper. He was enjoying all of this a great deal. Minion still had a few lessons that needed learning and Bucky was just the right pony to teach them. 

The circle began to clear, the ponies working to ensure safety were now finishing up and moving off into the gathered crowd. The crowd was murmuring, the sound combining to almost make a roar. Bucky took a deep breath and prepared himself. He expected Sunset Shimmer to come at him hard; he would be disappointed if she didn’t. He had trained her as a destroyer, not a defender, though she had capable defense. 

The circle, now cleared, was a large empty space with only he and Sunset as its occupants. Bucky stood there, waiting, looking just as relaxed and calm on the outside as he felt on the inside. Any moment now, the show would start. Bucky planned to put on a good show. 

There was a ding from a bell and the crowd went nuts. Bucky dropped into shadow and began his defensive preparations. Sunset Shimmer teleported and when she appeared, so did a whole host of defenses. That was a neat trick and he wondered where Sunset had learned that. Probably from Twilight, or maybe Lyra. He winked out, diving deep into shadow, and appeared somewhere else. A crackling bolt of energy shot through the air where he had been a few seconds ago. Sunset was quick, much faster than Bucky had anticipated. 

Tendrils of flame rose from Sunset, shifted, shimmered, and became wings. Sunset took to the air, gaining an aerial advantage to match Bucky’s. Becoming just solid enough to let rip, Bucky fired off a beam of pure cold at Sunset, hoping to drain away her flames. 

A yawning black portal opened in front of Sunset, swallowed the beam, and another black portal opened elsewhere. The beam that Bucky had fired came shooting back out and Bucky was forced to dodge his own icy blast. That was clever. This was all about putting on a good show first and foremost, and Bucky heard the audience hooting and shouting. 

Surging forwards, Bucky became a black streak moving at supernatural speeds, trailing tendrils of shadow behind him. Several blasts of magic burst around him, but nothing hit him. When he was close to Sunset, he let go of a pulse of cold magic, mindful not to let one go that was full strength. He didn’t need the crowd flash frozen. 

The radiant cold battered Sunset’s defenses and made her flaming wings sputter, almost causing them to go out. With nowhere to run, Sunset shot upwards, using what was left of her wings to gain altitude. A globe of darkness appeared around her, causing her to go blind. 

Bucky let out a maniacal laugh when he heard his student’s panicked cry. She was not a flying creature and she lost all sense of up and down as the darkness swallowed her up. A moment later, the darkness was dispelled as Sunset Shimmer let go of a sunburst spell, illuminating the magical darkness and banishing it. 

Snarling, Sunset Shimmer righted herself in the air, gaining her bearings, and focused her angry aggression upon Bucky. Her horn flared with flames as she cast an anti shadow ward, and this time, it was Sunset that let out a maniacal cackle as Bucky was pulled from shadow and forced into the physical realm. She watched him plummet towards the ground and his body warped. In his place was a griffon, flapping his wings and squawking. 

Sunset Shimmer unleashed a fiery fury upon the griffon and it was consumed in flames. Bucky reappeared with a pop several yards away from where the griffon had been. His horn flared with a brilliant blue-green flash and Sunset felt her shadow wards weaken.

Bucky dropped to the earth, drifting down like a feather, and landed with ease. As his hooves touched the ground, several Buckies appeared, all of them laughing, and they began to run and dance around. 

Snarling, Sunset Shimmer made ready to dispel illusion before it was too late, if it wasn’t too late already. Her horn flared and nothing happened. Cursing, Sunset realised that Bucky had warded himself somehow against having his illusions dispelled. She went for the direct approach and zapped one of the prancing raspberry blowing mirror images of Bucky. 

It popped like a soap bubble and as it did, Sunset Shimmer experienced a painful shock that tore through her defenses, causing her mane to stand on end as her teeth gritted together. She flapped her wings, determined to stay airborne, and zapped another image of Bucky, causing it to pop. She was shocked again, this one was far more painful than the last. She cried out as her wing spell fizzled, the painful electrocution had disrupted her concentration. The ground was rushing up to greet her with alarming speed. She teleported and with a great deal of care, canceled out her momentum, knowing that even with a good teleport, one could still splatter into the ground because of momentum. 

Angry, frustrated, and in pain, Sunset needed to be rid of Bucky’s mirror clones that were the source of so much pain and trouble. She needed to put an end to his mischief. She launched a flame flare, a burst of fire that spread out from her in an incinerating nova. She received several teeth rattling shocks all at once for her trouble, the experience was quite painful, and there was no sign of Bucky anywhere. Sunset realised that he was invisible, or perhaps he was under a very powerful aversion spell. Either way, that was trouble for her. 

Bucky had come a long way with his own defenses, Sunset realised. She had been teaching him, along with Lyra, and she now regretted the exchange of information. She began putting up more spell defenses, knowing that wherever Bucky was, he was doing the same. 

Peering around, Sunset’s narrowed eyes looked for any sign of Bucky. Some shimmer, some glimmering, some faint sparkle. Her head darted from side to side and she knew, she knew that Bucky was toying with her. The smarmy son of a bitch was toying with her. She felt more anger and realised that Bucky was baiting her, he wanted her angry. She wasn’t about to give him that advantage. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. 

The air filled with thousands of shrieking, squealing, flapping bats. Sunset screamed, unable to help herself, she felt her skin crawl as the flapping, flying disease bearing rodents flew and swirled around her, she could feel them against her skin, in her mane, and brushing up against her ears. She screamed again, filled with terror, not at all liking the creepy crawlies all around her, and a part of her mind told her that if Bucky couldn’t have her anger, then he would have her fear. 

She burst into flames but was unable to set the illusionary terror bats on fire. One of them nipped her ear as it flew by, and her fear grew as she realised they were real enough to hurt her, but not real enough to burn. She blasted outwards with a powerful dispel magic and the bats vanished, popping out of existence. 

There was still no sign of Bucky anywhere, but Sunset could hear his horrible laughter coming from all around her. She called upon her paladin training and the tiny spark of Celestia’s magic that radiated within her. Her body glowed with gleaming light, sunlight, and she felt her fear melt away. Shining like the sun, Sunset Shimmer felt her flagging spirits lift, her fear was gone, her pain was fading, and she felt Celestia’s love coursing through her. 

She saw Bucky appear some distance away and he made a gesture with his talons, made a bow, and then laughed some more. Sunset made ready to give him a dose of his own medicine and as she did so, she heard the tinkling of glass near her. She felt her spell protections vanish in an instant and a second later, more glass tinkled. 

The air was filled with choking dust that blinded her. Sunset tried to teleport away and found that she couldn’t. She had trouble making magic at all. She felt her horn fizzling and there were a few pops, magical backfires that were painful to endure. She coughed, seeing stars, and struggled to breathe. 

“I’m sorry, Minion…” 



 

“YOU CHEATED!” somepony out in the audience shouted. 

The crowd roared, booing, and Bucky took it all in stride. The real lesson had begun. He looked up at Belisama who was flapping overhead. She landed a moment later near Sunset, putting away her leather sling and pulling out a soothing antidote to the irritating magic stealing dust. 

Using a voice amplification spell, Bucky addressed the crowd. “Yes, I cheated. I wanted to make a point. The new dueling league will have a lot of rules and regulations. It will help students learn to fight. As we can see though, not everypony follows the rules. In war, there are no rules, there is only the living and the dead. We face treacherous enemies that will kill us in any way they can. Bad unicorns that do bad things, evil spell casters, necromancers, they do not follow rules. They do not fight honourably. They fight to win.” 

Bucky paced around, walking in a circle around Sunset, watching as Belisama poured liquid over Sunset’s eyes and comforted the fallen unicorn. He took a deep breath and realised that the crowd had gone quiet. He had their attention. He lifted his head and addressed them once more. 

“Students… I do not want you cheating during your duels. You will fight fairly and honourably… but I want you to think about it. When you write your report on your duel, I want for you to write down all of the ways that you could have cheated to turn the match in your favour. I want for you to be creative. I will reward your deviance. Those of you that show promise will be allowed to join a special dueling league that is being sponsored by the Black Cloaks… cheating is a terrible thing, except for when it is a necessary thing… and then it is cunning. You should deal fairly with your classmates. You should be honest, forthright, and kind. Except for those moments when doing so becomes a liability.” 

Bowing his head, Bucky turned to Sunset. “You have my most sincere apologies, but a lesson had to be taught. I forfeit this match. I cheated.” Bucky could see Sunset trying to look at him, her eyes blinking, but he was almost certain that if she could see, she couldn’t see very well. 

Sunset coughed and could not reply. 

Lifting his head once more, Bucky continued. “We are to deal fairly and honourably with one another. When we duel with the Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns, we will deal with them kindly, politely, and with gentility, even as we grind them into dust. We will be gracious winners and we will not cheat. Really, I want to make this very clear… the dueling league is about following the rules. For those of you that earn it, the special dueling league will be anything goes, within reason. We don’t want ponies getting hurt, but we do want to teach you how to handle yourselves in combat.” Bucky cleared his throat. “Now if you will excuse me, this match is over and I owe my student an apology. I must make amends for my actions and hold myself accountable…” 
	
> Chapter 843
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pausing just outside the farmhouse library doors, Bucky took a deep breath and prepared himself. He wasn’t certain that enough time had passed for everypony involved to have cooled off, but it was time. He took another deep breath, filling his lungs and trying to clear his head. The number of adults in the room had been limited at Berry’s insistence, something she had said before leaving. It was important to make sure that the foals didn’t feel like they were being ganged up upon or intimidated, although Bucky had trouble seeing how a little intimidation could hurt anything. 

Standing just outside the door, Bucky could hear the muffled voice of Twilight Sparkle and then Rainbow Dash. The little ones were waiting for him to arrive, no doubt sweating, and the adults were also waiting. The past few days had blurred together, so much so that Bucky had trouble remembering everything that had taken place, most of it boring stuff that he had to endure. 

Breathing deep once more, Bucky pushed the door open and entered. The first thing he noticed was the sharp contrast of black and pink. Boadicea and Diamond Tiara were huddled together in the middle of the room, sitting with one another on the floor, in the middle of the circle of judgment. Sentinel, much to Bucky’s surprise, was sitting next to Dinky, looking both afraid and protective. Sentinel met Bucky’s eyes for a moment as Bucky entered, and then looked away, ashamed, and unable to meet his father’s gaze. 

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all sat together, looking pensive and concerned, Apple Bloom most of all. Bucky stood still for a moment, an outsider looking in, and he saw Apple Bloom give him a little nod, as if she was letting him know that she accepted this. 

“Hello,” Bucky said to his guests, “would I be correct to assume that you had a lovely time in Canterlot?” He stepped into the circle, climbed into his chair, and got comfortable, his eyes lingering on Rarity and Applejack, who were sitting together on a loveseat. 

“Oh, it was marvelous,” Rarity replied and then fell silent, a thoughtful expression upon her face. She blinked a few times, staring at Bucky, and then she shook her head. “I was about to regale you with meaningful moments from our excursion when we’re here to decide the fate of some troublemakers.” Rarity’s lips pressed into a moue and her eyebrows arched. 

“Well, after we get done here, you and I could go into the kitchen and you can tell me everything over tea, perhaps,” Bucky offered, feeling a genuine interest in knowing more about what had happened in Canterlot. 

“Oh, that would be lovely, thank you, darling.” Rarity clapped her front hooves together and gave Bucky a smile. She cleared her throat and then looked around at the others. “So, how do we proceed? Do we call this meeting together or this court in order?” 

Hearing the word ‘court,’ Sweetie Belle’s ears drooped as she gulped. A three way glance was shared with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The Crusaders, who had stuck together through thick and thin, found themselves together in a thin moment. 

“We want to make sure that this punishment is fair for all involved,” Twilight said, looking uncomfortable and upset. Her ears twitched and her nostrils flared as she looked at the foals sitting in the middle of the room. 

“Yes, everypony gets to suffer equally… even though Sentinel has been saying that he’s willing to take everypony else’s punishment—” 

“You what?” Apple Bloom demanded, interrupting Lyra and looking at Sentinel. 

“I—” Sentinel began.

“Oh no you don’t,” Apple Bloom said, sounding angry. “That’s not how it works. You don’t just get into trouble and then face it all by your lonesome. We got into this together and we’re gonna finish this together. We done got ourselves into a whole heap o’ trouble and trouble is like hard work, best done in large groups. That’s what friends do, you dunderhead, that is what makes friendships meaningful, it isn’t just the happy times, it is the miserable times when you stick it out together that give meaning.” 

Applejack and Rarity exchanged a glance with another. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash did the same. Sentinel sighed and nodded his head, then bowed his head at Apple Bloom. Sitting in a chair beside Bucky, Lyra smiled, a smile that Sentinel did not see, and she reached over to touch Bucky, her hoof brushing up against him. 

“A very important friendship lesson,” Twilight said in a solemn voice, “which is why we had planned to punish all of you together. For the spring, while school is still in session, you can expect light work, but come summer, there is going to be heavy labour. Applejack and I have plans for you. I’m sure that Bucky and Lyra also have plans.” 

Scootaloo sighed, slumped over, and nodded her head. “Pretty much what I thought was going to happen.” 

“Oh, Scootaloo… if only you knew.” Bucky grinned, one ear twitching, and his lips pulled back from his teeth. “On top of all the hard labour, Buck Sergeant Sparkler and Private Loki are working on a new conditioning program to help you get into better shape. You too, Boadicea. Next time you go on an adventure, we want you properly conditioned and in perfect shape.” 

“Oh no,” Scootaloo groaned. 

“As soon as the road to Canterlot is fixed up again, Sparkler and Loki were discussing a little march up to Canterlot under a full load. From what I understand, Ripple is very enthusiastic about the plan and wants to make all of the Raptors march.” 

“Oh… fudge,” Scootaloo whined, shaking her head, “they’re all going to hate me… I’m never going to hear the end of this.” 

“That’s the idea, Squirt. You’re a tough little pegasus and we had to find some way of hitting you where it hurt.” Rainbow Dash leaned forwards in her chair and looked at Scootaloo. “I think we’ve done that… I think the Raptors are going to make you miserable in ways that we can’t even think of.” 

“A march up to Canterlot? Under a full load? That’ll wear my claws off.” Boadicea slumped down, her feathers fluffing out, and her beak clacked together. “That seems fair. I can’t complain.” 

“Also, Apple Bloom, how do you feel about joinin’ the army? ‘Cause I done reckon that you and Sweetie Belle should get to be Raptors for a day.” As Applejack spoke, she glanced at Rarity, and the white unicorn was nodding with enthusiastic agreement. 

“Yes, a princess should get to know those who work hard to protect her. I think this will be an excellent opportunity for all of you.” Twilight Sparkle smiled, drew in a deep breath, her barrel expanding, and then let it out in a slow, satisfied huff. “You know, this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I’d be more upset, but I can feel my anger just melting away. This is wonderful.” 

“Yeah, wonderful,” Diamond Tiara said in a weak voice as she leaned on Boadicea. 

“I must say, this has been very cathartic,” Rarity said, agreeing with Twilight. “All of this has been very stressful and wrinkle inducing. I think when I’m done here and I’ve had tea with Bucky, I’ll go have a long talk with my mother. She’s been beside herself.” 

“Thank you for being fair.” Sentinel lifted his head and his ears drooped, hanging down to the sides of his face. “I will do whatever must be done to make amends.” He paused, bowed his head, and then said to his companions, “Thank you, all of you, for sticking with me.” 

Reaching out, Apple Bloom patted Sentinel on the withers. “Friends forever… we’ll get through this. Just like the Founders got through their troubles. We did something special, Sentinel, it was worth it.” 

“Yeah it was,” Sweetie Belle said, her head nodding. 

“Just to be able to feel the Hearthfire.” Scootaloo closed her eyes, remembering. 

“It was the most amazing feeling in the whole wide world.” Diamond Tiara pulled Boadicea closer and gave the griffoness a squeeze. “I would give anything to feel it again. Maybe we should get into trouble more often.” 



 

“I’m kinda relieved,” Sweetie Belle said to her companions, her words almost coming out as a sigh. “It was nice of them to let all of us spend some time together.” She looked over at the tray of sandwiches and drinks, then back at her friends. 

“You okay, Diamond?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“No,” Diamond Tiara replied as she curled up in a chair. “My stomach is killing me.” 

Apple Bloom frowned and her ears perked forwards. After giving it some thought, it didn’t seem fair to punish Diamond Tiara in the condition she was in, but perhaps that was the point. Apple Bloom knew that she and others might have to pick up the slack and carry Diamond Tiara through this. That was what friends did, right? Once everything had calmed down, Diamond Tiara would be fine again. Apple Bloom watched as Sentinel climbed up into Diamond Tiara’s chair and then he pulled Diamond Tiara close to him. Seeing this made Apple Bloom’s heart warm and she thought of Rumble. The filly sighed and realised that Rumble would probably help out with the heavy workload without asking. He would be there with her because he was a good colt. Apple Bloom, thankful for her friends, knew that everything she had, she had because of her friends. Sentinel was no different. Apple Bloom knew that he was going to gain his knighthood because of this, not just because of what Sentinel had done, but because of the friends he had. 

“You know, this doesn’t mean that we’re gonna have a bad summer. I know my sister and at the end of the day, when the work is done, I know we’ll all get to have fun together. There’ll be campfires and I know we’ll get a chance to go swimming. We’ll have plenty of chances to have fun together.” Apple Bloom watched as Sentinel pressed his muzzle against Diamond Tiara’s cheek and she felt her own cheeks growing warm. Sentinel was being sweet. 

“Working together in Baltimare after we stowed away wasn’t so bad… it turned out to be pretty good for us,” Sweetie Belle said. 

“I got my cutie mark.” Scootaloo’s head bobbed up and down. “I actually had a good time in Baltimare. Stowing away was totally worth it.” 

Clearing his throat, Sentinel lifted his head, pulling his muzzle away from Diamond Tiara’s cheek. “We have Lyra to thank for that. Really, every single one of us needs to sign a thank you card for Lyra and we need to do something special for her.” 

“There was some hollering in the back bedroom when this was being discussed,” Dinky said to the others. “Our parents don’t holler much, but what we did made them fight with each other. That hurts more than anything. My mother, Derpy, she wanted spanking to be a big part of our punishment. She didn’t want me sitting right for a week. If Berry was here, I’d imagine that there’d be a lot more fussing and fighting.” 

“Big Mac was the same way, but Applejack held him off until our little trial.” Apple Bloom reached back and rubbed her cutie mark. “I have to say, I was kinda expecting a good switchin’.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “I think it would have been easier to get a switchin’, just having Big Mac look at me the way he was… it was awful.” 

“It hurts when we disappoint our parents,” Scootaloo said as she traced little circles on the floor with her hoof. “But there are gonna be times when I don’t think we can avoid making them upset. Let’s face it, we’re gonna continue to do boneheaded stuff… we’re gonna do stupid stuff. It’s Gabby Gums all over again and then some. Like it or not, we’re adventurers and we’ve got ourselves caught up in something larger than ourselves.” 

“Maybe next time we’ll just ask to borrow the airship and see what they have to say about it,” Boadicea said, not sounding the least bit sarcastic. “I have the feeling that Bucky would help us just to humour us or just so he could go off on a lark.” 

“Yeah, he just needs a reason, an excuse.” Sentinel gave Diamond Tiara a squeeze. He placed his muzzle close to her ear and whispered in a low voice, “I love you so much, I’m sorry that you don’t feel good.” 

Sweetie Belle puckered her lips and blew her mane out of her eyes. “If we got Bucky to go off and do something stupid with us, would he get in trouble with us? Would he get punished too?” 
	
> Chapter 844
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I am very surprised to see you here, seeing as how busy you are,” Bucky said as he stood looking up at Princess Celestia. “Putting two and two together, I am going to assume that Twilight told you that they would all be here so you could talk to them about hearthfire.” 

“Correct.” The tall white alicorn gave the short almost but not quite a unicorn a smile. “Bucky, I heard a troubling tale about you… I was talking to Sunset Shimmer about what happened—”

Bucky’s cheeks puffed out and his eyes went wide. “Yeah, I did it. I apologised. She accepted. We’re going to duel again and this time I’ve promised not to cheat. A fair fight. Kinda tricky, trying to make it a fair fight, seeing as how I know everypony’s weaknesses as I fight them, I dunno how I am going to make this fair.” 

“You are a bad pony.” Celestia’s smile vanished. She looked up from Bucky and at the gathered foals in the entryway behind him. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Dinky, Diamond Tiara, Boadicea, Sentinel, Cadance, Harper, Peekaboo, Sukari, and one kelpie foal who wobbled around on trembling legs, trying to figure out the whole walking thing. 

“Bad pony,” Cadance repeated, nodding her head. 

“You badmouthed my school… that was uncalled for, we are supposed to work together in a spirit of cooperation, not indulge in trash talk. We cannot have that.” Celestia fluffed out and brought herself to her full height. “I do believe a lesson is in order here… all this talk of punishment. I do believe that some little foals need to grow up believing there is a sense of fairness in the world… at least an attempt to make things right.” 

Scowling, Bucky nodded and waited, wondering what it was that Celestia was about to do. He could deal with a wing slapping, but it was really going to hurt. Just touching Celestia caused him to blister and smoulder. He stood, waiting, his claws tapping on the floor, looking up at the white alicorn, one eye narrowed and squinting, the other wide and staring. 

“Buckminster, I do believe that we should try you in a court of your own peers. We shall have your foals judge you.” Princess Celestia cleared her throat. “Tell me, how should we punish him?” Celestia’s words were met with stunned silence. She smiled down at the foals who stared up at her wide eyed, stunned, and in shock. 

Bucky took a deep breath and told Celestia, “I am not a foal—”

“Oh, yes, I forgot something, my apologies, I was not being thorough.” Celestia’s horn flared with a golden glare and glowing motes of light swirled around her. The whole house shuddered. Deep magic. The most powerful of alicorn magics began to swirl around Bucky. 

With a gasp, Bucky shrunk, becoming much, much smaller. He let out a squeaky cry as the flash of light consumed him, causing him to vanish for a moment, and then the light faded away, Bucky stood, little more than a yearling and not much larger than Harper. He still had his talons, his tufted ears, and his shaggy pelt. He was still the same as he ever was… just smaller. 

“Oh fe—” 

“Do not dare say it, you little miscreant,” Celestia used her magic to squeeze Bucky’s lips together. “You are a little different than I remember you as a foal… but you are still so adorable. You are so shaggy!” Celestia grinned and gushed, her wings fluttering at her sides. 

“When Harpy bad, Harpy go in the corner.” Harper broke away from the others and approached Bucky, her head low, her ears back against her head, but hidden under her frizzy mane and not visible to the others. “Mama?” 

Bucky shot Harper a look… not just any look. The Look. He watched as Harper stared at him, confused and curious. Giving her The Look was not very effective in his current body. 

“Harper has an excellent idea… what do the rest of you say?” Celestia asked. She looked serious, as serious as she could be as she tried to hold back a smile. She watched several little heads nod, but the entire group of foals remained in stupefied silence. 

Glowering, Bucky said nothing, not wanting to hear his own squeaky voice. He stood defiant, realising there wasn’t much he could do if Celestia stood him in the corner. He could try to fight back, but what message would he be sending to his own foals? He heard hooves in the hallway behind him and groaned. 

“What is going on here?” Derpy asked as she came into the entryway. “Oh my gosh… is that Bucky?” The grey pegasus stood staring as Twilight and Applejack stood behind her, both of them having been spending time with the newborns. 

Rarity came down the hall and asked, “What is going on?” 

“We were about to put Bucky in the corner,” Celestia replied. 

“Come here and let me hug you!” Derpy cried as she lunged forwards. 

“No!” Bucky squeaked, his voice coltish and shrill. He took off at a run, knowing that the grabby grey pegasus was hot on his heels. His cloak slid from his body, it was much too large now, and Bucky realised that he couldn’t go outside… the sun would fry him. He darted to and fro, hoping to escape, and then bolted down the hallway, shooting between Twilight’s long, slender legs as she pranced around, trying to avoid stepping on him as he passed beneath her.

“Wait, we were trying to punish him! He has to stand in the corner!” Celestia stood, her head high, her eyes full of mischief.

“No! I gotta take his picture first… and maybe cuddle him!” Derpy shouted as she ran down the hallway, her hooves clattering over the wood. 

Clearing her throat, Celestia became serious, her smile fading away, her eyes becoming stern. “Well then, now that Bucky is occupied, I would like to speak to all of you about what happened… I want to hear from each and every one of you about what took place, and I want no detail left unmentioned. I want to know more about the Hearthfire…” 



 

Silent, saying nothing, Princess Celestia looked at the foals all sitting together on the floor. She was down on the floor with them, sitting on a large cushion, trying to be as unimposing as possible. Diamond Tiara had given the most detailed account by far, providing many useful details. Sweetie Belle focused on emotional details and Sombra’s broken heart. She also focused on the feeling of the Hearthfire, how it lifted them, how happy they had been. 

The most curious part of all of this was Boadicea, who now had a wisp of pink flame as a cutie mark, a most interesting cutie mark for a griffon. More than anything, Celestia wanted to know what it meant. Did the griffoness have the ability to summon Hearthfire? There was so much that she didn’t know and it bothered her a great deal. 

Once again, Star Swirl had somehow seen ahead into the future and had yet again provided for the needs of Equestria. Celestia wished that Clover was here. Clover had been a Bearer of Hearthfire and had been able to keep summoning it, using it as a weapon against the many foes of Equestria. It had burned away the windigos, singed the griffons, turned back rampaging hordes of minotaurs, and sent the diamond dogs packing, howling as they retreated. The Hearthfire also had a remarkable ability to heal without causing pain to the caster. 

Twilight had said that Hearthfire was a type of harmonics magic, the new field of study that she was so desperately trying to understand. There were so many questions, like how had Clover retained her ability to cast the spell all by herself? Could it be summoned now that there were new Bearers of Hearthfire? Could it be used as a weapon against the mirror travelers, to drive them back, or help them somehow in their defense. There was so much that Princess Celestia had to know… and no answers seemed forthcoming any time soon, which troubled her a great deal. She needed answers. 

The Crusader Project had borne fruit—Apple Bloom had become a princess and now, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been part of a group that had brought back Hearthfire to Equestria, the ultimate in magic abilities. But Celestia was no closer to understanding it… or figuring out a way that she could cast it herself. 

If she could somehow cast Hearthfire herself, she could use magic to defend her little ponies with impunity… Even the most destructive blasts would be beneficial for those allied around her. Celestia could remember Clover in battle… the pink flames would fly forth, burning those who dared stand against her and healing those around her that had fallen in battle. It would mean that Celestia could safely join a battle without having to worry about obliterating everything around her. It would mean safety, peace, and security. 

But, there were still no answers and Celestia seemed no closer to unravelling the secrets of Hearthfire. She was no closer to being able to cast it. One thousand years of waiting and Hearthfire had appeared again, but Celestia was no closer to becoming its Bearer. It was so frustrating that she wanted to scream, but on the outside, she was still the serene, calm, and patient alicorn that everypony believed her to be. 

“Everything happened so fast… we just went down the hole in the floor and then Moonbow died and the Hearthfire happened and everything was over,” Dinky said, summing up everything she had said earlier. “There wasn’t enough time to take it all in. It just happened.” 

“The same thing happened with Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie,” Celestia replied, looking Dinky in the eye and focusing on the foal. Dinky had the potential to become Celestia’s personal, private student, but she knew that Bucky would never let her go, and neither would Derpy. Instead, it was Celestia’s hope that Dinky would continue her tutelage with Bucky… and Sunset Shimmer. Dinky had courage, a strong revulsion towards dark magic, very much like Sunset Shimmer did, and an almost all consuming drive to gain more power, but not for personal gain. Dinky was the ideal unicorn to become a protector of Equestria, a product of chance, of luck, and beneficial coincidental circumstance. 

“Hearthfire is nice and all, but when it wears off, you feel just awful.” Sweetie Belle blinked a few times, looking thoughtful, and trying to put her thoughts into words. The filly looked troubled, a little sad, the corners of her mouth were pulled downwards and her ears were drooping. She heaved a sigh, her barrel swelling outwards, and she looked at her companions, as if hoping for inspiration. “A part of me never wants to feel Hearthfire ever again… I don’t know if I can deal with the bad part afterwards.” 

“I kinda don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Scootaloo said, unable to look Celestia in the eye as she said it. “It’s… it’s a sacred thing. It feels wrong to talk about it so much. It was something special that happened, like your first kiss… and if you talk about it too much and try to figure out everything that goes into it, it kinda ruins it. It takes away what was special about it. It just happened, it was a surprise, it felt good, and then it was over.” 

“Scootaloo, I understand.” Celestia’s ears drooped. Out of the mouths of foals. She did her best to hide her disappointment, but she wasn’t certain that she was successful. Under normal circumstances, she did well to hide her emotions, but she could not help but feel a bit depressed. Scootaloo was right though—if Celestia kept prying, she might ruin what made the Hearthfire special. 

“So what sort of prince is Sentinel going to be?” Apple Bloom asked. 

Celestia’s ears perked up. She was saved, Apple Bloom, the clever little filly she was, had changed the subject. A tiny sigh of relief escaped and Celestia’s feathers ruffled. “Sentinel will be a prince like Keg Smasher. He will have a position of power and he will have duties, but not a specific title, like say, the Princess of Agriculture. Sentinel will focus more on his duties as a knight.” 

“Are we still allowed to tease him?” Sweetie Belle asked, a mischievous smile on her face as she glanced at Sentinel. 

“I would be grateful if you did… I do believe he will need his friends to keep him humble, he has a long life full of accomplishments ahead of him,” Celestia replied, her lips parting with a smile that was as bright as the sun. 

“Get away from me, you mad mares! Back! Back! Away from me all of you! This has stopped being funny!” 

There was a loud thump outside of the farmhouse library door and the clattering of hooves over the wooden floor. It took every ounce of effort that Celestia could muster, but she kept a straight face as she looked at the foals. “Bucky is being punished. He has committed a very serious offense.” 

“Bucky, I just want a picture of you with the fillies having a tea party!” Derpy cried. 

“Yeah, Bucky, you dressed up in a dress once and liked it, what’s the big deal now?” Lyra added. 

“We just want to put some ribbons in your mane and make you look pretty!” Twilight’s voice carried through the house quite well and everypony (and birdy) in the farmhouse library could hear her. “Bucky, hold still, you’re ruining a special moment for Cadance, Sukari, Harper, and Peekaboo!” 

Much to Celestia’s surprise, it was Sentinel of all ponies that began sniggering, choking, and trying very hard to hold back laughter. Beside him, Diamond Tiara was biting her lip. One of Dinky’s hooves clamped over her mouth. Sweetie Belle’s ears began to twitch as the filly’s lips pressed together and she tried not to smile. 

Allowing a smile to grace her face once more, Celestia spoke to the foals in an almost playful, teasing voice. “I do not know about the rest of you, but I do believe that I would like to see Buckminster get his comeuppance. Who wants to watch?” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 845
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Squirming, Bucky tried to wiggle free from Lyra, but she redoubled her grip on him. She was brushing every inch of him while Bon Bon kept kissing his cheeks. Celestia’s spell had not worn off and he was still stuck in the body of a yearling. The whole day had been rather trying, but as it was with most punishments, it wasn’t all bad. He had spent time with his fillies, a bit of time had been spent with Sentinel, and he had been cuddled to the point of annoyance by his wives. Lugus had somehow not laughed and treated the issue with seriousness, even though Bucky just knew that Lugus was going to be laughing about this in private. 

Holding up the brush, Lyra used a simple cantrip to remove all of the tan coloured hairs in the bristles and caused them to fall into the trash bin beside the bed. Thistle was holding Bell Heather, murmuring something into the kelpie filly’s ear. Derpy was resting, half asleep, it had been a long day and she had worn herself out looking after the newborns. With Berry gone, Derpy had taken on most of the work herself, even though there was plenty of help to be had. The grey pegasus enjoyed the work and did not complain. Belisama was sitting at the head of the bed, plucking her autoharp, trying to coax out a new tune that she said was lurking inside of her head. 

“It’s getting late,” Bon Bon said and then yawned. The earth pony mare stretched a bit, moving her head from side to side, and then rubbed her neck. “I have a lot to do tomorrow. So much to do in the shop.” 

“When are we going to make the offer to Helia?” Lyra asked as she resumed brushing Bucky. The green unicorn looked satisfied, happy, she had a content smile on her face and she made a faint hum as she worked. 

“Offer to Helia?” Thistle looked up from Bell Heather, looking curious. 

“We plan to make Helia a partner. Business is good, real good, we’re making a significant profit now, and Helia has stuck with us through thick and thin,” Bon Bon replied. 

“Plus, she has Cygnus to look after.” Lyra made short, even strokes with the brush along Bucky’s neck and watched with amusement as one of Bucky’s hind legs began to twitch. “Helia can fly… Bonnie and I are planning a delivery service. The hospital wants fresh donuts, chocolates, and candies.” 

“I’m glad that things are finally working out,” Derpy said in a half awake, half asleep voice. “Maybe when the newborns aren’t so demanding, I’ll help with the deliveries. I have good references and a good work history.” 

“I thought you wanted to work in the brewery?” Lyra asked. 

“I do,” Derpy replied, her eyes closed, “but I also want to deliver candies. I can work now because I want to, not because I have to. I can do whatever I want.” 

“I have noticed that with our herd, all of us have a lot more individual freedom.” Bon Bon’s brows furrowed as she reached out and touched the side of Bucky’s face. “We can try new things. Make businesses work. We have a bit of a safety net if failure happens. I don’t think Lyra and I could have gotten my candy business back up and running all by ourselves. Do you think that this is what the nobles were afraid of? Us commoners getting a leg up through hard work and pooling our resources together?” 

“Sure seems like it, Bonnie,” Belisama said as she plucked a string a few times. 

“If one looks at the different families in Ponyville, the herds are doing better than the monogamists.” Lyra dragged the brush down Bucky’s spine and watched as he wiggled on the bed in front of her. “Look at the Cakes. They have an extended herd now with Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich. They’ve done nothing but prosper. Thunderlane and his family are now very well off. They’re about to buy a new house. There are a bunch of families I don’t know and they’re all getting ahead in life. I’m kinda surprised by all of this, actually.” 

“A stallion and a group of mares can make more income than one stallion and one mare. Plus there are all the things that ponies don’t take into account. Foal care, for one. Foalsitters and nannies are expensive. So are housekeepers and cooks. But with a larger family, it is easier to spread the work around and if you sort out your work schedules, you can make sure that somepony is always at home to look after the little ones.” Bon Bon looked up from Lyra brushing Bucky and tried to encourage Bell Heather to cross the bed and come to her, making clucking sounds under her tongue. 

Nodding, Lyra rolled Bucky onto his left side and began to brush his right side. “Even without Bucky’s royal stipend, we’re wealthy. Berry Punch and Barley both make more bits than we need. Now that Bonnie and I are making a profit,  the bits are just piling up in the bank. As for Winterworx—” 

“Winterworx just secured a five million bit contract for medical supplies for the country of Fancy.” Belisama put down her autoharp, smoothed back her crest, which sprang right back up, and looked Lyra in the eye. “Every single one of my griffons is going to be wealthy… most of us won’t even know what to do with this many bits.” 

“Bucky, you didn’t tell me about this contract.” Bon Bon frowned, her muzzle wrinkled, and she scooped up Bell Heather, pulling her close and giving the foal a squeeze. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“It slipped my mind,” Bucky replied, being honest. 

“How does five million bits slip your mind?” Bon Bon asked. 

“I don’t give a crap about money.” Bucky closed his eyes as Lyra brushed an itchy spot. He was shedding his heavy winter coat and this felt good. He had given up all pretense of resistance. “Really, I just don’t care. It’s a resource. I have what is important to me all around me.” 

“I don’t think the bits ever really mattered to Bucky,” Derpy said, opening up her eyes and lifting her head. “He walked away from his family fortune to be his own pony. And the gift he bought for Dinky… he didn’t think it was very much money at all. I think this is one of those things where we have different perspectives on what is important. If I was still a single mother, I’d think that five million bits is pretty important.” 

“I’m getting paid twenty seven thousand bits a year to be Ponyville’s water inspector… is that good money? I don’t even know. I’m a kelpie from the Shetlands.” Thistle gave her fellow mares and her teeny, tiny husband a sheepish look. 

“It is a little bit above average for a common city employee, but Thistle, that is not considered wealthy by quite a stretch. It is comfortable money though,” Bon Bon said to Thistle. 

“I was getting twenty two thousand and eight hundred bits a year working for the mail service.” Derpy smacked her lips, yawned, and shook her head, trying to be rid of her sleepiness. “I’d sometimes get extra as a performance bonus. The pay isn’t bad, they’ll hire almost anypony that has wings, and all you’ve got to do is get the mail delivered while occasionally dealing with a pony-eating spider.” 

The pegasus fell silent and her head turned. So did every other head in the room. Bucky’s egg wobbled in its nest and the sides moved as though something on the inside was kicking. The rubbery egg was now almost twice the size it had been when it had been delivered, it was stretched out, and during periods of movement, one could make out a head, four legs, and a body inside the egg. Lyra had been the first to spot a tiny horn nub that was visible now as the little head inside the egg probed about, as though it was trying to use its horn to stab its way through its egg prison. 

“Egg!” Bucky shouted, bounding up off of the bed and bouncing over to where his egg was. 

“Is she hatching?” Lyra asked, scooting over the bed and following Bucky. “Do you think she’ll come out all gross and slimy? Will be she be a bug? How do we hide her and what she is from others? I have so many questions and I—” 

“Lyra!” Bon Bon’s exclamation silenced Lyra and Bon Bon pulled Bell Heather even closer. The kelpie in her forelegs was watching the egg with wide eyed interest and Bon Bon tried getting closer for a better view. 

Now wide awake, Derpy had lept to the side of the egg and now had her nose an inch away from it, her bad eye was closed, and she was watching everything with her good eye. “Should Crisis be hatching this early? Is this normal?” 

Bucky shrugged. He didn’t know. He wished that Tourmaline was here. He felt swimmy headed—the combined emotions of his wives around him was almost overwhelming. His fears, his worries, his concerns about Crisis were put to rest. The love around him spoke volumes. Crisis would not be an unwelcome addition. 

“I bet all the love that Cadance radiates made Crisis gestate faster,” Lyra said as she bumped into Derpy and stuck her nose close to the egg. “Do you think we’ll need to feed her?” 

“Tourmaline eats,” Bucky said, now curious about Crisis. He didn’t know how developed she would be. They might have to experiment, or, if necessary, Bucky would find a way to get in touch with Queen Chrysalis, which might be just what the bug wanted. 

Within the egg, something squelched as the side of the egg stretched. One stubby little leg was extended and the rubbery egg was stretched tissue paper thin. Inside, Crisis kicked and fussed, causing the egg to wobble within its pile of blankets. 

“Should we help her?” Derpy asked, her good eye narrowing. “It’s very confusing. I want to help her, but a part of me says that she has to be strong enough to escape her own egg.” The pegasus watched as both of Crisis’ hind legs kicked out together but did not rupture the stretchy egg. 

Reaching out his talons, Bucky touched the egg, not aware that he was holding his breath. His eyes were wide, and, still having the body of a yearling, Bucky had the perfect body for the expression of foalish wonder upon his face. He heard sounds from within the egg and his ears perked forwards. He heard something that almost sounded like a whimper and the squishy sounds of Crisis kicking around whatever fluid filled the egg. 

It was at that moment that Bucky had something of an epiphany. He had no brothers, he had no sisters, and while he had witnessed the miracle of birth as an adult, he had never seen it as a foal. He didn’t know if it was intended or if it was by mere coincidence, but Princess Celestia had done him a favour. In this small body, the world was so much larger. The stairs were steep and foreboding. The bed seemed so much higher up. Everything around him was intimidating and huge. He had endured a major shift of perspectives this day and had seen the world in the same way that his foals saw the world every day. 

And now, he was watching as Crisis escaped her egg and made her way into the world. His eyes narrowed as Crisis pushed her head against the shell, and then his eyes widened as she tried something else, pushing outwards with her forelegs. 

“Come on… you can do it.” Lyra touched the egg with her nose, hoping to coax Crisis out. Instead, Crisis punched her eggshell and Lyra’s snoot. The unicorn mare jerked her head back and rubbed her nose, her eyes crossing as she looked down at the egg. “The little scoundrel has a mean left hook, look out.” Lyra’s ears perked as she heard both Bon Bon and Derpy giggling. “Really, I mean it, look out… she’s stronger than you might expect.” 

With a somewhat flatulent sound, Crisis’ horn poked through her shell. Much to Bucky’s surprise, it was white. He blinked, not expecting Crisis to be white. He had expected something black and chitinous, like Tourmaline. 

“She emerges.” 

Turning his head, Bucky saw Amaranth in the doorway. She had a serene smile upon her face. He watched as she approached, and as she drew near, he returned his attention back to his egg. 

“Crisis… Crisis the Demolisher… the first of the flutter ponies.” 

“What are you going on about?” Bon Bon asked, her tone sounding somewhat irritated. She gave Amaranth a curt look as the enigmatic earth pony settled in beside the egg. 

“You are witnessing the birth of a new tribe… a new species of pony. This is a momentous occasion.” Amaranth drew in a deep breath, her sides expanding. “A tribe of pony bred for war, much like the lunar pegasi. Fierce, but gentle protectors. Capable healers.” 

“She’s a weapon?” Lyra asked in a low whisper. 

“She is made from Bucky’s essence,” Amaranth replied as her smile broadened, “she has her father’s desire to protect, to defend, and she will have his capable talent for destruction. She is the first of her kind. Queen Chrysalis is growing an army just like her, but they will emerge from their eggs as adults, ready to fight when Bucky makes his excursion. Queen Chrysalis plans for mischief though.” 

“Mischief?” Bucky asked, looking worried. 

“Oh, nothing too terrible.” Amaranth reached out and stroked Bucky’s face as Crisis continued her struggle to break free. “Chrysalis plans to hatch quite a number of flutter ponies and then leave them in baskets on the porches and stoops of ponies everywhere. She has suffered a crisis of conscience and is now seeking to make some sort of amends. She offers a gift of healing and protection.”

The tear in Crisis’ eggshell grew larger. Bucky heard a grunt from within the egg. A muzzle popped out of the hole and Bucky could see that it too, was white, just like the horn, and covered in greenish yellow ooze. 

With a pop, the muzzle slipped back in the egg and a jet of goo came squirting out. A moment later, the muzzle appeared again, peeking out a bit, and as Bucky watched, he saw Crisis’ mouth open. He saw a flash of sharp looking serrated teeth and he could see the little mouth biting down on the rubbery egg shell. Crisis began gnawing on the egg and Bucky came to the slow realisation that she was eating it, or trying to. The opening grew a little larger. 

“Crisis the Demolisher.” Derpy’s wings fluttered against her sides. “Why can’t she be Crisis the Cuddler or Crisis the Giggler?” 

“Because… during a conflict set in the far future, she will prove herself as her father’s daughter. Like Bucky, she will know the weakness of her enemies. She will be the wreck and ruin of all those who dare threaten Equestria and the peace of this world. She is the Foal of War, the first , and worst of the flutter ponies.” Amaranth lifted her head and looked Derpy in the eye. 

Crisis’ mouth opened wide as she tried to get her maw around the egg and Bucky could see that she had two rows of teeth, one behind the other. Her teeth weren’t quite fangs, but not the square teeth of equines either. Each was serrated, rounded, and came to a bit of a point. She nipped away bits of egg shell and chewed them up. Bucky felt a little disgusted and queasy as he watched Crisis eating her own egg and slurping up gooey, slimy yolk. 

“Those teeth,” Belisama whispered, watching in awe as Crisis nipped away more egg. 

An ear popped out of the egg, causing those watching to become even more attentive. The ear was fuzzy, hairy, it was white and pink flesh could be seen on the inside. A stubby horn was beside it, and a dark teal mane was plastered to the foal’s head. Slime dribbled down the sides of the egg. Crisis’ other ear popped out, shooting upwards and sending slime flying as the ear catapulted it away towards the ceiling. 

With a wet splattering of slime on all those present, Crisis’ head popped free from her egg. Her eyes blinked a few times, her eyelids fluttering, and then her eyes opened to reveal stunning pale green irises. Her pupils were not slitted, nor where they round, but oval. The foal looked around, making burbling sounds, little snot bubbles blowing out from her nostrils and popping with wet splats. Yellow green slime dribbled down from her face. She had a pelt, a beautiful white pelt, and once she was cleaned up and free from the ooze, she would be striking, brilliant white. Her mane was teal coloured, dark on the top of her head and getting lighter down her neck. After looking around for a bit, she resumed trying to eat more of her egg, her maw opening wide and revealing her strange shovel shaped teeth. 

“She’s perfect, I don’t care if she grows up to be a demolisher,” Derpy said as she wiped away both tears and slime from her face. 

“She’s a pony… she doesn’t look like a changeling at all.” Confused, Bon Bon blinked and shook her head. “I don’t understand. Is this illusion?” 

“Nope,” Bucky replied, not knowing how he knew. “This is how she is. Look at her, look how wonderful she is. I wonder if she’ll eat her whole egg.” 

“She’s no different than the newborns, if you ignore her teeth. She’s about the same size and everything. It’s hard to believe that she hatched from an egg.” Thistle reached out and with a light touch of her folded fetlock, caressed Crisis’ cheek. The foal made a strange gurgling sound and leaned her head into Thistle’s tender touch. 

“She’s amazing, just like the others. Quick, somepony go and get a camera. We need to snap pictures of this moment.” Derpy leaned her head forwards and sniffed the foal. She paused, mid sniff when Crisis turned her head and sniffed her in return. “She’s looking at me.” 

From the nursery, there came a cry which was soon joined by others, the sounds of hungry foals waking up and wanting to be nursed. Derpy sighed, shaking her head, and her wings flapped against her sides. “I swear, we just fed them.”

“Teeny tiny newborns have teeny tiny stomachs. Harper wanted to be fed almost every hour, just like clockwork,” Lyra said as she tore her gaze away from Crisis and looked at the nursery door. “We’ll bring them all in here so we can keep watching.” 

“I’ll go fetch the camera,” Belisama said as she got up. “I bet that Bandua will be wanting something to eat as well.” 

Crisis, making happy sounding gurgles, continued to eat her egg, looking both disgusting and adorable as she gnawed upon the rubbery cradle that she had been born from. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 846
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing voices, Bucky struggled to free himself from the darkened void of sleep. He heard laughter, quiet subdued laughter, but laughter. As he rose from the depths of the dreaming realms, he felt that the dawn had happened and he had a passing thought, wondering if Clotho had  found a cure for his sickness. His eyes opened, it was still early, but he wasn’t certain what time it was. 

The bed was empty, but Bucky was not alone. As he gained consciousness, he could feel the love around him. It was overwhelming, like drinking too much strong drink. Bucky was still learning about all of the different emotions that he could sample, but maternal affection was beginning to stand out—it was so powerful that sometimes it felt as though it was burning him from the inside. 

Yawning, he lifted his head. He heard Sentinel’s voice and soft laughter coming from the nursery. Rolling over, Bucky slipped out of bed, blinking his eyes, and he stumbled over to the nursery door, smacking his lips after yawning once more. 

Peering into the nursery with bleary eyes, he saw Sentinel… attacking? Sentinel had his head low and he was prowling around Derpy’s nest on the floor. Crisis was moving around Derpy, her legs wobbling, but she was mobile and moving around quite well. Crisis’ eyes were a dark, fierce green. She kept moving between Sentinel and Derpy, her mouth opened and her strange shovel shaped teeth bared. 

As Bucky stood there watching, Sentinel kept repeating the words, “Gonna getcha, gonna getcha,” over and over again while acting like he was going to attack at any moment. Crisis’ horn was emitting sparks and the little fierce filly was growling. A blast of green magic flew from her horn and scorched the wooden floor near Sentinel. 

As Sentinel toppled over and played dead, Bucky made a few quick conclusions. Crisis didn’t have to miss, something told Bucky, some gut instinct, Crisis could have zapped Sentinel. She was playing a game and somehow, she understood the rules. The little filly’s green eyes were becoming lighter, the dark green becoming a soft, pale green as a smile spread over her face. From where Bucky stood, he could see a couple of scorch marks on the wooden floor. 

“Good morning, Bucky,” Derpy said as she turned to look at Bucky in the door. “Sentinel and Crisis were playing a game. Sorry we woke you.” 

“Crisis is amazing.” Sentinel rolled over and got to his hooves. He bounced up, crossed the room with unusual enthusiasm, and stood before Bucky, looking up at his father with a broad smile upon his face. “She doesn’t just lay there like a lump and I got her to play with me.” 

“Son, laying there like a lump is kinda what most foals were meant to do.” Bucky sat down on the floor, looking at Sentinel, glad to see Sentinel acting a bit more like usual after all of the trouble. “Make sure you are ready for school.” 

“I will be, father.” Sentinel bowed his head, but his smile remained. He turned around, rising, and went over to where Derpy lay on the floor in the middle of a thick quilt. Crisis met him, her head high, a most curious look upon her face, and Sentinel nosed her, bumping snoots with his smaller, but no less fierce sibling. 

Crisis let out a cooing gurgle, happy to have Sentinel’s affection. 

“I have stuff I need to do to get ready for school. Look after the others, Crisis.” Sentinel puckered up and planted a kiss on top of Crisis’ head, making a loud smacking sound, and the strange little filly bounded away on springy legs. 

As Sentinel left, Derpy’s wings fluffed out. “She is so attentive. Bucky, I keep having bad thoughts and it bothers me.” 

“Bad thoughts?” Bucky stood up, his remaining bad hind leg popping as he rose. 

“I keep having awful thoughts about Crisis and it makes me feel bad. She’s been such a good filly. She’s so protective… and…” 

“What’s the problem?” Bucky asked as he flopped down on the quilt next to his wife. 

“Bucky, I feel terrible for having these thoughts, like I’m a bad mother—” 

“Just tell me what is going on in that pretty head of yours,” Bucky said. 

“I keep wondering if Crisis is just being a good… whatever she is or if she is just protecting her food source.” Derpy’s voice was low whisper. “This bothers me so much. I hate myself for thinking it, but I can’t stop.” 

“So what if she is?” Bucky replied. “We all have to have motivations. Crisis is still little, I think, still developing, still becoming whatever she was meant to be. For now, she might be a little bundle of instincts. She might be protecting her food… but if we praise her and give her lots of love for doing this now, she might continue to do it for other reasons once her mind develops and she grows up a bit.” 

The grey mare turned her head, focusing her good eye on Crisis, who was now creeping closer to Bucky, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed. She felt a bit of a giggle rising up in her throat as Bucky sniffed back and Crisis’ ears pitched forwards. The foal looked so serious, almost grown up even. She watched as Bucky kissed her, then grabbed her. Crisis let out a strange sound, almost a hiss, then the little white filly allowed herself to be cuddled. 

“Where is Cadance?” Bucky asked. 

“Off sulking and having breakfast I think,” Derpy replied. The grey mare looked sad as she glanced at her husband, watching as he pressed his muzzle into Crisis’ tiny stomach. “I hope she’ll come around.” Ears perking, Derpy heard Crisis laughing, there could be no mistaking the sound, and she felt the corners of her mouth pull upwards as Bucky blew a raspberry against Crisis’ stomach. 



 

Pacing up and down the hall, Lyra Heartstrings glanced at the closed door to the farmhouse library. A group of zebras had arrived at the farm with Twilight Sparkle, delegates from Canterlot, diplomatic sorts with hard faces and flinty eyes. They had arrived early, it seemed, as Violet wasn’t ready for them and Bucky wasn’t quite up and about just yet. 

Lyra knew why they were here, at the farmhouse, working with Bucky. She didn’t know everything, but she knew that the zebras were big supporters of Bucky’s plan to strike back against the mirror travelers. As for Lyra herself, she didn’t know how she felt about the whole thing. Bucky, in the view of most, was doing something bad, something awful, Bucky had made allies with the changelings, one of the most hated species on Granum. 

Bucky believed it was necessary, and Lyra trusted Bucky’s judgment, at least on this issue. The enemy had spared no quarter and had done deplorable things. Now, it was Bucky’s turn to be deplorable, and Lyra Heartstrings had no doubts that Bucky was the more capable one in this horrendous battle of wits. 

Only the barest details of Bucky’s plan were known by Lyra. Create a portal to the mirror travelers' home dimension, send an army through the portal, steal some earth ponies, and unleash every horrific disease or plague that the zebra alchemists could muster through infected, infested changelings. As far as plans went, Lyra thought it was a good one, at least in theory, there was no telling how it might play out when put into action though. 

Lyra also knew that Twilight was against the plan, but had agreed to go along with it anyway, understanding that something needed to be done. As awful as it was, Lyra hoped that what it brought about would one day prove good in the future. Making peace with the changelings seemed like a worthwhile goal and Queen Chrysalis was a fearsome enemy. 

She was also proving to be a fearsome ally. Lyra thought of Crisis; if Crisis was the only good thing that came out of all of this, Lyra could live with that. Crisis made Bucky happy, she made the whole family happy, and if there was one thing Lyra knew, one had to find happiness in the middle of all of the misery, otherwise, what was the point of life? 

“Go out?”

Blinking, Lyra stopped and looked down. Harper was peering up at her, her eyes wide, a playful expression on her face. “You want to go outside?” Lyra smiled and her mane spilled down around her face as she looked down at the filly that was her daughter. “Your face is all sticky, come here, let me clean you up and then we’ll get the others and go outside.” 



 

“They’ve been in there for a long time.” Derpy looked over at Lyra beside her and saw the spring sunshine glinting in Lyra’s eyes. The sun was warm but the breeze was cool, it was an almost perfect spring morning. Derpy watched as Harper and Cadance wrestled in the grass, Cadance was being good and not using her superiour strength to pin Harper into submission. Sukari was laying on her side, her eyes closed, napping in the sun. 

“Feels strange not having Thistle with us.” Lyra frowned, shifted her body a bit, and felt Dizzy squirming against her foreleg. “I mean, normally, when she isn’t with us, she is in the lake and she can be summoned… she’s gone.” 

“She has a job to do,” Derpy replied. The grey pegasus grinned. “Thistle is growing up. She’s become quite the little mare.” 

“You call Thistle a mare but still call Sparkler a filly.” Lyra heard Derpy snort and she felt Dizzy snuffling against her. 

“That’s different.” Derpy’s mouth pressed into a small, tight, straight line. “Sparky is…” Derpy fell silent, unable to finish her sentence. A sour expression spread over her face. She lowered her head and pressed her muzzle against little Barley’s ear. The colt let out a squeal of happiness and rubbed his head against Derpy’s snoot, his little eyes blinking as he made more happy sounds. 

“I think Barley is the most affectionate one,” Lyra said, changing the subject. “Look at him. He doesn’t care who is loving on him, he just wants to be loved. He’s so friendly.” 

“I don’t know if they have personalities yet or if we are just seeing what we want to see.” Derpy’s words tickled against Barley’s ear, causing the colt to giggle and shake. “But Barley is one of the most loving little foals I have seen.” 

“I wonder how Berry is doing,” Lyra said as Harper climbed on top of Cadance and tried to pin the pink alicorn. “I miss Berry…” Lyra’s voice lowered. “I miss her kisses. Not the sexy ones, but the sweet ones… you know, like the ones she gives to wake a pony up or the little kisses she does when she wants you to feel better.” 

“Things aren’t the same without Berry around.” Derpy smiled as Cadance flipped Harper over and got the little unicorn filly into a headlock. Cadance was fierce, but also gentle. Harper was giggling and not harmed in the slightest. “Bucky is going to be leaving us again. He has to go off and do whatever it is that he is going to do. There is a lot of fuss being made about all of this.” 

“Does this bother you at all?” Lyra asked. 

“I dunno.” Derpy shrugged with her wings. “I understand that Bucky has to do what he has to do. I understand that he is about to do something bad, perhaps the worst thing he has ever done. I couldn’t figure out how I felt about it so I just stopped thinking about it, and tried to focus on the good that might come out of it. I have Crisis and I’m happy.” 

“I guess it really does come down to that, doesn’t it?” Lyra scowled and shook her head. “A hundred years from now, I wonder how they will portray this in the history books. How much truth about all of this will they tell. I suppose how this is seen has a lot to do with Queen Chrysalis… if she becomes our ally, Bucky might be forgiven and the history books might remember this as a questionable act that brought us together… but if Queen Chrysalis remains a villain, then Bucky might be seen as a villain too… just another horrific act done by the Lord of Winter.” 

“The world will never remember Bucky in the same way that we know him. They don’t see him like we do. They don’t see him as a father, or as a husband, they don’t see him pacing around the room at night trying to figure out new ways to save lives and end war.” Derpy lowered her head and brushed her cheek against Barley, causing the little colt to kick and wiggle. “Right now, history is being made in the library, something that Bucky will be remembered for, but the things that Bucky does in the house, all of those things will be forgotten.” 

Turning, Lyra watched as Crisis prowled around in the grass, her nose to the ground, exploring the world around her. Her teal coloured mane blew in the breeze and a strange new fear filled Lyra’s mind. 

Grass stains. Crisis was white, so very white. Not pale pink, appearing to be white, or a pearlescent grey masquerading as white, but white. Lyra’s ears perked as Crisis’ diaper crinkled. Changing her had been a trying experience, Crisis’ pure white pelt held on to stains. If Crisis decided to tumble around in the grass and have herself a roll, she would be stained green. 

Almost holding her breath, Lyra wondered how they would keep Crisis clean. She thought of every horrible thing lurking in the house. The corner of Lyra’s eye twitched and one ear flickered. Chocolate. Grape jelly. Bright red fruit punch. Magic markers. Dinky’s paints, which Harper kept getting into, much to Dinky’s annoyance. The other foals burping up a meal. Lyra felt a scream lurking deep down within her insides. Crisis’ beautiful white pelt was not a blessing, but a curse. Queen Chrysalis had done this on purpose… the bug queen was pure, undiluted evil, and for a moment, Lyra hoped that Bucky, who had a special brand of evil all his own, would find an excuse to make Chrysalis go away. Crisis’ white pelt was an act of creeping insidious evil, something done to disrupt and destroy the harmony of their household, what little harmony that they had. If Lyra ever meet Queen Chrysalis, there would be words, oh so many words. 

“Oh stars, Derpy, we’re in trouble, how are we going to keep Crisis clean?” Lyra breathed. 

“I’m hoping that Bucky knows a spell, otherwise, how is it that unicorns say it? We’re horned...” 
	
> Chapter 847
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“No no no, pucker up your lips and then blow gently,” Derpy said and then she demonstrated her technique. She took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing, puckered up her lips, and then blew into the bubble wand. A long stream of bubbles floated away from the bright pink bubble wand that Derpy held in her wingtips. 

Harper, Cadance, and Sukari all watched the bubbles floating away with wide eyed wonder. Harper, who kept blowing raspberries at the bubble wand, had not had much success at making bubbles happen. Cadance blew far too hard, and Sukari wasn’t blowing hard enough. The foals were entranced by the shimmering rainbow tinted soap bubbles as they floated away. 

The grey mare dipped the bubble wand into the bubble mixture, pulled it out, and blew once more, sending forth another stream of bubbles, this time directed at Harper. Harper, under attack by bubbles, tried biting one. She jerked her head back, shaking, her whole body shuddering, spitting and sputtering, trying to get the soapy taste out of her mouth while Cadance and Sukari both fell over laughing. 

Unable to help herself, Derpy too, began to chuckle as Harper made adorable faces of disgust. She heard Lyra laughing, a faint sound, Lyra, who was nursing Brandywine at the moment was trying not to disturb the foal as it suckled. 

“Blech!” Harper cried and then she stuck out her tongue and licked her own leg to be rid of the horrible taste. She spat some more, gagged, and then looked up at Derpy with wide, confused eyes. Bubbles did not taste like fun, but more like bathtime. 

A breeze blew, caressing those who lounged upon the lawn as Derpy blew another stream of bubbles. She heard the front door of the house open, and, lifting her head, Derpy saw Bucky coming outside. Her heart raced a bit inside of her barrel. He was wearing his heavy black cloak to protect him from the sun and she figured that he was coming out for his daily dose of sunshine. He was a bit later than usual, but better late than never.

The perky pegasus smiled as her mate approached and she blew a stream of bubbles at him. Harper was still spitting and blowing raspberries, trying to get the soap off of her tongue, while Sukari had calmed down a bit and Cadance was watching as her father approached with wide, excited eyes. 

The front door opened again and a herd of zebras came out, along with Twilight Sparkle and Violet Velvet. Derpy watched them, they all looked solemn, serious, they were stony faced. It made Derpy feel bad for having fun when such seriousness had been going on. Bucky too, looked serious and a bit miserable. 

“How was the meeting?” Derpy asked as Bucky sat down on the edge of the quilt. 

“The zebras are upset. They demanded to know why something like this hasn’t been done sooner. So many lives have been lost and the zebra delegates feel that more should have been done sooner, that those lives might have been saved. I could not come up with a good answer and poor Twilight, she is having a lot of trouble with this. In her words, the cold, unfeeling, brutal attitudes of the zebras disturb her.” Bucky sighed and then looked down at his foals. “Could I have done more? Have I made a mistake by allowing the mirror travelers to strike us first and then reacting? Could I and should I have figured out a way to take the fight to them long before now?” 

“Don’t second guess yourself,” Derpy replied as she watched Bucky look down at Crisis and little Barley, who were sleeping together, their legs and bodies entwined. “You look like you could use a smile.” 

“Derpy, love, I’m sorry, but I don’t feel much like smiling now. I just feel miserable. I feel bad that Twilight is going along with this even though she hates it. I feel bad that she feels rotten for doing this. I feel awful that the zebras might be right… maybe I should have found a way to strike back directly and struck a blow before so many lives were lost in the winter war.” 

Her smile never fading, Derpy held up the bubble wand and blew a stream of bubbles at Bucky. She watched as they flew all around him, some of them hitting his cloak and popping. His face was lost in the shadows of his hood but his muzzle was almost visible. No sign of a smile. Sighing, still smiling, the grey mare knew that she was going to have to resort to desperate measures. 

“So… Bucky… why the long face?” Lyra asked, the unicorn was grinning ear to ear. 

“I would answer you, but I’m feeling a little hoarse,” Bucky replied, speaking in deadpan with no trace of a smile. “Really, Lyra, that was terrible.” 

“I know.” Lyra wiggled her hips and shook Brandywine free. The foal was almost asleep and nodding as she was feeding. Lyra, after sitting up, lifted Brandywine and began trying to get the foal to burp. 

“Well, there is only one thing left to do.” Derpy, still smiling, stood up and stretched her legs. She stretched her back next, her smile widening, stretched out her wings, and then she gave herself a full body shake. 

She turned around, pointing her backside at Bucky, she lifted up her tail, flicking it off to one side, and, using her wing, she reached around and held the bubble wand in front of her exposed pucker. The grey mare took a deep breath, closed her eyes, strained for a moment, causing her whole backside to flex, and then, with a pealing note, she let rip, farting, and a stream of bubbles flew away from the bubble wand, floating right towards Bucky’s face. 

Violet Velvet, Twilight Sparkle, and the entire group of zebra delegates stopped and stared at the sight of the grey pegasus mare farting out a stream of bubbles into her husband’s face. 

Bucky fell over as if he had been poleaxed, clutching his stomach and his sides, not so much laughing as he was choking. Lyra guffawed, her eyes squeezing shut as she sucked in wind in great wheezing gasps in between bouts of laughter. Cadance fell over, laughing, her four legs kicking as her wings flapped. Sukari was shaking as she giggled, and Harper exploded with laughter. 

Giggling, Derpy dipped the bubble wand into the bottle of bubble mix and then held it up to her backside to give it another go, letting rip with another long stream of bubbles as she let go of another hearty, farty, bubbly butt blast. 

“Mama, no!” Cadance cried as she rolled over and covered her face with her forelegs, still laughing but also coughing. “Smell bad!” 

Derpy dunked the bubble wand into the bottle of bubble mix, sat down, and watched as her family laughed, feeling good about herself and ignoring the commotion going on with the zebras. Derpy’s ears perked, she could her a lot of snorting and laughing, but she focused on her family, hoping that Bucky felt better. 





“Will Twilight be okay?” Derpy asked Violet Velvet as Violet moved about the kitchen to prepare tea. The maternal pegasus felt worried, Twilight had been in quite a state when she had left. 

“Twilight was torn between her need to laugh and her need to have good manners. I suppose she will be okay, but I do believe she will be laughing about this all night at home.” Violet lifted up a tray of goodies in her levitation and carried it over to the table where Bucky and Derpy were sitting together. 

Bucky looked a little weak and droopy after sitting out in the sun for a while, but the stallion was smiling, for this, Violet Velvet was grateful. Bucky had endured a hard morning and the weight of what he was going to do was crushing him. 

“The zebra diplomats and delegates will have quite a story to tell about the bubble blowing pegasus,” Violet said as she set the small pitcher of cream down upon the table, placing it next to the sugar bowl. “Honestly, I think that was just what everypony needed after such a serious and if I might be straightforward, bleak meeting. Thank you, Derpy.” 

“Glad I could help,” Derpy replied and after she spoke, the pegasus began to chuckle a bit. She eyed the tray of goodies with a hungry expression, she was starving. She had eaten lunch a while ago, Semillon had been nice enough to bring it outside and serve it as a picnic, but Derpy felt as though she hadn’t eaten a thing. The foals were draining her of milk as fast as she could produce it. She needed Berry here. Derpy felt a touch of sadness when she thought of Berry Punch. She hoped that Berry was okay. 

The meeting went straight through lunch, I’m going to implode,” Bucky said, almost grumbling. “I hope I can eat without too much trouble, I have no idea what I’m in the mood for.” 

“I do believe that Semillon is out in the greenhouse, getting together the veggies she needs for dinner… I could fix you something,” Violet offered. 

“I can fix myself something.” Bucky lifted his head and looked at his secretary. She liked doing what she did, and he could see the look of disappointment upon her face. He sighed. “Fine, you can fix something. Surprise me.” 

“Very well,” Violet replied as she disappeared into the pantry. 



 

“Sukari, why are you so sad looking?” Yew Wood asked as she looked down at the rather mopey looking zebra filly. Yew, who had just come in from helping her husband deal with a wild pig carcass, was feeling a bit worn out and wanted nothing more than to spend some time cuddling with Brennus. 

“Dunno,” Sukari replied. 

The zebra filly looked up at the chestnut coloured one eyed pegasus. Sukari didn’t know why she was sad. She was having a hard time remembering. Life had been different once, but each day, it was becoming harder and harder to remember those other times. She had once had a different baba, but now, she couldn’t remember him at all, she had only the memory that he existed, but nothing else. Other memories were fading too. She still had the mark on her face, she didn’t like looking at it in the mirror, but she couldn’t remember how she had got it, only that it had been painful. 

Yew Wood sat down upon the living room floor, her backside coming to rest upon the sun warmed wooden planks. Her tail swished out behind her. Reaching out a foreleg, she wrapped it around Sukari, pulled the filly close, and gave her a hug, holding on to her and giving her an extra squeezy pegasus hug. When she pulled away, Sukari was smiling, much to Yew’s relief. A real smile, not the fake smile little foals give their parents when they want to be brave and show there was nothing wrong. 

“Feel better?” Yew asked. 

“Yes.” Sukari nodded her head. She did feel better. She loved the one eyed pegasus as much as she loved anypony else in this house. The one eyed pegasus had a mark on her face too, and looking at it sometimes made Sukari feel better, even though she could not say why. The one eyed pegasus was loved, everypony and everybirdy in the house loved her, even with the awful mark on her face, which meant that the love shown to Sukari was real. It wasn’t just somepony being nice. Baba also had a messed up face and he loved her. 

Sukari blinked; she had been sad about something, but now she was having trouble remembering what. It had just been a few minutes ago, but it was already gone from her mind. She shook her head, whatever it was she was feeling bad about wasn’t important. She looked up at Yew, her bright blue eyes glittering with emotion. 

“Brennus?” Sukari asked in a low, hopeful voice. Sukari liked the kitten creatures, both Brennus and Bandua. They were ugly, like her. 

“Yes, let’s go bug Magpie and see how my little Brennus is doing.” Yew Wood leaned down her head and kissed Sukari on top of her head, right between her ears, and she felt Sukari’s ears tickling her cheeks. “Let’s go.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 848
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You’ve been into my paints again!” Dinky’s voice came out as half whine and half groan as she stood in the doorway looking at her little sister. At that moment, Dinky felt a lot of things, a bit of anger, a bit of frustration, and a bit of guilt for being angry as well as frustrated. She dumped her schoolbag full of homework on the floor, heaved a sigh of annoyance, and then bit her lip, determined not to be angry. There was plenty of times that she had got into Sparkler’s stuff and Sparkler never got too angry. 

“Like paint.” Harper looked up at Dinky, a paint brush hanging out of the corner of her mouth. “Paint pretty. Harpy like pretty.” Harper, not knowing what else to do, stared at Dinky with wide, unblinking eyes, hoping that Dinky would be nice, the only thing a little sister could do in this situation. 

“Okay, Harper, new rule—” 

“No touch paint,” Harper said, slumping down, having heard this rule many, many times now. The corners of her mouth sagged and she almost dropped the paintbrush hanging from the corner of her lips. 

“No, Harper… new rule… if you want to paint, come and find me. We’ll paint together and I’ll help you so you won’t make a mess out of my watercolour paints. You never clean your brushes or do anything and they all end up smeared together.” Dinky strode forward, giving Harper a gentle smile. “Also, stop painting on the floor. The paint soaks through the paper you are using and gets into the rug or stains the hardwood floor. That gets me in trouble because I’m supposed to be responsible.” 

Gazing into Harper’s eyes, Dinky wondered if she caused Sparkler to become frustrated and angry on a regular basis. Sparkler was always so happy and cheerful, she had been a great big sister, she had always been so patient, loving, and kind. Sighing, Dinky felt ashamed. She had hollered at Harper a few times now, lost her temper more than once, and now, looking at Harper, she could see that Harper seemed to be afraid of her. Little sisters were supposed to feel safe and be able to trust their big sisters. 

“My homework can wait a bit, I think,” Dinky said to Harper as she levitated out her easel from the corner and unfolded it. Without knowing why, Dinky wanted to see Sparkler, give her a hug, and tell her ‘thank you.’ Dinky levitated up her paints, pulled out a roll of paper towels, and began to daub out the smeared together paints as best as she could. “Come on, Harper, let’s paint a picture together. Your brush strokes could use some work and I can show you some techniques that will help you.” 

The paintbrush held in Harper’s mouth clattered to the floor, splattering paint everywhere. Dinky ignored it, she would have to clean it up later. A moment later, Harper was hugging her, her little forelegs wrapped tight around Dinky’s neck. She felt her eyes go moist; the urge to talk to Sparkler and say a few things intensified a great deal. 

She had taught Harper so much already, little things that would help Harper out in life. Bathroom habits, little tricks to keep her tail out of the toilet. Dinky helped Harper to brush her teeth. Harper was able to shampoo herself now and rinse it out most of the time. Her moistened eyes grew hot and Dinky wrapped a foreleg around Harper, giving her sibling a fierce hug. 

In that moment, Dinky understood her place in the larger scheme of things, she understood how lucky she was to have Sparkler, but not just Sparkler. Piña too, Sentinel, and she was privileged to be a big sister herself now. Harper was good practice, Sukari as well, but the zebra filly was a lot more independent. In time, the newborns would be older and Dinky would be needed to help them. 

Looking down into Harper’s hopeful, happy eyes, Dinky gave Harper a warm smile. “You and I are going to do some painting and this will be special Harpy and Dinky time. Would you like that?” 

Harper nodded, almost bouncing in place, her head bobbing up and down. “Yes yes yes, Harpy like.” 

“Let’s see what we can make…” 



 

Hearing the sound of Twilight Sparkle’s spoon clinking against her coffee mug, Bucky’s ears perked. He glanced at Twilight, who seemed out of sorts, and felt a little worried. A lot was riding upon Twilight’s mental alertness and Bucky was fearful what a distracted alicorn might do. She had been stirring her coffee for several minutes now. 

“You gonna be up for tonight?” Bucky asked in a low voice, trying to see if he could get Twilight’s attention the easy way or the hard way. Much to his surprise, Twilight blinked a few times and then looked at him. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just… I dunno… the meeting earlier. Those zebras have some pretty unrealistic expectations of you. I think everypony does. Even me. I was thinking about it.” Twilight pulled her spoon out of her coffee, her eyes never leaving Bucky, and set it down upon the table. “Flash should be bringing Glass Slipper by soon. Hopefully, she’s been napping most of the day. We’re going to need her tonight. Discord will be here at sundown and I think he said that Fluttershy was coming with him, along with Tranquility and Lunacy. Rarity… I don’t know when she’ll be over.” 

“Sunset Shimmer and Trixie both have been preparing. Star Swirl’s rod of portal control is waiting in the upper lab.” Bucky reached up and rubbed his chin with his talons. “Do you think having Discord around will smooth out the imperfections and make the portal control rod safer to use?” 

“Yes, call it a gut feeling. Discord is necessary now for so many things. He has been a huge asset into my studies into harmonics. Funny how life is… we need a source of chaos in order to make a truly harmonious system. All those years with Discord sealed away in stone, we were actually doing serious harm to the world.” Twilight lifted up her coffee cup, sniffed, and took a sip of the steaming, creamy brown liquid. 

“You really do believe that, don’t you?” Bucky asked. 

After pulling her mug away from her lips, Twilight nodded. “A lot of things went wrong Bucky… the balance was destroyed. Discord was sealed away in stone, Princess Luna was banished to the moon, and the Elements of Harmony secreted themselves away, abandoning their former bearers. And while the world appeared to be getting better… civilisation grew, nations formed, technological progression happened, we suffered from cosmic decay. Magic grew unstable. The heavens broke down. Love and friendship both suffered. The world became a place filled with spite and hatred. Somehow, poor Princess Celestia suffered through those thousand turns of the seasons all alone, trying to hold everything together and the world rotted away around her, slowly dying, a world filled with false hope and entropy.” 

“That’s pretty heavy, Twilight.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he now understood why Twilight seemed so distracted. She had been thinking, that much was obvious. 

The clatter of hooves on the floor caused both Twilight and Bucky to turn and look at the two fillies entering the kitchen. Harper came trotting in and Dinky followed along behind her. Dinky was holding a sheet of paper and Harper was grinning ear to ear. 

“Mama Mama, Harpy painted you a picture.” Harper came to a dead stop just a few feet away from Bucky’s chair and looked up at Bucky with wide, adoring eyes. Her whole body shook as Dinky laid the paper down upon the table. 

Peering down, Bucky had himself a look. He had no idea what it was, but it was purple, it was brown, it had some blue, it had four legs, which was good, but it also appeared to have a fifth leg growing out of what might have been its head. Bucky had no idea what it was and he wasn’t sure what to do. These moments always made him feel fearful and anxious. Harper had no doubt poured everything she had into making this and he had no idea what it was. He didn’t want to hurt Harper’s feelings and he didn’t know what to say. 

“This is very nice,” Bucky said, all too aware that Twilight was smirking at him. “Um, Harpy… what did you paint for me?” 

“A rippobottomus,” Harper replied. 

Twilight snorted and almost choked; she covered her mouth with her foreleg and tried to compose herself, her eyes wide with barely contained laughter. 

“A rippobottomus.” Bucky blinked, still staring at the paper, and his ears splayed out sideways, causing some of his mane to spill down over his face. He heard Dinky giggling and Bucky smiled, but had no clue what a rippobottomus was. “Harpy, can you tell me what a rippobottomus is?” Bucky’s ears perked when Twilight squealed and then wheezed, trying to hold in her laughter. 

“The animal book has a big fat animal that lives in a lake.” Harper’s face contorted as she tried to turn her thoughts into words. “Hides in water. Mama told me it’s fat and it farts bunches.” 

Bucky almost swallowed his tongue, his eyes bulging, and he fought to keep his composure. Harper was making it difficult, she looked as serious as a stone. Dinky was sniggering and Twilight was whimpering while biting down on her own hoof, her sides heaving. 

“The animal rips bottom and is a rippobottomus,” Harper explained. 

Bucky saw Twilight’s eyes squeeze shut and a single tear rolled down her cheek, her whole body shaking. He wasn’t doing so good himself, he felt a powerful tickle in his throat and it took all of his willpower to remain serious. Bucky was certain that he was going to die at any moment, the powerful feeling of constriction in his barrel was growing stronger. 

“What’s funny?” Harper asked. 

“Nothing, you did a very good job,” Bucky replied, realising now that Harper had drawn him a hippopotamus, or had tried to do so, he wasn’t certain, but he suspected that she might have been confused and had drawn a rhinoceros. He wasn’t sure what was hanging off the animal’s head. “I am very, very proud of you. I’m going to hang this on the refrigerator and I am going to label this as a rippobottomus so everypony will see it and be amazed.” 

A pen popped into existence next to Bucky’s head and with great care, he dated the painting, signed Harper’s name, and added the word ‘rippobottomus’ to the bottom of the paper. He was having a lot of trouble breathing now, each breath was laboured and his lungs burned, craving release. A bit of a giggle escaped and Bucky pressed his lips tight together. 

With her hooves clattering, Dinky split, running out of the kitchen, giggling as she departed. Bucky watched her go, straight lipped, and Twilight Sparkle sounded as though she was dying or about to give birth. Bucky, still sitting in his chair, placed the picture on the front of the fridge and secured it in place with magnets. 

“Harpy gonna go find Mama now. She come see rippobottomus.” Smiling from ear to ear, Harper pronked out of the kitchen, bouncing away, leaving behind two stupefied adults. 

Unable to hold it in any longer, Bucky exploded with laughter and fell out of his chair. 



 

After opening the door, Sentinel saw Rarity. She gave him a cool look, he supposed that she was still miffed with him, and she had every right to be. He bowed his head, stepped inside, and said, “Ma’am, do come in.” 

“Le fauteur de troubles,” Rarity said, punctuating her words with a sniff. 

Sentinel heard laughter coming from the kitchen, but he didn’t know what the laughter was about. He also had no clue what Rarity had just said to him. His ears drooped and he looked up at the mare looking down at him. 

“Rarity, be nice,” Coco said as she entered, pushing her way in past Rarity and bumping Rarity aside with her hips. She placed a hoof under Sentinel’s chin, tilted his head to one side, and gave the colt a loud smacker of a kiss on the cheek. “She just called you a maker of trouble.” 

Sentinel was about to say something when Rarity grabbed him and pulled him into a fierce hug. She squeezed him, murmuring something he couldn’t make out, and then she pulled away, her eyes blinking. 

“Oh dear, my mascara is going to run.” Rarity stepped backwards, still blinking, and turned away from Sentinel. “Diamond Tiara sends her regards. She and Sweetie are with my mother and father. She is doing a little better. I hope you know how lucky you are to have her.” 

“I am,” Sentinel replied, not knowing what else to say. “She means a lot to me. She slapped me, you know, just before we left.” 

“Well,” Rarity took a deep breath, turned her head, and looked Sentinel in the eye, “at least she has a little common sense… my lessons on how to deal with ruffians are paying off.” 

“Speaking of scoundrels, where is Bucky?” Coco asked. 

“In the kitchen with Twilight, I think. They’re in there laughing about something.” Sentinel looked up at Rarity, feeling guilty and ashamed. “I’m sorry, I really am.” 

“Not yet you’re not, but you will be.” Rarity’s eyes, glazed over with tears that had not yet fallen, became steely. “I have plans for you… terrible plans… Coco and I are going to need packages delivered in Canterlot and you and Boadicea are going to be doing a lot of flying.” 

After bowing his head, Sentinel nodded. 

“Ask your parents permission to see if you can go see Diamond Tiara. She needs you. She is feeling a little better, but she is troubled. If you can get permission, you should go and comfort her,” Rarity said to Sentinel, her eyelashes fluttering as she tried to keep tears from falling. 

Sentinel found himself grabbed again by Rarity, her foreleg was tight around his neck, and he could feel her trembling. He let himself be held and he could feel Rarity’s body shaking as she struggled to breathe. For reasons he could not give voice to or explain, this hurt him. Inside, he felt just awful. It was clear that Rarity loved him, but was still infuriated with him. He had put her in a terrible position. 

“Le faeteur de troubles,” Rarity whispered, saying the words once more as she squeezed Sentinel as tight as she could, her mascara running down her cheeks. 

For Sentinel, this was the worst punishment he could think of. 
	
> Chapter 849
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t know what I am doing here,” Rarity said as she looked around the laboratory. The amount of raw magic and electricity in the air was causing her mane to frizz out. Her hooves clicked upon the smooth stone floor. She saw scorch marks along one end of the room, a worrisome sign. “Honestly, darling, I am not like the rest of you. I know very little about advanced magic.” 

“Rarity, think of it as tiny sequins that need to be sewn onto a dress. You’re the best telekinetic I know, you can do things that Bucky and I can’t.” Twilight, who moved beside her friend, did her best to sound reassuring. Feeling something brushing up against her leg, Twilight looked down and saw a sleepy looking Glass Slipper yawning up at her. “Somepony didn’t nap today.” 

“Sorry.” Glass Slipper looked up at Twilight, smiled, and yawned again. 

“There is a nice comfy chair over there. Go curl up in the chair and see if you can sleep. I’ll leave a soundproofed bubble around you,” Twilight said to her adopted filly. 

“Okay.” Glass Slipper trotted away, doing as she was told, hopped up into the chair, turned around a few times, yawned yet again, laid down, curled up, and then watched her mother through heavy, sleepy looking eyes that had trouble staying open. 

“There are a lot of little… spider thingies running around,” Rarity said as a group of glass golems scurried around her. 

“Don’t mind them,” Sunset Shimmer replied, “you get used to them. They’re super helpful and necessary to our work.” 

Standing next to a heavy stone table, Trixie began unrolling sheets of paper covered in schematics, notes, and arcane diagrams. Discord, who was standing beside her, looked down and studied the papers, one eyebrow raised and a curious look in his eye. 

“You know, I could just open a portal to where we need to go,” Discord muttered. 

“Too much chaos,” Twilight replied, turning her head to look at Discord. “Star Swirl’s portal control rod also did too much damage… we need to find a harmonious blend of magic that opens a rift but doesn’t do serious harm to the fabric of our local space-time continuum.” 

“I suppose you are right.” Discord slumped, looking a bit disappointed. “Seems we are doomed to do this the hard way. Going to be a lot more work. Well then, let’s see what we have to work with.” Leaning over, Discord looked down at the sheets of paper that had been spread out over the table. He reached out his griffon talons, extended a talon finger, and touched a diagram with his claw. “This is clever… who came up with this?” 

“Trixie did.” Sunset Shimmer came over to the table and looked at Trixie. “Her research returned a number of improvements to both Star Swirl’s and Twilight Sparkle’s designs. This portal won’t be a mirror, but a protected image that will allow us to see where we’re trying to reach. Just step into the image and you’ll land in the spot you are looking at. Trixie is quite gifted at illusion.” 

“I see that.” Discord lifted his head and looked at Trixie, who was blushing, her face having turned a brilliant shade of reddish purple. “So how are we going to power this thing? Star Swirl’s rod was a single unicorn device, most mirror portals draw in power from the ley lines, but this, this has some significant power requirements.” 

“It needs an alicorn battery,” Bucky said, a scowl spread over his face. “We’ll need to draw off of Twilight’s power to operate it. Which means if something goes wrong, Twilight will not be part of the defense, she’ll be vulnerable and weak as she tries to keep the portal open.” 

“It’s the only way—” 

“I accept that, Twilight, but I don’t have to like it.” Bucky shook his head. “I don’t like putting you at risk. That’s my job… I take risks. You’re supposed to remain safe and secure, someplace far away from the danger.” 

“I’d like to know how somepony figured out extra-dimensional viewing.” Discord, his eyes narrowed, peered at Twilight Sparkle. 

“The mirror traveler that Bucky found, he had something called a quantum radio that worked through spooky action. It gave me ideas, it gave me direction, it made me think of things that I would have never thought about before.” Twilight’s eyes, wide, full of curiousity, blinked in rapid succession a few times and then she stared at Discord. “I saw ways to improve it. Make it better. Using crystalline projectors, I can project both sound and visuals… I have plans for Equestria.” 

“Great, the last thing we need is television and radio showing up in Equestria.” Sunset Shimmer snorted, rolled her eyes, and tossed her head back. “Twilight, I’m telling you, television made people stupid. They stopped reading books. The humans on the other side of the mirror are brain damaged.” 

“We’ll just have to project smart stuff through the viewer,” Twilight replied, resuming a now stale argument between her and Sunset Shimmer. “I miss the television on the other side of the mirror… and now I’ve found a way to do it better. Television was flat… I’ll be able to project three dimensional images and anypony will be able to use it… not just unicorns.” 

“Already, all of this talk of this… television is destroying our fragile unity.” Bucky snapped his talons and a dozen spider golems all turned and focused on him. “Pay attention, I need you to make fine crystalline latticework structure just like you’ll see on those diagrams. Do you think you can do that?” 

One golem scurried forwards, its little legs tapping on the stone floor. “Yes, we can do that. What you ask is simple.” 

“Good… good… I’ll let you get to that, then,” Bucky replied. 

“They talk now.” Discord clapped his talons and his paw together. “Sure, plenty of golems talk, but it’s all prerecorded responses… Bucky, you’ve made them smart.” A mischievous grin spread over Discord’s long face. “Bucky, have you thought about stepping beyond the boundaries and creating actual life?” 

Turning to face Discord, Bucky made a reply that silenced the room. “It’s in the planning stages. I’ll probably need your help.” 



 

“I’m getting pudgy.” Loch Skimmer turned sideways and looked at herself in profile. She tried to suck in her gut, failed, sighed, and let her stomach hang out. “You know, I look really, really good lately. My legs have gotten longer, I think I’m a little bigger, hmm, yep.” 

“You’re becoming a really hot mare.” Rising Star looked up from his book, blinked a few times, and gave Loch Skimmer a roguish smile. “In all seriousness, I think pregnancy has been good for you.” 

“Thanks!” Loch Skimmer turned her body around a bit more and checked out her backside in the mirror, looking back over her shoulder. “I’ve gotten wider. I really do look good. I like how I look.” 

Bittersweet came strolling past, staring at Loch Skimmer’s backside in the mirror. The donkey pursed her lips, whistling as she passed, and waved with one ear while making a saucy wink. After crossing the room, she flopped over onto the sofa where Rising Star was reading, got comfortable, and planted a kiss on the unicorn’s cheek. 

Rising Star turned his head towards Bittersweet and saw that her ears were moving. He paid attention, knowing how important it was for Bittersweet to feel like she was being heard. She was pretty, her long eyelashes were distracting, but somehow, Rising Star stuck it out. 

“I’m worried about Ripple,” Bittersweet said, using ear language. “She seems stressed out. She’s worried about the Raptors being accepted.” The donkey paused, her ears going still for a moment, then continued, “I’m worried about you as well. Spring session starts soon. Are you going to be up for it?” 

“I’ll be fine,” Rising Star replied, making careful motions with his lips and rather clumsy movements with his ears. He was trying though, and that counted. “I have Spitfire watching my back and a whole bunch of friends.” Lifting his head, Rising Star bumped snoots with Bittersweet, then his ears perking forwards, he gave her a quick peck on the lips. After pulling his head back, he resumed his careful communication. “Ripple has a lot of expectations. I think everything will be fine and Ripple will succeed, but she is going to sweat it out and worry about it as though she was going to fail.” 

“I wish I was as motivated as my sister, but all I can seem to do lately is eat potato chips and creamy garlic dip.” Loch Skimmer moved away from the mirror and headed for the sofa where Rising Star and Bittersweet were resting together. 

Rising Star watched as Loch Skimmer approached. At some point, not long ago, his feelings had changed for her. She had become more than an object of lust and a means to work out his frustrations. She was carrying his foal. Now, he had complex feelings for her that he had trouble expressing, but he loved her in a most profound way. 

“Are you ready to be a daddy?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Ready or not, I already came,” Rising Star replied, causing Loch Skimmer to titter. 



 

The house was quiet. It was late. Thistle moved down the hall, glad for the quiet, but wishing for a certain somepony to be home. Bucky would be home later, and maybe she would surprise him. Work had been long, much longer than she had thought it  would be. A long walk that stretched from one location to another, all of them Ponyville’s many water sources. All of them, which were considered clean, were deplorable. How or why ponies called them clean was beyond Thistle. Most of them had junk in the bottom. Some of them, the water had gone mucky and was full of algae. Worst of all, this was after a major effort to clean everything up, which meant that everything had been worse at some point. 

It baffled the mind, it did, and Thistle had trouble taking it all in. How could anypony treat something as precious as water as their garbage dump? Nearing the end of the hall, Thistle turned and went into the nursery. It was dark and she heard the sounds of soft breathing. It seemed that Bell Heather had gone to sleep at last. A while ago, when Bell had been put to bed, she had been somewhat fussy. 

Thistle left the nursery and went back down the hall, heading for the living room. She could hear the muffled sound of voices. Fluttershy and Bon Bon sounded as though they were talking. Something about foals, Thistle couldn’t quite make it out, and yarn. Something about foals and yarn. 

It seemed that everything was routine now, sure, there was the new job, and that was good, but everything else was more or less the same, and Thistle didn’t know how she felt about that. She had come here at the end of last summer, and had come to the mainland for a time before that. Everything had been magical then, everything was special, shiny, and new. 

Now, everything was routine and commonplace. The shine had worn off. At some point, electric lights had ceased to be magical and had become humdrum. Mundane. The feeling, the sense of wonder was gone, never to return, that sense of almost foalish wonder that existed along with the feeling of appreciation for living among such magical things. 

All gone. Now, Thistle flicked the hall light on and off with her nose and never gave it a second thought. While the flushing of the toilet still bothered her, she still saw it befouling water, it no longer caused her fits of worry. 

She was no longer quite as special either. Before, ponies would be enchanted, they would be in awe of her and her lake weed mane. Her ability to shapeshift. As a kelpie, she had been a source of curiousity and fascination. Now, she was just another pony very much like any other. The new had worn off and the fascination that others held for her had faded. Bell Heather got more attention than she did, but that was because Bell Heather was impossibly cute. 

As much as she did not want to admit it, Thistle liked being the center of attention. She liked having others be in awe of her. Now, she was like everypony else and she had to find some other way of being special, some other way of standing out. 

But she didn’t know what. A water inspector seemed boring, but she did like the job. Bon Bon got a lot of attention being a candy maker. Bon Bon was interesting and ponies wanted to know more about her. Both what she did and who she was as a pony. 

It was at that moment that Thistle had something of an epiphany. She was growing up and she wasn’t sure who she was as a pony. It was more than wanting attention, it was figuring out who she was other than just a kelpie. She was a pony, but what sort of pony? Before, being a kelpie was more than enough, but now, it seemed that she had to develop some sort of personality. She had to grow up, she had to mature, Thistle realised that she needed friends. Not just her family members, or acquaintances, but friends. 

She knew Fluttershy, but she didn’t know Fluttershy. Fluttershy and Berry Punch were close friends. They both knitted and did stuff together. Fluttershy and Bon Bon were friends and had been for a long time. Thistle paused just outside of the living room. For Thistle, Fluttershy was just a pony that she talked to when Fluttershy came over. They laughed together sometimes, but they really didn’t know each other. 

It was a hard realisation for Thistle to make. Standing in the doorway, Thistle looked into the living room. Fluttershy and Bon Bon were talking. Belisama was holding Bandua, and Thistle could hear faint peeping. Lyra was dozing in a chair, exhausted from a long day of being a mother. 

“Hi there,” Fluttershy said in greeting, “why don’t you come and sit with us?” 

Thistle nodded, feeling glad, prancing into the living room. “Don’t mind if I do…” 
	
> Chapter 850
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The small, crystal studded device  hummed from a residual power drawn from the ley lines, and looked to be very, very portable. Bucky, exhausted, looked around the lab. The sun would be coming up in a few more hours and he was the last one awake. Sunset and Trixie had gone to bed. Discord had returned to the farmhouse to be with Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle, also exhausted, had gone to the farmhouse as well, taking Glass Slipper with her, and was no doubt sleeping in a guest bed on the third floor. 

Rarity had been instrumental to the portal projector’s construction. Bucky’s golems had created the fine crystalline latticework needed to make a frame for the device, Rarity had placed each and every teeny tiny focusing crystal with the precision that only the seamstress had. Each of them had used their magical talents to aid in the construction of the device. Bucky enchanted it, creating spell matrices unique to the item. Twilight Sparkle imbued the portal projector with powerful divination magics to help it find suitable targets to open a portal to. Trixie provided useful illusion spells, aided by Sunset inlaying the spells and granting them permanency. Discord had provided much more than a touch of chaos, but also offered an explanation for extra-dimensional portal protrusions, allowing both Bucky and Twilight a greater understanding of portal mechanics, which in turn allowed for more fine tuned spellcrafting. 

Even though he was tired, Bucky found that he still had a bit more left in him. He took a swig of wine right from the bottle as his golems swarmed over the portal projector device, covering every inch, taking measurements and getting the exact specifications. He swallowed, the wine was rich, red, and a little sweet, with the strong, tart taste of cherries. 

He needed a portal projector as well, but not for travelling to other dimensions. The test run for the portal projector had proven most interesting. Twilight had opened a portal to Canterlot, stepped through, said hello to a very surprised Princess Luna, and then had returned. Bucky reasoned that powering up a portal that reached through this dimension wouldn’t require alicorn level magic, his own magic, which was quite powerful, should do just fine. Of course, he had said nothing about his plans to make a copy of the portal projector to Twilight. 

Such a device could be handy, useful in emergencies or extreme situations. It could, at least in theory, allow Bucky to go anywhere, at any time, to just about any location on Granum. Which meant that future problems would get a surprise visit from the Lord of Winter… and then cease to be problems. Of course, Bucky would never use the device unless it was an extreme emergency. He didn’t want Twilight knowing that he had it and using it even once would be a dead giveaway. He reasoned that it was better to have a portal projector and never need it than to need a portal projector and not have it. 

It would be a little difficult to duplicate the spells from the finished portal projector, but Bucky was confident that he could manage well enough to suit his own needs. He took another long pull of wine and felt warmth blossoming in his barrel. His ears perked to the sound of hooves on the stairs. 

Looking up, Bucky saw Clotho entering the lab. She looked weary, tired, her ears were drooping and she had a defeated look about her. He took another drink of wine and then set the bottle down upon the table. 

“Come to lecture me about what I’m doing?” Bucky asked. 

“No,” Clotho replied as she entered the room, her eyes focused on Bucky, “what you are doing is necessary. Continue, if you please.” The earth pony mare crossed the room and then stopped when she was just a few feet away from Bucky. 

“So what brings you here?” Bucky looked at Clotho, lifted up his wine bottle, and then emptied it with a few large gulps. He smacked his lips and enjoyed the pleasant feeling of gentle warmth filling him. 

“Try as I might, I have been having difficulty seeing a future where I have found a cure for you.” Clotho looked sad, her tired eyes closed for a moment and she shook her head. “The best future that I can see is weakening your disease, but not curing it. I can make you as you were before… still vampiric, but only in a mild, very weak sort of way.” Opening her eyes, she looked at Bucky, giving him an apologetic glance. 

The wine bottle was set down on the table with a thump and Bucky’s talons tapped upon the floor. “If this is the best that can be done, so be it.” 

“You’re not upset?” Clotho asked. 

“No, should I be?” Bucky replied. 

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I was expecting.” Clotho took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. “I’ll get to work soon. I know the ingredients I need.” Clotho looked Bucky in the eye, her expression one of sympathy. “This will weaken you a great deal. As awful as it sounds, the vampirism has made you strong. As you are, you are a much greater threat to our enemies. Lachesis and Atropos do not want me to cure you… I have had no help from them with this problem.” 

“I understand that it is useful, but I do not wish to keep living this way… don’t get me wrong, any sort of power is useful, we need every weapon we have… but I can’t keep going on like this.” Bucky reached up and rubbed his shaggy chin as a look of regret crept over his features. 

“So, for once, you are being selfish and looking out for yourself,” Clotho said. 

Looking sheepish, Bucky nodded. “I suppose I am.” 

“Good for you.” Clotho let out a halfhearted chuckle that sounded more sad than happy. “You need to look out for yourself… Bucky, you are killing yourself by degrees.” 

“I know… but what else can I do?” For a moment, Bucky’s composure broke and his face showed the pain that he had inside, but then he became stony, his face becoming hard, unfeeling, his stare flinty. “It isn’t like it matters. I know when I die… I keep having that dream… the big battle in the sky… the shadow that looms everything… if I join that battle, the alicorn of war dies… but I can’t run away. I know the battle will claim my life, but I can’t run away and leave others that I love to fight that battle.” 

Clotho drooped, her ears going limp. “My vision blurs… I know of the battle of which you speak, but I can see nothing beyond it. I do not know the outcome, and neither do my sisters. We fear it.” Clotho stared into Bucky’s eyes, her own becoming misty. After a long time staring, she drew in a deep breath then said, “I’m going to go bother that horrendous eyeball plucking, intestine slurping, heart devouring bird of yours for a feather. I’m going to need it for when I brew up your elixir. Try to get some sleep, Bucky. You look awful.” 

“I will, I promise…” 



 

Dawn would be here soon. Already, the sky was greying. Bucky, standing in the dewy grass, felt Freezerburn sitting on his back. The morning was cold, chilly, quite cold for the spring, but not to the point of frost. The breeze made it feel colder 

“How’s fatherhood?” Bucky asked. 

Freezerburn squawked, flapped his wings, and then lifted his head high. He opened his beak and let out a piercing cry that was no doubt loud enough to wake most of the ponies sleeping for about a mile around. Bucky laughed as he felt Freezerburn’s claws prickling his back through his cloak.

“And how is the missus?” Bucky looked up into the hollow tree, eyeing the hole where the nest was. Philomena was in the nest with the chicks, of which there were three. Three little orange chicks that looked like their mother. 

There was another loud cry from Freezerburn, followed by incessant hooting. Derpy had once complained that Freezerburn’s hooting sounded like a constipated owl, a statement that caused Bucky no end of amusement. 

“I wonder if you’ll be heartbroken when you have to toss your chicks out of your nest,” Bucky said as Freezerburn began preening himself. “Or will it be easier for you? It’s hard being a parent… paradoxical even… you want your offspring to be independent and capable of standing on their own, but you also want them to obey every word you say… I find it very difficult sometimes to deal with. When they don’t listen to me, I get upset, but I also get upset that I’m getting upset. I want my foals to be a little defiant. I want them to think for themselves. I want them to be free thinking… at the same time though, there are times when I desperately want them to do as I say.” 

Lifting his head, Freezerburn shook himself, his feathers fluffing, and then he began grooming Bucky’s mane, using his beak to tug on the long strands of Bucky’s black and silver mane. 

“There is a part of me that wants to strangle Sentinel for what he’s done,” Bucky said to Freezerburn. “He’s so much like me… I don’t want him turning out like me. Look what trying to be a good pony—” Bucky paused, falling silent. He shook his head, his ears splaying out. “Look at what trying to save good ponies has done to me. Look at me, Freezerburn, I am not what I once was… then again, I suppose you aren’t either, with you being a corrupted phoenix. Look at how life has twisted and changed the both of us.” 

Freezerburn offered a sympathetic hoot to Bucky and then continued to try and style Bucky’s mane, tugging and pulling on long strands of hair. All the bird succeeded in doing was somehow making Bucky look even more disheveled than usual, which was quite a feat. Bucky looked like somepony had mixed nightmare fuel with the collection of hair, lint, and debris that could be found under couches, then had given it life in a manner most irresponsible. 

“I don’t want Sentinel getting mangled and deformed like me. I’ve seen some of the lunar pegasi… it isn’t easy to kill them… it’s horrifying what some of them live through. It’s like they’re unbreakable.” Bucky drew in a deep breath, shuddering, and then let it out in a huff. “My example has condemned him…” 



 

Creeping through the house, little more than a shadow prowling the darkened hallway, Bucky headed for the nursery. A faint light crept out from beneath the door, illuminating the hallway and part of the wall. He opened the door and stuck his head in. His nose crinkled. Somepony had made a stinky. 

Thistle, half awake, was nursing little Barley. Lyra, yawning, was nursing Brandywine while changing Dizzy’s diaper. Derpy was nursing Ditzy, her eyes closed, and her head resting on a pillow. Bell Heather was standing near Thistle, looking fussy and a bit put out. Belisama was dribbling food down Bandua’s throat with a spoon. Crisis was sleeping on the floor next to Lyra, laying on her back, all four of her legs were stiff as planks and sticking straight  up into the air. She looked like a statue that had fallen over. 

Entering the room, Bucky scooped up Bell and then retreated to the rocking chair. He sat down, pulled Bell from his telekinesis into his forelegs, and held her close. She snuffled a bit, still fussy, but glad to have her daddoo. She gave Bucky a slobbery kiss on the cheek and then continued to drool while pressing her nose against Bucky’s nose. 

“I think this is my favourite time,” Derpy said in a sleepy voice. “I’m not quite awake, the foals are still kinda sleepy, everything is calm and quiet.” 

“It’s the calm before the storm.” Lyra, who was now finished with Dizzy’s diaper, levitated the little colt over to his mother, Derpy. 

“Which is why I am enjoying this time right now,” Derpy replied. 

“Where is Cadance?” Bucky asked after looking around the nursery. 

“Little Cadance didn’t want to sleep in the nursery last night. She wanted to sleep with the big fillies, so we tucked her into bed with Sukari and Harper.” Thistle yawned, letting out a whine, and her ears pivoted. 

“I don’t want Cadance growing up… she needs to stop that,” Bucky grumbled. He gave Bell a squeeze, pulled her closer, and pressed his muzzle into her neck. He blew a raspberry, which caused Bell to squeal while kicking her legs. 

“Daddoo, no!” 

“Oh no,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “Not you too… you’re starting to talk and make sense. Stop that.” 

Looking a bit bewildered, blinking, Bell Heather stared up at her father, not knowing how to react, not certain of what was going on. She squirmed a bit, sucked in some air, and then blew a massive spit bubble, which popped and left shiny drool droplets all over Bucky’s face. 

“One day, you were a fuzzy little lump that mostly just laid there, looking cute, and you were fun to pick up and cuddle. Now you’re telling me no. Tomorrow, you’ll be sneaking out of the house to go on a date with some horrible colt that I don’t approve of.” Bucky shook his head. “I don’t like it, nope.” 

“Ugh, I don’t like the sounds of that,” Thistle replied, shaking her head. She looked at Lyra and then at Bucky. “Both of you are unicorns… surely there is a spell to stop her from doing that, right?” 
	
	
> Chapter 851
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Help. With homework. You know, because the school doesn’t feel like they’ve tortured us enough during the day, so they send us home with schoolwork. Which is a real problem. Each of my teachers seems to think that an hour or two of homework a night isn’t a big deal, and they say we’re whining if we complain about it, but I have six classes during the day. Including a math class, so I have a good understanding of two times six.” 

Bucky’s eyebrow raised. Dinky was getting some powerful snark as she grew older. It would be her birthday again soon. It would be everyponies’ birthday soon—well, the foals born during the spring, which were many. There was a plan to condense many birthdays into one big celebration. 

Looking at her father, Dinky noted his dull, vacant stare and his raised eyebrow. He didn’t look awake and he didn’t seem like he would be much help. Her mother, Derpy, wouldn’t be much help. Not only did her mother Derpy not know the subject matter, but she was busy. Lyra was busy. Lyra, a great source of help with biology homework, was too busy helping care for the newborns. Berry Punch was gone. Bon Bon was gone making candy. Thistle had no understanding of complex biology. 

Feeling frustrated, Dinky began to think that there was no help to be had. Her lower lip began to protrude in a very foalish way and she stared at Bucky, her frustrations rising, almost to the point where she felt as though she wanted to cry. Between being punished, which she admitted that she deserved, and the newborns, Dinky felt as though she was being ignored, left out, she felt neglected. It had been a hard day in school, she needed help with her homework, and it felt as though nopony cared. 

“I can try to help… talk to me, Dinky, you look like you’re having a bad day.” 

Now, the need for tears felt even stronger. Dinky sniffled, her lower lip quivering, thankful that somepony had noticed. She pulled herself together, shuddered a bit as she tried to control her breathing, climbed up into a chair, and sat down at the kitchen table. 

“I have to construct a theory for biology class, the better the theory the better the grade, and I have to make it convincing and I don’t know how to do it.” Dinky opened her bookbag, pulled out her biology textbook, a notebook, a pencil, another notebook, this one battered and full of notes, then looked at her father, who was drinking coffee. He appeared as though he had just woken up. At least he was trying, and for that, Dinky was grateful. 

“I’ll do my best, Dinky… it was a long night last night.” Bucky looked down at the table at his slice of pie, which was uneaten and sitting next to his coffee. Egg custard, extra thick and creamy, which was a recipe for intestinal distress. “So, what is your theory?” 

“Pegasi are more prone to accepting what we call animalistic behaviours because of preening, which makes them more animal-like than the other pony tribes—” 

“What?” Bucky blinked a few times, trying to take in everything that Dinky had just said. He leaned forwards, wondering for a moment just what was going through Dinky’s mind. A unicorn had to be careful calling pegasi animals. He watched as Dinky spread more of her homework out on the table. “Say again?”

“We’re animals, but we try not to act like animals because of social conditioning,” Dinky said as she tapped on her biology textbook. “We’re told that displaying animalistic behaviours is wrong and from a young age, we’re taught not to do animal stuff because it’s gross and wrong. Like bathing, if we were animals, we would lick each other clean and other gross, grody stuff like that. So we have bathtubs and scrubbing brushes and soap and all of the stuff that distances us from the animals so we can say that we are civilised.” 

Lifting his coffee, Bucky took a sip and looked into Dinky’s eyes to show interest. 

“Except for pegasi… they have to preen their wings. If they don’t, the feathers get all yucky because they have special stuff in their spit that keeps the feathers healthy. So the complex social rituals of grooming don’t apply to pegasi in the same way that they do to other ponies, pegasi still lick one another and preen each other’s wings and my theory states that pegasi are far more accepting of animalistic behaviours because of this. Just look at all of the burping and farting and stuff that pegasi do compared to unicorns, unicorns who try to be more civilised and distance themselves from animalistic behaviours because of a conditioned fear to be seen as an animal.” 

Just what was she learning in her advanced biology class and just how did I end up with a foal so smart? Bucky thought to himself as he stared at Dinky. 

“You used to be a civilised unicorn but now you’re more animalistic than domesticated. You’ve broken your social conditioning to be more in touch with your primal equine behaviours as well as your adapted predatory behaviours.” Dinky looked at her father and hoped that he was keeping up. He had a peculiar look upon his face. “It’s just a theory…” 

“I see.” Bucky set down his coffee cup. Not all that long ago, he had woken up and scratched behind his ear with his hind leg, using the hard edge of his hoof to attack the itchy place. A behaviour that would have left him agast back when he was still a proper unicorn. Now, when he scratched behind his ear, he received advice from Derpy on how to do it better. She had impressive skills on how to get the most out of a good scratch without damaging delicate skin or leaving marks. “Dinky, I would say that this is a sound theory… I find it intriguing.” 

“Really?” Dinky lifted up her pencil and she felt the corners of her mouth turning upwards. Her fears, worries, and doubts faded away and she felt her confidence soaring. Her daddy believed in her and her theory. 

“Tell me more about it… try to sell me on it.” Bucky lifted up his fork and slid his slice of pie in front of him. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.” 

“Thank you, Daddy.” 



 

“Welcome back.” Lyra Heartstrings looked at Berry Punch, Barley O’Blivion, and Piña Colada, all of whom stood in the entryway. Sprawled over Berry’s back was a small pink unicorn foal that looked a little bit like Piña, but was a unicorn. She wasn’t moving. At all. In fact, the little filly looked almost dead, sprawled out the way she was over Berry’s back. “What’s up with the filly? Is she sleepy?” 

“Heavily sedated,” Barley replied as he turned his tired looking stare upon Lyra. 

“What?” Lyra blinked. “Why?” 

“Because she’s more than half feral, violent, and a wee vicious little brawler that took a huge chunk out of the social worker, then took another huge chunk out of the nurse, she left the doctor with multiple lacerations and bites, and she would’ve bit me but I pushed her away with magic. She’s a bloody savage.” Barley turned his head, looked at his other niece, then looked at Piña, and then he heaved a weary sigh. “We had to keep her drugged just to get her home. Before leaving, she broke free and we had to hunt all over the Haint just to find her again. Had to tie the little wild thing up with ropes to haul her back and when the doctor tried to sedate her, he got mauled again.” 

“How… how does this even happen?” Lyra asked. 

“Severe neglect. Leaving a foal on their own to look after themselves.” Berry Punch’s eyes narrowed. “Abuse, plain and simple.” 

“Aye… and now, before she wakes up again, we need to figure out what to do with her. She’s not safe to leave around the other foals… I dinnae wanna risk it. Or the adults for that matter. The wee pink psychopath needs to be locked up—” 

“Barley, that’s a horrible thing to say,” Lyra said. 

“Aye, it is, and if’n I had my druthers, I’d’ve pissed on Berryshine’s grave before I left the Haint. That coont lived in a squallour ye cannae imagine, no food in the house, if’n ye could call it a house, naught but cracked corn to make more ‘shine. No bed for wee Pinchy. No toys. No nothing. Not a thrice damned thing. I dinnae think I’ll e’er be the same after seeing what I saw.” Barley grimaced, his scowl intensifying. Saying nothing else, he moved closer to Berry Punch, lowered his head, pressed his muzzle against Berry’s cheek, and gave his niece a kiss. 

“I’m gonna go find Dinky,” Piña said, her expression troubled, “and my Daddy… I need them both.” 

“They’re in the library, working on Dinky’s homework. They fled the kitchen because it got noisy.” Lyra, who felt as though she was in shock, didn’t know what to say, how to feel, or even how to respond to this. 

“Berry…” Piña paused before taking off to the library. 

“What, Piña?” Berry Punch looked down at her sister. 

“Thank you… for everything…” Piña, her eyes glazing over, took off running down the hall, heading for the dining room so she could get to the library. 

Standing there, watching Piña go, Berry realised how different things could have turned out. She looked around the farmhouse. It was clean. It had food. A year ago it had been an abandoned mess, left to rot, forgotten, her parents had done nothing to care for it. Berry Punch felt overwhelmed. Barley’s kiss had left her with warm tingles running up and down her neck. Berry stared at Lyra, her eyes wide, unable to speak, unable to make words, and she felt Berry Pinch’ wet breath on her back. 

“We need to figure out what to do with wee Pinchy… and you… you my sweet lass, ya need to go be with your foals.” Ears drooping, Barley lifted the pink foal from Berry’s back in his telekinesis. “We’ll need to lock her up in a room, as awful as it is.” 

“If she’s gone mustang, that’ll be the worst thing we could do to her,” Lyra said, sounding as though she was almost choking. “Wild things don’t like being penned up.” 

“What else can we do?” Barley asked.

“I dunno,” Lyra replied. “I’ll head out and see if I can find Doctor Mawu.” 

“Aye, ye do that, that’ll be a good start.” Barley pulled the comatose foal closer to him, held aloft in his magic. “I’m gonna put her in the storage room out in the carriage house—” 

“Barley, no… you can’t do that!” Berry Punch gave her uncle an incredulous stare. 

“Do you want her here, in this house? Screaming and shrieking like a banshee? What’ll it do to the other foals, the wee newborns? Do ye wanna put our other wee bairns at risk?” Barley felt his heart growing heavier with each question. 

“No.” Berry Punch drooped, her ears sagging down against her face. 

“I’ll stay with her. Send somepony out to make the storeroom a bit more comfortable, I’m old and that room is a bit bare.” Barley sighed and then rubbed his cheek against Berry Pinch. “We cannae let Bucky see her like this… he’s a damn fool… he’ll try to win her affection and she’ll end up biting him like wee Sukari did.” 

“And he’d let her,” Lyra said, agreeing. She turned her head. “You’d better get going. Piña’s probably telling him all about it. Just try to keep him away.” The green unicorn mare’s face wrinkled with worry. “After I get Doctor Mawu, I’ll see if I can get Rising Star to help move everything out of the storeroom and move some furniture in.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 852
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After putting Erebus down upon the floor, Princess Luna watched as the little colt went scrambling off to explore the house. Her ears folded back against her head as she turned and looked at Berry Punch, who looked grief stricken. Luna’s eyebrow raised and she took a deep breath. 

“So let me get this straight… the pony that I love and will be marrying soon has taken it upon himself to look after a filly that has gone mustang and has locked himself up in a room to care for her?” Luna’s piercing eyes focused upon Berry Punch’s, and a puzzled expression crept over her face. 

“Yes.” Berry Punch nodded her head. “And I was hoping that you might be able to help her. She wasn’t always like this. When I saw her last, she wasn’t like this at all. Now she hardly even knows her name. Berryshine became distrustful of other ponies during the collapse. She retreated back into the hollows of the Haint, far, far away from everypony, and made moonshine. The only reason why anypony even knew she was dead was because she failed to make a delivery and the buyer went looking for her.” 

“I see.” Luna’s head turned and she watched as Erebus went trotting past on wobbling legs, his stubby wings flapping, with Cadance running after him, a determined look upon her face. Somepony was going to get tackled and then maybe thumped. It served Erebus right and Luna did nothing to stop the coming conflict. 

She had come here to spend time with Barley, see Crisis, and have a little downtime. Alas, it was not to be. Barley was busy and something demanded Luna’s attention. Luna understood what needed to be done. “I shall do what I can to help, but you must understand, this is not something that is easy to fix. Only time will fix what is wrong with Berry Pinch.” 

“I understand, thank you,” Berry replied as a squeal filled the air. “She got him… good for Cadance.” 

Hearing hoofsteps, Luna turned and saw Sentinel, who was approaching her in the most submissive posture that one could imagine. His ears were drooping, his spine sagged, and his wings hung from his sides. He looked pathetic and miserable, almost as if he was going to prostrate himself on the floor at any moment. Luna hoped that he wouldn’t. 

“I’ll let you two talk,” Berry said, backing away, her ears perking forwards. The earth pony, after having backed away, trotted off towards the sound of a colt squealing for mercy. It was too close to bedtime for Cadance to get all worked up from horseplay and Berry Punch planned to put an end to it. 

“Did you get my message?” Sentinel asked. 

Eyebrows furrowing, Luna looked down at Sentinel and gave him an imperious stare. “I did. I suppose that you have something to say about your request?” 

Cringing, Sentinel nodded. “I don’t deserve a public ceremony. I didn’t do what I did for the benefit or protection of others, but for my own selfish needs. Everything just sort of happened and I just happened to be along for the events that took place. I do not want a public crowning or knighting.” 

“You know what I think—” 

Sentinel let out a whimper at the sound of Luna’s voice. 

“—I think a little colt is too much like his father and is looking for an excuse.” Luna’s expression softened. “But I also understand how overwhelming all those things can be and I respect that.” She saw Sentinel lift his head and she felt something in her heart soften. “I was thinking about having Princess Apple Bloom act in an official capacity and grant you your knighthood. Maybe a very small ceremony with just you, your friends, and a few family members. Would you like that?” 

“Very much so,” Sentinel replied, all too aware at how squeaky his voice sounded right now. He cleared his throat, feeling anxious, licked his lips, and looked up at Luna. “Thank you, thank you very much.” 

“I expect good things from you,” Luna said to Sentinel, her voice gentle and kind. 

“I’ll try not to disappoint you… I’ve done it once and I never want to do it again.” Sentinel bowed his head, but his posture was now showing confidence. His spine was straight, his wings were folded at his sides, and his ears now stood upright. Lifting his head, he looked up at Luna, his eyes wide with adoration. 

“Go and keep Erebus company and save him from Cadance. I need to go speak with your father…” 



 

“There you are, I was wondering where you went. I should have known.” Luna stood in the nursery door, looking at Tourmaline and Bucky. Between them was a brilliant, almost dazzling white foal. Tourmaline appeared to be so excited that she almost seemed to be beside herself. 

“She’s like me!” Tourmaline said in an excited voice as she looked up at Luna. “But she’s not like me… she’s strange, but I like her.” The changeling foal looked at the other changeling foal for a moment and then turned once more to look at Luna. 

“I suppose the three of you can all have secret conversations now about changeling stuff.” Luna strode forwards, giving a nod to Derpy. “Buckminster, how are you adjusting to… your changes?” 

Shrugging, Bucky replied, “I dunno.” 

“I feel as though I owe you an apology. I have already apologised to the Shadowbolts. It seemed like a useful adaptation at the time and it made all of you very strong during the war—” 

“Luna,” Bucky said, interrupting, “try not to worry about it. We didn’t know. It is being fixed now, before any real harm was done. Magical experimentation is fraught with danger.” As Bucky spoke, Tourmaline pressed her muzzle against his cheek and gave him a kiss. 

“I have been second guessing myself a great deal as of late, wondering if some of the things I have done have been worth it. I have not been myself. Mistakes have been made and I do not know how to atone for them. I have been in error.” Luna lowered her head and pressed her nose against Crisis, who let out a squeaky whinny. 

“Go and be with Barley… I think he needs you.” Bucky, overcome with strong feelings of affection, lifted his head and nosed Luna just below her ear, causing the alicorn mare to jerk backwards. He saw her look at him, startled by his affection, and then, after a long moment of giving him a blank stare, Luna smiled. 



 

Stepping out of the shower, Sentinel gave himself a hearty shake and smiled. He had woken up this morning feeling a bit more like himself. That brief moment with Princess Luna the night before had lifted his spirits, and he had spent time with his newborn siblings, who had had themselves a sleepless night. He let out an echolocation whistle of happiness as he stood dripping on the floor of the bathroom. Last night, there had been no nightmares of Sombra, and Sentinel wondered if Princess Luna had something do with it. 

Standing in front of the sink, Sentinel combed back his mane, trying to get out the tangles, and thought about getting it cut. It was getting shaggy again, his mane grew so fast. He knew that if he asked, Lyra would trim it. He put it on the list of things to do today. It was the weekend, no school, and while he had some homework to do, he was looking forward to the two days of rest, if there was any rest to be had. He suspected that he was going to be put to work. 

He smiled at himself in the mirror, picked up his glasses off of the counter, pinching them between his thumb and central knuckle on his left wing. He slid them on his face, adjusted them, and then made a very serious ‘I know what I’m doing’ face, just to see what he looked like. His glasses made him look older and more capable. 

“Hurry up in there, you have a visitor!” Bon Bon shouted through the door. 

Sentinel grinned, feeling hopeful. Spending the day with Diamond Tiara might be nice. 



 

Feeling a little surprised, Sentinel looked at Flash Sentry and Thunderlane, his visitors. Both were wearing caps and badges, having come here in an official capacity. He took a deep breath, feeling nervous, wondering what was up. 

“Hello Sentinel… we’re here to speak to you about some community service,” Flash Sentry said while trying to look friendly. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing too bad, but we do need your help. We have a missing foal that we’re hoping you can help us find. We need your sniffer.” 

Sentinel blinked and focused all of his attention upon Flash Sentry. 

“The foal seems to have snuck out some time last night. Her name is Sand Piper and she’s a little unicorn. She’s about five. Her mother discovered that she wasn’t in her bed this morning. Her father thinks that his little trouble maker slipped out in the wee hours of the morning or just before dawn to do a little exploring, this isn’t the first time this has happened, but last time, last week, she was discovered by a neighbor who was out doing some chores in the wee hours of the morning.” Flash Sentry’s face became one of solemn concern. 

“We can’t find her, we have the flock looking for her, but she’s little, mischievous, and good at hiding. The pegasi we have looking for her haven’t seen her. We’re hoping that you can save us all a whole bunch of trouble and sniff her out.” Thunderlane took a step forwards, a hopeful expression on his face. “Just think about how relieved her parents would be to have her back, Sentinel.” 

“Of course I’ll help,” Sentinel said to Thunderlane, “how could I not?” 

“Good.” Flash Sentry looked relieved, but still had a father’s worry upon his face. “Sand Piper is little for her age, slight of build, light brown, and has a bright yellow mane with even brighter orange streaks. No cutie mark.” 

“Hang on, we’re coming!” Dinky said as she came charging down the front steps. 

Thunderlane shook his head. “I dunno about this—” 

“Sentinel is gonna need us,” Dinky insisted. “That little filly is going to be scared and scared little fillies are going to be scared of strange colts.” Dinky went stiff legged, looking very much like a little pegasus. “I can also ask the bugs for help.” 

“She can, that would be helpful.” Sentinel glanced at Dinky, then looked at Flash Sentry and Thunderlane. “Look, we’ll stay together. I think things will go better if we all work together. With my nose and Dinky’s bugs, we’ll find Sand Piper in no time.” 

“Ask your parents,” Flash Sentry said, “and if they allow it, I’ll allow it. For the record, I think this is a good idea. We have a very freaked out mother right now and one very scared father and I think they’ll be happy to know that we have a very capable search team.” 

“You up for this Piña? I know you’re sad, but maybe this well help you.” Dinky turned and looked at Piña, who was standing on the porch. She saw Piña sigh and then a halfhearted smile appeared on Piña’s muzzle. 

“I’ll help.” Piña looked at Dinky and Sentinel. “I’d do it even if it wasn’t community service. I got lost once and I was so scared… Berry found me… nopony even realised I was missing, but she knew.” Piña felt a case of the sniffles coming on and her head dropped. She stared down at her front hooves. 

“While you three are looking, we’ll tell the air patrols to ease off. Sand Piper might know that she is being looked for, but she might come out where you three can find her if she thinks it’s safe.” Thunderlane puffed out his cheeks and exhaled. “Foals… scaring their parents… sometimes I hate being a parent.” 

Sentinel could not help but feel a pang of guilt from Thunderlane’s words. He cringed. 

“Glass Slipper likes to give Twilight the slip in Canterlot castle… it drives Twilight nuts, but when it happens to Rainbow Dash… she turns into a real hot mess with lots of tears,” Flash Sentry said. 

Yep, Sentinel thought to himself, I’m being raked over the coals. 

“And when Scootaloo got gone, poor Rainbow—”

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH! I’m sorry!” Sentinel cried out. 

Eyes narrowing, Flash Sentry nodded. “You should be. Ever seen a nesting pegasus suddenly missing something from her nest? It isn’t pretty. I hope that you never find out what that’s like.” 

Sentinel, unable to look at Flash Sentry, turned to look at his sisters instead. “Come on you two, let’s go get our parents’ permission before we go out… we don’t want to upset the nest.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 853
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a fantastic spring morning. It was warm, without being too warm. There was enough of a breeze to cause a tickle, but it wasn’t windy. There were a few clouds, enough to make the sky beautiful, but not enough clouds to make it overcast. By the sights and the smells around him, Sentinel knew that Ponyville was overcome with spring fever. 

Spring fever. A part of him wanted to chase after Diamond Tiara and Boadicea, but he had a job to do. He stood, sniffing, looking around the town, his delicate nose trying to find one scent hiding among hundreds, maybe thousands of others. He had sniffed all around Sand Piper’s room, her toys, her bed, he had pulled her scent from her playthings and her possessions. The unicorn filly had two pegasi as parents and her name, Sand Piper, made a bit more sense after Sentinel had met her parents. He had done his best to assure them both that his nose could sniff out anything. 

Dinky and Piña moved with him, both of them were quiet, but enjoying themselves. It was nice to be out and about, even nicer to be out and about with a purpose. Sentinel lifted his head, his nostrils flaring, and his ears pivoted about as he listened to the sounds of the world around him. 

Grinning, Sentinel allowed himself to feel a bit of pride—his abilities as a hunter made him feel good about himself. He could sniff out prey, he was learning how to track for those times when his nose failed him for whatever reason, and his senses were far greater than the common solar pony. Around him, he could hear the sounds of hearts beating, the muted, muffled rush of blood flowing through veins and arteries. The sounds of life as it animated a body. 

Sentinel took off at a swift trot, his nose to the ground, his ears perked and pointing forwards. He moved through a patch of petunias, tulips, and daffodils. He paused, pressed his nose into a cluster of petunias, inhaled, chuffed, and then took off once more. He moved in a circle around the flowers, following the scent, and then took off in a straight line. 

He found himself leaping over a fence and then he was in a garden next door, a small garden with the tender shoots of new growth peeking up out of the rich, brown earth. Sand Piper had come here, her scent was still strong on the soil. He charged through the gate, his ears pointing in the direction where the scent was the strongest. 



 

“What do you think it’s like to be Sentinel?” Piña asked as she followed after her brother, following a serpentine path that would have baffled most adults but made perfect sense if you were a foal. Adults followed the most efficient path between two points, a foal followed the most interesting path between two points. 

“I dunno,” Dinky replied as she moved at a hurried trot to keep up, “but all of the things we think are stinky, Sentinel finds them interesting.” 

“How does he do it? I mean, I try sniffing the dirt and all I can smell is dirt.” Piña’s voice lowered and her eyes narrowed. “Getting a nose full of fresh fertiliser is gross.” 

Unable to help herself, Dinky began giggling. Ponyville, a rural city, still had outhouses, said outhouses regularly had their basements cleaned out and the contents used as fertiliser. While Piña was wondering what it was like to be Sentinel, Dinky was wondering what it was like to be Piña, an earth pony. The world was waking up all around them, winter was over, and new life was springing up out of the soil. Dinky knew that Piña was feeling something, but Dinky couldn’t feel it herself. Dinky could feel magic connections, she could sense Piña’s connection to the earth, but the ground did not speak to Dinky the way it did to Piña. 

“I wonder what Larch is doing,” Piña said, thinking aloud, “and Babs… I can’t stop thinking about them both. It’s strange, but I have all of these funny feelings. Berry Punch says I’m growing up.” 

Hearing Piña’s words, Dinky thought of Twist. Twist was her friend, but she had some confusing feelings for Twist. She liked spending time with the filly, she liked hearing Twist’s voice. Twist was smart. Dinky liked smart, but liking smart was confusing, because Piña was smart, but Dinky didn’t think of Piña in that way. It was all so very perplexing, trying to figure everything out. Dinky liked to study with Piña, it was nice, but there was something special about studying with Twist. It made her feel good and she didn’t understand why. 

“This spring, Dinky, you are going to be seven.” Piña came to a halt when Sentinel stopped to sniff something, the wooden frame around a gate, which had a few short light brown hairs and a couple of long yellow hairs. “When my birthday comes in the fall, I’ll be nine… which is really weird because it seems like only yesterday when I was seven.” 

“When I turned six, I felt so grown up… that was only last year. Now, after everything that has happened, I look back, and I keep thinking about how foalish I was.” Dinky took off at a swift run once more as Sentinel recovered the scent he was looking for. 

“I know that feeling,” Piña replied, “I was so scared of everything… I was so skittish. I think back to how I was and I just cringe. I remember how the wolves scared me and I feel so bad that my stomach actually turns over and I feel sick inside. I’m so embarrassed about it.” 

Dinky paused, freezing in place, and looked at Piña. After a moment, she looked at the other foals around them, watching them play, and her ears went limp, falling down against her face. 

“Dinks?” Piña asked as she came to a stop. 

“We’re not like them,” Dinky said to Piña, “after everything we’ve seen and done… the wolves… the Shetland Isles… all of the blood and the fighting… we’d still be like them Piña if life had turned out different. We’d be weak and scared, like we used to be.” 

“Dinky, I’m not sure if that’s a nice thing to say, calling them weak and scared.” Piña’s voice was almost a whisper, she didn’t want any of the ponies around them hearing her. 

“But it’s true, Piña… think back to how we used to get bullied… we were both so timid. Or if something happened, we’d run and hide just like everypony else our age. We’ve changed, Piña, we’re not like them anymore. We’ve changed and when we look back at how we used to be, we feel sick and disgusted because we know how weak we were.” 

“But I… no… I didn’t mean it like that… I just cringe at how I was… I didn’t mean…” Piña stammered in a hesitant voice. “No, Dinky, it isn’t like that at all.” Piña scowled, wishing she could say something else that would convey her feelings better, but she didn’t know what to say. Dinky was right. Piña was embarrassed about her weakness, her fear, she did cringe when she thought about wetting herself because of the wolves howling. Piña was disgusted by the weakness she had shown. 

And she knew that she wasn’t like the other foals her own age now, she had seen too much, done too much, had experienced too much, and had grown up too much. She had a hard time relating to other foals her own age. Piña, after thinking for a moment, realised why she liked Babs so much—Babs had experienced some pretty rough and tumble stuff during the collapse, even if Babs couldn’t remember it. It had made Babs tough. Larch was independent for his age. With a defeated sigh, Piña realised that Dinky was probably right. 

“I was talking with Rising Star… he said we’ve become shepherds. He told me that some ponies are content to remain in the herd, but some ponies, when danger happens, they become something else. The fighting and the violence changes them and they become shepherds. Rising said that the shepherds live with the herd, but they’re not part of the herd, not exactly. They’re different. They’re scary. And ponies only tolerate them because they need protection. It’s gonna be rough for us, Piña.” 

Wide eyed, Piña stared at Dinky, watching as Dinky went prancing off after Sentinel, feeling conflicted, a bit hurt, and sad. There was a ring of truth to Dinky’s words, but Piña didn’t want them to be true. Her lips pressing together into a tight frown, Piña got moving, hurrying after Sentinel and Dinky. 



 

On the edge of town, Sentinel stopped and looked at the path ahead. The scent trail lead into the Everfree. The Everfree, which had thawed out and was now alive and vibrant with the coming of spring. He tilted his head to one side, his ears perking, and he listened to the sounds coming out of the Everfree. 

“Not trying to brag but I think the three of us are scarier than anything in the Everfree,” Piña said as she too, stared at the treeline of the Everfree. 

“Piña, that is a dangerous assumption.” Sentinel stretched out his wings and flexed his knees, both front and back. 

“I was only kidding, I know the Everfree is dangerous. But I do think we can handle it. If we stay together, we should be fine. Sentinel, you’re good at fighting and Dinky has the magical whammy-jammy to back you up.”

“And what about you, Piña?” Sentinel asked. “What are you sensing? That’s your special ability.” 

“How did you know I was sensing something?” Piña blinked at her brother. 

Sentinel sat down on the soft earth, his tail swishing around his hind legs as he did so. “I didn’t… but you just confirmed that you are.” 

Clever. Piña peered at her brother, he was smart sometimes when he wasn’t doing something stupid. “It’s hard to tell what I’m feeling. There is so much in the Everfree. It’s like a room full of ponies all screaming at once. It’s hard to pick out just one voice. But something weird is out there… that’s all I can say.” 

“Prolly something that woke up after hibernating and is hungry,” Dinky said to her siblings, “we’ll have to be careful. I’m thinking we can do this, but I’m scared at what we’ll find.” 

“Me too,” Sentinel replied, peering into the Everfree forest. “I’m not worried about fighting, but if Sand Piper has been killed by something, we’re going to have to be the bearer of bad news to her parents.” 

“This is the job we were sent to do.” Piña swallowed, feeling a little worried, and she leaned up against Dinky for support. “This is part of our community service and a good chance for us to learn something. Not everything we do will have a happy ending. We might as well figure out now how we will deal with something if it ends badly.” 

“We go in, we stick together, we stay glued to one another, and we bring Sand Piper back, alive if possible. Dinky, keep your magic ready. Piña, I’m depending on your senses… if you feel that something is wrong, you say something. Even if you are wrong or mistaken, it is better to be forewarned than be caught by surprise. And we stick together.” Sentinel stared at his sisters, the sunlight glinting off of his glasses. 

“And if something wants to eat us?” Dinky asked. 

“I’ll rip them apart… you and Piña stick together… Piña, use your magic if something gets too close, and Dinky, you do the same. I think we’ll be fine if we use our heads,” Sentinel replied. 

Rising, Sentinel took off, moving with cautious hesitation towards the treeline of the Everfree. Dinky and Piña, sides touching, moved together, almost as if they were one pony, and they followed after their brother, Sentinel. The trio crossed the threshold of the Everfree, facing the dangerous forest together. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 854
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	During the spring, even the Everfree was a beautiful, if no less foreboding place. The tree canopy overhead was thick enough in some places to block out the sun, leaving the ground below thick with shade, curious patches where the battle between light and darkness played out, a theatre of shadows. There was a road here, a path, the road that lead through the Everfree and came out the other side, a road which few took, except those brave, daring individuals that sought adventure or those looking for the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. 

Sentinel, his nose down, sniffling and snuffling as he trotted, followed this road, for Sand Piper had also followed this road. Hoofprints were still visible in some places, little crescents pressed into the soft, moist earth that was the road. 

Coming to an abrupt halt, Sentinel raised his head. He stood, sniffing, his hackles rising, and his ears pitched forwards, angling over his eyes. He went stiff legged, bared his teeth, and growled. 

Dinky and Piña, who took Sentinel’s reaction with great seriousness, moved to his side and waited. They watched, Piña looking off to one side, Dinky off to the other, and it was Dinky who looked the most confused when Sentinel lowered his guard. 

“We have company,” Sentinel said, “stay close to me and do not move.” 

Tall figures loped out of the trees and bushes around them, glowing spectral wolves that appeared to be made out of fog and stars. They were all blue or bluish purple, except for one, the largest, the one that approached Sentinel, who was red. 

“Canis Rufus,” Sentinel said, bowing his head. “Greetings and good tidings on behalf of my Mistress, Princess Luna.” 

Dinky watched as the large, glowing phantasmal constellation creature approached Sentinel, her breathing shallow, almost ragged, and she had trouble hiding her fear. The red glowing wolf and Sentinel both sniffed noses for a minute and then the red constellation wolf backed away. 

“Piña, Dinky, this is Canis Rufus, Alpha of the Constellation Wolves.” Sentinel bowed his head a little and then continued. “Canis Rufus, this is Dinky and Piña, my little sisters.” 

Freezing in place, Dinky did not move when the wolf came closer once more and began to sniff her. She could feel his hot breath against her face, her neck, and ruffling through her mane. She watched as the wolf did the same to Piña. 

“I do not eat ponies.” 

Dinky blinked, surprised, not expecting the creature to speak, her shock and astonishment showing on her face. She looked into the glowing eyes of the wolf creature and saw kindness. 

“We prowl these woods and defend Ponyville as part of our agreement with Princess Luna. You have nothing to fear from us, little ones. Calm your fast beating heart,” the wolf creature said. 

“Canis Rufus, did you notice a unicorn foal come roaming through these parts?” Sentinel asked. 

The massive constellation wolf shook his head. “No, I did not, but I have sensed strange magic as of late. Well, more so than usual. This wood is alive with strange magic. Am I to understand that a foal is missing?” 

Sentinel nodded while looking up at the much larger predator. 

“Unicorns… strange creatures with their connection to magic… perhaps the foal was attracted to the strange goings on in these woods. Many unicorns come here, compelled by forces they will never understand.” The big red wolf sat down upon the ground, his tail wagging. 

“You’re kinda neat,” Piña said, having overcome her fear. She was now staring and studying the constellation wolves around her, trying to understand them. She left Sentinel’s side, moving with cautious curiousity, approached the big red constellation wolf, reached out her hoof, and touched him. 

Upon contact, Piña changed, becoming phantasmal, a glowing pink creature made of light and stars. A glowing spectral horn adorned her forehead, and she cast a brilliant pink luminescence all around her. 

“What’s going on?” Piña asked in a breathless, somewhat frightened voice. 

“You are like us, an astral creature,” Canis Rufus replied, lowering his head down closer to Piña’s ear. “Hello, child of the stars… how strange you are that you have a body.” 

Piña pulled her hoof away from the big red wolf and she became solid again, her eyes blinking as the brilliant pink glow around her faded. She sat down, staring at her still raised hoof, trying to understand what had just happened. 

“We must be going, we have a meal to hunt. We are hungry,” Canis Rufus said to the foals. “Be careful, little ones. There is strange magic about. We have sensed much weirdness over by the old castle. Perhaps your missing foal is there.” 

“Thank you,” Sentinel said, bowing his head once more. 

“Will I see you again?” Piña asked, looking up at the wolf as she spoke. 

“Perhaps,” the wolf replied, giving Piña a lupine grin. “Come and find me among the stars. Princess Luna or Princess Celestia can show you my celestial hunting grounds.” 

“Okay.” Piña rose, standing up, and she began to back away from the glowing red constellation wolf. Piña blinked once and when she opened her eyes, the wolves, all of them, were gone. She blinked again in astonishment. 

“They just vanished,” Dinky said. 

“They do that.” Sentinel shrugged. “I can vanish too, I just can’t do it during the day.” 

“Sentinel, how do you know them?” Piña asked. 

“You know those long lessons that Princess Luna sometimes gives me at night?” Sentinel replied. He looked at Piña, gave his sister a smile, and then continued, “I’m being groomed to be Princess Luna’s ambassador. I’ve met a lot of rather nice monsters. Not all of them are bad, some are just misunderstood.” 

“We should get going.” Dinky looked down the road in the direction of the Palace of the Royal Pony sisters. “Sooner we get out of this place the better. I want to get Sand Piper and go home.” 



 

As the group drew closer to the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters, Dinky felt a peculiar sensation growing stronger within her. It was the feeling of magic, strong magic, deep magic. The forest was alive with this feeling, and Dinky knew that Piña could feel it as well, without knowing or understanding how she knew that Piña could feel it. There were times when it was difficult for Dinky to know where she ended and Piña began. 

After all of the training in Miss Stargarden’s class, Dinky and Piña stumbled into each other’s minds rather frequently. They did nothing to keep each other out. Dinky had her mental magic while Piña had, well, whatever it was. As a mystic, Piña was growing in power every day. Together, Dinky knew from what she had learned from Princess Celestia that they would be a force to be reckoned with. Miss Stargarden had said the same thing. 

“You know, I don’t mind the community service we’re being made to do,” Piña remarked as she trotted behind Sentinel. She glanced back over her shoulder at Dinky, looking thoughtful. “I’d do something like this even if I wasn’t in trouble. We can do more, we’re special and gifted, so more should be expected out of us.” 

“That’s one way of looking at it, Piña,” Sentinel replied. 

Piña, trying to make a point, continued, “Really, we’re not going to do much unless we’re challenged. Berry Punch and I talked about it on the train. Barley had a few things to say as well. Normal stuff doesn’t do much for us… it’s like giving that foal that is a math wiz a simple arithmetic problem and expecting them to be interested. They’re gonna be bored with four plus four after a while. Berry Punch said that she doesn’t want me to feel like I’m being punished, she wants me to feel like I’m being given a chance to prove myself. If I want to do more adult stuff, then I gotta prove I can.” 

Sentinel came to a sudden halt, Piña almost bumping into him, and the colt facehoofed. He cringed, looking distraught, and then facehoofed for a second time, conking his own skull. 

“Sentinel?” Dinky gave her brother a worried glance as she pulled up alongside him. 

“It makes sense,” Sentinel said, his words little more than a mumble. The colt shook his head. “We’ve shown some exceptional skill. We’ve shown that were capable. The adults… they’re just manipulating us into doing better… it’s probably the reason why everypony I meet brings up what I did… even Flash Sentry had something to say about it… I’m probably being tested to see how I react and if I can really be an adult about this.” 

“Have you?” Piña asked. 

Sentinel gritting his teeth, shook his head and then replied, “I doubt it. I let Flash get under my skin… ugh, I’m so stupid! Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Argh, everything is a test… everything… everything!” Frustrated, Sentinel sat down with a thump. “I’m under so much pressure… everything has to be just so. Everything has to be perfect, there is no ‘almost’ or ‘just about’ or ‘kinda had it.’ When I try something and I don’t quite get it, it’s always some long conversation about why I failed rather than how I succeeded but still didn’t quite do it perfect… Princess Luna is so demanding… but she isn’t to blame.” 

“She isn’t?” Piña sat down beside Sentinel and leaned up against him. 

“No,” Sentinel replied, “I am.” He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut, squeezing back tears. “When I don’t quite do things right, I can’t let it go and I keep pushing to do it better. The others, they’re just pushing along with me. I do this to myself.” 

“I understand.” Dinky, who sat down on the other side of Sentinel, leaned up against him, not minding that her tail was now full of dirt and twigs. “I make things harder than they need to be. There is a lot I want for myself.” 

“Me too.” Piña sniffled a bit, and a sad smile spread over her muzzle. “I wanna be like Berry… I wanna make something of myself. Moonshiner’s Haint is an awful place and it is full of awful earth ponies and I just got to see what life looks like when you give up. I don’t want that.” 

“We have a foal to rescue. Come on, let’s get moving. We can feel sorry for each other later, after we go home,” Dinky said to her siblings. She took a deep breath. “I think we need to change how we see the world though.”

“Yeah, we’re not being punished, we’re being tested,” Piña said, picking up where Dinky left off. “I say we go with it and see what it does for us.” 

“Today, we can be heroes.” Sentinel lifted his head and his ears perked up. His spirits lifted, Sentinel got up, waggled his backside, and shook the dirt from his tail as his sisters did the same. “Let’s do this and go home… I want to talk to my father.” 



 

“The trail ends here,” Sentinel said, coming to a stop. Not far from them was the old crumbling castle. The woods ahead seemed especially thick. Brambles, shrubs, thorny vines, thickets, and old, gnarled trees lay ahead. The scent went cold, coming to an abrupt stop. 

Sand Piper had left the road, wandered through the underbrush, come to this spot, and vanished. Sentinel wasn’t sure how that was possible, and he continued sniffing around. Perhaps the little filly had teleported somehow. Nose to the ground, he wandered around, hoping to catch a whiff of scent. 

“Something is up with this place,” Piña said as she stood on her hind legs and pressed both of her front hooves up against the knobby trunk of a tree. She closed her eyes and her hooves began to let out a faint glow. 

“This place is strange.” Dinky began to get a peculiar feeling, a strange tingling in the base of her horn. She turned to look at the trees, and found that her vision was focused on the trees. She tried looking past them, deeper into the woods, trying to see beyond what was there, and found she could not. Time and time again, her eyes were drawn to the trees, to the thickets, to the brush and the brambles, but she could not see in any further. 

Reaching out with her mind, she touched upon a beetle sitting on a branch. Looking at the world through the eyes of the beetle, she saw something, but she wasn’t certain what. She pulled out of the beetle, blinking her eyes, and realised that some very powerful magic was at work here, some kind of aversion spell. 

As Dinky stood staring, a path yawned opened ahead of them, it was as if the path was always there and they were only seeing it now. The road was old and overgrown, it had not been a road for a long time, and beyond the trees, Dinky could see… houses. An old windmill creaked. It was dilapidated and run down. An old stone cottage with a sagging sod roof was the closest building to them. 

“I’ve found the scent!” Sentinel took off, his nose to the ground, sniffing as he made his way down the overgrown road towards the town it seemed that time had forgot. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 855
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Piña came to a halt and Dinky bumped into her backside. Sentinel had come to a stop as well, but was further ahead. Something wasn’t right, and Piña could feel the very wrongness of the city around her. She turned her head, looking around, and the path behind her was gone, there was only an impenetrable thicket once more. There was light in the sky, but no sign of the sun anywhere. It was as if the sun had been removed from the sky somehow. 

Meanwhile, as Piña could feel that something was wrong, Sentinel could see that something was wrong. A shriveled looking pony stood by a water well, standing as still as a statue. Sentinel was unable to tell if it was male or female, its skin was stretched drum-tight over bones, with each rib visible, and the most disturbing feature of all—no eyes. Only the whites were visible and nothing else. Sentinel shuddered. 

After bumping into Piña’s plush pink backside, Dinky recovered herself, stepping away, and having a look around. She used all of her available senses, her eyes, her ears, her nose, and her sense for magic as a unicorn. It didn’t take much to realise that she was in trouble. 

A brilliant purple light flashed from Dinky’s horn as she said the incantation that she knew by heart. “Whenever I am all alone and I am too scared to think, whenever I need some help, I flash my light and blink!” A flare went shooting skyward, hit an invisible barrier, and fizzled out with a hissing pop. 

That’s not good, Dinky thought to herself. Dinky, who had a quick mind, realised that she hadn’t broken the aversion spell protecting this place, she had been invited in. Thinking about this made cold chills run up and down her spine. 

“We’re not alone,” Sentinel said, offering a warning to his two sisters, “I hear another heartbeat, it’s close, and something smells weird.” The colt looked around, looking at the houses around him, peering up at the roofs, eyeing the trees, trying to see what was stalking them. He let out a low growl and his hackles rose. 

There were other ponies, also shriveled, boney, and standing still as statues, all of them missing eyes, only the whites of their eyes visible. A bird was perched on one of them and it pecked at the pony’s ears, nipping off pieces of dried out, leathery flesh. The pony made no response at all to the bird pecking away its ears. It just stood there, unmoving. 

Unleashing a bolt of telekinesis, Dinky slapped the bird away and it flew off with a dried out strip of flesh in its beak. Dinky watched it go as she moved closer to Piña, the fear she had building up inside of her, the pressure rising like soda in a shook up bottle. 

“We need to get out of here,” Sentinel said as he turned around.

“I don’t think we can,” Dinky replied, already knowing that the way out had been sealed off. They were stuck here, something had trapped them. “We just need to keep our wits about us and we’ll be fine. Everything will be fine if we just stay calm and use our heads.” 

“We need to stick together and stay close.” Piña looked at Sentinel, then at Dinky, and she could sense something else, but had trouble with what it was. It wasn’t the badness all around her, it was something else. She tried to focus her senses, trying to figure out what it was, but she was too out of sorts to be able to concentrate well. 

“Maybe we can still find Sand Piper. If we find her, we can take her with us when we leave, if we can figure out a way to leave.” Sentinel lowered his head to the ground and resumed sniffing. 

Curious, Dinky wondered if she could teleport out. She thought about it, her ears twitching, and then decided that she wasn’t going to leave without Sentinel and Piña. She could get herself out of here, if she could teleport, but she wasn’t strong enough to take the others with her. Frustrated, angry, Dinky felt disappointed at her own lack of power. She felt a hot rush of anger and resented being a foal. She was stuck in a very adult situation and needed an adult level of power. Life just wasn’t fair, not at all. 

Dinky began to think about everything she knew. Beam attacks for useful offense, the continuous application of force over and over on the same point, great for wearing something down, like a shield spell or armor. Pulse attacks had more force and hit harder, but also used more energy and took time to charge. 

“Well, I must say, I did not expect to find somepony like you here… and two of you. Must be my lucky day. That useless little foal I lured here proved useful after all.” 

Growling, Sentinel bared his teeth as both Piña and Dinky pressed closer together. 

“Who are you?” Piña demanded. “Show yourself!” 

“In due time,” the voice replied. 

“You clearly don’t know who we are… I wouldn’t mess with us if I were you. We’re powerful and those who love us are far more dangerous than we are,” Dinky said in a strange voice of calm authority. Gone was the frightened foal. Dinky, taking after her mother, stood stiff legged, looking very much like a pegasus in the throes of defiance, ears erect, head high, muzzle angled down to protect the throat. Her horn glowed with a dangerous brilliance. 

“Oh, but you are powerful,” the voice replied, “which is why I’m so happy to have found you. I’ve been in need for a new vessel for a long time. I have this problem, you see… I’ve grown very, very old. I’ve absorbed a great deal and the common pony just cannot hold me. The ponies you see around you are what I’ve had to work with. I lured that pathetic little unicorn here to be a new vessel and I had the most fortuitous luck having you show up. I’ll be able to jump between the two of you so one body can rest while I use the other. The two of you should last me for a very long time.” 

Confused, Dinky didn’t know what the voice was talking about, but she didn’t like it, not one bit. She felt something lurking near the fringes of her mind, something dreadful was coming closer. Something awful. 

“You even brought me a new lunar pegasus… they make good guards. The last one I had died centuries ago.” 

A long ribbon of drool hung down from the corner of Sentinel’s mouth, his eyes were bloodshot with fury and the hairs all along his spine bristled upwards, giving him a long stripe running down his back. His legs quivered, his muscles twitching and jerking. 

“My brother has a bad habit of ripping his enemies limb from limb. Give us Sand Piper and let us go.” Piña glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice. 

“Our daddy loves us bunches. He’s known to get mean if something messes with his foals. You wouldn’t like him if he got mean,” Dinky said in a loud, clear voice, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

“I don’t know who your father is, nor do I care,” the voice replied. 

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew him.” Piña watched as more drool dribbled from her brother’s lips. She was worried, Sentinel was giving off a strange feeling, he was more animal than pony. He was dangerous. 

Thoughts racing, Dinky battled to keep her fear in check. Sentinel was rapidly approaching a berserk state, or so she believed, she knew it was possible. Something felt wrong, something was pressing in on her thoughts, unwelcome, as if it were trying to gain entry. Overhead, one of the roofs on an old house nearby creaked, almost causing Dinky to jump out of her skin. 

She knew they were in trouble. Whoever was here was a powerful mentalist and was probing Dinky’s defenses. Dinky wasn’t sure she could fight against something this powerful. She felt the cold prickles of fear radiating outwards from her nether regions, filling her guts with a chilly, sick feeling, and her stomach felt clammy from sweaty fear. 

“I know who you are,” Piña said in a loud voice. 

“Do you now?” the voice replied in a mocking tone. 

“You… you’re the Hag!” Piña looked around, trying to keep her eyes open for danger. 

“No one has dared uttered that name for a long time… no matter… soon, your insolence will no longer matter.” 

Dinky sucked in a deep breath, almost choking as a pony came around the corner. She moved like a puppet, with jerky, stuttering steps, almost as if she was something that was stop motion animated. The withered, old unicorn wasn’t well. Her pelt was grey, lifeless looking, dried out, almost mummified looking. Bones stood out in high relief against the stretched tight skin. Patches of her pelt were missing. 

But her eyes… her eyes... the eyes made Dinky’s blood run cold. While the frozen ponies all around them had blank white eyes, the monstrosity lurching towards them had black, dead eyes that glowed with a terrible dusky ambiance. 

“I do so hate this body… these bodies. I’ve had to turn them into near liches just to keep them alive, to keep them preserved, just so they could hold me… and none of them can hold me very long… I’ve grown far too large for these bodies… it’ll be painful waiting for you to mature, but I’m a very patient pony.” 

“You’ve already destroyed yourself.” Piña lifted up her head, looking defiant. “You’re already dead. Soon, no pony body will hold you, and you can’t jump into anything but ponies, can you? With no body that can hold you, you will die… you will turn to dust and blow away in the wind.” 

“You know nothing,” the Hag spat. “There is always lichdom, as horrible as that might be. There is always the ways and means to escape. You know nothing, insignificant foal.” 

Snarling, Sentinel lunged forwards, his mouth opened wide, his wings springing from his sides. He moved with blinding speed, his legs and wings pumping. He shot forward, a blur, moving towards the Hag as a streaking ball of fuzzy rage, long ribbons of drool streaming out from his muzzle. 

Horn flashing, the Hag slapped Sentinel with a powerful telekinetic blast, sending him flying. Sentinel, flung backward with a grunt, smashed into the stone wall of a building, shattering it, and he kept going, vanishing from view. 

“He’ll learn his place,” the Hag said as she turned her head, advancing upon Piña and Dinky. “I’ll wear down his mind and his will. Siblings, you say? He will work to guard his sisters’ bodies while I inhabit them. This works out well for me.” 

With a roar, Sentinel reappeared, shooting out of the rubble, his wings flapping, moving with almost supernatural speed. The Hag, somehow faster, hit him again with magic. A sickening blast of greenish black magic flew from her horn and struck Sentinel in the face, knocking the colt from the air. 

Sentinel landed in a heap, skidding to a halt in the dirt, the left side of his face melting like candle wax, his eye sliding out of his socket and dissolving in the puddle that was the left side of his face. So much of his face had sloughed off that his molars were visible, and more of his face continued to ooze away. 

“Look what you made me do… well, you still have the other eye. That’ll have to do,” the Hag said as she looked down at the mess she had made of Sentinel. 

Shrieking, Dinky reached deep inside of herself, willing up as much magic as she could muster, along with all of her rage, her anger, and her fury. Around her, the air came to life with a terrible droning sound. 

A massive cloud of bees sprang into existence and headed right for the Hag as Piña darted forwards towards Sentinel’s side, tears streaming from her blue eyes and running down her cheeks. 

Dinky’s swarm surged forwards and consumed the Hag, who screeched as the cloud of creeping doom made Dinky’s fury known. The Hag fell down, rolling about on the ground, trying to be rid of the stinging insects, but there was no stopping them. 

Much to Dinky’s surprise, the Hag somehow teleported away, a move that Dinky did not expect, how could anypony teleport while being stung by bees, and then the Hag cast a fireball, burning her cloud of bees to ashes. Tears flooded Dinky’s eyes, she didn’t know what else to do. 

And then, she felt it, the Hag trying to force her way in. Dinky screamed, understanding that if the Hag went deep enough into her mind, Dinky would lose herself forever. She heard Piña screaming and realised that the same thing was happening to Piña as well. One of them would break, and then the Hag would have her victory. 

A black streak darted for the Hag, the sound of feathers slicing through the air could be heard, and then the loud shriek of avian fury. Distracted, trying to dominate Dinky and Piña, and still recovering from the insect swarm attack, the Hag could do nothing to stop Boadicea’s advance. The griffoness impacted into the Hag, almost knocking her over, and wrapped her piano wire garrote around the Hag’s neck. 

With a tug, Boadicea cinched it, causing the Hag’s eyes to bulge. Boadicea’s beak, long, pointed, and razor sharp, slammed down against the top of the Hag’s head over and over again, rending flesh, tearing open her scalp, and sending jets of blood spurting. 

As Dinky watched, still trying to shove the Hag out of her mind, Boadicea, sitting upon the Hag’s back, her hind claws digging into the Hag’s withered flesh, had her garrote now secured in her left talons, and was pulling out a wicked looking dagger with her right talons. The dagger went up, flashing from the brilliant light coming off of the Hag’s horn, and then arced down. 

The blade bit deep into the base of the Hag’s neck and then was pulled out. Much to Dinky’s terror, the horrific wound began to heal almost right away. The wounds on the Hag’s scalp were also healing. The dagger was rammed in again, and again, Boadicea was stabbing the Hag over and over, each stroke coming down and striking with a wet sounding meaty splat. 

The Hag’s presence was weakening in her mind, Dinky could feel it, and she felt her spirits lift. Perhaps the Hag could be defeated somehow. Staggering, Dinky made her way over to Piña, who was guarding Sentinel’s prone, helpless body. 

Boadicea’s dagger continued to stab into the Hag’s flesh over and over as the garrote remained tight around the Hag’s neck, also cutting into the wrinkled, vulnerable flesh of the Hag’s throat. It was like some kind of horrorshow rodeo, with the Hag trying to buck Boadicea from her back and Boadicea refusing to let go. Blood and black feathers flew outwards from the pair locked in mortal combat. 

Taking a deep breath, Dinky focused everything she had in her, trying to call up as much magic as possible. Dinky’s eyes went white as she entered a near surge-like state. She rose up into the air, her forelegs raised out to her sides, her horn crackling with dangerous amounts of energy. 

Another swarm of creeping death appeared, a nightmare swarm of epic proportions. Bees, wasps, giant wasps, ants, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, all manner of stinging, pinching, biting, horrible creepy crawlies had come to do Dinky’s bidding. Dinky focused all of her hatred, all of her rage, she focused all of her emotion on the Hag, wishing to punish her. 

The swarm moved, following Dinky’s will, and Boadicea, after getting in one final stab, jumped away from the Hag’s back, then flew away, her wings flapping, and she circled overhead. 

The nightmarish horde of horrors laid into the Hag, an extension of Dinky’s will. They crawled over the Hag’s skin and into the wounds that had not closed yet, then crawled beneath the withered, drawn flesh of the Hag. 

Screeching, being devoured alive, the Hag writhed, trying to save herself, her horn flashed a few times, but nothing happened. Strange lumps moved beneath her skin. One eye popped out, pushed out from a giant centipede making itself at home in her eye socket. The Hag let out a gurgling cry. 

Dinky felt something spike through her mind, a psychic scream. It hurt in ways that there were no words to describe. It echoed, resonated, becoming more and more painful with each passing second. Boadicea seemed unaffected. Piña writhed on the ground beside Sentinel. 

And one by one, the frozen, still ponies with white eyes dropped to the ground, unmoving, not breathing, dying as the Hag’s magic began to weaken and the psychic scream intensified. 

Boadicea darted down, her dagger extended, and she flew past the Hag, slicing open her throat once more. This time, the wound did not close and more insects, more spiders, more horrible things crawled inside of the Hag’s body to worm beneath her skin. 

“Just DIE you COONT!” Piña shrieked as she lay on the ground, kicking. 

The Hag, unable to stand, fell over as she was being devoured, eaten alive by bugs. Her wrinkled, dessicated flesh was being stripped away, revealing glistening, bloody muscles and bits of yellow gristle below, all of which was swarming with flesh gnawing horrors. 

Swooping down, Boadicea kicked the Hag over, mindful of the bugs, the spiders, and the many legged monstrousities eating the Hag. With a smooth, well practiced motion, she used her dagger to open up the Hag’s belly, slicing her from navel to groin. Intestines spilled out like gleaming, shiny pink ribbons. The creeping horde, ever hungry, fell upon the new banquet of flesh. 

Inside of her mind, Dinky felt the Hag dying, growing weaker, with nowhere left to go, no body to jump into, no means of escape. It was over. There was another blinding flash of pain as a psychic scream echoed through Dinky’s head, and then something happened that was like a soap bubble popping. 

Overhead, the sun came into view, shining down upon the city that time forgot. Blinking, Dinky realised that the spell was broken. The Hag was dead. They had killed her. Drained, weakened, Dinky once more reached down deep, surprised that she still had a little more to give. 

“Whenever I am all alone and I am too scared to think, whenever I need some help, I flash my light and blink!” Dinky recited the words, knowing them by heart, and a brilliant flare shot upwards, this one rising up over the Everfree where it could be seen. It exploded and Dinky knew that help was coming. 

The ground was rushing up to meet her and she felt somepony grab her. No, somebirdy. She felt feathers tickling up against her as she was gently lowered down to the ground. Reaching out, Dinky touched Piña, not just with her hoof, but also with her mind. Her head throbbed, she was having some trouble seeing. The last dying psychic scream of the Hag’s had been a doozy. 

In the distance, there was a thunderous crack, a sound that Dinky knew all too well. That crack was the sound barrier being broken. Help was coming. Help would soon be here. Dinky’s stomach growled, she felt empty, weak, her horn ached something awful, and she had a horrible headache. She hoped that Sentinel could be saved somehow and Dinky’s final waking thought was of Sand Piper, wondering about the filly’s fate. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 856
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Refusing to panic, Boadicea kept her head. She hunkered down near Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel, her heart thudding against her ribs, her tail swishing behind her, slicing at the air like a sword. Sitting back on her haunches, she took a deep breath, trying to figure out what to do. 

“Dinky’s in a bad way… she’s dying,” Piña said in a low voice. 

“Piña, don’t overreact—”

“I’m not,” Piña insisted, her voice soft and wavering, “I’m not being a foal about this either. She used too much magic. She’s little… her body can’t handle it. Sentinel is fading too.” 

Flexing her talons, Boadicea didn’t know what to do. She felt a tightness in her throat, but she pushed the feeling of panic from her mind. Reaching out with her left talons, she grabbed Piña’s fetlock and gave Piña a reassuring squeeze. 

Just as Boadicea was about to say something to Piña, something happened. A bright pink flame ignited around her and Piña, it blazed, almost as brilliant as the sun. Boadicea felt her spirits lifting, the encroaching panic fled from her, and her body, aching from adrenaline and exertion, felt better. 

The flames leaped from her and Piña over to Sentinel and Dinky, consuming them all in flames. Boadicea blinked, feeling the sustaining warmth. It was the same fire that had burned when they had faced Sombra, but not as strong. 

“You’re doing this,” Piña said, her blue eyes staring into Boadicea’s black eyes. “This is your gift. This is what you do—” 

“Stop being mystical and creepy,” Boadicea said, still holding Piña’s fetlock. “We need to figure out how to help Dinky and Sentinel.” 

“Hearthfire will sustain Dinky. I don’t know about Sentinel.” Around Piña, the pink flames burned brighter. “I can’t summon the Hearthfire, but I can control it. I can feel it flowing through me. I can hear voices… so many voices… they’re singing.” 

Ears straining, Boadicea tried to hear, but she couldn’t hear anything like voices singing. Still staring into Piña’s eyes, she watched as the earth pony filly’s eyes changed, going white, then turning pink. 

“Necromancy is vile, there isn’t much we can do to help Sentinel,” Piña said in a low voice as she turned to look at her fallen brother. “We can staunch the flow of blood, but this is not a wound we can heal.” 

As Boadicea watched, the oozing red blood leaking from the ruined left side of Sentinel’s face ceased to flow. Some of the flesh moved, curling, writhing, scabbing over. The puddle of corrupted, melted flesh blazed purple, burning in the Hearthfire, and turned to ash in seconds. 

Piña extended her free foreleg, making a sweeping gesture, and Sentinel’s body was lifted off of the ground, away from the earth soiled with the remains of his face, which was now ashes. The Hearthfire blazed, crackling, and Piña’s now pink eyes glowed with the brilliance of the sun. 

“To heal Sentinel’s face, the diseased, corrupted tissues and bone must be carved away and new flesh and bone must be regrown from parts of him untouched by the vile magic of the Hag.” Piña laid her brother’s body down on some wilted grass nearby, a tendril of pink flames connecting them. 

Feeling strong, feeling confident, Boadicea let go of Piña. The flames continued to burn around them. She watched as Piña turned to Dinky and then Piña pulled Dinky closer, cradling her sister’s head in her forelegs. Dinky, still comatose, made no response. 



 

“What is going on here? What has happened? What has taken place?” 

Turning her head, Boadicea saw Princess Luna, a small flock of pegasi, a gaggle of griffons, and one very concerned Lugus. Seeing Lugus, she wanted to run to him, to throw her forelegs around his neck, and squeeze him. But she didn’t. She had to look responsible, in control, and show that she was grown up. 

“We have slain the Hag,” Piña replied as she turned her pink, flame filled eyes upon Princess Luna. “Sentinel needs aid, the Hag used necromancy against him. We have revived him. Dinky is burned out and we currently sustain her. Our own magic grows weaker. We need rest. We cannot keep going.” 

“Hearthfire.” Princess Luna almost breathed the word. 

“Boadicea is Hearthfire’s champion. It is her purpose. She ignited the flame so that we might make use of it.” Piña’s flaming ears pivoted forwards and she turned her strange, burning pink eyes upon Boadicea. “We must be away at once. We grow weaker.” 

The pink flames sputtered but remained alight. Princess Luna made a gesture with her wing and then barked out a command. “Gather them up and keep them together as close as possible! We need fast, strong fliers to get them to Canterlot! Now MOVE!” 

Princess Luna watched as Lugus took to the air, flew forwards, and lifted Sentinel in his talons, then cradled Sentinel’s limp body close to his girth, pressing the comatose colt against his ribs. The other pegasi were moving as well, with Flash Sentry scooping up Dinky. 

Blinking, Princess Luna had trouble taking in what she was seeing. This was Hoofington. Somehow, the city seemed almost untouched by time. Old buildings, thousand year old buildings that should have crumbled long ago were still standing. From what Princess Luna understood, Hoofington had just vanished one day, and was believed to have been swallowed up by the Everfree. 

There was a mystery to sort out, but that would have to come later. Spreading her wings, Princess Luna took to the skies, her hawkish eyes watching for danger, and along with the rest of the flock, headed for Canterlot. 



 

“I am surprised.” Pacing, Princess Celestia moved back and forth, her long legs taking tiny steps, both her eyes and her ears twitching in agitation. She turned to look at her sister, Luna, who was looking back at her with a puzzled look. 

“Surprised?” Luna asked. 

“Buckminster did not come,” Celestia whispered in reply. “This worries me.” 

“He has four newborns at home, plus Crisis, a wife grieving the loss of her twin sister, a feral foal that needs looking after, and the entirety of his family that are no doubt suffering from what has taken place. What can he do here? Sentinel is still in surgery, Dinky is still comatose, and if he were here, he would be sitting and waiting, doing nothing.” Luna took a deep breath, then continued. “He is needed at home. He can put that nervous energy to good use looking after those he can help.” 

Princess Celestia’s pacing came to an abrupt stop. She knew that Bucky had a busy home life, but hearing Luna speak of everything that Bucky had to deal with drove home the fact that Bucky was overwhelmed. No doubt, even with everything going on at home, he was probably still planning his invasion, bolstering Equestria’s defenses, and doing everything that he considered his duties. 

There was a soft rapping upon the door and Princess Celestia turned her head. “Enter.” Waiting, Celestia watched the door as it opened. She saw a guard enter, his head low, his eyes worried and a bit fearful. “Yes?” 

“Diamond Tiara has arrived with Silver Shill and Applejack.” The guard bowed his head. “They have been left to wait in a comfortable room. Applejack was hoping to see you, Majesty. I understand that you are very busy, but she is very insistent.” 

“I will see her very soon. Tell her that,” Celestia replied. The white alicorn drew in a deep, calming breath and heard her sister Luna doing the same. “Anything else?” 

“That is all, Majesty.” Backing out of the room, the stallion closed the door, leaving the two sisters alone together. 

“I left Erebus and Tourmaline at the farmhouse. Somepony needs to go and fetch Tourmaline. She will be most useful.” Luna’s wings fluttered at her sides as she turned in a circle, her hooves clicking upon the stone floor. “I do not feel well… I feel like throwing up. All of this stress. I am not dealing with it very well. Barley is so foolish… he infuriates me sometimes.” 

“Sister, you have not slept. Go and get some rest if you can. I will send couriers to fetch Tourmaline and Erebus.” Celestia watched as her sister shook her head. 

“No,  there will be no—” 

“Luna, go and get some rest. This night is sure to be a long one. You will be needed. Go now, and get the sleep you need.” Celestia’s tone of voice made it clear that this was not a suggestion, nor was it open to debate. Her eyebrow raised in a delicate arch and she waited for Luna to reply. 

“Yes, Sister, of course. I will be needed tonight.” Luna sighed. “I will try to get some sleep if I can. But only if you promise to get some sleep as well.” 

“Very well, you have a deal…” 



 

In the corner of the room, sitting in a plush, overstuffed red velvet chair, Silver Shill read a newspaper, sometimes peering over the top of it to look at Diamond Tiara and Boadicea. The filly and the griffoness were sitting on a matching, overstuffed red velvet sofa, holding one another, and trying to comfort one another as best they could. 

Silver wanted to say something, wanted to do something, he wanted to comfort them, but they were so closely entwined with one another that he felt that he was intruding upon their privacy just by being in the same room, so he sat in silence, reading his newspaper, and thinking about the rest of his family back at Sweet Apple Acres. 

“Silver?” 

Lowering his paper, Silver Shill focused his attention on Diamond Tiara. He gave her a warm smile, trying to put her at ease, hoping to make her feel better. He had strong feelings of affection for the filly, he liked her, and he desperately wanted her to like him. 

“I know I just started staying with you for the spring and the summer and we don’t know each other all that well...” 

The filly drew in a deep, shuddering breath and Silver felt his heart aching for her. She was taking this well, she was being strong, and Silver found himself admiring her for her strength and spirit. 

“I just wanted to say thank you, for being here for me. You’ve been very kind to me. So, thank you.” 

Just as Silver started to reply, the door opened and the big griffon entered the room. Silver turned and looked at Lugus, and could not help but feel just a little bit afraid. Lugus, a giant, was intimidating. The big griffon’s beak was large enough to fit a whole pony head inside. Shivering, Silver reminded himself that Lugus was friendly. 

“Any word?” Silver asked as Lugus loped through the room, his movements cat-like and tense. He watched as Lugus eased his bulk onto a sofa, and the big griffon took up the entire sofa, with parts of him spilling off. 

“Sentinel is still in surgery,” Lugus replied, shaking his head. “Dinky has a feeding tube up her nose. She is weak, but stable. I don’t understand how one so tiny can be so powerful, yet still so frail. Her body is ill equipped to deal with the consequences of her power.” 

“I never did understand how unicorns do what they do,” Silver Shill said in return. “How is Piña?” 

“Being examined still. Now that the Hearthfire has worn off, she has stopped using the word ‘we’ to describe herself and appears to be returning to normal. The doctors were worried.” Lugus stretched, causing the sofa he lounged upon to let out an alarming creak, the big griffon yawned, his razor sharp beak opening up wide and showing off his dangly uvula. He flexed his talons and then focused his gaze upon Boadicea. 

All too aware of Lugus’ stare, Boadicea cringed and began to spill her guts. “I was training with Loki. He was teaching me… well, he was telling me about, well, you know, assassin stuff.” Boadicea let out a low peep, her crest folded down against her head, and she shot a nervous glance in Silver Shill’s direction. “Loki gave me a scent blocking potion to drink and then told me to shadow Sentinel. He gave me very specific instructions that I was to shadow Sentinel and not be discovered. Should I be discovered, well, Loki threatened to have Scorch drag me to Tartarus to run a hundred laps around some burning lake of fire in Scorch’s realm. I followed Sentinel through Ponyville, most of the ponies didn’t even see me, then I followed him out to the city’s edge, then into the Everfree.” 

Lugus’ crest rose. 

“When I saw the Hag, I was tempted to strike right away, but I waited for a better chance, knowing that the element of surprise was my best weapon against such a powerful foe. Sentinel was enraged, berserk, incapable of thinking or acting rationally, and that was his undoing. I wanted to do the same. After seeing what the Hag did to Sentinel, I had trouble keeping myself collected.” 

“Go on,” Lugus said. 

“When I saw that I had a good opportunity, I revealed myself and I attacked the Hag exactly as Loki instructed. I garroted her to cut off her air and restrict the flow of mana through her thaumaturgic system, then I focused on neck wounds, stabbing her repeatedly, spilling both her blood and her thaumaturgical fluids.” 

Gagging, Diamond Tiara covered her muzzle with her left front fetlock. 

“She kept healing, but grew weaker as she lost more and more of her available mana. I think I weakened her enough so that Dinky could finish her off.” Boadicea fell silent and gave Diamond Tiara a squeeze, pulling the pink filly close and pressing Diamond Tiara’s face into the feathers of her neck. She could feel Diamond Tiara breathing against her, ruffling her feathers, and she could feel tears as they spilled, soaking her fur and feathers. 

Lugus gave Boadicea a faint nod of approval. “You did good, my little cub. I am proud of you.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 857
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pacing, having had very little sleep, Princess Luna wondered where Erebus was. When she had awoken, there was no sign of the foal, and Luna, being in a terrible mood, had not asked about his location. She knew that he was being cared for. She had other, far more pressing concerns. Hearing a knock upon the door, Luna’s ears stood at attention. 

“Enter.” 

The door opened and a Myrmidon mare entered, wearing full heavy plate, her features obscured under the suit of protective metal. Princess Luna still knew who it was from the distinctive stomp-stomp-stomp. 

“Shiver Storm.” 

“Mistress.” The big mare bowed her head, her armor glinting in the flickering candlelight in Princess Luna’s private chambers. Extending a wing, the mare of exceptional size lifted up her visor, revealing her eyes and her scarred face. 

“Report,” Luna commanded, her voice both terse and tense. 

“Mistress… all in Hoofington are dead, including the missing foal, Sand Piper. Her parents have been informed. We are of course trying to determine the cause of death, but is likely some sort of brain embolism brought about by psychic trauma. At least, that is what I have heard. I am not a doctor.” The mare folded her wing against her side and her eyes narrowed. “We also found several other foals that match the description of foals who went missing from Ponyville, some of which stretch back several years. It is speculated that this Hag lured foals away and into the Everfree, where she claimed them for her own nefarious purposes.”

“Right underneath our noses this whole time. Right beneath Canterlot and next to Ponyville. For who knows how long, luring ponies into the wood, where they would never be seen again.” Princess Luna shook her head. 

“Mistress, some ponies did come out of the Everfree, telling strange stories—” 

“And then ponies would go into the Everfree to find the source of the trouble and then were never seen again… trickery!” Luna stomped her hoof and there was a metallic ringing, like a bell. 

“Mistress…” Shiver Storm, her face stony, stared at Luna, her eyes glittering. 

“My most devoted servant has isolated himself with his family. My godfoals were in mortal peril… and Sentinel… Sentinel… Sentinel…” Luna, stammering, tried to find the words to express herself. “Alas, poor Sentinel. Tragedy has befallen him, and it is all my fault.” 

“Mistress?” 

“My fault,” Luna repeated. 

“I do not follow, Mistress.” Shiver Storm stepped forwards and her armor made a faint creak. “How is this your fault? I do not understand how you are to blame.” 

“Sentinel,” Luna said, shaking her head, her eyes glassy with tears, “I have failed Sentinel. I believed Sentinel to be above his bestial nature. He is so… intelligent. Civilised. Sentinel is so rational. I wanted so very much to believe that he was all of those things.” 

Sighing, Luna closed her eyes.

“I was mistaken. You, my foals of the night, are all the same, no matter how cultured, how civilised, how intelligent you might appear.” Luna’s eyes opened and she looked at Shiver Storm, who stood there, as still as a statue, her face expressionless. 

“All of you are bestial brutes. Monsters. Terrors of the night. Much has to be done to repress your monstrous natures. All of you have such a thin veneer of civilisation about you, and with little provocation, it crumbles away, leaving behind only the monsters that you really are.” Luna blinked away tears, then reached out with her wings to wipe her eyes. 

“I had so hoped that Sentinel was more… well… more than that. More than a monster. He had such potential. He lived around the others, those weaker than himself, he was so gentle, so kind, he was so affectionate… Sentinel was so good. I allowed myself to believe that he had somehow gained dominance over his bestial nature. I had some concerns after the incident in the Sea of Grass, after his father was injured. I thought to myself, ‘any foal might respond like that, Sentinel was just reacting, he will be fine.’ But I think I was wrong. Not enough was done to help him repress what he really is. What all of you really are.” Luna drew in a deep breath, held it for many long second seconds, and then exhaled one word. “Monsters.” 

“We are what we are, Mistress. It is through your grace that we know peace from the nightmare buried within each and every one of us,” Shiver Storm said to Luna in a cold, emotionless voice. “This is why those of us who do not become Myrmidons live on the fringes of society, far, far away from others. We are unfit to live around our smaller, weaker, more vulnerable cousins. Given the chance, we’d eat them. They’re food, like anything else.” 

“I have failed Sentinel. This is my fault. I made a mistake, I believed him to be more than what he is. Had he been trained, had he been conditioned, he might have contained his anger. He might have held back his brutish inner nature. He might have contained the beast within and acted with sane rationality. But these things did not happen. He went berserk and attacked with mindless, unthinking rage. It cost him his face and his eye.” A tear rolled down Luna’s cheek and splashed upon the stone floor, leaving behind a dark spot. “I have failed Buckminster, his family, and my own godson.” 

Striding away, Princess Luna threw open the doors to her balcony, spread her wings, lunged forwards, and with a powerful kick, launched herself into the sky. Borne on silent wings, she flew away, leaving her room and her Myrmidon Shiver Storm behind. Weeping, she angled herself upwards, heading for the stars. 



 

“Bucky?” Peering into the thick shadows, Applejack strained to see the figure that she had a hunch was there. “Stop being spooky, show yourself.” Waiting, Applejack watched as the shadows in the dark half of the room materialised. The small lamp beside the bed flickered, the electric bulb dimming a bit, succumbing to the darkness. 

Shivering, Applejack could see a darker shadow within the shadows, a hole cut into the blackness. She felt cold chills running up and down her spine and it felt as though her dock had been dipped in ice water. 

“No one knows I am here,” a voice whispered in the darkness. “I did not feel like dealing with Celestia or Luna trying to comfort me with softly spoken platitudes or weak, ineffectual apologies. Everything feels so meaningless right now.” 

Applejack turned and looked at the bed where she was sitting beside. Diamond Tiara lay sleeping, her forelegs wrapped tight around the slumbering griffoness beside her. She had gotten out of bed to sit beside them and watch over them, unable to sleep. After a moment, she turned and looked at Bucky. 

“Both of your foals here are fine,” Applejack said. She paused, reconsidering, then corrected herself. “Well, one foal, one cub I reckon.” 

When Bucky did not reply, Applejack took a deep breath. “Fine, be creepy, Mister Spooky. But I know why you are here. You’re checking on your foals. All of them. And Diamond Tiara is one of them. I’m just her caretaker, just like Rarity, but we all know that she is yours.” 

“Mister Rich was my dear friend. I cared for him a great deal.” 

Ears twitching, Applejack had to strain to hear the soft whisper coming from the shadows. She squinted, still trying to see, but all she could make out was the dark hole cut into the blackness. “It’s rough, ain’t it… I know how you’re feeling, make no mistake. I felt my heart being torn out my daggum chest when Babs was in the hospital. I wanted to die.” 

“I went and saw Sentinel… I had to leave. The room started to frost over. I could not help myself. Try as I might, I could not contain myself. The cold might have hurt him in his weakened state. I fled.” 

In the bed, Boadicea let out a whimper and kicked a bit beneath the blankets. Diamond Tiara’s legs tightened and the griffoness went both silent and still. Applejack watched them both, her face sad and sorrowful. Reaching out, she stroked Diamond Tiara’s ear with a soft touch from her fetlock. 

“I used to hate her, you know. I hated Filthy Rich too… I dunno, I just hated them both,” Applejack said, whispering her admission. “I had me some powerful anger because of how she tortured Apple Bloom and her friends. I think back on it and I feel bad, real bad.” 

The darkness in the corner made no reply. 

“I blame myself… funny, but it’s true.” Applejack turned to look at Bucky. “If I hadn’t been so openly antagonistic of Filthy Rich, we might have got along better. Maybe if I had spent more time getting to know Diamond here, she might have been nicer to Apple Bloom. Maybe if I had done things differently. But I was just plain mean… I was dishonest, that’s what I was, because I’d smile at the both of them and put on a good show, but when I had my chance, I’d get my digs in. I acted friendly but I wasn’t. And that’s lying. And maybe, just maybe, me lying made things worse for little Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara.” 

Applejack sighed and shook her head. 

“Thing is, I’ve done gotten to know Diamond Tiara. And I like her. I’ve grown to care about her. Nuts, I love the little cuss. And now, I feel real ashamed of what I did. I should have done more to be nice to her. I might have made a difference. As it was, I was a phony, a liar, and I probably made things worse. It’s all my fault.” 

Lifting her head, Applejack’s lips curled into a faint, sad smile. “I’m proud of her, I am. She came here to look after those she loves. She’s willing to do the hard work that’s needed to care for them. She’s there for her friends. She’s grown and she’s changed. She’s become a pony that I’m proud to know. I should have been there for her when she was having a hard time.” 

The shadows moved and something rustled. Applejack saw a shadow coming forwards, a black cloak draped over a small, thin, frail body like a funeral shroud. She shivered, but not from the cold. 

Bucky was maybe a foot away when Applejack felt something inside of her stomach kick. Her eyes opened wide, her ears twitching with excitement, and reaching out, she grabbed Bucky by the foreleg with her fetlock.

“Somepony is kicking their mama,” Applejack whispered as she placed Bucky’s talons against the curve of her stomach where she could feel little hooves kicking. “Feel that? Ain’t it great? I bet this is what my mama felt like when she was done had me, or Big Mac, or Apple Bloom in her belly.” She squeezed Bucky’s foreleg and pressed him tighter against her, lost in the magic of the moment, all of the horrible trouble forgotten, at least, temporarily. 

“Thank you, Applejack.” 

“Aw, shucks,” Applejack replied. 

“No, really, thank you,” Bucky insisted. 

“For what?” Applejack’s brows furrowed and she tried to see beneath the voluminous folds of Bucky’s hood, which was obscuring his face. 

“For reminding me of what I’m fighting for and how important it is for me to keep my shite together.” 

“Oh.” Applejack didn’t know how else to reply. She smiled, not knowing what else to do or say, then reached out, grabbed Bucky around his neck, and pulled him closer. She gave him a hug, squeezing him, and rubbed her cheek against his hood where she guessed his face would be. The pony beneath the cloak was thin, frail, bony, almost skeletal, light, and Applejack felt a flash of pity for him. 

Letting go, she felt Bucky pull away. Reaching out, Applejack poked her hoof into Bucky’s hood, lifted, and pulled away the heavy fabric. His mismatched eyes were peering at her. She marveled how the fake eye was still somehow bloodshot and tired looking. 

“I worry about you, ya know,” Applejack said in a low voice that was filled with concern. “Who takes care of you? Right now, I bet everything is real busy and with everything that’s just happened, you probably need somepony to look after you. Poor thing. You’re all thin and sickly lookin’.” 

She saw Bucky look at her, she could see the pain on his face. She placed her fetlock against his cheek. His grey eye flashed, reflecting the lamp light. The slitted pupil narrowed. She stroked his cheek for a moment, then pulled her foreleg away. 

“I should be going,” Bucky said to Applejack. “I’m needed at home. Everything has fallen apart. I intended to only slip away for a moment. Applejack, please, look after them. I’ll be coming back, but I’m needed at home. I hope they’ll understand. Berry isn’t well. The newborns are demanding. There is just too much. I can’t keep up with all of this.”

“I understand… I’ll look after yer little ones. Now go home, ya spook.” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 858
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Sister?” With cautious hesitation, Princess Luna pushed open her sister’s door and peered inside her room. There was a light on, a single candle burned on a low table near the bed, casting shadows on the walls. Luna saw that her sister was awake and wasn’t too surprised. “I take it that you have not had much sleep.” From where she stood, Luna watched Celestia shaking her head. 

Standing at the door, Princess Luna kicked off her shoes, her vestments, and tossed away her crown. It landed with a muffled, almost silent thump in some thick carpet. Luna stared at it for a moment, a look of intense dislike upon her face. 

Erebus was asleep in Celestia’s bed, curled up beside Tourmaline, also asleep. Celestia lay beside them both, watching over them, her expression one of forlorn sorrow. Luna moved to Celestia’s side, saying nothing, and eased herself down beside her sister, pressing up against Celestia’s side. 

“Buckminster was here,” Luna said in a low whisper, “he thought himself clever. He arrived as a thief, unseen, unnoticed, and only stayed for but a short while.” 

“Did the guards tell you?” Celestia asked. 

“No.” Luna shook her head and then leaned against Celestia, glad for her sister’s warmth and taking comfort in her closeness. “He eluded the guards. I noticed him through other means.” 

“I feel like I should be bothered by this.” Celestia turned her head somewhat to look at her sister, who was still getting comfortable, scooting and kicking her legs around, trying to fold them beneath her. “I suppose I should blame you. No doubt, you have taught him well.” 

Luna did not reply. Instead, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, calming herself, drawing much needed reassurance from being near her sister. Luna felt her troubled mind soothing just a little. This in turn allowed her to think about what it was that she wanted to say. 

“Sister, I know that something needs to be done with Sentinel, but I do not know what. I believe I have made an error. You know of what I speak.” Luna, when finished speaking, drew in another deep breath, held it, and then released it, also trying to let go of her stress with it. 

“I have been musing over the same issue,” Celestia said to her sister. “For many turns of the seasons while you were away, I got to know the lunar pegasi. I kept your traditions, I stuck with what worked, and what few there were served me well. They were always some of the most loyal, most devoted associates that I had. But I was always troubled by their bestial savagery. They are not like us, but can be made to mimic our behaviour.” 

“Sentinel shows so much promise. I have been debating with myself the whole of the night. After collecting my thoughts, I attended my duties and did what needed to be done. I had him on my mind the entire time. At first I believed that I had made a mistake, believing him to be more than what we saw, but after much thought, I believe the change I desire will not be so sudden. Sentinel is a good first step. He is more than his bestial nature, but it is still strong within him.” Luna went still beside her sister, having found a comfortable position. 

Saying nothing, Celestia waited for Luna to continue. 

“I do not want to take Sentinel away from his family. He is what he is because of his family. They are his motivation. I do not wish to break him down and condition him because I fear it would destroy his rather unique nature, the very thing that makes him special. I am at a loss for what to do, Sister.” 

“So then, we try something new,” Celestia said in a soft whisper. 

“But what?” Luna asked. 

“We have other friends and allies now… instead of just trying our own methods, how about we ask for help?” Looking down, Celestia saw Luna’s head coming to rest upon her foreleg and she could feel Luna breathing on her. 

“Who could help?” Luna yawned and then closed her eyes as she snuggled closer to her sister. 

“We should ask Fluttershy—” 

“Fluttershy?” Luna’s eyes opened and she glanced upwards. 

“Yes, Fluttershy. She has been helping Buckminster learn to meditate. To control his anger. Bucky has been made a better pony because of her assistance. No doubt, Buckminster is probably holding together during this crisis because of what Fluttershy has taught him.” 

“So we get Fluttershy to help Sentinel learn to hold back the beast within?” 

“It cannot hurt.” Celestia paused and was thoughtful for a few seconds before continuing. “If she is unsuccessful, we can try other methods. At some point, new things must be tried. Sentinel is as good of a starting point as any.” 

“I have high hopes, Sister… I want to save the lunar pegasi… I want to save them from extinction… and from themselves. I have such high hopes that the Shadowbolt Program will allow converted ponies to breed with lunar pegasi and mix in some much needed fresh genes. If the lunar pegasi are to survive, they need genetic diversity. Their family trees do not fork nearly enough. They need an infusion of fresh blood.” Luna yawned once more and closed her eyes. 

“And maybe a new way of doing things,” Princess Celestia said as she felt Luna’s breathing slow down and become shallow. She looked down and saw that Luna had lapsed into slumber. 

Turning her head, Princess Celestia flicked the candle with her magic, causing the room to go dark. Weary, she welcomed the darkness, she was exhausted, but she knew there would be little sleep for her. It would be dawn soon and there was much to do. 



 

Opening her eyes, Piña Colada looked around her hospital room. Light was shining in through the windows, but she knew the light was an illusion, and so was the window. The hospital was deep under the ground, down in the bowels of the castle. She rolled over, feeling a bit disoriented and confused. Yesterday, she had been given some happy looking little bright orange pills to help her. She yawned, smacked her lips, and tried to focus her vision. 

Dinky was in the second bed of the room. Piña could see a tube sticking up out of Dinky’s muzzle, going down into her nostril. Gauze was wrapped around Dinky’s muzzle to hold everything in place. As Piña moved, a stabbing pain lanced through the base of her skull, down near her neck. Her whole body tensed. She had put entirely too much of herself into Dinky, trying to help fortify Dinky’s mind when the Hag had started pushing in. Now, Piña was paying for it. She went limp in her bed, no longer wanting to move. 

“Piña?” 

Ears perking, Piña almost lifted her head, but then went very, very still, knowing how much it would hurt if she moved. Piña heard hoofsteps on the floor approaching the bed. “Bon Bon?” 

“Yes, baby, it’s me. Somepony had to come. I just got here a little while ago. Lyra is here with me. Right now, she’s off getting some coffee.” 

Piña felt the bed move a bit, then she felt herself being embraced. Something in Piña’s hazy, fuzzy brain told her that something was wrong—she hadn’t been able to sense Bon Bon’s presence. Just thinking about it made Piña’s brain ache something awful. Something had happened, but Piña was in no shape to piece it together. She felt herself being squeezed by Bon Bon, who was half in and half out of Piña’s bed. 

“I’m so proud of you… you did something amazing,” Bon Bon whispered. 

“How is Sentinel?” Piña asked. The dull pain in her head intensified and for a moment, she could hear the sound of voices murmuring. “Sentinel, is he okay?” 

“Sentinel just went back into surgery again. I don’t know what they’re doing exactly. I was told that he is stable,” Bon Bon replied as she held on to Piña. “You mean so much to me… I know I’m hard on you sometimes, and I’m sorry for that… but you are a very special little filly and I expect more out of you because of that.” 

Closing her eyes, Piña nodded. She felt a sniffle coming, and the pressure behind her eyes made her feel like crying. She was really, really glad that Bon Bon was here. She felt her body being rubbed by Bon Bon’s forelegs and Piña basked in the glorious feeling of love and affection. 



 

Now fuzzy headed and feeling sleepy, Piña looked at the doctor, her vision blurry and out of focus. The pills she had swallowed earlier had made her head feel better. Yawning, Piña felt like going back to sleep. 

“I’m not sure what to do, this is a bit outside of my expertise. I’m afraid I know very little about psychic trauma. Being exposed to powerful mental magics from both the Hag and the Hearthfire, something is clearly going on, but I don’t know what.” 

“Doctor Libretto, is there somepony who might know about psychic trauma?” Lyra asked, her brows wrinkled with concern. 

“Nopony in the hospital staff,” the doctor replied. He shrugged and looked at Lyra. “My best guess would be a bocor. The zebras are more advanced in the psychic sciences than we are.” 

“The voices in the Hearthfire haven’t gone away completely,” Piña said in a somewhat slurred voice. “I can still hear them… I heard them right after I woke up. But I’m not hearing them now.”

“She’s not crazy.” Bon Bon leaned forwards in her chair. “Look, I know hearing voices is a sign you are crazy, but Piña isn’t crazy and I want to make that clear. She knows stuff… she has magical abilities that we don’t understand yet.” 

“Ma’am, rest assured, I do not think your foal is crazy. I’m taking this seriously.” The doctor gave Bon Bon a patient smile. “Put your mind at ease, Ma’am.” 

“Piña’s teacher… um… um—” 

“Miss Stargarden?” Piña, trying to be helpful, tossed out a suggestion to Lyra. 

“Yes.” Lyra nodded. “We should see if Miss Stargarden can come and talk to Piña. She’s a powerful mentalist by all accounts. She’s been helping Dinky and Piña study and understand their gifts.” 

“Unconventional, but a good idea. We have to start looking for answers somewhere.” Doctor Libretto rubbed his goateed chin and then adjusted his brass framed spectacles. 

“I feel sleepy,” Piña said, then yawned. “Sorry, gotta sleep.” 



 

“I’m scared, Bodi,” Diamond Tiara said to her companion. Reaching up, Diamond Tiara rubbed her eyes with her foreleg and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I just want to see him. I feel sick—” 

“Hold up, Monday, we can’t have you getting sick and having stomach problems.” Boadicea’s eyes narrowed. “You pull yourself together. You’re no good to Sentinel if you get sick. You’ll both end up in the bed and I’ll be stuck looking after you. Look, love goes a long way, but I can only deal with so many bedpans.” 

“That name you gave me is so silly.” Diamond Tiara sniffled a bit, snorted to try and clear her nose, and gave Boadicea a smile. The griffoness was pacing to and fro in front of a window, her tail swishing back and forth, her claws clicking upon the stone floor. 

Sitting in a chair by the window, Diamond Tiara turned and looked out upon the city below. Canterlot was a different city now. It felt different. As an earth pony, Diamond Tiara could sometimes feel the ground beneath her hooves, and the ground beneath Canterlot felt different. When she had crossed the courtyard to come into the castle, as scared and as sad as she was, she had felt her spirits lifted as the ground beneath her hooves had sang. 

The door to the room opened and Boadicea stopped her pacing. Her claws tapped upon the floor, her muscles tensed, and her tail became a feline exclamation mark, sticking straight up into the air. 

“Do you intend to pounce me, little one?” Lugus asked as he stood in the doorway. 

“Maybe,” Boadicea replied. “Sorry… I’m jumpy.” 

“I’d rather have you jumpy than careless.” Lugus strode forward through the room, his large, lithe body moving between the furniture with an almost careless, lazy ease. The big griffon lept up onto the bed, turned around in a circle three times, and then laid down, the bed creaking beneath his bulk. 

“Lugus?” Boadicea approached the bed, looking small and submissive. 

“Yes?” Lugus’ crest rose and he looked down at the floor where Boadicea stood. 

“Do I have your trust back? I… well, I… it means a lot to me,” Boadicea stammered, looking away, her gaze dropping down to the floor. “My friends mean a lot to me. At some point, I’m probably going to end up in trouble again. I want to be there for my friends, but I also want to make you proud.” 

“Come here, little one,” Lugus said, waggling his talon finger at Boadicea. “Come up here and sit with me.” Lugus heaved a weary sounding sigh. “Of course I am proud of you.” The big griffon looked over at Diamond Tiara. “You… get over here.” 

Lifting her head, Boadicea looked Lugus in the eye as she heard the sound of Diamond Tiara’s hooves hitting the floor. She bowed her head, then lifted it high, her breast swelling with pride. Just as Boadicea jumped up onto the bed to be with Lugus, the door opened once more. Both Applejack and Silver Shill stepped into the room. 

After clearing his throat, Silver Shill said, “Sentinel is out of surgery. He appears to be stable. That’s all I know… Diamond Tiara, Boadicea, I wish I could tell you more…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 859
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	At long, long last, some semblance of peace and quiet returned to the nursery. Ditzy, who had quite a pair of lungs, had been on a crying jag that had lasted for hours. She was now drifting off into exhausted sleep. Her sibling, Dizzy, frustrated by his sister’s wailing, had also cried in protest, while thrashing about and even kicking his sister in the face, which had done nothing to further the cause of peace and quiet. Even little Barley, who was rather laid back for the most part, began screeching when there was just no quiet to be had. The only quiet one had been Brandywine, who had mysteriously slept through most of the incident, somehow ignoring the screaming of her siblings. Crisis, when faced with a crisis, had run around the nursery, wailing like a siren, making an eerie warbling wail that resonated in the back of her throat. The strange little foal was now sleeping in a pile with her siblings. 

Thankfully, Bell Heather had been spared the hullabaloo, having gone off with her mother, Thistle, who had taken her foal with her to work. The house, now recovering, was a fine collection of high strung, highly emotional equines and a few griffons. 

Worried, Bucky couldn’t help but see Berry Punch’s bloodshot and sleep deprived eyes. Berry, who had been trying to deal with her own private tragedy, was now dealing with everything that had just happened, and not dealing with it very well. Stretching out his neck, Bucky nosed Berry Punch’s neck, his nose coming into contact with a patch of pelt that was hard and crusty from dried out spit up. He pulled his head away and wiped his nose with his foreleg, which, much to Bucky’s dismay, was covered in spit up that wasn’t dry and crusty, but fresh and wet. Bucky sighed the defeated sigh of exhausted, almost burned out parents everywhere. 

“Ugh,” Bucky grunted as he pulled his foreleg away. He had a vague notion that he stunk something awful, but he was too tired to do anything about it. He heard the creak of bedsprings in the bedroom, and guessed that Derpy had rolled over in the bed. The grey pegasus was exhausted, just like the rest of them, and in a dreadful state because of her worry for Dinky. This made Bucky worry even more. Derpy had become a bit despondent and he didn’t know what to do to make her feel better. 

Saying nothing, Berry Punch threw her forelegs around Bucky’s neck. Bucky pulled her closer, and both sat there on their haunches, holding one another, offering whatever comfort they could to each other. 



 

Sitting in the kitchen, hunched over the table, Bucky stared downwards with a dull, checked out expression. Beside him, Berry Punch was sitting, nursing a cup of coffee that Bucky suspected was more whiskey than coffee. The pair had been sitting in silence for a while, with nothing needing to be said. Bucky’s thoughts lingered on Sentinel, Dinky, Piña, and Boadicea, all of whom were in Canterlot. 

“Daddy?” 

Blinking his bleary eyes, Bucky turned his head, looked down, and saw something pink. He smiled, or did his best to do so anyway, the bitter taste of bile in the back of his throat making it difficult to do. Cadance, the shining beacon of hope, looked radiant, cheerful, and her bright, beaming smile made Bucky feel a little better. The feeling of love emanating from her felt like sunlight, a gentle, penetrating warmth that lifted the spirits. 

“Cady time?” Cadance stood up on her hind legs and placed her front hooves on the edge of Bucky’s chair as she gave him a hopeful, pleading look. 

Leaning over, Bucky hooked his talons, mindful of his claws, under one foreleg of Cadance, and his right front hoof under her other foreleg. He lifted her, marvelling at how heavy she was becoming, and there was a worrisome moment when his chair wobbled. Cadance was already as big as a common yearling, if not larger. Long legged, long necked, with a lithe, slender body. Her wings were large, perhaps too large for her current body size, and Bucky had no doubts that she would grow into them. 

“Daddy stinky.” Cadance made a face as Bucky pulled her close and she put her forelegs around Bucky’s neck with slow hesitation. Cadance’s smile vanished and she became very serious looking. “Sentinel?” 

“He’s gonna be okay, Cadance. Lunar pegasi are tough.” Bucky sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather than Cadance. “Having a rough morning, Cadance? Has the house been too hectic for you?” 

Sighing, Cadance rested her head against Bucky’s neck, not caring that he was covered in spit up and stinky. Bucky, exhausted, somehow found the strength to cradle her in his forelegs, not complaining about the dull ache in his muscles or the painful, throbbing pulse in his spine as he held her. 

“You know, after mornings like this one, I can understand why my mother just gave up. I ain’t saying she was right for what she did, but I can understand it.” Berry Punch’s face soured and she stared down into her whiskey laced coffee. “She was a real bi—” 

Berry Punch went silent as Cadance’s wide, innocent eyes bored a hole into her soul. The earth pony blinked, then reached up and rubbed her stinging, burning, dry eyes. When she pulled her foreleg away, Cadance was still staring. Berry Punch, feeling guilty and ashamed, slumped down in her chair and took a long drink from her steaming mug. 

“That’s not fair, Cadance, using your cute and adorable alicorn powers against poor Berry,” Bucky said, crooning to Cadance in foal-talk. He tickled her, and Cadance came to life in his forelegs, wiggling and squirming. 

“No!” Cadance’s protest fell upon deaf ears and she began to giggle. 

As Cadance tried to escape, Bucky held on and continued to tickle, delighting in Cadance’s laughter. Cadance was strong, so very strong for her size, and gaining grace. She twisted around his grip, broke free, launched herself, and glided down to the floor on oversized wings. She landed with a solid thump, wings flapping, and then took off at a run, laughing and squealing, which made Bucky cringe as he worried about the sleeping newborns waking up. 

Setting down her coffee cup, Berry Punch laughed. She looked at Bucky, smiling, her first real smile in a while. “I think you just made her morning.” 

“Sometimes, I wonder if I should do that,” Bucky said in a low voice. It was almost as if he was speaking his thoughts aloud rather than speaking to Berry Punch. His face darkened a bit and his ears drooped. 

“Should do what?” Berry asked. 

“What I just did,” Bucky replied. 

“Making Cadance feel good?” Berry, confused and wondering what was up with Bucky, forgot about her own troubles, the horrible morning, and was curious as to what Bucky was thinking about now. She saw him take a deep breath and she waited, hoping he would explain. 

“Berry, we teach our foals that no means no… or we try to. No chocolate candy before dinner means no chocolate candy before dinner. We teach them that no means no, and that they should stop whatever they are doing when somepony tells them no.” 

“Bucky?” 

“I told Sentinel that if he was doing something with Diamond Tiara and she said ‘no’ that he was to stop whatever he was doing immediately and respect her wishes.” Bucky’s voice lowered. “I really drove the point home to him that he was bigger and stronger and that she was weaker and smaller and he really needed to be careful.” 

Berry Punch placed her hooves on either side of her coffee cup and felt the warmth permeating her frogs. She looked at Bucky and thought about what sleep deprivation did to a pony’s brain. 

“We place so much emphasis on the word no and how important it is… and I think about it a lot… but while we place all of this importance on the word now, we grab our foals and we tickle them, and they shout ‘no’ and we just keep tickling them.” Bucky reached up and scratched the scaley side of his face with his talons. 

“Bucky, little foals like being tickled. Shouting ‘no’ is all part of the game,” Berry said. She saw a sour expression creep over Bucky’s features and she could hear the scritching sounds of his claws sliding over his metallic scales. 

“Berry, I want you to stop and think about what you just said… just… think about it for a moment, and apply it to other circumstances and situations.” Bucky’s face darkened. “Maybe I’m just being neurotic about it, I’m sorry.” 

Thinking about Bucky’s words, it took Berry Punch some time to make the connection. Her eyes narrowed. How had Bucky taken something so innocent, so innocuous, and made it so dark? She thought about far more adult situations and Bucky’s own worries about Sentinel and Diamond Tiara. She felt the whiskey and the coffee in her stomach gurgle as she thought about what she had said. Shouting ‘no’ is all part of the game. Berry realised that Bucky had stumbled into a confusing, somewhat alarming double standard. They were in fact, teaching their foals that the word ‘no’ was a command that demanded immediate response and respect. At the same time, there were instances where the word ‘no’ was ignored completely. Berry Punch slumped down and wondered if she was a bad parent. 

“I think you reached the same conclusion that I did while I was working late one night and my brain just wouldn’t shut up.” Bucky rubbed his neck with his talons and grey-white flakes of dried out spit up fell like snow from where his talons scraped it away. 

“But… we’re just playing,” Berry said in a low voice. 

“Yes, but if no means no, what sort of message are we sending during those times when we ignore it?” Bucky shook his head. “I’m worried, Berry… I keep thinking that we’re making a colossal mess… that we’re screwing these foals up… that we’re failing. It keeps me awake at night that I might be a bad parent. My own parents were terrible and no doubt, their parents were terrible, and now the endless cycle continues and I have nightmares about our foals complaining about how horrible we were as parents.” Bucky took a deep breath. “I think all of this stress is getting to me. 

“But… but… it’s just innocent play,” Berry said, more to herself than Bucky, trying to convince herself. She shook her head, stammered, but couldn’t get any words to come out. After a moment, she fell silent and hung her head. 

“I keep thinking I should go and apologise to Cadance.” Bucky sat there, looking troubled by his own admission. “But I doubt she would even understand.” Bucky shook his head, looking distraught. “How is it that the simplest and most basic things in life can lead to the most catastrophic outcomes?” 

“I don’t know, Bucky.” 

Drumming his talons upon the table, Bucky glanced over at Berry. “Saying no is never a simple thing, is it? All those instances when no means yes and is part of a game. Or a fantasy.” Bucky heaved a long sigh. “Why do things have to be so complicated? How did we end up the way we are? Sometimes, sometimes I loathe the burdens of sapience and self awareness. I look at the dumb animals standing around and grazing in the grass and I think to myself, ‘They have it good. They don’t even know how lucky they are.’ But then I think about the sound of your voice. Or Derpy’s voice. Or Thistle, when she’s happy, and she’s humming to herself. Or Harper and her endless stream of impossible questions and I realise that I appreciate all of those things.” 

Reaching out her foreleg, Berry Punch placed her hoof over Bucky’s lips to silence him. She looked at him, gazing into his eyes, watching his barrel rising and falling. When Bucky was stressed, he tended to over think everything, just as he was doing right now. If left to his own devices, he would keep going until he suffered a full blown brain meltdown. 

“How about you and I crawl into a tub together and, after exchanging consent, we give each other a good scrubbing?” Berry asked, her eyebrow raising. After a moment of waiting, she saw Bucky give her a nod, and she could feel his muzzle moving beneath her frog. Already, Bucky looked a bit calmer. 

Berry smiled. “And then after that, we consent to take a nap together. I’m pooped.” 
	
	
> Chapter 860
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Frustrated, Bucky pulled open the front door to greet the pony that he had been told was here to see him. A courier that would speak only to him. Scowling, Bucky stared at his visitor, making it clear that he wasn’t in the mood to be bothered. He wanted to be in the bed with Berry, feeling her hooves rub him all over his body. He glowered out from beneath his hood. 

“What?” Bucky’s single word was terse. Under normal circumstances, he was far more polite. He saw the pegasus on his front porch shuffle. Bucky paused, sniffing, and came to the realisation that something was wrong. His visitor didn’t smell like a pegasus. 

Horn flashing, Bucky grabbed the not-pegasus, jerked him inside, and slammed the door behind him, saying nothing, and offering no apologies for being rough. 



 

“The gig is up… what are you?” Bucky demanded, still holding his visitor. He gave the not-pegasus a little shake, a gentle shake to let him know that more shaking was forthcoming, maybe even violent shaking of the fatal variety. 

“So rude,” the pegasus said in Queen Chrysalis’ voice. “What will Crisis learn from you? So hostile—” 

“Shut up.” Bucky gave the not-pegasus another shake. “How did you make it this far into central Equestria? We have spells to detect you… Shining Armor has the means to find you.” 

“We change, we evolve, we adapt,” the changeling said in Chrysalis’ voice as green flames consumed its body. It became a small changeling drone and it stared at Bucky with strange, insectoid eyes. “Your methods no longer work. We adapted to them long ago and we already have new revisions waiting based upon the direction we’re certain you’ll take next. We allow you to spot us on the fringes of your borders so you will be convinced that your methods of detection are still working.” 

Bucky did not like what he was hearing. He set the drone down upon the floor, his scowl intensifying, and looked the drone in the eye. “Okay, Chrysalis, what brings you here? I doubt this is a social visit.” 

The changeling lifted its head and its eyes flashed. “I heard about Sentinel. I dispatched a messenger to offer help. As you know, I have powerful healers. For eons we changelings have been hunted, attacked, injured, and have suffered badly at the hooves of your kind. Our knowledge of medicine is vastly superiour.” 

Talon claws tapping upon the wooden floor, Bucky stared at the drone, understanding at once that word had spread fast. No doubt, Chrysalis had drones everywhere, investigating everything, and he also understood that she was taking a risk revealing herself and her machinations like this. He did not trust her, he was no fool, but she could be useful. 

“Aren’t you busy with the preparations?” Bucky asked. 

“A little, but as you can see, I can be in multiple places at once,” the drone replied. 

“Do you really think you can help Sentinel?” Bucky asked. 

The drone nodded. “I can weave tissue the same way a weaver makes fabric. I can grow and shape bone like a gardener can shape the growth of trees. His eye is long gone, those are complicated, necromancy has taken that, but I can do a better job of fixing his face than those clumsy butchers that Celestia has working on him.” 

Gritting his teeth, Bucky turned away and saw that Derpy was standing in the hallway, staring, her amber eyes wide with fear and concern. He wished that she wasn’t there, she would make this emotional, she would impede the decision making process. 

“Can you help my son?” Derpy asked. 

Hearing her voice, Bucky winced. He might have been able to tell Chrysalis to go away, he might have avoided becoming beholden to her, he knew what was going on, she was digging her hooks in, she was manipulating him in the worst way possible. 

“I can help your son,” the drone replied in Chrysalis’ voice. 

“How much of your surgical knowledge was gained by using unwilling victims? How many cruel dissections have been done so that you could learn? How much of your learning was gained through the suffering of others?” Bucky focused his gaze upon the changeling standing in front of the door. 

“Does it matter?” the changeling replied in a bored sounding voice. 

“Bucky, I know she’s awful, but she can help Sentinel… please don’t send her way,” Derpy begged, her eyes shimmering with tears destined to fall, and soon. “Bucky, please, please listen to me.” 

“The words of a heartbroken mother are potent motivators—” 

“Silence,” Bucky hissed, “or so help me, I will hunt you down and end you. I will not be toyed with. One more impertinent remark and you invite your own destruction. Just try me.” 

The drone showed no outward sign of emotion and had no visible reaction. It stood there, unmoving, unphased. After several long seconds of silence, it made a strange gurgle and spoke. 

“A little bit of playful antagonising was a bad idea.” There was a pause that lasted long enough for the silence to become painful, and then the changeling continued, “My offer still stands. I can help you. I have the ways and means. All you have to do is ask.” 

“Bucky, please… I don’t care about all of the other stuff… I know she’s bad… but she can help Sentinel. Please?” Derpy stepped forwards with a pleading expression on her face. 

“You know, I’m not being sarcastic, but I am curious about how Crisis will turn out with such a loving mother.” The drone took a step back from Bucky. “And a loving father, too. That’s important, I suppose.” 

Defeated, Bucky hung his head. “I’ll take whatever help you can give me.” 

“Good, give me just a few minutes and I’ll be there. The next step is asking Little Miss Goody Four Shoes if I can come to Canterlot.” The drone flashed and became a pegasus again. 





The day, which had started off pretty bad, had gone to worse. Bucky, who desperately needed sleep but was unable to close his eyes, rubbed his head and thought about how to break this to Celestia. Derpy was walking around the house, looking mopey and sad, which wasn’t helping anything at all. And then there was Cadance. Cadance, who didn’t much care for Crisis, and was not happy at all with more changelings in the house. She had given Bucky such a piercing look of disappointment that it had caused him physical pain on top of all of the guilt and emotional pain he was experiencing. 

He didn’t quite know what to do or how to even begin. Adding to his frustrations, Queen Chrysalis had arrived as Twilight Sparkle of all ponies. She had been hiding in plain sight as the Princess of Friendship. This was not going to endear Queen Chrysalis to Princess Celestia at all. More than anything, he just wanted to crawl into bed and make the world go away. 

Ears perking, Bucky heard a curious sound coming from the nursery. He jumped up from where he was sitting, almost flew down the hall, and came to a skidding stop at the nursery door. Queen Chrysalis, now herself once more, stood looking down at Crisis, their noses almost touching. Trembling, he stood, feeling afraid without understanding why. 

As Bucky stood there, Crisis changed. Her eyes flashed, becoming a much darker green. A low snarl could be heard in the back of her throat. Without warning, Crisis lunged, her maw opened, and her pointed, shovel shaped teeth clamped down upon Chrysalis’ muzzle. Green blood spurted and there was a crunch as Crisis latched on and refused to let go. 

“Aw crap, get it off! Get it off!” Chrysalis tried to pull away but Crisis was chewing on the end of her snoot. “Aaaaah get it off of me!” 

A drone, who stood there, unfazed, turned and looked at Bucky. “She designed Crisis to detect all dangers and deal with them appropriately. Crisis was designed as a bioweapon that analyses all potential threats and responds to anything that might be a danger with the appropriate response to the situation.” 

More green ichor spurted as Crisis continued to chew. Chrysalis was trying to pull the hybrid terror away from her face without bringing harm to her. There was a horrid sounding crunch as Crisis’ teeth sawed through Chrysalis’ armored chitin. 

“Ugh, giving her armor piercing teeth was a bad idea,” Chrysalis cried as she tried to pry the foal off of her nose. “Ugh, stop chewing! That’s just rude! Don’t just stand there, help me! Call her off! She’ll listen to you!” 

Unable to help himself, Bucky started to laugh, a dangerous laugh that sounded an awful lot like a cackle. 



 

Feeling a little better, Bucky waited. Violet, who stood beside him, waited as well, sipping a steaming cup of tea that filled the room with the scent of spearmint. Chrysalis had one of her drones repairing her muzzle. Not knowing what else to do, Bucky paced. Bucky hated waiting. He just wanted to sleep, but couldn’t. He had to wait. And then he had to escort Chrysalis to Canterlot. He made a mental note that when he returned home and had some sleep, he was going to spend some time cuddling with Crisis and telling her what a good foal she was. 

“We are building an army of drones very much like Crisis,” one of the drone attendants said to Bucky. “She is unique in her design and construction. Her chitin is internal, and remains soft until time of crisis, where it will become hard and act as armor plating. She is designed to blend in. In time, when she matures, her coat will change colour. This new line of drones was made with your very essence and will have some precognitive knowledge of the weaknesses of their enemies. They will be fierce fighters.” 

“At least the threat detection works,” Violet said in a dry voice. “I’m quite pleased with that.” The mare gave Chrysalis an icy stare and then took a sip of her tea. “I do regret that nopony thought to grab the camera and take pictures of this precious mother-daughter moment.” 

“What about the other drones? Will they turn on her too?” Derpy asked. 

“No,” one of the drones replied. “Crisis was made to be loyal to Bucky. The drones are being made to be loyal to both Bucky and our Queen.” 

“Huh.” Derpy looked over at Chrysalis, shook her head, then turned tail and left the room, walking away with quiet, careful steps. It had taken forever to get the foals in the nursery calmed back down and quiet. Derpy was in no mood to give them a reason to start wailing again. 

A faint hum filled the room and Shining Armor’s projection appeared. He stood, glaring, giving Queen Chrysalis a hateful, burning stare. His outline flickered and for a moment, his horn glowed with a fierce, dangerous looking glow. 

“Ignoring my advice, Princess Celestia has agreed to allow you to come to Canterlot and help Sentinel.” Shining Armor turned and looked at Bucky. “Are you sure that you want to do this? She’s a threat to us and everything we hold dear. You should exterminate her, she’s vermin.” 

“Oh, she’s certainly a threat,” Bucky replied, thinking about Crisis as he spoke. “Like it or not, we need her assistance, Shining Armor. She can be made useful to us. I understand that you don’t like it.” 

“Princess Celestia doesn’t like it either, but like you, she is willing to set aside personal differences for the greater good.” Shining Armor bared his teeth. “I’m not that good of a pony. If I had my way, I’d be giving you orders to kill her and be done with it. I know that you have the means to give her a permanent end.” 

“I do.” Bucky nodded his head and glanced over at Chrysalis, then back at Shining Armor. “And I still can, if the mood strikes me. I can get… emotional if somepony disrespects my auntie.” 

“Well, here is to hoping that Queen Chrysalis is disrespectful.” Shining Armor, scowling, gave Chrysalis a baleful stare. “You are cleared to come to Canterlot. Sentinel awaits. He was scheduled for another surgery, but that has been postponed. You are to maintain cover and not reveal yourselves.” 

“Oh, I think we can manage that,” Bucky replied. He turned and looked at Chrysalis once more. “Be ready to go. We leave in just a few minutes…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 861
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bucky, who currently appeared to be a dark brown pegasus, folded his wings against his sides and looked around the courtyard where he had landed. Queen Chrysalis, also in the form of a pegasus, but a lunar one, landed near Bucky and watched as the guard mobilised around her. Bucky smiled. Shining Armor was a quick study—already, it was known who was Queen Chrysalis and that made Bucky feel better. The drones, also in the form of pegasi, landed and then grouped together. There was a flash of green flames and the changeling illusion was stripped away. 

A contingent of lunar pegasi, a rare sight in the day, came through the gate. Not Myrmidons, but regular guards. The sound of more hooves clattered over the stones as more guards came to the courtyard. Scorpan, holding a massive two handed sword, stood in a shady corner, scowling, his many pointed teeth visible. 

“This is quite unnecessary,” Bucky said as Princess Celestia approached. He shifted form, turning back into himself, his cloak draped over his body. 

“I disagree.” Princess Celestia made a terse reply as she turned her attention upon Queen Chrysalis. “I do not feel like taking any chances.” 

Bowing his head, Bucky grinned, then turned to look at Queen Chrysalis. He lifted his head, his grin, the only thing visible beneath his hood, almost becoming a manic rictus, and then turned to look up at Princess Celestia. “Oh, but Auntie… I came prepared.” 

When Bucky’s horn flared, Princess Celestia took a step backwards. Black flames burned along the length of Bucky’s horn and dreadful Taint mist leaked from his eye as dark magic flowed from Bucky. None of the guard moved, having all frozen in place. 

Queen Chrysalis let out a gasp as a greenish purple glow outlined her body. She gritted her teeth as a green glow filled her eyes. Bucky, like some morbid showpony, raised his talons and gestured at Queen Chrysalis as Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed. 

“Kneel.” Bucky commanded, pointing down at the stones with a talon tip. 

“Never!” Queen Chrysalis spat. 

Clucking his tongue, Bucky shook his head and then let out an alarming giggle… that was less like a giggle and more like a cackle. Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed even more and she looked down at Bucky. 

The courtyard filled with screams as Chrysalis’ body went rigid. There was a strange hum and the purplish green glow around her intensified. The changeling queen’s head was shoved downwards, as if by some invisible force, and her front legs began to bend. 

“NO!” Chrysalis shrieked, trying to fight against the spell. 

“I’ve modified an obedience spell. An old one, thought lost to time. Hex Libris was very kind and fetched the spell for me from the library. My modifications have made it… interesting. You will obey… or you will suffer.” Bucky’s horrible grin intensified, becoming almost unreal. Far too large, far too many teeth, distorted and unnatural, the grin became a vulgar, obscene parody of glee. 

“Buckminster, that is enough.” Princess Celestia stomped her hoof. “Stop that at once!” 

Queen Chrysalis smashed into ground with a thud, her chin resting upon the stones, kneeling before Princess Celestia, her forelegs folded beneath her. The black flames vanished from around Bucky’s horn and he fell silent, no longer cackling, just standing there, his silence somehow even more horrible than his manic, horrendous laughter. 

Recovering, the changeling queen lifted her head. “This is why I have no respect for you. This weakness of yours, this mercy. Even now, you think that somehow, you will save me, somehow redeem me, and that you will gain my trust if you save me from him… this is why you are weak and this is why you will lose.” 

Moving with a light step, Princess Celestia moved closer to the fallen changeling queen, her horn ignited, and the white alicorn lifted Chrysalis back up to her hooves as the changeling queen’s face contorted into a furious glare. Queen Chrysalis opened her mouth to say something, but Princess Celestia interrupted her. 

“Right now, I am the only thing keeping you alive. I do believe that once you provide Buckminster with the army he needs, he might very well exterminate you for his own amusement.” Princess Celestia, her face stony, took a certain private, smug satisfaction as Queen Chrysalis visibly quailed. “My nephew is sleep deprived. He is always at his worst when he has not had the sleep he so desperately needs. I would not antagonise him. I would not goad him. As long as you are useful, as long as I find you useful, I will keep Buckminster here on a short leash. But make no mistake… I will let him off of his chain.” 

Standing beside Princess Celestia, Bucky began to cackle, his manic, crazed laughter echoing off of the stone walls of the courtyard. Princess Celestia’s nostrils flared and her ears pitched forwards. 

“You’ve changed,” Queen Chrysalis said to Princess Celestia in a low voice.

“Perhaps.” Princess Celestia’s stony expression revealed nothing. “A while back, there was a pony named Vertigo. He spat on me. Buckminster responded in a manner most inappropriate. I was angry with Buckminster for a long time because I could not understand why he did what he did.” Princess Celestia lifted her head, bringing herself to her full height, and looked down upon Queen Chrysalis. “I have since come to understand my nephew’s position on the issue. Chrysalis, I will not have myself, or my efforts, spat upon. Do we have an understanding?” 

Scowling, Queen Chrysalis looked at Bucky, who was shaking with laughter, and then looked up at Princess Celestia. She stood, silent, almost defiant, and then she became submissive. “We have an understanding.” 

“Do not arouse his hatreds and do not excite his enmity,” Celestia warned. “I would rather there be peace between us, even though I absolutely do not like you and find you reprehensible. I would like to see us resolve our differences and perhaps work together. I would like to give the world an example, that we can overcome our old hatreds and learn to live and work together. This is something that means a great deal to me. But should you make this difficult, you will become an entirely different example…” Princess Celestia gestured at Bucky with one raised hoof. “Equestria’s enemies grow fewer and fewer. If Buckminster kills you, and he will kill you, it only adds to his reputation for putting an end to impossible foes. Equestria and the rest of the world prospers from the safety generated by his reputation. Either way, I win. I am done losing.” 

Princess Celestia’s ears splayed out and a look of utter disgust appeared upon her face. She turned her head and looked down at Bucky, who stood beside her. “Nephew, will you cease your obscene giggling at once, this instant. It grates upon the nerves and is such a pain behind the eyes.” 

Hiccuping, Bucky fell silent.

“You have changed,” Queen Chrysalis whispered. 

“We have established that. Now… I do believe you are here to aid Sentinel. I will be supervising you while you work… or would you rather have Buckminster watching you?” Celestia’s eyebrow raised. 

“I think I’d like it if you and I were to work together,” Queen Chrysalis replied.

“Good… that is the answer I was hoping for. Willing cooperation. That is a good first step, Chrysalis.” 



 

Her nose ached. Dinky wanted to reach up and give it a rub, but was unable to even lift her foreleg. At least the feeding tube was out. Her horn ached, her head hurt, and her stomach still felt a little out of sorts, but she was recovering. 

“We didn’t save her,” Dinky said, her voice a dry, raspy croak. 

“There was nothing we could have done, Dinks.” Piña, sitting in a chair beside Dinky’s bed, reached out and touched her sister, placing her hoof against Dinky’s neck. She could feel Dinky’s weak pulse beneath her frog. 

“I wish we had saved Sand Piper.” Dinky swallowed, took a deep breath, and blinked away a few tears. “If I had been a little stronger… if I had done more… if I—” 

“Dinky, there wasn’t much we could do.” Piña sniffled a bit, sad from the loss they had suffered, and even more sad because Dinky was sad, as well as being worried about Sentinel. She looked around the hospital room. There were flowers and a balloon. Piña wasn’t even sure where the flowers had come from, or the balloon. She hadn’t bothered looking at the cards on either. 

“But Piña, I can do more.” Dinky’s eyes closed and she sighed. “Not wanting to use my magic to hurt others is still hurting others. I see that now.” Dinky’s eyes opened and she looked into Piña’s eyes of piercing blue. “There are a lot of bad things in the world… things like the Hag.” Woozy, Dinky fell silent for a moment, and could still feel the sensation of the Hag pressing into her mind, that feeling of violation. She coughed, then continued, “Having the power to save others and then not using it makes you a bad pony. I don’t want to be a bad pony.” 

“So it’s a black cloak for you then,” Piña said in a voice that was almost a whisper. “And an eyepatch for Sentinel. We talked about this, Dinky. I told you that Sentinel’s face would be all messed up and he would have an eyepatch.” 

“Larch too… you said that Larch had a black cloak.” Dinky drew in a shuddering breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out in a slow exhale. “Tourmaline and Glass Slipper too.” 

“Princess Celestia said these things might happen and now I’m scared that they will happen.” Piña leaned over against the bed, her head resting against the cool metal rail. 

Both fillies’ ears perked when the door opened. Piña lifted her head and concern glittered in her eyes as her pink mane settled around her face. Dinky, unable to lift her head, was dependent on Piña telling her who was at the door. 

“My two little fillies,” Bucky said as he entered the room, something floating behind him. “Sorry I took so long. I had to stop by the royal kitchens and make a request for a sweet potato pie.” 

“Daddy!” Piña’s ears drooped with relief and she rubbed Dinky, reaching through the rail. “Dinky just ate a little while ago, but I think she can eat again.” 

“Daddy…” Dinky, stuck in the bed, waited, but heard no sounds of her father crossing the floor. Using all of her strength, she was able to turn her head and she saw him approaching, holding a pie in a blue-green telekinetic field. “You brought me a pie.” 

“Heroes get pie,” Bucky said as he took a seat in a chair beside the bed and pulled the tray table close. He set the pie down and then wheeled the tray table over the hospital bed. Leaning over, he kissed Dinky on the head, but Piña was too far away for him to reach. 

“How is Sentinel?” Piña asked. 

There was a clatter as Bucky dropped the spoons he was carrying upon the tray table. “I don’t know. I’m told he’s stable. Right now, he’s getting the help he needs.” 

Piña, feeling a lump in her throat, wanted to tell her father that she had known this was going to happen, that she had seen this, but she couldn’t find the words. Instead, Piña sighed and gave Dinky another caress. 

“We didn’t save Sand Piper,” Dinky said to her father. 

Horn glowing, Bucky popped the plastic cover off of the pie and set it down upon the table. His lips pressed into a straight line for a moment, his right ear stood up while his left ear drooped and he let out a weary sigh through his nose. “Dinky, you are going to discover that you can’t always save everypony. There are going to be situations where you are going to be lucky to get out alive and that is the best you can hope for. It doesn’t do you any good to die with those you are trying to save. So many other ponies are going to need you and you can’t save them all.” 

“You’re not disappointed?” Dinky asked. 

Bucky’s jaw fell open. He blinked a few times, startled, his mouth moving, but no words came out. He closed his mouth, his teeth clicking together, and he looked at Dinky. He relaxed his jaw enough to ask, “Why would I be disappointed?” 

“I dunno,” Dinky replied in a small voice. “I’m kinda disappointed with myself right now.” Dinky felt a shudder run through her body and she felt like crying. A sniffle escaped and Dinky could feel a stinging sensation in the corners of her eyes closest to her nose. A growing pressure pressed down on her chest, like some invisible weight. 

“Dinky… I am so very proud of you. Your mother, who is beside herself right now, is also proud of you. You had a hoof in putting an end to an ancient evil that has plagued ponykind for countless eons. You might have lost a few ponies in that fight, and Sand Piper is a regrettable loss, but you have saved a countless number of lives.” Lifting a spoon in his telekinesis, he passed it to Piña, who took it with a thankful nod, and then Bucky armed himself with a spoon. 

“Sentinel lost his eye and I’m all messed up and I just don’t feel like I did a very good job,” Dinky said as she choked back sobs. 

Saying nothing, Bucky held up his talons so that Dinky could see them and then touched the side of his face. His eyes narrowed and he gave Dinky a solemn stare, trying to convey a message that he hoped that she would understand. 

“If I was stronger, Sentinel wouldn’t have got hurt… I could have saved him… if I was stronger, I could have faced the Hag by myself—” 

“Not another word, Dinky.” Bucky looked down at his foal, his face pained and serious. 

“But I—” 

“Hush.” 

“But I—mmph!” 

“Nope.” Bucky stuffed a spoonful of sweet potato pie into Dinky’s mouth and glanced at Piña, who was giving him a curious stare. “That’s enough of that.” Bucky watched as Dinky made a few feeble chews on her mouthful of sweet potato pie. “We’re done talking about this for now. It’s pie time.” 

“We were strong because we were together.” Piña, the spoon sticking to her hoof, reached out, got a bite, and ate it. She chewed, looking thoughtful, looking at both Dinky and her father, and could see the pain in Dinky’s eyes as she ate. “And we couldn’t have done what we did without Boadicea. If you would have done this alone, the Hag would have claimed you and she would have been very powerful with your body.” 

Blinking, Bucky stuffed more sweet potato pie into Dinky before she could say anything. Looking up, he saw Piña taking a deep breath and the foal was giving him a most curious look. 

“She gets this from you, you know. You go into danger and then try to keep others out of danger, even though you could really use the help. This is your fault, Daddy.” Piña, reaching out with her spoon, got another bite from the pie. 

Admonished, Bucky found that there was nothing he could say. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 862
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Leaning back in his chair, Bucky yawned. Dinky was sound asleep and Piña had crawled into the hospital bed to be with Dinky. Not long after, Piña had dozed off. Hospitals were boring places and there wasn’t much to do but sleep. The pie had been finished off. Looking down at Dinky, Bucky could see tears drying upon her cheeks. Piña had been complaining about hearing voices, which worried Bucky a great deal. He wondered where Bon Bon and Lyra were and what they were doing. 

Twice already, a doctor had stopped in and suggested that Dinky and Piña both needed their rest. Perhaps a doctor had shooed off Bon Bon and Lyra, telling them that the foals needed rest. Thinking about this, Bucky scowled. 

The door to the room opened and Bucky lifted his head, expecting yet another doctor. He saw somepony else that he wasn’t expecting, and there was a soft smile upon her flawless, perfect white muzzle. 

Hopping down out of the chair, Bucky slipped out of the room to speak with her. 



 

“I left her in the care of Shining Armor. She desperately needed to rest and recover. I did not expect to see her like this,” Princess Celestia said to Bucky as they stood together in the hall just outside of Dinky’s room. “She is still working on Sentinel, she is not done yet, but she says that the work is going well. She also said that our doctors did a lot of damage that she is going to have to try to repair. 

Scowling, a low growl of worry and concern came out of Bucky’s throat. 

“Buckminster…” 

“Yes?” Bucky looked up. 

“About our little act earlier… I am still not entirely comfortable with doing this, but I do believe you are correct. Fear and survival are her only motivators. I had hoped for a kinder, gentler reformation, and I still do, but I will admit that your plan seems to be going well. You were right by the way.” Celestia drew in a deep breath and let it out in a relaxing exhale. 

“Right about what? I’m sorry, I’m not thinking clearly.” Bucky shook his head, his ears flopping around, and then blinked a few times, trying to push away the need to sleep. 

“Poor dear.” Celestia sighed, reached out her wing, and stroked Bucky’s neck. “You were right about broadcasting. I had Tourmaline help me with completely withholding my emotions and leaving myself in a blank, unreadable state. It took me a while, but Tourmaline was very, very helpful. It got to the point where Tourmaline was unable to read my emotions or know what I was thinking.” 

“I broadcast my hatred,” Bucky said in a soft whisper. “It’s easy and I have a lot of it. It drowns out everything else I feel and it is the only thing that Chrysalis can read from me. If she can’t read others to know what they are thinking and feeling, it unnerves her, as we have seen. Since all she can get from me is seething hatred, she’s plenty scared that her own survival is now uncertain.” 

“Which has made her cooperative.” Celestia’s muzzle wrinkled as something almost resembling a frown crept over her lips. “Carrot and stick… I am not even sure if she likes carrots, Bucky. The only thing she responds to is the stick. It worries me. How do I reach her if I cannot be kind to her at all? How can I be generous without garnering her derision?” 

“I don’t know.” Bucky shrugged. “I just kill things or beat them into submission. I have Chrysalis broken down for you and I’ll keep her terrified, but how you reach her… I can’t help you.” Bucky’s claws tapped upon the smooth tile floor of the hallway, making a discordant staccato rhythm. 

“Buckminster, at some point, we have to move beyond fear. I find Chrysalis detestable and I cannot stand having her near my ponies, but this is cruel and unkind. It makes me feel ashamed of myself to behave this way. Her poor treatment, does it not bother you?” 

“Nope,” Bucky replied without hesitation. “I’m okay with it. If I had my way, I’d’ve had Sparkler turn her to stone and only revive her when we need her. At this point, she is a resource, nothing more. Her life is measured only by how useful she is to me.” 

“Buckminster… that is a horrible thing to say and an even worse thing to think. Sparkler is a good pony. She would not enjoy doing that.” Celestia gave Bucky a disappointed glance, shook her head, and then sighed, knowing that there was no way of changing Bucky’s mind. 

“Sparkler might surprise you.” Bucky blinked, let out a startling laugh, and then an unpleasant grin spread over his face. “Sparkler has learned a bit of pragmatism. You know, that is something that a lot of ponies lack. Pragmatic ideals. We’re too tied up in groupthink. We think like a herd. Pragmatism does not come naturally to us.” 

“Buckminster, I do not care much for your brand of pragmatism. When tempered with kindness and generousity, pragmatism can be a useful approach to deal with things, but your pragmatism is cold, unfeeling, and… and… and—” 

“Effective?” Bucky asked. 

“Cruel,” Celestia replied. “You were such a kind little foal. Even with all of your troubles, even with your cold upbringing, even with your broken heart. It disturbs me to see how you can be sometimes.” 

“I can still be kind,” Bucky said in his own defense, bothered by Celestia’s words. His eyes narrowed. “I can still be kind… I do kind things. I perform acts of kindness. Velvet and I schedule them regularly.” 

“Only to those you feel are deserving… everything else only gets your wrath, Nephew. Your kindness has only a small focus. Everything else gets disintegrated, or transmogrified, or melted into a puddle of goo, or violently exploded, or smashed into paste, and even worse are those few you leave alive, like Vertigo. Buckminster, all he does is stare vacantly at the wall with a blank expression, and if he is not staring at the wall, he is screaming at the top of his lungs in terror, until such a time that he is medicated and subdued. The doctors say he will not recover.” 

“Screw him,” Bucky grumbled. 

“Buckminster, at some point, peace will be restored. We have to be able to live in peace. As much as I detest Chrysalis, she is a living, breathing, thinking, feeling creature. She deserves to live in peace as well, if she will choose to live in peace with us. I would rather see her choose to do the right thing… what I do not want is to see her locked up in a asylum, spending her days screaming in terror or slipping into a catatonic state at the memory of you.” 

Dropping his head, Bucky scowled, but did not reply. 

“Buckminster, I do not know how many years you have left… but not many, I suspect. Your time grows ever shorter. You have so much potential. I do not want you remembered for your terror, but for the good that I know that you can do. Please, please, please, for my sake, try to do things that will leave you remembered in a positive light.” 

Opening his mouth, Bucky started to reply, but was cut off. 

“Before you say anything, Nephew, it is not just for my sake, but think of your foals as well. They have to live in the world that you leave behind. Do not make them pay for your many mistakes… I cannot bear to watch.” 

Bucky’s ears drooped at the sound of Celestia’s pleading voice. He could feel her sadness, her grief, her sorrow. She was broadcasting it at him. It was as if she was already mourning his loss and he wasn’t even dead yet. He sighed, his words dying in his throat, and did not know what to say now. 

“It is never too late, Bucky. Not for Chrysalis, not for you, there is still time to start anew and make changes. I so very want ponies to remember you as the pony I know you can be, and not the pony that you’ve become. I know some of it is my fault… like Griffonholm. I know you have been saddled with a few things that have sullied your reputation, and for that, I am sorry. Somehow, it hurts me even more to know that you understand and that you accept these things as being necessary. I wish the world could know the sacrifices you have made. Buckminster, there is still time though… please—” 

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Crushed into defeat, Bucky hung his head. “I’ll try to do things that will make you proud of me.” 

“Thank you, Nephew…” 



 

Nervous and out of sorts, Lyra Heartstrings was having a hard time dealing with the situation. She missed Harper, having left her at home, and was certain that the little frizzball was missing her. She paced, unable to sit down or calm down, and did her best to wear a track into the carpet. 

“Look, Bon Bon, punishing your foals didn’t cause this to happen, life caused this to happen. Life is all screwy and things just happen. We can’t predict them, the best we can do is prepare for them and then just go along with whatever happens.” 

For a moment, Lyra stopped and looked at Applejack and Silver Shill beside her, the pair of them stuffed into a chair together, sharing a chair in the way of lovers or close friends. The corner of her eye twitched and Lyra returned to pacing. 

“This still feels like it is my fault,” Bon Bon said, shaking her head. “I know it isn’t, but I can’t shake the feeling. I feel so guilty. I feel like I caused this somehow. We all agreed to let them perform community service so that they would learn responsibility.” 

“I’d say they learned a few things about responsibility.” 

Lyra flinched at Applejack’s words and her gait went jerky for a moment. 

“I am still surprised by Diamond Tiara’s level of responsibility. She wanted to come here and care for Sentinel. That’s a lot of work and I feel that it should be admired.” Silver Shill’s words were soft spoken and gentle. 

“This wasn’t even meant as punishment… I mean, this allowed them to get out of the house and do something they enjoyed… it wasn’t meant to feel like onerous punishment. It was supposed to make them feel good. Give them a chance to get out and have a little fun. Everything went wrong.” Bon Bon’s brows furrowed and the distraught earth pony shook her head. “Now my son is disfigured. Dinky… poor Dinky, all I can think of is Bucky when he cracked his horn. And Piña, they don’t even know what is wrong with her.” 

Lyra almost jumped out of her skin when the door opened. Whirling about, she saw a familiar black cloaked figure. Right away she darted over to him, glad to see Bucky, a wordless whimper escaping her lips as she went to his side. Rearing up, she threw her forelegs around his neck and slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. She didn’t care, but redoubled her grip, squeezing. 

“Somepony is happy to see me,” Bucky grumbled as Lyra kissed his cheek. 

Now laying on the floor, Lyra made the most of it, hugging, squeezing, and kissing Bucky, more out of a sense of nervousness than affection. Using her nose, Lyra brushed Bucky’s mane out of his face after his hood fell away, and then kissed him just over his left eye. 

“Good to see you again, Bucky,” Applejack said.

“I was wondering where all of you went off to.” Bucky rolled over a bit and leaned up against Lyra, who supported him. “Where are Diamond Tiara and Boadicea?” 

“With Lugus. The big lug is having a daddy-daughter talk with Boadicea and Diamond Tiara got dragged into it,” Applejack replied. 

“They were both very upset. We could not seem to comfort them.” Silver Shill’s ears stood up as he lifted his head. “I’ll admit, I don’t know very much about looking after the emotional needs of little fillies.” 

“But you try, and that’s important.” Applejack gave Silver Shill a soft nudge. “Some stallions are too scared to even try. That’s why so many little fillies grow up with daddy issues.” 

“Seems like everypony is dealing with this in their own way.” As Bucky spoke, Lyra, who still had her forelegs around his neck, rubbed her cheek against his ear. “It has to be hard on Diamond Tiara though, the realisation that her life is going to be filled with a lot of moments just like this one, where Sentinel or Boadicea gets hurt and she has to be the caretaker. I would imagine that being an earth pony makes it even worse.” 

“It does,” Bon Bon, Applejack, and Silver Shill all said together in unison. 

The three earth ponies exchanged a three way glance with one another, and then all three turned to look at Bucky and Lyra. For a moment, Bucky felt a peculiar sensation, and he was all too aware of being a unicorn. He felt a wellspring of emotion bubbling up from inside of him. 

“We earth ponies have strong connections to those we love,” Applejack said as she became quite serious, “now, I ain’t saying that unicorns and pegasi can’t have strong connections, they do, but we earth ponies experience things differently. We feel things differently. And I’m sure that unicorns and pegasi have their own ways of feelin’ stuff as well.” 

“If you hurt one earth pony, you hurt all of us.” Silver Shill’s pale blue eyes flashed with emotions. “This extends to our mates as well, and those we’re closest to. We feel everything, just like how we can feel the ground and what it feels.” 

Blinking, her eyes misting over, Bon Bon nodded. 

“I’d imagine it’s real hard on Bon Bon and Berry when you come home all busted up, Bucky.” Applejack reached up and pushed her hat back, revealing more of her face. “Love is different for earth ponies. It means sharing all of our burdens together. It means sharing in the pain of those we love and everything they feel. That’s a trying thing to do, but we manage.” 

“It’s how Bonnie and Berry keep our herd leveled out,” Lyra said as she clung to Bucky. “Bonnie and I have talked about this. We’re like plants for them to tend and nurture. They just know when we need looking after.” 

“I like moments like these.” Silver Shill leaned against Applejack. “These moments of understanding between the tribes.” Turning his head, he pressed his muzzle against Applejack’s cheek and held it there. 

“Bucky needs looking after… he needs some sleep. I wonder if we can find a quiet spot for him to take a nap… Lyra, are you up for nap duty?” Bon Bon eyed the two unicorns sprawled on the floor together.

Ears perking, Lyra blinked a few times as she processed the question posed by Bon Bon. Thinking about a nap caused Lyra to yawn. After yawning, she turned and looked at Bucky. “Wanna sleep with me?” 

“You know, that sounds like a marvellous idea,” Bucky replied. 
	
	
> Chapter 863
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Settling into a chair, Piña looked over at her school teacher, Miss Stargarden, who had come to speak to her, although Piña was not sure why. Others wanted to understand. Piña was not certain that they could understand. Some things eluded understanding and remained forever mysterious. 

Sensing what she could not see, Piña knew that there were doctors and other ponies listening on the other side of the wall, there were ponies observing her, watching through the mirror on the wall. She was a bit uncomfortable with this, but had decided to allow it to happen anyway. 

Even now, she could hear a whispering inside of her head, the faint voices of those who had come and gone before her, the whispers of old heroes. Those who had made the noblest of sacrifices could be heard conversing in the darkened corners of her mind. 

“Piña, are you ready to begin?” Stargarden asked. “I’m not sure what we’ll accomplish here, but it doesn’t hurt to try, does it?” 

“I’m ready,” Piña replied as she gave her teacher a smile, “are you ready?” 

“I suppose I am.” Stargarden settled down in her chair, relaxing, preparing her mind, and calming her thoughts so that she might focus. 

“Listening does not mean hearing… knowing does not mean understanding… watching does not mean seeing.” Piña turned and looked at the mirrored glass on the wall and made a gesture. “They are going to listen, they will try to know, and they will watch.” Piña shook her head then turned and focused upon Stargarden. Piña knew and understood. She knew and understood all too well. 

For Piña, her knowledge and understanding was like entering into a place with a door—you open the door and you go inside. You open the door and you step outside. But the door is always there—until it wasn’t. Her recent experience had removed the door completely. This was knowing and understanding. There was no longer the need to step through the door, there was no longer a barrier. Touching minds with the Hag had destroyed those barriers. Piña had seen beyond the barriers and she was only now beginning to understand it. Hearthfire had illuminated the way. The bright, piercing light of the Hearthfire had allowed her to peek at what Piña could only describe as forever. Inside of the fire there were voices that spoke to her from the very beginning of time. There were voices that made Celestia and Luna seem young, infantile even. 

Most ponies, when faced with peering at the total perspective of forever, broke down, realising how insignificant and meaningless their lives were. How distressingly short their existence was. Most ponies did not have the mental fortitude to face this perspective. Most ponies did not have the presence of mind to even begin to understand what immortality even was.

Piña was not most ponies. When faced with the brain breaking knowledge, she had endured. Her curiousity had compelled her to look. She had opened her eyes, not the ones on her face, but the ones inside of her mind. She had watched… and she had seen. She had gone beyond. 

Closing her eyes, Piña reached out with her mind and touched her school teacher, Stargarden. This was something that had been so difficult before, it had taken so much effort, so much force of will, so much concentration—but now it felt easy. It felt like second nature. Piña realised that she had to be careful. If she focused too much, if she focused too hard, if she put too much of herself forward, she would crush Stargarden’s mind. 

The Hearthfire had removed all of the barriers. All of the things that Piña had to work through to make the magic happen. All of the doors, all of the barriers had to be opened with hard work and concentration, they were all gone. 

Miss Stargarden, Piña said inside of her teacher’s mind, in a voice not heard by others, how would you like to know and understand? 



 

“How did it go?” Bon Bon asked, hopeful that this time, Princess Celestia had some actual news. The cream coloured earth pony looked both fretful and upset. She was frustrated with not knowing. As she waited, hoping for good news, Bon Bon had been reminiscing about the long nights on the Shetland Isles spent with Lyra and Sentinel, teaching Sentinel how to read, how to do math, educating him and making him a better pony. Those were hours, days, weeks, a vast amount of time that she had invested and for Bon Bon, time meant something. Her investment was valuable beyond measure. She wanted her son back. 

“Queen Chrysalis has finished her work. She has restored much of his face, but there are still some… imperfections. Overall, I would say that she has done a spectacular job. She has remade Sentinel’s face and given him an eye socket. We can get him fitted with a glass eye, if that is what he wants. He has eyelids again.” For a moment, Celestia closed her eyes and her ears drooped with exhaustion. She had not slept well and she was weary. She blinked, her eyes opening, and she looked at Bon Bon. “I will grudgingly admit that I am impressed by what she has done.” 

“Princess?” Bon Bon asked in a husky voice. 

“We are friends… family even, must you be so formal?” Celestia let out a soft sigh that punctuated her words and somehow, she felt even more fatigued. 

“Um, Celestia… just a question.” Bon Bon’s voice was low, fearful, and Bon Bon’s eyes darted around. 

“Do ask,” Celestia replied. 

“About Sentinel’s missing eye…” Bon Bon hemmed and hawed for a moment, her gaze dropping down to the floor. 

“What about it?” Celestia felt her eyebrow rising and Bon Bon’s strange behaviour filled her with worry. 

“Regular means of healing can’t bring it back… it’s gone, I understand that… but… but necromantic healing…” Bon Bon’s eyes went wide and fearful as she spoke and she squirmed away from Celestia, ashamed to even be uttering these words. “Sentinel could get another eye through necromancy, right?” Bon Bon’s last sentence was a fearful, desperate squeak, her vocal cords constricting with fear and shame. 

“Yes.” Celestia’s reply was flat, terse, and held no trace of emotion. She looked down at Bon Bon, wondering what the earth pony was thinking. Celestia had always taken Bon Bon to be a sensible sort, a wise, canny earth pony. 

“It’s so unfair,” Bon Bon murmured, “it’s so unfair. I understand now what makes a pony step out of the light… I understand why they would do… that sort of thing. It’s so unfair that for all of our magic, for all of the good we can do… some things can’t be fixed. I can see how love can be turned against us.” Bon Bon shook her head and her drooping ears flopped against her face. “I’m so ashamed I even thought about it, but the thought just came into my mind all of a sudden and wouldn’t go away. The temptation… it feels so wrong. It’s almost as if something preys upon our love and our desperation.” 

Celestia’s heart swelled with pity; emotion returned to her face and to her voice. “Things do, Bon Bon, things do. Bad things happen and there is no easy solution, there is only suffering and sacrifice. If an easy solution is presented, it usually comes with a terrible price. These solutions are often offered when we are weakest, when we are at our lowest points. We must resist them.” 

“I know.” Bon Bon’s voice was a shrill squeak of pain and tears now streamed down her cheeks. “But I hate knowing that Sentinel could have his eye back. It seems like such a simple thing… and I keep thinking, ‘would it be so bad?’ and I feel so conflicted.” 

“A mother’s worry makes her desperate.” Celestia’s voice lowered. “This is something I know all too well. For me, well… for me, it has led me to dark places that I regret going. It has made me do things that I regret. I have done things that I’m sorry for.” 

“It’s us, isn’t it?” Bon Bon looked up and blinked. “Us little ponies… I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you. I have a small herd of foals… a few more than most mothers, and at times, they drive me crazy. I worry so much about them.” Bon Bon blinked away a few tears and sniffled, trying to clear her nose from snot. “You can’t even count all of your foals that you worry about, can you?” 

“No… I cannot…” 



 

Diamond Tiara found herself in a room full of predators. It was becoming commonplace for her and it bothered her less and less. Lugus was reclining upon a large pile of cushions set upon the floor, his tail twitching from side to side and his long, razor sharp claws tapped upon the floor as he drummed out a rhythm. Boadicea was fawning over Prince Beauregard, Agnetha’s cub, while Agnetha watched with a mother’s pride. King Tannis paced back and forth, his crest high, his foot pads and talons making very little sound as he moved. 

Here, Diamond Tiara was little more than a snack, but she felt safe, secure, there was even some strange sense of belonging. She was learning griffon politics, getting a bit of a crash course in the goings on of the griffons. 

“Gossamer is coming… I do so very much want to impress her. I want her to see the good we are doing here… I want her to see our potential,” Tannis said as he paced to and fro. 

“Tannis, you worry too much.” Agnetha looked at her husband, her feathers fluffing out and her beak clicked together a few times. 

“Gossamer is a good griffoness. She left our homeland… she had the courage to go, to flee, she had the bravery to think that we were wrong. I want her to see that we, the survivors of Griffonholm, are also good griffons. That we are virtuous.” Tannis came to a halt, puffed out his chest, and flared his wings. “I want her to see that we are noble and honourable—” 

“Oh, here we go, griffon honour,” Agnetha said as she rolled her eyes. 

“The collective honour of the griffons almost wiped out our species.” Lugus lifted his head, gave a yawn, gave himself a shake, and then began to study his talon claws. “Still, I understand Tannis’ fears. He is the son of Tanner, one of the kings that brought Griffonholm to ruin. A son can be made to pay for his father’s mistakes.” 

“I am paying for my father’s mistakes… I am now a king without a kingdom. Our empire is a flock of refugees that depend upon the kindness of others. I worry at how Gossamer will perceive us.” Tannis began to pace again. 

Diamond Tiara, thoughtful, understood the worry of living in fear of what others thought of you. A growing sympathy filled her heart for Tannis. She thought about honour, personal codes, and then thought of Sentinel. She felt a shudder go coursing through her body. Sentinel lived, and would probably die because of his rigid code of personal beliefs about right and wrong, self accountability, and setting a high standard for one’s self. 

“Princess Celestia wants us to begin creating a Flock of Representatives to work with the Stable of Representatives. The same rules will apply. I am in need of honourable indi—” 

“No.” Lugus spoke with a flat, forceful voice. 

“No? You would refuse your king?” Tannis turned around and faced Lugus. 

“I would tell Bucky no as well,” Lugus said, sounding annoyed. “I am a knight. I sometimes find myself in positions of leadership, like during the war. But I have enough duties to keep me busy. I have Raptors to train, a squire to look after, a wife to keep happy, and then there is Boadicea—” 

“Hey!” Boadicea squawked. 

“—who causes me no end of worry, frustration, and fear as I lay awake at night wondering who she is going to strangle next with piano wire.” Lugus leveled his stern gaze upon Boadicea. “Or steal a gun from the armory. Or what you and Loki, that horrid little harrier, conspire to do when nobirdy is around to keep a much needed eye upon you, you treacherous little corvid.” 

“I don’t have to put up with your flockism.” Boadicea turned away from Lugus and winked at Agnetha, who was shaking with silent laughter. 

Boadicea’s words made Diamond Tiara stop and think. Ponies had enough difficulty getting along with three major tribes. Pegasus ponies, unicorns, and earth ponies had plenty to bicker and squabble about. How many different types of griffons where there? The griffons had three castes, the artist griffon, the hunter griffon, and the warrior griffon, but there were also types. Boadicea was crow-like and Lugus was eagle-like. There were some real differences between the two, more than just the shape of their beaks. 

It was something of a revelation for Diamond Tiara. There were some fundamental differences between griffons. Their physical differences affected their behaviour. Boadicea, a corvid, was smart, witty, fast, and Diamond Tiara knew that her friend relied upon cunning and stealth. Lugus, on the other hoof, was big. So very big. Lugus was larger than the average pony’s couch, the sort of couch that three or four ponies could sit upon. Lugus, from what Diamond Tiara knew, did not rely upon stealth very much. He tended to just drop in and attack, using his massive bulk to intimidate, shock, and awe. Lugus didn’t have to be sneaky, or have cunning to gain an edge in battle. Lugus simply had to be Lugus and use brute force, something that Boadicea was incapable of. 

With those fundamental differences came very different approaches to life, just like how it was for ponies. Diamond Tiara, an earth pony, faced everything from a ground bound perspective. She saw distances as something she had to walk. Being an earth pony, she saw tasks as something she had to power through. She had no idea what it might be like to be a pegasus, who saw distance as something inconsequential, or a unicorn that could clear an entire orchard in a day, where it might take a group of earth ponies a week. 

“I understand, Lugus. I’m disappointed, but I understand… there are so few warrior griffons… your kind is almost extinct… I wanted to see some representation for the warriors.” Tannis let out a weary sigh. “The little artist griffons don’t want to do it either… most of them are far too skittish and fearful still. They’re still adjusting to freedom. I don’t want our Flock of Representatives to just be hunter griffons… it feels too much like how it was back home with the hunters in charge and running the show.” 

“Change will take time… maybe generations.” Agnetha lifted Beauregard and held the peeping cub in her talons. “We must guard ourselves against complacency in the meanwhile.” 

“I have an idea,” Diamond Tiara said. 

When every eye in the room focused upon her, Diamond Tiara could not help but feel a little nervous. Every eye was so predatory and birdlike. Each head turned, cocked, crests rose, and avian intelligence glittered in each eye. Diamond Tiara swallowed and found her voice. 

“Maybe getting a Flock of Representatives right now is a bad idea that the griffons just aren’t ready for. Maybe, instead, you should focus your efforts on school politics.” 

“School politics?” Tannis blinked a few times and his head tilted off to one side. 

“Do go on,” Agnetha insisted. 

“Create programs to get little griffons interested in politics. Civics. Have political clubs. Get little griffons interested in running for things like class president, or to become a member of the student body, or any number of other school political positions. It will be something that they will be comfortable with, something familiar, and they will grow up. There’s your future Flock of Representatives.” Diamond Tiara rubbed her chin and felt satisfied with what she had said. 

“I like this thinking.” Tannis’ head bobbed up and down with enthusiasm, his neck feathers fluffing out as he moved. “Please, tell me more of this idea… I want to know more of what your school is like. Please?” 

Diamond Tiara nodded, glad for the distraction. “Sure thing, I’ll be glad to help…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 864
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Mommy?” 

Princess Celestia closed her eyes, savouring the sweetest word she knew. Tourmaline’s voice a comfort to her in her most troubled times. And now, now was a troubled time. The pain in her heart was almost too much to bear.

“Mother, you are unwell.” 

The words were not a question. There was no hiding anything from Tourmaline. She knew. She always knew. Celestia heard the sound of tiny hooves approaching. Opening her eyes, she saw a jet black filly with a pink mane, a pink tail, and glasses with bright green frames. 

“I know what troubles you,” Tourmaline said. “It’s her. Knowing that she is near gives me the heebie jeebies. I don’t like her.” 

“I know,” Celestia replied as she felt Tourmaline brush up against her leg. 

“Her and Bucky feel so similar sometimes… but Bucky isn’t as empty.” Tourmaline continued to rub up against Celestia’s leg, soaking up warm, wonderful, maternal love. “She has more despair than Bucky does, and Bucky holds more rage.” 

“Despair?” Celestia asked, not understanding. 

“The very worst sort of despair.” Tourmaline rubbed her neck against Celestia’s leg. “She fears death more than anything and has found ways to cheat death. She wants to live forever… but she has nothing to live for and she knows that. The many years have begun to wear her down. She is conflicted.” 

“Oh… oh my.” A spike of pity lanced through Celestia’s heart. It was a cold, terrible physical pain. To go on living, extending one’s life, doing so to spite death, but having no real reason to keep going, other than spite or the need to cheat death. It was a bitter, empty existence, and perhaps the very worst sort of tortured existence that she could think of, because it was avoidable. 

“Luna is awake. She is troubled. She’s sad, I’m not sure why. She is hiding her feelings and her thoughts from me. Sometimes, I think that Luna just likes being sad. Erebus makes her happy though, but she clings to her sadness.” 

“Luna always was the mopey sort,” Celestia muttered. 

“So are you.” 

Blinking, Celestia looked down at Tourmaline, feeling a little shocked. “Why, I suppose I am, you silly little cuddlebug. Walk with me for a while, there is much I must attend to.” 

“Okay.” Tourmaline beamed, a broad smile overtaking her muzzle. 



 

Leaning closer to the bed, Bucky watched as Sentinel squirmed a bit. His face was bandaged, covered over, with only his surviving eye being somewhat visible. Queen Chrysalis had packed alchemical poultices under the bandages, insisting that they were necessary. There was a chance that Sentinel’s body might reject the newly grown skin and bone. 

“Sentinel, son, can you hear me?” Bucky held his breath after he spoke, wondering if Sentinel would make some sort of reply. Queen Chrysalis had said that Sentinel might be able to talk a little bit, and it would be a good thing if he did. 

There was a low moan and one of Sentinel’s hind legs twitched beneath the blanket. Bucky reached out, grasped Sentinel’s foreleg in his talons, and gave a soft, gentle squeeze. Relief flooded through Bucky, there was still plenty of fear, worry, and doubt. 

“Hey there… don’t move too much. Can you hear me?” Bucky gave Sentinel’s foreleg another squeeze. He hoped that Sentinel wasn’t in pain. Chrysalis had concocted powerful non narcotic pain killers before her departure and Bucky hoped that they were working. 

“You were in a bit of a fight, Sentinel… do you remember anything?” Bucky asked, clinging to his fervent hope that Sentinel could speak. He heard the sound of the blankets rustling. 

A low moan came out of Sentinel and Bucky could feel Sentinel making a feeble effort to move the foreleg that Bucky was holding. Bucky leaned his head down closer, glad to hear Sentinel breathing. Queen Chrysalis had assured him that Sentinel would be out of bed and moving about within twenty four to forty eight hours. Bucky hoped that she was right. 

“I remember nothing.” 

Sentinel’s voice was muffled, weak, and quite faint. Bucky, even with his exceptional hearing, had trouble making it out. Bucky drew in a ragged breath that felt as though it was tearing at his throat. 

“Are you in pain?” Bucky asked. 

“No.” 

Heaving a sigh of relief, Bucky blinked a few times, and tried to keep his breathing calm. He recalled all of Fluttershy’s lessons. Now was not a time to be angry, but to be happy. He drew in a deep breath, held it, thought happy, wholesome thoughts as Fluttershy had instructed, and then let it out, nice and slow, letting the bad feelings out with it. 

He felt better. 

The bedspread was a dull green colour, typical of hospitals, and the sheets were an off shade of yellow. Everything came from the same muted colour palette. Bucky found himself hating it, associating those wretched colours with his misery. 

He did more of his breathing exercises and thought of Fluttershy’s soft, soothing voice. She had taught him to keep the rage away. How to stay calm. Collected. Serene. How not to go ripping things apart, shredding things, how not to let his rage consume him. He could almost feel her soft touch upon him. His ocean of boiling rage calmed a bit. He had his son. He had a lot to be thankful for. He still had Dinky and Piña, even if Piña was going to be a little strange from now on. 

“Father, what happened?” Sentinel asked, his voice muffled from beneath the bandages. 

“Don’t worry about that now… just talk to me, Sentinel, I so want to to hear your voice.” 



 

The room was small, windowless, and magically shielded in just about every way conceivable. This room was no common interrogation room though. It was at least pleasant and comfortable. It had bright, vibrant carpets, soft, comfortable, pleasant furniture, and there were a few paintings on the walls. This was a room for discussions, not interrogations. 

Princess Celestia made herself comfortable and looked at the psychic unicorn named Stargarden, a powerful psyker in her own right, capable of astral projection and other unusual mental magic. The mare was rubbing her head and Celestia could not help but notice that Stargarden looked troubled. 

“If you are unwell, we can delay this,” Princess Celestia offered. 

“No, no, I feel well enough. I can do this.” Stargarden looked up at Celestia. “You want to know more about the Hearthfire.” 

“Correct.” Celestia felt almost like a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve, but showed no outward signs. 

“Piña and I spoke at length… well, in a sense.” Stargarden’s brows furrowed. “There is a lot I don’t understand. Piña doesn’t understand it either, but something tells me that she doesn’t need to understand it.” 

The unicorn mare’s muzzle crinkled as she stared down at the floor, lost in contemplation. After a time, she lifted her head to look at Princess Celestia. “Majesty, near as I can tell, Hearthfire is the psychic remains of old, dead heroes.” 

“Say again?” Celestia’s head leaned forwards. 

“Hearthfire is the residue of sacrifice. I don’t know how else to put it. It is a powerful psychic manifestation of old, dead heroes. It’s more than that, but I cannot put it into words.” Stargarden let out a weary sigh. “Piña is hearing echoes… every time she comes into contact with Hearthfire, I believe it is strengthening her psychic abilities, and I think she is hearing echoes. Are you familiar with echos, Majesty?” 

Celestia paused, becoming thoughtful, and reached down deep into her well of memories. After several long moments of thought, she nodded. “I have experienced them… I went into a cave where a unicorn battled a terrible, monstrous foe. Both of them died, but the battle continued. You could feel the battle all around you, and for those of us who have the right minds, you could hear it.” 

“Yes… echoes. When Piña came into my mind… when she tried to show me what Hearthfire was… I was very nearly overwhelmed. I saw the river of time stretching out before me, and it was long… I don’t know what I saw. But Hearthfire has been around for a very long time. As long as there have been heroes.” 

“Yes… but did you find out what Hearthfire is? What it does? Why does it appear?” Princess Celestia asked, unable to keep her curiousity bottled up any longer. 

“Well, um… you see… Hearthfire… Hearthfire… well, it’s really just a fancy way for old dead heroes to pass along their skills to one another and give young heroes a chance to survive while making mistakes.” 

Hearing Stargarden’s words, Princess Celestia’s mouth hung open in dumbfounded awe. She had expected so much… she had expected some great, powerful, beautiful mystic force. She had expected the phenomenal cosmic power of the universe. She had expected an all powerful, all capable, trump card of magic. 

“Shocking, isn't it?” Stargarden asked. 



 

Her legs felt like jelly, but Dinky was able to walk. She made her way down the hallway at a slow, steady pace, with Piña beside her and Bon Bon just behind her. A short distance away, down at the end of the hall, Boadicea and Diamond Tiara stood waiting for her. Her friends. She was glad to see them both as she fought to keep her balance. She was feeling better, but she was still feeling weak. 

She had flexed her magical muscles and was now stronger for it. This was the path to power. Pushing yourself far beyond your natural limits and then going a little further. Athletes had to do it with their bodies, wizards did it with their magic. Dinky knew that her thaumaturgic system would recover from this and be better, be more capable, and everything would be easier now. She would be able to teleport better, lift more in her telekinesis, she would be able to perform magic longer, she would be able to push herself harder. 

As she pushed herself forwards, Boadicea and Diamond Tiara were no longer content to sit and wait for her. She was almost bowled over when Diamond Tiara plowed into her, but Boadicea and Piña both kept her upright. Surrounded by her friends, Dinky felt stronger than ever. 



 

“I just remember being angry,” Sentinel said in a faint, scratchy whisper. “So angry.” 

“We have to be careful about our rage, son. It will be our undoing. Princess Celestia and I have been speaking. She wants you to join me when I spend time with Fluttershy and she’s teaching me how to meditate and control my feelings.” 

“Okay… I like Fluttershy. Can we knit?” Sentinel peered up at his father through his remaining eye. 

“Sure, we can knit.” Bucky nodded. “Are you hurting?” 

“For the last time, I’m not hurting. I just feel… woozy,” Sentinel replied. “I just remember going through the thicket with Dinky and everything after that is red. I’m sorry I can’t remember more.” 

“Son, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. We’ll talk more about what happened later. I’m just so glad that you are alive.” Bucky leaned his head down, lifted up Sentinel’s foreleg, and touched it to his muzzle, so he could rub it against his cheek. 

“Father, is Sand Piper okay?” Sentinel asked. 

Slumping, Bucky didn’t know how to answer. He wanted to lie to spare Sentinel the pain of knowing. He pressed his face against Sentinel’s foreleg, wishing that he didn’t have to answer. It felt as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest. 

“She didn’t make it, did she?” A long sigh escaped from Sentinel. 

“No son… things went badly. But Dinky and Piña are okay. Boadicea too. She… well, Boadicea came along and helped to save all of you.” Bucky sucked in a deep breath, then added, “Things could have gone a whole lot worse. We’ll talk more about this later, okay?” 

“Okay.” Sentinel tried to yawn, but had some trouble opening his mouth. “I’m sleepy.” 

“Then you get some sleep, son. When you wake up next, Diamond Tiara and Boadicea will be here with you. They’re going to be your nurses.” Bucky rubbed his cheek against Sentinel’s leg a little more. 

“Oh, hey, I get good looking nurses,” Sentinel said in a sleepy voice. 

“Yes, Sentinel, we get good looking nurses to help us recover. It has to be the best part of being us.” Much to Bucky’s surprise, he heard Sentinel let out a weak laugh. It made Bucky feel better, and he found himself laughing. 

“I want to see them in those little paper hats.” Sentinel tried yawning again and his surviving eye drooped, closing halfway. “I’d like that.” 

Bucky nodded, but he didn’t know if Sentinel could see him. He lowered Sentinel’s foreleg down to the bed, laying it to rest, gave it a gentle pat, and then looked down at his son as Sentinel’s eye was closing. 

“The best part of being a hero is good looking nurses…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 865
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Creeping up alongside Rising Star, Loch Skimmer watched her mate groom himself in the mirror. He was handsome, tall, and struggling to get his mane to cooperate. Grinning, she walked into the reflection of the mirror, strutting, and showing off what she felt was her best feature—her somewhat rounded stomach. It was sexy, at least she thought so, and she liked looking at it. 

“Spring session… ready for this?” Loch Skimmer asked as she checked herself out through narrowed, squinting eyes. She liked what she saw. The prenatal vitamins had done something spectacular to her pelt. She was sleek, shiny, her charcoal grey pelt was almost reflective. 

“Canterlot will be different. Maybe this time the session will be mostly peaceful and trouble free. Here’s to hoping.” Rising Star tugged at his comb as he tried to get his forelock to smooth back and stop sticking out. He smiled at the floor to ceiling mirror, revealing his fangs. The scent of sulfur intensified. 

“Do you think Sentinel is okay?” Loch Skimmer turned herself around, bumped Rising Star with her backside, and tried to shove him over so she could have more of the mirror for herself. She got a good look at her dock piercing and liked what she saw. 

“Sentinel is a tough little guy. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Rising Star cleared his throat. He had his own reasons for wanting to go to Canterlot. Using his body, he gave Loch Skimmer a little push. 

Frowning, Loch Skimmer gave Rising Star a playful slap with her tail, then gave him a pouty, puckered lip stare in the mirror. She was trying to check herself out and make sure that she looked good… for him. Her plot was getting bigger. Reaching back with one front hoof, she poked herself after straining to bend herself in half just a little bit. It was getting harder to do with each passing day. 

“Ponyville is getting a dedicated rescue service,” Loch Skimmer said. “I’m going to be a part of them. We’re getting a fire department and Sparkler is really excited. Ponyville has been big enough for a fire department for quite some time now.” 

“Do we have any firefighters?” Rising Star bared his teeth as he continued to try and smooth out his unruly mane. It was getting frustrating. He was supposed to look grown up—smooth, suave, and sophisticated. 

“Just one, but he’s not here yet. Somepony named… oh bother, what was his name again?” Loch Skimmer turned around once more and faced the mirror. Her muzzle scrunched in concentration. She blinked a few times, concentrating, trying to remember a name. “Something or other Sunstreak… he was the only pony that would take the job with the salary posted. He’s going to establish a firehouse.” 

“We don’t have a firehouse,” Rising Star said, now concerned about the situation. 

“Well, he’ll be stationed with the police and the rest of the services in the old windmill that now serves as headquarters for the Emergency Rescue Response Team.” Loch Skimmer looked up at Rising Star and shook her head. “Just… stop combing it. That can’t be tamed. Let it be wild.” 

“Have either of you seen Ripple?” Sparkler asked as she stuck her head in the door. “I can’t find her anywhere. Where is she?” 

“Maybe she’s off rubbing one out somewhere,” Loch Skimmer replied as Sparkler came all of the way into the room. “Maybe she’s just off flying. She’s been worried sick about Sentinel. Or maybe Violet has her working to pay off her debt. Who knows?” 

“Mmm, mmm, mmm, some good lookin’ ponies in the mirror.” Sparkler came to a halt beside Loch Skimmer, then smoothed out Loch Skimmer’s tail. “Hey Rising Star, how about we drag this one off to bed and feel her up? I bet she’s real soft and squeezable.” 

Sticking out her tongue, Loch Skimmer blew a loud, wet raspberry at Sparkler. Rising Star turned his head to look at the two of them, a wicked, almost feral looking grin upon his face. Sparkler, reaching out with her front hoof, prodded Loch Skimmer’s stomach. 

“I just want to rub your belly… it makes me feel good.” Sparkler lowered her head, pressed her face up against the pregnant pegasus’ rounded stomach, and closed her eyes. She stood there, smiling, and only suffered mild spasms from her Shivers. 

“I hope Bittersweet is up for translation. I know she’s been nervous, but I need her.” Rising Star took a step closer and pressed up against Loch Skimmer. “She’s been amazing as a school teacher and I’m so proud to know her. She’s becoming such an amazing donkey.” 

“She is,” Sparkler agreed. 

“She feels inadequate compared to Ripple. She feels a lot of pressure to perform. Ripple is going to be a knight someday. Ripple has this promising future… and poor Bittersweet has been feeling a little down lately.” Loch Skimmer, sandwiched between Rising Star and Sparkler, relaxed and allowed herself to enjoy this intimate moment of contact. 

“She told you this?” Sparkler asked. 

“I’m getting better at ear language.” Loch Skimmer blushed. “Bittersweet said it was nice to have somepony to talk to.” 

“We’re trying.” Rising Star looked at himself in the mirror and began moving his ears, forming the words “We’re trying.” He heaved a sigh and looked down at his wives, not through the mirror, but turning his head so he could actually see them. “If she’s feeling a little down, we need to make sure to lift her up. If one of us stumbles, we all go down.” 

“Yeah, I’d rather not have a repeat of what happened last time when Ripple lost her marbles.” For a moment, Loch Skimmer was certain she could still feel the lumps on her skull. “We’re all very motivated individuals. Rising Star… well, just look at him. He’s a celebrity. He’s a famous politician and a smith. He writes poetry on the armor he makes. And you, Sparkler, you founded the Ponyville Police Department. Every day you work to make our community better.” 

“So do you.” Sparkler lifted her head and opened her eyes. “I bet Bittersweet does feel a bit inadequate at times. We should go find her and I dunno… do something to make her feel special. Let her know that we appreciate her.” 

“Let her know that she’s one fine lookin’ donkey.” Rising Star’s ears perked forwards. 

“That she is. Ripple has a fine looking ass.” Sparkler rested her head on Loch Skimmer’s spine. 

Loch Skimmer began to snigger as Rising Star rolled his eyes and then gave Sparkler a mock look of disapproval. He shook his head as Loch Skimmer began laughing. 

“We don’t call them asses, we call them Asinus Equestrians, you insensitive, horrible fillies.” Rising Star peered down his nose at both Sparkler and Loch Skimmer. “Both of you are awful, just awful.” 

Loch Skimmer narrowed her eyes at Rising Star. “So says the smelly unicorn that keeps telling Ripple, ‘I wanna touch your ass!’” 

“I prefer the term fey unicorn, thank you very much.” Rising Star allowed his lion-like tail to swish around and he slapped Loch Skimmer on the backside. “Now stop… I want the mother of my foals to be a paragon of virtue.” 

Unable to help herself, Loch Skimmer burst out laughing at Rising Star’s words. 



 

Secured within her fortress of plundered sofa cushions, blankets, and pillows, Cadance peered out between the cracks and watched Crisis. She wasn’t quite certain how she felt about Crisis. Part of her didn’t like Crisis, but that felt wrong, and she always felt guilty. Cadance didn’t like feeling guilty. She told her daddy to be a good pony but she wasn’t always a good pony herself, and not liking Crisis, her sibling, was wrong. But Crisis was one of them. 

That said, Crisis had also chomped the Horrible, No Good, Awful, Big Bug right in the face. Crisis watched over her siblings. As far as bugs went, Crisis wasn’t so bad. Cadance wanted to be a good pony, she wanted to be nice to Crisis, but Crisis was a bug. Cadance had trouble remembering why she hated them, but she knew that she hated them, and she hated the Horrible, No Good, Awful, Big Bug most of all. 

“Monster?” Harper asked, also peering out from between the cushions. 

“Dunno,” Cadance replied, not actually knowing if Crisis was a monster or not. 

“Rippobottomus?” Harper looked around the room. “We must be watchful.” 

“I know.” Cadance nodded her head. Protecting her siblings was serious business. It required fortifications of some kind, a stout heart, and lots of courage. There was danger around every corner… like the Horrible, No Good, Awful, Big Bug. 

“When Sukari?” Harper asked in a low whisper. “We low on food. We die soon.” To place emphasis upon just how dire the situation was, Harper rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, all while gagging. “Much dead soon if Sukari no come back.” 

“Sukari gone.” Cadance shook her head. “Maybe eaten by a rippobottomus?” 

Harper gave her sister a wide-eyed stare of horror and bit down upon her hoof. She then closed her eyes and let out a whimper. “Sukari eaten, turned to farts now. We might be next.” 

“We must guard,” Cadance said, flapping her stubby wings. Her alicorn heart pounded in her barrel and she stomped a tiny hoof upon the floor. “Could Crisis help us guard?” 

Harper swiveled her head around and peered out of the secured fortress at Crisis, who was currently staring out the window of the living room while her siblings napped in a pile on the floor, on a soft, comfortable quilt. “Crisis?” 

“She’s a bug,” Cadance said in a conspiratorial whisper to Harper. 

“No she’s not. She’s a pony.” Harper turned to look at Cadance and gave her pink sibling a peculiar, confused stare. “Not bug. Pony. You silly.” 

“She bug on inside.” 

“Ew.” Harper grimaced. “Harpy zap bugs. But Crisis no bug. Crisis little sister, Mamamama loves her. Harpy keep her safe so Mamamama will forever love Harpy.” 

Cadance’s lips pressed together as she took her sister’s words into consideration. Harper had made a compelling point. Mamamama did in fact love Crisis a great deal, and he had cuddled with Crisis’ egg. It was tough to think about. 

“Crisis make good guard. We let her in fort.” Harper lifted her head high and peered over the top of the couch cushion. “Sukari still gone. Harpy think she not come back from faraway land of kitchen.” 

Sighing, Cadance closed her eyes. She was going to have to do the right thing, even though it was going to be super hard. She was going to have to learn how to love Crisis. Cadance had a lot of love to give, and it wasn’t nice at all not to love something, especially something like Crisis who needed love. Cadance felt ashamed and she desperately wanted a hug. 

Whirling about, she grabbed Harper and gave her a fierce squeeze, which caused Harper’s bottom to let out a pealing, squeaky blast. Both sisters, still embracing one another, stared, looking each other in the eye. 

“There’s a rippobottomus about,” Harper said in a low, terrified whisper. 



 

“Must you look so sad?” Belisama said to Sukari and she tried to cheer up the zebra filly. “You miss your mother, Thistle, don’t you? Are you missing your daddy?” Belisama, sitting in the kitchen window bench seat, gave the zebra foal a squeeze. 

“Miss Sentinel.” Sukari lifted her head and looked out the kitchen window. “Miss Dinky. Miss Piña.” She blinked a few times, heaved a sigh, and then collapsed completely into Belisama’s embrace, almost knocking the griffoness over. 

Beak clicking, Belisama struggled to hold up Sukari, who was getting pretty big. She huffed and puffed a bit, found her balance, and then reaching around with her talons, she stroked the zebra filly’s mane, then scratched her ear. Sukari melted and somehow became something heavier than dead weight. With a huff, Belisama toppled over, and Sukari was sprawled out on top of her. 

Being a mother was difficult when your offspring were almost as large as you were. Belisama struggled, but then just gave up. She held Sukari, stroking her ears, and the both of them lay on the cushions together, with Sukari looking sad and Belisama looking squished. 

Squashed as she was, Belisama still somehow found enough air in her lungs to sing and she began to croon to Sukari, “You're nobirdy 'til somebirdy loves you, you're nobirdy 'til somebirdy cares… you may be king, you may possess the world and it's gold… but gold won't bring you happiness when you're growing old. The world still is the same, you never change it, as sure as the stars shine above… you're nobirdy 'til somebirdy loves you, so find yourself somebirdy to love.” 

Closing her eyes, relaxed by song, Sukari yawned. Belisama was soft, fuzzy, and warm. Sukari let out a contented, happy sigh, and then yawned once more. Now was the perfect time for a nap. She snuggled up against Belisama, feeling very safe and secure. 

“Um, Sukari… hey… no… you can’t go to sleep… you’re smooshing me…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 866
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Give him back!” Luna’s words echoed in Bucky’s ears as he made a swift escape with Erebus. The colt, currently more lunar pegasus than unicorn, giggled and waved at his mother as Bucky hurried away. 

“Come back with my colt, or so help me, I shall make it rain blood as I wreak your ruin upon the stones below Canterhorn peak! Do not make me destroy you, insolent, malformed, misshapen creature of chaos!” 

“Bah, raining blood… nothing more than a bit of advanced transmutation!” Bucky retorted as he evaded Luna and gave Erebus a tickle. “Discord showed me how to make it rain chocolate milk!” 

Princess Luna came to a skidding halt, blinked once, and looked at Bucky as he went scampering away. “Really?” She watched as he drifted to a halt and her ears perked at the faint sound of laughter. 

Both Luna and Bucky turned their head to look at the source of the laughter. Sentinel, propped up in a chair with pillows, was laughing, his whole body was shaking. Beside him, Diamond Tiara and Boadicea both stood, wearing starched paper nurses hats. 

“He’s laughing,” Diamond Tiara said as she blinked in surprise. 

“He does that on occasion.” Bucky lifted Erebus up a little higher as the colt flapped his wings and made happy gurgles. “You feeling okay, Sentinel?” 

“I feel fine.” Sentinel struggled to lift his head up from the pillow upon which it was propped. “I have good looking nurses.” 

Luna’s eyes darted to one side and gave Bucky a sidelong glance. The corner of her mouth twitched and a sense of merry mayhem glittered in her eyes. Horn glowing, she plucked Erebus from Bucky’s magic and held the colt up to her face as she let out a crow of triumph. 

“Hey!” Bucky protested as the door opened. 

Lyra walked in, a tray held in her magic, Bon Bon followed behind her, along with Piña and Dinky. Lyra strode through the large, open room, smiling, gave a nod to both Diamond Tiara and Boadicea, and then set the tray down upon a table near Sentinel’s chair. 

“Root beer floats, as requested, Prince Sentinel.” Lyra bowed her head. “Good call using caramel ice cream. Good stuff.” Lyra lowered her head down near Sentinel’s, moved forwards, almost touching, and asked, “How is my little guy feeling? No pain? I’m worried, Sentinel.” 

“I feel fine… I just wish I could take the bandages off,” Sentinel replied. 

“You leave those on for now.” Bon Bon turned around and watched as Luna took off at a trot, holding Erebus over her head, with Bucky chasing after her. She rolled her eyes. Some ponies. 

“Where is Lugus?” Sentinel asked. 

“He went home,” Boadicea replied, “he was missing Yew and Brennus.” 

“I was hoping he would tell me another story.” Sentinel let out a sigh of disappointment and glanced over at the root beer floats. “More than anything, I’m just bored. I can’t hardly move… all I can do is sit here.” 

“The painkillers that Queen Chrysalis produced impair nerve function. Keeps away the pain, but also restricts movement, making the healing process more efficient. Just try to be patient and wait it out, Sentinel.” Bon Bon watched as Lyra put straws into the root beer floats and listened as Bucky tried to steal Erebus away from Luna once more. 

Bon Bon was unsure of what to think. For being so tragic, these were happy times. 



 

Loch Skimmer sucked in a deep breath as she looked at the newborns. She loved fawning over them, seeing them awoke something deep inside of her, some important part of her inner pegasus, perhaps some deep, instinctual instincts of motherhood. Brandywine, the largest of them all, was serving as a pillow for the rest of her siblings, who were all piled around her. Little Barley Bitters let out a squeaky yawn, rolled over, and showed his belly. Dizzy, who struggled against sleep, was making a brave, valiant effort, but was losing, of this there could be no doubt. Ditzy was giving Loch a peculiar stare, or at least Loch Skimmer thought Ditzy was staring at her. With both Dizzy and Ditzy, it was hard to tell, as their eyes tended to point in random directions. 

Loch Skimmer didn’t mind, it made them adorable, and she loved them a great deal. She was interrupted by a nose against her belly, hot snorting, there was a tongue that flicked over her teats, followed by rough shoving and an angry sounding gurgle. 

Shocked, Loch Skimmer, who was laying on her side, rolled over onto her back. Craning her head, she looked at Derpy, and saw a worried look on the pegasus’ face. She felt two little lips latch onto one of her teats and began to suckle, even though there was nothing to be had. It was certainly an odd feeling. 

“Sorry, Loch… she’s just hungry… I think. She doesn’t know that you don’t have milk. Little Crisis has odd instincts. I don’t think it’s even about the milk, but the feeling of love and closeness.” 

Lifting her head, Loch Skimmer looked down at the foal trying to suckle. “What does she eat, anyway? I mean, she likes milk, but what else?” 

“Let’s see… we’ve let her nurse, and she likes milk… Bucky gave her a spoonful of ice cream and she liked that and then she ate Bucky’s spoon. She likes yogurt, Berry got her to eat some. She likes soft stuff.” 

Beside Loch Skimmer, a diaper crinkled as it was being filled. Loch’s nose wrinkled and her eyes watered. She turned her head, ignoring Crisis, and looked over at the pile of newborns. “Somepony made a stinky.” 

Sniffing, Derpy nodded. “That’s Barley. He’s not bad… he’s nowhere as near as bad as Ditzy.” 

“How do you do that?” Loch asked. 

“Do what?” Derpy replied. 

“Tell them apart like that… just by… the smell of the poop?” Loch Skimmer rolled over and gently pushed away Crisis with her hind leg. “I mean, it’s gross, but it’s kinda amazing.” 

“A mother knows?” Derpy, who did not know how she did it, shrugged. 

“We have to catch the train in a little while… I’m nervous.” Loch Skimmer reached out her foreleg, snagged Crisis, and pulled her close as the strange filly made snuffling noises. “Come here, buggy baby.” 

“You have all of your schoolwork ready to take with you?” Derpy asked. 

Loch Skimmer nodded as she hugged Crisis, who now seemed happy and was rubbing her cheek against Loch’s foreleg. “I feel bad not doing my job of orchestrating the dawn, but Rising Star needs me. We’ve been focusing on being a family a lot more rather than a horny pile of teenagers living together.” 

“Are things working out okay?” Derpy asked. 

“I think so,” Loch replied, lifting her head and looking at Derpy, “it’s funny, but I think this foal is bringing us all together. Berry said that unwanted or surprise foals can tear an unprepared family apart, but sometimes, when the stars shine right, a little surprise can do a lot to bring a family together.” Loch Skimmer dropped her head down upon Crisis, using her as a pillow. The foal chuffed beneath her, let out a squeak of protest, but made no other effort to protest her treatment. 

“I think you’ll be a good mom. You’ve got all the support you need. But if you slack off in school, I swear on the stars above, Berry and I will take turns whacking lumps onto your skull. We’ll let you get away with almost anything, but school remains a priority. Are we clear?” Derpy’s eyes narrowed as she gave her fellow pegasus a meaningful stare. 

“As the blue sky,” Loch replied in low, foalish sounding voice. 

“I’m going to be a grandmother… I’m not ready. I’m too young for this to happen.” Derpy shook her head. “How could you do this to me?” 

“Well…” Loch let out a giggle and rubbed her chin against Crisis, “it started off with Rising Star whispering in my ear—” 

“Nope… don’t wanna know… nope nope nope.” Derpy shook her head. “Do not want to think about my foals doing that. You can talk to Berry about that, but I don’t wanna know.” Derpy rose, gave herself a shake, and her muzzle wrinkled. “Come on Loch, it’s time for you to change a diaper.” 

“Eeew… okay… I guess?” 



 

“Hey.” Bucky plucked up Piña from off of the floor and sat her down beside him on the sofa. He looked down at his filly, brushed her pink mane away from her eyes, placed his talons under her chin, and tilted her head up so he could look into her eyes. “How’s my little pink pony?” 

“I feel okay, Daddy,” Piña replied. 

Nodding, he pulled Piña closer and Bucky was glad to have her beside him. He glanced over at Dinky, who was playing with Erebus, and wondered where Tourmaline was. No doubt, she was probably studying. Piña said that she was okay, but Bucky continued to worry—hearing voices was a troubling thing and Bucky could not help but to feel concerned. 

“I can hear him, you know… Sombra.” 

Bucky’s eyebrow raised and he felt a cold prickle. This was the sort of nightmare scenario he worried about. Parts of Sombra no doubt lingered. Bucky wondered if he was actually gone, or if he would somehow return. He felt Piña’s hoof touch his cheek. 

“You worry too much. Sombra’s become one with the flame… I can hear him saying he’s sorry… that part of him that became shadow… he has regrets.” Piña took a deep breath before she continued, “I can hear Platinum too… and Clover. All of the founders are here.” 

Confused, Bucky shook his head. “But how?” He blinked, troubled, and kept his voice low. “How can you hear Clover or Platinum?” Bucky’s brows furrowed and he felt a growing chill. 

“It’s an echo, Daddy,” Piña replied. “It’s not all of them, just a little teeny, tiny part of them. Many of the voices have passed through the gate and into Elysium. But they have left a part of themselves behind. I have some of their knowledge now because of my spirit.” 

Frowning, Bucky tried to make sense of what Piña was saying, but was still troubled. 

“For Sombra though, the shadowy part of him, he went wholly into the fire so Moonbow could be brought back. There is a little part of Moonbow in here now… I can hear her. So many voices.” Piña relaxed, shifted her body around, and cuddled up against her father. “Boadicea is special… she has become Hearthfire’s emissary. It is time for the griffons to be brought into the flame. It is time for griffon heroes.” 

“The world needs heroes.” Bucky’s voice was little more than a whisper. “And you are well on your way to becoming one, Piña.” 

“Dinky needs me. If it was just me on my own, I think I’d do other things, but Dinky is going to wear a black cloak. I can’t let her go into the darkness alone. Larch and I are going to go with her. So is Tourmaline and Glass Slipper. We’re going to be Princess Apple Bloom’s Black Cloaks.” 

Shivering, Bucky somehow knew this wasn’t just wishful thinking or some foalish fantasy about the future. He closed his eyes, glad to have Piña with him, wishing that he could understand her. “Apple Bloom is going to need Black Cloaks… the world will always need Black Cloaks.” 

“I had a strange vision.” 

“Oh?” Bucky worried about how much stranger things could get. 

“I was dreaming… it was one of those sorts of dreams where I knew I was seeing the future… something that might happen. Dinky was going into the darkness… she was leading us… but she shone like the sun. She had a black cloak, but she was also wearing golden armor… really shiny golden armor… like Sunset Shimmer’s.” 

Bucky’s eyes opened. Radiant steel, the armor of paladins. He thought of Sunset Shimmer and how Sunset believed that Dinky would be a good candidate for paladin training. He felt a heaviness in his barrel, a father’s worry, an impossible weight indeed. He saw a tradition forming even now, before it even happened, paladins leading the Black Cloaks against the most terrible sorts of foes. The very worst sorts of foes. Foes like the Hag. 

Heaving a weary, heartbroken sigh, he realised that Dinky, a foal that he loved dearly, was doomed to live a life as interesting as his own, a fate that he did not want for her. So was Sentinel. As for Piña, Bucky knew she would follow Dinky into whatever deep, dark hole awaited. He looked over at Dinky and watched as she tickled Erebus into submission. 

Eyes lifting, he looked at Sentinel. The colt, bandaged, was still sitting in his chair. On the floor beside him, Diamond Tiara and Boadicea were playing cards. The horrible sinking feeling grew worse. Sentinel would remain at Dinky’s side as well and would serve Apple Bloom in much the same way that Bucky served Princess Celestia. 

He was looking at the next generation of heroes. The sorts of heroes that the world needed and deserved. He felt a growing lump in his throat. They would never know peace or a sound night’s rest ever again. He thought about the trauma, the scars, both physical and mental that they would know. But he also thought about the world being a better place. 

“It’s not such a bad thing,” Piña said to her father in a soft whisper. “I miss Babs. I wonder how she’s doing. Sentinel got his good looking nurses and all I got was a whole lot of nothing. I wish Larch was here.” 

Bucky snorted after hearing what Piña had to say. 

“It’s not fair.” Piña sniffed to punctuate her point. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 867
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Canterlot. Rising Star stood inside the room that he and his family would be staying in while the spring session was in order. The room was large, without being too large, had a few simple furnishings for comfort, and a single large bed, which Ripple was already testing by jumping up and down on, while trying to get Bittersweet to join her. 

Bittersweet, who had seemed to hit a streak of maturity, had filled out a bit. She was no longer quite so thin and slight—oh no, she had put on a little weight in all of the right places, her neck had grown a little longer, her cheeks a little chubbier, and she had perfect, shapely legs that distracted her herdmates. 

Standing beside the bed, Sparkler’s head bobbed up and down as she watched Ripple bouncing. Ripple too, had grown up a bit, had matured a bit just in time for spring. While Bittersweet had grown a little softer, a little rounder, a little plusher, Ripple had grown more muscular, more defined, and her lithe body now had long, well muscled legs. 

“Hey, I’m hungry,” Loch Skimmer announced as she stood in the corner of the room watching her sister jump up and down upon the bed. “And watching Ripple jump is making me tired. Ugh, Ripple, how do you do that? We’ve been on our hooves all morning.” 

In response to Loch Skimmer’s question, Ripple shrugged mid-bounce. 

“Is everypony settled in? Because if we are, I’m going to see Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña.” Rising Star looked around him at his collection of mares, feeling more than a little protective now that they were in less than familiar surroundings. 

“I wanna see Daddy.” Loch Skimmer’s ears perked. “And maybe get something to eat. Food would be good. Hey… hey, Rising, you need to feed to me. It’s your fault that I’m as hungry as I am.” 

Eyebrow arching, Rising Star looked at Loch and then over at Sparkler. “How much can she eat in a day, anyhow? She had breakfast… twice and then enjoyed brunch.” 

“We’ll get something to eat in the castle when we go and see Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel. We’ll just turn Loch loose and let her graze.” One of Sparkler’s eyes closed as her face spasmed and she stood there, defiant, trying to make the involuntary shuddering stop. 

Coming up beside Sparkler, Bittersweet nosed the filly lost in the throes of the Shivers and then gave her a full body bump for good measure. Her long ears stood up and she stood, mute, her expression worried. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sparkler said as she opened her closed eye. “Let’s go. I wanna go see a few ponies I love and Loch needs food. Let’s get out of here.” 



 

Canterlot was a very different place. Bucky didn’t quite know what to make of it. Twilight Sparkle had remade the mountain and now work was being done to fix everything that had been broken during the change. This was not the city of his foalhood, but was now something else. There could be no doubt though, the city had changed. It was an intangible change, something one could feel without ever quite knowing what it was exactly, unless everything involving the bizarre situation had been explained by somepony with a Twilight Sparkle level vocabulary. 

This was one of Twilight’s great works, something she would be forever remembered for. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, Master Harmonist, Restorer of Balance and Order. Bucky sighed. He would be remembered for far less pleasant things. The wind blew around him, carrying with it the scents of a city that knew privilege. 

A gaggle of griffons flew overhead, little griffons, and Bucky thought of Belisama. Thinking of Belisama caused Bucky to also think of Bandua, and he missed his cub that did little more than lay around and peep. The griffons all changed directions as one, moving with an eerie fluidity. It amazed Bucky that griffons could fly the way they did, moving as one in the air, without command, without instruction or direction. The gaggle swooped about, flew to a lower level of the castle, and then, one by one, darted through a window. 

No pegasus maid or steward was ever so efficient in their tasks. 

“Bucky?” 

Ears lifting beneath his hood, Bucky turned to the sound of Agnetha’s voice. The griffoness did not appear to have Beauregard with her and Bucky could not help but feel disappointed. His claws tapped upon the stone crenulations where he stood. No longer a terrestrial based mammal, Bucky was not constrained to places that had easy to reach walkways. 

“I wanted to speak with you,” Agnetha said in a low voice, “before you heard it from others. I wanted to let you know how important it is to me.” 

“What?” Bucky asked, wondering what was going on. 

“Princess Celestia is considering granting a state of minor princesshood upon Boadicea for slaying the Hag. Equestrian princesshood.” Agnetha’s crest rose and her predatory eyes locked onto what little bit of Bucky’s face she could see beneath his hood. “Now, before you protest this, or try to dismiss it as Boadicea just doing the right thing, there are a few things I’d like to make clear to you.” 

“I’m listening.” 

The wind gusted, ruffling Agnetha’s feathers, but Bucky’s cloak did not move in the slightest, appearing as unmovable as the castle’s fortified walls. The pair stood, staring at one another, Bucky’s expression unseen, unknowable, while Agnetha had narrowed eyes and a raised crest. 

“I want this to happen. There are those who still doubt that we are equals here in this land. Those who feel downtrodden… there are those who still have very little hope.” Agnetha’s talons flexed and her claws scraped against the stone. “It pains my heart to see my subjects this way. I want what is best for them… they need to know that we are equals.” Agnetha took a deep breath, then continued, “I do believe that Boadicea being made an Equestrian Princess would go a long way towards smoothing over the last few ruffled feathers. Yes, I am aware that this is a political gambit. Yes, I know that you loathe politics, which is probably going to make you like this whole thing even less. But I am requesting that you allow this to happen.” 

Saying nothing, Bucky stood there, silent. 

“Our griffons need to know that they have a future here. They need to know that if they serve this country, they will be rewarded. They need to see that their loyalty, their devotion, and their hard work will pay off with a promising future. They need to see what is possible for those who make sacrifices.” Agnetha’s head lifted a little higher and the feathers around her neck fluffed out a little more. “You have an obligation to look after our future.” 

Slumping, Bucky nodded. “I will allow this to happen without protest.” 

“Thank you.” Agnetha’s flinty stare softened and the griffoness let out a sigh of relief. 

“That little hairball keeps me awake at night. I don’t know who she is going to strangle with piano wire next, or if she is going to steal something from the armory, or what she is going to do to my son. I love her dearly, don’t get me wrong, but she worries me.” Bucky turned his head and looked down upon Canterlot below him. 

“She carries the hopes and dreams of our kind. She has been touched by Hearthfire. I think we can safely say that she is our future queen. Knowing that she is there allows me to sleep better at night.” Agnetha moved a little closer to Bucky and looked down upon the city with him. 

Far below, a carriage clattered over the cobblestones, out delivering bread to the local restaurants. Bucky watched it for a moment, saw how it rocked back and forth over the bumpy road, and then turned to look at Agnetha. 

Seeing the proud griffon queen, Bucky could not help but feel hopeful. 



 

“And he does have good looking nurses.” Loch Skimmer reached out and touched Sentinel’s foreleg as she looked at Rising Star. “I’m starving, remember?” She batted her eyelashes at her husband. 

Diamond Tiara began tittering as an embarrassed grin spread over her face. 

“How does it feel to be a hero?” Rising Star asked Dinky. 

The filly did not reply right away. She was painting with watercolours and a grimace of concentration was upon her face as she tried to make a realistic looking bank of pine trees. After a few stabs with her brush, she looked up at Rising Star, blinked, and shrugged. 

“Other than still having a bit of a headache, I don’t feel any different.” 

Scowling, Sparkler sat down beside her little sister and then began to study Dinky’s painting on the easel. She looked at Dinky for a moment, then back at the easel. Her scowl softened and her ears splayed out sideways. “Is that Spike?” 

“Yep.” Dinky nodded. “He’s off having an adventure, doing happy dragon things. He’s not finished yet. No green frills.” 

“Say, that looks pretty good. You’re really becoming a fantastic painter, Little Sis.” Sparkler ignored Loch Skimmer’s frantic whimpers for food. 

“I find that it keeps me calm and leveled out.” Dinky pushed her smoking cap back upon her head, glanced at Sparkler, and then relaxed just a little. She leaned against her sister, holding her brush in her telekinesis, and looked at her painting. She pointed to an as of yet unpainted section. “Over there, I’m going to paint Peewee, the phoenix that Spike rescued and returned to its parents. I thought they could use a reunion.” 

“Dying…” Loch Skimmer’s stomach made a loud gurgle. “Oh, death comes upon swift wings. I am about to expire.” She waved her hoof in front of her mouth as she tried to suck in her stomach. “Dying…” 

A pale white earth pony draped beneath a black cloak, who stood watching, unseen in the corner of the room near a pot of petunias, rolled his eyes at Loch Skimmer’s words. He didn’t even have wings… at the moment. He wouldn’t be coming to collect her until one hundred and fourteen more years had passed, when she would quietly slip away while having a party to celebrate the prestigious feats of reproduction she and her offspring would commit during her lifetime, and she would have two hundred and forty one great, great, great, great grandfoals, and Loch Skimmer passing along her love of sex and pregnancy to each and every one of them. 

She would die three days before two hundred and forty two would arrive, a filly, who would also be named Loch Skimmer, in honour of her randy, fun loving, perverted grandmother, who loved life so much that she couldn’t stop making more of it, passing on her randy, fun loving, perverted, ‘I love life so much I can’t stop making more of it’ genes. 

Realising that he was needed elsewhere, the pale white earth pony vanished with a sigh of regret after snuffing the life force from a pot full of petunias, fulfilling his purpose, and doing exactly what his cutie mark, a wilted petunia, told him to do. 

“Need food…” Loch Skimmer pointed to her mouth with one hoof and danced around on her other three hooves. 

“Hey, the petunias in the corner,” Piña said as she pointed to the large, bright orange decorative flowerpot, “they all just died.” 

“I guess they didn’t get enough water.” Diamond Tiara trotted over to the now wilted petunias and looked at them, noticing their faded colour. “Either they didn’t get enough water or Bodi has been peeing in the houseplants—” 

“Hey, we griffons provide many valuable services, watering houseplants is just one of them.” Boadicea fluffed out and pointed at the petunias with one extended talon while Sentinel started to laugh. “But that is not my handiwork.” 

“Fresh Meat, did you terminate the petunias with extreme prejudice?” Ripple asked. 

“No!” Boadicea shook her head. “I didn’t do anything, honest.” 

Sentinel let out a wheeze and his eye closed as he sank back into the pillows propping him up in his chair. The colt managed to let out a few more chuckles, then fell silent as he focused on breathing. 

“I think Bodi is innocent,” Diamond Tiara said as a wide grin spread over her muzzle. 

“And what makes you say that?” Ripple asked as she looked at Boadicea. 

“The petunias weren’t strangled to death or stabbed,” Diamond Tiara replied. “This doesn’t fit her modus operandi.” 

“Her what?” Ripple blinked, confused, and shook her head as other ponies in the room began laughing. 

“Her usual way of doing things.” Diamond Tiara turned and looked at Boadicea. “If she was the flower killer, these flowers would have known a violent, horrible death. But these flowers”—Diamond Tiara gestured at them with her hoof—“these flowers died of natural causes, I think.” 

Ripple glanced at Boadicea and then back at Diamond Tiara. “Fine, I’ll take your word as an earth pony,” she said with mock seriousness. Ripple’s ear twitched and she struggled not to laugh. 

“It’s weird to hear Sentinel laugh,” Sparkler said from where she sat with Dinky. “I like it. Let’s keep making him do it.” 

Loch Skimmer, who feared that death would come at any moment, let out a whine and flapped her wings. “Ugh, I’m never going to get to eat.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 868
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Hello, my name is Raven, and I am Princess Celestia’s personal assistant. How are all of you doing? Feeling better? Is everypony and everybirdy comfortable? We’re going to be talking about some very important grown up stuff, so I really do need everypony’s and everybirdy’s attention, thank you.” 

Little heads turned and looked at Raven. Dinky adjusted her smoking cap, made herself comfortable, and glanced at Piña. Piña, eyes focused on Raven, looked curious and her ears were pitched forwards in attentiveness. Boadicea, sitting beside Sentinel, looked up from grooming Sentinel’s shaggy pelt and focused her attention upon Raven. Sentinel, who had both pillows and Boadicea propping him up, blinked his remaining eye and tried to look at Raven. Diamond Tiara sat watching Raven with eager, curious eyes. 

“All of you did a very brave thing.” Raven’s eyes darted to the figures sitting in the corner of the room. Bucky sat between Bon Bon and Lyra, looking pensive and anxious. “Not only have you slain the Hag, but you have returned the city of Hoofington to us.” Raven cleared her throat, shuffled her notes, and then smiled at the foals. “Let’s see, where do I begin… ah, I know.” 

Raven shuffled around more notes and pulled a sheet of paper out of a folder. “Here we go,” she muttered to herself. She raised her eyes and focused on Boadicea. “Princess Celestia can’t stand for something with good potential to go to waste. Hoofington is a tiny village with good potential. It is in a unique location, situated within the Everfree, it is very near to the old Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, and it is just a few minutes of flight from the farm that you call home.” Raven gave the foals a big smile. 

In the corner, Bucky cleared his throat. 

“Now, recently, there was some unpleasantness that happened… an airship was stolen, there was a bit of trouble, and I understand that there has been some debate on how to punish all of you. After some discussion with relevant parties, Princess Celestia has found a wonderful, novel solution to a whole host of problems.” 

Crest rising, Boadicea let out a peep, Piña groaned, and Dinky let out a troubled sigh. 

“We’ve decided that we’re not going to punish our heroes. No, you’ve become assets. You’ve shown that you have talent, skill, and potential. And Princess Celestia can’t stand for something with good potential to go to waste. So, as of this moment, all punishment due for the airship theft incident has been rescinded. This goes for Apple Bloom and the others as well, I’ll be passing along all relevant information to Applejack and Silver Shill, as well as other parents involved in his fiasco.” 

Every foal and griffon cub in the room heaved a sigh of relief and Piña let out a little laugh of triumph, glad to be free and clear of trouble. Dinky closed her eyes and smiled. Diamond Tiara bounced up and down in her chair. 

“We’re going to reward you,” Raven said in a chipper, cheerful voice of doom. 

Something about the way she said it made every foal and griffon cub in the room cringe, and from the corner, a faint, manic cackle could be heard coming from Bucky, a giggle from Lyra, and a low, husky chuckle from Bon Bon. 

“I can feel my plothole puckering,” Piña whispered to her sister, Dinky. 

“We’re in the deep doo,” Dinky replied. 

Raven took a deep breath, her smile broadened, and an almost gleeful, but horrible gleam in her eyes made the foals and the cub in front of her shiver. “Hoofington will be cleaned up. It will be rebuilt. It will be renamed… Princess Luna suggested Griffonwood, and that is likely the new name.” Raven pointed her hoof at Boadicea and nodded her head. “And you… yes, you, you are going to be crowned as a minor Princess of Equestria. Griffonwood will be your city. You are going to learn the responsibilities of rule.” 

Boadicea, frozen, did not move, appeared not to be breathing, she did not make a sound, and her large, black eyes were unblinking. 

“The good news is, you will have your friends to help you. Apple Bloom is also in need of lessons on rule. So you, and all of your friends, you are going to form a city council and you are going to make Griffonwood a thriving, comfortable city. The griffons will have a city of their own, a place to call home, and they will be surrounded on all sides by the Everfree, giving them adequate hunting grounds. While your friends will be helping you, make no mistake, Boadicea, this is your city, and will be until the day you die.” 

“Bodi?” Diamond Tiara looked over at her best friend and confidant, feeling worried, Boadicea had gone still for far too long. 

“We’ve been rewarded,” Dinky said as she let out a nervous laugh. 

“Yes you have. You’ve done good things. Wonderful things. You’ve rid the world of Sombra, and now the Hag is gone as well. We no longer felt it was fair to punish such brave, courageous heroes. The three ruling heads of Equestria, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle, all felt that punishing you was a hasty, terrible mistake done out of anger. Prince Buckminster was also consulted about his feelings on the matter and after a brief discussion, a mutual agreement was reached. Good foals, and cubs, who strive to be heroic, will be rewarded for each act of heroism performed.” 

“I’m never leaving the house again,” Diamond Tiara grumbled as she slumped down in her chair. “And Sentinel, if you ever have a stupid idea ever again, I am going to slap your face into next Sunday.” 

“Griffonwood will be very important for the future of the griffons. We want them to feel at home here. While Vanhoover has a very high griffon population already, it is not a city they can call their own. Griffonwood however, will be a griffon city through and through, and Princess Celestia feels that it would be a good thing if Apple Bloom assists you Boadicea, so that she will have much needed and valuable experience in city management, not just for ponies, but for griffons as well. We must keep an eye upon our shared, mutual future.” 

From the corner, the manic cackling continued, and Dinky turned her head to give her father a dirty look through narrowed eyes. 

“As for you, Prince Sentinel, as the Future King of the Griffons, Griffonwood will be your seat of power. The Everfree will be your demesne. Princess Luna is still looking into titles, but you will be the warden of the Everfree, and responsible for the fish and wildlife management. There is only so much land available, and as such, so much food, but the griffons need a way to hunt and fish for sustenance. I suspect that your fish cutie mark will be quite useful in the years to come. This is a job that fits you perfectly.” 

Sentinel moaned and made a feeble gesture with his right foreleg, but he said nothing. 

“Doesn’t it feel good, rising up, facing life’s challenges, lifting yourself up from mediocrity, doing heroic deeds, and becoming responsible?” Raven smiled a smile that was every bit as ruthless and horrible as one of Bucky’s manic rictuses. “With every problem you face, with every adventure you think about going on, we want you to ask yourselves, ‘how much responsibility will this get me?’ The good news is, we have a lot of responsibility available and waiting, and we live with the hope that a few brave, worthy souls will be found that can take it all on. The more exceptional talents a pony or a griffon shows, the more responsibility they will be rewarded with. So by all means, be young! Be reckless! Be brave! Be courageous! Go out and have adventures!” 

From the corner, there was a thump, followed by Lyra gasping, “Bucky!” 

Turning her head, Piña saw Bon Bon trying to lift her father from the floor. He was clutching his sides and had his eyes squeezed shut. Piña loved her daddy, of that there could be no doubt, but right now… right now this minute… right now, she hated him just a teeny, tiny bit. He was enjoying this far too much. Her muzzle crinkled and she turned her attention back to Raven, who was shuffling her notes again. She realised this was only the beginning… 



 

Derpy blinked a few times as she tried to take everything in. She was confused, worried, and uncertain of what to do. She focused her good eye upon Doctor Mawu and saw that the good doctor appeared to be tired, a bit worn down. She heard Berry Punch sigh beside her. 

“I don’t understand,” Derpy said as she shook her head. 

“What isn’t clear?” Doctor Mawu asked. 

The grey pegasus lifted her head, thought about Sukari, and then thought about Berry Pinch. She had trouble understanding everything that had been said. She took a moment to think about what to say, so she could be as clear as possible. 

At last, Derpy spoke. 

“Sukari was half feral and she was able to be around other foals. We were able to get her trust… why is Berry Pinch different?” Derpy let out a little wicker, grimaced, and shook her head. “Both have been abused. Both have had bad things happen. I don’t understand.” 

“Both are very different foals,” Doctor Mawu replied, slumping down a bit in her chair. “Sukari was socialised around other foals on the Shetlands. She was half feral, but still had some of herself.” Doctor Mawu drew in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out in a weary sigh. “Berry Pinch is one of the most staggering cases of neglect I’ve ever seen. She’s gone mustang. She doesn’t talk. She’s gone wild in the most literal sense of the word. This isn’t something that you can just fix with lots of love and patience.” 

“But… but…” Derpy’s lower lip quivered. “You’re telling me we can’t ever let her around our other foals?” The grey pegasus looked heartbroken. “You’re telling me she’s dangerous?” 

“During one of her panicked states, if she was to kick one of the newborns, it might kill them. She bites… vicious biting. Anything and everything she doesn’t understand, she attacks. Now, while she might be brought back into the herd again, this is not a good place to do it. Berry Pinch needs space. Lots of space. Away from others. She needs caretakers that will be able to devote a great deal of time to her special needs… time you can’t give to her.” 

Berry Punch’s head dropped and she stared down at the floor, her ears drooping. 

“Mister O’Blivion already has several wounds that required stitches. He keeps making the mistake that she can be reached with soft words and a gentle touch. He’s made no progress at all in trying to domesticate her. In my opinion, it is already beginning to affect his health—he is spending far too much time trying to care for her and too little time caring for himself.” 

Lifting her head, Berry Punch felt hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She turned and looked at Derpy, her heart heavy in her barrel. “We need to the right thing, Derpy. She’s family, but we can’t save her. We’re not in a good position to do this and I’m not willing to put Barley or the newborns at risk.” 

“No… no… no…” Derpy whimpered. “What do we do?” 

“The right thing,” Berry whispered, “whatever that is.” 

Reaching over, Derpy grabbed Berry, pulled her close, and began to squeeze her, burying her nose into Berry’s neck, and inhaling, breathing in Berry’s distinctive scent and taking comfort. Berry Punch twisted around until she could return Derpy’s embrace, and the two mares sat, clinging to one another, each trying to offer the other comfort. 

“Everything has been so overwhelming,” Derpy said in a low, pained whine that was muffled from speaking into Berry’s neck. “Everything all at once. It’s been too much. I want Bucky back… I need to see him. I need to feel him. I want Sentinel back. I want things back to how they were.” 

“I can help you make arrangements for Berry Pinch. There are asylums—” 

“No,” Berry shook her head as she interrupted Doctor Mawu. “Not that… I’ll find something else. I don’t know what, but I’ll think of something. I owe Berry Pinch that much. Maybe she can still be saved, just not by us.” As she sat there, her heart breaking, Berry Punch realised just how much she hated her family. Stewing, Berry’s brain had something of an idea. There were family members that she didn’t hate… and where there was family, there was still hope. Berry made a mental note to talk to Violet and gave Derpy a reassuring squeeze. 

“I think I know what to do,” Berry whispered, “at least, I have an idea.” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 869
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After getting himself comfortable, Rising Star had a good look at the small table that was his workspace. Somepony had included a mirror and it took Rising Star a moment to figure out why—it would be useful for Bittersweet to be able to read his lips, so long as he kept his head at the right angle. There was a permission button and a light—pressing the button would put in a request to speak and the light would let him know that it was okay to do so.

There was also a button for voting. He glanced at Bittersweet beside him, then had a look around the room. Other representatives were settling in and Rising Star saw new faces. There were a few donkeys now, one minotaur, two diamond dogs, and a couple of hunter griffons. Nowhere near enough representation for the minority groups, but it was a start. 

Rising had himself a good long look at the Aurora Guards, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Guardians of Democracy. Little griffons were posted all over the place, very much like housecats populating a library. They sat on shelves, on tables, on ledges, they were everywhere and had every angle covered. They had pamphlets, etiquette guides, a list of things on the agenda, there was all manner of helpful information that the guard could pass out to curious visitors. 

Then there was Sparkler, who looked completely innocuous while sitting on a large, fuzzy, cushion that was a subdued shade of dusky purple and had dark blue fringe around the edges. Rising Star liked the new additions. The little griffons were not quite as distracting as guards in heavy armor. They were unobtrusive and Sparkler, well, Sparkler was easy on the eyes and Rising Star liked having her around. Ripple was around here someplace, but she had been posted outside near one of  the entrances. 

Rising’s thoughts drifted to Loch Skimmer, who was off keeping Sentinel company. As Rising Star passed the time, waiting for the session to start, he scanned the crowd looking for faces he knew, and he was rewarded. He spotted Applejack and Silver Shill almost right away. He saw his parents, Galaxy Guide and Shining Star. He saw his adopted siblings also sitting with them, Brass Note and Singsong, both of them no doubt getting a crash course in the inner workings of the democratic process. He saw a number of other foals in the audience. Seeing them gave Rising Star a feeling of hope and a determination to do the best job he could. He was trying to make a better future for them, that was the point. 

Near silence fell over the expansive room as Twilight Sparkle entered, flanked on all sides by a gaggle of little griffons, guards with the weapons for democracy. They had booklets, folders, dockets, and were armed with all manner of information. Twilight herself was wearing her diadem and a somewhat crooked pair of reading glasses were perched upon her nose. As Twilight entered, there was some good natured hooting from a rainbow maned pegasus sitting in the crowd with a little green crystal pony filly and a dragon. 

A low murmur began to fill the large room as Twilight strode down the concourse, a happy sound of muffled voices speaking to one another, but trying to be polite. The murmur turned to gasps as Princess Celestia appeared upon a balcony, high up above, and the white alicorn waved down at the crowd. Rising Star smiled, he couldn’t help himself, everything about this felt right. 

As he sat there, grinning, Bittersweet beside him, he felt a bit of a cold chill go creeping up his spine as the room fell silent. Without knowing how he knew, Rising Star knew that Bucky was now here, though unseen and unnoticed. He looked around, his ears twitching as a faint whispering from a few ponies restored the murmur of excitement. He wondered where Bucky was and he looked around, wondering if there was an aversion spell that was keeping Bucky all but invisible. After a few minutes, the crowd’s infectious happiness returned as if nothing at all had happened. He saw Scorpan appear on the balcony with Princess Celestia. 

On another balcony, there were a group of esteemed visitors, very important entities, not all of which were ponies. One was a wizened old griffon with piercing eyes that Rising Star knew all too well. Another was a minotaur that Rising knew, Heifer Aestus. The others, Rising Star did not know, but he knew they were important. The immortals were taking an interest in politics, all the more reason for everyone present to be on their best behaviour. 

“Okay everypo—er, whoops!” Twilight Sparkle let out a nervous chuckle. “Everybody… everybody… okay everybody, I’m calling this session to order. Let us begin working towards a better, brighter future. Let us be on our best behaviour. Let’s try to make some progress today, okay?” Twilight looked around the room at the gathered crowd. “If you need any help, require assistance, or need some information on one of the issues we’ll be addressing today, please, quietly ask one of the Aurora Guard. They are here to serve you. I ask that you give them the respect that they are due and that you comply with any and all of their requests.” Twilight’s head turned and she looked at Sparkler. “Really, I must insist on that last point. There will be order in this assembly and that is all I have to say upon the issue.” Twilight cleared her throat and then smiled. “Now, let us begin!” 



 

“—and the Monogamist Party has plead their case on why they should get extra votes and gain a protected minority status. Would any of the gathered representatives care to address this issue or offer a counter argument? Would anyone like to address Mister Elm?” 

Rising Star coughed to clear his throat and felt a nervous shakiness as he pressed the address button. The morning had been uneventful, by and large, and this had been one of the most productive sessions ever. There was a feeling of progress, of a job well done. 

For the past twenty minutes or so, Mister Elm had made an impassioned plea that the monogamists were now an endangered minority and needed some means to compensate, in this case, through extra votes, in order to be able to compete with large herd families. 

For Rising Star, it was all bunk. It was a ploy, at least, it felt like a ploy. He was sure that the monogamists felt threatened in very much the same way that some straight ponies felt threatened by homosexuals—it was different, therefore, it was bad. In truth, there was no real difference and Rising Star resented the fact that part of his job was potentially having to legislate bedroom behaviour and personal preference. 

It was, in the immortal words of Scorch himself, a whopping load of minotaur shite. 

Much to Rising’s surprise, the light blinked on. He hadn’t been expecting it to do so. He would have thought that one of the older, wiser, more experienced representatives would be allowed to speak first, to offer a rebuttal or a criticism of the proposed request. Feeling a little nervous, Rising Star now had to find the right words to say. He took a deep breath. 

“Mister Elm, my name is Representative Rising Star, and I am one of the very ponies that you call a degenerate to society.” As Rising Star spoke his ears moved as he tried to put his words into ear language. Beside him, Bittersweet’s ears moved with smooth, fluid grace, a flawless performance, and Rising Star could see her in the mirror. 

He cleared his throat and continued, “In all honesty, those of us in herd marriages have more of a right to claim a protected minority status. We are few in number and we exist as a fringe group, separate from the acceptable norm. We haven’t asked for protective minority status though, and there is a reason why.” 

Rising Star allowed a pregnant pause to happen and he waited to allow the tension to build. He looked around and saw that he had everyone’s attention. Reporters, audience members, even one alicorn princess now hung on his every word. He felt nervous and his stomach squelched. 

“We polygamists have not formed a political party,” Rising Star said in a booming voice that carried through the room. “There was talk about it, even a few attempts made to get one going, but those all died out. Forming a political party would only create an ‘us versus them’ mentality that does no good for anypony.” Rising Star lifted his head, but kept his mouth clear in the mirror. “We are not your enemies, Mister Elm. We are not out to get you. Not a one us is secretly planning to covertly convert your foals into polygamists. We do not have an agenda to get rid of standard marriage. You still outnumber us by vast, unknown numbers.” 

Pausing, Rising Star took a deep breath, and then went on, “While our family structure is quite unlike your family structure, we are not so different, Mister Elm. We want the same things, we do, really. We want good schools for our foals. We want a promotion of family values, because believe me, herds really are about family. We’re not just perverts and sex fiends, but we’ve chosen to live in an extended family arrangement for practical purposes as well.” 

A low murmur went through the crowd. 

“A political party should not be founded on personal sexual or familial preference. Who you are and what you do in your bedroom or in the privacy of your own home should not be the foundation for your political platform. That is a personal, private choice, and as a representative, I resent that I must attempt to legislate personal, private choices. Monogamy, polygamy, gay, straight, polyamorous, and even interspecies couples or herds… we should all have the right to create a family structure of our own choosing without fear of threat, reprisal, or the interference of others… I do not want to be the one who interferes with another’s personal lifestyle choices.” 

There were a few gasps from the crowd and several flashbulbs went off as reporters snapped pictures. Rising Star waited for the crowd to settle and he scanned the audience, trying to get a feel for it. After a moment, his gaze fell upon Mister Elm and he could see a thoughtful expression upon the earth pony’s face. 

“Why must we focus upon our differences? Why can’t we work together to create a future that we can all share and enjoy? We really do want the same things, we share many of the same values, why must we draw a line in the sand and separate ourselves because of what amounts to a personal choice on lifestyle? Why do you feel threatened? Why do you feel the need to try and curtail us and our efforts? What do you hope to gain by having extra votes? Why would you want to restrict our future?” 

Mister Elm cleared his throat and looked around, realising that every eye in the place was focused upon him. He lifted his head and the pale brown pony let out a nervous cough. He looked around, his ears folded back in a submissive posture. 

Licking his lips, Mister Elm stood there in thunderstruck silence, his eyes wide, and Rising Star waited for some kind of reply. The two stood staring at one another, and the tension in the room became palpable, like the electric tingle in the air when a thunderstorm was brewing. 

“My good Representatives, on the behalf of the Monogamist Party, I would like to rescind our request to become a protected minority status—” 

Mister Elm was interrupted by furious booing and jeers from the audience, as well as the loud stomping of many hooves. All at once, many griffon heads turned and focused upon the source of the disturbance, and little avian eyes focused upon a crowd of ponies all sitting together. Sparkler also turned her baleful, stony gaze upon the crowd. 

Much to Rising Star’s relief, the crowd quieted down and order prevailed. 

“Furthermore,” Mister Elm continued now that it was quieter, “I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you… your perspective was refreshing.” Elm let out a sigh, looked around him, was almost blinded by a popping flashbulb, and then returned his attention to Rising Star. “I would also like to publicly renounce my political platform—” 

Elm waited for more jeers and boos, but none seemed forthcoming. There were, however, a lot of furious, rage filled glares. He ignored them. “I think we’ve become part of the problem. At least, I think I’ve become part of the problem.” The earth pony shook his head and looked sad. “Representative Rising Star, if I might request something from you?” 

“Sure, go ahead, I am ever your servant,” Rising replied. 

“When this assembly is over, could we talk? Maybe discuss how we could work together? Instead of focusing upon our differences, perhaps we could focus on what we have in common?” Mister Elm gave Rising Star an expectant look. 

“I’d like that.” Rising Star nodded. “When we conclude today, come and find me. We’ll have dinner together.” 

“Thank you, Representative Rising Star.” Elm bowed his head, smiled, and then gave an apologetic glance to Princess Twilight Sparkle. “I’m done here, I don’t want to take up any more of your time… I’ve done enough harm already.” With a sheepish grin, Elm began to back away so he could go and sit back down. 

Feeling eyes upon him, Rising Star looked around, and then looked up. He could not help but notice that Princess Celestia was staring at him. There was no question about it, he could feel her piercing, curious gaze upon him. Feeling a little self conscious, Rising felt his frogs get sweaty. 

“Next on the agenda… Crown standards and government regulation of reconstruction efforts in our major cities… building practices and enforcement of standards…” 
	
	
> Chapter 870
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a long day of democratic processes, Rising Star was hungry. He had ordered the couscous with savory vegetables and lentils, while his companion, Elm, had peas, cheese, and rice. Rising Star’s wives had gone to the castle to be with family, leaving Rising Star alone to talk with his guest. 

The restaurant was small, cosy, and several other representatives could be seen. The press were required to stay outside, away from the representatives, who wanted to eat, and not be photographed. 

Rising Star glanced around the table, eyed the breadsticks, and his eyes fell upon his glass of water. There was also a tall glass of iced strawberry lemonade, untouched, as Rising Star was trying to wait for his food to arrive before he drank it. 

“So what made you change your mind?” Rising Star asked of his guest. 

Elm lifted his head, looked thoughtful for a moment, and the earth pony’s ears splayed sideways. “I got into politics because the world needed change and I found myself with two options—be a changer or be a bitcher. My father raised me on the values of hard work… if there was something I wanted, anything, I had to work hard to get it. I guess you could say we’re conservative traditionalists. I don’t agree with everything my father says and does though. He’s a bit too hard.” 

“And this made you change your mind?” Rising Star leaned forward a little. 

“My mother was a big believer in what she called ‘fair compromise.’ There had to be a little give and take. Nothing good happens when an earth pony stands out in the field and refuses to budge because things aren’t to his liking.” Elm’s ears stood up. “I want to champion the cause of traditional family values and to be honest, times are a changin’. My fellow compatriots refuse to budge on anything. For them, there is only one way forward. I don’t see that working out very well.” Elm blinked. “If you don’t mind me being blunt, I do not agree with what you are doing, Representative Star, but I admire you for being true to yourself and what you believe in.” 

“If you don’t mind me asking, just why is it that you think what I am doing is wrong?” Rising Star’s voice was low, soft, kept down so as not to create a disturbance in the restaurant. 

“Herd marriages wrecked everything. We’ve already seen that they don’t work. They are hotbeds of jealousy and weaknesses. They lead otherwise good ponies down a path of sexual depravity, deviancy, and murder. We are learned ponies, Representative Star, and we both know what the history books have to say about herds.” A crinkled frown appeared upon Elm’s muzzle. 

Rising Star sighed. Biased history. He suffered an inwards cringe and felt the muscles in his neck tensing. And the appeal to his intellect, a bit of flattery… ugh. Rising Star lifted up his glass of strawberry lemonade and sipped through the straw. 

“I do believe that if you sorted through all of the sordid details leading up the collapse, it is quite safe to assume that the herd marriages and everything that took place were the direct cause of the fall of Canterlot and the collapse of our government. It took centuries, but I think that any reasonable pony should be able to put the pieces together.” 

Rising looked at Elm. And what about the slave trade? The illicit deals? Equestria’s class and caste system based on tribe? What about all of the corruption? There was so much that Rising Star wanted to say, but he held his tongue with the hopes of being diplomatic. 

Instead, Rising went with another approach. “And what about all of the mares that don’t get a husband? What is to be done with them? There are an awful lot of mares who want to start a family and there is a real shortage of stallions.” 

Elm’s head bobbed up and down. “About that… life is a competition…” Elm shifted in his seat. “There are winners and losers. Try as we might, we cannot make life fair. If a mare wants a family, it is up to her to work hard. She has to make herself appealing. She has to make herself a worthy catch. She has to be the sort of mare a stallion wishes to marry. A stallion has a lot of choices, which is how it should be, and it is a mare’s responsibility to be the sort of mare that gets chosen.” 

After taking a deep breath, Elm continued, “Just like with everything else, it is a competition and the prize is progress. Life goes on. A husband shouldn’t have to endure a frigid wife or a wife that refuses to look after his needs. Mares like that don’t deserve to have families. By having a large population of mares available, it ensures that a stallion has choices and always has options—a mare failing to keep up her end of the social contract that is marriage can be replaced with one who will. This keeps both parties happy, both the husband and the wife, this freedom to choose. Herd marriages threaten to destroy this happy balance… if the market grows smaller, with fewer mares available, a husband might have to endure a less than desireable mare that might not be as attentive to his needs as she should be. An unstable family leads to unstable, unhappy foals who grow up and become unstable unhappy adults, and they follow their parents’ example… they settle. By settling for less than desireable traits in a mare, we breed in laxness, laziness, and lackadaisical behaviour, ultimately hurting ourselves in the long run.” 

Wide eyed, Rising Star stared at his companion, not even knowing where to begin to reply to everything that was said. He felt sick, queasy even, disgusted by what he had heard. 

“My mother has a lot to say about this… she’s erudite and well spoken. She’s had a good education and she is very proud of the fact that she is the sort of mare that is chosen. She worked very hard to gain my father’s attention and my father’s father’s attention… grandfather told my father that my mother was worth catching.” Elm chuckled. “My father was still on the fence, but after hearing an endorsement from his own father, there was no way he could say no. Turns out, Grandpa was right… my father and my mother have been married for thirty two years. I just turned thirty one. My father and my mother are proof that the system works and rewards those who work hard.” 

Rising Star sat there flabbergasted and flummoxed, not understanding why a mare would do this to herself. He tried to think about how his own wives might react to all of this and the only thing that popped into his head was a mental image of Ripple going on a rampage, punching and kicking everything around her into sub-atomic particles. 

“Again, I have to ask, why are you willing to work with me if I am seen as the enemy?” Rising Star’s eyes narrowed. 

“Because we want the same things. We both share a sense of family values, even if your values are different than mine. And like it or not, herds are not going away, at least not until society collapses again. So, until that happens, I feel that I should make the most of what I have.” Elm cleared his throat. “A field is only as good as what has been planted upon it. It might have less than perfect growing conditions, the soil might not be the best, and the available fertiliser might be less than ideal. But a field is a field. Stuff has to grow. A worker makes the field produce something, anything, because having something is better than having nothing. A shirker just shrugs and walks away from the field and will have nothing to show for themselves.” 

In an odd way, Rising Star found himself agreeing with Elm. You had to work with what was available. Hard work produced results. Elm was willing to work in less than perfect conditions. Rising’s brows furrowed. This was turning out be a fascinating look into the minds of the monogamist party. He wondered just how many of them were like Elm. 

Much to Rising Star’s relief, the waitress brought their food and Rising Star planned to use the opportunity to change the subject, to talk about something else. Something that didn’t make his brain cells feel as though they were dying with every word. He eyed his plate of food, which was piled high, and his stomach rumbled. 

“So, Mister Elm, what do you do for a hobby?” 



 

“—and I come down from the roof in a powerdive, right for the Hag, only I didn’t know she was the Hag at the time… I just knew that she had to DIE!” Boadicea flexed her talons and then let out an angry caw. 

Belisama, who had flown to Canterlot with Bandua to be with Bucky and her family, nodded with enthusiasm. This was an epic story and would make for an even more epic song. Something booming, with big heavy kettle drums, woodwinds, and a brass section. 

“I followed Loki’s advice and strangled her… a unicorn needs to get their magical liquids in their body up to their brain and if you strangle them, it makes it difficult for them to make magic happen… only the Hag kept casting magic and there wasn’t much I could do about it. So I had to start stabbin’ her over and over to make the magic leak out—” 

“And her blood, too… not having that makes magic difficult,” Dinky pointed out as Piña nodded in agreement beside her. 

Boadicea nodded. “Oh yeah, there was lots of blood after I stabbed her in the neck!” 

“Ugh, I don’t like this story.” Diamond Tiara looked at those around her with pleading eyes. “I can’t bear listening to how I almost lost my friends yet again. I think I’ll step out. Sorry, I don’t mean to be a wet blanket.” She gave her friends an apologetic glance. 

Silence fell upon the room, a deep uncomfortable silence, the kind that grows worse with each second that passes, the kind of silence that grows harder to break the longer it endures. 

Belisama, a skald, was all too aware of the dangers of silence. Silence could be a useful tool in a performance, but this silence was the bad sort. She glanced around, trying to think of what to do. Her eyes fell upon Bucky, who had just returned to the room and was walking over to sit down with them after heading off to the bathroom. 

“Boadicea, we need to have you practice your mounted combat skills…” 



 

“Boadicea, we need to have you practice your mounted combat skills…” As Bucky heard these words coming out of Belisama’s mouth, he felt Belisama leap upon his back. She made a perfect landing as she always did, and he felt her hind legs squeeze against his sides. He felt a tug on his mane as she got a talonful of it for grip. 

“Yaw!” Belisama shouted, “Giddyup!” 

Bucky felt a yank on his mane, two legs kicked against ribs, and there was an almost painful smack against his backside. Some invisible force compelled him to run, so he did. He bolted, letting out a snort and almost rearing up. He took off, his claws and his hooves scrabbling over the floor, and there was another smack right on his hops plant cutie mark. 

Belisama was leaning against him as he bolted the length of the room, her talons clenching his mane, her hind legs hugging his sides. She leaned off to the right and he felt himself turning, once more compelled by invisible forces, some strange magic that he didn’t understand. 

His ears rang with laughter, Applejack’s most of all. The earth pony mare had fallen out of her chair. He turned, veering away from the wall, having run out of room, and he felt Belisama’s legs kick against his sides. He bolted again, setting a terrible example for his foals by running indoors, but he couldn’t help it. Belisama was using some sort of strange compulsion magic against him and he was far too curious about the odd magical effects to fight back against it. 

There was sharp yank on his mane, a hard pull backwards, and he heard Belisama shout, “Whoa!” He came to a skidding halt near the furniture and Belisama kicked him again while giving him another tug. He reared up, his front hoof and his talons pawing the air, he let out a bellowing whinny, and then dropped down on all fours. He felt Belisama patting his neck and he heard her say, “Good pony.” 

Blinking, Bucky tried to figure out what had just happened. He let out a confused wicker and heard Belisama’s merry laughter. She had done something to him, something that was kind of amazing. 

“Queen Belisama and her mount, the Pony of War… I suppose I’ll have to settle for Sentinel when he gets better. You have to show me how you did that!” Boadicea said in an excited voice. 

Recovering, Applejack climbed back up in her chair, still laughing, and as she chuckled, she said, “You know, this gives me a right good idea about a rodeo…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 871
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Things were going well—that is to say that everything was going along with very little signs of trouble. But this didn’t mean things were boring, no, far from it, Rising Star was learning a great deal about Equestria at large. By listening and paying attention, Rising Star was able to make a bit of a divination into the future, which kept him thoughtful and occupied as the day continued. 

The two big problems, as Rising Star saw them, were water and power. Water was in short supply in a number of places, like Las Pegasus, which was rebuilding after both the collapse and the devastation visited upon it from the massive explosion which had leveled well over half of the city. 

Power might be taken care of one day, with Lyra’s endless loop generators, but even that was questionable. Corporate interests being what they were, businesses that sold power would complain that it was the end of their business, and would protest the loss of their livelihood. But in the meanwhile, there were some real issues. There just wasn’t enough to go around and both coasts of Equestria were feeling the power crisis. 

A number of ponies had raised concerns over how much authority Cloudsdale had over water distribution, being a flying reservoir that moved water from one place to another in Equestria. Cloudsdale decided who got rain, which farmers got the most rain, and quite a number of ponies were protesting that Cloudsdale was indifferent to their needs, a problem that had been going on for years, a problem that had existed pre-collapse. 

There were even accusations of a shady network that rigged the water system, with communities that had higher membership in the guard getting more water than peaceful, pacifist communities that had almost non-existent enlistment ratings. The evidence was certainly compelling, and Rising Star couldn’t deny that there seemed to be a connection. 

How to distribute everything in a fair and reasonable manner seemed to be the pressing question and Rising Star had no answers. He and his fellow stable members were responsible for finding some answers though. It was going to be a tricky issue to tackle—too much regulation and Crown interference and ponies would begin shouting “the government that governs least governs best.” However, not doing enough would bring accusations of the government doing nothing at all, or cries of laziness and favouritism. 

As the morning stretched on, Rising Star had no idea that he was about to be caught up in a tempest in a teacup… 



 

The midmorning break was both welcomed and pleasant. Servers rolled little trolleys about, serving hot tea, hot coffee, soda, and snacks to tide them over until lunch, which looked as though it was going to be a little late today, as they were behind on the agenda. 

Rising Star took an offered soda, a bottle of water, and several donuts from Donut Joe’s, both sprinkled and unsprinkled. As he began to eat his treats, Twilight Sparkle rang the bell to announce that the press could begin asking questions in a neat, orderly manner. 

To ask a question, a member of the press had to raise a sign with an assigned number written upon it, and then wait for their number to be called by Twilight. The system, while not perfect, was well ordered and Twilight did her best to be fair. 

“Number fifteen,” Twilight said as she leaned forward and addressed the awaiting press. 

A bespectacled pegasus grinned, adjusted his fedora, and pushed his thick, heavy glasses higher up his nose as he stood up. He waved at everyone present, cleared his throat, and said, “Majesty, if you will allow me a most trivial question, I and my fellow members of the press would all very much like to know about an issue of personal preference.” 

Twilight’s eyebrow raised and she gave the pegasus a cool stare. “Do go on…” 

“We members of the press would very much like to know… tea or coffee?” The pegasus lifted up his notebook and held his pen in his primaries, waiting for Twilight’s reply. 

“Really?” Twilight looked around at the gathered members of the press. “You could ask me or the assembly anything and you want to know about that?” 

The pegasus, number fifteen, gave an eager nod. 

“Oh fine,” Twilight Sparkle replied, rolling her eyes. “While tea is nice for socialisation, I much prefer coffee and I find…” 

Twilight’s words trailed off as several shocked gasps filled the large room. The members of the press, the audience, and quite a few representatives were all staring, wide eyed, in shock from Twilight’s words. 

“What?” Twilight said in a nervous voice. “If you don’t like the answer, why did you ask the question? I’m allowed to have a personal preference.” 

For a moment, the only sounds in the room were the sounds of breathing, of pens scratching away on paper, and the sounds of paper rustling. Twilight shook her head, hoping to dismiss what she felt was such a frivolous question. 

“Twilight Sparkle, I am surprised and shocked by your statement.” 

More gasps filled the assembly room and ponies looked up at Princess Celestia’s balcony. Rising Star chewed his donut and watched as the drama unfolded. He unscrewed the cap from his water bottle and took another bite of a donut with pink frosting and bright blue sprinkles. 

“Honestly, Twilight, I thought after all those years of study at my side, you would be more of a traditionalist.” Princess Celestia looked down from her lofty balcony, shook her head, and clucked her tongue. 

Swallowing, Rising Star was having trouble telling if Princess Celestia was being serious or just teasing her former student. He looked upwards, trying to see if Princess Celestia was smiling or not, but he couldn’t see her face well enough to tell. 

“Coffee is the drink of rabble rousers, anarchists, and ne’erdowells. There is a reason the cafes and the coffee shops are all watched over for signs of insurrection and dissidence.” 

There was a gasp from the crowd as Princess Luna spoke after appearing from out of nowhere. Rising Star turned and looked at the blue alicorn. Had she been here all along, unseen, waiting for a moment to reveal herself? 

“Coffee is the very drink that causes malcontents to grow bitter,” Princess Luna added. 

“Sister, that is harsh.” Sitting up in her balcony, Princess Celestia looked down upon Princess Luna, who had seemingly materialised out thin air upon the dias where Twilight Sparkle was sitting. 

“Why not both?” 

More gasps as Buckminster, the Lord of Winter revealed himself, pulling his hood away from his face. He was sitting beside Princess Celestia and he glowered down upon the audience below. 

“I find myself enjoying both. Tea is nice, but coffee is enjoyable… I rather like both.” 

“Speaking of bitter malcontents,” Luna muttered as she looked upwards. 

“There is nothing wrong with enjoying both,” Bucky said as he made a sweeping gesture with his talons. “It was Berry Punch that really introduced me to coffee and I’m glad she did.” 

“And anarchists…” Luna shook her head and clucked her tongue in much the same way her sister, Celestia did. 

“Hey… I’m a coffee drinker…” Twilight drew herself up to her full height and looked at Luna. “What does that make me… a rabble rouser or a ne’erdowell?” 

“I would not presume to know, Twilight Sparkle. You tell me… what mayhem have you been up to lately?” Luna tilted her head off to one side and something almost like a smirk appeared upon her lips. 

“The problem with tea drinkers, as I see it, is that they are all a bunch of stuffy traditionalists, far too embedded in tradition and ritual, and unable to move forward or make progress as the times change. Tea takes too long… it takes forever to serve and you can waste upwards of an hour or more serving tea the ‘proper way’ and doing everything right! It’s wasteful, frivolous, and inefficient, just like the so called traditionalists who serve it! Coffee is hot and in the pot and ready to be poured into a cup and drank at any time…” Twilight paused, cleared her throat, and narrowed her eyes at Luna. “Coffee is the drink of ponies who wish to get things done, we don’t always have the time to waste an hour or more of our day talking about the good old days and how things used to be. Tea is the leftover ritual of the upper classes, flaunting all of their spare time and the fact that they didn’t have to work all day from sun up to sun down, all while enjoying a smug sense of superiourity.” 

The assembly filled with startled gasps, including one from the balcony high overhead. Princess Celestia sat in wide eyed shock, staring down at her former student, and beside her, the Lord of Winter shook with silent laughter, wrapped in his cloak, and clutching his sides. 

“Nephew, cease your laughter,” Princess Celestia said in a whisper that still somehow carried through the room loud enough for everybody present to be able to hear. She poked the little pony beside her with her hoof, shook her head, and then rolled her eyes in disgust as her nephew continued to chortle. 

Twilight, who appeared to be a little shocked by her own words, was now slumped in her seat, not looking at Luna, and trying to figure out how everything had just gone wrong. She had somehow just lambasted the traditionalists present and already, she was worried about the repercussions. 

Sometimes, it was hard to know what just went wrong. 

Leaning over, Rising Star gave Bittersweet a smooch on the corner of her mouth, also stealthily removing a dollop of maple frosting, and his ears perked as he heard the sounds of a developing uproar. For a moment, he envied Bittersweet, who would be unable to hear all of the shouting that was about to take place. 



 

“Piña, do you think things will ever be normal again?” Diamond Tiara asked her fellow pink pony. “At some point, life got strange… I don’t know what happened. The ponies I used to torment became my best friends. My dad changed… profoundly… so much so that it was almost like I no longer knew him, and he became a stranger to me.” Diamond Tiara fell silent and said nothing about her father’s death, but took solace in knowing that her father had done a great deal of good in the time before his passing. 

“Define normal… if all of this stuff keeps happening, this is the new normal,” Piña replied. “One day, I’m a perfectly normal foal and the next day, puberty. Now, everything is weird. I have to shower more because I smell funny. Things are growing. And I have weird dreams.” 

Saying nothing, Diamond Tiara nodded, having herself experienced everything that Piña had mentioned. She turned her head and looked at Sentinel, who was being fawned over by Lyra. Sentinel wasn’t normal. He kept laughing, his mood had changed, and he was almost a stranger. Diamond Tiara wondered if it was the drugs or if his brush with death had changed him. She hoped that he had changed, if only just a little bit. She liked his laughter. 

“It’s strange, going through puberty,” Piña said in a low voice. “That first sign that you are growing up. It’s confusing… at first I thought that I’d need to get rid of my toys and my stuffies and all of my playthings.” Piña drew in a deep breath and watched as Lyra teased Sentinel with a maraschino cherry. “I still like my stuffies… and when I hug them, I feel different now… I don’t know how to describe it, but something has changed.” 

“The feeling of motherhood,” Diamond Tiara whispered as she turned and looked at her friend. “That feeling of being protective, that feeling of fierce love, of holding on and never wanting to let go. I get that way too, sometimes.” 

“Huh.” Piña’s head bobbed as she considered Diamond Tiara’s words. “Do you think it is because we’re earth ponies or do you think every filly goes through this? I wonder what it’s like for others…” 

Shrugging, Diamond Tiara turned and looked at Sentinel again. “I dunno, but I feel it when I look at him. There are times when he is close to me that I really want to hold one of my dolls while he stands near, being all protective in that way that he is. It’s like… it’s like this ache I have in my heart and I just want us to be together.” 

“That’s really sweet, Diamond…” Piña leaned over against Diamond Tiara and sighed, feeling thankful for her friend. “It’s like when I play  Oubliettes and Ogres with Babs and Larch”—Piña’s barrel heaved as she let out a forlorn sigh—“I never want those games to end because I want to be with them more than anything.” 

“I think it is because we are earth ponies.” Diamond Tiara shifted and then leaned up against Piña. “I think it is in our nature to be this way. I’ve talked with Apple Bloom a bit… she knows what she wants, but for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, they’re not quite as serious about everything as Apple Bloom is.” 

“Yeah, but is it because Apple Bloom is an earth pony or are Sweetie Belle and Scoots just not as mature? I mean, there are other reasons… it’s so hard to tell what are earth pony feelings compared to just plain old pony feelings. I get confused sometimes.” Piña squirmed around, her thoughts unsettled, and she let go another sigh, missing Larch and Babs. 

“I miss my other friends… I want to go home… I want all of us to be together,” Diamond Tiara said as a bit of a sniffle escaped her nose. 

Piña nodded. “That has to be an earth pony feeling… keep the herd together…” 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 872
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing laughter, Twilight Sparkle whirled about to face Luna, Celestia, and Bucky. Her lip curled back and she glared at the snickering ponies through one narrowed, squinting eye, her wings springing out from her sides. She pawed the floor with her hoof and her tail swished from side to side. 

“Oh dear.” Princess Celestia’s smile vanished and a solemn, serious expression appeared upon her face. “Funny how what started off as a mild mannered jest turned out to be such a serious subject.” 

“Twilight accidentally created a new political party,” Bucky said, making no effort to hide his mirth. His toothy grin was alive with mischief. “The traditionalist monogamist party now identifies as the Tea Party.” 

“Ugh!” Twilight stomped her hooves and made no reply as she stood in place and fumed. “All of you are horrible… all of you!” 

“Mine apprentice, do you know what sounds good right now?” Luna asked as she looked at Bucky. 

“What?” Bucky replied as one eyebrow raised in a delicate gesture of curiousity. 

“A cup of coffee.” Luna grinned for a moment and then threw back her head as she howled with laughter, which boomed and echoed through the long, narrow room. The alicorn laughed so hard that her cheeks became damp with tears and she began to sniffle as she clutched her sides with her wings. 

“Ugh, I’m so embarrassed, I wish I was dead.” Twilight rolled her eyes and snorted, her ears ringing with the sounds of Luna’s near maniacal laughter. “I’m glad the former Element of Laughter finds this so funny.” 

“Little ponies are such curious creatures… always looking to form a herd of some sort. They don’t even need a reason, just an excuse. Today, the line was drawn in the sand over tea and coffee.” Princess Celestia heaved and sigh and glanced at her sister, who appeared as though she might fall over at any moment. 

“Embarrassed,” Luna gasped and then she sucked in some much needed wind. She panted for a moment and then continued, “Hey, Twilight, do you know what the fundamental differences between you and Buckminster are when it comes to embarrassment?” 

Celestia rolled her eyes and shook her head as Twilight gave Luna a blank stare. 

“What?” Twilight replied, already hating herself for taking the bait. 

“When you are embarrassed, you wish that you were dead.” Luna made a dramatic pause, flapped her wings against her sides, and then let out a laugh. “When Buckminster is embarrassed, he wishes others were dead. I have taught my pupil not to leave behind witnesses.” 

Princess Celestia strained against the need to smile as Bucky began sniggering, a smug, satisfied sound. It took all of her will to remain stony faced. The white alicorn took a deep, calming breath and felt a pang of worry that her former student would strain some sort of muscle if she kept rolling her eyes the way she was. 

“The entire lot of you can get stuffed. I’m going to my room to spend time with my loved ones. As far as I’m concerned… all of you can… you can… all of you can bugger off!” Twilight’s heated words ended with her stammering out her response. 

Luna, now stony faced herself, with no trace of her former mirth except for damp cheeks looked at Twilight and her ears pivoted forwards. “I could apologise over tea…” Luna’s words lingered in the air like a bad smell and Twilight’s reaction was much the same. 

Snorting in disgust, Twilight vanished in a flash of magenta magic. 



 

“I do not think that Twilight found that funny,” Princess Celestia said to Luna. The larger alicorn looked down at the smaller with a disapproving look. “I think her feelings were hurt. Twilight has never taken jokes at her expense very well.” 

“Eh, I’ll apologise later.” Bucky’s talons tapped upon the floor as he looked around the room and then he gave Celestia a glance. “It was nice spending time with you, even if it was quiet time.” 

“It was, indeed, a nice time,” Celestia replied. She looked down at Buckminster and gave him a fond look as she heard a soft giggle from Luna, which caused her ears to perk. Celestia heard hoofsteps at the far end of the room and she turned just as Luna started speaking. 

“Buckminster, dearest, look over there… a pregnant mare to distract you.” Luna lifted up her left foreleg and pointed at Bon Bon, who had frozen in place, wide eyed after being spotted. 

“Pardon me ladies, but there is a good lookin’ earth pony mare that needs my attention.” Bucky bowed his head, excusing himself and then took off at a swift trot in Bon Bon’s direction, mischief gleaming in his eye. 

Seeing the half-crazed look in Bucky’s eye, Bon Bon also took off at a trot, trying to be polite, and not wanting to run indoors. Bucky overtook her with ease and his head vanished into Bon Bon’s full, curly tail. Startled, Bon Bon’s head raised high and she let out a whinny as her whole body shimmied, trying to get away from Bucky, who had just goosed the inside of her thighs. 

No longer caring about being polite, Bon Bon sprinted away in a full run and Bucky took off in hot pursuit, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth, leaving the two sisters alone with one another. Bon Bon’s feminine laughter filled the hallway as she escaped the room. 

“Springtime,” Celestia said to her sister in a knowing voice. “He is so much like Sombra in everything he does. His mannerisms… his actions… the way he sits in silence with me.” Celestia let out a sorrowful sigh. “I think I will go and spend time with Clover. I bet she is lonesome.” 

Luna nodded in acknowledgement and her ears twitched at the sounds of Bon Bon’s laughter mixed with Bucky’s howling. For a moment, she envied them, missing Barley something terrible, and she knew that there was only one place she would find solace. 

“Sister, I am off to spend time with Erebus. I do not wish to be disturbed. Tonight will be a long night and I need some rest.” Luna looked up at her sister. “Have a nice time with Clover and tell her hello for me.” 

“I will do that, Luna… but you should not be a stranger. Clover could use the company…” 



 

Almost submerged in the water, Ripple sighed. She was starting to enjoy this trip. She sniffed, breathing in the floral scented soap that had produced such lovely bubbles. She looked over at Bittersweet, who was sopping wet after being submerged in the tub, her ears drooping, heavy with water. The donkey had a pleased, pleasant smile upon her face. After a nice bath, she and Bittersweet were going to get dry in front of the wall mounted hot air blower, which promised to be a great deal of fun. The powerful hot air blaster lifted tails, fluffed out manes, and caused ears to go flapping in the stiff wind, which was quite amusing. 

The tub, which was big enough to hold one pony, was a little cramped with two, but Ripple and Bittersweet made it work. The pair were close enough for intimate touches now, but there was still no hurry to ‘take it to the next level.’ 

It was good to have a break from school, even if she still had to do her schoolwork. At least now, she could do it on her own time, and she did. She knew the importance of what she was doing and how crucial it was for her to keep her ducks in a row. 

Beneath the surface of the bubbles, Ripple let her hooves go exploring all over Bittersweet’s body, and the donkey did nothing to stop Ripple’s anxious advances. 



 

Standing a short distance away, Bucky watched as the wound care nurse began to unravel Sentinel’s bandages, which needed changing. He needed a new poultice packed in around his face and fresh, clean bandages. Beside him, he could hear Lyra’s heavy breathing, and on his other side, Bon Bon stood, looking grim, their earlier playfulness now forgotten. On his back, Belisama leaned forwards, her talons clenching his mane, and she peered down over his ears, her neck stretched out as far as it could go. 

Sentinel, in the bed, lay on his back, covered with a blanket. To his left, Diamond Tiara sat, his fetlock hooked in hers, and on his right, Boadicea held his other leg in her talons. The nurse, a unicorn, was an older mare and she gave both Diamond Tiara and Boadicea a gentle smile. 

There was a wet, sticky sound as the bandages nearest to Sentinel’s face were peeled away, the gooey remains of the poultice coming away with them. The air was filled with a strange smell, a weird smell that no one present could quite place, an alien smell that Bucky could only describe as changeling related. 

“Here we go,” the nurse said as she began loosening the final layers and stripping them away, making certain to never tug too hard. 

Bucky was almost holding his breath now and without realising it, he took a step closer, as he did so, he heard Piña and Dinky murmuring something to one another. Sentinel’s face, from what little bit that Bucky could see, was hairless at the moment. Bucky swallowed, feeling something that resembled glass lodged in his throat. Sentinel had a face. 

The nurse began to scrub away the somewhat dried up encrusted goo off of Sentinel’s face and the room filled with the sterile smell of rubbing alcohol. Bucky took another step forward, anxious, worried about his son, trying to get a better view of Sentinel’s face as the nurse scrubbed away the dried out poultice with a gentle, careful touch. 

From what Bucky could see, Sentinel still had a face. He was missing his eye, and the nurse was pulling gauze from the eye socket. He heard a whimper, his ears perking, and realised it was Diamond Tiara, who looked as though she was going to be sick at any moment. He looked at her, feeling bad for her, knowing this must be agonising. For a filly her age to be so deeply involved with the one she loved and for her to stick this out, Bucky could not help but feel a deep sense of respect for her, and a paternal sense of love. 

There was a wet —glorp!— sound as the last bit of wadding was popped free from Sentinel’s eye socket and sticky strands of residue stretched from the gaping hole to the now freed wad of gauze. Bucky heard Diamond Tiara gag, and there was a whimper from both Dinky and Piña. 

“Feel anything?” the nurse asked. 

“Not much,” Sentinel replied, “just feels like pressure being relieved, like when your ears pop as you change altitude.” 

“Good.” The nurse began swabbing around inside of Sentinel’s eye socket with an orange-yellow liquid and Sentinel squirmed a bit as she did so. 

“It tickles,” Sentinel said in protest as he squirmed.

Bucky, who had experienced the sensation of having his eye scooped out, felt his insides writhing as he watched. He felt Bon Bon lean up against him on one side, and Lyra on the other. Belisama stroked his ears and he realised that he was trembling so hard that he feared he might fall down. 

Sentinel still had a face though. It was crooked, and the left side appeared to droop a bit. It was a bit misshapen, but Sentinel had an ear, his eyelids, a cheek, and lips. The left side of his mouth was pulled upwards in a slight smirk. His left ear was hairless, pink, and veiny. 

Beside him, Bucky heard a sob of relief from Bon Bon. 

“I saw you before all of the work was done,” the nurse said in a low voice. “You were a mess… I would never believe it was possible to make you look this good.” The nurse lowered her head and peered into Sentinel’s eye socket, holding his eyelids open, her horn glowing with a bright, piercing light. “Everything looks good on the inside, we’ll be able to get you fitted for a glass eye soon.” 

“I’ll be able to take my eye out and set it on the dinner table.” Sentinel smiled a dopey grin and looked over at Diamond Tiara. “Hey, Monday, don’t cry, it’s okay.” 

Diamond Tiara’s cheeks went as taut as a drum as her teeth gritted together and she gave Sentinel a nod. After a moment, her face relaxed a bit, and she was able to say, “Sentinel, it’s rude to leave your eye on the dinner table. Don’t you dare.” 

“Aww.” Sentinel’s face sank into a sad expression. 

Watching his son’s face move, Bucky gritted his own teeth and let out a little cough, feeling something caught in the back of his throat. It was hard to breathe, each breath taken made him want to cry, so he tried to breathe as little as possible. 

“Excuse me,” Lyra said in a strangled voice as she departed, her movement swift and jerky. “I’m sorry… I gotta… I can’t… I don’t want Sentinel to see me cry.” 

Lyra didn’t quite make to the door when the sobbing started, and she let out a choking gasp as she passed through the door. Bon Bon, who stood beside Bucky, looked torn, needing to be there for Sentinel, needing to be there for Bucky, and knowing that Lyra needed her too. 

“Go to her,” Bucky whispered into Bon Bon’s ear, straining to lift his head that high. 

As Bon Bon went after Lyra, the nurse began packing a fresh poultice upon Sentinel’s face. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 873
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nuts and bolts governance. The stuff that nopony cared about. The real boring stuff that made up a majority of Rising Star’s work. While some ponies might be bored to tears about dealing with this stuff, Rising Star could appreciate it for what it was—the necessary glue that held society together. Ponies depended upon the postal service. The trains needed to run on time. Equestria as a whole needed a reliable means of communication from coast to coast. 

The entire morning had been nuts and bolts stuff, along with a whole lot of vote trading to get stuff done. Vote trading was the currency of this market; something that Rising Star wasn’t too fond of, but he had accepted that it was necessary, otherwise, nothing would ever get accomplished. Things had to be accomplished. Progress had to be made. 

Much progress had been made this morning. Now, as it began the long slog till noon, Rising Star expected more of the nuts and bolts stuff. He felt Bittersweet squirm against him, she was getting uncomfortable, no doubt. The donkey was becoming a supreme lip reader, able to read Twilight’s lips all the way from up here where they were sitting together, and Twilight, perhaps sensing this, always sat at an angle where her lips were could be seen by Bittersweet. 

“Next on the agenda…” Twilight Sparkle shuffled some papers around and peered down her muzzle through her reading glasses. “Oh yes… something that needs to be addressed. The Equestrian age of adulthood.” 

Rising Star blinked and felt his mouth go dry. He couldn’t remember this being listed on any agenda he had read. He glanced at Twilight, who was still sorting through her papers. He could hear a low murmur from the spectators, or what Glass Slipper, Twilight Sparkle’s adorable adopted crystal pony foal, called the potaters—and the place they sat she called the potater bin. 

“Yes, I am aware that this wasn’t on the agenda… it was decided by the ruling heads that this issue would be brought up as a surprise. We didn’t want a lot of backroom deals and vote trading being tied to the issue, it is far too important. I encourage you to vote based upon how you feel… and not for what you might be able to get in return.” Twilight Sparkle set her papers down upon her table and then she had a good long look around at the room at the gathered representatives, many of which were staring at her. 

“As many of you know, my best friend Pinkie Pie left home when she was young, moved to Ponyville, and became a baker's apprentice. It has been a longstanding Equestrian tradition to leave home once you have your cutie mark and to make your way in the world.” Twilight cleared her throat and once more, she looked around the room at the assembled representatives. “I understand that this is a delicate issue… one steeped in tradition…” Sighing, Twilight folded her forelegs in front of her and leaned against her table. 

“Why does the Crown feel the need to meddle in this issue?” a representative named Keen asked. The somewhat older pegasus looked rather grumpy, his half-moon glasses were crooked on his nose, and he had a thin, droopy mustache. Keen, a member of the newly formed Tea Party, glowered from his lofty perch. 

“Representative Keen, have some common sense,” an earth pony replied. “We can’t have foals just leaving home and going out into the world. The world is a dangerous place. A foal might meet a bad end… there are predators out there just waiting for the opportunity.” 

“Representative Flower Power… I am aware of these so called predators, but we cannot simply do away with a time honoured institution because of them. Life must go on.” Keen turned his glower upon the earth pony sitting a few rows down from him. 

“Oh yes… the tradition must continue… fat lazy bakers need foals that they don’t have to pay to do menial labour and chores… it is the backbone of our economy… have we learned nothing? Are we still addicted to slave labour even after the collapse? Is that what we want to be the lasting legacy of this country—” 

“Representative Weather Feathers, will you not be inflammatory!” Keen’s barrel puffed out and he was about to say more when he heard Twilight’s hoof striking wood. The entire assembly quieted and Keen, realising he had spoken out of turn a few times now, gave Twilight an apologetic glance. 

“This is why this issue must be addressed.” Twilight Sparkle peered at the assembly through narrowed eyes. “While many foals like Pinkie Pie left home and found a very kind, loving family to apprentice with, there are those who end up in less than fortunate circumstances. Bad things happen. We need to determine the rights of individuals at various stages of life, but to determine those stages, first we must figure out what adulthood is.” 

Twilight cleared her throat and continued. “We had all manner of laws that created a confusing hodge podge. We had a legal drinking age of twenty, which seems silly to me. For a pony to suddenly be mature enough to drink at the stroke of midnight on their birthday just seems preposterous to me. Previous to this point, a pony was old enough to serve in the guard, have a job, buy a house, own property, enter contracts that are legally binding, but they were not mature enough to have a drink.” 

There was a collective murmur from the crowd, a low, quiet sound, and many of the representatives also had quiet exchanges between one another. 

“Even worse, the law was not well enforced. In small towns, the law worked out well enough. Everypony just sort of knew everypony else and the shopkeepers knew who was on the level. But in the big cities, that sense of familiarity was lost. So the law did nothing but exist on the books in an attempt to make the Crown appear as though it was being responsible and addressing some pressing social issue.” 

More murmuring and a few voices could be heard saying that this was a criticism of Princess Celestia’s rule. Before things escalated, Twilight Sparkle rapped her hoof upon the wooden table, and an expression of irritation crept over her face. 

“I will not have Princess Celestia condemned for this. This was never her fault. If you must blame somepony, blame the ruling houses that made the laws and enforced them. Princess Celestia had nothing to do with such an inane and banal law. Blame yourselves for allowing the ruling houses to continue to make such inane and banal laws. So many of you were content to sit and complain about your government, but very few of you did anything about it.” 

“What could we have done against House Avarice?” a pony asked. 

Silence filled the hall, real silence, a dreadful silence that gnawed upon the ears of all those who witnessed it. Rising Star shifted in his seat and looked around the room, his stomach gurgling and begging for food. Unable to stop his mind, a train of thought pulled out of the station, and he began thinking about Loch Skimmer and how she had eaten an entire chocolate cake for breakfast. Thinking about the chocolate frosted pegasus and the way she licked her lips left him feeling flustered. 

“Some of those laws can be examined to determine a good starting point for the legal age of adulthood,” Twilight continued, getting the issue back on track. “For example, to legally join the guard one had to be fourteen. But there were provisions made for ponies even younger. Sometimes a colt needed to step away from a bad situation, or said colt might have got himself into a bit of trouble and his parents might want to send him off to military school.” 

There was a collective groan from many in attendendance, with quite a few present having survived a stint in military schools, both academic and magical. 

Twilight glanced up after seeing a light flash on her console. “Representative Keen…” 

Keen, who held his head high, adjusted his glasses with his wing and put on his best grumpy expression. “It wasn’t just the military academies… for many, leaving home and seeking their fortune in the world was a way to escape abuse or a dead end life. While I will admit that some foals that left home might have found their way into trouble, for many it was a new life filled with new opportunities. Some went to big cities and found work. Many escaped poverty or unpleasant living conditions.” Keen paused, rubbed his chin, and then after taking a deep breath, he continued, “As I recall in the book that you wrote, your friend Applejack left home as a young filly and went to Manehattan to find her way. That was a pivotal moment of her life. She found her way as I seem to recall. Would you deny her, and others like her, a chance to seek out their destiny? Or would you place a restriction on it so that we’ll be stuck telling our fortune seekers and future hard workers, ‘not until you are fourteen.’ Drawing a line in the sand and making a hard number to determine adulthood would be detrimental to our way of life… we equines follow destiny. We obey our cutie marks. We go on whims. We follow our notions… your friend Applejack left home, traveled to the big city, discovered herself, returned home, discovered more about herself, and earned her cutie mark for the trip. Would you rob her and those like her of such an enriching life experience? Placing an age restriction would interfere with destiny. It will lead to chaos.” 

Keen’s wings flapped a few times against his sides and the pegasus’ ears splayed out as he realised that his impromptu speech had gone on for a little longer than he had anticipated. 

“I understand that the issue is complicated and that there are many things to take into consideration, but that doesn’t change the fact that we must face the issue. This is something that needs to be sorted out.” Reaching up, Twilight rubbed her temple. “I understand the necessity of trying to preserve tradition. I get that, I do. But there are issues with our current way of life… and failures in our current system that need to be addressed.” 

Rising Star wondered how this would affect him and others like him. He was considered an adult now, but he was young. If a hard age was put into place, he wondered what it would do to young couples that had formed families. They existed and somepony would have to champion their cause. Not every teenager was a deadbeat—sometimes, when a filly found herself fat with foal, she and the father would do the right thing. Settle down and make things work. It happened and Rising Star had met with quite a few that had made it work. Earth ponies tended to marry young, not needing extended courtship times or some adventure, off searching for a mate. They tended to marry whomever was practical, available, and willing. 

There had been a few hard numbers in place, but none of them had matched up. There was one age for one thing, one age for another, and yet another age for something else. A young colt might be in the guard, of legal age to be a soldier, old enough to kill, but not old enough to own property. And that was how things were. Now, it was time to make all of the numbers match up. 

Rising Star realised that this would be a next to impossible task. He sighed, realising that lunch was going to be late today. He could not help but feel that this was a lot like school. One had to mentally prepare themselves to deal with boring things, boring issues, and one had to wait for the lunch break, sitting through the long hours of morning. 

He thought about Thistle, one of the mares he called ‘mother’ and she was about the same age as he was. Was she an adult? She was a mother with a foal. She had a job. She was responsible and did her part for the family. He thought of Derpy, who had gone to work early, raised Dinky, had looked after Sparkler, and the grey mare had somehow made things work. Had she been an adult? Where did one draw the line? 

As his stomach rumbled, Rising Star thought of a sleek but pudgy pegasus filly slathered in chocolate frosting and wondered if he was adult. He had his own foal on the way. He had a business. He had a livelihood. He was here, in this place, with no lunch break in sight, trying to help make laws that would determine who was an adult—and who wasn’t. 

All of it felt quite overwhelming. 
	
	
> Chapter 874
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“I don’t get it,” Ripple said to her sister, Loch Skimmer as she poked her sister in her ever-growing stomach. “Why would Rising Star willingly go out with Keen and Elm, two ponies that he can’t stand and they can’t stand him. I just don’t get it. They’re the enemy. He should crush them into dust.” Ripple stomped her hoof down upon the floor to make her point. 

Loch Skimmer gave her sister a blank look. Politics had never been a good subject for her, and she had the average middling grades in school to prove it. She wasn’t sure how Ripple expected her to answer. 

“Ripple, they’re not the enemy.” Sparkler looked up from her school work and gave Ripple the stinkeye for saying something stupid, a very good impression of her mother Derpy’s stinkeye. “Elm, the outcast, got Keen to listen to him, which is a good thing, which means that Keen has the potential to be a reasonable pony. Now, those two might be vehement critics of our lifestyle, our marriage, and our family in general, but they have some political clout. If things work out well, Rising Star and Spitfire, the Progressives, will work out a coalition agreement with some of the Tea Party, the traditionalists. If they can make a bi-partisan effort, it will work out to everypony’s benefit.” 

“Ugh, booooo-ring. Not enough smashy smashy.” Ripple rolled her eyes and poked her sister in the stomach again, but this time Ripple pressed far too hard, causing Loch Skimmer to belch and fart at the same time. Wide eyed, Ripple backed away as Loch began to fan her wings. 

Sparkler, laying on the bed, began to giggle as she tried to continue her schoolwork, a chapter of Public Safety Administration, Volume II. 

“The only thing I care about,” Ripple said as she fanned her own wings, trying to blow the stench back at her sister, “is that Bittersweet has become the symbol of the Progressives.” 

“More than you know,” Sparkler remarked with her nose tucked into her book. 

“What do you mean, Sparky?” Ripple asked as she and Loch continued to blow the stink back and forth at one another. 

“Bittersweet represents a disenfranchised minority along with a disability. The donkeys really haven’t gotten any fairness out of our system yet, even though changes are being made. With Bittersweet being deaf and mute, but still somehow working as Rising Star’s assistant, even with no magic, it goes to show that donkeys have a lot to offer, that there are services and skills that they can contribute back into the system. Bittersweet is a school teacher as well, well, sort of, in a part time sort of way, but her potential is seen as proof by the Progressives that the donkeys have as much potential as ponies do—” 

“Well of course they do!” Ripple’s wings snapped out in frustration and anger while her tail whipped about. “I can’t feckin’ stand it when somepony thinks of donkeys as being somehow lesser creatures than ponies.” 

“Most, but surely not all of the Traditionalist Tea Party sees donkeys as being inferior creatures, suitable only for the lowest of the low jobs and the sort of menial labour that was reserved for the lowest caste earth ponies under the old system.” Sparkler closed her book and looked over at Bittersweet, who was reading something. 

“Ah, the bottom caste earth ponies, I was just learning about those in school.” Loch Skimmer shook her head and looked sad. “The earth ponies that never got their cutie marks for whatever reason and were classified as having no talents, and as such, had no place in productive society.” 

“Which is why there is so much pressure to get a cutie mark here on the mainland,” Ripple added, “and why the Cutie Mark Crusaders went around in a mad panic trying to find their cutie marks. There’s lots of blanks on the isles… not much time for screwing around, looking for a special talent. Too much work to do and too much effort just to survive.” 

“A lot of the low caste earth ponies came from the Shetlands.” Loch Skimmer’s wings drooped and the pegasus heaved a forlorn sigh. “Cheerilee said that it used to be against teaching laws to mention that in schools. She’s really happy that she can talk about it now. Nopony tells Bucky’s teachers what they can say and can’t say. Reform is happening. Things are changing. One day, low caste earth ponies will just be a memory and things will be better. I think my little one is going to have a pretty good future.” Loch paused, took a deep breath, and then let it out, saying, “Ripple, you and I have a pretty good future.” 

“There will be no future at all if you two don’t settle in and do your school work!” Sparkler snapped. She glared at her herdmates and then pointed at the pile of books upon the table. “No excuses. Do it. Now.” 

The two sisters exchanged a glance, sighed together, and moved to do their schoolwork. 



 

Berry Punch closed her eyes, exhaled, and then went limp on the bed. She was tuckered out, almost as knackered as she might be after a marathon shag session. She thought about her plan, thought about what Violet had said, and wondered how her cousins on the Shetlands were doing. Berry Pinch would have a good chance there, there were a lot of ferals and half ferals on the isles that still turned out okay. The ponies there had a knack for dealing with ferals, or so said the lore of Clan Pickled. 

Her back ached, her stomach was sore, and her teats were chapped. She needed some kind of soothing balm because Brandywine was an aggressive suckler with a lot of power, who did a lot more tugging and pulling than suckling. The filly was huge—enormous even, and there were pictures of her in the paper now. She dwarfed her newborn siblings. When sitting up on her haunches, which she could do now, she was almost twice as tall as the others. Brandywine’s legs were as big around as her sibling’s necks. Berry Punch had birthed a giant. In hindsight, Berry’s prodigious eating binges while pregnant made perfect sense. 

The bedroom door opened, there were hoofsteps, and then the bed creaked. Berry sniffed, smelled something flowery, and knew it was Thistle. Berry’s face broke into a tired grin as Thistle flopped out on the bed. 

“Long day?” Berry asked. 

“Oh yes,” the kelpie replied, “the bodies of water around Ponyville are horrid. Full of junk and trash. I’ve been having to clean it out. The place where Ponyville’s drinking water comes from is full of old rusting steam engines. I go through the trouble of lifting it all out of the water using my water magic and then the city doesn’t want to dispose of it, because nopony can figure out who is responsible for hauling the rusty old junk away. I really love and hate my job.” 

“Huh.” Berry reached out with her foreleg and found Thistle. After some prodding, some poking, and a bit of blind searching, she found Thistle’s foreleg, grabbed it in her fetlock, and held hooves with the kelpie. “How is Bell dealing with your job?” 

“Oh, Bell Heather loves it. She gets to be with her mama all day, swimming. I think she misses Bucky.” Thistle heaved a sigh and then gave Berry’s fetlock a squeeze with her own. 

“I miss Bucky. Derpy is beside herself missing Bucky. Harper is in a snit because she wants her Mamamama and Cadance… well… little Miss Priss has been acting like a real snot today. Derpy had to stand her in the corner for a half an hour because she threw a tantrum.” 

“No… sweet little Cadance threw a tantrum?” Thistle let out a gasp and gave Berry’s foreleg a tug. 

“Yep.” Berry’s lips popped when she pronounced the ‘p.’ She opened her eyes, turned her head, and looked at the kelpie beside her. “She demanded to see her Daddy… right now. Derpy told her ‘no’ and poor Cadance, she had a meltdown. She went down to the floor, kicked, thrashed, and cried for a good twenty minutes. Woke the newborns up. Nearly burst our eardrums. Little alicorns are loud. Scared poor Sukari half to death and she took off, lickety split, and hid in Sentinel’s hidey hole under the stairs.” 

“She acts so grown up most of the time… it’s hard to remember that she’s not even a yearling.” Thistle shook her head and then looked over at Berry. “I guess she showed her age. I wonder what causes a foal to have a tantrum.” 

“Something hurts them,” Berry replied, “something they can’t deal with. At that age, they have a lot of developing emotions that they have no idea how to cope with. It’s hard for them… everything is overwhelming.” 

“I suppose so.” Thistle’s lips pursed. “I don’t understand.”

“Thistle, think back to the time when you were falling in love with Bucky and remember how emotionally overwhelming that was for you. Did you know how to deal with it? Do you remember all of your emotional whiplash?” Berry closed her eyes again and began to rub her stomach with her other foreleg. 

“Oh… oh, that, that was awful. I mean, it was great falling in love, but wanting to cry one minute and laugh the next was terrible. It was so hard on me.” Thistle’s face lit up with understanding. “Oh, poor Cadance… poor little foals… all of them… it must be so dreadfully difficult for them.” 

“Listen to you… ‘dreadfully difficult.’ You’ve come a long way, Thistle.” Berry Punch raised her hind legs up into the air so she could kick them around, so she could get the kinks out of her back and her hips. 

Blushing, the kelpie let out a faint meep sound. “I’ve been reading a lot more. I like to borrow Dinky’s Daring Do novels.” 

“Bucky’s act of generousity pays off yet again,” Berry mumbled to herself. 

Berry felt Thistle wiggling a little closer to her, close enough that Berry could feel some of Thistle’s body warmth radiating from her. She could smell Thistle, a floral scent, and as Berry breathed deep, she felt a faint spike of arousal. Once you got past the pointed teeth, Thistle was a fantastic kisser. Berry thought about a nice, warm snuggle on the bed. A nice snuggle, with a bit of groping and maybe some smooching. But no slap slap slap of the floppy filly flaps, because Berry’s whole stomach and her teats were sore. 

“Don’t you hate it when you get comfortable in the bed and then you need to pee?” Thistle asked. 

So much for a snuggle. Berry wiggled her backside around, rubbing her dock against the bed, while kicking her hind legs up in the air. She could feel her teats slapping against the insides of her thighs and she winced in pain. 

“I sometimes fantasise that I’m a unicorn… and I can lay in bed and pee into a bubble of magic… and then I just teleport it away.” Thistle let out a fillyish giggle and the whole bed shook from her mirth. 

“Where does it go?” Berry asked. 

“I dunno.” Thistle shrugged. “Not into the lake or Ponyville’s drinking water. Blech!” 

“The whole toilet thing still weirds you out, doesn’t it?” Berry grinned and felt a faint pressure down in the lowest part of her bowels. If she kept kicking her legs around, that pressure would come out… eventually. 

“I pee pure, clean water. You could drink my pee, but it would be warm.” Thistle continued to giggle and rolled over onto her side. “The rest of you ponies, you pee dirty yellow water… or orange water. Some of it smells pretty bad. And it gets dumped into the lakes. That’s icky.” 

“You’re such a wonderful pony,” Berry murmured as she too, rolled over to be closer to Thistle. “You have the perfect body for sex… slinky, grippable, grabable, oh so screwable… and when dehydration sets in, somepony could get a drink… you’re perfect.” 

Thistle blushed, her cheeks darkening. “When I come back from the bathroom, you and I are gonna have ourselves a snuggle…” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 875
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“What’s this?” Bucky eyed the rose coloured glass phial that Clotho had set upon the table in front of him. It gave off a faint glow, a lurid, almost labial shade of pink. He glanced up at Clotho, who looked a little worn out. 

“A cure,” Clotho replied in a low, husky whisper. “I had help on this. I had to make a deal.” Clotho’s eyebrow raised and she leaned forwards, closer to Bucky. 

“Queen Chrysalis?” Bucky asked, his eyebrow also raising. 

“No.” Clotho shook her head and her ears leaned forwards. 

“Oh.” Bucky’s face showed surprise and he hunched over to have a better look at the phial. He tapped it with his claw and the glass phial sparked at his touch, producing bright purple sparks. 

“Discord.” Clotho’s eyes narrowed. “Fluttershy as well. As you know, Fluttershy suffered from a sort of vampirism for a while. She still technically has it, but her emerging draconequus nature is repressing it and making it manifest as something else. The chaos within her repurposes the magic that seeks to dominate her and take her over.” 

Under Bucky’s claws, the phial vibrated and pulsated. The glow grew brighter at his touch. He looked into Clotho’s eyes, trying to understand what she was up to. 

“The other cure I had planned would have destroyed your shadow nature entirely. It might have even killed you, or taken years off of your life. It would have robbed you of what makes you strong, your ability to draw strength from darkness and generate fear in others, your natural aura of horror.” Clotho’s ears drooped and she shook her head. “I could not bring myself to do that to you. I’ve done enough wrong to you… more than you will ever know.” 

“All is forgiven,” Bucky whispered as he picked up the phial in his claws. It tingled as he held it in his talon fingers. 

“You say that, but you don’t know what I’ve done to you. How I’ve manipulated you. How I’ve goaded you along.” Clotho blinked a few times and then heaved a sigh. “I honestly think that if my sisters and I had just told you a few things from the beginning, you might have gone along with us willingly, no manipulation required.” 

“Again, all is forgiven,” Bucky repeated. 

“Hearing you say that makes me feel worse.” Clotho slumped down in her chair and looked Bucky in the eye. “The elixir is bound to have side effects. It is distilled chaos mixed with a curative restoration draught. Discord is almost certain that it won’t hurt you, but he doesn’t know how it will affect you. He does believe that the chaos infusion will completely squash your vampiric nature though, but you might get a craving for something else, like chocolate milk or banana smoothies.” 

“Better than thirsting for souls.” Bucky broke the wax seal with his thumb talon and yanked out the cork with his telekinesis. The room filled with a weird smell, almost like a mix of pickles, crayons, pencil shavings, and the smell that came from the hamster habitats back when he was in school. Purple-pink smoke wafted from the phial and Bucky eyed the goopy looking liquid. 


“Bucky… I… you…” Clotho swallowed before more words could spill out, battled for control of her feelings, and then let go a pained sigh. “You don’t have to do this, Bucky. You could fight and keep control of your nature. I can’t see how this ends.” 

“Probably the chaos,” Bucky said as he lifted the phial to his lips. “Cheers!” 

Her breath catching in her throat, Clotho watched as Bucky gulped down the contents of the phial. She felt a dreadful sense of fear, not knowing, the unknown gnawing upon her resolve. The phial slipped from Bucky’s talons and clattered upon the table. Clotho almost panicked, her heart leaping up into her throat. 

She watched as Bucky clutched his throat, grimacing, and her heart slammed against her ribs in the most mortal distressing way. She watched as Bucky’s grey eye turned yellow and red. Little motes of light danced around him as he writhed in his chair. 

When Bucky clutched at his head and fell over, Clotho, unable to do anything else, screamed in terror. As she sat there, screaming, the room filled with the most maniacal cackling she had ever heard, the laughter of the damned, a terrible sound that threatened to rend her very soul. 

Sucking in wind, Clotho screamed again. 



 

Feeling more than a little strange, Bucky hiccuped, which caused a puff of fire to exit his mouth. He licked his now dry lips, took a deep breath, and wished that Princess Celestia and the guard would give him some much needed space. If he had a real fit of the hiccups, he might set them on fire. 

“I cannot believe that she would just vanish like that.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed and the alicorn looked very, very cross. 

Bucky, without knowing how he knew, knew that Celestia had just said Clotho’s name but the word ‘she’ had come out of Celestia’s mouth instead. He fought the urge to hiccup again and rubbed his throat. 

“She probably just panicked. She probably didn’t want to be lectured by you,” Bucky said, hoping that his words would not earn him a lecture. He felt so very peculiar at the moment, light headed, and a bit itchy all over. 

“Such a reckless, boneheaded thing to do!” Celestia snapped as she stomped one hoof. “Drinking distilled essence of chaos! What were you thinking? Do you ever even stop to think before you go off and pull the sorts of stunts you pull? And to think that Sentinel takes after you—” 

“Hey,” Bucky cut in, feeling wounded. He gave the white alicorn a reproachful look. “You can talk about me all you want, but you leave poor little Sentinel alone. He was probably just trying to impress a certain filly or a griffoness—” 

“Oh, that makes everything even worse!” Flames poured from Celestia’s eyes like tears and she focused her burning stare upon Bucky. “Nephew, you have antlers.” 

“Tiny ones,” Bucky said as he reached up and touched one with his talons. Antler buds, only about an inch or so long, were now protruding from next to each of his ears. One was a bit more horn like, curved, the other was a tiny three pronged fork. “I don’t think I’m all vampy now—” 

“RAAAARGH!” Celestia’s mane and tale ignited, as did her wings. The room became unbearably hot. The flaming alicorn gritted her teeth together. “YOU LITTLE FOOL! WHAT ON MY GREEN EARTH PROMPTED YOU TO DRINK A STRANGE LIQUID OFFERED TO YOU BY HER OF ALL PONIES, A DRAUGHT MADE FROM THE DISTILLED ESSENCE OF DRACONEQUUS SPAWN?”

Still rubbing an antler bud, Bucky shrugged. He scratched his ear for a moment, looking up at his aunt, and then he reached out with his talons. He stretched out his foreleg, talons extended, and extending one talon finger, booped Celestia on the nose, extending his entropic cold essence. 

The flames extinguished with a woosh and Celestia was left standing there, fuming, as tendrils of frost crept over her body. After a moment, her mane and tail reappeared and began wafting around, blown on unseen currents. Her eyes crossed and she focused upon Bucky’s talon fingertip, which was still resting upon her snoot. 

“Did you just extinguish me?” she asked in a low, surprised voice. 

“Well, it was either that or put you in time out… you were starting to have a temper tantrum—” 

Before Bucky could finish speaking, something popped. 



 

Blinking, Bucky looked around the room he now found himself in, a Celestia free room, and not the room that he had just been in. His foreleg and his talon finger were still extended, booping a nose that was no longer there. He dropped his foreleg and looked at Belisama, who was giving him a curious look, her head tilted off to one side in avian curiousity. 

“I’m having one of those sorts of days,” Bucky said to the wide-eyed, staring griffoness. 

The griffoness closed her alchemy book, her head tilting off to the other side, she lept down out of the chair she was sitting in, and came over to where Bucky was sitting in a chair. She hopped up into the chair, squeezing in, it was a chair meant for one pony but Bucky was thin and she was lithe. Together, they could squeeze into almost anything. 

Bucky said nothing about his antlers. They were mostly hidden in his mane. Instead, he pulled Belisama close, kissed her on top of her feathered head, and began stroking her back, for which he was rewarded with a purr. 

“I might have done something stupid,” Bucky admitted in a low voice. 

“Oh, that’s okay, you do a lot of stupid things.” Belisama rested her head against Bucky and began to rub his chest scruffle with her talons, combing through the thick, shaggy hair with her claws. She also adjusted his torque and the snowflake pendant around his neck. 

“Is it hard to love a pony that does stupid things?” Bucky asked. 

“Sometimes,” Belisama admitted as she continued to try and tame Bucky’s chest scruffle. “But I have done some stupid stuff too… I followed you into a warzone with a rifle.” 

Bucky laughed, hiccupped, sent out a stream of fire, and then belched. Something sulphurous filled the air. He realised that she had followed him into a warzone more than once. He gave her a squeeze, glad to have a moment alone with her. He slid his foreleg down her back, lifted her, and was preparing to put the moves on her when he heard the door open. 

There were giggles from the door and Bucky heaved a sigh of dismay. He looked over and saw Dinky and Piña, both of whom were staring at him and Belisama. 

“Applejack and Silver Shill left to go back to Sweet Apple Acres.” Dinky covered her mouth with her foreleg and tried to stifle her giggles. “Diamond Tiara is still here, she’s supposed to catch a ride back with us when we go home.” 

Bucky, still holding Belisama, refused to let the griffoness go. The situation could still be salvaged, there was still hope, things could still happen. He eyed his fillies, took a deep breath, and held it. 

“Princess Celestia went stomping down the hall covered in melting ice and dripping everywhere. She seems like she’s in a really bad mood.” Piña came all the way into the room and hopped up onto the sofa. 

Bucky’s held breath escaped in a huff. 

“Some of the guards were snickering,” Dinky said. The filly followed after Piña and hopped up onto the sofa to be with her sister and best friend. “I had to use the word ‘snicker’ in my most recent school assignment. It was my vocabulary word. I like it, it’s a fun word.” 

Still holding Belisama, Bucky felt his arousal dying. He tried not to think about the two little antler nubs and hoped that the fillies wouldn’t notice anything out of place. He began to rub Belisama’s neck in an absent minded sort of way. 

“How is Sentinel?” Belisama asked. 

“The doctor is looking him over and checking his ear and stuff. The doctor said there was no sign of rejection and Sentinel’s face is all itchy, which is a good sign. They’re taking the bandages off for good.” Piña’s face broke into a bright, cheerful grin. 

“And you, Piña, how did your discussion with the psychiatrist go?” Belisama’s head craned around almost to the point of being backwards so she could look at the pink earth pony filly. 

“I’m good. He doesn’t think I’m crazy, well, no crazier than any other filly my age. I’m still hearing voices, but they’re not crazy voices, so I just need to learn how to cope.” Piña’s smile faded a bit and her ears drooped. “The doctor is worried that I might develop something called ‘post traumatic stress disorder.’ He wants me to keep seeing Doctor Mawu when I go home and tell her if I start having trouble sleeping at night or remembering something awful in my head over and over and if I am unable to stop thinking about it.” 

“Me too,” Dinky mumbled. 

Bucky blinked. That was normal for him. He had poor sleeping habits and relived horrible moments over and over again, cringing sometimes when it became too much to bear. He self medicated with alcohol and shagging. 

Dinky lifted her head and and looked at her father, her smile had vanished, leaving behind no trace of her previous merriment. “Diamond Tiara told me that Sentinel wet the bed last night. He woke up, soaked and shivering, and he was crying.” 

“I know,” Bucky replied, already aware of what had taken place. He squeezed Belisama a little tighter, needing her now more than ever, and he could feel her heart beating against his ribs. 

“Is Sentinel going to be okay?” Piña asked. 

“He’ll have to learn how to deal with everything. I’m sure that all of you will. With the way that things seem to be working out, none of you will have an easy time of life. Sacrifices have to be made. Things are going to be tough for you.” Belisama reached out with her talons, grabbed a hank of Bucky’s silver streaked mane, and gave it a gentle tug. “Sentinel will get through this, but he is going to need your help.” 

Piña nodded, looking solemn, and Dinky let out a soulful huff as she leaned over on Piña. Piña wrapped her forelegs around Dinky, kissed the unicorn on the cheek, and then closed her eyes. 

Bucky, still clinging to Belisama for dear life, looked over at the two fillies on the couch, his heart swelling with the love and affection he had for the pair of them. “Don’t worry girls, we’ll get through this together…” 
	
	
> Chapter 876
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sunlight. Glorious sunlight. Bucky stood in the late afternoon sun, cloakless, reveling in his ability to stand in the daylight without smoking, igniting, or suffering extreme agony. He breathed deep, enjoying smoke free air, thankful he had taken the risk. The sun hurt him no more than it usually did, stinging his eyes and such. 

He lifted his head, closed his eyes, and turned his face sunwards, basking in the soul nourishing warmth, feeling as though he had somehow regained some of his equinity after drinking the distilled essence of chaos. A draconequus was still something of a pony after all, hence the name. 

“Oh thank my sun…” 

Eyes still closed, Bucky’s ears perked at the sound of the voice. He heard the sound of hooves clopping against the stone. Celestia drew near and he felt her brush up against him. There was no combustion at her touch, no blisters, and he leaned into her. 

“You little antlered fool…” 

Bucky felt two lips against his ear and shivered, his whole body reacting from the touch. She had calmed down, just as he knew that she would. He sat there, basking in both the sun and the Sun, thankful for both of them, even if he prefered the night. He liked having the choice. 

“Why were you so angry?” Bucky asked. 

“I’m losing you… a little at a time… death by degrees. It pains me that little pieces of you get sacrificed so willingly along the way. It bothers me that you’ve changed so much,” Celestia paused and inhaled, then continued, “and for you to willingly do this to yourself, to do so recklessly, without thought, rhyme, or reason, it tears me up inside. You had no way of knowing how this might have ended.” 

“Eh, it worked out.” Bucky opened his eyes and squinted as he angled his head away from the sun. “It feels good to be out in the sun without getting blisters or catching on fire.” 

“Twilight grows a little more each day it seems… she’s pushing the very limits of her magic and gaining alicorn growth. She grows taller, more regal, she becomes more noble, she’s become a symbol of harmony, the spirit of the three tribes as one being.” Celestia waxed philosophical, her voice holding more than just a little melancholy. 

“While I on the other hoof, continue to become something else.” Bucky let go a wistful sigh. “I’d go on a rant about how unfair it all is, but that would be wasting my breath.” 

“You’ve kept what is important—” 

“Have I?” Bucky asked, cutting in, knowing that he could get away with it. 

“You’re still a good pony beneath it all, as evidenced by your love of family, and your family’s love of you. Should that ever change, then I shall be truly worried,” Celestia replied, explaining her reasoning to Bucky. 

“Just so long as you never stop loving me, I suppose I’ll be okay.” Bucky glanced up at the tall alicorn standing beside him. “Keep me from the darkness.” 

A large lump in Celestia’s throat kept her from replying. 



 

A still exhausted Berry Punch read the headline once, then again, and then for a third time, before she burst out laughing. She dropped the evening newspaper down upon the table, leaned back in her chair, clutched her stomach, and laughed, a whooping belly laugh that made her sore teats ache. 

“Twilight Sparkle teabagged…” 

The headline was far too funny and perverted. The double entendre just had to be intentional on the reporter’s part. Berry’s hind legs kicked against the chair and she continued to howl with laughter. 

To protest Twilight Sparkle’s policies, the Tea Party had ambushed Twilight just outside of a Canterlot cafe and had hurled teabags at her, decrying her willful destruction of traditional values. Twilight Sparkle, a canny creature, had collected each and every teabag thrown at her and was going to donate them to the poor. 

Berry Punch could only imagine that headline… “Twilight Sparkle teabags the poor.” The earth pony shifted in her chair, wiggling around, wincing while still laughing as her sore teats jiggled. 

Calming down a bit, getting herself back under control, Berry leaned forwards, resting her forelegs upon the table as she did so, and eyed the paper. Somepony knew how to write an attention getting headline. 

“Mama?” 

Lifting her head away from her paper and looking down, Berry saw Harper, who didn’t look well. She looked droopy and her face showed a great deal of discomfort. Berry felt her heartstrings being tugged on by little Harper Heartstrings. 

“Harpy, what’s wrong?” 

“Tummy.” Harper sat down on her haunches, sat up straight, and pointed at her stomach with one front hoof.

“Oh dear, what’s wrong, Harper?” Berry slipped out of her chair and got down on the floor with Harper. 

“Can’t fart. Everything hurt. Can’t pinch loaf.” Harper let out a little moan and rubbed her stomach. 

Heaving a weary sigh, Berry wondered what would have to be done. They were still dialing in on Harper’s tummy troubles. Pills and dietary supplements were helping, but the problem persisted. Berry came to the slow realisation that Harper was probably going to have to go to the emergency room and there would be a big fuss, especially from Harper. 

Reaching out, Berry scooped up Harper, pulled her close, and wrapped a foreleg around Harper’s middle. She could feel that Harper’s stomach was rock hard and it was warm, far too warm, a feverish feeling. Berry felt bad, knowing what was coming next. Harper was going to zap somepony for what needed to happen. 

Looking down at Harper, Berry considered her options. They could go to the emergency room, but they had the means to take care of this at home, even though it might be messy. Berry had an internal debate with herself, a mental discussion about the merits of a stranger jamming an enema tube up Harper’s backside versus a loving parent jamming an enema tube up Harper’s backside. Harper would hate the stranger, no doubt, and maybe zap them. If a family member did it, Harper would hate them too, no doubt, and there would be much zapping. After the fact, there would be many incriminating and guilt inspiring looks, something no parent should have to suffer. 

There were also the suppositories in the freezer—Berry Punch eyed the freezer and shivered—but that option seemed cruel. Still, the suppositories were for emergencies, and this might qualify as an emergency. The suppositories were waxy, fast to dissolve, and had to be frozen to make them solid. Berry felt her own pucker clenching up as she thought about them. No parent wanted to do that to their foal. 

“Hurt,” Harper said to Berry. “Butt stuck shut.” 

Berry weighed her options. Emergency room, enema, or… frozen icicle crammed right up the bum. She didn’t feel very much like a good mother at this point. She rubbed Harper and wished that Bucky was home. Bucky would take action. Bucky would know what to do. 

Oh, who was she kidding, Bucky would probably start bawling if he had to jam a suppository up Harper’s backside and then would mope around the house for days, mumbling about betraying his offspring. But he would do it, she was almost certain of that. 

“Broom! Magpie! Semillon! I’m gonna need your help! I’m gonna need someone with magic or fingers!” Berry Punch got a grip around Harper before the foal could catch wind that something awful was about to happen and escape. 



 

Sentinel eyed the golden tickets and could hear Diamond Tiara’s heavy breathing. Her heart was racing, he could hear that too. The Grand Galloping Gala… and a coronation. Sentinel gulped. One prince, one princess, one gala. Sentinel didn’t like this at all. Galas were serious business and his face hadn’t even healed. The gala was going to be held at the end of the spring session. Just a few days from now. 

“Raven wants to make this an official engagement announcement for you and Boadicea,” Diamond Tiara said to Sentinel. “You and Moonbow are betrothed, so this shouldn’t be too difficult for you. You just need to get her to agree and say yes.” 

“I’m too young—” 

“Sentinel, you agreed to marry Moonbow… like it or not, politics is at work. This isn’t even about you, this is about giving both griffons and ponies hope for the future.” Diamond Tiara turned and looked at Sentinel. She didn’t care that his face was bald or somewhat misshapen. She loved him and was happy to see him again. 

“What about you?” Sentinel asked in a low voice. 

“What about me?” Diamond Tiara replied as she scooped up the golden tickets and placed them into her day planner. 

“Well, I’m betrothed to Moonbow… I’m being asked to propose to Boadicea, but what about you? What do I do with you?” Sentinel swallowed, something he had a great deal of difficulty doing, and he became aware of the sound of his own heart beating. 

“What do you want to do with me?” Diamond Tiara’s voice was a ragged whisper and she turned her whole body to face Sentinel. She took a step closer and felt her stomach churning. 

“I want to keep you with me forever,” Sentinel replied, blurting out the words. “You’re my best friend… I love you… I love you so much that it messes me up inside and makes me feel weird and I don’t know how to deal with it sometimes and right now I’m so scared that you’re going to feel jealous or upset or even hate me because of what I’m being asked to do right now with Boadicea.” 

“I could never hate you…” Diamond Tiara shook her head. 

“You’re my special somepony.” Sentinel made a shuddering inhale and was thankful that nopony else was around. “With Moonbow, it was a practical arrangement and she became my friend… I like her…” Sentinel thought about Moonbow and what he had done with her. That was a bit more than like. He felt a muddled sense of arousal. “With Boadicea, we’re friends and I think I’m starting to love her. She means a lot to me.” 

“And what about me?” Diamond Tiara asked in a breathless whisper. 

“I fell in love with you… like madly in love with you… I had a choice with you… no pressures, no situation forcing me into doing something, no sense of obligation and duty.” Sentinel wobbled in his chair, his head feeling swimmy. He felt like passing out. “I got to experience winning you over and it was great.” 

“Really?” Diamond Tiara began to feel her blood sing as she felt an adolescent sense of arousal creep through her. 

“With you, things were almost normal,” Sentinel said. 

“You’ve won me over,” Diamond Tiara admitted. 

“I have to marry Moonbow for our species… I have to marry Boadicea because she’ll make a good queen for the griffons… and I need to do what’s right for them.” Sentinel licked his lips and wondered if he had the courage to say what he wanted to say. 

He saw Diamond Tiara giving him an expectant stare. He felt a tightness in his barrel. He coughed. “Marry me, Diamond Tiara, for love… please? I want something of my own choosing. We can wait until we’re older and I’ve established myself, but I want you with me—” 

“Sentinel…” 

“Yes?” Sentinel breathed. 

“Of course… I’m here, aren’t I?” Diamond Tiara felt her stomach clenching and she had some trouble breathing, but she felt immensely happy. “What else needs to be said? Why spoil it? I’ll be yours when the time is right.” 

Sentinel heaved a sigh of relief. 

Diamond Tiara eyed her book on the table. “I’ll need to pencil that in to my day planner…” 



 

Berry Punch cringed at the well deserved look of betrayal upon Harper’s face. The little filly was cranky, but she was sitting on the toilet and the suppository was working. Berry stood beside the commode, her foreleg extended, giving Harper something to cling to, and Harper needed something to hold on to. This was a part of motherhood never mentioned in books, never brought up in newspaper or magazine articles, and was probably Berry’s least favourite part of parenting. 

There was a grunt and Harper squeezed Berry’s foreleg as her whole body spasmed. Berry’s eyes watered from the stench, but there was nothing she could do to escape it. This was her punishment for the betrayal. She had violated Harper in the worst possible way. Berry felt terrible and she thought of Bucky and their conversation about no meaning no, about his guilt when he tickled his fillies and they screamed no and he kept tickling. 

Harper had said no, she had not given her consent at all, and Berry Punch had ignored her pleading and her protests. Berry had sat on her, being zapped all the while, while Harper had sobbed, begged, and tried to escape. Every ‘no’ had been ignored while Broom had lifted up Harper’s tail and inserted the ice cold suppository. 

It was the worst sort of violation of trust that Berry could think of and she hated herself just a little bit for doing it. It didn’t matter that it was necessary, or that it had to be done. She had sat down on top of Harper, pinned her in place, and had given her daughter a lesson that ‘no’ didn’t always matter, a lesson driven home by the most intimate of betrayals. 

Berry, a smart pony, knew that she was being neurotic about this, that her mind was twisting everything around, but she didn’t care. She was in the mood for self flagellation after what she had done. She could justify it as being for Harper’s own good all she wanted, but that did not change the fact that she had held Harper down while somepony else crammed something up Harper’s backside. Berry felt like a real shite. 

“I’m sorry, Harper,” Berry said, apologising. 

Whimpering, Harper clung to Berry’s foreleg as more of her bowels evacuated, and made no reply, just gave Berry a dark stare through squinted eyes. Harper closed her eyes and squeezed even tighter as the spasms became worse. 

“I’ll make this up to you somehow, I promise,” Berry whispered as she stood with Harper through the worst of it. Berry meant her promise too, but didn’t know how to make this up to Harper. The feeling of betrayal cut far too deep. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 877
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Stable of Representatives, mired down with no visible means forward, could not come to an agreement on what was perhaps, the most important issue of the spring session, the Equestrian age of adulthood. Rising Star himself had no clear answers either, his own views had changed several times during the long discussions. 

This wasn’t a bad thing. Many things had been discussed that had needed to be talked about. A few new laws were passed to protect the young going into apprenticeship and internship positions. Truancy laws were updated, made harsher, and a lot less forgiving, with punishment landing not only upon the student in question, but the parents as well. 

Rising Star was proud of that accomplishment—it was the work of the Tea Party and the Progressive Coalition working together. The Tea Party was split almost down the middle, with part of the party willing play fair with the Progressives so that progress could be made. The other half wanted nothing to do with the Progressives, and lambasted their fellow ‘teabaggers’ for ‘conspiring with the enemy.’ Rising Star sensed another party split coming in the future. He had spent a lot of time with Keen, Elm, and Spitfire trying to hammer out a mutually beneficial deal. He didn’t like Keen or Elm, he couldn’t stand them, but he understood the necessity of working with them and was willing to put personal differences aside. 

But for the big issue, there was no answer, no resolution forthcoming. Nothing. Nada. Negatory. The age of adulthood being brought into question opened up a can of worms. Now, more discussion was required about things like statutory rape, the age of consent, and old societal traditions were being brought into question, much to the chagrin of the Tea Party, the staunch defenders of old traditions, or least the old traditions that they felt were good ones and beneficial to them. The other traditions, the ones that had brought about the collapse, those could be left in the past. 

It was agreed that it was no longer permissible to trade an unwanted daughter for goats, cows, or chickens, even though it was a tradition that went back to the very founding of Equestria. Interestingly enough, there were Tea Party members that fought a pitched, vehement battle to preserve this tradition, not to actually trade daughters for goats, cows, or chickens, but to have as a threat to fall back upon for unruly daughters that did not listen to their parents. The threat of being traded for goats, cows, or chickens was often enough to bring about compliance. 

Much to Rising Star’s dismay, the original tradition also included donkeys among the list of goats, cows, or chickens, and somepony had to bring up the fact that this new political correctness was destroying the Equestrian way of life. 

All of it, both the good and the bad, the feeling of accomplishment and the feeling of loss, all of it left Rising Star feeling satisfied. He was doing good work here. His status as a political celebrity gave him leverage, and rather than abuse it, Rising Star felt that he was doing good work, beneficial work, things he could be proud of, rather than be ashamed of. 



 

Looking down, Princess Celestia watched her ponies at work as they began to secure their own future. She was proud of them, a fierce pride, a mother’s pride. This session had been amazing. With the Canterhorn purged, a new Canterlot had emerged. Tough issues were being tackled. Questions about both the past and the future were being asked. The ponies below were working  to make things right. 

Even the political herds, the factions, were helping the process, as the scales needed checks and balances. There were hardliner traditionalists, traditionalists, nationalists, progressives, radicals, and even a few ultra-radicals that made Celestia worry a bit, but she knew that both the hardliner traditionalists and the ultra-radicals were necessary. Somewhere, in the middle of it all, there was the balance that everypony needed. 

In the center, acting as the balance point, was Twilight Sparkle, doing what Princess Celestia had always hoped that Twilight would do. Twilight made for a fantastic mediator, she was a good speaker, Twilight was tough, but also fair. She could be impartial, at least, for the most part, but there were issues that ruffled Twilight’s feathers. Twilight didn’t intimidate the representatives into voting for what she wanted, but rather, let them sort it out amongst themselves, with Twilight stepping in to act as a referee when necessary. 

The Aurora Guard did their job well and Princess Celestia was pleased with them. The little griffons were unobtrusive. As Twilight had intended, they spent more time passing out papers, pamphlets, and programs than bringing unruly ponies back into line. Not one pony had to be stoned during this session—no bedlam or outbreak of anarchy even necessitated the threat of it. 

Even the ‘teabagging’ of Twilight Sparkle had worked out for the best, Twilight had made her detractors look like fools by starting the session the very next day with a hot, steaming cup of coffee and the quiet mention that she felt that it was time for a tax increase on tea—if tea had become cheap enough to be thrown around, perhaps it was time to raise the cost so that ponies would appreciate it for what it was, a luxury.

Princess Celestia, high on her balcony, looked over at her special guests sharing her lofty aerie. Diamond Tiara was studying the politics that Princess Celestia knew that one day she would be a part of. Sentinel, propped up in his chair, had listened to everything. As for Boadicea, the griffoness looked bored. It was okay though, Boadicea was meant to be the one in action and Diamond Tiara had a far better temperament for politics. Sentinel had nothing to worry about as a future leader. It was Princess Celestia’s most sincere hope that Sentinel would indeed be betrothed to the little pink filly as well as the griffoness—she saw nothing but good things coming from the union. 



 

Violet Velvet picked up the scroll case, opened it, pulled out the scroll, and began reading it. The scroll case had the royal seal of Prince Keg Smasher upon it and the wooden scroll tube was a bit battered and worn down, but still serviceable. An Equestrian scroll tube would have been disposed of long before it had reached the point of looking ‘well used.’ 

Her eyes, which peered through her half moon reading glasses, scanned the paper, devouring the words in much the same way that Harper devoured mangos—with terrific speed. After reading, she set down the scroll and looked over at Berry and Derpy, who both were waiting with eager looks of anticipation upon their faces. 

“Deadspin and Bunny can’t make it, but Sour Mash is on her way. She’s departed upon a supply ship and Keg Smasher is insisting that when the ship returns, it returns with supplies to make the trip justifiable.” Violet gave Berry Punch a meaningful look. 

“Okay.” Berry nodded her head. “We’ll load that ship down with anything and everything we can. That doesn’t seem so bad, fair is fair.” The plum coloured earth pony let heave a sigh of relief. “I knew that Sour Mash would come through for me. I haven’t lost all of my family… just most of them.” 

“And you are set upon this course of action?” Violet asked. 

“What else can be done?” Berry replied, her eyes narrowing. “Berry Pinch belongs with family. She needs to be in a better environment, keeping her locked up in that room out in the carriage house is making her worse. We can’t let her run free around here because of the Everfree. We can’t give her what she needs.” 

“This does seem wise.” Violet took off her reading glasses, folded them, and set them down upon the table. She leaned forwards, her muzzle now over her steaming teacup, and she looked Berry in the eye. “I think that you are doing the right thing. I know this has to be tough. If I might confess something…” 

“Yes?” Berry gave Violet an expectant look. 

“I sometimes allow myself a bit of a fantasy… Bucky finds yet another foal in distress and I end up adopting it… I thought about seeing what I could do for Berry Pinch, but I knew that would be folly.” Violet sighed, lifted up her teacup, and took a sip. “I can’t bring myself to go into the orphanage and adopt… I’ve tried, and I just can’t. The amount of choice is paralysing and so many foals are worthy of a good home, but I can’t save all of them. But I have this dream that fate and providence drops just the right foal right into my lap through Bucky.” 

“That’s a good dream.” Derpy smacked her lips and her wings twitched against her sides. “The collapse created an orphan crisis… I don’t think most of them will ever have parents. They’ll just grow up and become adults and walk away from the orphanages and it will be awful.” 

“Ah, but what is the legal age of adulthood,” Berry said, thinking about the newspaper headlines. “There’s always been a problem with orphans in Equestria. Foals wander away from home, can’t make it for whatever reason, can’t get apprenticeships, and end up in orphanages.” Berry lifted up her own teacup and held it between her front hooves. “Just think about Pinkie Pie, since Twilight used her as an example… if the Cakes hadn’t of taken her in, if they hadn’t given her a job, she might have been stuffed into an orphanage so she could be cared for.” 

“Yeah, but she has parents that she could go home to,” Derpy said. 

“I know that, I was just using her as an example… what if she didn’t have parents or her parents didn’t want her back? It was just an example, that’s all.” Berry Punch took a sip of tea and glanced over at Derpy. “I know it sounds strange to you, but there are parents that don’t want their foals.” 

“Awful.” Derpy, who looked distressed, slumped down in her chair. “And here I am, feeling guilty for taking a little time for myself and leaving the newborns in the care of Magpie and Broom. I just wanted an hour to myself and a cup of tea and now I feel bad, like I’ve abandoned them and it’s just awful that some parents don’t want their foals at all.” 

“Firelock.” Violet’s words blew ripples across the surface of her tea. 

“Who has parents now… Lugnut and Spanner adore her.” Berry’s enthusiastic response caused her body to jerk and some of her tea sloshed. “Those fabulously gay griffons make wonderful parents. Sprocket and Cog are adorable and Firelock is getting so much love that she’s getting spoiled. She’s never had that much love and affection.” 

“You know, as far as orphans and such go, it says a lot about Fancy Pants and Fleur… they’re free now… they don’t have to keep running the orphanage if they don’t want to, but I don’t think you will ever drag those two away… they’re doing what they love. I wish more ponies were like them.” Derpy let out a morose huff that caused her tea to slosh over the side of her cup and dribble down to the table. “There needs to be a better way to fix this problem. Bucky is really frustrated about it. If we offer ponies bits to be foster parents, then a bunch of ponies who want bits will adopt, but they’ll be doing it to get paid and not because they want to help foals in need. Bucky and I have talked about this so much… it bothers me so much… it bothers him… this is a big problem for society… how do we get ponies to adopt? If we offer rewards, how do we stop the wrong ponies from adopting?” 

“Or farmers, who adopt for the spring, summer, and fall, and then return the orphans before winter so there isn’t another mouth to feed.” Berry Punch slumped down in her chair and looked downright miserable. Her ears went limp, her lips sagged, and her heavy eyelids drooped half shut. 

“There needs to a Stable of Representatives session dedicated to this issue.” Derpy leaned over a bit and touched Berry, rubbing the depressed, despondent earth pony on her withers. 

“Foals are the ultimate disenfranchised group. They can’t vote, they’re a drain on society, they cost a lot of money, there is no good reason to be motivated to help them… there just aren’t enough good reasons to fix the current system. It would cost too much and take too much effort. Which is why things will continue to languish as they are.” Berry Punch grimaced, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth together. 

Violet felt the bitter sting of Berry’s words and the cynical, sardonic part of herself was in agreement. The Sweeps were over. The Fillydelphia Floodgates as they had been called, were closed. Equestria was still rebuilding, still getting back upon its hooves. Starvation had been a real problem during the winter for some parts of the country. 

Even now, farmers were already seeking out labour from their local orphanariums, foals that could be paid in room and board rather than bits, foals who would be returned to the orphanariums come late fall. Violet felt disgusted, but there was nothing she could do. The entire system had been built upon the constant influx of available labour made possible through the Sweeps and the endless flood of foals coming out of Fillydelphia. 

Now that the flow had been staunched, Violet could not help but wonder how it would affect the future. There was an addiction to slave labour… free labour. The cost of food had been kept artificially low because so many had laboured in the fields with no pay. Moral farmers who loathed the practice did not last long—it was impossible to compete in a market with rock bottom prices brought about by exploiting captive labour. If one farm exploited foals and the other used workers that it paid fairly, the farm with fair wages could not possibly offer goods at a price that others were willing to pay. 

The entire system had profited upon the backs of the exploited, the Sweeps had affected so much of Equestrian society, even the cost of food. Violet had no idea what the future held, but the current generation of orphans would grow up and the last vestiges of the system that exploited them would be well and truly screwed. Who would replace them? 

The three mares sat together in silence for a time, sipping tea, enjoying the quiet break, each of them thinking their own thoughts upon the subject and the many issues that it involved. 

As was often the case, Berry Punch broke the silence. 

“You know, Velvet… there is a foal that Bucky rescued a while back… he’s in need of a parent. He’s quiet, a bit shy, something of a nerd, and bursting with potential…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 878
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	At last, the newborns had quieted down. They were no longer quite newborns, but the name had stuck, for whatever reason. Derpy yawned, feeling sleepy, ready for the morning lull. Dizzy and Ditzy hadn’t slept through the night very well, and little Barley had awoke in the hours before dawn in the mood to be fussy. After a good feeding, the foals were now sleeping together in a pile, with Brandywine forming the foundation for her siblings. 

Crisis was off somewhere, having scampered off out of the nursery with Harper and Peekaboo. Bell Heather was eating a bit of breakfast in the kitchen with Thistle. Derpy did not know where Cadance was, and Sukari was in the kitchen with her mother, Thistle. The grey pegasus yawned again, fluffed out a bit, and wished the rest of her foals and her family were at home. This was hard on her, and it was growing harder by the day. 

After a somewhat guilty glance at the newborns, Derpy Hooves stood up, stretched, and escaped the nursery, off to find something to do to alleviate her boredom. She was lonesome, missing her mates, she felt restless and unsettled. She pulled a blanket over the sleeping pile of fuzzy wuzzies, thinking that there would be diaper changes far too soon, and then, heaving a maternal sigh, slipped out the door. 

She walked down the hall, careful not to make too much noise, and heard the soft swishing hum of the washing machine. She heard the clink of plates in the kitchen. She heard laughter from the living room. Ears perking, she headed for the laughter, moving down the hall, her eyes bright with joyful expectation. 

Sticking her head through the arch into the living room, she saw Yew Wood, who had Brennus wrapped up in a shawl hanging from her neck, Broom, Harper, Peekaboo, Cadance, Crisis, and Lugus, who was scooted into a corner, sitting on his haunches, and trying not to take up too much room. 

“Harper has learned a magic trick,” Yew Wood said to Derpy. 

“Yes, it’s adorable,” Broom added, her head bobbing. “Hey, you, show your mama your magic trick.” 

Harper, giggling, looked over at Derpy for a moment, a mischievous look upon her face, a look that Derpy knew all too well from raising Dinky. The grey pegasus, standing in the entryway, focused her good eye upon Harper and waited. A hush fell upon the living room. 

Crisis, who seemed to like being the center of attention, stood still as Harper approached. The curious little foal’s green eyes flashed with a peculiar inner light and her lips curled upwards into a gleeful grin. 

Derpy watched as Harper approached Crisis, sat down in front of her, and extended her hoof. She heard Harper say the word “Presto!” as Harper’s outstretched hoof touched Crisis’ nose in an affectionate boop. As Derpy stood watching, a change came over Crisis. Starting where Harper’s hoof had touched her, Crisis’ snow white pelt turned indigo, matching Harper’s distinctive purple-blue pelt. The colour traveled in rippling waves, over her face, down her neck, along her barrel, down her back, right to her tail. 

“Tada!” Harper said in a triumphant voice when no trace of white could be found on Crisis. Extending both forelegs, Harper pulled her smaller sibling in for a squeezy hug and a slobbery kiss. 

Crisis, who loved any sort of affection, threw herself into Harper’s embrace and the pair sat on the floor together, with Harper holding Crisis in much the same way that she would hold a stuffy, kissing Crisis on the ears. A ripple of darker indigo flashed over Crisis’ pelt and then the colour began fading, becoming white again. 

“Somepony needs to get the camera,” Yew Wood suggested. 

“Yeah, the moving picture camera.” Lugus, who had very long legs, reached out, snatched up Peekaboo, and then squeezed the yearling filly to his chest. “Come here, you.” He glanced at his mate, his crest rising. “No, not you, Yew.” 

Smiling, Yew looked at her mate as Brennus began peeping, hearing the sound of his father’s voice. “We should get Peekaboo’s hunting lessons on film… those would be great to watch.” 

“Home movies… memories that we can watch over and over again.” Derpy sat down on the floor as Cadance approached her. She thought about Bucky and suffered a terrible thought. One day, home movies might be all she had of him. 

Feeling a case of the sniffles coming on, she scooped up Cadance, who Derpy considered Bucky’s most meaningful accomplishment in his life, his greatest victory, and she gave the little pink alicorn a squeeze. 



 

“Buckminster, relax… your beloved Sparkler is a big filly. Now sit still.” Luna gave Bucky, who was sitting beside her, a stern glance. “This is just a training exercise to see how far Sparkler has progressed with her… unusual talent.” 

Below, down in the training yard, a golem created by Princess Celestia herself began to animate, coming to life in the most alarming sort of way. Sparkler, already in her stone form, watched as the golem twitched, an animated monstrosity made of scrap metal. 

“I don’t like this,” Bucky said in protest as his talons clenched into a fist. 

Ripple, sitting not too far away, leaned over the rail, grinned, and shouted, “Kick its arse, Sparky!” The pegasus filly began hooting and stomping her hind legs. “Show ‘em how we deal with threats in this herd! It’s just a tin can!” 

“Go Sparky!” Rising Star shouted, letting his mane down and getting into the fun. The session had let out early today, as tensions were high, the assembly ended at noon. Rising Star was determined to enjoy the rest of his day. 

“Woot!” Loch Skimmer bounced up and stood up in a bipedal stance beside her sister Ripple, balancing on the rail while stomping her hind hooves up and down. 

The golem lurched forwards, an amalgamation of metal, clanking and clinking. It raised one arm and took a swipe at Sparkler, who sidestepped it with ease. Sparkler, laughing, appeared to be having the time of her life, while Bucky, who was watching, appeared to be having a paternal crisis. 

Princess Celestia, sitting on the other side of the training yard, on a platform atop the wall, had a look of intense concentration upon her face. The golem was a construction of will, more telekinesis than motivation and come to life spells. She controlled its actions, it was her puppet, and she made it move with ruthless speed and efficiency. 

Sparkler continued to dodge blows, moving with surprising speed and grace in her stone form, but the golem was only getting warmed up. It caught Sparkler a solid blow and sent her flying. The stony pony flew almost fifty feet and smashed into the hay bales lining the walls of the training yard. There was a terrific thump of impact and a worried cry slipped from Bucky’s lips. 

Already, the golem was moving in, stomping forward, moving to engage Sparkler while she was down. Sparkler got to her hooves with shocking speed for being so bulky and heavy, and the expression on her stone face was not a pleasant one. 

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play… fine, we do this the hard way!” Sparkler roared in a voice that sounded like a landslide of gravel. She stomped her hooves into the ground and a sound like cannon fire filled the training yard, an almost deafening sound. 

A dreadful change came over Bucky, a terrible, cruel expression was on his face, and his body twisted, contorting with rage. “Kill, Sparkler… KILL!” As he spoke, spittle flew from his lips and his talons clawed the stone, digging in and leaving deep gouges. 

Luna, sitting beside Bucky, became quite alarmed. 

As the golem approached, Sparkler’s stone horn flashed and she transformed. Starting at her hooves, she turned a strangely metallic looking grey. It crept up her legs and she took off running, the change still creeping over her body, she was becoming shinier, more metallic, and her footfalls became heavier sounding, she clanked more than thumped. 

The most profound change was her eyes, which gleamed like pink diamonds. Sparkler no longer appeared to be stone at all, but something else entirely. She gleamed with a silver finish and sparkled in the sun. 

“YEAH!” Rising Star screamed. “Just like we practiced! Wreck that metal motherplucker!” Lost in the moment, Rising Star only had eyes for Sparky, forgetting that other ponies were around, the guards, the princesses, Bucky, his eagerness had given him tunnel vision. 

“Amazing,” Luna said as Sparkler began to circle the golem. “She’s turned herself into some kind of metal.” Luna, worried for Bucky, reached over with a foreleg, wrapped it over his shoulders, and pulled him close. She found that he had a disturbing amount of strength for being so weak and frail looking. It took effort and force to pull him closer, and she pulled him into a tight embrace so that she could soothe him, calling upon her innate magic that allowed her to calm all lunar creatures. 

“Mecha-Sparky! Kick arse!” Loch Skimmer bounced up and down beside her sister Ripple, her stomach jiggling, her tail swishing from side to side. 

Sparkler needed no prompting. Her transformation complete, she launched herself at the junk golem, her forelegs moving like pistons as she came in punching. She smashed into the golem with terrific force, and using her impact momentum, she began punching away bits and pieces. Each blow rang out like a bell, Sparkler’s metallic body was a wellspring of strength and power. The golem, now on the defensive, grabbed Sparkler in an improvised hand that had three fingers and hurled her away again. 

The metallic filly tumbled end over end as she flew threw the air, launched the entire length of the training yard, and Sparkler once more smashed into the hay bales that lined the walls. She recovered right away, getting up on her hooves, and she moved to attack the golem once more. 

“I’m gonna feck you up, BAD!” Sparkler bellowed in a voice that sounded like an industrial metal grinder designed to swallow whole airships and turn them into scrap. As she ran, her metallic hooves smashed and cracked the stones of the training yard. She lurched ahead, a titan of equinity, a neigh indestructible living lump of titanium. 

Metal, after all, was just a more refined form of stone. Many hours had been spent with Rising Star, communing, connecting, melding minds, and merging their magic. Sparkler had reached the peak of her powers, developing the ultimate in defensive forms. 

The golem, a creation of steel, scrap metal, and magic, braced itself for Sparkler’s charge. The filly, almost a mare, hurled herself through the air and slammed into the golem again. The sound of the impact was deafening. Sparkler had used defensive augmentations to make herself heavier, giving herself amazing density and weight. The sound of metal slamming into metal caused fleshy ears to twitch in pain. 

Each blow was like a pneumatic hammer, bits and plates of steel crumpled like tinfoil under Sparkler’s relentless assault. The bystanders, witnessing this historic beatdown, realised that if Sparkler had launched herself against most airship hulls, she’d be able to pound her way right through them. A three inch thick plate of scrap steel that made up the golem’s chest shattered like glass as Sparkler’s hoof rammed through it and kept going. 

Princess Luna looked at her sister and saw Celestia offer a faint nod. Luna, still holding Bucky, could feel him thrashing and twitching against her. It took a lot of effort to hold on to him and her tranquility magic for lunar creatures wasn’t working as well as she had hoped, which made her worry. 

Without warning, the golem buckled, the magic animating its body going away. Sparkler tumbled down into the pile of scrap and began stomping the pieces, her fury not yet vented. An almost unseen smile was on Princess Celestia’s face. 

As Sparkler continued to mature, there would no doubt be more surprises, more abilities, and she would master her unique magic. Ripple lept from the wall and landed down in the training yard, her own pelt sleek and shiny with sweat. 

Sparkler lifted her head high and let out a terrifying roar, a horrendous metallic sound that made spines shiver and puckers clench. She began to kick the junk around her, getting in a few last blows, and then she went still. 

The shine of her body grew dull, and then the metal began to take on a pink tint as she began the process of turning herself back into a flesh and blood pony once more. Ripple, who had taken to the air, was flying in a circle over Sparkler’s head, air boxing with her front hooves, a fierce toothy grin plastered over her muzzle. 

Violence had left Ripple in quite an aroused state, and she planned to ambush Bittersweet when she went inside. Bittersweet, not one for violence, was visiting with Belisama, Bon Bon, Lyra, Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, Boadicea, Piña, and Dinky. 

“She’s gonna need lots of food,” Rising Star said, turning to look at Luna, who was still struggling to hold on to Bucky. “This always takes a lot out of her… hey… is he gonna be okay?” The fey unicorn gave Luna a worried look. 

Luna, who stroked Bucky’s neck with her wing, nodded. “He’ll be fine, once he regains his senses.” Looking down, Luna noticed that the white of Bucky’s eye had taken on a curious yellow tinge and the grey had a touch of scarlet. She lowered her head and made a cooing sound in his ear, the ancient lullabye of night, and she felt his thudding heart begin to slow. 

“Daddy?” Loch Skimmer turned around, her expression one of worry. She took a step forward, but stopped when Princess Luna gave her a look of warning. The pegasus’ wings fluttered at her sides, and her eyes glistened with concern. “What’s wrong with Daddy?” 

“Nothing that a little quiet time cannot fix.” 

The sudden sound of Princess Celestia’s voice so close startled Loch Skimmer, and she lept away sideways, her wings extended, not at all expecting the big white alicorn to be so close all of a sudden. 

“Buckminster, can you hear me?” Celestia crept forwards, her head low, and with her wing, she waved back Rising Star, who had also taken a step towards Bucky. She had her ears pinned back and she moved with an easy, submissive grace, not wanting to further arouse Bucky’s ire. It pained her to see him in this state. He looked almost feral and foam flecked his lips. 

“We should get him inside, into the dark and away from things that might further excite him,” Luna suggested. “Perhaps a little time with Erebus and Tourmaline is in order.” 

“Do you think that’s safe?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

“Of course it is… it is the one thing about your father that I trust more than anything else,” Luna replied, thinking about all of the mental conditioning she had done. No matter how his mind fractured, no matter how he broke, the mental conditioning she had given him to protect little ones above all else always held. Luna considered it one of her defining achievements. She recalled their meeting just outside of Las Pegasus, when Bucky had rescued Tourmaline and Glass Slipper, the moment when Luna had realised that she might have done a little too good of a job on Bucky. He had threatened her, and had done so fearlessly.

Rising Star, who looked grim and serious, glanced over at Loch. “Go get Sparky and Ripple… let’s go inside, but don’t tell Sparkler about Bucky just yet… she can’t see him up here and she doesn’t need to know.” 

Nodding, Loch Skimmer took to the air and went flying over the rail to do as she was asked. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 879
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Grand Galloping Gala… the event of the year. This one promised to be exceptional—there was going to be a coronation of new royalty, Prince Sentinel and Princess Boadicea, who would one day rule the Griffonwood region and the Everfree. Expectations were high. 

But Princess Celestia could not think about the coming preparations at the moment. She watched her nephew with worry, her brows furrowed, her wings twitching at her sides. Luna had him calmed, he was almost asleep at the moment, but seeing him as he was—it was shocking. She hoped that this side effect could and would be overcome. 

As Celestia continued to watch her sister soothe Bucky, she opened dialogue with Raven about the preparations that needed to be done. “We must fetch as many of Sentinel’s parents that can come. Boadicea’s too. I understand that things are rough at home, and if necessary, we shall send help. Sentinel needs his family here during his coronation.” 

“Agreed,” Raven replied as she began to write something down in her planner. “We can send a caravan to get the family and bring the little ones along too—” 

“Oh, I’d like that!” Princess Celestia’s face lit up and her head began bobbing. “I think it would be good for our dearest Buckminster. He needs his little ones. He needs some downtime before he begins his invasion.” 

“Princess Celestia…” Raven’s voice was low, little more than a soft, breathy whisper, and the smaller unicorn mare leaned closer to the large white alicorn. “There is something off about Buckminster.” 

“Yes, he is out of sorts.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed and she glanced downwards at her secretary. 

“No.” Raven shook her head and a strand of her mane slipped free from her bun. 

“Something else?” Celestia asked in a low voice as Bucky went still—asleep by the looks of it. 

“Something has changed,” Raven said in a conspiratorial whisper. “His raw animal magnetism is gone. His charisma. His attractiveness that he always had, that feeling of giddiness he caused, no matter how”—Raven paused and cleared her throat— “twisted he became, there was something appealing about him. It’s gone now.” 

Lifting her eyes from her secretary and looking once more at Bucky, Celestia nodded. “Yes, yes it is. His… ahem… vampiric nature gave him an undeniable amount of sex appeal. Something about him is downright repulsive now.” 

“What a terrible thing to say.” Raven shook her head and slipped her planner into her satchel. “Do you think his wives will notice? Do you think there will be… changes?” 

“I dare say that the grey pegasus will love him no matter what happens. As for the others… no, no I do not believe that they will be any less attracted to him. Love makes one blind. For all of their faults as a herd, and there are many, they are inseparable. I do not think things will change for them.” 

“That’s a relief.” Raven let out a huff, tossed her head back to be rid of the strand of her mane hanging down in her face, and then looked up at Celestia. “You and I will not be able to dance together at the gala… ponies will talk. Violet too.” 

“I am starting to care less and less what other ponies think,” Celestia muttered. 



 

Grinning from ear to ear, fangs bared, Rising Star chortled with glee, trying to remain as quiet as possible as he lowered Cadance down onto the daybed with Bucky. The little foal kicked, wiggled, and fretted, but she too, understood the need for surprise. 

Meanwhile, Sentinel was being suffocated by Derpy, who was beside herself and almost crying with relief as she held her son. Thistle, holding Bell Heather in her teeth, slunk over to the bed, gave a mischievous glance around, and dropped Bell just as Rising Star was setting Cadance down. 

While all of this was going on, Harper, who was overwhelmed, was torn by the need to see her beloved Mamamama and her urgent need to go potty. The stabbing sensation in her bladder won out and she darted away, following Lyra, who knew exactly what Harper needed by the little dance that the funny little filly was doing. 

With a snort, Bucky’s left eye opened as both Cadance and Bell Heather began bonking him on the head—his eye was grey, normal, gone were the alarming discolourations from earlier. He let out a snarling yawn, which caused Bell Heather to squeal, and then grabbed both fillies in his forelegs, pulled them close, squishing them to him, and then closed his eye once more. 

Not content to be held, both Cadance and Bell continued with their skull bonking in an effort to rouse their father. Bell even went as far to get one of Bucky’s ears into her mouth and she began chewing. Not enough to draw blood, but she did draw a few stares of concern as she slobbered away on her favourite chewy. 

Sukari, almost frantic, not knowing where to hide, darted beneath the bed and vanished, crawling along the floor on her belly as she disappeared into the secluded shadows beneath where her father was sprawled out. 

A mother’s worry visible on her face, Berry Punch, unable to grab Sentinel away from Derpy, did the next best thing—she grabbed the grey pegasus and Sentinel both. She closed her eyes and choked back a sob as she pulled them close, crushing them both to her. 

Piña and Dinky, glad to see both Berry and Derpy, piled in, grabbing ahold of whatever they could and clinging tight, turning the chance to squeeze Sentinel into a group effort. 

Crisis, in unfamiliar surroundings, stood in the middle of her helpless siblings and tried to look as ferocious as possible. Her teeth were bared, her eyes glowed with some strange bioluminescence, and the beginnings of what would one day be a gut clenching, bowel loosening growl could be heard in her throat. 

Bon Bon, in the mood to cuddle something, wanting to cuddle Harper, but denied because of a call of nature, snatched up Crisis instead, causing the befuddled foal to become quite confused. Crisis, who loved a good cuddle, was torn by her need to protect, as well as her need to feed. Her eyes flashed and then the dark green began to lighten, becoming her more usual shade of brilliant green. 

“Where is Barley?” Loch Skimmer asked. 

Thistle looked up from where she stood watching Bell Heather and Cadance bonking Bucky on his skull in an attempt to rouse him from his drowsy state. “He couldn’t make it. He refused to leave little Pinchy behind, and she couldn’t come either. He stayed at home.” 

Ears drooping, Loch Skimmer let out a moan. “Aaaaw…” She kicked the floor with her front hoof, flicked her tail, and then went over to where the little ones were all piled up on a quilt spread over the floor. Heaving a sigh, she snatched little Barley in her forelegs and began hugging him. 

Little Barley, quite upset about everything in general, began wailing, having reached the end of his ability to cope with all of the changes happening. Unbeknownst to Loch Skimmer, several heads turned to look at her, multiple pairs of eyes locked on to her, and even one of Bucky’s eyes opened to have a look. 

The pegasus, soon to have a foal of her own, took all of this in stride, gave Barley a comforting squeeze, shushed him, and then began humming something that sounded a bit like a lullaby. 

Rising Star, watching Loch Skimmer at work, suddenly understood Bucky’s fascination with mothers and foals—never in their time together had Loch Skimmer ever been more attractive to him. It wasn’t even just sex appeal… she was beautiful like this, astounding. Rising wanted to grab her, pull her close, hold on to her, and never let her go ever again. His eyes focused upon her rounded stomach and he thought about his responsibilities. 

Brandywine, hearing her brother’s bawling, looked annoyed. She blinked a few times, not understanding what the big deal was. The pudgy giant struggled to sit up, and in doing so, stepped on Ditzy’s wing with her front hoof as she tried to lift herself. Ditzy, who did not like her wing being squished, squirmed and kicked, and in her struggles, she bopped her brother, Dizzy, right in the face. Dizzy, who had endured enough during the trip to Canterlot, decided to have a meltdown. 

He rolled over onto his back, kicked his legs up into the air, and began blubbering in earnest. Loch Skimmer, still holding little Barley, scooped up Dizzy in her other foreleg, and, balanced on her haunches, held both foals in her loving embrace. 

Looking more than a little peeved, Ditzy’s ears twitched and the threat of a good squall was upon her face. The little pegasus looked at the chubby earth pony beside her, frustrated, angry, and being a cranky little cuss, Ditzy reached out with her foreleg and cuffed Brandywine on the muzzle. 

Blinking, eyes wide, Brandywine sat in stunned shock, and before any of the adults could react, did the only thing she could do in the situation. She fell over on Ditzy, pinning the pegasus to the blanket, and gave her annoyed (and somewhat flattened) sibling a much needed hug, which only made Ditzy even more furious. 

Like Barley and Dizzy, Ditzy too, began to shriek in frustration. 



 

“I’m starting to wonder if this was a good idea,” Berry Punch said as her eyes lingered on Bucky. He hadn’t left the bed and now had more than a few foals piled upon him. “Derpy, it takes so much work to move this family around now.” 

“I know.” The grey mare heaved a weary sigh, shifted her body, and focused her good eye on Loch Skimmer, Sparkler, Ripple, and Bittersweet. She could hear three of the four fillies giggling as they fawned over Barley and Dizzy. “We had to come for Sentinel’s coronation though.” 

“Think he’ll try to pull a vanishing act like his father?” Berry asked as she watched Bucky smooch Sukari’s scarred cheek. 

“Naw,” Derpy replied without hesitation. “He’ll do right. But Boadicea… she might.” 

The two mares, sitting together, observed the state of their family, their herd. Almost everypony was here. Beside them, Belisama was feeding Bandua, who had become quite vocal and animated during the commotion that had broken out. 

“Boadicea will do what is right.” Belisama’s beak didn’t move as she spoke and the griffoness poured a spoonful of partially digested bugs down Bandua’s gullet. 

“What makes you so sure?” Berry asked. 

“Because of Sentinel,” Belisama replied. 

“Sentinel?” Derpy’s head cocked off to one side and she eyed the griffoness. 

“She’ll do it, not because its the right thing to do, or because of her honour, she’ll be there because Sentinel will be there. She’ll do right by him.” Belisama loaded up her spoon with more bug paste held in her lower beak. 

“I don’t know how I feel about my baby being engaged.” Derpy’s nostrils flared and she heaved a forlorn sigh. “I mean, I know he and Moonbow have agreed to tie the knot for practical reasons… but Boadicea… they’re both so young… and this is all so political… and it just feels wrong to me.”  

Berry Punch, sensing Derpy’s frustration, right away tried to make the fussy pegasus beside her feel better. “They can both say no—” 

“They could, yes, but Sentinel would never do such a thing. He knows he would be letting his father down and Sentinel couldn’t live with himself. There is no way he could actually say no in this situation. He would know that Bucky would be disappointed… so would Luna and Celestia. And Agnetha and Tannis. And even you, Belisama.” Derpy’s wings fidgeted. “Sentinel could only say no in theory. He’ll do this because it’s his duty. And I don’t like it.” 

“I’m almost certain that Sentinel can hear us talking about him right now—” 

“I don’t care, Belisama, I hope he does hear us talking.” Derpy let out a frustrated groan, shook her head, and then looked over where Sentinel was sitting with Boadicea and Diamond Tiara. “I just want him happy, that’s all. Is that so much to ask?” Derpy’s forelegs crossed over her barrel and her ears drooped down to the sides of her face. 

Berry Punch, now looking over at Sentinel, gestured with her foreleg. “Oh, he’s happy… look at him… look at how Diamond Tiara fawns over him… how she hangs on his every word… I suspect that Sentinel is going to be one very happy colt. I think he’s found a way to keep himself happy…” 

“What do you mean, Berry?” Derpy asked as she leaned closer to Berry. 

“Oh, I think we’ll have to wait and see, but I have sneaking suspicion that Sentinel knows how to look after his own happiness,” Berry replied in a Berry happy voice. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 880
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Feeling more than a little maudlin, Bucky watched as Shining Armor played on the floor with Cadance. The room was crowded and there was much excitement about the Grand Galloping Gala. Shining Armor was laughing and Cadance squealed with excitement when Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor’s mother, picked her up, squeezed her, and blew a raspberry against her stomach. 

Night Light was having a quiet conversation with Luna, who had Erebus. Tourmaline was prancing about the room, delighting in all of the good feelings to be had here. Tourmaline’s presence confused Bucky a great deal—little Cadance adored Tourmaline, but Cadance was still just a little skittish around Crisis. But Cadance was warming up to Crisis, which made Bucky hopeful. 

Twilight Sparkle was having an animated discussion with Lugus about the future of Griffonwood and how important it was to her vision of the future of Equestria. Yew Wood sat beside her husband, but remained silent during the conversation, choosing to listen and learn. 

Rainbow Dash, Derpy, and Flash Sentry were discussing Rainbow’s growing belly, and Rainbow Dash showed off her increased muscle mass. Pregnancy had been good for the rainbow maned pegasus—she had never been in better health or condition. 

Without warning, Pinkie Pie exploded into the room, she was giggling, her eyes bright with mischief, and she had Cheese Sandwich hot on her heels. Both had manic rictuses of glee and clouds of confetti swirled around them. Before Bucky could even register what was happening, everybody in the room had their drinks refreshed, food had been laid out, and much to Bucky’s surprise, he found a tall, frosty tumbler in his talons filled with a mysterious drink. 

As he sniffed it, Pinkie Pie vanished, muttering something about the big party involving the Stable of Representatives. His drink appeared to be some sort of frozen banana smoothie spiked with high test rum. Bucky’s nose crinkled a bit as he looked at the little paper parasol in his glass, and then, shrugging, he slurped up some through a straw. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky realised there was a lot more than just rum in his glass. He tasted notes of chocolate liqueur, some kind of honey based booze, and other things that he couldn’t quite make out. It burned like the fires of Tartarus going down his throat. Pinkie knew how to make a fantastic mixed drink, but Bucky suspected that most ponies would be in a coma before finishing the glass. 

He was thankful that he wasn’t most ponies. 

The spring session had gone better than anypony could have hoped. Much had been accomplished and the representatives were looking forward to the summer session, which was being extended because this one had gone so well. Twilight Sparkle’s harmonisation of Canterlot had been wildly successful. The city felt alive again. There was a new sense of purpose. A feeling of accomplishment. 

A feeling that anything was possible. 

Bucky’s ears perked as Cadance let out another joyful squeal and then began to babble to Shining Armor, a never ending stream of almost incomprehensible foal talk done at high speed. Bucky could only make out a few words, such as bath, bubbles, and boats. He took a long pull through his straw and felt the burn. He was going to have to give Pinkie a hug for this. No doubt, she would try to kiss him… and Cheese too if Bucky didn’t keep his guard up. 

Without warning, Bucky was quite taken by surprise. Thistle slunk up beside him, pressed up against him, and, much to his shock and surprise, the saucy kelpie licked him. Bucky sat frozen as the kelpie’s rough tongue slithered up his cheek, and then he felt the tip lingering in his ear, tickling him. His eyes went wide and Bucky could not help but wonder if anypony had seen what Thistle had just done. 

Giggling, Thistle fled the room, and Bucky, after finishing off his drink in one gulp, went off to follow Thistle, wondering what the seductive kelpie was up to. As he departed, Bucky belched and spit out the little paper parasol that had been in his drink. 



 

Thistle was leading him on quite a chase. He paused, sniffed, and tried to figure out which direction the kelpie had gone, his talons scritchy-scratching on the floor. A wide, manic grin was on Bucky’s face. He could smell arousal and Thistle’s unique kelpie fragrance. 

Ahead, he heard giggling. He picked up his pace, enjoying his hunt. He could wink right to her location, but what would be the fun in that? He would find her soon enough, and when he did… he had plans for his kelpie. 

He moved past a group of guards and he heard them chuckling. He ignored the lunar pegasi and kept going. He was getting close. He could smell her… her scent was so strong that he was drooling. His ears picked up the sound of a door opening and closing ahead. 

It wasn’t long until he reached the door and he pushed it open. He looked around, taking in the small, private garden. Overhead, the moon was almost full and it was bright. The night air was filled with the scent of lunar gardenias. The scent teased his nose and made him feel giddy. Lunar creatures were susceptible to lunar gardenias in much the same way that griffons were affected by catnip. Between the mixed drink he had just imbibed and the flowers, Bucky felt light headed, woozy, he felt amazing. 

He staggered through the garden, his eyes darting about, looking for any sign of his kelpie. And she was his kelpie. Bucky was very, very possessive of his lucky fae water spirits, both the little one and the bigger one. He had been snuggling and smooching Bell Heather every chance he could since the little kelpie had been brought to Canterlot. Now, he needed to catch the most elusive prey, the mother kelpie. He had a mind to shag her rotten until they were both utterly knackered.

Sniffing, Bucky checked the wind to see what he could find. There was a faint hint of something floral and something musky. His tongue lolled out and he found himself quite overtaken by some primal feeling welling up deep within him. Throwing his head back, Bucky howled, a mournful, yet somehow terrifying sound. Lunar pegasi howled for any number of reasons, Sentinel had even done it on occasion, and now Bucky found himself baying at the moon, trying to summon his mate, no longer wanting to be a lonesome lunicorn. 

“Aroooo?” 

The howl that was returned wasn’t a real howl of a lunar creature establishing dominance over the night, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless. Bucky’s ears perked and his orange tongue dangled from his lips as he panted in the cool night time air of spring. 

Stepping around a hedge, Bucky found his prey, almost bumping snoots with her. He could see her trembling with excitement… anticipation… her eyes glimmered in the moonlight. With a savage growl, he pushed Thistle over in the grass and stepped over her. 

She rolled over onto her back, revealing herself to Bucky, hiding nothing. Her waterweed mane and tail spread out around her body. The pink blossoms in both her mane and her tail glistened with dewdrop moisture in the moonlight, a bright lurid pink, something almost labial. 

Drooling, Bucky pressed his nose down to Thistle’s navel. She had filled out a lot since her pregnancy. She had filled in. She had curves now in all of the right places. Her stomach was firm, well muscled, but also soft. Her teats, down between her spread thighs, young, perky teats that pointed skywards, were plump and inviting. 

“This is my fifteenth spring,” Thistle whispered to Bucky as his nose snuffled over her stomach. Looking up, Thistle could see that Bucky was happy to see her. Something dangled above her face. 

Bucky did not reply, but his nose traveled along Thistle’s body, sniffling, drinking in her scent through his nose. He pressed his muzzle into the crease of flesh between her plump teat and the inside of her thigh, burying himself into the fragrant crevasse, and inhaled. Beneath him, Thistle twitched and giggled. His nose pressed into other places, trailing over one teat, then the other, and then he snuffled around along her other thigh, pressing himself in to the warm fold of flesh where her hind leg connected to her hip. The scent of her sweat was sweet, seductive, it was electrifying in his nose just as much as the lunar gardenias were. 

Grunting, Bucky pushed his nose down into the soft, velvet flesh between Thistle’s teats and began moving up her stomach, towards her belly button, sniffing along every inch, his lips and his snoot trailing over her fevered, quivering flesh. The same fevered, quivering flesh that had once caused Bucky no end of internal debate on if it was wrong to love Thistle and desire her. In his almost animalistic state, there was no moral debate. The kelpie was a receptive female of breeding age and the smell of her desire was unmistakable. 

Laughing, Thistle’s hind legs kicked upwards, she grabbed Bucky’s head between her hocks, and twisting her body around, she slammed Bucky down into the grass. She tossed a foreleg over his body, just past his ribs, and she pushed her muzzle between his hind legs. 

Bucky’s whole body froze when he felt a hot, wet tongue lapping up against his own fevered flesh, leaving him slick with kelpie spit. He lay on his side, with Thistle’s head tucked between his hind legs. He twisted his lower half around a bit and opened his legs up, so that she might have an easier time, and much to his delight, Thistle did the same. Turnabout was fair play, after all. He grabbed Thistle around her slender middle and plunged his muzzle right into her arousal swollen snatch, stuck out his tongue, and began to work his way into her depths. 

Thistle wasn’t playing around—she was already trying to wrap her muzzle around his girth, so Bucky skipped the hors d'oeuvres and went right for the main course. Bucky suddenly found it difficult to do anything; Thistle was applying so much suction that he could feel his eyeballs being tugged back into his skull. She was swallowing him again, as if he was a slippery trout to be eaten. He could feel her tongue undulating against his shaft. He tried to focus upon her delectable, cute little nubbin, but found that he could not. His eyes rolled back into his head as she gulped, swallowing down even more of his length. 

He could feel himself being devoured and it was quite different than being eaten by wolves—in fact, Bucky didn’t mind at all. He quite liked being eaten alive by a kelpie. His claws clutched the grass and dug into the dirt as Thistle somehow found it in her to apply even more suction and Bucky’s eyes rolled back into his head as his chin dropped against Thistle’s mons. He was powerless to resist her seductive charms. He gripped Thistle’s body and held on, almost begging for sweet release, unable to do anything else at the moment. His hips began bucking in a slow, methodical manner, and Bucky was unaware that he was humping Thistle’s face. He wasn’t aware of much of anything other the rising pressure in his balls. He squeezed Thistle’s midsection and pressed his cheek against the sopping wet cleft between Thistle’s ever so inviting thighs. 

Laying the way they were, Thistle had a good angle. She had taken him all in and he could now feel the hot, wet breath of her nostrils against his balls, her almost breathless snuffling against his fuzzy sack excited him in a way that few other things did. 

Thistle was gushing now, Bucky could feel it soaking his cheek, and somewhere, in the back of his mind, a voice was screaming at him that he needed to repay the favour back to Thistle when this was over, and it was about to be over. 

Taken over by instinct, Bucky’s talons clenched into a fist, ran down Thistle’s back, along her neck, along her crest, and grunting, unable to help himself, he clutched the kelpie’s head as his hips began bucking uncontrollably. He hit the point of no return, his instincts urging him to worm his way in ever deeper, and he could feel Thistle’s tight throat swallowing all around him. Her breathing was frantic against his balls, he could feel her explosive, excited snorts. 

Stars filled Bucky’s vision as the dam broke. He sent a jet of hot, sticky foal batter straight down Thistle’s gullet and into her stomach. Thistle was his only wife that liked the taste of his semen and didn’t find it nausea inducing. His hips made a few more spastic humps against Thistle’s muzzle, and each thrust caused him to squirt out a fresh load. He could feel Thistle suckling on his throbbing cock, slurping along his length, not wanting to waste a single, sticky drop. 

After a few more pumps against her muzzle, Bucky went still, laying on his side in the grass. He could feel himself beginning to soften in Thistle’s throat. He felt her swallowing, the flesh of her throat tugging and pulling at his length, and much to Bucky’s surprise, he found that he had one last spurt to give. It came out with a painful spasm, making his balls ache, and his whole body shuddered as his buttocks clenched and he slammed his balls against Thistle’s nose. 

He lay there, panting, his sides heaving, and then there was cool night air on his cock. He shivered, the wet slobber on his pecker making everything feel chillier. He heard Thistle giggling and then the kelpie let go of a ferocious belch. Bucky rolled over onto his back, spread his legs, and tried to cool off. Parts of him felt far too warm and the cold night air felt good against his slobber soaked skin. 

Thistle belched again as she sat up, and the kelpie could not stop tittering. 

“Hey, Bucky…” 

Bucky was unable to reply. He lay on the grass with his eyes crossed, trying to recover, his hind legs twitching, his hips still spasming. 

“Hey… you…” Thistle prodded her husband with her hoof. “It’s time to return the favour… I’m all worked up…” 

Bucky groaned as Thistle wiped her mouth with her foreleg. He felt her lean down close to him, he could feel her breathing on him as her muzzle drew closer to his ear. He shuddered, still seeing stars and reeling from what Thistle had done to him. 

“Hey, Bucky,” Thistle said in a seductive whisper, invoking her talent, “how does it feel to have a wife that’s a natural born cocksucker?” Before Bucky could reply, Thistle nipped his tufted ear and collapsed into the grass once more by his side. She cuddled up against him, glad to see him happy, and hoped that he would recover soon. 

Thistle was happy to have a husband that was a connoisseur of filly flank steak, or as Berry liked to put it, “A well known gobbler of hot crotch cobbler.” 
	
	
> Chapter 881
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Groaning, Bucky opened one eye, yawned, and then licked his lips. He could hear soft spoken voices. He flexed his talons, yawned again, and rolled over. He found himself snoot to snoot with an amber eyed grey pegasus. So far, the morning was turning out quite well. 

“Did you and Thistle have a nice time last night?” Derpy asked in a low voice. After her question, she scootched her head over the pillow and kissed Bucky. “I told her that you needed to be ambushed.” 

“You sicced Thistle on me?” Bucky asked in a low whisper. He chuckled, flexed his talons again, and then stretched his body, extending his hind legs and arching his spine as he lay on his side. 

The grey pegasus began giggling as she extended her forelegs. She slipped one beneath Bucky’s neck, sliding it between him and the mattress, and the other one over his neck. When she had his neck encircled with her forelegs, she pulled him closer. She pressed her muzzle against his, not caring about morning breath, and gave Bucky a passionate, slobbery, excited-pegasus kiss. 

The kiss was interrupted by giggling. Pulling away, Derpy turned her head and looked over to see the source of the giggling. Blinking, she saw orange frizz and bright pink. Cadance and Harper both. The grey mare sighed upon realising that there would be no morning make out. 

“Out of bed, sleepyheads,” Harper said to her parents in a cheerful, squeaky voice. 

“Lazy!” Cadance extended her wings and flung herself between both Bucky and Derpy. She nestled down between them, stomping the blanket that covered both of them down and forming a nest. “Up up up!” 

Bucky realised that he and Derpy were the only ones in bed. Everypony (and birdy) else it seemed had long since vacated. He let out a wordless grumble in protest of the Empress’ royal decree and focused on Derpy. 

“Gala!” Cadance shouted as she bounced up and down on her mother and father. “Gala gala gala!” 

“Are you going to dance with Shiny?” Derpy asked Cadance as Harper climbed all over her. Harper tumbled down into the crevasse and Derpy smooched the frizzy maned filly on the cheek. 

“Yes!” Cadance’s wings fluttered and she trembled with happiness. “Shiny!” 

“They’re going to crown Sentinel,” Derpy said as both Cadance and Harper settled into the makeshift nest that her body and Bucky’s body formed together. “Are you excited?” 

“Princess Sentinel.” Harper sat up and a very serious expression crept over her face. Sparks lept from her horn and her mane, already frizzy, floofy-poofed out even more as she generated more static. 

Closing his eyes, Bucky began sniggering. He could hear the laughter of others and wondered what they found funny. Everypony sounded happy, and it put his mind as well as his body at ease. 

“When Auntie Rayray?” Harper asked. 

“Rarity is probably in Ponyville… I don’t know if she’ll be here for the gala,” Derpy replied. She let go of Bucky’s neck, reached out her foreleg, and stroked Harper’s cheek. She saw Harper’s disappointment. “You love Auntie Rayray, don’t you?” 

“And Coco,” Harper chirped in reply. With a grunt, Harper flung her forelegs out, wrapped them around Cadance, pulled the pink foal closer, and gave Cadance a mighty squeeze. Harper got a faceful of Cadance’s rose scented ethereal mane, which made the unicorn filly snort, then, without warning, Harper sneezed, discharging a tremendous amount of electricity and zapping everypony in the bed with her. 

Cadance’s eyes went wide as a bolt of static arced between her ears and her horn, starting at her skull and traveling upwards with an audible crackle. The pink alicorn was used to this happening, she bore it with good natured patience. Once the painful arcing ended, Cadance gave Harper a slobbery smooch to let her sibling know that all was well. 

Groaning, Bucky reached up with his talons and pinched the smouldering tuft at the end of his ear. He sniffed the air, smelling burning hair, and he envied Derpy’s natural electrical resistance. Of course the pegasus was fine, even if her mane was now almost as frizzy as Harper’s. Cadance, part pegasus, was also fine. Harper looked guilty and a little sad. Lifting his head, his ear still smoking, Bucky kissed Harper on the corner of her mouth to set her straight and let her know that she was still loved. 

At her father’s touch, all was right in the world once more, and a grin took over Harper’s face. 



 

Standing on the balcony, Bucky waited for Sentinel to get himself together. Sentinel had lured him outside, saying that there was something he needed to say, and now the two of them were standing together. Bucky was quite enjoying the sun, even if it made him feel weak kneed and stung his eyes a little. 

Sentinel, who was recovering, was moving around well enough and hadn’t bumped into anything, one eye or no. With his echolocation, the loss of an eye wasn’t quite as big of a deal as it might have been. Already, hair was growing on his face, accelerated growth caused by a salve left behind by Chrysalis. 

“Father, I’ve asked for a glass eye decorated to look like the mare in the moon.” 

“Sentinel, is that what you dragged me out here for?” Bucky asked as he sat down upon the warm stone. The spring breeze was cold up here at this elevation, but the stone he sat down upon radiated a pleasing heat into his backside. 

“No, Father, it isn’t.” Sentinel also sat down and then scooted a little closer to Bucky. 

“Well then, spill it, Squire.” Bucky glanced at his son with one eyebrow arched. 

The colt took a deep breath, then another, and then gulped in as much air as possible. After a moment of preparing himself, he stared off at the distant horizon and said, “As I’m sure you know, I plan to accept Boadicea as my queen. I like her. Well, more than like… she… she is very special to me so this is not so onerous for me to do…” Sentinel’s words trailed off and the colt fell silent. 

Bucky sighed. Onerous. Sentinel wasn’t just tightly wound, he was wordy too. 

“During the gala, I am going to announce my betrothal to Boadicea to all of the world.” Sentinel fell silent again and shook his head. “I know that you already know this.” Sentinel cleared his throat and made ready to speak again—  

“Out with it, Son… don’t make me tickle torture this out of you,” Bucky said, giving his colt fair warning. 

“You wouldn’t dare…” Sentinel turned and looked at his father, having to turn his head around quite a ways to focus his right eye upon Bucky. “Nevermind, you would dare.” 

Bucky chuckled, reached over, and prodded Sentinel, who was on his right, with his hoof. He heard a soft laugh from Sentinel and Bucky could not help but feel that all was right with the world. He felt a happiness that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Father, I know that I’m young, but being engaged for love isn’t all that different than being betrothed for political reasons.” Sentinel cleared his throat, let out a nervous cough, and then found the courage to continue. “I’m going to ask Diamond Tiara to marry me. We’ve talked. We’re going to wait, obviously. No need to rush anything. I think when Moonbow finishes her Myrmidon training, we’ll have our union.” 

“Union.” Bucky snorted. “Such a serious affair… sounds so romantic. Diamond Tiara will be able to brag about her ‘union’ to the high society ponies at length.” He focused his manic gaze upon his son and a wide grin split his muzzle. 

“Um…” Sentinel looked away from his father, focusing his gaze upon the horizon once more. He nodded, his wings fidgeted at his sides, and then he heaved a sigh. “Marriage. Marriage I guess. This is all overwhelming to me. It’s all so serious. Words like ‘union’ help me see it for what it is, I guess. It’s all choices that have to be made, the right things that have to be done so everypony and everybirdy can have a better future.” Sentinel heaved another sigh, then made a sharp inhale. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing it. I mean, Diamond Tiara is pretty… she’s really really pretty, and Boadicea… oh… she’s good looking too… and Moonbow… well… Moonbow… I… uh, um, uh, I get flustered just thinking about her and I’ve already, uh, well, you know, um, done something with her and I, uh, um, eh, er, well… um… marrying Boadicea and Diamond Tiara are going to be its own reward because let’s face it, they’re going to grow up and be, uh, um… well, you know… uh…” Stammering, embarrassed, Sentinel fell silent and his whole body shuddered. 

“Good looking?” Bucky said, finishing his son’s words. 

Sentinel nodded. 

“Boner inducing?” A terrible smirk lurked on Bucky’s lips. 

Hearing his father’s words, Sentinel’s mostly hairless face turned beet red. The colt let out a panicked wheeze, and then nodded again. “Diamond Tiara keeps flashing me!” Sentinel blurted out. He sucked in a deep breath before he continued, “I know that she knows what she’s doing! She keeps looking back over her shoulder to see if I’m looking and believe me, I’m looking, and when she sees me, she goes prancing off with her tail held just high enough that I keep getting peeks at her pink goodies and she’s torturing me, because I can never quite see everything, just little peeks as her tail bobs around and it’s driving me crazy!” 

Much to Sentinel’s surprise, his father wasn’t laughing. He craned his head around and focused his surviving right eye upon Bucky. He could see a serious expression upon his father’s face. 

“Son, she has strong feelings for you. She loves you, make no mistake. It might be young, somewhat innocent love, but have no doubts, she's sticking all of this out because she loves you. And like any other filly her age, she feels insecure and afraid of her body. She wants to know that she’s desireable and she wants to know that she’s pretty.” Bucky reached out his right foreleg, wrapped it around Sentinel’s withers, and pulled his son closer. 

The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, before Bucky found the words he wanted to say. After clearing his throat, Bucky spoke from his heart, trying to pass on to his son everything he had learned. “Diamond Tiara is devoted to you. You came into her life at a time when she needed you most, and you were there with her. You’ve seen her at her worst and you’ve never turned her away. She’s gonna remember that… she’s gonna remember that you stuck it out with her and you stayed with her and you were her friend when she needed one the most.” 

Sentinel’s ears drooped and he leaned against his father. “Sort of like you and mother…” Sentinel paused, and then felt the need for clarification. “Derpy… you found each other at a pretty rough time in both of your lives… she was lonely…” Sentinel closed his eye and took a deep breath. “We’ve talked, she and I. We talk about you sometimes. She’s been trying to teach me what it means to love somepony and stick with them through thick and thin.” 

Bucky gave Sentinel a squeeze of encouragement. 

“She saw you at your worst. She saw the end result of all those years of abuse and neglect. She didn’t turn away, but she could have. She could have found somepony else, somepony with fewer problems, but she made a choice to stick it out with you. Berry too.” Sentinel opened his eye, blinked away a tear, and then sniffled. “She told me that the work is what makes it worth it. She said that she saw that you were a good pony deep down inside and even when you were laid low”—Sentinel cleared his throat and licked his lips—“when you rescued Dinky and cracked your horn, when things got really, really tough and she had to nurse you back to health, she explained to me that it is those sorts of moments that make a relationship.” 

“I suppose they do, Son.” Bucky felt a growing tightness in his throat. 

“Berry said that most fillies are flighty, fickle, finicky creatures and that any normal filly would have dumped me a long time ago. She said that Diamond Tiara is exceptional for sticking all of this out with me.” Sentinel sighed and then drew in a deep breath. “Berry also said that if I ever did anything stupid that jeopardised or otherwise ruined my relationship with Diamond Tiara… she said that she, Bon Bon, Applejack, and Coco were all going to open up a can of good ol’ fashioned earth pony arsewhoopin’ and take turns having a go at me.” 

Blinking, Bucky offered up the best advice he could think of to his son. “Son, you’d best pray to Luna that you never screw up…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 882
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Almost everything was in order. Bucky had pulled off a few last minute miracles and had endeared himself as a father. Larch and Babs were attending the Grand Galloping Gala with Piña, wearing the formal clothing they had worn for Apple Bloom’s Coronation Gala. Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich had brought Twist to the Gala as a surprise for Dinky. 

Bucky, feeling an unusual amount of self esteem, was almost certain that he was now a shoo-in for father of the year. Okay, so the year was mostly new and they were only a few months in, but Bucky had delivered. His foals were happy. He was going to attend his son’s coronation. 

Now, all he had to do was find Princess Luna, wherever it was that she had gone off to, to ask about Sentinel’s formal knighting. He was a knight in word, but he still had not been formally knighted and Bucky was wondering when such a thing was going to take place, because it had not been scheduled for the Grand Galloping Gala and his coronation. 

All things considered, Bucky was excited. He was finally going to attend a coronation. He had missed his own, Beauregard had decided to be born during Apple Bloom’s coronation, but this was the one. 

He hurried, feeling pressured to be there on time. There wasn’t much time left, the hour drew ever nearer. Bucky was a little worried being around such a large group of high society ponies, but he would manage. There was a plan… Pinkie Pie had promised to keep him well supplied with Banana Blaster Smoothies. The Banana Blaster Smoothies would make everything better. 

Hovering, his hooves not touching the floor, Bucky drifted like a spectre down the hall, heading towards Luna’s unmistakable magic, which stood out like a beacon for him. Her moon magic now made him feel a little drunk, for reasons that Bucky did not understand. 

There had been changes since drinking the distilled essence of chaos. 

Rounding the corner, Bucky pushed through the massive double doors that opened up onto the upper parapets with his umbrakinesis, and as he opened them, he heard the sounds of weeping…



 

The sounds of Luna’s wailing sliced through his heart like frozen steel. Bucky could hear what sounded like body wracking sobs. She was above him, higher up, above the parapets, on a balcony, and Bucky drifted upwards, borne on shadow, rising up to be with her. 

As Bucky drifted closer to the rail, he realised that Luna had not seen him, had not noticed him, and he drew closer. The doors to Luna’s aerie were opened and he could see inside of her private chambers. Her room looked trashed. The bed was shredded, the ornate wooden bedframe was a mess of splinters. The mirrors had been smashed. Candelabras had been knocked over and lay scattered about. The only thing that appeared to be unbroken was a large telescope of ancient design. 

Heart heavy, Bucky approached the weeping goddess who had her head and forelegs resting upon the decorative stone railing of her balcony. He extended his talons, as if to touch her, and he felt his eyes misting over. 

“Luna?” 

“LEAVE ME!” Luna shrieked, her voice a piercing, agonised cry. 

Jerking his talons away, Bucky hung there, suspended, not sure what to do, but he did not leave as commanded. After a moment, he drifted closer, over the railing, and settled near Luna’s side. Again, he tried to reach out to her, the sobbing, heartbroken goddess. 

“Luna?” He reached out his talons and placed them on her back, right between her wings. He felt her tensing, her muscles bunching, and realised that if she vented her fury upon him, he was going to take quite a thrashing, because he had no plans to stop her. 

“Once more, I was not invited!” Luna’s wracking sobs began to subside a little. Turning, she pulled Bucky out of shadow, making him solid, and she wrapped her forelegs around him, crushing him to her barrel. “I’m not wanted!” 

Feeling a heaviness in his heart, Bucky allowed himself to be almost crushed, not knowing what else to do. Ever since her return, Luna had not been invited to one single Grand Galloping Gala. The Princess of the Night, it seemed, was unwelcomed at the Greatest Night Ever. 

Luna’s sobs picked up again, painful sounding full body sobs, and her wails almost left him deaf. She squeezed a little too hard and Bucky felt several ribs snap within his barrel. He ignored the blinding pain, it was nothing he couldn’t handle, but he was a little worried as the weeping alicorn’s constriction continued to get stronger. 

Each breath was like inhaling fire into his lungs, but that was minor compared to the pain that Bucky could feel radiating from Luna. The changeling essence grafted into him screamed with the agony of her emotions. He could feel it sinking into him now, an eon of bitterness. For a moment, he thought it might break him, and he was fearful that he wasn’t strong enough to endure this shared sense of emotion. 

Reaching deep down inside, Bucky recalled every lesson he had had with Fluttershy, the many long hours of meditation, of self focus, of finding calm, of finding his true inner strength, not the darkness within himself that he relied far too much upon. He thought of his cushion, his island, his private place in an ocean of tranquility and calm, the place where he could not be reached. Fluttershy had worked so hard to show him, to teach him, she had nurtured him and tended to him as if he was a tender shoot of new growth. 

Another rib popped and the constriction reached a point where it was unbearable. Bucky gritted his teeth, grunted, and then, much to his relief, the crushing weight around his ribs eased. He sucked in much needed wind and almost passed out as his lungs filled and pushed against his broken ribs. Stars filled his vision and he desperately tried to focus. Luna needed him and he needed to push past his own discomfort. 

Not knowing what to do, Bucky demanded that his brain think of something, even something stupid—like perhaps raising an army, invading the Grand Galloping Gala, and causing mayhem. A little grey pegasus circled his head along with the stars that he saw, and she was giving him the stink eye. Bucky nixed that idea; wrecking his son’s coronation would get him pulped by Derpy. Other little pegasi joined the grey one circling his head. One had flaming wings, the other wore ornate war shoes. Both of them urged him to do the right thing, to be the example that they and his other foals needed him to be. 

A little flying griffoness popped into existence, began circling his head, and suggested that if Luna couldn’t come to the gala, bring the gala to Luna. Inspired, Bucky had an idea. A brilliant idea. An idea that Bucky was at least ninety nine percent certain was not a stupid idea. There was no way that the grey pegasus would pulp him for doing the right thing. 

Bucky waited for Luna to compose herself a bit, enduring her painful embrace. With each breath, he could feel the broken ends of his ribs scraping together. He tried to keep his breathing as shallow as possible. 

“Luna,” Bucky groaned, it took effort to get the words out. “Luna, do you trust me?” 

All Bucky got as a reply was sniffles. He waited, patient, and with careful effort, he got his forelegs around Luna’s neck. There were more explosions of colour in his vision. He would need his ribs looked after, but that would have to come later. 

“I do…” Luna said, replying after several long, agonising minutes of clinging to Bucky. 

“I can make this better, but you need to let me go. Let me help you. I promise, I’ll do the right thing,” Bucky said in a voice that was raspy and bubbled with pain. 

Realising what she had done, realising that she had hurt Bucky during her emotional state, understanding that she had lost control, Luna let go, relaxing her grip, she eased Bucky back, and looked down into his eyes. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. She could see that his eyes were glassy. She started to say something, but a talon tip was pressed up against her lips. Some strange magic compelled her to remain silent. 

“Let me help you,” Bucky offered as he pulled his talons away from Luna’s muzzle. 

“Do not get my sister involved. I do not wish to ruin the gala. The peace here in Canterlot is so fragile.” Luna’s eyes closed and she eased Bucky down to the ground, feeling terrible for what she had done. Her emotions had gotten away from her. “I am certain that my sister had her reasons. This wasn’t done out of malice.” 

Wheezing, it was all Bucky could do to remember Fluttershy’s lessons. He felt a strange calm. No cackling. No maniacal laughter. He had ponies that needed him. Luna needed him. Celestia needed him, because her sister needed looking after. Sentinel and Boadicea needed him not to ruin their coronation with deviant behaviour. 

A little pink alicorn joined the flock circling his head and she gave him a cheerful smile of encouragement. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, and tried to think of everything he needed to do. 

“Luna, wait for me, right here. And trust me. I’ll be back, I promise. I’m not deserting you, but I do need to go and fetch something. Will you be okay without me?” Bucky reached up with his talons once more, and angling his supernaturally sharp claws away from Luna’s face, he wiped her tears away. 

“I’ll manage,” Luna replied. She sniffled and swallowed her sobs. 

“I’ll be back, I promise. I’ll be swift… wait for me…” 

And with that, Bucky was gone, vanishing in an explosion of ice and shadowstuff. 



 

Having quieted a bit, Luna waited on her most faithful servant, her most devoted, dedicated Minion. She wiped her eyes, feeling guilty, knowing that she needed to put her aerie in order. It would be shameful to require the maids to clean that up. It would be shameful to even let the maids see it, mortifying even. 

Her fury gone, her grief having come out as tears, Luna just felt empty now. She had no idea what Bucky was up to, no clue what he planned to do, but she trusted in him to do the right thing. He would not wreck the gala, of that, she was certain. 

Looking up at the stars, Luna waited and thought of Erebus. He was with Tourmaline, and the pair of them had Sunset Shimmer, Trixie, and Bartleby foalsitting them. Luna shivered in the cool air of the spring night. She coughed, clearing her throat, and tried to ignore the lonely ache in her barrel. 

Sensing shadow, Luna peered off into the night sky, off in the direction of Ponyville, which glittered far down below. The detestable electric lights were far too bright and caused no end of light pollution, making it difficult to see her stars and enjoy her night. She hated them, loathed them in a way that few ponies would ever understand. But little ponies needed to see… and many of them were afraid of the dark. 

Luna rose to her hooves and waited. Something was coming in fast. Not shadow winking, but flying at incredible speeds. She could feel the shadow in the distance and she knew who it was. It had taken him a while, but he had kept his promise, just as she knew that he would. He was returning. 

A dark shape stood out in sharp contrast against the stars and the purple night sky, a trick of the light from below reflecting upon the clouds up above. Luna could see it drawing closer, closer, and her heart lept up into her throat when she heard a familiar lilt. 

“Ach, crivens, ye damned spook, ye done dragged me through the shadows and I saw all sorts o’ boggles and boggarts and spine shivery little soul suckers, damn yer eyes! I saw things we mere mortals ain’t meant to see!” 

Feeling very much like a filly, Luna sucked in a deep breath and worried if she was presentable. Everything held inside came out in a huff. Of course she wasn’t presentable. No doubt, her eyes were red, her muzzle was covered in snot, and there was no way that she was pretty. Luna began to panic and thought about pulling a vanishing act. 

But Bucky had promised to return, and Luna did not want to betray his trust. She stood, waiting, her heart sinking, feeling hideous. She looked behind her and saw the mess that was her aerie. She had made a mess of everything, not just her aerie. She felt more shame. 

“Aye, laddie, she needs me, I can tell from here, hurry up, laddie.” 

Swirling darkness drew closer to Luna’s balcony and she could see Barley suspended in tendrils of shadowstuff. Bucky was only the suggestion of an amorphous mass. As he drew closer, he became more pony-like in shape. 

“Luna, I’m so sorry I took so long, I had to find a foal sitter for Berry Pinch and do you have any idea how hard it is to find a foal sitter for a feral mustang foal on short notice?” Bucky dropped Barley down upon the balcony, gently setting the old stallion down upon his hooves. “Thankfully, Discord and Fluttershy were all too happy to look after her.” 

As Bucky began to take on physical mass once more, having himself a short breather, Barley tottered off to Luna, his brows furrowed, his forehead wrinkled, his arthritic knees popping with each step. Barley said nothing and didn’t give Luna a chance to get away or say anything. He grabbed her in his telekinesis and with a sharp, hard yank, he pulled her to him. Letting out a wordless grunt, Barley kissed Luna, a fiery passionate kiss that caused Luna’s wings to snap out from her sides with a deafening supersonic crack. 

“I’m not done, sorry… we have the dancers, but we need music… excuse me, I’ll be right back!” Bucky vanished once more, leaving the two lovers covered in snowflakes. 



 

Flying on wings made of shadowstuff, Bucky flew with three passengers upon his back, the trio of them suspended in shadow. All three were precious to him, they were creatures that he loved, cherished, treasured. One was his friend, one was his lover, and one was the vessel of his hopes and dreams. 

Gliding through the darkness, Bucky could see that Barley and Luna were right where he had left them, still kissing, and from the looks of things, Luna was holding Barley up so his knees could have a rest. 

He touched down, landing without a sound, and steadied himself. He felt his passengers squirming on his back. Odin lept down first, landing on all four legs, and on his back was a battered looking case that held an even more battered fiddle inside. Belisama plopped down beside Odin, her autoharp in a heavy canvas case. Around her neck, Bandua was suspended in a shawl. 

There was a peep of protest as Bucky snatched away Bandua and took off with her, a manic grin upon his muzzle, and his teeth glowing oddly in the moonlight. Without even thinking about it, giving it no thought at all, Bucky snapped his talons and a small wooden cask of wine appeared, conjured up from the castle’s wine cellars. There was another snap and several wine goblets appeared. 

Odin, being a gentlebirdy, fetched two cushions from the wreckage of Luna’s room, one for himself and one for Belisama. He tossed them down on the balcony, went to the wine cask, filled himself a glass, and returned to his cushion, walking on three legs. He sat down, took a sip of wine, set his glass down, and then opened up his fiddle case. He pulled out a fiddle that had seen better days… better centuries. He then pulled out a battered bow and gave it a critical stare through one squinted eye. 

As Belisama got herself situated, Bucky showered Bandua with as much affection as he could muster, ignoring his ribs and his laboured breathing. She peeped, filling the night with a joyous sound, and Bucky, using his umbrakinesis, poured himself a glass of wine. 

Barley, pulling away from Luna, righted several candelabras with his telekinesis, arranged them around the balcony, and lit the candles. The immediate area was filled with a warm orange-yellow glow and the fragrant scent of burning wax and wine filled the chilly night air. 

There was a soft screech as Odin drew his bow over his fiddle strings, the old wizened griffon let out a squawk of irritation, his crest rising, and he flexed his talons while holding his bow in his beak. Sitting on his cushion, he wiggled his toes on his hind paws and his tail twitched. He set down his fiddle, raised his wineglass, and had himself a good, long drink. He then set down his glass, blinked, picked up his fiddle, and with his bow held carefully in his talons, he drew it over the strings once more. 

A beautiful sound filled the night, it was mournful, sorrowful, but also beautiful. Belisama began plucking her autoharp, warming up her talons for a performance for the ages. The griffoness was nervous—she was playing with a deity for a deity. There was a lot of pressure to perform well. 

“Aye, lass, might I have this dance?” Barley asked in a breathy lilt. “I cannae bear how beautiful ye are in the moonlight… I’ll be good for now, but I’m shaggin’ yer backside later till we’re knackered, I am.” 

Unable to help herself, Luna tittered like a school filly as her misery melted away. She held Barley in her telekinesis, holding him close to her, they were neck to neck, and Luna, knowing that she had hurt a pony that she loved earlier, made certain she was gentle. 

As Belisama and Odin began to play, Bucky felt the pain in his barrel easing just a little bit. He felt his spirits lift. He cradled Bandua in his forelegs, wondering when she too would get a personality and be more than a peeping lump. He was eager to talk to her, to get to know her. She was showing signs of growth, of development now. She peeped eagerly when she saw him now, let out little mewling cries that Belisama said were sounds of happiness, and the little cub loved to snuggle, like she was doing now. Bucky realised he had to be content with what he had. 

It didn’t take long before Odin and Belisama were lost in their music, the two little griffons swayed back and forth as both their music and their magic flowed from them, filling the night, driving away despair and pain. Barley and Luna both were lost in each other's eyes. As for Bucky, he was content to sip wine and hold Bandua, though he did feel guilty for missing yet another coronation. It seemed as though fate conspired against him. 



 

The party on the balcony was interrupted by a large white alicorn touching down, a grey pegasus beside her. Both were well dressed, wearing formal gowns. The grey pegasus looked a little peeved, but said nothing. 

Princess Celestia folded in her wings as the music ended. She looked around, meeting each eye in turn, until at last, she looked at her sister. The two alicorns, one white, the other blue, stood staring at one another. 

Seeing pain on Luna’s face, Bucky braced himself and prepared to intervene if necessary. He didn’t want this night to end with a fight between the two sisters. He could see Luna’s brows furrowing and her nostrils were flaring. 

“Once again, I was not invited,” Luna said in a cool voice. 

When Barley was about to say something, Luna shushed him by placing a wing in front of his mouth and then she stepped forwards. “Dearest Buckminster here was considerate enough to throw me a gala. I dare say mine was better.” 

There was a sad sigh from Princess Celestia and the tall white alicorn slumped, looking disappointed and sad. “This wasn’t how this night was supposed to turn out.” The alicorn mare shook her head and looked over at Bucky, then at Luna. “I am sorry, Luna, I am. Truly and sincerely.” 

Odin set down his fiddle, picked up his glass, and gulped down the remainder of his wine. He glanced at Bucky, then Belisama, then returned his gaze to the two sisters. He let out a worried peep. 

“You are not invited here… begone!” Luna commanded. The blue alicorn looked over at Derpy and her expression softened. “You are welcome to stay, however.” 

Celestia took a step forwards. “Luna—”

“Begone! Away from my aerie!” Luna shouted. 

“Sister, please, give me a chance!” Celestia’s ears folded back and the larger alicorn took on a submissive posture. 

“Very well, have your say, but if I do not like your words, be aware that I will fling you from this balcony. See if I don’t!” Luna’s ears perked forwards and her wings flared out from her sides. 

Celestia’s sides heaved as she drew in a deep breath. She remained submissive looking, her eyes downcast, and she let out a soft groan. “Dearest Sister,” Celestia began in a soft voice, “I detest the Grand Galloping Gala. I loathe it. I cannot stand it in the slightest. I dislike almost everything about it. I cannot stand most of the ponies who attend it. The only time I have ever truly enjoyed the gala was when Twilight Sparkle and her friends came along and wrecked the entire evening.” 

Luna’s mouth fell open and she gave her sister a wide eyed stare. 

“It was never my intention to hurt you… but it was my intention to tweak your snoot. I could not just come right out and tell you to come and wreck the gala… I could not tell you to crash the gala and bring an army of Myrmidons to come and cause mayhem… but it was my hope… my dream… I wanted so very much for you to be miffed enough that you would come swarming in and lay waste to the wretched, hateful event. This year, I had hopes that you and Buckminster would arrive… I had fantasies about it… the anarchy and the chaos that you two could do together… I wanted to hear the screams… I wanted to see the high society ponies panic just a little bit. I wanted to see them stressed out and worried and afraid.” 

Barley, a gentlepony, reached over and closed Luna’s mouth, causing the blue alicorn’s teeth to click together. He cleared his throat, coughed, and then, with a heavy grunt, he poured himself a glass of wine from the cask. 

“I had dreams of Bucky turning the ballroom floor into an ice skating rink. I invited Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich with the hopes of absolute mayhem this year. This was going to be the year… I was counting on it. I was so certain that Buckminster would talk you into it. I… this… this is not what I expected at all.” 

“I did not come to wreck the gala because I want their trust so badly,” Luna said in a shrill, pained voice. Her ears pinned back against her skull. “I have made so many mistakes. I would rather suffer in silence than betray their trust… or yours.” 

“I am so sorry, Luna.” 

“I am too, Sister.” 

“Might I join your party?” Celestia asked. 

“Can you behave?” Luna replied. “So far, this has been a very quiet shindig.” 

“I like the ponies at this party better,” was Celestia’s honest reply. 

“Dance with me?” Luna asked, taking a step forwards. She set Barley down upon a large triangular cushion, gave him an apologetic smile, and then gave her sister an eager glance. 

“I would be delighted.” Celestia stepped forwards and bowed her head. “Next year, you will get an invitation… I did not know… I’m so sorry—” 

“We shall discuss this later.” Luna extended one wing and wiped her eyes. She looked at Odin and Belisama. “If we could have a little music, please…” 

Lifting his bow and his fiddle, Odin made ready to give the sisters a song to remember. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 883
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The early morning light was rosy, brilliant, and just now coming through the windows. Several bleary eyed ponies yawned, a few sleepy looking griffons opened their beaks, and the younger, newer royals watched as the elder royals cavorted around the room, acting very much like silly ponies. 

“Are you sure you’re not angry with me?” Bucky asked his son, who was sitting beside him. He heard Sentinel yawn, letting out a soft whine as he did so, and Bucky could not help but feel that this was as close as his son came to being ‘cute.’ 

“I dunno, are you still angry with me about the airship incident?” Sentinel smacked his lips and beside him, Twilight Sparkle let out a low chuckle. 

Reaching out his talons, Bucky gave Sentinel, who was sitting on his left, a poke with his folded talon knuckle, keeping his sharp claws away from his son. There was a shocking amount of sass to be found in Sentinel, and Bucky rather liked it. 

“I don’t understand them,” Sentinel said as Luna chased her sister Celestia around the room with a large, hairy spider held in her telekinesis. Celestia was pleading with Luna to be reasonable, to not place the big, hairy spider upon her back. “I’m not angry with you, Father, but I don’t understand what took place last night.” 

“Sentinel,” Twilight began in a low voice, “do you understand what ‘institutionalised thinking’ means?” Twilight Sparkle wrapped her wing around Sentinel’s back and leaned her head down close to Sentinel’s. 

The colt nodded. “A little.” 

“Celestia went through a very trying time while she was all by herself. She was almost a prisoner here in Canterlot. She was stuck making things work. For a very, very long time…” Twilight took a deep breath and her voice dropped down to a hushed whisper, “she had to do whatever she could to keep the peace and make certain that she guarded her long term plans. She became very passive in her protests. She lived in fear of causing too much of a disturbance or losing the favour of those who chose to support her.” 

Beside Sentinel, Bucky hung his head and closed his eyes. 

Twilight continued, “A lot of ponies judge her or condemn her without understanding her, or even making an effort to try and see the world like she does. For a thousand years she had to be very servile and bow to the whims of others. She had to protect what little bit of hope she had for the future. She had to sacrifice everything she had, everything she was, she had to give up the entirety of herself so that she could shelter the tiny spark of hope that she had. She couldn’t afford the risk of upsetting other ponies.” 

Opening his eyes, Bucky lifted his head and in a low, pained voice, his ribs still aching, he said, “Now she is having trouble undoing that old thinking. Those old habits. They’ve had a thousand years to set in. Bad things have been done to her. She’s trying… she’s using Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports to try and rebuild everything, but she is gonna make a lot of mistakes along the way.” Bucky turned and looked at his son. “And you… your duty is to look after her, protect her, and tend to her needs while she stumbles forwards and tries to reconnect with those around her. She’s gonna make mistakes, and sometimes, those mistakes are gonna hurt, but you are going to have to be a good pony and help her along.” 

“Princess Celestia needs to be reborn, like Luna was. She needs a good mental reset. She has some mental illness—” 

“Twilight,” Bucky said in a harsh whisper, “we agreed to keep that between ourselves.” 

“Sentinel is a Prince of Equestria now,” Twilight retorted as she looked at Bucky. “He deserves to know. The more he knows now the better off he will be. He can adjust, take time to think, and plan ahead for the future.” 

“Can she hear us?” Sentinel asked, sounding worried. 

“No.” A sneaky smile spread over Twilight’s muzzle. “Bucky and I created a new spell together… an improved silence spell that causes a powerful aversion on spoken words. She can’t hear us because she doesn’t want to hear us. Neither can Luna.” 

“Both of you are so treacherous.” Sentinel squirmed and let out a whimper. 

“Bucky is treacherous, I’m a good, honest, virtuous pony,” Twilight replied. “I’m the Princess of Friendship. He’s the cold hearted Lord of Winter. Together, we plot against the ruling authorities.”

Beside Sentinel, Bucky snorted and shook his head as he rolled his eyes. 

“Are you really suggesting that Princess Celestia needs to be reborn in fire like Princess Luna was?” Sentinel asked in a squeaky, foalish voice that was filled with fear and doubt. 

“Even Scorch agrees with us. Immortals need new bodies from time to time. Princess Celestia has accrued one thousand years of brain damage. She’s been conditioned far too much and has endured far too much negativity. She needs a chance to be reset, to regrow, to spend time as a foal again, like Luna did, in a warm, loving environment. Give her brain a chance to create new connections and experience new growth.” Twilight ignored Bucky’s cold stare and focused upon Sentinel. 

Letting out a squeak, Sentinel lept from the couch from where he sat between his father and Twilight. He turned and looked at the pair of them, a terrified expression upon his face. “I can’t deal with this… leave me out of it. I understand that I have responsibilities to know certain things, but I want nothing to do with this.” Shaking his head, Sentinel hurried away. 

Watching him go, Twilight heaved a sigh and said, “That went better than expected. I thought he dealt with it rather well. Think he’ll come around in time?” 

Bucky nodded. “I think when Luna speaks to him about it, he’ll be far more receptive…” 



 

Grunting, Piña hefted Brandywine and pulled the foal into an embrace. For a troubling moment, Piña wondered if she should consider Brandywine to be her little sister or her niece. Things got confusing in this family at times. Brandywine, a good natured sort, sat with Piña, her sharp grey eyes peering around the room, and there was something of a smile upon Brandywine’s face as Piña gave her a squeeze. 

There was no denying it, Brandywine was a fat little foal, and she had gained some weight since being born. She had round, chubby cheeks and plump, stubby legs. Piña was quite taken with Brandywine, and loved to cuddle her. She glanced over at Dinky, who was having a bit of a snuggle with little Barley. Dinky’s secret was safe with Piña, Dinky liked little Barley the most. Dinky felt a little guilty about it and the two of them had talked about how Dinky felt bad preferring little Barley over Dizzy or Ditzy. Dizzy cried too much for Dinky’s liking and spit up far too often. Ditzy on the other hand, she was bossy and had mood swings. She could be happy one minute, then throwing a tantrum the next. 

Little Barley mostly just stayed quiet and burbled a bit when he was being held. 

Piña lowered her muzzle down into Brandywine’s mane and inhaled, taking in the scent of milk and the distinctive scent that the recently born foals still had. She rubbed Brandywine’s pudgy, well padded ribs and gave the filly another squeeze. 

Dinky, holding little Barley, looked over at the little griffons she heard peeping. Brennus, Bandua, and Beauregard were all together on a blanket on the floor, huddled together for warmth and for comfort. There was something peculiar about Brennus, and that was the fact that there was a little, teeny tiny, stubby-wubby little horn protruding from his head. Dinky, a curious sort, wondered what a hippogriff with a horn was called. A pony with wings and a horn was called an alicorn, but she doubted that Brennus was an alikitten. It was probably just an odd quirk. But Dinky had hopes that she might be wrong and Brennus would be an all powerful alikitten that would go out and right all of the wrongs with the world, a mythical creature with the size and strength of Lugus and all of the magical power of an alicorn. 

“Piña?” 

Ears perking, Piña turned and looked at her sister. She kept a good grip on Brandywine so the plump foal wouldn’t topple over. She rested her chin upon the top of Brandywine’s head and felt peaceful as she listened to the foal’s soft breathing. 

“Do you think we’ll encounter the Hearthfire again?” Dinky asked. 

Heaving a sigh, Piña considered her sister’s words. She wanted to feel it again too. She wanted to the feel the heady lightness, the rush, the indescribable feeling of happiness that came along with it. Piña had one very dangerous thought; it would almost be worth it go out on another dangerous adventure just so that it might happen again. It was like craving sweets—Piña had tried a taste and it had left her wanting more. She wondered if it was worth the risk. 

“Piña?” 

Lifting her head, Piña looked at Dinky. 

“Piña, I’m scared… it’s hard to put into words, Piña.” Dinky gave Barley a squeeze and the little colt let out a cheerful burble. “Piña, what if we’ve already done the most important things we’ll ever do with our lives? We’ve rid the world of Sombra and then we killed the Hag.” 

“Would peace and quiet really be so awful?” Piña asked. 

For the longest time, Dinky was silent, but after clearing her throat, Dinky replied, “Yes.” A pained expression crept over Dinky’s face. “I want to know I’m doing good, Piña. I want to feel the Hearthfire again too… I… like the way… I like the way it makes me feel. The rush of power… Daddy says it’s okay to love the feeling of power and to crave it, but I should always examine my motivations and my reasons for wanting it. I don’t want it for personal gain… I just want to feel good… and I want to know I’m doing right.” 

Sighing, Piña began absentmindedly rubbing Brandywine’s stomach, causing the foal to melt in her embrace, and one stubby, chubby little hind leg kicked and jittered with each circle of Piña’s hoof. 

“When I was dancing with Twist last night, I felt weird—” 

“Dinky, feeling a little weird in the crotch is normal when we dance,” Piña said. “It means you like somepony.” 

Muzzle crinkling, Dinky let out a nervous giggle. “Well, there was that, but I… I felt weird in a different way. Twist is a really good friend. She’s almost blind and she’s kinda helpless. And as I danced with her, I realised how important she was to me.” Dinky sucked in a deep breath and looked Piña in the eye, staving off Piña’s sarcastic remark. “Not just her, but everypony. She’s a helpless, almost blind little filly and there are things in the world that can and will hurt her.” 

“And you don’t want to let that happen.” Piña’s head bobbed in understanding of Dinky’s words. 

“Piña, bad things are gonna happen… and I’m already messed up. I already have nightmares. I think I’m becoming like Daddy… all messed up from bad things that happen. Since I’m already messed up, since I’m already having trouble, I figure it can’t hurt me to keep going. Keep fighting. If I keep fighting, if I face the darkness, then that means another can have a peaceful, happy life. I’m already messed up, so I’m no big loss.” 

Feeling sad, but not understanding why, Piña gazed into her sister Dinky’s eyes. She watched as the corner of Dinky’s eye twitched and she could see the muscles in Dinky’s forelegs bunch up as she squeezed little Barley closer and tighter. Piña realised that Dinky was right—Dinky was already gone. 

And Piña understood that she was too.
	
> Chapter 884 (a new answer appears)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Where did the time go? There was so little time to do anything. Bucky hurried along, almost pronking through the field, his long, lean, misshapen body lurching through the grass. He was holding Crisis in front of him in a bright blue-green telekinesis bubble. It seemed like only a few days ago they had been in Canterlot, the gala had taken place, now there was an invasion to plan for, things to do, and a promise to keep. Bucky wasn’t about to screw this one up. He was going to be there, this was important, and nothing on Granum or in Tartarus would stop him from being there with his son. Not on this day. 

Sentinel, now home, was being knighted by Apple Bloom. A quiet, simple ceremony, just as Sentinel had wanted. Bucky had not known about this, that Sentinel had asked Luna for this very thing. Bucky had assumed that said knighthood might have been done at the gala, but this was better. 

As Bucky hurried along, Crisis giggled as she looked at her daddy, her little forelegs reached out and she tried to grab Bucky’s face. Her teeth, both rows, top and bottom, were visible. The double rows of teeth were unsettling to most ponies, but Bucky found that he liked them. It made her adorable. 

At last, he made it to the quiet memorial garden behind the mead hall. A number of ponies and griffons were there already. A few other entities as well. Bucky, still moving, wearing no heavy cloak in the sunlight, darted ahead, hoping that he was not scolded for being a few minutes late. 

He saw Apple Bloom grinning at him as he moved to Derpy’s side. The grey pegasus mare was sitting on a blanket, minding the foals, and getting some sun. Ditzy Doo was awake, aware, and looking around, or at least, Bucky thought she was looking around. It was hard to tell because of her eyes. Bucky sighed, perhaps a pair of glasses might fix that. 

There were a lot of foals present here, a few griffon cubs, there was quite a crowd for it being such a small, private, intimate event. There were a few things that Bucky didn’t understand, and he hoped that there would be an explanation later. Like the fact that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the other two crusaders, were wearing small, delicate wooden circlets that matched Apple Bloom’s wooden crown. Bucky was certain there was some kind of story there. He sat down beside Derpy and heard a happy wicker. 

He hadn’t messed up. 

Setting down Crisis, Bucky smiled at Sentinel. The colt was wearing an eyepatch over his empty left eye. He had the full range of movement with his face once more. Chrysalis had done a fantastic job of reconstructing his face. Not too far away, Bucky heard Lyra weeping, a soft, almost apologetic sound, and the unicorn mare had her face buried against Bon Bon. 

Looking a little sleepy in the sun, Princess Luna cleared her throat. “We have come together on this most solemn occasion to bear witness to the knighting of this most valiant warrior. There is much I could talk about; his noble spirit, his gentleness, his many deeds, his campaign against the rats, his growth, but I fear a long speech would ruin the mood.” 

Several foals could be heard letting out sighs of relief. 

Bucky’s heart swelled with pride. Sentinel was sitting with Boadicea, his future queen, and Diamond Tiara, his future consort, one on either side of him. Bucky watched as he leaned over and said something in Boadicea’s ear, and then into Diamond Tiara’s. Then Bucky saw something that made his blood run cold. 

Sentinel looked terrified. He could see it plain as day on Sentinel’s face. Reaching out, he grabbed Crisis as if she was a stuffy bear and hugged her close. Crisis, sensing her father’s fear, let out a guttural hiss that threatened to loosen several sphincters. Several ponies and a few griffons jumped from the sound. 

“Are we ready to begin?” Odin asked. The old griffon was sitting in the grass and a large mug of foamy mead was sitting beside him. The older griffon reached out and touched Belisama, who also sat beside him on his other side. 

Apple Bloom nodded. “I think we are.” She turned and looked at Rumble, who was standing not far away, and then at her fellow crusaders. After a moment of staring, she turned and looked at Sentinel. “I’m a little nervous.” 

“This doesn’t need to be fancy, Princess Apple Bloom.” Luna’s voice was soft, comforting, and patient. “Just go with what you know. We have practiced this a bit. You will do fine.” 

Sighing, Apple Bloom nodded once more. She moved towards Sentinel and she saw him step away from Boadicea and Diamond Tiara. Her throat was dry and she was still scared out of her mind from the hiss she had heard just a few minutes ago. Turning her head left, she saw Fluttershy and Discord hovering together, clinging to one another, and Fluttershy’s red and yellow eyes were glistening with tears. 

Apple Bloom was feeling a little misty herself. She didn’t know what to say. This was beyond her ken, her understanding. She looked over at Bucky, who looked frantic as he squeezed Crisis, who didn’t seem to mind that her father was attempting to crush her. And then, Apple Bloom’s gaze fell upon her sister, Applejack. Apple Bloom took a deep breath and stared into her sister’s green eyes. She saw a soft smile of encouragement on Applejack’s freckled face. 

Applejack mouthed the words, “Keep it simple,” in total silence. 

The nervous knot in Apple Bloom’s stomach eased up a little bit. She took another step closer to Sentinel and cleared her throat before she addressed him. “Sentinel, are you my friend?” 

The colt bowed his head. “Of course I am.” 

“As my friend, do you promise to look after me, my better interests, and everything I hold dear?” Apple Bloom asked. 

“All of that and more,” Sentinel replied, his head still bowed. 

“Ooh, this is confusing because you’re a prince and this feels funny, me asking you to serve me.” Apple Bloom’s face contorted and her muzzle wrinkled. “Sentinel, son of Buckminster Bitters, do you Pinkie Pie Promise to do your duties for me?” It was the most serious sort of oath that Apple Bloom could think of, and her words were said without even a trace of a smile. 

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Sentinel replied with a solemness that matched Apple Bloom’s. As he spoke, he slapped his right hoof into his good right eye. 

Somewhere, off to Apple Bloom’s left, a pony started sobbing. Pinkie Pie by the sounds of it. Apple Bloom gulped and tried to ignore the distraction. “Sentinel, I trust you more than just about any other pony. I know you’ll do right by me. Be my defender, Sentinel. Be my knight.” 

Sentinel bowed his head a little lower. “Yes, of course. My life for you.” 

Leaning forward, Apple Bloom, not knowing what else to do, gave Sentinel a kiss on the right side of his face, just below his eye. She didn’t have wings to do the whole wing touch thing that the princesses did when they knighted somepony, and somehow, a friendly kiss felt more meaningful. 

Apple Bloom backed away, her legs feeling shaky and weak. Something had happened when her lips had touched him, some magic, She was still feeling it. Her earth pony senses tingled. “Try not to do any more stupid stuff, okay?” 

Sentinel raised his head, gave Apple Bloom a half smirk, and nodded. 

“But if something stupid has to be done, you come and get me, and we’ll go off and do something stupid together, a’ight?” Apple Bloom could feel several pairs of eyes staring at her… not the good sort of staring either. She ignored them and focused on Sentinel. This was her ceremony, and her knight and she was going to do as she pleased. 

“As you wish,” Sentinel replied, his half smirk fading. 

Tearing up, Apple Bloom backed away from Sentinel as her eyes began leaking. She stumbled a bit, turned, and was caught by Rumble. A second later, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle piled in around her, and there was a fierce group hug. 

Sentinel lifted his head high and his surviving eye opened wide. “Princess Luna, I am ready to accept my responsibility. I will do my duty. I am ready to perform my penance for my foolishness. Let us do what must be done.” 

Bucky’s breath caught in his throat and he squeezed Crisis a little harder. Her internal armor plating did a fine job of protecting her. If anything, she was enjoying the attention. A wide grin was on her face and she did her best to creep out onlookers by revealing her terrifying shovel shaped teeth. 

Odin rose from his spot in the grass and came forward, joining Princess Luna as she moved to Sentinel’s side. The colt was shaking, his knees almost knocking, and Bucky desperately wanted to know what was going on, but he was rooted to the spot with fear. Real fear. 

“This won’t hurt, will it?” Sentinel asked. 

“No,” Luna replied in a gentle voice. 

“Will this destroy me? Like Twilight? Will I lose my body and be remade?” Sentinel’s voice was a terrified squeak. 

“No,” Luna said again. 

“Will I change? Will my eye grow back? What will happen?” Sentinel almost jumped out of his skin as Luna kneeled down into the grass beside him. “I’m so scared, Luna… I want to do this, but I’m scared… I’m so scared of what will happen!” 

“This is a minor change, Sentinel… it will make your outside match what is already on the inside. The worst you might experience is some discomfort as it grows and you undergo the change.” Luna wrapped her wings around Sentinel, drew him close, and cradled his body in her forelegs. She closed her eyes and pressed her face down to Sentinel’s touching him cheek to cheek. 

Odin, saying nothing, piled in with the ponies and wrapped his forelegs around Sentinel’s neck. The old griffon looked happy, but also tired, weary, as if something had exhausted him and had made him old again. 

Bucky let out a gibbering whimper of fear as Derpy grabbed him and held him close, mindful of his still healing ribs. Tourmaline had jump started the healing process, but they were still quite tender. 

“Bucky, be still and let this happen,” Derpy whispered, trying to soothe her husband. 

“And on this day of spring, a day when the Princess of Growth held court, Equestria was graced with a new alicorn, Sentinel, Lord of the Hunt.” Amaranth sat down beside Belisama after making her way through the crowd. “Let all who bear witness to this event be blessed and know peace.” 

Reaching out her talons, Belisama clutched Amaranth’s leg as her whole body trembled. The griffoness, who had become quite emotional, began to cry, letting out sad little peeps as she did so. 

His vision clouded over with tears, Bucky watched as he felt the deep magic move through his body. It struck him like a train and every magic sensitive pony present jumped. He felt immense pressure in his ears and down in his throat where many of his thaumaturgical organs were located. 

“I feel funny,” Sentinel said in a soft voice as a glittering silver-blue glow surrounded his body. “What will happen?” 

“Just a minor change,” Odin said as his talons began to glow with eldritch fire. “Just think of it as a means to give focus to the magic you already have inside of you. The horn will make the magic flow, like water from a faucet.” 

The colt went still, his eye closed, and for a moment, he almost looked as though he was sleeping in Princess Luna’s embrace. The blue alicorn of the night had her muzzle pressed to Sentinel’s ear and was whispering soft words into it. 

The earth trembled and there was a rumbling sound. Odin, who had been revitalised quite a bit, began to look ancient once more, many of his black and silver feathers turning white and silver once again. 

Bucky, clinging to Crisis, went limp in Derpy’s embrace, his ears drooping down to the sides of his face, his lips moving, but no words came out. Derpy, always an attentive, gentle sort, began to wipe Bucky’s face with her wings as tears flowed down his scaly cheeks. 

There was a gasp from the gathered crowd when a surprising blue growth peeked out from Sentinel’s rusty looking mane. A stubby horn appeared, illuminated in a faint indigo glow. It was the same shade of blue as his wings. Sentinel’s whole body convulsed for a moment, he shuddered, shook, and then went still as Luna soothed him. 

“Today, there is a new defender of Equestria,” Amaranth said as the change continued to happen. “He does this from his own free will. He made this choice. Several years ago, a pegasus filly named Cadance battled a terrible foe known as Prismia. For this, Cadance was made an alicorn. Cadance chose to serve. For Twilight Sparkle, the choice was made for her, to save her life. For Apple Bloom, she has decided to have the change happen later, but make no mistake, she serves the purpose she was born to do. For Sentinel… he has chosen to embrace his duties now, to accept what must happen for his great work to be done.”

Amaranth leveled her gaze at Bucky and Bucky could hear her voice inside of his head. Buckminster has rejected his place as War, the fourth and final answer. The answer that nopony wanted. It is my hope that Sentinel fulfills the empty space that you have left behind. Perhaps this will staunch the flow of chaos into the empty place that you have left. 

With an almost deafening crackle, Amaranth revealed herself to the crowd, the earth pony becoming a massive alicorn of impressive build. Her whole body blazed with eldritch fire. Belisama yowled as she fled, scampering away. 

Amaranth, also known as Clotho, lifted her regal head high and looked at Sentinel. “Rise, Prince Sentinel, Lord of the Hunt. There are vermin that threaten the peaceful ponies of this land, and it is now your duty to raise an army to rid us of these pests!” 
	
> Chapter 885 (MORTAL COMBAT!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Scorned Mare’s new nacelle was a thing of beauty. The griffons had accomplished much and now the final touches were being put in place. It still needed enchantment aplenty. It was long, sleek, and made from silvery, shiny aluminium. It was almost blade like to slice through the skies for maximum forwards speed. The Scorned Mare’s body hung from semi rigid struts below the nacelle. 

For Bucky, it looked too much like The Scorned Mare in the dream, the horrible dream of the battle where the alicorn of war was fated to die. Bucky supposed that it was one more piece of the future put into place. His mind thought of a bloodied Spitfire as he had seen her in the dream. He also thought of the battle and his suicide run with The Scorned Mare. 

In just a few days, he and The Scorned Mare would be off to The Badlands, to join up with Queen Chrysalis, and together, they would strike back against the Night Stallion. His heart grew heavier and heavier as the day drew nearer and nearer. He had the support of his wives. He had the support of those he loved. He even had the support of Twilight Sparkle, even though she hated what was being done. 

Only a few more days until Bucky did what many felt was the most atrocious act of war he had ever conceived. He took no comfort in the fact that this is what he was born to do. He was War. Every time he bumped into little Cadance, she reminded him to be a good pony and then gave him the most hopeful smile. And every time she did that, he felt a little more ashamed, his heart grew a little heavier, and he hated himself a little bit more. 

His stewing self hatred was condensing into self loathing—Cadance was coming with him for the invasion, and there, she would serve many roles. Powering up the changelings, being there to support for him, and if necessary, a weapon to take him down if something went wrong. 

There were two things he was completely powerless to resist or combat. One of them was Cadance and her love taps, the other was Fluttershy and her ‘boops of kindness.’ One touch could lay him low and he had no means of defense. It had been discovered by accident one day during meditation practice. Boop. Bucky had been in a bad mood, was a little too sarcastic for his own good, had refused to calm down… and boop. Down he had went, right down to the floor, helpless as a newborn foal. There was much speculation about what had happened, but for Bucky, it was pretty cut and dry. As War, he was vulnerable to Love and Kindness. It was an anathema to him. A bane. Cadance was weaponised Love and Fluttershy was pure, concentrated, weaponised Kindness of the draconequus variety. 

Bucky had even tried pitting his talent against her, thinking of some way to counteract her, and he had come up with nothing, which scared him a great deal for some reason, but he could not explain why. 

So much to do, so much to do, so much to plan for and do… 



 

“Dearest Buckminster…” 

He was quite surprised to see Princess Celestia, of that, there could be no doubt. But the sight of her was panic inducing. She was grinning in the most alarming way. He hadn’t been expecting to meet her. Something was going on at the school, and Bucky now guessed it was her arrival that had thrown everything into a tizzy. Lots of students and parents were here on the school grounds and there was quite a commotion. 

“My dearest, sweetest, most lovable little Buckminster Beauregard Bitters…” 

Uh oh! Bucky’s instincts told him to run from his Auntie. Run run run, and not look back. But running from a pegasus or a part-pegasus was to invite disaster. His mouth went dry as he looked at her. Celestia was a pony that he could defeat in theory, but he had no desire to do so. He loved her, for good or for ill, he loved her, he adored her, and would do anything for her. 

“Before you go on… vacation…” Princess Celestia said the word with as much grace and aplomb she could muster, “there is one little matter that we must attend to, you dirty, no good, foul mouthed little clever pony.” 

Bucky whined as he assumed a more submissive posture. His long, somewhat distorted spine slumped, his ears drooped, and he tucked his tail between his legs. He backed away from the door to his office within the school, where he had found Princess Celestia after detecting her distinctive magical signature. He had come expecting pranks. 

“Sunset Shimmer would very much like a rematch with you, and I have come to see that said rematch happens in a fair way, without cheating.” Saying nothing else, Princess Celestia snatched Bucky up in her magic and then took off with him, striding through the hallways, whistling a cheerful tune as she hauled her nephew to his doom. 



 

“There will always be consequences for cheating,” Princess Celestia said in a booming, magically amplified voice. “While your beloved Headmaster might encourage clever thinking, and while he might be teaching you how to fight to win, I am here to show you that if you are unfair to your fellow ponies in a civilised contest, there will be consequences.” 

The gathered crowd cheered. 

“I am so glad that so many of you could show up on such short notice. Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, and thank you, Elements of Harmony for rounding up such a lively crowd.” Celestia paused for a moment to allow for the cheering to die down. “The first time this fight happened, our dearest and most beloved Buckminster here used the duel to teach a lesson. I am here to do the same. Fights in the dueling league will be honourable and that rule will be strictly enforced… by me if necessary, or, stars help you, by Luna.” 

The big white alicorn paused for a moment to allow her words to sink in. The other Headmistress of the Royal Pony Sisters’ School for Gifted Unicorns was known to have a rather spirited defense of her school. 

Standing near Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer had a terrible grin upon her muzzle. Beside her, Trixie stood, and on Trixie’s back sat Bartleby the griffon, who was busy brushing Trixie’s mane in a public display of affection, his bright toucan beak looking resplendent beneath Celestia’s sun. 

Shining Armor, Witching Hour, and Tiddlywinks were setting up the dueling grounds, making certain that everything was safe for witnesses and bystanders. Bucky, still suspended in Celestia’s magic, watched them work. He wasn’t sure what to do… part of him wanted to throw the fight and give Sunset an easy victory, but she would be insulted by that. He had to fight back, but he wasn’t in the mood to fight. He was in the mood to love… to woo… spring was in the air and there was a kelpie that was blossoming. There was a griffoness that would run from him if he yowled the right way and gave chase. There were earth ponies to squeeze, a unicorn to make jokes with, and a grey pegasus to grope. 

It was too nice a day for combat. 

“This time, we are going to see a representative example of what to expect when two young foals duel one another. With exceptions, most foals do not know much in the way of fancy flash bang combat magic.” Princess Celestia looked over at Dinky, who was watching with wide eyes. Beside her, there was a colt named Limelight who Princess Celestia had brought down with her from Canterlot. “The last time, Bucky and Sunset faced each other as powerful type fours… fearsome combat casters, the absolute peak of unicorn capability.” 

As Princess Celestia spoke, Sunset Shimmer was lifted in a golden glow and the startled mare let out a fearful squeak. Princess Celestia held aloft her niece and her nephew over her head so that the crowd could see them. 

Sunset Shimmer glanced at Bucky, and he could see something in her gaze: Regret. 

A shudder went through the crowd as powerful deep magic filled the air. Bucky let out a worried squeak when he felt the magic seize his body. He was all too familiar with this sensation. Not again. He let out a sigh of resignation as he began shrinking. He felt his powerful magic fleeing him. He was becoming smaller, his body was shrinking, and by extension, so was his thaumaturgic system. Beside him, Sunset Shimmer was also shrinking, becoming an adorable foal, while he became something else, something not quite as adorable and of questionable equine origins. 

This was gonna suck… 

There was a loud, excited squeal from an excited grey pegasus in the crowd. Bucky sighed in resignation. Yep, this was gonna suck. Derpy absolutely adored him as a foal and she was going to hug the stuffing out of him later, of that there could be no doubt. 

Equestria’s newest alicorn was sitting, surrounded by his friends, and Bucky waved hello to his son. It was strange, seeing a bat winged alicorn with a tiny, stubby blue horn. While Sentinel had a horn, he didn’t have regular magic. Sentinel only had umbral magic, shadow magic, and that was it. The horn merely acted as a focus, making his shadow magic potent. Bucky took a moment to pause and reflect upon the fact that Sentinel had a blue horn, but did not have a blue pelt. Sentinel’s pelt was a sooty brown colour, and so, it stood to reason that his horn should be the same colour as his pelt, as it was for unicorns and alicorns. But Sentinel had blue leathery wings, a dark, dingy blue. It was a mystery to Bucky and he pondered it while the crowd cheered. 

There were a few last minute checks for safety and Bucky felt his hooves and his now tiny talons touch the grass. Sunset Shimmer was about the same age as him, but she was bigger. Far bigger. She was downright intimidating. But they were about the same age, Bucky knew that Celestia was being fair. 

Bucky realised that being this small, he would maybe get a couple of good discharges, followed by a few intermediate spells. He began to ponder if he should spend his good discharges on offense or defense. He wondered what sort of shield he might muster in this tiny body. Sunset Shimmer, known as The Obliterator, would probably open with a real doozy of a spell. Bucky, who was falling back on his cunning, because he had nothing else, began to think of the different ways he might counter her opener. 

“Oh Master,” Sunset said in a squeaky, fillyish voice, “this has gone horribly wrong.” 

“Minion, do what you must. I brought this upon the both of us,” Bucky replied in a shrill, coltish voice. “I order you to give them a good show. Respect my wishes.” 

“Very well, Master.” Sunset bowed her head and a sly smile spread over her tiny muzzle. 

“Remember the rules. Fight fairly. Be good sports. Be gracious winners and good losers. Set an example for your students.” Princess Celestia scooted the two foals into the makeshift combat arena. “Also, Sunset Shimmer, I am counting on you to win. I have a wager against my sister, Luna—” 

“What?” Bucky asked in a high pitched squeak. 

“Oh come now, Buckminster, Luna and I are as different as night and day. To get things accomplished without bickering, we place wagers. You and Sunset are playing an unwitting part of the peace process. Be glad!” Using her hoof, Celestia gave Bucky a nudge on his backside. 

“We are good to go,” Shining Armor reported as he sat down next to Cadance. 

“Well then,” Celestia replied, “begin!” 

Knowing that Sunset Shimmer would try to toast him, Bucky made ready his defenses. He began to cast a defensive shield, but his effort fizzled. He was too small, too little. A shower of sparks spurted from Sunset’s horn and he could see the confused look upon her face. 

Bucky, a quick, cunning sort, resorted to pure simplicity. He let go of the most powerful zap spell he could muster. A blue bolt of electricity arced to Sunset, her body convulsed as her mane stood on end and her tail fluffed out in all directions. Harper could let go with a better zap, but Bucky was pretty proud of his effort. 

Sunset Shimmer staggered away, knowing that zap spells had limited range. As she made a hasty retreat, she raised a simple shield spell, something that would protect against the most simple of spells and cantrips, and not much else. 

Bucky, realising that he could probably deal with whatever it was that Sunset could dish out, didn’t bother with a shield spell, but saved his energy for offensive spells. All he had to do was make her cry for mercy and that seemed easy enough. 

He advanced, his lips curled away from his teeny, tiny fangs, and his horn, which was still quite large for his size, had a menacing glow. As anticipated, Sunset fired a spell at him. Bucky laughed as he shrugged it off, nothing happened. His own natural magical resistance had saved him, or so he thought. 

There was a devious grin on Sunset’s muzzle as Bucky began to dance in the grass. He let out a squeaky stream of profanity that sounded just awful coming from a foal as the hot hoof spell took hold. He danced about on three legs and waved his talons around as he tried to cool them off. The painful prank had left him vulnerable. 

Sunset Shimmer moved in for the kill, her horn glowing, but nothing happened. She gave it all she had, but all that came out were sparks. This was bad, so very bad, and she knew it. Bucky would get her back for the hot hoof spell once he recovered. 

Much to Sunset’s horror, she sensed the spell that Bucky was now trying to cast as his horn glowed with a brilliant intensity. The dreaded and much feared Turd Typhoon Three Thousand! She recoiled in terror and let out a frightened squeak as Bucky tried to let go with one of his signature spells. 

Sunset felt her guts began to gurgle and she quailed in panic. Bucky was a horrible, horrible pony. She wondered if her Auntie Celery would save her from this somehow, or if she could even be saved. This was going to be embarrassing in the worst possible way. 

Sunset was just about out of magic and she wasn’t sure if she could keep casting anyway, considering the nightmare that was about to happen. She saw Bucky try to cast something else and his horn fizzled. She came to the slow realisation that he had expended himself. 

As she reached this realisation, she farted, a wet sounding woosher, but there was no leakage. The horrible, no good, awful Turd Typhoon Three Thousand had just given her wicked terrific flatulence. Sunset Shimmer, who had learned many dreadful lessons from Bucky, now had a plan… a horrible plan. 



 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, Sunset Shimmer launched herself at him. His signature spell hadn’t had much effect, much to Bucky’s disappointment. He tried to brace himself as Sunset flew at him. She was bigger than him, and then, much to Bucky’s terror, he gave thought to what he had done to her. As she soared through the air, she farted again. 

“Oh feck me,” Bucky mumbled, mere seconds before Sunset slammed into him. 

He tried to scramble away, but Sunset wasn’t just bigger than him, she was also stronger. She had him in a headlock in no time. His smaller, lithe body wiggled as he tried to squirm free, and as he wiggled against her, pressing against her stomach, she farted again. 

“Ugh!” Bucky grunted as Sunset redoubled her grip. 

“Cry mercy!” Sunset demanded as she applied pressure. 

“Never, Sunset Shitter!” 

“That’s it, you die now!” Sunset, incensed, did the worst thing she could think of. She stuck out her tongue and jammed it down inside of Bucky’s ear, shuddering as she tasted bitter ear wax. She felt Bucky come to life in her embrace, kicking, fighting, and more importantly, she heard him squeal, it was one of the most satisfying sounds she had ever listened to in her whole life. 

Sunset wrestled Bucky down into the grass, trying to pin him down, but he was small, long of body, and surprisingly slippery. She felt another bowel shuddering bout of crepitation go whooshing out of her, and Bucky squealed again. Sunset had a plan, the most horrible plan ever, a plan worthy of her terrible warlock master. 

“Cry mercy, or I’ll sit on your head and fart!” Sunset cried. 

“You wouldn’t dare!” Bucky shouted as he struggled to get free. He managed to fire off a weak zap spell, and once more, Sunset’s mane stood on end. He groaned when her convulsions caused another ripping sound to come from her backside. 

To take the fight out of Bucky, Sunset reared up and suplexed him, a move that she had watched Ripple do a thousand times. His long, supple body flexed in a most unnatural way and Bucky let out a pained cry. Sunset felt bad, she knew his ribs were still tender, but she was in this to win. She pounced again and threw herself on top of Bucky to pin him. 

“I’ll light your fart on fire!” Bucky said, threatening Sunset Shimmer. 

“Fine then, you’ll burn in the fires of my ass!” Sunset replied. 

“Dirty pool, Minion!” Bucky bucked and wiggled as he tried to break free. 

“Cry mercy!” Sunset demanded as she tried to get a better grip on Bucky. She felt another whooshy goosher rip free from her backside. The smell was horrendous. She felt Bucky’s talons get ahold of her mane and give it a tug. “Oh, you dirty little mane puller! What sort of lesson are you trying to teach your foals!” 

“How to win at any cost!” Bucky cried as he gave another good hard yank. 

Sunset squealed in pain, but did not let go, determined to give the wretched mane puller a good lesson. She got Bucky up into the air again and then piledrived him into the grass, another move she had watched Ripple do a thousand times. The force of the blow caused yet another fart to slip free from her convulsing sphincter. At least Bucky had let go of her mane. 

Seeing that Bucky had no compunction against fighting dirty, Sunset clamped her teeth down upon his ear, giving him a good nip, knowing full well that he would never bite her back with his sharp teeth, confident in her master’s love for her. 

Much to her shock, she felt something brush up against her stomach, which startled her, and then she felt one of her teats being pinched between two scaly fingers. There was a painful squeeze followed by a twist. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Sunset’s cry could be heard far and wide. 

Standing near the arena, Princess Celestia clucked her tongue and shook her head in disapproval. There was dirty pool and then there was dirty pool. She intended to have a quiet word with Bucky later. There were just some things that one should not do.

Sunset, gritting her teeth, snatched up Bucky in her forelegs, rose up on her hind legs, and then with much effort, she got him into a full nelson, another move she had watched Ripple do. She smashed him face down into the grass, held him, and waited for the fight to boil out of him. 

Sunset did not ask for mercy. She was not in the mood for quarter. She suplexed Bucky again, then grabbed his limp form. She flung him around a bit, wearing him out further, and when she was confident that he was done for, she threw him down one last time as she felt the pressure in her guts bubbling into a crescendo. 

Her lip curled back in a snarl, Sunset Shimmer plopped her plot crack down upon Bucky’s head, sitting on his cheek and his ear. Grunting, straining, Sunset let rip, shooting the nightmarish wind right down Bucky’s ear. She heard a disgusted cry from Bucky. 

“Mercy…” Bucky tapped the grass three times with his talons. 

Not content, not after the teaty twister, Sunset let go again, and she felt Bucky writhe beneath her. She felt a growing feeling of triumph. She had given Bucky a good thrashing for once. She had won. She had laid her master low, something that every student must do at some point. Even better, she had done it in public of all places, and there were witnesses of her triumphant moment. 

“I surrender,” Bucky whined from beneath Sunset’s armed and loaded backside, “you have defeated me. Minion, I am proud of you.” 

Sunset reveled in her moment of victory, having just heard the sweetest words she would ever know, and as she bounced up and down with ecstatic glee, her convulsing innards let go another cannon blast. 

Rising up, grinning, Sunset, deciding to be a good sport about this, helped Bucky get up to his hooves. After getting him up, she threw her forelegs around his neck and hugged him. Much to her relief, she felt him hugging her back, and she let out a fillyish giggle. 

Princess Celestia strode out into the arena towards the two foals, who were hugging one another after what was, without a doubt, one of the most vicious battles between two foals that also had a heartwarming ending. “Well, that’s not quite the duel I had in mind, but that is the sort of victory I like to see…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 886
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sitting in a chair at the kitchen table, Bucky, still a foal, ate some cookies to help him recover from the recent magical expenditure. Beside him, Sunset Shimmer was also sitting in a chair, eating cookies, and she had an embarrassed smile upon her face. Photos had been taken, so many photos of the two of them being young and cute together. Photos that, no doubt, Princess Celestia was going to show off very much like a proud aunt… or a proud parent. 

It made Bucky cringe just thinking about it. Princess Celestia had stricken his parents from the record and she was now the listed guardian of both he and Sunset. He supposed that like any guardian, or parent, she wanted photos of her foals. He knew that she had all kinds of embarrassing photos of Twilight Sparkle; he had seen them with his own eyes. 

This body, tiny, young, was almost alien in comparison to his adult body. He was filled with strange emotions, feelings, everything was larger, doors loomed large over him and were intimidating. Staircases seemed far too big. Chairs were difficult things that one had to climb up into or get help. 

But the emotions were the worst. Everything was so raw, so unfiltered, everything felt so strong. It was overwhelming. The heady rush of emotion when Derpy held him and kissed him. It wasn’t even romantic love that he was feeling. Just… love. As it was. It was as confusing as it was thrilling. It made this small body sing with happiness, an indescribable joy, and Bucky did not know what to make of it. 

He felt it now looking at Sunset as she ate her cookies. An overwhelming feeling of joy, of love, of affection, a profound sensation of happiness that did not exist in his adult body. It was so strong that Bucky felt like laughing and crying at the same time. 

It was a feeling so profound and so thought provoking that Bucky thought for a moment that every adult should be made to experience foalhood again for a while, just to refresh their perspectives and gain some insight into what it meant to be little. It was so easy to forget. The adult mind pushed away all of those old worries and insecurities. All of those things that seemed so important as a foal were never given a second thought as an adult. Those feelings of love and joy went dull over time and lost their impact. 

It was good to have the clock rolled back to recall a simpler time. 

Overcome with a feeling that he could not bear any longer, Bucky launched his tiny foal body out of his chair and hurled himself at Sunset. He slammed into her once more, wrapped his stubby limbs around her, and fell to the floor with her. Being so little, it didn’t hurt too much, and he clung to her as he was overcome with tears. 

Confused, Sunset Shimmer lay on the floor with Bucky, blinking, trying to figure out what was going on. She sat up and pulled Bucky with her, who had a tenacious grip on her, and he refused to let go. 

“I love you so much,” Bucky said in a voice that sounded both happy and sad. “I’m so sorry I hurt you… please forgive me.” 

Sunset swallowed the bit of cookie she was chewing and returned Bucky’s embrace. 

“I don’t know what came over me… I feel bad.” Bucky ran his now tiny talons through Sunset’s mane. “I’m so sorry… I can’t help how I am sometimes and I don’t like being me.” 

“Shh,” Sunset replied as she pulled the smaller foal closer. 

“You… you’re like… my sister or something. I love you so much. I’ve come to depend so much on you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Tears began to trickle down Bucky’s cheeks and there was a strange happy-sad smile upon his crooked, somewhat misshapen muzzle. 

In his tiny body, it was somehow even more apparent that he was no longer quite an equine. Something about him was almost grotesque. His front leg with the talons was longer than his other equine legs. His neck was almost too long for his body, making his withers appear to be too far back from his head. 

Hearing hooves upon the floor, Bucky buried his face into Sunset’s neck, almost feeling ashamed that somepony might see them like this. He tried to hide himself away, and for a moment, he had almost perfect understanding of Peekaboo’s foalish logic. If she couldn’t see a pony, then a pony couldn’t see her. Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and squeezed Sunset even tighter as he worried about hearing the sounds of a camera going off. 

Bucky’s ears perked when he heard Sunset gasp and he gulped down a shuddering sob that was threatening to work itself loose somehow. They were much harder to hold back in this tiny, helpless body that didn’t seem to have any sort of emotion filters. 

He thought back upon the unicorn he used to be. When he had been this age long ago, he would have never done this. He was already avoiding his fellow students as much as possible. He had already become cold and somewhat distant. He pushed others away, foolishly believing that he couldn’t be hurt if he didn’t let others reach him. 

And now, holding Sunset, Bucky understood all too well what he had been missing, how starved he had been for affection, how much he had hurt himself. He understood all too well his own pain. The realisation smashed his fragile psyche and violently ripped open the floodgates. 

A low screeching howl could be heard coming from Bucky’s throat, a sound that was certainly not equine in nature. It was unidentifiable for species, but was a sound of raw, unfiltered pain. 

There was a thump beside Bucky, he felt it, and a part of his brain recognised that it was a heavy thump. It had weight to it. He felt feathers on his back and his whole body tensed. He pressed his muzzle even deeper into the fuzzy folds of Sunset Shimmer’s neck. 

His ears picked up the sounds of more hooves as he moved, his body slid over the smooth kitchen floor that now had a few scattered cookie crumbs near the table where he and Sunset had landed together. 

He felt himself being pressed up against something warm, and he realised that he and Sunset were being held in a strong, long pair of forelegs. Somepony was laying on the floor and cradling them both, and Bucky knew who. A burning feeling of shame consumed him. He had a lot of regrets. There were many regrets. So many regrets. And in this body, in this form, he felt them all so keenly. The pain was overwhelming. He squirmed, but he knew that there was no getting away from this. 

“Is it selfish that I wish that the public could see you like this?” 

Unable to reply, Bucky squeezed his eyes shut a little tighter and tried to endure the burning feeling of shame that poured through him like a flood. He felt his stomach doing flip flops and he worried that he might very well toss his cookies. 

“I love the both of you so much. Both of you represent some of my worst mistakes. Some of my worst regrets. I wish so much and so often that I had done things differently. Looking back, my heart feels heavy when I can see all of the times that I failed both of you in hindsight.” 

Adding to Bucky’s emotional turmoil, he realised that Sunset Shimmer was now crying. He could feel it. Her barrel hitched up and down just like his was doing. There were too many feelings present for such a small, helpless body, and perhaps the oddest thing about the situation was, Bucky still felt a feeling of happiness mixed in with everything else. 

“I hurt you so much… I’m so sorry… no amount of power was worth losing you.” 

Sunset’s words were squeaks of pain that made Bucky’s ears twitch with each syllable. He wasn’t sure if he could endure it. Her voice was raw, emotional, and some part of him realised that she was experiencing the same foalish flood of emotions that he was. Angling his head, rooting around with his muzzle against her jaw, Bucky gave Sunset a very snotty kiss and then buried his face against her neck once more. 

He and Sunset were smooshed together in such a way that if they had been adults, they might very well be freaking out about the embrace that they shared, but were now oblivious to. Had he been in a more reflective state of remembrance, he might have thought about the lesson that Derpy had given him so long ago when she had held him in the bathtub. 

“When two ponies are close, things are bound to touch. It happens. Some touches are just a touch and should be ignored, other touches have meaning.” At the time, the grey mare’s words were a profound lesson for Bucky, a lesson that he needed, words that he had needed to hear. Now, around a year later, the words spoken in the bathtub during that tender, loving embrace when he had been so profoundly broken had proven themselves true. 

“My little orphans of circumstance… how I love you so.” 

The words were choked with emotion and Bucky felt two lips pressed up against his ear. There was a soft kiss and then he heard Sunset gasp, he felt her squirm as her ear was tickled, and he heard the soft sounds of a loving smooch being applied. 

Bucky felt sharp pangs of conscience. He was about to do something bad, something awful, and he wasn’t so sure that he deserved to be loved. This smaller body felt guilt the same way it felt everything else… in an emotional flood that threatened to overwhelm him. 

But there was something else. Something that made him feel joyful. He was still loved, even if he didn’t deserve it. He leaned back into the soothing, comforting warmth of an alicorn pelt, something that was entirely unlike anything else. It was silky, slick feeling, it was perfect. He leaned back, resting his misshapen spine, and pulled Sunset closer. He felt himself being squeezed by her. 

It was odd, perhaps even ironic that Bucky’s life could be defined by what he did not have. He had been born into wealth and privilege that few could even comprehend. He had the right family, the right name, he had won the birth lottery. An observer might see everything that Bucky had been born with and assumed that he was happy.

But that was not the case. Bucky’s entire life was defined by something he did not have. Something he lacked. Something that was vital to his growth and development, but was missing. Because of this, he had grown up stunted, both physically, from his mother’s horrendous act of poisoning him, and emotionally, from neglect. 

Celestia had tried to reach him even then, but he had pushed her away. Now, he clung to a fellow pony, one of the few that could understand the depths of his suffering, emptiness, and pain, and the pair of them allowed the white alicorn with the broken, damaged heart to comfort them, as the three of them all shared a profound understanding of one another. Each of them knew emptiness, loss, suffering, loneliness, each of them had experienced a wretched, painful existence. Each of them were stunted in their own way, and now, each of them were trying to recover. 

Bucky was all too aware of his many mistakes, of everything he had done wrong. There were things he regretted, things he wished he had done a different way, there were events that he knew he had made worse. He had done things that he could not say that he was sorry for. But, in spite of all of these things, he was loved. 

In this small body, this small, vulnerable body that had no emotional defenses and felt everything in a raw, unfiltered state, he could feel love. He wiggled around and gave Sunset another snotty kiss as her sobs subsided into wet, boogery snuffles. 

“Oh, I think they’d both appreciate that, thank you… that is very considerate of you.” 

Bucky felt Sunset being lifted away from him. He strained to pull her closer, but then realised that she wasn’t being taken away from him, her head was being lifted. A steaming hot cloth brushed up against his cheek and Bucky, feeling brave, feeling hopeful, opened his eyes. There was a sky blue wing with a wash rag wiping Sunset’s face, cleaning her nose, and scrubbing away cookie crumbs. He heard Sunset grumbling in protest. 

A second later, a clean wash cloth was produced and Bucky went blind as his face was being scrubbed. The cloth was hot, wet, and soothing. He felt it on his eyes, on his nose, it rubbed all over his muzzle, getting him cleaned up. When it was pulled away, Bucky opened his eyes and was greeted by two rose coloured eyes beneath a rainbow mane peering at him. 

“Feel better?” Rainbow Dash asked. 

Bucky nodded and then sniffled a bit. 

“Don’t tell anypony, but Twilight mighta sorta kinda turned Flash into a foal so he could play with Glass Slipper.” Rainbow Dash’s lips pressed into a straight line for a minute and she shook her head. “He was fine for a while, but then he got overwhelmed. I guess this is just something that happens sometimes. It’s probably rough being little.” Rainbow shrugged and stood up. Extending her wing, she flicked the cloth she was holding into the sink and then looked over at Twilight. “Now, Twilight, do it now while they are at their most adorable!” 

Bucky, cradled in Celestia’s forelegs with Sunset Shimmer, almost went blind when the camera flash went off. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 887
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Heaving a sigh, Sentinel eyed the warning sign and then groaned. “No spell casting in the alchemy wing. Violators will be toad.” Something about the sign irked him. The place where his eyepatch rested upon his face itched, it rubbed something awful against his skin while his pelt was growing back in. He had some fuzzy, stubbly growth, but he had a long way to go before he was a shaggy pony again. 

Hurrying along, Sentinel got moving again so he could make his way out of the alchemy wing. He wanted things to settle back into whatever passed as normal again. Yesterday, his father and Sunset Shimmer had beaten the stuffing out of one another, and had done so as foals. 

There was a demon roaming around the school, a demon by the name of Dee. Word had it that if you left your notes unattended, they would be alphabetised. Unattended rucksacks would be organised. Papers mysteriously had spelling mistakes corrected around him and mathematical formulae corrected itself under mysterious circumstances. Sentinel had met him twice now, and he found that he rather liked Dee, who was a little shy, quiet, and oh so very polite. 

As he went down the hallway, he passed Sweet Pea and Growler, who were inseparable. Growler had grown a bit, it seems that everybody had grown a bit. Spring was in the air and there was a rampant race for maturity going on for many of the students. He waved at Growler with his wing, and saw Growler wave back with his paw. 

Continuing down the hall, he saw Daylight Shadow and Written Sound having an animated discussion with an earth pony and a diamond dog named Neon Blitz. The earth pony wasn’t actually an earth pony. Sentinel wasn’t quite sure how he knew, but he knew that the supposed earth pony was actually a unicorn named Mask. The four of them were having a muted discussion about the proposal for a scaled down version of the Stable of Representatives for school and having the students learn democratic processes through action, rather than just a textbook. There was something of a debate over just how much say students should have over the governance of their school. 

“Sentinel?” 

Hearing the shrill, somewhat squeaky voice of Cloudstreaker, Sentinel came to a halt with a sigh. He turned to look at her, having to turn his whole head so he could see her. She was wearing glasses, and it was clear that she had been crying. 

“Yes?” Sentinel replied, now feeling a little worried. 

“I, uh, was just, uh, wondering something,” Cloudstreaker said in a low voice as she took one shy step closer. 

“And that is?” Sentinel could sense that something was wrong. He turned his whole body so he could focus his right eye on the pegasus filly, and not have to twist his neck around. 

“Has anybody teased you about having just one eye?” Cloudstreaker asked in a voice that was nothing more than a breath with faint, soft, hardly spoken syllables. The little filly’s head dropped and she stared down at her front hooves. As she did so, her glasses slid down a ways on her muzzle. 

Sentinel blinked. Poor Cloudstreaker had such a big crush on him. He felt a genuine pang of sympathy for her. It was hard being a pegasus and having bad eyes. No doubt, she had been getting teased and was now looking for comfort. His stomach gurgled, it was lunchtime, but that would have to wait it seemed. 

“Who teased you?” Sentinel asked. 

Cloudstreaker’s head lifted and she looked at Sentinel. “Nevermind, it was a dumb question—” 

“Don’t you dare walk away from me.” Sentinel’s ears pitched forwards. “Who teased you? Cloudstreaker, I want you to tell me.” 

“Oh, he’s already been dealt with.” Cloudstreaker cleared her throat. “My brother is in more trouble. I think he’s going to be suspended. Rumble broke his jaw.” 

“Oh.” Sentinel, feeling irritated, took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. 

“Why must some pegasi be so mean?” Cloudstreaker asked. She shook her head and her eyes turned shiny with tears. “Some of them are just so mean… it… it makes me not want to be one!” 

Reaching out his wing, Sentinel adjusted Cloudstreaker’s glasses for her, and then patted her cheek. “Don’t say that. You should never say that. Cloudstreaker…” 

“Yes?” 

“As tough as it might be, you need to be the sort of pegasus that you wish that others would be. Lead by example.” Sentinel realised that Cloudstreaker was wearing perfume. She too, had joined the swift race towards maturity, or at least was taking those first few perilous steps. 

“How do I do that?” Cloudstreaker asked. 

“Well, see, that’s the tricky part,” Sentinel replied, “it is different for everypony. This is something you have to discover for yourself. The pegasi flocks as we know them, they’re not perfect. They have some problems, but that is true for any group or gathering of ponies.” 

“I think I’m starting to hate them,” Cloudstreaker admitted. 

“That’s wrong,” Sentinel said in a gentle voice, not wanting to disturb the upset filly. 

“I know, but I can’t help it.” Cloudstreaker began to sniffle, almost lost control of her feelings, but then pulled back just before the tears formed a flood. “I can’t imagine what it must be like for your mother. She has bad eyes.” 

Sentinel nodded. He was well aware of this issue. His little sister, she too, had bad eyes. He tried not to think about how other little pegasi were going to tease her. 

“Why do we react the way we do?” Cloudstreaker asked in a voice that was shrill with emotion. “When Rumble got angry, when my brother did what he did, Scootaloo got all worked up too. When he went diving in to defend me, Scootaloo went right in after him. I dunno what’s going to happen to her. She put Cyclone Surge into a headlock so Rumble could punch him better.” 

“Oh… bother...” Sentinel was about to say more, but swallowed his words. With the two of them together, this became Raptor business. He was going to have to have a long talk with Table Scraps and Leftovers. They both should have known better. Sentinel decided the best tactic was a diversion. “Cloudstreaker, would you like to come and have lunch with me? I’m supposed to meet up with Boadicea and Diamond Tiara… I’m sure they won’t mind if you join us.” 

“Really?” 

“I’m positive.”

“Thank you, Sentinel.” 

Sentinel watched as the filly’s lower lip began to quiver. It made him feel squirmy and uncomfortable. “Come on, let’s go. If we’re any later, they’ll be out of chocolate milk.” 



 

Folding in her wings, Ripple held her head high and had a look around the junkyard. Beside her, Lugus was sorting himself out. Ripple was in a fantastic mood—she had been excused from her classes so she could take care of business. 

She looked around the junkyard with a budding sense of optimism. She heard Lugus let out a groan beside her and Ripple, being in a good mood, laughed. Ripple’s task was simple; she had to secure an airship. But there were restrictions, which was why Lugus was groaning. There was a budget and they were not allowed to turn the airship over to Rising Star so it could be turned into a technological marvel. 

The airship was to be constructed, maintained, and serviced by the Raptors. Ripple had met the challenge with a sense of eagerness—Lugus had met the challenge with a loud squawk. 

All around the pair were rusting hulks. Some were scrap heaps from the winter war. Some of the hulls had massive holes in them. Most were missing gasbags. All of them were junk. Ripple scooted off, hopeful that she would find a diamond in the rough. Lugus stood where he landed, his beak open, and a defeated look was upon his face. 

Bounding along, almost pronking, Ripple stopped at the first hulk she came to. No gasbag, several large holes in the hull, it had three levels, a galley, and spacious crew quarters according to the sign. It also needed an engine and an overhaul of the electrical system. 

The sign also said it cost eighty thousand gold bits. 

Ripple let out a wordless whine. She had not expected junk to be so expensive. The scrapped hull was a little smaller than The Scorned Mare. She peered through the gaping hole in the hull and into what appeared to be a common room. There were tables and chairs bolted to the floor. Eighty thousand bits for this hunk of junk? It was time to move on. 

The next ship over was torn in half. The front half and the back half both sat side by side to one another. There was no gasbag. Ripple could see by looking into the open end that this ship had four levels, was roomy, spacious, and was a real fixer-upper. She eyed the sign and her mouth fell open. 

One hundred and ten thousand gold bits. This sign promised all of the spells were still intact. 

Ripple turned her head and looked at Lugus, who hadn’t moved. This was just a little bit out of their price range. The budget couldn’t be stretched that far. This was going to be harder than she thought. 

“Need some help, little lady?” a pleasant voice asked in a slow drawl. 

Turning, Ripple saw a greasy looking earth pony. She smiled, trying to be polite, and introduced herself. “My name is Squire Cornet Ripple. I’m in need of an airship.” 

“I know who you are,” the earth pony replied. “My name is Goober.” The earth pony spat out a glop of chewing tobacco juice. “I done seen you in the papers. My pa is real fond of you and yer husband and that Buckminster fellow.” 

“Why thank you,” Ripple said, being as gracious as possible even though she was somewhat disgusted. 

“So you need an airship?” Goober gave Ripple a shrewd look. “I done reckon I have what yer lookin’ for. She ain’t much, but she’ll probably fit yer budget. How much you got?” 

“I have a purchasing budget of ten thousand gold bits to secure a craft.” 

“Oh.” Goober spat out another glop of tobacco juice. “Oh, well, that ship I had in mind, that’s not gonna work for ya. Yer gonna need something else, but I think I can still help you. Miss, if you don’t mind, follow me.” 



 

“Now, I can’t give this ship away, but I’m a patriot, yes I am. I do what I can for my country, just like every good, honest, kind hearted earth pony should.” Goober came to a stop in front of a craft. 

Ripple stopped and took it all in. The ship in front of her was a skiff. It was a flat bottomed ship that had no belowdecks. It was a deck and not much else. The deck was solid, sturdy looking, and much to Ripple’s surprise, it was plate steel below with battered, beat up wood above. There was a deflated gasbag all wadded up behind the craft. Near the back, there was a wooden cabin, well, it was more of a wooden shack that was trying to pass as a cabin. There was a prop engine in the rear that appeared to be electrical. 

“Now, she don’t look like much, but her enchantments are sound. She needs a new battery bank, the old ones were all fried and leaking. She has a forty eight volt system. The gasbag is functional, but it requires that clouds be stuffed in by the crew. She’s thirty nine feet long and fourteen feet wide. She’s faster than she looks because there ain’t much drag for a skiff. She still has her old weapon mounts, but the lightning cannons were stripped off when she was scrapped.” 

Ripple raised her eyebrow and looked at Goober. She watched him spit again and almost shuddered in disgust. She waited, wondering how much he would ask for. A part of her wished that she was prettier, she might get a better deal. 

“I’ll tell you what,” Goober said to Ripple, “‘cause I’m the patriotic type, I’ll let this go for eight thousand gold bits. I don’t want my pa whippin’ my backside ‘cause I tried to take advantage of the good ponies helping us and looking after us. I can’t go any lower… honest. The ship has a listed value of seventeen thousand.” 

Ripple became aware of Lugus right beside her and she was so startled that she almost jumped out of her skin. The big griffon was stealthy, too stealthy, and Ripple hated when he crept up on her unawares. 

“That’s a decent deal,” Lugus said in a low voice as he studied the craft. 

Ripple nodded. “I thought this would be more difficult.” She looked at Goober. “I think we have a deal. I’ll arrange to have the payment delivered.” 

“There’s some paperwork to draw up. You’ll need a licensed pilot to sign the papers and you’ll need to pay about a thousand bits to register the craft to get it off the lot. That money don’t go to us, I’m sorry… we ain’t trying to cheat nopony, that’s just Crown regulations.” Goober gave Ripple an apologetic glance. 

“I understand,” Rippled replied. “So, Lugus, what do you think?” 

“I think it will serve our needs. This will move the Raptors around. We’ll need to rebuild the cabin, but we have woodworkers. The wood needs a lot of work, but we can fix that.” Lugus turned his head and looked at Goober. “Thank you.” 

“Aw, shucks, don’t mention it. Nopony else would ever buy this hunk of junk. Skiffs just ain’t popular, even though they’re practical. I’m just glad to get rid of it. I’ll get to work on it and see that she gets a good once over before the purchase is made final.” Goober grinned, revealing tobacco stained teeth, and his lip bulged tight around the wad in his jaw. 

“Thank you, Goober!” Ripple grinned and her wings flapped against her sides. “I’m gonna call her The Bittersweet Sparkle!” 

Lugus, who covered his eyes with his talons, let out a groan. 
	
> Chapter 888
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing in the wet spring grass, her hooves and her fetlocks soaked with morning dew, Berry Punch watched as the frigate descended. On the side of the ship was Keg Smasher’s cutie mark; three stacked barrels. Not far away from Berry was Barley O’Blivion, who was bleary eyed and half awake, and near Barley, held by magic, was Berry Pinch, who had been given a mild sedative for the event. The little filly was eating the dewy grass and her teeth were stained green. It was the sort of thing that civilised ponies tended to frown upon, as there were better, more civilised things to eat. 

At least the frigate wasn’t very big and it wouldn’t take too much effort to fill it up for the return trip to the Shetlands. Berry Punch glanced at Barley and wondered if they were doing the right thing. Doubts plagued her and she had been second guessing herself for days now. She looked at Berry Pinch and felt bad for the little unicorn filly. Berry thought of her potential, not just as a pony, but as a unicorn. She thought about the Shetlands… and while things were getting better, things were improving, there was a long ways to go before things were good. There was going to be a magic school up there and a military school as well. With the military school for foals there would also be a military academy for soldiers. 

Berry felt a shaggy body rub against her and without turning her head to look she knew that Bucky was with her. She leaned against him, glad for him, thankful that he was there. This was one of the most difficult things she would ever be expected to do. 

Startled for no apparent reason, Berry Pinch let out a bleating cry and took off running. Barley reacted on reflex, grabbing her with his magic, and pulling her back. She began to kick and writhe against her magical restraints, all while letting out heartbreaking mewls of terror. 

Ripple, who had been out for a run before school started, slowed down, trotted over, and came to a stop not far away from Barley. The pegasus filly was sweaty, her legs were wet with dew, and her feathers glistened with water droplets. 

The frigate dropped a few tethers, several griffons rushed out to grab the tethers, and then went to work connecting the tethers to stakes that had been driven deep into the ground to ensure that any tethered airship would be secured. 

“This isn’t how I wanted this to end,” Berry muttered to herself in a low whisper through thick lips that quivered with all of the different emotions she was feeling. “I feel like I’ve failed.” 



 

Sour Mash wasn’t quite as Berry remembered her. The mare was a little rounder around the middle. It would be a long while before Sour Mash gave birth, and Berry guessed that the foal in her belly was made during the long months of winter. It was as good of a way as any to pass the time. Berry wondered if it happened during a certain pink moon. 

“Cousin!” Sour Mash cried as she charged forwards, her hooves pounding divots in the grass. 

A second later, the two mares collided with a solid thump, sat down in the grass together, and started hugging one another. Kisses were exchanged, and Berry Punch ran her foreleg along Sour Mash’s belly. 

“How ya been, Sour?” Berry asked. 

“With all the boring peace, I’ve done a lot less soldiering and a lot more teaching. Been teaching little fillies and colts how to march, how to wear armor, and how to fight dirty.” Sour Mash gave Berry a ferocious squeeze. “Also been learning how to use a rifle. It’s a little tricky for us earth ponies, the griffon remnants have been modifying guns to make them easier for us earth ponies to use, but we have to be standing on our hind hooves.” 

Sour Mash, seeing Berry Pinch, disentangled herself from Berry, got to her hooves, and took a few steps towards the filly. Berry, watching her cousin, also got up, sucked in a deep breath, and waited. Bucky, who was feeling just a tiny bit jealous about not getting a hug from a pleasantly pregnant mare, sat in the grass, looking impassive, and wondering what was about to happen next. 

“Aw shucks, she’s a little feral,” Sour Mash said in a low voice. 

Letting out soft whinnies, Sour Mash approached Berry Pinch, keeping her head low. Berry Pinch watched with wide, curious eyes, but made no move to do anything; she just stood staring. Barley stood nearby, one eyebrow raised, and he kept a good magical grip on the filly. 

“Stop with the magic,” Sour Mash said to Barley. 

Biting his lip, Barley figured that the worst that might happen was that wee Pinchy might get a little run before he or Bucky caught her again. His magic ceased to flow and Pinchy went free. 

The foal panicked and let out a shrill bleating cry. She looked around, ready to run, and Sour Mash let out a loud wicker. Berry Pinch’s eyes narrowed and the little filly stood there, confused, scared, and she too, let out a loud wicker. Sour Mash drew closer, and Berry Pinch bared her teeth. Sour Mash bared her teeth right back. 

Berry Punch tensed, fearing the worst. Shetlanders were rough and tumble sorts. Mainlanders had a hard time understanding the ways of the Shetlanders'. But even Berry was appalled by what took place. Berry Pinch’s head lunged out and she delivered a quick, painful nip to Sour Mash’s leg, and in return, Sour Mash’s head shot downwards, her teeth locked on to Berry Pinch’s croup, and the hardy mare savagely bit the filly in the tender place just above her tail. 

There was a startled gasp from Bucky, and Berry Punch had to control herself, lest she go over and deliver a savage beatdown to her cousin. Barley looked shocked. Ripple stood with her mouth hanging open. 

To make matters worse, Berry Pinch bit Sour Mash again, this time, drawing blood. Sour Mash let out a pained grunt as she went to return the bite. This time, she bit Berry Pinch on the neck, clamping her teeth down upon the filly, and not letting go. The foal squealed in pain, kicked and thrashed, and then let out a bleating cry of submission. Sour Mash let go of the filly, who then darted down beneath Sour Mash and began to peer out between the mare’s legs. 

Berry Punch felt as much anger as she did confusion. She didn’t know what had just happened, but she knew that it was important to swallow her anger so that she could learn something. She had learned long ago not to rush to judgment, a lesson both she and Derpy had shared in depth. Something important had taken place here. Wee Pinchy, after having a look around, was now eating grass again and acting as if the savage exchange of biting had never happened. 

“What just happened?” Berry asked in a low voice, hoping that she wouldn’t spook Berry Pinch. 

“You’ve been away from the isles for too long, Cousin,” Sour Mash replied.

“Maybe I have,” Berry said, heaving a sigh as she spoke. “Mind explaining to us what just took place?” 

Sour Mash’s face split into a wide grin, revealing that she was missing a few teeth. Her tail swished around behind her, and the place where she had been bitten dribbled blood. Sour Mash looked about half feral herself. Her mane was mussed, uncombed, and her pelt was unbrushed and matted. 

“The little one here was scared and looking for an alpha. She needed a pony in charge to protect her, so she could relax a little,” Sour Mash said in a voice that was filled with bubbling laughter. 

“You mean to tell me… that if’n I had just bitten her back, she might’ve behaved her wee little self?” Barley gave Sour Mash an incredulous stare. 

“It all goes back to how we used to be,” Sour Mash said to Barley. “We have a lot of ferals and half ferals on the isles. You can see how the little wee mobs talk to one another. Lots of biting and kicking until one of the little foals makes it clear that they’re in charge. After that, peace takes over.” 

“Life is too dangerous to risk injuries with continual fighting in the herd,” Berry said, feeling stupid. “Why didn’t I think about this? I took psychology and studied herd behaviour in university.” Berry Punch sat down in the grass and facehoofed. 

“I dinnae get what is goin’ on.” Barley also sat down in the grass and he watched as Berry Pinch nibbled the tender greenery around Sour Mash’s hooves. 

“Well, the little pink fetlock biter can’t come right out and say ‘I’m scared’ or ‘I don’t know if I trust you’ so she speaks with the old language—” 

“Herd speak,” Berry interjected, trying to be helpful. 

Sour Mash nodded, and then continued, “She can’t come right out and say what she wants. When she challenges you like that, she’s trying to see if you’re tough enough to keep her safe so she can relax her guard and let you do the protecting. In a wild, feral herd, a few keep watch while the others eat.” 

Barley blinked and his shaggy eyebrows drooped, right along with his old, saggy ears. He glanced at Berry Pinch. “But… that’s an awful thing to do, biting the sass right out of her.” 

“It’s not as abusive as letting her stay terrified and not knowing if she’s safe,” Sour Mash replied. 

“But yer hurtin’ her something awful,” Barley retorted. 

“Well, so were you… how long has she spent being scared out of her mind, not knowing if she was in a safe herd or not?” Sour Mash reached beneath her with her foreleg and gave Berry Pinch an affectionate pat, which made the foal let out a happy sounding bleat from around a mouthful of grass. 

“I… I… oh, sod it.” Barley’s head drooped and his neck bent. “Feckin’ Tartarus, life gets complicated sometimes.” 

“So… to keep her feeling safe and happy… we have to… we have to show her that we’re tough enough to lead?” Ripple asked. 

“Is that so hard to understand?” Sour Mash replied as she continued to stroke Berry Pinch, who made no attempt to bite, kick, or flee. “If she comes home with me… with everything else going on…” Sour Mash blinked a few times and her gaze focused upon Berry Punch. “I’ll do my best to look after her, that’s what family does, but she’s probably going to find her way into a foal gang. In time, she’ll learn enough through mimicry that she’ll know a few words, and her curiousity will lure her into being with other, not to so wild ponies, but she’s gonna grow up as a feral. I’m sorry, I have so much going on at home. I mean, I will do everything I can, but I have a lot of other little foals to look after that are just like her. It’s part of what we do in Buckminster’s Ball Buster Bitch Brigade. He wanted us to look after orphans and we do.” 

Berry Punch looked at her husband, Bucky, then at Barley, and then, with a heavy heart, she looked at Berry Pinch. She thought about the time that Sukari almost bit right through Bucky’s fetlock. Sukari was half feral but she had come around. Berry Pinch was almost all feral and Berry thought about Sour Mash’s words, that Berry Pinch would come around in time. 

That time would be a whole lot longer if she grew up in a feral foal gang. She would grow up in a mob and spend the rest of her life being half crazed, half feral, and any sort of domestication she had would come along later, when the need to be with a herd of ponies drove her to find new herds as she grew. 

Berry Punch had been so confident about this course of action, so sure of herself. She had convinced herself that this was the right thing to do, but now, she was having some doubts. Some serious doubts. She thought about her own foals, she thought about Sentinel, Dinky, and Piña. She thought about Harper, Cadance, Peekaboo, and Sukari. So many foals, all of which needed so much care and attention. Little Sukari had come around. She was still coming around. Doctor Mawu had talked about behaviour specialists and doctors and therapeutic foster care and all that other complicated minotaur shite. Sour Mash had brought Berry Pinch under control with just a few bites—she had used the oldest language of equines to reach Berry Pinch and speak to her. The old primal language that had somehow kept existing through the ages. 

The thoughtful mare looked at Bucky, her husband. Berry liked it when he was rough, when he established his dominance. When he got a mouthful of her mane and gave it a tug. It awoke something deep within her, something primal, something that had its own voice. She shivered and the dewy grass she was sitting in tickled delicated places; her nethers, her teats, she could feel the wet, moist fronds brushing against her dock. Berry realised that what she needed right now was a good shag or some strenuous physical activity to clear her head so she could think straight. 

“If Sour Mash can make wee Pinchy keep behaving herself, maybe we should all go inside, get comfortable in the kitchen, and maybe have some tea or coffee,” Barley suggested. “I for one, would like to get to know my distant cousin, Sour Mash.” 

Berry Punch, who found herself in agreement, nodded. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 889
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a bit of tea and something of a second breakfast, Berry Punch was back outside with Berry Pinch and the others. Berry Pinch was being well behaved—which was a wonderful thing, but it came at a terrible price. Whenever wee little Pinchy got startled, which was often, Sour Mash nipped her. It upset Berry a great deal and frazzled her nerves. Berry could not deny that it was effective though, after a show of dominance, little Pinchy settled down and acted almost like a normal foal. 

Which is what she was doing right now at this moment. Berry Pinch was laying in the grass, soaking up the sun, something she hadn’t been able to do for a while. She spent most of her time locked into a room with Barley. The old stallion was also having himself a nice moment in the sun, he was sprawled out on his side in the grass, his eyes closed, letting the warmth soak into his old bones. 

Overhead, Rainbow Dash was teaching a group of students advanced evasion skills, how to stay safe in a crowded sky. Berry Punch watched the little pegasi and griffons as they flew, almost crashing into one another, flying in very tight formations to simulate traffic. Berry sighed and felt good about life. Rainbow Dash might have had the destiny to be the world’s fastest pegasus, but she made for an excellent teacher. A pony was more than their cutie mark. Berry Punch rubbed her stomach, feeling a strange feeling of emptiness, and thought about how much happier Rainbow Dash appeared to be as a teacher than a weather captain. 

As Berry watched the excitement overhead, Derpy was taking this chance to get a little sunshine as well. The littlest ones were in the house, being watched over by Magpie and Broom. They would need to be fed soon, but Derpy was making the most of her time outside, and she was chatting with Sour Mash, along with Yew Wood. Yew and Sour were old friends with a lot of catching up to do. 

The breeze was warm and coming in from the south; it was the gusts that came down from the north that were still pretty chilly. Berry Punch almost felt sleepy. Everything was idyllic, calm, everything was perfect. Had Berry been paying attention, she might of had her guard up, because with this family, this clan, calm was a sign that something was amiss. 

And that something amiss was Ripple, who was not in school like she should have been. The bell had rung and classes were in session. Piña had whined and pleaded, right along with Dinky, as both of them wanted to spend time with Sour Mash, but they had been sent off to school with the assurance that Sour Mash would be there when school was let out. 

Ripple, a clever sort, who had spent just as much time learning from Bucky as she did from Lugus, waited until everypony’s guard was down, until nopony was paying attention, and that was when Ripple chose to strike. 

Wings flapping, the charcoal grey filly with the light blue mane and tail came streaking down over the yard, her forelegs extended, her hind legs stretched out behind her, and with what could only be described as kinesthetic perfection, she snatched up Berry Pinch in her forelegs and flew off with her. The startled filly kicked and struggled, but Ripple nipped wee Pinchy on the ear and the filly calmed a bit, but still looked quite upset about her situation. 

Before anypony else could react, Bucky had already turned into an owl and was flying off after Ripple. Yew started to fly after them, but was pulled down by Derpy. Overhead, Rainbow Dash and her flight school foals all came to a halt and watched as the drama unfolded. 

“Oh sod it,” Berry muttered as she realised that things were about to get interesting. As she spoke, she saw a streak of blue go shooting off from the phoenix tree, and she heard a worried squawk. “Can’t this family just go for one damn day without doing something stupid? It’s like we live in defiance of the sign over the front door!” 

Freezerburn was now in the air, which made things even more interesting. 



 

“Ripple, darling, are you having one of your episodes? Are you feeling unloved and neglected again?” Bucky the owl asked as he flapped after Ripple. “Look, I understand the nesting feeling can be difficult for a pegasus filly your age—” 

“I’m not having an episode!” Ripple’s retort was shouted back into the wind at Bucky and her face became rather angry looking. “I’m not letting you take her back to the Shetlands! I can’t!” 

Bucky noticed that the had a companion in the air with him. He glanced over at Freezerburn and was glad to see his old friend. He poured on a little more speed and drew closer to Ripple. “Ripple, honey, I’m sorry that I can’t take your word that you’re not having an episode… if you’re not going crazy again, then you need to tell me what you’re doing and make me understand—” 

“Don’t patronise me!” Ripple cried as she squeezed Berry Pinch, who looked more than a little confused and startled by all of this. “She can’t go back to the Shetlands! I won’t let it happen!” 

Bucky could hear the frantic fear in Ripple’s voice. Turning his head, he saw that Ripple was now between him and Freezerburn. Bucky began to wonder if perhaps Ripple was under too much stress, too much pressure to perform, too much school work, too much of everything, and wasn’t getting enough of her special family time to keep her leveled out… and sane. Of course, he was no paragon of sanity either. 

“Ripple, just talk some sense and everything will be fine, I promise,” Bucky said. 

“She’ll have no choices if she goes back to the Shetlands! No choices at all… I know what happens to little fillies that are left unattended… the little colts dominate them and mount them and sex happens and she’ll have no say in the matter and she’ll grow up in a shite place thinking that everything that happens to her is normal and I CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN!” 

Flapping his wings, Bucky came to the stunning realisation that Ripple was fantastically sane. Sure, she was having a poor response to her anxieties, but he found that he could not blame her. 

“I watched it happen… I even warned Dinky and Piña to stay away from the other foals and the little colts and I watched the feral gangs and what they did and the fillies that grow up in those gangs are always so submissive and stallions talk about how they make good wives once they’re broke in and I can’t let you do this to her!” 

Bucky felt his heart breaking as Ripple started sobbing. She wasn’t crazy though. Ripple seemed to be in possession of all of her senses and all of her marbles. He watched as Ripple nipped Berry Pinch’s ear once more to make the filly submit and be still. In this surreal moment, Bucky loved Ripple more than ever. The filly, his filly, was willing to risk everything just to save one pony. 

“Ripple, can you please land so we can talk?” Bucky asked. “I promise, I’ll hear you out and we’ll sort this out, I promise.” 

“No, you’ll send her away and I can’t let that happen… you give me your word that we’ll keep her… otherwise, you can just chase me forever!” Ripple’s tears were torn away from her cheeks and slipped off into her slipstream. 

“Ripple, baby, I can’t promise that… we need to try and sort out what is best for little Pinchy—” 

“Then you can just feck off!” Ripple spat as she zoomed off, leaving a blue contrail in her wake. 

Bucky watched her go for a moment, she was fast… real fast. Almost, but not quite, Rainbow Dash fast. She zoomed off towards the treeline in the direction of Ponyville. For a moment, Bucky wondered if he had made a mistake, but then reconsidered. Making an empty promise and then breaking it would destroy Ripple’s trust. It was better to be honest with her. 

Letting out a screech, Bucky took off in pursuit of Ripple, with Freezerburn flying right beside him. As he flew, he flogged his brain and hoped that he could find some kind of solution to all of this, some conclusion that was beneficial for all involved, including Ripple. He didn’t want her hurt from all of this. She wasn’t being a loony, she was just a filly with far too many hurts, old hurts that haunted her. Bucky pitied her. 

No doubt, Ripple had acted without thinking, and now, she was running with no place to go. Bucky drew a few conclusions, one of them being that Ripple wanted to be caught. Ripple clearly wanted to have a say in this, but was far too emotional to make a rational argument. Being a pegasus, Ripple had resorted to action, most likely because in her emotional state, words may have become difficult for her. Bucky thought of Derpy and the times that the grey mare had bit him multiple times back when they were on the Shetlands, when Bucky was trying to be reasonable about Keg Smasher’s proposal about marriage to Thistle. Derpy had broken down completely and had resorted to nipping to assert her dominance as alpha of the herd. This whole morning had been one big lesson in nonverbal communications among equines. 

As troublesome as they might be on occasion, Bucky found that it was still worth loving pegasi. He chased after Ripple and tried to come up with a plan. As he flew and gave thought to everything, he realised that Ripple did make a valid point. Berry Pinch would grow up with a very different life if she went to the Shetlands, and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to do that to her. 

Having an idea, Bucky landed, became a pony again, and teleported himself back to the farm. He was going to need some help if he was going to make this work. Freezerburn, Bucky’s corrupted phoenix, did not give up pursuit, but continued after Ripple, leaving his chicks in the care of his mate, Philomena. 



 

With a startled cry, Ripple felt herself falling from the sky. Her wings weren’t working very well. She wasn’t very high up, but crashing, even at this low altitude, would be bad. She didn’t want her precious cargo being hurt. She heard a squawk from Freezerburn and she wondered if her father was behind this. 

Before she smashed into the ground, she felt herself suspended in magic. She looked around, frantic, fearful, worried, and sure enough, she saw him. He was standing beside a bright orange pony, Sunset Shimmer. Ripple opened her mouth to protest, but she felt the tickle-prickle of phoenix claws upon her back. A strange feeling of relaxation crept over her and she couldn’t quite remember what it was that she wanted to say. 

She was put down on the ground and Berry Pinch slipped from her forelegs. Ripple tried to grab her before she could run off, but little Pinchy was too fast. The little pink foal wasn’t fast enough to avoid Freezerburn though. The phoenix lept onto Pinchy’s back, but his razor sharp claws did not rend her soft, delicate skin. Berry Pinch toppled down into the grass with a dopey grin, a smile of blissful happiness upon her face. 

Sitting on top of the pink unicorn foal, Freezerburn began to preen himself in the most smug, self assured manner that a corrupted phoenix could muster. He let out a triumphant squawk as Bucky approached. 

Reaching Ripple’s side, Bucky sat down in the grass, took Ripple into his forelegs, and pulled her close. He gave her a warm, paternal smooch, stroked her cheek, and then brushed her short blue mane out of her eyes. 

“Sorry, Daddy…” Ripple mumbled.

“Don’t be sorry,” Bucky replied, “Never be sorry for wanting to protect ponies from harm.” Bucky gave his troublesome pegasus filly another kiss, squeezed her, and then looked over at Sunset Shimmer, who approached Berry Pinch. 

Seeing Sunset, Freezerburn let out a demonic, guttural hiss and spread his wings. 

“Don’t you dare hiss at me, you eyeball plucking, soul slurping abomination!” Sunset’s legs stiffened and she assumed a challenging, aggressive posture. “I just want to see that she’s okay, you horrible, bloody bird!” 

Freezerburn fluffed out, looking insulted, extended one wing, and showed Sunset Shimmer his central primary feather in very much the same way a pegasus would when showing off the ancient symbol of war. 

“You horrible motherplucker!” Sunset gritted her teeth at the blue freezing phoenix. 

Squawking, Freezerburn stood his ground, defying the now angered orange unicorn. 

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Bucky shouted. 

Freezerburn let out a hiss, took wing, and flew off of Berry Pinch. His flight was short and he landed on top of Bucky’s head, perching on Bucky’s horn. After landing, he screeched at Sunset Shimmer, spread his wings, and did his best to look protective. 

Taken by the moment, Ripple began laughing, a drunken sounding laugh as she was still all dopey from the phoenix pheromones. After a good long laugh, She wiggled in Bucky’s embrace and gave her father a kiss.

“You know, Bucky, it occurs to me, if we could have Freezerburn sedate Berry Pinch, she’d be a lot easier to manage.” Sunset tried sitting the filly up, but she flopped over, giggling as she did so. 

“What sort of life would that be?” Bucky asked. 

“Better than life on the Shitelands,” Ripple replied in an almost drunken slur. 

“Ripple, honey, life is a rotten thing sometimes… and sooner or later, you are going to have to make peace with that. From what I know, the feral foal gangs are a way of life on the Shetlands. Yes, awful things happen. But I don’t know if we can look after little Pinchy here.” Bucky heaved a sad sigh and shook his head. 

“Sukari was in a feral gang,” Ripple said in a woozy voice, “your sweet little Sukari… I… want you to think of a gang of little colts dominating her… I want you to think about it… dirty little colts with dirty little dicks, humping at her from both ends, because that’s what those horrible little colts do… I… I had to tell Piña and Dinky about it… I warned them… I warned them… it all starts so early.” 

Ripple’s whole body tensed and Bucky felt a sensation of nausea deep down in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about Sukari being treated that way. He certainly didn’t want to think about it happening to Berry Pinch either. A forlorn sigh slipped from his lips and above him, Freezerburn let out a worried sounding peep. 

“Why doesn’t Keg Smasher do something about this?” Sunset asked.

“How?” Bucky replied. “The sweeps are over. Orphans are now a big problem on the Shetlands. Before, the ferals were rounded up and brought to Equestria. Well, some of them. The ones they caught. Now, with no more sweeps, and with the war and everything that’s happened, the feral gangs are a big problem.” 

Sunset pulled Berry Pinch a little closer and gave the foal a squeeze. “Master, I’m sorry, but I must side with Ripple on this issue. I cannot in good conscience allow you to send Berry Pinch off with Sour Mash.” 

“Yesh!” Ripple’s lips made a flatulent sound as more air than was necessary to say the word escaped them. “Come on Sunset, we can take him… you can toss him around and we’ll tag team him… help me, Sunset! We’ll both fart on his head!” 

“Ripple, I’m not about to pick another fight with Bucky.” Sunset’s brows furrowed and she looked distracted. “I don’t know what to do. This is a tough situation, it throws all of my morals and all of my ethics into a blender and tries to make a smoothie out of them.” 

“What sort of life would little Pinchy have if we kept her doped up all the time? That doesn’t domesticate her. That would just leave her with a raging drug addiction problem and the inability to act normal without said drugs… whatever passes as normal for a foal that cannot function without being medicated.” Bucky, reaching up with his talons, brushed Ripple’s blue mane out of her eyes once more, as it had fallen back down over her face. “How do we care for her? She’s big… big enough to be dangerous, not only to us, but to our other foals. We’re overrun as it is, as much as it pains me to admit it. Berry is right, it’s killing her, and she cries at night in her sleep, but she’s right. At least Berry Pinch will have a chance on the Shetlands. Sour Mash will keep an eye on her and try to domesticate her as time and circumstances allow.” 

“Minotaur shit,” Sunset swore, “that doesn’t fix an alicorn damned thing.” 

“Minion, be mindful of my sweet, innocent little Ripple’s ears.” Somehow, Bucky said this with a straight face. “She’s little, she’s sweet, and she’s girly. I wish to preserve that.” 

Sunset snorted and let out a bitter, angry laugh, which stood out against Ripple’s almost drunken giggle. Sunset looked down at the foal she was holding in her forelegs. Berry Pinch was blitzed from Freezerburn’s touch. The little pink unicorn was giggling and staring with wide eyed wonder at the world around her. 

“Daddy, the world isn’t fair and I don’t like it,” Ripple said, her laughter dying. Now, she sounded a bit more like a crying drunk. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble, honest, I just couldn’t think of anything else to do to get your attention, please don’t be angry with me.” 

“I’m not angry with you, Ripple. You’re not in trouble and I’m kinda proud of you.” Bucky angled his muzzle down and give Ripple another affectionate kiss, then one more for good measure. 

“There things I can’t fix by punching them… I don’t know what to do… it hurts me so much to think about what is going to happen to Pinchy.” Ripple shuddered and wiggled in Bucky’s embrace. “I’ll look after her… I will, I promise… I’ll do all the work, I’ll do everything required, and I’ll keep her safe.” 

“Ripple, baby”—Bucky shook his head and he rubbed Ripple’s neck with his hoof—“we both know that’s not possible. You have school, your training, your life, all of it, is pretty busy. You don’t have the time to look after Pinchy and give her what she needs. None of you do. Loch Skimmer is going to be having a foal of her own soon and we’ll probably be taking care of that one. Loch Skimmer is overloaded with school work, she’s taking nursing lessons so she can be a better paramedic. Sparkler has her job, her school work, and she wants to be a teacher as well. Rising Star… where do I even start with Rising Star. He has his school work, his job in politics, his job in the foundry, and he’s started teaching. As for Bittersweet, from what I understand, she’s one very busy donkey. How would any of you find time to look after little Pinchy? You couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to her. That would be worse than shipping her off to the Shetlands.” 

Ripple, hearing the truth in Bucky’s words, began blubbering. She twisted around in Bucky’s embrace, threw her forelegs around her father’s neck, and wept bitter tears. Freezerburn, looking both annoyed and concerned, lept off of Bucky’s horn and landed atop Ripple’s head. The corrupted phoenix started preening Ripple’s mane to comfort her. 

“But she’s family,” Ripple sobbed, “would you just send me away if I was a problem?” 

Bucky, not knowing how to respond, remained silent and gave Ripple a squeeze. He didn’t know how to console the distraught pegasus filly he was holding. He gave her another fierce kiss, pressing his lips down against her ear to comfort her and let her know that he loved her. 

“Master, I cannot allow this to happen. I can hear it in your voice… you and Berry are going to ship little Pinchy off to the alicorn forsaken islands and I can’t let that happen.” 

“Minion… what are you doing, Minion?” Bucky watched as Sunset got to her hooves. “Minion… hey, you… Sunset… you answer me! What are you doing?” 

But there was no reply. Bucky watched as Sunset snatched up Berry Pinch in her magic and then took off, running towards Ponyville. For the second time today, Berry Pinch was foalnapped by somepony that Bucky loved. For the second time today, somepony had make a rash, foolish decision based on emotion rather than logic. Bucky sighed. Sunset Shimmer did not take the lesson of the family motto to heart. 

Don’t do anything stupid. 

Yep, there was no mistaking it now, Bucky was certain. Sunset, a pony that he loved, had just proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was family. She had passed the test by failing it. She had committed herself to rampant idiocy just like the rest of them. Bucky sighed and gave Ripple another squeeze. 

Before the day was out, Bucky suspected that he too, was going to have to resort to stupidity and he wondered how much Derpy and Bon Bon would lecture him when the inevitable happened. 
	
	
> Chapter 890
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	His apprentice had been gone for hours. Bucky was starting to worry a bit, a real, genuine sense of worry that he tried to push from his mind with the coping techniques that Fluttershy was teaching him. Be calm. He could almost hear Fluttershy’s voice in his ears. Be a good pony. There was lots of deep breathing on his part. Be a good example for your foals. Yep, that was what Bucky was trying to do at the moment. Be a good example. He wasn’t about to fly apart and launch into a blistering tirade that his apprentice was a foal napper. 

Sunset Shimmer was just… foalsitting under creative circumstances. It was a positive thing. Bucky was trying to see the good in it. Barley O’Blivion was getting a much needed day off, some time to rest and recuperate. Poor Barley was covered in bites, many of which had been stitched. Barley needed the rest. Caring for wee Pinchy had been difficult. 

Berry Punch was showing signs of strain as well. She was being a dutiful mother, an attentive host, a considerate fellow-wife, she was going out of her way to be the ideal pony—because that was Berry Punch’s coping mechanism during times of trouble. Work harder. Sour Mash was being shown a lovely time. Berry Pinch was being cared for and the two cousins had plenty of time for catching up. 

Ripple had recovered and been sent back to school after a short, stern lecture by none other than Derpy. The grey mare wasn’t upset at all that Ripple had acted in poor judgment and had snatched up Berry Pinch in an attempted foalnapping. No… Derpy was upset about Ripple missing school. To show her displeasure, Derpy had wing slapped Ripple several times, enough times to draw tears, and when Ripple was truly sorry, Derpy had hugged her, kissed her, hugged her, kissed her once more to say she cared, and then sent her off to school with one final wing slap right across the backside for good measure. 

What hurt Ripple more than the wing slapping was the fact that her punishment had been public and had been done in full view of the school. The sting of a wing slap was nothing compared to public embarrassment and the shared sense of shame that pegasi had. Ripple had goofed—and the head of Ripple’s flock had given her sound punishment. Now, her flockmates would tease her about it for a long time, further driving home the lesson. It was a self governance system within the flock that was almost as old as the pegasi tribes were. 

Bucky needed to be working on things for the invasion, but he was far too distracted. It was bad, letting everything slide, but he had been under a lot of strain lately and he was no good to anypony if he made it worse. Bucky realised that what he needed was a distraction. Using his magic, he snatched himself up the first foal within snatching distance, which just so happened to be Sukari, who had been going over to check upon her siblings. 

The zebra filly let out a startled snort, her blue eyes wide, and she gave her Baba a look of disapproval for scaring her. The hard look vanished when she was held close though. Saying nothing, the quiet filly slipped her forelegs around Bucky’s neck, pulled herself closer, and settled in for a nice snuggle. As Bucky held her, he sorted out the yellow ribbon tied into her mane, and then picked up a nearby currycomb to go over her pelt. 

Foals required a lot of brushing. It was an endless task. Squirming in and out of couch cushion forts, sliding over the floor, wrestling on the carpet, having slobbery siblings, the everyday activity of the common foal left their pelts dishevelled and matted. Sukari had enough problems with her scars and her general appearance. She cried if she saw herself in the mirror and she looked too out of sorts. 

There were clean, sleek, shiny, well groomed foals, and then there were parents that failed in their most basic duties. Bucky didn’t like failure. He had a standard that he rigorously held himself to. Long ago, he had been the basic maintenance sort. If a foal was a little dirty, they had a quick shower. Manes were brushed just enough to look decent. Pelts were brushed in places that looked matted. 

But Bucky had learned that simple, basic maintenance wasn’t enough. Quick showers did not replace thorough scrubbing and actual cleanliness. A well combed, well brushed mane looked good for a lot longer than a mane that only had a comb ran through it with a few quick strokes. The same went for pelts. A thorough regimen of meticulous care saved time in the long run and gave Bucky an excuse to spend time with his little ones. 

Of course, Bucky often looked like he was the one that needed meticulous care. 



 

“Sentinel, you look out of sorts,” Diamond Tiara said in a low voice as she gathered up her books. She had a self image appointment with Little Slip and Doctor Mawu, the overworked zebra bocor that always seemed to be working and never resting. 

“I’m fine,” Sentinel replied. 

“Liar.” Diamond Tiara poked Sentinel with her hoof. 

Sentinel sighed. “I’m not fine,” he said with a huff. 

“What’s wrong?” Diamond Tiara asked. 

“This.” Sentinel pointed at the stubby blue horn on his forehead. 

“Are you upset that you can’t do unicorn magic with it?” Diamond Tiara forgot about her appointment and sat down beside Sentinel. Some of her books were still scattered upon the study table, along with a big pink eraser and a pencil sharpener. 

“No.” Sentinel shrugged. “Yes.” He squirmed and turned away from Diamond Tiara. “Maybe.” He let out a frustrated sigh that was the epitome of adolescent non verbal language and then looked at the pink filly beside him. “It’s just there. In the daylight, I have no real magic at all. I can’t make shadow magic happen unless it’s dark. But that isn’t what is bothering me… it isn’t the fact that my horn is useless for most of my waking hours.” 

“Then what is bothering you?” Diamond Tiara adjusted her glasses and leaned a little closer to Sentinel. 

“The fact that I have it.” Sentinel gritted his teeth for a moment and his folded wings flapped against his sides. “Oh sod everything.” 

Diamond Tiara’s muzzle crinkled at Sentinel’s profanity, but she endured. “I don’t understand. Help me understand, Sentinel. If I can understand, I can help you.” 

“I don’t deserve this.” Sentinel turned his head and looked Diamond Tiara right in the eye, his snoot a few scant inches from hers. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this.” 

“Sentinel, am I going to have to go mega-brute pegasus on you and slap some sense into you?” Diamond Tiara asked in a low voice. “Believe me, I will… I took lessons from Moonbow on how to speak to you in a language you will understand.” 

Ears pinning back, Sentinel looked worried for a minute. He assumed a more submissive posture, ducking his head down. “No, really, hear me out.” He gave Diamond Tiara a pleading look. “Just listen to what I have to say.” 

“Fine.” Diamond Tiara folded her forelegs across her barrel, took a deep breath, and forgot all about her self image therapy session. “I’m listening and I won’t cast judgment until I’ve heard everything you have to say. But… if you’re acting stupid… I’m telling your mother.” Diamond Tiara left her threat open ended by not saying which mother. It was a dirty thing to do, but all was fair in love and war. Diamond Tiara knew Love and War personally. 

Sentinel gulped at the terrible threat. This could end in any number of ways. A wing slapping in front of the school. A lecture. A long lecture. Some very embarrassing cuddle time. The endless possibilities were almost too much to bear. 

“I went to face Sombra’s fell shadow… and I wasn’t the one who destroyed him. We all did. I was just sort of there. It was just something that happened and I really didn’t do much of anything, I just stood there while the Hearthfire did what it did. So…” Sentinel’s words trailed off and the colt let out a frustrated huff to empty his lungs. 

Sitting there, her forelegs still crossed over her barrel, Diamond Tiara waited and one graceful eyebrow arched, a silent warning, it was almost as if her eyebrow was announcing her intention to carry out her horrible threat. 

“As for the Hag… what did I do there exactly?” Sentinel scowled. “I got my face melted off because I slipped into a berserk state. That wasn’t exactly proving myself. That was a failure. No mistake, that was me fecking up. I think about it and I cringe I feel so bad about it.” 

“You dodo.” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and then focused on Sentinel. She leaned forwards, invading his space, and her snoot touched his. “Apple Bloom says the same stupid crap. She didn’t do anything to deserve becoming a princess. She led a group of ponies through a difficult, no, impossible task and now she is becoming an even better leader. As for you…” Diamond Tiara’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses and she pushed her snoot even more against Sentinel’s causing both her snoot and his snoot to crinkle. “You had a group of ponies who believed in you enough to follow you to the top of the world in a stolen airship to help you do what needed to be done. You had friends that risked paddled plots and an endless summer of punishment to help you. You took initiative to do what needed to be done. Up there, in the frozen north, you took lessons of leadership… hard ones… and you took them to heart. We earth ponies had to be your beasts of burden, even though you hated it. And make no mistake, you hated it. It made me love you, you doofus. You cared about how I and my fellow earth ponies were being treated. That all by itself was a tough lesson and you took it well.” 

Sentinel swallowed and at that moment, he wanted the snoot smoosh to become a kiss. Diamond Tiara smelled like toothpaste, chocolate milk, and the raviolis she had eaten at lunch. His heart was thudding in his chest. 

“As for the Hag… every great leader has a moment of failure. How they recover from that, how they pick themselves up and continue after falling on their face, that says a lot about their character. So you fell in battle… the Hag put you down… so what?” Diamond Tiara snorted against Sentinel’s nose. “The rats were your finest moment. You led an entire town into battle and your brave actions saved so many. And you didn’t act like some general giving orders from a secure place of safety… oh no, you were right there on the ground with your troops, fighting shoulder to shoulder.” 

Blinking, Sentinel realised that was true. He also realised that he felt a little better. 

“Now, Sentinel, since it seems that you are having some self image issues, you are going to come with me to therapy. I’m allowed to bring up to one foal, cub, calf, or puppy in need of help to join us in therapy. For Little Slip and I, part of our therapy is helping others.” Diamond Tiara’s forelegs unfolded and she slipped them around Sentinel’s neck. She gave the colt a quick peck on the lips, mindful of the school rules. “Get your stuff together and hurry. We’re late.” 

Not knowing what else to say, Sentinel nodded. 



 

“Master, forgive me, I might have done something stupid.” Sunset Shimmer said these words beneath the sign above the door, the sign with the warning that nopony followed. 

Sunset Shimmer looked miserable as she stood in the doorway to the farmhouse. Of Berry Pinch, there was no sign, and it made Bucky worry a bit. There was however, a basket hovering in the air beside her, held aloft in her magic, and Bucky wondered if she had picked up a little gift or something to say she was sorry. 

Bucky, raising his eyebrow, got right down to the issue. “Minion, where is wee little Pinchy? Barley hasn’t been bitten in hours and I think it’s starting to affect his mood.” 

“I deserve a lot more than sarcasm,” Sunset said as she slumped. 

“Minion—” 

“Just let me explain,” Sunset said, begging, looking at Bucky with wide, sad eyes. “Look, just let me get everything out, okay?” Sunset waited a moment and watched as Bucky gave her a faint nod. Berry Punch appeared on Bucky’s left, and Derpy moved in on Bucky’s right. Somehow, seeing them made this all the more difficult. 

She took a deep breath, stuck her courage to the sticking place, and gave the three of them a nervous smile. “Well, I, uh, well, there is no two ways about it, after Ripple abducted little Pinchy, I did too. I went into Ponyville with little Pinchy and I cried my eyes out to Twilight Sparkle. Twilight tried to help me get sorted out, but Berry Pinch bit her, and I do mean bit her, and there was arterial spurting and everything. Pinchy got a lucky nip on Twilight’s leg and blood gushed everywhere and I started freaking out and Twilight, even with all of the arterial spurting, contacted Princess Celestia asking for help and then Rainbow Dash got her to the hospital before she passed out from blood loss… like I said, it was a one in a million lucky nip and Twilight lost a few pints of blood.” 

Sunset paused and found that she could no longer meet her Master’s gaze. She stared down at the floor, took a deep breath, and wondered how to continue. 

“Princess Celestia came down from Canterlot… she said she needed the excuse to get away, a committee was boring her to death wanting to discuss the plans to turn Fillydelphia into a tourist trap for the insanely wealthy. She was really, really happy to have the excuse of an emergency to get away.” Sunset Shimmer moved the basket she held in her magic in front of her and her face contorted from her many emotions. 

Whimpering, her ears pinning back against her skull, Sunset Shimmer set the basket down upon the floor in front of Bucky. The moment her magic ended, the room was filled with the sounds of wet snuffles and soft breathing. “So I talked to Princess Celestia about everything and she agreed to help me but then she ran into a problem but that’s okay because she understands she had friends to help her now and then Discord got involved and Princess Celestia and Discord worked together and”—Sunset sucked in a deep breath with a sharp whine so she could continue— “and the two of them working together used their magic to roll her age back so she could be a newborn again, kind of like how my special spell works and she’s been given a second chance at life and she’s probably really hungry right about now so you’d better feed her.” 

Sunset fell silent and raised her head. She looked Bucky in the eye and was unable to read his expression. Beside Bucky, Berry Punch had her head down in the basket and was rooting through the blanket. There was a flash of soft pink. 

“I now owe Princess Celestia one favour. A solid, if you will.” Sunset’s voice was gritty and low. “She also said that she would never do this under normal circumstances, but there wasn’t much of Berry Pinch’s mind up there. She was full on mustang.” 

“Minion…” 

“Have mercy upon me, Master… I acted out of emotion.” Sunset watched as Bucky took a step closer towards her and every muscle in her body tensed. “She, like so many others, deserves a second chance. Surely there is room for just one more. I’ll change diapers. I’ll help. I’ll help foalsit all of them. Bartleby and Trixie too. I’m sure they’ll help me if I ask.” 

Taking another step forward, Bucky kissed Sunset on the cheek as Berry Punch rubbed her face against the tiny foal in the basket. Derpy’s barrel began hitching and her eyes misted over. 

Derpy let out a long sigh. “There’s always room for one more, I suppose…” 
	
	
> Chapter 891* 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	From the living room, Bucky heard soft, subdued laughter. The littlest ones had just fed not too long ago and were now sleeping. His ears perked as he tried to detect the sounds of waking. He waited and heard nothing coming from the nursery. He sighed, feeling just a little bit disappointed, and perhaps a little bit guilty for wanting one of them to wake up. He was in the mood to cuddle something. The laughter in the living room continued, and he heard the sounds of Sour Mash’s voice telling a story to Dinky and Piña. 

“Buibui?” Bucky asked in a hushed whisper. 

“Yes?” The spider golem popped out from beneath the sofa where it had been hiding. 

“Has Vox de Sole been given the latest upgrade?” Bucky peered down at what had to be his most faithful creation. 

The little golem’s legs tapped upon the floor and he skittered closer to Bucky’s chair. He paused when he was a foot away and stood there, tapping one leg upon the floor. “Vox has received all necessary upgrades. The Keeper of the Sky Orange has further upgraded Vox for both offensive and defensive capabilities.” The little spider golem tapped one leg with an impatient staccato rhythm. “When will I get a beam emitter to burn down my enemies?” 

Reaching up with his talons, Bucky scratched his nose, unsure of how to answer. He didn’t want Buibui becoming a weapon of war. He rather liked Buibui as a household pet. He had a mental pause and corrected his thinking. The spider golem was not a pet. It was a sentient, self aware entity with free will and a right to live. Buibui was also special, because he was one of the few survivors of the first generation. 

“Buibui…” Bucky began. 

“Yes?” Buibui continued tapping one tiny pointed foot upon the floor, waiting. 

“When you have a little filly or a little colt that is madly affectionate with you, chases you around, and you become their constant companion, I will give you the means to defend them from harm.” Bucky raised an eyebrow while he looked down at the spider golem.

“Defending them from harm is not the same as getting a focused heat ray that hits nine thousand nine hundred and forty eight degrees.” The little golem sounded miffed and several other legs now began to tap.

“Buibui… you must forgive me, but I cannot channel the power of the sun through you. I do not have that power. The best that I might do is a freeze ray, but I would be hesitant to give you something so dangerous. Anyhow, go and make friends. Thank you for your assistance.” 

The golem turned around, ready to head for the door, and then froze after taking one scuttling step. It turned again, its round, spherical body now facing Bucky once more. “Creator?” 

“Must you call me that?” Bucky asked. 

“You created me,” Buibui replied. 

“Yes, but I do have a name you know.” Bucky rested his talons upon the arm of the chair and waited for the golem to say whatever nonsense or garble the golem was probably going to say.

“Creator, I overheard Scorch and Rising Star talk about souls… do I have a soul?” Buibui asked. 

Bucky nodded, feeling relieved this wasn’t yet another mindless question. “Yes you do. Upon your creation, I gave you a sliver of my soul so we would be connected.” 

“Is that all I am?” Buibui asked. “Just a sliver of existence?” 

Bucky’s talons clenched into a loose fist. “No.” 

“No?” 

“No.” Bucky shook his head. “Buibui, from what I understand, having spoken to Scorch about this very thing, when a soul is shared with something, in time, that fragment of soul grows with life experiences and the like. In my school, there is a little demon boy named Dee. He got half of his mother’s soul. She’s a demoness and she loves him. Now, Dee, he’s not going to spend the rest of his life with only a half of a soul. It’s like a seed that gives new life. In time, it grows, blossoms, and becomes something new and different.” 

“So I am my own creature?” Buibui asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied. “I created you, but you are not mine. You are like my foals… my offspring that I created with my wives. I helped to create them, but that does not make them mine. They are their own creatures, free to be whatever they wish to be.” 

The golem tapped a few times, paused, tapped again, then made a sound that was almost like a sigh. “Is the growth of my soul determined by the relationships I cultivate with others? Does Vox’s soul grow when Tourmaline chases him?” 

“I don’t know,” Bucky said in a low, patient voice. “Maybe. To be honest with you, Buibui, I don’t know the answer to the question you just asked. There is a lot I don’t know or understand. But I do know that our lives are defined by our interactions with others.” 

Saying nothing, the golem stood in place for a moment, its legs twitching, and then it scurried off, hurrying for the door, departing in total silence. 



 

Looking up from his planner, Bucky saw Derpy standing in the doorway of the library. She appeared to be a little sweaty, her mane was mussed, and there was something of a wild look in her eye. There was also a dangerous smile upon her muzzle. She pushed the door shut with a click, and using her wing, she locked the door behind her. 

Eyeing his mate and trying to read her body language, Bucky set his planner down on the table beside him as the grey mare approached his chair. He caught a whiff of sweaty pegasus stink as the grey mare came closer. 

Much to Bucky’s surprise, Derpy crawled up into his chair with him. She pushed him back into the cushion and straddled his lap, all while giving him the most smouldering wall-eyed stare. He could feel her trembling as she slipped her forelegs around his neck, and then he felt her grind her stomach against his. 

“What’s got into you?” Bucky asked as he soundproofed the farmhouse library. 

“Lots of teat feeding,” Derpy replied in a breathless whisper, “and a touch of spring fever, I think. Doctor Gotland said I should be fine.” 

Bucky felt something damp grinding up against him, he felt wet flesh just below two rock hard teats. Parts of him were waking up as Derpy situated herself on top of him, and she wrapped her hind legs around his sides in such a way that her plush, plump backside slid down between his legs. Her tail flicked as she ground herself up against him, Bucky was startled by her strength. 

As she ground herself against him, wasting no time, Bucky could feel her winking in and out. It wasn’t long until the fuzzy hairs of his stomach and his groin were soaked. He felt Derpy rub her cheek against his and her wings were now fully extended, the feathers twitching as she continued to stimulate herself against him. 

“Sometimes,” Derpy gasped, “I get so turned on… all day I’ve had some little adorable fuzzball sucking on my teats and it started to drive me crazy.” 

Bucky’s ears stood up straight as Derpy gasped and fell silent. He felt her teats smash into his stomach, she ground them up and down, left and right, and her wet cleft trailed over his pelvis, soaking him. He felt her whole body clench, each muscle going rigid, her eyes closed, and then there was a flood that soaked his stomach and his balls. 

“Did you just…” Bucky clung to the pegasus that had gone still against him and felt even more wet stickiness come dribbling out of her. 

The grey mare did not reply, but nodded her head, rubbing her muzzle against Bucky’s ear as she did so. He felt her shudder, tense, and then her hind legs tightened against him as her hips bucked upwards for a better angle. With a grunt, she started grinding again, setting a frantic, frenetic pace, squashing her sopping marehood against the firmness of his pelvis. 

Bucky felt himself growing hard and his now protruding length grazed against hot, wet, fevered flesh. He gripped Derpy around the her soft, pliable middle and gave her an aggressive squeeze. As he did so, she convulsed again, gritted her teeth, and let out a squealing whinny as she came again, releasing another gushing flood into Bucky’s lap and soaking his chair. 

“I’m sorry,” Derpy gasped in a breathless whisper into Bucky’s ear. “I was so pent up… I hate using you, but the way you smell right now”—Derpy inhaled, sucking in a deep breath—“and everything about you.The feel of your body against me. I couldn’t help myself.” 

Getting a better grip around Derpy’s middle, Bucky rolled and bucked his hips, trying to find the best angle for entry. He felt hot, slick flesh against his tip and before he could do anything to plunge himself into those delightful depths, Derpy had already taken control once more. 

She slammed herself down upon his length, and Bucky found himself balls deep. He could feel Derpy’s throbbing, pulsing, oversized nubbin pinched between the hard length of his cock and the firm flesh of his stomach. Her teats teased over his skin. He growled, a sound he did not intend to make, but it just slipped out. His forelegs snaked up Derpy’s back, closer to her wings, and his talons wrapped around his hoof just over Derpy’s spine on the spot where her wings connected. 

The grey mare wasted no time, but bounced up and down in Bucky’s lap, and Bucky could feel that he was stimulating her throbbing button of flesh from both sides in this new position, his cock rubbing from behind on the inside, and his stomach from the outside as she winked. Derpy threw her head back, tightened her grip around his neck, and Bucky felt her walnut crushing marehood grow tight around him. 

She fought him, wanting to grind against him at her own pace, and he denied her. They struggled against one another, each fighting for dominance, both growling at one another as the delicious tension increased. 

“Let me cum, Bucky,” Derpy breathed. 

In spite of his best efforts, or because of his best effort, Derpy came a moment later, almost ripping Bucky’s cock off as she spasmed. Spent, Derpy went almost limp in Bucky’s embrace after a few more convulsions, and he found that he was free to do as he pleased. 

The exhausted mother pegasus collapsed against him, her weight almost crushing him, but that did not deter Bucky. He continued plowing away, enjoying this new position a great deal, as it allowed for super deep penetration, which made him feel longer. With each thrust, there was a wet slurp, followed by a meaty smack as he buried himself and his balls slapped upwards against Derpy’s quivering pucker. 

He thought about invading the back door brownie bakery, but he wasn’t going to last much longer. His thrusts became frenzied humps as he raced for the finish line. There was no point in prolonging this, or trying to get the grey mare he so loved to cum one more time, she was spent. She had already worn herself out on him. 

She bounced up and down upon his lap, her wings bobbing, and her sweaty mane slapped against her ears as her tail swished up and down. Which each balls deep thrust that Bucky gave her, she squeaked, squealed, or whinnied, drifting on post orgasmal bliss while still being furiously plowed with almost earth pony like dedication to seeing that the field was properly seeded. 

Bucky buried his face against her neck, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and then blew his load deep inside of her. He felt her tighten around him as his girth flared, and then he was seized by suction as her sopping snatch slurped semen, securing it away. He gave a few more humps once the overwhelming need to hilt himself had passed, and then, Bucky too, went limp beneath Derpy. 

It had been a long day. Too long of a day. The release felt good and Bucky gave his mate a feeble kiss on the corner of her mouth. He could feel Derpy panting against him, and, with a sigh, her wings went limp as real exhaustion set in. 

“Bucky…” 

“Yes, Love?” 

“Just so you know…” 

“Yeah?” 

“After the birth, I haven’t been taking any of my pills…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 892
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Her eyes narrowing, an aggressive scowl spreading over her muzzle, Piña Colada leaned forwards in her chair and studied the map in front of her on the table. Ghouls and Grottos was hard and her griffon spelunker was in some trouble. There were lots of undead to clear out of the mine. Studying the map, she saw a choke point that could be defended, but Dinky was going to have to get her demolitionist diamond dog into position to throw firebombs. 

“Do you think Daddy will be okay?” Dinky asked. 

“He just left,” Piña replied, “I don’t think he’s even in danger, yet.” Piña was worried too. She had a bad feeling about this one and she didn’t want Daddy to go. This was too nice a Saturday to fall prey to worry. 

“I’m gonna maneuver my minotaur miner over here, near this choke point,” Babs said to her companions at the table. “Larch’s pack pony will need to be defended, so I’m adopting a protective stance with my last action point. I have my pick axe hackmaster plus five ready.” 

“It’s hard playing an earth pony in a role playing game… why did I let you talk me into doing this again? I mean, I’m already an earth pony and I—” Larch fell silent when Babs placed a hoof over his mouth and he went cross eyed trying to stare at it. 

“We needed a pack pony so we can go deeper into the endless grotto.” Babs gave Larch a teasing smile. “Now, if you are a good little pony, I’ll give you a carrot.” 

As Larch began chuckling, Dinky slouched in her chair, a worried expression upon her face. She studied the location of her diamond dog demolitionist and saw the choke point on the map. Saying nothing, she moved her character token to a spot near the choke point, but also took cover behind a large rock. 

“Dinky has fifty percent cover,” Lyra said as she looked at the guide. “Larch gets a defensive bonus. Piña is in the open with no cover. Babs is getting a ferocious defender bonus with a chance to go berserk if Larch is harmed. As for Sentinel, I think he’s asleep.” 

Snorting, Sentinel awoke at the sound of his name. His surviving eye opened and he coughed, then yawned. He looked around, not quite knowing what was going on. He looked at the map on the table, blinked, and then looked at Lyra with a confused expression. 

“Have a rough night, Sentinel?” Lyra asked, sounding a little worried, but still smiling. 

“I had trouble sleeping… bad dreams… couldn’t keep little ones safe… too many,” Sentinel stammered. “Too many foals… too many… things kept coming to try and steal them.” Sentinel let out a whining yawn, smacked his lips, and stretched  his wings. “I’m gonna put my zebra alchemist right here.” Sentinel pointed to a spot on the map with his wing tip. “It’s elevated slightly, right?” 

“Yes it is,” Lyra replied. “Sentinel gets an attack bonus for throwing potions from higher ground and his range is increased by two tiles.” Lyra’s ears stood up straight and her expression became one of comedic terror. “The sounds of the undead draw closer. The cavern is filled with moaning and the shuffling of many undead feet.” 

The game was interrupted by the sounds of wailing coming from the nursery. Sentinel, who had been half asleep, was now wide awake. He sat up straight in his chair, one ear twitching, the corner of his mouth convulsing with each wail that reached his ears. Dinky let out a groan, closed her eyes, and covered her face with her front hooves. Piña heaved an exasperated sigh. Babs looked around the table and then slumped down in her chair. Larch placed his front hooves over his ears and tried to block out the sound. 

“You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’d rather play outside,” Piña said. 

“When one cries, they all cry… ugh!.” Dinky let out a snort and rubbed her face with her hooves as her ears twitched from the sounds of little foals crying. 

“Ach! Crivens! Ya wee little blighters had tae all shite yerselves all at once, ya wee, no good, good fer nuttin’ teat nippers!” 

Hearing Barley’s voice, Sentinel cringed and wondered how the little ones did that. They were fed on a schedule and somehow, by some horrible miracle of nature, the little ones frequently had synchronised group poops as Piña called it. A terrible stench drifted into the dining room where the game had come to a pause, and Sentinel saw both Dinky and Piña’s faces contort into expressions of disgust. Larch covered his nose. Babs began to fan the air with her character sheet. 

“That’s another group poop,” Piña said in a strained voice as she struggled not to breathe. Gasping, Piña fell out of her chair with a dramatic cry and lay on the floor, playing dead. “I failed my saving throw.” 

“Piña’s dead,” Dinky remarked as she looked down at her fallen sibling. “This game is over… that smell is not going away any time soon.” Waving her forelegs, Dinky’s horn glowed and the little filly winked away, vanishing in a flash of purple light. 

“Larch, grab Piña and we’ll make a break for it,” Babs said, suggesting a course of action. She watched as Larch lept down from his chair, tugged Piña up into a sitting position, and then got her flopped over his back. 

Babs jumped down and took off beside Larch, leaving Sentinel and Lyra alone with one another. Lyra, realising the game really was over, gave her son Sentinel a soft smile and with her hoof, she gestured in the direction of the stairs. 

“I’ll clean up here, why don’t you go into your hidey hole and have a nap?” Lyra asked as she began to put everything back into the garish looking cardboard box titled, The Caverns of Caustic Evil. As Lyra started putting things away, she watched as Sentinel let out a sleepy yawn, slip out of his chair, and stumble off. 

Without even being able to say why, Lyra Heartstrings was ridiculously happy. 



 

Dinky felt her pulse quicken when she saw the cherry red curls and she wondered what Twist was doing at the school on Saturday. She hurried her pace, hoping to catch up to the filly before Twist disappeared inside. Dinky suffered a strange sense of worry and she wondered if she smelled pleasant, a part of her wanting to smell nice for Twist. 

It did not take much effort for her to catch up to the filly, who was weighed down by a heavy bookbag. Dinky, trying to be nice, lifted Twist’s bookbag in a levitation bubble, and smiled when Twist turned to look at her. 

“Whatcha doing at the school on Saturday?” Dinky asked. 

Seeing Dinky, Twist let out an excited snort. “There are baking classes!” Twist had long ago stopped being shy or worried about her lisp around Dinky. “Not school classes, just baking classes… and I like baking.” 

“Oh… neat.” Dinky paused and looked around. After gathering up her courage, she took a step closer to Twist, who smelled of peppermints. Of course she smelled of peppermints. Dinky inhaled and felt her heart start thumping in her barrel. “Maybe I could help you put something in the oven…” Dinky, realising what it was that she was saying, how it sounded, fell silent, and was mortified. 

Twist began giggle-snorting, she made loud honking sounds, and she wasn’t embarrassed to be herself around Dinky. She held none of her laughter back. Grinning, she nosed Dinky and stood close as Dinky’s blush intensified into a dark, ruddy purple. 

When Twist brushed up against Dinky’s side, Dinky’s purplefication intensified. Dinky’s mouth went dry and the smell of peppermint made her feel giddy. She leaned against Twist and felt Twist’s curly tail brush up against her hind legs. Twist was a little older, a little more developed, and Dinky realised, Twist was perfect. 

“Dinky, you know how you like magic?” Twist asked. 

Mouth too dry to reply, Dinky nodded. 

“Well I like baking… what you want to do with magic, I want to do with baking. I’m going to be the best there is and my name will be remembered for what I do,” Twist said in a low, lispy, nasal voice. 

Twist’s voice was the sweetest sound that Dinky knew. She could listen to it all day. She nodded again, because it felt like she should nod to show that she was paying attention. Daddy had said that listening was a good way to be irresistible. It wasn’t hard to listen when you liked what you were hearing. Dinky wanted to hear Twist talk about baking. 

“I don’t want to be late… do you want to come with me?” Twist asked. 

Dinky nodded again, now reduced to the functionality of a bobble-headed doll. Feeling brave, feeling adventurous, Dinky leaned her head over and gave Twist a fuzzy-wuzzy muzzle-nuzzle. Feeling Twist’s soft pelt against her own sent chills down Dinky’s spine and made her horn feel tingly. 

Together, the two fillies walked off to Twist’s Saturday baking class, side by side, looking very much like the perfect couple. 



 

Hearing a squeak, Sentinel opened his eye as light spilled into his hiding space beneath the stairs. He let out a shrill squeal of echolocation in annoyance, but then fell silent mid squeak when he saw Sukari. 

The little zebra filly stepped inside, pulled the door shut behind her, and then with a soft thump, she turned on the faint night light that had been placed under the stairs just for her. It was dim enough that Sentinel didn’t mind. 

He grunted when Sukari headbutted his side, and then with a grudging yawn, he scooted over just a little bit so the zebra filly would have room to lay down. She turned in a circle three times, chasing her tail, and then flopped down. Sentinel felt Sukari’s small head resting upon his spine and her neck was pressed against his left wing. 

“Story?” Sukari asked. 

Sentinel sighed, then yawned, feeling sleepy. Why did it have to be story time? It was sleepy time. He debated the issue inside of his head, not sure what to do or what story to tell, and as he sat there thinking, the door opened again. 

This time, there was an outrageous explosion of orange curls and Harper shoved her way into Sentinel’s cubby. It was now getting crowded in here. Sentinel groaned and suspected that his cubby wouldn’t be his cubby much longer. 

“Much many screams,” Harper said in a matter of fact voice. She shoved Sukari over, causing Sukari to grunt, and then Harper flopped down against Sentinel and Sukari. She gave Sentinel one slobbery kiss and then gave Sukari both a hug and a soggy kiss. “Little ones all squirty. Walls got painted.” 

“What?” Sentinel’s sleepy eye opened wide and he lifted his head. 

Harper stuck out her tongue, blew a raspberry, and then said, “Little ones have hurty squirts. Brown rainbows everywhere!” 

Disturbed, Sentinel didn’t like what Harper was saying. Not at all. So that was why the stench was lingering. He dropped his head back down upon the cushion, yawned, and then let out a soft squeak when Harper began kneading his neck with her front hooves. He went limp and let the sleepy sensation he had overtake him. 

“Story?” Sukari asked again. 

Now feeling guilty, Sentinel wondered what to do. Sukari asked for so little. A kiss now and then. A hug. A cookie. A place to hide. A story. Her needs were simple. He was an awful pony for only thinking of himself and his selfish, sleepy needs. 

“Once upon a time, there were three little ponies,” Sentinel began, his muzzle wrinkling as he concentrated. “There was an earth pony, a pegasus pony, and a unicorn pony. They were all friends and when they grew up, they departed ways so they could each go out and find their fortune.” 

“Ooh…” Harper gasped as she settled in beside Sentinel. 

“So, the earth pony, he settles in and he founds a farm. He grows… turnips, yeah, that’s it, he grows turnips. It’s a nice farm and the little pony, he builds himself a house out of mud, straw, and sticks. It’s a little crude, but the earth pony, he likes it.” 

“She likes it?” Harper asked. 

Sentinel sighed in defeat. “Yes, she likes it, Harper.” 

“So, one day, as this pony is working in her fields, she sees a manticore come charging out of the trees and she panics, because a manticore is a terrible foe. So the little pony runs into her house and closes the crude wooden door so she can hide from the manticore.” 

Whimpering, Sukari wrapped her forelegs around Harper and clung tight to her sibling. 

“So the manticore, he charges up to the house made of mud, straw, and sticks, and he shouts, ‘Little pony, little pony, let me in!’ in a terrible, booming voice. And the little pony, she’s scared, but she tells the manticore, ‘Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!’ This of course, angers the manticore, because manticores like getting their way.” Sentinel let out a yawn, shook his head, and tried to clear his head of his sleepiness. 

Blinking his eye, he continued, “So, the manticore, wanting a delicious meal of pony, throws back its head and roars, ‘Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!’ And the big bad manticore does just that. He huffs, he puffs, and he blows the little pony’s house down.” Sentinel paused and gave thought to his next words, wondering if he should have the manticore eat the pony or not. 

Harper, who was being suffocated by Sukari, was too busy with her sibling huggle struggle to correct Sentinel about the manticore being a she. 

Sentinel, deciding that the pony should live, continued with his tale, sans pony death. “So the little pony, she runs away and she escapes, leaving the hungry manticore all alone and frustrated. So the manticore, who did not have a delicious pony lunch, takes off into the sky hoping to find an easy meal.” 

“Oh noes,” Harper said as Sukari squeezed the stuffing out of her. “Manticore needs zap. Bad monsters get zap. Harpy zap them.” 

“So, the pegasus pony, she makes a house out of clouds and she’s busy decorating her new home with Wonderbolts posters when the manticore shows up. She hears a knock at the door and she asks, ‘Who’s there?’ and the manticore makes his dreadful reply, ‘Little pony, little pony, let me in!’” Sentinel paused and he asked the two fillies beside him, “What do you think the little pegasus pony says to the manticore?” 

Harper shrugged and Sukari let out a whimper. 

“The brave little pegasus pony, she tells the manticore, ‘Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!’ Now, upon hearing this, the manticore lets out an angry roar, and do you know what the manticore says in reply?” Sentinel waited for the fillies to respond. 

Sukari closed her eyes and shivered next to Harper, who now looked quite concerned for the safety of the ponies in this story. Electricity arced between Harper’s ears and through her frizzy curls.  

“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!” Sentinel growled in a terrible voice that caused Sukari to squeal. “And that’s what he did, too… he huffed, and he puffed, he blew the cloud house into fluffy pieces. He gave chase to the delicious looking pegasus pony, hoping to gobble her down and eat her, but she flew off and escaped.” Sentinel feeling some sort of colourful embellishment was needed, made up some details on the fly. “The pegasus pony, she was pink, and every monster knows that the pink ponies are the most delicious. They learn it in monster school.” The colt thought about Diamond Tiara and had a warm feeling creep up his neck. 

In the dim cubby, Sukari gulped. 

“Now, the third pony, the unicorn, she builds herself a tower out of stone, and she magically fortifies it. Her home is a fortress unassailable, because unicorns tend to live in defiance of nature, rather than live with nature, no houses made of mud or cloud for unicorn ponies. The earth pony and the pegasus pony, they come running to the unicorn pony, shouting about manticore attacks. The unicorn, sensing a moment for glorious tribal unity, lets the earth pony and the pegasus pony into her home and she serves them tea and biscuits.” 

“That’s nice of her,” Harper said in a cheerful but worried voice. 

“And as they were having tea, the manticore shows up!” Sentinel’s ears perked when both fillies let out shrill squeals of terror. “The manticore, he shows up, bangs on the reinforced plate steel door of the unicorn’s tower, and do you know what he says?” 

“Something dumb?” Harper replied in a worried whisper. 

“Little pony, little pony, let me in!” Sentinel said in a menacing growl. He paused and allowed the fear to settle in a little deeper. “And do you know what the unicorn says in reply?” 

Harper shook her head and Sukari buried her face into Harper’s obnoxious orange curls. The little zebra was quaking with fear and each breath was a whimper of terror that slipped out from between clattering teeth. 

“The unicorn, she says nothing in reply, because she was too busy casting a spell. Furious about the earth pony and the pegasus pony losing their homes, the angry unicorn casts a firestorm spell that makes it rain explosive brimstone down upon the manticore. The manticore learned a hard lesson that you don’t mess with ponies who stick together and he got exploded into ooey, gooey bits—” 

“Gooey bits!” Harper shouted as she bounced up and down. 

“Yes, he got turned into ooey, gooey bits and the unicorn was really, really angry because her tea got interrupted, and that’s just rude.” Sentinel stretched out his head, nosed Harper, and then gave her a soft kiss. “And Harper, this is what you must do as a unicorn. If you see your fellow ponies in trouble, you give whatever is bothering them a zap!” 

“Harpy can zap!” Harper replied as a manic gleam filled her eyes, causing them to glitter in the faint, dim light. She gave Sukari a squeeze and the crazed glimmer in her eyes intensified. “No touchy touchy zebras! Harpy zap!” 

“Yes, Harper… protect the zebras, to… be a good unicorn and make sure your tower of safety is available for all. Turn no one away if they come to you for help.” Sentinel yawned and let out a tired whine. “Now, I’ve told you a story. Let me sleep. Hush up, both of you. Be good fillies.” 

Laying his head down, Sentinel closed his eye and listened to the sounds of Sukari’s teeth chattering together, feeling quite happy and satisfied about being a big brother. He treasured his sisters, and truth be told, sharing his cubby wasn’t so bad. He yawned again, and felt the gentle tug of slumber upon his consciousness. 
	
	
> Chapter 893
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lifting her hoof, Piña Colada pointed at Sour Mash and Berry Punch, then prodded Larch, who was sitting beside her. “It’s funny, how family can be. Those two ain’t seen one another in a while and they only met last summer, but look at how they are. That’s how it should be.” 

“Huh?” Larch, who was having a slow moment, blinked a few times. “How what should be?” The little colt had missed something and he gave Piña a sheepish quizzical look, hoping that she would explain. 

“Family,” Piña replied. “More and more, I think about it, how important it is, and what it means to me as an earth pony.” Piña scooted over the grass to get a little closer to Larch. “I also think about how important it should be to you. You’re an orphan.” 

Larch glanced at Babs, who was reading a book, and then over at Piña. “Maybe not much longer. Violet Velvet has asked me if I would like to be adopted. I don’t know how to respond.” 

“Just say yes, silly.” Babs spoke without even looking up from her book. 

“She’s middle aged… I don’t want to say she’s old, but she’s… uh—” 

Piña silenced Larch by placing a hoof over his lips. “She’s not that old. She’s nice. She would be good to you. She can be a little bossy and you have to watch out for the newspaper, but she would be good to you.” 

Larch sighed around Piña’s hoof and looked thoughtful. After a moment, he brushed Piña’s hoof away and then he placed his hoof over Piña’s lips. “I’ll think about it. I promise. I mean really think about it.” 

Reaching up, Piña grabbed Larch’s hoof, held it in her folded fetlock, and gave it a squeeze. “Look, I know you don’t want to be hurt, but not everypony is going to abandon you. Violet is a good pony. She wants to adopt you. You, Larch. She could adopt some cute little fuzzy newborn but she’s willing to adopt somepony older and not nearly as cute.” 

“I’m not cute?” Larch asked in a squeaky, worried whisper. 

“Well, I think you’re kinda cute,” Babs replied, “but compared to a teensy weensy little fuzzball, no contest. You’re just not that cute.” 

“Thanks a lot, Babs.” Larch turned his head and gave the reading earth pony filly a sullen stare. “Really, thanks.” 

“Babs Seed, proud daughter of the Apple Clan, follower of the honest earth pony way.” Babs paused and looked a bit confused for a moment, her eyes glassing over. Her mouth moved but no words came out. After a second, she recovered. “The earth pony way is a good way.” 

“You okay, Babalooloo?” Piña asked in a hushed, worried whisper. 

“I’m fine… I had one of my spells, that’s all. They’re getting better. My brain doesn’t shut down sometimes like it used to and I’m not getting the migraine headaches anymore. Which is great.” Babs reached out with her hoof and shut her book. “That’s enough of dairy practices and standards for today. I plan to be an astronomer, I don’t get why I have to learn about the ethical treatment of dairy cows and our obligation to house them and protect them.” 

“We have to be nice to cows.” Larch’s brows furrowed. “They’re like us, but not like us. They can talk, but they’re kinda dumb. They give us milk and in exchange, we give them housing and safety.” 

“It’s a weird arrangement,” Babs replied. “I’ve talked to the dairy cows that Applejack has. They seem happy enough… I guess… I dunno, I just try not to think about it too much Ponies need milk, butter, and cheese. Cows need a place to live. They’re like… like… they’re like minotaurs that failed to become minotaurs and stayed cows.” 

“When I grow up, I want a farm. Like this one.” Larch looked all around him, at the school, the lake, the farmhouse, the dormitory towers, the houses and cottages tucked into the woods just past the treeline. “I’ll probably have a job, some kind of important job, given my talent, but when I come home, I want to come home to a farm. This is a great place to cultivate life. I don’t like the city. I don’t even like Ponyville.” 

“Ponyville isn’t bad,” Piña said in reply to Larch’s words. She looked over and saw ponies working in the fields. She saw Dandelion Fluff and Pinto working side by side, tending the new growth. Their oldest daughter, Honeysuckle, was working on the irrigation system, while Lima Bean and Butter Bean were planting seeds in the next field over, tucking the seeds down into the black dirt. Citrus Summer was playing in the dirt near her parents. Even from where she was sitting, she could see how happy they were. 

There were griffons in the field as well, prowling for bugs and vermin. Piña shivered, thinking about how the little griffons would eat the field mice, the moles, the shrews, and the voles. It was awful, but necessary. Turning her head, she looked at Sour Mash and Berry Punch and she could hear them laughing. Thistle was sitting with little Berry Pinch and Bell Heather was exploring the grass around her mother. Brandywine was sitting up on her own, watching the world all around her with wide, curious eyes. Little Barley was sitting with older Barley, who was resting in the sun. Each of the foals had been bathed and groomed. They looked shiny and sleek. 

Piña understood why Larch would want a place like this. She turned to look at him. “You know, Larch… if you stayed with me… if you were my special somepony, one day, you could live on this farm with me. We could be happy here.” 

“Really?” Larch asked. 

“Really,” Piña replied. 

Larch smiled. “What will we raise?” 

Grinning, Piña pulled Larch closer, placed her muzzle next to his ear, and then whispered, “Why, foals of course.” 



 

Berry Punch watched as Larch took off running, bounding through the grass, his ears pinned back against his skull as he went streaking away. It only took Piña a second to take off after Larch, her tail streaming out behind her, and Berry could see a manic gleam in Piña’s eye. And then, there were three. Babs took off and caught up to Piña, and then the two of them ran side by side after Larch. 

“Looks like somepony got a wild hair in their tail,” Sour Mash said in a low voice as the two fillies chased the colt. “Piña’s at that age when a filly should settle down and get married.” 

“Sour, you’d better not let Derpy hear you making jokes like that.” Berry Punch turned and looked at her cousin. 

“Who said I’m joking?” Sour Mash said with no trace of a smile on her face. 

Reaching out her hoof, Berry Punch prodded Sour Mash and then the straight faced mare began to snigger. The two mares shared a laugh, and Thistle joined in as well. Barley the elder, who lay sprawled in the grass, let out an indignant snort. 

“My wee little niece is gonna grow up and do whatever she likes,” Barley said, grumbling as little Barley squirmed in the grass beside him. The old stallion looked over at Berry Pinch. “It’s high time that change came to the isles. I’m glad wee Pinchy isn’t going off to that alicorn forsaken place. I’ve grown fond of the wee nipper.” 

“Change is happening, but it’s slow.” Sour Mash’s cheeks bulged as she sighed and exhaled through puckered lips. “The ponies of the isles try to resist the changes, but they are happening. Keg Smasher is trying to change the age of marriage, but too many farmers are in opposition. A filly having her first heat is ready to marry and past that point, she is just another mouth to feed. It’s hard trying to sort everything out.” 

“Ach, crivens.” Barley had a scowl that only an old, irritated pony could muster. “My sister, Pinot, she was about eleven when she got pregnant—”

“Really?” Berry Punch asked, cutting Barley off. 

“Berry Punch, don’t be a seethin’ bampot, ye numpty headed idjit! Take what you know and do the math!” Barley shot his niece a scathing glare and then closed his eyes as he shook his head. “Yer mother was hot to trot from the age of ten. I’m surprised she even lasted till eleven—”

“Barley, no,” Berry begged, “oh please don’t talk about my mother and how she was!” 

“Yer mother would go around rubbing her crotch against fence posts trying to scratch her itch and colts and stallions would stop and have a sniff or a lick. She did it so much that she ended up with splinters in her snatch—” 

“Oh nuts, Barley, please!” Berry pleaded. Berry Punch waved her front hooves around in a Berry frantic gesture, trying to get Barley to stop. But Barley’s eyes were closed and Berry’s gestures were wasted. 

Lifting his head and opening his eyes, Barley squinted at Berry Punch. “Word has it that your mother went out and let the sheep bugger her for shites and giggles—” 

“Barley! Ugh, stop, stop stop!” Berry Punch squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears with her front hooves. “Look, we’re all perverts, I get that!” 

Sour Mash, who was overcome with the giggles, waited for Barley to continue. 

“Yer mother was fond of woolgathering, and I don’t just mean daydreaming—” 

“Barley… just… ugh!” Berry shook her head and let out a long, wordless groan. 

“So the little sheep shaggin’ minx met yer father, who was also a sheep shagger. The two little sheep buggerers fell in love, brought together by a mutual interest of what we Shetlander’s like to think of as safe sex.” 

“Sheep buggery,” Sour Mash said and then collapsed with laughter. 

“Word has it that your daddy practiced his radish hunting techniques on the sheep.” Barley ignored Berry Punch’s pleading whimpers and continued, “He never had to run the sheep down and catch them. He just showed up and the sheep ran to him. Quite a stud, yer father.” 

Berry Punch fell over, her face covered with her hooves, her sides heaving. 

“And this why I’m glad that wee Piña and wee Pinchy are growing up here, on the mainland, where I can keep an eye on them. I’d like to have at least one generation that grows up before I die that don’t know nuttin’ ‘bout the sweet taste o’ mutton.” 



 

With a snort, Sentinel awoke. He had been dreaming about something, but he couldn’t remember what. He yawned, his fangs bared, and he realised that he was alone in his cubby. Sukari and Harper had left. Reaching out with his right hind leg, he scratched behind his right ear with his hoof, trying to get the itchies to go away, and then, after another powerful yawn, he decided to leave his cubby. He pushed the door open and stepped out. 

Standing in the hallway, he sniffed. The stench from earlier was gone. He smelled soap and air freshener. His nostrils flared as he continued sniffing. The faint soft smell of milk reached his nose, a scent that he associated with the little ones. He stretched his leathery wings, arched his back, and flicked his tail. He smacked his lips, his mouth feeling dry after having woke up, and then stood there, trying to figure out what to do next. 

Above him, on the stairs, he heard a heart beating, a steady, heavy thud. There was the soft rustle of feathers. Sentinel tensed, realising that he was being hunted, and that Boadicea was trying very, very hard to sneak up on him. Perhaps she didn’t realise how loud her heartbeat was, or all of the noise her pelt made when the hairs and feathers rubbed together. 

Just as Boadicea was about pounce on him, Sentinel rolled away, having learned a great deal from thinking and recalling all of the times Moonbow pounced on him. As Boadicea scrambled to recover, Sentinel struck back, turning the tables, and pounced upon the griffoness. 

He sat down upon her back and Sentinel allowed himself a self satisfied grin as he pinned the squawking griffoness down to the wooden floor. He could not help but notice how velvety her pelt was, and how much he wanted to stroke her, to feel that silky, slippery pelt against him. Realising what was already happening, Sentinel took a deep breath and focused upon control. 

“How do you do it?” Boadicea asked in a frustrated voice. 

“I can hear your heart beating as you approach,” Sentinel replied. 

“That’s… just not fair! I’d peck out Old Hobb’s eyes to have that kind of hearing.” Boadicea writhed beneath Sentinel and tried to get free, mussing up her black feathers. Her crest rose and she let out an indignant squawk. 

“Who’s Old Hobb?” Sentinel asked. 

“I dunno,” Boadicea replied, “some old griffon. Mean. Horrible. Some old immortal that they still tell stories about. He’s the griffon bogeybirdie.” 

“Like… the bogeypony?” Sentinel slipped off of Boadicea’s back and helped her sit up. He smoothed out her feathers and peered at her with his remaining eye. 

“Yeah, and when a griffon wants to sound brave, they say they’d peck out Old Hobb’s eyes.” Boadicea, who refused to be smoothed over, fluffed out in irritation as she leveled her best beady eyed stare upon Sentinel. “It’s just an old saying. I don’t even know if Hobb even exists.” 

“The bogeypony exists,” Sentinel said in a low voice. 

“And his name is Bucky.” Boadicea’s beak clacked together and the griffoness huddled against Sentinel, her fur and feathers still ruffled. “Who is going to take over his job when he’s gone? Somepony has to be the bogeypony. It’s all part of some greater vital function that keeps you little ponies scared into the light.” 

Sentinel scowled, his somewhat misshapen face contorting as he settled into deep thought. “Don’t ask me how I know this, but I think that Bandua will be inheriting that position from my father. She’ll scare both ponies and griffons back into good graces… she’ll work with Princess Luna.” 

The griffoness scooted a little closer to Sentinel and using her beak, began to groom the shaggy hairs along Sentinel’s neck. There was a clacking sound as she worked, and her black, shiny eyes gleamed with affection. A little allopreening was a good thing, and she knew that Lugus wouldn’t get too mad just so long as she didn’t get too carried away. She ran her talon claws through Sentinel’s shaggy chest scruffle and felt a tingle of excitement surge through her. 

Tilting his head off to one side, Sentinel exposed his vulnerable throat to Boadicea, allowing her to preen him. He did it without thinking about it and he quite enjoyed these moments of closeness. It was probably the closest thing griffons had to kissing, and Sentinel had noticed from observing a number of griffons that they loved grooming their mates. 

Bartleby kept Sunset and Trixie looking immaculate. Gofannon the griffon groomed Helia the pegasus every chance he got. Lugus spent a lot of time grooming Yew. Belisama not only brushed and groomed his father, but his mothers as well. Armed with a hairbrush, it was a common sight to see a griffon grooming their mate, or mates. 

“If you can find a brush or a curry comb, I’ll sit still so you can groom me,” Sentinel said in a low whisper. 

“Really?” Boadicea’s words were full of breathless excitement. 

“We can brush each other,” Sentinel offered. 

“Yew bought me a brush and comb set as a betrothal gift… I’ll go get it.” Boadicea’s wings fluttered against her sides. “I’ll meet you in the living room. Go and sit in front of the big window, it’ll be all sunny and warm.” 

Nodding, Sentinel smiled. “Okay, Boadicea, I’ll be waiting in front of the window for you.” Sentinel leaned over, pressed his lips against Boadicea’s neck, and gave the griffoness a soft kiss. He heard a low peep as he touched her. 

And then, she was gone, almost flying up the stairs, the sound of her black feathers ruffling filling his ears. He watched her go, feeling very fond of her, and knowing that he had done the right thing agreeing to the betrothal. 

Sentinel let out a contented sigh and headed for the living room. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 894
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Never in his life had Bucky ever experienced so much trepidation. He paced the deck of The Scorned Mare, worried for the very state of his own soul. He worried for the safety of others. Twilight Sparkle was pregnant. One of his wives was present. Cadance was on board the ship. So much was at stake. But more than anything, Bucky worried about the sense of self loathing that plagued him. 

He was doing something terrible and he knew it. Somehow, this felt worse than summoning the demon. This was worse than corrupting Dinky’s talent to summon an army of Tartarus spawned bugs. The weight of his own guilt bearing down upon his back made Bucky feel old. He didn’t know how this might end, but he knew that if he was successful, he could potentially end all life on the mirror travelers’ homeworld. Bucky did not know how one was supposed to feel about snuffing out all existence on a world, leaving behind only demons and supernatural entities. The very thought of it left his insides with a hollow ache that nothing could soothe. 

“Buckminster?” 

Hearing Fluttershy’s voice, Bucky winced, cringing away from the gentle creature that he felt ashamed to even be around. He felt a soft touch upon his neck and he made a reluctant turn of his head. Fluttershy’s red and yellow eyes somehow radiated kindness and he found himself feeling better in spite of himself. 

“How are Lunacy and Tranquility?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, they are sleeping,” Fluttershy replied, “but I’m not worried about them. I am however, worried about you. You haven’t slept in a long time, have you?” As she spoke, Fluttershy placed a sloth-like paw beneath Bucky’s chin and lifted his head. 

“I slept a little.” Bucky felt guilty even saying it—he had slept a little, but less than an hour, and he didn’t feel like it counted for much. During his short sleep, he had himself a nightmare about his soul being flayed in Tartarus and being told that he would never see the gate, that his nightmare existence would never end. The punishment would never cease. 

“Uh huh,” Fluttershy said in a knowing voice as she nodded her head. She drifted down to the deck and patted the wooden planks beside her. “Come here and sit with me. We can meditate together. You can learn to be calm and you can set a good example for Sentinel so he can control his anger and his rage.” 

“I dunno if I can focus enough right now—”

“SIT DOWN WITH ME!” Fluttershy’s voice was the sound of raging demon being shoved down through a garbage disposal with a half dozen pieces of silverware and her eyes flashed with chaotic temper. The emerging draconequus let out a sigh, cleared her throat, patted the deck beside her, and this time, speaking with a sweet, demure voice, she told Bucky, “Come here and sit beside me.” 

Terrified beyond reason, Bucky sat down and did as he was told, understanding all too well how Discord had been reformed into the gentle, kind spirit of chaos that he was now. A chilly breeze blew through his mane and made his skin prickle. He had odd sensations in his tiny antler buds and he was unaware that he was feeling the magic present in the wind. 

As Bucky tried to get comfortable on the deck, he felt himself lifted by a gentle force, a cushion popped into existence beneath him, and then he was set back down with something soft beneath his rump. He felt something touch the once ruined, now scaly right side of his face. It was a soft, gentle touch, something Bucky was almost starved for, and he leaned into it. He felt Fluttershy stroke his ears and at her touch, he felt himself calming. 

“Every day you become a little more like Discord and I.” Fluttershy’s voice was a soothing whisper, the same voice she used to speak to troubled animals that were in pain and needed help. “I worry for you. So does Discord, even if he doesn’t say it. Every day, you struggle and you resist what you were meant to be, no matter the consequences. I’m proud of you… because somepony has to be proud of you.” Fluttershy let out a soft sigh. “I wish I had better words of encouragement, but we both know it is only going to get harder.” 

Inhaling, Bucky filled his lungs, held it, focused on the soothing sound of Fluttershy’s voice, and then let everything out with a long, slow exhale, trying to imagine that he was releasing all of the stress in his body out with his breath. 

He heard the soft sounds of Fluttershy breathing beside him, a slow, steady, calming sound. He tried to match up his own breathing to hers. She was slower, steadier, she was calmer. His mind began to drift as he fell into pace with Fluttershy. 

Eyes closed, Bucky thought of another dream, this time with Platinum and Sombra. They too, were proud of him. As always, they told him to keep fighting, keep resisting, and to always do what he believed needed to be done. It wasn’t about doing the right thing, or the wrong thing, it was about being practical. Save lives. Preserve lives. Ensure a future worth living in for those most worthy and deserving. 

Like Berry Pinch. As Bucky thought of her, he felt a growing warmth in his barrel and his heart rate slowed. He was giving her a better future, or so he hoped. She was one more reason to keep fighting, keep resisting, one more reason to keep going, no matter how difficult it got. While every life mattered, little Pinchy’s, like the others in his family, were special. 

Bucky imagined himself on a scale with himself weighing down one side, and then he visualised the lives of those he loved being added one at a time in an attempt to make the scale even out. With each terrible act, with each battle, with each fight, Bucky changed, becoming heavier, and the scales were getting harder to balance out. Little Berry Pinch was just another counterbalance. There would be more required as more time passed. 

This might be the fight to end all fights with the mirror travelers, or it might just buy Equestria some time and some much needed breathing room. The currents of Bucky’s mind swirled around the fact that he was just one pony and there were millions of lives at stake. His needs were very trivial compared to the whole of the others. He understood that he needed to make peace with what needed to be done. 

In and out. Bucky breathed with a rhythmic regularity now, his own respiration now synchronised with Fluttershy’s. Each breath was a slow, laboured thing, a heavy, ponderous act that took a great deal of time and effort. Too much time and effort was involved and so less important things had to go, like worries. 

The tiny antler buds on Bucky’s head tingled, he felt something vibrating, and then, as Bucky slipped deeper into his meditative state, he heard something humming. A deep, resonant thrum. The sound in his ears matched the vibration in his tiny, budding antlers, it made his skull vibrate, his horn, and somehow, the sensation of his brain being buzzed was soothing. It was a blissful sensation. His tiny antlers had a connection to something, Bucky did not know what, and it was entirely different than his horn. Connected to whatever, Bucky felt himself getting high on existence. It was a pleasant, life affirming feeling. 

Still locked in time with Fluttershy’s breathing, Bucky drifted off into a pleasant state of disconnected connection. 



 

Overhead, above The Scorned Mare’s nacelle, the stars twinkled. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer watched as both Fluttershy and Bucky hovered together, defying the laws of gravity. For Sunset, a unicorn, it was a source of amusement. They did it without thinking, without conscious magic, it just happened by virtue of what they were. For Twilight, an alicorn, it unsettled her. It defied order. It defied a harmonic existence. The laws of nature had to be obeyed… and enforced. 

It was all Twilight could do to keep all of her feelings bottled up inside, leaving both Fluttershy and Bucky alone so they could continue to meditate. She understood the importance of the act, but the sight of her friends committing such a flagrant violation of the natural order unnerved her to no end. 

Twilight supposed that the draconequus was intended to be the natural enemy of the alicorn for a reason, but now, with everything turned over on its ear and with alicorns and draconequus spawn living together, Twilight had to make peace with the cosmic regulations defying rulebreakers. 

It was like cats and dogs living together, or perhaps griffons and diamond dogs. It could be total hysteria, and there were moments when it was total hysteria, but for the most part, alicorns and draconequus spawn could live together in a muddled, confused sort of harmony, sort of like having peas and carrots baked into a chocolate chip cookie. Sure, peas and carrots didn’t belong in a chocolate chip cookie, but there was no specific rule preventing some mad baker from committing the atrocious crime against the culinary arts. A polite pony would eat the cookie and act as though they enjoyed it, even if it was weird. 

“Twilight?” 

Startled, Twilight snapped out of her funk and looked at Sunset. She gave the unicorn beside her a sheepish grin and then took a deep, calming breath as she tried not to think about two of her friends defying one of the most basic, simple laws of the universe; what goes up must also come down.

“You look distracted, Twilight.” 

“I’m fine,” Twilight said, her voice quavering and not sounding fine. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Everything is okay. I’m just… distracted, that’s all.” 

“I know I’m distracted. There are canisters full of the most awful diseases down in storage. Some of the worst stuff the zebras had to offer. And the nurse stabbed me right in the cutie mark when she gave me the emergency vaccinations in case of accidental exposure.” Sunset Shimmer sighed and then shifted to one side, trying to find a comfortable place on her bottom to sit. She had been stabbed in both plot cheeks. Repeatedly. She had also been given a patronising stare when the nurse gave her a lollipop. 

“I must confess, I’m a bit worried about this,” Twilight said to Sunset, confiding in her friend. “I keep picturing the mirror travelers spilling out of the portal I open and overrunning us. There are so many ways this can go wrong. I’m scared, Sunset.” 

“So am I,” Sunset admitted, “but I will stay the course.” 

“There are times when I wish I had you as my apprentice.” Twilight waited for a moment for the bombshell she dropped to settle in before she continued. “I get jealous of you and Bucky. I’m envious of your dedication to him and the way he dotes on you. It makes me wish that I had taken you as a student.” 

“I… don’t know what to say.” Sunset blinked at her longtime friend, tried to say something else, but ended up sitting there with her mouth hanging open. 

“You and I are friends. Close friends. And that means a lot to me. But a teacher and an apprentice have a special friendship. It’s something I haven’t explored and I am desperate to know more about it. I’ve been on the other end… as Princess Celestia’s student.” Twilight pursed her lips and huffed, trying to blow her mane out of her eyes. “I watch you and Bucky sometimes and I wonder sometimes what it would be like if I was your teacher.” 

Sunset continued giving Twilight a blank stare. 

“I’m content to just be your friend though. I’m sorry I said anything. It has been on my mind for a long time. It just sort of slipped out I guess. You are like an ideal apprentice. A perfect one. I understand why Bucky is so fond of you.” Twilight felt her cheeks grow warm and she was glad that it was dark. The darkness made it easier to hide when one was blushing. 

“Thank you, Twilight,” Sunset Shimmer managed to say. “I’m flattered.” 

“Since I can’t have you as an apprentice, maybe you could help me find a worthy student… do you think you could do that?” Twilight asked. 

“Well, I don’t know… how does one even begin such a process?” Sunset replied. 

“Well, I thought confiding in a friend that I needed a little help was a good start.” Twilight smiled and the corner of her eye suffered a violent spasm as she glanced over at Fluttershy and Bucky, who were still hovering above the deck and somehow moving along with the ship as it traveled at speed. Twilight desperately tried not to think about physics. 

Sunset’s head bobbed with enthusiasm, and she was unaware of Twilight’s titanic mental struggle to hold everything in. “Well, I suppose we could start with a list of things you want in an apprentice, and then a list of ponies with those qualities…” 
	
> Chapter 895
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Badlands stretched out in all directions all around him. This was a short trip, as far as trips went. The Scorned Mare, being such a small vessel, was quick to slice through the open sky, and was even faster now with it’s new blade-like nacelle. 

There were bugs on deck, changelings had landed upon the ship and were now guiding it to an ideal location, a hidden canyon not far from Guano Grotto. The canyon, a fissure in an elevated plateau, would hide The Scorned Mare from view when it dropped down into the crack in the earth and would protect the ship from high winds. 

A single ship, not even a warship, but an ancient caravel by design, flying alone towards a hidden canyon. This looked nothing like the beginning of a battle, but it was. It was, potentially, the beginnings of the most important battle yet against the mirror travelers. A tiny ship, a small crew, it appeared to be more of a private party on a vessel that had flown out to enjoy the desert. 

The ponies, as a species, were not particularly gifted at war. They were gregarious, gentle natured, and most were not violent sorts. There were a few that were gifted though, and history remembered those that were. Bucky was among them—he was War. 

But Bucky was not the ideal avatar of war. He clung to himself and his frail body, refusing to ascend. He maintained his conscience, he struggled with his fractured, broken sense of right and wrong. He was far less than what he could be. He had severe weaknesses, holding himself back and refusing to let go of his fragile equinity. 

With the simple act of ascension, with but a flexing of his will, he could restore himself to a perfect equine form, both terrible and beautiful, he could fix his twisted, malformed body, and he could become the living embodiment of war and hatred. In that form, he could pass into the homeworld of the mirror travelers and obliterate them without even breaking a sweat, then move on to other places, other whens, other wheres, he would go into all of the places where the Night Stallion had previously gone and finish them off, growing ever stronger. 

Instead, Bucky clung to his sense of self and only had a fraction of his true power and what he was capable of. What little power he had was a terrible thing. One would not think it to look upon his miserable, twisted, misshapen form that he was so dangerous, so awful a foe. 

Also, when looking upon the terrible majesty of the nascent alicorn of war, one would not think of him being such a silly creature… 



 

The Knight Commandant, Admiral of the Endless Fleet, stood upon the deck of The Scorned Mare waiting for Queen Chrysalis to land, and Princess Twilight Sparkle stood beside him, her face contorting as she made a valiant struggle not to snigger. 

Bucky was wearing a ridiculous admiral’s hat that was about five hundred years out of date, covered in ostrich plumes, and he was wearing it sideways. On Bucky’s back, Belisama was wearing her pickelhaube that she had been given during the winter war. She also had two bloody big revolvers strapped to her body. 

Cadance patrolled around her father’s legs, lamenting the lack of a bathtub large enough for her boat and all the adventures she could have. Myrmidons stood like statues upon the deck, unmoving titans covered in plate steel. Upon noticing the incoming changeling swarm, Cadance let out a shrill squeal of alarm and fled the deck, going down belowdecks to find Sunset Shimmer or maybe Auntie Disco. 

Queen Chrysalis landed with a thump, took one look at Bucky, rolled her eyes, and let out a reluctant laugh. More changelings dropped around her, the deck becoming rather crowded, and Chrysalis strode forwards to greet Bucky. 

“Did you bring Crisis?” Chrysalis asked. 

Bucky, surprised by Chrysalis’ request, stared up at her from beneath the floppy brim of his hat, peering out from between ostrich feathers. “No I did not.” Some emotion flashed over Chrysalis’ hard to read face. Was it disappointment? Sadness? He could sense it too, almost, but she was trying to hide it. She was trying to flood his senses with garble. 

“I… was… I was hoping to see how she was developing, that’s all.” Queen Chrysalis let out a snort and drew herself up to her full height. “No matter, shall we get down to business?” 

As Chrysalis spoke, more changelings landed. They looked like ponies, but Bucky knew they weren’t ponies at all. He was looking at how Crisis would be when she grew up. Large, stocky, powerful, the white ponies flew on the wings of dragonflies. When they landed, the dragonfly wings vanished into nothingness and the changelings were indistinguishable from unicorns. They had Crisis’ odd shovel shaped teeth. Looking at them, Bucky knew that they were the perfect warriors, made for war, created from the essence of War. He felt a strange sense of pride upon seeing them. 

“Things have changed a bit,” Twilight said, stepping forwards. “I’ve been doing some spying and trying to get an accurate count. I don’t think we’re going to get hundreds or even thousands of earth ponies from the caverns, I think we’ll see ten thousand or more.” 

Hearing Twilight’s words, Queen Chrysalis let out a hissing sound. Her upper lip curled back into a horrid sneer. “Well, this information might have been more useful had I heard it sooner. I can muster up more drones to move the earth ponies and evacuate them, but it means pulling drones from guard positions and places that concern my interests.” 

“How many do we have for the invasion?” Bucky asked, getting down to the business at hoof. “What are we sending in to do our dirty work?” 

The scowl upon Queen Chrysalis’ face vanished and her body stiffened. “Five thousand,” she replied. “Five thousand flutterponies await you. There is also another five thousand drones of different types. Infiltrators. Assassins. Bug bombs. Firebugs. Even got a few of the new glowbugs ready.” 

“Glowbugs?” Bucky asked. 

“Experimental design,” Chrysalis replied in a low voice. “Radiation emitters. They glow with harmful levels of gamma radiation once they activate. Living things around them will die in a short time. If they get killed, their bodies will still be radioactive and very difficult to deal with. Thankfully, we changelings are immune to gamma radiation due to my clever designs.” 

“I don’t like this.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she looked at Queen Chrysalis. 

“I give you my word, I have no intentions of ever using my glowbugs against ponies. I don’t even have any eggs left, I’m sending them all through the portal. Look, I’m not stupid and I don’t want Lord Ugly killing me for unleashing new biological horrors.” Chrysalis’s face contorted into a sneer as she stared back at Twilight. “He wanted a deadly army, he got a deadly army.”

“That’s enough, both of you.” Bucky’s talons began tapping upon the deck. “Have you modified the parasprite designs as I suggested?” 

“Yes, you horrible, despicable, degenerate monster. You have a really messed up imagination, you know that? Good thing you had me make them… I doubt your best ponies would have been up for this task.” 

Twilight looked alarmed. “Parasprites? What’s going on? Why wasn’t I informed about this? Parasprites are dangerous!” 

Clearing his throat, Bucky looked at Twilight. “Because you didn’t need to know, Twilight.” Bucky heard Twilight let out an angry snort and he pushed his oversized, ridiculous hat back upon his head so he could see better. “The parasprites have been modified to go after high magic targets and devour them. Arcano tech structures, unicorn batteries, tanks full of mana extracted from unicorns, unicorns themselves, the parasprites have an unsatisfiable hunger, a ravenous appetite for all things magical. Once they eat enough magical matter, instead of reproducing and creating more parasprites, they will act as thaumaturgical bombs and explode.” 

Twilight Sparkle’s mouth fell open and she stared at Bucky. 

“He’s sick in the head, isn’t he?” Chrysalis asked of nopony in particular.  

“Twilight, forgive me, but I am playing to win,” Bucky said in a low voice. “There is too much at stake. We have to make the most of this opportunity. There is no going halfway here.” 

“I… agree,” Twilight replied, her ears drooping. She looked at Bucky, her eyes glimmering with tears. She took a step forwards, hesitant, then another, then she extended one wing, she wrapped it around Bucky’s neck, drew him in, and gave him an affectionate kiss on his left cheek, looking very much like her mentor Princess Celestia looking after one of her little ponies as she did so. 

“There is much to discuss. The sooner we get started, the better. There is a lot to do.” Queen Chrysalis, holding her head high, looked down upon Twilight Sparkle and Bucky, basking in their affection for one another. “Come with me. There are things I would like to show you.” 



 

“Scared.” Cadance, trembling, looked up at Discord, her lower lip trembling and her stubby wings fluttering. She was suspended in the crook of Discord’s lion leg, clinging to the befuddled draconequus. 

“Oh, you poor dear,” Fluttershy said as she came closer to Cadance and Discord. “It will be okay. Are you scared for your Daddy?” Fluttershy watched as the pink alicorn foal squirmed in Discord’s gentle embrace. Cadance did not reply, but closed her eyes and pressed her face into Discord’s neck. 

“Dearest Fluttershy, I do believe it is our current guests that are bothering her.” Discord squinted one eye at his mate and a rare serious expression was upon his face. “The poor little thing is shaking.” Discord angled his body to give Cadance something to rest against and watched as Fluttershy fed both Tranquility and Lunacy. “I don’t get it. Cadance gets along so well with Tourmaline and she’s coming around as far as Crisis goes.” 

“Tourmaline is a gentle presence that would never hurt anybody and Crisis is a little cuddlebug who has only hurt one pony so far and that was when she tried to chew off Queen Chrysalis’ face.” A lopsided smile appeared upon Fluttershy’s face. “Both of them are good and they draw upon love passively. Queen Chrysalis tried to suck the love out of ponies. She’s greedy and takes too much. She’s drained ponies… killed them.” 

“So… Tourmaline and Crisis understand that there is more than enough to go around while Chrysalis keeps trying to take as much as she can?” Discord looked thoughtful and he rubbed his chin with his tail tuft.

“Poor Chrysalis has been stuck trying to survive for too long. She’s food possessive, like a hungry little badger or a bossy little budgerigar.” Fluttershy licked her buck teeth with her orange tongue, looking thoughtful. “Little Cadance is sensitive to things that affect love.” 

“She make Daddy bad,” Cadance mumbled into Discord’s neck. 

“Hmm.” Discord looked down at the pink alicorn foal in his embrace and continued to stroke his chin with his tail tuft. “I suppose she might bring out the worst in Bucky, with her being the way she is.” 

“Cadance, sweet thing, your Daddy seems to be bringing a little good out of Queen Chrysalis. She’s helping ponies. She’s making changes. She’s trying to do good things. But it takes time to make changes. It took Discord time, but look at him now.” Fluttershy paused and smiled. “He’s a good draconequus.” 

Rolling his eyes, Discord moaned in a dramatic manner, squirmed, and then let out a crazed sounding giggle. “It just took an act of kindness to reach me. I wonder what it will take to make the bug queen turn around?” 

“A come to Bucky moment,” Fluttershy replied. “Either that, or Princess Celestia will slowly win her over with time and patience. That’s my guess. If I was her, I’d rather come to terms with Princess Celestia.” Fluttershy fell quiet, thought of Bucky in Griffonholm, and the memory made her shiver. “I feel bad for your Daddy, Cadance. He doesn’t want to be like this.” 

“He can be good,” Cadance murmured. “He save me.” 

“Yes he did.” Discord gave the alicorn foal in his embrace a squeeze. “Armed with his own overblown sense of sanctimonious self righteousness and a sense of duty the size of the Equestrian continent rammed sideways up his backside, the Lord of Winter marched into Tartarus, demanded your return, and he would not be refused.” Discord paused and one bushy, grizzled eyebrow arched. “I hear the waiting room down there is atrocious.” 

“Discord…” Fluttershy glared at her husband and watched as Cadance lifted her head away from Discord’s neck. The yellow no-longer-a-pegasus was forced to swallow a smile as little Cadance glared upwards at Discord, an expression of pink fury upon her face. 

Looking down, Discord gave Cadance an apologetic stare. “Oh, that’s right. You don’t take jokes about your father very well. My apologies. I was kidding… if Bucky was here, he would laugh at it.” 

“Bad noodle monster,” Cadance grumbled as she continued to stare upwards at Discord, her eyes locked onto his. “You his friend. He do it for you too.” 

Discord slumped, defeated by Cadance’s words. “I suppose he would. I must confess, I’ve grown very fond of him.” Discord, now looking melancholy, gave Cadance a gentle squeeze. “I only tease him because I like him. It’s difficult having friends.” 

Mollified, Cadance closed her eyes and buried her face into Discord’s neck once more. 

Discord, feeling the little pink foal snuggling up against him, cuddled her closer while looking at Fluttershy and his two offspring. Tranquility was a shared effort between him and Fluttershy, but Lunacy was a good bit more confusing. Discord realised that he and Bucky were parents together—Discord had in fact had his own part in bringing Lunacy into the world. Little Lunacy, the love of his life, had very confusing parentage. He and Bucky both were her Daddies. Well, it could be argued that since Bucky birthed her that he was her Mommy too, and Princess Celestia had her own touch of essence tossed into the mix, as did Fluttershy. Which made Bucky very much like a… well, Discord wasn’t sure. What did one call the Mommy-Daddy of one of your babies in an extended family relationship? Discord realised that this was probably the reason why the draconequus as a species was not given over to thoughts of family or foal rearing. Discord worried about whether or not he should get both Bucky and Celestia anniversary gifts or perhaps flowers on that one pesky holiday that he could never remember. 

Lowering his head, Discord kissed Cadance and continued to think his confusing, chaotic thoughts. 
	
	
	
> Chapter 896
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Down deep in the canyon, the sound of thousands of changeling hooves (if they could be called that) echoed off of the stone as they marched. The column stretched through the length of the canyon, twenty drones wide and five hundred drones long. It was one of the most magnificent things Bucky had ever seen, all of them marching in perfect unison. 

The plan seemed oh so simple. The army would go in through the portal rift, then they would begin teleporting and infiltrating into the upper levels of the mountain fortress. Once inside, the army would engage the enemy, going for targets that Twilight had found through careful, masterful scrying, using the very height of her powers of divination. Twilight had punched through all of the defenses of the enemy, breached their spells, slipped through the many wards, and she had seen much. 

Twilight had also showed Bucky the home of the enemy. It reminded him of Canterlot, except that Canterlot was on top of a tall, narrow spire. The mirror travelers lived in a massive fortress that sprawled over the top of a cluster of mountains and just like it was with Canterlot, there were mines as well as caverns below the fortress city. 

Outside the city was a sea of swarming evil, a never ending siege. Bucky had seen it. Terrible titans, demons, and other supernatural horrors threw themselves upon the shielded city and its protectors in a never ending war. Pegasi, augmented by magic, and unicorns, who were some of the most powerful spellcasters that Bucky and Twilight had ever seen, they defended the city and sometimes managed to kill a demon or one of the attackers. This was but a temporary reprieve—a fallen demon would only return to Tartarus, be reborn, and then would return once they recovered their strength. 

This was an engine of indifference. Only the strong would survive and all weakness was purged on both sides. 

Once the army made its way in, more changelings and a number of unicorns would slip inside; once there, they would begin lifting out the earth ponies, which were in a sad state. Many looked diseased. They were pale, many had milky eyes, and some even had some kind of strange fungal growths protruding from their bodies. The earth ponies, left to rot in the sunless caverns, had changed, and perhaps even more horrifying, they had survived in the dark depths, adapting, evolving… life had found a way. 

Bucky and Twilight waited, watching, viewing the enemy, Bucky was hoping for the perfect chance to strike. Bucky knew that time was on his side in this instance. When the fighting outside of the fortress became a chaotic, nightmarish mess, Bucky would begin the invasion, knowing they had their best chance when the mirror travelers were busy defending themselves from total annihilation. 



 

“This seems more like an exchange than anything else,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low voice to the ponies and not ponies sharing the room with her. “We’re sending in ten thousand troops and pulling out about ten thousand or so earth ponies.” 

Queen Chrysalis looked irritated and her lip curled back from her fangs in a sneer of derision. “Don’t be an idio—” The changeling queen fell silent mid word and she could almost imagine the crushing invisible force around her throat as Bucky glared at her. She gulped, an audible sound that made every ear in the room capable of twitching to jerk at the sudden noise. The look that Bucky was giving her was horrible and she saw his talons fidget. 

Clearing her throat, Chrysalis tried again. “Twilight, don’t be foolish. This isn’t about just sending ten thousand in and pulling ten thousand out. The ten thousand ponies we steal will be a tweak upon the nose. We are going to deal to a crippling blow to our mutual enemy. Bucky’s plan might go down as one of the most tactically brilliant maneuvers in your history of equinekind.” Chrysalis hoped that a bit of honest flattery would appease Bucky before he got down to the foreplay of strangulation. 

Twilight’s lips pressed into a tight, narrow line as she reflected upon Chrysalis’ words. 

“We might be condemning our enemy to an ignoble end.” Shining Armor shook his head and then looked at his sister, his eyes lingering for a moment before his gaze shifted over to Bucky. “I’m not terribly bothered by it though. They brought this upon themselves.” 

“Shining… I… you… you can’t be…” Twilight stammered. “You’ve changed, Shining.” 

“I have since come around to Bucky’s way of thinking,” Shining Armor replied. “This is a terrible thing we are doing, make no mistake. This is morally reprehensible. This is ethically unsound. It is also our best course of action. Princess Celestia has given me the final approval and we are to go forwards as planned.” 

“I understand that this is necessary,” Twilight said in a strained voice, “but I worry about what sort of terrible vengeance this act might bring down upon us.” 

“If we had more time, I could make a bigger army and we might finish them off this way,” Queen Chrysalis suggested. 

Shaking her head, Twilight let out a grunt and then replied, “Nope. They’re mobilising. I’ve been watching. They’re building up another army. They have a lot of unicorns stolen from other places. They’ve mindwiped them. They’re planning another invasion. If not us, then some other unfortunate target. We don’t have time. We have a good solid plan, we have the troops we need, we should act upon it. You know, strike now while the iron is hot.” 

“They brought this ruin upon themselves.” Bucky’s voice was low, sonorous, and filled the room with a pleasant, soothing baritone. It calmed Twilight’s frazzled nerves, made Queen Chrysalis feel a bit aroused, caused Shining Armor to feel proud, and made Belisama fluff out and also look a little overheated. 

“I have my golems ready. Mindless, soulless automatons who will serve one purpose. Destruction. Queen Chrysalis has generously provided us with an army of drones… drones that, very much like my golems, we are sending to their death and destruction.” Bucky paused and gestured at a metal box upon the table, a plain box of grey steel. “And these were provided by Princess Celestia and Scorch.” 

With a slow, casual movement, Bucky pulled open the metal box and a glowing, golden light filled the room. In the box, something clinked, the faint sound of glass rattling together. Five glowing glass spider golems sat inside of the box, which was lined with cushioned fabric. 

“What are those?” Twilight asked as she eyed the glowing spider golems. 

“These are plasma elementals. Beings of burning hot plasma, given crude intelligence and purpose by Princess Celestia and Scorch the Usurper.” Bucky stroked the edge of the box. “Beings of fire and fusion. They’re hungry. They need a lot of matter to ingest if they wish to keep living. I can’t even begin to understand the spell matrices being used to suspend them inside of the spider golems… and believe me, I’ve tried.” 

“Plasma elementals?” Twilight’s eyebrow raised and she heard Shining Armor clearing his throat. 

“The Solar Empress is done being nice. She is sending the plasma elementals to the Night Stallion to remind him that his darkness is easily dispelled by her dawn. The Solar Empress now rises.” Shining Armor’s words had a profound impact upon the group around him. Twilight looked thoughtful. Queen Chrysalis cringed, realising that Princess Celestia had been gentle with her up to this point. Bucky smiled, a terrible, horrible, all together too toothy smile that had far too many fangs and misshapen teeth to be pleasant. Belisama stared into the box at the spider golems with wide, curious eyes, and her talons clutched Bucky’s mane. 

“So…” Twilight said in a voice that was almost squeaky with strain, “we’re all in this together. We’ve all committed ourselves to this action. Well then.” Twilight coughed and cleared her throat. “That makes things a little easier, I suppose.” 

“Be ready. As soon as I feel that it is time, we strike,” Bucky said to everyone gathered. 



 

Easing back into a chair, Bucky pulled Tranquility closer to him, buried his muzzle into her mane, and inhaled her scent into his lungs. She yawned, letting out a faint squeak that made her sound very much like her mother, and then she began kneading the side of Bucky’s neck with her lion’s paw, her tiny claws flexing with each touch. 

“How are you holding up?” Fluttershy asked as she looked up from her knitting. 

Bucky, who almost felt drowsy, gave Fluttershy a sleepy smile. “I think I’m okay.” 

On the floor of the common room and dining room of The Scorned Mare, Lunacy sat on a blanket, eyeing the world around her, an angry, ferocious scowl upon her face. Not far away, Cadance also sat upon the floor, but she was smiling, a warm, loving grin. Belisama was nesting in a pile of pillows while feeding Bandua. A group of griffons were studying sheet music and trying to ignore Discord, who peered over their shoulders. 

“This is always the worst part of any conflict… the waiting!” Discord said as he stood up while suspended in midair. “This is downright boring… boring!” 

“Discord, hush!” Fluttershy commanded. “Bucky needs quiet time.” 

“Yes, because we want the demiurge of conflict to be at the top of his game when this starts.” Discord let out a chuckle, hovered over the griffon musicians, drifted over to where Cadance was, lowered his his head down, and looked Cadance in the eye. “Hello Cadance.” 

Giggling, Cadance reached up with one foreleg and touched her hoof to Discord’s nose, booping him. The draconequus crashed to the floor with a thud as gravity reasserted itself over his body, which lived in defiance of the natural order. 

In her chair, Fluttershy giggled as Discord raised his eyebrow at Cadance. Bucky closed his eyes as he held Tranquility. Lunacy let out a rare giggle and her whole body shook with mirth. The griffons present all had a good laugh. 

“Young lady, I bet you think you are hilarious,” Discord muttered. 

Head bobbing, Cadance replied, “Yup.” 

Discord’s mock seriousness vanished and a gleeful smile appeared up his lips. “You know, Cadance, I think I like this new you. You understand how to have fun. Not such a stick in the mud. You’re going to grow up and be a fine princess.” 

Just as Cadance was about to make a reply, Shining Armor materialised in the common room, his projection becoming solid and real. Cadance let out an excited squeal and forgot all about Discord and his violation of the law of gravity. She was up on her hooves in a second, her wings flapping, and she ran for Shining Armor. 

A moment later, Twilight Sparkle appeared, but did so in Cadance’s path. She had to make a quick sidestep to get out of Cadance’s way. Twilight let out a laugh, avoided stepping on any griffon tails, looked over at Bucky snuggling with Tranquility, and then she let out a contented sigh as everything felt right. 

“Boat!” Cadance pointed at a cardboard box in the corner and then bounced in place, her knees flexing as she looked at Shining Armor. “Get in!” 

Shining Armor, a dutiful sort, shrank down his projection, eyed his sister, daring her to laugh, and then he went to the box, where he climbed in without complaint. A second later, wings flapping, Cadance launched herself at the box and just managed to leap over the edge. She tumbled into the box on top of Shining Armor, then, giggling, she pulled the cardboard flaps closed, sealing both her and Shining Armor inside. 

“Bucky, your precious little alicorn filly just closed herself into a box with her future beau,” Discord said in a voice that writhed with mischievous laughter. Discord doubled over on himself, his long serpentine body folding in half, and he slithered closer to Bucky’s chair, gravity still having a strong effect upon him. 

Still holding Tranquility, Bucky snorted to let Discord know that he could not be bothered. After a moment, Bucky yawned, then took a deep breath, and then said, “Cadance, look out… sea monsters.” 

From inside the box, there was a shrill squeal of panic followed by a thump and a grunt. The box shuddered and then a magenta bubble appeared around it, shielding the box from all invaders, land, sea, or air. 

Twilight, who was now sitting beside Fluttershy, watched the box with keen interest, a part of her wanting to climb into the box with her brother and Cadance. She had done this so many times as a foal. Boxes made for excellent boats, airships, and fortresses. There was just something special about being tucked away in a box with a friend or a loved one. Twilight’s mother had even managed to find time to stow herself away inside of a box with Twilight, and Twilight had a fond of memory of the time spent together in a box, her mother reading to her by horn light, as they braved the imaginary night full of hideous, unspeakable monsters that lurked outside, kept at bay by cardboard. 

Even at the brink of battle, there was happiness to be found… 
	
	
	
> Chapter 897
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The portal yawned before him and Bucky suffered a moment of doubt, not knowing how this might turn out. He glanced at Sunset Shimmer beside him on his right; she was wearing her golden armor, the armor that was the very symbol of her paladinhood. He was wearing his own armor, pulled out of the shadow and given substance. Queen Chrysalis stood upon his left, her eyes wide, a strange, curious smile upon her face. 

The army began to move in using the right side of the portal, while those assigned to rescue moved in on the left. The portal was massive, a rift in reality that hung like a shimmering curtain. The portal generator was anchored in the sand of the canyon floor. 

Overhead, Belisama circled to keep a watchful eye on everything. The canyon filled with the echoes of thousands of changeling hooves striking the sand. The event was momentous and with it came its own sense of magnificent drama. Several griffons, the crew of the The Scorned Mare, snapped photographs of the unfolding events, with all present knowing that history was being made. 

Discord, who stood near Twilight, flexed his talons and kept an eye open for trouble. If things went wrong, he was Twilight’s protector, her guardian, her potential saviour. The draconequus had a strange look of seriousness upon his face. He cared about Twilight, she was his friend, and it unnerved him that his friends were at risk. Around both Discord and Twilight, a living wall of Myrmidons stood waiting. Woe to those who attempted to assail this living fortress that protected Princess Twilight Sparkle. 

A vast troop of mindless spider golems scurried towards the rift, a small but terrifying army filled with all of the different colours of pain and despair. Some of them had a dreadful black glow, and looking upon them made the viewer feel a twinge of hatred. Others glowed with a pleasing blue-green glow, but looking at them filled the viewer with the urgent need to find a restroom. There was a large contingent of spider golems with a truly vile purple glow, but the less that was said about these the better, and no one wanted to look at them. 

Sometimes, when swept up in the events of the present, one had to wonder if Bucky was the hero or the villain, and perhaps an argument could be made for both. He was a terrifying, dread inspiring figure standing next to Sunset Shimmer. The contrast between the two was startling. By comparison, Queen Chrysalis looked like a two bit villain in a low budget matinee. 

For all of his resistance, for all of his reluctance, for all of the running from his destiny that Bucky did, there could be no doubt that he had embraced his role in this instance. The Knight and the Librarian working together were now protecting Equestria. The Guardian and the Scholar. Equestria’s military might and Equestria’s strategic knowledge were now working together in perfect harmony, the result of which was that a smaller, weaker force was now able to strike back against a vastly superiour enemy. 

Overhead, the stars bore witness to this event, the moon shone down, and it seemed as though the very world itself tensed as it waited to see how these events would play out. 



 

Passing through the portal was like being born; Bucky did not know how he made this association, but he did. It felt wet, heavy, like he was being pressed through jelly, but he also remained dry. There was a painful pressure in his ears and for a moment, he thought his body would be crushed. 

Blinking beneath his helmet, Bucky realised that he was on another world. He had no time to enjoy the sense of wonder and accomplishment. Right away, he took stock of his surroundings and noted that Sunset was having some trouble recovering. Not everypony was lucky enough to resist magical energies. 

Much to his surprise, Queen Chrysalis helped Sunset, holding her up in a green glow. There was a chaotic grin on the changeling queen’s face and Bucky felt a smile spreading over his own face. 

“This is why your so called forces of good keep losing… you can’t even pass through a dimensional rift without your knees turning into jelly.” Queen Chrysalis steadied Sunset Shimmer and after a moment, the green glow faded. “Being pure, unadulterated evil takes a certain level of constitution and hardiness, which is why Bucky and I can’t be bothered by a little crushing magical force.” 

Even more surprising to Bucky was the fact that Sunset laughed. He glanced at the changeling queen and his apprentice, feeling thoughtful, and wondering if perhaps, there was still some hope for Queen Chrysalis. 

“I suppose it’s rough being the bad guy,” Sunset Shimmer replied as she stood up straight and began to look around, her glowing horn dispelling the darkness. “You have nopony you can trust to help you patch up your booboos. You just have to suffer through it all alone with no one to comfort you.” 

“Yeah.” A manic grin appeared on Queen Chrysalis’ face as she nodded. “But, you get to be evil, so it’s not all bad.” 

“The forces of good need tough bad guys though. Overcoming impossible odds and beating tough bad guys down into the dirt is what gives us, the forces of goodness, our insufferable, self righteous smugness.” Sunset Shimmer’s horn grew brighter and more of the cavern became visible. 

Bucky did not have time to think about Sunset and Chrysalis’ exchange. He was too busy looking at the earth ponies that could be seen on the very edges of the light. They looked terrified, scared, and diseased. His heart ached for them. 

Lifting his talons, Bucky drew in a deep breath, called upon his magic, and said, “Sleep.” Many of the earth ponies visible toppled over. He watched as changeling drones hurried over and began to fetch the now comatose earth ponies. 

Healing them, restoring them was going to be so very difficult. Some of them appeared to be hairless and sightless. They had dwelled in the dark for far too long. A slow, simmering rage began to bubble within Bucky, he could feel the madness and the hatred of this place having an effect upon him. There was no love here. There was nothing good here. Before his emotions could get away from him, he thought of Fluttershy and her lessons. 

The army poured into the cavern and the dim green glow of thousands of changeling horns illuminated the dreary, dank place. Bucky moved further in and cast another sleep spell, then another, and the bodies began to pile up. There was water down here, a cistern, Bucky could smell it. There were strange fungal growths everywhere, some of them glowing, and Bucky, who loved the darkness, shivered at the very idea of living down here in the deep dark with no sun, no moon, and no stars.

Up above, it was no better, with the sun, the moon, and the stars having passed away. 

Using her telekinesis, Sunset Shimmer began to move the slumbering bodies of the earth ponies, collecting them into groups so that the changeling drones could carry them away to a better place. 

Bucky, who had long been plagued with doubt about this course of action, who had suffered from the guilt of what he was doing, began to feel better. This felt right. Seeing the earth ponies in their wretched condition and the squalor in which they lived assauged Bucky’s heavy conscience. This was justified. Monsters who did this… the soulless monsters that had done this to their own kith and kin, they had no right to live, they did not deserve existence. 

This change of feelings made Bucky eager to dispense justice. 

He was doing his duty as the Knight; as terrible of a figure as he might be, as much as the darkness he had faced had twisted him, he was still acting to benefit equinekind. There were none as downtrodden and forgotten as this lot, and Equestria’s long prophesied Knight had come to save them. Bucky felt his spirits rise and something within him swelled as he acted as Harmony’s agent; he was doing what he was born to do and he felt a heady rush of power as he embraced his destiny, no longer resisting it. 

Those who harmed the innocent and the defenseless must be made to suffer, and who knew more of suffering than one who had endured so much of it? 

The drone army continued to flood into the cavern, moving with precision and incredible speed. Once inside, they would vanish, teleporting away and taking some of the golems with them. Bucky knew that the enemy knew that they were here, but there was a terrible battle being waged outside. He had known exactly when to strike. The fortress city was being hammered. 



 

The earth ponies were being carried out by the dutiful drones and all was going well, or at least well enough. Bucky felt this whole process was too slow. He stood, waiting, watchful, conserving his magic as much as he could. His magic felt strong here, too strong, and Bucky knew why. This was a world were war and conflict never ended. He was terrified that he would be flooded with hatred in this place and ascend. 

“Master, I am sensing some magic—” 

Sunset Shimmer fell silent as a lone figure appeared in the cavern before them. An alicorn by appearance, the figure appeared to be tall and powerful. She was a dull, dusky pink and had a dark purple mane. The figure stood with her wings flared out and her head held high. Bucky noticed the war shoe on the mare’s front right hoof; in it was a bright orange gem that glowed with a pulsating inner light. Bucky knew right away who she was and what she represented.

“Lord of Winter,” the alicorn said in a booming voice, “you could not have picked a worse time to drop by. I must insist that you leave.” The alicorn’s horn began to glow with a blazing golden brilliance. 

“I do my best,” Bucky replied, his voice snide and dripping with sarcasm, “you know, I can’t leave without the earth ponies. Surely, as the Element of Integrity, you must understand this.” 

The alicorn mare sneered at Bucky and her eyes narrowed. “As the Element of Integrity, I must do what is right. I have been tasked with stopping you, Lord of Winter. The Night Stallion said that you are free to leave if you go right now. This is not an advantageous time to quarrel.” 

“Oh come on, we both know that won’t be happening!” As Bucky spoke, he lunged and several icy missiles flew from his horn. 

The battle started with a fierce cry from the enemy alicorn. To protect the drones and the comatose earth ponies, Queen Chrysalis cast a powerful shield bubble around the combatants and then tried to back away from the conflict as much as possible, so she could maintain her protective barrier. 

Blazing as bright as the sun, Sunset Shimmer launched a wave of flame at the enemy alicorn. Her flames were blocked by a hastily cast spell mirror, and the flames slithered over the ground towards Bucky, who sucked them in as he made a dismissive wave with his gauntlet covered talons. Sunset went to work breaking down the Element of Integrity’s magical defenses, which were considerable already. With each spell stripped away, a new one sprang up to replace it. 

Resorting to shadow magic, knowing that the mirror travelers sometimes made mistakes when it came to taking other forms of magic into account, Bucky cast a powerful terror spell upon the enemy alicorn, which he guessed was a pegasus wearing the Element of Integrity. 

As the terror spell took hold, the alicorn let out a fearful scream that echoed through the cavern. Other drones had come to join their queen and they added their magic to the shield bubble as Queen Chrysalis scowled in concentration. If this magical battle escaped this shield area, everything that they worked for might be lost. 

Sunset Shimmer began to cast a new spell, one she had only practiced with. Celestial Glory was a powerful, dangerous spell crafted by none other than Princess Celestia herself. Five glowing orbs appeared around Sunset Shimmer’s head, moving in swift orbit. The five glowing spheres grew in intensity, glowing brighter and brighter. The first orb burst and Sunset was covered in a powerful shield. The second orb continued to orbit, but was now flying around Sunset’s body, ready to act if a spell tried to strike Sunset. The third orb hit the ground and cast a ward spell, which covered the ground in an arcane sigil that would act to disrupt enemy spell casting. The fourth orb flew towards the enemy alicorn, struck her shields, and exploded. The fifth orb also flew towards the enemy alicorn and struck her. 

“I CAN’T SEE!” Panicked, the enemy alicorn began to unleash a flurry of spells, which detonated all around her. 

Worried, Bucky tried to counteract everything. These pseudo alicorns had great power, but not control nor understanding of their power. His own shields melted away and many of his protective wards were dispelled. His armor took a powerful blast and absorbed most of it, but Bucky knew that he would be feeling the backlash later. 

Several things happened all at once. Bucky, using shadow magic, cast a globe of darkness around himself and the Element of Integrity. Queen Chrysalis’ spell bubble collapsed as the detonations spilled out into the cavern all around them. Sunset Shimmer was almost frantic as she tried to restore her own shields, which were getting blitzed by the panicked assault of the blinded, terrified Element of Integrity. 

Using the darkness, Bucky slipped into shadow, winked, and then reappeared right as the Element of Integrity was casting a powerful dispel magic spell. Bucky became solid at the worst possible moment, right as part of his shadow essence was inside of the pink alicorn mare. He summoned all of his willpower as he became solid and real once more, hoping to hold himself together as their merged bodies intermingled. 

The Element of Integrity gurgled as she looked down at Bucky and a dribble of blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Her eyes bulged as she looked down and saw Bucky’s gauntleted foreleg protruding from her chest, just below her neck. 

When Bucky felt the beating heart of his enemy in the clutches of his gauntleted talons, he squeezed. The alicorn mare let out another gurgling cry and more blood trickled from her mouth. Bucky felt a moment of pity for her. In this form, she had immense power, she had immense strength, but she did not have the experience to use it, nor the willpower. His body had held true while her body had given way to his invading form. She had done nothing to shield herself from shadow attacks and had left herself vulnerable in the worst way. She had made a number of mistakes, and now, the dreadful consequences had manifested. 

With a powerful jerk of his foreleg, Bucky yanked his talons out of the alicorn’s chest, and with them, her heart. Her wings flapped once and she blinked. Her legs wobbled and she fell over. Sprawled on the ground, her horn went dim and the gemstone in her war shoe ceased to glow. 

Her body became that of a pegasus, her horn vanishing, and then, the Element of Integrity, which had taken the form of a war shoe, vanished. Bucky stared down at the dead pegasus mare, still holding her heart in his talons. Blood gushed out of the cavernous hole in her chest. All strength and power with no discipline, no understanding, no sense of nuance. Power without imagination or creativity was useless. A pegasus given a horn and made an alicorn without proper magical instruction wasn’t much of a threat, at least not to Bucky. 

Saddened, Bucky tossed the pegasus’ bloodied heart down upon her body and shook his head as her wings gave one final twitch. 

“Bucky… you’d better get over here!” Sunset’s frantic words made Bucky’s heart leap up into his throat and he turned to see what had gone wrong. 



 

There was a stabbing ache in his barrel when Bucky looked down upon the ruined remains of Queen Chrysalis. Her hind legs were gone completely and her entrails had spilled out upon the cavern floor. A strange chemical stink filled his nostrils and made his eyes water. 

“I’m not connected here,” Chrysalis said in a low gurgling whisper. 

“We need to get her beyond the portal, now!” Bucky said. 

“No!” Chrysalis thumped her foreleg against the ground. “No… listen to me… if you carry me over… everything we’ve worked for will be in jeopardy.” The bug queen paused and drew in a laboured breath. “When my consciousness resets in the spell matrices, many of the drones will shut down completely while others slow to a crawl. It takes several hours for the hivemind to reset itself.” 

Bucky’s helmet vanished, becoming shadowstuff and then was absorbed by his body. He lowered his head down until he was snoot to snoot with Queen Chrysalis. 

“I’m not scared anymore,” Queen Chrysalis whispered. “I feel good about what I’ve done… today, I was the good guy… I was fragile and weak… but I held the shield and kept others safe.” 

“That you did,” Bucky replied in a flat voice as Sunset moved to stand beside him. 

“Before I go… can I have a kiss?” Chrysalis asked, her voice somehow held a hint of teasing tone, even in these horrible circumstances. “Just a taste of your love…” 

Bucky glanced at Sunset Shimmer and then looked back down at Chrysalis. Her forelegs twitched and more of her insides spilled out as he stood staring. Bucky was impressed that she was still somehow alive. “Is there nothing we can do to save you?” 

“If you save me, the drones will shut down and many will be left behind.” Chrysalis coughed and her eyes shimmered in the faint light. “You were right, Bucky, the needs of the many—” Queen Chrysalis words trailed off into coughing and green spittle flew from her lips. 

Bucky lifted Chrysalis’ head in his magic and looked into her eyes as he waited for the coughing fit to pass. Each breath she took was wet and soupy sounding. When the worst of the coughing had passed, Bucky touched his snoot to Chrysalis’ and he felt her trembling lips touch his. 

He was then seized by powerful magic as Chrysalis got a good lip lock on him. Goo flooded out of her mouth into his, filling his lungs, going down into his stomach, he struggled for air, his body thrashing against the magical hold on him, but after a panicked moment, he realised that he didn’t need to breathe. He felt Chrysalis’ long tongue invade his mouth and the gooey kiss intensified into something terrifying and titillating at the same time. 

Whatever was in his body was being absorbed and Bucky could feel himself changing; into what, he did not know. The powerful grip of magic let him go and Queen Chrysalis pulled away with a wet, syrupy, slurpy pop. 

“They will obey you… the drones will obey your every thought, your every command.” Queen Chrysalis’ head dropped down to the stone and a long stream of greenish yellow slime trickled out of her nostrils. “I’m not scared any more… is anypony else seeing this weird albino earth pony?” 

With a gasp and a cough, Queen Chrysalis breathed her last and went still. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 898
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You have given me quite a chase, but like all of the others, you have fallen. You played the game well, for whatever it is worth. You eluded me far longer than most… but here we are.” 

Two ponies stood in a vast grey void. One was an albino earth pony with the most peculiar cutie mark, wilted petunias, and the other was a nondescript greyish coloured mare with a cockroach cutie mark. They stood in the vast, endless expanse that was the realm of the dead, the place where souls go to be judged and to find out their judgment. 

“The game was rigged. I feel the need to confess that. My brother carried your unwitting end upon his back. He bears my mantle, and wherever he goes, it goes, and I follow. War keeps me busy. He has his hobbies and I have mine. He gives me many deserving souls that I have been hankering after for quite some time. Like you, for example. He unwittingly killed you, just as he was intended to do. It’s his nature, you see. He kills things. He’s a bad day waiting to happen. This trap was planned quite some time ago. Please, don’t take it personally, but you did cheat, so drastic measures had to be taken.” 

“Who are you?” the greyish mare with a cockroach cutie mark asked. 

“Thanatos.” 

The mare’s ears drooped and she backed away, or tried to. After a few steps, she found herself nose to nose with the albino earth pony. She tried backing away again, but after a few steps, there she was, nose to nose again. 

“Shall we get down to the business of you being dead?” Thanatos asked in a soft voice that held no emotion. His pink eyes flashed with a strange inner light as he studied the greyish mare forced to stand before him. 

“Like I have a choice,” the greyish coloured mare replied. 

“Actually, you do have a choice. And that is why we are here.” Thanatos smiled, a sad smile that showed only a fraction of the sorrow of the ages. “You have lived an extraordinary life. You have accomplished much. And now, here at the end of your life, you have a choice.” Thanatos’ smile vanished and he shook his head. “For good or for ill, all accomplishments get rewarded.” 

“Just spit it out and be done with it!” the greyish mare snapped. 

“Poor little Posey… such defiance.” Thanatos raised his eyebrow and stared at the greyish mare standing before him. 

“NOPONY CALLS ME THAT! POSEY DIED A LONG TIME AGO! I AM CHRYSALIS, QUEEN OF THE CHANGELINGS!” The greyish mare lifted her head high and did her best to look defiant in the very face of death. 

“Poor little Posey… who discovered the true nature of her cockroach cutie mark.” Thanatos’ voice was flat and utterly devoid of any emotion. His ears perked forwards, his tail swished, and he blinked at the grey mare that had once been known as Posey. “Posey, I am going to offer you a choice.” 

The greyish mare bared her teeth at the albino earth pony and stared into his strange pink eyes. She snorted, remaining defiant, and she glared at Thanatos, refusing to be submissive. 

“You have two options,” Thanatos said in a low voice, “the first is, you have your soul flayed until such a time that you undergo a profound transformation… a chrysalis of sorts, if you will indulge me and my jest.” Thanatos smiled, but his smile held no warmth, no mirth, it was as cold as the grave. “Your soul will be shredded and you will know agony in a deep and intimate way. You will get to experience all of the pain and suffering you have inflicted upon others during your extraordinarily long life. A considerable sum, by my own reckoning. After you endure this transition… this transformation, you will join the ranks of the demons, and then you will be responsible for the torment and the flaying of souls arriving in the afterlife. You’ve earned it.” 

The greyish mare’s eyes narrowed. “And the other option?” 

“You suffer for your many crimes, sins, and misdeeds, endure your penance, and then move on to an afterlife that you do not deserve,” Thanatos replied. 

The mare’s face contorted in confusion and she shook her head. “Why am I being given this option? This choice? Is this a trick? A test? I demand to know!” 

“Tell me, Posey, did you love him?” Thanatos leaned in a little closer and gave the greyish mare a knowing wink. 

“Love? Love is a weakness that I shed long—AAAAAAAAAAARGH!” 

Screams filled the grey void around the two ponies and the mare fell upon the featureless expanse. She kicked and writhed, her body contorted with agony, and screams poured out of her body like water from a pitcher that never emptied. 

After what might have been ten minutes, ten years, or ten thousand years, the screaming stopped and Thanatos took a step closer, almost standing over the greyish mare as she lay whimpering on the featureless flat expanse that stretched in all directions. 

“In life, you were deceitful and you could get away with it.” Thanatos chewed on his own lip for a minute while the mare below him continued to writhe in agony. “Here, in my realm, there are dreadful consequences for dishonesty. Now, I shall ask you again, did you love him?” 

Her whole body seizing, the grey mare whimpered, gibbered, and tried to crawl away from the pale white earth pony, but her efforts were for naught as she kept reappearing beside him. After a few vain attempts, she stopped, laid there, and wept, her sobs filling the void all around her. 

“Yes.” 

“Very good.” Thanatos nodded and one ear flopped around a bit. “And when did you realise that you loved him?” 

“The desert… that day when he and I talked—no! No, please! Not again!” The greyish mare curled into a fetal position as she felt the pain creeping through her body. 

“Lying to yourself is just as bad as lying to me. Be honest… or else.” Thanatos’ words held no warmth, no kindness, there was nothing but the void in his spoken words. “Time passes funny in this realm of mine. I can make you scream for as long as it takes. Do not test my patience. You do not have the fortitude to endure my wrath.” 

“I don’t know,” the greyish mare whimpered, “I don’t know but I’m trying!” 

“Perhaps you lack sufficient motivation—” 

“Las Pegasus!” The mare curled up into a tight fetal ball and let out a terrified screech to appease her interrogator. “It was Las Pegasus! I couldn’t figure out why he would risk himself for others! It confused me! He was so powerful! So dangerous! But he wasn’t acting for his own benefit or glory and it confused me!” 

Thanatos nodded his head. “Good little Posey. Sorry, but there will be no cookies. Bad fillies do not get cookies, and you… you were the worst filly, you despicable little shit.” 

“I felt it… that day in the desert… I realised what it was… it was a feeling that had died a long time ago and I didn’t recognise it when it came back… it had been gone for so long!” 

“Yes, little Posey… that day in the desert, your shriveled little heart recognised it as love. And that is why we are here having this discussion. That is why you have a choice. You see, somepony loved you… and so long as somepony loves you, a true, genuine, honest love, you can be redeemed. Your soul is not lost. This is why mothers and fathers must love their foals… to save them from Tartarus. ‘Tis a sad thing, but so many fail in this simple task… like a pony I know by the name of Primrose Propers.” Thanatos paused and sighed. “Love is such a simple thing, it protects you from so much. You fed upon love without ever truly understanding it, and you attacked Cadance without understanding her purpose.” 

“He loved me?” The mare blinked her eyes, but did not uncurl from her fetal position. 

“He most certainly did. You don’t deserve his love and to be honest, I rather wish that he would have destroyed you. But my brother loves, for all of his other foolishness, he does love.” Thanatos sat down upon the grey, flat expanse and made himself comfortable. “He loved you. After you gave him Crisis, he loved you even more. He plotted to save you. He was working on a means to give you a permanent body so you would stop making drones and cheating death. My brother was making plans and brokering deals with Princess Celestia. My brother is very, very foolish, but he saw some good in you, something worth saving. Honestly, I do not see it. You are despicable, you are loathsome, and just being near you makes me feel sick. I feel soiled by your very presence.” 

“But he loved me,” the greyish mare murmured in a low voice. 

“That he did.” Thanatos shook his head. “No accounting for taste.” The pale white pony’s eyebrow arched. “Some time ago, I gave my brother my cloak and the trap was set with the worst sort of bait. You were right to be afraid of love, it was your undoing. Your death was planned… plotted… you made many enemies and those who hated you… we all put our heads together and we plotted your demise. We recognised that you loved power. Like a moth to a flame, Bucky was made irresistible to you and we waited. We looked into many futures and we tweaked many threads and we planned, we plotted, and we manipulated many events.” 

The mare laying on the ground let out a groan as Thanatos spoke. 

“You were supposed to die so we could punish you for your many misdeeds. What we did not count upon was my brother loving you in return. That was unexpected and regrettable. I was so looking forward to being there when your soul was flayed into shreds and you began to understand true suffering. I had plans to look after your education and take a hooves on approach. So few get to experience my tender mercies.” Thanatos heaved a bored sounding sigh. “I suppose it all comes down to Cadance.” 

“I don’t understand.” The mare uncovered her face and looked up at the earth pony sitting beside her. 

“Cadance’s purpose is to love all ponies… and one day, she will, when her power matures. She will love them unconditionally and without reservation, no matter how awful they are, and because of this love, all ponies will be redeemed and spared a terrible fate.” Thanatos looked down at the greyish coloured mare cowering on the ground. “Those deserving and those undeserving will be redeemed and given a second chance. I suspect that some aspect of Cadance influenced Bucky to feel love for you.” Thanatos paused and gave thought to his words. “At least, that is my opinion. I do not know. I am sometimes wrong.” 

“So I have a choice? I can become a demon or I can suffer and be redeemed?” the grey mare uncurled a bit more, squirmed, and then rose into a sitting position, all while keeping a wary eye upon Thanatos, watching for any signs of his displeasure. 

“Yes. You do. A choice that you do not deserve.” Thanatos lifted up his hoof and then scratched his neck. “Choose wisely.” 

“If I choose redemption, if I choose to be good, if I use this second chance that I have been given, will I ever see him again?” The greyish mare looked upon Thanatos with pleading eyes. 

“I can offer no promises that will influence your decision for good or evil. I cannot offer you a carrot in exchange for choosing the path to redemption. In the end, the choice must be yours, and yours alone.” Thanatos’ ears perked forwards, he shook his head, and then a rare show of emotion happened as his ears drooped down to the sides of his face. “There are reunions here in Tartarus and there are those who wait the long years away for a chance to be with those they love. Those that endure are due for a special reward, but you did not hear this from me. Say anything to anyone and I will lay your soul to waste.” 

“I don’t care about the reward,” the greyish mare replied, her ears pitching forwards. “On the chance that I might see him again, I would rather choose redemption. I suspect that if I was to choose to become a demon, I might be one of the ones torturing him when he answers for his many misdeeds, and I cannot bear the thought.” 

“So then, you have made your decision?” Thanatos asked. 

“Yes,” Posey replied, “I have. Even though I don’t deserve it, I want to be redeemed.” 

“Very well then, it is time for me to pass judgment.” Thanatos’ eyebrows wrinkled. “You are guilty of so much… it would take me an eon to announce all of your crimes and misdeeds. Suffice to say, there is a lot to answer for… but, because of love, you will be shown mercy. Come, Posey. It is time to face your punishment. Be brave and focus on the one you love. It will make things bearable, I promise.” 

The two ponies vanished and the endless grey expanse was left empty. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 899
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The entire cavern shook with an explosion and chunks of the ceiling came crumbling down. Bucky cocked his head, looked upwards, and then raised a shield. He gave Sunset a glance and then looked down at Chrysalis’ body. With a flash of his horn, her body vanished, transmuted into nothingness. The drones around him continued with their assigned task as if nothing had happened. 

But something had happened. Bucky could feel a slight mental protrusion in his mind, almost as if he was communing with his fellow unicorns or trying to help Dinky with her mental exercises. Something else exploded and the cavern suffered a violent tremblor. 

“We need to get out of here and soon. Something horrible is going on upstairs.” As Bucky spoke, almost as if events conspired to drive home his words, something exploded and big chunks of the ceiling came raining down. 

“I do believe the parasprites have been released,” Sunset said as she stared upwards. “OKAY, EVERYPONY GET A MOVE ON!” Sunset’s magically amplified voice boomed through the chambers all around them, echoing, and it sounded as if hundreds of her had spoken. 

There was no more army pouring in, but there were a huge number of changeling drones moving slumbering earth ponies out. Bucky remembered something that Chrysalis had said back during their meeting—“Do I look like I’m made out of bits?” Bucky remembered her sarcastic snort and felt a twinge of pain in his heart. “This is what I get for allowing some of you drones to retain a little personality. Chocolate chips. Pfah!” Bucky realised that Queen Chrysalis really had tried to make a few changes. These drones had some personality. Some independent thought. He could sense it somehow, even though he did not understand how. They had not been completely wiped during whatever process they had undergone that made them drones. He felt a painful pressure behind his eyes and he shoved his feelings deep down inside, knowing that now was not a good time to be emotional. 

But the feeling would not go away. 

Bucky watched as the last group of changelings moved out the final few hundred earth ponies. These caverns were empty. Something exploded again and more of the ceiling overhead crumbled down, including a chunk of stone that had to weigh several tons. 

“Minion, it is time to go,” Bucky announced, “we’ll be the last ones through.” 

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Master.” Sunset refocused her shield so nopony would get hurt by falling debris. 

Waiting, patient, Bucky watched as the last of the group filed through the portal, each changeling carrying three to five comatose earth ponies. It wouldn’t be long now. He began to move closer to the portal and as he did so, Sunset Shimmer had one final look around with a magic eye spell that allowed her to check over the entire area in mere seconds. Bucky saw her give a nod. 

“We’re done here, Master.” Sunset, who looked resplendent in her golden hued radiant steel armor, watched as the last few changelings stepped through the portal. As she and Bucky stood watching, the portal flickered. 

“I bet Twilight is getting tired,” Bucky said as he stood on the threshold. “Come, my apprentice, let us make our away.” Bucky watched as Sunset stepped through the glowing rift and then he joined her. 

Right away, he knew that something was wrong. Something felt off. There was too much pressure, it was almost crushing, and he heard Sunset cry out. He found that he couldn’t move, he was rooted to the spot as the rift between worlds began to turn an odd shade of purple all around him. Ahead, the glowing slash in reality was growing narrower. The portal was closing—he and Sunset were stuck. 

He tried teleporting, but nothing happened. He was having trouble making his magic work. There was something in the magic around him that made him feel… crazy. It was pouring in like a flood. He heard Sunset screech in pain and he knew that something had to be done. 

“Minion… I love you.” Saying nothing else, Bucky slammed Sunset Shimmer with a powerful telekinetic slap, the only magic he could muster. It sent her flying through the crushing magic all around them, and she slipped through the narrowing rift. 

As Bucky felt his mind going, the rift faded from view and Bucky was left in a strange purple void that almost appeared to be plaid. 



 

“NO!” Twilight shrieked as the rift fizzled into nothingness. “NO! NO! NO!” She stomped her foot and watched as Sunset’s body tumbled into the sand. Something had messed with her portal rift and now, Bucky was gone. Twilight felt tears welling up in her eyes and she suffered a moment of absolute hatred for pregnancy hormones that threatened to cloud her thinking. 

“We have to get him back!” Twilight shouted as Discord hovered over to where the rift had been. She watched as he began to sniff the air where the rift had been projected, and the wily draconequus squinted with one eye. “Discord, what do you know? What can you tell me?” 

Discord did not reply and Twilight felt a growing sense of fury. She rushed over to Sunset’s side, worried for her friend, and she picked Sunset’s head up. With a flick of her magic, she jerked Sunset’s helmet away and tossed it down into the sand. 

“He threw me out,” Sunset gasped, “he said he loved me… he loves me.” 

Gnashing her teeth, Twilight fell down into the sand, held Sunset’s head in her forelegs, and hugged her close. She felt Sunset Shudder and she looked over at Discord, hoping that Discord knew something. 

“He’s in the Warp,” Discord said. 

“The Warp?” Twilight asked. 

“The Warp… the place where I draw most of my magic from. Pure chaos,” Discord replied. 

“Well, go get him!” Twilight demanded. 

“Twilight… he’s in the Warp.” 

“I DON’T CARE!” Twilight snapped. 

“Twilight, it’s been almost four minutes already. Whatever I bring back will not be Bucky and you wouldn’t like—” 

“I don’t care!” Twilight said again as a powerful shudder shook her body. She felt herself sobbing and could do nothing to make it stop. “Bring him back! Bring him back! We owe it to him! Go and get him!” 

“Okay, Twilight, I will.” Discord bowed his head, frowned, and then extended his lion’s paw. He made a swift swipe at the air, ripped open reality, and tore a bright, glowing purple gash into the night that oozed a strange plaid coloured mist. 

Discord took a deep breath, almost as if he was diving into the water, and then he slithered through the tear in the very fabric of reality. In a fraction of a second, he was gone and a strange keening sound filled the night, almost like when somepony ran a violin bow over the back edge of a saw. 

Clinging to Sunset, Twilight wept, fearful, not knowing how this might end. She felt Sunset’s armored forelegs wrap around her and the two mares clung to one another as they lay in the sand together. Myrmidons gathered around and Belisama flew down, landing near Twilight. 

Fluttershy appeared, popping into existence near the rift, a worried expression upon her face. She hovered near the gash in reality, her eyes wide and fearful. She fanned away some of the odd purple mist with her batlike wing and her worried frown intensified. 

A moment later, Discord’s head popped out of the rift, his eyes glowing with manic energy. Grunting, Discord heaved his body through the rift, dragging another with him. The night was shattered by the sounds of maniacal laughter, dreadful, horrible maniacal laughter. Bucky cackled with frenzied glee, clutching at his own body. His eyes were crimson and yellow. 

Twilight let go of Sunset, wiggled free from Sunset’s grasp, got up from the sand, and went over to where Discord and Bucky were. She watched as Discord set Bucky down in the sand and she noted how gentle Discord was. 

The draconequus snapped his talons, a zipper appeared on the rift, and with a smooth motion, Discord zipped up the rift, closing it as Twilight drew closer. Fluttershy was now down on the ground with Bucky, trying to quiet him. 

Twilight’s mouth fell open. The Warp, whatever it was, had not been kind to Bucky. His right rear leg was now most certainly that of a goat. His body had lengthened, becoming longer, and his neck had extended. His right front leg was no longer equine at all, but was now a black chitinous mass that looked very much like a changeling appendage. 

“That’s enough of that, Mister,” Fluttershy said as she booped Bucky’s nose and as she did so, the cackling ceased. Bucky went still and silent, his eyes rolling back into his head as Fluttershy pulled her sloth like foreleg away. 

“Well, I must say, I am surprised,” Discord said in a low voice. “Then again, he did drink the distilled essence of chaos that was prepared for him. All things considered, he came out of there in rather good shape. I was expecting something more amorphous and with a lot more tentacles.” 

Twilight lowered her head and placed her ear on Bucky’s chest. After a moment, she heard a soft heartbeat that seemed to be slowing. Bucky’s body was relaxing. Fluttershy had knocked him right out. 

“He’ll be okay,” Twilight said in a scratchy voice. “He’ll recover. He always does. We get him with his family and he’ll be fine. He’ll be fine and everything will be okay and we can all laugh about this someday.” 

As Twilight spoke, Belisama crept closer to her husband, her eyes wet with worry, and she let out a mournful peep. The griffoness was swept into a hug by Discord, who squeezed her tight as the horrendous manic glow began to fade from his eyes. 

“It’s crazy in there… I almost forgot that I loved Fluttershy and that I had friends,” Discord whispered, “I wanted to stay in there forever… it was awful!” Discord shuddered and gave Belisama another squeeze. “Had I stayed in there, I would have forgot about all of you and there would be no more Harper to cheer me up.” 

“He’ll be okay,” Twilight repeated, as if saying it over and over would make it true. 

“We still have work to do,” Sunset said as she stood up. “There are earth ponies to look after and get to shelter before the sun comes up. I think Chrysalis’ medical drones are doing their job.” Sunset shook her head, blinked away tears, and then sniffled. “Master will be very upset if the task is not completed. He is trusting us to get everything done. I will not fail him.” The orange mare lifted up her helmet from the sand, sniffled again, and took off at a brisk trot to do what needed to be done. 

Twilight rubbed her cheek against Bucky’s pelt, which was now damp with her tears. “We should get him inside. Get him comfortable. If necessary, medicate him or lay him low if he wakes up violent or dangerous. I want somepony with him at all times. Sunset is right, we need to finish our job here.” 

“I’ll look after him,” Fluttershy said in a low voice. 

“I can help you,” a voice said. 

Twilight lifted her head and saw a changeling that looked a little nervous. The drone stood several feet away and she spoke with a feminine sounding voice. As Twilight watched, the drone took a hesitant step forward. 

“I am a pheromone factory,” the drone said as she came closer. “I am a special medical drone, a modified template made from the one you call ‘Cadance.’ I can do more than make a pony feel amorous, I can do much to alter moods and mental states. I was made to calm and pacify. My Queen used me to assist those who had suffered trauma. Many in Guano Grotto require my services. There is much cruelty in the world.” 

“Do you have a name?” Twilight asked. 

“A name? Why would I need a name? I am a thought. When my Queen needed me, she thought of me and I answered.” The drone paused for a moment and then looked at Bucky. “I sense that my Queen is no more, but he is marked with her pheromones and he has been altered. I now serve him. He will know the thought that summons me.” 

“How peculiar,” Discord said as he let go of Belisama. “Do you think you can restore his mind? Can you fix crazy?” 

The changeling studied Bucky, her small, delicate head cocking to one side. “Sometimes, when my Queen would jump from one body to the next, the spells that facilitate her transference would sometimes go wrong and leave her in a damaged mental state. That was part of the function of our creation and one of the primary reasons she acquired Cadance’s unusual biological distinctiveness. If we can reset our Queen, I see no reason why his mind cannot be restored if it is damaged.” 

Twilight nodded. “Go with Fluttershy and do whatever you can to help.” 

The changeling drone bowed her head. “I will restore him. It is part of my conditioned imperatives. You have no need to worry.” 

“Thank you,” Twilight replied. “Okay, everypony, we have a lot to do. Time to pony up.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 900
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight had endured chaos, she had survived Discord, she had sorted through confusion, She had outlasted the bureaucracy, and now, she was living the aftermath. The ponies of Guano Grotto were good ponies, they mourned the loss of Queen Chrysalis, but they also came together to help the new earth pony arrivals, who were just now beginning the long road of healing and recovery. Being around them, Twilight realised she was seeing the future of Equestria—ponies and changelings working together. However, for Equestria to reach this point, it was going to require a long and troublesome journey. 

Pondering the significance of this, Twilight understood this was part of what made Bucky who and what he was. She had spoken at length with the Fates and she understood her place and Bucky’s place in the world. She had the potential to unite the world through friendship, while Bucky was intended to conquer and pacify the entirety of the world. He was supposed to raise armies and destroy the world with war. Bucky had inherited a few destinies, the spell of destiny long ago had been corrupted. Bucky, who had been intended to be Equestria’s knight, was also intended to be Equestria’s destroyer. The threads of destiny could be tampered with, corrupted even, but Bucky was resisting his own darker purposes and sticking close to what Twilight believed was his own original purpose as Equestria’s knight as foretold by Star Swirl in quite a number of moldy old books. 

But things had gone wrong with the curse, the corruption, Sombra had laid the way for Equestria to be destroyed by its protector. Of everything that went wrong, what stood out the most was that Bucky was far too strong willed. Bucky, for all intents and purposes, had bucked the parts of his destiny that he didn’t like. Parts of his nature still manifested, but in an incomplete way. He still raised armies and attracted beings of immense talent and power to him, but then, things fizzled out from there. Bucky had brought the griffons into Equestria, but not as a conquering army. Instead, he brought refugees, rescued slaves, the broken, the battered, and the abused. 

And Twilight was doing her part. She had friendship initiatives for the little griffons. She had used them to form her Aurora Guard. Bucky had brought Twilight an army of friends, the sorts of friends that she could change the world with. He had brought her an army of hard workers that she could make things better with. The changelings were no different and Twilight was already hard at work trying to figure out how she could direct them so that things could be made better. 

All of the things that were the big threats to equinekind, Bucky was laying low and Twilight had an inkling of understanding that it fell upon her to do the long term work of making everything right. With an army of changelings… Twilight realised she could do a lot of good. A whole lot of little Tourmalines. Healers, empaths, workers… the changelings, once a threat to Equestria, might very well be Equestria’s saviours, but only if everypony worked together. 

Apart from Chrysalis, there had been casualties though. The transference drones, the drones responsible for the transference of Chrysalis’ conscience, had all dropped dead. There were quite a number here at Guano Grotto, but Twilight suspected that there had been a good many stashed away in other parts of the world. No doubt they were dead now as well. The changeling queen would have covered her bases and had contingencies prepared for when things went wrong. 

And things had gone wrong, but Queen Chrysalis hadn’t had a plan for dying on an alien world. She had willingly followed Bucky through the portal, and Twilight could not figure out why. She could not figure out what would possess one so cunning, so crafty, and so cold to follow Bucky through a rift and into a hostile world. Queen Chrysalis could have stayed behind, but she had insisted on being at Bucky’s side when he had gone into danger. She had, in fact, put her hoof down about the issue. 

Twilight chalked it up the loyalty that Bucky seemed to inspire in others. Bucky never asked anypony or anybirdy to do anything that he wasn’t willing to do himself, which was something that Twilight admired about him. 



 

“How is he doing? Any improvement?” Twilight fidgeted as she waited for a reply. She needed Bucky around. There was a lot of work to do and so much to take care of. Plus, she needed to know that her friend was okay. 

“I cannot get into his mind,” the drone replied, shaking her head. “All I can do is influence his mood. I do not understand how his mind is so well defended.” 

“The last time he was awake, he made it rain custard.” Fluttershy heaved a sigh and one ear twitched. She made a disgusted face and her mismatched wings fluttered at her sides. 

“Did he say anything?” Twilight asked. 

“Nope.” Fluttershy shook her head. “He’s not dangerous at all, he’s just… full of chaos. Do you understand what happened yet?” 

Twilight shrugged. “I can only speculate. I think the Night Stallion messed with our portal. I can’t say for sure, but that’s my best guess.” Twilight looked at Bucky’s slumbering form for a moment, then glanced at Cadance, and then her gaze turned back to Fluttershy. “If he’s not dangerous, the next time he wakes up, let him stay awake. Maybe he needs to let the chaos drain out. Does Discord have any ideas?”

“Oh, poor Discord is having tummy troubles from eating all of the egg custard.” Fluttershy shook her head. “Poor dear, he ate quite a bit before he realised that it was rotten egg custard. He was caught up in the moment. You know how he can be.” 

Responding to Fluttershy’s words, Twilight gagged and took a step backwards. She sniffed, wondering if she could still smell custard, but there was nothing. The mess must have been cleaned up, and for that, Twilight was thankful. 

Stumped for what to say or do, Twilight tried to strike up a conversation with the drone. “So, uh, do you miss your queen? Are you sad that Chrysalis is gone? Are you doing okay?” 

“Why would I be sad?” the drone replied as she tilted her head to one side. “I still function and have not suffered terminal failure of my biological imperatives, so I am okay.” 

“Queen Chrysalis is dead. Don’t you have some feelings about that?” Twilight’s brows furrowed and she looked into the drone’s strange, almost alien, insectoid eyes. 

The drone gave Twilight a blank look and did not respond for quite some time. Fluttershy took a deep calming breath. The sound of Bucky’s steady breathing filled the cabin. Cadance yawned. In her crib, Bandua peeped, made a trilling sound, and then peeped again. 

“Perhaps when he wakes up…” the drone gestured at Bucky and continued to look Twilight in the eye, “he can tell me how I should feel or what I should think about this situation. I am sorry, I do try to be helpful and comply with all reasonable requests, but I do not have adequate responses to your queries.” 

“So… she’s gone… your leader is gone, and you don’t have any feelings about it?” Twilight asked. 

“Should I?” the drone replied. 

“Didn’t she mean anything to you?” Twilight blinked and gave the drone an incredulous stare. 

“I was created to fulfil a function, nothing more. I was one thought among many. I was created with a degree of independence because it was valuable to my function to have independent thought and problem solving skills. I do not understand what you expect from me.” The drone bowed her head. “I apologise… I have upset you.” 

“It’s okay… look, I have a lot to do… I’ll be back to check on Bucky later.” Unsettled, Twilight took a deep breath and fled the room, needing a moment alone with her thoughts so that she could piece everything together. 



 

Disturbed, Twilight paced along the canyon floor, her hooves treading over the fine, soft sand. Evening was coming, the end to a long day. She had sent off a full report to Princess Celestia. Twilight was troubled. 

The mountain fortress was gone. Twilight could not find it anywhere. She had peered through the portal viewer and she could see where the mountain fortress of the mirror travelers used to be, but it was gone, and so were much of the mountains. It was as if something had just ripped the mountains and the fortress away. Mountains and fortresses did not just disappear. Those weren’t things that vanished. 

Twilight did not know what had happened. Perhaps something had gone catastrophically wrong and the invading army of evil had finally put an end to the mirror travelers, but that seemed unlikely. But a massive fortress and part of a mountain range did not just disappear. It wasn’t there. It was gone. There was a pile of rubble where some of the mountains had crumbled away, but there wasn’t enough rubble to account for all of the mountains or a demolished city. 

More than anything, Twilight needed answers so she could put her mind at ease. The mirror travelers it seemed, had vanished. Their homeworld was now dead, a planet lost to rampaging evil. Then there was the matter of Bucky, who had been exposed to the Warp. Poor Bucky, who even now, was laughing like a lunatic and had some disturbing draconequus-like powers to go along with his new looks. Bucky had taken on some of the appearance of a draconequus, but lacked many of their other aspects, like near imperviousness, the ability to pull off one’s own head and roll it around, share a pregnancy, or give birth through sneezing. 

There were too many unknowns, and Twilight Sparkle didn’t like unknowns. She liked understanding things. She took comfort in things that were for certain. She needed a certain level of stability in her life and right now, everything felt scrambled. 

There was a flutter of wings and Twilight felt Belisama land upon her back. The griffoness’ claws tickle-prickled against her flesh and Twilight, as high as strung as she was, still somehow giggled at Belisama’s touch. 

“The area is still secure,” Belisama said to Twilight as she began to stroke Twilight’s mane. “I checked on Bucky… he’s been doped up a bit, but he’s still awake. Not at all lucid though. The red and yellow glow has gone out of his eyes… I’m kinda worried, because the Eye of Odin should be above such magics, at least, it should be… I dunno.” 

“Well, maybe this will just wear off if we give it time,” Twilight replied. 

“He turned his pillow into a plate of waffles and syrup. Fluttershy scolded him and she feels bad for losing her temper and you do not want to go into that room, trust me. Cadance seems to be taking all of this rather well.” Belisama slumped on Twilight’s back, fatigue finally setting in. “Twilight, how are you holding up?” 

“I’m managing… I’m just busy,” Twilight replied. 

“And that’s why I am worried.” Belisama made a few absentminded passes through Twilight’s mane with her talons, combing out of habit and without thinking. 

“Bucky and I are a lot alike, I suppose.” Twilight’s brows knitted together. “We’re both still Canterlot unicorns deep down inside. Things go wrong for us and we fall back upon a regimen of hard work to keep ourselves from having to deal with everything.” 

“You and Queen Chrysalis were enemies…” Belisama’s voice was low and hesitant. 

“We were,” Twilight admitted. “She foalnapped the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She tried to ruin my brother and my sister in law’s wedding. She made my teacher and a pony I care a great deal about… she made that pony doubt me and that hurt. I must confess, I was vehemently against many of Princess Celestia’s more recent plans involving peace with Queen Chrysalis.” 

Twilight fell silent for a moment, shook her head, and it was several long seconds before she continued speaking again, her eyes vacant as she bogged down in memories and thoughts. 

“The best laid plans. Things happen so quickly sometimes… Princess Celestia came up with a plan to deal with Chrysalis… it involved Dinky growing up in all of the right ways, having the right mindset, and then, when Dinky was properly prepared, she and others that Princess Celestia had an eye on would wrestle control of Queen Chrysalis’ hive away from her. Princess Celestia makes some long term plans… but this time, all of her plans were for naught. She didn’t get to play the long game. All of her plans and all of her forward thinking… it was for nothing. Bucky had plans too… I’m not sure what those were, but he asked me some strange questions about certain types of magic and soul transference into golems. Something I forbid him from doing… but I suspect that he wanted to help Chrysalis.” 

As Belisama continued to comb Twilight’s mane with her talons, she felt Twilight’s neck muscles quivering and twitching with each stroke. Twilight didn’t look quite so frantic, tense, or nervous. The agitated alicorn was calming down. 

“Sunset Shimmer plans to take small, manageable groups of earth ponies, the ones who are doing the best and let them see the stars and the moon tonight. I am sure it is going to be a momentous moment… you should join us.” Belisama, reaching out her talons, angled the razor sharp claws away from Twilight’s tender flesh and scratched behind her ears. The griffoness was all too aware and all too familiar with how ponies worked now, and Twilight melted beneath her touch. 

“I’d like that,” Twilight replied. “After everything that has happened, I’d like to see the good that comes out of it.” 

“Overall, this feels like victory.” Belisama’s voice was soft, yet hard. “This is something we can sing about in the mead hall and not feel ashamed about.” The griffoness fell silent, peered over at The Scorned Mare, and then gave a little nod. “We have dealt our enemies quite a blow.” 

“Perhaps a mortal one,” Twilight whispered as she thought of the missing fortress. “Come, Belisama, perhaps a little celebration is what we both need.” 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 901
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Dearest Fluttershy, I am possessed by an idea…” Discord’s words slithered through the air like serpents, causing Fluttershy to stop her knitting and Cadance looked up from her picture book about stuffed animals having a picnic in the woods. “After much thought and consideration, I do believe I know how to help him.” 

“Discord?” Fluttershy put down her knitting and looked at her husband. 

“We have to suck the poison out, Fluttershy my dearest.” Discord paused and his eyebrow rose. “It’s like that kiss of life that you told me about… what was that again?” 

“Cardiopulmonary resuscitation?” Fluttershy shook her head. “Discord, that puts air and life into a body that can’t breathe on their own.” She turned to look at Bucky, who was giggling as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Same principle,” Discord replied as he made a dismissive wave with his lion’s paw. “Somepony needs to get a good strong lip lock on dearest Buckminster and then draw the chaos out.” 

“Oh… oh dear.” Fluttershy clutched her two front end appendages together. 

“It should be you,” Discord said to his wife. 

“M-m-me?” Fluttershy stammered. “W-w-why me?” 

“You and Bucky had a foal together…. that is a sufficient level of intimacy for this sort of thing… now, Fluttershy my dearest, I’ve been very understanding about that incident, you making a foal with Bucky, and I promise, I’ll be very understanding about this as well. No hard feelings.” 

“Oh no!” Fluttershy shook her head, her eyes blinking, and her tail began swishing all around in a nervous manner. “Discord, darling, you and Bucky are best friends. I’m sure Bucky would understand if you did what needed to be done. He’s very understanding, yes he is. He’s a very understanding and good pony.” Fluttershy began to nod her head. 

Discord grabbed his own tail and began to wring it between his paw and talons, his chest rising and falling with each breath. “Fluttershy, he would take it better coming from you. I’m ugly… look at me… I’m hideous! And you… you’re beautiful! Look at you… those buck teeth! Those claws! The innie belly button!” 

Fluttershy let out a long squeal of concern and Cadance sat on the floor, shaking her head as her tiny wings fluttered. Over in her crib, Bandua let out a curious peep. Bucky continued to laugh in an unhinged manner as he lay in the bed. Lunacy and Tranquility lay snoring together, with Tranquility inhaling through her mouth and Lunacy exhaling through another end entirely, letting out a little trumpeting blast every few seconds like clockwork. 

“Discord, now you have to do it… for your self esteem.” Fluttershy’s words had a gentle sense of finality. She leaned forwards in her chair, her eyes narrowing, and a growing look of concern upon her face. “He’s your best friend and he’ll understand. He’s misshapen and mismatched as well, and you need to be a good example for him. You owe it to yourself and to your best friend… be there for Bucky in his hour of need.” 

“Daddy needs a grown up,” Cadance said in a worried voice. 

“Cadance, darling, we are grown ups,” Fluttershy replied in gentle tones. “Discord, you know what must be done. Bring Bucky back to us.” 

Discord inhaled, inflating his chest, and he looked down at Cadance, almost as if he was seeking approval. The little pink foal stared up at him, and a silent exchange took place. After a moment of staring at one another, Cadance relented, and shrugged. She looked at her father, then up at Discord, and then, with a palpable sense of trepidation, she nodded her consent. 

Pulling a container of breath freshener out of nowhere, Discord gave himself a few spritzes, filling the room with the scent of mint, blinked a few times out of nervousness, gave himself another spritz of breath freshener, and then turned to look at Fluttershy. 

Fluttershy gave Discord a gesture of encouragement with her two front legs, waving at Bucky, urging him on, a warm, worried look in her eyes. “Discord, you can do it… be the good draconequus I know you can be… cardiopulmonary resuscitation can be awkward, but he’s your friend… you can do this… you are giving a bunch of foals their father back!” 

“I can do this!” Discord said in a confident voice  as he drew nearer to Bucky. 

Covering her eyes, Cadance peered out from between her front hooves, her eyes were almost squeezed shut, and she looked disgusted but intrigued. She watched as Discord slipped his forelegs around her father and lifted him into a gentle embrace. 

“Dearest Buckminster, I wouldn’t do this for anypony else,” Discord whispered as he angled Bucky’s head and muzzle, preparing for the act to come. “You and I, we’re besties… and when this is over, I’m going to write out a friendship report for Twilight and Celestia to read, and it’s going to be the bestest friendship report ever, as I tell them all about how I overcame my self esteem issues so I could save my best friend.” Discord paused, puckered, and then he a paused again. “Flutters, when we tell this story later, can I be the noble prince that woke the sleeping princess with a kiss? I mean… he has a reputation as Princess Bucky—” 

“Get on with it!” Fluttershy snapped. 

Closing his eyes, Discord smooshed his long muzzle against Bucky’s somewhat more lupine muzzle, and he could feel Bucky’s lips forming a seal with his own. Discord opened his mouth and much to his chagrin, he felt Bucky’s tongue invading as Discord began to inhale, trying to suck the chaos out of Bucky. 

From her chair, Fluttershy watched as an orange tongue snaked out of Discord’s ear, which caused her to feel equal parts arousal and revulsion. Discord’s whole body was shaking. The room was filled with chaos of the worst sort, and Fluttershy found that she rather enjoyed it. 

Cadance, unable to bear watching for another second, continued watching as she peered out from between her front hooves, her muzzle contorted into the most unpleasant scowl of disgust ever seen on the face of any alicorn, at any time, in any reality, in any when or where. Never would there be an alicorn this disgusted ever again, and in Cadance’s defense, no alicorn, old or young, should ever witness the kiss of life between a draconequus and their parent.

“Blech!” Cadance cried, protesting the cruelty of the universe. 

As Bucky’s tongue slithered in and out of Discord’s ear, doing so in defiance of all of the laws of nature and all things natural, Discord continued to apply suction as the kiss of life intensified. There was a great whooshing sound as Discord tried to suck out as much chaos as possible. Bucky’s tongue vanished with a slurp, shooting back down inside of Discord’s ear, retreating from whence it came, and Bucky’s whole body went stiff and rigid. 

“GAH!” Bucky shoved Discord away and a long string of slobber connected the two. 

“Bucky?” Discord asked, sounding worried. 

“Ugh!” Bucky tried crawling away on the bed. “What are you doing to me? Did you at least  buy me a drink first? Ugh!” 

“Bucky!” Fluttershy lunged forwards and threw herself on the bed where Bucky was. “We thought we lost you… you were in the Warp and you lost your mind because you were full of chaos and Discord sucked the chaos out of you and I’m so ashamed of myself because I didn’t have the courage to give you the kiss of life and give you cardiopulmonary resuscitation of a sort to bring you back!” 

“Huh?” Bucky blinked and gave Fluttershy a blank stare. 

“You and I had a foal together, Bucky… I shouldn’t be scared of intimacy between us!” 

“What?” Bucky tried to get away from the pair of crazed draconequus spawns in the bed with him. 

But Fluttershy didn’t give him a chance. She grabbed him, threw her forelegs around his neck, opened her mouth wide, and latched onto Bucky’s lips like a lamprey. Bucky’s eyes went wide as Fluttershy applied powerful suction and worked to ensure that the last of the chaos was drawn out of Bucky’s system. He made a few feeble kicks and tried to resist, but Fluttershy had all of the strength and power of a real draconequus. 

“Yuck!” Cadance said as she retreated to the corner where Tranquility and Lunacy were sleeping on a quilt together. “Gross!” 

After a full minute of lip lock, Fluttershy let go and Bucky fell down to the bed with a gasp, staring up at Fluttershy with wide eyes. He let out a startled cry as Fluttershy snatched him up again, then, laughing and crying with relief, Fluttershy began to snuggle Bucky, holding him close while cradling him in her forelegs. 

“I have no idea what is going on,” Bucky whimpered, “and why my mouth tastes like Discord… and ear wax... ugh, it’s like rotten eggs or something.” Bucky began spitting and sputtering, trying to get the awful taste out of his mouth. 

“Oh, earlier, you covered Discord in custard—” 

“Fluttershy, I don’t even want to know!” Bucky cried as he tried to squirm free and failed. “I feel funny… my body feels all weird and unfamiliar… what in Tartarus is going on?” 

“You were in the Warp for over four minutes,” Fluttershy replied. 

Bucky froze, going stiff in Fluttershy’s embrace. His eyes went vacant and then he went limp. “I saw him again. Her. It. The Creator… I was told I would be preserved because my purpose was not yet finished… that there was still a chance I could fulfil my purpose.” 

“Bucky?” Fluttershy pulled Bucky closer and her curious, twitchy nose brushed up against his cheek. “Bucky, you okay?” 

“I can’t seem to get away from being me,” Bucky said to nopony in particular as he stared upwards at the ceiling. “I was mocked for resisting so long… I remember now… it felt like it happened a hundred years ago… everything was purple and weird and plaid.”

“Bucky, you are back among your friends… the Warp is gone and that… thing, whatever it is, it’s gone too. Look Bucky, Cadance!” Fluttershy made a gesture with her tail and as if on cue, Cadance came running and lept into the bed. 

“Cadybug!” Bucky reached out his talons and his strange, chitinous leg, grabbed Cadance, and pulled her close. He closed his eyes and rubbed his cheek against her. “Let Daddy hold you… I need you, Cady… I don’t feel right.” 

“Daddy!” Cadance squirmed in her father and Fluttershy’s embrace, angled her head around, pressed her muzzle up against her father’s face, and began covering him with kisses, not caring at all that Bucky was still damp with draconequus slobber. 

“He… she… whatever it is… it mocked me… said the consequences of my choices would only continue to manifest and get worse. It laughed at me.” Clinging to Cadance, Bucky shuddered, and then a low sob slipped out of his body. “This didn’t go very well… I lost somepony that I cared about… and then the Creator itself showed up to have a good laugh at my expense… I hate being me.” 

“Hush Bucky… we’ll get you through this,” Fluttershy whispered as she pulled Bucky and Cadance closer. 

“My body feels funny…” 

“Bucky, the Warp changed you… but you… you survived it somehow.” Discord crawled closer, coiled around Fluttershy, and pulled everything important to him closer. 

“I was in there for so long… like centuries…” 

“Bucky, hush… it’s all over.” Fluttershy kissed Bucky again, this time on the ear. 

“Time passes differently in the Warp.” Discord went limp. “When I went in to rescue you, I almost lost myself. I don’t even like thinking about it and I’m a draconequus… I draw power from the Warp.” 

“I can still feel it,” Bucky said in a low voice. 

Discord recoiled from Bucky’s admission and cringed. “I’m sure you do… Bucky, be careful, Warp magic is dangerous. It has different rules… there are no rules. There is chaos magic, which is soured harmony magic, and then there is the power of the Warp… Chaos with a capital ‘C’ and all that goes with it. The other end of the powers of godhood. The ass end.” 

“Hush, both of you,” Fluttershy insisted. “Cadance, baby, you didn’t hear Auntie Disco say that.” 

Cadance did not reply. She was still too busy kissing her daddy, trying to drive away the residual chaos the only way the Alicorn of Love knew how. 
	
> Chapter 902
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Upon hearing the news that Bucky had recovered, Twilight felt like a foal on their birthday. She hurried over the deck of The Scorned Mare, through the door to go belowdecks, trotted down the hall, and came to an open door. She stood just outside, and waited, her ears perking as she heard voices. 

“You seem well enough,” a male voice said. 

“I told you I’m well enough,” Bucky replied, “Now, tell me what I want to know!” 

“Sire, there are unaltered eggs in the many thousands—” 

“Don’t call me that!” Bucky snapped. 

“Sire, it somehow seems inappropriate to call you ‘Queen’ and I—” 

“Don’t call me that either!” Bucky sounded irritated and short of temper. “Look, just tell me relevant details to the situation… please?” 

“There are many unaltered eggs, eggs that have not gone through the drone creation process. They still retain their gender, their minds, their free will, all of those things. For now, the eggs are in stasis. Many of them are still blanks though—” 

“Blanks?” Bucky asked. 

Twilight almost held her breath. 

“The eggs hold a basic changeling template. They can be primed by a worker and this priming process changes them. A common stock changeling can become a medical specialist if they are primed to become one, or they could be primed to become a bug bomb.” The drone’s voice was patient and soft as it explained everything to Bucky. 

“And this priming, it can be done without turning them into drones?” 

“Of course, Sire,” the changeling replied. 

“And what of the flutterponies?” Bucky asked. 

“The new type of changeling hybrid modeled after you?” 

“Yes.” 

Twilight took a step closer to the door. 

“Those eggs number in the thousands.” There was a long pause before the drone continued, “Our Queen tried a few variations and prototypes… the first model, like the one named ‘Crisis’ proved to be the strongest template. Some of the prototypes remain and are dormant, but most have been repurposed and their biological matter has found new form.” 

Twilight felt queasy and realised that unneeded changelings were recycled. She shook her head and tried to fight her lurching stomach. She leaned against the hallway wall, took a deep breath, and tried to focus upon something else. Anything else. 

“You know, Twilight, you should just come in…” 

Grinning sheepishly, still queasy, Twilight stepped around the doorway and into the room. She paused upon entering and looked at Bucky. He looked okay, seemed okay, he was reclining on the bed and holding Bandua in his talons. Belisama was beside him, brushing his coat. Of Discord and Fluttershy there was no sign. 

“Sire?” 

Bucky’s eyebrow raised. “Yes?” 

“Before your arrival, Queen Chrysalis prepared a special medical drone to present as a gift for you.” 

“She did?” Bucky’s head swiveled to look at the changeling in the room. 

“A special medical drone that contains the neurological restoration process for the disease you call ‘the Shivers.’ She wanted to give it to you as a peace offering, no strings attached, so that you would know that her intentions were good and sincere. She wanted you to be happy. She was very, very fretful about the event and wondered how it would play out. She was going to give it to you after the invasion. She thought you might need cheering up.” 

Twilight’s ears perked as she heard the “Hyurk!” sound come from Bucky, she saw his barrel hitching up and down, she saw Belisama reacting, the little griffoness was holding him, and then the floodgates broke. Watching it was awful. Bucky collapsed into a miserable ball on the bed, shoving his face down into the mattress, and the whole bed trembled as his body shook. 

“Sire, she wanted you to be happy… are you displeased?” the drone asked, sounding very confused. 

There was no reply from Bucky, only sobbing, and Belisama patted his neck. Bandua peeped and there was a grunt beneath the blanket. A moment later, something pink poked out and a very sleepy looking foal blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. 

“He’s been though a lot,” Twilight said as she moved closer to the drone. “He lost somepony that he cared about. He’s endured a terrible ordeal.” Twilight, feeling the need to comfort somepony, placed her wing over the drone, which was much smaller than she was. everypony was a whole lot smaller than Twilight now. She had grown a great deal. She felt the drone go still beneath her wing. 

“She was very concerned about your happiness… that was the reason that Crisis had to be perfect… Crisis was designed not only to be a perfect physical specimen, but to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye as well.” The drone, confused by Twilight’s touch, stood there unmoving and still as it spoke. “She wanted you to like her. She acted strangely, very much unlike herself. She had many of us watching you to ensure that you were safe. I think she treasured you.” 

On the bed, Belisama closed her eyes and pressed her head against Bucky, whose body was wracked with painful sobs. Bandua, still held in her father’s talons, let out a worried sounding peep, and then began squawking to express her worry. Cadance crawled out of her blanket nest, yawned, then wiggled over to be with her father, her ears drooping and her eyes shimmering with tears. 

“We need some time alone,” Belisama said in a low voice. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but we need time alone. I must ask all of you to leave. I know Bucky wanted to get work done, but I think he needs more time to recover.” 

“Come on,” Twilight said to the drone, “come with me and you and I can talk.” 

“What shall we talk about?” the drone asked. 

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “but I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” 



 

Sunset Shimmer stood in the rising sun, feeling triumphant, but also sad and a little empty. It was an emptiness that breakfast would not fill. She missed Trixie and Bartleby. She missed life on the farm. She missed helping the students in the school. The dawn was golden and a bit chilly due to the wind. 

She was exhausted; it had been a long night. Some of the earth ponies had seen the stars and the moon for the very first time, and she had been there to witness everything. There had been a few downright magical moments that Sunset Shimmer knew that she would treasure forever. 

There was a lone figure sitting in the sand, off by himself, and Sunset Shimmer moved towards him, feeling worried, concerned, and relieved. As she came closer, she saw that he appeared to be drawing something in the sand with his claw. When she was close, he brushed whatever he had been drawing in the sand away and looked at her. 

His eyes looked tired, his face looked worn, but he was still himself, more or less. Sunset was very happy to see him. She bowed her head and in a quiet voice said, “Master… I am so glad to see that you are well.” 

When Bucky made no reply, Sunset went over and sat down beside him in the sand. The sun began to fill the canyon, which ran east to west, with brilliant beams of golden light, which caused the sand to turn shades of pink. Everything was beautiful when bathed in the golden light of dawn. 

Feeling the faint chill, Sunset shivered and then scooted over the sand to be closer to Bucky. He was a bit longer of body and he was hunched over in the sand. The changeling leg now appeared normal and Sunset understood that it was just the nature of changeling legs; they could look like anything they wanted to be. His goat leg was thinner than his equine legs, of which he only had one left. Sunset squinted as she studied Bucky and after a moment, realised that his antler buds were still almost invisible in the mess that was his mane. His muzzle had grown a little longer and seemed almost lupine now. There had been some changes, but he was still the same pony that she knew and loved. She could see it in his grey eye, which glittered in the sunlight. 

“Best laid plans, Minion… best laid plans.” 

Sunset felt her eyebrow arching. 

“I was making plans to help Chrysalis… to steer her back into the light. Princess Celestia was giving me liberties that she trusted no other pony with”—Bucky paused and raked his long, curved claws through the sand—“perhaps Twilight might have been trusted with the same liberties, had she been in my position, but we’ll never know.” Bucky blinked and shook his head. “Celestia and I, we had plans. It seems that Chrysalis had her own plans. We all had such plans and each of us were trying to outplan one another. Chrysalis had planned her first tentative steps back into the light and she was doing so to try and impress me, as if she was some kind of filly with a schoolyard crush.” 

Bucky let out a long sigh. 

“Bucky?” Sunset scooted a little closer, lifted her foreleg, and wrapped it around Bucky’s withers. 

“I’ve learned much from her drones. We all had these plans and then through random chance, these plans came to an end. Why did she follow me and put herself into danger? What did she hope to accomplish? Now, she’s gone, I have all these changelings to look after, and I feel as though she was robbed of her chance of redemption. She no longer has a chance to make things right.” Bucky slumped over, closed his eyes, raised his talons, and then wiped away a few tears. “Why did she follow me, Sunset? She could have stayed here… Crisis could have had a chance to know her mother… maybe even see her mother do some good… maybe even acknowledge Chrysalis as her mother.” 

“Bucky… you and Twilight both… you bring out the best in ponies. And others. We follow you because it makes us feel good about ourselves. You and Twilight treat us as being worthwhile. Even after all of the horrible things I did, you still treated me like a pony and Twilight tried to be my friend.” Sunset gave Bucky a squeeze. 

“She was weak… exhausted. She’d been working herself overtime to have the army ready… and Sentinel… she helped Sentinel… she made herself even weaker… she didn’t take any time to rest… the drones told me that saving Sentinel’s face weakened her a great deal. She had taken no time to rest, no time to recover. I didn’t know she was as weak as she was. She was in desperate need to recover, recharge, and recuperate.” Bucky shook his head. “She willingly went through the portal with us though… why?” 

“Maybe because she loved you,” Sunset replied. “Love makes ponies do things they would normally never do. Just look at Rainbow Dash and Flash Sentry. Love can bring out the best in us.” Sunset shook her head. “Or the worst, I suppose. But when we love, we try to show it. At least, I know I do.” 

“I was stupid… I should have been thinking. I should have realised that she was weak and I should have—” 

“Bucky, you had no way of knowing. She was never one to show weakness. She was always the strong one. The brave one. She was always defiant. She died keeping others safe. Had those detonations spilled out into the cavern, many would have died.” Sunset rubbed Bucky’s withers with her foreleg. 

A short distance away, a butterfly landed upon a small pink cactus flower. Birds trilled in a nearby mesquite tree. The desert, thought to be a barren place, was full of life. Down in a hole, there was an underground city known as Guano Grotto, and it was a place thriving with life, now more so than ever. The rescued earth ponies were comfortable down in the caves, it was what they knew; only now, they were free.

“Minion, there is much work to be done. I have plans, Minion. Queen Chrysalis’ creation of drones might be questionable, but I will use the remaining drones to good use. I will see that they have happy, purposeful lives and that they are comfortable. I am already forming plans, Minion.” 

“Master?” Sunset turned her head and saw a familiar manic glaze in Bucky’s grey eye. 

“The drones need a purposeful existence. There are thousands of them, Sunset… thousands. An army. I have an army and now I have the means to strike a devastating blow to an enemy that bothers me a great deal.” 

Sunset Shimmer’s ears stood straight up and she looked at Bucky, trying to figure out what he was up to. He did not deal with grief, or stress, or pressure of any kind, none of them did, really, and all of the signs of Bucky slipping into his work so he could avoid his grief were showing. 

“The foals of the Shetlands need caretakers… orphanages everywhere… and changelings, they need love and a well balanced diet of other emotions to stay healthy and functional. I can fix things, Sunset… I can fix things… sure, ponies might freak out about changelings looking after foals, but that can be dealt with… I can use one problem to take care of another.” 

Sunset nodded, but she saw a number of flaws in Bucky’s plan. Still, it was a good plan. She wondered how much of this was influenced by the fact that Bucky had sent many drones to their deaths and now, in his guilt, he was trying to shelter them, trying to make up for what he had done by offering them a better life. Sunset felt an ache in her heart. 

“Master, shall we get some breakfast?” 



 

A tall flaming figure approached a pale white earth pony. The flaming figure, bipedal, shifted and became a flaming earth pony. The two equines stared at one another for a moment and then the flaming earth pony spoke. 

“The powers that be are a little miffed with how things turned out. She did much to defy them, to thwart them, and even in death, she has eluded them. Some are displeased.” 

“Scorch… I…” The pale white earth pony, who had been about to say something, fell silent. He shook his head and looked upon the elemental plane of fire, gazing at a roiling sea of magma. 

“Let me guess… you feel bad for your part in this act of vengeance?” Scorch shifted form again, this time becoming a blazing pegasus. 

“I do,” Thanatos admitted. “After much reconsideration, I have come to realise, it really is time for me to step aside. I was so focused upon the end result that I overlooked that the situation itself had changed. She might have done some good for the world, had she kept living.” 

Scorch sighed, his barrel heaving, and he let out a fiery snort. 

“I have chosen to share her pain, so that I can—” 

“Punish yourself?” Scorch rolled his eyes. “You of all ponies know punishment like nothing else. You and your self righteous need for self flagellation, only one pony I know can come close to what you do.” 

“Already, he is trying to make amends for what he has done,” Thanatos said in a low voice. “I’ve thought about asking him to take up my mantle, but deep down in his heart, he hates killing. He would do it if I asked, make no mistake, his sense of duty would force him to act, but he would be miserable. Moonbow will be a better choice, at least, that is my opinion.” 

“You know, Thanatos, you did fulfil the requests of the powers that be. Lord Hades demanded that Chrysalis be utterly destroyed and repurposed. And in a sense, she has been. The entity known as Chrysalis is gone, and now, there is only Posey.” Scorch spread his wings, shimmered, exploded in a fiery conflagration, and in the place of the pegasus now stood a unicorn. 

There was an explosive burst of flames and a third figure appeared, standing on the edge of the magma sea. Tall, tripedal, and possessing nine arms, the figure bowed to both Scorch and Thanatos. 

“The Vizier of Lamentations… what brings you here?” Scorch asked. 

“I thought I’d have a little break. I’ve been a very busy sort you know,” the figure replied. 

“How is Posey?” Thanatos asked. 

The Vizier of Lamentations made a gesture with a few of his spidery arms and looked at Thanatos. “My Lord, the one known as Posey broke quickly. She now knows a keen sense of regret and sorrow for her many misdeeds. I barely had to do my job at all. I began carving into her soul and we spoke of love and much to my disappointment, she broke right away.” 

“No more torture than absolutely necessary,” Thanatos said to the Vizier of Lamentations. “This is no longer about vengeance or revenge. This is about doing what is right. So where is Posey right now?” 

The Vizier of Lamentations turned away and looked out upon the burning sea. “When I left Posey, she was in the company of Princess Platinum. She of the Noble Soul offered to share in some of Posey’s discomfort and pain in exchange for the chance to comfort Posey and speak to her.” 

“And you allowed this?” Thanatos asked. 

“Of course. Knowing that Princess Platinum suffers for her will only further serve to hurt Posey.” The tall tripedal figure let out a sigh. “Causing pain is my purpose. I make others lament their poor choices. Princess Platinum made a poor choice by offering to comfort another.” 

Scorch snorted and a stream of fire shot out of his nostrils. 

“Keep this in mind, oh Great Vizier of Lamentations… should War ever find out that you take pleasure in harming Platinum or Posey… well, I feel I should point out that you can die and War will know of a way to kill you. His imagination is every bit as terrible as yours. I dare say that you will know some of the torments you have done to others before you die. Do your job as you must, but do not be excessive.” 

The tall figure turned, stared at Thanatos through five square pupiled eyes, and let out a frustrated grunt. 

“And what of you, Thanatos? What do you think would happen if he discovered what you have done?” Scorch asked. 

“I would very likely get what I deserve,” Thanatos replied in a low, hissy whisper. 

“You do realise that Celestia would be right on his tail, right? If she knew that you were the cause of all of his current pain, sorrow, and anguish… tell me, Thanatos, ever been hurled into a star?” Scorch shifted form and became an amorphous fiery mass. 

“We all had our part in this!” Thanatos hissed. “I already feel some regret for what I’ve done… there is no need to rub my nose in it… I am fully aware of what my sister’s wrath is like. She would probably toss me into a star and then slam two stars together and that would only be the beginning of my well deserved suffering.” 

“Princess Celestia is becoming dangerous and unpredictable,” the Vizier of Lamentations said in a low voice. “More and more, she is allowing emotion to rule her heart. She is too involved and invests too much feeling into what she does. Many of the powers that be feel threatened.” 

One massive fiery arm shot out from the amorphous fiery mass that was Scorch and then the rest of him took shape. Tall, bipedal, massive, a titan of flames, he snatched up his underling and squeezed until the Vizier let out a pained shriek. 

“She is mine,” Scorch said in a low rumble. “She is mine and mine alone. She is to be given a chance to grow, evolve, and change. She is not to be touched… ever, under any circumstances. She has suffered enough. I have faith in her goodness”—Scorch gave a cruel squeeze to the demon he held in his massive burning fist, and the demon shrieked in agony—“and if I find that you are conspiring against her to remove her from power, I promise you, there will no longer be any powers that be. Am I clear?” 

“As crystal,” the demon squealed as Scorch squeezed ever tighter. “All hail Scorch the Usurper!” 

Disgusted, Scorch hurled his minion into the sea of magma and then let out a furious snort. He pointed a finger at Thanatos. “I mean what I said… you go and you tell them… I’m not playing around. She is our best chance of saving this pathetic rock. We’re going to need a celestial entity capable of holding the fabric of reality together if we ever hope to replace our Creator. She is the one… not Luna, not Cadance.” Scorch waggled his finger at Thanatos. “If necessary, I will twist Bucky into the draconequus of war to do my bidding and I know he will be a willing servant if I explain to him what is really going on and what we’re trying to do. Remember, Thanatos, I am called Scorch the Usurper for a reason.” 

Thanatos bowed his head, blinked, and looked Scorch in the eye. “Yes Lord Scorch. I will go and speak with Lord Hades at once and give him your message.” 

“And Thanatos…” 

“Yes, Lord Scorch?” 

“You would do well to remember that it is through my power that you will be able to pass along your mantle someday. Remember your loyalty. Fail me… and I will have you serve in chains until the end of time. Remain loyal, and I shall see that you will be rewarded.” 

A pained, fearful expression crept over the pale white earth pony’s face as he nodded. “Yes, Lord Scorch. I understand.” 

Letting out a frustrated growl, Scorch vanished, leaving the pale white earth pony all alone. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 903
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Violet Velvet dumped down a load of paperwork on the table, she gave Bucky a worried look. Since returning home, he had been quiet and it was obvious that he was in pain. He had come home different in the most literal sense of the word, with two new legs and a somewhat altered body. 

Letting out a sigh, Violet sat down in a chair, looked at Bucky, and shook her head. “You need to grieve—” 

“Violet, I’m not in the mood to be told what to do. There is a lot to be done and Gossamer is coming soon.” Bucky didn’t look up from the binder he was reading, but remained focused upon his work. 

“Look, Belisama told me everything that happened and I know that you had feelings for Chrysalis. You can’t just turn them off or ignore them, it isn’t healthy.” Violet leaned forwards in her chair and a worried frown caused her face to become wrinkled. The corners of her eyes crinkled in concern as she continued to stare at Bucky. 

“Violet, please, I’m very busy. There is so much to do… there is a community in the south petitioning the crown for help against some very aggressive pests. Gossamer is coming. I don’t have time for distractions—” 

“Damn you, this isn’t a distraction!” Violet snapped. “You lost somepony that you clearly loved. We can all see it, why can’t you just admit to it?” 

There was a loud thud as Bucky slammed the binder he was reading down upon the table. “Because I don’t want to! I don’t want to deal with it! I don’t want to think about it! I just want the ache to go away and this all feels wrong… I’m pining away for somepony that wasn’t my wife but I had strong feelings for and it feels so very wrong!” 

“Bucky, she was the mother to one of your foals. Your wives understand… they can’t stand to see you in pain. All of them are worried… you’ve been home now for what, five days? You don’t want to talk about it, you don’t want to let it out, you just keep bottling it up and we’re all worried about you… please… give yourself some time to grieve—” 

“NO!” Bucky roared. 

There was a burst of cold and an explosion of snowflakes. Violet found herself alone in the farmhouse library. She slumped in her chair, feeling hurt, and she felt the unwanted sting of tears welling up in her eyes. Part of her was angry; she wanted to go and give Bucky a piece of her mind. But that was a small part that was easy to dismiss. The rest of her could only feel sympathy. He was suffering and she hated it when he suffered. 

The door to the farmhouse library opened and Violet heard the soft sound of hooves tapping on the hardwood floor. She turned and saw Derpy. The grey pegasus looked a bit angry, a bit sad, and her brows had thick creases from being furrowed.

“We’ve lost a herd member,” Derpy said in a low, husky voice. “I’ve come to terms with it, so have the others, as weird as it might be, she was one of us. She was Crisis’ mother and Crisis is one of my foals. I am Crisis’ mother as well. If Chrysalis could share Crisis with me, then I can share Bucky with her memory.” 

“You know, for a pegasus who says she has trouble with words, sometimes you say the most meaningful things,” Violet replied as she stared at the grey pegasus mare. 

“I speak from my heart. Sometimes what I have to say is meaningful, I suppose.” Derpy shook her head and then let out a worried snort. “But that’s not important right now. If we don’t figure out a way to help Bucky, he’s either going to implode or explode. He’s hurting and I don’t know how to fix him.” 

“I don’t either,” Violet admitted. “If he collapses inwards, he’ll have another nervous breakdown… like when Sentinel left. And if the floodgates open outwards…” Violet’s words trailed off into a breathy exhale and her cheeks puffed out. 

Sticking her head in the door, Berry Punch looked around the library. “Bucky meeting?” 

“Yup.” Derpy nodded her head. 

“He’s getting kinda scary, isn’t he?” Berry’s voice was low, worried sounding, and soft. “Not that I’m scared of him, don’t get the wrong idea, but I am scared for him. He’s becoming disconnected. When did he sleep last?” 

Shrugging, Derpy looked at Berry Punch and blinked, not knowing how to answer. 

A second later, Belisama strolled into the library, rubbing up against Berry’s legs as she entered, her tail curling around Berry’s leg as she passed. She sat down in front of Berry’s forehooves and looked up at Derpy, her crest rising in concern. 

“We need to figure out a way to uncork Bucky and get him to let all of this poison out before something awful happens.” Berry Punch looked down at the griffoness sitting at her hooves, lowered her head down, and kissed Belisama on the top if her feathered head, which caused the griffoness to fluff out. “Where is Thistle? Off working? I can never remember her schedule.” 

“She’s off dealing with the reservoir behind the Ponyville dam,” Violet replied, “she has a plan to use fresh water clams and mussels to help clean up the water. She says it will solve two problems at once… it will filter the water and provide food for the griffons.” 

“Clever filly,” Derpy said, distracted from her worries for a moment. “I always knew that Thistle had the potential for greatness in her. She’s gonna be an amazing mare.” 

“When going on?” Harper asked as she stuck her head into the open library doors. 

“Hi.” Berry Punch looked down at the filly standing beside her hind legs. “Did you have a nice nap, Harper?” 

The frizzy maned filly shook her head. “No. Tummy hurts. Harpy no feel good.” 

“Oh, you poor dear,” Belisama said as she raised her forelegs and gestured for Harper to come closer. The griffoness was almost bowled over when Harper plowed into her and Belisama gave the filly a much needed hug. 

“Maybe we can get Celestia to talk some sense into him.” Violet reached up and rubbed her chin. “He won’t run from her. Maybe. Actually, I don’t know. He might. Maybe Luna can help him? I don’t know, I’m out of ideas.” 

“Crisis is a silly pony,” Harper said to Belisama and anypony listening. 

“Why is Crisis a silly pony?” Belisama asked as Violet continued to ponder the problem at hoof. 

“She gobbled up her rabbit stuffy. Gulp! No more Missus Bunny Bun.” Harper melted against Belisama and closed her eyes as Belisama rubbed her stomach. 

“Oh stars, she’ll be pooping buttons again,” Berry Punch muttered. 

“How is it that she can digest metal if she eats it, but she can’t digest plastic?” Derpy asked. The grey mare shook her head and let out a confused snort. “It doesn’t make sense to me. I love Crisis, don’t get me wrong, but she’s a little weirdo.” 

“Yep,” Harper said in agreement while Belisama continued to rub her belly. “Crisis weird. Silly filly.” Harper flopped over onto her back and kicked out all four of her legs to fully expose her stomach to Belisama. 

Belisama looked up at Berry. “I suspect that Harper is backed up with gas again. It’s going to cause her to be constipated.” 

“Aw nuts,” Berry grumbled, sounding Berry frustrated. “Those enzyme pills are supposed to be helping. How much longer until they have this figured out?” 

“Come on, Harpy. Let’s go for a walk. That usually shakes everything in your tummy loose.” Derpy smiled down at the filly flopped out on the floor. “A nice walk always makes you feel better.” 

“Okay,” Harper replied in a cheerful, chirpy voice. “Harpy likes walks.” 



 

Sitting in his office at the top of his tower, Bucky raised his eyebrow as he heard somepony coming up the stairs. The stairs he had set to a ‘do not disturb’ mode. He scowled with annoyance and realised that the stairs still needed some adjustment. 

He was quite surprised by the figure that entered into his office. He stared through narrowed eyes, now understanding how his stairs had been defeated. He wasn’t dealing with a common visitor. 

“Those stairs,” Scorch huffed, “Are pure evil. We could use you in Tartarus. Ugh, those stairs are awful!” The primordial fire elemental staggered into Bucky’s office, made it a few feet, and then fell over into a chair strategically placed near the door for just such an entrance. Sitting down, he groaned. “You… bastard... this chair… it is hard and unyielding… in my long existence, I can’t recall ever sitting on anything more uncomfortable.” 

A grim smile appeared upon Bucky’s muzzle for a moment and then vanished. He watched as Scorch squirmed on the chair, squinting at his guest. “So… what is it that you want, Scorch? What brings you here to my office?” 

“You’d make a fine Lord of Tartarus,” Scorch replied, a low chuckle escaping him as he spoke. Scorch rose up out of the chair, shifted form into that of an alicorn pony, and approached Bucky’s desk. “Which is what brings me here, actually.” 

“What?” Bucky leaned over his desk a little, his ears perking. His horn ignited and a brown glass bottle of rum lifted, tipped over, and poured into a rocks glass. Bucky lifted the glass in his talons, set the bottle down upon his desk, and eyed Scorch. 

“Bucky, I’ll be straight with you. I need your help. There is something that needs to be done and you are the pony to do it.” Scorch stood in front of Bucky’s desk, lowered his head down to Bucky’s eye level, and looked Bucky in the eye. 

After taking a sip of rum and having a quick think, Bucky shook his head. “I don’t know if I want to get involved in the politics of Tartarus. Sorry Scorch. Look, I’m very busy.” 

“Buckminster, I have reason to believe that Princess Celestia is in danger.” 

There was a thunk as Bucky set down his rocks glass upon his desk and his lip curled back from his teeth. One tooth in particular had changed a good bit, one fang was now serrated. Bucky’s talons clenched into a fist. 

There was a pop of magic and a wooden chest appeared on Bucky’s desk. Scorch leaned forwards a little more, narrowed his eyes, and said to Bucky, “We need to discuss making a deal. There are rules that need to be followed, as you know. I am bound by those rules. I need your help, Avatar of War.” 

Slumping down in his chair, Bucky looked up at the flaming alicorn before him. He unclenched his talons and began drumming his claws upon his desk. He glanced at the wooden chest for a moment and then returned his gaze to Scorch. “I’m listening.” 

“I have reason to believe that Princess Celestia is in danger. Lord Hades conspires against her, or so I have reason to believe. I’m not going to give him a chance to do so. I’ve grown tired of his plotting, I am sick of his rule”—Scorch paused and looked Bucky directly in the eye—“and I believe it is time for his rule to end.” 

Bucky blinked and tried to recall what he knew of the pantheon of Tartarus. He didn’t know very much about Lord Hades, but knew that killing the immortal ruler of Tartarus was no simple task. One simply did not just walk up and kill the Lord of Tartarus. 

“How do you expect me to kill him?” Bucky asked. 

“With this,” Scorch replied as he opened the wooden chest. “Heifer Aestus and I made this quite some time ago.” 

Tilting his head, Bucky looked into the chest and saw a sword. An odd weapon for a pony to use, to be sure. It was strange looking, with an oddly curved blade. A white blade. Bucky stared at it but did not know what it was. 

“Lord Hades is bound to the fabric of reality of Tartarus itself. The only entity able to end his reign is himself. He was bound there as punishment. I am not allowed to say what he did.” Scorch looked down into the wooden chest. “Quite a long time ago, a band of powerful demon lords rebelled against Hades and sought to put an end to him. Hades’ body was destroyed, ripped apart, and this is one of his ribs. I was able to secure it before it dissolved and was absorbed into Tartarus. I put a powerful permanency spell upon it so that it would stay real. Heifer and I crafted it into a weapon. Being a part of Hades’ body, it can hurt him like nothing else.” 

Bucky gestured at the phial of glowing liquid in the case. “And that?” 

“Some of Lord Hades’ own blood. The Fates worked some of their most powerful alchemy and used the blood to create a poison that will erode Lord Hades’ string of destiny. Some of Discord’s chaos was added, and some of your blood as well.” Scorch took a step back from Bucky and allowed Bucky to examine the contents of the box. 

“Will it kill him?” Bucky asked. 

“You are the nascent Alicorn of War. Every weapon ever created will bend to your will. Magical weapons become strengthened by your presence. If I was to use this weapon, it might not work… the Fates have a hard time seeing the outcome. But if you were to use this weapon…” Scorch’s words trailed off. 

Staring at the weird rib sword, Bucky knew that it would work for him. This was, in fact, Lord Hades’ weakness. His undoing. All of his grief, all of his sorrow, everything melted away from his mind and he focused upon the sword. It was a weapon and he was the wielder that would grant it perfection and allow it to fulfil its grand purpose. 

“So… what is the deal? What is expected from me?” Bucky asked. 

Scorch shifted forms, becoming a tall bipedal figure. He shrugged, waved his hands around, and then smiled. “You stab Hades with this, he dies, and you become the new Lord of Tartarus just long enough to make me the new Lord of Tartarus. You pass along the title and everything that comes along with it to me. I start changing things. I start changing how things are done down there.” 

Bucky nodded and cleared his throat. “And what is in it for me?” 

“Ah, payment.” Scorch smiled, took a step forwards, and closed the wooden chest with one massive hand. “You make me the Lord of Tartarus and I will make you a promise that three ponies that you love will be spared from further torment, pain, and suffering.” 

“Three ponies?” Bucky asked, his eyes narrowing. “I can think of Sombra and Platinum, but who else?” 

Scorch clapped his hands together, producing an almost deafening sound. “A recent arrival. Her name is Posey. She played a fine game, but she lost. She made a lot of immortals angry. She has a long, long time to serve to work off her debts, but you can make them all go away with a stroke of a pen if you make a deal.” Scorch paused and tented his fingers together, then continued, “She loves you, you know. It is the only reason why she is being given any mercy at all. You loved her, and she loved you. She had dreams, Bucky… she had hopes and dreams and she loved you.” 

Falling back in his chair, Bucky closed his eyes and swallowed a sob before it could escape. Eyes still closed, he grabbed his glass of rum, lifted it in his talons, and took a long drink, finishing it off. 

“She followed you because she loved you,” Scorch said in a low voice. “And some very callous beings used that opportunity to snare her soul so that she might be tortured for her many crimes against them. She cheated a lot of the powers that be. Death most of all. That’s how the powers that be work Bucky… that is why they are in charge. They cheat. And Lord Hades is chief among them.” 

Setting down his now empty glass, Bucky’s talons clenched into a fist as he grimaced. 

“If you’re interested, I just so happen to have a contract ready.” Scorch snapped his fingers and a contract popped into existence upon Bucky’s desk. A large ornate quill popped into reality a moment later. “Fairly standard contract, no small print, has to be signed in blood. You kill Hades, you become the new Lord of Tartarus, you pass along the power to me, and I, as the new Lord of Tartarus, waive all punishments and torments of those you love in the afterlife. Platinum, Sombra, and Posey will only know comfort while they wait for you. Do we have a deal?” 

His gritted teeth bared, Bucky lifted up the quill with his magic, stabbed it into his neck to draw blood, wetted the end of the quill, and then signed his name upon the contract. He couldn’t save Chrysalis in life, but he had the means to save her from suffering in the afterlife. 

Buckminster Beauregard Bitters, Lord of Winter. 

Glancing up at Scorch, his scowl intensifying, he then said, “Leave me. I wish to be alone. Thank you for giving me a chance to keep Celestia safe and look after those I love.” 

Scorch bowed, the contract and the quill vanished, and then the primordial fire elemental vanished as well, leaving behind the stench of brimstone. The wooden case was left upon Bucky’s desk. 

Staring at the wooden case, Bucky poured another glass of rum as a ribbon of scarlet trickled down his neck and down on to his chest. Saying nothing, sitting alone in the silence save for his many golems, Bucky sipped his glass of rum and thought about his own future in Tartarus. 

He hoped that Scorch would be merciful. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 904
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Holding Crisis close to him, Bucky tried to think of all the things he wanted to say, the things he wanted to tell Crisis about her mother. It was complicated, more so than most would realise, as Bucky had found out that Chrysalis had not even laid Crisis’ egg. Crisis had been laid by a breeder drone, but she had been created by Chrysalis and then placed into the surrogate, allowed to grow, develop, and then have her egg laid. More than anything, Bucky wanted Crisis to have a sense of normalcy, but he doubted that she would have that. 

He worried about what other ponies might have to say about Chrysalis. There were a lot of bad things that could be said about Chrysalis, and saying those bad things would be fair. She had caused much harm and did a lot of wrong during her long, quasi-immortal existence. But Bucky wanted Crisis to know that her mother had the potential for good. 

He loved his little cuddlebug and Crisis, perhaps by virtue of what she was, loved everypony and everybirdy she met. Each of the little ones had their quirks, their own emerging bits of personality, and Crisis could only be described as affectionate. 

Bucky heard the sound of little hooves, lifted his head, and looked around. He saw orange frizz, then two little hooves came to rest against the edge of the bowl shaped chair he was sitting in. Two little dark purple eyes rose, peering at him. Harper’s indigo face was giving him a quizzical look. 

“You sad?” Harper asked in a soft whisper. “Hurt?” 

“Yes, Harper. I’m sad and I’m hurt.” Bucky watched as Harper struggled to climb up into the chair with him, but he did nothing to help her. If he did do something to help her, she would only get fussy and demand to do it on her own. She kicked and wiggled as she climbed up, grunted, farted once, let out a sigh of relief, farted for the second time, let out a little giggle, and then Bucky felt Harper collapse against him. 

“Why sad?” Harper asked as she settled in beside her Mamamama. She focused her intense purple eyes upon Bucky and Crisis. 

“Crisis’ mother is, well, she’s gone.” Bucky watched as Harper’s face contorted in confusion. 

“You still here.” Harper went silent as she struggled to cogitate. “Burpy Mama still here. Berry Mama still here. Sama Mama… still here. Harpy Mama still here and so is Bon Mom. Kelpie Mama is still here.” Harper reached up and scratched her head with one little hoof. “Who gone?” 

“Crisis had a different… pony for a mother,” Bucky said. 

“Crisis… abducted?” Harper asked. 

“Since when did you get so smart?” Bucky stared at his daughter with wide eyed amazement. “Adopted. I think the word you want is adopted.” Bucky took a deep breath. “Crisis was given to me as a gift by her mother. Chrysalis knew just what would made me happy.” As Bucky spoke, he heard more little hooves. Looking around, he saw a yellow ribbon bobbing near his chair. 

A moment later, Sukari’s head popped up and she too, began climbing into the bowl shaped chair. Bucky helped her, knowing that she wouldn’t mind. She wouldn’t try to zap him like Harper would. Sukari tumbled into the chair and came to rest beside Harper. 

“Bell sleeping,” Sukari said in a low voice. “Lonely.” 

“Aw, you love Bell, don’t you?” Bucky asked. He watched as Sukari nodded. 

“Sentinel busy. Dinky busy. Piña busy.” Sukari let out a flustered huff as she curled up in the chair. “No time for me.” The little zebra filly blew a raspberry and then rested her head against Bucky’s side. “Came to find Baba.” 

“I have time for you, Sukari, but you’ll have to share me.” Bucky felt comforted being surrounded by his little ones. The ache inside of his heart dulled a bit. He was very, very thankful for his little ones. All of them. 

“Harpy went for walk. Harpy’s insides all shook. Harpy sorry.” Leaning over a bit, Harper’s face took on an apologetic expression as there was a muffled squeal that escaped from her other end. “Oooh… Harpy stinky.” 

“Harper Heartstrings… ugh!” Bucky felt his eyes watering and his ears perked as he heard Sukari moan. “I swear, Harper, you and Fluttershy need to form a club or something.” 

“Auntie Flutterbug?” Harper blinked, wiped her eyes, let out a gasp, and patted her sister Sukari in an apologetic manner. 

More hooves and a groan could be heard. Bucky felt bad for whoever just walked into the nursery. He heard a low voice say, “Yuck.” Right away, Bucky knew that Cadance was near. He heard her little hooves clattering over the wooden floor and then she lept up into the chair to be with him and her siblings. The chair was now getting crowded. Cadance stepped on Harper, who farted again as her insides got squished, and Cadance let out a little cry of alarm. 

“Squeeze me?” Harper asked Cadance. “Squeeze Harpy… Harpy hurts.” 

Bucky raised an eyebrow and wondered if Cadance would be that foolish. A moment later, his silent query was answered when Cadance slipped her forelegs around Harper and then squeezed with all of her alicorn foal strength. 

A trumpeting blast filled the room, followed by another, and then a third. After a moment, Harper let out a gasp of relief, while Cadance groaned in disgust. The stench was breathtaking. 

“Harpy feel better,” Harper said as she collapsed against her sister. “Cady fix Harpy.” 

“Poor Harpy.” Cadance covered her muzzle with her foreleg. 

Still holding Crisis, Bucky looked at his fillies, treasuring each of them, and was very glad to have them. The pain in his heart was easing, as was his worry about his recent deal. He sighed, feeling better, and thought about maybe getting himself something to eat. 

“Leg different.” Sukari poked Bucky in his goat leg. “Why?” 

Sighing, Bucky wondered how to explain something this complex to Sukari. He took a moment to consider his words, and he thought of everything that Twilight had told him. “Well, Sukari, your Baba was busy trying to rescue some earth ponies from an evil, evil tyrant… a bad pony that really needs to have Bon Bon paddle his bottom with a brush, because he’s that bad.” Bucky paused when he heard Cadance, Harper, and Sukari all suck in a deep breath all at once. 

“To rescue those poor earth ponies from the evil Night Stallion’s castle of darkness, I went through a portal, which is like a doorway that opened up into the dungeons below the Night Stallion’s castle of darkness.” 

Sukari slipped her forelegs around Cadance, squeezed, and refused to let go. 

“Me, and my most devoted Minion, we broke into the dungeons and we stole the Night Stallion’s captive earth ponies away from him in a daring raid. We were attacked by one of the Night Stallion’s guards and there was a terrible battle. Me and the Night Stallion’s guard had a little heart to heart—” Bucky let out a weak laugh at his own joke, sighed, and gave Crisis a squeeze. 

“Crisis’ mother was struck down in that fight. She was trying to save others and she passed away while doing good. She was very, very brave at the end. When the fight was over and we had stolen the earth ponies away from the evil Night Stallion, Minion and I slipped away through the portal.” Bucky scowled and shook his head. “But the Night Stallion, he didn’t want me escaping, so he messed with the portal. He redirected it into the Warp. I was able to shove Minion out of the portal before it closed, but I got dumped into the Warp and the Warp is a magical place… a very confusing magical place. The Warp is pure chaos, and it is the wellspring where beings aligned with chaos draw their magic from. Alicorns draw power from the Warp, just a teeny, tiny bit of chaos, as it brings harmony and perfection to their magic. That little touch of chaos allows alicorns to do improbable or otherwise impossible things. Twilight Sparkle doesn’t know it, but she is connected to the Warp. I can sense it now. I’m still connected to the Warp.” 

Bucky realised that he had his fillies’ rapt attention. 

“So I was stuck in the Warp and the Warp is an engine of creation and alteration. It changed me into something else, because that is what the Warp does.” Bucky gave his goat leg a little twitch. “The Warp giveth, and the Warp taketh away. I lost two legs, but I got two new legs to make up for them.” 

“Can you make goat sounds?” Harper asked. 

“I don’t know,” Bucky replied, “but your mother Berry Punch can make sheep noises.” 



 

Nervous, dry mouthed, Ripple approached Princess Luna, who stood in front of Bucky’s tower. A couple of Myrmidons stood near, including the Myrmidon known as North Star, who was now also a Raptor. Ripple had no idea why Luna wanted to see her, but Ripple was worried that she had messed up somehow. 

As Ripple drew nearer, she saw Erebus rolling in the grass near his mother, and she could hear his happy grunting. She smiled, she liked Erebus, the little rough and ready colt loved to wrestle and get rough. 

“Squire Ripple,” Princess Luna began, “so good to see you. I am in a hurry to see Barley, so I’ll get right to the point. Now is the time for you to earn your knighthood and for the Raptors to prove their worth.” 

Ripple froze and felt her guts clench tight. 

“To the south, in the San Palomino desert, there is a community being ravaged by fire ants. Giant fire ants. I want you to take your Raptors, all of them, including your Fledglings, and I want you to eliminate this threat. Sentinel is exempt. He will not be going.” 

It took Ripple a moment to recover enough to speak. She coughed a bit and then asked, “What about the Fledglings’ worried parents?” 

Princess Luna’s lips curled into a satisfied smile. “Rumble’s parents think that a tour of combat might do their foal some good. Archer’s parents are beside themselves and almost exploded with pride when I spoke to them in pony. As for Scootaloo’s parents, they are divided. Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash acted very much like the pegasi they are, but Twilight… she is unhappy about it. She will allow it however. As for Boadicea, well… Lugus will be joining you.” 

“I see.” Ripple nodded her head. 

“Slay the fire ant queen and you will earn your knighthood. Your Raptors will be recognised as an official regiment. I wanted Gossamer to meet your Raptors, but the situation has become far too dire. Ponies are dying in the south. The Myrmidons are far too big to go down into the tunnels below ground and fight the ants. The Raptors are an ideal choice.” 

Again, Ripple nodded, seeing the wisdom in this. 

“You will be going armed and taking your new ship. Keep your Fledglings on the ship and in relative safety. They are to observe and learn. I am positive that Archer will be quite useful in attacking ground based targets, should you encounter them. Never have I seen a sharper eye on any pony. She rivals most griffons.” 

“I know.” Ripple, unable to contain her excitement, blurted out a whole string of words. “Archer and Belisama get into shooting contests. It’s amazing. You should see what they can do with crossbows or bows. Archer can shoot Belisama’s arrows right out of the air. She’s amazing and Loki says that she needs sniper training.” 

“If she does well during this tour of duty, she will get it,” Luna replied. 

Snapping out her wing, Ripple saluted. “The Bittersweet Sparkle is almost airworthy. She is being worked on right now. Once we get the engines working just right, and rework the electrical system, we can be off and do the rest of the work in the air.” 

“Fantastic.” Luna gave Ripple a pleased smile. “I know that you will not let me down. I am looking forward to your knighthood. You are going to have a long and illustrious career.” Luna’s brows furrowed and her smile became a smirk. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must go and give Lugus a magical spoon as a gift, and then go and find Barley.” 

“A spoon?” Ripple asked, confused. 

“Yes Ripple, a spoon,” Luna replied. “A magical spoon that will make Yew Wood quite a happy mare, I would suspect. I fear that the spoon has become an object of love and affection.” 

“I don’t get it.” Ripple shook her head and watched as Luna walked away. 

A moment later, a very rambunctious Erebus slammed into Ripple’s legs, making his best effort to plow over the much larger teenage filly as she stood there, distracted and confused. 

Letting out a battlecry, Ripple gave Erebus exactly what he wanted… 
	
	
> Chapter 905
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Scorch the Usurper looked up at the massive centaur known as Hades. The centaurs, an almost forgotten race, were beings of immense power. Tirek had reminded the world of the living of the existence of centaurs not long ago, but he had been struck down by Discord. 

The throne room in which Scorch stood was Lord Hades’ prison. He could never leave this place. He was bound to this place. There were no chains, at least, not physical ones, but Hades was unable to leave, unable to move very far from his throne without finding himself teleported back to the location to which he was bound. 

Hades had introduced murder into the world; the very first death of one sapient creature caused by another had been done by Hades’ own hand. Not killing, not death, but murder. Hades had brought something into the world that could not be removed, could not be stricken away, Hades had broken the Creator’s heart with a cold blooded act of murder. Hades coveted the power of another, the magic of another, and Hades, being a centaur, took it. Being a centaur, he sucked out the magic of another, draining them, and devoured their life force. Jealousy, greed, and murder. For this, Hades was sentenced to rule Tartarus until such a time that he took his own life. 

Lounging on his immense stone throne, Lord Hades raised his eyebrow and said, “You wanted to see me, Scorch the Usurper...” There was a long pause as Hades studied Scorch. “What brings you here to my realm?” 

Scorch, calm, relaxed, gave Hades a nod. He drew in a deep breath, reminded himself that he could not lie, not without consequences, and replied, “It has come to my attention that you wish to rearrange the balance of power. I wish to be on the winning side.” 

Lord Hades began to chuckle and his fingers tapped upon the arm of his throne. “Scorch the Usurper… one can always count on you to know which side is winning. What are you proposing? Do you wish to alter or discuss our agreement concerning our little war with our benevolent Creator?” 

“No, nothing like that,” Scorch replied as he shifted form into an amorphous, fiery mass. “My war against the Creator will continue as it is.” Scorch paused for a moment, considered his words, and looked Hades in the eye. “It has come to my attention that you wish to remove Celestia from power. Might I ask why? Now, I know that you know my stance on the issue, but if you help me to understand, perhaps I can be persuaded to… change my mind.” 

Hades leaned forwards and both of his eyebrows raised. He reached up one massive hand and scratched at the base of his horns. “I have always liked your ability to be reasonable. I had hoped that you and I could see reason on this issue. It is as I tried to tell the Vizier of Lamentations… you will come around when you see which side is winning. He’s always so overblown and dramatic.” 

Scorch nodded, but said nothing. 

“No doubt, you have heard rumours that I wish to remove her for reasons of stability, or because she is emotional, any number of other trite reasons.” Hades reached up and stroked his chin, then shook his head. “It has nothing to do with any of that.” 

“Why then?” Scorch asked. 

“Revenge,” Hades replied, “plain and simple. He was here… He was goading me, taunting me. He regaled me with some smug, self satisfied story about how all of this will be over soon and all his mistakes swept away, including me. He told me in detail how the Alicorn of War was going to kill me… He thought the whole thing was quite funny. He is a right bastard, as you know.” 

Scorch did not reply, but had he been something other than an amorphous fiery mass, he would have struggled to hold back a smile. 

“So… I’ve had enough of Him. I’ve decided to hurt him the only way I can. Celestia’s body holds Light, our kind, benevolent Creator’s beloved daughter. She is subject to the rules of this world. My plan is really quite simple… kill Celestia, because she is a body, nothing more, and then when Light arrives here, I plan to have her soul shredded. There will be nothing that the Creator will be able to do, because He insists on playing by the rules.” 

“And what of the sun and the celestial bodies?” Scorch asked. 

Hades shrugged. “We give them to another? You can control the sun, if you wanted to. As for the celestial bodies, we could bind them to other beings. I’m sure we can work out something.” 

“And what of Luna? She holds the soul of Darkness.” Scorch shifted form again, this time becoming a fire titan, a giant of living flame. 

“Oh… I want our Creator to hear the cries, the wailing, the weeping, and the gnashing of Darkness’ teeth as she mourns the loss of her sister. Surely He will feel something. Somewhere in that body there has to be a shred of emotion. Anyhow, at some later time, I will do away with Luna as well, undo Thanatos’ abominations, and set Darkness free. I will of course, shred her soul as well, because He needs to suffer.” 

“I see.” Scorch paused for a moment, looking at Hades, and then began to pace. “So this is all about revenge.” 

“Well, and murder,” came Hades’ sarcastic reply. “I’m good at murder. Killing that self righteous cunt Celestia will be quite pleasing, I dare say. I cannot bear to listen to even one more of her moral platitudes.” 

“Well, our Creator was right about one thing,” Scorch said in a low voice. 

“And what is that?” Hades asked. 

“War is going to kill you,” Scorch replied. 

As Scorch spoke, something white suddenly protruded from Hades’ broad upper torso. Hades’ let out a very surprised gurgle and looked down at the white object protruding from his chest. He reached up with one hand and tried to grab it, but it vanished. 

A second later, Bucky rose up behind Hades, half in and half out of shadow, he reached around Hades’ head, and stabbed the rib sword into Hades’ eye. A bellowing, gurgling scream spilled from Hades’ lips and Scorch stood and watched. Bucky’s shadowy mass was now tinged in the dreadful purple aura of pure chaos.

With a jerk, Bucky pulled the sword from Hades’ eye socket, yanked Hades’ head backwards, and stabbed the sword down into Hades’ well muscled neck. He drove the point downwards, down deep into Hades’ chest, and began twisting the blade as it plunged deeper into the centaur’s torso. 

“War does so treasure his beloved Auntie,” Scorch said in a sarcastic voice as Bucky struggled to drive the rib sword even deeper into Hades’ heaving chest through his neck. “I would not want to be you right now. You thought the Creator was a bastard… well, Bucky is a bastard son of a bastard.” 

Yanking upwards, Bucky pulled the sword out and a geyser of purple-black blood erupted. Hades was still somehow alive and his equine legs kicked as he tried to stand. Bucky resorted to vicious stabbing, holding the sword in his gauntleted talons. In and out the sword went as Bucky made rapid thrusts in and out of Hades’ back. Blood spurted with each act of violent penetration. Bucky’s black armored form stood on Hades’ back, and Bucky thrust his sword through Hades’ other eye. He let go, leaving his sword in Hades’ skull, and then extending his gauntleted talons, he rammed his fist down the gaping hole in Hades’ neck. He reached down inside, there was a loud slurping squelch, and after a moment of fishing around, Bucky yanked out Hades’ still beating heart. He tossed it down upon the ground in front of the throne. 

Bucky pulled his sword free as Hades slumped over, his body going still. He was covered in ichor, bits of flesh, and the mutilated remains of an eyeball. He stood near as Hades’ body began to shrivel, it withered as if it aged thousands of years all at once. 

Scorch, shifting forms yet again, became a bipedal figure and he clapped his hands together in slow, sincere praise as shadowy figures began to teleport into Hades’ throne room. 

“All hail the new Lord of Tartarus,” Scorch said in a booming voice. 

There was a brilliant flash of light and a white figure appeared, looking quite startled and alarmed. She looked around the room, her mouth dropping open in horror, glancing at the shrinking body of Hades, and then, Princess Celestia’s eyes focused upon Bucky. She shook her head, not believing, not understanding, not wanting to see her beloved nephew as a blood soaked demon. 

“Scorch… you didn’t say she would be here,” Bucky said in a low, worried voice. “I’m about get wing slapped, I just know it! We need to discuss our contract, this wasn’t in the agreement! You need to protect me!” 

“Be calm,” Scorch said as he took a step forwards. “Celestia is the Gatekeeper for Tartarus. With you taking power, she was drawn here.” Scorch raised one hand towards Celestia and made a gesture. “Look, my precious little drop of Sunshine, I can explain. I used Bucky—” 

“I trusted you,” Celestia said in a low voice as she turned to look at Scorch. 

“You can still trust me,” Scorch replied, sounding hurt and a bit worried. “I love you… I did this for you… all of this was for you… not for me.” Scorch took a step closer to Celestia. 

“How is making Bucky the Lord of Tartarus something done for me?” Celestia demanded, her eyes bursting into flames as her shock and surprise turned into anger. 

“He’s going to give the power to me… and then,” Scorch paused and drew in a deep breath before he continued, “after he has given me the power, I will give it to you. Freely.” 

“What?” Bucky said in a surprised voice as he kept a wary eye upon the other figures in the room. 

“Celestia… one day, we both know that you will have to fight what comes out of this place… let us change that… let the fight begin now,” Scorch said in a pleading voice. “Let us change this place. It is a prison that breeds demons… the strong devour the weak and get stronger. We can change that, you and I. We can make this a place about penance… we can rehabilitate souls… make them better… and stop making them worse.” 

“Scorch,” Celestia said, holding up one hoof so she could speak, “I cannot run this place. I do not have the time nor the resources. I cannot do as you ask.” 

“I will serve in your stead,” Scorch replied. “I will bind my very life force to yours and I will be beholden to you. You know my nature. When I swore an oath to become your caretaker when you were a troublesome little filly, I promised to look after your better interests. That promise still binds me. The Fates did a very poor job of wording it, but I didn’t care, because I adored you… I did, really… you know I can’t lie. When I went dormant, I kinda went numb for a while. The years just all smeared together… but I’ve woke up… I’ve rediscovered my purpose… and I can help you.” 

“Scorch…” 

“Let me help you,” Scorch begged. “We can clean up this cesspit. I will drive the demons down into the Abyss. This place can be more about penance, and less about torture.” Scorch looked at Celestia with pleading eyes. “This will help Equestria too… if you become the Lady of Tartarus, those who refuse to deal with you fairly in life will face your displeasure in death. It will give you a powerful bargaining chip to use when discussing peace and trying to bring about stability.” 

“He’s right.” Bucky took a step forwards as the very last of Hades turned into ash. Hades’ heart was now also gone, having turned into a puddle of tarry black goo. “You can’t turn this away… Celestia… Scorch is correct… we can start making things right. We can fight back against our Creator. This is a good first step.” 

Ears drooping, Celestia hung her head. “This is a lot of power… I am uncertain of this. I have made mistakes in the past—” 

“Yes you have, so what?” Scorch snapped. “You’ve been learning from them too. You have help now. Friends… those that love you. You are our best hope… please? Don’t make me beg… please?” 

Letting out a weary sigh, Celestia nodded her head. “Very well, I accept.” 

Turning his head, Scorch focused his fiery stare upon Bucky. 

“Wait,” Bucky said in a low voice. “While I’m still the Lord of Tartarus, there is something I want… I want to see Sombra, Platinum, and Posey.” Bucky cleared his throat and his helmet vanished. He gave Scorch an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to change our bargain—” 

“The contract never did say that you had to turn it over right away.” Scorch shifted form again, this time becoming an earth pony. “I know you are a pony of your word. If you want to see them, I won’t stop you. If you call them, they will come.” Scorch trotted over to Celestia, a smile upon his face, and he rubbed himself up against her side, trying to comfort her. 

Sitting down upon the throne, Bucky closed his eyes and said three names. “Sombra, Platinum, and Posey, come to me at once.” 

There was a crackle, a second, and a then a third. Three new figures stood in the throne room. Bucky looked at them and felt his heart rising up into his throat. He had saved them, spared them, Sombra might still be stuck and unable to pass, but there would be no more torture. 

“I’m so proud of you,” Platinum said as she stepped forwards. “I know you will do the right thing.” She kneeled down, bowing before the Lord of Tartarus, and then she rose, smiling. “Scorch told us what you were doing. Bucky… I…” Platinum fell silent as tears began to stream down her cheeks. 

With a grunt, Sombra shoved a grey unicorn mare forwards towards Bucky, then sidestepped to be closer to Platinum. He said nothing, but gave Bucky a solemn nod. 

“Chrysalis?” Bucky slipped down off of the throne as he looked at the greyish unicorn mare with a cockroach cutie mark. 

The mare shook her head. “No, Chrysalis is dead and gone. I am freed from the monster that destroyed me. I am Posey.” The grey mare smiled a soft, pleasant smile. “Love freed me.” 

“I’m so sorry… I wish I had done more,” Bucky said as he took a step closer. 

“I’m not sorry… and you did enough. You saved me,” Posey replied as she too, took a step closer to Bucky. “I do not have any regrets. I am content with the love that I have. It sustained me and saved me from a bad end.” 

Bucky nodded. 

“Can I hear you say it?” Posey asked. 

Clearing his throat, Bucky nodded again. “I love you… I wish I had done more to save you.” 

Posey closed her eyes, her knees wobbled, and then she took another step forwards, closer to where Bucky was standing. “I should have done more to save myself. I love you as well… I wish I would have said it to you while I was still living. I wish I wasn’t so bitter, jaded, and cynical. I wish I would have believed that love might save me.” 

“But it has,” Celestia said, unable to stop herself from intruding on a very private moment. “Look at you… you’ve reclaimed yourself.” 

“I suppose I have,” Posey replied as she glanced over at Celestia. “I’m sorry, for whatever it is worth. I cannot be dishonest here… I cannot lie… not without consequences. So please know that I am being sincere. I did bad things to you, Celestia, and I truly regret those things.” 

“All is forgiven,” Celestia replied as she took a step backwards and leaned up against Scorch’s solid earth pony form. 

Moving forward, Bucky pressed his muzzle against Posey’s and gave her a gentle kiss. Nothing lewd, but something loving and passionate, just a quick smooch to let her know how he felt. He pulled away, his grey eye misting over, and he gave Posey a quivering smile. 

“Give Crisis all of the love you have for me,” Posey begged. 

“I will,” Bucky replied in a strangled voice. 

“Look after my drones… I wronged them. I could have done so much more with them, I could have done so much more with myself… I was so selfish… look after my changelings. Give them a future.” 

“I will,” Bucky promised. 

Posey took a step back, and then backed up until she was standing beside Sombra. She gave Bucky a warm, loving smile and a gentle nod of encouragement. “You know what must be done. This is not a crown that you should be wearing.”  

Nodding, Bucky glanced at Platinum, then at Sombra. Platinum was crying while Sombra looked grim and solemn. “I love you both so much… I know that Sombra’s release is dependent on me ascending. I can’t fix that, but I could save you from the torments of this place. I think I’ll sleep a little better at night knowing that none of you are suffering.” 

Lifting his head high, Bucky approached Scorch and as he drew near, Scorch walked away from Celestia’s side to meet Bucky halfway. The two of them together stopped when they stood face to face. 

“What do I do?” Bucky asked. 

“We touch and you make an oath. Just say that you give this away freely,” Scorch replied. 

The obsidian throne room was silent and the watching figures did nothing to stop what was taking place. As Bucky raised his talons, Hades’ massive throne cracked in half, then crumbled down to the ground, shattering into smaller pieces. Celestia gasped. 

“I do believe that the power of this place has been broken,” Scorch whispered. 

“I, Bucky, the current Lord of Tartarus, do pass on my power to Scorch the Usurper, my friend and trusted companion and I do this of my own free will,” Bucky said. He raised his talons and waited for Scorch to raise his hoof. When Scorch extended his foreleg, Bucky’s gauntleted talons bumped up against Scorch’s flaming hoof. There was a sound like a bell ringing, and more pieces of Hades’ throne shattered. 

Head low, Princess Celestia approached the former Lord of Tartarus and the new, current Lord of Tartarus. She bowed to them both, offering them the respect they deserved and then stood with them, the three figures forming a triune. She extended her right front hoof. 

“I, Scorch the Usurper, the current Lord of Tartarus, pass along my power to Dawn Star, the body of the Celestial Entity known as Light. I bind my life force to hers and promise to always look after her interests, from now until the end of time. I pledge myself to her service and I do this of my own free will.” Scorch extended his hoof and gave Celestia’s a tap. 

Once again, there was a sound like a bell ringing. With a whoosh, Celestia ignited. Flames erupted from her eyes, from her ears, and her pastel rainbow mane became a flickering curtain of flame. She let out a cry as wisps of plasma danced around her body. 

As Bucky and Scorch stood watching with wide, startled eyes, Celestia grew. Her legs grew longer, so did her neck, her body, and her horn grew as well, becoming longer. Her flaming wings unfurled. They too, changed, becoming more beautiful, more graceful, longer and broader. 

As Celestia gritted her teeth and endured her transformation, her horn glowed with blinding light. The other figures in the throne room ignited, then burned away into ash in mere seconds, but not Sombra, Platinum, or Posey, who were left unharmed. Dozens were turned to ash in mere moments. 

Bending his knee, Bucky bowed to the new Lady of Tartarus and reveled in her magnificent glory as the rubble of Hades’ throne disintegrated completely. Beside him, Scorch also bowed. 

Once again, power had shifted, and the world was made better...
	
	
> Chapter 906
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy looked up at the minotaur approaching her in the pale morning light. She watched as Scorch shifted forms, he shimmered like a patch of heat rising up off of a road and then became something else, this time becoming a flaming donkey. She closed her bad eye and squinted through her good eye, trying to read his expression. 

“You wanted to see me?” Scorch asked. 

Nodding, the matron mare of Bucky Bitters did her best to focus her attention upon Scorch. She cleared her throat, her wings fluttered for a brief moment at her sides, and then she replied, “I want to know what happened.” 

“Is Bucky okay?” Scorch, in donkey form, sat down on the edge of the wooden porch, near the stairs and kept a respectful distance from Derpy. She had that look about her. 

“He came home, grabbed Crisis, held her, cried a whole lot, I mean he bawled his eyes out and kept saying something about Crisis’ mother that I couldn’t make out and then he went to sleep—” 

“He went to sleep?” 

Derpy, interrupted, took a moment to recover. “He’s sleeping like a foal. He’s totally out. The little ones woke up in the nursery where Bucky is sleeping and they bawled and he didn’t even open an eyelid. He slept right through it. It took some real effort to free Crisis from his grip. He didn’t wake. It’s all very weird.” 

“So he’s sleeping like a foal… good… good… he needs sleep.” Scorch’s long floppy donkey ears stood straight up. 

“I want to know what happened!” Derpy insisted. 

“I can’t say much,” Scorch replied in a soft voice, “but I can say that the number of souls that Bucky has just saved outnumber the stars.” 

Blinking, Derpy’s legs wobbled and she sat down with a muffled whump. Her ears drooped and she continued blinking, then shook her head in disbelief. “What happened?” 

“A very old mistake was corrected. For a few minutes, Bucky became an immortal being of unbelievable and immense power. He then gave that power away to another, and then that power was given to yet another, this one far more deserving of it. Now the power will be used responsibly and for good.” 

“Immortal?” Derpy asked in a strained voice. 

“No longer. Bucky had everything… immortality, immense, unending power, absolute power. He had power over me, for a moment, he was one of the biggest fish in the pond and I must say Mrs. Hooves, I admire your husband. He could have held that power, but he chose to give it away.” 

Gobsmacked, Derpy smacked her lips together and spent a moment trying to piece everything together so that she might recover. 

“Your husband wisely chose to make Princess Celestia the single most powerful being in this local existence. There has been a major shift in the powers that be. With his actions, the beginning of the end of necromancy has taken place. Much will change. How much things will change remain to be seen. I’m sorry I can’t give you more details, but certain events go beyond the ears of mortals.” 

“So Bucky was immortal?” Derpy asked, repeating her earlier question. 

“Yes.” Scorch nodded. 

“I’m glad he walked away from it.” The grey pegasus mare shuddered, blinked, and then shuddered again. “Call me selfish, but I don’t want him living forever. I don’t want him to see me grow old and suffer. I want as much time with him as I can get, but I don’t want him to live forever. So he’ll be normal now?” 

“Well, as normal as Bucky gets.” Scorch let heave a sigh. It was difficult to put normal and Bucky into the same sentence. “Bucky doesn’t even know what he gave up. But he made things right, and that’s what counts. A very old wrong has been corrected. Bucky took a stab at the problem and managed to fix it.” 

“That’s why I love him,” Derpy whispered. 

“I think Bucky will be able to start grieving. He is going to need you.” Scorch shifted forms again, this time becoming a griffon. “I need to go. I am supposed to give some inferno rubies to Belisama so she can make an alchemical brew that will protect the drinker from fire.” 

“She’s in Bucky’s tower, in the alchemy lab. She said she wanted an early start. She’s never done anything this complicated,” Derpy replied, trying to be helpful. “Something about fighting giant fire ants. How big can fire ants get, anyway?” 

“Oh, you’d be surprised…” 



 

Drowsing, Luna felt Barley stirring beside her in the bed. Erebus was a warm, fuzzy lump against her stomach. Erebus was sound asleep and Luna in her half awake state listened to the sound of those she loved breathing. Feeling warm, feeling secure, Luna sighed and drifted closer to true sleep. 

Last night, she had felt the shift in power and now, in the morning after, she felt peaceful and secure. She was certain that every being with elevated senses had felt what she had felt. It was almost as if the very planet itself had heaved a sigh of relief and had relaxed.

Strangely enough, when everything had gone topsy turvy during the night, Luna had felt her own power grow by a magnitude. She did not yet know why or how, but she resolved that she would get down to the bottom of it sooner or later. Celestia had done something, that was all that Luna knew. 

But all that would have to be dealt with later. For now, the Princess of the Night wanted sleep. Her eyelids fluttered and she felt Barley cuddle up closer against her back. She yawned, and then the Alicorn of Night slipped into the realms of slumber. 



 

Twilight Sparkle let out a very worried whinny. She scowled, for the lack of anything else better to do, then looked over at Sunset Shimmer. The unicorn was busy peering into a portal peeper. She had been silent, totally silent, and Twilight assumed that Sunset had found nothing. Had she found something, she would have said so by now. 

The makeshift lab down in the library tree’s cellar was cramped, even with the extra dimensional expansion. Glass Slipper was colouring on the floor. Little Glass Slipper was supposed to be going to school, but Twilight didn’t have the heart to send her away. She wanted to keep educating Glass Slipper herself. 

“Nothing.” Twilight’s voice broke the silence. 

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “Nothing.” 

“So… there is nothing left of the mirror traveler’s fortress. No rubble, no debris, just some broken rocks. An entire mountain range is now gone, along with a massive fortified city. How does something like that just disappear?” Twilight began pacing, walking through the crowded lab and stepping over Glass Slipper. Even in her most distracted state, Twilight was mindful of little Glass Slipper—a good mother never stepped on her foal and Twilight was determined to be a good mother. Her own mother, Twilight Velvet, had never once stepped on her. Twilight Velvet had her own problems… like not believing there had been groaning ghosts in the air ducts. The corner of Twilight Sparkle’s eye twitched at the memory. 

“The only thing I get is a weird bit of magical feedback. There is detectable magic, but I can’t determine what happened. The magic that was used was used in such a way that it scrubbed away any chance of determining what has taken place. All of my attempts to figure out what has happened have failed.” Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and let out a heavy sigh. As she rested her eyes, her neck crackled. 

“All of my attempts have failed as well. Divination hasn’t worked, studying trace magical signatures, there is just nothing there to go on. The mirror travelers and their fortress are gone. Maybe there was a magical accident that destroyed them… but I doubt it.” 

“Twilight, I hate to say this, but there is nothing for us to go on. Nothing at all. We’re not going to get any answers.” Sunset Shimmer’s eyes opened and she looked at Twilight, who appeared to be frustrated as she paced. “If they are still around, we will have to wait until they reveal themselves.” 

“But that puts us at the disadvantage,” Twilight snapped in reply. “I’ve learned a few things from Bucky… and maintaining an advantage is one of those things. Bucky maintains a fine illusion of supremacy and power because he always tries to maintain an advantage.” 

“Twilight, I doubt there is anything else we can do. The mirror travelers are gone, at least for now. All we can do is be watchful.” Sunset Shimmer watched as Glass Slipper put down her crayon and lifted her head so that she might look at her mother. 

“Mama, I think you need a cookie and some milk,” Glass Slipper suggested. 

Ears perking, Twilight looked at Glass Slipper. “You know, I think you might be right…” 



 

Yawning, Berry Punch glanced over at Sour Mash, who was slumped over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. The two mares were almost silent, the only sounds were their yawning and the slurp of coffee. The kitchen however, was noisy. Harper was eating a breakfast of mango bits, yogurt, and oatmeal. Cadance was eating oatmeal too, and Sukari had already finished her oatmeal. The little zebra’s ears twitched with every sound made. 

Cadance, a beautiful, graceful, delicate creature, had oatmeal on both her eyebrows and in her ears. The sole advantage of an ethereal mane was that it was impossible to get oatmeal into it. To make up for it, Cadance worked extra hard to get oatmeal everywhere else. 

Using her developing telekinesis, Harper hurled a bright orange bit of mango at Cadance. It struck Cadance in the nose and the pink foal’s eyes focused on the bright orange bit of fruit on her muzzle. Her mouth opened, there was a flash of orange as Cadance’s tongue crept out, and then Cadance licked the bit of mango from her muzzle. 

Hoping for a different reaction, Harper sighed with disappointment. Her horn still glowing and spitting out little sparks, she turned her attention to Berry Punch and Sour Mash, the two sleepy mares who were drinking the gross stuff in mugs that adults liked to drink. 

Grinning, Harper used her telekinesis to flick a bit of mango at Berry Punch. The sweet little tidbit soared through the air, there was a bright flash, and then the little cube of mango had butterfly wings. Harper’s mouth fell open as she realised that her magic had done that. She watched as the butterfly mango bit flew away, fluttering around the kitchen. 

Berry Punch took one look at the fluttermango and heaved a sigh. “We’re in trouble,” Berry announced in a loud voice that made its way through the farmhouse, “I think Harper has officially hit the super-mischievous stage. I repeat, we have a type three with random mini surges. This is not a drill. Pony up to your battle stations.” Berry lifted up her coffee cup, took a sip, and then yawned again. She looked over at Sour Mash and shook her head. “We’re doomed.” 

“You know, I’m thinking it is time for me to go soon,” Sour Mash said. 

“You can’t. Bucky is planning on loading up your ship with something special. You gotta stay. Don’t worry, you get used to the weirdness around here. You should have seen Bucky’s egg.” 

Sour Mash blinked her eyes and shook her head. This place, a place of wonders, was far too strange. She watched as the fluttermango thumped up against the kitchen window, leaving behind a sticky smear each time it hit the glass. 

“What do?” Harper asked in quiet voice filled with awe. 



 

Smiling, Derpy hooves looked down at two very important little unicorns that she loved. Dizzy and little Barley were cuddled together. Dizzy was a little sleepy still, but Barley was bright eyed and alert. The nursery was dimmed a little, to allow Bucky to sleep better, he was curled up in the bowl shaped chair in the corner. 

Ditzy, Berry Pinch, and Brandywine were in the bathroom with Broom, getting a bath. Bell Heather was off with her mother. It was perfect, it gave Derpy some time with the two little unicorn colts that she so adored. 

Dizzy, looking up at his mother, gave her a sleepy wall-eyed yawn, his bright orange tongue visible for a moment. Reaching down with her foreleg, Derpy stroked his mane back with her fetlock, smoothing it away from his tiny, budding horn. Fond memories of Dinky as a tiny foal flooded Derpy’s mind. For a pegasus, she was pretty good at making unicorns, or so she thought. Dinky had turned out well… Dinky had turned out powerful even, and Derpy wondered how Dizzy would turn out. 

“You’re going to be like your daddy, I think,” Derpy said in a low, maternal voice. “At least, that is my fondest hope. I think you’ll be good, and kind, and gentle, and maybe a little powerful. Amaranth told me that one day you will take up your father’s title of Lord of Winter so I’m guessing you have some magic in you.” 

Derpy paused, took a deep breath, glanced at her sleeping husband, and sighed. Crisis had been tucked back in with Bucky and the strange little filly was sound asleep, drooling out strange drool that had an odd greenish sheen in the light, sort of like how oil on the surface of water made rainbows. 

“One day, I’m not going to have your father around any more,” Derpy said to Dizzy and little Barley. “But I’ll have you and the others, so that will be okay. I’d like to think that all of the best parts of him that I love will be found in you. All of you are so precious to me. Both of you are so perfect.” 

Sniffling, Derpy wondered if perhaps she had a bit of hay fever. 
	
	
> Chapter 907
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You are such a dweeb,” Sparkler said to Ripple in a teasing voice. “Such… a… dweeb. The Bittersweet Sparkle.” Sparkler’s eyebrow arched as she looked at Ripple. “This is going to be a little dangerous. I feel like I should come with you.” 

“Sparkler, stop teasing me.” Flustered, Ripple gave Sparkler a bashful glance and then turned away as her cheeks darkened. “You have to stay here and protect the ponies of Ponyville. And look after my sister. And keep Bittersweet safe so I don’t lose my mind.” 

“I will keep an eye on Loch and Bittersweet will be looked after.” Sparkler, using her magic, pulled Ripple closer and all traces of her teasing vanished. “Look, try not to worry, okay? Just go and do what you do best. Make me proud. Leave home as a squire and come back as a knight.” 

“Aye aye.” Ripple extended a wing in salute. 

“Just remember, you earned your title of ‘dragoon.’ That is a rare thing for anypony to have. You are Daddy’s little Destroyer. He loves you, and I love you, and Rising Star loves you, and we all love you, and we know that you are going to make us proud, so try not to be stressed, okay?” Sparkler looked into Ripple’s eyes. “You’re leaving the nest and that worries me. Try not to think of it so much as leaving the nest, but defending it. Equestria is a much bigger nest and all the little ponies are yours to protect. Those big fire ants are messing with your brood.” 

Ripple nodded in acknowledgement. 

“Have you thought about who you are going to swear fealty to as a knight?” Sparkler asked. “It’s a big decision… been doing some thinking?”

Again, Ripple nodded, and there was a visible lump in her graceful throat as she swallowed. Her tail swished around her hindquarters and her eyes widened for a moment. 

“Who?” Sparkler asked. “Luna? Daddy?” 

“I don’t want to say just yet,” Ripple replied. 


Giving Ripple a gentle smile, Sparkler nodded. “I understand. You’re not going to fail. You won’t mess this up. This is your moment. This is your time to shine. When you come back in triumph, you can tell me then. Okay?” 

A grin appeared on Ripple’s face and she nodded, her head bobbing with enthusiasm. 

“Now, come and run with me for a bit. I need to stretch my legs,” Sparkler said as she bolted. 

A split second later, Ripple took off, a charcoal grey streak in hot pursuit of Sparkler. 



 

Fighting back a yawn, Princess Luna examined The Bittersweet Sparkle. It was far from what one might call finished, but it seemed serviceable. An A frame cabin had been built upon the deck and she was taking a good look inside of it. While an unusual design, the inside space of the A frame was being used well. Ponies and griffons could walk down the middle, in the tallest parts, and hammocks had been hung from the angled walls for the crew to sleep in. In the very back, against the rear wall, there was a bed big enough for a lunar pegasus, and Luna knew that was where North Star would sleep. 

The cabin was well insulated, but still a little unfinished inside. The electric lights were stark bare bulbs. The walls were unpainted plain wooden plank panels. The outside of the A frame cabin was corrugated metal, which Luna knew from experience would be an absolute nightmare in bad weather and hail. 

She stepped out of the cabin and continued her inspection. There were new mounts on the deck for guns; Luna approved. This was going to be a warship. It might not look like much, but Luna had expectations. This ship was a beginning; it was only the start of a story. In time, Luna knew that the Raptors would rise from their humble beginnings. Luna wanted them to feel as though they had earned it, worked for it, fought for it, and that nothing had been just given to them by virtue of who and what they were. 

Turning, Luna found herself face to neck with North Star. She craned her head and looked upwards at the big white brute. He had always been a quiet one and it took a lot to sneak up on Luna. He wasn’t wearing his armor and there was no sign of his griffoness mate, Kiara. 

“My sister’s favourite foal,” was Luna’s casual remark as she looked up at North Star. She watched with immense satisfaction as he turned pink. “How she fusses and frets over you. She constantly worries about the state of your marital bliss and we talk over tea about how you are adjusting to living with crazed, cat-bird creatures.” 

North Star smiled and the gleaming tips of his fangs became visible. 

“It’s the white colour… my sister specifically said it was because you were so white. She adored you, you know. And when I returned from my long exile, as you know, she wanted me to meet you. She was so impressed with you and your potential. She wanted to show me what she had done with my lunar pegasi.” Luna paused and eyed the stallion as he turned ever pinker. “And she was right to be impressed.” 

“I try to please, Mistress,” North Star said as he bowed his head somewhat. 

Taking a step back, Luna shook her head. “Call me Luna. You have earned it, faithful one. You have proven yourself time and time again. First as a Myrmidon, and now you will soon prove yourself as a Raptor. You are a living weapon of war that still somehow has a tender, gentle heart. A loyalty such as yours is to be treasured and rewarded.” 

North Star’s wing whipped out and he saluted. He looked down at Luna, his eyes gleaming with a fierce pride, and he gave her a smile. The big white stallion looked away after a moment, blinked a few times, and then wiped his eyes with his wing. 

“I have endured a powerful state of change, North Star. My values have changed. My ideals, my views, my prerogatives have all changed.” Luna extended one wing and caressed North Star’s scarred, over-muscled neck. “Look after Ripple, she is very dear to me as one of my godfoals. I am trusting you with something I hold very dear to my heart. North Star, it is my sincere desire that one day, Ripple hits the very top of the ranks. She would make for a very good high commander, wouldn’t you agree? Be honest…” 

“I think that with time and maturity, she could make for a fine leader, but she’s going to need a lot of grooming to reach that point,” North Star replied in a low, gritty voice. 

“Which is why I am starting now.” Luna cleared her throat. “Tending to a life is like looking after a tree. You plant it, you watch it grow, and as it grows, you prune it, trim it, guide it, you cut away the dead bits, and with a lot of time, the tree reaches its full, beautiful potential. This is the primary advantage to immortality. We can cultivate from beginning to end; with gentle guidance and good stewardship, we can make trees grow to their fullest potential.” 

“I understand,” North Star said to Luna. 

“Ripple is my mighty oak. She’s still a bit of an acorn right now, but she has potential. I want her to come home. Am I understood?” Luna’s eyebrow arched. 

“Yes… Luna,” North Star replied, “I understand.” 

“You are my sister’s mighty oak. Do not break my sister’s tender heart. You are to come home as well. That is an order. Am I understood?” Luna’s eyebrow arched a little bit more. 

North Star nodded his head up and down. “I will listen and obey.” 

“Do not fail me… friend,” Luna said in a low voice. 

Extending his wing, North Star saluted once more, his eyes now glimmering with tears that he could no longer hold back. North Star made a strange grunt, and then, unable to help himself, he reached out with both wings, grabbed Luna, and crushed her to his chest, squeezing her as hard as he could in a wing hug.

Luna, a changed pony, extended her own wings and returned the hug… 





Piña Colada, sitting on the sofa and propped up with cushions, held little Berry Pinch in her forelegs. The little foal was quiet, a little sleepy, and she kept yawning but would not go to sleep. It had been a long day for Piña, school had been super difficult, and she had a lot of homework that needed to be done. 

But priorities were priorities. Piña needed little sister time (little brother time would have been fine too) and wee little Pinchy was available. The other foals were nursing, being cuddled, getting cleaned, or were otherwise engaged somehow. 

Being oh so very careful, Piña gave wee little Pinchy a bounce and then began rocking her back and forth. It was clear that the little pink foal was sleepy, but was making a mighty effort against the impending nap. 

Holding Pinchy, Piña marveled that a pony could get a second chance. And that was what Berry Pinch was getting, a second chance. The little filly was happier now, she giggled, she was pleasant, and perhaps the most important thing of all, she didn’t try to bite. No more pinchy pinchy from wee little Pinchy. 

Pinchy burbled and blew a spit bubble then went quiet. Piña smiled and gave her smaller sibling a squeeze. A warm, happy feeling filled Piña, and she let out a quiet, happy laugh. 

“Berry is going to be such a good mother to you,” Piña said in a low voice to Pinchy. “She was to me. Sure, we’ve have our fights and our ups and downs, but she’s been there for me. She loves me and I know it. She rescued me. She didn’t have to look after her bratty little sister, but she did.” Piña went quiet and looked over at Sentinel who was trying to get little Barley to talk. After a moment of thoughtful reflection, she continued, “You had a rough go of things. You got a second chance. You also got really lucky, because now, you have Berry and I, and I want to be like my big sister Berry. I want to look after my little sisters and brothers because of what she did for me.” Piña gave Pinchy a little squeeze and watched as the foal closed her eyes. This time, they did not open and wee little Pinchy drifted off in Piña’s embrace. 



 

Blinking his eyes, Bucky awoke. His vision was blurry, his mouth was dry, and there was a very different foal in his embrace than he expected. He yawned, his tongue feeling leathery, and then looked down at Bell Heather. She was looking up at him, having been awakened when he awoke. She looked a bit fussy and gave him what Bucky could only consider a cross look. Bucky saw all of the warning signs; the quivering lip, the shimmering eyes, the wide pupils, Bell was going to have a fit. 

There was only one thing to do. 

Before the worst could happen, Bucky pressed his muzzle into Bell’s tummy and blew a raspberry. There were several long seconds as Bell’s brain tried to process everything taking place. She was about to unleash a tantrum, she was fussy, she wanted to be sleeping and she had been woken up. But now, there was an unprecedented level of stimulation upon her belly. 

There was only one thing to do.

Little Bell exploded with laughter, kicked her legs, and tried to get away from her daddy before it happened again. She let out a whoop, laughed even more, and then squealed when her father’s muzzle pressed against her stomach once more. 

There was a ripping, flatulent sound and then Bell pealed with laughter. 

There was a rustle of feathers and Bucky looked up, expecting to see Belisama. Instead, he found himself looking into the eyes of Magpie, the nanny. She had an amused expression upon her face; Bucky had lived around griffons just long enough to recognise it when he saw it.

“Hello, Magpie.” 

“Hello,” Magpie replied. She fluffed out a bit and her crest rose. “Little Bell came home with her mother after a hard day of work. She was tuckered out and she squalled something awful until we put her with you.” 

“Aw, she missed me,” Bucky mumbled in a happy voice. 

“Daddoo,” Bell Heather said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Daddoo?” 

“Thistle brought home a big fat fresh trout for you. I would recommend you get it before Sentinel does. He keeps opening the ice box and sniffing at it.” Magpie’s head cocked off to one side and her eyes focused on Bucky. 

“That little fish filcher better not steal my supper,” Bucky said as he set Bell Heather down upon the floor. He slipped out of the bowl shaped chair, stretched his spine out, winced when he heard a loud crackle, and then laughed as Bell toddled away on stubby legs. 

Yawning yet again, Bucky headed off for the bathroom, leaving Bell with Magpie. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 908
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hunched over in his overstuffed and somewhat ratty looking chair, Bucky watched as Violet dumped down a stack of folders and prepared to give the morning report. He held a cup of coffee in his telekinesis and Ditzy mewled in frustration as she wiggled in the chair beside him, demanding his attention. The little pegasus filly was being something of a pain in everypony’s backside this morning, she wanted time with her daddy and was not going to take no for an answer. 

“Sir, I have some important news—” 

“Let me guess, Gossamer is coming,” Bucky said, cutting in and looking Violet in the eye. 

“Sir, Gossamer is here. She arrived early on an airship filled with Saddle Arabian diplomats and trade advisors that came to meet with Twilight Sparkle about the international friendship summit.” Violet adjusted her reading glasses and ignored Bucky’s sour expression. “Gossamer is in Canterlot right now with Tannis and Agnetha. From what I understand, they plan to come here so that the meeting can be held in the mead hall. Yes, the plan has changed.” 

“Oh sod it.” Bucky’s ears drooped and he set his coffee cup down upon the table beside his chair. He scooped up Ditzy, who let out an excited whoop, and then he touched his snoot to hers as he looked into her eyes. “You have grey eyes just like mine… well, almost like mine,” Bucky self corrected. “You have your mother’s beautiful gaze.” He gave Ditzy a smooch on the cheek and the little filly began to burble excitedly. 

“Sir, I am having the finest of our stock prepared for the mead hall, is there anything in particular that you want?” Violet whipped out a notepad and held her pen at the ready. “Perhaps the botanical infused gin?” 

Not replying, Bucky considered Violet’s words as he bounced Ditzy around and the little filly flapped her stubby wings as she basked in her father’s affection. Seconds stretched into minutes before Bucky finally replied, “Break open the big cask of rum that was a gift from the zebras. Have it made ready to be served. I think that should make everyone involved feel friendly and diplomatic.” 

“Indeed.” Violet scribbled something down on her notepad. “Open sixty year old barrel of aged rum,” she murmured to herself as her pen scratched. When she was finished, she waited for further instructions. 

“Ripple is leaving soon, correct?” Bucky asked.

“Within the hour. The Ponyville weather team has a thunderstorm scheduled to clean the air. Belisama made the decision to leave early.” Violet smiled for a moment as Ditzy giggled and hugged her father’s face. “Sir, delaying them to meet Gossamer would be unwise.” 

“I know,” Bucky replied in a huff. “Stuff happens. Events conspire against us. Fire ants threaten a community of ponies—” 

“And donkeys. Well, burros, in the local parlance of the San Palomino desert. Princess Celestia was very quick to point out that there are more burros in this community than ponies and that we are doing everything we can to save them.” Violet’s smile turned into a starchy frown. “This is a political rescue. The Raptors are being sent to prove themselves. Ripple loves a donkey. Everything about this situation is politically charged. Queen Belisama has to prove that she is a mighty protector even though she is the size of a housecat.” 

“Belisama is a proven knight and a fierce combatant.” Bucky was quick to point this out and his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Queen Belisama proved herself overseas on the other side of the world. All eyes are focused upon her now that she is here at home.” Violet, bothered by Bucky’s worried expression, took a deep breath. “Sir, she’ll be fine. Her skills as an alchemist will keep her subjects from being burnt to a crisp.” 

Bucky leveled his stare upon Violet. “That does not comfort me. Not at all, Violet. I am very, very fond of my fuzzy-wuzzy cat-bird creature. I am of the opinion that every pony should have a fuzzy-wuzzy cat-bird creature. They’re marvelous. Bed warmers, grooming assistants, something to cuddle when you’re down, they’re ideal. The idea of her being burnt to a crisp makes me want to head south and deal with those fire ants myself.” Bucky buried his face against Ditzy’s tummy and snorted, which caused the filly to squeal and giggle. 

“Instead, you get to deal with a far more dangerous situation. Politics. Griffon politics. Hopefully, Gossamer won’t ask for one of your offspring to take part in a pre-arranged marriage or something.” 

“What?” 



 

Surrounded by her herd, Ripple clenched her jaw, took a deep breath, and held her head high. She looked at Loch Skimmer, saw her sister’s smile, and felt her courage soaring. Looking at Sparkler, she felt a growing sense of serenity. Sparkler was her steady rock. Looking at Bittersweet, she felt her heart grow warm—this one, this battle, was for Bittersweet and donkeys everywhere. 

Her gaze fell upon Rising Star, and she felt a surge of affection. She loved Rising, even if she didn’t understand the way she loved him. He was perfect. She trusted him and he was so very dear to her. She loved his touch, she loved his kisses, she loved everything about him. She loved his patience and his tenderness with her. He made her feel special and Ripple treasured him, knowing that Rising was a real prize. 

As she stood there, blinking, trying to think of what to say, two mares approached. Lyra moved a little faster than Bon Bon did and there was a worried, fearful look in the unicorn mare’s eyes. 

Moving with startling speed, Ripple lunged at Lyra, wrapped her wings around Lyra’s neck, and gave her mother a fierce hug, standing neck to neck with the unicorn. She felt Bon Bon press up against her and Ripple closed her eyes, glad to be loved, feeling very warm and secure. These two mares had taught her so much about herself. 

“Ripple, I’m so proud of you,” Lyra said in a low voice as she pressed herself against Ripple. “Be smart Ripple, and do what you do best. I know you’ll come home to me.” 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Bon Bon said, already knowing that there was a good chance that a rampant act of stupidity might happen. That was what this family did and to be fair, Ripple was going off to fight giant fire breathing ants. Bon Bon hooked her foreleg around Ripple’s neck and gave the filly that she loved a headlock hug. She gave Ripple a maternal smooch and then gave her another squeeze. 

“I love all of you,” Ripple said, aware that Bittersweet could not read her lips at this moment. She knew that she would have to rectify that. “I won’t let you down and I promise I won’t do anything stupid.” Ripple pulled away from Lyra, blinking, and feeling a little misty eyed. 

She stepped away from Lyra, grabbed the donkey that she loved with her wings, and pulled Bittersweet close to her. She buried her face into Bittersweet’s mane and ran her muzzle up the donkey’s neck until she reached a long, velvety ear. True love knew no species and Ripple loved the deaf-mute donkey more than words could say. 

“Saying goodbye is one of the things that defines this family,” Rising Star said in a solemn voice. “We send those we love into danger so that others don’t have to be put at risk. Ripple, do what you do best. This is what you were born to do. Good luck, Ripple.” 

Holding Bittersweet, Ripple took a deep, shuddering breath and blinked away a few tears. Yes, this family served, and Ripple would serve. Lifting her head, she looked over at her herdmates. “Look after my donkey,” she begged, still blinking away tears. 

“Hey, make room, I want to say goodbye to my little filly,” Bucky said as he shoved his way into the crowd. He squeezed his way in, rubbing up against Bon Bon, and as he wiggled his way in deeper he gave Bon Bon an affectionate smooch on the cheek. 



 

Grinning, Flash Sentry stuck out his wing in a sincere salute as he looked down at Scootaloo. Beside him, Rainbow Dash was letting out little distressed moans and Twilight’s wings fluttered at her sides. 

Scootaloo seemed beside herself with happiness. 

“You’re gonna make me proud, right?” Flash asked. 

“Of course,” Scootaloo replied in a cocky voice. “Have I ever let you down?” 

A wry smile appeared on Flash’s muzzle and he did not reply. He looked down at the filly and marveled how she had grown. She had put on muscle from all of her training, she was lean, lithe, and well defined. She was growing up so rapidly and Flash felt that he was losing precious time. 

“I’m not going to be in any real danger.” Scootaloo could not keep the disappointment from her voice as she spoke. “The ship will be safe and that is where I am posted, along with the other Fledglings. Our job will be to observe and to learn.” Scootaloo looked over to where Archer was saying goodbye to her parents. Archer’s parents weren’t fretful or worried at all, they were overjoyed. Scootaloo felt a slight stab of jealousy. 

“You’ll be getting some piloting training. You just pay attention to that. You are going to be the greatest pilot who has ever lived.” Rainbow Dash brushed up against Twilight, sucked in a deep breath, and blinked a few times as she gnawed upon her lip. 

“I’m so proud of you.” Twilight’s lower lip protruded and quivered after she spoke and she did her best to smile. Her ears perked forwards and she did her best to keep her composure. 

“Spike, keep them distracted until I get back,” Scootaloo said to the dragon standing beside Twilight. 

“I will,” Spike replied, looking up at Twilight, who was now sniffling. 

“Glass Slipper, come here and give me a hug.” Scootaloo sat down in the grass and made a gesture for the little green crystal pony filly to come forwards. 

She swept the foal up in her embrace, kissed her, and then Scootaloo felt her family pile in around her. She was squished from all sides, there were lots of wings and forelegs and muzzles all pressing in around her in an almost suffocating crush. 



 

“Son.” Thunderlane, his head held high, looked down at Rumble. 

“Dad.” Rumble, his head also held high, looked up at Thunderlane. 

“You wanted a fight, so now you are getting one. This is the right time for fighting. No more getting into fights at school, no matter the reason. You save that anger up and you let it go on deserving enemies. Not your fellow ponies.” Thunderlane’s eyes narrowed and the stallion glanced down at Cloudstreaker, who was leaning against his foreleg and looking up at her brother with big, tearful eyes. 

Standing beside Thunderlane, Flitter, Rumble’s mother, looked down at her colt with fierce pride showing in her eyes. She moved with deliberate slowness, trying to be calm, and she lowered her head down until she was eye level. 

“You do as you are told. You follow orders. You do everything you are asked and you do it without whining or protesting. I raised you to be a proud pegasus. You are my pride and joy.” Flitter had to clear her throat before she could continue. “If there is trouble for some reason, you look after your friends. Be the little scrapper I know you can be. You were always a little fighter, that’s why I named you Rumble.” 

Smiling, Rumble gave his mother a nod. 

Cloudstreaker gave her brother a brave, quivering smile, her eyes shimmering with tears. She let out a little squeak and then clung to her father, sniffling all the while. There was so much she wanted to say, but she knew if she opened her mouth to speak, she would start bawling like a yearling and that would be awkward. Instead, she stayed quiet. 

“You’re going to be a part of history,” Flitter said in a low voice. “I don’t know if you understand how important this is. You are a small part of a much greater whole. I really am very proud of you.” The pegasus mare sat down in the grass, extended her wing, and pulled her colt close to her. She lowered her head, pressed her muzzle against Rumble’s ear, inhaled, filling her lungs with her colt’s scent, and then kissed him once. “I always knew I was going to change the world, I just didn’t know how. I thought maybe it would be marriage, and in a way, it has been. I made you… and you are going to change the world, I just know it.” 

Blushing, Rumble looked up at his mother, his ears drooping. Then, after he had a quick glance around to see that nopony was watching, his head darted forwards and he gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek. As he pulled away, he watched her eyes widen and he felt warm and fuzzy on the inside as he looked at her face. 

Rumble wanted to make his mama proud. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 909
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The mead hall was full of life and a little smoky. Bucky sat in his proper place, giving furtive glances over at the statue of Belisama and studying the griffoness known as Gossamer. The griffoness was either the largest hunter he had ever seen, or the smallest warrior. Or perhaps warrior griffonesses were somewhat smaller than their male counterparts. 

Gossamer, covered in scars, had seen a hard life. She still had both eyes, but just barely. Her face was marred with deep furrows where she had been clawed. She was missing patches of feathers and fur. She was missing a talon finger from her right talons. No denying though, she was beautiful, at least by griffon standards of beauty. She moved with a sleek, confident grace, a predatory amble, and her tail swished around as though it had a life of its own. 

The big, gruff griffoness spent most of her time watching Odin, some of her time examining Tannis, almost none of her time looking at Agnetha, and Bucky could not help but feel that he was being ignored. It was almost as if he wasn’t worth noticing—perhaps because he wasn’t a griffon, but he didn’t want to make dangerous, damaging assumptions. There had to be a reason, he would find out in time. 

In the corner, Magpie was looking after the royal brood; Belisama had left Bandua here and little Beauregard let out a never ending stream of excited peeps when he saw Magpie, the griffoness nanny. Magpie fretted over them both, keeping them together on a blanket, all while looking very, very proud of herself for looking after two most important griffons. 

As a serving wench filled their glasses, Gossamer spoke. 

“You…” she looked at Odin through narrowed eyes. “You sat and you did nothing while our species declined into madness, disease, and death. What do you have to say for yourself, old timer?” 

The old griffon’s crest stood up and for a moment, Bucky could see the rage on Odin’s face. But the old griffon held his beak and after a moment of silence that stretched out for several long seconds, the old griffon replied.

“The griffons abandoned me. I was cast aside and belief in me waned down to near non-existence. I became powerless and there was very little I could do. I became a near non-entity. Immortal, unable to die, but lingering at the verge of death for an age.” 

Bucky watched as Gossamer’s eyes narrowed and her head tilted off to a quizzical angle. Odin’s talons clenched and Bucky eyed the old griffon as he smoothed over his ruffled feathers. 

“Surely you could have done something,” Bucky heard Gossamer say in a low voice. 

“What?” Odin replied. “What could I have done? I was forsaken for bloodthirsty entities and demons! The entire culture of art, poetry, and music that I had worked so long to cultivate was destroyed! My mead halls were torn down and shrines for bloody sacrifices were constructed on their ruins! I watched everything I worked for get dismantled and destroyed, piece by piece… what was I to do?” 

Gossamer’s hard, flinty expression softened. “So then, there was really nothing you could do.” The big griffoness slumped over, glanced at Tannis and then shook her head. “I suppose you were powerless as well. Forgive me, but I still carry so much anger. Part of me still wants to find somebirdy to blame.” 

In that moment, Bucky understood why he was being ignored, while Odin and Tannis were getting the lion’s share of attention. He felt Gossamer’s pain, he knew the madness of the griffons. He had been there, he had seen it, and knowing how she had fled her homeland, Bucky knew that she had seen it as well. She wanted somebirdy to blame. Turning his head, he saw Odin panting with anger, the small griffon’s girth rising and falling. Odin’s feathers were ruffled. 

“I did everything I could,” Tannis said in a low voice that was as smooth and fine as silk. “I knew that I wouldn’t be any good to anybirdy if I was dead, so I kept a low profile and worked under the guise of helping my father. I had to be very, very careful that I did not arouse suspicions. I could have done more, perhaps, but I might have put myself at risk. Had I exposed myself, I would have been unable to help anybirdy at all.” 

“Well spoken, Tannis.” Agnetha looked at her husband, a griffon expression of pain upon her face. 

Bucky’s eyes darted from face to face. There was a lot of pain and regret in this room. He too, had regrets and knew pain; there were a lot of things he wished he had done differently. Things he might have done better. Perhaps saying ‘I love you’ might have been more beneficial than being hard on somepony now departed, trying to drive her into Celestia’s good graces. 

“Tell us more about yourself, Gossamer,” Bucky said to the proud griffoness. “Tell us about your colony. I don’t know about the others, but I am dying to know more.” 

“I took a gaggle of griffons and I fled Griffonholm. We crossed the sea and looked for a new home. A new way. We settled in Saddle Arabia and they were kind enough to give us a territory by the sea. We made a city on the cliffs. I made a new way of life. We became pacifists, healers, herbalists. We laid down our weapons after our old life failed us. I made new laws, a new way of living. I’ve had to take drastic measures to make everything work.” 

“Drastic measures?” Agnetha asked, looking curious. 

Gossamer’s crest went flat against her head. “Some did not appreciate the new way. Some wanted violent conquest. Some wanted to raid and poach the Saddle Arabians, who had shown us kindness… we tied stones around them and tossed them into the sea. Those of us who could not adapt to the new way of life, those of us who resisted change, we put them down as a mercy, all too aware of the hypocrisy of our actions. We did what had to be done. There was a brief, bloody uprising and I had to put down even more of my fractured tribe. Many of the hunters and warriors refused to change… they seemed mad. Crazy. Unreasonable. They would not listen to reason. I was forced to do what I do well and I put them down. When everything was said and done, I had a colony that had a fair number of hunters and quite a few of the little griffons who showed almost no signs of the madness of the larger griffons.” 

In a low voice, Bucky said, “It comes from eating—” 

“I have since learned what causes the madness and bloodlust in my kith and kin.” Gossamer’s talons curled into a tight fist and her tail darted from side to side in agitation. “It does not make what I did any easier, but I understand and accept that they had to be purged.” 

Nodding, Bucky thought about what he did in the griffon nursery. He felt a stab of guilt, a wave of remorse hit him, and he glanced over at Magpie. Magpie understood. Magpie knew what the score was. Almost on a daily basis, Magpie told him that he had done the right thing. He had done them a kindness. What Bucky had done was an act of mercy. It still didn’t make it any easier. 

“I’m sorry,” Odin said in an apologetic voice. “It has to have been very hard on you.” 

Closing her eyes, Gossamer nodded. After a moment, she opened her eyes again and looked at Bucky. “I do not envy you. Out of all of us, the burden you must carry must be unbearable. The weight of rule must sit heavily upon your shoulders. You purged Griffonholm and carved the disease out of our species. You did what needed to be done. I admire you for your courage and for doing what you did. Griffon you might not be, but you will go down as one of our best kings.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky replied, feeling a bit self conscious after listening to everything said. He wasn’t sure he deserved such high praise or flattery. He lifted up his mug and took a drink of mead, but wished that his mug was full of rum or strong drink. It would come later. 

“We are a nation defined by tragedy.” Odin heaved a weary sigh, shook his head, and his grizzled crest lifted. “Our destroyer was our saviour. Those who fled home and were called cowards have become our heroes. We now exist due to the kindness of others, both the Saddle Arabians and the Equestrians.” 

“The little griffons have become our saving grace. They are the best of us.” Gossamer lifted up her mug in salute. “In my colony I’ve had to enact strict laws about their care and treatment. Striking one, harming one, it brings about the fury of the lash. Killing one will get you drowned in the sea.” 

“Pacifists, you say,” Tannis said to Gossamer. 

Before Gossamer could reply, Agnetha cut in smoothly and said what needed to be said. “It is like those addicted to opium or other drugs… Gossamer’s remaining hunters are pacifists in the same way those addicted to opium must be dealt with and kept sober. Harsh measures must be taken to avoid relapse. This isn’t being done to be cruel, but to save those who are left. We hunters are far too proud for our own good. Extreme measures are necessary.” 

“Well said.” Gossamer’s head lifted. “It is my hope that with the coming generations, we can be true pacifists. That we can leave our legacy of bloodlust behind. I want a colony of healers, alchemists, surgeons, I want good, gracious, gregarious griffons who can better the world.” The battered griffoness looked at Odin, then at Bucky. “And as the primary healer of my tribe, I’ll carve away whatever diseased flesh I have to so I can make this happen.” 

“I think I can help you.” Bucky thought about his changelings, his healers, and he thought about the earth ponies that he had rescued from the mirror traveler’s homeworld. “Gossamer, you and I will talk later. I think I have something that will make your life a little easier.” 

Once again, Gossamer’s talons clenched into a fist. She bent her foreleg and thumped her chest three times, slamming her balled up talons into her breastbone. She gave Bucky a fierce glance of gratitude. 

“We must look to our future… if it preserves our species and gives us a grip upon our future, no measure, no act is too extreme,” Odin said in a sad sounding voice. The grizzled old griffon shook his head and then looked over at Bandua and Beauregard. “We do what we must do for them,” he continued, gesturing at the two cubs. “We cannot afford to relax our guard and be soft. Keg Smasher even understands this and so too the griffons who live under his rule. Thankfully, most of them aren’t mad from eating sapient creatures.” 

“So how do we move forward from here?” Agnetha asked. The griffoness glanced over at her cub and then back at the group of assembled leaders. “There is much I worry about. Our future must be safeguarded.” 

“We need to create a breeding exchange program.” Gossamer blinked a few times. “To guard our future, we must protect against the madness caused by inbreeding. There are too few of us left in the world. In time, we must make exchanges between our gathered groups to introduce new blood.” 

“Hippogriffs are being born. The infusion of new blood will help us, as it has done so in the past.” Odin glanced over at Bandua and Beauregard, then turned and looked at Bucky. “I have always maintained that the hippogriffs are the best of us both. The very best that both ponies and griffons have to offer. They will be our saviours one day, I just know it.” 

“Well, they are certainly a sign of unity,” Gossamer said in an agreeable voice. “But won’t we still breed ourselves out of existence if we mate with ponies?” 

Odin shook his head. “So long as we keep breeding hippogriffs and griffon stock, we’ll come out okay. Griffons have dominant characteristics. In my many thousands of years of life, I’ve seen and observed much. Besides, the Fates have promised that we shall survive, provided that I keep my end of the agreement.” 

“And what would that be?” Gossamer asked. 

“I am forbidden to speak of it,” Odin replied. 

Gossamer nodded. “We must remain creatures of our word if we are to ever regain the trust of the world. You do whatever must be done and we will do your work.” The big griffoness tapped her heart with her clenched talons once more in a show of unity. 

“So… what is the best way to move forwards?” Tannis asked. “I suppose that should be what we focus upon for this first historic meeting. What do we do to assure our mutual survival and bring about the best that our species has to offer?” 

Odin nodded. “That seems prudent. We have much to discuss…” 
	
	
> Chapter 910
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Bittersweet Sparkle flew at a slow, but steady pace, heading south southwest, towards the San Palomino desert. The ship might be a heap, but she was a good heap, serviceable, durable, and true. She could fly in a straight line, (provided the wind was willing) she didn’t leak much cloudstuff, and because of her narrow hull profile as a skiff, she could fly into a headwind without too much trouble. 

Ripple paced the deck, anxious to be where she was going, eager to be in combat. She wore the war shoes her father had made for her, a light but strong helmet, and some light, flexible body armor that allowed her to move without encumbering her. Ripple’s defense, her greatest protection, was her pegasus precognition and her incredible speed. Her endless, constant training had produced a near perfect physical specimen. 

Lugus was sprawled in a sunny patch on deck, watching the much smaller Raptors as they went about their business. A small silver spoon, which glittered in the sun, hung around his neck. Near to him, Yew Wood was chatting with Belisama, the two of them talking about their hippogriff offspring. Lugus was not idle as he lay sprawled upon the deck, no, he was sharpening a wicked looking hook sword that would be far better for close combat in the tight confines of the underground tunnels. Lugus was expecting to be a much smaller size. 

Fledgling Scootaloo was getting flight instruction from Wing Corporal Gofannon. The little orange filly stood at the helm, actually piloting the craft as Gofannon stood nearby, offering advice. Gofannon himself had only recently earned his license as a pilot and the little griffon was proud to be considered knowledgeable enough to be an instructor. 

Loki and Boadicea sat together, with Loki holding up glass bottles of different coloured liquids. Loki, the teacher, was giving Boadicea, his student, a lesson in various types of poisons and their creative uses. Poison that locked up the joints. Poison that caused paralysis. Poison that made the jaw clench so hard that the target might crush and break their teeth. It was a macabre lesson, and Boadicea hung on every spoken word from her fantastically lethal mentor. 

Unknown to Loki, Archer was sitting some distance away, but her sharp ears were paying attention to everything being said. The little blue earth pony filly was trying to memorise all of the deadly knowledge, knowing that it would only improve her abilities as an archer. 

In the middle of the deck, Rumble was getting close combat lessons from Angus, the hammerhead bird headed griffon. Angry Angus was giving Rumble a good working over, pulling no punches, leaving Rumble sweaty and bloody. Rumble had come into the Raptors as soft as cookie dough; the constant conditioning, the running, endurance training, and hard knocks style combat training was slowly turning Rumble (and the other Fledglings) into something else. 

Lugus took a great deal of pride knowing that his training methods produced results. 

The Raptors also took pride in Lugus’ training methods; they could both give and take punches, endure abuse, and despite being so small, they had managed to impress some of the Myrmidons, a feat that came with considerable bragging rights. 

North Star, a Myrmidon but also a Raptor, watched as his mate Kiara sparred with Freyja. The two griffonesses were evenly matched in combat, Freyja was hard, brutal, and a heavy hitter, while Kiara was swift, quick to react, and was a master of combat improvisation. 

Griffon combat was a terrible, horrible thing. While the Raptors did not use their claws upon each other, that was dirty pool, they did use their fists for practice in anticipation of the time when they would use their claws. The griffons grappled, punched, kicked, simulated clawing open each other's’ bellies, yowled, hissed, screeched, cawed, and generally made the most awful sounds while fighting. They would sneak up on each other, which was fair game, appreciated even, pounce one another, attempt to give one another a good natured throttling, and even acted as though they would gouge each other’s eyes out. The Raptors had trust though, and each of them knew that grievous injuries were not allowed. Everything else was fair game though. Any Raptor was fair game for a sneak attack, even the Fledglings, who had all become quite aware of their surroundings as a result. 

Some Raptors were braver than others. Brigid, who it could be said could get high off of danger, liked to pick dangerous targets for her ambushes. She took a great deal of pride in the fact that she had snuck up on Lugus and was promptly thrashed for her efforts. She had snuck up on Yew Wood, and again, was smashed down for her efforts. She crept up on Ripple, and yet again, she had been hammered. Her moment of triumph though was sneaking up on Bucky, perhaps the single most dangerous act that any creature might do. He had turned her into a common housecat with a transmutation spell, placed a collar with a bell around her neck, and then had set her free in the yard. Brigid still had the collar and the bell as a trophy, and she bragged about it every chance she got when celebrating and drinking. Very few creatures could boast about sneaking up upon the Lord of Winter, and fewer still remained breathing. 

As The Bittersweet Sparkle continued south, it was graced with a tailwind. 



 

Bucky, drunk enough to be social, but sober enough to be observant, watched as Gossamer interacted with Tannis and Agnetha. Tannis and his mate Agnetha had changed. Living with Princess Celestia under her tutelage had made the two griffons almost unrecognisable from when he had met them in Griffonholm. Tannis was now a respected, capable leader, somebirdy that could even run Equestria if necessary, and Bucky knew that Princess Celestia trusted him without reservation. Tannis was growing to become the type of leader that he would have never been allowed to be in Griffonholm. 

As for Agnetha, she too, had matured, had grown, and she showed spectacular leadership abilities. While Tannis was good at the day to day aspect of governance, Agnetha was the public face. She went to the hospitals, the libraries, the social functions, she followed Princess Celestia around to various Crown functions. Agnetha was a master of the social game of ruling and there were times when Bucky felt lost trying to understand her. 

But he had no doubt, she and Tannis would lead the griffons to greatness. 

Griffonwood (Formerly Hoofington) was being discussed. The city was already being rebuilt and reclaimed from the Everfree. Gossamer seemed excited that the griffons were getting their own city within Equestria, and she spoke of equality. 

“Things are going much better than I had anticipated,” Odin said in a low, sonorous voice. “I had so many worries. So much depends upon this meeting and its outcome.” The grizzled griffon lifted his mug of mead, drank some down, set his mug back upon the table, leaned forwards, and looked Bucky in the eye. “Thank you, for this.” 

“Oh, I had nothing to do with this,” Bucky replied. 

“Minotaur shit.” Odin’s eyes narrowed. “You had this mead hall built. You put out a call for artisans, poets, and creative types. While Tannis and Agnetha work to restore our respect, your goal is to restore our culture. You’ve pulled me back from the very brink of death.” 

Bucky let out a dismissive snort. “I only did what was necessary.” 

“Was stabbing Hades to death necessary?” Odin asked. 

“Yes,” Bucky replied without a second’s hesitation, “he threatened my Auntie. He wanted her dead. I will pull the still beating heart right of something’s chest if they do that.” 

“You know, Bucky, for most, saying that you’ll rip their heart out of their chest is just an intimidating threat.” Odin lifted up his mug, took a sip, and shook his head. “But to have actually done it… and to Lord Hades no less… right now, many fear you.” 

“There is nothing to fear.” Bucky lifted up his own mug, which was filled with rum and took a long gulp. “So long as the immortal powers that be do not actively oppose Celestia, or threaten her, or work against the peace process, they have nothing to fear from me.” 

“Just out of curiousity, what have you done with the sword?” Odin asked. 

“Hades’ blade?” Bucky’s eyebrows raised. “It is mine to keep. It is a powerful weapon under my influence. It can sever immortal ties. I’d like to think of it as an insurance policy. So long as everybody behaves themselves, it’ll stay in its box. If someone steps out of line, it comes out of the box and I will be forced to take another stab at the peace process. I will take as many stabs as is necessary.” 

“Just how did you manage to sneak up on Hades, anyhow?” Odin gave a nod of thanks as a griffoness serving wench filled up his mug with mead. 

“Powerful aversion spells, shadow magic, and a healthy dose of chaos.” Bucky let out a long, horrendous belch and then banged his mug on the table. 

“And this is why no one feels safe,” Odin said in a sibilant whisper. “They want some assurances that you’re not just going to creep up behind them and do to them what you did to Hades. The current powers that be need assurances.” 

“No.” Bucky’s single spoken syllable held the finality of a death knell. 

“Bucky, they need to know that is safe to argue and debate. They’re all shitting themselves right now because of Scorch the Usurper giving you that dreadful weapon. Right now, everyone is caving to Celestia’s demands without question and none are refusing her for fear of what you might do. There needs to be a healthy amount of debate and arguing is valuable for the process of moving forwards.” 

“Then they need to grow a pair,” Bucky replied, “and understand that I have no intentions of shanking them for simple debate or argument. My stance on the issue is clear. Threaten Celestia, actively work against the peace process, and I will come for you.” 

Odin let out a frustrated peep, sighed, shook his head, and stared at Bucky. 

“I don’t care that they are scared.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “For too long, the immortals of this world had no one holding them accountable. Now, all bets are off. I’ve shown that I can kill even the most powerful among them. They now live in mortal fear just like the rest of us. Scorpan is of the opinion that this is the best thing that could happen to the Council of Immortals… they needed to be shook up and snapped out of their stupour. Heifer Aestus also agrees. For too long, they were complacent, quiet, they lapsed into doing nothing because they stopped caring. Even Scorch retreated from the world. He allowed the years to pass and he did nothing. Now, events are happening that are forcing the immortals to react, to take notice, to get involved… and with the death of Lord Hades, the immortals now realise that there are consequences, even for them if they fail to do right. I have such a small window of influence. I’ll be dead in no time and the entire world will heave a sigh of relief when I’m gone. Many sphincters will unclench. But while I am here… there will be changes.” 

“So… the bogeypony now scares even the immortals.” Odin blinked, having come to an understanding. “You’re not acting as the alicorn of war—” 

“No, no I am not,” Bucky replied, cutting Odin off. “I have reached deep and sought out my other influences. I am fulfilling the function I am intended for. I have other mantles I have inherited. And when I am gone”—Bucky’s head turned and he looked over where Bandua was on display—“she will take up my cause and scare those who wander away from the light.” 

“Well, I did intend for her to act as the bearer of nightmares for the griffons.” Odin slumped down in his chair. “And I did want her to serve the role of the bogeybirdy. Somebirdy has to keep the griffons on the straight and narrow. That was the nature of the deal.” 

“And you are getting that,” Bucky said in a voice made gritty by strong drink. “This world must have a future. Somehow, we must wrestle away control and allow for life to continue. The old mistakes of the past must be corrected. It can be done, I am sure of it, and I agree with Scorch—Celestia is our best option. Her soul, Light, comes directly from our creator. She is his direct descendent, and as such, that makes her powerful. We just need to make her powerful enough to challenge him. This is the endgame, the task I must finish before my string gets cut and my life ends. I have declared war upon our creator.” 

Clutching his mug, Odin trembled at Bucky’s words. There were bound to be consequences for such an action. He took a drink, looked at Bucky, and then took another drink. After giving it some thought, Odin realised that he had nothing to say. 

A most dangerous game had just been engaged, and killing Lord Hades had been the opening move. Odin had no idea how this would turn out and he feared the future. How did one fight a being that could undo existence on a whim? Odin didn’t know, but he suspected that he was going to find out. 
	
	
> Chapter 911
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lifting his head, Bucky eyed the ship that was coming in to dock. The farm was getting crowded with airships. Several pegasi flew from the ships, but he knew that they were not pegasi, but something else. The sun lingered on one horizon and the promise of darkness lurked upon the other. Bucky looked around, feeling pleased with himself. Not too far away, Gossamer was speaking with Sentinel and Diamond Tiara. The little pink filly was doing most of the talking and doing an admirable job of keeping track of facts, figures, and all of the things that Sentinel should know, but didn’t. Bucky thought it was a good test of their working adult relationship; Diamond Tiara would be the powerful mare standing beside Sentinel that kept everything running. 

The pegasi who were not pegasi drew closer. Bucky sat down in the cool, inviting grass, resting his backside, and took a sip of a refreshing, piney gin and tonic. Some distance away, Odin was playing a mandolin or something very much like it and it filled the air with beauty. As he listened to the music, he thought about his brave griffons going south and the courageous ponies that accompanied them. 

The flock of pegasi landed and one approached, a mare. She walked with her head low and a mentally aware astute observer might notice that she did not take the same care when folding her wings as a real pegasus. Bucky noticed. There was always room for improvement. 

“Sire—”

“Ugh, must you call me that?” Bucky whined as he turned his petulant stare upon the not-pegasus that stood before him. 

“Yes.” The pegasus mare shook her head. “As you have requested, Sire, several medical drones and a contingent of drones well suited for foal rearing have been gathered and are ready to go to the Shetlands. There is also the special drone that was discussed.” 

Bucky’s grey eye narrowed and he nodded. 

“Also, one hundred and twenty six earth ponies that were rescued have been gathered. These are the earth ponies that show the most promise of becoming functional members of society the soonest. They are hale, hearty, have been vaccinated, given check ups, and are doing the best. They still cannot go out into the sun, however. It hurts them.” 

“Aye.” Bucky tossed his head back as he swallowed a gulp of his gin and tonic. “The sun is a cruel mistress.” Bucky chuckled at his own joke and looked a little disappointed when the drone speaking to him had no response. One eyebrow raised and he became serious again. “What about you? Are you ready to go, Overmind?” 

“I am ready to obey any and all commands you give me, Sire. My function is to command other drones—” 

“And to do so firmly but gently,” Bucky added. 

“My job is to command other drones according to your parameters,” the drone said, correcting herself. “I am to answer to Keg Smasher himself and nopony else, other than you, Sire. My other parameters are still active, as per your commands. Allow no harm to come to a foal. Protect helpless ponies at all costs. Keep myself in equine form so the ponies around me are comfortable. Also, protect Keg Smasher from any threats or potential acts of reprisal from the ones you call mirror travelers. Long have we battled with the mirror travelers. We know them from feeling alone. I will do my duty.” 

“Very good.” Bucky nodded his head. 

“Sire?” 

“Yes?” Bucky took another sip of his drink, never once taking his eyes off of the not-pegasus speaking to him. 

“I have given it much thought—your request that I think of a name for myself as an exercise in independent thought. As an overmind, I do have stronger thought processes than the lesser drones in my command who have been mentally restricted.” 

Bucky waited. 

“I shall call myself ‘Watcher’ and be content.” 

Grinning, Bucky nodded. “Very well, Watcher. I approve. You shall watch. Your name serves your function. I am pleased.” Bucky eyed the not-pegasus. The illusion was very good, but the changeling in pegasus form did not speak pegasus. None of the body language was present. No pegasus would be this servile and submissive. None of the right ear movements. None of the right wing movements. The legs were kept relaxed, knees somewhat bent. The tail was kept low. There was no sign of pegasus pride. It was disturbing, unnerving, and it bothered Bucky that he could spot the differences, but for whatever reason, many other ponies had been fooled by this. All of the signs seemed so obvious. 

“Watcher, let the earth ponies off of the ship for a while. Keep them rounded up in a herd and let them roam about the grass. Let them graze if they desire. I’ll have food set out for them. But let them enjoy the night.” Bucky took a drink but there was nothing in his glass. He heaved a sigh and with a snap of his talons, the glass vanished. 

Watcher bowed her head. “As you command, Sire.” 

“Also, I wish to speak to the special medical drone…” 



 

Darkness settled upon the land and the first few stars twinkled in the night sky. There was music, laughter, and a good time to be had. Fireflies flitted about. There was much singing, rejoicing, and celebrating among the griffons. Bucky, who had a drink once more, looked at the somewhat smaller unicorn mare sitting beside him. 

“So you can fix the shivers?” Bucky asked. 

“I can indeed,” the not-unicorn replied. “But there are things you need to know. There are issues.” 

“Issues?” Bucky felt a prickle of worry. 

“The cure is a series of injections directly into the spine. Each injection causes the nervous system to break down and be regrown. Whole clusters of nerves dissolve and regrow, along with the thaumaturgical system.” 

“And what does that mean, exactly?” Bucky asked. 

The smaller unicorn mare turned to look directly at Bucky. “The treatment causes the magical system to short out for a while, with each injection. There is also paralysis that comes in spells, and all that comes with that. With each regrowth of the central nervous system, there is markable improvement. But the cure doesn’t restore the body.” 

“I don’t understand,” Bucky replied, “what do you mean it doesn’t restore the body? I thought this was a cure.” 

“The body is fixed, but not restored.” 

“What?” The ice cubes in Bucky’s glass clinked. 

“Restoration would be the body returning to its natural state,” the changeling began, “and the natural state of your bodies is pathetic, for most of you. When this treatment is done, the nervous system will be in peak condition, allowing for almost supernatural reflexes, speed, and reaction times. All of the inherent weakness of the equine central nervous system will be removed and many improvements will be added. Queen Chrysalis made vast improvements to the equine design. The thaumaturgical system will also be upgraded and will be far more integrated with the nervous system, allowing for even greater reflexive magic.” 

“I see.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. This wasn’t a cure, this was a rebuild. This wouldn’t just remove the disease, the condition, it would completely rebuild the weak, flawed body that produced the condition, the disease, in the first place. He sighed and began to worry what Celestia might think of this cure. 

Sparkler in her current form was a juggernaut. Her magic as a type three was strong, so very strong, and she was in peak physical condition. Curing her shivers would mean another upgrade; better nerves, stronger magic, the juggernaut would become, well, whatever an upgraded juggernaut was. Sparkler would become a terror made of living stone. Bucky was not discouraged by this, but he did wonder if Sparkler would accept the cure. As for other shivers sufferers, well… Bucky wasn’t quite sure what to think or say. A lot of ponies would go from having a disability to being outright exceptional. 

“Tomorrow, I shall have you sent to Canterlot and I want you to tell Princess Celestia all about this. I want you to teach Tourmaline how to produce this cure. I ask that you allow yourself to be studied so that we can begin to understand how this cure works. You will be respected and treated kindly, I assure you. It has already been made known that anypony mistreating my bugs will get a visit from me in the dead of the night, and nopony wants that.” 

“Why?” the drone asked. “You seem quite pleasant. I would enjoy your nocturnal company.” 

Bucky began chuckling and he shook his head. “Oh, I am quite pleasant, right up to the point when I am not and then nopony wants to be around me. I am the Night Terror, Herald of the Princess of the Night, the Bogeypony that serves the Nightmare.” 

“But you seem very pleasant, very congenial.” 

“Oh, I can be,” Bucky agreed, his head bobbing. “Right up to the point where the screaming starts.” Bucky gave the drone a toothy grin and continued to laugh as he held his drink in his talons. 

“You serve a function,” the drone said in a low voice. “You scare ponies back into good behaviour. You exist as the unknown threat that lurks in the dark. You and your Black Cloaks. You know, we changelings could help you in your task. We too, can lurk in the dark and we could scare ponies back into good behaviour. Should you command us to do so, we would be ideal for the job, Sire.” 

Hearing the drone speak, Bucky had an idea. Bucky had the most wonderful idea. He grinned, the corners of his mouth curling up in an obscene display of maniacal glee. There were far too few Black Cloaks, but Bucky had plenty of changelings at his command. A crazed giggle escaped from Bucky’s lips and in the back of his mind, he began to prepare a proposal for Twilight, all while cackling a low, menacing cackle. 

“Sire, I take back what I said, you are not pleasant, but creepy. I am afraid, Sire…” 



 

The moon climbed ever higher. There were different songs now, yowling, the griffons had very peculiar songs of love. Bucky sat in the grass, watching over a herd of earth ponies, who quietly grazed in the moonlight, eating the tender spring grass. A lone mare moved near Bucky, laid down, and then began to tear out shoots of green clover nestled in the grass. 

Bucky felt a warm body brush up against him and he knew without looking that it was Bon Bon. She sat down beside him, wiggled her backside to get comfortable, and then leaned up against him. Bucky leaned back against her and he heard her sigh. 

“You did good,” Bon Bon whispered to her husband. “Saving all these earth ponies. You did real good.”

“I know,” Bucky replied. 

“What is to be done with them?” Bon Bon asked. 

“These ponies are going to the Shetlands. They have instincts even if they lack intelligence. They will help to look after foals and repopulate the isles.” Bucky snaked his right foreleg over Bon Bon’s broad withers and then rubbed his ear against her cheek, marking her. 

“You and your thing for earth ponies.” Bon Bon turned her head and her lips brushed up against Bucky’s withered cheek. “Does helping us make the guilt subside?” 

“Yes,” Bucky replied with unabashed honesty. “I still have a lot of guilt and I can’t seem to shake it.” 

“Bucky,” Bon Bon said in a soft, affectionate whisper. “You’ve made a lot of earth ponies very, very happy. Me for one, and Berry, and little Piña… Piña adores you and she calls you ‘Daddy.’ You have to shake this guilt of yours.” 

“I can’t,” Bucky replied, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I have to make things right. I have to make things better. My family did so much harm—” 

“And you’ve done so much right.” Bon Bon placed a hoof beneath Bucky’s chin and lifted his head. When he opened his eyes, she looked into them, her piercing gaze burrowing into his soul. She could see the pain in his eyes and she felt his muscles quivering against her. She leaned her head forward a bit, kissed him, and continued to look into his eyes. 

“I love you so much, Bon Bon. Sometimes I worry that I don’t give you enough of my time. You spend so much time working, you are the rock that everypony depends upon.” Bucky blinked, wanting to avert his eyes, but he found that he could not tear his gaze away. “You saved me. You helped me to understand myself. In the beginning, you gave me a sense of worth. Everything I am now is because of you and the others.” 

“You and I have a lot in common,” Bon Bon said in an agreeable whisper. “We both work too hard. We both are perfectionists. We both have a lot of anger.” Bon Bon rubbed her hoof against Bucky’s chin and she felt him melting against her. “We’re both ponies shaped by our pasts and trying to sort everything out.” 

Bon Bon leaned in for another kiss, this one a bit more substantial than a peck. She closed her eyes and kneaded her lips against Bucky’s, doing her very best to express her affection, her love, her devotion, all without words. 

And with the way that she was being kissed, she could tell that Bucky was doing the same. 
	
> Chapter 912
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Standing near the front edge of her ship, Ripple surveyed the valley below. Far off in the distance she could see a village that circled an oasis, a small patch of green that existed in the rocky, sandy San Palomino desert. She saw no sign of the giant fire ants, but she did not doubt their existence. 

She had no intention of landing or putting her ship anywhere near the ground. The gasbag was vulnerable to fire and much of the ship was made of wood. She began to pace along the front edge, looking down, and admiring the dull orange sunset off in the west. 

“Wing Corporal Callum, Private Freyja, I need you both.” 

Turning her head, she saw the two griffons looking at her, and she knew enough about griffon facial expressions to notice their wide, expectant stares. She turned her whole body to face them and came to a halt, no longer pacing. 

“I would like the two of you to go to the village and let them know that we are here,” Ripple said to the pair. She drew in a deep breath and then continued, “Reassure them. You will be my eyes and ears in the village. I will be sending reinforcements down there to help you guard them, but I haven’t yet decided who.” 

“Um, Squire Cornet Ripple, wouldn’t it be better for you to go and speak to them?” Callum asked. 

“Why would it be better for me to speak to them, Callum?” Ripple arched her eyebrow at the griffon to let him know that she was a bit irritated about having her orders questioned. 

“Well, you are a pony,” the dove like griffon replied, “and I am a griffon.” 

“Callum,” Ripple began in a patient voice, “you are my messenger. You wear silver armor. I send you out to be my mouthpiece. Now, I understand your hesitation, I do, you are dealing with ponies that might be scared of griffons… I get that, I do. I need you to carry messages for me and the griffons need you to be their messenger too. You need to send a message that the griffons can be trusted. Ponies need to know that when the Raptors arrive, we are there to thrash monsters and deal with threats to Equestria and all who live there. When I send you out, you are carrying the hopes and dreams of your species—” 

“Callum, what she’s trying to say is, stop being a chicken!” Freyja said to her mate. 

“Yes… but I was trying to be diplomatic about it.” Ripple smiled to let Callum know that everything was okay. She turned away from the two griffons and peered off at the town in the distance. “We do need to reassure them though. I think I’ll send both Yew and Lugus to help guard the town.” 

“It’s impossible not to like Yew,” Callum said, doing his best to be agreeable. “Shall we escort Queen Belisama? Having a visiting queen might bolster the spirits of the villagers.” 

“Good call, Callum.” Ripple glanced back at the griffon, impressed. “Escort Queen Belisama down to the village and let them know that their troubles will soon be over.” 

“We shall depart at once,” Freyja said to Ripple as she gave a tug upon her mate. “Come on, you… before you start strutting and showing off.” 

Ripple watched them depart, heading back to the cabin to find Belisama. Each of her Raptors had a skill that she valued. Callum was a natural born messenger and Freyja was the only Raptor that could compete with Loki’s combat abilities. Together, they made for an ideal pair and Ripple never had to worry if her messenger was safe. Ripple suspected that if Callum was threatened, Freyja could become the most ferocious of all the Raptors in defense of her special somebirdy. The little griffoness had finally allowed herself to love after experiencing so much loss. It made Ripple think of romantic, chivalrous thoughts. 

Ripple could see herself razing a continent for Bittersweet or her herdmates. Sure, that sort of thing was frowned upon, but it was fun to think about. Righteous fury unleashed. She knew her father would understand. Bucky would approve. It was fun to think about what her father might do if something was to harm a single, solitary feather on Derpy. Or if something hurt Berry. Ripple didn’t want to be a warmonger, not at all, but she did have fun thinking about the sort of overblown responses that could be made in the name of love. 

The fantasy was fun—the reality; not so much. 

Ants were ground dwelling creatures. Ripple was already making plans on how she would deal with them. Drawing them out somehow would be important, and then a dedicated air campaign perhaps. When the ants’ numbers were thinned out, when she felt confident that a majority of the ants’ forces were no more, phase two would begin. Go underground into the ant tunnels and begin systematic extermination of the fire breathing menaces. The little griffons would be ideal combatants in the underground tunnels. They had crossbows and a selection of small, easy to use firearms. Ripple’s head almost exploded with pride when she had discovered that she was trusted enough to be armed. 

Victory would be declared when the fire ant queen was no more. After that, there would be hearty thank yous from the townsponies and then they would head home. This was almost too easy. 



 

The night was dark, full of stars, and peaceful. Belisama sat upon a barrel, feeling lonesome, feeling a need to throw back her head and yowl. Bandua was at home, with Bucky, with the rest of her pride. She flexed her talons, kept her eyes upon the stars, and wished she was home. 

The little griffoness, who had been born a servant, a slave, saw little difference in her current status as queen. She was still a servant. She still had unpleasant tasks that she had to finish. This was a job, a job like any other, and there were vermin that needed extermination. The fire ants preyed upon the ponies that lived here. On the inside, she was divided; a part of her was satisfied to be here, to be doing good, to be the hero. The rest of her wanted to be home. She wanted to be curled up beside Bucky, nested in the bed. Or being used as a pillow by somepony that she so dearly loved. 

And make no mistake, she loved them. Which was the reason why she was here, in the San Palomino desert, sitting on a barrel located upon a repurposed skiff, staring at the stars, contemplating on the complexities in her life. She scratched at her wing joint with her talons and glanced over at the others sharing the night with her. Scootaloo and Rumble had guard duty and were patrolling the deck together. She could hear them talking, making plans, discussing something they both had an invested interest in; Applebloom. 

North Star stood near the engines and Kiara was perched upon his head, keeping his ears warm. It was easy to mistake her for a fuzzy, fluffy hat, right up to the point where she blinked. It was a source of never ending amusement for all of the Raptors. 

Everything was ready for the purge. There were lots of potions of fire immunity stocked up. Each potion would last for about thirty hours or so after drinking. Loki of course, would not need one, nor could he drink one, as they were awful poison for any fire aligned creatures such as him. 

“Belisama?” 

Hearing her name, Belisama turned and angled her head. She saw a weary looking Boadicea sitting on the deck, wrapped in a blanket draped over her back. Extending her talons, Belisama scooted over on her barrel and made room for Boadicea. 

In silence, the griffoness cub climbed up beside Belisama, got settled in, and the blanket was wrapped around the both of them. Already, Boadicea was larger than Belisama and the cub held her elder close in a warm, devoted embrace. 

“What’s on your mind, Bodi?” Belisama snuggled closer, thankful for both the blanket and the warm body. “You should be sleeping, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow, I think.” 

“I couldn’t sleep,” Boadicea replied, shaking her head. 

“Missing Sentinel?” Belisama asked in a teasing voice. 

“Maybe just a little bit,” Boadicea admitted, “but that isn’t what is keeping me awake.” 

“Well then, what is?”Belisama became serious, turned her head around, and looked at Boadicea as her crest rose. She saw a troubled look in Boadicea’s eye and could feel the griffoness cub’s heart pounding beneath her ribs. 

“I keep thinking about Griffonwood. About all this responsibility. And becoming queen later… I think I’m freaking out.” The young hunter griffon shook her head. “It’s all so much. It seems like just a few days ago I was sitting in a tiny dungeon cell thinking about how my life was going to end and now I’m wondering how my life will get started. It’s all too much.” 

Belisama of course, understood. She had just lost her sister and her homeland in one fell swoop when she had been married—with marriage came responsibilities. So much had been expected of her and everything had been so overwhelming. It still was, sometimes. 

“What if I’m not the griffoness everybirdy thinks I am and I turn out to be a cat brain? What if I fail? What if I can’t make Griffonwood prosperous? What if I let Sentinel down? What if I let Bucky down? Or Lugus… or Yew… oh stars, I don’t want to let Yew down, she’ll give me that look of hers and nothing hurts more than that. I think I’d rather fall upon a dull sword and disembowel myself.” 

“That’s drastic,” Belisama said in a low whisper. 

“Almost losing Sentinel made me realise that I love him.” Boadicea sucked in a deep breath and all of her feathers fluffed out. She shivered, but not from the chilly night air. “But to have Sentinel means having the future that comes along with him. It gets so complicated. He’s an alicorn now and he has all of these powerful responsibilities and so much is expected from him and I don’t know how he’s managing, but he is, and that’s amazing, but I’m not managing, because I’m just not.” 

“Hmm.” Belisama took Boadicea’s right talons into her own and held them. It felt nice, as strange as it might be. This wasn’t something that griffons did back in Griffonholm. Holding each others’ talons was a new practice. 

Boadicea let out a mournful sounding caw and then went silent, her crest going flat against her head. She pulled her twitching tail under the blanket with her, sighed, and tightened the blanket around both her and Belisama. 

“I think you’ll do fine with Griffonwood. It’s a new place, a new home, with new ideas… it is a place where mistakes can be made and then corrected. You’ll be able to try out different things there and see what works. See what makes the griffons happy. There’s bound to be some mistakes, some failures, but you will have a whole bunch of friends willing to help you smooth everything over. Twilight will help you, so will Tannis and Agnetha, you have all of us, and me, and Lugus will always be there to help you—” 

“He won’t be there forever.” Boadicea shook her head. “Something tells me that Lugus isn’t the sort that will allow himself to die of old age. When the time is right, he’ll pick a worthy foe and throw himself at it. If he survives that encounter, when he recovers, he will find another worthy foe. It is what his kind do when the years stretch on too long.”

Belisama fell silent after hearing Boadicea’s words. She couldn’t argue the point, but a part of her hoped that Lugus would want to grow old. The big griffon loved his mate, he loved Peekaboo, Brennus needed a father, and Boadicea needed his guidance. Losing Lugus would be a loss to all of griffonkind. 

“I hope he doesn’t,” Boadicea whispered, “and I feel so selfish wanting him to stick around. I want him to stay. Sure, he thumped me and split my head open, but I was acting like vermin at the time. I need him. I need to hear his voice. He’s taught me so much.” Boadicea shivered and then shuddered. “I want him around when my own cubs are born. They’re going to need him. I know how I am… I won’t be able to sort them out. I get distracted by shiny things because I’m a corvid. They’ll need his level headed approach to life.” 

“I too, understand the fear of coming loss,” Belisama admitted. 

After a moment of silence, Boadicea nodded. “I bet you do.” 

Realising that she and Boadicea shared so much in common, Belisama, Queen of the Griffon Empire, scooted around and pulled the younger griffoness into a tight, affectionate embrace. Together, sitting on a barrel, the two griffonesses contemplated their shared futures. 
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 913
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the hours just before dawn, when the desert was still cool, before the sand had become a scorching sea, Ripple watched as a flare rose up on the horizon. As she stood watching, she knew what it meant, she knew what the flare signaled, and her excited snorts could be seen as puffs of steam shot from her nostrils. The waiting had been tedious, the ants had remained elusive, but now, it seemed as though the ants were on the move. 

Behind her, somebirdy rang the bell, sounding the alarm. Ripple felt her muscles tense, she felt adrenaline flooding through her body. She was ready, she was spoiling for a fight. Loki, her forward scout, was already fireproofed, but Ripple worried for the others. 

“Looks as though we’re about to have ourselves a scuffle,” Ripple said to all who were listening. “Wake the others and all of you drink up. We’re about to poke an anthill!” 

A collection of squawks and cries went up from all on deck. Ripple looked off to the east and saw no sign of the sun yet, the sky was still dark. It made sense; the ants moved during the coolest parts of the day. Before it even reached noon, the sand became too hot to touch. By afternoon, it would blister a pony’s tender frogs. And it would stay hot through most of the freezing cold night, releasing the heat that it had trapped during the searing day. 

“Gofannon, you know the plan. You’re in charge. Keep the fledglings safe. I hate keeping you out of battle, but I need somebirdy I can trust up here.” 

“Aye aye, I understand.” 

“Lugus and Yew are in the village,” Ripple said as she watched another flare rise up, this one coming from a different location. The ants were moving in an unmistakable path towards the village again, no doubt looking for prey to drag off to the anthill. “North Star, Kiara, I want you up here with Gofannon in reserve. I might need you for a bombing run.” 

“Aye aye,” North Star replied. 

“We’ll be geared up and ready,” Kiara said to Ripple as her girth puffed out. 

Ripple listened to the commotion on the deck, her ears perking, and she felt her muscles jerking. Was her danger sense kicking in or was it just battle nerves? She didn’t know. 

“Is this going to be a stand up fight, or will this be a bug hunt?” Flench asked in a sleepy voice. The little griffon yawned and then let out a half-awake peep. “We want to keep them from reaching the village, right? That’s gonna mean engaging them on the ground to slow ‘em down, ain’t it?” 

Turning to look at Flench, Ripple took a moment to consider his words, then replied, “We’ll hit them from the air and do as much hurt as we can. If they ignore us though and keep heading for the village, we’re going to have to offer ourselves up as bait and go about this the hard way.” 

“I like the hard way,” Angry Angus said as he tested the draw on his crossbow, a weapon he had made himself. “These ants will have stings, right? And they breathe fire?” 

Nodding Ripple flexed her wings while stretching her legs. “Yes, they have stings. And if one stings you, you’ll be impaled. I understand that they are quite large.” 

“Great.” Angus’ crest rose. “Death by impalement. What a way to go.” 

“You don’t have permission to die,” Ripple said as she focused her stern gaze upon Angus. “Don’t you even think about it, you lazy pile of owl pellets. Your soul might belong to Odin, but your arse belongs to me.” 

Angus saluted. “I could think of no finer ownership for my arse—” 

“Stow it, Private.” Ripple grinned. “We have work to do. Gear up and let’s go, everybirdy!” 



 

Cold grey light came from the east as Ripple and her Raptors circled over the ants below. The ants moved in a line, marching with what could only be described as perfect militaristic discipline. Ripple and her Raptors waited, flying over head, it was not the time to strike. Ahead was a narrow canyon pass through the jagged hills, and Ripple planned to attack there, when the ants would be thinned out and could not form a tight, defensive group. 

Brigid and Shaquah flew as a pair, then Branwen and Grunion. Flench and Angus brought up the rear. Loki was still scouting, flying around in a wide circle. Belisama flew above them, with Fleshrender’s rifle gripped in her talons. The group was well armed, they had guns, crossbows, and magical ordnance out the wazoo. Ripple had her war shoes, which were heavily enchanted. All of them were fireproofed and wearing armor, which would make things difficult when the day grew warmer. It remained to be seen if the armor could stop fire ant stings. 

The first of the column of ants began to move into the narrow pass below, with sheer rock walls on either side. Ripple hovered, waiting, her eyes on the long line of ants that were making their way to the village. She lifted her front hoof and her Raptors hovered with her, remaining close. 

The ants moved with surprising speed for their size, and they were huge. About pony sized. Dozens flooded into the narrow canyon pass. Saying nothing, Ripple pointed down with her hoof, and there was a sharp crack of a gun. 

The lead ant’s head exploded and a plume of smoke curled up from Fleshrender’s rifle. Belisama was already scoped in on a second target when the Raptors joined in, unleashing a stream of lead and crossbow quarrels. A glass orb was thrown and when it exploded, more than a dozen ants were frozen in an ever expanding shower of icy missiles. 

There was a strange chittering sound that filled the canyon as the attack upon the ants began. The Raptors turned the narrow canyon into a shooting gallery. The attack was going exactly as Ripple had expected. This was going to be a slaughter. 



 

Using his sharp eyes, Gofannon peered down at the desert below, his crest rising in alarm. In the pale light of dawn, he could see the battle below, and while the battle was doing well, reinforcements were coming. A second column of ants was moving in, flanking Ripple and the others. 

“Prepare the deck gun,” North Star said in a voice of stony calm. “Arm yourselves and make ready for battle.” 

The fledglings all began to prepare themselves for battle. Archer and Boadicea worked together to move the heavy crate that held the deck gun. They slid it over the planks until they reached the mount, then opened the crate, and began to assemble the twenty millimetre cannon, a design based upon the same twenty millimetre that Bucky and Lugus had found at the griffon airbase. This gun had a self feeding hopper and was rigged with controls that would even allow an earth pony to use it. 

Scootaloo took up position near the ship’s controls, ready to step in and fly if Gofannon had to take up arms. Rumble kept watch, pacing along the edge of the deck, his sharp pegasus eyes locked upon the second column of ants down below. 

Kiara put on her helmet and then checked over her heavy armor as she sat upon North Star’s back. She thumped his armored neck with her gauntleted talons and let out a fierce squawk. 

The deck gun, now assembled, was ready to fire. The long barrel angled downwards and Archer had the sights focused upon the first ant in the second column. Boadicea stood by, ready to reload the hopper. As one shell was fired, the hopper would empty by one shell, and she would add another. If something occupied her, the hopper held a total of thirty shells. 

“Uh, guys… we have a bigger problem,” Rumble said in a quavering voice as he pointed with his hoof. “Some ants have wings.” The little colt’s eyes were wide with both fear and anticipation. 

“Rumble,” Gofannon snapped, “you’re on fire duty! Arm yourself with an extinguisher!” 

Below, the battle raged. Above, the battle had not yet started, but was about to. 



 

When Ripple heard the thunderous blast of the cannon above her, she knew something was wrong. She looked around, scanning the sky, her wary eyes searching for any threat to her Raptors. What she saw unnerved her, but she did not falter. Flapping her wings, she gained altitude, rising higher. She saw the second column of ants coming and raised a cry of alarm. The Raptors scattered, looking for cracks and hidey holes in the nearby rocks. 

Ripple took off, going after the flying ants that were the closest, the ones that posed an immediate threat to her and her Raptors. She hit the first one with both front hooves extended, slamming into it with all of her strength. It froze solid and shattered, sending chunks of ice flying in all directions. She went for another, ignoring the stream of fire being squirted at her, and she slammed into that one too. This time, it did not freeze, not that it mattered. She pulped it and moved on. 

As she gained more altitude, she saw hundreds of ants, both in the air and on the ground. Some of them were flying for The Bittersweet Sparkle. Seeing the ship in danger alarmed her, but she had her Raptors to look after. Biting her lip, she made a hard decision. She was going to have to trust that those left on the ship would be able to take care of things. They were well trained, and the deck gun was already in use, and they were capable of looking after themselves. 

A flaming blur shot past Ripple, it was Loki, and he was going after the flying fire ants. He had two swords drawn, wicked looking hook swords, and the little harrier griffon had murder in his eyes. Ripple followed him, but kept an eye on the Raptors taking shelter in the crevices in the canyon walls. 

Bellowing with fury, Ripple slammed into another flying ant, dismembering it on impact. 



 

Gripping the control sticks in her tight clenched fetlocks, Scootaloo brought the ship around to face the incoming swarm. She tried to keep it steady, but her whole body was trembling. I can fly this, she told herself in a panicked internal dialogue, I can fly anything.

Her ears rang when the deck gun roared yet again. This time, Archer wasn’t shooting down at the ground, but at incoming ants. Archer’s aim was perfect, as always. Scootaloo couldn’t remember Archer ever missing. Scootaloo slowed the engines and took a deep breath so she could calm herself. Gofannon had a long lever action rifle and he fired off a shot. One ant staggered in the air, but did not go down. There was a second shot and most of the ant’s head vanished in a spray of chunks. Scootaloo tried not to think of the pressure on her. For the others to shoot and have good aim, she had to keep the ship steady in the incoming side wind. 

There was a thunderous roar from the deck gun and another ant exploded. Boadicea had a pistol in her left talons and was reloading for Archer using her right. North Star launched himself from the deck with Kiara mounted on his back. The little griffoness let out a roar that would make a lion jealous. 

The ants closed the distance all too quickly and the world around Scootaloo was filled with fire. 



 

Struggling to fly with the fire extinguisher, Rumble flapped his stubby wings and braved the flames, which scared him even though they could not hurt him. The ship was on fire. The gasbag was on fire in several places. He wrestled the extinguisher in his forelegs and used his mouth to yank the release, sending a stream of foam into the roaring, crackling flames. 

He had bigger problems though. One large winged ant was coming right for him. He scrambled, swore and said something his mother would not approve of around the handle in his mouth, and then cleared out of the way just as the ant stung the spot where he had been just a second ago. 

A hole was torn open in the gasbag and cloudstuff began to leak out. Rumble, still swearing like a drip infected merchant marine, whipped the extinguisher around and bashed the ant on the head. It didn’t do much good and the ant was coming around for another sting. 

He dodged another sting, then another, and then the ant got another hit in on the gasbag. More cloudstuff began leaking out. This was bad, and the flames were spreading. Rumble needed to get them out. 

There was a loud crack and Rumble’s ant assailant fell out of the sky. Rumble looked around through the smoke and the flames. Looking down, he saw Belisama coming up, flying through the flame filled chaos. She looked every bit like a warrior queen. In her left talons, she held her curved officer’s sword, in her right talons, she had one of her big, scary looking revolvers. 

She had somehow made the shot from an unbelieveable distance. Rumble knew that others would accuse him of storytelling if he told them about it. He scrambled to get the flames out, spraying his extinguisher with wild abandon, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. Too many flames, too many ants, and the gasbag was leaking. 

Rumble flew down, dodging and avoiding ants, then skimmed over the deck. He went to the emergency lockbox, where more extinguishers were located, but he wasn’t after a fresh extinguisher. He fumbled around until he found a wooden box with brass reinforcements that had the words ‘repair kit’ on the front. 

Still swearing, eye watering profanity just spewing from his mouth, Rumble ripped the box open, not knowing what he would find inside. Upon opening the box, there was a blue green glow. 

“Repairs initiated,” a disembodied voice said as a half dozen tiny spider golems scrambled out of the wooden box. 

The tiny spider golems went scuttling off, crawling over the deck, then climbed up a chain to reach the gasbag, and then vanished from view. Rumble grabbed a fresh extinguisher and then went back to work, fighting a war against the flames, knowing that he had a guardian griffon watching over him. 
	
	
> Chapter 914
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Killing the ants only seemed to attract more ants. Ripple tried to remember what little she knew about anthills and how ants reacted to an intruder. She tried to remember her biology classes in school. Ants had alarm chemicals—damage or kill one and the rest would come swarming. 

The ship was on fire and leaking cloudstuff. She hoped that her fledglings were okay. She didn’t have a lot of time to worry though. She was covered in bug guts, legs, and antennae. She kept smashing through airborne ants but more kept coming. So far, she had avoided being stung, but she had been nipped a few times by powerful, painful mandibles. Her armor had crimps in it, the bent metal pinched and poked at her tender, vulnerable flesh as she moved, making fighting uncomfortable, but not impossible. 

Loki fought beside her, he was bleeding, his armor had been pierced, he had been stung and chomped by powerful mandibles, but he was unstoppable. As he battled, his wounds healed, the gaping gashes closing up and the blood flow slowing. The little harrier griffon was on fire, his own fire, and he was immune to the fiery assaults of the ants. 

The ants seemed endless. The more they killed, the more of them kept coming. At least the flying ants seemed to be thinning out, but more ants swarmed over the ground. Explosions of lightning and ice devastated their ranks as Kiara and North Star dropped bombs while defending the ship. 

This was truth. This was the meaning of life. Ripple felt it in her bones. This was her purpose. She smashed through a winged ant and then darted away before another could grab her, her danger sense precognition allowing her to escape unscathed—this time. Every muscle in her body ached with fatigue and begged for rest, but there was no rest to be had. Sweat poured from her sides, down her neck, and ran down her legs. 

She smashed another, then another, and kicked out at a third. She found herself swarmed and while she was clubbing one with her front hooves, another bit her on the back. She felt her armor buckle and as she tried to wiggle around, a stinger made its way through a gap in her armor. Fire filled her blood as she was pierced. 

Something got hold of her wing. She felt a crushing sensation as the pressure increased and she feared the delicate bones would be crushed. Spitting, snarling, she lashed out as she began to plummet with the ants that had swarmed her. There was a fierce cry and Loki was there with her, her constant and most trusted companion in this battle. He was a terrible, savage thing, and he laid into the ant chewing on her wing. Ripple felt her body convulse as the venom began to take effect. 

She could do nothing to stop her fall as the ground rushed up to meet her. 



 

Seeing Ripple in trouble, something inside of Belisama’s mind broke. In her ears, she heard the screams of her sister, Bandua, and her mind flooded with the grotesque images of Bandua’s final moments. Holding Huginn and her sword, she rushed to Ripple’s aid. 

Ripple was hers… a daughter in every way that mattered, age and species made no difference. Belisama would not allow another that she loved to be taken from her. A terrifying roar escaped her beak, a fearsome, dreadful sound that belied her small, diminutive size. 

From their secured locations below, two Raptors answered Belisama’s call—Grunion, and Branwen, the Raptor’s medic. They flew as a pair, with Grunion keeping Branwen the albino griffon safe. 

Now a trio, they swooped after Ripple, moving to intercept her fall. Belisama’s sword chopped an ant in half and she fired Huginn at another. The bullet tore through, kept going, and ripped the abdomen off of another ant some distance away. Murderous rage burned in Belisama’s eyes like two live coals. She cut, hacked, sliced, and shot her way through the swarming ants. 

Reaching Ripple, Belisama and Grunion began to remove the ants that were still swarming around her, assisting Loki, while Branwen grabbed ahold of Ripple’s armor. The brave little albino griffoness hung on for dear life with her left talons, trying to avoid being bitten or stung as she went to treat Ripple’s wounds with her right talons. Every second mattered with powerful venoms. She stabbed Ripple with a glass ampule filled with powerful healing compounds, synthesised changeling spit. 

Branwen somehow ignored the mandibles that bit down upon her hind leg, crushing the armor plates around her thigh. She cried out, but continued to treat Ripple, even as they fell, plunging towards the ground below in a deadly spiral. Loki sliced off the head of the ant biting Branwen and then prised the mandibles apart. He tossed the head away as Grunion and Belisama killed the last ants swarming Ripple, who was covered in ant bits. 

What they did not know or understand was that Ripple was covered in ant pheromones from having bodily smashed through so many of them. She reeked of distress pheromones, which made her a prime target. Each and every full body impact of hers had soaked her in dying ant pheromones. Now, she was an irresistible beacon that drove the ants into a frenzy.

Loki grabbed Ripple’s armor, Grunion grabbed Ripple’s hind legs, and Belisama, who had sheathed her sword and holstered her gun, also grabbed Ripple’s armor. Branwen was busy working, trying to stop the bleeding and counteract the venom that burned in Ripple’s blood.

The three griffons lifted Ripple, almost as though they were her valkyries, and began to make their way back to the ship. North Star swooped in close, acting as an escort. The deck gun on the ship thundered and some well placed shots kept the ants from reaching Ripple as she was being airlifted to safety. The ship was still being swarmed though, and things appeared to be taking a turn towards becoming far more interesting as the tension of the situation increased. 



 

Belisama’s ears rang with the sounds of invisible bells and her talons trembled as though she had a palsy. All she could think about was her sister, Bandua, and everything that had happened. She pulled a small wooden box out of storage and set it down upon the deck. She tried to take a calming breath and ignore everything; the sounds of battle all around her, the sounds of her own sister shrieking, everything. It was all too much. 

Looking down, she saw her husband’s flowing script. Something about seeing it calmed her. Bucky made everything better. When she woke up, soaked in sweat, remembering, he made everything better. Pony-catbird-whatever-else repair kit. She fumbled the box open and when she did, there was a blue-green flash. The smell of ozone rose up and tickled Belisama’s beak. She almost sneezed as several teeny-tiny spider golems crawled out of the wooden box. Medic golems, loaded down with powerful healing agents. Medic spider golems that could sew a pony or a griffon back together. Bucky had said that they could even reattach limbs and make everything work again. 

The spider golems took off in search of injured victims and found Ripple. 

A protective circle had formed around Ripple and none of the ants swarming the ship could reach her. Guns drawn, Ripple’s protectors shot anything that got too close. Archer picked ants out of the air before they could reach the ship. She was an amazing shot with the twenty millimetre deck gun, using it almost as one might use a sniper rifle. 

When this was over, the Raptors would have a new heavy gunner. 

The spider golems went to work, performing a quick triage and then working to repair Ripple’s many injuries. Tears and gashes in her flesh were closed. The puncture wound where she had been stung was treated. The venom in her blood was neutralised. Her seizing ceased and she lay still upon the deck and the golems continued their work. 

Bucky had declared war upon battlefield injuries and his golems did an amazing job. 



 

“Scootaloo, hold the ship steady and bring it around!” Gofannon barked, which was funny, seeing as how he was a catbird. “We have Raptors still down on the desert floor, holed up, and they need our help!”

Grunting, her small back straining, and swearing in a way her mothers would never allow, Scootaloo struggled to keep the ship level. Fire had damaged stuff. The gasbag had leaked a bit. Power was low. They needed more cloudstuff in a bad way. Gages and dials were in the yellow, creeping towards orange, and some of them might hit red soon. Red was bad. 

She fought to turn the ship about. The flying ants were fewer now, but still a problem. The ants below were swarming everywhere, climbing over the bodies of their own dead. Scootaloo’s legs ached, all of them, she was sore from standing on her hindlegs and her forelegs burned from her efforts. An absolutely vile stream of well practiced profanity poured from her lips as she threw what weight she had against the control yoke to make things work. 

When Ripple rose up from the deck and gave herself a shake, Scootaloo felt her strength renewed. She found that she had a little more to give. She heard Ripple let out a frog voiced command of, “KILL ‘EM ALL!” and Scootaloo felt her spine go rigid. 

“I DON’T LIKE BUGS ON MY DECK!” Ripple growled, still frog voiced. “I WANT THESE BUGGY BASTARDS GONE! DOOOO EEEEET!” 

The Raptors scrambled to do Ripple’s bidding as Ripple herself threw herself back into the fray. The ship was coming around and leveling out. The deck gun was now pointing in the direction where the ants were coming from. 

Scootaloo, worried, checked on Rumble and saw that he was still battling his own foe, the fire. Her sharp eyes also saw something else. Something had changed about Rumble. There was something on his backside but she couldn’t make it out well enough to see what it was. There was no mistaking it though, Rumble had a cutie mark. 

The deck gun thundered with a terrifying, regular cadance. Every few seconds, a shot was fired. Scootaloo’s ears rang with the sounds of war. Her blood sang. This is what it meant to be a pegasus. To command the sky and rain death down upon thine enemies. She had a warship that obeyed her every command. This was beautiful… this was amazing… Scootaloo understood why earth ponies plowed, Wonderbolts flew, and unicorns did mind boggling spells of near infinite complexity. 

As the ship was repositioned, Belisama was pulling out the heavy ordnance from another lockbox and it glowed with a terrible golden glow. 



 

The first of the big bombs fell and the whole of the desert below trembled. The blast caused the ship to wobble in the air and when everything was said and done, when the smoke cleared, the desert floor had been turned to glass. 

More bombs fell and an arcing, electrical Tartarus manifested. A storm began brewing. Clouds roiled up from the exploding glass orbs. Ants died by the score. The big bombs were only supposed to be used in an emergency, in the face of overwhelming odds. Belisama had determined that the situation demanded it. They would cause extensive environmental damage, something that everyone wanted to avoid if it was possible. 

Now, it felt as though the whole desert was bracing itself. The clouds thickened and swirling vortexes formed. The first raindrops fell. As the storm began to intensify, the Raptors who had hidden themselves in the crevices of the canyon came streaking up to the ship. There was about to be an epic flood, as these particular spell jars had come from the Storm Mother herself, Lyra Heartstrings. 

The ship rocked as thunder crashed. The rain became a drenching torrent and giant hailstones smashed the ants caught in the open. Scootaloo struggled to get the ship up above the storm. The ants flying in the air weren’t strong enough to fly in gale force winds mixed with hailstones as large as cantaloupe melons. 

“Let’s go find us an anthill,” Ripple said in a commanding voice. “We’ll flood it and when the ants come floating out in those little rafts they form, we’ll blow them to pieces.” 

The rains came to the desert, leaving behind a swath of destruction. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 915
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Flying through the rain put the fires out. The Bittersweet Sparkle now soared high, leaving the storm behind them, and heading in the direction that the ants had come from. More ants were visible down below. Ripple was eager for victory. The plan was simple, dead simple. Flood the ant hill and blast the ants as they came out. As it turned out, the ants were far too big to make rafts with one another and drowned in deep enough water. 

What Ripple did not know was, with the ants increased size, they also had increased tracheae, the holes along their abdomen which they breathed through. These larger holes filled with water, causing the ants to drown, which is why giant insects were a rare mutation indeed. Tiny ants had tiny tracheae, and when small enough, it was difficult for enough water to enter to cause drowning, but drowning could happen. From a biological perspective, the bugs were doomed from the start. 

But Ripple cared nothing about any of this. She just wanted to exterminate the bugs. Now it was time to make it rain, drop high explosives, and savour a sweet, sweet victory. She wondered how Lugus, Yew, Callum, and Freyja were doing in the village. She wondered if any of the ants had made it there.

She ignored the throbbing ache where she had been impaled. It was already healing, even though it was still quite painful. She stood on the edge of the prow of her ship, feeling the breeze flowing over her feverish skin, enjoying this quiet moment of rest between battles. She wore no armor save for her war shoes, her armor having been damaged beyond the point of wearing. 

Near the deck gun, Archer and Boadicea were collapsed together and having a break. Archer’s skill as a gunner was going to be the stuff of legend, Ripple knew it. Her uncanny aim with the twenty millimetre deck gun had to be seen to be believed. She hit moving targets while shooting at them from a flying, moving ship. Such a feat demanded respect, and Ripple intended to make certain that her skill was recognised when they returned home. 

“Rest up, Raptors,” Ripple said, her words little more than a savage grunt. 



 

Collapsing down upon the wet deck, Scootaloo curled up into a ball and just lay there. Her entire body ached. Being a pilot was tough work. Her back ached, her legs ached, she had wrestled with the ship’s controls for hours. All that time spent in physical conditioning had paid off. She felt a nudge against her neck, a soft, but prickly touch. 

“You did good,” Gofannon said with a chirpy voice. “This ship is hard to control and somehow, you managed. Good work, Table Scraps.” 

Exhausted, Scootaloo beamed. A warmth blossomed through her barrel, restoring her fighting spirit, and she knew that if she had to, she could keep going. She just needed a little rest for a while. She heard hooves clopping over the deck and then felt a warm body flopping down beside her. 

Turning her head, she saw Rumble. She rolled over, flung out her forelegs, and put them around Rumble’s neck. She squeezed, pulling him close, and then kissed him on the cheek, not caring who saw. He deserved that kiss… and so did she. She had just done something awesome. Something so awesome that even Rainbow Dash would be impressed. Lifting her head, she looked him over, hoping to satisfy her curiousity. 

“Have you noticed?” Scootaloo asked. She saw Rumble nod. 

Rumble’s cutie mark was simple and easy to understand. It left no question about Rumble’s future or what he was good at. It was a shiny bucket of water being poured over a flame. As far as cutie marks went, it was serviceable, functional, and didn’t need any fancy interpretation. What you saw was what you got. There would be no navel gazing, trying to ponder its deeper meaning. 

“You’re going to be a hunky firefighter when you grow up,” Scootaloo said to Rumble as she lay sprawled out on the deck beside him. 

“You know it,” Rumble replied as he let his head drop down to the wooden planks. 

Exhilarated, glad to be alive, her blood still singing the song of battle and thundering through her ears, Scootaloo went limp against the deck and stared up at the gasbag up above her. She felt hot and itchy all over, sweaty, Scootaloo felt as though she had accomplished something. She lifted one foreleg, stretched it, flexing her different joints, and then allowed it to flop over her barrel. It felt heavy against her, but she made no effort to rest her limb someplace else. Thunder rumbled and cracked, causing Scootaloo to shiver-shudder. There was something primal in the sound that made her current state of being react in a way that she did not understand. 

“Hey Leftovers…” Scootaloo said in a weary, almost sleepy voice to Rumble. 

“Yeah, Table Scraps?” Rumble replied. 

“I have a fire you can put out.” Scootaloo felt supremely silly about her attempt to flirt and she began to giggle. She didn’t see how Rumble’s face reddened, or how his wings twitched. She reached up with her leg and wiped her sweaty, soaked mane out of her face. The breeze hit her just right and she caught a whiff of herself. She stunk. She didn’t care. She was thinking about Rumble’s firehose. 

“Look alive, I think we’re about to find trouble!” Ripple shouted. 



 

The Bittersweet Sparkle was blackened and scorched. The leaks had been repaired, but the gasbag still needed some attention. The engines were running a little rough, a little hot, and power was getting low. The deck needed scrubbing, it was covered in bug guts, legs, heads, antennae, and other debris from the battle. The rushing rain had washed away much of the ant pheromones. 

The crew were preparing themselves for the next battle, Raptors scrambled to take up positions along the edges of the deck. North Star and Kiara were reloading for another bombing run. Archer was already positioned at her beloved deck gun, which she caressed and rubbed with her cheek in a most disturbing affectionate manner. 

Beside Archer, Boadicea was checking over her pistol, making certain that everything was in perfect order. She was sitting on a half full crate of twenty millimetre shells, ready to resume her duty of keeping the deck gun loaded. 

The ship hit an updraft, tilted, water sluiced over the deck, washing away the many ant bits, and dribbled off of the back of the craft in rivulets. No one aboard paid any attention to the ship lurching and it was business as usual. 

“Ants down below,” Grunion reported as he pointed down with an extended talon finger. “I can also see that weird looking sand that you can find around anthills.” 

“Bones too,” Shaquah said as she looked down where Grunion was pointing. 

Ripple heard the sounds of wings. The worst of the storm was behind them, destroying the ants in a deluge. She scanned the sky, noting that more flying ants were near. There were cliffs in the distance, a painted plateau rose up from the desert floor, and there were signs of ants in the area. She looked down below, her sharp eyes trying to look for openings, for some sign of entrance into the ant colony. She saw nothing. 

“Something doesn’t seem right,” Rumble said as he stood ready. 

“Explain, Leftovers,” Ripple commanded in a hard voice. 

“In school, we learn that ants have multiple tunnel entrances and that ants keep a garbage pile, called a ‘midden.’ With ants this big, and this many, there should be a huge garbage pile and there should be some big openings. We haven’t found any.” Rumble trotted over to Ripple’s side and began peering over the edge. 

“So maybe we’re not in the right place.” Ripple began pacing and there was a noticeable limp in one of her rear legs. She had been impaled on her right side, right between her ribs and her hip bone, and now it was obvious to all who were watching that she was favouring her right side as she moved. 

“Look though,” Kiara said as she pointed with her talons. “Look around. What do you see in the distance? Nothing. No ants. The ants are all here, below us, and you can see a line heading off in the direction of the village and our last battle. The line stops here.” 

“But there is nothing here.” North Star turned his armored head and looked at the griffoness sitting on his back. “There is nothing down below. No tunnels, no openings, just swarming ants.” 

“So we have evidence of the ant hill…” Archer swiveled her deck gun around, looking through the magnification sights, her sharp eyes looking for some clue. She and the deck gun moved as though they were one entity. “Why don’t we just poke the anthill?” 

“Fledgling Kebab, cause a commotion!” Ripple barked. 

Ripple’s command still hung in the air as Archer opened fire. Far below, an ant was blown in half with one well placed shot. Archer acquired another target in an eyeblink and fired again. Then again, and again. 

Below, the ants began to swarm. The Raptors looked down, trying to see what was going on. Griffons and ponies alike stood near the edge of the deck, all of them trying to see what was going on down below. 

“I see ants coming out of the side of that plateau!” Kiara shouted in a screechy, excited voice. “They’re just appearing from out of nowhere! Watch and you’ll see what I’m talking about!” She pointed with her talons at the point where she had seen ants just appearing. 

Squinting, Ripple watched. Sure enough, ants appeared to be materialising out of solid rock and swarming out over the desert floor. She could see the place where ants were pouring out in a single file line. Something seemed off. 

“Changelings built hives in this place a long time ago before we chased them off,” North Star said as he too, watched the ants come pouring out. “The illusion magic that hides the entrances might still be functioning. I think we’re right over the ant hill we’re looking for. You can see the sand that has been displaced and the bones.”

“Are we going in?” Angus asked. 

“No,” Ripple replied, shaking her head. “We’re gonna flood them. They’re going to drown in a watery grave. This is a valley floor… look around. A long time ago, this used to be a lake and that plateau rising up used to be an island in the middle. We’re gonna make it a lake again.” 

“We are to minimise environmental damage,” Brigid said in a low voice. 

“Think of it as returning this place to its natural state for a while. We’re gonna bring the water back. How many more of those big storm bombs do we have?” Ripple stared down at the valley floor below, watching as the ants swarmed around their dead. 

Belisama held her head up high. “We have nine more.” 

“We pegasi are the ancient guardians of rain and storms. I think it is time to bring water back to the desert. It is time to make it rain again. Raptors!” Ripple’s voice was a raspy bark of pain when she shouted the word ‘Raptors!’ She made a sweeping gesture with her wing towards the valley floor down below. “Release the rains! Let the desert bloom with life even as these sons of bitches die!” 

“Gofannon, get this ship as high as you can! We need altitude!” Belisama commanded. The griffoness let out a peep as the ship lurched. “We need more cloudstuff… Raptors, fetch more clouds and fill the gasbag!” 

The griffons scrambled to their queen’s bidding and Ripple nodded in approval as she paced near the edge of the deck. Ripple was certain that she could gain forgiveness for any environmental damage caused once she explained the situation. Her side ached and her blood still burned, but she ignored it. 

Something in Ripple changed as she became the pony that she was meant to be. Even limping, her movements seemed a little more authoritative and commanding. She moved with a regal, confident bearing. She was going to pass this test, her Raptors were going to be recognised as an official regiment, and when she got home, she was going to stop being so damned shy and bed herself one sexy, sexy donkey and maybe a smoking hot purple-pink unicorn as well. At the same time. She nodded, grinning a lewd grin. That sounded like a damn fine plan, provided that all involved were agreeable. She was going to get her knighthood, she was going to be the most kick arse knight that she could be, and her father and Lugus were going to treat her as an equal, rather than a pupil. Life was going to be glorious. The griffons would sing her praises in the mead hall and her enemies would soon learn to fear her shadow. 

Sentinel wasn’t the only one who could charge into battle, Ripple was about to prove that, and she was about to come home in one piece. (Mostly) Ripple was about to make a name for herself… a reputation. She was going to be the most kick arse commander of commando catbirds that Equestria ever did see. 

The ship was buffeted by strong winds as it rose and Ripple waited. Soon, everything below her would be a lake and the ants would be purged. Then they would fly over the desert and mop up anything wandering around. Give Archer even more practice with the deck gun. Then, it would be time to go home as heroes. 

Ripple couldn’t wait. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 916
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Below, a storm raged. Ripple felt unsettled and uncertain as she watched. Above, the sun shone down, creating a field of glittering diamonds upon the black and grey clouds down below. Her side ached, but she ignored the dull, stabbing throb. This was only the beginning. Drowning the ants and saving the village was only the beginning. The first real step. From here on out, her responsibilities would be unending. One long fight that would only end with her death or old age. It was a sobering thought and it dulled the sweet taste of victory. 

Thunder rumbled as rain both brought and ended life in the desert below. 

Now that she had proven herself, even more would be expected from her. More would be demanded from her. No more slip ups, no more acting like a goof, no more mental slip ups; from here on out, she had to be the best pony that she was capable of so that she could best serve Equestria. And she would serve. She already had her princess picked out. 

When Ripple had stumbled and had her mental breakdown, it had been Princess Celestia that had picked her back up. That one act of gentleness had made a difference and was remembered. She was going to go home, bow her proud neck, and offer fealty to the Sun. 

An issue complicated by the fact that she wanted to undergo the shadowbolt transformation. Ripple realised it wasn’t an easy path, in fact, it was probably the path most difficult to take, which is why she wanted it. The Sun would cast a shadow, and Ripple wanted to be that shadow. The Solar Guard needed new leadership… it needed restructuring. Ripple had hopes and dreams that she could be a part of that in some form. 

She had done the difficult part. She would go home and be recognised as a knight. The hardest part was done. Now her real work could begin. She would get a promotion in rank no doubt. She planned to have Gofannon promoted as well. Ripple still had a ship because of Gofannon. Her fledglings were all safe and accounted for. Rumble had earned himself a valuable, worthwhile cutie mark. Scootaloo had gained experience as a pilot. Archer’s legend as a gunner was off to a roaring good start. Boadicea had proven herself capable in all out combat, keeping Archer safe so Archer could continue to operate the deck gun without pause. More than that, every Raptor in this battle was alive and accounted for. 

Ripple was positive that those left in the village were fine. When the storm subsided a bit, she planned to fly over there and check. She wasn’t worried in the slightest. Lugus not only had his axe, but he was armed with a lever action rifle. Callum was armed with Freyja. Yew Wood was an undisputed master of hoof-fu, though perhaps not quite as good as Ripple herself. 

The only real casualty so far had been some pieces of armor and maybe a little bit of Loki’s sanity. The mad little harrier had ignored the bites, the stings, and other assorted acts of violence visited upon him and had killed many. Loki was her constant companion in battle, but, because of his bloodlust and recklessness, he was not a good candidate for leadership or promotion. Loki was crazy when he went into battle. He was Ripple’s chosen berserker and she loved him. 



 

Thunder rumbled and a steady drizzle poured down upon them as they drifted over the new lake down below. There was the sharp report of a rifle and it echoed in the ears of all aboard. Some of the ants had survived the flooding—they were too big to swim and easy to drown, but some of the ants had used both larvae and pupae as makeshift life preservers. 

The tenacious survivors were easy to shoot. Ant corpses sometimes bobbed up to the surface, sometimes with still twitching legs. When a large mass of ants floating on makeshift life preservers had been spotted, a shock bomb had been dropped into their midst and Belisama had shot the glass orb with her rifle just before it hit the water. The resulting electrical surge was devastating and fatal. With a single shot, Belisama killed by the score. 

Ripple’s head jerked when she heard the sharp crack of another rifle shot. She turned and saw Boadicea holding Fleshrender’s rifle, and Belisama was holding Boadicea. Belisama looked proud. Ripple suspected that a tradition of sharpshooters among the griffon queens had been started. Boadicea’s crest stood high and Belisama’s talons were wrapped around Boadicea’s foreleg in an affectionate manner. With sharpshooting griffon queens, Ripple was certain that future generations of ponies would be kept safe by their fierce feline protectors. 

She had a good look around the deck. Rumble and Scootaloo were sitting together. Not side by side, but together, pressed against one another. Ripple was certain that there would be kissing later when nopony was looking. Both looked exhausted. Archer was polishing her deck gun, cleaning it from top to bottom, removing all of the soot, grime, and filth from battle. Somepony or somebirdy had taken some charcoal and scribbled the words ‘born to kill’ on Archer’s soup bowl helmet. North Star was still in his armor and Kiara, also in armor, was sitting on his back. Their armor was blackened and scorched. North Star in particular would need some armor repair. His armor was battered, but not breached. 

The hum of the engines droned in Ripple’s ears and for some reason, it made her feel sleepy. The ship needed new engines, new controls, the ship still needed a lot of work, upgrades that would happen over time. The sharp crack of a rifle made Ripple’s ears stand up. Even with the gunfire, this was relaxing. 



 

Ripple’s rest and relaxation came to an abrupt end when a long shadow passed overhead. She craned her head skyward, trying to see around the gasbag, and she could feel her heart pumping. She didn’t know what had just flown overhead, but it was big. Only a few things could get that big. 

Turning, she saw them. Two large dragons and over a dozen smaller dragons. They landed on the edge of the new lake and the little ones began drinking. Ripple’s head turned to one side to check out her wing. It hurt, but she could fly on it if she had to. Dragons were supposed to be friendly. 

Spreading her wings, she took flight, heading off to say hello to a family of dragons. 



 

Ripple approached, cautious, but optimistic. The dragons didn’t seem hostile and watched her as she drew near. She wasn’t sure how to be respectful to a dragon, so she kept her posture as neutral as possible and moved with slow, confident grace. She kept her wings tucked against her sides and made no sudden movements. In her side where she had been pierced, the ache made her feel a little woozy, but she ignored it. She had work to do. 

“Hullo,” the big female rumbled in a booming voice that filled the air with smoke. 

“Hi,” Ripple replied, “my name is Squire Ripple and I came over to say hello.” 

“My name is Silverscale and this is my husband, Bad Bite. I don’t remember this lake being here. I came here once long ago when I was but a hatchling. We’re looking for a nice place to settle down and rear our young.” The big female lowered her head down near Ripple. “Other dragons are jerks and we want our offspring to have good manners. I’m sick of my kind having a bad reputation.” 

“I, uh, am sorta responsible for making this lake.” Ripple shuffled on her hooves. “Long story. I had to battle with a bunch of fire breathing ants. I drowned them. Say…” Ripple looked up at the dragoness and smiled. “I bet the ants are delicious. If you happen to see any that have survived, feel free to eat them. There’s a village of ponies not too far from here. They could use a group of protectors. I know things are a little strained right now for dragons and ponies.” 

“This good place,” Bad Bite said in a gruff voice. “Much water. Many minerals. Good rock for eating. We stay. Raise young. Dig mine. Make more young… heh heh heh.” 

“Hush dear, don’t be brutish around company,” Silverscale said to her husband as she made a dismissive wave with her claws. She returned her gaze to Ripple. “I’m sure the ants will be delicious as a treat. Chitin is full of minerals we need. We’ll be happy to help out.” 

“As for the ponies in the village, they might be scared for a while, but give them a chance. I’m positive that they will see that you are friendly and they’ll warm up to you.” Ripple beamed up at the big dragon after she decided that she liked Silverscale. “The lake will dry up. I don’t know if this is the best place to stay in the long term.” 

“We dig deep. Bring up water from far below. Keep lake full.” Bad Bite lowered his head down to look at Ripple and drummed his claws upon the ground. 

“Say, you know, the ponies in the village face constant water shortages…” Ripple waited for her words to sink in and she had a hopeful expression upon her face as she looked up at the two massive dragons that had to be more than thirty feet long each. The female was even larger than the male. 

“Hmm.” Silverscale began to scratch her pointy chin with a curved claw. “We can share water, but it would be nice to have something in return.” 

“Hey, I think something could be worked out,” Ripple replied, feeling quite pleased with herself. Not only had she killed the ants, but now she was hammering out a protection treaty with water benefits and she wasn’t even knighted yet. 

“Ponies could work in mine, pull carts, do tiny work that dragons can’t.” Bad Bite lifted his head up and sat back on his immense haunches. “We give water and share of shinies. Make good example for offspring.” 

“Yes, that would be a fine example.” Ripple was pleased as punch. Being friendly had its advantages. All she had to do now was head back to the village and spring the news on them that they now had dragons as neighbors and they needed to send somepony from the village over for a talk. 

It would be easy peasy. Ripple was sure of it. The village had to have at least one brave, open minded pony that could be tasked with diplomacy duty. The little dragons were already frolicking in the water and catching the drizzling rain in their mouths. A few of them were watching Ripple, and she smiled at them. One smiled back and smoke rose from the corners of his mouth. He wasn’t much bigger than Spike, but he had wings. 

“Ripple?” Silverscale asked. 

“Yes?” Ripple looked up and did her best to look helpful. 

“Will we be safe here?” Silverscale asked as she looked at her offspring. 

“You should be safe,” Ripple replied. “Not much here that can threaten a dragon.” 

“No… no… no…” Silverscale shook her head. “We have come a long way. War is brewing on the far side of the world. War with the ponies. Tensions are rising. There are ponies who start fights with dragons and things have grown bad. We came over here to avoid war… but if war happens… will the princesses let us live here in peace?” 

“Yes.” Ripple said it without hesitation. 

“I’ve heard stories… troubling stories about a pony that is war incarnate. He commands ice and brings death everywhere he goes. He destroyed Griffonholm. He is why I came here… I don’t want any trouble with him… I just want to rear my young in peace.” Silverscale began to wring her claws together. “War is coming, I just know it. Things were getting ugly back at home. I fear that he would bring winter to the dragon lands just as he brought winter to Griffonholm.” 

“You don’t need to worry about him,” Ripple said in a reassuring voice. It felt funny to be discussing her father like this. To see the fear that he caused. To see it from another perspective, a different perspective. It was hard to deal with the idea that Bucky wasn’t always seen as the good guy. “He’s not a threat to you. Just be good to ponies, be good to your neighbors for that matter, ponies or not, and live in peace. Those who live in peace have nothing to fear from him.” 

“Are you certain of this?” Silverscale asked. “The world has grown small. There are so few places left to go. There are no wild places for us to flee to and we no longer wish to be in the dragon lands in the utter east.” 

“I give you my word as a squire that you have nothing to fear from him or the princesses, provided that you keep the peace. If you protect your neighbors, you in turn will be protected. That’s how we do things here. The biggest and the most powerful are expected to protect everything smaller and weaker than they are.” Ripple’s ears stood up and she tried to look as reassuring as she could. She saw Silverscale let out a puff of smoke and she hoped that it was a huff of relief. 

“The world has grown strange and uncertain… I just want to rear my young,” Silverscale said to Ripple. 

“It’s funny you say that,” Ripple replied, “because he wants the same thing. He complains endlessly about the fact that no one can seem to behave themselves so he can be left alone to get drunk, screw, and raise his foals.” Ripple saw Silverscale’s head jerk back. 

“You know him, don’t you?” Silverscale asked in a worried voice. 

Ripple nodded and a wide grin split her muzzle. “I’m his daughter! He’s my daddy and I love him to pieces!” 
	
> Chapter 917
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was very difficult not to giggle with glee as Lugus landed upon the deck. Ripple did her best to hold still and she kept her head high. Below, the sounds of the village could be heard celebrating as The Bittersweet Sparkle hung low in the sky. The planks creaked as Lugus’ bulk settled upon the deck. Behind him, Yew landed and folded in her wings. 

There were still a few ants left, but the all out assault and the rain had done them in, the deluge having messed with their chemical trails. What few ants had survived were now in a state of disarray. The village now had dedicated protectors, so everything was all wrapped up nice and neat. 

“Squire Ripple,” Lugus said as he eyed his pupil. “Am I to understand that you gave a good accounting of yourself?” 

The filly went rigid and her war shoes clicked together. Her throat felt too tight to speak, so she nodded and watched as Lugus stepped closer. She could see his sharp eagle eyes looking over the deck of the ship, at the other Raptors, at the Fledglings, and then his eyes lingered on Archer, who was hugging her deck gun, celebrating in her own way. 

“They’re going to punish you with knighthood for this,” Lugus said in low voice. 

For a moment, Ripple regretted that griffons could not smile, because she would have liked to have seen the smile that would be on Lugus’ face at this moment. She tried not to squeal like an overexcited filly, but it was becoming difficult to hold it in. 

“I look forward to serving with you as my fellow knight.” Lugus’ words were a little gritty and the big griffon appeared to be a bit emotional. The big griffon saluted, then pounced. With careful grace, he pulled Ripple into a hug, careful of her injuries. He sat on his haunches and pulled Ripple in with one foreleg, bracing himself up with the other. 

It was then, without warning, and feeling quite embarrassed for doing so, Ripple’s emotions boiled over and she found herself bawling as Lugus held her. She was still in pain, her side hurt, and she was riding an emotional high of a job well done. Nobirdy or nopony laughed. 

“It was a little harder than I thought it’d be,” Ripple said, mumbling her words into Lugus’ feathered neck. “Things went a little sideways, but we adapted. Things didn’t go as planned.” 

“Things never go as planned,” Lugus replied in a low, paternal rumble. “Everybirdy lived. Nobirdy paid for the sudden change in plans. This time, everything worked out.” 

“That scares me a little.” Ripple sniffled as she clung to Lugus. “What if things don’t work out? What then? When things really go sideways? How do I live with myself if I get somepony I love hurt or killed?” She felt Lugus’ reassuring weight settle against her. 

“I don’t know if I can prepare you for that.” Lugus’ words were gentle, soft, and came from deep within his throat. “This time, things worked out. That in and of itself is a lesson. Accept that everything went well and celebrate it, but do not grow complacent that things will always go well.” 

“Yes, Lugus, I will.” Ripple drew in a shivery-shuddery breath and was glad for this moment with her mentor. “I wanna go home. It’s time to go home, Lugus.” 

“Yes it is,” Lugus replied. “Soon.” 



 
Meanwhile, in another part of Equestria…


 

“How do you think Sentinel is handling it?” Twilight Sparkle asked in a low voice as she turned her head to look at Bucky. 

Slumped over in the grass, Bucky looked at Twilight, then off towards his son, Sentinel, who was sitting some distance away with Gossamer. He watched for a while, his eyes squinting. There was quite a group over there; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and others as well. Apple Bloom’s clique had grown a bit. Bucky couldn’t keep up with them all. No doubt, deals were being hammered out that would benefit both Equestria and Gossamer’s griffons. 

“I think Sentinel is handling this better than I ever could,” Bucky said, making a somewhat late reply. He lifted his talons and pointed in the general direction of the group. “Apple Bloom and Sentinel both have her interest. Look at her. Sure, she was a little hesitant to deal with Sentinel and ‘Bloom because they were a bit young, but look at her now.” 

Twilight, watched for a moment, then nodded, but said nothing. 

“You have a lot of work ahead of you, Twilight. Tell me, how is the Princess of Friendship going to deal with all of the work she has ahead of her?” Bucky turned away from the distant group and focused upon Twilight. 

“With friends, of course,” Twilight replied. “I’m a little nervous, Bucky… so much now depends on me. The conditions are right for all kinds of new political alliances. There’s never been this much peace in the world. It seems like such a fragile peace.” 

“We have a common enemy,” Bucky said to Twilight. “We struck the mirror travelers quite a blow, but they’re not gone. Dragons are in a highly irritated state on the other side of world. The civilised world feels like it is shrinking, but I can’t tell.” 

“Princess Celestia says that the city-state of Stalliongrad might be evacuated and abandoned, with the hopes that it will de-escalate the situation over there.” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t agree. I don’t think it will help. I mean, I know this isn’t my area, but I think abandoning the city will embolden the dragons.” 

“I’m inclined to agree,” Bucky replied. “The mirror travelers have disrupted the fragile peace we had with the dragons on the other side of the world. It was a smart move, but it will work against them.” 

“How so?” Twilight asked, turning to look at Bucky. 

“Well, the entire world is starting to unite against a common enemy, the mirror travelers. But… the mirror travelers are an invisible enemy, a shadow. Some creatures are having trouble understanding just what sort of threat they pose.” Bucky cleared his throat, scratched his neck, then continued, “Now, dragons on the other hoof, that is a plain and easy to understand threat. The entire world right now can see that the dragons pose a very real and immediate threat. So we have a shadowy enemy that brings us together, but a more immediate threat to help solidify the bonds of trust.” 

“Hmm.” Twilight’s brows beetled. 

“The dragons will unite those who do not believe in the mirror travelers as a threat.” Bucky’s eyes shifted and he looked over at Sentinel. “If we have to evacuate Stalliongrad, I do believe that with our current geopolitical situation, I think that a worldwide alliance will be a very easy sell. We offer protection, aid, and unity. But this can’t be lip service.” 

“Friends must keep their promises.” Twilight nodded. 

“And for us to keep our promise, we’ll need more airships. More warships. I’ll need control of a vast manufacturing empire. I have plans, Twilight, viable plans, but I need free reign to make them work. I need authority and resources.” 

“And just what are you planning?” Twilight asked. 

“A new generation of golems. Big ones. Automated warships… which will be tested on the dragons of course, the ones that threaten our friends. New types of flying ships. Mechanisation. Twilight, the new autogyros are going to be amazing, but I have an idea for a flying airport to launch them—” 

“An airship that launches other airships?” Twilight blinked in astonishment. 

“A floating, flying airfield that will be used to launch a swarm of autogyros. I have ideas for new types of powered armor that will not be so easily dispelled. Twilight, it is time for mechanisation.” Bucky’s ears laid back against his skull in a lazy, almost lupine manner. 

“Get your ideas together, I’ll make sure that they happen,” Twilight said in a low voice. 



 

Holding the small, fuzzy lump that was Berry Pinch, Berry Punch gave the foal a maternal nuzzle. Everything in her body suggested that Berry Pinch was hers. Hormones were a funny thing—a mysterious, wonderful, and funny thing. She inhaled the scent of the tiny filly in her embrace, smelling milk and new foal smell. 

“It’ll be time to go soon,” Sour Mash said to Berry. “I’m gonna miss you.” 

“We need to visit more,” Berry Punch replied. 

The two mares went silent and both nodded at almost the same time. Sour Mash, sitting on the floor, hefted Brandywine, straining to lift her, and gave her a hug. Brandywine, glad for any sort of affection, melted and became dead weight. 

“I’m a little worried about how Keg Smasher will react—” 

“About the changelings?” Berry Punch looked up from Berry Pinch and focused upon Sour Mash. She could see the worry creases on the mare’s face. She could see the little ear twitches. “Sour, you need to trust in Bucky’s relationship with Keg. Now, Keg might grumble, and he might get a little blustery, but he’s going to trust Bucky… those two are like brothers.” 

“Brothers fight.” Sour Mash eased Brandywine down to the floor and the foal made a dissatisfied huff as Sour Mash picked up little Barley. “Never mind Keg Smasher, I’m scared.” 

“Ponies always get scared when we’re faced with something different. That’s what we do. The best of us rise above our base instincts and embrace the new. The worst of us embrace xenophobia.” Berry Punch gave Sour Mash a meaningful look. “Crisis is one of my foals. Now, she might be a little weird, but I love her, and I don’t care what she is. Just give them a chance, Sour…” 

Now holding little Barley, Sour nodded. “We could use the healers. I just worry that when ponies find out, they won’t want the healing. All of this scares me, Berry. It goes beyond my understanding. You, you’re smart. You have that education of yours and it helps you think. The educated part of your brain can reign in the dumb pony part of your brain. I’m not so lucky. All I can hear is the pony part of my mind screaming at me that this is dangerous.” 

Understanding all too well, Berry’s ears drooped. Ignorance was a tough enemy to conquer. For a moment, Berry begin to doubt and she wondered if Bucky fully understood what he was subjecting the ponies of the isles to. How much this might disturb them. Bucky was far too much a pragmatist. He saw the end result and how things should be, but he didn’t always take the little details into account. He tended to just destroy and then rebuild when things got tough. 

“We have plenty of ponies that are still having trouble with the griffons that live with us. And when the zebras arrived? Oh good gracious… they was more scared of the zebras than they was of the griffons. I think it’s ‘cause the zebras look like us, but they ain’t like us.” 

“Minotaur shite,” Berry Punch grumbled, “what a load of minotaur shite.” 

“I don’t follow.” Sour Mash waited for Berry to explain. 

“Just that whole line of thinking… it just… bugs me. Sukari is every bit like us. So what if she has stripes? She has all of the same feelings that we do. She gets scared and wants hugs. She wants to be loved. She has four little hooves and bright curious eyes and a twitchy little nose and adorable little ears that perk up when you say her name. Okay, so her tail is a little different than ours, and her mane is a little bristly.” Berry Punch gave Berry Pinch a squeeze. “But those are just some minor physical differences. She’s like us in every way that matters and the physical differences shouldn’t matter.” 

“I’ll confess, Sukari weirds me out just a little bit,” Sour Mash admitted. 

“Why?” Berry Punch asked. 

“I don’t know,” Sour Mash replied, “she just does. I can’t explain it. And changelings make my skin crawl. I don’t want it to be this way, it just is. I don’t like it, but I can’t seem to change it. I feel bad about it! I know it’s wrong to feel the way I do, but I can’t seem to shake it!” 

Surprised and a bit startled by the confession, Berry Punch studied her cousin, not sure how to reply or how to feel. At least Sour was honest, and Berry appreciated that. Berry sighed and thought about the nature of ponies. Like attracted like. There was a reason that tribalism lingered. There were still plenty of ponies that didn’t like other different ponies. A pair of wings, a horn, these were different. Scary. Something to be avoided. The earth pony way had deep roots in xenophobia and tribalism, but nopony wanted to admit it. No, the earth pony way was culture, it was passed off as something desirable. Something wholesome. It was a virtue. You walked everywhere. You shunned magic. You kept your head low and you did your hard work like everypony else and you didn’t look up at those lazy, shiftless pegasi flying overhead, because that was wrong. The earth pony way only acknowledged one tribe of ponies as having the right way, and if something wasn’t part of the right way, it was easy to conclude that it was the wrong way through implication alone. The other tribes lived the wrong way. 

The earth pony way could only be followed if pegasi kept their hooves on the ground and unicorns never did so much as a single spell, completely robbing them of their own tribal identities. And Ponyville followed the earth pony way. They were proud of that claim. Winter Wrap Up was all about the earth pony way. Thinking about it, Berry Punch felt disgusted. 

“Sour, sometimes change has to come about through drastic circumstances…” 
	
	
> Chapter 918
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“You’re slacking off, Rising Star. Out here staring up at the clouds. There’s work to be done.” Scorch, in pony form, sat down beside Rising Star and made himself comfortable. “She’s fine, you know. She was injured, but she shrugged it off. She defeated the ants, brokered a mutual protection pact with some dragons, and right now, she is slowly drifting home with one engine out, because it busted. She’s having the time of her life though.” 

Ears perking, Rising Star turned and looked at Scorch. He blinked a few times, then turned his head and resumed his vigil, watching the southern skies. After a moment passed, his ears drooped a bit, relaxing and going into a neutral position, and he began to paw the grass with one cloven front hoof. 

“She means a lot to me,” Rising Star said in a low voice. “I was just talking to my dad about it last night. About what it means to love somepony in that all consuming, special way. It’s difficult for me… I still have a hard time showing her that I love her.” 

“You’re a colt still, really. It’s normal to want to try and screw anything that walks. Give it time, you’ll mellow out a bit and things will get a lot easier for the both of you. It’s normal to desire her though, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed or guilty about it.” 

“How did you know?” Rising Star asked. “About the guilt I mean… sometimes, sometimes I just go to hug her or play with her and things happen and she freaks out and I just get so angry with myself… and so guilty.” 

Scorch shrugged. “I’m older than dirt. I’m bound to know.” Scorch, in the form of an earth pony, reached over and prodded Rising Star. “See, the thing is, she loves you. You play with her, and you wrestle, and you have a natural response to being so close to somepony that you find so pretty. It’s important to keep one thing in mind though.” 

“And that is?” Rising Star asked. 

Smiling, Scorch replied, “She keeps coming back to play with you, knowing full well of the consequences of doing so. She trusts you. Let’s be brutally honest here… if you wanted to have your way with her, you could, and she would probably let you. It’d be awkward, feel good and gross at the same time, and there would be some crying afterwards. I’m sure she’d have her reasons for letting you have a go at her. Obligation, her own guilt, the need to please her husband, there are plenty of reasons that could be come up with.” 

Rising Star’s ears sagged down a little further and he stared down at the grass. Clover blossoms and dandelions were everywhere. He looked down at his own cloven hooves and twitched his long, corded tail. His brain felt full. He stared back up at the sky and didn’t look at Scorch. “I have dreams about her. Really vivid dreams. I worry sometimes that the only way I can seem to show love or affection is through shagging.” 

“Still having some trouble on the homefront with making your wives happy off of the old mattress?” Scorch asked as he leaned in closer to Rising Star. 

“I’m trying really hard and things are getting better… we talk now and spend time together, but it’s so damn hard.” A scowl caused Rising Star’s face to wrinkle and his brows crinkled. “Being the way I am doesn’t help, and all the stuff that goes on up in my head because of everything that’s happened. I don’t know how to deal with being me sometimes.” 

“I could fix that,” Scorch said in a low voice, “just a little touch on the nose with my finger. You could be a normal pony again. Of course, we’d have to discuss price. You know how it is.” 

“I don’t want to be a normal pony again.” Rising Star’s voice sounded defeated. “Everything I am, everything I do, it is because of what I am. Like it or not, I am what I am. I just get overwhelmed by it.” 

“And so right now, you’re thinking about Ripple, and welcoming her home, and trying to find some way to express how much you love her, miss her, and are glad to have her back, and somehow doing so without popping a raging boner?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You got it rough, kid. Real rough.” 

“Thanks Scorch, thanks a lot.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

“I was being sarcastic.” 

“I know.” 

“We fey, we’re jerks.” 

“Hey, kid, you keep that up and you’ll be slapped. Right in the kisser. I mean it.” 

Turning his head, Rising Star looked over at Scorch and grinned, revealing sharp, pointy teeth. “I have no plans to go back to work today. I just… don’t… want to.” Rising Star thought about how his work kept his mind occupied and kept him from thinking about certain things that he liked to avoid. Today, his thoughts were consumed by Ripple. He wasn’t thinking much about himself, or the Shetlands, or the wolves, or all of the dreadful thoughts in the back of his mind. 

“We could go on an adventure,” Scorch said to Rising Star. “I know where a dusty old forgotten tomb is located. There’s a pyro-lich hiding down in there and she has a great spellbook filled with a bunch of powerful pyromancy spells.” 

“What?” Rising Star blinked a few times as he tried to take this information in. “What? How do you know about this? A lich? She’s just hiding out? How come you know about this?” 

Scorch shrugged. “You could say that she was an old flame of mine. I might have sorta kinda sealed her into her tomb. But for the longest time, I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. She was a fantastic lay, I mean a real hottie in bed. It hit that every chance I got and damn, it was good. I just wanted to shag, but she wanted power and immortality and the chance to become a goddess. She was as dumb as a doorknob but she could do amazing things with her tongue.” Scorch paused and with a poof, he became a flaming goat. 

“So you want me to go on an adventure with you and kill your former lover?” Rising Star blinked in astonishment. “What in Tartarus is wrong with you? Why am I friends with you again? Why am I your student?” 

“Because, I am one of the few beings that understand you and I am your teacher. Right now, you are getting a lesson in how not to live. Pay attention, you big dick thinking dummy.” Scorch let out a baa-aa-ing sound, lowered his head, and began eating the grass. 

“I don’t understand.” Rising Star shook his head and watched his mentor nibble some clover. “Sometimes, I just don’t get you. You are beyond my understanding.” 

Scorch’s only reply was a bleating sound. Confused, not understanding the lesson that had just taken place, Rising Star resumed his vigil and kept an eye on the southern skies, hoping to see the return of somepony he loved. 



 

Things had not gone as planned. The plan had not survived contact with the enemy. The adorable, adorable, fuzzy wuzzy, cutesie wootsie enemy. Derpy, sitting in the middle of the nursery, tried to figure out just what went wrong. She looked at Cadance and her eyes narrowed. Cadance was responsible for this somehow, Derpy just knew it. Her maternal intuition and her gut feeling for finding the source of trouble made it very clear that somehow, Cadance was at fault. 

Too many foals. Just too many foals. Too many little ones. And worst of all, Derpy found that she wouldn’t mind having a few more. Oh, maybe not right away, but these foals would grow up and be independent and wouldn’t need her anymore and then Derpy knew that she would be sad. The only way to avoid sadness was to have more foals to fill the void—at least, that was the idea that worked in theory. In practice, it was recipe for disaster. 

“Berry Pinch is changed,” Lyra said as she set the foal down on the blanket. Poor Lyra looked tired. Her eyes were bloodshot and her ears drooped. As Lyra stood looking over the mob of foals, little Barley let out a very wet sounding and wooshy fart, which left a bulge in his diaper. “Little Barley, I just changed you! Why!” 

Unconcerned with Lyra’s pain, wee little Barley blew a magnificent snot bubble out of his left nostril and giggled as his tummy gurgled. 

“He was changed about an hour ago,” Derpy said in a weary, worn down voice. “Dizzy was changed just after him. I bet Dizzy will need to be changed any minute now.” The grey mare looked upon her brood and despaired. “Lyra, this is one of those days.” 

“It is.” Lyra nodded and then sat down. “Harper is having tummy troubles, the little ones all seem to have the squirts, is something going around?” 

“Maybe.” Derpy shrugged. “But probably not. It’s just one of those days.” 

“MAAAAAAAAAAAAMA!” 

The cry made Lyra’s ears stand up and she turned her head around as she stood back up. Harper now had the opposite problem of constipation. There were still adjustments being made to her medication. Lyra let out a tired, worn down, somewhat frustrated sigh. 

“MAAAAAAAAAMA! Harpy didn’t make it!” 

A wordless grumble escaped from Lyra’s lips. She reached up and began to rub her temple as she tried to gather whatever patience she had left. As she stood trying to collect herself, Dizzy grunted and let rip. A foul brownish green mess oozed from Dizzy’s diaper and a wretched miasma filled the air. 

“Oh, this is bad,” Derpy said as she fanned her face with her wing. Derpy’s ears stood up as she heard hooves coming down the hallway and her muzzle contorted from the stench. This day just kept getting worse and worse. 

“Ach, crivens! That’s rank!” Barley shouted from the front room. “I cannae breathe! I’m dyin’, I’m dyin’, tell Luna that I live nae more and she must go on without me!” 

Eyes narrowing, Lyra stood there, not amused, and now having an understanding of what Bon Bon felt in her non-amused states. There was another flatulent squish, this time from Brandywine. It was a warning shot, a (mostly) dry fire, but the conditions were right for disaster. Lyra looked at Derpy and the two mares shared a moment of perfect understanding. 

“Oh wow, that’s bad!” 

Derpy turned and looked at Sparkler, who stood in the door. Sparkler, who was twitching all over, looked disgusted and her nose was crinkled. Derpy sighed and said nothing. She didn’t feel very maternal right now. While she loved Sparkler, she just couldn’t work up very much enthusiasm. 

With a low roar, Sparkler stone shifted, becoming a living statue. The floorboards creaked beneath her hooves and Sparkler gagged. “Ugh, I can still smell it! How does a statue smell?” 

A very tired grey pegasus watched as Sparkler took over and began to make things right. A very worn out Lyra stood watching as well, and the two mares exchanged a knowing glance with one another as Sparkler went to work. 

Somepony was going to make a good mom. 

“Ugh, what good is being an invulnerable stone behemoth if I can still smell?” Sparkler whined in a rough, gravel filled voice. “You little monsters are gross! Gross!” 

Cadance, who up to this point, had said nothing, made her opinion known. “Stinky.” 

“Ach, Harper is a wee Squirtie Gertie!” Barley’s thick lilt filled the house and Lyra continued in her unamused state. “Harpy needs a cork!” 

“There’s just so many of them!” Sparkler cried as she peeled off little Barley’s diaper. “You know, I’m looking forward to Loch Skimmer being a mom.” She slung the soiled diaper into the diaper pail and it landed with a wet, squishy splat. “You know what the best part of moms are?” 

“Do tell,” Lyra said, still not amused. 

Turning her head, Sparkler waggled her eyebrows at Lyra. “Moms put out. The proof can be found running all over the floor. I think I understand how Daddy thinks. Something about moms is drop dead sexy.” 

Blinking, Lyra groaned. “Sparkler, once you’re done—” 

“Yeah, Lyra?” 

“Get out. But only once you’re finished. Just go.” Lyra shook her head. “I need a nap.” 

Sparkler giggled and lifted up both Dizzy and Barley. “I’m gonna take these little handsome fellas into the bathroom and give them a scrubbing. They’re poopy. Any advice? It’s everywhere.” 

“Make sure you clean the scrubbing brush when you’re done, and disinfect it,” Derpy replied. “Also, the hose thingy, angle it down into the basin. Never spray it sideways or at an upwards angle. Just flip the foals over and keep the spray angled downwards at all times.” 

Just as Sparkler vanished into the bathroom with Dizzy and little Barley, Brandywine exploded. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 919
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The house was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. The house was perhaps far too quiet, and this, Barley reasoned, might be the reason why he felt unsettled. It had been a long, trying day, but like all trying days, it had come to an end. The long, troubling, difficult day had subsided into a quiet, maybe even boring, night. 

A low fire burned in the grate, burning more for light and mood than for heat. The spring night was balmy and the front window was open to allow a little breeze in. (But also to let some of the stink out.) Beside Barley, a hot toddy steamed, filling the air with the thick, nose tickling scent of cloves and cinnamon. 

Bucky was gone, having departed to rescue Ripple, whose ship was now engineless and without a means of motion. The little ones were all tucked into bed and slept the sound sleep of the innocent, with no sign of the dire tummy troubles which had plagued the house earlier. The somewhat larger little ones were also all in bed, save Sentinel, who was busy with a project and finishing it up at the dining room table. This project wasn’t for school, but was for Griffonwood and its future, a future that shone ever brighter with his budding friendship that he had with Gossamer. 

Barley felt blessed. The house was full of life, he had more treasured nieces and nephews than he knew what to do with. During his long and interesting life, he had figured out what was important, what was valuable, and now, in his old age, he had his treasures. He was like a crass, foul mouthed dragon and his hoard. Touch not his treasures, lest you be burned. 

His eyelids grew heavy as he sipped his toddy, and without knowing it, after he had set his drink down, Barley dozed off. 



 

With a snort, he awoke and he felt something on his ear. As he came to wakefulness he felt it again, wind on his ear. He opened his eyes, grumbling, tickled awake, and he felt something blowing on his ear once more. Turning his head, he saw blue in the corner of his vision. 

There was a soft, demure giggle as somepony blew on Barley’s ear yet again. Barley lifted his hot toddy, which was no longer quite as hot, an indicator that he had slept in his chair beside the fire for longer than he had thought. He took a drink as Luna kissed him on the cheek and after he had wet his whistle, he kissed Luna back. 

She smacked her lips, licked them, and gave Barley a return kiss. As she pulled away she said, “Mmm, whiskey and honey.” 

“Aye, I’m made of sweetness and fire and don’t you forget it.” Barley focused his squinty gaze upon Luna. “What brings ye here, young lass? Where is wee Erebus?” 

“He is at home, with my sister and Tourmaline,” Luna replied as one ear twitched. She drew in a deep breath, her sides expanding, and took a step back from Barley. “I came here to be with you. I wanted to talk.” 

“Aye, you wish to talk, eh?” Barley asked and then finished off the remains of his not so hot toddy. “And what shall we talk about, my pretty lass with the fine blue arse?” 

Cheeks darkening, Luna began to titter. She sat down upon a sofa covered in stuffed toys, wooden blocks, and a My Little Pretty Princess Celestia doll with a ratty, clumped together and tangled mane. This is what passed for ‘ideal romantic conditions’ in this house now, and possibly forever. 

Luna squirmed and pulled Celestia’s pointy horn from her backside. As she did so, Luna reflected upon the fact that Celestia was a pain in the plot, no matter which form she happened to be in. She set the doll down upon the table where Barley’s toddy had been sitting and swept the blocks over to the other side of the sofa with her magic. 

“Well then, go on, talk, and I’ll listen,” Barley said to Luna as she cleared a few stuffed animals out of the way and arranged them into a neat, orderly pile. 

“Marriage,” said Luna, getting right to the issue with one word. 

“Aye, it has been discussed.” Barley settled into his chair and couldn’t help but notice how happy Luna looked. She was downright perky. Her eyes twinkled and her pelt was shiny. No doubt, she had probably brushed herself just before coming here to see him. As tired as he was, he figured he had better work up some enthusiasm, Luna deserved that from him. 

“Ripple returns home triumphant, just as I knew she would, and no doubt, she will return and swear fealty to me. I thought that perhaps, when we have Ripple’s knighting ceremony, you and I could be hitched together in matrimonial bonds.” 

Barley raised an eyebrow. “Now, Luna, I ain’t saying no, but I do wonder… why me? Why do this? Out of everypony that you could fall in love with, why me?” 

“Why not you?” Luna returned, her own eyebrow rising. 

“Lass, I get that you love me, but I’m old.” Barley let out a sigh and wondered if perhaps he should stay silent on this issue rather than risk hurting Luna. He loved her, he loved her more than words could say, which was why he had doubts about this being the right thing to do. “Sometimes, I dinnae understand why we do this. My time is short—” 

“And every day grows a little shorter. Which is why we need to act now.” Luna’s bright eyes twinkled with confidence and happiness, paired in equal measure, she was a mare that could not be told ‘no.’ Her confidence made her beautiful, her happiness made her irresistible. 

Barley felt his resolve weakening. He had long ago said yes, he had agreed, but the idea had always left him feeling a little unsettled. Now, that feeling was fleeing from him. He would give Luna what she craved. Whatever he had left was hers. His twilight years would be hers to treasure. 

“Whene’er yer ready,” Barley said as he felt the warmth imparted by his hot toddy flowing through his veins. Or maybe it wasn’t the whiskey. Something about the look on Luna’s face warmed him, left a fire down deep in his bones. “Aye, pretty lass, it is time I took you upstairs to me bed so that I might randle-dandle you gently and sweetly.” 

Luna’s eyes widened. “How could any mare resist such a romantic invitation?” 

“Ach, many ‘ave, many ‘ave.” Barley rose from out of his chair, gave himself a shake, and twitched his tail. “Aye, when I get done with ye, me muzzle’ll look like a glazed donut.” 

“Again, such sweet promises to mine ears.” Luna waggled her eyebrows, rose from the sofa, and stood beside Barley. “Do you wish to know the majesty of the night?” 

“Aye, I hunger for yon secret places and dark mysteries and I plan to part those curtains and greet the darkness beyond.” Barley gave Luna a sly grin. “After you, ye old bat.” He waited, but when Luna did not budge, he did. He snorted, chuckled, and flicked Luna with his tail as he started moving. 

“You rotten little colt… how dare you speak to your elder in such a fashion…” Luna began tittering as Barley took off, his knees popping and creaking. “I have half a mind to turn you young so that I might educate you on how to properly address your Mistress.” 

“Aye, and while that might be fun, old me with just the right amount of whiskey dick can go all night. Choose wisely.” And with that, Barley rounded the corner and headed for the stairs. 



 

Unable to sleep, unsettled, Sentinel lay in the dark staring up at the ceiling. He was having trouble being alone. After Sombra and the Hag, Sentinel found that he was having trouble sleeping. He thought of his father and how he hated to sleep alone. When his father went to sleep, he would grab a bedtime companion—one of Sentinel’s mothers or one of the little ones, and then he would head off to bed. 

Boadicea was gone, off proving herself, and Sentinel found that he missed her something awful. A part of him wished that she was here, now, beside him, just so that he might go to sleep. He rolled over onto his side and tried to get comfortable. His bed, a soft, miraculous thing of the modern age, no longer felt comfortable. It felt cold… empty. 

As Sentinel lay there, he thought about Sombra and the darkness in which Sombra’s fell shadow had taken refuge. He thought about Platinum, and the light she had brought, both physical and metaphorical. She had been a source of love and comfort for Sombra, right up to the end. Frustrated, Sentinel rolled over again and felt a strange pain in his face as he thought about the battle with the Hag. It wasn’t just pain, it was reliving the pain that he had felt, a memory that played out over and over again on a loop. 

Trauma. It was something that Bucky was intimate with and knew on a first name basis, and Sentinel was just getting properly introduced to. Trauma, the visitor that never went away, the guest that would overstay its welcome, the jealous mistress that would be the unspoken nighttime companion that butted into every other relationship. 

Trauma was a cruel, unrelenting mistress and she made her presence known by digging her claws into Sentinel’s face. She was a foul succubus that tried to suffocate him in his sleep. When Sentinel was alone, she came out of the dark and was his unwanted companion. 

After tossing and turning for hours, Sentinel was sore, cranky, and wide awake. He lay in the darkness, sweating, his ears twitching as he was certain that he could hear sounds in the darkness, the gritty laughter of Sombra, the cackle of the Hag. There would be no rest this night. 

His mane clung to his neck and his face and pelt were damp. His bedsheets had grown moist and his skin felt clammy. As Sentinel lay in a tangle of sheets and blankets, he made a decision. Enough was enough. He slipped out of his bed, landed upon the floor in near silence, made his way to his window, slipped into shadow, and streamed like smoke out into the dark, sacred night. 



 

In the moonlight, Sweet Apple Acres was an inviting place. Fruit bats circled and screeched beneath the stars. Sentinel joined them for a time, flying loops and moving with the swarm, he flew until the stiffness left his body. 

What he wanted was here. His nose found her scent with ease. She was his favourite prey and he was getting comfortable enough to admit that she was prey. He liked hunting her. He liked stalking her. There was no shame in his actions—she was, after all, a willing participant, consensual prey, and she wanted to be hunted. 

In total silence, Sentinel landed on the roof and stood sniffing. He braced himself so he wouldn’t fall and filled his nose with all of the scents to be had on the breeze. The scent of mare musk filled the night; somepony had gone to bed happy and well loved. He caught a whiff of Apple Bloom and Babs, but they weren’t what he was after. He spread his wings and took to the air once more, suspended in a silent hover. 

He found himself before a window and his prey was inside. He could smell her. Her scent was sweet, inviting, and something about it made his mouth water. He thought about burying his nose into her neck, into the creases were her legs connected to her body, he thought about running his muzzle along the tender, velveteen flesh of her stomach and feeling the pulse and throb of the vital organs just beneath the skin. He thought about how she would shiver, how she would shake, she would tell him no with her words but hold his head to her stomach with her hooves. 

Peering through the window, he could see her. She was now staying with the Apples for a time, here to learn the value of hard work and honest living. She looked so sweet with her head on the pillow. She was a helpless creature of the day, oblivious to the dangers lurking in the night, the dangerous beast of shadow drooling just outside of her window. 

Not that windows mattered to Sentinel anyway. He dove into shadow and slipped inside. He floated through the darkness, formless, shapeless, and when he was beside Diamond Tiara’s bed, he materialised, becoming solid. 

He stood there for a moment, blinking, fearful, but also determined. He couldn’t stand being alone any longer. He needed sleep and the night made it difficult enough. He slipped into shadow again and drifted beneath Diamond Tiara’s heavy quilt. The fresh sheets smelled like soap and springtime. Beside the one he loved, he materialised again, beneath her quilt, and he cuddled up beside her. 

So slick and stealthy were his movements that she remained oblivious to his actions. She was still sound asleep, her barrel rising and falling, and with a low moan, she cuddled closer to Sentinel in her slumbering state. He pressed his nose into her mane, inhaled, wrapped his foreleg over her barrel, pulled her as close as he could, and then, in seconds, Sentinel drifted off to sleep, no longer troubled. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 920
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In his short life, Sentinel had been in quite a number of life threatening and dangerous situations. None of those situations felt as dangerous as the one he was in right now though. Applejack looked a teensy bit irritated and Big Mac towered behind her in the doorway. He eyed the window and pondered his ability to escape. 

“Don’t run,” Applejack warned, “I know where you live.” 

“Eeyup.” 

Blinking a few times, Applejack stepped forwards as Diamond Tiara moved to stand in front of Sentinel. The orange mare looked down at the pink filly as she continued towards her and Sentinel. She stopped, pawed the floorboards with her hoof, and then stood there, staring with her wide, green eyes. 

“The way I reckon, I owe you a chance to explain yourself,” Applejack began in a low voice as Big Mac continued to block the door. “You’re starting to become the troublemaking type, Sentinel, and that worries me. I wanna believe that you have good reasons. So talk to me and restore my faith in you, colt.”

“He didn’t do anything to me,” Diamond Tiara said, “other than cuddle with—”

“Shush,” Applejack commanded, and the pink filly shushed, knowing what was best.

“Appahjack?” A very sleepy Apple Bloom shoved her way past Big Mac. She froze when she saw Sentinel standing behind Diamond Tiara. She stood, blinking, and looking a little fearful. 

A moment later, Babs was beside her, yawning and wide eyed. The little orange filly reached up, rubbed her head with her foreleg, and then ignoring the looks of disapproval she was getting, walked over to Diamond Tiara and Sentinel. She kissed Diamond Tiara on the cheek and then with a soft, affectionate touch, gave Sentinel a careful head bump, rubbing ears together with him. 

“Babs… clear out,” Applejack said. 

“No,” Babs replied, “Apple hospitality.” 

“Babs—” 

“Don’t ‘Babs’ me!” The little dark orange filly turned around to face the larger bright orange mare. “This is just you being stubborn about us growing up. Nothing happened, that much is obvious, and you’re blowing this out of proportion. Save your anger for when it’s needed.” 

“Babs, I’ll deal with you later,” Applejack said, somehow remaining patient. She turned her head to Sentinel and focused upon him. “You still have your chance to explain. Just help me to understand.” 

“Because I was scared,” Sentinel blurted out as he focused his only remaining eye on Applejack. “Last night when I was in bed, I kept hearing and feeling things in the dark! I kept thinking about stuff and reliving some terrible moments over and over! And I couldn’t bear to be alone!” 

Closing her eyes, Applejack let out a huff. She drew in a deep breath, and then let out another huff. She moved forwards, pushing past Babs, who put up token resistance, and shoving Diamond Tiara aside. She sat down beside Sentinel, threw a foreleg over him, and pulled him close, her anger melting away. 

“Sentinel, I get like that too,” Applejack said to Sentinel in a low whisper. “I’ll be by myself and the walls start closing in, and everything feels all tight and wrong, and I’ll start shaking. Been like that since Griffonholm and Tradewinds. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.” 

“Bad,” Sentinel confessed. 

“Perhaps we can come to some accord.” Applejack gave Sentinel a squeeze. “Promise me that there will be no hanky panky under my roof, Sentinel. Just give me your good word and I’ll take it. If there is gonna be hanky panky, you do it under Rarity’s roof. I have enough laundry to look after.” 

After a brief struggle to resist, Sentinel let out an apprehensive chuckle, which he tried to swallow right away, not knowing if it was okay to laugh or not. He rested his head against Applejack, thankful that this hadn’t turned into a shouting match or some hot, contested moment. 

“Really, all I want is your good word.” Applejack looked at her brother. “Will that satisfy you, Big Mac?” 

“Eemaybe?” Big Mac shifted on his hooves as Apple Bloom leaned up against him. 

“I give my word,” Sentinel said to Applejack, “that I will attempt to be on my very best behaviour. Just don’t make me Pinkie Promise, I’ve only got one eye left.” 

“That works for me. Come on, let’s go and have breakfast while I daydream about tying you to an apple tree.” Applejack heaved a sigh and focused her green eyed stare on Babs. “And you, you little cuss, you need to give me a chance to work things out before you assume I’m gonna do the worst!” 

Babs’ ears drooped and she took a step backwards. 

“Get over here,” Applejack said to Babs, “so I can give you a hug. I’m gonna squeeze the apple juice right outa you, Babs!” 



 

Perhaps Sentinel went on an early morning hunt. Berry Punch watched Dinky and Piña as they gave Harper, Sukari, and Cadance breakfast. She blinked, yawned, and waited for the coffee to finish brewing. Her stomach hurt, her teats were chapped and sore, and she had not slept well. 

It was rough, being the herd’s go to milkmare. It was almost impossible to sleep through the night without somepony poking you to wake you up so they can tell you that they’ve gone dry and the foals still needed feeding. It was real rough being dragged out of your warm bed, away from your fluffy pillows and fellow ponies that had warm, inviting bodies to snuggle. 

It wasn’t all bad. There were late night snuggles and early in the morning cuddles and warm fuzzy foals with full bellies… Berry paused and gave a moment of consideration to that. Those full bellies turned into full diapers. Reaching down, she scratched her stomach and wondered if her teats were going to stretch out like silly putty. She needed some bag balm or something. 

While Brandywine was a sweet, adorable foal, she was also a puller and a tugger. When she fed, she jerked her head around, pulling, tugging, and yanking, stretching flesh in ways it was never meant to be stretched. Made it difficult to sleep when howls of pain came from the nursery. With bleary eyes, Berry glanced over at the coffee pot, waiting. She was in a race against time, needing coffee and breakfast, but at any moment now, some sleepy little fuzzball would wake up and somepony would be summoning Berry for milkmare duty. 

This had to be what it was like to be a superhero, expected to be ready to combat evil, er, hunger at all hours of the night and day, with no thanks and no rest. Berry’s ears perked up when Harper began to giggle and when she turned, she saw Cadance with her muzzle down in her bowl of granola, blowing bubbles. 

With a groaning sigh, Berry knew that Cadance would need a thorough scrubbing, lest she smell like sour milk all day. Marital bliss had long ago become marital blah. For now, it seemed, they were just surviving, going hour to hour, feeding to feeding, moment to moment, quickie to quickie. Blinking, Berry’s ears drooped when she realised that she had been dreaming about the quickies. She needed to be laid in a bad way. Maybe a bit of squishy, sloppy scissoring with Derpy. Some nibble time with Thistle or maybe even some face sitting time. Time spent as a pony sandwich with Lyra and Bon Bon. And then, after she was warmed up and good to go, some time spent being railed by Bucky when he was in one of his manic phases. It’d have to be face down and arse up though, as Berry wanted nothing touching her teats right now unless absolutely necessary. 

Too bad that Bucky wasn’t at home. 



 

Laying in the grass, Derpy was soaking up some sun as she looked after the little ones. At the moment, they weren’t crying and seemed content to be out in the sun, on a quilt, and enjoying the day. Overhead, Rainbow Dash was teaching the next generation of flyers and Derpy glanced up at them on occasion, trying to focus with her good eye. 

She thought about Sentinel and felt a mother’s worry. He had come home with Applejack and then had gone to school. Applejack had some troubling things to say. Derpy intended to have a talk with Bucky when he got back. Turning her head, she watched as the airship that Sour Mash had come to visit on was loaded and preparations were made for its departure. 

Crisis was gamboling around the perimeter of the quilt on her wobbly legs. Derpy paid her no attention, the little weirdo would wear herself out soon enough and then come over for a snuggle. A snuggle? Or was it feeding? She did eat food, but snuggling also gave her sustenance. Derpy blinked in confusion. There was a cry from Crisis and Derpy turned her head to look at whatever was the cause for alarm. 

Bell Heather, wringing wet, was charging around the corner of the house, having just come out of the lake by the looks of it. The little kelpie foal was clumsy, still trying to get the hang of walking, and a big toothy grin was plastered to her face. 

Derpy thought of Sentinel, Crisis, and Bell Heather… her offspring had nightmarish smiles, but she loved them. She lifted her head as Bell got closer, happy to see the exuberant little kelpie running about. 

“Come to Mama!” Derpy shouted. 

Bell, hearing Derpy’s voice, tried to hurry but lost her balance. She tumbled down into the grass face first, rolled, and ended up on her back with her legs sticking skyward. Derpy laughed as Bell struggled to get on her hooves again. Bell had the beginnings of a mane and tail now and every day she seemed a little bigger and a little more capable. She was growing like a weed and showed signs of being a chatterbox. 

Crisis went bounding off to help Bell, and by help, what Crisis really did was keep nosing Bell as she tried to stand up and cause her to fall back over. Bell let out a frustrated whinny as she tried to get up, and Crisis kept being ever so helpful. 

“No!” Bell shouted in protest. 

“No!” Crisis shouted with Bell’s voice. 

That caused Bell to fall over again and go still as she stared up at her sibling. Derpy laughed. Crisis was already able to speak in just about anypony’s voice, at least for a word or two. There was going to be so much confusion later when Crisis truly understood the power that her voice had. 

“Stop.” Bell looked up from where she lay in the grass. 

“Stop.” Crisis nodded down at Bell, still using her voice. 

“No!” Bell took a swipe with her foreleg at Crisis, who sidestepped it. 

“Yes!” Crisis, still using Bell’s voice, made a clumsy pronk away from her fallen sibling. 

With a stormy expression, Bell Heather rolled over and managed to get on her hooves before Crisis could help her again, and then managed to stay upright when Crisis plowed into her. Derpy realised that Bell was now several months old. Time would fly by and she would be a yearling. Thistle was already feeding her solid food now, little bits of fish and bugs. 

“Bell,” Crisis said in Thistle’s voice. 

“Mamamoo?” Bell asked, looking very confused as she glared at her sibling. 

Derpy felt her eyes watering. Mamamoo. Harper sometimes called Lyra ‘Mamamoo,’ even now and Bell had picked up on it somehow. Hearing it made Derpy feel emotional and squishy. Soon, the foals piled around her would not longer be fuzzy lumps, and they too, would be doing adorable stuff. 

“Gotcha!” Peekaboo lept out of the hedges situated near the corner of the house and pounced on Crisis, who completely freaked out. Crisis changed colours, going from white, to yellow, to orange, to red, to purple, to blue, to blue-green, to green, to brown, and then to black. She let out a strange yowling sound as she struggled beneath Peekaboo. 

“Rwar, I has you now!” Peekaboo growled as she tried to pin Crisis down. “I am the mightiest kitty pony!” She struggled to hold Crisis, who was now a strange shade of pulsating purple brown. “Rwar! Om nom nom nom!” 

Bell Heather used this opportunity to escape and ran over to where Derpy was laying while the sneaky pegasus and Crisis battled it out. Crisis got up for a moment, but was thrown back down again. Peekaboo had her legs kicked out from beneath her with a clumsy but effective swipe. 

Crisis let out a squeal of protest as Peekaboo blew a raspberry against her neck. Peekaboo was bigger and had more control over her body, but Crisis was stronger by far. The two foals rolled around in the grass as they struggled for dominance. The play was rough, real rough, but Derpy wasn’t worried. Crisis had durability as well as armor and Peekaboo could take her lumps. Crisis never bit her siblings with those scary shovel shaped teeth and never brought real harm. But she did give Peekaboo a good, solid cuff upside her head with her foreleg that made Peekaboo grunt and bare her teeth. Crisis bared her teeth right back and the two foals growled like the horrible little savages that they were. 

Derpy let out a contented sigh. The sounds of the struggle would soon bring Cadance out from wherever it was that she was hiding. Or maybe she wasn’t hiding. She might be inside, sprawled out in front of a window, napping. Derpy had last seen Cadance with Harper and Lyra. Lyra had been chasing after Cadance with a hoof file and a curry comb and Cadance wasn’t in the mood to sit still so she could be groomed. 

Overhead, Rainbow Dash cried out and Derpy heard the word, “Airship!” 

Rolling over, almost smooshing a few foals, Derpy closed her bad eye and scanned the sky. She saw more than an airship, she saw an airship being towed by a dragon. She felt her heart leap up into her throat. Ripple was home! The grey mare was so excited that she grabbed the nearest foal she could, which just so happened to be Bell, and began squeezing. 

“Mama, no! Mama, no! No! No squeezee!” Bell’s muffled protests could barely be heard as she struggled against Derpy’s affectionate, over-excited embrace. “Mama! Bad Mama! Leggo! Bad! No! You squeeze pee out!” 

Rainbow Dash and her troupe of foals cleared the skies, getting out of the way as the airship approached. Shouts could be heard all over the farm now and many little griffons were swarming all over the place as they prepared to welcome the Raptors home. 

In the middle of the chaos, a lone donkey stood, looking skyward, waiting, her long ears standing straight up in alert attention. The donkey pronked in place, and then began bouncing around, unable to contain herself any longer. 

Something charcoal grey streaked from the airship, flying at an amazing speed as it hurtled towards the ground, leveled out, and then flew right for the donkey. The pegasus never slowed and the donkey went still. A split second later, Ripple snatched up Bittersweet and flew off with her. 

Derpy watched them go, feeling relieved. Ripple was fine and seemed to be in the mood for donkey. She turned her head and watched as the dragon pulled the ship. A klaxon sounded and griffons rushed off to prepare the moorings for the airship. 

“Daddoo?” Bell asked as she looked up at the dragon, still trapped in Derpy’s embrace. 

“Yes Bell, that’s your Daddoo,” Derpy replied as she let go of Bell and allowed her to escape. “Clever little filly to know that’s your Daddoo.” She wondered how Bell knew, but could not fathom how the foal had known. It never occurred to Derpy that shapeshifters had their own innate senses. 

Peekaboo let go of Crisis and then began pronking around in circles when she realised that her mother and father were home. Crisis, not finished, pounced on Peekaboo and got revenge while the getting was good. The two tumbled over and Crisis clung to Peekaboo’s back while making savage growls in Peekaboo’s ears. 

Derpy heaved a sigh of relief. All of her foals were home, accounted for, and safe. 
	
	
> Chapter 921
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The cake said, ‘Welcome home, Ripple!’ in bright orange frosted letters written on top of shocking pink frosting. On the cake, two pegasi were drawn in frosting, a donkey, and two unicorns. Distracted, Bucky wasn’t sure where to cut; it felt wrong somehow to slice apart one of the ponies on the cake. He held the knife in his telekinesis, unable to serve the cake. 

“Daddy, you look distracted,” Sparkler said as she took the knife from her father. With cruel heartlessness, she sliced the cake and cut off the head one of the pegasi. She made another swift slice on the rectangular cake, then another, and then another. She began placing the cake slices on little plates. 

The apartment over the carriage house was crowded. Bucky backed off and let Sparkler continue to cut the cake and scoop out ice cream. He retreated to the sofa, where he sat down. A record was playing on the phonograph, a somewhat scratchy record, and Rising Star was trying to coax Loch Skimmer into dancing with him. 

Bucky was quite startled when Ripple crash landed on the couch with him. In seconds, she had her forelegs around his neck and was squeezing the life out of him. He returned the embrace, mindful of the wound she had in her side. 

“Your little girl is all grown up,” Ripple said in a low whisper, “I left home a squire, I came home ready to be a knight, and I shagged me a nice ass.” 

Rolling his eyes, Bucky shook his head. “I don’t want to know about that.”

“But I feel the need to talk about it,” Ripple replied in a very serious voice. “I think I’m getting better. I only panicked a little bit and then Bittersweet tickled me and then we started laughing and then everything that happened after that felt natural and sweet and made me happy and then we held each other afterwards.” 

“Well then, I’m happy for you.” Bucky’s ears stood up and he hoped the conversation was over. “If you need to talk, really, you can talk to Berry.” 

“But I like talking to you.” Ripple gave Bucky’s neck a squeeze. “I trust you. You’re the loving and supportive male figure in my life.” 

Bracing himself, Bucky drew in a deep breath and then asked the question that begged to be asked. “And what about Rising Star?” 

“Rising?” Ripple snorted. “Heh, he’s pervy. If I told him about what Bittersweet and I did, he’d be wanting all the details and a blow by blow recap of everything that happened.” Ripple giggled, pressed her muzzle against Bucky’s cheek, and kissed him. “You on the other hoof, don’t want to know about it, so I feel safer talking to you.” 

There was raucous laughter from Sour Mash and Berry Punch, who stood with Loch Skimmer. Bucky watched them and felt bad for Derpy, who refused to come, insisting that she stay and look after the little ones, but stating that Berry needed a break. 

“Ripple, I’m flattered that you see me that way,” Bucky said as Sparkler flung frosting at Loch Skimmer. The pregnant pegasus filly now had an orange smear on her nose and Bittersweet was shaking with near silent laughter, the only sound was a faint wheeze. 

With her hoof, Ripple turned her father’s head so that she could look into his eyes. “How are you holding up, Daddy? I know you’re sad. You okay? You hide things, and that worries me sometimes.” 

“No, Ripple, I’m not okay,” Bucky replied, being honest and feeling that he owed Ripple that. He had to be a good example for his foals, all of them, at least in the areas where he felt it mattered. He thought of Ripple’s breakdown and her psychotic episode. Honesty might have prevented that. “I’m not okay at all. It’s everything… everything all piling together and what just happened feels like a tipping point.” 

“I’m sorry.” Closing her eyes, Ripple shifted her body around and pulled Bucky closer, cuddling with him. She felt him embrace her and then there was a soft kiss against her ear. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t do anything stupid while I was away from home. I got the job done and no one got seriously hurt.” She paused, reconsidered, and then continued, “Well, I got hurt, but those medical golems you made fixed me right up. I still have a pretty big ouchy place, but I can live with it.” Another pause, and then she added, “I’m sorry that you lost somepony that you cared about.” 

“I’ll get over it,” Bucky said, not sure if he would ever get over it. There was more laughter from Berry and Sour Mash as Loch Skimmer demonstrated how she could lick her own eyebrows. Bucky listened, his ears twitching with each giggle, each chuckle, each peal of laughter, and he heaved a contented sigh as he held Ripple. She was a little big, as far as foals went, but still one of his. He began to feel drowsy and his eyelids grew heavy. 

Without warning, his mood shifted, and with the drowsy feeling he was experiencing, everything around him became annoying. The music ground on his nerves, the scratchiness of the record bothered him, the loud, jarring laughter made his body jump and startle. Even Ripple’s embrace changed, and Bucky found that he wanted to be alone. 

Knowing how he could excuse himself, Bucky made himself yawn, then shook his head. “I’ve been awake for too long. I’m sorry, but I’m gonna go get some shuteye.” 

With a worried, knowing look, Ripple nodded, suspecting that there was more to what Bucky had said. She felt his twitchiness, the way he jumped. She let him go, pulling away, and felt a great deal of sadness for him. He was hurting, and there was nothing she could do to help him. There was no way to make it right. 

“Go get some sleep,” Ripple said to Bucky, “maybe you’ll feel better.” For a moment, she saw the guiltiness on his face, the pain, the sorrow. His mask broke for a moment, but then as quickly as it had vanished, it returned. She knew that there would be no sleep. He was retreating, off to find quiet. Off to find some place to reflect upon his pain.

Off to make himself hurt someplace where he could not be reached. 

As Bucky got up to leave, Berry Punch followed after him. 



 

Below, in the carriage house, as Bucky walked between the wagons, Berry Punch caught up to him. She slipped past him, turned around, and blocked the path to the doorway, knowing that she couldn’t make Bucky stop if he didn’t want to be stopped. She had to make him want to stay somehow, but she didn’t know what to do. 

“Really? You’re walking out on Ripple’s party?” Berry’s eyes were filled with worry. 

“It was too much right now,” Bucky replied. “The sound. The music. The laughing. Everything hurts inside, Berry. It isn’t even what just happened, it’s everything. I’m tired, Berry. Worn out. Worn thin. I feel as though my very soul is stretched to the point of tearing.” 

Blinking, Berry nodded, understanding. 

“Celestia and I played games to manipulate her,” Bucky said in a low voice as he stared down at the ground. “The carrot and the stick. Celestia wasn’t even sure if Chrysalis liked carrots. I was forced to be the stick. I treated her poorly. Badly. Even in her fecked up, messed up, screwed up state, she still had the potential for goodness. All of the horrible things that happened to her in her long life still hadn’t crushed that tiny spark of hope. But did I reward her hope?” 

Berry waited as Bucky sucked in a deep breath. 

“No. No I did not. I got her killed.” He closed his eyes and hung his head. “And now, Crisis does not have her mother. And at some point, I have to explain this whole mess to Crisis… except I’m probably not going to live long enough for her to reach a point where she’s mature enough to understand all of it. All of this, it drags me down.” 

“It’s pretty heavy, I’ll give you that,” Berry replied. She moved towards Bucky, nosed his ear, and poked her nose against one of his tiny antler buds. She took a step back, reached up, and rubbed her nose with her hoof. “Bucky, at the risk of enabling you… I have to say, do what you’ve always done… pour yourself into your work and try to make something good happen. Accomplish something wondrous. Take up a project and get this out of your system.” 

Lifting his head, Bucky looked Berry in the eye. 

“Just remember that we’re all out here waiting for you… don’t forget about us… and when the clouds part and the sun shines again, we’ll be here for you when you feel like you can show your face again.” Berry invaded Bucky’s space and locked her muzzle on his, kissing him, throwing every bit of herself that she could muster into it, trying to make the physical connection that she knew that Bucky needed. 

She felt him respond, he moved, and she felt herself seized. She sat down, wrapped her forelegs around his neck, and then she embraced him, giving all of herself to him, every last bit that she had, and she felt him warm in her embrace. He sat down with her, and she felt her body pulled close to his, they entwined, and she could feel his heart beating in his barrel. She ran her foreleg up his long, somewhat crooked spine. He had changed on the outside, but the pony that she loved was still on the inside. 

The kiss broke with a breathless gasp, and Berry found herself being squeezed. Bucky was clinging to her in much the same way a shipwrecked pony clings to wreckage, hoping for life. His talons clutched her mane, holding it, but not pulling it. She could feel his deep, shuddering gasps as he tried to contain himself. 

And then, she heard it. It was like glass breaking, it was a sound that made one cringe when they heard it, it made the body tense in apprehension of what had just happened. It started with a low snuffle and then Bucky was weeping. Berry redoubled her grip around him and held on, knowing that there was a torrent waiting to happen behind the floodgates. 



 

Eyes narrowed, Derpy made a low sound of equine worry deep within her throat, a wordless sound, a deep rumbling noise that began in her barrel and worked its way up. She stood in the bathroom door and watched as Berry dumped Bucky into the tub with a splash, sending water everywhere and all over the floor. 

He was limp and he lay in the water, face up, not moving, half floating, half sinking as the tub continued to fill. His face was a mess of tears and mucus. Derpy sniffed, her folded wings flapped against her sides, and she watched as Berry Punch dumped far too much bubble bath into the tub. 

Lyra appeared, pushing in through the doorway past Derpy, holding a bottle and a heavy tumbler filled with ice. Lyra approached the tub, slipped past Berry, and set down the bottle along with the glass on the edge of the tub, near some bottles of soap. 

“Gin,” Lyra said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I agree with this self medicating. We need to get him to talk.” 

“I’m gonna get him to talk, that’s why I need the gin.” Berry Punch’s face looked grim. “Bathtub therapy. He’s not leaving this room until I feel satisfied that he’s said enough. We might be in here a while.” 

Lyra, who reconsidered her feelings, nodded. “Whatever works. If you think this will get him to open up, then I’m behind it. He’s a mess.” Lyra looked down into the tub and saw Bucky’s mane floating all around him, and his tail. His changeling appendage was visible, and his goat leg twitched. His eyes were vacant, blank, and stared up at the ceiling. The suds from the bubble bath began to consume Bucky, swallowing him up with suds. 


“Learning to deal with my own grief has been difficult,” Lyra said in low voice. “But I’m managing. Some of the anger and the heartache is easing off a bit. Bucky just keeps holding all of it in.” 

“What about the little ones… do we let them in to see him like this?” Derpy asked. 

Lips pressing together, Berry Punch took a moment to consider Derpy’s words. “We’ll keep them out, for now, except for Cadance. I’m almost certain that if we tried to keep her away, she’d just blow the door off and let us have it. Now, I ain’t saying that Cadance is a troublemaker, or that she’s bad—” 

“But she’s a terror when it comes to her father.” Derpy gave Berry a knowing nod. 

“They’re connected,” Lyra said to Berry and Derpy. “Those two share a connection that we don’t have.” She reached down into the tub and prodded Bucky with her hoof. The only part of him that was above the water was his muzzle, everything else was submerged. 

“Bucky, we’re gonna go and leave you to the mercy of Berry Punch.” Derpy’s voice sounded strained. There was no reply from the pony submerged in the bath. “Give Berry what she wants, or else… we’ll… we’ll… we will do something…” She fell silent, not knowing how to threaten Bucky. He seemed too fragile to threaten, but she needed some way of reaching him. “Look, just try to work with Berry, okay? Let it all out, you’ll feel better.” 

“Keep me supplied with hard liquor.” Berry’s brows furrowed. “Remember when he was blitzed down in the cellar of the castle and he opened up about his mother and father? Well, here’s to hoping that I can recreate that scenario. Wish me luck.” 

“Good luck, Berry.” Derpy gave her fellow wife a hopeful, but sad smile. 

“Yeah, good luck… I’m going to head to town real quick like and come back with chocolates. Maybe that’ll help.” Lyra looked at Derpy. “You gonna be okay all by yourself with the foals for a little bit?” 

“I should be,” Derpy replied. “Bring me chocolate too. Lots of it. The dark kind.” 

“Can do.” Lyra eyed Berry and nodded before Berry could say anything. “I’ll bring back enough for an army.” 

“Good deal.” Berry Punch lifted up her hoof and saluted. With a look of fierce determination, she climbed over the edge of the tub, eased herself down into the sudsy water, and pulled Bucky up from the depths, cradling him in her forelegs. “Hey, Bucky… how would you like a glass of gin?” 

Lyra departed and Derpy backed out of the bathroom. She shut the door behind her. Turning around, she saw Barley, who stepped aside so Lyra could pass. She saw a grim look on Barley’s face. 

“Aye, my wee, sweet Berry has the right idea,” Barley said as he eyed the bathroom door. “That poison has gotta come out. It’s killing him. Bucky needs to go on a spree and be given a free pass to be a drunken mess for a while. It’s not an ideal way to fix the problem, but as an emergency measure, it’ll have to do.” 

“I trust Berry’s judgment on this issue.” Derpy watched as Sukari brushed up against Barley’s leg, then rubbed her face against it. She gave the zebra filly a warm, maternal smile, and then looked back up at Barley. “Try to keep Cadance busy so Berry has time to work, will you?” 

“Aye, I can do that…” 
	
> Chapter 922
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Glancing over at the bottle of gin, Berry Punch saw that it was down by about a third, which wasn’t what she expected to see. Her eyes, narrowed, darted over to her husband, who was curled up on the bed. He had talked a bit, in fact, he had been quite open, but he hadn’t said much. He had come out and stated his feelings, talked of his feelings of failure, and his regret that he hadn’t done things a different way. 

And now, he was going to sleep. Relieved, but still somehow unsatisfied, she reached up and rubbed the side of her neck with her hoof, which was now soft and velvety from having just come out of the tub. She tickled her own frogs with the fuzzy hairs of her pelt. 

Turning about, Berry stepped out of the bedroom and into the nursery where Magpie and Belisama were fawning over Bandua. The little griffoness was glad to be home and with her cub again. Berry smiled at them and stepped around the pile of foals on the floor. She wasn’t ready to look after them just yet, but she knew the time was coming. 

She slipped out of the nursery and down the hall, past the dining room, and then the entryways into the living room and the kitchen. She opened the front door, stepped out onto the porch, and then lept down the front steps. She trotted through the grass, glanced up, and saw little pegasi and griffons overhead, learning how to fly from the undisputed master. 

A group of unicorn foals were learning magic from Sunset Shimmer, and Dinky was among their number. Berry watched them as she passed, and she smiled when she saw all of the happy little faces. 

She made her way to the carriage house, slipped inside, and went to the stairs. She heard music and knew the party was still going full swing. She paused, took a deep breath, and then mounted the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. She had an idea on how to make things better, and she needed to talk to Sparkler, because she had the means to maybe make her father feel better. 

At the top of the stairs, Berry pushed open the door to the apartment without knocking, and let herself inside, knowing that she was always welcome. Plus, there was a party going on. She had an obligation to stir things up a little bit. 



 

Peering around the doorway, Sukari looked into the big room, wondering if she would find—oh, there he was. Baba. She peeked about, her ears perked, and her bright blue eyes glittered with inner happiness. Something almost like a smile spread over her scarred face. 

She stepped into the room, walking sideways, and she kept an eye on the nursery door. She wanted Baba to herself, which was difficult to do. She crept over to the bed, glanced all around her, and then she placed her front hooves on the edge of the bed and stood on her hind legs. Keeping her head low, on level with the bed, she peered over, and then, she saw him. Seeing him made her ears wiggle. She tried to climb up into the bed, but fell down and landed on her bottom with a thump. 

That was unpleasant. Getting up, she gave her backside a shake, stuck out her tongue, and then pronked up onto the bed. Baba was sleeping with his head under a pillow, or he appeared to be. Baba was tricky and did sneaky things. 

As she drew near, her eyes watered and her nose burned. Baba smelled funny, like he sometimes did. Pausing, Sukari rubbed her eyes with her foreleg and then made a funny face, her muzzle scrunching up in disgust. She dropped down to the bed, flopping onto her belly, and then crawled closer. When she was near enough, she reached out with one of her front hooves and poked Baba on his hind hoof. 

His leg twitched, he grunted, but there was no other reaction. Disappointed, she poked him again. This time, his tail swished around, his hind leg quivered, and there was another grunt from beneath the pillow where his head was hiding. 

Frustrated, Sukari sucked in a deep breath, puckered up her lips, her cheeks bulging, and she blew on Baba’s frog. She watched his whole body twitch and he pulled his hind legs up close to his belly. A low moan came out from beneath the pillow. 

She crept a little closer, slithering like a snake on her belly, not quite sure what to do to get her Baba’s attention. She let out a frustrated sigh, her tail swished from side to side as if swatting at invisible bugs, and she rolled over onto her side with a grunt. 

There was a snort from beneath the pillow. 

The pillow was the problem. Sukari contemplated her course of action, trying to plan. If Cadance was here, she would know what to do, and Sukari pondered going off to find Cadance, but then, if the pink foal was here, that would mean sharing. And Sukari wasn’t in the mood to share. 

Not at all. She was tired of sharing everything. She wanted Baba to herself. She rolled over onto her back, kicked her four legs up into the air, and wiggled them around as she scratched her backside just above her tail against the blanket. It felt good. She needed brushing. A lot of old hairs were falling out and new hairs were growing in and she was itchy, itchy, itchy! As she rolled about on the bed, she left behind a lot of little white hairs. 

As she scratched, she was seized with an idea. After scratching her own itch, she rolled over, back onto her belly, wiggled over to the pillow, grabbed the corner in her teeth, and pulled it away, revealing Baba’s head. There was a loud snort, followed by a super-duper gross burp that smelled real bad. The smell made her eyes water and she wondered why Baba smelled so funny. 

She lifted her head and slid on her belly, closer, closer, until she was close enough to get Baba’s attention. She sucked in a deep breath, filling her lungs, and then, pursing her lips again, she blew in Baba’s ear. 

His whole body shook and he wiggled. His face scrunched up, his lips flapped as he huffed, but he did not wake up. Now almost pouting, Sukari was forced to try it again. She took another deep breath, puckered up, and blew once more into her Baba’s ear. 

There was a scary growl from deep inside of Baba’s throat and he was trying to scare her. She had learned long ago that Baba wasn’t scary. Reaching out with her front hoof, she booped him on the snoot. That’d learn him not to growl at her. 

There was a snort, he wiggled, and his eyelids fluttered, but did not open. Baba had a terrible breath. It burned her eyes. She booped him on the nose again, then again, and then gave up when he did not respond. All she wanted was a little snuggle time, or a cuddle, or some play time. Why did he have to be so difficult? 

Reaching out with her hoof, she booped him on the snoot again and was rewarded with a wet, snotty snort. She yanked her hoof away, disgusted, and tried to shake away the wetness that she felt on her frog. Not knowing what else to do, unable to get it off, she wiped it on Baba’s cheek. 

Sukari let out a little giggle and as she did so, Baba’s eye opened just enough that she could see a sliver of grey as she was wiping her boogery frog on his cheek. It was at that moment that he grabbed her. 

She let out a startled cry, she couldn’t help it, even though she knew that she was safe and he would never hurt her, she still panicked when sudden movements happened, but she kind of enjoyed the scary feeling. She felt his muzzle press against her belly and then the very worst thing happened—he blew a tickly raspberry against her belly. She let out another cry as she tried to squirm away, she wanted snuggles, not tickles, but she was powerless against him, and could do nothing to escape. She felt his forelegs slip around her, and then she was pulled close. 

“You little goofball,” he said in a sleepy voice, “Come here to me, and hold still.” 

Not having much of a choice in the matter, and getting what she wanted in the first place, Sukari allowed herself to be held. She grew warm against his neck and she could feel his chin on the top of her head. She wrapped her forelegs around his strange birdy leg and allowed a drowsy feeling to overcome her. 

A nap might be nice. 

“Coming up and bapping me on the nose while I’m trying to sleep… sheesh.” 

Baba had very bad breath, but that was okay. Sukari found that she could live with that. She snuggled a little closer, yawned, and closed her eyes. She curled up, wrapping as much of herself as she could around his foreleg, and soon, the siren call of sleep was irresistible. 

The world darkened around her and she knew that Baba had pulled a pillow over the top of them. She could feel the light, fluffy, feathery weight of it above her. She twisted and squirmed, trying to get comfortable, and then went still when everything was just right. She had been lying on her own tail, and it tugged the wrong way. That was awful when that happened. Nopony liked to sleep with their tail being tugged. 

“Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head… hush now, quiet now, little zebras should be in bed… and not smacking Daddy in the head...” 

Yawning, Sukari drifted away to the sounds of her Baba’s somewhat slurred singing. 



 

Returning from the party, having spoken to Sparkler, Berry Punch entered the house. As she stepped into the living room, she was stopped by Lyra, who looked a little frazzled. Berry waited, wondering what Lyra had to say. 

“We can’t find Sukari… she seems to have slipped off.” Lyra let out a weary sigh and shook her head. “We think she might have slipped outside. She’s not upstairs and she’s not in Sentinel’s hidey-hole.” 

“Huh,” Berry replied, wondering where the little filly went. It wasn’t like her to cause trouble or slip outside. She wasn’t the troublemaking sort, like say, Peekaboo or Harper, who delighted in mischief. Sukari was quiet, reserved, and well behaved, more or less. 

The kitchen was noisy, which was distracting. The dining room was occupied, Berry could hear Sentinel, Diamond Tiara, and Boadicea doing some sort of homework project together, or, if not homework, then some project perhaps. Cadance and Harper were in the living room laying the smack down on Peekaboo with a tag team effort. There were thumps and bumps as the foals wrestled on the wooden floor. 

Everything was noisy. Berry blinked. The little zebra detested when things were noisy, loud, and crazy. The little filly liked the calm and the quiet. Berry looked Lyra in the eye and smiled. 

“I bet if we found a quiet spot, we’d find Sukari,” Berry Punch said to her fellow wife. “Listen to the mayhem in here. This place is all kinds of crazy right now.” As Berry spoke, Cadance let out a howling battlecry, further illustrating Berry’s point. There was a thump as Peekaboo’s head went crashing into the floor. 

In the living room, Yew Wood chuckled as the little ones visited acts of savage barbarity upon one another. Little pegasi were so adorable and always good for a laugh. 

Humming to herself, Berry Punch took off, heading down the hallway, heading to the back of the house, where the nursery was and the master bedroom. The nursery was alive with sounds, but quiet sounds. It was feeding time, by the sounds of it, and Berry knew that she was needed. 

But first, she had to find a little missing zebra filly, and she knew just where to look. Every foal had their quirks, and Berry knew each and every one of them. She slipped through the doorway and into the bedroom, then shut the door behind her to preserve the quiet. 

She saw Bucky on the bed, his top half buried under pillows, and his bottom half sprawled out over the blanket spread over the bed. One hind leg, which was unmistakably that of a goat, twitched non stop. She approached the bed, doing so without making a sound, and then, with great care, she slipped onto the bed. Laying on her belly, she crawled over a bit, reached out with her foreleg, stuffed her hoof beneath the corner of a pillow, and lifted. 

She found what she was looking for, the missing zebra filly. She was curled up with her back against her father’s neck, and all four of her legs were wrapped around Bucky’s foreleg. Her eyes were closed and she breathed with slow regularity, her little barrel rising and falling. Bucky let out a snort and Berry lowered the pillow back down, returning him to darkness. 

Slipping off of the bed, she crept off to the nursery, knowing there were hungry mouths to feed. 
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 923
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Staring down her muzzle, Berry Punch examined her list of things to do today. It wasn’t often that she wrote lists, but for this day to happen, a list was both prudent and necessary. It was going to be a long and involved day and it would start with saying goodbye to Sour Mash, who was scheduled to leave. The last of the rescued earth ponies arrived late in the night and were ready to continue their journey to the Shetlands. The changelings were ready to go as well. And Sour Mash was itching to return home. 

Once that was accomplished, the rest of the day would be planning Barley’s wedding and everything that went with it. The wedding would be a small, intimate affair, which meant it had to be perfect. Barley would be following an ancient tradition of the Shetlanders, a binding ceremony that was sometimes called ‘hoof-fasting.’ He and his chosen bride would have their legs bound together with cord or ribbon, and then they would walk through a carefully constructed obstacle course, complete with other ponies who wanted to ‘help’ them. Along the way, they would ask for various ponies’ blessings and might have to perform various labours or tasks, often comical ones. 

Poor Luna had no idea what she was getting into, all of this was Barley’s idea, and his repeated insistence that he wouldn’t marry anypony who couldn’t handle the old traditions of his kind. Berry suspected that Luna would be just fine with the whole thing. She wanted a small, intimate affair with friends and family present. Something memorable without it being a public spectacle. 

Small was debateable. Berry bit her lip and looked Berry serious. The mare planned to stick with friends and family, but there was a lot of friends and family. She stared at the list, waging an internal debate, and decided to stick with the plan. Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony had to be invited. They had restored Luna, saving her from the shadow of Nightmare Moon. 

They had saved Luna from the shadow of Nightmare Moon, and, after much work, Luna had been saved from herself as well. She was a different mare now—much had changed—and with a sigh, Berry realised that things would continue to change. Barley, she supposed, had something to do with that. All of them had some part, in some way, but it was Barley who loved her most out of all of them. 

Looking up, Berry saw Thistle, and in a frantic voice asked, “Hey, Thistle, do you have to work today?” 

The kelpie, perhaps expecting another greeting this early in the morning, stared at Berry. After a moment, she replied, “No. Today is a waiting day, where I have to wait for things to get done.” What those things were, she did not elaborate. 

“Good.” Berry’s ears pitched forwards and she gave Thistle a smile. “I need your help. You’re on wedding planning duty with me.” 

“Oh goody!” Thistle pronked in place and her hooves clickety-clopped on the kitchen floor when she landed. Right away, she hurried to where Berry Punch was sitting and climbed up into a chair beside her. “Just so long as I can spend a little time with Bell Heather and Sukari, I don’t mind.” 

“We’ll put Sukari to work too. She’s old enough,” Berry said in an absentminded voice.

“Berry—” 

“Look, nothing too strenuous, and she’ll be with you, so it will be fun.” Berry’s eyebrows furrowed and she set her list down upon the table. “I am well aware of her background and what happened to her. Look, I’m not stupid.” 

The kelpie’s ears splayed out sideways and she gave Berry a reproachful look. After a moment of squirming and looking uncomfortable, Thistle nodded, but looked a little uncertain. “I’m sorry… for a moment, I just… for a moment I just had a moment. I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course we’re not putting her back in the mines, we’re just asking her to help.”

“You had a mama moment,” Berry said in a knowing voice, shaking her head, “you and Derpy both. Your need to protect overrides your ability to be sensible. Don’t worry about it. I’d rather have you be too protective.” 

“Berry!” 

The voice calling out Berry’s name sounded a bit demanding and Berry could hear from Derpy’s tone that she was needed. The earth pony slumped over in her chair, shook her head, and let out a weary sigh of resignation. She was needed yet again, it was time to feed. 



 

“Are you moping?” Rising Star asked Bucky, who was standing in place, and quite obviously moping. Rising frowned and shook his head. “There is a no moping rule in this foundry. Mopers are tossed into the furnace and slagged.” 

“Sorry, I got to thinking… it was a long night,” Bucky replied as he turned to face Rising Star. He lifted his hoof and gestured at the top secret project that had just been finished. “This looks good. Ready to fly? Think it will work? No magic at all, right?” 

Grinning, Rising Star moved to stand beside the fantastical contraption. “No magic, all technology. Scorch is certain that it will fly. That chainsaw weapon that Princess Celestia gave to us… it took us in new directions, gave us ideas, the griffons have spent a lot of time improving it.” 

“So… does the engine power the propeller directly?” Bucky asked. 

“No.” Rising Star blinked once, twice, and then his eyes went wide. “We tried that a few times, and while we made it work, we found a better way. We use a small, light diesel engine, which is connected to an electrical system, and it generates electrical power. Electrical power is further boosted by the top blade, which spins in flight because of airflow, which provides lift, but also a fair bit of electrical generation. There is a modified airship airscrew assembly in the back which provides thrust, and there is an electric motor driving that.”

“Sounds complex.” Bucky began to circle the new type of autogyro. 

“It’s actually far, far simpler than the older crafts of the previous generations. Everything is light and we’re still trying to pull weight were we can. The batteries are heavy and there’s not much we can do about that. If you turn off the diesel motor, it is capable of flying in near silence, but even with the diesel engine running, it is remarkably quiet.” 

“So you’ve given up on the direct drive?” Bucky’s eyebrow arched as he looked at Rising Star. 

“No.” Rising Star had a look of pride on his face as he focused upon the aircraft sitting in the middle of the foundry. “For the bigger craft, the electric engines we currently have aren’t enough. So those will be direct drive. They’ll be big and slow, but they’ll carry quite a payload. The little combat craft, they’re small and spritely. They’re perfect for an electric motor.” 

“Hmm.” Bucky nodded. “I’ll be taking it for a test flight later. But first, I have to go and have a chat with somepony special. I feel that I would be letting them down if I didn’t talk to them first.” 

“Well, everything is ready for you. The tank is full and starting it only takes a button push. I think you’ll be impressed.” Rising Star bowed his head. “If you will excuse me, I must go and say goodbye to Sour Mash.” 



  

School, it seemed, was going to have to wait. Berry watched as Sour Mash was buried under a whole pile of ponies. Dinky, Piña, Sentinel even piled on, Cadance, even though Cadance was just getting to know Sour Mash, Harper, Ripple, Loch Skimmer, Sparkler, and Rising Star. 

Feeling a vague, but annoying sense of worry, Berry spent a moment of absent minded wondering about Sparkler and her secret project. Some of her fears were alleviated when she saw Bucky. He was up and about… he was being social… it was a minor miracle. She looked at him, studying his face to read his mood. 

He was miserable, but hiding it. He looked tired, which was no surprise. He had been working all night after he had gotten up from a short nap with Sukari. Berry bit her lip and wondered if there was a way she could squeeze in an additional task on her list of things to do today. Wear Bucky out and make him sleep. It didn’t seem possible, given that there was so much to do, but Berry realised that she might have to delegate the task to somepony (or somebirdy) else. 

Berry’s thoughts were interrupted by a grey pegasus crashing into the pony pile and attacking Sour Mash as she tried to recover. Derpy’s affection could be measured by how she squeezed, and by the looks of things, she was going to squeeze the life out of poor Sour Mash, who didn’t seem to mind. 

Smiling, with tears brimming in the corners of her eyes, Berry waded into the pile and then tossed herself around Sour Mash’s neck. Sentinel squirmed out of her way and retreated from the cuddle puddle. 

“Promise you’ll come back to the Shetlands,” Sour Mash said to Berry Punch. 

“I will,” Berry replied, “I promise.” Even as she spoke, Berry wondered how she would keep her promise. Life was busy, but she knew that she had to keep her word. Somehow, time would have to be found. It might be nice to return to the Shetlands and see how things were developing. 

Piña pulled out and wiggled away. She stood, blinking, her face pinched with worry, deep wrinkles appeared above her eyes, making her look older and wizened. She looked up at Sour Mash and Berry Punch, opened her mouth to say something, but then fell silent. No words seemed forthcoming. Looking troubled, Piña darted off, her eyes glistening with tears. 

Always a dutiful brother, Sentinel darted off after her, loping along with a gait most equine. Bucky turned his head and watched them go, his ears perked, and then he turned to look at Sour Mash. 

“Goodbye, Sour Mash… I’ll be heading to the Shetlands soon enough and I’ll be seeing you.” Bucky paused, then turned to look at Piña and Sentinel. “I’d better go and see if she’s okay.” Saying nothing else, Bucky took off at an odd gait on four mismatched legs. 

Derpy pulled away from Sour Mash, looked at Bucky, then turned her head to look at Berry, and she asked, “He’s going to the Shetlands?” The grey mare looked confused for a moment, shook her head, and looked at Sour Mash. “I didn’t know he was going to the Shetlands.” 

“Probably just business,” Sour Mash said as she shrugged beneath the bulk of the ponies crushing her. “I know they are building a magic school and a military academy.” The earth pony mare wrapped a foreleg around Ripple’s neck. “I’m so proud of you… I knew you had it in you! You show these mainlanders how a Shetlander does stuff!” 

“Yeah!” Ripple’s head bobbed around and then she was put into a headlock by Loch Skimmer, who gave her a noogie. Ripple rolled away, pulling her sister with her, but she didn’t punch her sister or body slam her, because Loch Skimmer was pregnant and had a free pass. 

Berry, who felt at ease with the crush of many bodies, heard a whistle blow. It was time to go.



 

Piña had taken refuge under a tree heavy with spring buds and tender new leaves. Dew glistened on the leaves and branches. The grass was a bit long and a rather wet. Sentinel had a wing around her, and for a moment, for reasons he could not explain or express, Bucky felt an immense feeling of pride for Sentinel. 

He understood the why of the whole situation—Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel had endured a trauma together, a terrible trauma that most would have trouble imagining. So instead of the usual antagonistic relationships between brothers and sisters, instead of the usual bickering and teasing, these three were tight. They had presented a united front against life. Hardship, fear, terror, and suffering had brought them together. They had a bond that few would understand. 

He saw Sentinel look at him… his son had one eye just like he did. Bucky could not help but wonder if the Eye of Odin would be passed along to Sentinel, who had already inherited so much. Thinking about this inflamed Bucky’s sense of duty… it was why he had to deal with the harshest threats the world had to offer, it was why he had to put down Hades, it was why he had to suffer… he had to make sure that Sentinel had a better future. The worst and hardest things had to be put down. 

Sentinel, an alicorn now, would have a hard enough life. Bucky sat down beside Piña, scooted closer to her, and felt the wet grass soak his backside. It felt good, all things considered, it was cool, delightful, and soothing. 

“I’ve been so emotional lately,” Piña said in a low voice that was almost a whine, “and I’ve been having trouble with my moods. They’re a mess. They’re all over the place.” 

“You’re becoming a little mare.” Bucky’s voice held no trace of laughter, no sense of mirth. “Berry lies awake at night thinking about it. Worrying about it. You’re about that age when the changes start, and mood swings are bound to happen.” 

“This stinks.” This time, Piña’s voice was a whine, a rather high pitched somewhat nasal whine.

“Sentinel is growing up and so are you. Dinky will start feeling the changes as well. The demon puberty is now stalking you, and will devour you the first chance he gets.” Bucky turned his head and looked down at Piña, trying to read her face. 

“I wanted to tell Sour Mash that I wanted to come to the Shetlands, but then I thought about it, and I felt angry, and I thought about all of the horrible things that happened there, and then I felt even angrier, I felt rage, and then the rage was gone all of a sudden and I just felt really sad, and then I felt guilty because I knew that I didn’t really want to go to the Shetlands, and I felt real bad because I didn’t want to go and visit with Sour Mash.” 

Hearing Piña’s confession, Bucky nodded, understanding. 

“And now I feel like crying and I don’t wanna cry, because I still have to go to school, and now I feel all bitchy and I just know that at some point today, I am gonna shoot my mouth off at somepony that gets on my last nerve.” Piña slumped over and her lower lip protruded in a pout. “And that somepony might be you if you try to punish me for saying ‘bitchy’ so it would be best if you just let that slide.” 

“I didn’t hear anything,” Bucky said in a low voice as he glanced at Sentinel. “Did you hear anything Sentinel?” 

“Not a damn thing,” Sentinel replied. 

Sitting between her brother and her father, Piña smiled. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 924
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Shooed away from Berry Punch and Thistle, both of whom were far too busy to be messed with or teased, Bucky instead went about with his original plan. He headed for the foundry with Scootaloo bouncing along beside him, feeling very unsettled and disturbed. On one hoof, he felt good about spending some time with Scootaloo, on the other hoof, there was an ocean of thoughts that he didn’t want to think about lurking on the horizon of his mind. 

“I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to pull me out of class,” Scootaloo said to Bucky as she followed him. “I mean, I’m already a little behind already because of the mission.” 

“You’ll be fine,” Bucky replied, “you’re smart and focused. And I know you wouldn’t let anypony down.” He glanced over his shoulder at the foal. “Besides… consider this a special lesson.” 

“So what are we doing?” Scootaloo asked. 

Grinning, Bucky said nothing as the huge double doors of the foundry opened up and the autogyro was rolled out. He heard a gasp from Scootaloo and then she fell silent. Lugnut and Spanner were already geared up, wearing helmets and goggles. Safety was important. At Winterworx, safety was paramount. Except when it wasn’t. 

The autogyro design was still being dialed in, but the current model was the one. From here on out, it was all about refinement and finishing. Bucky paused for a moment to take it all in. The craft had a shiny aluminium skin with no paint, to save weight. There were two seats in the front, surrounded by a molded and reinforced aluminium body. The right seat was for the pilot and the left seat was for the gunner. The gunner had a one hundred and twenty degree angle of fire available, with the front, the left side, and some of the left rear all accessible. There was a single rear seat in the back, then the engine and mechanical, then the airscrew. The rear gunner seat was the ground pounder seat. With the airscrew in the rear of the craft, the rear gun had been angled downwards, to shoot targets on the ground as the craft flew over. 

It had been a difficult design choice. A fourth seat, for the right gunner had been considered, but it made the craft heavy and put too much weight on the forward section. So the gunning was stuck at some odd angles. 

On this model, no guns had yet been mounted, but the mounts were there for mock ups so more testing could be done. The testing was important. There had been so much testing done already and the craft had never even left the ground. 

“That’s amazing,” Scootaloo whispered. 

“You’re going to fly it.” Bucky reached out and nudged the little orange pegasus filly beside him. She was growing up so fast. Twilight, Rainbow, and Flash wouldn’t have her for much longer. “I’m going to sit in the gunner seat in the front and I’ll be able to take over the controls if I need to.” 

Scootaloo did not reply, but just stood there, open mouthed. 

“We call this particular prototype ‘The Shootaloo.’ She’s built for speed and maneuverability and with her heavy gun mounts, she’ll provide blistering offense.” Lugnut reached out and patted the well polished aluminum skin. “She’s part of the Crusader class of autogyros, which were made with a crew of three in mind.”

“There’s others?” Scootaloo asked. 

“Well, there are others still in prototype stages. ‘The Shooty Belle’ is our arcano-tech model, she has blend of magic and tech. And then there is ‘The Apple Doom.’ She’s our bomber and cargo model, built for work and a heavy load.” Spanner adjusted his goggles and then climbed in the rear gunner seat. Reaching out his talons, he helped to pull his mate, Lugnut, up and into the seat beside him. 

“Helmet and goggles. I don’t want your parents killing me,” Bucky said to Scootaloo. After cracking a half crazed smile, he added, “Or you, for that matter. I have a lot of hopes and dreams for you as a pilot. I need you around for my plan.” 

“Plan?” Scootaloo asked as she ran over to the pilot seat, stood up, and peered over the edge. 

“In time. That’s serious stuff. We’ll deal with that later. Now is time for fun stuff.” 

Scootaloo put on her goggles and then plopped the helmet down upon her head, smacked it into place with her hoof, and then scrambled over the side of the aircraft into the pilot seat. She settled in and began to familiarise herself with the controls. Pedals, a flight stick, a few levers, some gauges, and a few buttons. All simple. As she did this, Bucky sat down beside her in the gunner’s seat. There was a padded divider separating them and it was also a place where seatbelts were anchored. Not needing to be told, she strapped herself in. 

“We’re not moving,” Bucky said with a teasing smile on his muzzle. 

“Right.” Scootaloo nodded. She began to look at the labels for the buttons and levers. “Contact!” she shouted as she pressed the broad ignition button with her hoof. Nothing happened, but there was now a buzz. “Contact?” She waited, not knowing what was happening, and then, with a shudder, the autogyro came to life. 

“The engine had to heat itself,” Lugnut said in a loud voice, speaking over the engine, offering an explanation, “so that the cylinders would be ready for fuel. Give it a moment and we’ll be ready to go. The blue handled lever is the brake.” 

“Gotcha!” Scootaloo replied in an excited voice. 

Waiting, wondering if Scootaloo would be able to get the craft to take off, Bucky’s nerves made him jittery in a most enjoyable way. While other ponies might not enjoy being in mortal peril, or risking life and limb, Bucky, and Scootaloo as well, both shared an appreciation for danger. 

The engine smoothed out and Scootaloo watched as the engine temperature gauge rose. Beside it, another gauge labeled ‘Available Voltage’ also rose, rising from red, to orange, to yellow, and then with agonising slowness, into the green. The autogyro was far quieter than Scootaloo expected. The arcano-tech gyros were loud, buzzy things, and pony powered autogyros were deafening, clattery things. 

Realising that she was being tested, that Bucky was seeing what she could do, but not telling her anything, Scootaloo released the brake lever. The craft began to roll forwards over the grass and the overhead rotor began to spin as air flowed around it. The craft picked up speed at an alarming rate and she adjusted her steering. 

The craft had more power than she expected and it was difficult to keep it going in a straight line. The control sticks were touchy, twitchy affairs, the slightest movement had a major impact upon the craft. She forced herself to calm down so she wasn’t so jerky and the craft reflected her action—it smoothed out and moved straight ahead, picking up even more speed. The overhead rotor was making a wooshy sound as it grew faster and faster. It was now spinning fast enough to generate some lift, and the craft felt lighter as the wheels bounced over the grass. Each bounce felt as though it went higher than the last. 

And then, after building up speed for quite a ways, the autogyro bounced but did not touch the ground. Startled, scared even, Scootaloo pulled back on the sticks and with a droning buzz, the craft rose up into the air, the overhead rotor tilting and the lift produced by the spinning blades lifted the craft into the sky. 

Her vision blurred and Scootaloo knew that her eyes were brimming over with tears. She tried to blink them away and get herself under control. Crashing would be bad. The craft lifted and picked up speed, no longer held back by rolling over the grass. 

She leveled it out just over the treeline and with a slow, graceful in flight curve, she turned the craft towards Ponyville. She marvelled at her own abilities, surprised by how well she was doing, amazed at how natural everything felt. Passing pegasi kept their distance. Scootaloo wanted to wave, but kept a tight grip on the controls with her fetlocks wrapped around the flight sticks. 

The trees zoomed beneath them and when Scootaloo looked down at her instrument cluster, she saw that they were doing about forty one knots, with the gauge reading ninety knots as the top speed. The air smelled like the hayburger place, the mouth watering scent of fryer grease. Now, both Scootaloo’s mouth and eyes were watering. 

In but a few minutes, they were over Ponyville, a long walk reduced to mere moments. More pegasi were flying around them now, but giving them plenty of room. With a toothy grin upon her face, Scootaloo buzzed over the rooftops, heading straight for the library. 

As they flew past the library tree, Scootaloo watched as Bucky cast a spell. In mere seconds, the library was covered in a thick, blinding fog and a poofy white cloud appeared over it. It began snowing, which covered the ground and the tree at a surprising speed. 

Pulling away, Scootaloo realised that she had to keep Bucky out of trouble. She veered away from the library, but it was too late. Something lavender streaked out of the fog and in no time at all, caught up to them. 

Feeling confident in her control, Scootaloo grinned and waved at Twilight Sparkle, who flew parallel to them. Twilight wasn’t waving—no, she wasn’t, not at all—but shaking her hoof in a threatening gesture at Bucky. At least, Scootaloo hoped it was at Bucky. He was the instigator, she was just the pilot. 

“Good, we have her attention,” Bucky said to Scootaloo in a voice filled with laughter, “now, I want you to evade her. Do whatever you have to.” 

“Evade her? What do you mean—” The words died in Scootaloo’s mouth as Bucky launched an icicle at Twilight Sparkle. Twilight dodged, her lips curled back from her teeth, and then, much to Scootaloo’s worry, she flew right for the autogyro. 

Gripping the controls, Scootaloo poured on more speed, taking them up to seventy knots, and then she took evasive action as a glowing orb of energy went whizzing past her head. 

“Mom’s angry!” Scootaloo shouted. 

“Eh, she’s a bit miffed,” Bucky replied, his head bobbing with agreement. 

“She shot at us!” Scootaloo cried as she made the craft roll over. For a terrifying moment, the sky was below them and Ponyville was above them. From behind her, she heard screaming and somehow, she knew that Lugnut and Spanner were groping one another in terror. As the autogyro rolled, the engine sputtered a bit, but recovered when the craft leveled out. 

“If she shoots you, you’ll be mustached,” Bucky warned. 

“But I don’t wanna mustache!” Scootaloo shouted as she glanced over her shoulder at the alicorn she called mom. When another incoming spell came streaking in, Scootaloo gave the controls a hard yank to the left and for a dizzying moment, they were flying backwards. She had a full view of Twilight, whose horn was glowing. Scootaloo pulled up, angling the craft skyward, and jammed down on the throttle. 

With her head snapping back into the back of her seat, she shot over the top of Twilight, who had to loop around to give chase. Maniacal laughter filled Scootaloo’s ears and she knew, she knew that getting into an aircraft with Bucky had been a terrible mistake. 

Next, she angled the craft downwards, evading another shot that now flew over the top of the overhead rotor. She turned right and buzzed the Ponyville clock tower. As she did so, she felt her stomach clench as gravity’s merciless tugging threatened to make her insides go squirting out. The ground was beneath Bucky and the sky was above her—they were flying sideways and falling for the ground as there was nothing to give lift at this angle. 

She gave the controls a sharp yank, leveled out, and then hauled back with everything she had, which sent the autogyro shooting almost straight up. She felt her stomach threaten to go shooting out of her backside and her eyeballs were sucked back into her skull, she swore she could feel them squishing against her brain. She tried to remember what Rainbow Dash had told her about dealing with gravity’s tyranny. Most pegasi never flew fast enough or hard enough to be punished by gravity. The craft was suffering too, as the engine sputtered from a lack of fuel. At least the airscrew, powered by an electric motor, never stopped turning. 

She pulled back even more and then they were upside down again, with the overhead rotors now facing toward the ground. She kept pulling, straining, the controls felt as though they weighed a ton, the creaking sound of metal being fatigued filled her ears, and the autogyro looped. After much struggle, fighting against the controls, the ground was beneath them once more and the blue sky overhead, just as it should be. 

Without warning, Twilight teleported right in front of them, but left Scootaloo plenty of room to react. Yanking back on the throttle, Scootaloo dropped speed, which caused the autogyro to drop from the sky. She flew beneath Twilight, jammed the throttle to three fourths, and then began to ascend towards the clouds. 

Looking to her right, she saw Twilight flying alongside her, keeping up with ease. She also saw Twilight smiling, and her horn was no longer glowing. Scootaloo relaxed a bit, realised that the time for frantic action was over and she could now enjoy the flight a bit. 

“You did good,” Bucky said to Scootaloo, “you did real good under pressure. I’m impressed.” 

Nodding, Scootaloo knew that Bucky wouldn’t have said anything like that unless he meant it. He was that sort of pony. Twilight was flying close, but not too close. She eased off on the throttle a bit, fell back to a sedate forty knots, and then turned in the direction of the Canterhorn. It was time to buzz Canterlot and see what Bucky might do.
	
	
	
> Chapter 925
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hoping that the quiet would endure was its own special type of desperation, the foolhardy kind. It was an impossible hope, one so fragile and so easy to be crushed, yet Berry Punch clung to this hope as she worked through her checklist. Derpy was keeping the foals pacified somehow, allowing Berry to work. Thistle was proving to be competent help. She had grown, Thistle, she had matured quite a bit and had adjusted to life on the mainland. 

Bucky was occupied and out of the way, he was somepony else’s problem. She didn’t care that he was off creating mischief for somepony else—she was thankful that he wasn’t here at home creating mischief for her, tugging her tail, being flirty, or being a tease. Not wanting to be one to rush to judgment, but Berry could not help but notice that her husband was a good deal more chaotic now; he was playful and disruptive, but that wasn’t such a bad thing. Until it was, like when one was trying to get important work done. 

As she checked off her checklist, she realised that it was time to enlist some help. Berry Punch thought about what to do for a moment, more importantly, she thought about how to do this with some efficiency. There was much that needed to be done for the wedding and every step mattered. Barley had done so much and she owed him. She wanted for him to be happy. He deserved a special moment. 

It bothered her that moments were all that Barley would get. Luna, while she no doubt loved him, would never be able to give him the time that he deserved. She was a very busy pony and there would be so many nights when Barley would be alone. Something about this bothered Berry, it bothered her Berry much, but she had said nothing. 

To preserve the fragile quiet, Berry knew that desperate measures were necessary. Harper was feeling neglect, there was no doubt about that, and she was acting like a bit of a snot. Sukari was also no doubt feeling some neglect. The two yearlings were at a very needy phase. No doubt, Cadance was as well, but Cadance could not partake in what Berry was planning, which probably would not feel very fair. Poor little Cadance had to be watched over, guarded, protected. Thinking about it made Berry feel bad. 

“Piña! Dinky!” Berry cried out, startling Thistle, who was having a quiet moment of recovery while sipping some iced water. She gave the kelpie an apologetic smile and then repeated herself, “Piña! Dinky!” School was out, where was those two? 

After a few minutes, Piña burst into the kitchen, looking distracted and a bit breathless. Unable to help herself, Berry stared at her. Piña was growing. Maturing. The layers of foal fat were disappearing and being replaced with lean muscle. Her legs were a little longer, or at least Berry thought they were. There was a wide grin on Piña’s face. 

“Piña… I have a job for you. A very important, very grown up, very adult job that I am going to trust you with.” Berry paused for a moment and allowed those words to sink in on Piña before she continued, “You and Dinky both are going to deliver some wedding invitations to just a few ponies. Nothing too strenuous. And you’re going to take Harper and Sukari with you. It’s time to be a big sister.” 

Piña’s eyes brightened. “Really?” She blinked a few times and bounced in place. “That sounds great! Wait, whattabout Cadance?” 

A soft sigh escaped Berry. “Piña, darling, while I am sure that Cadance would love to get out and about with you and her sisters, we can’t do that and you know why. She has to be protected. While I am sure that Dinky could do a fine job of protecting Cadance, others might not see it that way.” Berry hoped that a bit of flattery would soothe over any protests from Piña. 

“You’re right,” Piña replied, nodding her head. The little foal looked disappointed. “Poor Cadance. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll be okay. So you want me to look after Harper and Sukari and drag them all over Ponyville while I deliver wedding invites. I can do that.” 

Feeling relieved, Berry nodded. 

“Dinky might be a few minutes. She and Sentinel are talking. He’s having a rough day.” 

Tilting her head to one side, Berry Punch felt a gnawing curiousity about what might be wrong. “Did something happen?” 

“Sentinel had an embarrassing colt problem happen in class and that’s all I’m saying about it. If you want to know more, you can talk to him yourself.” Piña’s cheeks turned a little pinker. “Dinky is helping to get him sorted out. I’m sure she won’t be long and then she and I will wrangle Sukari and Harper and we’ll go out on a grand adventure.” 

“Try not to get into too much trouble,” Berry said to Piña. 

“No promises.” Piña shook her head. “This is the risk you take when you ask me to help.” Piña’s grin became one of mischievous glee. “If things get troublesome, we’ll go to Bon Bon. She’s at work and she can help.” 

Berry nodded and heard Thistle swallowing water. “Piña, there is one part of the job that requires some extra effort. Pinkie Pie. She is invited, but her services as a party planner are not required. She is to be a guest and nothing more. You need to make that clear to her. It might be heart breaking, but you need to make her understand that she is to be a guest, and not in charge of the wedding. We don’t want some big, crazy shindig. We don’t want no Pinkie party.” 

“Got it, break Pinkie Pie’s heart.” Piña’s grin vanished and she now looked solemn. 

“Be gentle about it!” 

“Right, break Pinkie Pie’s heart and do so gently.” 

A sour look took over Berry’s face. Piña was going to have to learn how to let other ponies down at some point. Might as well be now. Pinkie might cry a bit or be manipulative, but Berry had no doubt that Piña could also cry and be manipulative. Pinkie was no doubt a better player at this game, but perhaps Piña could learn something. 

Staring at Piña, Berry began to have second thoughts about sending Harper and Sukari out with her. At some point, it would need to happen. Yearlings had to be socialised to the big wide world all around them. Harper was a social butterfly, she would be fine, of this Berry had no doubt, but Harper could be devious and she worried about Harper slipping away. As for Sukari, she was so shy and skittish—but at some point, Sukari was going to have to face the world and it would be good for her to learn to depend upon her sisters. 

Unbidden, all of the ways that this could go wrong began to trample through Berry Punch’s mind. She reached up and rubbed her cheek with her hoof as she began to reconsider. She looked over at Thistle, who did not seem to be worried about sending Sukari out into the world. She returned her gaze to Piña. It would be okay. Dinky and Piña could be trusted. 

“Don’t take too long,” Berry said, snapping herself out of her silence. “I’m sure you have homework to do. Rainbow Dash is probably your easiest target, as she should be just outside, wrapping up for the day.”

“Okay,” Piña replied in a chirpy voice. 

“Oh, and Piña?” 

“Yeah?” 

“I love you, you little rascal.” 

“I love you back…” 



 

Looking up, Piña spotted Rainbow Dash. This was going to be easy. Dinky already had the invitation ready for Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Flash. The rainbow maned pegasus was punching clouds and breaking up the makeshift obstacle course that had been assembled over the school. 

Piña waved and waited to be noticed. Sooner or later, Rainbow was bound to look down. If she didn’t well, Dinky would just have to get Rainbow’s attention. Piña sat down in the grass and heard giggling from Harper. 

Rainbow Dash zigzagged a bit and then came streaking down, looking a bit sleek and she had something of a bulge in her middle. Piña of course said nothing, but she wanted to give it a squeeze. Dash didn’t land, but hovered just a few inches off of the ground. 

“What’s up?” she asked. 

Dinky pulled out an envelope addressed to Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Flash Sentry, Glass Slipper, Spike the Dragon, and Scootaloo. She held it up in her magic and presented it to Rainbow Dash. 

“Wedding invitation,” Piña said to Rainbow. “Small quiet ceremony. Not formal.” 

“Sounds good, count us in,” Rainbow replied as she took the invitation. “Barley is finally gonna do it… good for him.” 

“We have a lot to do so we need to be going,” Dinky said as Sukari stared up at Rainbow Dash with wide, almost unblinking eyes. “We have to go and give Pinkie Pie an invitation and tell her that she’s a guest.” 

“Oh…” Rainbow Dash looked worried. “Good luck with that.” 

Piña nodded. “Thanks!” 



 

“Auntie Rayray?” Harper asked as she followed along behind Sukari, moving the confused and somewhat befuddled zebra filly along. “We see Auntie Rayray?” Harper’s eyes were lost, invisible under the tsunami of frizzy orange curls spilling off of her head. 

It was a great mystery how Harper saw anything. 

“Yes, we’re going to see Auntie Rayray,” Piña replied as she pranced along the long road into Ponyville. Harper loved Rarity with a strange, almost fanatical devotion. It could be said that Harper was obsessed with Rarity and loved to visit. 

“No Peekaboo.” Harper bumped into Sukari to keep her moving and her curls bobbed. 

“Nope, no Peekaboo on this trip. Just us.” Dinky slowed a bit and fell into step beside Sukari, who looked a bit alarmed and eyed the trees all around them. “It’ll be okay, Suki… try not to worry.” 

“It’s a big world and not all of it is bad.” Piña also fell back a bit and walked on the other side of Sukari, sandwiching her in. She felt bad for the little zebra filly as she looked at Sukari’s scarred face. The filly had seen cruelty, she had endured abuse, she had suffered. 

But she had also survived. Now, she was recovering. Every day, she seemed just a little bit better. She was starting to smile now, and play, she liked being brushed and having tea parties. Sometimes she even talked to her stuffed animals. Piña didn’t quite know what to make of everything, she didn’t understand everything, but she knew that Sukari was getting better. 

Piña had her own scars, she was aware of that now. It was something she had trouble putting into words, but she was aware of it, she thought about it, reflected upon it. She had endured so much, survived so much, and she had been made tougher. She gave Sukari a gentle bump. 

“You’re gonna be fine,” Piña said into Sukari’s ear. “Just stick with us and everything will be okay, Suki.”

“Yeah, okay!” Harper chirped. “Rayray time soonsies.” 



 

Carousel Boutique had a sale sign in the window, something made with glitter and markers. It was rather obvious that Sweetie Belle had made the sign. A pony walked out as Piña approached and she could see inside for a moment. A whiff of perfume and laundry soap wafted out of the boutique and made her feel light headed. There was another scent as well, something fragrant, something delicate, something that made Piña think of Coco; the scent of tea. This was something graceful and elegant, like something Violet Velvet would make for special occasions. 

She pushed the door open, stepped inside, and waited for her siblings to follow her. She was pushed aside by Harper, who exploded through the door in a riot of springy, kinky curls and loud over-excited giggles. 

“Rayray!” Harper shrieked as her hooves scrabbled over the floor. She almost slipped, skidding sideways, recovered, and then flew right for Rarity, who braced herself for exuberant affection. “Rayray o’ sunshine!” 

“Harper!” 

There was nopony else in the boutique at the moment and Piña was glad that Harper was getting a chance to have Rarity’s undivided attention. Hearing hooves, she turned and watched as Coco entered the room. There was a serene smile upon Coco’s face. 

“Hello, dears,” Coco said in greeting, “how are all of you? Sukari… what are you doing here?” Coco’s soft voice had a calming, soothing effect upon the anxious zebra filly. “Sukari, come here and give me a hug.” 

After a moment of apprehensive hesitation, Sukari scooted over to where Coco waited and when Coco sat down on the floor, the little filly embraced the quiet, demure mare and squeezed once she had her forelegs around Coco’s neck. 

“What brings all of you out our way?” Coco asked as she snuggled with Sukari. 

“Wedding invitations,” Dinky replied as she pulled the whole stack of them out of her saddlebag. She flipped through them and pulled the one addressed to Rarity and Coco. “Come as you are, this isn’t a big formal event.” 

“Oooh, fabulous… it will be nice to let my mane down… this week has been very stressful… and Bucky went flying by earlier in that confounded contraption… had the whole town in a tizzy! What was he thinking?” Rarity puckered up her lips and planted an affectionate kiss upon Harper’s cheek. “This mane of yours darling… I do wonder sometimes if there is something that could be done with it.” 

“Make Harpy pretty?” Harper asked. 

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Oh, Miss Heartstrings, you are already so very pretty!” 

“Okay, Dinky, who do we hit up next?” Piña looked over at Dinky, who was looking at a gown. Dinky appeared to be distracted and there was no reply. “Dinky?” 

“Huh? Oh… Fluttershy and Discord—”

“Auntie Disco?” Harper’s inquiry came out in a voice that sounded hopeful. 

“Darling, I thought I was your favourite auntie.” Rarity’s voice was the perfect impression of mock distress. Her lower lip protruded in a moue and then, much to Rarity’s amusement, Harper copied her expression with perfect accuracy. “You are going to grow up and be so beautiful, darling.” 

“Harpy knows this.” 

Rolling her eyes, Dinky snorted and then let out a laugh. 

“Before you go, would you like a cookie?” Coco asked Sukari. “There are some black molasses gingersnaps… they are still warm.” 

“Cookie?” Sukari looked hopeful and she licked her lips with her orange tongue. 

Coco’s head bobbed up and down. “Cookie. Just for you, because you are adorable.” 

“I’d like a cookie, please,” Piña said to Coco. “We’d be thankful for a cookie.” 

“Coco! Give them some cookies!” Rarity turned her blue eyes upon Coco and gave the soft spoken mare a pleading, sad-eyed look. After a moment of staring at Coco, she turned to Dinky and Piña so she could ask, “Do you have time for a glass of milk?” 

“I’m sure we do,” Dinky replied. “Thank you for the snack. We appreciate it.” 

Her cheeks turning pink, Coco smiled and gave Sukari another squeeze. “I think I like taking care of foals.” She paused, touching her side while looking thoughtful and contemplative. Being the quiet sort, she said nothing but held Sukari, her eyelids fluttering like butterflies in a warm spring breeze. 

A concerned look caused a few wrinkles to appear in the corners of Rarity’s eyes. She held Harper up in front of her face and looked the foal in the eye. “Harper, darling, stay away from mirrors… you know what happened the last time… I’m still not sure I trust them!” 



 

On the road to Fluttershy’s cottage, Harper practiced her pronking, trying to follow Piña’s lead. Pink ponies pronked; it was was something that came natural to them, or so Piña had told Harper. Sukari was starting to relax a little bit, but remained close to Dinky. Some of the residents of Ponyville were still skittish about zebras. While nopony had said anything, some had stared, which had caused Sukari, who was self conscious about her appearance, some concern. 

For Dinky, this was a welcomed day. The world was starting to feel safe again, like the world had felt before they had left to the Shetlands. Dinky knew that the world hadn’t been safe then, at least she did on some level, but now, she was more aware of the dangers that lurked, waiting for an opportune time to strike. She couldn’t go back to how things had been, she had seen too much, experienced too much, but she did have an appreciation for when things seemed both calm and peaceful, like now. 

She also knew that the world was getting better, safer. The big threats were being dealt with, leaving behind the little threats, like pony eating spiders and the pop quizzes that threatened to destroy your good grades. Somepony needed to do something about those. 

As the foals drew near to the cottage, a tall serpentine figure came out to greet them. 



 

“Auntie Disco!” 

“Harpy!” Swooping down, Discord scooped up Harper and held her in his paw and talons. He shook her a bit and gave her a tickle, causing her to laugh, and then, still holding Harper, he addressed the others. “What are you doing here?” 

“We have a wedding invitation to deliver,” Piña replied.

“You’ll have to give it to me,” Discord said. “Dearest Fluttershy is sound asleep. Lunacy and Tranquility have wore her out and there was an emergency involving a bear that had a hemorrhoid that Fluttershy had to look after.” The draconequus shuddered. “And you thought that bears were cranky under normal circumstances!” 

Dinky pulled the envelopes out of her saddlebag, grabbed one, and put the last two away. She didn’t know what a hemorrhoid was and she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to know, if Discord found it funny. She peered up at the tall figure that was still holding Harper. Discord’s tail took the envelope and for a moment, Dinky had a very real fear that her father was going to wind up looking a lot like both Fluttershy and Discord. It was a very real fear for her and for reasons why she couldn’t explain, it filled her with dread. 

“We’ll try to make it, but being creatures of chaos with two little bundles of chaos, it can be very difficult to accomplish anything,” Discord said in a voice that contained no trace of mirth. He slumped over a bit, looking very tired, and looked Harper in the eye as he held her. “Auntie Disco is worn out, Harpy. You look well. Electrocute somepony yet today?” 

“Not yet,” Harper replied. 

“Good deal.” Discord gave the forthright foal a nod of approval. “You smell like gingersnap cookies.” 

“Yep.” Harper gazed into Discord’s eyes with unabashed affection. 

“Well then, off with you… all of you… you had cookies, but not a one of you thought to bring me one.” Discord put Harper down upon the ground. “Shoo! I have work to do. Great work. Perhaps the greatest work any draconequus could aspire to. I am going to make Fluttershy’s chickens lay colourful decorated eggs!” 

“What?” Piña asked, confused. 

“Away with you!” Discord made a dismissive gesture and waved Piña away. “Really, foals these days! No respect!” 

Just as Piña tried to protest, just as she tried to say something, Discord snapped his talons and then the world smelled like cheese, but not in a good way. Stinky cheese, left in the sun, smelly, repugnant, horrible cheese that made a pony feel nauseous but some ponies who just weren’t right in the head still ate it anyway, because they were weirdos and some ponies were just born wrong.

And then, Piña found herself someplace else… 



 

Piña stood inside of Sugarcube Corner, looking at some very surprised ponies that were busy looking back at her. There was a lot of blinking, as ponies tended to do when faced with something that surprised them, stumped them, shocked them, or times when they just didn’t know how to react. 

“Harpy smelled cheese.” 

“Yes, Harper, I think we all smelled cheese,” Dinky said to her younger sister. 

“I miss being a turtle.” Sukari stood frozen, there was no place to hide, there were ponies on all sides and no matter which way she went, ponies were able to stare at her. She pressed up against Dinky and tried to wait it out. Then, without warning, she sneezed because of the lingering scent of cheese. 

“We came to deliver a wedding invitation,” Piña said, explaining their sudden appearance. “Don’t mind us, no reason to panic, Discord, uh, he did this.” Upon saying these words, Piña noticed that everypony calmed down and behaved as if everything was normal. 

She also noticed that there was a chubby griffon eating cake in a corner booth. 

Pinkie Pie came stumbling out of the kitchen, looking exhausted. Her eyelids sagged and she looked weary. She trudged over to where Piña stood, looked for a moment, yawned, and then sat down upon the floor. 

“My Pinkie sense says I’m about to get invited to something.” Pinkie sounded half asleep. 

Licking her lips, Piña swallowed, and then prepared herself. “Uh, Pinkie Pie, Berry Punch wants you as a guest at the wedding. Not as a planner, or in charge, or running the party, or anything—” 

“Really?” Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Just a guest? That’d be great… I’m party pooped.” 

Sukari and Harper both giggled at the word ‘pooped.’ 

“You’re okay with this?” Piña asked. 

“Spring.” Pinkie rolled her eyes and waved with her hoof, as if she was dismissing something. “Soooooooooooooo many foals born in the spring. Too many. So many birthdays. I can’t keep up. I’m sick and tired of parties. I just wanna be a guest.” 

“Well,” Dinky said as she pulled out Pinkie’s invitation, “this all works out then. Nothing will be expected of you at the party. Just show up and have fun.” 

“Great!” Pinkie let out a cheerful but weary sounding sigh, snatched the invite, and then it vanished when she tucked it into her mane. “Cheesy and I will be there and somepony else can throw a party for a change.” 

Dinky was just about to say something when she heard a faint, somewhat lispy voice say her name. “Dinky.” She turned and saw Twist. Almost right away, Dinky felt tongue tied and a bit awkward, and she didn’t know why. She stood there, stammering, unable to say anything. 

“Do you think you can help me with my homework?” Twist asked. 

Dinky stared, she wanted to help Twist with her homework, she really, really did, but she had Harper and Sukari to look after, and her own homework, and there was so much left to do, Applejack still needed an invite, and—” 

“Please?” Twist looked hopeful. “I don’t understand the social studies assignment we have.” 

“Dinky, I can look after Sukari and Harper… I think she needs your help.” Piña gave Dinky a helpful shove towards Twist. “Have a nice time you two, I need to go. Come on, Sukari and Harper.” 

“Buhbootles!” Harper said, waving. 

“Huh?” Pinkie looked confused and tilted her head to one side. 

“Buhbye and tootles all mixed together,” both Dinky and Piña said at the same time. 

“Oh, that makes sense.” Pinkie nodded. “Buhbootles!” 

And with that, Piña made good her exit, taking her smaller siblings with her and leaving Dinky behind. 





Sweet Apple Acres rose up from the road ahead like a pop up castle in a foal’s pop up storybook. Piña felt her pace quicken when she saw the orchard. She liked this place, she liked the ponies here, and she, like most ponies, had a fondness for apples. Sukari walked on her left and Harper on her right. Sukari seemed to be doing okay, she stayed close, but appeared to have relaxed a little, for which Piña was thankful. 

Off in the distance, she saw Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara off doing something, Diamond Tiara was hooked up to a wagon. It was springtime, so there was lots of work to do on a working farm, and hours to do homework would be scarce. She waved and kept going. 

The sweet smell of apple blossoms were heavy in the air and something about the whole thing made Piña wish that Larch and Babs were here with her. Distracted, she did not notice that part of her wish had been granted, as Larch was just but several yards away, doing work in exchange for a few bits, as well as getting in Applejack’s good graces. As for the other half of her wish, Babs was indoors, wrestling with a complex astronomy assignment. 

No doubt about it, with Granny Smith gone, this was Applejack’s farm now. 

As Piña approached, Applejack herself strolled out to greet her, and much to Piña’s shock and surprise, Applejack was hatless. The orange mare was wet and her mane clung to her neck, forming serpentine tendrils. 

“Howdy.” Applejack came to a stop and smiled. “The new well is giving me trouble.” 

“Sorry to hear that,” Piña replied. “I have a wedding invitation for—drats!” 

“What?” Applejack’s eyebrow arched. 

“I was supposed to deliver a wedding invitation to you, but it is sitting in Dinky’s saddlebag, and she’s off with Twist.” Piña gave Applejack a sheepish grin.

“That’s okay,” Applejack replied. “No sense worrying about it, Piña. Just bring it by whenever or send it home with Apple Bloom. You doing okay?” 

“I’m fine.” Piña smiled.

Beside Piña, Sukari let out a whimper as she looked at the wooden carts. The zebra filly’s eyes glimmered with both tears and worry. Piña, noticing this, stopped smiling and thought about what to do. 

“I think I need to go… I think Sukari is getting upset.” 

“It appears that way,” Applejack replied. She gave herself a shake, whipped her mane out of her face, and then whipped her tail a few times to get some of the water out. “Sukari, darling, you gonna be okay?” 

“Wanna go home.” Sukari turned her big wide eyes upon Piña and gave her a pleading look. “Home now.” 

“Okay.” Piña gave the filly a reassuring nudge. “Sorry, Applejack, but I think I need to go. Sometimes, stuff just sets her off. She can’t help it. I’d love to stay longer, but she looks really upset.” 

“I ain’t in the mood to deal with that confounded well, so I’ll tell ya what. I’ll walk you home and see if I can’t make little Suki feel better.” Applejack looked down at the zebra filly, lowered her head, and booped Sukari on the nose. “How’s that sound?” 

“Home,” Sukari said, making a single minded reply. 

“Let me go and get my hat… ponies might freak out if they saw me without it…” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 926
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Moving with an extra bounce in her step, Thistle trotted over to where a group of ponies had gathered around a strange flying contraption that she couldn’t remember the name of. Bucky was laughing while talking to both Applejack and Twilight. Twilight was giggling, and Applejack had a wide grin that could be seen a mile away. A country mile, even. 

“—and so Princess Celestia comes out of the castle and goodness, she is angry!” Twilight’s wings fluttered at her sides while she spoke and her ears twitched with eager energy. “I still don’t know how Bucky made it rain lemon curd—” 

“Lemon curd!” Harper shouted. 

“Yeah, lemon curd.” Scootaloo leaned her head down and sniffed her foreleg. She gave herself a lick, then nodded. “Lemon curd.” 

“Hey, Scoots, you had the bright idea to fly through it, hoping that the guard wouldn’t follow you.” Bucky lowered his head down and his eyes narrowed as his grin widened. “You did good… real good.” 

Thistle was intercepted by Sukari, who hurried over and then clung to Thistle’s leg, slowing the kelpie down. The little striped filly seemed upset, something was bothering her, and Thistle wondered what had happened. 

“I’m heading home… I need a hot bath, ‘cause I’m covered in lemon curd.” Twilight glanced at Bucky, a bold impish grin on her face, and she added, “We need to do that again sometime, Bucky. It was great fun, taunting the old mare up on the hill.” 

“It was indeed.” Bucky nodded, his grin vanished, and he looked very solemn and serious. “Where did Piña go? She was just here?” 

“She went off, lookin’ for Larch,” Applejack replied. 

A smile once again graced Bucky’s muzzle. “Goodbye, Twilight. See you later, Scootaloo.” 

Thistle waved and watched them go as Sukari clung to her foreleg. She noticed that Applejack was watching as Twilight departed as well. Harper was bouncing around in the grass, no doubt hopped up on sugar, and static electricity crackled through her curly mane. Spanner and Lugnut were giving the flying contraption a once over, checking over everything, making certain that nothing had broke. 

There was a loud screech, followed by a squawk, and when Thistle whirled around, almost dislodging Sukari as she did so, she saw Boadicea flying as fast as her wings could flap and Lugus streaking along after her. The little griffoness was laughing, and Lugus looked extra sparkly… he was covered in glitter. 

Far behind them, Peekaboo half flew, half ran, her wings buzzing and her little legs pumping as she struggled to keep up. Seeing her erstwhile playmate, Harper took off with a shout. A moment later, Yew Wood appeared, also covered in glitter.

“Get her, Lugus!” Yew commanded. 

Boadicea zigzagged, trying to evade Lugus, and she let out a defiant crow. Thistle giggled, unable to help herself, and she felt Bucky brush up against her side. She glanced over at him for a moment, and then returned to watching the spectacle. She could only guess what had happened, but she knew it involved glitter. 

“Say, Thistle…” 

“What?” Thistle sensed trouble, Bucky was whispering. 

“What would you get if you sat down in a pile of glitter?” 

Thistle considered Bucky’s words, wondering what he was getting at. Her tail swished from side to side and she could hear Applejack laughing. She looked over at Bucky and said, “I dunno, Bucky, tell me.” 

“A glittoris—” 

“Bucky!” Thistle bared her teeth at her husband. “Little ears!”

“She didn’t hear me,” Bucky said in a defensive voice. 

“Glittoris.” Sukari tilted her head and looked up at Bucky while Applejack snickered. 

“Bucky, you fiend!” Thistle bit her lip, mindful of her needle sharp teeth, and tried not to laugh. “Bad! Bad pony! For shame!” 

“I don’t have to take this.” Bucky let out a haughty sniff, a mischievous smile was still plastered upon his muzzle, and ignoring Thistle, he pried Sukari off of Thistle’s leg. “Come here, Sukari. Let me brushy brushy you and tell you all about how I covered Canterlot in lemon curd.” 

“And go look after Cadance while you are at it,” Thistle said as Bucky walked away, leading Sukari along. “She’s sulky right now because she didn’t get to go anywhere.” The kelpie found herself wishing that Bucky was still at her side, touching her. For a moment, her mind wandered, and she thought about the long, lonesome days in the loch. The painful days. Her smile faltered for a moment, one ear twitched, but then she recovered. Her smile returned as she thought of her family, of Bell Heather, of Sukari, and of those she loved. 

“It’s far too excitin’ on this here farm… I dunno how y’all get anything done…” 





“We need to get another game going,” Piña said to Larch, who was sitting in the grass beside her. She looked over at her companion and found that he was staring at her, his eyes wide, his ears erect, and he had a dopey grin on his face. Colts. 

He sat there, not saying anything, and Piña pondered this strange new power that she seemed to have over her friend. There was quite a ruckus in the background, but she tuned that out with little effort. Larch had this strange, stupid-happy look on his face, and it left Piña mystified. She found that she liked seeing him happy. 

“I think I failed my saving throw versus romance—” 

“Larch, you’re a nerd.” Piña began giggling and no matter what she did, she couldn’t hold it back. It bubbled forth like springwater and it made her feel good. “What has gotten into you, Larch?” 

“I keep staring at your mouth… it’s amazing. I keep watching you talk and the way your lips move… I like it.” 

Piña felt her pinkness intensify. A warm blush spread over her face, down her neck, and through her barrel. She turned away from Larch, no longer able to look at him, and now her giggles were nervous ones. 

“I like hearing you talk,” Larch admitted. “Babs too.” The colt blinked a few times. “We really should get together for a big gaming session. Maybe we can get Lyra to play with us. I like Lyra. She’s nice.”

“Yeah, she is.” Piña nodded and tried to ignore the fact that her heart was pounding in her chest. There was also a lot of screaming and squawking going on. She didn’t know what it was, but she wished that it would stop—it was threatening to ruin what she thought was a perfect moment. Somepony or somebirdy was shouting about glitter bombs. 

Feeling equal parts bravery and terror, Piña leaned over, puckered up, and kissed Larch on the cheek, catching him right on the corner of his mouth. She felt him stiffen and as she pulled away, she saw his face growing dark. 

“Thank you for making me feel pretty,” Piña said. 



 

Cadance sat on the window bench in her most regal pose, looking as though she was holding court. The kitchen was a busy place, but she stayed out of the way and out from underhoof. She sat, radiating love, and Crisis, who sat on the floor, was basking in it. The little pink filly marvelled at the strange power she held over her sibling. 

As Cadance radiated love, Crisis’ pelt undulated and rippled, changing colours, a whole riotous rainbow spectrum of colours. It was like invisible raindrops landing in the water, a dot of colour would appear upon Crisis’ pelt, and then that colour would go rippling out, colliding with other rippling colours, and those colours would meld together. Blues and yellows would become green. Reds and blues would become purples. Yellows and reds would become vibrant shades of dazzling orange. 

And Cadance could turn the dizzying display on and off by radiating love. 

The grown ups were over at the kitchen table, trying to get something done, and Cadance hoped that she wasn’t being a distraction. She could hear them talking, they spoke of love, they kept saying the word ‘wedding’ and Cadance loved the word wedding. She liked having her stuffies get married. Love was a natural state of affairs for Cadance.

There was a clunk of a teacup and the metallic clatter of a spoon. Cadance’s ears perked and her head turned. A foal she might be, but she was still a regal, majestic creature, and the sun shining through the kitchen window caused her to cast a long, noble shadow over the floor. 

“I’m not worried about getting married… I don’t really care about that… but I am worried about reaching Larch. I don’t know how to get through to him. I don’t know how to make him understand that I care and that I want him to be happy.” 

Cadance’s ears swiveled. She could feel frustrated love. Somepony had a lot of love to give, but they didn’t feel loved back. It was a special pain all of its own and as Cadance thought about it, her mind trying to process the complexities of such complicated thoughts, she thought about Crisis. Crisis just wanted to be loved. She needed it to survive, to be healthy and happy. It shouldn’t matter that Crisis was a bug. 

“Give him time.” There was a pause and there was more clinking as a spoon stirred within a teacup. “He’ll come around. He’s a colt and he’s at that age when colts are standoffishy.” 

The front door opened and Cadance’s head turned. She waited, her ears quivering, hoping to hear the sound of her father’s voice. Her ears twitched at the sound of hooves—and the scratching of claws. 

“I need food ‘fore I wither up and die!” 

Cadance bounced off of the wooden bench and landed beside Crisis. Together, both foals took off, scrambling over the smooth kitchen floor, both trying to head for the front door, both of them wanting to see their father. 

“Making it rain lemon curd all over Canterlot is exhausting work… it takes a lot out of a pony!” 



 

Sitting in his chair, Barley O’Blivion was all too aware of all the fuss going on, and it was all for him. He felt a little guilty—Berry was one busy mother—but he supposed it couldn’t be helped. Even a small ceremony took work and effort—but work and effort took a mother away from her wee bairns. 

“Aye, wee Pinchy, I’m a shite,” Barley said with a somewhat drunken slur to the foal he cradled in his forelegs. “E’en worse, I’m an auld shite, I am, ye wee nipper. Ye ain’t bit me pegs in a while, but you left some marks, so I’ll not soon forget.” 

The little pink unicorn, who was rocked by her uncle, let out a thunderous belch that made the glass figurines on the mantle rattle. The elder unicorn smiled, nodding his head, and his iron grey forelock spilled down onto his face. 

“Ach, crivens, yer frogsong is a wee too much liken yer ol’ mither.” Barley waxed maudlin, his old long face becoming sad. “I wish I knew what ta tell ye, wee Pinchy, but yer mither, she was a right shite as well, with a right sodden, rotten crotch. Aye, this family, I tells ya, we’re a collection of right shites… real gits… lunatics, alcoholics, madponies, ravers, and rabble rousers.” The old stallion drew in a deep breath. “Yer old mither, she done wronged ye, ye wee nipper of other ponies’ pegs. A part of me still loves her, but I cannae forgive her for what she’s done ta ye. We’re supposed to be better than that, but it seems we ain’t. Moonshiner’s Haint… it haints me and makes me old bones feel rotten.” 

A single tear that reeked of whiskey rolled down Barley’s cheek. 

He bounced the foal he held in his forelegs, cradled against his barrel, and he kicked out his old, creaky hind legs. He lifted the snifter sitting beside his chair to his lips, tilted his head back, and emptied it in one gulp. He sucked in a deep breath, wheezing, and gritted his teeth as the pale amber liquid burned him, searing his throat. 

“Ach, crivens, it tastes of auld fishy crotches, bitumen, iodine, and tannin. It shouldae stayed in the barrel for a while longer.” He shuddered, squeezed his eyes shut, belched, and then opened his eyes so he could look down at his niece, who let out a cooing sound. His eyes watered, whether from his tears or the auld fishy crotches flavoured whiskey, it was impossible to tell. “I shouldae done more… I should have been there for you… and for wee Piña too… I went away and left Berry and I shouldae stayed… I shouldae done what I preached, ye see. I complain about how this family was, but I… I ain’t no better. I went off and left.” 

“But you came back.” 

Barley looked up and saw Berry standing in the archway. He belched, shuddered from the taste, and another whiskey scented tear rolled down his cheek. His other cheek this time. He blinked his red, bloodshot eyes, and focused on his other beloved niece. 

“You got a little loud,” Berry said in a Berry patient voice. “We could hear you in the kitchen.” The plum coloured mare took a few steps into the living room, her curly mane bouncing. “You came back, right when I needed you. When we all needed you. Barley, let’s face it, our family isn’t what you would call sane. We all deal with life in our own way. Now, the best of us have settled down.” 

“Aye, we has.” Barley nodded. 

“And we have a chance to do better.” 

“Aye, we do.” Barley nodded again. 

“If you keep drinking and talking to Berry Pinch, she’s gonna end up talking funny.” Berry Punch’s eyebrows furrowed. “Nopony will ever understand a word she has to say.” 

“Would it be so bad?” Barley grinned, revealing somewhat worn down teeth. A long life lived with hard grains showed in his smile. 

“Nae, ‘twouldn’t be so bad, ye auld bowfer.” Berry blinked and crossed the room. She stood near Barley’s chair, looking fondly upon her old uncle. 

“I dinnae stink!” Barley squinted one eye at his niece. 

“Ye auld fart, ye gots a reek that could be set ablaze with a match!” 

Both Berry and Barley laughed. Berry’s barrel hitched as she chuckled and Barley leaned back in his chair, relaxing a bit. Berry Pinch, shaken by the old pony’s laughter, let out another thunderous, resonating, gurgling belch that once more made the glass figurines on top of the mantle rattle. 

Right away, she began to cry. 

“Aye, I think she’s empty,” Barley said to Berry. “‘Twas the only thing making her feel full, the gas.” 

Nodding, Berry sat back on her haunches, reached out, and pulled Berry Pinch from Barley’s embrace. She held the foal for a moment, buried her nose into the unicorn’s filly’s mane, and inhaled her scent. Berry then almost sneezed, because Berry Pinch smelled like Barley, who reeked of whiskey. 

“I’m glad I came back…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 927
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was, perhaps, the perfect spring day, but Sentinel, try as he might, could not seem to enjoy it. There was a lot of fuss and commotion going on, a wedding was being planned and there was so much to do. He couldn’t seem to enjoy that either. He sat upon a stone situated on the edge of the small lake behind the house, staring into the wind-rippled water, and a little pink earth pony sat beside him. 

The pink earth pony, who had plenty of chores back on Sweet Apple Acres, had told a little fiblet to get out of them, saying that she had a project to work on with Sentinel. There was no such project, no, she was worried about her friend, as Sentinel seemed to be having a terrible, no good, rotten day. But try as she might, she couldn’t get him to talk about it. 

So now she sat beside him, rolling her eyes, her muzzle crinkled with frustration, wishing that he would just spill his guts. She was supposed to be working, and already, the guilt for her teeny, tiny little fiblet was gnawing at her earth pony insides. She kept doing bad things, and she knew she was doing bad things, and she knew that foals that did bad things and knew they were bad things grew up to become bad ponies, a fate she wanted to avoid at all costs. But life was complicated, yes, life was tricky, and sometimes, one had to twist the rules a little bit to make life bearable. 

“I’ve made a mess of things,” Sentinel said in a breathy sigh as he stared down into the waters of the lake. “I’ve made a real mess of things. I was so caught up in trying to be an adult… to be grown up… to be the pony that everypony thinks I am, and I’ve made an awful mistake.” 

“Sentinel, I don’t follow.” 

“I’m not an adult. And I don’t want to be. After everything that’s happened… after… everything… losing my eye… almost dying… I want to be a foal again and not have to worry about so many adult things. I’ve blown it.” As he spoke, his ears drooped and his surviving eye narrowed, squinting in the sun, as he was not wearing his glasses. 

“Sentinel, you haven’t been yourself lately.” 

“I know, right? I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t think I’ve ever known who I am. I’ve spent my whole short life trying to be what others thought I was. And now, I’m stuck. I am everything others wanted me to be.” 

“But I thought that you wanted this?”

“I wanted this because this is what others wanted for me.” 

“Sentinel—” 

“I was so caught up in the sense of duty that has been pounded into my head since…. since I don’t know when. As long as I can remember. And now, I am stuck in a mess, a real mess, and I’m being treated like an adult now, and I’m expected to do adult things, and I can’t even be mad about it, because I did this to myself.” 

Diamond Tiara did not know what to say. She thought about all of the things her therapist might say. She thought about what Rarity and Coco might say, voices of wisdom that she trusted. She thought about the earthy, common sense wisdom that Applejack might go on about. But none of that seemed to apply here. 

Beside her, Sentinel lept off of the rock and with a loud squish, he landed in the mud on the edge of the lake. Diamond Tiara looked down at Sentinel and saw that he was scooping up mud with his hoof. He was scooping up mud with his hoof and he was—

“Sentinel, what are you doing?” Diamond Tiara demanded, fearful for her perfect pink pelt. “Sentinel, don’t you dare! Sentinel, act your age!” She felt her nethers clench in fear. It was the very worst sort of mud, filled with alicorns know what, it was scummy, slimy, and oh so very gross. 

“I am,” Sentinel replied as he hurled a blob of black, gooey mud, scooped up fresh from the mucky shore of the lake. “And you are about to act your age as well. This is for our own good, Diamond…” 

“Sentinel! You fiend! You’ve fallen into evil!” 



 

Hidden away in his office at the top of the tower, Bucky paced back and forth, knowing what he must do, but dreading that it must be done. There was work to be done, there was always work to be done, and as usual, it fell upon his withers to get it done. He had a plan, but it was one of those sorts of plans that Bucky knew that others would not understand, at least not until it was already in place and somewhat functional. 

No one would allow him to do what it is he planned to do, not unless he could show them that it was practical, feasible, and a worthwhile idea. The real trick was not getting caught before he could implement it and get the foundation of said plan laid into place. This meant making sacrifices, painful sacrifices, which is why he paced back and forth through his office, knowing what must be done. 

He would have but a short window once he set his plan in motion and he had to be quick. The only real crime he could commit any more was getting caught. He took a deep breath, prepared himself, checked to see if the door was locked, and then let go with a flurry of spells. 

For this to work, he had to be rid of a troublesome part of his anatomy, the annoying little tattletale that quite literally kept an eye on him. He shrouded himself in nondetection magic, blocking as much as he could, hoping that it would be enough, and then he sealed the room around him, preventing entry. At least, he hoped that it would be prevented. There were a few that might punch through his defenses. 

When he was satisfied that he was secure enough, Bucky went to work on his problem. Using his magic, he began to pull out his own eye, the Eye of Odin. The eye, being a sentient entity, resisted his efforts. The first thing it did was flood his skull with waves of agonising pain in a dedicated effort to make him stop what he was doing. Bucky hoped that the eye was unable to communicate with Odin right now, or he would be screwed. He hoped that his defenses held. 

“Out you go!” Bucky snarled as he tugged upon the now unwelcomed organ. 

It felt as though he was trying to pull out his own brain. Within seconds, the entirety of his pelt was soaked with sweat and his whole body trembled as he continued his battle of wills with the Eye of Odin. It was fused with his body, both physically and magically. Breaking those bonds would be difficult, if not outright impossible. 

He bombarded the eye with as much dispelling magic as he could muster, hoping he could disrupt its defenses. He could feel something that was almost like the sensation of tentacles writhing through the inside of his head, as if the eye was trying to get a better grip. If worst came to worst, he had a weapon he could fall back upon… 

A spoon. 

Being the sort of well prepared individual that he was, he had enchanted a spoon just for this occasion, but he wasn’t sure what it would do to him. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to fall back upon such a barbaric, horrifying method. Even though it was awful to think about, Bucky had prepared for just such an occasion. 

The battle with his eye, no, Odin’s eye, was already exhausting him far more than he expected. This needed to end and soon, so that he would have the strength he needed for the task still to come. Reaching out with his talons, Bucky grabbed the spoon from on top of his desk, got a good grip on the handle, and then, much to his shock and surprise, his eye popped out. 

He caught it in his magic, his barrel heaving, and he had trouble focusing upon it. His vision blurred from pain and he waited for it to pass. The eye had to be contained, and quick. He stuffed it into a box he had prepared for this occasion, slammed the lid, and sealed the lock. It was only a matter of time now. Odin would soon realise that something was wrong and then, the gig would be up. 

It was time for some final preparations. 



 

Shrieking, Diamond Tiara splattered Sentinel with mud, hurling it at him with all of the fury of a muddied pink filly. The slick black goop sucked at her hooves, making it difficult to move, or even stand. It took real effort to pull her hoofsies free from the sludge. Sentinel was cheating and using his wings to fling mud at her. 

But Diamond Tiara had ways and means. She was an earth pony and mud was her element, even if she refused to admit it. She lunged at Sentinel, launching her muddy body at him, and she slammed into him with terrific force. With a lewd sounding squelch, he slipped in the muck and she savoured her moment of triumph as she toppled him over into the black mud. 

Squealing, she let Sentinel have it, and began feeding him hoof-fulls of hastily made mud pies. She climbed on top of him, forgetting completely that she was a filly, that he was a colt, and straddling him the way she was, it was something she needed to be mindful about. She was too caught up in the moment. The mud was cold, so very cold, but Sentinel was warm beneath her, the contrast between hot and cold was titillating to her. 

Much to her surprise, Sentinel was laughing, big belly laughs, a rare sound if ever there was one. She scooped up a big blob of mud in her front hooves and hurled it down upon Sentinel, turning him black and gooey. 

“Whatcha doin’?” 

Hearing the somewhat squeaky voice, Diamond Tiara looked up and saw Harper. The little unicorn filly was standing on top of a stone, the breeze blowing her frizzy mane, and it was difficult to see her eyes. 

“So much yuck.” 

Sentinel squirmed beneath her and Diamond Tiara giggled as she gave him a snootful of mud, wiping her hoof over his mouth. Harper sat watching, looking disgusted, and the little yearling shook her head in disapproval. 

“Harpy tellin’ Mom.” It was pretty much the worst threat Harper could say. 

Extending a wing, Sentinel did the very worst thing a big brother could do in this situation. He flung mud at his baby sister. The blob of black algae laden goo struck Harper and almost bowled her off of the stone. She stumbled about, her hooves scrabbling over the stone as she tried to keep her balance. 

Harper, who was nursery-mates with Peekaboo, a rough and tumble little pegasus, knew how to deal with such a terrible affront visited upon her. She gritted her teeth, fought to keep her balance, and with her ears perking up in aggression, her horn ignited as mud dribbled down her face and neck. The whites of her eyes stood out in sharp contrast against the black mud, which slicked down her frizzy, poofy orange mane. 

“Sentinel, we’re in trouble,” Diamond Tiara managed to blurt out as Harper scooped up a scary amount of mud using her telekinesis. The pink fillies eyes widened in terror as a sizable portion of mud was slung at her. 

The impact knocked her right off Sentinel and sent her rolling into the black slimy sludge. She couldn’t see anything, but she could hear Sentinel flapping and flopping in the mud near her. She felt more mud slam into her and Diamond Tiara felt a keen sensation of worry as she thought about how much time Bucky and Lyra spent trying to teach Harper how to focus her magic, despite her young age. 

It felt as though a mud tsunami slammed into her and Diamond Tiara gasped, trying to breathe, which was hard to do while she was laughing so hard. Mud was everywhere, it clung to every inch of her body, and she could even feel it in her ears. She slung her head around, trying to clear her eyes, and she heard Harper squealing. 

Opening one eye, Diamond Tiara could see that Harper was covered in mud, Sentinel had fought back somehow, but he was losing. Harper was tiny, but she had magic, and throwing mudballs wasn’t too different from throwing snowballs. And Bucky had taught Harper how to hurl snowballs. The Lord of Winter had an obligation to ensure that his offspring were well versed in the arts of winter warfare. 

“What is going on here?” 

Diamond Tiara froze. That was the voice of doom. Doom. That was the ultimate voice of authority. Princesses? Nope. Not nearly as intimidating. Diamond Tiara began to wonder if she could bury herself in the mud and perhaps save herself. If she dug down deep enough, she could be buried in the mud and become a fossil. It was all over now. End times. End of the world. All good things had now come to an end. 

“All of this ruckus can be heard in the nursery! You woke up the little ones! What has gotten into you and why is Harper all covered in mud!” Derpy’s voice sounded furious. The frustrated grey pegasus flapped her wings and had one eye closed so that she could focus on the muddied foals. 

And then, out of the corner of her eye, Diamond Tiara saw the end of all things. She saw Sentinel’s wing moving, and there was a considerable portion of mud slathered over the membranes. She whimpered, the soft cry of despair made by those who witness the end of all things. Sentinel had done a lot of stupid things as of late; he had stolen an airship, faced a hag, but nothing was as stupid as what he was about to do. 

She cringed, knowing her own fate in all of this. 

“Sentinel, so help me, don’t you dare!” 

There was a terrible world-ending sound as the mud splattered against the grey mare. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 928
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	He had to be quick. Bucky thought back to the Warp and his time spent there. Sure, it had been awful, but the unpleasant experience had given him a few gifts. Useful gifts. He raised a chronosphere around himself, in Tartarus, time passed differently and he needed a way to stabilise it. He had to make sure that not too much time passed while he was away. The last thing he wanted was to go there and discover that a thousand years had passed in the mortal realms. 

In his previous excursions, others had adjusted time. Now, he was going on his own. 

A somewhat clear liquid dribbled from his now empty eye socket as he cast other protections. There was work to be done, so much to do and so little time. Lifting his talons, Bucky focused his will and drew upon his magic. Not his unicorn magic, no, but something else entirely. The Warp had changed him. For better? For worse? Did it matter either way? The claws on the ends of his talon-fingers glowed with a faint throbbing purple-green light. 

Extending his foreleg, Bucky cut a circle in the air with his talons—right away, he was blasted with a wave of heat and stench. With a thought, he drew his ancestral armor around himself, pulling it out of shadow. It was time to go. Tartarus was under new management, but it was still Tartarus, and as such, dangerous. 

Pausing, Bucky considered what he was doing. Yes, it was necessary. He had a plan and he would see it through, no matter the risks. He ignored the throbbing pain in his head and the dull ache of his now empty eye socket. 

Glancing at the door, he worried about Sunset. She was the most likely to force her way in. He had trained her too well, too much. She was as powerful as he… almost. He had trust in his wards though, his defenses. 

Grimacing, Bucky stepped through his portal to Tartarus and vanished. 



 

Sitting in the mud, Derpy reached out one filth encrusted wing, grabbed Sentinel, and pulled him closer. She got him into a headlock-hug of sorts, gave him a squeeze, and then let out a laugh. A few feet away, Harper was trying to shake and kick off a thick layer of mud that encased her entire body. The grey pegasus was now black with mud and the only discernible feature visible was her eyes. Her mane was now sharp black spikes of crusted mud. 

Not far away, Diamond Tiara wallowed in the mud, glad to be alive, and thankful to still be drawing air. The mud was cold and she was shivering a bit, but she didn’t mind. Parts of her were still hot from laughter. She tried to pull herself free, but found that she couldn’t. Looking over, she saw Derpy hugging Sentinel, and Sentinel was hugging his mother back. Seeing it made her feel something, but Diamond Tiara couldn’t say what it was, but she felt relieved. 

“Harpy not happy. Not happy at all.” The walking mudball made her way to the edge of the water, stuck in her muddied hoof, and then jerked it back out again, shaking her head. “BRRR!” She leveled her pouty gaze upon her older sibling, and, flicking her ears, dribbling mud, she stuck out her tongue at Sentinel. “Bad! Bad! Bad!” 

“Harper, do you need a bath?” Derpy asked. 

“Yes!” Harper snapped, not sounding like her usual happy self. “Harpy black. Not burple-blue!” 

“If we go inside, we’ll track mud everywhere.” Sentinel had regained some, but not all of his maturity. Something almost resembling a smile could be seen upon his face beneath the caked on mud. “Wait… Bon Bon is home today… oh no…” The colt let out a worried sounding whimper. 

“I have mud in places I didn’t know I had,” Diamond Tiara announced in a matter-of-fact voice. Reaching up with her front hooves, she sculpted the mud in her mane, turning it into a massive mud-mohawk. Black goo squirted from between her hooves as she smoothed her mane and made it perfect. 

“If Bon Bon complains, we’ll give her a hug to make her feel better.” Derpy smiled, revealing white teeth that gleamed in contrast against the black mud slathered over her face. “You know, some ponies go to the spa and pay a lot of bits to get covered in mud. They’re stupid.” Reaching down, Derpy poked her hoof into the mud and it made a flatulent squish. Pulling her hoof out, she slung a blob over at Diamond Tiara. 

It hit the mud covered filly and made a wet splat. 

“Come on, let’s go and see if we can get cleaned up a bit before we go inside…” 



 

Looking around, Bucky found himself in a vast, jagged plain. Bones were strewn about and strange creatures could be seen lurking. Overhead, a dull green sky shimmered. A noxious, nauseating light shone down from the sky, and cast everything in a diseased yellow tint. This wasn’t quite where Bucky had hoped to go, but he knew the general region. These were the Plains of Woe. Something misshapen, twisted, and too horrifying to describe flew overhead, but it left him alone, so he left it alone. 

He wasn’t sure which direction to go. The geography of this place was ever changing, but the regions somehow persisted. He was on the central plane of dread in Tartarus. This wasn’t such a bad place, really. He breathed in the toxic, life-snuffing fumes that passed for air in this place and found that they weren’t so bad. This was the upper layer of Tartarus, it existed like frosting on a very rotten cake. 

The ground around him was red and rusty looking, bleak, and there were lots of jagged rocks. He went still and let his senses focus as he tried to get his bearings. He heard the sound of running water after several long seconds of intense concentration. He took off at a trot towards the sound, hopeful that he might get his bearings if he was lucky. 

After a short trot, he found himself near a river, but he didn’t know which one. He knew which way it was flowing though, and that was helpful. He needed to go to where the river ended, the Sea of Woe. He looked down at the rushing waters, wary of danger around him. 

It could only be one of five rivers. The river Acheron was the river of woe, and the largest river in this region. The river Cocytus was the salty river of lamentation, and was said to be the tears spilled from the eye of every mortal who had ever lived. The river Phlegethon was the river of fire, and since the river in front of him wasn’t burning, Bucky deduced that it had to be one of the other four. The river Styx was the river of the unbreakable oaths, its waters had a binding effect, and swearing upon the river was said to create an unbreakable promise of magical compulsion. The last was the river Lethe, which held the waters of forgetfulness. 

Like a statue unmoving, Bucky thought about the river that washed away memory. He could do things with such waters. Terrible things. Justifiable things? Perhaps. If his enemies couldn’t remember what they were fighting for, perhaps they would stop fighting. He sighed and knew that Celestia would find such a solution monstrous. Or would she? He didn’t know. 

He began moving, trotting along beside the river, watching as it flowed over rocks and ancient bones. After a few minutes, Bucky realised that walking was for chumps. Wings of black shadow sprouted from his sides and in seconds, he was borne into the air. 

The hideous creatures around him gave him a wide berth. Bucky didn’t know what they were, nor did he care. So long as they left him in peace, he would leave them in peace. Some might attack them, thinking anything so gross and twisted had to be evil, but Bucky understood, perhaps better than others, that appearance did not make one evil. He too, was now misshapen and twisted. He wasn’t quite a pony any more and he thought he looked a little more draconequus than anything, but he knew that appearances were deceiving. He wasn’t a draconequus either. He wasn’t an immortal creature of chaos. 

He was a creature of consequences, at least, that is what he told himself. 

Flapping his wings, Bucky saw a vast sea in the distance, far, far on the horizon. He could see the delta, the place where the five rivers poured into the Sea of Woe. Seeing this soul shriveling sight gave Bucky strength, and he hurried forwards. 



 

He touched down on a beach so terrible and alien that it could only be called a beach by broad definition. It was a beach of cooling slag and bits of razor sharp glass-like fragments. The waves that washed up upon the shore were bubbling, boiling iron and other metals. The five rivers drained into this sea of churning, demon blood infused liquid metal. Even more terrible, things lived in this sea, and Bucky could see their monstrous forms porpoising through the waves. 

A massive serpentine head broke the surface of the sea, roared, then chomped down upon some indescribable mutant horror. It snatched it up, made a few bites, then dragged its meal down below the boiling, churning depths. Bucky watched all of this with no reaction. 

He looked upon the sea of resources and pondered its glory. Here was a vast sea of magically infused iron. With a little study, he would learn its secrets, know its strengths, and with it, he would make weapons. He would make armor. He would turn the tides of war. 

Before he could do that though, he needed some samples. He needed to be able to show that this was a good idea, a worthy idea, one worth pursuing. With this sea of boiling iron, he could make guns, he could make swords, axes, maces, he could make armor, he could make bullets… he could make golems of unbelievable power. Unstoppable juggernauts. 

“Buckminster Beauregard Bitters—” 

Oh noes, she had used his full name, including the middle one… Bucky paused, feeling sphincter-clenching terror course through his body. 

“—I demand to know, what are you doing here?” 

Cringing, skulking in his armor, he turned to face the white alicorn behind him, wondering how she had known he was here and how to find him. He thought he had been thorough in covering his tracks. He thought about his options, he could try running, but that never worked out well. She had him, fair and square. 

“Hi, fancy meeting you here—” 

“Do not even try.” Celestia narrowed her eyes. 

Deflating a little, Bucky felt his tail tucking between his legs. He ducked his head like a scolded foal and did his best to look as pathetic as possible, hoping for mercy. As the waves of boiling iron crashed against the black slag beach, Bucky let out a whimper. He was caught. 

“I am not buying it,” Celestia said in a firm voice. 

“I was sightseeing?” Bucky offered. 

“After you tore out one of your eyes?” Celestia replied. 

“Um… I—” 

“Choose your next words carefully,” Celestia said, offering up a warning. “And stop looking so pathetic. It is just awful.” 

Knowing he was busted, Bucky decided that telling the truth was the way to go. He would start at the beginning, outline his plan, and make every attempt to be rational, reasonable, and sane sounding, as tricky as it might be in this situation. Taking a deep breath, he made ready to tell Celestia everything. 



 

Eyes narrowed, Celestia stared out upon the boiling sea, her ears angled forwards over her eyes. Bucky looked up at her, trying to read her face, not knowing, not able to tell, and it drove him crazy. He had spilled out everything, everything, and she had not made any reply. Not so much as a sigh even. No reaction at all. 

“You wish to treat Tartarus as a mine.” 

That was the gist of it. Bucky nodded. “Yes, yes I do. The mirror travelers, they made a mistake. They made a deal with the demons in their Tartarus, but they made the wrong deal. I suspect the metals here have fantastic properties just waiting to be discovered. There are resources here we can exploit. And I don’t mean reckless exploitation, I mean careful study.” 

“I understand what you are saying,” Celestia said in a low voice as she stood unmoving. 

“The mirror travelers are adapting science and technology to aid them. I say that we should go with our strength… magic. They want our world because it is so strong with magic. We’re sitting on a massive stockpile of magical might. This might be our salvation.” 

“I am inclined to agree.” 

“Look, I am positive that I can convince you if you give me a—what?” Bucky paused and shook his head. 

“I am inclined to agree. Begin studies at once. You and Rising Star are to make this a priority.” Celestia’s statuesque form rippled with motion as she looked down at Bucky standing beside her. “Keep me informed of any developments as they happen. This is one of your better ideas, Buckminster. I wish that you would have come to me before doing what you did.” 

“I thought you’d say no,” Bucky replied. 

“At some point in the recent past, I might have.” Celestia turned her head and once again, she looked out upon the stormy sea. “But I have grown tired of losing. I have grown tired of playing nice, of playing fair. I have grown weary of being reasonable. There is too much at stake. Warmaster, make weapons of war fit to match my glory. I know I will not be disappointed.” 

Nodding, Bucky couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “For you, anything.” 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 929
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Aye, lad, ye smell like something that yonder Tartarus belched out.” Barley O’Blivion leveled his gaze upon Bucky, who stood just inside the entryway near the front door. “Ye stink something fierce, lad.” 

Taken aback, Bucky peered at Barley and saw the old stallion’s eyes watering. “Hey…” Bucky’s head tilted off to one side. “Just how do you know what Tartarus smells like?” 

“Never ye mind, lad!” Barley backed away, cringed in disgust, and made a very polite request of Bucky. “Go and take a shower, ya feckin’ git!” Having spoke his mind, Barley hurried away as fast as his old, arthritic legs would carry him. 

Standing in front of the door, Bucky was stunned and did not know what to say. He couldn’t smell anything. He sniffed himself to check, and found nothing. Hearing hooves, his mood brightened. He saw Cadance running down the hall. He could always count on Cadance to be happy to see him. 

Cadance was not happy to see him. She came to a skidding halt, her hooves scraping over the floor, and her wings flapping to help slow her down. Wide eyed, she stared up at him from a few feet away, looking disgusted. 

“YUCK!” Cadance cried as the first few tears streamed down her face. “NOPE!” Turning tail, Cadance ran away as fast as she could go, which was quite fast. She had long legs for her age. 

As Bucky gave himself another sniff, Berry popped into view, sidestepping around Cadance as the little filly streaked down the hall, bawling her eyes out. The earth pony mare made it a few steps towards Bucky, then stopped, her cheeks bulging as she held her breath. Her eyes crossed and she fell over to the floor as though she had been cut down. She landed on her back with all four legs sticking straight up into the air, stiff and unmoving. 

“Oh, very funny,” Bucky snapped as he rolled his eyes. Would nopony be happy to see him? He strolled over to where Berry lay, lowered his head down, and touched his nose to her nose. He pulled away when she gagged and he let out a snort. 

“Did you go into a sewer again?” Berry wheezed as she struggled to keep from breathing. 

“No.” Bucky let heave a sigh of dismay. So he needed a shower. 

“No, you went into the special alicorn sewer—” 

The muscles in Bucky’s jaw clenched as he tried not to smile. He put about as much effort into it as Berry’s attempt not to breathe. Down on the floor, Berry was turning a darker shade of plum. He thought about grabbing her and having his way with her. Nothing like hot stinky loving. 

“—the special alicorn sewer made to withstand the most dangerous and smelly thing in all the world, alicorn princess turds.” Berry gagged again and her eyes crossed. “I hear little hooves… run away, whomever you are!” 

Too late, Harper got herself a snootful. She stood in a nearby doorway, her whole body hitching, and a look of utter revulsion upon her face. Harper coughed, gagged, and then managed to say, “MAMAMAMA SMELL BAD!” And with that, Harper began sobbing as though she had been kicked or stepped on. 

Mouth falling open, Bucky didn’t know what to say. 

“You big meanie! You made Harper cry! She’s had a rough day! Sentinel pelted her with mud and she’s been all moody and now you’ve made her cry!” Berry’s righteous sense of motherhood overcame the stench that had knocked her down, she rolled over, got her hooves beneath her, and stood. After a good shake, she trotted over to where Harper was, and then herded the foal away while little Harper bawled her eyes out. 

Now feeling guilty, Bucky stood there, trying to figure out what had just happened. He saw Sukari peek out from around the door, he felt a moment of keen relief upon seeing her blue eyes. He loved her, and she loved him, and surely she would be glad to see him. 

“Nope.” 

And just like that, Sukari was gone. She took off so fast that her yellow ribbon was left behind. It drifted down to the floor like a leaf falling from a tree. Bucky contemplated his stench and decided that a shower was in order. The tiny shred of compassion that he had left compelled him to spare others, so he teleported himself to the back bathroom, vanishing in a cloud of frost and snowflakes. 



 

As Bucky stepped out of the shower, he wondered if Princess Celestia was smelly too. She had stood next to him on the shores of the ocean of boiling iron. He felt clean and he assumed that he was now stench free. He dried himself, gave himself a shake, and decided that a test was in order. 

Shuffling out of the bathroom, he found what he was looking for. “Hello, Good Lookin’.” 

Giggling, Derpy gave him a coy smile. “You need to have a talk with your son.” 

“Is that so?” Bucky asked. 

“Yeah, Sentinel… needs some help I think.” Derpy blinked and batted her eyelashes at Bucky. Her wings fluttered at her sides and she closed one eye so that she might better see her husband. “He’s a little troubled.” 

“I’ll check up on him,” Bucky replied, acknowledging the issue. He closed the distance between himself and his pretty, pretty pegasus. He leaned in and in a husky voice he whispered, “Hey, mail pony, I have a job for you—” 

Confused, Derpy jerked her head back. “I don’t work for the postal service anymore.” 

A minor setback. Bucky leaned in and nuzzled her neck, which he knew would get her attention. “I’m flirting with you, just go along with it. Pretend you are a postal pony.” 

“Oh…” Derpy began to giggle and her breathing quickened. 

“Oh my pretty mail pony… I have a package for you…” 

“Oh?” Derpy blinked a few times and took a deep breath. 

“Yeah, special delivery. I just need to stuff it into your parcel delivery slot and in about eleven months or so, you can deliver—” And just like that, Derpy was gone. Bucky stood there in shock as she bolted away, her wings flapping as she fled into the nursery, breaking her own rule about flying indoors. “Hey, what gives?” 

“You smell!” Derpy cried out. “No nookie for you! We postal workers have standards! You’re a job hazard listed under section code 573NCH—putrescent perverts! Don’t you dare come into my nursery!” 

Frustrated, Bucky let out a groan and returned himself to the shower. One little trip to Tartarus was enough to condemn a pony. 



 

Blinking, Bucky wasn’t sure what had just happened. One minute, he was in the shower, trying to scrub himself, and the next minute, Lyra had come in with a poopy foal that needed cleaning. Upon entering the bathroom, the foal, he was unsure of which one, had begun blubbering. The next minute, he was standing on the dock, covered in soap suds, and staring at the lake. She hadn’t even given him the courtesy of an explanation or an apology. Soap ran down his sides and pooled around him on the wooden dock, turning the wood a darker shade. 

There was only one thing he could do. He took a few steps and made ready to toss himself into the lake. Just as he reached the edge of the dock, he saw a head pop up out of the water. Much to his relief, he saw Thistle. She would help him get clean. 

“Don’t even think of it!” Thistle commanded. “You, you’re polluted!” 

“What?” Bucky snapped, reaching the end of his patience. 

“YOU STINK!” Thistle shouted. “I could smell you underwater! Don’t you dare set hoof into my lake! I will forcibly expel you with my kelpie powers, so don’t make me do it!” Having said what needed to be said, the kelpie vanished down into the water. 

It dawned upon Bucky that with all of his preparations to go into Tartarus, he might have missed a minor detail. He had protected himself from drastic time dilation and deviation, but he had not taken into consideration that the Plains of Woe might have smelled. The fumes there had been toxic. No doubt, Celestia smelled like roses right now, and he wondered if she was having a good laugh at his expense. 

It seemed likely. 

There was only one thing to do, the only thing that could be done, the drastic option. He had no other choice. He had to go to Canterlot. He was going to have to beg Celestia to free him from his malodorous funk. The very idea of it galled him. But, before he paid a visit to Celestia, maybe he might do a little sightseeing around Canterlot. Maybe, with luck, he could make Celestia come to him. He knew of a perfumery in Canterlot… 



 

The hard work felt good. Sentinel waited for the cart to be loaded with sacks of fertiliser pellets. He and Diamond Tiara had come clean about their little ruse after they had come clean from the mud. Applejack had been a very reasonable and very understanding pony. She had sentenced them to death by extended labour on the spot, a punishment that Sentinel had felt was fair. 

There was a knock on wood behind him and Sentinel took off, pulling the loaded cart with him. He had a fair ways to go to the distant acres where Applejack was planting a field of barley and hops. Pulling the cart was no trouble at all for him and he found that he could have pulled a whole lot more. He wondered if Applejack was being gentle with him. 

Diamond Tiara fell into place beside him, a massive load of wooden stakes secured to her back, along with a large wooden mallet. Sentinel could see that she wasn’t straining under the load, so he didn’t worry too much about it. She was smiling, and that made him happy. 

He wanted to talk to her, but they weren’t allowed to talk. They had to serve in silence. But that was okay. Sentinel found that he couldn’t get mad about any of this. Applejack had been more than fair in her dealings with them. If he was going to act like a stupid colt, than he expected to be treated like a stupid colt. He found that he was enjoying the consequences. 

At least Applejack had allowed them to work together. 



 

“Buckminster Beauregard Bitters!” 

She had to stop doing that to him. The use of his full name caused him a moment of panic every time. Turning his head, Bucky looked up as Celestia touched down in the street. He was just minding his own business and trying to enjoy a cup of coffee. Was that so wrong? 

“What has become of the little colt I knew and loved?” Celestia asked. 

The eyebrow over his now empty eye socket lifted. Bucky wasn’t about to fall for that. He knew how this game was played. This wasn’t his fault. She had done this. Nearby, a passing bird fell out of the sky. It lay on the cobblestones, stunned, its tiny chest hardly moving. It glowed in a golden light that originated from Celestia’s horn, recovered, and then flew away, still surrounded by a shield of glittering golden magic. 

He took a sip of his coffee and ignored Celestia’s theatrics. 

“You are causing quite a disturbance,” Celestia said in a firm voice. 

“Somepony neglected to tell me that Tartarus leaves behind a magical stench that can’t be washed away.” Bucky looked up from his cup, yawned, and settled back in his chair. Several nearby flowers wilted as he shifted his body, having entered the Dead Zone from his movement. 

Wait, was she smiling? Bucky had trouble and was unable to tell. Was she enjoying this? 

“You had to come to realise the consequences of what you did.” Celestia’s voice was very calm, prim, and proper. 

“And you had to realise the consequences of what you did,” Bucky replied as he began to chuckle. “Nice city you have here, would be a real shame if some stinky pony came along and settled in for a cup of coffee.” 

“You sir, are a ruffian!” 

Setting his cup down on the wrought iron bistro table before him, Bucky pointed with his talons at Celestia. “You allowed me to go home, stinking! My foals cried. Derpy, my beloved wife, recited postal codes at me as she flew away—” 

“573NCH?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, that one!” Bucky narrowed his eye at Celestia, now certain that she was enjoying this. “Thistle wouldn’t even let me bathe in her lake. She threatened me with her kelpie powers. Now, fix this stench… or else.” 

“Or else what?” Celestia asked. 

“Or else I will get Discord to turn me into a foal again, and I will come and attend your school—” 

“YOU FIEND!” Celestia’s voice echoed through the empty streets. 

Bucky waited. 

“Very well. I will fix this for you.” Celestia looked around. “Oh, Garçon, I should very much like a cup of soothing chamomile tea.” After a few moments, she realised that the waiter was nowhere to be found. She let out a huff of disappointment and sat down in a wrought iron bistro chair beside Bucky. “Well played, good sir.” 

A low, chortling cackle could be heard from Bucky as Celestia began to cast a spell. 
> Chapter 930
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Hearing the flapping of wings, Sentinel looked up to find the source. A slinky black figure descended down and landed in one of the nearby apple trees. He found that he was quite happy to see Boadicea. He nudged Diamond Tiara, who sat beside him, and gave the griffoness a grin. 

“Come here to help out?” Sentinel asked, wondering just how much longer he could get away with taking a break. 

“Nope.” Boadicea made herself comfortable on the tree branch and waved down at the pair. 

“Nope?” Diamond Tiara looked a little disappointed. “Whattaya mean, nope?” 

“I mean, nope.” Boadicea held up one talon-finger. “Today, I haven’t been in trouble, I haven’t had to shoot anything, I haven’t had to strangle anything, Loki is finally cutting me some slack, and Lugus let me get away with a few bruises and only one knot on my skull from training.” 

“Wow, he’s gone soft,” Sentinel remarked in an astonished voice. “Is something wrong with Lugus?” 

“I know, right?” Boadicea, now sprawled out in the fork of three branches, let out a yawn and began to rub her own tummy. She knew it was a dangerous thing to do, but she figured she could get away with it for a while before she tried to nip herself. She let out a contented yowl and ignored the disgruntled stares of the two ponies down below her. 

Turning their heads, Sentinel and Diamond Tiara looked at one another, both of them saying a great deal without speaking a word. Eyebrows were raised. Ears perked. Displeasure was expressed. And at the end of it all, Diamond Tiara booped Sentinel on the nose. Turning their heads once more, both looked up into the tree where Boadicea lay sprawled out, rubbing her own belly, making slow, lazy circles with her right talons. 

Sentinel gave a nod. Moving at his unspoken command, Diamond Tiara strolled over to the tree, turned around, and lined up her backside with the trunk exactly as Applejack had shown her how to do. She wiggled around, adjusting her aim while looking back over her shoulder, and then unleashed a mighty buck with her two hind legs. 

With a startled squawk, Boadicea found herself falling out of the tree. Her wings flapped, but she hit a branch and then took a tumble down to the grass below, where Diamond Tiara stepped aside. Within a fraction of a second of Boadicea hitting the ground, Sentinel pounced, launching himself at the unsuspecting griffoness. 

Looking mighty pleased with himself, Sentinel sat down and made himself comfortable on a cushion of nice, soft, screeching griffoness. He slapped her in the face with his tail and then, turning towards Diamond Tiara, he leaned over and touched noses with her while Boadicea squawked beneath him and made angry cat-bird noises. 

Never a fair fighter, Boadicea stabbed her wings into a very delicate place and gave Sentinel a tickle. Letting out his own yowl, Sentinel lept up and bolted. Shrieking with laughter, Diamond Tiara fell over backwards and bonked her head on the tree trunk as Sentinel made good his escape. 

Sentinel, who had his head turned around and was sticking his tongue out at Boadicea, ran smack into Applejack. He bounced, Applejack didn’t budge so much as an inch, and then, when he turned his head back around to see what he had ran into, Sentinel let out a fearful whimper as he looked into Applejack’s green eyes. 

“Just what I needed. A griffon. Griffons is real good with rakes… it’s the fingers, ya see.” 

“But I—” 

“But you were just distracting and interrupting my workers, right?” Applejack smiled and her eyes glittered with gleeful mischief. 

“No, actually, I was about to take a nap in one of your lovely apple trees.” Boadicea sat up and composed herself. “I was just minding my business when all of a sudden I was bucked out of the tree by Diamond Tiara. For no reason.” 

“Right…” Applejack nodded. “You can find a rake in the tool shed right next to the barn.” 

“Oh… cat farts.” Boadicea slumped over and shook her head. “And I was having a perfect day, too.” 

“And now, you can have a perfect day spreading fertiliser with a rake.” Applejack took a deep breath, straightened out her hat, and brushed away some dirt on her foreleg. “No more lollygagging. I want this done before the daylight’s gone. Now get back to work.” 

Looking dejected, Boadicea headed off to the tool shed, dragging her paws and claws along the ground. “Nobirdy knows… the troubles I’ve seen… nobirdy but my fleases... nobirdy knows the troubles I’ve seen… nobirdy knows my sorrows…” 

Tipping back her hat, Applejack shouted, “Oh, cheer up Boadicea, and sing us all a good ol’ griffon work song!” Somehow, Applejack kept most of a straight face, only the corners of her mouth twitched up and down as the griffoness walked away, her black tail twitching from side to side. 

“At the end of the day there’ll be a big dinner and desert and we can all be together.” Applejack looked around and her gaze came to rest upon Diamond Tiara, who she looked at with a fond smile. “But for now, we gotta work. All of ya owe me on multiple accounts, so let’s square off y'all's debts.” 

“I lead Apple Bloom astray.” Sentinel’s head drooped and he let out a sigh. 

“I didn’t stop Sentinel from being stupid.” Shaking her head, Diamond Tiara sighed as well. “I’m madly in love with a colossal idiot—” 

“Hey!” Sentinel blinked his surviving eye. 

“Both of y’all need to hush. No talking. More working.” Applejack’s eyes narrowed. 

Sulking, Sentinel returned to work, singing in bold defiance. “Nobirdy knows… the trouble I’ve seen…” 



 

Having felt the all too painful sting of rejection, Bucky let out a hesitant sigh as he approached his own house, uncertain if his family would be happy to see him. He had to trust that Celestia had fixed things, as his nose had taken a vacation. She had assured him that his sense of smell would return… someday. She had also given him knowledge of a spell that would protect him from the stench during his future visits to Tartarus. 

Several yards from the front door, he paused and had a look around. In the distance, Ripple was playing with Bittersweet. Both seemed happy as they frolicked in the grass. Ripple almost seemed like a foal again as she pronked around and gamboled. Others were enjoying the spring day as well. Lugnut and Spanner had Sprocket and Cog out in the grass, and Firelock was trying to turn a cartwheel. Students played, enjoying the day off. 

Squinting is eye, Bucky realised that his depth perception was back to being wonky again. Feeling a little morose, he sat down in the grass and thought about what he was giving up. A part of him wanted to relent and pop the Eye of Odin back in. But, the eye had secrets, and it told others of his secrets. It was a sapient artifact with a will of its own. 

With a heavy heart, Bucky had some second thoughts about giving it to Sentinel. Hearing the sounds of construction, he looked over towards the school, where another greenhouse was being constructed, connected directly to the school itself. He stared, his expression one of vacant boredom, and he thought about how he kept second guessing himself. 

There was a flutter of wings and Belisama landed beside him. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t even look at her, but he was thankful that she was there. When she sat down beside him, he let out a contented sigh. She had a shawl around her neck and in that shawl was Bandua, his adorable little horror. 

“She’s growing in a little more of her crest,” Belisama said in a low voice. “She’s still mostly bald, but she’ll have a few feathers up there. She is fascinatingly hideous.” 

His eye almost closing, Bucky took a moment to bask in the sensation of love that he felt. He thought about Crisis as he felt Belisama’s love, and then, because he thought of Crisis, he thought of Crisis’ mother. He cringed, the wound had festered and had become far more painful. Thinking about Posey made him think of Harper’s mother, in pain and dying. The guilt became a living thing that gnawed at his insides.

“Bucky?” Belisama reached out her small, delicate talons and laid them upon Bucky’s foreleg. “You’re having one of your mood swings… are you okay? What are you thinking?” 

“About how I failed,” Bucky replied, being honest. 

“Failure happens.” Belisama’s voice was somehow both soft and firm. 

“Yeah, but I failed and now, now I have two little foals that will never know their mothers. But they will know the father that failed them.” Bucky shook his head, then reached up and rubbed his face, massaging the skin around his empty eye socket. 

“Bucky…” Belisama scooted a little closer and pressed her small body up against Bucky’s side. “Sometimes, sometimes things just happen. It doesn’t mean that you failed. You didn’t fail Harper’s mother, she died, and that’s sad and all, but Harper lived. And as a mother myself, I can say that every mother wants their young to live. As for Chrysalis—” 

“Posey!” Bucky snapped with surprising vehemence, his talons clenching. 

Startled, Belisama drew her head back, and looked up at her husband. “As for Posey, you are giving Crisis a chance to right her mother’s wrongs. Posey is trusting you to help Crisis make things right.” Belisama’s ruffled feathers smoothed out and she poked Bucky in the side. “As a sister, I don’t think you failed me. Bandua is gone, it pains me, and I’m having trouble accepting it sometimes still, but I don’t blame you for it. You saved me. I get to live and sing songs about my sister’s memory. With you, I have created a living memorial to celebrate my love for my sister.” 

There was no reply from Bucky, who just sat there, hunched over and looking dejected. 

“What I am trying to say is, some things you just can’t prevent. You can’t be blamed for them. Harper’s mother died, but Harper got lucky. Posey made a choice. She made a choice and she embraced the consequences… there is a story to tell to Crisis, and I can’t wait to sing it to her. I hope I can write a worthy saga. But Posey’s last act provided a great lesson for her daughter to learn.” 

Still silent, Bucky just sat there. 

“No doubt, right now, you are thinking of some way to blame yourself for the death of Berry Pinch’s mother—” 

“No I’m not!” Bucky protested, cutting Belisama off. 

Fur and feathers fluffing, Belisama appeared to be almost twice her usual size. She let out a frustrated squawk and shouted, “Your defensiveness reveals everything!” 

“No it doesn’t!” For the lack of anything better to say, he repeated himself. “No it doesn’t!” 

His words only made Belisama puff up even more and she waved her talons at him in a griffon gesture that could be translated as, “Your eyes, Mister!” Her tail stiffened and slashed around behind her. Reaching up, she grabbed Bucky by his lower lip, pinching it between her talon-finger and her talon-thumb, and with a jerk, she brought his head down to her eye level. 

“Othay, maythe Ith thougth abouth ith forth a thwile, buth thenth Ith couldn’th findth a wayth toth blamth mythelf,” Bucky confessed as Belisama yanked him around by his lower lip. 

Satisfied with Bucky’s honesty, Belisama gave one final tug and then let go. She trembled, her whole body shook, and then she deflated. Closing her eyes, she pressed herself up against Bucky and clutched at Bandua. She took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself. 

“Hey, what gives?” Bucky asked. 

Honesty. Belisama thought about what she had just done to Bucky and the reason why. She owed him an honest response. “The entire time I was doing that, I kept thinking about how I deserved to be punished, because that is no way to treat your owner. I can’t seem to fix my own thinking, Bucky. Sometimes, I still fall back into my old thinking.” 

“We’re both creatures of consequence,” Bucky said, breathing out the words in a hushed whisper. “I did, in fact, try to think of some way to blame myself over what happened with Berry Pinch. I didn’t know how else to deal with it. How to cope with it. The only thing I could think of to do was to make myself feel guilty about it, to punish myself over it, so that way I’d feel obligated to do the right thing.” 

“And what’s the right thing?” Belisama asked. 

“I don’t know anymore,” Bucky admitted. “I haven’t known for a while. I just go through the motions, doing things that I hope I can apologise for and then doing other things just to appease others and make up for all the wrong I’ve done.” 

“When everything's said and done, when this is finally over, when this threat has been dealt with, I suppose the survivors can figure out what was right and what was wrong. For now though, for good or for ill, I will follow you. You will not make your mistakes alone.” 

“You know, that’s kinda comforting.” Bucky slipped his foreleg around Belisama and pulled her closer. “I don’t stink, do I?”

“Nope.” 

“Ah, good.” Bucky let out a sigh. “Now to punish you for being a bad little catbird.” 

“Oh no.” Belisama’s crest rose. 

“Oh yes… and I’m going to start by kissing you all over…” 

“Oh yes,” Belisama breathed. “I’m a naughty catbird. Meow.” 

“Now, we just need to find a quiet place where I can make you purr…” 
	
	
	
> Chapter 931
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a faint squeak when Bucky twisted the faucet to turn off the water and end his shower. The bathroom was filled with fragrant steam that smelled of soap, a vague hint of spiciness, and the lingering stench of dirty diapers because somepony hadn’t done a good job of rinsing out the sanitation station where foals were bathed. It was a scent that Bucky’s mind categorised as ‘parenthood,’ it was a unique smell, but if you went into the bathroom, any bathroom of any parent, you might catch a whiff. 


With a light flick of magic, he hit the little plastic teardrop hanging from the showerhead as he got out. The device cleaned the shower with scrubbing foam and was a consumer product targeted at earth ponies and pegasus ponies. It began clicking as a timer let Bucky know that it would begin spraying foam soon and that he needed to vacate the shower. 


Already almost dry, he sauntered over to the sink and had himself a good look in the mirror. He was feeling pretty good about himself at the moment, all things considered. The face in the mirror leered back at him, it was a strange face, it was his own face, but he had trouble telling who it was sometimes. It was the face of consequences. After staring at himself for a few seconds, Bucky realised that something wasn’t quite right. Something was wrong. 


The face in the mirror had two eyes. 


At the moment, Bucky knew for certain that he only had one eye. He blinked and the image in the mirror changed—it now matched him and his eye was missing. When he blinked again, the phantom eye returned with a flicker of green fire and he understood what was going on. With understanding came terror; he blinked again and his reflection became a solid black changeling. Closing his eyes, he focused on his memory of how he saw himself and when he opened his eyes, he saw himself staring back with two eyes, one grey, but slitted, and the other looking a lot like the Eye of Odin. 


Reaching up with his talons, he touched his face, and then with an apprehensive sigh, he moved one taloned finger towards his eye. His reflection touched his own eyeball and Bucky shivered. Grimacing, he pushed his finger into his eye socket, past the somewhat swollen eyelids. In the mirror, his reflection encountered resistance, and then the sharp talon poked into the eyeball. Blood spurted in a crimson spray and eye-jelly began oozing out. The illusion was powerful and insisted that it was real. 


“You’re just somepony that I’ve made up,” Bucky said to his reflection. 


“Maybe,” his reflection replied, “but I am what you want to see.” 


In silence, Bucky considered his statement from himself. Gazing into the mirror, there was a green flash and he was as he used to be. Young. Unblemished. Untouched. He didn’t even recognise the pony that he saw in the mirror. Two perfect eyes. No talons, no fangs, no antlers. 


“You have the magic you need…” his reflection spoke in a low whisper so it would only be heard by Bucky. “You could be like Posey… why be inconvenienced by death? Why give up so willingly? She gave you a way out, you know. With this magic, you could jump into the body of a drone at any time and just start over. Posey changed you that day that she filled your lungs with changeling goo. She rewrote you. Gave you a means of escape.” 


Frozen in place, it was all Bucky could do to pull his talon finger from his eye socket as he considered his reflection’s words. The words rang true and Bucky knew that if he wanted to, he could in fact, jump into the body of a drone, take it over, and cheat death. But at what cost? What consequence might this bring? What would the others think? 


“No,” Bucky said to his own reflection. “I’ve taken much into myself that is wrong with the world and when I die, it will go with me. I must stay the course. This magic, other magics, the things I’ve pulled into myself, these things will die with me.” 


“They will not stay dead,” the reflection in the mirror replied. 


“Then others will quell them.” Bucky could feel cold, shivery terror creeping and crawling through his insides. The idea that his death might serve very little purpose terrified him, unnerved him, and made him want to freak out more than just a little bit. Even worse, the knowledge that he could just step out of this body at any time… it was tempting. There were a lot of drones left in the world. Innocent, subservient drones. Such a small price to pay to continue with his great work. Just leap from this ruined body into a fresh one, cast this shell of consequences behind, and start over. 


He was almost certain that Celestia would forgive him, with time and all of the right words said. With a little leap, a little cheating, a little bit of unicorn cleverness, he could continue being her protector, the world’s protector… his intentions were good—he had the perfect paving stone within his reach, should he wish to begin his own road to Tartarus. With a resigned sigh, he pushed the idea from his mind, or tried to, but it persisted. In every moment of crisis, in every battle that it seemed that he might not win, not without serious consequences, he knew that the temptation would be there. Terrible, terrible temptation. 


The only way to deal with that would be to end all of the current drones that were vessels of Chrysalis’ magic. But that… that was monstrous and Bucky couldn’t bear the thought of it. There was no choice but to continue and live with this knowledge, knowing that there was an open door of escape. He could become immortal with but a moment of weak will, and from there on, who knew what future moments of weak will might do, or whom it might hurt. 


“It’s not ascension,” his reflection in the mirror said. “You deserve this. Think about it, after all you’ve given. After all you’ve suffered. You endured the Warp. It doesn’t have to be forever… you could just buy yourself a little time… a little more precious time that you deserve. Watch your foals grow up… find love… and live in the world that you have helped to change.” 


“No.” Bucky’s lone syllable had a ring of finality to it. He gave himself a shake, turned around, and walked away from the mirror, leaving behind his reflection, which lingered and leered at him as he departed. 




 


Taking a deep breath, Sentinel stood just outside of the farmhouse library door and fought back the urge to worry. Just because his father wished to speak with him didn’t mean that he was in trouble. The feeling of apprehension persisted though and he had to take another deep breath so that he might calm down just a little. His emotions, like everything else in his life, seemed unsettled at the moment. Try as he might, he could not rid himself of the irrational fear of his own father. 


The young colt opened the door and entered the farmhouse library where his father waited. Inside, he saw his father, he was surrounded by books, papers, portfolios, maps, and blueprints, all of which were magicked away as Sentinel stood in the doorway. Something about his father made him nervous and Sentinel felt troubled as he tried to find the reason why. 


“Sentinel.” Bucky gave his son a solemn nod. 


“Father.” Sentinel returned the nod as he made his way to a chair. 


The troubled feeling persisted, it was like claws being raked down a chalkboard. Sentinel could feel cold prickles in his neck, which traveled up the back of his skull, and radiated out into his ears. He watched as his father began to prepare some tea. Perhaps a cup of tea might set things right. The colt settled into his chair, watched, and waited. 


A wicked grin flashed upon his father’s face and Sentinel shivered. As he sat there watching, Bucky turned the teapot upside down as he held it in his talons, and then he poured the tea upwards towards a teacup held in his telekinesis in bold defiance of gravity. Everything about it felt wrong to Sentinel, who cringed and wanted to turn away, but couldn’t. 


Water was supposed to obey the natural order—it was supposed to flow downhill with gravity. Sure, it could be manipulated with magic, but it wasn’t just magic that was affecting the flow of the tea, it was his father’s will. There was no visible magic influencing the tea, no glittery glow, no nothing, just the same feeling of wrongness that permeated the air when Discord did something magical. 


“Father… I wish you wouldn’t.” 


“You wish I wouldn’t what?” Bucky asked. 


“What you are doing is disharmonious…” Sentinel felt his stomach turn a little and there was a curious sensation that made his stubby little horn itch. The colt became very, very aware that he was no longer just a lunar pegasus, but was now something more, something else. Something greater. 


“Just a little harmless warping of reality.” Bucky grinned, flipped around the honey bottle, and then poured the honey upwards into his turned over teacup. “It feels good, like scratching an itch. It doesn’t even take any effort now, I just think about it and it happens. Neat, huh?” 


Irritation was replaced by anger and Sentinel could feel it welling up inside of him. His emotions were a hot mess right now and he began to wonder if it had something to do with the changes that had been done to him. He was alarmed by his own fury, and terrified by the fact that he wanted to strike his own father down, to trample him beneath his hooves, to make him obey harmonious order. A trickle of cold sweat ran down Sentinel’s neck. 


“Father, stop that at once! It bothers me! I can’t bear to keep looking!” 


The tea dribbled out of the teacup and onto the table as gravity reset itself. Sentinel felt panicky as his father stared at him and he could not meet his father’s gaze. The tension in the room reached uncomfortable levels. It was difficult to breathe and Sentinel wanted very much to run away, to hide in his cubby beneath the stairs, and he wanted to beg his father’s forgiveness even as his feelings of resentment for his father grew like unwanted weeds. 


“I can’t stand what you are doing… it’s wrong, so very wrong and I don’t want to be near you when you are doing it,” Sentinel blurted out. The colt sat in shock from his own words, which had slipped out unwanted, unbidden. “Father, I’m sorry… I… don’t know… I can’t… you—” 


Sentinel went silent when his father vanished, leaving behind a cloud of snowflakes, a puddle of tea, and a teacup that fell, crashed into the table, and shattered. Much like the teacup, Sentinel felt his own heart do the same, he had hurt his father, done something awful, done something he wasn’t sure if he could forgive himself for. 


Already, he desperately wanted to find his father, apologise, and make things right. The colt wondered if it was what he wanted, or the desire of what he now was—an alicorn. As twisted and warped as his father was, he was still a part of the greater equine herd—at least for now—and Sentinel felt a powerful urge to see to his father’s safety. 


As the first few tears began to fall, Sentinel wasn’t sure who might keep his father safe from him. 




 


Not knowing what else to do, Sentinel went to his mother, the one pony that he was certain could fix this somehow. He hurried down the hallway towards the back of the house and with his nose, he pushed open the nursery door. He saw her in the middle of the room, sitting amongst his siblings, she somehow looked wise and beatific. 


“Mama, I’ve messed up.” 


Derpy’s beatific expression vanished. Sentinel had just called her ‘Mama.’ Right away, worry filled her eyes and her muzzle crinkled as she began to realise that something was wrong. Reaching out a foreleg, she made a gesture for Sentinel to come closer, which he did. He ducked through the nursery with his head low and he almost plowed into the grey mare who sat in the middle of a pile of little fuzzballs. Mindful of the smaller ones, he began to ease himself down. 


“I drove my Father away,” he admitted as he flopped over onto the floor. His whole body ached from working in the orchard today and his aches were now compounded by his growing sense of worry. “I think I hurt him. He just vanished. He’s gone… he’s gone… I did him wrong and he left!” 


“What happened?” Derpy asked. 


Unable to hold it in, Sentinel let it all out. “He was messing around with gravity… he was… he was… he was being like Discord and it bothered me! I couldn’t stand to look at him and I started to get squirmy… angry… and then I said something and he just went away and now I feel really bad.” As he spoke, he felt his mother stroking his neck, which should have comforted him, but didn’t. 


“Whoops.” Cadance, looking alarmed, sat down beside Sentinel and looked up at her mother, Derpy. 


“He probably just needs some time to cool off,” Derpy said as she tried to comfort her foals. “He’ll come back and I’ll try to talk to him. He’ll listen to me, he always does. Sentinel, I don’t think he was trying to bother you on purpose.” 


Bowing her head, the grey pegasus let out a sorrowful sigh. All was not well in her house.